A-Z Challenge Reflections

Whew.  The challenge is over, for this year.

I had a great time in my first ever A-Z challenge, but it certainly was challenging!  I've never maintained such a rigorous schedule with my blog posts, and I had to do a lot of planning to stay on top of things.  (All this while my students were wrapping up the semester, to boot!)


Lessons Learned:
1. Planning ahead is key
2. Writing posts that require research may take longer, but it's more fun for me (and my readers) to sink our teeth into.
3. Cool people do challenges!  I've met so many amazing bloggers, and I'm grateful for the chance to expand my online circle of friends.  (I even got to meet one fellow A-Zer in person at a writing class last month, which was infinitely lovely.)
4. Writing more posts a week is possible.  I don't think I'll post every day, but the challenge showed me how to step up my game.
5. Writing with a theme helps prevent writer's block.

What a great experience.  I will certainly plan to participate next year!


I'm considering writing on a theme each month, to help give my posts cohesion.  What do you think?  Any thematic suggestions?


Oh!  While I'm asking: who wants to do a guest post for me? :)

A-Z Challenge: X is for X

X is for X (as in, the Roman numeral)

Maybe I'm copping out with this one, but I admit, I was stumped!  I decided to to an homage to X (that nice, round number ten that always makes me think of Indiana Jones) with a silly post: lists of my top tens!  These lists are not in any particular order (1 is just the first one I thought of, not necessarily the best)...

Top X Movies
I. Philadelphia Story
II. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
III. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
IV. Into the Woods
V. Gone with the Wind
VI. Beauty and the Beast
VII. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
VIII. Rear Window
IX. 10 Things I Hate About You
X. Cleopatra

Top X Foods
I. Sushi
II. Spaghettios
III. Chocolate anything
IV. Wine
V. Falaffel
VI. Indian
VII. Ethiopian
VIII. Italian
IX. Soup
X. Fresh, homemade bread (with olive oil)

Top X Songs

I. "Don't Stop Me Now" Queen
II. "Into the Woods" Sondheim
III. "Sweet Caroline" Neil Diamond
IV. "Up on the Shelf" Harry Chapin
V. "Creeque Alley" Mamas and the Papas
VI. "Teach Your Children" Crosby, Stills, Nash
VII. "Only the Good Die Young" Billy Joel
VIII. "Dark Lady" Cher
IX. "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" Pat Benatar
X. "I Want You to Want Me" Cheap Trick

And, finally, since this month (and this blog, for that matter) is all about writing: Top X Authors
*These are just a sampling of those individuals who I love to read on a rainy day.

I. Rick Riordan
II. Sonya Sones
III. Dorianne Laux
IV. Neil Gaiman
V. Sharon Creech
VI. Laini Taylor
VII. Anne Lamott
VIII. The syndicate known as Carolyn Keen
IX. J.K. Rowling
X. Marion Zimmer Bradley

We're almost to the end of the alphabet!!  Cheer on the other participants as we near the finish line!

What are some of your top X?

A-Z Challenge: W is for World Book Night

W is for World Book Night

Remember to support the other A-Z bloggers as the month winds to a close.

I had intended to write about Woolf, Virginia today, but after my first experience with World Book Night this week, this seemed like an appropriate topic choice.

World Book Night happened for the first time here in the U.S. on Monday, April 23, 2012.  Months ago, I signed up to be a book giver: basically, volunteers signed up to give away books to people who don't read very much.  Authors gave up their royalties, and close to a million books were printed just for this event.

There were so many stories on Monday night of people going to courthouses and halfway houses, finding people who had never before had a book and giving them something precious.  I felt a little deflated: I had planned to wait until Tuesday, and then distribute my copies of Tim O'Brien's The Things they Carried on the community college campus where I work part-time.

Compared to the book givers who wandered into the unknown with their books, I felt safe and wimpy.

But then Tuesday morning dawned, and I lugged my box of books to my first class.  College students are a hard sell: when I taught middle school, I could always influence my students' reading choices with honest enthusiasm, but when I book talked the novel to these guys, they just stared at me.  Oh, well, I sighed, I'm sure I can give the books away.

Then, a wonderful thing happened: at the break, five or six of them dove for the box.  Well, good, I thought!  That's five or six who might actually choose to read something!  (I teach developmental reading and writing: my students do not want to have anything to do with literature and language, but they are in the class because they tested too low for freshman English.  If anyone is a non-reader, it's each of my students.)

