squeetus

An ambiguous, rant-ish post

Sometimes when reading critical reviews of my work, I can nod and think, "That's valid," or, "I disagree, but I can see how someone could read it that way." And other times...

"What? Did you read the same book? Did you skip chapters? Did you rewrite those scenes in your head? Are you certifiable? How on earth did you get THAT out of it? Did you have your eyes shut the whole time? Shouldn't it be illegal to write reviews if you're insane?"

Like that.

As a writer you can't talk back to reviews. You just have to button your lips and take it. You don't want to be ungracious, snotty, egotistical, arrogant, nasty...even if you really want to be. It never does any good anyway. But you scream a lot in your head. "WHAT?" It sort of helps.

It can be trying. I spend so much time on a book, I rewrite to death, I'm so careful with each word, and then to have it misread...well, yuck. People can not like my books, they can be turned off by my style or story or whatever. Everyone's reading experience is personal. But when they read through highly subjective lenses and think they're being objective, I want to tear my hair out. I want to sob. I want to talk back. I want to explain. I want to sit down with that reviewer and discuss the review point-by-point, detailing where they are mistaken.

But I can't. In review vs. author, review always wins. Review gets the last word. Except for a brief shimmering moment, in ambiguous, rant-ish blog posts.

A chicken nugget post

This Thursday, I'll be at the Jordan Landing Barnes & Noble in West Jordan, Utah at 7 pm to talk about actor & the housewife and sign books.

Just a quick note. A small one, chicken-nugget sized. I had three hours to write today, and with only ten minutes left I'm so sad to leave this story, these words. I'm working on Daisy Danger Brown, and I'm drenched in this book. There are always the hard parts, the sticky, thorny, muddy parts. But there's so much meadow-running too. Being a writer is a good, good thing.

Our little drummer girl

Happy Independence Day to all (since Bill Pullman declared in that movie that it's no longer just a US holiday). Hats off to Nathan Hale for this divine drawing! And if you haven't been following his blog lately, it's worth a looksee. The recent Bird-Face Face Off alone is pretty awesome.

In which there is pie, aprons, karaoke, and chops

Photos from the actor and the housewife release party at The King's English! My brother-in-law kindly took a bunch. Here's a random handful.

Three sexy ladies pose in their aprons next to Colin Firth, duly outfitted. Sexy lady on left gave me one of the aprons she made. It reads "Cullenary Expert" and has a black apple.

My cute mom and cute sister #3 (6-months prego). During the Q&A when someone asked me if I ever considered a second career as a stand-up comic, sister #3 shouted out, "Don't give her a big head." I assure you, my family will prevent that. Isn't that what families are for?

The illustrious Anne Holman from The King's English made me teary-eyed with her kind introduction. Love her. Love that store.

Look at the little cuties in their aprons! LOVE it.

Look how rapt and entertained they all look! I must be a fantastic speaker!

There's my cute hubbie. I'm glad we got a photo of his dalliance with chops. His razor broke when he was shaving, and we said, "Why not?" A couple weeks with chops can only improve the world.

Blah, blah, blah.

Some more apron-wearers in the back. I'm sad we didn't get a photo of all the apron contest winners. Some stayed up all night making an apron especially for the event, and they were darling.

Yay, karaoke ladies!

At the signing, with a cutie Rapunzel fan. Look at that smile. (hers, not mine)

These ladies are feeling the music. You go, girls. The sisters on the right drove up from Arizona. They were also volunteers at the Book Babe event. Awesome aprons.

The audience bears witness to the soulful karaoke performance.

These girls sport stylish aprons all their own.

Thanks to the King's English and everyone who made the event so fun. I had a blast and am so honored to have such kind, loving, intelligent, sporting fans. You guys rock!

Austenian slip

Blerg. Sinus infection. Can't get myself to do much all week. Feel half buried. A&H release party photos still coming...

So when I spoke at BEA a couple of weeks ago, I was talking about the hope fairy tales inspire, and I showed my long, laminated roll of rejection letters. My publicist Deb was modeling the roll and while she struggled with it, I started talking to fill in time, things I hadn't planned to say. I said something like, "Nine of those rejections are for The Goose Girl, and in fact, some of the editors who rejected Goose Girl might be in this very room." This got a laugh from the audience, so I said, "I want you to know, I'm a very forgiving person," and I blew a kiss. I wouldn't have said that if I'd thought about it in advance, but out it came anyway. Cheeky minx.

