A Guest Post by Megan Curd

Happy Tuesday, good people of the blogosphere! Today, I bring you a guest post by Megan Curd, my featured author for the last two weeks and one of the ladies attending UtopYA Con 2014. If you don't have tickets to that event yet, you should! You can get them by clicking the name. If you missed my awesome interview with Megan, you can check that out by clicking here. Don't forget to come on back next Monday and meet the awesomeness that is Bethany Lopez!

In other news, I, Zombie is sitting with a beta-reader and my lovely editor, Tia Silverthorne Bach of INDIE Books Gone Wild. I'm not setting an official release date just yet, but I'm shooting for early January. How exciting is that? Enough of my babbling, on to the post!

PROCESS OF GETTING READY TO WRITE

by Megan Curd

Hey Jo! I Thanks so much for having me on your blog today. It’s an absolute honor!

Okay…so, onto the topic of the day: getting ready to write. I think every author has a different process, but I think we all have quirks. Hopefully mine aren’t too weird or terrifying, haha!

I’m not a big plotter, so generally when I sit and write, I know the beginning, and I know the end. What happens in between is usually very organic and the characters dictate a lot. When I tried to explain to my husband’s aunt, who’s a psychologist, that my characters are the boss and I just let them tell the story, I think she might have thought I needed help, lol! But it’s very much the truth for me. My characters are bossy!

As for my process for sitting down to write, I’m a creature of habit. My preference is to go to a café to write (getting out of the house helps me focus. Otherwise I’ll always end up doing something besides working. It’s like the procrastinator’s Murphy’s Law.). I have this closet addiction to collecting Starbucks coffee mugs from all over the world, so each night I take a different mug with me to the café. This is a BIG deal to me, lol. I have to pick the right one for the night. Sometimes my son helps me pick, and every night my husband rolls his eyes. But I love those darn mugs, and they’re like my writing mojo provider.

Besides the café and the coffee mug, I HAVE to have music. I love music all the time, but when I’m writing, it’s an absolute must. Steel Lily was written almost exclusively to Muse’s album, “The 2nd Law.” I swear the album was written FOR Steel Lily. Now I’m writing the sequel, Iron Pendulum, and it’s been more of an Imagine Dragons, Lindsey Stirling, and Placebo type playlist. It’s interesting, because each book takes on a personality of its own.

One other thing I do is a fairly new habit, but I had the honor of going to UtopYA this year in Nashville, TN, and C.J. Redwine was there as a panelist. She said she kept a log of how much she wrote each day, and challenged herself by crossing off every 500 words she wrote. I’m very much a challenge-driven person, so I immediately started implementing that as well, and I’ve seen how much it’s helped. Seeing the progress happen is a huge boost, and it makes me want to push for “just another 500.” I’m really glad I heard her speak.

I think those are the things that make up my writing process. I’d like to think I’m not crazy, but I suppose that’s up for interpretation. I’d love to hear from other writers what their process is, and if they have any rituals or “must-haves.” Thanks for having me on the blog today, and I hope everyone loves Steel Lily! :-)

~ Megan

I have to say, telling people you're an author is a valid excuse for Multiple Personality Disorder. If you write stories for a living and don't have characters in your head, talking to you 24-7, you're weird in this world. So, Megan, know we all suffer from the same illness and just embrace it! Viva la Creativity!

Now, a little about Steel Lily, Megan's featured book of the week:

Title: Steel Lily
Author: Megan Curd
Genre: Dystopian with hints of Steampunk
Length (print): 314 pages
Links to Purchase: Amazon—$2.99 Kindle  B&N—$2.99 Nook  Kobo—$2.99 

Synopsis:
AVERY PIKE is a commodity. No, more than a commodity. Her existence is guarded at all costs.

She's a water Elementalist, the strongest of her dwindling kind. She creates steam to provide energy to fuel Dome Four: the only thing standing between humanity and an earth ravaged by World War III. No steam, no Dome. No Dome, no life.

Or so she thinks.

That is, until a mysterious man offers her a way out of having to donate steam. A way to escape the corrupt government of Dome Four. While the offer seems too good to be true, Avery is intrigued. But when she arrives to her new home, she realizes the grass isn't any less dead on this side of the fence. Instead, the lies are just hidden better.

...Which means digging deeper.

When Avery enlists the help of her friends to uncover the truth, she learns that while some secrets are better left concealed, humankind was never meant to live in a cage. And when you can control the most sought after resource, you can learn to control anything...including the fate of your world.

