Spotlight post: Michelle Hauck's FAITHFUL!

Hello everyone!

Today I'd like to spotlight a new book that's just been released by an author friend of mine, Michelle Hauck. I'm currently enjoying her first book, GRUDGING, and the way she totally immerses the reader in her historical-fiction world. But I'll let her tell you more about herself and her books below!


The next volume in the Birth of Saints series is available now!

Following Grudging--and with a mix of Terry Goodkind and Bernard Cornwall--religion, witchcraft, and chivalry war in Faithful, the exciting next chapter in Michelle Hauck's Birth of Saints series!

A world of Fear and death…and those trying to save it.

Colina Hermosa has burned to the ground. The Northern invaders continue their assault on the ciudades-estados. Terror has taken hold, and those that should be allies betray each other in hopes of their own survival. As the realities of this devastating and unprovoked war settles in, what can they do to fight back?

On a mission of hope, an unlikely group sets out to find a teacher for Claire, and a new weapon to use against the Northerners and their swelling army.

What they find instead is an old woman.

But she’s not a random crone—she’s Claire’s grandmother. She’s also a Woman of the Song, and her music is both strong and horrible. And while Claire has already seen the power of her own Song, she is scared of her inability to control it, having seen how her magic has brought evil to the world, killing without reason or remorse. To preserve a life of honor and light, Ramiro and Claire will need to convince the old woman to teach them a way so that the power of the Song can be used for good. Otherwise, they’ll just be destroyers themselves, no better than the Northerners and their false god, Dal. With the annihilation their enemy has planned, though, they may not have a choice.

A tale of fear and tragedy, hope and redemption, Faithful is the harrowing second entry in the Birth of Saints trilogy.

Faithful- November 15, 2016

Harper Voyager

Find It: Amazon | Barnes and Noble | HarperCollins | Goodreads

Also enter to win a signed paperback of Grudging, the first book in the series: 

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A world of chivalry and witchcraft…and the invaders who would destroy everything.


The North has invaded, bringing a cruel religion and no mercy. The ciudades-estados who have stood in their way have been razed to nothing, and now the horde is before the gates of Colina Hermosa…demanding blood.


On a mission of desperation, a small group escapes the besieged city in search of the one thing that might stem the tide of Northerners: the witches of the southern swamps.


The Women of the Song.


But when tragedy strikes their negotiations, all that is left is a single untried knight and a witch who has never given voice to her power. And time is running out.


A lyrical tale of honor and magic, Grudging is the opening salvo in the Book of Saints trilogy.

GRUDGING

November 17, 2015
Harper Voyager

Find it: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iBooks | Goodreads

Michelle Hauck lives in the bustling metropolis of northern Indiana with her hubby and two kids in college. Besides working with special needs children by day, she writes all sorts of fantasy, giving her imagination free range. A book worm, she passes up the darker vices in favor of chocolate and looks for any excuse to reward herself. Bio finished? Time for a sweet snack.

She is a co-host of the yearly contests Query Kombat, Nightmare on Query Street, and Sun versus Snow.

Her Birth of Saints trilogy, starting with Grudging and Faithful (November 15, 2016), is available from Harper Voyager. Another epic fantasy, Kindar's Cure, is published by Divertir Publishing. She's repped by Marisa Corvisiero of Corvisiero Literary.

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A Querying Nightmare

I participated in Nightmare on Query Street this last week. It was an interesting learning experience, like most contests I've participated in so far. Nightmare is run by Michelle Hauck; you can read more about her and the contests she helps host on her blog here. Basically, Michelle and her co-hosts, Michael Anthony and Laura Heffernan each select 15 entries out of 250 submissions. Entries consist of a query letter and first 250 words of a manuscript. Those 45 chosen entries are mentored by other authors and editors who volunteer their time for a few days, and then the 3 hosts post the shiny new entries on their blogs. Participating literary agents drop by and request pages from entries they like and might consider representing.

Laura selected my entry (which you can read here) and I was over the moon! I've entered a few similar contests over the past year, and being chosen was amazing. In a way, that felt like winning all on its own, because that same MS was passed over for Pitch Wars a few months back. I've worked hard on that story, revising it, restructuring part of the plot with the wonderful Rebecca Petruck, and polishing it up word by word. (Seriously, if you're having plot troubles, take Rebecca's workshop. Her method is simple to apply, but had a profound impact on my story. I never would have pinned down my problem so quickly without her help.) The story I have now is significantly better than what I submitted to PW in July.

So I knew what I had was better, but was it any good?

Apparently it was. And that's a good feeling, y'all.

