Blog Meme: The Next Big Thing

I normally don’t do blog memes. But this one kinda grabbed me. Not the usual, "What color socks are you wearing?" It’s basically part of an ongoing chain of book and author recommendations called “The Next Big Thing.” 

The whole idea is that writers get “tagged,” answer ten quick fire questions on their blog, and then tag five other writers … so that before long you have a whole web of writers answering the same questions, and linking to one another through social media. I was tagged by Mike Duran (thanks, Mike!) and will henceforth tag five writer friends at the end of this post who will answer these same ten questions on their blogs next Wednesday. (Okay, I was supposed to tag five. I tagged four. I am such the rebel.)

Here we go:

1) What is the title of your next book/work?

I have two works in progress right now. One is the third book in my Toch Island Chronicles series (as in the sequel to Finding Angel and Seeking Unseen), as of yet untitled. The WIP I want to focus on here is unrelated to Toch Island and geared to an adult audience rather than YA, and the working title is Relent.

2) Where did the idea come from for the book/work?

I wrote a short story (“Willing Blood”) a few years ago, with three main characters. A vampire-like demon master (um, yeah, I made that up) named Simone, a demon she is charged with controlling named Wraith, and a little girl named Emily from whom Simone draws power. I loved the characters so much, but the story was only a few thousand words and really had nowhere else to move after the ending. So I reshaped the characters and created a whole new story around them. The only one who stayed almost completely the same was the demon Wraith. Simone became a half-angel/half-human, and Emily is now her daughter…

3) What genre does your book/work fall under?

I wish I could figure that out! It’s romance, but not what one would find in a typical romance novel.  I don’t read romance myself, and I’m not aiming to hit that target. It’s paranormal because of the angel/demon thing. It’s suspense/thriller, with maybe a touch of horror. It’s definitely dark. A dark paranormal romance-ish story?

4) What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?

This, but black hair and dark eyes for Wraith

I’ve never seen Chris Hemsworth play a dark, evil character, but I can see Wraith’s human form looking a lot like him with black hair. Give him dark eyes, black hair, don’t let him sleep for a few days, and squeeze him into jeans and a Harley t-shirt. That’s Wraith.

For Simone…I actually posted on Facebook trying to get ideas for actresses based on my description of her. I got a wide range of suggestions. The closest of all of them, I think, was Kate Beckinsale as she appeared in Van Helsing, but with darkish auburn hair. 

Another possibility would be Scarlett Johansson as she appeared in The Avengers, but with longer hair. And, well, longer her. Simone is tall and lanky. So, put Scarlett in a stretching machine. Should make her cranky enough to play the brooding Simone.

For Emily…Maggie Elizabeth Jones, the little girl from We Bought a Zoo. Emily is contagiously cheerful, with brown eyes and curly blond hair.

When he's older, and with  a  bit longer/darker hair.

For Simone’s ex, and Emily’s father, Reese…Alex Pettyfer. Well, in several years. He needs to be late 20s, maybe 30-ish, and he’ll have to dye his hair dark brown and grow it out some. If Alex’s looks keep heading in this direction, then he’d likely work for the role. 

Another major character is one I can't name. No, literally, I keep changing her name. I need to settle, I know. And I couldn't find a picture of a celeb that reminded me of her at all. So she'll just have to stay a surprise :).

5) What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

(Kat throws herself on the floor, flails arms, kicks legs, and screams, “I hate this, I hate this, I hate this!”)

OK, now that I have that out of my system…

Seriously, I hate writing one-liners. I suck at it. One line to sum up a story about a half-angel searching for her daughter, being toyed with by her best friend and worst enemy (who happens to be a demon), while she fights to not fall back in love with her daughter’s father? Not happening. Really. Because it’s so much more than that.

Simone’s mother chose her angelic status over Simone when she was born. How could she do that? So selfish! And Simone had vowed she will never be like her mother. Never. Yet Simone did give up her daughter, too.  Not the same thing, she insists.

Right?

6) Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

I am hoping to find an agent and land a traditional publisher with this one. My goal from day one of my writing was to be published by a large, traditional press. Finding Angel didn’t hit that mark. In many ways, I’m actually grateful for that, though. It has set me on a path of friendship with some amazing authors as well as my publisher herself. I’ve gotten to have real creative control over my Toch Island series, which has been awesome. I wonder if giving up that control with Toch Island would have been too hard on me.

Relent, though, I think can withstand it. The right publisher, the right editor…It’s what I’m hoping.

7) How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?

When did I start this? Two years ago? Three? I can’t remember, to be honest. I have gone back and forth between bursts of inspiration for the story and stretches where I ignored it completely to work on Seeking Unseen and short stories. Right now, I’m about ¾ done with the first draft. It’s been a strange ride, this one.

8) What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

Oy. I. Don’t. Know.