Well, I just found out that at least one of the editors who rejected GG was in fact in that room! Ha!

Truthfully, I don't fantasize about stickin'-it-to-'em. I found a publisher eventually who I adore and is my home. The years of rejections were helpful, a way to weed through indifferent or wrong editors for my stories and find the one who would be passionate about what I do. But still...I have to admit, for the sake of my younger forlorn self, that that moment is kinda a little bit cool.

Creative mommies

Unless you have 45 minutes to spare, never bring up the topic of mothers and creativity to me, because it's one I can't shut up about it. In fact, I blog about it very little because it's such a huge passion of mine that I can't seem to be concise and blog-ish on this topic. To sum up: I believe that every woman needs a passion (or many!) and to find ways to pursue and express this passion creatively. And mothers famously neglect themselves, their creativity and passions, in order to give their whole selves to their children.

One of my hobbies is collecting creative mommy stories. Is this odd? About on par with Spengler collecting "spores, molds, and fungus"? (Do people still know Ghostbusters?) There are so many mothers who find ways to keep up with their passions even while being fulltime, stay-at-home mothers, even while children are young. Ack, there are so many "buts" and "hows" and "wows" and footnotes to everything I'm saying, that's it's driving me crazy to try and be concise!

Anyhow, just got back from seeing Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, a production put on by the South Jordan Regional Theatre in my neighborhood. This theater was founded and is directed by one of my old theater buddies, Toni Butler, a mother of five (youngest age 1) whose passion is theater, and finds a way to keep it up. While my passion usually keeps me in my room, typing away by myself, hers involves hundreds of people--musicians, costumers, dancers, singers, actors, many of them stay-at-home mommies like herself, who need that outlet. She's giving so many people a chance to pursue their passions too. I love that. I love the synergy of that, and I find it inspiring and exciting. But here's the kicker--she also casts hordes (I mean HORDES) of children (and husbands!) so these moms and dads can go to rehearsals and performances with their whole families.

If you're in the area, there are a few more performances. Go check it out and be inspired by what one mom can do, with zero budget, no theater to call a home, but a lot of energy and love. "Any dream will do."

And if you have a creative mommy story for my collection, please share!

She-Hulk loves Austenland

I'll post pictures of the King's English event soon (as I get time to go through the photos...) It was good fun!

Recently my husband (comics geek) was ruminating over which comics characters he thought would be fans of my books. Here's his list:
Dazzler
She-Hulk
Kitty Pride
Jay Geric's wife would be a fervent fan, and he's a supporting fan
Stripe and Star Girl

This list might be mostly meaningless to many of you, but for those cognoscenti, I ask you...Dazzler? How should I take that?

[EDIT: Blunder! I misspelled Jay Garrick's name. Though if he's on my blog, he is suseptible to a Bayern spelling. Also, love Connie's suggestion that Jean Grey would be an Enna Burning fan!]

Fishing without a hook

I'll see some of you tomorrow at The King's English, 5pm. I'll be the one in the apron.

My eleven-year-old nephew Gabe said recently: "I'm trying to write a story but I need a good hook. I need the first sentence to be a hook, so that the reader will have to keep reading. Some books I read start with a hook. Some don't, but I'll read the first chapter anyway to see if it gets better. No offense, but your books don't start with a hook. They start pretty slow."

Ah, it is true, young Gabe. I've always wanted to be the writer that grabs the reader by the first sentence and never lets go. Often when I start a new book (princess academy, forest born, daisy danger brown...) I tell myself, this time I'm going to do it! This time I'm going to start in medias res and the reader won't be able to put the book down! But alas, my brain apparently doesn't work that way.

I mourn that aspect of my writing sometimes, but I can't regret it completely. It's not for naught, I think. I've had readers tell me, "I thought Goose Girl started really slowly, but I kept reading and it got better. It wasn't until I read it the second time that I realized why Ani was that way in the beginning and why those first things had to happen in order to build to what happened later."

