Category: Michael Young

Aspiring Authors

January 27th, 2011

Have you always wanted to write a novel?  Have you been working on one, or even have one completed, but don’t know what to do with?

When I became a published author and started doing book signings and school events, I was surprised how many people told me that they like to write and are in some stage of writing a novel. There were many people who helped me along my road to becoming a published author and I would like to repay the favor. It can be a confusing road, and it helps to have someone help you who has been there before.

For these reasons, I’ve just decided to create a program to assist aspiring authors.  I will select submissions on an ongoing basis from authors who have a project they are working on.  The submission will mirror what editors and agents expects to get from an author.  From the submissions that I get, I will select one every two months and work with that author.  I will help you edit the query letter and your first three chapters, and help you find a few editors or agents to which they can submit.

Additionally, I will answer any questions they may have about the process and give my honest feedback of their work.  I will do all of this free of charge.

In order to submit, please send the first 20 pages of your manuscript and a query letter to thecanticlekingdom@gmail.com.  The first submission period ends Feb 28th. Good luck!

Manuscripts:

Should be 12pt Times New Roman font, 1 inch margins, with pages numbered and a header with “Author’s Last Name”/”Project Keyword” at the top of each page.

Query Letters:

Should only be about 250 words and should include word count of total project, genre, brief “movie trailer” description of the story, and a short paragraph about your publishing experience.
Announcing "The Last Archangel"

January 18th, 2011

I found out this week that another project tentatively titled “The Last Archangel” is going to be published through Cedar Fort! It should likely come out later this year, but it’s not too early to start getting excited about it. Here’s a brief overview of what it is going to be about:

The Last ArchangelDoomed to serve as a destroying angel until the end of the world, the fallen angel Xandir sometimes wonders what is taking so long. In thousands of years, he has only cared about one person and he was forced to destroy her along with her entire city in the line of duty.

Then a secret brotherhood approaches him and claims that together they can end the world and reunite him with his lost love. To do so, he must enter an ancient sunken city and emerge with a seed from the noxious tree at its center. With the seed’s poison they could construct weapons to bring down the curtain on Earth’s final act. Xandir’s journey takes him around the world, both above and beneath, sending him rushing in where most angels fear to tread.

I will keep you posted as I learn more about this exciting project!
Another Winner and a Happy New Year!

December 31st, 2010

Congratulations to Krista Jensen of Cody, WY who won the second copy of “The Canticle Kingdom.” Apparently she really did get some things off of this list for Christmas.

1 Kindle e-reader
2 book release dates
3 pedicures
4-piece flannel sheets
5 FULL BODY MASSAGES
6 pairs of socks (I need some, okay?)
7-day writing retreat
8 maids
9 times the energy
10 new Kindle books
11 free loads of laundry
12 chocolate truffles

A safe and happy New Year to you all. I’ve got a lot of exciting writing projects in the works this year and I look forward to sharing them all with you. If you want to write as well, I encourage you to make it part of your New Year’s resolutions to dive in this year. Make this the year that you write that novel or that play, or whatever it is you like to write. Small, consistent efforts will accomplish more than the occasional big effort will. Go for it!
First Winner in 12 Days of Christmas Contest

December 13th, 2010

Congratulations to Annette Lyon! She posted her personal 12 days for Christmas and is the winner of the first copy of “The Canticle Kingdom.” Here’s the winning list:

As for my list, having a bit of fun:
1. Spotless house
2. book tours
3. trips to Disneyland
4. happy, healthy kids
5. gold rings (hey, why not?)
6. afternoon naps
7. happy hours with family
8. days to write
9. million dollars
10. chocolate pies
11. days in Europe
12. pounds lost! (more than that, but the song doesn’t go any higher)

If you didn’t win this time around, never fear. There is still one more copy up for grabs. Simply leave your list as a comment to this post or the original post, or let me know that you have tweeted, blogged, or posted the contest on Facebook. I will draw the next one on the 24th of December.
A New Twelve Days of Christmas Contest

December 3rd, 2010

One website totals the value of the 12 days of Christmas at nearly $100,000. Makes you wonder what this guy did for a living, and why he needed to try so hard to impress his true love. (And if he bothered to wrap any of the gifts.)

See: http://www.dailypress.com/features/christmas/sns-12days-christmas-cost-pictures,0,6559920.photogallery

It is speculated that the song was actually a Catholic symbolism song meant to teach children:

1The partridge in a pear tree is Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
2 Turtle Doves = The Old and New Testaments
3 French Hens = Faith, Hope and Charity, the Theological Virtues
4 Calling Birds = the Four Gospels and/or the Four Evangelists
5 Golden Rings = The first Five Books of the Old Testament, the “Pentateuch”, which gives the history of man’s fall from grace.
6 Geese A-laying = the six days of creation
7 Swans A-swimming = the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, the seven sacraments
8 Maids A-milking = the eight beatitudes
9 Ladies Dancing = the nine Fruits of the Holy Spirit
10 Lords A-leaping = the ten commandments
11 Pipers Piping = the eleven faithful apostles
12 Drummers Drumming = the twelve points of doctrine in the Apostle’s Creed

For more, see: http://www.byrum.org/misc/christmas/origin.html (This list is from that site)

Who knows?

