Janette Rallison's Blog, page 22

Infamy at Village Inn

My teens think having parents is embarrassing. We wear the wrong clothes. We’re old. we don’t get weird Youtube vines. Yadda yadda. They have no idea what embarrassment really is.

These are things that my teens actually said at the restaurant this morning.

Hostess as we walk in: Five adults? There’s no one under ten?

Thirteen-year-old daughter: No, I’m too old to pass for ten now.

Which implies that we used to sneak her into places as a child when she wasn’t. We have never done this. Not once. I’m the mom who is always encouraging her kids to be honest with little lectures such as, “How much is your good character worth?”

Next example:

Nineteen-year-old son when he discovers the bill on the table: Hurry we can still sneak out!

Um, again, we’ve never done that. I’m  beginning to wonder if I should let my children out of the house by themselves as apparently they’re living nefarious double lives.

Thirteen-year-old daughter thirty seconds later: Mom, you should have tipped our last waitress. She was really nice.

Which is why I did tip her, and every other waiter or waitress who has ever waited on me. I add the tip to the credit card bill, but apparently my daughter has thought I’ve just stiffed servers for years, and she only thought to bring the subject up right then in front of a restaurant full of people.

So the next time either of these two children think I’ve embarrassed them in public, I’m going to refer them to this blog.

You can pretend it’s Hollywood Squares–but with authors

I just wanted to draw your attention to this lovely item that is part of the auction for The House of Refuge: It’s signed poster by Stephenie Meyer, Brandon Mull, Shannon Hale, Laini Taylor, James Owen, Janette Rallison, Jon Lewis, PJ Haarsma,  Dean Lowery and Chris Gall.  The starting bid is 25.00. You can bid on it http://www.32auctions.com/organizations/20584/auctions/23633/auction_items/550741

 

Do you want to join the proud, the not-so-few, the critiqued by Janette Rallison?

Not to brag, (I’m totally bragging) but I’ve critiqued manuscripts/or manuscript sections by Ally Condie, James Dashner, Sarah Eden, Donna Hatch, Kelly Oram, Julie Ann Donaldson, Sarah Larsen, Erin Summerill, Betsy Love, and many others. Most of these authors are even still speaking to me. Although Sarah Eden claims to hear my voice in her head while she writes, saying, “What is your character’s goal? Just staying alive, is not a valid goal.”

The point is, I’m a tough critiquer, but I’m thorough about writing and content. (I’m not a copy editor, so don’t expect any help with your commas.) Consider it tough love for your characters.

As part of a silent auction Brock Booher (also a critique survivor) is putting on to raise money for a battered women’s shelter, I’ll be auctioning off some items, and one of them is a critique of your first 100 pages of your manuscript.

You can see this item and many more here: http://www.32auctions.com/organizations/20584/auctions/23633?reset_filter=1

Indie publishing conference in Provo June 19-20

I’ll be teaching dialogue, romance, and plotting at this conference. There will be pictures of hot guys who were my teenage crushes in my romance powerpoint.

There has never been a better time to be an author. With more options to publish than ever before, authors are breaking away from traditional-only publishing and finding success going the independent and hybrid routes. Whatever your question, we have answers!

To ensure your indie writing career is a successful one, come to the second annual Indie Author Hub Publishing and Writing Conference June 19-20, 2015 in Provo, Utah http://www.indieauthorhub.com/p/2015-indie-author-hub-writing_11.html. (IndieAuthorHub.com)

With three writing tracks you can learn how to improve the craft of writing, how to successfully market your books, and book creation tips that will make your book stand out from the crowd.

Your two-day conference registration includes:

· Attendance at 12 class sessions of your choice

· The chance to mix and mingle with successful published indie and hybrid authors

· “Ask an Expert” sessions

· 3 meals (box lunch and plated dinner Friday, box lunch on Saturday)

· Keynotes addresses by Michaelbrent Collings—an international bestselling indie author

· Author book signing

AZ peeps: Free writing classes at libraries near you

One day I will figure out how to put a calendar on my website. Until then here are some free writing/author classes I’ll be doing in the valley. I hope you’ll come!

I’ll be teaching Plotting the Page Turning Novel at some libraries and and An Author’s Life at others (An author’s life is more of a humorous look at being an author. This is one your kids would also enjoy)

Plotting a Page Turning Novel

There’s no formula for writing a novel, but there are tried and true principals for writing successful fiction. Come learn the six things every author needs to know about their story before they hit the keyboard. We’ll cover the do’s and don’ts of plotting that will make writing your novel faster, selling your book easier and keeping your readers wanting more! Presented by Janette Rallison, the author of a number of Young Adult books. In the North Wing Program Room at the Sun City Branch Library.

Saturday, June 6th 11:00 am-12:00

Litchfield Park (Maricopa County Library District)

101 W Wigwam Blvd

Litchfield Park, AZ 85340

Saturday, June 13 2pm

Velma Teague Library (Glendale Public)

7010 N. 58th Ave.

Glendale, AZ 85301

 

Thursday, June 16 10am

Sun City (Maricopa County Library District)

16828 N. 99th Ave.

Sun City, AZ 85351

Saturday, June 27th 3pm

Main Branch (Peoria Public Library) 

8463 W. Monroe St.                            

Peoria, AZ. 85345

 

 

  An Author’s Life (and How You Can Become One, Too!)

How do you become an author? Lots of revisions. What do you every day as an author? Lots of revisions. You can also use funny events from your life to give you plot ideas. Did your parents forget you at a gas station once? Your novel will be gold.

