Do you have trouble getting going with your creative writing in the morning? Or afternoon? Or evening?

Or do you sometimes sit down at the computer and stare at the blank page, not entirely sure of where to start?

I know some of you don’t have that problem. You open a document and start typing, at your scheduled hour, every day. Not me! I’m the exact opposite. My schedule is random and I have the worst time when it comes to actually putting my fingers on those keys for the sake of my own creativity.

I find I tend to get caught up in other things instead – life, blogging, emails… you name it, it’s a distraction.

Storypraxis is a way to escape all that, for just 10 minutes every day. It was started by freelance editor Andy Meisenheimer (former editor for Zondervan Books) and is a “community blog that is dedicated to helping writers write creatively every day”.

Six days a week, a prompt is posted. It’ll be a word, or a short phrase. You open a document (or your email), set a timer, and write for 10 minutes. That’s it. Ten minutes.

Use your imagination and your creative freedom to create, based on that prompt.

Send your story/response to the prompt in to the blog, and a sample of the stories from that day will be posted to encourage and entertain the rest of the participants.

There’s no commenting allowed on the posts, because it isn’t a critique session. It’s an exercise in creativity, and – this is key – no polishing or editing beyond proofreading. A way of getting you to write, freely, with no barriers but your own imagination.

I’ve participated several times already, and plan to continue doing so!

I met Andy at Write!Canada 2010 earlier this year, so don’t worry that he’s going to run off with your stories or mess with them or anything. He’s cool and genuinely cares about writers and creativity.

I should also mention that I learned about storypraxis from one of my favorite people, award-winning author Mags Storey (who wrote a really awesome YA book called If Only You Knew that you should read, seriously… it won one of the biggest Canadian literary awards this year! …here’s a link to a sample chapter! and another link to a great review!). I met her last year at Write!Canada 2009, and have been privileged to stay in occasional contact since then (and we’ve helped each other out on a few things since then, too). So you should go order her book first, THEN try out storypraxis. Got it?

Come try storypraxis with me today!

Here are a few links to what I’ve contributed so far:

book burning by Faith Boughan

expecting a lie by Faith Boughan

Want to try?

Here’s today’s prompt: imperfection.

Apparently I had a brain fart last week and thought I didn’t get anything in the mail… well, apparently I lied! I did get a book, so I’ll include that this week, along with a few other books that were on backorder from Scholastic Canada but finally came in. Yay!

FYI: In My Mailbox is a weekly meme started by The Story Siren to showcase books you’ve received for review, bought, borrowed, or swapped. Anyone can participate, and it’s a great way to showcase new books and encourage blogger/commenter interaction!

Sooooo excited to read these… I read the second Gallagher Girls book earlier this year and loved it. I can’t wait to start from the beginning and get the full GG experience!

And the books below came for review this week… I’ve started one of them and am really enjoying it so far. The other two, I’m not so sure about. I’ll let you guess which ones.

…and that’s what happened on my bookshelves !

What came in YOUR mailbox this week?

I was going to post a book review for you all today, but I received something in my inbox yesterday that I’m going to share instead. I know it’s not exactly writing-related, but it’s an important issue that people are dealing with in schools and in the media this week, so I thought it rather appropriate (especially considering many of you either have children or write for teens).

The article below is all about educating children on the harmful effects of bullying and teaching them how to understand empathy. I particularly like the last paragraph, which says something I think we all need to be reminded of.

Please feel free to publish the article on your own blog or email it to anyone who needs to hear this message.

Responding to the Bullycides: How We Can Stand Up & Honor Their Memories
By Rachel Simmons 
Author of The Curse of the Good Girl: Raising Authentic Girls with Courage and Confidence

It’s been said that once you have a child, you look at the suffering of other families in a different way. You know what it means to love someone with your entire being, in a way that you never could have imagined before bringing your child into your life. In a way, every child becomes your child.

The suicides this week of two young men, Asher Brown and Tyler Clementi, are devastating, and they are sounding an alarm to all of us about the crisis state of bullying in this country. These tragic events are also a call to parents everywhere to stand up and speak out on behalf of tolerance, respect and dignity for children everywhere.

I can’t stop thinking about these two young men, and the burning humiliation they must have felt as they were dehumanized for their gender identity and sexuality. For parts of themselves they were born into, and could not change. Both were fighting to embrace who they were in a community as small as a dorm room and as large as a public middle school.

