Fans and Decisions.

Spending time with your greatest fan is a plus especially when he's your grandson. On a recent trip to Florida for a high school graduation I was bugged by my grandson as to when the final book of The Henge Betrayed series will be available. The interesting conversation made me feel great. He has read the first three books more than once and has passed them along to one of his teachers who is also waiting for the book to arrive. J feels the books would make a great video game since there are so many adventures in the three he's read so far. He's a great reader which may be unusual in a boy but he's always enjoyed reading. During out talk, I told him what I had done with the fourth book. That was to make a decision. The book had been at the publisher for a year with no word about what was going on despite a number of emails. In this day of electronic publishing there's no reason for books to linger with the publisher. I don't know why this happened but looking back on my contract, I realized this was par for this particular publisher. Granted the books haven't sold well with them perhaps my fault but perhaps not since I've promoted and placed ads for the stories in a number of venues. So I came to a decision.

The first book Flight was out of contract and the fourth book was withdrawn. Rights back were given. I decided that I won't sign contracts that state a book's stay with a publisher will begin on publication rather than on acceptance but that's for another day. What was the Henge Betrayed series will be published under the series name as Affinities and the first book will be out maybe as early as today and the fourth book will follow in several weeks. This comes about three weeks after acceptance. The first book Escape will have a new cover the falling tower from the Tarot cards and it is a symbolic cover. The figures falling from the tower to me represent the four children's parents who metamorphosize into birds who protect the children. The final book is entitled Confrontations and my grandson is eagerly waiting for it to arrive. He says he'll but his mother to let him download it onto her Kindle Fire since he must read it right away. The book will also be in print and I'll have to order a slew since most of my grandchildren have a major or minor role in the books.

So that's my news. I'll have to figure how to change the cover that's used here on the site as the book that shows who I am and that will be done soon. I want the Confrontations cover there when that happens. I wish I could have spoken to his teacher to discover why she liked the books. Building fans a book at a time is a good way to go. By the way I'll be J. L. Walters on the covers to distinguish these books from the ones I write for other publishers.

Writers Need Itchy Feet

In my middle-grade fantasy series, The Adventures of Rupert Starbright, young Rupert shakes the leaves from his gray world and travels afar to magical lands and strange new roads. The impact on him is immediate and powerful.

As a writer, travel is one of the greatest sources of inspiration and, I feel, a must for anyone who writes for love and or profit. I recently took an amazing trip with my wife to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary. We chose the Mediterranean as our destination and got to see amazing places in Spain, France but especially Italy where I felt a strange and wonderful sense of belonging. Being of Italian decent, I fell in love with this beautiful land which felt like home from distant memories.

I despise the "ugly" traveler. Be they American or Zimbabwean, nothing irks me more than folks who find it necessary to make comparisons to their homeland with the places they visit- pointing out flaws or problems in the guest land. When traveling soak and revel in it all. The bumps and bruises are part of the character of a place. Unless you hail from a Utopian heaven-on-Earth, there is no sense in pointing to the black stains on the kettle, to use a cliche.

Exposing yourself to new landscapes, faces, foods and cultural artifacts makes you a better person. It sparks the imagination and adds new entries into our inner library of sights, sounds, smells and tastes that can be later plucked and put on the page. But beyond the practical use of your experiences in your writing, it opens up your mind and broadens your outlook. If you let it.

Its fun to see the popular tourist attractions, especially if it is your first visit to a place. But it is also a great fun to find peculiar and unique sites. Being animal lovers, especially cats, my wife and I learned that there was a cat shelter located in the heart of Rome. We found it on the map and were determined to visit this site which was located in an ancient Roman ruin known as Largo di Torre Argentina. Fresh off our flight from NYC, we wandered the sunny Rome cityscape until standing before us was a square block sized sunken ruin. Dotting this landscape (where Julius Ceaser was killed in 44 AD) were fuzz balls of difference colors. I volunteer at a NYC cat adoption center but to see one of this nature was a joy. We met many of the residents, some who looked rather beat up but were very friendly and obviously well cared for. Despite the huge difference between Ollie's Place in NYC and Largo di Torre - the common denominator was the love of gattos. The distance from NYC to Rome shrunk to pea size. It proved that we share so much as humans  but simply do things with different cultural masks.

I returned from this adventure filled with a desire to continue to learn to speak Italian, to read up on Italian history and to write. My itchy feet were scratched for now and I feel a richer person for it. I await the next itch. Until then- bouna scrittura!

