Pesky Epiphanies!

Woohoo!  I thought of an awesome plot twist for my book!  And at the same time, damn it!  Now I’ve gotta change the book.  I had MUKADE ISLAND so close to publication–I’d already schelpped it around the agents (knowing full well that landing an agent nowadays is right on par with winning the Mega Jackpot Lottery,) I’d gotten it all formatted for self-publication, just in case the agents didn’t pan out, I even announced a July 1st publication date (to be yanked if an agent DID glance at me sideways.)  Then I had the epipheny.

I had it driving home from the grocery store today.  MUKADE ISLAND is the first in a series, and of course my problem is I never really think my series completely through before I write the first one.  It just happens, nice and natural-like, and voila I have a book.  And it makes perfect sense, and I’m ready to go with it, then WHAM! The pesky side of my brain says, “Wait a mo.  What if…?” And there you go.

What I’ve thought of is so important to the whole series that I HAVE to put everything to a screeching halt while I incorporate the idea into the first book.  I’m still hoping to hit my July 1st deadline for self-publication.  But I sure wish all the agents I’d sent a query to had already sent me my rejection notices.  ’Cause just my luck, tomorrow somebody’s gonna say “Sure! I’ll represent you!”  And I don’t have a completed manuscript to give ‘em now.

Bother.

I’m sure I’m not the first person to go through this.  And I’d rather get it right this time than have to yank the whole series back later to fix things.  Luckily it was a STUPENDOUS epiphany that clarifies the entire series (in my brain anyway.)  So I’ve gotta stop and incorporate it.  I’m super excited about it.

But dang it, I wish I could just blink my eyes and the manuscript miraculously fixes itself. Somebody’s gotta come up with a computer that  lets you think what you want written, and the ‘puter does it for ya.

Not going to happen in the next couple of weeks though, so I’d better get cracking!

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You Write On!

My soon to be self-published (unless I get  book deal!) story MUKADE ISLAND is currently ranked #13 on www.youwriteon.com.

What’s You Write On?  It’s this cool website where you post the first 5,000-7,000 words of your book and get reviewers to read it.  The better they rate you, the higher in the ranking you go.

This website is a really great tool.  I have gotten some fantastic critiques of my first two chapters–I wish I could put the whole thing up there!  If you want some good feedback on your book, short story, play, whatever, give this website a try.

The reason you get such genuine and honest feedback is because the site has a lot of controls.  It is not a popularity contest type site.  What do I mean?  Well, let me do a comparison here.

A couple of years ago I was obsessed with authonomy.com.  You could upload your whole book here, get critiques, and move up the ranking.  If you were lucky enough to get to the top 5, you had the chance of getting looked at by a publisher (Harper Collins UK runs the site.)

But the site was kind of a popularity contest.  The way you moved up in the rankings was how many people put you on their bookshelf and read your stuff and gave comments.  The only way you could do this was milk the system by reviewing a lot yourself.  While the idea of this site was good, I spent countless hours each day trying to push my ranking up by clicking on all the books possible so they’d click back.  People were just trying to get to as many books as possible, so they didn’t give very good critiques or read too thoroughly.

You Write On is different because it’s tightly controlled.  The way it works is: you read an excerpt (one randomly assigned to you, not one you pick.)  You can only review one excerpt at a time, you HAVE to leave at least  100 word review, and you also have to pass a 5 question test to ensure you actually read the thing.  Once you do all this successfully, you get one reading credit.  You can they apply that credit to your book, and You Write On will randomly assign your book excerpt to someone.  If you don’t have any reading credits, your book can’t be read by others.

So instead of getting several so-so reviews a day, you might get one review over a couple of days, but the review is usually pretty succinct and helpful.  Some aren’t, but some of the critiques I’ve gotten on MUKADE ISLAND have been extremely valuable as I edit the manuscript.

You have to get eight ratings before you can get a ranking in the charts.  After nine ratings, I am already at #13 because the reviews on MUKADE ISLAND have been very good, even though people still have critiques to give me.

Now, you could believe the spiel they give you on the website (people who have put their excerpts up have gotten great book deals) and if that’s true, all the better.  But even if I never get a book deal out of this, You Write On has been incredibly valuable to me just on the excellent critiques I’ve gotten.  I just wish I could get critiques like this on the whole book! :D

If you haven’t checked out You Write On, you really should.  It’s been the best website I’ve found so far to get honest feedback on my rough drafts.  Even if I never get up into the top ten, I’d say my time spent on this site has been time well spent.  And the great thing about it, unlike other sites like authonomy.com, is that I only spend maybe 1/2 hour every couple of days reviewing an excerpt and get a reading credit, and that’s all the time I have to spend.  It is quality time.

If you’ve tried You Write On and have any opinions on it, please leave them here!  And if you haven’t tried it yet, I’d encourage you to do so.

