Book Review: The Adventurer's Guide to Successful Escapes

Thirteen year old Anvil, who prefers to be called Anne for obvious reasons, is beyond ready to leave St. Lupin's Institute for Perpetually Wicked and Hideously Unattractive Children. The trouble is there are only two places to go: to an academy to train to be an adventurer or to the Pit to work until she has enough money to buy her way out of it. No academy will accept her because she has no proof of her origin. The Pit sounds dismal, but she's willing to do anything to get away from St. Lupin's.

While planning her escape, a series of unpredictable things happen that lead her to her first quest. It has the unfortunate side effect of attaching a metal gauntlet to her arm, permanently, so it would seem, as well as placing her and her best friend, Penelope, in mortal danger. 

Anne, Penelope, and their reluctant new friend Hiro, set off on an impossible quest that involves sweet-talking dragons into offering their assistance, a well-dressed talking hyena, ancient technology, riddles, and fireballs. There are lots of those. 

There are so many things to love about this story that I don't know where to begin. The humor is spot on. I can't wait until my son is old enough to read this because I know he's going to love it. I laughed out loud multiple times. But it's more than just a funny book. It tackles big questions like finding your true self, finding your place in the world, honor, friendship, betrayal, and mercy. 

In addition to all of those wonderful things, the main character of this adventure is also a female of color. It's not often that girls get to lead adventures, and in this book, there are more female characters than male. The role of fighter even falls to Penelope instead of Hiro. It was a delightful surprise. 

White brings a fresh perspective to epic fantasy by poking fun at all of the tropes we know. The world-building is so subtle it feels natural, and while it's hinted at that this is a post-apocalyptic Earth, he never reveals that fact outright. The world is familiar and strange at the same time. The characters are likable and believable. I highly recommend giving it a read.

Dusting off the old novel

I sat down yesterday and created a schedule for the week. It has all of my household chores on it. Thursdays and weekends have time to devote to writing. Thursday is reserved for edits. This book has been laying about since 2015. It's time I did something about it.

I went down to my local UPS store this morning and printed out a hard copy. I've tried editing digitally, but it just isn't as fulfilling. I need those red pen marks to give me tangible evidence that I'm doing something. The rough draft is over 300 pages. I wasn't expecting that. In Scrivener, it seems so much shorter than that. Looking at all of these pages (sorry, trees!), it really feels like a book. Now, it's time to kill all those darlings and make it better.

My books always stagnate once they reach revision. I love writing. I love getting the story down. I'm not fond of making it presentable for eyes other than my own. I acknowledge it's a vital part of the writing process, I'm just an expert at procrastinating.

But I love this book. I believe other readers will love this book. I got great feedback from my beta readers. That means, this book is worth the effort. It's time to dig out my red pen and get to work.

Writing Goals

With the New Year now upon us, I've seen countless posts about writing goals for 2017. I usually have a handful, overly ambitious goals that I never reach because I expect too much from myself.

This year, I kept things real. I made a simple goal: write every day. I didn't even set a word count. I just need to write something (though grocery lists and the like do not count!).

I bought myself a shiny new notebook. My hope is to fill it with a new poem for every day of 2017. Five days in and I haven't fallen off of the wagon yet.

I also started a new monthly fiction challenge with some friends of mine. We've pledged four flash fiction stories for every month. I've written two of those so far for January, so I'm off to a strong start there too.

My biggest challenge this year is going to be submissions. I need to dust off all of these works in progress and actually submit them to places. That means I'm in for a ton of editing. For some reason, the edits are more daunting to me than the new work. I'm considering hiring an editor as a belated Christmas present to myself. It might be just the push I need to whip that book into shape and toss it onto the query-go-round.

Reading back over this post, it seems I may have some pretty ambitious goals for myself this year after all. I know I can do this though. And so can all of you. Let's all knock our personal goals out of the park this year.

Hello NaNoWriMo

It's that magic time of year again, folks. I don't mean the countdown to Christmas, though it is my favorite holiday. The madness that is National Novel Writing Month is upon us. While I should probably have started the sequel to last year's novel, I decided instead to start something new. I just wasn't feeling my Neverland vibe this year.

I find myself writing another YA book. It seems to be my go to when I plot ideas. I'm not sure what this says about my maturity level. Or attention span, really, as YA novels are usually a bit shorter than adult fiction.

