Contest: IN HONOR OF MOCKINGJAY

So, pretty much every YA reader out there knows what is happening August 24^th…MOCKINGJAY!! Finally,  we get to find out what happens. Did Peeta survive? What is the fabled District 13 like? Who will triumph—Katniss or The Capitol? (My money is on Katniss all the way!)

I haven’t met a single person who has not loved these books. They are fast paced, the stakes couldn’t be any higher, and they are full of characters we love and and villians we despise.  The Hunger Games series is an excellent example of what I was talking about a few blogs ago—great writing we can all aspire to!

So, now I need you guys to give me your opinions, so I have a way to pass these last antagonizing days until the book comes out!!

Answer any or all of the questions below and you’ll be automatically entered to win an awesome glow-the-dark Mockingjay sticker, four amazing buttons from the series and a free critique of your first chapter/5,000 words, query or synopsis!

Who will win Katniss in the end? Gale–the steadfast bestfriend who helped her survive or Peeta–the boy who has repeatedly risked his life to save hers?

The series is full of colorful, larger-than-life characters. Who is your favorite?

Who will get killed in this final book? (PLEASE NOT CINNA—if he even survived the last one. Sniff.)

Who would you cast as Katniss, Gale, Peeta and Haymitch?

Let me know guys—remember, all it takes is your opinion on any/all of the questions for a chance to win! Good luck everyone! Down below are pictures of your fabulous pins–I will post the picture of the sticker soon, I’m having a problem with my computer.  Lastly, here are a few links to reviews we’ve received for our critiques at CC. REVIEW ONE TWO THREE

I’m going to re-read my fave parts of Catching Fire now…

Why I Love Harry Potter

I want to go to Harry Potter World! I am desperate to see Hogwarts and the talking portraits and go into Hogsmeade to get my wand and a mug of butterbeer.  Since my daughter first read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone at the age of ten—she’s twenty now—and convinced me I had to read it I’ve been captivated by the books. JK Rowling managed to accomplish something few other authors ever have. Her characters affected the world in ways that people wouldn’t have dreamed possible. Who out there has heard of Wizard Rock? Can you imagine writing a book that inspired a whole genre of music? Or a giant amusement park?

As writers, we all strive to create characters that will have an impact on the world, so when we find a book like Harry Potter, we have to ask ourselves–what is it about those characters that inspire such fervent loyalty?

Harry himself is the reluctant hero—at theme we have seen repeatedly in great stories. He is loyal and brave and—most importantly—just a regular guy who often makes mistakes, despite   his wizard status. He has his gifts, but they aren’t so over the top that we can’t believe in them. He muddles through a lot, sometimes by the skin of his teeth (anyone remember the lake challenge during the tri-wizard tournament?) He needs his friends to survive-and his loyalty to them is his strongest quality.

Hermione and Ron are the perfect sidekicks, one smart, one funny, and both as fiercely loyal as Harry. Voldemort is an excellent villain who has a believable agenda. We have a smaller villain as well though, so the YA story isn’t overwhelmed by Voldemort. Malfoy is the perfect foil to Harry–and a character anyone who has ever attended school can relate to. Even the characters without as much page time, such as Luna Lovegood, Fred and George, Dobby, the horrible Dursleys— are all SO alive and layered.

The fantastic setting of the story plays a huge role as well. What child since hasn’t secretly hoped for his Hogwarts letter? Who among us Potterphiles has not wished for an invisibility cloak or longed to go have tea in Hagrid’s hut and see his latest monsters?

So, my challenge to all of you out there is this–Using the HP books or other books you’ve loved– pick out the traits that make a character impossible to walk away from.  Tell us about a world you are so immersed in that it becomes a real place to you.  Give us the aspects of a great story that draw you in and keep you reading. IE: Harry Potter–The underdog vs. the evil overlord and how he triumphs.

In other words, what are your favorite books –but, more importantly, why?

