Jodi Meadows's Blog

Hello, dearest readers! It’s that time again! 

WHEN SHE REIGNS is available for preorder, and for those of you who remember previous preorder giveaways, this will be easy! For those of you who don’t, this will still be easy!

What you get: 

A signed WHEN SHE REIGNS bookplate!WHEN SHE REIGNS dragon stickers!WHEN SHE REIGNS bookmark!WHEN SHE REIGNS dragon card!

If you order a book from One More Page, then you get all of the above plus: 

Exclusive 3” round sticker designed by Hey Atlas Creative (will arrive with your book).A signed, personalized, and stamped edition.

How you get it:

Preorder WHEN SHE REIGNS.Forward the receipt to me at unicornwarlord@gmail.com (Feel free to delete any personal information you don’t want me to see.)Make sure to include your address at the top of the email — and write it out exactly as I need to write it on an envelope. International readers, this is you especially since I don’t always know where the line breaks should be!If you order multiple books, then you get multiples of all the things! Just be sure to tell me at the top of your email.Supplies are limited, especially the exclusive! Offer ends 11:59 pm Eastern, September 9, 2019. And yes, this giveaway is INTERNATIONAL.

Here’s where to preorder: 

One More Page Books – signed and personalized

HarperCollins.com
IndieBound
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Book Depository
Books-a-Million
Chapters
Kobo

Bonus giveaway!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Hello readers!

It’s time! The cover for WHEN SHE REIGNS is finally here, and I think this is the prettiest one yet!

I’ll also share the flap copy (so you can see what it’s about), as well as preorder information, and how to get your name in the acknowledgements of this book!

But first, the whole reason you clicked this link:

Isn’t. She. Stunning?

Mira is absolutely glorious in this photo. She’s regal and badass without giving the impression that she magically turned into a warrior. Just look at that queenly expression on her face!

Also, check out that background. I’m in love with the ruins and that sky. All those stars! And the moons!

A bunch you have been wondering what color the font would be, after BEFORE SHE IGNITES being silver, and AS SHE ASCENDS being gold. I’m not sure what you’d call this color. Rose gold isn’t quite right, but lavender gold, maybe? Whatever you want to call it, I absolutely love it.

As for what this book is about?

Flap copy

The First Dragon

The Great Abandonment has begun. Panic has seized the Fallen Isles, where no one knows which god will rise next. Mira Minkoba believes her dreams hold the secret to bringing an end to the destruction, but in order to save her people, she’ll have to find a legendary treasure: the bones of the first dragon.

The Last Hope

Mira’s desperate search leads the Hopebearer and her friends on a dangerous journey into the heart of enemy territory: the Algotti Empire itself. The empress is more than willing to help—for an impossible price. And as tensions escalate beneath the shadows of the risen gods, Mira grapples with a terrifying question: What will she have to sacrifice to preserve what she loves?

The explosive finale to Jodi Meadows’s Fallen Isles trilogy is ablaze with sizzling romance and fiery magic as Mira’s fight to save dragons from extinction evolves into a mission to save her world from annihilation.

Preorder information!

One More Page Books – signed and personalized



HarperCollins.com

IndieBound

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Book Depository

Books-a-Million

Chapters

Kobo

There will be a preorder campaign for this book, but I’m not ready to start talking about that yet. I can say that there will be an exclusive incentive from One More Page Books, though, so if you want everything, make sure you order from them!

Be in the acknowledgements!

If you’d like to be thanked in the acknowledgements for your early support of this book, email me (jodi.meadows@gmail.comor just reply to this email) with your preorder receipt or library request, and let me know what name you want me to use. Some people want their first and last names, while others want their Instagram handle or blog name. I’ll use your preference.

The deadline to enter this is February 11, 2019.

Hello, dearest readers! It’s that time again!

AS SHE ASCENDS is available for preorder, and for those of you who remember previous preorder giveaways, this will be easy! For those of you who don’t, this will still be easy!

What you get:

A signed As She Ascends bookplate!
As She Ascends dragon stickers!
As She Ascends bookmark!
As She Ascends dragon card!

And if you order a book from One More Page, my local indie, then you get all of the above plus:

Exclusive Fallen Isles tapestry card
Access to behind-the-scenes goodies
A signed, personalized, and stamped edition

The tapestry card and access to the behind-the-scenes content will come with your book when it arrives. And, while One More Page doesn’t typically ship internationally, I’ve made arrangements with them to do it this time! (Ahem, that is, I told them I’d go to the post office with them.) Thing to note: they’re having trouble getting the site to calculate international shipping, so email them and they will be happy to help you! info@onemorepagebooks.com

How you get it:

Preorder As She Ascends
Take a photo of the receipt or forward the receipt to me at unicornwarlord@gmail.com (Feel free to delete any personal information you don’t want me to see.)
Make sure to include your address at the top of the email — and write it out exactly as I need to write it on an envelope. International readers, this is you especially since I don’t always know where the line breaks should be!
If you order multiple books, then you get multiples of all the things! Just be sure to point it out at the top of your email.
I will send out swag until I run out! This is first come first serve.

