RTW: August Reads

This week the good people over at YA Highway are asking the question

What is the best book you read in August?

I read nine books in August, and they were all pretty fabulous. I mean just look at these pretty covers. The stuff inside was just as wonderful, I swear.

But if I have to pick one, I’m going to go with FOREVER by Maggie Stiefvater. I’m kind of sad that the SHIVER series is over now. When it comes to YA paranormal romance, you can’t get any better than SHIVER. In a lot of ways I liked LINGER better than SHIVER, and FOREVER even better than LINGER. Often in series, things start to fall flat and feel more like a sequel than a story in the later books. That is definitely not the case with FOREVER. I love the characters of Cole and Isabelle just as much as Grace and Sam. It was great getting to know these side characters better as the series developed.

So what about you? What’s the best book you read in August?

My Life Undecided

I recently read MY LIFE UNDECIDED by Jessica Brody and I have to tell you, I LOVE THIS BOOK!!! If you haven’t read it yet, stop reading this blog and rush out to the nearest bookstore immediately. I promise I won’t be offended or anything. Seriously, this book is so fun, I couldn’t put it down.

In case you were wondering, MY LIFE UNDECIDED is about a teenage girl who is very good at making very bad decisions. She decides that she needs some “common” sense, so she starts a blog where she polls the general public about every decision she has to make, and then does whatever her readers tell her too. Not only is this a really cute premise, but it is also executed really well.

So I’m going to follow in Brooks footsteps, not forever, just for right now.

What should I do this evening? 1) Start drafting my next novel. 2) Do my laundry, ‘cause my clothes are kind of starting to smell. 3) Rush to my nearest bookstore in search of everything else Jessica Brody has ever written, ‘cause I’m a total fan-girl now.

It’s up to you readers. What should I do?

Now I have a second poll for you. What are you going to do tonight? 1) Log onto your favorite on-line book seller and order a copy of MY LIFE UNDECIDED. 2) Visit your local indie-bookstore and pick up a copy of MY LIFE UNDECIDED. 3) Head to your local library and put your name on the hold list for MY LIFE UNDECIDED.

I don’t care which of these options you chose for yourself, but I do recommend that you read this book. The internet has spoken, now go, READ.

Dyslexia Jokes

Last Friday, I admitted that I’m not only a writer, I’m also lysdexic. I am currently hunting for a publisher for my young adult novel about a dyslexic teenager, and figured it might not be too horrible of an idea to try to build a “dyslexia” platform for myself, not just a writing platform. I did this before, I had a whole blog about dyslexia a couple years ago. The problem was that there is only so much to say about bad spelling and I ended up spending most of my time blogging about non-dyslexia related topics. That’s the reason why I moved over here.

I like some of the stuff that I said about dyslexia in some of those old blog posts though. So I’ve decided to re-post a dyslexia related blog post here each Friday. Once I’ve reposted all the good stuff, I’m going to officially take down my old blog. I am starting with a blog I first posted on June 15, 2009. This is hands down the most popular thing I have ever unleashed on the internet. Right now when you google the term “dyslexic jokes” my blog post from 2009 is the number one page that comes up. I usually get 20-30 hits a day, and a lot of comments.

So before I give you the jokes, I’m going to speak to all you future commenters. I AM NOT TRYING TO BE MEAN AND I DON’T THINK YOU ARE STUPID!!! I am dyslexic. I am also an intelligent person with multiple college degrees and a budding writing career. I know that dyslexics aren’t stupid, and I know that if you are dyslexic and reading this, you are probably a very talented person who is capable of doing many wonderful things, just maybe not spelling. But I also know, sometimes it’s good to laugh at yourself. So by posting these jokes, please know that I’m not laughing at you. I’m laughing at me. Okay? Are we good now?

Without further ado, here are some of my favorite dyslexia jokes.

A dyslexic walked into a bra…

What do you get when the you cross a dyslexic, and agnostic, and an insomniac.
Someone who stays up all night wondering if there’s a dog.

Dyslexics of the world UNTIE.

The National Association of Dyslexics, also known as A.N.D.

The satanic dyslexic sold his sole to Santa.

How many dyslexics does it take to screw in a light bulb?
103: 1 to hold the bulb and 102 to read the directions.

Why did the dyslexic cross the road?
To get to the Horse Diet

After a trip to the doctor my friends informed me, “It’s bad. I’ve got the big C.”
“Oh no, cancer?”
“No, Dyslexia.”

Teacher: “You have horrible grammar.”
Dyslexic: “You’ve never even met her.”

