I don’t really know much about how the whole author photo works, but I’m assuming that someday my editor or someone at Putnam is going to ask me for one (or maybe even some to choose from). I’m very lucky in that I’m married to a professional photographer!

Neither of us think a traditional photo is really the way to go (although, Stacey, if you’re reading this, we’ll offer one up if we have to), but a professional photo is a must. For that reason, my husband has been snapping a lot of pics of me with his Leica…yep, he’s old school and these are shot on film.  Here is a link to a bunch more cool pics of his that don’t have anything to do with me. And here is one of the ones we got back today that we like quite a bit. Click on it to see it larger.

My friend Janette Rallison discovered by accident that mentioning Orlando Bloom on her blog spiked the number of hits she got to all time highs. Now I would never mention Orlando Bloom just to raise my hits. I wouldn’t mention Orlando Bloom two or three times or put his name in a header or anything like that… That would be like stuffing the ballot box! However, I was checking my visitor stats yesterday and was surprised to see that over the last few days I’ve had four times as many visitors as I usually do and Orlando had nothing to do with it!!!

After a little investigation, I found out why. It turns out that they’re talking about my cliche article over on the National Novel Writing Month website! Not only did they link back to me, but there’s a really interesting dialogue going in the comments section. So hop on over there, and if you leave a comment, you might want to mention Orlando just to help me return the favour!

Wow. While I totally failed to predict the National Book Award finalists this year, I don’t have to worry because the judges were paying attention. This is a fantastic book. It’s interesting, beautifully written, intriguing, and so layered. It’s humorous and dare I use “touching” without sounding sappy? Also funny. It is the only NBA finalist I’ve read so far, but I’d totally vote for it! Have you read it? What did you think?

Yes, it’s true, I dive into every new Susan Juby book knowing I’ll love it, but this can work against a reader too. I end up with high expectations for the writers you love! This book is so hilarious. I read it all in one day too, only taking a short break to go see my husband in a play. It made me laugh and laugh. Juby really is a master at creating characters. On one hand you can’t help but think that these people are so over the top that Juby must have a wacky imagination, but on the other, they’re so scarily reality based that you really have to admit that people are much more the way Juby sees them than most writers do! I am sure you will love this one too. And on top of all that, doesn’t it have a fantastic cover?

I’ve been reading a lot. I’ll list any Advanced Reading Copies that I like and when they’re scheduled for release. When they come out, I’ll have a proper entry with more info. I’ll keep adding to this list too as I read.

MODELS DON’T EAT CHOCOLATE COOKIES by Erin Dionne - March 09 - You’re going to love this book. It’s funny, heartfelt, and has a nice premise that I’ve never seen before. Though the character is only 13, I think it will read well for older girls too. Great debut!

JUST ONE WISH by Janette Rallison - March 2009 - By far my favorite JR book. Excellent!

FLYGIRL by Sherri L. Smith - January 2009 - A knock your socks of historical fiction. Wow!

GEEK CHARMING  by Robin Palmer - February 2009 - From the cover I was expecting a fancy pants chick lit book, but it’s more than that. Extremely funny and well thought out!

YOU’VE GOT BLACKMAIL by  Rachel Wright - April 2009 - This is pretty funny. If you like Louise Rennison’s Georgia Nicholson books, you’ll love this. And it too is a series.

Last night, author (and YA NBA winner) Sherman Alexie was on the Colbert Report. I haven’t laughed that hard in a long time. I highly recommend you take a few minutes and watch it. He is in segment 3 if you don’t have time (or the inclination) to watch the whole show.

I have made a few corrections to this post after vetting it by someone at Tourette Syndrome Foundation Canada. First off, I wasn’t supposed to use the logo (!), so I’ve changed it to a grumpy dog which is how I feel about this topic! Thank you to Kadija, for helping me out with the rest. 

Okay… I know I’ve covered this before, but today it’s really irking me. I’m reading one of the ARCs given to me and so far I really like this one, but it just pissed me off for the second time with the same joke about a character who acts “inappropriately” obviously having Tourette Syndrome.

