Christy Tohara

New Blog

2009-06-26T13:15:00.001-07:00

Trish and I set up a Co-Author blog at http://trishandchris.blogspot.com/

You're welcome to visit :D

Winner!

2009-03-09T18:39:00.000-07:00

It's official! Bad Ass Faeries II: Just Plain Bad has moved from Eppie Award finalist to Eppie Award winning Anthology!

Woohoo!!

Agent Hunting

2009-01-07T18:50:00.001-08:00

We're in our "fine-tuning" part of editing. It is ooooh so fun! I swear editing takes more time than writing the novel..... a necessary evil.

But after we're sufficiently ready, the agent hunting begins. I've found the site http://www.querytracker.net/ a valuable tool in agent-search.

:)

2008 Summary/ 2009 Goals

2009-01-02T15:55:00.000-08:00

Ok- I need to write on my blog more. This is not only coming from my family, but my co-author (Trish). I just didn't want to bore you with the reality of what is going on... which is just editting, editting, editting... and glaring at my co-author to edit my edits (off in the distance, the sound of a cracking whip is heard)

Though Trish has reminded me that I need make goals for myself too for the year.
Alas, my first post (and hopefully not the last for the year, lol) will be about what happened in 2008 and organizing 2009.

2008

Fiction:

Novels-
1) Submitted a cover letter and first few chapters of Fae Sithein to some agents.
After attending World Con and listening to an Agent discuss cover letters (the Query letter) we realized our cover letter sucked and was most likely the reason why it was rejected-- AND also the fact that as it were, the novel was 180,000 words long. For a first novel, the agents will not even look at what you submitted if the manuscript is that long (this info is also stated in the cover letter). They like it btwn 120-140,000 words.

so...

2) Editting Fae Sithein
We have been looking at what is absolutely necessary for the book and cutting the rest. We needed to cut about 40,000 words.. WHICH IS HARD... considering it's like butchering your child. We've had the gracious help of a lot of people in this process.
Kudos to Hali, Ruth, Aimee, Jen, Julie.....

Short Stories-
3) Completed "Party Crashers" and had it published in the short story anthology: Bad Ass Faeries II: Just Plain Bad.

4) Completed and have ready for submission, flash fiction: Poppyseeds

Conferences:
May 2008: Balticon in Maryland, Baltimore.
Attended my first launch party for BAF II: Just Plain Bad
My first convention EVER-- so it was a little overwhelming. But I did get to meet Trish for the first time :D in the 8yrs that I'd known her.

Aug 2008: WorldCon in Denver, Colorado.
Attended my first "after parties". I met some great authors and agents. I saw Steven Spielberg going up the escalator and I went down (squeee)! I shall NEVER wear flip-flops to a conference again!

2009

Fiction:

Novel-
Finish editting my co-authored novel Fae Sithein: Yesterday's Shadows
Submit my co-authored novel Fae Sithein: Yesterday's Shadows to at least 10 agents.
PUBLISH the novel and smile proudly (Well.... get the Agent to represent it...)

Write a synopsis and possibly start a few scenes/actually make a rough draft for a vampire novel inspired by Ruth Mullins :)

Finish rough draft of my Y/A novel (untitled but known as:) Alessandra

Finish rough draft and begin editting Y/A novel co-authored with my Dad: Gypsy Love Letters

Write a synopsis for a ghost Y/A novel that has been buzzing in my head.

Maybe even be bugged by my future agent to start writing the next installment of FS!

Short Stories-

Submit for publication co-authored w/ Trish: Poppyseeds

Poetry-
I've been thinking about writing some and actually submitting it somewhere. We'll see if time allots.

Conferences:
Attend WorldCon in Montreal, Canada in AUG this year :)
I think there is a Conference in Salt Lake City too that I totally was unaware of last year and am thinking about attending this year... are you game Trish?

I accomplished a lot...but have a lot more to accomplish. I hope I can hit at least 50% of my goals.