Through the rest of my classes, all of the books were gobbled up, and not always by the students I had expected to take them: in my night class, the giggly, friendly women who sit in the back row dove for the books, while the men didn't move.

I was so excited, so giddy, to participate that I actually forgot my flash disk (with four semesters worth of lessons) in the morning classroom.  (The story has a happy ending: it was found by my supervisor.)

World Book Night was an awesome experience this year, and I can't wait to participate next year!  I'll certainly try to step outside of my comfort zone next time, but I still feel really good about the students who decided to read a book for fun.


Did you sign up to be a book giver?  Did you even know about WBN?  Have you ever convinced someone who didn't like to read to read a great book?

A-Z Challenge: V is for VOYA

V is for VOYA

In case you didn't know, VOYA stands for "voices of youth advocates".  They are an excellent resource for teachers, librarians, and lovers of YA: each issue is packed with reviews, interviews, articles, and book lists.

I began reviewing for them in 2008, and am still sending off the average of one review a month.  It's a great experience: I read books that I might not otherwise seek out, I get to keep the review copies, and usually, I'm reviewing ARCs, so there's also that heady feeling of reading something before anyone else.

There have been so many great titles that have come my way since 2008, so it's hard to pick a favorite.  I was beyond thrilled when One Crazy Summer won the Coretta Scott King award and lots of other honors a few months after I had the chance to review it, and I also loved reviewing one of Cameron Dokey's Once Upon a Time  books (a series I already adored).  VOYA keeps me on top of teen literature, and I hope to keep reviewing for the magazine for a long, long time. 

Applying to review is a rigorous process, but if you're interested, you should absolutely go for it.  You can find out more here.

Do you have a favorite review publication, whether it's a blog or a journal? 

Check in on the other A-Z folks today!

A-Z Challenge: U is for U-G-L-Y

U is for U-G-L-Y: Bullying

Today's topic is a serious one.  Bullying continues to be a powerful issue facing teens.  There are a variety of programs in place in schools across the country to attempt to combat the cruel nature of some children, but literature can provide strength and healing, as well.

Readers like to see themselves represented on the page almost as much as they like to escape into a good book, and there are a large number of books which have the potential to help teens overcome tough situations.

The first that springs to mind is Thirteen Reasons Why. When I was still teaching middle school, this book was making the rounds.  It was a hard story to read, but I think it is a vital tale: the narrator receives audio tapes recorded by a classmate who recently killed herself, in which she outlines some of the reasons she gave up.  This is a real issue faced by teens today, and one that's hard to talk about.  Literature can be the starting point for those tough conversations.

Another excellent title is Sharon Flake's The Skin I'm In.  I loved teaching this book because it deals with racial bullying in stark, honest terms.  Maleeka, the narrator, is considered too black by the popular girls in her school.  They torment her, but Maleeka gradually finds her strength and beauty and confronts them.  She's by no means perfect, and I think readers can really identify with her.

Luckily, YA authors are good at tapping into harsh reality, and there's a wide range of books that exist that deal with bullying.  I've pulled together a few booklists to help you in your search.

Pinterest Board: YA Bullying

A booklist compiled by a high school librarian

A list complied by Mitali Perkins, YA author

Do you think YA writing should deal with harsh realities?  The "problem novel" has always received a lot of negative publicity (remember the recent YASAVES campaign?): Should writers address the darkness, or is it up to them to provide imaginary escapism?

Make sure you support the other A-Z challenge participants as we near the end of the month!

A-Z Challenge: T is for Travel

T is for Travel

Support the other A-Z Bloggers as we enter the home stretch!

As writers, we must constantly refill our cup of inspiration.  The best way I've found to do this is to travel away from your normal surroundings.

You don't have to go very far, or even leave for very long.  But stepping outside of your comfort zone helps you to be braver in your writing.

When I was a college sophomore, I traveled internationally for the first time.  In China, I learned to write about homesickness.  In France, I learned to write with grand ambitions (walking in the path of so many literary luminaries will do that to a person).  In Italy, I felt the pull to commit to writing as my path more strongly than I ever had before.

I spent a month living in Florence, sharing a charming apartment with four other American girls.  We were all students at Santa Reparata, an American-run artistic school nestled three blocks away from the Duomo.  Sunlight streamed into the apartment, and every window had a view of tile rooftops and the iconic round dome of the cathedral.  It was magical, and everything about that month made me long for a typewriter.  I wanted to stay there, get fat eating too much pasta, and write from morning 'til night.

