Distractinol # 2: Book Mapping

Today's dose of distractinol is 100% ubernerd. And that's what I like about it.
It is called: mindomo.com. Mindomo offers mind mapping, concept mapping, and brainstorming software online, for free. Usually I use software like this to do extremely boring PhD-ish things, but today I took advantage of it to make a map of some YA books I've read. I like to call it:

If you enjoyed [this book] you might like [that book]

I've only gotten through a bit of my Dystopian section, but here's a little preview:

So I know that I could just write a blog post or make a word document that says something like "Hey these books are similar, if you liked one, check the others out!" For example:

FEED, MT Anderson // AWAKEN, Katie Kacvinsky // BUMPED, Megan McCafferty

UGLIES, Scott Westerfeld // DIVERGENT, Veronica Roth
HUNGER GAMES, Suzanne Collins // BIRTHMARKED, Caragh O'Brien
MATCHED, Ally Condie // WITHER, Lauren DeStefano // DELERIUM, Lauren Oliver

But honestly, that's just no fun. Who is going to read that, when they can look at pretty pictures of book covers? Plus that took me no time at all to type up -- that's not an adequate dose of procrastination!

So in summary: mindomo is pretty fun, super nerdy and a big time waster, which is of course exactly what distractinol is for. 

Query Letter Hell (vol. 1)

For the past three weeks, I have poured over fantastic websites, forum threads and author blog entries that have titles like:  Three Simple Questions to Answer in a Query ... Successful Queries #1, #2 ... better yet, how about Awesome Query that Got Me My Agent?

This is not that blog.

You will notice by the title of this posting (stolen from AW), that my querying experience to date has been slightly different. This is because I am stuck in a query editing loop, and my latest version -- cute little Query16.2  -- is too scared to run out and try to worm its way onto an agent's lap. 

My Query Writing Experience:

This is how it has gone for me so far:

1. Write a query with the names of characters and places in my YA dystopian/fantasy, but include nothing that would indicate what the story is actually about.

2. Post on Absolute Write's Query Letter Hell. 

3. Re-read and wonder what the heck I was thinking. This query should die a slow painful death, perhaps by QueryShark.

4. Confuse everyone on AW because my query doesn't make any sense.

5. Rewrite - narrowing scope of query.

6. Discover that the query makes it sound like the story is all about the main character's parents.

7. Rewrite.

8. Find out that the "visions" the MC has are confusing all the query readers to no end. Query is totally misleading. Also contains no 'hook' at the beginning.

9. Think "hmm .. maybe these 'visions' aren't central to the plot"

10. Rewrite - removing visions from query.

11. Realize query no longer sounds like YA fantasy.

12. Wonder if my inability to write a query means that I have not actually written a novel either.

13. Consider shelving manuscript.

14. Wait a few days.

15. Rewrite - putting visions back in query, and adding a hook.

16. Feedback on the query is mixed.

17. Wonder if it was a good idea back in step #5 to narrow the scope of the query. It now covers only the first 2/3 of the book. Enticing or confusing? ...don't know.

18. Sigh.

19. Wait for betas to finish reading.

20. Gather strength for another round.

So, how do you write a successful query? 

Well, obviously I haven't figured that out quite yet. However I think I'm getting closer. Here's what I think I have learned so far. 

1. Get right to the hook
(and to your MC) 

For example: Dear Mr./Ms. Agent, [Insert Hook - riveting issue and/or unique character trait - here] . But, don't use a logline ... or do use a logline, depending on who you talk to.

2. Incorporate answers to the following :

(a) Goal - What does your MC want?

(b) Obstacle - What is preventing the MC from obtaining goal?

(c) Stakes - What will happen if MC fails? Chooses option A? Chooses Option B?

The answers to these should get at the main conflict of the story - the entire arc - not just the initial premise. Therefore the query should summarize the entire story up to the central conflict ... or not, depending on who you ask.

3. Query Dos

Show don't tell

Be specific. Use details not vague generalities

Focus on one character - the MC. 

Read the query aloud. Watch the cadence.

