NEW! A coloring book from the Humans In My House series! Coloring books contain every illustration from the books, plus the covers, for you to color. Get the whole set for $35.
ONLY AVAILABLE AT CATCON 2022!
Tag Archives: Amanda Marsico
CatCon 2022
7 JunI’ll be at CatCon 2022 in Pasadena, California, October 1st and 2nd, with signed Humans In My House volumes and loads of handmade pocket kitties. Hope to see you there!
Vicki Baty Reviews Humans In My House
2 Jul
Humans In My House (series book 1) Chapter 4 illustration, art by Victoria Lyons, 2015
Vicki Baty, Co-Owner of Bookends, a wonderful new and used book store in North Myrtle Beach and book blogger at Beach Walk Book Talks, reviews Humans In My House (series book 1). Review republished with permission. Full article of her other Independence Day reads and recommendations at the link.
“Humans In My House by Amanda Marsico – There are terrific self-published books for children as well as adults and this one by Amanda Marsico is very enjoyable. A cat having been dumped by a human, is living his life in an abandoned house. He has a lovely time living a life of freedom until he meets some special children who teach him what friends, loyalty, love, and home are all about. The sequel – Humans In My House and the stars above it continues the adventure. These are perfect middle school reads.”
**Personal note: I make a point not to alter my reviewers’ words or thoughts about my books. However, I don’t want readers to be misinformed. Although the review calls these “middle school reads,” I want you to know that the Humans In My House series is marketed for 8-12 years as this is the industry-standard range used for “middle grade fiction.” 12 years is pushing the age where these books may no longer challenge even if they still amuse. My typical customers range from 7-10 years. Humans book 1 is the easiest of the series, followed by book 3, and book 2 in ascending levels of difficulty.
~Cover Reveal~ Ontogenesis: Acephalous Book 2
21 JunAvailable on Amazon July 6, 2018.
In book 2 of the Acephalous series, Breena must contend with the results of her previous actions. As book 1 follows her to rock bottom, book 2 sees Bree wake up to reality and make a plan to clean up her messes. It is a long road to Gehenna, and to reconciliation, but she has learned to forge ahead with others’ interests at heart rather than escaping as in the past. While certain conflicts are put to rest, others still seethe beneath the surface. Her new approach to balancing chaos with peace throws tradition to the wind as she takes her role as Queen of Gehenna.
The Acephalous series is a mature young adult (15+) metaphysical drama with an urban fantasy mood. Readers of Cassandra Clare, P.C. and Kristin Cast, and Lauren Kate will enjoy the series.
Look for book 3, the final installment, Winter 2019.
Coming July 1, 2018: Humans In My House and the Animals Beyond It
11 Jun
Humans In My House and the Animals Beyond It chapter two illustration. Illustrator Victoria Lyons, 2018.
The third installment of the Humans In My House series is on its way! Look for a cover reveal Friday, June 15, 2018 and publication July 1, 2018 (Amazon Kindle and paperback).
In Kepler’s newest adventure, he and Emily meet animals from around the world during a trip to the zoo. Find out what conservationists are doing to help keep Kepler’s animal family happy and healthy both within the zoo and in their natural habitats, and learn how you can be a conservationist right from home!
Haven’t read the first two books in the series? Not to worry! Look for sales prices on books 1 and 2 during release, and get the whole series for a great deal!
Humans In My House is for readers aged 8 to 12, cat lovers, and anyone who loves our planet 🙂
Look for complimentary kid’s book club discussion prompts, vocabulary lists, and reading comprehension lessons after release. Downloadable lessons and other materials for previous volumes are here.
Pro-tip: Writer’s Block
7 Oct
I’ll use myself as an example today. I sat here for a good 10 minutes trying to come up with a pro-tip for you guys about grammar or the publishing process–something useful. But, I just didn’t want to write about any of those things. Between past articles and teaching composition classes 4 days a week, I feel like I’ve said it all. So, instead of forcing myself to say what I thought YOU would want to hear–advice that caters to a very specific issue or topic–I said, “Screw it. I’ll say what I want to say,” and tackle a broader concept.
