L.E. DeLano's Blog, page 14

ARC Copies of BLUE Have Arrived!

OMG aren’t they gorgeous?? I am so over-the-moon happy right now. I’ve got a beautiful box full of ARC copies (watch for BLUE on NetGalley later this month, as well) and we are rolling right along to release day. I can’t wait to share this story with you. I know you’ll come to love Blue, Maya, and Devon as much as I do. BLUE is available for pre-order on all major outlets, or just follow the links off the main page of my website.

In case you missed it, the book trailer for BLUE is up on YouTube. Watch it Here.

And finally – BLUE is in the running for The Booklife Prize by Publisher’s Weekly, and they gave BLUE a 10/10 Review!

We’re in the final countdown to release day, so watch for giveaways, author events, and all kinds of fun. BLUE hits the shelves on October 26th!

Three Years Ago Today I Was A Panelist at Comic-Con

Ever have a bucket list item become a reality? Ever have two of your wildest dreams come true simultaneously? That was me in 2018.

I had always, always dreamed of becoming a published author, and in 2017, I marked that off the bucket list when Macmillan published my YA Fantasy, TRAVELER. I longed to be on a high-level author panel, and was hopeful an invitation would open up somewhere. TRAVELER’s sequel, DREAMER, had just come out when a fellow author approached with an offer I had to pinch myself as I read: would I like to be part of an author panel at San Diego Comic-Con International?

Holy shit! Comic-Con International! THE Comic-Con. The big time!

Of course, being a life-long geek girl, that answer should have been an instant and thunderous Yes!

Except I read that email from a hospital bed, with my wheelchair sitting a few feet away. I had just survived a brain injury that damn near killed me and left me crippled, overwhelmingly exhausted, often fuzzy-brained, and unsure if I’d ever be able to successfully write again or retain any semblance of a “normal” life.

So I thought it over for a good long while, weighed all the pros and cons, and after roughly 90 seconds I responded Yes. Yes, I’d be thrilled to do it. I left off that I’d likely be overwhelmed and exhausted doing it, be terrified the whole time I did it, and my team of physical therapists told me there was no way I could do it yet. Comic-Con, at that point, was only three months away, and I had only just begun walking short distances or standing for more than a few minutes. But I had faith in my own resilience, and I wasn’t about to let this go by.

Three months later, in July of 2018, I flew solo across the country, my limp still pronounced. I navigated busy airports in Philadelphia and San Diego, and I picked up my Speaker Badge at the main pavilion.

For the next two days, I wandered in a daze, sat on every panel I could, even got invited to a couple of author mixers, sat down a LOT in hallways, and went to bed as early as I could. And the day of our panel? Full house!

It was terrific, and the audience was so engaged. I got a serious thrill when I set my book up to display on the table in front of me and an ooooh! went through the crowd. (Not that I blame them, my book cover was voted one of the most beautiful covers of 2017). And when the moderator asked my fellow panelists who they’d recommend for reading, one of them paid me the supreme compliment of pointing at my book and shouting it out. As we left the panel, I was getting stopped repeatedly by people asking where they could get my book. It was amazing, and more than a little surreal.

And then I stepped into the hallway and there was Jason Momoa, not ten feet away, heading to his signing event. One more bucket list item to check off! *swoon*

No one noticed I paused every few words for a split second as my brain processed the auditory input. No one noticed my phone was clutched very tightly in my left hand to keep people from realizing it was curled into a claw and mostly useless. No one cared that I limped – in a hugely crowded venue full of people wearing costumes with uncomfortable shoes, I certainly didn’t stand out for limping. And no one knew it took me the better part of a week to recover physically after over-taxing myself.

But I did it. I made my own personal history. I’m still here, still moving forward, and yes, still writing. Don’t stop believin’.

Let’s Talk About Tropes We Hate

Tropes: you love some – you hate some. And the truth is, tropes appear and reappear in stories for a reason. From the classic Cinderella story to the innocent maid winning the true-loving heart of the bad boy, a trope that is beautifully fleshed out, creatively spun, or turned on its head can rocket a story to greatness.

Likewise, a badly written or tiredly overused trope can result in a book being thrown into the dreaded DNF (Did Not Finish) pile, and a trope that personally grinds your gears can have you hurling the book at the wall with great force.

Which brings me to my personal most-hated trope. No, it’s not the love triangle – I happen to like those when they’re well-written. They get a lot of hate, particularly in YA, but that’s because so many aren’t well-written. When they are, they’re a great source of dramatic tension. Want to know my personal pet peeve, never-fails-to-trigger-me trope?

I like to call it “Together ‘Till The End.”

