The Dark Faerie Tales site has featured Prophecy of Days as the Waiting on Wednesday pick! Totally exciting - the cover looks gorgeous on her dark and beautiful website. Thanks Angela!

Check it out here!

Happy Hoo Oc To You!

Since I’m mildly obsessed with the Maya calendar system, I’ve been enforcing the celebration of our Maya birthdays around here. You can imagine how difficult that has been with children, especially since your birthday rolls around every 260 days!

Tomorrow is Hoo Oc (Five Dog), which happens to be Scott’s birthday. Look at how beautiful tomorrow's date is in its full glyphic expression:

It has been 1,870,870 days since the beginning of the Long Count calendar—the calendar that’s got everyone in a froth because it ends on December 12, 2012.

1,870,870 days down, 1130 days to go…

Want a pictograph of a special day? Click here!

Writers are weird, man!

There’s an excellent article in the Wall Street Journal about how writers write. I found it really fascinating—especially Richard Powers who lays around in bed speaking his novels aloud and Nicholson Baker who wakes at 4 a.m. to write in gray on a black screen so he can’t see it, then goes back to bed and wakes at 8:30 to edit what he had written in his semi-lucid state. Writers are an odd lot!

For more, check out the WSJ article here.

And in other news, The Book Resort featured a little interview with me today. Read all about my fascinating relationship with the Golden Oreo, among other tidbits.

Kindle Giveaway!

The Universe doled out a new Kindle to authors Laura and Lisa (The Haunting of Pemberly Brown, Sourcebooks 2011) and they’re generously passing it along to one lucky blog reader. Go here to enter. Gifts passed on via The Universe generally have magical powers, so don’t dawdle my friends! The bonus is that Lisa And Laura’s blog also happens to be hilarious.

Prospect of Owning Magical Kindle

+

Endlessly Funny Blog

=

Great Use of Your Time

Gnomeo, Gnomeo wherefore art thou, Gnomeo?

For Halloween this year the kids went as Gnomeo and Juliet.

Gnomeo’s hat made him easy to find when we went downtown for the parade.

My favorite costume? The guy who put a Fortune Telling Booth over his Segway and cruised around. Look at the throngs of people behind him - the whole town shows up to walk down Main Street.

Gnomeo tried his luck with Zoltar (see the tiny red hat tip? He's got a couple of G-Men watching his back...). Gnomeo's fortune: Smartees.

Admission of guilt: Bribery of a minor

If you are 1) judgy or 2) have only one child or 3) are really into birthdays, you may not want to read on.

We just bought our child out of a sixth birthday party. I couldn’t handle the planning and preparation, nor could I wade through the 40-something children in kindergarten to figure out whom to invite. So we gave Hank a choice: a shopping spree at Toys R Us or a party. He took about .073 seconds to consider the options.

It was the best birthday ever. We went out to breakfast where he was allowed to order chocolate chip pancakes and hot chocolate and then immediately shuttled him to the store to channel the chocolate energy. The only think that makes me bitchier than a dose of Sudafed is being trapped in Toys R Us (the plastic! the neon! the electronic noises!) so I left to run errands while Scott patiently waded through aisles of toys with Hank and shopping consultant, Juliet. Hank made some great choices within the amount of money we gave him and even offered to buy his sister a game.

No invites, no gift bags, no kindergarten boys jacked up on cake and ice cream. I plan to offer this choice every year! If nothing else it’s good angst fodder for when he grows up and realizes he doesn’t have any birthday party photos.

But before you judge me for my child bribery, regard the joy!

Sleeping in Piles and Growing Up

I’ve become obsessed with a line from the Where the Wild Things Are movie and I can’t stop saying it in my head. It was a little after Max had arrived to the island; he and the wild things had been running around trashing the place and having a great time and then they stop and talk about all the fun stuff they’ll do and Max adds, “And we’ll all sleep together in a real pile!” And they do. And Max is happy.

This sentence, this sentiment really struck a chord with me.

I think the movie did an amazing job of echoing the sadness of growing up. There is terror in getting older—terror in family dynamics changing, friends changing, self changing. I can distinctly remember times in my own childhood when even just a minor shift in how things were would make me long for a way to freeze time. I wanted to be able to rewind life so that I could unravel what was becoming increasingly complex. There were many small moments in the film that seemed to shine a ray of light on those terrors, but for me nothing seemed to illuminate them as fully as the phrase: “And we’ll all sleep together in a real pile.”

Maybe if you had to pin down a formative moment of sadness in childhood, it might come when you get too big to lie/sleep on your parent. At some point it becomes either inappropriate or just plain uncomfortable and the one feeling of ultimate security is no longer available to you. That physical sense of disconnectedness changes you inside.

Tonight on the couch, my daughter was draped over me for so long that my legs fell totally asleep. I consciously felt my limbs go from tingles to pins-and-needles to complete numbness. I just rolled with it. I didn’t want to move her, didn’t want her to feel responsible for the growth that will, not long from now, make it impossible for her to lie in a pile on me.

Disconnection happens on many levels, but I think we feel it first on the physical.

Author Photo - Gas Me Up Next Time

Of course I waited until 8 hours before my author photo was due to the publisher to have them taken. It's not much, but it's all I could do with the raw materials I was given. Thanks to photographer Joan Kleen for her patience with me - given the choice between gum replacement surgery and a photo session, I'll take the dentist chair every time! Unless I can find a photographer who can give me gas in that little vanilla-scented nose cone before the shoot.

PS: I seem to have misplaced my eyes. If anyone finds them, could you send them to me? Thanks a million.

I love you, Story Siren!

This totally made my week! Check out the link here. I love Story Siren even more than Häagen-Dazs Carmel Cone ice cream - and that's saying something!

The Muse and The Omen

After a particularly horrible week of work, I decided to run away. I called my Mom Thursday night to see if the cabin was open and left right after work on Friday to see how much I could get done on Book 2. Here’s a photo montage of my weekend of writing.

The Venue

The View

The Ambiance

The Muse

The Best Part

The Omen (found on the doorstep when I arrived)

Good or Bad?

A Nine-Year-Old Takes On Politics

Today my daughter ran for fourth grade president and came out with a victory! Here's the winning speech she wrote last night:

Juliet’s Fourth Grade President Speech

Hello! As you know, my name is Juliet and I’d like to be your president. Why would I be a good president? First, I’m very organized – just look in my desk! Second, if anyone has ideas on how to improve the school, come right up to me anytime and tell me. I think good ideas come from everyone. Third, I’m not bossy. I would never tell anyone to do something without saying please unless it was urgent. Fourth, I try to be nice to everyone I meet. If you are having a problem with someone you can talk to me and I’ll help you. It’s not fun to be bullied, and trust me I have experienced bullying before and I will not, repeat not, ever bully anyone in the whole world. Fifth, I have some really good ideas for raising money for the Zoo Snooze so we can definitely go. Last, my little brother Hank, who is super cute and smart, REALLY wants me to be elected! (He made me write that.) Thanks for considering me for your Fourth Grade President!

Now she's power-hungry and climbing the ladder - at dinner she mentioned wanting to run for Student Council president so she could be president of the presidents... To what end, Juliet? To what end?

Cheap Thrills

Here’s something I’ll never get used to: reading a blog and seeing my book cover on it! What a thrill. Thanks to Kelsey at Reading Keeps You Sane, Kate at The Neverending Shelf, and Sab at Crystal Reviews for featuring my new cover! We debut authors love love love you blog reviewers.

XO

Book Cover Art!

I'm told there will be foil on the circular symbol. Mmm, shiny!

What do you think?

Into the Wild: The Hypocrite's Edition

Lately the kids and I have been taking walks in the woods behind our house after work. These are the same woods I played in as a child, but without any parental supervision. My sister and I would walk up the hill then down through the gulley where a creek ran, following it all the way to the waterfall where it got too steep to climb. Then we’d tack right and hike up to what we called The Big Rocks—granite boulders the size of tanks—and come back down to play in the muddy irrigation canal that traversed the steep hill and brought water from the mountain lakes to the valley’s farms and orchards. This was our playground.

The summer of my senior year, my friend Dennis and I would make plans for late-night rendezvous up at the canal when our parents had gone to sleep. Truly a friendship, there was never any romantic intention to these meetings but I do remember it being magical in the way life is when you are sixteen and sneaking away to sit on the side of a mountain by a canal with a boy, stars winking above you and the town lights winking below. Like Moon Flowers, the long philosophical conversations we had on the phone bloomed more fully in the night air.

What amazes me now is how fearless I was then, popping the screen out of my window and climbing out to run off into the dark. The trail to the canal was so heavily wooded that even on a moonlit night it would be black as a cave. I knew the trail by heart, though, and ran the mile or so without stopping. I never thought of cougars or madmen or bears or snakes—all absolutely real threats in those woods—and if someone had warned me, I would have rolled my eyes. Dying is impossible at that age. Danger is like a free and easy drug when the fragility of life is such a foreign idea.

As I walk the trails as an adult with my own kids, I’m torn. The relationship those woods and I have is as important and as meaningful as any childhood friendship, and the freedom we were given to roam was instrumental in shaping my sense of independence and capability.

Will I allow that for my own kids? I don’t know. I wish I could say yes but I’m still not sure.

How do you feel about kids running off into the wild?

What Would You Take?

Today the kids had to evacuate the school and we had to evacuate our house due to a raging fire that got far too close for comfort. You think you know exactly what you’d take in a situation like this, but after I’d secured our laptops in the car I was at a loss. I’d had the presence of mind to grab my favorite Estee Lauder face powder brush and then just sort of wandered aimlessly through the house. Photos could be reprinted. Clothing could be replaced by a couple of trips to Target. Shoes? Bags? I’d wanted to pare down. It was weird how unsentimental I was when it came right down to it, though I did get the kids’ baby boxes—all the special little bits and bobs one keeps—on the last run through.

The fire is not yet contained. As I type, helicopters are still dropping loads of water on the hillside. But we are safe and we have each other. And a very good powder brush.

When Worlds Collide

After Prophecy of Days sold last year, I started a new manuscript—a twist on a ghost story that involves a teen girl, her triplet brothers, and a Buddhist monastery. It's one of those ideas that came fully formed, and I'm not sure from where. I took a few classes at a Buddhist monastery in Seattle, but that was over a decade ago and I haven't set foot in one since.

Meanwhile, in my other life, I started a new job. When I applied for the position the company was in another building, and since accepting the job on July 1 and starting on August 12, the company moved to a great new space in Ashland. When I showed up the first day, I discovered that my desk looks directly at this:

Intrigued by the strange design, I went over at lunch to investigate what this oddly constructed building will be. I’d love to say I was blasé when I found it was the first newly built urban Tibetan Buddhist center in the United Sates, but I am wired to find synchronicity. Here’s a photo of what the finished construction will look like from the back, what I will see from my office:

Every day when I come to work I park not 20 feet from this jobsite. The eight or nine hours I’m at my desk I look directly at the construction. There are all sorts of cheesy metaphors that I could make between constructing a building and building a novel, or concepts I could apply to the writing process, like patience and attention to detail. But mostly I just like to watch this thing being built, piece by piece, day by day. In a strange way it has made me relax into the process of selling a book. And it’s given me a new, longer timeline—I like to believe that this manuscript will come to fruition at the same time construction finishes and the Tibetan Lamas move in. If I had to guess based on its current state vis a vis finished architectural drawings, I’d say it might be a while. But really, who can tell with these things?

