Good Links: June ’10 Edition

I’ve been neglecting my monthly tradition of posting good links that I’ve come across for several months now. Which means I have a mitt full. To be kind, I will only post a few.

Here goes:

Writer Advice and Other Interesting Writerly Stuff:

Word Counts at Renaissance Learning. Have you been wondering what the word count is on Junie B. Jones and a Little Monkey Business (6603), The Princess Diaries (58,954), Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (169,441), or Pride and Prejudice (121,342)? This great little online store is searchable by title and will tell you the reading level, interest level, and word count of each title. It doesn’t have many adult titles, but it is a great resource for those writing for kids or teens and would like to see word counts for comparison purposes.

Terrible Minds…not so terrible advice on how to get writing down on the page. (If you are offended by f-bombs, etc, this site might not be for you.)

The First Page of your manuscript. A nice little smack upside the noggin by Editorial Ass in case you were deluding yourself that your first page doesn’t truly matter. You have a few pages to get the story right, right? Er… you’d better read this one.

Writerisms and Other Sins. A few things to avoid in your writing by C.J. Cherryh. Some essential tricks and tips that will instantly improve your writing.

Laura Miller weighs on a five things writers need to keep in mind when writing. (What do you mean? Atmosphere/Setting isn’t as important as the story? I’m kidding, but it is a good thing to keep in mind as well as her other tips.)

How do you name that character? Advice from writers on picking that perfect name.

Queries:

Rachelle Gardner offers a few query mistakes that may make you look amateur.

Slush Pile Hell. It’s funny because lines from my worst query hasn’t been included.

Research and Conferences:

60 Awesome Search Engines For Serious Writers: A list of links to publishers, encyclopedias, online communities, and more. A place to go to start your search. (If you visit this link, scroll down to the list. It’s pub date is June 20th.)

Some people I ‘know’ on the internet are creating a wonderful (free?!!!) online conference (Write On Con) for kidlit writers. It sounds like it’s going to be great.

Fun Stuff:

Window Farms: If you are a city dweller bemoaning the fact that you can’t grow your own garden, moan no more. These smart little indoor farms are an earth-friendly solution to your gardening woes. (Those not in a city can build them too, of course.)

How to Make Your Stuff Last Longer from Life Hacker. Because I am the queen of stretching every last bit of life out of my belongings, I pass this on to you. (I have a new Mac waiting for me to use it, but I am still using my PC. Why? Not because I have 32 tabs open in Firefox and can’t be bothered to get them over to my Mac, or because I have literally over 3000 messages in my inbox (807 unread) and don’t want to sift through them or forward them. Okay, yes, that might actually be a large reason seeing as my PC had issues starting up (again) this morning, but I swear, there is still a bit of life left in it! I can keep using it, right? Right? You know, on second thought I’d better finalize switching over before I lose everything…. (again)

Have a great July!

Fun Writing Contest

Hurry! The clock is ticking.

You have less than 36 hours to write 100 words that will dazzle literary agent Janet Reid (AKA The Query Shark). The sticky wicket of the matter is, as Janet says, you need to include these words:

Lucky
Crash
Number
Oregano
Slevin

Bonus points if you can seamlessly incorporate:

Keith Kahla, Editor to the stars

Think you can do it?

What will you win? Other than HUGE bragging rights (of course)… you will take home the audio version of the thriller Crashers by Dana Haynes. The reviews sound fantastic. It’s about the people, ‘crashers,’ who go to plane crash sites to figure out why planes crashed. Some have said it’s like a pile of 24 episodes in one book. Sweet.

So don’t enter, because I want to win by default. Okay? Please. I don’t care if the victory will be less sweet because I didn’t beat out over three hundred contestants. I want to win it because I will be spending a heck of a lot of time (8000kms worth of hours–that’s 5000 miles for those who think in miles–) in the car this summer and don’t want to listen to CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) all the time. (No offense to CBC. Well, okay, maybe a little.) So out of sympathy for me, don’t enter, okay?

But if you do, good luck!

WEbook Round 2

Awhile back I mentioned that my ‘experimental’ submission in the WEbook contest blew me away and got elevated to the next round in their Page To Fame contest.

