Christopher Mannino on the Key to Meeting Writing Deadlines @Ctmannino #AmWriting #WriteTip #YA

How to Meet Deadlines and Remain Sane:

Like many authors, I work a full time job. I teach high school theatre, and as the drama teacher, I’m typically the first one to school and the last to leave. While I try to do most of my drafting during the summers, when I only work part-time, I still have deadlines during the school year. The editing process for SCHOOL OF DEATHS took place during a very busy time for me, and my first year at a new school, which was challenging as well.

The key to meeting deadlines is to set a schedule and stick to it. For example, when working on my first draft for SWORD OF DEATHS (a sequel to my novel), I knew I needed to write a chapter a day, even on days when I worked part-time. I kept to that schedule. It’s also important to schedule some relaxation time. I plan dates with my wife, and enjoy other activities. If we focus all of our time on work, the muse will suffer.

Thirteen-year-old Suzie Sarnio always believed the Grim Reaper was a fairy tale image of a skeleton with a scythe. Now, forced to enter the College of Deaths, she finds herself training to bring souls from the Living World to the Hereafter. The task is demanding enough, but as the only female in the all-male College, she quickly becomes a target. Attacked by both classmates and strangers, Suzie is alone in a world where even her teachers want her to fail.

Caught in the middle of a plot to overthrow the World of Deaths, Suzie must uncover the reason she’s been brought there: the first female Death in a million years.

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Genre - YA Fantasy

Rating – PG

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The Grower’s Gift (Progeny of Time #1) by Vanna Smythe @Vanna_Smythe #YA #Dystopian

“How is this possible?” her father demanded, pulling Maya back from collecting the wheat, his voice hoarse, almost threatening. “These were no more than shoots this morning.”

Maya looked into his eyes defiantly. “I did this with my gift. I let the life giving warmth water them, and make them grow. I also made sure the shoots survived after the floods.”

Maya cowered when her father grabbed her arms, his strong fingers digging into her flesh painfully. “You will stop this silly talk. You can’t heal with your touch!”

Spittle hit her face, and his blue eyes bulged the way they did every time he got angry. Maya wasn’t about to back down, not with the proof of her powers brushing against her legs in the breeze.

“How can you say that?” she yelled, pulling herself free from his grasp. “This wheat is ready for picking.”

Giles and her mother had followed them outside. Her mother was staring from one to the other, opening and closing her mouth. Giles shook his head slightly behind her mother’s shoulder.

What was he saying? That she should calm down?

He was right, probably. Yet she had to make them understand, had to make them believe.

Her father pushed her aside and started trampling the wheat viciously.

“No!” Maya yelled and threw herself at him. He pushed her back and continued to destroy the crop.

Giles wrapped his arm around her chest and pulled her back.

“Let me go!” Maya yelled, fighting against Giles’ arm. “Dad! Stop it! What’s wrong with you?”

“Be quiet! No one must see this.” Her father started kicking soil over the destroyed crop.

“Why? Imagine all the food we could grow! Why can’t I practice my magic?”

Her father moved to her side so quickly that Giles pulled her back out of his reach. “Magic? I see no magic, just a silly girl with crazy ideas who will get hurt because of them. I will not hear you speak of gifts again. And if you ever do such a thing as this again, we are leaving this town.”

Maya could count on one hand the number of times her father had truly lost his temper. His anger tonight made all those times pale in comparison. Yet, he was being unreasonable.

“Why can’t you accept that I have a special gift?” Maya rounded on her father, Giles’ arm still tight around her chest.

“You do not have a gift!” her father hissed. “This is dangerous talk. You could be kicked out of town for saying it. And how would you survive then? Out in the Badlands all alone with no drinking water and no food, and who knows what prowling around?”

“I could make an oasis,” Maya retorted.

“Let’s go back inside,” her mother pleaded softly. Maya ignored her.

She finally succeeded in prying away Giles’ arm and took a step towards her father.

“I have the ability to feed this whole town and I plan to use it! I am of age now. You can no longer tell me what to do,” she said, keeping her voice low.

