Phoenix Discoveries…

July 28, 2011July 26, 201126 Comments

I spent last week in Phoenix visiting my parents. My daughter came too (of course!) and had all kinds of fun being spoiled by her Nana and Poppy. We’re paying for the over-indulgences now, but it’s all good. The sun, the swimming, the ice cream, and the family time make it all worthwhile. Turns out I learned a few things over the course of my stay in the Valley of the Sun. Here’s what…

-My daughter looks great in orange. Also, she’s extra adorable when giggling.

-It is far too hot in Phoenix to run outdoors. At 6:30 in the morning it was 87 degrees. I tried once, then wised up. The next morning I hit the air-conditioned fitness center.

-Almond milk is yummier than regular milk. It also has fewer calories and more calcium. Who knew? (Thanks for introducing me, Mom!)

-Three novels and a nonfiction are too many books for five days. I did get through two though (Room and Bird by Bird). They were both excellent.

-CBS’s Big Brother is better when watched with people who are ready and willing to slam it. (Ugh… am I the only one who hates Rachel? Am I the only one who watches even though I’m super embarrassed about it?)

-A girl can never have too many swimsuits.

-Dairy Queen’s Peanut Buster Parfaits can be made at home with vanilla ice cream, good hot fudge, and Spanish peanuts.

–Naartjie carries the cutest kids’ clothes ever. Why oh why can’t there be a store closer to me? (Actually, it’s probably best there’s not. :))

-Parents flying with preschoolers should not expect to get any legitimate work done. Instead, prepare yourself for loads of coloring.

-Editing is way more fun when the comments in the review field are funny/spot-on/complimentary/honest/thoughtful/helpful/sprinkled with smiley faces.

-I didn’t actually discover this while in Phoenix, but it’s worth repeating: My daughter is my very favorite person. She constantly makes me smile.

What have you discovered this summer?

Cliches and Would You Rather…

July 1, 201120 Comments

Paper Hangover is a fantastic group blog offering writing tips and advice, book reviews, weekly blog topics, and teen interviews. I recommend you spend some time exploring the site–they have so much to offer!

Here’s today’s Friday Five prompt:

Oh, there are so many literary clichés I love, particularly in YA! Hmm. So hard to choose only five, but I’ll try…

1) The childhood-best-friend-newly-rediscovered-romantic-interest, a la The Body Finder. (I’m totally working on a story that makes use of this cliché, but I PROMISE it won’t actually be cliché!).

2) The quirky and unique BFF, because what heroine wouldn’t want a quirky and unique BFF? Sort of like Frankie, from Twenty Boy Summer.

3) The neglectful, dead, disengaged or workaholic parental units. Yes, it’s convenient and annoying, but it works so well for YA self-discovery, like in Shiver.

4) The tombish or self-proclaimed awkward girl who’s actually gorgeous but lacks confidence until her one true love helps her realize her outer beauty. Oh geez, the examples here are infinite… let’s go with the most obvious: Bella from Twilight.

5) The asshole bad boy who turns himself around for the shy, sweet girl he’s suddenly falling for. Yes, I recently watched Beastly. (Yes, it sucked.)

Cliché or not, I chose these five because in the right authorial hands, they can definitely work. See the examples. 🙂

Do tell… what are your favorite clichés?

And in other Friday Fun, literary agent Rachelle Gardner asks this compelling Would You Rather…

She give you one million dollars for your entire body of written work, but then lock it away where no one will ever read it…

Make sure at least one million people buy your books over your lifetime, but you will never make a single dime?

I’ve actually discussed this topic with my husband before and the answer is easy. I’d definitely rather have one million people buy my books but never see the profit. That might sound stupid, but for me writing is about the story, not the money. Sure, a generous advance and hefty royalty checks would be amazing perks, but if forced to choose, I’d rather have people read (and enjoy!) my work.

What about you? Money or love?

RTW: Fleeing the Flames

June 22, 2011June 21, 201122 Comments

Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where the ladies at YA Highway post a weekly writing- or reading-related question for participants to respond to on their own blogs. You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody’s unique take on the topic.