A few days ago I posted the next bit of the story along with a ‘read more’ sample. Nothing happened in terms of ratings for a few days so I forgot about it. Then this morning I was editing for a client and needed a change of brain pace. So, I popped over to AgentQuery Connect and noticed people were chatting on the WEbook thread. (They were talking about a survey that was sent out to participants.) That reminded me that I hadn’t checked WEbook in awhile.

So, I popped over there and had my mind blown. Here’s what I saw:

Um, wow! 75% of the 8 current raters want it elevated to round 3. I don’t even know what to say. Well, except that ratings always change and maybe these eight were having a Drink and Rate party and were at that happy stage when they came to my story. Joking aside, these are pretty sweet stats.

As for those comments in the feedback bit (sorry the image is blurry), 2 chose the canned response “Great writing,” 5 chose “Engaging plot,” 3 chose “Love the idea,” 2 chose “Can’t wait to read more,” 4 chose “intriguing characters,” and 1 chose “Don’t like the idea.” (Raters can chose more than one reply–the first 5 are canned responses and the last one is a ‘something else’ which is filled in by the rater.)

Cool beans! I can’t wait to see what this story does.

Story Concert: Robert Munsch

A few weeks ago I heard one of my all-time favourite authors do a story concert. Canadian childrens’ author Robert Munsch. He is the author of fan-tab-ulous tales such as The Paperbag Princess (kick butt princess who saves the prince), The Mud Puddle (what would happen if a mud puddle jumped on you), Angela’s Airplane (what would happen if a five-year-old accidentally flew a jumbo jet), The Playhouse (when decorating a playhouse gets a bit out of hand), and about 30 or 40 more other fun stories.

If you have ever heard Robert Munsch tell a story (I started with LPs, but these days you can hear him online–drag Mortimer (about a boy who won’t go to sleep) onto the listening spot to experience Robert first hand), his story concerts are pretty much exactly like that. He has so much emotion, voice, character, actions, and audience involvement that hour whizzes right by. If you close your eyes, you can still see it.

As an author, how can we make our readings that much fun? Seriously, it was FUN! (And not just because I am  totally still a kid inside.) How do we get out audiences involved? How do we get them predicting the next line so they say it out loud with us? How do we make them laugh and want to dance? How do we bring them down to that quiet place and the next moment bring them so far up they feel as though their chest is going to burst open from all that love and joy that’s pushing out of it? How do we do it?

That’s what I want to know. How.

The Great Switch Over?

I’ve been bought out. I am sad to say that I now own an iPod. I have white earbuds. I have become one of those.

And within the next few hours I will officially become a Mac user. Yes, I have been wooed by Apple. It’s just the UPS delivery person standing between me and my Apple virginity.

The one on the left is my current computer. The one on the right is my husband’s.

So how did Apple get their hooks into me? Did they ply me with drinks? Promise me the moon and the stars if only I would be their’s? Kinda. They offered me a free iPod. But honestly, they snagged my husband first. With an iPod because they can track your runs (the jogging kind! Ew! I can’t believe you went there). And then a computer. And then a phone. And then another iPod. Apple is everywhere, I tell you. Everywhere. But what really wooed me was the start up time. I crank up my lovely PC and go have a shower. Then log in and go make tea. Then start up a  few programs and do a few other things. Meanwhile my husband sits at the table, sipping coffee and trying not to laugh mockingly while he checks email and surfs the Internet. He’s timed his Mac from a complete shutdown start up to checking his email. 45 seconds. And it used to be faster before he put a virtual machine on it. From ‘sleep’ it is instantaneous. You blink, you miss it. Meanwhile, I am moaning and cursing, “How could you go to sleep? I need you. RIGHT now! Blast you, computer, blast you!”

And I was won over. Just like that.

Any Mac users out there with some tips/things to think about on switching over?

Predictive Text: A Look Into My Psyche

Have you ever chuckled at–hang on. First of all: do you text? If no, then skip down to where we start having fun–or where I say, “First, a bit about…” If yes, then keep on truckin’.

Okay, have you ever chuckled at what the predictive text function on your cell phone brings up as a next word option when thumbing out a text?

I have. And as a little fun for today–it’s been raining for 40 days and 40 nights out here and it’s starting to smell like decomposing worms out there. Seriously. Except the 40 part.

Anyway, fun. Today. No worms involved. Just my cell phone. No, your special treat today is not a double double from Timmy’s. Yum…coffeeeeee. Suuuuugar. Creeeeaaaammmm. Where was I? Oh, yes. Um. Right. Predictive text word call up from the delves of my cell phone’s memory and what it might say about me. Scary thought, isn’t it?

