My novel, Give Up the Ghost, has a set-up that might feel familiar to fans of paranormal fiction. There’s a main character with supernatural ties. There’s a character of the opposite sex who enters her life and shakes it up. You know where this is going, right?
If you guessed that they end up in a heated romance, you would actually be wrong. But I wouldn’t blame you for assuming that. Before I even started writing the book, I knew a romance would be the expected outcome. It was very deliberate that I chose not to meet that expectation.
Comment here or there!
Originally published at Megan Crewe - another world, not quite ours. You can comment here or there.
Since I’ve talked a bit about how psychology and appreciation of stories might interact, I thought it’d be interesting to consider something many people mention first when talking about a story: characters. Sometimes a great protagonist or villain can raise up an otherwise mediocre story. Sometimes a plot that sounded fascinating gets bogged down by cardboard characters. And, of course, readers don’t all agree: a character one finds impressive another may find repulsive, and vice versa.
Why is that, and what factors might make a character more or less appealing? Psychologists have suggested that for readers to care about characters, they need to react to them as if they were friends or enemies. So let’s start by examining what makes us like other people in our lives.
Comments welcomed here or there. 
Originally published at Megan Crewe - another world, not quite ours. You can comment here or there.
Since Give Up the Ghost was released, I’ve been getting a question I suspect every writer hears after publishing a book not clearly part of a series: “Is there going to be a sequel?”
When I wrote Ghost, it never occurred to me to think of it as anything other than a stand-alone novel. The plot and character arcs I envisioned fit well within the scope of one book. I saw Cass’ story as being—well, maybe not finished—but finished enough that the rest could live in readers’ imaginations. But if people want to read more about her, why wouldn’t I pursue that?
Comments welcome here or there!
Originally published at Megan Crewe - another world, not quite ours. You can comment here or there.
Last week I talked about how memory and behaviorism might affect readers’ enjoyment of a story. The final area of psychology I’m going to discuss is persuasion.
When psychologists study persuasive techniques, they are usually focusing on topics like advertising and politics. How do people persuade other people to trust them and believe the message they’re conveying (whether it’s “Buy this product now!” or “Vote for me!”)? But persuasion plays a role in many other areas, including stories.
Open to comments here and there.
Originally published at Megan Crewe - another world, not quite ours. You can comment here or there.
About the book:
Fifteen-year-old Blake has a girlfriend and a friend who's a girl. One of them loves him, the other one needs him.
When he snapped a picture of a street person for his photography homework, Blake never dreamed that the woman in the photo was his friend Marissa's long-lost meth addicted mom.
In a tangle of life, death, and love, Blake will emerge with a more sharply defined snapshot of loyalty.
An Interview with L.K. Madigan:
Me: What were your favorite books (or types of books) as a teen, and what was it about them that appealed to you? What, on the other hand, would make you put a book down?
L.K.: I was a voracious, non-discriminating reader as a teen – you name it, I read it! I think that’s the way to go, as a young reader. How else will you discover what you really like? Now that I think of it, I probably read more horror than any other genre, because I was a big Stephen King fan. Funnily enough, I can’t imagine writing horror. Or more accurately, I can imagine it too well and it scares me!
I rarely gave up on a book back then – it would have to be exceptionally dull for me to put it down. I recall feeling pretty miserable during THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV in college.
Me: Have your reading tastes stayed the same, or have you discovered new loves and peeves (and if so, what are they)?
L.K.: Nowadays I don’t read horror, but I love a good ghost story. I’m looking forward to Lisa Schroeder’s CHASING BROOKLYN, the third of her novels-in-verse, which comes out in January, and Sonia Gensler’s Victorian ghost story THE REVENANT, which comes out in 2011. I was lucky enough to read both those books in manuscript form, and I can’t wait to read the finished products! Saundra Mitchell’s SHADOWED SUMMER is another gorgeous spine-tingler of a tale. I'm also really looking forward to your book, Megan. :-)
I’m still a voracious reader, but I’m more discriminating now: I prefer middle grade and young adult fiction. Since books for those age groups tend to move quickly in terms of pacing, I find that now when I read adult literary novels, I have very little patience for long expository sections or overly-detailed character sketches. I definitely put books down when they don't engage me.
