Ink in the Book

Hey all you beautiful guys and dolls!! Welcome to my Celebration!! What am I celebrating this week? Well, if you visited last week, you'll remember my announcement posted below. As you can see, this week's entry is the same. (But I've added 3 new celebrations for this week. ) Is it because I'm lazy? NO! 3 reasons: 1. I've been traveling this week. 2. I've been head over heels in revisions. 3. I'm visiting my daughter for the 4th of July. I have BIG news to share......drum roll please... I am now an intern for Corvisiero Literary Agency! I will be updating my profile and blog soon, to reflect all the happy changes taking place in my world. Thanks for visiting and I'll visit you soon...

Hey beautiful guys and dolls! How are you today? I've recovered from vacation. I'm working on the recovery of my son's wedding...My first son is married...*sniff sniff* Thanks for all the lovely comments of encouragement during my moment of insanity yesterday. Sometimes, no matter how hard I try, I can't seem to get around the discouragement of writers block. Yes, I'm one of those who believe you can face that wall of "I have no idea what to write next." I've found that the best way to overcome my "I don't feel like writing" moods is to offer a workshop on writing. Talking about the writing process and interacting with those who write, too, pulls me out of my slump. So, in honor of and in preparation Camp NanoWrimo, I'm offering: HELP ME WRITE A SCENE!! I'm putting in an advance notice.  I'll be starting a new workshop next week. I'm going to be discussing scenes and how to work them into a fully loaded chapter...

Flickr CC Photo: Black Rain: This is how I feel Hey beautiful guys and dolls. I will admit. I don't feel very beautiful right now. My personal life has over taken my writing life. I don't feel inspired and... I. Don't. Want. To. Write. I'm sorry. I'm very overwhelmed at the moment. I'm sure you've noticed I've not been around for a while. WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOU CAN'T WRITE? I'm asking for advice. I need it...

Manuscript Title: REFRACTION Author: Talynn Age group:   YA Genre:  Thriller Word count:   54,000 words 250 word blurb: Pretending to be someone else has its difficulties. Seventeen-year-old Prism Chase thought it would be fun until the game turns deadly. She has exactly forty-eight hours to stop her charades and come clean about who she really is or people will die. After she witnesses the murder of a government official, Prism goes into the witness protection program. Still scared that she isn’t safe, she comes up with a brilliant plan. She secretly switches places with another girl in the program who is on the run from a crazed bounty hunter. Instead of hiding, though, Prism steps right into the hands of the man who murdered the official. As hours dwindle, Prism must figure out how to escape from the enemy, who is playing the part of protector and thinks she is someone else. Deeper secrets surface when Prism discovers her fake hideout is the battleg...

Hi everyone, Jess here :) I hope everyone is having a wonderful Friday! This week I am celebrating the fact I finally have a polished first chapter! It's not much, but it's more than I've had in a really long time. Now onto the other 33... How about you? What are you celebrating today?

First, I’d like to give a big thank you to Talynn for allowing me to host her blog! I truly appreciate her sharing her readers with me as I celebrate the release of my debut novel, Along the Way Home . I’ve followed Talynn’s blog for quite a while now, and even participated in her fantastic AgentInk contest. (And of course I then fretted endlessly over what I’d submitted.) Failure Wasn’t an Option: How it Took Me 13 Years to Sign a Book Contract Publishing is a tough business and not for quitters. While right now I’m happily thinking of how to best promote my debut novel, it took over THIRTEEN years to get to said happiness. Yes, it took me thirteen years to go from, “Hey, I’ve got a really great idea for a book!” to signing the publication contract from Astraea Press. And there were plenty of times during those thirteen years when I considered quitting. Considered that maybe I didn’t have it in me to go the long haul. Considered that maybe the process was just...