Other things:

Yes, this is international!
Yes, ebooks and physical books count!
I’ll start sending everything the moment I get back from my writing retreat with the Janies (mid-August).

Where to preorder:

HarperCollins.com

IndieBound

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Book Depository

Books-a-Million

Chapters

Kobo

And again, One More Page — my local indie — will have extra special stuff, so if you want everything, make sure you go there.

Hello, darling readers! It is time!

A few of you might remember this type of giveaway. It’s been a while, hasn’t it?

For those of you who might not know, in the past I’ve done reviewer appreciation giveaways. Basically, I think it’s really hard to review books, and it takes a lot of time. I’m really grateful for the effort people put in to writing reviews of the books they read. And I want to reward that. 

This one is going to be for BEFORE SHE IGNITES reviews. If you haven’t had a chance to read the book yet, don’t worry! I’m running this for a few weeks, so you have some time to read first. 

What do you win? 

Well, you could win a pair of fingerless dragon mitts, knit by yours truly, and will be given out by random drawing. 

Here are the rules:

1. Reviews must be “substantial” — more than a couple of sentences.

“I liked it!” or “I hated it!” are valid opinions, but the aim here is to give potential readers an idea of whether they want to read the book. The review can be positive, critical, somewhere in between — whatever. I won’t be reading the reviews, only checking to make sure the winner follows the rules.

2. Reviews must be posted on a retail site.

Think Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Chapters — any place you can buy books. If you already have a review written on Goodreads or your blog, feel free to copy and paste it over.

3. Reviews must be for BEFORE SHE IGNITES.

I appreciate reviews for ALL my books, and I may come back at some point with a giveaway like this for other books, but this one is BSI specific. Only reviews for Before She Ignites will count.

4. Paste the link for your review in the comments section of this post.

On my website, that is. Not anywhere it feeds. My website will be the only place I look for entries. Each review link you post counts as one entry. On the appointed day, I will do a random drawing for the winner.

5. Accepting entries until June 25.

That should give people plenty of time to read the book and type up a review if necessary.

6. This giveaway is international.

Any questions?

Hello readers!

I’m so pleased to share the cover for AS SHE ASCENDS, the second book in the Fallen Isles trilogy! The cover for BEFORE SHE IGNITES is so pretty, I didn’t think there was any way to escalate the beauty and fierceness of it. But the incredible art department at HarperCollins managed somehow! (Probably sorcery.)

If I tried to list everything I loved about this cover, we’d be here all day, so let me draw your attention to just a few details:

The crystal in Mira’s hand is, yes, a noorestone! (Okay, it’s a quartz with photoshop magic.) Noorestones and Mira’s connection with them are very important in this book!
I honestly didn’t think they would, but the art department created a scar to photoshop onto Mira’s cheek. Now, Mira is not only the most beautiful human in existence, it’s also clear that she’s Been Through Some Life and now she’s ready to seize her power and save the world. She looks like a fierce dragon goddess.
The dragon tail seems to be tightening around her. Could that be symbolic of Mira’s connection with dragons? It might be!
I will never stop loving the sister moons.

Mira, the Hopebearer

Mira Minkoba is on the run with her friends after a fiery escape from the Pit, where she’d been imprisoned for defending the dragons she loves. And she wants answers. Where have all the dragons been taken? Why are powerful noorestones being shipped to the mainland? And did the treaty she’s been defending her whole life truly sell out the Fallen Isles to their enemies?

Mira, the Dragonhearted

As her connection to the dragons—and their power—grows stronger, so does Mira’s fear that she might lose control and hurt someone she loves. But the only way to find the truth is to go home again, to Damina, to face the people who betrayed her and the parents she’s not sure she can trust.

Home, where she must rise above her fears. Or be consumed.

The second page-turning novel in Jodi Meadows’ Fallen Isles trilogy scorches with mysterious magic and riveting romance as one girl kindles a spark into a flame.

AS SHE ASCENDS doesn’t come out until September 11, but it is available for preorder now!

BEFORE SHE IGNITES

HarperCollins.com

IndieBound

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Book Depository

Books-A-Million

Chapters

Kobo
AS SHE ASCENDS

HarperCollins.com

IndieBound

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Book Depository

Books-a-Million

Chapters

Kobo

.

