You've all heard of fantasy baseball, right? That's where you pick your favorite players for positions across all the teams, group them together, watch their stats during the Season and see if your fantasy team would have beat out other people's fantasy teams.
Well, baseball stats involve numbers, and we all know I can barely add. So I'm out for fantasy baseball. But after seeing Alan Gratz's new cover for his book Fantasy Baseball, (<--click for the fun blurb!) I started thinking: what would be the very best group of characters, situations, and setting to make for the best book in the world? If I could pull any character from any book and put them in any world with any situation, which characters/worlds/situations would I pick?
Simple. When I think about my favorite characters, I think of characters who were both strong in character and wits, not necessarily strong in brute force or power. So I don't want the character who's the best because it's his chosen destiny, or the one who won the battle by force. I want the characters who had to learn and struggle and outsmart. So my heroine and hero were simple choices: Aerin, who had to learn on her own how to fight dragons, then find the strength within herself to actually do it; and Gen who is one of the smartest characters, well, ever.
But these two characters are pretty serious, grave characters--I want a sidekick who can lighten the mood. Therefore, prankster Fred Weasley (obviously the better twin) gets the role. Can you imagine the three of them on a quest? Aerin would be trying to learn everything she could, Gen would be mulling in his mind how he'd out-clever them all, and Fred would light something on fire. Awesome.
With this team, I need a really good villain. Now, I personally want a villain who has motive. I don't want an anonymous baddie who's just bad to be bad. Darth Vader and Voldemort are, therefore, out. I want a villain who believes absolutely that he is doing the right thing--and who better for that than The Operative in the movie Serenity? He is willing to brutally kill, track down Mal and his crew, and slaughter innocents in the name of the Government--because he believes absolutely and entirely that the Government is right. Also--he's way smart, so Gen and Aerin will have a time with him.
Now for setting. I came very close to picking the world of Patricia Wrede's Enchanted Forest Chronicles, but that was a little too slap-stick for this crew. I wanted a world that had a little bit of fun, but also a little bit of serious--so I ended up with the islands featured in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. This gives the characters a chance to sail around and explore new worlds, face dangers in the environment as well as their villain, and have brief moments of comedy. Can you image Fred Weasley meeting the Dufflepuds?
Finally, plot. Conflict. I definitely didn't want a romance-centered plot, so works like Twilight were out. And this is way to fantastic to be restrained by a contemporary conflict, so that was out. I didn't want to go as harsh as The Hunger Games--I wanted a quest. And the ultimate quest? As much as it pains me to admit: Lord of the Rings. Now, I'm not a Tolkien fan--but for me, Tolkien failed in characters and setting (as in: too much of both), not plot. So if I take the classic quest story in Lord of the Rings and add these characters--I think I just hit gold.
Pitch
This is based on fantasy baseball, right? So here's the wind-up pitch:
The Operative believes absolutely that the dragon Maur needs to own the One Ring and gain absolute power in his rule of the Narnia Islands. Unfortunately for him, Aerin and Gen disagree--and they've got the Ring. They're tired of the dragon's complete control, and know that if he owns the Ring, he'll become a even greater tyrant. They enlist the aid of Narnian pirate Fred Weasley to sail them through the Narnian Islands, fighting both the dangers of the world and The Operative along the way, until the final battle to see if Aerin and Gen can destroy the Ring...or fall to it.
AWESOME, right?! I think so. I wish someone would write this book! Talk about the ultimate fan fic...
Now I want you to share your Fantasy Book Team.
What characters would you use, in what world, against what villain, with what main conflict?
Add you team to the comments--or write up your own Fantasy Book Team on your blog and give me a link. I'll feature the best ones on the blog!
The Bookanistas are a group of writers - in various stages of the publishing process – who have decided to band together and review the special books of our peers. No negative reviews here! We post every Thursday and cover various topics– upcoming ARCs, books we love, special diamonds in the rough, classics, and even cover reviews.
THE REPLACEMENT has the most jaw-dropping cover I've ever seen. You guys just wait till you see it in real life--it's shiney and sparkly and totally, totally creepy.
Which matches the text inside. THE REPLACEMENT is beautifully written, with elegant prose akin to Carrie Ryan's THE FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH. I think the best word to describe how it is written is poignant.
But the story is dark and eerie. It's about a boy who was a replacement--a changling who took the place of a baby. His parents and sister know, but it's the topic No One Talks About (which drives Mackie crazy). But fae aren't meant to live in the real world--Mackie's always been sick, and is very lucky to have lasted as long as he has. As the fae draw him closer to their world, Mackie must decide whether to join them (and their twisted way of living) or stay in the world that reviles his kind, a world to which he'll never truly belong.
My favorite part? The sister. I love her--especially since she has a direct link to the image on the cover. So clever. Her choices, and her way of explaining them to Mackie and their mother, is just so...knife-in-heart beautiful.
This is a scary book, but a beautiful one. Brenna's done for horror what Carrie did for zombies. Totally worth a read.
So I looked up and realized that it was Wednesday. Well, crap. Where did the week go? I had such big plans--namely nailing down about ten chapters--and I've not done any of them.
