Inkfever

I apologize for not being able to dress myself

noreply@blogger.com (Amy Laurens) — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 23:43:00 +0000

Today, to round off the unofficial series of guest posts on creativity, I've invited Krista D. Ball to the blog. Krista is an awesome writer, and we just happen to be TOC buddies in the upcoming Ride the Moon anthology, which is of course tremendously exciting. For me, anyway O:) Go check out her website for some great stories.

Most of the authors I know are incredibly talented. For example, Billie Milholland paints, writes, and does general crafty things. Susan J. Forest writes award-winning short fiction and paints beautiful landscapes.

Me? I need help matching my clothes.

When the kindergarten kids were expressively painting their cats and elephants, I was still working with basic stick figures. I've never actually moved past that stage. I managed to successfully do one splatter painting called "Artist Killed By Sniper" but it generally gets me odd looks; it's currently buried in a box.

Music? Nah, I can't carry a tune. Sew? Please. I don't even know how to use a sewing machine, let alone attach a button. I do crochet, but I can't move past the beginner patterns and even those are often too difficult for me. I used to do cross stitch, and would spend more time pulling apart the pattern than putting it together.

And, yes, I need help matching my clothes.

I have two stores that I shop at and the store people know me now. I go in and say what I need (i.e. I need an outfit to wear at a readercon). They will then go and pick me out an entire outfit: pants, shirt, sweater, scarf, jewelry, socks. The sales staff will tell me if it works or not and I buy the entire set. I then only wear that entire set together until I'm comfortable to switch it up.

I really have no idea what matches, looks good, or is in "good taste."

I've had several bosses over the years that have nitpicked at how I dress. My white socks clash with my grey pants. My brown dress hose clashes with my black shirt. My blue shirt doesn't match my dark jeans. My make up clashes with my eye colour. My hair doesn't match my face. My glasses don't match my eye colour. I can go on. I've come to realize that it really was me, not them. I have no taste.

Oh, I'm sure I am still creative. But outside of books, I'm really not sure that statement applies. So the next time you see a photo of me, remember: someone else dressed me.

According to her mother, Krista D. Ball tells lies for a living. She is the author of several short stories, novellas, and novels. Krista incorporates as much historical information into her fiction as possible, mostly to justify her B.A. in British History.

Krista enjoys all aspects of the writing and publishing world, and has been a magazine intern, co-edited four RPG books, self-published several short stories and a novella series, and has been a slush reader for a small Canadian press. She has also written a non-fiction blogging guide and is currently writing a non-fiction historical book for authors called, "What Kings Ate and Wizards Drank."

Whenever she gets annoyed, she blows something up in her fiction. Regular readers of her work have commented that she is annoyed a lot.

When Less is More

noreply@blogger.com (Amy Laurens) — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 02:33:00 +0000

Less is more. I’ve heard some people twist this maxim to ‘more is more’. Granted, that works in some situations, and the whole ‘less is more’ idea obviously has its limits: some food is better than no food! And some words on a page definitely give the reader the idea of the story better than no words. You can definitely have too little.

But you can also have too much. I’m referring, here, to the idea of overwriting – something which I was guilty of as an inexperienced writer for far too many years, partially because no one could tell me what they actually meant when they said I had overwritten something (not even my university creative writing lecturer!). It took a few years of practice, lots of critiquing, and the revisiting of some of my old university notes to figure out what they really meant.

Here’s the thing: when I sit down to write, I often have a pretty specific idea in my head of what everything looks like – where things are in relation to each other, colours, general interaction of characters and setting, and so forth. Obviously, the entire point of writing is to try to convey that mental image to the people who will read my story, and that’s what learning to write is about – learning how best to perform telepathy and transfer the image from my head to yours. Writing really is magical :)

Like all good magic, though, there’s a catch: your head isn’t a blank slate waiting for me to throw stuff at. Readers come to everything they read with their own perceptions, backgrounds, and associations – both for concepts and individual words. I do this activity in my creative writing class at school where I read out the description of a room and ask all the students to draw it. Of course, every drawing I get is different; some drew it from different perspectives, some interpreted my words in different ways – and of course, they all fill in the gaps differently.

Because here’s the other thing: no matter how detailed I am in my description, I will always leave gaps. Something about the quality of the light, or the exact proportions of the objects, or the precise shade or tone, or the temperature, or smell, or the feel of the carpet on my feet – something will always slip through my description, and the students will always have to fill in some gaps.

The students, of course, are like readers. Reader Response Theory posits that readers derive their own meaning from texts using multiple layers as clues – the phonetic layer, where we figure out the meaning of each sound, the orthographic layer, where we figure out what sounds the squiggles on the page represent, the semantic layer where we figure out what words as a whole mean, and so on and so forth. There is always going to be some fundamental similarity of meaning that all readers will have in common – Hamlet is after all not a muffin, as my university lecturer would say – but there will also be differences (sometimes slight, sometimes significant) in the way that readers perceive a story that will mean that they have different interpretations of it.

This is a good thing! I don’t know about you, but I find the most boring stories are the ones where everything is served up to me, where I don’t have to exercise my imagination or engage on any meaningful level in order to get through it. Gaps are good – gaps engage the reader and give them some work to do. Of course, as I said at the beginning, some food is better than none, and you don’t want to lapse into obscurity so that the reader has no clue what you’re talking about – that will generally make me throw down a book just as quickly as if the writer had swamped me with every single detail. It’s all about the balance: not overwriting (too few gaps) and not underwriting (too many gaps).

For me, writing is most of all about being conscious of the words you use. Maybe not in draft-mode, but at least at the final-edit stage, I have to go through and check my word usage, and make sure that every word is the best one for that moment, that it all means what I intend it to. But being a conscious writer means more than that – it also means being conscious of the gaps you leave in your work. There will always be gaps – and there should be – but they should be gaps that you have chosen.

How do you choose where to leave the gaps? Significance. Does it really matter that your protagonist is wearing a red shirt? Sometimes, yes. If, for example, he’s about to be sacrificially shot so the rest of the team can get away, sure, the fact that he has a red shirt might be symbolic. Ditto if you’re wanting to subtly foreshadow his part in an upcoming murder, or that he will die soon, or whatever. Or even if it’s just because he’s going to spill some tomato sauce on himself and it will be pretty critical to the plot that it doesn’t show up. If it’s just red because, then maybe not so much.