The muscles in his face tensed into a grimace, and Maya was sure he would strike her. Her mother stood between them and took hold of his arm.

“She is of age.”

She turned to Maya, such sadness in her eyes that had been so bright not half an hour ago. “I bought the grains from a strange merchant who came here for market day about a month ago. Who knows what kind of mutated gene strand they contained? Maya, please listen to your father. He only wants the best for you. Let’s not argue anymore. Let’s go inside.”

She tried to pull Maya’s father after her, but he stood his ground and looked around nervously. “At least no one else saw this.”

The future is bleak in the year 2102. The planet is in chaos and the weather patterns have completely shifted, turning most of the world into an uninhabited wasteland.

The rich and powerful of North America have pulled back into the six remaining megacities, erasing all trace of a central government and leaving millions displaced by the environmental crisis to fend for themselves in the dying world.

Sixteen-year-old Maya has a gift, a power she thinks can heal the earth and make it habitable again. A gift that she must learn to harness. The school for the gifted in Neo York is the only place where she can learn to control her power and reach her potential.

Yet the school is not what it seems. Ran by the ruthless head of the city of Neo York, the school’s only objective is to extract the powers of the gifted and then discard them. Only Ty, heir to the city, can keep Maya from being destroyed there. But Ty has a secret, and his loyalty to his family has never wavered.

Will his growing love for Maya be strong enough to save them both?

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Genre - YA Dystopian

Rating – PG-13

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Website www.vannasmythe.com

Discovery in Big Sur with THE REALITY MASTER (Vol. 1) by @PMPillon #AmReading #SciFi #YA

DISCOVERY IN BIG SUR

Joey was unable to discern why he felt apprehension about traveling to Big Sur, which previously had induced nothing but pure joy for him. Frank stayed overnight at Joey’s to make sure they got an early start Saturday morning for the two-hour drive down the coast to Grandpa Karl’s digs. They brought along plenty of camping equipment. Grandpa Karl hated phones, so they weren’t concerned that he didn’t call to confirm he was back from his trip back east. They would manage at his place even if he wasn’t there, sleeping in a tent and shopping for groceries further south along the coast highway. Karl lived in a one-room shack, and although they could all fit on his floor with sleeping bags, it was more fun to pitch a large tent and manage their own schedules. Unlike his life at home where he struggled to get up for school, Joey always jumped up at first light when he was in Big Sur. He loved the smell of moist pines and redwoods, the frigid, misty mornings, being surrounded by forest, within earshot of loudly barking sea lions cavorting along the ocean’s edge. Joey didn’t have to go far from Grandpa Karl’s to where he could watch these exotic creatures, as well as seals and sea otters, gallivanting and floating among the rocks and kelp. 

Once he even saw Gray Whales passing by as they migrated south to their winter breeding grounds in Baja California. On their way to Big Sur they passed by Carmel where tourists actually pay a road fee just to drive around Carmel looking at the plush homes that they heard celebrities like Doris Day, Clint Eastwood, or Paul Simon lived in at one time. But the drive further down the coast to and along Big Sur is a completely different story from carefully carved Carmel. The winding road is flanked by guard rails that don’t always prevent a car’s plunge down a steep incline and even into the ocean. Just the previous week, a woman had gone off the road and down a steep embankment, and was only rescued two days later because she managed to get to her cell phone and call for help. 

As Joey contemplated the woman’s plight, he thought of the famous rock musician who was reputed to be a physics genius; found dead in his car long after it went off a road and fell into thick brush. But that accident was far from the coast, somewhere east of LA. There were rumors about the last communications from the musician darkly suggesting his possible assassination because of some great mathematical discovery that he was on the verge of achieving. While pondering this, Joey developed a feeling of cold on the back of his neck; it seemed his body might be communicating a warning to him. What warning could it be? I’m no genius like that rock star. He shook his head and tried to dismiss the thought by looking out the car window at the scenery. Then Frank engaged him in conversation, and he forgot the strange sensation. It was a typically sunny day in the Bay Area when they started out in the morning, but it was drizzling in Big Sur. This was actually ideal from Joey’s view point because the flora looked especially beautiful with drops of rain on it and puddles everywhere, and the moisture brought out wonderful fragrances.    