Me: What are you working on now?
L.K.: I’m working on revisions for my YA fantasy, which comes out next year. It doesn’t have a title yet, but I’ve been calling it THE MERMAID’S MIRROR. I’m also still drafting a third novel; I hope to turn it over to my critique group soon. I know it needs work!
Hope you enjoyed getting to know L.K.! More interviews to come later this month. :)
Next week I’m going to be leading a Topic of the Week over at The Enchanted Inkpot about “strong” heroes and heroines. While I’m gathering my thoughts on the subject, I thought it’d be interesting to do a quick poll and see what qualities you all feel makes a character “strong” (strong purposely in quotations since your definition of the word may be different from someone else’s). Feel free to comment if you think I’ve missed something or you want to clarify your answers!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
Originally published at Megan Crewe - another world, not quite ours. You can comment here or there.
Earlier I talked about how the psychological study of memory can give us clues about what qualities cause a story to be considered “good.” Today I’d like to examine the role behavioral psychology might play.
When people talk about behavioral psychology, the name that most often comes up is B.F. Skinner. Anyone who’s taken an introductory psychology course will have heard of him: he’s best known for his experiments with pigeons and rats in which he investigated how environmental stimuli affected their behavior. The principles he wrote about—particularly, that giving a reward (reinforcement) increases a behavior, while introducing a punishment decreases it—are widely used in many parts of our lives. Kids in school get stickers for good work and detention for bad behavior. An employee may get a raise for excellent performance and a reprimand for carelessness. Stop for a moment and think, and you can probably come up with a dozen ways you are reinforced (directly or subtly) for behaving “correctly,” and punished for a misstep.
But what does all that have to do with stories? I’d say rather a lot.
As before, comments both there and here are welcomed.
Originally published at Megan Crewe - another world, not quite ours. You can comment here or there.
Context: I had invited B over to my house to study for exams together. He was supposed to arrive at 3:00.
December 14, 1995 (Megan is 14)
It’s 3:40 and B isn’t here yet. He phoned me at 2:30 to get the directions ’cause his dad threw out the sheet, and said he was going to leave right then. But I don’t know what happened, ’cause he’s not here and I just phoned his house and no one answered so he’s not there. He must have gotten lost or something. I hope he doesn’t come while I’m baby-sitting, or phone, ’cause then I’ll miss him. I wonder what the heck happened to him? I hope he’s okay.
It is now 5:45 and I called B again about a half hour ago, but again no one picked it up. I’m beginning to wonder if he’s not supposed to answer the phone if no one else is home, like N. But that doesn’t explain why he hasn’t called me to tell me why he didn’t show up. It’s so stupid. I don’t see how he can go and act like he wants to come over when he doesn’t even care enough to call. I mean, what kind of game is this? ‘Cause it does seem like a game. “Let’s see how much pain I can inflict here,” that’s what it would be called. It is so incredibly stupid. He had a million times to back out or lie to get out of it. He could have just said no at the beginning, or said his father said he couldn’t, or anything. And what bugs me the most is that he must have meant to come. Why else would he call? So what is the point of all this? So I can write about the wonderful experience of liking someone who doesn’t even care? Well, I’ll tell you. I’ve been alternating between feeling like I’m going to cry and feeling like I’m going to throw up since about 3:30. It isn’t very pleasant. Hopefully, I’ll actually get a hold of him next time I call, so I can find out what he has to say for himself. I don’t know if I’m going to keep trying. Unless his reason is really good, probably not. It’s not worth it. It probably never was. Too bad I only learn that now.
Okay, I’m getting worried now. It’s 8:18 and I just called B again, and no one answered. His dad should be home by now even if he (B) is not picking up the phone, so someone should be answering. Unless something did happen to B somehow, like he got hurt or something. I don’t know. Or his dad could just be working late. Still… I hope I see him tomorrow.
I really hate this because the whole time I’ve been telling myself that he isn’t going to end up coming, and then I was so close to it I believed it was actually going to happen, but it didn’t after all.
–
An Introduction to Flashbacks
The Flashback Cast
The Flashback Timeline
Originally published at Megan Crewe - another world, not quite ours. You can comment here or there.
