Coffee Hour in London - Fragment Friday, Stealth Owls and Shameless Sharing

Coffee Hour in London today, so grab your favorite cup of java and let's get to it.  Here's a picture from our trip last year. The first is a shot of the Westminster Palace / Houses of Parliament with St. Stephen's Tower (commonly known as Big Ben) taken from the London Eye: (as you can tell it was a sunny day)

 

and here's one of Nelson's lions in Trafalgar Square (and some cute girl in red.  ;D)

In other news, Kristy over at The Story Siren had in intriguing fragment of a book she read as part of a meme started by James over on Book Chic.  Well, I'm not going to bother with a video (because I'm lazy!) but I am reading a GREAT book right now that debuts in January.  It's XVI, by Julia Karr and trust me - you're going to love it!

Here's the fragment:  "Four guys approached us, lurching and swaying through the moving express.  They sat across the aisle, immediately crowding together in a knot.  A low buzz of unintelligible words, accompanied by the occasional rowdy snort, rose from their cluster.

"They're eighteen," Sandy whispered. "I bet it's that one in the middle's birthday. He's cute!"  She wriggled in her seat.

By the way he kept admiring the tattoo on his wrist and fingering the Band-Aid behind his ear, where his GPS had been, I knew she was right.  I involuntarily touched my own tracker. The tiny grain-sized pellet embedded beneath the skin barely registered on my fingertips.  What would it be like to be able to go someplace where you were untraceable?"

Awesome, huh?  It's out on shelves January 6, 2011 and at the beginning of November Julia will be stopping by to chat about her book on her 16 weeks to XVI blog tour.

On other topics, I subscribe to io9, which is this wild sci fi  website, and they had this great article on why owls are the perfect stealth machine, which I thought seemed like good fodder for a future book in one way or another. Check it out here.

Finally, I have a bit Shameless Sharing for you. After waiting so long to get my book out there, it is so exciting to be getting some feedback from early readers.  I received a wonderful blurb about THE FAERIE RING from Katie B., founder of Mundie Moms, that I wanted to share:

"The Faerie Ring is an intriguing, beautifully written, blend of historical fiction, mixed with the perfect dose of romance, mystery, and faerie lore, all set within the time period of Victorian London.  I was completely enraptured with the story that I couldn't devour this debut novel fast enough."

She posted a blurb on her site with a few comments, which you can read here. There is so much good stuff going on over there all the time, you should definitely check it out!

And that's it for my Friday Coffee Hour - what's new with you?

~Kiki

Coffee Hour in Kona - Writing Questions, Newbery Award Chatter, Option Clauses and more!

Good Morning!  I'm starting a new weekly series on my blog called Coffee Hour and we'll chat about writing while we drink coffee from different spots in the world.  We're going to kick it off from Kona, Hawaii this morning, which happens to be where I got married.

Here's a shot I took a few years ago that is always how I first think of Hawaii: palm trees, beautiful turquoise seas, sunshine!

But this shot below reminds me of this little coffee house we used to go to that was a bit upcountry and looked out over the fields down to the sea. 

Imagine sitting on a deck overlooking this view. Can you feel those tradewinds blowing your hair back while the wonderful aroma of fresh brewed coffee wafts around your head? Uh huh - you get the idea.

So, what's new in the writing world? First off The Elevensies (a group of 80+ authors (including me!) whose first novels debut in 2011) have a great new weekly series that will be featured on Tuesdays called ASK THE ELEVENSIES - where anyone interested in writing or publishing can ask a question. The first question we're starting out with is: What do you wish someone would have told you when you started writing?  There are lots of great comments over there already so pop over and check it out. Post your question if you have one!

Next, as you probably know the Newbery Award (the best written work for children) buzz is starting to grow in anticipation of the actual announcements at the ALA Mid-Winter Conference in January.  Elizabeth Bird of A Fuse#8 Production has a great rundown of those books she thinks are contenders (including The Enchanted Inkpot's own Kate Milford for THE BONESHAKER!) as well as links to Heavy Metal and some other folks who run their own mock Newbery's.

Speaking of Kate Milford, she has an intriguing post over on The Enchanted Inkpot that stemmed from a less-than-sparkling review of her book (we're all going to get them from time to time) which delves into the question of what constitutes appropriate content for a MG or YA book.

And finally, ABLA literary agent, Jenn Laughran, has a very helpful post on option clauses over at her blog Jennifer Represents today.  If you've ever read through a legal contract there are times when the wherefores and shall haves and not to excludes start sounding like pretzel logic. Well, Jenn sorts it all out and gives examples of language that works in the author's best interest as well as language an author might want to avoid.

So, that's it for the Coffee Hour.  What's new in your writing world?  Tell me what you're working on!