I was just doing my morning blog reads. I don’t check out very many because my eyes do not like to read on the internet, but I do stop by Editorial Anonymous on occasion and there was a post there this morning from someone just getting started. From the post, I couldn’t tell if the writer actually had written anything, or just had ideas, but they wanted to know, “Where do I start?”

I was happy to see that there were 44 comments from people willing to help. Quite honestly, the thought of being that fresh in the business made me heave a heavy sigh and think, “Oh, gosh. This person does not want to hear my advice, for sure!”

That’s because my advice is…find a nice boy, get a good job, have some babies, write short stories for your kids, volunteer in their classrooms, read books on the weekend for fun, take walks and family vacations, and run as far away from writing/publishing as you can! Run far, far away! It will only bring you heartache!

Of course, I only sort of believe that. I personally, would not have any other life! But I did meet my husband in the kitchen to refill our coffee cups a minute ago and we had a good laugh over the run away advice. He is a musician. The real deal…CDs, radio, record deal, etc. which means he’s gone through many similar trials and tribulations that I have with writing/publishing. We both agreed that we would not change anything, and we’re very happy that we chose these paths, but honestly, if someone had told us upfront what we would have to go through to get where we are…well…the run away advice would’ve been quite tempting.

I often meet people who are amazed by the fact that we’re both professional artists and that we live such exotic (their words, not ours!) and creative lives. However, I’m here to say that every artist I know also envies people with normal lives, families, and yes, health insurance.

I just read a (nameless) ARC that has made me pause and think for almost two days! It has a stunning first chapter that got me hooked immediately. However, after about three or four chapters, I could’ve plotted the entire book on paper without any problem. I could’ve even given you the highlights for the subplots. And the surprising twist? I was there a hundred pages before the author. It wasn’t just obvious, it has been done a zillion times. There wasn’t anything new about this book’s plot at all. And yet…I never once contemplated stopping reading it. Why is that?

I’m actually quite perplexed because while the writing was pretty good, it wasn’t stunning (there were quite a few continuity errors, but this was an ARC so hopefully someone has caught and fixed those). It was fairly tight and interesting though and the characters were pretty well-developed, but there were also some big coincidences to swallow. The hook went a long way towards getting me interested, but once I figured out the plot, it wasn’t the hook that kept me reading. So what was it? And the book was long-ish, but I blew through it. The ending was not only predictable, but also a bit didactic. And yet, even when I was done, I was glad I read it.

If this had been chick-lit, that would’ve explained a lot about why I kept reading. I mean, in chick-lit, you really can plot them out at least half the time, right? And it’s no big deal if it’s a good one because they’re entertaining, funny, and have great voices, but this was a quite serious book.

It’s true, I would not recommend it on Need To Read (which is why I’m not naming it) as one “you have to read”, but if someone asked me if they should, I’d say, “Sure…it’s a good read.”

This is just so weird for me…to like a book that is essentially fairly flawed in the area of craft. Do you ever like books against all odds like this?

*It’s a debut novel, another reason I won’t give too many details because OMG, a debut is so exciting…I just wouldn’t want to take away from that in any way for the author.

I want to say right off the bat, this post is strictly about using certain terms that are true to your characters, NOT about political correctness.

I grew up in the seventies. They taught us in school (and probably at home) that the word negro was out, and we should use the word black. While I know that African-American is politically correct now, it does not roll off my tongue easily. For no other reason than I have always used the word black.

I have noticed that in books written by black authors, the characters refer to themselves as black, not so often as African-American. This term seems to be reserved for white writers and their white characters who refer to black characters. Like I was just reading a book where the writer had the teen character say, “Our principal is African-American.” Interestingly, and somewhat to my annoyance, the writer also had this character point out the Latinos, Asian-Americans etc. while never once saying, “She was white” when introducing a new Caucasian character, but that’s an entirely different post, so let’s not go there right now.

So my question is, are writers having white (or non African-Americans) use A-A because it’s politically correct, or because that is the term that teens use today? Are you a teen or do you have a teen? What would you/they say? And how does my (adult) black character refer to himself? Does he call himself black, or A-A?

The reason I’m asking is that my new MC has grown up in a predominantly white world and she makes friends with a black man and she contemplates her thoughts on race. I’m just wondering if it is more natural for her to think/say, “I’ve never had any black friends before.” or “I’ve never had any African-American friends before.” I want to be true to the character, not to political correctness.

Any thoughts?

I know Ruby Oliver is not the title of the book, but I’m going to blog about the first two books in the series. I’m still hoping to be on the ARC list for the third one, but I don’t know if I’m going to be lucky or not.