First dyslexic cook: “Can you smell gas?”
Second dyslexic cook: “I can’t even smell my own name.”

A dyslexic entered a spelling bee. She came in SALT.

A dyslexic kid asks his mom if they can go to McDonald’s for dinner. She says, “You can go if you can spell it.” The kid replies. “I changed my mind. Can we go to KFC instead?”

Two dyslexics run into a bank and shout “Air in the hands mother stickers this is a f*ck up.”

RTW: Getting Unblocked

This week, the good people over at YA Highway are asking the question

What do you do about writers block?

I fear that you will start hating me if I answer honestly, but I’ve got to say, “I don’t get it.”

Okay, okay, okay, please don’t hate me. Here is the truth, I know my characters. My writing is totally character based, and I’m usually on like the 2nd or 3rd draft before I even have a plot. Seriously, the number one comment that I get from my beta readers is “What’s this supposed to be about? I love it and all, but seriously, there is no plot, at all.”

So I write about characters, not about plot. And I’m at total pantser. I’ve tried outlining a few times, and really, I just can’t do it. I just get to know a character and then write about them, and make up new situations to put them in, and in the end hope it turns into a novel.

Here is the other thing. I never force my writing. When I do, the stuff I write is really bad. So there’s no point. This means, if I don’t have a character screaming in my head, I don’t write anything down. And when I do have a character screaming in my head, they’re usually so fricken loud I have no choice but to type like crazy until the shut up already. I write fast, and messy, and I don’t get writers block. I just go for several months between project while I’m thinking about future characters and waiting for a new voice to knock me sideways.

I do have one little strategy that I like to use while drafting though. I like to pretend like I’m my character. Since I’m such a pantser, I start writing as soon as I have a clear sense of my characters voice. But I rarely know what I’m going to make them do. So it’s important for me to spend every waking minute thinking about what that character would do in as many situations as possible (then I write down the interesting ones). To accomplish this goal, I roll play and act like my character while out and about. I’m not at the grocery store picking up food for dinner, my character is at the grocery store. Thinking about my characters in normal everyday settings when I’m not actively writing often gives me extra fuel to break through the writer’s block when I’m back in front of my computer.

What about you? How do you break the writer’s block?

Writers Revise

I recently read a very good first draft by one of my critique partners. The book had a ton of potential, but was still a first draft. Several of the subplots needed further development, the supporting characters were often one dimensional, and the main characters arc was choppy in places and needed to be better fleshed out. Still, it was a very good book. I couldn’t put it down, and knew with some careful revising it could be fabulous.

This writer is very young, only seventeen. Age shouldn’t really matter, there are many great young writers and many horrible mature writers. But I think her age, had a big impact on her reaction to my critique. She thanked me for my notes, and then chose to ignore all of them. Doing that much of a re-write didn’t sound very fun, so she wrote a brand new book instead.

She is probably the fastest writer I’ve ever met. She drafts like five or six books per year. And she revises zero books per year. Her writing is very good and she comes up with some great story ideas. She often queries these lovely rough drafts, and gets a lot of manuscript requests from agents. She admitted to me that pretty much every agent who reads her stuff says the same thing, “revise and resubmit”. So what does she do? That’s right, she starts another rough draft.

I don’t think there is anything wrong with a seventeen-year-old loving to make up stories. I think it’s great. I think she’s great. But after I re-encouraged her to actually revise something sometime, she admitted that maybe she doesn’t want to be a “writer” she just wants to write. I do love her rough drafts, and hope that in a few years she will have matured to the point where she’s ready to start revising. Because I expect a lot of other people will love reading her writing. For now, she can just be a teenager whose favorite pastime is writing, and that’s totally okay too.

I’m telling you about this young writer, because I think a lot of people run into the same pitfalls that she does. So I’m here to remind all of my writer friends, regardless of their age, that running spell check does not equal revising. When you finish your first draft, be proud of yourself, it’s a huge step. But don’t think that you’re done, because you’re not. Look back at your story and find those subplots in need of further development. Flesh out those one dimensional supporting characters. Revise.

If you don’t want to revise, you don’t want to be a writer.

Full Disclosure

So I’ve got to be honest. I’ve kind of been lying to you for the last year that I’ve been writing this blog. Not really big lies. Just withholding some of the truth. Here’s the truth. I’m dyslexic. Like super dyslexic. Like I didn’t even learn how to spell my own name until I was 17 years old dyslexic.

