Angela Corbett

Helping Out

2012-01-21T19:21:00.002-07:00

Yara, my friend and well-known blogger at Onceuponatwilight.com just lost her house in a fire. Yara and her family are safe, but the fire destroyed their home and they lost everything. Twilight Mom's set up a donation link to help Yara and her family get the essentials they need. If you can, please donate to help.

Lani Woodland has organized a giveaway for anyone who donates. A signed copy of Eternal Starling is part of the giveaway package. You can read details about the giveaway here.

Thank you!!!

Holiday eBook Sale!

2011-12-23T02:51:00.001-07:00

It's almost Christmas!!!! Yay!! Personally, I'm just hoping there won't be a repeat of the Honeybaked Ham incident this year.

To celebrate the holidays, my publisher put the Eternal Starling eBook on sale! Wheeeeee!!! It's almost half the usual price people! Check it out, and then tell your friends! It would make a great Christmas gift, and the sale lasts until January 3rd, so it's perfect for giftcards you might get too!

Eternal Starling Kindle eBook

Eternal Starling Nook eBook

So, I have two things I want to tell you about this sale...

First, I would be happy to send you, or the person you're gifting the eBook to, a signed bookmark and Eternal Starling tattoo. Just go to my website and fill out my contact form. Leave me your mailing address, as well as who you want the bookmark signed to, and I'll drop them in the mail!

Second, I want LOTS of people to know about the sale! So I need your help Tweeting, Facebooking, dancing around in an elf suit telling people to buy Eternal Starling, etc. (Okay, I was joking about the elf suit, but if anyone actually does it and sends me proof, you'll totally get an awesome gift package from me). You can use the Rafflecopter links below to tell people about the sale. The winner will get a pair of handmade lily earrings from the Eternal Starling jewelry line!

The sale lasts from now until January 3rd, so that's how long the contest will go. Good luck everyone, and thank you SO much for all of your help spreading the word about Eternal Starling!

Happy holidays!!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Eternal Starling Launch Party!

2011-12-13T01:00:00.000-07:00

Eternal Starling has been out for a whole week! I still can't believe it and I've been overwhelmed with all the nice things people have said about the book! I'm thrilled so many of you have already read it!

My launch party was held last week at The King's English in Salt Lake City! The King's English is near where I went to college. I used to wander around the store and wonder what it would be like to have a signing of my own there. So having my launch party at TKE was totally a dream come true!

The staff did such a fabulous job with the event, and things went really well! I was so scattered the day of the party that I completely forgot to have someone take photos! Luckily, my BFF, Ashley, was there to save the day. So if you weren't able to attend the party, you can check out the photos below!

Me and my BFF, Ashley.

Me greeting people as they came in. That's my hottie husband in gray. :)

People waiting for the event to start. This was just one half of the room! By the time I started speaking, there were over 90 people there and it was standing room only! I was totally overwhelmed with all the support!

Answering questions during the Q & A.

People lining up to have me sign their books! That's author Lani Woodland sitting down in the dark blue shirt with dark brown hair! She flew from California to come to my launch! How awesome is that?

I still can't believe people waited in line so I could sign their books!

Talking with people while I signed! This was my favorite part!

And finally, me signing books with my pink pen (to match the book cover of course!). :)

Thanks so much to everyone who came to the party and everyone who has read Eternal Starling! I'm happy you've fallen for Evie, Alex and Emil as much as I did when I wrote them! And speaking of that, I'm off to work on book 2!

YA Scavenger Hunt!!!

2011-12-01T12:00:00.000-07:00

It was awesome to meet so many of you during the YA Scavenger Hunt! The Hunt only lasted a few days, so the exclusive material from Erica O'Rourke is no longer available in this post, but I left Erica's bio and information about Torn and Tangled. Check out her website to learn more!

I'm so honored to be posting exclusive material from the fabulous Erica O'Rourke! Erica is the author of the Torn Trilogy.

Mo Fitzgerald knows about secrets. But when she witnesses her best friend's murder, she discovers Verity was hiding things she never could have guessed. To find the answers she needs and the vengeance she craves, Mo--quiet, ordinary, unmagical Mo--will have to enter a world of raw magic and shifting alliances. And she'll have to choose between two very different, equally dangerous guys--protective, duty-bound Colin and brash, mysterious Luc. One wants to save her, one wants to claim her. Which would you choose?

A month ago, Mo Fitzgerald risked her life to stop an ancient prophecy and avenge her best friend's murder. Now, she only wants to keep her loved ones safe. But the magic—and the Chicago Mob—have other plans. Mysterious, green-eyed Luc is back, asking for help—and a second chance. Colin, her strongest protector, is hiding a shocking secret. And inside Constance, the magic is about to go terribly wrong. Tangled in a web of love and betrayal, Mo must choose between the life she's dreamed of and the one she's destined for.

Don't they sound fantastic! The first book, Torn is already out and the second book, Tangled, comes out January 31st! You can read more about Erica below.

Erica O'Rourke writes books about girls who make their own fate and fall for boys they shouldn't. She loves sushi, hates fish, and drinks way too much coffee. TORN, the first book in the trilogy, won the 2010 RWA Golden Heart Award for Best Young Adult Manuscript.

You can read more about Erica and the Torn Trilogy on her website.

You can also buy Erica's books here:

Torn
Barnes and Noble
Amazon
IndieBound

Tangled

Barnes and Noble
Amazon
IndieBound

Thanks for visiting my blog! Eternal Starling, the first book in the Emblem of Eternity trilogy, will be released in just a few days onDecember 6th! The winner of the Eternal Starling bracelet will be contacted soon! Thanks to everyone who participated in the contest!

Also, don't forget about the Eternal Starling Kindle contest! If you pre-order Eternal Starling, you'll be entered to win an Amazon Kindle! Just send a copy of your receipt for proof of purchase to EternalStarlingContest@gmail.com and a Kindle winner will be chosen randomly. The eBook version of Eternal Starling won't be available until the release date (December 6th), but the contest is open until December 7th.

Win Eternal Starling Swag!

2011-11-29T16:00:00.000-07:00

Eternal Starling releases in one week!!!!!!

One week, people!!!

To celebrate the release, I'm giving away an Eternal Starling tote bag full of cool Eternal Starling swag! See the swaggy picture below.

You get the tote bag, an Eternal Starling magnet, a signed bookmark, a signed bookplate, a handmade book thong, a Western State College pennant, and a personalized copy of Eternal Starling signed to anyone you want it signed to.

I still need your help spreading the word and getting people interested in Eternal Starling! So, to win the tote, follow the rules below! The contest is open for the next 2 weeks!

Thanks so much for being as excited about Eternal Starling as I am!

Best I've Read 2011!!!

2011-11-21T01:00:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited to announce that Eternal Starling has been chosen as a 2011 Best I've Read pick!

You can read about it here!

I'll be doing a guest post in December as part of the week-long Best I've Read celebration, but I couldn't wait to share the good news! I'll let you know when my guest post is up!

Guess What Came???

2011-11-20T02:56:00.001-07:00

If you follow me on Twitter or the Emblem of Eternity Facebook page, you've already seen this, but I'm so excited I had to post the photo here too!

Eternal Starling is here! Okay, so it's not out for 15 more days, but I have copies at my house and got to hold the actual book in my hands! Let's be honest, I didn't just hold it. I carried it around with me for 2 days like a toddler with her favorite toy. And of course, as soon as I got it I had to take photos, and I bribed Pippin with a Milkbone to get him to pose for the photo. :)

Another ARC Giveaway!

2011-11-15T00:23:00.004-07:00

Eternal Starling releases in 20 days!!!!!

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!! (This is me running around the house, arms flailing, and my little dog in complete confusion because he only acts this way when he has a Milkbone...which I'm clearly lacking).

To celebrate the fact that the release is EXACTLY three weeks away, I'm giving away another ARC!

The rules are below, and the contest is open internationally.

Good luck!

ARC Winners and Kindle Contest

2011-11-08T19:21:00.001-07:00

First, I want to thank everyone who shared the blog tour link last week! You're all amazing and really helped me let people know about the tour and Eternal Starling! THANK YOU!!!! There were two rockstars who spread the word like crazy. Vivien and Ifrah. So, I decided to give two ARCs instead of one! I've emailed you both!

Keep watching my blog because I'll be giving a few more ARCs away before the release in a month! You can also enter to win an ARC from Yara at Once Upon a Twilight, Heather at Fire and Ice, and Jen at My Life With Books!

Also, those of you who have been following the blog tour already know about this, but I wanted to tell you about a fun giveaway! If you pre-order Eternal Starling, you'll be entered to win an Amazon Kindle! Just send a copy of your receipt for proof of purchase to EternalStarlingContest@gmail.com and a Kindle winner will be chosen randomly. The ebook version of Eternal Starling won't be available until the release date (December 6th), but I'm leaving the contest open until the end of the day December 6th. That way, you can buy the ebook the day of the release and still enter to win the Kindle.

Thanks again for all your help spreading the word about Eternal Starling!

Eternal Starling Blog Tour and ARC Contest!

2011-10-31T00:40:00.003-06:00

The Eternal Starling blog tour is here!!!

Yara, from OnceUponaTwilight.com is the awesome host of the tour, and she did a fabulous job putting it together! The tour runs from November 1st-18th, and includes 16 exciting stops with reviews, fun interviews, excerpts, and more! Plus, each blogger will be holding a contest every day of the tour and you can win a special prize from me! There's a different prize each day of the tour so don't miss your chance to win!

To celebrate the start of the tour (and Halloween, my favorite holiday), I'm giving away a signed Eternal Starling ARC! Starting today, link to this blog post on Twitter, Facebook, your blog, or anywhere else you can think of! In the comments section, leave the link to where you shared the post. The contest lasts one week, until November 7th. You can post links every day, and the person who posts the most links will win! The contest is open internationally.

Here's the tour schedule! Stop by each day of the tour for a chance to win prizes and learn more about Eternal Starling!

And don't forget to stop by the live chat hosted by Once Upon a Twilight December 6th, the Eternal Starling release date! I'll be answering all of your questions!

Happy Halloween!!!

November:

1st: OUaT Kicks-Off tour - Review + giveaway

2nd: My Life with Books - Interview + giveaway

3rd: SupaGurl Books Review + giveaway

4th: Mundie Moms - First Chapter + giveaway

5th An Avid Reader's Musings - Review + giveaway

7th: Fire and Ice - Review + giveaway

8th: Books with Bite - Excerpt + giveaway

9th: Whats Your Story - Review + giveaway

10th: Book Portrait - Interview + giveaway

11th: Good Choice Reading - Guest post + giveaway

12th: Ivy Reads - Review + giveaway

14th: Author Lani Woodland - Review + giveaway

15th: Most Important Letter - Playlist + giveaway

16th: Late Bloomers Online - Review + giveaway

17th: Read My Mind - Cover Interview + giveaway

18th: Author Jamie from Writers write, right? - review + giveaway

Halloween and Bookplates!

2011-10-10T00:30:00.005-06:00

It's October! My favorite month of the year! I'm about 30 minutes from some of the most scenic mountain drives in the world, and the fall colors are stunning! The weather is perfect, and since Halloween is my favorite holiday, there isn't a better time of year!

I usually spend the month eating way more candy than I should, and watching super scary movies that make me not want to go to the basement alone. One of my favorites is the original Halloween movie. I don't think there's a scarier crazy serial killer than Michael Myers. The knife, no talking, and the way he just tilts his head... *shivers* I also love the spooky factor of Sleepy Hollow with Johnny Depp. Since I love Halloween so much, we have a few traditions:

We always carve pumpkins.

And we attempt to dress up our dog. He never gets as excited about this as I do. I think the bat costume is super cute.

Halloween is a REALLY popular holiday in Utah. We actually have some of the best haunted houses in the nation, though I've only been to one. It was a harrowing experience during college in the Park City Haunted Mine that involved a crazy (no really, he might have actually been insane) man dressed as the Albino from The Princess Bride. He followed me around the mine for 45 minutes petting my hair. I know you think I'm kidding. I'm not. Luckily, my boyfriend/now husband was there to rescue me just in time to take me to the cage with the chainsaw guy, who might have been even more insane than the Princess Bride dude.

I vowed to never go to a haunted house again, but then while I was in London, I made the mistake of not doing research about the London Dungeon before going inside. Once there, I realized I was in over my head and tried to escape. I was ushered back inside by a 7 foot tall revenant who gave me a horrific smile and suggested I enjoy my time in the dungeon. After that traumatic event, I had the sense to avoid the Chamber of Horrors at Madame Tussauds.

This year, October coincides with me writing the first draft of book 2 in the Emblem of Eternity series! Halloween and Easter are the two best times of year to write because they're the two best times of year for candy...trust me, I'm an author, so I know. There's no better motivation to finish a chapter than fresh mini Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.

So, I want to know some of your Halloween traditions? And it comes with a prize! Comment before October 17th and three random people will get a signed bookmark and, since I just got them and love all three designs, you'll also get a signed bookplate that's personalized just for you. You can check out the bookplates below. Also, be sure to note what happens when you try to take a photo at midnight with horrible lighting. Oh well, at least it gives you an idea of how they look. :)

Feel free to share this post with your friends too! Happy haunting!

Giveaway Winners and Book Widget

2011-08-28T23:04:00.007-06:00

Thanks for all your comments on the Eternal Starling book cover! I'm really excited you guys like it so much!

