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The kidlit writing world is abuzz with the goings on at the annual SCBWI conference in L.A. this weekend, and alas I’m once again not there. Instead of having sour grapes about it, I’m remembering the last time I went to the L.A. conference and all the great wisdom I gained while there. So I went into my archives and found a post from way back in 2010, which I’m reposting now.
Enjoy these great nuggets from some great writers!
I love the cover of today’s featured book Firebolt by Adrienne Woods. Don’t forget to enter the giveaway for a chance to win a copy!
About the Book:
Firebolt by Adrienne Woods
Genre: YA/Paranormal/Fantasy
Published by GMTA, November 17th, 2013
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Firebolt-The-Dragonian-Series-Book-ebook/dp/B00GS5SUM6
B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/firebolt-adrienne-woods/1117456833?ean=2940149030019
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20517266-firebolt
Dragons. Right. Teenage girls don’t believe in fairy tales, and sixteen-year old Elena Watkins was no different.
Until the night a fairy tale killed her father.
Now Elena’s in a new world, and a new school. The cutest guy around may be an evil dragon, a Prince wants Elena’s heart, and a long dead sorcerer may be waking up to kill her. Oh. And the only way Elena’s going to graduate is on the back of a dragon of her own.
Teenage girls don’t believe in fairy tales. Now it’s time for Elena to believe – in herself.
Adrienne Woods resides in South Africa with her husband and two beautiful little girls, where she work as a full time writer and lives her dream. Thunderlight is the second part of The Dragonian Series which will be available in November 2014. Firebolt, book 1, of The Dragonian Series is available for purchase at all the big online stores.
Twitter: @erichb3
Blog: Adrienne Woods Books and Reviews woodsadrienne.wordpress.com
The Dragonian Series blog: http://thedragonianseries.blogspot.com
Facebook page: https://m.facebook.com/pages/The-Dragonian-Series/301375039891281?_rdr
An excerpt from Thunderlight, BOOK TWO in the series
The girl had made it.
The Rubicon saved her life, so a part of him was still fighting me. I could still see her eyes searching mine. They bore into my soul, seeking answers. How was this possible! The wall wouldn’t allow any human to go to the other side.
Albert’s laughter echoed inside the castle; s startling reminder that good would always win. He would pay dearly for this. I would find a way, but I promised she wouldn’t live much longer.
I got up, rubbed my face hard and let the emotion of my anger escaped my lips. The rage that emanated from deep within me overpowered the haunting laughter and echoed throughout the entire castle.
“Master,” Cain’s voice interrupted my thoughts.
“Speak my loyal servant,” I said out loud. “What is the news?”
“Everything is in place. We won’t fail you,” his voice said in my head.
I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and let it out hard. “We’ll see.”
Chapter One
Castle of Etan
Anger, betrayal, and hate turned my stomach acid, it consumed my mind and I watched as bottles, papers and books on the desk, flew off and crushed to the floor.
A maid rushed to my side. She didn’t say anything, but her eyes reflected fear. The dustpan in her hand trembled as she started to sweep up the jagged shards of glass. Rising from the floor she began to straighten the books that had fallen to the floor in a heap. Every few seconds I would notice her eyes dart nervously in my direction as if a mere breath would make me lash out as her with my outstretched hand.
I touched her face gently until my hand reached her neck, tightening slowly as my anger began to rise once again. My grip tightened around her soft, shapely neck as I lifted her up from her position on the floor at my feet. Listening carefully I could hear her heart fluttering like a bird trapped inside a cage.
“How did I become this way?” I thought, giving voice to my reality softly.
She just stared at me with round, brown unblinking eyes. Her eyes were sunken deep into the surface of her face and her cheek bones were sharply defined.
Looking at her sullen face made me feel worse. I lifted up my other hand and struck the woman hard across her cheek.
A cry left her mouth and I threw her from me as if she weighed nothing. She skidded across the floor landing in a heap against a wall of cold, unforgiving stone. If I was a dragon I would blast fire, redeem this wretched place to a pile of insignificant ashes.
Two other maids, hearing the startled cry, rushed into the room. Their eyes were wide as they took in the room and the immobile heap near the far wall. “Sorry, me lord,” the older one said. “She’s new, we will train her better.”
They picked up the maid who had come too and begun sobbing. She clutched the side of her face, cover the huge red hand print where I struck her.
I nodded. The old maid knew her place well, although I still didn’t care for her name, she knew where she stood.