I’d like to ask all the authors who use this “joke” and, there are quite a few of you out there, a few questions.

1. Why do you think it’s funny to make fun of a disorder that so many people suffer from?

2. Did you know that the correct spelling is Tourette Syndrome, not Tourette’s? Nope. Obviously not. Neither did your editor or your copyeditor (or a lot of websites). At least if you’re going to make fun of people, get it right.

3. Did you know that yelling out profanity or inappropriate things is NOT the main symptom of Tourette Syndrome? Nope. Again, obviously not, because if you did, you’d realize your joke doesn’t even make sense. Coprolalia is a tic but only appears in about 10% of those diagnosed. More common symptoms are along the lines of tics, jerks, barking, repetitive motion or sounds.

4. Did you know that many people grow out of it as adults and it’s most prominent amongst TEENS (especially boys)? You know, your main friggin audience! The correct info is: You don’t outgrow the disorder it’s genetic but you learn to cope better and the tics seem to take a back seat in adulthood. However, this is very individual so it can’t be a blanket statement. Things usually get rocky during puberty when all the neurochemicals mix with the hormones.

5. Did you know that using it as a joke in a book makes you look like an idiot? Well it does.

I’m just sayin’.

Yeah…it takes a lot to send me off on a rant, but I once interviewed a teen for a magazine who had Tourette Syndrome  and personally, I think they suffer enough without YA writers (or any writers) adding to it with uninformed and inappropriate attempts at humour. So there.

Oh, and while I don’t usually ask people to link to my site about my blog topics, if this gets your blood boiling too, please mention it elsewhere on the web. I think that this is something all writers should consider. It actually could go on my list of overused things in YA. I’ve seen it a ton.

If you’re so inclined, please visit the TSA-USA who actually has an awareness campaign around this topic entitled It Ain’t Funny and it Ain’t True. 

The good news is I finished reading my WIP and it’s pretty strong.

The bad news is I thought I was about 96% done and I’m actually only about 86% there.

The good news is I know how to fix it.

The bad news is my thoughts are pretty circular right now, which means I need some time away from it.

The good news is there’s no reason at all why I can’t take a week off from writing.

The bad news is that I am a total workaholic when it comes to writing and it is sooooo hard to take a week off.

The good news is I have lots of fun stuff to keep me entertained like knitting, cooking, walking, and a huge pile of ARCs to read in front of the fire.

The bad news is…hmmm…I’m out of bad news. Well, that’s a relief!

I reckon I’ll have to get my writing fix by blogging, so you may see a lot of me over the next week or so!

If you’ve always wondered how to promote your book when you land a TV interview, I suggest you jump on over toThe Daily Show and watch Segment 2 of the October 21st show. The whole show is pretty hilarious, but segment two is just a goldmine of info for writers!

The plaque says, “and they lived happily ever after”

Whenever I finish up a novel, either a new one or a revision of one, I always seem to rush the ending. Then later, I have to go back and make it bigger, broader, fuller, and more satisfying. So today I neared the end of a major revision on my Work In Progress. I’m essentially two chapters away from finishing it, and I know what happens. However, I just knew I would blow through it so I could type THE END, but then I realized this was not the same as MISSION ACCOMPLISHED if I have to go back later and fix it anyway so how is that really satisfying? I decided to take a new approach. I stopped writing and I printed out the manuscript. Tomorrow I will sit down with it and read it to see what I have. And then, after I’m done reading and revising with my red pen (and probably cutting about 5000 words), I will write the ending. And I’ll take my time…ahhh…time…there’s so much of it in publishing. I wonder why we writers hurry so much?

I’m feeling pretty pleased with this novel. I wrote the first draft just over a year ago and then got busy with other projects. I started this major revision over the summer and finished about half of it before I had to stop and make all the cuts to RESTORING HARMONY for my first deadline. Chances are good it will end up sitting around for a while as I’m expecting my first editorial letter in the next few weeks, and I think that will be good for it. I’m hoping to finish it sometime this year, but that really depends entirely on what I have to do to RH and the deadlines I’ll have. I would say that on a scale of 1 to 100, one being conception of the idea and one hundred being when I hand it off to my agent to get his thoughts, the novel is at about 96. Not bad, eh? I’m pretty pleased. And I didn’t even have to type THE END to feel satisfied today! Just printing it out gave me what I needed.

