new posts in all blogs
Viewing: Blog Posts Tagged with: Dear Teen Me, Most Recent at Top [Help]
Results 1 - 14 of 14
How to use this Page
You are viewing the most recent posts tagged with the words: Dear Teen Me in the JacketFlap blog reader. What is a tag? Think of a tag as a keyword or category label. Tags can both help you find posts on JacketFlap.com as well as provide an easy way for you to "remember" and classify posts for later recall. Try adding a tag yourself by clicking "Add a tag" below a post's header. Scroll down through the list of Recent Posts in the left column and click on a post title that sounds interesting. You can view all posts from a specific blog by clicking the Blog name in the right column, or you can click a 'More Posts from this Blog' link in any individual post.
I've had so much fun reading the Letters to My Younger Self of my fellow Teaching Authors. Some TA's I know well, and some I have never met in person. Every single post has resonated with me in some way, and allowed me to know them a little better. Go back and check out Jo Ann's, Esther's, Carla's, and April's posts. You might find a little of you there.
Now it's time to talk to someone I haven't thought about in a long while, 16-year-old me. I don't like her because she was cocky, insufferable and over confident as a writer. She once told a Pulitzer Prize winning author that she never revised anything, "because I get it right the first time."
See what I mean?
Hello, Rodman (as you are known, back in the day).
This is Your Future Self speaking, and I have some bad news for you. You do not win the 1976 Pulitzer Prize as you predicted in the class prophecy. As bad as you are in math, I am sure you didn't realize that you would be a college senior in 1976. Saul Bellow wins. He gets interviewed by Johnny Carson instead of you.
Here's even worse news.
There is no Story Fairy. You know her, first cousin to the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny, and Santa Claus.
 |
| 13-year-old me |
Right now, you think that Story Fairy waves her Magic Story Wand (sound effect: harp strings) sparkly story dust showers you and
ta da! a story, appears, full-blown in your head. A couple of hours later, you are ready to mail it off to the latest writing contest.
And you always win those contests. Local, regional, national, you win them all. You are editor of your school paper. You write a weekly school column for the local paper for four years, without breaking a sweat. Writing is easy. It's the one thing you know you can do. Even though it is not considered a
real asset in your teen world (like cheerleading and looking like Christie Brinkley),
Writer is a far better label than
Nerd or
Girl Without Boyfriend.
You eventually become an adult (even though you don't really want to) and something terrible happens. Story Fairy deserts you. You write as fluently as ever, sailing along on your little blue typewriter when
bang! You hit a wall. You don't know what happens next. The main character just sits there, staring at you, refusing to move or talk.
Hey, Fairy. Where are you? There must be something wrong with me. Maybe I'm not a real writer after all. And you quit writing.
But you
can't stop. You keep journals. You go on writing and hitting walls. Sometimes a kind editor will scrawl a sentence on the form rejection letters you receive.
You write very well, but this isn't really a story. No one ever explains
why it's not a real story. And you keep writing. For many, many years. All alone.
Then one day, through a set of Magical Circumstances, you find yourself in an MFA Writing Program. You discover there are lots of other people just like you, who write all the time, never get published and don't know why. You go to lectures, work with
real writers and talk to your new writer friends. Eventually you learn (you are a very slow learner) that there
is no Writer Fairy.
Stories
don't just happen. They come in dribs and drabs. A character chatters in a corner of your brain. You remember family stories. Music will paint a mental setting, like a stage without actors. You go
back to the journals you've kept since third grade and discover story treasures there.
In other words,
writing takes a long time. Right now,
a long time means two days, only because you are a slow and terrible typist. You discover it takes months and years to turn those dribs and drabs into a story. You will stop and start, write and rewrite. A little voice in your head tells you when something is not quite right. You write some more. (This is different from that other voice that says
Who do you think you're kidding? You're not a writer! You tell that voice to
shut up and go away.)
There is no
bibbety bobbety boo to writing. It takes the three P's--patience, persistence and perspiration. It means writing
something--even a journal entry--every day you possibly can. (In years to come, you will read that Stephen King writes every day except Christmas. You learn that most people are not Stephen King.)
Still there, Rodman? Still awake? Here comes the good news. You never give up, you read and write and learn from others and when you are really old (like forty), you start writing
real stories that other people (editors) like and publish. You will still get rejection letters (sometimes they come in something called an e-mail that hasn't been invented yet, so don't worry about it) but you keep on writing. Because it's a compulsion.