The key point is critical to the plot. Significant detail. Does it really matter if the reader misses this particular detail? If not, leave it out. The words that remain will be that much stronger, that much tighter, and the core of your meaning that much clearer if you do.

Blog Tour + Giveaways!

noreply@blogger.com (Amy Laurens) — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 02:36:00 +0000

Hi there! Just a quick reminder that while I've been off busy spawning a minion:

...the giveaways are still active, regardless of what they might say in-post. See here and here, and please! Encourage people to enter! Share and spread the word!

Also, belatedly, I am part of a blog tour! Random Writing Rants is a week-ish long blog hop that we are actually nearly at the end of (sigh), but it's never too late to join the fun! My post, called "When Less is More", will be up HERE TOMORROW.

Check out the rest of the contributors, starting here with Chrystalla Thoma's rant about hopping :)

9 Febr: A. Merc Rustad – On Voice

10 Febr: Marie Dees – Building a Novel from Nothing

11 Febr: Krista D. Ball – Avoiding the Heroine Stupid Juice

12 Febr: Marion Sipe – Rant on Stereotypes, Cliches and Tropes

13 Febr: Ada Hoffmann – On Blundering

14 Febr: Amy Laurens – When Less is More

Guest Post: How To Break A Fairy Tale

noreply@blogger.com (Amy Laurens) — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 23:08:00 +0000

**See end for contest details**

Today I'd like to welcome Emily Casey, author of the newly-released The Fairy Tale Trap. Round of applause, if you please! In Emily's own words, she writes "everything from fairy tales to zombies, from middle grade to young adult. I write what's exciting to me and just hope someone else out there likes it." Sounds like a good philosophy to me :o)

Check out the other stops on Emily's blog tour here.

Thanks Amy, for letting me visit. I understand the need to let others take over for a bit, especially during pregnancy and soon after. That actually has something to do with what I’m blogging about today: how pregnancy led me to my new hobby: breaking fairy tales.

My main character, Ivy Thorn, was born on my blog. I was suffering from pregnancy brain at the time and didn’t feel like I could write long fiction, so I let Ivy tear apart a few fairy tales.

Of course, Ivy had to put her own spin on things. She’s not the type to sit back and let the fairy tale run its course. The thing I’m most proud of was when (in an early blog draft, not The Fairy Tale Trap) Ivy found herself stuck in the story: Snow White. She suggested that instead of going to all that trouble to kill Snow White, the queen should just use a spell to make Snow White ugly. It just made more sense!

We’ve heard the stories so many times that we just accept them. But what would happen if Cinderella refused to be a doormat? What would happen if someone broke a spell, but it didn’t work out the way they thought it would? The question I asked in The Fairy Tale Trap was: What if Beast wasn’t the gentle, civil prince on the inside? What if he was just as wild and terrible as he looked?

Ivy (who seems to have a personality of her own) asks different questions. Instead of “what if” questions, she usually just raises a defiant eyebrow and does something she’s not supposed to.

The thing is, breaking fairy tales is like eating potato chips. I can’t stop at one! There are so many fairy tales out there, and so many ways for Ivy to mess them up.

So here’s to wreaking havoc with the charming tales we grew up with! May everything blow up in your characters’ faces, and hopefully they’ll make you laugh every now and then.

Want to know if The Fairy Tale Trap might be for you? Check out what Emily has to say on the matter, read the reviews on Amazon or Goodreads, and watch the book trailer below :)

Find out more about Emily and her books on her website. You can also stalk her on Facebook or Twitter, and see her profile on Goodreads.

**CONTEST**

Finally, if you'd like the chance to win your very own e-copy (multiple formats available) of The Fairy Tale Trap, all you have to do is leave a comment below letting us know 1) what YOUR favourite fairy tale is and 2) who you've told about Emily's awesome book (and yes, if you're really struggling, your cat can count).

You can leave an email address if you like BUT YOU DON'T HAVE TO. I'll hunt down the winner once they're chosen >:) Winner will be chosen by random draw on February 20, so you have two weeks to spread the word!

Bonus: If anyone can guess MY favourite fairy tale, I'll write a fractured version of it JUST FOR YOU, and YOU get to name the main character :) No novels, though - this will be a long short story ;) And obviously, you'll get a free copy when I'm done :D

Guest Post: Late-Night Creativity

noreply@blogger.com (Amy Laurens) — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 22:58:00 +0000

Followers,

Tonight I interrupt your usual inkfever update to bring you trivial musings of a more sinister nature. Well actually, I have just been permitted to guest blog whilst Amy is hatching her young. That may not sound too sinister, but who knows? If followers are lost as a result of this blog, it may be. For me.

I dabble at song-writing. And silver-smithing, saxophone, hiking, staying up past 10pm, cooking edible food... the list goes on. Song-writing is the most unintentional activity on that list. I suffer from late-night creativity. Whilst there appears to be no cure for this, mitigating therapy includes keeping pens, paper, torches and my mobile phone (for voice recording) next to my bed just in case. So far, I think writing in my sleep can be categorised as follows:
- Music I have clearly stolen from something heard earlier that day
- Music that sounded great when I was tired
- Music that makes no sense whatsoever (or is illegible)
- Music that I actually like the next morning
The first category is what I dread most. Luckily for me, I am now usually writing in the fourth category.

My other most productive places for writing are in the shower or driving long distance in the car. Neither are what I would call convenient.

I have tried making myself write when I feel like it. This has not been successful. It usually sounds forced or loses its voice within a couple of lines. I just don't have life-experience to draw inspiration from. I live a happily sheltered life. I still get ideas from bad moods, and especially from emotive books, but somehow being distracted is the key to letting it all play out.

My favourite song (at the moment) is 'Moth to the Flame' - featuring themes from 'The Tenant of Wildfell Hall', nonsense talk from my cousin about Leonardo DiCaprio's character and the general story of a girl's infatuation with a man who is no good.

