Knights of Microfiction!

Firstly! Hi to my new followers! I'm so glad you're here! Tell your friends to follow me too! When I reach 100 followers we're gonna have a party and I'll be giving away some prizes, too!

But now, down to business.

That's right, y'all! It's time for KOMF again! I'm so glad that Jessica and Kathy McKendry decided to start hosting this monthly blog hop again!

Anyone can play along. To join in on the fun, check Jess and Kathy's blogs on the 13th to receive that month's prompt, post your entry before 11:59 p.m. on the 15th of the month, and leave a comment on one of their blogs with a link to your post.  Then go check out as many entries as you can!  By the 17th, they will choose two winners to be featured on their blogs.

Here's this month's lovely prompt:

Write a 200 word or less flash fiction beginning with this phrase: Her eyes shot open...
You are free to change the gender and POV if you'd like.



Her eyes shot open and she blinked rapidly. Why couldn't she see? She rubbed her eyes with the backs of her hands. They were wet. Wait, wet? That didn't make sense. She put out her tongue and tentatively tasted the liquid. Blood. Was it hers? She shuddered. She rolled onto her side and sat up. With a clang, her head came in contact with the top bunk. Ok. Ok. You're not crazy. You can figure this out.


She took a breath and wracked her brain for an answer. Of course. Heracleum mantegazzianum. More slowly, she rose and felt her way toward the door, one step at a time. She cracked her shin on the desk chair and cursed. Damn! I knew that was there. There wasn't much time. She had to reach Xavi before the effects were irreversible. Xavi would know what to do.

I hope you enjoyed my entry. I had fun writing it!

Big Island Dolphin Swimming

Not writing or YA related, but this is the vid of the totally awesome dolphin swim we did last month in HI. It was... incredible. I'm the one in the red shirt, and Noah's wearing a bright yellow shirt... we're easy to spot. Look how amazingly close they came to us!!! I swear, I could do that every day for the rest of my life and not get tired of it.

Summer Writing Goals!

First! OMG my blog has had 10,000 views! I know that a lot of those are probably bots and people wandering in accidentally, but yay!

Now to get 100 followers! It's a right of passage, ya know? I will host my first ever blogfest/giveaway as soon as I hit 100 followers! Woot! There will be mermaid themed prizes and a little writing contest... You know you wanna join in!

It's summer. It's time to make some lists, to chart out a path of goals for the next couple of months, wouldn't you agree? I have to admit, I have been caught in the writing doldrums this entire spring! Not a letter typed, not a plot device turned over. Granted I am busy with internships and my first paid editing job, but I feel like I'm letting myself off the hook to easily.

Well, I'm ready to shake it off. So here's completely off the cuff random list of goals I'm making for this summer.

1. Writing! Make headway on second draft/1st person perspective of my WIP. Not just any headway... let's say that by the end of August I would like 20,000 words written. I've been reluctant, but there's really no way I can know how I feel about it until I write more.
2. Editing! Get a little further on that pesky first draft/3rd person perspective of the WIP. I wanna crank it up a notch, and now I think I'm starting to get a grip on what needs to happen there. I would like to have a version that I could show to someone without embarrassment by mid-September.
3. Reading! I have some good editing books in my pile that I would like to get through... my goal is to read one more of them this summer.
4. More reading! I found at B&N a couple of books with a similar theme to my current WIP... so I bought them and intend to read them by the end of August as well. Gotta know what my competition is!
5. Fests! Participate in 3 blogfests. This means I need to get down to some research... I don't wanna just participate in any o'l blogfest... but if you're throwing one, let me know!
6. Blogging! Get back up to 2 posts a week, at least! Man I have been slacking! The time to hesitate is through, though. I'll be brainstorming topics later today (as a break from editing). Feel free to leave me suggestions.

Anyone else got any good goals for the summer?

Dialogue Tags, for better or worse

Agra pondered aloud what exactly had made Milicent so effective as she tried again, in vain, to frighten Lilith into making a kill. Was it her commanding presence? Did she use physical threats?

“Maybe it was her eyes…” Lilith’s voice broke into Agra’s reverie.

‘What did you say?’ Agra checked herself, surprised.

