My Character's First Interview! (And a Recipe)

The hero of my book, Ashes Ashes, had his first interview today!  Detective Colby Black tells what kind of music he likes, what book he's reading now, and how he unwinds.  Not to be missed!  You can read it here

I also had a new book review at Literary Time Out.  They said they liked my quirky characters!  You can read the entire review here

And lastly, I tell the story of how that kitchen fire in Ashes Ashes is based on a true event (a little embarrassing!) and give my Bellon Family Torte recipe away.  You won't want to miss this one.  You can read it here

I know I usually do a book review on Mondays, but I'm part of a John Bytheway blog tour, so I'll be posting my book review tomorrow.

See you then!

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How I Play/Draw "Badminton With Kids"

Just for fun, I drew pictures of how I play my favorite summer "Mommy" sport, Badminton with Kids.  It's posted over at Reading in Twilight blog today.  So click here and then scroll down.  (Disclaimer: I am definitely not an artist.  Haha!)

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First Page Friday & More Reviews!

Today I have a guest post over at Spellbindings, where I talk about how I can realistically write about snipers and law enforcement.  You can read it here

I also received two new reviews.  The first one from Why Not? Because I Said So, said the reviewer actually took her iPad to the theater so she could read a bit more of my book before the lights went out.  I loved that!  You can read what she thought of Ashes Ashes here

And this was my favorite line from the second review I got today at Sarah Aisling's blog:  "Bellon’s writing is intriguing and descriptive, and she keeps the plot moving at a rapid-fire pace with no wasted words or unnecessary scenes to bog down the story."  I definitely want to put that one in my keeper file.  You can see the whole review here.

I am really loving this blog tour.  And if you didn't know, you can enter to win a $25 Amazon gift card at any of the blog stops.  Yay!

All right, on to First Page Friday.  This one was fun because of what Ms. Shreditor thought of it.  As always, thank you to both our author and our editor for all their hard work.

See you next week!

The Entry
Relative Evil
by Jaycie Allen

It stood motionless, less than ten feet away from Ryan. The sallow, blotchy skin barely hung on its bones. The not-quite-human’s lips were gone, eaten away by the fleas that had given it the virus. Now, only broken teeth, dripping with blood, glistened in the hot sunlight, and forced an aberrant smile onto its face, like a gruesome Halloween Jack-o-lantern. The tiny bugs still feasted on what was left of its healthy membrane.


It stared at him through clouded blue eyes; the whites tainted jaundice yellow with disease. Ryan wanted to run away from it. He knew he had time, but watching it kept him riveted to where he thought was his hiding place behind a forgotten industrial garbage bin. He shivered as gooseflesh coursed over his sweaty skin. This one appeared cognitive, unlike some of the other altered creatures. When it lifted its boney left hand, something caught the sun, refracting the light into minuscule rainbows onto the broken window by its fetid arm. A diamond. Her wedding ring—their wedding ring.  

“Oh! Yuck! No, no, no! This is so stupid,” I said out loud, and I began tapping the delete key with more force than necessary to get rid of the last two disgusting paragraphs I’d just written. I glanced at Paddles, my fifteen-year-old polydactyl cat, who trilled at the noise my excessive pounding produced. “Why can’t I just be happy writing romance?” I asked him. He didn’t answer me in words, of course. But I interpreted his ears rotating backwards and half-closed his eyes as his way of saying, “You should be happy, Claire.”

Switching hands, I continued hitting the delete button, maybe not with as much enthusiasm. “At least I’ve published two in that genre. My editor probably won’t take a second look at this drivel.” I looked back at Paddles. “Would she?” I sighed. “What was I thinking? Moonwriting Publishing doesn’t even accept science fiction.”

Ms. Shreditor's Comments

Okay, I fell for it. Before I started reading, I took a cursory glance at this first page and noticed that the first half was italicized. I flexed my fingers, ready to take the text to task for mashing up a prologue and the actual beginning of the story—and a multitude of other sins, which we’ll get to in a minute. And then the italics stopped, and the evil genius of the first two paragraphs began to sink in. It was supposed to be over the top. Some of the errors in execution that activated my editorial radar might have been deliberate.

