Been awhile . . .

Sorry I have neglected you, sweet blog!  Life happens.  And laziness helps, too. Let's catch up!

So, school has just begun.  As of today, we are three days in.  New administration and a few new teachers and way too many students! We need more teachers!  I am busily adding new students into my library database and preparing for library classes next week.  I have a LOT of new ideas, new books, etc. to share with students this year. Can't wait!  New favorite children's book:  Pete the Cat I Love My White Shoes. Can't wait to read and sing this book to students. They're going to love it and there's the follow up also, Pete the Cat: Rocking in my School Shoes. So fun!

On the subject of books, I had promised to share some favs. So here's a list of my favorite books I've read in the last year.  Oh, keep in mind that some of these are "indie" published books. I got my nook September 14, 2010 for my birthday and I think everything I've read since then has been on there so I got to take advantage of lower priced indie ebooks.  As a result, I found some awesome authors in the fantasy, paranormal romance type genres.

Favorite, of course, is Amanda Hocking, author of the Trylle Trilogy.  Many kudos to her for signing recently with a house and the masses will soon be able to enjoy her books beyond epub.  My other favorite of hers in Hollowland.  Now this book is about a post-apocalyptic zombie US.  I wasn't excited to read it at first because I had never read a zombie book.  But I loved it.  Give it a try.  At 2.99 you really can't go wrong, right!?  She's written a bunch of others, but the above are my favorites and she's got a funny, interesting, personal blog. I'm thinking 9th grade and up, appropriate, but some may argue younger okay.

Close second favorite author is H.P.Mallory.  Her books are about paranormal characters too.  Currently she has out several installments of two series, the Dulcie O'Neil series and the Jolie Wilkins series.  Both excellent.  Fairies, vampires, weres, all that good stuff.  Her books are a little more sexy, so think upper high school to adult.  But again, some may argue younger.  Mallory's main characters are sarcastic and funny and get themselves into all sorts of predicaments unintentionally and meet up with unforgettable characters.  You will fly through them and then be mad at yourself for reading them so fast when you're finished.  You won't want them to end. At least I didn't.

Historical Romance.  Now I haven't visited this genre in years but suddenly craved it over my lazy summer.  I happened to find Anne Stuart.  I thoroughly enjoyed the House of Rohan books and The Devil's Waltz.  I thought they were well written, not sappy, with fully developed unrepentant bad guy/love interests.  The heroines are witty and strong with multi-faceted emotions and reactions and I like that they author draws them as not your typical classically beautiful damsels.  The books have just enough detail and highly satisfying resolutions.

You must read Ally Condie's Matched and now Crossed has just come out.  I love these post-apocalyptic, new world type books.


Great new take on werewolves: Read Shiver and the next two books in the Wolves of Mercy Falls Trilogy by Maggie Stiefvater.  Haven't read the 3rd yet.  Maybe I'll get it for my birthday, hint, hint.

In between all of these I've read several others and maybe I'll mention them later but these are my favorites.

I simply cannot wait until the Hunger Games movie comes out!  And I'm still reeling from the exceptional conclusion to the Harry Potter movies.  Well done and very gratifying.  J.K.Rowling is just pure genius as are everyone who made the books come to life.

That's all for now . . .

