The Long Ride Home

Happy President's Day!

2012-02-20T06:15:00.000-05:00

I love a great speech or, rather, great writing and wordsmithing in general. During college, I took a class in “Persuasion: Analyzing Rhetorical Texts” and in it we examined quite a few presidential speeches. I don’t believe the layperson thinks “great public speaker” when you mention Lyndon B. Johnson but man oh man they’d be wrong. LBJ was a master of words and a phenomenal civil rights leader and advocate.

I know President’s Day is technically Washington’s birthday but I’m going to celebrate another president on this day (though props to you too, George!).

So as you enjoy the Federal Holiday I wanted to leave you with this tidbit of fabulous rhetoric and writing:

I speak tonight for the dignity of man and the destiny of Democracy. I urge every member of both parties, Americans of all religions and of all colors, from every section of this country, to join me in that cause.
At times, history and fate meet at a single time in a single place to shape a turning point in man’s unending search for freedom.... But rarely in any time does an issue lay bare the secret heart of America itself.

LBJ goes on to urge Americans to support civil rights. He stresses the words of our constitution that all men are created equal and that those words truly mean, all people. So as you go about your day today, remember how far we’ve come and also how far we have to go. Pause and recognize the power of words because words can bring actions and actions mean change.

Who are some of your favorite public speakers?

Sarah's Key: A Review

2012-02-17T06:06:00.000-05:00

Here's the description: Paris, July 1942: Sarah, a ten year-old girl, is brutally arrested with her family by the French police in the Vel' d'Hiv' roundup, but not before she locks her younger brother in a cupboard in the family's apartment, thinking that she will be back within a few hours.

Paris, May 2002: On Vel' d'Hiv's 60th anniversary, journalist Julia Jarmond is asked to write an article about this black day in France's past. Through her contemporary investigation, she stumbles onto a trail of long-hidden family secrets that connect her to Sarah. Julia finds herself compelled to retrace the girl's ordeal, from that terrible term in the Vel d'Hiv', to the camps, and beyond. As she probes into Sarah's past, she begins to question her own place in France, and to reevaluate her marriage and her life.

Okay, let me begin by saying I LOVE this book! Love, love, love!!! For starters I've never read a book quite like it. It's part historical fiction in that the Vel' d'Hiv' roundup did happen. It was eye opening and educational and, of course, heart wrenching so have tissues available. The book is also alternating perspectives but not in the typical sense. Author Tatiana de Rosnay alternatives from Julia's first person perspective to Sarah's third person perspective. On top of that, one event (Julia's perspective) is taking place in present tense. Sarah's story, however, is all in the past though written as it unfolds before her. This is no easy feat especially when you consider the book felt comprehensive and tight. It wasn't disjointed but, rather, allowed us to feel the rising tension more completely.

I believed Julia's character so fully. She encompassed that American abroad. What amazed me, however, was how de Rosnay had Julia evolve so completely and yet the evolution was so gradual you barely recognize it until you're towards the end of the book and you reflect back on the journey you've taken with this character.

As for Sarah, she had a fascinating tale. It's one that is vividly portrayed and made to feel so entirely believable that it's hard to image she's really a fictional character.

This book is going down as one of my all time favorites. I can't help it. It has just about everything you could hope for in a novel. My only critique is that de Rosnay let the end taper on too long. As readers we had hit the climax and the resolution. It seemed as if she didn't want to let it go, as if every minor loose end had to be tied up. Subplots, however, should have been tied up long ago. I believe if de Rosnay wanted to end the book with the same final pages, she could have gotten to them far quicker than she did. That said, you'll still keep reading because...well...it's been that amazing of a ride. And a ride it is.

So as my friend Liz said to me, I now say to you: "You must read this book!" And when you do, or if you have, you'll have to tell me how you liked it.

2012-02-09T06:33:00.001-05:00

Every time the Hunger Games is mentioned, I get excited. The newly-released movie trailer is certainly no exception so I had to share. I also let you all in on an AWESOME idea a friend of mine just shared.

First the new trailer:

Now, onto the cool, fun idea. I was recently out at dinner with a handful of friends (guys and girls) all in their 20s to early 30s. When we got to talking about upcoming movies it was revealed that every last one of us had read the Hunger Games! I find this particularly amazing considering it's YA fiction and also because of YA adult consumers, they tend to be more predominantly female than male. You can imagine my surprise--and excitement--to hear everyone so fantastically obsessed with this AMAZING series (guys included). What arose by the end of the dinner was a plan to jointly go watch the film...

...but someone has now just one-upped the night. The idea? A Reaping Party to get excited about the film and celebrate our love of literature. That's right, a "Reaping Party," people! You're to dress up as one of your favorite Hunger Games characters and your names are all put in a bowl and over the course of the evening if your name is drawn then there's a challenge and subsequent prize if you succeed. How kick a*s is that?

What fan events, costumes, or fan fiction have you ever participated in?

YA books come to TV

2012-02-06T06:11:00.000-05:00

There's a new Hunger Games-esque pilot coming to a TV near you--and it's based on a forthcoming YA book series. You know me. I LOVED the Hunger Games so anything that even suggests the comparison will at least peak my interest enough for a look. It's called The Selection and here's what it's about:

Title: The Selection
Logline: Based on the forthcoming series of books by Kiera Cass, The Selection is an epic romance set 300 years in the future which centers on a poor young woman who is chosen by lottery to participate in a competition to become the next queen of a war-torn nation at a crossroads.
Executive Producers-Writers: Elizabeth Craft and Sarah Fain; Warner Bros. Television

And then there's the Sex and the City prequel based on the YA series The Carrie Diaries. Here's the description:

Ready for the high school version of Sex and the City?
The CW has ordered a pilot of The Carrie Diaries, based on SATC author Candace Bushnell’s novel following young Carrie Bradshaw. The story tells of Bradshaw coming of age in the 1980s, “asking her first questions about love, sex, friendship and family, while exploring the worlds of high school and Manhattan.” Amy Harris, who worked on HBO’s original SATC, wrote the Carrie Diaries pilot.

Sex and the City back on TV (non-sindicated that is) definitely makes me smile. The early years of how Carrie and the gang ended up in NYC and met one another. Count me in.

What new TV shows or books are you looking forward to?

On Outlining

2012-01-31T06:47:00.000-05:00

I've always had a love/hate relationship with outlines. I understand their use in planning, staying on track, envisioning the entire story, and ensuring a build up to the climax. I've also felt that they constrain the creative process at times and leave little room for the characters to evolve as they must...must because as the writer I'm getting to know them even better and because sometimes they surprise me.

I suppose that's why I'll often compromise with a brief outline with major plot points that include A and B and C, but how certain characters achieve getting from A to B may be somewhat fluid in my mind.

Well, that's all about to change!

I recently received some very insightful--and helpful--advice about my WIP, particularly the middle of the story where the plot twists plateau before the big pick up. This wasn't achieving an even greater surprise for the audience at the end. It was slowly losing them because my writing from point to point wasn't as tension filled as they need to be.

And so I'm back to the editing drawing board, this time with the New Year's resolution to be much more detailed--and to study the plot twists of my fav novels and the education out there available. One amazing site recommended to me, and which I've already been devouring is The Plot Whisperer (http://plotwhisperer.blogspot.com/). If you haven't checked it out, well what are you waiting for?!

What's your writing or work weakness?

Happy Friday!

2012-01-27T07:58:00.000-05:00

I recently shared The Vow trailer with you, exclaiming how I can't wait for it to come out. I've also explained Channing Tatum as being one of my dream employees helping make this blog happen :-)

So when a friend sent me a photo from Channing's GQ photo shoot but improvised with his movie The Vow in mind, I couldn't help but smile and share:

What celebrity crushes do you have?

Cover Love

2012-01-24T06:14:00.000-05:00

Carrier of the Mark
by Leigh Fallon is a cover I just uncovered and I adore. It's simple but beautiful. It's intriguing and artful and hints at the dark undertones of this storyline. Awesome!

Here's the description: Their love was meant to be.

When Megan Rosenberg moves to Ireland, everything in her life seems to fall into place. After growing up in America, she's surprised to find herself feeling at home in her new school. She connects with a group of friends, and she is instantly drawn to darkly handsome Adam DeRÍs.

But Megan is about to discover that her feelings for Adam are tied to a fate that was sealed long ago—and that the passion and power that brought them together could be their ultimate destruction.

What interesting books have you stumbled upon lately?

Breaking the Rules

2012-01-20T06:33:00.015-05:00

If you're a writer that's ever researched query letters then you've heard that query letters are NOT to be written from the first person perspective of your character. Well, I stumbled upon one successful query letter from author Miranda Kenneally, represented by the amazing Sara Megibow of Nelson Literary Agency that does just that--and it rocks! This is a perfect example where great writing, an intriguing storyline, and a great voice trumps all. Here's the successful query that Kenneally wrote:

My name is Jordan Woods, I’m seventeen, and last year, I blew it in the final seconds of the Tennessee state championship football game. This year, I can’t let that happen or I’ll never get a scholarship to play ball in college. I have a lot to prove, what, with an NFL star for a father – a father who doesn’t think I should be playing football. Why wouldn’t a famous quarterback want his kid to follow in the family footsteps?

I’m a girl.

But I’ve been playing quarterback since I was seven, so everyone’s gotten used to me by now. I’m a normal teenage girl. Well, as normal as I can be. I mean, obviously I think Justin Timberlake is a mega hunk, but I’m also over six feet tall and can launch a football fifty yards. Other ways I’m not normal? A girl who hangs with an entire football team must hook up all the time, right?

Nope.

I’ve never had a boyfriend and most people think I’m gay. Hell, I’ve never even kissed a guy. But that might be about to change because the hottest guy, Ty Green, just moved here from Texas. Just the sight of him makes me want to simultaneously fly and barf. It turns out that he’s also a quarterback, and he’s a hell of a lot better than me. Last year, Ty led his team to win the Texas state championship.

And I’m scared. What if Coach gives my position away? What if Ty isn’t interested in me? The worst fear of all? What if Ty distracts me from my dreams of playing ball in college?

And why is my best friend, our star wide receiver, acting so strangely all of a sudden?

SCORE, my 67,000-word YA novel, explores when it’s okay to make compromises in life, and when to take risks. My protagonist writes poetry (it’s a hobby that she keeps hidden from her teammates), so some sections of the manuscript are written in verse. While Catherine Murdock’s DAIRY QUEEN series also focuses on a female football player, my novel is different in that my protagonist doesn’t just decide to play football one day. Football is the only life my protagonist has ever known. When this new guy moves to town, she begins to explore the femininity she has rejected her entire life. She also faces a serious struggle with unrequited love, though not in the way you might expect.

Since your agency represents Ally Carter, I thought you might be interested. I also believe you’ll enjoy the love story. I attended American University, where I studied creative writing and literature. As a tomboy who grew up playing football during recess and didn’t get her first kiss until the age of sixteen, embarrassingly, I am highly qualified to write this novel.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Though the title was later changed from Score to Catching Jordan, you can see this has great pacing, an unique heroine from what we've been seeing in YA these days, solid writing ability, and a true sense of who Jordan is. I want to read it NOW! And that's what a great query letter should do.

To get into the head of her now agent and what her impressions were, read this interview courtesy of YA Highway.

Young Adult

2012-01-18T06:36:00.000-05:00

After far too long of a delay I finally had time to go see the movie "Young Adult." The tagline for which reads, "Everyone gets old. Not everyone grows up."

The movie stars Charlize Theron as Mavis Gary, a role she plays impeccably. Mavis, a young adult ghost writer has hit a creative roadblock while finishing the final book of a now floundering series. It is then that she receives an email from her ex-boyfriend and high school love Buddy Slade announcing the joy of his newborn baby.

Mavis obsesses over this fact until crafting a plan to return to Mercury, Minnesota to save him as he's so obviously "trapped" in his marriage, in their small hometown, and with this child. The driver of this compulsive reaction is Mavis' own insecurities and inadequacies of crafting her own life in Minneapolis and as a writer. We have no hint at any real fulfillment that Mavis may have in her life. She seems to generally enjoy her writing but not in the passionate way I've known so many of my writerly friends to be but, rather, because she knows high school. More specifically, Mavis knows the mind of the high school queen bee--a title she has never truly sough to evolve from. A title that means very little to many of her now former classmates, including Buddy Slade and his wife.

Mavis is equally as good at her own mind games as her characters are; so much so that she never truly looks inward at her motivations. She props herself up on a mightier than thou stance because she has "escaped" their town to the big city, but what life exactly does she have there in her sterile apartment and constant reruns of reality television?

Mavis returns to Mercury and, as is often the case when one returns home, she becomes the person she was when she left. In fact, she claims to have escaped Mercury but what's so sad about this dark comedy is that she's actually desperately longing to hold onto everything she had that's there: her popularity, her old boyfriend, her superiority. Everyone knows her in Mercury and she makes a point of dressing the part. When alone, however, she is drunken and wearing recycled sweatpants. It is only with new friend Matt does she show us the true Mavis, and what we see isn't pretty. It's a neurotic, beautiful woman who is so utterly alone and so completely lost that she's devoting all of her energy on confiscating someone else's life. Sure, it's a life she once believed she would have: one with Buddy, one perhaps with a baby.

Mavis couldn't care less about her family or, really, anyone but herself. Charlize nails the role of a self involved woman. It's all about how others can help her. Matt, a fellow classmate whom she rarely if at all remembers is her only confidant. It's part kindred spirits, part drunken antics, part excuse to be rebellious and juvenile once again. Matt is really only known for the cruelest event to ever happen in his life and, perhaps, in Mercury: He's the victim of a hate crime. On one end, Mavis' ability to look past this and not dwell on his handicap shows us a glimmer of hope. That hope, however, is never nourished. This is, after all, a dark comedy not a RomCom. Our heroine doesn't evolve as we would like. She uses Matt to feel better about herself.

That said, Matt uses Mavis for many of the same reasons. She's this ideal that he both valorized and now pleasantly gets along with. It's like finding out your idol is merely human with all the same flaws as everyone else; it's humbling and horrifying at the same time.

Mavis has her moments of humor, many of them in fact. She also has her moments of clarity if brief and fleeting. For example, she admits once aloud that she suspects she's an alcoholic but her proclamation isn't taken seriously.

The story comes to a climax at her ex-boyfriend's house. I won't give away all the details in case you go see the movie but I will say this: as conceded an individual as Mavis is, so completely without thought of her actions and consideration for others, I couldn't help but wonder how much of this is truly who she is and how much of it is fiction like what she writes--a front she so desperately clings to because her popular and beautiful ways once worked before and she's desperate to prove she still has it, desperate to believe the lies she tells herself.

Young Adult goes where so few movies and stories dare to go: a protagonist that we don't particularly like. That said, the storyline is unique and risk taking. Charlize so embodies this character that we believe she's true with every ounce of us even though we know it's a work of fiction. Diablo Cody, the screenwriter, does what she does so well. She takes a magnifying glass to life and people and peels back the layers of those onions. She unapologetically writes a story with all the mess and snare that life has to offer. I would certainly recommend this movie for anyone looking for a well acted interesting story about the queen bee that never grew up and the town that did.

Swagger Song

2012-01-12T07:37:00.004-05:00

I just stumbled upon this song and I have to say, I LOVE it. Yesterday in DC it was rainy as all heck. Absolutely HORRIBLE out. I knew it wasn't going to be a very nice walk from the metro to my office when earlier that morning my waterdog of a Lab didn't even want to get wet!

But then I hit play on my iPod with this song:

and suddenly it wasn't quite so bad. Okay, that's a lie. It was still awful out, but this song did what all good swagger songs should. It invigorated me, got my head nodding and gave me that little extra pep in my step. Here's hoping it does the same for you!

What awesome songs have you come across lately?

Review of From Black Heels to Tractor Wheels

2012-01-10T07:49:00.013-05:00

From Black Heels to Tractor Wheels by Ree Drummond (aka The Pioneer Woman) may not be the first book you'd expect to see featured on my blog but I'm a sucker for a good love story, anything with quirk, and of course good recipes! My friend Valerie and I met doing charity work for the Ronald Macdonald House some years ago and ever since have been swapping book recommendations back and forth and bonding over our shared of love of reading. Around the holidays she told me quite enthusiastically about From Black Heels to Tractor Wheels. My response? We need to share this with my blog followers! And so she's been kind enough to guest post her review here. I hope you enjoy it, and if you've read the book, what did you think?

Here's what it's about: "That's when I saw him—the cowboy—across the smoky room."

I'll never forget that night. It was like a romance novel, an old Broadway musical, and a John Wayne western rolled into one. Out for a quick drink with friends, I wasn't looking to meet anyone, let alone a tall, rugged cowboy who lived on a cattle ranch miles away from my cultured, corporate hometown. But before I knew it, I'd been struck with a lightning bolt . . . and I was completely powerless to stop it.

