Melissa Maygrove

Caffe Maggieatto over at Just Get It Written gave me the Liebster award. Thank you! (Funny how that blog button keeps changing. Apparently the rules have morphed over time as well.) Normally, I just acknowledge these things and link an old award post, but I needed some blog content for July and I thought Caffe's questions were challenging, so I decided to go full monty. Figuratively speaking, of course. :P Rules (according to Caffe’s post) :

I'm visiting Crystal Collier's blog today, trying to be sneaky and lie. I hope you'll pop over and pay Crystal a visit. There's a giveaway. :)

Creating stories is fun, isn't it? Chances are, your novel flows like a movie in your head, complete with character studies, story images, and script notes. Heck, I bet I could ask you how your MC would feel or what s/he would do in a particular situation, and you could tell me — even if it wasn't in your book! You know your story and your characters frontwards and backwards, inside and out. And your readers don't. This is the reason new writers are so prone to committing the infamous info dump . What qualifies as a dump? Basically, it's any information you include that the reader doesn't need to know to understand the scene or (initially) bond with the characters. Although a dump can happen at any point in a story, and often does, they're usually worse at or near the beginning. Sometimes it helps to come at a problem from a different direction, so let's do that.

 I'm excited to help Annalisa Crawford celebrate the release of Our Beautiful Child , a collection of three stories tied together by the same setting. And what a cover! I still can't stop looking at it. For no reason whatsoever, Annalisa thought it would be fun to answer some of the questions that Jackie magazine asked the stars of the day (the example she found is from 1984 – and the victim was Johnny Marr from The Smiths ). She will be answering one question on each of the random blogs taking part! Question: What’s the silliest item of clothing you’ve ever worn?

Edge of Truth (YA Dystopian) is officially 1-year old today! In celebration, Natasha Hanova is hosting a big giveaway with book contributions from multiple authors, me included.  :) Since June 6, 2013, Edge of Truth has landed a spot on Amazon's Teen & Young Adult Science Fiction and Dystopian Top 100 List, earned an average review rating of 4+ stars, got facelift (a.k.a. new cover), and now has bonus content. Woohoo! Please be sure to enter the Rafflecopter contest for a chance to win chocolate, an Amazon Gift card, or free books. First, enjoy this short excerpt of Rena watching Nevan perform on stage. In addition to her ability to trigger earthquakes, Rena can sense the tiniest ground vibrations.   +++ As Rena approached the stage, the drums’ pulse crawled up through the bottom of her feet, though it didn’t make her nauseous like earthquakes did. It tickled her soles and delighted her heart. She pushed her way through the crowd, eager for a spot clo...

This is my Insecure Writers Support Group post for June. For more information about the group, see the bottom of this post. Alex's awesome co-hosts for June are: C. Lee McKenzie, Tracy Jo, Melanie Schulz ,   and LG Keltner! Please stop by their blogs and say thank you. I'm going to drop the happy social media face and get real in this post (that's what IWSG is all about, right?), so let me pause to give an important caveat.  I am beyond grateful for all the writer friends who helped me launch my book and posted promo for me. Don't let anything I say in this post make you feel unappreciated.

I'm off visiting today (deets at the bottom). While I'm gone, Carol Kilgore is taking over my blog to show off her pretty, new book cover. Congratulations, Carol! Life was so simple—until she had to save one.