The Liar Society!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lisa and Laura Roecker's debut YA novel The Liar Society hits shelves today!!!!!!!!! Pop over to their blog and give them a big ol' internet hug! :D

And then buy their book ;)

Day Four of LiLa!!! Love Them

This is the conclusion of my interview with LiLa. They've been at this writing and rewriting and querying thing since 2008. In fact, I've blog-stalked them and wanted to link you all to their first blog post. Why? Simple. Because writing is hard, and we all come from the same place: complete fear and total lack of confidence.

But why do we do it? Put ourselves through this every day? The fear, the doubt, the ice cream or chocolate and Twizzlers ;) Because we love it. That's why.

So, with that, I give you LiLa's advice to the rest of us:

Don't be afraid to start over. We can't tell you how many words we've thrown away since we've begun writing. BUT, we never truly throw the words away because they were all such good practice. The best part about writing is you can always start again. (Emphasis mine.)

Personally, I think it's important that we remember we can start over. Because we're living, breathing organisms, so's writing. I had similar openings (and the same ending) for Duality for about 10 years, until some very wise people told me that it didn't work. And I was kinda mad. But after I got over myself, I started over, crafted a MUCH stronger opening; crafted a second and then a third ending, which still doesn't work that well BTW. LiLa's right. Every word we put on paper or in pixel teaches us something, and even if they're not the best words EVAR, they teach us where we're weakest or strongest so that we can continue to grow, mature, and improve as writers. Personally, this is some of the best advice I've gotten. What about you guys?

OK. Two more pieces of business:

1) DON'T FORGET THE CONTEST!!!!!!!!!! It closes tomorrow, and I seriously have like 3 entries. So come on, play along. Don't make me beg for your participation. On any of the LiLa posts, leave me the best lie you ever told (or wanted to tell) for a chance to win a The Liar Society gift pack courtesy of our lovely ladies and moi.

2) LiLa's book birthday is TOMORROW. The Liar Society hits shelves tomorrow, March 1st. Be sure to leave Lisa and Laura some love on their blog, k? This is a big deal for them, and we should all help them celebrate. Right? Right.

Until tomorrow, my peeps!

Liar Society Day 3 + Six Sentence Sunday

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand we're back with another installment of my interview with LiLa. AAAAAAND it's Six Sentence Sunday! Woo hoo!

So without further adieu, Question 3:

What is your writing process like? It's probably a liiiiittle different since you're co-writing.

LiLa: Lisa always writes the first chapter and Laura edits, writes the next chapter and sends it back to Lisa where she does the same. We continue with this rhythm until we have a finished manuscript. And then we edit. And edit and edit and edit.

I'm a little envious. A built-in editor would be FANTABULOUS.

Okay, y'all, don't forget about the contest for The Liar Society swag. Just put in the comments on any of the LiLa posts what the best lie you ever told (or wanted to tell) is. I'll decide the winner on Tuesday.

And now, six sentences from Duality. Don't forget to check out the other entrants here! And happy 1st birthday, Six Sentence Sunday! They grow up so fast! *sniff*

The bitter scent on his breath had grown more pungent since his last visit. My breathing sped up. My jaws ached to clamp down on his throat. The sick were the easiest to kill.

I fought the need to pounce. My tail twitched like a cobra about to strike.

Liar Society Day 2

All right. If you guys aren't familiar with the Roecker Sisters' The Liar Society, then I'm still convinced you live under a rock. Or you don't read YA (and if that's the case, what's wrong with you???? [j/k, sort of]). Well, you can check out the super-cool Liar Society website and get caught up on everything Liar Society. Even if you don't read YA, you'll want to pick this up.

Today we continue with my micro-interview with the Roeckers. For anybody who follows their blog, two things are clear: 1) These two are HILARIOUS; and 2) They love them some Twizzlers, even going so far as to make chocolate-covered ones (which miiiiiiiiiiiiiiight be included in a certain prize package...just sayin').

So I asked them:

Besides Twizzlers and chocolate, what's something that helps you while you write?

