This is a really interesting book in that the hero is only 7-8 years old, but it’s definitely a book for older readers. It doesn’t say how old, but I’m thinking maybe Grade 5 or 6 and up. And if you’re an adult, you can appreciate all the nuances of the writing. I just love it when an actual sentence or phrase sticks with you after you’ve finished a book.

For example:

My sister Nellie and I have Hopkins for a last name, because of the dad we used to have. But Mom loves us anyway.

The other one I can’t find again to double check, but it was something like this:

We saw a moose along the side of the road eating bushes and berries. I don’t know if it saw us.

I’m not exactly sure why these sorts of sentences speak to me, but they seem so honest. I guess that’s why. The book is filled with honesty. It’s funny and sad both, but really just a good read. And if you’ve got a big long list of books to read, this one is just a short one evening read…an hour and a half or so.

The world is round and the place which may seem like the end may also be only the beginning. – Ivy Baker Priest

I love this quote because it is good for the new year, but also it is just like any good book.

Taking a page out of Janet Reid’s book, or blog: Here are eight things I loved in 2008, in no particular order.

1. I love that not only did I set a goal to learn to knit, but I did learn to knit, and I found it so enjoyable. It’s kind of like magic. You take a string and you can turn it in to things. For now, my “things” are mostly scarves, headbands, and dishrags, but it’s still very exciting. And in 2009, I’m going to finish my first sweater and learn to make socks. Knitting has also helped me with my writing because it leaves me free to rest my mind when I need to, and to plot at other times.

2. I love living in my new home, town, and country. We arrived here in late fall 2007, so this was our first full year here and I wake up every single morning feeling happy and blessed to be here with my husband, new friends, kitties, deer, trees…etc. And the two things I love most about our home is that it is filled with the good smells of cooking and that almost every day it overflows with music.

3. Sunday Soup – In May we opened our house to friends every Sunday afternoon for vegetarian soup and bread. We have had as many as 22 people come one Sunday and as few as one person. Sunday Soup has changed my life in ways I could not have predicted. I’m a better cook, I have more friends, my house is cleaner (all week, not just on Sundays), and I look forward to carrying this on into 2009 and beyond.

4. I love that in 2008 my husband picked up a camera seriously again. He has recorded bits of our island life on his photo blog, taken numerous author photos of me, and even started selling prints again. I love that it makes him glow when he gets the photo he wants. I love that it has slowed down our walks, and that I often find myself standing by the side of the road looking up at the sky or following a bird with my eye while I wait for him to take a picture.

5. I love that in 2008 I saw someone who had a writer buried inside her and I nudged it out of her and she’s writing now. You know who you are. This makes me happy.

6. I love that in the nick of time I learned once again to change myself if things are bothering me (see post below about the path of least resistance). Maybe this time the lesson will stick!

7. I love that in the last weeks of 2008, Malcolm Gladwell’s philosophy and ideas about success, which he writes brilliantly about in The Outliers, came my way. It’s fascinating to see that not only are the people in my life right now (my agent, my editor, my critique group, my mum, and especially my husband) partially responsible for the fact that Restoring Harmony will become a book, but that generations of relatives are also part of my successes. You can carefully take apart my life, my history, and see where and how and why I became a writer. Here’s a tiny example: When my grandmother was young, living on a farm in Montana, her father used to “borrow” her Zane Grey books and even if my grandmother was right in the middle of reading one, she’d have to wait until he finished because once he started, he couldn’t stop. An adult reading kids books… and here I am writing kids books. I love that.

8. And last of all, I love that I am so blessed that if I were to set my mind to it, I could probably write a list of 2008 things I love and am grateful for. Starting with my husband. Two nights ago, a dear friend died suddenly of a heart attack. Tell the people you love that you love them every single day. The beauty, and sometimes the tragedy, of life is its uncertainty.

Happy New Year to you all…I am blessed because of you.

It’s funny how when things get complicated you try and try and try to make them work and yet the path of least resistance is almost always to let things go.*

What I had to let go was the idea of keeping the cat out of my office and off my desk. We have lived here for over a year, and the entire time we’ve been here, Grinder has had one goal and one goal only…to get into my office. Twenty times a day I would toss his furry orange butt out as soon as he sneaked in behind me. Sometimes I would forget to shut the door and would come back and find him sleeping on the top of my desk (see picture in post below), on my computer, or playing with my knitting.

