New website and blog

Hi internet friends and assorted peoples,

I just wanted to let everyone know who has possibly come across this site that I am no longer very active on it (well...duh) and have created a new website and blog!

So please, if you are curious and want to make friends and chat books and social work and all that good stuff, come on over to karalucasauthor.com, because that's where I'll be.

Happy writing, happy reading, and I hope to connect with you very soon!

Love,

Kara

7-7-7 Challenge

The 7-7-7- Challenge



So I am notorious for not being the best blogger in the world, but for like the tenth time, my good buddy Lora Rivera challenged me to one of those tag-now-you're-it type of blog posts.

But this one intrigued me, to be sure. I hope you guys are as intrigued as I am! Here are the rules:

Flip to page 77 of your current WIP.

Find line 7.

Post the 7 sentences that follow.

Tag 7 more writers. The writers I chose are some new, some old Twitter friends. My seven writers are:

Lora Rivera

Amber Plante

Meredith Booey

Anne Hale

Kasie West

Editor Su

I hope you take part (it doesn't take long, I promise!), because I can't wait to see what others have written.


Page 77, line 7, and the 7 sentences that follow:


Caleb’s eyes never left mine. “Apparently I’m going to the Winter Formal.”
His face remained steady and placid, but my heart lurched as I made my face indifferent.

“Oh?” I said casually. “Who’s the lucky girl?”

Aidan broke in. “Come on, you can’t guess? Who likes our boy, here? Who’s been chasing him since he came to this school? Jenny Morgensten,” he finished, looking pleased with himself. “I set it all up.”

“That’s right,” Caleb said, slow and even. “Aidan set it all up. Isn’t that great?”

Ugh. First draft, people--be kind!
Now, I can't wait to see other people's 777 offerings...

Cheers!

10 Things I do Differently as a Writer

I was thinking the other day, as I was reading a book, that even if I never wrote another word of prose ever again, that it's too late--I am already in too deep, that the thought process of being a writer has absorbed too completely into my pores. For example: 1. When I get a new book, the first thing I do is read the Acknowledgments page to see who the author's agent is (and whether or not I ever queried them!) 2. I can't stop mentally correcting people's grammar... (sorry Facebook friends, but you're means YOU ARE and your means, well...your. Also a lot is NOT spelled alot. Sigh) 3. When I read,and come across a phrase or description I admire, I jot it down on a notebook for future writing reference. 4. I stalk publishing houses (wondering if they'd be good fit for my book) like other people lurk on Match.com... 5. When I drive, I have little Post-its handy so I can jot down good dialogue that comes into my mind at stoplights. 6. I read for work, not just pleasure. 7. I can't watch a movie without looking for things like these: conflict, thematic imagery, act one,act two, climax, etc... . 8. I always think the book is better than the movie. 9. Instead of telling my husband, "Not tonight, honey. I have a headache," I say, "Not tonight--I haven't met my word count yet!" 10. And finally, instead of dreaming of winning the lottery, I dream of seeing my book on a bookstore shelf. ...What are your top ten?

Words Connect Us

. Christmas Eve always makes me think of people who are lonely, without friends and family to share the holiday with. I wish I could gather them all up and make them not so lonely. I wish I could do more. But I was thinking, that as a writer, we do something remarkable, whenever we write something, or read a work from another author. We connect. And even though I may be reading, or writing, alone--I am connecting to the people who are reading my book, and the people whose books I am reading. It is amazing and profound, really, how books connect us. And that, I think, is what the human experience is all about. Connecting. Learning and growing. And ultimately, loving. Merry Christmas, everyone. And I wish you all much success in the New Year.

Casting Crowns: I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day

Quote of the Day

Source: etsy.com via Kara on Pinterest

Help Stop Child Abuse

Everthing I Ever Needed to Know About Writing I Learned from "Annie"

As some of you may know, I have a daughter intested in musical theater, and it's been fun watching her perform and grow as an actress. She was recently cast as Tessie in Annie, and she just got through her first week of rehearsals. Sitting there, listening to them practice, got me thinking about how... everything I really ever needed to know about writing could be learned from Annie.

1. It's a Hard Knock Life A writer's life is not easy. Climb a mountain, slide down a hill. Rejection, rejection, rejection. Like the orphans in Annie, we have to be scrappy, tenacious people who won't let the fact we're orphans (er...un-published writers) get us down!

2. Tomorrow A writer that keeps on going is one who continues to have hope. We have to believe that the sun will come out tomorrow, and that one day, the time, sweat, and tears we spend at the computer will result in our dreams: our book being published.

