squeetus

Kate's eagles

I was just wanting to avoid writing for a minute, and I thought to myself, "I wonder if Kate DiCamillo has a blog." And by golly, she does. Please read this entry with me.

Okay, let's get this part out of the way: Don't you love her? I mean, don't you?

And then also, what she says reminds me so much of why I do what I do, which I have been wondering about lately (as always) and questioning my own sanity. So often I feel like Laura Ann Worsley, my writing like a green plastic purse, and I go about slapping people and whooping with delight at the little observed treasures, because I saw them, I knew them, I wrote them down, and I want to share them. And I'm saying, "Look at that airplane up there! I know there are lots, but I saw this one, and I want to share it with you!" And often the response is, who cares? That airplane isn't so great. I've seen better ones. I didn't really want to look at an airplane right now, I have better things to do.

And I want to be Laura Ann Worsley, because at that point, she didn't run behind a tree and cry in heartbreak and anguish. She was just plain pleased.

Why do artists and writers do what we do? Why do we spend years plotting and crafting and polishing only to share the book with the world, where perhaps it will be rejected, scorned, mocked, despised, or just left unsold and eventually pulped? It's a tremulous place to be, for one like me. I'm not good at slapping purses and whooping. And mostly I think I'd prefer to hide behind that tree.

But oh, when you see not one eagle, but TWO, and there's someone there who sees it too. Oh, to catch sight of eagles in good company. Beauty beyond comprehension somehow comprehended, for a moment, because you're not alone. There's a moment worth risking for.

Next time: contest voting and results!

One secret down, one to go

Alright, so I'm far enough into one of the Super Secret Projects to reveal (the original and, for me, more exciting SSP is still pending). So a little over a year ago, I started writing Daisy Danger Brown, a kick-butt girl scifi book I'd had outlined for about four years. There was so much stuff to it, I realized I couldn't do it all in one book. Besides, I have great fond memories of reading trilogies when I was younger, and racing off to the library to get the next one. I hope to make it a racing-to-library kind of a book. But I don't trust myself to write book 1 by itself. I'm too much of a rewriter. I'll trap myself in a plot line that I won't end up wanting to keep by book 3. So I challenged myself to write the first draft of the entire trilogy in one fell swoop.

Eleven months later, I had that first draft: 150,000 words. That's 50K per book, which will undoubtedly grow as I rewrite and add (and cut and add and cut and add and cut some more...). I showed my editor and my husband the first 2/3, and when I got their comments back, I realized I was not ready to jump back into rewrites. I'd already spent nearly a year with this story and I needed a break from it before I could get the perspective to do the major changes I would need to do. So, I needed to start a new project. Because I'm obsessive. And can't take breaks.

I always have books just waiting their turn, but the most fleshed out of these is a high energy, intense project. First drafts are hard for me. They're like breaking the bronco, not cantering the countryside. The prospect of doing 11 months worth of first drafting Daisy Danger immediately followed by another six months of yet another, even more challenging first draft seemed impossible.

Then I got an idea. Just like that. A brand new idea. A book I hadn't thought to give a sequel suddenly appeared before me, kind of sassy-like, taunting me most cheekily. And I seized it. And am so glad I did.

So, I'm writing another Austenland novel. Jane is not in this book. It's the story of a different woman who goes on vacation to Pembrook Park, and I am having so much fun with it. I have 25K now. No idea when I'll be done and I can't predict a release date (maybe 2011?). But I'll reveal the title, which I quite like and plan on keeping: Midnight in Austenland. I've had a blast with research reading for this book. I won't give too much away at this point. There are some familiar characters in this book, and many new ones. And the story twists most pleasantly.

After I finish a first draft of MIA, I'll return to editing Daisy Danger. I think these two projects will be nice to work on simultaneously because they're so different, and the main characters are so different, and the genres so different. Hooray! It feels great to be making progress with a new and unexpected story. I can't wait to share it.