I’m going to break this week’s critique up into two sections: Ryan and Claire. Think of them as Goofus and Gallant, if you will. (If you aren’t familiar with these crazy fictional kids, you can find tons of their old comic strips from Highlights magazine on Google Images. To boil it down: Goofus bad, Gallant good.)

Ryan

In all honesty, I wasn’t really going to eviscerate Ryan’s story. It’s flawed enough to give Claire agita, but I’ve read far, far worse. So what exactly does the first part of the sample get wrong? For starters, there’s some serious excess here. We have broken teeth dripping with blood, bugs feasting on membranes, and jaundiced eyeballs. It’s funny that Claire later classifies her piece as science fiction, because it reads more like campy horror to me. There are a lot of horror clichés herein. (However, bonus points to the author for spelling “minuscule” correctly. If I had a dollar for every time I had to fix the spelling of that word, I could afford a wheel of cheddar cheese that’s been aged more than six months.)

A few technical hiccups stood out to me in Ryan’s story that I suspect weren't intentional. For instance, we have “the whites tainted jaundice yellow with disease.” The syntax is a bit murky here. “Claire” could simplify this by saying “the whites jaundiced with disease.” You’ll also want to ditch the preceding semicolon and replace it with a comma. (Semicolons separate two independent clauses; we have an independent and dependent clause here.)

Claire

So what does Claire’s section of the sample get right? For starters, it’s funny. Claire has a distinctive voice. She’s self-deprecating and aware of her own flaws. Her feline sidekick, Paddles, provides comic relief in an already funny scene. There’s also something very “meta” about her commentary on book publishing. It speaks to the difficulty of the writing and submission process.

The First Page about First Page Friday

I have a feeling that the structure of this first page will garner mixed reviews. Ryan’s story sets up a pretty good fake-out. Someone reading this blind (as I did) wouldn’t know right off the bat that his story is somewhat of a farce and might deem it a cheap trick. I personally like it because of its aforementioned “meta” nature. This entire first page is like a satirical salute to the literary angst that powers First Page Friday every week—from the challenges of the writing process to the self-doubt to the agony over submission guidelines. These things are very real, and the author illustrates them in creative fashion here. Well done.

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Blog Tour & My Writing Sprint Secrets

So, if you are following my book's blog tour, you know I got two great reviews today.

First, Ronda gave me four stars and said "It's exciting, full of twists, and keeps you guessing the whole way." Loved that!  You can read her entire review here.

Second, I think this is the review I will print off and display next to my desk for when I get discouraged about writing.  Shauna said, among other things, "If Julie Bellon wrote the book you KNOW it will be GOOD!"  There were many things I liked about her review, but I think that line made my whole day.  You can read all of her review here.

So, today I saw this little gem. "Do not be afraid of going slowly; be afraid only of standing still." Chinese Proverb

Doesn't that describe the writing process sometimes?  Especially when we're sitting there staring at the cursor hoping that the words will come?  And then we're disappointed if we only get 400 new words or something?

I had one of my sprint friends ask me how I got so many words in just one hour.  Today, I thought I'd share my process/secrets with you.

First of all, I don't edit when I'm sprinting.  I just get the words out and type like a bat out of Hades.  Editing will come later.  I'm getting the skeleton of this draft down and the fleshing out is another step entirely.

Second, before I start editing I write down a loose outline of where the chapters are going.  I usually get about two chapters done per sprint, so I like to have some direction.  It helps my word count, too, because since I know where the scene/chapter is going, it makes the ideas come faster.

Third, I set aside the sprint hour so my kids know not to interrupt and to find the person in charge while I'm sprinting. Sometimes they are so fascinated by my lightning-speed typing they sit and watch.  Haha.

Fourth, I like to do the sprints on the blog so I have other people to sprint with and celebrate with and be accountable to. That's why Wednesdays are so important to me.  It motivates me to get things going whether I feel like it or not.  People are waiting for me and that's very powerful.