It boils down to this: the hero or heroine loves their true love so deeply with the truest love that ever was true, so they bind their life to their mate’s. If one of them dies, so will the other, so they never have to live without each other. Sooooooo romantic. *swoon*

GAG.

Yep. Regardless of whether they have children who depend on them, or a rich, full life with purpose and family, laughter and friends, if one of them slips coming out of the shower and cracks their skull or chokes on a fish bone at dinner, blammo! The kids are orphans, and their extended family and friends can just piss right off and mourn them both. I’m looking at you, Sarah J. Maas. (She’s only the latest offender. You should have seen me screaming at Jin and Sun when I was watching LOST).

And of course, especially in YA, one or both of the power couple is a warrior and constantly facing threats, so the odds of one of them unexpectedly dropping dead in front of the kids while the other parent is off dealing with those annoying brigands at the border goes substantially up.

I swear, it makes my eye twitch nearly every time I read it (I say nearly in all fairness to Sarah J. Maas who is a goddess, because Yrene tied her life to Chaol’s to save his life, which is a good and fair use of that trope. Likewise with Lorcan giving up his immortality – which had to be done by binding himself to a mortal. Both are rare exceptions). I believe in true love, but excuse me as I clutch my pearls and shriek Somebody think of the children!

What about you? What’s your most hated trope?

What’s Up Wednesday

I am neck-deep (and often going under) on the edits of my next first draft. Of course, another story idea just waltzed into my head and started playing hockey with my grey matter, but that’s how it always goes for me. So into the story file with that one while I wrestle the other.

In the meantime, we’re finalizing interior, print cover and eBook format for BLUE, as well as book trailer development. I should have some goodies to share with you soon, and we’ll be having ARC giveaways for BLUE in August!

I’m fully vaccinated now, and I’m looking forward to in-person author events as things open back up. You can find info about my upcoming appearances at the Events Page on my website. My launch party for BLUE will be on there shortly, as well as links to the book festivals I’ll be attending. Hope to see you soon!

Print vs. Audio – Where Do You Stand?

I used to be one of those people who would never, I mean absolutely never listen to an audiobook. I knew I’d never have the same level of enjoyment. I loved visualizing as the words came off the page (or my Kindle) and filled my head. I couldn’t imagine hearing it. That wasn’t reading! It would surely lose much in the process.

And then . . .

I experienced a devastating brain injury that put me in the hospital for a month, and on short-term disability for nearly half a year. I lost a lot of motor function, and along with that, I learned the hard way that straining your optic nerves is really hard on your brain – particularly when it’s trying to compensate for dead gray matter.

I got headaches or blurred vision trying to read in bed at night after staring at my computer all day at the day job and all night while I’m writing. I was lucky if I could manage a page or two. It was heartbreaking. A good friend was kind enough to gift me three months of an Audible membership, and I decided to reluctantly give an audiobook a try on my hour-long commute to work.

JOY! Oh my God, it was amazing! I was loving it – and actually looking forward to my commute each day. And after I got through a few dozen audiobooks, I began looking forward to falling asleep to one of my old favorites, courtesy of the sleep timer on the app. My Theatre Degree had me thrilling to a great performance (check out Norah Roberts’ YEAR ONE trilogy on audio – the narrator is one damn fine performer and the story is so very good), and alternately cringing when a beloved book series changes its narrator part-way through (I’m glaring at you, “A Court of Thorns & Roses” – books 3 & 4’s narrator was decidedly not as good as 1 & 2 and reads like a newscaster).

I’m three years past my brain exploding, and can read for longer stretches (though not at my previous level). I actually enjoy books in all forms – print, digital and audio. Reading is reading, no matter how you enjoy it.

What about you? Do you prefer one story delivery system over another?

What’s Up Wednesday

I’m in the middle of first run pass pages for BLUE right now, and still clutching my heart over at this gorgeous interior setup. Check it out!

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Once again, a big shoutout to Stephanie Anderson with Alt19 Creative for her interior layout and front cover design. I cannot recommend her enough!

Pass pages give you a chance to read your book the way a reader will experience it. It’s very easy to go a bit “word blind” after staring at the same manuscript over countless hours and several months. Seeing the book laid out in format often makes it easier to find typos, formatting issues, and to catch little glitchy things like the final word of a chapter being all alone on the next page.

It also lets me reread my manuscript after not having done so for a few months. Everything reads differently with fresh eyes, and now is the time to do tiny little “fixes” in the writing wherever they need to be done. Then it’s back to Stephanie, who incorporates my edits and formatting notes, returning it to me for a final pass before the ARC’s go to print. There’s a lot of work that goes into a (hopefully) good book, and this is only a part of it–but it’s an important part.

I can’t wait to share BLUE with the world on October 26, 2021!