I hope you like it.

'Moth to the Flame'
Copyright Rebecca Stohr 2011

A tragic star dawns on the horizon, captivating the heart of a girl. An altogether, beautiful disaster.
A charming man is always forgiven, blinding better judgement again.
You say it like you mean it, but girl I'm pretty sure
Moth to the flame
Moth to the flame

Little moth, what are you trying to do?
Give it up, it's been far too long
You say it like you mean it, but girl I'm pretty sure
You cannot save that soul who needs redemption.

Perhaps it's true, you've lost all your senses. Crawling back when he calls for you.
He's not repentant, just a lonely people user.
Only a fool is jealous of God, for all the time you spend praying for him.
You say it like you mean it, but girl I'm pretty sure
Moth to the flame
Moth to the flame

Little moth, what are you trying to do?
Give it up, it's been far too long
You say it like you mean it, but girl I'm pretty sure
You cannot save that soul who needs redemption.

I think I'm talking reason to you honey. Wo-oe. And still, you always say
"O-o-oh let me away from here - I will be his cure.
I will fall to the arms of love so I may be there when he stumbles"

You say it like you mean it, but girl I'm pretty sure
Moth to the flame
Moth to the flame...

No idea where my musical journey is headed from here. An amazing friend bought me some studio time for my birthday. That should be enough to produce a couple of demo tracks. Alternatively, I will have to plan for many long showers, road-trips and late nights =D

Bec

Guest Post: Creativity

noreply@blogger.com (Amy Laurens) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 22:52:00 +0000

Today I'd like to introduce you all to my friend Clare! Clare is an Australian graphic designer and illustrator with a passion for making puppets (and they are awesome puppets, too). Samples of her work can be found at www.clarebarnes.com.

First off, let me say that I am not a writer.

Well that is not entirely true. I mean, obviously I can write, but writing in and of itself is not the core of what I do.

So you might well be wondering how I came to be following and writing a guest post on an authors blog…

Well let me explain.

In the last few years as I have been studying graphic design, I have come to recognise that as a creative professional, it is incredibly important that I not only explore my own creative field, but that I also develop a habit of exploring the creative fields outside of my own.

Whilst this can be a time consuming exercise (and a wonderful tool for procrastination) I have found that exploring other fields enriches my understanding of the world around me and inspires me in ways that I would miss out on if I restricted my field of vision solely to that of graphic design.

The main reason for this is that most people are just plain inspiring. I am continually amazed by the countless ideas, techniques, stories, experience etc that people all over the world develop and share on a regular basis.

Another reason for exploring outside my own area of expertise is that I am constantly reminded of how many different ways people can view the same sorts of topics, and that problems can be solved from more then one angle. If I am able to remember this, then I become more understanding of other peoples perspectives, and if my own solution for something isn’t working I can try solving it from an angle I may not have thought of if I had not been exploring.

For example, I have discovered that some of the world and character building techniques that are used when writing, can also be used to generate ideas for illustrations.

By giving my mind access to all this information I am allowing my imagination to be sparked by concepts that it may not normally come across. And whilst not all of the information that I find will be immediately useful, I know my brain is able to store bits away in boxes and on shelves, in readiness for when I need it.

Here is one simple way to think about it:

As creative people we are like the little box. As we explore new or different areas, we collect information and inspiring ideas and store it away. Then, the next time that we need some of it, our brain is able to pull bits from here and there and somehow combines information in ways we might never have thought of otherwise to create an Awesome Idea.

Pretty cool huh?

So next time you are stumped for ideas, how about going exploring? You never know exactly what you’ll find….

Prizes! Contests! BOOKS!

noreply@blogger.com (Amy Laurens) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 21:14:00 +0000

Hurrah! I love announcements like this :o)

So I know I just had a couple of contests, but I found some awesome books recently and needed a good excuse to give them away, and you guys provided me with the perfect opportunity: the blog has hit 100 followers :o) You guys are awesome. I'm really not sure why most of you follow me; I'm rarely coherent, frequently random, and I'm not entirely convinced that anything I say here is of the slightest use, but nonetheless, there are a whole CENTURY of you that approve well enough to let your little avatar be displayed in the box over there --->

THANK YOU.

Thank you, also, to the exact-number-indeterminate of you that follow through other methods, like feedreaders, or who click through from CC, twitter, or facebook. Seriously: you guys rock. I quite literally would not be here on this blog without you, because really, what would be the point? I talk to myself enough in my own head, I don't need a blog to acheive that :D

SO. Contest #1.

To say thank you for being awesome and tolerating my weirdness, I will be giving away to one lucky winner their choice of the following:

Danyelle Leafty's debut Catspell (ebook pdf version)

Kiersten White's debut Paranormalcy (trade paperback)

Brenna Yovanoff's debut The Replacement (trade paperback)

Michelle Davidson Argyle's short story anthology True Colors: And Other Short Stories (e-version, multiple formats available)

And randomly, John Steinbeck's The Pearl (mass market paperback - Popular Penguins series)

To enter, you must be following me somewhere (either the blog via the sidebar gadget, me on twitter, or my facebook page) and leave a comment in the, er, comments. Just say you want to enter and which prize you'd like; I'll extricate the private details from the winner privately ;) :D

And now, Contest #2!

I recently review Divergent and raved about the awesomeness that it is. It is, in fact, SO awesome, that I bought a second copy ESPECIALLY so I could share the awesomeness with someone else. Because truly, it is awesome. So, to enter for your chance to win Divergent, all you have to do is sign up for my newsletter. It's delivered right to your inbox's door once every second month (or so) by the carrier bats, and has an article, a book or blog review, a contest (yes, THAT'S RIGHT, you could WIN A BOOK EVERY SECOND MONTH! *dies of the squee*) and more of the fun and random stuff you'd expect from me. Because, you know, I live to bring the random into your life. #mottos #likegrottos #onlylesswet

So! Contests! Hurrah! Spread the word (or, you know, not, if you want to increase your chances of winning??) and join the love! HURRAH.

Remember, for Contest #1, leave a comment below saying where/how you follow my crazy ramblings.

