Jade Varden Official Blog

Why did I start writing? Who are my favorite authors? Find out -- and get lots of other stuff about me -- in my interview at the Indie Writer Showcase .

Bestselling books have a way of becoming their own self-propelling machines. Once readers hear that other readers are in love with a certain book, they run out to buy it. Everyone has bought a book simply because everyone else was talking about it. But the question is: did you read it?  Are People Really Reading Bestsellers? Some books have a way of becoming fashionable. Right now, the book everyone's talking about is Fifty Shades of Gray . Some swear it's the greatest piece of writing ever produced by the hand of man, while many critics have deemed it practically unreadable. The point is, they all bought it . When it seems like everyone's got a certain book, it's the in thing to go out and get that same book. How else can you join the conversation?  Some studies suggest that bestsellers may get inflated sales numbers for just this reason. Instead of being read, bestsellers are getting purchased to serve as shelf and table decoration. One bookstore that wan...

Visit Little Book Star to read my most recent interview, and find out which character's been giving me the most trouble during the writing of the Deck of Lies series. The interviewer asked some great questions about Justice, the first book in the series, and writing in general. Go check it out! 

It struck me today while I was working with my eyes closed that, in all the many Writing 101 topics I've posted, I've been neglecting perhaps the most important of all: proper typing. If you don't know how to do it and you're hunting and pecking your way across the keyboard, you've got to stop. Don't write another word. Before you ever create a book, or even think about creating a book, you need to learn how to type -- the right way.  Getting Back to Basics Everybody's got their own way of doing things, and it's important for every writer to develop their own writing style and their own habits. You need to feel comfortable when you're writing. All of this is very true. But it's also true that, no matter what, you'd better be typing the right way whenever you're writing. You might have your own system that works for you, and that's great...but you still need to learn the proper, tried-and-true method of typing. Why? Carpal...

The Deck of Lies Diva Challenge is over, and a winning outfit for Rain has been picked! Diva crystalstone32 designed this stylish number to win herself a free copy of Justice (Deck of Lies, #1). Thanks to everyone who played the Diva Challenge at Fashion Fantasy Game. All of the outfits looked great.  For everyone who didn't win the giveaway, you still have a chance to grab a free copy of the book. Look to the left of the blog to find a link to a new giveaway, and sign up for your chance to win!

When I went to type the title of this post, I misspelled both words. Conscious and conscience are both hard to spell all the time, and that's not even their biggest problem. They sound alike and they have similar meanings -- but they're different enough to make it a terrible writing faux pas if you put one where the other ought to be. There are a few tricks to keeping them straight, so you don't have to pull up reference material every time you want to use one or the other.  Conscious The word conscious can be used in a lot of ways, which only adds fuel to the fire of writing confusion. In the main, it really means aware . You can be conscious of the fact that you're reading a blog, you can be conscious of your surroundings, you can feel conscious guilt. But you also have a conscience .  Conscience It's that inner voice that tells you something is wrong. When you feel bad about something you've done, it's your conscience making...

Everyone has their own ideas about what makes writing "good" or "bad," but if your pacing is off there isn't going to be much of a competition between the two. Pacing is incredibly important...yet it goes ignored by many indie authors. If your characters make the decision to take a trip, buy the ticket and board the plane all in one paragraph, you really need to learn more about pacing in your writing.  What Is It?  Okay, so what is pacing? Every book has a pace, and usually it falls somewhere between two extremes: fast and slow. You can tell the difference when you read, even if you don't think about it consciously. Some books feel like a quick read -- you start them and them finish them and don't even know where the last 6 hours went. Other books that may take the same amount of reading time feel like they're dragggggging by; you look at the clock every hour, wondering how it's possible that five or six haven't passed since the la...

Some of the world's greatest writers never become famous in their own lifetimes. One of America's best never made much money with his writing, and by the time he died only two of his books were in print...because he paid for them himself.  Henry David Thoreau, who was born David Henry, paid to have 1,000 copies of his book A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers printed...less than 300 sold. He built himself a shack in the woods after being schooled at Harvard, and many of his contemporaries thought he was quite odd. Maybe they weren't wrong -- but he was still a brilliant writer. It just took a long time for anyone to realize it.  Into the Woods He was born in Concord, Massachusetts and went to Harvard in 1833 to study science, philosophy, math, rhetoric and the classics. But as an adult, Thoreau decided he wanted to escape the polished atmosphere of city living...and all the rest of society.  In his own words, Thoreau went out into the wo...

When a book is very popular among a large group of readers, filmmakers generally like to take special care with the film adaptation. They consult the author of the work, they read the book themselves, they pay homage to the original material. This isn't what happened when Flowers in the Attic was transformed from a YA horror book that struck a strong note with teen girls...into 93 minutes of on-screen swill that you can't ever get back. Cringe if you like, but that description really isn't harsh enough for one of the worst book-to-film adaptations in the known world. The Book Full disclosure: I'm a little biased. Flowers in the Attic is actually a very special book to me, as it inspired me to become a writer (the jury's still out on whether or not I am). It was written before I was born and published in 1979 by V. C. Andrews, known to friends and family as Virginia. The book was her first and it was an almost immediate success, spawning three sequels, o...

"I  would recommend this to everyone who likes to be shocked and intrigued." Justice has been reviewed at Books for YA! , and I couldn't be more pleased. Go and read the whole thing, and don't forget that you can win the book free. Look to the left of the blog to sign up for one or both of my giveaways, and get your own copy of Justice.

