A new video in the “It Gets Better” series. I’m posting this because I found it on a book blog this week, watched it, and recognized something about halfway through the video. A group of authors share their “It Gets Better” message and they are wearing my husband’s high school’s sweatshirts. They were the group of authors who came to his high school a few weeks back. I was thrilled when I saw it! And very proud. Also, the video is very important and wonderful.
May 312011
Storytellers Worth Reading
My incredible friend and secret sister Margo Lerwill has released her first self-published story on Amazon this weekend. The cover is to die for. I haven’t finished reading it yet but I love Margo’s voice and her style is accessible and evocative. I was honored when she asked me to design the template for her new blog where she showcases some of her writing – Unsafe Haven. It is also where you can get more information on purchasing her new short story Dis. If you haven’t purchased it yet, go do so now. .99 at Amazon and worth all 99 pennies.
via Amazon
Colbie Moss has bigger concerns than being one of the dísir, the undead avatars of the Norse spirits of fate known as Norns. She has lost a mythic blade entrusted to her by her uptight yuppie mentor, no less than a Norse god of old. Now the blade is in the middle of a gang war that has left a beloved friend on the brink of death. Colbie will have to decide how far she is willing to go to recover the blade, save her friend’s soul, and keep gods and Norns alike from getting wind of the collateral damage.
“Dis” is an Urban Midgard short story, approximately 8,900 words (or roughly 30 pages) of urban fantasy with a noir sensibility that will appeal to fans of Jim Butcher, Seanan McGuire, and Laurell K. Hamilton.
I was impulsive this weekend and started making changes to my blog before I even knew what I wanted. It took almost 20 hours for me to stop messing around with the header, but I love how it turned out. I spent most of those 20 hours paging through examples of art deco and old World’s Fair Expo posters for inspiration. There are stories I’ve written that I’ve done less research on than I did for my new blog look.
You’ll notice most of the colors are the same – I am a girl who likes what she likes.
There is only one sidebar now, a lot of extra stuff is either gone or rearranged. The Archives, Calendar, and current posts has been moved to the footer.
I’ve included a place where I can showoff self-published stories by some of my awesome blog friends. Elemental by the lovely Emily White has not been released yet, but you can follow her blog for when it is released. (Also isn’t that cover gorgeous!)
I have a Twitter widget too now because I am enjoying Twitter a lot more than I used to. I am more active in the late evening though.
My bio page (now Chronography) has been updated and will continue to be until I’m happy with it, and the College of Blogging page has been updated with all of my College of Blogging posts.
I have also added a form to the bottom of College of Blogging page where you can submit questions about blogging and blog programs and other design questions. I’ll do what I can to help any time 
Because I now have Wicked & Tricksy to write about writing, I would like to spend more time here talking about my personal life as a writer, social media, and all the different genres I find so fantastic. I would like to share some of my favorite bits of research and inspirations. Irony, since I talk so much about professional blogging, but I am yearning to lean more toward the personal. I’m not sure what form this will take, but I very much look forward to finding out.
Speaking of, if you haven’t signed up yet for a Wicked & Tricksy bookmark, you can still do so for a few more days. They are lovely, I hope you want one
Apr 122011
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a slip of a book published in 1886 by Robert Louis Stevenson. A story of good vs evil within every man, this book introduced the world to one of the most intriguing and terrifying literary monsters of all time.
Among the great names in literary history that I discussed yesterday, Jekyll and Hyde are right up there. The term Jekyll and Hyde is now used to describe someone with two opposite personalities inside of them. It is used as a humorous comparison or as an honest assessment of someone with severe mental and emotional issues. These are powerful names.
Today’s post is a celebration of literary monsters and the authors who penned them. Without these greats, we wouldn’t have half the supernatural fiction we have today.
Monster roll call!
Jekyll and Hyde in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, 1886
Martians in War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells, 1898
The Dunwich Horror in The Dunwich Horror by H.P. Lovecraft, 1929
Dracula in Dracula by Bram Stoker, 1897
Griffin in The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells, 1897
The Monster in Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, 1818
Morlock in The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, 1895
Moreau & the Beast Men in The Island of Doctor Moreau by H.G. Wells, 1896
Oh, everyone in The Shadow over Innsmouth by H.P. Lovecraft, 1931
Who is my favorite literary monster? That would be The Monster in Frankenstein, although I’ve got a soft spot for anything by H.P. Lovecraft. I love Dracula, don’t get me wrong, but there is something about the way the novel Frankenstein makes me feel…I don’t know. There are just some books that are more important to you, and no explanation would be adequate, you know? I have the same knee-jerk loyalty to The Great Gatsby and the poem Rime of the Ancient Mariner. I can’t tell you why I love them so much, I just do, and that’s all there is to say about it.