You were great to help me get the word out about Eternal Starling and the cover! Because I had such a great response (both here and on Twitter and Facebook), and the fact that I just got the magnets in the mail and love them, I've decided I need two winners!

The winners are:

Safari Poet and
BellsColella

I'll email you both to get your address so I can send your magnet, bookmarks, and photo. :)

In other news, my A-MAZ-ING software genius husband made me a countdown widget for Eternal Starling! I'm a little biased, but I think he's pretty incredible. If you want the widget, copy and paste this link and embed it on your website or blog.

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.angelacorbett.com/escountdown.js"></script>

He's also making some other exciting things for me too, so I'll let you know as soon as they're done! Thanks again for helping me spread the word about Eternal Starling!!!

Eternal Starling Cover Giveaway

2011-08-22T00:33:00.011-06:00

The Eternal Starling cover is here!!!!!!!!!

Final Cover

Promotional Cover

I hope you like it as much as I do!!!!

In honor of the Eternal Starling cover reveal, I'm having a giveaway!

The rules are super simple. Just comment below and tell me what you think about the cover! You'll get extra love if you share this blog post link or the book cover on Facebook, Twitter, or other social media sites. :)

The prize is a signed bookmark, a magnet with a photo of the Eternal Starling cover, and a picture of my favorite, gorgeous location in Eternal Starling. The location is also where a very important scene happens, so the photo is a bit of a hint about the book. :)

The winner will be randomly chosen and the contest is open until Sunday, August 28th. The giveaway is open internationally, so comment away!!!

Eternal Starling Cover Reveal!!!

2011-08-21T00:54:00.008-06:00

SQUEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!

Today is the Eternal Starling cover reveal!!!

I'm so excited and I LOVE the cover! I hope you love it too!

Krista, a wonderful blogger (Cubicleblindess.blogspot.com), is helping me out with the reveal. She's giving some signed bookmarks away as part of the reveal, so go check out the cover, leave a comment, and maybe get a bookmark! Also, stop back here Monday because I'll be doing a cover-related giveaway too!

Click here to go to Krista's blog and see the cover!

Feel free to share the cover and link on Twitter, Facebook, etc. :)

Road Trip!

2011-08-13T23:45:00.033-06:00

Last week I spent a couple of days in lovely 80 degree weather surrounded by trees, mountains, lakes, and learned that standing at the top of Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park and looking down at the 1/2 mile drop is enough to make what are normally perfectly good knees go weak with terror.

Gunnison, Colorado, is the setting for Eternal Starling. When I started writing the book over three years ago, I knew I wanted the setting to be a real place. I needed a small mountain town with a small college. So, I did what a lot of authors do: I Googled. After combing through search results, I did a happy dance when I discovered Gunnison was the perfect fit for my vision of Eternal Starling.

I wanted to make sure I was being as true to the town and school as possible, so I did a lot of research as I wrote. I looked at pictures and maps of the town; researched Gunnison history, the surrounding recreation areas and mountains; and spent a lot of time on the Western State College website taking virtual tours and trying to make sure Evie's college experience was authentic.

I've been to Colorado many times, but last week was my first trip to Gunnison. The online research I did was great, but it was really nice to spend time driving around Gunnison, meeting people who live there, going to the stores, and visiting the Western State College campus. I was happy that my research paid off while writing the book, and there's not much that needs to be changed before Eternal Starling goes to print. However, there were a few things I took creative license with in order to make the story work, and people familiar with the area will notice those things. :)

I took some pictures while I visited, so you can experience a little bit of Gunnison too. Here are the photos, and some info. about how they relate to Eternal Starling.

The Western State College W near the college campus where Evie goes to school.

The main College Center building at Western State. A few important scenes in the book happen here.

Blue Mesa Reservoir near Gunnison. Evie does a lot of hiking in areas near the reservoir.

Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. People actually climb this monster! Evie gets lost hiking here in the first chapter of the book.

Eternal Starling Sneak Peek!

2011-08-02T01:15:00.000-06:00

The YA Scavenger Hunt was SO much fun! I hope you got the chance to read the bonus material from all the authors participating! Since the Scavenger Hunt only lasted one day, I've decided to re-post the Eternal Starling bonus material. For those of you who didn't have time to take part in the Scavenger Hunt, you can check it out here!

Read on for the Eternal Starling summary and your sneak peek at a scene from Eternal Starling. :)

Eternal Starling Summary
A love so strong, even eternity can’t separate them.

Evie Starling has lived a relatively uneventful life hanging out with friends, gossiping about boys, and driving her 1966 Mustang. All of that changes when she moves to Gunnison, Colorado, to start college and meets two mysterious men.

For centuries, Alex Night and Emil Stone have yearned for Evie—but they each have their own reasons for wanting to be with her. When both men claim to be her soul mate and tell her about an unbelievable past, Evie learns that she’s not the person she thought she was. Soon, Evie finds herself in the middle of an age-old battle between the Amaranthine Society—the soul protectors, and the Daevos Resistance—the soul destroyers. With a past she doesn’t understand, and a future rife with danger, Evie has to decide who she can trust. But Alex and Emil aren’t the only ones who want Evie, and her soul is about to become the rope in an eternal tug-of-war.

Sneak Peek of Eternal Starling, by Angela Corbett

Suddenly, I felt like I was falling into a dream. I watched as a girl not much older than me brushed chestnut colored ringlets off her face with a gloved hand. She was beautiful in a long scarlet ball gown with a deep lacy neck, and skirt that opened slightly in the front showing a ruffled petticoat underneath. A male figure stood about ten feet in front of her. They were outside, shrouded by darkness and trees. Though I could see the girl clearly, the male figure was too far away to make out any details—but I could hear him.

“This is your choice?” he asked, contempt obvious in his tone.

The girl nodded in response, the slight movement emitting a palpable sadness.

“Why him?” he asked. “Why now?”

“I can’t help what I feel,” the girl said. “I’m in love with him.”

“No,” he said through his teeth. He paused, then stalked to a tree and punched his fist against the trunk. “You’re in love with what he wants you to see, not who he is.” He exhaled in disbelief and shook his head. “I’ve done everything I can up to this point, and now you tell me you’re in love with him? Stabbing me in the heart would be no less painful.”

The girl moved toward him, her eyes downcast. “I’m sorry,” she said, coming up behind him and putting a hand on his shoulder. “I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

He tilted his head toward the spot her hand was resting and then without warning, he reached around her and grabbed her by the waist, pulling her with him into the darkness. She gasped before he leaned down and kissed her, hard at first, like he was trying to prove a point, then becoming gentler until he pulled back from her lips and rested his head against her forehead. In a husky voice, he asked, “Do you still think you love him?”

She didn’t move.

“Do you?”

She didn’t look at him as she gave an almost imperceptible nod.

He dropped her from his embrace and stepped away, turning his back toward her. Minutes ticked by and the muscles in his shoulders tensed. He shifted his head to the side, his profile barely visible, and said, “He will disappoint you.” He stood for a few seconds more before he started walking away from her.

She ran her fingers lightly over her lips and looked up, eyes wide as she watched him leave. “Wait!” she yelled. “Where are you going?”

He stopped and pivoted on his heel, his legs apart and arms crossed over his chest. His face was shrouded by his shoulder length hair as he stared at her. Then he answered her question, “To prove which of us truly loves you more.”

Welcome to the YA Scavenger Hunt!

2011-07-31T22:00:00.002-06:00

It was awesome to meet so many of you during the YA Scavenger Hunt! The Hunt only lasted a day, so the exclusive material from Kady Cross is no longer available in this post, but I left Kady's bio and information about The Girl in the Steel Corset. Check out her website to learn more!

I'm so honored to be posting exclusive material from the fabulous Kady Cross! The first book in her Steampunk Chronicles was released in May to rave reviews. I also wish I had her makeup creation talent! You can read more about Kady below.

In her other life Kady Cross is a USA Today bestselling author of more than 20 books. She is lucky enough to have a husband who shares her love for the slightly twisted, and all things geek, and a houseful of cats with whom she shares her darkest secrets. When she’s not listening to the characters in her head she’s either trying to formulate the perfect lipgloss or teaching herself to solder. She has a weakness for all things girly, sugar skulls, and boots. Her love of books and makeup borders on addiction – from which she never, ever wants to be cured.

Kady is the author of the incredible Steampunk Chronicles series. Read about the first book in the series, The Girl in the Steel Corset.

In 1897 England, sixteen-year-old Finley Jayne has no one…except the "thing" inside her.

When a young lord tries to take advantage of Finley, she fights back. And wins. But no normal Victorian girl has a darker side that makes her capable of knocking out a full-grown man with one punch….

Only Griffin King sees the magical darkness inside her that says she's special, says she's one of them. The orphaned duke takes her in from the gaslit streets against the wishes of his band of misfits: Emily, who has her own special abilities and an unrequited love for Sam, who is part robot; and Jasper, an American cowboy with a shadowy secret.

Griffin's investigating a criminal called The Machinist, the mastermind behind several recent crimes by automatons. Finley thinks she can help—and finally be a part of something, finally fit in.

But The Machinist wants to tear Griff's little company of strays apart, and it isn't long before trust is tested on all sides. At least Finley knows whose side she's on—even if it seems no one believes her.

You can read more about Kady and the Steampunk Chronicles on her website.

You can also buy Kady's books here: Barnes and Noble, Amazon, BAM.

Thanks for visiting my blog! Eternal Starling, the first book in the Emblem of Eternity trilogy, will be released December 6, 2011. Check back in the next couple of weeks to find out more about the Eternal Starling cover reveal!

Announcements!

2011-07-27T01:55:00.005-06:00

I just came out of my revision cave and have things to tell you about!

First, an announcement!

The book launch party for Eternal Starling will be held at The King's English Bookshop in Salt Lake City on December 7, 2011! I'll be speaking and signing books, plus there will be prizes and yummy treats! I know it's 4 months away, but I've dreamed of having a book launch party there since I stumbled into the store my freshman year of college, so I'm VERY excited. Keep it on your calendar and I hope to see you there!

Second, the YA Scavenger Hunt is coming up next week on August 1st! There are so many fabulous authors participating that you won't want to miss out on any of them! Don't forget to check back and read my blog to see exclusive material from the incredible author I'm hosting. Seriously, people, this author is amazing and so is her bonus material!!! If you have no clue what I'm talking about, you can read more about it here. There are awesome prizes associated with the Scavenger Hunt too, so it's definitely something you don't want to miss!

YA Scavenger Hunt!

2011-07-12T23:13:00.007-06:00

Do you want an exclusive look at bonus material by some of your favorite YA authors? If so, mark your calendar for the YA Scavenger Hunt being held August 1st!

Fabulous authors are participating including: Josephine Angelini, Andrea Cremer, Kady Cross, Heather Davis, Bree Despain, Clare Dunkle, Marley Gibson, Abbi Glines, Colleen Houck, Tara Hudson, Elana Johnson, Alexandra Monir, Lisa Nowak, Gregg Olsen, Amy Plum, Beth Revis, Lisa and Laura Roecker, Inara Scott, Sophie Jordan, Lani Woodland and many more! I'll be revealing something special about Eternal Starling as part of the Scavenger Hunt too. :)

You can start the scavenger hunt here on August 1st. I will post another author's bonus material and at the bottom of the post, there will be a link to another author's blog/website. You get to go from site to site, hunting for all the cool exclusive material.

Some authors are also having contests and giveaways as part of the Scavenger Hunt, so you don't want to miss this event! I'll be giving away an exciting prize too, so check back on August 1st!

Your special all access pass is good for one day only. All the bonus material heads back into the vault on Aug 2nd, so circle the date and join us as we celebrate what's new in YA fiction!

Thanks to Colleen Houck for coming up with this fantastic idea and organizing it!

I'm Speaking!

2011-06-30T15:56:00.004-06:00

Hi everyone!

I'll be speaking at the Riverton, Utah, library on Wednesday July 6th at 7:00 with awesome YA author, Lani Woodland!

There will be a raffle to win Intrinsical, the first book in Lani's Yara Silva Trilogy. Lani will have a sneak peek of Indelible, her upcoming sequel to Intrinsical, and I have some super awesome Eternal Starling bookmarks I'll be handing out.

Stop by if you have time! We'd love to see you!

Eternal Starling Release Date!

2011-06-01T17:08:00.004-06:00

I just got editorial notes back on Eternal Starling! I'm really excited! I love the mythology of this book and series so much, and I can't wait for people to be able to read it!

So...I have a couple of book updates.

Eternal Starling has a release date!!! It will be available to buy on December 6, 2011!

*happy dance*

The book is also now available for pre-order on barnesandnoble.com! If you're interested, here's the link: Eternal Starling

Thanks to everyone for all of your support and encouragement with Eternal Starling!

What Books Changed Your Life?

2011-05-10T09:45:00.001-06:00

Reading was a big part of my childhood. Every night before we went to sleep, my mom or dad read to us and I got to escape into a new world. Sometimes we went to Middle Earth, other times to a Little House On the Prairie, but each night it was something new, and made me imagine from a young age all the places I could go and things I could do.

One of my youngest memories (I was probably about 3-4 years old) is sitting on the living room couch, holding a brightly colored children's book, The Hobbit. Despite the fact that the book/record set came with a plethora of books, The Hobbit was the one I couldn't get enough of. The book came with a record that allowed me to listen and follow the words as I read. I remember jumping up and down on the couch, ecstatic when I recognized the word "and." I started trying to find other words, then I'd go through my mom and dad's newspaper, not understanding what I was seeing, but pretending I could read. Every once in awhile, a word I knew from The Hobbit, would jump out on the page. Granted, since I wasn't reading the Middle Earth Times, there weren't a lot of similarities between The Hobbit and the newspaper, but words like: and, the, but, and or were easy enough to find. I couldn't stop dreaming about one day when I'd be able to read the newspaper all by myself and know every word. Reading has always been important to me, but there are some books that have truly changed my life. Here are some of them...

