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Top Ten Tuesday (December 11) – 2012 New-to-Me Authors

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Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by The Broke and the Bookish! This week’s topic is easy, because nearly every single book I read in 2012 was a new-to-me author. I branched out a lot. It was splendid.

Here are the ones who stood out (and yes, some of them I only read one of their books, or they only have one book…but that one book was really good).

Also, some are on here because I did read their book in 2012, and they are new to me, but mostly because I met them and I think they’re just fabulously awesome people. If you get a chance to meet them, you should.

Disclaimer: There are a lot of Nashville/Southern authors on here. If you live near me, so do many of these ladies! Read their books! Go to their events! You’ll be glad you did!

Top Ten Favorite New-To-Me Authors I Read In 2012 (in no particular order, because that is way too hard)

Ruta Sepetys

First book I read in 2012: Between Shades of Gray

Why she’s awesome: Everyone told me to read Between Shades of Gray for MONTHS before I did, and they were totally right. Her writing is beautiful and moving, the story she told was incredible. Seriously. Everyone should read it. But aside from that, Ruta is one of the sweetest, most genuine people I’ve had the privilege to meet this year. She’s even lovelier than her writing. If such a thing is possible. Rest assured, her personal awesomeness combined with how much I loved her debut means I won’t be putting off reading any of her books in the future.

Myra McEntire

First book I read in 2012: Hourglass

Why she’s awesome: Myra was at the very first author event I went to, and I’ve been to several more of hers since then, because she is delightful. Not only are Hourglass and Timepiece amazing books, which I tend to shove into people’s hands to force them to read, and then they yell at me because I didn’t bother to tell them that the series isn’t finished and the next book isn’t out yet (P.S. Everyone loves them anyway), but Myra is hilarious and fun and is responsible for my decision to start watching Doctor Who, for which I am eternally grateful. She’ll be one of my favorites forever.

Lauren Oliver

First book I read in 2012: Delirium

Why she’s awesome: I haven’t actually met Lauren (YET), but Delirium was one of the first books I read after finishing The Hunger Games, and it made me realize there’s a whole genre of fiction out there that I want to discover. Also, her writing is gorgeous, which was also evidenced in Before I Fall, a novel that was just enough of a contemporary for me to realize maybe I wanted to read contemporary too. Requiem is one of my most anticipated reads for next year, and I hope to one day be able to tell Lauren how much I enjoy her books.

Veronica Roth

First book I read in 2012: Divergent

Why she’s awesome: Another author I haven’t met yet, which will hopefully be remedied someday. Not only are Divergent and Insurgent great fun (can’t wait for the third one!), but Veronica’s blog is one of my favorites. She chronicled her journey to publication and her life as a writer in terms I really understand. I think our brains work similarly. Which I mean as a good thing.

C.J. Redwine

First book I read in 2012: Defiance

Why she’s awesome: First off, Defiance is amazing. It’s a great mishmash of genres, full of action and adventure and romance and intrigue. I am ready for #2 ASAP. Also, I’ve had the opportunity to meet C.J. several times, and she is hilarious and my kind of people. Also, she’s the one who yelled at me to read Anna and the French Kiss, for which I am eternally grateful. I’m eternally grateful to many people for many things.

Rae Carson

First book I read in 2012: The Girl of Fire and Thorns

Why she’s awesome: I love that I discovered several new fantasy series this year, and Rae’s series is one of the best. She writes amazing characters (Hector is one of my favorites) and intricate worlds. I am on the edge of my seat for The Bitter Kingdom. Again, haven’t met her yet, but hoping to remedy this someday.

Sarah Maas

First book I read in 2012: Throne of Glass 

Why she’s awesome: I actually met Sarah before I read her book, and realized pretty quick that her epic love of all things geeky also makes her my kind of people. One thing I never realized before I started book blogging was how many authors like the same sorts of nerdy things I do. It’s fabulous. After getting to spend some time with Sarah, I read Throne of Glass, and it was incredible. I know she has big plans for the series, and I can’t wait to read all of them.

