Mysteries of Cove book 1: Fires of Invention ~ Cover reveal!!

J. Scott Savage is one of my favorite people and I'll tell you why:

1. He's a fantastic writer/author.

    Read his books and you'll see why he's so good! My favorite was the last one in a series (Shandra Covington Series) that took a few years to finish. I haven't even read the other books in the series, just the last and I loved it.

2. He's genuine and nice and genuinely nice.

    Jeff is a good guy. He really, really is one of the nice guys. He's down-to-earth, humble, funny and easy to talk to. Don't believe me? Go to one of his book signings or catch him at a writer's conference and say hi. Tell him Taffy sent you. I dare you...

3. He's a great teacher. 

    I don't if I already know the subject Jeff is teaching, I'm bound to learn something from him.

4. He loves to give back to the writing community.

    Jeff/Scott gives a lot of time (a lot of it is for free) to the community. He's da boss. 

I'm excited to read this newest book of his. I'm a little put out that it's a series because I will have to WAIT to read all the books. ;)

Keep reading to find out more about Mr. Savage and the book. You can find him at all the places below:

FACEBOOK:  https://www.facebook.com/pages/J-Scott-Savage/55805743891
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/jscottsavage

INSTAGRAM: jscottsavage

WEBSITE: www.jscottsavage.com

Author Note:

Like many of my books, the inspiration for my new series Fires of Invention came from the collision of two ideas. The first time the story occurred to me was while I was watching the musical Wicked with my wife. The moment I walked into the theater and saw the huge mechanical dragon above the stage, I thought, Wow! I have to write a story about that! A few weeks later, I was talking with my nephew, who is probably the most creative kid I know, but whose inventiveness often gets him into trouble, and I thought, What if a kid who had the talents of my nephew lived in a world where creativity was against the law? What if the kids were building . . . a steam-powered dragon? Bam! I had my story.

Powered by great feedback from my agent, Michael Bourret, my good friend and author James Dashner, my publisher, Chris Schoebinger, and the song “Warriors” by Imagine Dragons, I wrote the entire first draft of the first volume in the series, Mysteries of Cove in four weeks. This book is unlike anything I have ever written. There are elements of City of Ember, Dragon Riders, and Hugo in it all mashed up together in a world I fell in love with from the moment I started writing.

I think what’s most exciting to me about this book is that it’s about giving yourself the freedom to imagine. To take chances. Too often we limit ourselves by only trying things we’re confident we can succeed at when what we need to do is give ourselves permission to fail. Often it is when we attempt things with no idea of how we can possibly pull them off that we achieve our greatest successes.

Book Description:

STEAMPUNK! Plus Dragons!

Trenton Colman is a creative thirteen-year-old boy with a knack for all things mechanical. But his talents are viewed with suspicion in Cove, a steam-powered city built inside a mountain. In Cove, creativity is a crime and "invention" is a curse word. Kallista Babbage is a repair technician and daughter of the notorious Leo Babbage, whose father died in an explosion-an event the leaders of Cove point to as an example of the danger of creativity.

Working together, Trenton and Kallista learn that Leo Babbage was developing a secret project before he perished. Following clues he left behind, they begin to assemble a strange machine that is unlikely anything they've ever seen before. They soon discover that what they are building may threaten every truth their city is founded on-and quite possibly their very lives.

Author Bio:

J. Scott Savage is the author of the Farworld middle grade fantasy series and the Case File 13 middle grade monster series. He has been writing and publishing books for over ten years. He has visited over 400 elementary schools, dozens of writers conferences, and taught many writing classes. He has four children and lives with his wife Jennifer and their Border Collie, Pepper, in a windy valley of the Rocky Mountains.

Foto Friends Friday

First of all, how can you not like a guy who is wearing a bow tie? Secondly, and one who can rock it?

Jeff, I mean, Scott, I mean J. Scott... 

SIGH. 

Apparently, he answers to all of the above and many more that I didn't dare ask him about. He was introduced as Jeff and that is what I call him. Unless someone else calls him Scott then I'm all confused and I mentally wonder if I've been calling him the wrong-but-right name during the conversation. 

Yes, that ladies and gentleman, is Jeff/Scott Savage. Name confuser, gentleman and scholar. And writer. Impressive writer. My boys read his books. I read his books. And I can't wait to read more (hurry up and get them published, will ya?).

Jeff is also a classy guy. Look at the photo below. When he won his Whitney Award, what did he do? He took a hold of his wife's hand, and took her up with him. He gave her lots of credit for her support. Classy.

In the writing community, Jeff is a down-to-earth writer who is willing to listen to and help others, even newbie writers like me. He is genuinely interested in others and their work. He's a good listener and a good advice giver. He wins the award for the best writerly friend ever.

CASE FILE 13: ZOMBIE KID by J. Scott Savage

You hold in your hands a very dangerous record.

I have collected every side of the story and every piece of evidence on case number 13. Now, in this file, you will find all you need to follow the dark adventures of Nick, Carter, and Angelo, three boys who possess an unhealthy obsession with monsters, in a town so grisly, so horrific—

Whoa, whoa, whoa. You're telling it all wrong, dude. You make it sound like it's a scary story.