Monday, June 22 1pm

Sunrise Mountain Branch (Peoria Public Library)   

21109 N. 98th Ave.

Peoria, Az. 85382

(623) 773-8650

Monday, 6/22/15 1pm

Wednesday, July 8 10am

Fairway Branch (Maricopa County Library District)

10600 W. Peoria Ave.

Room 144

Sun City, AZ 85351

602-652-3000

Tuesday, July 14, 2pm

 

Main Library (Mesa Public)

64 East 1st Street

Mesa AZ, 85201

 

Phoenix Comicon–come hang out with superheroes and me

If you haven’t been to a comicon before, it’s an experience you’ve got to put on the bucket list. I mean, where else are you going to see actors, writers, comic artists and thousands of people dressed up as superheroes and comic characters? They have panels to attend, celebrities you can get your picture taken with, and lots of stuff to buy. (Including books–don’t forget the books!)

where I’ll be

• Dragons and Rare Creatures : Thursday 3:00pm – 4:00pm

• Author Signing C.j. Hill, Cherie Priest, Myke Cole, Greg van Eekhout, Chuck Wendig : Thursday 4:30pm – 5:30pm

• Books and Authors’ Kickoff – Featuring Arizona Authors : Thursday 7:30pm – 8:30pm

• How Big Can It Get? : Friday 3:00pm – 4:00pm

• Author Signing: Jamie Wyman,Suzanne Young,Chuck Wendig,Naomi Novik,Stephen Blackmoore,C.J Hill : Saturday 4:30pm – 5:30pm

Even my mother is asking

My mom is the sort of loving, supportive mother everyone wants. She constantly tells me I’m her favorite author. When I recently told her that the demon book wasn’t done yet because I had to make changes the beta readers suggested, she indignantly told me that my book was perfect and if those beta readers didn’t like it, they could write their own book. I fruitlessly tried to explain that authors appreciate beta readers because books need changes to improve them, but she would have none of it.

True story, last week I took my parents to a four hour medical seminar, and as I sat down in my chair, my mother handed me a jumbo bag of fruit snacks she’d brought along so I wouldn’t get hungry. How sweet is that?

On Saturday and Sunday while I was telling her about the writers conference, I mentioned how guilty I felt when people kept asking me when the third Slayers would be out. I was sure she would jump to my defense, or at least sympathize for my plight. Instead she looked me in the eye and said, “Those people are right. When is the third Slayers book coming out anyway?”

You know it’s bad when even your mother is prodding you to get the book done.

So now I’m holed up in a hotel living off of popcorn and crackers while I write. Yesterday I got about 15 pages done. I’m hoping by Friday I’ll have added 60 pages to the 50 I had at the beginning of the week.

That’s the update.

Book signing in Provo (All the cool authors will be there . . .)

I realize I haven’t blogged for a couple weeks, and to all appearances have fallen off the face of the earth. Will you forgive my absence if I say I’ve been busy working on Slayers Three?

Anyway, for those of you in Utah, you can come and personally grill me about my progress on Saturday the 16th, 4:30-5:30.  I’ll be signing books at Utah Valley Conference Center 220 West Center Street, Provo with a bunch of awesome authors who taught at the LDStorymakers conference. Too many to mention. (Okay, I’ll mention a few: Brandon Mull, Dan Wells, David Farland, Sarah Eden, Martine Leavitt, Jennifer Neilsen, maybe we’ll even see the elusive James Dashner)

And I’ll have paperbacks of My Fairly Dangerous Godmother and Son of War, Daughter of Chaos. (Unless they all sell out on Friday during the conference, which sometimes happens. You can buy a copy on Friday if you want to be really sure.)

Hope to see you!

Why you can’t base fiction on real life

On Tuesday I was at a indie book store with my middle daughter. As we were about to leave, (I was going to go have dinner and a plot brainstorming session with awesome author, Sarah Eden) an employee came up to us and said, “I don’t mean to alarm you, but the police have blocked off the road, and I just saw armed men run into the building across the street.”

“Oh,” I said. “Well, I guess the good news is we’re in a book store.” I mean, if you’re going to be trapped in a store for an unspecified amount of time, a book store is the place to be.

My daughter and I peered out the glass door in the front of the store and saw that yes, flashing police lights were on both sides of the street, trapping my ever stylish and frequently dirty mini van in its parking space.

You may at this point be thinking that if a person knows that armed men are running around the street, the last thing she should do is go to the glass door and peer around. Taking cover behind a bookcase would be a better activity.

Yeah, I know.  Looking back, it was perhaps not the safest thing to do. But here’s the thing, there were a bunch of people standing out on the sidewalk watching the building next door like it was momentarily going to turn into a fireworks display. (Which it might have, in a sense.) One guy had even taken a chair outside and was sitting on it while he waited to see some action.

Two thoughts struck me at that time. 1) People are really stupid. 2) If I had  written a scene with gunmen running into building and told readers that a bunch of spectators came out and were waiting around to see some action, no one would have believed it. Readers expect fictional characters to act with more common sense–or at least a little self-preservation.

Which is why you can’t base fiction on real life–it’s too unbelievable.

What did I do while trapped in the book store? Using my kindle, I messaged Sarah, “I’m going to be late for dinner. I’m being held up by the police.”

The mark of a good friend is that she didn’t ask why.

While a helicopter flew overhead, I went and took this picture of myself in front of Pioneer Books’ incredible book counter. It’s made of books. I’m not sure whether it would be an honor or an insult to have my book used as a building material.

 

 

A few minutes later an employee told us that the mayor had just tweeted that everything was under control. I guess there had been a bomb threat and a suspicious man who may have had a bomb.

I went to dinner with  Sarah, we helped each other with our plots (Yay!) and now I have no more excuses not to get back to work on Slayers 3.

Oh yeah, except for this one:

Demon Book cover take two

Su at Earthly Charms came up with some more covers for my consideration and of course I want to see what you think of them. Do you have a favorite? Thoughts? Do you get the last one?