Reece Evhans's Blog, page 4
July 10, 2014
Dear Indie Author
So true. And ouch. I’m reblogging this as I go through the proof copy of my novel. I’m finding many annoying little edits: quotation marks left off, typos, etc. I hope all of us indie authors will take this to heart and find the nerve to really polish our product before we let it loose on the wide world.
Originally posted on Tricia Drammeh:
Dear Indie Author,
Congratulations on your amazing accomplishment. You’ve written a book, which is an incredible achievement. I’m so proud of you!
Unfortunately, I was not able to review your book. I know how important reviews are, so I really hate that I can’t give you that glowing, five-star review you were looking for. I enjoy our interaction on Facebook and I think you’re a really nice person. Rather than embarrass you by leaving a two-star review, I decided to contact you in private instead. I hope we can still be friends.
When I downloaded your book during its Kindle Free weekend, I had every intention of reading it. I really did. Your cover is gorgeous and the blurb is very intriguing. I couldn’t wait to dive right in. I’m sorry, but the story didn’t grab me. There were so many errors, it became distracting. Whether was confused with weather. There
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June 29, 2014
WHY I support and encourage Authors
This is a great blog post about why it’s so important to encourage authors. There’s some good food for thought here. Thanks!
Originally posted on Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog..... An Author Promotions Enterprise!:
I’ve made no secret of the fact that I believe Sir Terry Pratchett may have had an excellent point when he surmised that OUR species of Hominid survived, while all the others didn’t, because we were , or at least better at telling, and learning through, stories!
I’m not the only one who thinks so, “Our brains are structured to make sense of the world in the form of narratives – stories. Not only that, we are primed to believe the stories we hear.” see the re-blogged post last Thursday HERE!
I concede that there are probably other factors involved as well, but storytelling was (and hopefully still IS) a significant part of our species survival strategy.
If we cease to tell and learn from stories, then we too may become extinct because without them we will have created our very own ELE (Extinction Level Event).
“
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June 26, 2014
My YA Debut Novel
I just launched my first novel! You can grab a copy for FREE 6/27-7/1 at http://amzn.to/1va0P6e. I would love it if you left a review (especially if it’s a good review). Wish me luck!
June 9, 2014
Good News/Bad News
You fail only if you stop writing. ~ Ray Bradbury
So, the good news first: I got some great constructive feedback from an agent. Here’s what she said:
“I found Ally to be a likeable protagonist that girls will connect with. You present her to the reader in the first person and much of the narrative is Ally’s stream of consciousness, which helps the reader to really get to know her and understand the good intentions behind her thoughts and actions.”
Now the bad news:
“I felt that too much of your story is told through Ally’s thoughts rather than being shown through her actions.”
Now for the worse news: it was embedded within a solid rejection. Oh, well. This was actually the first query I sent out, so I count myself lucky to get some real feedback. She basically said that my narrative framework needed work. I think it goes back to that old stand-by, Show-Don’t Tell. So, although it’s not easy to hear, I at least have something solid to go on as I revise. I plan to sit down with my manuscript and highlight everywhere my protagonist thinks about something. Then I can decide if I could show it through some sort of action instead. My daughter suggested this and it sounds like good advice. I am also going to give some long, hard thought about using the first person framework in general. Maybe there is something better.
Of course, I would like to hear that what I wrote is wonderful and perfect, but that’s not very realistic, is it. Everyone said this would be hard. Apparently they were right, damn it. Ok, I need to get back to my revision, so I’ll finish this quickly. Actually, right now I need to get back to planning for the evening class I teach tonight at the community college. Curse you, day job! At least I have one, though. My writing is certainly not paying the bills yet.
What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger, right? In this case, I hope it makes me a stronger writer. If you are sitting in a similar position, I’m sending you all my best thoughts/mojo. Good luck!
June 6, 2014
Let’s Just Read, People!
Ashamed to read YA?“The great thing about getting older is that you don’t lose all the other ages you’ve been.”
Trending on my Twitter feed this week is #PromoteYAinstead , based on an article by Ruth Graham which basically states that adults should be embarrassed to still be reading YA fiction and should instead move on to adult literary fiction. The people I follow on Twitter are incensed by this opinion, as am I. Granted, my feed is full of YA authors, so this is not terribly surprising.
After reading the article, and after getting over my initial sputtering, angry reaction: “Who the hell is this woman to denigrate me for enjoying YA fiction?” (Nice vocab, I know), I spent some time reflecting on why I prefer to read (and write) YA. I came to the conclusion that I just like a good story. That’s it. It doesn’t matter what age it is supposedly written for, or even what genre it is supposed to be neatly tucked into. I like a good story with interesting characters. Sometimes I like the characters (who doesn’t love Tobias Eaton?) and sometimes I despise the characters (love to hate Draco Malfoy), but I love books that draw me into their world. For a short time, say 350 pages or so, I can forget that I have a dishwasher to empty, dogs to walk, or a dusty home gym languishing without me, and I can have a great adventure or a swoony romance in my mind. It’s the last frontier, people: nobody gets to tell me what I can or can’t do in my mind! I like to read about people or creatures that I can relate to, and I gotta say, fellow YA authors, we have that shit down! That’s what we do: we write about people we care about. And then our readers care about them, too.
I was talking to my youngest daughter (19) about my latest novel (YA romantic suspense) and told her that I needed to finish a scene because I had to get Jack and Ally back together. She just stared at me.
“What?” I asked.
“They broke up? How could you do that?” She was appalled.
“I don’t know. It just happened. Jack just said he needed some time. I had no control over it at all,” I replied meekly.
“That’s so messed up,” was all she said.