Tears and Coffee

Today was Hank's first day of kindergarten!

Now I have two kids at the same school—a first!

Since we're just two blocks from Bellview it's a nice little walk.

I admit I teared up a little as I said goodbye. The teacher's aide helped me with some distraction so I could leave without making a scene. However, tears turned to joy when I went for coffee with Mom right after drop off.

How can you be sad around such a beautiful vehicle for caffeine? The accompanying Tartine with ham and thyme butter was camera shy but equally gorgeous.

Creepiness in the Woods - Redux

Do you remember a few months ago when I posted about the Cat Psycho at my Dad’s house? If you need a refresher, the post is here. Basically, he had left his house, which is in the middle of nowhere and protected by a gate with a code, to run some errands and when he got back his big black cat—still inside the house—was wearing a shiny new red collar. The same collar, in fact, that can be seen in a painting that is also inside his house. Nothing was missing, nothing was trashed. Which is, of course, the creepiest part.

Other odd things started happening. A sandwich that had been left for a moment outside would be relocated. Items would go missing and then return in odd places. They even called the sheriff at one point, but realized they sounded insane when mentioning things like sandwiches being moved around on the patio and cats being collared while they were gone.

For months, it remained a mystery of creepy proportions.

A couple of weeks ago, neighbors up the hill came by to say they were moving. Something about a new job and better care for their daughter, who, they finally confided, was schizophrenic. These neighbors mentioned they couldn’t take many of the potted plants they had outside and invited my Dad to go by and pick them up if he wanted them. Once the neighbors were gone they went over to get the plants. It was then that they noticed that a small section of fence near the back of the property was missing. They went to investigate and found a path through the woods that led—you guessed it—right to the edge of my Dad’s acreage. From the looks of the trail, the girl had been on the path trhough the woods hundreds of times.

It makes sense now: A mentally ill girl trapped with her parents on a mountain looking for something interesting to do. They had been there a couple of years and you have to wonder how many times the girl had watched them from the woods, let herself in to their house, walked around among their things, left with something small and meaningless.

The question is, what would be worse—never solving the mystery or realizing that you’d been watched for years?

Easy Bake

One of the great things about having kids is the nostalgia for one’s own childhood that comes with the various phases that roll by. For instance, as a child I was the number-one fan of the Easy Bake Oven, which is saying a lot considering I didn’t even own one. My friend Holly had one and every time I went out for a sleepover I’d lay awake sending her a singular telepathic thought: Wake up and give Christy your Easy Bake Oven.

It never happened.

My joy in making tiny baked goods in tiny cookware has not diminished in the decades since I coveted Holly’s oven, so when my daughter’s Easy Bake phase was in full force I was all over it. We’ve had frog phases, fizzy experiment phases, and Lite Brite phases, all of which I’ve enjoyed. But this new phase was one I’d forgotten all about and it brought back waves of joy: the paint-by-numbers phase.

My sister is an artist and yet I have absolutely no skill when it comes to drawing or painting. I’m decent with visual design, but if you asked me to create any piece of fine art you’d assume I’d done it left handed. And blindfolded. I’m simply incapable of translating what I see to the page or canvas in pictures, which is why I found so much comfort in paint-by-number kits as a kid. It was pure magic, the way you could follow the formula and end up with something that, to my young eyes, looked completely professional.

Being able to produce a painting of a lighthouse or a fawn was like all of a sudden knowing how to perform surgery or fly an airplane – a skill that had been completely out of my grasp was now within reach. Of course, it was an illusion of skill but does that matter? I can’t decide if it does or not. I just knew it made me happy.

I think I’ll give it a try this weekend. And I might pull out the old Easy Bake while I’m at it.

I am datum!

I am swooning, literally.

I'm actually physically dizzy because I just saw my name in the Library of Congress! I don't think anyone has ever been this excited to be datum! I know I must seem like a total dork to get so excited about this, but honestly getting my ISBN and being in the LOC database has been what I've looked forward to more than holding an actual book in my hands...

Cover Tease....

I got to see my cover this week! After hearing many stories of disappointment from fellow authors who have hated their covers, I have been really, really dreading the moment when I got the cover art. So when I saw an email from my editor titled "POD Cover” I gasped. Then I yelled for Scott and the kids to come in with me while I opened the file.

First there was this:

Hi Christy, We had our cover meeting today and everyone fell in love with the cover that’s attached. It was done by Kevin Brown (did I mention he was the cover artist I was hoping would do this?) and I think it’s stunning.

I really love this. It incorporates a lot of different icons from the book (the Three Hares, the Fraternis tattoo, the Tzolkin sigils, the Scottish rings) and gives us a good look with which we can continue in the second book. It’s got that ominous quality to it which I think will work well to sell the more mysterious elements of the story. Thoughts?

And then I opened it. We all screamed, “Cool!” at the same time, which I think is a good sign. Plus, there’s foil involved. Shiny!

It’s probably not for everyone. I hope there are teen girls who will appreciate mysterious and ominous over light and pretty. I certainly do, but I am also quite odd.

I wish I could show you now but I’ve been instructed to wait two weeks for final art. What was revealed was just one of the concepts presented at the cover meeting so now it goes for polish and perfection.

Believe me, the minute I get a finished .jpg it will be all over the place!

I'm up in the cupboard, right behind the flakes...

I saw this on PR Newswire:

"Brain Injury Survivor Recovers, Releases Novel on 2012 and the Mayan Calendar"

I wonder how they'll position my release.

Inspiration v. Aspiration

I’m back. Arrived home late last night to a massive, low-slung moon and a clear sky full of stars. I’ve been away for almost two weeks; long enough to miss the summer scent of Oregon, miss seeing the mountains we’re tucked below, miss the soft cheeks of my kids.

The conference was exhausting but crucial. In years past I’ve always focused on the “craft” sessions, taking away loads of inspiration for writing. This year I attended the ProTrack (sessions for authors who are published or in the process of getting published) and the focus was different—it was all about the selling and marketing of a book. So instead of leaving inspired, I left with lists of things I need to do to have my books succeed. The list is long.

But today I am going to enjoy being home. I won’t think about niche markets or Bookscan or whether B&N will like my covers. Maybe we’ll go to the lake or the park or the ice cream shop. Maybe we’ll barbeque and have a picnic under the big Sweetgum tree that shades our patio.

Here, the possibilities for inspiration are endless.

SCBWI Update!

I’m here! Arrived Thursday night and had drinks with Paul, Graeme, SarahFrances, Katie, Shelli, and Kimberly. Then got up at the crack of dawn to register right when it opened - I was dying to see which editor I have for my manuscript critique. I nearly fainted when I saw it was Wendy Loggia, Editorial Director of Delacorte Press at Random House, one of the biggest editors here. Now I’m terrified that I have to talk to Wendy Loggia at 8 AM...

But onward! Sherman Alexie gave one of the best speeches about writing and books that I’ve ever heard. We laughed, we cried...then we bought very book he’d ever written.

Then I went to Wendy Loggia’s talk – you know, sort of pre-critique stalking. Loved her. She’s very warm and charming and not too scary until you start to remember the massive number if bestsellers she’s edited.

Now for the best part of the day: Lunch with the YA Bloggers Khy, Catt, Alicia and Vania! All of the Tenners here at the conference met them at Pink Taco and as we were gathered around outside they were so into the authors that they did not even look twice when Magic Johnson and his entourage walked right by us into the restaurant. However, Lindsey Leavitt and I nearly peed ourselves.

KHY WITH MONKEY

These young women who review YA books online wield a lot of power, but they are the sweetest people you will ever meet. Khy even made personalized gift bags for everyone! We all nearly cried when we received them, and one author quipped that her husband wasn’t even this thoughtful. My gift bag included Mayan cacao powder, Mayan worry dolls, a castle that grows 600 times its size in water, a corn husk (because I love the smell of corn husks!), an amazingly cute monkey, and a mini book on origami (in my book, the monkey communicates through origami). Khy did this for every author there and we so appreciated how much time and energy she (and her beautiful mother) put in to researching us to put together just the right bags. Thanks again, Khy!

It was a blast to meet Catt, who gave me my first WoW review and also became the first person ever to ask for my autograph! Catt, you are amazing! Thanks to all of you who came to the lunch to talk with us.

CATT & ALICIA

The evening was great fun reconnecting with old friends. Today is a full day of sessions plus a luncheon for the “published authors” here. That’s a table I’ve always wanted to join and I’m pinching myself that the dream is coming true!

No writing, but lots of fun!

We’ve been busy here in Estes Park – chasing Pikas, hiking, ghost hunting… My eyeballs are too fried from a day at the lake to type much, but I’ll post some pics.

Beginning our hike around Bear Lake

Juliet spotting a big Rainbow Trout

A Pika spotting us!

What started as a 1-mile hike tuned in to a 6-mile hike. The kids were troopers, but Hank did need a lift here and there.

Hitting the Stanley Hotel for some ghost hunting

Communing with the ghosts!

Edits, check! Ginko, check! Ghosts, Check!

I just finished my edits on Book One and hit the "send" button! I was able to shave off 10 more pages on this round, so now it's coming in at a positively svelte 298. It's amazing how unsentimental you get on the 3,456th reading of your own work; I was slashing and burning with abandon.

And now a quick shower and then to the airport. We fly to Colorado this afternoon for a Raedeke family reunion in Estes Park, elevation 7,522. Yes, there will be gasping. We’re loading up on ginko because the interwebz said to. It also says that regular Coke is an excellent remedy for altitude sickness and my kids are more than happy to test that one out. Sweet caffeine, what will you do to an excitable five year old?

I’m excited to poke around in Rocky Mountain National Park and to do some whitewater rafting. I’m also anxious to get to the haunted Stanley Hotel, the place that inspired the setting for Stephen King’s The Shining. Redrum!

Between caffeine, rambunctious counsins, and ghosts, this promises to be a sleepless vacation for the children. Ah, summer!

Record highs, pressure mounts

As I turned 43 yesterday, I heard the door of middle age creak open for me. I’m not quite ready to walk through—not sure if I’ll ever be. Maybe when the time comes I’ll get on my knees and go through the dog door. For now, my feet and my delusions stay firmly planted on the side of youth.

I don’t lament the “growing old” part of aging, l lament the pressure to do more with less time in front of me.

We had a record- high temperature yesterday—108. As I am wont to find meaning in even the most trivial things, I took this as a really good sign. 108 on my birthday! It satisfies my left hemisphere because mathematically speaking 108 is considered an “abundant number” and it satisfies my right hemisphere because 108 is a sacred number in many ancient traditions.