I have a list of excuses, some of them valid. See, I'm just starting this full-time writer gig, and I've not quite gotten down a pattern yet. I actually have the next ten-ish chapters planned out, and I tend to not be excited about writing when I know what happens next. I prefer every writing day to be an ADVENTURE into the murky UNKNOWN. And I've been doing lots of writerly things--critiques, web design, calling contacts, working on something awesome for a friend (makes eyes at Heather), working with agent and editor (I squee a bit every time I even think that), etc. And some of the stuff I'm working on is going to be AWESOME for YOU--I can't wait to unveil some of the stuff we're planning and doing for ACROSS THE UNIVERSE. There is candy involved.
But the long and short of it is simply that I've not gotten nearly enough writing done lately. Today's goal: actual writing. Like, significant writing that really puts a dent in the WIP (which, yes, is Book 2).
10:30--WHAT am I THINKING? I can't mean bizness without COFFEE. I'm going in.
10:39--Got coffee. Got notebook of notes in front of me. Wait, I need to feed the fish. OK, officially out of excuses.
10:45--Word count: 14,252. Just started chapter 16.
10:55--Just wrote a chapter. Just deleted it.
11:01--You know what's a cool word? Trifecta. I wish I had a reason to use that word. Oh, wait. I'm writing a book. Riiiiiight.
11:09--I've added about 300 words (that I haven't deleted). This chapter is like pulling teeth, though. That's what I get for writing a chapter about climbing up stairs. Argh.
11:15--Hopped online for a bit of procrastination. Discovered this. OMFG YES!!!!!! That is flipping awesome--another Avatar cartoon series!!! YAY!
11:16--Must. Work. iTunes is now playing Beatles. That is a sure sign that I. Must. Work.
11:25--I am worried that none of this chapter will make the final cut of the book. It is a chapter about climbing stairs, after all. *sigh* Still, I can't work with nothing, and she does need to get up the stairs. *returns to writing*
11:49--Word count: 15,267. Finished Chapter 16. Done with the blasted stairs. But I SOOOOOO don't want to write the next chapter. Main characters are about to get in a HUGE fight, and I HATE fight scenes. Maybe now's a good time for lunch....
12:51--How did lunch take a whole hour? Oh, yeah, cause I watched two episodes of THE WIZARDS OF WAVERLY PLACE while eating potato-broccoli soup. Now my belly's full and my mind is full of Selana Gomez snark. That might be a good place to get the fight scene ready...
12:54--I decided you needed a picture of Selena Gomez. I AM ALWAYS THINKING OF YOU. No, wait. I'm just thinking of me here. And procrastinating. *mumblegrumble* FINE. I'll start writing again.
12:56--Doesn't it look like Selena's all glaring at my procrastination?
1:04--STOP JUDGING ME SELENA GOMEZ. I just downloaded your single on iTunes. HAPPY NOW?
1:13--Oh, right. Manuscript. I should see to that.
1:23--I have no idea how to start this chapter.
1:32--I HAVE NO IDEA HOW TO START THIS CHAPTER.
1:38--FINE. That'll do.
1:44--OMG my main characters are so CUTE together! ...I don't wanna make them fight...
1:52--I watched some Sassy Gay Friend to make me feel better about turning my MCs on each other.
OK, then I got distracted by this:
1:59--FINE. I'll go make the adorably cute characters have a HORRIBLE FIGHT now.
2:06--I don't wanna make 'em fight. :( (I also had a hard time reading Harry Potter 4, when Harry and Ron fight. I hate fighting friends.)
2:19--They're fighting now. ARE YOU HAPPY YET?
2:20--I so just used the word "vitriol." I love that word.
2:27--Should I make them kiss? A kiss after a mini-make-up and just before the worst part of the fight...
2:36--It became an almost-kiss. And it's sad. :( Why do you keep making me sad, book? I should write about candy and puppies.
2:39--I will cheer myself up with more coffee.
2:57--Current word count: 16,637.
3:14--MC Girl just burned MC Boy. But I want them to snog! Stupid characters, never doing what I want them to. *mumblegrumble*
3:55--A little stuck. Next chapter starts: "The next day..." That should unstick me.
4:01--Nope. Still stuck. But actually...this is a good place to stop.
Tally of today's productivity:
Number of Sassy Gay Friend videos watched: 3
Number of times I listened to "Round and Round": 59-ish
Final word count: 17,032
Number of chapters written: 4 (I write really short chapters, btw)
Words written today: 2,780
Hmmm...not terrible, but I know I can do better. But the good news is I've gotten past the plotted fight scene, and I'm back into the murky unknown depths of the plot. And this has certainly given me a bit of a kickstart. I'm still struggling to find the balance between writing, other authorly stuff that needs to be done (I've got 41 unread emails currently), and procrastinating.
Then my second thought was, "Wait. Wait. I almost did do some of that stuff. What was I thinking?!"
And I remembered then, what it was like to write a query letter cold. I had no--absolutely zero--things going for me in the query department. I had no great recommendations, referrals, conference connections or other "ins" that would make me stand out in the slush pile. I had a ridiculously non-existent bio section of the letter. My only writing credit was...this blog. That's it. No publications, no contest wins.
Nothing.
And even though I wished I had something to fluff out my query, all I had was a pitch paragraph, a paragraph with the nitty-gritty info (word count, genre) and two sentences of bio--one pointing to my blog, and the other thanking the agent for her time.
At the time, I thought it would never work. I was tempted to do all that crap that all those blogs tell us not to do, just so I had something else in my query letter.
