Chantele Sedgwick's Blog, page 12

Storymakers!

Sorry for the blog silence! So much stuff is going on. Including, Storymakers this week! WOOT! I'm so excited to hang out with some amazing authors and friends.  So, I won't be blogging this week. I WILL be back next week though with a giveaway and some awesomeness!

If you'll be at Storymakers, look me up! :)

Also, Jolene Perry's awesome book is out! If you like YA contemporary romance, you'll love Knee Deep! :)



You can purchase it on Kindle for $2.99 right now. Yep. Three bucks, folks. Go check it out! And for Nooks and other e-readers, click here. Jolene has all the info on her blog. :)

Have a great week, guys!! See you next week!! :D

I LOVE good news!

My awesome friend Jenn Johansson announced a book deal last night. You might remember how she sold her YA thriller INSOMNIA in Germany and Italy a while back. Well, she just sold in the U.S.A.! How fantastic is that? :D

Here is the publishers marketplace announcement:

J.R. Johansson's INSOMNIA, about a teen boy who thought spending every night trapped in other people's dreams was bad, but discovers that losing control of his own body and mind is so much worse, to Brian Farrey at Flux, in a two-book deal, for publication in 2013, by Kathleen Rushall at Marsal Lyon Literary Agency (NA).Foreign: Taryn Fagerness AgencyFilm: Brandy Rivers at GershAwesome, right? She totally deserves this. And I can't wait to buy her book! WOOT! I just love when authors I know get book deals. It makes me so happy to know that I'll have their books sitting on my shelves and get to tell people I actually KNOW the author! So awesome.Anyway, hop on over to her blog and tell her congrats. She's an amazing writer and one of the nicest people I know. :)

On swearing in YA

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It's funny that I'm posting about this, since it's one of the three things I said I'd never post about. BUT, I was curious to hear your opinions on this topic. I'm not trying to start an argument, just genuinely curious, so please don't bash me or anyone else who comments on this post. I know you are all awesome, so I'm sure I have nothing to worry about. :)

I'm not a big swearer. Never have been. So it comes as no surprise that I don't swear in my books. Yes, occasionally something happens to a character that the only logical word would be a cuss word, but I usually put "he cursed under his breath" or "she swore". Something along those lines. I told myself a long time ago, that my kids would be reading my books someday and I don't need them reading curse words that I've written. They'll hear enough swearing at school that I don't need to write it in my books as well. And I'm not going to say I'll never ever put a curse word in any of my books, since every book is different, but for now, the books I've written don't need them.

To be honest, I don't mind reading books with occasional swearing in them. It doesn't bother me. What DOES bother me is when an author puts swearing into his/her books just for shock factor. And if there is a lot of swearing on every page, I'll usually put the book down and not pick it up again. Yes, I'm probably missing out on some fantastic books, but a lot of swearing really pulls me out of the story. I'm not saying people who swear in their books are bad. I promise I like you all. PROMISE! :) I just prefer cleaner language. Probably because I write lighter stories and prefer reading lighter ones as well. ;)

So, how much swearing is too much? Do you use curse words in your books? Does it bother you when you read a bunch of swear words in YA? And I still promise I won't hate you if you swear! :)

Random Thoughts From This Week

1. I can't watch the news anymore. Or read even remotely sad stories on the internet. My hormones are everywhere and my poor hubby has come home from work a few nights the past few weeks to find me bawling my eyes out over a sad story. *sigh* I'm really not a crier. Just when I'm prego. :P

2. Almost finished reading The Kiss of a Stranger by Sarah Eden. It's taken me forever to read it. Not because it isn't good, I've just been so busy. I'm excited to finish it this weekend. Then I can dive into the never ending pile of books I want to read that stare at me from my bookshelf.

3. Fritos and cheese dip are my new favorite snack. Seriously. I could probably eat the whole bag in one sitting. Good thing I space my "feedings" out. lol :)

4. Storymakers is in 2 weeks! WOOT!!! :D :D So excited to see everyone that's going! And I'm sure I won't get any sleep at the hotel. I'm rooming with 4 other women, so ... ya. We like to talk. And laugh. And stay up forever.