The titles are: The Boyfriend List and The Boy Book

These were great books. I’ll admit it, I’d never read them because from the covers and titles I figured they were chick lit. I personally have NOTHING against chick lit YA. In fact, I often enjoy it. But I have to be in the mood and it pretty much has to be in front of me. These books are popular and don’t sit on the shelf, so I’d never come across them. But after reading Frankie Landau Banks and How to be Bad, I started thinking I’d like to read more E. Lockhart, so I put these on hold. I got the first one on audio and the second as a regular book. Oddly enough, I think it works better as an audio book.

Here’s the deal. I have a love/hate relationship with footnotes and these books have them. I love to read them, I HATE how they take you out of the story and you have to stop what you’re reading to check them out. Asked for my advice, I would say please leave them out. But what I discovered is that when they are worked into an audio book, they really work well and are very fun!

Also, these books do what so many people try to do, but rarely accomplish. They explore very serious things – self esteem, sex, relationships, mental health – in a fun and interesting way and never once does the reader feel like they’re being taught a lesson. I am sorry to admit that I was more like Ruby Oliver than was probably good for me. How fantastic if I’d read this book as a teen! I mean, it might have given me things to think about in a way I’d never seen them. I did not relate to boys any better than Ruby (and sometimes in the exact same ways!) and I knew things were screwy, but I didn’t know how to fix them. As Ruby figures things out and learns things, the reader does too. But it’s all so subtle and beautifully done. And if you don’t have the same problems as Ruby, you get entertainment value from her issues! Such a deal. I would give these books to any teen I know…hmmm…I know of a few birthdays coming up…

I am reading a couple of great YAs which are part of a series. As I read, it got me thinking a bit about copy edits and regionalisms in language. I have one more round of line edits before Restoring Harmony goes into copy edits, but they’re on my mind.

My editor and I have discussed the fact that my main character is a Canadian and therefore, there are things that she would say a certain way that an American would not say. While you will hear a Canadian say “bathroom”, it’s much more common to say “washroom”. Things like that. What I’ve tried to do is leave out as many of those things as I can, and only keep the ones that really need to be there. I also have a couple of Canadian teens who are reading RH and specifically looking for mistakes that I might have made (because while I live here in Canada, I am relatively new) and they found a couple.

In these books, which are set in Seattle (I was raised in Portland, so it’s pretty much the same region), the author has her characters “wait on lines for tickets” or “wait on line for lunch”.We don’t wait on line out here though. We wait in line.Waiting on line is an east coast thing. I checked with my southern husband and he’d never even heard on line and thought I was crazy!

So, because I couldn’t help wondering if the copy editor had changed it or what, I checked the author’s bio (and by the way, we could be BFF*) and found out that she was raised at least part of the time in Seattle. So it seems to me that one of two things happened. Either she’s forgotten that we’re all out here in line because she now lives in New York, or she had it as “in line” and the copy editor changed it.

Obviously, this is not a big deal, but it does make me think about a great story that I am pretty sure Janet Reid told about one of her writers on her blog. If you are worried that someone from another region will change something and you’ll miss it, you could always take this route. When the writer got his copy edits, he wrote across the first page, “STET the whole F*&^*%G thing!”

That always makes me laugh! I won’t be doing that, for sure, but it is funny. I wanted to find you the link, but I couldn’t, so if Janet’s reading this, maybe she’ll leave it in the comments.

*Me & the author = BFF because we love to cook, we’re vegetarians, former actresses, started writing when we were 22, love guacamole, live(d) on the West Coast, and more…)

The perils of living in paradise are wonderful writing distractions like this:

Click to see it larger.

The husband wants me to state for the record that while he took this picture, it is a SNAPSHOT TAKEN WITHOUT THE PROPER LENSE AND DOES NOT REFLECT HIS PHOTOGRAPHY SKILLS IN ANY WAY, SHAPE OR FORM.

Speaking of photography, last night’s slideshow was a great success and the audience contributed $133 in donations for the PHC foodbank. Way to go, everyone and thanks for coming!

P.S. This photo is dedicated to Eileen Cook who has been demanding requesting to see pictures for a few weeks now, ever since the first spotting.

I just read most of the worst book I’ve ever read. Seriously. Previously, I thought THE EVENING STAR was the worst book I ever read, and I guess it still is because at least I finished it (it took me months though). This is the worst book I almost read all of.

