Winner and Blurb Announced

Monday, December 20, 2010
First of all, thanks for all your help with my blurb. The majority of you liked a combination of 1 and 3. I've been playing with it to try and get it right. Here's what I have so far:

The world is changing.


For thousands of years, witch song has controlled everything from the winds to the shifting of the seasons. But not anymore. All the Witches are gone, taken captive by the dark witch Espen.

All but one.

As the last echoes of witch song fade, Espen grows stronger even as winter and summer come within the space of a day. Now she’s coming for the one she missed—Brusenna, a shy, untrained girl of fifteen.

Somehow, Brusenna has to succeed where every other Witch has failed. Find Espen. Fight her. Defeat her.

Or there won’t be anything left to save.

Whaddya think??? Does it flow well? Do you have a good idea what the story is about? Any confusing parts?
Second of all, it's time to announce the winner as chosen by random.org:

YzhaBella's BookShelf

*throws confetti*

Thanks so much for all your help everyone.

Help Pick my Cover Blurb, Win Forest of Hands and Teeth

Wednesday, December 15, 2010
The dreaded cover blurb. I have to take my entire manuscript and condense it into a few compact, tantilizing, info-packed paragraphs.

No worries though. It only goes on the back cover. Which most everyone reads to see if they actually want to BUY the book. No problem at all. If I fail, no one will purchase my book, forcing me to buy hundreds of copies of Witch Song so I don't feel like an idiot.

I'm not worried.

At all.

*curls into the fetal position and chants, "Blurb, blurb, blurb."*

Can you see the drool running down my chin? Cause I'm not taking a picture. You'll have to use your imagination folks.
After much hair pulling, drooling, and rocking, here's what I've come up with. And lucky you, you get to vote. Everyone who votes will be entered to win a paperback copy of The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan. If you share this link on facebook, twitter, blog, etc, you get 1 extra point (leave me the link). I'll pick a winner next week.

Choice 1:

The world is changing. Once, the witches controlled everything from the winds to the shifting of the seasons. But not anymore. All the Witches are gone. Taken captive by a traitor.

All but Brusenna. Hidden away from the truth by her overprotective mother, she knows so little about saving the world. But with Summer and Winter coming in the space of a day, she’s the only choice the world has left.

Because if she fails to free the other witches, there won’t be anything left to save.

Choice 2:

Fourteen-year old Brusenna is the last Witch. All the others have been imprisoned by the Dark Witch. And the without the Witches’ songs to shore up the bindings of nature, storms rage, climates cross hardened boundaries, and seeds refuse to germinate.

Hiding from the Witch Hunters and their muskets, Brusenna and her Guardian, Joshen, must find the key to defeating the Dark Witch and rescuing the others. Because if not, there won’t be anything left to save.

Choice 3:

Brusenna is a Witch

With little more than a melody, all the plants within the sound of her voice grow and bend to her will. Collectively, the witches control the winds, the storms, even the changing of the seasons.

But all that was before—before the others were taken by the Dark Witch. (94) Before she sent her Witch Hunters after the rumor that turned out to be Brusenna.

As the echo of their songs fade, the Dark Witch grows stronger. And now she’s coming for Brusenna. She has her Guardian to protect her. But even he can’t stop the Dark Witch. Somehow, she has to succeed where every other witch has failed. She has to find her. Fight her. Defeat her.

Because if she fails, there won’t be anything left to save.

Get Some Character Sparkle

Monday, December 13, 2010
No, not like Edward Cullen sparkle-in-the-sunlight sparkle.

I'm talking about how do you take your characters from flat to three dimensional and dynamic?

First of all, look at writers who are great at characterization. Stephanie Meyer immediately comes to mind. Now you can say what you like about Twilight, but there are very few authors whose books inspire the debate that her characters do ("Are you Team Edward or Team Jacob?"). Her characters had personalities that run the board from shy to overt and everything in between.

Have you ever noticed that Stephanie compares her characters to animals? If you think about it at all, you'll quickly realize that Edward is the powerful, sleek cougar who's trying not to eat the shy, wide-eyed doe (Bella).

The best writers use simple methods. This is one of them. Pick an animal avatar for your character. Is your hero a small, cunning fox? A powerful, roaring bear? A delicate and flighty bird?

Another method is to use personality colors. There are lots of different systems out there. I use Hartman. In a nutshell:

Red (the power wielders)
Blue (the do-gooders)
White (the peacekeepers)
Yellow (the fun lovers)

Everyone has one dominate and one or more passive traits.

In Witch Song:
Senna is a white blue
Joshen is a yellow blue

Senna is naturally shy and fearful. Her avatar is an abused dog. She longs to bond with someone, but she's been maltreated to much to trust. Joshen loves people and food . . . and well everything. He's the optimist of the two of them. He's always seeing adventure in and excitement in even mundane things.

Any guesses as to what his avatar is?

A monkey. *giggle*

See how much fun it is when you know a few tricks?

What tricks do you use?

Daughter of Winter

Monday, December 6, 2010
Daughter of Winter

Left to die after a neighboring clan invades, seventeen-year old Ilyenna is healed by Winter Faeries who present her with a seductive offer: become one with them and their power. But to do so would mean rejecting her humanity and abandoning her clan.

Unwilling to forsake either, Ilyenna is subsequently abducted and enslaved by Darrien—who she later discovers is in league with the outside invaders, the Raiders, who have set their sights on her clan. In order to warn the High Council, Ilyenna manages to escape. But Darrien once again proves his cunning by convincing the Council that she is lying.

But they are wrong—and Ilyenna knows it.

With the Raiders coming over the mountains and Darrien coming to take her to his bed, she’ll have to decide whether to resurrect the power the faeries left behind. Doing so will allow her to defeat both Darrien and the Raiders. But if she embraces Winter, she’ll lose herself to that destroying power—forever.

Exerpt

Ilyenna’s horse danced nervously beneath her; the animal’s hooves making hard clicking sounds against the snow-buried stones that coated the land like dragon eggs. Reaching down, she patted her mare’s golden neck. “Easy, Myst. What’s the matter girl?”

“There.” Her father pointed at the base of a hillock, not fifty paces off.

Tymon soundlessly pulled an arrow from his quiver and nocked it. “Bear?” he directed the question at their father.

The word stirred unseen currents of tension in Ilyenna’s body. The cold stung her checks and formed a
vapor of moisture no matter how shallow she breathed. Unconsciously, her hand gripped the knife belted around her bulky wool coat as she glanced up and down the road.

“I think it’s a horse,” Tymon finally said.

Ilyenna eased her mare forward for a better look. “Then where is the ride—” her words died in her throat when she saw a motionless grey lump at the horse’s feet. Without thought, she booted her mare’s ribs.

“Stop!” her father cried at the same time Tymon called, “Ilyenna!”

 

Pics for Witch Song Trailer

Wednesday, December 1, 2010
I thought I'd share some of my favorite pics from my book trailer. Ones that, though I love, we won't be using.
Now you see her

Now you don't


Marcey has such beautiful hair.

Isn't my brother, Adam, hot?

The cape looks awesome in this one.

Beautiful light.

This one was second in line for the first pic in the trailer.

There's an awesome scene in the book where Senna runs through a corn field. Marcey was so brave, cause there was an enormous swather taking down the field of corn while we were shooting this. We told her to run through it and she replied, "Toward the enormous swather."

She was such a good sport.

And my all time favorite! That's my Papa in the background.
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