Writability

My Favorite (Upcoming) Book Covers

As a bookish person who also loves artsy things, it’s probably no surprise that I love cover reveals. Book covers, to me, are totally fascinating, and lately the book covers just seem to be getting better and better.

I’ve been drooling on so many covers lately, that I wanted to share them with you guys. Specifically, covers for books that haven’t been released yet because there are so many gorgeous ones, I can’t even.

So without further ado, here we go.

Focus On Me by Megan Erickson:

Photo credit: Goodreads

Why:

Walk on Earth a Stranger by Rae Carson:

Photo credit: Goodreads

Why: The gorgeous colors, beautiful typography, shiny gold, stunning sunrise backdrop contrasting on the deep green foreground...what's not to love?

Cut Both Ways by Carrie Mesrobian:

Photo credit: Goodreads

Why: The simple, but eye-catching design, the hand-painted typography, the clothes around the bed that tells me I'm probably going to like this book... ;)

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo:

Photo credit: Goodreads

Why: This illustrated cover fits beautifully with the previous Grisha books, but is definitely it's own thing. I love the cool tones, the swirly typography, and the fact that the elongated feathers makes six towers is pretty awesome and probably important.

A Madness So Discreet by Mindy McGinnis:

Photo credit: Goodreads

Why: The eerie moodiness, the movement in the cover model (and her hair!), the creepy hand grabbing her foot at the bottom of the cover, and the delicate and refined typography all work together to make this one stunning cover.

Dreamstrider by Lindsay Smith:

Photo credit: Goodreads

Why: This cover is just so unique—I love the contrast of all the colors with the negative white space, the layers with tons of textures are gorgeous, and the more I look at it, the more I see.

Dreamland by Robert L. Anderson:

Photo credit: Goodreads

Why: The atmospheric, Inception-like imagery with the city in the sky, the clouds with the sun poking through and creating the title, the darkness creeping in around the edges and the creepy shack and dirt road setting down below makes this one of my favorite covers this year.

Hello, I Love You by Katie M. Stout:

Photo credit: Goodreads

Why: Hello, you're adorable. I mean, c'mon, how cute is this? I love the doodles, the light colors and the fact that they actually used a PoC model for a PoC character (as they always should, but unfortunately don't always) is a nice added bonus.

More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera:

Photo credit: Goodreads

Why: This cover is so perfectly creepy and awesome. I love the texture of the cracked, flaking smiley face and the bold overlaid text and the fact that it's a closeup showing only have a smile just makes it even creepier to me.

We Are the Ants by Shaun Hutchinson

Photo credit: Goodreads

Why: This is a simple, but lovely design that I really appreciate. I love how the title is centered down the middle and brings your eye back down to the tree at the bottom, which leads you back up into the cover again, and then the swirl of the stars and yeah. It's a deceptively clever design and I like it.

Runner-ups: Made You Up by Francesca Zappia, It’s a Wonderful Death by Sarah J. Schmitt, The Tenderness of Thieves by Donna Freitas, Even When You Lie to Me by Jessica Alcott, and All the Rage by Courtney Summers.

What are some of your favorite upcoming book covers?

Twitter-sized bite:

Writer @Ava_Jae shares her top ten favorite upcoming book covers. What would you add to the list? (Click to tweet)

Classes I Never Thought Would Apply to My Writing Career (But Do)

Photo credit: CollegeDegrees360

With finals two weeks away and projects and presentations and essays piling up like Mount Kilimanjaro in the back of my mind, I’ve been thinking, kind of understandably, about school.

Specifically, about those silly classes I thought totally didn’t apply to me and my writerly career goals until, um, they did.

So for fun, I thought I’d share with you some of those classes I totally thought were irrelevant and was totally wrong.

Those two HTML classes. I took an HTML class my senior year of high school just to fill an elective space, and my third year of college. By the latter class, I kind of knew it’d be good to pay attention, but in high school, I didn’t think learning html would matter to me at all.

And boy, was I wrong.

Between the blog here and tumblr, I open up HTML to fix formatting issues that are rage-inducing to try to fix in the WYSIWYG editor and save myself a ton of time. I know how to read it relatively well, and while I’m definitely not an expert, the little bit I do know has been completely invaluable through many years of blogging. The more you know.

Those two dreaded public speaking classes. I took a public speaking class my senior year of high school and over the summer after my second year of college. I hated them both with a burning passion and I can’t begin to tell you how relieved I was when I walked out of there and thought thank god I’ll never have to do that again.

Except, you know, I’ll have to do that plenty because authors it turns out don’t just write books. (And my first real life application will be over the summer at a conference in Chicago for those who are interested.)

Every math class ever. This will never apply to my life, groaned high school Ava in every math class. And to be fair, most of that stuff really never will. But I mean, I guess math is helpful sometimes, like with budgeting writer stuff and figuring out statistics for a post and fine math, you win.

All those video editing classes. Fun fact: before I switched my major to English, I went to school for three years for video-related fields. I have an Associates in Digital Media/Film, and I went to a fancy art school where I learned about Visual Effects. It was pretty cool.