Eventually, they turned off the coastal highway, wending their way along the bumpy, pocked private road that brought them to Grandpa Karl’s abode. He drove an ancient 1948 Ford truck that he managed to keep going by scavenging parts wherever he could. Because of this scavenging, there were quite a few auto parts near his shack, enough to ironically mimic a junkyard in the midst of a natural paradise.
Many people in Big Sur were essentially bohemians who rebelled against pressure to conform to orthodox aesthetic standards. In this respect, they were like many residents of Bolinas on the coast above San Francisco, a town that is locally famous for its hippie and iconoclastic population, much of which likewise junkyard their otherwise picturesque properties. Bolinas is a beach town that isn’t tree-laden like Big Sur, but Mendocino, a short distance north, sports a mil ion of acres of dense forest. Big Sur residents became the subject of a school report by Joey after the one he wrote about San Francisco. Many of them could be described as relics of the old 60’s counterculture. 

His celestial companion was waiting for him

Precariously climbing a sea-side cliff near Big Sur, ten-year-old Joey Blake was as yet unaware that near his grasp was an object, so odd, mysterious and alien to earth that it would change his life forever and the lives of countless others in the next few astonishing days. Reaching up as far as he could for a handhold it was just there; it had subconsciously lured him, occupied his mind, and made him find it. It was like he was meant to see and discover this object of unimaginable power … the power to change reality.

Time travel and more

This young adult series of sci-fi fantasy novels begins with The Reality Master and continues through four other exciting and amazing stories about time travel and mysterious alien devices. Joey and the reader will face dangerous shadowy criminal organizations, agents of the NSA, bizarre travelers from other times and even renegade California bikers and scar-faced walking dead.

- Vol 1 The Reality Master
- Vol 2 Threat To The World
- Vol 3 Travel Beyond
- Vol 4 Missions Through Time
- Vol 5 The Return Home

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Genre – Science fiction, Fantasy, Young adult

Rating – G

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Four Seasons from Claudette Melanson's RISING TIDE @Bella623 #BookClub #Paranormal

Caelyn – Winter

Caelyn is full of winter.  But though she may have an aloof chill about her, she still wants to offer her daughter warmth and comfort, like a cup of hot cocoa or a fire in the hearth.  She is crystal beauty, but keeps everyone, sometimes even her own daughter, at arm’s length, never allowing anyone too close.  As strong as an arctic wind, she carries the weight of many responsibilities, but her emotional shell is ever-ready to crack—like the ice at the thaw–at the wrong word or suggestion, reminding her of the love she’s lost.  Maura, at times, wants to break out of the ice, but Caelyn wishes to keep her safe, attempting to protect her from the same mistakes she made, when she was Maura’s age.  She is very anxious about her daughter’s relationship with Ron and wants nothing more than to protect her from the fake friends lie in wait to wound Maura, just as she begins to emerge from the winter respite she and Caelyn have taken from the outside world.

Maura –Spring 

Maura and Caelyn are both stuck in their own kind of winter, tucked away inside, just waiting for the right conditions to make them blossom.  They are closed off, emotionally, sheltering themselves against outside elements.  But, in Rising Tide, Maura is more like Spring, as she seems ready to break out of her antisocial slumber and experience the world.  She wants to try out love and the friendships she’s wished for her whole life, while Caelyn wants to keep her under that protective layer of ice, away from the harsh realities of life.  But Maura is changing in so many ways.  She’s growing out of the weak, shy girl she’s always been into more of a take-charge, independent woman.  And like spring, something new emerges within her every day.  Both emotionally and physically, she gives birth to changes continuously, as she transforms into the creature waiting inside, of which she isn’t yet aware.

