Oh, Those High School Dances!

Allow me to take you back to a simpler time. A time of big hair and bigger shoulder pads. Come with me to the Oh, Those High School Dances bloghop hosted by the radical Kelley Lynn and totally tubular Emily R. King. The rules are simple: post pictures of your high school dances; share your funniest high school dance story; and that's it! Prizes will be given so join in now. It's not too late. To whip it. Whip it good.


In case you missed the references, my prom took place in that pit-of-fashion era, the 80s. 1987 to be exact. Witness the horror:

My funny story? The picture is worth a thousand better words than I could write.


Happy dancing queens and ¡Buen Provecho!

A Winner and a (Dust It Off) Lesson

Good Monday morning! Ohhh, that is too much of an oxymoron. Kids are off to school, but I still don't feel awake. Maybe in another hour. Maybe not :)


Today is day 3 of the Dust It Off bloghop. First let us give thanks to Theresa and Courtney. This has been a wonderful experience and lots of fun. Thanks, ladies!


Quick recap - 
Day 1: Our Pitch (1-2 sentences)
Day 2: Our Excerpt (300 words) 


So today we post what we learned my our shelved MS. I've learned so much from writing HOW SNOW CAME TO THE DESERT, most of it what NOT to do. 


Do NOT query a 167,000 word manuscript.
Do NOT try to write a perfect first draft. Does NOT happen.
Do NOT fill the first 50 pages with back info. 
Do NOT over use any words ending in -ly.
Do NOT think modifiers help explain a scene or a sentence.
Do NOT tell your readers what is happening - show it.
Do NOT make your antagonist evil just for the sake of evil. He/she needs an agenda like everyone else.
Do NOT think your best friends or family members make good critique partners.
Do NOT let your MC be swept away by the story. Give them the broom and let them do the sweeping. Otherwise, you end up with MaryJane - the perfect person who never does anything wrong but must overcome  putting your readers to sleep.
Finally, The End is NOT the end. It's only the beginning.


And now... drum roll please... the winner of my first blog birthday giveaway... the number drawn by my 12-year-old... Commenter #7 on my day one blog birthday post... 

 COURTNEY PEARSON!!! 

Congrats, Courtney! The blogshpere must be thanking you for a job well done on Dust If Off :) I will contact you about the details.


Thank you, dear bloggers, for all your support and kind words during this blog hop. Love was spread far and wide. Writers are the best at supporting each other, aren't we?


Keep spreading the love and ¡Buen Provecho!

Dust It Off Bloghop Day 2

 Bienvenidos to Day 2 of the DUST IT OFF blog hop! Thanks to Theresa and Courtney for hosting such a wonderful hop! Today we post some of our fav words from our older MS. Here's 275 that I'm particularly fond of  :)

       (Set up: Brisana, 16, has been captured by were-jaguars. She has shared her meal with one of them while the others sleep in the hopes of gaining an ally and discovering exactly what they want with her.)

“Not bad at all,” she said smiling. “Would you like some more?”

Garfa smiled, too, and nodded. Between the two of them, they finished off all of the soup, more ending up in Garfa’s belly than in Brisana’s, but both equally satisfied. As he laid back against the rock behind them, she decided now was the best time to strike up a friendly conversation. “My name’s Brisana. What’s yours?”

“Garfa,” he replied, the words rolling from his contented mouth.

“And the others?”

“There’s Dura and Zope, big imbeciles, and the other is Garra. He’s the biggest and best of all of us besides General Matanza, And he’s my brother,” he said proudly.

His pride fell on deaf ears as Brisana wondered about the one he named that wasn’t there. “Who’s General Matanza?”

“He’s the one in charge since Don Frío was taken from us. He didn’t come because he doesn’t like work is my opinion, but he says he has much to prepare for your coming.”

This friendly conversation had taken a darker turn than Brisana would have liked. “What does he want me for?” she asked, knowing she most likely wasn’t going to like the answer.

She didn’t. “The only thing I can think of is to eat,” Garfa answered honestly. Then seeing the horrified expression on Brisana’s face, he added in his most sincere voice, “Don’t worry. I’m sure you’ll be dead before then.”

Thanks for taking a peek! 

More happy hopping and ¡Buen Provecho!

Happy Blog Birthday and the Dust It Off bloghop!

One year ago today I published my first post, Bienvenidos. Here we are, 2500 views, 64 posts, 57 followers and 12 months later. I've learned so much:


1. Bloghops/fests are fun and great way to meet others
2. Don't wait to get comments; give comments early and often
3. Blogging not only helps your discipline, writing, and networking, but is also the best tool to find the one thing that every writer needs to identify: your voice.


Thank you, dear bloggers, for hanging in there with me. Your views and comments mean the world!

And what birthday would be complete without a present? As my birthday gift to you, I will randomly select one lucky commenter to win a $10 e-certificate to your choice of either Amazon or Barnes and Noble. To enter, simply follow me and leave a comment below by midnight Sun 5/6. I will announce the winner Monday 5/7 on the last day of a very cool bloghop.

