I’m not talking about tagging a friend or a celebrity on social media. I’m talking about dialogue tags, those helpful little buggers that show you who is speaking.
Like here:
“How about you try this ancient thinking fruit?” she said.
The dialogue tag is SHE SAID.
Here’s my First DIALOGUE Hint:
Every single dialogue line does not need a dialogue tag. Those babies can survive without them!
So, don’t do this:
“How about you try this ancient thinking fruit?” she said.
“What do you mean, ‘thinking fruit?'” he asked.
“The fruit helps you think,” she said.
“Does it think for you?” he asked. “Because that seems wrong.”
“We must all think for ourselves,” she agreed.
All tags
That reads like a second grade book that you didn’t quite enjoy, right? Not even in second grade.
“How about you try this ancient thinking fruit?” she said.
“What do you mean, ‘thinking fruit?'” he asked.
“The fruit helps you think.”
“Does it think for you? Because that seems wrong.”
“We must all think for ourselves,” she agreed.
Less tags
If you have two people talking you don’t ALWAYS have to tell us who said what. The paragraph indents give us that clue.
Here is my Second DIALOGUE Hint
If you add in the character action instead of the dialogue tag, it can make things zing and change meaning.
“How about you try this ancient thinking fruit?” She held the potato above her head, thrusting it towards the sky.
He took one step backwards, eyeing the spud. Someone had stuck plastic appendages and even eyes and lips into it. “What do you mean, ‘thinking fruit?'”
“The fruit helps you think.” She brought the potato back down to her level and kissed its bright, red lips.
“Does it think for you?” he asked. “Because that seems wrong. Also, potatoes aren’t fruit.”
“We must all think for ourselves.”
Add in some action
That’s it! Two fast tips about dialogue tags. Fastest writing tips ever, right?
Writing News
IN THE WOODS – READ AN EXCERPT, PREORDER NOW!
My next book, IN THE WOODS, appears in July with Steve Wedel. It’s scary and one of Publisher’s Weekly’s Buzz Books for Summer 2019. There’s an excerpt of it there and everything! But even cooler (for me) they’ve deemed it buzz worthy! Buzz worthy seems like an awesome thing to be deemed!
You can preorder this bad boy, which might make it have a sequel. The sequel would be amazing. Believe me, I know. It features caves and monsters and love. Because doesn’t every story?
HEAR MY BOOK BABY (AND MORE) ON PATREON
On February first, I launched my Patreon site where I’m reading chapters (in order) of a never-published teen fantasy novel, releasing deleted scenes and art from some of my more popular books. And so much more. Come hang out with me! Get cool things!
WHAT IS PATREON?
A lot of you might be new to Patreon and not get how it works. That’s totally cool. New things can be scary, but there’s a cool primer HERE that explains how it works. The short of it is this: You give Patreon your paypal or credit card # and they charge you whatever you level you choose at the end of each month. That money supports me sharing my writing and art and podcasts and weirdness with you.
HELP US AND DO AN AWESOME GOOD DEED
Thanks to all of you who keep listening to our weirdness on the DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN PEOPLE podcast as we talk about random thoughts, writing advice and life tips. We’re sorry we laugh so much… sort of. Please share it and subscribe if you can. Please rate and like us if you are feeling kind, because it matters somehow. There’s a new episode every Tuesday!
ART
Image
You can buy some of my art. I paint to help inform my stories and some of the prints are available now. There will be more soon. You can check it out here.
Share this if you want and also because it would be super nice of you!
Lots of us have bad people in our writing and our lives. These antagonists run the gamut from people who make us scream at their Facebook posts of Fakeness to actually physically hurting us and our community.
But one of the biggest questions a lot of new writers have is this:
DO I NEED A BAD GUY?
Yes.
But your bad guy can be yourself? Like in our random thoughts, Carrie is often showing that she is her own worst enemy. Watching tv gives her anxiety, but she almost always watches tv at night for a couple of hours.
When it comes to life or writing stories, this can help you figure out what the antagonist is.
HERE ARE THE STEPS:
Figure out what your goal or your main character’s goal is.
The bad person is whatever stands in the way of your character (or you) achieving your goal.
So, in life Carrie is her own antagonist because her goal is to not feel anxious at night, yet she still watches television for an hour or two. That’s an example of an inner-antagonist or bad guy.
Also in life, when Carrie doesn’t let Shaun watch American Pickers and makes him watch Pen15? She’s Shaun’s external bad guy, keeping him from his goal to chill with those picker guys.
WRITING TIP OF THE POD
Every story needs conflict. Sometimes th”at conflict and opposing force (what’s keeping your character from their goal) comes from the character themself.
DOG TIP FOR LIFE
“Dude. Us dogs do not need antagonists. We go for our wants. Over and over again,” says Sparty.
SHOUT OUT!