LiLa: Internet research. We seriously could not write without the Internet. We're constantly looking up questions (TBD whether or not the answers are accurate), Latin, photos for inspiration. We'd be lost without the web.

Ditto.

And now, I'm opening the "Best Lie You Ever Told (or Wanted to Tell)" Contest. The prize is a Liar Society prize package that will include some swag, poooooossibly some chocolate-covered Twizzlers, and a copy of the book. Commence lying! :D

Woo Hoo!!!! Liar Society!!!!

All right, peeps. Feb 22 actually marked the beginning of what promises to be an exciting 2011 for debut authors. The super-awesome Leah Clifford's debut A Touch Mortal hit shelves (check out her blog here), and let me tell you, I am SO FREAKING STOKED to read this book. *Especially since I won an autographed copy via Operation Awesome.*

And in 4 days (?)....OK, on March 1st, the Roecker sisters' The Liar Society drops, and it's already receiving great reviews. And the Sisters have been kind enough to answer a few questions for me. And they also promised swag. Aww yeah.

So since it's only a few days until the Sisters Roecker, I'm going to post one of the interview questions every day, culminating on our Best Lie You Ever Told (or Wish You'd Told) Contest for swag and a copy of the book.

Here we go:

What made you decide to write together? I'm fairly certain if I tried to write with mine, I'd kill her.

We had always wanted to write a book separately, but until we got together, we couldn't make it happen. The idea of writing an entire book by ourselves seemed ridiculously overwhelming. But having someone to bounce ideas off of and fix your crap writing is absolutely golden. We wouldn't have it any other way.

All right. Check back in tomorrow for a couple more questions!

STUFF!

OK, so I'm completely awful at titling things. Cut me some slack, k? Thanks.

All right. The last couple of months, I've been working out with a trainer 2-3 days a week. Like reeeally working because I want to look like Shakira :D But what I've gained from this more than 3 lbs of weight loss and sore muscles is one important thing that we need as writers: endurance.

We all know how difficult the actual act of writing is. Between jobs, housework, screaming kids (or whimpering dogs and Valium-addled cats in my case), and the rigors of daily life, finding the time to write can be HARD. And let's face it. Even though common advice is to write every day (which my dear Elana refuted not long ago), it's not always feasible. How does endurance fit here? Easy. You do it anyway.

Here's what I mean. Writing is like a decathlon. 1. You get bright shiny idea. 2. You mold bright shiny idea into something workable. 3. You write. 4. You write some more. 5. You get angry because MC doesn't do what you want her to do. 6. You write. 7. You finish! 8. You revise. 9. People beta read. 10. You revise.

Some people don't get past step 2. Some make it to step 6 and pass out .Endurance is the only way to finish what you've started, and then some. And it does take a lot of practice, too. A lot of training.

But eventually you wrestle it into submission, right? I mean, most of us are on Query Road now, and THAT takes more perseverance than even writing the novel! Rejection after rejection after request after rejection can exhaust a person.

Writing is a marathon, not a sprint (unless you're Stephanie Meyer, but that's a story for another time). People reach success because they persevered, not because they were lucky. One of my favorite quotes is "Writing is 90% perseverance, 10 talent" and it's true. You have to push to the end. Otherwise, you'll never get anything accomplished.

All right, I promised you some funs. And I shall deliver. The fantastical, wonderful, cotton-candy tressed Sisters Roecker have been awesome enough to agree to an interview with yours truly! If you haven't heard the buzz about their debut novel, The Liar Society, then you're probably living under a rock. So go, check it out. I'll wait.

OK, done? Well, I'm also doing a giveaway that will coincide with their release date of 3.1.11. It will be fun. I promise.

So for the next week, I'll be taking suggested questions, things that you guys want to know about Lisa and Laura, their book, and their publication journey. AND I'm thinking about a contest for the giveaway. What would you guys think about this:

What's the best lie you ever told (or wanted to tell)? Everybody's got at least one. Let's have fun with this, shall we?

And please pop over to LiLa's blog and give them some love if you haven't yet! They are awesome ladies.