The DUST IT OFF Bloghop starts today. From Theresa Paolo:

We've all had those manuscripts that we poured our heart into, fell in love with the characters and still think of them at random, but unfortunately had to shelf. Now it's time for a little spring cleaning. Take out those manuscripts and Dust It Off!

The first day, May 3rd: We want you to post a 1-2 sentence pitch (Great way to practice pitches) about the shelved WIP.


The second day, May 5th: Post your favorite excerpt (300-350 words)


The third day, May 7th: Post what you learned from this WIP. You become a stronger, more rounded writer which each manuscript and we want to know what this particular work taught you.

She and co-host Cortney Pearson will be giving away great prizes, too! For all the info, check out DUST IT OFF. Go ahead and start today.

Now, for my logline.

Dusting off trunked manuscript. Cyber coughs ensue :)

From my first novel, HOW SNOW CAME TO THE DESERT:


Deep in the misty mountains of Oldest Mexico, sixteen-year-old Brisana's rare half-human blood awakens a thought-to-be extinct race of monstrous jaguar warriors. In order to protect the home she loves, she must figure out how her mythical Latino ancestors once defeated these monsters and whether or not a half-blood chica can, too.

Happy hopping and ¡Buen Provecho!

¡Lunes Libro Fantástico!: ZERO by Tom Leveen

Whoa.

That was all I could say when I finished reading Tom Leveen's newest YA book ZERO.

Whoa.

From tomleveen.com:

Here’s the thing:

For aspiring artist Amanda Walsh, who only half-jokingly goes by the nickname Zero, the summer before college was supposed to be fun—plain and simple. Hanging out with her best friend Jenn, going to clubs, painting, and counting down the days until her escape. But when must-have scholarship money doesn’t materialize, and she has a falling out with Jenn that can only be described as majorly awkward, and Zero’s parents relationship goes from tense to relentless fighting, her prospects start looking as bleak and surreal as a painting by her idol Salvador Dali. Will life truly imitate art? Will her new, unexpected relationship with a punk skater boy who seems too good to be real and support from the unlikeliest of sources show Zero that she’s so much more than a name.


ZERO is an unflinching story of a seventeen-year-old teen artist and the overwhelming insecurities that go along with it. Tom Leveen uses words to paint images so vivid  (just like the main character does) that you'd swear the pages were type-set in technicolor. Each word is a brushstroke, used to create an unforgettable picture. Like the music of the early 90s punk scene that ZERO is set in, the book grabs you by the throat, screaming at you to take notice. Tom Leveen's writing gives us a raw look at one girl's life in a voice that defies not to be heard. This book is not for the faint of heart; it deals honestly, painfully sometimes, with such heavy topics as alcoholism, family dysfunction, and the loss of innocence. The author has laid this character out bare, her soul exposed for us to see. Both we and Zero are better for of it.

ZERO is available now. I rate it M for Mature, not only for the aforementioned subjects, for rough language as well. In the older-teen world of punk bands such as Bad Religion and Social Distortion, the language, like the rest of the book, is an honest depiction.

One of my fav lines:
"Our breath mingles between us, still dusted lightly with ice cream sugar."

Happy kissing, I mean reading, and ¡Buen Provecho!

Thursday Thirteen Update: Mmm, Published!

Erin and her advanced copy!

Ok, it's not so much an update as it is an announcement. And not so much on the Thursday Thirteen itself, but on someone who reviewed on it. On April 12, Erin from Mmm, Waffles guest-reviewed The Goose Girl for the Thursday Thirteen. Well, guess what? As of last week, she is now a published author! Erin wrote an article, "The Dystopian Future in Joss Whedon's Work," that is not only to be published online but in book form, too. Joss Whedon: The Complete Companion will be available May 4 and is touted as the unofficial essential guide to the Whedonverse. Over 40 contributor were brought together to give their thoughts on every aspect of Joss Whedon's works, like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Firefly. And our lovely Miss Erin is one of them! You can read her thoughts about reaching this personal milestone here at her blog. Be sure to follow her, too. I believe she's going places and can take us along for the ride. 


Congrats, my dear friend!


And to the rest of us, ¡Buen Provecho!

Revision Vision

I've been blogger MIA recently. Oh, there's been a contest announcement here or a Thursday Thirteen there, but that's been about it. As much as I enjoy blogging and love sharing my mindless ramblings to what I'm sure is an enraptured audience, I finally figured something out. If I wasn't working on getting published, I'd have nothing really interesting to blog about. So for the last three weeks, I've been more disciplined about revising the heap of puzzled garbage that is my NaNoWriMo novel. Here's what it looks like now: 

There's notes defining the different rules for different settings and situations, character agendas, plot outlines, and more red ink that I can bear. 

I think next time, I'll start this way instead. Maybe I'm more of a plotter than I think. 


Are you a pantser? How do you clean up the mess that is left after you dive into a story without knowing exactly where its going to end up?


Happy writing and ¡Buen Provecho!