Update

Hey, everyone.

I know I haven't updated in a long, long time- honestly, it's ridiculous- and I'm just so busy it's ridiculous. Anyway, I've come by to let everyone know I've started a new blog.

I know, I know. Why start a new blog? This one is perfectly fine.

The truth is, I have an obsession with fresh starts; I love starting things over. Everything. I love starting new things. I don't really know why, and I'm pretty sure it's terrible for my productivity, but there you have it.

I don't know what I'll keep posting on this blog. I'm thinking this one will be more personal, while the other one will be more writerly, but who the hell knows.

Anyway, if anyone's interested, my new blog can be found under my user profile. It's called 'Through The Looking Glass.' You can also find it at http://alex-in-writerland.blogspot.ca/

Hope you check it out, and hope you like it!

Writer People Are The Best People

And I mean that in a completely sincere way.

I've been part of a lot of worlds for someone my age. Other than the writing world, I've spent my life in the private school world, I splashed around the competitive swimming world for five years, and I've been in the theatre world for about a year.

I've met so many amazing people through all these worlds. I've made almost every single one of my friends through these world.

But in my experience, there is no group of people as consistently good as writer people.

So, I fail life.

Or Blogger, at any rate.

I'm so sorry I haven't posted in forever! I've been revising MAD AS A HATTER, but I know that's not much of an excuse.

I guess I haven't had that much to blog about.

But that's a lie, too- I saw five Broadway shows and revised a novel and swam competitively for the first time in a year and did a bunch of plotting. That's not nothing.

So, I guess I'm just lazy.

However, I am much less lazy over at WriteOnCon, so I'm going to recommend that all of you go join the forums. The people are amazing, the critique is invaluable, and all in all it's great fun.

http://writeoncon.com/forum/forum.php Clicky clicky!

Team Human Review

Team Human, by Sarah Rees Brennan and Justine Larbalestier, may be the best vampire novel I have ever read.


Screw 'may'. It is, without a doubt.


First, though, I'll give you guys a quick summary: When a new vampire mysteriously starts going to the local high school, serious, bookish Cathy can't help but fall in love with him. Sounds familiar, right? Except this book is told by Cathy's best friend Mel, who thinks the idea of loving a 200-year-old bloodsucking cold-skinned creature is absolutely puke-worthy. When she realizes that Cathy's affections may be returned, and that, even worse, her best friend is considering joining her undead lover in eternal paleness, she realizes that she has to take action before Cathy gets turned into a vampire... or worse.


First off, the characters. Mel is one of the most lovable protagonists I've read in a while, and I'm pretty affectionate toward fictional characters already. Mel loves to laugh and loves life. She's an athletic seventeen-year-old girl who doesn't have a clue what she wants to do with her life. She loves people. She loves helping people. Even when they don't want help.


Like her best friend, Cathy, who is in love with a vampire. Since this novel is pretty snarky toward the vampire romance genre, you might think that Cathy isn't a sympathetic character. You couldn't be more wrong. Cathy is lovable and sweet and a three-dimensional character. Though she's definitely a romantic soul, she's smart and independent. Not to spoil anything, but the novel makes it clear that Mel's prejudice against vampires isn't necessarily a good thing either.


The girls have two other friends in their group when the novel starts. Anna, another brilliant girl who is firmly on Team Human like Mel- unlike Mel, however, her opinion on vampires is heavily influenced by an event the past summer that I am not going to spoil. There is also Ty, who is clearly sympathetic toward Team Vampire and Cathy's relationship with her vampire boyfriend, Francis. Francis is another character I loved- then again, I loved all the characters- he makes every page he is on even more entertaining, partly because of Mel's obnoxiousness toward him and partly because of his own Victorian charm. Kit is the most adorable guy ever, and Camille the vampire cop is the BEST. I seriously can't even with this cast.


But it's not all a bundle of laughs. Sarah Rees Brennan has said on Tumblr before that she feels that you need to laugh with characters before you can cry with them. Well, you're going to laugh with them plenty, but when this book hits you, it hits you hard. It's not that the book mercilessly kills your favorite characters. You're not crying over them. You're crying with them, crying with them because they're hurting so badly that you can't help it. 


