Inspiration for your Weekend

Compare

where you are to where you want to be

and you'll get

Nowhere.

~ Sara Bareilles 

It doesn't matter whether you've only just begun your journey, or you already have 1000 miles behind you, you'll only reach your goals by actually moving toward them, not wishing for them.

Happy weekend & happy writing!

Ted Saves the World Blog Tour and Giveaway

Hello everyone - today I have the great privilege of participating in Bryan Cohen's blog tour for his new release, TED SAVES THE WORLD.  Bryan's graciously offered to impart some writing advice as well as tell you how you can WIN a $25 Amazon gift card (and it's really easy).  So read on!

A Learning Experience

By Bryan Cohen

In college, I had a playwriting teacher named Bill Svanoe who had an amazing piece of advice I've tried to follow when creating characters for my books. Bill was an avid movie and play watcher. What do I mean by this? I mean he went to see every single movie that came out in theaters. Every. Single. Movie.

While there are occasionally some good movies that come out in the cinema, more often than not, these flicks are utter crap. Why would Bill subject himself to such awful, putrid "entertainment?"

Have you ever heard the phrase you learn more from a failure than a success? Bill took this to heart and as a result he recommended that we watch as many (if not more) failures as we did successes. This went for reading as well.

In the most unsuccessful books I've read or movies I've watched, something I've picked up is that the supporting characters were completely forgettable. They don't have a voice and they don't stick out at all. I have tried to avoid this fate by basing the supporting characters in my book Ted Saves the World on either people I know or aspects of myself.

One of my favorite characters, Dhiraj, is based on a combination of my younger brother, who is an Internet marketer and sort of a "get rich quick" savant, my best friend from high school, who is also Indian, and nerdy as hell, like me! A lot of supporting characters I've read, have one or two quirks and that is the extent to which they are fleshed out. By giving my characters aspects from multiple people and drawing from my own experience, I hope to present a fully-rounded and well-developed character that readers can enjoy.

I'm very excited to make Ted Saves the World the beginning of a series of books, because it gives me even further time to flesh out these characters and give them one or multiple arcs. Even though I've learned about characters from very well-written books and movies, if it wasn't for Bill's advice, I might have never learned about the character pitfalls I've gleaned from observing the worst of the worst.

Description of Ted Saves the World (Available for just $0.99):

A possessed cheerleader. A cursed gang of criminals. Mysterious telekinetic powers. An angry ex-girlfriend in gym class? One second, sophomore in high school Ted endures his first breakup in his favorite place in town. The next, a mysterious blue light turns him into a worldwide superhero sensation for taking down a posse of grisly murderers. As his views on YouTube increase and his friend Dhiraj tries to capitalize on the marketing potential, his dangers increase as well when a presumed-dead cheerleader begins taking a personal interest. Can Ted survive his first week as a superhero in the public eye? This novella is the first taste in a series of full-length novels about the adventures of Ted Finley and Erica LaPlante. 

The book is also available on Barnes & Noble and Smashwords for $0.99.

Now, for the FREE stuff --

Bryan Cohen is giving away four $25 Amazon gift cards, one for each week of his month long blog tour. To enter, simply comment with your e-mail address (feel free to substitute @ with (at) or other tricks to stop spammers from getting it). Bryan will draw the four names at the end of the tour, picking one entrant at random from each week’s set of blog posts. Entries will be counted through Monday, August 15^th, 2011. Enter on as many sites as you want, follow the tour at Build Creative Writing Ideas. If Ted reaches the Top 100 on Amazon at any point during the tour, a fifth $25 card will be added to the giveaway.

So there you go -- leave a comment with your well-wishes for Bryan and you may just be $25 richer in a couple of weeks. Oh, and while you're at it, buy the book.  ;)

Happy Debut YA Book Birthday

Another Tuesday, another round of debut YA novels being born. Let's celebrate with these authors.

And Then Things Fall Apart by Arliana Tibensky
Keek’s life was totally perfect.

Keek and her boyfriend just had their Worst Fight Ever, her best friend heinously betrayed her, her parents are divorcing, and her mom’s across the country caring for her newborn cousin, who may or may not make it home from the hospital. To top it all off, Keek’s got the plague. (Well, the chicken pox.) Now she’s holed up at her grandmother’s technologically-barren house until further notice. Not quite the summer vacation Keek had in mind.

With only an old typewriter and Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar for solace and guidance, Keek’s alone with her swirling thoughts. But one thing’s clear through her feverish haze—she’s got to figure out why things went wrong so she can put them right.

Wildefire by Karsten Knight
Every flame begins with a spark.

Ashline Wilde is having a rough sophomore year. She’s struggling to find her place as the only Polynesian girl in school, her boyfriend just cheated on her, and now her runaway sister, Eve, has decided to barge back into her life. When Eve’s violent behavior escalates and she does the unthinkable, Ash transfers to a remote private school nestled in California’s redwoods, hoping to put the tragedy behind her. But her fresh start at Blackwood Academy doesn’t go as planned. Just as Ash is beginning to enjoy the perks of her new school—being captain of the tennis team, a steamy romance with a hot, local park ranger—Ash discovers that a group of gods and goddesses have mysteriously enrolled at Blackwood…and she’s one of them. To make matters worse, Eve has resurfaced to haunt Ash, and she’s got some strange abilities of her own. With a war between the gods looming over campus, Ash must master the new fire smoldering within before she clashes with her sister one more time… And when warm and cold fronts collide, there’s guaranteed to be a storm.

I know lots of you have been waiting for Wildefire to come out. Are you excited yet??

Top 5 Reasons I'm a Not-So-Closet DORK

1.  I got totally geeked out over buying the school supplies for my 5 and 6 year old daughters.  I separated everything and then slipped the supplies into their backpacks while they slept. I felt like Santa Claus.

2.  When my hair is driving me nuts & I can't rummage one of the dd's hair clips from out of my purse, I use a small binder clip.  Note: dorky but effective.

3.  The only "sport" I ever lettered in when I was in high school was marching band. *hangs head in shame*

4.  The only "Greek" organization I belonged to in college was Eta Sigma Phi -- it's the Classics Honor Society.

5.  My day job is being an appellate attorney. I know, you probably don't even know what that is.  Just think: she sits in front of a desk all day researching and writing and hardly ever has to interact with other people.  It's sort of my dream job.
 
So there you have it -- cold, hard evidence that I am just as big of a dork (and maybe more so) as I think I am.

Happy YA Debut Book Birthday

Another Tuesday, another release day celebration!  It might be a small list this week (only 1), but let's still welcome this debut YA author to the ranks of the published:

Releasing July 21st --

The Robot by Paul E. Watson

Science-loving Gabe and girl-crazy Dover are best friends. In fact, they're practically each other's only friends. So when Gabe's parents leave town for the weekend, he lets Dover convince him to break into his father's basement laboratory-even though he knows it's off-limits under penalty of lifelong grounding. Once inside, the boys make a shocking discovery, one that will turn a boring weekend into a hilarious madcap adventure: a smoking hot robot!

While Gabe and Dover argue over "Trina," the robot flees the lab. The chase is on! Before the day is over, she'll expose a traitorous plot, catapult two geeky freshmen to high school fame, and try to assassinate Dr. Phil!