Celebrate our First Year and Win Five Signed Books!

THANK YOU ALL!

We here at the League want to thank YOU for sticking with us this first year as we blogged about books, dystopias, sci fi, and more. In order to thank you, want to give you a signed copy of each of our books. One subscriber to the blog will receive all the books!

Across the Universe by Beth Revis

Possession by Elana Johnson

Memento Nora by Angie Smibert

The Eleventh Plague by Jeff Hirsch

XVI by Julia Karr

Contest is open internationally, and winners will be announced January 2, 2012.

You do need to be a subscriber to win.

Questions? Leave them in the comments below!

Bio: New League Member Gennifer Albin

Oh my heck, you guys! There are SO MANY new awesome bloggers joining us on The League for 2012! I think we might cause the Awesomocalypse just from these announcements.

And today is no different. Welcome YA dystopian author Gennifer Albin to The League!

Name: Gennifer Albin

Title: Crewel (Farrar Straus Giroux, October 2012)

Short Plot: In a world where women, designated as Spinsters, weave time, matter, and the very fabric of existence, a 16-year-old girl must maneuver secrets and lethal intrigue to uncover her destiny.

Favorite dystopian/sci-fi works: I'm a sucker for the classics. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, The Giver by Lois Lowry, The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card, and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick. But I love The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins, Matched by Ally Condie, and Cinder by Marissa Meyer, too. As far as movies? If it's based on a Philip K. Dick story or directed by J.J. Abrams, I know it's for me.

Why I write dystopian? It's the story I had to tell.

Whimper of Bang? I'm positive we're going to have a few bangs in there. Guns, nuclear weapons, asteroids, alien invasions, but at the end, there's only the whimper of it all fading to nothing.

More about Gennifer: Gennifer Albin has a degree in 18th century literature, which means she's read a lot of very old, very long books, but we won't talk about that. Nowadays she spends her times building fantastic worlds comprised of the people she'd like to go on adventures with, while wrangling two little ones. She writes for her husband who loves to read and doesn't mind paying her in delicious, home-baked bread and Indian food.

I am so freaking excited to have Genn on-board, and I cannot wait to read CREWEL. Find her online:

• Website
• Blog
• Twitter: @GenniferAlbin
• CREWEL on Goodreads

New Member: Susanne Winnacker

Name: Susanne Winnacker

YA dystopian title: THE OTHER LIFE (May 1st 2012 in the US, February 1st 2012 in the UK)

Short Plot:

3 years, 1 month, 1 week and 6 days since I’d seen daylight. One-fifth of my life. 98,409,602 seconds since the heavy, steel door had fallen shut and sealed us off from the world 

Sherry has lived with her family in a sealed bunker since things went wrong up above. But when they run out of food, Sherry and her dad must venture outside. There they find a world of devastation, desolation...and the Weepers: savage, mutant killers.

When Sherry's dad is snatched, she joins forces with gorgeous but troubled Joshua - an Avenger, determined to destroy the Weepers.

But can Sherry keep her family and Joshua safe, when his desire for vengeance threatens them all?

Favorite dystopian/sci fi works: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, Divergent by Veronica Roth, Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve, The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson

Why Write Dystopian?

Because, as crazy as it might sound, dystopian tales give us hope. In The Other Life, Sherry is faced with abandoned, Weeper-infested streets when she leaves the bunker her family spent the last three years in. She must overcome her fear, fight for her life, take care of her family but she grows with the challenge. Dystopia gives us hope because no matter how dark or twisted or inhumane the future is, our protagonists don’t give up. They get out of their adventures stronger. If Katniss can survive The Hunger Games, what are we capable of? Can we maybe get past the little obstacles daily life poses to each of us?

No matter how dark, dystopian fiction gives me hope in the strength that’s buried inside of each of us.

Whimper or a Bang? Bang.

Online @

Website: www.susannewinnacker.com

Twitter:   @SusanneWrites

Goodreads: Susanne Winnacker 

Blog: http://susannewritesfiction.blogspot.com/

Facebook:  Susanne Winnacker

Email: books@susannewinnacker.com

Bio: League Member Lenore Appelhans

Photo credit: VLC Productions

Name: Lenore Appelhans

Title: Level 2 (Simon & Schuster BFYR, Fall 2012)

Short plot: In Level 2, the liminal place between our world (Level 1) and heaven, seventeen-year-old Felicia Ward spends her days in her pod reliving her favorite memories - until she gets broken out by Julian, a boy she once knew who wants her to join a dangerous rebellion.

Favorite Dystopian Works: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, Feed by MT Anderson, 1984 by George Orwell, Chaos Walking Trilogy by Patrick Ness, and so many more.