The view from the kitchen window, Florence 2004

Someday, I would like to set a story in Florence.  The sunlight there is clear as glass, and the town is like no other place on earth.

Actually, every place is like that: not necessarily the sunlight, because it's different everywhere I've ever been, but every place is unique and bursting with inspiration.

I love traveling, and it's something I consider vital to my writing process.


Have the places and people you've encountered away from home seeped into your writing?  What challenges you most about travel?  What do you love most about it?

A-Z Challenge: S is for Setting

S is for Setting

How do you craft a believable setting?

For me, I tend to rely on the real world, adding magical and mythical details to something that is "normal". (I write modern fantasy.)

For others, world building is a quest: the search for the perfect imaginary plants and races to populate the world that the hero inhabits. (This is most common in high fantasy and science fiction.)

For still others, setting relies on accurate historical details, and the construction of a story world requires dedicated research. (I'm thinking of historical fiction, here.)

What, exactly, is setting?

I teach my students that setting is the time and place of the story.

This is physical location which might be broad (on earth), specific (in the small town called Williamston), or very specific (in the cupboard under the stairs).

Time could also be an entire era, or a day in the life of a character. Time can refer to time of day, season, or time period.

Some people think of setting as just the backdrop for a story. It can be that, but there's so much more power in a setting.

Why does setting matter?

Setting sets the mood: It was a dark and stormy night.

Setting establishes tone: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

Setting provides backstory: Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious by this son of York.


Do you prefer specific settings, or settings with broad brushstrokes? Are the settings you write vastly different from the settings you like to read?

Visit the challenge blog and see what other people are talking about today. Can you believe the alphabet (and the month) is almost over?

A-Z Challenge: R is for Reading

R is for Reading

I'm sure you've heard it multiple times: a writer must also be a reader. I don't think it matters what you read, although some people say you should become an expert in whichever genre you want to write.

To me, simply the act of devouring any and all books is powerful.

When I was teaching middle school, I enforced ten minutes of silent reading at the start of each class (it helps that I was teaching Language Arts). The observant kids noticed how many books I would go through in a week, and they were always astounded. What they didn't notice was that some of their classmates were reading even more than me, and I have no doubt that one day I'll see some familiar names on books.

As a child, I read all the time. I counted up my books and attempted to catalog them (a precursor to my career as a librarian, I suppose). I remember the pride I felt when my childhood book collection surpassed 500.

Whenever my family traveled, I read in the back seat of the car long after sunset. I got really good at holding the book up so I could catch the passing streetlights. My dad was convinced I would go blind.

I read for pleasure. Sure, I read in my genre, but I also read books that friends recommend, or that end up on various awards lists. I read random titles that my husband grabs on impulse at the library. For me, reading is an escape, but it's also a crash course in craft.

The more I've written, the more I've found myself analyzing plot and character when I'm reading something for fun. It can be annoying, but at the same time, I feel like I'm continuously learning from the best. In turn, I've noticed changes in my writing that have gradually crept in the more conscious of the words of others I've become. It's a spiral of growth, and I am so glad that, for whatever reason, I discovered the joys of reading at a young age. It's a love affair that's never cooled, and never will.

Visit the challenge blog to cheer on the other alphabetical bloggers.

Why do you read? What's your favorite book-related memory? What do you read?

A-Z Challenge: Q is for Queries

Q is for Queries

I bet this is going to be a popular subject today!

There are lots of posts out there that can help you write a better query letter (my agent, Kat Salazar, has one, and Nathan Bransford offers a great how-to on his blog), so that's not what this post is going to be about.

Instead, I wanted to share with my first query with you. It's a doozy.

The novel that finally landed me an agent is my FIFTH completed novel. I queried three of the other ones, and learned a lot each time.

The first query letter I ever wrote was in 2010. It's for a novel that I completed in NaNo 2008. I posted this to Evil Editor for brutal feedback, and it helped me learn. Follow the link to read the really, really bad query (plus flames of feedback!) This is the query, basically, that I then sent out in a halfhearted attempt to find an agent before I was ready.

I've learned a lot since then. Each time I queried, I revised, and each conference I went to, I received critical feedback about my queries. I'd love to post the progression of queries for my current novel, and plan to someday in the future once it's moving further on its way.

