| Friday Five |
[Jul. 10th, 2009|08:03 am] |
1) I have been a busy writer girl this week. I completed the outline for Summer 2010 YA, and have 7500 words written of the manuscript. It is going well. I think.
2) Also working simultaneously on my NASCAR fic. I did the math and discovered between the two, I must write 8,000 words every single week. Um, no pressure. ha.
3)I am still over the moon excited about the TIME magazine thing. I actually keep looking at it thinking that there is someway I am mistaken.
4)I also have a 1 page article in THE WRITER magazine (page 14!) for those who want to read it. It's my advice on doing everything you can to be published-- and such advice includes: Know as much about the business as you do the craft.
5)I am getting excited about going to New York in Two weeks!! EEE!! There's a very good possibility I'll take part in a giant YA signing on Saturday, July 25th, so if you're a new yorker, keep that afternoon open-- there may be 10 of us hanging out and signing. :-) |
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| Friday Five Review Haikus |
[Jul. 10th, 2009|07:17 am] |
THE FAMILY MAN by Elinor Lipman- adult novel
Lipman always writes
great characters and humor,
like in this novel.
JENNIFER JOHNSON IS SICK OF BEING SINGLE by Heather McElhatton- adult novel
A fun chick lit book
with a very brave ending
which I disliked. Sigh.
THE STRANGER BESIDE ME by Ann Rule- adult nonfiction
A good book about
serial killer Ted Bundy.
But I'm so scared now.
FUNNY HOW THINGS CHANGE by Melissa Wyatt- young adult novel
A quietish book
with "just" great characters and
fabulous writing.
THE PROPOSAL- romantic comedy movie
Not exactly deep
or original either,
but a fun romance |
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| My Really Fun Play List |
[Jul. 10th, 2009|09:00 am] |
Yesterday I took music suggestions from my friends on Facebook and Twitter. I needed to create a new play list to use when I run. I wanted some upbeat songs that would keep me moving because I think I've been running to the pace of the (slower) music I've been listening to.
Here's what we came up with. I love that I'll be able to think of all my friends on every mile of my run! The list has 60 songs...and I did keep some of the slower songs on there because...well...I like them! There are several on there from many of you!
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| Home and Homes Away from Home |
[Jul. 10th, 2009|08:52 am] |
While my daughter went to her art history course – American, not her favorite land for art, covering, she said, “from “when Columbus sailed the ocean blue to World War II,” I did some writing. And when she went to work yesterday, she sent me to her hairdresser, who’s sending me home a bit more chic. We’ll see if my husband notices. Nobody’s placing bets, but of course that’s one of the things I love about him. The hairdresser, who grew up in LA, asked about where I lived and what commutes were like. It takes about twenty minutes to get to most places, but it’s length, not traffic, I told her. She told me of once driving in the hills, where she just stopped the car because no one was ahead of her or behind her. “I was afraid I’d crash into nothing. It was the saddest moment of my life.”
I met Em for lunch, where I tipped over my miso soup and she didn’t even sigh. Then I walked home, passing by about thirty opportunities to get my nails done; glad my sandals weren’t as pointy toed and gilded as those of some people I passed. I stopped at Whole Foods for supper supplies: chicken, asparagus, and salad, with enough chicken for Em to freeze.
Now I bid my sad good-bye and am at the airport writing this, so will post after a hopefully happy landing. I’m waiting near a mom with two kids, and the little girl, with doll’s head sticking out of her carry-on, is amusing herself (and me) with a pack of M & M’s: “Ladies and Gentlemen! How many red ones do you think I can put in my mouth at once?”
I’ll enjoy the quiet at home, but miss the sun and all the people and seeing what my daughter sees. I’ll miss eating cereal from a zebra-print bowl in the morning. I’ll miss the pool where I wrote, swam, and heard a young woman watching three three-year-olds say, “Who wants glitter?” (Don’t worry, I didn’t run over.) I’ll miss the friendly folks at Coffee Bean and will have to find a place to order coffee and when they ask for my name, give them my daughter’s. Not just cause it’s easier to spell, but for the brief pleasure of hearing “Emily!” called. |
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| Friday Five |
[Jul. 10th, 2009|07:33 am] |
1. Headed to Iowa City today to lead a weekend rhyming picture book workshop at the U of Iowa Summer Writing Festival.
2. It's raining. Again. We just had THREE inches Wednesday.
3. Actually, you might say it's storming. Lots of thunder.
4. ...and lightning.
