"To be a writer is to sit down at one's desk in the chill portion of every day, and to write; not waiting for the little jet of the blue flame of genius to start from the breastbone — just plain going at it, in pain and delight. To be a writer is to throw away a great deal, not to be satisfied, to type again, and then again, and once more, and over and over." ~ John Hersey

Hi! Thanks for stopping by my Livejournal. I'm Kathleen Foucart, aspiring author and proud writer of YA fantasy fiction. Feel free to explore the tags and archives and to add me to your Friends list.

Who am I?

I'm a recent graduate of the MFA in Children's Literature program at Hollins University- I absolutely adored it, so if you're thinking of getting an MA or MFA in Children's Lit, I highly recommend the Hollins program.

I'm married to my wonderful Hubby, who doesn't think I'm too crazy (or at least, too crazy to marry). We have a Great Dane named Emma Hermione; she has a big bark, but is really a cuddle-bug. Just watch out for her talons.

I write, read, sometimes knit, watch too much TV and drink too much coffee. I'm on Twitter and Facebook, and I try to remember to cross-post blog entries to My Blogger account and Myspace but often forget because LJ is my first love (and I actually know how to use it- mostly).

But honestly, most of my time is taken up with writing, whether I'm working on a first draft, a fourth draft, updating my wiki, writing a query letter or staring at the screen for half an hour straight, hands in my hair, muttering "What in the world happens next?" repeatedly.

What do I write?

Like I said, I write YA fantasy fiction, which means I write books about teenagers for teenagers (and adults) who like to read about wizards, magic, werewolves, vampires, shape-shifters, faeries, and a lot of other things that may or may not exist. ;-) And while I don't rule out writing non-fantasy stories or books for adults, YA fantasy is where my heart is.

I've got two completed manuscripts (not counting all the near-misses that were my tutorials in 'how not to write' when I was younger), the first in the querying stage and the second in revision.

ARION is an edgy/dark piece about a teenage boy in a Regency-era world who discovers his father is a Big, Evil Wizard- and Arion has to train to take over. It’s got magic, potion-abuse, romance and lots of family turmoil.

WINGS & FANGS: BEWITCHED is about a sixteen-year-old immortal shape-shifter who rescues a classmate from a werewolf, only to find this classmate isn’t all he seems.

If you have questions I didn’t answer, feel free to check my user info, ask in the comments section of any of my entries, or to email me at kathleenfoucart at gmail dot com.

I'm close to hitting Chapter 30*.

This is the chapter that derailed me for at least a month, maybe more, on my last draft. It's a lot of talky-talky and I knew it was a lot of talky-talky, which made it all the worse.

It made me mad. I couldn't see how to get out of the talking cleanly and I couldn't figure out a way to just skip it so I sat there and fumed at it every day, getting more and more frustrated... until I just had to go forward. I wasn't going to fix it in that draft, and I just had to admit it to myself.

I remember in one of my classes with Han Nolan, she said something about writing a thousand pages for a story and whittling it down for there**. Which is basically what I'm doing.

From my last count, I have cut 30,293 words and 104 pages from this novel. In the next round I'm sure some parts will be plumped up, while some will slim down or be removed. That's what revision is.

But I had to have that fat draft to know where I was going. And I can't wait to get this draft finished & out to beta readers so I can use draft three to really make the story shine.


*By the old chapter counts.
** No, I can't remember her exact words, and some of it could have been hyperbole.

I'm still undecided as to whether or not this will be a good thing for me, but so far, I'm leaning toward good.

Knowing I have to write 1666/7 words/day to meet the 50000 word/month mark means I don't get to slack off. I opened the chapter I'd left off on in my revision. I stared at it. I had no idea what happened next. So I just carried the conversation along a little (*yawn* I'll probably be cutting quite a bit of that), then threw in a curve of a question, one I needed to have one MC ask and the other answer; I just had nowhere to put it before. Now it's there.

I went on to put in a bit more tension in the one MC's family situation (not a lot, I'll up that later) and an argument between two characters who hadn't argued like that before, but probably needed to for it to be more realistic.

I'd have stopped before the tension and the argument if I hadn't been pushing to hit the daily goal.

