If you’re reading this blog, your probably know that Michelle and I are writing a YA novel together. (Yeah?) She’s writing the scenes that are from the girl’s perspective (Cloudy) and I’m writing those from the boy’s (Kyle).
So, this is an introduction to my character, which should give you some insight into why “Poor Kyle!” is one of Michelle’s and my catchphrases. đ
I always love hearing about that moment when a book changed someone’s life. The book that made them a lifelong reader, the book that made them a fantasy-lover, or what I’m babbling about today, the book that really made them want to write. Basically: the Book that Did It.
I was, maybe not-so surprisingly, a big reader as a kid. (Although, from the looks of the bookshelves in my parents’ basement, I may have liked having books more than reading them. A hoarder-in-training red flag, for sure.) But, anyway, that was some quality time with Amelia Bedelia and the Babysitter’s Club. Then: a black cloud! I went through a lot of my early teens without really picking up a novel for fun. Tragedy! Outrage! Fire Alarms! But, you see:
Reading books = A School Thing = Billy Budd = UUGGHHH²
I really hated reading Billy Budd, you guys.
Eventually, I dragged myself out of this horrible, mucky, reading-less black hole. (I give partial credit to the Fearless and Everworld series for this, by the way. GOOD TIMES.) Those books did me a real solid, but neither series Did It. And then, something bigger happened: Teen People (RIP) started a book club called, not unexpectedly, The Teen People Book Club!!!
Look! Still have one! I swear I’m not a hoarder.
It was like an entire YA section delivered to my house! So, I basically lost my mind and what little money I had on books like The Princess Diaries, Hard Love, and The Perks of Being a Wallflower. All of them awesome, but none of them Did It, either.
In the end, I met The One in the local library (yay, libraries!!), totally unaware that bringing it home, cracking it open, would (as unforgivably cheesy as it sounds) change everything. So, finally, the Book that Did It for me? *trumpets* *fanfare* Â This Lullaby by Sarah Dessen!
I am all kinds of unable to talk about this book or Sarah Dessen without turning into a total gush-monster. Soooo, deep breath and here we go:Â This Lullaby was the first book I remember reading slowly, on purpose, so that I could maybe trick it into never ending. It was a book that wrapped me up and didn’t let go, with characters I wanted to be friends with, boys I wanted to date, places I wanted to go. (Bendo. Someone take me to Bendo.) It felt like I was living through that summer with Remy and Dexter, singing about potatoes, drinking extra-large Zip Diets, and hating Spinnerbait(!). I loved every word, every page.
Because of all that, it was the first book that lit me up from the inside; that made me say, I want to write like this. To be this good, and have other people feel about my book the way I feel about this one. It was the first book that made this so clear. A special book can Do That.
So, I promptly sat down at my computer and started writing a book EXACTLY LIKE IT. Like, not even kidding, exactly like it. (The learning about writing and characters and plot came a little later.)
Since then, other books have certainly come along and Done It for me. But nothing can ever touch This Lullaby‘s reserved cubbyhole in my heart. Or its space on my bookshelf.
I really, really swear I’m not a hoarder.
You must have a book that Did It for you. Tell me tell me tell me! đ
Author Myra McEntire stopped by this week to answer my Very Important Questions.  She also let me know that she has a contest on her site – http://myramcentire.com – that will run from June 18th to June 25th. Sheâll be giving away signed copies of HOURGLASS and TIMEPIECE, signed posters of the covers, a goodie basket inspired by her characters, and signed books from other authors!
And now for the questions!
At age eight, what did you want to be when you grew up? And at age eighteen? And while youâre at it, what about at age twenty-eight?
Myra McEntire: Age 8 = Writer
Age 18 = College English professor
Age 28 = Writer and college English professor!
Which Breakfast-Club-style label would have best fit your teenage self?Â
ME: I hung out with the princesses, but I was a basket case at heart.
Without giving away too much from your newest book, which character or scene from it are you the most pleased to have created, and why?
ME: I love Kaleb. His faults are many, but his virtues are strong.
Which are your favorite movies to watch again and again?
ME: TANGLED. Itâs like some kind of drug. And Home Alone one and two. My boys watch that one with me.
And, now, the most important question of all: Beatles or Elvis? Please support your answer. đ
Elvis. Iâm from Tennessee! (And part of Timepiece is set in Memphis!)
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ABOUT TIMEPIECE:
Kaleb Ballard was never supposed to be able to see ripplesâcracks in time. Are Kalebâs powers expanding, or is something very wrong? Before Kaleb can find out, Jonathan Landers, the man who tried to murder his father, reappears. Why is he back, and what, or whom, does he want?
In the wake of Landersâs return, the Hourglass organization is offered an ultimatum by a mysterious man. Either they find Landers and the research he has stolen on people who might carry the time gene, or time will be alteredâwith devastating results for the people Kaleb loves most.
