First Impressions: OVERLAND
Hi, everyone! I’m easing my way back into blogging after a 6-week hiatus with a First Impressions post. This is the first page of a YA post-disaster adventure novel titled OVERLAND by Kristen Zayon.
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It was a seemingly innocent thing, that first flicker. We were sitting in the Anchorage airport waiting for our flight home to Cordova when it happened. The lights trembled once, twice, then went out completely. If it hadn’t been daytime, the blackness would have been absolute. There were none of those emergency back-up lights shining in the corners, no glow from someone’s iphone. Anything electrical or computerized was just finished. We heard what sounded like a few distant explosions, then an eerie silence. We looked at each other and around at the other passengers. Everyone was stabbing fingers uselessly at their phones, laptops, the kiosk computer terminals. A murmur of voices rose, as everyone began to speculate.
Some of the airport personnel arrived with good old-fashioned battery powered or crank operated flashlights. The intercoms weren’t working either, or the little cars they sometimes drive around, so they were busy hoofing it from gate to gate, letting everyone know as much as they did, which was not much. There appeared to be a blackout that was at the very least spread across the Anchorage Bowl and Matanuska-Susitna Valley, and was most likely statewide. Perhaps it went even further. Nobody knew because communications were gone along with everything else; even old school land lines.
We hung out in the airport for a few more hours, until the time of our flight had come and gone. Eventually, someone announced that all flights were cancelled for the day, or until the power came back on. We left the airport to go back to the hotel we had just checked out of that morning. We had to walk, because anything with a motor was simply not running. Something major had happened, we knew. Power outages don’t affect cars. Solar flare? Nuclear bomb? We noticed smoke rising in several spots over the inlet, and remembered the explosions we had heard immediately after the outage. The planes. They had all crashed. I started feeling sick to my stomach.
We were in Anchorage for the state cross country running meet. For the first time ever, both the boys and girls teams had qualified, so we’d taken the ferry to Whittier and made the short drive to Anchorage. There were seven guys, six girls, and two coaches for the three day trip. By the time we were supposed to return, a storm had moved in to Prince William Sound, cancelling the ferries, so we had to book flights back to Cordova. This was always a hazard in Alaska when traveling in remote areas. Then we couldn’t all get on one flight at such short notice – it’s a small plane – so eight kids and Coach Ron were on the first flight, while the rest of us waited for the next one with Coach Casey.
***
I’ve read my share of post-apocalyptic YA books, but never one set in Alaska. This is a setting that will provide unique challenges in a world suddenly bereft of electricity and transportation. I looked up Cordova and Anchorage on a map (see above), and it looks like a long way to get between them over land (which I’m betting is the meaning behind the title) rather than by boat or plane.
The opening scene with the flicker of lights and then the failure of everything at the airport will work for this story – but we want to experience it in real time with the narrator, rather than as the summarization we have now. That first paragraph alone could take a page or so to convey if we get all the sensory details as they happen – what did it feel like, what did they hear, see, smell? Most of all, we want to experience the uneasiness that gradually turns to alarm and fear and panic after they realized the planes crashed.
A literary agent once told me that he looks for two things in the opening pages of a manuscript: character and a sense of conflict. The conflict is evident here, but kept at a distance from us because we don’t really know the character experiencing it. By the end of the first page, I know the narrator is a member of a cross-country team from Cordova, but not if it’s a boy or a girl or their name.
I think this story needs to start with us getting to know the main character in the Anchorage airport. He/she and teammates are coming from a state meet. Did the team do well? Are they feeling victorious? Their travel home has been delayed, and they’ve been split up. Has the delay brought them down from their post-meet high, or are they still in boisterous spirits? Are other travelers annoyed by their antics? Has Coach Casey asked them to settle down, or is she too busy on her phone to pay attention?
Then comes that flicker, and everything changes.
Kristen, thank you for sharing your first page! Readers, do you have anything to add? You can find Krystalyn and Marcy’s thoughts on their websites. And you can find Kristen as AKLibraryChick on Twitter.
Friends Share
Not an uncommon sight in our house … Sorcia and Luna at their favorite watering hole.
I just wanted to leave you with a funny image.
I’ll be taking a blog hiatus for the rest of this month and April.