5. ...which means I should probably unplug my computer.
Have a great weekend, all. I know I will. |
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| Friday Five: The Librarian Edition |
[Jul. 10th, 2009|08:02 am] |
1. I leave today for ALA -- staying with a friend close to the airport over night, and then flying to Chicago first thing in the morning. Okay. You know what I get to see second thing in the morning? My book. Editor MixTape has promised me a finished copy of SHIVER tomorrow. I know it's stupid, because I don't get nervous in front of crowds or while doing outrageous things . . . but I'm nervous about seeing a real SHIVER. Not about it being gorgeous -- I've seen the dust jacket, so I know it will be -- but because of some, amorphous feeling of GAH! AHH! EEEEEE!
etc.
2. YALSA is considering making the Best Books for Young Adult list a popular choice list. Please don't, YALSA!
3. I want this painting.
4. Those few of you who are waiting on contest critiques, I'm going to try to finish them this weekend. Typos may abound. Stay tuned.
5. Current musical obsession for the week: "No One Sleeps When I'm Awake" by the Sounds. Also love, love, love their "Crossing the Rubicon." These babies are keeping me company on my drive to the airport.
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| Antidotes for the Low Moments |
[Jul. 10th, 2009|08:02 am] |
This week, I have brought up a few of the adversities that writers experience. Whether you have writer’s block or are stymied by bad reviews, similar ideas, or bad feedback, sometimes it is hard to write. Sometimes we all contemplate NOT writing. - We feel like our ideas are stale.
- The blank page is intimidating.
- The revision is not going well.
- We can’t sell our work.
There are many antidotes for these feelings. Here are TWO of mine. 1. COME TO THE PROCESS FROM A DIFFERENT POV: Try drawing. Painting. Hit the pottery wheel or simply play with clay. Do something artistic that is NOT writing. Let your writing mind relax and let your hands create. You don’t have to show your work to anyone, and for me, a lack of expectations really helps the “play” process. By drawing, I have renamed characters. And made big decisions. With my hands in clay, I have found new plot twists. I have let my subconscious relax…and great things have emerged. 2. COOK SOMETHING DELICIOUS.
When I’m fully immersed in a manuscript, my family always notices how much more creative my cooking is. Well, cooking has a palliative effect, too.
When I’m down or stuck or feeling morose, I cook. Savory and sweet. Here are three recipes:  Sarah’s MOST amazing hummus, Adapted from At Blanchard’s Table.
Pulverize the following ingredients in your food (word) processor: 2 cups chickpeas 11/2 tsp kosher salt 1tsp garlic 1/2tsp cinnamon—you may want more 1tsp cumin 1/3 cup tahini ½ cup lemon juice (fresh, please…)—I sometimes like more 1tsp lemon peel 1-2T olive oil Sometimes, I top with olive oil and paprika. Sometimes I pulverize some hot peppers into the mix.  Life by Chocolate.
There’s nothing better than this super chocolate croissant bread pudding: also adapted from The Blanchard’s…
1 3/4 cup heavy cream ¼ cup milk 2/3 cup sugar A bit more than 1 cup chocolate chips (don’t skimp!) 1 egg 2tsp vanilla extract 4 cups of croissants, cubed 1 cup cream for whipped cream Preheat oven to 325. In a saucepan, heat cream, milk and sugar. Don’t let it boil. When sugar is dissolved, remove from heat and add chocolate. Let it melt. Don’t eat yet. In a separate bowl, combine egg and vanilla. Whisk. Then whisk in chocolate mixture. Stir until slightly cool. Add croissant cubes and stir until coated. Put mixture in your baking dish. Bake about 45 minutes or until center is JUST set. (don’t over cook) While you are cooking, whip some whipped cream. Add vanilla and a bit of sugar. Sometimes I add a little flavor—liqueur…yum. Tanya Lee Stone sent me this recipe from the Smitten Kitchen at just the right moment. I was in need of a break and I had no chocolate in the house…and berries are in season. This cake is super easy to make and very moist! Even Elliot ate it!  Raspberry Buttermilk Cake
Adapted from Gourmet, June 2009
You can just ignore the word “raspberry” up there and swap it up with any which berry you please, like blackberries or blueberries or bits of strawberries or all of the above. This is a good, basic go-to buttermilk cake (not unlike a lemon yogurt cake before it) — moist and ever-so-light — a great jumping off point for whatever you can dream up. By the way, I was having a “moment” when I made this and for once, remembered to weigh my ingredients as I measured them, for all of you people out there that know weighing is way easier than dirtying a zillion cups and spoons. Now let’s just hope my scale is accurate. Makes one thin 9-inch cake, which might serve eight people, if you can pry it from first two people’s grasp 1 cup (130 grams) all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon (2 grams) baking powder
1/2 teaspoon (2 grams) baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 stick (56 grams) unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup (146 grams) plus 1 1/2 tablespoons (22 grams) sugar, divided