For Contest #2, sign up for the newsletter. If you're already subscribed to the newsletter, you're entered by default ;)

BOTH CONTESTS will close on February 2 when I will draw the winners at random. I'll announce the winners asap - I'm planning to announce on Feb 2, but I reserve the right to extend that a little should the minion not have appeared by then (which he jolly well better have OR ELSE).

Yay! Contests!

Time to Stand

noreply@blogger.com (Amy Laurens) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 04:18:00 +0000

Literally, first of all, because the minion has decided that I ought to be banned from sitting, and makes a fuss in my ribcage whenever I do. But I also mean the figurative stand, as in 'taking a...'. Against what?

SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) (that link is to Wikipedia, which will, in about 2 hours, be going dark for the duration of its January 18 as a mark of protest). Those of you that trawl the interwebs might have come across this already, and a large percentage of my readership will have dismissed it as 'a US law that doesn't apply to us'. Unfortunately, because a lot of the large companies that own major internet sites (think Google, Facebook, etc) are based in the US, this DOES affect us. All of us.

Here is a good summary of what the fuss is all about. It's already nearly the end of the 18th here in Aus, so I am, as usual, late to the party; hence, I'm not blacking out the blog. A lot of you read via feed readers anyway, so probably wouldn't even notice that the blog had gone dark for a day (especially with my REALLY REGULAR posting schedule). So I'm doing what I consider to be more important: spreading the word.

ETA: Something us international peeps CAN do: Petitions here and here. Look for the 'Not in the US' links.

I Has Moon Book!

noreply@blogger.com (Amy Laurens) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 22:25:00 +0000

Yup, as random as the title sounds.

So, I meant to post this back when it actually, y'know, HAPPENED, but it was literally Christmas, and then things have been crazy since then, and, well, here we are. But! I am SO EXCITED! I wish I had the brain power to think of an awesome way to announce this, but alack, tis not to be, so I shall just say:

I AM BEING IN A BOOK! A REAL, LIVE, PRINTED OUT ONE! SQUEE!!!

I told you this was news that warranted capital letters and exclamation marks :o) So, details:

Tyche Publishing, a new Canadian publisher, are releasing an anthology, Ride the Moon. Out of sheer luck and knowing the right people, I got a last minute opportunity to submit to the anthology - and I do mean last minute. I had 6 days to conceive of an idea, write it, edit it, and submit it. It was a terrifying but absolutely AWESOME experience, and I was SO stoked when the publishers accepted my story - and what makes it even better is that there are a whole bunch of writer friends in the anthology with me :) It was also exciting to discover that apparently, if one is Canadian, one would recognise some of the other contributors to the anthology as Well Known Authors. SQUEE. You can view the list of contributors here.

So, Ride the Moon will be out on February 29 and contains my short story Cherry Blossoms, about a man who is rescued from an immortality of loneliness by the girl-in-the-moon. One last time, with feeling:

SQUEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, about the last two months...

noreply@blogger.com (Amy Laurens) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 04:40:00 +0000

I've not posted in two months. I have not died, I have not fallen off the edge of an inter-planetary rift, and I have not (alack) moved to somewhere warm and secluded wherein I can live out my days as a happyhappy hermit. I have merely, boringly, mundanely, been Busy. And pregnant, but *wavey hands of dismissal* to that O:)

I know, I KNOW I keep saying that I'll be better, that I'll recommit, that I'll try harder this time and this time, I REALLY WILL blog more often and BE A BETTER PERSON... And I hope you know that I do mean it. Just as I hope you all know by now that I'll probably fail dismally :P That said, however, with the Impending Doom of the Parasitical Minion (aka I'm due Tuesday next week), I have actually been somewhat organised, and I has guest posts for you! Guest! Posts! People to say interesting and coherent things, JUST FOR YOU! Which is EXCITING! And warrants the totally ABUSE of CAPITAL LETTERS and EXCLAMATION MARKS!!

I also have two exciting announcements which really and truly DO justify the use of excessive exclamation marks (not that my lovely guests don't), but I'll get to those later. For now, here's what you need to know:

Today, Jan 17: Blog comes out of hibernation. It is sleepy and it's skin is a little saggy, like an under-nourished grizzly, but we loves it anyway.

Tomorrow, Jan 18: Exciting announcement number 1: I has book.

Jan 19: Exciting announcement number 2: You can has book.

Jan 23: The wonderful graphic artist Clare visits to share her thoughts on creativity.

Jan 30: We are joined by the awesome aspiring-songstress Rebecca to discuss what to do when random inspiration hits you on the nose in the middle of the night.

Feb 6: Author Emily Casey will be dropping by to discuss fairytales, and why they are awesome. In fact, they are so awesome that she wrote a fracture fairytale of her own, and The Fairytale Trap is a) now available and b) lots of fun and c) you'll have the chance to win a copy during her visit.

Feb 13: Author Krista Ball is going to join in the 'creativity' theme and share with us how on earth she's able to actually be creative when in her non-writing life, she claims she can't even match colours.

After that, hopefully I'll have enough *brain* to return. And no doubt I'll pop in and out in between guests - I want to show off the chair that Boyo & I have reupholstered (nearly) and of course, I'm sure there will be an obligatory minion picture in there somewhere too O:) :) (hopefully sooner rather than later, *hint hint* minion).

Happy 2012! May it be a fulfilling year for all of you :o)

The AWESOME That Is Divergent

noreply@blogger.com (Amy Laurens) — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 23:26:00 +0000

Ie, how Divergent is awesome. Not divergent awesomeness, although that could be also fun.

May 2011, HarperCollins

487 pages, Paperback
Personal copy

YA Dystopian
Some violence, discussion about not-having-sex-yet

Summary from HarperCollins:

In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can't have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles to determine who her friends really are—and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes infuriating boy fits into the life she's chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she's kept hidden from everyone because she's been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers a growing conflict that threatens to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves . . . or it might destroy her.

Debut author Veronica Roth bursts onto the literary scene with the first book in the Divergent series—dystopian thrillers filled with electrifying decisions, heartbreaking betrayals, stunning consequences, and unexpected romance.