Finally, the other day, I thought, “One day one of us is going to go over the edge and it’s probably not going to be Grinder. Things have got to change.” So…what I did was clean my office. Not the way I usually do…you know, pick up the laundry, put the books on the shelves…but actually clean it, right down to a good dusting and a sweep. And then I laid a padded envelope over my printer because the printer is on the way up to the top of my desk and he invariably stops there for a look around. The padded envelope helps protect the printer and adds spice and colour to the room because it’s one of those holiday ones. All my knitting is safely tucked away, and every time I get up from my laptop, I close it.

Now I leave my door open and Grinder spends at least a third of his day up on my desk. What I wasn’t expecting was all the other added benefits of not fighting him on this every day. He’s become sweeter! He hardly ever walks on the table, he’s been using the scratching post instead of the blue chair, and he has totally left my husband’s computer alone!

You can’t change someone else, only yourself.

And really, who would want to change this cutie-pie anyway?

*I actually wrote the quote at the top myself in a moment of clarity and have it posted above my desk. It’s a lesson I have to learn over and over apparently, so it’s a good thing I wrote it down!

If you’re going to have cabin fever, this is a very nice place to have it…

And okay…the cats aren’t stupid. They’re not out in the yard. They are here:

P.S. Although I’m writing already, I’ll probably keep goofing around with off-topic pics until publishing starts up again on Jan 5th.

Today I read about sixty pages of an ARC that shall remain nameless. Fifty pages is usually my limit and about the time I started seriously contemplating quitting, I looked down and saw I was on page 50. I finished the chapter anyway and closed the book.

Here’s the deal, as a writer you generally don’t want to lay all your cards on the table in the first chapter. Maybe not even in the second or the third. In fact, probably not until the end. But you have to give your readers something. You really can’t expect them to read on and on to find out “what horrible thing happened to your character over the summer” or why they “hate their step-dad” or whatever if you don’t give them a hint or even a downright fact once in a while.

I think this book’s biggest problem is that it’s told from four points of view and the chapters are way too long. By the time I hit page 50, I was only partway into the fourth person’s POV chapter. Yeah…each character was given around 15 pages, consecutively. They each had some big mystery, but seriously, by the time I got to the third character, I couldn’t even remember who the first one was, let alone the hints of trouble I’d been given in Chapter One.

You can totally tell a book from four points of view. An excellent example is 6X. I sometimes wonder how a book like this makes it through all the steps to become a published book without someone, a friend, a spouse, a critique group member, an editor saying, “Hey, if you break these chapters up and mix them together more, this will work better.” The writing was fine, the characters interesting…but if I can’t keep track of who is who…well, I’m just not going to work that hard. I’m here for the entertainment! If I want to work, I’ll do my own writing.

Can any of you think of any four points of view books that work well?

P.S. If I sound a little snarky, I think it’s a combination of cabin fever (16 days of snow) and the fact that I’ve struck out on several books in a row and really need something fabulous to keep me from going bonkers! I know what Alix would say, “Get a TV! There’s all kinds of good stuff on TV!” Trust me, Alix, I’ve been thinking about it!

I can always tell when I’ve had enough time off because my fingernails get too long to type (not that they’ve ever looked this good!). Time to cut them and get back to writing!

Since publishing as we know it is officially shut down for a bit, I thought it might be fun to take a quick break from blogging about writing here and have some fun. Not that writing isn’t fun, of course.

A few weeks ago, my friend Alix over at Marmite and Tea participated in a cool little thing called Pay It Forward. I can never resist the opportunity to get a surprise in the mail, so I was delighted to find that I was one of the first three people to sign up. Now it’s my turn to give you a gift.

Here are the rules: The exchange focuses on doing an act of kindness without expecting anything in return other than that the recipient will, in their turn, pass the kindness along and pay it forward in their own way. This is how it works… I am going to agree to send something fun, inspiring or uplifting to the first 3 blog owners who post a comment on this entry (please leave your email address if I don’t all ready have it.).

