A.G. Henley, Author

Category: Blog

  • I’m a Divine Deity

    English: Statu of Deity Durga
    English: Statu of Deity Durga (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

     

    I’m pretty excited to attend the second annual utopYA Con the last weekend in June in Nashville. I was invited to be a panelist, but I’m just as psyched about attending the other panels. They will be chock full of successful Indie authors and publishing pros presenting invaluable information from both the craft and business sides of writing and self-publishing. All you writers (or fans of paranormal YA): I’d love to meet up with you there!

    In the meantime, D.B. Graves wrote a blog post highlighting one of the panels I will be on. It’s about how we authors build worlds that (hopefully) draw readers in as inevitably as a favorite character or unique plot. Check it out –

    http://utopyacon.com/divinedeities/

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  • Release Week and Guest Post: Finding Favor by Lana Long

    Release Week and Guest Post: Finding Favor by Lana Long

    I’m so excited to welcome debut author Lana Long for the release of her YA novel, Finding Favor. Lana and I were in a now defunct critique group together. I was revising The Scourge, and she was working on Finding Favor. She gave me wonderful feedback and insight as I revised, and I looked forward to every new installment of Finding Favor. It’s a retelling of Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park, a book and author that I love. I’m thrilled that FF is finally ready for release, and I can’t wait to read it in its final form.

    Lana is here with a guest post on why she loves Jane Austen. Please check out Finding Favor – it’s only 99 cent this week!

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    Which would you choose:  friendship or freedom?

    In the eight years since seventeen-year-old Favor Miller’s father died, she’s had to endure her reluctant, self-righteous guardians the Browns. Every day for eight years, they’ve reminded her that she doesn’t fit in, that she’s not one of them. Every day for eight years, she’s eagerly awaited the day when she’ll finally be free to live her life her way.

    On the eve of high school graduation, Mr. Brown ambushes Favor with the offer of college funding and a to-die-for summer internship–with the one stipulation that she must discontinue her friendship with his son, Ethan.

    Accustomed as she is to sharing everything with her best friend, this is one secret Favor must keep in order to protect Ethan. The distraction of his new girlfriend, her growing friendship with his older brother, and her need to understand her family history, add in further complications.

    As Favor debates signing the contract, she must decide if she’s willing to give up her best friend in order to pursue her dreams.  Will she have to stay in the place she’s so desperately wanted to escape in order to make the right decision and get what she really needs?

    ***

    Finding Favor is priced at just 99 cents as part of its special launch week sale. Pick up your copy on either Amazon US or Amazon UK now, and don’t forget to stop by and participate in the special release week contests.

    Our big launch week prize basket includes:   Journal with a cover inspired by Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park (as is this novel), note cards with an orchid design (Favor’s favorite flower), a hard cover edition of To Kill a Mockingbird (Ethan’s favorite book), and a cool pen (who doesn’t love cool pens?). CLICK HERE NOW TO ENTER!

    ***

    Why I Love Jane Austen by Lana Long

    I can sum it up in one word: escapism.  Don’t get me wrong; I enjoy reading books that deal with hard-hitting issues—issues that are real and difficult—but for the most part watching one nightly newscast can provide enough reality to last a few weeks. When it’s late at night, the kids are sleeping, the dog is sleeping, the husband is sleeping, everything is real quiet and the day’s activities are slipping into memory, I want to spend my last waking minutes in a world that’s interesting, satisfying, and nice.

    That is why I love Jane Austen.

    The social propriety of Austen’s works fascinates me. All of Austen’s novels struggle with the hierarchy of society.  In Pride and Prejudice, Darcy fights his feelings for Elizabeth because she’s not quite up to his social standing. In Persuasion, Anne pines for her lost love because she allowed her family to convince her that Wentworth isn’t good enough. In Sense and Sensibility, Willoughby leaves Marianne when the risk of lost fortune becomes all too real. Willoughby is not a hero, and in the end Marianne comes to see that love doesn’t need to burn bright and hot to be real. Society tries to deflate these characters, tries to ruin their chances at happiness, but they fight through it and come out stronger, better off, and at peace. All except Willoughby, but that lout deserves what he gets.

