Book Rivew...look out! Divergent by Veronica Roth

Oh boy...that time again.   I've finished another book.

Divergent by Veronica Roth

I'll save the cover for the end...mix it up a bit.

 

Where am I?

I'll be honest, I haven't disclosed what's going on with my publishing process much.  I'm not sure why, really -I guess I think it isn't very interesting for an outsider.  For those thinking of publishing or just wondering what the process is like, I'll share where I am in the process.

Earlier in December, I was given a production schedule by my production manager at my publisher.   Essentially it marks the milestones all they way up until the release date.  The release date has been set to Tuesday, June 5th.

If all goes according to plan between now and then we will hit that release date -or possibly release earlier.  There is always a chance it could be pushed back.

What am I working on right now?

The copy editing team has my manuscript and is making their first pass. I expect to see it marked to hell in early February.  Then, I have to review, make changes etc. quickly.  I have three weeks max.  All while working full-time.  Ugh.

Also at the moment, I'm working with my illustrator on my chapter header illustrations.  Deadline for those is February 17th.  29 of em.

And, I'm gathering ideas/inspiration for my cover design.  I have some things in my head, plus a list of my top ten favorite YA covers I'll send off to the design team.

And, I'm finalizing a contract with a marketing firm. Hopefully I'll have it in my hands by the end of the week. 

Plus, I'm working on getting endorsements for my book -when you get someone famous to say how great your book is and put it on the back cover. I have to have all of those out by the 15th of this month. 

I had my photo-shoot for my website/PR/book shots done last week.

December short story contest seventh place

Not what I thought

by Emma Grimm

I went down stairs to eat my breakfast that my mom always has ready for me

when I come down stairs. It’s sweet and all, but never what I want. If I could have it

my way I would have something totally different. I came in to the kitchen and saw

my usual bowl of oatmeal. I went to it, closed my eyes and took one bit. It was

delicious. I opened my eyes to find what I always dreamed about eating. A yogurt

parfait. It had all the berries you could imagine. Well, they weren’t actually berries

I’ve ever seen before. There were rainbows of berries mixed through out the whole

thing. I looked at my mother. She no longer looked like her old, sleepy, grumpy

mom. She was young and beautiful. She smiled but never said a word. I was going to

walk to school as usual. I looked out the window. Of course, it was raining. I went to

the closet to get my pink, ugly umbrella. When I got it out I realized the umbrella I

thought I had was no longer the one I did have. It was a red umbrella with a ladybug

face on it, my favorite animal. I turned around and there my mother was smiling

over at me. I got my boots on and went out side. It was cold but only for a while.

Then the glorious sun came out and the beams of light completely dried the splashes

that of water that got imprinted in to my coat. I was happy, yes, but even happier

when the boy of my dreams came up on a motorcycle and stopped right in front of

me. He didn’t have to say anything, but from the look in his eyes I knew that I was to

get onto the motorcycle with him and get a ride to school. I got to school and when I

walked in the door all eyes were on me. My classmates, and teachers all smiled at

me but never said anything. I started to walk to my first period class but then

something unbelievable happened. Everybody, and I mean everybody, was giving

me presents of all kinds. I accepted a rather large one while they all watched me

open it. I began to tear the paper but before I could see what it was my best friend

came up and accidently knocked it out of my hand. Now everybody who used to be

watching me with love and compassion were no watching my friend with anger and

hate. She sat there afraid.

“Its okay. Really I’m fine!” But of course they did not listen. There was a loud

long sound. Like an elephant call for a fest. A man came out from the back of the

crowd with an axe. The crowd of people surrounded my friend so I could not see

anything that was going on. But I don’t think I would want to. When it was over two

people carried her body away out of site. I was shocked I had never seen anything so

terrible. I just could not take it. I sat on the floor and began to cry. They all looked at

me in a confused way.

