A Work in Progress

It seems when a month ends, I am forced to look back at what I have and have not accomplished. This is probably because bills are due, salaries are paid, and the entire month HAS to be checked in order to be balanced. It's the same for writing. And I know plenty of people who did NaNoWriMo this month. What is NaNo? It's this crazy and atrocious "task" of writing 50,000 words in thirty days. It is grueling. It is annoying. And it is amazing to see those 50,000 words staring back at you by November 30th. Hat off to you folks! You're almost done. I didn't accomplish NaNo, but that's alright. I went a different route and did thirty days of poems . It's the first time for me doing this one. I don't do a whole lot, but I sure do like it. Poetry is fun because you can write it so many different styles, from prose to rhyme, haiku to ekphrastic. I like to keep them short. Really short. Which is the complete opposite of NaNo. Onto a different

So, here we are, it's that most wonderful time of the year. No, the OTHER most wonderful time: Thanksgiving. And everyone and their mom is writing what they are thankful for on Facebook. Don't misread me. I'm not un-thankful, but I don't think I need to tell EVERYONE my thoughts. Which is oxymoronic considering I keep a blog and that part of my job as a writer IS to tell everyone my thoughts. But, in my defense, those are FICTIONAL thoughts. So there. No, see, I don't need the month of November to thank God for everything. I should be doing this everyday, and believe me, when my kids get out the door to school, with their lunches, without breakfast on their sweet, noisy, faces, I am MOST thankful. I've been trying to be more thankful in all things, in all situations, in every day that I've lived and will live this year. So, it's great others are telling me what they're thankful for, but come Dec 1st, are these same folks not thankful anymore? I

There's a whole lot to be thoughtful about right now. Particularly now that we're post-election. No more ad campaigns, no more lies ... well, fewer lies anyway... maybe. But, I'm not going into that. No sirree. I'm going to talk about less formidable, less headache-inducing things. Fantastic things --and one not-so-fantastic thing-- that happened this week. I'm doing this so I won't cry. Look at this! ↓ Fantastic: My book, my little, tiny story has been in the top 100 kindle classics for kid literature for three weeks now. THREE WEEKS. Why? I'm not exactly sure. But a few sales a day sure can make a writer happy. THIS is fantastic. If you haven't read my middle grade book, you should.  I kind of like it. The Puzzle Master . ◄▬ Click on that and get the Kindle version for only $.99. Not fantastic : See this coupon? Imagine me cutting coupons out of the Sunday paper. Imagine me trying to save money. Imagine seeing this coupon, reading wha

I have a couple of things to share with you, and they all have to do with one of the best genres around: Middle Grade Fiction. 1. My fellow friend and author extraordinaire -- Kristiana Gregory -- just received a gold medal honor from Literary Classics, for her book Stalked . Yes, the book is fantastic! And yes, the book is more for young adults than kids. But, if you're over twelve, this book is for you regardless. I highly recommend it, too. Historical, fast-paced and action-packed, you'll be reading until way past your bedtime. 2. Another great read, called Dead Man's Hand by Eddie Jones will be released in a few days, and it looks riveting. Great for girls and boys, it had adventure written all over-- and absolutely inside -- the cover of it. Eddie Jones is a wonderful writer, speaker, teacher, and great-all around guy. I can say this because Eddie practices what he preaches. Got a middle grade boy in your house looking for a super sized order of adventure with

I've written about this topic before: Growing where you are planted; becoming the best you can with what you're doing despite your circumstances. And the truth of it is, while I write about it and talk about it like it's easy to do, I hate it. Hard work is just that ... hard work. And I still don't like it. And who wants to write anyway, only to feel like they're going nowhere? No one. No one likes to see zero progress. No one wants their work to be in vain. But is our work truly in vain? If it's to the best of our abilities, whatever we are doing from writing to cleaning the house, it isn't in vain because someone ultimately benefits whether it's a clean house hours from now, or an actual well-written book WRITTEN years and years from now. It has to benefit someone. Yourself, namely. And if you don't grow where you were planted -- if you don't sit down and write or work hard or sweat out the tough things when you don't want to --