The Hobbit-Even though I was only reading a children's picture book version, this is the book that made me fall in love with other worlds and want to spend all of my time reading.

The Fairy Rebel-My school librarian, Mrs. Asay, gave me this book when I was in first grade. I wanted to stay with the blue haired fairies forever. Then I realized that even if I couldn't stay there, I could write my own stories that readers might want to live in as much as I wanted to live with the fairies. This was the book that made me believe I could be an author and craft worlds of my own.

Gone With the Wind-I admit, I LOVE a good love triangle...and Gone With the Wind has one of the best. Okay, so most people think Scarlett should be with Rhett. He does seem a better match when it comes to Scarlett's wit and stubborness, but he also tries to reign her in for a good part of the book, and I don't like that. Ashley is the man Scarlett's always wanted and pines for, but he's not good at taking charge and not strong enough to counter Scarlett's strong personality--until one important scene. Maybe it's because I'm putting it in the context of when it was written, but the first time I read it, I put the book down, took some deep breaths and read it a few more times. Then I officially planted myself in the Team Ashley camp for a good long while. However, the amazing thing about Gone With the Wind (for me at least) is that it's a book where I change teams depending on when I read it. Sometimes I want Scarlett with Ashley, other times I want her with Rhett, and a lot of times I think she's far better off on her own. This book, and the Ashley/Scarlett scene especially, taught me how to write romance.

Their Eyes Were Watching God- *Happy sigh* Their Eyes Were Watching God reads like poetry. It taught me how to write different types of love and the prose is so stunning it will stay with me for the rest of my life. I even used this book to answer one of the essay questions on my high school AP English test. The lyrical writing is so beautiful that I keep quotes from the book on my wall. My favorite is: "Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board. For some they come in with the tide, for others, the sail on forever on the horizon, never changing until the Watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death by time." The quote always reminds me to never turn away from dreams.

So, now I want to know, what books changed your life???

Eternal Starling on Goodreads!

2011-04-25T23:30:00.001-06:00

Eternal Starling is now listed on Goodreads.com!!!

If you have a Goodreads account and want to add it to your to-read shelf, here's the link!

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11160341-eternal-starling

And here's my author page!

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3015664.Angela_Corbett

Thanks so much to everyone for being so supportive of my books!

Books You Love...or Hate

2011-04-12T22:00:00.002-06:00

While searching through my streaming Netflix options the other day, I found a new Masterpiece Theater version of Wuthering Heights, one of my favorite books. I immediately put it in my queue and settled in to watch Heathcliff and Catherine behave badly. The movie reminded me how much I love the book and I got out my highlighted, margin written, dog eared copy to read my favorite scenes.

In doing so, I was reminded that even though I LOVE Wuthering Heights, my BFF, Amazing Ashley, HATES it. As long time blog readers know, Amazing Ashley is an English Lit. professor. Our tastes in books run parallel 99% of the time. Wuthering Heights is the one book we disagree on. Ashley is not a fan of how awful the characters are to each other, and despises the fact that most people misinterpret the book as a great love story.

I, on the other hand, think it's absolutely a love story--one laced with a potent combination of jealousy, revenge, and hatred. Catherine and Heathcliff's actions are deplorable. They are so horrible to each other and the people around them that they can't be anything but soul mates. They are the only two people who truly understand each other. I also love the characterization and dialogue, as well as the strong emotions the characters and story provoke. There are some scenes between Heathcliff and Catherine that are so heated, you don't know whether anger, love, lust, or a combination of all three is driving the scene.

I applaud any book that makes people question what they believe, and Wuthering Heights crossed lines that both invigorated and infuriated people. Emily Brontë wrote one novel before she died. Wuthering Heights was originally published under the male pen name, Ellis Bell. It caused an uproar in England for it's immoral themes and became even more scandalous when people found out it was actually written by a woman who was the daughter of a vicar. In fact, the first time I read it, I remember thinking repeatedly: Holy 1800s! How did Brontë get away with that? Yes, it was shocking at the time, and to an extent, it's even shocking now. Yet, Wuthering Heights still remains one of the most popular books of all time and it's never been out of print.

My Wuthering Heights disagreement with Amazing Ashley made me wonder about books that have been divisive in other people's lives. So, here's my question: What books do you love/hate that friends, family, or the general public disagree with you on?

Book Covers

2011-03-14T17:00:00.001-06:00

The other day, my husband and I were in the bookstore perusing the YA Paranormal Romance section (read: I was perusing, husband was rolling his eyes wondering where the section on cars and sports was at). Anyway, my husband stopped rolling his eyes long enough to look at the books in the section and then asked why most YA Paranormal Romance covers are black. The truth is, I have no idea. Maybe it's because the YA Paranormal Romance trend started with Twilight and all the Twilight covers are black? I posed the question on Twitter and one of my friends responded saying she thought it was just a way the genre was grouped.

But I really have no clue? Anyone have any ideas?

Speaking of covers, I want to highlight some of my favorites...

Intrinsical, by Lani Woodland. Isn't this cover gorgeous?! And Lani took the photo herself! It was done under water and is just stunning. I'd read the book based on the cover alone.

Beautiful Creatures, by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl. I have a feeling I'll like all the covers in this series, but I think the first one is stunning. Maybe it's because my favorite color is purple, I don't know. I also love the matte background on the cover and the raised texture.

Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick. I'm a major fan of metallic anything. I love the silver on this cover and the falling angel tells you exactly what the book is about before you even open the page.

The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins. I'll admit, the first time I saw this cover and read the blurb, I thought it was a little too sci-fi for me. But I'm so glad I picked it up because the series is one of my favorites now. I love that the Mockingjay is on every cover and I even carved a Mockingjay in my Halloween pumpkin. :)

What are some of your favorite covers? Do you like that most YA covers are black, or does the cover color not really matter to you? Post below!!!

Big News!!!

2011-02-07T00:58:00.018-07:00

I've been waiting a long time to be able to write this blog post, and now that it's here, I can't think of anything clever to say. So without further ado, here is my big news...

I received a book deal for my YA paranormal romance trilogy, the Eternal Trilogy, from Pendrell Publishing!!! The first book, Eternal Starling, will be published in late 2011.

I was so excited that when I got the email, I had to read it 20 times to convince myself it was real, then Pippin, our Pomeranian, and I danced around the house laughing and screaming, much to the befuddlement of the contractor who was working on our basement at the time. Of course, as soon as I got the email, I immediately called my husband, Dan. Then he couldn't talk, so I had to wait to give him the news. At that point, I called my best friend and beta editor, Amazing Ashley, she didn't answer the phone either. So I tried my mom. Yeah, no answer there. Then my dad, you guessed it, no answer.

The most exciting news of my life and no one was answering their dumb phone!!! I finally got a hold of everyone and my mom was screaming so much that I couldn't understand a word she said for at least 5 minutes. My incredible husband brought me 2 dozen roses and made dinner reservations for us to celebrate. It was truly one of the best days of my life and I'm so excited for the next steps in the process! I couldn't ask for a more fabulous publisher.

So, details!

Eternal Starling will be released in hardcover and as an ebook in late 2011. When I know more details, I'll post about them here, and on The Eternal Trilogy Facebook page.

If you're a book reviewer, you can read about Pendrell's ARC policy here. I'm VERY excited and can't wait to hold my book in my hands! Thanks so much to all my fans and everyone who has been so supportive and stuck with me through this long process! Also, a huge thank you to the reader at Pendrell who liked Eternal Starling so much, and to my incredible publisher, Kamilla Quast, for this opportunity!

Well-Meaning People...

2011-01-04T21:55:00.003-07:00

When I tell people I'm a writer, the conversation often goes something like this:

Well-meaning acquaintance: "You're a writer? Where can I get your books?"

Me: "You can't yet. I'm in the querying process and still looking for a literary agent."

Well-meaning acquaintance wrinkles their nose: "An agent? What in the sam hill do you need one of those for?"

Me: "Agents make sure I get actual money in exchange for my book instead of, say, a chinchilla."

Well-meaning acquaintance, who looks surprised that I would be displeased with a chinchilla payment: "So once you get an agent, your book will be in stores?"

Me: "Not quite. After the agent decides to represent me, we have to go through the submission process all over again, only this time, it's with editors at publishing houses."

Well-meaning acquaintance: "Huh, that seems like a lot of work..." And because some people think they're book experts just because their high school English teacher made them read The Grapes of Wrath, what inevitably follows is a suggestion so insane that I file it away to pull up every time I need a good laugh and The Daily Show isn't on.

This blog post is dedicated to the well-meaning people who have NO idea how the publishing industry works, but endeavor to advise my career anyway. And, of course, I've added commentary.

"Why don't you just call Stephenie Meyer? She's sold a lot of books. I bet she could help you out."
Yes, because like Edward and Bella, Stephenie and I have a bond...one the transcends the fact that we've never met. I keep her number in my address book right next to Obama's and Angelina Jolie's.

"Hey! Know what you should write? Something with a wizard, vampire, and fairy...and they could search for the Holy Grail." *Pause* "Oh, and the vampire and wizard should be in love with the fairy. Love sells."
OMG!!! It's the next bestseller! Why hasn't anyone else thought of this? Agents and editors will cause a riot trying to get their hands on it...to burn in the fiery pits of hell, the only place worthy of such a masterpiece. Then said agents and editors will find you and stab you repeatedly with sporks.

"You have a love triangle in your book! I told you love triangles sell! Does that mean I get credit for the idea? Do you need to know how to spell my name to list me as the co-author?"
Yes, please. Because mentioning one ambiguous aspect of a story I'd already come up with means that you helped write the book. No need to mention the fact that I'm the one who sat my butt down for countless hours writing and revising, came up with the entire plot, argued with fictional characters, and spent wee hours of the morning pacing the room and discussing plot points with my dog. You should probably contact Stephenie while you're at it and tell her she owes you royalty money for Edward and Jacob fighting over Bella. Hold on, I have her number.

"Why are you writing other books? Authors just have to write one to be rich."
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
*breathe*
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

"Getting an agent can't be that hard. There are lots of crappy books out. Yours has to be better than those. Just find an agent who represents crap."
Thanks for the encouragement. I will continue my quest to get my writing up to "crap" standards. Then I'll be sure to mention the "crappy books" the agent represents in my query. Brilliant.

"How about Oprah? Man! If you got on there, you'd sell, like, TONS of books! And you better do it fast because her show ends soon."
Oprah's number is in my address book right next to Stephenie's.

"You're a writer? No, I mean, what's your real job?"
I do have another job besides writing, but this question always makes me want to give a snarky comment along the lines of: "Oh, so you're in management? Gosh, a job where you only work 40 hours a week instead of being on the clock day and night, constantly carrying notepads, and having characters jump out at you wanting something at the least opportune times--like when you're talking to someone about what you do for a living and it reminds you about the character you need to kill. You know, the one who's so stupid he gets pecked to death by an ostrich he thought was dead and the only part of him still identifiable is his yeti-like hairy back, covered in muddy ostrich footprints. Also, it looks suspiciously like he might have been stabbed with sporks.

I know I'm not the only one who gets this kind of advice. I'd love to hear some of the gems you've been told. Please post in the comments if you have some of your own. :)

A Vegetarian at Honeybaked Ham

2010-12-24T00:24:00.006-07:00

When I was tasked with getting a Honeybaked Ham for Christmas dinner, I thought, why not? How hard could it be? I'll just go to the store and grab a hunk of meat.

It turns out that getting dropped in the middle of an angry group of warlords and their rhinoceros bodyguards would be less intimidating. Keep in mind that I became a vegetarian at age 5 after a traumatic experience with my babysitter involving a rather vivid visual of Betsy the big brown-eyed cow no longer roaming the grassy fields because she was now on my hamburger bun. When I discovered that Wilbur the pig, Chicken Little, and the cute Thanksgiving turkey were also being killed in the name of dinner, I conducted research via my farm animals pop-up book and gave my parents an itemized list of cute animals I would no longer be eating.

My parents thought this was just a phase, but after a few weeks, they realized what a stubborn little girl they'd birthed, and resorted to guerilla tactics--like hiding meat in my food...which I found. This then forced me to go through a lengthy food inspection at each meal and before long, I'd invoked a hunger strike. Eventually, and with some trepidation, my parents shook their heads and gave up, slightly terrified of my will and worried what that force of nature would turn into during my teenage years.

I still feel the same about little animals, and have been a vegetarian for 25 years. I won't prepare meat or cook it myself, but it doesn't bother me when other people eat it, which is why I agreed to the Honeybaked Ham trip. I arrived at the store, thinking I'd park, grab a ham, and get back to my coffee in the car. As I walked up to the door, I saw a line. And not just any line, this line stretched out the door, and wound its way into a neighboring store, complete with poles and tape as a guide to get people through the maze. This feat of people herding put the airport security line to shame.

I looked around, wondering if there was some sort of Justin Bieber concert--I mean, that would be the only logical explanation for a line long enough to last through Valentine's Day. But Bieber was no where to be found and after sidling up to a few people in the line herd, I surmised that this was, in fact, the ham exodus. I bided my time Twittering and Facebooking about my experience, then decided to play Duck Hunt on my phone. Here's a tip: Turn off the sound if you're playing a game where you shoot guns while in a very crowded ham line.