Ahem. Well, Nick, it is a scary story. In this volume alone, there are voodoo queens, graveyards—even the dreaded Zombie King himself.

Yeah, but there's also the part where Angie gets mashed potatoes all in her face, and the part where I use my cool zombie powers to—

All right, point taken. Now, if you don't mind . . .

You hold in your hands a very dangerous, very funny record, detailing the hilarious adventures of three boys who have an awesome obsession with monsters. This is the first volume. Read on if you dare. . . 

First line:
"Please relax and make yourself comfortable."

BOY BOOK ALERT! 
Boys of all ages will love this book. It has puns and grossness and zombies. Seriously, what boy can pass that up? My 10 year-old loved, loved, loved it. And told me I HAD to read it.  So I did. But I decided to give said child a chance to review this book for me. Take it away, Zachariah!

"I thought Zombie Kid was awesome because there were zombies in it. I liked it because it was funny and creative. My favorite character was Angelo because he's the oldest one and he likes reading. Pretty much without him, Nick would still be a zombie forever. I liked the magic and ideas and scenes people probably wouldn't think of."

And there you have it. Honest, hard review from a fourth grader.




 

Show some love! Jeff Savage

How was Valentine's for you? Sick of chocolate yet? Yeah. Me either. :)

A few years ago I attended a charity book event in Ogden. I'd never been and had no idea where to go. After a flurry of emails I ended up carpooling with some awesomesauce people like Jeff Savage, Sharon Glens, Kristen Landon and Juliana Montgomery. Jeff was definitely outnumbered and we teased him about being the head of a harem. He was a good sport. Another fun author who is quick to laugh and easy to talk to. Love his laugh.
On the way home Jeff asked me about my writing. He listened, asked questions then gave me advice. He's such a nice guy and gentleman. He is awesome at listening to newbies like me.

If you have a chance to go to any of Jeff's presentations, do it. He's an excellent teacher. He makes newbies feel like they are not alone in this writing world.

Here's a shout out to J. Scott Savage!

Do you have any author or writer you admire? Shout out in the comments!

Master the Art! LDStorymakers 2010 Pt 5

I looked forward to Jeff Savage's Character Bible class and it was Awesome! There was so much info that I'll only hit the highlights here:

A character bible tracks minor things like hair and eye color, name and spelling, motivation, growth, background, etc.

The more you elevate a character, the more the reader expects to see them in your book. Anything past a physical description will elevate the character.

Each character will have their own story and character arc.

Jeff had us partner up and interview each other about out protagonist, like age, defining moment, how other characters view your protagonist, etc. The questions help create complexity.

Then we delved into our antagonist with the same questions.

Now, do I have a clear main character and do I like her? Does she have flaws? What will she learn?

My character mist be growing or regressing at all times. We will judge them by their decisions not just their actions.

My homework this weekend is to use Jeff's class notes to deepen my characters.
I don't know if I can wait! It gets me excited!

Master the Art! LDStorymakers 2010 Pt 3

Today I'm posting my thoughts and a few notes from Jeff Savage's class, Villainous: Creating Characters We Love To Hate.

We compared heroes and villains. Surprisingly, they had similar traits. They are both an everyday man, have flaws, and own special powers but doesn't have to be super powers.

Motives are what separate the hero from the villain. What happened in the villains life that made them the way they are?

The best villains are like the hero if the hero had taken a different path.

Does your villain care about something that is good? That is a weakness that invests the reader.

Trying looking at the characters from different points of view. Try first person of villain, victim, hero, and minion.

How does it all end? With destruction or redemption?

Pep Talk by Jeff Savage

This was an email I received recently. I totally respect Jeff (Scott) Savage and his opinions. He takes his time to talk to newbie writers and give them ideas and help. (I added a link to Jeff's recent post at the end of this post).

I thought I would pass along what this emailer (Tobyn) wrote:

Hey Nano team,

I went to Dragon's keep tonight and Scott Savage was there. What a cool guy. He was very personable and has a great attitude about the art of writing. He talked about where he came from and how he got rejected, and how he got his first contract, how he got rejected again even with an agent.

Hearing his story was inspirational. I asked him how to make nanowrimo work in a good way so that we are not churning out just mediocre gunk. His answer was excellent but very long, so I have shortened it for you. He said he doesn't like to outline each chapter. He likes to know where he begins and where he ends. He likes to have a good protagonist who is a hero with flaws or an underdog working his way up. And he likes to know the obstacles that have to be overcome. Now I'm not quoting him, I'm just telling you what I took away from it.

I'm glad I made it down there. It was well worth it.

Now back to work. I'm only just over 10,000 but don't count me out. I'm still working on it.

Tobyn

"...it's easy after all not to be a writer. Most people aren't writers and very little harm comes to them."
Julian Barnes, Flaubert's Parrot

Six LDS Writers and a Frog: Jeff's Post