Read along as I recount the rip-roaring details of my unlikely romance with a chaps-wearing cowboy, from the early days of our courtship (complete with cows, horses, prairie fire, and passion) all the way through the first year of our marriage, which would be filled with more challenge and strife—and manure—than I ever could have expected.

Valerie's take:
The Pioneer Woman’s book, From Black Heels to Tractor Wheels is a memoir of sorts. The Pioneer Woman (PW), aka Ree Drummond, runs a super successful blog, thepioneerwoman.com. She posts great, simple recipes with step by step photos of what everything should look like. She also posts her musings on the world, photos of her family, homeschooling tips and more, all articulated with her wry, quick, easy flowing tone. PW wears many hats including wife, mother, chef, ranch hand, blogger, tv show personality, and unintentional comedian. She lives in rural Oklahoma on a ranch and married to a real-life cowboy. *SWOON*

Drummond was not always on a ranch, though. She lived in Los Angeles and was staying with her family in Oklahoma before her next move to Chicago when she met her now husband, “Marlboro Man” as she calls him. This book chronicles her relationship with Marlboro Man from first sight through their first year of marriage

I loved this book. It was a quick read, particularly because you always want to know what is going to happen next. It is peppered with recipes and hunger-inducing descriptions of steaks, linguine with clam sauce, and cinnamon rolls. It has beautiful graphics at the start of every chapter – I am such a sucker for that! I was just as in love with Marlboro Man as Ree, and I think you will feel the same if you read the book. Most of the book was originally published as serial posts on her blog, and was so successful that it was developed into a book. For that reason, it is sometimes a little disjointed, but content rules over transition in this book so it’s a forgivable offense.

Sarah’s bio says her love of cooking is second only to her love of eating, so I knew I had to include some of Ree's discussion on food. Here she is talking about cooking Linguine with Clam Sauce for a date. (And here's the to recipe to make it yourself at home!)

“In preparation for Date Five, I agonized for 24 hours over what I could cook for this strapping new man in my life—this man whose voice made my knees go weak and whose strong, sweet kisses finally showed me why God invented lips. I knew one thing: I had to pull out all the stops for this meal. Clearly, no mediocre cuisine would do. I reviewed all the dishes in my sophisticated, city-girl arsenal, most of which I’d picked up during my years in Los Angeles, and finally settled on the obvious winner: Linguine with Clam Sauce… Problem was, I had no earthly idea who I was dealing with. I had no idea that Marlboro Man, a fourth-generation cattle rancher, doesn’t eat fish, let alone minced up little clams, let alone minced up little clams bathed in wine and cream, let alone minced up little clams bathed in wine and cream that are mixed up with a bunch of long noodles that are way too complicated to negotiate. To say Linguine with Clam Sauce is near the very bottom of the list of dishes Marlboro Man would ever elect to touch with a ten foot poll would be an understatement of epic proportions.

But here’s the romantic part. He ate it. Well, he ate most of it, seemingly enjoying it at the time but, I realize now, refraining from throwing out too many effusive compliments, probably out of fear I’d cook it again sometime.”

Enjoy!

Cover Love

2012-01-05T07:48:00.000-05:00

If you're a regular follower of the blog then you likely know I have two adorable and sometimes ridiculous dogs named Annie and Molly whom I adore. They couldn't be any more different from one another and yet they both fit in so well with our family.

So it's no surprise that I have a soft spot for books about dogs. Heck, one of my fav reads from last year was The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein and I've raved about Stay by Allie Larkin. (You can read my Q & A with her on the blog here in case you missed it.)

I just recently stumbled upon another dog book entitled You Had Me at Woof by Julie Klam that was just too cute to walk away from. Don't you agree?

Not only is the cover so adorable but the title kinda rocks too! It's a perfect marketing marriage and, for a sap like me, insurance that this lands smack into my TBR list.

Here's what it's about: Julie Klam was thirty, single, and working as a part-time clerk in an insurance company, wondering if she would ever meet the man she could spend the rest of her life with. And then it happened. She met the irresistible Otto, her first in a long line of Boston terriers, and fell instantly in love.

You Had Me at Woof is the often hilarious and always sincere story of how one woman discovered life's most important lessons from her relationships with her canine companions. From Otto, Julie realized what it might feel like to find "the one." She learned to share her home, her heart, and her limited resources with another, and she found an authentic friend in the process. But that was just the beginning. Over the years her brood has grown to one husband, one daughter, and several Boston terriers. And although she had much to learn about how to care for them-walks at 2 a.m., vet visits, behavior problems-she was surprised and delighted to find that her dogs had more wisdom to convey to her than she had ever dreamed. And caring for them has made her a better person-and completely and utterly opened her heart. Riotously funny and unexpectedly poignant, You Had Me at Woof recounts the hidden surprises, pleasures, and revelations of letting any mutt, beagle, terrier, or bulldog go charging through your world.

What books won you over at first sight?

Write What You Know

2012-01-02T08:32:00.000-05:00

I've heard the saying, "Write what you know." It's because to write well the reader needs to feel a sense of truth to the story and its characters. Even in fiction, that connection, that sense that something is ringing true, must be there.

I got thinking a lot about this idea when I was home over the holidays. It's tough when a loved one isn't around and the holidays come to being. A few years ago my grandpa passed away and every year since I've made a point of reflecting on stories about him with my grandma. It keeps him fresh in our minds in the most wonderful of ways.

My grandpa grew up in Williamsburg, Brooklyn back before Williamsburg let along Brooklyn became a trendy place to live. At the time, he was the only Irish family in an all Italian neighborhood. He grew up surrounded by Italians, eating Italian food, and ultimately marrying an Italian woman. My grandma admitted to me this past Christmas that my grandpa tried to join an Italian-American club in his retirement years but without a lick of Italian blood in him, he was denied.

Don't get me wrong, there was definitely a part of my grandfather that was proud to be Irish but what he knew was Italian. He knew to win over my grandma's family he had to help make homemade wine, taste test fresh spaghetti sauce, and never protest when someone tells you to "eat more; you're too skinny." He got used to the family gatherings we have now where four people can presumably talk all at the time and at increasingly loud volumes and yet it's not an argument that's taking place, it's normal.

But how much of what we know needs to be in our writing and storytelling and how much of it can be imagination? How true can we be to an experience if we've read it or heard it but never lived it? What's the proper balance?

My grandpa went to Ireland a few years before he passed away. Part of him had to experience something he was connected to but knew little about. No one in his family was alive to tell him about Ireland; there were no traditions passed on; and certainly no family recipes. He didn't grow up among other Irish-American immigrant families or go to school with them. It was a factoid upon which he had no other observations or truths to bestow.

When he came back from Ireland, there was an excitement and a level of appreciation that I had never seen. It didn't change his history, however. He still preferred Italian food. He still loved his Italian wife. He still identified with all the things he had before. But, now, he could tell stories about Ireland too...and something about that was beautiful. Something about that made his own personal story seem more complete.

Sure we can't experience everything our characters do in fiction but we need to try our best to tap into their mindset, to do our research, or do as my grandfather had done and go out and explore. If we do then we'll not only have richer material from which to draw from, we'll become better storytellers too.

OMG I Want to See This!

2011-12-28T07:37:00.000-05:00

Beautiful actors, chemistry, falling in love (and doing it again!), tension, uncertainty, high stakes, and pacing. This movie promises to have everything a great storyline should. Plus it's Channing Tatum and Rachel McAdams, people! I love these two and deep down, I'm a sap for a good romance. I think anyone who enjoys the genre can agree that part of you is a hopeless romantic. Isn't that why we're attracted to these storylines? We find some hope or excitement in experiencing what feels like real life individuals stumbling upon an extraordinary love. So excited!

What movies or books are you already anticipating this New Year?

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T06:36:00.000-05:00

I adore the movie Love Actually so I thought I'd steal a scene from there. Happy holidays and happy reading this year!

We Have Winners

2011-12-23T08:16:00.004-05:00

Congratulations to Cat and Stephanie Haefner, the winners of the Christmas book giveaway!

Please email me at scookraymond@gmail.com with your mailing address. For everyone else who entered, thanks so much and I hope you have a great holiday season. I look forward to sharing with you all of my favorite reads in 2012 and hearing yours as well!

Title Love and Cover Love

2011-12-21T06:12:00.000-05:00

I just recently stumbled upon the books Freshman Year and Other Unnatural Distasters and The Fine Art of Truth or Dare , and had to share.

Freshman Year and Other Unnatural Disasters: I am absolutely in LOVE with this title. So many YA novels seem to examine junior and senior year so I'm interested to see a book that's just crossed over from MG and features a slightly different YA protagonist. I'm curious to find out if the voice reads younger and, of course, to hear about all of the interesting hurdles that a new high school life can bring! Unfortunately it doesn't come out until March of 2012, though that's one more reason to be happy about entering a New Year--new book releases!

Another release in early 2012 is The Fine Art of Truth or Dare and, really, how can you not love this cover? It has a little of everything: art history, romance, mystery (because you know you're curious who is behind that canvas), and intrigue (because nothing good really comes from truth or dare).

What are you most looking forward to in 2012?

This was too awesome not to share

2011-12-19T06:34:00.001-05:00

My husband and I are big fans of "How I Met Your Mother." Barney, of course, is such an amazing character and one of the reasons we love this show. In writing we so often talk about "voice." Well Barney has that voice thanks to great writing and amazing acting execution. So happy Monday folks. Take Barney's advice and embrace your awesome!

Who are some of your favorite characters with a unique voice?

Christmas Giveaway

2011-12-15T06:00:00.001-05:00

I'm in a festive mood because of the holidays and I wanted to celebrate by sharing some of my favorite--and most anticipated--books.

Below are some of my top picks from my reading list this year as well as a couple that are on the top of my drool-worthy TBR list to ensure it's a happy reading New Year indeed.

Here are the noteworthy books:
1. The Help

2. Before I Fall

3. Let the Great World Spin

4. Divergent

5. Sarah's Key

6. Original Sin

and

7. The Paris Wife

It's an eclectic mix but all great fun. Since I'm feeling particularly giving, I'm going to have two winners in this giveaway. Each winner will have their pick of one of the books above. Good luck!

Rules of the contest are as follows:

1. You must be a follower of this blog.
2. Extra entries if you blog, Facebook, or tweet about it (including @SCookRay in the tweet so I can find it)
3. Extra entry if you leave a comment about your favorite book read this year.
4. To enter, email me at scookraymond@gmail.com, subject line "Christmas contest"

Contest closes at 11:59 pm EST on December 22nd. I'll announce the winner on December 23rd. Good luck!

Young Adult

2011-12-12T06:08:00.000-05:00

Have you guys heard of the new movie from Diablo Cody (author of Juno) called Young Adult? It looks pretty awesome and is based on a young adult novelist and ex-mean girl (Charlize Theron) coming back to her hometown to rekindle a romance with her high school flame. The tag line? "Everyone gets older, not everyone grows up."

What do you think? Will you go see this? If not, what holiday movies are you looking forward to this month?

A Book Trailer for Every YA Book

2011-12-07T08:22:00.004-05:00

I'm a little late to the party in discovering this video but it's hilarious so I had to share. It summarizes the major plot themes in much of YA. It's a great parody book trailer. Enjoy!

On Revisions

2011-12-05T07:02:00.001-05:00

I was convinced my story started at the right point. I was dropping my character off in the drama. I was writing everything that needed to happen to propel the story forward. This was it...

Only it wasn't.

I learned two valuable lessons recently. 1) Most writers don't start their stories at the right moment, and 2) sometimes we need to write scenes even if they never make "the cut."

I had an opening scene that helped explain to me the order of events. I thought this would make readers really feel for my character. I was wrong. As the author, I already know my character so, of course, when something tragic happens I'm emotionally invested. The reader, however, doesn't know my character at the start of the book. They're still giving him an audition. They can't possibly feel true emotions because they're not familiar with anyone in the storyline yet. The answer? I needed to start my story later. What I had wasn't quite working.

Finding where to start isn't an easy thing but, rather, a delicate balance. How do you start late enough that the readers don't feel they've missed anything yet not too early that it all sounds like prologue? It's tricky.

While that scene wasn't right for the beginning of my story, it was right for me as an author. I had to write my initial opening scene. It allowed me to understand everything my character had been through leading up to the beginning of the story. This was important background information. It ensured I had a thorough knowledge of my MC, and it helped me to find that right balance. My old opening didn't make the final version but it helped my outlook.

So don't feel discouraged if in your revising stage you're hitting the delete button. Sometimes those words aren't meant to be there but were important exercises all the same.

What writing tips have you learned lately?

Cover Love

2011-12-01T08:30:00.000-05:00

You all know I'm a sucker for a good book cover. It grabs my attention and, at the very least, gets me to read the back jacket so bravo to the marketing departments because I discovered two more that I'm in love with.

1. Slow Motion by Dani Shapiro

Dani Shapiro, a young woman from a deeply religious home, became the girlfriend of a famous and flamboyant married attorney-her best friend's stepfather. The moment Lenny Klein entered her life, everything changed: she dropped out of college, began drinking, and neglected her friends and family. But then came a phone call-an accident on a snowy road had left her parents critically injured. Forced to reconsider her life, Shapiro learned to re-enter the world she had left. Telling of a life nearly ruined by the gift of beauty, and then saved through tragedy, Shapiro's memoir is a beautiful account of how a life gone terribly wrong can be rescued through tragedy.

I love this because it's simple and strikes that line between straightforward and abstract. Slow motion typically suggests proceeding with caution and yet this is juxtaposed by the blurred car lights (ie. car accident).

2. Fracture by Megan Miranda. Eleven minutes passed before Delaney Maxwell was pulled from the icy waters of a Maine lake by her best friend Decker Phillips. By then her heart had stopped beating. Her brain had stopped working. She was dead. And yet she somehow defied medical precedent to come back seemingly fine. Despite the scans that showed significant brain damage. Everyone wants Delaney to be all right, but she knows she's far from normal. Pulled by strange sensations she can't control or explain, Delaney finds herself drawn to the dying. Is her altered brain now predicting death, or causing it?

Then Delaney meets Troy Varga, who recently emerged from a coma with similar abilities. At first she's reassured to find someone who understands the strangeness of her new existence, but Delaney soon discovers that Troy's motives aren't quite what she thought. Is their gift a miracle, a freak of nature-or something much more frightening?

Fracture is downright beautiful. Growing up in Upstate New York I love a great wintery scene. What really drew my attention, however, is the girl. Right away this tells us she's the main protagonist. We see her reflection under the ice, the two versions of herself staring off at one another. The curvature of the reflection reminded me of a circular earth with each version of the girl stuck on the other side, almost like a ying and yang. After reading description you see how right on this cover really is with the book's main themes. Love it!

Both of these books are being added to my TBR list, but what about you? What book covers do you love?

Review

2011-11-29T06:16:00.006-05:00

We all knew it was going to happen. I said as much. And so it comes as no surprise that I went to see the Breaking Dawn movie.

Overall I thought they did a pretty decent job of translating the book to the film. All of the major events and character drama is included. The cinematography was great, included those panorama shots the film is so keen on, and thankfully the wolves were a little more normal size.

There were, however, several instances where some conversation or point seemed like a random aside because the foreshadowing is to an event we haven't yet seen. Take the mention of Laurent's death at the wedding for example. If we had only seen this first installment of the film and not read the book then it seems irrelevant. As writers, however, we know nothing a writer creates is by accident. It's all building to a larger purpose but the difficulty with breaking a book into two movies is that not every seed that's planted in the beginning is resolved by the middle.

That said, I found the climax to be excellent. They created that moment of self doubt. Despite having read the book there's still a part of me that connects to Edward in his moment of shocked grief, to Jacob as he sobs in the front lawn, and begs for Bella to come back. And the moment she does, it's blood red eyes we see and then *credits.* It definitely concluded at a cliff hanger of a moment and left me wanting more because this, of course, changes everything--everything we know about the dynamic of the characters, about Bella, and about her relationship with Edward.

The chemistry between Edward and Bella was still palpable throughout the film but, at least on screen, I'm finding Jacob's involvement even more bothersome. I couldn't help but think, "The girl's married. Give up already!" and yet there he was, still pining away.

The movie also failed, in my opinion, to adequately explain imprinting. Sure Jacob has a flash forward moment when he sees baby Renesmee (thank God they admit this is a terrible name) but, really, what's to say Renesmee won't always think of him as creepy uncle Jacob who used to dig my mom and is 18 years older than me? He's the only one imprinting here. I do find it peculiar no one ever questions the other partner's willingness to join the relationship. Hopefully this will be explored or clarified in the next installment.

