Chris Sorensen's Blog, page 7

On The Line (Sentence to Story #15)

The man paid the taxi driver, closed the door behind him, and walked directly into the incoming traffic.



"What do you want me to do now?" the man yelled into his cell phone, holding up the briefcase in his free hand to try and slow the oncoming cars.  Brakes squealed and drivers cursed out of their windows while the man stood in the middle of the road.



"Nothing," came the reply on the phone.  "You will stand there and make sure everyone sees you.  Open the briefcase...

Review of 'Freakling' by Lana Krumwiede (Through the Shelf Thursday #7)

UPDATE: I will be interviewing the author of Freakling, Lana Krumwiede, for my next 'Tips on Writing Tuesday;, November 13th.  Stop back by to enter to win your own autographed copy!


Title: Freakling

Author: Lana Krumwiede

Genre: MG Sci-fi/Dystopian

Description from Goodreads:













In twelve-year-old Taemon’s city, everyone has a power called psi—the ability to move and manipulate objects with their minds. When Taemon loses his psi in a traumatic accident, he must hide his lack of p...

Sentence to Story - Week #6: Time to Vote!

Here are the sentences for the week.  Vote for the one you think would make the BEST starting sentence to a story.



If you want to submit a sentence to be considered for next week's voting...by all means, enter it in the comment below.  The more the merrier!



The 2 sentences with the most votes will be my prompts for next week.  Voting ends on Friday!









Sentence to Start #6 - Top 5 Submissions (Oct 29 - Nov 2, 2012)

Literary Agents #2: Why You Should Pitch an Agent (Tips on Writing Tuesday #7)

Last week I shared my experiences meeting agents over the past few months and the amazing conclusion that (gasp) they are people!



No, really, they are.



Today I want to talk about the other half of my experience: pitching an agent.



Literary agents want to find writers to represent.  They want to find that story that blows them away and gets them excited.  How do they find those stories?  One of two ways.



Either you query an agent through email/snail-mail following specifi...

Changes to 'Sentence to Start'

It's been almost 2 months since my blog went live and I can't believe how positive it has been.  The clicks, the feedback, the positive interaction...it's been wonderful and I have learned a TON!



One of my main reasons for starting the blog was to be more interactive, and one of the main ways to do that was the idea behind 'Sentence to Start' - involve other readers/writers in my daily writing process.  It has been extremely fun, but it was a big learning curve for me and it's ti...

Review of 'Graceling' by Kristin Cashore (Through the Shelf Thursday #6)

Title: Graceling

Author: Kristin Cashore

Genre: YA Fantasy

Description from Goodreads:











In a world where people born with an extreme skill - called a Grace - are feared and exploited, Katsa carries the burden of the skill even shedespises: the Grace of killing. She lives under the command of her uncle Randa, King of the Middluns, and is expected to execute his dirty work, punishing and torturing anyone who displeases him.

When she first meets Prince Po, who is Graced with comb...

Hard to Digest (Sentence to Story #14)

"You ate how many hot dogs?"



Jeannie answered, "Twelve."



The boys sitting around her at the lunch table stared with a mixture of disbelief and awe.



"There's no way," Brady said, looking Jeannie up and down.  "You couldn't hold down that many hot dogs."  Monty and Pete shook their heads in agreement.  Brady started again, "There is no way you ate twelve, real size, on the bun, hot dogs in..."



"I'm telling you," Jeannie interrupted, eyes wide open to drive home the point, "I...

Literary Agents #1: What You Should Know About Them (Tips on Writing Tuesday #6)

You've got your novel ready.  You have written, rewritten, revised, edited, lost sleep, written and written some more.  Beta-reader after beta-reader has torn it apart and you have made the appropriate changes.  Is your manuscript perfect?  Probably not, but it's as good as it's going to get.




Now what?




You are either going to self-publish or try to get picked up and published traditionally.  If you are planning to get picked up traditionally, most lik...

Over Easy (Sentence to Story #13)

Although his morning had begun like any other day, as he stared at his plate of scrambled eggs something told him this was not to be just another day.





It was too quiet, maybe?




No, that wasn't it.  Buster, the neighbor's golden retriever next door, was barking away as usual.




Was he running late?




He checked his watch.  7:23am.  Still plenty of time to finish eating, finish the paper and be on the road in time to get to work.




Why am I so nervous?




He got up, still...

Welcome Cover Contessa Visitors! How About a Thank You Giveaway!?

Thank you Brooke for having me on your blog today!  It is an honor and a privilege.





Welcome Cover Contessa readers...so glad to have you.  Have a look around.  You can read more about my interactive blog series ' Sentence to Start ' (and enter to win a weekly gift card), submit a sentence of your own, vote on the sentences submitted last week, and read the stories that come from past reader submissions.  My book reviews are here and you are welcome to get...