I post a lot of book reviews on this blog. Yeah, I didn’t really read most of those books. I listened to them on my iPod. I heart audiobooks. I heart books too, I just have a hard time, you know, actually reading them.

My inability to read has never stopped me from loving stories. It just stopped me from reading them, so I’ve had no choice but to make up my own. I love making up stories. It’s my absolute favorite hobby.

The first story I made up was about a toddler, ‘cause I was a toddler when I made it up. But the first story I wrote down and edited and attempted to turn into an actual book was about a dyslexic college student. I was a dyslexic college student when I wrote it, so I figured it was just evidence that I had zero creativity.

That book wasn’t very good. I didn’t know what I was doing. And my spelling really sucked. I liked writing though, so I started to work on other projects and write about other characters who actually knew their ABC’s. Except being a dyslexic writer is hard, and it makes me think, everyday, about how hard life can be in a literate world when you’re well not.

So last January, I started writing again. I wrote a story about a dyslexic fifteen year old. I knew that kid, ‘cause I used to be that kid. The story poured out fast, and a few short months later I had a decent story on my hands. Counting to D is definitely the best thing I’ve ever written, and I’m beyond excited that it’s the book that helped me connect with my incredible agent.

One of the big things that my character learns in this book is that she shouldn’t hide her true self and pretend like she doesn’t have a problem. So I’m taking my own advice, and not hiding either. I’m admitting the truth. I didn’t learn how to spell my middle name until I was a senior in high school—nobody cares about more than the middle initial anyway. But I did eventually figure it out. I kept on figuring things out. Now I'm busy prepping Counting to D for submission to publishers. And I’m very proud of myself right now.

RTW: Real Life Setting

For this week’s Road Trip Wednesday, the good people over at YA Highway are asking the question

What is the most inspiring setting you’ve ever visited in real life?

This question is actually kind of tough, because I love going on vacation. I write contemporary YA and usually put my characters in relatively standard urban environments. But I do enjoy spending a lot of my free time out an about.

I go camping a LOT. Once upon a time, in a past life, I was a backpacking guild. It was a really fun job, and I got to hike all over the Appalachian Mountains and get paid for it too. Now I own an RV. My old self would be so ashamed of my current self. But I do enjoy a good road trip. Last summer I went on a 7500 mile road trip in my RV. It was awesome!

I was only there for a week, so I doubt I’ll ever set a book there or anything. But probably the coolest place I’ve ever been in Morocco. I went there for Xmas in 2009 and totally loved it. The Marrakesh night market is a great setting! An entire tent city set up and then torn down again every single night. Vendors yelling at tourists in every language imaginable. Snake charmers and trained monkeys. Yeah, it was a good setting.

This is a total aside, but I’ll tell you the coolest thing about Morocco. The vendors there are all crazy smart. Seriously, they have to sell their goods to international tourist to survive, so they’ve learned how to speak like every language on earth. I was there for a family reunion, and my family members all like to travel and thus no a variety of foreign languages. So we would just invent fake identities for ourselves and try to shop that way. When my brother-in-law claimed to be Russian, the vendors sold him stuff in Russia just as easily as they sold me stuff in English and my sister-in-law stuff in French.

How I Got My Agent

As I mentioned on Wednesday, I just signed with the with the wonderful Miriam Kriss from the Irene Goodman Literary Agency. I think the shock of this news is finally starting to wear off and the pure bliss is sinking in.

Since many of you are asking, I figured I'd let you know how I managed to land such an awesome agent (cause trust me, Miriam is awesome).

Sorry guys, I didn't write a query letter. So if you're querying right now, I'm not someone to talk to about how to query. Honestly, I don't know how to query, 'cause I've never done it.

I met Miriam at the Willamette Writers Confrence last weekend. I've been an active member of Willamette Writers (a Portland based writing organization) for years, and this was my fourth year attending the confrence. In addition to about 500 writers, the confrence is also attended by about 40 agents and editors each year, and writers have the oppertunity to pitch to agents throughout the weekend. A pitch is basically a verbal query.

I met Miriam on the first day of the confrence and she was imediately excited about my book. Several other agents also expressed interest, but from the very start I felt like Miriam was the agent I wanted to take me to the next level. So I emailed her my complete manuscript on Friday evening. She ended up reading my entire 62k word manuscript on her phone during her breaks on Saturday. Saturday afternoon she tracked me down to tell me she loved my book and wanted to be my agent.