Like always, I will be doing a preorder giveaway for this book, so make sure you save your receipt.

There will also be a special preorder gift if you buy the book from my friends at One More Page Books in Arlington, VA. And since this is the only stop I’m (currently) planning to make for this book, and I know I have many readers outside the US who like to order signed copies, I persuaded them to make an exception to their usual policy of no international shipping. (Okay, I promised to go to the post office with them. THAT’S HOW MUCH I LOVE YOU GUYS.)

So, if you want the special thing from One More Page, here are your links.

US-ONLY shipping

INTERNATIONAL shipping

And that’s all for now! But before I go, for those of you who (like me) love to see covers next to each other . . .

 

Hello, darling readers!

With less than a month until BEFORE SHE IGNITES hits the shelves, I need to start talking about where I’m going to be in the next few weeks. With all the indefensible things happening these days, it never seems like an opportune time to share fun stuff. But as heartbroken as I am, this is part of my job. Please forgive me for a bit of promotion.

September 12 at 6pm – Books of Wonder in NYC

I’ll be there with a few friends: C.J. Redwine (DEFIANCE, THE SHADOW QUEEN), Dhonielle Clayton (TINY PRETTY THINGS and forthcoming THE BELLES), and Erin Summerill (EVER THE HUNTED)

Since we are all four fantasy authors, this is going to be a ridiculously fun panel about fantasy books!

September 14 at 7pm – Blue Willow Bookstore in Houston, TX

This one will be Erin and me, again talking about fantasy books and grand adventure.

September 17 at 3pm – One More Page Books in Arlington, VA

I’m going to wrap up this whole thing with my local-ish indie, where Lisa Maxwell (UNHOOKED, THE LAST MAGICIAN) and Martina Boone (COMPULSION) will be joining me.

But it doesn’t end there!

September 23, 2017 – time TBA – B-Fest at Barnes and Noble in Charlottesville, VA

October 5-6, 2017 – times TBA – New York Comic Con!

October 9, 2017 – 6:30pm – Epic Reads meet-up at Hooray for Books in Alexandria, VA, with Lauren Oliver (RINGER), Kristen Ciccarelli (THE LAST NAMSARA), Katie Cotugno (TOP TEN)

October 14, 2017 – all day – YABBA Fest in Warrenton, VA

October 28, 2017 – time TBA – mass signing at Barnes and Noble in Charlottesville, VA

There’s a whole lot of TBA in there. As soon as I know details on those, I’ll update my Appearances page with the information.

As always, if you can’t make it to these events, you can order signed and personalized books from the stores. (Email to check on international shipping.)

One More Page Books

Books of Wonder

Blue Willow

I also need to mention that my preorder giveaway is still going — for now. I greatly underestimated the interest in this, so I ran out of cards within the first week. I’m making more now to catch up, and I put the first batch in the mail the other day. Those of you who sent your confirmations in the first couple of weeks of the giveaway should be getting your packages soon.

Extra love for those of you struggling right now.

Hello readers! It’s that time!

BEFORE SHE IGNITES is available for preorder, and for those of you who remember what happened last year (and the year before!), this will be easy peasy. I made some calligraphy cards with BEFORE SHE IGNITES quotes, and I want to give these cards to you!

Additionally, I’ll include a bookmark, signed bookplate, a postcard . . . and a very special dragon card with art by the one and only Tiffie. All the swag (and this fab graphic, which you can totally share) is designed by the lovely Sarah at the YA Book Traveler.

Here’s how you can get this:

1. Preorder BEFORE SHE IGNITES.

2. Take a photo of the receipt/forward your order confirmation/take a screenshot (whatever you can easily do) — just send some sort of proof to me at unicornwarlord (at) gmail (dot) com. (Yes, you can delete any personal information you don’t want me to see. But I promise I won’t be looking at it, just the preorder confirmation bit.)

3. Make sure you include your address exactly as it needs to be on the envelope. (I will not be able to resend.) Put your name and address on the very top of the email so I can find it without searching.

4. Yep, this is international. (If you’re not in the USA, be extra clear about your address.)

5. If you preorder multiple copies, yes, you get multiple cards. One for each copy. Tell me at the top of the email, along with your address.

6. I’m opening the giveaway now, a couple of months before the book releases, but I won’t start sending envelopes until August, thanks to various deadlines.

7. I will send packages until I run out of quote cards.

That’s it!

If you haven’t preordered yet, here are a few handy links:

HarperCollins.com

IndieBound

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Book Depository

Books-A-Million

Chapters

Kobo

Powell’s

And if you’d like to preorder a signed book:

One More Page Books

Books of Wonder

Blue Willow

If you order from one of these stores, you’ll get double the goodies, and the quote card will be a special shiny card available only to readers who come to those events or order BSI from those stores. Also, supporting independent bookstores is good for you.

