Italy by train! Prego!

I was in Italia last week! Started in Florence then on to Rome, (for the Women's Writers Conference) and finally, Bari.

Here's a pictorial recap:

Florence

Rome

Matera

Bari

Cake for breakfast!

I want this car!

Seriously

For more pics and info about Florence and Rome go HERE.

For more on Matera and the Women's Writers Conference go HERE.

The deal on DARING HEARTS just got much Bigger!

One week today, on Tuesday August 18th, Daring Hearts and Counter Clockwise release in this amazing boxed set!

Nine **Clean and BRAND NEW** Novels + FIVE Bonus Books.

Did you notice?

We added Wendy Knight's brand new book, The Soul's Agent, along with FIVE bonus books from five BEST SELLING authors. 

Only .99!

Amazon

iBooks

Nook

****Join in the fun of the Launch Party on Facebook on release day from 7 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. eastern. Hosted by Colette YAreader. Join us here.****

Enter for a chance to win lots of prizes including a Paper White and Kindle Fire - See contest at the bottom of this post.

 More than 2000 adventurous and romantic pages.

• Genre: NA Reimagining of Alice In Wonderland 

BLOOD AND SNOW 10.1: THE DARK MOTH SOCIETY by RaShelle Workman ~ "There's more to life than training. There's love, Alice Blackburn. And you are in desperate need of it..." 
In the last millennia a deadly game has raged between demons and their half-human creations, called Moths. A century ago select Moths were born with distinctive marks on the backs of their hands. It was soon discovered that those with the marks possessed the same powers as their demon parent. Over the years an elite group of warriors formed The Dark Moth Society. 
Alice Blackburn is a Dark Moth trainee. Some of her classmates call her the Queen of Hearts, but only because she doesn't share hers. There isn't time. Not for fun and especially not for Kade Everett, the injured warrior she is required to help. In just a few days, her creator, the foul demon that killed her mom will come to kill her. That's part of the game after all. And when he does, she will end him. 

• Genre: YA Adventure/Suspense 

KATE UNMASKED by Cindy M. Hogan ~ Some secrets should stay dead and buried. Kate has spent her life searching for the secrets of her past--the secrets that began with her missing birth parents. After years of false hope and leads drying up, Kate finally lucks onto a promising one. 
Determined to find the truth, Kate travels to the gritty New Jersey shore. But what she finds is worse than she ever could have imagined. 

• Genre: YA Time Travel Romance 

COUNTER CLOCKWISE by Elle Strauss ~ High school senior Casey Donovan is in trouble. Again. If only she had trusted in Nate's loyalty when he traveled to Spain with his college basketball team - despite the accompaniment of the cheerleading squad and Fiona the Floozy who'd made it super clear she wanted Nate for herself. Then she wouldn't have made that impulsive trip to Hollywood and let Aiden do that stupid thing that threatened her relationship with Nate, and triggered a trip into the past. Only something is wildly wrong. She's not in the 1860s like she should be. It's 1929. And she didn't come alone. 

• Genre: NA Suspense 

WITNESS (Witness, Book 1) by Christine Kersey ~ College student Courtney Hartford's worries are few. That is, until she witnesses a murder. And then recognizes the murderer. His warning not to tell, coupled with his threat against her life and the life of her mother, pushes her to make a difficult decision--tell the police the truth, or let the people who are threatening her control her life. 

• Genre: YA Mystery 

PAXTON PRIVATE INVESTIGATIONS by Juli Alexander ~ Townsey Paxton loves to solve mysteries. It's in her blood. After her older brother leaves vet school to manage the agency and care for her, his sacrifices start to take their toll. With the aid of her diverse group of friends, Townsey decides to help. When she suspects one of the agency's clients is abusing his wife, she can't look the other way. She risks her safety to do what she knows is right, but things suddenly go terribly wrong. 

• Genre: NA High Fantasy 

OF ICE AND SNOW by Amber Argyle ~ A storm is raging, and not everyone will survive. 
The child of the clanchief, Otec is the middle son in an overflowing house. When he sees his faraway village under attack, he realizes it's time to become the leader he was never meant to be.

• Genre: NA Urban Fantasy

THE SOUL'S AGENT by Wendy Knight ~ For as long as there have been people, there has been a fear of the dark. Mothers tell their children there isn't anything in the shadows that isn't there in the light.

