Raised by Wolves is an appropriate title for this series. Bryn, the main character, lost her parents to a rabid werewolf attack, and is adopted and raised as the one of the few humans and one of the few females in the biggest werewolf pack in North America. Bryn struggles, being neither supernatural enough to fully belong to the werewolf pack nor normal enough to fit in with the regular humans. Her best friends are the only female werewolf of her generation and the pack’s first metrosexual teen male werewolf. And then she meet’s Chase (a boy who was bitten), and her world is turned upside down. But not because of romance (a la Twilight), though there is romance, but because of what Chase represents in regards to Bryn’s life in the pack and her beliefs about everything that happened before. When her whole life explodes, Bryn has to pick up the pieces, avenge her parents, and embrace the scrappy/fighter side of herself like she never has before, without getting anyone killed doing it (especially herself)!

I was pleasantly surprised last weekend to discover that RbW is a series, and the second book, Trial by Fire, came out this summer. I won’t say too much about the plot of this one, because if you haven’t read RbW already, knowing even the nutshell plot of TbF would spoil the ending for you. I will just say that TbF was even more action packed than its predecessor, and it gives us even an even more comprehensive look at what it takes to be an alpha and what pack and family really mean. Anyone who thinks that family is what you make it, not necessarily who you happen to be related to, would find a kinship in this series.

I really don’t know why the RbW series hasn’t taken off as a best seller. It’s well written, the characters are fleshed out (even the supporting cast — and paperdoll supporting cast is one of my biggest pet peeves in a novel), the main character is a girl is someone with agency (unlike Bella Swan), and there are layers upon layers of plot/intrigue that our cast has to get through to solve the mysteries in the end.

My only complaint with the series is that there is a big info dump in the first scene of RbW. That could have been smoothed out and the information brought to us later when needed. The fact that it’s in the first chapter might make someone not already sold on the author stop reading. However, once you get past that, you’re swept into a unique and interesting universe that is worth visiting and spending a little time in, and then, later, worth re-visiting.

People should get the word out there on this series. I mean, seriously, if you liked Twilight, you’d really like this. It’s so much better. I’ve done my part. Now you read it, and you start telling people. And then we can all wait for the third installment, due in June 2012

This is a Y/A paranormal about a girl named Scout. It has the typical tropes — human girl, mysterious new guy, finding out her world is not what it seems, a love triangle… But this book raises the story above and beyond the formula.

Scout (the main character) is hyper-logical and would never believe in things like werewolves or shape shifters. And then she meets Alex. But, one of the interesting twists, is that Alex is not the only supernatural element in the story. Things Scout has taken for granted her whole life, she discovers, were not at all what they seemed.

One of the great things about this story is that, not only are Scout and Alex well fleshed out and not generic character archetypes or Mary Sues/Harry Stus, but the supporting cast are unique characters, as well. Scout’s brother Jase; her long-time, pre-Alex crush, Charlie; her best friend Talley; and even her six-year-old baby sister, Angel, all have their own personalities, traits, and motivations, as well as hidden depths that we gradually learn about over the course of the novel.

My only wish, as it came to supporting characters, was that I wanted a little more of Scout’s parents and some of the extended family members, like Toby. But, I suspect more light will be shed on them in future installments of the Timber Wolves trilogy.

The romance between Alex and Scout, as well as the love triangle that happens when you factor Charlie into the mix. Though there is an instant attraction when Alex and Scout meet, there are factors in play that keep them from even starting to get to know each other for quite a while. It was refreshing to have the main couple of a Y/A paranormal not fall instantly into complete soul-searing, teen angst love. Scout and Alex were no Bella and Edward, instantly ready to give up their lives for each other. But the story builds Scout and Alex’s relationship up over time, logically, until the payoff of that kind of devotion is actually justified. Imagine that!

And Charlie is a valid third leg of the love triangle. Scout had genuine feelings for him for years that the advent of a hot new guy was not just going to dispel. He was actually a real challenge to Scout and Alex’s relationship, as opposed to Jacob, who never stood a chance of winning Bella.

I also enjoyed the pop culture references in this book. They felt realistic to me, like they came from Scout, as opposed to feeling shoe-horned in. And I liked that the references were casual instead of obvious. And I liked that they ranged over a lot of pop culture, as opposed to being limited just to today. I particularly appreciated the nod to the Winchester boys that she snuck in there.

And Tammy’s writing in this novel is really well done. Scout has her own voice, not just generic first person. Her narration feels like Scout, not like just anyone. And I think I noticed maybe one error (even professionally pubbed books can have an error or two included). And her writing felt professionally polished, not like she scribbled down a first draft and slapped it up on Amazon as an e-book.