The great balancing act of awareness

So...Haiti. I heard about the devastation the day it happened. I was listening to NPR as I drove. I was alone--no kids (rare), so I didn't have anything to distract me from the story. And I cried. Then as soon as I could, I turned it off. I donated to a relief organization and thereafter avoided thinking about it, reading about it. I didn't want to live in that place, because I could imagine it too well.

Is this a common trait of writers? I would think so. I can't just hear what they're telling me. I imagine it out. I see a child, and see what's happened to her, to her home, her family. I create the setting, the characters, until it becomes real in my head. I imagine the moment. I get trapped in it. I guess I make my living with my imagination, but it's always there, whether I need it for writing a book or not. This is why I can't watch horror movies--I'm fine during the movie. Sure, I get a little jumpy, but I can appreciate the storytelling, especially if it's well done. But it's after the movie... I can't sleep that night, or the next, or the next, because I keep replaying the movie in my head, imagining new scenes, putting myself into it. My husband is mystified by this, but I didn't sleep well for three weeks after watching The Ring. No more horror for me.

But, Haiti... Can I ignore that? Is it my responsibility as a human being to do more? Is it enough to donate some money then ignore the rest? We tell and retell stories about the Holocaust because we can't ever forget. As soon as we forget, as soon as we stop caring about what happened, then we risk allowing that to happen again. But it hurts so much to think about it. To imagine. I don't know how much my heart can take. I'm so much more tender than I used to be. Having kids has done that to me, and losing my sister. I can't feel all the pain without getting crushed.

I don't know the balance of that yet. How much to be aware, and how much to let go. But I thought I could do one more thing at least. There are many wonderful organizations involved in relief efforts. Here's a list of some respectable ones. It's my birthday this week. If you're in a position to donate to our friends in Haiti and were just waiting for an extra nudge, consider it a birthday present to me. Because of course, you'd all planned on getting me a present, right? Isn't that who you usually shop for--family, close friends, and that one author whose blog you sometimes read? If you're under 18, do NOT donate without parental permission and blame me! I don't need those angry emails, children.

The refrigerator curse

Dean and I have said curse. Truly. Was there a refrigerator gypsy we inadvertently crossed on our wedding day? Is there a saint over appliances I can supplicate? I present for you the evidence of our curse. The following stories are not exaggerated. In fact, the sheer scope of fridge horror has been abbreviated for tedium's sake. Happy schadenfreude!

FRIDGE #!
In retrospect, it wasn't so bad - it was just one of those old ones that come with a rental where you have to defrost the freezer once a month or your ice cream builds its own igloo.

FRIDGE #2
We bought it new for our condo. Just over a year later (nullifying the warranty), it began to beep. I called the service department.
"I'm sorry, ma'am, but that model doesn't beep."
"Yeah, I figured it shouldn't be beeping, but it is."
"No, that model doesn't have any mechanism to make a beep. It must be something else in your kitchen."
"I'm standing right in front of it, and it's definitely beeping."
"It's probably another appliance nearby."
"No...there's a little red light on the fridge that blinks in time with the beeping."
"I'm sorry, ma'am, but that model of refrigerator doesn't beep."
The freezer died, and we had a repairman come to fix it.
"Yeah, this kind of freezer problem is common in fridges 5-10 years old. How old is this?"
"One year."
"Oh."
He could fix the freezer, but not the beep. There were times when, as I was trying to fall asleep, I fantasized about shooting the fridge with a sawed-off shotgun. That specific weapon. For the record, I never did.

FRIDGE #3
We gave away the Beeping Leviathan when we moved and bought a new fridge for our house. Just over a year later, the freezer died. Twice in the same month. We got it fixed both times, but the ice maker was a permanent casualty, a drawer broke, and we harbored ill feelings toward our fridge. We used to fantasize about buying a new one, browsing online and admiring the shiny new models, one with a bottom freezer this time, and fancy french doors! Then this past fall as an early Christmas present for Dean, I did it! I bit the bullet and spent a wad on exactly the model we wanted, and a brand that was supposed to be great: Samsung. (duh, duh, DUM!)