Stephanie Perkins

First book I read in 2012: Anna and the French Kiss

Why she’s awesome: I dragged my feet on reading Anna because I just don’t think of myself as a contemporary romance kinda gal. But once I finally got around to reading it, I loved it. I met Stephanie once at a multi-author event, and she is delightful. I’ve definitely got it on my agenda to read more of her books next year.

Kat Zhang

First book I read in 2012: What’s Left of Me

Why she’s awesome: What’s Left of Me is unique and thoughtful and intriguing, and I loved the fascinating world Kat created. I’ve also gotten to spend time with her on several occasions, and she is a genuinely sweet person. I always am happy when I see her at an event, and I’m really curious about how she resolves Eva and Addie’s dilemma in her books.

Sharon Cameron

First book I read in 2012: The Dark Unwinding

Why she’s awesome: Sharon is another author who I met before reading her book, and at the risk of sounding creepy, I just love her. She’s down-to-earth and funny and easy to talk to, and — yet again — my kind of people. As happened with several authors on this list, I liked her so much, I bumped her book up my list of to-be-read titles, and I loved it. Her writing is gorgeous, her story is fascinating, and I adored the way everything unfolded. I can’t wait for the next one.

Well, now that I’ve gushed (possibly too much) about my favorite author discoveries from 2012, I hope you acquaint yourself with some of these lovely ladies (or at least their writing). Who are some of your favorites?

Multi-Author Event: Tricks and Treats

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Back LtR: Ruta Sepetys, Stephanie Perkins, Sonia Gensler, Victoria Schwab, Myra McEntire, Beth Revis.
Front: Tessa Gratton, Kat Zhang
Photo Credit: Sarah at Breaking the Binding

This weekend, our friendly neighborhood indie bookstore, Parnassus Books, hosted a pretty fabulous event. I actually heard about it a few months back at C.J. Redwine‘s launch party for Defiance, where Myra McEntire was in attendance and gave me and a few other book bloggers a heads-up that something big was in the works for the end of October. So of course, I promptly Twitter-stalked* Myra until she gave me a definite date and time to mark on my calendar.

Then I realized that not only was it scheduled on the same day that we were going to be coming back from visiting friends in Arkansas, but it was also on the same day as our church’s Fall Fest, which the kids had told us in no uncertain terms that we had to attend OR ELSE.

So what’s the solution? Obviously, it’s to leave Arkansas at 7 a.m., drive six hours, make a super-speedy stop at home to grab a book for the event that had been delivered from Amazon while we were gone (and to take a gander at the über-nasty vinyl flooring in our kitchen that the owner of our townhouse decided to replace our wood floor with while we were gone — SURPRISE!), and then for me to go to the author event while my husband** took both of the kids to go jump in bouncy castles and get their faces painted and eat lots of cotton candy.

This may seem extreme, but I think the lineup of authors excuses the crazy, crazy day that was Sunday. Here’s who was there:

Tessa Gratton, author of the Blood Journals series

Beth Revis, author of Across the Universe series

Stephanie Perkins, author of Anna and the French Kiss and Lola and the Boy Next Door

Victoria Schwab, author of The Near Witch and the upcoming The Archived

Myra McEntire, author of the Hourglass series

Sonia Gensler, author of The Revenant

Pretty impressive, right? And I wasn’t the only one who thought so. The place was pretty packed, and while I probably had one of the farthest drives to get there (I don’t think anyone topped 6 hours, but then again, I didn’t poll everyone because that would be weird), I had a scant 30-minute drive home, whereas many others had to traverse state lines after it was over.

So what actually happened during the event?

Well, first they gave us candy, which is ALWAYS a good way to begin an event. Always. And this doesn’t just apply to author events. I bet everything from school board meetings to sessions of Congress would be more pleasant if they opened by passing around buckets of candy.

I will attempt to recap the highlights of the event for you, but first, a warning. I normally take copious notes at these sorts of things, but I didn’t this time because I woke up at 6:00 and drove six hours that morning and my brain wasn’t entirely present. So I’m going to recap this from memory. If When I screw up the details, feel free to let me know.

