How to Torture Camy Tang (and make her like it!)

My good friend Camy Tang has her first book with Love Inspired Suspense coming out in July. And, since I'm such a good friend, I told her I'd host her on my blog when the book releases to help promote it. But I want to do something special. Something fun. And I am totally out of ideas.

So wow me... tell me what you want to know from Camy. What will have you coming to my blog to see her? More importantly, what will have you BUYING HER BOOK?! Besides the fact that, as her critique partner, I've read most of it already, and I'm telling you it's fabulous, and if you don't buy it, you'll be missing out on a fabulous read... but other than that...

Let's torture Camy! I mean, interrogate, er, um, interview, whatever! Tell me what you want to know about her, or what kind of guest post from her would interest you.

Top five things to look for in editing your rough draft

Given my prolific writing of late, I'm now in the lovely, fun, and most dreaded position of editing my manuscript. I don't mind editing if I know what I'm looking for. And many people think I'm quite good at editing their work. The problem... I can't see the forest for the trees (look, I'm being trite) in my own writing. So I asked my good friend, critique partner, and owner of The Story Sensei Fiction critique service, Camy Tang, for her advice.

So here she is... the amazing... Camy Tang!



Top five things to look for when revising your rough draft

1. Before you even start to revise, set the manuscript aside. Two to three weeks is ideal.

When you’ve spent months on a manuscript, you’re just too close to it. Tuck it away. Don’t look at it, and you’ll be amazed at how easy it will be not to even think about it.

When you finally do go back to revise, you’ll be amazed at how fresh everything will be.

2. Passive verbs. Do a “Find” on your word processing program for:

was
is
were

Replace as many as you can with strong action verbs. Sometimes you won’t be able to, but try your hardest because you can never have too few passive verbs.

3. Opening and closing hooks. Spend as much time as you need—which will probably be more time than you anticipate—on creating a killer opening hook to your novel.

But in addition, spend more time—yes, more than you think it will—on crafting killer opening hooks to every single section.

And then, spend time crafting killer ending hooks to every single section.

This really will improve your story flow, because the reader will be hooked at the opening, hooked at the ending to every section (and induced to read on) and hooked at the beginning of every section (also induced to read on).

4. Redundancies, especially in dialogue. Pounding out that first draft is a long, hard process—and because a scene can sometimes take 2-3 days (or 2-3 hours) to write, pages of dialogue can meander and repeat information. Target your dialogue and condense it, make it concise.

5. Backstory and telling. Get rid of it.

If it’s there, it should be short (one sentence or two short sentences).

Don’t have more than one instance of backstory/telling for every two pages (not a hard and fast rule, but just a rule of thumb).

While lots of multipublished, bestselling authors have oodles of backstory and telling in their writing, they’re multipublished, bestselling authors and have more leeway than an unpublished writer trying to break into the industry.

Because of the stiff competition for those few publishing slots available each year, writers have to write to a higher standard so that they stand out from the thousands of other manuscripts that editors read every year.

If you’re not rock solid on what exactly is “telling,” then read up on it. There are tons of articles on the web, and on my Story Sensei blog, I have both articles and a list of websites that have more articles.


Camy Tang writes romance with a kick of wasabi. Her chick lit Sushi series is out now, and next year she’ll release Deadly Intent with Love Inspired Suspense.

She also runs the Story Sensei fiction critique service, which specializes in book doctoring. DECEMBER SALE: Right now, all full manuscript critiques are 10% off! Visit http://www.storysensei.com/ for more details.

On her blog, she gives away Christian novels twice a week and ponders frivolous things. Visit her website at http://www.camytang.com/ and sign up for her newsletter YahooGroup for monthly giveways!

Interview with Camy Tang: Single Sashimi

Speaking of time with great friends, I've gotten to spend some time at the ACFW conference with my good friend, Camy Tang, and talk about her latest release, Single Sashimi.

1. What's the story behind Single Sashimi?

Here’s the back cover blurb:

Drake Yu. Why would Drake call her after … what, five years? Six?

Venus heard in his voice that resonance that was almost a growl, that titanium-hard determination to get what he wanted. And he usually got what he wanted. The voice said: “I want you to work for me.”

Not this time… If it was a choice between Drake and McDonald’s—she’d choose french fries. She’d never work for him again. It would take an act of God.

Venus Chau is determined to start her own game development company and launch the next Super Mario-sized phenomenon. However, she needs an investor to back her idea. When Drake Yu, an old nemesis, approaches Venus with a contracting opportunity at his sister’s startup, the offer to become Chief Operating Officer tempts Venus to think the unthinkable.

Venus would rather throw away her PS3 than work for Drake again … except Grandma bribes Venus to do this favor for Drake’s wealthy family with a coveted introduction to the most respected investor in the game industry. It’s also a short job—only a few months—so Venus won’t have to stand Drake’s presence for very long.