Now Kaleb, Emerson, Michael, and the other Hourglass recruits have no choice but to use their extraordinary powers to find Landers. But where do they even start? And when? Even if they succeed, just finding him may not be enough. . . .
The follow-up to Hourglass, Timepiece blends the paranormal, science-fiction, mystery, and suspense genres into a nonstop thrill ride where every second counts.
ABOUT MYRA McENTIRE:
Myra McEntire knows the words to every R&B hit of the last decade, but since she lives in Nashville, the country music capital of America, her lyrical talents go sadly unappreciated. She’s chosen, instead, to channel her “mad word skills” into creating stories. She’s an avid Doctor Who fan and will argue passionately about which incarnation is the best.
You can find her at:
Mindi and I thought it would be fun to post little snippets of our WIP as we go along. So, this is a little sneak peek at Cloudy. (Eeep!) Hope you like her! (Eeep!) đ
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Photo by Jeremy Vandel
The other day, I was texting with Michelle about a book that we’ve both read. I told her that while I was reading a certain scene in said book, my thought process was approximately this:
So she’s going to have sex with this guy. Or . . . he’s about to go down on her?
Wait. No. I guess neither. They’re just holding each other.
And now some time has passed and they’re . . . putting their clothes back on? What? When did they take them off? Why did they take them off?
Unless . . . hmm. They must have done more than just cuddle. But WHAT DID THEY DO?
Now, I know that there are some readers out there who would appreciate this kind of subtlety, who would find it “classy” that the author didn’t “go there.”
I am not one of those readers.
This isn’t to say that I want every detail every time. (In fact, please, no. I’m looking at you, Jason Myers. ;-)) I guess I just feel like if I’m spending time in a character’s head and they are confiding all sorts of things in me, if sex was had in a chapter that I’m reading (or even in between chapters), I should know about it. Right?
I’ve actually come across this a number of times over the years, though. I’ll be reading along and find myself uncertain of whether I’m interpreting a scene correctly. I once discovered, like, 30 pages after the fact, that the very sensitive narrator I was chilling with had lost his virginity. It was kind of a big deal, and he didn’t bother to clue me in at the time. Dude! Why not?
Another thing Michelle and I discussed is those situations when a narrator has a crush on/is in love with someone. S/he wants that other person so badly and tells readers all about it for pages and pages, but then they finally get it on, and the narrator goes silent about it. FOR THE REST OF THE BOOK. Â I don’t necessarily need to witness or find out how everyone’s performance was or the mechanics of it, but I am certainly thinking: You just got what you wanted, but was it really what you wanted? Regrets? No regrets? Confusion about whether you have regrets? Give me something!
In some cases, I never get to find out.
Luckily for me, Michelle also is of the opinion that knowing how characters feel about sex and whether or not sex has actually occurred is important!
Garrett Hedlund gives a thumbs up to NOT wondering about sex scenes! (Ignore the cigarette. I’m sure it’s just, you know, for a role or something. :-P)
The way we’ve outlined the story we’re writing together, we’ve left plenty of room to surprise each other and ourselves with what is going to happen. At this point, we don’t know the specifics of  when or how or if any characters will be hooking up onscreen. But  whatever way it ends up going, readers will not have to wonder whether it happened or not. We promise!
Amanda Ashby has a new middle-grade series called Mixed-Up Magic, which sounds very fun! The first two books were released simultaneously on May 30th, and today Amanda answered some Very Important Questions for me about herself and her series!
Book One: Wishful Thinking (May 31st Puffin)
Be careful what you wish forâŚ
After eleven year old Sophie accidentally gets herself turned into a djinn, she starts to think that it might not be so bad after all. (Of course, thatâs after she gets the whole orange skin problem sorted out.) Who wouldnât enjoy having the power to grant wishes! But when Sophie develops RWD (Random Wish Disorder) and canât STOP granting wishes, things get more than a little mixed-up!
Book Two: Under a Spell (May 31st Puffin)
And that spells T-R-O-U-B-L-EâŚ
As Sophie gets used to her magic, her relationship with the adorable Jonathan Tait is blossoming. Thereâs only one problem: Jonathanâs twin sister, Melissa. Sheâs a total mean girl who seems intent on making Sophieâs life miserable. On top of that, Melissa somehow seems to sense that Sophie has powersâand manages to bind Sophie to her in a totally self-serving way. Can Sophie figure out a way out of thisâwithout ruining her chances with Jonathan?
Watch out for book three in OctoberâŚ
About the author: Amanda Ashby was born in Australia and after spending the last sixteen years dividing her time between England and New Zealand, sheâs finally moved back and now lives on the Sunshine Coast. When sheâs not moving country, she likes to write books (okay, she also likes to eat chocolate, watch television and sit around doing not much, but letâs just keep that amongst ourselves, shall we?)
