Word Count Wednesday

Well, with the amount of deleting and adding and revising I've done, my word count didn't amount to much. I think I'm addicted to revising this manuscript. I know I should stop, but I just can't. I tell myself this will be the last time, but the next day I'm there again, with that handy delete key and another idea for how things should go.

*sigh*

The good news is I still like my story. Sometimes after I've revised it to death I start to hate the story and all its characters, so maybe that's a sign that I'm still okay.

My word count for this week sure wasn't okay, though, and I'm hoping to do better next week.

How did you do?

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Book Review: Venom

Want a great romantic suspense to make your toes curl in deliciously suspenseful fright and delight? Then, Venom by K.C. Grant is the book for you.

Honestly, I loved this book from start to finish. Samantha is trying to get ahead at her advertising agency and is offered a chance to go to Mexico City to join the team that doing a major ad campaign there. She meets this moody photographer, David Ayala, who seems to have a few secrets to keep, her boss and half the team are acting all weird, and these strange little "accidents" keep happening. It's enough to keep me turning pages, just to see if Samantha's going to survive both physically and emotionally!

The majority of the action takes place in Mexico City and the author does a phenomenal job in the setting. I have never been there, yet after reading this book I felt like I had. I was completely immersed in it, and with the way it's woven into the story, it becomes an integral part of it. It just adds that extra oomph to the mystery/suspense.

I think that K.C. Grant will fast become an author in the suspense world whose fans are anxiously awaiting her next book so they can snatch it off the shelves. She's just that good. She has two other historicals, (which were also good) but I believe she's found her forte in suspense.

Here is the back copy:

Samantha Evans is determined to make a name for herself in the cutthroat world of advertising. Newly hired by a prestigious ad agency, she volunteers to work on location in Mexico City as a personal assistant to the beautiful and driven creative director Katrina Edwards.

At first the association seems promising. But Ms. Edwards seems preoccupied in a way that makes Samantha increasingly uneasy. In fact, many in the group seem like they are not being completely open about the project including David Ayala, the mysterious and moody photographer for whose attention the two women find themselves competing.

After several strange accidents and numerous appearances by an unknown man, Samantha discovers the truth: not everyone on the team is in Mexico to create a stellar advertising pitch. When her sleuthing leads to her abduction, she is brought to the pyramids of Teotihuacán and comes face-to-face with the venomous evil of the South American crime boss known as “The Serpent.” Now Samantha must not only fight for her life, but she must also discover if she can trust the man she’s come to love.



K.C. Grant has been a freelance writer for over eight years. Much of her work appears in family-oriented magazines such as LDSLiving, Back Home, Parents & Kids, and Natural Life. She has also written for the Deseret News and KSL news/radio. When she decided it was time to "tackle" the novel, she became involved with writer's groups that helped her network with other writers and learn the business of writing a little more. She has been the president of a local chapter of the League of Utah Writers and is a member of the Association for Mormon Letters and LDStorymakers. Her novels include "Abish: Daughter of God," and a sequel, "Abish: Mother of Faith". A suspense novel, "Venom", is scheduled for January 2012.

You can find more about K.C. here

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Castle and Hawaii Five-O--They're Back!

Last night I was excited because both of my favorite shows were new episodes and we've had a boatload of repeats lately. Of course, the previews for Hawaii Five-O looked intense so I watched that one first, and boy, was I glad I did.

The main character, Danny Williams, is trying to unravel the mystery of why a U.S. Marshal was killed on an airplane, when his daughter is kidnapped by his old partner who has just spent ten years in prison because Danny testified against him. (The partner was dirty.) So he's had ten years to plan his revenge on Danny, and since he lost his family while he was in prison, he wants Danny to lose his family as well.

Scott Caan did an amazing job with this episode. His anger and fear are so readily apparent, I honestly was completely pulled in. The emotion was high for the entire episode and even down to the last few minutes I didn't really know what was going to happen. And yes, there were some aspects that required I suspend a little reality, but it was still really well done. Loved it.

Then I turned to watch my old favorite, Castle. We've sort of been stuck in a bit of a mire with Castle, with no forward movement on the character front and not much banter to be found. But last night was a tribute to film noir, and it was funny and romantic and even a little flirty and I thought it was great. The 40s costumes, the singing, the mystery, it was all fun and had enough twists to keep me interested and surprised. I sort of miss that Castle, when you finished the episode with a smile. Hopefully we'll get more of that before the season is over.

