Megan Bostic's Blog, page 20

Writing Wednesday : A Tattered Life

Well I'm up to about 5600 words in this book. It's coming slow, but I've not had a lot of writing time lately. I will now, as I once again have more writing time on my hands. I'm liking this MS, though I find it a challenge to write from the alternating perspectives of a journal writer then the reader 8 months later. But I'm always up for a challenge. :) 

 Setting this scene, Jaden is waiting for Payton out in his truck. He's read more of the journal, and about the "white trash" girl's life, and he sees similarities between her and Payton and starts to worry...

I slide into the truck and pull the notebook out of my bag. Flipping through the pages, I try to find where I left off. Just as I get to the right page, I jump, startled by a loud knock on my passenger window.  I look up and Payton’s standing there, shaking her head, rolling her eyes and motioning for me to unlock her door. “Jesus, you scared me to death.” “That was my intention,” she says looking at me strangely, like she’s seeing something new about me. “What are you reading? You looked, well, engrossed. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you that interested in something before, aside from football and cheerleaders, that is.” I shove the notebook back in my bag and throw it behind the seat.  “I have interests beyond football you know?” Now she looks at me like I’m mad as a hatter. “Oh, you do, do you? And what might those be?” Staring into her eyes, I pull a classic Jaden move. “You.” Her breath catches and I scoot closer to her, caress her cheek and move in for a kiss. Unexpectedly, she shoves me away. “Not here! Are you crazy? We’ll be seen.” She’s right. I don’t know what got into me. I’ve never been that flagrant with our relationship. If anything, I’m beyond paranoid, always looking over my shoulder, careful not to be seen by anyone, especially Ava. I don’t say a word; I just scoot back, turn the key in the ignition and head to our spot. We pull in and draw near each other. My hands immediately heads under Payton’s shirt, hers clasp the back of my neck. We lean in and our tongues find one another, dancing, and swirling in the other’s mouth. My mind starts to race, but not like it usually does to things like the color of Payton’s panties and how fast I can get her bra off. No, today it travels to the girl in the notebook and her secret rendezvous with Noah. I push Payton away. Confused look on her face she says, “What is it? What’s wrong?” I don’t really know what, if anything, is wrong. My mind just keeps going back to those last two entries. I have questions. “Nothin’. Nothin’s wrong.” I grab her hand in mine. It’s not like Ava’s, soft and smooth like milk. It’s firm, a little rough around the edges like her, but nice —and warm. “Our relationship—” “Relationship?” Her brows are furrowed. “You know what I mean. This thing we have, you know it’s just for fun, right? That it’s just what it is or what it will ever be.” “What the fuck are you talkin’ about?” She sounds pissed. “What I mean is, I’m with Ava, you understand that, right?” She pulls her hand away from mine. “Jesus, Jaden, you think I’m an idiot?” “No. I’m sorry. I just wanted things to be clear between us.” Slamming up against the bucket seat she says, “It’s crystal.” I lean over to her and whisper, “Sorry, babe.” I kiss her ear, her neck, make my way down her chest when another thought hits me. I sit back. “Now what?” “Your step dad — you guys get along okay?” “What? Are you writing a book? Yeah, we get along fine.” I look in her eyes; try to tell if she’s lying. “He doesn’t like, uh, you know—” she stares at me expectantly, shaking her head, waiting for me to finish. “He doesn’t hurt you does he? Touch you?” At first, she looks pissed, but then her expression softens.  She reaches up and cups my cheek in her hand. “Jaden…,” she says so soft I can barely hear her, “…you’ve been watching too many movies.” Then she giggles, throws her arms around my neck and kisses my cheek and I feel relief. So much relief that I get choked up and I grab her and hold her tight. I don’t want her to see me like that, so I just keep holding her and I let her kiss my neck and the side of my face and wherever she wants until is subsides.

As if I wasn't busy enough...

...I've joined in a new venture with a co-worker. Upon learning the ins and outs of the self publishing world and how much of a bitch it can be, we've decided to offer indie publishing services. 

Yep, we're going to offer consulting, editing and formatting at first. 

We'll probably get into cover design, websites, a little marketing, like small publicity kits, including postcards, bookmarks, and business cards. 

We'll put together press releases and sell sheets. 

I've already done video trailers, so we can do that as well and part of our job here at the law firm is SEO, keyword research and social media marketing, so we'll get into that as well.