Get Your Daily Dose of Creativity

Yay! Beautiful Darkness is coming

I’m so excited for this book! I think I was supposed to add the widget to the side somewhere…but I don’t know how, so here it is…haha…Also, make sure to check out this awesome CONTEST that the authors are running!

Beautiful Creatures was an excellent book and we’ll be interviewing the authors and running a contest for a signed copy of it at some time in the near future, so make sure to keep coming back and checking. In the meantime, there are more contests, prizes and–most importantly–a new post from Professor Rutabaga  in the works. I know everyone is waiting for that, so I’ll get on him to work harder!

Hope you guys are having a great summer!

The Top Ten Things that Motivate Me

Hi everyone!

Sorry we haven’t been around for a week or so–I’m sure we aren’t the only ones busy with summertime! Hope you guys are having a good one. I find that, for me, it is harder to stay motivated during these long, hot days. I want to be lazy and go swimming and hang out with my kids. I want to read by the pool and work on sculpting fairies and treat writing like it isn’t really a job.

Problem is, I feel the only way I’ll ever get published is by treating writing like it is my job–like I’m already earning a paycheck for it.

To that end, I’ve created a list of things to help stay motivated.

Number One: READING! I have a hard time with this one, I always feel that I’m cheating–that I’m wasting time that could be better spent on writing. Nothing motivates me more than a great book though. It’s just a different way of immersing myself in the language, and I find that the more I read, the better I write. When I’m reading I like to occasionally jot down phrases that capture my imagination. If something inspires me I try to think of WHY I find it inspirational. If I’m impressed with some part of the story, whether it is the characters, the setting, the language etc…I try to take apart exactly what the author did to make it work so well. I’ve found that all of these things have improved my own writing–so I keep remembering to read, read, read!

Number Two: Allowing myself to daydream about success. This is always fun, but I also believe it’s an important affirmation of what will happen next in my life. The more clearly I am able to envision a future as a published writer, the more chance I feel I have of getting there. I can clearly imagine the call from my agent saying that my book has sold (for an unprecedented billion dollars-just kidding In order to see things more clearly I have even  made a list of five things I will do when I sell my book.                                                                                             

One: jump up and down screaming.

Two: Tell everyone I know.

Three: Go celebrate with my family and make sure to tell the waitstaff that I am celebrating the publication of my first book so they can all be properly impressed with me. hehe.

Four: Go hang out with my Chimera Critiques buddies–even if that means flying to Virginia. haha.

Five: Walk into Barnes and Nobles and ask if they will feature my book when it arrives in their store since I am a prominent local writer. haha.

Number Three: Reading success stories from other authors. This is really fun, especially if it is an author I really admire. I like knowing how other writers worked to achieve success. I like to compare their stories to my own. It makes me feel like I’m not just “writing a book” but am instead, part of a larger community of people who all have all had this dream at some point. They achieved it, which means that–with enough hard work–I will as well.

Number Four: I like to accomplish something outside of writing my book that I’ve been dreading. That way, instead of procrastinating that next hard scene, I can use writing as a reward. It’s all in how you look at it. If I actually washed my kitchen floors today then I can say to myself, “Hey, I did something hard, now I’m allowed to do something fun and sit down to write my story.” It’s a much better way of looking at  it than getting caught up in dreading “working.” Writing is my favorite thing to do. When I forget that, making myself do something I actually despise–like clean my house–is a great reminder.

Number Five: I’m risking sounding mean and rotten–but, in the name of an honest motivational list, I have to include this one. I’ll look at a book that I really hated, one that I see all kinds of mistakes in and I feel was poorly written. I’ll remind myself that if that person can find someone to appreciate their drivel, than my writing can certainly get published. It’s a great motivator, so go ahead–give yourself permission to admit that there are a few published authors who don’t write as well as you. It’s very freeing.

Number Six: When people ask what you I do for a living, I tell them I’m a writer. Just because I haven’t been published yet, doesn’t mean it’s not true. Writing for hours every day makes me a writer. Period. I had a hard time realizing this at first, but now it makes me proud.