A lot of authors offer advice and pep talks as the month wears on. Here's a link to a fun one from Chuck Wendig. If you've never read his blog, give it a look. He's got a potty mouth, but there's a lot of fun posts there.

http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2016/10/31/nanowrimo-pep-talk-the-pure-fucking-joy-of-getting-it-all-wrong/

So, I'm ready to make all the mistakes and get everything wrong. Hopefully by the end of the month, I'll have another rough draft of a novel ready to go.

Contests Continued

Yesterday marked the deadline for round two of the flash fiction contest. I'm fairly certain I won't make it to round three. My genre for this round was crime caper. Mysteries are so not my forte. I gave it my best effort, but I'm not very optimistic about advancing.

As you many know, November is National Novel Writing Month, or Nanowrimo. I'm hoping to begin planning an outline for this year's novel. I went in with a rough outline last year, and it made reaching 50k so easy.

I've fallen out of a daily writing habit, so I'm hoping to find my writing rhythm again before November hits. A target goal of 1667 words per day is daunting if you aren't accustomed to writing daily. I need to work on that.

If you've never heard of Nanowrimo, you should check out this site.

http://nanowrimo.org/how-it-works

Take a look around the site. It will answer any questions you might have. If it sounds like something that interests you, sign up! It's a fun challenge, and even if you don't hit 50k words, you've still got more written than you did at the beginning of November. It's an all around win. My user name is gabbyg if you want to send me a buddy request.

The Benefits of Contests

Friday marked the beginning of NYC Midnight's annual flash fiction contest. I've competed in it for the last few years. It's quite possible that I write a contest post every year around this time because I'm reminded how fun and beneficial contests are. NYC Midnight's contests are particularly good at getting me to write outside of my comfort zone.

While many contests accept submissions that allow the author to select that nature of their work's contents, NYC Midnight gives the authors restrictions. This year, my round one requirements were: genre: fairy tale, setting: a barn, object: crystal ball. I was also limited to one thousand words and had forty eight hours to submit my piece. The deadline forces me to focus and the time line is just long enough for one round of edits and not long enough for me to overthink anything. I'm usually very proud of my entries for this contest.

Not every writing contest is so rigid or such a whirlwind. Many give you months to enter and only limit the word count for entries. The crazy deadlines of NYC Midnight's contest may not work for you. That doesn't mean there won't be other contests that will.

The internet is filled with resources to help authors find contests worth entering. Here are a few helpful links for those looking for a place to get started.

http://www.pw.org/grants

https://www.dystopianstories.com/writing-competitions-2016/

http://www.writersdigest.com/writers-digest-competitions

http://www.freelancewriting.com/creative-writing-contests.php

http://www.writermag.com/writing-resources/contests/

I'm sure there are many more, but this is a handy short list to get you started. I may have to take my own advice and see what other contests there are to throw myself into. SO, go forth, find contests, write, and, most importantly, have fun!

Celebrating the release of Because I Love You!

Blaze Publishing is happy to announce the release of the YA Contemporary Romance BECAUSE I LOVE YOU by Tori Rigby! You can get your copy on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or you can order a signed copy from our website

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Sometimes, love is sacrifice.

Eight weeks after sixteen-year-old Andie Hamilton gives her virginity to her best friend, “the stick” says she’s pregnant.

Her friends treat her like she’s carrying the plague, her classmates torture and ridicule her, and the boy she thought loved her doesn’t even care. Afraid to experience the next seven months alone, she turns to her ex-boyfriend, Neil Donaghue, a dark-haired, blue-eyed player. With him, she finds comfort and the support she desperately needs to make the hardest decision of her life: whether or not to keep the baby.

Then a tragic accident leads Andie to discover Neil’s keeping a secret that could dramatically alter their lives, and she's forced to make a choice. But after hearing her son’s heartbeat for the first time, she doesn’t know how she’ll ever be able to let go.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Adopted at three-days-old by a construction worker and a stay at home mom, Tori Rigby grew up with her nose in a book and her fingers on piano keys, always awaiting the day she’d take her own adventure. Now, she goes on multiple journeys through her contemporary and historical romances. She longs to live in the Scottish Highlands, and her favorite place in history is Medieval England—she’d even give up her Internet and running water to go back in time! Tori also writes high-concept genre fiction as Vicki Leigh, and when she isn’t writing, she’s kicking butt in krav maga or attending classes to learn how to catch bad guys.

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