Why would you post a teaser from someone else’s book? I am glad you asked.

Remember when I said I would have some contests this year? Well, the first one is coming up quick, and As You Wish is part of that contest. Read this little teaser and get excited people. Get very excited.

This is the first paragraph of chapter one. If you want to learn more about the book, check out Jackson’s website.

All I’ve learned in today’s Shakespeare class is: Sometimes you fall in love with the wrong person just so you can find the right person. A more useful lesson would’ve been: Sometimes the right person doesn’t love you back. Or sometimes the right person is gay. Or sometimes you just aren’t the right person.

Thanks for nothing, Skakespeare.

I love, love, love it! Get ready for the contest – coming soon!

When I am writing, I usually have a fairly clear image of what a character looks like in my head. Some characters get more in-book description than others, but I know what they all look like.

I usually can’t place where a characters looks came from – I just know what that person looks like from the time they enter my mind (with the exception of Jack…I really struggled with Jack’s appearance). Only once have I seen a person and based a character on their looks.

That’s exactly what happened with Miles (AKA the man from the diner in Incubus). I had been toying with the idea of adding a new character to the book – one who would potentially change quite a bit of what was already written – but I wasn’t sure enough to actually write him.

Then, in a random internet search (I can’t remember what I was looking for) I came across a picture. And – BAM - I had a fully fleshed out character. Seriously, it happened that fast; all I needed was the picture as a catalyst. So now I have a new character, a richer plot, and a ton of rewrites to do.

Ladies and gentlefolk, I give you Miles:

The hair! The skin! Beautiful!

A little tousled

Deep in thought...

One last one: Miles is not much of a smiler, but every so often Kyle is able to coax a slight smirk out of him:

And there you have it: Miles in pictures! A big thanks to Lasse Pedersen for (unknowingly) lending his looks to one of my favorite characters.

The first novel I ever finished (Glass) was written in a month (not in November, and not for anything like NaNoWriMo-it was just written in a month). The rush that comes with letting myself go to write so freely and quickly is not easily matched. I loved the exhilaration that came with it and I am excited to do it again.

So, in honor of NaNoWriMo, this week’s Teaser Tuesday features a little piece I wrote to prepare me to write Darken this month. This is not really a part of the novel; it is just a character exercise I took ten minutes to do in order to learn a little bit about Emily and Daniel. It is rough, but it told me what I needed to know. Enjoy!

I had my first crush on a boy when I was in the first grade. His name was Daniel Greiger and he was a slow reader. My teacher assigned me to tutor him. I thought I was in love.

In the fourth grade, when we both began piano lessons, I helped him learn to read music. For years, I crushed on Daniel. I stood in the shadows of all his popular, pretty girlfriends, hoping one day he would see me. He never did.

He never asked me out, never showed an interest. I was never more than “the smart girl who helped him out.” He was too busy chasing the girls with long legs and straight teeth to notice me. Long legs, straight teeth, and hair.

After all those years of pining for him, it is not a surprise that I thought of Daniel at the end. When the cancer finally won, and the light of my life began to darken, his face was the last thing I saw.

And then, when my eyes opened once more, his was the first face I saw. Standing before me was the boy who had always haunted my thoughts and dreams. And now I was to haunt him.

50,000 words is actually quite short for a novel, even a young adult one. It is definitely an admirable goal, but I have set my sights a little higher (call me stupid, I won’t be offended). I have a daily word goal of 2,500 words. I don’t write on Sundays, so with 25 writing days in November, this goal will help me produce 62,500 words, with is a pretty decent word count for a YA novel. I wrote at this same pace when writing Glass and found it really isn’t that hard to keep up with (as long as Bubba doesn’t need to see me ). It will be a busy month of writing, but totally worth it.

*DRAFT is the key word here. Writing a novel in a month is a doable task. Writing, revising, editing, and polishing a novel until it can be considered DONE in a month? Not so much. The point of NaNoWriMo is not to write a perfect book, it is to get the words on the page. The real craft comes with the revisions.

Today’s snippet comes from the first novel I finished (not counting my shining attempt at The Blob). As of yet it remains untitled, so I just lovingly call it Glass until something better comes along.

I stood with my back to the club, leaning against the brick wall. The sounds of the alley greeted me, but I was not listening to them. Rain fell, tracing streams down my bare arms. It ran through my hair, fell off the ends of the dark tendrils, and pooled on the ground around my left foot. My right foot rested on the wall behind me, ready to give leverage if needed.

The cold brick chilled my skin where my bare shoulder rested against the wall. I leaned my head back, closed my eyes, and let the rain wash over my face.

And there I waited. Waited for anything. The slightest change in energy, a different charge to the atmosphere–anything to tell me it was time to go to work.

My name is Becca Cole, and I have been working the same dead end job for the past hundred and fifty-two years. Every day the same thing: hide in the shadows, attune myself to the energy of the people around me, and wait. Bored.

Every. Single. Day.