Together we have a wide array of skills and talents and we work very well together. We're in the midst of putting our website together. Creative Chaos Media.

We may eventually also offer to publish people's works under my Sock Puppet Press and other imprints I'm planning to start.

We're putting our pricing together right now, but we will be competitive. Keep checking the website for updates.

Happy Friday, here are the scribbles.

Random Pandora song: Life in Technicolor II by Coldplay (Imagine Dragons Radio)

Book of the Week: The Hunger Games: Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins. Starting reading it so I could finish before the movie came out. Took a little to get into, but now I'm hooked.

Netflix of the Week: Breaking Bad, first half of Season 5. What can I say. I love those bad boys.

Quote of the Week:“Finite to fail, but infinite to venture.” ~ Emily Dickinson

Proof copies can be hazardous to your health

You've seen this cover on my blog many times now, right. Her pants are clearly blue...

The first proof copy I got back, the cover was sooooo dark. When I mentioned it to Lori, she told me that the covers come back about 5x darker than you send them.

So I lightened it up to what you see here to the left. Lighter skin. A glint on the glass, purple fingernails, BLUE pants.

Yeah, the pants look black. And this time the cover is off center. Don't know how that happened. UGH!!!

So here is the disclaimer on getting proof copies: May cause frustration, anxiety, depression, nausea, vomiting, headache, heart pain. May cause hair loss in the form of you pulling it out by the root. In severe cases, could cause death.

This process is definitely a learning curve. A BIG one. After this round though, the second time, which I'm going to start ASAP with Girl in Motion, will be a breeze, right? RIGHT?!?

Dissected Giveaway

Now that things are coming down the line, I've decided to host a giveaway on Goodreads. Click here to enter. I'm giving away two copies. You have to live in US, Canada, UK or Australia to enter. The end date is November 12, which is what I'm hoping is the release date for the book *fingers crossed*.

My proof copies should be coming in the mail today if all goes as planned. I have one person who is going to read one of them as I don't think I can stomach another read of the novel right now. If you're a writer, I think you know what I mean. If you're not a writer, think about reading the same book 20 times in a row. Even if it's your favorite, you'd get sick of it after about the 3rd time.

So, go enter the contest. If you're in the area, expect an invite to the release party soon. I think it's going to be held at Garfield Books at Pacific Lutheran University.

Indie publishing: The Next Step

I got my formatted copy of Dissected back and uploaded it to both Createspace and Lightning Source. Now I'm waiting to get proof copies from each company. I'm going to have someone else go through the proof copies. I don't think I can stomach doing it one more time.

I'm not sure why if I've explained why I'm using both companies. I'm using Createspace to sell on Amazon, but Createspace expanded distribution does not offer a big enough wholesale discount, so physical bookstores more than likely would not carry it. So I'm going through Lightning Source, so I can distribute through Ingram and set my own discount price, so that libraries and book stores can purchase the book at a reasonable rate. I'll make less money this way, but I'm pretty sure most of my sales will come through Amazon. However, I'd like the book available through Ingram so it's available if I do library, school and book store visits.

I also got my UPC code and added it to the cover. I set the sale price at $9.99.
Now, once I approve the proof copies of the book, that's it. Time to sell. Of course, I've set a release date of November 12th because I still have some marketing stuff I want to do, and I have a release party I want to set up and I need a 6 week lead on that.

It's getting close to go time, and I'm getting nervous...

Response: 8 Reasons NOT to send your daughters to college

Have you seen this article? It's appalling. I was raised Catholic btw. I consider myself a recovering Catholic, but even I know that this is not a Catholic stance on college or women or education. This is one man, Rayman Alleman, hiding behind religion to spout his own anti-feminist agenda. IMHO.

So here we go...

1. She will attract the wrong types of men.  Alleman believes that if they go to college lazy men will basically take advantage of the fact that they are bright and have a career.
Um, so they should just become stay at home moms? Or work a crappy minimum wage jobs to ward off these types of men? This is completely nonsensical. A strong, sensible woman will not let a man take advantage of her. Period.

2. She will be in a near occasion of sin. Yeah, hate to break this to you, but she's always in a near occasion of sin. She doesn't have to go to college for it. She can find it at Starbucks. And the grocery store. And, God forbid, church. And the other psycho-babble he spouts in this one is just bonkers.