    That is why I love Jane Austen.

    The physical world of Austen’s novels is like a mythical place to me after growing up in the 20th century western United States. In Austen’s world, people live in houses the size of apartment buildings. They travel by coach, horseback, or they walk. If they’re wealthy enough, they summer in the country, winter in London, and vacation or convalesce in Bath. Servants take care of the family (don’t insinuate to Mrs. Bennett that she can’t afford a cook), drive them from place to place, work the land, and take care of the estate. Quaint villages and abbeys sustain small communities. Without wealth, people become isolated in their communities due to the time and cost to travel from one place to another. The characters in Austen’s novels—affluent or not—find ways to traverse this world and allow the reader to glimpse the countryside, the city and everything in between at the dawn of the nineteenth century in England.

    That is why I love Jane Austen.

    In Austen’s novels, the family structure and the roles of men and women are so foreign but at the same time so simple. What would it be like to spend all day sewing, playing the piano, reading, drawing, or walking in the garden? At the same time the women find themselves helpless because they aren’t allowed to learn anything besides these activities. In Sense and Sensibility, Elinor is powerless to find a way to care for her sisters and mother after her half-brother inherits her father’s estate and doesn’t care for his sisters as promised. Emma‘s friends, the Bates, live off kindness and a small living, because Miss Bates never married and her father is deceased. It’s not necessarily easier for the men. If you’re not the oldest son your choices are limited to clergy, military or another profession deemed acceptable by the gentry.  Still, these people fight against the rules of gender and birth order. They are funny, kind, caring… frustrating and irritating, but they are always likeable and I cheer their success and mourn their losses, even Emma. And most of all, there’s a happy ending; our heroines and their friends find love and peace, and their foes find discomfort and an unfulfilling future.

    That is why I love Jane Austen.

    So why did I choose Mansfield Park for an adaptation out of all the Austen works? First, it’s a great story. The story is of Fanny Price, a young girl, coming of age away from her immediate family, who is too poor to rear all of their offspring. Fanny is required to uphold expectations set upon her by her caregivers, her wealthy aunt and uncle, but she is never to be rewarded for living up to those expectations because her true parentage is lowly. She’s in love with a boy, her best friend, who’s falling in love with someone else and by all of society’s rules unattainable even if he was available. The story felt ripe for a modern Young Adult novel.

    That is why I love Jane Austen.

    Second, well, I hadn’t seen Mansfield Park retold. It would take your hands, my hands and twenty of our closest friends to count the number of times Pride and Prejudice has been adapted. I’m not complaining; I love it. Other Austen works need the opportunity to be discovered through modern retellings as well. As a teenager I read Emma because of the movie Clueless.  Jane Austen’s been gone for almost 200 years and we still read her novels and draw inspiration from them because they are truly great stories.

    And that is why I love Jane Austen.

    About Lana Long

    As a devoted fan of young adult novels herself, Lana Long is thrilled to be gracing the YA world with her first novel, Finding Favor. Many years of daydreaming and several writing classes and workshops have contributed to the development of Finding Favor as well as to her inevitable future books. Through her experiences at Lighthouse Writers in Denver, the Big Sur Writing Workshop in California, and the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Colorado Gold Conference, she has learned an amazing amount about writing novels.

    Although writing serves as a relaxing process, Lana is also grounded by her family, by her work as a church treasurer, and by volunteering at her kids’ elementary school.

    She hopes that her books provide readers with the same entertainment she herself finds in YA novels. If you enjoy a good coming-of-age story featuring enthralling characters, check out Finding Favor and read more of Lana’s thoughts at www.lanalongbooks.com.

    Some Links:

    Amazon US:  http://amzn.com/B00CC21EFY

    Amazon UK:  http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00CC21EFY

    GoodReads:  http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17703428-finding-favor

    Lana’s Website: http://lanalongbooks.com/

    Lana’s Facebook Page:  https://www.facebook.com/pages/Lana-Long-Books/398519216911767?fref=ts

  • Cover Reveal: Secret for a Song by Adriana Ryan

    If you’ve been hanging around my blog for a while you may remember I hosted a cover reveal for World and Shell and Bone for my writing buddy Adriana Ryan back in December. Well she’s at it again, this time with Secret for a Song. Both novels technically fall into the New Adult category, an up-and-coming genre that typically have protagonists in the 18 to mid-20s age range. Secret for a Song features a main character with some serious psychological issues—fun for me!—and will be released in June 2013. Check it out!