A gust of wind breezed through the alley, bringing with it the pungent smells of a nearby carnival. Turning away from the breeze, I focused on the more pleasant scent of rain. The wet, dusty aroma of the alley filled my being, clouding my mind and transporting me to a much simpler time.

Funny story about Glass: if you look at my “writing” page, you will notice it is not listed there. That’s not because I am not proud of the story; I am. The core plot is (in my opinion at least) wonderful. Simple, but wonderful. The reason it is not listed is because Glass was a cannibalization of Incubus.

Once upon a time, I thought Incubus would not hold its own as a plot, so I made it the back-story to Glass. Fast forward a few months. With Glass finished, I looked back at Incubus and realized: holy guacamole! This is a pretty compelling story in its own right. I had just burned out on it the first time around. I have since realized that this happens with just about every novel. There comes a point when the writing is more work than fun. With Incubus I took that to mean the story wasn’t working, and I quit writing it (for a period of time).

I have since learned to push through, do the work, and finish the book. I recognize that coming across a slump does not mean the book is not worth writing. Writing a novel is hard work, and stopping when it gets tough will only leave you with a bunch of false-starts. I am happy to report that, since the Incubus debacle, I have finished every novel I have started.

However, I am happy that I had to learn the “push through ’til the end” lesson the hard way. Had I not quit on Incubus, I probably never would have dreamed up Glass. Now, I have not one, but two novels. Once I get through all the back-story edits and rewrites Glass will require now that Incubus demands its story back, of course. When it has a back-story all of its very own, Glass will be added to the writing page.

Now, everyone head over to wish Jamie Harrington congratulations on landing an agent. SQUEE for Jamie!

This is a little preview from Incubus. It is the first kissing scene I ever wrote, and while it is brief, I really like it still. I hope you enjoy reading Jayne’s first kiss as much as I enjoyed writing it!

Her heart jumped as she felt Blake’s hand brush lightly along her jaw line. Gently, cupping her cheek in his palm, he turned her face up to meet his. She felt herself melt into him as his lips lightly brushed hers. With the kiss, her fears and doubts left her. Feeling more confident, she laced her fingers through his hair and pulled her body closer to his. Her other hand felt its way to the side of his neck, where it rested against the warmth of his pulse.

It is still rough, and will be tweaked in edits, but Teaser Tuesday is not about perfection. Today, you get a little glimpse of something organic–the first draft of my writing. And in reading a first draft, you get to see where I struggle as a writer–notice the two (yeah, not one, but TWO) instances of passive writing in that little bitty paragraph? It is something I struggle with in first drafts. And edit a LOT in second (and third…) drafts.

Luckily, as I was writing Jack the Reaper, I learned a nice little trick to help with the passive voice problem: first person present tense. It is difficult to be passive when the action is immediate and urgent. Jack was my first foray into the world of FPPT, and I love it. It is a great first drafting tool.

Not every story I come up with is conducive to FPPT. Some need to have a third person point of view, and some are better off told in a close past tense. But FPPT is a great way to get the urgency across in a first draft, no matter what the point of view and tense of the final product will be.

Wait. Doesn’t writing an entire novel in a POV and tense make for a huge job when edits roll around? Well, yes. But so does having a full novel of passive voice to fix. Let’s face it: edits are a lot of work. I just choose what work I will be focusing on.

And now I choose to do film buying work (yanno, the work I am actually being paid to be doing as I blog).

Anyway, he read my paragraph and immediately went to work helping me make it better. He honed in on the parts that gave me the most trouble (apparently my trouble spots show) and helped me figure out how to make them better. Bubba=great editor. I love having him on my team!

The paragraph has been updated on the blog if you are interested in seeing my husband’s wonderful editing ability at work! (Of course, if you didn’t read the original version, you will never know how much better he made it. You will just have to take my word for it.)

And now, I am off to read hush, hush. For the record, the cover is even better in print than it is on the screen. It is shimmery. And we all know how a little shimmer makes things better!

In honor of Nathan’s contest, I am starting Teaser Tuesdays with the first paragraph of Jack the Reaper (which, after much deliberation, I decided to post as my contest entry). This is the first thing I thought of when the idea for Jack came to me. Even though I was in the middle of another book, I immediately pulled out my notebook and wrote down this paragraph (well, an earlier incarnation of it at least). Jack’s voice was strong, and I didn’t want to lose it as I continued writing Incubus*.

So, without further ado babbling:

The night is dark and stormy, perfect for my line of work. There is no rain yet, but it will come; for now, the city is bathed in a deep gloom. Gloomy is good. Or, at least I think it is. Okay, I admit it. I am a total newbie on the job. But how hard can it be, really? Get in, kill–I check my work order again–Marie Consuela, and get out. Bing, bang, boom. Done. If I work quickly enough, I can even make it back in time for the dance.

There you have it. I hope you enjoyed your very first taste of Teaser Tuesdays. This little excerpt will remain online for one week. Enjoy it while you can!

*Eventually Jack got too pushy, and poor Incubus got shoved to the back burner so I could get Jack the Reaper out of my head and on the paper.