Is this the best stuff I've ever written? No; but this is a weird sort of revision. It's more of a rewrite- from memory. Some stuff's the same, some's changing. But I think this goal is going to push me to the end a lot faster than if I just kept going at the pace I've been going.

If Wild & Wonderful Writer's Retreat was the kick-in-the-pants I needed to get back to my characters/world/story, Fakey NaNo is what (I hope) is going to keep up the momentum.

Day 1 Word Count: 1889

Just saw this via Twitter & thought I'd share a little Halloween treat ;-)






Check out all of Debbie Ridpath Ohi's comics at Inkygirl: Daily Diversions for Writers!

So, I've taken in everyone's feedback regarding NaNo and my own weird dream in which I was driving a car in reverse & couldn't stop it (which I took to mean something...), and have decided not to NaNo.

I think it's great for people who want to do it, who think it will jump start them into a new story or help them grow as a writer, but I don't think it is right for me. I'm basically never going to be at a point where I have a brand new story to work on, and trying to come up with one just to come up with one when I have, oh, six or so that could be worked on.... Yeah. Just not the best thing for me to do for me & my career.

However...

I'm going to revise my JoNo goals to include 50000 words in November. I could join up with the group that's aiming for 30000 in November, but since I'm right around there per month anyway, I don't think it will help me. I want a challenge.

So I'm going to try and hit 50000 words. I'm not going to say they'll all be in one story, or even one series, but I will not do my usual round-up*, in compliance with the NaNo word counter. I think this will be fun and it might be what I need to really wrap-up this revision- since it's more of a "rewrite the story from memory to leave out all the boring bits" revision, this will force me to just keep writing instead of stopping to examine/edit/bemoan my overuse of "just," "basically," etc. (That's what Draft 3 is for.)

And who knows, maybe I'll even get to those SFDs of W&F2 or 3 ;-)


*Don't judge- I only round up to the nearest hundred, and not if I think I didn't write/delete enough words to make up for the rounding- if the word count says I wrote 608 words, I say I wrote 600. If it says I wrote 657, I say 700.

We're rapidly approaching National Novel Writing Month, more commonly known as November.

I've never done NaNo. Last year I was still first-drafting on W&F1. The year before that, Arion.

But NaNo never really appealed to me. Start a new novel? For goodness' sake, why? I've had been mid-way through any number of novels since I was in 8th grade. It never made sense to me to start a new one just to start a new one.

Er, until now.

The revision on Wings & Fangs: Bewitched is going pretty well. But I think it would go better (& I'd have less to do in draft 3) if I knew arc for the whole series. As I am incapable of outlining (I know this because W&F1 was supposed to be an entirely different book), the only way for me to figure out where the story goes is, well, to write the story.

Here's where NaNo comes in. IMO, it's as good an excuse as any to work on a SFD. I'll have a definite start/end date and a bunch of other people will be throwing down a first draft at the same time, so a lot of people will be discussing similar issues, etc.

I do have a few 'problems' though...

1) Per the rules of NaNo, this needs to be a totally new story. For 'totally new' I have to jump to book 3 (and even then, I'm not sure a couple scenes I've already written wouldn't go into that).

2) I really should give W&F1 my attention while it's going at a good pace.

3) I'm already involved in JoNoWriMo + 1.5. (My goals for that are to finish the revision and to write a few chapters of a new piece.)


Given where I am in my revision*, it would make more sense to stick with JoNo only and not jump into NaNo, too. But seeing all these people on LJ, FB and Twitter who are diving in does make it sound interesting. I write close to 33000 words/month anyway (average), so it would be a bit of a hike to 50000. But I don't think it would be an unmanageable one.

So I guess all this rambling here is to ask your opinion. NaNo or simply continue on with JoNo goals?



*I'm on Chapter 18 out of 40. Since I'm just about at the halfway mark, it seems reasonable to think another solid month of writing could finish it.

I haven't been posting much lately, but it's not because I didn't want to. My revision was stalling out, I've been too tired to give much thought to writing craft (as opposed to just getting some BIC writing done), and I just plain didn't have much to say.

And, let's face it, the revision not going well was my main reason- if I wasn't getting much writing done, how could I talk about writing?

I'm still working on the revision, but I got a fantastic kick-start this weekend in the form of the very first "Wild & Wonderful Writer's Retreat," organized by my friend amieroserotruck.