3. Maybe And then, along the way, we'll get a glimmer of hope: a request for a partial, or a full, or an offer from an agent. And a little further down, we'll get that manuscript out to editors, and we'll start thinking that maybe, just maybe, that one editor will want to buy our book!

4. Easy Street After much perserverance, patience, determination, the time will come, yes it will, that all that hard work pays off. We will hold that little book in our hands, and it will feel like...

Hang in there, everyone! Have a great Monday!

Write your Passion

"No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader." ~Robert Frost

When I was learning the craft of writing, I kept hearing how you should write what are you passionate about.  As an adoptions social worker, I am passionate about helping kids in the foster care system, kids who are available for adoption, and kids who are neglected or abused. So in hindsight, it came as no great surprise, that the first book I wrote and sought an agent for, (and the first book currently on submission) is FINDING PONY, about a teen guy and his sister who eventually get adopted.

There are over 500,000 orphans currently in the United States. Africa has the largest orphan population in the world, and with AIDS, that number is always rising. November is Adoption Awareness Month, and November 4th is Orphan Sunday. If you've always thought about fostering or adopting, think about it again. The need is so great. If you want to help but can't adopt or foster, consider volunteering, donating, or just getting involved.

They're counting on us.

Best. Book. Ever.

My first grader is learning to read, and we've had sooo...much fun with this book! It just cracks me up every time we read with her. It's the same retro pictures that everyone remembers from kindergarten, except with vampires.

Clare loves learning to read with this book, except for the one night she woke up with a bad dream. Guess what it was about?

For Writers: 8 Tips to Control Depression

Have you ever suffered through depression?

It is widely known that many famous writers (and for that matter, many creative types) have suffered from depression. Here is a small sampling: Hans Christian Anderson, Mark Twain, Robert Frost, Charles Dickens, Ralph Walso Emerson, James Barrie, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Mary Shelley, Tennessee Williams,and Virginia Woolfe.

I myself have struggled with depression on and off throughout my life, and I think that it has a lot to do with having a very strong inner life. I think about things...almost too much. I worry, I analyze. Also, even though I am not shy and can appear very extroverted, at my very core I'm an introvert. That means that being alone gives me energy, while being around people too much can deplete me. Discovering this small fact about myself has been a watershed moment, and knowing I need time alone from time to time to recharge has helped me accept who I am, and thrive, as a writer, mom, wife, social worker, person.

Here are some tips I have picked up over the years to help you combat occasional depression:

1. Exercise every day Exercising for 20 minutes or more every day produces natural endorphins and immediately perks up your mood.

2. Pray or meditate Praying, meditating, practicing slow breathing--just 20 minutes a day can bring stress relief and boost your mood.

3. Get some sleep! Most Americans are chronically overtired, and when we are tired, we can feel overwhelmed or depressed. If you have to, power nap for twenty minutes or catch up on sleep during the weekends.

4. Get daily sunlight. Some people get seasonal depression, also known as S.A.D. (Seasonal Affective Disorder) due to lack of sunlight in the winter months. This is expecially my problem, when, living in an area that gets tons of fog in the winter, I can feel moody from lack of sunlight. Exercise can help combat this, and if you are really sensitive to the lack of sunlight, getting a sun lamp can help.

5. Make sure you are getting enough Omega-3 Fatty Acids and B complex. Apparently, most Americans don't get enough of our Omega 3s. Omega 3-Fatty Acids are found in such foods such as salmon and flax seed. There have been blind studies in which depressed people were fed so many ounces of salmon each day, and it helped their depression as much as people taking anti-depressants! I take flax-seed oil capsules every day (it's great for your skin, too), and try to feed my family salmon at least once a week. You can also buy ground flax seed at Costco, and use it in baking, in place of eggs or oil.

6. Talk to someone. Writers can spend an entire day sitting in front of their computer, and this can lead to periods of isolation and lonliness. Sometimes Twitter can help, oftentimes picking up the phone and calling someone can help, and other times, we just need to step away from the computer and have lunch with a friend. Everyone has their balance of how much time alone (and with our characters!) we really need.

7. Get help. If you are having thoughts of harming yourself, or you are not able to take care of your basic needs, you might need to go to the next level and see your doctor. Maybe counseling might help. I know that when I had a really bad case of postpartum depression after my third child, it was a few months of counseling with a caring psychologist which really helped me get back on track. Now, if I'm having a bad day, I run through this checklist, and make sure I am doing everything I need to do. Chances are, if I'm feeling bad, it's because I am neglecting one of the checkpoints.

