FRIENDS WITH DEATH BLURB

Mary Kate is a 17-year-old girl who can see when people are going to die.

At first, she's horrified with this strange ability, but then decides that she can use the curse as a gift. From buying cookies to skydiving, Mary Kate secretly tricks the almost-dead into fulfilling simple wishes or lifelong dreams. Then, she meets a boy who can see what she sees. When Mary Kate falls in love with him, she is devastated to see his black aura one morning - signaling his impending demise. When Death himself gives her a choice: lose the boy or lose the gift, Mary Kate can't help but wonder if Death has personal reasons for interfering.

FRIENDS WITH DEATH is a young adult Urban Fantasy and is projected to be approximately 60,000 words.

THE UNICORN TAMER BLURB

THE UNICORN TAMER is where Greek mythology meets Pokémon, a middle-grade fantasy that will appeal to fans of Carl Hiaaasen's HOOT and Brandon Mull's FABLEHAVEN.

After the mysterious disappearance of her parents, 13-year-old Emma Brown discovers a steampunk version of our dimension - a place where endangered creatures such as blue whales, centaurs, and pegasi are protected by teenagers. To get back at the Hunters who have stolen her parents, Emma races to save a unicorn foal and its fantastic cloak of invisibility and restore balance to mankind's destruction on nature.

THE UNICORN TAMER is complete at approximately 95,000 words and is the first in a trilogy.

some favorites, and a synopsis

I was at the market today picking up two rib-eyes and some broccoli. We recently bought some amazing steak knives. My preference: wide, steel blades, but light-weight. So, to celebrate, I bought some protein (also because we've been pretty carb heavy as of late). Anyway, I was at the market and it hit me. How in the world did our moms feed us every single day? Being kids, we probably complained. A lot. We probably didn't want to eat leftovers so how did our moms come up with something new everyday? That was nutritious and that we actually ... well ... ate. Unfathomable.

This post is dedicated to two things.

One: the things our moms made that we loved.

First: runny, sunny-side up eggs with soy sauce (some black or white pepper) and toast. My mom used to make a whole pan of these Sunday morning and my family would just sit around the table and dip our bread in the whole mess.

Perfect. Oh, and soy sauce recommendation: Maggi. But make sure it says that it's from France. It's only the best if it's from France.

Then, last night, it was cold and I decided to serve my new hubby a side of cozy: his mom's homemade macaroni and cheese.

2 1/4 cups of elbow macaroni

3/4 teaspoons salt

4 1/2 teaspoons margarine

3 tablespoons flour

as much ground black pepper as you like

3 cups of 2% milk

3 cups sharp cheddar cheese

as much paprika as you like

Cook the elbow macaroni in boiling salted water till tender; drain.

While the pasta is cooking, cube the cheese. In saucepan, melt the margarine; blend in the flour, salt, and ground black pepper. Add the milk; cook and stir until thick and bubbly (this will take some time). Add the sharp cheddar cheese a little bit at a time and stir till melted. Mix cheese sauce with macaroni and pour mixture into casserole dish. Sprinkle the top with as much paprika as you like.

Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes or till heated through. Makes 6 servings.

You can eat it as is, or sprinkle the top with oregano and powdered garlic (then it sorta tastes Italian).


It's a great macaroni and cheese recipe for beginners, but for some reason, it's not as creamy and silky as I would like. It's ... grainy. I think it's the fact that I used real cheese because the other night, when I made nacho cheese sauce from artificial American cheese, it was smooth. Weird. I haven't figured it out yet, but I will.

Two: Synopsis

I have never written a synopsis before writing a book. But then, my friend Jodi Meadows did it (and wrote a heckuva book). And now, my other friend, Authoress, did it. So I tried. And it took like ... weeks ... but, today, I finally finished it. And you know what? I think you should try it. Because it feels like I've already finished. I mean, I know I didn't, and that I have a looooooong way to go, but it's kinda neat. I look at the synopsis and I know where the story is going. Don't get me wrong. I don't have everything figured out, but this ... knowing where the story is going is kind of a rush. I feel all organized and ... ready. Ready for this Mt. Everest. I don't think I've ever been this prepared before. Maybe writing a synopsis means I'll survive this manuscript and actually *gasp* FINISH IT.

So go forth! Make some eggs, some macaroni and cheese, and write a synopsis.