They are wrong.
The reason humanity is afraid of the dark is because that's when demons come out to play. The ghosts that fight them can't come out until the sun goes down, either. And Soul's Agents, like Navi? They're just normal, boring people until the moon claims the sky.
And then they aren't. Death allows lost souls one last chance. Fight with the Agents against demons and darkness and evil and they won't spend eternity roasting on a spit. It seems like an easy enough choice, but apparently roasting is easy and requires little effort, and fighting, well... Fighting is hard. Twenty-two year old Navi is an Agent, and she is good at what she does. Her only distraction is the boy who broke her heart four years ago--especially when the demons she hunts start hunting him, and she's the only one who can keep him alive. What else do you need from her?

• Plus 5 Bonus Books...

C.L. STONE ~ Meet Kota, Victor, Silas, Nathan, Gabriel, Luke and North in a story about differences and loyalty, truth and mystery, friendships and heart-throbbing intimacy. The Academy, ever vigilant. Introductions

ELANA JOHNSON ~ If a picture is worth a thousand words then Olivia's captured Trevor's whole story. Something About Love

LEIGH TALBERT MOORE ~ She did not expect to be kidnapped walking to work. And she never expected to be a hero. Behind the Stars

RACHEL MORGAN ~ Stolen magical object? Check. Villainous faerie bad guys? Check. Complicated feelings for super hot, pain-in-the-ass assignment partner? 
Check. Not winding up dead? Working on that one. The Faerie Prince.

KATRINA ABBOTT ~ Brooklyn's new celebutante boarding school is missing one thing: boys! Taking the Reins

• Genre: YA Paranormal 

THROUGH GLASS by Rebecca Ethington ~ For years I watched my best friend through the glass of our window panes, trapped inside by the monsters that took over our world. I dreamed of the day I would be with him again. But everything keeps changing, and the dead may be more alive than I thought. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Clockwise is Three Years Old! Enter to win your choice of my boxed sets!

Three years ago today I Indie published my first book - CLOCKWISE. Twenty-plus titles later, I'm still going strong and not looking back!

To celebrate I'm giving away one of my e-book boxed sets - WINNER'S CHOICE!

The Clockwise Series, The Perception Series, The Minstrel Series or Love, Tink the Complete Set.

Click on this link to enter!

https://www.facebook.com/AuthorLeeStrauss/photos/a.128254413984953.35992.128247100652351/563602847116772/?type=1

Crafting Your Best Story - Writing Tip #24 - World Building

This is the last Writing Tip post I have - at least for now. I hope you've enjoyed reading the tips and have found them helpful.

Before I get to that I want to share a little excitement The Clockwise series had this week. I put the set on a steep sale for four days and this happened : =>

It only lasted for a couple days but it was pretty exciting to see that Best Seller Badge!

Okay, on with the last (to date) Tip:

World Building

From the quiet romance to epic fantasy all stories need a world. Think of fictional world building as a series of inter-locking settings. Most stories take place in more than one spot, but even if your story unfolds on a park bench, you must make your reader feel like they’re sitting there with you.

World building sounds like a large overwhelming task, but it doesn’t need to be. Just begin with your opening scene. Imagine a dart board. The opening scene is the bulls-eye. The second ring is the setting outside of the opening scene and the ring beyond it the setting that expands beyond that.

What you don’t want to do is spend the opening pages describing your world. You want to gradually build your world as the story is told.

The Harry Potter world starts at Number Four Privot Drive. We learn quite a bit about the Dursleys and how they feel about the Potters as the opening scene is established. We see the house the neighborhood, the room under the stairs. This is the bulls-eye. Once Harry is whisked away to wizard school, the world is gradually expanded. Platform 9 ¾ , the train ride, Hogwarts and so on. The world grows as the story grows.

In Perception the opening scene is a beach. While Zoe Vanderveen is secretly planning a surprise party for her brother we see the glass-boxy house on the ocean with the tiered patio and eternity pool. A cool, sparse but expensive home interior, her vast bedroom. Then the gadgets are introduced. The communication ring, the digi wall, inference to robotic domestic help. It’s unfolded little by little as the characters are introduced and the inciting incident is set up.

We find out about the walls and the gates that serves as a cocoon, protecting the clean, efficient, perfect city from whatever lies outside of the wall.