When my entry went live for agents to see, I discovered something unfortunate. I don't do well with public querying. I can handle Twitter pitching. I can handle querying agents and publishers. But this sort of format was extra stressful for me. I couldn't help but compare how my entry was doing against the other entries in the competition, even though we weren't competing against each other. Watching other entries get requests while mine sat, lonely and ignored, really ate away at my self-confidence. When it reached the point that almost 3/4s of the entries had requests and mine didn't, I'm going to be honest. I cried. I'd worked so hard on my entry with my mentor; we'd made sure every last comma and word were perfect, and entries with grammar errors were getting picked over my poor baby. It hit my confidence hard.

I ended up with one request, which was all I'd hoped for. But that one agent likes what she's read so far. As one of my critique partners put it, it doesn't matter how many "no's" you get; all it takes is that one "yes." I'll be sure to let you know how it goes.

But here's what I'm choosing to take out of all this: First, I don't think I'll do any more competitions where you query kind of against others. It's too draining for me. I've made amazing friends, and have met wonderful mentors and authors who are willing to share their knowledge by entering, but I'm going to put my mental health first and avoid that sort of situation.

Second, the fact that I was chosen for Laura's team and had an agent want to read my story and then ask for more is an amazing validation. I'm making progress toward this goal of mine. Someday I'll get there. It's a long road, and it requires a lot of patience, but knowing that I'm getting better will help me hang in there.

Third, the best thing about these competitions really is the people you meet. It's what we all say, but it's true. I've made so many friends who get how dang hard it is to want to be a writer. That's invaluable. My family loves me, and my husband supports me, and he watches how hard I work. They see the external wear and tear, the hours I put in. They can't see the internal strength and growth and labor that becoming a better writer requires. Having friends who get that is important. And I now have a group of friends who'll listen to me when I need to let out a little whine to let off steam or when I get some good news and want to jump for joy. They're my sounding board when I have a crazy idea or a story problem I can't wrap my head around. My online community is full of generous authors who are only a few steps ahead of me on my journey. They remember how hard this part is, and they encourage me; they share their wisdom, their skills, and even their own struggles.

The big point is this. As you query and pitch and enter competitions, you're going to get out of it whatever you choose to. You can sulk, or you can embrace it and grow.

Help me find a genre!

I'm neck deep in revisions on my YA story, ONCE UPON A TYPEWRITER, but I've been thinking ahead to marketing. And I realized that I still have the same problem I found during Pitch Wars. Thankfully I've straightened out the age category issue, but I'm still not sure what genre to market it as.

For anyone who hasn't read snippets of the story yet, the premise of the story is that 17-year-old Emily has to write a novella in 2 weeks to make up for missing her English final, or she'll flunk out of the class and won't graduate on time. As she's writing, the characters in her story begin talking back to her, making her question her sanity. She and the characters argue over what direction the story should go in, along with all sorts of silly little points as well. The outer, real-world arc, centers on Emily's worries about her mental health and her relationships with her family. The inner fairytale arc focuses on a woefully unprepared party and their quest to save the kingdom from a plague of giant insects.

To me, Emily's outer arc feels like contemporary magical realism. There's just a touch of magic in the typewriter--assuming she isn't actually losing her mind like her mom did.

The inner arc is an old-fashioned medieval fantasy story; Emily uses the story to poke fun at some tropes along the way. There are dragons, a wicked witch, a bumbling wizard, and a curse. So their story is high fantasy.

Overall, the entire novel is split fairly evenly between the two stories if you look just at word count. It all comes down to Emily, her sanity, and her relationship with her sister; the inner story starts to mirror the outer story and push it along as well. So of the two storylines, Emily's is the dominant one.

SO...do I market it as magical realism for online competitions that allow you to only check one? I worry that someone might like MR but not fantasy, and be disappointed when they get to that part. And in a query letter, do I explain that it's both, or do I leave that for the agent/publisher to discover?

Help a fellow writer out, and comment with your thoughts below! TIA.

Third time's the charm

...I hope.

I've rewritten the opening scene of this particular story so many times I've lost track. I started with a basic setup and rewrote that first version over and over. Changed the main character's age. Changed the POV of the entire story. Then decided to drastically chop the opening scene after lots of feedback pointing to the story starting too soon.

Of course I swung too far the other direction. At least I only went through one really horrible version of that intro. Unfortunately, that was the intro I used to enter a contest. In some ways it worked out anyway, though, because that contest let me know that I had really screwed up the beginning quickly so I didn't waste as much time on it.