Shane—Summer

Shane is warmth without cessation.  He never holds anything back and is sometimes very in-your-face.  Like summer, he sets people in motion, calling them to action.  He is the most gung-ho when the band he and Ron are a part of, books their first gig, displaying nothing but optimism.  At the amusement park, Shane drags everyone to the roller coasters, daring them to break free, just as the summer sun calls people outside to try new things after a long, cold winter.  Even though he may come across sometimes as too intense—like a relentlessly hot summer day—like the summer sun, he is a source of brightness and warmth in the lives of everyone who knows him.

Ron—Fall

Fall is the official end of the year.  Ron is there as the official end of Maura’s time in the town she’s grown up in.  Autumn is also regarded as a time of bounty and harvest.  Ron has a huge heart and is ready to give love, understanding and assistance without end.  He is mild, like fall temperatures—non-judgmental in his relationships with others, especially Maura—and as easygoing as the gently falling leaves.  Like the trees, in all their colorful splendor this time of year, he is also pleasing to the eye with his long, dark hair and deep hazel eyes.  Fall is considered the precursor to winter, and Ron is about to usher in a cold, lonely, barren time for Maura, as she must start a new life without him physically by her side.  And some of his actions in the latter part of the novel, definitely bring a chill to Maura’s heart.

CHOSEN AS ONE OF 400 FOR THE SECOND ROUND OF THE AMAZON BREAKTHROUGH NOVEL AWARD FOR 2014!!!

ARE YOU A FAN OF VAMPIRE ROMANCE?

Rising Tide will sink it’s teeth into you, keeping you awake into the wee hours of the night

Maura’s life just can’t get any worse…or can it?

Isolated and sheltered by her lonely mother, Maura’s never been the best at making friends. Unusually pale with a disease-like aversion to the sun, she seems to drive her classmates away, but why?

Even her own father deserted her, and her mother, before Maura was born. Bizarre physical changes her mother seems hell bent on ignoring, drive Maura to fear for her own life. And her luck just seems to get worse.

Life is about to become even more bewildering when her mother’s abrupt…and unexplained…decision to move a country away sets off a chain of events that will change Maura forever. A cruel prank turned deadly, the discovery of love and friendship….and its loss, as well as a web of her own mother’s lies, become obstacles in Maura’s desperate search for a truth she was never prepared to uncover.

Featured on one of the most popular health blogs on the internet as a giveaway!

Be sure to check out the blog on Maria Mind Body Health to win a free copy today! Go to Mariamindbodyhealth.com and check out the blog Chicken “Wild Rice” Soup for your chance to win!

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Head over to Goodreads for a chance to score a free copy today!

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Genre – YA Paranormal Romance

Rating – PG

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Website http://claudettemelanson.wix.com/author

@ ShelleyDavidow on Her New Book 'Lights Over Emerald Creek' #YA #SciFi #GoodReads

How do you write – lap top, pen, paper, in bed, at a desk?

I write on my laptop or in my journal. I don’t have a private writer’s attic. I do things in the midst of life, in the gaps between supper and my late-night snack, in the afternoon while waiting for the washing to dry and I often write instead of watching TV, checking Facebook or taking a nap.

Where do you get support from? Do you have friends in the industry?

My biggest support is my husband, dearest friend and sharpest critic, Paul Williams (www.paul-a-williams.com). I trust his deep sense of what works and what doesn’t, and I return the favour whenever he asks.

How much sleep do you need to be your best?

I need 8 hours. I often don’t get more than 6 : (

Every writer has their own idea of what a successful career in writing is, what does success in writing look like to you?

Success to me would mean I could live off my writing and teach simply because I love it. I’m not quite there yet!

Tell us about your new book? What’s it about and why did you write it?