The action was good but, of course, there's so much action that we can never get to until the next installment when the storyline really comes to fruition and Bella's life as a vampire takes hold. Thankfully that next installment won't include Bella pregnant with a demon baby. Holy hell, breaking bones! I actually shrieked in the theater. Sure Bella was contorting and exceptionally gross and malnourished but I did NOT expect that.

What I did expect was for the film to be consistent with all of the others particularly in conveying Bella's unique mix of insecurity and strength. That's seen no where more than in this movie. I look forward to seeing how these dueling characteristics play out in the next film, because as one movie patron hollered as we left, "See you all next November," and I'm sure he's right. He will.

Don't Give Up!

2011-11-23T06:06:00.000-05:00

I'm a big fan of Miss Snark's First Victim blog. If you don't know it then please come out from under that rock and check it out!

This past Monday she announced which entries from aspiring authors qualified for her Baker's Dozen Contest (think critiques and more exposure). One non-recipient said the rejection made them want to give up.

First of all, did they not see the WriteOnCon video from NYT bestselling author Beth Revis? Or my posting of it earlier this year? If not, here it is again just in case the third time's a charm!

YES! This NYT bestselling author wrote not 1, not 2, but 10 (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10) manuscripts before she got to where she wanted to be. You know why? Because she had a dream, and a dream coupled with fierce determination means there's nothing you can't do.

We hear too often the instant success stories. The author that wrote their entire manuscript in a month or who had 6 offers of representation and barely a rejection letter to their name, or their first book sale was a three-book deal with movie rights optioned. WHAT?! That happens?

Yes, it does, but not often. These are sensational stories about rare individuals. Would I love to be one of these individuals. Hell yeah. Wouldn't you? Are most of us? Sadly, no. But we learn from all of this and we move on, move forward, or move further into edits.

For me, you may know that I recently finished my second manuscript. I wrote the first, queried RIGHT AWAY (big no, no), received my fair share of rejections and requests, got waaaayyyy too excited about my full manuscript submissions, and ultimately nothing came of it. Did I give up? Does it look like it?

I do think there's an important distinction, however, about giving up on writing and the pursuit of a dream versus giving up at least temporarily on a story. I had the option of doing the kind of edits I should have done the first time around and querying new agents or starting from scratch. Yes, it's scarier to start from scratch but for me, I was already cheating on my first manuscript with my second. I couldn't help it. Something told me I had a much bigger and better idea this second time around and now, I had the lessons learned from that first manuscript under my belt to ensure I did right this time.

While there's not guarantees, one good sign is that I haven't sent a single query letter out yet and after a writers conference I have 2 full manuscripts and a partial request and now I've been admitted to Miss Snark's Baker's Dozen Contest.

This reminds me of the worst interview question I was ever asked. The HR person said, "If you could describe yourself as smart or hardworking and you could only be one, which would it be?" That day I chose hardworking. There are a lot of smart people out there that never do anything with it. I'm a firm believer that success doesn't happen by accident. Hard work has to be part of the equation. So don't give up. Ever!

Maybe the manuscript you're working on isn't THE ONE, and maybe the next one isn't either but that doesn't mean it won't happen. My old writing teacher used to say, "If you don't want to read your work, what makes you think anyone else will?" Well my question to you is, "If you don't believe in yourself, what makes you think anyone else should?"

It's a SUBJECTIVE business. I never knew how true this was until I attended my first writer's conference earlier this month and heard a query letter get kissed and courted in one session and absolutely torn apart in another.

Believe in yourself. Study the books you love and pull apart what it is that makes them work. Write and rewrite and read aloud and rewrite some more. Pull in tons of eyes to take a look and encourage them to be as brutal as possible. Reach out to local writers groups, and most of all, believe that one day it will happen.

I do want to preface however that framing the dream is an important step too. Are you writing for you or for publication? I think this is a big distinction. Yes, we'd all love for our work to be published but at the end of the day if we find joy and solace, reprieve and excitement from the characters in our heads and the words spilling out in the pages then maybe that's enough as well. It doesn't mean to stop trying, it simply means that our own personal joy is what's most important of all. And maybe, just maybe, when we stop pressuring ourselves and writing for others, we have the most fun of all...and write that sparkling manuscript we always dreamed possible.

These are hilarious!

2011-11-22T06:31:00.000-05:00

So you want to write a novel:

Aspiring writer versus agent:

Breaking Dawn

2011-11-17T06:00:00.009-05:00

I think Christina Perri has a gorgeous voice. Then I saw the video which is simple and romantic and, in my opinion, utter beautiful in its eloquence. It also seems a nice complement to the upcoming Breaking Dawn movie and features additional clips of Bella and Edward's wedding and honeymoon so enjoy!

I decided to host a contest to coincide with my fan girl excitement for the movie opening this weekend. (I can't help it; I dare you to feel otherwise.)

As such, I'll be giving away one hard copy of Breaking Dawn.

Rules:
1. Contest is open now until 11:59 pm EST November 22. Winner will be announced November 23.

2. Contest is international.

3. You must be a follower of the blog.

4. Email entry to scookraymond@gmail.com, subject line "Breaking Dawn."

5. Extra entries if you Facebook about it or tweet, "@SCookRay is hosting a #breakingdawn #giveaway #contest" and include the link to this site.

Good luck!

WTF Wednesday

2011-11-16T06:37:00.000-05:00

1. This isn't new but I forgot to share. I left work late on Halloween night and saw several girls wearing fishnets and no pants (think leotards). They were all huddled together on the corner. My educated guess? Prostitutes. I mean I do work in DC so it's not the wildest idea ever especially when encountering pant-less women in the middle of the night. As I approached, however, I saw the faint little headbands with cat ears. Turns out they were just girls dressed in slutty Halloween costumes outside for a smoke. And my feminist heart died.

And then I remembered this:

2. Zac Efron channels 70s' style mustache in effort to be ugly. Why Zac, why?

3. The Duggar family announces they're pregnant with their 20th child. Um, what?! Am I the only one who thinks this is sounding like an addiction? How do you find time to spend with your kids when you can field 4 full basketballs teams? (Sorry, I think in sports analogies.)

Have you had any WTF moments lately?

Hunger Games!!!

2011-11-15T08:44:00.000-05:00

Here's the newly-released extended Hunger Games movie trailer. LOVE it!

Are you as excited to see the film as I am?

Monday Morning Moment of Zen

2011-11-14T06:43:00.000-05:00

My husband took this picture on a work trip to Alaska. Nature doesn't get much more beautiful that this.

What's your zen moment this Monday?

Questions to Ask on "The Call"

2011-11-11T06:30:00.000-05:00

Various agents discussed what to talk about should you get "the call" as in a literary agent offers representation.

-How do you work/what's your strategy for working with me?

-How do you give me information (e.g. email, phone calls)?

-How do your contracts work?

-What do you envision for my work?

-What is the author-agent relationship?

-What is your plan from here?

-What is it about my book that you loved/connected with?

-What sort of revisions would you suggest for my work?

-What editors do you have in mind for the book?

-How editorial are you?

-What has your experience been with my kind of book? (Note, if an agent has experience in that genre then you want to hear about it; if they're trying to break into that market then you want to learn why.)

Remember when the agent calls, you're not only interviewing them but they're also interviewing you. See how well of a fit the two of you are.

Marketing

2011-11-09T06:47:00.000-05:00

Another key topic at the Backspace Writers Conference was marketing or, more specifically, branding. Who are you and what do you stand for? Think authors and consumer assumptions.

If you pick up Nicholas Sparks you know it's very book club-ish as in people fall in love, someone dies, and everyone feels reconciliation at the end. If it's Jodi Picoult, you know there will be serious issues tackled and likely alternating points of view. Melissa Banks or David Sedaris equal comedy and often shorter vignettes. John Grisham is legal thrillers. You get the point. The big question is what are you synonymous with?

If you're just starting out the answer may be, "not much" but that's why planning ahead is important. Successful brands don't just happen; they're strategic and opportunities are taken to reiterate that brand in the marketplace.

If you have a platform let it be known. That means if you're a lawyer and you write legal thrillers or you're a doctor and you write medical dramas then you should include that in your query. That helps give you legitimacy and is part of your brand.

Ways to improve your brand recognition is to be your biggest advocate--to get out there whether with your local writers club, critique partners, social media platforms, book review mediums etc. As one agent said, "Think of a Google search as a personal resume." Check what the Web says about you and work to reinforce, modify, or fill in the blanks.

So, who do you want to be and what do you want your writing to stand for?

What Literary Agents Want

2011-11-07T06:40:00.008-05:00

This was the topic of one of the panels at the Backspace Writers Conference. If you haven't gone, I highly recommend it. I met some amazing people including fellow writers and got rejuvenated to return to my WIP and keep editing along. All this week I'll be sharing with you (as promised) some of the important information I gleaned from the event.

So, what do literary agents want? Great writing. What is it?

1. Originality. The novel has to really bring the reader into the world and there has to be some unique X factor about it. As one agent said, "Write the book you want to read and that's not currently out there." Don't write to trends. By the time you do, the trend is likely over. Case in point? Lots of agents recycling the words, "No vampires or werewolves!"

2. Query letter strength. The query letter is your audition. It has to be as strong as the writing in the novel itself. It may be all an agent sees of your writing. If you were a singer you'd want to showcase your voice right out front and get their jaws to drop on those first few notes. You wouldn't hide that awesome range for the end of the song because you might never make it there. The same is true for queries. Be sure it truly reflects your novel and your main character. Ideally we'd have a true sense of who your character is by the time those few paragraphs of a query letter are through. Best advice: tailor your query letter to the back of a book/book jacket. You want to introduce us to characters, have your hook, and leave us wanting more.

3. Voice. More and more books today are truly voice/character driven. There has to be a differentiation between your main character and others. Think of it this way, if you could remove the "says Emily" or "says Toby" additions to your dialogue, would it be clear who is talking? If the answer is no then go back and work on your voice some more.

4. Pace. Pacing is sooooo important. The second an editor or agent gets bored and feels they can put your book down, it's the kiss of death. This means focusing on tightening your storyline, getting rid of anything unnecessary, being careful with too much exposition or back story, and varying sentence length to improve the readability of your prose. As one agent said, "If a word is not serving your purpose, why is it there?"

5. Tension. It needs to be clear to the readers all along what the stakes are. This invests them in the storyline and your characters. It also assists with the pacing of the book.

6. Intangible quality. An agent said, "Sometimes good writing has an intangible quality. Even after pointing out style, word choice, and turns of phrase, there's still something about it you can't quite place but which pulls you in." As writers to it might be difficult to determine if we have that quality in our own work, but this is where beta readers are so important. We all know this quality too. It's how so many people can badmouth the writing of Twilight but they've read it and devoured it themselves. Whatever they think of the word choice or the style, they were pulled into the story and never let go. That's what good writing does and not all good writing has to be literary writing; it can be commercial too.

7. Professionalism. Agents want to know that your novel isn't a "one-off." They want to know that you will take the process seriously because this is their job. They may like you and become friends with you but you are colleagues first and foremost. They have to want to work with you and know that when they recommend you to an editor and say you're fabulous to collaborate with, that it's the truth because it's their reputation that's on the line. So no crazy antics; no badmouthing on the Web etc. I once heard the phrase "What happens in Vegas lives on Facebook forever." I think the same is true for writers, "What happens in cyberspace is Google-able forever." (Yes, I made that word up but you get the point.)

I think the greatest take away from all of this is not to rush the process, to really focus on honing your craft and making your work the best it possibly can and then ensuring when you contact agents, all that hard work and professionalism and clean writing comes through. What's some good writing advise you've received?

Backspace Writers Conference

2011-11-04T06:00:00.000-04:00

Laura Stanford, a Backspace Writers Conference alum shares some conference tips here and literary agent Meredith Barnes explains why she recommends writing conferences and some conference 101 tips on her blog.

Where in the world is Sarah Cook-Raymond?

2011-11-03T06:00:00.001-04:00

Ahhhhh yeah!!!! I'm off to the N.Y.C. y'all.

I dare you not to be dancing in your desk chair with that theme song playing!

More specifically I'm at the Backspace Writers Conference. Not quite a Jay-Z video but exciting nevertheless.

When I return I'll be dropping some knowledge on all of you but in the interim would love to hear what your favorite aspects of conferences are and any great writing tips you've learned along the way. So please feel free to add to the comment sections. For me, I always adore the networking with other likeminded writers and giving myself some devoted time to focus on the craft. Laundry and other tasks on my to-do list be damned. I'm in critique sessions!

New Book Trailer!

2011-11-02T06:14:00.002-04:00

Wow guys. Wow. I've heard fabulous things about The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer but this book trailer blew me away. Very intriguing. This may have to move up on my TBR list!

Marine Corps Marathon

2011-10-31T06:57:00.005-04:00

Yesterday I spend the day cheering on the runners of the Marine Corps marathon, and more specifically a few close friends. I'd love to say I ran it but my bragging rights are limited to half marathons (and I've really only done a couple of those).

It was an amazing spectacle. There were over 35,000 runners weaving through the nation's capital. When fans, security, and volunteers are factored in, that number jumps to 100,000 people in attendance.

Many of the runners are soldiers or ex-military, some are even participating in wheel chairs or a prosthetic leg. They run through Arlington Cemetery and end the race up a heartbreak of a hill but with the Iwo Jima Memorial at the top.

It was an emotional event.

There were, of course, moments of hilarity like my friends sharing this marathon runner comedy spoof with me the night before:

What I took away from the event was that we're capable of completing whatever we want if we put our minds to it and never give up. Having a cheering section whether in running or in writing is essential. Sharing advice never goes out of fashion. And everybody wins when they all encourage each other's success.

These are very much the things I've been so impressed with in the writing community and after experiencing what's deemed "the people's marathon," I can see the same is true in running. They both take dedication and daily training but whether crossing the finish line or typing out "the end," there is a wonderful sense of accomplishment once it's complete. All those long days and nights become so totally worth it. So here's me cheering you on and encouraging you to share your advice and adventures with others! Feel free to start right here.

Book Trailers

2011-10-27T06:50:00.007-04:00

I know I've done several cover love and title love posts but to a lesser extent, book trailers so I thought I'd share some fabulous ones I've come across lately.

1. Crossed by Ally Condie
Here's what the book is about: In search of a future that may not exist and faced with the decision of who to share it with, Cassia journeys to the Outer Provinces in pursuit of Ky - taken by the Society to his certain death - only to find that he has escaped, leaving a series of clues in his wake.

Cassia's quest leads her to question much of what she holds dear, even as she finds glimmers of a different life across the border. But as Cassia nears resolve and certainty about her future with Ky, an invitation for rebellion, an unexpected betrayal, and a surprise visit from Xander - who may hold the key to the uprising and, still, to Cassia's heart - change the game once again. Nothing is as expected on the edge of Society, where crosses and double crosses make the path more twisted than ever.

2. Delirium by Lauren Oliver
Here's what it's about: Lena Haloway is content in her safe, government-managed society. She feels (mostly) relaxed about the future in which her husband and career will be decided, and looks forward to turning 18, when she’ll be cured of deliria, a.k.a. love. She tries not to think about her mother’s suicide (her last words to Lena were a forbidden “I love you”) or the supposed “Invalid” community made up of the uncured just beyond her Portland, Maine, border. There’s no real point—she believes her government knows how to best protect its people, and should do so at any cost. But 95 days before her cure, Lena meets Alex, a confident and mysterious young man who makes her heart flutter and her skin turn red-hot. As their romance blossoms, Lena begins to doubt the intentions of those in power, and fears that her world will turn gray should she submit to the procedure.

3. Infinity by Sherrilyn Kenyon
Here's what it's about: Kenyon, whose paranormal adult novels include 50 New York Times best-sellers, brings characters from her Dark Hunter series to teens with a new YA series featuring Nick Gautier, who appears here as a 14-year-old. After arriving at school and discovering that the football team members have turned into classmate-eating zombies, Nick sets out to stop the attacks, and in one unforgettable night, he learns that he has a pivotal role to play in an unseen world.

Have you seen any good books or book trailers lately?

While I Edit

2011-10-25T06:36:00.000-04:00

I've signed up for the Backspace Writers Conference in NYC this coming November 3-4. I've never been. I'm super excited and anxious and scared and a million other things. I think mainly I'm just interested in what it will be like, all the writer types I'll meet, and what I'll learn.

You can be sure I'll be posting updates when I get back. The structure includes some general informational panels about publishing but also critique sessions on query letters and two-page writing samples.