I really wish they’d make a modern movie based on Frankenstein and yes please I’d like either Christopher Nolan or Guiellermo Del Toro to direct. I think it is time the monster and the mad scientist reenter the public hearts and minds. I am very, very, very, very excited about a YA book coming out on August 23rd by Kenneth Oppel called This Dark Endeavor: The Apprenticeship of Victor Frankenstein. *nerdlove squee!*
Have I missed any great literary mosnters? Who are your favorites?
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The very cool Nathan Bransford is hosting a contest on his blog RIGHT NOW that everyone with a work in progress should rush over and enter right away. Granted, you’re going up against yours truly and like 700 other entrants, but if you’ve got the chops you’re going to do just fine.
THE CONTEST:
The 4th Sort-of-Annual Stupendously Ultimate First Paragraph Challenge
PRIZES: (via Nathan’s blog, please see his blog for full prizes and full rules)
1) The opportunity to have a partial manuscript considered by my utterly fantastic agent, Catherine Drayton of InkWell, whose clients include bestselling authors such as Markus Zusak (THE BOOK THIEF), John Flanagan (THE RANGER’S APPRENTICE series) and Becca Fitzpatrick (HUSH HUSH), among others.
2) A signed advance copy of my novel, JACOB WONDERBAR AND THE COSMIC SPACE KAPOW, which is coming out in May:
RULES (via. See for full list of rules):
Post the first paragraph of any work-in-progress in the comments section of the contest post HERE. Do not email. The deadline for entry is Thursday 4pm Pacific time, at which point entries will be closed. Finalists will be announced…. sometime after that. When the finalists are announced you will exercise your democratic rights to vote for a stupendously ultimate winner.
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Even if you don’t enter (and if you do) your second mission (which I’m assigning you) is to go over and read at least 100 entries. Pick them at random so you get a good sampling across the 700+ entries submitted.
Read. Evaluate for yourself. Keep a short list of dynamite first paragraphs and see if your taste is the same as Nathan’s. Learn from those who are putting themselves out there. Decide what really doesn’t work at why. Figure out why some speak to you louder than others.
Report back what you learned. Don’t repost anyone’s stuff but tell me what you discovered about what you like, what you don’t like, and what works. We’ll compare notes after the finalists are announced. I have already picked 15 I think are pretty fantastic. Now we wait and see.
Good luck to everyone entering! I am in the first 100 posted, if you are interested. I suspect the finalists are going to learn what terror tastes like as soon as they see their names listed. I almost feel bad for them. At least when you query agents it’s just you and the agent judging your writing worth. This contest is going to invite hundreds of other writers into the room to weigh and measure you. I’m pretty sure terrifying doesn’t even cover it.
#5 -
How to Say Goodbye in Robot by Natalie Standiford
Read in: May
The secondary characters win this book. I cried and for days couldn’t stop thinking about it. Any story that sticks with me that long deserves a place in my top five.
#4 –
Read in: October
Historical sci-fi with steampunk and fantasy, but that’s not why this book was such a great read. I’m crazy in love with the plight of these characters. I want their secrets to finally be shared.
#3 – 
Paranormalcy by Kiersten White
Read in: September
Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets Supernatural, there is nothing but witty dialogue, hot make-outs, characters with fully formed flaws and heroics and desires. Paranormalcy is sad and funny and sometimes scary. Also, cute girls with tasers and attitudes, man who wouldn’t love this book?
#2 –
Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta
Read in: March
Melina Marchetta knows the secret words of my heart. Jellicoe Road is complicated and satisfying with a main character, Taylor, who is broken and tough at the same time. Her relationship with Jonah Griggs, her absent family, and the other players of the territory wars makes for gripping friendship and several kisses that explode on page. If I had only one book to recommend to anyone, this one be it.
#1 -
The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson
Read in: June
It’s Jandy’s writing that steals the reader’s soul in The Sky is Everywhere. After the shocking death of her sister, Lennie isn’t dealing well. She’s heartbroken and lost but she’s also having unexpected and terrifying desires towards her sister’s boyfriend and a new boy at school who adopts her family even as it suffers under the weight of its own grief. Lennie falls in love with the whole world in order to fill the empty place her sister left behind, all the while feeling herself fading from the sun. It is beautiful and funny, sad and lonely, sexy and sweet, and the way the characters kiss each other you’d think they were suffocating apart. Grief and growth has never felt so real.
Dec 172010
Friday! Friday! Friday! Ohmygod it is finally friday.
Has this been the weirdest week for anyone else? I don’t know. I finished Matched by Ally Condie which was amazing and almost everything I had heard it would be. Can’t wait for the next book. Also, having read the book now, the cover is incredibly appropriate. Speaking of Matched, author Melissa Walker has recently interviewed Ally Condie about her cover. Check it out here.