Because you are a real writer. You always were.
Love, Future You, Mary Ann Rodman, published author.
P.S. No, you don't marry Robert Redford or ever look like Christie Brinkley, but you do OK.
 |
| Future you and your mom, at a signing for your first book, My Best Friend |
Posted by Mary Ann Rodman
.
Howdy, Campers--Happy Poetry Friday! The link is at the bottom of the page, right below my poem.
Our topic this round is Dear Younger Me. JoAnn started us off by encouraging her younger self not only to carry around notebooks...but to actually go back and mine them for ideas. Esther lovingly reassures her younger self--as she has encouraged me and countless others. Carla talks to her past self when she decided to write what would become her first nonfiction book.
I love this topic. We seem to be universally hard on ourselves. I am constantly giving myself tickets for the things I haven't accomplished...
 |
Are you intimidated by the police in your head?
Have you considered the possibility that you haven't done anything wrong? |
So here's what I'd tell my younger self...the one embarking on a voyage to the Children's Book Writers Planet:
Dear Enthusiastic, Younger, Much-Prettier-Than-You-Realize-Right-Now Me,
~ Trust your gut. I know, I know. Your mother kept saying this and you looked at her cross-eyed.
What in the heck does that MEAN?
Well--it means yes, take those classes, read children's literature, find a critique group, attend conferences, read how-to books...
...but give yourself the silence in which to discover that still, small voice within. She's there, I promise. But she whispers. The crazy clutter of our culture makes is hard to locate her (and Honey, it's only going to get worse, believe me. Buckle your seat belt.)
She knows when that marvelous critique group is sending your story in the wrong direction, when the business advice you just heard from the podium does not fit your work habits or your style or your something-else.
Trust her. Wander with her. She usually doesn't take the well-traveled path.
~ Be patient. Ha ha--that's a good one, right? When you're still in your twenties, your very smart husband will say."Y'know...I think we'll both reach our peak in our 50s and 60s." HA! He can't be right, can he?
Um...yup.
~ Keep creating content. That is, keep writing books. Because one day you could look up after visiting 19 gazillion schools, and you'll not only be exhausted to the bone...but your books will begin going out of print. ACK!
So yes, accept invitations to do school visits and teach workshops, because you love teaching. But be careful not to let them take over your writing time like some big blobby thing.
It's so tempting, isn't it? Your ego is definitely well-fed by those second graders who think you're the Queen of England.
 |
| from Morguefile.com |
That's all, Kiddo. You'll do fine.
Oh--one more thing: slow down when you read your beautiful kid bedtime stories. I know,
I know: you want to get to
your work, but trust me...take a breath, take your time, and soak in the pleasure of reading to your kid.
Love,
me
P.S: I know you're not going to take any of this advice. And that's okay, too.
TO MY TEEN SELF
by April Halprin Wayland
Michael is lying.Michael is lying.I know that you're flying on wings of romance.
His teeth gleam, he loves you--well, at least at first glance.But Michael is caught in the web he is weavingMichael is out the door.Michael is leaving.Michael is lying.Michael is lying.Oh, dear.
It's coming:the Niagara of crying.poem and drawing (c) 2015 April Halprin Wayland. All rights reserved.posted by April Halprin Wayland with the help of that still, small voice within.
In this series of posts, my fellow TeachingAuthors and I are writing letters to our earlier selves a la Dear Teen Me. As I’ve thought about what to write, it is clear to me that the contents of such a letter would vary greatly depending on the phase of life I considered. A letter to my teen self would be very different from a letter to my newlywed self, or to my busy young mother self, or my empty nester self, or my newly-divorced-after-being-married-my-whole-adult-life self.
So the best approach for this assignment is to write a letter to the young woman I was years ago that decided to write a nonfiction book. I had no idea what I was doing. I had no idea where to start doing it. And I had no idea how to finish doing it.
But that didn't stop me.
And I succeeded.
So a letter to myself back then as I began what would become a long journey would go something like this:
Dear Carla,
You might not know what you are doing right now, but you will figure it out as you go.
Trust your instincts as a researcher and as a storyteller.
Think outside the box.
Be fearless.
Don’t expect so much of yourself.
From Your future self.
As I read back over this letter, I realize things haven’t changed all that much after all. I still need to remember these things today.
