Release Week!

So, the third book in my series is now available in ebook, and the print versions should be available any day now. This is pretty exciting stuff.

   In the first book, Ali wants to be famous, like her mother, and with the help of a video blog and a viral video she gets what she wants. Only it turns out to not be quite what she thought it would be... isn't that always the case.

In the second book, Ali is ready to leave fame behind her, but notoriety follows her when her young half-brother disappears while she is watching him. Ali has to find her brother while dealing with constant media attention.

So, that's the recap of the first two and, as a special treat, they are both on sale at most e-book outlets for this week, in order to celebrate the arrival of book three.

And now we come to the third (but not yet final) book in the series. This time Ali has to prove her innocence when accused of being part of a cheating ring at school. You just know after the first two books, that things couldn't possibly go without a hitch for her, right?

So, I'm going to hope that this has convinced you to read a bit about Ali, if you haven't already. In the meantime, I'm going to sit back and enjoy my release week!

Reusing Characters

Have you ever had a character you really like in a story that just didn't seem to go anywhere? Ditch the story. Keep the character.

I had a character like that show up in my Ali story. I'd written another story that I liked, but knew it needed a lot of work, and maybe a plot in order to really be something I could get other people to read. But I really liked my main character, Hannah Franklin. The story was that Hannah had grown up on TV along with her brothers and sisters in a family drama, the Flanagans. Her mother played the mother, her father was their base of reality. The show ended when half of her family was killed in a plane crash, effectively ending the show. The thing is that Hannah so identified with being Hannah Flanagan that sometimes it was hard to simply live her life as Hannah Franklin. That was the backstory. The story itself had her going to college and dealing with these things. Like I said, it needed a plot.

Then I was doing a major re-write of my Ali story, changing some of the characters out and freshening it up and realized that Hannah, minus the dead family, could be one of Ali's dormmates at boarding school. The thing is, that a child starting out on TV playing a very small child on a show is most likely to be played by twins. So, Hannah got split into two people, Heather and Lily. They grew up splitting the role of Hannah Flanagan. Heather still wants to be on TV, Lily is done with it. These two characters have added a great dimension to my Ali stories and I'm so glad they didn't just wither away in an unusable story.

What characters from a story stored in a drawer can you bring new life to?

Writing a Series

When I was in high school I started writing a story about a girl named Casey. The story didn't have a particular beginning or end, it just sort of meandered from episode to episode through Casey's four years of high school. I still have those notebooks and the comments my friends made in the margins (my first critique group). And while a lot happened and technically I had it broken down into four books, it wasn't really a true series.

Fast forward many years and the story of Casey has morphed into Reality Ali. It's no longer simply a series of events but a story with a plot and a beginning and a middle and an end.

I'm done. I'm happy.

But then I realize that maybe, I can write more stories about Ali - after all, I had all those notebooks of Casey stories, certainly I can write more about Ali. So I present my idea to the publisher and she agrees. Three more books are contracted for.

This is different than simply writing what happens next in Ali's story, like I used to do for Casey. Each book needs a plot. A beginning, a middle and an end (this is more complicated than it might seem at first glance). And the books have to fit into the whole.

Lights, Camera, Ali came out last year and the third book, Honestly, Ali will be out later this year.

So now I'm on the fourth book, tentatively titled Always, Ali.

There are challenges to writing a series that I didn't anticipate when I started. Things that I want to do now, but can't, because they weren't done that way in the first book. Everything has to fit into the world I've already created. It's a fascinating restriction, because I love the world I've created, it's just hard to remember that even though I created it, I can't simply alter the rules, at least without some explanation.

The great part about writing a series, though, is being able to spend more time with characters I love. The characters of Ali and her brother Mark are two of my favorites and it always feels so comfortable and easy to write scenes for them because I know the characters so well.

Working on this as a series, has been a wonderful experience. I learn more with each book. And am so glad I get to spend more time with these characters.

What challenges and adventures have you faced while writing?

The Glory and Agony of First Drafts

I love first drafts.

I hate first drafts.

It's a bit of a complicated relationship.

I love being able to have the freedom to go wherever I want with a new story and a new idea. The characters aren't locked into set patterns yet. Anything is possible.

But when anything is possible sometimes it's hard to figure out which way to go, which direction to take the story.

And then, at least for me, I always get to a part in the story - maybe about a third of the way in, where I'm convinced it's the most horrible thing ever written and there really is no point in going on anymore.

Usually I manage to muddle through that part and get back to the fun of inventing new twists and turns. And it is fun to create like that. It's one of the things I love about writing.

I also love the refining part, where I take the rough first draft and turn it into something that I might actually want someone else to read.

Right now I'm working on one story in first draft and it's just a little past the part where I'm convinced it's the most awful thing ever. I've muddled through the rough patch.

I also will be doing final edits shortly, for the third Ali book - Honestly, Ali! I'm so excited to have another Ali book coming out. The fourth Ali book is still in first draft form, waiting for me to turn it into something fun and glamorous. So I've got stories in all phases. Life is good.

First drafts can be the most fun though.

But, sometimes I really hate them.

What is your favorite or least favorite part of writing? First draft, revision, plotting? And why?