Cover reveal: Beneath the Earth

I'm getting ready to release a new book! It will be called Beneath the Earth, and I'm excited to show off the cover for it.

Description:

Laura and her classmates have been looking forward to their senior camping trip for weeks. Three days on an island paradise, away from school and their parents. What more could they ask for? 

The camping trip starts out well enough. The island is scenic and just the kind of escape to nature that Laura had hoped for. However, cracks soon begin to appear in her plans. Her boyfriend ditches her to hang out with his friends. She has to share a room with one of the teachers. But those are the least of her worries. 

A student disappears, and no one can find him. Soon, Laura and the other students realize that the camping trip is anything but a dream vacation. There’s something else on the island. Something large and frightening. Something that lurks unseen beneath the earth. Something that welcomes the presence of the students because they will satisfy its appetite.  

Beneath the Earth will be available in a few weeks!

Writing better female characters

 A few weeks ago, I started writing a thriller because thrillers are my second favorite genre to read (after YA speculative fiction). I was pretty stoked to dive into a new genre. Then I heard about the Stanch Book Prize, which is awarded to the best thriller in which "no woman is beaten, stalked, sexually exploited, raped or murdered." I'm not eyeing a Staunch Book Prize, but I thought that was a great thing to recognize because it does seem like every thriller I've read includes harm to women. Looking at the story I'm writing, though, it wouldn't qualify for the Staunch. I was going to follow the same tropes that I've read over and over again, and I was perpetuating the theme in the thriller genre of women as targets to be beaten, stalked, sexually exploited, raped, or murdered. Now I'm trying to figure out how to tell the story I wanted to tell without including those elements. I honestly don't know if I'll be able to meet the Staunch criteria, but I won't be treating my female victims differently than how I would treat male victims.

Shortly afterwards, I read Kameron Hurley's essay, "We Have Always Fought." (I urge everyone to read it. It's short. I'll wait for you.) It talks about what I had been thinking after learning of the Staunch Book Prize. It's easy to believe something if what you read and what you see on TV portrays it that way, even if it's not the truth. As Ms. Hurley says in her essay, "Populating a world with men, with male heroes, male people, and their 'women cattle and slaves' is a political act. You are making a conscious choice to erase half the world. As storytellers, there are more interesting choices we can make."

Finally, to top it off, I learned of the recent meme asking women authors to describe themselves as a male author would. If that didn't drive the point home, how about some examples of how male authors would have described their male characters the way they describe women?

As an author, I write primarily to entertain, especially for readers like myself who would enjoy the types of stories I enjoy reading. However, the longer I've been at it, and the older I've grown, the more I've become aware of the responsibilities of my writing. My words will be read by people I don't know and impact them in a way that's out of my control. I don't get to sit down and explain to them what I really believe or what I really meant by my stories.

YA happens to be a genre with many strong female protagonists, and by writing in that genre, it has made it easier for me to have strong female protagonists in my books. Yet, in reflecting on my own works, I see that I've still been lazy in following some gender stereotypes. Take my Driver series, for example. The protagonist is a teenage girl named Claire, and when I wrote the series, I made sure that she was the one in charge of what happens in the stories. Claire was the agent; she was not a passive bystander or just some guy's love interest or sidekick. Hopefully, I've succeeded in that. However, why is she the Driver? Why is a boy her Protector? There are two Drivers who figure prominently in the series, and they are both women. Their Protectors are both men. I imagined a world in which Drivers can be female or male (or non-binary), and the same goes with Protectors, but what I wrote doesn't support that. I should've done better.

The more I read in my favorite genres and the more I read about gender equality, the more I'm learning about what a true strong female character is like, and the kind of world they should inhabit. Authors have the advantage of not just writing to reflect the real world, but to create our own worlds to perpetuate the themes we want others to believe in. If enough stories are out there that portray women and men equally, maybe that will be the default thinking one day. I, for one, plan to work harder to do that in my stories.