While you're here, why not check out some of Megan's links?

Website
Goodreads
Amazon Author Page

I've read Steel Lily and will be posting a review later this week. Surprise, Megan! Wow, that never gets old! *evil grin*

And don't forget to enter the FANTASTIC giveaways here. You could win a $500 shopping spree over at Amazon, a Kindle Fire HDX, or a ton of awesome books!

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

A Guest Post by N.L. Greene

Happy Monday, blogospherians! In keeping with our regularly scheduled program with the authors of UtopYA Con 2014 here on the blog, I bring you a guest post from N.L. Greene. If you read her author interview from last week, you'll know she's part of a writing team! Today, she's going to tell us a little about that. I love this post and I think she brings a unique perspective to the process of writing. Now, coffee, pen, and notebook in hand, I open the floor to Ms. Greene.

Co-writing VS. Solo-writing

by N.L. Greene

Hi Everyone! I want to start off by saying thanks so much for stopping by and taking the time to read my post. I also wanted to say a huge THANK YOU to Jo for not only having me but also for putting this whole UtopYA Author feature together!!

So I’m going to be totally honest here and tell you all that this is the first guest post I’ve ever written. I usually just do interviews where all I have to do is answer the questions and then I’m done. I know it’s lame but safe. *winks* I not only hope I don’t totally fail, but that you actually find my post helpful. So here goes...I wanted to talk a little bit about Co-writing and Solo-writing, since I’ve done both and learned that just like everything else in life, they both have their pros and cons but both can be successful.

I started my writing career about three years ago and did it as a co-author. My best friend and I both wanted to write but were terrified of doing it alone. We were scared that after spending months of pouring our heart and soul onto paper, we would be told that we weren’t good enough or that people would make fun of what we wrote. The fear of being vulnerable and exposed and then to be rejected was just too much, so neither of us tried. But then we came up with the idea of doing it together, under a pen name, and suddenly it didn’t seem so terrifying. From then on, it seemed much easier. We were each other’s cheerleader and support team, both equally emotionally involved in the book and both understanding the importance of what we were doing. On top of that, there was someone that could take over when the other was stumped, there were two people giving out ideas that, even if they weren’t great, sparked a new ones, and there was someone always there that just wanted to help you.

Like I said before though, everything has its pros and its cons. Though we didn’t have many issues, there were some that we had to work through. Being BFF’s for so long gave us an advantage over some other writing teams. Neither one of us had a problem being blunt or honest. In my opinion, that can make or break a writing duo. If you want your book to be good, you have to be willing to listen to someone when they tell you it isn’t as good as it can be and be willing to change it. The work load can also be an issue. Undoubtedly, at times, someone will do more than the other. The key is recognizing this as it happens and dealing with it accordingly. Everyone has different strengths and weakness and sometimes one will have to do a little more than the other if it means better success of the book. You have to push your pride away and do what is best for the team.

In the end, I think if the writing team is good and they work well together, the pros will always outweigh the cons and they will prove to be successful. I also think sometimes, writing as a team will give that push to someone that may not have ever put their words and thoughts to paper had they not had that other person to lean on, like we did.

All that being said, I also decided to become a solo-author. Why, you ask, since I seemed to be just fine co-writing? Well one other con to co-writing is that sometimes you aren’t both interested in actually writing the same thing. Angela is YA Paranormal all the way. It’s the only thing she reads, therefore the only thing she is interested in writing. Which is totally understandable, but not true for myself. I love all genres of books and really wanted to try writing in something other from what we had already done. It wasn’t easy though. Writing by myself made me realize a whole new set of pressure. Everything was on me. If I got stuck or lost, there wasn’t really anyone to pick up the story and run with it or straighten it out for me. I had to be creative and come up with ideas all on my own. And the vulnerability that I felt when the book came out was double because everyone knew that I wrote the whole book and if they didn’t’ like something, that was on me.

However, the sense of accomplishment and the pride I felt when I published my very own book was different than before. I had done something all by myself and it felt so good to know that I had set my mind to it and finished it. I also realized that I worked much faster by myself. Not having to rely on someone else to go back and check your work or having to rewrite a portion of the story because you both didn’t agree with what was happening gave me a freedom I hadn’t had before. The lack of pressure of having to hurry because someone wasn't waiting on me made me more relaxed and since I wasn’t so stressed, the story flowed much quicker.

