Strengths and weaknesses in your writing

Over the past few weeks, I've been writing lots of new things, editing and thinking about how my writing has changed since I signed with Agent A almost one year ago. (Seriously! Wow!) We've all got our writing strengths and weaknesses. Mine? Okay. My strongest writing comes with my plots. When others read my MSS, their first comment is usually, "Wow, I didn't get bored for a second. You kept things moving." Then the next comment is, "But I didn't feel inside the character's head enough." So, strong at plotting and weak with internal emotion. Fixable, right? Sure, and once someone points out your weaknesses, it should only make you more aware of them so they can be addressed. When I first started writing book-length fiction in November 2006, I had no idea how dialogue tags worked. They were a MESS. Now, it's second nature. Don't even notice my tags. Practice definitely pays off.

So, what are the strongest and weakest parts of your writing? Have you mastered something you once struggled with?

P.S. Isn't the class of 2k8 widget (see right and scroll) adorable? It'll show a new book every time you refresh the page! Clever.

MySpace woes and new book releases

Right before the holidays, I changed my MySpace layout. Fine, right? Sure. It was pretty and girly and I loved it. Friend requests stopped coming in, but I didn't notice...until a few days ago when some nice person e-mailed me and said "hey, we can't friend you because you have no contact table!" Eek! The beautiful layout came without a contact table and I didn't even notice. Sigh.

So, I've got a new look and layout and the most important thing--that table! If we're not already MySpace friends, feel free to add me.

Today's a big day for Lauren Baratz-Logsted and Lisa Schroeder! Both of them have books releasing today. Lisa's debut YA novel, I Heart You, You Haunt Me is out TODAY from Simon Pulse. Lisa's also a member of the class of 2k8. :) Go check out both of those books today!

Freelancing to Fiction

I was on The Writer's Website yesterday and found this nice little link: http://www.writermag.com/wrt/default.aspx?c=ni&id=56

I absolutely cannot wait for the March issue of The Writer! It'll have my piece for the Breakthrough column where I wrote how writing articles led me to my book deal. In my case, it's completely true that freelancing for magazines taught me a lot about writing fiction from putting deadlines on myself, to editing to working with editors.

Have you freelanced? Did you find it helpful before you started writing a book? If you haven't, would you consider freelancing or are you sticking to fiction?

Finished Blackheart Mountain!

I'm sooo excited that I just finished the draft of my first ever YA novel, Blackheart Mountain!! Yay! I started it last May while Take the Reins was on submission and thought I'd work on it all summer while waiting for TTR news. Well, you guys know how that turned out so I had to shelve Blackheart while I did edits for TTR and wrote Chasing Blue. But since edits are mostly wrapped up on my end for CB and I felt like a change, I switched over to Blackheart and finally finished it.

It's really, REALLY different from the Canterwood series, I must say. The protags are both sixteen, instead of thirteen, so that alone is a huge shift. Plus, they're allowed to swear and engage in older teen behavior, so that's fun to write! :)

All right. I'm going to watch a movie and then start the editing on Blackheart. Starting edits at page one is always a little scary. You have those moments of "what was I thinking when I wrote this?!" and then those rare "wow, I love that line" thoughts.

Anyone else writing both YA and MG and feel a difference? What's your preference?

And go congratulate Lauren Barnholdt. Her new YA, Two-Way Street, is in its THIRD printing!

Book Blog Tour Announcement: First Visitor

Friday came fast this week, didn't it? Maybe it's because all of this week still felt like a holiday. Thanks so much to everyone who offered up comments about adult novels! I'm looking forward to reading different things this year. Generally, as long as the adult novels aren't horror or sci fi, I'll try them.

Off to edit! Got any big weekend plans?

Book Blog Tour Announcement:

On Friday, January 11, author E.M. Alexander is stopping by to talk about her debut novel, Death at Deacon Pond. She's also generously giving away two signed copies of Death at Deacon Pond to two lucky people (one on Blogger and one on LiveJournal) who leave her a comment next Friday. Mark your calendars and I'll remind everyone again next week.

Where have all the adult books gone?

I was looking over my reading list for last year (see sidebar) and realized one thing. Lots of YA, but where are the adult books? Sure, February, March and April are full of them because I was in school, but after that...they sort of disappeared. Oops.

So, I started off this year by reading an adult novel--The Reader by Bernhard Schlink. It's an Oprah Book Club pick and though it's short, it's powerful. I think Barrie said she didn't like it, but I thought it told a great story.

Over the holiday break, I read dozens of small MG novels--too many to list on the blogger sidebar. Has anyone read anything from the Animal Ark series from Scholastic? Very cute and a great way to show kids how to care and love animals. I also reread several horsey MG novels that I loved when I was a kid (Pony Pals and Pony Tails) and found them still lovable and inspiring to horsey authors.

What are you reading now? I'm on the lookout for my next adult read. Suggestions?

Book Blog Tour Visitors

Blogger was being moody yesterday and said it was Monday when I posted when it was in fact Tuesday. Odd.

Anyway, thanks to all of the authors who emailed me about visiting the blog! If this round goes well, I'll probably do this again in the spring. I'll be posting a list of authors scheduled to visit by the weekend.

I'm off to edit! It got down to 17 degrees here last night. In Florida. It's supposed to be colder tonight. Anyone else having freezing weather?