Writing Wednesday: Lockdown

Since my friend Caron Guillo edited this novel for me (and she's really good, mine you), I've been excited about doing revisions on it (no time yet, but it will come).  Here's an excerpt:

     We got off the bus, and Brady and I headed to our lockers, which were right next to each other.  That’s how we met.  I remember the first time I laid eyes on him I nearly melted.  He has these sexy blonde curls that shine like the rays of the sun, a nice smile with perfectly straight white teeth, the cutest dimples you’ll ever see, and eyes so blue they’ll break your heart. 

      I’d try to talk to him all the time, small talk, about the weather or school, or movies.  He wouldn’t say much.   I thought he wasn’t interested.   Then one day he walked right up to me and said, “Kat, I think you’re the cutest most interesting girl at this school.” My heart pounded loudly in my ears, and I could feel all the blood inside me rush up to my cheeks.  We’ve been pretty much inseparable since then.

     The day in question, I remember, I was leaning up against my locker and he whispered in my ear.  I can’t remember now what he said, but I remember his words tickled, sent shivers down my spine and caused a break out of goose bumps down my arms and legs.

     Matt’s locker was on the other side of mine.  Whenever I saw him, I made it a point to say hello, to connect with him.  We were friends once, best friends, really, all the way from kindergarten until about sixth or seventh grade.  He lived across the street from me.    We were the kind of friends that had our very own secret hideout, unknown and hidden from the rest of the world.  The kind of friends that made pacts in blood, and the friends that promised each other if we were still single by thirty, we’d marry.  But things change.  People change.  We began liking different things, hanging out in different groups, drifting apart.  It happens.

     I tried to reach out to him because I worried about the path he was heading down.  His parents?  They fought all the time, always have.  I don’t know the why’s or how’s about it, but sometimes they were so loud I could hear them through my bedroom window.  Matt turned to pot and video games to drown out their voices, to escape it.  I don’t think they knew or cared very much, so who could blame him?  I can’t imagine what it would be like to live with two people that hated each other, that seemed to hate their own child. 

2fer Tuesday: Val Conrad

Blogging.  I learned a great deal about the history of blogs (short for Web Logs) and other Internet marvels in a Jeffrey Deaver audio book while driving south across Texas to a Christmas Festival where my publisher is featuring some of its authors.  In case you’ve never driven across Texas, imagine going from New York City to Atlanta, Chicago to Oklahoma City, or Portland, Oregon, to San Francisco – minus most of the traffic. Megan now resides in one of my favorite places in the country in the Pacific Northwest (because I now live in West Texas, where there are about as many trees and hills as your dining table), and I’m not-so-secretly jealous of her for that.  I miss green.  I even miss the rain.  And I miss there being something visible above the flat horizon – but hey, in my part of Texas, we do have some fantastic skyscapes and sunsets.

 

Geography aside, back to Mr. Deaver.  With the first book of his I read, I was hooked on how subtle he was in leading the reader to think something happened that did not.  Kinda like how you watched the whole movie The Sixth Sense, believing that Bruce Willis’s character was alive and trying hard to be helpful.  Praying for Sleep (1994) was what I considered to be the ultimate in suspense.

 

So I opened a file and started typing one day in 1995, hoping to find that breathtaking feeling in my own novel.  I had no idea writing it would take me ten years, and getting it published with an independent press another five, but it is now a book.  (And here’s there shameless self-promotion that it’s available through Amazon.com, and its sequel should be listed there mere days from now.)  My first scene isn’t even in the book now when 180,000 words got whittled back to about 110,000. And I realized, explaining the story to another legendary author – Jodi Thomas – that I’ve known my protagonist longer than I’ve known my husband.

 

I don’t know if Megan’s had characters rattling around in her head that long, or if she’s ever had one tap her on the shoulder and say, “Nope, I won’t do THAT.”  Apparently this seems absurd to my friends who don’t write, but those who do write understand.  I’m not really suffering from schizophrenia. The world in my novels is fictional and it’s all in my head, but it’s real to me. Most of the time, I even know the difference.  Now if I could just find a way to imagine I was back living in the Northwest... 