Ghost/Spooky Stories/Weird Research Happenings

Sonia: She’s pretty sure her dad’s house is haunted, and when she was little, she thinks she may have trapped a ghost in a closet, thus demonstrating her mastery over it. It didn’t bother her after that.

Myra: She went to New Orleans to research Infinityglass, and after taking pictures of Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop Bar for inspiration, she looked at the photos and is pretty sure there are four ghosts in one of them. Of course, she didn’t bring the picture to show us, and so now I must bug her some more until she shows me.

Victoria: While living in London, she heard a story from a man who, while visiting an old house in some other country heard footsteps on the abandoned floor above him every night, like someone up there was having a party, but there was no one there. And when she got home to her house in London, she started hearing the same thing, except there was no abandoned floor above her. It was just the roof. (Others tried to convince her the footsteps were Santa, scouting the location, but she remained unconvinced).

Stephanie: Worked for a couple years in what she was pretty sure was a haunted library. She would hear bookish sounds like someone was moving books around while she was there alone, and came to find out that happened to all the librarians, with the same sounds coming from the same location, whenever they were alone in the library.

Beth: Didn’t have a ghost story, but once she took a group of students on a ghost tour of London, where the tour guide was being super-creepy and telling a story of a murderer who dismembered his victims and tied their body parts up in brown paper and string, and a student of hers broke into a hilariously inappropriate-yet-appropriate rendition of My Favorite Things.

Tessa: Also didn’t have a ghost story, but once upon a time she gave herself an impressive accidental cut with a kitchen knife, then instead of immediately bandaging it, she decided to do an impromptu experiment on whether or not vinegar really does slow coagulation. Using tupperware, because she is not crazy enough to pour vinegar onto her bleeding wound.

Where do they get inspiration?

Stephanie: Inspiration for Anna came in a dream, dramatically retold to us by her obliging husband, in which she saw Étienne St. Clair waiting for her on some steps in front of a white dome, and she knew she loved him and was in a boarding school, and he was American but with an English accent. She woke up and wrote it all down, and thus the book was born.

Beth: Wanted a murder mystery in a confined space with explosions, and her first idea of setting it on a cruise ship was hokey, so she put it in space.

Sonia: Had always been intrigued by 19th century boarding schools, and during a visit to one in Oklahoma, she got the idea for a story.

Myra: Wrote the first chapter of her book, and in asking herself why, at the end of the chapter, the man knows Emerson’s name, she eventually landed on her time travel theme after dismissing all the paranormal elements that she’d heard of before.

Victoria: In The Near Witch, she wanted to write a fairy tale where setting was as much a character as the people, and she also wanted to feature witches because she thinks they’re awesome archetypes.

Tessa: She settles on an emotional reaction she wants to elicit, then figures out what story would best accomplish that.

On the writing process:

This can really go all over the place. Some have a set process, some change it up. Some write linearly, some write scenes here and there. Some write a bit every day, some do nothing for days at a time then crank out 10,000 words in a flood of inspiration. Some crank out a first draft in a month, others take over a year. Basically, as long as the finished product is a book, there is no wrong way to write.

Also, if you want to make a career of writing, then just keep writing books. If the first one doesn’t sell, write another. And another. Beth Revis wrote 10 novels in 10 years before getting her publishing deal.

On the querying process:

Be professional, follow agents’ submission guidelines, and listen to the common querying advice that writers give on their blogs. As simple as that sounds, apparently those little things put you ahead of the pack.

On crossing genres:

None of them want to be put in a box, and several of them have other, unpublished novels in genres vastly different from what they’ve published. They just write what they’re interested in.

After the Q&A (during which local authors and event audience members Ruta Sepetys and Kat Zhang also weighed in a bit), the authors chatted, signed books, and were just generally fabulous. They also fangirled all over each other and traded copies of their own books for signing, which just drives home the point that authors are people and readers and fans too. It was fantastic to get to hang out with most of them, see some lovely blogger friends, and finally meet Sarah from Breaking the Binding (who drove 4 hours each way for the event), which was good considering she’s the one who gets subjected to the crazy randomness of my brain on a daily basis, and therefore it was about time that we actually meet.