National Chinchilla Day Sale

Some holidays don't get enough recognition: National Hat Day, Waffle Day, World UFO Day, and National Chinchilla Day, to name a few. I want to rectify that in a small way by celebrating National Chinchilla Day, which falls on March 23. And what better way to celebrate than by having a book sale! (Book sales make everything better!)

From now through the end of the weekend, YA author M.A. George and I are holding a National Chinchilla Day Sale. You can get all of her books and most of mine for the low, chinchilla-sized price of 99 cents, or in some cases, for FREE! Don't miss these savings. The chinchillas in your life will thank you.

Check out some of the titles available for sale:

    

Make sure to head over to M.A. George's site and check out her books as well. You won't be disappointed! Not only is she an awesome author, but her book covers are much prettier than mine!

A Spoonful of Stories recap

26 months ago, I got this crazy idea to write 26 flash fiction stories, each titled after a letter of the alphabet. I would publish one story each month over the course of 26 months until I got from A to Z.

Believe it or not, it actually happened. I'm happy to announce that all 26 stories are available to read for FREE on Wattpad! Check out "A Spoonful of Stories" here.

Table of Contents:

• An Armful of Armadillos
• A Batch of Bugs
• A Cornucopia of Candy
• A Deluge of Demons
• An Excess of Emotions
• A Flurry of Footsteps
• The Gift of Giving
• A Horde of Horses
• An Icon of Incorruptibility
• A Jar of Jokes
• A Kettle of Kimchi
• A Labor of Love
• A Multitude of Mothers
• A Nexus of Nonsense
• An Offering to the Ocean
• A Pile of Parachutes
• The Quest for Quiet
• A River of Rain
• A Smidgen of Sorcery
• Towers of Turtles
• An Unprofitable Unicorn
• The Village of Vampires
• A Wealth of Weekends
• Xeniatrophobia on Xmas
• A Year of Youth
• A Zest for Zombies

Happy reading!

NaNoWriSat

You're probably familiar with NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month. Every November, authors attempt to write a novel of at least 50,000 words in 30 days. I attempted NaNoWriMo last year but didn't hit the 50K mark. However, in examining my writing habits that month, I found I wrote a lot more during the weekends than the weekdays, particularly on Saturdays. This makes sense since I work a full-time job during the week. It led to me thinking how I can incorporate a realistic yet productive writing routine into my hectic life.

Which led me to NaNoWriSat: National Novel Writing Saturdays! The name is clearly borrowed from NaNoWriMo, and it's not a national phenomena (yet), but the idea is that, within a year, I should be able to write a 50,000 word novel by writing only on Saturdays. That's about 1,000 words every Saturday, which is certainly a realistic goal for me.

Considering how little I wrote last year before NaNoWriMo, I think this will be a good way for me to continue to produce more new books on a regular basis. I'm getting a late start to NaNoWriSat this year because it's already February, so I'd better go catch up!

Between awake and asleep

There is a state between being fully awake and being asleep that kicks my brain into overdrive. It happens at night when I'm in bed but haven't fallen asleep yet or first thing in the morning when I've just woken up. If I'm thinking about a story at that time, I'll come up with lots of great ideas for it. If I'm thinking about work (which is more often the case), it helps me figure out what I need to do for the projects I'm working on.

What is it about this state of mind that fuels creativity? As it turns out, when I did some research on it, there is a word for the period between awake and asleep: hypnagogia. It's also known that hypnagogia is wonderful for creativity. From my experience, it's true that during this state, my mind wanders all over the place, making associations that I wouldn't normally make when I'm fully awake. I think those associations are more freely made because whatever mental filters I have in place during the day have come down, allowing me to think along unconventional lines. What also facilitates creativity during hypnagogia is just the lack of distractions. During the day, I'm constantly aware of my surroundings and trying to multi-task. But when I'm falling asleep or just waking up, the environment is quiet. The reason why I believe distractions play a part is that if I'm falling asleep when there are things happening around me, I don't enter that creative state. I just go from awake to asleep or vice versa.

Here is an article that teaches you how to enter hypnagogia. I haven't tried the suggestions yet, but I prefer doing it the old-fashioned way. Just give me more opportunities to sleep!