The music we’ve clipped and shortened in this podcast is awesome and is made available through the Creative Commons License. Here’s a link to that and the artist’s website. Who is this artist and what is this song? It’s “Night Owl” by Broke For Free.
Bar Harbor Maine – Next to our house, actually
WRITING AND OTHER NEWS
IN THE WOODS – READ AN EXCERPT, PREORDER NOW!
My next book, IN THE WOODS, appears in July with Steve Wedel. It’s scary and one of Publisher’s Weekly’s Buzz Books for Summer 2019. There’s an excerpt of it there and everything! But even cooler (for me) they’ve deemed it buzz worthy! Buzz worthy seems like an awesome thing to be deemed!
You can preorder this bad boy, which might make it have a sequel. The sequel would be amazing. Believe me, I know. It features caves and monsters and love. Because doesn’t every story?
HEAR MY BOOK BABY (AND MORE) ON PATREON
On February first, I’m going to launch my Patreon site where I’ll be reading chapters (in order) of a never-published teen fantasy novel, releasing deleted scenes and art from some of my more popular books. And so much more.
WHAT IS PATREON?
A lot of you might be new to Patreon and not get how it works. That’s totally cool. New things can be scary, but there’s a cool primer HERE that explains how it works. The short of it is this: You give Patreon your paypal or credit card # and they charge you whatever you level you choose at the end of each month. That money supports me sharing my writing and art and podcasts and weirdness with you.
HELP US AND DO AN AWESOME GOOD DEED
Thanks to all of you who keep listening to our weirdness on the DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN PEOPLE podcast as we talk about random thoughts, writing advice and life tips. We’re sorry we laugh so much… sort of. Please share it and subscribe if you can. Please rate and like us if you are feeling kind, because it matters somehow. There’s a new episode every Tuesday!
BE A PART OF THE PODCAST!
Hey! If you download the Anchor application, you can call into the podcast, record a question, or just say ‘hi,’ and we’ll answer. You can be heard on our podcast! Sa-sweet!
No question is too wild. But just like Shaun does, try not to swear, okay?
A lot of people love where they live or where they visit, but that doesn’t mean that they can write well about that place or include that town/city/cruiseship in an authentic way in the setting of their story.
I’ll use where I live as an example.
Tons of people claim that their piece of the earth is the most beautiful, and those of us who live here on Mount Desert Island are no exception, tiny mountains lift up the center of the island creating granite vistas in deep pine woods. The coast is full of dramatic cliffs where the sides plunge into the cold, gray Atlantic Ocean.
It’s so beautiful that a million people travel all the way up the coast of Maine to visit it this summer. If you google image Bar Harbor or Acadia National Park you’ll see photo after photo of distance shots of the town or photo after photo of Sand Beach and these two mountains called the Bubbles.
The same distant landscape shots appear over and over again. But when you live here, that’s not the town, that’s not the setting. It isn’t something felt or viewed at a distance. It’s up close. It’s details. It isn’t a static image but a movie full of depth and emotion and change.
And I can tell right away when someone writes about here but they’ve either:
Never visited
Never talked to anyone local
Spent a mere day
They’ll have the locals pronounce the town, “Bah-hah-bah.” They’ll stick in a ‘telling detail’ about the tiny town square or the carriage roads of Acadia. They’ll use a last name like “Higgins.” They will present a one-dimensional portrait of a small town that’s always beautiful.
But MDI isn’t always beautiful, no place is, not to everyone. When we’re writing about place and including setting in a story, it’s good to remember that no matter how beautiful a place is – that’s not all there is to it. Or that your one moment there, doesn’t mean you get the whole of it, understand the big picture and nuance of the place.
Just like a character needs to have multiple dimensions, so does the setting of the story.
Mount Desert Island is a place where people write stories of fantasy and of survival, where people come to hike and bike the carriage roads and then decide to stay, choosing to live with the lobsters and deer and wild turkeys. The main industry here is tourism and then there are two scientific laboratories, a small college, a wee hospital, and boat building places. People still lobster. People still fight fires and get arrested and work at one of the tiny grocery stores. It’s a place where churches have game night, breweries have trivia night, and there seems to be one nonprofit agency for every five year-round residents.
Every winter a lot of the town vanishes. Shops and restaurants close. Snowbirds fly south. Restaurant workers go to Florida to make money before returning again in May.
It becomes an entirely different place than it was just six months earlier when it was brimming with tourists, crowding the sidewalks, bickering over where to eat, hauling bags of t-shirts around. A century ago, Bar Harbor was the town of the Rockefellers and Pulitzers, the elite white people of the United States. A century before that, it had Wabanaki camps along the bay.
Place, like people, has dimension. Place has a past beyond our present. To be the best writers and people that we can be, it’s good to remember that, to breathe in the nuance and the dimension.
*all photos by me.