News! And! Links!
I can’t go another day without posting about this, but my secretsister Margo over at Urban Psychopomp posted four days worth of informative adrenaline shots to fix your saggy middles (as in, of the manuscript you are currently writing, not the Christmas 5 we’ve all been packing on.) This was so timely for me because I’ve got nothing but saggy, soggy, lumpy, unhappy middle bits sandwiched between a beautiful beginning and a decent end. Her ideas about fixing a saggy middle aren’t unique, but they are written in such a way that actually makes sense and feels easily applicable. I can’t recommend her more.
Musings of a Palindrome posted pictures beautiful and inspiring riffing on the theme of white (which incidently, is the color of my current world. Unfortunately there is ice under 
the snow from a tuesday night sleeting and I’m unwilling to scoop the snow away only to fall on my butt every 2 steps down my driveway.)
Stephanie Perkins has a great post chock full of info including favorite books. Her new book Anna and the French Kiss is on my Christmas List. Is it on yours?
Courtney Summers’ new book, Fall for Anything, comes out on Tuesday, December 21st!!! FINALLY. I am so dying to read this book. It would be on my Christmas List except that I won a copy from Courtney’s blog and should arrive by way of Amazon and UPS on tuesday. Score!
Steampunk! Steampunk! Steampunk! There’s never enough steampunk, and over at the blog Chasing Ray, the steampunk never stops. Check out this week’s Steampunk/Alternate History Week.
Stranger than Fiction
New strain of bacteria is killing the Titanic. As sad as it will be to lose this piece of history, I find it amusing that the first comment on the article seems to be in excited hope that this bacteria will finally create zombies.
Red Sea shark attacks puzzle scientists - there is at least one Jaws inspired shark in this area of the Red Sea attacking people . . . more people recently than in the last ten years combined. Also, it is an area not known for shark populations of any kind. Strange but true or a viral marketing campaign for Jaws 4 gone too far? Hah! Ok, maybe I’m not that funny this morning. Sorry, it is pre-coffee time for me.
Britain tripled its college tuition last week and the student population went crazy in a very revolutionary way – they rioted and attacked the prince’s car and set a giant christmas tree on fire and became a force of nature to be reconed with. Ever notice that people in Europe are fearless against their government and have a long and triumphant history of overthrowing their leaders when their leaders push them too far? Notice how Americans don’t really do that and we just let things happen and complain about it on our Facebooks instead? I wonder why that is?
The rare and beautiful 19th century book “Birds of America” sold at aution for $10 million. There is hope that the new owner will not break the book up and sell the pages individually. I have no problem dog earing my books, but the thought of cutting up this very, very, very rare book and selling it in pieces makes me feel incredibly sick to my stomach. I hope the new owner thinks twice lest he be pitchforked and torched by a mob of bibliophiles.
Extreme moments of 2010, a Mumified Forest, and the GAP with the worst marketing team in the world are also news worthy. My favorite news item? This video of an enchanted lighthouse encased in ice…it is a YA urban fantasy waiting to happen, don’t you think? Gorgeous.
FUN WITH SEARCH TERMS!
I can tell its finals week because here at Tell Great Stories, I’ve got so many people searching for book theme help I might as well open up my own shop and dispense advice on book themes ala Lucy. Hey, maybe that’s a good idea! All I can say is, kids! Read the books you are assigned. Your teachers google your papers and they will know if you cheated. I know for a fact they google your papers. So cut it out.
Here are some exact searches on books and themes that led students to me:
- dreamland by sarah dessen theme
- the maze runner quotes about survival
- good vs evil theme in watchmen
- political themes in watchmen
- socially unacceptalbe things holden caulfield
- too much violence in the outsiders
- how to katniss characterized
- quotes for the book “ruined” by maula morris
- why is katniss significant from the novel
- theme of the book sunrise over fallujah
- why the book the outsiders should have been banned
- what’s the climax to ruined by paula morris
- literary elements in sunrise over fallujah
- what is the outsiders book message
I’ve got lots of searchings for Maslow’s Hierarchy Pyramid (which if you’ll remember, I wrote about in terms of writing dystopian fiction.) Some are really strange which leads me to believe those doing the searching do not know who or what Maslow and his pyramid are. Sigh. My favorites are that apparently Pies need maslow too and that apparently Maslow needs an island. And why not?
- the maslow’s hierarchy of needs for drinking
- Maslow heirarchy of needs in a distopia
- entertainment in maslow heirarchy of needs
- what if a need isn’t fulfilled in maslow
- maslows triangle of wants and needs
- pies needs maslow
- maslow’s hierarchy of needs for video games
- maslow hierarcy of needs deserted island
- maslow needs island
I did have one really cool search “Why teach dystopian?” which I think is an excellent question which I will answer right after Christmas!
