and on we go

*blows dust off blog*
*clears throat*
*taps mic*

oh my. where in the world have i been?

well, for starters, i was here:

 

that's me in the dress!

and then i was here:

 

when you're having a BIG FAT ITALIAN WEDDING, planning can kind of take over your life. but now things are settling back down, and it's time for BOOKS to rule my life once again!

 

on that note, i have some exciting events coming up in the next few months!

 

first, and most important! i will be celebrating the launch of DEAD ENDS with a signing at Changing Hands on Saturday, September 7th at 5:00. if you're in Arizona, i hope to see you there!

 

coming up in October, i'll be presenting at the SCBWI AZ annual conference, along with an incredible lineup of authors, editors, agents and more (including my own fabulous agent, Literaticat herself, Jennifer Laughran!) click here for more info and registration!

 

then, in December, i'm thrilled to be a guest author for the St. Louis Public Library's incredible Read It Forward program. i went to college (and attempted to write my first novel!) in Missouri, so this event will feel like going home.

 

more news to come, but that might be just about enough for my first blog back! stay tuned...

 

 



The Revision Diaries (3)

this week's installment of the revision diaries (confessions of an author on a deadline!) reads a little like a Goofus and Gallant episode.

side note -- Goofus and Gallant, for those who did not grow up with Highlights magazine, are two boys who get placed in a situation with choices. Goofus always chooses the irresponsible path, while Gallant is more thoughtful.

side note to the side note -- as a kid, i always pronounced it Goofus and Gal-AHNT, because i'm fancy like that.

totally off-topic tangent -- when i was growing up, G&G were drawn with pencils in black and white. but i just checked out the website for Highlights magazine, and those boys are full-color computer graphics now! and guess what else? you can totally play a G&G "choose your own adventure" game online! i played it... twice.

okay, back on topic!

Friday, i was oh-so GalAHNT. i wrote and revised and wrote and revised again. new scenes. reworked scenes. continuity checks. word choices. i stayed on schedule and did not get distracted. very responsible author this day.

Saturday, i woke up a Goofus. i was exhausted from two full days of revisions and decided to put off writing until the afternoon. i ran errands, did chores, chilled out with Handsome. typical Saturday stuff. except this was not supposed to be a typical Saturday, because the Tic-Tock-Deadline-Clock waits for no weekend!
of course, my day got away from me until only the evening was left. at that point, i had to choose between revisions and poker night with friends.
i won the first game, lost the second. net gain: fifteen dollars.

Sunday, the Gallant on my shoulder came to the rescue. i wrote from practically sun up to well after sundown.
and... i finished.
i know! crazy! i so didn't deserve the satisfaction of being done after my Goofus Saturday, but there it is. i reached The End - again. and then i panicked. Goofus and Gallant were perched on each of my shoulders, having an argument:

Goofus: we're done! press send and let's go celebrate.
Gallant: maybe we should have a crit partner look at those scenes we're still concerned about first.
Goofus: naw! we're tired of revising. let's play some more poker.
Gallant: but we haven't fully addressed that one issue our editor mentioned. let's go back to page one and --
Goofus: you're boring!
Gallant: maybe i am, but if we work just a little harder, hopefully no one will say the BOOK is boring.
*poof* Goofus disappears in a ball of smoke.

actually, i compromised. Gallant isn't always right, and he is a little boring sometimes. so i sent the questionable scenes to a crit partner and took Monday and Tuesday to be a Goofus. i hit the gym, hung out with my gal pals and relaxed with Handsome.

Wednesday, i spent all night dealing with that issue Gallant had mentioned until i was satisfied.
Thursday, i thought long and hard about a possible big change i had proposed to my editor and ultimately decided against it (because, among other reasons, i realized my editor is much much smarter than i am.) i tossed out my outlined changes and polished up the newly revised manuscript instead. and THEN i pressed send. Goofus and i are going to have a blast this weekend.

so that's the end of the Revision Diaries for now.
i'm in uncharted waters on this path to publishing, but i hear there are often several rounds of revisions, then copy edits, then bound pages, ARCs, etc... so i expect this "author on a deadline" will have more confessions to come.

the importance of distance

when i hear writers talk about discipline, the advice is usually some form of "BIC" (Butt in Chair): sit down and write, even when you'd rather watch TV or play outside. force yourself to write.

this is excellent advice IN GENERAL. (i think i've already both applauded and criticized the BIC method in this blog.)
but i've realized over the past month that sometimes discipline is forcing yourself to NOT write.
when i got my incredible first beta notes on BILLY D., i was eager to jump right in and start fixing things. that's how i did it with BUTTER - got right to work, and it turned out well - so that's how i should do it this time, right? well, the same method doesn't always yield the same results.