When I switched majors, though, I never really thought the film stuff I’d learned would come into play again. And then I started vlogging and I realized just how useful it was to know how to set up a camera and scene and edit stuff. Who knew?

Every design/color theory/art class ever. Unsurprisingly, another thing I did at Fancy Art School was take art classes! And I totally loved them and thought they were a blast, but again, I didn't really think much about how those classes would apply to my writing career.

But they totally do apply! Because I've designed my own business cards, and this blog, and I'll probably be designing future promo materials and it's all very helpful to have those basics I learned in my head.

What non-writing skills have you unexpectedly used in your writing career?

Twitter-sized bite:

What non-writing skills have you unexpectedly used in your writing career? Join the discussion on @Ava_Jae's blog. (Click to tweet)

Vlog: How to Get Traditionally Published

In which I give the super quick version of how to get traditionally published in under four minutes.

RELATED VLOGS:

Twitter-sized bite:

How do you get traditionally published? @Ava_Jae breaks down the process in under 4 minutes in today's vlog. (Click to tweet)

Book Review: TRUST THE FOCUS by Megan Erickson

Photo credit: Goodreads

As I like to do with book reviews before I talk about my feels, here is the Goodreads summary:

“With his college graduation gown expertly pitched into the trash, Justin Akron is ready for the road trip he planned with his best friend Landry— and ready for one last summer of escape from his mother’s controlling grip. Climbing into the Winnebago his father left him, they set out across America in search of the sites his father had captured through the lens of his Nikon.

As an aspiring photographer, Justin can think of no better way to honor his father’s memory than to scatter his ashes at the sites he held sacred. And there’s no one Justin would rather share the experience with more than Landry.

But Justin knows he can’t escape forever. Eventually he’ll have to return home and join his mother’s Senate campaign. Nor can he escape the truth of who he is, and the fact that he’s in love with his out-and-proud travel companion.

Admitting what he wants could hurt his mother’s conservative political career. But with every click of his shutter and every sprinkle of ash, Justin can’t resist Landry’s pull. And when the truth comes into focus, neither is prepared for the secrets the other is hiding.”

Okay, so. Megan is a super lovely person, and I really enjoyed Make it Count, which was released last year, so when I heard she was writing a m/m NA, I basically freaked out with uncontained excitement.

Super quick note: this is, indeed NA (not YA), so everything you would expect from NA is here. I, obviously, did not have a problem with it, but I figure it’s good to mention because sometimes people get confused when I say NA. It is not the same as YA. Okay.

As for Trust the Focus! Generally, when I read Erickson’s romances, I expect sweet and sexy NA. This was exactly that. Justin and Landry go on a road trip to honor Justin’s dad with no plans of making anything happen romantically between them (Justin isn’t even openly gay, so there doesn’t at first even seem to be a possibility of anything happening between them), but the more time they spend together, the more they begin to realize ignoring their feelings for each other isn’t going to work for much longer.

Trust the Focus had me smiling, awww-ing, laughing, internally raging and getting teary-eyed—which is to say, making me feel all the things a good romance should. I absolutely loved Justin and Landry’s chemistry, and while Justin frustrated me (as any good flawed romance hero should), I was rooting for them from the first page and loved seeing their relationship pull together.

If you’re looking for some sweet and fun diverse NA, I absolutely recommend Trust the Focus. I’ve already added the next in the series, Focus on Me, to my TBR shelf, and I can’t wait to continue to diversify my collection of NA novels!

Do you have any diverse NA recommendations?

.@Ava_Jae gives 5/5 stars to TRUST THE FOCUS by @MeganErickson_. Have you read this sweet m/m NA romance? (Click to tweet)

Looking for a sweet and sexy diverse NA? Check out TRUST THE FOCUS by Megan Erickson. (Click to tweet)

What I’ve Learned From My Social Media Presence

Photo credit: magicatwork on Flickr

As many of you know, I do social media a lot. Every day, in fact. And I do quite a bit of it and have been doing so for several years now.

Over time, I’ve learned some things. And so I thought I’d share these lessons with you.

YouTube isn’t as scary as I thought. When I posted my very first vlog, I was terrified. I’d been camera-shy for years—and in fact, when I first started social media-ing, I couldn’t post a picture of myself even on my super-protected personal FB page because it freaked me out so much. It took a long time to get a handle on my anxiety, then finally build up to being okay with sharing pictures online, and then finally posting that vlog.

And now? Now I love vlogging. It’s been so fun, and I’ve gotten comfortable in front of the camera (as long as I’m in an isolated room with no one watching, that is), and I’ve gotten a lot of really awesome feedback. There have been a few isolated bleh comments here and there, but the delete button is a very nice thing. And I haven’t had to use it often. So yay.

