10 things on a tuesday

1.  Congrats to Emilia Plater!  She is now repped by Suzie Townsend of Fineprint Literary Management!  Her book, AUTOCHROMATIC, which features a girl getting texts from her dead boyfriend's cell, sounds beyond awesome!

2.  There's a mouse in my living room.  Really gross.  I have to figure out how to kill it without using poison because, uh, that probably wouldn't be good with my 10-month-old baby crawling around.

3.  McDonald's mocha frappes are the devil.

4.  I discovered the library has a whole separate section for YA audiobooks!  Yay!

5.  As I listened to Meg Rosoff's HOW I LIVE NOW in the car yesterday, I decided she is the Voice Master.  Her MC is hilarious and irreverent and real.

6.  The same weird guy with the same tie-dyed shirt and ZZ Top beard shows up at the library everyday, sits in the same chair, reads the same book.  Why doesn't he just check it out?

7.  You're probably wondering why I feel like I can comment on people who are at the library every day when I obviously am, too.  Good point.  He's probably wondering why I come here and surf the internet write beautiful prose all day long.

8.  I wrote a really great sentence this morning.  Obviously it was time for me to take a break and blog.

9.  Do you think peanut butter on a mouse trap hidden behind the couch would work?

10.  This rewrite is kicking my butt.

gone to the dark side

I already had one foot on the dark side, apparently, since I buy most of my books at Barnes and Noble and not some indie bookstore.  But that's just me being lazy.

Now, with the B&N Nook, I can be even lazier!  I got it a couple of weeks ago and am head over heels.  Whenever I feel like reading a book, I can download it then and there, usually for around $10.  I carry it around with me and am able to go back and forth between books.  A little nonfiction, a little YA, a little women's fiction.

I went to the salon yesterday and spent the 2+ hours getting my hair highlighted and reading Kitty Kelley's unauthorized biography on Oprah.  Bliss.

Another thing I love (and this really does show how incredibly lazy I am) is reading in bed.  With a real book, you have to kind of switch your position when you've finished the page on the left and move on to the page on the right.  With my Nook, I don't even have to move.  Hit a button, next page, voila.  Like I said, though, I'm lazy.  Flipping those pages might burn a fraction of a fraction of a calorie!  But I'm not really thinking about losing weight when I'm reading in bed.

Oh, another plus: taking my Nook to the gym.  Um, I've only done this once so far, but it was really great not to have to figure out how to position a book so I could read it on the treadmill.  And you can adjust the text size so it's bigger if you want.  So, theoretically, the Nook can help me LOSE weight (uh, but only if I start taking that gym membership more seriously).

When I think about publishing my work, though, it does make me a little nervous to think about how publishers keep track of e-orders.  Would you get a report every quarter?  It seems easier to keep a tab on inventory when there are actual, you know, books to count and not just files flying around cyberspace.  The publishing world will have to start dealing with issues the music industry has been dealing with for years--namely, how to keep customers from illegally downloading and sharing files.

Here are some posts if you're interested in reading further on this subject:

The fabulous Agency Gatekeeper's stance on the whole thing

Nathan Bransford's take on the future of publishing

Oh, and here's a good link from Janet Reid, exploring the potential of e-books

BEFORE I FALL by Lauren Oliver

I keep getting BEFORE I FALL by Lauren Oliver and IF I STAY by Gayle Forman mixed up.  Similar premises, similar titles.

BEFORE I FALL is the one that's like Groundhog Day with Bill Murray.  Samantha Kingston gets seven days to figure out what she truly wants her last day to be like.  When I heard this premise, I thought:

1.  I hated Groundog Day!
2.  How can she maintain the reader's interest if it's the same day over and over again?

Well, let me tell you, Oliver did a great job of keeping my interest!  Of course, each day had the same core events (Cupid Day; big party; possible loss of virginity), but there were enough twists and turns to keep me going.  Each day, Oliver learns something new.  And she gets to experiment with her identity a little, too, because she knows she'll get a do-over the next day.

I kid you not: this book made me cry.  Books don't make me cry.  Particularly YA books.  I don't why; that's just the way it is.  But this book brought tears to my eyes!  Maybe I'm becoming a softie.