This Week’s Topic: Your house is on fire and you can only grab FIVE things before you flee. What are they?

Well isn’t this an uplifting question to ponder…

Even if we assume my husband, daughter and dogs are safe, there just aren’t that many material items I care much about. In the end, the five things I’d choose to save hold some sort of sentimental value or have a particular memory attached to them:

: Image Credit

1) My daughter’s baby book, full of pictures, newborn memorabilia, and journaling I did during her first year. Irreplaceable.

2) My jewelry box–not because I own tons of expensive pieces, but because each piece was given to me by my husband and marks a certain significant event in our lives.

3) My laptop, for obvious reasons.

4) My wedding photos, because I got married so long ago I don’t have them on a disc. I don’t even like them much, but I imagine my daughter might want to see them someday.

5) My daughter’s big basket of Princess figurines. She LOVES to play with them and would be lost without them.

So, if your house was burning, what would YOU save?

RTW: Scarred for Life

April 13, 201111 Comments

Road Trip Wednesday is a “Blog Carnival,” where YA Highway’s contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question and answer it on their blogs. You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody’s unique take on the topic.

This Week’s Topic: What is the story of your best scar?

Gosh, I wish I had a sensational or courageous or funny story for this one, but truth be told, my scars are pretty boring. He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named has never turned his wand of evil on me. While I’m fairly clumsy, my escapades more often result in bruises and broken toes (I’ve fractured two) than flesh wounds. (“‘Tis but a flesh wound!” Geez. Thank you, Monty Python.)

I do have one gnarly scar on my wrist, a result of cutting TOWARD myself with a box cutter during my oh-so-glamorous stint as part-time manager of a Bath and Body Works. My boss had to drive me to the hospital where I then had to convince multiple doctors and nurses that no, I definitely was not trying to hurt myself. My stupidity resulted in a few stitches and a big I TOLD YOU SO from my husband, who had often lectured me about cutting away from myself. Truth be told, I still cut toward myself from time to time; apparently some life lessons take longer than others to sink in.

What’s the story behind your best scar?

Tales from the Trenches: KEEP CALM and WRITE ON

April 8, 2011April 9, 20119 Comments

So, today my über talented and supremely generous cousin, Carla Essen*, sent me an enigmatic DM: What’s your favorite color? I’m making you something. My curiosity was immediately piqued, so I replied with: Pink or red, then I waited. A short while later I found this gem** in my inbox:

First, I’m so glad she chose pink for me. Second, how cute is that crown on top?! And third, I’ve taken the above statement on as my new mantra.

This industry has too many stresses that are too easy to get caught up in, especially if you’re stuck in the query trenches (like me!) or trudging down the long submission road (so I’ve heard!). I often find myself so keyed up about query etiquette, social networking, the perfect pitch, blogging and blog reading, the unforeseeable future of publishing, who’s gotten how big an advance, and (insert any number of trivial things here), that I forget my main goal: Write and write well.

So, from now on I’m going to KEEP CALM and WRITE ON. You should too!

*Carla has an amazing talent for photography, among many other things.
**You have Carla’s permission (and mine!) to lift this graphic to use on your own blog if you’d like. 🙂

RTW: Howdy, Neighbor!

March 23, 201110 Comments

This Week’s Topic: Which book character would you like most as a next door neighbor?

When I read this question, an immediate answer popped into my head. Then I spent a few hours trying to think of something different, because I figured I wouldn’t be the only one with this answer. But, I couldn’t come up with better. Really, I couldn’t come up with anything else at all, which tells me that going with my first instinct, original or not, is the way to go today. 🙂

My dream next door neighbors would be the entire Weasley clan, which means I’d get to live adjacent to the fantastic Burrow! The Weasleys’ house is one of my favorite settings from Harry Potter. It’s just so quirky. So magical, and full of warmth and love. While some might say its curb appeal is a little… shoddy, I think there’s a lot to love about the unique (um, crooked?) architecture, the wide open spaces, the orchard and the corn fields, not to mention the population of garden gnomes who reside on the property.