Stop by the challenge blog and catch up with the other participants!


What experiences have you had with querying? Is too much or too little information worse to include in a query? Any tips you can offer?

A-Z Challenge: P is for Pantser

P is for Pantster

I was at the SCBWI Carolina's conference in 2011 when I first heard the term "pantser". The delightful Beth Revis was giving a talk on her writing process, including the years of not-so-great novels that preceded her rocking debut "Across the Universe", and she called herself a pantser.

I perked up and listened. Finally, I had found a term for the chaotic, fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants style that has always been a part of my creative process.

I felt validated: here was another author who was admitting that she worked in as much of a messy way as I do. Since then, I have met many authors who consider themselves pantsers, and each encounter is liberating.

I had felt for so long that because I don't follow an outline in lock stop, because I don't know ahead of time EXACTLY what my characters will say and do, that I was somehow less than as a writer. This is not to say that I don't have structure when I work: I do, but it's loose and less linear than some people.

And that's okay. My writing process works for me. That's the whole point, right?

I am a pantser, and proud of it.

How do you write? Are you a pantser or a planner?

Visit the challenge blog and see what other people are talking about for P! Can you believe how far we've come?

A-Z Challenge: O is for Openness

O is for Openness

Writing is a powerful form of creation. Sometimes, all that power goes to our heads, and we try to force our characters to do things that we want. Usually, this is the point when the story starts to drag and the characters revolt (or become revolting).

This is why openness is so important for the writer.

Yes, we have a chance to create entire worlds on the page. Yes, we have freedom with our story. But at the heart of every great idea, sometimes the story takes on a life of its own.

When we fight against this, trying to force the tale back towards our expectations, we have closed our minds to the power of the story. We might be able to finish the draft this way, but we won't have been true to the story that wanted to be told.

How can we, as writers, be open to our stories?

By listening. If something feels wrong but you write it anyway, listen to that sense of wrongness.

Maybe your characters need to say something else right now: let them. Give your characters the freedom to grow beyond your expectations, and your story will be the better for it.

Keep an outline of the path the story is on, but don't be surprised if you have to revise this multiple times. Be open to the changes that occur naturally in your story: don't force the plot to your conclusion, but let it reveal its climax to you. This may be what you expected, or it may be something completely different. Either way, trust your story.

How do you react when your story deviates from your intentions?

Visit the challenge blog and see what other people are talking about for O!

A-Z Challenge: N is for NaNoWriMo

N is for NaNoWriMo

What is this strange acronym, you ask? National Novel Writing Month, of course!

Each fall, scads of writers gather together in spirit and attempt to pen 50,000 words of a novel between November 1st and 30th.

It doesn't cost anything, and all you get for "winning" is the right to brag and the knowledge that yes, you can write a novel.

I love it.

I've participated three times, two of which I've actually "won", and I plan to do NaNo for the rest of my writing career.

Why is it cool?

Well, first, there's the whole shared energy thing. When millions of people across the globe focus their energy towards the same goal, amazing things happen. Communities spring up, writers make connections, and everyone gets to ride the amazing tide of word count energy.

Also, there's something profoundly liberating about writing without revision. There simply isn't TIME in NaNo to agonize over each perfect verb: you simply have to get the story down. I love this: editing, for me, takes place after a book is "complete", and NaNo reinforces my own style of fast writing followed by lengthy revisions.

Both years that I've finished NaNo, I've written something that I never knew was inside me. One of those stories was the first I ever queried (it didn't move, but I learned so much from the entire process).

Have you ever participated in NaNoWriMo? What sounds appealing about it? What about the whole idea scares you?

Remember to visit the other A-Z challenge participants!

A-Z Challenge: M is for Writing Memoirs

M is for Memoirs (on writing, of course!)

Every writer has a list of favorite books on writing, so I wanted to share my top three with you.

Bird by Bird, by Anne Lamott: this witty, beautiful book explores writing and life as only Lamott can. Her voice is crisp and conversational, and ever since I was introduced to the concept of the "shitty first draft" as an undergrad, I keep coming back to this book for guidance...not to mention a good laugh.

On Writing, by Stephen King: although I'm ashamed to admit that I've never read any of his fiction, King's memoir struck a powerful chord with me. Like Lamott, he ties writing back to events in his life, and his advice is sharp, to the point, and perfect.