2011 = New Stuff

What I'm eating: My boyfriend fiance (dude, before I'm used to the word, I'm going to be calling him husband) bought me fancy, New York, "it"-restaurant-of-the-moment cookies. They're the Compost cookies from Momofuku and they're really unique. They taste like chocolate, salty pretzels, and coffee grounds. They also have potato chips, oats, and butterscotch in them. Unique may be an understatement.

What I'm doing: Not writing. I'm thinking about writing, though. I guess as writers, we never stop. I spent the last 3 months of 2010 revising my middle-grade science fantasy for Authoress' genius Baker's Dozen Auction. The work paid off and I received 3 full requests from it. When Christmas break came around, I worked on FRIENDS WITH DEATH a little - re-writing certain parts and switching 3rd person to first (yes, again). I'm hankering to write something new, though. I have a couple ideas tickling my brain, but nothing's grabbed me yet. I keep waiting ... and hoping.

So that's the goal this year: a new YA.

And planning a wedding ...

Talk about new experiences.

I'm going dress shopping for the first time tomorrow! I'm really excited and a little nervous (not sure why). After boy proposed in August, I couldn't wait to try on dresses, but my mom was out of the country and I didn't want to go without her, so I waited. When my mom returned from her vacation, she had to jump right back into work (the holidays are the busiest time of year for her line of work) (and no, she's not an elf), so I had to wait some more.

You would think that during this period of waiting I would have collected examples of dresses I want to try on, huh? Yeah. Probably should've done that.

Which is why I'm sitting here, not writing, eating a cookie, and ripping out photographs of dresses from a stack of wedding magazines.

A conference! and tomatoes!

WRITERLY:



It's an idea so great, you wonder why it hasn't been done before. Well, it hasn't. But it will. Get READY! Get EXCITED! (and get your butt over to http://writeoncon.com/ to thank the genius ladies who are putting it all together!)

WriteOnCon!! The very first online writing conference!!

The WriteOnCon team is celebrating the launch with a bunch of contests on their individual blogs. Here's one from Shannon Whitney: http://ramblingsofawannabescribe.blogspot.com/2010/06/secret-project-revealed.html

EATERLY:

Yes. Tomatoes. Heirloom to be exact. One of the top reasons (in my book) why summer is just so awesome.

The double-whammy: heirloom tomato soup + poppy-seed bagel with cream cheese n' chives n' tomatoes (two-toned!)

Recipe for the perfect summer heirloom tomato salad:

+ green leaf lettuce

+ sliced strawberries

+ shucked white corn

+ sliced red & green peppers

+ balsamic dressing

+ thinly sliced prosciutto

+ heirloom tomatoes

The best way of waking up ...

is winning a crit!

As soon as my alarm went off, I went online to check the QueryTracker blog instead of hitting the snooze button. A week ago, agent Jason Yarn hosted a contest to win a query and 10-page critique. The results were supposed to go up Friday so yes, I was even more anxious for it to be Friday than usual.

It was early, I thought to myself. The results probably aren't posted yet.

I practically scrolled past my own title before realizing that the words FRIENDS WITH DEATH were staring right back at me. As a winning entry.

I've copied and pasted my pitch and excerpt below. The coolest part is Mr. Yarn's thoughts:

FRIENDS WITH DEATH by Christine Nguyen: Ms. Nguyen’s pitch made me smile and then her excerpt made me laugh – a key way to judge if I’m going to like a book on the whole. The image of a hot Death making eyes at the main character was pretty funny, and brought to mind a lot of uncomfortable situations. Mary Kate’s wanting to get out of a test by way of wished-for vehicular assault rang true in the way of teenagers’ sometime callous disregard for others (without meaning it, of course).

[Insert all-day-long squee here!]

Christine's pitch:
When the charismatic Death makes 17-year-old Mary Kate Stewart choose between saving her dying boyfriend or her gift - the ability to see when people are going to die - she can't help but wonder if he wants to be more than just friends.

Christine's excerpt:
Mary Kate Stewart secretly hoped that her Calculus teacher would get hit by a taco truck. It was Monday, 1:15 p.m. when she had that thought. She knew the exact moment because that’s all she was doing – staring at the clock and wishing for the demise of Mr. Randolph Hagen. She didn’t want him to actually die, but if the accident caused the kind of amnesia where you forgot one specific thing and that thing just happened to be Friday’s Calculus test, she’d be all for supporting careless lunch truck drivers.

