The Writer's Alphabet - M is for Middle Grade

When writing for young adults, one of the single most important things to identify, is your audience and their age.  It can be difficult to separate young adult from middle grade from new adult, and you can see from these definitions I found online that there are a lot of opinions about it.

The author of the true, classic middle grade novel does not worry about vocabulary choices or simple sentence structure; once children are ready for these books they are good readers. Middle grade novels are characterized by the type of conflict encountered by the main character. Children in the primary grades are still focused inward, and the conflicts in their books reflect that. While themes range from friendship to school situations to relationships with siblings and peers, characters are learning how they operate within their own world. They are solidifying their own identity, experiencing the physical and psychological changes of puberty, taking on new responsibilities all within the boundaries of their family, friends and neighborhood. Yes, your character needs to grow and change during the course of the book, but these changes are on the inside. Middle grade readers are beginning to learn who they are, what they think. Their books need to mirror their personal experience. (from write4kids.com)

From Joe Monti, literary agent with the Barry Goldblatt Literary Agency (on my A-list):
“The publishing guidelines are traditionally for readers from ages 8-12 for middle grade and 12 & up for YA. My experience, particularly as a retailer cautions that these are soft and it’s closer to 7-11 and 11-17. But adult readership of young adult fiction can be as high as 40% for the most popular titles, but generally makes up 20%-25%.”

From Amanda Rutter, editor at Strange Chemistry, the YA imprint of UK-based Angry Robot Books: “Middle grade is very much about the external, in my opinion. The protagonist reacts to external situations and events, which leads to adventurous stories, and there is little time spent in the characters’ heads. Think books like Percy Jackson and Skulduggery Pleasant. On the other hand, YA is often much more introspective, and the protagonist exerts their influence on the events in the novel. Think first person perspective and lots of use of the word ‘I’. Of course, there are always exceptions to every rule!”

And Michael Stearns, agent and founder of Upstart Crow Literary offers these tips:
* “Middle grade novels tend to be shorter.”
* “Middle grade novels tend to have main characters who are the age of—or slightly older than—the target reader.”
* “Middle grade novels tend to be more outwardly focused: Their plot of events, of things happening to the character, is more important over the course of the book than what happens within the character.”
* “Middle grade novels tend to have a simpler vocabulary and a simpler sentence structure.”
* “Middle grade novels tend to have a single inciting element—the thing that sets the comfortable, given world a-kilter.”

Here is my own definition:
MIDDLE GRADE
Between 20,000-45.000 words.  If it's longer and geared to a slightly older audience, but not yet falling under the YA category (think "pre-teen" or "tweener"), you should really refer to the work as upper Middle Grade.  Incidentally, several people in the industry that I consider to be In-The-Know have predicted the Middle Grade genre to be The Next Big Thing.  The same peeps also now project time travel to be a huge theme.  Hmmm.  I think I'm writing one now. *giggle*

Incidentally, I have tackled the middle grade genre with a book called The Detention Demon.  If you get a chance to check it out, let me know how I did.  Thanks!
http://www.amazon.com/The-Detention-Demon-ebook/dp/B0077DTQHG

Guest blog on A Dragon's Love

Guest Post - Samantha Combs

Write it Down

My stepmother is writing her memoirs. In fact, she is not just writing her memoirs, she is actually reliving some of the best moments of her life and loving every minute of it. Mind you, this may never be a publishable product, but it doesn’t matter. She will always love it, her daughter will always love it and she will have it forever. And the stories from her life will have a voice.

I’ve never written a memoir and I have a deep, abiding respect for anyone who does. There are some amazing moments in my life, sure. My wedding, my children’s births, etc. But there are those times in my life I would NEVER want to relive. Being dumped, having a car accident, the death of a friend by suicide. Yeah, not sure I want to write about THAT stuff just now. But it doesn’t mean I never will. Just as my experiences are important for my kids, the knowledge and experiences of my parents has become so much more valuable to me.

For instance, I have lost all four of my grandparents. I never knew my maternal grandfather, he having died shortly after my parent’s wedding. But, by all accounts, he was a multi-layered and fascinating man. From my mother I have learned he was a pugilist in her native England. From my father I learned that he ran the equivalent of a numbers racket in their London hometown. I knew my maternal grandmother, Nanny, since forever. She was funny and opinionated and my favorite story, she carried about two ridonkulously large purses. Because she needed to lug around so much crap, one bag couldn’t hack it. And she smoked cigarettes and constantly let the ash elongate with the threat of dropping on the carpet. From an early age, we learned to say, “Nanny - Ash!” before it tumbled to the ground. She would make a face and when the ash dropped anyway, we would cackle like maniacs. I miss her.