Favorite reads of 2017

It's time again to reveal my favorite reads of last year! These were the top ten books I read in 2017.

1. Gemina - Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristof
Illuminae was my favorite read of 2016, and its sequel lived up to the high expectations I had for it. Gemina was every bit as good as its predecessor. Despite featuring a new set of protagonists, the novel's blend of action, sci-fi story line, and unique format made it my favorite read of 2017. I can't wait for the third book in the series!

2. Fangirl - Rainbow Rowell
Last year, I finished reading the remaining Rainbow Rowell books that I hadn't already read, and Fangirl was my favorite. This book shows why Ms. Rowell has become one of my favorite authors. I love the way she writes characters and dialogue. I wish I had half her skills. Even a quarter would be nice. She can turn mundane activities into the most interesting stories in the world. I can't believe it took me so long to finally read her books. Don't make the same mistake that I did. Read Rainbow Rowell now!

3. Strange the Dreamer - Laini Taylor
Laini Taylor is another author whose writing skills I can't hope to ever match. The first chapter of Strange the Dreamer read like poetry, and the rest of the book was just as good. I loved the Daughter of Smoke & Bone series, and this book is just as good, if not better! This is another book where I can't wait for the sequel.

 4. Heartless - Marissa Meyer
With the Lunar Chronicles, Marissa Meyer showed that she can write great fairy tale re-tellings. Heartless continues the trend with the origin story of the Queen of Hearts from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. The way Meyer sprinkled Lewis Carroll's work into her own was masterful. There's also some Edgar Allan Poe added for good measure. I'll never look at the ill-tempered queen the same way again.

5. Sleeping Giants - Sylvain Neuvel
Giant robot meets unconventional storytelling format? Where do I sign up? I found the plot of Sleeping Giants to be engaging and fast-moving, and I was surprised by how much I was drawn toward the characters, given how little the book describes them.

6. Eliza and Her Monsters - Francesca Zappia
Interestingly, this is the second YA story about fandoms (after Fangirl) on my list this year. I had a feeling I was going to like this book from the description and reviews, and it sucked me right in from the beginning. The writing was engaging, and the characters were interesting. The last part of the book was a bit bumpy for me, but overall, I really liked it. I need to check out more of Francesca Zappia's writing.

7. Traitor's Masque - Kenley Davidson
This retelling of the Cinderella story mixes fairy tale with political intrigue. Sabotaging the crown is a common enough trope in fantasy books, but I haven't seen it applied to the Cinderella story. Overall, the author pulls it off well. The characters are flawed but sympathetic, and the prose flows . If you enjoy fairy tale retellings, this novel is for you.

8. The Alloy of Law - Brandon Sanderson
Last year, I read the Mistborn series and loved it. In 2017, I started the second Mistborn series. I have to give Brandon Sanderson credit for having the vision to write a sequel that takes place hundreds of years after its predecessor, where the world has progressed to a very different state. The characters from the first Mistborn series have passed into history as religious icons, but allomancy and feruchemy are still alive and well. The protagonist of The Alloy of Law, Waxillium Ladrian, reminds me of Kelsier, and Wayne and Marasi are likeable companions. If there's any complaint about this book, it's that I wished Marasi played a bigger role rather than just as a damsel in distress. I'm hoping this will be addressed in the later books of the series, which I definitely plan to read.

9. Waking Gods - Sylvain Neuvel
The second book of The Themis Files was almost as good as the first. Waking Gods was bleaker than Sleeping Giants, which didn't suit my taste, and some of the wonder of giant robots wore off after for me, but this was still a really good book. I recommend The Themis Files to fans of sci-fi and giant robots.

10. Half a King - Joe Abercrombie
This was the first Joe Abercrombie book I've read, and it convinced me that I need to read more of his books. Half a King was fast paced, with an action-filled plot, complete with mysteries and twists. The events of this book would have spanned over 500 pages or multiple books in the hands of other fantasy authors, and I'm very pleased that Mr. Abercrombie trimmed the unnecessary fat to produce an engaging story in 300+ pages.