Zen in the Art of Writing, by Ray Bradbury: this collection of essays has Bradbury's signature magic and turn of phrase. Like the other two books mentioned here, this is part writing handbook, part memoir. I first read Bradbury as a teen, and his words continue to inspire and guide my steps.

Reading widely is important to any writer, but reading other writer's experiences with craft and process is, I think, incredibly valuable as you figure out your own methods. Borrow what works, respect what doesn't, and read, read, read!


Which books have shaped your writing process? Are there any craft memoirs that you adore?

Wander over to the challenge blog and see what other people are talking about for M!

A-Z Challenge: L is for Location

We've completed the second week of the A-Z challenge! Keep it up, everyone!

L is for Location, location, location! (or, where I write)

For years, I didn't have a set space for writing. I had a laptop in college, so I wrote wherever I could find the space. When we moved to North Carolina, I bought a beautiful desk and a desktop, and I started to claim my writing space.

For two years, my computer also served as our T.V./DVD player, so my writing desk sat in the wide open living room. I didn't realize how hard it was for me to write in shared family space until we bought the house and I claimed a bedroom as my office. (To be fair, it turns into a guest room whenever we have company, but still, it's mostly mine.)



I relish the ability to shut the door and fall into my writing, but I have also learned to appreciate writing in public places, like coffee shops.

During NaNoWriMo last year, a good friend and I made weekly writer's dates, meeting at Starbucks for an hour or two of quiet, companionable writing. To my surprise, I was profoundly productive on our outings. I am learning how to incorporate writing at home and writing away into my process.

When I revise, I have a third location: the dining table. With the curtain open and light streaming in, I am more productive revising Kindle to notebook than I have ever been staring at the computer screen. Once again, it's new and strange: I subscribe very firmly to the idea that anyone must have "a room of one's own" to write (more on that later in the month), but I am learning flexibility in my location.

Where do you write? Do you have a favorite setting/desk/tool that you have to use whenever you write, or can you sit down anywhere and craft a story?

A-Z Challenge: K is for Kill your Darlings

K is for Kill your Darlings (or how to edit without mercy)

There are various attributions for the phrase "murder your darlings" as it applies to writing (some say Fitzgerald, others say Quiller-Couch, still others say Faulkner).

I don't really think it matters who first said this (the librarian in my just cringed at that statement): what really matters is that we take to heart the meaning of this phrase.

My book is perfect, right? It's my wonderful star child, right?

Wrong. It is flawed, and I must trade the mother cap for that of the murderer if I want my manuscript to live up to its full potential. Hey, you have to be cruel to be kind!

When I'm revising, it can be so challenging to be brutal: the manuscript is, after all, my child. But I have learned to be distrustful if I don't make at least a handful of revisions in each chapter or scene: no one is perfect, and I'm no exception.

I've learned that I am less likely to murder my darlings when I revise shortly after finishing the project: for me, time is of the essence. I need to leave a completed manuscript alone for months, untouched, so that I can come back to it with a sharp mind that can see the flaws in the story. It's easier for me to begin a new project and let that take over before I even consider editing the completed manuscript. The downside of this is that I have a lot of "transitional" projects, which never seem to get finished.

When I am editing, I have also learned that the work will never be done: I'll send what I consider to be a perfect draft to my agent, but she'll send it back with suggestions. According to thinkexist.com, da Vinci is the one who taught us that "art is never finished, only abandoned."

Before I abandon my darling pages to the world, I want to make sure that I've been as critical and thoughtful in my revisions as possible. Distance helps me kill my darlings.

How do you edit? What tricks have you developed to make your work the best it can be before you abandon it?

We're almost halfway through the A-Z challenge! Cheer on the other participants!

A-Z Challenge: J is for Jo March

I decided to re-post this character homage from March of 2012.

J is for Jo March

I don't remember the first time I read Louisa May Alcott's famous novel, but a battered copy of it sits on my writing desk, beside my other childhood favorites. Sandwiched between The Secret Garden and The Three Musketeers rests the novel that introduced me to the world of writing.

Somewhere in my childhood, I picked up this classic and immediately entered a dream world. I idolized Jo March, as I know many girls have done in the century and a half since the book was first published. Unlike many of my fellow readers, I did not swoon for Laurie. I applauded Jo's decision to set out on her own in the world. Even though she was miserable in the boarding house in New York, her writing was being published, and I thought that was a wonderful thing.