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Check out my book FOUR FIENDS, a middle grade fantasy/adventure, by clicking on the image to the left!  You can purchase either paperback or kindle editions here.  Or, you can get other formats on www.smashwords.com!

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FOUR FIENDS Book Tour (without me on it)

The wonderful illustrator of FOUR FIENDS (and my husband) Steve Bennett is heading to three conventions back in the US and he will have copies of FOUR FIENDS to sell and sign! (He may even draw in it for you, if you ask him!)  Here’s where he’ll be:

Bellecon – Jacksonville, FL right now!! May 9-11

Anime North – Toronto, Canada – May 24-26

Project A-Kon – Dallas, TX – May 31-June 2

Because he’s travelling light and won’t have a booth at the conventions, Steve is only carrying a limited quantity to each show, so grab him when you can!  Or, buy a copy now here and take it to the show for him to sign!

Aaaand…I get to slog away here at work while Steve gets to go to the shows.  Poo.

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Mother Daughter Book Reviews – FOUR FIENDS Review!

I was very excited today to see FOUR FIEND’s book reviewed on the Mother Daughter Book Review blog (click here to read the review!)  What excited me most was that the daughter reviewed the book also, and since the book is meant for kids, it was great to get a kid’s perspective on this.  Here are my favorite quotes:

Daughter (Danielle): “I really, really, really liked this book.  I want to read the next one too!”

Mother (Renee): “Wow!  Can I just say wow?!  I was very pleasantly surprised by this book.  Nikki Bennett has written a middle grade tale filled with magic and mythology from diverse cultures; interesting and engaging characters who tweens can relate to and empathise with; and an interesting and engaging plot that will keep you glued to the pages until the very end. In short, I LOVED it!”

“Four Fiends is a fantastic story, steeped in mythology, strong on character development, and with an intriguing and interesting plot.  I could not put this book down because it was THAT good!  I can’t wait for Book 2 to come out.”

Well, if that doesn’t make a writer’s day, I don’t know what will!

They both also brought up some good issues, mostly with the artwork (but not the story!) that I can work on too.  Good critiques are always helpful!

Click here if you’re interested in reading FOUR FIENDS yourself!

And meanwhile, I’ll get cracking on finishing Book 2!  I’m hoping to have it out by Christmas :D

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The Four Guardians are Alive in Nara Castle!

My travels inspire my stories.  If you’d like to get transported to some wonderful countries and magical places, buy my middle grade book FOUR FIENDS!  Your kids (and yes you too!) will love it! Just click on the book image to the left and you can buy either the paperback or the kindle version from Amazon! Read more about the books theme’s below!

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I’m SO excited when I find references to the Four Fiends (in this case, the Four Guardians) in Asian architecture.  In Nara Castle, I found all four Guardians, and you can see them all on the video at my facebook page too.

The Four Guardians are prevalent in Asian mythology.  Here’s an excerpt about the Guardians from my book FOUR FIENDS:

“The Vermillion Bird roosted in the Southern lands, the Azure Dragon guarded the Eastern realms, the White Tiger prowled the Western wilds, and the Black Tortoise shared its knowledge with those in the North.”

The Four Guardians are also symbolic of the different seasons: Tortoise for Winter, Bird for Summer, Dragon for Spring and Tiger for Fall.

The Azure Dragon of the East (Saburo saves this Guardian!)

 

The Black Turtle of the North (Pietro saves him from the dreaded Nian!)

The Vermillion Bird of the South

All the kids in FOUR FIENDS join forces to save the White Tiger of the West

 

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In the Library!

How I feel right now has gotta be how a musician feels when he/she first hears his/her song played on the radio:

I wish there was a way to make that picture bigger right now, but I can’t figure it out on this computer, but hey!  FOUR FIENDS is in the Iwakuni Library and they even made me a “Local Author” sign.  So if you’re in the area, and you have a kid, check out the book, it’s in the YA/kids section of the library.   Yay!

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From Start to Finish

My travels inspire my stories.  If you’d like to get transported to some wonderful countries and magical places, buy my middle grade book FOUR FIENDS!  Your kids (and yes you too!) will love it! Just click on the book image to the left and you can buy either the paperback or the kindle version from Amazon!

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Does anyone write like how I used to write?  Trying to craft every sentence as soon as you wrote it, getting so bogged down with perfecting each chapter before you moved on to the next that at some point you just got frustrated with the whole thing and put it aside?  This happened to me all the time.

Even with FOUR FIENDS, I did this.  It took me two years to write that book, because I refused to move ahead with new chapters before I went over the previous one with a fine-toothed comb.  I’d burn myself out, then have to walk away from the whole project for a couple of weeks (or months) just to get the courage to start again.