FRIDGE #4

The following events each occur 5-7 days apart:

1. Fridge arrives. It's dropped off on our curb. Dean is 3 hours late to work, having to remove the fridge doors to get it through our front door, haul the 300 lb. sucker inside, and set it up.

2. The fridge does not cool. I call Samsung.
"Have you filled the unit with food?"
"No...it's 80 degrees in there."
"The unit won't reach optimum internal temperature until it's filled with food."
"Um...it's 80 degrees in there."

"A technician will call you in 3-5 business days."

3. I call Samsung back. "No technician has called."

"It looks like the request was input incorrectly. I'll redo it."

4. Technician comes, inspects it, and orders parts.

5. Parts arrive. Samsung sent the wrong parts. Dean and I laugh about it. "That darn curse!" we exclaim good-humoredly.

6. New parts arrive. Samsung sent the wrong parts. Again. I explain to the nice repair guys, "It's not your fault. We have a refrigerator curse." I give them slices of homemade pie to show my astounding goodwill. (I didn't make the pie--my neighbor did, because she loved The Actor and the Housewife. It was really good pie.)

7. I call Samsung when the third round of parts never arrive. We're told parts are not available. They put in for an exchange. It'll be another 5-7 days.

I explain to the Customer Service Rep how much trouble we've already been through. "Is there anything you can do to help this happen faster?"

"There isn't an expedite button on my desk that I can just push."

8. 5-7 business days later, I call to check up on the status. New rep tells me, "I'm sorry, your exchange request was input incorrectly. I'll redo it."

I take deep, cleansing breaths. I will be okay.

9. Calling to check up on the status, yet another new rep tells me, "I'm sorry, your exchange request was input incorrectly. I'll redo it." Again.

Dean and I speak nostalgically of ice boxes.

10. Calling to check up on the status, I'm told we can't get an exchange from where we purchased it. I don't offer pie to the woman on the phone. There is no pie in me left to give. I actually break down and weep. "This is insanity! How can you run a company this way? Am I being punked? Am I trapped in Groundhog's Day?"

"I apologize if there has been any inconvenience, ma'am. I'll put in for a refund."

11. I call to check on status. Can you guess? "I'm sorry, your refund request was input incorrectly. I'll redo it."

12. Ditto.

13. Ditto. A gentle numbness sets in. The memory of pie is so distant...do I hear the angels singing me home at last?

At this point, it's been 11 weeks. We still have an 80 degree fridge in our kitchen. Alongside the bastard fridge, which is looking pretty good these days. When the refund goes through (ha!), we're asked to cut off the power cord, mail it to them, and we'll get a check. Will they come pick up the 300 lb. refrigerator? No. Can we give it over to a charity? No, they only accept working fridges that are PLUGGED IN. It will be up to us to dispose of the behemoth ourselves. How? I do not know, and so I end on a cliffhanger, leaving you to imagine what, if any, ending will claim our story.

But even now we can't help but hope. Maybe the next refrigerator will be the one! Maybe eventually we'll work through our curse and be granted a working cooling appliance. I only know one thing for certain: Lucky Fridge #5 will not be a Samsung.

On second thought, please do have a cow

Congrats to all the winners on this shiny, sparkly Newbery morning, but most especially to my book sister, my torso twin, my beloved Libba.

Newbery

“When You Reach Me,” written by Rebecca Stead.