Writing and Other News
I’ll be hanging out at Virginia Beach this weekend for an awesome book festival.
You can order my middle grade fantasy novel Time Stoppers Escape From the Badlands here or anywhere.
People call it a cross between Harry Potter and Percy Jackson but it’s set in Maine. It’s full of adventure, quirkiness and heart.
Moe Berg
The Spy Who Played Baseball is a picture book biography about Moe Berg. And… there’s a movie out now about Moe Berg, a major league baseball player who became a spy. How cool is that?
It’s awesome and quirky and fun.
FLYING AND ENHANCED
Men in Black meet Buffy the Vampire Slayer? You know it. You can buy them here or anywhere.
Flying
OUR PODCAST – DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN PEOPLE.
Thanks to all of you who keep listening to our weirdness as we talk about random thoughts, writing advice and life tips. We’re sorry we laugh so much… sort of. Please share it and subscribe if you can. Please rate and like us if you are feeling kind, because it matters somehow. There’s a new episode every Tuesday!
Writing Coach
I offer solo writing coach services. For more about my individual coaching, click here.
Writing Barn
I am super psyched to be teaching the six-month long Write. Submit. Support. class at the Writing Barn!
Are you looking for a group to support you in your writing process and help set achievable goals? Are you looking for the feedback and connections that could potentially lead you to that book deal you’ve been working towards?
Our Write. Submit. Support. (WSS) six-month ONLINE course offers structure and support not only to your writing lives and the manuscripts at hand, but also to the roller coaster ride of submissions: whether that be submitting to agents or, if agented, weathering the submissions to editors.
Past Write. Submit. Support. students have gone on to receive representation from literary agents across the country. View one of our most recent success stories here.
So, my mom was a really big proponent of eating meat with every single meal.
She didn’t like fresh vegetables except for corn on the cob and cucumbers. To be fair, she only like cucumbers when they were thinly sliced and put on a massive caravan of mayonnaise and smooshed in between two slices of white bread.
Wait.
I liked
She was also fine with tomatoes and lettuce (ice berg) on hamburgers.
That was pretty much it.
So, when I had Emily (my kiddo) and I was reverting to my vegetarian ways, my mother FREAKED OUT and would legit drive 2.5 hours to visit us just to cook roasts.
My favorite cookbook was Horn of the Moon, which was a vegetarian cookbook written by Ginny Callan who owned Horn of the Moon restaurant. I didn’t see the cookbooks until after the restaurant closed or I totally would have tromped to Vermont and sobbed, hugging this woman, who I sort of thought as my vegetarian food savior.
Anyway, one afternoon my mom called and asked me what I was cooking.
“Creamy Green Bean Soup,” I said.
And she said, “Sweet Mother of God, Carrie. What is wrong with you? You don’t do that to green beans. Are you trying to die?”
Yes, You Can Do This With Green Beans – Creamy Soup
Adapted from Horn of the Moon
The calorie estimate is probably high.
5 cups water
1.5 lbs green beans (chopped into 1.5-inch pieces (6 cups))
5 tbsp butter
3 whole onions
1 tsp thyme (dried)
1.5 tsp dill (dried)
2 whole bay leaves (I never have these)
3.5 tbsp white flour
.5 cup heavy cream
1 tsp salt
1 cup milk
dash dashy siracha (to taste. )
Curse out your mother for harshing on your soup as you boil 5 cups of water in a big pot.
Add cut green beans to water once the water boils.
Return the water to boil, cover.
Lower the heat to simmer and let it simmer for 30 minutes.
Write a poem about your mother.
Realize that whenever you were little and drew your mother would declare, “Nobody in this family are artists. Not one of us has a lick of artistic ability.”
Realize you would rather be an artist that a writer.
Let this sink in.
While you are despondent over the course of your life as a writer not an artist, melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a bit pan.
Once butter is melted, saute the onions and herbs until those onions are a light brown.
Realize you should be drawing this right now instead of writing about it.
Once the onions are done, add the contents of the pan to the green beans and water. Turn the heat off of the green beans and water.
Let everything sit a bit because it’s super hot – much like your temper right now.
Puree about 3/4th of that green bean mix.
Use a blender.
Put the pureed mix back into the soup pot.
Throw in bay leaves.
Bay leaves would be fun to draw, wouldn’t they?
Wonder if your whole life is a lie and you should have been an artist instead of a writer.
Write a poem about it.
Melt the rest of the butter in that pan you’d been using before.
Add flour to melted butter. Use low heat.
Stir it until it gets a light brown color.
Find cream. Whisk that into the butter and flour.
Add one ladle of soup to it.
Do this two more times then pour all of that back into the soup.
Add salt. Add pepper. Add milk. Add hot sauce. Taste it. Adjust it to what you want it to be.
Wish you could adjust your parents’ beliefs about art and family proclivities the way you can adjust soup taste.