We find out that the citizens of Sol City are free to leave, but can’t reenter without scanning a chip that is embedded in their hand.

Eventually, the world expands to what’s outside the walls. A crowded, smelly city, with electric pod cars, sky trains and people who resent the utopian community in sight but out of reach.

When building your world keep in mind all the senses. What does your character see, smell, touch, what mood does his environment create?

A story might only require a simple world. A whole story could take place on a plane, for instance. Or you might need an extravagant world filled with mythical creatures and exotic locales as in The Lord of the Rings. The key is to build the world in the context of an unfolding story with changing characters moving through the three acts in a 45 degree angle up hill.

Bookbub picked up TWO of my Boxed Sets! The Clockwise Series & The Perception Series only 99CENTS for a SHORT TIME!

It's raining deals on boxed sets!

On sale for only .99 until Friday at most e-stores!

A teen time traveller accidentally takes her secret crush back in time.

Awkward.

Amazon | Barnes and Noble | iBooks | kobo

Only  99 pennies - two days only!

ETERNAL LIFE IS TO DIE FOR.

AMAZON

Book Bargain Bundles for iBook Readers!

I'm in two of them!

I'm very happy to be part of is called TEXT ME - 8 Novels of First Love. This is suitable for a younger YA reader and I'm proud that Like Clockwork is included.

All only .99!

Check out the many Book Bundles on sale HERE.

You can find TEXT ME  by clicking here.

The second bundle I'm in is called Girls on Fire - Ten Powerful YA Heroines Kicking Butt and Fighting for Love!

Link to Girls on Fire here.

I so excited I can share this fantastic book bundle bargain bin with you.

Happy Reading!

Crafting Your Best Story - Writing Tip #22 - The White Room Syndrome

Have you ever read a story where it's all action and dialogue but you can't quite picture where it's all taking place? This is what I call the White Room Syndrome. It happens when the author fails to give the reader enough setting for the scene. As a rule of thumb I try to always provide at least two or three setting details to anchor the scene.

For instance, many YA books have scenes that take place in a classroom. Because most of us already know what North American classroom is like, it's easy to assume that we don't need to provide setting details because we believe the reader will provide those on her own. This may be true, but it doesn't provide for an engaging reading experience.

Say we have two characters sitting together in a classroom. There's tension, conflict and witty dialogue between them, but beyond their shared desk it's a white out.  A few details added by the pov character will create a sense of dimension.

A poster of the cross section of a man's chest hung on the wall, heart, lungs and liver exposed, the corners curling with aged tape held firm by tacks. Across the room a warm breeze blew in through open windows. Mr. Jones's back faced us as he scribbled on the board, chalk scratching in rhythm.

Now back to action/ dialogue between characters. See how mentioning three things brings the setting alive?

Of course the opposite problem to the white room syndrome is excessive descriptive passages. If I went on and on about every detail in the classroom the reader's eyes would begin to gloss over before he even got to the action/dialogue.

Here's an example from Divergent by Veronica Roth. Her main character has entered a room where she'll be tested to determine what faction she's from.

Mirrors cover the inner walls of the room. I can see my reflection from all angles: the gray fabric obscuring the shape of my back, my long neck, my knobby-knuckled hands, red with a blood blush. The ceiling glows white with light. In the center of the room is a reclined chair, like a dentist, with a machine next to it. It looks like a place where terrible things happen.

"Don't worry," the woman says, " it doesn't  hurt."

Ms Roth even uses this passage to describe a setting as an opportunity for us to see what her main character looks like. You can see that she picked out three things to brighten the setting--the mirrors, the ceiling and the reclined chair.

In Clockwise, Nate and Casey are in the cabin for the first time and Nate's asking questions. Casey pauses to consider her surroundings before answering.

... two cots with a night table between them--a candle and a box of matches the only thing on it--and a larger table under the window with a pitcher and bowl for washing up. A small brick fireplace was built into the corner with a little pile of kindling and a stack of wood against the wall. I lit the candle, then stepped across the room, the wooden floor squeaking under my feet.

Three things are described and elaborated on which erases the white room syndrome: the cots, a larger table, a fireplace. Now when Casey and Nate talk, we can really picture where they are.

Sometimes it just takes one or two details to brighten a setting in order to the ground the reader in the setting and make for a more engaging and enjoyable read.