Newbery Honor Books

“Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice” by Phillip Hoose

“The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate” by Jacqueline Kelly

“Where the Mountain Meets the Moon” by Grace Lin

“The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg” by Rodman Philbrick

Caldeoctt

“The Lion & the Mouse,” illustrated and written by Jerry Pinkney

Caldecott Honor Books

“All the World,” illustrated by Marla Frazee, written by Liz Garton Scanlon

“Red Sings from Treetops: A Year in Colors,” illustrated by Pamela Zagarenski, written by Joyce Sidman

Michael L. Printz Award for excellence in literature written for young adults

“Going Bovine,” written by Libba Bray

Printz Honor Books

“Charles and Emma: The Darwins’ Leap of Faith” by Deborah Heiligman

“The Monstrumologist” by Rick Yancey

“Punkzilla” by Adam Rapp

"Tales of the Madman Underground: An Historical Romance, 1973” by John Barnes

For a full list of awards, see ala.org.

And thanks, all, for your insightful and oft times passionate thoughts on twitter! I did secure @haleshannon as someone suggested (shannonhale being taken by an apparent doppelganger), but haven't employed it yet, as I am still pondering.

Calamity Jack party: a GRAPHIC account!

Here are some (shocking!) photos from our (alarming!) King's English launch party for (earth shattering!) calamity jack. Intrigued...? I thought so.

Dean, Nate, and I talked about making the book. Blah, blah, blah. Why does my husband's shirt have a bloody hand print? Because it's his Intermural Zombie Hunting League team shirt. Obviously.

 
Nate's awesome presentation on the making of a graphic novel. The cutie kids sat on the floor. Where they could better put their hands in front of the projector. Obviously. Nate made a graphical homage to this moment on his blog.

 
More talking. Questions answered. Two super secret projects revealed. Does Nate look like he's keeping his distance? Almost as if...he doesn't trust us, for some reason? Weird.

Through Interpretive Movement, Dean and I explain the process of Collaboration.

With a big finish!

Look at these cutie kids! Rapunzel is decked out from head to foot. Awesome! And cowboy little brother was definitely smiling on the inside.

Two Rapunzels show the world how to whip evil! A shout out to Mindy Hale who knit this unbelievable wig for me at the Rapunzel launch. It appeared on the Today Show even, the most famous wig in America! I should have just worn this wig the entire time. My other hair looked awful. Just texted my hair dresser: emergency!

Check it out! Freddie came! I love costumes. I really do.

Thanks to the King's English and Anderson Library, and everyone who came out. We had a wonderful time. I found it interesting that for this book release, our audience was mostly adult women and young families. A really wonderful crowd! But I wondered, where are the teens? Are Saturdays just too busy? It is commonly acknowledged that picture book and middle grade events tend to be better attended than YA events, because teens just don't get out there much on their own. So teenagers, what gets you to a book event? What day/time, what incentives, what gets you to push pause on your busy lives and get to a bookstore?

To tweet or not to tweet

I have awesome photos of the calamity jack release party, but I've been working crazy hours on a deadline with the Super Secret Project, so I haven't had time to post them yet. Maybe tomorrow. In the meantime, a question: Should I join the growing hordes on Twitter? I have a facebook page, but I update about once a week and spend very little time there. I need to conserve where I spend my time, so family and writing take precedence. But everyone I know just raves about Twitter. What think ye, gentle readers? Worth the time?

Jack is back

It's calamity jack launch week! Which is a bit surreal, since Dean and I finished writing the script for it two and a half years ago. When we started, I was pregnant. And now that embryo is a three-year-old terror.

I posted a calamity jack section on my site. The reviews have been great, though I cringe each time we get one, knowing that they read the black and white advance copies instead of the full color, rich paper, snazzy copies. It makes a huge difference in the reading experience. For the sake of Nathan Hale, who worked 17 hour days/7 days a week for months on this baby, if you read the b&w ARCs, please, PLEASE read the final too! Please? Borrow it from someone, get it from the library? The ARCs will give you the gist of the story, but won't let you get lost in the story.

Utahns, the full Hale team will be making appearances the next two Saturdays. See my events page for details. Californians, we'll be in southern CA February 20-23, and possibly brief stops in other Western states. Those are all the details I have at the moment. (But I'm sure we'll visit Whale of a Tale.)

