Social Networks and the Writer

There is a common stereotype that has come about that authors are the unicorns of the professional world. Moody, easily spooked, and obviously to be treated with extreme caution, writers are all obviously social recluses that are allowed this by their profession. After all they get to sit about in their pjs all day writing.

This is sadly, not a true fact, and is actually quite the opposite. Anyone can write. It takes devoted fans to make a writer and author. To get fans you have to (you guessed it!) socialize with people! (Gasp).

Now, for those of you who are already edging away with a look of horror, don't leave me just yet. There is a way to do this without ever leaving your home, or those comfy jamjams. The saving grace of that ever reclusive writer is, social networking. I'm sure you've heard of it, it's hard not to. Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, blogging. This is how so many authors are getting their start. This is how they are getting out there before their words have ever actually hit print. Social networking.

As an aspiring published author myself, I have dutifully done my part and started to cull what I have fondly started to think of as my perspective minion following. I blog actively through this blog. What I post here I advertise through my own private Facebook, inviting perspective family and friends to become readers and take a look. I do the same on my professional twitter, my two Tumblr blogs, and Goodreads. I reach out through every medium possible and search for my readers. Writing is hardly even the half of it. You need readers for much of anything else. Betas to help you edit, like minded bloggers and writers to give you advice and help you along, and followers to spread your word. With as many social networks as I juggle I do have to give a word to the wise. Pick your favorite and then go with it, give it your all. If you are spread too thin then you won't get much of anything anywhere. I know I know, even to me saying I run three functioning blogs, a Facebook, a Twitter, LinkedIn Pinterest, and a Goodreads account sounds pretty impressive. But it took me awhile to realize that it takes a lot of devotion to really get the results and you just can't do that when you're looking in eight different directions at once. For now I focus primarily on this blog and my twitter for my writing and it has worked much better. By blogging original content here at least a few times a month, and trying to adhere to at least one tweet a day on twitter, my followings (at least on twitter) have gone up substantially. If you get off track as well, no worries! Just do your best to jump back on. Life is crazy and I'm not going to pretend that I always find time to tweet or write a blog post. But I try my best even so.

The online world can be a scary place, and I won't act like it isn't daunting trying to build from nothing. But you really have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Give it a try and see what happens.

And as always, keep writing!

Silver Shadows by Richelle Mead

Trapped, by her own people, struggling to survive and keep her own sanity: this is what Sydney's life has become. Re-education isn't really as bad as everyone said it would be. It's worse. The only thing she can do is keep fighting and repeat to herself that the center will hold and that Adrian will come for her. But even here, in a place fraught with danger and enemies, Sydney can't help but push the lines in a quest to do what's right.

Outside, Adrian is doing everything he can think of to find and save Sydney, but with no results. How can the center hold when he is helpless? Spirit is rising within him and it feels good, but Aunt Tatiana is growing louder. Not even partying himself senseless can get rid of her, or fill the hole Sydney left behind.

As Adrian teeters closer to the edge than ever before, it's clear that both of them are reaching their darkest hour. Their love is strong, but can it bring them back together and into the light?

This novel is the fifth installment of the action packed Bloodlines series, add on to the already established world created for Mead's Vampire Academy. For those who haven't read these series, go do now! If you want to hear what I had to say about the previous two books in the series, click the titles to find my reviews of The Indigo Spell and The Fiery Heart. Yes, yes I can already hear you Pleeeeeeeaase not another teenage vampire book. However, I can assure this one is worth your time. Witty and fast paced, Mead's writing has the reader holding on from page one, on point from beginning to end.

To say I am a fan of Richelle Mead's writing is, at best, an understatement. I don't think there is a thing I've read by her that I haven't loved. There is just something about her style that just gets me as a reader. She develops characters that are beautifully mutli-faceted and real. Her plot is a roller-coaster half part mystery and full part intense. Best of all, the cadence of her narration, no matter who it is, is unique and interesting. Silver Shadows is no exception. In fact I'd say Mead's writing and story telling only get better with each new book. Sydney has become one of my all-time favorite fictional characters. Strong, intelligent, and kick ass and that's only scraping the surface. I've become so invested in her character that reading each new book in this series is a heart-in-the-mouth experience as I fly through the pages praying everything turns out alright.