Why write dystopian? The idea for Level 2 came to me years ago, but it wasn’t until I became obsessed with dystopians and then thought about Level 2 in that context that everything really clicked. I wrote the story I wanted to read – a dystopian afterlife thriller, but one that’s grounded by
realistic characters and “contemporary” memories.

Whimper or Bang? Bang followed by whimper.

Online @
Blog: http://presentinglenore.blogspot.com
Twitter: @lenoreva
GoodReads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4737695.Lenore_Appelhans
Email: lenore.appelhans@googlemail.com

Intro: New League Member, Mike Mullin

I am thrilled and honored to introduce Mike Mullin as a new League of Extraordinary Writers member! Mike is a fellow Hoosier, an amazing writer, and an all-around extraordinary guy! Welcome, Mike!!!

Bio

Mike Mullin’s first job was scraping the gum off the undersides of desks at his high school. From there, things went steadily downhill. He almost got fired by the owner of a bookstore due to his poor taste in earrings. He worked at a place that showed slides of poopy diapers during lunch (it did cut down on the cafeteria budget). The hazing process at the next company included eating live termites raised by the resident entomologist, so that didn’t last long either. For a while Mike juggled bottles at a wine shop, sometimes to disastrous effect. Oh, and then there was the job where swarms of wasps occasionally tried to chase him off ladders. So he’s really hoping this writing thing works out.

Mike holds a black belt in Songahm Taekwondo. He lives in Indianapolis, Indiana with his wife and her three cats. ASHFALL is his first novel.      

Title: ASHFALL (Tanglewood, 10/11/2011)

Short Plot: Many visitors to Yellowstone National Park don’t realize that the boiling hot springs and spraying geysers are caused by an underlying supervolcano. It has erupted three times in the last 2.1 million years, and it will erupt again, changing the earth forever.

Fifteen-year-old Alex is home alone when Yellowstone erupts. His town collapses into a nightmare of darkness, ash, and violence, forcing him to flee. He begins a harrowing trek in search of his parents and sister, who were visiting relatives 140 miles away.

Along the way, Alex struggles through a landscape transformed by more than a foot of ash. The disaster brings out the best and worst in people desperate for food, clean water, and shelter.  When an escaped convict injures Alex, he searches for a sheltered place where he can wait—to heal or to die. Instead, he finds Darla. Together, they fight to achieve a nearly impossible goal: surviving the supervolcano.

Favorite Dystopian or Post-Apocalyptic Works: Other than those written by league members? ‘Cause seriously, I love all their books. I was pretty sure it was a mistake when they invited me to join. Anyway: Epitaph Road by David Patneaude, The Road by Cormac McCarthy, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, The Postman by David Brin, The Gone series by Michael Grant, World Made by Hand by James Howard Kunstler, The Chaos Walking series by Patrick Ness, Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse by Victor Gischler, Divergent by Veronica Roth, The Dead and the Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer, The Windup Girl and Shipbreaker by Paolo Bacigalupi, Unwind by Neal Shusterman, Little Brother by Cory Doctorow, Uglies by Scott Westerfeld, Feed by M.T. Anderson, and  Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham.

Why write dystopian? The idea for ASHFALL led me to the post-apocalyptic genre, rather than the other way around. In 2008 I was wandering through Central Library in downtown Indianapolis and saw Bill Bryson’s A Short History of Nearly Everything. It’s an impressively sized book, but nowhere near large enough, I thought, to include nearly everything. So I checked it out, thinking I’d write Bryson a snarky letter about the stuff he’d missed. Instead, I learned about the Yellowstone supervolcano. When I discovered that no one had written fiction set in the aftermath of an eruption of that epic volcano, I knew I had to try it.

Whimper or Bang? In ASHFALL? Both, but the other way around.

Online @

Website: mikemullinauthor.com

Blog: mikemullin.blogspot.com

Google+: Mike Mullin

Goodreads: Mike Mullin

Twitter: @Mike_Mullin

Facebook: Mike Mullin

Email: mike.mullin.writer@gmail.com

Bio: League Member Lissa Price

Name: Lissa Price

Title: Starters (Random House Children's Books, Delacorte, March 13, 2012) Short Plot: In a world ravaged by war and genocide, becoming someone else is now possible. Sixteen-year-old Callie discovers the Body Bank where teens rent their bodies to seniors who want to be young again. When her neurochip malfunctions, she wakes up in the mansion of her rich renter and finds she is dating a senator’s grandson. It’s a fairy-tale new life, until she discovers her renter’s deadly plan.