So, once again, I leave you with the information that Nashville rocks and our authors are fabulous. And for those authors that aren’t Nashvillians (which was all of them except for Myra and Victoria), please come back, because we’re fun here.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go stare at my ugly kitchen floor some more and try to morph it into something acceptable using the powers of my mind.

*Not really. Okay, maybe a little.

** He’s the best ever.

Review: What’s Left of Me by Kat Zhang (@KatZhang @harperteen)

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Received an advance digital review copy from Edelweiss

I’ve been interested in What’s Left of Me, the debut by Kat Zhang, since I first heard of it. The premise was intriguing – two people trapped in the same body, fighting for dominance? But unlike in other books exploring a similar theme, like The Host, the characters in this book are actually born that way? I sensed potential for greatness. And when I realized Kat was another Nashville author whom I would have the opportunity to meet, that sealed the deal. I needed to read this book ASAP.

The Plot (from Goodreads)

Eva and Addie started out the same way as everyone else—two souls woven together in one body, taking turns controlling their movements as they learned how to walk, how to sing, how to dance. But as they grew, so did the worried whispers. Why aren’t they settling? Why isn’t one of them fading? The doctors ran tests, the neighbors shied away, and their parents begged for more time. Finally Addie was pronounced healthy and Eva was declared gone. Except, she wasn’t . . .

For the past three years, Eva has clung to the remnants of her life. Only Addie knows she’s still there, trapped inside their body. Then one day, they discover there may be a way for Eva to move again. The risks are unimaginable-hybrids are considered a threat to society, so if they are caught, Addie and Eva will be locked away with the others. And yet . . . for a chance to smile, to twirl, to speak, Eva will do anything.

My Thoughts

This book took some getting used to, because of the unnatural (yet accurate for the story) use of pronouns and verb conjugations. Because there are two people sharing one body, you get paragraphs like this:

“Kind of,” Addie said. She managed to keep our voice bland despite Hally’s dogged high spirits, but our fingers tugged at the bottom of our blouse. It had fit at the beginning of the year, when we’d bought all new uniforms for high school, but we’d grown taller since then. Our parents hadn’t noticed, not with — well, not with everything that was happening with Lyle — and we hadn’t said anything.

“Want to come over?” Hally said.

Addie’s smile was strained. As far as we knew, Hally had never asked anyone over.

– page 8, What’s Left of Me

Keeping in mind that all those “our”s and “we”s are talking about two individuals sharing the same body. Sometimes Addie acts independently of Eva, sometimes they act together. Sometimes people are addressing both of them, sometimes just one. You’d think it would be really confusing, but it’s not once you get used to it. I do, however, feel sorry for Kat’s editor. Grammarcheck would have had a hard time with this one.

I really liked that this story was told from the perspective of Eva, the recessive soul. It was fascinating watching Eva and Addie’s sibling dynamic, when one of them had only a voice and no body. They could communicate with each other, but Eva couldn’t speak with their voice to anyone else. So lots of times, Eva sat helplessly inside their body, urging Addie toward a course of action, only to have to suffer the consequences when Addie made a different choice.

Although it wasn’t a major plot point of the book, I was completely fascinated by the family dynamics in the book. Eva and Addie’s parents both, at some point during their lives, tell them that they love both of them. But at the same time, they urge Eva to fade away, and for Addie to assert her dominance. It’s such a weird and challenging concept — how should a parent’s love be affected by having two children inhabiting the same body? And should they mourn the “death” of one for the good of the other, or should they simply accept it as the way life works? Eva, obviously, feels hurt by the withdrawal of her parents’ affection — from her, not Addie — even as she tries to tell herself it’s normal for them to stop talking to her. Again, this isn’t actually a huge part of the story, but it was such an interesting question to me.

And the question necessarily expands to intertwine with the main narrative. Should one soul be forced to fade away, or do both have a right to share the body? And if both souls have equal rights to the body, who gets to choose what they do? If one soul is romantically attracted to someone and the other is not, which gets to follow their heart?