Amy's thoughts:
OH. THE. SQUEE. I know, I know, I keep going on about the books I've read recently, but SERIOUSLY. YOU GUYS. There has been a whole spate of REALLY AWESOME YA debuts recently. REALLY. AWESOME. Divergent is definitely one of them, and if you're at all curious/unconvinced, note that you can read the first 100 pages free online.

I'm warning you, though: you'll knife anyone who gets in the way of you and the rest of the book once you have. (Though at least the book is out now; I read the first 100 pages 6 months before the book was released, oh the horror).

Ahem. Okay. Actually reviewey stuff. Divergent is YA dystopian fiction premised on the idea that society has been divided into five factors, each of which live life according to a particular value because they believe that that is the best way to restore peace to society. Tris's (Beatrice) story begins when she has to decide whether to stay in her family's faction, or defect to another. It's a pretty standard YA coming-of-age set-up, in an original-yet-familiar social/conceptual setting; it's good, sure, but this is not what makes Roth's book astounding. What makes it astounding is the amazing voice and the characterisation.

Roth absolutely nails Tris's voice; Tris is innocent and naive, yet determined and brave all at the same time, and the conflict that she feels between her old way of life and her (self-) imposed new way of life is treated with subtlety and delicacy and is just... *melts* *pats the pretty*

Topped off with a twist I didn't really expect (hurrah!) and your obligatory hot guy (though please note, his characterisation is equally as subtle as Triss's), this really is an amazing, amazing book. Go on: read the first pages already.

Final Conclusion:
I am speechless, and Ms Roth is on my auto-buy list. Read the first 100 pages of Divergent here, stalk Ms Roth on twitter and on her blog, and watch out for an announcement later this week about how you can win your very own copy of Divergent-shiny that I bought especially for you :o)

We Has Progress!

noreply@blogger.com (Amy Laurens) — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 12:05:00 +0000

In all areas, not just writing! Which is good, because writing progress has been, ahem, sparse lately. Is a lil difficult to write much when your schedule consists of being out at work or travelling from/to from 8am - 6pm, then 6-8pm nap, 8-930pm cook and eat dinner, 10pm bedtime.

BUT! PROGRESS! Largely, today, the progress has been baby-related. We spent 5 hours trawling through baby stores making decisions about cots and prams and strollers and monitors and chairs and bedding and and and and *explodes*. The decisions, oi. Intense.

Also, we have made progress on the baby room. See, I had this horrible moment a few months ago when I realised that being preg would actually kind of involve having a child, and that this would necessitate storage facilities and, well, a bedroom. Which is fine; our house has three plus a study. Except... Yeah. About that storage. I'm not sure if I'm embarrassed by this or not (:P), but I was, in actual fact, making full use of BOTH spare built-in-wardrobes, as well as 2/3rds of the walk-in in the master bedroom. Um, oops?

So in a fit of attempted-organisation, I pulled all my stuff out of 'spare' wardrobe number 2, and dumped it all on the floor of 'spare' room number 1, which is to be the baby room, in the hopes that I would be able to sort it out, condense it down, and fit it all BACK into the now-empty spare wardrobe #2.

That was about four months ago. Again, oops. But today - TODAY! - we has progress. The Most Wonderful Boyo spent four hours this evening with me closetted in the back room, sorting through stuff, and while there are still some boxes on the floor that need to be moved/chucked, the wardrobe is actually now empty but for Actual Baby Stuff.

So. I have done exactly zero writing this weekend, which given I'm notionally aiming for 30k for November so as to finish the dog book and the SFR short is not especially helpful, but at least Other Stuff was Done.

And sometimes, life just has to come first.

Monarch Winners!

noreply@blogger.com (Amy Laurens) — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 09:16:00 +0000

Thanks to everyone who entered the Monarch contest. Sorry I'm a little late drawing the winners, but I hope that those who won a prize enjoy it. There will be plenty of opportunities for everyone else to win more prizes soon* (hurrah).

So, without further ado, the winners!

First winner, who will get their choice of either the final Monarch ebook, or the ARC Monarch ebook:

Chrystalla Thoma!

Second winner, who will receive the other ebook:

Cee Martinez!

And the final winner, who will receive a signed mini-poster and bookmark:

Emily W!

Congratulations, winners (I'll be in touch shortly) and thanks once again to everyone who entered.

*Hint: Sign up to my newsletter for a chance to win Veronica Roth's Divergent in November.

24 Hours Left!

noreply@blogger.com (Amy Laurens) — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 07:00:00 +0000

Just a reminder that you have 24 hours left to enter the contest to win a copy of Michelle Davidson Argyle's awesome debut, Monarch. :)

My Shameful Secret

noreply@blogger.com (Amy Laurens) — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 21:43:00 +0000

Don't forget to enter the contest to win a copy of Michelle Davidson Argyle's awesome debut, Monarch.

My name is Amy, and I’m an English teacher, and I have not read To Kill A Mockingbird. Or One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. Or All Quiet On The Western Front. Or anything by Dickens, or Tolstoy, or any Russian authors full stop actually.

I’ve only read two Austen novels. I’ve read one Hemmingway story – a short one. I hate The Turn of the Screw. I loathe Heart of Darkness with an undying passion. Wuthering Heights bored me so stupid I never finished it.

I threw Gone With The Wind at the wall with two chapters to go and never picked it up again.
I am a Bad Person.

What books haven’t you read that you really feel like you should have? What books would you kill me for not reading before I die? And what books have you read because people told you you had to, only to mourn the fact that you’ll never regain those hours of your life again?

Five Things To Do To Inspire Creativity

noreply@blogger.com (Amy Laurens) — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 22:11:00 +0000

Don't forget to enter the contest to win a copy of Michelle Davidson Argyle's awesome debut, Monarch.

Image from Stock Xchange

For me, anyway, because people are all inspired by different things :)

1) Have other stuff that absolutely MUST be done in order for life to keep functioning. The more boring the better. Marking is perfect. (Writing as procrastination, #ftw!)

2) Read. Read lots. Read good books (so you can weep over how great you’ll never be). Read bad books (so you can gain confidence in knowing you can do better).