But physically speaking, 108 sucks. It’s hot.

I’m trying to finish my revision on Book One before we leave for Colorado on Saturday and the combination of my fleeting youth, the record-high temperatures, and the revision deadline is adding up to one hell of a pressure cooker...

I am 6 years old in Dog Years

With 43 candles I can boil 5.3 ounces of water. The moon was waxing gibbous on the day I was born and my Native American Zodiac sign is Salmon. My life path number is 3, which means I have “skills in the verbal realm” of writing, speaking, acting, or similar endeavors.

For heaps of trivial trivia the day you were born, click on this Birthday Calculator. Fun stuff if you can tolerate the synthesizer version of, “You Say It’s Your Birthday” playing in the background…

And it hurt...

Nine years ago today I delivered my first blogger! Click HERE to see what she's up to...

Happy Birthday, Juliet!

Spelunking the Lava Tubes

My friends and I are usually good planners, but this time we kind of lost it. In the hottest month of the year, we decided to pack up our kids and head to Oregon’s High Desert where it’s even hotter. Apparently that wasn’t punishing enough, so we headed across the border to the Lava Beds National Monument in Northern California to really sweat.

It’s a bizarre landscape. As soon as you cross into California you see the long, flat expanse of Tule Lake, infamous for being the largest internment camp for Japanese-Americans during World War II. Lawson Inada, Oregon’s current Poet Laureate and the father of my good friend, was held there as a child and he’s written of it in his book Legends From Camp.

Once you pass Tule Lake and its population of huge white pelicans you enter Lava Beds National Monument, a moonscape of black rocks and cinder cones. There are over 750 caves there so everywhere you look you can imagine a subterranean world of bats and other creatures of the night.

We’d forgotten half of the flashlights and a lot of the water, so we had to bumble through caves sharing torches. At one point Joan pulled out her iPhone to use the flashlight feature, but it didn’t seem to be ranked for cave use. I’m not sure why we couldn’t get it together and plan better—I suppose in the searing bright light of the high desert it’s hard to imagine you’d need light—but it did make it more of an adventure.

The rag-tag bunch of spelunkers prepares to enter their first Lava Tube.

The descent into Skull Cave.

Enjoying a respite from the heat - from 104 degrees to 55 degrees in ten easy paces!

Way down at the bottom of Skull Cave the temperature never goes above freezing and this pool of ice never thaws...

Historical footnote:

This was Modoc Indian country and their legacy lives on through the huge collection of rock art in the caves. During the Modoc War of 1872-1873, a small band of Modoc Indians used an intimate knowledge of the volcanic terrain to their tactical advantage. Under the leadership of Kintpuash (Captain Jack), the Modocs hid in "Captain Jacks Stronghold," a natural lava fortress and for five months held off US Army forces numbering up to ten times their strength. Go Modocs!

Pass It On...

Author Kay Cassidy, supreme marketer, ex-cheerleader, Mensa member (for real!) has nominated me for a Kreativ Blogger Award. Thanks Kay! Kay has created an amazing game for librarians and kids called The Great Scavenger Hunt Contest—check it out, it’s ingenious! Looking forward to having a book out so I can participate as well.

So, for the blog award I must list seven favorite things and nominate seven fellow bloggers.

The seven favorites that came to mind first are:

-Reading in bed in the morning

-Warm, glossy brownies

-Nebulae

-The sound of my kids laughing hysterically

-Travel - anywhere

-A frosty Gin & Tonic

-Handbags

I’m nominating these blog friends:

Corey Schwartz at "Thing 1 and Thing 2"

Tess Hilmo at her eponymous blog

Eric at "Working My Muse"

Jennie Englund at her eponymous blog

Deb Markanton at "Diving Into A Writer's Life"

Heidi at "Some mad Hope"

Beth at "Write It Out"

Apologies if you’ve already received this award, but can we ever be too lauded? Thanks for being fresh and creative bloggers and for your great blog comments!

And now for a bit of good news...

If you're a writer today, looks like yong adult is the place to be. There's a great Wall Street Journal article today about Borders launching teen bookstores within their larger bookstores. Apparently, the numbers support cannabalizing the dying CD sections for teen books:

"At a time when book retailing is slumping, young-adult titles and graphic novels are still delivering growth. Albert N. Greco, a professor at the Fordham University's Graduate School of Business Administration who studies the book industry, estimates that young-adult fiction, fantasy and science fiction will generate $744.3 million in U.S. publisher revenue this year, up 13% from $659.1 million in 2008. That compares with U.S. publisher revenue of an estimated $9.73 billion for consumer books as a whole, a 4.7% decline from 2008's sales, according to Mr. Greco."

You can be a dork too!

In 2011 my name will be on Mars.

Yours can too.

I’m not really sure why this seemed so enchanting to me, but when I heard about it I beelined over to the NASA website. Just type in your name and location and your name will be placed on a microchip going to Mars. You even get a certificate proving the fact.

Am I the only one who thinks this is kind of cool? If you like the idea, head over to NASA.gov to sign up!

Anyone? Anyone?

A friend and I are teaching a summer youth class at Southern Oregon University about getting published as a teen. It starts tomorrow and all of a sudden I'm really, really nervous. I think this is because I am the worst teacher in the history of the world. Fortunately, my friend is the best teacher in the history of the world. I’m afraid I’ll just be an accessory. My big splash is to bring donuts every day.

Anyone out there have any words of advice for teens who want to get published in newspapers and magazines? Any nuggets of wisdom I can feed them with their donuts?

No Chocolate Needed

While I was up visiting my sister, I arranged to meet the mysterious Teri Hall, author of THE LINE. Back when her book was slated for a 2009 release, I was assigned as the 2010 author to interview her so we had established a nice email relationship. I was excited to meet Teri; her book was getting buzz and it sounded like something I would love—primarily because one of its Library of Congress designations is “Government, Resistance to.”

I got to Teri’s house at just after six in the evening, armed with wine and chocolate – two things that could prove to be essential props if it turned out we had nothing to talk about. I needn’t have worried; from the word “hello” we did didn’t stop talking for seven hours! My sister called just as we had hit a new juicy topic and said, “Where the hell are you? It’s one in the morning!” I swear I thought it was around ten. We never even opened the chocolate.

I hadn’t done that, sat around and chatted for endless hours, since college. But in a way, being a debut author feels a little like being a freshman again. You and your fellow freshman authors are alone in new territory, not knowing what to expect, not knowing who will flunk out and who will be valedictorian. We talked about agents and editors and plots and process and everything in between. Teri is smart and hilarious and has this strength of will that I admire so much. I could have stayed and chatted ‘till sunup! (Plus she set out this gorgeous spread of French cheeses and olives and other lovely nibbles that kept us fueled through our marathon chat session!)

After our meeting, I was even more intrigued to read her book so when I got the uncorrected proof this week I devoured it. It’s phenomenal. The buzz that it’s getting is no fluke, this is the real deal. I expect to see starred reviews rolling in over the next few months.

Well done, Teri! It will be fun to say I knew you when…

I love what Cynthia Crossen, who writes the Dear Book Lover column for the Wall Street Journal, wrote about YA literature in a recent column:

"Good YA is not dumbed-down adult fare; it’s literature that doesn’t waste a breath. It doesn’t linger over grandiloquent descriptions of clouds or fields, and it doesn’t introduce irrelevant minor characters in the hope (too often gratified) that the book will be called Dickensian."

On Getting Flashed...

This is a photo of a dragonfly lighting on my daughter, Juliet. It happens all the time in the summer—dragonflies land on her hands, her arms, and even her head. Sometimes we have a hard time getting them off. It’s baffling. Come to think of it, whenever we go in butterfly gardens the butterflies land on her too.

What do you attract? I used to attract flashers.

My earliest memory of being flashed was when I was a kid, on a trip to southern California. I looked over and suddenly the passenger in the car nest to us on the freeway was flashing his junk at me. In college I’d be out for a morning run and and pow! a car door would open with a pantsless guy inside. Even in Europe I got the classic trench flash in a park in Provence. I’m not sure if it’s because I have the kind of face that really registers surprise, or if I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time a lot. It became part of my life.

Then one day I was bored at work and had a hankering to sew (now that’s bored!) so I pulled a sick day and headed to Sears to buy a sewing machine. This was right after college and I didn’t have any money but I had a Sears card with a huge limit, so anytime I needed/wanted anything it had to be from Sears. Klassy! So I walk out of the store with my new entry-level Singer and notice that a guy parked in a white BMW was staring at me and grinning like he knew me. I looked in at him and noticed he was wearing a suit jacket and tie but was missing his pants. And undies. That was the last straw for me; I smiled at him, put the machine in my car, and drove around the corner to call the cops.

Cops in Redmond, Washington don’t have much going on, so two cars arrived within seconds. One pulled up to me, the other to Jiggly McBits. Then they made me get in the police car and drive by to identify him, which really freaked me out. I thought reporting a flsaher was like calling about a dog that won’t stop barking or some other public nuisance, but no. Something about there being a preschool in that mall changed the rules about what he was doing. So I had to identify the guy and then later show up in court to testify. Like I had time for this? I was deep into a curtain project!

Anyway, that ended my run of flashers. Not sure if it was a late-eighties fad or if I flipped some magic switch, but I haven’t seen a flasher since. Not that I’m sorry. Any fetish that involves the unsuspecting is totally uncool with me.

I got WOWed on 7/8/9

I knew 7/8/9 would be a lucky day! I got my first WoW (Waiting on Wednesday) post - which means a YA book reviewer has marked my book as one she's excited to read! You have no idea how cool this is to a newbie author. Seriously. I'm levitating right now. Thanks Catt!

Click here to check out at Catt's blog, The Dreamer Reader, and see the 7 reasons why she wants to read the book!

Release Date! Happy Beltane!

I just got word from my editor that my release date has been moved up for marketing and publicity reasons. So, move aside July 1, 2010 - May 1, 2010 is my new release date!

It's weird that I can be both elated and nauseous at the same time.

Ever superstitious, I was a bit worried about “mayday” being a distress signal. So I googled it and found it’s just the mispronunciation of the French “m'aidez”(come help me). That aside, I like being released on May Day. It's a holdover from the Celtic celebration of Beltane, especially nice since much of the book takes place in Scotland. I might even have a bonfire in Lithia Park on Beltane Eve to celebrate! Because there are also some ancient Indian connections in the book, I had to also check out the Jyotiṣa calendar and 1/5/10 and indeed, it’s one of the few auspicious days in May 2010—at least according to Vedic Astrology, with which I am temporarily preferring to side on this matter.

PS – Let’s not tell my editor about any of this. It may make me seem crazy. Or crazier, depending on his current assessment of me...

Sláinte!