As Eva and Addie struggle with these philosophical questions, they have to deal with the physical problem of being taken and incarcerated if their hybrid nature is discovered. And so in addition to the internal struggle, there is a lot of external action, adventure, and peril. Even a touch of romance, although that too becomes a delicate and challenging situation. It’s a great mix, and I was completely sucked in.

Eva’s narration is sparse but effective, and the storytelling flowed nicely. There’s still some huge questions at the end of the book, but it’s not a cliffhanger. Truthfully, I don’t know if it’s possible to fully and neatly answer all of the questions raised by this book, so in that way, it would actually work as a standalone (even though it’s the first of a trilogy). Oh, and although it’s being touted as a dystopian, it’s really not. Nor is it really sci-fi. More of an alternate reality. It’s one of those books that’s kind of hard to define, which I think actually broadens its appeal.

I thought this book was really good, but it didn’t completely knock me off my feet. I feel like it could, and I’m almost expecting that from the sequel. But while this one was highly enjoyable, it didn’t quite crack that amorphous bubble that houses my all-time favorites. That said, I still highly recommend it.

Content guide: Contains some violence

Top Ten Tuesday (September 18) – Bookish People I Want to Meet

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Welcome to another Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by the people over at The Broke and the Bookish! After last week’s Super Heavy topic (which, granted, didn’t have to be Super Heavy, but it was for me), I’m glad this week’s is a bit lighter.

On a related note, I realized this week that I’ve been blogging almost six months now! This calls for some sort of celebration, or at least a dessert item of some kind. Preferably of the tiramisu variety.

And in that short/long time (depending on your perspective), I’ve met some truly amazing people. So many, actually, that I had a hard time with this week’s topic, simply because I’ve already met so many of the amazing bookish people who would have been on this list six months ago. They include Myra McEntire, C.J. Redwine, Amy Plum, Sharon Cameron, Kat Zhang, Ruta Sepetys (seriously people, Nashville rocks so hard), and a whole bunch of fabulous Tennessee bloggers. If you ever have a chance to meet any of these ladies (even if you haven’t read their books yet — which, confession time, I haven’t read all of them yet), I’d highly recommend it.

Some of these I stand a decent chance of encountering someday. Others fall solidly in the “one day if all my dreams come true and are sprinkled in fairy dust” category. You can decide for yourself which is which.

Oh, and disclaimer: I haven’t read all of these authors’ books yet either. Some of them are on here because while I’ve heard their books are great, I know they are pretty awesome from following them on Twitter. (Although some of them aren’t on Twitter, and are on here entirely because of their books). And of course, not all of them are authors at all.  This disclaimer is getting confusing. I should stop.

These are numbered so I can keep track of how many I have, but are in no particular order.

Top Ten Bookish People I Want to Meet

1. J.K. Rowling – You know she’s got to be on everyone’s list, because who wouldn’t want to meet the woman who created Harry Potter?

In related news, I dreamed last night that I was Harry, and Voldemort had agreed to have a nice little diplomatic chat with me, but halfway through our chat he figured out the twist ending. Guys, it is never good when the bad guy figures out the twist ending. I was really glad to wake up.

2. Suzanne Collins – In the same vein, I want to meet the woman who created The Hunger Games and singlehandedly brought about this crazy dystopian wave that we’re still surfing. And I would also like to thank her for creating Peeta, who may be my favorite YA male character ever. Or at least one of my top 3.

3. Lauren Oliver – She wrote Before I Fall and the Delirium series, and her writing is just so pretty. I just want to wallow in it.

4. Robin Hobb – No big deal, only the author of my favorite fantasy series of all time. I compare all other fantasy (and books in general, really) to this series, and while some are really, really good, her books stand superior.

A week or so ago, I opened my mailbox to find an autographed copy of the first book in the series, courtesy of Sarah, who had picked one up for me at Dragon*Con. I may have screeched right there at the mailbox.