On Saturday, when I opened up the most recent document I'd been working on in my revision, I realized I hadn't written anything in the actual revision in something like 2 weeks. Two weeks! Unacceptable, IMO. So, sitting in The Quiet Cabin with soniaamiller and not-yet-on-LJ-Amelia (I'm trying to get her to join!), I started typing.

When you're in a room with two other people intent on their own work, in silence only broken by the odd-music channel on DISH Network or your own iPod, you have two options: waste your time playing games or work. I worked.

I finished Chapter 12. I started Chapter 13.

I finished Chapter 13. I started Chapter 14.

The next day, I finished Chapter 14. I started Chapter 15.

Then I finished Chapter 15 and started Chapter 16.

Somewhere between 15 and 16 I re-discovered a plot hole, so I've been mending/filling it in since late Sunday night. But I think I've finally found a workable solution, so I'm ready to get back to finishing Chapter 16.

This was exactly what I needed. Not only did I get a chunk of writing done, I had a great critique session, did a cold-read piece (ARION back-story I want to turn into short-story) & got some good feedback, had a ton of fantastic writerly-talk, and a lot of laughs and chocolate. (And by "a lot" of chocolate, I mean I think I subsisted almost entirely on chocolate/sweets/coffee all weekend...)

And, since the Roanoke-Car, consisting of Amelia, Mialie & myself, all reached our writing goals for the weekend (50 pages for Amelia, finished-panels for Mialie & three chapters for me), we rewarded ourselves with a stop at the Green Valley Book Fair.

And now, Chapter 16 needs some attention again...



For Amie's write-up on the weekend, click here!

Still hiding away in a cabin in WV, but I somehow managed to forget to post this when it first appeared, so here is the trailer for Stephanie Burgis's A Most Improper Magick!




Note: This is my entry for the A Most Improper Magick book tralier competition. Read the rules and enter at http://www.stephanieburgis.com/competition.php.


Seriously, go to Stephanie's website & read the first chapter. It's fantastic. I'm calling A Most Improper Magick my next-favorite-book, since I don't get to read the rest until April!

1) I'm going on a writing retreat this weekend!

2) And by this weekend, I mean I have to leave to meet my carpool (& do some shopping & p/u my paycheck) in about 2 hours. Maybe less. Okay, more like less.

3) So... I really don't have time to be on here.

4) Which means I should go.

5) According to Almighty Retreat Leader Amie there should be interwebz access... I really hope so, or my Twitter withdrawal might cause me to twitch. ;-)




Here's to hoping this weekend kick-starts more writing & more posting in the future... I know you guys miss me. I mean, I think you do. Right? *looks around worriedly*



Also, for anyone on the Super F-Lock list, I still could use a little help!

I promise a real writing post at some point (when was the last time I had time for that??), but for now a great, big Congratulations! to jessica_shea for finding her agent-match! :-)

Head on over to her post here for details & to leave your own congrats!

I credit much of my growth as a writer to my grad program, the Children's Literature MFA track at Hollins University. I had a bunch of fantastic professors there, and every one of them taught me something new about writing, helped me to see my work a different way and motivated me to keep going.

But my last summer there, I took a class with Scott O'Dell Award winner Alexandria LaFaye (who I interviewed here). Her no-nonsense approach to critique, as well as her spot-on insights into how to make my story more effective, truly helped me take my craft to the next level*.

Alexandria is the voice in my head pushing me to be a better writer from draft one. And with some help from you, she can help you & other writers as well. She's written a book on writing titled THE PRIMED MIND. Unfortunately, the independent press that's willing to publish it cannot afford to do so at this time without some financial assistance from Alexandria. And she can't finance it all herself, so she's going back to the days of Mark Twain and Walt Whitman and asking for subscriptions:



Click on the widget above to go to "Priming 'The Primed Mind'" to see what Alexandria has to say. I promise this isn't a scam, this is someone I know, trust and wholly respect. And she isn't asking you to help out for nothing- donations of varying amounts are eligible for 'rewards' ranging from sample chapters of the book to a 30 page manuscript critique.

Every little bit helps, so please check out the site and help bring THE PRIMED MIND to writers everywhere.



*Please do not take this as commentary on any of my other professors' teaching abilities! They were all wonderful, but something about the timing of Alexandria's class & her approach just clicked with me.