On my father’s side, I knew both grandparents. Grampa, as I remember, was curmudgeonly. He drank seven and sevens and smoked prolifically. My fondest memory is of him sitting in the worn-out armchair (think, Archie Bunker) with one hand around the ubiquitous highball glass, and the other just dipping into his breast pocket for his pack of smokes. When I got older, he didn’t move much from that seat, or any seat he chose, but it didn’t matter. Any family gathering sort of orbited around him. Like, he was the center of our universe and we were inexplicably drawn to him. And if you are thinking he was our rock, you’d be dead wrong. Grandma was.

Grandma was nothing short of amazing. She bore nine children on a farm in North Dakota. She raised them all with good humor and Catholic values. My father was the oldest. She watched all five of her boys join a branch of the armed service, and all four of her girls marry military men. In the late fifties, early sixties, those were the ways you got off the farm. She sent three of her boys to Vietnam, welcomed all of them home, and started collecting grandchildren early. She never forgot a birthday, she loved all nineteen of us grandchildren equally, and her favorite thing to do, back when we were all older and BIG drinkers, after hearing us all stumble in at an ungodly hour, giggling furiously, was to get up out of bed, storm into the kitchen, and throw the most enormous breakfast together we had ever seen. Those drunken, loud, unruly breakfasts are my most favorite memory of her. Oh, that and her ants on a log. (giggle if you know what I’m talking about).

But I digress. I want to make a case for the memoir. Right, so I’ve never written one, but I know the value of one. Since all my grandparents are gone now, their stories went with them. I don’t want that to happen again, so last Christmas I gave both my mother and my father blank life journals. I am encouraging them to write their life stories down. I want to know them, and share them with my children. Every family is different. Most think that their family is the most dysfunctional. Prove it is! Prove it isn’t! Just write it all down. I think, it’s possible, your kids may thank you for it. I know I will thank my folks. If I ever get them back. Um, excuse me now, I have a couple phone calls to make.

Samantha Combs, Author

Check out all 6 of my books!

SPELLBOUND  http://www.amazon.com/Spellbound-Samantha-Combs/dp/1463787936/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&qid=1336187025&sr=8-13

EVERSPELL  http://www.amazon.com/Everspell-Spellbound-ebook/dp/B006Z0LKLC/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1336187120&sr=1-1

GHOSTLY  http://www.amazon.com/Ghostly-ebook/dp/B005ONM5RE/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1336187148&sr=1-1

THE DETENTION DEMON  http://www.amazon.com/The-Detention-Demon-ebook/dp/B0077DTQHG/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1336187185&sr=1-1

TEETH AND TALONS  http://www.amazon.com/Teeth-Talons-Horror-Anthology-ebook/dp/B006X51I4S/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1336187215&sr=1-1

WAY PAST MIDNIGHT  http://www.amazon.com/Way-Past-Midnight-ebook/dp/B0088DXFP8/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1338755543&sr=1-1

Coming in September from Musa Publishing: WATERDANCER, a new YA paranormal

CONNECT WITH ME!

Fan Page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Samantha-Combs-Fan-Page/205186202866933

Email:  samanthacombswrites@gmail.com

Blog: http://www.samanthacombswrites.blogspot.com

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/samanthacombs1

WRITE, PUBLISH, AND BE INFORMED!

Musina Hogs the Spotlight!

This was such a great interview, I am double-dipping it and posting it here from my author friend Joanna Fay's blog.  Is it me, or does Musina sound like a spoiled teenager?

Meet Samantha Combs…and her Muse (up close and personal)

Samantha Combs, fellow author at Musa Publishing and awesome creator of Paranormal YA novels, stretched the boundaries of author interviews recently by posting an interview with me…by my budgie. Now it’s Samantha’s turn! And her feisty Muse-with-an-Attitude, Musina, has kindly (I think) stepped in to give us an amazing window into her pet author’s creative journey.

Welcome, Samantha and Musina. The floor is yours:

Hi, Musina. When did you first meet Samantha, and did she recognize you straight away?

I first came into Sam’s life when she was ready for me.  She had been writing since she was a small girl, but I never sensed the right time.  If you get it wrong, you can totally harsh the gig.  Like the human has creative overload and goes all postal on you.  So I waited.  One night, when she was having one of those conversations you can only have with a four-year-old, I introduced myself.  She didn’t know who I was until long after that, but she knew something had changed.  The writing became more than a hobby.  It became a passion.  She felt me compel her and we wrote her first published novel in 2 months of only writing at night and on weekends during nap time.

What is your favourite way to ‘appear’?

I like the “compelling” thing.  I start as an urge, almost like the human need to go pee…insistent, increasing in strength and just not going away!  She used to hate it, but she gets it now.  Now, she likes it when I compel her to open the laptop, and then we settle in together.  We have reached an easy alliance, her and I.  She knows I am there, and she knows I will run with seed, if only I allow her to plant it.  Most of the time, I try not to interrupt her regular life.  Well, some of the time.  What?  I have a job to do.  Whatever.

Which is your favourite book of Samantha’s? 