But I didn't. I reigned in my frothy-mouth crazy-writer instincts, and wrote the simplest, shortest, clearest letter I could. And I prayed. A lot.
And it worked. (I mean, not at first. I got rejected at first. A lot. But that was because my book sucked, not because of my query letter.) Guys--I realized in reading the BookEnds list that the reason why we writers do all that stupid stuff is because we're looking for something--anything--to give us an edge and help us get these manuscripts we love published. We're not crazy on purpose. Mostly, we're just desperate and frustrated. At least I was.
And it's only now that I'm on the other side of the fence that I realize the best, the very very very best thing we can do is trust the system, write the best pitch we can, and realize that's enough.
The Bookanistas are a group of writers - in various stages of the publishing process – who have decided to band together and review the special books of our peers. We – as fellow writers – have decided to only post positive reviews, therefore, only reviewing the book we LOVE. No negative reviews here! We post every Thursday and cover various topics– upcoming ARCs, books we love, special diamonds in the rough, classics, and even cover reviews.
Today on the Bookanistas, I'm spreading some cover love. Julia Karr is my fellow writer at The League of Extraordinary Writers, and will debut this beauty next year in January. Her book takes place in a near-future world where "sixteen years old" may as well be your "sex-teenth" birthday. But the book's not just about love and sex--there's murder, secrets, and an ex-government agent, too!
When I first heard about the title for XVI (on her agent's blog), after thinking "Whoa! Cool premise!" I wondered how they'd do the cover. After all, the title's just three letters long--how can you make that stand out?
Well, the people at Puffin/Speak sure know their business. I love how the title literally IS the cover, and how the girl's face is broken up not only by the lines around the title, but also by her dark hair. Even though her face is a little blurry (making the title pop more), her eyes draw me right in.
Candy of The Misadventures in Candyland is well known for being super cool and having great taste in music. She's combined those two attribute for something very important: supporting New Medicine bassist Matt Brady in his Joy 2 the World mission to provide microloans to needy women in Ghana.
I'm all in favor of the microloan charity, a popular feature in my favorite charity, World Vision. Basically, what a microloan does is provide a needy woman with the funds she requires to held make herself independent. For example, if the woman's a seamstress, the microloan will help her buy a sewing machine so she can then work, pay off the loan, and become an independent business owner. It's the epitome of the old saying, "Give a man a fish and he eats for a day; teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime."
To read the story of his month-long, life-changing journey, go HERE. To read more about Joy 2 The World and who/why you're help is needed, go HERE. If you're still not sure, read more about founder, Kathleen Gibbs HERE.
Of course, I wanted to help Candy out in her goal to raise money for the microloan project! Who wouldn't? Fortunately, Candy has come up with several ways to help: GIVE a donation, BUY a t-shirt, CREATE graphics to spread the word, or LISTEN to the New World music (each download of which supports the project).
And the best part? Do any of these things, tell Candy, and you could win AWESOME prizes:
ARC of "Dead Beautiful" by Yvonne Woon donated by Candyland
MORE PRIZES TO COME!
The contest will run today through July 31st and winners will be announced on Monday, August 2nd.
Why, yes--that IS a prize up there by yours truly--a query letter and 3 chapter critique, plus the VERY FIRST preorder of my book, coming out next year!!
I think we can all agree that this contest is awesome, but what the money's going for--to help needy Ghana women help themselves--is even more important. And what we need now, beyond donations and aid for these women--is to get the word out.
So I'm going to match Candy's contest! If you post about Candy's contest and/or about the mission to provide microloans to Ghana women, post a link in the comments below, and when Candy's contest ends, I'll draw a name...and the winner will receive a $15 Amazon gift card!
That's all you have to do--tell someone else about this amazing mission. Spread the word, spread the love, and win prizes!
Y'all, these are my PEOPLE. I mean, not that I'm related to them--just that this happened a few miles up the road. Welcome to my home. Where the toothless rednecks spot bigfoot, draw a picture of him, and name him Knobby.
Y'all, this got on CNN. It's all anyone can talk about.
Yanno, when I woke up this morning, I thought "I don't really have anything to blog about, I think I'll just take a day off."
Then I found an awesome contest, an awesome poster....and now I just heard some more awesome news. So I'll just spam you guys with three posts instead of none!
Today is the first launch day of the new book review bloggers - The Bookanistas: Books are the New Black. We are a group of writers - in various stages of the publishing process – who have decided to band together and review the special books of our peers. We – as fellow writers – have decided to only post positive reviews, therefore, only reviewing the book we LOVE. No negative reviews here!
I got this ARC from a very dear friend of mine, and have not been able to put it down (until, erm, oceans separated me from it. I did no reading in Europe, shame on me!).
If you need a reason to pick this one up, I refer you to the prettyprettyamazinglypretty cover above. I mean...wow. THAT is one beautiful cover!
And what's even better? The words inside are more beautiful.
Well, of course they are. Robin McKinley wrote them.
But if I had to pick one thing I love more about this book than anything else, it would be simply this: Robin McKinley makes me believe that pegasi could be real. She does an amazing job of creating realistic mythical characters with their own mythology, beliefs, history, and personalities that make me think they are truly real. This is not a story where a girl rides a pretty winged horse--no, pegasi in this story are not at all just winged horses, and they have their own truly unique tale to tell.
The Bookanistas think books are the best accessory. If you would like one of us to review your book or ARC, feel free to contact me and we will add it to our list.