See you all in May!
Kids at Work
One of my characters drives this electric Riker.
Okay, one of those SNI (Shiny New Ideas) got me. I have temporarily put aside my first draft WIP to revise another manuscript. (Sorry, Marcy Hatch! I know you’re still waiting for that next chapter of the new story.)
The most challenging part of the manuscript I’m working on now is that the 14-year-old protagonists don’t go to school. They have jobs. The setting is Long Island, New York in 1908, and these two characters work as apprentices in a lab. One of them rents a room in a boarding house. The other one drives an automobile on her own. My CPs have pointed out—and I believe they’re right—that young readers will find this very strange.
My story is set in an alternate history, but of course child labor was a common thing in the early 1900s. Kids worked in mines, factories, on the street selling newspapers, and in their family businesses.
Annie Oakley
Only one of my grandparents graduated from high school. The others had to work in the family business or raise their younger siblings. The one who did graduate did so because she was the youngest in her family and her older siblings had already quit school to run the farm. Their sacrifices allowed their little sister the luxury of an education – and that’s what education was in those days, a luxury.
Harry Houdini quit school at 12 to get a job; so did Thomas Edison. Boys built the transcontinental railroad and the Empire State Building. Girls fought off wild animals with rifles, defended the homestead, and one really talented gal with the stage name of Annie Oakley became the most famous sharpshooter in the world! If you want to go back a little further in time, young teenagers led armies (think Joan and Alexander) and ruled empires (Nefertiti and Amenhotep).
My challenge is to paint this backdrop for young readers and help them identify with the young apprentices in my story who don’t have the luxury of education, work for their living, and—as it turns out—make a remarkable scientific discovery.
2016 is Getting Better
You may recall I started off the new year with a broken foot and 3 weeks of immobility. That was followed by 2 weeks walking in a boot — during which I managed to wrench my knee. When the boot finally came off, I discovered that I was not going to bounce right back to my pre-injury level of activity.
But things are almost back to normal now. I’m exercising again. My foot hardly ever hurts, although my knee is not finished complaining yet. Better yet, my schedule is full of Skypes and school visits and book festivals — a far cry from those endless January days with nothing to do.
I’ve also learned that The Eighth Day was nominated for two 2016-2017 state lists — the Virginia Readers Choice Award and Georgia’s Tome Society IT List. Yay!
The dark days of 2016 are over, thankfully.
What’s bringing sunshine to your life lately?
Cast of Thousands
A couple weeks ago, I lent my husband one of the adult science fiction books I read last month. To my delight, he enjoyed it as much as I did.
“It had a lot of characters,” he said, “which usually frustrates me, but the author did a great job of introducing only one at a time. That made it easy for me to get to know them and keep them straight.”
Then he gave me the look.
And I sank down in my chair.
‘Cause I know I have a problem. I’m a New Character Addict. Why bring in one new character when I can have three? Or five? It’s a problem that runs rampant through all my first drafts, and it’s definitely attributable to my being a pantster at heart. (I bet people who outline don’t have this problem.) But when you’re making up the story as you go, with only the barest glimpse of your target ending, a lot of unexpected and uninvited characters turn up along the way.
Some of them end up being important — maybe even show-stoppers — so it’s essential that I let this process run its course, even if it’s frustrating to my CPs. I try not to worry because I know in later drafts I’ll put on my Grim Reaper robe, get out my scythe, and start slashing characters.
Sometimes, I see the solution even earlier than that. For instance, last week I wrote a chapter in which three new characters appeared – a mother and daughter we’d heard about before – and a scientist. It occurred to me afterward that if the mother was also the scientist, three characters could be reduced to two. Now that I’ve seen the solution, it’s hard for me to go on writing this soon-to-be-merged-with-another-character scientist, but I feel compelled to do so for my own first-drafting brain, as well as the sanity of my CPs. He’s doomed, but he’s part of the first draft.
What sins do YOU commit in your first drafts?
Writing Chapter Books: Interview & Cover Reveal with Stephanie Faris
Today I’m helping Stephanie Faris celebrate the cover reveal for the third book in her Piper Morgan chapter book series. What’s fascinating to me is that this cover reveal is happening before the first two books are even released — which led to me having a few questions about the world of chapter book publication. This is outside my realm of experience. Luckily, Stephanie was willing to enlighten us!