    Blank white book w/pathSaylor Grayson makes herself sick. Literally.

    She  ate her first needle when she was seven. Now, at nineteen, she’s been kicked out of college for poisoning herself with laxatives. The shrinks call it Munchausen Syndrome. All Saylor knows is that when she’s ill, her normally distant mother pays attention and the doctors and nurses make her feel special.

    Then she meets Drew Dean, the leader of a local support group for those with terminal diseases. When he mistakes her for a new member, Saylor knows she should correct him. But she can’t bring herself to, not after she’s welcomed into a new circle of friends. Friends who, like Drew, all have illnesses ready to claim their independence or their lives.

    For the first time, Saylor finds out what it feels like to be in love, to have friends who genuinely care about her. But secrets have a way of revealing themselves. What will happen when Saylor’s is out?

     

     

    AdrianaRyan2A huge fan of spooky stuff and shoes, Adriana Ryan enjoys alternately hitting up the outlet malls and historic graveyards in Charleston, SC where she lives and imbibes coffee. Her husband and two small children seem not to mind when she hastily scribbles novel lines on stray limbs in the absence of notepads.

     

     

     

    Website: http://www.adrianaryan.com

    Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AuthorAdrianaRyan

    Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/adrianaryansc

    Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/adrianaryan

     

  • Big Sur Writing Workshop 2013

    I took a week  to collect my thoughts before writing this post on my experiences at the Big Sur Writing Workshop which ran 3/1 to 3/3. I wanted to compose a clear-headed, fair and balanced assessment of the pros and cons of attending. But then I decided, nah. I’ll just tell it like it is. Y’all, it was freaking GREAT. All you writers of children’s literature out there must try to go. I’m using the word must here. (And try, because it can get expensive.)

    My weekend started out on a high note when I flew into San Jose and met with my wonderful agent, Caryn Wiseman. We met at a Starbucks and chatted about many things literary, surrounded by men in suits who rolled out of offices with names like Apple, Google, and eBay. The hour flew by too quickly. I’m so glad we had the chance to get together.

    Next I drove up to the Oakland Hills to stay with some old friends, Heather and Doug. What do you get when you put three psychologists in a house together and shake? Yeah, I don’t know either. Anyway, it was so good to see them. They were thoughtful hosts and we had a good time, but it was hard to concentrate on the conversation with the mind-boggling view of the San Francisco Bay from their lovely home. Here are a few shots taken on their balcony:

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    Spectacular, no? And here’s a picture of one of their cats, A.J. He sleeps in a bowl.

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    After a leisurely breakfast with Heather, I headed down to check in to the hotel for the workshop. Big Sur Writing Workshop is kind of a misnomer. Every other time that ABLA (Andrea Brown Literary Agency) and the Henry Miller Library co-host the workshop, it’s held in Seaside/Monterey, California. So the workshop was not in Big Sur, but no matter. I had a nice view of the ocean from my room, which was pretty exciting for a land-locked Coloradan. I didn’t actually get near the ocean until Sunday though, because let me tell you, it was called a work-shop for a reason.

    Friday afternoon I met with my first critique group. The groups were blessedly small – four or five writers and a faculty member. We each had about 20-25 minutes to read and discuss pages from our manuscripts. The other writers in my group were talented and gave insightful feedback, as did our faculty member, Alyson Heller, an editor with Simon and Schuster. Alyson was super nice to boot. My group told me what I needed (not really wanted) to hear: that the first chapter of The Scourge sequel should be shredded and rewritten. I tackled the revisions until 2 AM that night, and was thrilled with the result. More on that later.

    Friday evening brought a cocktail hour with the whole group, then dinner. This was a good time to meet and talk informally with the faculty: published children’s authors, editors, and ABLA agents. For the attendees who hoped to make a love match with an agent, it was an incredible opportunity to interact with them on a personal level. For myself, I thoroughly enjoyed talking with so many people who were passionate about writing for children and teens.