Favorite Dystopian Works: Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, Uglies by Scott Westerfeld, Across the Universe by Beth Revis, Wither by Lauren DeStefano, Legend by Marie Lu, Incarceron by Catherine Fisher

Why Write Dystopian? My favorites mentioned above inspired me to imagine what could happen in my future world. When I’m writing, I tend to start with a character who is put in an unusual concept, and that’s what I did for STARTERS. I took our world today and projected current trends, magnifying them to support the narrative.

But the reason I do this is to build a context to hold a story with the potential for the strongest emotions. I want the reader to experience a roller-coaster ride of surprise, hate, fear and love but in a way that feels fresh. At this point, the term dystopian seems too limiting. I prefer science-fiction or futuristic thriller.

Whimper or Bang? T.S. Elliot said: "This is the way the world ends / This is the way the world ends / This is the way the world ends / Not with a bang but a whimper." So...which is it: does the world end with a whimper or a bang?

I’m too much of an optimist to accept anything less than transformation.
 
Online @

Website:http://www.LissaPrice.com

Twitter: @Lissa_Price

GoodReads: Lissa Price

Email: LissaPriceauthor@gmail.com

Amazon: STARTERS

Community: Randombuzzers.com

Welcome to Our New Members!

This week, we're celebrating the new members of the League! Each day we're posting a new bio of an author of dystopian and sci works. We hope this is a chance for you to find new authors and new books coming next year!

We'd also like to give you a brief idea of our new schedule:

December 5-9: Introduce new members
December 12-17: HUGE giveaway to celebrate our inaugural year!
We'll be taking the rest of December off to plan for the new year and celebrate the holidays.
January 2-6: First week of new members' posts
January 9-13: Celebrate the launch of A Million Suns by member Beth Revis
January 16-20: Celebrate the launch of Truth by member Julia Karr
January 23- February 3: New members' posts
February 6-10: Veteran members' posts

As you can see, we've got lots of new things planned! We're also going to be working on new graphics, new contests and giveaways, and some other fun features for everyone. So stick around, settle in, and help us celebrate the end of the world!

And please: help us give a hearty dystopian welcome to our new members all this week!

ANNOUNCING! New Members to the League!

Hi all!

As the year draws to a close, we here at the League have been looking past this debut year with shiny eyes. For more than a year now, we've blogged about books and science, fiction and non, dystopian and space and more.

And next year, we want to make that even bigger.

So, starting next year, we'll be adding five new members to our ranks. They've all got new books coming out next year, they're all in the sci fi and dystopian YA genres, and they've all got awesome things to tell you.

The schedule won't change: we'll still be blogging Monday-Friday, a different author each day. We'll still be featuring books and movies and more, and we'll still be focusing on sci fi and dystopian works. But we're doubling our work forces and drawing in new members to keep everything fresh and exciting for you. The veteran members of the League will still blog, too, one week out of each month, so don't think we're disappearing!

Thank you all so much for reading, commenting, and sharing. We hope you've enjoyed this debut year, and we hope that you'll welcome the new members--who we're introducing tomorrow--with open arms. And to help celebrate the new authors joining our ranks, we'll be holding quite a giveaway soon...

Second Book Week: SURRENDER

Okay, so to wrap up second book week, I'm here to talk just a bit about my next book. It is a companion to POSSESSION, meaning it takes place in the same storyworld but is narrated by two new characters.

I think it's pretty clear from the jacket copy how the characters from POSSESSION fit into SURRENDER. I'm reading the book right now for the last time, checking for last-minute errors and word changes, and it's been so much fun!

So onto the book.

About the book: Forbidden love, intoxicating power, and the terror of control...

Raine has always been a good girl. She lives by the rules in Freedom. After all, they are her father's rules: He's the Director. It's because of him that Raine is willing to use her talent--a power so dangerous, no one else is allowed to know about it. Not even her roommate, Vi.


All of that changes when Raine falls for Gunner. Raine's got every reason in the world to stay away from Gunn, but she just can't. Especially when she discovers his connection to Vi's boyfriend, Zenn. Raine has never known anyone as heavily brainwashed as Vi. Raines father expects her to spy on Vi and report back to him. But Raine is beginning to wonder what Vi knows that her father is so anxious to keep hidden, and what might happen if she helps Vi remember it. She's even starting to suspect Vi's secrets might involve Freedom's newest prisoner, the rebel Jag Barque....

SURRENDER will be released on June 5, 2012. You can get the most up-to-date information about both POSSESSION and SURRENDER on Facebook. Add SURRENDER to your Goodreads list.

And hey! Yesterday a POSSESSION short story was released for FREE! You can click here to download your copy, and get a sneak peek inside the mind of Zenn...

