So I realize I’m not the first person to bring this up, as Marissa Meyer has troves of ravenous fans anxiously awaiting the cinematic vision of her delightfully fun series. However, I thought it would be interesting and maybe even entertaining to explore just why this needs to happen…now.

Reason #5 Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is already in post-production. Lily James (actress who played Cinderella in the recent live-action version) needs something else to do

Reason #4 Movie adaptations of books don’t necessarily suck anymore. I actually prefer the movie version of “The Hellbound Heart” by Clive Barker, otherwise known to horror movie fans as “Hellraiser”

Reason #3 The special effects would be AWESOME! If the whole series is done, this could be epic, like a YA version of Star Wars (yes I have very high hopes)

Reason #2 It’s original – not some reimagined, remake of a movie that had nothing wrong with it in the first place (Halloween, anyone?) Sci-fi and fairytales together is such a fun combination

Reason #1 Cinderella is a frickin cyborg. How cool is that? 🙂

Well, actually 3, since one of the books was written by two authors.

The first book is my favorite new indie pick, written by my author doppelganger, an incredible gal from Jersey (like me!) named Christina Surretsky, and it’s called Divine Bloodlines. Here is my review:

It’s rare that I come across a book I truly bond with, connecting with the characters and the words so naturally. I read this book in about a day, and I was sad to see that last page. So much fun…admittedly, I am a super powers junkie, but it was more than that. Christina’s writing style is exactly what I like to read.

Zoey is a great characterization of a teenage girl, though she’s often confused and makes some poor decisions along the way, by the end of the book she understands and accepts herself. I was concerned when a noticeable conflict or antagonist wasn’t present, but as I read on, it became clear who the villain was and where she was going with the story. I fell in love with Levi from the start, and I loved the interactions between him and Zoey.

The dialogue was sharp and funny, I can’t count the number of times I laughed out loud. I also appreciated the underlying positive messages. Very much looking forward to the next book in this series! I highly recommend Divine Bloodlines.

You can buy it here: Amazon – Divine Bloodlines (Kindle)

The second find is by a talented and smart duo, Amanda Giasson and Julie B. Campbell, called Love at First Plight. The writing is amazing in this novel, it’s like every sentence was carefully constructed. Here’s my review of it:

I instantly fell in love with the writing in this book. Multiple POV usually drives me nutty and is an instant red flag, but Julie and Amanda pull it off effortlessly. Right from the start, the plot draws you in and the subtle details and intricate writing are just icing on the cake. You can tell a great deal of care went into writing this novel – the authors crafted the sentences carefully to fully paint the scenes for the readers.

I have to admit, from the title I was expecting more of a zany romantic romp, something funny and maybe even silly. This book is NOT that. At all. But what it is, is amazing nonetheless. At times, it reminded me of the 60’s show, “The Prisoner,” or maybe even “The Trial,” and I loved that existentialist feel. Megan and Irys both were great characters and easy to connect with. I’ve never had such a strong feeling of wanting to strangle a character as I did with Megan in the last chapter! When you care that much, the writers are obviously doing something right.

I very much enjoyed the adventure of Love at First Plight, and I look forward to reading the sequel.

You can buy it here: Amazon – Love at First Plight (Kindle)

I hope you enjoy them as much as I have. Happy reading! 🙂

I’ve done a guest blog on AllIndieWriters.com called, The Perils (and Benefits) of Reviewing Indie Fiction

Check it out: http://allindiewriters.com/reviewing-indie-fiction

Let me know what you think. 🙂

You’ve read all the great editing books, went through the manuscript at least a dozen times, fixed the largest gaping plot holes and checked your grammar (manually). The beta readers have even given their blessing. Think your epic novel is finally ready? Before you hit the send button, check out these ten pointers to ensure your novel is really ready for publication.

#10 Look for excessive detail of mundane actions

There’s no need to do a play by play when a character washes her hands. I recently read a novel that did this over and over, it was almost like reading stage directions. There’s a reason why no one ever uses the bathroom in the movies. Nobody cares, and it doesn’t add anything to plot. Keep the mundane stuff short or even better, just cut it if you can.