***
- Hi, Stephanie! Tell us about your published books and your upcoming releases.
I have two middle grade books with Simon & Schuster’s Aladdin M!x line, 30 Days of No Gossip and 25 Roses. Piper Morgan is a four-book series and it’s my first chapter book series.
- Who is Piper Morgan?
Piper Morgan is an eight-year-old girl who lives with her single mom. When her mom loses her job, she accepts temporary work that has her leaving home behind to travel. This means Piper gets to hang out with her mom as she works with a circus, a school, an animal rescue shelter, and at a pool and spa store.
- I see that this series is with the same publisher as your last two books. Did the series idea come from you or from them?
I owe my amazing agent a big thanks for letting me know publishers were looking for chapter books a couple of years ago. After reading every single Junie B. Jones and Magic Tree House book, I came up with the idea of a precocious young girl who gets to go on extraordinary adventures.
- The first two Piper Morgan books come out together in August. Piper Morgan to the Rescue comes out in November. What is the strategy behind these release dates, and when does the fourth book come out?
Chapter books often come out close together, since children like to be able to read as many as possible in a series. I’m sure even August to November isn’t fast enough for some kids! I believe the strategy behind books one and two releasing the same day is that many kids/parents will buy both books together. I know when I sign at events, kids tend to often buy both of my middle grade books together and they aren’t even a series! The fourth book started as the third, actually—but that book is set in a pool and spa store. The publisher moved it to spring, when minds are more likely to be on swimming, and moved Piper Morgan to the Rescue up to November, making that one book number three.
- Tell us about writing chapter books. How is it different from MG?
The age difference is huge. The books are much shorter—around 8,000 words for each—and the writing is far younger. Eight-year-olds obviously have less sophisticated vocabularies than 12-year-olds, but I also have to keep in mind that children as young as five or six could be reading these books and try not to overcomplicate the way I describe things.
- What’s next for you?
Good question! I have a middle grade under consideration, so fingers crossed on that one! I have an idea for a middle grade series, but I’m having a hard time getting a complex issue to fit into a fun storyline. So I’ll be twisting my brain into knots on that one for a while.
***
And now for the cover reveal …
Piper Morgan to the Rescue: Piper is super excited to help out at Bark Street, a local animal shelter in town. Who wouldn’t want to be surrounded by adorable puppies and dogs all day? And when Piper sees Taffy, the cutest dog she has ever seen, Piper is determined to find a way to bring Taffy home. But it won’t be easy—especially when she finds out someone else wants to make Taffy a part of their family, too!
Congratulations, Stephanie, on all three of these adorable covers!
Below you will find a Rafflecopter giveaway for an ARC of Piper Morgan Joins the Circus. And if you don’t already know and follow Stephanie, you can find her at all these places.
a Rafflecopter giveawayAttack of the SNI (Shiny New Ideas)
Me: *Stares at WIP on screen.*
SNI #1: Psst. Dianne.
Me: Go away. I’m busy.
SNI #1: It’s me. Your manuscript, XXXX, that you shelved two years ago. I was thinking, what if you changed me from YA to MG?
Me: That would be a major change. I’d have to practically gut the story and start over.
SNI #1: But it would address some of the feedback you got. All of the feedback, really.
Me: That’s a really interesting idea, but I’m working on something else right now. *Stares at WIP. Types a comma. Deletes the comma.*
SNI #1: While you’re stuck, why don’t you make up a side-by-side outline – my chapters as they are now, and what you would have to change to make the story MG.
Me: I’m not stuck. You’re bothering me.
SNI #1: Okay. I’ll go. But think about it.
Me: *Decides to re-read the chapter-in-progress so far. Changes three words.*
SNI #2: Hey, Dianne, weren’t those two articles you read last night pretty cool? The one about gravitational waves and the other about turbulence and Van Gogh’s The Starry Night?
Me: Who are you?
SNI #2: You know who I am. Put the ideas in those two articles together and you get …
Me: You.