I'm a veteran when it comes to receiving constructive criticism. Most criticism I've received in the past, however, has been restricted to assignments in college or graduate school and then writing assignments at work. This will be the first real time I'm receiving criticism on my WIP.

I have posted on Query Tracker Forum and had some alpha readers* take a look but this is a whole new level and I'm not really sure what to expect. I know it's subjective but there's a certain anxiousness that's part hope, part anticipation of the worst possible scenario. As such I've been busying myself with edits and using this conference date as a good motivator to work on some scenes I've been procrastinating.

You can be sure that where I'm typing, my trusty Lab Molly is always lying by my feet encouraging me along--or falling asleep when I read aloud to her :-)

And while my Molly is growing a very unfashionable gray goatee at the moment and is all grown up, I thought I'd share this blast from the past of baby Molly and today's Tuesday morning moment of zen:

Have you had any moments of zen lately?

*Alpha reader is my term for close friends or relatives who get to read your WIP before the beta readers come in.

Breaking Dawn

2011-10-21T06:56:00.000-04:00

Is the Twilight Series the best written YA series around? I don't think so. Is it the best adaptation of novels to screen? Not in my opinion. Am I still terribly excited for the new film? You bet.

The forbidden love story that became a national--and international--phenomenon (read: bestsellers) has that special hook, or as the French say, "je-ne-sais-quoi." There is that special something about the characters and their connection that is pure literary crack. You can't put it down or, in the case of the movies, you can't help but drop $10 every time another new one comes out.

As a lead-in to the next installment, I thought I'd share some recent news I've stumbled upon.

1. Bruno Mars' song "It Will Rain" is announced as the first single on the forthcoming Breaking Dawn soundtrack.

2. New photo stills are starting to be released from the film.

3. The actors discuss the momentous occasion in the series: the wedding.

I can't embed the video and even the hyperlink function on blogger is hating on me right now but it's worth checking out. So here's the link to copy and paste if you're interested: http://movies.yahoo.com/blogs/movie-talk/twilight-cast-talks-momentous-breaking-dawn-moment-014411502.html

So tell me, will you be checking this movie out? Why or why not?

Writing for Young Adults

2011-10-20T07:59:00.004-04:00

If you missed the National Book Festival earlier this fall, then you missed the opportunity to hear YA author extraordinaire Sarah Dessen discuss her journey and what it's like to write for young adults. I've uncovered this video from the event and wanted to share. Enjoy!

If you were in attendance, what was your favorite part?

Blown Away

2011-10-12T06:29:00.000-04:00

Sometimes I'll come across an idea, project, or book that I am sooooo blown away by I desperately wish I was ingenious enough to think it up myself. So is the story of The Girl Project. O.M.G.

You have to read this article about it and come back here: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/44846267/ns/today-today_people/t/girl-project-reveals-what-teens-are-really-thinking/#.TpTZEOxvzgw

Here's what the jacket says about Please Read (If At All Possible): The Girl Project. Female adolescence through the eyes of teenage girls for a teenage-girl audience. This empowering volume introduces the reader to an insider’s view of teenage girlhood. Through their participation in The Girl Project-created in 2007 by Kate Engelbrecht to explore the personal realities of modern female adolescence-teenage girls contributed intimate, heartwarming, diarylike text entries and photographs that capture their personal and private moments. To date, over 5,000 girls between the ages of 13 and 18 have sent in photographs, along with anonymously completed questionnaires that communicate their view of themselves and the world around them. This collection of images and text details the private and personal lives of adolescents, which together reveal an amazing narrative communicated as only teenage girls know and understand. The girls touch upon universal issues, such as their struggles with self-confidence and body image, relationships with peers and family, and their dissatisfaction with how they are presented by the media and in popular culture.

Teen readers will be rewarded with a wonderful set of sincere, deep messages and the reassurance that they are not alone.

I often watch "teen" television shows like Gossip Girl and 90210 but these teens are not the teens I knew when I was in high school. They might be cast as teens but their attitudes, worldviews, and access are far different. This was, in fact, the impetus for the book. It came about as a simple question that author Engelbrecht posed to herself: Are girls really that much different than when I was a teen?

To answer that question she embarked on a phenomenal journey and sociology project known as The Girl Project, and the book is its summary--it's tale of the real teenage girl's life today.

In many ways the project and its findings didn't reveal anything necessarily shocking, at least if you were to poll my teenage self. Girls are self conscious about their bodies, about how to communicate in relationships, they strongly value friendship, and are afraid of being alone. It's not sex they're after but love. Sound familiar?

I think what's shocking and groundbreaking about this novel is that its text reflects real girls. It's not an escape like so much of YA but rather a comfort to say, "We get it. There are others just like you."

I think that's why I devoured Sabrina Ward Harrison's book Spilling Open: The Art of Becoming Yourself. I was just going into college when that book came out and something about it just...clicked. It was one of those divine moments in literature where you read something and you think, "Yes, exactly. How did you know?!" Where it feels like someone is right inside your head plucking your thoughts, writing down your feelings.

We need more books like this whether non-fiction like these works or fiction novels with realistic characters. Not everyone is being fought over by two gorgeous guys and navigating the terrain of their first (or more) sexual encounters. Lots of girls--and guys for that matter--are just trying to figure out braces and pimples and body image issues along with how to talk to their crush and how to fit in.

We need to let teens know there are others like them and I think this book is a really great start.

Swagger Song

2011-10-10T06:12:00.000-04:00

Happy Monday! Here's a new swagger song to get you moving today and right on through the week. It's by Sara Bareilles whom I love and is the directorial debut of funnyman actor Jonah Hill. Enjoy!

Amazing Fan Art

2011-10-06T06:56:00.000-04:00

I had to share this AMAZING, very graphic novel-esque fan art piece from Date A Girl Who Reads blog (http://date-a-girl-who-reads.tumblr.com/post/10808141226). I've seen fan art before but this one rocks! It's also such a huge ode to the author and the work, in this case Harry Potter.

What good fan art have you seen lately?

We have a winner!

2011-10-04T06:47:00.000-04:00

Thanks for all the entries; there were a lot this time! Understandably so. These are such awesome books I'm excited to share. However, there can only be one winner to the fall book giveaway.

And that winner is *drum roll*

LINDA

Congratulations Linda. Be sure to email me your mailing address and which book you pick. If you don't win I still encourage you to pick up these books, and I'll be doing reviews of them over the coming months.

Cover Love

2011-10-03T06:29:00.000-04:00

All These Lives by Sarah Wylie looks beautiful. I've followed Sarah Wylie's blog for a while. (You should too; she's awesome, witty, and hilarious!) The book has been compared to Jodi Picoult's My Sister's Keeper! Yeah, I know, amazing right?! On top of all that Sarah is represented by uber-agent Suzie Townsend at FinePrint Literary and her debut novel is already generating lots of buzz.

Here's the description: Sixteen-year-old Dani is convinced she has nine lives. As a child she twice walked away from situations where she should have died. But Dani’s twin, Jena, isn’t so lucky. She has cancer and might not even be able to keep her one life. Dani’s father is in denial. Her mother is trying to hold it together and prove everything’s normal. And Jena is wasting away. To cope, Dani sets out to rid herself of all her extra lives. Maybe they’ll be released into the universe and someone who wants to live more than she does will get one. Someone like Jena. But just when Dani finds herself at the breaking point, she’s faced with a startling realization. Maybe she doesn’t have nine lives after all. Maybe she really only ever had one.

Sounds awesome, right?

Ryan and Emma

2011-09-30T06:00:00.000-04:00

I haven't been a big fan of change lately. I am not a morning person and this whole still being dark when I wake up deal is just not working for me. What is working, however, and I'm sooooo glad to see it's not over is the romance (onscreen that is) between Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone. No change up necessary! LOVE them individually and even more so together.

I adored their chemistry, witty banter, vulnerability, and relatability in Crazy, Stupid, Love. They put a new spin on the whole opposites attract storyline because their characters weren't forced together and unbelievably forgiving of someone so different, as we often see. Instead they were growing and evolving and finding one another during their individual evolutions. They met when they were both finally morphing into the person the other needed.

Now they're rekindling their romance for the forthcoming period piece The Gangster Squad and I can't wait to see it!

What onscreen couples do you love?

Fall Must Read Giveaway

2011-09-26T06:53:00.000-04:00

There are some books that I am just dying to get my hands on and yet another reason why I love fall so much. So I'm doing a giveaway of what I consider to be THE BOOKS to read in YA this fall. Winner of the giveaway will have his or her choice of one of the following reads.

1. The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin
The book is rocking nearly 4.5 out of 5 stars on goodreads, the majority of reviewers use the word "wow," in describing it, and talk about a hook here's what the jacket says: Mara Dyer doesn't think life can get any stranger than waking up in a hospital with no memory of how she got there.

It can.

She believes there must be more to the accident she can't remember that killed her friends and left her mysteriously unharmed.

There is.

She doesn't believe that after everything she's been through, she can fall in love.

She's wrong.

2. Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins
Lola and the Boy Next Door is brought to us from breakout contemporary YA author Perkins. (Her first novel which was wildly received was Anna and the French Kiss.)Every review of this book speaks to how well Perkins has developed her characters and that readers were actually "giddy" as they tore through the pages. Here's what the jacket says: Budding designer Lola Nolan doesn’t believe in fashion . . . she believes in costume. The more expressive the outfit -- more sparkly, more fun, more wild -- the better. But even though Lola’s style is outrageous, she’s a devoted daughter and friend with some big plans for the future. And everything is pretty perfect (right down to her hot rocker boyfriend) until the dreaded Bell twins, Calliope and Cricket, return to the neighborhood.

When Cricket -- a gifted inventor -- steps out from his twin sister’s shadow and back into Lola’s life, she must finally reconcile a lifetime of feelings for the boy next door

3. What Happened to Goodbye by Sarah Dessen
Dessen was just at the National Book Festival this past weekend rocking the YA tent so though this book came out in May, it's classic chick lit YA from the Godmother herself: Sarah Dessen. Here's what the jacket has to say: After a scandal involving her mother and a famous college basketball coach rocked her family and her old hometown, McClean decided to live with her dad. His job as a restaurant consultant requires they pick up often, and at each new place she carefully selects who she’ll be—Eliza, Beth, or someone else with a new name and different interests. It’s easier this way for McClean, who is reluctant to form any true attachments. Then at their latest stop, McClean does something she’s not done in a long while—reveal her real name. But who is this McClean and is she ready to forgive her mother, fall for the boy next door, and finally stick around?

Rules:
1. You must be a follower (2 points if you've been a follower before this contest, 1 for newbies).

2. You must email me at scookraymond@gmail.com to enter, subject line should read "fall book giveaway"

3. Extra entries if you follow me at Twitter (SCookRay) and also if you tweet, "Check out @SCookRay fall must-read #bookgiveaway #contest at http://tinyurl.com/3oum49b"

4. Contest closes October 3 at 9 pm EST; winner will be announced on October 4.

Good luck!

WTF Wednesday

2011-09-21T06:23:00.000-04:00

I just couldn't ignore some of these WTF moments.

1) GLEE actor Mark Salling's comb-over mohawk. Now why would a handsome, edgy guy try to look so bad and seek out the lamest known middle age hairstyle?

2) Brad Pitt clarifies statement about Jennifer Aniston. No, this isn't an old article but somehow no one will turn that broken record off. Enough already!

3) I'm consistently stuck behind out of service DC buses with big ads about all the improvements they're making to the system. Ironic much?

4) Jessica Biel's pregnant belly for her role in New Year's Eve. Seriously, even her character should be able to afford a full size shirt. This is just plain wrong.

5) Albeit the word was only "canned" but my friend managed to hit every triple word score square there is and started our Words With Friends scrabble match with a 72-point play. Try coming back from that! 72 points; seriously?!

Have you had any WTF moments lately?

Friday Night Lights

2011-09-20T06:22:00.010-04:00

Friday Night Light: Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can't Lose!

I'm a late comer as far as the show Friday Night Lights go. My husband and I recently discovered it on the instant stream option on Netflix and have soured through Seasons 1 and 2 in record time and are now making our way through Season 3. Here's the little background: Friday Night Lights is an American sports drama television series adapted by Peter Berg, Brian Grazer and David Nevins from a book and film of the same name. The series details events surrounding a high school football team based in fictional Dillon, Texas, with particular focus given to team coach Eric Taylor (Kyle Chandler) and his family. The show uses this small town backdrop to address many issues facing contemporary American culture, including school funding, racism, drugs, abortion, and lack of economic opportunities.

I LOVE this show. It's always been critically acclaimed though never quite mainstream and sadly, and ironically, it was cancelled this past spring only to come home on Sunday with two Emmys. "Best Writing in a Drama" and "Best Actor in a Drama."

Here's Kyle Chandler (aka Coach Taylor) celebrating his win:

The writing and characters have everything I love about a great show and a great contemporary YA fiction novel for that matter. First and foremost there are believable characters. They're flawed and insecure in their own ways. Riggins because of his broken family life and because he self sabotages himself over and over again. Lyla because she has such a strong idea of who she should be instead of sometimes just being who she is. Matt has his abandonment issues. Tyra doesn't know a healthy relationship if it walked right past her, and so on.

Under the microcosm of a small football obsessed town and, of course, all attending high school together (even Eric Taylor the football coach and Tami Taylor as the guidance counselor) are all there, allowing ample opportunity for drama to brew.

Like many of the television shows of the 1990s, Friday Night Lights allows larger issues to bubble to the surface or play in the background, both as an examination of American culture and more issue oriented topics such as abortion, rape, cheating, and so on. Nothing feels preached even the very prominent scenes and discussions about God. I believe this is because no one side is amenable to all parties. If one person is religious then another hates God. If one person wants to keep the baby, the other is weighing the alternate options. In short, it feels like life with all the messiness that goes along with it but unfolding in such seamless and effortless acting and prose.

The believable characters isn't just the acting, it's how they interact with each other. This is critical and apparently something the writers allowed the actors to help dictate: If a scene or dialogue felt out of character, the actors were encouraged to speak up and offer alternatives. LOVE IT! There's nothing worse than developing a strong sense of character only to have that entire foundation jeopardized based on one "out of character" action.

There's rising action in the series, each episode ending right in the midst of it and leaving you wanting more. There's sexual tension and big macro level decisions our characters must make like where do I go to college and micro level decisions like do I want to keep dating this person.

It's refreshing to watch a drama that has such refined roles for the parents. Coach Taylor and his wife have ups and downs but, ultimately, are the healthiest family relationship on the show and still have chemistry. They're involvement in the kids' lives as coach and counselor unveils far more about the underbelly of Dillon, Texas than we would have known otherwise and is a fabulous vehicle to do so. Nothing feels forced. It also reminds me of how important adults are in teen lives even if teens seemingly want nothing to do with them.

The involvement and prominence of football allows the players in the show to enjoy a kind of otherworldly or royal status. So often we've only seen characters propel into high school gods because of financial status so this is an interesting twist, one I found strange at first given the entire town's obsession too but which helps to draw out characters from every neck of the woods in Dillon, Texas to one shared passion. There is no question where the town of Dillon's loyalty lies: with the Dillon Panthers.

There's something in here for everyone: romance, sports, drama, character development, examination of issues, and writing that is second to none.

If you haven't checked it out, I suggest you do. If you have, what do you love most about it?

Get excited y'all

2011-09-16T07:24:00.003-04:00

The latest Breaking Dawn trailer just came out and I'm not going to lie, I'm EXCITED. Total guilty pleasure.

Here's it is:

What do you think? Does it look good? Will you see it?

Inaction

2011-09-15T07:00:00.013-04:00

Inaction by definition is the absence of action, idleness. When it's in a book it's killer. I'm just over half-way through book 2 in a series and I've put it down. I'll pick it up again and eventually finish it because I hate to give up entirely on a novel but the chances I'll read book 3 in this trilogy has greatly diminished.

I'm surprised, shocked even, that after I've developed such strong emotions to the characters and their story in book 1 that I now feel such indifference. The culprit is inaction. I'm 160 pages in and generally not much has happened. Sure we've been introduced to a new character but overall it feels like the narrative is running in circles, buying time. And by inaction it's not limited to the lack of any fighting in book 2 but even true growth of the characters thus far from page 1 to 160. The character dynamic has shifted since book 1 and with it taken away a lot of tension; the writer needed to find better and more creative ways to add this back in. Right now, all I can assume (given the nature of the novel) is that everything will come unraveling or come together at the end--that we're in a waiting game for something big, though of what I can't be sure.

This is a classic writing mistake in my opinion. Detail and background is important but they can't weigh down the prose or be ALL of the prose. If detail and background are threads then writers are knitters, weaving these together with tension and action and character development to move us towards the final product.