“ Don’t you understand? You killed her! Your all monsters!” I screamed this in

the silence that was upon the room. “ Why wont you say something?” Again nobody

answered. Then a little girl came up to my and gave me a hug. I admit it felt good,

but I could still never get that scean out of my head. Before I new it I was in the air

above every one I loved and hated. I didn’t know how this happened but I didn’t give

it much thought. I hated it here, I wanted to leave. I tried to get down but all of my

limbs felt like stone. I was stuck. For how long? I did not know. At the end of the hall

I was finally let down. I tried to get past all of the people in my way but they refused

to move. I had no choice but to push them down so I could get through. I ran and ran

but the hallway never ended. At every turn the was a group of people that I used to

know. Now they were the only things standing in my way to freedom. I turned at the

next corner. And looked for something to use to get them out of the way. I looked

and looked, and then I saw a fire extinguisher. I took it of the wall and charged

tordes the group of people. I was through my plan worked! I pulled the door to open

it. It did not work. I pulled and pulled. More people were crowding around me

coming closer and closer. I tried banging with the fire extinguisher. Nothing would

work. I was trap. They where closing in on me. I didn’t know what they would do to

me but I know they weren’t going to shower me with presents. Then the guy who

had killed my friend came over to me and raised his axe. I closed my eyes and

waited for death. But it never came. I opened my eyes to see my bedroom. It was just

a dream, a terrible dream. There was a knock on my door.

“Come in.” I called rather happy to be awake. It was my mother, with a yogurt

parfait.

“Mom?” I asked my voice shaking a bit. She didn’t say anything.

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You can view the best of the best...the top seven, on my website HERE

www.TheNeverChronicles.com

December short story contest 3rd place entry

This is the third place entry for the December short story contest. An excellent concept with novel potential!

Empties


by Colby Cox

     It was my first time outside the white-painted dome, and I was immediately struck by the colors. I had heard the stories of the colors before, but I wasn’t sure whether I believed them. All I had known—all I had ever known—was black, white, and grey.
     I blink my eyes, and I notice that some of the other Hunters are doing the same. The Head,
Anton Meier, and the rest of the seasoned Hunters laugh at us for doing so—they know that they looked the exact same way when they came out here for the first time.
     The world is immensely different. Where under the dome we had skyscrapers, in the Outer
World, there are thin, dark towers that stretch to the sky and end in dome-like canopies the color of the ground. These towers stand in a large group together, stopping only for the dome that covers the White City and continuing as far as I can see. The spaces in between these towers are dark, the light from the whitish orb in the sky blocked by the vast canopies at the top of the towers.
     Anton Meier stops laughing at us and points towards the dark areas. “Well,” he says. “Let’s
roll out! Come on!”
     The lot of us walks behind Anton into the darkness. We have to step over things that have
fallen from the canopies now and then. At one point, a river, much like the artificial one that men
have built in the middle of the White City, comes up in front of us and we have to jog over to a
simple footbridge that can only handle one of us at a time.
     Anton holds up a hand, stopping us. “Michelson, come here,” he says. At the mention of my
name, I step forward, stopping slightly behind and to the right of Anton. “You can be the first
newbie to see this. Look—between those trees.”
     I look, but I see nothing at all in between the towers—trees. “What…What is it?” I ask.
“It’s an Empty. Do you see him?” he asks.
“I don’t,” I respond honestly. “What am I looking for?”
“Look for something that looks like a man, only it doesn’t move quite like one. Don’t expect
to see smooth movements—they will be slower and more rigid than what you would expect to
see from a man.”
     The other new Hunters stand far enough back that they don’t hear what we’re saying, but curiosity is obvious on each and every one of their faces.
     Suddenly, I notice movement, and I jolt. The Empty, as Meier called it, looks exactly as he
had explained it—like a man. However, you can easily understand how it got its name—the
creature seems like it has a missing piece of the puzzle—the one thing that keeps it from being
human.
“Is that what we hunt for?” I ask, confused.
“Yep,” says Anton.
“So…we’ve been eating Empties in the Mess Hall all of this time?”
     Anton laughs out loud. “No, Michelson, we don’t. It always gets me that the newbies believe
that we actually hunt for food out here.”
“Well, what are we eating, then?” I ask, annoyed and embarrassed that he is laughing at me.
     The other new Hunters look very confused; they can’t quite hear what is being said.
“It’s all manufactured in that factory by the river. Hell, I couldn’t respect myself I caught
what was made into that slop that they call food.”
     He sets his sight on the Empty and lets his arrow fly, releasing the bowstring. The arrow
sinks itself into the creature’s head, and it falls over.
     Anton Meier motions for the Hunters to follow, and we walk through the space between the
trees deeper into the woods. He explains to us that the Hunters used to hunt for food, before they had to cover the city with the dome because the Empties were multiplying too quickly. Then, the city officials ordered engineers to come up with a way to make food out of synthetic materials so that the Hunters could focus all of their efforts on the eradication of the Empties. He explains that people used to live past forty in the Outer World; that they would eat animals and plants; that they would run and lift heavy things to stay healthy and keep themselves alive longer; and that all of that changed when the dome was added.
     Soon, we come to a clearing and Anton stops us. “This is where the White City was
originally. If you will notice, the ground changed from where we have been walking. You can
see the roads and building foundations from the old city.”
     I look to the White City that we live in now. It is odd to see it like this—convex instead of
concave. It is an absolute behemoth.
“This is where we take our breaks. We always sit on this foundation for about thirty minutes
before getting another start. It’s outside of the trees, so it is much safer because we can see
everything.”
     We sit down on the hard ground, and only now that I’m sitting do I realize how badly my
calves hurt from all of this walking.
     But almost before I get a chance to rest, something on the horizon changes. It is moving,
throbbing, unnoticeable at first, like ants on an ant hill. But there is something coming up from
below the ground.
“Um, Anton,” I say, but when I look at him, I see that he is looking at the same thing as I am.
     Empties. There are at least fifty of them, outmatching the fifteen of us greatly.
“Lukas, do you know if the buildings that were over there had basements?”
“I’ve never been over there.”
“I think they did.” Anton draws his bow and, and we all do so, but the Empties are moving
much too fast. Within seconds, they overpower us.