5. Jessica Khoury – Her debut, Origin, just came out and I haven’t read it yet. I have an ARC (that I won in one of her contests, actually), sitting on my shelves begging to be read, but my life lately has not been conducive to reading. Hopefully I will remedy this soon. But she runs the best, most creative contests ever, PLUS she loves Robin Hobb’s books, and therefore I have decided we must meet someday.

6. Jodi Meadows – Her critique partners are Myra McEntire and C.J. Redwine. Considering how much I adore their books, I figure that loving Jodi’s books is pretty much a guarantee. And although I regret to admit that I’ve had Incarnate sitting unread on my shelf for months now (although sometimes I just have to gaze at the pretty cover), I know when I finally do sit down to read it, I’ll be in for a treat. Plus, I’m rather addicted to Jodi’s blog. And she is the one who introduced me to Lindsey Stirling videos. So I think we’d get along.

7. Veronica Roth – While Divergent was not my favorite book ever (although Insurgent was better), I love Veronica’s blog. I’ve spent so much time browsing her archives. She is responsible for a large percentage of my knowledge of the publishing industry (I’m not sure how vast that knowledge is — probably not very — but what there is, she planted). I would love to hear her speak and pick her brain.

8. Tahereh Mafi – Another author whose books I haven’t read yet (confession: I’m waiting until I can get them with the new cover, because I’m not a fan of the original Shatter Me cover), but her Twitter makes me laugh more than any other author. And anyone who can make me laugh that much is someone I want to meet.

9. Lori at Pure Imagination – She’s the only one of the Tennessee bloggers I regularly communicate with that I haven’t met yet. (Which is funny, because she was actually the first Tennessee blogger I started talking to when I started blogging). Thus far our interaction has consisted entirely of Twitter and blog comments. This needs to be remedied.

10. Sarah at Breaking the Binding – Sometimes you “meet” a person (and I put “meet” in quotes because as of yet, we have not actually met) and you just have to shake your fist at the sky and say “WHY WERE WE NOT RAISED TOGETHER FROM INFANCY?” And such is the case with Sarah. It is sad that we live in two different states, because if we were in the same town, I’m pretty sure great things would happen. Based on the sheer volume of cyber-communication that currently passes between us on a daily basis (a large percentage of which is geeky Tumblr links), I think we’d have no shortage of things to discuss.

Honorable Mentions (since limiting it to 10 is just…no):

Jennifer Nielsen, Rae Carson, Victoria Schwab, James Dashner, Julie Kagawa, Shannon Messenger

Author Event: C.J. Redwine, Kat Zhang, Sharon Cameron (@cjredwine @KatZhang @CameronSharonE)

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Have I mentioned how much I love living in Nashville? Because I do. Love it, that is. Even though I’m a northerner by birth, ever since we moved here 8 years ago, it’s been home. We tried moving back up north a few years ago, and we made it a couple years up there, but something had changed in us. We weren’t New Englanders anymore. We were Nashvillians.

And then — and then — I learned how many awesome authors live here. I had no idea my city was so rife with talent! It’s amazing and wonderful and I love it.

Last night was no exception. I went to a debut author event at our library for C.J. Redwine, Kat Zhang and Sharon Cameron.

I’ve only read Defiance (LOVED it) and half of What’s Left of Me (greatly enjoying it), but I’ve read some great reviews of The Dark Unwinding as well, plus I’d talked with Sharon briefly and already determined she was awesome, so I was really looking forward to this event.

I showed up 15 minutes late because rush hour traffic is the devil, but it was okay. It was a small gathering (probably because it was a Thursday night and rush hour traffic is the devil) and they were just sitting in a circle chatting about their books. And they all recognized me, and I felt like I was one of the Elite, but really all that means is that they all have decent memories because I’ve seen all 3 ladies within the past month.

But anyway. You don’t want to hear about that. You want to hear what they talked about.

LtR: Sharon, C.J., Kat

They each gave a brief summary of their books, then opened it up to questions. Here’s the highlights.

