Today I've got a guest post by author Jo Ramsey. Thanks for contributing Jo!
I’ve askedmyself that question a number of times—about my own books. That’s one of theproblems you contend with when you decide to write a series.
I currently havetwo young adult series available, Reality Shift and The Dark Lines (bothpublished by Jupiter Gardens Press,
http://www.jupitergardens.com).I’m currently, at an editor’s request, planning a third series forFeatherweight Press, and just submitted a novel to Featherweight that I suspectwill become a series.
That’s a lot ofseries, and the only one that was intended to be one was Reality Shift. Theothers just kind of happened.
Writing a seriestakes a lot of work, and only some of that work is actually writing thestories. The rest is all about organization. I’ve been amazed by how manyseemingly minor details in my books have turned out to be necessary for futurebooks—and how often I’ve forgotten to write those seemingly minor details downbecause, well, they were too minor. Like the name of one of my main character’sbrothers, who I thought would only appear in one book but who returned in alater one, by which time I’d completely forgotten his name.
For each of myseries, I now have a binder. The binder can be kind of fun to put together,because I get to decorate the covers, which gives me an excuse to procrastinatewriting. The Dark Lines and Reality Shift share a binder because there is somecross-over between the two series, including some shared characters, and thebinder is divided into sections. I’m not quite organized enough to furtherdivide things into character information, plot notes, and so on, although Iknow several authors who do that. I just keep notes from each book in the orderof the books, so that with each subsequent book I can look back. I plan to dothe same with the other two series, though I’m not quite at the point yet ofhaving much information.
When I reviseeach book, I jot down anything that looks like information I might need at somepoint. Even if I don’t think that character will reappear, or that I’ll need toknow what day of the week Jonah forgot his homework, I write it down. If Idon’t, it’s a pretty safe bet I will need to know. I type up my notes, justbecause I think it makes the information look prettier, and put it in thebinder.
I have atimeline, detailing what month and year each story takes place in and the majorevents of that story. In Reality Shift, a large portion of each book takesplace during Jonah’s and Shanna’s school days, so I developed school schedulesfor each of them and have those in the binder. I have each main character’sphysical and emotional description, and if I describe a secondary
Have you always wanted to write a novel? Have you been working on one, or even have one completed, but don’t know what to do with?
When I became a published author and started doing book signings and school events, I was surprised how many people told me that they like to write and are in some stage of writing a novel. There were many people who helped me along my road to becoming a published author and I would like to repay the favor. It can be a confusing road, and it helps to have someone help you who has been there before.
For these reasons, I've just decided to create a program to assist aspiring authors. I will select submissions on an ongoing basis from authors who have a project they are working on. The submission will mirror what editors and agents expects to get from an author. From the submissions that I get, I will select one every two months and work with that author. I will help you edit the query letter and your first three chapters, and help you find a few editors or agents to which they can submit.
Additionally, I will answer any questions they may have about the process and give my honest feedback of their work. I will do all of this free of charge.
In order to submit, please send the first 20 pages of your manuscript and a query letter to
[email protected].
The first submission period ends Feb 28th. Good luck!
Manuscripts:
Should be 12pt Times New Roman font, 1 inch margins, with pages numbered and a header with “Author’s Last Name”/”Project Keyword” at the top of each page.
Query Letters:
Should only be about 250 words and should include word count of total project, genre, brief “movie trailer” description of the story, and a short paragraph about your publishing experience.
I found out this week that another project tentatively titled "The Last Archangel" is going to be published through Cedar Fort! It should likely come out later this year, but it's not too early to start getting excited about it. Here's a brief overview of what it is going to be about:
The Last ArchangelDoomed to serve as a destroying angel until the end of the world, the fallen angel Xandir sometimes wonders what is taking so long. In thousands of years, he has only cared about one person and he was forced to destroy her along with her entire city in the line of duty.
Then a secret brotherhood approaches him and claims that together they can end the world and reunite him with his lost love. To do so, he must enter an ancient sunken city and emerge with a seed from the noxious tree at its center. With the seed’s poison they could construct weapons to bring down the curtain on Earth’s final act. Xandir’s journey takes him around the world, both above and beneath, sending him rushing in where most angels fear to tread.
I will keep you posted as I learn more about this exciting project!
One website totals the value of the 12 days of Christmas at nearly $100,000. Makes you wonder what this guy did for a living, and why he needed to try so hard to impress his true love. (And if he bothered to wrap any of the gifts.)
See:
http://www.dailypress.com/features/christmas/sns-12days-christmas-cost-pictures,0,6559920.photogalleryIt is speculated that the song was actually a Catholic symbolism song meant to teach children:
1The partridge in a pear tree is Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
2 Turtle Doves = The Old and New Testaments
3 French Hens = Faith, Hope and Charity, the Theological Virtues
4 Calling Birds = the Four Gospels and/or the Four Evangelists
5 Golden Rings = The first Five Books of the Old Testament, the "Pentateuch", which gives the history of man's fall from grace.
6 Geese A-laying = the six days of creation
7 Swans A-swimming = the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, the seven sacraments
8 Maids A-milking = the eight beatitudes
9 Ladies Dancing = the nine Fruits of the Holy Spirit
10 Lords A-leaping = the ten commandments
11 Pipers Piping = the eleven faithful apostles
12 Drummers Drumming = the twelve points of doctrine in the Apostle's Creed
For more, see:
http://www.byrum.org/misc/christmas/origin.html (This list is from that site)
Who knows?