After 45 minutes, I finally got to the front of the line--which felt a lot like being in a concert mosh pit at a Neil Diamond concert--and it was there that I was confronted with a rather uncomfortable situation: the order. Here's the thing...sending a vegetarian into the Honeybaked Ham store is a lot like telling one of the orcs from the Lord Of the Rings that they are about to be the lead in The Nutcracker Ballet. Like a lumbering dancing orc, I was completely clueless, and out of my comfort zone.

I muddled through the order, not sure what exactly I was buying, or how to prepare it. The nice clerk helping me took the time to unwrap the ham and show me my purchase. When she asked if it looked okay, I noted the pinkness of it and gave a slight nod, then looked at her with a disconcerted expression and said, "I'm a vegetarian," cue the gasps from the people surrounding me. Worried about the angry patrons and not wanting my obituary to read that I was bludgeoned to death by a Honeybaked Ham, I continued in a quieter voice, "I really don't know what it's supposed to look like. Does it look all right to you?"

She nodded and gave me a concerned smile as she glanced behind me, clearly worried about the crowd. Then she handed me the ham with no warning that I needed to prepare my arm for a chunk of meat heavier than Hercules' bowling ball. I made it to the check out stand as I put my shoulder back into its socket, paid for my ham, and sat in my car taking a few cleansing deep breaths. Then I turned the key in the ignition and started to drive away when my car began beeping at me, clearly unhappy with the meat passenger I'd mistakenly plopped in the front seat. Apparently my car's weight sensor thought my ham-child needed to be buckled in.

When I got home, I put the ham in the fridge and breathed a sigh of relief that my Honeybaked adventure was over. Next Christmas, my carnivore husband can go to the store.

Happy Holidays!

Droids and Other Disasters

2010-11-06T01:21:00.028-06:00

You know how sometimes your grandma calls and says something interesting like: "My computer is sick and the pictures on the screen keep jumping around like bunnies." So you go to her house only to find an industrial grade magnet the size of your thigh stuck to the motherboard side of her desktop computer. You take the magnet off, explain that magnets are to computers what the iceberg was to the Titanic, and you all have a laugh about technological shenanigans at family gatherings for years to come. (And yes, that really did happen). Well, that's a bit like how I feel about my new Motorola Droid 2 smart phone.

If you follow me on Twitter, you already know the confusion that occurred. Aside from needing (and lacking) an instruction manual the size of an unabridged dictionary, I immediately had technical difficulties. After turning the phone off Wednesday night, I decided I might need to make some calls on Thursday, or be otherwise connected to the rest of the world. In my opinion, that was not an unreasonable request.

Soon after turning the phone on, I started getting text messages from friends saying that 5 days worth of previous text messages had just been resent. The Droid did this all by itself, thus making me question how smart my phone actually was. I decided there was a good possibility it was inhabited by the Prince of Darkness himself. Friends, especially those who were displeased with the duplicate messages, received another message that I may or may not have had something to do with saying something like: "Since you were one of the lucky recipients of a duplicate text message, congratulations, you have been chosen. Hellfire and Brimstone wishes, from the Prince of Darkness. Future owner of your sooouuuul." (And yes, the Prince of Darkness does sound a little like the Dread Pirate Roberts).

My Droid's evil tendencies prompted me to name it Megatron, but then I remembered I've already cristened a car and other complicated things that piss me off with that name. So, I decided on MM (Mini Megatron) instead. I took MM back to the store and exchanged it. So far the new phone isn't showing signs of possession, but with my genetics (see Mom story below, and Grandma story above), I never rule anything out.

Technology related disasters are not an isolated event in my family. My mom (AKA: The Destroyer) manages to crash her hard drive at least once every 3 months. Soon, Best Buy is going to stop allowing her to buy their product protection plans. I can't begin to fathom the amount of money they're losing. Recently, The Destroyer was asked to teach a Computer Basics class to the good Spanish speaking folk of her little Florida town. Problem number 1: She is The Destroyer. Problem number 2: The Destroyer doesn't speak Spanish. I call bad judgment on the part of the class organizers. Really. Bad. Judgment.

I didn't attend the class since The Destroyer and Grandma were already there, and two generations of catastrophe-causing family members in one location with a bunch of computers seemed like enough of a recipe for the apocolypse. But I hear The Destroyer taught the Spanish people several words they weren't even aware existed. Most of these words ended in the letter "o" (ie. mouseo, keyboardo, Windowso). Next, they'll have her teaching a class on the Droid. Hijinks, hilarity and the possibility of the homeland security threat level sprinting to red will ensue.

For me, I've figured out the basics. Turning the phone on and off is a breeze, and after a brief breakdown and screaming that might have resulted in the neighbors calling animal control, I was able to figure out how to unlock the phone to answer my phone call. And don't even get me started on all the apps! This is information overload I tell you! I can't help but question why one might need Twitter access while, say, taking a bathroom break. I find myself wondering if I really want to be this connected.

My extremely intelligent software architect husband doesn't have this problem. In fact, he's in love. In the last three days, it has become blindingly clear that if he could take his Droid Incredible as a second wife, he would. Perhaps there's even a succubus living inside his phone planting these thoughts in his head. Considering the possession abilities already demonstrated in my Droid, one should definitely not rule this possibility out. Husband spent 6 hours with his phone on Wednesday, another 7 hours last night, and tonight he asked me to use the Droid to map the closest Post Office even though we've lived in this neighborhood and used its Post Office for 5 years.

Despite the possession, my husband's obsession, and a family with anti-technological genetics capable of taking down a small country, I really do think the Droid is handy. Everything is so much more convenient now and I can keep in touch and get my work done without sitting in front of a computer 24 hours a day. If I can pass the learning curve and the Prince of Darkness doesn't make a reappearance, I see a bright future for MM and me.

Halloween!!!!

2010-10-25T16:32:00.014-06:00

I woke up today to three inches of snow outside. After some colorful language, I felt better and decided it was okay since this is Utah where there are days you have to use both your heater and your air conditioner. I'm so not ready for summer to be over, but I am excited because...

It's Halloween!!! My favorite month, my favorite season (Autumn is BEAUTIFUL in Utah when it doesn't snow!!) And my favorite holiday! I usually spend the whole month watching scary movies, reading scary books, and trying to scare the pants off myself.

I live in the Utah suburbs which means I'm surrounded by children. There are over 70 kids on my street alone...and my street only has 18 houses. As you can imagine, Halloween is C-R-A-Z-Y here!!! We usually get between 200-500 trick-or-treaters, though numbers have been dwindling lately since my Dad started visiting on Halloween to terrorize the children. He dresses up as a scary monster wearing stilts. I imagine he resembles what a ringwraith from The Lord of the Rings would look like if they took their hoods off.

He's about 9 feet tall with the stilts on and usually leans against the house looking like a decoration until the older kids come by and then he slowly moves away and starts following them. They try to run, but with the stilts, he can cover about 4 feet per step. Being chased by a 9 foot tall ringwraith and the embodiment of nightmares has to be pretty traumatizing. My dad's been using this tactic since I was about 8 years old and once threatened to greet all my dates that way. Luckily he didn't follow through.

The candy is ready to go, the DVR is set to record Ghost Hunters Live, Dad is sanding his stilts, and the pumpkins are carved (see pics below). It's going to be a great!

So...what are you doing for Halloween?

This is our dog, Pippin's, pumpkin.

This is Pippin.

My 30 year old husband's pumpkin. I think he loves Nintendo more now than he did in 1990.

And I'm obsessed with the Mercy Thompson novels by Patricia Briggs. Mercy can shift into a coyote, hence the coyote paw. :)

Want A Prize?

2010-10-20T19:50:00.006-06:00

Heather, one of my amazing writer friends, is having a giveaway on her blog! There are a lot of cool prizes like books, bookmarks, original artwork and a $30 Amazon or Barnes and Noble gift card.

Check it out if you like awesome prizes. And sign up to follow Heather's blog because she's such an awesome, talented gal! :)

Heather's Blog, Lost in the View

Blind in the Friendly Skies

2010-08-20T00:32:00.006-06:00

When two legally blind kids are left alone in an international airport with a train that looks a lot like a ride at Disney World, will they make their flight, or wander around Atlanta International surviving on Cinnabon?

No, no, it's not a story I made up, it's my life.

My younger brother and sister were both born with Peter's Anomaly Plus Syndrome. It's so rare that my brother was one of the first in the world to be diagnosed with it. People with Peter's Anomaly are born blind, without pupils. There are a host of other problems that often go along with it including dwarfism, hearing problems, and speech problems. As babies, my bro and sis's doctors were able to figure out a way to give them pupils, and eyesight; they now have limited vision, though they're legally blind. When their eyesight started getting worse because of the dry Utah weather, their doctors said they had to move to humid Florida.

They've been in Florida for two years now, but because Peter's Anomaly Plus is so rare, the only doctor who can treat them is the doctor who pioneered the sight saving surgeries for them...and he's in Utah. What this means is that two or three times a year, my mostly blind bro and sis have to get on a plane and fly all the way across the country on their own. My family learned a long time ago that having my bro and sis around would be the catalyst for many interesting situations, but we were never, NEVER I tell you, prepared for the adventure that is Delta's round-trip airline flight with connections.

The good people at Delta have a handy feature that allows me, the reservation maker, to note on the ticket that the person flying is visually impaired. Great! I thought, as I clicked the "Visually Impaired" button. Someone will help my bro and sis get to the plane so they don't accidentally wind up in a bathroom stall waiting for the toilet to take off. Unfortunately, the visually impaired check box comes with a catch...you have to ride in a wheelchair in order for a Delta representative to help you...something my bro and sis--who are perfectly capable of walking--kind of resent.

When presented with the option of wheelchair or no help at all, they took no help and wandered around the airport like a modern-day Moses, trying to find the way to their gate, which they couldn't see because the gate signs were too small for them to read. After searching forever (okay, it was really only an hour but felt like more to me, their angst ridden sister who was awaiting a text that they were safely on the plane) they found their gate and the nice flight attendants helped them to their seats--apparently wheelchairs aren't required for seat assistance.

One hurdle down, one iceberg-sized hurdle to go...the connection in Atlanta (only one of the biggest airports in the U.S.). Before Delta decided to marry Northwest and adopt a fleet of smaller airline babies, getting my bro and sis on their connection wasn't nearly as difficult because their connecting flight was usually in the same terminal as the flight they just deplaned. No more my friends.

After asking for help finding their connecting flight, they were pointed down a hall and told to take the escalators and turn left, which they did, and it took them to a train. Keep in mind that my bro and sis grew up in Utah. The only trains my bro and sis have experience with were once fueled by coal.

So my bro and sis shrug as they're pushed on the train and then take a moment to wonder if they're on their way to Hogwarts. Bro is a little concerned when he can't find Harry Potter and starts looking around for help when he spots them! No, not Hermione and Harry, it's even better! An airline employee pushing a guy in a wheelchair. Bro grabs my sis, a plan clear in his mind. Obviously that guy wasn't upset about being hauled around in a wheelchair and since he's in a wheelchair, he's probably going to the same place as them! Finding their gate is as simple as following wheelchair guy!

The train stops, flight attendant and wheelchair guy get off, and bro and sis follow like tiny stalkers, though I imagine most stalkers have better sight and can keep a longer distance. By some miracle, wheelchair guy happens to be in the same terminal as bro and sis, and not only the same terminal, but on the same flight!!! That's right, out of all the flights in Atlanta, the guy my bro and sis followed to find their flight was actually on their flight. If that's not evidence of guardian angels, or at least fairies, I'm not sure what is.

Of course, I didn't get this whole story until by some miracle, they managed to land in Salt Lake.

*shakes head*

I can't wait to see what happens next week when they have to fly back. At least my life is never boring.

Review: The Broken Lake by Shelena Shorts

2010-07-28T01:24:00.013-06:00

From the Publisher

In the aftermath of Sophie's ordeal, Weston will make some uncharacteristic decisions to distance himself from the past in an attempt to change the future.

But, while venturing into the improbable, the present sneaks up in a chilling way that will lead to Wes' unexpected submission. Suddenly, Sophie will find herself watching as both his immortal secret and his own existence are threatened.

Continuously intriguing, The Broken Lake takes readers to a place where eternal bonds confront a division that is sure to leave everyone wondering whom they can trust.

My Review

5 out of 5 stars!

I'm usually wary of second books in a series, but I liked The Broken Lake almost as much as The Pace. The Broken Lake begins where The Pace left off and Wes is quickly forced to confront the aftermath of Sophie's abduction and Andy's death (which took place at the end of The Pace). Because of Andy's death, the research being done at Wes's laboratories is now putting Wes in the public eye, which is the last thing Wes or Sophie want. Too much attention could be a threat to Wes and the secrets he hides.

Because of the media attention and the history of Sophie's lifespan, Wes and Sophie take advantage of every moment they have together. And The Broken Lake spends a lot of time exploring Wes and Sophie's relationship. I enjoyed learning more about the two characters, and bits and pieces about their past. It was also nice to see their relationship grow as they tried to change what seems like an inevitable future. This book also gives an interesting explanation for why Sophie's lifespan is so short and I'm curious to see where that aspect of the story goes in future books. This book is definitely focused on the love story as opposed to Wes and Sophie's history and the science behind it, but at its heart, I feel like love is what The Pace Series is all about.