Quite frankly, I’m flabbergasted as to WHY a publisher would want to publish this. I won’t tell you the title, but I will say that it is a mystery series (Yes! A series! There are more! Lots more!) and that the whole idea is a poor, sad, pathetic rip-off of Diane Mott Davidson’s mysteries. And the writing was soooooo bad. I happen to know that several writers have done “food sleuth” series, so I haven’t narrowed it down so much that it’s obvious here. I mean, the chances of that writer ending up on my site are slim, but people write under pen names and so you know…maybe she writes YA and is a regular reader. I’d rather not go there.

I am posting for two reasons…one, just because it makes me feel better to rant (since I can’t get my 5 hours back) and two, because I want to know…Have you ever skipped to the end to find out whodunnit? Until today, I HAVE NEVER DONE THAT, but I was DESPERATE, I TELL YOU, DESPERATE to put this book down, and how do you put down a murder mystery and not know whodunnit? So have you? Do you ever skip to the end? Come on, fess up. Do you ever read the ending of a book you’re liking, or only ones you’re hating?

My husband has been known to say about me and my writing, “I’m so proud I’m gonna pop.” Yeah…he’s a Southerner so he says things a little differently than everyone else. As he claims, “We’ve got language, the rest of y’all just have words.” Anyway…

It’s my turn to be proud. One year ago today, my husband stated a Daily Photo Blog of our island. He has posted a picture every single day! Tonight, he is doing a slideshow at The Roxy of more than 300 of his pictures, but you can see any and all of them here.

Aside from being proud of him, the reason I bring this up is because writers should know about the City Daily Photo Blog website where you can find photographers all over the world posting daily pictures of their hometowns. It doesn’t matter if you’re writing a book about New York City or Pretoria, South Africa, you can probably find a visual record of it. It’s a great resource if you’ve never been to your location, but also if you’re writing about a place that you used to live, but need some visual details that you can’t remember.

Anyway, I hope you’ll drop by his site if you haven’t already and enjoy some great pictures of our home.

Lately, the wonderful and funny writer Eileen Cook and I have been commiserating about the fact that while we have the best job in the world, we also don’t have enough to do writing-wise and it makes us blue at times. I know I had the misconception that once I’d sold a book, the waiting would be over. HAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHA…that’s the sound of every other published author laughing themselves silly.

I don’t mean the waiting for the book to come out, or the waiting for the edits, or anything like that would be over…I mean, the waiting to write. I just kind of thought that between new projects and edits flying back and forth, I’d be busier. And I am busy at times (like a few weeks ago!), but for the most part, I still have a lot of in between time.

Eileen hit the nail on the head when she said that she thinks the blueness comes from the fact that writers like schedules and when we’re writing, we have one, but when we aren’t, we are totally up in the air about what to do with our day. For example, my agent asked when I was free to talk to him today. My answer was NOT, “Well, you can make an appointment with my secretary.” My answer was, “Well, I have to feed the neighbour’s cat…but other than that…I’m open.”

Here is my dream schedule:

Mon-Fri

6am – wake up, drink tea while writing in my journal

7am – check email and blogs, eat breakfast

7:30am – start writing (taking mini-breaks every hour or so)

10:45am – get a snack and listen to The Archers, the British radio serial I’m addicted to.

11:30 – write

1 – lunch and reading

2:30 – write

4:00 – wrap up the writing

After “work” I would walk to the Village with my husband for groceries or socialization and library books…have tea and a snack, listen to baseball on the radio, make dinner around 7pm.  Hang out. Go to bed around 10pm.

This IS my schedule when I’m working (except when edits force my days to be longer, then I just skip making dinner!).

The thing is, if I did this schedule every day, I’d need about 3 pseudonyms to publish all the books I’d create and my agent would go crazy with all the stuff I’d want him to read! No one is telling me not to write like this (not exactly anyway), but both Eileen and I find the idea of writing stuff that won’t be read for years and years to be somewhat disheartening too. So where does that leave us?

Eileen and I have been trying to brainstorm ideas of ways we can be involved in this writing life in between projects. We both hope that someday we’ll have enough books out for our lives to be BUSY…maybe not Meg-Cabot-busy, but say…Sarah-Dessen-busy (well, maybe Eileen wants to be Meg-Cabot-busy, but that would involve leaving the house too often for me).

Eileen suggested that maybe I use my marketing skills to help other people market their books. Or she might teach writing in lower-income schools via the internet. I’ve thought of writing a play I can perform in schools that has to do with books/writing/authors??? I think the crux of our problem really is that all we want to do is write though. The other things sound good in theory, but they don’t light a fire under our butts the way sinking ourselves into a new story does.

