Free! Frightful! Horror-Filled Fun!

With Halloween approaching, I wanted to let you all know about a fright-filled new ebook. And the best part? It's completely FREE.

It's releasing today (October 21st, 2011), for ages 9-99.

Why will you like it? I'll tell you...
The Broken Thing is a modern paranormal middle-grade thrill ride full of action, suspense, and ghosts. With a main character and best friend that both boys and girls will relate to, the story moves at a fast and frightening pace. It’s fun, scary, and will get kids thinking about what might be out there, just outside of what they can see. And why maybe they’d rather not find out.

Here's a little description:
Stevie Barton loves a scary story, until he finds himself living one! Two days before Halloween in Newhope Nohope, Vermont, Stevie discovers a mysterious antique toy sitting in the spooky forest the townspeople call The Grove. He pockets the abandoned toy, but a local bully drives him deeper into the dark forest. Soon, Stevie learns that the bully is the least of his worries. Something evil slept in those dark woods, and he woke it. Now the evil is after him! Along with his best friend Angie Lewis, Stevie must find and stop the horror before it finds him.

About the Author:
Peter Swift grew up in a small town outside of Philadelphia. He was surrounded by ancient places steeped in legend, mystery, and myth. Dark forests, abandoned houses, and overgrown cemeteries were a very real part of Peter’s childhood adventures and explorations, and his imagination often populated these places with ghosts and monsters, both light and dark.

Where to get it: (The most important part, right?!)
Fright Files: The Broken Thing is the first book in the Beware the Author series. All of the stories are independent of one another, so readers can pick up only those they find most interesting. As a promotion, Peter is giving away this first book for free digitally on his website. If you like it, he only asks that you share it with friends, and consider reading more of the Fright Files as they become available. Please stop by his website and click on the “Follow Me” tab to keep up with the world of Peter Swift’s Fright Files. You can also sign up for his newsletter there, which will inform you as the books become available.

www.frightfiles.com
www.peterswiftbooks.com

I was fortunate enough to get an advance copy of The Broken Thing on my Kindle (Yes! It works on Kindle!) and I'm going to read a little each night between now and Halloween (just so I can be really scared by then! LOL. Hope you check it out, and let anyone who has kids who like a good, clean-but-thrilling story know!

#SIWC Madness!

Last night I was excitedly getting ready to go to the Surrey International Writer's Conference, when an email popped up in my inbox from the conference coordinator. The email was instructing all of us "Master Class Attendees" to arrive plenty early today. Why, you ask?

Because--I kid you not--Bill Clinton and George W. Bush would be sharing the hotel with us today.

So I arrived early, as instructed, to this:

In case you can't make it out in the pictures, there are protestors galore (and I'm not going to repeat the things they are yelling!), TV, cameras, there are police in neon jackets everywhere and secret-servicey guys-- complete with the dark suits and little earpieces--throughout the hotel. In our usual "pitch" room, they're right now having the Mayor's lunch with the presidents.

This is just my arrival and it's already very exciting! Can't wait to see what's in store for the rest of the conference!!

Exciting Stuff!

Since revealing my beautiful cover of NEVER ENOUGH, I'm overwhelmed by all of the support!

Today, I've found four bloggers who have featured my new book as their Waiting on Wednesday pick (Thank you!!!) and several more who have written to tell me they plan to feature it soon!

Also, over A HUNDRED people have already added it to their to-read list on GoodReads. In only a matter of days! And WOW, it has a 5-star rating (LOL, okay, that was mine :)

I'm getting packed for the Surrey International Writer's Conference. Very excited!!! If you're interested, I'll most likely be on Twitter, updating what's happening using the hashtag #siwc or #siwc2011 or #siwcya. Or, you know, just check my name.

This has to be short today. Too much to get ready for the weekend. But don't forget to let me know if you've spread the word about NEVER ENOUGH, so I can enter your name for the contest!!

Teen Author Tuesday Presents Greg Fishbone and THE CHALLENGERS!

It seems I have some middle grade fiction to highlight this week! Greg Fishbone, the author of this spotlight, is also the creator of Class of 2k7 - A wonderful group of middle grade and young adult authors. I would have been lost last year without my Class of 2k10, and will forever be thankful to Greg for his foresight!

Greg's latest novel, The Challengers, is the first book in the Galaxy Games series of humorous middle-grade science fiction from the Tu Books imprint of Lee & Low Books. Tu Books is dedicated to releasing multicultural MG and YA novels in the fantasy, science fiction, and mystery genres. The Challengers was released in September and is available in hardcover from bookstores everywhere and as an ebook for Nook, Kindle, iBooks, and Google Books.

Greg stopped by for a short interview:

Welcome, Greg! Can you tell me about your book in seven words or less?

Earth kids vs. aliens in galactic sports!

Other than your main character, who's a favorite character of yours in your new novel and why?

I had a lot of fun with El Gatito Grande, an aspiring Lucha Libre wrestler who maintains a secret identity with a mask that he wears all the time. He's a lot of fun.

Tell me a little bit about yourself, Greg.

I've always loved writing and dreamed about writing books like the fantasy and science fiction authors I idolized as a kid: Madeine L'Engle, Isaac Asimov, Douglas Adams, and others. My path took me through a lot of day jobs but I've always returned to writing. In 1999, I joined the Society of Children's and Book Writers and Illustrators and have served as regional webmaster, assistant regional adviser, and conference co-coordinator in New England. In 2007, I formed the Class of 2k7 marketing group of debut authors, which has inspired a new class each year ever since. And this past summer I attended the Launch Pad program at the University of Wyoming where I was drilled in astronomy for science fiction authors.