Guest Blogger: Better Half

I'm still typing with only the lame left hand, which has clearly been getting a free ride all this time. It's spent the last 43 years as glorified a ring holder and now that I'm asking it to take up the slack for my sliced up right paw, it's getting a bit cranky. So I'll redirect to Scott's blog for all the exciting 4th happenings (sadly, no naked lady this year at the parade).

We're hoping there will not be another evening of watching the lawn go up in flames, but with an arsenal of fireworks and a big bucket of frosty beverages, there’s just no telling...

Happy Independence Day everyone!

Sweet Sixteens

Today is my 16th wedding anniversary. This is us at Kiana Lodge on Agate Passage, a short ferry ride from Seattle. It was an amazing day, but stressful as I prefer not to be the center of attention! For our honeymoon we were dropped by float plane to the middle of the British Columbian wilderness where a lone cabin sat on the shore of a lake. No electricity, no technology. But the ice chest was stocked with champagne and steak and every three days a pilot flew in to drop off provisions and make sure neither of us had been eaten by a bear. We caught enormous Rainbow Trout and cooked them on the wood stove in big cast iron pans. It was the best way to chill out after a big stressful wedding.

Today is also my 25^th High School reunion. This is me at 16. My marriage is as old as I was in this photo. Weird. My marriage may not be looking as fresh, but it’s definitely wiser than this sap!

Why I won't be typing much for a week or two...

The latest...

Another one flies the coop

When is enough enough? How do you know you are done with a manuscript? I find it a lot easier to write "The End" on a first draft than I do with subsequent drafts. I just sent off my work-in-progress manuscript (Astrid) to my agent and I had a hard time figuring out if I was “done” or not. When someone questions your work, pushes you to strive for more, it’s hard to know if you’ve reached that goal they had in mind for you.

For me, the biggest surprise in this publishing process is how little line editing is done early in the process—mostly you receive “notes” in letter form, describing overall things that need to change with not a lot of direction about how to do it. And it seems you could do one of a hundred things to fix each thing! In my experience, revision has been a bit like throwing spaghetti at the wall and seeing what sticks. But then again, I have a very editorial agent who wants to go through a revision (or two!) before ever sending to editors.

So, Astrid is gone. She’s flown from my email to a desktop where she will be printed and scrutinized. Good thing I have so much to do in the coming weeks—stewing over whether or not the spaghetti is sticking to the wall is no fun at all.

How do you know when you are done?

And this is your brain on caffeine…

I'm back! After 1200 miles of driving with two kids across two states and an island, I'm ready for some parental help. It was tough without Scott, and not just because of all the driving. How do single parents do it? There is just no relief, no quiet, no end to the crushing responsibility of feeding, cleaning, and clothing children. Not to mention all the listening. The listening might be the hardest part.

While we were away, my cat of more than 16 years went down for The Big Sleep. I just could not face the fact that it was time so I heaped the entire burden on Scott, who had to take care of it before he left on his trip and before we got back. So after having been traveling for 14 hours, the kids and I arrived home at around 9 at night to an empty house for the first time in a very long while. Being the only driver, I was caffeine loading at every stop and was too wired to sleep. At about midnight when I felt I could finally get in bed, I went to check on the kids and screamed as I saw a cat running from the kitchen to the cat door.

Even though I heard the click of the cat door flap, I still walked the house with my headlamp and two brooms just in case there were any other cats that had decided it was okay to cruise around in our house now that Stimpy was no longer protecting her turf. And what about raccoons, I thought, a pack of raccoons could have been totally nesting in the house while we were gone! And opossums! Adrenaline coursed through my body as images of opossums hanging by their scaly pink tails from my son’s closet rod ran though my mind. The kids were so exhausted that Hank would probably not wake even if feral cats were gnawing at his succulent little fingers nor would Juliet stir if rabid raccoon kits curled up in the soft warm curve of her neck.

In a dark house at midnight, my imagination is more dangerous than an intruder.

Beyond the cat that managed to escape, no other animals were found. I stacked all three of our suitcases in front of the cat door and had to watch both episodes of the New Jersey Housewives reunion show to get my heart rate back to resting.

Scott returns tonight. He has been missed!

Out of Isolation

So, I was in isolation at the cabin for four solid days and missed reality TV and the internet almost more than I missed my family. But I got a ton of writing/revising/plotting done so I feel like things are under control as far as book deadlines go.

I drove back like a bat out of hell to make it to a doctor's appointment that was straight out of a nightmare. I was hooked up to an electrical current and had all the nerves in my arms and wrists repeatedly shocked to test for nerve damage due to carpal tunnel syndrome, also known as I Shouldn't Have Cheated Through Typing Class Disease. Fun!

Now I have just enough time to do laundry and repack, for tomorrow the kids and I leave for a 9 day trip. We'll be making our way up to Orcas Island in the San Juan Islands for my family reunion. We've rented this fabulous little chalet for our immediate family:

Isn't it adorable? Home base for the rest of the extended family will be at the exquisite Timber Lodge. Me likey:

Orcas is a spectacular island with lots of good memories, all the way back to high school when my friends and I went to bike camp up in the San Juans. I spent a lot of time there when I lived in Seattle and we took the kids there for the first time just last year. We're all happy to be going back. I love any place you can only get to by ferry or float plane!

My postings might be intermittent for the next week or two! Happy summer everyone.

Off the Grid

In a few minutes I'm heading out to the Moody cabin for some high-level hermitry.

Between this evening when I arrive and Monday afternoon when I leave, I'll finish my revision of Book One, get to the halfway point of Book Two, and possibly dabble in a WIP I've got going on the sidelines.

No TV, no intewebz, no children, no laundry.

No problem.

Radio silence begins...NOW!

End of an Era

Today Hank spent his last day at University Preschool! Now, for the first time in six years, I have no children in preschool. Huzzahh!

We had a luau carnival thing and I signed up for the exploding volcano booth because really, who doesn’t like chemical reactions? I also souped it up with lots of red and orange food coloring because without it, baking soda and vinegar just looks like an oozing sore. Plus I let the kids scoop up big handfuls of pine needles and sticks to throw in the volcano so when the magma came rolling out it had some nice texture. I was shocked that no one had taken that booth until afterwards, when I stepped in from the outdoors and realized I smelled like I'd just pulled two shifts at the pickle factory.

Some snaps from the day...

Crowding the tattoo table.

Hank decided on a full-face Spiderman face tattoo. After a whole box of wipes, some of the red pigment still will not come off.

It gives him a bit of a drunken Irishman’s glow.

It really can't be called the last day of school until the parachute comes out.

Hank walks up to receive his memory book from his teachers.

His self portrait on the front is not that far off...

Cognitive Dissonance and the ARC

I just read my first ARC and I’m devastated.

An ARC is an Advanced Reader Copy that the publisher prints up and then sends out to buyers and reviewers to get an early buzz going. Authors get a case of these too, to use as they see fit.

As part of The Tenners, a group of Young Adult authors making their debuts in 2010, we circulate the ARC among our ranks so we get a sneak peak at what’s going to be published next year.

I just finished Kimberly Derting’s The Body Finder and am blown away. To say I’m intimidated would be an understatement; it’s honestly made me consider never sending my ARCs out at all. Ever. To anyone. Kim has a perfect plot with two great lines of tension. As the engine of the book, this plot makes The Body Finder read like a luxury sports car runs—really fast with a smooth ride. In comparison, my plot is more like one of those early model Fords, where after pushing and pulling lots of levers, you would crank the car to get the engine going and then bounce around in the cab because the thin tires absorb none of the shock of the crappy unpaved roads.

I’ve been thinking a lot about cognitive dissonance lately—you know, that bad feeling you get from having two contradictory ideas at the same time. For instance, these two thoughts live side by side in my head at all times:

- I want to be a published author.

- I don’t want anyone to ever read my book.

As my release date inches ever closer, I’m not sure I’ll be able to handle the public scrutiny.

While I privately suffer with my crisis of confidence, may I suggest you place your order for The Body Finder? Congratulations, Kim. Amazing debut work!

Literal Video Hilarity

My sister justs sent a link to this and I don't think I have ever laughed out loud alone for that long. Still wiping the tears away... I'm now going to watch every Literal Video ever made. It's genius!

Nude Dude

I'm getting some flack from my friends in Seattle because my little towns is, again, in the news for having random naked people roaming about.

Last year we made the national news because of the fracas over the naked lady with a conch and now we've got an old dude getting his daily exercise by cruising through town naked and making children burst out in tears. It was my first time seeing a very old man in the nude and I must say, gravity wreaks shocking havoc on some parts of the anatomy.

Both skin lovers moved here from California, natch. Viva the lax nudity laws of Oregon!

Just like the space shuttle (without the rocket fuel)!

My book has a launch meeting date!

On July 21 the marketing, editorial, and design people all get together to discuss my book, set the title in stone, and start cover design. My editor asked me to send lots of title ideas and cruise Amazon for covers I like. So many choices! So many directions to go!

Help! What are your all-time-favorite book covers?

LA Conference!

I was in, then out. Now I'm in again! Arriving Thursday afternoon, leaving Sunday night. Who's in? Who's up for dinner Thursday night?

I've been reading my post about the last conference and marveling at how a year could have passed so quickly. Deadlines be damned! I just can't quit you, conference.

Feast Your Eyes

Move aside, Pygmy Tarsier--there's a new pygmy in town! The Pygmy Jeroba is smaller! Cuter! Has more alien-like eyes!

I was hypnotized by this video. Only the Japanese could so romanticize a miniature rodent feasting on tiny shreds of cabbage.



Not enough? Need more big-eyed pygmy action? Enjoy:



Kind of has a rat/duckling hybrid feel, no?

And now for some shameless self-aggrandizement…

In January I was shocked to find out that I was the winner of the Oregon Literary Arts Fellowship for Young Readers Literature, judged by Printz-winning author An Na. Today I was shocked to find a story about me in the Oregon Literary Arts Quarterly! For those of you related to me, the entire story can be found here, but for the sake of brevity I’ll post the good bits below:

In July applications traveled from our office in Portland to judges around the country. Christy’s application went to author An Na’s home in Vermont. After reading through all the young adult submissions, An Na selected Christy for the Edna L. Holmes Fellowship in Young Readers Literature.

Judge An Na commented on Christy’s promising writing:

“Raedeke’s portrayal of a teen protagonist grappling with secrets, her family’s as well as her own, shines with details that amuse, enlighten, and startle as we recognize ourselves and others in the everyday revealing moments of truth and pain. As only the best writing can accomplish, the story compels us to take a leap of faith and believe in the unusual, to lose ourselves in a character’s life and voice as her struggles and questions become our own.”

Best blurb on a nonpublished, desk-drawer work ev-ar! Despite the fact that An Na loves the book, my agent has sent it back to me for revision twice. Hopefully I’ll get it right this time… 

This weekend we were invited to be the mystery guests at something called the Ashland Secret Society Dinner. Basically for the last 18 years a group of friends has been having a monthly dinner, to which a mystery couple is invited. Does it say something that it’s taken 18 years for them to get to us? 