So now that I have completely contradicted every statement I made throughout this post, I’ll say this. All of the above were my personal experiences and every individual is different. But my main point is this: If you enjoy writing or have someone in your head whispering stories that are just awesome, figure out how to get them on paper. I gave you two different examples of how to do that and what my experiences were, but there are tons of ways to achieve your goal, you just have to find what way works for you. And in some ways, like with me, more than one will work.

Well…I think that about covers it! I hope you found something helpful in what I had to say and that I didn’t completely bore you! Thanks for taking the time to read my post! Bye!!

~ N.L. Greene

Wow! I hope you all enjoyed that! Just in case you missed it last week, here's the information for Ms. Greene's book, Twisted, that'll be featured on the sidebar of the blog for the next week:

Synopsis:
Growing up isn’t always easy. But for most teenage girls, they can rely on their best friend to help them get through the process. A BFF is something that is truly treasured and completely irreplaceable. You share all of your secrets, and are loyal and honest with each other, even when you’re acting just a little bit crazy. You have each other’s backs no matter what and you form a bond that is virtually unbreakable.

At least that’s what normal teenage girls experience.

Nat and Mel have been bestie’s since childhood and Nat has followed her blindly ever since. But as Nat’s friendship with Mel begins to lead her down the wrong path, she starts to question the sincerity of their relationship. Nat starts to see Mel’s manipulative, deceitful ways become more focused on her. Will Natalie hold on tight to the friendship she’s had her entire life, no matter what it cost her? Or will she let her heart lead her to a relationship that’s not so twisted.

Buy it on

Amazon B&N Smashwords

for $2.99

Author Bio:
N.L. Greene, who is 1/2 of the author duo Riana Lucas, has decided to venture outside of the Fantasy world that she and her best friend created with Poppy and The Deadly Flowers Series to write a few books on her own. While she loves working with her best friend, writing solo has allowed her to explore interest that had solely been her own. She spends a lot of time reading her favorite authors which range all over the place and in every genre, but spends just as much time with her husband and two daughters, traveling, shopping, and playing video games. Nichole was born in Pennsylvania but grew up in Florida, where she and her high school sweetheart live with their two children.

Give N.L. Greene a follow on Goodreads or her Author Blog

I hope you all enjoyed this post and learned a little bit, too! Do you think you'll ever co-author a book?

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

A Guest Post by M.R. Polish

Happy Monday, good people of the blogosphere! Today is guest post day! I hope you enjoy hearing from M.R. Polish, my UtopYA Con 2014 guest. As you know, a link to this post will be featured on the blog sidebar for the next seven days. I hope you enjoy!

Since this is a special blog post, I wanted to do something just a tad bit different than I have before. So, I thought why not give away some inside secrets or tid-bits about each book/series. You know, an anything goes post! Oh, and if you have questions about any character or story, I'd love to answer them!

The Wolf Trilogy - Wolf Spell, Wolf Dream, and the upcoming 3rd and final book -

 Wolf Spell took a year and a half to complete. I signed with a small pub house that closed two weeks prior to Wolf Spell's release. I had a mad rush looking for a cover designer and a formatter so it could release on time. I am proud that this happened and helped put me into the fabulous world of Indie Author! Wolf Spell was RE-written four times until the plot line was formed. Yeah, that was fun hahaha. In the beginning, I planned it so that Ian was someone who she hates, but when she actually met him, their chemistry made it hard to keep them apart. It definitely made things interesting, but worked out amazing because they are perfect for each other! (Sorry Jarak fans)



Wolf Dream didn't take near as long to release, but I also wasn't under a publisher this time to draw it. When I start a story, I like to just do it, get it done: write, critiques, edits, betas, edits, format, then publish. Wolf Dream was absolutely a lot of fun to write. I loved the new characters and enjoyed them immensely. Davin, (whom you will meet in this book) surprised me by being how he is. I love how characters take on their own personalities, and he really did that! I always plan a scene or character, but they tell me how or what they are/do. *Spoiler* I cried when a certain someone died. *3rd book spoiler* BUT that character comes back in book 3 so it's okay, it is not the end of them you will see ;) They will get their happily ever after too!


The third book (which is currently untitled) has some amazing action and magic that have filled the pages of the previous two, but this time someone else has magic too. (Read the 2nd book to see who lol) I am sooooo excited to share the last Wolf book with everyone! I even have a few surprises leading up to the release that if you are a fan of this series, you WON'T want to miss! You can sign up to be included in the special pre-release epic awesomeness here:


Ageless Series - Ageless Sea, Endless Shores (not yet released)

Ageless Sea, I planned for almost a year before I actually sat down to write it. I knew exactly what the story wanted to become, and I was so excited to create a new world with Syrenae (Mermaids) and twist in Greek Gods. This was the first book I saw the ending before I got there. Usually, they don't show themselves to me till the very end.