I think this is true of all of my books, but perhaps in none so much as the two I publish this year. I ask a lot of my readers. It's possible many give up about 1/3 of the way through. That's okay, no story is for everyone. And maybe it's not the best writer who requires such an investment before the payoff. But I realize that not only is it natural for me to write this way, I choose to do it, because what's interesting to me is the overall journey. I need to allow my characters to start in one place in order to finish in another.

And maybe the NEXT book I write will start with that hook immediately and still allow for the significant journey. Hey, a girl can dream.

Mullet with headlights

I just peeked at Libba Bray's blog and saw a video link she posted that is so fabulous and is giving me wonderful flashbacks to our tour together. If you have 5 minutes to waste...and especially if you are a child of the 80s...it's worth checking out. (rated PG) Hysterical. I love you, Libba Bray! With a passionate love that will only end in ruin. And perhaps brownies.

To answer a couple of questions from the last blog post: This Saturday at the King's English (or really, at any book signing), will I sign books that people bring in?

The answer, for me, is always yes. I will sign any books you bring. But if you bring books from home to a signing at a book store, it's good manners to buy at least one book from the store. They're hosting the event, putting money into it, and their only take from it is book sales. It doesn't have to be one of my books, but I do ask that if you bring outside books, you support the book store by making a purchase. No one's going to check up on you, but I highly encourage it. Books don't have a high profit margin. A book store has to sell a lot of books to stay in business, and we NEED them to stay in business.

Another question: does this event have a theme? YES! Aprons and pies. You heard right. Wear an apron in solidarity to housewives everywhere and come eat pie. I'll give a book to the awesome person who dons the most fabulous apron. The King's English in Salt Lake City, Utah, 5 pm on June 13.

And now for news that's so exciting to me but probably won't really matter to anyone else (except my mom...hi Mom!)...the actor and the housewife is an Indie Next Pick for July! Indie Bound (formerly BookSense) is basically the United Federation of Independent Booksellers in the US (and Canada? I'm not sure about that...) Each month the booksellers select stand out titles to recommend to customers. This is a huge hug for the book and I'm so thrilled.

Colin Firth in an apron

I can't believe the wait is almost up! Next Saturday, June 13, at 5 pm, is the release party for the actor and the housewife! The King's English, of course, is hosting here in Salt Lake City, Utah. There will be karaoke and pie. And books. What more could anyone desire? I'll speak at 5 and stay until all books are signed. I'm starting to get reports that the books are out there in some places, though the official release is next Tuesday. Here's a piece of dialog from early in the book my mom just read aloud to me (she's rereading the book now):

    “Hmm. So.” He paused. “My wife Celeste and I are taking a skiing holiday out your way, spending the third weekend in February in Park City. We thought we might…” he cleared his throat, “we might meet up with you. And your husband. For dinner.”
    Becky didn’t say anything for some time.
    “I think you’re still there,” he said. “I think you’re shocked.”
    “Sort of. Sort of still here. Sort of shocked.”
    “Dinner is always a shocking proposition.”
    “That’s the truth. Lunch, supper, after school snack--all respectable and appropriate sessions of nutritional intake--”
    “Whilst dinner is practically neanderthal.”
    “I couldn’t agree more.”

Yesterday in the mail someone sent me a copy of a new book of Jane Austen quotes, Remarkably Jane, edited by Jennifer Adams. I was expecting a book of her quotes, which is always fun, but this was quotes about her by other writers and notables. First let me say that the book is gorgeous. Small, compact, in black and green, with leafy prints on each page. The beauty got me to open it up and then I kept reading. It's sort of marvelous to see a couple centuries of thinkers try to reason out why we love Jane Austen and how she does what she does. I kept coming across quotes that I wanted to quote on the blog, finally deciding just to recommend it here so you can see it all. Most surprising and interesting to me was the section at the end filled with quotes from her critics. Yes, even Austen had haters. I found it so encouraging just now! Truly. And imagine my surprise to come across my own self quoted there. Don't I feel all scholarly and important? (I'm in my pajamas, my son snuggled up next to me, leaning on my typing arm, my little girl has just started to call to me from her crib, and today I'm in charge of a church activity for 220 kids, so fortunately I have a few things to keep me from letting it go to my head.)

