How to use this Page

How cool is a library with a TURRET?!



As a kid, I would have dreamed of creeping up to the top of the turret with my library books and being able to read in the window seat of a round room.

But tomorrow night, I get to read at this awesome edifice. Not in the turret, unfortunately. Downstairs. But to make up for the lack of turretosity, I get to read with these amazing authors:

Tara Altebrando, Dreamland Social Club

Matt Blackstone, A Scary Scene in a Scary Movie

Christopher Grant, Teenie

Alissa Grosso, Popular

Blake Nelson, Recovery Road

Gae Polisner, The Pull of Gravity

Nova Ren Suma, Imaginary Girls

Melissa Walker, Small Town Sinners

The festivities start at 6pm, Jefferson Market Library, 425 Avenue of the Americas (off 10th Avenue). Hope to see you there!

As 2009 comes to a close, I guess it's time to look back and review. During last night's #kidlitchat on Twitter, we were discussing goals for 2010, so that's all on my mind too.

Yes Virginia, I have been a blog slacker this year, and that is number one on my list of resolutions.

1. Stop being such a blog slacker. You know what I want to know? I want to know how people like Maureen Johnson can Twitter all day and keep up a blog and write bestselling books. Oh, AND winning the Most Interesting Twitter Person to Follow on Twitter in the Mashable Open Web Awards this year. Congrats!! Maureen! Are you out there? What is your sekrit? Do you not need to eat or sleep or perform unmentionable bodily functions? Now, I believe Maureen does not yet have teenage children, so that probably eliminates the need for her to spend a goodly portion of her life in a car chauffeuring them places. Or arguing with them. Or cooking for them. Or taking them to the mall to buy them clothes that they already have but NEED more of of they will be social outcasts. But still. I can't help wondering if when she wrote the scripts for the Harry Potter video games they snuck her one of Hermione's Time Turners. Me want one. Me NEED one.

2. Stop making myself crazy by comparing myself to other people. Yep. To do anything else is crazy making. My life is my own and has its own challenges and limitations and opportunities. It's up to me to make the best of it.

We talked about this one on #kidlitchat last night and it's a biggie

3. Focus on the things that are within my control A lot of what happens after we write out books is out of our hands. Recite the Serenity Prayer and work your butt off where you can make a difference. Such as:

4. Keep trying to learn and refine my craft. Keep pushing myself out of my comfort zone. That's definitely something I'm working on now with the new project. It's all about the journey, and each book has taught me something new along the way.

5. Do a better job at keep track of the books I've read Inspired by my middle/high school friend Peter Conway, who has lists of what he's read going back decades I decided I was going to start keep track of my reading. I ended up with 32 books on my list which didn't include any of the books I read for research and left out a huge swath of books I read during the summer and fall when I forgot to put them on the list. Must come up with a better system. Or a better brain.

6. Karma counts. As publishers cut back, unless yours is the big book they've chosen to promote that season you're pretty much on your own publicity wise. And so are all the other authors out there. Lisa Schroeder did this wonderful post about Supporting authors when your heart is bigger than your wallet. So shout out for your friends and celebrate. Help network each other. We are each other's community.

And as such, I just want to give a loud and very public SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
I was in the Barnes and Noble at the Stamford Town Center the other day (Connecticut's LARGEST Barnes and Noble, FYI) and lookee what I saw:




Lots and lots of copies of EIGHTH GRADE SUPER ZERO by our very own

My visits to the physio therapist continue, and my collection of torture devices wrist and elbow braces seems to be growing by the week. The latest?



This saucy little number. (Note my lovely "Plugged in Plum" nails - I went to a high school reunion on Saturday night so I had my nails done for the first time in like, forever.) What you can't see, is that embedded under my wrist going all the way up to the palm of my hand is a metal bar:



which, as I'm sure you can imagine, makes it an absolute JOY to type! And I have Major Freaking Revisions on WANT TO GO PRIVATE? to do this Month. MaFreReMo. Uh huh.

