Posts By Lindsey Loucks
Summer Writing Contest
Today must be the day for contests! Rachel McClellan over at Blackbird in My Window is hosting a first 500 words contest with agent Lauren Ruth. Lauren’s interests cover a wide range, so it’s not just MG or YA. Check out the details here. Good luck to those who enter!
Micro Synopsis Contest
YAtopia is having a Micro Synopsis Contest with agent and author John Cusick. If you have a completed YA or MG manuscript, check the contest out here!
The Knife of Never Letting Go
I’ve never done a book review on my blog before. I don’t know why. There’s tons of great books I could review, but the one I’ll do today made me really want to chat about it right after I finished reading it. By chat about, I mean chype about (see previous post). So here I go with my chyping review.
The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness is YA SciFi. Todd Hewitt lives on a planet where all the women are dead, and all the men and animals can hear each other’s thoughts. This is called Noise, because as you can imagine, men’s and animal’s thoughts are pretty loud sometimes. One day, Todd and his faithful dog Manchee take a stroll to get some food, and he hears a break in the Noise. All hell breaks loose, and soon Todd and Manchee are running for their lives.
Sorry, that’s all I can give away.
Here’s what I liked: Todd and Manchee – their conversations with each other were laugh out loud funny. Todd – an extremely likable character. The villains – they were so deliciously evil. The plot – not like anything I’ve ever read before. When I read the summary of this book, I thought Oh great, another book with telepathic characters. But, I’d never read one where everyone, including animals, was telepathic.
Here’s what I didn’t like: The story kind of plods along until about the end of chapter three, then quite suddenly picks up. There were a few more instances where the pace could have been sped along. Todd learns things at the beginning that he won’t share with the reader, which drove me crazy. The book was written in first person which is supposed to allow the reader into every nook and cranny in the MC’s brain. I felt left out. 🙁
My rating: 4.5/5
It’s been awhile since I’ve read a book that I needed to chat/chype about. If a book can crawl under my skin enough to make me want to do that, then yay. I think part of the reason why I needed to say something about it was because it was an emotional roller coaster to read. One minute I was laughing, the next I was sobbing my eyes out and had to stop reading. It’s good stuff if a book can make you do that.
Will I read the sequels? Yes. Even if the book didn’t end with a cliffhanger, I’m so invested in the story now, I kind of have to. That’s saying something, too. I’ve started several series where the first book was just meh, so I didn’t continue.
Do I recommend it? Yes. 🙂
eBook Contest
Author Katie Salidas is giving away all four of her ebooks to one lucky winner. She writes vampire novels, and who doesn’t like vampire novels?! Enter here.
Click, Clack, Moo: Sound Words That Chype
Chype, you ask? I’ll explain. The BF made up that word. It’s the sound of typing and chatting at the same time. I chype quite often while I’m typing a story/email/a bunch of random letters for no reason and tell him all about something that seems important but probably isn’t at the same time. I’m chyping. I’m an extreme multi-tasker.
So anyway, you know that children’s book called Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin? It’s an adorable book with a lot of sound words in it. I love sound words. I use them often in my writing. They’re good for characterization, like if someone has a pink tafetta dress on, and they swish every time they move. All the swishing drives the main character crazy, then before you know it, pink tafetta dress girl is dead. No more swishing. This does not happen in Click, Clack, Moo, by the way.
Sound words can also add tension. If the main character hears a strange sound, like a rustling in the dark garage for example, all sorts of creepy things will run through the reader’s head of what it could be. I love that!
Yep, I like sound words. Tap, whisper, clank, jangle. Moan, hiss, rustle, sigh. Even swish. What are some of your favorite sound words?
Pitch Contest
There’s a two sentence pitch contest going on at Chanelle Gray’s blog. Check it out here. Whoever wins gets a manuscript read and critique by agent Victoria Marini!
Win a Free Edit!
Editor and writer Cassandra Marshall is giving away a free edit to one lucky winner. Enter here.