My one complaint is that The Broken Lake ends in a cliffhanger, which always leaves me feeling like I didn't get the whole story. Overall though, I really enjoyed the book and was happy to have another chance to live in Wes and Sophie's world. I'm excited for the third book in the series, The Iron Quill.

Thanks so much to Michelle at Windowpanes Memoirs Book Tours for including me in The Broken Lake ARC tour.

Angelfire by Courtney Allison Moulton

2010-07-06T00:23:00.005-06:00

I first met Courtney Allison Moulton through YAlitchat.ning.com (a networking & informational site for YA writers). If you aren't on the site and you're a YA writer, you need to be. Courtney gave me some tips for making a book trailer and in the process, I saw the trailer for her book, Angelfire--I couldn't wait to read it! I love books with a kick-ass heroine (which YA seems to lack more often than not) and was so excited about Courtney's book!

Now Courtney has Angelfire ARCs and she's giving one away! So go to her blog to enter the contest! Angelfire is the first book in an urban fantasy trilogy with a great story, awesome characters, and some romance too. I think it's going to be the next big YA series, so go to her blog and check it out right away!!!

Slush Pile Hell

2010-06-30T23:59:00.005-06:00

I've been super busy revising Branson Falls. The most important thing I've learned from Eternal Starling, and my successful author friends, is that you must revise, revise, revise and when you think you're done revising, do it again. I feel so good about Branson Falls and want to make sure it's the best it can be before I start to query.

But, that's not to say I don't need a break sometimes and this link on an agent's Twitter account today made me giggle. So for your enjoyment, check out slush pile hell.

http://slushpilehell.tumblr.com/

Your Mission Is...

2010-06-08T23:54:00.027-06:00

I know, you were expecting me to explain your mission right away, don't worry, I'll get to that.

I just started another round of revisions on Branson Falls. I'm almost to the point where I use the FIND feature in Word to locate all the words in my manuscript that end with "ly." Why in the world would I take the time to do that you ask? Because as Stephen King says, "The road to hell is paved with adverbs," and most words that end in "ly" are adverbs.

*Cue the "Mission Impossible" theme music now*

When I get to the point that I feel a manuscript is close to querying, I always go through it to see if the adverbs I've used add to the sentence and if they don't, I try to get rid of them. There's no way to take all of the adverbs out of a manuscript, and they're not all bad. The adverbs I'm talking about are the ones that stick out like a sore thumb...the ones that make a reader want to scream because the constant use of adverbs in place of descriptions makes it hard for the reader to connect to the story. The ones I notice the most when I read are adverbs used as part of dialogue tags.

I'm not sure why, but adverb overload seems to be common in the YA genre. Before Amazing Ashley got her red pen out to edit Eternal Starling, I had a lot of lines of dialogue ending with things like, 'she said, obviously,' and 'he said, frantically.' For me, the adverb dialogue tags were a result of my inexperience as a novelist and I was able to learn from that mistake and improve my writing skills.

Ashley gave me some good advice for how to fix the problem in later drafts and other WIPs. She told me I need to write how a character's emotions are reflected in their actions and show how the character is feeling instead of telling it. The show, don't tell line is one I've heard a lot, but no one has ever been able to explain to me as well as Ashley did when she suggested I watch the TV show "Lie To Me." I couldn't believe how much it helped to watch the show and see how facial expressions and body language were analyzed to figure out how a person was feeling. Now I'm a lot better at descriptions and as I write, I can see how the character's body is reacting in my mind. Here's an example...

Instead of saying:

"Who do you think you are?" she asked, angrily."

I think of the character and envision how they would really react in the situation, then I try to write that.

She folded her arms across her chest, her fingers digging into her skin like she was trying to hold back a punch. The muscles in her shoulders tensed as she pulled her brows into a dark glare and asked, "Who do you think you are?"

See the difference? Unlike the vague first example, the second example offers a physical description to explain how the character is feeling instead of just telling the reader the character is angry. You can go into a lot more detail than I did but to me, the second example is much more interesting and gives the reader a better idea of the character, her actions, and her feelings. The detail in the second example creates an image in the mind of the reader, and helps them identify with the character. It also makes the character more believable.

So, your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to go through your manuscript and get rid of the adverbs that aren't needed.

Speaking of characters...I better get back to my revisions. Drop me a line in the comments and tell me what you think about adverbs. :)

Sex and the City 2

2010-05-30T00:13:00.000-06:00

When the first Sex and the City movie came out, I forced my husband to come with me to see it (this was my version of punishment for him wanting a BIG wedding and making me plan the whole blasted thing with no help). This time he hadn't done anything worthy of making him sit through a 2 1/2 hour chick-flick, so I went to Sex and the City 2 with some girlfriends instead.

Let me first say that Liza Minnelli dancing and singing to Beyonce's "All the Single Ladies" was worth the ticket price all by itself. The movie had a lot of funny moments and I enjoyed the interaction between Carrie, Miranda, Samantha and Charlotte. The reappearance of Carrie's Dior newspaper dress made me fall in love with the dress, and show, all over again. I liked the woman-empowering theme of the movie and despite having to suspend belief a bit (especially about some of the situations in Abu Dhabi), the movie was a lot of fun and perfect for a girls night out.

However, as my husband and several other people pointed out, the movie got horrible reviews. And I have to say, the critics had some good points. The dialogue was silly in spots and there was no real plot to speak of. I definitely see the complaint that the movie seemed to focus on fashion and shoes (but when hasn't Sex and the City been about those things).

Usually bad dialogue and lack of a plot turn me off regardless of the medium (TV, movies, books)--but Sex and the City is different. I've been trying to figure out why that's the case and I think it's because I'm much more forgiving of characters I've already spent time getting to know and falling in love with. I think the same is true for anything in a series, whether it's a TV show, movie, or a book. I don't always like every book in a series, but just because I think some parts of a story fall through the cracks, it doesn't mean I want to give up on the characters. I've already developed a love for them and committed my time to becoming a part of their world. I want to know what's going to happen to them and continue watching them grow...even if there are stumbles along the way.

I'm sure another Sex and the City movie will come out and regardless of whether critics think it's good or bad, I'll be there on opening night because I love the characters, the stories, and I enjoy seeing what will happen to them next...even if they do end up on a camel in the middle of the Arabian desert wearing $500 shoes.

Preface / Prologue Part 2

2010-05-09T23:53:00.003-06:00

Now that you know whether you have a preface or a prologue, you have to decide if you really need it.

If you read ANY agent blogs or follow agents on Twitter, you will see that a good majority of them HATE prologues and prefaces. A lot of them even say it turns them off of the manuscript completely. Many of the agents I follow say they can't gauge your writing, your voice, or the tone of the book based on a preface or prologue. Also, think about one of the cardinal rules of writing. You never dump backstory into your first chapters. You always want to craft the backstory into the plot throughout the book. But, by using a preface or a prologue, you're essentially dumping backstory on the agent in the first few pages.

My personal opinion is that I don't mind prologues, but I despise prefaces. A prologue serves a purpose for the story. You need the information from the prologue to understand the rest of the book. But a preface is just a retelling of something (usually part of the climax) that happens later in the story. I've had so many authors tell me they included a preface because they felt like they wouldn't be able to pull a reader in with their first chapter. If you can't grab a reader with the first few pages of your first chapter, you're certainly not going to be able to get an agent's attention. I've even read that some agents completely disregard prologues/prefaces sent to them. Agents are trying to get a feel for your writing style, voice, and the plot. They can't do that from a prologue/preface. If you're worried that your first chapter, or even your first few paragraphs won't keep a reader's attention, you need to rewrite.

Now I know you're thinking that if prologues and prefaces are so unpopular with agents, why do so many books have them? I've wondered that myself and this is my theory...I think a lot of editors like what a prologue or preface can do for a book. Most people buying a book like to scan the first few pages of the book before they buy it. If there's something interesting in those first few pages, a reader is much more likely to buy the book so they can find out what happens. My day job is in marketing/advertising/PR and from a marketing perspective, the preface prologue strategy makes a lot of sense. I’m sure there are other reasons as well--like maybe to help the audience understand an important part of the book or something intense or emotional the character is going through--but like I said, from a marketing perspective, it’s a very good idea. So while agents may not like prologues and prefaces, it's smart marketing on the side of the editor and publishing house.

So where does this leave you? Well, if you already have a prologue or preface, take a serious, unbiased look at it and ask yourself if it's really important enough to your book to risk the possibility of turning an agent off by sending it with your query. If you choose not to include your preface or prologue, it doesn't mean you have to give it up. Keep it around because an editor might want it someday. :)

Is it a Preface or a Prologue??? Part 1

2010-05-06T00:10:00.001-06:00

Whew!!! I finished my Branson Falls revisions!!! *Happy Dance*

I started this post about prologues and prefaces a while ago and as I've been working on it, it just keeps getting longer. I decided to split it into two posts, so for the first, I offer you a definition.

Prologues and prefaces seem to be all the rage lately--especially in YA books. Since Eternal Starling was YA, I seriously debated whether I should put one in. I mean, lots of other YA writers were doing it, should I do it too? The problem is that I'm not a preface or prologue fan. And I found out most agents aren't preface or prologue fans either (more on that in post #2). I had to decide what I wanted to do with Eternal Starling, but first, I needed to find out what the difference between a preface and prologue actually was!

There are SO many conflicting ideas out there about this--everywhere from mywriterscircle.com to absolutewrite.com. I finally found an answer that made sense to me and then found the same answer over and over again as I researched. Though, like I said, the opinions are conflicting, so feel free to do your own research and decide for yourself. You can also check this link from writersandeditors.com for a more detailed prologue and preface definition summary.

If you're confused like I was, read on for a definition and example.

A prologue is used to give the reader critical information that happens before the story starts. The reader will need that information later to understand what's happening in the book. A good example of this is the prologue in Hush, Hush, by Becca Fitzpatrick. The prologue happens in a completely different century than when the book takes place, but the information in the prologue is important to the plot of the book.

A preface is a retelling of something that happens later in the book and is often used as a way to hook a reader. A good example of this is the preface for Twilight. A lot of YA books use this tool as a way to get the audience immediately interested in the book and make them want to keep reading.

Now you know the difference, you can check your own preface or prologue and figure out what it actually is! In the next few days I'll post my take on why so many agents seem to hate prefaces and prologues, but editors seem to love them.

Editing Cave

2010-05-03T00:18:00.006-06:00

I know my posts have been sparse lately. Some of you probably thought I accidentally mud and taped myself to the basement wall. While I have no doubt that could, and probably will happen, we are still hanging drywall and haven't gotten to the mud and tape stage yet. (FYI, did you know they have self-adhesive mesh tape now instead of the paper tape that attacks you as you try to put in on the drywall? The mesh tape might just save my life!).

The real reason for my lack of posts is that I'm in my editing cave. I'm about half way through my revisions on Branson Falls and hope to finish them in the next couple of days! Then I'll send the ms. off to my crit-partners for comments and more revisions. Ah, it seems like it never ends. At least the query is done though, and I'm still planning to start sending out queries at the end of May.

I'm actually pretty excited to finish, not only because I love having a shiny new manuscript to query, but also because I have many topics I want to blog about including a question that many writers seem confused on: the difference between a preface and a prologue. And because I'm a little bit opinionated (my husband literally laughed out loud when he read that), I'll give my take on prefaces and prologues, as well as why agents hate them, but editors seem to love them.

So, keep checking back because I'll be out of my cave soon! Thanks for reading!!!

Vacation and Revisions

2010-04-16T21:40:00.009-06:00

I just got back from visiting my brother and sister and my grandparents in beautiful Florida! And we were there at the perfect time...it wasn't even humid! We were gone for a week and as soon as we got home my dad picked us up from the airport and we started working on the basement...again.

It's been a great learning experience but I think we'll make sure the basement in our next house is finished before we move in. We started hanging drywall today and I don't think I've ever been so excited in my life!!! I also rolled my ankle while I was trying to hook up our trailer so I could take it to Lowe's and exchange a door. Here's a tip: don't try and hook up a trailer by yourself when the trailer is sitting on a slope. I can still hobble along though, so I don't think I broke anything. I should probably go to the doctor and find out, but I have an irrational fear of hospitals and usually won't frequent them unless I think I'm dying.

Since I'm not much help in the basement with my maybe-broken ankle, I decided to read through the Branson Falls edits I got in the mail from Amazing Ashley while I was in Florida. I seriously don't know what I'd do without her. If you don't have someone in your life who will point out all the crap and inconsistencies in your manuscript, you HAVE to find that person. Amazing Ashley reads my manuscripts like an editor or agent and her help is invaluable. I've already told her I'm in debt to her for at least one Corvette, but she's worth A LOT more than that!

I haven't started revisions yet because Amazing Ashley wants to go through her comments with me page-by-page before I start rewriting. Yes, that's right, page-by-page because that's how fantastic Amazing Ashley is. Revisions always kick my butt and I know I have a lot of work still to do on Branson Falls, but for now, I'm hoping I can start to query in a month. I feel really good about the book though and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that an agent will like it as much as my beta-readers do!

Thirty!!!

2010-04-04T01:08:00.009-06:00

First, let me say that there's no real reason for the Brandon Routh picture except that I wanted to post a little eye candy to celebrate my 30th birthday! And let's be honest, eye candy is never a bad thing.