I did get six other manuscript requests on Friday and Saturday. But I knew that if I ended up with multiple offers, Miriam was the agent I'd want to go with. So I agreed to a sitdown meeting with her on Sunday. We snuck out of the confrence on Sunday for an hour and a half talk over lunch. During lunch it became clear that Miriam was the prefect agent for me. Not only does she love my book, but I also love her plans for how to take my book to the next level. I know we're going to have a great working relationship for many years to come as I grow into a professional author.

So obviously, when she mailed me an official contract to sign on Wednesday, I signed it and sent it back. There you have it, that's my story.

Just because I was currious, I asked Miriam where she got most of her clients. Referals was the most common way for her to meet clients, but many also came from the slush pile. Confrences was actually the smallest group. Since this was my fouth year at the Willamette Writers Confrence, I know that it isn't normal for an agent to read an entire manuscript on their phone during the confrence. Normally agents request a partial, read it sometime over the next couple of weeks or months and then decide if they want to request a full. So if you aren't a frequent confrence attender, fear not, queries still work. That just isn't the path I took.

Friday Five: Author's I'd Love to Meet

Well, my five favorite authors are Sarah Dessen, Laurie Halts Anderson, John Green, Maggie Stiefvater, and David Levithan so I’ll go with those five.

I recently saw on Maggie’s blog that she’s coming to Portland in October, so it looks like I’ll be meeting her soon. And I’ve already met Laurie Halts Anderson. I met her last fall when she was on tour promoting FORGE. Obviously, she’s fabulous, so I’ll tell you a little about our meeting.

There was a large crowd of people there, so I had to stand in line for about 45 minutes to get her to sign my book. In line, I was next to a girl named Carly who was currently a freshman in college. Carly was really excited to be meeting her idol and couldn’t stop bouncing up and down with nervous energy. We spent most of our time waiting talking about who our other favorite authors were and how excited we both were to read Laurie’s latest book.

Carly had five books with her that she wanted Laurie to sign. Obviously, she was a serious fan girl. But her copy of SPEAK was the most well-worn. She told me that she keeps it in her backpack at all times. Even if she isn’t reading it, she likes to have it around, like a security blanket.

When we made it to the front of the line, I let Carly cut in front of me and talk to Laurie first. I didn’t think she could contain herself a second longer. So I was only a few feet away, when I heard Carly tell Laurie that reading SPEAK gave her the courage to seek help after being a victim of a sexual assault, and she want to personally thank Laurie for finding the words she had so desperately needed to hear. I don’t know what Laurie said to Carly in return. Because Laurie got up from her table and held Carly in a tight hug for a good two minutes while talking quietly into her ear.

After Carly left, I stepped up to the table and told Laurie that I too was a young adult author. While none of my work has been published yet, it is the reaction I saw from Carly that is the reason I write. I than made the highly coherent statement that “I want to be you when I grow up.”

Fortunately, Laurie understood exactly what I was saying. She smiled and nodded and looked back across the room at Carly, who was still making her way toward the door. “I know,” she said. “I want to be me when I grow up too.”

Best Birthday Ever

On August 11th, 1985 all of my friends came over wearing dress-up clothes and we had a parade around my neighborhood. It was a very fun party, but I’ve got to say, turning six does not compare.

On my 23rd birthday, I got a car. It was a good car. I still drive it every day. But still not the best present I’ve ever received.

Today is my 32nd birthday. My husband is currently out of town on business, and I have no major celebratory plans. Turning 2^5 is kind of exciting, but exponential birthdays are never as important as decade birthdays. So I was planning on letting this year roll by without any fanfare.

But then, yesterday, I signed with my now agent. Forget the parade of first graders. Forget the new car. This is definitely the best birthday EVER.

Halfway There

The journey from story idea to bestseller is obviously long and winding. But in order to convince myself that it's possible, I've divided it into four simple steps.

Step 1: Write an awesome book
Step 2: Find an agent
Step 3: Find a publisher
Step 4: Sell a gazillion copies

Simple. Right?

I know that each of these steps has many pieces and I am still a long way away from being interviewed by Terry Gross. But based on this outline, I'm now half way there. I just signed with the amazing Miriam Kriss from the Irene Goodman Agency and am eagerly looking forward to tackling step 3.

Since it's always good to celebrate small, and large victories, please feel free to step back from your computer and do a happy dance with me.

Yay, happy dance!

Loving Writers

Last weekend, I attended the Willamette Writers Conference here in Portland. It was the best weekend EVER, more details about exactly why to come.

This was my fourth year at the conference, and even though this year was especially excellent, I always love hanging out with other writers. It’s so great getting to spend time with people that share my passion for writing.