Simmer on low heat.
Simmer for 15 minutes.
Use this time to sign up for art class.
As you know, these weekly recipes are my attempt to getting the family to eat more food without meat. And I always put down their verdicts.
Man Verdict: You know what would make this perfect? Ham.
My Verdict: Have you been communicating with my mom in the spirit world?
Dogs’ Verdict: Ham or bacon. Either would be okay. You could drop some on the floor, you know. That would be nice.
Sparty: Everything is better with bacon.
Writing News
Next and Last Time Stoppers Book
It’s out! You can order my middle grade fantasy novel Time Stoppers Escape From the Badlands here or anywhere.
People call it a cross between Harry Potter and Percy Jackson but it’s set in Maine. It’s full of adventure, quirkiness and heart.
Moe Berg
The Spy Who Played Baseball is a picture book biography about Moe Berg. And… there’s a movie out now about Moe Berg, a major league baseball player who became a spy. How cool is that?
It’s awesome and quirky and fun.
OUR PODCAST – DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN PEOPLE.
Thanks to all of you who keep listening to our weirdness as we talk about random thoughts, writing advice and life tips. We’re sorry we laugh so much… sort of. Please share it and subscribe if you can. Please rate and like us if you are feeling kind, because it matters somehow. There’s a new episode every Tuesday!
Writing Coach
I offer solo writing coach services. For more about my individual coaching, click here.
Ebook on Sale for October!
And finally, for the month of July, my book NEEDis on sale in ebook version on Amazon. It’s a cheap way to have an awesome read in a book that’s basically about human-sized pixies trying to start an apocalypse.
I’m WRITING BARN FACULTY AND THERE’S A COURSE YOU CAN TAKE!
I am super psyched to be teaching the six-month long Write. Submit. Support. class at the Writing Barn!
Are you looking for a group to support you in your writing process and help set achievable goals? Are you looking for the feedback and connections that could potentially lead you to that book deal you’ve been working towards?
Our Write. Submit. Support. (WSS) six-month ONLINE course offers structure and support not only to your writing lives and the manuscripts at hand, but also to the roller coaster ride of submissions: whether that be submitting to agents or, if agented, weathering the submissions to editors.
Past Write. Submit. Support. students have gone on to receive representation from literary agents across the country. View one of our most recent success stories here.
A lot of us writers who dabble or write full-out fantasy or science fiction deal with these little devils. But what does it mean to be immortal? And what does it take to write them?
Marguerite Duras Wrote:
It’s while it’s being lived that life is immortal, while it’s still alive. Immortality is not a matter of more or less time, it’s not really a question of immortality but of something else that remains unknown. It’s as untrue to say it’s without beginning or end as to say it begins and ends with the life of the spirit, since it partakes both of the spirit and of the pursuit of the void.
And BEN FRANKLIN WROTE:
If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead, either write things worth reading or do things worth writing.
Us, writers, are pretty obsessed with immortality and mortality, not just as a conceit for our own lives, but also in our work. But immortality is a messy beast in writing.
Why?
Immortality lowers the stakes. In our culture, we tend to think of death as the worst possible outcome. It’s the big evil that we often use to justify our own evil deeds. We usually try to avoid it at all costs and it makes the stakes in our writing really high (and therefore the reader really interested) if we put one of our character’s life at risk.
It’s hard to get the reader worried about a character that is immortal.
There are some interesting thoughts on how to deal with immortal characters in fiction here and here and especially here where CLEVER GIRL HELPS breaks down types and degrees of immortality.
Once you’ve read those hints, let’s talk about the big question, which is:
WHY DO WE WRITE IMMORTALS?
So, if immortality is so difficult to write, why do we keep writing immortal characters?
In an interview with Salon’s Sophie Roell, author Stephen Cave says of our obsession with immortality,
It’s a human universal. Among all of the animals, we probably uniquely are aware that we’re going to die. We try to avoid the worst, to keep going one way or another, yet we must live in the knowledge that it is futile – that ultimately, the worst thing that can possibly happen will happen. That all our projects and all our dreams — everything we’re striving for — one day it will all be over. And this is terrifying. So we are very keen to hear any story that can allay this fear and say death isn’t what it seems, and we can just keep on going indefinitely.
Longing for immortality and grappling with our mortality is pretty close to a human universal. It’s something all writers (who are humans) can relate to and therefore are compelled to write about.
So, we do.
And we try to do it well, but it’s hard. When the highest stake of death (of the immortal) isn’t possible, what is the second highest stake you can put in place of that?
Death of the immortal’s loved one?
Eternal entrapment?
Forced to eat uncooked lima beans?
Success of another immortal that there is past history with?
Living with your own moral failures like in Doctor Who?
It’s up to you and your character to decide. Decide well! It’s a cool thing to think about for you, your life, and your story. What is the highest stake in your own life? If you say death, what’s the second highest? Sometimes it’s good to put our own brains through the same questions that we launch on our characters.