Gearing Up For Vacation #2
After four email robot rejections, I finally was able to submit my first 250 words in the contest. Email robots are picky, even more than all my English teachers combined. Only twenty-five people can enter through the time window – I was number twenty-five. The robot told me so. There was a second window later in the day, but my internet connection crapped out on me, and I wouldn’t have been able to enter. So it was close. Too close. I feel a story brewing with email robots and time windows and cutting things close… Hmm. I’ll file that away for later.
In other news, I’ve started writing the sequel to The Grave Winner, which is titled What Gifts She Carried. It would be an understatement to say I was excited. I have to know what happens to these characters because even darker, more horrible things will drop in their paths. (I’m giving the computer an evil squint as I type this).
And, oh yeah, I’m going on another vacation! I leave Thursday to visit my parents in Liberty Lake, Washington, a small but super cute town outside of Spokane. I haven’t seen my parents in almost a year, which is way too long. Last time I visited, they put real estate brochures all over their house in their not-so-subtle attempt to get me to move out there. I’d go if I could bring my job with me…
So, I’ll be MIA for awhile, but don’t worry. The BF and I put this video together of cute pictures of Jesse. If you watch it enough times, you’ll be so smitten with His Majesty’s cuteness, you won’t even miss me. The music comes from the soundtrack to the TV show Cowboy Bebop. The second song is meant to be sleepy-sounding, not sad. Even though Jesse just knocked over the trash can and used coffee grounds flew all over the carpet, he’s not dead.
I’m Terrified, So I Guess That Means I’m Finished
Fourteen months ago, I started my novel The Grave Winner. Today I finished it. I’ve edited it like a crazy lady, um, I mean a sane writer. I’ve read and reread every critique I’ve ever received on it. I thought about critters’ concerns and questions. I’ve added, deleted, rewrote, and rewrote again. And it’s finally done.
The story has changed a lot since I first spewed it across my notebook. The reason Leigh was chosen is much different now, but I don’t think I’ll repost anything to Critique Circle because the changes are so minor in individual chapters. But then on a grander scale, it is very different from drafts one and two.
I’ve planted seeds I’m excited to work with in the sequels. Some of them are brand new too, so I won’t say anything more about them.
So, yeah, it’s done, and I’m terrified. Now the real work begins. I’ll tell you my plan: I’ll enter the first 250 words into a contest next week. Those first 250 words are winners, if I do say so myself, and I’ve won other contests with those same words. If I win, an agent will read my book. No promises – just a read and critique. If I don’t win or if the agent tells me I suck, I’ll take a ride on the query highway for awhile. When I get impatient with that, I’ll look at small publishing companies. When that gets old, I’ll enter Amazon’s Breakthrough Novel Contest. If I lose that, I’ll self-publish. So if any of these first roads lead to doom, this story will be published somehow. I’m too in love with it to let it sit on my computer forever.
In the meantime, I’ll plot the sequels and write at least the first chapter of another novel that’s knocking around in my head and won’t leave me alone. Writing will be therapy for my terror. That and chocolate.
Pack Up the Dead Body and Take It To New York City!
Hee-hee. This is just a bit of vacation humor. I recently took a trip to NYC, and on the beautifully wooded drive to tour West Point, I made the I’m-just-joking remark, “This would be a good place to dump a dead body.” Open mouth. Insert shoe. Someday I’ll learn that not all my thoughts need to be spoken aloud. That was my writerly brain working, as it always does, and I was thinking those deep woods would be a good place to dump a dead body fictionally. Not for real, yo.
Thankfully the people who were with me were able to laugh. Then they told me about the Harlem Suitcase Murder. Who needs a wooded area to dump a dead body when you can just stuff them in a suitcase?
More about stuffing things in suitcases later. Here’s a picture of West Point:
Now back to stuffing things in suitcases. If your MC was going on a trip, what would they take with them? What would they pack it all in? This might be a good way to get to know your characters. My MC Leigh would pack her Ipod, Grrrl t-shirt, black eyeliner, leather studded wristbands her mom gave her, the family photo that still has a little bit of dirt on it, and some spare band-aids in case she gets bitten by a spider again. She’d throw it all in her backpack, then she’d be ready to go. No dead bodies – not for this MC.
Your turn!