Before

Mira Minkoba is the Hopebearer. Since the day she was born, she’s been told she’s special. Important. Perfect. She’s known across the Fallen Isles not just for her beauty, but for the Mira Treaty named after her, a peace agreement which united the seven islands against their enemies on the mainland.

But Mira has never felt as perfect as everyone says. She counts compulsively. She struggles with crippling anxiety. And she’s far too interested in dragons for a girl of her station.

After

Then Mira discovers an explosive secret that challenges everything she and the Treaty stand for. Betrayed by the very people she spent her life serving, Mira is sentenced to the Pit–the deadliest prison in the Fallen Isles. There, a cruel guard would do anything to discover the secret she would die to protect.

No longer beholden to those who betrayed her, Mira must learn to survive on her own and unearth the dark truths about the Fallen Isles–and herself–before her very world begins to collapse.

Jodi Meadows’s new Fallen Isles series blazes with endangered magic, slow-burn romance, and inner fire.

I’m back with another old post that vanished from the internet. This was originally four or five separate posts, because it’s long, but I’ll keep it together this time.

If you have topics you’d like me to write about here, feel free to let me know!

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about worldbuilding lately. Here’s a non-secret: when I was a wee writer, I had all these ideas for cool stories and I worked so hard on them — or so I thought. One of the things people consistently told me was that my worldbuilding needed work. They kept saying I needed more. It needed to be bigger. And so I’d come up with bigger ideas, and they still didn’t work.

Way back when one of my writing groups used to do intense focus chats on a story, someone praised an author because her world “spilled off the edges of the page.”

The phrase haunted me for years because I knew that was what I wanted my stories to do . . . I just couldn’t figure out how to make that happen. I tried throwing in random exposition, and considered epigraph type things at the beginning of chapters with worldbuilding things from an Official Book In The Story World. I tried so hard to master worldbuilding, or at least get people to decide I was improving. It felt like I would never succeed.

For me, the tipping point was when I read Robin McKinley’s SUNSHINE, having been told it has a lot of great worldbuilding. I paid careful attention to what she did and how she did it. The next time I was ready to start a new story, I felt like I was ready. I tried to make that world as wide and complex as the real world.

The day an agent complimented my worldbuilding on that story was a seriously happy day for me. (Even though she rejected it!) I was so relieved that finally, finally I had started doing something right. More right than I had been doing. Right enough that someone who didn’t know about my several-year struggle was impressed. It still took another year and a half before I wrote the story that got me an agent and editor, and some of you may remember I put a lot of time into building the world of INCARNATE before I ever started writing the story. Even after I’d written a decent draft, Agent Lauren had me expand more, and Editor Sarah started asking me questions and pointing out places where she wanted more — the same thing I’d been hearing for years.

Now, I’m certainly not perfect at it — I know I’ve got a long way to go before I magically write perfect first drafts with just the right amount of worldbuilding (hey, it’s a goal) — but I do feel like I’ve learned a few things along the way.

1. Don’t let one thing define the world.

I see this one a lot, from secondworld fantasies to dystopian. There’s one event or technology or discovery that makes the world different from our own, and everything revolves around that. It — whatever it is — is constantly on characters’ minds. Everyone thinks about it, makes rules around it or about it, and that one thing is the world.

But that’s not how worlds work.

In real life, we developed penicillin. While that changed the world, it didn’t define the world. It became part of a big, messy definition of us.

In real life, we created computers, but our lives don’t completely revolve around them. (Well, some more than others. Heh.) Over the last couple of decades, computers have certainly become more a part of our lives, but that happened organically as we decided what aspects of computers were most useful to us. And computers don’t define society as a whole. People who don’t use computers aren’t shunned as though their inability to work a mouse were contagious.

That said, worlds can certainly be sparked by one idea. In, for example, THE HUNGER GAMES, I would guess that Collins’s spark was children in gladiatorial matches. But that’s not the only thing going on in the world; she build a huge, compelling world around that idea. Think of the different districts, the technology, the fashion in the Capitol — all of those are aspects of the world that are not just about the Games, though they influence one another and connect, because the story is about Katniss in the Hunger Games.

Or think about JK Rowling’s HARRY POTTER. What a huge and imaginative world that is! It’s so real to millions of people. Perhaps her spark was a boy discovers he’s a wizard and goes to wizarding school, and yes, lots of action takes place in Hogwarts — but have you seen the rest of the world? There are dozens of things that don’t circle around and focus directly on Hogwarts, because for many characters in this world, school isn’t their first thought. Rather than caring whether Harry makes it to class on time, they have jobs, families, and other passions to keep them occupied. They notice Harry when he becomes important either as gossip, or begins disrupting their lives.

