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Guest Post by Jude Houghton

Advice for the inspiring author.

Writing is difficult. There is no way around that fact. Every time I sit down to write, I am reminded of how tough it is. Tough to find the time – away from a real a job and in many cases, the family – tough to have the conviction that what you are doing is worthwhile, and tough to put something on the page that doesn’t make you cringe five minutes after writing it. Here are some things that capture my process, and make it just a little easier.

Stephen King, in On Writing, challenges the would be writer to do just two things. Read a lot. Write a lot. You cannot write without doing both of those things. He suggests 1,000 words a day. 1,000 words a day delivers a first draft in three-four months. It’s not easy to deliver on that commitment but hey…I began by saying writing was tough.

Some of the time when you write, it’s a whirlwind, it comes easily, it’s “buckle your seatbelt Dorothy because Kansas is going bye-bye.” Then, there are the times when the characters stop talking to you, and the hitherto promising plot fizzles on the page. The danger is running into an extended period of writer’s block. Margaret Atwood has the best answer to this. Hold your hand in the air and do not put it down again until you have a sentence to write. Then see how long the block lasts. Once the ache sets in, it’s never long, believe me.

I saw an interview with Terry Pratchett towards the end of his life. He was talking about the difficulty of writing, and he said that the thing you have to realize is that a good idea is the easy part, that translating that idea to the page and making it come alive is the challenge, and as a writer, it shouldn’t be easy, and you have to confront that head on, every time. Ideas are like tinsel, anyone can have an idea, it’s what you do with it that’s the important thing.

 And finally, often I find my head with characters, plot jumbled, trying to remember what someone said, or who did what to whom. This I guess is my piece of advice. Expect that, and don’t let it frustrate you, and power on. It will come. As one of Raymond Chandler’s characters said, My head is as fluffy as whipped cream, but not as sweet. I think that just about sums up how I feel most days. I try to get over it.

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A Criminal Magic
Lee Kelly
Publication date: February 2nd 2016
Genres: Fantasy, Historical, Young Adult

THE NIGHT CIRCUS meets THE PEAKY BLINDERS in Lee Kelly’s new crossover fantasy novel.

Magic is powerful, dangerous and addictive – and after passage of the 18th Amendment, it is finally illegal.

It’s 1926 in Washington, DC, and while Anti-Sorcery activists have achieved the Prohibition of sorcery, the city’s magic underworld is booming. Sorcerers cast illusions to aid mobsters’ crime sprees. Smugglers funnel magic contraband in from overseas. Gangs have established secret performance venues where patrons can lose themselves in magic, and take a mind-bending, intoxicating elixir known as the sorcerer’s shine.

Joan Kendrick, a young sorcerer from Norfolk County, Virginia accepts an offer to work for DC’s most notorious crime syndicate, the Shaw Gang, when her family’s home is repossessed. Alex Danfrey, a first-year Federal Prohibition Unit trainee with a complicated past and talents of his own, becomes tapped to go undercover and infiltrate the Shaws.

Through different paths, Joan and Alex tread deep into the violent, dangerous world of criminal magic – and when their paths cross at the Shaws’ performance venue, despite their orders, and despite themselves, Joan and Alex become enchanted with one another. But when gang alliances begin to shift, the two sorcerers are forced to question their ultimate allegiances and motivations. And soon, Joan and Alex find themselves pitted against each other in a treacherous, heady game of cat-and-mouse.

A CRIMINAL MAGIC casts a spell of magic, high stakes and intrigue against the backdrop of a very different Roaring Twenties.

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Author Bio:

Lee Kelly has wanted to write since she was old enough to hold a pencil, but it wasn’t until she began studying for the California Bar Exam that she conveniently started putting pen to paper. An entertainment lawyer by trade, Lee has practiced law in Los Angeles and New York. She lives with her husband and children in Millburn, New Jersey, though after a decade in Manhattan, she can’t help but still call herself a New Yorker. She is the author of A Criminal Magic and City of Savages. Visit her at http://www.NewWriteCity.com.