Anyway, the host decides how to introduce the guests and for us he asked that we write down some odd things in the manner or two-truths-and-a-lie. But as a twist, he wanted them all to be true. Then hidden on a balcony above the living room where the group was gathered, Scott and I had to read our lists:

Christy 

For my 40th birthday week I went to a monastery for silent seclusion.

I have Bill Gates’ comb in my desk drawer.

One Halloween I spent the night in a 500-year old Scottish castle. 

After breakfast of toast and tequila, I jumped of the I-5 Bridge into Lake Shasta (for those who have never seen this, it’s like jumping off a skyscraper)

Scott

By not going to seminary, I have broken a 300-year ancestral streak of Lutheran Pastors.

My mother and stepfather, a nurse and a doctor, ignored the fact that I had a broken leg for a week. 

I have walked deep into the cave where Zeus is said to have been reared.

I once thought I was going on a standard advertising Booze Cruise on Lake Washington in Seattle and found myself with Steve Forbes on the Forbes Yacht in all-too-casual clothing.

Once the group had voted on what was true we were allowed to come down, show ourselves and reveal that all the statements were true. Word to the wise: don’t fall for this trap. Once you list anything remotely odd that you’ve done everyone expects you to be supremely interesting and engaging. Fortunately, Scott shines at this kind of thing (while I wash down beta blockers and pretend to be comfortable as the center of attention). There’s a reason I’m a writer—and it mostly involves being alone in a room…

Recycling, Kid Style

My kids get something from rom Toys R Us that they've spent months longing for and then spend five minutes with it before getting bored. But give them a cast-off box and the possibilities are endless!

This one, from my recent ergonomic chair purchase has been a robot, a toy cart, and a slide, among other things. My favorite use of the cardboard has to be what they call the “Luxury Box” created as a TV-watching base. They take turns being on the first or second floor. 

They loved it so much they wanted to eat dinner in/on it, so I indulged them, "Luxury Box" style. Becasue it won't be long before the aperture narrows on their eye for possibility and a big box loses its magic.

The Claws That Haunt

I am not always a good mother. Revision: I am often not a good mother. But if you want to grow something in water, I’m the mom to have. Triops, fish, crustaceans, frogs, snails, seamonkeys, algae—you want it, I’ll help you grow it. 

So this week we built a pollywog nursery in the yard and went out pollywog hunting. We made three stops before we finally tracked some down at an old reservoir, and we now have 14 beautiful babies scurrying around under a layer of lacy duckweed. 

My children’s first experience with tadpoles ended with me possibly breaking some environmental bio-hazrd laws. It started innocently enough through a grow-a-frog by-mail thing. You get this tiny aqua version of a hamster habitrail called Tube Town, put the ’wogs in, and watch them grow. It was great (for me, the kids got bored after about 42 seconds) to watch them sprout their tiny little legs and arms and turn into itty-bitty frogs. After a week or two I noticed one of the frogs was getting much bigger than the others, then one morning one of the smaller frogs a had vanished and the larger frog had a bit of a pot-belly. A few days later the other small frog was gone, and the lone frog remaining was licking his smug little frog lips. I kept my distance and had the kids feed him after that. He was the kind of frog that had long toenails that you could hear click against the plastic of his aquarium. My daughter enjoyed picking him up and feeling the little claws, but that’s something I really couldn't abide. 

One day we realized he could touch all four walls with this arms and legs and the clicking of nails was getting louder as he grew, so we transferred him to the lovely new aquarium chock-full of a variety of interesting fish that my in-laws had given the kids. I think you can see where this is going. The next morning the aquarium was empty, save for the frog, who looked like he could use a cigar and a couple of Tums. 

By that time we learned not to put anything in with him. But after the massive fish buffet, he grew really big, really fast. I started to dream about him and those sickening claws tippety-tapping against the glass. I won’t say exactly what we did with him because after looking this species up on the web and reading things like, “when released into the wild they have the capacity to wreck entire ecosystems by eating native wildlife such as fish and turtles that have no natural defense against these creatures,” I’m pleading the fifth. 

Lesson learned: no frogs by mail. Now we just get native species and let them do their thing outside the house. Who doesn’t love the sound of (clawless) frogs at dusk? 

Addicted to Goodreads

Are you all fans of Goodreads? I'd joined a few months ago, entered a couple of books and then left it for dead. I didn't really see the point. After the initial entry it felt a little too much like entering my snack calories into FitDay - a chore with not much reward. 

But then one day I poked around a little bit and I was hooked. Hooked! Really, it combines the best of what I love from online book browsing with my love of CIA-level-profiling of the people I stalk online. I've been burning up my library card checking out stacks of books recommended by my online peers and they don't even know it! Like Facebook, it's the ultimate way to get personal information without having to employ any actual interpersonal skills. Huzzah! 

Plus, once I started entering books I'd read, forget it. My All or Nothing Switch (on which I'be been trying to install a dimmer for years) was flipped and I voraciously ripped through my last three years of B&N and Amazon orders to post my books. In the end I got a pretty collage for my blog. Bonus! When I find some time I'll try to work in all the books I've bought in meatspace as well, which takes actual work rather than just cutting and pasting from Amazon. So, yeah, it might be a while.

I urge you to give Goodreads a try - more for book recommendations than for a catalog of your own reading. And please, if you sign up, make me your friend so I can peruse your books as well...

The Expatriate: Interview With Author Stephanie Burgis

Ever since I read Stein's The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas and Hemingway's A Movable Feast as a teen I've wanted one thing: to live abroad as an expatriate. However, the choices I continue to make get me no closer to that goal, which only fuels the burning envy I have when I read about expatriates. Today I bring you a perfectly seethe-worthy case study in expatriatness:

Name

Stephanie Burgis

Age

Too damn young to be so accomplished

Stats

Spent a year in Vienna on a Fulbright scholarship, studying Austrian music history before receiving Masters degree in Historical Musicology. Was accepted to the Clarion West six-week residential writing program where she met her husband, the writer Patrick Samphire. Now resides in Yorkshire, England where she can freely use the term expatriate. Has a three-book deal for regency-romance-flavoured fantasy series (my own categorisation, not hers). Ed. note: See how easily I can slip in the u and swap the z for an s? It's all part of my expat preparation program.

I like to start interviews with a deal report becasue it's a good way to get all info about book, agent, and editor all in one place, but Stephanie says her report is all wrong now. "My editor and I have both changed publishers (I followed her from Hyperion to Atheneum Books), and the book titles (and series title for the trilogy) have all changed!" she says. "My trilogy is now called The Unladylike Adventures of Kat Stephenson, and Book One: A Most Improper Magick is due to be published by Atheneum Books in early 2010."
Becasue we don't get a blurb about the book's premise, I'll add the summary at the bottom of the interview. For now, let's get to The Expatriate!

How did you meet your agent?
I'd heard of Barry Goldblatt years ago as a really stellar YA fantasy agent - he represents a lot of my favorite writers in the field - so he was always my dream agent, from the moment I first decided to market A MOST IMPROPER MAGICK. I’d never met him in person or online - I just mailed him a query letter and hoped like crazy for him to like it. So you can imagine how excited I was when an email from him popped up in my inbox a week later, asking for the full manuscript! And from then on, everything went just amazingly well - he offered representation, as did another couple of really good agents at the same time, and I was suddenly in the unexpected position of getting to make a choice. I am thrilled that I signed with him. He's been absolutely wonderful.

Can you tell us how your book deal happened?
After I signed with Barry, I did one more round of revision based on his critique, and then he sent the novel out to 11 different editors, giving them a 1-month deadline to reply. Two editors made serious offers at the end of the month, and we ended up choosing to sign with my editor, Namrata Tripathi, who has been fabulous.

What was the inspiration for A MOST IMPROPER MAGICK and how long did it take you to write?
A MOST IMPROPER MAGICK mixes up my two favorites genres of fiction - fantasy adventures and Regency romantic comedies. But I really never planned to write it!

I was actually already in the middle of writing a different - a very different! - novel, one that was very angsty and dark and adult. It was the kind of novel I felt that I *should* write if I wanted to be a Serious Writer, rather than what I actually *wanted* to be writing (or reading!). Then, as I was chopping onions one day for lunch, I actually heard Kat's voice very clearly in my head, speaking the first two lines of A MOST IMPROPER MAGICK. ("I was twelve years of age when I chopped off my hair, dressed as a boy, and set off to save my family from impending ruin. I made it almost to the end of my front garden...")

I giggled as I "heard" those lines, and that was it - I was hooked. I just had to write down those first two lines to save them for later...and then I just had to write the next paragraph and the next...I wrote the first two chapters in a week, having more fun than I'd ever had writing *anything* before. Then I forced myself to stop, because I was convinced that it was a commercially impractical thing for me to do. A few years earlier, I'd come very close to selling an adult historical fantasy novel with my first agent, and I was convinced that that meant I should write more dark, adult novels as my way to break into publishing. I told myself that it didn’t make any sense for me to write a lighthearted, funny book, no matter how much fun I was having with this one.

So I put away A MOST IMPROPER MAGICK for almost a year. But I missed it like crazy, and I kept wondering what had happened to Kat and her sisters. Finally, I gave up, because I couldn’t focus on any of those serious, angsty novels I thought I was “supposed” to be writing. I came back to Kat instead, I told myself I would just write it for fun and not worry about ever marketing it, and I wrote the rest of the book in a big, joyous rush, finishing the first draft three months later.

So...it took me only 4 months of actual writing time to write the first draft of A MOST IMPROPER MAGICK (followed by another 3-4 months of revisions), but if you add in the year I took off in between, I guess the answer would be a year and a half.

What's your publication date and where in the process are you now?
A MOST IMPROPER MAGICK is due to be published sometime in early 2010 - there's no exact publication date yet, but I'm waiting with bated breath! :) I've been through the copyedits and have just turned in my dedication and acknowledgments.

What are you working on now?
Right now I'm revising Book 2 of The Unladylike Adventures of Kat Stephenson, which is full of scandalous gossip, notorious rakes, and wild magic. :)

Kat plays matchmaker to all three of her older siblings in your trilogy, but she doesn’t even look for her own true love. Why not?
The easy answer is that these books are set in a Regency society where no real concept of “boyfriend” existed for well-bred twelve-year-old girls. The real answer, though, is a lot more complicated and personal.

When I was a teen, I loved the Regency romances of Georgette Heyer and Jane Austen, as well as some adult contemporary romances. All of those books left me feeling hopeful and happy about my own adult future. When I read YA romances, though, I often ended up feeling really depressed and “less” because I didn’t already have a boyfriend, whereas the YA romances I was reading seemed to prove that “normal” girls were dating like crazy all through high school.

The truth is, although I and my friends from high school have all experienced wonderful romance as adults, none of us had any luck with romance as teens, and I think that’s not uncommon for smart girls who are better at schoolwork and writing than at makeup and flirtation. There are lots of wonderful YA romances out there - I particularly love the romances in Maureen Johnson's and Sarah Dessen's novels - but a serious romance just didn't feel realistic for Kat at this stage of her life, partly because of my own personal experiences, and those of my friends.