Things about this book that I freaking LOVE: Magical Tattoos, romance, Syrenae (Mermaids), Greek Gods (Mythology), and magic.

Endless Shores is a current work in progress but I have to say that since they are on this fantastical journey to find the God's, things are heating up! Between, love, hate, kidnapping, desire/passion, adventure and more of everything that I love in the 1st book, this is working up to be an AMAZING sequel!


Mysts of Santerrian Series - Mark of the Dragon, Untitled book 2

Mark of the Dragon was co-written by myself and my dad Bill Morgan. I can't tell you enough about this book to even dig into the secrets lol. Dragons are amazing and I knew for a long time (over a year) that I wanted to write a dragon book, but each time I started I couldn't get it to work right, so I did what all girls should be able to do, I went to my dad. "HELP!" lol... anyway, with his incredible talent and my fluffing skills, this book was created. A secret about this book is that there is more than meets the eye. hahaha. Yeah, there is so much more to their world than what you get to experience in the 1st book. The 2nd one, which is a current work in progress, and we promise we are striving for awesomeness that you all loved with this one, will have sooooo much more in it! We are very excited about what is to come and the excitement and adventure that is happening with the characters.

Change of Possession - a stand alone romantic suspense. 

The cover for Change of Possession has not been released. I am excited to show it off October 21, 2013!!! This stand alone romantic suspense is a new adult with intense twists that hopefully will leave you guessing. When I write romance, I don't do detailed sex scenes, that is not me. I do, however, write fade to black. - Inside secret - This one cut it close, and as my best friend said, "it made her blush", but I stand true to my fade to black scenes only. I am super excited to release this book November 3, 2013... which is right around the corner!!!

You can find M.R. Polish at the usual Stalking Grounds, aka, Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, Amazon...

www.mrpolishauthor.com

Facebook

Goodreads

Twitter: @_MRPolish_

Amazon Author (also includes links to all books on amazon that are currently published)

About M.R. Polish

M.R. Polish was born in Idaho, a long, long, long, maybe not that long, time ago.... Writing has always been there for her. Growing up, her mind was filled with stories, some she shared and others she filed away to write down later in life. It wasn't until 2011 that she decided to publish her stories for everyone to enjoy. Her first award and when writing became more than just an idea was in the 5th grade. She won the scary story contest for the school newspaper. It is one story she still has tucked away for memories. Her teacher told her she could be anything she wanted and that she had a talant for writing, being creative and drawing people into her stories. M.R. took that to heart and continued to write, although mostly in secret until recent years.

Now you can find her enjoying life with her family - wrangling her four kids, setting traps in the house with toys for unsuspecting victims (aka, her husband) and writing down all her crazy and fun stories.


"Life is too short to stand by and watch everyone else live your dreams. The bigger the dream, the bigger the adventure!" ~ M.R. Polish

I hope you all enjoyed this tell-all guest post! If you have any questions, leave 'em in the comments below.

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Meet 20 of the Authors of UtopYA Con 2014

Happy hump-day, good people of the blogosphere! Today, I'm excited to talk about something wonderful that you'll notice happening on the blog over the next nine months. I'll be playing host to twenty lovely ladies that are attending UtopYA in June of 2014. Each one of them is an author and will be doing an interview, then a guest post, and will be featured on the blog sidebar for two weeks. This will consume every Monday from now until the con begins on June 20th.

I do hope you'll be joining us at UtopYA Con 2014! After all, you'll know twenty of the authors after this rush (twenty-one if you count me). *wink*

Without further ado, I give you the list!