But while I was watching it, I came up with a simple answer to a long-standing writing question: what is Voice, and why is it so important? So I guess the $6 matinee ticket was worth it.
Here's the wisdom I came up with:
1. There are two parts to any good book: a) the story and b) the writing.
2. The story = setting, plot, characters. 3. The writing = how you present the setting, plot, characters.
In other words, the writing, the way in which you present the story, is the Voice.
In the movie I was watching, the story had everything. A detailed, beautifully done setting that was realistic and interesting. A strong plot that hinged on character development. Characters with clear, obvious motivations and universal appeal.
...but I was bored out of my mind.
It wasn't, to my surprise, the story. I liked the story.
It was how the story was being told. We knew two characters were in love, for example, because the narrator said they were. We didn't see the passion, or fall in love with the girl as the boy did. Nope--the narrator just said they were in love and then boom! The audience is supposed to believe it's Romeo and Juliet all over again.
It also existed in the dialog. I often felt that the characters were reading the script, not reacting to the events of the story. There was a lot of "As you know, Bob," going on in the movie, a lot of voice-over narration telling us how to feel about the situation, and dialog that felt like writer's intrusion, not a natural response.
I liked the setting. I liked the plot. I liked the characters. But put them all together, and I didn't like the movie. I didn't like the writing. I didn't like the way the characters spoke, talked, or acted.
I didn't like the Voice.
This was perhaps easier for me to discover in watching a movie than in reading a novel, albeit I think this is more often a problem with books than movies. Think of a book that you should like--one that is right up your alley. When you bought it, you were excited to find such a jewel. You couldn't wait to read this book. It was like the author peered into your brain and wrote something just for you. Maybe it's a dark fairy tale or a vampire love story or old-fashioned murder mystery, but whatever it is, it is just the kind of book you like.
And you hate it.
It's because the story is there...but the writing isn't.
Let's make up a fictional book--a romance set in the Wild West between a saloon owner and a cowgirl.
The Story:
Setting: Wild West. (We can go on to add specific details--what the ranch is like, what the saloon is like, etc.)
Characters: saloon owner and cowgirl (Again, adding more details)
Plot: Saloon owner needs cowgirl to invest in his saloon or he loses the bar; along the way they fall in love.
The Writing:
Setting: Do the characters love or hate their setting? Why? How does the setting effect them--does the cowgirl long for city life and hate to see the horses? Does the saloon owner almost die in the desert?
Characters: Go past their physical appearance and their immediate past. What deep-set longings do they have? What do they want with all their heart? Now: never ever tell me what it is they want more than anything. Just show it to me in their reactions. Make the cowgirl grumpy or the saloon owner flirty--but don't tell me they are--show me.
Plot: This all comes down to reactions. The plot of the story is like a timeline: this happens, then this happens, then this happens. Who cares? The real plot of your writing is showing me the reactions the characters have based on what has happened.
I think a lot of people just think about the story when they write. They think about what everything looks like, and what happens next. But that's just the story. The writing is where the voice is, and that lies in making each part of the story interact in a realistic, responsive way.
It is exhausting to chaperon a gaggle of high school students through Europe for nearly two weeks. Exhausting. Like deep in the marrow of my bones exhausting.
But I loved every minute. First, this trip gave me a chance to meet my French editor (hi Xavier!!) who is amazing and just the kind of person I love working with and so enthusiastic and wonderful that I felt like I died and went to heaven when I was in his office surrounded by my favorite books (in French) and knowing my book would be up on those shelves (also in French).
Second, it was a great way to say goodbye to teaching. If you have to quit a job you love, why not do it in Paris?
Third, gelato.
Fourth: art. It's everywhere. I mean, yeah, Mona Lisa in Louvre and David in Florence, but that's not what I'm talking about.
I'm talking about street art.
Secret: I love street art. I love actually watching the art be made in front of me. I think I might love it more than Mona Lisa, which is kinda overrated and most people only like it because it's famous and it always makes me mad when I'm at the Louvre and people are running down the hall just to see this one tiny pic that's behind three-inch bullet-proof glass and I'm all like "WTF? Didn't you notice that Donatello you just sprinted past? Show the other Ninja Turtles some love, y'all!" And usually I'm asked to go because I actually do say that sort of thing out loud and try to tell random nearby strangers about the composition of colors and the symbolism of flowers in the paintings because my friends have probably left me at the museum like three hours ago when I just stared slack-jawed at a painting and forgot there were other people around.
Deep breath.
The point: I like art, and one of the things I like particularly about art is watching it be made. I bought a watercolor in Venice specifically because I saw the guy paint it on the street--I bought it before the paint was even completely dried. And of everything I saw in the entire trip, I think my very favorite thing was watching the glass making demonstration, also in Venice.
I've seen glass blowing before, but this particular glass blower was very skilled. I only caught part of the end on tape, but the best part was the last bit of his demonstration, where he made a glass horse. I am still in awe of how he teased out a beautiful equine shape from a lump of molten sand.
That's what art is to me: creation. Here was nothing but a blob--and he made a beautiful shape, a graceful horse. It's magic, making something new from something old. No--it's better than magic--because it's real and not an illusion.
That's what paper is to me: a chance to create. I think it's the desire of all humans to create something precious, be it a flower in the garden, an accomplished child, or a work of art. We want to have made something from nothing, we want to know that we changed the world, even if it is only in a small way.