To quote Sarah Rees Brennan: "So Team Human is about saying: 'Give vampires a shot. Give humans a shot. Give zombies a shot. But don't get really within reach of them 'cause they will bite you'."

The Writer's Voice - A Thank You Note

I probably should have written this a week ago, but... I didn't.

As you most probably know, I was recently involved in a contest called The Writer's Voice. Somehow, I managed to get three full requests out of it, but that's only the cherry on top of all I gained.

Thank you to the coaches for going through all that trouble to make this contest possible. I'd like to give a special shout-out to Brenda Drake, my coach, who gave me the most upfront suggestion for edits I've ever had, and the best, at that, (of COURSE Mad As A Hatter should be in Emil's POV, now that I think of it), and giving me the drive to actually make the changes instead of sitting around and saying "meh, it's good enough as it is."

Thank you to the agents who gave up their precious time to make requests. I think I speak for not just the team members, but everyone who followed the writers voice when I say we really, really appreciate it.

And last but not least, thank you to all the contestants! You guys are incredible. I've met so many wonderful people, and learned so much more than I knew there was to learn from all your entries. I can't wait to see all your books on the shelves.

Oh, and I'd like to add a thank you to everyone involved in The Writer's Voice Twitter Pitch, better known as #WVTP. It was so crazy and fascinating to read the entries- I can't imagine what it was like for the agents! All of whom are incredible.

Cupid is taking a well-deserved break from contests over the summer, but I can't wait to see you all again for the next contest, whether or not I'm in it!

What did you learn from The Writer's Voice?

New Query and Opening!

Hey crowd!

Well, as you probably know, I'm part of a competition called 'The Writer's Voice', and if you read the comments on my entry, you'll see that I did get picked for Team Brenda! Team Brenda is the best! Brenda Drake is the greatest, too. She gave me the most honest appraisal of my work, and I am so grateful. She's asked me to try rewriting Mad As A Hatter from a single POV: that of my fourteen-year-old main character, Emil. While I'm not quite done the process, I have finished the first 250, and with a little adjustment to my query my entry is now up on Brenda's blog!

If you don't want to go all that way to see my entry, though, it's right here.

Title: MAD AS A HATTER
Genre: YA Thriller
Word Count: 60,000

Query:

London, 1882.

Seven years ago, Emil Aleric and his sister were kidnapped and taken to ‘Wonderland’ by a man claiming to come from the future. He called himself the Hatter. Emil survived the torture. His sister didn't.

When Emil hears of a serial killer ravaging London and leaving notes quoting Alice in Wonderland, Emil knows his former abductor has returned. And when his guardian, Inspector Corwin James, is put in charge of the case, he thinks it must be fate.

At first, Corwin's adamant that Emil have nothing to do with the case; after all, he’s only fourteen. However, as the two come closer to learning the truth of the murders, they find the most pivotal clues lie in Emil’s memories—suppressed for seven years, but now threatening to consume him. Now Emil must fight the Hatter again, but this time, if he fails, time itself could end.

Excerpt:

From the warm floor of his sitting room, Emil Aleric glared out the window. It was late afternoon, and the crisp wind had left the streets of Belgravia empty, save for a couple climbing out of a carriage, followed by a butler carrying a dozen gifts. Probably some last minute Christmas shopping.

Emil scowled. He hated happy families.

The fourteen-year-old future Viscount looked away from the window, took a gulp of Earl Grey, and winced. He’d always thought the tea was some disguised form of dishwater, but every adult he knew drank it, and his mother said it was an acquired taste. He forced himself to take another sip, and looked down at the table in front of him. 

One, two, three newspapers lay strewn across the mahogany table. The first newspaper was flipped to the obituaries, where a small paragraph about a girl named Daphne Bell could be found. It was only a few lines, something about her family and “may He bless her immortal soul”, or some such rubbish.

She had been the first to die.

Three days after going missing, she’d apparently fallen from the top floor of the twentieth building on a wealthy street around Kensington Gardens. Her body was spread across the ground, bashed up and bloody, with glass protruding from her body at the oddest angles.

The funny thing was, all the windows on that street were perfectly intact.

Ten Things About Me

Hello, all!

