It's Over. Whew.

So the Blue Fire Blog Tour has ended. It was a lot of fun, and a lot of work. In a week or so I'll post the wrap up and give some stats about what worked, what I'd do again, and what I should have done differently. I'm compiling the data now so I can provide some helpful (I hope) numbers. It'll probably take me a week to get everything together and organized.

Monday it's back to normal around here, and I have some interesting topics for next week. My favorite is one I mentioned briefly on the tour, about external and internal core conflicts (this'll be a great Find Your Plot Fridays). There will also be posts on writer's block and overcoming it, dealing with deadline pressure, and getting POV to finally click for you.

Here's a full list of the tour with links and topics for those who might have missed one.

Writing Advice

YA Highway
Standing in Be'tween
Chatting about the challenges and rewards of writing for the tween crowd.

Killer Fiction Writers
We All Need a Little Mystery
Finding -- and putting in -- mystery to your story even if it's not a "mystery."

Addicted to Books
Edits Vs. Revisions: A One on One Death Match
The difference between an edit and a revision, and how you can mentally prepare yourself for rewrites.

Writing It Out
Wanted: One Character Willing to Work With No Questions Asked
Developing characters, and getting to know them and how they fit into your story.

Vonna Carter
"Hey You!" "Me?" Oh No. Getting the Best Response From Your Characters
Chatting a bit about the action-reaction-and emotional response triangle, and how that can help you pace your novels.

The Bookshelf Muse
A setting thesaurus for Geveg and Baseer

Danyelle Leafty
(World) Building on a Theme
How theme can help you build your worlds.

Necessary Writers
What Kind of Writer Are You?
Career themes and how they can work for you.

Hills and Corkscrews
But I Don't Wanna
Listening to yourself when you really don't want to write that scene.

On Words and Upwards
Drawing the (Out)Line
Figuring out how to create an outline template that works for your process.

Abby Annis
The End is Near
Writing your ending and building to your climax

Liz Writes
Playing by the Rules (of Magic)
The importance of rules in your fantasy world and tips on how to create them.

T.L. Morganfield
Let's Get Ready to Research
How even a little research before you start can help you in the long run.

Second Star to the Right
Storming the Brain
Things to think about in those early pre-story planning sessions.

Chandara Writes
Get Out of the Kitchen
Moving those dreaded kitchen-table conversations out into your story world and take advantage of the opportunities that provides.

Walden 3.0
Writing the Natural Way
A bit about how to use "what you know" to help craft your stories.

Talk To YoUniverse
Plot or Consequences
Looking at the broader implications of your premise.

Sierra Godfrey
Something to Get Inciting About
The inciting event and how to make it work for you.

Mystery Writing is Murder
POV: The Cure for the Common Problem
How POV can help cure common writing problems, like telling and backstory.

Reverie Book Reviews
Going Once, Going Twice...
Things I learned about writing a sequel and tips to avoid the hassles I ran into.

The Writing Cave
Untangling the Webs We Weave
Why revising a series is different than revising a stand alone book.


The Biz Side: Querying, Publishing, The Life of an Author

Elle Strauss
Worth the Trip
My road to publication, and why The Shifter sold when my other early novels didn't.

First Novels Club
Too Fast, Too Furious, and Way Too Much
Dealing with the rush you get when there are too many novel ideas in your head and you feel compelled to get them down on paper as fast as you can.

Anne Allen
Going On Tour? Just Go Online
What a blog tour is, how you arrange one and what I did for mine.

Hillary Wagner
Query Quest
The story behind how I got my agent.

Writer's Chasm
Executing the Idea
I was inspired by one of the blogger's previous posts to talk about which is more important: the execution, or the idea?

Buffy's Write Zone
Changing the World One Word at a Time. Kinda.
How writers can make a difference, even when they're not trying.

Ex Libris Draconis
So You Wanna be a Writer?
Helping you figure out where you are in your writer's journey and things you can do to help you move to the next level.

All Quiet in France
The Long and the Short of it
Are you a novelist or a short story writer? Or both?

Tall Tales and Short Stories
The Long and Writing Road
What I've learned about publishing over the last two years.

Book Focus
Looking on the Write Side
What you can do when your inner editor makes it hard to read for fun anymore.

Operation Awesome
What Makes Fantasy Awesome. At Least to Me.
My Top Ten Reasons Why Fantasy is Awesome


Interviews and Q&As

Anna Staniszewski
Letter to My Younger Self
This is part of a series where authors write letters to their younger selves, encouraging them about their future. Since I'm a teacher at heart, there are some writing tips in there. Wonder what would have happened if my younger self really had read this?

First Page Panda
You can get a sneak peek at the first page of Blue Fire. This is a fun new site where you can find the opening page of a lot of great books. They just launched it, but I suspect it'll be a nice way to browse for books.

The Enchanted Inkpot
An interview with moi. With some new thoughts on process and how your real life can influence your writing style.

Holly Cupala
Sharing my Story Secrets via interview.

Robyn Hood Black
Another interview, with some interesting thoughts on how characters develop.

Blah, Blah, Blah
A Q&A with me, plus some excerpts from the books.

Marieke's Musings
And interview with me about how to write MG Fantasy.

Funky Bookstop
A Q&A about the book and magic, and a sneak peek at what I'll be working on next.

The Sharp Angle
A Q&A about writing a series in general, and my series in particular.

Sierra Godfrey
An interview with questions about how my life has changed since selling my books, and things I've done differently now that I've been through the debut author process.

Edited to Within an Inch of My Life
An interview talking about the book, my journey to publication, and the life of the writer before and after that first sale.

Grinding to Valhalla
An interview that shows off my inner geek. Seriously.