The question is, if someone was going to do the 12 Days of Christmas to you, what would you want? Leave a comment on this post answering this question, and you could win one of two signed copies of "The Canticle Kingdom." You don't have to do the whole song if you don't want, but at least on of the days.
Myself? I'd probably put more edible stuff in there like "and a pizza with pepperoni..." 12 publishing contracts would be nice too.
I will draw a winner on the 12th of December and one on the 24th (which is 12 days from the 12th). Entries are as follows:
1 entry for a blog post answering the question.
2 entries for posting on Facebook about this contest.
2 entries of posting on Twitter about this contest.
2 entries for blogging about it.
(Please let me know which of these you have done in your post.)
"The Canticle Kingdom" is also available on amazon.com for a great price. Check it out here:
http://amzn.com/1599553627.
And have a very Merry Christmas!
Hi everyone. I invite you to read a short story of mine that was just published in Mindflights magazine. It all starts when an old superhero starts auctioning off his many powers...
MindFlights: an exciting web-zine featuring fantasy, science fiction, and other genres. readers will find clean, christian-grounded fiction, reviews, interviews, and more.
In talking to the young people about writing sentences that flow well together, I told them that writing a story was like making a good soup.
First I asked, what makes up a good soup? I got all sorts of answers, from chicken, to veggies, to noodles and crackers. So we decided that a good soup has a lot of good ingredients, but not too many of any one ingredient.
I then asked them if any of them like pepper on their soup. Many hands went up. Then, I asked, "But what if I came over and dumped the whole pepper shaker into your soup. Would you like that?" No one did.
So we agreed, that having too much of any one ingredient or spice can spoil the soup. The same goes with writing. Here are the ingredients that I mentioned to them:
Sentence length: Mix up long and short sentences to make things more interesting.
Describing words: Add some adjectives and adverbs, but be careful not to add too many. (It's like too much pepper)
Types of sentence beginnings: Sometimes leading with subject and verb, and other times leading with a clause.
Using strong, concrete verbs: Think of different ways to say common words such as "walk" and "talk" to paint a more exact picture.
Have perfect punctuation: Use it when you need it, but don't overdo it, such as using more than one "!"
I think the soup analogy really helped the students grasp what I was saying, and I think it is a concept that any writer should think about.
Please join me next week for another installment, and on Thursday for a review of the first three books of the 13th Reality series by James Dashner.
By:
Aline Pereira,
on 8/18/2007
Blog:
PaperTigers
(
Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:
Authors,
Picture Books,
Illustrators,
Books at Bedtime,
reading to children,
folktale retellings,
Antonia Barber,
Nicola Bayley,
The Mousehole Cat,
Add a tag
We have just returned home from a few days in Cornwall, very near Lands End, the south-westernmost tip of England. We took with us a favorite book, The Mousehole Cat. It is based on the story of the fisherman Tom Bawcock who risked his life to bring fish back to the village of Mousehole (pronounced ‘Mowzel’ in Cornish) when the fishing boats had all been trapped in the little harbor by a terrible storm. Antonia Barber’s wonderful retelling introduces Tom’s cat, Mowzer, who accompanies him and sings to the Storm Cat to calm him while Tom fishes. Nicola Bayley’s illustrations are simply gorgeous and the words and pictures together make this a book to be brought out again and again.
My boys were both very excited at the prospect of actually visiting Mousehole. We made an expedition of it by walking there along the coast from neighboring Lamorna and we stopped on the way to reread the story. It was a very fitting setting – and we had the pictures fresh in our mind when we arrived in the village to try and pick out the various landmarks, not to mention a very pretty “Mowser’s Cottage”.
.jpeg?picon=3479)
Very cool! I also wanted to write and say that YOU are very cool. Though only in cyberspace-- I count you as one of my favorite people. And favorite writers. How could I get a signed copy of Canticle Kingdom? could I buy one on Amazon, send it to your place and you sign it? this is top on my Christmas list this year.
Thanks! Your comments really make my day. If you'd like, I have some copies of The Canticle Kingdom on hand. If you want to pay me $12 for the book and $3 for shipping, I would gladly sign one and ship it to you. You can send me your shipping address to thecanticlekingdom (at) gmail (dot) com. You can pay through a check, or I prefer PayPal. Just let me know!
I signed up this year for NaNoWriMo -my first time ever! I'm excited to meet the other local Wrimos (there's actually a meet-n-greet this Saturday at the Dragon's Keep comic shop downtown [Provo]). As for what I'm going to write: YA contemporary fantasy. I'm always hesitant to explain what my ideas are though (especially in cyberspace) -I'm possessive of them and I'm afraid somebody else could do a far better job than me at making those ideas into stories! Oh, my insecurities! But I will say that the story is full of yumminess.
This is an awesome post. I am trying to figure out my book writing too, and you helped me see that I could still participate by doing the rest of my story too, instead of just starting it. Thanks a million on your advice, because I was thinking of not participating because I am 80 pages in to my story.
hey I think I might want a copy too... are you in utah?