Number Seven: I”m pretty sure we all do this, but I like to remind yourself how many awesome stories got rejected repeatedly. Sometimes it’s clearly not the writing or the story–it’s just the wrong time and place. If those writers kept going through rejection to ultimately reach success, then I can too.

Number Eight: I like to sometimes congratulate myself on having a manuscript (even a crappy one) and another half a manuscript (hopefully much better) under my belt. I swear, half the people I meet claim they want to write a book. But then, I ask how far they’ve gotten and I hear that they haven’t actually started yet, that it’s something they plan on doing someday, that they don’t have time right now, etc…etc…Then I give myself a pat on the back for making it this far.

Number Nine: I try not to  look at time spent reading books on writing, doing writing exercises, browsing agents blog’s and websites as a waste. No, I’m not working on my  book. Yes, I am still working.

Number Ten: I try to make myself always WRITE! Even if it’s crap. Even if I’m in a bad mood, or I’ve already written the scene ten times and don’t feel like doing it again. Even if it’s only for an hour. Even if I only get two useful sentences out of that hour. I try to just keep writing and eventually, the characters take over, the words come alive again and I’m a few sentences closer to my dream.

So, that’s it for me. How about you guys?   What do you plan on doing when you get the call that your book sold? Any other tricks to stay motivated until then?

The Adults Who Read YA Choice Awards

So, I know I’m not technically a “teen” haha, but…I’m still very excited about the Teen Read Awards. With all the movie award shows it’s really nice to see some books being honored. So, I shot over to the site and went to cast my votes.

I found that I was disappointed in some of the nominees. I guess it’s going to be that way for everyone. But, I believe—as a writer and an adult– it’s more prevalent for me. I don’t know if I’ve learned to think too much like a writer and I can’t turn it off—but some of the books teens really like I’m only so-so on. A huge pet peeve is how many characters in YA fall in love for no reason. I especially don’t understand why all these immortal guys who have been around a billion ordinary girls fall for these ordinary girls with no explanation WHY. Anyone else have this problem?

I think the characters are a little boring or immature sometimes, or that the book doesn’t have a strong enough plot arc. Some of the newer trilogies seem like the first book is nothing but a set up for the next one. I also notice if the writer uses a lot of directional phrasing, clichés, adverbs etc…Sometimes I wish I could turn off the editor in me and just read the books. Haha.

As much as I LOVE YA I guess I am a little too old for some of it, because I know if I was a teenager I probably wouldn’t be asking the questions I ask, I’d probably just enjoy the book. Do any of you guys find that you have that problem?

So, given all of that, in honor of the Teen Readers Awards, we thought we could have our own awards here on Chimera Critiques. The nominees are carefully chosen books that are for teens and UP!

We’ll put up a five in each category and leave you guys to nominate a wild card for each category. Feel free to nominate books out of the paranormal realm—sorry, but that’s what we read, so that will have to be what we stick to. Oh, we also left out Harry Potter and The Twilight Books because we wanted to make room for other stuff—not because they aren’t great. In order to not have an over-abundance of material to choose from we’ve only listed books that were written in the last few years. So, without further ado:

THE ADULTS WHO READ TEEN BOOKS CHOICE AWARDS

PLEASE LEAVE YOUR NOMINATION FOR BEST WRITING IN THE COMMENTS!

For anyone who is interested, here is why I made the choices for best writing: Feel Free to Skip this and Shoot Down to the Next Poll

The Mortal Instruments: Cassandra Clare is the queen of metaphors, and I just love how alive she makes the story come. Her plot arc through the series was awesome, with the characters learning lessons and changing as the story grew. She’s also absolutely hilarious and the throw away lines by Jace and Simon were some of the highlights of the book.