Lights Over Emerald Creek is a speculative fiction novel for young adults. Lucy Wright, sixteen and a paraplegic after a recent car accident that took her mother's life, lives in Queensland on a 10,000 acre farm with her father. When Lucy investigates strange lights over the creek at the bottom of the property, she discovers a mystery that links the lights to the science of cymatics to Scotland’s ancient Rosslyn Chapel. The book was inspired by some real people, notably a paraplegic pilot and a young cellist, as well as some unexplained real-life events like the phenomena of the Hessdalen Lights in Norway, and the hexagonal storm on Saturn. I wrote the book because I thought one of the most exciting things one can do with unexplained phenomena, is NOT to try to explain them, but to create the story that might be…the story that inspires and pushes the reader to exciting places.

When you are not writing, how do you like to relax?

I relax by walking on the beach, or jogging or climbing or swimming. Being out in nature is the most rejuvenating thing for me.

Do you have any tips on how writers can relax?

Writing is such a heady and lonely thing to do. I think being active and being with people you love is the best way to relax.

How often do you write? And when do you write?

I write whenever I can, as often as I can. Sometimes that’s every day, and sometimes weeks go by and I don’t write. When I have a deadline, I work every spare moment. When I finish a book, I try to take a break before embarking on a new project.

Do you have an organized process or tips for writing well? Do you have a writing schedule?

I believe to write well, you have to do it a lot. How that happens is unique to each individual, but like any skill, many thousands of words have to be written before a few emerge as gems. To write well, do it often.

Sometimes it’s so hard to keep at it - What keeps you going?

If I stop writing, or don’t write for a while, eventually a story or a character just ‘arrives’ and demands to be written. I can’t NOT write, so I guess that keeps me going.

Have you met any people in the industry who have really helped you?

I had a wonderful writers group in Oregon when I lived there, made up of some very prolific authors whom I deeply respected. They taught me how to pare things down to what was essential, and how to work slowly and carefully. We worked on poetry and that helped me become a better fiction writer.

Lucy Wright, sixteen and a paraplegic after a recent car accident that took her mother's life, lives in Queensland on a 10,000 acre farm with her father. When Lucy investigates strange lights over the creek at the bottom of the property, she discovers a mystery that links the lights to the science of cymatics and Scotland’s ancient Rosslyn Chapel.

But beyond the chapel is an even larger mystery. One that links the music the chapel contains to Norway’s mysterious Hessdalen lights, and beyond that to Saturn and to the stars. Lucy’s discoveries catapult her into a parallel universe connected to our own by means of resonance and sound, where a newly emerging world trembles on the edge of disaster. As realities divide, her mission in this new world is revealed and she finds herself part of a love story that will span the galaxy.

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Genre - Young Adult SF

Rating - PG

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Writing As Personal Therapy & Novels Like A Terrarium by @JR_Tague #AmWriting #AmReading #YA

I’m a bit of a control freak. I like it when things are organized and orderly and make sense. But, as you know, those things don’t really jive too well with the real world. We don’t always get to have what we want. Things don’t always happen for a reason. And, as Schmendrick the Magician points out in Peter Beagle’s The Last Unicorn, “There are no happy endings, because nothing ends.”

Except that’s not entirely true. Novels end. Sure, the story continues. But that’s off-screen. The main plot of the novel is concluded. Characters learn their lessons, or don’t. Readers are left with a sense of satisfaction, of completion.

A novel is like a terrarium. It’s a miniature world in which we can observe life on a smaller scale. Most of the time our own lives aren’t so organized. It’s hard to know the point to our lives, because usually, there are multiple points. And those change.

Novels, on the other hand, get to be focused. They can zero in on a central theme and follow it to an inevitable conclusion. In a way, we get to live vicariously through the characters. Their lives get to have meanings that are easier to figure out.

Writers get to be the gods of those worlds. We get to have control over them in a way we never can in the real world. If used properly, that can be extremely therapeutic. Think about it: we have a built-in universe in which to test out and explore our own ideas and issues. Our characters can act out various scenarios and we get see what the reactions will be before we have to commit to them in our own lives.