One thing about an injury affecting your livelihood is that it makes you take it very VERY seriously. I've been doing everything the physio tells me, including researching laptop ergonomics on the web, because after talking to the hand specialist at the physio place, we think perhaps my elbow tendon was weakened by my poor laptop habits on a repetitive basis and then it was all the tennis playing that just was the last straw.

So getting a new chair wasn't enough. On Friday I bit the bullet and went out and bought a wireless keyboard, mouse, and a laptop stand, so now my keyboard can be at the proper height for my wrists, but the screen is at a height were I don't have to bend my neck to look at it. Then I went and bought a proper foot rest, so that my arms and legs are now at 90 degree angles when I work.

Here's what it looks like:



The keyboard tray is still kind of messy because I was using it as a drawer before and I haven't figured out where to put all the stuff yet.

But take it from this injured Word Warrior. We writers spend a LOT of time on our butts in front of a computer screen, making the same repetitive motions. Take a good look at your writing situation and make sure that it's safe.

Because trying to do Major Freaking Revisions with a big piece of metal sticking in the palm of your hand is NO FUN AT ALL!

On a more fun note: I'm trying to think of a good competition to give away a LIFE, AFTER arc. Any ideas?

Last week I finished the sh*tty first draft of my fourth book, which is going by the working title WANT TO GO PRIVATE? and sent it off to my wonder editor for some global comments about if the structure is working before I start revisions. It's about a girl who gets involved with an Internet Predator and I've experimented with alternating POV's to create tension and for some other reasons. It's been both fascinating and disturbing working on this book. Fascinating because after getting permission from the HQ in Washington, I've been doing research in conjunction with my local FBI office. I've also been pestering the recently retired head of the Youth Division of Greenwich Police Department with questions about police procedures.

But because of the subject matter, it's also been a disturbing book to write. When I've written chats between the girl and the predator, I've wanted to take a shower afterwards because having to write as the predator makes me feel so dirty.

The whole language/sex in YA issue has been looming very large for me in writing this as well. I've struggled mightily with the problem of trying to be authentic (where, according to the FBI, these guys get very dirty, very quickly) and not wanting the book to get banned before it even gets to a library. Librarians - answer to the question of do we authors self-censor? That would be a resounding yes. We think very, very carefully about what we put in our books. In this case, I've made a conscious decision to try and focus on the seductive and the manipulative aspects of the chat conversations in order to try and minimize the sexual content. But inevitably,some sexual content must be there, because ultimately that's the reason these guys are chatting to 14 year-olds, isn't it?

Well, once the MS went off to my editor, I had to tackle all the things I've been ignoring over the last four months while I've been on a writing frenzy. Like my kids, and house cleaning and groceries and this blog, for instance. But also, my office. I came home one day, and the Webmeister and my daughter had declared it an official DANGER ZONE:






(Note all the stacked up revisions in the second picture)

So for the past few days I've been reconciling 4 months worth of bank statements, boxing up the MS revisions and putting them in the garage, and excavating my desk. I even dusted, once I realized there was wood under all that paper! I still have to do the filing, but I'm trying to bribe hire my daughter as my temporary personal assistant, so that she'll do that for me.

Maybe it's because I want to procrastinate from crushing tediousness of having to catch up on my accounting, but the idea for my next book has been all I want to work on, morning, noon and night. In between bank statements, I wrote a synopsis and sent it to the Super Secret Agent, who loved it and told me to "get writing". Far be it from me to disobey the words of the SSA. So I'm busy doing research and thinking about characters. Don't want to say much more, other than that this will be the first book that combines elements my two previously very separate writing lives - politics and YA. Stay tuned!

In preparation, Daughter and I went to Sephora yesterday and picked out a new writing scent. Having
a special perfume while I work on each book has turned into one of my Weird Writing Rituals. Our choice: Le Bateleur by Dolce and Gabbana. Le Bateleur means "The Juggler" in French, and besides loving the fragrance, it's an appropriate name for both the MC of the new book - and for me!

I'm writing this while I wait for my son to finish the PSATs. Ah, the memories.