If you'd like to sign up to receive an ARC of Surrender, fill out this form. 

Second Book Week: The Forgetting Curve

The second book in the MEMENTO NORA series comes out May 1, 2012.  THE FORGETTING CURVE features some new characters (and some old ones) but, in my mind, it's a sequel. The events pick up several weeks after the end of MN.

Jacket Copy:

Aiden Nomura likes to open doors—especially using his skills as a hacker—to see what’s hidden inside. He believes everything is part of a greater system: the universe. The universe shows him the doors, and he keeps pulling until one cracks open. Aiden exposes the flaw, and the universe—or someone else—will fix it. It’s like a game.

Until it isn’t.

When a TFC opens in Bern, Switzerland, where Aiden is attending boarding school, he knows things are changing. Shortly after, bombs go off within quiet, safe Bern. Then Aiden learns that his cousin Winter, back in the States, has had a mental breakdown. He returns to the US immediately.

But when he arrives home in Hamilton, Winter’s mental state isn’t the only thing that’s different. The city is becoming even stricter, and an underground movement is growing.

Along with Winter’s friend, Velvet, Aiden slowly cracks open doors in this new world. But behind those doors are things Aiden doesn’t want to see—things about his society, his city, even his own family. And this time Aiden may be the only one who can fix things . . . before someone else gets hurt.

Marshall Cavendish, hardcover (May 1, 2012)
ISBN13: 978-0761462651
ISBN: 0761462651

Amazon | Barnes & Noble  | BAM |  Indie Bound

If you’d like an Advance Review Copy, please contact me at angie(at)angiesmibert(dot)com.  Please send me your name, snail mail address, and blog/publication address.  I'll forward the info to the publisher.  (I can't guarantee you'll get one; that decision is above my pay grade!)

Second Book Week: Title Redacted

Wow! Can't believe it's already second book time! So excited to read about all my fellow bloggers next books and I'm really looking forward to telling you every single thing I can about my next book.


Unfortunately, every single thing I can tell you is....nothing.


I'm currently under strict orders to keep it all a big secret, including the title. So how to do a post about a book I can't talk about? Well, mostly I'm going to be irritatingly mysterious.What I thought I'd do is share a few of the inspirations for the book in hopes that they might give you a taste for what it is.


First, there's this quote by Stephen jay Gould that was probably the single biggest early influence on the book.


"No..conflict should exist because each subject (science and religion) has a legitimate magisterium, or domain of teaching authority—and these magisteria do not overlap..."


Next, a wikipedia entry.

And now a few significant locations where the book takes place.

The main character has one of her last happy memories floating late at night  in a place just like this.

This is what all the characters spend alot of time looking at.

This is where one character gets down on his knees and begs for forgiveness.

This is a major character in the book who's not entirely what he seems.

Other thank this I can tell you this is a much bigger book that The Eleventh Plague. More characters. A bigger world. It's also more on the side of a fantasy/adventure story with a little sci-fi thrown in.

I can't wait to tell you all more!

Second Book Week: Truth

Wow! Has it been a year already? I'm so excited for Truth to be coming out!

Nina Oberon’s life has changed enormously in the last few months. When her mother was killed, Nina discovered the truth about her father, the leader of the Resistance. And now she sports the same Governing Council–ordered tattoo of XVI on her wrist that all sixteen-year-old girls have. The one that announces to the world that she is easy prey to predators. But Nina won’t be anyone’s stereotype. And when she joins an organization of girls working within the Resistance, she knows that they can put an end to one of the most terrifying secret programs the GC has ever conceived. Because the truth always comes out...and the consequences can be deadly.

• Details: Published by: Puffin/Speak, Release date: January 19, 2012, ISBN 0142417726 (ISBN13:978-0142417720)
• Amazon | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound | BAM
• Book Bloggers! If you are interested in a copy of TRUTH for review on your blog, please contact Penguin at:
  
  
  yrmarketing@us.penguingroup.com 
  
  
  with your name, address, and blog information in order to request a galley. Due to the volume of email they receive, you may not get a response, but your request will be read, logged, and galleys will be distributed at Penguin’s discretion.
• 
  

Second Book Week: A MILLION SUNS

All this week we're celebrating our member's second books! It's crazy (for me at least) to think of how we're already onto our second books....whew!

Godspeed was once fueled by lies. Now it is ruled by chaos.

It’s been three months since Amy was unplugged. The life she always knew is over. And everywhere she looks, she sees the walls of the spaceship Godspeed. But there may just be hope: Elder has assumed leadership of the ship. He’s finally free to enact his vision – no more Phydus, no more lies.