So, as anyone who's seen the post below knows, I am part of a contest called The Writer's Voice. This contest is awesome, not just because of the opportunity we have to work with some pretty awesome coaches and get exposed to some lovely lovely agents, but because of the amazing people I've met on Twitter via the hashtag #TheWritersVoice. Never have I been in an online community of any sort with so much love and support and absolutely no hate. It's incredible.

Among those people is Kelsey, from Kelsey Is Writing. Kelsey has bestowed upon me an awesome blogging award: The Kreativ Blogger award!

Now, as my price for this award, I have to give you 10 facts about me! Hmm...

1. I am still in my teens! Hopefully this means many years of writing ahead of me.

2. Everything I write starts out as a fantasy or mystery and turns into a thriller. I just really like the gruesome deaths and psychological torture, okay?

3. I wrote Mad As A Hatter when I was 14. That was the first draft, of course, and it's evolved a LOT since then, but that was its first milestone! Oh, my little novel baby, all full of murder and torture and creepiness... mama is so proud.

4. My current WIP is a project called Sherlockettes, which is a modern-day Sherlock Holmes adaptation starring two teenage girls, Veronika Metzger and Sophie Tremblay. The girls investigate a series of attacks on their classmates while dealing with the social hierarchy of the privileged world they live in. Veronika, a wealthy heiress with all the money and social status she could ever dream of, wants nothing to do with the steep social politics of the city of Westmount. Sophie, a scholarship girl who wants to develop a cure to schizophrenia, can never have that kind of social standing and respect, but desperately wants it... They fight crime! 

5. I drink a ridiculous amount of tea. Ridiculous, I tell you!

6. I am a proud Canadian. Long live the true north, strong and free!

7. When I'm emailing/texting/tweeting, I use ALL CAPS FOR EMPHASIS so often it's embarrassing.

8. I owe all my writing to my amazing support circle, both on and off the internet. Having people tell you, "I hate reading, but for your book I will make an exception" is strangely encouraging!

9. I live on a Caribbean island. My school is across the street from the beach.

10. I have travelled a lot! I've been to 20 states, 4 provinces, England, Scotland, France, Belgium, Italy, Mexico, Turks & Caicos, and my island.

  

The Writer's Voice: Entry #85

Query:

London, 1882.

Seven years ago, Emil Aleric and his sister were kidnapped and taken to ‘Wonderland’ by a man claiming to come from the future. He called himself the Hatter. Emil survived the torture. His sister didn't.

When Emil hears of a serial killer ravaging London and leaving notes quoting Alice in Wonderland, Emil knows his former abductor has returned. And when his guardian, Inspector Corwin James, is put in charge of the case, he thinks it must be fate.

At first, Corwin's adamant that Emil have nothing to do with the case; after all, he’s only fourteen. However, as the two come closer to learning the truth of the murders, they find the most pivotal clues lie in Emil’s memories—suppressed for seven years, but now threatening to consume him. Emil must fight once again- but now, if Emil fails, and what the Hatter says is true, time itself will end.

First 250:

They say that when you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.

In other words, thought Corwin, sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction.

Corwin James was an intelligent man, and a reasonable one at that. He was a little taller than average, a little younger than he appeared, a little more cynical than he let on. Three years ago, he’d taken over his late father’s job at Scotland Yard and now, at twenty-one years old, was content as an upper-middle class citizen. It was December of 1882, and Corwin was sitting in his study, looking at the snow outside without really seeing it and inhaling the scent of fillet mignon without really smelling it.

Corwin was not the kind of man to slouch and prop his feet up on the table. To any onlooker, his current position, his legs crossed and two fingers massaging his temple, would look poised and professional. For Corwin, it was the height of bad posture.

 The cause of his lapse in etiquette was simply stress. Corwin was not a superstitious man, but reports of young women disappearing for days on end and reappearing as the victims of violent murders had convinced the restless public that the devil was at work.

Road Trip Wednesday #128: Who IRL Can You Talk to About YA?

Well, I actually have a few answers! But I will choose one.