Dec 142010
Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld
- For people who like… steampunk, monsters, battle technology, history rewrites, intriguing mysteries, war heroes, deception, science, awesome world building, romanticized war
- Ages: 12+
- Parent warnings: No warnings – the characters spend most of the book being chased by bad guys.
- NOTES: #1 in a series. Second book is available called Behemoth.
Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson
- For people who like… contemporary stories about boys told by a teenage boy
- Ages: 14+
- Parent warnings: Deals with a character breaking rules, a parent mentally and emotionally traumatizing his kids, and an implied sexual situation blamed on the wrong person. All of it is told in an honest, real way that opens up dialogue about being a high school boy.
- NOTES: My husband taught this book in his high school English classes and the boys who NEVER read devoured this book.
The Rise of Renegade X by Chelsea M. Campbell
- For people who like… villains, superheroes, super powers, and for people who sometimes like the villain more than the hero. Also for anyone who loved Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog
- Ages: 14+
- Parent warnings: The story is about a teenage supervillain in a world where superheroes and supervillains are common and accepted. The supervillain kid is not necessarily a nice person all of the time.
- NOTES: For an adult version of this same sort of story, please check out Soon I Will Be Invincible – the best superhero book ever written – told in alternating viewpoints of the supervillain and one of the superheroes. It is also appropriate for older teenagers.
The Maze Runner by James Dashner
- For people who like… The Hunger Games, LOST, Lord of the Flies, dystopian fiction, survival fiction, stories with strong boy characters, heroes, super-governments
- Ages: 14+
- Parent warnings: The story has some kids put in danger and shows a world with kids living without parental supervision
- NOTES: This book only has male characters until the very end when one female is introduced to the story. Very good for reluctant boy readers. This book is the first in a series, the second THE SCORCH TRIALS is out and can also be purchased.
The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner
- For people who like… Dungeons & Dragons, roleplaying games, World of Warcraft, low fantasy, mythology, video game roleplaying games, mysteries, story twists
- Ages: 14+
- Parent warnings: The main character, a prisoner, is kind of mouthy to those who hold him captive. They are not very nice to him.
- NOTES: The first of a series of books, all of which are available for purchase.
Day 30.
On the final day of NaNoWriMo I want to share my hero with you. I discovered his writing through a comic book/graphic novel series he wrote and from there I gleefully hunted down his novels, his weird and wonderful graphic novels, and all of his brilliant essays. I chased down hard to find novellas on ebay and I devoured every word he ever wrote. He was the sort of author I wanted to emulate. His dark, beautiful world was the sort of world I wanted to play in. I wanted to try out a hundred different forms of storytelling, just like him.
Neil Gaiman is a legend. He’s done comics, essays, movies, novels, sequels, children’s books, plays for voices, and television shows. He’s collaborated with musicians and artists, sculptors and producers. He’s brilliant and funny and humble and real. He gives great advice.
His essay Some Strangeness in the Proportion: The Exquisite Beauties of Edgar Allan Poe is about the way Poe influenced and mesmerized him which, as it turns out, is nearly word for word the way I’ve felt about his own writing since I was a teenager. I think we all have author heroes, authors we want to be like, and they invite us to experiment with words and worlds and ideas in a way we may not have ever given ourselves permission to do without them quietly influencing us.
Maybe this would have been a good cookie to start out with on November 1st, but what I think we really need is to give ourselves permission and find inspiration to continue exploring the boundaries of our talents and ideas and to push beyond November. NaNoWriMo may be over, but the spirit of creation and imagination doesn’t have to be. Give yourself permission to tap into the excitement of November whenever you need to. Give yourself permission to be awesome. Give yourself permission to suck. Give yourself permission to just see what happens.
So I’ll leave you with Neil Gaiman reading his poem “Instructions” about how to make it through a fairy tale (advice I think we could all use), and his essay on Poe, and it may inspire you or it may not. If it doesn’t, I invite you to find something of your own author hero and post it here. Share with everyone what inspires you so that it might inspire someone else.
I’ll see you all at the finish line at midnight tonight.
-Sommer Leigh
Poe’s stories — even his humourous tales, even his detective stories — are populated by amnesiacs and obsessives, by people doomed to remember what they desire only to forget, and are told by madmen and liars and lovers and ghosts. They are powered by what remains untold as much as by what Poe tells us, each of them split and shivered by a crack as deep and as dangerous as the fissure that runs from top to bottom of the gloomy house inhabited by Roderick and Madeline Usher. -Neil Gaiman