I don't want to give too much away about the plot, so I'm just going to say that I was very VERY pleased with how things turned out. I suppose some might not be as enraptured by it all, but that opinion is not mine. I will definitely warn it is emotionally trying. There were tears of pain and joy shed throughout. Yeah, that's a thing I forgot to mention. Read her books, get attached, then prepare to cry. Mead is a great writer. She's also great at torturing her own creations and the readers as a result. It's still worth it, because as Ron Weasley once said, "You're gonna suffer, but you're gonna be happy about it.'

Prepare to go from this:

to this:

and back again.

A note on the end [don't proceed if you don't want to know]

The fact that they made it through what they did could be accused of being convenient at the very least. However, I maintain, IT WAS BEAUTIFUL. ANJSKABFDJASHJ. That is all.

Finding Me: A Decade of Darkness, a Life Reclaimed by Michelle Knight with Michelle Buford

On May 6, 2013, it was all over the news: the recovery of three kidnapped women, held in captivity by an Ohio man for over ten years. Michelle Knight, the first of the kidnapped victims, has come forward with the help of writer Michelle Buford to tell her side of the hellish experience she was forced to endure. A tale of darkness, Michelle relates her struggles that started from long before she was kidnapped. 

As so often happens for me when I read memoirs, I always can't help but wonder how much is really true, how much shifts in the telling, what is lost and gained. From what I've come to understand of life and storytelling, even the purest intentions can lead astray because no one view is ever truly objective. Sometimes with a good memoir, I forget these questions, the story well written enough to keep me going, real or not real. This was not one of those stories. 

Though I was pulled through the story in an overall engrossing 'can't turn away from something grossly disturbing' sort of way, there were parts of it that were hard for me to swallow. Not to do with anything factually present or not, but more in relation to the writing of the prose and delivery of the story. The story is written as if it is happening in real time, though thankfully in past tense. Still, throughout much of the writing there is a lot of direct quoting as well as pinpoint detail on things already described earlier on as memories that had all 'blurred together'. For me, this sort of attempt at narration pulls me more out of the story than into it, because I often get caught up arguing in my head about whether or not one could actually remember something in so minute a detail. However, I do believe that what Michelle Knight, Gina DeJesus, and Amanda Berry went through was horrific enough to be imprinted on their minds forever. I'm not in any way trying to silence or disregard the story or this woman's words. My bone to pick is simply with the narrative style. 

Another thing to do with the writing that I still don't know how I feel about is the amateur style of the narrative. It is obvious that this story might not have become a best seller were it not for the nature of the memoir and the news blast that came from it. It at once bugged me, and yet also made me feel like the story was more authentic. After all, Knight states over and over that she barely got through a few years of high school. It would stand to reason that she would still be incredibly behind on grammar and other writing techniques once she began to try and write down her experience.

All in all the book is poignant and hard to read. Given the nature of her descriptions, coupled with the style, I don't think I'd recommend it, but I will say that it has continued to stick with me long after I finished.

An employee, a student, a writer, and an engaged woman walk into a bar...

This is kind of what my life has been lately. I know that there are many others who juggle this kind of crazy and more, so I'm not going to complain. Okay...maybe a little bit. Maybe a lot. I'm not saying my life is a joke either, but in the quiet moments left to myself I might be laughing slightly hysterically.

I guess it's no news that a full-time job, a master's class, and a fiance can take up a lot of a persons time. My blogging, and even worse, my writing has fallen to the wayside. It's a bad feeling, one I knew all too well during my time earning my Bachelors. I had to put aside what I loved doing in favor of earning a degree. It's not exactly the same situation, but it might as well be.

Okay, complaining segment done, on to the promises I may or may not keep! I am going to update more, a lot more. I'm behind two book reviews, something I plan to change in the next few moments, and I am about two weeks behind on editing my novel.

I can do this! Probably. By giving up sleep...

Who needs sleep right?

Anyway, to all you out there wearing twenty hats and teetering on the edge of crazy, you're awesome. Anyone have special ways of handling the pandemonium?

Comic-Con for the Writing Nerd: A Midwest Writers Workshop Experience

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It's that time of year again, where everyone who is any one gathers in force in San Diego for the Comic-Con to beat all Cons. There are panels and celebrities and interviews and cosplay, a play ground landscape that could fuel even the nerdiest wet dream. Now dial this back a bit, swap tenth doctor and deadpool cosplays for business casual slacks and dress shirts, instead of celebrities there are authors and agents, and everywhere you look are writers. This, my writer comrades, is the beauty of a writers conference.