3) Collect random trivia (because you never know when the knowledge that a particular species of fungus turns ants into mind-controlled zombies might be useful).

4) Collect random images (because turning pretty I-wish-I’d-made-that images into words doesn’t count as plagiarism).

5) Play (because your muse, or imagination, or whatever term you like to use, is really just the grown-up term for your inner five-year-old).

Incidentally, my inner five-year-old is actually very determined that she’s an inner-six-but-NEARLY-SEVEN-year-old, and her name is Sarah, and she has brown pigtails and likes to wear white and pink, and lives in a bedroom with a white-painted cast-iron bed (the kind with rails down one side so it can pretend to be a chair, and gold caps on the four corner posts), a white bookcase and desk, pinky-red carpet and a large primary-coloured rug somewhere deep down in my right brain.

The sad thing is, I’m not even kidding, and I could draw you a picture of her, and then move on to draw pictures of my left brain (twenty-year-old university newspaper editor) and my hind brain (who bizarrely insists on being thirty-five and wearing an emerald-green satin formal gown) also.

I always knew I had issues. O.0 :P :D

Litlinks Speech

noreply@blogger.com (Amy Laurens) — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 21:48:00 +0000

Don't forget to enter the contest to win a copy of Michelle Davidson Argyle's awesome debut, Monarch.

Have finally managed to get my hands on the recording of the speech I gave earlier in the year at the Litlinks 2010 Awards Ceremony. Hurrah! The Litlinks contest is an annual contest in the ACT whereby schools submit a handful of their students' best stories for the year. The top x stories in the state are then selected and published in an anthology, and winners in both the junior and senior categories receive prizes. It's a lovely initiative that makes the whole concept of writing and publishing more accessible to students, and I was tickled pink to be invited to speak.

I was invited in my capacity as both an English teacher and a short story author, and I gave the below after reading out my flash fic Forget. Enjoy ;)

Monarch - Review & Giveaway!

noreply@blogger.com (Amy Laurens) — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 22:03:00 +0000

September 2011, Rhemalda

341 pages, Paperback
Personal copy

Romantic Thriller
Some violence, closed-curtain sex

Summary from Rhemalda:

Nick’s life as a CIA spy should be fulfilling, but it has only given him unhappiness — a wife who committed suicide and two daughters who resent everything he has become. Now, stuck in the Amazon on the last mission of his career, he must track down Matheus Ferreira, a drug lord and terrorist the U.S. has tried to bring down for years. If he succeeds, he’ll have the chance to start his life over again.

Just when he’s on the brink of catching Ferreira, he’s framed for a murder that turns his world upside down. His only chance of survival lies in West Virginia where Lilian Love, a woman from his past, owns the secluded Monarch Inn. He’s safe, but not for long …

Amy's thoughts:
Despite the dead body on the opening page (;)), Monarch was one of those books that took me a couple of chapters to really get into. However, like Blood Song that I read recently and also took time getting into, I'm really, REALLY glad I did. (And look, seriously? Ilona Andrews' Kate Daniels series is one of my all-time favourites, and it took me three goes to make it through the first chapter of the first book! This is a me-issue, clearly.)

Monarch is pegged as a thriller, and certainly has all the thriller paraphernalia - spies, betrayals, guns and cover stories, murders, threats, and time running out - but somehow, it's quieter than your average thriller, more thoughtful. Michelle utilises beautiful symbolism throughout and various different points of view to make this story about so much more than just a man on the run; I like to call Ender's Game, one of my all-time favourite novels, the science fiction novel for people who don't read science fiction - Monarch is the thriller for people who don't read thrillers. It's equal parts thriller and romance, contemporary and literary, and really embodies Michelle's cross-genre style. It's quiet and understated in a way that reminds you that life is not so much about what happens, as who it happens with - something worth remembering, I think.

Monarch utilises three points of view (Nick, Lilian of Monarch Inn, and Lilian's adult son Devan) and within Nick's point of view, two timelines, past and present. Occasionally the segues between Nick's timelines feel a little stiff, but overall the complex structure enhances the story and deepens our understanding of the characters and plot, and I really enjoyed seeing the story from different perspectives, especially since Michelle has done so well at giving them unique, original voices.

Overall, this is a very pleasing debut, and I can't wait for The Breakaway, Michelle's next novel (also a standalone), to be released next year. Yay!

Final Conclusion:
This is a great example of what you can do when you're not afraid to cross the genre boundaries. Congratulations on an awesome debut, Michelle!

Find out more about Michelle Davidson Argyle here including her highly awesome blog which you should all go follow right away! Sign up for her newsletter, too, because she does awesome giveaways for her subscribers. :)

Giveaway!

This is Michelle's debut novel, and as Michelle is a friend of mine, I'm understandably excited :D I was privileged enough to read a very early draft of this story, and I even helped a little with the opening paragraph of the novel! So I'm even MORE excited to be able to offer you the chance to win a copy of this fantastic story.

I have not one but TWO e-copies of Monarch to give away. One is an ARC, and the other is the final version (and yes, they are fractionally different). I also have a swag-bag, with a signed poster and bookmarks.

All you have to do to enter is tell someone else about this contest (anyone, anywhere, I trust you), then enter your details in the safe-and-secret online form. Contest is OPEN INTERNATIONALLY, and will close on October 27. Yay!

New Stuff, Free Stuff, Pretty Stuff

noreply@blogger.com (Amy Laurens) — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 08:52:00 +0000

So! This is an admin-y sort of post, but be not alarmed! It contains all sorts of fun, good stuff for the most wonderful readers on the planet! (That's you.) So make sure you read to the end, or, you know, skip down to the end and read the last sentence so at least if I quiz you, it'll LOOK like you read the whole thing. O:)

First of all, new stuff. The astute among you will notice that there is a 'Readers' link in the link bar at the top of the blog. The ones among you that have generally decent memories will also recall that I mentioned a little while ago that I was in the process of populating that link. Well! The link! She is populated! For now she is just a small, back county town, population 57, with a single street called Main Street and a butcher and a grocer and not much else, but she LIVES! Hurrahs!

