The New Blog Is Up

Sorry I'm a couple days late on the post. I have a good excuse, though! The new blog is up!
http://www.jaredpeterson.blogspot.com is the address!

Check it out! =D It's all pretty and stuff.

Anyway, I will still be keeping this blog. So, no worries. However, the posts will be few and far between. I hope y'all still follow me despite the fact that my writing career -- and my life -- is taking  a u-turn.

See you on the new blog!

~Jared

Changes -- Pay Attention!

I have news for you all. This blog is no more -- wait! before you get your feathers in a ruffle, let me explain.

If you remember, a few weeks ago, I mentioned something big possibly happening with my writing career. I have been pondering on the decision for months, and I've finally decided to start anew. I'm changing the genre I'm writing in, for now, at least. I'm going to be writing LDS fiction, and hopefully getting published by either Shadow Mountain, Covenant, or Deseret Book. This is the reason I'm beginning a new blog; I want to start fresh -- my start at this was really whimsical and messy, anyway.

So, does this mean I won't ever want to get published nationally? No. Does it mean that I'll never write another SFF book again? Absolutely not. But for me, right now, and at this stage in my life, this feels like the right direction to go. As I said before, I've thought about it a lot. This is not a "whimsical" decision.

Some time in the far-distant future, I'll write a science fiction or fantasy book and try to get it published nationally. But not now.

I feel as if I'm beating a dead horse, so I'm going to end this blog post. Stay tuned for the new blog address. I hope you all will stick with me despite. :)

Happy writing!

~Jared 

Good day, everyone! I hope everyone’s week has been just as amazing as mine was. I did write last week, and I did do a blog post today, so today seems to have been a success, right? Right. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday I was camping up at Bryce Canyon, and I didn’t do much writing. But, boy, did I have a blast. And this week we’re – my Mom, Dad, sister and I – are preparing to go to Martin’s Cove so I probably won’t do much writing this week. However, after this week, I’m free for a while.

LUX is currently at fifteen-thousand words, and I’m loving it (“Bum, bum, bum, bum, bum . . . I’m lovin’ it!”). Anyway, I’ll definitely have the second draft done by the end of the summer. And, after the revision rounds, I’m pretty sure I know what I’m going to write next. Some of you probably won’t like it. Some of you probably will. Then again, there’ll be some of you who won’t really give a crap.

In other news, I’ve discovered the amazingly fun “art” of hiking. And since I virtually have to walk out my back door to be in the canyon, I’ll be doing a lot of hiking in the next few weeks. Fun. Fun. Fun. =D

I am currently reading The Work and the Glory: A Pillar of Light by Gerald N. Lund. This book is also . . . The Book of the Week! I’ve been wanting to read this book for a while now, and just barely got around to it. I love it!

“Pillar of Light, volume one of the bestselling historical fiction series The Work and the Glory, begins in the 1820s as Benjamin Steed moves his family to Palmyra Township in upstate New York. There they meet a young man named Joseph Smith and are caught up in the controversy that swirls around him. Did he really see the Father and the Son in a pillar of light? Is he a prophet and seer or a monumental fraud? The answers to these questions – intensely personal, potentially divisive – will dramatically affect the lives of the Steeds forever.

“Author Gerald N. Lund blends historical reality with high-powered fiction and introduces us to characters we have come to love: Benjamin and Mary Ann Steed, happily married, yet at odds over religion; Joshua, their volatile and rebellious son; Nathan, their spiritually sensitive second son; and Lydia McBride, who captures the hearts of both Steed brothers.

“This unforgettable story describes a family’s heartache and happiness that came in the wake of Joseph Smith’s experience with the pillar of light.”

I hope you all have an eventful, writing-filled week!

Until next Monday,

~Jared

Don't Be Afraid

Guys, I am in desperate need of your help. I need you to keep me in-line this summer. I need to blog a minimum of once a week. And since virtually all I'll be doing is reading and writing, it shouldn't be too hard to remember my blog . . . which is about writing and reading. However, if I fail to do so, I need you to rampage me with e-mails, tweets, comments -- heck, phone calls if you must!

Anyway, my last college class ended last Friday, so now I have loads of extra free time. I don't want it to be like last summer, where I made a goal to write a book, but only got fifteen-thousand words done. :/ Pathetic. Right now I'm working on the second draft of LUX. It needs to be completed before July ends, and I'm only nine-thousand words in. I can do this. I've arranged to be at the library -- or locked in my bedroom -- four hours of the day. Everyone in the family is alright with this arrangement. What does this mean for my writing? It means that I should be completing an average of three-thousand words a day. I am so going to do this.