More info on Mike DiCerto's books can be found at www.mikedicerto.com

I'm hooked on Rupert Starbright

I hope you are enjoying the Memorial Day weekend!

This month I’m posting my review for The Secret of My-Myst by Mike DiCerto (another YAAYNHO blogger). This is the second book in the Rupert Starbright series which I love because it’s all about the magic of imagination, which is such an empowering message to young readers. And the cover is totally cool. I hope you will join me in introducing this fun new series to all the kids you know and love.

The Secret of My-Myst
The Adventures of Rupert Starbright (Volume 2)
By Mike DiCerto
Zumaya Publications 
April 2012
240 pages

The Secret of My-Myst is Book 2 in the Adventures of Rupert Starbright series. And Mike DiCerto does not disappoint. We jump back into the thick of it with our hero, Rupert and his companion Dream Weaver. The evil Murkus still enslaves the children of Far-Myst while his darkness spreads across the land. He is more terrifying and powerful than ever before as a flame-throwing, winged Dragon Lord. Rupert is still trying to make his way home to Graysland. On a quick trip to the outhouse, Rupert crosses paths with Quix and Xerks, Murkus’s boy soldiers. They lure him into the Wildness with the promise of finding the treatmentia bush to cure his grandmother’s coffus. After all, the only reason he even came to this bizarre-o-land was to help his grandmother, who happens to be a very wise woman. But now he’s stuck here.

As much as I would like to go on and on about this captivating tale, you really must enter the mysterious land of My-Myst with Rupert and meet the shape-shifting Truseens for yourself. Be prepared to lose all contact with the outside world while immersed in this mesmerizing adventure. Once again imagination plays a major role – which I love. Amazing things are learned about the Weaver kids. And the path to victory does not necessarily mean destroying the enemy.

The Adventures of Rupert Starbright is a top-notch, original fantasy series. For all the questions The Door to Far-Myst (Book 1) asked,  The Secret of My-Myst answers – then asks some more. Along his journey this time, Rupert discovers a connection between Graysland and the strange lands of Far-Myst and My-Myst. See if you can figure it out. I’m pretty sure the answer will come in Book 3. I confess, I’m hooked on Rupert Starbright.

Peggy Tibbetts

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Jigsaw Puzzles and Writing

Over the years, I've come across several blogs and articles comparing writing to working on a jigsaw puzzle. In some ways the comparison seems apt. As Patricia Wrede commented in her blog, "Some people start by doing all the edges," which to me is like setting up an outline and filling in the story from the outside in. "Some people do all the trees and houses first", such as the worldbuilding. And then there are those who work on whatever pieces fit together and expand outward, whether it be character interactions, action scenes or quiet moments.

Pat Grant pointed out one problem with the metaphor that I've run into many times - that the jigsaw puzzle usually comes with a cover picture so that the assembler has some idea what the goal is. The writer, however, doesn't always know what the end result will be. Short story? Novella? Novel? Though the author does know whether she is writing a western or a fantasy, the minor details and how they all fit together can often be a surprise.

There is the real life fact that the jigsaw puzzle, whether box or web form, comes with a limited amount of puzzle pieces. An author, however, may often find additional pieces on the mental tabletop. This could be because there are several puzzles jumbled together - either several books of a series or perhaps a couple of completely unrelated books are warring for attention. The latter happens all too often to me, as I'm usually working on more than one story at a time. The problem comes in when I find myself trying to fit one of the YA sf pieces into the fantasy story. It might seem to fit at first, but not with any of the surrounding ones. As long as I can keep my jigsaws separate, though, a good mental break if one puzzle is being stubborn is to switch to a different one.

Occasionally, though a particular piece/idea/character just refuses to fit. That's one advantage the writer has over the jigsaw assembler. If the story works without that piece, it can be pulled out and left to grow its own story/puzzle.

An amazing Dystopian series, an intriguing MG read and a delightfully different YA book

  An amazing Dystopian series, an intriguing MG read and a delightfully different YA book

The amazing series, of course, is The Hunger Games. OMG! I had read book one a couple of years ago and just never went on to book two. What a mistake! So after the movie came out and blew my socks off (not that I ever wear any since I live in my Birkenstocks) I just HAD to read the rest of the series. The funniest part of the story, though, is that my hubby, who devours nonfiction, biography and religious books, read books two and three before I could even get to them.