The definition of any world should be bigger than one thing.

2. Keep logic, consistency, and research in mind.

These are all under the same header because they’re related.

I think a lot of times, writers have an awesome idea they want to toss in to their story. Which is great! Awesome ideas make me happy. But the thing is, they still have to make sense in the context of your world.

If you’ve created a world where vampires must do the hokey pokey before entering anyone’s house, thereby giving the intended victim precious moments to escape!, and you want to have a vampire that doesn’t need to do the hokey pokey first because THAT IS TERRIFYING — well, why? Why doesn’t he need to? It definitely adds to the tension and potential complications if he can just walk on in, but at some point, his lack of putting his right foot in and out must be explained in a logical manner.

When you set up rules for the world, they need to make sense (even if they only make sense in that world), and you need to be consistent about them.

In SFF, we tend to make up some wild rules for our worlds. Sometimes those things need to be explained. Sometimes they don’t. Whatever we do, though, we must make the world utterly convincing. Even more convincing than real life, because the moment the world starts showing cracks and weird inconsistencies is the moment the reader gets jerked out and starts asking questions like, “Why’s it like that? How did it get like that? What’s the benefit for anyone?”

If you want the reader to ask those questions, you may have an even bigger challenge on your hands: keeping the reader interested with just enough information (and compelling characters/story/other stuff) that they don’t get frustrated and quit. And remember what I said about being utterly convincing? In this case, you must be even more convincing. Your reader must trust that you know what’s going on the entire time.

Keep logic in mind. If you’ve fictionally destroyed an entire continent (that’s pretty awful of you!), make sure your character doesn’t work on a computer that everyone knows is manufactured there. Or cars and clothes an toys and a hundred other things. Keep in mind the effects all this would have on the economy, cultures, and characters’ responses to reminders about the now-missing continent.

Lots of these things will no doubt require research, but it’s worth it not to slip up and have people questioning whether you actually know what’s going on in your world.

3. Explore the world.

Exploration doesn’t necessarily mean making a Tolkein-like journey halfway around the world, though it certainly can.

What I mean is — getting back to our hokey pokey vampires — explore reasons why they might have to do that. Explore their history. Explore the consequences of having to do the hokey pokey before they can enter a house. (Probably a lot of food dies from laughing and isn’t as good anymore.) Chances are, the hokey pokey is banned in roller skating rinks all around the world now, and kids who grew up doing the hokey pokey before all this vampire stuff happened — well, they’re probably in therapy.

Explore the consequences of your worldbuilding choices; explore the benefits; challenge yourself to consider the choices you made, and take them to their fullest.

That’s the macro lesson.

But what about the micro?

Heading back to Harry Potter, we explored lots of micro worldbuilding details: needles that magically knit by themselves, pictures that move, pens that write down whatever you say. Owls deliver the post, goblins guard the money, and who can forget the detail that went into choosing Harry’s wand? And, one of my favorites — besides the knitting — Mrs. Weasly’s clock that tells where her family is: work, home, school, mortal peril. (There are soooo many great examples in Harry Potter. I wish we could talk about them all.)

These are all small examples of things we see in Harry’s daily life, but they help make the world look real. Even just small things like that make the world richer, more lived in.

Don’t overlook these details.

4. The words you use to describe the world.

Are you writing medieval fantasy? Your characters should probably not greet one another by saying, “Hey, dude! What’s up?” It’s equally unlikely they’d say that if you’re writing futuristic cyberpunk.

Be conscious of the way you describe things in narrative, too. In a world made entirely of water, you wouldn’t have your character describe another character’s hair as the color of desert sand. Instead, look for something in your world that’s comparable to that color, but familiar enough that readers instantly know what color you’re talking about.

Does that sound hard? Well, yes. It is hard. But stretching yourself will make you a better and more creative writer, and it will help you avoid cliches.

Let’s not stop there, though. What kind of slang do your characters use? Are you writing FIREFLY where “shiny” is the new cool? Or frack, frell, frex? (That F sound is clearly very satisfying to swear with.)

Remember regionalisms! If your world is larger than a small box, you’ll probably run into this. If I say something is wicked, you may think I’m from Boston. If I say I’d like a pop, I might be from the North. If I’m “fixing to” do something, I’m probably from the South. Ending a sentence with “eh?” and I’m suddenly Canadian.

Keep in mind how words migrate or cluster together. Even with travel being so common, nationwide and worldwide media, we still have our regionalisms. They spread out, too, though. A Texan who watches a lot of UK TV shows may find “rubbish” and “brilliant” entering her conversations.