There was one comment I heard while at the conference that rang very true that I figured I’d share for you all now, you know before I can share the really exciting stuff.

So here’s todays insight: People put a lot of themselves into their writing. Even when writing fiction, the author’s voice is often what draws us to the work the most. The thing we as readers don’t realize is that it means we really do love the authors that we love. Whenever I meet authors whose books I adore, I always click with them perfectly, because what I’ve been adoring on the page is a part of their personality. Similarly, when I meet people who have read and loved my own writing, I really really like them. Not in a, yeah you love my work so I’m going to feel all warm and fuzzy inside way either. Just in a, we should hang out cause your fun to talk to type of way.

There you have it. I love to read and therefore love a lot of writers. So going to writing conferences where I can hang out with the writers I adore is super fun, because for some strange and wonderful reason, great writers always seem to be great people.

And Then…

I feel like I should start this post with an apology. I know I’ve been a horrible blogger lately, sorry about that. This happened last summer too. Once the sun starts shining, I want to spend all my free time out and about not at home at my computer blogging. I promise as soon as it starts raining again, I’ll be back to my normal posting schedule. But in the meantime, I actually have something to say today and figured I’d post a little witticism to hold you over until the clouds return.

So this week I’ve read two YA Paranormal stories that are parts of trilogies. A couple of days ago I read a book that features several different mythical creatures, but many of them are fairies, so I’m going to call it a fairy book. This fairy book is book two in a trilogy. Let me begin by saying that I LOVED book one. I LOVED everything about book one, and of course rushed to by book two the minute it came out (so if you are wondering what book I’m talking about it’s a sequel about fairies that came out last week). I did enjoy book two, but I didn’t love it as much as book one.

To give you even more hints about what book I’m referring to, I’ll let you know that the author of this series has an awesome blog that I was following way back when she first sold the rights to book one. So I feel like we’re friends, even though she doesn’t know me. Because we’re such close friends, I know that she originally wrote book one (which did I mention I LOVED) as a standalone book. But the publisher that bought it loved it so much they purchased it as a trilogy. So she then had to go and write books two and three.

The ending of this book wasn’t a climax so much as it was a set up, and I do believe that book three is going to be awesome. But honestly, book two wasn’t that fabulous. It felt like a 60k word connecting clause. It’s only point being to get the reader from the end of book one to the beginning of book three. All the wonderful characters I fell in love with in book one were back, so it was fun to hang out with them again, but there wasn’t very much going on, and if I hadn’t already read and loved the first book in the series I wouldn’t have cared.

But enough about fairies, now let’s talk about werewolves. The other book I read this week was the third book in a werewolf trilogy (can anyone guess which insanely popular book I’m talking about). I believe I read somewhere that this trilogy was also originally planned as a single book but then sold as a trilogy and had to be reworked to keep us eager fans happy. This series, however, has the opposite effect of the fairies series. I liked book one. It’s a cute love story about a girl and a werewolf that doesn’t come across as creepy or predatory the way a lot of paranormal romance does. But it was just a cute YA love story and I didn’t love it any more than any of the other millions of similar titles. Still I liked it enough to read book two, which amazingly had tension and mystery and could it be possible, a compelling plot.

So now book three of this puppy-love trilogy has just hit the shelves, and it may possibly be even better than book two. There is so much drama. New characters keep getting introduced and the old characters are becoming more complex, and it’s just all around fabulous. In fact, I’m almost upset that this author’s publishers didn’t decide to buy her standalone novel as a seven book series instead of just a trilogy. ‘Cause I know that any new adventure these characters were put into would be just that, a new adventure.

Now that I’ve been rambling for a while, I should probably come up with a point. So here it is. I’m not a fan of the forced series. Sure it works sometimes, like in this werewolf instance, but I think that is the fault of a faboulous author not a compelling series. As an aspiring author, I know I would be over the moon if a publisher told me that they wanted to take a standalone book I wrote and turn it into a trilogy. But it doesn’t always work out. Of course, we the fans read the later books. I mean words cannot describe how much I loved book one of that fairies series. Of course I preordered book two on amazon way before it was released. I just ended up feeling a little disappointed when it arrived on my kindle. And it’s not like I don’t read books that aren’t a part of a series by my favorite authors. I was beyond excited when I heard that Jay Asher has a new book coming out this fall, and obviously THIRTEEN REASONS WHY would never work as a trilogy.

So publishers (not that any publishers read this blog or anything), the next time you read an amazing standalone book that's on submission, maybe you should try publishing it as an amazing standalone book.