I wanted Kat to have all the fun of vicarious romance, by observing (and sneakily manipulating!) her older siblings, but I also wanted to empower those smart high school girls who aren’t getting any romance of their own yet. So Kat, at twelve years old, is much more focused on her family, and on the magical challenges that face her as she discovers and develops her own powers, than on trying to find the perfect boy.

On the other hand, if the series ever continues past these first three books to show Kat growing into adulthood, then of course I’d love to explore her eventual romance, with all of its attendant magical complications... ;p

Do you have any words of wisdom for writers trying to get published?
Yes! Don't imitate my mistake of writing what you think will be most publishable/what you think the market wants. Writers are terrible at making those predictions! Instead, write what calls to you the most strongly. Write the novel that's most fun for you, and there's a good chance it'll be just as fun for other people, too!

Where can we stalk you on the web?
www.stephanieburgis.com
Livejournal blog
Twitter

And here's the summary of Stephanie's book (this was what she sent in the query that landed her the agent Barry Goldblatt).

Her mother was a scandalous witch, her brother has gambled the whole family into debt, and her Step-Mama is determined to sell her oldest sister into a positively Gothic marriage to pay it off--so what can twelve-year-old Kat Stephenson do but take matters directly into her own hands? If only her older sisters hadn’t thwarted her plan to run away to London dressed as a boy and earn a fortune! When Kat makes a midnight foray into her mother’s cabinet of secrets, though, she finds out something she never expected. Her mother wasn’t just a witch, she was a Guardian, a member of a secret Order with staggering magical powers--and Kat is her heir.

Of course, there’s no chance of Kat choosing to join the Order that forbade her parents’ marriage...but Mama’s magical mirror doesn’t seem to understand that. It keeps following her wherever she goes, even when the family travels to Grantham Abbey to meet the sinister Sir Neville, her oldest sister’s chosen fiancé. And what with Sir Neville showing a dangerous interest in Kat’s untapped powers, her mother’s old tutor insisting that she take up her mother’s position as a Guardian, and her sister Angeline refusing to listen to her about anything, as usual...well, it’s a good thing Kat kept her boy’s clothing, because she may well have to use it--especially if the rumors of a highwayman are true.

Thanks so much for the interview, Stephanie! You've kept the expatriate dream burning in me!

Smell an apocalypse? Get thee to Georgia!

This really freaks me out. On a barren knoll in northeastern Georgia there’s a man-made monolith (unveiled in 1980) that’s built to withstand most any disaster. In addition to being an astronomical tool, instructions for rebuilding society after an apocalyptic incident are etched into the stone. Several languages are represented, including a couple of dead ones.

The capstone reads Let these be guidestones to an Age of Reason and the instructions tell us to keep human population at 500,000,000 or lower, pay attention to diversity in reproduction, and create a new worldwide living language, among other things. Buried below the enormous granite monument is a time capsule. And I’m just dying to know what’s in it.

Only one living soul knows what group of people commissioned this work and he’s not talking.

Have any of you lovely southern bloggers seen this thing in person? It’s at once baffling, titillating, and frightening. What do these people know that we don’t? Why would northeastern Georgia be the place to put this massively expensive set of instructions? Could that be the safest place in the world from an apocalyptic standpoint?

Wired has a really great article about it if you’re interested in reading more.

Test Your Title...

As an addendum to the title post from yesterday, here's a fun tool for testing the likelihood of a bestseller based on your title.

Click here to test your title.

How did you score?

Baboon Metaphysics

Books titles are tricky. Titling is a marketing function performed by the publisher and while the author does have input, it’s the publisher’s call. That’s okay with me—I like to rely on experts so I’ll go with whatever they give me. I’ve never been wed to any of my titles anyway, and there have been a few already. The book that Flux is publishing started as a manuscript called The Fáistine, which became The Last Daykeeper when I was agent hunting. Then when my agent submitted to editors she renamed it Prophecy of Days, and the working title my editor has given it is Prophecy of Days, Book One: The Daykeeper’s Grimoire. In a couple of months it will go through the marketing/titling process and come out with an ISBN and a final title. Let’s just hope it doesn’t get me the Odd Title Prize.

Yesterday the Oddest Book Title of the Year was announced. The winner? The 2009-2014 World Outlook for 60-miligram Containers of Fromage Frais. That title edged out other front runners, including Baboon Metaphysics, Curbside Consultation of the Colon, Strip and Knit with Style, Techniques for Corrosion Monitoring, and—my personal favorite—The Large Sieve and its Applications.

I’d love to see some other working titles. Care to share your titles and/or title evolution?

From Mushroom Farmer to Word Wrangler: Author Denise Jaden

Denise Jaden is one of those people who seems to have done everything, from farming mushrooms to dancing professionally. And now with her forthcoming novel from Simon Pulse she can add "Author" to her ecclectic resume. Go Denise!

Here's her deal report from Publisher's Marketplace:

Denise Jaden's LOSING FAITH, about a teenage girl whose quest to solve the mystery of her sister's death leads her to a strange religious cult, to Anica Rissi at Simon Pulse, for publication in 2010, by Michelle Humphrey at Sterling Lord Literistic (NA).

Welcome, Denise! Can you tell us how you met your agent?
I met my agent through the blind query process. I know a lot of aspiring writers think this never happens and that those who have agents "know" somebody, but for me this was not the case. I kept an eye on the Verla Kay "Blueboards" and sent out a few queries at a time to agents who were actively pursuing young adult fiction and sounded like a good fit for my book.

Can you tell us how your book deal happened?
In October, 2008 I attended the Surrey International Writers Conference. I still didn't have an agent at this point, but I did sit down with several at the conference to pitch my book to. I also pitched it to Anica Mrose Rissi, Senior Editor from Simon Pulse. Anica loved the idea for my book and invited me to send her the full manuscript. I chose to hold back from sending right away after the conference, and instead kicked up my efforts to find an agent first. Once I had found a wonderful agent (Michelle Humphrey from Sterling Lord), we made plans to submit my manuscript to Anica and several other editors. The whole process went fairly quickly for me. I attended the conference in October, found my agent in November, submitted to editors by the end of January, and had an offer from Simon Pulse by the beginning of March.

What was the inspiration for your 2010 debut book and how long did it take you to write?
LOSING FAITH was inspired by a couple of incidents I experienced as a teen. A close friend of mine was killed by a drunk driver when I was in tenth grade. This influenced the way I shaped LOSING FAITH around the loss of a sister. A few years after high school, I experienced a second tragedy, another car accident with another death (no alcohol involved), but this time I was at fault. Writing my character through her grief, guilt and eventual forgiveness was cathartic for me as an author as well as the basis for a great character journey.

I wrote LOSING FAITH during National Novel Writing Month (nanowrimo) in November 2007. That's when over a hundred thousand writers around the world attempt to write a novel in one month. Well, I did it! But that's not saying I had a saleable book after thirty days (not at all!). In fact, I spent the month of September beforehand on a thorough outline of the book. Since LOSING FAITH is a mystery, I really needed to have clues and, more importantly, a satisfying solution in place before starting the actual writing. The first draft took me 21 days, and then between passing it back and forth to critique partners as well as revising, I spent about another eight months on it.

What's your publication date and where in the process are you now?
My release is scheduled for fall of 2010 (I'm still waiting on a more specific date). I am currently working on the first round of revisions.

Other than writing, tell us about some of your other jobs and/or hobbies.
Let's see...I've been a mushroom farmer, jewelry manager, fitness & strength competitor, and church secretary. At the moment, I split my time between writing and homeschooling my five year old son. I'm also a professional Polynesian dancer and have traveled worldwide as a feature dancer/dance captain of my dance troupe.

What are you working on now?
I have several novels in various stages of revision. BELLY UP is about a pregnant teen who fights to keep her baby despite the pleas of her emotional and infertile mother. APPETITE FOR BEAUTY is about an insecure teen who discovers her perfect sister's life-threatening secret and tries to intervene before it's too late.

Do you have any words of wisdom for writers trying to get published?
Writing for yourself first and foremost will make your writing more honest and believable. It may also give you peace of mind in the sometimes long process toward publication.

Where can we find out more about you on the web?
My website can be found at www.denisejaden.com, where I also have links to Facebook, Twitter and Live Journal.

Thanks Denise! Cults have always been one of my pet fascinations, so I can't wait to read this one...

A Good Day

What a great Mother’s Day! I got everything I wanted:

- Bagel and coffee in bed with homemade presents from the kids
- Time to read my manuscript (in bed!)
- A clean house
- My favorite dinner of herb-crusted steak sandwiches, spinach salad, and warm brownies right from the oven
- Lots of love from kids and husband

What more could a person want?

And Speaking of Strange...

This tops the Cat Collar Mystery.

Mysterious keys. Check it out!

Cat Psycho In The Woods

A very strange thing has happened. Let’s start with the setting. My dad built a house on five acres on the top of a mountain in Jacksonville, and it’s not the kind of place you can just wander by or accidentally find yourself. There’s a gate with a code and even if you just park there and slide through the gate you still have to walk the quarter mile driveway to get to the house. In sum: it’s remote.

Recently, two cats were abandoned on a road near their house. After going though all the channels to get them back to their owners, they ended up adopting them in lieu of sending them to the pound. No one wants middle-aged black cats so their stay there would most likely end with The Big Sleep. Because there are all sorts of kitty predators in the woods around their house, the cats are now indoor only and they don’t wear collars.

So, yesterday dad and his wife Pam drove into town to take Pam’s mom to an appointment. When they returned, they found the larger black cat - still inside the house - wearing a shiny new red collar.

They checked all the doors they thought they had locked and found a side door to the guest room was indeed unlocked.

The fact that nothing was missing is perhaps the creepiest part of all. What kind of person would brave sneaking into a house only to put a flashy but useless collar on a cat? Which begs the question: What’s would be that kind of person’s next move?

Babies! Books! Author Sara Bennet Wealer is the Ultimate Creative Machine!

Author Sara Bennett Wealer is having a banner year. Not only did she sell her book to HarperTeen, but she just HAD A BABY! Yep, just two days ago she gave birth to a little girl, her second child.

The bio Sara wrote for the Tenners site is very amusing, and I recommend going straight there, if only to see how elegantly she can segue from “I love ballet” to “I write a lot about poop” with only two sentences in between. I simply cannot do it justice here! Go, go! (Then please come back....)

Here’s Sara’s deal report from Publisher’s Marketplace:

Sara Bennett Wealer's debut RIVAL, in which two high school seniors compete for a prestigious singing scholarship, set against a backdrop of the events that turned them from best friends to rivals, to Erica Sussman at Harper Teen, by Holly Root at Waxman Literary Agency (world).