Eileen suggested I get a job, which made us both laugh. I mean, come on, “don’t be rash” as my husband always says in regards to real jobs. I know that this is an excellent problem to have, the too-much-time-to-write-problem, and that a lot of writers would be envious as they try to squish writing in between helping kids with homework and doing laundry, but it actually is an issue that I think a lot of full time, just getting started writers have. Anyway, if you are a full time writer, what do you do? Do you write anyway?

I am starting to worry about a disturbing book trend. Okay, maybe not a trend, but this is the second ARC I’ve read in the last month where the book doesn’t actually have an ending. Yes, these are both the first books in a series, but the beauty of a good series book is that it still has its own Beginning, Middle, & Ending.

Think about Harry Potter. Let’s say you read #1. If you loved it, you could probably hardly wait for the second one, but it was like waiting for an installment in a long story, not waiting for the continuation of a story you were right in the middle of reading and someone just took it from you and said, ‘you can have this back in a year’. And if you thought it was just okay and weren’t really interested in reading more, at least it was a complete story on its own.

Authors, you are not writing for TV. First books in series that simply end on a cliffhanger are not being fair to their audiences, and I personally think that sometimes an open ending like that will backfire. It certainly will with readers like me. The thing is, you are not asking me to remember the BIG MOMENT for a week, you are asking me to still be excited a year or more from now when the next book comes out. Personally, if I feel cheated out of an ending, why would I want to pick up the next one, knowing that there probably isn’t an ending there either?

Maybe kids feel differently? My friend, who is a teen, and who recommended I read this, did not seem nearly as upset as I was. Although, she did warn me, so it must’ve bugged her somewhat. Will she look for the sequel? Who knows? I doubt I will bother looking for the sequels to either of these books though. What about you? Do you like these books that just end in the middle? Do they hook you?

Funny…I just looked at the book cover to get the title because I had no idea what it was! I picked this book up for one reason only. Dame Mary Stewart wrote it. It’s set during Arthurian times and based on a legend (which I didn’t know until the end when I read the author’s notes). I love Mary Stewart’s books, especially the ones about Merlin (The Crystal Cave, the Hollow Hills, etc.), but my most favourite book of hers (and actually just a fave in general) is The Ivy Tree*. If you haven’t read it, I suggest you hunt it down. None of this is YA, but I think teens might enjoy MS’s books.

Just as a matter of interest, when I was studying screenwriting years ago, I wrote Mary Stewart a letter (she must be in her nineties by now) and asked if she would mind if I tried adapting The Ivy Tree into a screenplay and then selling it on spec. Sometimes writers let you do this without optioning the book (or at least, that’s what my handy dandy screenwriting book said!). She sent my letter to her agent who said, “NO WAY! We are already working on several deals for that book!” (haha…like I was going to fall for that…the book had been out for 35 years and was OP). However, Dame Stewart and I exchanged a couple of very nice personal letters and I still have them! She has beautiful handwriting.

P.S. I know I have not updated Need To Read very much but it is because I’m just not reading that much due to edits (oh, okay…and baseball). I intend to tackle my library stack and some of the 50+ ARCs I have though, so look for more updates soon!

*Ooooh! Very exciting news. The Ivy Tree appears to have been rereleased in 2007, so you can actually get it. My copy is from 1961 and the print is so tiny I can hardly read it. I should get a new copy! Hmmm…I wonder how soon the movie is coming out?

I bet y’all thought I forgot about this. It’s been sometime since I asked for your help thinking of some sort of school/activity/career for my main character, Jamie, in my current WIP. I didn’t forget…I was just editing Restoring Harmony. I’ll be starting line edits and then copyedits sooner rather than later too, so I doubt I’ll get back to Jamie for a while, but I did want to get back to you all.

First, thanks so much for the great responses! Some of them came via email, some via comments. Here are a few of the suggestions (not all, some are in the comment section, come came via other email addresses, so while I have them I’m not going to list everything here) that a person could do after finishing high school:

Tree technician, musical instrument builder, massage therapist, Animal Welfare Program, internet business, Katimavic (kind of like AmeriCorps, but here in Canada), AmeriCorps, photography, dog training, luthier, dog grooming…

And the winner is…well…me. The truth is, that right after I posted that, I came up with an idea that would work really well. However, your answers were all so interesting and exciting (and inspiring), that I left the post up just to see what y’all could come up with and what I might use in another book.

Postage is very expensive in Canada, but later this summer, I will be traveling to the U.S. If you made a comment or sent me a suggestion via email and you would like an ARC, email me your address and when I travel to the US, I’ll send you one. Include what genre you like and I’ll even try and find one for you that appeals to your interest (chick lit, fantasy, scary, etc.). This is only for people who commented on this topic prior to today.

