Jade Varden Official Blog

Every kid has a dream, right? Mine was to be a writer, and I spent a lot of time imagining how it'd be. I would sit in some beautiful room somewhere, in front of a window overlooking an idyllic garden perhaps, quietly tapping away on my keyboard at rapid speeds. No one would ever bother me. I would complete my books and send them off to some huge publishers, who would turn the pages into a perfect book with a fabulous cover and all of that. Everyone would buy the books, and I would continue writing. Now, I am a writer...and I realize how foolish every bit of that imagery really is.  I hardly ever have the time to write. It's the last thing I add to the list and the first one I take off when things get dicey, the task I wish I could get to but rarely do. And some of the time I'm not writing and yet still fully engaged in the job of being a writer, I'm dealing with other authors other than myself.  And if you're self-publishing, you're going to h...

Why did I become a writer? What's my greatest weakness? And if I could live anywhere, where would I go? Get these answers -- and a whole lot more -- in my newest author interview !

The difference between its and it's is as tiny as a single apostrophe, and yet the punctuation is fraught with so much meaning. The words are said the same way, they're pretty much spelled the same way and they appear in just about every book. But writers still get them mixed up all the time.  Apostrophes, No Rules Edition There's a reason that its and it's are confusing, and one culprit is to blame: the apostrophe . Sure it looks benign, inviting even, but when it comes to its and it's the apostrophe breaks all of its own rules.  Oftentimes, the apostrophe shows up to give possession to something. If I buy a purse, that purse is Jade's . But apostrophes serve a different function in it's : they represent a missing i . And when it comes to possession in it ? There's no apostrophe at all.  Confusing, right? It's It's actually means it is or it has . It is a pretty common expression, but it is sounds a little formal ...

I was lucky enough to discover the book version of Freaky Friday first. It was in my school library, and the title seemed interesting enough. Little did I know that through the years, I would eventually become exhausted with what's become one of the most over-used plot devices in the whole of fiction writing. But when I first read the book, it was brand-new and unique. I think that's how author Mary Rodgers intended it. The Book Freaky Friday was published in 1972, and adapted into film almost immediately. The story quickly caught on with young readers. They probably identified with Annabelle Andrews, like I did. Annabelle wakes one Friday morning after arguing with her mother, and discovers she now is her mother -- at least, she's in her mother's body instead of in her own. Freaky indeed. Now, Annabelle has to run the house and take care of her brother Ben, whom she calls Ape Face. As it turns out, being a homemaker is one adventure after the next...

Do you automatically conjure up an image of the authors you like? I used to love imagining what the authors behind the words looked like; then I discovered paperbacks, which commonly find a way to plaster a bio picture on a glossy cover somewhere. Everyone has some vision of what authors look like, and what the are like: dramatic, wordy creatures who sit hunched over a keyboard pouring out flowery words all day. The vision is almost never the same as the reality. Sometimes, when the reality doesn't fit that vision writers just can't get published. In the Victorian Era, three women had to pretend to be men before anyone would pay any attention to their words. Today, millions have read at least one of their books -- which are always printed with their real names. Creative Spirit Literature was always a big part of the Bronte household, but tragedy would leave its mark as well. The family had six children in all, but their mother and the two oldest sisters would ...

It's just one little letter, but it gets confused all the time. Change the a in than , and you've created then -- and then, you've got grammar problems. Knowing the difference between then and than is essential to good writing, because the two are as different as night and day. The trouble is, you can't change day to night with a single letter...but a wrong then can totally destroy all your good writing work. Then Most of the time, then is an adverb or a noun . It means at that time or even next , which are two pretty unrelated sentiments. This is why the word is confusing. I might say Well, that was back then and clearly I'm referring to some past time, and things have now changed. But it's also correct if I say We dated for awhile, then I learned he was a jerk , which would still have the same meaning if I type next instead of then -- in this case, it's used to refer to the future past (truly the worst tense in the whole of the writ...

The word gotten just sounds wrong to me sometimes, yet it always comes out of me naturally. I noticed it earlier when I was writing an email to someone; I typed out that I had gotten something, then quickly backspaced and put in the more majestic received instead. Then I realized, I don't actually know if gotten is good grammar or not. It sounds like slang and somehow seems wrong when I see it on my screen, but it still has its place in the English language. In fact, I've quite recently learned all about it.  Have Got Gotten is a past tense form of the verb to get . Get just means have, hold, receive. It can also be used to mean to experience ("I got sick"). The past tense form of get is got; the past participle of got is gotten . A past participle is a word that's used with had, have or has.  Therefore, it's perfectly acceptable to use gotten if it's being used with its companion word. I have gotten sick before . ...Unless, of course, ...

"There are so many twist and turns that you really can’t be sure what will happen next."  "A page turner and keeps you guessing all the way through to the very end." A very lively review of Justice (Deck of Lies, #1) was posted at Book Pusher recently, and I want you to read it! Make sure you check out the 3 Reasons to Read while you're there.