Action has to be present in some manner throughout, moving the pacing along and getting us hungry for more. I was having a conversation about this with a friend and used Twilight as an example. Why? Because virtually every girl (and woman) I know has read it and in some cases guys too. Yes, the chase at the end and eventual show-down between Edward and James along with Bella's near death is the climax of the story.

There is, however, still strong tension and action throughout. Bella's uncertainty of who and what Edward is; Edward saving her from the gang of men in the alley; the fearfulness that is a constant undercurrent, present at all times, that he could kill her. These all play into action, character development, and tension.

As writers we need to try to strike that delicate balance between providing detail and setting up our story. I think of putting on a play. Don't devote all of your time as stage crew setting up the props; spend it engaging the characters in meaningful ways.

What books have you read where the action has sustained throughout the novel?

Swagger Song

2011-09-12T06:53:00.002-04:00

I had a really relaxing weekend and now a nice deep sleep and while I love my day job I'm definitely going to need a big dose of caffeinated assistance to get me going, that and a nice upbeat swagger song to start the week.

I've fallen in love with O.A.R.'s "Heaven" and wanted to share it here. Hopefully it helps add an extra something in your step and makes this morning a little easier to get moving :-)

Have you heard any great swagger songs lately?

Uncensored

2011-09-08T06:26:00.004-04:00

In my day job as a professional writer, people hire me to write for them. Sometimes this is marketing copy and other times lengthy articles or reports. Regardless of what I'm writing, however, the objective is always to deliver what the client wants or what I perceive the marketplace to most readily react to.

That's where I failed in my first manuscript. I had a great story idea but my execution was all wrong. Business writing and fiction writing are not the same. In my first manuscript I wrote what I thought the marketplace wanted, what agents wanted and I wrote it in the way I thought the novel and characters should sound. I inserted overly poetic prose to demonstrate that I could write and I censored my characters to try to give them more mass appeal. I tried to write a marketable story instead of simply writing the story in my head.

In short, I wrote for other people instead of really writing my characters and I think this is where a lot of writers fall short. We try too hard to control the story; we over-think.

This time around I've sworn to let my characters go completely uncensored. I remind myself (since I'm writing YA) that I'm not an adult critiquing their behaviors but, rather, a conduit or observer to share what they're going through, saying, thinking. I don't try to change my friends; they come to me fully formed though also growing and adapting and that's how characters are too. Sure there's character development that writers have to do but I believe it should be more like a reality show: develop the premise and story arc along with the conflict and then throw your characters into situations and see what they'll do and what they'll say. See how they react off one another.

I've done this thus far in my current WIP and I believe the voice of my MC rings so much more true because of that.

What have you learned about writing along the way?

And the TBR List Grows

2011-09-06T06:37:00.018-04:00

I'm sad that summer is over but like any nerd I've always loved the start of fall. Of course, I won't be starting off the school year but simply going back to the office like I have most days throughout the rest of the year, but still there's a little something different in the air as the humidity lessens and the jeans and sweaters start coming out. And though I'm not in school any more it doesn't mean my fall obsession to stock up on books has waned in the least. Sure there are other things I love about fall like the foliage, apple cider and apple picking, pumpkin carving, the new latte flavors at Starbucks, and everything else fall seems to bring. But let's be honest. It's books I love most!

For today's post I decided to highlight some of the hottest new books coming out right now and which will certainly be on my TBR list!

1. The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin Mara Dyer doesn't think life can get any stranger than waking up in a hospital with no memory of how she got there.

It can.

She believes there must be more to the accident she can't remember that killed her friends and left her mysteriously unharmed.

There is.

She doesn't believe that after everything she's been through, she can fall in love.

She's wrong.

OMG. I've heard nothing but fabulous things about this book from those who have been lucky enough to get their hands on an early copy. It comes out September 27 so mark your calendars!

2. Light From a Distant Star by Mary McGarry Morris Light from a Distant Star is a gripping coming-of-age story with a brutal murder at its heart and a heroine as unforgettable as Harper Lee’s "Scout."

It is early summer and Nellie Peck is on the cusp of adolescence – gangly, awkward, full of questions, but keenly observant and wiser than many of the adults in her life. The person she most admires is her father, Benjamin, a man of great integrity. His family’s century old hardware store is failing and Nellie’s mother has had to go back to work. Nellie’s older half-sister has launched a disturbing search for her birth father. Often saddled through the long, hot days with her timid younger brother, Henry, Nellie is determined to toughen him up. And herself as well.

Three strangers enter Nellie’s protected life. Brooding Max Devaney is an ex-con who works in her surly grandfather’s junkyard. Reckless Bucky Saltonstall has just arrived from New York City to live with his elderly grandparents. And pretty Dolly Bedelia is a young stripper who rents the family’s small, rear apartment and becomes the titillating focus of Nellie’s eavesdropping.

When violence erupts in the lovely Peck house, the prime suspect seems obvious. Nellie knows who the real murderer is, but is soon silenced by fear and the threat of scandal. The truth, as she sees it, is shocking and unthinkable, and with everyone’s eyes riveted on her in the courtroom, Nellie finds herself seized with doubt.

No one will listen. No one believes her, and a man’s life hangs in the balance. A stunning evocation of innocence lost, Light from a Distant Star stands as an incredibly moving and powerful novel from one of America's finest writers.

When everyone is comparing a book to Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, you better believe I'm going to pick it up! It releases on September 13.

3. Happy Accidents: My Gleeful Life by Jane Lynch In the summer of 1974, a fourteen-year-old girl in Dolton, Illinois, had a dream. A dream to become an actress, like her idols Ron Howard and Vicki Lawrence. But it was a long way from the South Side of Chicago to Hollywood, and it didn't help that she'd recently dropped out of the school play, The Ugly Duckling. Or that the Hollywood casting directors she wrote to replied that "professional training was a requirement."

But the funny thing is, it all came true. Through a series of Happy Accidents, Jane Lynch created an improbable and hilarious path to success.

You guys know how much I love Glee and actress Jane Lynch is a HUGE part of that show. She is hunch at the waist, cry your eyes out, slap your knee, choke for breath funny! I was reminded of this again this past weekend as I lounged around on Labor Day and caught up on Role Models playing on TBS. She's amazing and the snippets I've seen in this book thus far seem both funny and insightful, inspiring and real. This book also comes out on September 13.

But what about you; what books or activities are you looking forward to most for fall?

Social Media

2011-09-02T06:49:00.002-04:00

I tend to think about social media in all the ways it helps connect people but then I tried to write a tweet yesterday that was FAR too long. Hmmm...how do I say what I want to convey but in less words?

This got me thinking about all the other things that social media can help us do, namely become better writers. Though mediums like Twitter we're forced to use only those words that are absolutely necessary because space is limited. As many writers know, sometimes it's harder to write something in less words than it is to say it in many. But that's editing.

Editing requires that we choose only those words that are absolutely necessary to the message. I have to do this all the time at work when we're creating tag lines because by nature a tag line is one simple, short, to the point sentence or simply a phrase but which must convey an entire organization and what they do, what they stand for, in short, who they are. That's a lot to ask. But whether cognizant of it or not we are becoming, I believe, better editors because of the restrictions these (especially Twitter) mediums create.

When it comes to blogging, it's a fabulous exercise. For starters, since my blog often discusses writing/reading/bibliophile information it forces me to consider what is or isn't working about either my writing or someone else's. It also encourages me to become a more active reader and ask questions like, why am drawn to this kind of writing or I soared through that book, what mechanisms did they use to create that kind of fast pacing?

Writers are also told to write, that it's like any other exercise, you need to do it to be good at it and a blog creates an obligation to do that at least a few times a week when you might not otherwise. In this way, social media is making us better writers.

We also have to think and plan what we're going to post, perhaps it's strategic or even marketing a particular book that's coming out or maybe it's just figuring out how to synthesize an idea into words. Either way, social media is changing us and I believe in many ways it's for a more informed, collaborative, and writerly community.

What do you think? Is social media making us better and more informed? Do you feel more connected because of social media?

WTF Wednesday

2011-08-31T07:29:00.000-04:00

While away on vacation I hoarded my stash of US Weekly (or as my friend likes to call it "U.S. Weekly" to make it sound like legitimate news) and when I returned I have dedicated much of my free time to getting caught up on the backlog of shows recorded on Tivo. The result? I am officially up to date on pop culture happenings. And what that means is a whole lot of options to choose from for this installment of WTF Wednesday.

Here are some highlights but feel free to add more:

1) Pouting is the new smiling:

2) Bradley Cooper can shed his hotness and, well, look like all the rest of us. (Not sure if this makes me sad or relieved, but it does make me surprised.)

3) This was Lady Gaga at the MTV Video Music Awards show in drag or as a transgender man, I'm not really sure but it was weird.

4) Okay, I'm sure by now you've heard of the very popular "Lesbians Who Look Like Justin Bieber" Website/phenomena. Well it appears Justin is trying to reciprocate the affection because in not one but two pictures I've seen lately he looks like a 30-something year old woman:

5) And while not technically pop culture news, I had to share this pic of my fav burger place in Upstate NY after Irene got to it. *sobs*

What WTF moments have you had lately?

To query or not to query, that is the question

2011-08-30T06:20:00.001-04:00

I've wrapped up the first full draft of my WIP and am knee-deep in editing. Though I swore I wouldn't get anxious about querying, I already am. I want to test the waters as I'm excited about my manuscript but then I'm reminded of my first assignment as a professional writer.

I had been paid to do some freelance work while in college and graduate school but my first "real" assignment was when I was hired full-time, as in a writing associate who now had health insurance and paid vacation and the whole bit. To me, this meant I had arrived.

And then I handed in my first assignment. I had a deadline looming and though I was still frantically making edits, when that deadline pressed, I printed out what I had and brought it to the editor-in-chief. Not long afterwards I learned a very important lesson. Never hand in something until it is really and truly ready for review.

My editor handed it back to me in a blood bath of red ink and said, "It's a good start but it's not ready for my eyes. Don't give me something until it's as good as you can get it. If you you need an extension on the deadline, ask for it, but don't waste my time." *Ouch*

I learned my lesson, of course, and today I'm managing director of that very same firm and write far more detailed and comprehensive pieces than I was trying to tackle that day. What I learned, however, and what I need to remember in querying is not to give into the temptation to simply submit, to try to quickly jump to the next step in the publishing process whether that's off to the art director at my firm or to the literary agent weeding through the mass of query letters.

It can feel frustrating knowing that after you submit a query it can take two months before you hear anything back, couldn't you simply edit some more during those two months? My advice: Don't do it! Let that baby of a WIP grow up and mature and evolve into the truly best thing it can be. Then query. Don't waste literary agents' time with something that's not quite ready.

To get your WIP ready:

1) have some other readers review it;
2) read it aloud;
3) go through and do a "big picture" edit searching for any holes in your narrative arc;
4) then go through page by page, line by line and ask yourself how it can be better;
5) study your favorite texts in that genre and ask yourself what those writers do that you love so much, then turn that critique around and ask if you employ similar narrative style. Learn from the fantastic writing around you because it's there.

Delay your ETA to query or don't even give yourself a forced ETA, just keep plugging along with edits until you've taken the piece as far as it can go or, rather, as far as you can take it. When, and only when, it's truly in shape for professional eyes, should you send it out into the world with fingers crossed, breath held, and hopefully luck in your favor.

Any advice you want to add?

An Inside Peak into Publishing

2011-08-26T06:46:00.004-04:00

The WriteOnCon conference had some really great panels, discussions, posts, and forums. For those of you who didn't check it out, I thought I'd highlight a few favs that delved into the publishing world.

Agent angle.

1) Sarah Crowe discusses how she knows when she wants to sign a writer: http://writeoncon.com/2011/08/how-do-i-know-that-i-really-love-it/

2) Jim McCarthy explains how to write the perfect query letter:
http://writeoncon.com/2011/08/writing-a-great-query-letter/

Editorial eyes.

Annette Pollert explains what a manuscript has to have for her to come on board as editor: http://writeoncon.com/2011/08/howwhen-i-know-a-manuscript-is-right-for-me/

Writerly advice.

NYT bestselling YA author Beth Revis discusses her journey, and offer motivation too!

You have to watch this!

2011-08-23T06:14:00.001-04:00

This is Ira Glass talking about the creative process and revisions. I love the part where he says there's the actual work we're doing and then there's our ambition of where we could be. It takes a lot of practice to get those two things in alignment but it's possible and when it happens, for real, it's oh so sweet.

More Cover Love

2011-08-19T06:47:00.000-04:00

THE MAP OF TRUE PLACES by Brunonia Barry. I featured the original book cover of this novel in a post I did last year! Can't decide which I like better.

Psychotherapist Zee Finch is dealt a blow when one of her patients, a troubled bipolar housewife named Lilly, leaps off a bridge to her death. The tragedy brings up memories of Zee’s own mother’s suicide, prompting her to go see her father, Finch, in Salem. She is startled to find Finch’s Parkinson’s disease is much more advanced than she’d been led to believe, and that he has kicked his partner, Melville, out of the house. Zee decides to take a leave of absence from her practice to care for Finch, a move that puts a strain on her engagement to Michael, one of her mentor’s closest friends. As her relationship with Michael comes to an end, Zee tries to puzzle out what caused Finch to abruptly break up with his beloved Melville. She also tries to make sense of Lilly’s death, unaware that the dangerous man Lilly was involved with now wants to exact revenge on her.

INCOGNITO by Gregory Murphy. An elegant literary mystery set during the Gilded Age.

New York City, 1911. Representing the widow of a Wall Street financier, lawyer William Dysart travels to a small Long Island town with a generous offer for Miss Sybil Curtis's cottage and five acres of land. But when Sybil refuses to sell, the widow threatens to use her influence with the state to seize the property.

Intrigued by Sybil's defiance and afflicted by a growing affection for her, William develops a desire to help her that becomes an obsession he cannot define, one that tears away the facade of his life, and presents him with truths he's unprepared to face.

What good books have you seen lately?

Swagger Song 2 for 1 Special

2011-08-17T06:45:00.000-04:00

I've fallen in love with both of these songs and subsequently edited sections of my WIP while listening to them. I couldn't decide on just one so for this issue of Swagger Song I'm including both. Enjoy!

Gavin DeGraw, "Not Over You"

Lady Antebellum, "Just a Kiss"

WriteOnCon

2011-08-15T06:00:00.005-04:00

Alright guys it's time for the second annual WriteOnCon (aka awesome, free, online conference for writers, particularly in MG and YA). To sign up, see here.

The conference runs August 16-18 officially but starting today they'll be hosting a secret ninja agent contest. Participating literary agents include:

Michelle Wolfson, with Wolfson Literary
Natalie Fischer, with Bradford Literary
Michelle Andelman, with Regal Literary
Kathleen Ortiz, with Nancy Coffey Literary
Ammi-Joan Paquette, with Erin Murphy Literary
Jessica Sinsheimer, with Sarah Jane Freymann
Roseanne Wells, with Marianne Strong Literary
Joanna Volpe, with Nancy Coffey Literary
Mary Kole, with Andrea Brown Literary
Suzie Townsend, with FinePrint Literary
Carlie Webber, with the Jane Rotrosen Agency
Alyssa Eisner Henkin, with Trident Media
Marietta Zacker, with Nancy Gallt Literary

Yeah, it's pretty unbelievable! To learn more about the secret ninja agent contest see here. And don't forget to follow @WriteOnCon on Twitter for any announcements.

See you there!

Tay Swift Awesomeness

2011-08-12T06:43:00.000-04:00

I adore Taylor Swift. I think she's talented and seems super swift and I'm still sad she couldn't make it with Taylor from Twilight. *sigh* And yes, I've even seen her live in concert, albeit as the oldest person there without a child to supervise. Here's a pic I took as proof of the show:

One thing she did not do last tour but is doing now is covering a song in each town by a local artist. (Apparently it's received great applause and you can read more about it here.) In New Jersey it was Springstein and Bon Jovi, and in Toronto it was Alanis Morrisette and Justin Bieber, but in Detroit...

How much do I love this? Let me count the ways.

What awesome cover or remake have you seen lately?

Cover Love

2011-08-10T06:28:00.000-04:00

I admit it. I went to Borders and scored lots of books. I love my local Borders and have always supported them whether things were good or bad. And while I was there...OMG did I swoon over some new covers I discovered while roaming through the aisles. I had to share:

THE LOVE OF MY YOUTH by Mary Gordon. Thoughtful and moving, Gordon's latest captures the ardor and vulnerability of young love and the cautious circumspection of middle age. Miranda and Adam began a love affair in high school that endured through college only to end in a painful betrayal. When a mutual friend brings them together in present-day Rome, they haven't seen each other in more than three decades. Adam's ambitions to be a concert pianist never came to pass, and Miranda, once convinced that political activism could change the world, is now an epidemiologist. Both have married and raised children, but Rome still holds passionate memories for them. Though wary, they meet for daily walks, and Gordon's vividly detailed descriptions make Rome a palpable presence. Miranda and Adam tentatively reveal to each other the events of their lives, touching on aspirations, disillusionments, ideals, and desires, and these conversations set the pace of Gordon's novel. Only when Miranda is about to leave Rome are they able to fully express their emotions and achieve catharsis.