5. Introducing your world.

So now you have this awesome-tastic world. It’s got details. It’s got depth. It’s got layers like a cake/onion/ogre.

How do you introduce all this awesome?

Same way you introduce anything else: organically.

We all know the advice not to info-dump, right? And why that should be avoided? Good. Next.

Rather than dropping a chunk of worldbuilding in the reader’s head via exposition, introduce things as they become relevant. If you have a tree that actually does grow money, you don’t need to mention that unless it’s relevant to your character. Maybe they wish they had a money tree because they’re broke, or they walk by a money tree orchard where the workers are picking dollar bills like apples. Perhaps your character stops to rest in the shade of the money tree. Suddenly the money tree is relevant.

Or maybe your character is a tree-ologist (. . . ?) and is studying money trees and gemstone trees and regular leaf trees. They’d probably notice all those kinds of trees as they walk by, simply because it’s important to them.

Use your POV character as a filter for the world. If they’re in a bad mood, they’re probably not paying attention to the glorious scenery. (Or describing it in a glorious manner using lots of glorious words.) If your character doesn’t know much about the mythology of your world (or doesn’t care or ever have a reason to think about it), they probably won’t pause to liken the love interest’s hotness to the goddess of hotness.

And if you don’t want to drag your character from place to play to interact with every cool thing in the world — don’t. Show other characters interacting with things, or talking about things. Other characters can get in your character’s way, or offer a trade — one money tree for a gemstone tree — or any other number of things that your character would be forced to notice.

But what about the big stuff? What about a world so different from ours that certain rules need to be established immediately?

Well, okay. Establish them! Coming back to our hokey pokey vampires (I like them so much), we could begin a few different ways, depending on where your story really starts.

Beginning 1: Main Character is in her house hanging out one night when suddenly . . . the hokey pokey starts blaring outside. Instant terror. Everyone knows the hokey pokey means vampires are near. Action. Tension. Story has started!

Beginning 2: Main Character is hanging out with friends when the gossip arrives: Secondary Character finally cracked after years of claiming he’s okay. Another character shakes his head and says something about how no one who used to work at roller skating rinks is actually okay. You don’t just get over doing the hokey pokey on the hour every hour for years and years. Ever since the vampires started doing it . . .

Beginning 3: Main Character is running errands or whatever and sees a group of kids doing the hokey pokey at the playground. Parents are screaming. Police have been called. How did these children even learn such a horrible song? What awful parent would teach their children the hokey pokey? That’s like putting fangs on your kid! Terrible.

Get the picture? There are lots of ways to establish huge worldbuilding aspects right away. Be creative. Make sure they fit in naturally with where your character is, who they are, and what they’re doing.

Anticipate reader expectations. Vampires doing the hokey pokey is pretty unusual (and brilliant, if I do say so), so your readers won’t be expecting it. They’ll need to know this very unusual worldbuilding aspect right away if this is going to play a big part in your story.

Establish what the reader needs to know in order to ground themselves in the world, then start building as you move through the story.

6. Sum up.

After you’ve done a ton of worldbuilding, you may find that you have extra stuff you couldn’t fit in.

That’s okay.

If you’ve delivered a fascinating story and given the reader what they need to know in order to enjoy that story, you’ve done your job. There’s nothing that says you must reveal everything about your world — and considering our talk about worlds being defined by more than one thing, revealing everything may be impossible. Particularly if your character never has a chance to know it! (Remember how the world is filtered through your point of view character?)

And if you have more than one book, what’s the fun in revealing everything right away? Go ahead and save some for later. It’s cool.

Recently, I discovered that some of my older writing links are dead, so I’m going to reshare a few of my favorite posts. Feel free to let me know if there’s a particular topic you’re interested in and I’ll do what I can!

YOUR CHANCE TO SHINE:

I like queries. No, I love them. They’re such short, humble things, but their importance is undeniable. Queries are the initial step to nabbing an agent. They’re your first impression, and your best chance at getting an agent to pay attention to you.

Considering how drastically queries can affect careers, it always shocks me when writers carelessly throw something together, assuming it will be adequate. Which is not to say I think people should get worked up over things like margins and which paragraph your wordcount/genre should be in. There’s also no point in trying to find magic offer-of-representation-words. They don’t exist. No, you must query responsibly and realistically.

The purpose of a query is to make someone so interested in reading your manuscript they can’t eat or sleep until they read it. And that’s the tricky part.

KNOWING WHAT TO INCLUDE:

If you don’t already know how to format a query letter, get thee to Google. This post isn’t about what font you use. This post is about how to show the extreme awesomeness of your story.