Since it's now after midnight, I'm officially 30!!! And unlike many of my 30-year-old friends, I'm so excited! I'm not sure why, but I've always felt like good things would happen the year I turned 30. And...as a testament to that, I got the best early birthday present ever a couple of days ago and I'll post more about it soon!

In other news, it seems like I've been in my basement-finishing cave with my dad and husband every spare moment for the past month, but occasionally I poke my head out and work on edits for Branson Heights (which I've recently re-titled Branson Falls). Incidentally, Brandon Routh looks so much like one of the characters in Branson Falls that it makes me wonder if my subconscious had a hand in writing the character. Amazing Ashley finished editing for me a few days ago. She said she was harder on me this time...which makes me a little concerned since I told her to be brutal with Eternal Starling. But, it will just make the book better so I'm excited to get her edits back and start improving the manuscript before I give it to readers and send out queries.

Since it's late, I think I'm going to end this post and continue celebrating 30 by reading a good book before I go to bed. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and I'll post more soon!

Basement and Edits

2010-03-27T12:57:00.005-06:00

I know it's been a while since I posted but I promise, I haven't forgotten about my blog! My dad has been in town for the past few weeks and my husband and I have been busy helping him finish the basement in our house! I'm very excited to get it done and start shopping! Speaking of that, if anyone knows of great places to get carpet and tile deals in Utah, please let me know!!!

In addition to the basement, Amazing Ashley has been editing my current book, Branson Heights, for the last week and she's almost done! Yes, she took time out of her busy schedule and several precious days from her spring break to help me out...because she is just that amazing. I'm hoping to get it edited in the next couple of weeks, but for now, I'm off to do more work on the basement! I'll post pictures soon!

Fire Petal Books...Check Out The Auction!

2010-03-17T16:33:00.005-06:00

For all my children's and YA writer friends, I must introduce you to Fire Petal Books. It's a new bookstore opening in Centerville, Utah, that sells books specifically for kids and teens. It's run by the fabulous Michelle Witte who has worked in the publishing business for several years and decided to follow her passion and open a store for kids who love books. I have no doubt this endeavor will be a huge success. She's already getting press in PW and she has
agent/editor/author friends spreading the word.

I LOVE the idea of the store and want to help her out and maybe help my blog followers too.

Right now Michelle is trying to raise money to get the bookstore off the ground and has decided to hold an auction on her site to do it. She has some fabulous things in her auction including signed copies of books, query critiques, and a manuscript critique by Molly O'Neill, a children's editor at Harper Collins!!! Are you kidding me??? A manuscript critique by a Harper Collins editor??? That is an AH-MAZING item. And there's more where that came from!

Get over there and check out the auction, Michelle's story, and help her with her dream to open Fire Petal Books!!!

http://www.firepetalbooks.com/

Do You Believe It?

2010-03-11T00:47:00.014-07:00

The other night my husband and I popped in the movie 2012. In case you haven't heard about it, or seen it, the movie is supposed to chronicle the events leading up to the end of the world (predicted by the Mayan calender). I cuddled up next to my husband and dog, popcorn in hand, to watch what I'd heard was a special effects masterpiece. For the first thirty minutes or so, I enjoyed the story.

But then I got annoyed.
Really annoyed.
The reason, you ask?

Cell phones. Yes, cell phones. Granted, I understand the whole movie is a stretch of the imagination. And I love getting lost in worlds like that. But I was so annoyed at how unbelievable the cell phone service was, that it took me right out of the story. Seriously, the world is ending. *Mild Spoiler Alert Here* Everything from Seattle to Los Angeles has just fallen into the Pacific Ocean. Every natural disaster you can think of is happening. BUT, the main characters still have cell phone service. Even at the end of the movie...STILL CELL PHONE SERVICE. Honestly Columbia Pictures, who is the cell service provider for these characters??? It got to the point that I was so bothered by how unbelievable that one story line was that I stopped paying attention to everything else going on in the movie and spent the rest of the time playing Mystery Science Theater 3000 with my husband while our dog, Pippin, scavenged for dropped popcorn pieces.

The amazing cell phones got me thinking about stories and my own writing. Yeah, I've read books with characters or story lines that have thrown me right out of the world the author has created. And it's frustrating, just like the cell phones in the movie. When I read, I want at least one of several things to happen: entertain me, force me to think in a way I haven't before, help me learn something new, or make me ask myself questions I haven't thought of before. I read as an escape and the last thing I want is to be pulled out of a book because of something about the story that seems too unreal. As writers, we have to be careful to make our stories believable. And it doesn't matter what you write: romance, mystery, historical, sci-fi, fantasy, paranormal, etc. The concept applies to every book, every character, and every reaction. All aspects of your story need to be believable in the world you've created. If they're not, you run the risk of losing your reader because the story isn't true to the characters/world you've made.

So, I have to thank 2012 and its super cell phone service for...
1. Letting me know that a cell phone tower is the safest place to be when the world ends.
2. Reminding me that I always need to read through my manuscripts and see them as my audience does.
3. Helping me remember to make sure readers can truly believe all aspects of my books.

Query Me This...

2010-02-28T06:00:00.002-07:00

I just finished my read-through and edit of the first draft of Branson Heights! Now my fabulous 2 first readers are going through it before I give the book to Amazing Ashley--who will no doubt tell me all the things I've done wrong. From there, I'll have a few more beta readers go through it for me, do a final edit, and start to query. Really though, I feel great about this manuscript because of how much I learned from writing and editing Eternal Starling.

I decided to start drafting my query letter, thinking the experience would be as long and painful as writing my last query letter was. So I was shocked when my Branson Heights query seemed to just flow onto the page. The query for Eternal Starling took me about twenty drafts, several phone conversations with Amazing Ashley, as well as advice from an author friend before I got it right. It was truly harder to write than the whole book! I'm not sure what the difference is this time around. Maybe it's because I know what I'm doing now and what agents want, or it might be because Branson Heights came together better and that made it easier to summarize the book in 250 words? But it's nice to know that I learned something and that the more practice I have, the easier it gets.

What about you guys? If you've written more than one novel, do you feel like the whole process from writing to querying is easier with each additional project?

Write Another Book

2010-02-20T22:06:00.017-07:00

Several months ago, I had just finished final edits on Eternal Starling and had started sending out queries. I wrote Eternal Starling as the first book in a trilogy and couldn't wait to finish the next two books. I'd gotten about 40K words into the second book and 10K into the third when I went to dinner with a bestselling author friend of mine.

I asked her the question that every writer dreads . . . what if no one wants my novel?

She said, "You write another book." In fact, her advice was to write another book regardless. She said as soon as you start querying, you write something else.

Okay, I thought, that's what I'm doing. I'm already working on the second and third books in the Eternal Starling trilogy. But, then I really considered the second and third book. And here's the thing . . . what's the point of working on two sequels that probably won't sell if no one is interested in the first book in the trilogy? (I know, I know. You can almost hear the sound of the light bulb clicking in my head).

My friend said she had to write three novels before she finally got an agent and then she got one of the most amazing agents in the business. Seriously. One of the best. And even with the agent equivalent of Superman, the book she wrote didn't sell. Her agent tipped her off to a new subject that was gaining in popularity and my friend wrote her debut novel, the same novel that made her a bestselling author.

I just sent my last round of queries for Eternal Starling and I'm still waiting to hear from agents who have partials on the book, but I realized I don't want to put all my eggs in the Eternal Starling basket. I decided to take the advice of my friend and leave the Eternal Starling world behind for a while and write something else. A month ago, I started my contemporary YA, and the chick-lit mystery I just finished.

Then, a couple of weeks ago, I got an email from an agent. This particular agent asked for a partial with the query letter. She read my partial and emailed me to say Eternal Starling wasn't for her, but she thought I had a good voice for YA and chick-lit and she'd like to read any other projects I was working on.

First, I was completely elated! A personal response from an agent! An agent who liked my writing enough to tell me she wanted to read other things I'm working on! I mean, a real agent who brokers six-figure deals thinks I have a good voice and thinks I can write. Maybe I'm not insane after all and I do have a tiny bit of talent.

Second, I breathed a huge sigh of relief that I had followed the advice from my friend and written another book. I was able to email the agent back and say, actually, I am working on other books. I'm almost finished with a chick-lit mystery and I just started a contemporary YA. I told her I'd send her the manuscripts as soon as I finished them and she responded with an enthusiastic thank you and that she looked forward to reading them.

Taking a step back from the book I put so much time into wasn't easy. I was so involved in the Eternal Starling world that it was hard to let it go and come up with other ideas I wanted to work on. But because I did, I have an agent who knows who I am and wants to read my other manuscripts. Because I wrote something else instead of continuing my trilogy, I am a step closer to finding an agent.

Only you can decided when you're ready to write something new. For me, it took a while to find another idea I was as passionate about as Eternal Starling, but now I'm really glad I did. And I'll be forever grateful to my author friend who gave me the good advice to write another book.

First Drafts and Outlining

2010-02-07T19:27:00.005-07:00

Can I just say how much I LOVE writing a first draft! For me, there's such a sense of freedom at starting a new story. Maybe it's because I've been writing/editing/revising Eternal Starling for the last two years, but I'm in love with the two new books I'm working on! There's just something about getting to create a new world and meet new characters.

About two weeks ago, I started working on a contemporary YA and a chick-lit romance/mystery. The mystery has been moving at a really good pace so I've decided to finish it first. I'm 100 pages into it and I should be able to reach my goal of finishing the first draft by the end of February.

Let me just say, Eternal Starling did not get written nearly as fast as this book and I think it's because of the different ways I outlined the two books.

With Eternal Starling, I did a skeletal outline of the story. I knew the basics, but I kind of let the characters take me where they wanted to go. If you've read my past posts you know I wrote Eternal Starling in 3 months, then I ended up spending a year doing revision after revision (I think I had about 10 different drafts) because I didn't know my story well enough when I first wrote it. This time around, I decided that since the book was a mystery novel, I needed a more detailed outline. I can't believe the difference it has made. Knowing where the story is going makes it much easier to just fill in the blanks. I know not everyone likes to write that way, and I didn't think I'd like it either, but it worked for this book. I'll have to wait and see if it works for other books I write.

How do you guys feel about first drafts? Do you love them or hate them and just want to get the ideas on paper so you can revise? And what about outlining? Do you write with a detailed outline, or just a basic idea of where the story is going?

Learning from Mistakes

2010-01-29T00:16:00.006-07:00

I've been busy the last week working on two new novels. One is a YA, the other is an adult mystery. Writing these two new books has made me realize all the mistakes I made with the first drafts of Eternal Starling. Eternal Starling was my first book and I was learning as I wrote. I feel like my writing has improved dramatically because of my mistakes and what I learned from them, so I thought it might help my other writer friends to post about some of those issues.

1. Contractions!!! Who knew these silly things can be the difference between your dialogue sounding authentic, or forced. Throughout college and for the past eight years, I've worked in the professional writing world where contractions are a sign of poor writing. But in fiction, if you don't use contractions, your dialogue sounds crazy. I'd know, mine was almost contractionless when my beta editor Amazing Ashley got a hold of it. Which leads me to another point...

2. Read out loud! There are so many things you catch by actually hearing what you wrote. Awkward pauses, phrases that don't fit, contractions that aren't being used. I'm not saying break out your manuscript and force your dog and significant other to listen to a 325 page reading, but if you have a section that doesn't seem to be working, read it out loud and more often than not, it will help you fix the problem.

3. Awhile. This is a tricky little word and honestly, until Amazing Ashley pointed it out, I thought it was always one word. It's not. The rule I've read about it says that it's one word if you mean a short period of time, and two words if you mean a longer period of time (usually defined as more than an hour). A good rule of thumb for it is whether the word 'for' precedes awhile. If you say for a while, then it's always two words. If there's not a for in front of awhile, it's up to you whether you decide to use it as one word or two.

4. Painless Grammar. When Amazing Ashley finished editing Eternal Starling she gave me a copy of a reference book that looks like it should be given to a third grader. I take comfort in the fact that Amazing Ashley also recommends said third grader book to her college English students. Painless Grammar was so helpful to me while I tried to remember grammar rules, especially because I've been using AP Stylebook rules for so long in my career. For fiction and even non-fiction writing, it seems like most editors tend to follow the guidelines in the Chicago Manual of Style. And if you pick up the Chicago Manual of Style to look for rules, I wish you well. Trying to find information in that massive reference manual is harder than finding the Fountain of Youth.

5. Italics. Should you use them? And if you do should you underline them? I know some agents abhor italics, others don't mind them. Some agents say that if they ask for a submission they want italic words underlined instead of italicized, others don't. This is one of those rules that you just have to research to find out what the agent wants. In all the submissions I've sent, I've left the italic words italicized because the agents haven't stipulated one way or another. But like I said, it differs depending on the agent.

Those are all things I can think of for now. I'll add more as I remember them though. What about you wordsmiths? What did you realize you needed to fix as you were writing/revising your manuscripts?

Happy Award!

2010-01-24T01:05:00.010-07:00

Cute Courtney Reese was nice enough to give me a Happy Award for my blog. She's a writer with excellent taste in books and a really cool blog layout. Since I've been busy beta reading for one of my critique partners, I've neglected posting much this past week. So the Happy Award gives me an excuse to take time and post ten things that make me happy.

1. My hyper Pomeranian, Pippin, who makes me feel like a star every time I walk into a room.

2. Laughing so hard my stomach hurts.

3. Modern Family, Arrested Development, Glee, and especially Lost!!! I can't wait for Season 6!!!

4. Cupcakes. If it wasn't for my relationship with the cupcake shop, I doubt I'd get any writing or revisions done at all.