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It’s Cover Reveal Day For BLUE!

I am, and will forever mostly be a fantasy/sci-fi romance writer. So when BLUE first crept into my brain, my first thought was, “Yeah, that would make a great story, but I don’t write contemporary YA.”

BLUE decided to take root, and refused to allow me to write anything else until I finished it, so I did. It’s easy for me to say “This story wrote itself.” The truth is I wrote it, then I edited, passed it around my critique group, edited again, sent it to my beta readers, edited again, got an editor to peruse and polish with me, then one more round of beta readers and here we go. There were a lot of wonderful people who enabled and directed my madness and I am grateful for them all.

So without further ado – Here’s BLUE, release date: October 26, 2021.

Blue’s older brother was involved in a car accident that killed Maya’s father, and now Maya has returned to school determined to make Blue’s life a living hell in the aftermath. BLUE is a story about gaining perspective and checking your privilege, from L. E. DeLano, author of TRAVELER and DREAMER. 

Know Your Strength & Weaknesses

I am ankle-deep in what is shaping up to be the most challenging book I’ve ever written. I say ankle-deep because I was hoping to be knee-deep by now and that’s just not a reality at the moment. There’s way too much going on with his book, and a lot of it in areas of writing that I consider to be “weak” for me.

It’s important as a writer that you acknowledge your own strengths and weaknesses. The only way you become a better writer is by embracing and leveraging the former and challenging yourself with the latter.

For instance, I have a degree in Theatre. I am also and award-winning playwright. I know good dialogue. I know how to write it, I can visualize it coming out of the character’s mouths, and all the blocking and body language that would go with it in that particular scene. I think in terms of putting that in front of me visually as I’m writing it. My books are generally very dialogue heavy because that works for me.

I also love the sarcasm and very witty interchanges, and I especially love good wordplay, whether that’s delivering the punchline, or wielding a sentence like a sword that cleaves a character in half and leaves them bleeding. I think I’m pretty good at this. Not the greatest—yet—but I’m getting there.

Now for the list of what I’m not so great at:

Character descriptions. Believe it or not, I really struggle with giving physical descriptions of my characters in the context of the story. I even once wrote an entire book under my other pen name where I didn’t describe the protagonist in any way other than proclaiming her a female (in my defense the book was quite a few years back and one of my earliest). A reviewer called me out on it and I realized in stunned surprise that they were absolutely right. I’d never described her hair color, eye color facial features, or the build of her body. What the hell?

Describing someone’s looks is hard within the context of the story.  The last thing I want to do is pick some obvious ploy—having them stand in front of a mirror, having their best friend describe them (“Stop being so hard on yourself, Emma! I’d kill to have blonde hair, blue eyes, a perfect waist, big boobs, and porcelain skin, all in a toned five-foot six-inch frame like you!”). You have to come up with subtle ways to introduce it, like she’s playing with a strand of her curly hair with her fingers and it bounces back when she lets it go. Or she unconsciously rubs that scar on the side of her nose. Or some older relative telling her she has eyes like a summer sky. But of course, you have to work all that in as early as possible so people know how to picture this character in their mind. For me it’s just daunting.

The other area that’s tough for me is world building. Look, I’m an actor. I was trained to be an actor. The dialogue is the important thing. The interaction with the other actors is the important thing. The scenery is just there to be—scenery. It’s not the focus of the action. I’ve done tremendous shows that were in a black box environment and had nothing but a black curtain behind me and a couple of chairs. But it doesn’t work that way in a book. So I have to force myself to climb inside my character and stop for a moment to look around as they enter any new environment. What do they see, smell, hear? What can they pick up or put down or push aside? What in this environment do they need to interact with and how can I highlight that? What sort of wonderful and unique ways can I call attention to the lush world that surrounds them?

My final area of difficulty is introspection. The inner monologue of a character. As a person, I’m a natural born optimist. I have my down days, sure, but overall I am not much of a “wallower.” I’m a firm believer in picking yourself up and getting on with your life. Sitting there and beating yourself up over what happened or what you cannot or ought to change is only going to slow you down. When I write, it’s been common for editors who reviewed my manuscripts to comment that they need more, they want my character to pause and reflect a little bit longer, they need more internalization. My immediate reaction to the comment is, “But I did that!” Clearly, I didn’t do enough.

I know when I’m reading a book and a character has a very long, multi-paragraph internal monologue where they’re rehashing everything that’s occurred and how they feel about it, I have a tendency sometimes to skim it over and flip on past it. If I’m listening to an audiobook I literally wave my hand in the air like, come on, come on. That’s a personal bias of mine, and I’m learning to work through it.