The suicides are also jarring wake-up call that we’re a long way off from an easy life for gay youth. I’m getting a little tired of hearing about how much easier it is to be a gay teen today. I don’t argue the point, but that doesn’t mean we’re off the hook.

According to the Gay Lesbian and Straight Education Network’s (GLSEN) National 2009 School Climate Survey, nearly 9 out of 10 LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) students experienced harassment at school in the past year, and nearly two-thirds felt unsafe because of their sexual orientation. Nearly a third of LGBT students skipped at least one day of school in the past month because of safety concerns. And while, yes, there has been a decreasing trend in the frequency of hearing homophobic remarks,  LGBT students’ experiences with more severe forms of bullying and harassment have remained relatively constant.

For all the rules and workshops and policies that anti-bullying advocates like me call for, there’s one pretty powerful weapon we can all use against bullying. It doesn’t cost anything, and you don’t need to bring any experts to your school to use it. It’s empathy. All of us – parents, teachers, mentors, big brothers and sisters – can talk with kids about what Asher Brown must have been feeling as he went to school, day after day: as he was tripped down the stairs, had his backpack emptied and its contents scattered, berated with insults like “fag.” You can ask: What emotions did he feel? Is there anyone at your school who goes through that? What can you do to help that person?

If your kids aren’t old enough to talk about the suicides, there are opportunities to model empathy all around you: when you give food to a hungry person, make eye contact with someone who is hurting, or acknowledge your own child’s pain by saying, “I know you must feel hurt right now, and I’m sorry.” Your children will learn to connect with the suffering of others, and feel the moral imperative to help, by watching you.

If you don’t already, institute a zero tolerance policy in your family for gay slurs. In schools all over this country, even the progressive ones, “gay” is a stand-in for stupid or weird. When kids use the word “gay” or “fag” as a slur, disrespect becomes part of their slang. When kids call other people or things gay, they dehumanize the people who actually are gay.

If you hear it in the backseat, in your kitchen, in the bleachers, say something. Be the person who stands up. Even if it embarrasses your child, do it. Check out this PSA and consider showing it to your kids, too.

Talk about and embrace the continuum of masculinity and femininity. An overwhelming number of kids get bullied because they look, act or speak in a way that deviates from the tough guy or girly girl. Most kids walk into schools every day where conventional gender identity is a source of respect and status – and a reason to put others down and disrespect them. Be the voice that exposes this injustice. Praise and support the gender-unconventional in your children and their friends. Support boys for being sensitive or unathletic; tell girls it’s okay if they don’t want to wear makeup, date or go shopping.

Talk about every human being’s right to dignity. This is a point Rosalind Wiseman makes beautifully. Even if you don’t support gay marriage or even a gay “lifestyle,” as some call it, you likely do believe that every human being is entitled to respect and dignity. Talk with your children about that distinction: we may not like every person we meet, or agree with everything they do, but each and every human being deserves to be respected and feel safe.
We can honor the memories of Tyler and Asher, and the others who took their lives this past week, by standing up for them and the countless other children who suffer every day at school. If not us, who? They are our children, too.

© 2010 Rachel Simmons, author of The Curse of the Good Girl: Raising Authentic Girls with Courage and Confidence

Author Bio: Rachel Simmons is the author of New York Times bestseller Odd Girl Out: The Hidden Culture of Aggression in Girls. She is the founding director of the Girls’ Leadership Institute. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

So… there’s been a bit of chat around this week concerning this particular meme. It seems that some people think the ‘In My Mailbox’ posts might promote jealousy among bloggers, or be intended by some bloggers as a way to ‘show off’ the amount of ARCs they get or books they can afford to buy.

I think this is an interesting perspective, but an unfortunate twist on what I see as a way to promote awareness of different books among readers, and to take a peek at the bookcases of fellow bloggers and readers. I love seeing what books other people are reading and discovering books I didn’t know about, and it’s my hope that that’s why you’re here too.

What are your thoughts on ‘In My Mailbox’? If you feel it’s egocentric, I apologize, that’s not my intention when I participate. Do you enjoy it? Are there certain things you’d like to see inside ‘In My Mailbox’ posts when you visit the blogs that participate? I’m curious to know what you think! Hopefully this meme can remain a fun event between blog friends – I’d hate for a few voices to bring it down or turn it into something it’s not.

Anyway… here’s what came for me this week! Rather, here’s what I bought (I was weak… so weak…!).