The image of Jo with her cap, scribbling away in the attic, comes to me often when I sit down to work. As I grew to know more about Alcott, my fascination with her semi-autobiographical heroine only increased. Somewhere in my mind lurked this thought: if Jo could do it, why not me?

I know she's a flawed feminist heroine: I spent a good amount of time in college arguing just that point. But that doesn't change the fact the Jo March, and by extension, her creatrix, served as my own literary model as I grew up.

Even now, I send a silent wish to Jo that my words will be inspired, and that I will always find as much joy in the craft of writing as she did. I know Louisa struggled in her life, but through Jo she created beauty and bliss in the pursuit of "castles in the sky," and I am forever grateful for this literary role model.

For further reading, check out this piece.

Which fictional characters have made a difference to the way you live your life? Do you think that memoir or fiction is a more powerful form of storytelling?

Remember to visit the other A-Z challenge participants!

A-Z Challenge: I is for Indie

Whenever I hear the word "indie", I picture Harrison Ford running from Nazis. No, not that Indy! (Unfortunately...)

I is for Indie Publishing

I don't know very much about indie publishing: as you know, I've opted to take the traditional route to publication. But it's important to discuss all the options that are open to modern writers, so I wanted to use this opportunity to explore the other side of the publishing coin.

Recently, I connected with YA fantasy author S.M. Boyce on Twitter. I had the chance to read her debut novel, and now she's graciously agreed to come back to the blog for an interview.

Thanks for having me, Jen! I’m excited to do this interview. Guess I won’t hold us up with chit chat. Let’s get to it!

1. What is "Indie Publishing"?

Indie Publishing is one of two options an author has when they consider publishing their work: either go the traditional way of agents and publishing houses, or go it alone. The latter option is called indie, or self-publishing.

2. Why did you decide to go the indie route?

Trust me, it wasn’t an easy choice. I researched for weeks. I read books, discussions on the subject, blogs both for and against the indie route. I even wrote a mini-thesis discussing my decision. I’ll try to keep it as concise as possible because I could talk about this all day.

In the end, the scales were tipped towards indie publishing for a few reasons, the most important of which was the fact that most new authors aren’t supported by their publishers. All of the marketing is left for the new author to tackle on their own, and if they get enough sell-throughs (a ratio of books sold to books published) with that and the next few books, they’re considered for a bigger marketing budget. But only if those numbers look good. Otherwise, they’re stuck as a middle grade author selling barely anything. On top of that, I read articles and blog posts where quite a few authors claimed that their book was never or minimally edited. So I gathered from my research that (1) I wasn’t likely to get any marketing help, and (2) I wasn’t likely to get much in the way of editing.

So…by going traditional, I would pretty much be in the same boat as I would be as an indie: doing it myself. I figured it was silly for me to pay someone 82.5% of my royalties to do the work myself.

Now, dear reader, this might not be your experience. If it isn’t, I’d love to hear how things went for you. But based on my research and the discussions I continue to see online about the indie revolution, I feel like I made the right choice.

The next topic to consider was distribution. Traditional publishers had a monopoly on getting into brick and mortar bookstores, and going indie would mean I wouldn’t have that. That was a tougher choice to make. I’d always dreamed of walking into a bookstore and picking up a book. But the fact of the matter is that more and more people are turning to online book sales, and more and more brick and mortar stores are closing. It didn’t seem like a good business decision to ignore the other benefits of indie publishing for the chance to be on the bottom shelf in a bookstore.

3. What regrets do you have/things that you wish you'd done differently?

I wish I’d done more research on the marketing aspect of selling my book before I released it. As it was, I was so hell bent on releasing it that I didn’t pause to think about a blog tour, launch celebration, or even how I’d market it. I definitely recommend you have a marketing plan before you publish.

4. What advice can you give other authors?

In the age-old words of Joe Konrath, “don’t write crap.” It’s important that all authors – indie and traditional alike – give readers the highest quality. Get an editor. Write several drafts. Don’t publish it until you’re 110% happy with it.

Also, make sure you keep your thick skin. It’s hard to see negative reviews of something you put your life and soul into, but the fact of the matter is not everyone will like it. Shrug off the bad reviews, focus on the good, learn from your mistakes, and keep writing.