I plunged myself down onto the chair and closed my eyes. A silent roar growled inside of me lighting a fire of rage deep in my core.
I’m pleased to welcome fellow new mom and author Kimberly G. Giarrantano, who is celebrating the release of her YA mystery Grunge Gods and Graveyards. Kimberly is offering up some thoughts on creating conflict in stories and a giveaway. Welcome, Kimberly and congrats on your new book and baby!
by Kimberly G. Giarrantano
Being that my debut novel, Grunge Gods and Graveyards, is set in 1996, I couldn’t help but give this guest post a 90s song title. “Everybody Hurts” isn’t just the name of an awesome REM song, not to mention memorable video, but the secret to incorporating excellent conflict into one’s writing — make everybody hurt. More specifically, make your protagonist hurt.
Conflict is one of the most important, if not the most important, building blocks of novel writing. And yet, so many new writers, myself included, forget about it. So, what is conflict? Conflict is the struggle between two opposing forces. It’s what moves the story forward. There are characters who drive plot, but conflict drives those characters to do things they wouldn’t otherwise do. Desperate times and all that.
So, how do I create conflict?
I take my main character and dump crap all over her. In every scene. That’s my formula.
It’s not enough that Lainey feels like she is directly responsible for getting Danny killed. She then goes back to school to find the entire senior class thinks the same thing and they hate her for it. The mean girls dump their spaghetti lunch on her. The jocks label her a murderer. She failed Spanish and won’t graduate. Her dad ignores her. The love of her life is dead. It’s always something. I’m the puppet master and she’s my puppet and I do something to her in every scene. Because each piece of crap dumped on her pushes Lainey to do something else. And because each awful thing brings her to a breaking point. She must say to herself: am I going to continue to let life screw with me or am I going to fix it somehow?
It can never be just one thing. Lainey failed Spanish AND is in danger of not graduating the hellscape she knows as high school AND she needs to write a major research paper to graduate AND deliver an oral presentation in Spanish AND she sucks at languages AND her Spanish tutor is the boy she loved who died in her arms.
I also like to burden Lainey with setbacks. Just when Lainey is close to figuring things out, someone (a nemesis perhaps) interferes and screws it all up for her. And the reader keeps turning pages to find out how Lainey is going to pull it all off. Now, with every setback there has to be small successes too otherwise it would be a downer of a book. All that suffering can’t be in vain.
I guess my story board might look something like this:
Dump crap
Dump crap
Dump crap
Dump crap
Breaking Point
Still crappy, but handles it
Success
Set Back
Disaster
We Shall Overcome
We Overcame
End
Now humor me and leave the name of your favorite REM song in the comments section. I’ll go first. My fave REM song is “Leave.”
Your turn.
Grunge Gods and Graveyards blurb:
Parted by death. Tethered by love.
Lainey Bloom’s high school senior year is a complete disaster. The popular clique, led by mean girl Wynter Woods, bullies her constantly. The principal threatens not to let her graduate with the class of 1997 unless she completes a major research project. And everyone blames her for the death of Wynter’s boyfriend, Danny Obregon.
Danny, a gorgeous musician, stole Lainey’s heart when he stole a kiss at a concert. But a week later, he was run down on a dangerous stretch of road. When he dies in her arms, she fears she’ll never know if he really would have broken up with Wynter to be with her.
Then his ghost shows up, begging her to solve his murder. Horrified by the dismal fate that awaits him if he never crosses over, Lainey seeks the dark truth amidst small town secrets, family strife, and divided loyalties. But every step she takes toward discovering what really happened the night Danny died pulls her further away from the beautiful boy she can never touch again.
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KPBSGA0/&tag=redadeppubl-20
Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/grunge-gods-and-graveyards-kimberly-g-giarratano/1119636379?ean=2940149530946
Kobo: http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/grunge-gods-and-graveyards
Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Kimberly_G_Giarratano_Grunge_Gods_and_Graveyards?id=HG2yAwAAQBAJ
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20887429-grunge-gods-and-graveyards
Kimberly G. Giarratano, a forever Jersey girl, now lives in the woods of northeastern Pennsylvania with her husband and small children. A former teacher and YA librarian, Kimberly adores Etsy, Jon Stewart, The Afghan Whigs, ’90s nostalgia, and (of course) everything YA. She also speaks Spanish, but is woefully out of practice.
Kimberly always dreamed of being a published author. Her other dream is to live in Key West, Florida where she can write in a small studio, just like Hemingway.
You can visit her blog at kimberlyggiarratano.com or tweet her @KGGiarratano.
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