When I finished the first draft of LUX I was so done with the story; I knew it was broken. And so I avoided it. I worked on other projects. I avoided it. I stopped projects and moved on to new ones without ever finishing anything. I avoided it. It happened a few weeks ago. My aunt saw that I'd completed a novel, and she encouraged me to get it published. I knew LUX was crap -- the writing sucked, the characters were all wrong, the plot and pacing were majorly screwd up -- and so I told her there was no way. But it bugged me for a few days. Until finally I realized something: revising is just as important -- it's more important -- than the drafting. My writing was never going to improve until I buckled down, did the work (even if I didn't want to), and finished what I started.

I began the second draft last week. Boy does it feel good to iron out all the wrinkles and kinks and stains. Jonathan and Samantha are fixed. Their characters work. My pacing is fixed. My plot is going in the right direction. All it took was the courage to put in the work; to cut half your scenes, to change major plot points and completely rewire characters. I feel like a real writer, not just a wanna-be. Just think, only ten revision read-through's and fifty-thousand words left till the final draft. No biggie. I'm excited about the story again. I want to do this.

So I encourage all you aspiring authors who are listening. Don't be afraid to change things -- everything, if needs be. Don't be afraid to put in the work. Believe me, it's worth it.

I'm afraid this blog post is coming to a close. My writing time is upon me. :) Don't forget to hold me accountable for my posts (or lack thereof).

But before you go, I'm sure you all want a book of the week. (Or, maybe you don't; but you're getting one anyway.)

Book of the week this week is The Hollow City by Dan Wells. This book doesn't come out for another eight days, but I thought I'd "promo" it, anyway. Just because it's that amazing.

The Hollow City comes out from Tor publishers on July 3, 2012.

Michael Shipman has paranoid schizophrenia; he suffers from hallucinations, delusions, and complex, horrific fantasies of persecution. They are as real to him as your peaceful life is to you. He is haunted by sounds and voices, stalked by faceless men, and endlessly pursued by something even deeper and darker–something he doesn’t dare think about.

Soon the authorities are linking him to a string of gruesome serial killings, and naturally no one believes them himself. Hounded on every side, Michael contemplates a terrifying possibility: that some of the monsters he sees are real.

Who can you trust if you can’t even trust yourself? THE HOLLOW CITY is a mesmerizing journey into madness, where the most frightening enemy of all is your own mind.

Guys, I can't wait!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You can check out Dan's website/blog here. Also, while you're there, check out Dan's awesome tour schedule. I can't wait to go!

Well, that's everything for now . . . I think. If there's something I forgot, you'll probably see it in the next blog post . . . next week. If I remember. Which I totally will! ;)

Hasta luego mis amigos.

~Jared

Somply Updates

This post is going to very sweet and simple . . . mainly because I only have four minutes to complete it.

So . . . speedy news, here I go!

LUX second draft is underway, with 6K thousand words completed.

I am currently reading The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson. Amazing book, by the way.

Rapture by Lauren Kate was just released -- for those who don't know, that's the fourth, and final, book in the Fallen saga. I'm not sure if I should bawl or shout for joy.

My college course get out in a week, so I'll have lots more time to blog this summer. And if I don't, Jackson and Matt, you have my express permission to murder me. Seriously.

That's honestly all I have time for right now! Pleas, please, forgive the conciseness (I'm warming up for query writing =D). Happy writing, everyone!

~Jared

"Obligatory" Updates

Top of the nighttime to ya'! Maybe . . . no? Fine. Be that way. At least I have a sense of humor (never, I repeat, never, take any of this seriously =D).

Anywho (and, yes, that is a word to me. Glad you asked!), it hasn't been forever and a day since my last post! *Cues applause* I'm behind a couple days, but that's alright, isn't it?

Some of you may have noticed there there is a new novel-in-progress that is not THREE FRIENDS. Well, let me tell you why. I was sitting in science class, the day after my last post, and we were on break. i.e. I didn't have anything to do. So I took out a piece of paper. The rest is history. The idea of the story grabbed me by the lapels, and it's exactly the kind of story I've been wanting to write forever; in that there's only one POV, in first person. At the beginning, I was just having fun, I seriously didn't consider it a legitimate project that I could pick up. But then I wrote more. And more. And world building popped up, and the characters took on distinct shapes, and subplots formed. Other ideas latched on until . . . here I am with another novel. I'm not stopping until it's finished. I see no point, especially when I'm on a roll like this. Just another way to stretch my writing muscles. This book is called THE ROAD TO NOWHERE.


In the meantime, THREE FRIENDS will remain a work in progress, and will be picked up again after THE ROAD TO NOWHERE is written and revised. That's right. I'm not piddling around like I did with LUX. I'm waiting two weeks -- in which I'll probably finish plotting for THREE FRIENDS -- and then it's heavy revisions the rest of the way. The way I look at it is this: when a silversmith would make silverware, tea cups, belt buckles, etc., he wouldn't only buy the silver. No, of course not. That silver needs to be refined and molded into something beautiful. I can't keep stunting my growth because I'm afraid.