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest (optional)
1 large (57 grams) egg
1/2 cup well-shaken buttermilk
1 cup fresh raspberries (about 5 oz) Preheat oven to 400°F with rack in middle. Butter and flour a 9-inch round cake pan. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and set aside. In a larger bowl, beat butter and 2/3 cup (146 grams) sugar with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about two minutes, then beat in vanilla and zest, if using. Add egg and beat well. At low speed, mix in flour mixture in three batches, alternating with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour, and mixing until just combined.Spoon batter into cake pan, smoothing top. Scatter (see Note) raspberries evenly over top and sprinkle with remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons (22 grams) sugar. Bake until cake is golden and a wooden pick inserted into center comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool in pan 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack and cool to warm, 10 to 15 minutes more. Invert onto a plate. [Baking time updated, shortened, after so many of you concurred that this cake bakes crazy quickly.] Note: Directions like “scatter” always scare me. Where’s the science? Here’s what my neuroses taught us: the ones that were downward were almost all swallowed by the batter. The "o" ones stayed empty, like cups. Both were delicious. Make your own buttermilk: No need to buy buttermilk especially for this or any recipe. Add one teaspoon tablespoon [updated, as an astute reader pointed out that the larger amount is more common] of vinegar or lemon juice to one cup of milk and let it sit until it clabbers, about 10 minutes. Voila, buttermilk! So that's it, Writers. Sometimes writing is hard. Sometimes the process gets you down. But it doesn't mean you are not exactly where you should be.
Try them out. Write well. Enjoy the process. Don’t let the little and big things distract you. Cheers, Sarah Aronson |
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| Pencils down, your time is up |
[Jul. 10th, 2009|06:45 am] |
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One of the greatest challenges of writing is knowing when you’re done. We all fear turning in the manuscript too early: getting rejected, and for things that maybe could have been fixed, had we not rushed to finish. We’ve wasted our chances with the editors or agents who saw it and came away less than impressed. But there’s the flip side, too: who among us hasn’t spent far, far too long on a manuscript? “I can’t submit this! It needs a major rewrite!” we cry, spending months or even years polishing something that probably should have been submitted long ago—or shelved. It’s so easy to forget that we have a host of novels inside us, waiting to get out. And the line is getting pretty frustrated while they wait for the slow, slow novel in front of them to get the heck out of the way. Here’s what some of the writing books on my reference shelf have to say about when to put your pencils, and keyboards, down: “If you feel very close to having finished, and you cannot go any further, than you may want to risk [submitting]. But it really is a risk.” –Susan Bell, The Artful Edit “You get a bunch of the octopus’s arms neatly tucked under the covers…but two arms are still flailing around…if you also know that there is simply no more steam in the pressure cooker and that it’s the very best you can do for now—well? I think this means you are done.” –Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird “I guarantee you that as long as you’re willing to keep piddling around with the same manuscript, you’ll find ways to make it different. You don’t want to make it different. You just want to make it as good as it can possibly be, and then get it out the door.” –Holly Lisle’s website And Robert Ray (The Weekend Novelist) doesn’t given any answers, merely a cautionary tale about F. Scott Fitzgerald. His follow-up to The Great Gatsby, Tender is the Night, took nine years to write and revise. When it was done, he released a rewrite of it. According to Robert Ray, it wasn’t even any better. In summary? Revise. You can’t skip that. But listen to your inner voice, and your body. If you get that itchy feeling that it’s done… if you know somebody could maybe do better, but you can’t… then I say it’s probably time to release that baby into the wide world and start on the next project. Though it sure wouldn’t hurt to hand it to a critique partner first… |
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| Five Things on a Friday |
[Jul. 10th, 2009|06:53 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  painting! | ] |
My writing supervisor
1. It's sunny! According to our news, we had 23 days of rain out of 26 recently. I just want to stand in the sunshine today, throw my arms out, and twirl in it!
2. Julia and I were watching "So You Think You Can Dance?" this week and when Tyce said that thing about orange juice, I said, "He and Lil' C should get together."