No News Was Good News--sorta

I got an email back from the editor in chief at the publisher where my children's book ms has been sitting for over 7 months. Finally.
The good news is she didn't say no.   The bad news is she didn't say yes either.  The neither good nor bad news is it needs revision.  The good news is she told me exactly what needs to go.  The bad news is I'm just not quite sure how to fix the couple other things she told me about.  This particular book also requires the permission of an NFL football team and the NFL itself.  So, I guess I'll have to research that.  Bottom line though, she didn't say no.  So, it's feedback.  The criticism was not negative in any way.  AND, she said that they editorial board all agreed that it is a "book that will sell."  Of course, I knew that when I wrote it. 
However, even though the feedback wasn't negatively critical and they thought the book would sell, I just kinda thought I'd get a little more help than that.  I know I'm a newbie to the publishing world but if they think the book will sell, why didn't she say, "Ok, we're in.  Let's sit down and talk and make this as good as it can be" and then really work with me.  I know they don't have a lot of time.  But if she tells me the book will sell then why wouldn't they want to invest in its perfecting?  I guess maybe it could be because it's a small publisher.  Don't know. So, in considering all that, it's just sort of left me in kind of a funk. 
At first, I wanted to run to my computer and begin working on it immediately.  But then, I felt like what's the point--I'm not even sure if I can fix some of the parts.  And approaching an entity like the NFL seems a bit overwhelming.  I don't know.  Maybe it's not all that bad.
I'm not giving up.  But for some reason I'm just not in a hurry.  Maybe I should be.  Maybe I'll have a sudden surge of devotion toward the manuscript again.   I know I sound wishy-washy.  I bet I probably sound ungrateful too.  I mean how often does a writer query a publisher (the first one I've ever queried) and a month later, they actually asked to see the manuscript?  That's like unheard of.  Even with small publishers.
Okay, okay.  I can actually hear you yelling at me to stop whining and get to work.
I'll keep you posted on that.
So anyway, I thanked her--the editor, of course, and told her I appreciated the helpful remarks and that I would work on it and get back to her.  So I told her that and I have to do it.  Because when I tell somebody something, I follow through.
I have two other children's books and now I'm free to query this same publisher about one of them (you can only query about one at a time and only submit one manuscript at a time with any publisher).  Or, I can query another publisher about this book--which I definitely won't do.  Just wouldn't feel right about it and this book is perfect for this publisher.  But, I may play around with submitting queries on the others.  I might even query agents.  What the heck? Nothing to lose and all kinds of experience and criticism to gain, right?
About the novel I'm currently working on:
I'm at 28,757 words and 93 pages.  Which I think is about half way. My goal was to finish it this summer before I went back to work.  What? It could happen!  Yeah, I know.  I've been so lazy about writing.  Maybe I need encouragement.  Maybe I need tough love.  Like, "NO chocolate until you give me 5,000 words!"  You know? I think that would work.  I'll have to talk my husband into threatening me with stuff like that.  More later . . .  

No love yet. Maybe just a little like.

So I hate my book a little less. I've written maybe another thousand words or more since my last post and I'm feeling a lot better about it.  I think if I flesh out a few scenes in outline and give myself a little more direction, I won't feel as overwhelmed.  I was just getting really bogged down in it.  I know there are things I want to change but I don't feel like going back and working them out right now.  But that means there's going to be a helluva lot of work in the rewrite/edit stage. 
Right now, I'm counting on myself to feel more productive.  Just let me get it all out and then going back and perfecting it should be much simpler. It's kinda painful.  Intellectually painful.  So for the record, I'm at 28, 324 words which is equal to 91 pages double-spaced in Word.

I Hate My Book

I know this is a normal feeling writers have.  I don't care.  My book really does suck. I'm hating it because of what I know it's going to take to fix it.  But right now, I can't even read it.  I'm sick of it.  It's becoming increasingly difficult to get it from scene to scene.  There are choices I made or actually they seemed to just happen that I'm not sure I want to keep.  I hate my main character's name.  I even hate my working title.  I want to edit it so badly.  But I'm only 27,636 words into it.  I just printed out all 88 pages of it and sat down to read it and make some changes.  And I'm exhausted and bored already.  Maybe if I were drunk?  No, I think I'd just probably fall asleep.  Maybe that's what I need.  But see, that's just it--I keep procrastinating and diverting my own attention elsewhere so I don't have to deal with it but I NEED to deal with it.  I must finish this stupid thing if for no other reason than to just say I finished it.  Then, I know, I can do whatever I want with it.  Maybe the edits will be easier then, knowing that at least it has a beginning, middle, and an end.

Okay, I'll go with that.  But I'm still hating it. 

Being a writer, ALAcon, and my goal and stuff.

Found out that I'm a writer after all.  Well, whatdya know?

My last day of internship at The Sea Coast Echo was Friday. While speaking with the editor, I thanked him for his assistance and for allowing me to write so much for the paper last week. I think I had 6 or 7 articles published. He said that I did an "excellent" job and that "it helped that you were already a writer." I was floored. That was THE first and ONLY time anyone had ever referred to me or called me a writer.

Honestly, I thought I aspired to be a writer. I wanted to write but never thought that what I produced was worthy of the author being referred to as a "writer."  So now, I will refer to myself as a writer.  But only because I was referred by one who knows writers as a writer. So there.

Now, I am just an aspiring author.  And since I have not written anything on my book in weeks, it is likely that I will remain an aspiring author.  I also have not heard from the publisher about my children's book either and the 30th of June looms.  Funny how "loom" rhymes with "doom."

Anyway, I jaunted down to New Orleans over the weekend and visited the American Library Association's annual convention.  It was just an orgy of books, publishers, writers, libraries, and all things deliciously bookish.  If you didn't care one way or the other about authors and books, it would have been insanely boring for sure but for me, a bibliophile, it was decadent.  It was the rock concert of librarianship.  And just about every Book God/Goddess I could think of was there. I didn't get any autographs but it was just something still to even walk by Kate DiCamillo and Mo Willems as they signed their tomes.  I really was upset that I did not get to hear Orson Scott Card speak.  Missed that by an hour and didn't realize it.