Writing News
Next and Last Time Stoppers Book
It’s out! You can order my middle grade fantasy novel Time Stoppers Escape From the Badlands here or anywhere.
People call it a cross between Harry Potter and Percy Jackson but it’s set in Maine. It’s full of adventure, quirkiness and heart.
Moe Berg
The Spy Who Played Baseball is a picture book biography about Moe Berg. And… there’s a movie out now about Moe Berg, a major league baseball player who became a spy. How cool is that?
It’s awesome and quirky and fun.
OUR PODCAST – DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN PEOPLE.
Thanks to all of you who keep listening to our weirdness as we talk about random thoughts, writing advice and life tips. We’re sorry we laugh so much… sort of. Please share it and subscribe if you can. Please rate and like us if you are feeling kind, because it matters somehow. There’s a new episode every Tuesday!
Writing Coach
I offer solo writing coach services. For more about my individual coaching, click here.
Ebook on Sale for October!
And finally, for the month of July, my book NEEDis on sale in ebook version on Amazon. It’s a cheap way to have an awesome read in a book that’s basically about human-sized pixies trying to start an apocalypse.
I’m WRITING BARN FACULTY AND THERE’S A COURSE YOU CAN TAKE!
I am super psyched to be teaching the six-month long Write. Submit. Support. class at the Writing Barn!
Are you looking for a group to support you in your writing process and help set achievable goals? Are you looking for the feedback and connections that could potentially lead you to that book deal you’ve been working towards?
Our Write. Submit. Support. (WSS) six-month ONLINE course offers structure and support not only to your writing lives and the manuscripts at hand, but also to the roller coaster ride of submissions: whether that be submitting to agents or, if agented, weathering the submissions to editors.
Past Write. Submit. Support. students have gone on to receive representation from literary agents across the country. View one of our most recent success stories here.
A long time ago, our daughter Em was taking karate, which was the only martial art available then in our town.
She was eight years old and tiny.
The instructor was Shaun size – sort of – and bald, super intimidating. He had all the little ones line up and kick rectangular strike pads. Em’s kick was so unexpected and powerful that the adult holding the pad fell over.
Did they tell her, “Good job?”
Nope.
They made her sit down.
“What did I do wrong, Mommy?” Em asked.
“Nothing, buddy. Nothing.”
And a mom next to us whispered, “You were too strong. They don’t know what to do with women who are too strong.”
Em got called back up and got to join the group again. This time the kids were kicking the instructor’s shin. It was Em’s turn. She wound up and executed the kick perfectly. The instructor lurched backwards, held his shin, and told her to sit down.
Again.
Em was smaller than the rest of those kids in there, but she was powerful and they didn’t know what to do with that. They couldn’t even understand it. How could this perfectly behaved, tiny child be so strong?
And sometimes that happens with us throughout our lives and our writing. Our power surprises even us. We’ll wonder where it came from? We’ll wonder what it means. And sometimes other people will not know what to do with it. Those people might be our mentors, or our families, or strangers on the internet.
But here’s the thing.
Don’t let them make you sit down or sit out. If you surprise them with your power? That’s on them. It’s not on you.
Writing Tip of the Pod:
Don’t be afraid to dig deep to get your power.
Dog Tip for Life:
Don’t let the other dogs out-alpha you. Pick your battles. But win. Don’t give away your shot.
SHOUT OUT
The music we’ve clipped and shortened in this podcast is awesome and is made available through the Creative Commons License. Here’s a link to that and the artist’s website. Who is this artist and what is this song? It’s “Night Owl” by Broke For Free.
WRITING NEWS
NEED is on sale for Kindle sales on Amazon for a mere $1,99 this month. Snatch it up!
ENHANCED, the follow-up to FLYING is here! And the books are out of this world. Please buy them and support a writer.
The last TIME STOPPERS BOOK is out and I love it. You should buy it because it’s empowering and about friendship and bias and magic. Plus, dragons and elves.
How to Get Signed Copies:
If you would like to purchase signed copies of my books, you can do so through the awesome Sherman’s Book Store in Bar Harbor, Maine or the amazing Briar Patch. The books are also available online at places like Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
For signed copies – email barharbor@shermans.com for Sherman’s or email info@briarpatchbooks.com and let them know the titles in which you are interested. There’s sometimes a waiting list, but they are the best option. Plus, you’re supporting an adorable local bookstore run by some really wonderful humans. But here’s the Amazon link, too!
Art Stuff
You can buy prints of my art here. Thank you so much for supporting my books and me and each other. I hope you have an amazing day.
A new episode of Dogs are Smarter Than People, the quirky podcast with writing tips, life tips and a random thought comes every Tuesday! Check it out, like and subscribe!
Share this if you want and also because it would be super nice of you!