So maybe this is a letter to my past self, my present self, and my future self.
Carla Killough McClafferty
 |
Book cover of my first nonfiction book for young readers.
THE HEAD BONE'S CONNECTED TO THE NECK BONE: THE WEIRD, WACKY AND WONDERFUL X-RAY.
Published by FSG.
|
As JoAnn shared in her
Friday post, in this current series my fellow Teaching Authors and I are writing to our younger selves, inspired by the authors’ letters of the
Dear Teen Me project.
At first, this letter-writing idea grabbed me. For years I’ve tasked my writers to pen all sorts of letters – to their future selves to envision their journeys, to their characters to learn their stories more fully, to the author of the book that made them a Reader, to the author whose writing changed their lives. I also believe in writing Thank You notes, in haiku or not.
But then Second Thoughts took center stage, overwhelming me and holding me back.
Hmmmm….
Let’s see….
I could say….
No way!
So I considered sharing Jake Wizner’s new Stenhouse book WORTH WRITING ABOUT – EXPLORING MEMOIR WITH ADOLESCENTS. Or Carolyn Mackler’s September-released Harper Teen YA novel
INFINITE IN BETWEEN, in which “five ninth graders write letters to their future selves, promising to reunite on graduation day and read them together.”
Or even reviewing
DEAR TEEN ME which gathered over 70 letters noted YA authors wrote their teenaged selves.
And then I saw my badge from my 50
th High School Reunion (!) and I knew
just what I wanted to tell that
Earnest,
Smiling,
Tenacious,
Hopeful,
Enthusiastic and
Resourceful about-to-enter-college voted “Likely to Succeed” Teacher-Writer Wannabe – the one (I've since surprisingly learned) her fellow classmates viewed as confident, even though she knew “
Self-UNassured” was the more appropriate and telling
S and
that her metaphorical non-stop paddling feet beneath the water’s surface belied the appearance of smooth and happy sailing.
I wanted to riff on borrowed words from Dennis Palumbo’s WRITING FROM THE INSIDE OUT to tell her what I've spent a lifetime learning. Palumbo wants the writer to know, “…you - everything you are, all your feelings, hopes and dreads, fears and fantasies – you are enough.”
Here’s my variation and Dear Teen Me letter.
Dear Teen Me:
As your Life unfolds, no matter the circumstance and the verb
you choose/need/desire to undertake - to love, befriend, embrace
or honor, achieve, create, realize or become, confront, rebound,
overcome, triumph, I absolutely assure you:
you are MORE than enough!”
Really and truly.
XOXO
Esther Chairnoff Hershenhorn
I only recently discovered the
Dear Teen Me site, where young adult authors post encouraging, honest, heartfelt letters to their teenage selves. For this series of posts, we
Teaching Authors are writing to our younger selves, inspired by those letters.
When our kids were still small, I started writing for children—poetry and picture books, fiction and nonfiction. I carried a pocket notebook around to keep track of ideas. The notebooks piled up in my desk drawer until I dumped them all into a box that I’ve been slowly weeding out.
Here’s what I’d say to that young mother:
Remember the notebooks! Yes, you carry one around most of the time. You’re always jotting down a favorite word or a quick observation or something funny one of the kids said. From time to time—especially when you’re stuck—stop and see what treasures you’ve gathered. Ideas and stories and poems are in there! Go back and find them!
The same thing with pictures. Look through them once in awhile. Remember the silly, wonderful, brave things you did. In another unsorted box, I just found this one of me and our (little!) boys on a camping trip. Priceless, right?
More weeding ahead!
Charlotte S. is the winner of our latest Book Giveaway, the autographed copy of Write a Poem Step by Step. Congratulations, Charlotte! Your book is on its way!
Enjoy!
JoAnn Early Macken
By:
Kurtis Scaletta,
on 1/13/2015
Blog:
Kurtis Scaletta
(
Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:
dear teen me,
stafford,
auster,
delillo,
dillard,
olson,
then again too few to mention,
Miscellaneous,
nabokov,
white,
regrets,
Add a tag
There is a “Dear Teen Me,” meme that I have not done, but if I were to do it now, I might invoke my young self to stop reading Vonnegut, to read maybe one book each by Nabokov, Auster, and Delillo but not read them obsessively, so that my own writing become paralyzed with self-consciousness.