All this changed when I tried just writing from start to finish, without stopping.   Now, I don’t even go back and look at what I wrote, unless I really need to.  If I forget a character’s name maybe, or if I can’t remember what city my character was in, I’ll peek at some of my previous pages.  But I don’t worry about anything else.  I don’t care if I contradict myself, if I forget where I was originally heading with an idea, if I change my character’s persona halfway through.  I keep writing.

Why?  Because I want to get to the end.  Sure, once I do, I’ll have to do some major re-editing.  I’ll have to cut out stuff and fill in missing points.  But what I’m learning is the most important thing to do is get to the end of the book first.  Once I’ve written the book from start to a plausible finish, I’ve accomplished something.  Something I can feel good about.

I’m writing a book right now called Night at the Basking Iguana.  I’m more than halfway through, and I think the characters, in the form they are in now, are pretty wooden.  They need a heck of a lot more polish, more character, more depth.  But I’m not going to worry about that now.  I’ll go back and change or delete characters if need be, once I’m done.  Right now, I’m getting my characters to their journey’s end.  Then I’ll go back and make them more interesting (I hope!)

I’m not saying this is the only way to write.  I’m not saying it will work for you.  But in the past six months I’ve finished three books, and I’m almost done with the Basking Iguana one.  Two of the three are edited, polished, and have been sent out to agents.  One is still going through review.  And the rough draft of Basking Iguana will be done by the end of April.  For me, that’s pretty damn impressive.  And the most important thing is, they’re good books and I like ‘em.  Whether the rest of the world will like them I’ll have to see when the books get published!

Any thoughts?  Please leave your comments!

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One-Line Pitches

Every house has a history.  This House has a Mystery.

That’s my one-liner for Once Upon a House, a short children’s chapter book I’ve written.  I was submitting it to an agent today, on one of those sites where you submit on-line instead of through snail or e-mail.  One of the boxes asked for the one-line pitch–some folks call it an elevator pitch (although I guess elevator pitches could be longer.)  I hadn’t even thought about writing an elevator pitch for this book, so I had to think up one on the spot, and the above is what my exhausted, end-of-the-day brain came up with.

It isn’t too bad, actually.

Why is it so hard coming up with these things though?  We’re authors, right?  We’re supposed to be good at this kind of stuff, but I stink at it.  I also stink at full pitches.  At least with the one-line pitches your mind only has to focus on one sentence.

My first attempt went something like this: “Join Susie, Tucker and the twins as they discover the mysteries surrounding their new house.”

Barf, that sucks.  I tried to pretend I was a Mad Man (or Mad Woman I guess) and I was at one of those on-the-spot advertisement meetings where I had to think up something wonderful and clever right away.

Well, I’m probably not cut out for advertising.  But “Every house has a history.  This House has a Mystery” doesn’t sound too bad, does it?  I hope it doesn’t.  I’m sticking with that.  Unless somebody else comes up with a better one.

Now to think up one for Mukade Island.  Blah.

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Active vs. Passive Sentences

One problem I’m seeing over and over during my indie book reviews is the use of passive sentences.  I encourage anyone during their manuscript edits to search for their passive sentences and change to active as much as possible.  While active sentences encourage readers’ imagination and keep the story propelling forward, passive sentences stall the reader.

Basically, in an active sentence, the subject “acts upon” the verb and the direct object follows: “I walked the dog.”  In a passive sentence, the direct object ends up first, making for a more awkward sentence: “The dog was walked by me.”

Try this as an exercise: stick “by” in your search engine and see how many sentences in your story contain it.

This isn’t a hard and fast rule, but the more active sentences in your story, the better.

Another problem I’ve seen a quite a bit: using “There is” or “There are” to start a sentence.  If you use this too much, your sentences sound like you really haven’t put much thought into them.  Put “There is” or “There are” into your finder and try to change these sentences also.

Here’s an example:  “There was a light shining in the tunnel.”

A better sentence: “Light shone from the tunnel.”

If you tidy these sentences up, your work will flow better, and folks will enjoy reading it!

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Mukade Island and Once Upon A House

Right now I have two books making the agent rounds–TWO!  I’ve been busy.  And I have a plan for these books, regardless of whether I land an agent or not.  The reception for FOUR FIENDS was so wonderful I don’t want to sit too long on these books, so they’ve got this summer to land an agent.  Because this is so hard to do nowadays, and because I kind of like the creative control I have by self publishing, my schedule is to publish one of these this summer and one mid fall.  (That’s IF an agent doesn’t pick them up.)

You can read the first chapter of both by clicking on their links at the top of the page.  And now that they’re done and out there for the world to see, I’m working on my next novel (tentatively called “Night at the Basking Iguana”) now!  Back to work I go…

Please leave any comments on the stories!  And if you want to leave a comment for my MUKADE ISLAND on CreateSpace, here’s the link:  MUKADE ISLAND EXERPT

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