So over the past month, in addition to:  

• ·         making stuff and organizing my daughter’s June wedding
• ·         editing Harpies, Book Two of Seraphym Wars
• ·         revising Laman, Book Three of Stardust Warriors
• ·         doing Travel Soccer with my youngest son
• ·         helping my oldest son graduate high school and finish his first semester of college at the same time
• ·         preparing for the Summer Reading Teen Party blog hop I agreed to join
• ·         blogging on my many blogs
• ·         showing my Victorian house which is for sale and we hope to be moving after the wedding
• ·         keeping the log house I rent out as a Vacation Rental clean and occupied
• ·         I read. Four books at a time.

My husband asked, how do keep them straight? I answered, they’re all different and good. Oh, yeah, and I listen to Harry Potter on my iPod in the car—for the millionth time, to analyze why it’s such a good series.

 But, back to The Hunger Games series. After seeing the movie I was so excited to imagine book two being filmed but had no idea how exciting it would be until I actually READ the book. Then I saw a blurb that the direction of the first movie was refusing to do the sequels because he didn’t have enough time to prepare and the actors/actresses might refuse to work with another director! Let’s all home that work out because I thought Catching Fire was the best of the three books. I raced through it then sat stunned at the cliff-hanger ending and ran even faster through Mockingjay. If you enjoyed Hunger Games, the book or movie, you MUST read the rest of the series.

Now, there are several authors I’ve read lately whom I really admire for their ability to write—voice and style. Suzanne Collins is one, of course, as is Cassandra Clare with her Mortal Instruments Series, which I am in the middle of reading. But I also discovered a couple of new authors whose writing is just as well done and captivating as the best-sellers’.

BUY

C. K. Volnek’s MG book, Ghost Dog of Roanoke kept me spellbound as I poured through it each night or whenever my son was at soccer practice. It combines obviously well-researched history of the missing Colony of Roanoke Island, Virginia with credible Native American lore. She did an amazing job finding her way to the past while maintaining a foothold in the present. I thoroughly enjoyed all of the characters and loved the way she introduced and dealt with the ‘evil’ antagonist, including how and why it came to be. I think any Middle Grade reader would enjoy this book and it could easily be used in any fifth-grade classroom during the study of American History. Well done, C. K.

 

BUY

The YA book I just finished reading and found amazingly well-written, well-crafted and couldn’t wait to finish was Colors Like Memories by Meradeth Houston.  She took the idea of guardian angels and created a fascinating, plausible world and culture around which to weave a story of loss, grief, love and recovery. Not only do we get a peek into the world of the Sary, but she dealt with an abusive boyfriend, suicidal/cutting teenager dealing with an alcoholic parent and loss of her mother. Yet the characters never seem too needy or angsty—and find the strength they need when they need it. I found that reading Colors Like Memories while also reading The Hunger Games books wasn’t a jarring change as one might assume given one is a new author and the other a best-seller. Colors Like Memories held its own with interesting characters, plot twists and good, descriptive writing. Well done, Meradeth.                                                                                                                                

Eric Hoffer Awards

I have a bit of good news today. We, as authors, work on our stories, brainstorm them, write them, revise them, revise them, revise them ... you know what I'm saying. And when the book is finally out there for people to read, we cross our fingers that someone will like it. Now, contests mean different things to different people. Some don't care for them; others can take them or leave them; others think they're great. All I can say is placing in a contest sure does feel good to me. It makes those months and years of writing, crying and wanting to give up worth every smile and tear. And now for my news .

My YA Historical Novel, Caves, Cannons, and Crinolines, is an Honor Book in the 2012 Eric Hoffer Awards, Young Adult Category. They even have a short review of the book here. I am honored to be honored. This is the second award for Caves. It also was a Finalist in the 2011 Next Generation Indie Book Awards, Novella Category.

Thanks for letting me share my news with you. Have a super week. Happy Reading and Writing.

It's here it's here!

My turn to blog came up just in time. My publisher and I have been working so hard to get the new Library of Athena book, The Sword of Danu, ready for publication. And despite some minor (though on Friday they didn't seem so minor) snags, the book SHOULD be available in print in time for the launch party, which will be held on Sunday night at Balticon.

I was really afraid the book wouldn't be ready in time, not through any fault of mine or the publishers. This is just how things sometimes go. But I am excited they will be ready.

The book is not yet on Amazon in print, BUT... the Kindle edition IS available!

So... go and get it!

The Sword of Danu for Kindle

Look for it on B&N for the Nook later this week. Add it on Goodreads. Like it on Amazon! Meanwhile, if you are available this weekend, live in the Baltimore area and have nothing better to do, come on down to the con. It's actually in Hunt Valley, but there are a lot of great panels, and autograph signings, and the launch party. And hopefully copies of the new book!