***

I hope you all enter as many contests as you can. It's a fantastic learning experience and gets your heart rate going. See! Writing contests are good for your health!

Lunch today, on the other hand, is definitely not:

Kobe beef sliders with American cheese, pesto aioli, Grey Poupon mustard, ketchup, red onions, and lettuce on a whole wheat bun. Accompanied with garlic french fries and a homemade chocolate chip whoopie pie (to celebrate my whoopilious day). **mental note: eat salad for dinner**

Let's celebrate the end of March!

*skips in*

Hello! I am so happy to be back. I've been buried underneath end-of-quarter projects, so even though I actually work for the Great Internet Gods, I haven't had much time to play on the internet (Twitter, Google Reader, etc). So color me stoked that March is over! I celebrated by creating this post filled with fun links for you. Enjoy!

- Rejections got you down? Read this inspiring post from SHIVER'S Maggie Stiefvater and win a copy of LINGER here!

- Feel better after reading Maggie's post? Then submit here.

- An interview with Andrew Harwell, editorial assistant at Dutton Children's Books

- Really interesting (and positive) story about Bologna from PW

- The Dream Team: BEAUTIFUL CREATURES cast-of-fun!

- New blog that I kinda loff: http://thebookshelfmuse.blogspot.com/

- I like [trying] to win things: Mandy Hubbard contest and Heidi R. Kling contest

- And last but not least, I may just be crazy enough to fly to D.C. FOR J.K. ROWLING! (that is, if I had entered the Egg Roll lottery on time)

DAUNTING!

I just opened a fresh new document and typed:

"FANTASTIC FIRST LINE."

*smacks forehead*

Yep, I'm taking a big, ol' breath and starting a new story. I took a short break, but now I'm standing here feeling thissmall looking up at this unknown, 60,ooo-word mountain. I've either gotta start climbing, find another mountain, or go home.

*gulp*

Hey!

I just finished my second book!!

It took me awhile to realize I was done. I stared at the last sentence for a good minute. I'm off to type "The End."

FRIENDS WITH DEATH, 55,579 words @ 1:22AM.

:-)

What I learned from publishing today (via Twitter)!

- One of my favorite authors, Maggie Stiefvater, shares her early, "bad" writing and comments on whether or not YA lit is going down the toliet

- BOY TOY author Barry Lyga tells us how he writes and shows us a sneak peek of his new book ARCHVILLAIN!

- Compare YOUR novel beginning with the ones agent Mary Kole likes

- The Editorial Role: An Agent's View

- Tension = Tight Writing

- Agent Spotlight: FinePrint Literary's Suzie Townsend

- Teen Fiction Cafe's Anniversary Party - special post by EVERMORE's Aylson Noel

- You know how some blu-ray movies come bundled with a standard copy and a version you can watch on your computer? Now, books will come bundled up, too! Barnes and Noble announces that it will bundle print books and e-books together - how cool is that? It's a revolution, folks!

The Publishing World Tweets!

Every morning, I go through my Twitter feed and scan through my delicious pot of agent-ly, writer-ly, book-ly, publish-ly news and go click-happy on links. Since I have a nice little collection going on here, I thought I'd share "what I learned from twitter today" with you. The links range from writing advice to contests to book announcements. Click and enjoy!

- Synopsis contest

- 1000 word crit fun on Authoress' blog

- A new book for you to love: FORGET-HER-NOTS

- Weather contest - win a crit!

- Will you buy ANNA AND THE FRENCH KISS based on her cover?

- BEFORE I FALL - couldn't resist the premise so I added it to my Amazon wishlist! Let me know if you feel the same way :-)

Predictability

One of my worst fears as a writer is being predictable. I don't want a reader to guess, smirk and/or roll their eyes, and say 5 minutes later:

"I knew you were going to do that."

"You're boring."

"Mighty un-clever!"

Where does unpredictability come from? Usually from my secondary characters. They whisper things in my ear like: "You know that scene 150 pages back? I could pop in, pull on her pig-tails a little - see what happens. Whatdoyasay?" (insert hearty wink here)

Seriously though, what do you say? Well, I said it honestly sounds kinda fun. Let's stir things up a bit - let's suddenly appear out of nowhere and show 2% of kindness when 98% of the time we're schemy and evil. Let's die. Let's not die and wear fuschia to someone else's funeral.