First, a bit about predictive text. When I type a text my phone offers up certain words as an option to save me thumbing it out in case it is a word sequence I often use. For example ‘soccer’ causes my cell phone to offer up ‘cancellation’ as the next word choice. (See raining for 40 days and 40 nights.)

Now for the fun. I am going to start a few sentences with common words like ‘The’ and such and see what sentences my cell phone writes for me if I keep choosing it’s offered options. It might say something scary about me, or it might not. (See blog post title.) It might make sense, but I’m pretty sure it won’t. (Again, see blog post title.)

Here goes. (The first word of each sentence is typed in by me–the rest is the cell phone–you can call her HAL):

The library.

There is a small purple and white bag that goes with the bike.

Yesterday I do not want coffee in freezer.

Today I will think there might need to meet at what pink.

The cat is a small purple and white bag.

In the cat is a small purple and white bag.

Home wondering how I will think there might need to meet at what pink.

Raghetti for free.

You rock.

That is what he said.

No rain.

So there you have it. A look into my psyche. In my defense, I never did get the hang of Thursdays.

What is This Idea Anyway?

Is it a short story or is it a novel?

I was doing a little ‘pretend’ jog around the neighbourhood on my day off and I was struck by this idea (of a man having a heart attack while jogging–as you may have guessed, I am not that great of a jogger). I saw the opening of my story. It rolled out in front of me like a red carpet. Voice. Character. Every detail of the opening was visible to me. It was as though I was standing above this guy while he fought off the light. A novel lay stretched out before me.

Or was it a screenplay? I think it was a screenplay. With a middle-aged man like Kurt Russell from 15 years ago as the lead. Or that guy from The Big Labowski. He’s looking back on his life and his errors. Reliving it, really. Realizing he’s been a jerk. But the story is fresh. It doesn’t feel like it’s been done a dozen and a half times before–which it has.

I wrote out the beginning yesterday. It’s about 250 words. Maybe 500.

Last night as I tried to fall asleep, I thought about it some more.

I think it might be a poem.

Parade Season

Ahhhh…parade season is upon us. If you are a city dweller you might be surprised to find that your parades aren’t quite as big a deal as they are in a small town.  Yes, sure, you folks have more floats that are much fancier and you have to get there two hours early to ensure you can actually see the parade when it rolls around…but ours are better.

First of all, you probably know at least a quarter of the people in the actual parade so when they wave to you it actually means something. (Or maybe you are the one in the parade waving to everyone–it’s happened to me. I progressed from back of a truck to bicycle to driving my own car–I know! What can I say? I was 16 and wanted to show it off–to driving a forklift.)

As well, in a small town parade, everyone shows up five minutes late because they know that’s when the parade actually starts. There’s no waiting around.

There’s no trouble parking because everyone just walks out their front door and sits down on the curb.

If you have kids, you do need to bring a paper/plastic bag. And no, the bag isn’t because your child is so excited to see the parade that they might toss their cookies–it’s for the candy. That’s right–candy. Out here in the wild west, we still throw candy from our floats. Yipppeeeee!

In the really small towns (like where I grew up) if you missed part of the parade the first time, no worries, we go around twice to make it seem bigger. These towns have to be careful though–if too many people are in the parade there is nobody left to watch. And if all the kids tie wild flowers to their bikes to ride in the parade–who are we going to throw the candy to?

Details, details. I know.

And finally, while you never know what float will start the parade, you always know when the street cleaner comes by that the parade is over. (That is if the town has a street cleaner. And the cleaner comes by because of the horses–you always have to have plenty of horses in a small town parade.)

Today’s parade was pretty good as well as quintessentially Canadian. Why? Well, check out the picture above. This is the beginning of the parade. The town’s new Zamboni (cleans the ice on the hockey rink) leads the way followed by two Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Pretty cool, eh?

I love parades not just for the social aspect–gotta chat with all the floats as they pass by–but also for the candy, oops, I mean the people watching. As a writer, you see the whole community come out. Watching the floats go by, you get a pretty good sense of the town and what they value and who they are. So, if you are from the city and you want to write small town–forget it. Or, well, at least check out a few parades before you try your hand at it.