The person IRL I can talk to about YA is one of my best friends, who will be henceforth referred to as LA Chick. (I will have to email her to get her approval on this nickname). LA Chick and I have been incredibly close since the eighth grade. We were on a school trip to Quebec City. I was working on a novel and decided to base all the characters off real people. We spent three days talking about her character's boyfriend.

She now lives in Los Angeles, but she's basically my go-to for anything related to YA. She is also the first person to read Mad As A Hatter. I don't know what I'd do without her there to listen to my endless rambling about everything from query letters to Damon Salvatore.

Who can you talk to IRL about YA? Comment below!

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesday!

It's about time I do one of these. So I've decided to post some MAAH. Here goes!

This is a flashback scene to when Emil was seven.

. . .

“One side makes you larger,” said the man, “and one side makes you small.”

Emil looked up at the mushroom, giant and bright purple and towering over his small form. His blond hair was tangled and filthy, a mixture of sweat and dirt and blood ratting it up. He didn’t look at the man—wouldn’t look at him.

“Wh-what?” he asked, his voice shaking. He kept his eyes firmly on the mushroom.

“Which side do you choose?”

Emil’s bare feet curled up around the long blades of grass. A whimper escaped his throat.

“Oh, don’t be like that, Emil,” said the man, his velvety voice clear and smooth and deceivingly warm, wrapping itself around Emil’s head, ringing in his ears. “Think about it. Don’t tell me you’re a stupid boy, as well.”

Emil’s lips quivered.

“Bigger. Smaller.” The man stepped a little closer from behind. Emil could feel the heat radiating from his body, standing out among the freezing cold air.

Emil locked his muscles, refused to shiver, refused to move, refused to give any sign of acknowledgment.

“Oh, for heaven’s sake. Deaf and dumb, it seems.” There was a sound of movement, and when the man spoke again, his voice was right in Emil’s ear.

“One side lets you live,” it said, low and dangerous. “And one side lets you die.”

Emil’s breath caught in his throat.

“So which do you choose?” asked the man.

Emil clenched his eyes shut, blocking out the scent of blood and salt and fear and death. “I’m not hungry,” he said.

“Oh, that’s sweet,” said the man. “You’re not hungry.”

Emil felt the man’s body move away from his, and he relaxed.

A second later, rough hands were on his shoulders, throwing him to the cold, wet ground.

“WHICH SIDE DO YOU CHOOSE?”

Emil was frozen for what seemed like forever. Then, slowly, each motion difficult, he pulled himself to his feet, walked toward the mushroom, and stood on his toes. He ripped a tiny piece with yellow spots off the right side and, making sure he didn’t hesitate, bit into it.

He heard a heavy sigh from behind him, and, like magic, the air began to warm around him, soothing and comforting. “You chose the good side,” said the man. “Ah, well. All the better. I’ll get to kill you myself.”

As soon as the man’s footsteps had faded, Emil threw up, blood and purple mushroom spewing onto the grass at his feet. He rocked back and forth, breathing deeply, running his nails up and down his left forearm, up and down, up and down.

Inspiration. Decorating!

It has been a very long time since I last posted anything! I have been a very busy girl. Nevertheless, here I go...

What is inspiration? Some people will say that it's what makes people do things, but that isn't true. Most people are inspired to do things very regularly that they never get around to. I, for one, have been inspired to clean my room about a dozen times in the past twenty-four hours.

...and that's about as far as I got.

When people are inspired to do things, they may start right away, or set a careful plan. And for small things, that can work. But very few people can get big things done with only a moment of inspiration to fuel them.

Which is why we need some other tools to keep us from going off track.

It's awesome to be encouraged by others. I have the bestest most wonderfulest support group for my writing online, and they are my favorite people. But sometimes, you also have to encourage yourself.

Hence the redecorating of my bedroom walls!

Please ignore my... less than spectacular photography skills.

This is the wall on top of my desk! I decorated it in honor of some edits I'm making to Mad As A Hatter, my Wonderland-inspired novel, as we speak!

I've never actually done something like this, but I'm optimistic.

So, what do you do to encourage yourself? Any favorite rituals or tools? Comment and let me know!

(p.s. The pictures on my walls do not belong to me in any way, shape, or form. They are images I printed off Tumblr for no reason but to put them on my walls.)