On the covers of their books:

  • C.J. said she thought hers should be ALL FIRE. Obviously, it is not, and it is better. But the trailer is all fire, and it is good.
  • Kat didn’t offer much input on her cover, but she says it didn’t change much at all from the original concept they sent her. But she did a double-take when she noticed the second face on the cover. (DO YOU SEE IT? I didn’t, until Kat pointed it out.)
  • Sharon said she didn’t care, but she ABSOLUTELY did not want a back-shot of a girl looking over her shoulder. ANYTHING but an over-the-shoulder back-shot. And, well…you can see what happened. (For the record, she loves her cover).

On sequels:

  • Defiance and What’s Left of Me are both the first part of a trilogy.
  • The Dark Unwinding at least has a sequel, and Sharon is uncertain if there will be more after that.

On when they write and what their lives look like:

  • Sharon quit her day job in the spring to focus on writing, but she also runs SCBWI and a non-profit, so she is B-U-S-Y.
  • C.J. also quit her day job after she sold Defiance, and she writes at night and during her daughter’s naptime.
  • Kat is in school, and she writes at night and over summer break (and sometimes in between/during class…shhh).

On whether they always wanted to write:

  • Kat decided to be published when she was 12. She credits the Internet for opening her eyes to the fact that authors were real people. If they could do it, so could she.
  • C.J. wanted to be a writer since she was teeny tiny.
  • Sharon was a classical pianist and never dreamed of being a writer, until one day she got an idea for a story, sat down at her computer for 45 minutes to see what it would look like if she wrote it down, and then decided to change her life.

On the creative process for writers:

  • C.J. recommends protecting the creative process for as long as possible, getting your story out and intact before you show it to anyone.
  • C.J. struggles with beginnings, and has to write hers over and over until she gets them right.
  • Sharon agrees, but also amends that there’s no one “right” way to write. She personally doesn’t give her critique partners anything until she’s finished a draft.
  • Kat wrote What’s Left of Me in high school (!?!?!?!?!) in 10-page chunks. Then she’d print them out and give them to her friends to read the next day. However, she says they weren’t really critique partners, but more like cheerleaders. She wouldn’t do that now, but she’s more willing to give her critique partners and editors rough stuff than C.J. or Sharon.
  • Kat hates endings and has to rewrite them several times.
  • Sharon stays laser-focused on one story at a time until the whole thing’s out of her head.
  • Kat and C.J. both have several stories going at once.
  • Kat always wants to work on “the other story,” so she makes good use of the Sticky Note feature on her Mac.
  • C.J. has a bunch of different word processor windows open at once when she’s working, so she can jot down an idea or a scene or a conversation for other stories as they come to her.

On the job of writing, and writing when your well of creativity has run dry:

  • Sharon forces herself to sit at her computer for 30 minutes to write, even when she absolutely does not feel like it. Normally by the end of 30 minutes, she’s found her inspiration and wants to keep going.
  • Failing that, Sharon researches for inspiration. She loves research.
  • C.J. hates research and tends to skim, even when she probably shouldn’t. (I can relate to this.)
  • C.J. uses Pinterest and music playlists to inspire her.
  • C.J. also uses the accountability of her critique partners to force her to write. She sets a word count goal and a time limit, lets them know, and they check up on her to make sure she’s working towards that goal.
  • Kat does a little bit of all of the above.
  • Sharon says writers should read, read, read within their genre, not only to find out what others are doing, but to get a good idea of structure and pacing.

On the word counts of their books, because I am curious about these sorts of things:

  • The Dark Unwinding: Sharon actually doesn’t remember, but she thinks it’s in the low-90K range. She underwrites and added material in the editing process.
  • Defiance: 96.5K. C.J. overwrites and subtracted words during editing.
  • What’s Left of Me: 82K. Kat also underwrites and had to add.

Thanks so much to these three lovely ladies for talking with us, and for Angela at the Edmondson Library for organizing the event. If you ever have the opportunity to see any of these fabulous authors in person, snatch it up! And go read their books — it’ll be time and money well spent!

LtR: Me, Kat, Sharon, C.J. Please ignore my hair. I don’t know what was going on there.