Every author probably dreams about becoming an overnight success the moment they put the first word on the first page of the manuscript. The dream is reinforced by books like Twilight and the Harry Potter books -- which were practically household names before they even hit the shelves. But some books are a bit slower in the bestseller race...and that doesn't necessarily mean they've lost.  It's much easier if your book becomes a bestseller in 20 minutes, instead of 20 years...but would you really be disappointed if decades later something you wrote became one of the most famous books of all time? That's what happened to children's author Margaret Wise Brown, who wrote a book way, way back in 1947 that you've probably heard a thousand times.  It's called Goodnight Moon , and it's one of the best-loved and best-known bedtime stories ever written. It's also a bestseller, but it didn't gain that title for many, many years after its ...

 "Lies, odd family connections and dirty deeds seeping out of every brick in the fancy mansion she lives in..."  "Jade's writing is style is vivid and concise." Author and friend of the blog, Melanie Cusick-Jones, recently posted her review of Death at Goodreads, and I hope you'll go and read it! While you're there, check out her book Hope's Daughter .

If you use improper grammar, do you write bad...or badly? Know the difference, and you can at least change the descriptor. Bad and -ly If you've heard the song, you know what the word means. Bad in slang can be used to describe any number of positive opinions and feelings. In more formal usage, bad usually denotes something that is undesirable. In grammar, it's a bomb waiting to explode ugliness all over your writing. The problem is, bad has a friend named -ly , and you never know when or where he's going to show up...or if he's supposed to be there.  When -ly shows up to your word party, he changes everything. He attaches to bad to become badly , and that's a whole different part of speech altogether. Now, the word is an adverb, a word that's used only to modify another adverb, a verb or an adjective.What does that mean? It's simple: it means badly can only mingle with another word at the party. If I say I was badly and end the sen...

There are so many words in the English language, the actual number can't even be provided. Some experts have tried to estimate, but there are new words being added all the time (and a ton of weird ones that people never really use). What I'm saying is, when you're writing about or writing with punctuation and letters, there's a word for that. There's a word for every itty bitty little piece of punctuation, for the extra add-ons in letters, for every wacky symbol you might find when you're reading. Dotting the Is  Everything has a name, even in punctuation. Knowing the proper words for things comes in pretty handy, especially if you've got a question about proper usage. Trying to use a search engine without knowing the right words is an exercise in frustration...and won't you sound learned and impressive if you know that the little dot over the i and j is properly called a tittle ? It's a fun little word, a lot more interesting than the...

Which isn't used for people. That's one of the first rules of writing you need to know, and the first rule of using that/which and who/whom properly.  That/Which   I've talked (a lot ) about proper use of the word that in the past. It's one of the most over-used and under-valued words in the English language. I find it shoved in everywhere when I'm reading, and my experience is that it can be eliminated at least half the time. But one of the most important rules of using that and which is often ignored: it's not for people.   That and which are used for items , things , businesses and all other inanimate (non-conscious) objects. These words are not used to describe people. For example:   I saw the blue folder that was on the desk.   I'm talking about a thing or an object, so I'm using the word that . In this example, I could just as easily use which instead. I can't use who .    I saw the blue folder who was on th...

Everyone's self-publishing these days, and the ebook market is booming. Lots of indies are cracking the bestseller lists and making a name for themselves. There's opportunity out there...and wherever there's opportunity, there are people who prey upon it. Self-publishing isn't free, no matter what anyone says. Some things, you've got to pay for. Some things, you shouldn't pay for. Learn how to tell the difference, and spend your money where it's going to matter most.  What Indies Should Pay For Some things cost money, even in self-publishing. When it comes to creating a book that you're trying to sell to the masses, there are some things you're going to have to buy...and some things that maybe you should buy.  Copyright . Where you're writing your book matters. Make sure to look up the copyright requirements for your current home country. In the United States, for example, you have to pay to register your copyright. Always do thi...

I've done several interviews where I've talked about my books and my writing process. For the first time, my characters are taking the spotlight and sharing their thoughts. Visit Today in Shenaya to read an interview with the characters from Justice (yes, including River) and find out what things look like from their point of view.

If you're not using Goodreads to promote yourself and your book, you're doing yourself a disservice. Goodreads is the book nerds' version of Facebook -- with a whole lot more features. If you don't already have a profile on Goodreads, get one! Join the site's author program (if you're an author), and you're ready to take your marketing efforts to the next level. Master a few Goodreads tips, and you'll expose your writing to a much larger market.  Mastering Goodreads If you have a Twitter account, Facebook profile or an email address, you can sign up for Goodreads. You've got to sign up for the site first and fill in the requisite profile information. Once this is done, you can sign up to be in the author program to distinguish yourself as a writer of books. It's a great first step...but it's only the beginning of what you'll need to do to really establish a presence on the site.  Blog . Your GR profile automatically has blog s...

"Another captivating read." "Rain gets even more tangled in lies." Felicia at Livin' Life Through Books has posted a review of The Tower, a follow-up to her review of Justice .  Read her review of The Tower if you've already read Justice, but if you haven't you'd better wait! There are some spoilers you'll want to avoid.

"Honesty, this might be the best book I’ve read so far." "Very well written and captured my attention from the first page." Justice has been reviewed at Classy Me Books -- go and read it !