 It's clearly designed as a gift book, but buy it and read it first before passing it along.

Also, I've had some inquiries about our rapunzel's revenge book trailer contest. We decided to postpone the deadline to coincide with the release of the sequel, calamity jack, in January '10. So there's plenty of time! More on that later, but I promise to make the box o' books prize mouthwatering.

Also, also, Catching Fire is just as captivating and un-put-downable as The Hunger Games.

Born in the BEA

BEA report! I didn't bring my camera and was way too rushed to take photos anyway. Here's the scoop from the day.

The children's lit breakfast was early but worth it. Julie Andrews emceed and she was a delight. A surprise guest came out--Peter Yarrow! From Peter, Paul, and Mary. THe music of my childhood. He had his guitar and he played and we sang along to "Day is Done" and "Puff." It was dreamy.

I did two signings--first in the Bloomsbury booth for The Actor and the Housewife. They gave away real hardcover copies! It was thrilling. I love getting to give away books. I don't know how many I signed, but I signed steadily for my allotted hour and then some. We had to leave after that, and there was a huge stack of A&H at the booth. When we got back an hour and a half later, all the books were gone. How exciting!

My editor and I had an hour to stroll the floor. There were very few books given away, a very visible sign of the economy. In past years, you'd see huge stacks of galleys for the taking. THings were pretty bare. I did score a few very key ones, and one might or might not be Catching Fire, sequel to Hunger Games. I cannot confirm or deny that rumor.

One of the best things about shows like BEA is it's such a reunion! You walk around this exhibit hall and see the most fabulous booksellers who are my best friends whenever I'm with them. There are so many, but Monica and Valerie from Hicklebees I'm claiming as family at this point. Alex from Whale of a Tale (formerly known as Moby Dick and Jane...K, I made that up), everyone from Books Inc, BookPeople, Blue Willow, The Flying Pig, Third Place...am I gushing? I love this business! I was talking with the loveliest bookseller and I'm embarrassed I've forgotten her name, though I can see her beautiful face. And she was saying how as booksellers, they're so eager to preserve and encourage and nurture the authors, to keep us writing and producing. And I said, that's just how the authors feel about booksellers. we're anxious to keep the booksellers thriving and nurtured and out there doing such good things. It's a wonderful symbiotic relationship.

And of course, besides booksellers at BEA, you get all the sexy librarians. You gotta love the sexy librarians. In my experience, the children's and teen services librarians are the happiest. And if you haven't been to BEA, imagine walking around and saying, "Look, there's Kate DiCamillo. There's Scott Westerfeld. And Sarah Dessen. And Justine Larbalestier. And Suzanne Collins. And Jeff Kinney" who gave me a hug. I'm totally claiming we're BFFs now. He and his wife were awesome. I had a very brief close encounter with Libba Bray, who was madly signing but I got to kiss her cheeks. Repeatedly. Then happily I ran into Holly Black and got to stroll around with Her Awesomeness for a while. Am I name dropping? Shamelessly. Someday soon someone's going to kick me out of this fabulous club, so I've got to enjoy it while I can. And of course all my Utah peeps--James Dashner (who apparently is going to be an author of rock star proportions), Sara Zarr, Aprilynne Pike, Brandon Mull.

I saw Jane Yolen and said, "Hi, sorry to bother you, but I love you." And I kid you not but she looked at my nametag then said, "I love you too." And she said the loveliest things about my writing. Surreal! Accuse me of making that up. I must be making that up.

Then I did a signing for Forest Born galleys. I was signing in the autograph area next to Julianne Moore, who is a completely gorgeous person in every way--down-to-earth, thoughtful, generous. What a gem. The autograph area is out of the way downstairs and I was so flattered that so many people bothered to come. All so lovely and kind. One woman let me know they were all huge fans at her house, and then it turned out she was the amazing Gennifer Choldenko, author of Al Capone Does My Shirts. She has a sequel coming out imminently.

The emceeing for the ABC dinner was really fun. I prepared very well because I had limited time and I didn't want to go over, and I wanted to make sure I knew my stuff because I was saying some things that I knew I'd be at risk to get emotional. Then I did anyway. Curses! I'd been so determined to remain composed.