But when Elder discovers shocking news about the ship, he and Amy race to discover the truth behind life on Godspeed. They must work together to unlock a puzzle that was set in motion hundreds of years earlier, unable to fight the romance that’s growing between them and the chaos that threatens to tear them apart.

In book two of the Across the Universe trilogy, New York Times bestselling author Beth Revis mesmerizes us again with a brilliantly crafted mystery filled with action, suspense, romance, and deep philosophical questions. And this time it all builds to one mind-bending conclusion: They have to get off this ship.

Details:

Published by: Penguin/Razorbill

Released: January 10, 2012

ISBN 159514398X (ISBN13: 978-1595143983)

Advanced Praise:

“Revis’ interweaving of science fiction, romance,and action is deft—an especially impressive feat given the condensed time line under which this story operates. …Revis just might make straight-up sci-fi cool again.”
–Booklist, December 1, 2011

Buying Information:

• Would you like a signed copy? ContactFireside Bookstore.
• Indie Bound
• Amazon
• Barnes & Noble
• Books-a-Million
• The Book Depository

Theme Week: An Ending Is Just A New Beginning

I've thought about this in real life before, but it's never really translated to reading or writing. But the whole mantra of when one thing ends, another begins is really true in storytelling.

I'm a firm believer that stories don't need to be completely closed to be satisfying. Yes, I need the drama to be wrapped up and the conflict resolved, but I don't need to know what happens five years after the book ends or anything like that. (Jeff touched on this earlier this week. I loved THE ELEVENTH PLAGUE for exactly this reason. I could imagine what else happened based on the superb storytelling Jeff had already done.)

I adored everything about Harry Potter except the fact that we know exactly what happens 19 years later. I wanted to imagine what I wanted for Harry and Ginny, Ron and Hermione and their kids/lives.

I think the best storytellers weave the elements of the story so tightly with the elements of character that the reader can formulate that perfect ending in their head after the main conflict is resolved.

Those are the kind of endings that create new beginnings for me. Those are the kind of endings I enjoy reading. Those are the kind of endings I try to write.

What do you think? Do you like the author to tell you exactly what happens, or would you rather construct that for yourself?

Theme Week: Twist Endings

I love the Twilight Zone—and all well executed twisty stories—but, let’s face it, the very title of the show has become synonymous with cliché and trope. That’s not to say you can’t write a great twist ending anymore. (Or enjoy a good TZ marathon.) Films such as the Usual Suspects and Memento are classic because of their twists.

But for a twist to work, it has to happen because it’s what needs to happen. That is, the ending needs to be organic to the story. The twist should add another layer of meaning, but at the very least it can’t be just for the sake of the gotcha.

And you have to play fair with the reader. Lay the groundwork for the twist in your story, but don’t make it too obvious. Don’t make all the characters too idiotic to figure out what’s going on. Don’t deliberately hide a fact just to prevent the reader from figuring it out until the very end. Don’t have a character wake up and find it’s all been a dream (or virtual reality or a book). The reader doesn’t want to feel fooled or tricked—or feel like you cheated. (Or didn’t know what you were doing.)

Some readers, though, are gonna hate the twist no matter what. Just like some people hate ambiguous endings or cliffhangers. But plenty of us like all three—as long as they’re well done. SyFy still runs a Twilight Zone marathon every New Years (and at least one other time a year). I can’t be the only one watching it!

How do you guys feel about twists? Any favorites (or not)?

Endings Week: New Beginnings

Was thinking about endings and ran across this list of the 50 best movie endings. It's a fun list and I generally agree with their choices. My personal favorites are ones like Say Anything, Casablanca and The Silence of the Lambs.

It struck me that each of these movies actually has a similar ending, in that they each end with a beginning. Lloyd and Diane boarding a plane into the unknown. Rick and Louis embarking on a beautiful friendship. Hannibal Lector free and getting ready to have an old friend for dinner.

In each case, the story is complete in a satisfying way but the ending makes it clear that life goes on, these characters are still out there, still having adventures. I think it makes for a powerful ending, allowing the characters to live on in our imaginations.

And now that I think about it that's actually what I was trying to do with the ending to The Eleventh Plague. The world has completed one transformation and that has opened the door to a new world for the main characters. (Being just slightly vague for any of you that haven't read it) People have mixed feelings about it to be sure. By far the most frequent question I get in emails is along the lines of "But what happens next?!" and "Will there be a sequel where you tell us what happens next?"

I think people naturally want to have things tied up and all questions answered and can be a little frustrated when they don't get exactly what what they want, or all that they want. As a writer though you're sometimes in the position of, hopefully, giving them something that might be more satisfying in the long run.