Last weekend, I was part of an intense three day writing conference at the Midwest Writers Workshop in Muncie Indiana. This was my first writers conference experience, and going in I really didn't know what to expect. From 8 in the morning to past 8 at night, myself and a little over two hundred other writers got together and experienced something that was for writers, by writers, about writing and it was exhilarating, inspiring, and exhausting. Last year when I participated in NaNoWriMo for the first time, I said that it made me really feel like a writer for the first time, despite going for a four year degree in creative writing. Suddenly I was generating fiction and it was amazing. When I walked out of the MWW14, I didn't just feel like a writer, but like a professional writer. It was no longer a question of if I would get published, but when. To quote Kyle Newbridge, a friend who also attended MWW14, “I actually feel like a writer now, instead of just a kid trying to throw words at paper in a pretty way”.

So what is it about this writers conference, or any other, that caused this reaction? 

Conferences give you the opportunity to meet people. Agents and publishers get hundreds and hundreds of queries and manuscripts every month, sometimes every week. Most of the beginning stages of publishing are completely played out through paper. Conferences give you the chance to make connections face to face with authors and agents alike. Networking, networking, networking. Learn to love it and know it and understand it, because a key part of becoming a published author is to not only have a following but to be part of a community of writers. Often this community of writers are the reason you find your way climbing up the publishing ladder in the first place. Where might you find the beginnings of this intimate writing community that you are supposed to be a part of? Well, a writers conference is a good place to start. I met so many amazing people and amazing writers this weekend. I've reached out through blogs and email and twitter to them since and already my writing circles have expanded. Sometimes all it takes is sitting in the right seat or standing in the right line. Exchange a card, have some brief conversation, and you've made a connection. These types of connections are so important because these are the kinds of people that will be with you, helping you through your career as a writer.

This is a place to learn. The people who set these up, guest speak, and work tirelessly to make the conference the best it can, they want you to succeed. I never considered myself someone who was ignorant in the ways of writing, but I can't even put into words all that I learned during those three days. It was almost overwhelming, seeing this whole side to the writing community I really had been ignorant of, and could have remained ignorant of had I not pushed myself to experience it. In the fast-paced media driven world we live in, the stereotype of the reclusive writer doesn't cut it anymore. To sell yourself and your work before you even get picked up by an agent or a publishing company you have to stay open to information and learning everyday. Otherwise you will miss out. At MWW14 there were panels with agents, specific presentations on everything from '7 steps to writing a novel' to the ins and outs of social networking as a professional writer. Just one example of something invaluable that I learned of that weekend was Pitch Wars, a writing competition built to help debuting writers cull their novels and get their name out there. Until MWW I never had a clue this existed. From the moment I got there until the moment I left, I will grew as a writer.

Did I mention opportunity? I'm sure it varies from conference to conference, but some of the insanely cool opportunities that are available to you at MWW for instance include: agent pitch sessions (5 minutes to pitch your novel to an agent and try your hand at getting representation), manuscript evaluations (published professionals critiquing your work to help make you better), query critiques, and more. These are one-on-one set ups where you interact with professionals who will give you the best feedback they can. Each person will get something different from a conference. Myself? In tandem with  the earlier quote, I walked in feeling like an amateur who had written "a long story" of questionable publishability, and came out with a referral to an agent, a request for the first 10 pgs of my mss from yet another agent, and more confidence in my novel than I ever believed I would have. 

So the next time you're planning a trip to meet your favorite celebrity with hopes of winning the best cosplay contest, remember to check out all the different writing conferences across the nation, and the world and nourish the other nerdy side of your brain. Your stories are amazing, so give yourself the extra push so they end up on my bookshelf too. 

- Many thanks to the Midwest Writers for giving me an amazing first experience with writing conferences. I will be back!

I Just Couldn't Get Through It – July

When I was younger I used to think I had to read every book I picked up from beginning to end. Even now I have this urge to push through a novel, no matter how much I dislike it or not. But with a “to read list” that reaches into the hundreds, I had to admit, if I didn't like it I should just stop. However, since I don't review books that I don't finish, that left me with the conundrum. How could I let my readers know? This monthly post is going to be my answer to that question. I will list any books I Just Couldn't Finish and tell why this was. It isn't exactly a review, but it's better than giving a book a 0/5 when I didn't actually finish it.