Now scoot your fine selves over to Nate's blog, because he's posting new outfits for the Rapunzel paper dolls in celebration of CJ's release. I requested a Regency gown for Punzie, and it's awesome! He'll be giving them away this Saturday at the release party. He's also offering to draw avatars for everyone who emails him a photo of themselves with their copy of calamity jack. Not 10-foot blue guys with tails, but a professionally drawn avatar of YOU. (I'm totally going to take him up on it.)

OOH, also, did you hear? The new US ambassador of children's literature, taking Jon Scieska's place, is....Katherine Paterson! I'm so excited! She's fabulous in every way. All hail the ambassador, long may she reign.

2009 great reads, part 2

Last year I was involved in Project Book Babe, a charity event to raise money for Faith, friend to many an author, in her battle with cancer. I'm happy to report that all is well with her! She's asked us to pass along this letter of thanks to all those who participated in any way.

I neglected a few books I wanted to praise in my last round-up, so here's part 2:

Going Bovine, by Libba Bray

This book is unlike anything I've ever read. I've heard people say it's Catcher in the Rye on a fever dream. Libba has given herself an impossible premise for a book (boy with terminal mad cow's disease goes on a road trip...maybe...) and carries it off with wit, humor, thought, and drama. I thought it was fabulous, brave, and will long stand out in the growing crowd of young adult literature. Note that this book has lots of mature content.

Magician's Elephant, by Kate DiCamillo

A really lovely, peaceful kind of tale. I want to sit inside on a rainy or snowy day, cuddled up in a blanket, and read it again. I'm a sucker for Kate's prose. I love her every sentence. She writes like Gene Kelly dances. She makes it look easy, but not many writers could stand up beside her without looking a little sloppy. Her stories often seem sweet and simple, yet they bubble with so much underneath. We also love her Mercy Watson books. The paperbacks for the first two just came out--at steal at $6 for 60 pages with many full-color illustrations. But if your young ones are re-readers, the hardcovers always stand up better. Oh Kate DiCamillo, I will go with you anywhere. Including prom.

Day of the Pelican, by Katherine Paterson

Katherine Paterson, our grand dame; or as her grandchildren call her, our damn gran. (That's what I said when I introduced her last year--she has a wonderful sense of humor, thank goodness.) This is the kind of book that seizes me and won't let my imagination go until I'm finished. It's chilling to read this book. So much has been written about the holocaust, but so little (especially in children's literature) about the similar atrocities that continue in other regions. For three days, I was a refuge inside that story, and it made me realize that this could happen to anyone, anywhere, anytime.

Rebecca, by Daphne duMaurier

I'd never read this book before, though I'd often heard about it. Written in the 1930s, it's a lovely example of gothic romance, and is probably the most uncomfortable book I've ever read. I was uncomfortable from the first page to the last. You never relax. She keeps the tension taut even during scenes which should be mundane. I was fully in this world. I think many writers have been influenced by duMaurier, including the recent What I Saw and How I Lied, last year's NBA winner for young people's lit.

Like sands through the hourglass

Time is so surreal. I freak out a little bit each new year at this mark of time passing, because it makes no sense to me. I still feel like a kid, but someday my own kids are going to freak out, realizing that I was born in the last century. "You didn't have a computer? Or a DVD player? Or a cell phone? Or indoor plumbing?" Like that. When did I get old enough to sit back and reminisce about the old days?

This year was a good year. Despite the doom and gloom about the book industry and the catastrophe of this economy in general, I got to travel to many places and see that people are still passionate about books everywhere. I published the actor and the housewife and forest born, and received some of the most touching and encouraging feedback of my career, as well as some of the strangest and most alarming. (Becky Jack is evil? Forest Born is immoral trash?) Good times. 