I have a special place in my heart for two of them.  The first is Ghostly.  I think more than anyone I resemble the sidekick friend Sixx from that book.  Without her knowing or really understanding, she wrote that character as me.  Smart-assed with an awesome fashion sense.  Yeah!  I also love the one about to release, Waterdancer.  I have always dropped bits of Sam’s life in our writing, but this time, she let a whole lot more in.  When we re-read the final draft, we cried.  We understood so much of Bailey, the main character, of her life.  A lot of it is in that novel.

Can you tell us the sequence of Samantha’s novels and why you chose that order to inspire her with? 

I must admit, I mess with her a bit on that score.  She wrote Spellbound, then I interjected the idea of another two stories before we broached the idea of the sequel.  Plus, those damn characters wouldn’t shut up!  Waking Sam in the middle of the night and making her poke ideas into her smartphone is MY job, damn it.  I couldn’t compete with their insistence, so I finally compelled her to write the damn sequel.  And now the greedy twits want another one!  *sigh*  A muse’s job is NEVER done!

What do you do when Samantha is saying ‘I don’t wanna’? Do you have more than one approach? 

She had a bad patch when she lost that silly job she had.  It was harder to get in.  One day I planted a seed more like the size of a watermelon and sort of smacked her stupid with it.  I came to her as her Mum’s voice.  Never fails now.  Also, like in real estate, it’s all location, location, location.  So I have a favorite.  In the shower.  Now, that’s my best  place to jam ideas in…she’s alone there and rarely anywhere else.  Or in her car while she’s driving.  At least there she can take notes.  Thank you, iphone and Siri! (A cousin of mine….distantly related.  She’s okay, just a bit of a know-it-all.  It’s annoying.  Whatever.)

What do you like to do best in your spare time (if you get spare time)?

Untangle traffic jams, find lost wedding rings, but nothing directly related to another individual.  For better or for worse, Sam and I are together for life.  See, once you discover a Muse, she will forever after be your inspiration, and yours alone.  It takes a while for you to find each other.  I’ve had failures, sure.  Vanilla Ice, the movie Ishtar, and Crocs.  But, then, there was Sam.  She’s a keeper.  But, you know, I was like, assigned to her.  I have to stay.  It’s not like I love her or anything.  She just….she gets me.  It’s cool.  Whatever.

Do you have any special advice to other Muses? 

Keep trying to find your person.  It’s really kicky when your seed becomes something that makes others laugh or cheer or cry. That’s when I know she is at her full creative potential.  And I am fulfilling mine.  What’s not to like?  Winner, winner, chicken dinner, everybody gets a prize!  It’s a rockin’ cool partnership, like….like peanut butter and bread.  Most people say peanut butter and jelly, but without the bread, where do you spread it?  Right?  She’s my bread.  Whatever.

Samantha, you’ve got your work cut out for you…and I somehow think Musina’s still got plenty of novels up her sleeve for you. Keep having fun, you two!

Take a look at Samantha’s novels :

SPELLBOUND

EVERSPELL

GHOSTLY

THE DETENTION DEMON 

TEETH AND TALONS 

WAY PAST MIDNIGHT 

And coming in September from Musa Publishing: WATERDANCER, a new YA paranormal.

CONNECT WITH SAMANTHA!

Fan Page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Samantha-Combs-Fan-Page/205186202866933

Email:  samanthacombswrites@gmail.com

Blog: http://www.samanthacombswrites.blogspot.com

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/samanthacombs1

WRITE, PUBLISH, AND BE INFORMED!

The Story of a Story - My Next Release: WATERDANCER -

One of the most important things I ever read on the Internet was about the toughness and loneliness of the writer's life.  How you are rejected, time and again, and how to beat the discouragement you may feel.  I have even blogged about the ways I shrug off the disappointment and soldier on.  And the single piece of advice that rang true for me was this:  Write a book, try to get published, and while you are waiting for that to happen, write another one.  And another one.

Happily, even though doing that is completely harder than it sounds, I've been able to do just that very thing. I keep at it, knowing that while I may never get rich at this, I am getting good at it and I am getting happy at it.  I now have six published books (six!) and besides my kids, nothing gives me greater joy than looking at them all lined up in a row, like pretty flowers in a garden of my own making.  And as the Head Gardener, (or Landscaper for the PC crowd), I decide what gets planted next, which seeds can be watered with the flow of words, and which lovelies are ready to be dressed up and showcased for all the world to see.  And so, I have a new flower for the yard.

WATERDANCER, published with Musa Publishing house, will be released on September 7, 2012, two months from now.  It occurred to me some aspiring writers might want to know what my whole process for the publishing is, laid out step-by-step.  So, here it is:

I submitted the completed, edited, properly formatted manuscript to the publisher on September 30, 2011.  I had one book already placed with the publisher, so predictably, I felt I had an edge.  But, make no mistake, the manuscript I submitted still had to be ready, in every sense of the word.  I felt it was, and still do feel quite proud of the story.  But, when I submitted it, I was nervous and doubtful, like I always am, of my own talent and ability to entice on a query.