1-2-3 Go TEAM!

reviews for BAF II: "Just Plain Bad"

2008-12-08T17:57:00.001-08:00

"Just Plain Bad...twenty faerie stories ready to rip all of your preconceived notions of faeries apart." —4 Tombstones, Becky, Bitten By Books Reviews

"Another wonderful collection of stories about Faeries the way they were meant to be, just plain bad. I loved the peek into the real world of Faeries who would have Tinkerbell for lunch." —4 Lyres, Recommended Read!, Penny Ash Rites of Romance Reviews

"You’ll wind up with Fae magick pulsing through your veins after reading this wonderful anthology! Bad-Ass Faeries 2 – Just Plain Bad fulfilled its promise! ...a must read for all you Faerie lovers out there!" —5 Angels, CJ, Fallen Angel Reviews

"Just Plain Bad is a wonderful collection well worth your time...I highly recommend this anthology!" —Jim Stanton, The Fix Short Fiction Reviews

"The stories just keep getting better and better...One read and you're hooked. These authors reign supreme!" —5 stars, Shannon Raley, Amazon review

EPIC "eppie" Award Winner :)

2008-12-07T11:11:00.000-08:00

It was announced last week that the Bad Ass FaeriesII anthology has been nominated for an EPIC award. This automatically places the book as Award Winning (woohoo!). It has been recognized on their main website:
http://www.epicauthors.com/eppies.html

There is a conference in Las Vegas in March where they will announce the winner. Even if Bad Ass Faeries isn't chosen as #1, we'll hold reign as runner-up and still be noted as Award Winning. So as I see it, it's a win-win situation. ;)

Also, a webiste called Pretty-Scary did a little snippet. This is super cool :D.
http://www.pretty-scary.net/article2332.html

Snippet:

Women rock the EPPIE Awards!

Bad-Ass Faeries 2: Just Plain Bad, edited by Danielle Ackley-McPhail and with stories by Trisha Wooldridge, Christy Tohara, C.S. Haviland , L. Jagi Lamplighter, Elaine Corvidae, and Skyla Dawn Cameron, from Marietta Publishing, is nominated for best Anthology EPPIE Award! In the horror category, author Kim Richards represents the women with her story Death Masks.

The Electronically Published Internet Connection (EPIC) presents the 9th annual EPPIE Awards, which honor the finest electronically published books of the year. Winners will be presented at the EPPIE Banquet during EPICon 2009. Read on for all female nominees in genre categories. They have fun titles like Undercover Alien and Candy, Corpses and Classified Ads. No kidding! This is why I LOVE ePublishing...

It has been an awesome experience to be part of an anthology. Although the stories are short, they are super fun to create.

Denver Worldcon

2008-08-05T21:13:00.000-07:00

My writing partner (Trish Wooldridge) and I are attending Denver's WorldCon this year. She flew in from Mass. to follow me out to the convention. She is great task master on making sure I go to some conventions throughout the year.

It is always a great experience and such a learning opportunity to attend the various panels and meet lots of new people. There is always something to learn, no matter how long you've been in the biz.

I'll keep the blog posted with how it goes day by day. I'll be here the whole convention schedule (Aug 5-11).

Destiny VS Choice

2008-06-19T10:26:00.000-07:00

FATE: the universal principle or ultimate agency by which the order of things is presumably prescribed; the decreed cause of events; that which is inevitably predetermined; destiny
DESTINY: the predetermined, usually inevitable or irresistible, course of events.

FREE AGENCY/ CHOICE: a person who is self-determining and responsible for his or her actions; the right, power, or opportunity to choose.

Are we subjected to fate/destiny?
-has our life already been chosen for us? Are the people we know merely part of this—do we know them simply because we were destined or fated to meet them? Did we lose our job because we weren’t supposed to have it? Did we have 3 kids instead of 5 because it wasn’t meant to be more? Did we choose our profession because we were destined to do that sort of work? Did we turn the corner and meet that person on the street because it was meant to happen?

Or did we have a choice? Did we chose our path and everyday is a new adventure?
Do our choices push us to our ultimate destiny? Or does Destiny have power over the choices we make?

I heard once that when we have De Ja Vu, it is merely an echo destiny, showing that we are on the path. Or when we see someone for the first time and swear we’ve met them before, that it’s destiny reminding us that it is in control.

But don’t we have a choice? Are we puppets pulled along on the strings of Fate?

Can we change fate? Or is that simply what was fated to happen if you change a course in life? What happens if fate was changed? Does that set off a course of events that upsets universe? Karma affected?

It’s an interesting concept that has been debated a lot. But it still raises eyebrows when trying to analyze which the more believed.

Thoughts?

Super Star!