Shiver: Maggie Stiefvater’s writing is like poetry at points. Her prose is absolutely beautiful to read. Sam is the moody, poetic guy that actually has a reason to be moody and poetic. His fight to hang onto his humanity is what sets this book far apart from the rest of the werewolf/vampire crowd.

The Hunger Games: Fast Paced!! This book is the best example of pacing I’ve ever seen. You barely ever have a minute to catch your breath. The story hooks you immediately and never lets that hook waver for even a second. Katniss is a strong heroine, who is actually someone young girls can look up to and admire.

Beautiful Creatures: This book is so vibrant! It’s set in the deep south and I can almost feel the humidity dripping off the words. Even the side-characters are hilarious and animated. Literally everything about that book LEAPS off the page. I also loved the fact that it was written from a teenage boys POV. Despite being written by two different authors, the writing is completely seamless. This is absolutely one of the best YA books out there!

Going Bovine: This story twisted my brain when I read it. It was different than anything I’d ever read before and when I put it down I was like, “Wow! How did she come up with that?” The writing is hilarious and Libba Bray might as well be a teenager, because she has the voice of Cameron down perfectly. This is one of the most original, poignant, most well-written YA books I’ve ever read.

PLEASE LEAVE YOUR NOMINATION FOR BEST CONCEPT IN THE COMMENTS!

For anyone not familiar with the above story concepts:

The Hunger Games: Dystopian Fantasy that pits teenagers against each other in a death-trap filled arena, until only one is left standing.

The Body Finder: A young girl has the ability to sense dead bodies and uses it to stalk a serial killer.

Going Bovine: A disaffected teen catches Mad Cow disease and goes on an epic journey to find the cure with a punk rock angel as a guide. Keeping him company on his trip are a talking gnome and a hypochondriac dwarf.

Wake: Janie Hannigan is cursed with the ability to fall into anyone’s dream if they happen to go to sleep in the same room.

Before I Fall When Samantha is killed in a car crash she somehow wakes up the next morning and finds it’s the day of her death. Now she must relive that day seven times. It will keep repeating until she can figure out how to fix the mistakes she made that day and finally find peace.

PLEASE LEAVE YOUR NOMINATION FOR BEST MALE/FEMALE IN THE COMMENTS!

Last but not least, we need a BEST OVERALL READ. Rather than making any suggestions ourselves, we’re leaving this strictly up to our readers—you guys! The only rule is to please nominate books written in the last five years in order to avoid having too wide a range to choose from. We’ll need five nominations for this category and we’ll post the poll on Thurs. for people to vote. Feel free to nominate the same book somebody else does, that way we’ll know which ones people really love. Thurs. blog will also contain the wildcard polls–so be sure to swing by!
 

Whoever’s book nomination wins for best overall read will win a guaranteed critique of their first five-thousand words/query letter or synopsis—so get commenting!

Eenie, Meenie, Miney, Moe…What I’ll Research I Don’t Know…

I’ve always loved learning new things.  When I set out to write a book, I knew I’d be researching topics like: plot arc’s, pacing, platforms, etc…

What has been even more fun though, is how many things I’ve learned about that I never saw coming. A handful of things I’ve picked up in the course of writing my novel:

What  the multiverse is and why scientists believe in parallel worlds.

What atrocities the “Cheka” committed.

The easiest way to pickpocket someone.

As my characters go down different roads, so do I. I can’t travel those roads without knowing the landscape that surrounds me. That necessitates a lot of research—most of which will never be in the book-but (I hope) will enrich it.

This week my characters decided that their escape route out of NY should be under the city, but how could I write that with no knowledge of it?  A Google search turned up a book entitled, “The Mole People—Life in the Tunnels beneath New York City.” It turns out that there are hundreds of people that live in the abandoned tunnels and subway stations under NY.  That was a topic I couldn’t ignore. Although I don’t know if he will make the final cut, a new character has currently shown up in my book–JT, one of the inhabitants of the tunnels who helps my MC’s–Jess and Cacey– escape the people tracking them.

