Dark Parties is a dystopian novel about a country that generations ago closed its borders to people and ideas. No one knows what exists outside their protected society. Neva and her best friend secretly plot to force the government to open its borders. Anyone who threatens the government seems to disappear mysteriously. Neva receives a message from her grandma who vanished without a trace 10 years ago, inviting her to escape to the outside. Now she has a choice–stay and save her country or leave and save herself.
In eight days, Coke and Pepsi McDonald are going to turn thirteen.
Before then, they'll jump off a cliff, get trapped in the locked basement of their burning school, chased cross-country by murderous lunatics, left for dead in the pit of a sand dune, forced to decipher mysterious coded messages, thrown into a giant vat of SPAM, and visit the world's largest . . . ball of twine!
There's more, but if we told you here, we'd have to kill you.
Megapopular author Dan Gutman brings on the excitement with an action-packed new series that's nothing short of dynamite. Join Coke and Pep on their quest to uncover just what it means to be part of The Genius Files . . . if you dare!
1. Cover cookie sheet with waxed paper or aluminum foil. Place bark in microwavable dish. Cook uncovered on high for 2-3 minutes, stirring every 30 seconds until almost melted. Stir until smooth.
2. Crush candies and sift through strainer. Shake strainer over melted coating until all of the tiniest peices fall into the coating. Save larger pieces. Stir to mix evenly, then spread coating evenly on cookie sheet. Sprinkle with remaining candy pieces.
"A plot without action is like pasta without garlic, like Dolly Parton without cleavage, and like a writer without his similes."
Before scientists found the cure, people thought love was a good thing. They didn’t understand that once love -the deliria- blooms in your blood, there is no escaping its hold. Things are different now. Scientists are able to eradicate love, and the governments demands that all citizens receive the cure upon turning eighteen. Lena Holoway has always looked forward to the day when she’ll be cured. A life without love is a life without pain: safe, measured, predictable, and happy.
But with ninety-five days left until her treatment, Lena does the unthinkable: She falls in love.
Write, read aloud, rewrite.
Stash away for a month.
Reread, revise, read aloud.
Send to your critique group.
Revise and read aloud.
Study publishers.
List possibilities.
Choose one.
Write cover letter.
Address envelope.
Include SASE.
Wait, hope, wait. Wait, hope wait.
Nine months later,
A form rejection arrives.
Reread, revise, read aloud, resubmit.
Wait, hope, wait. Wait, hope, wait.
Six months later,
Good news arrives.
A personal rejection!
Remember, even Seuss
Was rejected twenty-seven times
Before his first book sold.
Reread, revise, read aloud, resubmit.
Wait, hope, wait. Wait, hope, wait.
Repeat, repeat, repeat,
As often as necessary
To get an acceptance
And sign a contract.
Rejoice, rejoice, rejoice!
Then the real wait begins...
For your book's grand debut!
"the aethernet home for writers, publishers, illustrators, readers and bloggers of Steampunk fiction, founded November 5th, 2010. It's a collaborative party, so don't hold back. Roll up your sleeves and create the groups, forum discussions and community that best suits your needs! This is not a critique group."
THE EMPORIUM: for self-promotion
FORUMS: for in depth discussions
GROUPS: for relaxed networking
CHAT: for tea and cake
"People create their own success by learning what they need to learn and then by practicing it until they become proficient at it."
"Number one rule for fiction: Coincidence can be used to worsen a character's predicament, but never to solve his problems."
"I have found that a story leaves a deeper impression when it is impossible to tell which side the author is on."
"A big man is one who makes us feel bigger when we are with him."
"When we read a story, we inhabit it. The covers of the book are like a roof and four walls. What is to happen next will take place within the four walls of the story. And this is possible because the story's voice makes everything its own."
"Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me... Anything can happen, child. Anything can be."
Happiness Epidemic
Without any warning, the disease
sweeps across the country
like a traveling circus.
People who were once blue,
who slouched from carrying
a bag of misery over one shoulder
are now clinically cheerful.
Symptoms include kind gestures,
a bouncy stride, a smile
bigger than a slice of cantaloupe.
You pray that you will be infected,
hope a happy germ invades your body
and multiplies, spreading merriment
to all your major organs
like door-to-door Christmas carolers
until the virus finally reaches your heart:
that red house at the end of the block
where your deepest wishes reside,
where a dog howls behind a gate
every time that sorrow
pulls his hearse up the driveway.
~David Hernandez
“Man often becomes what he believes himself to be. If I keep on saying to myself that I cannot do a certain thing, it is possible that I may end by really becoming incapable of doing it. On the contrary, if I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning.”
“Believe in Yourself and there will come a day when others will have no choice but to believe with you.”
"A writer is like a bag lady going through life with a sack and a pointed stick collecting stuff."
"You have to write a lot. And you have to rewrite what you wrote a lot more."~ Holly Black
A Thank YouMany thanks to those of you who helped with my query woes yesterday. The feedback was wonderful, and I think we accomplished a lot together. THANK YOU!*****A Winner
The winner of
Monday's Marvelous Middle Grade Giveaway
and a new paperback copy of
The Underneath by Kathi Appelt
is...True Random Number Generator 52 5 Powered by RANDOM.ORGAnd lucky #5 is...
JEN DAIKERThank you to everyone who entered. I'll be doing another Marvelous Middle Grade Monday next week! Have a great weekend!
Is this one better?
Version Three (posted after feedback)
Eight-year old Scott may be a bit lazy and messy and like to pick on his sister, but when he ruins her birthday party with a well-aimed cup of worms, his fed-up parents ship him off to The Naughty Boy Factory—a place he’d always believed was about as real as Bigfoot or the Bermuda Triangle.
At The Factory—where naughty boys are transformed into perfect gentlemen—the evil director and her scary robot guards alarm Scott enough to do as he’s told. But when he discovers two of the factory’s biggest bullies have been brainwashed into perfect angels, Scott decides things have gone too far. It’s all or nothing—escape or end up re-programmed into polite, spineless, mama's boys.