I am lucky enough to be featured today on a wonderful blog and website called "Laurie's Paranormal Thoughts and Reviews" and you can click the link here to read it. Interviews are pretty fun, especially when you get to talk about the things you normally wouldn't talk about in a professional writing setting. The interview does this as well as review some of the more normal writing questions. It's a little bit of everything. I also am giving away a free digital copy of my book The Puzzle Master  on her site, so if you're interested, hop on by! -HJS

So, there's this thing called SEO, or Search Engine Optimization. This is basically an internet tool for those who sell or advertise product. They want an optimal search for their product at any given time. Even as writers, we want people to read our stuff. How do we do this? We "tag" our posts, or whatever we are "selling," with special search words, so that if by chance someone types in those words -- in my case, maybe my name, or book, or blog, etc, -- my listing, my book, my name or article, will come up. Here's what I don't get. This last summer, I blogged for thirty days. All of those posts got decent exposure. Awesome. Great. Super fantastic. But why-oh-why, did one post get more hits than the others? Check this out. Really hard to see, but most of my hits are you know, twelve, fourteen, twenty two hits. But for the fourth day, the day that began with D, it's over two thousand five hundred hits! Why? Somewhere, my tags were picked u

Ever find yourself asking that question? I do. All the time. And I'll tell you usually what it has to do with: language and vocabulary. I know slang is (unfortunately) a huge part of our vernacular because of social media, and music, and trying to be cool and all. But here are three things I can't stand to hear. And if I hear them once more, it will be way too soon. Epic: As in, "that was a WAY epic bike ride I had." Okay. Epic needs to be reserved for one thing: books. As in, the category of book that has a zillion pages, and takes about three years to read. Epic this. Epic that. If everything is so Epic, why haven't we transcended to heaven yet? I'm sick of it. Stop using it. Try incredible or stupendous, or outstanding. Even the old standbys of amazing, or great will suffice. Epic is overused and overwhelming the air waves, radio and television waves. It's also so very 2012. Don't date yourself. Love on somebody : Holy Mackerel. Since when di

It's pretty fun pretending to be one of the bigwigs. Because truthfully, I'm so far from it.  Really hard to see, but my book is # 57 between The Yearling and The View from Saturday. When I list my book free for a day on Amazon -- and every self-pubbed author can attest to this -- you turn into this "top-selling" author ... but only temporarily. When a book is free, people tend to take it. Great. That equals thousands of "sales" for me. (Unpaid sales). But the hours and days immediately after the book is free are filled with stragglers. They're the ones who check to see if the book is still free, see it isn't, and still buy it. Those stragglers make me a super-author, because their purchase turns me into a "Top 100 paid children's book" in the classic, or social situations category, in which my book sits on Amazon. Where else can my dinky, little book place next to the top rankings of Bridge to Terabithia , or The Yearlin

Just a heads up for those who would like to have my book (the e-version), I'm offering it FREE on August 2nd, for the entire day ... but only one day. It will be available through Amazon, or you can just click here and get it. The paperback is only $6.99, if you prefer that version, and though not free, you can find that by clicking here . And remember if you miss the free Kindle version of it on the 2nd of August, it's only .99 the rest of the time. (Also, you don't need a Kindle to read the Kindle version! Download the Kindle app for your iphone, droid, PC, Ipad, or mac and all reading tablets. Click here !)

How's your summer been? I've been busy. I've been traveling, and writing, but not feeling the most productive. I hate to say this, but even blogging takes away from my creativity, probably because writing is what I do for work. So when I blog, which is more work, I feel like my writing quota has been filled for the day and then I seem to meander and putz around when it comes down to actually cranking out words for a REAL book or article. Vicious cycle. I'm going to make a list of things I've accomplished recently, things that helped me be even more productive, so that I can feel like I have been productive. That sounds garbled, but really, it makes sense. I love lists and checking those "to do" things off. Absurd. But, hey. It helps me. 1. I finished Camp NANOWRIMO on July 31st, with 50,000 words. I must say, that is pretty good even for me, and though the words are mish-mashed, it's a whole lot better than the first draft I had of the same

Have a blessed 4th of July! What a wonderful day to remember our freedoms and why we still have those freedom today. May God bless America!