My apologies to those of you seeing this here, on FB and on Twitter!

I'm revising my WIP (slowly- ugh!) and one of the big changes I'm making is going from first person, past tense to first person, present tense.

A part of me likes this change, but a part of me really wants to go back to past tense- my natural inclination is to type "said" over "says" and I've noticed if I'm going fast, I slip up more often. Plus, I've read a few reviews lately of books written in present tense where people hated it so much they stopped reading. Eep!

So what do you think of present tense? My personal opinion is that I like it, as long as it's consistent, and it has to be pretty darn flawless. So I'm very picky when it comes to my present-tense reading, but I also think it can really add to the tension, because you don't know the person who's speaking to you will make it through the story unscathed.

But what do you all think? Do you like present tense? Does it bother you? Do you even notice?

I apparently had no time to read this past month. *sigh*

1) Rosemary and Rue by Seanan McGuire
This is the first book in the October Daye series
Adult Urban Fantasy, but ages 14+ should be fine with it.
Loved this book so much I already reviewed it. So click over & see what I said :)

2) Prophecy of the Sisters by Michelle Zink
This is the first book in The Prophecy of the Sisters trilogy
YA, 12+
Such an atmospheric book, from the first page to the last. Like Melissa Marr's Wicked Lovely, Prophecy of the Sisters deals with situations that begin long before the main characters are born, situations that seem completely out of their control. But, like Ash, Lia fights her way through, determined to stay the same person she was before she knew about the prophecy. (Can you tell we discussed WL last night at my book group?) With such a promising first book, I can't wait to read more in this series.

3) Give Up the Ghost by Megan Crewe
YA, 14+
This was a fast read, but a deep story. The main character, Cass, has been able to see ghosts ever since the morning after her older sister, Paige, drowned. When one of the "breathers" at school guesses at her secret, Cass is drawn into his life more than she wants to be- but as much as they both need. This little gem deals with a secret supernatural ability, loss and life, all in just 256 pages.



Books read this month: 3
Books read this year: 53

I linked to amazon this time cause indiebound was down (or at least not loading for me) when I went to post.

"You can fix a bad page- you can't fix a blank one." ~ Nora Roberts


Fixin' bad pages.


Or, at least, not-great-first-draft pages. ;-)

I'm totally yoinking this idea from Victoria & her most excellent Books/Authors Friday 5, partly because I have no brain power left (think I'm getting sick, bleh!) & partly because it's just a fab idea. :)

Every month I post my monthly reading list for the previous month's books, but I don't always collect my absolute favorites in a list. So, as of right now, here are my top 5 favorite books of those I've read so far this year*:

1) Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson
This is the only book I've read this year that literally made it hard for me to breathe. I love all the rest of the books on this list, but this one? Mesmerizing.

2) City of Glass by Cassandra Clare
I love the Mortal Instruments trilogy & the conclusion? Fabulous. My copy's actually on-loan right now :)

3) Fragile Eternity by Melissa Marr
My favorite of the series so far, and I really loved both Wicked Lovely and Ink Exchange.

4) Graceling and Fire by Kristin Cashore (not cheating- Victoria put 'em together, too!)
Kristin Cashore is now on my auto-buy list- if I see her name on a book, it will be mine. I can't wait to have a finished copy of FIRE of my very own! (And B&N will call me when mine arrives... Only a couple weeks now!)

5) Rosemary and Rue by Seanan McGuire
Great characterization, tight plotting and full-realized world.



*This was so hard! I've read so many fantastic books this year! I'll do a round-up of all my absolute faves at the end of the year :)

I can't believe it's over halfway through September already! Crazy. Sorry I haven't written much lately. I'm going to try and post more often, but for right now, some links to cool stuff. :)


Remember my interview with Karen Mahoney? At the time, her YA Contemporary fantasy, THE IRON WITCH was on submission. Now it sold! Head over to her LJ post here to congratulate her!

* * *

Someone on Twitter linked to a fantastic post over on the AuthorCulture blog. It's titled "You're not a writer unless...", and is a guest post by Kathryn Magendie. My fave quote:

"I often hear, 'I have so many books in my head,' and I answer, 'Then let them out!' That's really all that makes a writer a writer—we let out the books/stories/essays. I could have talked about Tender Graces till the cows mooed home, but until I sat down and wrote the entire book, that’s all it would be: Talk, talk, talk, talk, talk."