Hi Sara! Can you please tell us how you met your agent?
The traditional way. I queried, then sent a partial, then a full. Holly loved my book (which actually *wasn't* RIVAL - I'd sent her a newer manuscript that came thisclose to selling, and that I'm planning to revise). I loved how enthusiastic and professional she was, and she's been a dream to work with.

Can you tell us how your book deal happened? It happened within hours and was heralded by an airplane flying over my house, tugging a banner that said, "Please let us publish your novel!" :-)

Actually, unlike some of my agency mates whom you've already interviewed (*cough* Rachel Hawkins *cough*) it took awhile. Erica Sussman, who now is my editor at Harper, told us that she loved RIVAL but felt it needed some tweaks before she could take it through the various approval committees. She shared her suggestions, and I agreed that they would make the book stronger, so I agreed to a revision. When I was finished, Erica took the book to acquisitions. They loved it, too, but felt there were a couple more things that needed to be done in order to get a final sign-off from those farther up the food chain. So I revised once more, and it paid off. Harper made an offer in October. I feel so fortunate to have had a champion in Erica. Her thoughts on the story really helped me take it to that all-important next level!

What was the inspiration for RIVAL and how long did it take you to write?
I worked on RIVAL off and on over a period of about six years. During that time, I wrote two other novels as well, one that will never see the light of day and the one I mentioned earlier, which I currently am revising.

RIVAL was inspired by my experience as a singer in a competitive high school music program. There was only one high school in my hometown, which also had a major university, and that meant you had a high concentration of very talented, very driven people. Being in the top choruses meant lots of rehearsals and lots of traveling, which created quite a pressure cooker when it came to relationships. There were rivalries galore and I had my fair share, though "grown up" me wishes I'd focused more on being friends than on who sang better or who got the lead in the musical. The memory of what that atmosphere was like inspired me to write RIVAL (though, of course, nothing that happens in the book actually happened in real life).

I also wanted to write a book that kids who are interested and/or active in the arts could identify with and enjoy, though RIVAL isn't just about music! There's a romance, Homecoming drama, scheming BFFs--and if you aren't into singing, just substitute cheerleading or your favorite competitive sport. In high school, rivals pretty much can be found around every corner.

What's your publication date and where in the process are you now?
I'm waiting on a concrete publication date. I just turned in my formal revisions and am awaiting feedback from my editor. I imagine copyedits will be coming next and then... well, I'm dying to see a cover!!

So will you be singing opera on YouTube to promote your book?
Probably not! My voice isn't what it used to be, though I still like to sing when I can find time. I do plan to create a spot on my website where visitors can explore the various singers, musicals, etc. that I mention in the book. And I've got some marketing ideas that could include real teen singers showing off their skills. They would be MUCH more fun to watch than I ever would.

What are you working on now?
I'm working on two projects. The first is a re-write of the novel I mentioned earlier. The second is a totally new project that I'm super-excited about, though I always feel funky giving out details of a work in progress. Let's just say it deals with a whole 'nother kind of rivalry, and it may or may not have an element of the paranormal.

Do you have any words of wisdom for writers trying to get published?
Be obsessive, but objective. By obsessive, I mean that you have to be willing to sit your butt down every day and write, whether you feel inspired or not. You have to be willing to keep submitting and working, no matter how many times you get told "no," until finally you get a "yes." I tell my friends it's like beating your head against a wall. You get to a point where the next blow could be the one that breaks it all down, and you sort of have to say, "I either get brain damage, or I bust this sucker, but either way I am not quitting!"

At the same time, you have to be objective about your work. Find good critique partners and listen to what they say. Be willing to rip your stuff apart and start over. Educate yourself about how the publishing business works and behave professionally as you look for an agent and publisher. Don't fall into the trap of blaming others for the fact that you haven't made it yet. It's not that nobody appreciates your talent or that the market only wants the next Twilight or that agents are evil, etc. Many, many times, the problem is that your work is not ready for prime time, which can be difficult for people to hear. When it is ready, then things will start to happen. They still won't be easy (I don't think anything in this business is ever easy), but when you see that wall start to come down, you'll know it was due to your own hard work, and that is an incredible feeling!

Where can we find you on the web?
You can find my website at http://www.sarabennettwealer.com/ (There's a lovely "coming soon" message there now, but I plan to go totally live within the next month or so--even planning on doing a cool giveaway. Yay!) I'm also on Facebook and on Twitter and I blog at LiveJournal.

Thanks Sara! Hearty congratulations on your amazing creations, both literary and human!

Ah, the humanity!

Sometimes I am an idiot. Like today. As I mentioned in an earlier post, today was the "date to appear" stamped on the photo ticket I got in the mail awhile ago. So I actually put on clothes that have to be dry cleaned, got my children off, and then showed up at court expecting to talk to someone Judgy. Well, officially Judgy, that is, not just judgmental.

Instead I got an unfriendly woman standing behind a sheet of bullet-proof glass. The microphone on my side was down by the sliver of an opening that will allow a piece of paper to slide through but not, say, a hunting knife. This meant that I had to bend over like I was talking to a toddler in order to speak through the glass while looking at her belt buckle, not her face. This is municipal court? What's "courtly" about this?

To make a long story short, through a series of misunderstandings that I was too embarrassed to admit, my case is now going to trial. The best part? The part the snarky woman behind glass didn’t tell me until after I chose this route? There was an officer in the van, not a robot.

I’ll face him at my trial on June 10.

Raedeke v. Robot

Today I am off to face a robot in traffic court. I have a lot of robots in my life, I don't need them now accsusing me of things and then mailing me photos as proof. I’ll admit to 29, but not 36 in a 25 zone! I think I might exercise my right to face my accuser in court.

I’ll let you know how it goes. I'm sure you're all trembling with anticipation...

Happy May Day

I love May.

May feels like an appetizer at a good restaurant; a small peek, a little taste, of what’s to come. Then we get our beautiful hot and dry summer, June through September, like the hearty main course. Fall is short but sweet: coffee and dessert. Winter? Winter is the bill, when you realize how much that great bottle of wine cost. You hate it but pay it, knowing no great meal comes free.

This is Juliet, my eight-year-old, at the May Day Concert and Dance.

No Stranger To Fiction: Interview With Author Steve Brezenoff

Today we have author Steve Brezenoff, a New Yorker living in exile in Minnesota. He’s a member of the Tenners because his first Young Adult book debuts in 2010, but he’s no stranger to publishing. In fact, if you look him up on Amazon you’ll find a whole page of books he’s written and co-written. In addition, Steve used to work as a production editor at Simon & Schuster and he has an agent with a name that I precede with “Count” in my mind every time I read it, because Edward Necarsulmer IV just begs for a title of continental nobility. Oh, and his book deal was inked in Italy! So yeah, Steve is fancy in every possible way.

Here’s Steve’s deal report from Publisher’s Marketplace:
Steve Brezenoff's untitled book, about four Long Island teens whose lives unravel suddenly and dramatically (and with a fair amount of pot), to Andrew Karre at Carolrhoda, for publication Fall 2010, by Edward Necarsulmer IV at McIntosh & Otis (NA).
(Note: The working title is SPLINTERS, but that will probably change.)

Hi Steve! Welcome. So, can you tell us how you met your agent?

I haven't actually met my agent yet, Edward Necarsulmer IV at McIntosh & Otis, though I did see him on a panel at SCBWI NYC conference earlier this year. I liked the cut of his jib; he was the only one up there in a suit, which for some reason struck me as awesome.

So I submitted it to him and he was mind-blowingly enthusiastic about the partial, and just as enthusiastic with the full. I was flattered and there was much stammering on both our parts, and some disagreement on JD Salinger's best work, and the Grateful Dead's best work, and we agreed we ought to work together.

Can you tell us how your book deal happened?

I joined SCBWI in 2007, I think, and went to the local (Minnesota) chapter's conference in the fall of 2008. There, I went to Andrew Karre's presentation on YA--he contrasted Kurt Cobain and John Cougar Mellancamp to great effect. Riveting, naturally. Afterward, I approached him with this wacky resume thing I made (at my wife's suggestion!): it was on one side my work-for-hire writing experience, of which there is a fair amount, and on the other my WIPs, summarized in snappy little blurbs. I don't know how much value that resume had; it may have been enough that my name and email address left with him. Either way, Andrew emailed me pretty much right away, asking for fulls on all the WIPs on that resume. Little did he know, that was essentially impossible, since none of my WIPs were actually finished. Rookie mistake FTW!

I banged through my YA WIP, realizing it was the stronger MS (I'd been working on it, on and off, since around 1999), sent it along (though it was WAY too short) and he liked it. If I can pat my own back a little, he read the whole thing in one night! Granted, it was much shorter then, but still. I was over the moon.

Six months later, after I'd nearly doubled the length of the thing, Andrew was ready to make an offer. That's when I decided to get an agent (see above). What was the inspiration for your 2010 debut book and how long did it take you to write? The initial inspiration for the novel was a short story I wrote in a college creative writing class in 1995 (yikes). The protagonist was a few years younger than the one in Splinters, but his obsession with death and his closeness with and admiration for his older sister were already evident. After my own father passed away, it became very obvious that the protagonist's father would die as well. From there, the bulk of the novel wrote itself. What's your publication date and where in the process are you now?I'm on the schedule for fall 2010 at Carolrhoda. Right now, I'm waiting for my editor's first official round of notes so I can get started revising. He assures me it will be a fairly light series of revisions. I hope he is right.

If you could choose any writer or writers to blurb for your debut, who would you choose?

Since we're strictly fantasizing here, I am free to choose JD Salinger. However, more realistically, I'll say Blake Nelson (author of Girl, years ago, and Destroy All Cars, this year) and Sara Zarr (author of Story of a Girl and Sweethearts). Both of those writers are masters of YA voice, in my opinion, and I would be beyond thrilled to have even a drop of respect from either or both of them.

What are you working on now?

I always have a few work-for-hire jobs going on, about which I usually can't say much. They're almost always hella fun to write, and I think of them as my day job. (That and being a stay-at-home dad, both of which are pretty awesome!) In my spare time, I'm working on another YA novel; this one has one foot slightly in urban fantasy, but is still mostly about a foul-mouthed teen. I like writing foul-mouthed teens.

Do you have any words of wisdom for writers trying to get published?

Go to conferences! Meet editors and agents and writers at those conferences. Practice your elevator lines, and if you're just not that good in person, write them down, so you just have to introduce yourself and put a piece of paper into editors' and agents' hands.
Oh, and, ummm, don't do that until your WIPs are no longer IP. Have something finished.

Where can we find out more about you on the web?

I blog at http://stevebrezenoff.blogspot.com/, and my twitter is @sbrezenoff.

Thanks, Steve! Great interview. As a seasoned professional, we’ll be looking to you for advice when 2010 rolls around...