On October 13th, the head editor requested the full manuscript.  A week later she offered me a contract.  I signed and was given my release date of 9-7-12.  It seemed a long way away, but I was over the moon with the acceptance.  I had four others planned for release anyway, to keep me busy.

I released my two self-published adult horror collections, TEETH and TALONS, and WAY PAST MIDNIGHT, and Astraea Press released EVERSPELL, the sequel to SPELLBOUND.  Musa also released my MG horror, THE DETENTION DEMON.  So, I was busy!

My edits for WATERDANCER began in May.  I completed two rounds of content edits and the manuscript has now gone to the last edit round, Line Edits.  Next step will be the cover design.  I'll keep you updated as to how this goes.  I have submitted my own ideas and some free images that embody my ideas.

I have experienced a couple different ways of being published, and I am happy to answer any questions you may have.  Funny thing about being an author, after the joy of typing The End, its pretty much perfunctory following that.  The steps are always the same: Proof, edit, proof, edit, tighten, organize, format, then proof and edit a couple dozen more times.  Have people read it, people NOT related to you (trust me here, Mom will love everything you write...not a good foundation for truth there) and then proof and edit it again.  Also, spell-check is NOT your friend.

I will next update after the Line Edits and cover designing.  And look for WATERDANCER coming 9-7-12, and any of my others that might interest you.  And tell me about yours, too....I read as well!

Wanna Know Some Secrets About Me? I Tell ALL!

I was the guest blogger today on the Musa Publishing Blog, under the Ten Things blog.  I chose to do something fun since I spend so much time on the business of writing, I thought you might want to know something about me that has nothing to do with my books.  Get to know me here:  http://musapublishing.blogspot.com/2012/03/top-ten-things-i-never-leave-house.html or just read about it here.

Author Samantha Combs,

Author of Spellbound, Everspell, Ghostly, Teeth and Talons, and The Detention Demon confesses all!

Check out the Top Ten Things I Never Leave the House Without:

1.       Pink lipstick, Cover Girl #415 and a compact, since I was sixteen, actually

2.       Shoes that make me feel like a rock star (I can do ANYTHING with the right shoes!)

3.       Bookmarks for any of my books (Spellbound, at the moment)

4.       Gum (only spearmint, never, never, ever cinnamon)

5.       Dangly earrings that jingle in my ears (they don’t even have to match anything I’m wearing at the moment to make the cut)

6.       Migraine medication ( because the headache doesn’t care how busy my day is)

7.       My Iphone, not as much for calls than for emails, (and the notebook function that lets me jot notes for books as they come to me, as they do, all day long, plus the recorder function, for the same reason)

8.       Stamps (sometimes I carry them so long they expire and I need more, but I always have them)

9.       Sunglasses, big round ones like Jackie O my hubs hates (sorry hubs, I lurve them!)

10.   A small purse that goes around my shoulder.  I despise big purses that look more like a mine shaft, and those small ones with such a short strap they snug up into your armpit.

See?........

Why Writing Horror is Scary

I was lucky enough to be a guest poster on Musa Publishing's blog for the Young Adult novelists, called Euterpe.  I told the story of how my latest release, middle grade horror story, The Detention Demon, came to be.  You may not have read it, so I'd like to share it here.

Why Writing Horror is Scary    by Samantha Combs

When I was a young girl, I was a fanatic reader.  I had books piled up in my bedroom, jammed in my backpack and even crammed in my purse (small paperbacks can be stuffed in; you don’t really need a wallet at fourteen.)  I think now it’s a good thing my parents didn’t pay a lot of attention to what I was reading…..I think they might have been fairly freaked out.  The Oh-My-God-Maybe-She-Needs-A-Psychiatrist kind of freaked out.  Because I wasn’t reading what you might think a young girl was reading.  No siree.

I had no time for anyone from anywhere called Sweet Valley High.  I loved those True Detective Magazines with the gory story about how the woman was attacked.  I read Go Ask Alice, a wrenching story about a teenage runaway.  I devoured anything by Robert A. Heinlen and even though I pretended to be as bored as my peers with the reading selections from my English classes, secretly, I was in heaven.  I pounced on Animal Farm and Slaughterhouse Five and I, Robot.  I cruised sections of the school library that l am now certain was never frequented by the student body.  Maybe, you’re getting it now…..I had, um, different tastes.

When I wrote stories, everyone always died.  Horribly.  Without limbs.  And I got older.  I developed an all-consuming fascination for true crime as well, worshipping at the literary feet of veteran story spinners like Ann Rule.  I read about Bundy and the Green River killer and Son of Sam.  Then I found and tore through Wes Craven and Michael Crichton.  And then one amazing, wonderful, life-changing day, I stumbled across a book at a yard sale called Night Shift.