My only criticisms of this novel are the title and the cover art. With the plethora of self-pubbed Y/A paranormal novels out there, I think the title and/or the cover art really need to draw the reader in to get the novel noticed. I passed right by Destiny Binds at first, as neither of the two jump out, but are really fairly generic.

After having read the book, Destiny Binds works as the title. If you were going to boil the whole story down to two words, these two fit the bill pretty well. And, after finding Tammy’s blog  (which was surprisingly buried in the list of links on Google) and reading the titles of the next two novels in the trilogy, I understand the naming scheme she has going on. But, the title just doesn’t pack much of a punch or make the novel stand out from the crowd.

And the cover art… just the title and a graphic of a wolf on a black background. Nothing much to catch the eye, especially compared with whatelse is out there in the Y/A market.

In fact, I would not have even clicked on the novel, except for two things. Amazon popped it up on a recommendations page for some other book I had clicked on and then decided not to purchase after reading the reviews. It was the phrase “Timber Wolves” that really hooked me in. If not for that, coupled with the fact that Destiny Binds is only $0.99 for Kindle right now, I would have passed on by without a click.

However, I’m glad that I did not, because I enjoyed this book so much. I have read Y/A paranormals that came through an actual publishing house that did not have such quality writing. I’m astonished that this book is self-pubbed, and am dying to know whether or not the author tried the traditional publishing route.

Compared with what’s out there, this novel could totally hold its own. It would appeal to fans of this genre and compete whole-heartedly with stories such as the Wolves of Mercy Falls series (which was good and well written, but had some pacing problems, IMO — I very much prefer the Timber Wolves). If the author did try the traditional route first, I’m completely shocked that she didn’t get picked up, and if she did try, my only guess as to why the book didn’t sell is that editors and agents were just giving blanket “no” answers to all werewolf/shifter stories due to a preceived saturation. But who knows?

If you like Y/A paranormals and/or you enjoy werewolves/shifters, you should definitely give Destiny Binds a try. A great story for just $0.99? How can you go wrong?

The first one I read was Amanda Hocking’s Trylle trilogy. The first one, Switched, showed up in the top 10 on the best selling list. It was only $0.99, the premise (trolls) was intriguing, and the reviews were good, so I picked it up. And liked it well enough to splurge on the remaining two books in the series at the higher $2.99 price.

Over all, they were a good read. If only Amanda Hocking had better critiques and copy editors for her self-published work. Grammatical and punctuation errors jarred me out of the stories sometimes, and she falls into a lot of beginning writer traps that my writing group has helped me get away from (using “just” and “almost,” passive voice, repeating the same word multiple times in the same page/paragraph, using complex verb constructions when a single one will do, etc.). She also really could have used someone to tell her that the climax of the third book needed a little more build up to be believable and to help her smooth over certain plot issues (like the abrupt switch in the heroine’s “one true love” and how the ending of the trilogy was just too happy and too perfect).

But, despite the flaws, the concept and the heroine’s voice drew me in and held me there until I finished the story. I think the ability to do that is the most telling indicator of a writer’s talent (despite valid criticisms of her plotting and writing style, Stephanie Meyer has that gift, too). The mechanics can be learned and honed. (And maybe now that Hocking, self-publishing phenom, has signed a deal with a major publishing house, which includes re-release of the Trylle trilogy, she’ll get some guidance in those areas from the trained editors.)

Next, I tried Hocking’s zombie apocalypse story, Hollowland, at $0.99, and I liked this one even better than the Trylle books. The heroine was awesome, the world building was spot-on, and the supporting cast had a lot more purpose. There were still editing and technique issues, but the story was so much better, it was easier to ignore. I’m still hoping that another book in this series will come out, but I guess that will depend on her schedule with her new publishing house.

I’ve tried a few others here and there, and I seldom have as good of a reaction as I did with Hocking’s work. I need something outstanding to get into a book. A good character and can identify with and/or root for. A unique, intriguing, fresh twist on a concept that I haven’t seen a zillion times. Quality writing that doesn’t jar me out of the story, or a story so compelling that I don’t notice the sub-par writing skills (or at least can ignore them).

Without one or more of those attributes, I can’t commit to the book. I tried Hocking’s vampire series, My Blood Approves, but I couldn’t get into them. Sadly, I did not realize this until I’d already purchased them (my new rule, only buy one book of a completed series at a time to make sure you still like it when you finish the next installment!). The vampire series was just so… meh. The narrator never did anything but react. She really seemed more passive than Bella of Twilight fame, if you can imagine that. And things kept happening that were just too convenient. Once sure, but over and over again? Strains my ability to suspend my disbelief.

I alway skim the reviews of self-pubbed books . If one or two say there are grammatical problems or writing issues, I move on, even if there are a ton of 5-starred reviews, as well. Also, if the concept seems tired or a rip off, it would take very stellar review to get me to even take a peak. The Vampire Journals self-pubs that have been popping up on Amazon lately make me cringe. I think L.J. Smith was there first, people, and even if you weren’t into Y/A in the 1990s, her stories are back in the public view thanks to the TV series.