5. I started a super secret project last night. Yay for new things!

How was your week? Anything exciting coming up that you're looking forward to?

Have a great weekend! :D

Cover Trends

My daughter is home from surgery and everything went well. We're just trying to recover now. :) I wanted to do a quick post about YA cover trends, just to hear your thoughts.

I read this awesome blog post about YA covers and the female body. It's sort of fascinating. Although I do like some of the covers she points out, I will say that I prefer a stronger and confident teenage girl on the cover than a lost, broken one. Click here to check out the blog post. It's really worth the read.

What do you think a good cover entails? What do you hate/love about YA book cover trends? Personally, I'd like to see more guys on covers. Also,there are a lot of girls in flowing beautiful dresses with long luscious hair. Not that anything is wrong with that, but it would be nice to see more normal looking girls on book covers too. You know what I mean? I also love symbols. Like the Wings series.


Simple, but pretty. And I can picture what the main character looks like instead of seeing her on the cover. I do like people on covers as well, if they're done right. Take Paranormalcy for example. I love how she looks. Strong, brave, yet insecure at the same time.


And this one. The girl's hair alone, makes me want to read it. :)


What cover trends do you love? Which ones are you sick of?

Random Thoughts From This Week

1. I've been singing songs from The Muppets all week. My kids are getting a little sick of me ...

2. We're almost finished with How I Met Your Mother on Netflix. We don't know what to watch next! Any suggestions? We loved Scrubs and How I Met Your Mother. My sister has The Big Bang Theory, so we may borrow those...

3. I've been eating my kids Easter candy ... I really need someone to take it away from me. :P

4. 2nd edits are basically finished. They were so much easier than my first round. Woot! My book is so much better and I'm excited to share it with you when it's done! :)

5. I'm itching to get back to work on my WIP. It's totally different than anything I've ever written, but I love it. We'll see how it goes. :)

How was your week? Anything exciting happen?  Have a great weekend everyone!

*Also, I won't be around much next week. I'll still be blogging, but probably not visiting as many blogs. My daughter is having surgery on Monday, so I'll be busy taking care of her. But after next week I'll be back to commenting. And thank you all who have been leaving comments on my blog. I usually don't have such a hard time getting around to visit all of you, but I've been so overwhelmed that it's been hard. Just know that I LOVE each and every comment I receive. You guys keep me going, so thank you so much for not giving up on me. :)

Out of the Loop

So ... everyone is doing the A-Z challenge this month. Besides me. lol I couldn't add that much stress to my life right now. And really, it really does stress me out! I'll just keep posting my normal schedule and give a shout-out to all of you awesome writers that accepted the A-Z challenge. Seriously. That is awesome. And time consuming. And amazing that you can post every day and not freak out! :)

In other news, I found out the hubby and I are expecting a BOY! We're so excited! Now we'll have two of each. Perfect for our little family.

I'm in the middle of my second round of edits. I love it. My editor is awesome and I love reading her little comments, even if she is totally confused about something I wrote. Ha ha. She doesn't make me feel like a craptastic writer. She makes me feel like I sort of know what I'm doing.:)  Anyway, I'm spending my time working on those, so if my posts aren't enlightening or interesting at all, you know why. Between the baby zapping all of my creativity and imagination away from me and knee deep in edits, I'm a little bit frazzled.

Anyway, I hope everyone is doing well. If you have anything going on in your life, I'd love to hear about it! It will take my mind off everything else I'm supposed to be doing right now ... :)

I'm Back! Yay!