SHINE by Lauren Myracle. When her best guy friend falls victim to a vicious hate crime, sixteen-year-old Cat sets out to discover who in her small town did it. Richly atmospheric, this daring mystery mines the secrets of a tightly knit Southern community and examines the strength of will it takes to go against everyone you know in the name of justice.

Against a backdrop of poverty, clannishness, drugs, and intolerance, Myracle has crafted a harrowing coming-of-age tale couched in a deeply intelligent mystery. Smart, fearless, and compassionate, this is an unforgettable work from a beloved author.

OUT OF MY MIND by Sharon Draper. Melody has a photographic memory. She remembers everything that has ever happened to her in precise, exact detail—from the words to a song she once heard when she was little to what she ate for a typical mundane breakfast. She also knows thousands and thousands of facts. Her head is like a video camera that is always recording. Always—and there’s no delete button. She’s the smartest kid in her whole school—but, NO ONE knows because she has virtually no way of communicating. Melody has cerebral palsy. All most people see is a special needs kid--never suspecting that trapped inside this eleven-year old girl is more information and insight than they ever imagined.

Being stuck inside her head is making Melody go out of her mind—that is until she discovers a computerized talking device that will allow her communicate for the first time ever. A dream come true! At last, she's able to talk, to be in a regular classroom, and have regular conversations! Melody even joins the Whiz Kids Quiz Team—and becomes one of their most valuable members. She’s showing everyone what she is really capable of and surprising even herself with the power of her computerized voice. But, what if people—teachers, classmates, friends—don’t want Melody to succeed? And what if Melody’s new voice isn’t loud enough to be heard over all her difficulties?

Liebster Blog Award

2011-08-09T08:00:00.003-04:00

Thanks to Jared at the Infinite Bookshelf for nominating me for the Liebster Blog Award! The goal of the award is to spotlight up and coming bloggers. (Around 200ish followers or less.)

The rules of the award are:

1. Thank the giver and link back to the blogger who gave it to you.

2. Reveal your top picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.

3. Copy and paste the award on your blog.

4. Have faith that your followers will spread the love to other bloggers.

5. And most of all have fun!

My nominees are (in no particular order):

1. Some Things I Think, by K.M.Walton

2. Get Back Loretta, by Loretta Nyhan

3. Word Slinger, by Ray Veen

4. Writing is My Drink, by Theo Nester

What blogs do you love?

SCBWI

2011-08-08T06:13:00.000-04:00

I'm totally bummed I missed the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) 2011 Conference in Los Angeles. You can still follow the action at the conference blog or #LA11SCBWI official Twitter hash tag.

The Conference covers dos and don't of querying, revising, publishing, editing, author-agent relationships, and more. So while I don't have the low down on what happened at the conference, I will offer up some helpful links I've tracked down.

On writing a good query letter by YA author Elana Johnson.

On writing the evil synopsis, by literary agent Suzie Townsend discusses.

And lastly, on what not to do when you see an editor at a conference, compliments of Arthur Levine (of Arthur Levine books, an imprint of Scholastic):

We have a winner!

2011-08-05T07:43:00.003-04:00

Thanks to everyone who entered the contest for a chance to win Kathryn Stockett's THE HELP. There can, unfortunately, only be one winner so will Lisa Potts please stand up!

Congrats Lisa *claps hands.* You're going to LOVE this book. Let me know where I should mail it.

Thanks again to everyone who entered. I hope if you didn't win you still get the chance to check this book out because it is phenomenal and definitely carries my stamp of approval.

This Made Me Laugh

2011-08-04T06:31:00.002-04:00

Have you guys seen this? HILARIOUS.

Girlfriend is really "dropping it." I'm not totally sold on the hot part but A+ for effort. I'm not sure there's anything I get THAT excited about. Then again, maybe I should just drink more Sundrop...

And even though the woman is hard to take serious, it's well done: I remember the product, it's funny and unexpected...and now I'm talking about it. That's what we want as writers no matter what kind of writing we're pursuing. We want to have something unexpected in a good way, that's worth remembering, that's worth recommending (and even thinking about long after it's over).

What funny or unexpected thing have you seen this week?

Perspective

2011-08-02T06:55:00.010-04:00

My post this morning is on perspective. I was with one of my best friends and she heard me recounting a story of us from our youth in great detail and to which she remembered very little. Likewise there were some stories in her arsenal that sounded faintly familiar but only after quite some prodding and filling in blanks. Even some of the identifiers we used for supporting characters ("you know, the girl with big hair in math class") were altogether different.

How is it that two people can experience the same thing and what catches their eye and, thus, what they remember most, are completely different? The answer, of course, is perspective. It also made me wonder, for people who don't know me very well, what are my identifiers? "You know that girl who ______, _______, and ______." (Fill in three awesome adjectives.)

I was pondering all this when the debate on the debt ceiling popped back up on the radar and made me want to run down the House aisle bitch slapping everyone as I go. But then this happened:

Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords made her first return since being shot and received a full bipartisan standing ovation. She put an emphasis on the vote that others could not, she's become not only a congresswoman but a character of sorts: a victim and a courageous hero--a fighter.

Seeing her immediately brought me back to that moment when she was shot. I was decorating my Christmas tree and had CNN playing in the background (yes, very holiday spirit mood-setting of me) and the breaking news came in. I sat down on the couch, watched my husband begin dialing some friends to make sure they weren't there at the shooting, and then we waited. I cried.

There are some moments where the event itself is so overpowering that there's no forgetting. The details are burned in our mind, our perspectives seem as one because we're all focusing on the exact same thing. For my parents generation everyone knows exactly where they were and what they were doing when Kennedy was assassinated, we all remember the same with 9/11, the first hurricane Katrina images we saw, and for me, Gabbie Giffords too. I suppose when something is shocking enough it grabs your attention, chokes the breath out of you, and demands to be remembered, even the bad things. I suppose that's why after 9/11 there were so many news outlets searching desperately for those stories of near misses, of the man whose car broke down and didn't get to the Towers in time for work, etc. but those aren't the stories we recall en mass.

Seeing Giffords on the House floor is an amazing chapter in that story, a footnote to the memory of that tragic day. A sign that not all shocking stories need to be bad for us to remember, the good ones stay around too.

Hunger Games Stills Released!

2011-07-29T07:20:00.006-04:00

Have you guys seen these? I'm sooooo excited. EW released them and seems to be pretty on top of reporting on the movie. Speaking of which, a friend of mine actually saw Jennifer Lawrence (actress playing Katniss) in the Charlotte, NC airport the other day, as the movie is being filmed down there. Life isn't fair *shakes fist.*

The more I look at these and follow the movie production I have to admit the boys are growing on me. Jennifer Lawrence still isn't quite how I envisioned Katniss. I read an article the other day, not by Suzanne Collins but YA author Veronica Roth, whose book Divergent was optioned for film and she discussed how it's more important for the actor or actress to convey the personality of your main character than necessarily every specific physical feature. And, in the end, I agree with her. Lawrence is a fabulous actress and if Collins helped pick her then I'm sure she'll bring to the screen what we all loved about Katniss so much in the book: that fearless, self sufficient girl with an occasional soft streak.

What do you guys think, how important are looks when casting an actress based on a book character and where have you seen this best?

LOVE this!

2011-07-26T06:41:00.001-04:00

I know the Women's World Cup is over *sobs* but I had to take the opportunity for one last post on it, so I interrupt this regularly scheduled program to bring you a great interview with U.S. Women's Soccer teammates Abby Wambach and Hope Solo and a hilarious ending complements of David Letterman:

Chance to Win The Help

2011-07-21T06:12:00.012-04:00

The Help by Kathryn Stockett is a must read! I'm in the midst of it right now and can't read it fast enough. She paints such a vivid picture and is pitch perfect in her dialogue. If you want to read a book that nails voice, this is it!

And if you haven't heard Stockett, now a New York Times #1 bestselling novelist, was rejected 60 times for the manuscript of The Help. Lucky agent #61 took her on and took a chance and boy has it paid off. Here's the article as well as a post about it from agent Jill Corcoran (note, not Stockett's agent but reflecting on rejection and finding the right agent).

Now that it's being made into a major motion picture there's a second cover released for the novel:

Here's the original which I LOVE as it's so simple and yet ties in so nicely with the storyline, as it plays on the saying, "a little birdie told me" and, of course, there's three main characters.

Here's the description and if this doesn't sell you then take my word for it. YOU. MUST. READ. THIS. BOOK. *yells from soapbox*

Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step.

Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.

Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.

Minny, Aibileen's best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody's business, but she can't mind her tongue, so she's lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.

Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.

The movie opens August 12 and I am sooooo excited about it. I adore Emma Stone and especially loved her in Easy A where she was charismatic and witty and completely likeable and I can't wait to see her now as Skeeter. I've also heard this is going to have a killer soundtrack with greats like Mary J. Blige lending their talent. If you haven't checked out the trailer yet, here you go:

To celebrate I'm hosting a contest to win a softcover book of The Help. Contest officially starts now and runs until 6 pm on August 4. Winner will be announced August 5. Rules include:

1. You must be a follower of the blog (2 entries if you're a long time follower)
2. To enter you must email me at scookraymond@gmail.com with "The Help contest entry" in the subject line.
3. Extra entry for any of the following: refer a friend, post a comment, Facebook this, follow me on Twitter (2 entries if you're a long time follower), or tweet, "Enter @SCookRay contest at www.sarahcookraymond.blogspot.com to win THE HELP"

That's it! And if you have any questions you can email me too.

Confession: I temporarily thought about pulling a Skeeter and making the entries about cleaning advice just for a book tie-in but let's be honest, I wouldn't know if "use a raw potato to pull out a broken light" was made up or sheer genius. I'm still trying to figure out where Stockett found all that advice. Was there really a Miss Myrna advice column she researched? If you know, please spill. And, of course, good luck!

Cover Love

2011-07-19T06:59:00.000-04:00

I know I did a post on cover love last week but I had to add a couple others. It seems my TBR list is never shrinking. I read one book only to add two more I want to read. Looking at these covers and synopses, it's hard to say no!

Sisterhood Everlasting: A Novel by Ann Brashares From #1 New York Times bestselling author Ann Brashares comes the welcome return of the characters whose friendship became a touchstone for a generation. Now Tibby, Lena, Carmen, and Bridget have grown up, starting their lives on their own. And though the jeans they shared are long gone, the sisterhood is everlasting.

Despite having jobs and men that they love, each knows that something is missing: the closeness that once sustained them. Carmen is a successful actress in New York, engaged to be married, but misses her friends. Lena finds solace in her art, teaching in Rhode Island, but still thinks of Kostos and the road she didn’t take. Bridget lives with her longtime boyfriend, Eric, in San Francisco, and though a part of her wants to settle down, a bigger part can’t seem to shed her old restlessness.

Then Tibby reaches out to bridge the distance, sending the others plane tickets for a reunion that they all breathlessly await. And indeed, it will change their lives forever—but in ways that none of them could ever have expected.

As moving and life-changing as an encounter with long-lost best friends, Sisterhood Everlasting is a powerful story about growing up, losing your way, and finding the courage to create a new one.

The Storm at the Door by Stefan Merrill Block "The Storm at the Door is one of the bravest and most beautiful books I have ever read. It's a wholly original hybrid --by turns a fictional account of the love story of Frederick and Katharine Merrill, a terrifying tour of the "horrorland" of the Mayflower Home for the Mentally Ill, a lucid translation of madness, and a grandson's quest to understand "the blank page" of his family's past. Stefan Merrill Block's language soars--he's got a wingspan that covers three generations. Refusing to be "paralyzed by fact," Block moves nimbly between fact and fiction, history and the imagination, to get at truths that are almost unbearable: that love can fail, that a mind can immolate, and that language can sometimes leave us lonelier than our original silence. This is a powerful, enthralling and unforgettable book."

Have you seen any interesting books lately?

Swagger Song

2011-07-18T06:10:00.000-04:00

I just discovered this song. LOVE!

What are you listening to this week?

Cover Love

2011-07-15T06:31:00.000-04:00

I've been meaning to do another cover love post as it's been a while. Both of these novels have popped up on my radar recently and I have to say, I LOVE LOVE LOVE their covers. Looking at the two together in one post makes me wish I had a painting with the rich turquoises and the deep plums. Aren't they great? Both novels, of course, have also received great acclaim from YA reading audiences.

Across the Universe by Beth Revis
As the spaceship Godspeed travels toward a new earth, the lives of 100 cryogenically frozen settlers hang in the balance after someone endeavors to quietly murder them. The other passengers aboard the ship have never known life outside its walls and are enslaved by the machinations of Eldest, their tyrannical leader, who divides them into three distinct classes. When Amy, a frozen settler from earth, survives being thawed in a murder attempt, she immediately bonds with Elder, Godspeed's lone teen and future leader. Amy’s individuality, her rebellion, and her fierce desire for freedom, inspire Elder to act on his own doubts and defy Eldest--his mentor and keeper--with shocking results. Eldest’s methods of twisting history and altering the lives of this captive community are a frightening echo of tyrants in our own history, and Across the Universe challenges readers to consider the impact of unchecked power, blind trust, and the ability of one dissenting voice to make a difference.

Sea by Heidi R. Kling Sienna is afraid—of airplanes, of the ocean, of life. She has had these fears for three years, ever since her mother's plane disappeared over the ocean while on a humanitarian aid trip in Thailand. On her 15th birthday, she gets the worst present she can imagine: a plane ticket to accompany her dad and two other doctors on a two-week trip to an Indonesian orphanage—one housing children and young adults who are survivors of the December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Sienna doesn't want to go, and the cultural differences and deprivations do not make her any happier once there. On her first night, during a welcoming program hosted by the orphans, she meets Deni, a 17-year-old from Aceh, the tsunami's epicenter. Their relationship develops quickly and leads to actions and decisions that are ill-considered and dangerous—both in a Muslim culture and during a state of civil unrest. Sienna loses her fears much faster than one would expect, and her return home to a friendship that is evolving into a romance, so soon after she was in love with another boy whose life was filled with tragedy, makes her seem emotionally shallow. Teens who like relationship novels will overlook these flaws, but the book is definitely an additional purchase.

Have you guys seen any great book covers lately?

It Gets Better

2011-07-12T07:42:00.000-04:00

I did a post on the Trevor Project's "It Gets Better" campaign back in October. The campaign seeks to increase awareness and decrease bullying among LGBTQ kids and others.

Already this week I've seen several other items in the same vein and thought I'd share, because the more we can spread the word about bullying and teach others to stand up against it, the better!

1. There's the book, Dear Bully: Seventy Authors Tell Their Stories:

2. We have the associated Website Dear Bully: Young Adult Authors Against Bullying.

3. There's the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services "Stop Bullying Now" Website resource.

4. ABC Family has a movie coming out later this month called Cyber Bully.

5. Taylor Swift tackles the subject in her latest music video:

6. While Rise Against does the same, though directly for the Trevor Project:

So spread the word out there, stand up to bullying, and if you have other resources, please share!

Crit Partners

2011-07-07T07:32:00.008-04:00

Yesterday the amazing organizers of WriteOnCon held an event with three fabulous YA authors and crit partners: Tessa Gratton, Brenna Yovanoff, and Maggie Stiefvater (of Shiver and Linger fame). Together they call themselves Merry Sisters of Fate.

I've written about critiquing and objective readers of your work on the blog before and its importance. To hear from three crit partners and what the process is and why it works for them, however, is a unique experience--and hopefully will get you one step closer to finding your own crit partner on your WIP.

So...if you missed the event you can watch it again and find out how the WriteOnCon crew are going to start matching up like-minded, same genre YA writers to help each other out in polishing up that work before you hit send and release it into the wild (er, to literary agents).

WTF Wednesday

2011-07-06T07:29:00.003-04:00

OMG, are you guys familiar with The Onion otherwise known as "America's Finest News Source"?

It's actually a spoof newspaper and now news station. This isn't the vein of The Daily Show where they critique news and offer commentary. This is, in fact, a parody. And it's hilarious!

Although this clip may be a little more LMAO than WTF, I had to share:

What's your WTF Wednesday confession?

Victims and Villains

2011-07-05T06:18:00.006-04:00

I saw this cover of US Weekly the other day and it got me thinking about victims and villains.