2008-06-16T09:51:00.000-07:00

It's great to just let loose some times.
Rocking out with the Xbox game Rock Band with a group of people does just that. No, I cannot sing worth my life...and get me to play simon says with the guitar (tapping the right color when the game tells you to), I'm getting better... And the drums? Haven't tried those yet... maybe next time I'll get a little braver and get my thump on...
but it's not at all about if you're good.
It's all about having a good time and just letting go of everything else for a while.
The game is just plain fun with a lot of my song favorites from the radio. But I think our "band" has run those songs thin... we need the booster pack to keep the party rockin' !

It beats belting out the songs on the radio driving from here to there. Cuz now there's a band and a real live...um... simulated .....crowd to cheer you on, hehehhe.

If you haven't yet, try it out. It's a great tension releaser!

And if nothing else, it's your 5 minutes of fame.

It's all in the Lyrics

2008-06-04T17:52:00.000-07:00

It's funny sometimes when I listen to the radio (which is often), a certain song will play and all of a sudden, I'm thrown into the emotions of a scene I am trying to write. Or even better yet, a scene I hadn't ever thought of before suddenly comes to mind.

And I love all types of music because I don't listen just because it's a certain genre... but I listen because it's telling me their story. I love listening to their stories, and the music playing behind it is an added bonus. Granted, I don't like EVERY song out there....some songs shouldn't have ever been concieved!!! But most songs weave such emotion and set such a scene, you cannot help but believe in them.

So often when I write, I have the radio playing. It helps me slip into the world my characters are in and actually live in every scene with them. That's what helps me write a scene or know my characters... to live their moments with them.

It's all in the lyrics...

Getting it Done

2008-06-02T20:41:00.000-07:00

You would think writing the book is the hardest thing. But it isn't, not really. The story is already there, parading around in my mind and anxious to be written in the Word Doc. The hardest part, I believe, is Editting. After you get through everything, you have to go back through it again and again and again and again to tighten this, get rid of that, add this, etc. And when you're in the editting phase and have read the story for the up-teenth time, you're about ready to "accidently" delete the whole thing because you're almost tired of looking at it. Or you become so busy with new ideas, that your finished work gets put on the back burner... which isn't a good thing because it should be a first priority to get it out and published.

And then there is the Artist's curse... After staring at it for forever and a day, you see everything that's wrong with it and believe no one would like it nor appreciate how many hours you've put into it.

I guess the best thing to remember is that an artist will always find a flaw. Editting it hard work and shouldn't be taken lightly because in the end the product is always that much better. And DON'T put off getting it done, because regret is a greedy, burdensome companion.

Baltimore Trip

2008-05-28T20:55:00.000-07:00

Baltimore was a great experience. It really showed me a lot about the life of an author and what it takes to be sucessful. I had the opportunity to meet all the authors in the book my story is published in as well as the editors. They are all a bunch of fun people. It was also super fun because I got to meet my co-author and friend Trish Wooldridge (whom I hadn't ever met before in all the 6 years of knowing her!) Now-- she is more than an e-friend :).

Part of my experience dealt with going to hour long seminars that lasted all day long. These seminars were lead by a panel of "experts" who issued insight or advice on various topics. It was great to attend them and learn the tricks of the trade in writing.

EVEN I had been assigned to be ON the panels. It was definitly different but definitly fun and enlightening.

These classes began around 10am each day and went until 1 am in the morning. I attended some 12am meetings. It is funny how it doesn't seem so late when you are really
involved in everything. Time really flew.. there was always something to do or some place to go.
An unnerving thing I had to do was read up in front of a crowd out of the novel I am working on (not the published short story). But the thing was--- despite my nerves on end-- it was recieved rather well. I recieved a few compliments on it afterwards. It was very encouraging! The audience member said he was really into it.

Pictured here on the far left is one of the editors (in red) for my story.

Having this opportunity to meet the editors, authors, agents, and publishers was a great experience.

This is Danielle. She is the head editor for the collection of short stories in Bad A.Faeries. She is a great person, super fun to be around, and quite likeable. I (and Trish) roomed with her in the hotel while I was in Baltimore. Danielle has many books published including novels, anthologies, etc.

Published!

2008-05-08T21:54:00.000-07:00

Ok, I know this isn't a normal thing, but I got my first submission published! I co-authored a short story "The Party Crashers" in an book called Bad A$$ Faeries: Just Plain Bad due out May 23. I am going to BaltiCon in Baltimore, Maryland, with the co-author, Trish Wooldridge, to celebrate the book's launch. This will be interesting because it's my first "Con" that I've ever been to. I will also be going to Denver for WorldCon in Aug.