#9 Look for point-of-view (POV) violations

POV violations can be subtle – a simple thought of a love interest can do it. Even if your novel is in third person (if it’s not omniscient) then you should only be able to see the thoughts of the main character.

#8 Look for repetition of monologue and dialogue

If you say it in the internal monologue, there’s no need to also say it in dialogue. Summarize or use non-verbal to convey it to the other person, or just include it in the dialogue and not the internal monologue.

#7 Look for fancy punctuation

By fancy punctuation, I mean anything other than a period or comma. This includes the exclamation point, semi-colon, colon, and parentheses. I didn’t think I had a problem with these until I did a search and found a ridiculous number of them littering my manuscript. Some general rules: If you say, “she exclaimed,” then there’s no need to use an exclamation point. There’s almost no reason to use an exclamation point in internal monologue, it’s over the top. Semi-colons are wonderful, but too many of them are distracting. Same goes for colons and parentheses, they’re unusual enough to take you out of the moment when you come across them.

#6 Look for fancy tags

Fancy tags are also a terrific way to bring you out of the magic world of reading and focus on something that doesn’t matter. “Said” is the most common tag and the job of the tag is to let the reader know who is speaking. When there only two speakers, you don’t even need tags. You especially don’t need tags if you express a character’s thought immediately before or after the spoken sentence, because it’s then obvious who’s speaking. But too many “replied, implied, conjectured, retorted, asked,” and many other exciting ways to say “said” rips the reader out of the story to process the fancy tag. Don’t be afraid of “said.” It’s straightforward and keeps the focus on the dialogue, where it belongs.

#5 Look for your favorite words and phrases

Every writer has something they repeat ad nausem, whether it’s a verb, phrase, or even a dreaded adverb. I had trouble with smiling. Everyone was smiling all the time, and in individual scenes I had characters smiling three or four times. If you don’t know your own favorites, then read one of your longer scenes aloud slowly, that should bring them out in the open. Once you figure out your favorites, use the find feature to see all occurrences. It’s especially important to not have them in close proximity to one another, even if it’s a common word or phrase. Find different ways to express what you’re trying to show but don’t resort to a thesaurus – using a flowery or unusual way to say something simple is pretentious. Unless of course, your book is pretentious, then in that case go right ahead.

#4 Look for common filler words and excessive modifiers

Filler words are words that don’t really add much to the sentence. It’s not the same as spoken filler words like “um, like, er,” unless you really do write them. I find in writing I have the most trouble with: that, I think, I believe, just, and a lot of others. If you can write the sentence without it, it will make your writing stronger. Same goes for modifiers – sometimes, most, only, a little, a lot – all of these should be used sparingly. Speaking of adverbs…

#3 Look for excessive adverbs

Adverbs are the very bane of a writer’s existence. It’s kinda the easy way out, to make it obvious exactly what’s going on, but most of the time they’re not even needed. I see adverbs most often modifying tags, but if the dialogue itself is strong enough, the adverb is superfluous. Easiest way to search for adverbs, just look for “ly.” You don’t have to eradicate all adverbs, but look for opportunities to rewrite without them.

#2 Do a formatting check

Formatting can vary from publisher to publisher, so be sure to follow guidelines. Most involve font/font size, single or double spaced, proper header/footer information and margin sizes. If you have any questions in general as to how your novel should look, you can pop open any published book and see the punctuation and paragraph formatting. There are exceptions in some of the newer novels, but most follow a similar format.

#1 Do one last line edit / grammar check

Always a good idea. Best way? Read it aloud. Have I mentioned that before? Yes. That’s because it’s a great way to find omitted words, homonyms and other nefarious word traps you think are perfectly fine when you read them. Your eyes tend to scan and fill in words you expect to be there. If you take your time reading it aloud, you just might uncover some issues you didn’t see the last time around.

Many, many thanks to Rory Hinnen, the mastermind behind the vision and editing of the trailer. Please check it out, it runs right at a minute long.

YouTube trailer

Thanks for watching and sharing! 🙂