Here’s our biggest tip for beginning writers. Ask yourself this question:
What makes a story memorable?
It’s change. It’s how the hero of the story enters that story with something broken inside them. All the things that have happened before your story starts – the back story – has set up the hero needing to achieve something or needing to change something inside of themselves.
ET was a movie about an alien, but the reason it was so amazing was because it was a movie about a family in pain, a family that needed to believe in magic and love again. ET gave them that.
So, when you’re writing your book, think about the backstory of your character, what it is that put her/him/them in this place and what they need to do to change themselves or their world.
That’s what the heart of a story is.
That’s what makes it memorable. The internal change.
Dog Tip for Life
Don’t be afraid to evolve. New places, new experiences, new life paths, are all ways to become something and someone better.
Writing Tips of the Pod
Have Fun – Don’t write unless you love it or can’t live without it
Remember That Your Characters and Their Journeys Matter
Cut out Extra Scenes
Don’t Try to Write Like Anyone Else
Edit Like A God – Cast out all that doesn’t belong
Don’t Worry About Being Successful – Worry about the story.
SHOUT OUT
The music we’ve clipped and shortened in this podcast is awesome and is made available through the Creative Commons License. Here’s a link to that and the artist’s website.Who is this artist and what is this song? It’s “Night Owl” by Broke For Free.
WRITING NEWS
I’m heading to Montreal this week and the Houston and Virginia Beach pretty soon to promote my picture book biography of Moe Berg. It’s called The Spy Who Played Baseball.
And I’ll be in Freeport, Maine September 28 as part of a Nerdy Evening of Kidlit writers!
ENHANCED, the follow-up to FLYING is here! And it’s out of this world.
If you would like to purchase signed copies of my books, you can do so through the awesome Sherman’s Book Store in Bar Harbor, Maine or the amazing Briar Patch. The books are also available online at places like Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
For signed copies – email barharbor@shermans.com for Sherman’s or email info@briarpatchbooks.comand let them know the titles in which you are interested. There’s sometimes a waiting list, but they are the best option. Plus, you’re supporting an adorable local bookstore run by some really wonderful humans. But here’s the Amazon link, too!
Art Stuff
You can buy prints of my art here. Thank you so much for supporting my books and me. I hope you have an amazing day.
Share this if you want and also because it would be super nice of you!
It’s the 1980s in Manchester, New Hampshire, and I was hanging out with my best friend, J, who had a terrific crush on Bruce Springsteen. While some people loved The Boss, J- was… she was a researcher. She knew random facts, not-so-random facts, stats, stories, everything.
She was an expert in all things Bruce.
And that was why we were hanging out on the back stairs of this run-down club in the bad part of Manchester. To be fair, this was not the only bad part of Manchester back then. It was sort of hard to find a good part of Manchester back then.
Inside the club was Nils Lofgren who was part of the E. Street Band and therefore super important to J. He was touring to support his solo album, Flip, I think, but honestly I don’t know. I was more into bands like The Alarm, The Waterboys, artists like Tracy Chapman and Kate Bush and the Q-Tips and Tuck and Patti.
Me = Always weird.
J really wanted to listen to Nils Lofgren play. Nils was a guy, way older than us. He was a guy with a guitar who sang gritty songs. He was a guy with a guitar who sang gritty guitars in grimy clubs and that was all that mattered to J. I went along for the ride because that’s what friends do.
The problem?
J’s mom wasn’t the kind of mom to let her hang out at a club that was 18 and up. Plus, we had no fake IDs. And if we had fake IDs, they still wouldn’t have worked because we looked like babies.
We were babies.
But we were super focused on hearing Nils play. If we could hear him, that would almost be like seeing him, right?
So, J. lied to her mom and said we were going to the high school football game. My mom dropped us off somewhere. J’s brother (who really was at the high school football game) saw us take-off and called his mom.
We didn’t know that though. We were too busy being ‘bad girls,’ sneaking up those back stairs and listening to Nils and his band.
“He knows Bruce,” J whispered.
“I know.”
“He’s so good. He’s so talented. Isn’t he?”
“Totally.”
She half fainted on the stairs. We could hear everything. Every hard drum beat, every guitar lick, every vocal, every bass line. It was … It was pretty freaking awesome, honestly.
And then the door opened and the owner of the club saw us. “What are you girls doing?”
“Listening.”
Listening.
Listening didn’t really encompass all we thought we were doing. We thought we were being rebels, live wires, Calamity’s children, free and crazy and suddenly cool because we were there – right there – where we weren’t supposed to be. But how do you tell that to a random club owner who is staring at you.
There was a break in the music and then we heard people talking.
What is it?
It’s girls.
What are they doing?
Listening?
They’re babies.
Let them be, man. Let them be.
These voices came to us like these mighty Greek gods, deciding our fate.