SNI #2: That’s right. Remember those 4 awesome adult science fiction books you read while you were laid up? If you were to write down your favorite thing about each of them, put that list together with gravitational waves and turbulence, you’d probably have a really cool plan for a new story.
Me: But I’m busy with this other project right now.
SNI #2: Really? Doesn’t look like it.
SNI #3: And what about me?
Me: I remember you. I outlined you.
SNI #3: And then you never wrote me.
Me: You were boring.
SNI #3: Maybe I wouldn’t be so boring if SNI #2 wasn’t hogging all the good ideas. Put the turbulence in my book! I want the cosmic turbulence!
Me: Look, I don’t want to write you now. *Points at WIP.* I like this one. My critique partners like this one. This is what I need to work on right now.
SNI #3: So why aren’t you typing?
***
Good question! Why aren’t I typing?
Maybe because my mind looks like this inside?
Word count goals don’t usually work for me, but I’m thinking I need to set some this week. (And not allow myself any Netflix time if I don’t meet them!)
Go away, SNIs!
Life in Bullet Points, February 2016
Good news ~ I’m back in shoes! Bad news ~ I walk like an elderly lady crossing a fun house floor. I admit I was blindsided by this. I had no idea what 3 weeks of immobility and 2 weeks of only partial mobility would do to me. Physical therapy, here I come.
- Tomorrow I’m off to Naples, Florida for a school visit. I’m looking forward to the sunshine, meeting the students and teachers, and I’ve already picked out restaurants on Yelp. I’m not looking forward to walking in the airports. See the first bullet point above.
- I’m sorry to say that I didn’t get a lot of writing done in the past few weeks. Maybe, if I’d had a completed manuscript to revise, I would have gotten more done, because revision comes easily to me. But writing a first draft … I didn’t realize how much thinking and planning I did while driving and walking and working out and, yes, even cleaning the house. Living a normal life provides the backdrop for creative brainwork. No Normality = No Creativity. I look forward to getting both these things back this month!
- What I did do while I was laid up was binge watch Jessica Jones, Making a Murderer, Sherlock (first time watching), and Dexter (also first time watching). I read Superposition and Supersymmetry by David Walton, Bounders by Monica Tesler, Beastly Bones by William Ritter, The Prey by Tom Isbell, The Fold and 14 by Peter Clines, and Lexicon by Max Barry. Plus a couple of DNF titles that I won’t list.
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“Whatever Dianne tells you is a lie. Just look at me. I am inn-o-cent.”
And finally, a slice of my life this week:
I’m on the sofa with a bowl of super-spicy Jacked Doritos. I put down the bowl and look away to answer an email from Krystalyn Drown. I look back.
The cat has appeared behind me. She’s crouched over my bowl. Her tongue is out.
Me: “Hey! Did you just lick my Doritos?”
The cat sneezes. She spits. She rubs her face with a front paw and backs away.
Me: “Dang it!” I eye the bowl and try to figure out if I can still eat some of the chips.
Launch Party and Blog Time Machine
Saturday was a glorious day for a book launch party at the Hockessin Book Shelf in Hockessin, Delaware! I was thrilled to see so many friends, former teaching colleagues, fellow writers, and young readers come to celebrate the release of The Morrigan’s Curse. I even got to see a friend from high school who I haven’t seen (except on Facebook) since our 5th class reunion. (Which was only a few years ago — HAHAHAHA!)
Here are a few photos:
As I was getting ready to write this post, I remembered writing a similar one at the beginning of February 2015 for the launch of The Inquisitor’s Mark. Then I got a little curious about what I was blogging about in previous Februarys … and I took a little time machine tour, via the archives, to find out.
* Engage the machine that makes everything swirly*
2015 — Celebrating the release of The Inquisitor’s Mark.
2014 — Housebound by an ice storm. Using the opportunity to write 9000 words in The Morrigan’s Curse, specifically the first draft of the climax.
2013 — Finishing up the first draft of The Inquisitor’s Mark and getting ready for pre-release promotions of The Caged Graves.
2012 — Thinking about leaving my comfort zone to attempt an urban fantasy about a secret day of the week, even though I considered myself a historical fiction writer. Wasn’t sure I was going to do it. (!!!!)