After I thought this was a cool idea, I realized how difficult it was and decided to write this blog post. I definitely don't want to shy away from making my story better just because it'll be hard and I wanted to come on here and tell you just that. Because I just learned that letting that character go cause a ruckus meant I had over a dozen other scenes to change. So, I've had to be really careful with continuity issues AND with being unpredictable, yet believable.

I definitely don't want a reader to go:

Huh. That doesn't make sense.

Huh. That was out of character.

Huh. THAT WAS REALLY DUMB!

So ... there's a fine line and I'm trying to see it. (peers) Can you see it?

2010 Resolution - Blog More

It's January 28th.

This is my first blog post of 2010.

So far, I'm failing my "Blog More" resolution.

Fixing that now!

WRITING: I am thisclose to finishing my WIP. I have an agent who already wants to see the full and another agent waiting on my revisions for THE UNICORN TAMER. So what does that mean? Tons of squee! and kicking-of-butt-in-gear. Thank goodness for the venerable Jodi Meadows who commands the cutest army there ever was. I seem to write better when she's on 3rd shift (i.e. up in the middle of the night).

BOOKS: I am currently reading Stephen King's ON WRITING and I highly recommend it. You don't even have to be an aspiring author. ON WRITING was written in a very conversational tone and it's intimate, inspiring, and down-right funny. Did you know he used to do laundry for a living? AND, he threw away CARRIE. Like, wrote it, hated it, and THREW IT AWAY!! His wife was the one who fished it out of the garbage and told him to finish it. The rest is history (i.e. he sold it, made a kazillion dollars, and became a household name).

HELPFUL WRITING RELATED LINKS:

- Ten Words You Need to Stop Misspelling (with comics!)

- The incredible and sweet (I know she's incredible and sweet because I got to meet her in person!) LK Madigan writes about productive writing retreats and achieving that one perfect sentence

- 2 New Ways to Get Feedback on Your Work

- Amazon publishing original manuscripts!

- 3 books I want to win! but will not hesitate to buy them either because they're made of awesome

5 most common YA subgenres

Suzie Townsend is a junior agent with FinePrint Literary Management and she goes into detail about the 5 most common YA subgenres. "Common" can sometimes be tried and true, or sometimes, it's just plain ol' tiring. A really great, educational read on Susan Adrian's blog

It's Its and 5 Ways to NOT reach your dreams

How To Use An Apostrophe

A pictorial guide on how to correctly use apostrophes. Fun!

5 Ways To NOT Get Your Novel Published

1. Don’t be amazing - The single most common reason for novels not being published is that they are simply not amazing. Publishers have an almost unlimited supply of writers looking to get their books in print, so why would they publish anything but the very best writing? Your novel being good is just not good enough.

A taste of what it feels like to have an agent!

I won Kelly Sonnack's 5-page crit in Cynthia Liu's "Take the Dare" auction and I think it's some of the best money I've ever spent. Not only did a bunch of kids get a bunch of books, but Kelly is sweet. She's also honest and has gone above and beyond the call of duty.

She's not only:

* critiqued my pitch
* answered really detailed questions I have about publishing/writing-related things
* thoroughly reviewed and provided feedback on my first 5 pages
* been supportive throughout this whole process

but she's also offering to:

* read both my 1st person pages and 3rd person pages to tell me which one is better
* have a phone conversation
* read the complete, polished manuscript

*falls over*

She's amazing and I'm so lucky. Not to mention so very scared. I want FRIENDS WITH DEATH to surpass her expectations. I'm so nervous, I'm having a little trouble writing. Which is why I'm reading (recently purchased GOING BOVINE) - to learn and better my craft.

Anyway, that's what I've been working on. I'm also, once again, wrestling with the decision of "should this story be told in 1st person or 3rd" and I'm trying to decide if I want to do NaNoWriMo this year. I have this WIP to finish and polish and my MG fantasy that I want to completely re-write so I don't know if I have the time to meet the 50,000 words in 30 days goal. I'm super tempted, though. How about you? Are you NaNoWriMo-ing?