FYI: In My Mailbox is a weekly meme started by The Story Siren to showcase books you’ve received for review, bought, borrowed, or swapped. Anyone can participate, and it’s a great way to showcase new books and encourage blogger/commenter interaction!

(The last book is the only one that actually came in the mail for review this week… most of the others came out of a persistent weakness for Scholastic book orders…!)

So, with all that out of the way… what came in YOUR mailbox this week?

Radiance – Alyson Noel

Middle Grade Fiction

Release Date: August 31st, 2010

Synopsis (from Amazon.com):

Riley has crossed the bridge into the afterlife—a place called Here, where time is always Now. She has picked up life where she left off when she was alive, living with her parents and dog in a nice house in a nice neighborhood. When she’s summoned before The Council, she learns that the afterlife isn’t just an eternity of leisure. She’s been assigned a job, Soul Catcher, and a teacher, Bodhi, a possibly cute, seemingly nerdy boy who’s definitely hiding something. They return to earth together for Riley’s first assignment, a Radiant Boy who’s been haunting a castle in England for centuries. Many Soul Catchers have tried to get him to cross the bridge and failed. But all of that was before he met Riley . . .

I’ll start off by saying that I’ve never read anything by Alyson Noel before, but I adore Middle Grade fiction. The cover of Radiance is also gorgeous… so props to the department that put it together. Very eye-catching.

But for me, the cover was one of the best aspects of the book. Gasp, horror, I know, how could I say such a thing? Well… I didn’t really like the main character, and I found the voice a little inconsistent. I wanted more development in Riley, more emotion. I think there was more emotion from her dog. But it’s not all bad! It’s a sweet book, with some notable flaws.

The sentences in the story are brief, choppy (in a good way!), and Riley definitely comes across as a snarky 12-year-old who thinks she knows everything. I get that – I was twelve once, and while I definitely didn’t have the confidence that Riley has, it’s clear that Noel has spent time with young girls and knows how they speak and think. This is great!

However… 12-year-old girls are also very squeal-y, are deeply affected by their emotions (it’s the hormones that start to come out around this time), and struggle to balance themselves between still being a young girl and becoming an adult. Now, since I haven’t read Evermore, I don’t know whether we see this in Riley elsewhere (Radiance is a spin-off MG novel from a YA series). But here, I found it strange that Riley accepted her death so easily, and took to being dead without much fuss.

Riley also had odd moments of rather extensive vocabulary that pulled away from her voice… that was a bit distracting. However, I loved the fact that she had her dog with her during the whole story, and the anecdotes about the dog getting used to the afterlife were adorable.

Finally, I found that the main plot took too long to get going… by the time Riley and Bodhi got going with their assignments, we were halfway through the book. Then we whipped through the main plot (Riley’s assignment and then Radiant Boy) faster than you could say ‘Boo!’ and the issue was resolved literally without hindrance. I kept thinking ‘it couldn’t have been that easy… it’s all going to go wrong on the next page and she’ll have to really work for it’ but… that didn’t happen.

For me, the lack of development in Riley and then the rushed resolution spoiled the story for me. At the end, I got the sense that this is intended to be a series, so maybe Noel plans to further explore Riley’s character in future books. As I said, I’ve not read Noel’s previous YA series where Riley is also featured, so I didn’t come into this one with any background knowledge. Maybe that would have helped.

Ultimately, I’m disappointed that I didn’t enjoy this one more… but I’ve seen many other good reviews for it, so I think it may be a matter of personal preference for the author. If you’ve enjoyed her other series, pick this one up and give it a shot. Otherwise, maybe you’ll like it if the description piques your interest, but it just wasn’t for me.

About the Author: Alyson Noel is the #1 New York Times, and USA Today and Publisher’s Weekly bestselling, award-winning, author of FAKING 19, ART GEEKS AND PROM QUEENS, LAGUNA COVE, FLY ME TO THE MOON, KISS & BLOG, SAVING ZOE, CRUEL SUMMER, FIRST KISS (THEN TELL)- an anthology, and the IMMORTALS series including: EVERMORE, BLUE MOON (July 09), SHADOWLAND (Jan 2010), and more to come in 2010/11/12. Her books have won the National Reader’s Choice Award, NYLA Book of Winter Award, NYPL Books for the Teenage, TeenReads Best Books of 2007, Reviewer’s Choice 2007 Top Ten, nominated for YALSA’s Teen’s Top Ten Award, chosen for the CBS Early Show’s "Give the Gift of Reading" segment, and selected for Seventeen Magazine’s "Hot List" and Beach Book Club Pick. She was born and raised in The OC and has lived in both Mykonos and Manhattan, but now finds herself settled right back in California where she lives and writes full time.