But one wild youth group, a two-faced assistant, and Grandma’s determined match-making threaten to make them both fail—or go insane. With the encouragement of her three cousins, Lex, Trish, and Jennifer, Venus discovers that even a wounded heart can undergo a beautiful transformation …


2. How'd you learn so much about the video game stuff for the book?

A friend of mine, Stephanie Quilao, who runs the popular Back in Skinny Jeans blog (http://backinskinnyjeans.com/), used to work for Nvidia, a company that makes all kinds of things related to video graphics and gaming. She gave me the idea because of the things she told me about the video game industry.

Then a fellow youth staff worker at my church got me in touch with his sister who happens to know everyone on the planet. She got me in touch with a few engineers who work in video game companies—one is a programmer, the other is a designer. They helped me with all the nitty gritty stuff, basically creating Venus’s Spider program.

3. What was the best part about writing the book?

I absolutely love Venus. I wish I could be her. And writing Drake was just too cool. He ended up being more sexy than I expected him to turn out. So writing their scenes was a lot of fun.

4. What do you hope readers take away from this story?

That there is hope for control freakazoids like me and Venus. Oh, you mean something meaningful? That God really is in control, and that there is hope for control freakazoids like me and Venus.

5. What's the one thing you wish people would ask you because you're dying to give an answer, and what is that answer?

Why is your dog Snickers a butthead?

We really don’t know, except that she came that way from the Humane Society. She is very friendly toward people but she has a problem with dogs. Any dogs. If they’re small dogs, she sees them as prey. If they’re big dogs, she wants to pick a fight. She’s messed up in the head. But she’s very cute and we love her anyway.

Thanks for having me here, Danica!

Camy Tang writes romance with a kick of wasabi. She used to be a biologist, but now she is a staff worker for her church youth group and leads a worship team for Sunday service. She also runs the Story Sensei fiction critique service. On her blog, she gives away Christian novels every Monday and Thursday, and she ponders frivolous things like dumb dogs (namely, hers), coffee-geek husbands (no resemblance to her own...), the writing journey, Asiana, and anything else that comes to mind. Visit her website at http://www.camytang.com/ for a huge website contest going on right now, giving away ten boxes of books and 30 copies of her latest release, SINGLE SASHIMI.

Guest blogger: Camy Tang

Today, we've got a special guest blogger, my good friend, Camy Tang. And really, there's no better way to introduce her and her latest book, Only Uni, than her post about our friendship. I love Camy's books and their wonderful glimpses into ties that bond friends together. As a friend, she's got the formula figured out, and it definitely comes through in her writing.

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I’m really excited to be guest blogging for Danica today. She was one of the first people to welcome me to the world of writing.

I’m totally serious (for once). When I first started writing again, I ended up on the Steeple Hill discussion boards because Steeple Hill was the first publisher I thought of when I thought of Christian romances. I’ve enjoyed Love Inspired romances for years and years.

The discussion boards were fabulously new to me. Suddenly there were all these Christian romance readers, writers, and even better, published authors chatting away. I lurked for a few days, then registered and introduced myself.

Danica is the board hostess and immediately made me feel welcome. So did everyone else, but Danica was the one who explained things to me (techno-ignorant as I was) and told me about discussion board etiquette.

I can’t begin to count the number of friends I made and the immense amount of information about writing that I learned. I would not be published today if not for those boards and those ladies and Danica.

I got to know her better when I went to Denver for ICRS a couple years ago. We had a BLAST hanging out with other friends late one night, singing bad karaoke in an almost unbelievably seedy bar and eating bland Mexican food.

(Yes, women can bond even over bland Mexican food.)

What was more, she actually seemed to LIKE me after spending several hours in my company. Imagine that! And her husband didn’t run screaming in the other direction when she introduced us (he obviously thought I was some OTHER Camy who was infinitely nicer and more sane than that loud, weird Camy who was on Danica’s online boards).

We have gotten closer in the past year (proven by her letting me run amok on her blog, here), and I hope we will always be good friends. She knows my bad habits and likes me anyway. And isn’t that the best sort of friend?


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Danica again...

Yes friends, that is the best sort of friend. And I'm so thankful that I've got a friend like Camy, especially given that I was a total airhead friend today.
Insert embarrassed grin here... Got busy with work and stuff (had to work all day, you know!), and was just toodling along, checking email and realized... I'm a bad friend!! Camy was scheduled to blog today, and I forgot. Technically, it's still March 1st, but I'd hoped to get it up sooner. Maybe that's why we're such good friends. That whole, loving each other anyway. Love her, love her books, so do take the time to pick them up. You won't regret it.

Also, she's got a great contest going on right now, so stop by her website and check it out!