There’s nothing wrong with those writers, but every high-school aged boys with aspirations to write discovers Vonnegut, imagines himself to be the next great wit, and writes Vonnegut-tainted stories for a time, and emerges from the smothering style only when, as an upperclassman, he discovers the likes of Nabokov, Auster, and Delillo. And so, for a time, he begins soon abandoned self-conscious novels, talks about metafiction at parties to anyone who pretend to listen, and wonders if he needs to read more Thomas Mann to have literary street cred. I would like to stop teen me from taking those perilous steps and losing a decade to misdirection.
I would allow the Hawthorn, the Poe, the Steinbeck and Twain but only to have an anchor in Americana. I would discourage an scholarly inclination toward anything — if a story works, it works on instincts, not on explanations. I might even caution him to major in something besides English. Vonnegut was a mechanical engineer, after all, and Nabokov an entomologist. Major in geology or anthropology, I’d tell myself. Something that gets you outside and mucking around in the soil.
Literature built atop a tower of literature is the right road for someone else, but not for you. Your way into a story is the story, not the language. Your strengths are emotional, not cerebral. Find an anchor, a patch of soil to plant yourself, a way to see the world without words.
I would tell my young self to discover Sigurd Olson and Annie Dillard and the poetry of William Stafford and the essays of E.B. White, not because they tell me how to write, but because they tell me how to live.
I would tell myself to go for more walks.
I would tell myself to talk less and listen more.
I would tell myself to learn the names of trees and bugs.
I would tell myself to appreciate silence and the immense value of free time.
But knowing that teen me as I do, I know he wouldn’t listen to any of this.
Filed under:
Miscellaneous Tagged:
auster,
dear teen me,
delillo,
dillard,
nabokov,
olson,
regrets,
stafford,
then again too few to mention,
white 
.jpg?picon=980)
By:
Cheryl Rainfield,
on 10/3/2014
Blog:
Cheryl Rainfield: Avid Reader, Teen Fiction Writer, and Book-a-holic. Focus on Children & Teen Books
(
Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:
bullying,
YA books,
YA author,
Cheryl Rainfield,
anti-bullying,
Dear Teen Me,
OneVoice,
Add a tag
So many teens are bullied every year–and it affects their self-confidence, happiness, mental health, and overall wellness. Sometimes it takes lives. I was bullied as a teen, and between the bullying at school and the abuse at home I had no safe place. I wanted to die often. I think we need to keep talking about bullying and keep raising awareness so that people who are bullied get support, compassion, and safety; people who bully can get help to find out why they bully and hopefully stop hurting others; and bullying can end. I hope for a more compassionate world, and I see that happening (slowly).
I think talking about painful issues is part of what helps bring change, so I’m happy to be part of the #OneVoice Campaign through Entangled and Dear Teen Me, where all this month YA authors write a Dear Teen Me letter to their teen selves about the impact bullying had on them. (My post is on Oct 24th.) There are so many fantastic YA authors taking part in this; I hope you’ll drop by EntangledTeen often this month and check out the wise, heartfelt, and powerful posts, and leave a comment for the authors. And if you believe that bullying should stop, please help spread the word using the hashtag #OneVoice.
Here is my pledge against bullying:
I pledge to speak out against bullying when I see it & try to make a positive difference in this world, always. #OneVoice
I hope you’ll join us all in taking a stand against bullying.
The fantastic YA authors who are taking part in the #OneVoice Campaign this month include:
Oct. 1- Cole Gibsen
Oct. 2- Ellen Hopkins
Oct. 3- Ann Aguirre
Oct. 4-5- weekend/open
Oct.. 6- Anna Banks
Oct. 7- Shannon Lee Alexander
Oct. 8- Julie Cross
Oct. 9- Alyssa Day writing as Lucy Connors
Oct. 10- Jus Accardo
Oct. 11- D.R. Rosensteel
Oct. 12- Sunday/open
Oct. 13- Rebekah Purdy
Oct. 14- Mary Lindsey
Oct. 15- Tracy Clark
Oct. 16- Chantele Sedgwick
Oct.17- Francesca Zappia and Rachel Caine’s post (Rachel in the morning, Francia in the afternoon)
Oct. 18- Lisa Brown Roberts
Oct. 19- Victoria Scott
Oct. 20- Trinity Faegan
Oct. 21- Tiffany Truitt
Oct. 22- Tara Fuller
Oct. 23-Jennifer Bosworth
Oct. 24- Cheryl Rainfield
Oct. 25- Chloe Jacobs
Oct. 26- Sunday/open
Oct. 27- Carrie Jones
Oct. 28- Sarah Bomley
Oct. 29- Sarah Darer Littman
Oct. 30- Tonya Kuper
Oct. 31- Nikki Urang
By:
Beth Kephart ,
on 4/2/2014
Blog:
Beth Kephart Books
(
Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:
Shelf Awareness,
Sarah Laurence,
Melissa Firman,
Dear Teen Me,
Dr. Radway's Sarsaparilla Resolvent,
Wayne Art Center,
Going Over,
Going Over Trailer,
Pottery Ladies,
Add a tag
Oh, those beautiful pottery ladies. There I was, minding my own clay business, when I saw Karen the Good, who also goes by Queen of Wayne, sneak by. What is that lady doing? I wondered, then went back to trying to figure out how to make my latest project stable.