(I received an ARC of this book for review from the publisher, they were not guaranteed a positive review and all opinions expressed are my own.)

And we come to self-editing tip #10. According to my notes, this will be the final Self-Editing Series post for awhile… I may run more at a future date, but this is the last in this series. If you’ve missed any of the posts or want to refresh your memory, here’s the full series of posts in one handy-dandy list!

• Self-Editing #1: Beginning and Doing
• Self-Editing #2: Character Description
• Self-Editing #3: Color, Color, Everywhere..
• Self-Editing #4: Floating Body Parts
• Self-Editing #5: Say It, Don’t Think It
• Self-Editing #6: Be Wise, Italicize
• Self-Editing #7: Redundant Pleonasms
• Self-Editing #8: You’re Not Nora
• Self-Editing #9: Unqualified Words
• Self-Editing #10: Got Clones?

So… on to today’s topic!

You might have read the title and thought… “Oh, another topic on characters!”

Er, I apologize for possibly leading you astray. You see, I’m not writing about characters at all, but rather the actions that they do over the course of a story. Particularly in certain sentences.

The key term here is simultaneous action. That means having your character do two things at the same that are physically impossible to do at the same time.

Unless your character has a clone, these sentences need to go (and if your character does have a clone, you’re probably going to want to mention that…).

How do you find these sentences?

As you’re reading through your manuscript, stop at every sentence that begins with a participle (that’s an –ing word, for you non-grammarophiles… yep, that’s right, I just made that word up right now).

Here’s an example of simultaneous action that’s physically impossible (this example is from Kelly Mortimer’s Grammar Guide, so please credit her if you use this info on your own blog):

“Pulling out of the driveway, he drove down the street.”

The simultaneous actions are in red. These verbs tell us the character was leaving the driveway AND driving down the street at the same time. Impossible, right? Here’s the correction:

“He pulled out of the driveway, then drove down the street.”

Let’s try one more example from my morning-addled brain:

Incorrect:  “Cheering on her husband as he slid into home plate, Kristi asked Sarah about her fiancé’s job promotion.”

Correct: “Kristi cheered as her husband slid into home plate, then turned to Sarah to ask a pressing question.”

Kristi can’t cheer and ask a question at the same time—it’s physically impossible.

Make sense? I think many of us write sentences like these in the first draft because we want to keep the action moving. Placing verbs in this way gives a false sense of continuous motion, when really what’s happening simply can’t be happening without the help of character clones walking around and doing things for the real character. In which case, you’re likely writing a Sci-Fi novel and have other things to worry about. Like, when will the clones realize they’re the clones and not the real person, and try to kill off the main character? I’m betting you’d rather worry about that than simultaneous action. Seriously.

So… how’s your character doing? Been in two places at once recently?

Or possibly attacked by a murderous clone that plans to take over your life? (You might want to get some help for that…)

So, remember that crazy time last week when we all went around to each other’s blogs and commented and talked about characters? Yeah, that was pretty fantastic.

Would you like to do something similar again? Rach Writes… is hosting the:

Inaugural Writers’ Platform-Building Crusade

…which, aside from its lengthy name, is (as I understand it) an effort to build each other’s web presence through the creation of a large support network. It’s a ‘pay-it-forward’ idea: I follow you, you follow me, we comment and link around, la-dee-doo, we’re all getting more exposure and having fun doing it!

Now, I’m not entirely certain how this will work, but it sounds like Rach plans to run some Crusade Challenges and Blogfests, which are always fun and a great way to meet new people.

This post tells you how to join the crusade.

So… who’s up for making new friends?

Books! Mailbox! My poor postman! …honestly, sometimes I wonder if he hates delivering to our house because of all the heavy book envelopes… oh well, he’s got a good job going, so hopefully the benefits make up for it in the end. Heh…

Anyway, here’s what came in my mailbox this week, along with a couple impulse purchases from last Sunday afternoon.

FYI: In my mailbox is a weekly meme started by The Story Siren to showcase books you’ve received for review, bought, borrowed, or swapped. Anyone can participate, and it’s a great way to showcase new books and encourage blogger/commenter interaction!

ARC of

The False Friend

by Myla Goldberg

ARC of

Running the Books

by Avi Steinberg

Purchased

The Glass Castle: A Memoir

by Jeanette Walls

Under the Dome

by Stephen King

What came in your mailbox this week?