The question is, if someone was going to do the 12 Days of Christmas to you, what would you want? Leave a comment on this post answering this question, and you could win one of two signed copies of “The Canticle Kingdom.” You don’t have to do the whole song if you don’t want, but at least on of the days.

Myself? I’d probably put more edible stuff in there like “and a pizza with pepperoni…” 12 publishing contracts would be nice too.

I will draw a winner on the 12th of December and one on the 24th (which is 12 days from the 12th). Entries are as follows:

1 entry for a blog post answering the question.
2 entries for posting on Facebook about this contest.
2 entries of posting on Twitter about this contest.
2 entries for blogging about it.

(Please let me know which of these you have done in your post.)

“The Canticle Kingdom” is also available on amazon.com for a great price. Check it out here: http://amzn.com/1599553627.

And have a very Merry Christmas!
Short Story Published in Mindflights Magazine

November 29th, 2010

Hi everyone. I invite you to read a short story of mine that was just published in Mindflights magazine. It all starts when an old superhero starts auctioning off his many powers…

http://www.mindflights.com/item.php?sub_id=6859

MindFlights: an exciting web-zine featuring fantasy, science fiction, and other genres. readers will find clean, christian-grounded fiction, reviews, interviews, and more.
Sentence Soup

October 19th, 2010

In talking to the young people about writing sentences that flow well together, I told them that writing a story was like making a good soup.

First I asked, what makes up a good soup? I got all sorts of answers, from chicken, to veggies, to noodles and crackers. So we decided that a good soup has a lot of good ingredients, but not too many of any one ingredient.

I then asked them if any of them like pepper on their soup. Many hands went up. Then, I asked, “But what if I came over and dumped the whole pepper shaker into your soup. Would you like that?” No one did.

So we agreed, that having too much of any one ingredient or spice can spoil the soup. The same goes with writing. Here are the ingredients that I mentioned to them:

Sentence length: Mix up long and short sentences to make things more interesting.
Describing words: Add some adjectives and adverbs, but be careful not to add too many. (It’s like too much pepper)
Types of sentence beginnings: Sometimes leading with subject and verb, and other times leading with a clause.
Using strong, concrete verbs: Think of different ways to say common words such as “walk” and “talk” to paint a more exact picture.
Have perfect punctuation: Use it when you need it, but don’t overdo it, such as using more than one “!”

I think the soup analogy really helped the students grasp what I was saying, and I think it is a concept that any writer should think about.

Please join me next week for another installment, and on Thursday for a review of the first three books of the 13th Reality series by James Dashner.
Roy Elementary Author Visit

October 6th, 2010

This week, I had one of the best experiences of my writing career. I had privilege of visiting Roy Elementary in Roy, UT to get the students excited about writing. They are putting on a “Young Authors Fair” later this school year, and my visit was to help them prepare for that.

I gave two different assemblies to the school to talk about how I became and author (and how they can too) and then I was off to the classrooms. Over the course of two days, I visited 21 different classrooms, ranging from Kindergarten to Sixth Grade. Each teacher had been stressing some part of writing in their classrooms and they had me give one of four presentations about an aspect of writing that they wanted their students to work on. I was so impressed how well-behaved the students were and how many of them were excited about learning how to write and telling their own stories.

It was a bit of a challenge tailoring my presentations to match the needs and learning levels of such a wide variety of age groups (for example, in Kindergarten, we just talked about ways to use your imagination, while in sixth grade, I could hold a lengthy discussion about the elements of a story), but in the end, I feel that I got the hang of it.

From an author’s point of view, it was a very worthwhile exercise. The principal suggested that I have books on hand for the students to purchase, and through this, I sold 33 books, which is far greater than most events that I hold in bookstores.

As a teacher, the experience was incredibly satisfying, as I saw those young minds light up and ask very intelligent questions about writing and I could tell they were getting excited about it.

I want to make the presentations I used available for use by other writers and by other teachers. There are four in all, including:

How to Organize Your Writing
Sentence Fluency
Brainstorming
Hooking Your Reader

I am going to use this opportunity to explore each of these topics on my blog; once a week for four weeks. I will prepare a post on this topic and then the PowerPoint presentation file available for free download.

I would love to hear about other opportunities to visit schools. If you know of any such opportunities, please contact me at thecanticlekingdom@gmail.com.

Category: Michael Young

Hi everyone. I invite you to read a short story of mine that was just published in Mindflights magazine. It all starts when an old superhero starts auctioning off his many powers…