Six Sentence Sunday 12/4

This Sunday, enjoy six sentences from BITERS. Just a simple, fun interaction between Riley and her friend, Jason.

Jason named the object before I could. “Rain.”
“Oh, good, maybe it’ll wash some of the stench away.”
He tucked his nose in his armpit. “Didn’t think I smelled that bad.”
“From the rotting corpses, silly.”

Remember many other authors post six every week. See them here! Or at #sixsunday!

Six Sentence Sunday 11/13

Sundays have been speeding by! I can't believe this is already my third SSS post!

Riley, the heroine of BITERS, hates being a girl. She can't stand to be labeled as one or to be left out of anything the other boys are doing. Especially when it comes to protecting those she loves. In this scene, we learn one of the reasons why...

“A boy would have saved his mother. A boy would’ve had the courage to beat Felix with a baseball bat to get him off her, or hit him with a chair, or a knife, or a gun. I didn’t save her because I was a weak and frightened girl.”
“Why would you think that?”
“Because that’s what my father told me the day he came to get me, to take me home with him to Albuquerque. That very night, I took my Josephine doll out of my pocket, gave her one last kiss, then I pulled her apart limb by limb and threw her in the trash.”

See other Six Sentence Sunday posts here! Or check out #sixsunday

Six Sentence Sunday 11/6

This week, another excerpt from my young adult futuristic romance, BITERS. An interaction that takes place while Riley (the heroine), Trey (the hero) and Lisa (Riley's BFF), are defending Haven from a mutant attack.

Nodding towards the pile of bodies at Trey's feet, I teased, "I've killed twice as many Biters as you, slacker."
"It's not how many Biters you kill, it's how good you look while killing them,"he retorted.
Lisa piped up, "If that's so, I have you way outshined, flyboy."
"And what are you basing that determination on, comedic quality?"
"I intentionally tripped that mutant!"
"With your face?"

A veritable ton of amazing authors participate in Six Sentence Sunday. You can see their posts here! Or find them on twitter: #sixsunday!

Six Sentence Sunday

What fun! This is my first go at Six Sentence Sunday (more info here). With no further ado, I present six sentences from my current manuscript, BITERS, a young adult futuristic romance:

“Going somewhere?”

I know that voice – and I know it well. I know how it sounds as it laughs and teases, coaxing my own laughter in response. I know how it sounds offering tender words of comfort while I’m so overcome with the biting pain of grief that my sobs come out as screams. And I know how it sounds as it whispers in my ear causing a reaction so pleasurable that my knees weaken and my heart flutters.

Ironically, my knees weaken now – from dread not desire.

Seasons and Sisterhood

My mother had the most beautiful negligees from her wedding shower and what not. Four or five ethereal, knee-length, white, cream and pastel dresses with layered skirts and matching peignoirs. Being the incredibly generous person that she is, she let her three daughters run amok wearing her gowns, despite of the likelihood of tears and grass stains. My sisters and I danced around our seven-acre farm in the moonlight, pretending to be fairies, and princesses, and elves. So when I created the image of the four seasons in “Saint George and the Dragon,” I tried to instill the mood and magic of that special time in my life.

RWA Nationals 2011: Adventures of an Unpublished Author

Today, I've shared my experiences from the Romance Writers of America 2011 National Conference on the Science Fiction Romance Brigade Blogspot. Check it out here:

http://sfrcontests.blogspot.com/2011/07/rwa-nationals-adventures-of-unpublished.html

The Soullessness of City Life

Today came our first spring rain. With it came a piece of my soul that I hadn't realized was missing. I grew up on a seven-acre farm in a little town called Savage, Maryland. My sisters and I wandered all about the place, free to do or wear whatever we wished without having to worry about neighbors or passers-by catching sight of our antics. We also reveled in the beauty and freedom of nature. We watched as the woods, groves and fields changed with the seasons and with the years. At eighteen, hoping to become an actress, I moved to Los Angeles. I loved the big city: the people, the lights, the energy. It was so exciting to be a part of the place where the rich and famous lived and history was made. After deciding movie-making wasn't for me, I moved several more times, eventually ended up in New Mexico. I went there in order to be with my sweetie, who owned a business in Santa Fe. For several years, we lived behind his office located on the main thoroughfare, smack in the busiest part of the business district. However, the character and beauty of the rest of Santa Fe made up for our industrial-based locale. When my sweetie chose to move his business south to a town called Moriarty, I followed. We set up shop on a business strip just west of the town. Although we planted trees and created a lovely garden in front of our house, nothing could hide the presence of Interstate 40 on the north side of the property and Route 66 on the south. Seventeen years later (including two years of separation in which I lived in Cochran, Georgia in a house with train tracks nearby), my sweetie and I finally bought and moved into a house in Edgewood, a town west of Moriarty. Our new house, although an older house with requisite issues due to its age, sits on twenty-five acres of wild, wooded, GORGEOUS New Mexico countryside surrounded by panoramic views and several mountain ranges. For the first time in over two decades, I have no visible neighbors, no nearby roads, and no sounds other than those of nature. This morning, sitting on my covered porch, dressed only in my pajamas, drinking coffee and listening to the rain fall on the roof, I realized I felt happy, blessed, and content in a way I haven't felt since my childhood. At last, my soul is whole again.

First Sketches for Saint George

I have spent the last month trying to get my "Saint George and the Dragon" book mock-up finished. Here are a few of the pencil sketches from that manuscript:

Sage Advice from the SCBWI Conference

I just spent a wonderful weekend at the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators Conference in New York City. The lectures were incredibly educational, professional and fun. Even better, my attendance has provided me with several opportunities un-available otherwise. The best part of the conference was the advice and inspiration from the amazing speakers. Here is some of the sage advice I heard:

• "There is always something else to strive for. The only endgame is the love of the work." Sara Zarr
• "We need to stop half the things we are doing and do the other half well." Sara Zarr
• "The fundamental difference between kids and adults is that kids are shorter." Mo Willems
• "Don't believe in yourself....believe in the work." Linda Sue Park
• "Make one sentence worth reading 62 times" (The number of times a young fan had read one of her books.) Linda Sue Park
• For illustrators: "Advertise with the work you want to get." Dan Yaccarino
• "Use your Blog to showcase your work." Chad Beckerman

With that, I think I'll post another blog...