Hello, readers… I have a few questions for you.

Do you…

…like fantasy?

…like steampunk?

…like romance?

If you answered ‘yes’ to one or more of these questions – and if you have the unfortunate position of being counted among those who have not yet joined Miss Tarabotti on her adventures – then I invite you to read on. I have a book series to recommend that you definitely don’t want to miss out on.

I first learned of Gail Carriger’s Parasol Protectorate series from friends on Librarything.com (a site you really should check out if you’re a book lover… I prefer it to GoodReads, to be honest) back when the first book was released, and rushed out to get a copy. Yes, rushed.

What’s the appeal?

Here’s the description of book one from Amazon.com:

Alexia Tarabotti is laboring under a great many social tribulations. First, she has no soul. Second, she’s a spinster whose father is both Italian and dead. Third, she was rudely attacked by a vampire, breaking all standards of social etiquette.

Where to go from there? From bad to worse apparently, for Alexia accidentally kills the vampire — and then the appalling Lord Maccon (loud, messy, gorgeous, and werewolf) is sent by Queen Victoria to investigate.

With unexpected vampires appearing and expected vampires disappearing, everyone seems to believe Alexia responsible. Can she figure out what is actually happening to London’s high society? Will her soulless ability to negate supernatural powers prove useful or just plain embarrassing? Finally, who is the real enemy, and do they have treacle tart?

SOULLESS is a comedy of manners set in Victorian London: full of werewolves, vampires, dirigibles, and tea-drinking.

And that’s just the first installment!

In the second (Changeless) – and I don’t want to spoil anything for you if you haven’t read the first book – we’re introduced to even more intriguing characters, including a French inventor and a rather interesting relative of Lord Maccon’s.

In book three (Blameless), the steampunk element becomes even more prevalent, and we’re treated to some very tantalizing tidbits of worldbuilding, in the sense of understanding more about Alexia’s soullessness and what that might mean for – dare I say it – future progeny.

Now, I know this isn’t a proper review post – I haven’t told you what I thought of each book, the strengths, the weaknesses, etc. – but to be quite honest, I’m not sure I care to do a proper review of these books because I loved them so much. And really, I just wanted to write a post to plug them and support what I think is possibly the best new series this year (and the author seems quite lovely to boot).

But I’ll break it down this way: I enjoyed Soulless quite a bit, but didn’t adore it as fully as I might have, due to the excess of romance (though my cousin loved the romance element) that I thought distracted a bit much from the main storyline. I do enjoy romance, don’t get me wrong, but a few scenes were a bit overlong for my taste. But again, my cousin loved those scenes, so I suppose it’s a matter of taste. However, I still rushed to grab Changeless the week it was released. I really enjoyed it as well, though it suffered a bit from a lack of romance where there was an excess in the first book (I’d elaborate here, but I’m afraid I’d have to give spoilers to do so). Still, I drove to the bookstore on release day to get a copy of Blameless, and proceeded to devour it the same day. It was my favorite of the series thus far.

I’m very anxious to read the next book, which isn’t due until next summer (*sob*), but we were definitely spoiled to receive three books in one series in the same year (er… by which I mean, within 12 months; Soulless was released in October 2009).

Also, I should mention that the first novel is really steampunk-lite – there aren’t many steam inventions, and the paranormal element is focused on a bit more than the Victorian surroundings and inventions. However, this picks up with a bang in the following installments.

All told, the character development is fabulous, the surrounding cast is very entertaining (and funny), and the premise is clever. Carriger’s voice is really very different from the majority of paranormal lit you’ll find on the shelves these days, and as a result, I think this is truly the breakout series of 2010.

If you haven’t joined the Parasol Protectorate… you’re missing out! I, for one, have purchased my first teeny-tiny hat in honor of a rekindled interest in steampunkery. And I do love it so. (Though I have yet to acquire a parasol.)

About the Author: New York Times Bestselling author Gail Carriger began writing in order to cope with being raised in obscurity by an expatriate Brit and an incurable curmudgeon. She escaped small town life and inadvertently acquired several degrees in Higher Learning. Ms. Carriger then traveled the historic cities of Europe, subsisting entirely on biscuits secreted in her handbag. She now resides in the Colonies, surrounded by fantastic shoes, where she insists on tea imported directly from London. She is fond of teeny tiny hats and tropical fruit.