Deirdre Riordan Hall's Blog

Pearl News!

I'm honored to share with you that Pearl, my YA novel was selected to be included in an EzVid Wiki listing of Contemporary Works of Literature Focusing On Issues Facing Teens. Have a look at the posting of amazing books dealing with real-life matters facing the young adult lit audience. 

I'm honored to share with you that Pearl, my YA nove...

I'm honored to share with you that Pearl, my YA novel was selected to be included in an EzVid Wiki listing of Contemporary Works of Literature Focusing On Issues Facing Teens. Have a look at the posting of amazing books dealing with real-life matters facing the young adult lit audience. 

Pearl's Private Journal

Journal entries aka exclusive content from Pearl, the novel.




Pearl, available here and where books are sold.

Love, Hate, and Why I Write

Valentin AntonucciI'm nothing if not unconventional. I tend to do things backwards, inside out, sideways… When given the traditional path or something else, guess which way I'll go? I don't know if it's a quirk in my biochemistry or that I prefer to eat my pie from the crust to the middle, but that's how I roll—or bite as the case may be. And it's no different with my writing life. Years and years ago, I started with screenplays and picture books then dove into young adult fantasy fiction, took a new adult detour, returned to young adult fiction—paranormal, then contemporary, then fantasy, then back to contemporary…
In between the writing and publication of  Sugar (and then Pearl ) I also tried my hand at middle grade and then back to young adult (I always return to my home in YA). To date have written and completed over fifty manuscripts. Do you see a pattern here?
No?
That's because there isn't one.
So why do I write what I write?
I write what I want to read and to answer the inspiration and story ideas given to me. (Where do they come from? Beats me—though Elizabeth Gilbert and Steven Pressfield offer valuable insight.)

More concretely, I write because I feel the need to connect the dots between what I'm feeling and the big picture—the universal, the you and me. 

To bridge the feeling of loneliness with the knowledge that we're linked. 

To bring a world beyond what is at our doorstep or in our kitchen or on the screen to inky life. 

To remind myself and everyone else that we're not the sum of who we've been toldwe are. We get to define ourselves. We're bigger and bolder and brighter than we could ever imagine. 

It's through fiction that I find courage and strength and possibility. I uncover magic and love and light. I discover that it's you and me not us and them.
In Sugar , a young adult contemporary novel, I told the story of the heroine who was told she was too much yet not enough. She found her more than enough and set the world alight with her courage.
Pearl was dealt a crappy hand, had a grim home life, but was given a way out. Even though she proved human and made mistakes, she forged her own way forward, breaking the abusive and addiction riddled cycles of the past.
In my new adult series, Follow your Bliss, each of the main characters takes a long look in the mirror and decides to define life on her terms and have fun while doing it.

In Love, Hate, and Other Lies We Told , a romantic comedy, Navy is lost, but finds herself—and love—in books, romantic fiction with book boyfriends to be exact. Her best friend urges her to come out from the pages and live more by daring her to go on a series of dates leading up to Valentine's Day. Navy ultimately goes along with the plan and experiences a series of sexy, unfortunate, exhausting, and bizarre encounters that she documents on her blog. Not the least of which is with her nemesis, Carrick, who she successfully avoided for years. But he's like an itch, one she resists scratching until he reveals the truth about who he is and what he's been doing for the last decade. But Navy has secrets of her own and it's not until she learns to trust again that she lets the people who care most about her into her life and steps out of her box (aka her tiny studio apartment in Manhattan).
I think the beating heart of this book is that despite the main character feeling betrayed and alone, there's an underpinning of interconnectedness she discovers when she reaches out, stretches past her comfort zone, and turns up the volume on her life.
This storyline came to me in the form of the main character going on a series of dates that aren't Instagram worthy. Well, Bash's dinners are ;-) but the rest, well, they're certainly blog worthy disasters. I wanted to integrate the dating aspect and the quest for love in a more mature way than I felt I could portray in YA, while leading the story with humor and heart. 
The best vehicle, one I hadn't yet attempted, was women's romantic comedy.
I'm a big fan of Alice Clayton, Emily Giffin, and more recently Sally Thorne. The books by these authors have depth, but also feel like a little escape into someone else's drama and reliably have a happy ending, which I'm all for! So I took a chance. More than anything, I feel like we can all use some more love in our lives as well as comic relief and an escape, at least for the space of 300-plus pages.
I hope you'll join me for the twisting, turning, plot-twisting ride.