Overheard that someone stole the 300 galley proofs of part two of Ally Condie's Matched which is entitled Crossed.  Bummer.  They were giving away 300 of those and it looked like there were 500 in line so I didn't stand in that line either.  I preferred to peruse, overhear, and shuffle from exhibit to exhibit.

Even the Ayn Rand Institute representatives were there.  I mean, what? She like my frickin' hero.  Well, ideologically, not so much in the writing.  Overall,  ALAcon was just so impressive.  Google ALA 2011 to see a list of authors.  So awesome.  See, don't I sound like a teenager that just came from her favorite rock concert?  Got lots of cool swag, too.  I was lucky that this was the 2nd time I was able to go.  It probably won't be back in New Orleans for years and years.  If you ever get the chance to go, do. 

So, 5 weeks left of summer break.  Time to seriously buckle down and get some writing done.  My original goal was to be finished by the end of June.  However, life happens.  So, I'm setting the more than reasonable goal of 4 weeks from today.  Let's see where I'll be then!

Just call me Lois Lane . . .

I started my internship at the Sea Coast Echo newspaper today.  The Sea Coast Echo is a smaller community paper that focuses mainly on Bay St. Louis, Waveland, Kiln, Pass Christian and Diamondhead communities in southeast Mississippi.  It was totally awesome.  I love being able to write and contribute! So here are some things I did not know about writing for a newspaper and news biz:
--journalists don't get paid much (I actually never thought much about it before)
--sometimes there's a lot of sitting around and waiting when you're all caught up on your stories
--everything, everything is done on a Mac (I'm a PC but it's cool)
--the writers smoke a lot (okay by me)
--they all love what they do because they certainly don't do it for the money!

The editor, Geoff, has been soooooo nice in showing me around and teaching me how everything is done from the writing to layout to printing.  It's all so interesting and I think will be hugely impressive to my students!  I'm taking lots of pics.

Now I'm used to writing "academically" when I write non-fiction.  Having never taken a journalism course (which is actually surprising since I think I've taken every other course possible when I used to be a professional student), I didn't know about the "inverted pyramid."  This means the story is written by starting out with an attention grabbing sentence and load the first few sentences down with the important info.  The fluff and nonessential extras go at the end since the average newspaper reader skims and scans and only reads the first few sentences anyway.  Did not know that!  But makes sense.

I worked on three different articles today.  Two had to do with education and local school events and one was about a local woman who was recently appointed by the governor to be the director of the Office of State Public Defender.  I had to call her, interview her, get quotable comments, and ask for a photo!  I also had to get some commentary for one of the other articles, too.  So cool because I'd never done this before and I love, love, love getting the opportunity!  Finally, I'm also working on a year in review for all of the local area schools for an annual publication that will come out next week.  I'm so excited!

I so want a fedora with a little PRESS paper sticking out of the band.

Writing and Reading

I'm excited to be starting an internship next week at my local newspaper, The Sea Coast Echo.  This internship is a partnership between our local community college and my school district so that teachers can earn Continuing Education Units (CEUs) that go toward their teaching license.  So I'm thrilled to be working where I can WRITE!  So excited.

Other topic:  I'm currently completely engrossed in the book by Susan Beth Pfeiffer, Life As We Knew It.
Set in Pennsylvania, the book is in the form of the diary or journal of teenage Miranda and as it begins she and her family and friends are gearing up for a seemingly benign lunar event, an asteroid is scheduled to hit the moon.  What no one seemed to be prepared for was that the asteroid had far more mass than originally projected.  The moon is knocked out of its current orbit and travels very close to the earth.  This sets off a series of cataclysmic geological and meteorological events that affect every living being on the earth.  We read what Miranda writes as she describes life following the event.  Tsunamis and altered ocean levels drown coastal cities.  People die.  Oil production ceases.  Prices skyrocket.  Volcanoes explode around the globe bathing the earth in toxic darkness.  Temperatures plummet in July and we wonder if Miranda and her family are going to make it.
The writing is simple for the most part.  Occasionally there's a word or phrase that I doubt "Miranda" would know which throws me out of my alternate reality of reading trance.  There's a lot about life that Miranda doesn't describe which has me perplexed because it would definitely be stuff that I would think a teenager would care greatly about.  However, I'm almost finished and I'm thinking about the book when I'm not reading it, wondering what's going to happen.  So that's a great book to me.  I read for several hours straight last night but just couldn't stay awake to finish it off.  Definitely tonight.  It's a good, easy read that I recommend so far.  I'll post more about other great books I've read lately.