A collection of short horror stories, I couldn’t put the book down for hours, and I couldn’t sleep with the night off for days.  I scrambled to get everything on this writer, this Stephen King.  I became one of the followers, the faithful.  No one could write like him, ever, I thought.  But, Man, I sure wanted to.

I tried my hand at horror.  I sucked. I look at my efforts from then now and I’m embarrassed.  I knew NOTHING about writing suspense and drama and tension.   But I found I could write a story that someone besides my Mum would read.  And I got older.

A lot older.  Like marriage, husband, homes and children older.  So I shelved the horror and wrote little stories for the kids.  Then one day two years ago, a little story became a little novella, which became a novel, which became a Young Adult paranormal series.  I was proud of it, and prouder still when it published.  And even more when it won an award!  But I wanted to do more.  I wanted to write horror.  And I wanted it to be in my own writing style, not anyone else’s.  No matter how much I worshipped them.

So I wrote one or two stories and let them marinate, to see how they might taste after a while.  They tasted good.  I wrote a couple more and then I my Muse made her appearance.  I call her Musina.

My son had been given detention at school for an infraction and carried on so much about it, I wondered what could be wrong with the teacher.  Musina planted a seed.  I wondered what would happen if there was something wrong with him.  I asked my son what he thought about it and he, wise sage that he is, said, Hey Mommy, maybe boys would like it enough to keep reading. Wouldn’t that be cool, Mommy?  Musina and I got busy and just like that, The Detention Demon was born.

But I was worried.  How would a horror story aimed at young boys go over?  There are so few “boycentric” books out there, if I wrote a bad one, it would really stand out.  And anyway, wasn’t R.L.Stine already doing it?  But once again, Musina set me straight.  No, he didn’t have a monopoly on the genre, she said.  You write whatever you want.  It’ll be great.  And if only one boy gets the reading bug, wouldn’t that be worth it?  So I did.  And shock of all shocks, a publisher liked it.  I was scheduled for a release date!

Then the nagging feeling came back.  What if I couldn’t write horror?  What if I wasn’t scary enough?  I had to test run something.  So I packaged my short horror stories together in an anthology, self-published it and held my breath. 

Ready for the shocker?  They liked it!  They actually liked it a lot!  So, now I am back to holding my breath.  The Detention Demon released today and I’m waiting to exhale.  I hope you enjoy it and even more, I hope you give it to your son and I hope he just thinks…..it’s cool.

 A raggedy group of delinquents, thrown together by circumstance, get the opportunity to prove if rumors about the detention teacher being less than human are true and discover it doesn’t take years of friendship to bond together and overcome evil.

Wayne is a Junior High school boy who just got detention for fighting in school to protect his longtime best friend, Gumby.  But recently, there have been stories about detention.  Kids have mysteriously disappeared, creating creepy rumors about detention class. Now, Wayne finds himself trapped in there with school bully Bubba Dugan.  Keeping his distance from Bubba won’t be Wayne’s only problem.  In fact, those rumors about the detention teacher don’t seem like stories at all.

With his best friend Gumby, a crew of delinquents and a surprising late addition, a pretty cheerleader harboring a secret crush, Wayne and his group of misfits will have to band together to outwit the detention teacher.  He’s protected his best friend from harm his whole life…..but, can he protect him and everyone else against something that might not even be human?

About the Author:  Samantha Combs is the Global Ebook Award-winning author of Spellbound, and book two in the series, Everspell.  An additional YA ghost story, Ghostly is her third publication, as well as a short horror story collection, Teeth and Talons, A Horror Anthology, her fourth.  She writes for Astraea Press and Musa Publishing and for the sheer love of it.  Following the release of The Detention Demon, her fifth published book, look for Waterdancer, a new YA paranormal from Musa Publishing coming in September of 2012. 

CONNECT WITH ME!

Fan Page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Samantha-Combs-Fan-Page/205186202866933

Email:  samanthacombswrites@gmail.com

Blog: http://www.samanthacombswrites.blogspot.com

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/samanthacombs1

WRITE, PUBLISH, AND BE INFORMED!

I Guest-Blogged Today

Today I was proud to be the guest blogger at Seriously Reviewed.  I talk about the difficulty of getting started and what I do to conquer it.  I'm re-posting the blog here.  Let me know what YOU do when you get "stuck".  Open the link here:  http://seriouslyreviewedarchive.blogspot.com/2012/02/samantha-combs.html?showComment=1328331064675#c8366555517035218445  or read below:

I want to write about an unpopular subject in the writing world…..starting.  After you have the first book under your belt, you sit back, try to relax and wait for the next amazing idea to hit you.  But before that happens, I won’t lie….it’s murder.

I still treat every manuscript the same way I did with the first.  I don’t open the Word document and stare at a blank page.  No way.  That would make me insane.  And I don’t start in the beginning, either.  I realize that might make you insane.  But I couldn’t, and still can’t, force what won’t come.