On to the third try, and I think I've struck the balance I need. I've resigned myself to the fact that this particular story doesn't lend itself to starting off with a bang; it's advice I've heard before, but I hadn't consciously realized that I was trying so hard to start with a bang. For Emily's story to work, the reader has to get inside her head a little more before her world starts to fall apart around her. It's more subtle. Starting with a huge action scene is great for some stories, but sometimes it's okay to take a step back. If the reader is investing in a character more than a series of dramatic events, then the reader has to get to know that character and start to care about her/him first. So that's where my story starts now, and I'm loving it.

Hopefully other people will too. Here's the first page of Emily's story:

I knocked on the door to Room 113, but no one answered. Just to make sure, I rapped harder. Still nothing.

I wiped my clammy hands on my jeans before grabbing the bronze doorknob, half-hoping it would be locked.

No such luck. It gave easily, and the door swung inward without a sound.

“Ms. Briggs? You asked me to meet you after school…” My voice trailed off as I saw that the classroom was empty.

Well, except for the antiquated beast sitting on top of my desk. Curious, I stepped inside.

A note stuck out of the machine, addressed to me in sweeping blue cursive.

“Emily, I’ve decided what to do about your uncharacteristically irresponsible behavior on Monday. You have one chance to make up your final exam. You have until the 15^th to write a complete novella of at least 30,000 words, or you will fail the final and the class. As part of your punishment, you must use this typewriter instead of your computer to write the story. I hope you will find the creative experience illuminating, perhaps even enjoyable.”

I eyed the metal monstrosity. A typewriter? Writing a novella in two weeks was going to be hard enough, but using a typewriter? Ms. Briggs must have been more upset with me than she’d let on.

My muscles groaned as I scooped up the bulky machine. Once I found my balance I made my way to the bus stop, lurching through the halls like something out of an old horror flick.

The story of Bob, Billy Bob Joe, and the infamous Mrs. Chubby Kitten-Whiskers

In my efforts to help Oldest enjoy writing more, I sometimes sit down with her and my other girls and have them help me brainstorm short stories. We'll use story dice when we get stuck, or sometimes we'll even roll them at the beginning and pick random ones to incorporate into the story. Their school teaches them the basics of story structure and character, so they're pretty good at coming up with a coherent narrative consisting of at least one main character, a problem of some sort, and a resolution. I'll transcribe for them to remove the mechanical issues of spelling and physically writing, so those don't set up roadblocks for Oldest's brain.
This is our favorite collaborative story. I think they were probably 5&7, or 6&8 when we wrote this one. (You should know that for some reason, my girls think the name Bob is freaking hilarious. They use it whenever possible.)

Once upon a time, there was a jumping clown. He liked to ride his unicycle and make funny faces at crying children and actors.
One day an actor named Bob came to town. He was sad because lightning had burned down his house and now he didn't have any place to live. Lightning was the name of his pet bird. He burned the house down on accident--he was a phoenix.
The jumping clown was also having a rough day. He jumped all the time because he was scared of his shadow and didn't want to touch it. And THEN he found out he had to be a shadow monster for Halloween, because his Mommy said so.
Bob and the jumping clown (whose name was Billy Bob Joe) met in the grocery store. They were both there to buy fish, but there was only one left. The authors proceeded to argue about who should get the fish. Then they decided neither of them should get the fish. Instead, Mrs. Chubby Kitten-Whiskers bought the fish and Bob took Billy Bob Joe fishing.
First, they caught a boat.
Second, they caught an apple.
Third, they caught a book about famous libraries.
And lastly, they caught Mrs. Chubby Kitten-Whiskers.
Bob and Billy Bob Joe decided to go home and eat grilled salad sandwiches instead.
Bob told Billy Bob Joe about how Lightning had burned his house down. "I have nowhere to live!" he moaned. And he cried a little--okay, a lot.
Billy Bob Joe told Bob about his fear of shadows and how his Mother insisted he had to dress up like a shadow monster for Halloween. "And I don't want to!" he sobbed. "I'm terrified! And I'm terrified of jumping all the time."
"I've got it!" said Bob. "We could switch places! I'm not scared of shadows, and I need a place to live. And I happen to know of a play that needs an actor to play the part of a kangaroo!"
Billy Bob Joe agreed to Bob's plan. He became the most famous jumping actor in the land.
Bob loved his new home.
And he got rid of Lightning--just in case.