While looking into Amazon reviews on The Mole People, I happened to see that the author had written another, Orphans of the Living: Stories of America’s Children in Foster Care. Since Jess has grown up in the foster care system, the book immediately caught my eye. Although nothing from that book will ever make it into my novel, I ordered it anyway—as a way of knowing Jess on a deeper level and thus bringing more authenticity to him.

So that was this week. Next week who knows what I’ll be researching?

How about you guys? Do you like to research? Hate it? What’s an exciting topic you discovered while writing your novel?  What was the most boring thing you were forced to look into? The most bizarre? The one that changed your book the most? Tell us about some of them!

And, while you’re here don’t forget to check out our lyrical story contest, it ends tomorrow at midnight! Oh, and can someone pretty, pretty, please shoot down to the “Name the Chimera” contest and vote on a name–we are in desperate need of a tie breaker!

Musical Chairs (or something like it)

We hope everyone had a fantastic weekend! We have a great interactive Monday blog so thank you for coming over and helping us with this challenge it should be a lot of fun.  No, it WILL be a lot of fun.  I’ve done it countless times and know for a fact it does work and the result is always both surprising and awesome.  However, before I get to the rules of the challenge and the prize for this contest I wanted to discuss music.

I am not a natural born poet nor lyricist.  My hat’s off to those who are lyrically inclined, I genuinely suck at it.  I remember my first experience with a group whose lyrics just absolutely blew me away.  A little band that I am sure no one has ever heard of, with a strange name.  Nonetheless, they were able to wrap up a moment in time, a full story within three minutes.  There name, The Judybats.  (Anyone have a clue as to what a Judybat is? I actually don’t)  Amongst the countless lyrics from a multitude of songs I have chosen just a small sample of why I fell in love with their music.

From the song “What We Loose”

When we walk this morning I hear you say,
“Don’t pick the flowers for me – they die.”
All wilted recollection to reckon with,
like legendary lovers, you sigh.
Like us when we were younger, you broke my heart,
blooming for a moment, then gone.
And now I’m so much like you, I leave too soon.
You laugh and pick a flower, walk on, and we walk on.

So, it’s a bit on the morbidly sad side of lyrics but they managed to capture a moment, a conversation, a visual of where these two lovers (ex or otherwise) were, a character dynamic, history between these two etc.  You get my point, they capture what most writers strive for in 8 lines.  A beginning, middle and end.  This is when I fell in love with the lyrical aspect of music and not just the beat.

On a different note, HA a pun,  music can play an integral part of our own writing.  We can draw upon certain music to get us in the mood to write.  I tend to lean towards Trance music when I plot or need fast paced action scenes.  Then I have specific songs that I will play when I need a certain emotion.  You know what I’m talking about.  The song that spoke to you at a certain time in your life, the one played over and over to let the world know just how you were feeling.  That’s the beauty of these three to four minute stories.  They provoke emotion, nostalgia and maybe best of all in regards to writing, they set a rhythm that speaks to us.  I have heard various opinions on music when it comes right down to putting words on the paper (screen).  The spectrum varies from hard rock to classical to no music at all. So in honor of music, to lyricists and to have some interactive Monday fun we are presenting a mini-challenge/contest called the “Lyrical Letter.”

This was a game I played in school where my best friend and I would get so bored in virtually each class that we would write stories such as “The Next Line.”  Then we challenged ourselves to only write a story using lyrics (not our own).   The outcome was like Mad-Libs on steroids.  Sure they were a bit disjointed and sometimes a tad funky but they were also sometimes the most beautiful stories. The last one I did came out like a really bad emo-country “letter” so consider this challenge tried and true.  It will just take a little more thought.  Hey, we like a challenge here.   None of which we could take full credit for, and for obvious reasons.  But it was fun to see just how far we could take the story.  So we present you all with the challenge of helping us write (for fun) the “Lyrical Letter”.  Here are the rules and prizes!