You see, I’ve been a writer my whole life.  Oh, yes, I’ve written notes, and checks and To-Do lists.  I’ve written addresses and reminders and hate mail to the cable company.  I’d even written short little tales for my kids.  What I had never done was write a novel.  I knew I had one in me, and back then I could only think as far as that one.  Then one day my four year old daughter announced she wanted to marry Edward the Vampire.  Really?  A cold-as-ice interloper with abandonment issues?  Hell, no, that was not going to happen.  I decided I needed to give her a role model who was a real man, someone I would be proud if she brought him home.  Someone with heart and valor and courage.  I jotted a few words down, then a couple sentences, and soon, several paragraphs.

As I was enjoying shaping my characters and world-building, I suddenly realized…..OMG, I was writing a novel!  The very idea scared me so much that I closed the computer and didn’t open it again for two weeks.  The laptop sat on the couch, blinking it’s lights at me in an accusatory manner.  I would glance at it, longing to be drawn to it, but never quite feeling the pull.

I turned to the one person in my life who would know what to do.  My mum.  Not a fellow writer, an editor, or even my husband, patient as he tried to be with my dark looks across the living room at an innocent piece of technology.  “You’re not writing tonight?” he would ask.  “No.” I would snap, closing the door on further conversation.  I was confounded, stymied, misunderstood.  What was the problem?  What could help?

My mum knew.  I asked her over the phone if “it” had left me.  The elusive urge to create, the need to divine, the absolute requirement to spill my imaginary worlds onto my laptop keyboard.  I could hear her laugh over the phone.  “You always do this,” she said.  “You get overwhelmed by the task.  Just do the next thing on the list.”

She was right, of course.  I always over think things.  It’s the curse of the perfectionist, the detailed, the

life-long list-maker.  And I’m a Scorpio, just to complicate matters.  But my mummy’s words rang a bell of understanding, of acceptance, even of empowerment.  Damn right!  I was the writer and I would not let a little story take me down.  I hung up the phone and marched into the living room.  I flipped up the laptop and told it, “Okay, then.  Bring it!”  It took me only six weeks after that to finish my book.

Next time you are facing the same situation, don’t go as long as I did.  When Mum gave me the key to continue writing, I did.  I wrote one chapter at a time.  I set tiny, easy goals for myself.  Write one chapter.  Write 500 words.  Write 500 words that aren’t edited all to hell the next day.  And one more goal….never force myself.  And I always think of the next scene, the next chapter, the next book, in the exact same way.  Just the next thing on the list.

BIO:  Samantha Combs writes YA and MG and currently has four books  available.  Her first, Spellbound, a YA paranormal fantasy, has won the Global Ebook Award for Speculative Fiction-Fantasy.  The follow-up, Book Two, called Everspell, released in January.  There will be a third.  She has another YA paranormal called Ghostly and a self-published horror anthology entitled Teeth and Talons.  Two more books are scheduled for release in 2012, The Detention Demon, a Middle Grade horror, and Waterdancer, a YA fantasy.  She is a proud author for Astraea Press and Musa Publishing.

Samantha loves to connect with new and aspiring writers and authors.  Please visit her blog at www.samanthacombswrites.blogspot.com or her facebook page www.facebook.com/AuthorSamanthaCombs.

My Dress Code for 2012

I haven't been silent about the suck-ass year 2011 was for me and my family.  My employer went bankrupt, laid me off and closed and still owes me back wages.  I was unemployed for six months and we barely made it through, before I found another job.  I believed this job was the answer, and instead, it only compounded the problem and skewed my whole family dynamic.  I ended up working unconventional hours and undesirable days, an agreement I still don't remember making at hire.  Nevertheless, I enjoyed the job....at first.

It soon became clear to me it was harmful to my children for me to be away at critical hours of the day, namely nights and weekends.  My Mum HATED the job and even though I loved the people working under and with me, I grew to as well.  She fervently begged me to leave it and I began to consider doing that, mentally.  I just wasn't there yet.  I wanted 2011 to be over.

Even though last year was my break-in year, those two books I published through Astraea Press were a small island in a huge ocean of crap.  That being said, you know now why I am hanging my star on 2012.  And its starting out great so far.

I begin a new job on Monday.  A job, I just know, I will excel at and is smack in the middle of my wheelhouse.  I have no less than three new publications releasing this year.  Digital at first, but if I make the sales threshold, I'll see them in print.  Everspell (YA, Astraea Press) in January, The Detention Demon (Middle Grade, Musa Publishing) in Feb and Waterdancer (YA, Musa Publishing) in September.  I also have three (maybe four!) manuscripts-in-waiting that I am writing and am super-excited about where the storyline is headed.

I bought my daughter new dresses and my son a new baseball glove yesterday.  I shouldn't have, but didn't care.  With all the times I had to say "No" last year, it thrilled me to say "yes".  And I wouldn't trade the looks on my babies faces for anything.