* * *

I signed up for jonowrimo + 1.5. Like NaNo (National Novel Writing Month- a.k.a. November), it's about reaching writing goals. Unlike NaNo*... Um, for one thing, I'm willing to do it. The "rules" are:
1) State your goal (I have 2- finish draft 2 of W&F and write a few chapters of a TBD new WIP)
2) Work on your goal
3) Check in on official check-in dates (10/14, 11/11, 11/25, 12/1)

So I'm hoping this keeps me on track more than just me giving myself some goals/deadlines. :)



*I have a few issues with NaNo... Not with other people participating, just me. I'll blather about that if asked, but I don't feel like getting into it now.

Ack! I meant to post this days ago & life got away from me...

Anyway... Around the time I got started on my revisions on W&F, I went to B&N to pick up a copy of a book I'd pre-ordered, Rosemary and Rue* by Seanan McGuire (seananmcguire). I've been following Seanan's LJ for a while and thought her debut novel sounded highly entertaining, so I made sure to get a copy as soon as it was available.

I'm so glad I did.

Now, you may remember my TBR Room post. The long & short of that post being that I don't often get to read a book as soon as I buy it. But Rosemary and Rue was sitting on the coffee table, and something about the shiny orange lettering and Toby's glowering face made me pick it up.

"I'll just read the prologue," I thought. "Just the prologue. I'm already reading two other books."

Yeah... I read the first 50ish pages before I realized it.

Basic premise: October "Toby" Daye is a Changeling, half-faerie, half-human, and entirely her own person. Determined to live her life her own way, she's gone out of her way to avoid the world of Faerie, until she's dragged back by a curse. Now she has to catch a killer or die trying- literally.

This book is awesome. You can tell how well Seanan knows all her characters, not just Toby, and the world they inhabit. I loved the natural way the histories between characters were revealed, as well as how easy it was to follow where Toby led- even when I could see her actions wouldn't end well. I got so sucked in I might have growled at Hubby when he came home from work & tried to talk to me when I was about 20 pages from the end...

But, best of all, at least for me, was the fact that this book made me impatient to get back to my own work. This is one of those books that makes me want to be a better writer. If I can make a book come alive for people with even half the skill that Seanan has... I'll be a very, very happy scribbler.

Kudos, Seanan! I'm eagerly anticipating A Local Habitation and following Toby further into Faerie.



*This is the first book in the October Daye series, and is what I usually refer to as 'adult' urban fantasy. The 'adult' is just because it isn't YA- I would say this perfectly fine for teens.

Sorry to be MIA from LJ-land for a while. I knew I was going to start posting less the further into my revision I get, but I've had a few Real Life things going on lately...

First off, I got a day-job. Part-time, at the store where I used to work, though this time I get to do data entry and not customer service. Yay! I'm usually pretty good with the customer-service angle, but it can be very tiring. So this is pretty much perfect, and my boss is really supportive of my writing! Double-yay :)

Second... we, uh, bought a car last week. And when I say car, I mean a minivan-ish-thing. Apparently it's classified as a cross-over? It looks like a truck from the front, but it's totally a minivan from the side. Anyway, it's nice, but this also means my (dead) Volvo is gone, and I get the Jetta! I'm no longer trapped in my house if Hubby has the car all day, and as soon as it gets fixed (the reason for buying the new car), I can actually go out of town if Hubby has to work.

Since all this came together at the end of last week, I've been a little crazy. I had planned on revising most of Friday, but we were at the car dealership for somewhere around 8 hours, then I spent Saturday with my friend Anne, Sunday running errands that had been put off because of Friday being taken over... Yeah. You get the point. Still got some writing done, but not much.

On the bright side, while we were getting the van checked out by our fave mechanics at Firestone, I totally unknotted the mess that is Chapter Six of the W&F revision (thanks to a fantastic critique comment from jenschmitadam!!!), and now I'm happily typing away.

I'll try and pop in more often than I have the last week, but like I said- revising & job. I'm already exhausted!

I didn't get nearly enough read this month... I have at least three other (really good!) books started, so those should appear on next month's list.

But for now, here's August!