The story discusses Jennifer Aniston's new romance and claims she "pulled an Angelina," meaning she stole another woman's man. Now I'll admit that in the Team Jen versus Team Angelina, I was Team Jen all the way. But it did get me thinking about how we've instantly pitted the women against each other, but where's the man?

In all that talk about betrayals (take LeAnne Rimes and Eddie Cibrian as another example) there's so much less attention on the men, on the ones who had made any commitment to which they were now breaking.

It's the casting of the evil seductress and the helpless man. He didn't stand a chance. These archestypes, of course, are not new. This is theater in motion. If you've read Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin then you'll meet several characters who embody both victim and villain.

In most stories the victims and the villains are already decided and clear events take course to push us onto one side or another. Take Draco; there was never any chance we'd cheer for him over Harry Potter. The narrative guided our impressions.

And, of course, point of view is paramount. That's why we can read Twilight and adore Edward and Bella's relationship instead of thinking he's this 103 year old man stalking an underage girl. He's cast in an appropriate mold, that of a 17 year old and, of course, another archetype: the mysterious, hot bad boy. The emotions of the story are real because we're meeting him through the eyes of Bella, a smitten 17 year old girl.

In Something Borrowed we're not always clear how we feel about these characters and their actions. They weren't just blurring the lines between victim and villain, they kept switching teams. How Giffin achieved this so effortlessly and believably is that the villain (e.g. Rachel) is someone who has been a past victim. Because of that we were more forgiving of her behavior and even found ourselves liking her, identifying with her because of her past experiences.

I suppose there's no one type of victim or villain and sometimes in narrative, as in life, it's not always either/or.

As writers, we need to know the backstory of our bad guy and from whose eyes we'll be meeting them. As the adage goes, you only get one chance to make a first impression. And as readers, we need to pay attention; it's usually the bad guy who's the most unpredictable, but then again, that's its own archetype.

So tell me, who are the best villains you've read and what made them so?

Seriously?!

2011-06-29T22:54:00.010-04:00

Have you guys heard of the treadmill desk? Someone sent this to me recently and I totally thought it was a joke, like some sort of SNL spoof or something or, at best, one of those crazy gadgets they feature on Home Shopping Network at 3 am.

Apparently you walk on a treadmill while you do your work. It's real, been featured on Good Morning America, NBC, and others and is approved by an endocrinologist. But seriously, who wants to type on the computer while they walk and, more importantly, how can they really do it? I thought I had motor skills but I can't imaging being able to type as thoroughly as I do when I'm being an all out desk jockey. Sure sitting all day isn't burning any calories (unless you count the 10 steps I regularly take to and from the coffee pot) but if walking/standing all day is the alternative, I'm not sure I'm game.

I'm imagining what it would look like if I jacked up the mph while I typed out a running/fight scene in my WIP. "Writing in action" if you will. LOL.

What's the craziest thing you've heard of this week?

Oh and here's a video. They also propose holding walking conference meetings around your office to help people get moving. I'm all for fitness but something tells me I'd become the black sheep of the company if I stole away the coffee and donuts and, instead, proposed we pace around everyone's desks while we discussed our edits :-)

Feel the Frenzy

2011-06-28T06:00:00.001-04:00

The World's Biggest Stage!!!! I am sooooo EXCITED.

If you're a long-time blog follower then you're already familiar with my passion for soccer. (That or you read the little line about being on a muddy soccer field in the bio in the side bar.)

I've been playing the sport since I was 8 years old which is also how old I was when I wrote my first creative piece. I got a bloody nose in my first soccer game and that "creative" piece was a poem about Santa Claus. Let's hope I've gotten better at both!

And let's hope I've gotten more flexible:

(*Yup, that's me on the left prepping for the big game.)

There's really nothing I've loved as long as writing and soccer. They may seem like such disparate things but to me they both represent an escape. When I'm writing or running around the soccer field I'm not thinking about what errands I have to do or which phone call I should return. I'm there, in the moment, strategizing what comes next, and celebrating when the execution is exactly as I hoped. It's cathartic and at the end of the day it's mine. No matter what's going on I can always pull out the laptop or scrounge up the soccer ball, pound away at the keys, kick the sh*t out of the ball, or just go for finesse. It all depends on the day, but every day I know it's there: my escape route.

During the Men's World Cup I write a post here and here so it's only fair that on the day of the first U.S. Women's World Cup match, I pay homage.

It's been a bit of a surreal journey. That picture you just saw of me represented a huge milestone at the time: the first all-girls soccer league in my town. Before that you either played on the boys team (and being stubborn, I did though as the lone girl on the whole team) or you didn't play sports, at least not soccer anyway. And whether we knew it or not, that small little victory in Burnt Hills, NY was being repeated all over the country. Girls chose to forgo the cheerleading route or whatever else was considered appropriate girly girl activities in lieu of shinguards, cleats, and polyester jerseys.

And what we didn't know then was that girls only a wee bit older would later pave the way for things like Title IX, giving female athletes equal financial footing to their male counterparts, making universities--and later sponsors--pay attention to them. Perhaps that's why the 1999 Women's World Cup team was so popular too: they were the generation of Title IXers and those just on their heels were very aware of the path they had paved for us.

Now the women participating in this 2011 World Cup are a swath of ages, some a generation below and others, like all-star Abby Wambach, are of children of the early 1980s.*

And they're amazing players, many forging the women's professional soccer league. So get excited, and show some national pride. These may not be the pioneers, but they're making names for themselves in their own right and it would be a disservice to all the achievements we've made not to see the best of the best that bore out of that labor. And if you're still not convinced they're bad a*s, check out this pic:

And like the Men's World Cup, there's still the string of hilarious commercials that I so wish I could get all times of the year!

*Little trivia fact: I played against Abby Wambach out in Rochester, NY where she grew up.

Swagger Song

2011-06-24T06:18:00.001-04:00

This has been a LONG week so this swagger song seems more appropriate than ever. Enjoy "The Lazy Song" by Bruno Mars and have a nice, relaxing, lazy weekend too!

The Story in Pictures

2011-06-23T07:41:00.000-04:00

In January I did a series of posts on speechmaking as storytelling
here, here, and here. I've also examined the interconnectedness of songs both in inspiration, as writing soundtracks, and, of course, as stories.

What I haven't really delved into are pictures. In hindsight this is surprising as I'm such a visual person. You can see post-it reminder notes all over my desk, diagrams when I'm trying to explain workflow, and I'm often discussing ideas with our designers of what visuals I think might work well when I submit my writing assignments. Heck, from scribbling story ideas on scraps of paper and which, subsequently get shoved into the pockets of my purse, to (*nerd alert*) my strange obsession with organizations charts, I am and always have been a visual person. Even my husband hands off the camera on our vacations so I can get the shot.

So, at long last, we visit pictures as stories. As the adage goes, "A picture is worth a thousand words." And it's true. So often one snapshot can communicate so much that it would require mass amounts of text to discuss all the layers and even then we might do it a disservice because pictures can have a nuance that words often can't. Though literature can certainly have multiple interpretations, pictures I feel might even supersede words because in photography so much of the story may not be known.

This allows us to become authors of sorts, filling in the blanks, taking what subtle features or facial expressions or body language exists and weaving it into a life of its own. Is someone reaching out for a gentle touch or is the other person moving away? In a photo this may seem like a subtle difference but in the storyline and our understanding of these characters and their relationship, it's paramount.

What spurred all of this is a photo I recently saw at last week's Vancouver riot. Perhaps you've seen it?

I couldn't help but be reminded of these other iconic images of lovers embracing:

Of course the later are of a soldier returning from war and paramours connecting in the streets of Paris. The Vancouver riot without commentary looks like two people thankful to have found one another in the mess and violence, who are thankful they're both okay, who perhaps were fearful of what was taking place.

The storyline, of course, if you read it in accompaniment with this image is that the riot began after Vancouver lost to the Bruins in hockey. Somehow this background degrades the sense of urgency we sense in the picture and feels so far from the stories we began to weave about what might have been going on in those streets, in those heads, between those lovers.

Sometimes a snapshot can convey a whole story both real and imagined, a sense of illusion of sorts. That's what this Vancouver picture is for me. It's like a dream sequence in a story. It's beautiful and haunting and full of meaning at first glance but when compared against reality, is a bit of an illusion because, really, what's romantic about poor sportsmanship and tearing through the streets over hockey? Nothing. But this picture, as a stand alone, is lovely and there seems to be so much more narrative going on between these two.

Do you agree?

Hot Guys Reading Books

2011-06-20T06:52:00.003-04:00

My friend sent me the link to this blog called, "Hot Guys Reading Books." I knew even before I clicked on the link that I'd love it. I mean good looking + literary is always a winning equation.

Here's one of my favs that they've posted. Enjoy!

Breaking Dawn

2011-06-17T08:32:00.001-04:00

Have you guys seen this yet? If so, what do you think? I just checked it out and have to admit I'm pretty excited. Breaking Dawn was probably my favorite of the Twilight Saga books.

What I've Leaned This Week

2011-06-15T06:00:00.001-04:00

1. There really aren't enough hours in the day. Sorry the posts have been a little less consistent than in the past. You may have caught my previous post about being crazy busy and needing to give yourself permission to take a breather from time to time. Well that craziness seems to be spreading to the point that my husband and I have now created a shared Google calendar. Type A? Check. Organized? Check. Feeling like my summer vaca is already booked up? Check. Let it be known, however, that my commitment to the blog is no less but as you'll see some weeks it's two posts instead of the usual three or really ambitious four you sometimes saw. No week will pass where there won't be posts though so please keep coming back and if there's anything you definitely want to see here, let it be known.

2. There is something exciting about going to NYC no matter how many times I visit. I just got back from a business trip to the Big Apple and though it was a whirlwind, my stomach still gets those excited butterfly feelings every time I pull up into the city. Sure, there's more people on every block than I see in an entire commute during rush hour in DC and no they don't have cell service in the subway like we do, but still...there's a certain allure. Center of the universe? I'm not quite on that team yet but it certainly is a great place to be and a wonderful backdrop for films and novels which is probably why it's as central a character in some of our best loved stories as anything else.

3. Nothing smells as bad as trash in a hot house. Unfortunately in my scurry to get out the door for my trip I didn't take the trash out. Enough said.

4. Nothing and I mean nothing is a time suck like the crazily addictive Words With Friends. If you don't have this app on your phone I'd like to tell you not to download it...only I can't. It's virtual Scrabble with your friends and though you'll sneak in way too much time during the day (or during the commute like I do) trying to figure out six letter words ending in "o" to get those triple word points and temporary bragging rights, it's just somehow too alluring to pass up.

5. I'm thinking of re-reading Breaking Dawn. "Are there tons of books I haven't read sitting on my shelf as well as piling up on the floor?" you ask. "Yes." Do I often re-read books particularly those in the paranormal genre let alone the Twilight Saga, you might wonder. "No." But...somehow I'm feeling that pull to brush up on the storyline before this Fall. I know some of you are re-reading Book 7 of Harry Potter and no, I'm not saying Twilight is Potter. It is not. But, you know the feeling of preparing for an end film and feeling like so much time has passed since you read the book. These are characters you've been with a while and, well, you want to familiarize yourself again. Crack-candy Twilight reading or not.

6. Characters are more real when you try not to "fix" them. I'm at the climax of my WIP right now and I'm feeling pretty good about things. For those who are new, this is my second novel in progress. The first got a handful of partial and full submission requests along with a full manuscript request for edits but alas nothing came to fruition. I was disappointed though something told me that the next story (aka the one I'm working on now) had more marketability and certainly more action. What I've learned in this process is that in my first manuscript I tried too hard to dictate what the character should or shouldn't do. I was playing the mother of sorts in writing my teen character instead of really allowing her to be herself. This time I swore if I was going to do it right then I couldn't censor my character. This has given my prose--and my main character--so much more depth. In the first manuscript I tried to be flowery and use particular prose instead of having my character just tell it like it is. I realized that like friends, you can't fix your characters or change who they are. You need to embrace them and as good writers, listen to what they have to "say."

What have you learned this week?

A Winning Formula: Bridesmaids & Judd Apatow

2011-06-09T06:00:00.000-04:00

As soon as I saw the Bridesmaids trailer I knew I had to see it. Exhibit A
Annie and Lillian have been best friends since their childhood days growing up in Milwaukee; when Lillian gets engaged, she asks Annie to be her Maid of Honor. Lillian also selects four bridesmaids: Helen Harris, the wealthy wife of Lillian's fiancé's boss and Lillian's new close friend; Becca, a newlywed who loves marriage and pities Annie because of her unmarried state; Megan, the aggressive sister of the groom; and Rita, a relative who is dissatisfied with her marriage and three sons. While the wedding preparations continue, Annie's personal life is falling apart. Her cake shop went bankrupt, forcing her to take a job at a jewelry store where she is an ineffective saleswoman and makes very little money. She is kicked out of the apartment that she shares with a pair of invasive twins. Despite advice from her friends, Annie is in the midst of a self destructive relationship with a man who only thinks of her as a sex buddy. Annie's chaotic personal life, budgetary restrictions, and insecurity about Lillian and Helen's friendship begin to take their toll as the wedding draws nearer.

Kristen Wiig of SNL fame stars in the film and co-wrote it. (To check out a great interview with Wiig, see here.) Judd Apatow directs. Apatow's well known for other humorous films such as Superbad, Knocked Up, and Get Him to the Greek, all comedies which I love.

There are several themes that seem to emerge from all of these Apatow movies:

1. A group of misfits. There is no dashing, perfect heroine or hero in any of these films. They're damaged people trying to figure out life and be accepted in some way whether in love and business like in Bridesmaids, in high school like in Superbad, back in the music business in Get him to the Greek, and so on. Though the main character is far from perfect, there is always at least one friend/helper/family member assisting them in their journey and their growth.

2. A falling out. At some juncture of each of these films the friends or in the case of Knocked Up, the lovers, have a falling out. Something happens that brings them to a breaking point and they part ways.

3. A moment of clarity, a moment of crisis. In Knocked Up the start of labor brings Seth Rogen's character back into the picture; in Bridesmaids the missing bride forces Kristen Wiig to come to her friend's aid and rejoin the group; in Get Him to the Greek the threat of suicide brings Jonah Hill to the hotel to help Russell Brand, and in Superbad the threat of arrest causes Jonah Hill to literally carry his friend to safety despite the tensions that have begun to brew.

4. Crude humor. Though I say crude I probably mean uncensored. All of these movies have the kind of dialogue and humorous asides we all have with our closest friends but wouldn't dare say to someone new and certainly never in a professional or serious setting. This kind of humorous dialogue helps to illustrate the closeness of the characters and lets the audience feel as though we're having a sneak peek into their lives. It also helps establish the longevity of the relationships to a certain extent without us having to be told, we're simply shown through dialogue. Sure some of the comments and stunts may seem, at first glance, juvenile but they help to balance a more serious storyline which is always the undercurrent in these films whether the character is feeling replaced like in Bridesmaids or depressed and alone as in Get Him to the Greek. The characters are multifaceted and the comedic humor gives us reprieve from those serious storylines that are there but not fully realized until each film comes to conclusion.

5. Love interest. All of these films have a love interest but it isn't the infatuation, easy to digest, uncomplicated love we often see in movies. There's several dimensions to them and none of them are perfect.

Whether in film or in books, looking at a "winning formula" to the stories we enjoy will help us exponentially in our own storytelling.

So tell me, did you see Bridemaids? What did you think? And if you're a Judd Apatow fan like myself, am I missing any important commonalities that should be added to the list?

WTF Wednesday

2011-06-08T06:55:00.021-04:00

1. Really? Pink horses? WTF? The only horse I know that should be pink is Pinkie Pie:

2. Mike "The Situation" from MTV's The Jersey Shore is set to make $5 million this year thanks to endorsements, $50k for appearances, and $60k per episode of the show according to this article. As I slog to work this morning where I'll be sober, fully dressed, refrain from swearing, and working long hours, I can't help but find this depressing; not only that he gets paid to do just the opposite but just how much! Who knew you could make per episode a yearly salary just by letting cameras follow you around on a neverending spring break? No offense to Jersey Shore lovers but HOW did this happen?

3. And, well, sexting just isn't cool. If you don't know what Congressman Weiner's been up to, one where have you been and two WTF was he thinking?!

What WTF moments have you seen lately?

How We Read

2011-06-06T08:30:00.001-04:00

I've been thinking a lot lately about active and passive reading. By that I mean simply devouring a book or stopping to pause and consider why it's working, what specifically we love about the characters, their interactions with one another, how the author brings tension into scenes, and how they move the storyline forward.