And the best part about sprinting is that when that hour is up, no matter how many words you wrote, it was more than you had the hour before.  Reason for celebration in my book!  (See what I did there?)

So, there you have it.  What's your sprinting process?

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We're Sprinting in ONE MINUTE!

So, here's the deal---write your fanny off for fifteen minutes, then come back here and tell me your word count in the comments section.  Then we'll check back at 8:30, 8:45 and finish up at 9:00.

Come play! It's fun and motivating.  :)

Ready, set, GO!

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Word Count Wednesday & My Blog Tour!

Well, I am FULL of good news today.

First of all, I wrote 3426 words.  It's not a huge amount, but the impact those words made on the story is immense.  So YAY!  I am also going to do another writing sprint tonight at 8 p.m. MST so if you can come, please do!  I love sprints because it is so motivating.  Thanks to everyone who comes to those.

How did you do on your word count this week?

Second in the good news department, I got another review today from Katie's Clean Book Collection.  She loved Colby and I'm glad because I loved him, too.  If you want to read what else she said, go here.

And because of my blog tour, I'm counting this as lots of good news today because that makes for a good Julie day.  :)

If you want to see all the stops on my blog tour, (I'm excited!) here is the schedule:

July 10th

I Am A Reader, Not A Writer – Interview

Mary’s Cup of Tea – Spotlight

Katie’s Clean Book Collection - Review

July 11th

readalot – Review

I Love to Read and Review Books  – Review

StoryBook Reviews – Spotlight

Writer Mike – Spotlight

July 12th

Spellbindings – Guest Post

Sarah Aisling – Review

Why Not? Because I Said So! – Review

Deal Sharing Aunt – Spotlight

July 13th

I Read, Ergo I Write – Tens List

Reading in Twilight – Spotlight

July 14th

Every Free Chance Book Reviews- Spotlight

Mythical Books – Spotlight

July 15th

Literary Time Out – Review

My Crafty Zoo – Guest Post

Sweeping Me – Spotlight

Laurie’s Thoughts and Reviews – Character Interview

July 16th

LDS & Lovin’ It – Review

Bookly Books – Spotlight

Hershey Wishes and Kisses – Review & Guest Post

My Devotional Thoughts – Tens List

July 17th

Min Reads and Reviews – Review

A Casual Reader’s Blog – Spotlight

Love. Read. Pray. – Review

July 18th

From the Bootheel Cotton Patch – Spotlight

A Blog Hop Place for Books – Spotlight

Brooklyn Berry Designs – Review

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Do You Keep a Journal?

I love keeping a journal.  It's such a part of me, it helps me sort out feelings and life in general, and keeps me writing every day even if it's not on my book.

For me, I write down everything.  My mistakes, my less than perfect feelings, the good, the bad, and the ugly.  I mostly write my journal for me, but I have let my kids read the things I wrote down when I was a teenager, newlywed and new mom because it's fun for me to reminisce and for them to see what kind of a person I was and what was important to me back then.  (All right, all right, it's a little embarrassing sometimes, but oh well.)

One of the best things about having kept a journal since I was twelve is that I can really go back and see the growth in myself.  I see what I was insecure about then, how I worked through different events in my life, my impressions of my husband when I first met him, (he was cute!) and all the ups and downs of becoming a parent.  It's eye-opening for my kids to read about the long sleepless nights when they had colic and we walked them up and down the hall for hours until we finally figured out that running the vacuum calmed them down.  Or all the fun things we did when we were a young couple and first falling in love.  I love remembering all that, and I know I wouldn't have recalled the details if I hadn't kept a journal.

A journal to me is a chronicle of my life, a remembrance of what I did while on this earth, and a record for my kids of me and my true self.  I love taking a few moments at the end of the day to think through what I did and write down my thoughts and feelings.  It doesn't take long and it's had lasting rewards for me as a person.

Do you keep a journal? Why or why not?

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