If you skip down a post or two, you’ll see the bit in my “predictions” (or wishes) for the NBA finalists where I said that because I don’t have a book buying budget, I use the library and so I’m mostly reading 2007’s books instead of 2008 because the library hasn’t gotten many 2008s yet. Or something to that effect. Well, guess what? Now I’m reading 2009’s books! Yes, it’s true! My friend who works for Penguin Canada came through as promised and her husband delivered a box of 34 Advanced Reading Copies of books that are coming out in 2009! There were several in the box that I’d marked in the catalogue that my editor sent me as “ones of interest” along with books by several of my friends! I’ve already raced through Janette Rallison’s JUST ONE WISH and let me tell you, YOU DO NOT WANT TO MISS THIS ONE! I have always loved JR’s books, even before we met (okay, she’s what my friend Eileen would call an imaginary friend because we only know each other through email, but whatever!). I think this is her best book yet.

I am not sure how to approach writing about these ARCs on Need To Read though because if I write about them as I read them, y’all won’t be able to get them yet and then you might forget about them. What I’m thinking is I will write my reviews, post date them to the month they are scheduled to come out, and then just keep a running list on Need To Read of what I’m reading and when you can expect the review. Does that work for you all?

So my friend, Alix at Marmite and Tea asked someone to send her a meme. I’ve always wanted to try my hand writing one, so I made one up just for her. She posted it yesterday. I thought it was such fun, that I’d just do it myself over here. Feel free to pass it around if you like it!

1. What’s your favourite holiday food?

Egg Nog Silk - it’s soy milk flavoured like eggnog. I know…weird, but soooo yummy.

2. Are there any secret recipes in your family and will you divulge them here?

I can’t think of any secret recipes, but my mum does make the best butter cookies, and the trick is that she uses powdered sugar instead of granular sugar. It makes them melt in your mouth!

3. Name a book you love with a food in the title.

Well, I stayed up until midnight last night reading a young adult book called PEACHES. I thought it was pretty darn good!

4. What’s your most secret indulgence food that you really don’t want to admit eating but you can’t help yourself?

It’s that fake cheese nacho dip stuff. You know, that orange glop that comes in a jar…with tortilla chips. In high school I used to make this dip for parties and my friends dubbed it “Joelle Dip” and they wouldn’t let me in the door without it. It was Velveeta melted with tomato sauce, green chiles, and hamburger. You can imagine what that looked like. We would all eat it until we were sick. I kind of crave that every once in a while…I’ll admit I’ve made it with fake hamburger now that I’m a veg head even though it’s totally bad for you!

5. Are you a savoury or sweet snacker?

Definitely savoury. I like sweets, but I’m more of a “one piece of chocolate” or “a tiny slice of pie” person when it comes to sweet. With savouries, I can snack all day!

6. What food have you never tried but would like to?

Well, I hate to admit this, because they might take my Vegetarian Card away, but it’s chicken fried steak with potatoes and gravy. I won’t ever eat it, but I always sort of wished I’d tried it before I became a veggie because in that book EVERYTHING I NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN he makes it sound so amazing. Still, I will happily live my life without ever tasting it. It’s definitely less appealing than it used to be! In fact, it’s more of a former wish than a current one.

7. Name your favourite food country and describe why you like it.

England. Haha! Just kidding. Ummm…well, I’ve never been to Italy, but I really love good Italian food, so I’m thinking that might be the place.

8. What’s the most disgusting thing you’ve ever eaten?

When I was fifteen, I went to Hawaii with the martial arts group that I trained with and before we went, they made us eat some of the foods we might have once we got there. I have never really liked greasy food, and sausage can definitely scare me (even when I ate meat). They made me eat eggs, rice, and Portugese sausage. It made me so sick (and mad) that later in the day I decided I didn’t want to go to Hawaii and tried to quit, but they didn’t let me. But they didn’t make me eat it again!