As a psychology major and someone whose day job regularly draws on psychological principles (I’m a behavioral therapist for children with special needs), I thought it’d be interesting to do a series of posts examining how the science of the mind might be applied to the world of literature.
To start things off, I’ll be tackling one of the biggest questions there is: just what is it that makes a story “good”? From a psychological perspective, that is.
One of the biggest factors, I’d guess, is memory…
(Feel free to comment there or here–I’ll be watching both.)
Originally published at Megan Crewe - another world, not quite ours. You can comment here or there.
Want to support your local library (school or public)? Direct the librarians you know over to these two awesome giveaways!
The 2009 Debutantes are giving away 46 books to the winning library, simply for sending in a picture of one of the Debs books. Full details here.
And the Class of 2K9 is offering three sets of books, one of all the 2K9 books for public libraries, and one set each of all the MG and YA titles for an elementary or middle school and a high school. Full details here.
If you’re a librarian yourself, come on over and enter!
Originally published at Megan Crewe - another world, not quite ours. You can comment here or there.
Delve into the folk tales of any culture in the world, and before long you’ll come across ghost stories. The woman who lingers on the bridge where she jumped to her death. The lord of the manor who haunts his former home. Whatever other supernatural creatures catch readers’ attention and become the next hot thing in fiction, ghosts have always been, and are always, here. Whether they’re taking revenge on innocent victims or trying to atone for past wrongs, audiences never seem to tire of them.
As someone who’s written about ghosts more than once, I’ve found myself wondering why. The best answer I can come up with is, it’s because ghosts can mean so many things…
Originally published at Megan Crewe - another world, not quite ours. You can comment here or there.
Three bits of news for you all:
-I’m going to be blogging over at Tor.com a few times a week for the next month! So some days I’ll be directing you over there for a post. My first, on how I became a speculative fiction fan and writer, is up now.
-Want to win a copy of GHOST plus the awesome SHADOWED SUMMER by Saundra Mitchell? Check out this fun giveaway!
-Teens Read Too is starting up a new blog, the TRT Book Club. Check out all the amazing authors who’ve already signed up to participate — and start following the blog so you don’t miss any of ‘em!
Originally published at Megan Crewe - another world, not quite ours. You can comment here or there.
Since Halloween is fast approaching…
The Witches by Roald Dahl – My favorite Roald Dahl book ever (which is saying a lot) features some very creepy and nasty witches. Beware of women with gloves and itchy heads!
Witchery Hill by Welwyn Wilton Katz – A spooky page-turner by a Canadian author, in which a girl’s stepmother is truly wicked, though of course all of the grown-ups refuse to see it.
The Magic Circle by Donna Jo Napoli – Hansel and Gretel from the witch’s point of view. A look into her theoretical past makes her surprisingly sympathetic — and her end shockingly tragic.
Bras & Broomsticks by Sarah Mlynowski – One of the most fun witch books you’ll ever read, about a teen attempting to take advantage of her younger sister’s witchy heritage (which has passed the older sister by).
The Changeover by Margaret Mahy – A boy witch! Whom Laura must turn to, and awaken powers of her own with, in order to save her little brother. An intense and eerie story.
Originally published at Megan Crewe - another world, not quite ours. You can comment here or there.
Watching America’s Next Top Model over the last few weeks (my favorite guilty pleasure 
), I’ve noticed a sort of behavior I think comes up in all sorts of situations, including writing. Some of the models, when they don’t do well, or don’t do as well as they wanted, start complaining about a model who did do well. Whereas others start talking about what they’re going to work on to do better next time.
You know what? Envy comes up in every area of people’s lives, and it’s totally normal. Show me a writer (or anyone else) who’s never had a twinge when they see someone else achieving something they’d love to have, and I will be checking the back of their head for an android control panel. But the trick is what you do with it.
It’s one thing to see someone else get something you wanted, and think, gee, I wish I had that. It’s even okay to feel that maybe that person didn’t totally deserve it (you don’t know that for sure, because you don’t know everything that went on, but you know what, these are just thoughts) as long as you keep it to yourself. It’s the next step that’s important. Do you keep dwelling on the other person’s success? Or do you ask yourself, if I want to get that, too, what do I need to do? and start working on it?