What do you guys think? Any endings that frustrated you initially but you later realized worked really well?

Theme Week: Endings, really?

I was recently talking about endings on my other blog, and a friend commented that when they were younger (12-ish) they wanted everything wrapped up neatly. They needed to know that it all worked out - even if it wasn't necessarily happy (Old Yeller, anyone?) But, she noted that as she grew older that became less and less important. And, now she prefers some mystery, some loose ends, some unanswered questions in her endings.

Well, I've been thinking about this - cause I tend to write endings with loose ends and unanswered questions. And, one of the things that hit me was - of course - I like life! And, life is one sort of frayed, raveled blanket that has no neat, tidy end.

That's it you know... I like books that remind me of the mysteries of life. There are no absolute answers - no one knows anything really for sure. Certain episodes of life have endings - or beginnings if you will. Falling in love might end in marriage - and then that's a beginning. Then there's a baby - and that's an end of a couple and a beginning of a family. Then the baby grows and leaves home and that's an end - and a beginning... and so goes life. There's birth and death - beginnings and endings  - but honestly, who's to say which is which?

Before I get too esoteric... let me just say - I like my endings real - and that doesn't necessarily mean they will be neat and tidy. Life sure isn't!

What do you like?

Theme Week: Endings

Last week we talked about beginnings. This week, we're talking about endings.

When I was an English teacher, I had to teach about the NC Writing Exam--a two-page essay every tenth grader was required to complete that was then graded by the state. This was the bane of our existence: like any teacher, I didn't want to teach to the test, but my administrators wanted good scores, so I had to teach to the test, at least to some degree.

But I tried to teach some actual, you know, writing while working on that test.

The state essay was broken up into three parts: introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion. In a lot of ways, the conclusion was the least important. In fact, some teachers advised that students just forego it if they ran out of room on the essay form.

But I stressed to my students that often a good conclusion was the difference between getting a passing grade and getting a perfect one.

The same is true with books. A good conclusion is the difference between an okay book and a life-changing one.

And when I write conclusions, the first thing I think about it the same thing I taught my students: find a way to come full circle.

Just like The Hobbit is "there and back again," you need to, on some level, come back to the beginning of your book. It could be a literal return, like in The Hobbit when Bilbo Baggins goes back to the Shire.

But it could be symbolic. The character who started out hating her hometown can end up returning home happily--or leaving it altogether. The character who started out lovesick and end up independent and happy.

If you're struggling with your final chapter, go back to your first one. Find out a way to bring some element--a feeling, an object, a person, a thought, a wish--from the first chapter back into the last chapter. It can be different, but it needs to be there. In your first chapter, you can start with an innocent kiss--but your last chapter can be an impassioned one.

Write the Beginning...Last

Okay, so I don't think it's a huge secret that I'm a bit on the unconventional side when it comes to writing. I don't outline, I don't name characters until halfway through books, I switch up eye colors, etc. (BTW, all that gets fixed eventually. My first drafts are nightmares.)

Writing the beginning is no different. It's simple really. Don't write it first.

Now I don't necessarily write my beginning last, but I don't stress about writing it straight out of the gate either. Let me explain.

So I don't write in order. The first scene I wrote in POSSESSION shows up in the book on page 130. The second scene I wrote is the one before that one. And the third scene appears about page 45.

I don't worry about when I write the scenes. I worry about where they go in the story and how they fit with what else I've got. I worry about stitching them together with transitions. I worry about what needs to happen earlier in the book so that the scene I just wrote will make sense. And so I piece together my scenes, writing notes in between them for what needs to happen, and possible ideas for what could happen later.

I write what's in my head, and nothing more. Beginning, middle, end. Doesn't matter when it gets on the page, just that it does.

Unconventional, I know.

But I think there's something to be learned here. Beginnings do not have to be written first. Don't know your beginning? No problem. Write what you do know. You can work backward to the opening scene at any time.

When do you write your beginning? Are you able to write without having that opening scene down on paper?

Top 10 Opening Lines in Science Fiction and Fantasy

Great first lines grab the reader by the balls—eyeballs, that is. That line shows the reader a peek at what your story is going to be about.  It’s your chance to set the tone, voice, theme, setting, etc. Is it going to be high fantasy or poetic cyberpunk? Is it set in a world unlike ours? Is it ironic or whimsical? Think of that first line as your opening “we’re not in Kansas anymore” salvo.

Here are my favorite opening lines in science fiction and fantasy novels:

1. “The sky above the port was the color of television tuned to a dead channel.”
   