Check out Colby's blog HERE
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Check out this story and the other top entries at my website.  HERE.

New entry from the lost Journal!

Open publication - Free publishing - More exiled

Don't forget to visit my website where you can find all the journal entries. Click on 'extras' from the main menu.

TheNeverChronicles.com

Excerpts from a memoir part 2: Fuzzy Side Up

I can't help but share more excerpts from this memoir, Fuzzy Side Up.  Each one of them make me laugh.  Enjoy.

Darlene Chandler

1958

     My friend, Michael Myers, and I used to fish at night for carp.  We always anchored behind Darlene Chandler's house (she was a beautiful redhead) with the hope she would undress with the curtains up.  She never did.

Lewes

1958

     Every summer, for a while, Goy would rent Taylor's cottage for a month in Lewes, Delaware.  The entire cottage was probably as large as a family room.  Mr. Taylor was a fisherman, netting off the beach. This particular summer, Nanny, Pappap, Judy and I were there, along with my cousins, Glennie and Barbara.  Goy and Mom would come down on Saturday night and leave Sunday night.  The store was closed on Sundays.  Judy and Barbara were about 16 and Glennie and I were 12.  Well, one day we were all swimming and the girls decided to take off with Glennie and my bathing suits and run back to the cottage.  There we were, in the water with no suits and people all over the beach.  We waited but they never came back.  It was getting cold. Glennie, who was much less modest than I, he walked out of the water and ran home stark naked.  It was at least two-hundred yards across the beach, over the dunes and down Main Street to the cottage. I waited, and finally, Nanny brought my suit down to me.
     One day Glennie decided to put lighter fluid on the ends of Pappap's cigarettes.  Pappap wore a Panama hat and he smoked Chesterfields -no filters.  Pappap lit one and nothing happened.  It all of the sudden occured to Glennie that Pappap put the wrong end into his mouth.
"Oh my God, he'll burn his face when it finally reaches the fluid!"
     Glennie ran over to Pappap and slapped the cigarette out of his mouth.  Pappap was furious.  He chased both of us down the alley behind the cottages (and he could run) but we got away. Pappap went back to the cottage.  We suddenly remembered the other cigarettes were still there.  We ran back to throw them away. As we entered, there was Pappap, lighting another. Well, he put it in the right way this time.  Now, his hat was on fire. Nanny yanked it off his head and tore the cigarette out of his mouth. No harm except the hat.
     This seems crueler than it was.  We took Pappap everywhere.  Pappap loved to fish, so did we.  We would throw his  line out and he would sit there all day.  One day, we took Pappap to the beach an only put a sinker on his line -no hooks.  We played and swam and Pappap fished.  Occasionally, we gave the sinker a tug to keep Pappap happy.
     One day Pappap had diarrhea on the beach.  I guess he forgot his underwear. I saw him running over the beach with a brown stream coming out the bottom of his pants.