Can you believe it's already April, 9? Crazy. We had a fun Easter weekend, full of bumps and bruises. My 5-year old fell on her bike and her eye is all black, my 7-year old fell and got a few cuts on his face, and my 2-year old face planted it outside and scraped up her nose and above her lip. They all look AWESOME! But, that didn't stop them from having fun this weekend. :)

Oh, and guess what, guys? My writing slump is OVER! WOOT! I'm happy to say I just needed some time off writing, and now I know what I'm going to work on. I'm hoping to be finished with my first draft by the end of May. We'll see. I think I can finish before then, but there's this thing called life that always sneaks up on me. I'll let you know how I do. Anyone want to set a goal with me? We can cheer each other on! :)

How was your weekend? And when you're in a writing slump, what do you do to get over it? I'm going to use some of your ideas in a post for later this week. ;)

Yay for Spring and I'm so happy to be back! :D

Random Thoughts From This Week

1. So ... nothing interesting happened this week. To be honest, I haven't been the best blogger or commenter or tweeter or writer or anything this week. There has been so much going on that I haven't had time to do anything. I don't like feeling like this, so hopefully things calm down soon. I swear I'm still here and read all of your comments. They've actually kept me sane, so thank you guys.

2. I've hit rock bottom in my writing slump. I have three projects I'm working on and can't decide which will be the best to pursue right now. Grrr... I hate that. One's a contemporary, one's a medieval fantasy and one's a super power type book. Any suggestions? Blah. Seriously. I get into slumps usually twice a year and I HATE IT!

3. It's getting warmer outside! YIPPEE!! So excited for Spring! :D

4. There are only 2 months of school left. Can you believe it? I'm excited to get my kids back for the summer! :D I'm having a hard time accepting the fact that I'll have two kids in school next year. 2nd grade and Kindergarten. Makes me sad that they're growing up so fast. But on the bright side, it means I'm closer to having my baby!

5. I'm over at Paper Mountain today, talking about balancing writing and being a mom. Brooke is a teen who writes and she's AWESOME! Go head over and check it out and give her a follow. ;)

I'm taking this next week off to spend time with my kids who are on Spring Break. I'll be back after Easter! Have an awesome week next week and I'll be back with some fun stuff soon. Including a contest, the gender of my baby and a few other fun things. WOOT! :)

Dark vs Light

It's a simple fact that you usually write what you like to read. I love reading YA, and I love writing it. BUT, I also love romantic women's fiction. (I think that's what it is... lol) I read a lot of Marcia Lynn McClure books. They're romantic, have great kissing scenes, have happy endings and are very clean. Whenever I'm having a bad week and can't concentrate on writing for anything, I pick up a Marcia Lynn McClure book and usually read it in a day or two. Sure they're cheesy, but they make me feel so happy and light when I'm finished reading. And Ms. McClure writes a sexy hero. That makes things even better. ;)

It's not really a secret that I prefer lighter books over darker ones. I like feeling uplifted and hopeful after I finish a book. When I read something particularly dark, I tend to feel that way as well. It sort of brings me down. Now, don't get me wrong, I don't think there is anything wrong with darker books, I just tend to avoid them. I'll take a sweet book that makes me laugh over touchy subjects any day. BUT, if it's a touchy subject with humor mixed into it, then that's even better.

The Hunger Games is one of my favorite series. They were dark, but I felt hope when all was said and done. I won't go into Mockingjay, because that's a WHOLE other blog post, but I really enjoyed that series. Every book has to have some darkness. Whether it's the world in general, a bully, parents that don't care about their teens, divorce, neglect, breakups, whatever. There is always a dark spot in our characters lives. But something should outshine that dark spot and lift our character up with just enough hope that they know they'll be alright. 

One of the reasons I prefer lighter books, is because I read to escape the dark. To get away from all the problems and sadness in the world. And that's okay. Not every book is for me. Just like not every book is for you. We all have our different tastes and different preferences on what to read or write. Just like we have a favorite ice cream or candy bar. If you put a Snickers or an Almond Joy in front of me, I would ALWAYS choose the Almond Joy. They're both great, but I prefer Almond Joy's a little more. ;)

What do you guys prefer? Dark or Light? Sad endings or endings with just a little bit of hope?