‘I didn’t…’ Lilith ducked her head to avoid being cuffed. ‘Nothing…’

‘What about her eyes?’ Agra demanded. ‘Describe these eyes to me.’

‘Deep, fearsome, savagely wild…’ Lilith whispered. ‘So black that they suck you down into their depths and you think you’ll never escape.’ She trembled at the memory.

‘Where did you see these eyes?’ Agra demanded again.

‘Drowning…’ Lilith choked. ‘Can’t breathe! It was her! Her eyes…’ She collapsed into a heap of bitter tears on the sandy ocean floor.

Agra stared at her in stunned silence. Only one mermaid in these waters could produce that effect on others. ‘You’re lying!’ She spouted. ‘But how could you be?’ She picked up Lilith by the hair at the nape of her neck. ‘Where is she, this mermaid who turned you? Where did she go?’

‘I… I don’t know,’ Lilith stammered. ‘We… we traded places and… I don’t know where she went.’

‘You… WHAT?’ Agra shrieked.

‘We traded places,’ Lilith said, squeaking in pain as Agra’s grip tightened on her hair and neck.

‘That’s impossible!’ Agra roared. She let go of Lilith’s hair suddenly and Lilith tumbled to the ocean floor again.

‘I’m…. I’m sorry… I’m sorry…’ Lilith said as she scrambled back out of reach.

‘Don’t you dare… don’t you presume, you little worm,’ Agra snarled. ‘That you could trade places with the ancient one. Ha! Impossible!’

The passage above is from the first draft of my WIP... and is a prime example of trying to "tell" too much through dialogue tagging. My characters roar, squeak, demand, snarl, and oh so much more in an attempt to accurately describe the excitement of the scene. (Aside: I hate the name Agra... but somehow it was what came to me, and it is what I'm stuck with for now... sigh...)

I have been reading recently a book about self-editing for fiction writers. One of the main problems the authors point out with beginning novelists is the temptation to use dialogue tags to explain character emotion. I definitely have this problem. The idea is to convey enough through the actual dialogue that you don't have to explain the emotions or where the emphasis in the sentence belongs. It should come across naturally... the tension should just ... magically be there.

I can count at least 9 instances in this one little scene where I didn't have enough faith in my dialogue (or in my readers ability to infer meaning/emotion in my characters) to leave well enough alone.

I find that a lot of writers are prone to this habit, though. The more I think about it, the more I am interested to delve into some of those award winners that Margo Berendsen was talking about the other day, to see if they are able to dodge the pitfall of tagging dialogue (or explaining through adverbs... the -ly syndrome).

Does anyone else have this problem with their writing? What do you do to combat it?

I'm back!

Wow... somebody took a blogging break! It was really an unscheduled break from the blogging world brought on by a trip to Hawaii with the hardworking hubby. He needed (and well deserved) a vacation!

But now we're back and I've spent the past few days dragging my brain back into EST and life as usual. Why? Because tomorrow I'm starting a brand spanking NEW internship! That's right folks! For the summer, I'll be interning with an actual publishing house (in the romance division). It's a definite break from my usual reading habits, but any way you slice it, I'm looking forward to learning so much and more about this new side of the industry!

So look for posts from me this summer with juicy little insights that I hope we will all be able to benefit from, as writers/creatives/etc.

Riding in Waipio Valley

This post is for Leslie <3

Two years and I finally get back in the saddle somewhere. Had a nice 2 and a half hour ride through Waipio Valley on this very pleasant little bay mare named Jessie. I could move here. But I'd get lonely after a while I think.

Please ignore the fact that I'm tilting to the left.
Who doesn't put enough weight in their right foot?

Isn't the Percheron Noah is riding so cute, too?

It was very nice to be back on the back of a horse... still, I could feel shadows of my old anxiety and neurosis fluttering about in my chest. I'm glad to have this happy, relaxed experience under my belt at least... and while the other noobs couldn't keep their horses from eating any and every plant they passed, Noah and I were able to manage very well (they asked us NOT to let the horses graze/eat mangoes, avocados, etc. while we were on the trail). Ha!

Waipio Valley is absolutely gorgeous, as well. And what better way to see it?

Sea Turtles!

Hawaii is amazing... especially because you can be walking down the beach and see these guys just grazing along... we even swam with a few at a different beach! Incredible.