How cool would it be to live next door to whole family of wizards and witches? Quirky Arthur, maternal Molly, brave Bill, the outlandish twins, bumbling Ron, and Ginny, who I still can’t quite peg. And Harry, Hermione and the many members of The Order of the Phoenix are constant visitors. Plus, there’s the delicious food, the owl post, the Quidditch and the magic wands… too much awesome to list!

Who would you choose for literary next door neighbors?

Sunday’s Super Seven

February 13, 2011March 13, 20113 Comments

Lately, I’ve needed lists to organize my thoughts. That might be because I’m smack in the middle of an epic WIP rewrite (WIP’s scenes, characters, GCMs and all the other tiny details are sorted into lists, might I add) so my head is sort of jumbled. In that spirit, what better day to post a list of super things than boring old Sunday?

1) Words With Friends – Last weekend, my sister-in-law oh-so-innocently asked, “Hey, Katy, have you bought Words With Friends yet?” To which I replied, “No, I sure haven’t. What is it?” She went on to explain that it’s like Scrabble, only you can play on your phone with real friends who play on their phones, or you can start games with random strangers.

SOLD! Scrabble is my very favorite game, and let’s be honest: I’m all about procrastination tools that suck up huge amounts of time before you ever even realize it. Long story short, I bought the app and now I’m in the midst of about eight different games–some with real friends and some with strangers I’ll never meet. I couldn’t be more joyful.

2) Borders – Speaking of joyful, last week I went to Borders and got four new books! (Elizabeth Scott’s The Unwritten Rule, Sarah Ockler’s Fixing Delilah, Deb Caletti’s Honey, Baby, Sweetheart, and Courtney Summer’s Fall For Anything, in case you’re wondering. I’m on a contemporary kick.) As I was perusing, my husband kept our daughter busy, so tolerant and sweet. Mid-browse, I suddenly realized something: Borders is my happy place.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I find great delight in my family, friends and (most of my) daily activities. But there’s something about walking into Borders with the goal of buying new books that makes me particularly blissful. Do you know what DOESN’T make me blissful? All this talk of Borders going under. I’m not sure if they make 12-Step programs for obsessive book-buyers like me, but I’ll tell you what–if the Borders in my city closes down, things might get ugly. *Edited February 17th: While Borders has officially filed for bankruptcy, the store in my town is NOT among those listed as closing. What a relief!

3) Craft Quickies – My talented CP, Heather Howland, has started a new series on her blog: Craft Quickies. They’re short posts covering craft issues (obviously) that can trip some (all?) writers up. So far she’s covered dialogue tag abuse (I went through my manuscript with a fine-tooth comb after reading this one) and the stress-inducing possible sequel. Rumor has it she’ll be tackling verb modifiers soon. I highly recommend you check Craft Quickies out.

4) The Walking Dead – Have you seen this AMC show? From what I’ve heard, it’s an adaptation of a graphic novel and it is the epitome of ridiculousness. Still, I kind of love it.

Hey, girl with the baseball bat: Good luck to you.

We’ve had all seven Season One episodes sitting in our DVR for months and just recently got around to watching them. (I freely admit that we watched with our three-year-old daughter present. She loved it. “Mommy, why are all those zombies eating that horse?” Our status as Parents of the Year may be in question…) Anyway, I love watching The Walking Dead for the very same reason I love watching Dexter and The Vampire Diaries: Something major happens in every. Single. Episode. There are no lags, no weeks and weeks of I know where they’re going with this and I wish they’d just hurry up and get there. Nope. It’s fast paced and exciting and I can’t wait to find out what happens to those crazy zombie fighters next season.

My daughter pretending to be a zombie. In a Princess shirt.

5) Phrase Frequency Counter – The perfect writing tool for closet OCDers like me. Much like Wordle, you can paste in as much or as little text as you want, choose the number of words-in-phrases you’d like the Frequency Counter to check (two-word phrases, three-word phrases, and so on), and then sit back and let the magic happen. The most common phrases in my WIP were things like “I said” and “he said,” but I also noticed that I used “took a long swallow” and “took a long sip” and “took a long drink” three times each. That’s nine times. Clearly, I’m writing about a couple of lushes.