My first piece of advice on writer’s block is to stop trying to say what you think the audience wants to hear, and just do you. Get YOUR thoughts out first, whatever they are. Forcing your writing to fit others’ expectations rather than your own does no favor to the audience. It will sound forced, and they will notice. Plus, it doesn’t matter one bit if your first, second, third draft is worthy of its audience. Whose is? Hemingway himself knew that first drafts are shit. His words, not mine.
So, don’t you think that makes a first draft a great time to experiment with your thoughts? Address audience needs later on when you’re revising. It will do no good to cater to the audience in those first few versions that no one will see anyway. That’s your time to decide what the heck you’re trying to say in the first place before shaping it to fit their expectations.
Once you get around to revising the more permanent versions, that’s when you have to ask yourself if you’ve followed through on all of the expectations you set up in your introduction. That’s when you consider what the audience already knows and what they still might need a little background or description to figure out. That’s when you assess your word choices and decide if your vocabulary meets the level/age of the audience, if your approach matches the goal of your text for that audience, if the tone matches the nature of the piece.
Second, don’t stop before you start! Many people are under the impression that if the first line, first page of a text isn’t catchy, then there’s no point in continuing. And, while an interesting hook is important, its existence shouldn’t be the reason you do or do not continue writing the piece. Writing and revising are recursive processes. This means that it’s never totally done. You will always go back and look at something you’ve already done and scrutinize it. It’s exhausting, but wonderful. This means what you write, no matter how attached to it you feel, is not set in stone. Write that crappy introduction and keep going! Go back to it when you’re done with the draft. Sometimes, it’s easier to write a snappy intro once the whole story or essay is finished. At that point, you know what you have to draw from, what’s upcoming, what you can allude to in the first few sentences.
Third, shut off the teacher’s voice nagging in the back of your mind. Even if that voice is your own. If the rules you’ve been taught about what you can and can’t do when you write don’t help guide your process, if they stall you out instead, ignore them (at least until you revise–some situations, like work and academics, do legitimately require a rigid standard of delivery and shouldn’t be ignored).
In writing, especially creative writing, there are very few rules that are law. Most are just stylistic guidelines based on a prescribed method of academic or traditional writing. This is called Standard Written American English. It’s the prescriptive norm of how “they” say English SHOULD BE used, including both grammar and usage. Sometimes those standards don’t allow us to convey the creativity or naturalness of speech we’d like. When writers take guidelines as law, they often catch themselves in a rigid process that can’t conform to the pliable, recursive nature of a text. Embrace the descriptive use of language. This is the way English is ACTUALLY used in every day speech: slang, colloquialisms, and regional/cultural dialects included. Doing so will help create realistic, relatable characters, natural settings, conversational dialogue, and a personable approach that engages the reader. Even in formal writing, this can be achieved by staying true to your authorial voice rather than trying to force it into the voice you think the reader is waiting to hear.
Most importantly, don’t blame the inability to sit down and write something on “the muse” not showing up. Writing is work. Whether your muse has shown up or not, you still have to in order to get something done. It’s not always an inspired, fevered gutting of the author. Sometimes, it’s just that thing you’ve got to get done today. Writer’s block is usually always rooted in some sort of anxiety: Can I do this correctly? Am I breaking the rules? What if it’s crap? No one wants to read this. I’m boring and there’s nothing original left in the world. How am I going to do this by the deadline? I’m afraid to say this. What if people think the main character is me?
Sound familiar? I get it. But who cares if it’s uninspired? You’ll get to fix it tomorrow.
For more reading on writer’s block and methods to move past it, read Mike Rose’s fantastic, albeit lengthy, Rigid Rules, Inflexible Plans, and the Stifling of Language: A Cognitivist Analysis of Writer’s Block.