I don’t think most of us do this consciously. But the issues we’re grappling with often work their way into our stories. And sometimes that’s enough distance for us to recognize the possible solutions. Therapy is all about helping someone figure out the answers to their own questions. Through writing we get the release of airing our issues, the commiseration/camaraderie of relating to others (even fictional others) with similar issues, and the relief of knowing they can be solved.

Max McKay gets a second chance at life when, after a bizarre accident on his sixteenth birthday, he is reanimated as a new breed of thinking, feeling zombie. To secure a spot for his eternal soul, Max must use his video game prowess as well as the guidance of Steve the Death God to make friends and grow up. 

As if all that weren’t hard enough, Max discovers that he’s not the only zombie in town. As he enlists the help of his new friends, Adam and Penny, to solve the mystery of their un-dead classmate, Max discovers that he must level up his life experience in order to survive the trials and terrors of the upcoming zombie apocalypse. And, even worse, high school.

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Genre – YA

Rating – PG

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Website http://jrtague.wordpress.com/

@Eileen Maksym Says, "Rejection Sucks. Giving Up Sucks More." #WriteTip #AmWriting #Paranormal

For me, the worst part of being a writer is the rejection.  I tend to be an introvert (like many writers!) so it can be hard for me to put my work and myself out there in the first place.  When my efforts are met with a brief form letter or email, or, even worse, utter silence, it often makes me want to just go to bed and hide under the covers (not the most helpful of reactions).

I knew what I was signing up for when I decided to become a writer, of course; the image of an author papering their walls with rejection slips is practically a cliché, and everyone has heard the stories about famous books that were initially rejected by publisher after publisher.  But like so many things, there's a vast difference between being aware of something and actually experiencing it.

My first rejection technically came the summer after my freshman year of college, when I sent some (truly horrible) poems to literary magazines on a whim.  All rejected.  It didn't really bug me much, since I didn't have much invested in those poems – which was probably a factor in how truly, truly horrible they were!  My first story rejection was a different matter, though.  It was a weird little piece about a family trying to divest a man's estate at his funeral, while he was alive and protesting from his casket.  I did what many first time writers do: I sent it to the New Yorker. It was, of course, summarily rejected.  I was crushed.  Clearly my work sucked.  Clearly I wasn't cut out to be a writer.  Clearly I should just give up.

I wallowed for a day or so, but eventually got over it.  I kept writing, and kept submitting, because my desire to be a published author was greater than my discouragement at being rejected.  But it was a near thing, and that struggle replays itself every time I receive that dreaded form letter, even now.  It's gotten a little easier to take, but I've also developed a number of coping mechanisms.  They keep me from spending more than, say, a couple hours in bed with the covers pulled over my head.

The first thing I do is remember that every writer gets rejected, even ones who are famous or have been at this for a long time.  That's because there are many reasons that a story might be rejected, and quality is only one of them!  Let's say the story has a talking rabbit.  Maybe the editor really despises talking rabbits.  Maybe the talking rabbit angle just isn't suited for that particular publication.  Or maybe they ran a talking rabbit story just last month!

Whatever the reason the talking bunny story was turned down, it had to do with the story, not the author.  A rejection only tells the writer that the piece isn't suitable.  It doesn't tell them that they are a bad writer or that they'll never succeed as an author.  And it definitely doesn't say anything about the writer as a person.

Once these reminders have kept me from being totally crushed, I do a couple things to keep moving forward.  First, I reward myself for having put myself out there!  There's a lovely clay pot on my desk that was an anniversary gift from my husband.  Every time I get a rejection, I put money into the jar.  The more I submit my work, the more rejections I get, and the more money goes into the jar.  I've been rejected a lot, so I've amassed a lot of money that way.  The computer I'm typing on right now was funded by that cash!

The second thing I do is immediately send the story out again.  I usually have a pretty good idea of what magazines are out there that might be a good match for the piece, so I pick one and submit!  It keeps me from second-guessing the story and getting caught up in endless tinkering.  Every writer is familiar with chasing the horizon of perfection.  At some point you've just got to say enough is enough.  I had already made sure the piece was the best it could be before I sent it out to begin with: enough is still enough.