8. Celebrate who you are. If you do get depression from time to time, revel in the fact that we are in really good company! Being creative means that we feel more, see the world more vibrantly, and are more sensitive. It's a gift, but one that needs to be nurtured and cared for.

Passion, Naps, and Jane Austen

Wow, I haven't been around very much on this blog. Sorry! Life has been getting in the way, alas. On a good note, I had been really having a hard time getting into my new WIP. I'd been switching between three projects I'd been working on, a little bit here, a little bit there. Every page felt forced while I was writing. Can anyone relate? Ugh. Such an awful feeling.

One day, I was racking my brain about what was important to me, and what would be important in a book I write.

--Issue-driven fiction for one. Especially topics concerning teens in foster care, kids suffering abuse, kids who are marginalized.
--Romance, number two (good kissing scenes!).
--Passion, three. And watching characters overcome large personal obstacles. I thought long and hard about the books most beloved to me, the stories that I held most dear, some being: each and every Jane Austen masterpiece, Wuthering Heights, Les Miserables, The Lord of the Rings triology.

And then, I promptly took a nap. When I woke up, I came up with the best idea I've had yet and can't stop writing about it. (so exciting) I'm not going to say anything just yet, but here are some hints: it's YA, it's a love story about a boy and girl who have been friends since childhood, and to describe it, at this point, I'd say it's a mash up of Peter Pan meets Romeo and Juliet meets Wuthering Heights meets The Outsiders.

Confused yet? Hopefully more later.

In the meantime, enjoy this old promo for The Complete Jane Austen put on by PBS a few years back. If these guys don't get your heart pumping, then I don't know what else will!

Friday Read~Ghost Island by Bonnie Hearn Hill

My good friend and mentor, Bonnie Hearn Hill recently came out with a new YA paranormal, Ghost Island. Here is a quick description about this book:

Is Aaron a dream or something much more deadly?


Livia Hinson has just begun a Seminar at Sea when a storm hits their yacht. Now, she is stranded with the other students on an island off the coast of California. Far away from her foster home and her heartbreak, Livia finds Aaron, the perfect love. But the only way they can be together is in her dreams.

The other students are having tempting dreams of their own, and Livia begins to realize that the storm has blown in more than rain. Is Aaron flesh or spirit? Can he come to her world, or will he pull her into his? Together, they explore the blurred territory between love and illusion on a dangerous journey that will force Livia to make the most important decision of her life.
 
I read this book very quickly, it was very fast paced and creepy. It had a very eerie quality about it, and reminded me of those horror movies that were so popular in the 80's and 90's. In fact, the whole time I read the book, I kept thinking that it would make a good movie.
 
The love interest Aaron is very romantic and left me wanting to know more about him. Ms. Hill leaves the ending somewhat open, so I'm thinking... sequel?
 
Ghost Island is a great pick for fall, especially if you like to read scary books around Halloween. Enjoy!

BONNIENEWTRAILER2.mp4

Summer Lovin'~Quick Book Review of The Summer I Turned Pretty



I just came from a trip to the beach, and did not write one bit, except for a shopping list, a few short poems, and drew a few mermaids for my daughter, Lucie. But it was not time wasted.  I read three books, had great family time, and despite not writing, found that I got inspiration near about everywhere, and ideas for future books, and characters for my current WIP.

I had the pleasure of reading, among others, The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han.

What a treat! If you haven't read it, surely pick it up, it's the story of Belly (sorry, Jenny Han, I wasn't a huge fan of her nickname, I must admit), and it focuses on one summer of a young girl's life where she makes that very subtle transition from girl to woman, and is (for the first time), truly noticed by members of the opposite sex.

Because I am lazy, here is the synopsis from Goodreads:

Belly measures her life in summers. Everything good, everything magical happens between the months of June and August. Winters are simply a time to count the weeks until the next summer, a place away from the beach house, away from Susannah, and most importantly, away from Jeremiah and Conrad. They are the boys that Belly has known since her very first summer--they have been her brother figures, her crushes, and everything in between. But one summer, one terrible and wonderful summer, the more everything changes, the more it all ends up just the way it should have been all along.

I highly recommend this book--it was the perfect book to take to the beach, and it really took me back to that first summer that I had my first kiss...