However, I think I may have finally found a winner on the self-pub Y/A market this weekend. Barbara Pandos, who wrote The Emerald Talisman. Pandos can actually write! She doesn’t use the same words repeatedly, but has a range of vocabulary (even a couple of higher priced words thrown in from time to time). And I don’t think a single grammatical or punctuation error jumped out at me. Her descriptions were vivid, and her characters were unique and interesting. Her take on vampires was different (at least to some extent) than the plethora of stories on the market right now. Her heroine had a gift of her own, and was not completely passive. And, also, her book is (as of today) available for free on Amazon, so the price was definitely right. I enjoyed the book a lot, and just downloaded the sequel, The Sapphire Talisman.

My only complaint with Pandos’s story is that sometimes the emotions felt by the lead couple weren’t completely justified by the text and there were a couple of plot holes that could have been fixed by just adding an extra scene. But I’ve seen worse in books released by an actual publishing house (Need, by Carrie Jones, for example — blarg, good concept, but what a mess!). What the book had going for it, far out weighed the bad.

I wonder what it takes to jump into this self-publishing market. So much is out there. Of course, if you go that route, you most likely give up your chance at publishing those books via a traditional outlet, and I’ve heard it makes it more difficult to get a traditional agent, even if you were shopping around a different project. However, that’s not 100% the case, because Hocking’s Trylle trilogy has been taken down and will be re-released by St. Martin’s Press in upcoming months.

Too bad some of these self-published authors don’t seem to care about grammar, punctuation, prose, writing style, and critique. I could make a good living whipping these novels into shape. They’d probably all hate my comments, though, and refuse to pay!

Well, I’ll sign off for now, but hopefully I can find the time to blog again soon. I really want to write a blog about the titles of self-published books. I know titles are not easy, but some of the ones out there are just so, so bad that it’s hilarious.

But, despite everything that was going on, I did have one story published in EDF in 2009, and, to my surprise, it was selected for EDF’s third anthology. I’d had a story in their first anthology, and four stories in their second anthology. But, this year, since I didn’t have a story published, I don’t even have a chance of making the fourth anthology. So, the streak is broken.

I did actually manage to submit a story to EDF a few weeks ago, but I wasn’t sure if it was in time. Apparently not, as it’s still classified as in process in the submission queue.

Anyway, I know it’s my fault that the streak is broken, but it still makes me a little sad. But, hey, the girls are getting older now. I’m moving from having two under two to having two toddlers. Maybe that will be easier? Um… one can hope, though the increased mobility makes things challenging in different ways. So, maybe next year, I’ll be able to write more and get some more stories out there on submission, to EDF and other places. The girls are starting to enjoy Sesame Street, maybe that will give me a few minutes in front of the laptop to write.

Is it possible to write with the theme song to “Elmo’s World” playing in the background? I guess we’ll see!

For me, it varies (probably true of most writers). For “Bridge Club,” it was the idea of superheroes wives working behind the scenes. “The Widow and the Stranger” came from me thinking about Atlantis. “Honor Bound” came from a writing prompt provided by one of my writing group mates that challenged me to write a compelling action sequence. “A Castle in the Clouds” was inspired by a chapter title in the novel Little Women (even though, in Little Women, the castle in the clouds was not literal).

Usually, though, my first inspiration is an idea — something not grand enough to call a plot, but that little idea the plot evolves from. Occasionally it’s a character or something else, but usually, it’s an idea or situation.

Recently, my muse has been whispering a title in my ear. Normally, titles are one of my worst things. I feel that it’s really difficult capture the essence of a story in a few words that are exciting enough to draw a reader in. Very seldom to I write a title that I’m actually excited about, though I have come up with a few. I was particularly partial to the title “Zero to Clean in Ten Minutes or Less.” I also really liked the title, “The Widow and the Stranger.” But a title is very rarely my starting point.

There was one story that came title first, but that was because the writing exercise my writing group was doing was to pick a title from a provided list (spawned from the automatic title generator) and write the story inspired by the title. That story became “The Care and Feeding of your Sleeping Knight,” which was in the top 10 stories at Every Day Fiction for quite a while.

Currently, my muse is whispering a fully formed title in my ear. It’s very strange. I have a title, but no story. I’ve bee poking at the title, noodling it around to see if the story will begin to work it’s way free. Tonight I got a small glimmer of a possible plot that would match the title. Nothing solid yet.

It’s definitely a different way of thinking about writing. It’s like building from the top down instead of from the ground up.

Happy writing, all!