I say angels and demons, suspense/thriller, and people probably immediately think Frank Peretti. But it’s nothing like his work. It’s not a “spiritual warfare” story at all. It’s very personal. It’s about relationships. Romance, yes, but more about family, sacrificing for the ones you love. I have never read a book that is like this. Not saying one isn’t out there, but I have no idea where to direct you.

OK, I will say, what I *hope* for it to end up like is Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor. Well, actually, more like the sequel, Days of Blood and Starlight. At least in tone. The story in those books is a romance set amongst a war between angels and chimaera. There’s no war in Relent. It’s a much smaller cast. Very personal, very intimate.

9) Who or what inspired you to write this book?

My husband, Jeff. I have always been very strict about not letting Jeff read anything of mine that isn’t published. He’s an engineer, and their nature is to try and fix everything, even when it doesn’t need fixing :P. I love him—and that is why I won’t let him near my writing! So, after “Willing Blood” published, I sent him the link. He read it. And pretty much ever since he’s been hounding me to write a book with those characters.

10) What else about the book might pique the reader’s interest?

I think what may pique readers’ interest is the theological aspect. The message will be clear, but the means of presenting it will likely have plenty of Christians picking it apart with their theological tweezers and crying, “No! Wrong! You can’t do it this way!”

I’ve already had one critique session with a group of Christian writers. They all gave enthusiastic thumbs up on the writing and begged to see more. But one of the ladies was really distressed by the way I presented angels and demons in the opening. Distressed enough to write me a pretty detailed email after the critique meeting.

So yeah, I’d say this is going to be a story that is loved or hated, seen as brilliant or garbage. And I’m okay with that J.

And now for the tagging:

Robynn Tolbert, author of Star of Justice, which if you have not read you deserve the cruelest of punishment--well, I guess missing out on the story counts as cruel punishment.

David Berger, a really nice author I met at the Necronomicon. His first novel, Task Force Gaea, is a superhero book with roots in Greek mythology. 

Shawna Williams, romance author. Yeah, I know. I said I don't read romance, But I read hers :).

Christopher Kolmorgen, a talented young author of spec-fic, whom I think we'll need to keep an eye on in the next few years....

And.....GO!

End with your Hook

I’m going to do something I’ve never done before—I’m going to give major spoilers about a book here.  If that bugs you, don’t read this beyond where I mark the spoilers. But I have to do this, because my point in writing this post is to illustrate why authors need to have good endings to their books.

So much of learning about writing focuses on “the hook.” You have to grab the reader in the first chapter. Oh, no—I mean the first couple of pages. No, wait, it’s the first paragraph. Uh-uh. The first sentence. There are even whole books about writing craft that focus specifically on the first five pages. It’s that important.

You may find a book or two, a blog post here and there, the occasional workshop, on “middles.” The middle of the book does have to keep the reader reading. Sure.

But what about endings?

I, personally, would rather have a book start slow. Give me good writing, yes. Give me a character I can connect with. But I don’t need to be “hooked” by some clever line, or some odd or intense action scene. I want to get to know my characters, and in some sense, I like to have stories sneak up on me. I would prefer a book to start slow, making me take time to warm up to it, and then grip me tighter and tighter throughout. I want the *ending* of a book to leave me begging for more.

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld did that. The first several chapters were world building. I was getting to know the character of Tally. It was enough to hold my interest, but I can’t say I was blown away by the first chapters—but I could tell more was coming. I LIKE the anticipation of wondering what is going to be discovered LATER. You see, I have this assumption when I start a book: it’s a book because there is a story to tell. I don’t need that story to slam me like a freight train the moment I open the first page to know it’s there.

More recently, the book Tyger, Tyger by Kersten Hamilton won me over this way. Lots of character building. Yes, there was some conflict—Teagan’s friend Abby had a dream the goblins would be coming. But the story moves at a slow pace in the beginning as we get to know the cast and gain the information necessary to understand the major action to come. And come it did. By the end, I couldn’t get to the library website fast enough to put the next book on hold.

Think about theme park rides. Many of them start off as stories. Splash Mountain tells the tale of Brer Rabbit with animatronics lining a slow moving “river.” The end of the ride is the big splash. But who would want to ride it if it were the other way around? Or…what if the whole ride was thrilling, and then the end was a complete dud?

See? Anticipation is what counts in rides like that. Get the thrill part over with in the beginning and have nothing as good afterward and riders will complain. Or have a thrilling ride end in a dud, and most riders leave the ride with a sour taste despite all the fun they had in the beginning—because they didn’t have that “wow” to look forward to. There was nothing to anticipate.

*Now comes the spoilers, folks.*

I finished reading a book yesterday called Dark Eden, by Patrick Carman. The book starts off with this blurb by the main character, Will Besting, which is actually sort of part of the ending. No, that’s not right—you find out at the end that it’s a thought he had during his experience at Fort Eden.

Because I knew.

That’s what I’ll say when they ask.

I knew, and I was afraid.