9. Do you eat pizza with a knife and fork or pick it up with your hands?

In college I had a German boyfriend and he ate his pizza with a knife and fork, so I did, but honestly, I’m all about just picking it up! I mean, come on, it’s pizza!

10. What would you like to learn to cook?

I would love to learn to make really good Thai food or a good stir-fry. I can cook pretty well, but these things sort of elude me. I think I need a class!

11. Name your favourite food scene from a movie.

Well, it’s sad, but I love that movie Big Night.

12. Do you buy snacks at the movies, or sneak them in?

I never go to the movies anymore except at my friend’s theatre, so I don’t really have to sneak them in there, I can just carry them in. But I used to be a big time food sneak. I have gone so far as to take whole meals into movie theatres and eaten them in the back row!

For the bonus points: Tell us your most embarrassing food story!

I had a Japanese friend and one time she had us over for dinner. She’s a really good cook and she was standing over the stove with these little things that looked kind of like white melon balls. I asked what they were and she held one up on a spoon and said, “cheese ball”. I took it off the spoon and bit into it and she freaked out. “No! No! They’re not cooked yet!” She grabbed it back from me and plopped it into the pot of hot oil. She deep fried the rest of them with it, but the one I’d bitten into fell apart and she put it on my plate and then told everyone why mine was falling apart!

I was never very good at keeping a journal. I have a few from high school and when I went to Europe after college. They’re pretty lame accounts of boys I was in love with who didn’t love me (and even a few who did). Boring! I’ll certainly never turn to them for plots, I can tell you that. However, about ten years ago, my parents gave me The Artist’s Way which actually changed my life in many ways, but one way in particular. The book is a twelve step program for “recovering your art”. Yeah, very self-help and hippie dippie sounding, but loads of fun too and like I said, life-changing for me. Anyway, one of the things that Julia Cameron, the author, has you do is write morning pages.

Morning pages are three  handwritten pages of journal writing that you do…yep, every morning (the pages are full-size 8 1/2 by 11, no cheating with tiny journals). You do them before anything else (although, lately I’ve been building a fire so I don’t freeze my butt off while I’m writing) and the idea is that you write these pages before your brain really has time to wake up. Mostly they’re filled with “yesterday I cooked a great meal of…” and “it rained all day so I read my book…” and “I rode to the store yesterday and got milk…” Very trivial and boring stuff.

I know lots of people who have done these for a while and enjoyed them and then quit, or still do them off and on, but I’ve actually been doing them for ten years now, every day. It’s not discipline either (if I had to rely on self-discipline to get them done, I would never do them). It’s more like what morning coffee is to my husband. I have to do them. It’s what wakes me up and keeps me sane. They’re like therapy, but cheaper. They’ve gotten me through hard times, joyous times, and everything in between.

They have helped me immeasurably in writing…from plotting and planning to navigating the crazy publishing biz. If I bugged my agent about half the stuff that I wanted to instead of writing it in there, he would’ve ditched me ages ago as “too crazy to work with”! Lately, I’ve been plotting my WIP and today, the very last thing I wrote at the bottom of page three simplified everything for me and made my path to the ending so clear. Gosh, I love these pages. And even on bad or no writing days, I can always say, “I wrote for thirty minutes this morning” and console myself with that!

Do you journal? Have you read The Artist’s Way?

Tomorrow they announce this year’s finalists for the National Book Award. I looked through all my book cards for the year to see if I’ve read any YA that I think might be a finalist (or should be in my opinion!) and discovered I haven’t read a lot of books published this year. Only a dozen or so. That’s what happens when you rely on the library…you’re a year behind. If they asked me, I would include these two (but obviously I haven’t read much of the new stuff, so my chances of predicting any finalists is pretty much slim to none!):

Deb Caletti’s THE FORTUNES OF INDIGO SKYE

Aimee Friedman’s THE YEAR MY SISTER GOT LUCKY

Good luck you two! I hope you win!