Wow, such an incredible title. I know. But, that's sort of what this post is about. Bunheads and stuff. What is Bunheads ? Just the newest and wittiest show around. If I'm not mistaken, this show was written by the writers --or at least some of them-- from Gilmore Girls. If you saw that show, then you'll love this one. If you ever took ballet, like even one class, you'll like this show for that reason too. A bunhead at heart! I took more than one class. In fact, I took years of classes, so much so that I could've gone pro if that's what I had wanted. But no, I wanted something that paid more, yes, I wanted to be ... a writer. What? You mean writers don't make money? So maybe I chose the wrong profession after all, or I'm par for the course. Whatever. The thing is, I completely relate to the main character of the show. This dancer chic, she had gone that route, and did what she wanted with her dance life: went pro. Only life sort of took over an

 I'm doing okay during this round of NaNoWriMo. I'm not at the recommended projected speed, but I do have eleven thousand very disorganized set of words already written. Only need 39,000 more by the end of June. No problem. Actually, there is a problem. My words will be horrendous. How can it not? And the story will still probably need another good thirty thousand words just to make it a complete book after NaNo. But, that's what revisions are for. And that's just what I'll do. I'd like to have this middle-grade book written and edited by the end of the year, this includes the thirty thousand extra words, the thirty thousand I have to edit out and rewrite, and of course, the thirty thousand that was supposed to write itself because I'm so brilliant. (Oh and did I mention this is the THIRD rewrite of this book? Yeah ... issues). Anyway, NaNo is great because what it is, is a giant swift-kick in the behind. And right now, at the onset of summer a

You know how I wrote about "Expanding your territory" last week, by branching out and writing in areas that you aren't familiar with? What if you could do that and not have to write a book, or even an essay for that matter? What about a plain and simple writing prompt that forces you to write -- and only write-- twenty five words? Writer's Digest has these incredibly cool exercises that do this. Writing prompts are one of them, and this one -- the super short one-- is not only fun, but hard. Twenty five words? That's like only being able to take a sip of coffee out of a twelve-cup pot. Hard to do, and not as easy as you'd think. Here's the contest: Take a look at this picture, and write the opening sentence to a story. Easy, right? Actually, no it isn't. Everyone has a million ideas, and yet, when it comes to writing, seems like those million ideas boil down to just a handful ... a handful of openers that everyone has heard of. Don't be

Camp NaNoWriMo I've written several times about why we need to expand our writing, as in, writing in styles and genres that we normally don't write in. I can hear you saying, "That's all fine and dandy for someone else, but for me and my thriller manuscripts I don't need that kind of practice." Now, I want you to hear me saying. "You're wrong!" Why? Because, we have to always be learning in order to keeping knowing. That sounds kind of lame when I write it that way. But here's the gist: to be really, really good at something, requires continual, daily, practice. This means writing in your genre, and writing in OTHER genres to be not only a good writer, but a great writer: someone who can understand all sorts of things because of this very act of writing in a genre one normally doesn't write in. So, what do you need to do? Try doing what I'm doing. Well, so I'm probably not doing all of these, but here are three exampl

Sorry I've been MIA for a little bit. I needed a little break after blogging for thirty straight days! Anway, I'm back and I'm curious to know something. You know how the first few sentences in a book are critical for hooking the reader, well I would love to know your imput on this little paragraph: The hammer in her hand felt smooth and comfortable, and as cool as a glass of water.   Cleopatra Riley grabbed the key from her pocket and walked to the cabinet in her darkened closet. She unlocked it, and after opening both wooden doors wide, took out all of her porcelain horses, setting them on top of the dresser. In a few seconds, what had taken almost ten years to collect, was gone – smashed to hundreds of pieces Does it draw you in? Is it too wordy? Do you want to read more? I know beginnings are SO important. Important as in, getting an agent to request a partial, or having them say "thanks, but no thanks." What are some of your favorite openers? Some b

After a month of blogging, I haven't lost the zeal for writing. Sometimes, when I'm writing things that don't strictly have to do my creations, the zeal has a tendency to disappear. It's like editing other peoples' work: after weeks of taking care of their work, the enthusiasm for working on my stories seems curbed. Hopefully, the almost two thousand blogs (perhaps less) involved in this blogfest energized your zeal. It absolutely has for me, as I got to "meet" many other authors -- those who are trying, succeeding and failing at the same things I am attempting -- and I've met book reviewers, agents, readers, etc. It's been extremely educational and it means I've got sources to go to, when my zeal is lacking. Thanks for reading a long with me on my blogging journey for the month of April. I've had a lot of fun, it's been challenging only a few times when I had no idea what to write, and rewarding too to see how many others are in