"Yeah," she said. "They could have a 'Metaphor-Off.' The first one who reaches the point where the audience has no idea what they're talking about, wins!"
I love that show for so many reasons.
3. Today, John and I are painting the bathroom! It's the last step of our renovation. Our bathroom floor has a pretty, light purply-blue as one of the squares, and we decided to pick up that color on the walls. So I brought home lots of paint sample strips and laid them all out on the floor to check against those squares. "Sapphire Number One" seemed the closest. I'll post a photo when it's all done.
4. I received the nicest letter this week from a media specialist at a school where I had spoken last spring. She told me about some wonderful things that happened after I left--including one sweet story about a boy who came to tell her he was enjoying RULES.
We chatted for a while and he mentioned that he had taken his Nintendo DS into bed with him, under the covers, the night before. I thought we were now going to launch into a conversation about video games--until he explained, "I used the light from the DS to read."
I don't even have words for how much that story warms my heart.
5. To those of you going or at ALA--have a blast! And a special, "wicked proud " cheer for my Maine Silver Sister, Caldecott Honoree Melissa Sweet! |
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| Last day of writing camp, and a partial SWINGS review :) |
[Jul. 10th, 2009|07:11 am] |
Today is the last day of writing camp! The students submitted their final pieces and ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) cfaughnan will put them in a booklet so all the students can have a copy of the collection. They've also invited family and friends to a final reading and celebration. I'm so happy that I get to go too! :-)
I also got to see the first little bit of my first print review for Jumping Off Swings from Kirkus. Somehow, Kirkus always seems to be the first one, and with their reputation, that's a pretty hard first when you're already scared stiff. However, for what I can see, so far, not too bad!
Knowles, Jo JUMPING OFF SWINGS
July 15, 2009 - A heartbreakingly honest, measured work of fiction about a teen's unintended pregnancy is narrated in four voices in this latest from Knowles (Lessons from a Dead Girl, 2007). Ellie, Josh and their respective best friends Corinne and Caleb have...
For those of you with access, I'd really rather not see the rest unless it's nice. I'm trying to be good this time around and not beat myself up over every criticism. ;-)
Have a great weekend, Everyone!
xo |
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| It's not yet 5 am, and... |
[Jul. 10th, 2009|04:57 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  excited | ] |
I am getting in my last Internet fix before heading for the airport. (And, OK, I was practicing my speech and was too paranoid to unpack one of the 15 copies I'm bringing with me, so I had to get it off the computer.)
See y'all in Chicago--and those I don't see there, see you when I get back! I'm not bringing a computer, so it'll be radio silence during all the exciting bits, but lovely photo essays when I return!
'Bye! |
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| Vermont College of Fine Arts Residency |
[Jul. 10th, 2009|10:31 am] |
I am in Montpelier, Vermont, ready for the start of my third residency at VCFA for the MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults.
Julie Larios, a faculty member and an incredible poet, will be posting each day about residency. Go visit her blog and read about it.
She posts awesome poems too--check out her Poetry Fridays. She also has written some great books of poetry for children and adults.
This residency I am on the picture book panel.
I wrote a long essay, "Finding Unity: Crafting a Spine in Pictures Books with Atypical Narrative Arcs" for a packet, and that is what my presentation is based on.
As I worked to put my presentation together, making it a presentation for an audience, rather than an academic essay, I came up with a catchy title: "deviant rule-flouting picture book narratives." (Yes, the title is all in lower case.)
It looks like the panel is scheduled for Wednesday morning next week. I'll post a little more about my topic afterwards.
Vermont College is such an incredible place. The next ten days will be intense, exciting. I look forward to my workshop group (with Uma Krishaswami and Kathi Appelt) and all the great lectures and readings and other activities.
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| Attn: Free-tique Winners from Take the Dare: Show You Care |
[Jul. 10th, 2009|02:10 am] |
FYI: Snoop and I are working hard on processing payments and wrapping up the Take the Dare: Show You Care auction. If you cashed in on a Free-tique opportunity, you will be contacted as soon as the dust settles. In the meanwhile, enjoy the After-Hours party going on at www.cynthealiu.com. We hope to get back to everyone within the next week.
If you have no idea what I’m talking about, then I have to say, you MUST join the free-tique list in case another free-tique opportunity rolls around.
Cheers, everyone, and thanks for Showing You Care!
http://www.writingforchildrenandteens.com/2009/07/10/1390/attn-free-tique-winners-from-take-the-dare-show-you-care/
free-tiques |
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