I chose this week's bi-weekly Friday Flash feature because...well, as I was reading through my old storypraxis flash, I realized that this story reflects what I'm dealing with right now -- or, should I say, what I wish was happening right now. I'm in the midst of writing a story that scares me but which I've been yearning to write since I threw down a first draft back in 2009 during NaNoWriMo.

 

Some days, it's like I'm so worried about getting the story "right" that I'm frozen in place...but then at other, random moments, characters and ideas and words and images appear in my brain as if from nowhere.

 

I need the blur to become sharper, clearer. And it will, in time. Besides, if I didn't have the blur at all, there'd be nothing to see, no sharper image to detect. It's a process.

 

*

 

 

It came to her in bits and pieces – flashes of clarity, followed by hours of mental static. Blurred images, stretched faces, twisted ideas, and broken scenery… nothing coherent, everything random and scattered.

But when she sat and listened, it was as if her senses became sharper, more focused.

A snippet of conversation here, a movement there, an unexpected sound so beautiful it rang in her ears for hours afterward.

And as she sat, and as she listened, she heard two women talking. Not about anything particularly interesting or different – a tedious job, an absentee husband, a wayward child, a lost love – but the words stirred something within her. Emotion?

No. Imagination.

And suddenly, the static started to clear. Her antennae – inside, not out – sharpened the pictures she’d seen before. The blurred images turned into definite objects, the stretched faces became people, the broken scenery reflected places she’d visited, and the twisted ideas were indeed still twisted… but they made sense now, in their own ways.

She saw how they slotted into those flashes of clarity, and how each bit of blurry thought melted one into another.

And so, pen in hand, she pressed the tip to paper and began to write her novel. 

I recently interviewed Tobie Easton, author of EMERGE, about her debut YA novel for the Swanky Seventeens blog feature "The Debut Club."

Tobie is a Sweet Sixteens debut member, and I was excited to read EMERGE and talk to her about the book, the writing process, and also ask a few fun questions about the ocean & mermaids. I loved the story, the characters and the world she created, so if you like mermaid stories, this is definitely a book to dive into! (*cough*pun intended*cough*)

Another exciting aspect to this interview is that Tobie is also published by Month9Books, so she's a pub sister too! It was great to share in her debut excitement, giving me a little more insight into what it'll be like for me next year.

 

You can check out the interview RIGHT HERE! 

 

 

Jennifer Bardsley

 

 

 

Eighteen-year-old Blanca has lived a sheltered life. Her entire childhood has been spent at Tabula Rasa School where she’s been protected from the Internet. 

Blanca has never been online and doesn’t even know how to text. Her lack of a virtual footprint makes her extremely valuable, and upon graduation, Blanca and those like her are sold to the highest bidders.

Blanca is purchased by Cal McNeal, who uses her to achieve personal gain. But the McNeals are soon horrified by just how obedient and non-defiant Blanca is. All those mind-numbing years locked away from society have made her mind almost impenetrable. 

By the time Blanca is ready to think for herself, she is trapped. Her only chance of escape is to go online.