6) Across the Universe by Beth Revis – As a rule, I don’t read science fiction. I know, I know… I shouldn’t wall myself off completely from any one genre. The thing is, aliens, space travel, cryogenics, and otherworldly futures just don’t interest me. Then Twitter went abuzz about Across the Universe. I became curious. Rave reviews started pouring in. I became intrigued. Some of my CPs read it and couldn’t stop gushing. I knew I had to check it out. So I bought Across the Universe (See #2 above… I have a problem.), and I am SO glad I did. It’s sci-fi, but it’s accessible. Relatable. Really cool. I’m somewhere around half-way through and I’m totally into it. But now I’m starting to love it so much that I’m stressing about the ending being a disappointment. Ugh. Please, Beth Revis. Please make the end of your book stand up to the fabulous beginning!

I love this cover...

7) That’s YAmore – In case you haven’t heard: I’m a participant in Oasis for YA’s “That’s YAmore” blogfest. It has been so much fun reading all of the sweet, romantic, steamy entries. If you’re interested in reading my contribution, you can find it HERE. And please visit the That’s YAmore Blogfest page to check out the other participants. You’ll be glad you did. 🙂

Tales from the Trenches 2.0

January 31, 2011January 31, 20116 Comments

And the querying continues…

I don’t think I talk about querying and agents and writing and publishing all that much. Mostly, I reserve those topics for my blog, or for conversations with my CPs and writing friends, who are all in varying states of the querying/submission process. They appreciate and embrace the crazy, because like me, they’re all neck deep in it. Occasionally I’ll bounce ideas off my husband, or vent if something isn’t going well, and occasionally my parents or in-laws will ask how things are going and I’ll give them as brief an update as possible. But really, I don’t talk about querying and agents and writing and publishing all that much.

Or so I thought…

First, a little background: Junie B. Jones is a hero in my home. If you aren’t familiar, Junie B. is the star of the very popular chapter book series written by Barbara Park.

Junie B. is precocious, clueless, funny and manages to get herself in to all kinds of mischeif. My husband and I read a chapter or two from a Junie B. Jones book to our daughter every night before she goes to bed. Now, my daughter is only three, but she LOVES her Junie B. Like, laughs-out-loud, constantly-quotes (“Hello. How are you today?”), asks-for-a-new-book-every-time-we-go-to-Target kind of love. Still, imagine my surprise when the other day she looked at me and asked, “Mommy, can your agent get me some Junie B. books?”

Yeah. Clearly she doesn’t *quite* get the role of a literary agent (or the fact that her mommy doesn’t have one yet!), but she knows that agents deal in books, that they’re able to do super nice things and that they might just be capable of making magic happen. And that’s probably a deep enough knowledge base for her for now. 🙂

Tales from the Trenches

January 23, 2011January 26, 201111 Comments

Okay, so, I’m querying. And I’m going crazy. Every time I see a new email in my inbox I get a sick feeling in my stomach, something between excitement, nervousness, dread and hopefulness. I’m constantly hopping between optimism and preparing myself for the worst. My husband and other family members are continuously telling me, “Chill out. It will happen!” Yeah, that’s easier said than done when you’re so deep into this process of putting your work out there for others to judge and, in many cases, turn down. Crazy-inducing as it is, rejection is a big part of the querying and eventual publication process.

I share the following story because hopefully I’m not the only person whose subconscious tortures them while they’re trying to sleep. The other night I had a querying nightmare. In this nightmare, I got an email from an agent who’d read my manuscript. Her note wasn’t exactly a rejection, but it definitely wasn’t an offer of representation either. It was merely a list of typos she’d found in the manuscript. Tons of them. My misspelling on the left, and her corrections on the right. How humiliating! I woke up with my stomach turning somersaults. The first thing I did was check my email to make sure the dream wasn’t some weird glimpse of the future, then I spent the rest of the day second-guessing all of the requested material I’ve sent in. Let me say, my manuscript is NOT riddled with typos. And I’ve never gotten an email from an agent that wasn’t gracious and complimentary. But still.