Thanks for all your wonderful suggestions and I hope to use a bunch of them someday!

Some of the best advice I’ve seen on keeping a blog is, “Make it easy for people to comment.” It sounds simple, but it appears to me that bloggers are so worried about dreaded spam that they want me to jump through hoops just to comment. I won’t do it. And I don’t think I’m the only one.

I hate spam too. I do. Really. I don’t need a larger er…ummm…well, you know. And my abs are just fine, doughy though they are, but I’m willing to stay on top of the spam to make it easier for you all to talk to me. I want to hear from my readers! And if you have to sign away your first born just to tell me what book you’re reading, why bother?

There is nothing more annoying (when reading a blog – there are definitely more annoying things in life) than composing the perfect scintillating comment only to find out that first I have to sign in to some sort of account or be anonymous (if that’s even an option) and then after I do that, I have to do a word verification (not my strongest point), and then wait for you to screen my brilliance before it even shows up! Not to mention, if you haven’t noticed that signing into my account takes me away from your website, well, you really should know that because I might not bother to come back for a while.

The second best bit of advice I got about keeping a blog is to respond to every comment. I definitely try to do this, even if it’s just, “thanks for stopping by” because we all like to feel like someone’s reading our comments when we take the time to leave them, don’t we?

It’s true that while I have a nice handful of regular readers, I don’t get a lot of comments, and if I were someone like agent Nathan Bransford who regularly gets 150 comments, I couldn’t answer them all. But until that happens, if you leave one, I’ll try to send you a thank you.

Okay…rant’s over. What do you think? Do you leave comments when you’re forced to walk over hot coals to do it?

*I know that one of you who reads this blog regularly requires all kinds of sign-ins for comments, and I want to say that while yes…I am sort of thinking of you here, it was someone else’s blog that really set me off…so please don’t feel targeted in any way! I love you, and would never do that!!!

A lot of you have emailed and asked me who did the cover for my book. Until now, I didn’t know, but I am happy to say that my editor has passed on that info. The artist’s name is Hugh Syme and he has some wonderful work up online for your viewing pleasure at both his website and here.

POW! Going, going, gone! That is the sound of my edits going off into cyberspace and landing in my editor’s inbox. Ahhhhhhh…..life is good!

I am basically way too fried to tell y’all all the stuff I want to, all the wonderful things I learned about both my writing and writing in general during this process, but I did want to let you know I’m still here, still alive. I haven’t updated Need To Read in ages either, but I did just read a wonderful book called JULIE AND ROMEO. It’s adult fiction, and I highly recommend it. The author is Jeanne Ray. It’s an especially good lounge-chair-in-the-sun-while-you-drink-wine lemonade book. It will make you laugh, guaranteed.

Anyway, hope you’re all well. Sorry if you’ve emailed me and I haven’t responded yet. I intend to, really I do. I have just worked 11 days in a row though, and so it might take me a few days to recover before I manage to clear out my inbox. To give you an idea, I normally have about 10 emails in my inbox and the other day I had 135! I’m thinking of you though!

If you’ve been hanging around here for a while, or you have clicked on the above link to read about Restoring Harmony, then you know the story of my friend, Sarah Tradewell, the fiddler who looks just like my character, Molly in RH (who is also a fiddler).

It’s a pretty cool story how we met, and Benjamin Madison is directly responisble. He has just posted another great photo of Sarah, as well as a link to hear her fiddlin’, so stop on by his site and get an earful.

Not only do I not have to get dressed, but apparently, I don’t even have to comb my hair!

If you’ve emailed me and I haven’t responded, it’s because I have been editing. I will surface eventually and LOVE to hear all your nice comments about my cover. Thanks, so much. You all are the best!

I am thrilled to share with you the cover* of my very first novel, Restoring Harmony! I am so excited because I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this cover! It says everything I could want the cover to say.

Click on it to see it bigger.

*Still slightly in progress as some enhancement will be done to the text, including adding the spots over the first ‘e’ in my name.

Guess what? Just found out that Restoring Harmony is going to be a Summer 2010 release! So excited, as I thought it wasn’t coming out until the fall. Also, any time now, I should get a sneak peek at the cover! It may be a while before I have anything I can post, but I’m pretty excited…my first cover for my first book! How can that be? How did I end up such lucky girl? Truly blessed, I am, with a wonderful agent, fantastic editor, and most excellent publisher.

What I can share with you today is something you’ve probably seen, but now it has been “officially selected” as my author photo. As my agent said, “It’s a purrfect author photo.” Yes, he is a goofball smart guy! I’m sure he’ll be thrilled to be quoted here too!