3. She will not learn to be a wife and mother. Because of course all career women are horrible mothers, right? Being a wife and mother is not something you learn, it's innate. When you become one, you just do it and whether you stay at home or go to college makes no difference.

4. The cost of a degree is becoming more difficult to recoup. I don't necessarily disagree with this one, but it's the way he explains it that makes me want to bitch slap someone. Yes, college loans are expensive, good jobs are hard to find, but why must it be the man that has to bring a skill to the marketplace while the woman stay home and be frugal. Come on! What is this, the 1950's?

 5. You don’t have to prove anything to the world. Thank you Captain Obvious. The idea of college is "folly". And women are just succumbing to peer pressure when they attend college. Uh-huh. It's not that maybe we want to better ourselves, or the world, or try to find our place in the universe or make a difference or get a good job or maybe just feel some sense of accomplishment? No. It's because mommy and daddy told me to go.


6. It could be a near occasion of sin for the parents. Yes, parents will use contraception to send their other children to college. Dude, there are only a handful of parents who have more than 2 or 3 kids these days. How do you think they're NOT having these other children? Look around at your other Catholic friends with one or two kids...

7.  She will regret it. They apparently have all these women coming forward professing how much they regret working instead of raising their children. Yes, having an education is such a horrible thing to have. Please. In this day and age where more people are getting divorced than staying married, a woman would be stupid not to get an education and a job. Believe me, after being a stay at home mom for ten years, it's pretty damn hard to get back into the workforce after a divorce.

8.  It could interfere with a religious vocation. Right, because we know how many women are allowed to become priests and how many are still becoming nuns these days. Are you serious?

Yeah, so I won't mince words, I think this guy is an idiot. And let's see, all of these reasons could apply to sons as well, could they not?

Let's leave the college decisions up to the individual. I mean, college definitely isn't for everyone. I'm not saying everyone should go, but for those who want to? It's not up to the church (or some crazy right wing faction of it), or some crazy Catholic blogger and his misogynistic following. It's up to the student and perhaps their parents if they have to help pay for it.

Personally, I wanted an education. It took me a long time to get it. I went to college, quit and went back, but I believe it helped me get where I am now, I felt a sense of accomplishment when I did get my bachelor's degree.

And you know what, if girls or boys alike go to college and make mistakes, so what? That's the age. It's the time to experiment and explore, get out on your own and find out who you are as a person. I made plenty of mistakes when I went off to college. I learned and grew as a person. Now I'm an educated woman with a good job and I don't feel like I was a lesser wife, mother, or woman because of it.

Frustration

I'm starting this blog without a title because I have a feeling I'm just going to whine and rant without any clear definition of what I'm writing about.

 I suppose that was a warning to you, this is nothing but a rant today...

I was going to title it Feeling Insignificant, but that sounded so pathetic.

But...

Lately I feel like I'm standing still while the whole world is running, gaining a greater and greater lead away from me.

I can't get my work done at work.  I have no many duties I can't keep up.

I can't get my work done at home. I finally did laundry and cleaned my kitchen last night after days.

I've barely written a word in weeks. I have a website I need to work on. A book that needs editing. My fall publication is at a standstill. It almost feels as if it will never get released.

I have no emails, no Facebook comments, no Tweets. This I blame on not having enough time to keep up with the world. No time to interact with my virtual people. People who at one time I'd talk to all day. People I miss.

If I'm not keeping up with the world, how will I possibly make any sales on my next book.

I think it's finally time to balance my world lest the rest of the world pass me by.

But how do you balance it all? I've asked this question before, I know, but I honestly
don't know how people do it. I work, I write, I edit. I coach soccer, attend music gigs and soccer games for my girls. I have a house, a yard, a boyfriend. I kickbox.

And then there's still this sleep issue I have. This utter fatigue that makes me so tired I have to sleep a couple hours during the day which drives me absolutely nuts and takes me away from things I feel I should be doing.

Last night I thought I would write. But after working, then having to take a nap, soccer practice, kickboxing...I had choices. I had piles of laundry to fold and a dirty kitchen, or I could write. I chose the former. I can let my house be in a state of disarray for a little bit, but after a while it nags at me, scratching metaphorical claws on the door of my mind.

I'm only 4200 words into this current book. That saddens me. How can I be a writer if I don't write?

I'm frustrated.

I think I finally found a title for this blog...