I won’t lie to you, there are days when I think I should just chuck this whole manuscript and write something else. I have a file full of great ideas and some of those will be easier to write than others. But I love the story. I love these characters. It’s exciting and diverse and fantastical and if I don’t tell it, this story will never exist in the world. I just need to become a better writer to do it justice.

Check Your Submission Guidelines – Thoroughly

I participated in a twitter pitch event earlier this week, and lucky me! I got a great big from two different indie presses. I was hoping to find a new agent, but an indie press is just fine with me, so I immediately headed over to their webpages to get a feel for the both of them.

The first thing I look at on an indie press is the quality of their book covers. Sadly, I’ve seen a few indie presses with book covers that look like they were photoshopped by the author with limited skill and put up hurriedly on Amazon the same night the book was finished. You know what I mean. If a publisher can’t give you a professional looking cover, then they’re clearly not going to be invested in you as an author.

Not every publisher will ask for the same thing upon submission. Some want five pages plus your query, some want ten. Some want the first chapter. Some want all of that plus a synopsis. Someone only want your query letter. Some want you to forgo the query letter altogether, and give you an outline of what they want to hear from you in very specific order, something like “give us your bio in the first paragraph, use the second paragraph to tell us why you’re the one to write this book, then give us the pitch in the third and final paragraph.”

If you’re submitting to an indie press versus an agent, they may also have formatting requirements for your manuscript that differ from the average one inch margins all around and double-spaced typing. So, of course I made a point to read these very thoroughly.

And here’s where the word “thoroughly” comes into play.

Some writers just skim this section, looking for the keywords of five pages, ten pages, first chapter. Don’t stop there, keep reading. Most indie publishers will have the usual blah blah blah about we’re looking for good writing, strong voices, unique narratives, and stories that thrill us! Yeah, who isn’t?

I read on to discover that indie press one was looking specifically for cyberpunk sci-fi and fantasy, and only short stories, as they’re an online magazine. I write YA sci-fi and fantasy but not cyberpunk, and I have nothing for them in the way of short stories. I’m not mad at them for giving me the like. They were taking a chance, in case I had something to offer them. I don’t, so on I go.

Indie press two was a little more complicated. They do publish novels, and their book covers were graded A professional quality. They had several books that won indie book awards. Well, this looks promising! Query letter. Ten pages. Next paragraph probably full of the usual blah blah blah, but I’ll give it a read.

And it turns out this particular indie book publisher will not publish books with LGBTQA themes/characters, or books that depict any sort of spirituality other than Christianity.

Clearly, this is a Christian publisher. They don’t bill themselves that way because they publish more than just Christian themed books, but their adherence to strict Christian principles is very evident in their submission guidelines. And I am very grateful that they gave those details upfront.

I’m an active member of the YA community. My readers, my author friends, and my personal friends and family members embrace many different religions – and some no religion at all. I am a strong supporter of the LGBTA community and of #ownvoices in publishing. The book they were interested in actually falls within their guidelines. There’s no mention of anything other than heterosexuality within the book, and no mention of religion at all—neither really are applicable to the story, so they weren’t a focus.

I could submit the book, but I’d be betraying my personal values in aligning myself with this publisher. Likewise, the publisher would most certainly not be happy to see me tweeting and posting in support of things that go against their publishing platform. And I’m not saying any of this to bash the publisher—please don’t think that. They have a right to their platform, just as I have a right to mine. We’re just not a good fit. So back to the query trenches I go.

Read the fine print, guys. It’s important.

New Year, New Goals

We all know 2020 was a rough year, and writing-wise, it was a mixed bag for me.

Overall, I managed to:

Finish 2 YA manuscriptsDraft a new YA manuscript (and complete NaNoWriMo)Query 3 YA manuscriptsWrite and publish 2 romance novelsWrite and publish 3 romance novellasPublish a romance novella collection

All during a pandemic while dealing with a special needs child virtually learning next to me while I’m working from home at the full-time day job. It’s been a challenging year, but damn. I’m proud of what I got done now that I see it all written out.

So here’s the tentative plan for next year:

Continue querying my YA manuscriptsSelf-Pub my Contemporary YA titleComplete another YA manuscriptDraft and hopefully complete a MG bookWrite and publish 3 romance novelsWrite and publish 3 romance novellasPublish a romance novel collectionTry not to lose my mind

Along with the writing goals come the usual life stuff: eat healthy, exercise more, declutter, save more money. I might as well get a tattoo with all that since it repeats every year. I’m going to add in “travel more” as soon as it’s feasible to do so, finish all the online writing courses I have access to (Masterclass, various writer conferences, etc.), and just generally look for joy every day, even if it’s only in a small way or a brief moment.

What about you? What are you working toward in the new year?