5. A good book with characters I fall in love with and want to read again and again.

6. The kiss between Aragorn and Arwen at the end of The Lord of The Rings, Return of The King. Every man on earth should have to take kissing lessons from that scene.

7. The gnocchi at Cucina Toscana in Salt Lake City.

8. The sound of a V8 muscle car.

9. The smell of rain.

10. Hearing a great song that I haven't heard in awhile and remembering how much I love it.

Honest Scrap Blog Award

2010-01-18T18:56:00.011-07:00

The lovely Kristin Rae was nice enough to give me my first blog award! As part of accepting the Honest Scrap Award, I'm supposed to post 10 things about myself. So, here are some things you might not know about me.

1. I've been a vegetarian since I was 5. My parents weren't thrilled about my choice and tried to change my mind, but I was a stubborn little kid.

2. I seem to meet famous people at restaurants. Ben Affleck at Hard Rock in Salt Lake City, Michael Jordan at Ghidotti's in Park City.

3. I plan on getting a tattoo for my 80th birthday.

4. Since childhood, I've been terrified of the TV show Dr. Who because of an evil red-eyed monster I saw on the show. To this day if I hear the theme music, I still get chills and cover my ears.

5. I'm a germ freak. I always carry anti-bacterial spray and clorox wipes.

6. In high school, I spent a good deal of time in fields hunting for the hubcaps that had flown off my 1966 Mustang and taken little adventures on their own.

7. I'm terrified of spiders but I can't kill them. Instead I just trap them under a cup. If my husband sees an upside down cup on the floor, he knows there is a spider waiting and he should dispose of it.

8. The first concert I ever went to was Neil Diamond when I was 11 years old. It took me 8 years of dating my husband before I could admit to him that I'm a Neil fan.

9. Much to my dad's chagrin and wonder at where he went wrong, I am a liberal democrat...one of the few in Utah.

10. My husband has started a numbering system for my fictional boyfriends. Ranger Manoso, Peeta, Jace, and Patch. *sigh*

Book Trailers

2010-01-14T02:27:00.007-07:00

Book trailers are becoming more and more popular so I decided to make one for Eternal Starling. It was surprisingly easy and if I can do it, anyone can! A bunch of my great YA writer friends on YAlitchat.ning.com gave me suggestions on how to make a trailer. I had no idea there were so many options out there. If you're interested in making one of your own, I used a program that came with my laptop, Windows Movie Maker. I used a sample song that also came with my laptop and the pictures are my own. If you're looking for a good place to get photos, you can buy them at istockphoto.com for $1 per image.

Are You Writing A Book? Do This...NOW!!!

2010-01-08T00:30:00.002-07:00

Are you working on a book, finished a book, have a outline for book you think you might write in 50 years? You might think this is strange, but here's a suggestion:

Email yourself!

I'm not kidding. As soon as you finish reading this post, do it ASAP and here's why:

Right before I started querying Eternal Starling I stopped by the bookstore and happened to see a display for a YA Fantasy book. I try to read a lot of YA Fantasy since it's one of the genres I write in and I was especially interested in this book because a local author wrote it. I took it home and started reading, then immediately wanted to bang my head against the wall. As I kept reading, I kept wanting to go to the wall for more head banging. The reason? The book had several plot points that were eerily similar to things in my book. I'd never heard of this author or their book before I saw it in the bookstore, and even then, I just picked the book up on a whim.

I frantically spent weeks rewriting many aspects of the plot and cursing the writing gods for giving the other author and myself similar ideas. Eternal Starling is better now because of the revisions, but if I'd just done something as simple as emailing myself, I wouldn't have had to worry...or at least, not as much. This experience taught me what I need to do to protect myself as an author.

Here's the thing: all ideas are essentially ideas other people have had before, they're just packaged in an original way when you write your novel. There's a good chance some other writer out there has an idea comparable to yours. When it comes to getting sued for plagiarism, you only need to be able to prove that the idea in your book was original to you. One of the best ways to do this is to attach the draft you're working on to an email, then send it to yourself and save the email in one of your account folders. How often you do it is up to you, but if I'm working on a writing project, I email an updated draft to myself about once a month. Having these emails with a time stamp on the email/attachment can help protect you if you're ever sued for plagiarism.

I decided to start emailing my drafts after my software engineer husband suggested it as a way to safeguard my work. I also got some information from a patent/copyright attorney. I later found out that even bestselling authors email their drafts to themselves as a way to protect their ideas.

So start emailing yourself my dear writers! Trust me, your head and your wall will thank you. :) If you have other suggestions for protecting your work, I'd love to hear them! Please post in the comments below.

The Eternal Starling Story...So Far

2010-01-02T22:03:00.008-07:00

Recently I've had some other aspiring authors ask about my experience writing and querying for my novel, Eternal Starling. I thought I should post the answer here so everyone can read it.

My book is a Young Adult Paranormal Romance, though technically, since my main character is starting college, it could be considered Adult. I started writing Eternal Starling in the summer of 2008. I was working on a couple other book projects when I got the idea for E.S. and then I just couldn't get the story out of my head. I wrote Eternal Starling in three months, then gave it to some family members to read (more about that later). I took the input from my family members and edited it myself a few more times before I gave to a friend who is an English Literature Professor (Amazing Ashley). Giving it to her was the best thing I could have done. She ripped it apart. She told me where all the plot holes were, what parts of the book just weren't working, things she liked and didn't like about the characters, and how to improve the manuscript. I spent about 6 weeks working with Amazing Ashley and editing the book before I started sending out query letters. While I was first sending out queries, I kept giving the book to other readers (friends, other writers, people in my target audience) and got feedback from them and continued to make changes to the book based on what they told me. My total number of beta readers was 15 and I had two editors: Amazing Ashley and a journalist friend (Extraordinary Emily).

I decided to send my query letters in rounds so I could learn from each agent response and improve the letter for the next round of queries. You should plan to query between 80-120 agents. Rejection letters are just part of the process so don't get discouraged. I know that's easy to say and it's a lot harder to deal with, but you get immune to it eventually and the rejection is just part of the process. I just repeat the "It's SO subjective" mantra over and over again. It really is about finding the right agent and the agent has to click with your work. And honestly, that's what you want! I know when you start querying you think: An agent! Any agent! The agent could be an ostrich, I don't care, I just want an agent! No, you want the *right* agent. You're hopefully going to spend the rest of your career with this person and they will help shape your writing career. You want to make sure you have the best agent for you and your work. Once you start sending queries and getting rejections, use the rejections to improve your query and your manuscript. If you do that and you have a good query letter, you will get partial and full requests.

My day job is in marketing, advertising and PR so I decided to start marketing my book as soon as I began sending query letters out. I posted a few chapters on my website and Goodreads.com and now I have an audience around the world--which certainly doesn't hurt when it comes time to try and sell the book. I also began networking with agents, editors, editorial assistants, and other authors on Twitter. That's been a huge help because agents/editors/editorial assistants recognize me as someone they tweet with when they see my query. I also read agent blogs every day. The blogs taught me about the publishing industry, what agents were looking for, and how to write a query letter. Nathan Bransford, Kristin Nelson, Janet Reid, and Query Shark, were all really helpful to me while I was trying to learn more about the publishing industry and I still read those blogs now.

The biggest mistake I see other writers make is that they finish their rough draft, read it over a few times, maybe let a couple family members read it, spell check it, and then send it out to agents. Trying to get an agent to read your manuscript can feel daunting, especially now. A few years ago, agents were getting around 50-100 query letters each week, now they're getting between 200-500 a week. So, making sure your query letter is fantastic and your manuscript is pristine is important if you want to get the attention of an agent. While family is great for boosting your confidence and giving you general suggestions, a good editor will be able to find things most readers don't think about (ie. misplaced modifiers, faulty parallelism problems, and general plot issues that most regular readers won't see). Some agents are "editing agents" and they want to help you improve the book before they send it out on submission to publishing houses. Other agents want the book ready to go to publishing houses and won't take you on as a client unless the book is very close to being ready to submit. In any event, make sure you wait to query until your work is as close to perfect as you think you can get it.

The whole process can feel overwhelming and that's why it's important to have other writer friends who understand what you're going through. I don't know what I would do without my writing mentors and a network of people to ask for advice.

That's my story so far. Hope it helps!

The Importance of Being Nice

2009-12-18T23:33:00.000-07:00

About a year ago my husband and I were on our way home from our honeymoon in Fiji. It's a 10 hour flight from Fiji to LAX and we weren't looking forward to the plane ride. The airline we flew on didn't have assigned seats and the airline employees were frantically checking in weary travelers. We had been at the airport for hours waiting in line, hoping we would be able to get good seats on the plane. There were about 30 people in line in front of us. When it was our turn to be checked in I noticed how tired the employee helping us looked. I smiled and asked how her day was. She seemed surprised someone cared enough to ask. My husband and I talked and laughed with her for a few minutes. We mentioned we were on our way back from our honeymoon and asked if there was an exit row available so we would have a little more room on the way home. She looked at her computer and said she would see what she could do.

A couple of hours later the plane started to board. When we got to our seats, we immediately went to find a flight attendant. We were sure we'd been given the wrong tickets. But we didn't have the wrong seats, the tired employee who had helped us at the front desk had open seats in First Class and upgraded our tickets without telling us.

So the point of this post isn't that people should be nice because they might get something in return. The point is that people should just be nice. I always try to treat others the way I want to be treated. I appreciate when someone takes the time to help me, whether it's their job or just something they're doing because they are nice people. I've found that being respectful and happy makes other people WANT to help me. I think this also applies to the publishing world. I've met some wonderful people who have been more than willing to give me their time and advice because they want to see me succeed. And any time I get the chance to help other writers, I always do because I want to see them succeed too. In an industry as connected as publishing, getting a good or bad reputation with one person could affect the rest of your career. Though it's been said before, I'll say it again: a little courtesy goes a long way.

Read My Interview!

2009-12-14T16:45:00.002-07:00

My interview with Fictiontofilm.com is up!

http://www.fictiontofilm.com/exclusive_angelacorbett.php

Laugh or Cry

2009-12-13T19:25:00.006-07:00

Sometimes in life you either laugh or you cry. My mom has taught me to laugh. A lot. My mom's name is Natalie but her nickname is Natastrophe because wherever she goes, a catastrophe follows. She is a real-life version of Stephanie Plum. She was recently propositioned by the "Hooter Hunter" at a gas station in Wyoming (luckily I'd explained to her what "hooters" were a few months earlier or her conversation with him might have been an even bigger disaster), her cars start on fire on a regular basis, and anything that can go wrong, will. I'm just hoping her bad luck isn't genetic. You probably think I'm kidding, but I'm not. And to prove it, I've posted an email from her recent visit to Florida to help my brother and sister. This stuff happens to her on a daily basis.

I am sending this to you so you can get a giggle out of a Monday morning.

Well, “Dr. Rooter” the septic tank company finally arrived this morning. He pulled up and wanted to check out the situation first, so he parked out front. He searched and found the tank underground…then went on an exploring expedition to find the tank lid to clean out the tank. Forty five minutes later, he found it and the front part of the yard was dug up…which isn’t too bad considering it is all sand down here so it is easy to dig and repair landscape. He told me he would back the truck into the area so he didn’t drive over the drain fields. He got in his truck and all of a sudden I heard this crashing, crunching sound in the street…He had just run over my mailbox. The mailbox detached itself from the wooden pole and went flying through the air, landing in the ditch across the street. The front of his bumper didn’t look too bad, but the mailbox pole wasn’t looking too promising…another project to fix before I leave tomorrow.

He was able to uncover the septic tank and informed me that it looked like our tank had NEVER been cleaned out. It was compeletly full and backed up into the line that goes into the house. He began pumping…and pumping…and pumping. (This is definitely not a job that I would want and I'll gladly pay someone else to help me.) More than an hour went by so I went out to check on his progress and found that he was almost done…except that we had a major clog in the line between the tank and the house that the snake would not move; so the water was still backing up into the house. Not a fun thing because he had just had me dump over 40 gallons of HOT water down the system to get it to drain, which hadn’t worked.

We ran an outside hose into the line backwards, flushed the system out, and finally got it to work. I went in to get my wallet and when I came back outside, the guy was standing over the septic tank hole and had this very sad face…I mean, very, VERY sad face. He had gone to lift the cement lid back onto the septic tank and had accidentally dropped the WHOLE cement lid into the bottom of the tank. He had to call his company for re-enforcements to lift the lid out of the tank…that wasn’t fun either. When the other men arrived, He was upside down, trying to reach the cement lid and almost had to crawl inside to get to it. (I don’t think they pay him enough to do this job).

He shimmied out of the septic tank, having attached a rope and crow bar to the lid. It took three men to lift the lid out of the tank. He then used the garden hose to wash himself off. Meanwhile, I had called in the payment to the office and gotten the confirmation number for him. He told me he was having a very bad day today…I told him it was probably because, as my oldest daughter would say, “He got caught in the Calamity Natalie Vortex.” As a general rule, these things only happen to me. Good thing we have a sense of humor at our house. My escapades create much amusement for our family.