We eat all the side dishes, of course! Around 2pm, I realized I was going to meet my writing goals for the day early, so I decided to make us a big Thanksgiving dinner after all. Yes, I know this is another off-the-writing-topic post, but since I mentioned meeting my writing goals, I guess I can get away with it. I didn’t actually make green bean casserole because we don’t like it, but I thought the picture was by far the most appropriate for the day! By 6:30pm we were sitting down to:

The Menu

Vegetarian stuffing (turned out YUMMY!)

Mashed potatoes and gravy (Victor grew the potatoes! I made the gravy out of a roux, veggie stock, and milk and it turned out fantastic considering I just made it up!)

Creamed spinach and leek casserole (everyone’s favorite…we invited our neighbour Carol over at the last minute)

Homemade mac and cheese with roasted tomatoes (Victor grew the tomatoes!)

Glazed carrots (except I forgot to make them, so actually they were steamed carrots that we served after everyone was already sitting down!)

Corn bread from last night

Acorn squash (yep…Victor grew that too!)

And killer brownies with orange chocolate chunks for dessert, with vanilla tea

I know that I haven’t updated in a while…I was mostly writing and doing some reading. However, today is Canadian Thanksgiving, so I wanted to make sure and post. Last year, we had been here about two weeks. In fact, I was here alone, painting the interior as quickly as I could while Victor drove the huge moving truck across the country. I don’t think either of us felt particularly grateful at the moment (although, we’re always grateful to a certain extent because we’re extremely blessed) because one of our cats had died the day before we moved, another was missing, we were apart and we were very stressed…

This year, however, it’s easier to count our blessings and show our gratitude. In fact, we are so blessed that we could/should/will celebrate Thanksgiving every day… every week…every month…every year.

I’ve put together a few pictures to show what we’re grateful for this Canadian Thanksgiving…

And if you haven’t visited my other blog, Sunday Soup, you might enjoy reading more about our friends and what we’re doing every Sunday afternoon to foster friendship and community…not to mention the sharing of good food and laughter.

Happy Thanksgiving to my Canadian pals and have a wonderful day to the rest of you. Blessings.

My husband and his favourite mode of transportation.

My cat, Grinder…last Thanksgiving he was lost here on the island…for three weeks.

Sophie, enjoying the great outdoors…it took her six months before she would go outside…and she’d been a feral cat who used to be afraid to be inside.

Some of our many new friends (with Victor).

More of our new friends…

And if you haven’t seen enough, please visit Victor’s Daily Photo Blogof our island and home.

So…I’ve been thinking a lot about how to write this so that it comes out the way I mean it and not weird… I’ve just finished reading Caletti’s THE FORTUNES OF INDIGO SKYE. Boy did I love this book. I’ve liked other Caletti books (hey, she even has a character named Joelle in HONEY, BABY, SWEETHEART), but this one was different for me. I feel like I finally got why people are so excited about her writing. Don’t get me wrong, I always knew it was good, but I’m not sure I really got how good before.

Now if there are any Jane Austen scholars out there reading my blog, they’re probably going to send me emails saying things like, “Huh?” and “You don’t get Austen at all!” but it seems to me that, in a very simplified way, Jane Austen writes about love and money and how relationships are affected by both. And so does Caletti. And she does it (TO ME) in a very Austen-like way… What I mean by that is there is a ton of…oh, heck…last night as I was drifting off to sleep I had this worked out perfectly… there is… she is… Well, they both like words and there are a lot of them in their writing. I don’t mean it’s a long book, and I don’t mean she’s wordy (definitely not wordy), what I mean is each sentence is rich and full and…

Oh, I know… My husband is from the South and when he says things, he is often colourful in the way he says it…Anything from “Time to go to the house” instead of “I’ll play one more song” at the end of a gig, to “I reckon I’ll have to come out and fetch ya in the Volvo” instead of “I can drive my car over and pick you up”. He explained it to me this way. “Out west, y’all got words. Down South, we’ve got language.”