Beginning a query description can be really intimidating! To get started, answer the following questions:

1. Who is the protagonist and what is their goal? (Motivation.)

2. What is keeping the protag from achieving that goal? (Conflict.)

3. How will the protagonist overcome this problem? (Plot.)

4. What happens if the protagonist fails/what choice does the protagonist have to make? (Stakes, and why the reader should care.)

I can’t give you these answers, but I can help you learn how to turn them into a clear, kick-butt query.

FILLING IN THE BLANKS:

My favorite method of query-writing involves three paragraphs and modifying from there. Sometimes you may find you need four or two paragraphs for the best effect. Be open to change if necessary, but for the purpose of this example, I’m going to use my usual three paragraphs. While you’re reading this, keep in mind the questions above.

Paragraph one: This sentence introduces the character and a goal/problem in a hooky way. This sentence expands on that and explains why it’s so important. This one talks about the character’s great idea to solve their problem. This sentence presents a new problem that complicates their original problem and renders their other solution useless.

Paragraph two: This paragraph is more fluid. It might explain worldbuilding, or tell the reader about interesting situations the character gets into. It will use specific details strong enough to influence the reader’s perception of the story/character/world. It will keep the tension rising, and not veer from the problems introduced in paragraph one. It ends, perhaps, with the character deciding on yet another solution to their problems, or realizing something horrible. It will drag the reader into the final paragraph.

Paragraph three: This sentence introduces a big choice or complication that directly relates to the main problem. The final sentence makes the stakes clear and hooks the reader.

The most important thing is to make the reader care desperately about your character, their situation, and the choices the character will have to make.

A FEW POINTERS:

1. Agents are reading lots of queries very quickly. Make this easy for them. Minimal character and place names. Don’t list multiple plot twists and expect anyone to remember them; it’s a hook, not a synopsis.

2. Focus. Your story may be filled with lots of subplots and secondary characters with their own agendas, and that’s cool, but focus. Main character, main plot. Again, hook. Not a synopsis.

3. Action! Things move forward. Things get worse. Choices are difficult and emotional.

4. Snip. Chop out all extra phrases and scaffolding. Make it fast and easy to read. Stay around 150-200 words.

THINGS YOUR QUERY REVEALS:

Writers are often shocked to find out how much agents can tell about a book based on the query, but if you read a couple dozen of them, then peek at the sample pages, you’d be surprised how much the queries reveal.

1. One of the biggest, most obvious things agents see is an author’s writing skill. Not fair to judge an entire manuscript based on one 200-word description? Think about this: Would you want to read a manuscript if the query was filled with typos, scaffolding, and confusing sentences? I doubt it. But I bet you’d want to read something if the query had smart, snappy writing, or prose that made your heart melt.

And if the writing in your query doesn’t reflect the actual manuscript — see above about folks just whipping something together.

2. Plot — whether you’ve got any, whether it’s like everyone else’s, or whether it has the potential to be awesome.

A query for a manuscript with plot shows conflicts and choices; it will answer the questions above. The query does not list every event and give away the end — save that for the synopsis — but it gives enough specific details to show the agent there’s potential in this. A query without conflict and choices is most likely a query for a manuscript without plot.

As for a plot that’s like someone else’s, how would anyone know? Ah hah. But what is the first thing you think of when you see this: Mylight is about a teenage girl who’s fascinated by the boy who sits next to her in class. Unfortunately, he seems to hate her no matter how hard she tries to be nice. But when he saves her life, she begins to unravel his mystery. He’s a hot supernatural love interest and he’s smitten with her. While he fights the urge to kill her because of his nature, she must convince him that true love is more powerful.

3. Characters and their development. Same thing as above. Great characters stand out in queries. So do Mary Sues. Dull characters will have no motivation, no drive to do anything. Who wants to read about boring characters?

THIS SECTION WILL NOT INCLUDE A NUMBERED LIST:

My favorite thing about queries is that they force you to see what your book is really about. You must look at your manuscript like an outsider, paring it down to its most basic — but biggest — elements. Queries can change how you look at your story, sometimes inspiring amazing revisions. (What if the book your query talks about is way better than the one you wrote?)

You may also find query descriptions useful when beginning a new story. Often queries reveal the most interesting things about a manuscript, and they can help writers focus on those things. If you don’t know where the story is heading, writing the query can help you figure out the stakes and choices your characters will face in the end, giving you somewhere to aim.

So there you have it. I know that’s a lot to take in, but with enough practice, it will be second nature. Read other people’s queries. Participate in different query critiques; there are lots available for free on the internet. Soon you’ll be hooking agents right and left.

Questions? Comments? The floor is yours.