There’s always a sense of loss when something really good ends, isn’t there? I’ll never have that sense of anticipation again of waiting for the next Harry Potter book to come out, of attending the midnight release party, of holding a brand new, unread copy in my hands. The story has been told, and it’s over. I can re-read them and visit the universe again, but it will never be new again.

R0wling created such a vivid universe with the Harry Potter series. And it was so well plotted. Things from the beginning that worked fine then, but take on a whole new meaning when seen in the context of the whole series. Sometimes I wonder how much was painstaking outlining and revision to make things match up and how much was that wonderful sort of zen thing that comes over you when you’re with story and somehow you get to the end and the most brilliant things line up that you hadn’t even realized when you were trying to get it all down as fast as you can type.

Coming down from a story like that is bittersweet. Part of me always wonders if I will ever be able to write something that good, something that will touch so many people. Or even a more modest number of people. Then again, I bet Rowling never thought her little stories would become such a phenomenon when she was scribbling them down in a cafe in England. So, anything can happen, right?

Anyhow, good bye, Harry Potter. I will come visit again. Definitely when the girls are old enough to be introduced into your hallowed hallways, and possibly before.

We have a meeting next week, and after they give me comments on another little flash bunny that’s been tweaking my muse of late, we’ll see if there’s anything there. I have a market in mind for that one, too.

I feel so productive, LOL.

Uh oh… just heard someone stirring. I think nap time is over!

I had forgotten that feeling of anticipation mixed with panic. I’d forgotten the urge to check your email twenty times a day in the vain hope that an editor has gotten back to you.

It feels good, but it is also somewhat crazy-making.

Why do we do this, again? Oh yeah… because the stories would eat holes in our brain if we didn’t.

I’ve always been fond of this story. Rachel is a vampire hunter, and her biggest weapon in the fight against the undead is her faith. However, just because she believes in God, that doesn’t mean she isn’t pissed as hell at Him. If you’d like to read a little more about the backstory of this tale, here’s the link to the blog entry I wrote about it when it was first published.

I have to say, though, that while the first e-publication was cool (even though now that e-zine is long gone), I’m much more excited about NYKoH’s appearance in ResAliens. I’ve enjoyed ResAliens since it was solely an e-zine, but the new print version is really awesome. You should definitely check it out! (And I have a story in issue #2, as well.)

In other news, I just heard that my story, “The Vote,” was selected for inclusion in Every Day Fiction’s third annual anthology. I’m very excited to be included. The previous two EDF anthologies were very well done and included lots of great stories by  excellent writers. I’m sure this one will be the same. At least one other writing group mate will be in the anthology, as well — Go, Writer’s Ink!

In rejection news, a weird little story that I sent out to a relatively big podcast market was rejected a couple of months ago. However, my thrill from that rejection was that instead of the standard form rejection (which I’d received several times), I actually got a personal rejection note from the editor. Not only did he say he liked the story (though it wasn’t exactly what they were looking for), but he told me to keep submitting. It felt like I finally got noticed by that market. Maybe, if I found something more up their alley, it would be a good time to try them again…

And now, to wind things up, here are a few links to other stories from the last few months that you might want to check out:

• Writing group mate Jens had his story, “The Vicksburg Dead,” published in Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show. Way to go, Jens!
• Writing group mate Alex had his story, “The Organization,” published in A Thousand Faces, one of my favorites.
• Writing group mate Stephanie had her story, “Loretta’s Flamingos,” published in Moonlight Tuber.
• And there is a new issue of 10 Flash Quarterly out. This e-zine of themed stories is always a good read.

Now, if I could just find a little time amongst changing diapers, running after a toddler on the go, and taking care of a six-month-old, maybe 2011 will be a better year for me writing and submitting-wise. We’ll call it a goal!

Sorry to have been so absent of late. The summer was even crazier than my usual life. I was in the hospital for several weeks with complications for baby #2. After our new daughter arrived, that brought a whole new level of hectic. How does anyone have time to write or blog with a 13-month-old and a newborn in the house? And now, my maternity leave is over (boo-hoo!), and I’m headed back to work.

After missing most of the writing group meetings this summer, I finally got back into it at the September meeting. We’re trying an experiment, a challenge, as it were. Write 250 words every day in the month of October. I’m not doing stellar — I’ve only managed to write 600 or so words and it’s already the 6th. However, this challenge was about inspiration, not pressure, and I’m hopeful that perhaps I’ll get a few more written over the course of the month.

The writing I did is some twiddling of the new novel idea that’s been bouncing around in my head for the past year or so. It came from a dream I had while pregnant with my first darling daughter. We’ll see if anything comes of it.

I have some other posts in mind about some reading that I’ve done lately; so, here’s hoping that I find the time to put fingers to keyboard.

I hope all is going well for my blogging and writing friends out there, and that you all have big word counts!