Leave the audience wondering. End with high stakes, don't fizzle out.

4. Query Don'ts

Don't include backstory.

Don't make character soup ... we don't need to know all the names of the MC's 13 friends.

Don't start with "Imagine if..." or rhetorical questions

Don't compare your book to titles that aren't selling well

5. Do all this in 300 words or less

Keep it short and snappy. Make them want to read on.
End the query with something enticing, but not a cliche!

Click on my "Resources" tab to find more links to expert opinions on query writing. They know far more about this than I do. And maybe someday in the hopefully not-to-distant future, I will be back to post my own "successful query" and querying tips. In the meantime, hope this helps those of you out there in your own personal query letter hell. You are not alone.

Oh, and if you get tired of writing queries, you can always just revert to making random cover art for your unpublished book! It does make you feel a whole lot better about things.

Recent Reads Roundup : January

Someday perhaps, I'll get around to writing up reviews of each of these. In the meantime, thought I'd share what I've been reading recently. Most of it in the YA fantasy genre (for obvious reasons!):

                     

                         

                          

Chime - Franny Billingsley ***

A Little Princess - Frances H. Burnett

A Great and Terrible Beauty - Libba Bray

Bumped - Megan McCafferty ***

Inside Out - Maria Snyder

Spellbound - Cara Lynn Schultz

Entwined - Heather Dixon

Unearthly - Cynthia Hand ***

Clarity - Kim Harrington ***

We'll see how I go ... and other ways to sound Aussie

So today, or maybe it was yesterday (it is hard to keep track of days when I am on Sydney time, but my computer is on AZ time), I submitted my book to Amazon's Breakthrough Novel Award! It would be AWESOME if I could even make it through round one of this thing. We'll see how I go on the 23rd!

Which reminds me - I have been meaning to share my first installment of Australian Phraseology.
Whether we're going out in the arvo (afternoon) with friends or are just trying to pick up some "tasty cheese" (cheddar) at the local market, I often feel like I need to be carrying around an Aussie Decoder Pen. I know these folks are speaking English, but there are a heck of a lot of differences.

To get the full experience of this list, click on the links - you'll jump to one of my favorite websites in the entire world: Forvo.com. There you can actually listen to an Aussie say the word out loud!

All right! On to some of my current favorites:

Bogan -- This is the Australian equivalent of a "redneck" though I think it's a bit more specific ... like a redneck in the city maybe? I haven't quite figured out how offensive this, and I haven't been brave enough to drop it in casual conversation to find out.

Maths -- This one just cracks me up. You don't work on your math homework. You work on your maths homework. In an interesting twist, you likewise don't watch sports, you watch some sport. I don't know why, but I giggle everytime I hear these words or see them painted on the "maths tutorial" buses ... which they have quite a lot of here.

Bench -- After Rob received several mysterious emails from colleagues about nibbles being left on the bench, we quickly realized that nibbles=snacks. What took us longer to figure out was why the heck people were leaving them lying around on a bench where someone could sit on them?! We had no reason to worry. Turns out a "bench" is a kitchen counter. The problem is I now have no idea what to call an actual bench! Sigh.

Biscuit -- This one still has me going in circles. If a biscuit is what we (Americans) think of as a cookie, what do Australians call a biscuit? I've sort of figured out the whole chips(AUS)=fries(US), and crisps(AUS)=chips(US) thing, but the biscuit/cookie mess has me completely confused.

Also, if like me, you ever suspected that American tv/movies were exaggerating how often Aussies say "mate"  -- they aren't! They may even be under-exaggerating! They say it ALL the time, to friends and (more often) as a way to be welcoming/friendly to strangers. I love it! I don't think I'll ever be able to bring myself to say it with a straight face -- it just begs for that great Aussie lilt -- but I love it!