In turn you will then post about this on your blog, link to me, then send something to the first three people who sign up to play along through your blog. There are no cost restraints, but don’t go crazy! The little something you send can be something you made, bought, were given or found. No biggie, just a gift that will make the person smile. Maybe something unique fom where you live? And remember that kindness doesn’t have to involve money; there are untold ways to help others every single day, everywhere you go – just look around.”

By the way, Alix sent me THE TALES OF BEEDLE THE BARD (which I wrote about on Need To Read, if you’re interested) and a few other little goodies, which was very fun to receive in the post the other day! Thanks so much, Alix.

This is not going to be my usual gush-fest for books I like, but a little bit more of a review. I will say upfront though, that I really liked this book and I highly recommend it, especially if historical novels are your thing.

There are several things I really liked about this. The first is the setting. It is set in the 1700s. You don’t find a lot of YAs set then. At least I haven’t, so it was an intriguing time period that I don’t know a lot about. Also, it was set in Vienna, which really came to life in Dunlap’s writing. As a reader, I felt instantly sucked into the city and could smell it, see it, feel its vibration. Nicely done.

Another thing I liked about it was that it was about music. I often feel drawn to books about music, which if you’re in my critique group you already know, since my books always include music. That’s a personal thing, but in this book she really makes it part of the passion of the narrative.

And then there was the intrigue. The danger. The excitement. It is a mystery of sorts and I truly raced through this book, practically in one sitting. I could not put it down and I found myself really embroiled in the whole drama.

I do feel that I need to point out a few things that didn’t work for me. Usually, as you know if you read this blog, I don’t write critiques, but because I am recommending this so strongly, I also feel I must make a few notes about where it didn’t work for me. First of all, I never did figure out why her mother gave up everything to marry her father when she seemed to think music was frivolous. I believe the author intended us to think that she only believed it was frivolous for women, but that was a bit ambiguous to the point that I kept waiting for the mother to give in and admit that she loved music, but she never did and that bothered me. There was also one instant in the plot that was sort of big and dramatic that I never did figure out why it happened. I thought at the time that it would be revealed to me later, but I guess either I’m just slow or something got cut that explained it and no one noticed. That happens.

The last thing I didn’t understand is why it’s being marketed as a YA. I know the character is sixteen, but honestly, she’s a woman by then. And also, the story has already happened and she is recalling it, which is usually a device used in adult fiction when the hero is still a teen. I know these are not hard and fast rules, but while I think the drama could easily hook teens, I’m not sure how much the details and the topic will. I think it would make an excellent adult book. Although it does make a fine YA, I wouldn’t have thought of it as one if someone had just handed it to me and not told me who the intended market was. She does deal quite explicitly with topics that might be a little mature for twelve year olds (prostitution, punishment). In fact, some of it was a little gruesome for me!

However, I do think that if intrigue, mystery, and history are your cup of tea, you should definitely put this book on your list. And after you’ve read it, I’d love to hear what you think!

P.S. Isn’t that a GREAT cover! I love it.

P.P.S. I went to Amazon to see when in January this comes out and apparently it’s out already, so I’ll go ahead and post this. There were three reviews and two mentioned surprise that it was YA so I’m not alone!

I am a lucky girl! My friend Alix sent me a pressie in the mail and along with a cool pen and some raspberry hot chocolate mix, she included J.K. Rowling’s new book, THE TALES OF BEEDLE THE BARD!!! Yay!

I really wanted this book but I hadn’t made it to a shop yet, and quite frankly, despite the hundreds of emails that Amazon sent reminding me about its publication, it had already slipped my mind! Anyway, it’s a quite short book, so I sat down with a cup of tea and read it in about an hour or so. Very fun. I liked the tales just for themselves, but the commentary by Albus Dumbledore added a really fun element to it too. Definitely a perfect stocking stuffer for the HP fan on your list. Or yourself! And the nice thing is that all the money goes to High Level Group, which is a children’s charity. How can you go wrong with that? Thanks, Alix!

Can you tell I’m on vacation? I’m posting all the time! So normally I post my Fave 15 after the new year just in case I end up reading something good at the last minute, but this year, I know how important it is for books to get an extra push in the holiday sales area, so I’m doing it early. Anything I really love in the next two weeks can go on next year’s list.

As always, these are not listed in any particular order and these are books I read this year, not necessarily published this year. There are a few changes to my list this year though. In addition to the Fave 15, I am including my Fave 5 Adult reads and 5 For 2009 – To Watch For.