Blowing Off the Blog Dust

Yup, still alive! I hate to say it, but work has gotten in the way of writing. C'est la vie!

So yesterday, at 1AM, instead of going to bed like a good employee, I decided to give myself a challege: 20K in 7 days. SOUNDS CRAZY FUN, doesn't it? My WIP is about 55% complete and edited. Now, it's a race to the finish line!

In other, non-writely news, the Significant Other and I are trying to buy a house. I wish it was as easy as:

me: "Bank, I have this much. I would like to buy a house for this much. Please loan me the difference."

bank: *checks important things* "OK, I trust you. Here you go!" *poof loan*

me: "I like your house, Owner."

owner: "It costs $525,000."

me: "I'll give you $500,000 for it."

owner: "I won't go a penny below $515,000."

me: *ponders* *loves house* "It's a deal!" *gives Owner money*

me: la la la

Blog Highlights: Bent on Books

I write every single day. I wish I could say that I'm adding to my WIP's word count every day, but sometimes, those words just don't want to come. But still ... I need to write. It's who I am.

I don't count emails so there are 3 other places where I write: christinepuddin.yelp.com, my personal journal, and here, my public blog.

So, I'm way behind on Twitter and Google Reader - which annoys me to no end. I think I may be a bit OCD. I wonder if every writer is. Anyway, I thought I'd combine everything (my need to write, being behind on Reader, being behind on my own blog) and highlight one of the 81 blogs I follow. So if you're interested in writer-ly, agent-ly, publish-y topics, here's what I learned recently from "Bent on Books" ...

Great advice from Agent Jenny Bent:

"You know how you always hear don't write for the market? It's true. Even for the practical reason that by the time you've finished writing the market has usually changed."

"So the plan is two-fold. First, write the book of your heart. Don't worry about the market. At the same time, pay attention to the market in every way you can. Watch bestseller lists, read industry news. When you're done with the book, put your knowledge of the market to use and figure out how what's going on in the market matches your particular genre/style/characters/plot. Preparation will meet opportunity. You'll make your own luck. And the great thing is that the way the market shifts and changes, the windows are always opening up."

"If you can't sell your book to a traditional publisher get it out there however you can. So many of my clients self-published first: Laurie Notaro, Will Clarke, Frank Daniels. In fact, go check this out: http://www.myspace.com/nfrankdaniels . Frank's first novel, FUTUREPROOF was published this month by HarperCollins, and the story of how he got there is pretty amazing."

Catching Up

Yikes! Been almost a month since I've posted.

So ... I live in California, but the S.O. wants to live in Colorado someday so over the 4th of July holiday, we traversed to the Rocky Mountains to do some 'sploring to determine if it'll be a good fit. We went to Boulder (not what I pictured) and Denver (cool, clean city), the Red Rocks (this is a place where stories are born), and Table Mountain (I want to live near here). The best part of the trip was a surprise visit to the little town of Granby where we relaxed in a cabin (and played Apples to Apples in over-the-top Asian accents) and went boating with two of our best friends (who are part of the reason for the "wanting to move to Colorado" idea).

Anywho, I am way behind in life.

* I've been reading a lot more than usual - research to better my Young Adult writing skillz. So far, I've devoured the following books: I'd Tell You I Love You But Then I'd Have To Kill You, Evermore, Wings, Wicked Lovely, and Fairy Tale

* I'm in the middle of Silver Phoenix, Fragile Eternity, and Don't Judge a Spy by Her Cover

* I just bought Blue Moon and The Graveyard Book

* I want to do reviews for everything I read (need to get off my butt and actually do them)!

* I won a 5-page critique with Kelly Sonnack (Andrea Brown Agency) through Cynthea Liu's auction

* I did a test run with the Online Writing Workshop for SF/Fantasy writers - in less than a month, I received 3 thorough critiques! When I have the time, I'm going to sign up for a permanent membership and return the favor to those who critiqued my work, but I'm super busy/behind right now ... I suggest you try it, though, if you're looking for solid feedback!

* I'm holding on to my promise of finish FRIENDS WITH DEATH before fiddling with THE UNICORN TAMER

* I currently have 1 full and 1 partial out

Sometimes when I type ...

I imagine that my fingers are flying across piano keys.

LOVE STORY (Taylor Swift) meets VIVA LA VIDA (Coldplay)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0v3d6SFcDys