What's been the most surprising thing about your path to publication so far?

I've been surprised by how much there is to learn about the writing, revising, and publishing process. I'm still learning and applying new things all the time!

What's one piece of writing advice you would give to aspiring authors?

Don't try to be a great writer. Be a constantly-improving writer.

Are you swept up with promotion for your book right now or can you give us a sentence or two about something new you're working on?

I just finished a draft of the second book in the Galaxy Games series, which is going to be an amazing ride into the galaxy.

What did you write when you were a teen? Did you journal? Write poetry? Write overly literary or emotional stories? Or avoid writing altogether?

I wrote adventure stories and fantasy stories in high school, and had a group of friends to share work with. We challenged each other all the time, and it was always fun and exciting. My first idea of writing as a social activity, and I still get that today with my wonderful critique group.

What's the last book you read that you really loved?

I have to give a shout out to TANKBORN by Karen Sandler, another book from the Tu Books launch list, because it's very cool what she's done with the character, the world, and the technology she writes about.

If readers want to find out more about you and your writing, where should they look?

My author site is http://gfishbone.com

The Galaxy Games series site is at http://galaxygamesseries.com

And check out the Great Galactic Blog Tour at http://galaxygam.es/tour

Thanks so much for visiting, Greg, and all the best with The Challengers and Galaxy Games!

#Nanowrimo Prep: Make a Character List

Another tool I've added to my NaNoWriMo Prep Chest is a character list.

This should be something you can add to, but basically just a rundown of the characters you hope to include in your novel. Give each a one or two sentence description, who they are, how they relate to different characters. Sometimes I include a line of dialogue or catch phrase. Dialogue helps to make the character immediately full in my mind.

I also add labels, just to remember who's who, when my brain gets all mushy (which it always does!) Here are the labels I use:
PR - protagonist
AN - antagonist
MA - main character (not the protagonist in this case. Just characters who play a major role but are not PR or AN.
SC - secondary character

You can further group your characters as I've done in the following example if you like. This is a fairly complete example, as I have a pretty thorough outline and several chapters already completed for this book, but I'm starting a fresh Character List for my NaNoWriMo novel this week.


Character List – FINDING HOPE

Family:
Tessa (PR) – Main Character. Tough, independent, speaks her mind. "I'm hear, aren't I?"
Tessa’s Dad (SC) – A hermit since his youngest daughter died.
Tessa’s Mom (SC)– Gail/Abigail, left shortly after daughter died. Very "together".
Corey (SC) – Tessa’s younger sister, who died when she was six.

Extended Family:
Shawn (SC) – Gail’s new husband. Bossy, a natural leader.
Hope (SC)– Gail and Shawn’s six year old daughter. Tessa’s half-sister. Tough. Speaks her mind. "What do you want?"

School Friends:
Brie (MA)– Tessa’s closest school friend, who she teamed up with in LOSING FAITH. Is willing to do what it takes to help her friends. Her sister Faith died a year ago.
Alis (MA)– Brie’s boyfriend. Conflicted but sweet. His sister Reena is in a mental hospital since she was responsible for killing Brie’s sister Faith a year ago.
Trev (MA)– English classmate of Tessa’s. Shy, a little nerdy, but good-looking.
Cami (SC)– English classmate, very academic, who has a crush on Trev.
Mark (SC)– Trev’s bandmate who looks a lot more streetwise than Trev.

Peripheral Characters:
Vi Masterson (AN)– Friend of Gail and Hope, but a thorn in Shawn’s side. Irresponsible but good-hearted.
Diane Masterson (SC)– Vi’s mother, who works for Shawn.


This is just an example. If you do anything to keep your characters straight, I'd love to hear of different methods of doing this. This is fairly basic, but it works for me.

The iPod Anti-Connection

I was at the gym yesterday, rockin out to the Freaky Friday soundtrack on my iPod, my ear buds blocking out the rest of gym-goings-ons. Now I like my solitude--boy, do I like my solitude--but just this flash of an image came into my brain of days gone by when I'd come for a workout, look across the gym and see I'm not the only who's bopping my head to whatever is on the radio station. There was just a second of connection, and I was thinking about how I miss that a little bit. We're off in our own worlds now, always busy, getting things done, looking for the quickest means to get things done, but I think something gets lost. How few people still share connections in everyday life?


My husband has always remembered people's birthdays--it's always been his thing, and people have always appreciated him for it. This morning he said he thought that Facebook has kind of ruined that for him. Everybody remembers birthdays now, because their computer tells them to, and everybody sends a (usually) meaningless birthday message. I think this falls into the same category.

This all got me to thinking. The great thing about books, at least as an author, is that I feel like that connection hasn't been lost. When I'm working through each of my books, I regularly think about the real people who are going through similar things and how they might find a connection, even if I never hear about it.

Anyway, this is all just me blabbering on. Do you see areas that digitizing everything is taking away connections, or is it just me?

Saturday Stuff

Thanks so much to everyone for their kind words about my new cover for NEVER ENOUGH! I love it too.

I'm off today to watch my almost-eight-year-old compete in his first judo tournament. Very excited, and yeah, a little nervous for him.

I know I keep saying this, but I'm reading some of the most amazing YA contemporary books lately. This week I've been devouring HOW TO SAVE A LIFE by Sara Zarr. It's one of the best multiple point of view books, and one of the best books dealing with grief I have read. Highly recommended!

We are finally seeing blue skies around here (thank you, God!) and I'm off to spend as much time as humanly possible soaking it up. So for today this will be very short.

What are you up to this weekend?