Well, Deb Caletti might be from “out west” (lives in Washington), but she’s definitely got language. So anyway…I probably didn’t really say anything here (just words…no language), but somehow this was important to me. By the way, I’m guessing that THE FORTUNES OF INDIGO SKYE is also, or will be, an award winner for Deb Caletti. I highly recommend it.

New stuff on Need To Read.

I’ve been reading like crazy and I’m way too lazy to write about each book, so just know that you can’t go wrong with any of these books. I liked ‘em all!

PEELED by Joan Bauer - her latest and really fun. Ripe for a sequel if you ask me.

LUCKY by Rachel Vail - timely and actually does have a sequel coming, two more books I believe.

GEEK MAGNET - really loved this one. I’ve always liked Kieran Scott, but her writing climbs to a new level here. Very good read.

GOOSE GIRL by Shannon Hale - this one’s been around for a while and the library copy is clearly well-loved as it’s falling apart. I raced through this, loving every minute.

Yesterday I started reading a book I’d really been looking forward to because I loved the author’s other two books. By the end of page one, I knew what was going to happen immediately and by the end of page fifty, not only had it happened, but it was ALL that had happened and I was bored stiff. I did something I rarely do. I got online and looked at some reviews. One person said it was hard to get into in the beginning but well-written. One didn’t like it. The other eighteen loved it. I carried on…for about four more pages. And then I set it aside. If I didn’t care by then, would I ever? Maybe, but I don’t have that kind of time when I’ve got such great books in my stack to read.

So…then I started a new book. I’m going to write more about this one later, because I expect when I’m done, I’m going to want to tell you all how much I love it and why you should read it, but I just wanted to say right now that I know what happens. I don’t know how it’s going to happen, but pretty much from the beginning, I knew. I’m half way through and I’m even more certain that I’m right now. So why do I love this book so much I can’t put it down? I mean, didn’t I just say that I knew what was going to happen in the first book and it bored me because of it? This is what I think…I think that it’s okay to know what’s going to happen if you don’t know how. In fact, I think it adds tension to the book. You want to find out that you’re right, don’t you? And if the characters are well-drawn, funny, entertaining…or mysterious, exciting, and dark…or whatever…if it’s well written and not a bunch of cliches then the how becomes the mystery and that will keep driving the reader to turn the page.

Have I got exciting news for you. This is a book you don’t want to miss! Read my review here. This is not just an “I love this book”, but a proper review because this is the author’s debut novel and so I want to help her promote it.

In 1917 a brave friendship between a white farm boy and an African American city girl sends ripples through a small town in rural Alabama.

My editor sent me an ARC of this book, and I cannot say enough good things about it, but I’ll try! First off, I just love the really short chapters. They’re kind of like vignettes and yet, you just know they’re all building into something really big. And of course, because of the topic of the book, it’s a little unnerving too. I mean, what is this BIG thing that these little chapters are leading to? Well, I’m not going to tell you, that’s for sure! But I will tell you that you will love this book. And you should probably just set aside a winter’s evening to read it because you’re not going to want to put it down (or a few evenings if you’re a reader who likes to take his/her time).

This is the kind of book that makes you laugh out loud and want to read bits and pieces to whoever might be in the room with you. My husband heard some of the best bits, but only things that wouldn’t give the story away because I know he’s going to want to read this too.

I think the author has struck a nice balance in regards to dealing with the racism issues. I have lived in the South myself, and while racism still exists, southerners are like people everywhere and seem to take everything on a case by case basis. What I mean is, you might hear someone make a blanket racist statement, but then be friends with their African American neighbours because they know them and like them. I think that Levine did a great job of showing this in her novel. And what better way to illustrate that it’s actually a lot harder to live by racist beliefs when you’re faced with actual people instead of “ideas” of people. It’s one of those brilliant opportunities to teach without giving a “lesson” and I think she does an excellent job of it.

The only downside to this book is unlike me, you don’t have an ARC, so you’re going to have to wait until January to read it! However, I suggest you pre-order it now, so on a gloomy, overcast day, you go out to get the mail, and SURPRISE! There it is in your mailbox.