For the next two weeks, there's a good chance I'm at one of these places:
I'll be gone until the fourth of July (actually, I'll be back before then, but I'm giving myself some jet lag time to recover)! And when I come back, I'll have lots of European adventures to relate, as well as an EPIC contest that I KNOW you peeps will love (hint below), and I promise to visit every single one of y'alls blogs by the end of July. I've dropped the ball on that lately, and HATE it, so you can expect a (virtual) visit from me soon!
In case you're a curious thing like me, the cities I'm going to: Zurich, Lucerne, Verona, Pisa, Venice, Rome, Eze, Nice, Monaco, and Paris. Whew! (And in Paris, I get to meet my French publishers...for which I am EXTRAORDINARILY nervous.)
(PS: Anyone got any favorites to do in theses places? I'm going to Mt Pilatus in Lucerne and WILL get macarons in Paris, and we're doing all the touristy stuff--but any off-the-path suggestions?)
Okay, first? You rock. YOU RAWK. I was fairly scared to post the series last week--it was a bit of a departure from the normal highjinks around here, and all of your many comments really made me happy to post the series. I will be responding to you all, slowly but surely.
Second? You should go to the Leagueon Monday. We're starting an awesome Scavenger Hunt--read the clues to figure out the title of a book, and you win the ENTIRE SERIES of books as a prize! And for my faithful blog readers, I'm giving you an EXTRA clue here: much like my book reviews, you're going to have to HUNT for HIDDEN spoilers...
Did you figure it out? Here's your clue, but be warned: one word in the clue is more important than others! LOOK AMONG THE CLUES FOR THE HIDDEN TITLE.
Third? Have a video! One of the ways I used to perk myself up was to buy a beta fish. Traditionally, I've named my fishes after Greek gods (I name other pets after book characters, and I name my cars after constellations and other astronomical stuff). So, of course, given the recent book deal and all, I had to name this guy Astraeus. Also, the teachers I work with are AMAZING and they got me Flip video camera as a going away present, so I used it to show you a little bit of what Astraeus looks like. I've got his bowl right next to my computer--you can actually see the bottom corner of my white Mac behind his bowl in the vid--and as I type, he swims around. Well, OK, I think he's actually plotting on how to kill me--he IS a beta, after all, renowned for their fighting--but he's awfully pretty in his death threats, no?
(If you crank the volume up, you can hear the song I was listening to when I shot the video; it looks a little like Astraeus is dancing to it. And if you don't want to sit there for two minutes and watch the whole thing--trust me, it's mesmerizing--skip to the last 15 seconds or so--Astraeus sort of hangs in just the right spot in the light to be really breathtakingly beautiful.)
You’re scared to tell people you’re leaving your job. But when it comes time to sign contracts, you ask for a conference with the principal. You tell him. He’s surprised—he had no idea you wrote. He says you can have your old job back any time. You smile sadly.
You’re not coming back. You’ve come to understand that you can be a teacher and a writer at the same time, but you can’t be good at both at the same time.
You’ve made your choice.
When you tell your friend, the only one left of the original half-dozen who started working when you did, you cry more than she does.
News trickles slowly through the school. You hear “Really?” more than you can count.
The kids are the most surprised. It’s like when they find out you’re married, or see you at the grocery store. They have a hard time seeing you as a real person who wants anything or exists in any capacity beyond a teacher. They don’t think you can be anything but their teacher.
You worry they’re right.
Some of the teachers assume you’re leaving because you’re pregnant. You accept this; you’ve always known you were working in a place where a woman giving birth was often consider the highlight—the only high point—of her life.
When people say you’re a writer, you’re still a little shocked to hear the word in connection with your name.
The rumors run rampant. A billion-dollar deal, a movie deal, you’re going to Hollywood. You’re going to spend the rest of your life waking up at noon and eating ice cream in a mansion. You smile—they have no idea how hard this new life will be. They have no idea how scared you are.
The whole while, you’re still teaching. You write a book about some kids who find out their teacher is a witch, and really it’s wish-fulfillment because you want to be the kind of teacher with a magic wand to fix things.
You wish you could fix more things. You report the bruises to the social service. You hold them when they cry. You send the pregnant ones to the nurse. You wish they’d listen to you when you tell them they’re making a mistake. But they never do.
You work hard on revising the new novel. You spend all Christmas break with highlighters and colored pens and go word-by-word, line-by-line with critique notes and everything else.
You’ve written this one for publication. You’re convinced it will succeed. You did everything right.
But the story isn’t there.
It’s roundly rejected.
You seriously consider giving up.
You’re good at teaching. In your first year, there were a half dozen new teachers. You and one more are all that’s left. You stuck with it. You have a good reputation at school—fun, but tough. You have all your lesson plans made. You don’t have to stay up all night to grade or plan. You can roll up in the morning and do a whole day easily. You’re not as exhausted as before.
When you get home, you try to open your door with your classroom key. You do this often. Home and class are almost synonymous.
You go to a retirement party for a woman who has worked at the school for longer than you’ve been alive. You imagine yourself at 65, retiring from the school.
You’ve been working at school for 6 years. You invest in a retirement plan. You settle in for the long haul. You work for one full year to get your National Board Certification. You know when to let a kid sleep through class, and when not to. You don’t give homework because you know they won’t do it. You know exactly how long it takes to read a story, or write an essay. You don’t need backup plans any more.