1) The Demon's Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan
First in a trilogy
YA, Ages 12+
Two brothers, Nick and Alan, are on the run with their crazy mother, trying to avoid the evil magicians who barter people to get power from demons. When a boy turns up at their house with a demon's mark, Nick wants nothing to do with him or his sister, but Alan has a crush on the sister, and agrees to try and help.

I loved this one. The point of view is third-close on Nick, and while it seems he should come across an unsympathetic character, he doesn't. I frequently found myself nodding along in agreement, even when I knew what Nick was saying or doing was a mistake. I can't wait to read the next one, The Demon's Covenant.


2) Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
First in a trilogy
YA, Ages 12+
Every year Sam's time as a human gets shorter. Every year Grace waits for winter to see her wolf. When a student at Grace's school is killed and a hunt chases the wolves down, a potential tragedy throws Sam and Grace together. But the days are getting colder again, and every shiver could be Sam's last as a human.

Beautiful story, and such a fascinating take on werewolves. It's got a lot of romance, so if you're not into that, this might not be the book for you, but I absolutely adored it, and it totally made me tear up.


3) Things Are Gonna Get Ugly by Hillary Homzie
Full Disclosure: Hillary was my thesis adviser at Hollins
Middle Grade/Tween, Ages 9-13
Taffeta Smith, Taf to her friends, is pretty, popular, and in control... of everything except the fact that she didn't study for her social studies test. When she gets caught cheating, she's given a choice- she can go through with the school's punishment, or get a fresh start. Taf chooses the fresh start, and suddenly she's back to being Ernestine, the dorky girl she was when she moved to California a few years ago, before she reinvented herself as Taffeta. Now she has to make things right, or she might be stuck way below the D-List forever.

Such a fun book! I loved how the characters all had interesting back-stories that evolved throughout, and how perfectly she evoked the emotions and drama of middle school without making it a heavy-handed cautionary tale like some other books for this age group do. The 'chapters' are more like titled scenes, short and sweet, making this a really fast read, and the twists on the transformation story were great. No spoilers here, but she really nailed the ending :)


4) Prada and Prejudice by Mandy Hubbard
YA, 12+, but could possibly go a bit younger, too
Callie's best friend moved away a year ago, and she's really felt it. Wanting to make friends with a group of popular girls on her abroad trip to London, she buys a pair of Prada heels, hoping the leader of the group will be more willing to accept her. But just a few steps outside the store and clumsy Callie falls and hits her head. When she comes to, she's in 1815. A case of mistaken identity gets her a place to stay, and suddenly she's Rebecca, friend to Emily and guest of Alexander, the young Duke of Harksbury. But how is she ever going to get back home?

This was such a cute revisioning of Pride and Prejudice. I've always been a sucker for a good time-slip, and pairing that element with Regency England and a Jane Austen-inspired plot is like candy for me, I couldn't resist! I'll actually be interviewing Mandy for the blog soon, so if anyone has any questions, leave them in the comments and I'll try to fit them in!


Books read this month: 4
Books read this year: 50


Has anyone else read some of these? C'mon, you know you want to discuss Nick vs. Alan with me, or sigh over Sam & Grace...


ETA: I also read Tiffany Schmidt's fabulous manuscript! I'm looking forward to the day when I can walk into a store and pick up Mia's story! :)


*Someone correct me if I'm wrong, I have so many series' stats floating in my head, I get them mixed up occasionally.

It has some new additions. And some more on the way.

Actually in my possession:
Immortal by Gillian Shields
The Espressologist by Kristina Springer
The Witch's Guide to Cooking with Children by Keith McGowan, illustrations by Yoko Tanaka
Sea Change by Aimee Friedman
Rampant by Diana Peterfreund

On their way from various locations:
Rosemary & Rue by Seanan McGuire
Girl, Hero by Carrie Jones
The Amaranth Enchantment by Julie Berry
Silver Phoenix: Beyond the Kingdom of Xia by Cindy Pon
Wings by Aprilynne Pike
Fairy Tale by Cyn Balog


You might notice a number of 2009 Debutantes on this list.... That is because they are made of Awesome. Seriously. I'm finding new favorites all the time in this group. In fact, I just sent a box of books I'd read & loved to the bff & I think over half of them were Debs' books!