Good Things are Coming!

I have been honored, and completely floored, by the amount of positive interest that has been generated regarding the release of my book, Forbidden Sea. I am thrilled and excited for everyone to get a chance to read the book, and wish it were possible for me to give everyone who wanted one, an ARC of the book. If I were J. K. Rowing, I would demand enough ARCs to hand one out to every fantastic book reviewer who is excited to get their hands on one! Unfortunately, I am not J. K. Rowling and my publisher has given me very (and I do mean very) few ARCs. In fact, they gave me less than originally promised. (I think they like to be the ones to decide how to distribute ARCs and to whom they will go.) So for all you wonderful reviewers, bloggers, and delightful book loving people who are dying to read my book, I would suggest contacting Scholastic Press directly and see if they will let you have one. The last few remaining ARCs I do have left in my possession will be given away in drawings on this blog in the last couple months leading up to the release date of Forbidden Sea, so stay tuned. The drawings will be only for those who are official followers of this site, so make sure you are signed up. You just might be one of the lucky ones!

Inspiration--the Stuff Stories are Made Of

A lot of people have asked me where I get the ideas for my stories. When they do, they get a lot more answer then they bargained for. Inspiration for stories can come from almost anywhere. And I do mean anywhere. I once got an idea for a story by reading the title of a book. I can't tell you what the book was about because I never did read it. The title alone was enough. I've gotten more than one story from dreams. I had a vampire dream I thought about writing into a book years before Stephanie Meyer was ever seen or heard of. Sadly, the world will never get to read mine now. : )

One of the stories I am currently working on, came to me after seeing this set of porcelain dolls years ago.














They look innocent enough don't they? But story they inspired is a little on the creepy side. I love those kind of books! Don't you? I now own these dolls. How could I resist?

The red headed character featured in the picture below was inspired by a younger cousin of mine. I actually had her model for this picture. This particular character now stars in a story all her own. If it ever gets published, the book will definitely be dedicated to Liz.

















I will often draw a picture of my characters (like the one here) to help me get a sense of their personality and what they look like. The characters may evolve over time, but the drawings give me my first peek into their world.

For me, music is one of the best inspirations when I'm in the middle of writing a story. I will often create a soundtrack, picking songs that I feel will create the mood I am working for key scenes. For me, creativity just seems to flow easier when there is music to help the ideas along. If I have characters who fall in love in a book I always choose "their song", so to speak. I will play this song as I write scenes between the two of them. I usually pick a song for each of the main characters as well.

Real life is the very best place to draw inspiration from. I've become quite the people watcher over the years. As a children's librarian, if I just keep my eyes and ears peeled, ideas for characters and scenes are being enacted right in my library every day. I was once asked to make a school visit to a sixth grade class by the library. Since I was working on a humorous book about a sixth grade class at the time, I decided to take mental notes while I was there. It was a real eye opener, let me tell you. I got more material from that one visit than I ever would have imagined. Sometimes truth is more hilarious than fiction.

What about you writer's out there? Where do you get your inspiration?

Writer's Block

I've been struggling with a certain scene in one of the books I'm currently working on, for quite some time now. It got so bad I had to skip the whole chapter and move on so it wouldn't stop the flow of the rest of the book. So a few nights ago it suddenly came to me, like a light from above, exactly what I had to do to make the chapter work. With some major reworking of the scene, I was soon off and running again. There is nothing like overcoming writer's block to make your whole life seem just a little brighter. I've never been able to understand why ideas can flow so easily one week, and the next, my mind is a veritable creative drought. Thankfully, the rains always seem to come eventually if I just let the scene simmer on the back burner long enough. What makes this miraculous transformation happen? I have no clue. Is it karma? Those vitamin supplements I've been taking? Or does God finally take pity on me and give me a little push in the right direction? Possibly a combination of all of the above.

I recently read an article about writer's block. They asked a bunch of writer's to list the things they do to get over their blocks. Eating hoards of chocolate, dancing around the living room, and taking long naps were all methods listed. For me, when writer's block strikes and I start to feel myself panicking, I skip the whole scene and start writing at some other point in the book that sounds more exciting to me. Or I temporarily jump to another story completely. It is not uncommon for me to be working on two or three stories simultaneously at any given time. My manuscripts in progress often resemble streets ridden with potholes. (Or should I say--plot holes.) Whole chapters can be missing in action for months (or in extreme cases, years) on end. This is one of the reasons I won't let people read my manuscripts until they are completely finished.

So how about you writer's out there in Blogland? When writer's block strikes, what do you do? I'd love to know.

Check Out Rebecca's Book Blog

Rebecca has put up a fun little preview of my book on her fantastic blog. (As a librarian, I've been using her blog a lot at work lately. If you want to know all the new young adult books out there, this is the place to go.) Thanks so much for getting the word out there!

http://rebeccasbookblog.blogspot.com/2009/09/waiting-on-wednesday-forbidden-sea-by.html

P.S. Welcome to new followers--Heather, Dannie, Suitejuju, Aimee, and Lexie!

Final Book Cover and Story Summary

I recieved a sneak peak at the final version of the whole dust jacket for Forbidden Sea. (Front and back.) I LOVE the design! The color is this deep aquamarine blue-green. There are gold foil designs edging the sides. On the front flap is this description:

"When, one stormy night, a mermaid comes to take Adrianne Keynnman’s sister, Cecily, down into the depths of the sea, Adrianne knows she must fight with every ounce of her strength to protect her little sister. On land, Adrianne toils away, trying to eke out a living for her mother, sister, and aunt, after a tragic accident stole her father. Now, life takes a strange and frightening turn as Adrianne’s dreams are filled with the mermaid’s singing."

There was more, but I felt it gave away too much of the story so I'm not going to put the rest of it here. I just wish I didn't have to wait another year for everyone else to see it.

First Pass of Printed Pages

I received my first pass of typeset pages for my book. After the typesetters get the book ready for printing, they print off one copy and check it one last time to make sure there are no mistakes before they begin printing copies of the book. I have to okay any changes made at this point. I like the layout of the book. It's quite elegant, with beautiful patterns behind the heading of each chapter. I can't wait to get my first ARC (Advanced Reader Copy)! There was one page in the book where the typesetter had written "Nice!" beside one particularly effective description in the book. It made me feel good all the rest of the day. : )

And the Bad News Is . . .

I recieved an email from my editor today and she had some unhappy news for me. They are moving back the release date of my book from May 1, 2010 to July 1, 2010. The marketing department felt that would be a better time slot for sales. The Scholastic Book Fairs has decided to wait and start selling my book at the same time instead of ahead of time, so it will now be another year before my book comes out anywhere. It's enough to make a hard working author weep with discouragement. I sometimes think the book will never come out. I guess I should look at the bright side--I'll have more than enough time to finish the sequel between now and then. And maybe even the ghost story I've started working on as well. We'll see.

*SIGH*