Cheers

To the person who left the gates open at the horse arena last night, thanks heaps! I've never really been in a horse showing arena (if that is what you call it), but from what I could see at 1:00am it looked very circusy and magical. There were lots strange things hanging from the ceiling and seats in the middle of the circle that I didn't understand but looked acrobaticky. If they don't already do horse shows at night, it's something that really something they should consider, 'cause I think they may have something there. Even Rob might go if the horses were wearing costumes with LED lighting. Well, ok maybe there would also need to be backflips and maybe some fire, but if there were those things, we'd definitely be back!

To the person who left the pallets leaning against the lamppost on the hill, I love you! Our arms are a little sore and my hands smell suspiciously like beer, but thankfully half a block down someone else had brought a shopping cart over from Randwick, so that helped a ton! I am hoping they will clean up nicely. I think Rob did a pre-wash last night. I can't really remember because after carrying the pallets up 3 stories (stupid elevatorless apartment, grr), I fell asleep on the living room floor. But eventually, I think they will clean up and hopefully de-waterlog quite nicely and we can have cool bookshelves and/or coffee table. Votes?

(a)  (b) 

(c) (d) 

Long term, I think what really want is (a) but right now (d) is looking pretty nice. And yes, in case you didn't know I am addicted to Pinterest.


P.S. Did you know that cool guys don't look at explosions?

P.P.S. If you are the owner of the horse arena that was not us on your security tapes. And you might want to get some actual security, not just the tapes. But don't, because it's really fun there at night.

Delayed Reactions

It only took 2.5 weeks for me to realize that even though Rob's camera is certainly broken, we can still get the pictures off of his SD card by inserting it in my camera. Brilliant. So, with a minor delay, here are some of our first impressions of Sydney! Ok my impressions of Sydney really, since I mostly had the camera and Rob wouldn't touch a blog with a 10 foot nanotube. If he has anything to add, I will allow him a postscript.

I still have no pictures of the hibiscus or the plumeria or the flying foxes or the birds, and that is really horrid of me because they are gorgeous. Well, except for the ibis. The ibis are a little dirty - probably because they are always poking around in the rubbish bins. If you ever thought ibis were majestic (maybe I was the only one?) Sydney will pretty quickly rectify those delusions. The ibis are like those little lap dogs some people have that are supposed to be white, but are now all dingy brown for reasons no one wants to ask. But you don't have to ask the ibis, just watch one for about 2.2 and you'll find out. Ick. Anyway. Birds are what we don't have pictures of. Here are some of the things we do.

On the first day that we went out with camera, we went to Darling Harbor. I can't really remember why we were there, but I think it had something to do with a farmers' market that turned out not to exist. However, this water park near Tumbalong Park at Darling Harbor was very cool. You could pump the pumps and move the sluice gates and make the water go down whatever path you wanted. We had a lot of fun with it until a girl in loaded pink diapers moved her sluice gate and cut us off ... which in retrospect was probably for the best anyway, as she was actually sitting in the stream we'd had our hands in.

After a quick sterilization, we hopped over to the Powerhouse museum, which had a ton of super cool steam-powered contraptions and robots and magnets and science experiments that I can't show you because it was here that our camera decided to stop working. We unfortunately didn't realize this at the time, and subsequently took dozens of probably super-amazing photos that are now lost forever. But! I do have this picture of a piece of old steam-powered circus equipment! The last photo before our camera set sail.

Thankfully, we have second, and actually much better camera, and when I have more energy, I will get some of those photos up here from our Chinese New Year and Australia Day excursions.

Anyhow. There are also of course many things we didn't or couldn't take photos of. The second night after we arrived we went to hear Beirut in the Sydney Opera House. We had seats way way up in the tippy top in the back, but it was much smaller inside than I'd expected so it didn't feel like we were so far away. The acoustics in there were amazing. And Beirut was amazing. They aren't much for talking or putting on a show between songs, but in a way that just made the whole thing better. Just the music.

Distractinol - Gotye & Marcel

I've been hooked beta reading all day long. So after eating my vegan mac and cheese, I decided to take a little break. Two hours later, I thought I'd share my weekly dose of Distractinol:

          

          

I pretty much never get on YouTube, as you might be able to tell by the age of the selections. And I'm fine with that. I figure the other folks can do the filtering for me.