    Saturday morning arrived. I was tired after my marathon revision session Friday night, but excited to meet with my second critique group. I have to say, this group was the highlight of my weekend. Our faculty member was an amazing middle grade author named Anne Ylvisaker. I was struck by her laser-like focus on the strengths and weaknesses of each person’s submission, and her kind and thoughtful feedback. She pointed us in a direction for our revisions, and to top it all off, she had dark chocolate for us. A wise, wise woman.

    Then there was the experience of reading my work. Over a year ago I had an idea for a book unrelated to The Scourge world. Whenever I get such ideas, I try to sit down and write the first chapter to see if I’m still excited about it after blurting some words into the computer. I really loved this first chapter, but I set it aside while I focused on writing and revising The Scourge sequel. At Caryn’s urging, I decided to dust it off, polish it up, and submit it to my group to see how it was received. Well. It was a magical moment, reading that chapter out loud and discovering that it hit the mark. Anne gave me the advice that her mentor once gave her; she told me to go write that book. So I am, along with continuing to lovingly shape and shepherd The Scourge sequel to its release day. It’s deeply exciting to have a new world to develop and dive into, and a fresh, fascinating protagonist to put through her paces.

    After the second critique group there was a group pitch session with an agent. I was with agents Laura Rennart and Lara Perkins, who were both delightful. It was enlightening to learn the recipe of a good pitch, and that an author’s pitch to an agent is much the same as an agent’s pitch to an editor at a publishing house. After lunch we had a few hours to write and revise, then we met with our first critique group again. I was so excited that my group approved of my revisions of the first chapter of the sequel, especially as I was half-asleep in frog pajamas for the last hour of working on them! Saturday night ended with dinner and a question and answer session with the group of editors on faculty.

    Sunday morning we met with our second critique group again. We could submit new material, like a second chapter, or present our revised material. I chose to keep reading the next couple of scenes I’d written for the new book. I learned that reading aloud is a treat, and more educational than I knew. I could see for myself the parts where my audience was particularly wrapped up in the story, or when they started to fidget. I could hear the passages that flowed smoothly, and those that clunked and bumped, begging to either be polished or removed. This second meeting cemented my decision to follow Anne’s advice and make this my next project.

    An informative panel with the agents wrapped up the workshop. I’d happened to ask Anne, who lives in the area, what I should see in the few hours I had until I needed to drive back to the airport to fly home. Kind soul that she is, she invited me to come along for lunch and a trip to Cannery Row (of Steinbeck fame) and the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Here are a few pics of our afternoon:

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    Stormy Asilomar Beach

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    Hard to spot Harbor Seals

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    Find the seahorse!

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    So, we’re cheating death now, that’s what we’re doing, and we’re having fun at the same time. (If you have children under the age of ten, or you are under the age of ten, chances are you can guess the film that quote comes from. Eat my bubbles!)

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    Yep, that’s me and Monterey Bay. The sun wasn’t in a helpful spot.

    That was my weekend in a nutshell. Or a clamshell. Some kind of shell. I got to do a little exploring in Northern California, met some fantastic writers, editors, and agents, thoroughly revised the pesky and yet all-important first chapter of the sequel, and settled on my next project. What more could I ask from one weekend? And yet somehow there was more.

    I wrote Anne to thank her for showing me around, and asked if she would be willing to mentor me in my writing. I have wonderful critique partners and writing buddies, but I don’t have a relationship with anyone much further down the writing path to turn to when I have questions or to help me develop my craft. I can’t think of anyone else I’d like more to “walk alongside me in this journey” as Anne put it. I was so gratified when she agreed.

    Big Sur was all about making connections with other writers and professionals in the publishing industry, and making improvements in my work. if you write anything from picture books to YA, and you’re thinking about attending a writing workshop, please consider going. You won’t regret it.

  • You, too, Can Focus@Will

     

    Have you ever really needed to concentrate at work so you turned on music, only to find yourself moving to the groove or looking up the lyrics to songs instead of working? No? It must just be me.