So, please forgive me my personal pep talk.  I am happy.  Happier than I have been in a very long time.  Many people have said it, but now I can really believe it.......2012 is my year.  Welcome to my own kind of debutante ball.  My own coming-out, absence only the prom-style dress.  Tapping away on my trusty Toshiba, I'm more comfortable in pink fuzzy slippers, thank you.

New Cover for The Detention Demon

Hi fans!

Wanted to drop a quick note here to introduce the new cover for my fourth publication, the forthcoming Middle Grade horror story, The Detention Demon.  And also to shout from the rooftops, again, about my amazing publisher, Musa Publishing.

My book is due in less than a month and I am fully edited, have a freaky-neat cover, and am fully ready for the February 10, 2012 release date.  Color me impressed.

I hope you are too.  Check out the new cover!

Here's the blurb:

Wayne is a Junior High school boy who just got detention for fighting in school to protect his longtime best friend, Gumby.  But recently, there have been stories about detention.   Kids have mysteriously disappeared, creating creepy rumors about detention class. Now, Wayne finds himself trapped in there with school bully Bubba Dugan.  Keeping his distance from Bubba won’t be Wayne’s only problem.  In fact, those rumors about the detention teacher don’t seem like stories at all. 

With his best friend Gumby, a crew of delinquents and a surprising late addition, a pretty cheerleader harboring a secret crush, Wayne and his group of misfits will have to band together to outwit the detention teacher.  He’s protected his best friend from harm his whole life…..but, can he protect him and everyone else against something that might not even be human?  

I am stoked for both the release AND the new cover and I'm sure this will appeal to a young boy, who is my first target audience.  Of course, I dream the book will appeal to all.  Please be sure and let me know what YOU think.

A Warning About Aspen Mountain Press

I am linking this from a fellow author at Aspen Mountain Press.  One of my books, The Detention Demon, is in the same predicament.  We are not bitter, unkind authors.  We have been wronged.  Please read the following statement I am linking from here:  http://www.wellstonpublishing.com/

DO NOT BUY ANYTHING WITH THE ASPEN MOUNTAIN PRESS  LABEL FROM ANY BOOK SELLER WEB SITE The Book listed below is being held hostage by  Sandra Hicks the owner of Aspen Mountain Press She sells Sand Hill Estates The Murders on Amazon.com and  Fictionwise.com but she has not paid the author a single dime in over a year! She has never paid the cover artist for her work. She has never paid the Editor for her work. She has paid the author little to NO royalties and nothing since  January of 2010. She holds the contract rights on three sequels to this book but  none of them have been touched in preparation for Publishing. Why?  Because all of her editors or cover artists have quit.  She didn't pay them. All of her very talented office staff quit. She didn't pay them. No other publisher will accept these books until SANDRA HICKS  signs release of rights back to the Author.  She received Emails, Certified letters, and phone calls. She refuses to respond to any. She refuses to publish the books and she refuses to return them but Charles Wells is not alone. There are over 40 other writers in the same/similar situation.  Some of them have books out of contract date that are still being sold by Aspen Mountain and still putting money in her pocket. Instead of doing the legal and moral thing by closing up shop and returning contract rights to these authors, SANDRA HICKS has cut them off. She does not communicate by email, phone, or certified mail with any of them. If another publisher were to start selling ANY of these books,  she will most likely sue them using STOLEN money to hire the  lawyers and try to get MORE money. The law protects her, not  the writers. She is using the law to hide behind and steal from writers plus her actions are depriving the general reading public of some very popular books out there today. We here at Wellston Publishing ask the public to  STOP BUYING ANY BOOKS from Aspen Mountain Press. BOYCOTT ASPEN MOUNTAIN PRESS
	DO NOT BUY ANYTHING WITH THE ASPEN MOUNTAIN PRESS LABEL  ON ANY BOOK SELLER WEB SITES

My Personal Path to Publication - Samantha Combs

As promised, my new series, My Personal Path to Publication, begins with me.  I can't really ask my author friends to dig into their most personal thoughts and share their journey unless I am willing to do the same.  So, without further ado, lets get this party started!

1.   How long have you been writing?

I turned in a poem instead of a book report in the third grade.  I'm pretty sure that's when it started.  Since then I've written most of my life, short stories, novellas, poems, even comics, but I only got serious about it last year.

2.   Are you published and if so, how long have you been a published author?  If not, what’s your plan?

I am published, with Astraea Press, for my debut novel, Spellbound, which was released on June 14th, 2011 and Ghostly, which will release at the end of September.  I have a third novel, a horror novel called The Detention Demon which was supposed to be released on Oct. 3rd, but I'm sure it won't.  The publisher, Aspen Mountain Press, is in the middle of a spectacular meltdown and implosion.  My book, along with every other book they own rights to, and every author signed to them, is trapped there.  My fourth book, Everspell, a sequel to Spellbound, was just accepted by Astraea this week.  I am a very prolific writer, so I plan to continue writing and publishing at an astonishing rate!