Crafting Your Best Story - Tip # 19 - Point of View

Your story has to be told by someone. That person is called the point of view character. Some stories are told by more than one point of view, or POV, characters.

Most Young Adult books are told from the First Person POV.  "I went to the store. I called my friend on the phone." It's a close story telling perspective because we are inside the main character's head all the time. We never leave. The advantage to First Person POV is the sense being in the front row of the action. The disadvantage is that you can only reveal information that the main character herself knows, when she knows it.

Clockwise is told in First Person: 

 I was sitting with my best friend, Lucinda, on the sidelines of the football field. As usual, we were watching the yummy football players rather than the scrimmage going on because really, who cared about the actual game? Despite the glare of the setting sun, I saw the brown speck hurtling towards me.

The most common form of story telling is Third Person, either Limited or  Omniscient.  When a story is told in  Third Person POV, the author uses Proper Names and Pronouns. "Kathy went to the store. She called her friend on the phone."

Limited means you stay in the head of one character and tell the story from their perspective. The author tells us the main character's thoughts and actions. Omniscient third is when the narrator (the author) jumps around from head to head when telling the story. We are told everyone's thoughts and actions.

Playing with Matches is told in Third Person Limited.

Emil Radle limped across the sloping field that was brittle and dry from lack of rain and irrigation. He lost his footing twice, falling, grabbing at his leg, his mouth opening in a wide teeth-baring groan. The first time he beat the pain, pulling himself back onto his feet, hunger pushing him on. The second time he gave into the primal urge to scream and cry, until sleep threatened to take him again. The warm sun beat down, heavy, his mind lapsing into a drug-like state.

Somewhere in his subconscious, he knew he couldn't stay here; if he did he would die. He pulled himself up again, shaky and quivering.

Second Person Pov is story telling with the use of  the pronoun "You" where the narrator is speaking directly to the reader and is rarely used in fiction."You went to the store. You called your friend on the phone."

Here's the rule of thumb: only tell one point of view at a time and (please) don't jump around from head to head in the same scene. If you have more than one point of view character, separate their narratives with new chapters or at least new scenes with a space dividing them.

Crafting Your Best Story - Tip #18 - Super (8) Dialogue

Great dialogue reveals great character. How each of your characters’ speak reveal who they are and hopefully they’re interesting! And unique to the other characters around them.

Movies are an excellent media for show casing good dialogue.

The movie Super 8 has superb dialogue, especially between the kids. It’s realistic and revealing. Here is a scene at the beginning of the movie at a wake. A short conversation between two adults looking out of the window at a young teen boy on a swing in the snow tells us it’s the boy’s mother who died.  His friends are gathered around the food table.

Kid #1  What do you think was in the coffin?

Kid#2  Geeze, shut up.

Kid#1 I’m just saying because of how she died. You guys weren’t wondering that?

Kid #2 No, I’m eating macaroni salad.

Kid # 3 I was wondering about that too. I heard it crushed her completely.

Kid #2 Steel beam? Those things weigh a ton. Literally.

Kid#4 I don’t know how you guys can eat.

Kid #3 Try a turkey roll and you’ll discover how

(a man with a dog enters the scene asking  for Joe, the boys stare)

Kid#3 I bet Joe’s not going to want to do my movie anymore.

Kid #1 Why?

Kid#3 Why do you think why, the story. It’s about the living dead.

Kid #2 His mother’s not a zombie.

Kid #3 But she’s dead sh*t head.

Kid #1 Those turkey rolls are pretty good.

Kid #3 Told you.

 This is just a scene of a group of boys talking, but what they say and how they say it tells us so much about what kind of kids they are and what has brought them to this point. You already want to spend the next couple hours hanging out with them.

True Grit, True Brilliance in Dialogue

Another great movie with terrific dialogue is True Grit a movie based on the novel by Charles Portis.

Here are two scenes that happen early on. Mattie's character alone is enough to keep you reading, uh-hum, watching even though she hasn't even started on her quest yet.

In this scene Mattie looking for Marshal Rooster Cockburn. (How great is that name?) She knocks on outhouse door. We never even see Cockburn's face.

R:  (Low, rough, smoker's voice).The place is occupied.

M: I know it is occupied, like I said I have business with you.

R: I have prior business.

M: You’ve been at it for quite some time.