This post is going to read like my kindergartner's books he's currently learning to read: I like young adult books. Have you read them? Young adult books are very trendy right now. They make a lot of blockbuster movies from them too. Do you like blockbuster movies? Adults read young adult books. Kids read young adult books. Young adults read young adult books. So, what makes a young adult book? Okay, enough of that. But really, there is always a strong debate about what makes or doesn't make a young adult book. Without a doubt, I believe young adult books' main protagonist needs to be a young adult. I know, that's one of those "duh" comments. But, Harry Potter was ten, wasn't he, when he began at Hogwarts? And yet, those books are more young adult now than ever because the books take Harry through the young adult years. I think young adult books can be read by children and adults alike, especially if the book deals with serious issues. T

It's time for me to stop blogging. Because, I'm losing my mind, and doing dumb stuff. Yesterday, I added a picture of the letter U to my W word. Ummm.... yeah. That's not good. And because blogger changed their site, I'm having to relearn where all the functions are, and my formatting looks horrible at times, like the other day, when my title didn't go into the post, and there weren't any spaces between words after a period. Argggghhhh. Hopefully, you've learned a lot over this past month. I know I have. I also have a ton of blogs to visit still, which I hope to do over the course of the next month. I've also learned that I still really love to write. And I'm glad to be a part of this blogging fest. Even if, I'll always have an issue with editing my blogs ...

Unlike real physical exercise, I love writing exercises. And I especially love writing prompts. Those few words or sentence gives me a freedom to write about anything, without my own creative restrictions, precisely because I didn't come up with the writing prompt. Weird, but that works well for me. I also like coming up with book openers. You know, the way the first couple of sentences look on the first page -- sentences that are supposed to hook you immediately. I try to do this frequently, just for fun, but I really try to do this on genres that I don't typically write in. For example: Murder is tricky. Sometimes, it takes the victim by surprise and other times, the victim knows it's coming from miles away. Kind of like the sound of a train whistle on a train not yet visible. But when Matthew Sasson murdered me, I'd heard that train whistle for months. -paranormal mystery I don't write paranormal. But, it would probably be pretty fun

The definition, according to Webster, of vacillating: to sway to and fro: to waver, totter, stagger. Such a strange word. Yet, I do this all the time. I vacillate between writing a middle grade book, or literary fiction. I vacillate between excercising, or sitting down to watch something on the TV. I vacillate between a warm sour-cream laden burrito for lunch, or yogurt and fruit. I vacillate between a lot of different things, and usually, it's because my wants are trying to overpower my true needs. Though, I don't know how I account for the writing thing ... I vacillate on writing a lot of different styles, mostly because I like so many-- from young adult to fantasy -- and to see if I can write in a particular style that I'm not used to. Well, that's the reason I'm coming up with, anyway. What about you? What do you "stagger" and "totter" over? Facebook or actual writing? Folding laundry or eating chocolate? And really, have y

For some reason, I was having a hard time coming up with a blog post for the letter U. It may be because my head is a little fuzzy. Why? Because I was awake last night, in the middle of the night around three a.m., thinking about a young author (age nineteen) who this year, wrote a book in two weeks, did one week of revisions, and submitted it to agents with an offer for representation a week later. Unbelievable. Unsusual, yes. And still, always unbelievable to hear stories like that. Stephanie Meyer was one of those in the "unbelievable" category too, and though rare, these writers are out there. I was awake thinking about what I was doing at nineteen. Wanting to write, but not thinking I could sit down a write a book. It's amazing how all authors find the road to their writing, and how most of the roads are similar and very different, too. I was in college, studying literature at that age. I was writing too many papers to even think about writing a book that I wa

Because, we all have them! I even have a book out, one that I published mind you, and I'll still find a missing period, or misspelled word, and I cringe to think about all the people that have read those mistakes! I'm a perfectionist, but not to the point that it had to be so perfect before I put the book out there. If that were the case, I never would've published. I had to let it go, typos and all, and then fix them, once the book was out--once I had many sets of eyes telling me what I missed. Some folks don't like that, but really, I don't mind it at all. I need the help.While I can edit for content, sometimes, I just CAN'T see the formatting, or grammatical or punctuation errors because I'm looking for so many different things. Again, this is one of the negatives to self-publishing. And also a reason to hire an editor to fix those things before you put something out there. And sometimes, even that isn't error-proof. I've read many a be