If you click on the link you'll be taken to the readers' section of the site, which contains extras for stories and the like. At the moment, population 57 means that the extras for some of the short stories are up; you can find photos, fairytales, the sound of my voice, not-especially-brillant drawings and even special offers, all related to shorts I've had published. Squee!

But because I am lovely (and now on to the free stuff), I have also made MORE special offers available for you. Certified, Forget, Sculpting and Shoe are all free downloads all the time. However, until October 31, the following coupons also apply:

Download Sea Foam and Blood for free using this coupon: LG27M
Download Leaving (new story - somewhat of a prequel to Jesscapades) for free using this coupon: DK33L
Download What You Wish For, a new collection of three short stories, for free using this coupon: UY83D

But wait! That's not all! Your free set of steak knives... Er, okay, so posting steak knives to you all may be grounds for governmental investigations into my doings, and none of us want that. (You don't. Trust me). So I can't offer you steak knives.

I CAN, however, offer you the opportunity to win a super-shiny, highly awesome, brand new BOOK (and other stuff) every second month. How? As of November 1, I will be sending out a bi-monthly (as in once every two months, not twice a month; stupid confusing English) newsletter*, complete with competitions for subscribers only. Sign up now so you're all prepared for the first competition, which will be for a copy of the highly, HIGHLY awesome Divergent, by Veronica Roth. And yes, that's the pretty stuff. I mean seriously; have you SEEN the cover?? *dies of the shiny* So yes. Sign up to newsletter! O:)

And to finish, cookies. Because you are awesome just for reading this, and deserve a cookie. Or three. <3!
*Newsletter will be delivered by carrier bat to the email inbox of your choice. Carrier bats are of limited intelligence and prone to confusion, hence you can be absolutely sure that they will never spam you. This is why I use carrier bats. >:)

6SS: With This Ring

noreply@blogger.com (Amy Laurens) — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 00:42:00 +0000

Once again, I am way late putting this up, but better late than never, right? :) With This Ring is a short story about... Well, let me just give you the official blurb, shall I?

Changeling Orkney wakes in the arms of a beautiful woman with distant memories of rivers and burrows. He shrugs it all aside with the glorious discovery that he has proposed the woman, Lia - only he doesn't remember proposing at all, and the strange key in her study matches the ring on his finger.

Will Orkney remember who he is before it's too late?

With This Ring

The sun rose further and golden rays fell across her face, caramelising her skin and revealing copper highlights in her hair. Who was this beauty?

She opened her eyes.

Orkney gasped, shocked by their intense blueness. And he remembered.

A dimple sprang to life in Lia’s cheek. “Morning, sexy.”

Check out the rest of today's Six Sentence Sunday entries here, and once again, a million thanks to the organisers.

Alot of Power

noreply@blogger.com (Amy Laurens) — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 21:56:00 +0000

Okay, so the marking may be driving me just a TAD loopy. But when you see the same mistakes over and over and over and over and over and over again, you really do have to develop coping mechanisms. I love Hyperbole and a Half's coping mechanism for the abuse of 'alot' so much, I use it myself. It really does make everything much more hilarious, and a lot less frustrating.

Hence, this was my productive use of time last week, in the midst of marking mayhem. And no, my Alot doesn't look like Hyperbole and a Half's. Yes, hers is prettier. But I was totally working from memory and trying not to waste - er, invest too much time, so you know. I'm still pretty proud :P :D

Excerptification: Not a Word

noreply@blogger.com (Amy Laurens) — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 22:10:00 +0000

I’m never quite sure how interested people are in excerpts, as they don’t tend to attract many comments, but of course are not the kind of thing that really elicit comments. So, if you do happen to feel like clicking through and commenting today, I’d love to know your opinion: to excerpt, or not to excerpt? Interesting or skim-worthy?

Personally, it depends on my mood at the time and how many unread items are in my feedreader O:) :D

Anyway, I’m really excited about the story I’m working on at the moment. I have several Big projects I’m ‘supposed’ to be working on (a rewrite of the 33 Mistakes About Dogs book for rerelease in November, revising Marked for tentative December release, editing Jesscapades and Sanctuary for submission to publishers, etc), but it’s hard to fit those in around the brain and time requirements of The Snowdrift of Marking Doom. The couple of shorts that have pounced on me? Much easier to squeak in, especially since they’ve arrived with Voice, which always, ALWAYS make things easier to write for me.

The one that I’ve excerpted (ha, Word accepts that as a word!) from today is tentatively titled To Dust, and is about the MC’s quest to find out first what the mysterious box does, and then how it can save their society from the [insertnamehere]s. It’s a quirky sort of blend of post-apocalypse and fantasy, and includes zombies and fae and technology and magic, and most of all dust, because dust is important. I’m loving this story, and can’t wait to see what it turns into.

Enjoy :)

[rough draft, unedited, blah blah blah]

Sometimes, walking away is the hardest thing you can do. That day, in Oseena, I swore I’d never do it again – and yet here I am, backpack slung over one shoulder, sunglasses perched on my nose, staring down the infinite road to nowhere, everywhere, anywhere but here. I don’t want to run away. In fact, I rather hate myself for it. It’s so much easier to stay, to fight, to be one of the people who get to die in a glorious blaze of meaning and feeling and then feel… nothing.

But it’s not my day to die. Today, I have to live, because today, I have to get the box away. The perfect cube that can sit on my two outstretched palms, sharp edged and shined to perfection – the only hope we have of stopping the [name] forever.

And that, I want to do. I want to stop them more than anything else in the world; more, even, than I want to stay. Which is the only reason why I set off against the sunset, heading north in a town that runs south, away from the battlefields of the fallen to where the rumours are born – the north, from whence our salvation comes.

That’s what they say, anyway, and as I step past the protection of the last building in town – a tiny drugstore, good for toothpaste and tobacco and not much else – I can only hope that they are right, whoever they are.

The road before me is straight and broad, dust whipping off it in the erratic wind into spirals and billows that whip across the fields like spirits. Dust spirits, earth spirits; spirits of those returned to dust. From dust born, to dust returned. Only that’s exactly it: with the [name] on our doorsteps at last, there will be no return. It might indeed be easier to join the battle, the onslaught, to rush at the invaders headlong and fight – but death at the hands of a [name] is not death at all.

