Friday Flashback: High School Music

I graduated from good ol' Martin County High School in 1995.  The music of my senior year included some of the following priceless gems (all of which are included because I can still at least sing the chorus from memory):

The Sign, Ace of Base (1994)
I'll Make Love to You, Boyz II Men (1994)
I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That), Meatloaf (1994) - okay, total aside: does anyone know      
                     what those lyrics are supposed to mean?
Kiss From a Rose, Seal (1995)
Run Around, Blues Traveler (1995)
Hold My Hand, Hootie & The Blowfish (1995)

The last one reminds me of Summer Nights at Wet'N Wild in Orlando.  This is where a water slide park stays open into the night and a live band playing popular cover songs takes the stage.  I can remember being there with my best friend, jamming out to the music, not caring if the sultry night air was too warm because I was wearing a bathing suit and could go jump into the water at a moment's notice.  It was a time when I didn't need a boy.  Just me and my BFF.

I also remember the band covering Two Princes by Spin Doctors.  Remember that one?  Oh yeah!

Go ahead!  Crank up those computer speakers and shake your hair lose.  I know you're ready to party like it's 1999 with these tunes blaring.


What are the songs of your YA days?  Have any special memories they trigger for you?

Tuesday Tip: Writing Effective Dialog

I've been reading some first five pages over at the amazing YALitChat site, and I keep seeing the same dialog "mistakes" again and again.  (I hate to call anything a "mistake," but for ease of reference, I will.  Once you know and understand the "rules" though, you can break them with purpose rather than on accident.)  Here are a few pointers to keep in mind as your fingers click away on the keyboard.

art from www.cartoonstock.com

1.  Use Contractions.  We've been taught at every stage of our educations NOT to use contractions when writing. It's been so ingrained in my head, that when writing dialog, I'm apt to write something like, "It is great to see you again."  But that's simply not how most people (especially not teens) talk.  When we talk, contractions fly around faster than hooker flyers in Vegas.  Unless you're intentionally creating a stiff character, salt your dialog liberally with contractions.

2.  Don't Use Dialog Tags Other Than Said or Asked.  This is a really common newbie "mistake." (*raises hand here to be included in the group*)  A tag is what comes after the dialog, as in, "Oh my god, I won!" she shrieked.  Tags other than "said" or "asked" are not en vogue right now, falling into the telling rather than showing category.  If you need to punctuate your dialog with a description following it (and god-forbid don't include an adverb with your tag), then you're probably not doing a good enough job of showing your reader what's happening.  For a complete list of dialog tags NOT to use, check here.  As Nienke points out, "said" is invisible.  The reader's eye skips over it.  Whereas the tag injects the author back into the story.

3.  Avoid Mini-Monologs.  This is particularly true when writing dialog for guys.  I am always running my dialog by my hubby, who invariably tells me, "Guys don't talk like that."  (I'm also told that guys don't get into much description and don't really talk about feelings.)  By and large, no guy is going to speak more than 2 - maybe 3 - sentences at a time.  Even really chatty girls shouldn't have dialog that goes on and on.  When people are talking together, there is a give and take of information.  Skim through your dialog and if you see a block of text, mark it off to go back and revise.

4.  Don't Info Dump.  Don't have one character tell another something just to spoon feed info to the reader.  This is especially true if the other character would already know what he/she's being told.  The reader can immediately spot the info dump for what it is: the author being lazy.  Figure out another way to get your information into the story without being obvious about it.

5.  Punctuate Appropriately.  This is a pet peeve of mine and a lot of people mess it up.  It's not that hard.  If you have a tag following your dialog, DON'T end the dialog with a period. Use a comma, question mark or even an exclamation point (although these should be use INCREDIBLY sparingly).
       Wrong:  "I'm going out." Alice said.
       Right: "I'm going out," Alice said.
On the flip side, you need the comma before the tag.  Don't leave it out.
You would, however, use a period if what follows the dialog is not a tag.  For example:
       "That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard."  Sarah rolled her eyes. "I don't know why I bother."
Interspacing your dialog with action is a great way to break it up and clue your reader in to who's talking without having to use a tag.  If you want to get really fancy, try this:
"This, my dear Watson, " said Holmes, "is elementary."  Notice the placements of commas and the period.  If you have other punctuation questions, feel free to ask me and I'll do my best to answer.

6.  Have a Purpose.  This is one I actually don't see all that often myself, but I see this advice so often, that someone out there must be doing it.  Dialog in your book shouldn't sound like a normal conversation.  For example:
             "Hi," Sue said.
             "Hey, how's it going?" I answered.
             "Pretty good.  True Blood is on tonight."
             "Oh yeah. I love that show. Pretty crazy car accident Bill was in last week." I shuddered just remembering it.
             "Oh, that reminds me, did you hear about Sarah's car accident?"
SNOOZE!  Get right to the meat of your conversation.  If the point of the dialog in the example above is to break the news of the car accident, start there.  Dialog should be driving your plot forward.  Skip the pleasantries that we all engage in for regular conversation.  As with every other part of your story, make every word count!

These are all just mechanics - the basics really.  If you really want to take your dialog to the next level, I suggest reading this informative post at Dirty White Candy.

Any other words of wisdom you want to share? Things I've forgotten?  I feel like there are probably more rules out there than space on this blog, but hopefully I've hit the "biggies."  (Which reminds me of another thing I hate to see in punctuation - the period goes INSIDE the quotation marks, not outside.)