As in Nicholas Sparks. I know what you're thinking ... we've already heard about this guy. But, probably far less than you're hearing about Suzanne Collins of The Hunger Games , right? I know a lot of people like his writing. I know a lot of people don't like his writing. Usually, the latter group says this because they've never read any of his books. They're only basing their opinion on what others have said, what they've heard in an interview, or how bad they thought the movie was. Don't base your judgement of a book from the movie ... ever. You know the cliche: The book is better. Here's two super reasons to read Nicholas Sparks . 1. His writing is real. I know. Some of you guys are thinking, come on, he's so not real . But he is! He's real for guys and girls, and on so many levels. I just read The Last Song . Sure it was sad, as he usually has sad elements in his books, but how is that any different than other book? Life is ab

Okay, so this has NOTHING to do with writing. But, it does have to do with my family. My younger sister, Rebecca, is an interior designer. She has been in business for quite a few years already and is only a young pup herself. http://rwarddesign.com/default.aspxShe has incredibly reasonable rates, she is located in central California, and whether you need new lighting and paint for a single room -- or an entire house-- she can do it all. She's a member of ASID, worked years as an intern, received her degree in design, and now runs a business of her own. My point: she's good at what she does because she studied and worked for it. Kind of like the way good authors become published with reputable publishers when they study, write and do it until it's perfect, day in and day out, and even when the writer feels they're moving at a snails pace. She is that dedicated, as a designer. Here's her fabulous blog . Here is her design website . She blogs quite regularl

I wanted to write about quesadillas. They're one of my favorite foods of all time. But, I won't. I'll save the food for a foodie. I've mentioned this fabulous site before. But, I'm going to do it again, since I didn't just want to talk about those querulous queries. Have a book you want to query? Children's book, romance or sci-fi? Find an agent -- and hundreds more--for each genre at AgentQuery. It's a database of information that any writer has to bookmark. Too valuable to ignore. There are also helpful articles and interviews to go along side the lists of agents, and updates on agents --if they're open to queries or not-- every day. The site is extremely simple to navigate, easy to use, and with the click of the mouse, you've got ten or more agents to send your quite marvelous manuscript to. Your quest has begun ... or rather, it is continuing. Go to AgentQuery today and find that agent for you!

So, it wouldn't be right if I didn't plug my own book for the letter "P." A few months ago, I ventured into unknown territory ... and self-published a middle grade book. Here's the synopsis: Twelve-year-old Marshall Thompson's favorite place in the world is Luke's Junk Store. With one more trip in before school begins, he's intent on finding the perfect thing to take with him on his first day back. But his "great find" ends up being a girl -- and a friendship begins that will change him forever. Together, they share a love of puzzles and something else: sickness. With his asthma, and her in cancer recovery, they're linked as kindred spirits. But when a life-changing incident threatens their friendship, Marshall has to learn to pick up the pieces to his broken puzzle of life and put them back together. The Puzzle Master is a story of friendship, love, forgiveness and hope; issues that surround us at the youngest of age. Through Ma

I love coastal Oregon. It's always lush and green, even in the dead of summer. Though I don't live there, I've been traveling there probably twice a year for the past thirty years or so, vacationing on the same beach, and loving it more and more each time I visit. It's a great place to do a lot of writing too. The beaches are clean and beautiful. The air is crisp and clear. The views are astounding. And that the forest meets up with the ocean, makes it consistantly breathtaking. I did a lot of coffee drinking ... duh. If you've never visited, I highly recommend it. I was just there for ten days and I would love to be there right now. But I'll especially wish to be there when it's 105 degrees here in July, but a balmy 75 degrees there. Here's their tourism site, just in case you want to make a trip. Oh, and if you want a beach-front vacational rental to rent, e-mail me. I've got the hook-ups.