Some of the kids call you “mom” and you realize it’s a compliment.
You start writing something else.
When you finish it, you decide: if this one doesn’t go anywhere, it’s time to quit. You can’t do better than this. You don’t want to be a bitter old lady who never achieves her dreams. Better to not have any dreams at all than broken ones.
You tell yourself you don’t care if you fail, but you do. You tell yourself it’s not failing if you give up, but it is.
You’re afraid to send this one out.
If it fails, you fail.
You send it out anyway.
You start preparing to be a teacher, just a teacher.
You get some rejections.
Then you get interest. When you get an email that an agent wants to call you next Monday, you and your husband go out to dinner. You keep telling him, it may be nothing. It's not officially an offer, just interest. It will probably not go anywhere.
On Monday, you get an offer. By Wednesday, you’re lining up agent interviews. The next week, you sneak out during your breaks, sit in your car with a notepad propped up on your steering wheel, and take notes on agents.
You’re juggling being a teacher, while at the same time clutching your writing pen.
You start writing another book. It’s about your brother, but you don’t realize that until the end.
In the spring of your first year teaching, you go to a conference. There’s a pitch session at the conference. You practice for the whole month before that, in front of the mirror, while driving to work, in your head during your planning period. You make huge packets of samples, copies of the whole book on CD, business cards, signed bookmarks, and all kinds of things.
At the conference, no one wants the stuff. Not even the tiny business cards.
You’re nervous when you pitch. You’ve memorized it, but you forget it all when faced with the gods of publishing. You make rookie mistakes—mentioning the books you’ve shelved, mistaking common terms in the business. Some agents are interested anyway. They give you their cards, and you will query them in the coming weeks, and not a single one of them will ever reply, even with a form rejection.
But.
There’s an editor. From one of the Big Six publishing house. She’s interested. She’s funny. She wants the partial. When you send it, she quickly asks for a full. When you send that, she returns with a 12 page edit letter. Make the revisions, she says, and we’ll talk contracts.
You’re on cloud nine. You worry about doing the job quickly. You take time off work. You finish in a few weeks. You think it’s perfect. You rush to the mailbox and send it off.
And wait.
And wait.
And wait.
You email her after months, asking for an update.
You pace in front of the school by the bushes before a basketball game.
You’re rejected.
For the first time, you start to think you’re not good enough.
You’re angry, as well as sad. So you try to figure out what went wrong.
You realize that you didn’t go far enough in the edits. You did a halfway job in your rush, and you regret it. But it’s too late now.
You join critique groups. You post samples on online forums designed to critique.
One person says your story is the worst he’s ever read. He questions whether you should ever write. He suggests you destroy the manuscript, never send it out, and quit writing. He says there is nothing of value in anything on the page you sent.
You enter contests. You never win any of them.
After entering—and losing—the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest, you hook up with people on the forum who also lost, and start a critique group.
You start to realize where you went wrong.
You regret your past mistakes.
You rewrite and rewrite, then put some of the stories to bed.
You start to blog. No one cares. No one comments. You blog for months before you get a comment. You blog for over half a year before you have what could be called regular readers. Other people, who seem to have been doing half as much for half as long, get agents and contracts and deals. You get so jealous, you’re sick to your stomach.
You tell yourself: you can be a teacher and a writer at the same time, and you pray for nights on end that is the truth.
This begins a series of posts that I'll be uploading throughout the week. I know it's long. I'm sorry. The others are shorter. But as I end one career to begin another, I'm very reflective about how I got here.
For your first career day at elementary school, you dress as a secretary because you like to type.
Later, you discover that you like to write stories. Your fifth grade teacher reads one of your stories out loud to the whole class, and you beam the entire time. Your sixth grade teacher reads a nonfiction personal narrative essay you wrote, and you hide your secret smile, because she says the description is realistic, but you made it all up even if it was supposed to be nonfiction. You write stories about unicorns and read them to the girl who sits next to you on the bus. Every page is a new chapter. You get to page chapter 10 and think you’ve written a novel.
You want to be a writer, but your teachers and parents say you can’t make money off it, it’s not a real job, so you decide to be a teacher. You’re in sixth grade, and you’ve got your life planned out already: a teacher who writes stories on the side. It doesn’t really occur to you that you can do anything but write on the side.
In high school, you join the literary magazine and write half of it. But you spend more time on your AP classes, because you know you’re going to need a real job.
In college, while you’re an RA and don’t have a roommate who can see you, you start to write a short story that turns out to be a novel. At first you just want to see if you can actually get that many words on a page, but in the end, when you have the whole thing printed in front of you, you realize it’s not that bad.
You send it out to a handful of agents, and you write the sequel.
You make an outline for the third book, but never write it. You discover that outlines kill your stories.
You get rejected. It doesn’t sting—you have already realized the first novel wasn’t that good, and the rejections point you in the direction of where you should go.
Meanwhile, you start your student teaching semester. It’s scary, at first, too look out at a sea of high school student faces and know they expect something of you. But you do it, and to your surprise, you actually kind of like it. You realize this may be the rest of your life.
Your brother dies. It’s sudden, and unexpected, and you hide silently within yourself for awhile. People seem like moving shadows. When strangers get to know you, and ask if you have siblings, you don’t know what to say. The first Christmas is the hardest, because your grandmother dies then, too. It’s not as sudden or unexpected, but it extends the silence.