Writing as a Mom

I have 3 girls, ranging from tweenager-hood down to preschool ages. And my middlest (no, that's not a typo. She is truly oh-so-much a middle child) voiced an interesting complaint about books.
I should probably preface this by saying that my two older girls are both avid readers. They both read 3-4 grade levels above their age groups. And they read pretty widely; they're experimenting and finding authors and genres that they like.
So. Back to Middlest's complaint. She said, "You know, Mom, it seems like all the girls in books like pink and fancy things and that sort of stuff. And I hardly know any girls that are actually like that! Why do so many grownups think that all girls are into pink and princesses and...I don't know, fancy, foofy things?"
I had a few thoughts flash through my head as she said this. First, I am so PROUD of her that she's reading thoughtfully and identified WHY certain books weren't resonating with her.
Second, I admit to being a little confused, because we don't have a lot of those kinds of books in our house, except for early readers, because at that age, 2 of my 3 DID love pink and princesses and fairies and anything that sparkled. Although they also loved adventures and humor and strong girls. No fainting maidens in my house.
And third, I felt a little sad that she is already running into that wall of conformity that starts to shut girls out, to tell them they aren't capable; that they are too dainty to do adventurous things, incapable of understanding math or science as well as boys their age, or that it's just not acceptable to like something a little different.
So of course we talked about it. We discussed how important it is for kids who read MG or YA in particular to find books that they can identify with, that can help them feel valid in their world. To know that they aren't alone. That was huge for me when I was their age; because of my undiagnosed depression and Asperger's I spent too many years of my life feeling like I was the only person in the world who didn't fit into the puzzle. I don't want that for my girls. So I read them things with amazing, smart, funny girls in it. Stories with boys who are kind. Stories where girls can use science to save the day. Stories where a princess doesn't want to marry the boring prince and instead runs away to live with the dragons (I love love LOVE the Enchanted Forest Chronicles!). Stories where kids can be friends, even if they like different things, eat different foods, come from different ethnicities. Anything that tells them that whoever they choose to be, whatever they choose to love, it's okay. (And if you have suggestions, please comment!)
And all this got the wheels in my head turning, of course. Because Oldest has ADD and Asperger's like me-well, all 3 of my girls have the Asperger's at least-and along with that, she has extreme difficulty writing. Her brain cannot make the connections to organize her thoughts in order to put them on paper. If you don't mention writing to her, but ask her to tell you about a story she's read, she can verbalize her thoughts, although they'll be a little disorganized. But whose wouldn't? Anyhow, I digress a bit.
After years of fighting with her school and finally getting her an official diagnosis, Oldest, by now, loathes writing. She's addicted to books, however. I'm constantly prying them out of her fingers after she's been tucked into bed, sweeping my hand sneakily under her pillow when I tuck her in, and occasionally doing random room checks late at night to make sure she hasn't snuck out of bed to read, huddled by her nightlight. And yet she HATES to WRITE. (Thanks, idiots at school who refused to believe she has a problem...)
So I'm thinking about involving her and Middlest in my next project. I have no idea what the book would be about; I'd bet they could come up with a pretty good plot on their own. I'd really like to write something where the protagonist has the neuro issues that my girls do, without the book screaming "I am about autism!" Something that girls like mine could identify with, when they see how the character's thoughts work in this strange and amazing what that an autistic brain does, especially since autistic girls are still drastically underdiagnosed because they are so good at copying others and masking their symptoms in order to gain social acceptance. I don't want them growing up the way that I did, feeling like I was stuck on the other side of a one-way mirror.

Grimmerye

Grimmerye is a project I've been working on for the past two years, so it's near and dear to my heart. In Grimmerye, I played with the backstory for two Grimm villainesses. I wanted to discover what else could be under the surface, to find the human side of the women who did these terrible things with seemingly no provocation. The challenge I posed to myself was, under what circumstances could their murderous, thieving, kidnapping ways not only be justified, but in the traditional hero(ine)'s best interest?

Note that I'm not telling you which stories I based mine on, because it's not meant to be evident at first. Discovering which story you're in as a reader is part of the fun.
I had the opportunity to run the first few pages and query by an agent recently, and got some interesting advice. He said that it was good, but because it's a series of stories, it would be a hard sell for a first time author. I had to agree--short story collections are a hard sell unless big-name authors are involved, and that's what Grimmerye currently is at its lowest level.
Enter the advice of my best critique partners: find a way to take the two stories and unite them into a coherent single narrative. So while one of my other manuscripts is being looked over by Pitch Wars mentors (check out for info on Pitch Wars if you don't know what it is), I'm working on finding a way to loosely tie the first two stories together with a third. I have a crazy idea up my sleeve that just might do the trick, and it will be challenging to write. Exciting!

Anywhooo...Here's the first 213 words of the first story. I throw you right into the story with a bang on this one, appropriate to this particular antiheroine's narrative.