I was fourteen, and it was the summer between freshman and sophomore year. Inexplicably (in my mind), a sophomore guy on the swim team named Dean Schiller (and was a complete clone of Kevin Bacon with a mild case of acne), made it known through the high school grape vine that he liked me. I was stunned, because he had dated the cute girls, and I had never thought of myself as one. One summer night, he walked me to a senior's house (story told to my mom: we were walking to the yogurt store), for a real live party. With drinking. And seniors. And...cue panic attack.

When it was time to go home (you know, from the yogurt store....) he pulled me outside and swooped in for the kiss (cue orchestral music). Except...in my naive, never-been-kissed, how-on-earth-was-I-so-sheltered mind, I thought you kissed with your mouths closed, and lo and behold was stunned beyond belief when all of a sudden I felt something warm and slimy in my mouth and to my utter disgust realized it was his tongue! Needless to say, I covered up my shock pretty well (and later learned to, uh...enjoy kissing as the years wore on), however once safely home, I made sure to wash out my mouth multiple times with mouthwash, completely grossed out by the most obvious spreading of germs.

Anyway. Ha.

 Completely true story there, and it still makes me laugh, even to this day.

So, I'd love to know, if anyone's reading this out there, what was your first kiss story? Best summer romance? Come on, summer is almost over, I'd love to hear some good ones, before it's just another memory.

All I Ever Needed to Know about Writing a Book I Learned from Les Miz

It has been a very eventful summer, I must say. I have succeeded at one of my many goals of motherhood: I have gotten at least one of my children hooked on musical theater. My oldest daughter, Kateri was in her first play this summer, Cinderella (best mouse evah!), and has caught the acting bug. As a former theater kid and proud patron of the arts, I love it.

We had some friends in the local 15-20 year old production of Les Miserables, and just came from an amazingly talented, heart wrenching performance. I swear, I've seen this muscial several times: once in London, twice in Los Angeles, two locally, but it never gets tiring. Never. I was a wreck--cried on and off throughout.

Well, I got to thinking, while watching this play, what is it about Les Miz that brings people back again and again? On the way home, I decided there are seven things that we can learn from Les Miz to make our stories stronger:

1. Have a theme, and string it throughout Les Miz has several themes woven throughout: the quest for freedom, the quest for love, social injustice, the goodness versus the evilness of humanity. And since it's a musical, the acutal melodies are interwoven and echoed throughout in the different numbers. This ties the whole musical together, and in the same way, themes can tie your book together. In the beginning of Les Miz, we see the people unempowered by the injustices of their life. At the end, we see the people unified, despite the fact that they lost the battle. The layering of the themes strengthened the story.

2. Have lots of highs and lows A good story like Les Miz (and hopefully our own works in progress!) had lots of highs and lows. We are never kept guessing, and we are never dull. In one scene, Cosette and Marius have declared their love, then seconds later, Epinone is crying her eyes out for her unrequited love, and at the same time, the bad guys are trying to raid Cosette and Jean Valjean's house. Lots of action makes for a great plot.

3. Conflict, conflict, and more conflict I know I struggle with this one, because in real life, conflict makes me uncomfortable and I don't like it. But when I don't read about conflict on the page, I get bored, fast. When Marius joins his friends at the ABC cafe to talk about the revolution, he has just met Cosette, and has fallen in love. The last thing he wants to do is talk about some stupid war, and this creats lots of good, yummy conflict between him and his buddy, Enjolras.

4. Comic relief  Even the darkest story (and let's face it, Les Miz is pretty dang dark) has its share of comic relief, and this lets the reader have a mental break, almost, from your surely gripping story.

5. Kissing! Well, I do write YA, right? And let's face it--every good story needs some romance, and kissing. Oh, and also? Love triangles--they are always kind of fun. I quite like them when they work in a story. (Les Miz has one of the most gripping love triangles ever. Poor Epinone--took a bullet for that cad, Marius and still didn't get a kiss on the lips.)

6. Kill some people  Yeah, I said it. But it's true, right? This sort of goes along with conflict. In a good story, bad things have to happen. Okay, not necessarily death, per se, but events in people's lives that are earthshattering. Death. Divorce. Break-ups. Sickness. We want our books to reflect the things that happen in real life, but on a much grander, more dramatic (shall I saw poetic?) way.

7. Answer your story question Last but not least, make sure when you type The End on your beloved manuscript, that you have answered the question that initially started the story to begin with. Did he get the girl? Did the aliens invade planet Earth? And in Les Miz--Did Jean Valjean find happiness?(yes, but he died)
Did the people find empowerment? (yes, but at a price)

Anyway, you get the picture.