Lyrical Letter Rules

1. I will start the first line

2. Next person must build on that by adding a line of lyrics.  This can be a few words, or an entire chunk.  It’s up to you how much you add.  You may use the transitions “And, But, Or and Then” if you need help getting to the next line.

3. You MUST give the artist/band/musician credit for the lyrics at the end of your post.

4. Enter as many times as you want!

Prize

$25.00 iTunes gift card

Contest starts Monday(today) and will end Thursday (the 10th) at midnight.  The winner will be chosen at random and announced here as well as on my personal blog Friday morning.  We will then post the entire letter for viewing pleasure with each artist listed at the bottom J

While you’re here, we are going to be wrapping up a previous contest soon, Name the Chimera.  Please feel free to vote for your favorite name!  Also, there is another awesome contest over at, A Torch in the Tempest. Make sure to check that out as well.

Ready? GO!  Can’t wait to see how awesome this letter will be!  Thank you all for participating

Becoming a Writer…First Steps

Hi everyone, I’m Chance—Callie’s son. My mom thought it would be cool to have a blog written from a younger perspective, so she picked me. I tried to tell her I didn’t have anything that interesting to say, but she told me to just write about why I write. I figured that’s easy enough, but I can’t promise anyone it will be that interesting. Haha…

Anyway, my book all started with an assignment from my mom. I’ve always been homeschooled, but –in the past—my mom assigned specific topics for writing. Plus, we did a lot of verbal stuff because she knew I hated writing. She kept trying to get me enthused about it, and she ended up assigning me a thousand words. I was allowed to write a little at a time, on anything I wanted.

I sat down and thought back to the first time I tried to write a book.  I was five. The book went something like, “A girl and a talking squirrel named Squirrely had adventures together the end.”

By now I was twelve. I still remembered how enthralled I’d been with the idea of a talking squirrel. I decided to give the story another shot. To my surprise, the ideas came easily and it was fun. I finished the thousand words fairly fast, but I didn’t want to be done.

It’s been a year and a half since then. I’m fourteen now and just reached 30,000 words.

As I wrote, the idea of a talking squirrel changed into a boy, A.J., who could shape-shift into a squirrel. Then, I decided A.J. should shift into something cooler. He’s now a winged chameleon with venomous horns. Of course, he needed friends, so he travels with a tribe of other shape-shifting boys. It’s a huge change, which changed everything else.

As for the girl—Sara– she remained my MC, but—in the beginning, she was a spoiled girl who stepped on a magic rock that transported her to another world. She went through bad stuff to get home, so she changed and became a better person. Pretty cliché.

Now, the story starts with Sara living in a group home. (her mom is in Hospice)  Sara runs away when one of the boys there attempts to rape her. (I know—pretty grim, but the book is now YA) While running, she slips and slices her head open on a rock. The rock is still the gateway to another world, (Havon). It opens because she gives it a blood sacrifice.

Once there, Sara meets the other MC, Jake. He decides to help her return home.  Along the way, they befriend A.J. and his tribe. We find out why Sara was called to Havon and that she must fight in a war that isn’t hers in order to return home. What starts as something she forced into becomes her quest as she falls in love with Havon—not to mention Jake.

Anyway, I’ll stop rambling. That was probably too long. I’m still working on my summarizing skills.  The point I wanted to make was how much that original, tiny idea changed. More ideas kept coming, and—the next thing I knew—I’d plotted out this book, and two sequels. Not to mention the prequel. Haha.

My book –which is tentatively titled, “Shadow” still needs a ton more work. Right now, I’m just trying to get my ideas down. It’s really hard because I have ideas constantly. I always keep a notebook, so I can write them down before they pop back out of my head, which they do a lot.

I think everyone but my mom is tired of me rambling about my story! Being another writer, she understands. We talk for hours, while everyone else in my family rolls their eyes. Just kidding. Sort of.  All in all, my family has actually been really supportive.  Just the other night, my dad took us out to dinner to celebrate my making it to one-hundred pages.