after tearing apart BD's plot (working every day, morning and night, for weeks), i grew so frustrated, i nearly considered trunking it. i was unable to let go of passages i loved, so i squished them into new scenes where they didn't belong. i shoved my characters into situations and conversations they wouldn't naturally be in, so their voices didn't ring true. basically, i was making the book worse, because i was trying to force the manuscript into shape under some crazy self-imposed deadline instead of slowing down to let the first draft speak to me.

finally, after weeks of stress, Handsome said to me: "I think you need to get off books for a few days."
just like that. like books/writing are a drug you can overdose on.

well, Handsome is very wise, so i followed his advice. i took a whole week to clean the house, catch up on TIVO, chat on twitter - anything but touch my writing files.

when i did return to writing, i still felt a knot in my stomach about BD, so i worked on SOMETHING ELSE. i fleshed out the outline for GRIM, wrote a couple scenes and let myself feel the freedom of first-drafting.

once the wheels were spinning, i returned to BD, and surprise! it didn't seem nearly so daunting. over the next 48 hours, i deleted like crazy and churned out about 5,000 new words. that got me to a point in the manuscript where i know what needs to be added and which upcoming scenes need to go. i'm back in the groove, because i forced myself to walk away and come back later with a fresh perspective.

so, yes, "Butt in Chair" is good advice.
but so is getting your butt OUT of the chair and walking around in the real world for a little while to clear your mind.

lucky pug

this is NOT about writing.

also, it is probably funny ONLY to me and handsome.
and it is funny to NO ONE without the volume turned up.



hope you're having a good weekend!

Jack Master

Handsome and i were talking recently about whether it is better to be a jack of all trades or a master of one. he considers himself a jack, and i'd have to agree. i don't think there's a thing on this planet he doesn't know something about. (seriously, you want this guy on your trivial pursuit team.) i constantly ask him, "how do you know stuff?" and he'll shrug and say, "i read."
but it's not just the reading, the knowing, it's the doing. he has skills ranging from art to home improvement that blow me away.

i envy his wide range, while he envies my commitment to writing. he thinks getting published makes me something of a "master" of the writing craft. i, of course, flat out reject that. to me, a master is somebody who wins the Nobel Prize in Literature or something dramatic like that. heck, i don't even write those types of books. i am far from being a master writer and further yet from even desiring that. but i guess putting a book out into the world does make me something more than just a jack of the trade.
similarly, in my other calling - journalism - i will never win, nor even strive to win, a Pulitzer. but i'm pretty proud of my two shiny Emmys - representing something in between jack and master.

the other loves of my life fall all over the jack-master scale.
- i'm no guitar pro, but i know the chords and can hold my own around a campfire.
- i’m pretty good at puzzles, but i’ll never be one of those people who can solve a rubik's cube in 30 seconds, blindfolded.
- i am, however, a master of Bear Claw. you know, those machines with the mechanical arms that pick up stuffed animals? i kind of rock at that.
(side story – i used to run a bit of a scam at the roller skating rink when i was young. kids would give me a dollar to win them a prize. i’d use a quarter to get the toy on the first try, then pocket the remaining 75 cents. i made a killing… for a 12 year old.)
to this day, Handsome will hand me a dollar now and then at the super market Bear Claw and ask me to win him something, just to see me do it. and I have to say, i’ve still got it. ;)

but aside from my mad Bear Claw skills, i’m really not aiming to be the master of any one thing or a jack of all things. i’m aiming for somewhere in between.
i want to try my hand at a lot of things… be passable at some of them... get pretty darn good at even fewer… and hope to come out -not necessarily a master- but at least REALLY GOOD at two or three things – a Jack Master, if you will.

that’s just my own personal goal.
but i will continue to be amazed by folks at both ends of the scale.
(side note: a great place to see both jacks and masters in action is on the show Pawn Stars, on the History Channel. it's astounding how much those guys know about history and cars and sports and just everything. and it's even more astonishing to see those jacks bring in the masters when they need a truly expert opinion.)

what about you? are you a Jack of all, a Master of one? or are you like me and aiming for the in-between?

word count wednesday 3 and a story

well, we’ve hit the halfway mark. NaNo sure makes November go by fast!

i’m at 29,519 words, and i’ve hit the climax of my story.. or the build up to the climax.. or the build up to the incident that triggers the climax.. or something. anyway, we’re getting somewhere.