But aside from the choking-up-ness, it was a good time. It's fun to make people laugh. I got to poke fun at several authors whom I adore. Meg Cabot was one, and I'd hoped to see her before and give her a head's up so my comments wouldn't come across wrong. I did see her at the Children's breakfast that morning where she was speaking--and she looked fabulous, by the way, and was, as always, a delightful speaker. But didn't get to talk to her. I didn't try to talk to Jon Scieszka beforehand, because everything I said about him is absolutely true and needs to be known. Here's the sillier part of what I said when I introduced Katherine Paterson to give you an idea of the evening (I swear it's funnier in person):

"And now, our grande dame. Or as her grandchildren call her, our damn gran." [Said many nice things here]
"Katherine Paterson is one of the few children's authors who still writes her own books, while the majority of us just outsource to Meg Cabot. Of course, not everyone hires Meg--even she can only write so many books a week. For example, I know Jon Scieszka simply eats a bowl of chili and burps books. Hey, every writer has their own process, and I don't judge."
[said many more nice things]

It was easy to say nice things about Katherine Paterson's books before having met her, and it's even easier now. WOW! She is someone you want to just be around. Funny, humble, sincere, smart, relaxed, elegant, casual, everything wonderful. I thought I was a fan before, now I'm a huge fan.

After the talks were over, there was the silent auction and reception, a couple of hours of bliss, getting to rub shoulders and chat with amazing authors and amazing booksellers. Laini Taylor is as darling as ever. Scott Westerfeld showed me the jaw-dropping sketches for his upcoming Leviathan. And everyone was so complimentary about my emceeing (and books too). I just kept thinking to myself--don't take this seriously. This is not real life. You are going home tomorrow and that will be real life. No one can live feeling so adored all the time and be mentally healthy. So it's good that I'm not in that situation often. But for a couple of hours, it was really lovely.

That was the day. Up early the next morning, long flight, and I'm home. The kids are even more darling two days later. And now that I've had a nap, I'm firmly back in the real world again, where my five-year-old sits on my lap and says, "I love you more than all of space, Mama," and that's all the adoration I could ever dream of deserving.

Three beasties

Spring has been bursting out all over around here. First we've been following the happenings of a robin's nest in our playset:
 
Is there anything cooler than spying those bright blue eggs? This is what's exciting about Easter egg hunting, this is what it's about. Real eggs, bright eggs. What a shocking, delightful surprise. Unfortunately a couple of kids found them before I did and handling ensued. I've been so anxious about those eggs, but...tada!

All but one hatched. Two little squirmy, fleshy, fuzzy, squeaky lumps. Baby birds are BIZARRE. There were no parts that I could see. All chicken nugget.

We ordered a couple of praying mantis egg sacs online. My zucchini plants have been plagued by beetles for two years in a row, so I hoped to stock our garden with friendly bug predators. One we put in our rose bush:

They totally freak Dean out. At last, something that does! He thought they were genuinely creepy. The second egg sac I put in a glass bowl on top of our fridge so we could watch it hatch. The mantids aren't supposed to be able to climb glass walls. Well, one Sunday morning, I'm in the kitchen and notice that the fridge is moving in an odd way. Yep, about 200 mantids fresh from the egg sac and making their way out of the bowl and...everywhere. We rounded 'em up the best we could and distributed them in the yard. If you can see one on this leaf:

Tiny but so cool, perfect replicas of their adult counterparts. I'm loving them.

And for our third beasties making surprise apperances, I was writing in my room one afternoon. I end exactly at 6 pm and I opened my bedroom door to find two creatures waiting:

They made these masks with their sitter Kindra. Aren't they fearsome? Particularly the binkied one.

Aaahhh... I'm not showing photos of my kids anymore, but I figured since they're masked, it's safe. No one knew who Zorro was, after all. Or the Lone Ranger. Or Clark Kent. Maybe I'll just put them in glasses.

I'm off to New York tomorrow for BEA. A quick, busy trip, then home till Comic-con in July. We're gearing up for a potty training summer. Yee-ha!