Harvey

     My Uncle Glen went to Florida and brought me back a baby alligator.  It was about a foot long.  I made a box with sand and a pan with water and fed him every day.  He thrived.  One day, I decided to take Harvey to the creek for a swim.  I tied a string around his neck and put him in the water.  That was the last I saw of Harvey.  But fifteen years later, I read in the paper that someone found a 250 pound alligator about ten miles downstream at Lenape.  It was dead.  I often wondered if that was Harvey.

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Excerpts from a memoir: Fuzzy Side Up

Still one of the funniest things I've ever read, Fuzzy Side Up, is a collection of stories (all true) about a man's life.  It is not available to the general public (something I'm working on fixing) so I thought I'd share a few particularly funny excerpts.

Mimosa Tree

1953

     One Christmas, I got a plastic rifle and my friend, David Kay, broke it over my head on Christmas Day.  That same Christmas, I got a carpenter's kit.  Saw, hammer, etc. I looked for something to saw. Finally, I went under Nanny's dining room table and sawed part of the leg off.  Goy put me outside when he saw what I was doing.  We had a large beautiful mimosa tree in the yard.  I remember my mother crying as the tree lay on the snow-covered ground.

Bow & Arrow

1955

     My friend, Louie Fredricks, lived on top of the Army and Navy store on the main street. Louie was more advanced than me.  More street smart.  He bought me a beanie for my eighth birthday.  I loved that hat.  I also heard the record, 'You Ain't Nothing But A Hound Dog,' at his house.  One year, Louie got a bow and arrow for his birthday.  His older brother, Jimmy, took us to the park and ran around in a circle while Louie and I stood in the middle shooting arrows at him.  (Made perfect sense to me.)

State Police

1956

     When I was in fifth grade, for the first time, we had a club.  Today it might be called a gang, but we were more like Spanky, Alfalfa and Buckwheat.
     We built a clubhouse along the creek behind Mr. Canby's oil company.  It was just boards nailed to trees.  We had to rebuild it every few weeks because someone would dismantle it.  We found out it was the boys from the east side of East Ward.  Our retaliation was leaning railroad ties (8"x8"x8' pieces of wood) on their front doors and ringing the doorbell.  Thank God no one was actually hurt, but someone squealed.
     I remember that fateful Monday afternoon when two state troopers showed up at school.  I saw them standing in the hall and talking to our principal.  I somehow knew they weren't giving a safety patrol lesson.  They came in and went to the back of the room.  I sat in front of the teacher's desk even though my last name started with a W.  I never looked back.  I heard the footsteps coming down the aisle on each side. One took one arm, one took the other arm, and they lifted me out of my seat.  Off we went to the station.  I wasn't allowed out of the yard for a week.
     The second year in fifth grade I was much better.  But I still couldn't read. When our final report cards were handed out, I asked George Murphy if I was still going to be in fifth grade.  He said, "No, you're going to sixth." Victory.

My Boat

1957

     Goy had made a small flat-bottom boat to fish from in the Brandywine Creek.  I kept it tied to a tree behind the Methodist church, which was next to the creek.  Every so often it was missing, but I always found it down the creek and brought it back.  One day, Mrs. Straus saw two boys pulling it down the creek.  She called the house, and Nanny told me. I went up to the third floor where Goy kept his 25-20 Winchester.  I put the bullets in the gun, snuck out without anyone seeing me, ran down Brandywine Avenue to the railroad bridge, and went to where it crossed over the creek.  There I saw Tallucci and Bones, two Johnstown boys, stealing my boat.  I aimed the gun at the side of the boat and shot.  They immediately turned the boat around and started upstream toward the church.  I stayed on the bridge till they went under, and when they came out, I shot one more time.  They returned the boat, and it was never stolen again.