I care about these crazy kids I’ve created. So do my readers. They are people, with feelings, hopes, and dreams. Just like me. Just like you. Let’s forget about ridiculous labels: YA, genre, sub-genre, and just read whatever the hell we want, when we want. If you like YA, read YA. If you like adult literary fiction, read it. Just don’t tell me what I should be ashamed of reading. I won’t tell you that I find most adult literary fiction boring and pretentious.
As a high school teacher, I am thrilled when I see a kid reading anything. Far be it from me to tell him or her that they should be aiming higher, trying to “earn” their way into the adult section. Yikes.
P. S. Here’s part of my summer reading list. FYI.
-Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (re-read)
-100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
-The King’s Deception by Steve Berry
-Fractured Worlds by Alan Van Meter
-The Beautiful Creatures series by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
-The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
-Paper Towns by John Green
See, I don’t just read YA. I read what I like. I hope you will, too.
May 28, 2014
Be Brave. Just Write.
“Write it. Just write it. Write it on receipts in the car while you wait for your kid to finish their piano lessons, scribble on napkins at lunch with friends. Type on crappy typewriters or borrow computers if you have to. Fill notebooks with ink. Write inside your head while you’re in traffic and when you’re sitting in the doctor’s office. Write the truth, write lies. Write the perfect spouse. Write your dreams. Write your nightmares. Write while you cry about what you’re writing, write while you laugh out loud at your own words. Write until your fingers hurt, then keep writing more. Don’t ever stop writing. Don’t ever give up on your story, no matter what “they” say. Don’t ever let anybody take away your voice. You have something to say, your soul has a story to tell. Write it. There is never any reason to be afraid. Just write it and then put it out there for the world. Shove it up a flag pole and see who salutes it. Somebody will say it’s crap. So what? Somebody else will love it. And that’s what writing’s about. Love. Love of the art, love of the story, and love for and from the people who really understand your work. Nobody else matters. Love yourself. Love your work. Be brave. Just write.”
― Melodie Ramone
So, I know this is a really long quote to start off a blog entry with, but take a second to read it. If you are anywhere near the same spot in your writing journey as me, you will find encouragement. I don’t even know who Melodie Ramone is, but she has some serious words of wisdom.
Where am I in my writing journey? Well, I’ve written a novel and I’m currently working on the first draft of the sequel. I have about 20 queries to agents floating around in cyber space. I have a Twitter, a Facebook, a website, some nifty business cards, and this blog. And I have no freaking idea what I’m doing. I don’t know what to tweet, or post, or blog about. I have no one to give the nifty business cards to, except my family, and they already know that I’m writing. It’s what I do instead of cleaning the house or cooking (in a spirit of complete disclosure, I never really did much of that anyway). The whole world of agents and publishing just seems like a giant, black hole that is trying to suck out my soul. Ok, maybe that’s a wee bit melodramatic, but I’m sure you get what I’m trying to say.
I really, really, really want to get published. To be honest, I can see my book as a movie. I’ve even cast that movie. Future director—you’re welcome. And yes, I will consider a cameo. But, and here’s the million-dollar question, what if I never get published? Will I still keep writing? After some serious soul-searching, I have to say yes. I have discovered that I have stories to tell. I have discovered that writing makes me happy. So, I’m going to take Melodie’s advice: Be brave. Just write. I hope you will, too.
May 17, 2014
Mary Stewart-An Inspiration to YA Authors
Mary Stewart-An Inspiration to YA Authors
I was sad to read of the death of Mary Stewart earlier this week and just wanted to take a few minutes to honor her and celebrate her life. She was such an inspiration to me growing up. The first book of hers that I ever read was My Brother, Michael. I think I was probably about 10 or 11 when I read it and soon had worked my way through all of her romantic suspense novels. I especially loved Airs Above the Ground, which was about a missing Lippizaner stallion and fed my obsession with animals and love of reading at the same time.
I have to admit that I haven’t thought about Mary Stewart for years, but reading of her death brought it all back to me and I realize now just how much of an inspiration she has been to me. As I write my novels, I want to create spunky, independent young women, just like she did, although she was way ahead of her time.
Anyway, I have nothing but great things to say about her and hope you will take a moment to remember your favorite Mary Stewart book, or look them up if you haven’t yet had the privilege of reading any. I’m off to find my copy of The Moon Spinners and find out if my VHS machine still works.
May 16, 2014
Welcome to my blog
Hello, fellow YA authors, readers, dog lovers, wine lovers, etc. Like many of my fellow YA authors, I am starting to build my online author platform. So, I’ve joined twitter, started a Facebook page, claimed a domain name, and started this blog. I thought it would be fun to blog about my journey to become a published author.
To start with, it’s completely intimidating. Can I get an “amen”? I mean, I just started out by dreaming up a story to write during NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) with my students-yes, my day job is teaching. Well, I got carried away and here I am 7 months later querying agents and madly trying to create an online author platform. I’m working on my website, but am deathly afraid to push that awful, looming button labeled “publish”. It will be entirely real at that point and open to all kinds of mean, nasty comments. Yikes. Oh, and don’t forget that somewhere in the midst of all of this online crap, I still need to actually write. You know, like books. I finished my first manuscript, obsessed over editing it for several months, and am now working on the sequel. I love the writing. I can go to my happy place, usually accompanied by several glasses of wine, and have a great time figuring out what my characters are going to do next. Those crazy kids! But the work of trying to get published interferes!
Well, I feel a little bit better now. I will move on to something else (yes, I am writing this blog at work-shocking I know! But I’m on my laptop and it totally looks like I’m working. Tee hee.) Maybe you’re in my shoes, a newbie struggling to get published or maybe you’re further along on your journey. Wherever you may be, I wish you well!
“Anything’s pos…
“Anything’s possible if you’ve got enough nerve.”
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
This is a quote that helps me get through those days when I just feel like I have a snowball’s chance in hell of ever getting published.