I lay awake in my bed, unable to sleep, dreading the morrow.
My birthday. My stomach churned at the thought of it.
For as long as I could remember, the Woman had celebrated all of our birthdays—and there were many of us—in the same fashion. She would wake the unfortunate child in the morning with a clawed hand grasping the poor girl’s throat, screaming in her face, spittle dripping like venom from Her lips as she recounted Her story. The Woman had no use for boy-children; they were sent away to their fathers as soon as they could be weaned. She kept those of us who were unfortunate enough to be girls and paid just enough attention to us to make sure we didn’t die—at least, not until after She’d discovered if we would prove useful to Her schemes or not. After that, She didn’t care about our fates; most of the older girls had been dragged off in the night by nameless village men whose faces blended into one dark, leering grimace that haunted my sleep. On occasion, girls simply vanished, and if one of us dared to ask the Woman where they had gone, She merely shrugged indifferently.
None of us would have dreamed of calling Her “Mother”.

A Little Something New

Along with book reviews, I'm going to start posting snippets of my personal works-in-progress (WIPs) on this page. It should go without saying, but please don't post any of my writing anyplace else online without my permission. If you like something and want to share it via Twitter or Facebook (or any other online platform), I'll probably love that idea. Just message me and check in first. Thanks!

Pitch Wars 2016! #Pimpmybio Contestant Blog Hop

Hey, everyone! It's time to Pimp. My. Bio. I have a feeling I may be too white and nerdy to use that phrase.

If you want to be white and nerdy  cool like me, you can pimp your bio too! The host post is here: http://www.lanapattinson.com/pitchwars-2016-pimpmybio/

Step 1: Write up a blog post about yourself. And link back to the main blog hop page. ^
Step 2: Upload the link address from your blog post to the cool little Linky Widget thingamabob that does the job, and bibbidi bobbidi boo, you'll turn into Cinderella!
Wait, wrong story.
Your blog will get added to the blog hop, which may not be as exciting as riding in a giant pumpkin, but on the plus side, it probably smells better. Your name goes in the "your title" field.
Step 3: Read other hopefuls' blogs, be nice, make friends, have fun! One of the best things that can come out of participating in this kind of contest is the new friends and writing buddies you'll find. Publishing is a tough business. We've got to stick together.

The blog hop is currently open, and closes on August 3rd.

I've been way too busy with life - kids, writing, kids, hobbies, kids (did I mention kids?) - to blog in a looooong time. I wasn't sure if my blog was even still active, it's been so long! Thankfully, it was.

I'm entering an awesome competition called PitchWars, run by the talented Brenda Drake. Full details on the contest here: http://www.brenda-drake.com/pitch-wars/

Basically, published authors volunteer their time and expertise to help aspiring authors polish up a manuscript over the course of two months before pitching it to agents. Authors pick 4 mentors to submit to, and if you're lucky, one of them will pick you to be their mentee.

The manuscript I'm submitting is titled "Once Upon A Typewriter." And unfortunately, I'm having a hard time figuring out whether it's better suited to Young Adult lit or Middle Grade. I think it actually sits smack dab in the middle, at young YA/high MG. If you have an opinion on which category I should mark it as, please comment! Or catch me on Twitter as @bethanyrambles. Because I do ramble. A lot. I've always been way too wordy. OUAT sits at roughly 65k words, for example, and I've been cutting as ruthlessly as I can.

Without further adieu, here's my brief pitch for OUAT:

When Emily sleeps through her senior English final, her teacher sets her a daunting task: write a 30,000 word story in just two weeks or fail the course, and risk losing her college scholarship.

There's just one catch. She has to write her story on an old typewriter Ms. Brigs loans her. And once she starts writing, the characters let her know that they have their own ideas about how their story will end. Will the characters' happy ending cost Emily hers?

Stylistically, it's a story within a story.

 The outer story is magical realism, revolving around Emily, her sister Aubrey, and the magic typewriter, and her stress over finishing her assignment in time to save her grade. 

The inner story is a lighthearted fantasy quest, with an eclectic cast of characters. 

There's the pompous Head Wizard, who's far more confident in his skills than he ought to be. 

There's Cassandra, a female blacksmith who gets dragged into the quest against her will. 

There's Sir Geoffrey, the best dragon slayer in the kingdom--and quite possibly the stupidest one as well. 

Quiet Jeremy follows Sir Geoffrey wherever he goes, to make sure his idiocy doesn't cause trouble. 

And then there's Matt, a middle-aged mercenary with a strange phobia or two.

And of course, there's the Wicked Witch Geraldine, the most feared creature in all the kingdom, whose curse began it all.

And this is the blog hop, with my fellow lovely contestants! Check 'em out too!