Before he left, he asked if I had a husband around and wanted to know if he could fix the mailbox for me. I told him I have a husband, but he was in Wyoming running our businesses. I said I had a drill and some screws so I could repair the mailbox.” He gave me a very strange look but it won’t be the first time that people have thought I was a little strange! He asked if I was sure I could take care of the mailbox (like women aren’t supposed to know how to do these things) and said he would help me. I think he was feeling guilty for hitting it in the first place. I reassured him it was fine and that I appreciated what he had done cleaning out the septic tank. He had found time to go out and push the mailbox pole back up so the mailbox wasn’t lying on the ground; however, it is at an extremely precarious slant. He put the mailbox on top of the pole, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to repair.

After having the septic tank pumped; going to Palatka to retrieve necessary items to resolve several problems at both houses in Florida (such as getting cleaning supplies to CLEAN the tubs, shower, sinks, and toilets, etc); I arrived back at the house at approximately 8:15 pm. Just as I was coming in the house, a torrential rain storm began…this one was a mean one…I have discovered that storms have their own personalities in Florida, and this one was just PLAIN MEAN! I barely made it in the house in time.

I thought, well, the water system is working so I'll start the dishwasher and I do the final load of wash so I can pack and get ready to go back to Wyoming tomorrow. I put the load in the wash and then I prepared to clean all the sinks, etc. I changed into some other clothes, put on my trusty cleaning gloves, and went to work. Now, mind you, because I knew I WAS THE ONE that was going to showering and bathing and using these sinks, this was a much determined, heavy duty, elbow scrubbing job. I cleaned the sinks first with Clorox Cleanup, then the tubs, then the shower, and I put cleaning solution in both toilets. Then, I went back and recleaned all those items with comet. They just didn’t seem to be as clean as I wanted them the first time. Nor, did they seem clean enough the second time…so I went back ONE MORE TIME and did another disinfectant. I finished the sinks and tubs and I was just finishing the final cleaning of the shower (I hadn’t started the toilets yet) when the washer went into the rinse cycle….and sure enough, you guessed it, the GLUGGING, gurgling sound in the toilet began again and I watched as the washing machine rinse water backed up the sewer into all the tubs and sinks again…

I COULD NOT BELIEVE IT!!!! The problem had not been solved. I jumped up from the shower and ran and turned off the washer so it wouldn’t overflow in the shower and go out onto the floor. I took my disposable cleaning gloves off and threw them away and was just headed to the kitchen to wash my hands and get my cell phone when all of a sudden I heard a crash in the dining area. I ran to the dining room and get this….the ROOF WAS LEAKING. A section of the ceiling had just fallen on the dining room chairs.

Well, I grabbed two big salad bowls out of the cabinet and set them under the leak…then I cleaned up the mess, somewhat, and took stock of what I should do next…I found the phone, and by now it was 9:30 pm. Dr. Rooter is on call 24/7…for good reason…and so I was able to get hold of the receptionist there. She informed me that it was probably my drain fields that had backed up because of the terrible storm and had filled the septic tank. I explained that I needed to leave for the airport by 1:00 pm to fly back to Wyoming and I could really use some help. She scheduled a plumber to call me at 7:00 am then next morning.

I had set my clock for 5 Am so I could get ready to fly to Wyoming and so I was already up and going when the plumber called at 6:50 Am. He said he would be there in about half an hour. When he arrived, he had to un-bury the septic tank again to get to the clean out valve. He used a power rotor rooter and LUCKILY, the drain was clogged going into the house.

Hope you have a great day and when you get discouraged, be grateful that you have a sense of humor and that life really isn’t all that bad…and if you can’t do that, imagine my morning this morning and I am sure you will giggle…I am!

Eternal Starling Review (The First 3 Chapters)

2009-12-12T01:37:00.006-07:00

If you've visited my website, you know I have the first three chapters of Eternal Starling posted on the site as a PDF. I know, I know, the merit of posting chapters is a hotly debated topic in the publishing world. Some people think it's a horrible idea because the author is releasing unedited work and there are some publishers who don't like it, period. As someone with a marketing background, I felt like putting a few chapters on my site would help me start to establish a fan base for my book. I've been pretty happy with how it's turned out. News about the chapters has spread by word of mouth through social networking and I get a lot of emails, Tweets, and Facebook and Goodreads messages from fans around the world asking where they can buy my book (even though I don't have an agent or publisher yet). Some of my fans have even taken the time to translate my PDF chapters into the language they speak (French and Arabic so far), how awesome is that!!!

Because of the chapters on my site and social networking, I've met some incredible people, including Michelle Benedict, who wrote a review of the first three chapters of Eternal Starling. Michelle is a fantastic reviewer who writes pointed and honest opinions about books. I'll admit, I was a bit terrified for her to read my chapters, but when she told me she really liked them and then said she could identify with my heroine, I wanted to dance around the house. One of the reasons I wrote Eternal Starling was because I was reading a lot of Young Adult books with heroines I just didn't relate to as a teenager. At all. Reading Michelle's opinion makes me feel like I achieved what I set out to write. You can read her little review here: http://benedictionary.wordpress.com/2009/12/10/eternal-starling-and-more-tudors/

Tudor Book Challenge

2009-12-10T17:19:00.005-07:00

My incredibly witty friend and book blogger, Michelle, is having a book reading and review competition on her blog. The challenge: to read as many books as possible about or inspired by the Tudor Monarchy. The competition last for the next year and Michelle was nice enough to ask me to help her read and judge the contest book reviews. She's giving away some great prizes to winners including gift cards from Borders. If you're interested in the Tudor period and would like to participate in the contest, you can read about it on Michelle's blog, http://benedictionary.wordpress.com/2009/12/09/the-tudor-book-challenge/#comments.

Interview!!!

2009-12-05T03:00:00.006-07:00

I turned on my computer to do some editing last night and found the nicest email from Claire, the Webmiss at www.fictiontofilm.com. She asked to do an interview with me about Eternal Starling!

*Squeeeee*!!!!

I am so excited! It's my first interview about the book and it's great to know people are interested in Eternal Starling! Claire is going to send me some questions from readers of her site and the interview should be up in the next couple of weeks. I'll post the link to the interview as soon as it's available!

Book Obsession: The Hunger Games Trilogy

2009-11-30T10:15:00.000-07:00

I. Am. Obsessed.

The Hunger Games. If you haven't read this book, don't walk, speed to your nearest bookstore and pick it up, along with the second book in the series, Catching Fire. The third book in the trilogy, rumored to be titled, The Victors, won't be out until September of 2010, but trust me when I tell you that you will read and re-read the first two books again and again before the third book is released.

The Hunger Games is about smart, independent, sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen. When her twelve-year-old sister is called to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death among 24 teenagers with only one winner, Katniss immediately demands to take her sister's place. In volunteering, she essentially agrees to a death sentence. I loved Katniss's character and the underlying love story in the book left me wanting more ... and more ... and more. The suspense carries through each page and the brutality of the games is countered by the fact that the characters are so willing to give their lives in exchange for the lives of the people they love.

I finished The Hunger Games and immediately picked up Catching Fire. I read both books in about 10 hours, then turned around and started reading them again. It's been a very long time since I've read a book that made me think so hard about: life, death, love, motivations, repercussions, symbolism, and how I treat the people in my life, both strangers and loved ones alike.

I love the idea behind The Hunger Games so much that I even carved a Mockingjay into my Halloween pumpkin. I'm trying to figure out what I own that's bribe-worthy enough for me to get an ARC (Advanced Reading Copy) of the third book in the series. The book is also being made into a movie. Suzanne Collins is writing the script, so the movie should stick pretty close to the book and I'm sure it will be fantastic!

I'm amazed by the writing and story in the first two books and can't wait to see how Suzanne Collins wraps it up in book 3. The Hunger Games series is one of my new obsessions and will always be at the top of my favorite books list.

Best Writing Advice

2009-11-18T23:15:00.011-07:00

Ernest Hemingway said that every great writer has to have an excellent shit detector. My best friend, Amazing Ashley, is mine. I met Ashley during our freshman year of college when the fates/student life office decided to put our dorm rooms across from each other. And don't let the best friend title fool you; Ashley is now a fantastic English Literature Professor and she's not afraid to tell people exactly what she thinks.

Ashley was gracious enough to take the time to be one of my beta editors for Eternal Starling. When she finished her massive edit on the manuscript, she sat me down and said something to the effect of: do you want the truth, or something more pleasant? She said I had a good foundation, but unless I made changes, there was no way the book would get published. I've heard that some people get upset when they hear criticism about their manuscripts, I'm not one of those people. In fact, I was thrilled that I had someone who was willing to tell me the truth--and someone who believed in my writing skills enough to know I could fix the problems and make my book worth publishing.

As Ashley went through the editing process with me, she taught me a lot of things about being a better writer. But the most important thing she told me was that I need to know my plot and my mythology as well as I know my characters. It was a light bulb moment for me. When I sit down to write I can easily get in my characters heads. I know exactly what they're doing and their motivations. However, I'd never thought of needing to know the world I've created in the same way. Ashley told me that the majority of the problems with my book could be solved if I just got to know my world better.

I spent the next month asking and answering questions about my plot and revising to try and make my world creation as in-depth as my character building. The result is a completely different book than the draft Ashley edited. Now my plot is stronger, my world makes more sense, and in answering the questions about the world I had built, I was able to make a clear outline for the next two books in the trilogy. Ashley's advice helped me to become a better writer and I can't thank her enough for it.

The Fringe Benefits of Failure

2009-11-18T02:18:00.005-07:00

I was feeling the need for some inspiration today and decided to re-read the speech J.K. Rowling gave to the 2008 graduates of Harvard. It's called, The Fringe Benefits of Failure and the Importance of Imagination. If you haven't read it, you must!

Here's the link:
http://harvardmagazine.com/commencement/the-fringe-benefits-failure-the-importance-imagination

Writing and Publishing, It's Not A Speedy Endeavor

2009-11-15T00:28:00.010-07:00

Occasionally when I tell people I wrote a book I get a comment like this: "That’s cool. So now you just send it somewhere and they print the book and put it on the shelves at the bookstore, right?" *Sigh* If only it were that simple. I then go into a 15 minute explanation of the publishing process. Aprilynne Pike has a fabulous post about this subject on her blog http://apparentlyaprilynne.blogspot.com/2008/11/why-does-it-take-so-long.html. But Aprilynne's post deals with what happens after you have an agent and sign a contract with a publisher. I thought I would post about what happens before you have that contract.

First, you have to write the book. In my case, I started Eternal Starling as a way to relieve the stress of wedding planning. I was pretty stressed because I wrote a 350 page novel and outlined the next two books in the series in three months, writing only at night. I started writing in June of 2008 and was finished with the first draft in September of 2008. Yep, only three months to write a 95,000 word book; three months, and it showed. I was using writing as an outlet to deal with wedding frustration and the thought of trying to get the book published didn’t come until after I started getting feedback from people I had let read the early drafts.

Once I committed to getting published I spent hours on Google trying to get as much information about publishing as possible. I started following several agent blogs and began the horrible first drafts of my query letter. I'm a perfectionist so I chose 15 beta readers, including one who is an English Literature Professor and another who is a fabulous copyeditor, to give me opinions and help me improve my book. The thing that kicked my butt was the editing process. Waiting for my beta readers and editors, as well as doing revisions for the book took me another eleven months. Seven drafts later and over a year after I had started writing the book, I finally began sending query letters to agents. Even then I wasn't done editing and don't think I ever really will be. I started sending queries in July of 2009 and decided to send the letters in rounds so I could improve the query as I received feedback from agents. I'm not finished sending query letters and I'm still waiting to hear back from a lot of agents, which is pretty normal. Getting published is like a really long job interview with more rejection than you can imagine.

The query process goes like this:

-When your book is completely finished you send a query letter to an agent and hope you hear back from them in 2-8 weeks with a request for your partial manuscript.
-If you get the request for the partial, you send the agent your first three chapters which should be around 50 pages. Then you pray you hear back from them in 4-12 weeks with a request for a full manuscript.
-If the agent likes your partial and wants your full, you send it off with the commitment to sell them your soul if they'll decided to represent you. It takes another 4-12 weeks to get a response (the soul selling part doesn't take nearly that long).
-If the agent decides they like your book enough to represent you, you'll sign a contract with them and then you work with the agent to get the manuscript ready for the agent to try and sell to publishers.

And that's just the beginning! It's definitely not a fast process but hopefully this post will give you a better idea of how it all works. :)

First Post, First Book, and Fans!

2009-11-14T03:47:00.006-07:00

Since this is my first blog post, I wanted to commemorate it with a thank you to the wonderful people who have been supportive of my first book, Eternal Starling. I'm currently in the query letter stage as I try to find an agent and publisher, but a few of my chapters are posted on my website at www.angelacorbett.com.

Through my website, as well as Twitter and Facebook, I've heard from so many supportive people who have told me how much they like my book and can't wait to read the rest. This is ... astounding. Seriously. It completely shocks me and I'll tell you why. I’m a writer so that means I spend a good deal of time questioning whether I have any talent at all. My mom doesn’t understand this and believes I’m the best writer in the world … again, this is my mom, and she’s a little biased. The point is: when I get an email, or a message on Facebook or Twitter from someone who likes my book, it makes me feel like a freaking rock star.

I want to give a shout out to all the people around the world who have joined my Eternal Starling Facebook Fan Page, followed me on Twitter, emailed me to tell me they can't wait to read the rest of the book, and to the people who are just reading who I haven't even met. You are truly wonderful and make the writing process even more enjoyable for me. Honestly, each email or note I get from a fan makes me feel like a four-year-old girl who just got her first Malibu Barbie. And knowing my book is giving you enjoyment makes me think that to some tiny degree, maybe my mom isn’t crazy. So thank you!!!