So, last night was a good mix of romance and suspense for me. Just the way I like it. Have you watched any good TV lately?

(I just started Rachelle Christensen's book Caller ID and it promises a bit of romance and suspense as well. I'll let you know what I think of it!)

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Mom Minute--Dealing With Hurt Feelings

As a mother of eight children, it still never ceases to amaze me that my children are so different. You know, since they have the same parents and all. But they are very different and that makes me stretch as a person in order to try and meet their individual needs and help them grow as people.

Yesterday we had an incident in which angry words were exchanged and one of my children's feelings were really hurt. For me, when I have hurt feelings, I usually like to talk things out. You know, get it all on the table, air the feelings, then kiss and make up. This certain child withdraws. They don't talk to anyone and try to avoid the situation, which drives me a little crazy.

So, today I am waiting. Waiting for the right moment to see if this can't be worked out and talked out.

But, for those of you who know me, waiting isn't my strong suit. Probably because when I wait for things, my imagination kicks into overdrive and I imagine different scenarios, (okay, worst case scenarios) and then things get crazy in my head. So, I'm really hoping that the timing will be right and this brouhaha can be smoothed over today. And it truly is all about timing with children, don't you think?

I am definitely crossing my fingers that perhaps being at school today, and a bit of time away from each other, will give the time and distance needed for this particular situation. I think it will.

How do you deal with your children when there's something that needs to be talked out, but they would rather withdraw?

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First Page Friday

Hey, guess what? My latest novel, Ribbon of Darkness, made it into the finals for LDSPublisher's favorite cover contest. You can go here to vote, even if you don't vote for mine, (but secretly I hope you do.)

On to First Page Friday!

The Entry
A Ghost of a Second Chance
by K. Tate

The Chinook wind stirred the fallen leaves and tossed them around the deserted street. An eastern wind carries more than dust and ashes, Laine’s mother had told her; it uproots secrets. And everyone knows once one secret is told, no secret is safe.

Hers included.

Laine paused in front of the Queen Anne Hill Chapel doors. The sun, a faint pink glow over the eastern hills had yet to shine, but Laine hadn’t any doubt that it would rise to another scorching Indian summer day. She looked out over sleeping Seattle. The dark gray Puget Sound stretched away from her. On the horizon, distant ships bobbed and sent quivering beams of light over the water.

She turned her back on the ships, on any dream of sailing away and inserted the key into the heavily carved wooden doors. They slid open before Laine turned the key. Odd. The chapel, built in the 1930s, had a musty, empty smell. She stepped into the cool shade of the foyer and the door swung shut, closing with a click that echoed through the cavernous room. The morning sounds--birds, crickets and insects--disappeared when the doors closed. Laine’s sneakers padded across the terracotta tile, her footsteps loud.

She had thought she’d be alone, which is exactly why she’d chosen to come at near dawn. Not that she’d been able to sleep. She hadn’t slept for weeks. Which may explain why at first she’d thought the girl standing in the nave, facing the pulpit, her face lifted to the stain glass window, might be a ghost, or even, given her surroundings, an angel.

Although Laine couldn’t see her face, the way the child’s head moved, it looked as if she was having a conversation with the Lord trapped in the glass, or one of the sheep milling about His feet, giving Laine the uncomfortable sense of interrupting. The meager morning sun lit the glass and multi-colored reflections fell on the girl, giving her an iridescent glow. Slowly, she turned and Laine realized she wasn’t a child, but a young woman, around twenty, wearing vintage clothing.

Ms. Shreditor's Comments

I like that this chapter begins with a secret, because it gives the reader immediate motivation to keep reading. After all, there are few things more compelling in a story than untold secrets. The eastern wind carries with it the threat/promise that Laine’s will come to light at some point in this story.

The Seattle setting feels authentic because the author gives us just enough (but not too much) detail. Establishing setting in a specific geographic location can be tricky; you want to root the reader in the narrator’s environs without sounding touristy. I assess setting in a book the way a psychologist might assess a lie: Just as a psychologist suspects a lie if a person offers too many details, I suspect that an author is writing about a place he or she has never actually visited if the descriptions are too flowery or the story is full of regional clichés. There's nothing wrong, of course, with writing about a place you've never been; you just have to go about it carefully. If you pepper a story that takes place in, say, San Francisco, with sightings of the Golden Gate Bridge, trolley cars, and Rice-A-Roni, the reader is going to see through it. So make sure to do your research and establish setting with a light hand, as this author has done. Give readers enough to go on without turning it into a travelogue.