You’re in grad school now, living alone, too poor to afford television. You spend a lot of time online, between reading Harry Potter forums and reading Miss Snark. You have a sense of pride for reading Miss Snark from the very beginning, and you’re shocked when she ends the blog.
You get an idea. A good one. A really good one. You’re supposed to be writing your Master’s Thesis, but instead, you write a book. You love it hardcore. You “edit” by printing it, fixing the grammar, and adding a few paragraphs.
You send this one out.
This time, the rejections hurt.
You still love the book. You write all the sequels to it, but squirrel them away.
You graduate with your Master’s degree in English literature.
You start looking for a job. You wait a long time to apply. You treat the whole thing casually—you figure teaching jobs are a dime a dozen. You blow off an interview.
The summer starts to end. You start panicking. You need a job. You visit some friends in NY and on the flight back you pray to God that you’ll take the first job offered to you, even if it’s janitorial work.
You have two interviews—one at the dream job in the nice city, one at the bottom of the barrel job in the backwoods of the world. You go to your interview with the backwoods school in your fancy business suit and five inch heels. The assistant principal takes you on a tour of the whole school, including the back fields with the goats. Your heart is breaking a little. You thought you escaped backwood schools and goats. You remember NY, and you think about how publishing’s heart is there. Then you tell your heart to shut up, you need a job.
The backwoods school offers a job the day before the nice city school. You remember your prayer. You take the backwoods school offer.
You rent a duplex. There’s a whole room for your computer. Your stories are tucked away in a nice folder, but you ignore them.
You write lesson plans. At first, everything is too hard—you’re trying to discuss symbolism, and they’re still learning vocabulary. Then everything is too easy—you can’t seem to find the balance.
You’re terrible at teaching. Honestly. A fight breaks out in your room so quickly you’re shocked, and before you know it, desks are thrown and a girl is standing on top of a bookcase screaming. You advice the yearbook, and you don’t know you have to check behind the students for every. Single. Little. Detail. You get cussed out by angry parents for misspelling their child’s name.
You stay up all night to work, at least once a month. You write long notes on all their essays, even if they just flip to the back to see the grade. You care so hard. Already heavy, you get fatter as time goes on, unable to expend the time, money, and energy to cook healthily.
You try to write and teach. You realize that you may only be able to do one. You are afraid you’ll never be able to do either.
I guess that's why I watch Real Housewives, too. That, and the husband and I like to make fun of the women. (Speaking of, OMG, how hilarious was it when Kelly couldn't even open the door?!)
ANYWAY.
There have been two great links lately of writerly insults and literary feuds.
Also, also: How preposterous that Harold Bloom thinks Harry Potter has no literary merit:
Bloom, however, remained unperturbed as a detractor. “Can more than 35 million book buyers, and their offspring, be wrong?” he asked. “Yes, they have been, and will continue to be for as long as they persevere with Potter.”
Second, here's the widget to become a fan of the Elevensies! The Elevensies is a group of writers who are all debuting MG or YA work in 2011. Very cool people there.
Finally, Amazon doesn't have any spiffy widgets, which saddens me immensely. BUT I totally just stole a screen shot that LOOKS like you can click it, and if you do click it, it will land directly in Amazon! :)
PS: This is so cool. You have no idea how surreal it is to post these.
Jacob Parker is an author of a YA fantasy, KESTREL'S MIDNIGHT SONG, being released this year,
the maker of one of the best ranked book trailers, and... oh, yeah, he's still a teenager!
You can find Jacob online at his website, blog, Facebook, and Twitter, but here's a introduction to this innovative young author, who's also throwing a huge launch party with giveaways!
YOU
Introduce yourself to us! What's your book about? What are you doing to promote it, and why are you doing it?
I'm a teenager with a dangerously overactive imagination and a love for words. My book, Kestrel's Midnight Song, is a YA Fantasy about a legendary Marauder awaiting his hanging, the Marauders' plot to free him and unleash the secret he so carefully guards, and a shepherd boy who travels with no knowledge that his journey will decide the pending fate of the world. To promote it, I'm currently organizing a "Huge Online Party" in which I'll be streaming live via webcam and giving away hundreds of fantasy books and gift cards. The reason this helps my book is that, in exchange for entries, I'm having people do stuff to promote my book ahead of time (RIGHT NOW). So far I think it's been a great success. Kestrel's Midnight Song is the #2 most discussed book of all time on Shelfari.com (behind Twilight) and its book trailer is three votes away from becoming the #3 most popular book trailer of all time on Goodreads.com
We can all read about your bio from the back of your book or your FAQ online. So, what's a completely random fact about you that most people don't know?
I was forced to endure a season of cotillion class as a pre-teen. For those unfamiliar with cotillion class, I'm only too happy to raise awareness; cotillion class is where they teach you ballroom dancing and formal etiquette. A more effective form of torture for pre-teen boys has yet to be discovered. My psychological damage is evident to this day. However, the silver lining is that I survived, and from my experience was born a comic strip that ran in my local newspaper called "Skeeter & Skunkbeard." It features two teenage outdoors-men who are forced to endure cotillion class... and aren't afraid to stand up to the torturer—I mean teacher... It's my coping mechanism...
What are some of your favorite books? Why?