   Neuromancer, William Gibson.
   
   
   
2. "It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking 13.”
   
   1984, George Orwell.
   
   
   
3. "It was a pleasure to burn.”
   
   Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury.
   
   
   
4. "Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun. Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-eight million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue-green planet whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea."
   
   Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams.
   
   
   
5. "All children, except one, grow up."
   
   Peter Pan, J. M. Barrie
   
   
   
6. "The year that Buttercup was born, the most beautiful woman in the world was a French scullery maid named Annette."
   
   The Princess Bride, William Goldman
   
   
   
7. “What’s it going to be then, eh?” There was me, that is Alex, and my three droogs, that is Pete, Georgie, and Dim, and we sat in the Korova Milkbar trying to make up our rassoodocks what to do with the evening, a flip dark chill winter bastard though dry. 
   
   Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess.
   
   
   
8. "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.”
   
   The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien.
   
   
   
9. “Marley was dead, to begin with.”
   
   A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
   
   
   
10. “Lyra and her daemon moved through the darkening Hall, taking care to keep to one side, out of sight of the kitchen.”
    
    The Golden Compass, Philip Pullman

Ok, A Christmas Carol isn’t technically considered SF/F, but it does have ghosts in it.

What are your favorite opening lines?  Any genre.

Theme Week: Beginnings - The First Impression

First impressions are everything.

You meet someone for the first time and what are you looking for? A smile? A firm handshake and an air of easy confidence? A self deprecating sense of humor? A first impression is a kind of promise. Someone is telling you "If you deal with me, this is what you can expect." Ideally that impression is going to grow over time and deepen but I think that first meeting is always the foundation your eventual understanding of the person is built on. If what comes next varies too significantly or too fast you can feel lied too, and if it doesn't change at all you feel let down.

Same with a book. You're making a promise. The first scene (maybe it's my theater background, but I always think in scenes not chapters) says "you are in this sort of world with these sorts of people and these are the kinds of things these people are concerned with."

Now establishing settings and characters are pretty obvious but when I say "the things these people are concerned with" I don't quite mean establishing the main conflict. For me, that doesn't necessarily get started in the first scene. What I mean is more like establishing the main thematic concern.

The Eleventh Plague opens with a father and son burying the son's stern ex-marine grandfather. It comes out in the scene that while the grandfather could be cruel he was really the one that was responsible for keeping them alive in their harsh post-apocalyptic world.  Once they've finished burying him they have the following conversation:

I sat beside Dad, edging my body alongside the steady in and out of his breath. He draped his arm, exhausted, over my shoulder. It felt good, but still the knot in my stomach refused to unravel.

“Dad?”

“Yeah, Steve?”

“We’ll be okay," I asked. "Won’t we? Without him?”

When Dad said nothing I moved out from under his arm and looked up at him.

“I mean . . . nothing’s going to change. Right?”

Dad fixed his eyes past me and onto the dark trail we would start down the next morning.

“No,” he said, his words rising up like ghosts, thin and pale and empty. “Nothing’s ever going to change.”


You'll see that there's no big conflict yet, what there is a suggestion that the characters are thinking a lot about change. Their lives have always been very steady, day in and day out, but now that the grandfather is gone, maybe things can be different. It's a complicated notion for them. In some ways they desperately want change but they're afraid of it, and also on some level don't really believe it can ever happen.

As the book progresses all of those questions will play out in a more literal way between the two of them and then will grow to be the dominant concern of the book, effecting the relationships and conflicts of every other character and even the fate of the world they're in. But all that starts right here with a  first impression where you learn the general direction of the road you'll be heading down. 

So what do you all think? What are the most important things that need to be in the first few pages of a book for you to keep reading?

Theme Week: (The Cursed) Beginnings!

You've got an idea for a story, but where the heck do you start?

It's tempting to do a prologue, an entire set-up before you jump into the story - right? You want  your reader to know who your main character is, what he/she looks like, how happy/sad/nervous/scared they are... what kind of surroundings they are in. But... and this is a BIG BUT!!! DO NOT start your story that way!

If you must do a set-up -- do it for yourself. That can be your pre-story before you jump into the REAL story! And, actually it's not a bad idea to write down all kinds of character analysis on all of your characters. Detail your setting - I even draw maps and sketch out rooms, etc. Tell yourself what your characters look like. But again - DO NOT - put those into the beginning of your story. Weave those kinds of details into your first few chapters. It's not urgent (usually) that we know your MC is a blond. However, when she pulls a brown wig on to disguise herself - THEN is when we need to know that. Yes - a scene like that could be the first scene - but chances are, it won't be!