“Can we stay?” I asked finally brave.
“You can stay.”
I swear, J. almost fainted again. But the best part? The best part was that the club people propped open the door so we could hear better. And the other best part was when Nils proclaimed, “This one is for the girls on the back stairs.”
It was the 1980s in Manchester, New Hampshire and neither of us were cool, but we knew what good music sounded like and we were dimly aware that there was greatness in the walls of that grimy club that night, that the music world was amazing and eye-opening and bigger than us and for a second we got to be a part of it. We got to be the girls on the back stairs.
I always get in trouble with my handlers at book signings or after speaking events for Rotary and other things because I’m not fast at signing books or answering questions. Nils Lofgren is the reason for that. What was a throw-away moment for him resonated in my kid self forever. We were seen. We got to stay.
And that’s a big deal. When someone else listens and notices you? It’s huge. So, I hate rushing through signings or after events because I want to see people I’m interacting with, really see them for the time I get with them. That’s a gift, you know? And it’s a gift Nils Lofgren gave us.
And, yes, we got in trouble.
Writing News
ENHANCED PAPERBACK RELEASE!
This is the book that I forgot was coming out. I am so sorry, little book!
Carrie Jones, the New York Times bestselling author of Flying, presents another science fiction adventure of cheerleader-turned-alien-hunter Mana in Enhanced.
Seventeen-year-old Mana has found and rescued her mother, but her work isn’t done yet. Her mother may be out of alien hands, but she’s in a coma, unable to tell anyone what she knows.
Mana is ready to take action. The only problem? Nobody will let her. Lyle, her best friend and almost-boyfriend (for a minute there, anyway), seems to want nothing to do with hunting aliens, despite his love of Doctor Who. Bestie Seppie is so desperate to stay out of it, she’s actually leaving town. And her mom’s hot but arrogant alien-hunting partner, China, is ignoring Mana’s texts, cutting her out of the mission entirely.
They all know the alien threat won’t stay quiet for long. It’s up to Mana to fight her way back in.
“Witty dialogue and flawless action.”—VOYA “YA readers, you’re in for a treat this week. Hilarious and action-packed, this novel is sure to be the perfect summer read.”—Bookish
“Funny and playful, with a diverse cast of characters and a bit of romance and adventure, Flying is the perfect light summer read.”—BookPage
Order Your Copy:
Cough. That was pretty self-promotional, wasn’t it?
I made a video about copy editing my next book, co-written with Steve Wedel. It’s called IN THE WOODS and its scary self arrives in 2019. BUT HERE IS THE GOOFY VIDEO!
Our podcast DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN PEOPLE is still chugging along. Thanks to all of you who keep listening to our weirdness. We’re sorry we laugh so much… sort of.
The Final Time Stoppers Book
What is it? It’s the third TIME STOPPERS book! It’s also one of the reasons that I forgot about ENHANCED’s release.
Time Stopper Annie’s newfound home, the enchanted town Aurora, is in danger. The vicious Raiff will stop at nothing to steal the town’s magic, and Annie is the only one who can defeat him–even though it’s prophesied that she’ll “fall with evil.”
Alongside her loyal band of friends Eva, Bloom, SalGoud, and Jamie, who still isn’t quite sure whether he’s a troll or not, Annie journeys deep into the Raiff’s realm, the Badlands. The group will face everything from ruthless monsters to their own deepest fears. Can Annie find the courage to confront the Raiff and save everyone, even if it means making the ultimate sacrifice? What People are Saying About The Books:
“An imaginative blend of fantasy, whimsy, and suspense, with a charming cast of underdog characters . . . This new fantasy series will entice younger fans of Harry Potter and Percy Jackson.” – School Library Journal “The characters show welcome kindness and poignant insecurity, and the text sprinkles in humor . . . and an abundance of magical creatures.” – Kirkus Reviews
“An imaginative blend of fantasy, whimsy, and suspense, with a charming cast of underdog characters . . . This new fantasy series will entice younger fans of Harry Potter and Percy Jackson.” –School Library Journal How to Get Signed Copies:
If you would like to purchase signed copies of my books, you can do so through the awesome Sherman’s Book Store in Bar Harbor, Maine or the amazing Briar Patch. The books are also available online at places like Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
For signed copies – email barharbor@shermans.com for Sherman’s or email info@briarpatchbooks.com and let them know the titles in which you are interested. There’s sometimes a waiting list, but they are the best option. Plus, you’re supporting an adorable local bookstore run by some really wonderful humans. But here’s the Amazon link, too!
Share this if you want and also because it would be super nice of you!
So a couple of years ago, I went to Toronto to the INDIGO TEEN READS AWARDS, which were beyond awesome.
And I am traveling again to Book Expo America this week, so I’m rehashing how bad I am about these things.