Smitten with everything Bitten

I'm practically salivating with all of the vampire hotness around these days.  True Blood is back on.  (Yummy!)  Eclipse is coming out in less than two weeks.  (Edward Cullen? Be still, my beating heart!)  And then there was this... the unexpected surprise I found when I cracked open a copy of Beth Fantaskey's Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side last night.

I read until after 2 in the morning.  I read for another 2 hours by the pool this am, only occasionally glancing up every now and then to be sure the children weren't drowning.  And I finished it off this afternoon.  All told, I spent 7 of the past 20 hours CONSUMED by this book.

Now, I'm not planning on doing a formal review here 'cause I'm light years behind everyone else who has already read this book and loved it.  And also because I can't decide if I'd give it an OMG! 4 out of 4 Greek coins or the highly-unlikely-to-be-achieved HFAC (Holy Flippin' Animal Crackers) - 5 out of 4 coins.  The bottom line is, if you somehow missed this book like I did (*hangs head in shame*) - go out and buy it now!! And when you're done reading, you can catch an exclusive online epilogue here (13 chapters worth of epilogue actually).

I also invite you to check out this interview of Beth Fantaskey on Oasis for YA.  She gives a sneak peak into what she's working on next.  (Hint: If you loved Jessica's Guide, you'll be excited.)  Also, Beth was the first author we interviewed and she was super awesome!

Finally, while I may lust after all things vampire (hello Rob Pattinson) - I wanted to give a shout out to my uber-adorable husband, who is WAY cuter than any on-screen undead, and a WONDERFUL husband and father.  Love you, sweetie.

Now if only he could grow some fangs...

Paradise Found: White Sands and White Cat

Go on, be jealous.  I can't say I'd blame you, because last weekend I got to spend some quality beach time on the soft, sandy shores of Bimini while reading Holly Black's new book, WHITE CAT.

I'd been hearing a lot of buzz on twitter about White Cat and the cover looked pretty darn intriguing (I admit to being one to prejudge a book by its cover), so I decided to give it a go.  All I can say is, when is book 2 coming out?

Here's the teaser:

Cassel comes from a family of curse workers -- people who have the power to change your emotions, your memories, your luck, by the slightest touch of their hands. And since curse work is illegal, they're all mobsters, or con artists. Except for Cassel. He hasn't got the magic touch, so he's an outsider, the straight kid in a crooked family. You just have to ignore one small detail -- he killed his best friend, Lila, three years ago.

Ever since, Cassel has carefully built up a façade of normalcy, blending into the crowd. But his façade starts crumbling when he starts sleepwalking, propelled into the night by terrifying dreams about a white cat that wants to tell him something. He's noticing other disturbing things, too, including the strange behavior of his two brothers. They are keeping secrets from him, caught up in a mysterious plot. As Cassel begins to suspect he's part of a huge con game, he also wonders what really happened to Lila. Could she still be alive? To find that out, Cassel will have to out-con the conmen.
Holly Black has created a gripping tale of mobsters and dark magic where a single touch can bring love -- or death -- and your dreams might be more real than your memories.

I loved this book because it was a fresh paranormal story.  Cassel has supernatural powers, but that doesn't make him a vampire, a werewolf, a faerie, or even a warlock.  He's a new breed of boogie-man, blending the intrigue of mob life with the mystery of the paranormal.

Black's story is full of twists and turns that are neither obvious nor so out of the blue that you're scratching your head wondering what just happened.  She has also created a diverse cast of three-dimensional characters, each with their own unique personalities and ambitions.  We often hear as aspiring writers that each character has to want something -- and all of these characters do.  And it's what each of them wants that drives their interactions and the plot.

I also loved that Cassel was a total scammer, but was endearing too.  He's just the sort of bad boy that we all want to root for, because deep down he really just wants to be good.

Oh yeah, and the romance was well... pretty much non-existent.  That also made this book completely unique.  It was all about Cassel trying to figure out his own life rather than how two teens (one or more with supernatural abilities) are going to get through life together.  Don't get me wrong, if you say "paranormal," I'll say, "romance."  The two things go together in my mind like Oreos and a big, cold glass of milk.  But the take in this story was refreshingly different.

All in all, I give WHITE CAT an OMG! rating, equal to 4 out of 4 Greek coins.  If you're a fan of the paranormal genre at all, this is one you shouldn't miss.  Get your copy at Amazon or Barnes & Noble.  For more information, check out Holly Black's website.

8 Great Writing Tips

These tips just landed in my inbox and they're so wonderful, I'm going to "borrow" them so I can share with you.  **I take no credit for these.  They are totally the brain child of Neil Gaiman, author of Coraline, The Graveyard Book, and The Sandman series and were sent to me via Gotham Writer's Workshop**

8 Good Writing Practices

1. Write.
2. Put one word after another. Find the right word, put it down.
3. Finish what you're writing. Whatever you have to do to finish it, finish it.
4. Put it aside. Read it pretending you’ve never read it before. Show it to friends whose opinion you respect and who like the kind of thing that this is.
5. Remember: when people tell you something’s wrong or doesn’t work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong.
6. Fix it. Remember that, sooner or later, before it ever reaches perfection, you will have to let it go and move on and start to write the next thing. Perfection is like chasing the horizon. Keep moving.
7. Laugh at your own jokes.
8. The main rule of writing is that if you do it with enough assurance and confidence, you’re allowed to do whatever you like. (That may be a rule for life as well as for writing. But it’s definitely true for writing.) So write your story as it needs to be written. Write it honestly, and tell it as best you can. I'm not sure that there are any other rules. Not ones that matter.