Friday Reads

This book was such a pleasant, amazing surprise. As an author who writes issue-driven fiction, I thought that Gail Giles executed RIGHT BEHIND YOU with perfection.


RIGHT BEHIND YOU is the story of Kip--a teen who, when he was nine, murdered a seven-year-old neighbor. I wondered, when I first picked up the book, how Gail Giles could make Kip a protagonist I could root for, but she does, beautifully. The book follows Kip on his road to wholeness--first as an inmate at a teen correctional facility, and then, as he tries to transition back into society, and living with his dad and new stepmother. The book is written in first-person narration,and I thought that she captured the voice of a teen boy amazingly well.

I thought that all the references to therapy, his time in the mental institution, and his general awareness of his own inner growth, gave the book an air of authenticity (made me wonder if she is a therapist herself or how much research she did.)I loved that she showed the step-mom as such a positive, supportive person, and I loved the romance thrown in--Sam was the perfect counterpart to Kip/Wade's character.

Recommended for the older teen and adults, especially teachers, mental health professionals, and any parent.

First Drafts, Part II

I've been working on two first drafts for two different projects. It's funny, looking at this blog--I noticed that back in April I wrote a post about how much I love first drafts.

Heh.

Not so much, this time around. I think that what's been stopping me up has been my inner editor, and boy, is she one mean, nasty shrew of a person. She doesn't let up, catching all of my echoes, horrible dialogue tags, and laughing at each and every cliche she finds, only to have me running in a corner and hiding.

I think I've found a way to chain her up. Well, three things. One, a new author friend I met told me that she likes to write late at night, because she finds that when she's a little sleepy, and the kids are in bed, that inner editor is not so cranky. This has been working fabulously! (so far). Secondly, with FINDING PONY, I discovered a way to write very quickly: when you have a scene in your head, just write free form, no capitalization or punctuation, fast, fast, fast, until you have that little sucker of a scene down. Later you can go back and puncuate, if need be. This has worked very well when I have dialogue in my head, and once I can get the characters talking, I can just record what they say. Lastly, is a technique I learned from reading Stephenie Meyer's blog one time: write your scenes out of order, if you want. This is very liberating. Sometimes when I'm going on with my day, and I get a brilliant idea for something that happens perhaps, not until act two or three, I'll just write the scene out of place and save it somewhere, until I need it.

What works for you guys?

Always do what you are afraid to do

Confession time: I've been suffering from a little bout of writer's block. It is really very, very annoying. And the funny thing is, I don't really believe in writer's block, I subscribe to the B.I.C. philosophy of writing, i.e. Butt in Chair concept of just get it done. Put the words on the page and no more sniveling about it, you big cry baby.

But anyway, here I am not writing very much. FINDING PONY is being submitted to editors right now, and in the meantime, my agent and I decided that the next project I should begin on is a companion title, tentatively titled AURORA BEGINS. Aurora is an important character in my first novel and her backstory is so interesting that I just knew it should be the next book. I actually even told my agent, "This will be easy--I already know her character. I can whip this book out really quickly."

Ahem.

Aurora is seventeen years old, a tough Latina girl who grew up in East L.A. Her whole family is somewhat involved in the gang lifestyle and her boyfriend Manuel is the head of their gang. Okay, so...I'm white. And yes, I've been a social worker for some time, I've worked with kids in gangs and a little in L.A. even, and I've been doing research---lots of it--to make sure that my MC's voice will be authentic as it can be, to the best of my ability. I also know that there are so many writers out there who have written their MC's who are different races than they are, different genders, even different sexual orientations, and have done it well, very well.

But it's still scary. Really, really scary. Because, more than anything, I don't want to get it wrong. I want to do justice to my character, and to the people who will eventually read my book.

"Always do what you are afraid to do." This quote shows up on Twitter periodically, mostly I think because it resonates with us writers so much. I know that there can be greatness in doing something that terrifies you with the possibility of failure, but still, there's that niggling part of me, sitting on my shoulder this whole time whispering: it's crap, it's garbage. The cognitive side of me knows that every writer (at least I hope) goes through this--it is something we must all endure.

Here's a couple questions for anyone who may be reading: How much research do you do before you are comfortable writing your story? Are you ever, truly comfortable? Would you feel confident writing a MC with a different race than you? Gender? Sexual orientation?

Hope you guys have a great Wednesday.

Happy Friday, everyone!

 Apparently July 6th was National Kissing Day and I missed it...what? Really? Well, I came across this delightful video and was entranced--thought you all might enjoy as well. Happy Friday, everyone!