I’ve seen bodies the [name] left behind, twisted, gruesome things with flesh squeezed until the insides popped out, left in the sun to ferment, a rictus of pain on their face – and the eyes. It makes me shudder. The eyes are the worst.

No. Walking away is hard, to be sure, but it’s right. I’ll succeed; I have to.

The Worst Timing In The World

noreply@blogger.com (Amy Laurens) — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 22:08:00 +0000

It’s always when you’re ridiculously busy doing other stuff that the brain cylinders start firing. End of last term, winter holidays, and beginning of this term, I had time, but no motivation or inspiration. Cue Deathly Assessment Flurry #2, that last from about the beginning of September through to mid-November (as opposed to #1, which is April-May), and nearly every single freaking floodgate in my mind has opened, because I have no time to write.

Photo from Stock Xchange

I’m not even kidding; nearly every SINGLE story I’ve EVER written and actually want to fix has been unblocked in the last four weeks, from Jesscapades, the editing nightmare that it is, to Sanctuary, with its excellent plot but iffy worldbuilding, and from Dragon Tuesday (short story) with its lack of solid plot and character arc, to the untitled noir story with its multitudinous red herrings and lack of actual solution.

Oh. My. Gosh.

Seriously, brain. This is Very Poor Planning, and I do not approve.

I mean, don’t get me wrong; I approve very highly of the solutions to all the muck. I just wish you’d hand them to me when I could actually, you know, DO SOMETHING ABOUT THEM.

On the other hand, it’s REALLY nice to be having ideas again (contrast my imagination drought from Easter 2010 to, well, recently), and I guess it’s proof that when you get really blocked, you just have to walk away and bore your brain into submission.

Brain says, Officially bored! Have ideas!

I say, Yay! And sigh. And Oh, My, Gosh. >.< :)

Back When I Was REALLY Bad

noreply@blogger.com (Amy Laurens) — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 07:05:00 +0000

Image from Stock Xchange
I learned to play piano so long ago that I don’t really remember struggling to match black dots on lines to white keys on the instrument. Same with riding a bicycle – although I DO remember a particular wattle tree at the turn of the street I got a little too friendly with on one of my very first expeditions.

I don’t remember being an only child, even though I was four and a half when the next sibling was born. I don’t remember learning to read, and I DO clearly remember correcting the reading of students in the year above me when I was in year three (and yes, I was a miniature Hermione in primary school, which in Australia is Kindy to year six).

I don’t remember learning to hold a pencil and form letters.

I DO, however, remember very clearly learning how to write. Mostly because I’m still learning :P but also because in comparison to these other things, it’s more recent. And while on the one hand it’s frustrating to look at authors who are REALLY good and go – oh my gosh, I’ll never be that good, why am I even bothering? – on the other hand, it’s also kind of cool to be able to look back on how far I’ve travelled in the last few years.

And believe me, I have TRAVELLED, and thank goodness. Cause you know, some of that early stuff was really, genuinely terrible.

I have a subfolder in my writing folder called ‘The Graveyard’, where ideas go to die. I actually tend to use it as more of a flexible dead zone, though, because things can always be resurrected as zombies >:) So in actual fact, it’s all the stories I’m not working on right now (because if I have all the folders out and visible, the Brain panics because OH NOES, ALL THE OPTIONS!!! *dies of indecision*).

BUT. In The Graveyard, I have another subfolder: Beyond Resurrection. And this, my friendlies, is where the true horrors of the graveyard lie. Sure, in other graves there are part-bodies and bodies with heads where their legs should be and bodies that never made it off the operating table and bodies that have been in train wrecks and bodies that lack hearts and all manner of other gruesome story stuff, but they’re not the horrors. The horrors are the one that are so truly DREADFUL that you don’t ever actually WANT them to come back to life.

Like the story I wrote as part of my masters degree for an archaeology course, which made it blatantly clear that I ought never, ever, EVER try to write historical fiction again. Or the story that was essentially just me in character form, angsting that I didn’t know what to write. Or the flash fic that was just a bad excuse to tell a joke that’s funny in real life, but from which I learned that stories and jokes are actually (shock!) different genres.

Look, honestly? Some of them are so bad that I don’t even have them on my USB stick which is my LIFE when it comes to writing when I’m not on my home laptop (as now), so I can’t even post excerpts for you to be amused at.

But the funny thing is, even if I wanted to, there isn’t a good excerpt to post, because the problem wasn’t that I didn’t know how to write sentences. I could write sentences, and pretty good ones at that; I did have university training in both law and English, after all. No, it was the STORY I had problems with – creating conflict without melodrama, allowing room for the reader and not overwriting, avoiding forced-march plotting (something I still lapse into sometimes), creating a satisfying story arc.

Which makes it all the sweeter when stories come to me now, like two have in the last ten days, complete with beautiful story arcs and pacing and character motivation. And it helps me to have patience through the drudgery of marking – because I used to be that awful too ;)

Just Write Already

noreply@blogger.com (Amy Laurens) — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 23:02:00 +0000

In music we admire musicians who practice ten or more hours a day. Painters and other forms of art are the same. Only in writing does the myth of not practicing to get better come roaring in. We teach new writers to slow down, to not work to get better, to spend fewer and fewer hours at writing, to not practice, and then wonder why so many writers don’t make it to a professional level. ~ Dean Wesley Smith

You know, that’s a really, really good point. I mean, everyone knows on some sort of instinctive level that you have to practice something to get good at it, but I know that I for one get majorly sucked into the 'perfect pot' trap.

I really need to learn to let go of that and just applying the BIC method – i.e., Butt In Chair. Sit, write, and quit worrying over the quality of the derned stuff. Research and logic are both quite clear that the more you do something, the better you’ll get. Abstractivising, as I am so fond of doing, will only get you so far; I want more than 'grandiose theories and pile of dead clay'.

So excuse me – I’m off to write :)

[Addendum: After writing this, I did in fact go off to write, and wrote nearly 1200 words of a new short in about 40 minutes. SQUEE.)