Magpie Writes: work in progress

My mom is probably something like your mom. At times annoying, other times wonderful - always bringing up a mix of complex feelings. She's got the ability to make me happiest and angriest and often that's in the same conversation.

And one more thing: she's a relentless cheerleader.

This is why my mom is NOT one of my crit partners. She cannot see when a plot has more holes than the road she lives on. She doesn't see the problem with having a villain who's motivation is weak or murky. Frankly, she thinks I'm a wonderful writer and she's enjoying my book very much and why doesn't everyone else think the same? I take everything she says with a shaker full of salt.

But even so, I need her cheers. I have lots of people telling me what to do differently in my WIP - what's working and what isn't and each CP has ideas on how to make things better -wildly different ideas, of course. CPs are my mirrors, reflections of how my work is perceived. I get to take those reflections and make sense of them, weave them together into coherence. In other words, I have to make it work.

My mom is having surgery today. It's not terribly serious, but when you're 75 any surgery can be serious. When we skyped yesterday and I wanted to hear all about her surgery, her preparations and who was going to call me after the surgery (my mom lives in Uruguay so I cannot be with her and yeah, it's kind of killing me a little) she only wanted to talk about my WIP. How much she liked it, how it reminded her of people she knew when she was little - a cousin here, an aunt there who had some magic in them. I said, 'thank you' and told her that I was really having trouble with it, it was driving me crazy.

"That's okay," she said. "You'll do it. You just have to work."

Of course I only have to work. It's the simplest advice and the hardest to follow when you just want to give up. But my mother believes that what I'm doing is worthwhile. And I can't believe how much that makes a difference to me. My mom believes in me because she has to. But because she does, I will keep working.

I'm amazed that her opinion is still so important to me.

Besos, Mama

The Next Big Thing is an idea from SheWrites meant to help female authors promote their WIPs. Earlier this week, Jenny Herrera tagged me in NBT. (I'm reserving the right to say Next Big Thing with a rolling of the eyes.) Below are my answers. Check out Jenny's answers here.

What is the working title of your book? FIND ME

Where did the idea come from for the book? My husband, my mother and Sleeping Beauty. Okay, let me break that down for you. Whenever I can't find something in the house (often) I ask my husband to find it. I don't know how he does it, but within 5 minutes he's found it, in one of the places I've already looked. When my mom was visiting over the summer and I lost my keys (really, it happens OFTEN) she went to the cupboard and got out a cup. Then she turned it upside down. I looked at her like she was crazy and she mildly replied that this was how her mother had always induced the "spirits of the house" to help her find something. Keys were soon found and the cup returned to the cupboard. Coincidence? I don't think so. It started me thinking about finding as a gift, a talent. And how not everything wants to be found. While noodling around these ideas, I added Sleeping Beauty to the hopper. You know when, as a baby, the fairies give Aurora gifts (beauty, blah blah blah) but the wicked fairy gives her a curse? That started me thinking about how gifts can come with curses. Wheels turned and now I'm about 40K into the dashed thing. *grins maniacally*

What genre does your book fall under? YA Paranormal or YA Urban Fantasy.

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
Mop, my MC would look a little like Hopey from Love & Rockets:

And Ryan would look like a younger version of:

Ryan Matthew from Oddities

I swear I already had the name Ryan before I figured out what he looked like. Really. Oh and I realize I didn't answer the question as these guys are not actors (and in Hopey's case, not real.) Oh well.

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book? Seventeen year old Mop can find anything; a lost wedding ring, a missing cat, a secret stash of love letters. But when Mop finds a severed arm buried behind a wall, she realizes that some things should stay lost.

(I know that is two sentences. I am not good at following directions when baking either.)

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency? When it's finished, I'll send it to my agent and then will cower behind a couch waiting for her response. I'm good at cowering, unlike Despereaux.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript? UM. NOT FINISHED YET. I started writing in May just before going out on submission with my other book, as a way to not completely lose my mind thinking about that other book I'd spent more than a year writing and revising.(DON'T THINK OF IT!) and actually, as a distraction tactic, it worked pretty damn well. I'm enjoying writing FIND ME so much.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre? Though there are no fairies in it, I kind of liken FIND ME to Holly Black's Modern Faerie Tale series.

Who or What inspired you to write this book? I don't have trouble coming up with ideas to write about, but not all the nascent ideas are a) good or b) right for me at the time. I had been working on two other ideas, teasing them out, when FIND ME sort of made its presence known. As soon as I had the character, Mop, in mind, I knew it was time to tell her story. Not a great way to make decisions, I know. I don't predict the weather or the stock market, either.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest? I went to college in New York City and spent a lot of time there in my (misspent) youth and it always seemed to me a vibrating kind of place. No, not because of the subway, but because of the intense availability of maybe. People say that nothing shocks a New Yorker, because they're jaded, have seen it all. I think it's because a New Yorker knows that magic is real,and that only fools limit their pre-breakfast impossibilities to just six. New York isn't just a backdrop to FIND ME, it's a character too. I also really like that Mop is Hispanic. I didn't mean to make her that way, she just is. I guess it goes back to my mom turning that cup upside down to get the house spirits to help find my keys (see above if you're skipping around) - that kind of thing is so common in my (and other Hispanic) cultures, that I wanted to fold it into Mop's life. Voila!

Now it’s my turn to tag some fellow authors.