The writing in general is quite vivid. The author taps into multiple senses to engage the reader in the unfolding scene, and the story takes on an eerie quality when the iridescent girl appears.

One thing to watch for in this sample: verb tense inconsistency. In the first sentence, we have an observation from Laine’s mother in the present tense. It might read more smoothly if it went something like this: “According to Laine’s mother, an eastern wind carried more than dust and ashes; it uprooted secrets.” The first sentence of the fifth paragraph also shifts from past to present tense. You might also try to eliminate the “is” from that sentence by recasting: “She’d chosen to come at dawn so that she could be alone. Later in the paragraph, we switch again to the present with “Which may explain why…” Make sure to pick one tense and stick with it.

This chapter could also benefit from some light copyediting to resolve minor mechanical issues (e.g., “come at near dawn”) and some clunky syntax here and there. But the author does an excellent job of setting the scene, making it vivid, and leaving the reader with enough unanswered questions to keep the reader turning the pages.



Thank you so much for our submitters and for the time and effort our wonderful editors put in to help us. See you next week!

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Writing Tip---Critique Groups

I just have to tell you that last night, for the first time in a decade, I slept in a paper-free bedroom. It took me exactly one month, but I purged all the papers from my room and it feels good. Thank you for bearing with me through that!

Today I'd like to talk to you about critique groups. As I've taught at different conferences over the years and spoken about critique groups, I inevitably get at least one person who says, "oh I don't need that," and "I could never let someone else read my writing before it's published."

And every time I hear it I want to shake my head because they are missing out on something that is incredibly helpful to a writer.

Critique groups can give your writing a polish that it wouldn't have otherwise. For example, I met with my critique group last Tuesday and we were critiquing chapters of mine that I'd already edited. I thought I was going to cruise through, but then one of the group pointed out a spot where the heroine's reaction was totally out of character, and another pointed out where the technology wasn't correct and would need to be changed. Was it make or break it for my book? No. But readers and editors and agents are looking for polished books without those sorts of minor mistakes and smooth writing. And that's the goal I'm shooting for. I want my writing to be the best it can be and I know that my critique group is helping me with that.

It took me a while to find a group, but I am so glad I never gave up looking. Making the right fit is important, because you want to have other writers who are about at the same level as you or a little higher, so you can all help each other and get the most out of it. You also want to make sure that you are ready for a good critique. My chapters have been shredded before,(quite recently, actually!) but as I sit there looking at all the red marks and notes in the margin, I know that it's going to make it a stronger story and I'm grateful for people who are willing to read my manuscript and help me make it better.

(I also am glad to have people who get me as a person and a writer, who know where I'm going with the story and characters and can help me get where I want to be. Plus, the group I'm with has a wicked sense of humor and we end up laughing through most of the evening.)

So, while I know some don't feel critique groups are needed or worth it, for me, they are worth their weight in gold. Editing mistakes, plot holes, and mischaracterization all come out in the pre-submit period, so that when you are ready to submit, you know it's really ready, if you get my drift. Your writing has that extra pair of eyes that have gone over it and you have the benefit of knowing you have fixed everything you could and done your best with the help of great critiques.

(And just to clarify, I'm not saying you have to have a traditional critique group that meets every week or anything. There are plenty of authors I know that do online critique groups.)

What do you think of critique groups? Do you have one? Why or why not?

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Word Count Wednesday

I think I'm going to print out this quote and put it next to my desk because it totally describes where I am at in finding balance with my writing and other responsibilties.

"Much may be done in those little shreds and patches of time which every day produces, and which most men throw away." - Charles Colton

Yeah, I have to write in shreds and patches of time, but I'm doing it and trying hard not to throw any opportunity away. Each week I'm moving forward, not quite at a snail's pace, just at my own pace, and I'm so grateful to have the support of all of you.

This week my critique group shredded my work in progress, so I've gone back to the drawing board in revising. All told, even with the deleting and adding and then deleting again, I wrote about 1800 words. So, overall, I'm feeling pretty good about that.

How did you do this week?

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