There are way more books out there than I can ever hope to read. Goodreads and Twitter are like the best worst thing to ever happen to my TBR list. I currently have 337 books on my TBR shelf and the more I read, the more the list grows. It’s a good problem to have, though, and I’m certainly not complaining. (Though if Hermione could lend me her time-turner, I might be able to make a dent in that list…)

People are generally nice. By and large, I’ve found, people are nice. There are definitely some jerks, creeps, and gross people out there, but the vast majority of people I’ve interacted with online have been genuinely wonderful. And interacting with those lovely people makes putting up with the occasional blah person more than worth it.

Being yourself is the best policy. While I mostly talk about writing and books online, I’ve been known randomly nerd out about X-Men, or whatever TV show I’m currently hooked on, or some random movie I just saw and loved. I’ll squee about Korrasami and jump up and down about the Deadpool movie and drool over Edward Kenway and Ezio Auditore then go back to talking about writing. And you know? It’s really fun seeing just how many people following me are also secret nerds who I share fandoms with.

The way I see it, it’s too exhausting to try to be someone you’re not online. And why bother, when plenty of people will love you for you better?

It can be time consuming and overwhelming. I am all over the internet. Just about every major social media site (except Google +) I use at least semi-regularly. And unsurprisingly, it takes up a hell of a lot of time. Sometimes, when I’m overwhelmed with work, I have to take a step back and ignore the smaller social media sites and cut down on the amount of time I spend on even my favorite sites. Sometimes I only log onto Twitter and make sure my blog is updated and leave it at that. Eventually, I will probably need to take a break entirely, but the point is every site is a commitment, and those commitments can add up quickly. I really do enjoy the stuff I do online, but sometimes I have to remind myself that taking care of me and making sure I work on deadline material is more important.

What have you learned from being online?

Twitter-sized bite:

.@Ava_Jae shares five lessons she's learned from being online. What would you add to the list? (Click to tweet)

Vlog: Write for Yourself First

A vlog about writing in dead genres, paying attention to trends, and writing what you're passionate about.

RELATED LINK:

On Writing Dead Genres (blog)

Twitter-sized bites:

Worried that your WIP or awesome book idea is in a dead genre? @Ava_Jae vlogs her thoughts. (Click to tweet)

"In the end agents, editors, and readers don't fall in love with genres—they fall in love with stories." (Click to tweet)

How to Differentiate Your POVs

Photo credit: elliemcc11 on Flickr

Writing in multiple POVs is one of my favorite things to play around with. It’s exhilarating to get into more than one character’s head, and analyze the plot from different perspectives, and really see how the characters view each other. It can also be a great way for easy, built-in hooks because you can end one POV chapter on a cliffhanger and the readers have to read a whole chapter from a different POV before finding out what happened *insert maniacal laughter here.*

Writing in multiple POVs, however, can be really tricky. Because not only are you fully fleshing out one POV character until you can speak and think like them on the page, but you have to do it twice. Or three times. Or however many times depending on the number of perspectives you’re using.

I've found that the hardest part of that is largely getting your characters to sound different.

In a multiple POV novel, a reader should be able to randomly open up to any page in the book, read a sentence, and know whose POV they’re in without any context. Readers notice when characters sound the same, and it can be really jarring because readers realize that they are, in essence, not reading a character’s POV, but hearing the author’s voice come through. (And also, having to flip back to the beginning of the chapter to remember whose POV they’re in is no bueno).

But how do you make sure your POV characters sound different? Here are my top two tips:

Learn the way each character speaks. Some people speak in long sentences, some prefer short. Some characters have a wide vocabulary and use words like “inexplicably,” “horrendous,” and “capable” in every day speech, others do not and stick to more basic words and phrases. Some characters curse frequently, others think “hell” is a bad word. There are regional differences, accents, and varied slang. There are characters who are insecure and ask loads of questions, and characters who are angry and speak aggressively. The possibilities are quite literally endless, and it’s absolutely vital that you understand where each of your characters fit in—and that you make sure they’re different enough that readers won’t get confused.

Always think about the POV character’s perspective. A rich character and poor character walk into a small room lined with bookshelves brimming with old books. These two characters are going to have wildly different perspectives on the same setting. The character used to opulence might notice how dusty everything is, the cracks on the ceiling, the old rug, the cracked bookcases. The character who grew up in poverty might be stunned by the amount of books in the room, and notice how cozy the shag rug is, and wonder how anyone could have the time to read so many books. This is a super basic example, but the point is this: your two POV characters have different backgrounds and personalities coloring how they see the world. It’s up to you, the author, to know the difference.

Unsurprisingly, the key to writing great multiple POV novels is to get to know each of your perspective characters really really well. While you’re writing, it’s vital to remember that ultimately, you aren’t telling the story—your characters are. And when you’re working with multiple POVs, each character is going to tell the story a little differently. Your job is to navigate the differences and make them feel real.

What are some of your favorite multi-POV novels?

Twitter-sized bites:

When writing many POVs @Ava_Jae says, "each character is going to tell the story a little differently." Do you agree? (Click to tweet)

Struggling to make your many POV characters sound distinct? Writer @Ava_Jae shares some multi-POV writing tips. (Click to tweet)