We all have to start somewhere, right? This year, actually, exactly two months ago, I self-published my middle grade book, The Puzzle Master , through Amazon and Amazon kindle. (only .99 cents! get it here .) Great experience, great learning curve, and wow, do I feel like a newbie. I feel like a nothing and an everything at the same time. I am one of millions, vying for readers attention, and yet I have the ability to have full control of editing, marketing, writing, etc. This is both good and bad. Good because I'm learning a lot, and again have full control of my work, and at the same time, bad because I don't know what the heck I'm doing. Here's an exception, a guy who has made a huge success of himself and is also willing to help us newbies: his name is Joe Konrath. He's a great writer, who has put in decades of writing to finally get to where he is today. His blog has tons of info on how to be a self-published author and do it well, and argues that his s

As a writer, it's easy to lose sight of the big picture. I'm sure this is a common theme for any artist -- from painting to acting to dance -- as they have to daily focus on small segments, perfecting those parts, which in turn creates the final masterpiece ... even if it takes many, many days. What artists have to do, in order to remember what the whole thing is about, is to step back and refocus ... take a look at the whole picture and remember what it was they had originally intended to create. Writing is the same way. We work a chapter or page at a time. But, after months of this, sometimes we don't remember the passion; what it was that sparked imagination or flamed the fire of this story. Sometimes, we need to reread what we wrote to remember. Other times, we have to sit on it. And usually, we just have to keep doing what we're doing, one day at a time, having faith that the final project will appear. Masterpieces don't come over night. They don'

This entire week of April has been National Library Week, the 8th through the 14th. So here's my questions: when was the last time you were in a library? For a lot of writers, we can't live without them: they are our eternal reference, even though we have the internet. Most libaries have that slightly dusty, papery, hard-bound goodness to them, so that every book you pick up feels like you've found gold. Libraries are probably more economical than ever, as plunking down $15 for a book (and more) isn't as viable as it used to be. Whatever your excuse is for not visiting, try to make it into one -- even if just for old times sake. Check out a book, something that makes you love to read, be it a mystery, thriller or memoir. I grew up living about three blocks away from a library. My sisters and I were there all the time. So much information, so much to read, so much to pour over and ponder. I absolutely love libraries. And if you love to read or write, you really shou

I seem to write about coffee a lot. I think there's a book in that somewhere. Partly because I know I should write about what I know and love, and partly because I need to get this out of my system. I could begin a new book that revolves around coffee, perhaps a murder mystery or something devilishly good. That goes well with a cup of joe too. Anyway, what is a kaffee klatsch? Just the best thing ever. It is, by Webster's dictionary definition, of german origin and is "an informal gathering for drinking coffee and talking." Um, hello? That's so great. In fact, I do this a lot with my sisters and family. Well maybe not a lot, but when we can, we ge together on saturday mornings, and we talk .. a lot. And we drink coffee ... a lot. So, if you ever, EVER need an excuse for yet another reason why you need to go to coffee with a friend, the reason is your "activity" is defined in the dictionary. You have legitimate meeting, with a legitimate meaning,

Yes, I wrote Joy. Because, true joy is really hard to come by these days. There's a whole lot of negative, a whole lot of stupid, a whole lot of vanity and myriad of joy-stealing things happening all around us. Yet, who is in control of our own joy? We are. It's all up to us, whether we're going to say "today will be a great day" or stay grumpy. It's up to us to say, "I'm going to be productive today" -- even if that means one solitary, but solid, paragraph of writing. Many days, the joy just isn't there, despite those words, despite yelling them out, or repeating them over and over. Joy is very elusive -- it is much like that missing sock when you take the clothes from the dryer ... sometimes never to find it again, but believing it is still very near. For me, and my belief, my mantra -- if you will -- is "the joy of the Lord is my strength." That may not be yours, you may not agree, but I don't really care. It's the

When was the last time you wrote a letter? I know. A letter. When did you last take some actual paper, lined or frilly or otherwise, pick up a pen -- one of those tubular things that emits a liquid called ink -- and wrote out your thoughts to a friend? With the use of e-mail, we are forgetting something quite remarkable: we are forgetting how to write with our hands ... and not just our brains. Like the keyboard, we can write out our thoughts in ink- giving life to our thoughts, words, deeds, images and feelings. Ink and paper are the beginnings of any writer. But, ink is truly feeling your words. Ink lets you directly write out not just what you're saying, but how you feel about it through the way we write. Our words, though we can't write them out as fast as we can on a computer, are intentional when printed in ink; our words really mean something. How about a journal entry? When was the last time you wrote out your thoughts in a notebook rather than a blog post? W