Sunset Street Excerpt

Yesterday was another release day! Time to take a different turn compared to those wacko fairies from last month. Sunset Street is a YA urban fantasy, and it definitely has a more somber tone.

Per usual, you can now get Sunset Street from Amazon!

I have also slowly been pulling some of my titles out of Select and going wide with them. I'll have a post in a week or two with more information and links.

Until then, here's an excerpt from Sunset Street.

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Rain showered down on the scene, an occasional flash of lightning and rolling thunder in the background. Kind of desolate. I wasn't sure if such a game would help me forget the ache in my chest or if it would only exacerbate it.

I squinted, catching a flash of green behind the rain. A street sign, labeled Sunset. Of course.

The bleakness made me reconsider my afternoon plans. To clear my head, I went to the window. It squeaked, as reluctant to open as I was to put forth any effort, but finally gave. The sweet smell of rain drifted toward me, causing my mind to wander and dream of less lonely times -- those few boyfriends who had ended our relationship before I felt it had even gotten started. My need to be with someone was a show of weakness, and once they realized that, it was all over.

I returned to my computer, determined to do something to distract myself. If the game still seemed too dismal after a few minutes, I'd stop.

But I studied the little scene a bit longer. Maybe the houses hid amazing adventures, the bleakness a facade. What would it be like to stand in the middle of that street? To think I was the only person left in the world?

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, so I could get the full effect of the scent of the rain drifting through the room. The smell grew stronger and stronger. Ah, sweet rain. I imagined my upturned face feeling the drops shower down on me.

When I opened my eyes to play the game, I was no longer sitting in front of my computer. The scent of rain was overpowering -- I had given my imagination too much credit because the rain actually fell on my face.

I stood in the middle of the deserted street.

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Be careful what you wish for.

Stuck in her dorm room alone on a Friday night, Leah can’t imagine her loneliness getting any deeper until she pops a new game into her computer... and gets sucked into it. Trapped in a world of darkness and rain, she fears she’ll never see another living soul again. Until she meets Zach. He may be the balm for her heart she’s been searching for, but fulfilling her wish comes with a price. Is she willing to pay it?

She Lives!

Did you think my class work had chewed me up never to spit me out? Well, almost.

I'm still reeling from it all, but I am done with the term! One last residency in June, at which time I will graduate with my M.F.A. Woo hoo!

I guess I should update everyone on my writing progress and goals. *rolls sleeves up*

I am currently through 55 pages of revisions for Dead As Dreams, and my goal is to complete the first round of revisions by the end of September. Even though I had an amazing amount of class work last term, I am fired up with my writing. The momentum I have is great, and I intend to keep it going. Dead As Dreams needs to get to the point where I can start querying agents!

Speaking of queries, this month or next, I'll be sending out one last round of agent queries for The Mind Behind the Mind. Then it gets sent to a major publisher to sit in a slush pile for a while so I can worry about other projects, and perhaps a few years down the road I'll write both of the sequels and consider indie publishing them. But I have plenty of other writing to keep me busy before then.

I've also started a new project. This is a majorly long term project. I'm working with a friend to create an online creature collectible game, similar to Magistream. The site will be called Elements of Anian. I'm currently developing the world of Anian, and I intend to write some novels based in the world as well. I've actually written the first chapter of the first novel, Into the Ash, already. It's a young adult dark fantasy. I'm quite excited about all of this, and I hope the website does get off the ground, but if for some reason it doesn't, I'll at least have novel ideas lined up. ;)

As you can tell, the Daina's Dance progress bar hasn't moved. I don't know what it is about that novel, but I am having some major issues trying to figure out what to do with it. So, I'll be experimenting a bit with it in the next few weeks, changing the tense--re-writing versus adding new writing. Progress is progress, even if it is experimenting!