My kids are great, my husband is the love of my life. We're alive and healthy and ready to become better people and do good things in the year to come. As for this blog, here are a few things I'm looking forward to in the coming year:

• calamity jack release next week!
• Release party at The King's English on January 9
• The winners of the rapunzel's revenge book trailer contest and the actor and the housewife book club contest (still time to enter...see here)
• Dean and I will be co-touring to southern California (and possibly other western cities) in February. How awesome to co-tour with my husband! That's almost as cool as Libba Bray!
• The reveal of my super secret project, all the stuff I'll finally be able to talk about with that, and hopefully good things to come of it.
• Yet another super secret project! (this one a few months off still, though)
• The completion of the Exquisite Corpse Adventure
• I'll be one of the judges in School Library Journal's Battle of the Books. The most talked about children's and YA books of the year battle against each other for the ultimate victor. I'll be assigned two of them and decide which one will go on to the final rounds. Don't know the books yet or the date, but I'll post my experience and decision here.
• Looking forward to a deadline-less future. I have no book slotted for future release. This is very good for me. With ten books in seven years, I really want time now to just write. I'm loving writing right now and am excited to just keep doing that this year. Maybe we'll have something ready in 2011, but I don't want to think about a date. Not now.

Thanks for journeying with me in 2009. We survived! That's nothing to sneeze at. And 2010 is our year, baby.

Exquisitely bizarre

I did a blog tour as part of the forest born release. Here are some of the interviews:

Book Nut

Compulsive Reader

The Story Siren

I've mentioned before my affection for the Cybil Awards, given out by the children's and YA book bloggers. As national and newpaper review space is diminishing, I think book blogs will get more and more powerful in reviews and book recommendations. We'll see review quotes on book jackets from well known bloggers instead of the likes of Kirkus (which is apparently closing up shop! Ah, Kirkus, who will zing us with that final line now?).

As you may know, I'm one of a couple dozen writers and illustrators taking part in the Exquisite Corpse Adventure. This is an online book told in installments, each chapter written by a new author. The Library of Congress and National Children's Book and Literacy Alliance partnered to use this story as a way to draw people to read.gov, a fabulous website with so much stuff for readers, kids and adults, teachers, librarians, parents, etc. They posted Episode 7 this week, by yours truly. This was so fun and really challenging to write. They're not calling it a "book" so much as a "game." And it turns out when a bunch of children's authors get together to play this kind of a game, things get really bizarre. 

I'll be writing a second episode sometime next year, with the final episode written by whoever will be the new Ambassador of Children's Literature. I've read a few episodes ahead, and M.T. Anderson's made me both laugh out loud and tear up. I'm being absolutely literal. Laugh and cry. This man...what can I say about this man? Is "genius" too trite? How in the midst of this big stew of a story could he write a few pages so lovely and funny and perfect? Astounding.

Merry Christmas this week, and I hope you all feel snuggly and content. Even you Aussies. I know it's summer, but it's never a bad time of year to feel snuggly.

Leaving the Forest...for now

Answering more emailed questions:

"I felt like Forest Born left the door open for more books. Will there be another Bayern book?"

Not at the moment. I won't make the mistake of ever assuming I'm done with those books for good. But I don't think of them as a series necessarily. They are four books with interrelated characters. If another story seizes me in its clutches, then I'll write it. But forest born was one of the hardest books I've ever written, and I don't feel capable of diving back into that world right now. Besides, I really like how forest born feels there, book-ending goose girl. I'm at peace with the books and very involved in a couple other projects right now. But maybe someday! It makes me happy that people want to go back to Bayern again.

"Can we enter the rapunzel's revenge book trailer contest more than once?"

Sure, why not? calamity jack comes out in a few short weeks, and sometime after that we'll wrap up the  contests. I just did a search on youtube, and it looks like the first five videos there are contest entries. (The very first by Goshzilla isn't part of the contest, so don't be scared away by its awesomeness!)

For those who haven''t seen the contest info, check out this blog post.