I like the kind of books that allow me to experience something impossible and/or otherworldly. I'm not usually interested in reading fiction in which the events happen in the real world. In short, the more imaginative the better. I most enjoyed books like The Hobbit, Harry Potter, Holes, Keys to the Kingdom, Artemis Fowl...
You're a remarkably young author. What led you to pursue this dream now?
I actually started much younger. In fourth grade I started writing my first novel with the plan to become the youngest author ever. (For the fame and fortune, of course.) I quickly discovered two things:
I love writing. Way more than reading. Which is saying a lot.
Writing is a lot of hard work.
My novel attempts reached into the 30,000 word mark and beyond but always petered out. Although I had some encouragement... I won a short story contest in 5th grade and the judge suggested I expand it into a novel. In 6th grade an adult read a sample of my work and thought I'd copied it out of a book somewhere... it wasn't until around my fifteenth birthday that I saw a novel all the way through. Coincidentally, that's also the first time I used an outline.
YOUR BOOK
How much of you is in your book? Is there a character like you? Is a situation in the book derived from real life?
My book has a lot of me. It's a little scary how much of myself I pour into my writing. I'm sure a psychologist could basically peer into my soul after reading my book. However, none of the characters are like me, per se. Though, the main characters each have some of my traits. It's easier to write that way. And as I go through life, even as I experience things, I think about what the best way to translate it into words would be. I'd like to think it improves my writing.
What was your timeline for the book? How long did it take to write, revise, submit, and finally, get published? How did you feel at these stages?
I started writing it around my fifteenth birthday, finished the first draft around my seventeenth birthday, and submitted it after a few months of revision. Acceptance came a few months after that. And here I am, two months from my nineteenth birthday, and we're still editing. It's on the home stretch, though. It releases hopefully this September. As far as how I felt... at times ready to give up, at times euphoric, at times sick of the publishing industry, at times joyful enough to dance (literally), at times bored to tears of the monotony of slogging through the manuscript for the ninth time. Like I say in a later response, it was a roller coaster.
If your reader could only take away one emotion, theme, or idea from the book, what would you want that to be?
From a writing standpoint, my goal is immersion. I want my book to suck the reader in and never let go until the last page has been flipped, leaving them dazed for a few seconds as they travel back to the real world. That's what my favorite books do for me, so that's what I want my writing to do for others.
YOUR WRITING
What are your goals as an author? Where do you want to see yourself as a writer in 5, 10, 15 years?
A byproduct of my overactive imagination is that I'm susceptible to dreaming. (I wanted to be published as a fourth grader, remember?) So I've imagined myself as accomplishing pretty much everything possible for a writer. It's hard to separate my dreams from my goals, but I'd really like to hit the NY Times Bestseller's list someday. Oh, and have one of my books turned into a major motion picture, oh and... I should stop there.
What's the most surprising thing you've learned since becoming a writer?
The number of teens who are actively writing and trying to get published. I get a lot of emails from young writers like myself asking for advice, and I've read some of their work. There are a few out there, in my opinion, that are very good. I think, in the near future, we'll see more and more teen authors published. I'm by no means the first, of course, but I think the numbers will grow.
Beyond the typical—never give up, believe in yourself—what would be the single best advice you'd like to give to an aspiring author?
Just based on my personal experience, be prepared for a roller coaster. One day I'd pound out a chapter and feel like I'm producing pure, exhilarating gold. The next I'd read over it and wonder what I was thinking and why I was even wasting energy trying to write a novel. I traveled to a writer's conference one summer and rode the train back singing (literally) after these experts I'd been stalking online were impressed with my work... even as they ripped it to shreds. (Okay, maybe it was more of a hum). Then I came home to a couple of waiting rejection letters. In short... hold on tight. Hmmm, in retrospect that's kind of a long way of saying never give up and believe in yourself...
What do you consider to be your strongest talent in writing? Your weakest?
I think the compliment I get the most is for my actual wordsmithing—the flow, syntax, word choice, etc. My weakest? I have a lot of weaknesses, which is part of what has me excited for my next book, but probably one of my biggest is a lack of research and note taking. (Is that two? They're semi-related...)
What's a writing pet peeve that you have?
Definitely contrived dialogue... and now that I think about it, contrived plot devices. Nothing sucks the reality out of fiction faster for me. For instance, it really bugged me in Avatar when Parker explains to Grace that the whole operation is to obtain "unobtainium." She knows what it's all about. She's been on the project for years. It's a scene obviously there to inform the viewer about unobtainium. And it's especially frustrating since it could have been so easily avoided by having someone explain the unobtainium thing to Jake, who realistically could have no idea about unobtainium. But anyway, now that I've said that, everyone's going to point out all the contrived-ness of my book, and/or all the mistakes I made. :P
Kid 1: Hey, Mrs. Revis! Did you see Prince of Persia over the weekend?
Me: Yup!
Kid 1: Did you like it?
Me: It was okay...
Kid 1: Okay? Okay?! That movie was freaking awesome!
Kid 2: Yeah! That end was cool! I totally didn't see that coming!
Me: That's why I wasn't that thrilled with it--I totally guessed the ending. I figured out how it would end after, like, the first twenty minutes. So it wasn't that cool for me.
Kid 1: But I didn't figure out the ending. I was totally surprised, and that's what made the movie COOL!
Kid 2: Yeah, Mrs. Revis. You need to be stupid like us, and then you can enjoy movies more!