This is how I've managed to beat back the Rejection Blues!  It's not easy, at all, but it definitely can be done.  Above all, what's important for all writers is that we be kind to ourselves, and keep writing!

Tara Martin – exceptionally accomplished neurobiology major with a troubled past. Steven Trent – confident political science major with an irresistible attraction to Tara. Paul Stratton – history major who is able to hear spirits. Together, they make up the Society for Paranormal Researchers at their prestigious New England University. When they’re not in class or writing papers, the three friends are chasing their passion….ghosts.

When the group learns of a local retired couple trying to sell a house they claim is haunted, they decide to investigate. As the clues unfold, a familiar spirit interrupts their investigation and Tara finds her life in danger. Can her friends save her before it’s too late?

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Genre – YA paranormal, NA paranormal

Rating – PG-13

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Website http://eileenmaksym.wordpress.com/  

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S.M. McEachern's #WriteTip for How to Write by the Seat of Your Pants @smmceachern #YA #SciFi

I knew absolutely nothing about being an author until after I published.  Yes, I realize that’s a bit like tying my shoes before I put them on, but that’s the point. If I have hard time putting on my shoes, odds are I’ll go looking for a different pair, which will probably put a different spin on what I’m wearing.

For me, writing by the seat of my pants gives me flexibility.  Don’t get me wrong. I’m not sitting down at my computer banging out whatever pops into my head (okay, that’s not entirely true…). I do have a plot in mind. But it’s the journey from the beginning of the story to the end that holds twists and turns even for me. How is that possible, you ask? It’s the characters that lead me.

When I start to write my characters they almost jump up off the page and introduce themselves. Even the minor characters, like a guard who just needs to be in the hallway, has to have a story. I’m thinking of my character in Sunset Rising, Bron Llewellyn.  Honestly, she was just a guard in the first chapter. Why? Because the Pit is guarded and I had to have guards. I made her one of the “good” guards because even in a dystopic world, not every single guard is going to be mean, right? Then I asked myself, why is she a good guard?  Why is she sympathetic to the Pit?  By answering those questions, I hatched a subplot that wove seamlessly into the main plot and spilled into the second book of the series, Worlds Collide.

I’m a member of local writer’s group and I’ve talked to authors who create an outline first and then write to the outline. I’m amazed at this kind of organization. I wish I could apply it to my Tupperware drawer because I’d save myself at least 15 minutes every morning trying to find containers with lids that fit for my kids’ lunches. Then again, if I could readily match lids with containers, I’d probably make chocolate pudding more often for lunch.  Chocolate pudding isn’t really that good for them.  An apple is better.  And an apple doesn’t require a container.

You see the logic?

The point is, if the story is already laid out for me, I’ll write to the storyline. I’ll stop asking myself questions—and if I do that, I’ll stop coming up with answers I didn’t expect.  For me, writing by the seat of my pants gives me the freedom to be creative.

February 2024: Desperate to find refuge from the nuclear storm, a group of civilians discover a secret government bio-dome. Greeted by a hail of bullets and told to turn back, the frantic refugees stand their ground and are eventually permitted entry.  But the price of admission is high.

283 years later...  Sunny O'Donnell is a seventeen-year-old slave who has never seen the sun.  She was born in the Pit, a subterranean extension of the bio-dome. Though life had never been easy, the last couple of months had become a nightmare. Her mom was killed in the annual Cull, and her dad thought it was a good time to give up on life.  Reyes Crowe, her long-time boyfriend, was pressuring her to get married, even though it would mean abandoning her father.

She didn't think things could get any worse until she was forced upstairs to the Dome to be a servant-girl at a bachelor party.  That's when she met Leisel Holt, the president's daughter, and her fiancé, Jack Kenner.

Now Sunny is wanted for treason.  If they catch her, she'll be executed.

She thought Leisel's betrayal was the end.  But it was just the beginning.

"Sunset Rising" is Book One of a series.

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Genre - YA Science Fiction, Dystopian

Rating – PG-16

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