She has a degree in English and Journalism from the University of Queensland and is married with two children. Her debut book, You Had Me at Halo was nominated for a Romantic Times Reviewerâs Choice award, and her first young adult book Zombie Queen of Newbury High was listed by the New York Public Libraryâs Stuff for the Teen Age 2010. Her latest release, Fairy Bad Day, has been selected by Voya as one of their Top Shelf Fiction for Middle School Readers 2012 and is a SCBWI Crystal Kite Award finalist for the Australia/NZ region. To find out more, please go to http://www.amandaashby.com
I’ve always been a little envious of writers like Jaclyn Dolomore who are able to sketch their characters. If I were to attempt such a thing, it would come out something like this:
(Except, not really. I’ve never written a character with curly red hair.)
In the past, I’ve always relied upon the Candybar Doll Maker site to create customized cartoons of my characters so that I can “see” them better. It’s very fun because you have hundreds of eyes, noses, mouths, hair, clothes, backgrounds,  etc. to choose from.
Here are just a few of the (many, many) “dolls” that I’ve made over the years:
From left to right: Seth McCoy from Freefall all dressed up–by his standards (ignore his hair. I’ve never been happy with it); Rosetta Vaughn, also from Freefall; and Coley Sterling from Live Through This (dressed for a dance performance).
Aren’t they cute?????
But for this story that Michelle and I are writing, I decided that it might benefit both of us if, instead of cartoons, I found an actual person who resembles my main character. That way, I can be sure that we’re both seeing Kyle the way he’d look in, you know, a non-animated world.
I Googled images of  “blond teen boys.” After a quick glance at the, er, revealing results, I turned on “safe search” and tried again.
It wasn’t long before I learned that my plan was very seriously flawed; it was tough to find a real person who looks the way I see Kyle in my head.
After a while, though, I found this photo:
This is a grown-up man (actor Garrett Hedlund*, I eventually learned) and Kyle is only seventeen. But if I picture this guy younger and blonder, it’s close to how I see Kyle.
For a few months, it seemed as close as I was ever going to get. (Which was good enough for Michelle and me to be able to see the same Kyle, of course.) But the other day, Michelle found this and sent it to me:
It’s Garrett Hedlund again (a.k.a. “Kyle-Guy” as Michelle and I sometimes call him), but this time he’s younger and blonder and so very much the way I picture Kyle! The uniform is wrong because Kyle plays baseball, not football. But still! It’s Kyle! Looking much better than a cartoon.
Oh, what the heck! We can have both, right? đ
*Michelle or I really need to tell you about the Garrett Hedlund LUNACY that’s been going on with both of us  lately. But that will be another post on another day!
Whenever it comes to describing what my main characters look like, I always clam up a bit. Maybe it’s because I write in first person, so I’m basically living in their heads, and it all feels a little like describing my own appearance. (Which, ugh, am I right?) But moving past that, it’s also one of the funnest parts of dreaming up a character. This person you created can have a face! Any face! And curly hair or pink hair or no hair!
Normally, I have a pretty good sense of what my character looks like from the start, and it was no different for Cloudy. I knew she was an interesting shade of blonde, that she was petite but not under 5’4, and that she had the face of someone you almost want to punch. Almost. Which, you know, sounds like a good foundation for a human being. But since Mindi would also need to envision Cloudy, we figured something more specific was in order.
I Google Imaged my heart out, eventually finding that I wasn’t really happy with any of the potential Cloudys. It was all very frustrating until I remembered that I might already have one at my disposal. . .
I’d saved this photo years ago, assigning her to another character I was writing at the time. Aside from the guilt I felt at stealing said character’s identity, I knew the girl in this photo had a distinct Cloudy-ness to her.
I wish I knew who this real girl is! If you do, share? đ
Photo credit: Elle Girl Magazine
See?! This is just the kind of photograph someone would take of Cloudy. (Maybe at a party where there are old birdcages and free-range oranges?) She’s got that look in her eye, that I-dare-you-to-mess-with-me look; that I-am-untouchably-cool-in-a-rocking-chair quality. Which is so utterly Cloudy, you guys, you don’t even know.
Unfortunately, her hair color isn’t exactly that shade I’d imagined. And her eyes might be the perfect shade of Cloudy, but, well, I can’t see them too clearly. After a little random searching on Pinterest, I found something close to what I was looking for:
 
The caramel-y blonde of Brigitte Bardot’s hair was definitely getting warmer. And the girl on the right? Her dark blue eyes were pretty much exactly what I was looking for! High five, Pinterest!
Of course, it can be hard work to Frankenstein these actual human beings into resembling your imaginary character. Those are the times when you have to take matters into your own hands by picking up your Wii remote. (That We Cheer 2! Always helping with the research.) So, I made my very own Cloudy, as best I could.