I wanted to make a cool post with links and book jackets, but once I started, I realized it would take me the rest of the day. So here’s the deal. I’ve written about all of these books in Need To Read. All you have to do is go over to the search box and put in a title and it will take you to the post. I’m sure you understand that I have things to do…like watch MORE snow fall!!!

Fave 15 – MG & YA

Benny and Omar by Eoin Colfer

Boy Proof by Cecil Castellucci

Repossessed by A.M. Jenkins

Rules by Cynthia Lord

Another Kind of Cowboy by Susan Juby

A Brief Chapter in my Impossible Life by Dana Reinhardt

Saving Juliet by Suzanne Selfors

Louisiana’s Song & Jessie’s Mountain (two for one!) by Kerry Madden

The Year My Sister Got Lucky by Aimee Friedman

Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin

The Fortunes of Indigo Skye by Deb Caletti

The Disreputable History of Frankie-Landau Banks by E. Lockhart

Suite Scarlett by Maureen Johnson

Parrotfish by Ellen Wittinger

******************************************************

Fave 5 – Adult pics

The Thing About Jane Spring by Sharon Krum

Austenland by Shannon Hale

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein

The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith

Telegraph Days by Larry McMurtry

*******************************************************

 5 to Watch For 2009

Fly Girl by Sherri L. Smith

Models Don’t Eat Chocolate Cookies by Erin Dionne

Just One Wish by Janette Rallison

The Best Bad Luck I Ever Had by Kristin Levine

Peace, Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson

I TOLD you I had good taste! Meg Cabot just listed Eileen Cook’s new book on her best books to buy for gifts list! Congratulations Eileen! And if any of you didn’t see the two or three (or ten) times I’ve mentioned it here, well, here it is again!

What Would Emma Do?

A few months ago my friend Alix was looking for a new meme and so I made one up for her. That got me thinking, why don’t I just make up another one for fun AND at the same time help y’all with any holiday shopping you might still need to do. You are all buying books for gifts, right? Good. Well, here’s a book meme. Feel free to do it on your site and spread it around too.

1.  Name five books that you read this year that would make excellent gifts.

THREE CUPS OF TEA

TELEGRAPH DAYS by Larry McMurtry, preferably on audio

BORN STANDING UP by Steve Martin

All three of Kerry Madden’s books in her series: GENTLE’S HOLLER, LOUISANA’S SONG, AND JESSIE’S MOUNTAIN

Eileen Cook’s new release, WHAT WOULD EMMA DO?

2. What’s your favourite holiday book?

I love the Betsy-Tacy book BETSY IN SPITE OF HERSELF because she goes to visit a friend in Milwaukee for Christmas and it’s described in amazing detail, circa 1908.

3. Tell us about your fabulous local book store.

Well, we don’t actually have one here, but I come from Portland, so I claim Powell’s. Y’all know all about Powell’s, I’m sure.

4. Who’s your favourite celebrity and what book would you give to them?

I don’t know about favourite celebrity, but I’ve always wanted Mary Stewart’s THE IVY TREE to be made into a movie and so my goal is to get it to Emma Thompson somehow because I always thought she’d do an excellent job with it.

5. What book would you like to see made into a movie?

Hmmm…I sort of just answered this in #4.

6. When you go book shopping for other people, do you buy yourself a book too?

Not usually, but only because I’m generally on a budget. If my pocketbook was deeper, I definitely would splurge for myself!

7. Which author do you wish would write faster because you can hardly wait to read more from them?

Megan Shull. She wrote a great book called AMAZING GRACE. Hmmm…I haven’t checked in a while. Maybe she has something new out.

8. What author did you discover in 2008 that you think everyone should read?

There are so many, but I came across Cecil Castellucci this year and her books are really fantastic.

9. What book did you read as teen that you hated, but then loved when you reread it as an adult?

GREAT EXPECTATIONS by Dickens.

10. Assuming you’ve been nice and not naughty, what books do you hope to find in your stocking from Santy?

Oh, boy! Ummm…Darcy Pattison’s NOVEL METAMORPHISIS. All of Meg Cabot’s PRINCESS DIARIES series, including the new and last one, of course. Any cookbook with a vegetarian theme, especially soup cookbooks. Ohh…there are too many to even contemplate! Thank goodness for the library.

P.S. If you decide to do this meme, leave a comment so I can come check out your answers!

So…publishing pretty much shuts down next week until the new year. I am starting my break a little early…just reading, cooking, enjoying the SNOW! Believe it or not, even though we live in Canada, we live in one of the mildest climates in the whole country and snow is almost a fluke here, definitely not the norm. However…check this out! Click on the pics to make them bigger.

Our front porch! And me in a blizzard!

And this!      

And more snow on the way tomorrow and then again on Sunday! I dug out my Sorel boots that I’ve had for ten years…purchased in Oregon, Made in Canada, eh?

Ummm…yeah…I loved this book. But you knew I was going to say that because I’m blogging about it, right? It’s fabulous. I read half last night and the other half today and thought about it whenever I wasn’t reading. This book is about a girl who feels like a boy; a transgender. She decides she has to start living as a boy in spite of the rough road ahead. The thing I loved about this book, aside from the great writing (so funny too), is that it always seemed truthful, but it never seemed tragic. Sometimes when I read books where characters have to do something really, really emotionally difficult and it’s simply torturous for both the character and the reader, I just think…Okay…yes, I buy this, but it can’t always be like this, can it? Some people must have reasonably decent experiences. Here is a believable, yet reasonably decent experience. I like this book’s hope. And I like all the characters too. Very well done. Of course, Ellen Wittlinger writes some amazing stuff (which is why I snagged it off the shelf at the library even though I have a whole pile of ARCs to read still). If you’re not hip to E.W. already, you should get right on that!

You can read my latest article here. It’s all about how to find the right agent for you.

How to Find

the Right Agent

You don’t want

just any agent; you

want the one that’s

right for you.

By Joëlle Anthony

When looking for an agent most writers

ask the wrong question: “Where do I find

the agents?” But you don’t want just any

agent; you want the one that’s right for

you. Assuming your manuscript is one

hundred percent finished, you’ve got a

synopsis ready, and your hook is a real

grabber, then you’re ready to start the

agent hunt. First of all: read! Once you’ve

compiled a list of books in your genre

that you love, and are similar in style to

your writing, it’s time for a little detective

work on your part.

Who is repping that fab author?

Look for a mention of a writer’s agent

here:

The dedication page

The acknowledgments at the end of

the book

The author’s website

Publisher’s Marketplace

Do a search for “[author’s name] +

agent”

Email an author directly and ask. (If

you don’t know the author, don’t take

it personally if she doesn’t respond!)

8

Kind of like speed dating

There’s lots of quick information to be

had about a prospective agent online.

Agent blogs are a great way to get to

know an agent’s wants, needs, and desires.

They also blog about:

Their dream project

Pet peeves

How far along they are in the slush pile

reading

Their colleague’s needs

What editors are looking for

Trends

New agents looking for clients

Their author’s books (so you can read

them)

Publisher’s Marketplace

Publisher’s Marketplace (www.publishersmarketplace.

com) is an excellent resource.

You can get the free version, or take

advantage of the $20/month subscription

which enables you to:

1Read the daily sales that pertain to

your genre and make a list of the

agents who sold those books.

2Go to the agents’ sites, read more

about them, find out which authors

they rep, and read some of their clients’

books.

3Include one or two sentences in your

query that say something like: “I

read about your sale of Fluffy Bunny on

Publisher’s Marketplace to XYZ Publisher.

I’ve often thought that I might fit

in at XYZ Publishers, and that is why I’m

choosing to query you.” (Please only say

this if you’ve read Fluffy Bunny!)

Ask Around

Read your favorite writer’s blogs and if

they link to their friends, check those

out too. Making the occasional comment

can’t hurt either, and once they get to

know you, it’s probably okay to ask the

writer who reps her. Remember, this

isn’t a referral; it’s just someone being

nice to you.

Conferences

If you have the opportunity to attend a

conference, find out which agents will be

there ahead of time and use the above

tips to get to know if they might be right

for you. Set up an appointment if you

can, or just say hello.

Agents all seem to agree that a simple,

friendly, “How’s it going?” will always

be appreciated at conferences, as long

as it’s not followed by, “I just happen to

have my manuscript here.” And then you

can mention their cat, or whatever you

talked about over lunch, when you query

them. Who knows, they might even remember

you!

Number crunching

Don’t stop querying when you receive

the first request for a partial manuscript!

Query widely until you’ve signed on the

dotted line. If an agent requests 1-3 partials

a week, that’s roughly 50-150 partial

requests each year. If they only take on

0-5 clients in a year, that’s a lot of partial

reads that don’t go anywhere.

Be your own best friend

You are making a serious business commitment

when you sign with an agent,

one that will affect you for a very long

time. Do not take the research lightly,

don’t ask someone else to do it for you,

and don’t be sitting at home waiting

for the call when you should be either

querying or digging deep to find out more

about both the agents you have queries

out to, and agents you want to add to

your list to query next.

Joëlle Anthony spends her time evenly between reading

and writing young adult fiction. (Okay—who is she

trying to kid? She reads more than she writes.) Visit her

website at http://www.joelleanthony.com.

Don’t stop querying when you receive the

first request for a partial manuscript! Query

widely until you’ve signed on the dotted line.

The Agent’s Angle

Clearly, Joëlle did a great job

finding an agent (me!), so her

advice here is solid. As an agent

who’s had many clients, I’d add

that chemistry is a huge part of

the equation. Before you sign with

an agent, it’s a great idea to spend

some face-to-face or phone time

with her. An agent is someone you

want to be with for your whole career,

so you want to make sure the

person representing your work to

the world is someone that you feel

you can trust and rely on.

Your agent should be someone

you can call with both good and

bad news, when you need to vent,

or when you don’t know if the last

third of your new novel is brilliant

or crap; when you need a shoulder

to cry on or a sympathetic ear, but

who can kick you in the butt when

you need it. Remember, it’s a partnership,

so you want to make sure

you’ve got the right partner.

Michael Bourret is a literary agent with Dystel

& Goderich Literary Management. He reps

a broad range of books from adult fiction &

nonfiction, to middle grade & young adult novels

for clients like Joëlle Anthony. Visit the Dystel

agency blog at http://dglm.blogspot.com.

November/december 2008 SCBWI

Actually, I didn’t hear it, but if I had TV, and I’d known it was on, I could’ve watched ABC Family Chanel’s original Christmas movie called Snow 2 Brain Freeze and apparently in the bar scene (a bar scene in a family Christmas movie???), I would’ve heard my husband’s song playing. This is the one I just told y’all about a few posts ago. The song is It’s Christmas Time Again.They actually approached him last August about using it and then we never heard another word about it until today. The guy who is handling the licensing wrote something along the lines of the music business runs slowly, which of course, cracked me up, because we all know nothing moves quite as slowly as publishing! We’ve got the market cornered. But that’s okay because it leaves lots of time for reading, which is what I intend to go do right now.

I’ve never been that good at math, and throw metrics into the mix and well…let’s just say I’ve had to go back to school. But I’m trying to be a good Canadian, so here’s what I think are approximately correct statistics for this storm.

Forecast: 1-2 centimeters of snow (or half an inch?) overnight.

Actual: 17-20 centimeters of snow (or 8-10 inches depending on where you measure).

Forecasted temp: -6c (around 20f)

Actual temp: Darn Cold! Who cares when it’s this cold????

Wind forecast: gusts up to 70km per hour (fast)

Actual wind: none (?)

Photo taken by the only one crazy enough to go out side (i.e. not me or the cats): Victor Anthony

One bust was an audio book. No need to mention it here as if you pick it up, you’ll know right away yourself. The second was a MG fantasy that came recommended. It was okay for a while, but honestly, it seemed like “and now I’m going to make up some random fantastical challenge for my character”. There wasn’t anything to link it together. I don’t really know how to explain why one fantastical journey makes sense, but another just seems totally random. I’ll have to ponder that for a while.

The hits were big hits though!

Celebutants – To The Penthouse by Antonio Pagliarulo This is the third book in The Celebutantes series and I just love these books. They’re Paris Hilton meets Nancy Drew times three (the heroines are triplet celebutantes) and they crack me up and keep me turning pages. I think I liked this one the best. My favourite part of this one was when a high society lady is told that “the first lady” is on the phone for her and she says, “Oh, yes. I’d forgotten she was going to call. Lovely woman, but I don’t know what she ever saw in that husband of hers.” Hehe! There’s another hilarious bit that I won’t spoil for you too. The only downside to these books is they make me hyper-aware of my skin and how dry it is…these girls would be aghast that I don’t take better care of my pores!

Allie Finkle – The New Girl by Meg Cabot - This is also part of a series, book two. I have always thought Meg Cabot is not just a fun writer, but a really good writer. I think this series really shows her diversity. For years she wrote for adults and teens, and now this series is for young MG (the characters are in fourth grade). I am so impressed by how she can make this switch. To be honest, I don’t read a lot of MG, especially the very young side of it, because it just doesn’t hold my attention. Only Jerry Spinelli and Phyllis Reynolds Naylor have been able to capture my attention regularly with books in this age group. Meg Cabot has done it though with these Allie Finkle books and I’m very pleased to have gotten to read it finally. I had signed up a bit too late to be one of the reviewers when the publisher gave out ARCs, but maybe they’ll send me the next one!

There are a few people out there who I have helped with writing hooks/pitches/queries who will probably think I got my comeuppance* yesterday. You see, if you ask me for help with your query, I am tactful but ruthless.

After I sent my agent my new manuscript, he sent me an email back saying he was looking forward to reading my pitch for it. WHAT? I mean, isn’t that why I have an agent? So I never have to write a pitch again? Turns out he doesn’t require it of his writers, but he likes it. In other words, I had to suck it up and do it.

So yesterday, after putting it off for five or six days, I sat down and wrote a nice little blurb. You know, like what you might find on the back of a book jacket. I sent it to a writer who said she would help, and then I sent it to a friend who buys more books off the shelf than anyone I’ve ever met (she’s single handedly keeping the publishing industry afloat during these trying times). Alix, who you might know as Marmite and Tea trashed my innocuous little blurb! To be fair, she didn’t know I wrote it. I sort of told her I was helping someone write a blurb so that she wouldn’t sugarcoat it and believe me, she didn’t! Hilarious, if you have a tough skin, which I do.

Alix’s critique started with, “My first reaction was nope wouldn’t read it, might not even make it to the end if I was browsing in a bookstore – sorry.”

OUCH! However, she did go on to take it apart piece by piece and explain her reasoning, which allowed me to totally rewrite it, quite quickly too. The other person helping me hadn’t gotten to it yet, so I sent her the new one to look at. I’m waiting for her response and then I can tidy it up and send it to my agent.

If you read my article, Hook ‘Em With Your Cover then you might remember the part where I said you should have someone who hasn’t read your book critique your hook because they will not know all the background stuff and inadvertently fill in the gaps for you. Now I’m convinced if you can find a way to get someone to read it who doesn’t know it’s yours, you should do that! Alix admitted if she’d known it was mine, she would’ve been nicer. She was counting on me to sugarcoat it for the writer I was “helping”.

I now have an “Alix approved” blurb, so I guess it’s soon time to find out if I have an “agent approved” blurb. Of course, he’s good at sugarcoating, so I expect he’ll be pretty nice either way! After all, he wouldn’t want to make me cry. Ha! Ha!

*Comeuppance - a punishment or fate that someone deserves. I love this word because it is one of the few words I remember exactly where I first heard it. Beverly Cleary uses it in her Henry Huggins books.

Sadly, not a launch party for my book (just yet, but trust me, there will be a big one someday!). Today I’m helping my husband, Victor Anthony* celebrate the launch of his new website. Visit him here. The actual URL is http://www.victoranthony.ca (note the .ca as opposed to the .com which will take you to a website where you can make an appointment to get your hair cut by someone else named Victor Anthony).

You can find out more about him, check out a few pictures that he’s taken, and find links to listen/buy his music. And if you’re into iTunes and Christmas, you might want to download his Christmas single, It’s Christmas Time Again (for a whopping .99 cents…not that we get any of the money though, so don’t feel like you have to just to support us!). By the way, the album that his single is on, Christmas At The Almanac Music Hall, is one of the best all around Christmas CDs I’ve heard, so if you’re looking for some new music, I highly recommend it!

And welcome to the party!

*No, the asterisk by his name is not there because I changed it to protect his innocence like in a Seventeen magazine article. It’s there to let you know that when we got married, he took my last name, Anthony, but before we were married, he recorded under the name Victor Mecyssne, which is why that’s what’s on all his CDs. “How do you pronounce Mecyssne?” you ask…exactly. Anthony…now that’s an easy one!

When my book sold, my agent advised me to get on Facebook. He said it would be important later on with teens. He was probably just hoping I’d find some other people to email/chat with besides him! I’d actually had a Facebook account for six months or so, but I hadn’t visited it since I’d signed up. The truth is, it freaks me out!

Email I can do. It’s one on one, I type at my own pace, if the timer goes off for the cookies, I can go get them out of the oven, but Facebook is like going to the mall. With all your old friends that you used to go to the mall with in grade school, middle school, and high school. They can throw snowballs at you or plants or poke you or instant message you even though you were just dropping in to change your status or send you a message or… In other words, SENSORY OVERLOAD! I don’t do sensory overload very well.

So far I only have two teens who are my friends, and well…I knew them already. Plus one of them won’t even still be a teen by the time my book comes out. What happened was I was hit with a deluge of friend requests from people I knew from theatre, high school, and college. At first I was very reluctant to reconnect with all these people from my past too. I mean, I can barely keep up the email correspondances that I currently have. How could I add all these other people into my life again?

But then I found out the beauty of Facebook. No one wants to talk to you, they just want to add you to their Friends page and then post about themselves! So now I zip over there every time I think of someone from a zillion years ago and search for them before they can find me. It’s like a game!

The weirdest thing about Facebook is that now I find myself dreaming about all these friends I haven’t seen in fifteen or twenty years! Also, it’s very odd when they write things like, “My oldest child is a senior this year.” and in my head, I’m still picturing this friend at sixteen.

Some really cool things have happened though too. I’ve reconnected with a couple of people I accidentally lost touch with and I’ve heard from my cousins in Denmark too. That’s pretty neat.

So now the Facebook conundrum. My agent told me to get on Facebook, but does that mean I should ask to be his friend? Or is he there for personal reasons and not publishing business? What about my editor? Would they feel obligated to say yes? Or would they say no and then I’d feel like an idiot? I took this question to my friend who is a literary agent and she said that initially, a lot of people in publishing were using it socially, but now it’s become so important to the business that publishing folk are becoming almost forced to drop the personal side and let writers and other people in the biz “friend” them. Still…the way I figure it, my agent and editor know how to search for my name and ask to be my friend if they want to. I’ve had enough rejection in this biz to last me a lifetime! I don’t need to hear, “Ummm…my Facebook profile is personal!”

What about you? Are you friends with your editor, agent, or boss (if you’re not in publishing)? Who initiated it? Is it weird or fine?

I can’t remember if I’ve already posted a post about this or not. I know I wrote an article about how listening has improved my writing that got one rejection and I never bothered to send out again. Perhaps I should dust that off and try again. Anyway, over the last year, I’ve become a big time audio book fan. I never used to like to listen to them because I can’t just sit and do nothing while they’re on and before the iPod, I would have to listen on a boom box or my computer, which meant every time I wanted to leave the room, I’d have to pause the story. Now that I can walk all over the house with my headphones on and listen while I cook and knit, I’m totally in love with audio books.

Listening has expanded my horizons too because I listen to a lot of things I normally wouldn’t make time to read, like adult ficiton and nonfiction. It’s not that often that I think, “Okay…I’m craving a nonficiton book” and I sit down with one in the big blue chair with a cup of tea and read it through. However, I’ve found that there are plenty of books that I’m interested in if someone else does the reading for me. Like Steve Martin’s book and Stephen Colbert’s book. I also like it to revisit some of my favorites, like Harry Potter. Do you listen to audio books? What are your favourites?

I read Avalon High by Meg Cabot when it first came out and I didn’t really like it that much. It was before I knew about her paranormal tendencies (!) and was looking for more Princess Diaries type stuff. Eventually I got totally hooked on The Mediator and the missing kids series and they are actually my favourite Cabot books now. So when I was in the library the other day looking for audio books to listen to while I clean the house cook and knit, I saw Avalon High and decided to give it another try. I listened to it yesterday and this afternoon. While I wouldn’t rank it as one of my MC favourites, I did enjoy it much more this time around. And there’s a sequel already out and one more coming. I love me some series!