Fantasy Freebie!

I wasn't quite ready to leave the world of TIDE & ANCHORED so wrote BETWEEN THE SEA & SAND, a short story that takes place after book 2. 
You can get it free if you sign up for my newsletter! 
Happy reading!

Connecting Readers & Characters

During a recent rewatch of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, I found myself thinking a lot about what makes me connect to a character and how I can achieve that in my own writing.
In early drafts of PEARL, a beta said she just didn't care about Pearl. *Cue tears. I didn't understand, there was this poor girl, whose mother was absent at best, (believe me, it was worse), and who struggled with the turmoil caused by poor parenting and lifestyle choices. At first, I was crestfallen when I read the note "I don't connect", but after eating my weight in chocolate ice cream, doing some thinking, I unpacked what my beta meant.
Yes, she sympathized with Pearl because not doing so is like kicking a kitten. I mean, the mc's mother dragged her along for her rock and roll shit show, downfall, train wreck, et al. It was bad. She witnessed domestic violence, wasn't always sure where her next meal was coming from, and faced homelessness. You'd have to be heartless not to want the poor dear to get the heck out of that situation. But in fiction, it isn't enough to merely sympathize or care. Those are vital but aren't the only elements that are going to get a reader to the last page or if they do, they might not be fist-pumping satisfied when they reach the resolution.  
What was missing in that early draft was that Pearl wasn't necessarily likable. She was bland, taupe, her experience was mostly internal so the reader didn't get a feel for who she was aside from being a victim. They didn't see her in action. This is brilliantly achieved in Star Wars, the Force Awakens (I know, not a book, but Rey! Do you sympathize with her? Yes! Do you like her? Yes! Is that because you feel like you know her? Yes!)
We see Rey scavenging and struggling (sympathy), but then we see her kindness when she encounters BB8, her strength and determination when she interacts with Unkar Plutt on Jakku. Later, we see more of these qualities when she and Finn escape and holy-wookie, she knows how to fly the Millennium Falcon! Which makes her pretty badass. She's also sweet and funny. In a word, Rey is likable.
Confidence is key. Even if the story is one of transformation, like Pearl, where she goes through trials only later to emerge from her crappy life, there needs to at least be a glimmering of her inner girl power (or his). Like above, this can be seen through the main character having an amazing skill, making a difficult decision (choosing between what is right and what is easy), or not backing down from conflict. She can be sensitive and emotional, but in touch with her inner strength at the same time, even if it doesn't fully emerge until later. There need to be hints, at least. Note: not every character needs to necessarily have inner-Katniss fight. It can be quiet determination or we can see the character pushing boundaries or moving past her own comfort zones.
Now for the two A's: authenticity and accessibility. The character's qualities, speech, appearance, and actions, the whole tamale, has to be authentic, like a real three-dimension human being.
Why? Because that's what we want to experience when we're reading. We want to feel like we're deep in the protag's world, with them, or that we are them in some ways. It's ok for a character to be a hypocrite, to have flaws, and make poor decisions, but they have to be something he or she would genuinely do. Everything the mc does from page one until the end has to be authentic. It wouldn't have made sense for Rey to turn Finn in to the First Order after we saw her rescue BB8 from Teedo. But if she'd kicked the droid and demanded Teedo split the portions he got for trading him in for parts, well, that would be a different story, wouldn't it? We wouldn't be the least bit surprised if she turned Finn in. But of course that's not what happened and that's why we're rooting for her. The bottom line is the character must be true to themselves, (or if she makes a mistake, has to do everything in her power to make it right).
The other A is accessibility. I'm certainly not a pilot, and I'm not faced with fighting Kilo Ren, but I do know what it's like to long for something (in Rey's case, for her family to return), to make difficult decisions (food or integrity at the portions counter), and I prize my freedom (this one is pretty obvi). Rey may live in another galaxy, but she's accessible. We completely understand where she's coming from—there's a balance of her being fierce and being human (at least I think she's human; you never know with Star Wars).