It sounds all creepy and suspenseful at first, and then you get to the end and discover it’s really meaningless. Of course he’s afraid. He’s got anthrophobia (fear of people).

Will and six other kids his age are chosen to go to Fort Eden to receive a cure for various phobias. They are taken to a building deep in the woods. Will is too scared to go in, and you find out partway through it’s because he’s so afraid of people. He discovers a bomb shelter in the basement of the bunker next to the main building where he hides.

There are video monitors that show the various rooms inside the main building. How convenient. Will, of course, thinks he’s really lucky. It’s obviously a set-up. But, because we’re dealing with kids who have serious mental issues, it seems acceptable. You know something is coming as he watches each of the other kids get “cured” by being hooked up to this funky helmet with wires that connect to the ceiling and experience their moments of greatest fear. So it’s no surprise when Will is trapped in the bomb shelter and discovers that the headphones he’s wearing to listen in on what he sees on the monitors are actually a modified helmet.

Each kid is, as I said, cured by experiencing their biggest fears. Those fears show up on the monitors as well, as though the images in their heads being displayed. If this was ever explained, it must have been in the last couple of pages which I couldn’t bear to read. At that point I was so mad at the book’s ending I could barely see straight, much less read. So we have psychotherapy, complete with mad scientists. The main doctor, who goes simply by Rainsford. Will’s doc, Dr. Stevens. And the groundskeeper, a codgy old woman named Mrs. Groning.

Will is never “caught,” of course. They know where he is the whole time. Although he does sneak in a few times and speak with a couple of the other kids. All the character interaction and relationship building though is for nothing. It has not a stinking thing to do with the ending.

Each kid also ends up with some side effect from the treatment. Joint pain, vertigo, fatigue, headaches, hearing loss, etc.

OK, following so far? It really does sound like a story with serious potential.

And then the kids all get to leave at the end. No attempt by anyone to keep them there. You’re cured. Sorry about the side effects. Go home to your families and live out your lives. None of them remembers anything about their cure experience, but they are all happy just to be cured.

Will, however, is given something by Mrs. Groning as he leaves. He’d entered Fort Eden with a digital recorder, and she ‘d added some audio files. It was her, telling the story of who Rainsford and Dr. Stevens are, and who she is herself.

Rainsford was her husband, and Dr. Stevens is her daughter. And the children’s “cure” was a side effect of Rainsford stealing their blood. Yep, he’s a vampire, and he hooks himself up to the kids to exchange blood with them, ridding himself of his old, contaminated blood—which is why they all end up with “old people” symptoms (rolls eyes)—and taking in their blood flooded with chemicals produced by intense fear, which is what he feeds on, what makes him turn young again.

ALL of the explanation is given in the last several pages, with Mrs. Groning telling Will via the digital recorder.

Made. Me. Want. To. Scream.

A vampire? Really? Not a HINT of anything supernatural in the whole rest of the book. And if Groning actually cared about the kids, why was she so mean to them? Spitting in their food—which Will saw her do and still ate it. Ew. And why even bother telling Will? I mean, he’s not going to do anything about it. It was just a way for the author to tell the reader what was “really” going on, rather than integrating it into the story and letting the reader discover it. 

Actually, there were mini versions of that technique throughout, that bugged me each time, but were mixed in with enough suspense to make me forgive them. But really? Will makes some rather hefty jumps to conclusions, or statements of the obvious and it was obviously the author not wanting to lead the reader. Instead, he’d have something happen, then Will would state specifically what is going on “The headphones were really a helmet!” Duh.

Lazy, lazy author. Ugh.

I’ve read other books that do this. Page-turning plot and a complete dud of an ending. Ted Dekker is a big one. Yes, go ahead, throw the tomatoes. I’ve liked a few of his books, but they mostly make me want to throw them across the room when I get to the end, so I’ve quit reading his stuff. Another book that did this was The Maze Runner by James Dashner. This one, Dark Eden by Patrick Carman, has been the worst by far, though.

I beg of you, dear writers. Think about the endings of your books. A twist is fine! But is it really a twist if you are telling one story and then turn it into something else? To me, this kind of ending is like having the main character wake up and discover everything is a dream.

Endings, even twist ones, need to come organically. You can’t tell one story, and then tack on a big explanation at the end saying that it was all really something else, haha! Yes, maybe a good portion of information can be saved for the last part of the story—we’re all familiar with the villain monologue. But make it integrated, not what is essentially an appendix at the end.

So, sorry if I’ve spoiled a book for you. But it had to be done. This kind of writing atrocity makes my blood boil. I’ve been told a few times that Finding Angel is a little slower in the beginning than some people like. BUT every reader I’ve had so far has agreed that the ending completely sucked them in. I can totally live with that. I’d rather create a story that builds from good to better to best, than a story that starts with a bang and ends with a dud. A hook at the beginning is fine, but if it lets loose during the story, even three pages from the end of the book, the reader isn’t going to stick with that author. But if in the end the hook is still firmly in place…