Buy Now!
12 Aug
Humans In My House is NOW AVAILABLE on Kindle and in paperback via CreateSpace and Amazon.
Thanks so much to everyone who has watched my journey and cheered me on. You rock.
Next up, final revisions of Acephalous, which I aim to publish in early 2017.
Pro-Tip: YOU! Second Person POV
21 Jul
It’s been a long time since I posted a new Pro-Tip, so I thought I’d jump at the chance while there’s a lull in my schedule (read: my printer is SO slow).
Second Person Point of View is the least commonly utilized POV for fiction, and the hardest to use well. Second person POV is the “you” form of narrating or discussion. This POV places all of the actions of a text on the reader, as if he or she is the one doing something. This method is useful for creating suspense in text, as well as to discuss the “general you” of human-kind. It’s also a helpful tool in marketing and how-to writing, like a lot of my advice on this website. In addition, second person also effects some suspension of disbelief because it requires the readers to pause their individual worldviews and personalities and inhabit the mannerisms, emotions, actions, and context of the text’s “you.” For advertising especially, it entreats the reader to say, “Yeah, I DO need to go buy this/do that.”
Fiction Ex: You pull up to the curb and cut the engine, noticing there's already a light on inside. You know you left the house dark when you went out hours ago. The sight is alarming. Your hairs raise. As you approach the door and extend your key, each step brings you closer to confirming your worry. The door is ajar. You can hear your heart thumping in your ears, a symptom of the fight or flight response. Responding with the former, you kick the door wide and enter, shouting, "I'm calling the police." Advertising Ex: You can't miss this sale. Find all the great styles you'll need for that beach vacation. Come shop TODAY!
Notice in the examples that the narrator doesn’t draw any attention to himself. This differs from a first person, “I,” point of view and from a third person point of view where, though the narrator doesn’t interject his own worldview, the narrator also doesn’t discuss the reader.
Sometimes first and third person narrators will occasionally talk directly to the reader. It’s a unique method of storytelling similar to breaking the third wall in film. Whether the primary POV is first or third person, a narrator makes personal interjections directed at the reader. This isn’t an easy voice to pull off, and I generally allow the reader to feel as much a part or observer of the text as he or she desires depending on their own levels of empathy, introjection, and interest in suspending reality. However, I won’t be the one to say, “Never do it!” Talking directly to the reader lends a certain casual feeling to a story, and can be very inviting to a reader because it asks the reader to join the conversation or play a role in the events. Read the example below to see the difference in tone provided by talking to the reader while using first person POV. Notice also that the first example is in present tense and this example is in past tense. I did this to display that tense choice does not exclude any POV options.
Ex: I pulled up to the curb and cut the engine. I noticed there was already a light on inside. You know, I'm pretty forgetful, but I'd bet you $50 I hadn't forgotten to turn it off. I'm sure I left the house dark when I went out hours before. The sight was alarming. My hairs rose. As I approached the door and extended my key, each step brought me closer to confirming my worry. The door was ajar. I bet you saw that coming. I could hear my heart thumping in my ears, a symptom of the fight or flight response. I don't know if I made the right choice; you'll have to be the judge of that. I kicked the door wide and entered, shouting, "I'm calling the police." You're going to laugh at me when I tell you what happened next.
Essentially, a text doesn’t qualify as second person POV just because “you” is used in the narrative. The designation of POV is most easily assigned by looking at who in the narrative is completing the actions of the story.
The Takeaway:
First Person: I, as the narrator (and often main character), do things within the story, and the other characters are seen through my eyes and worldview.
Second Person: You, the reader, do things withing the story, and the other characters are perceived by your worldview.
Third Person: They, the characters, do things within the story, and they are perceived by a named OR unnamed narrator that, depending on limited or omniscient knowledge, has varying degrees of insight into each character’s worldview.
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