Midnight Crossroad by Charlaine Harris

I really had high hopes for this novel. I loved her Sookie Stackhouse series and I really wanted to find enjoyment in this series too. However, it was just not the same. The narration, third person omniscient, was hard to get into. The story line and plot start out slow...and stay slow. Nothing really happens. I was almost 60 pages into the book and still I felt like there was no plot. Okay, yes there was a little beginning of something beginning to creep into realization, but it was just kind of uninteresting, enough where I didn't mind not following it to fruition. I'm sure there will be fans who actually do like this book, but I won't be one of them.

Allegiant by Veronica Roth

When I first started this series, I came into it with high expectations, which is always a bad move. I had heard a lot about it, from readers and authors I respected. However, it was overall a disappointment. I found that with Divergent I was taken initially with the world building, but not much else. My interest declined from there. The plot of the second felt sloppy and by the end I was annoyed with the built up tension of a plot reveal that really wasn't that interesting or groundbreaking. (Comments on the first two can be found here and here). When I started Alligeant the first thing I noticed was the plot didn't get any better and the main character was driving me nuts with deluge of negative thoughts about killing her best friend (a misguided plot point if I ever saw one. I mean she made a clear conscious choice to not shoot her enemies to death but then she just shoots her friend in the head? What?) That would have been enough to turn me off of the story, but I began to hear about a general consensus of disappointment for this third installment, and that decided me. I didn't find it worth my time to try and slog through it anymore.

In the After by Demitria Lunetta

Initially I was interested in this story from reading the inside cover: cool post-apocalyptic type story with a government conspiracy type tinge, what's not to love? A lot as it so happens. I got about 40 pages into this book and I was still stuck in exaggerated exposition and flash back. It wasn't even very good exposition either. Rule of thumb, flash backs are bad. Figure out where you want to start the story and then start it there, none of this 'I'm gonna be in the middle of something and then think about something in excruciating detail from start to finish'. The other major problem I had with this story was that it had major plot holes already. Specifically, the creatures that attack the world are described as mindless zombie like things that eat people savagely, but are expected to be smart enough to man a ship that comes to earth? It all felt a little farfetched. If this wasn't enough, it seemed like the author was trying a little too hard to sound YA. In other words, the character sounded young and dumb, and not in a good way. It all added up to me realizing really quickly that this wasn't a book I wanted to read.

Obernewtyn by Isobelle Carmody

Elspeth Gordie wishes nothing more than to fit in. But that is hard to do when she harbors a secret that would surely mean her death. She is a Misfit, born with special mental abilities. To be found so is to be hated and feared by the Herders and Councilmen who rule. She has already lived through the burning of her parents, the only thing she can do is hide the best she can. But in one careless moment all of her carefulness is dashed to nothing. She is spotted for what she is and exiled to the dreaded Obernewtyn, a mountain manor where Misfits are brought to and never seen again. Even with her abilities Elspeth finds herself out of her depth. All is not as it seems on Obernewtyn. Someone is keeping secrets and it suddenly seems like it may be her destiny to find out what they are.

Taking place in a post-apocalyptic world, Obernewtyn illustrates humanity on the edge of survival after the unspeakable has happened. It is the first book in The Obernewtyn Chronicles. Carmody does a pretty decent job of world-building for this novel, and I have to say it was honestly what kept me reading and interested. I am not a fan overall of her style. It is way too much telling and not enough showing. This made places of action seem more boring. I found the history at the beginning interesting, but I feel like it would have been better suited sprinkled about throughout the story rather than info dumped on us in the beginning. By the time I finished, I look back and feel confident that as a reader, I could have figured everything out just by reading the story. I didn't need to have it spoon fed to me in the beginning to make sure I kept up. 

I think going with more showing rather than telling could have helped my feelings on the budding romance in the story. I didn't feel like the characters involved had interacted enough to really begin feeling anything for each other. I did enjoy the added intrigue, but it could have been set up a bit more. 

This being said I genuinely liked the story line and the characters. The world is a very interesting one and I continue to want to follow the story and know more about it. I don't know that I would recommend it to other readers, but I am going to keep reading the series myself.