Response to: FYI (if you're a teenage girl)

I know, there have been a million responses already, and I'm about a day behind, but as the mother of two teenage girls, I felt I had to respond.

I understand some of what Mrs. Hall is saying. I do. I just don't agree with it.

I think it's fine that the Hall parents monitor what their children do online. It's very smart. However, where is the trust in the parent/child relationship? At what point do you let your children use their best judgment as to who they can and cannot be Facebook friends with? When do you stop censoring every little thing they do?

If she's taught her boys to respect females, she shouldn't have to worry, right? Okay, no. Why? Because no matter how much they respect them, they will still look at them at a sexual way if they are a red-blooded, heterosexual teenage boy. 

Scantily clothed. Fully clothed. Nude. It doesn't matter. That's how it works.
Even the Biebs does it.
Boys do the same thing BTW. Have you seen all the bathroom, shirtless pics they post? Are you going to write this same letter to those boys when your daughter is a teenager?

Look, my daughter and her friends are barely dressed in this pic below. You could even say that the one on the right is posing suggestively.

Would the Hall boys be able to be friends with these girls? Or would they be blocked by their parents? I mean, the Hall boys may look at them in a sexual way, right?

And then of course we have the double standard of her own boys in bathing suits flexing their muscles on the beach in the pictures she chose to post on that particular blog. 

Pictures she has since changed. 

Does she not think that a teenage girl would look at that and drool a little? After all, her boys are handsome, shirtless, and flexing.

Okay, admittedly, I really don't appreciate boys/men with their shirts off in front of the mirror, and don't think young girls should be seductively half naked in their Facebook pics. I think parents should teach their children what is and what is not acceptable. 


Kim K.Does Mrs. Hall let her boys watch TV? Movies? Listen to music? Play video games? Read magazines? Media has been teaching children for decades how they should look and behave. This is learned behavior from sources beyond our control. Even if you temper media at home, you'll never be able to keep your children from it completely, especially in these days where Google is a god.


When my girls first got their Facebook pages I told them not to friend anyone they don't know and that I would not censor them unless I felt what they posted was way out of control. I did tell them that they need to think about what they post, who will see it, what it might affect, and then to use their best judgment.

And I would never block someone from their Facebook. I can imply and suggest, but they can decide who needs to be blocked. I trust their judgment because I've taught them well.

And in this day and age of self esteem problems, obesity, self harm and eating disorders, is it so wrong for a teenage girl to be confident in her looks and her body.  To feel pretty. I think it's empowering, as long as she respects herself, and that is something they need to learn from their parents.

 Teenagers have bigger problems these days. Bullying, violence, alcohol, drugs, grades...

...scantily clad co-eds isn't one.

Just my two cents on this Friday.

F³A: Road Trip Weekend

So I took a much needed road trip this weekend. Drove to the ocean last night. I love driving by myself. I crank the stereo (when the radio stations get fuzzy, I plug my iPod in), and sing at the top of my lungs.

Some of the favorites on my iPod right now are:

Alt-J, BreezeblocksAnna Kendrick, Cups (Pitch Perfect's "When I'm Gone") Bright Eyes, First Day Of My LifeDecemberists, Calamity SongFamily of the Year, HeroThe Fratellis, Chelsea DaggerAnything by Some Nights, The Head and the Heart, or Night VisionsJoy Formidable, Whirring The Lumineers, Stubborn LoveThe Mowgli's, San FranciscoMs Mr,HurricaneNew Politics, HarlemWalk of the Earth, Red HandsWalk the Moon, Anna SunLorde, Royals
For now I'm by myself, but will be joined by friends later. Whenever I tell people, I'm going to the beach by myself, they always question it. As writers, I think we understand how important silence and solace is. I've not been able to write much lately. My work, my health, my kids, they've all taken precedence lately over my writing, which I hate, so this weekend I'm hoping to bust out some words.

I'm also looking to work on my future publication of Dissected . I have a website to set up, I have postcards I need to create to send to schools, libraries and bookstores. I also need to make new business cards. I've not yet bought my UPC code. I can do all that before getting my formatting back from Lori.

Are any of you on road trips this holiday weekend? If so, where are you off to?

I was also curious, many people have said Never Eighteen is one of their favorite road trip books. What are yours? To be honest, I've not read a lot of road trip books, though there are tons on my tbr list, like Paper Towns and An Abundance of Katherines by John Green, Nothing Specialby Geoff Herbach, and The Year We Were Famous by Carole Estby Dagg.