The people who dwell tend to get bitter, and not to get where they want to go, because they’re focusing on things they can’t control and assigning responsibility for where they are to other people. The people who get to work tend to be the people who succeed. The only person you have any control over is you. You might not get everything you want, but you’re not likely to get anything unless you focus on yourself and how you can strive for those things.
That’s my little advice for the week.
Originally published at Megan Crewe - another world, not quite ours. You can comment here or there.
About the book:
Roz and Eva are sisters, close friends, and fierce rivals. Roz fantasizes about snagging the lead in the school play and sexy skate god Bryan as her boyfriend. Sadly a few obstacles stand between her and her dreams. For one, Eva is the more talented actress. And Bryan happens to be Eva’s boyfriend. But is Eva having a secret love affair with a girl? Enquiring minds need to know.
Roz prides herself on random acts of insanity. In one such act, she invents a girlfriend of her own to encourage Eva to open up. The plan backfires, and Roz finds herself neck deep in her invented life. When Roz meets a mercurial boy with a big problem, she begins to understand the complex feelings beneath the labels. And she gets a second chance to earn Eva’s trust.
My Invented Life is set in a small California high school during rehearsals for a Shakespeare comedy.
An Interview with Lauren Bjorkman:
Me: What were your favorite books (or types of books) as a teen, and what was it about them that appealed to you? What, on the other hand, would make you put a book down?
Lauren: I have an eclectic taste in reading--from romance to the classics, from funny to dark. As a teen, I loved both Jack London and Barbara Cartland. (I wonder if their names have been paired like this before). And I have a thing for Saki. He has a delicious and wicked sense of humor.
Back then, I finished every book I started. It was a sickness, really. I've learned to value my time now. If I don't care what happens to the main character, or if the tone is just too cynical or depressing, I put down the book.
Me: Have your reading tastes stayed the same, or have you discovered new loves and peeves (and if so, what are they)?
Lauren: My tastes have changed some over time. I read less commercial fiction than I used to. I'm always discovering new authors. And the current YA is phenomenal. Nothing like it existed when I was a teen.
Me: What was your favorite part of writing MY INVENTED LIFE, and what was the hardest?
Lauren: I tend to fall in love with my characters. The best part is when one of my characters evolves in a way I hadn't planned on. And the worst--saying good-bye at the end. I (secretly) (ish) hope to write a sequel some day.
Me: Did you draw on any people/places/experiences from your life while writing?
Lauren: Not much, directly. The setting is based on a small town near UC Davis, where I went to college. Little things from my life seeped in, as I wrote. The story itself is in no way autobiographical, but the themes are.
Me: What was the most exciting moment during the publishing process? The scariest?
Lauren: When my agent called to offer representation! I'd been waiting years for that savory moment. And the scariest time--the delay between then and the offer from Holt.
Me: What are you working on now?
Lauren: A YA novel about an advice blog gone awry, friendship, Mini Coopers, fake IDs, unplanned pregnancies, and fortune cookies.
Hope you enjoyed getting to know Lauren! More interviews to come next month. :)
1995 (Megan is 14)
from January 1995
After I finished my first novel, I was unable to get inspired for about a month. What I mean by inspired is that the writing didn’t flow. When I am writing something that’s going to work, I don’t have to spend much time working things out. Anyway, during the month, I wrote a short story for English. It flowed. Very much so. I got 100% on it in fact. So I have a theory. When I’m not writing anything big, I have a lot of stored up “flowing power” so when I do write something, it’s really good.
from March 1995
My writing philosophy is to write something original that people remember; to make people think about themselves and their lives; and to make them never want to stop reading, even after the story is finished.
from May 1995
If someone were to ask me why I like to write, I’d have to say it’s very simple and very complicated. Writing is comparable to major activities in my life. One might as well ask why I like to breathe or eat. As for the complicated part, it’s like this. Writing is the special thing in my life. I feel totally happy when I’m writing something that’s flowing. It’s the joy of creation. I can’t think of how to explain it better.