When having two powers makes you a Super and having none makes you a Normal, having only one makes you a sad half-superpowered freak. It makes you a One. I remember hearing about ONE when I first joined Twitter. Unbeknownst to her, although probably like many others, I watched Leigh Ann Kopans' journey to self-publish this amazing novel. And let me tell you all something, it is pretty darn amazing. ONE is the story of Merrin Grey as she struggles to make herself whole. I really liked Merrin. She seemed like an authentic teenager to me: rebellious, confused, love-struck by Elias but scared to act on it, and yet so vulnerable at the same time. Even more, I was thankful for very realistic romance between she and Elias. Finally. And if that's not enough, not only are both  sets of parents present in the story, they actually play an integral role, something I think is missing from YA. I don't want to spoil the book too much since it just came out, but th...

Hi everyone :) It's Jess again, and I hope everyone had a great weekend! Today's Mixed Ink is all about Critique Partners. When I think about the importance of being a critique partner (CP), I also thinking about the importance of   having   a CP. The relationship isn’t one way—no relationship should be. A CP is someone with whom you share your writing, from the first drafts and pitches straight through to a solid, polished manuscript. They encourage you, and you encourage them. You celebrate their successes and pull them out of the trenches when all seems lost. To me, a CP is a Writing BFF. It’s basically like any other friendship, except that this person understands things about writing and creating that your best friend in real life may not. For instance, mine pretty much thinks I’m insane when I tell her my characters can’t (or simply won’t) shut up, so I can’t go to sleep. Or that I’m so inspired to write that it feels like my hands are literally on fire. Talynn here does...

Hi everyone, Jess here :) I hope everyone is having a wonderful Friday. It's rainy here, but that's totally fine because I'm here to celebrate Talynn and I's mini-vacations this weekend! I'm off to Maine and she's celebrating a mini-vacation by the river. Never take the value of mini-vacations for granted. Even just a day away from everything is enough to rejuvenate, and I think I speak for both of us when I say it is much needed! How about you? What are you celebrating today? Talynn apologizes for missing the hop but promises she will visit as many blogs as she can over the weekend!

Good morning everyone! Happy Wednesday:) and welcome to my Insecure Writers Support Group Post! This group was founded by Alex J. Cavanaugh and I joined over a year ago. And it's the one time of month I can whine and get away with it! So my insecurities this month? Well, as usual, it involves rejection. But this month, my feelings about rejection have changed. It's past the "well, my feelings have been hurt because I was rejected." Now, I'm beginning to wonder, "Is something wrong with my writing?" I've learned so much in the past few months, working as an intern for Blue Ridge Literary. My writing techniques have grown in leaps and bounds. As I edit others work and answer their questions about writing, I'm like, "Hey, that helped me!" While I have my insecurities and wonder when my day in publishing will come, I see the growth I'm making and feel content I'll make it one day, one way or the other:) So what abou...

Let's add some tint to our ink and get creative. How is it an author can write in colored ink? Be original? Be unique? find the write twist that makes writing stand out from the others? Thank you, Flickr Creative Commons Artists --> When asked to explain what point of view is, I always say it’s like putting a video camera in the hand of the MC. You want the reader to only see or hear what that character experiences.  A deeper point of view helps the reader bond with a character, thus making them care about what's going on in the story. In essence, this lets the reader actually "become" the MC and allows him to feel like he is in the story, with all the characters, living what they are living. This means, as you write, you want to include everything the MC is feeling, thinking, doing, experiencing. And don't simply tell us your MC is happy. What would you MC say and do if he were happy? Whistle? Skip? Talk incessantly? What do they do, beyond smil...

Hey y'all! I'm so looking forward to today's post! Ya wanna know why? I have a success story to share!! NOT MINE!! Not yet anyway:) This is from a participant in my workshop I held earlier this year. And guess what guys? I have two more success stories to share with you within the next couple of weeks!!! But this is a success story from OPERATION AGENT INK Pith Opportunity I hosted back in February. I asked Melanie if she would write a guest post for Ink in the Book to share here experience about the pitch contest. Here's what she had to say: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. ...