Eyes Up Here, Please

Some nice things have been happening over at the home of my forthcoming books. Publisher’s Weekly just ran a story on how well Flux is doing, with sales up 30% over last year and publicists are “fielding calls recently from Hollywood agents and producers looking to tap into popular teen reading trends by adapting Flux titles for television shows.” In this sh**y economy, I’d call that more than a ray of sunshine. That’s full-on sunspot action.

When you look at their list, it’s hard to believe that Flux is just three years old. The much respected Andrew Karre is responsible for those first great years and now Brian Farrey, the new acquisitions editor (and former senior publicist at Flux), is adding his own flavah. I’ve really enjoyed working with him so far—he’s the perfect blend of smart and irreverent. One of the things he’s changing up is the blog, which is moving in the direction of podcasting. Check out the newly redesigned Flux blog for details. Brian is a big fan of musicals and I’m hoping he brings that love to a few of his podcasts. Can you see it? The stage is dark, the audience is hushed, Brian sits alone in a chair framed only by the gilded proscenium. Then a small, soft light floods his face as he delivers the latest news, a cappella, about Flux books and authors. Quiet at first, then…wait for it…wait for it—there it is! He hits the money note!

(To be clear, there was no mention of these podcasts becoming musicals, but one can hope.)

And lastly, the bitchin’ Flux covers are not going unnoticed— Publisher’s Weekly Shelftalker columnist Alison Morris even went so far as to award a gold star in this article. Can't wait to see what they do with my covers.

Yay Flux! You make me proud to be in your stable.

The Three Book Deal: Interview with Author Julie Kagawa

Today’s featured author is Julie Kagawa, whose 2010 debut novel is THE IRON KING (Harlequin Teen). If you visit her website you can read her amusing bio, which includes the following, “To pay the rent, Julie worked in different bookstores over the years, but discovered the managers frowned upon her reading the books she was supposed to be shelving. So she turned to her other passion: training animals. She worked as a professional dog trainer for several years, dodging Chihuahua bites and overly enthusiastic Labradors, until her first book sold and she stopped training to write full-time. Julie now lives in Louisville, Kentucky, where the frequency of shark attacks are at an all time low. She lives with her husband, two obnoxious cats, and one Australian Shepherd who is too smart for his own good.”

I love her already.

Welcome, Julie, Can you tell us how you met your agent?
I met Laurie McClean, my fabulous agent from Larson-Pomada Literary agency, at a writer's workshop in Louisville, KY. The workshop was held at Spaulding University, and after a week of classes and instruction, we would get the chance to pitch our novels to a panel of agents and editors on Saturday. The end of the week was very exciting and nerve wracking; you'd think we were preparing for the arrival of the royalty, the way everyone was talking about it. But to an unpublished writer, an editor is nearly that.

Early Friday morning, before anyone else was up, I walked into the lounge to see a woman I'd never seen before standing in the middle of the room drinking a Coke. I knew it wasn't one of the students, and all the agents and editors flying in later were staying at a hotel. So I had no idea who this person was. Maybe security let someone slip in unnoticed.

"Uh ... hello?" I said intelligently.

"Oh, good morning!" said the strange person, much more cheerful than I would be at seven in the morning. "I'm Laurie McClean."

And at that moment, all the pieces clicked in my brain. "Laurie McClean" sounded awfully familiar, as if I read it somewhere before, like on the schedule. The agents and editors were supposed to be flying in today. The director said something about an agent who was not staying in the hotel, but in the dorms with the students.

Oh crap. This was an agent! I just "Uh helloed" an agent!

And to top it off, I was taking her to lunch that afternoon.

Fortunately, Laurie is one of the nicest persons on the planet. We sat in the lounge and talked for several minutes before the rest of the students got wind that an agent was in the building and mobbed the room. I talked to her a bit more at lunch, she asked for a few pages of my novel, and a few weeks later I nearly fell out of my chair when she asked to represent me.

Can you tell us how your book deal happened?
Laurie sent my novel to Natashya Wilson at Harlequin Teen (then MIRA), who loved it enough to offer a three book contract.

What was the inspiration for your 2010 debut book and how long did it take you to write?
I always loved old, creepy faery tales, the ones that showed faeries as primal and dangerous, instead of glittery winged sprites. But when I decided to write a book about faeries, I got to thinking: what are the fey afraid of? The obvious answer, in ancient myth and in more modern stories, was iron. They can't stand the touch of iron and steel, something we are completely surrounded by now. We even have monsters that inhabit machines: gremlins, worms, viruses, ect. So, what if there were a new type of faery, born from technology and progress? How would they affect the more traditional fey? And, from that thought, the Iron Fey were born.

THE IRON KING took me a little under two months to write, thanks to Chris Baty's book, No Plot, No Problem. Chris is the founder of a little known writing workshop you may have heard of: National Novel Writing Month, better known as NaNo WriMo. I was already 40k into the story, but I was super-eager to finish, so I set my own 30 day, 50,000 word deadline, and typed like a madwoman until the story was done.

What's your publication date and where in the process are you now?
THE IRON KING will come out in February of 2010. I'm waiting on copyedits now, but last week my editor e-mailed me cover concepts; you could hear me squee-ing a mile away.

Who is your favorite character in your book?
I would have to say Ash, Queen Mab's son, just because I love dark, stoic bad boys who can wield pointy objects. But of course, a smart-ass talking cat named Grimalkin runs a very close second.

What are you working on now?
I'm working on the second book in the series, THE IRON DAUGHTER. And when that is done, onto the third and final book, THE IRON QUEEN, right now just a wee twinkle in my eye.

Do you have any words of wisdom for writers trying to get published?
Persevere. Don't let anyone tell you you're too young, or too old, or too inexperienced, or too whatever. Learn everything you can about your craft. Go to conferences, workshops, and critique groups. Read books on writing. Strive to make yourself a better writer. Accept criticism graciously; don't think your story is too special and unique for people to understand--if they don't understand it, it's usually the fault of the writer. But don't let anyone discourage you. Above all, keep trying. As someone once told me: "If you want something bad enough, you'll get it. If you didn't get it, you didn't want it bad enough."

Where can we find out more about you on the web?
My website is at juliekagawa.com
Thanks so much for the interview!

Thank you, Julie! Looking forward to THE IRON KING and its sequels!

All The Gym's A Stage...

The town I live in is quirky, mainly because our economy is driven by theater. Each year more than 300,000 people come to our little college town of 20,000 to see some eleven plays in three theaters. Because the Oregon Shakespeare Festival employs 500 people, you run into a lot of theater folks while doing your everyday business. The one place it’s becoming a bit much, however, is the gym.

I understand multitasking, but must one practice one’s monologue while other people are trying to catch up on their trash TV? I mean the whole reason I joined this gym was because every single machine had a TV attached to it running expanded cable – I was going to multitask by loading up on makeover shows on the Style Network while simultaneously burning my daily 500 calories. But now, as theater season swings into full gear, I’m being sabotaged by actors. Sure, I like comedia dell'arte as much as the next person on a treadmill, but even with headphones crammed as far down my ear as they’d go, I couldn’t hear a word of Dress My Nest over Truffaldino next to me running all his lines from The Servant of Two Masters while logging miles on the recumbent bike, the prefect piece of exercise equipment, it seems, for wild gesticulation.

Writer in Bloom: Interview with Author Amy Brecount White

I’m incredibly excited about fellow 2010 author Amy Brecount White’s book, FORGET-HER-NOTS because I love love love flowers. The idea of using a flower's secret power to change behavior is fascinating to me—cannot wait to read this one!

Here’s Amy’s deal report from Publishers Marketplace:

Virginia Duncan of Greenwillow Books has acquired FLOWERSPEAK by Amy Brecount White, in a pre-emptive offer. In the novel, a girl discovers that she can use flowers and their magical potency to make people change their behavior – even fall in love. The novel is tentatively scheduled for a spring 2009 release. Steven Chudney of the Chudney Agency did the deal.
[We didn’t make the spring 2009 release, and Greenwillow really wanted a spring release. The title was also changed to the more fun and catchy FORGET-HER-NOTS.]

Hi Amy, can you tell us how you met your agent?
I had heard good things about Steven Chudney from several people and checked out his website. Our taste in books seemed very similar. At that point, his website asked for the first three chapters. He loved them so much he said he was tempted to offer representation just based on those! He did read the whole novel, though, before I signed.

Can you tell us how your book deal happened?
Over the years, I had lots of agents and editors express interest in my novel mostly at SCBWI conferences, because I have such a great premise, imho. It took a few years, though, for me to get the story exactly right and to find the perfect house—Greenwillow. Once we did, Virginia Duncan made an offer within two weeks and right before Christmas. It was the best present ever!

What was the inspiration for FORGET-HER-NOTS and how long did it take you to write?
I used to write a lot of articles for newspapers and magazine—mostly lifestyle and travel pieces—so I was always on the lookout for new ideas. I found out about the language of flowers from a book called, TUSSIE-MUSSIES, which is the Victorian name for symbolic flower bouquets. Once I knew about it, I started seeing the language everywhere. I also gave several friends symbolic bouquets, and I definitely wished that the messages I was sending to them came true. So it was an easy jump from wishing to imagining real magic in the blooms. And I do believe there is a special magic any time anyone gives flowers.

How long did it take you to write it?
Hmm, how long was it? From conception to an offer, about 8 years. I was working on lots of other projects, too, and taking care of my three kids. (I like to say it had the longest gestation period of all my children.) But, I must admit, my learning curve on the craft of novel writing was a little steeper than I expected. It’s a lot different from writing an article, but I think–I’m hopin’—I’ve got it now.

What's your publication date and where in the process are you now?
Right now they’re saying February 2010, and I’m on copy edits.

If you could have any magical power, what would it be?
Flower magic, of course! I’d love to be able to awaken emotions and transform lives with a few lovely blooms. Actually, there are several scientific/psychological studies showing how receiving flowers elevates your mood and feelings of happiness for several days. And patients who have flowers in their room generally have shorter stays and respond better to medications, according to another study.

Soooo… what are you waiting for? Go give someone some flowers!

What are you working on now?
I’m writing a YA novel tentatively called, STRING THEORY. It’s about relationships, growing up fast, and taking care of the earth. I’ve described it as HOOT meets STORY OF A GIRL. No magic, but a few flowers sprinkled in.

Do you have any words of wisdom for writers trying to get published?
Read everything you admire in your genre and then read it again. I was a very good prose writer, but it took me awhile to get a novel right. Even if you can string words together, it’s a real craft and skill to be able to tell a story well, so people want to keep reading. I still go back and read some of my favorite novels – GRACELING, WICKED LOVELY, and THE WITCH OF BLACKBIRD POND – to see exactly how they’re sewn together. It takes also practice and dedication to learn to read like a writer.

Where can we find out more about you and your book?
If you want to learn more about me, FORGET-HER-NOTS and the language of flowers, or read my blog, check out my website.

(There’s a really cool list of flowers and their meanings on Amy’s website – just found out that my favorite flower means fantastic extravagance! Love it.)

Thanks for the interview, Amy! What flowers should we send for congratulations?