5. What's been the best part about going indie?

The autonomy. I have control over everything: the marketing, the website, the content, the cover…I love it. I’m a business-minded person, so I like to manage that sort of thing. But it’s also nice to make 70% royalties on my novel, have control over the price, and have the flexibility to adjust prices and promotions on a whim.

Thanks for having me! I’d love to continue the discussion in the comments. What do you guys think about indie publishing?

Thanks for the great interview, Boyce! It's really interesting to learn what your experience has been, and I'm so glad you feel like the choice you've made has been the best possible fit for you. That's what we all want as writers, right?

So, readers: what's your experience been with indie vs. traditional publishing?

Please take some time to connect with the other A-Z challenge participants!

A-Z Challenge: H is for Hero's Journey

H is for Hero's Journey

If one single person could be said to have changed the face of story telling in the last century, it's Joseph Campbell. His work with global mythology is most widely known in relation to the hero's journey. George Lucas was so inspired by Campbell's work that he wrote a series of films following the steps of the hero's journey (Star Wars, anyone?)

Simply, the steps in the hero's journey are:

1. Ordinary World
2. Call to action
3. Refusal of the call
4. Meeting a mentor
5. Crossing the threshold
6. Tests, allies, and enemies
7. Approach
8. Ordeal, death, rebirth
9. Reward
10. The road back
11. Resurrection
12. Return with "the elixir" (magical knowledge, an object of power, something that could transform the ordinary world)

Think of the ancient myths: over and over again, the structure of the hero's journey has played out in our history, with some variations. It's a powerful structure for storytelling, something that taps into the shared subconscious.


But what does this all mean to writers?

Christopher Vogler's excellent manual The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers is a great resource for writers of all genres. Whereas Campbell applied the stages of the hero's journey to myth, Vogler applies the steps to characters. (In this context, "hero" is being used to describe the protagonist and can be applied to characters regardless of gender).

I'm still reading my way through this volume, but so far, I really like it. The first writing class I took was built around this text (and Campbell's work), and I find that when I am conscious of the path that the hero takes in myth, my own writing gets better.

When you craft your tale, think about the hero's journey: what's the call to action? Who will serve as a mentor, and who will test the hero along the way? Your protagonist should be changed in someway at the end of your manuscript: is this change something that still allows the hero to exist in their old world, or have they transformed so much that they are not content with normalcy anymore?

Has anyone used the hero's journey to guide your writing process? What examples of this story arc can you think of in modern pop-culture?

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A-Z Challenge: G is for Gail Carson Levine

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G is for Gail Carson Levine



I first discovered the works of this delightful author in a children's literature class in college. We read "Ella Enchanted", and I've been hooked ever since.

Levine crafts wonderful worlds built around fairy tales and familiar themes. She plays with magic: she doesn't struggle with it, or force it. Reading her work is like being a child again, full of wide eyed wonder. She's also written an excellent book on writing: although it's geared for younger writers, it's filled with wonderful exercises for anyone who writes for a young audience. There are so few books written for teens who want to write, and I love that Levine not only writes for her target audience, but actively works to foster their creativity, too. What a superstar!

Gail Carson Levine also keeps a blog dedicated to dishing out literary advice. Whenever I'm stuck, I wander over there and try one of her prompts.

She is probably the single biggest influence on early writing. Although I write for an older audience, I love fairy tale re-tellings and magic, and Levine is one of my modern literary heroines.

Who are your favorite modern writers? Which authors have influenced your craft?

A-Z Challenge: F is for Fantasy

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F is for Fantasy

As you know, Fantasy is my favorite genre to write (although it's not my favorite genre to read...I actually don't have a favorite genre when I am reading for fun: I just want a well-written book). Although my works tend more towards modern fantasy, I tip my hat to those excellent writers of high fantasy over the years. Myth and magic are beautiful things, and playing with them in prose is one of the best parts of my job.

I am especially influenced by fairy tales and classical mythology. Tomorrow, I'll be blogging about one of my favorite fairy tale inspired authors, so make sure you check back!

Interested in writing Fantasy? Here are some resources you might want to check out:

Visit the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America site for great genre information (and to connect with other authors).

Fantasy Factor is an online magazine for fantasy writers.

Here are some awesome Fantasy Writing Tutorials to help you get started.

The Fantasy novelist’s exam: see how your book stacks up (just for fun).

Interested in the history of the genre? Learn more here.

Which genre do you prefer to read/write? What attracts you to this genre?