What does this mean for PEARL? I had the sympathy piece dialed in. Beyond that, I knew the character, inside and out. I knew what she had for breakfast: a bagel, what she wore on her first day of school in third grade: a purple plaid dress, what she'd do when she found a lost dog: feed him, etc. But the reader didn't. During revisions, I shifted the internal reactions to external action, showing the reader that Pearl was likable. I gave her more agency, putting her into situations where she'd have to draw from her inner strength (or not and have to pick up the pieces later—another way to show strength is by going about it backwards and putting the mc through a trial.) I also brought more of her personality into play, thereby adding dimension and the two A's.
To recap, creating sympathy, making the protagonist likable, showing the character's inner strength, and making sure they're authentic and accessible are important components in creating a character worth rooting for.

What fictional characters do you love? How do you connect to the protagonist. What makes you fist pump the air and root for them? Please share below!

PEARL Book Trailer

Let's celebrate the two-year, eight-month (or something like that—hey, better late than never, right?!) anniversary of the release of PEARL!
Wondering why I wrote PEARL? Check out this article.
Have you seen the book trailer? Check it out below.


Thank you for watching and thank you thank you for reading. 

The Last Wish of Sasha Cade Release

Not sure what to read next? Want a book that will make you laugh, cry, and feel the feels? Love contemporary young adult fiction?
The Last Wish of Sasha Cade by Cheyanne Young is out today and it's a MUST READ.
What's it about? Here's the blurb:
The day Raquel has been dreading for months has finally arrived. Sasha, her best friend in the whole world, has died of cancer. Overwhelmed and brokenhearted, Raquel can't even imagine life without her. 
And then a letter from Sasha arrives. Has she somehow found a way to communicate from beyond the grave?

In fact, Sasha spent her final weeks planning an elaborate scavenger hunt for the friend she would have to leave behind. When Raquel follows the instructions to return to Sasha's grave, a mysterious stranger with striking eyes is waiting for her. There's a secret attached to this boy that only Sasha --- and now Raquel --- knows.

This boy, Elijah, might be just who Raquel needs to help her move on from her terrible loss. But can Raquel remain true to herself while also honoring her friend's final wish? 




Grab your copy here! And be sure to follow Cheyanne on Instagram because she's awesome and hilarious and has a really cute dog and a grumpy cat.

Writers Uncut Weekly Chat

Two authors. Unedited. Unscripted. Chatting and answering your questions about writing, publishing and everything in between.

Join Cheyanne Young and me on Instagram LIVE each week at 9 am Pacific, 11 Central, and 12 Eastern. 

We alternate weeks who hosts so be sure to follow us both:

@normalchey
@deirdrespark
OR catch the recording on the Writers Uncut Youtube channel where you can also see past episodes.

Be sure to submit your questions in the comments here, email, DM, or in the comment box we post on Instagram each week. 

What to do if there's no safety net...

What do you do if there is no safety net? 

You learn to fly.
Then you learn to tie knots, strong ones.
You learn to make a pot of soup that will feed you for a week.
And you dress in layers to keep warm.
Then you learn to hustle, and save.
You learn to laugh, hard.
And you get out of bed and brush your teeth, dammit.
Then you do it again and the next day and the day after that.
You dream big and set goals.
And you have a conversation with your soul.
Then you get quiet.
You learn to love, a lot.
And you learn about what makes people smile and what makes you smile.
Then you build a home, with a roof, of course, but also made of a community.
You learn to be daring.
And you are humble.
Then you close your eyes because it isn't always about what you see, but what you feel.
You realize then that there is a net beneath you, but you never stop learning, and you never stop tying.

And you open your arms wide, and to that person falling, falling, falling, you say, "Hey, I'll catch you, then I'll teach you how to fly."