so, today is the one year anniversary of the event that pretty much ended NaNo for me last year.
i came home that night planning to grab some dinner, let my dog out and get over to a write-in going on at a local bookstore. i never made it.
because when i got home that night, my gate was open and my door unlocked. a quick trip through my house - that made me want to throw up in a way i’d never quite felt before - confirmed that strangers had been there, had gone through my very personal items, had stolen my family heirlooms and plenty of other things.
i spent the next three days talking to police, insurance agents and security specialists. i replaced the locks, installed surveillance cameras and woke up terrified in the middle of the night. i did not write a word.

it was weeks before i realized everything that was gone and months before i stopped checking my closets with a huge kitchen knife in hand every single time i came home. i don’t remember when i started writing again, but i know that i wish i’d started sooner.

writing is therapy, escape, distraction and occasionally – revenge. (those chapters of a non-existent book are filed away on my hard drive, never to be seen by the public. they contain way too many curse words, but they sure made me feel a lot better!)
i was writing the first time my power went out after the burglary, and i’m grateful for that because i was so focused on finding a flashlight, pen and paper to finish my thoughts that i forgot to be frightened.

my point is... life can give us a lot of good excuses to not write, but you might find in those tough times that turning to your writing - instead of away from it - can actually help you through something... and that your life experiences (good or bad) can inform your writing in a way that makes it feel richer and more real.

now, as for this year - the only excuse i have for possibly falling behind on NaNo is the fact that the full version of "Angry Birds" was finally released for Android, and i am in a race with Handsome to see who can beat the game first. :p

while on sub

while on submission to publishers, it's important to keep your mind off the process by finding other things to occupy your time.

the most common advice online is to write something else.

yeah, that's all well and good and probably what you should be doing, but for me - it's not a great distraction, because working on my WIP makes me think about writing.. which leads to thinking about other books i've written.. which leads to thinking about the book that's on sub.. which leads to obsessive email checking!

i find these distractions much healthier:

1) remodel your bathroom.
- start by planning just to paint. then, of course, notice some water damage that has to be dealt with first and proceed to hire a contractor to tear out a wall and part of your ceiling. hire another contractor to replace your skylights so the water damage does not return. after this, decide there's no point in painting without a new bathroom door to complete the look. have Handsome spend a week rebuilding the door and the entire frame. spend days and days repeatedly dusting up the debris left behind by this work. also, have Handsome photoshop the heck out of your bathroom, so you have a vision before painting. tape off the entire bathroom so it's completely unusable, then proceed to lose all interest in the project.
(because, um, how can you possibly worry about painting when your book is on sub and you have to go check your email?!)

2) take a vacation that requires 4 plane rides and two long car trips.
- be sure to get lost in the car on the way to your destination so that you have to concentrate on arguing with your family and navigating with your cell phone.
(turn right here. now turn left. uhhh... what's that? i don't know the next road. i turned off google maps to check my email. i'm on sub, you know!)

3) reprogram your tivo.
- use entertainment magazines to chart your fall TV schedule. settle on the couch, prepared to program, and notice Handsome has hooked up a PlayStation 3 to the TV. great! video games will be a perfect distraction! demand Handsome show you how to use it. then, naturally, discover the coolest thing the PS3 does is surf the web - turning your TV into the world's largest computer monitor.
(omg. do you know what website would look awesome on a 50-inch monitor? my email inbox.)

4) focus on your day job.
- pay particular attention to your email inbox at work. 600 emails a day is a lot to wade through. it's a great time suck to keep your mind off sub.
(and you'll get to it... right after you check the (1) message in your gmail inbox.)

strange things at stoplights 3

actually, today's edition of strange things at stoplights is more like... inspirational things at stoplights.

i snapped this one yesterday morning while stuck in rush hour traffic in the parking lot - i mean, on the freeway - headed home from handsome's house.

you see so many silly things on license plates these days, but using your car's rear real estate to send a positive message like this is rare.
it got me thinking about the things in life i bitch about and the things i'm grateful for. there are too many to list, so let's stick with those applicable to writing.

have you ever said any of these things?
-i don't have time to write.
-i'm still not published.
-this process takes forever.
-i don't waaannnnnaaaa revise!!

yes? me too. every single one of them. but honestly, i have a lot more to be thankful for than i have to complain about.
- a wonderful community/support group of writers at AW
- supportive parents who love to read
- a job that rarely, if ever, requires me to bring work home.. so that my home time is free time and thus, potentially writing time
- agents who are gracious enough to write lengthy, descriptive letters with suggestions on how to improve my work
- a boyfriend who understands if i need time to myself to write

and the list just goes on.

what are you grateful for?

on second thought...