As writers we need to remember we're always students in the craft. A vital first step is always to read in the genre we write but it's more than this. We need to study it too as if we were still in school dissecting story arcs.

I'm re-reading The Hunger Games as I get more and more excited about the movie and often I've stopped to re-read passages, pausing to consider why I think they work. There's also the lesson that nothing in a novel is there by accident so I've been taking note of how author Suzanne Collins plants ideas here and there (e.g. the gamekeeper's watch with the mockingjay, the two girls fleeing towards District 13). Everything has a deeper purpose. The novel is an onion with layers and layers building upon one another to produce this deeply rich narrative that works cohesively together as do all of the subplots.

What do you think makes a great novel work?

If only...

2011-06-01T06:49:00.000-04:00

I had considered posting a usual Wednesday WTF moment but this week seems pretty devoid of the unusual (unless you're experiencing some odd or crazy antics and then I want to hear all about it!).

So instead I decided to post a picture of where I'd like to be. Right smack in the middle of this conversation:

I love my husband (*waves* to Chris) but seriously, Kate Middleton--scratch that, the Duchess--gets to marry a prince AND she gets to meet the president. Life is so unfair. At the very least I'd like to join Kate and Michelle, talk a little shop and then move onto the exciting topics like which designer dresses we're going to wear to which highly anticipated grand affair. *sighs*

Perhaps Chris will find out he's actually a prince a la the premise of Princess Diaries, only we don't know it yet. Yes, that's probably it! For now I'll await word, shop Ann Taylor summer sales, and live vicariously through my US Weekly subscription.

What about you? Where do you wish you were?

Memorial Day

2011-05-30T06:44:00.001-04:00

Blessings to all of our soldiers, all those who have fought, and all the families who have supported them. Memorial Day, of course, is a day to remember all service men and women who have died for our country.

The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien. While not necessarily a "Memorial Day" novel, it is about soldiers at war.

The Things They Carried

They carried malaria tablets, love letters, 28-pound mine detectors, dope, illustrated bibles, each other. And if they made it home alive, they carried unrelenting images of a nightmarish war that history is only beginning to absorb. Since its first publication, The Things They Carried has become an unparalleled Vietnam testament, a classic work of American literature, and a profound study of men at war that illuminates the capacity, and the limits, of the human heart and soul.

"They carried all the emotional baggage of men who might die. Grief, terror, love, longing--these were intangibles, but the intangibles had their own mass and specific gravity, they had tangible weight. They carried shameful memories. They carried the common secret of cowardice.... Men killed, and died, because they were embarrassed not to."

I first read The Things They Carried in high school. It's one of those books that leaves a mark that lasts forever. I fell in love with it for so many reasons. It was unequivocally honest and beautifully written that I would read and re-read sections over and over again. The novel creates a snapshot not just of men or war or men at war but of our social cues, of the human spirit, of our vulnerabilities, fears, and the way war washes away any trace of naivete.

I think, perhaps, what struck me most about this novel when I first pulled back it's pages was the idea of knowing a person based on their things. After all, what we collect, what we choose to surround ourselves with is very telling about who we are, what we like, what we dream of. For these men, however, what they carry must be sufficient enough in the practicalities of war and significant enough to add bulk to their pack. With so few things to bring on a journey, what personal items would I take? Would they feel burdensome as I quite literally carry them on my back or would they offer relief, reprieve from the everyday world of war? These are the questions I ask myself each time I read this book.

And it's not just one soldier's story that we hear but many. O'Brien paints the picture of them so beautifully and convincingly that it's impossible to put down. Take this lead paragraph for example. It's a wonderful exercise in writing to see just how much we've learned about this person, how we feel for them in just a few sentences, and how there are so many pieces that make up a life:

First lieutenant Jimmy Cross carried letters from a girl named Martha, a junior at Mount Sebastian College in New Jersey. They were not love letters, but Lieutenant Cross was hoping, so he kept them folded in plastic at the bottom of his rucksack. In the late afternoon, after a day’s march, he would dig his foxhole, wash his hands under a canteen, unwrap the letters, hold them with the tips of his fingers, and spend the last hour of light pretending.

What's your favorite war-time novel and why?

Moment of Zen

2011-05-27T06:00:00.004-04:00

This picture was taken by photographer Dave Johnston in Inishowen, Ireland and featured last week as a National Geographic "Photo of the Day". I fell in love with Ireland when I traveled there a couple years ago and thus fell in love with this photograph instantly. Everything really is lush and green and beautiful over there though none of my pictures could capture it in the way this one does. So hopefully it helps bring you to your zen place, inspires your writing, or refreshes you after a long work week:

And if that doesn't get you relaxed for the weekend then maybe this will:

If my Gaelic serves me right it boils down to, Drink up it's Friday :-)

Something Borrowed

2011-05-26T07:02:00.000-04:00

Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin Something Borrowed tells the story of Rachel, a young attorney living and working in Manhattan. Rachel has always been the consummate good girl---until her thirtieth birthday, when her best friend, Darcy, throws her a party. That night, after too many drinks, Rachel ends up in bed with Darcy's fiancé.

Although she wakes up determined to put the one-night fling behind her, Rachel is horrified to discover that she has genuine feelings for the one guy she should run from. As the September wedding date nears, Rachel knows she has to make a choice. In doing so, she discovers that the lines between right and wrong can be blurry, endings aren't always neat, and sometimes you have to risk all to win true happiness.

I had seen Something Borrowed and the associated Something Blue books by Giffin as they seem to be in every airport bookstore I've ever been in. I had contemplated buying them only I rarely buy books at the airport. I've usually packed far too many to read to begin with.

But the movie release pushed my hand and reminded me of the book--one I had mentally filed in my "to be read" list only to subsequently forget about. Now there was no forgetting. I marched to my local Borders and immediately picked up the book and as soon as I did, I couldn't put it down.

I'm amazed I hadn't read Giffin's work before. None of my friends had recommended her books to me, we never read one in my book club, and yet here was something fabulous. Clearly I'm not the only one to think so as Giffin is a New York Times bestselling author.

What I love about this book and Giffin's writing style was that I immediately felt the voice of the main character. Sometimes novels begin a little stale, you need to invest some time in getting to know their back story and only then does the voice really seem to feel authentic. Not so here, in Something Borrowed. We hear Rachel so vividly and Darcy too, that we know these girls. We know them in our life, maybe on some days we're bits and pieces of them too.

Giffin's also has an amazing cast of supporting characters including friends Ethan and Hillary whom I loved. Dex, as Rachel's love interest and Darcy's fiance, plays a central role in the story but for much of it I couldn't determine how I felt about him. There was always a part of me that was on edge as the wedding date approached and I feared how he might hurt our heroine.

In the end, however, it's really Darcy and Rachel who steal the show. And Giffin's never takes a short cut with their development. She creates characters we love and hate, we disagree with but sympathize with too, who are complicated and messy, who disagree and yet complement one another in a million little different ways--sometimes simply because they have shared history and other times because despite their differences Darcy and Rachel "get" one another. This, of course, is also why the stakes are so high, why as readers we're so torn who to cheer for or what to hope for for our characters. Do we want Rachel to really be with Dex? Is he really her soul mate or simply confused? Is he leading her on and will pick Darcy in the end? Does Darcy knowingly use Rachel? Why won't Rachel speak up and demand what she wants in love--and friendship?

I didn't know how I'd react to the affair that drives the storyline or whether Rachel's see-sawing about how she feels would get old quickly. As readers, however, Giffin's really allows us into Rachel's thoughts, her memories, creates so many layers to Rachel's friendship--and rivalry--with Darcy that somehow each internal dialogue, the churning turmoil that Rachel deals with feels real and not recycled in the least. To write characters who are all so clearly imperfect and who never quite fall into total villain or hero slots is difficult but makes the book seem all the more real.

In short, Giffin's writes a great chick lit book that takes no shortcuts in character development or storyline. Her characters are memorable and this book is too. Pick it up!

As for me, I'm off to see it at the movies. How can I not? Kate Hudson is the perfect Darcy and I just absolutely adore both Ginnifer Goodwin and John Krasinski. Here's a sneak peak at the trailer if you haven't already seen it:

If you've seen the film or read the book, what did you think?

Deserted Island Reads

2011-05-24T08:19:00.000-04:00

I keep thinking about what books I would need to have with me if I was stranded on a deserted island. This thinking is likely ignited by the fact I'm packing for my upcoming trip to the Bahamas (*squee*).

Also when I look up deserted island, pictures like this come up and don't look altogether bad.

Then again, I've seen Cast Away and a few episodes of Lost. So certainly I'd need some sage survival books perhaps something with outdoor extraordinaire Bear Grylls (aka the youngest Briton to ever climb Everest, star of the Discovery Channel show Man vs. Wild, and all-around bad a*s).

Case in point and WTF moment of the week:

But what books would I need to pack and which I might never tire and what books would I need to ensure I purchase for fear I might never have a chance to read them if I don't?

This is where I need your help. If I pack two books, what should they be?

-One book: all-time fav of yours and can't live without, would be the go-to read during all those days wondering if you'll be rescued off the island

and

-Another book: Most anticipated book that just came out or is about to come out and which you'll NEED to pick up before said stranding happens?

Advice please!

Katniss in The Hunger Games

2011-05-20T08:02:00.000-04:00

I was a little concerned whether actress Jennifer Lawrence could "look" the part of Katniss Everdeen in Suzanne Collins' wildly successful YA dystopian novel The Hunger Games.

As you know I listed The Hunger Games as one of my absolute fav books that I read in 2010 and I had listened to author Collins discuss the work and its inspiration at this past year's National Book Festival.

While I am well aware that Hollywood can work its magic and morph appearances I, like many fans, was protective of Katniss and who was cast to bring her to life on the screen. I also felt Lawrence looked too old and too tall to play Katniss, perhaps even a little too beautiful.

I told myself, however, that with Collins helping steer the casting selections we would get someone good and there was no denying Lawrence can act. She was nominated for an Oscar this past year in The Winter's Bone. In that film her character, much like Katniss, has to deal with hardship, physical pain, and the outdoors.

Still, I had my doubts. Here was the Lawrence I had seen over and over again:

Now, the first glimpse of her as a brunette and in character as our favorite heroine:

What did you think when you first heard Jennifer Lawrence was going to play Katniss? Has your opinion changed now that you see the EW cover? Have the hair and makeup team transformed her to how you envisioned Katniss?

I have to say, I am definitely much more on board now that I've had a first look. The full translation of the book to the big screen, however, remains to be seen.

To read more about Jennifer Lawrence and how she prepared for the role of a lifetime, see here. To learn more about Liam Hemsworth and Josh Hutcherson who were cast as Peeta and Gale, read here.

Word Choice

2011-05-18T07:17:00.008-04:00

I was writing a video script for my day job and it got me thinking a lot about word choice. I'd have the added benefit of visuals which books do not (unless we're talking picture books). Still, the visuals would be dictated by my words and the client decided to forgo a narrator. That meant my words were all the more important, not only in what they said and what story they painted but also which synonym I chose.

The sound of the words in succession needed to create a certain flow, a rhythm as they were read. I couldn't lean on a narrator's voice to provide that for me.

In short, every word had to have a purpose. It had to move the story forward and it had to be the perfect word. And because in these things time really is money, I had to consider whether three words could do the job of six and so on.

It's like creating an army of words. You don't just want word counts for the sake of words count or to take your reader down the detour path; you want to take the most direct route, use your Navy Seals Black Ops words in your arsenal to drive the action.

It's kind of like what I learned in my communications master's about signifiers. Every object and every word has associated meaning for the reader/viewer. Some are loaded down with reference, some may have similar connotations for many people, or some may just have special meaning for you.

When we write, we need to take all of this into consideration. It's not enough especially in today's crowded publishing world to have a good story idea that's fairly well told. It has to be expertly executed. You have to ask yourself if something is really necessary in getting your character closer to where they need to be in the plot line. If it's not then decreasing--rather than increasing--the words in your WIP may be the best action. And when it comes to line editing time you need to consider not only what word is the most poignant but also realistic for your character. This is particularly true for first person narratives.

My current WIP is told in a male POV and there are times I'll write a passage and think, "Hey that's pretty good." It may be well written BUT does it really work for my character or am I being inconsistent with voice? The answer varies. Sometimes I'll create a paragraph or even just a sentence and while there's nothing grammatically incorrect, it doesn't feel authentic to who is telling the story. The WHO we have to remember is just as much a driving force in your word choice as anything else.

Consequently there are times where I'll be on a writing roll and from first glance may think, "That's full of slang" and assume, perhaps, that it's not as well written, however, for my character it may be perfect. It may be exactly the word or phrase he would be thinking at that precise moment in the story.

When we're working on first drafts of our WIP we often just want to get the story out...on paper, in the world, out of our heads. When it comes time to edit, however, we really need to comb through the piece and always ask ourselves,

-Can I say it better?
-Can these words better serve my purpose?
-Is this consistent with my other word choices?
-How does this affect my flow?

When we consciously consider these questions in revisions, we'll be so much more effective in self editing and that much closer to having a truly polished piece.

Swagger Song

2011-05-16T06:00:00.003-04:00

This is a little different than some of the other swagger songs I've posted previously. It's the Beastie Boys new song "Make Some Noise." It's a throwback to classic Beastie songs and begins with a trio resembling the younger Mike D, MCA, and Ad-Rock.

I love it because it brings me back to high school, a time when I would regularly listen to the Beastie Boys, first because I was trying to be cool like my brothers who would blare "Fight for Your Right to Party" out of their beat-up Nissan Sentra and later because they had genuinely grown on me.

I also adore a good cameo and this video is chock full of them. If you blink you'll miss another celebrity. Enjoy!

What were your high school swagger songs?

Bloom Like an Artist

2011-05-14T09:51:00.005-04:00

Artistic, creative types have heard more than a time or two how difficult it is to make it in the arts, how competitive it is, how "impractical." Maybe you've heard you shouldn't send out that WIP because, well, have you seen the odds. Or maybe you've said it to yourself on those long nights in front of the computer and wondered, "What am I doing here? Do I really have a shot? Is it really all worth it?"

If you've ever felt this way, read this. The fabulous literary agent Janet Reid posted it on her blog and I'm helping spread the love. Embrace your inner artist. Be creative. Be you!

Water for Elephants

2011-05-11T06:50:00.018-04:00

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

Here's what it's about: As a young man, Jacob Jankowski was tossed by fate onto a rickety train that was home to the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. It was the early part of the great Depression, and for Jacob, now ninety, the circus world he remembers was both his salvation and a living hell. A veterinary student just shy of a degree, he was put in charge of caring for the circus menagerie.

It was there that he met Marlena, the beautiful equestrian star married to August, the charismatic but twisted animal trainer. And he met Rosie, an untrainable elephant who was the great gray hope for this third-rate traveling show. The bond that grew among this unlikely trio was one of love and trust, and, ultimately, it was their only hope for survival.

Water for Elephants is a #1 New York Times bestseller. Gruen began the novel as part of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) an "event" that encourages writers to develop a 50k word novel in the short span of a month.

Similar to her earlier works in Riding Lessons and Flying Changes, Gruen's love of animals and their special bond with humans is an underlying current.

The novel is a book club favorite and there's not a person I've met who hasn't enjoyed it. There is drama, suspense, love, and a certain fantastical element.

The book was, of course, also recently adapted into a film.

While some elements from the book weren't translated in full into the movie, all the major tenants were. It's an incredibly beautiful film both in its cinemotography and in the way Robert Pattinson and Reece Witherspoon are able to portray Jacob and Marlena. They breath life into the characters, have wonderful chemistry, and bring an added flare to the romance and storyline. You believe their struggle, your heart aches for them as they endanger themselves by trying to help Rosie the elephant and, of course, in trying to help themselves to a better life--one with each other.

August's mental illness leaves the audience on the edge of their seat at all times as there's no telling when he'll snap. We see snippets of his madness when he throws men off trains to their death all because of weighty issues like debt or minor issues such as annoyance. August is portrayed so believably by Christoph Waltz that I most thoroughly despise him. I wouldn't be surprised in the least if Waltz is nominated for his role here.

But Waltz's isn't the only fabulous acting in this film. While I admit I eat up the Twilight movies it wasn't until I saw Water for Elephants that I was convinced Pattinson had any range as an actor. There had also been grumbling at the onset of filming whether Witherspoon was old to be playing Marlena but she pulls it off wonderfully adding layers and layers of depth to her character and and making Gruen fans proud. Marlena is broken but strong, mesmerizingly beautiful, and always a woman weighing her choices in life.

It's a film worth watching just as the book's worth reading. You won't be disappointed.

This is author Gruen with the film's elephant. LOVE this pic!

How did you like the book and film or are you hoping to catch them both?