FIRST PART OF CRAZINESS BEGINS NOW IN PRESENT TENSE EVEN THOUGH IT WAS AGES AGO
So I drive through the dark and fog to the Bangor, Maine airport. Thanks to the super MINI COOPER of AWESOME, I make it there alive despite all this crazy road construction and the fact that I’m technically still asleep because it’s before 6 a.m. Anyone who knows me understands that I am technically asleep at any time before noon. I may talk to you. I may drive a car. I may get on an airplane, but I am still asleep.
Bangor is the home of Stephen King. This is his house of awesome creepy gateness.
Bangor is also really cute and the airport is adorable. One guy flying into it said in this great Southern accent, “Good Lord, the airport is a double wide!”
The whole plane laughed.
But that was later.
For right now you have to imagine a sleep-zombie Carrie shuffling and smiling through the airport.
NOTE: I am genetically wired to smile all the time. I swear, it is a sickness.
So anyways, I shuffle in and go through TSA and their xray machines. I take out my laptop. I take off my shoes. I smile. I grab my stuff and I go.
I decide to go to the restroom so I can comb my hair because it’s all tangled and still kind of wet. Three minutes of trying to focus at the mirror and then I’m done. I shuffle outside. A TSA guy is coming round the corner.
He actually bounces up on his feet and points at me. “You!”
I stagger backwards and point at my heart. “Me?”
Another three guys come around corners and I think, “Oh my gosh! Am I some sort of high-powered terrorist and I didn’t even know? Is there a Carrie Jones out there who is on the no-fly list or something! Or maybe they actually noticed that my hair is still all wet and tangled and they don’t allow sleep zombies on the plane! Horror! Horror!”
But then I notice that one of the guys is holding my laptop like it’s a sacred object. He presents it to me saying, “You forgot this.”
And that is why the Bangor Airport is made of awesome. It’s awesome because the people in it are kind when you forget the only tool of your trade. It’s awesome because it’s not so massive and big that people forget you are human. It’s awesome because people know that being in an airport and out of your own comfort zone is a little scary sometimes and confusing sometimes and they don’t judge you for that; they almost love you for that.
I wish everywhere was like that.
I wish everyone was like those TSA guys.
I wish everyone had the privilege that I get because I am a really unthreatening white woman with a Muppet voice and whose default face is to smile at everyone.
But, yeah, I basically need a bodyguard so that she/he could:
Tell me when I’m about to forget my computer.
Tell me that the TSA agents are not coming after me because I’m getting in trouble.
Help me untangle my hair, honestly.
If you would like to see me in unsuitable clothes, check out Book Expo America on Friday, June 1 from 11:30 to noon. I’ll be there with a spy who was also a catcher. 🙂
WRITING NEWS
Yep, it’s the part of the blog where I talk about my books and projects because I am a writer for a living, which means I need people to review and buy my books or at least spread the word about them.
I’m super good at public image and marketing for nonprofits but I have a much harder time with marketing myself.
So, please buy one of my books. 🙂 The links about them are all up there in the header on top of the page on my website carriejonesbooks.blog . There are young adult series, middle grade fantasy series, stand-alones for young adults and even picture book biographies.
DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN PEOPLE
And finally, the podcast DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN PEOPLE is still chugging along. Thanks to all of you who keep listening to our weirdness. We’re sorry we laugh so much… sort of. There was a new episode yesterday all about weirdness, writing, living, and laughing too much while podcasting.
The podcast of awesome
DO GOOD WEDNESDAY
This website talks about state-level advocacy on immigration issues. You can get in touch with your state organizations and find out what you can do to help create the country you want.
Writers take ten years to get their first novel published, on average
The average children’s book writer makes 5k a year, if she’s lucky.
If you are a writer for a living, you will starve.
Some writers will sell you their books about how you can be a thriving artist versus a starving artist as if there is this dichotomy between the two, an either or situation.
Life isn’t that simple.
Here are the Three First Steps To Being A Writer, MADE AS SIMPLE AS POSSIBLE
You write the story you want to write.
You hone it and craft it until it’s the best story you can make it.
You send it to agents and editors or self publish it.
That’s it.
That’s how you become published.
You might make a ton of money. You might not. One book might make $500. One book might make $100,000.
It’s not the easiest thing to control, but what you can control is whether or not you’re lonely.
That you can battle.
You can create an in-person writing group or an online group, but if you are lonely in your writing life, YOU CAN ABSOLUTELY make friends, form a pack.
Writing Tip of the Pod
How do you form a writing group?
Here’s four easy steps:
Decide the goal of your writing group – Support? Accountability? Critique
Figure out when, where, and how often you want to meet.
Invite a few people. Three to five is a good starting number.
Find a way to communicate in between meetings that works for everyone. Facebook? Email? You get to decide.
Dog Tip for life
It’s okay to want a pack to roam with, to howl with.
Share this if you want and also because it would be super nice of you!