Hello, friends! The day is here!

Well, actually, the day was supposed to be Monday, but it looks like the Harper Fall catalog got fed out to retailers early and the cover appeared on a retail site near you . . . but here’s what I was going to say on Monday:

It’s time to reveal the absolutely stunning cover created for BEFORE SHE IGNITES, the first book in the Fallen Isles Trilogy.

As always, credit goes to the amazing art team at HarperCollins. Joel Tippie is the designer behind this one. He also did the Incarnate covers, so when I heard he was on board for this one, I knew the cover was in good hands.

So, here she is!

Before

Mira Minkoba is the Hopebearer. Since the day she was born, she’s been told she’s special. Important. Perfect. She’s known across the Fallen Isles not just for her beauty, but for the Mira Treaty named after her, a peace agreement which united the seven islands against their enemies on the mainland.

But Mira has never felt as perfect as everyone says. She counts compulsively. She struggles with crippling anxiety. And she’s far too interested in dragons for a girl of her station.

After

Then Mira discovers an explosive secret that challenges everything she and the Treaty stand for. Betrayed by the very people she spent her life serving, Mira is sentenced to the Pit–the deadliest prison in the Fallen Isles. There, a cruel guard would do anything to discover the secret she would die to protect.

No longer beholden to those who betrayed her, Mira must learn to survive on her own and unearth the dark truths about the Fallen Isles–and herself–before her very world begins to collapse.

Jodi Meadows’s new Fallen Isles series blazes with endangered magic, slow-burn romance, and inner fire.

Isn’t. She. Incredible??

Seriously, I could not be happier with this cover. Let’s talk about how perfect it is!

1. Mira.

In the Fallen Isles, Mira is widely regarded as one of the most beautiful people in existence, which meant we needed just the right model – one who could rock a dress and light you on fire with a glance. And Jonelle Alert is perfect for this. (She gave me permission to identify her; the link is to her Instagram for further admiring! Please be cool though.)

Also: she looks like the Mira described in the book. My priority for choosing a model was that she represents the character accurately, not just in beauty, but in skin color as well. (I was really concerned about the potential for whitewashing, or that—because of her skin color—there wouldn’t be a girl at all. We’ve seen these problems before.) But! Here she is, and I’m so incredibly happy to have her.

2. Her flower crown.

Look closer. That crown is glowing! In fact, it almost looks like it’s ready to . . . ignite??

3. The typeface.

I feel like I watched this typeface evolve. Every time I received a new comp, I studied the letter details to see how everything grew more and more scaly. And that S! I love the way it winds around her. It looks like a dragon tail, doesn’t it?

4. The moons.

We went through a ton of revisions on this cover to make sure it signals that this is a fantasy book about an awesome girl. We got the girl right away, and the typeface helps signal fantasy, but we still felt it was missing something. . . . Then my agent recalled the sister moons, and once those were added to the tropical background, we finally felt the fantasy look was complete.

Why moons? Well, there are two moons in the world. But they’re also symbolic of two important dragons. Mira and her best friend Ilina each have a small dragon (drakontos raptus), one gold and one silver, like the moons. It’s a sort of indirect symbolism that, even when you don’t know about the tiny dragon sisters, still sends a strong fantasy signal.

A lot of people ask how much input I have with my covers. That answer is . . . complicated.

For Incarnate, when my editor asked what I wanted, I said, “Not a face close-up!” (because there were so many at the time, and I didn’t see how mine could stand out), and then that was exactly what I was given. (It turns out I love that cover, so it’s a good thing I don’t design my covers.) For Orphan Queen, I said, “How about a girl in a gown with a weapon?” expecting to get exactly the opposite, but I did indeed get a girl with a weapon. (And I love her!)

So I wasn’t sure what to expect when we started talking about covers for BSI. I sent a list of different types of covers I like – some object-driven, some with people – and when they said we’re going with a figure, I said great! As long as she matches the description of the character and she’s not dead/drowning/cropped in strange ways. I was actually really happy about this choice, because all my books have beautiful girls on them.

After we found the perfect model, I was sent a file full of dresses. Yep! Dresses! I’d never been involved in this part before, so I was super super excited/nervous. But I chose the dresses I thought would best fit both the world and the model, and the next thing I knew, my editor was sending me a few behind-the-scenes pictures of the photo shoot. And yes! They used the dresses I picked!

Friends, I love this cover so much. I feel like it really fits in well with the covers I’ve had for other books. They’re all going to look so beautiful together on the shelf. I hope you agree!

If you’d like to preoreder BEFORE SHE IGNITES, you can do that!

IndieBound!

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Chapters

And you can add it to your Goodreads TBR.