3.   Which route did you choose for becoming published, the traditional route, with an agent, the “indie” route, going directly to the publishers yourself, or deciding to self-publish?

At first, I had every intention of getting an agent.  Whose idea was it to make it so goddamn hard? Spellbound was rejected 65 times.  I lie a lot about that figure.  It embarrasses me.  No one hears that some of the rejections were handwritten and had some of the most unbelievable things to say, some of the most encouraging "no"s you could imagine.  But then, after they would request more pages, they would still reject it.  What the hell does "we just don't see it fitting on our list" even mean?  I finally took that to mean YOU have a problem, not me.  It means YOU can't sell my fabulous book, not that my book wasn't fabulous.  That was how I forced myself to look at it.  But that got harder and harder to do at rejection #38, and #47, and almost ridiculous at rejection #53.  And then I submitted to Harlequin Teen.  They requested a full.

My husband and I did the stupidest thing.  We were so sure that meant they wanted it we made lists.  Bills To Pay With The Advance Money.  Things To Buy The Kids With The Advance Money.  Big Things to Just Buy With The Advance Money.  I mean, really.....who makes THREE lists?  We did. The rejection letter KILLED me.  My husband came home and found me sobbing.  He seriously thought someone died.  Non-writers just don't get it.  All he knew was, he was NOT getting new truck tires.

4.   How long did it take you to write your first novel?

I write fast.  Normally, it takes me about three months to write a manuscript.  Spellbound took two and a half month.  I write at night and on the weekends when the little one took naps.  She doesn't do that anymore, so I have extended the night hours.  I write from about 930pm to 12 or 130am.  I never give myself a word count.

5.   How long did it take you to publish it?

From agent stalking to actual acceptance, 15 months.

6.   How many times did it get rejected before it got published?

The aforementioned 65 times

7.   Describe your worst rejection letter.

The letter said they could not connect with the character, Sabrina, and that witches and vampires were out of vogue.  There is no vampire in my book and the character is named Serena, not Sabrina.  I was deflated. They had not read it.  I was dismissed by someone who didn't even read the book.  A book which has won the Globel Ebook Award for best Speculative Fiction - Fantasy, thank you very much.  Class and decorum precludes me from mentioning them here, but you would be shocked, my friends.

8.   Describe the best news you ever got in your writing life and how it felt.

When I received the email from Astraea Press from them ASKING me if I would like them to publish my book (ASKING ME!!!), I nearly missed it because I was so pre-conditioned to rejection.  I read it over and over, like you might look at a winning lottery ticket.  I didn't believe that they believed in me.  One small email made me believe in myself again.

9.   What’s the worst piece of advice you ever got?

One rejection letter said I had too many characters in Spellbound and I would confuse the reader.  I felt insulted for the reader.  I write young adult because I love the period of time in my life where everything was in discovery and enlightenment.  I never want to be denigrating or dumb down my books.  By asking me to reduce my cast of characters, I think that's exactly what that agent was telling me to do.  I felt that agent was advising me that my young adult audience wouldn't be savvy enough to handle it.  My reviews have proven that wrong.

10.                Now, tell us the best.

Don't give up.  Understand that every rejection is just one person's opinion and another person will have an entirely different one.  

11.                What’s the one thing you would want an aspiring writer to take away from your personal path to publication?

Writing is a learning process.  If you are not discovering something new every single solitary day, then you are doing it WRONG.  Read blogs, Write blogs, and then when you have written your blog, go back and read some more.  Research everything you can on your genre and the business of writing, because you can never forget that THIS IS A BUSINESS.  You can't just write something and sit back.  You have to learn how to query and logline and write a synopsis and then market the whole damn thing.  Learn how to spot and rely on an expert.  Because if you are a writer, chances are that is what you want to be doing with your time.  You are NOT an editor, you need one.  You are NOT a cover artist, you need one.  If you can, get an expert to help YOU market YOU.  'Cuz, lets face it, wouldn't you rather spend that time, um, writing?
And most of all, LISTEN, LISTEN, LISTEN.  Learn to listen to those authors who have gone before you and been there and done that AND are selling the t-shirt to prove it.  They have learned the ropes, they have EARNED the ropes, and if you are lucky enough to be in their presence when they start talking, sit down, shut up, and start taking notes.  Go to as many conferences as you can afford and write down everything they have to say.  
Here's a surprising fun fact:  I went to my first conference in September of last year.  It caused me to rework my manuscript for a month after Christmas.(family in town)  Guess when I got a contract?  Yeah, you guessed it.....Feb 2011.  Coincidence?  You be the judge.

So, here will be the part where the sharing author can put all their contact information.  I will assume you know mine already.  

I hope you enjoyed my story.  Please comment and let me know if you did and look forward to the other exciting authors coming soon!