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Book Title: Remember Yesterday (Forget Tomorrow, #2)

Author:  Pintip Dunn

Release Date: October 4, 2016

Genre: YA Sci Fi

Publisher: Entangled Teen

Synopsis:

Sixteen-year-old Jessa Stone is the most valuable citizen in Eden City. Her psychic abilities could lead to significant scientific discoveries, if only she’d let TechRA study her. But ten years ago, the scientists kidnapped and experimented on her, leading to severe ramifications for her sister, Callie. She’d much rather break into their labs and sabotage their research—starting with Tanner Callahan, budding scientist and the boy she loathes most at school.

The past isn’t what she assumed, though—and neither is Tanner. He’s not the arrogant jerk she thought he was. And his research opens the door to the possibility that Jessa can rectify a fatal mistake made ten years earlier. She’ll do anything to change the past and save her sister—even if it means teaming up with the enemy she swore to defeat.

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Synopsis:

Imagine a world where your destiny has already been decided…by your future self.

It’s Callie’s seventeenth birthday and, like everyone else, she’s eagerly awaiting her vision―a memory sent back in time to sculpt each citizen into the person they’re meant to be. A world-class swimmer. A renowned scientist.

Or in Callie’s case, a criminal.

In her vision, she sees herself murdering her gifted younger sister. Before she can process what it means, Callie is arrested and placed in Limbo―a prison for those destined to break the law. With the help of her childhood crush, Logan, a boy she hasn’t spoken to in five years, she escapes the hellish prison.

But on the run from her future, as well as the government, Callie sets in motion a chain of events that she hopes will change her fate. If not, she must figure out how to protect her sister from the biggest threat of all.

Callie herself.

The top 10 authors that influenced or inspired my writing

by Pintip Dunn

1. Louisa May Alcott. I read LITTLE WOMEN as a kid, and this was the first time I wanted to rewrite the ending of a book! Cleary, Jo should have ended up with Laurie!

2. L.M. Montgomery. Ah, ANNE OF GREEN GABLES. I was passionately in love with this series, and Gilbert Blythe was my very first book boyfriend (although I didn’t know what that was at the time).

3. Ernest Hemingway. I studied English literature in college, and my next three entries are the authors who had the most profound impact on me and my writing during this time. Hemingway taught me about white space, dialogue, and using grammar as a way to emphasize and reinforce story structure.

4. Gertrude Stein taught me that you can be as creative with sentence structure and syntax as you are with story. The rules are there for a reason, but once you understand them, they can — and should — be broken.

5. Jane Austen. I used to read all of her books, every year, for a number of years. She is brilliant not only in her writing and social observation, but also in evoking deep emotion in the reader.

6. Orson Scott Card. I’ve read nearly all of his science fiction books, starting with ENDER’S GAME. He was probably the author who created and cemented my love of science fiction.

7. Suzanne Collins. THE HUNGER GAMES changed my life. Literally. It was the first time I was introduced to the YA genre, and as soon as I read that book, I knew I had found my home.

8.  Stephenie Meyer. THE HOST is 800 pages long. I started crying on page 200 and didn’t stop for 600 more pages. The book showed me the kind of story I wanted to write: a super cool science-fiction world, but with heart.

9. Gillian Flynn. I’d read lots of other thrillers/mystery/suspense before, but GONE GIRL made me actually want to write it.

10. J.K. Rowling. What list can be complete without HARRY POTTER? I once answered a question of which book I would save out of a burning library with this series. Harry has been such an influence in all of our lives, including my daughter’s. I think J.K. Rowling taught me that creativity is limitless, and it made me understand that I never outgrew stories for children — and I hope I never will.

About the Author:

Pintip Dunn is a New York Times bestselling author of YA fiction. She graduated from Harvard University, magna cum laude, with an A.B. in English Literature and Language. She received her J.D. at Yale Law School, where she was an editor of the Yale Law Journel.

Pintip is represented by literary agent Beth Miller of Writers House. Her debut novel, Forget Tomorrow, won the RWA RITA® for Best First Book. Her other novels include The Darkest Lie and the forthcoming Remember Yesterday.

She lives with her husband and children in Maryland.

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