M.R. Polish – September 16 through September 29
Felicia Tatum – September 30 through October 13
Allyson Gottlieb – October 14 through October 27
Tania Penn – October 28 through November 10
N.L. Greene – November 11 through November 24
Megan Curd – November 25 through December 8
Bethany Lopez – December 9 through December 22
Kristina Circelli – December 23 through January 5
Michelle Nicole – January 6 through January 19
Casey Bond – January 20 through February 2
Ripley Patton – February 3 through February 16
Carlyle Labuschagne – February 17 through March 2
Alison Pensy – March 3 through March 16
Rachel Harris – March 17 through March 30
C.A. Kunz – March 31 through April 13
S.G. Daniels – April 14 through April 27
Amy Evans – April 28 through May 11
Eva Pohler – May 12 through May 25
Elizabeth Kirke – May 26 through June 8
Tia Silverthorne Bach – June 9 through June 20

Anyone you know up there? Be sure you come back and check out the interviews (ya'll know I ask the hard questions!), guest posts, and books these lovelies have to offer. After all, you never know what'll happen next when you get a group of authors together; much less Young Adult and New Adult writers.

Come on back tomorrow for more of our regularly scheduled program. I may get deep and philosophical with you all. I may bring you a book review. Again, anything could happen!

Who are you excited to know more about?

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Lionel's Christmas Adventure Blog Tour

Good morning, lovely people of the blogosphere! Today, I bring you a guest post! Please enjoy.

Hello there everyone, Paul R. Hewlett here. I'm a children's book author and today I like to discuss what it's like writing chapter books for children. First, I would like to than Jo for having me and Kathy at I Am A Reader Not A Writer for hosting the Got Great Giveaways Hop. Thanks also go to Candace at Candace's Book Blog and Lori at Pure Imagination for hosting the Saturday Situation Giveaway linky. I'm currently on the Lionel's Christmas Adventure blog tour, for a full list of dates click here. For a sneak peak at what the books about, watch the trailer below. Make sure to enter the Rafflecopter below for your chance to win a $25 Amazon gift card and a 3-pack of my ebooks.

Writing for the children's/middle grade age group that the Lionel's Grand Adventure series targets can be a challenge. One doesn't want to talk over their heads, but you don't want to dumb things down too much either. This age group is actually quite amazing. On one hand they are perfectly willing to accept magic and fantasy, but on the other hand they do not like having things explained over and over to them.

Another thing about this age group, in some cases the older reader might need things explained to them and are willing to accept and even expect it. This age group, not so. They are remarkable, particularly those that seek out reading, in their ability to make leaps without a lot of explanation. They are able, or at least more willing to do this than older readers.

The middle grade, and even the lower YA age, are really eager to be bigger and more grownup than they are. They really want to experience grown up things. I know that I loved Encyclopedia Brown books growing up for that very reason. Here was a boy my age that was working as a detective, solving grown up crimes. This age group really want to experience grown up things. It's important to use your main character for this. Kids usually relate to and want to read about characters a bit older than they are. As an example a nine year old will be happy to read about a twelve year old, while a twelve year old probably won't be interested in the adventures of a nine year old (unless it's Harry Potter of course).


It's important not to use too sophisticated of words. It is okay to use bigger words, but in that case it's best to define them within the sentence and story. If you can't do that effectively, it's probably too big of a word. I personally like to keep the sentence structure simple. I think that is goes without saying that 6-12 year olds are much more mature these days than I was at the same age, but I still don't see the benefit of complex sentence structures. One thing that I feel goes over particularly well with this age group is similes. Using the description "like" really brings things to life for this age group. Compare the following sentences.

"Well you better...hey! What are you doing with Ma's yardstick?" asked Feeney.

"Well you better...hey! What are you doing with Ma's yardstick?" asked Feeney, his jaw sticking out like a cash register.

Certainly in the first sentence it's obvious that Feeney is unhappy, perhaps even angry, but in the second sentence he is indignant, even outraged. It's simple things like this that are often overlooked when writing for older readers that really make the pages come alive for middle grade readers.

These are few of my thoughts on writing chapter books for children. I
think my favorite quote, from the Russian writer Maxim Gorky says it
best, "You must write for children the same way you write for adults,
only better."




I'd like to thank Jo once again for having me on her blog. Make sure to pick up your copy of Lionel's Christmas Adventure, available now on Amazon in paperback or ebook. If you haven't read any of Jo's books, make sure you take a look at them all here.



For more information about author Paul R. Hewlett click here. He co-authors a middlegrade/YA blog at SherAHart: My Written Art. Keep up with what's new on Lionel's Grand Adventure FB page.

 My next stop on the tour is tomorrow at Kindle Book Promos. Now onto the giveaway. As a thank you to the reader's, I'm  giving away a
$25 Amazon gift card and 3-pack of my ebooks. Be sure to leave a comment!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I hope you've all enjoyed this post! Thank you, Paul, for coming by and giving us a guest post talking about your books AND for the lovely giveaway!

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo