Okay, I know that my friend Sarah Tradewell is not really my YA book character Molly come to life. But how we met is a pretty cool story. She and her family came up to the island the other day, and the hubby took this pic.

And yes, I do think it would’ve been nice for the photographer to mention that I needed to comb my hair!

That might be the title. Or something like it. Either way, this book is waaaaaay good. What are you waiting for? LOVED IT. I want to write more, but too tired from edits. Just read it.

(Adult fiction – a bit of swearing/foul language – still totally appropriate for YA – )

I put a lot of books on hold. You’d think with a shelf full of galleys (or ARCs as I usually call them), I wouldn’t even need the library anymore, but the truth is I check out a handful of blogs and people mention books that sound good. Also, authors I like have new books come out. So, every week I usually have 2-3 books to pick up at the library that I’ve put on hold at one time or another.

My response is usually one of two things. “All right! I’ve been waiting for this book!” or “Hmmm…the title sounds familiar, and I’m sure someone recommended this to me, or I read about it on a blog…Wish I could remember who. Oh, well. I know I wanted it.” and then I take home my books and read them and usually enjoy them.

However, every once in a while, the librarian hands me a book and I don’t have a CLUE why. The title doesn’t ring a bell, I have no idea who the author is, even the cover looks like something I’ve never seen before. Usually, I check these books out anyway because I’m sure that once upon a time, someone must’ve told me about the book. These books often don’t get picked up again until days before they are due, and then I start reading them frantically. Occasionally, they turn out to be a happy surprise, but sometimes I cannot imagine for the world why I would’ve put these books on hold.

This has just happened to me with THE GLASS CASTLE by Jeanette Walls. It was actually due Saturday, so today I thought I better have a look at the first page at least. It is a memoir. I rarely read memoirs. It is about a very dark and tragic childhood. Definitely not my cup of tea. It’s got great blurbs, and sounds like if dark memoirs are you thing, it’s probably pretty good. The first page is darn good. So now I’m left wondering if indeed someone did tell me about this book, or if someone has hijacked my library card and is putting random books on hold for me. Also, I’m wondering if I should read it. After all, since it’s overdue, it’s now in what I call “the rental phase” so I better decide quickly. I’ll let you know! And if you recommended it, please, drop me a line and tell me why!

Here are my favourite RECENT book covers. Some I’ve just put up, and some I’ve commented on. The top 5 are first and then after that it’s in a random order.

Top 5.

1. The Rose Variations

I love everything about this cover. I love the photo itself. I love the placement and font of the text. I love the splash of colour along the bottom. I love what the photo evokes and I love that it has a bit of wackiness to it. It’s a perfect cover in my eyes.

2.  Just One Wish

  I’m apparently very fond of blue because there are several other books further down on the list that have this colour too.

3.  The Musician’s Daughter

4. That Was Then, This Is Now

5. That Summer

The only thing I don’t like so much about this cover is the author’s name at the top. I prefer it at the bottom. I like pretty much all of Sarah Dessen’s covers despite the fact that her name is at the top on all of them!

Okay, randomly (forgive me for using Amazon links instead of an indie bookstore. It was just easier – you don’t have to shop there or anything!):

Donut Days

Because I Am Furniture

If I Stay

La Petite Four (even though it cuts the top of her head off)

Peeled

Ten Mile River

Take Me There

My Tiki Girl

Saving Juliet

Fortune’s Magic Farm

The King’s Rose

The Brooklyn Nine

Peace, Locomotion

You’ve Got Blackmail

The Dog Who Cried Wolf

When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit

Triple Shot Betty

If you’ve read about my forthcoming novel, Restoring Harmony, then you know that my main character Molly is a fiddler. My husband is a professional musician (guitar/mandolin/uke/banjo) and so he usually acts as my “expert”, but he’s only recently started playing fiddle, so I’ve had to look for some outside help for this project.

The fabulous fiddle playing teen who looks exactly like Molly, Sarah Tradewell, is one person who is helping me. And last night I got to go to a Wilf Carter Tribute Concert. If you don’t know who Wilf Carter is, it’s probably because his heyday was in the 1930’s. He was Canada’s famous Yodeling Cowboy. Anyway, my friend and fantastic musician, Nathan Tinkham is doing a trib to Wilf, and he brought out from Nova Scotia the fiddler, Gordon Stobbe.

Gordon is a big time fiddler and teacher and last night I got to chat with him after the show. I told him about Molly and how just yesterday morning I’d been watching/listening to this youtube video of a man playing Whiskey Before Breakfast (a tune Gordon had played for the encore) because Molly plays it in the book. I wrote as I listened and it really made the passage come to life (at least I hope so!). Anyway, Gordon has agreed to let me drop in and sit in a dark corner tomorrow for a couple of hours while he teaches an intermediate and an advanced fiddle workshop.

When I was a kid, I played violin. The fiddler Michael DeFosche once told me, “you can get over that”. He was only half joking! Anyway, I do kind of wish I could play the fiddle, so after the show, I asked a local fiddler if he teaches beginners and he suggested that I actually go back to the violin for a while (for those of you who have always wondered, the instrument is the same thing, it’s the style of music played that one is referring to when they say they play the fiddle or play the violin). I think I’m going to take his advice and take a few lessons to see if I’m truly interested. After all, we have the fiddle already, so why not? My husband is all for it. In fact, the only one who thinks it’s a bad idea is:

You can definitely judge this book by its cover. Fantastic cover, fantastic book! Suzanne Selfors is consistently great, so I always consider her books a “sure thing” and of course, I wasn’t disappointed at all. I’ve raved about her YA, Saving Juliet (out in paperback soon!) already and To Catch a Mermaid is her other MG that I love.

I am very lucky in that my fabulous agent is also her agent. That’s how I found out about her books. I’m double lucky in that he sent me a copy of this book. I got it yesterday afternoon, sat down in the evening with it, read until 12:30am when I finally had to give in and go to bed. I made myself do my writing today before finishing it, and whether I’m really fast, or I just cheated and did less writing than I normally would’ve (I’m not admitting anything), I finished by 2pm and settled in to read the end.

Oh, what a beautiful, fun, wacky, silly, fabulous, colourful story. If you like her other books, you’ll like this one too. If you like Jean Ferris, you’ll love Suzanne’s style. While I wouldn’t call myself an uncreative person by any means, I am definitely envious of Suzanne’s ability to come up with such crazy and yet totally plausible stories. So get this for your favourite ten year old, but make sure you read it first!

The post I just wrote is censored. Deleted. Gone.

I spent five minutes ranting about a book I read that I really couldn’t stand for soooo many reasons and then I decided, do I really need to put this negative energy out into the world? Nah…I mean, you know I’d never name it, but still…DELETE.

Instead I will pass on something that interests me…For some reason that I don’t quite understand, but sort of do too, as soon as I finished listening to EAT, PRAY, LOVE on audio last weekend, I immediately started listening to it all over again. It is 11 CDs long! Seriously, that’s a lot of audio. My dreams are starting to be narrated by Elizabeth Gilbert. I’m beginning to refer to her as “Liz” as if we’re pals. Even as I reread this, my inner voice has the same rhythm as hers…like I’m channeling her. That bit scares me a little!

At first I thought I’d just listen to the sections that interested me most, but instead I have listened to almost the entire thing. And in the middle of all this, I ordered the book from Powell’s.

I hear there’s a follow-up coming out by Elizabeth Gilbert too. I’m way excited about that! Have a peaceful day. And if you read a book you can’t stand, let’s not talk about it.

Even if you’re a die-hard fan of Betsy-Tacy, like I am, you’ve probably never heard the story about Betsy-Tacy, The Author, and The Chicken. It goes like this.

One day, there was an Author who loved Betsy-Tacy. She got online to buy some of the books because her grandmother wanted to read them, only to find out they were out of print! So…using her keen sense of problem solving, she immediately emailed Meg Cabot and told her the devastating news! Meg emailed her back to say that while she is indeed the most powerful writer in all of YA (okay, she didn’t really say that, but it still might be true), sadly, she was afraid that even she would be thwarted getting them back into print due to that evil of all evils, THE BOTTOM LINE (unless you work for AIG, where this doesn’t matter). Meg did however have fantastic news! The Betsy-Tacy convention is this summer and she is going to be the keynote speaker.

Now I know, if you read this blog, you already know all this, but we’re finally getting to the part about The Chicken. You see, The Author was so excited because her wonderful agent had sold her book, and if the God of Advances did some magic, she could actually afford to go to the Betsy-Tacy convention. However, what she was not counting on was The Chicken.

It is now time for The Author to sign up for the convention. She has filled out all the forms, figured out which day she wants to go to Murmuring Lake (Monday), emailed a dear friend in Minneapolis and arranged for a place to stay before and after the convention…even reserved a room at a lovely B&B…but now that it’s time to actually send in the registration…The Author has turned into A Chicken.

Sure she wants to go, but she doesn’t know anyone there! What if no one talks to her? What if it’s the first-day-of-school-new-girl thing all over again (not that she actually ever was the new girl at school, except college, and that turned out okay). What if she dresses up for the costume ball and no one else does? What if she gets lost walking from the B&B (it’s 10 minutes, one turn)?

What if Meg Cabot says, “Oh, you’re the crazy girl that always emails me and thinks I can single handedly save the publishing world. Thank God I brought a restraining order.”

Bwak, bwak, bwak, bwak…what a CHICKEN this author is!

If you’re going, or you know anyone who’s going, especially anyone who’s going alone and will sit with me for at least one meal, please email me! The truth is that while I’ve always fancied myself as Betsy, apparently I’m Tacy and I need a Betsy to drag me along!

I picked up a library discard of this book at the Friends of the Library book sale a few months ago and just got around to reading it. I was saving it for when I knew I needed a sure thing and after starting two books, one YA, one adult, and not getting sucked in, I was wanting something I could count on so I picked this up and read last night until 1am, but had to finish this morning because I was bleary-eyed.

A writer once told me that authors are insulted to hear that someone picked up their book at a library book sale, which is just silly if you ask me. I guess their ego only sees that someone didn’t like their book enough to keep it. I personally keep very few books and I get rid of lots of books I like if I know I can get them easily at the library. I don’t have room for zillions of books! Anyway, I doubt Sarah Dessen is reading my blog anyway, so if she is the kind of person (I doubt it) who would be insulted, she’ll probably never know.

The reason I’m even bringing up where I got it is because of the cover. This is obviously an old copy. My husband and I often discuss book covers because soon I will have one. Also, he’s a photographer and so he’s interested in the pictures publishers choose. We both agree that this hardback cover is a great one. When I went to Amazon to capture it, there was the new one (see above). I like this one much better.

As far as the book goes, what can I really say? It’s standard Dessen in that it’s quiet, beautiful, full of textures, smells, colours, quirky characters that come across not weird but real, pain, joy, personal growth, self worth, and lovely language. I cannot think of anyone who writes like Dessen. You could give me ten YA books and I could pick her out in a heartbeat. What I find so intriguing about this is that I cannot put my finger on what it is that makes her feel just different enough that you always know it’s her writing? Anyone have any ideas? Which cover do you like?

Once you have a book out, everyone from strangers to relatives suggest that you should go on Oprah to promote it. In fact, there’s even a hilarious video about a guy whose friend calls and suggests it, but I can’t find the link anywhere (if you have it, please leave it in the comments!). I’m still waiting for the first person to suggest it to me so I can give them their t-shirt…you know the one that says “marketing genius” on it. I understand from other writers it will probably happen once the book is actually out.

Now I’m not saying that if Oprah’s producers called I’d let them go to voicemail, but honestly…I’m holding out for Colbert. He is so hilarious! I’m sure he’d love to take me down a few notches for writing a book set in such a dystopian future too.

It could happen, you know. Him having me on the show. After all he’s had at least two children’s book authors on The Colbert Report. Sherman Alexie was on it last year and last night, Neil Gaiman. It looked like such fun! Where do I sign up? Oh, yeah…I have to do those edits that came in the mail first, don’t I? Back to work!

I had a good mail day. Got some money refunded (which I knew was coming), but it was a fair amount more than I’d expected. Bonus! And then I went to the biz P.O. Box and there was my new SCBWI bulletin and inside was the article I just sold them in January. Sometimes it takes six months or more for a piece to show up in there, so it was exciting to see it so soon. If you’re a member, check it out on page 19, Avoiding The Character Cliche. In a month or so, I’ll put it up on my nonfiction page for those of you who aren’t members.

When I was first looking for an agent, well over two years ago, or is it three? Three I think. Anyway, I was reading agent blogs and Rachel Vater was on my list of ones to check daily. One day, she posted an excerpt from a book by her writer, Eileen Cook. I laughed and laughed! What made me hunt up Eileen’s website though was that her book was about an American living in Vancouver, BC and I was in the process of emigrating to Canada.

I contacted Eileen and we hit it off right away. She has been a best friend to me over the years, helping me through the agent search, critiquing my manuscripts, talking me off ledges when the biz got so annoying I thought I couldn’t stand it one more day. I like to think that I’ve done the same for her at times too.

We live only one long ferry ride away from each other now, but we still don’t get to see each other much. However, we talk almost every day via email. Sometimes several times a day. And there’s the phone for congratulations calls, and good news, and to say, “I care” when the heartbreaking news comes too. If I hadn’t gotten to know my husband in a long distance relationship, based mostly on email, I never would’ve believed I could make such a dear friend this way. I am so blessed to know Eileen.

I hope you all will join me in wishing this extraordinary woman, another pea in my pod of friends, a very

I love you, my pea! Have a wonderful day!

I know…I know…I’m always telling you how much I love this book or that book, but OMG I LOVE THIS BOOK. And yeah, I know that I’m kind of late to the party and that everyone around the world has been loving it for a while now, but what can I say? It was time for me to read it and so I did. Actually, I listened to it on audio (twice!) and I personally think, without actually having seen the print book, that it’s much better on audio because Gilbert is a true performer. She does accents and voices and her timing is fantastic and she makes you laugh, and she might even make you cry a little too. She opens your heart. And of course, I’m sure that we would be absolutely Best Friends Forever if when we meet someday.

What got me interested in this book in the first place is this TED video, where she speaks about genius. I have watched it no less than three times and I’m listening to it again now, which is making it sort of hard toproff to proof this.

And get this, I went to her website and her sister is the fabulous YA writer, Catherine Murdock! Can you believe how much talent that one family has???? Wow! If you haven’t read Murdoch’s Dairy Queen or The Off Season, what are you waiting for? And as a sort of bonus, I realized I hadn’t checked out Murdock’s site in a while, so I went there and get this! She’s got a third book coming out in this series called FRONT AND CENTER. You can read a sample of it, but I’m waiting for the real thing. I was kind of bummed to see that her publisher is not my publisher, so there’s not much chance of an ARC and I’m going to have to wait just like everyone else…oh, well. It will be exciting when it comes out. Gives me time to read the first two again.

So there you go…now you have a whole pile of books to buy/borrow/get from the library. You can thank me later!

I’m very excited that I’ve coerced convinced author Janette Rallison over to my blog to tell us a story. But first, I want to say that Janette is launching yet another fabulous book. This one is called Just One Wish and I think it is my favourite book of Janette’s. Oh, sure, all her books are hilarious, but this one is special. Janette is a consistently funny and touching writer, but I think Just One Wish is a step up from her other books (not that you shouldn’t read ALL of her other books too). I was lucky enough to get an ARC of it and so I read it a few months ago, but it definitely has that thing where you start thinking about a bit of it and it makes you feel good and you think, “Now where did I read that?” and you suddenly remember, “Oh! That book! I love that book!” It’s one of those books you remember, even if you are old like me. Now it’s available everywhere, so go on, go out and support your local bookstore and Janette and buy a copy of Just One Wish.

(Note to Janette – how’s that? Do I get a thank you in your next book for being so supportive? Something simple is all I’m asking. Something like: “I couldn’t have written this book without Joelle’s enthusiasm for my work” would be great.)

Okay, without further ado, here is Janette to tell you a story.

I’ve always loved Robin Hood.  Apparently I’m not alone.  He’s been around for centuries showing up in new novels, movies, and TV series.  I imagine he’ll still be hanging out in Sherwood Forest when my great, great grandchildren start to read, watch TV—or whatever medium they’re using then to tell stories.

Why do we love this outlaw so much?

I have my theories.  I’ll illustrate with an example.  A few nights ago I was at a dinner and one of my friends told the group about the trouble he’s had getting permits and to work on his barn.  When he had someone from the government out to his property to check out the barn, the official pointed to his above ground pool and asked, “Do you have a permit for that?”

“It’s an above ground pool,” my friend said.  “Why would I need a permit for it?”

“You need permits for all pools,” the official said.  “Pools are dangerous.”

“But I have a fence around it,” my friend said.

“Right,” the official said.  “And you need a permit for that too.  You can’t put up a fence without a permit.”

At this point my friend was getting a headache and he really didn’t want to deal with permits anymore so he said, “Fine.  I’ll just take down the fence and the pool.”

“You can’t,” the official said.  “You’ll need a demolition permit before you do that.”

I bet at that point my friend wished he had a bow, arrows, and a hideout in the forest.

Because let’s face it, even good governments like ours are frequently a big pain.  And taxes are a double pain.  (Right now my husband is doing our taxes, don’t get me started on that subject.)

If you have a bad government and one that is taxing you literally to death—who wouldn’t want to take matters into their own hands and deliver justice where it was needed?

And that’s what we love about Robin Hood.  We’d all love to cut through the bureaucracy of life and just do what needs to be done.

I guess with my love of Robin Hood it was only a matter of time before he showed up in one of my novels.  In Just One Wish Annika Truman goes to Hollywood to find the actor who plays Teen Robin Hood to visit her ill little brother before he goes into surgery.

It’s hard enough to get an opportunity to meet the ultra famous and quite hunky, Steve Raleigh.  Convincing him to visit her brother will be almost impossible.  Fortunately Annika is a girl who can take on the impossible.

Read the book and let me know what you think—who’s the real Robin Hood in this story? 

Janette Rallison

Find a little magic.  Read My Fair Godmother

http://www.janetterallison.com/

http://janette-rallison.blogspot.com/

I do! I love you all. That is why I have arranged to have the hilarious (often on purpose) author, Janette Rallison step into my shoes and guest blog for y’all. She’ll be here Friday telling us about her new book, heroes, and a few other funny things. And I’ll put up my thoughts on her new book, Just One Wish on Need To read. Hear me now, believe it when you read it, this is Janette’s best book yet. And she’s written some really fun ones!

This is a perfect book. I know, I know…I love everything I write about, but this is really good. It’s also 13 years old and perfectly timely, even though it was a contemporary book at the time. The only thing that dated it was the cover, and now it’s got this cool new one!

What I love about Bauer’s books is that she packs them with all this information that just isn’t that common. In this case, pool. But she’s also worked a ton of mathematics into this story and it’s FUN! If I were a kid, I would think, “Wow. Math might be kind of interesting after all.” And she packed in some history, physics, a bit about theatre, some blues guitar, and a pig! I just love how she takes the ordinary and makes it extraordinary. I told my husband, “I wish I could write like Joan Bauer.” and he said, “Well, you can’t. You have to write like you.” I know he’s right, but I still updated my facebook status to say: If I didn’t write like me, I’d want to write like Joan Bauer.

I know…no posts for forever, and now three today. If you are a writer, you need to see this.

Alex recommended this book to me (for once I actually remember who recommended the book) and she had me pegged. I LOVED this book. You could say I flipped over it. I actually listened to it on audio, which added a bit to it, I think because there are two points of view in this book, a young boy, and a young girl, and the producers of the audio book hired two narrators- a male and a female. I think this added a lot to the telling (although, the actor was exceptionally good and the actress slightly annoyed me, but I did get used to her). If you like audio, this is one to add to your audio list. If you don’t, then get the book.

This was an amazing book in that it seemed sort of straight forward and about the two main characters, but as it unfolds, you find out there are many, many layers to the story. At one point, one of the secondary characters does and says some things that sort of made my jaw drop. I just couldn’t believe anyone could be so…so…ignorant and arrogant. I think that was the turning point for me where I realized this book was special. Anyway, I do think you’ll like it and I’ve put another of her books on hold so I’ll let you know about that one eventually too. Yay!

For those of us who find ourselves taking the linear approach to describing a character (he had blond hair, blue eyes, and a great smile…) and especially those of you who are guilty of #16 – Using coffee, cappuccino, and café latte to describe black people’s skin, behold the right way to do it. Bauer speaks volumes without ever once “telling” you anything. I bow down to her!

From STICKS by Joan Bauer

I cross the street by the bus stop and head inside the heavy green door to Vernon’s [pool hall], where Big Earl Reed, the day manager, is picking a soft blues song on his guitar. He nods that bald head of his, lifts his bushy eyebrows, and slaps the side of the old guitar he calls Baby Gal. He got her in New Orleans. Earl and I have been friends for years even though he’s fifty-three and I’m ten. His father died when Earl was two, so we’ve got stuff in common. His great-great-grandfather was a slave in Mississippi.

Big Earl’s eyes are closed. He’s told me how blues is something that grows inside you and has to spill out. If I couldn’t be a nine-ball champion of the world, I think I’d be a bluesman. Blues helps people understand sadness. Big Earl sang a song at my father’s funeral about good men dying young.

“Play it now,” I say, and lean against the counter to listen.

 Read my review of the book here.

P.S. The pic is Buddy Guy.

I am pretty sure that this is the only adult romance novel I have ever read. Boy, was it fun! The characters were kind of stock, but true to Cabot’s style, they were all well drawn. It was laugh out loud funny in places, and the adventure took some good twists. I can’t really see me jumping onto the romance bandwagon or anything, but this was highly entertaining. Not to mention steamy. I’m so used to YA, where they either don’t mention sex beyond a kiss, or it’s the whole focus, or it’s some terrible or embarrassing thing. I’d totally forgotten that in adult books there is fun, exciting, and romantic sex allowed.

As you may already know, this book was written by Meg Cabot, but is billed as being written by Princess Mia Thermopolis from Cabot’s Princess Diaries books. I love that idea. Because Princess Mia is a huge supporter of Greenpeace, all the proceeds from the sale of this book are donated to Greenpeace. I’m thinking with Cabot’s popularity, that might save a lot of whales! If you really think about what it means to donate the proceeds of this book it’s quite amazing. Even if you write really fast, to write a 400 page book takes time. Lots of time. And commitment. And generosity.

I’ve always thought that Meg Cabot is a great person based on all the plugs she gives new writers and the way she encourages girls to really embrace and love themselves for who they are, not who they want to be, but this is really quite impressive. I borrowed the book from the library, but I think I will find it in my budget to buy it. After all, if she can donate months of her time to write it, that’s the least I can do. Besides, if we’re lucky, there’ll be a sequel and I’ll want to read it again anyway!

I am happy to announce the release of JUST ONE WISH. I think this is Janette’s best book yet. Definitely worth putting on your to-buy list. Janette is always funny, but I think that in this book, she takes her writing up a notch. I am sure you’ll enjoy it too.

I’ve been reading some nonfiction lately (for adults – more YA reviews coming soon).

The subtitle of this book is: The Shaping of a Writer’s Life

I put this book on hold at my library back in September when Janet Reid wrote this post about it. Not so much because of the review, which she steals from Shelf Awareness, but because Janet is always hip to the coolest books. Also, I really like the author’s name. I know that’s weird, but sometimes I read books because of cool author names. My library had it on order, but it took a while to get it. Anyway, I’m really glad that I did put it on hold because it is a terrific read and I undoubtedly would’ve forgotten about it by now as I’m sort of overrun (in a good way) with books.

Skloot is the same age as my mother, so he’s of a different generation, but not one that’s so far removed that I can’t relate. I especially love all the bits about baseball and the Brooklyn Dodgers. It’s an interesting collection of essays, linked by the common theme of memory. It’s sometimes painful, often illuminating, definitely worth checking out if you like memoir.