    I typically listen to Pandora or Spotify while writing, but sometimes (often) the music distracts me instead of getting me into the mood of the scene or helping me focus. A commenter on a post about music at Writer Unboxed (a great website to follow for you writers out there. Thanks, Katie French, for turning me on to it) said they were beta testing a new music website called Focus@Will (www.focus@will.com). It’s a free service that plays only music specifically chosen to help those of us, like writers, journalists, lawyers, students, and coders, who spend long, uninterrupted hours at the computer doing work that takes concentration and focus.

    A self described “cognitive enhancement company,” Focus@Will uses “artificial intelligence to deliver you the perfect playlist that gets you and keeps you in the concentration sweet spot, based on what you are doing.” According to their website, the service was designed with brain science in mind (so to speak) to play “certain music tracks in specific sequences that are proven to soothe the limbic system (the fight or flight survival mechanism in the brain) . . . allowing you to concentrate more fully on what you are trying to do.” They claim their curated music lists can help you concentrate for up to 100 minutes before you need a break.

    I’ve been beta testing Focus@Will for about two weeks now. It was easy to sign up, and very easy to start using. There are several musical “genres” you can choose from and change at any time, like classical, ambient, up tempo (which is still pretty mellow), or cinematic (my fav for writing.) They each play a bit different sequence of music, but one thing is constant. No singing or talking. Instrumental only. And I have to say I think the idea works as advertised. I concentrate better while writing with Focus@Will on in the background.

    I follow their advice and only turn their music on when I’m ready to work. This supposedly trains my brain that this music = get to work. If I’m going to check email or jump on Twitter or Facebook or anything else, I turn it off. I also try to take breaks whenever I find my concentration drifting or when the laundry needs changing, whichever comes first. In addition, they recommend that you “teach” the system which tracks are not working for you. If you notice a track (that is, it distracts you by catching your attention) then you should click the Skip button. I haven’t done much of that, because I haven’t found many of the tracks very distracting.

    If I have one complaint, it’s that the music is not terribly varied. If I notice particular tracks, it’s usually because I’m sick of hearing them repeated. But they apparently use a sequence of music on purpose, so your brain recognizes the sequence and stays on task instead of chasing off into the fields to follow its nose.

    A paid service is coming soon, so hop over and check out the free beta now if you’re interested. I don’t know if I’d be willing to pay for it, but for now I’m enjoying focusing@will.

    Do you have other suggestions for good writing music services/websites, or other methods you use to stay focused?

  • Have Another Mint on Me

    shrimp-heads-dau-tom
    shrimp-heads-dau-tom (Photo credit: Phú Thịnh Co)

    Something very cool happened tonight. I was eating at Wahoo’s Fish Taco with my children, a few friends, and their children. (I had the shrimp bowl with brown rice and Cajun beans, in case you were wondering. It was tasty.) I’d just taken a rather uncooperative bite when I noticed a boy with a wide smile chock full of braces standing in front of me. He obviously didn’t want to interrupt.

    I know him – he goes to my daughter’s school. I said hello after chewing, and hopefully swallowing, most of my bite of shrimp and rice. He asked if I wrote THE SCOURGE? I said I did. He said he read it and really liked it. I said thank you (I wanted to give him a big hug and a bigger THANK YOU, but grabbing other people’s children in restaurants is generally frowned upon). He called over a friend, who said she also read it. And they asked when Book 2 would be ready to read. I slid my laptop up out of my bag where it usually runs to hide after hours of me pounding on it. “It’s right here!” I said, “. . . but it’s not ready yet.” I’m not sure which of us looked more disappointed.

    The children wandered away with more important things on their minds, like raiding the giant bowl of Starlight mints again. But they gave me a gift I’ll cherish. I’ve heard from many of my wonderful readers since I published THE SCOURGE, but not often in person. And because THE SCOURGE is only an e-book right now, and because most children and teens don’t have access to e-readers, not many of those readers have been under the age of 18. To hear, in person, from the young horse’s silver-shod mouth that my book was appreciated, was a special moment.

    So, thanks, kiddos, for reading Book 1 and for anticipating Book 2. Have another mint on me.