Anyway, five starts to BEFORE I FALL.  Beautiful writing, intriguing story, masterful pacing.

~~~

In other news, I'm about to break 10K on my OP rewrite.  I don't know whether to be happy or depressed.  I reallllly hope I'm making it better, not screwing it up.

writing ritual

So I was at the library yesterday, picking up a book my agent recommended (FROM WHERE YOU DREAM by Robert Olen Butler, if anyone's wondering), and I saw a DVD documentary on Anne Lamott, who wrote BIRD BY BIRD, a book on writing.

I watched it last night, and it was so inspiring and beautiful.  But one of the things she discusses (and Butler mentions this, too, in FROM WHERE YOU DREAM) is that you need a writing place, a writing time, a writing ritual.  I've heard this advice before, of course, but I just let it go in one ear and out the other.  As a mother, I write whenever I have a spare second, when my daughter is napping.  Sometimes I write sitting on the couch.  Sometimes it's propped up in bed.  Sometimes it's at the library.  Sometimes it's at school.

Both Lamott and Butler assert that you can train your subconscious to know when you're "open for business"; that's the advantage of training yourself to write at a certain time, in a certain place.  I just wonder, if you always write in the same conditions, whether it's hard to write OUTSIDE of those conditions.  Kind of like writers who drink while they write, and then when they give up drinking, they hit a wall.

Isn't there something to be said for flexibility?

THE PASSAGE by Justin Cronin

Summer blockbuster.  A vampire novel for people who hate vampires.  A literary masterpiece.

I've seen this book touted as all of these things, and I must say, it does live up to its hype!  The beginning of the book reminds me of Stephen King's THE STAND.  I was amazed by the way Cronin was able to ratchet up the tension with his sleek, elegant prose.  The second third of the book jarred me a bit when he totally shifted gears, but he'd earned my trust, and I kept on reading.  About 500 pages or so in, I started to lose steam, but then he threw in some more awesomeness, and I just had to keep reading until the end.  It's hard to believe there's any more story left to tell after nearly 800 pages, but evidently it's only the first in a trilogy.  From what I've been able to gather, the next book will come out sometime in 2012.

I highly recommend this book.

Iowa Summer Writing Festival

Well, I just got back from the writers' workshop, and it was AWESOME!

At first, I was really nervous that everyone was going to be pretentious and scary, but it wasn't that way at all!  I realized everyone was pretty much like me, except all shapes and sizes and ages.  Everyone loved to write but maybe didn't have as much time as they would like to explore that passion.

There were only three other people in my class, but that was great because we got through more material and got great individualized feedback.  And we were all so different!  One girl was going into her senior year of college and doing a tour of schools to look at MFA programs (by the way, the University of Iowa is totally the way to go!!).  And there was an older lady who was a SURGEON and just the nicest person you'll ever meet; her stuff was about medicine and healing and was absolutely gorgeous!  And the third lady was a city girl turned farmer's wife with great stories about learning to live in rural Iowa.

Rick Hillis, our instructor, was great.  He had wonderful feedback for all of us and even hung out with us at a local establishment after class.  We all discussed our journeys and books and The Business.

I had a wonderful time.  *waves at new friends*

Next summer, I hope to take a weeklong class (or two).  If you have the opportunity to do something like this, I'd highly recommend it, if only for the cool people you'll meet.

Oh, and here's a reminder that WriteOnCon is coming up, in case you don't have the funds or the time to go to a real-life convention.  (See the sidebar.)

question...

This just popped into my head:

Is a "rewrite" another rough draft?  Are you just starting from scratch?  Or does it count as a second draft?

Either way, I figure, it's one step closer to the goal.

gearing up for workshop

I posted earlier that I'll be attending the Summer Writing Festival at the University of Iowa.  Well, tomorrow is the big day!  I'm about to print off my piece (the first 20 rewritten pages of OP) to take with me.

There will only be six other attendees, which I think is *awesome*.  That means I'll really get to dig in deep and give detailed feedback to everyone.  I've always found, when it comes to writing classes/workshops, fewer people is better.

I'm so excited!  I'll let you know all about it when I get back on Monday!

revising a story

So most of you know I'm in the middle (okay, beginning) of edits on OP.  And this sucker is going to be HARD!  A whole rewrite with the intention of swapping some of the characters, deepening characterization/description/theme, changing some major plot points, adding 10-30,000 words, etc.