–
An Introduction to Flashbacks
The Flashback Cast
The Flashback Timeline
Originally published at Megan Crewe - another world, not quite ours. You can comment here or there.
…you’ll have one week where nothing’s going on and then one where things are totally crazy?
Guess which week this is for me.
However, I still intend to be keeping my blogging up, just forgive me any errant typos!
Today I got to do two awesome author appearances, one with a grade 12 Writers Craft course at Humberside C.I. and the other with a grade 8 class visiting the Bloor Gladstone Library (in all its renovated glory — seriously, I want to move to Bloor and Dufferin just so that can be “my” library). I really enjoy getting to share my experiences and what I’ve learned about the publishing industry with teens, many of whom are aspiring writers themselves. Hopefully my talks give them a little hope that they could be the one up there talking in another ten years!
I got asked a lot of interesting questions, such as:
Why did you decide to write this book and not some other one? (Pretty much because this was the one that most wanted to get written.)
Who is the girl on the cover? (Wish I could tell you, but I’ve got not idea!)
Do you read manga? (Yes, occasionally, but I’m more into anime.)
Are you rich? (Sadly, no. 
I have a day job along with my writing work in order to get the bills all paid.)
Looking forward to talking with some more teens tomorrow!
Originally published at Megan Crewe - another world, not quite ours. You can comment here or there.
The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling – How could I not list this first? There’s Snape, of course, who skips back and forth across the line between good and bad throughout the series, not to mention the individual books’ villains-or-not like Sirius Black in Prisoner of Azkaban and Prof. Moody in Goblet of Fire.
Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones – The Wizard Howl has a reputation for eating the hearts of young women and a contract with a fire demon. But wait until you’ve spent some time with him before drawing conclusions.
The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline B. Cooney – Are Janie’s parents really her parents? Her grandparents? Her kidnappers? Funny how one picture can make you question everything.
Northlander by Meg Burden – Who is worse — the Northlanders who scorn Ellin’s people but whose princes befriend her, or the Southling outlaws who offer her a new home but have violent plans in the making? Ellin’s about to discover that everyone’s a villain to someone, and a hero to someone else.
Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier – A book full of shades of gray: cousins who become captors, lovers who might become monsters, other worlds both welcoming and dangerous, and Night People who offer the truth and then poison it — but not always.
Originally published at Megan Crewe - another world, not quite ours. You can comment here or there.
I have drawn the winners of the Share the GHOST Love Giveaway ARCs!
First winner (5 ARCs) – Michelle
Second winner (3 ARCs) – Alexa
Third winner (1 ARC) – Prodhi
Congrats! I’ll be e-mailing you as soon as I’ve finished writing this post.
There are 11 copies of GHOST remaining for the first part of the giveaway, which will be open until Oct 31st.
(Friday Five to come in a little bit. )
Originally published at Megan Crewe - another world, not quite ours. You can comment here or there.
March 19, 1997 (Megan is 16)
For some reason, we (girls) seem to have the need to find a guy to like at all times. We’ll just stick onto the most compatible guy in our current environment, even if we like someone else who’s gone for a while. I don’t know why this is; perhaps we feel we have to love something; it’s like an outlet for emotional energy. Guys, who tend to get rid of emotional energy in physical ways–sports, harassing each other, etc.–don’t seem to have this problem. Or perhaps they do, but we just don’t know about it.
Because of all that stated above, I believe that if you’ve liked a guy once, you can again. After all, unless he’s had a personality transplant or a lobotomy, he’ll still possess the qualities which made him compatible to you. But he’ll probably also still have whatever qualities caused the relationship not to work out. Therefore one should steer clear of previous likes–unless it was not he that made the relationship fall apart.
This rule especially stands if you don’t like anyone else at the moment. At the beginning of this school year, I almost started liking B again, but I caught myself just in time. Now I just avoid him as much as possible. Thankfully, he’s the only past like who still goes to Riverdale. It was the worst when D was there–it’s hard to expand one’s personality when someone keeps reminding you of how pathetic you were.
–
An Introduction to Flashbacks
The Flashback Cast
The Flashback Timeline
Originally published at Megan Crewe - another world, not quite ours. You can comment here or there.
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