Oh, were you wondering when I was going to start blogging more consistently? Was that the news you were actually waiting for? Soon! I need to map out my battle plan for the rest of the year, but I do hope to start posting once per week again by the end of the month (maybe even next week), and then I intend to up my posts to two or three times per week. I just need to make sure it's not cutting into my writing time a lot. I can't rein in the momentum! Writing is more important than blogging, although I have a bunch of fun blogging. I do have a couple new blog series ideas, which I hope people will enjoy. =)

I just wanted to mention a couple more things in this post:

First, there is still time to sign up for the In Your Write Mind retreat! You won't be disappointed. Please visit the website to at least see who the guests will be.

And Writing Quest - May is of course underway, and many of us have made tons of progress on our goals. Don't be afraid to join in even if the month is already halfway over!

Also, I'm still looking for any feedback for what you'd like to see me blog about. Feel free to fill out this Survey!

Happy writing, all! =)

Liz Coley - Extraordinary People

Today we have another guest blog! This one is by author Liz Coley. If you'd like to know more about her, please scroll to the bottom of the article.


Extraordinary People by Liz Coley

Back in 1976, Judith Guest wrote the very influential YA novel Ordinary People about a troubled teen in a dysfunctional family trying to survive the death of the oldest son. By the end of the book, the most this kid will be able to save is himself and his relationship with his father. He's an ordinary person.

In science fiction and fantasy, when the protagonist is a teenager, the kid is far from ordinary. Think Ender Wiggin, Frodo Baggins, Katniss Everdeen, Miles Vorkorsigan, Luke Skywalker. Think Harry Potter. The stakes are huge--save the world, save the empire, defeat ultimate evil. The teens who star in adventures of huge consequence can't be ordinary, not even in a "well, everyone is special in their own way" version of ordinary. They have particular grit, particular grace, particular cunning, particular vision, particular maturity. They see a world of hope and possibility. They step out in front of the adults--they step up to carry the ring, build a personal army, save the world, lead the way. Their voices aren't those of adolescents wondering the usual adolescent wonders--can I get a date? am I too fat? why are my parents such dorks?--at least not most of the time. They aren't navel gazers. Their eyes are up and on the distant horizon, or higher even, in the stars.

Science fiction and fantasy readers, at least those I know, read to escape the ordinary; we read to think about and experience the extraordinary for a while. The what-ifs are large, cosmic even. Readers who haven't grown up immersed in these genres don't entirely get it. Why would you read that? they ask. It's so unrealistic.

That's the whole point. It's unrealistic. It's inspiring.

But then is this likely? A thirteen year old boy scaled Everest--could he have climbed Mt. Doom? A sixteen-year old girl circumnavigated the world solo--could she have led a space fleet to another planet? Several kids have taken on the evil of genocide in Darfur--could they take on Voldemort? A teenaged girl with visions led a defeated French army to victory--would she have rallied the Earth to fight off invading Martians?

In my just-released novel Out of Xibalba, a teenager from Ohio finds herself stranded in the deep past, alone in the waning days of the Mayan Empire. Mistaken for the goddess Ix Chel, she has to figure out not only how to survive, but how to give this catastrophe meaning. By changing the world, of course.

There are extraordinary voices, people who aren't like most of us. There are extraordinary teens with exceptional talent and drive and initiative and maybe even magic. Between the pages and in the real world.

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About the Author

Liz Coley writes science fiction and fantasy for adults and teens. Her short story sales appear in a variety of anthologies: The Last Man Anthology (2010), More Scary Kisses (2011), and the upcoming Bride of the Golem and Strange Worlds Anthology. She has also been published in Cosmos Magazine and Cosmos Online in Australia. Liz has been writing and submitting seriously since 2001, with efforts coming to fruition in 2010/11. Her novel Out of Xibalba is available at Amazon, B&N, Smashwords, and Createspace in trade paper and ebook versions. On the heels of this publication comes the news of her first sale to big publishing--but that announcement will wait for a later blog.

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NEXT UP: A review of Lee Allen Howard's The Sixth Seed.