To satisfy your curiosity, should it exist, I'll give you the pre-prelude to THE ROAD TO NOWHERE, as well as the prologue.

I'd love to hear your thoughts about it!

I make the creaking when no one is home. I am the voice of temptation when you’re alone. I am everywhere, yet I am nowhere. I am since the beginning, and I am till the end. I am the space when there is none. I am nothing.

Preface

            The scream cut through the walls of the Nowhere. Shrill. Scared. Then it dropped in a muffled decrescendo until it disappeared altogether. In that instant I knew there was no getting her back. She was trapped – indefinitely. No one ever came back from the Nowhere.

            A cold crushing sensation settled upon my chest, constricting my airways. My head fell to my hands, and for the first time since Dad’s death, I cried.

And, guys, this is just what kickstarted me into action! I'm so excited about this idea I could scream! Of course, the full sypnosis isn't going to be released until the first draft is complete. so you're gonna have to wait a couple months.

It is time for the book of the week! 

Book of the week, this week is The Serpent's Shadow by Rick Riordan. And if you don't know who he is, I'm going to kick you in the pants. It's finally released! I'm not sure if I should be entirely ecstatic, depressed, or both. I've been a huge fan of this series since the beginning, and when I finally saw the last book to the trilogy at Wal-Mart yesterday, I had a heart attack. Rick Riordan is such a talented writer; especially when it comes to mystery plotlines. Absolute genius, and there's so much that we, as aspiring authors, can learn from him. Hopefully you guys have enjoyed Rick's books just as much as I have. 

When young magicians Carter and Sadie Kane learned how to follow the path of the ancient Egyptian gods, they knew they would have to play an important role in restoring Ma'at—order—to the world. What they didn't know is how chaotic the world would become. The Chaos snake Apophis is loose and threatening to destroy the earth in three days' time. The magicians are divided. The gods are disappearing, and those that remain are weak. Walt, one of Carter and Sadie's most gifted initiates, is doomed and can already feel his life force ebbing. Zia is too busy babysitting the senile sun god, Ra, to be of much help. What are a couple of teenagers and a handful of young trainees to do?

There is, possibly, one way to stop Apophis, but it is so difficult that it might cost Carter and Sadie their lives, if it even works at all. It involves trusting the ghost of a psychotic magician not to betray them, or worse, kill them. They'd have to be crazy to try. Well, call them crazy.

With hilarious asides, memorable monsters, and an ever-changing crew of friends and foes, the excitement never lets up in The Serpent's Shadow, a thoroughly entertaining and satisfying conclusion to the Kane Chronicles trilogy.

You can visit Rick Riordan's official website here. 

That's all for this week, everyone! I hope it's been a good one for you!

Happy writing!

~Jared 

I'm Out . . . Of Excuses

I'll put it out point-blank first off. I'm entirely out of excuses. I could rant on about how hard it is to get into college classes, make sure you're ahead in your regular high-school classes, finding time to write, read, and be with your family, and, and, and, and, and. . . . But I won't. You know why? Because if I were a reader of my blog, I wouldn't want to hear it either. We're all busy. Just so happens that my busy interfered with my blog. So please forgive me.

First off, I haven't written anything in quite a while, and it feels as if I'm starving. So I guess I'd better hurry up and write something (duh). Next, LUX is too cliche, so I don't know why I'm bothering; TIME LOCK is like me tyrying to mimick Way of Kings (scale wise); so I decided that I should write something simple, meaningful, fairly short, yet good. That thought led me to brainstomring. Which led me to possibly the most original, compelling, interesting, rapturous (all other adjectives you can use even if they're not contextually aplicable) idea I've had yet. This YA novel is to be called THREE FRIENDS, and probably only 50K words. The basic premise is as follows: "Three old friends -- each suffering from serious problems -- meet up unexpectedly in a convenient store, where they get trapped, with no way out, and no one there to help them." This book is currently in the plotting and characterization stage; I should be starting the first draft within the next month.

Now, you might be thinking something along the lines of: "Man, can't this dude ever get it together and just decide on something?!" The answer is, I don't really know. I hope that the current decision is the right one. Let's see what happens. There is, however, one thing I am  absolutely sure of: if I don't start -- and stick -- with something fast, my writing's never going to move forward.

The biggest problem is procrastination (namely, netflix [Dr. Who]). I'm just going to have to give it up for a long, long while. Haha. It sounds like such a horrible thing. . . .

Anyway, the book of the week is The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. Now, I have not actually read this book, but my good friend, Madeleine Parkinston (the woman who made the last post possible), has, and she says it's "a way to plunge into the world of the circus."

"The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night.

"But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway—a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love—a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands.

"True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus per­formers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead."

You can visit Erin's blog/website here -- if you so choose.

That's all for now. Hopefully, you'll hear more from me soon. Adios!

~Jared