So, in the end, it turns out that I LOVE writing. I know I’m young, but I’d tried lots of stuff. Karate. Football. Gymnastics. Boy Scouts. I started to feel like a loser, because I kept quitting things.  Then I tried writing and realized I’d just been doing the wrong things. This feels right—like I found part of me that was missing. I love the way the characters come alive and do their own thing. Writing about them is kind of like hanging out with a bunch of friends.

I know I have a lot of hard work ahead of me. My mom says ten percent of writing is writing and ninety percent is editing. I also know I’ll do it though. I plan on having an agent by the age of seventeen. That’s my dream.

So, that’s it on my thoughts. Is anyone else out there a young writer? Do you remember starting a book as a teenager? How did it turn out? Has anyone experienced starting with one idea and ending up with something entirely different? Any advice for me? Thanks for reading my first blog ever! Good luck on all your books…Chance

Introducing: The Magnificent Chimera

Hi everyone! I don’t have a name yet—there is a contest for that coming up soon—but right now I’d like to introduce myself as, The Chimera. I’m sure you’ve all seen my picture on the front of the website– I don’t know how to put this, but I’m kind of a big deal.

So, here’s the thing, I have a lot of my plate right now. Trying to critique with no opposable thumbs is harder than one would think. Typing this up took me all month, that’s why you don’t get too many posts from me. I know I have a lot of fans who are dying to hear from me, but—alas, what’s a chimera to do? Then there’s all the time I have to spend grooming my gorgeous lion’s mane, dipping my unicorn’s horn into streams to purify them, and flying around with my fabulous dragon wings. You know how it is. In other words, I’m a busy guy.

I have a ton of blogs I follow. Way too many for my schedule, but everyone has to have hobbies. I was really into eating bugs, but I’m gaining too much weight so I took this up instead. Anyway, I try to comment on the blogs I read at least once a week-I comment under my friend’s name, Callie Forester, but it’s generally me commenting. I just don’t want to get anyone too excited, so I try to keep it on the down low.

The sad thing is, not too many people comment back to my friends, Callie, Zellie and Erica. I’m afraid if they don’t get some comments they’re going to insist I start writing more blogs, and…again, it’s the opposable thumb issue. I hate to cry poor me, but I feel it’s a valid excuse.

So, here’s the thing. I thought I’d see what all my friends in cyberspace are like and—at the same time—give them a thrill that they actually got to speak to me—The Chimera. Did I mention that I’m kind of a big deal around here? I know, I know…it’s really exciting. I’m excited too. I figure I’ll ask you guys questions, and you can answer them so we get to know each other.  I’ll start—since I know you’re all dying of curiosity about me.

Name: I don’t have one yet. You guys will be naming me soon in a contest. Just so you know, I would like a regal, majestic name that conveys how magnificent I truly am.

What my book is about: I’m writing a book about how to transform your life. I figure everyone will take my advice, since—as a chimera—I’m clearly good at transformations.

Why do you write: I write because I have a really important message for the world about how awesome I am.

Where are you from: The collective imagination of Callie, Zellie and Erica—along with some sewing skills and the sacrifice of a few beanie babies by Callie. They were happy to give up their parts, and—when Callie stops writing long enough to sew them up—I will have some chimera friends. As the first though, I’m sure I will stay the most important.

Favorite book: The Mortal Instrument series because I love urban fantasy.

Favorite mythological creature. Ummm…really? You can’t guess?

If you don’t leave me some comments, I’ll lose the bet I made with Callie, Zellie and Erica that I could get way more comments than them. If I win I was promised more fur for my magnificent lion’s mane! If I lose, I’ll be forced to dip my unicorn horn in the toilet.  It’s in your hands now, don’t let me down…

So, here’s what you can copy and paste to fill out:

Name:

What my book is about:

Why do I write:

Where I’m from:

Favorite book:

Favorite mythological creature: