Mindy Hardwick's Blog, page 35

Flea Markets and Vintage Ideas

This summer, I got on a little trend. I started re-purposing old items. It began when I dug my old yellow bookcase out of the garage. This bookcase has been with me since I was a child. Originally, I stored all the great books I read in middle and high school on it.  I talked about some of my old-school favorite books here.

When I became a middle school teacher, I set up the bookcase in my first classroom and stored a classroom library of favorite books for middle grade-many of which were my own from when I was a middle school student.

After I left teaching, the bookcase got tucked away in a corner in the garage. However, this spring, I became the owner of a cottage on the Oregon Coast. I thought the bookcase belonged in the cottage, so I got it back out, repainted it and viola…

I had a lot of paint left, so I also painted the rocking chair which I used to have in my first classroom with that bookcase. The rocker belonged to my Mom in college. The rocker will also be in the cottage.

But, the bookcase and rocker weren’t the only things to find a new life this summer. My Mom has kept my old tricycle and wagon in her garage for years and years and years. After attending a few flea markets and vintage sales, I realized there was a lot to be done with the old wagon. (And these things have become quite valuable, apparently!)

Here is the old wagon and tricycle:

And here is the old wagon with a new life…(the tricycle is waiting until next summer to get it’s new life when it will have some colorful pots and a new basket decked out in red, white and blue streamers). I found the cute red boots at a great place on the Oregon Coast called, Yankee Trader. If you’re on the North end of Highway 101 near Gearhart, I highly recommend a stop!

Finally, my last project was a bedroom nightstand set. The set was given to me when I bought my first house–about eighteen years ago! The tops of the stands had become stained and the paint was beginning to peel, but I didn’t want to get rid of them because they are good nightstands.

This summer, I was given a large stack of vintage cards. I’ve had the Vintage Valentine cards from my family for a couple years, (the inspiration for my sweet, contemporary romance series, VINTAGE VALENTINE) but I never could bear to do too much with the family cards. But this new set of vintage cards seemed like better material to change, so…I covered the tops of my nightstands with them and added new drawer pulls and viola…

I’m having a great time going to flea markets, vintage sales and thrift stores looking for what else can be given a new life. It’s been a busy summer creating new from the old, and yes….there are some stories coming…..

Stained Glass Summer Audio On-Sale

The audio book of STAINED GLASS SUMMER is on sale for 1.99. This is a great deal because it usually retails for $14.95!

You can find it here.

Young Adult Romance–A Great List!

I’m always looking to build my reading list and this great blog posting about Young Adult Romance popped on my radar.

This Young Adult Romance blog post over at Stacked Blog does a fabulous job explaining a bit about the romance genre, listing resources for romance, and giving a great listing of current titles in young adult romance.

One book which I immediately added to my “to be read” stack is Lauren Myracle’s new book, THE INFINITE MOMENT OF US. The story is being compared to Judy Blume’s Forever. You can read a great review about Myracle’s new book here.

Writing a Romance Series

One of the things I’ve discovered in the world of epublishing is books in a series sell well. It can be very challenging for readers to find new books, and if they get hooked on a series, it’s really easy to download the next book. I’ve noticed in my own reading that I read far more books in a series and/or books by the same author than I used to.

I had never thought much about writing a series until I wrote my sweet, contemporary romance novella, LOVE’S STORMS.  Originally, I planned the story as a stand-alone story. But readers quickly started asking me, “Do you have more romance stories?”

This was totally unexpected! I always loved romance stories in high school and college, In college, I worked at Village Green Bookstore in Rochester, New York. Village Green was a fabulous independent bookstore and the employees got to “check out” books to take home to read.  During college, I read a couple writing romance books and played around with some ideas, but they never went very far. It wasn’t until writing my young adult romance, WEAVING MAGIC, that I seriously began learning about the craft of romance.

After LOVE’S STORMS was published, I realized I better learn how to write more books in a series. So, I signed up for Misty Evan’s class, Writing a Romance Series at Savvy Authors.  After the class, I went on to write two more novellas in the Sailor Series, LOVE’S CHRISTMAS GIFT and LOVE’S BID. Each story was published as a stand-alone novella. Now, all three stories are being released in an anthology collection called WINDS OF LOVE. The anthology will be available in both print and ebook.

This year, I began writing the Elmheart Hotel sweet, romance novella series. The first one, VINTAGE VALENTINE came out in February and the next one, HALLOWEEN’S LOVE PREDICTION, will be out later this fall. One thing I did in the Elmheart Series is have some of the characters from the Sailor Series show up as “walk-on” characters. This was a fun, and easy way for me to link the two series together.  Both series were sold to ebook publisher, Books To Go Now, so I could link my  characters without worrying about getting the rights from another publisher.

I love writing series. I love the world building aspect and I love writing about characters who are minor characters from another story. I have more series ideas for both sweet, contemporary romance and young adult and will be working on those after I finish the Elmheart Hotel series.

Misty Evans is teaching the class, Writing a Romance Series, again, so if you’ve ever wanted to learn how to write books in a series, this is the class to take!  You can register at Savvy Authors here.

About the Workshop

Romance readers and publishers alike love series, but plotting a romance series can be a daunting project, keeping you from taking the plunge. Not only do you have to manage the main plot, but also the romantic one. In this workshop, you’ll learn to:

* Plot for each type of romance series (serial, sequel, spin-off)

* Recognize thematic romance plot lines and how to use them

* Develop and track multiple plot lines and sub plots

* Develop a romance story arc over multiple books

Goal Setting

I set goals twice a year–once in January and once in August. There is something about August and “back to school” that always makes me organize office supplies and set goals.  These are my goal setting categories:

Writing: Since my two books have published, as well as four romance novellas, my writing goals have changed a bit. I used to write a story and then try to find a publisher. Now, I have publishers who would like more stories from me. This has cased my writing goals to become more focused. Goal setting questions I ask myself include: Am I working on a series? What book comes next in that series? Is there a holiday deadline coming up? Does that holiday fit with one of my series books? Do one of my publishers have a special call out to current authors? Is this something I have a story for?

Goal setting consists of making a list of one or two stories I will work on next.  Then, I break this list down to include how many chapters a week, or words a day I need to write.

Right now, I am writing two sweet contemporary romance novellas which are a part of my VINTAGE VALENTINE series for BooksToGoNow. One is a Halloween story and one is a Christmas story. I had hoped to do a Fourth of July story in that series, but with Dad’s passing in late May, it wasn’t possible for me to hit that deadline. These two holiday stories will finish the VINTAGE VALENTINE series. 

Submissions: Even though I am writing for epubs, I also continue to submit to traditional publishers.  I have a chapter book series as well as a memoir about my experience running the poetry workshop with teens in detention which I have submitted to a handful of publishers and/or agents.

Marketing: Both my YA and MG books have been out for over a year, and although there are new romance novellas released on a regular basis, I don’t market those in the same way.  Right now, my marketing consists of writing blog posts, participating in blog hops, reading and commenting on blogs, updating Facebook pages, and doing an occasional quick sweep through Goodreads. I also still teach workshops and school and library visits to kids and teens.

Education: I’m always learning in my writing. Every story I write brings something to the table which asks me to learn–whether it’s how to develop a bigger plot or how to write a novel filled with suspense. For me, this learning includes taking classes, attending conferences and my professional memberships to SCBWI and/or RWA. Upcoming conferences include Georgia’s Moonlight and Magnolia RWA Conference and AWP in Seattle in late February. I also just joined RWA and am taking a Savvy Author’s class on Writing the Cozy Mystery–good way to learn how to add suspense to my plots!

Writer in the Community: This category is all about how I show up in my community as a writer. For me, in August, this is when I’m working on the Lake Stevens High School Creative Writing Scholarship Application. I’ve given the scholarship for seven years, so there isn’t too much to do on the application process beyond tweak the year and send it to the career counselor at the high school.

Creative Inspiration: This is the category where I ask what fuels my creative process? For me, it’s usually something else creative.  I like to take the occasional mixed media class with Seattle artist Liesel Lund. Liesel’s classes are held at her fun and art-filled house where she supplies great instruction, all the supplies, and a day filled with fun. I’m looking forward to her November class, Tatters: Paper and Fabric Collage.

So, what are your goals? Do you set goals at any particular time in the year?

Mentoring Young Writers

This summer, I’ve had the privilege to mentor a young writer through the Youth WRITE Now Program.

Every other week or so, we correspond by email. She sends me some of her writing, I comment on it, and then send her some writing ideas.

This past week, my mentee, Keilah, wrote a blog post about her experience being mentored and why it’s helping her write. You can read that post here.

I was also asked to write a blog post about mentorship and you can read my post here.

The Youth WRITE Now Program is a great mentoring program, and I’d highly encourage all published writers to volunteer to be a writing mentor! You can find out more about being a mentor here. 

Epub Seeks Older YA and NA Submissions

This comes from Cindi Myers Market News:

Entranced Publishing is a Minneapolis-based e-publisher that publishes young adult, and new adult. They’re also interested in fantasy, science fiction and urban fantasy with strong romantic elements. Entranced currently releases three to four titles each month. YA and NA titles should be 50,000 to 90,000 words. Other manuscripts may be from 10,000 to 120,000 words. They pay royalties of 40 percent of net. Find their submission guidelines here.

Entrance Anthology Seeks SubmissionsEntranced is accepting novellas of 25,000 to 35,000 words for an upcoming anthology of contemporary takes on classic fairy tales. The editors are interested in stories with strong heroines who rescue themselves — or maybe even rescue the hero. “Simmering sexual tension” is a must. The deadline for submissions is November 30, 2013. Find more details here.

Good luck!

Old School Wednesdays

The Book Smugglers hosts a weekly post called Old School Wednesdays.  From their blog:

Old School Wednesdays is a weekly Book Smuggler feature. We came up with the idea towards the end of 2012, when both Ana and Thea were feeling exhausted from the never-ending inundation of New and Shiny (and often over-hyped) books. What better way to snap out of a reading fugue than to take a mini-vacation into the past?

This past week, they invited five bloggers to talk about their favorite old school middle grade books. You can read that post here.

Reading the Old School Wednesday Middle Grade Round-Table post had me combing through my bookshelves for my favorite old school books.

The Witch Family, Eleanor Estes.

I loved this book about the family of witches, and secretly, though maybe I could be a part of it!

The Borrowers, Mary Norton

Another story which fascinated me with the “little people” who lived in the walls. My Mom and I spent many conversations talking about “maybe the Borrowers took it” when things went missing.

Mandy, Julie Edwards

I don’t know how many times I read and reread this book, but it was a lot!  I was in love with her secret cottage and how she had her very own place to go to.

Laura’s Luck, Marilyn Sachs

This was another one of those books I read so many times the pages are falling out, and I even shaded in the title–not sure why! In middle school, I attended a Girl Scout camp called Camp Cedarcrest. I think I took this book to every two-week camp session I attended and read it in my canvas tent with the wood floors while eating M and M’s!

Homecoming, Cynthia Voigt.

This is a discarded library copy I found a few years ago at a local library sale and is the cover of the book I read as a child. I loved this story, and have talked about it often as how it influenced my own middle grade character, Jasmine, in my book, STAINED GLASS SUMMER.

Dicey’s resilient spirit and her strength in leading her siblings to start a new life with her Grandma is still why she is one of my favorite character’s today.

Classes and Blogs for Educators

It’s August and back-to-school time is right around the corner–for some kids and teachers that time has already arrived!

I don’t go back to a classroom anymore, but I do start to receive classwork in the mail from the six distance learning classes I teach through Seattle Pacific University SPIRAL Program. The educator classes range from Writing the Picture Book to Children’s Literature classes which includes my latest classes–finding great Books for Boys as well as Writing with Boys. All the information about the educator classes is posted on my website here. Please register for all courses through Seattle Pacific University. 

The courses can be taken by any educator looking for continuing education credits. You do not need to be a Washington State Certified teacher to take the courses.

I enjoy reading and grading the educator coursework. Teachers are great students, and the packets which come in during the summer are some of my favorites.

One of my classes, Writing the Picture Book asks teachers to write an original picture book. The course also asks teachers to incorporate picture books into their writing classroom.

There was a great blog post on the Nerdy Book Blog the other day about Making Writing Real by Using Picture Books. You can find and read that post here.

If you’re looking for great blogs and resources for educators, some of my favorites are:

Teach Mentor Texts

Great Kid Books (Lots of good posts about the Common Core Standards this month)

Librarian in Cute Shoes

Two Writing Teachers

Kate Messner–  Kate is an author who runs a great summer writing program for teachers on her blog.

And if you’re looking for great children’s books picked specifically by bloggers, be sure to check out the Cybils Blog.

YA Submissions, Graphic Novels, and More

I thought it’d be fun to share some links from around the web.

What does an agent look for when she/he Googles you? This is a great blog posting about what an agent/editor is looking for when Googling an author (and yes–they Google us!)

Graphic novels--What are they? Who publishes them? This great post about graphic novels over at the STACKED BLOG can give you some great tips.

Along the same line, this post about Hybrid Novel/Graphic Novels at STACKED will give you more books to read in this genre.

Submission  Opportunity: Musa Publishing is hungry for innovative YA and NA fiction and GLBT YA and NA. All genres are welcome but please be mindful that the market is *flooded* with post-apocalypse/dystopian universe/vampire manuscripts, so we have to be extremely selective if we give a second look to any books that fall in these categories. Please study the masters of the genre–Musa seeks high-quality writing as well as creative stories. We welcome middle grade and early reader books that are complete (submissions must include final format artwork, if applicable.)

The YA imprint of Musa Publishing Submission Guidelines can be found here.