Cover and Contest!

My newest novel, NEVER THAT FAR, is published and released TODAY by Shadow Mountain.  a huge thank you to Jennifer De Chiara and Steve Fraser who represented me for this deal. And a big thank you to the amazing Lisa Mangum, my editor at Shadow Mountain.

A normal person could post a pic. I cannot. But, dagnabit, I will by end of today. So until then, imagine a pretty cover

 

 

HERE

 

 

Now! Here’s the contest! If you go to FB, you can add your goals under this post there.

I’m getting ready for a sing off! And I’m challenging Trent Reedy. And Claudia Mills, too! Yes! Where? At WIFYR this June!

We’re getting the ball rolling a little early with Getting Ready for WIFYR Writing Contest where you might win a book or two. My newest novel NEVER THAT FAR is one of the prizes. So is Trent Reedy’s book DIVIDED WE FALL.

Here’s how it works:

Say what your writing goal is for April AND May (I’ll reveal my goals tomorrow). And the most amazing Stephanie Moore will keep track of things for us.

You get to put your name in our virtual drawing if you sign up to play, if you complete your writing weekly goals, meet your goal, and every check-in on our Friday FB post. Invite all your friends! Got friends on Twitter? Instagram? Invite them, too!

The writing goals can be whatever you want them to be: 50 words a day, 5000 words a day or anything in between. They can be editing goals, if you like. Anything to help you get ready for our week-long writing conference this June.

The winner will be randomly drawn and notified on June 1, 2018.
Then we’ll pop the prize in the mail (US residents only), signed to you.
Woot woot!

But that’s not all.

Trent and I will have a sing off at WIFYR. Or we’ll sing a duet. Or something.
And Claudia Mills? That will be a flannel shirt wear-off contest .

Oh my gosh, this just keeps on giving.

So join us for our Getting Ready for WIFYR Writing Contest.

(You DO NOT have to attend WIFYR to play. But if you want to register, go here: http://www.wifyr.com. There are a few spaces open, but many of the classes are almost closed.)

What YOU Can Create

So these last two days I’ve been shuffling pages this way and that, adding sections and rewriting my murder mystery WOLF. That means I missed yesterday and Monday’s prompts.

As the conference roars closer, I have to finalize things there.

Here are all five prompts, the last of them, before WIFYR 2017!

#50

What are the significant events in you book? Write them down, in order. Do they rise in tension, causing more at stake for your main character? Is the tension tightened with these events?

#51

Write the most important scene from the point of view of a person watching it unfold, not experiencing it. Pay particular attention to sense of place details. How does this inform your novel?

#52

Choose your five favorite novels. Break away from series and the same genre.

Using each book as an example, rewrite one page of your story, from the opening, imitating each book.

So page one will be like Harry Potter, page two will be like The Road, page three will be like THIS IS WHAT I DID etc.

What do you learn? Can you take any of this and put it in your writing?

#53

Take 15 minutes to put yourself in a scene with your main character. Make it a tough scene. Write what you talk about.

#54

If you have done all these prompts, which one has helped you the most? Why? How can you use this in more of your writing?

 

Okay, Everyone (all three of you!). I’m off.

Will see you in July!

Happy WIFYR. Happy writing. Happy life.

ALA and A Lot of Colons?

Last week’s Writing and Illustrating for Young Readers revealed some new, cool stuff we’ll do next year:

Practicums, 1-day, 2-day, 3-day workshops, as well as the normal 5-day workshops we have now.

Early registration.

Cute John Cusick.

We’re going to focus even more to help people publish.

And woot woot about that!

We’ll let you all know as the time draws closer.

 

Other things:

My dear friend Kathi Appelt taught about worrying the reader. I love that line. The reader should always be ready and willing to worry for a character.

And Ernest Robertson won the $1000 fellowship.

I had an amazing class. AMAZING. SO much talent in there.

 

Then:

In a couple of days I’m off to ALA and to meet my new Zondervan editor.

Yippee!!!!

Not sure which of my girls is going with. Perhaps I’ll go alone.

When I get back will my house have another new coat of paint somewhere? We’re in a place we can paint as we want. And Laura painted the dining room and nearly all the living room over the course of two or three weeks. While Nina was gone to Girls Camp, Laura and I painted her room. And while I was at WIFYR, Laura and Nina painted my room. SO COOL. This place has been melon-colored and icky-green for a million years.

So: no more posts from me (including 3 Thing Thursday) as I will be gone.

 

But next week, we’re starting again: writing and reading and loving and talking and being writers together.

🙂

 

Kyra Leigh, Queen Bee!

I haven’t been posting and I’m sorry. I got swamped with work, my pretend boyfriend going back to Florida, writing, new roommates, and a buncha other stuff.
But I will do better.

Isn’t that something we always say? That we’ll do better? I guess the only way to do that is to actually try. So I will try. Trytrytry.

It’s March and I have blue hair and there was a big snowstorm and I still can’t get inspired. Although, my  new roommate gave me an oldschool typewriter for my writing days that I’m doing with my favorite friend. The typewriter is gorgeous and amazing and I think it actually works. Just needs some tweaking. Now I can say that I’m almost a real writer.

I  know it’s already the four days into March, but I have some goals I would really like to accomplish this month.

One of those goals is to finish my novel. I’m about twenty thousand words in, and I sort of feel like it’s not very good. But all I can do is keep on writing!

How’s the writing for all you guys? Better than me, I hope!

One good thing I have to say is the WIFYR conference is just a few months away and I can’t wait! I think this will be one of the best years. So let’s get our novels finished and ready to submit and critique and all that other good jazz.