...maybe i won't pass out compliments.

i just don't feel like it, and you all don't really deserve it.


APRIL FOOLS!!!

of course i'm still giving compliments!!

in honor of hitting my first little blog milestone - ten followers - i am making good on my promise and fattening up your egos with some well-deserved flattery.

Emmychka - Emily runs three blogs AND tweets AND works as a missionary in the Ukraine. AND she manages to stay on top of all that while working closely with children, who i imagine demand quite a lot of time and attention. now THAT is dedication, people! i'm so impressed by Emily's many blogs and reading some of her posts challenged preconceived ideas i had before i dove in. Emily wants to be a YA author someday. this is something that requires a lot of writing, determination, dedication and faith... and Emily - those are skills you have in spades!

Stone - it's my long lost buddy Dan! anyone who knows how much i love halloween will know how huge this compliment is that i am about to pay. i do believe Dan Stone had the best halloween costume i've ever seen. a full 3 halloweens ago, Dan did not just dress up like L. Ron Hubbard... he nailed it - scientology brochures and all - and didn't break character once.
Genius!
See how talented Dan is here, at his website.

Kate - i know Kate's not in it for the link love, but i'm going to link her up anyway. click here to see how broad her talents are. you will be humbled. sure, you can write. but can you also quilt and sew and speak spanish and grow a garden all while raising two kids and working? Kate Hart can. it's okay to be jealous. oh, AND she contributes to YA highway, quickly becoming THE must-read website of the YA blogosphere. but you know what's cooler than all of that? Kate still finds time to follow a billion other YA bloggers. i know this, because i see her face smiling up from the followers section of just about every blog i click on. Kate, you rock!

....ummm, i have to pause now and apologize. if i keep the compliments this long, this blog post will be long enough to stretch around the world twice, so i'm going to have to be more concise. JUST AS FLATTERING... but more concise.

now back to business.

Annie - Annie has, in my opinion, the best writing blog title around. Reading, Writing, and Waiting. wish i'd thought of it! also, follow the link to see why Annie McElfresh is one rockin' query writer! so good that in a world full of agents plastering the internet with examples of what NOT to do in a query, Annie's query got posted as an example of how to get it right!



Lauren - it's hard to pick one nice thing to say about someone you've known for 15 years, so allow me to say three. Lauren Carter is a triple threat - singer, dancer, actress - and tremendous at all three. she's a dreamer who does more than imagine, she goes out and gets - chasing down dreams in a way most people never have the balls to do. and finally, can you say STUNNING? (that's her modeling for the cover of siri mitchell's next book. cool, huh?!)



Gem - a fearless self-editor, brave enough to strip away character traits and remold her MC for the good of the story. tremendously kind for reaching out to a fellow writer walking the same path to publishing and sharing experiences so that i may learn and offering to help me along my own path. (and hopefully forgiving of that poorly formed sentence.) finally, check out this blog by Gem for a beautiful example of how to be a writer, even outside the pages of your manuscript. we can all learn from her.

damn, i can't seem to make these shorter. i'm really going to try for brevity now... for reals this time.

Suzanne - check out Suzanne's blog for two of the cutest bunnies you've ever seen and some truly inspiring photos. Suzanne's mad photo skills demonstrate the kind of creative eye some writers only dream of posessing.

Daphne - you should all be so lucky to have a friend like this. the kind who doesn't need a call to just show up on your doorstep late at night to hold your hand, after hearing some evil bastards broke into your house and stole family heirlooms and violated your privacy and threatened your safety. and you should all be so lucky to hear this angel sing. Daphne Adato can WAIL!

Michael L - the very definition of a family man, putting wife and child first and still somehow billed as "best friend" to no fewer than half a dozen people. one of the smartest, most creative and talented people i've ever known. you've heard 'jack of all trades but master of none?' well, meet the master of many. few people are lucky enough to be SO good at SO much.

and last but not least...

Matt - i could gush for quite a long time about this one, but in the interest of ending this blog post already, i'll sum up:
funny, smart, supportive, generous and look!

sooooo handsome!

but hands off, ladies! get your own charming, clever, talented and handsome! this one's mine. :)

WHEW!!!
i don't even want to tell you how long this post took me to write, but let's just say handsome will NOT be pleased when he shows up in 20 minutes and sees i've done NOTHING to get ready tonight.
better run! see ya!
(please forgive typos, poor spelling and worse grammar in this post. i don't have time to copy edit.)