This is not easy stuff.

But I shall prevail!  Do you hear me, OP?  You will not have the best of me!  I mean, you will!  That's the whole point of the revision!

But you want to know a secret?

This is *fun*!  Okay, not at first, not when I was sitting down and trying to figure out how the heck I was going to *make this work*--but now, now that I'm letting myself go in weird and crazy new directions, it's way fun!

I'm giving myself permission to slow down.  My tentative goal is 1,000 words a day, as opposed to the 2,500 I was doing earlier this summer.  It's still faster than I probably should be going, but if I want to finish this rewrite before the holidays, I've gotta motor.

---

Something else: THE PASSAGE is absolutely amazing.  I made my mom go get it yesterday so we could discuss it as we're reading.  This book ABSOLUTELY lives up to his hype.  And guess what?  The author got his MFA from the University of Iowa--where I'm going for a class this weekend!  Yay!

can't blog...

...too busy reading THIS:

OMGOMGOMGSOGOOOOOOOD!!!!

books i read as a teen

Today I discovered a number of blogs based on books I read as a young teen (actually, in middle school, so pre-teen).  Notice they're mostly series books.  Lately I've heard people complaining there aren't any standalone books anymore; there are a million trilogies.  But I get the series thing.  Once you find a book you like, you want more of the same.


Here are some of the books I loved when I was younger:


Sweet Valley High
Christopher Pike novels (Remember Me, Chain Letter)
Fear Street
V.C. Andrews novels (Flowers in the Attic)

Reading through these blogs is like taking a trip down cheesy, angst-ridden memory lane.  Really, a lot of the books were terrible.  The YA stuff that's coming out now is sooooo much better.  And I still love series books... the Gemma Doyle books, Lisa McMann's WAKE series, THE HUNGER GAMES... Mmmmmm...  good stuff.

spoof of christopher pike's REMEMBER ME

Anyone else remember this book?

The weird stuff you can find on the internet...  *shrug*

and now...

...I'm off to a concert!  This video makes me love Ingrid Michaelson even more!

eclipse parody

If only I'd just read this instead of going to the movie...

Just kidding, the movie was better than I'd expected.

too much time

Apparently I have way too much time on my hands, or at least I didn't know what to do with myself while waiting on Sarah's edits (which I just received and are AWESOME).  So I played some Sims 3 and created characters based on OP.  So this is mainly for those of you who've actually, you know, read OP.

Sylvia Bell, our heroine (holding a very important book)...

Sylvia's sister, Mattie...

Their father, Jared Bell, renowned pediatric surgeon...

Sylvia's nemesis, Amber Prescott...

Pity about Sophie...

Gabe arguing with his mother...

Hey, this is an important part of the creative process.  Right?

i think it's funny...

I'm waiting on Sarah's edits, and I get an email from BabyCenter entitled "12 Reasons Babies Cry."  Yes.  My novel makes babies cry.

And also... my baby loves Snoop Dogg.

And also... why is there like a four-year-old mowing my neighbor's lawn?  You think he'd do ours for five bucks?

revision essentials

So I'm settling down to start revisions for OP.  I've found the strangest things are necessary:

1.  Driving.  I have to drive somewhere at the beginning of each day, with the music cranked loud, in order to start the creative process.  This morning, as I drove my daughter to daycare, I listened to each song and asked myself which character it might be the theme song for and why.  Surprisingly, this practice has helped me to make a number of important connections within my story.  (Of course, I had an important breakthrough last night in the middle of ECLIPSE... during one of the slow bits.  So maybe it can be anytime your mind kind of starts to wander, not just while driving.)

2.  Google.  Sometimes I have these crazy ideas, and I just have to find out more.  Like, right now, I need to go look up which drugs or supplements, when taken during pregnancy, can cause which disorders in babies.  This could prove important to my plot!  How did writers function before Google?

3.  Chocolate.  Um.  Need I say more?

writing workshop

I just signed up for a weekend workshop at the Iowa Summer Writing Festival through the University of Iowa, home of the Iowa Writers Workshop.  The class will be taught by Rick Hillis, the author of LIMBO RIVER, a collection of short stories, and THE BLUE MACHINES OF NIGHT, a book of poetry.

Though the class is focused on short stories, I'm bringing the first chapter of OTHER PEOPLE to share.  I suppose it reads like a short story.  It's a little taste of Sylvia's ability and the implications that come with it.  What I'm truly hoping to get out of the workshop will be some feedback on how to deepen my characterization, setting, and themes.

I haven't taken a class like this in, maybe, ten years.  I'm a little nervous, to be honest!

great scene

Gotta love The Devil Wears Prada!


Powered By: VideoBuzz