Look at her, all smiley! But I don’t really get the white streaks in her hair — the game decided to add those in. Hmm. Does it think Cloudy’s stressed?
Why would it think that? . . . đ
ETA: GUESS WHAT EVERYONE? The lovely model in the chair is: Devynne Scilingo! Thanks to Catfish: The TV Show for inadvertently solving my troubles, along with being totally gripping. High five!
At age eight, what did you want to be when you grew up? And at age eighteen? And while youâre at it, what about at age twenty-eight?
Elana Johnson: At both age eight and eighteen, I wanted to be a teacher. At age twenty-eight, as a teacher, I had no plans to do anything else. It wasnât until age thirty that I started writing and looking to become an author.
Which Breakfast-Club-style label would have best fit your teenage self?
EJ: Marching band geek? That would fit. I was pretty brainy too.
Without giving away too much from your newest book, which character or scene from it are you the most pleased to have created, and why?
EJ: I love Raine Hightower. She has a wicked power that her dad exploits. I love (love!) the scenes where sheâs using that power, mostly because itâs painful for her and helps her grow in ways she didnât think possible.
Which are your favorite movies to watch again and again?
EJ: Two Weeks Notice, X-Men, and Mission Impossible. Oh, I also like The Bourne Identity movies.
And, now, the most important question of all: Beatles or Elvis? Please support your answer. đ
EJ: The Beatles, of course! Elvisâs stuff just sounds the same over and over. But the Beatles have TRUE MUSIC.
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About Elana: Elana’s work including POSSESSION, REGRET, and SURRENDER is available from Simon & Schuster wherever books are sold. She is the author of From the Query to the Call, an ebook that every writer needs to read before they query, which can be downloaded for free on her website. She runs a personal blog on publishing and is a founding author of the QueryTracker blog. She blogs regularly at The League of Extraordinary Writers, co-organizes WriteOnCon, and can be found on Twitter and Facebook.
She wishes she could experience her first kiss again, tell the mean girl where to shove it, and have cool superpowers like reading minds and controlling fire. To fulfill her desires, she writes young adult science fiction and fantasy.
About SURRENDER:Â Raine has always been a good girl. She lives by the rules in Freedom. After all, they are her fatherâs rules: Heâs the Director. Itâs because of him that Raine is willing to use her talentâa power so dangerous, no one else is allowed to know about it. Not even her roommate, Vi.
All of that changes when Raine falls for Gunner. Raineâs got every reason in the world to stay away from Gunn, but she just canât. Especially when she discovers his connection to Viâs boyfriend, Zenn.
Raine has never known anyone as heavily brainwashed as Vi. Raineâs father expects her to spy on Vi and report back to him. But Raine is beginning to wonder what Vi knows that her father is so anxious to keep hidden, and what might happen if she helps Vi remember it. Sheâs even starting to suspect Viâs secrets might involve Freedomâs newest prisoner, the rebel Jag BarqueâŚ.
I’ve gone to Shakespeare in the Park at least once every summer for the past ten years or so, but I wouldn’t say that I have a ton ‘o Shakespeare knowledge. My high school sort of glossed over the whole literature thing. (Or maybe I was too busy not doing my homework to have learned All the Stuff?)
In any case, Falling for Hamlet by Michelle Ray, a modern retelling of Hamlet from Ophelia’s point of view, was completely off my radar, and would have stayed that way if a  friend hadn’t recommended it.
I sure am glad that she did. Because you guys! I fell for Michelle Ray’s version of the character Hamlet! I fell hard. For about the first third of the book, I was in love with him. Desperately. In. Love. I wanted to kiss him and marry him and run away with him forever and ever. I understood why Ophelia was so wrapped up in him because SO WAS I. I stayed up late reading, fell asleep with the book beside me, and dreamed about Hamlet all night.
It isn’t like me to get like this. If I were to come across a wax figure of a certain actor who plays a sparkly vampire, I’d be more likely to make faces at him than embrace him. (And Michelle still speaks to me! Or maybe she didn’t know until now . . . ;-))
But there was something about this Hamlet. He was intense. He was silly. He was needy. He was romantic-ish. For some reason, that combination won me over and I was so very into him.
The next morning, I dove back into the book immediately when I woke up. That’s when horrible things started happening and Hamlet started to scare me. By the end of the story, after seeing how much Ophelia had lost because of her love for Hamlet and her involvement in his family, I was relieved that it all happened to her and not to me.
Phew! I’m lucky to have averted all that, right? But I also feel lucky because I will always have the memory of those hours that I was able to spend with him before he was driven mad and started killing everyone. Oh, Hamlet! xoxo
Michelle Andreani and Mindi Scott 