2011 — Bemoaning the fact that I was feeling my way through the first draft of a WIP like I was playing Blind Man’s Bluff. (Interesting, since I’m doing that again this year …)
2010 — Alternately ranting about standardized testing and posting historical tidbits related to We Hear the Dead that nobody read because my blog was brand new and I didn’t have any followers.
*Let’s swirly ourselves back to the present*
An interesting trip! And a bit scary, since I’d forgotten how close I came to NOT writing The Eighth Day, which, as you can see, consumed my next three years.
I wonder what I’ll be blogging about in 2017?
Morrigan’s Curse Giveaway
Kel licked his lips nervously. “What the Morrigan said — about progeny and destiny and giving us a gift to defeat the Transitioners. Was she talking about you, Addie?”
With more bravado than she felt, Addie shrugged. “I was visited by the Old Crone a year ago, and now I’ve seen the Girl of Crows. The only one I haven’t met is the Washer Woman, which is good, because I don’t think you’re supposed to survive that one.”
It was very satisfying to leave Kel frozen at the top of the stairs, his mouth dangling open like a fish. What a shame it had to be for something so deadly serious. Because having the Morrigan speak to you in two of her three forms really couldn’t be a good sign.
***
In celebration for the release of The Morrigan’s Curse, I’m giving away a signed copy, along with a set of tattoos and a 2016 Eighth Day Calendar, complete with 8 days a week.
Just enter the Rafflecopter Giveaway below!
Release Day!
I’m not exactly dancing for joy — but I am WALKING again, which is excellent. Three weeks of immobility was more than enough, so even if I’m hobbling along slowly in a knee-high “boot,” I’m thrilled to be on my feet for the launch of The Morrigan’s Curse!
Fun with Celtic Mythology
I had a lot of fun researching this book. A LOT of fun. And since I wrote the first draft all the way back in 2014, I’ve been sitting on all this cool stuff for a long time. With the book finally releasing next week, I’d like to talk about the myths and legends that produced some of the characters – and magical objects – in The Morrigan’s Curse.
As with the first two books, I drew on Arthurian legends for my Transitioner characters. In The Morrigan’s Curse you’ll meet Transitioner lords Calvin Bedivere and Ash Pellinore. The Sir Bedivere of legend had only one hand, so I assigned my Bedivere “the hand of power” as his family talent. Sir Pellinore was known best for his pursuit of a great Beast. Therefore, I gave Ash Pellinore … no, wait. I’m going to keep that one a secret. It’s worth it. You’ll see.
Because some of the major characters in Morrigan are Kin – loosely based on the Tuatha de Danann – I also had the opportunity to delve into Celtic mythology. Each Kin character is linked to some god or goddess out of Celtic lore: Corra is an oracle, Aeron is the god of war and strife, Ratis is the god of boundaries and fortification.
Lloyd Alexander drew on this same mythology in his Prydain Chronicles, and I found myself needing to use some of the same names: Llyr, Mathonwy, Arawn. I did my best to make my characters as different as possible from his, even using the alternate spelling of Arawen so as not to draw a parallel with Alexander’s Death-Lord, Arawn.
One of the best and most fun people to write about was the titular character, The Morrigan – a three-in-one deity who embodies chaos and destruction. She appears as either an old crone, a middle-aged woman, or a young girl (named by me as Girl of Crows). When I first stumbled across the Morrigan in my preliminary research, I knew at once that she needed a place in my third book. And when I was hit by THE IDEA, THE DELICIOUSLY SHOCKING IDEA about how to use the Morrigan, I had to go back into the second book, The Inquisitor’s Mark, and revise major sections to set up for her arrival.
Finally, what’s a fantasy story without a few magic items? Especially ones that might be trickier than they first appear! Here I called upon the Treasures of the Tuatha de Danaan: The Cauldron of Dagda, The Spear of Lugh, the Sword of Nuadu, and the Stone of Fal. In the legends, each one had a very specific magical use, but when I stumbled upon a website describing the symbolic purpose of each item … well, then I had the backbone of this story.
I hope that readers will enjoy how I put this all together! One of the best compliments I received from my editor was, “I kept having to Google the names in your manuscript because I couldn’t tell what you were getting from legend and what you were making up!”
Isn’t that what we aspire to?
***
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