R: (angry) There’s no clock on my business! (bangs on the door). The hell with you. How did you stalk me here?

M: The Sheriff told me to look in the saloon. In the saloon they referred me here. We must talk.

R: Women ain’t allowed in the saloon.

M: Wasn’t there as a customer. I’m fourteen years old.

R: (silence) Well, the place is occupied. Will be for some time.

You have to love Mattie's tenacity. It's obvious that these two characters are extreme opposites, full of conflict. We want to see more scenes with them together. 

This is a scene not too long afterwards. Mattie negotiates with the clerk her father bought ponies from. I didn't catch his name, but he's an older, white haired business man who's round in the belly. This conversation moves very quickly: the clerk starts off with a patronizing tone, soon to realize he's met his match in a young girl. 

M: I’m Mattie Ross. Daughter of Frank Ross

C:  Oh. Tragic thing. May I say your father impressed me with his manly qualities, he was a close trader but he acted the gentlemen.

M: I propose to sell the ponies back to you, that my father bought.

C: Now that  here is out of the question, will  see to it that they’re shipped to you at my earliest convenience.

M: We don’t want the ponies, we don’t need them

C: That hardly concerns me, your father bought them and paid for them and that there is the end of it . I have the bill of sale.

M: And I want three hundred dollars for the saddle horse that was stolen from your stables.

Pause

C: You have to take that up with the man who stole the horse.

M: Tom Chaney stole the horse while it was in your care. You are responsible.

C:I admire your sand, but I believe you will find that I’m not liable for such claims.

M:You were the custodian. If you were a bank that was robbed, you couldn’t simply just tell the depositors to go hang.

C: I do not entertain hypotheticals. The world as it is is vexing enough. Secondly, your evaluation of the horse is high by about two hundred dollars. How old are you?

M: If anything my price is low.  Judy is a fine mare, I’ve seen her jump a fence with a heavy rider. I’m fourteen.

C:That’s all very interesting. The ponies are yours, take them. Your father's horse was stolen by a  murderous  criminal. I had provided reasonable protection for the creature as per our implicit agreement. My watchmen had his teeth knocked out and can take only soup.

M: I’ll take it to law.

C: You have no case.

M: Lawyer Dacket (from?) might think otherwise, as might a jury. Petitioned by a widow and three small children.

C: I will pay two hundred dollars to your father’s estate when I have in my hand a letter from your lawyer absolving me of all liability from the beginning of the world to date.

M: I will take two hundred dollars for Judy, plus one hundred dollars for the ponies and twenty-five dollars for the grey horse that Tom Chaney left. He was easily worth forty. That’s three hundred and twenty-five...

C: the ponies have no part in this, I will not buy them.

M: And the price for Judy is three hundred and twenty-five dollars.

C: Ha, I would not pay three hundred and twenty-five dollars for a winged Pegasus. And as for the grey horse, it does not belong to you.

M: The grey horse was lent to Tom Chaney by my father. Chaney only had the use of him.

C: I will pay two hundred and twenty-five dollars and keep the grey horse. I won’t take the ponies.

M: (she stands) I can’t accept that. If there is no settlement after I leave this office it will go to law.

C: All right, this is my last offer. Two hundred fifty dollars I get the release previously discussed, and I keep your father’s saddle. The grey horse is not yours to sell.

M:  The saddle is not for sale. I will keep it. Lawyer D will prove my ownership of the grey horse and he will come after you with a writ of  (? didn't catch the word)

C: A what?

M: A writ of rec....

C: (exasperated) Oh, alright, now listen very carefully as I will not bargain further. I will take the ponies back and the grey horse, which is mine, and settle, (pause) for three hundred dollars. And you can take that or leave it and I do not much care which way it is.

M: Well, lawyer Dacket would not wish me to settle for anything under three hundred twenty-five dollars, but I will settle for three twenty, if I get the twenty in advance, and  here’s what I have to say about that saddle.

End of scene. 

Isn't that fabulous? You just want to stand and cheer for the girl. Did you notice how much we learned about her character, just in the way she spoke with a man who could very well have intimidated her? These strong scenes make her situation, a 14 year old girl traveling with one sometimes two US Marshals to find her father's killer and bring him to justice is suddenly believable. 

Dialogue has to sound natural, and be believable. Less is often more. Do you have a favorite movie or book that has dialogue that inspires you?