Of course,The Stand by Stephen King is one of my favorite books of all time. The ultimate road trip to a battle to the death between good and evil. Then there is my friend, Gae Polisner's The Pull of Gravity , which is a lovely young adult novel about a boy trying to fulfill a promise to a sick friend.

I love writing me a good road trip book. Never Eighteen was a weekend trip around the South Sound. In the upcoming, Girl in Motion (I'll probably release it sometime next spring/summer) Chelsea "Cheesy" Reed drives from Mississippi to Texas to live with her estranged father after the death of her mother. In the WIP I'm working on now, working title, A Tattered Life, there will be a section where my main character Jaden drives from Georgia to Alabama in search of a girl he's sure is going to commit suicide after reading her journal.  I also had another in the works a few years ago titled, Finding Nirvana, in which a teenage girl travels cross country to find her dad.

Yes, love road trip stories.

If you're looking for road trip stories to read, here's a list on Goodreads, a post by the Nerdy Bookclub on their top ten YA road trip books,  and here is a list of more classic road trip books.

It's Friday, so we get the Scribbles.

iPod shuffle song: Red Hands by Walk Off the Earth

 Book of the Week: I'm back to reading Divergent . I took a break, just because I was so incredibly busy, then read a friend's book, Jenny Milchman's, Cover of Snow: A Novel , now I'm back to Divergent. Movie comes out soon. Need to finish.

Netflix of the Week: I started the last season of Breaking Bad. YES!

Quote of the Week: Oh my gosh, so many good quotes about traveling...I think I have to post a couple of my favorites.

 “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” – Mark Twain

 “Not all those who wander are lost.” – J. R. R. Tolkien

 “Two roads diverged in a wood and I – I took the one less traveled by.” – Robert Frost

Happy Friday, Happy Labor Day Weekend. Do the opposite, rest.

Wednesday Writing: Revelation: The Divinity Chronicles Book One

 Let me set this scene up for you, or try, with some background into this book. This novel is a rewrite of the very first novel I wrote, Dena Powers: Superhero? for those of you familiar with that. I'm turning it into a post apocalyptic/dystopic society. After a civil war, most of those with super human powers (but not all) have taken over the US and claim to be gods, creating a Theocracy. There's now a caste system, and endogamy is against the law.

“Wouldn’t it be romantic though? The son of a Priestess and the daughter of an Infidel? Star crossed lovers like Romeo and Juliet?”I turn to Mary just before entering the locker room. “Did you ever read Romeo and Juliet?”She stares at me and says, “Well, no.”Crossing my arms in front of me, I stare her down. “Did you at least see the movie?”Her cheeks, still rosy from playing volleyball, grow even redder with shame. “I think I may have fallen asleep.” Exasperated, I shake my head. “Well it was before the war! Back then I found it boring! ”I grab her by the shoulders and people start to push past us into the locker room. “They died,” I told her.She looks down, pauses for a moment and says, “That’s not good.”“No, it’s not.”
     Looking back up, she turns her head slowly to the left. I can’t help but turn my head in synchronicity. “But the way he looks at you, it’s like something from a fairy tale.”

My eyes once again stop at Ian Ketchum. His expression is hard to place. Pensive for sure. Maybe regretful? Aching? I’m sure I’ve looked at him the same way myself. He’s the first boy I noticed in this god-forsaken school, and not just because he has this wispy brown hair with blond highlights you can only see beneath the sun. And not because the families of the Priests and Priestess’ have eyes the color green you’d find only at the deepest point of the clearest lagoon. Definitely not because his smile is one you only see when someone is thinking about worlds beyond their own.
No, I noticed him because of who he is. Even though I don’t know him very well, I do know this, he’s not like the other disciples; he treats the Infidels without disdain or disgust, without judgment. He makes no snide comments nor pokes fun. He doesn’t spill his drinks on us, trip us in the hallway, or knock our books out of our arms. He treats us the way very few in the higher classes do, like humans. And right now he’s looking at me in a way that electrifies and terrifies me at the same time.
Our eyes connect and a small smile forms at the ends of his sweet lips. Realizing I’m smiling in return, I panic, stop quickly, and pray no one noticed. Bursting through the locker room door, I try to forget all about the hair and the sun, and the eyes and the lagoon, and the smile and the moment I had with Ian Ketchum.