 

Thanks!
val

Val Conrad, RN, BS, BSN
Author:  Blood of Like Souls
...and coming soon - Tears of Like Souls
www.valconrad.com

I met Val a couple years ago through a mutual friend.  She's right about the Pacific Northwest you know, I wouldn't live any where else (well, I might like to take a few weeks in AZ in the winter).

And yes, my characters are constantly rattling around in my head telling me what comes next, almost to the point of annoyance because many times I am so far away from my computer (work, driving, hell, okay, maybe not that last one) I can't get it down.

Thanks Val for being part of my Tfer Tuesday.  Check out her book, Blood Like Souls, paperback or Kindle, it sounds great (haven't read it, going to order it today) it's got some fantabulous reviews. 

Oh, look, and here's the sequel. 

Thanks for reading.

Catch you on the flip side.

~Megan

Manic Monday

More like Panic Monday.  I went to a book release party the other night for the charming Holly Cupala.  As I stood watching a video she and her husband put together, and seeing the name Ellen Hopkins pop up on the screen saying how wonderful Holly's novel is, I started to panic.  Just sitting here writing it I'm starting to panic again.

I started thinking about my novel, Never Eighteen.  Wondering if anyone would say nice things about it, like Ms. Hopkins did for Holly.  Wondering if I would get an author to blurb it for me.  Wondering if people would love it or hate it.  

I have to step back from the ledge and realize, some people will not like it.  It's just a fact.  As far as blurbing?  I hope I get blurbs from authors, but if I don't, maybe it's not the end of the world?

Okay, enough panicking. 

Now I'll just lament.  Looks like I lost a blog follower. :(  Such is life.

Tomorrow's Twofer Tuesday will feature author, Val Conrad, so be sure to come check it out.

Be great today everyone.

~Megan

Friend or Foe Friday (er, Satruday this week I guess)

So, yes, once again I missed my blog day, but I've been busy, and here I am making it up and stuff.  So on Friday's I've decided to blog about someone who has either inspired me or pissed me off to the point that they end up in my blog.

Today is inspiration and that inspiration is my friend Gae.  If you read my blog, you are well acquainted with her already.  But every day this woman does things that amaze me.

I met her in the 2007 ABNA (Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award) contest, and we became fast friends.  We're like sisters now.  Sadly, we live clear across the country from each other, but hey, in the technology age that hardly matters, right?

Gae was the first of my writer friends to land a book deal, and rightly so.  The time and dedication she puts into her writing astounds.  This on top of a job, two boys, a husband, etc, etc.  And her writing is amazing.

But on top of all that, she is also a champion for the unpublished writer.  She is constantly reading and editing manuscripts and query letters helping those still on the journey perfect them.  She did this with Never Eighteen, and I know she helped make it a thousand times the book it was.  I try to emulate her in this by helping people with their writing as well, but it's hard and it's time consuming (I do help a bit).  So I admire her for doing this for others.

She's faced adversity, had her ups and downs, but she always comes out of it, brushes it off, and begins again.  Plus, she's charming, brilliant, hilarious, and beautiful.

She is what writers, mothers, wives, and women should aspire to.

Her novel, The Pull of Gravity comes out next May from FSG, Frances Foster books.  You should buy it.

Thanks for reading.

Megan

I have already failed

I missed my writing Wednesday post.  So you're getting to for one again.  Today you'll get writing, and Thought Provoking Thursday, and I will tie them together in a neat little bow.

Here is a snippet from my current WIP (work in progress for you lay people), Taking Zoey.

"I had to find a way out, otherwise I was fairly certain that one day they would find my bones along the bank of a river, or deep in a forest. A hiker or a fisherman would come across an arm bone, maybe a skull, and I wouldn’t become the photo journalist I dreamed of, I’d never be a wife, a mother. I’d be just another statistic. Another girl in the wrong place at the wrong time."

As far as thought provoking, I began writing this story because of an article I read in the paper.  The bones of a young Australian girl, whose name I believe was Zahara, were found along a river bank.  I started thinking how scared someone would be if they were abducted.  How, if they were held somewhere for awhile, they would be able to cope with the situation.  If you were locked in a room for a long period time, surely you would just think of 1) means of escape 2) all the people and events that have impacted your life.


So, Taking Zoey is a violent and frightening story, but it's also very introspective.  We learn about Zoey, her friends and family, through her thoughts and memories.  


Thanks for reading,
~Megan