I found Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce during one of my bookstore browses — pleasantly surprised that I found it out in the wild before the actual pub date. I already knew that it was a retelling of “Little Red Riding Hood” — and after reading the prologue in the bookstore, I was hooked. Scary, suspenseful, and edgy — a great combination for a fabulous read.

The story centers around two sisters. Brooding Scarlett who saved her sister’s life when a murderous Fenris (aka werewolf) invaded their grandmother’s house. She was horribly disfigured and now has made it her mission to kill every Fenris she can. Loyal Rosie is grateful for her sister’s sacrifice and joins in the hunt to lure and kill the Fenris despite that she yearns for a normal life.

I love how Jackson Pearce portrays the sisters. Scarlett was my favorite — she knows her role and she is laser-focused on killing the Fenris because she knows first hand of their dangerous cruelty. Make no mistake about the Fenris — they are ruthless, deadly, and will feast on innocent lives if left unchecked. Younger sister Rosie is fiercely loyal but she is also falling in love with the woodsman’s son who’s returned from the West Coast. Rosie is also realizing that there could be more to life than hunting the Fenris.

I also really loved that the story is set in rural Georgia and later in midtown Atlanta. I recognized several of the locations, which are not far from my office. It was great seeing Atlanta being almost another character in this novel.

This book is filled with dramatic action scenes and suspense. As a writer, there is a lot to learn from the structure. I enjoyed this retelling a lot and I will probably never look at a red cape the same way again.

When I first started this novelist journey, I wasn’t consistent with my writing. I would go in spurts and stop literally for months at a time. I learned that for me to finish a novel and get it ready for submission, I would have to get organized.

I learned the value of making writing “to-do” lists. My lists helped me finish my first novel and now I’ve come back to my lists to help me get through the process of my second novel.

These are some of the things I’ve learned that work for me when I create my writing to-do list:

Determine your time frame. Do you like to cross out tasks once a day? Or do you like to review your list once a week and monitor your progress? The answer will help you figure out the best approach to manage your list.

Make your tasks specific. A general to-do task of “work on novel” may not get the same results as a task of “write two pages” or “write 250 words”. When you have specific goal, it’s easier to measure your progress with a clear deliverable.

Try to be realistic. Do you really think you can write 100 pages a day when you have other responsibilities? Make sure the tasks on your list are attainable so that you won’t be discouraged. You want to challenge yourself but you also want to be sure that the tasks on your list can be achieved reasonably.

Celebrate your progress. When you complete your tasks, be sure to celebrate your progress. Writing a novel is hard and every word you create inches you closer to the finish line. Instead of thinking about how much you left have to do, appreciate how far you’ve come and the work you’ve already completed.

Right now, I’m doing daily lists. At night before I go to bed, I think about what tasks I want to accomplish the next day. Sometimes I get a little ambitious and I may put down more than I can accomplish but I don’t stress out about it, I just move it to the next day’s list. I find that concentrating on daily specific tasks keep me from getting overwhelmed.

For my daily celebrations, I usually treat myself to a square of mint chocolate. And I already have my eye on beautiful bracelet as a gift to myself when I finish my novel.

Last month, I posted about the current struggle I had with balancing writing with my day job.

When I came to the conclusion that my novel wouldn’t be done as soon as I had anticipated, I was disappointed but then also a little relieved. I now had realistic expectations. Even more importantly, I wouldn’t be stressed out trying to finish it.

I have a lot of writer friends who are working on novels and most of them want to be finished in 2010. Some of them are making good progress while others are stressing out. I tell my stressed out writer friends to ask themselves this question:

Do I want my novel to be done or do I want my novel to be done well?

There is a difference.

Having your novel done may mean that it’s got all of the things it needs on paper — word count, premise, plot, characters — but is it really ready? Is it the best it could be?

If you can’t answer that question with confidence (and all writers really know the answer deep down), don’t be afraid to revise and take more time.

Believe me I know as writers how we can get worked up about what is selling and how we should “hurry up” and get our work out there and catch the wave. Or how we’re afraid that our novel will be stale and that no one will buy it if we don’t finish it yesterday.

Remember, a good story is always in demand. The last thing you want to do is send a novel out before it’s really finished.

Finish your novel well.

How do you deal with the urge to be done with your novel? How do you know your novel is ready?

For the new readers of the blog, I’ve been doing a monthly installment where I share events from my own life during my kid and teen years.

For this installment, I’ve included a note given to me in study hall from one of my girlfriends. The things teen girls share with each other are timeless:

Hey Karen:

Hope you liked my present. I didn’t know what to get you so I just got you something useful. You’re always writing something so I figure pen and paper! Genius!

I went to the mall this weekend but got depressed because there wasn’t anything I liked or could afford. I ended buying some cheap earrings. I wish my parents would give me more for my allowance. How can I get cute with the chump change they give me? I need more CASH.

I saw Jeff and he FINALLY asked for my phone number. I’m so excited! Then I saw Michael, Steven, Julius, and Tony. There were so many cute boys at the mall that I got all light-headed.

I saw Marie with her boyfriend. Have you seen him yet? I swear that is the most ugliest little pea-headed boy you would ever want to see. I would never tell her that but I had to tell somebody — you in this case. Karen, if I ever get an ugly boyfriend, you have to TELL me! Okay? Promise?

Next time you’re coming to the mall with me. You shouldn’t stay up in your room writing stories all the time especially since you let NOBODY read them! You’re missing ALL the action!

I hope that everyone has a great weekend! Don’t forget Father’s Day — do something nice or in remembrance for your father figure(s). Also try to get some writing done!

A couple of months ago, I posted about Seth Godin’s book The Dip.

Last week, one of his blog posts really hit home for me because Godin used a novelist analogy. So I wanted to share it with you all (if you haven’t read it already):

In his post, Hope and the Magic Lottery, he made this really good point:

“[...] the fledgling author, the one who has been turned down by ten agents and then copies his manuscript and fedexes it to twenty large publishing houses — what is he hoping for, exactly? Perhaps he’s hoping to win the magic lottery, to be the one piece of slush chosen out of a million (literally a million!) that goes on to be published and revered.

You deserve better than the dashed hopes of a magic lottery.

There’s a hard work alternative to the magic lottery, one in which you can incrementally lay the groundwork and integrate into the system you say you want to work with. And yet instead of doing that work, our instinct is to demonize the person that wants to take away our ticket, to confuse the math of the situation (there are very few glass slippers available) with someone trying to slam the door in your faith/face.”

I think this is the first time I’ve actually seen a novelist analogy on his blog, but it’s very true. How many of us know of aspiring writers who think of publishers and agents as the enemy or who have become jaded because they haven’t gotten published?

Being in this industry is not for tender-hearted. You have to know going in that just because you write something there is no guarantee that it will get published. You write because you want to tell a story. You write because it’s your passion. You write because it’s something you cannot do.

Be sure go over and read the rest of the post. Lots of great gems of inspiration there.

Do you think some writers do hit a magic lottery? Is it really luck? Or do you think hard work always prevails?