Your beginning needs to have enough mood to draw in the reader - enough voice of your MC for readers to start caring about them - and enough plot set-up that the pages are begging to be turned.

Hard? Yes. Necessary? Yes. Achievable? Most definitely, YES!

For those of you doing NaNo - remember - this month is about getting the story down. Don't concern yourself with the dreaded beginnings - just jump in and write. However, come December - your real work will begin!

Any books you can think of that immediately draw you in?

Theme Week: Beginnings

A lot of you out there are working on NaNoWriMo and arguably one of the most important things about a book is the beginning, so this week we're going to be talking all about beginnings of books.

There's one problem.

I don't really know that much about beginnings.

Here's the thing: originally, the first chapter of ACROSS THE UNIVERSE was Chapter 4. When I sent the book out to beta readers, nearly all of them felt the original beginning was kind of "blah" and that the book really picked up in Chapter 4.

The problem was, I knew that most of the time when an agent asks for a partial, he'll ask for the first three chapters.

"This sucks," I said to myself (being prone to talking to myself when I was an angsty writer). "I want them to see Chapter 4! Should I break the rules and just send the fourth chapter anyway?"

"No," myself replied. "That's a sure way for an agent to dismiss your work."

"Then what do I do?" I wailed (being also prone to wailing).

"Cut the first three chapters."

To be honest: I sort of shocked myself. I needed those first four chapters, didn't I? I needed to explain how Amy got selected, how Elder was born on the ship. I needed all that background, right?

Turns out, I didn't.

So--write the book the way you want. But when it comes time to edit, you need to figure out what your best chapter is, the point where the reader sits up and says, "Whoa."

Then cut everything before that.

(PS: If you'd like to read the first chapter of my sequel, A MILLION SUNS, click here! And for the record--that was originally a Chapter 5, and I cut the four chapters before it.)

Literary Palimpsest (Don't Worry, I Don't Know What That is Either)

Okay, so I meet the greatest people at book signings. Toni Pilcher was one said person. She is amazing, and I begged asked her to blog for me on the League today.

A little bit about her first: She is simply a graduate student at BYU pursuing her MA in English, writing her thesis on young adult literature. Even though she's a starving student, she spends her grocery money on books, and she has frequent nightmares that her bookshelves are empty.

She is so much smarter than me! So let's have her take it away!

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Last summer, I attended Writing and Illustrating for Young Readers in Salt Lake City. I came with questions because I was struggling with my dystopian WIP: the story was just not progressing. At the conference, Martine Leavitt, author of Keturah and Lord Death and other wonderful YA novels, introduced me to the concept of the palimpsest. In technical terms, a palimpsest results when the writing on a clay tablet or a piece of vellum is scraped away and replaced by new writing. Often, the original words can still be seen through the new words. In a similar way, as Martine pointed out, an older story can illuminate the themes of a new story.

Now, this literary palimpsest is no new thing in YA lit. Many books are retellings of older stories. Fairy tale retellings are easy to recognize, but some retellings are more disguised. It wasn’t until after I finished Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book that I realized it was a unique retelling of The Jungle Book. With this knowledge, my second reading was much more interesting!

Other books borrow plot structures. The most famous structure is probably the hero’s journey. But think of how Rick Riordan adapts plots from mythology without simply retelling the myths. And in Rebecca Stead’s When You Reach Me, aspects of the main character’s favorite book, A Wrinkle in Time, become very important to the plot.

Some books simply make references to characters or lines or themes. The characters in S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders read Gone with the Wind, and the idea of becoming Southern gentlemen informs their decisions later in the novel. Poetry is also an important influence in The Outsiders (Stay gold, Ponyboy!), as it is in many other books. Most recently, poetry has provided motivation for the characters in Ally Condie’s Matched and Crossed. Literary palimpsest works on many levels.

After getting this great idea from Martine, I immediately began to brainstorm “master” stories that could illuminate the themes in my WIP. I settled on Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale, and my WIP exploded—in a good way. I have so much more insight into my characters! I’m using some of my favorite lines from Winter’s Tale, including the line that gave the play its name (“a sad tale’s best for winter”), as guides for plot, dialogue, and character development. Though I have a different character line-up and setting than the original, I’m borrowing the basic plot structure and reworking some iconic scenes. And yes, I’m even using the famous stage direction, “Exit, pursued by bear.”

Whether or not readers actually recognize the story beneath the story, I think literary palimpsest can strengthen a manuscript. For a writer, it’s like being an apprentice to a great wordsmith and having something to show for it.

Do you follow a master story when you write? Do you recognize the influence of master stories on the books you read?