The next time I looked up, the ladies had gathered around and they were singing. They were singing a birthday song.
How I love them all.
(Bill, the honorary pottery lady, took the photo of the group, but I love him, too.)
So a huge thank you to my friends, and to Karen, for remembering—and for singing—so poignantly well. And the timing is—well—something else, for just this morning I had been remembering a surprise party my mother had thrown for me when I was sixteen years old. Somehow she'd gotten Jim Clancy, Radnor High basketball star, to my basement, along with ice skaters and other friends. I had not had the slightest inkling that something was in the works. I miss my mother on many days, and always on my birthday, and there were the ladies, on this day, stepping in.
So who was the teen me? I write of her here, on
Dear Teen Me, today. The piece begins like this:
You do not have to be good. You don’t have to try so hard. You don’t have to stay so very still inside that box that you have built up for yourself.
Life is meant for living.
Listen.
On a day in which so much kindness overflows that I hardly know what to do, or how many ways I can say thank you, I share these beautiful things as well:
Shelf Awareness shared the
Going Over trailer as the Trailer of the Day,
here. Sarah Laurence reviewed
Going Over so incredibly beautifully
here.And Melissa Firman very kindly makes room for, and say such nice things about,
Dr. Radway's Sarsaparilla Resolvent, here.
By:
Stephanie Kuehnert,
on 12/26/2012
Blog:
Life, Words, & Rock 'n' Roll
(
Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:
Dear Teen Me,
Rookie,
Ms.Fit,
Events,
TV,
non fiction,
Conferences,
Writing Process,
WIP,
Nostalgia,
Add a tag
It's that time of year when we take a hard look at what we've done and assess how we want to improve and move forward. This is something I'm doing constantly, but it does seem important to take a moment to write it all down, especially since I feel like I have learned a lot about myself this year, and especially this past month or two.
I started out 2012 miserable and full of self-doubt. It was a long-time coming. These feelings had been building for a couple of years, so I declared 2012, the year of re-evaluation. I had to figure out what made me happy. More specifically, I had to figure out if writing still made me happy or if I was done, ready for a complete change of career and life focus.
I went back and forth, up and down about this. I'd spend a month deeply in love with storytelling and then three months hating every word I wrote or hating myself for writing. I felt like I'd finally gotten on the right track again in September and then had an absolute breakdown, my biggest crisis of faith yet in November, which I documented in this piece for Rookie--possibly the best, most honest, real and in-the-moment piece I've written for Rookie.
In July, I decided to go back to therapy for the first time in roughly nine or ten years. I was deeply depressed and anxious, especially about writing, and I couldn't do the re-evaluation thing on my own. It was one of the best decisions I've ever made. Not only did I benefit personally, I figured out a lot about my own writing. I put all the writing tips I gleaned from my therapist in this YA Outside the Lines post.
Perhaps the most important of those tips was be grateful for and recognize my accomplishments, big and small. So here's what I've done in 2012
- Knitted one hat and one scarf for my mother, and one hooded baby blanket for my friend's first child. Started my first knitting project for myself, a skirt.
- Taught 16 students in a Young Adult Fiction class at Columbia College and read well over 1000 pages of their work.
- Grew lettuce, strawberries, tomatoes, green beans, many varieties of peppers, many types of herbs, quite a few flowers.
- Made countless vegan meals, tried and even invented several new recipes.
- Got my eleventh tattoo. (It's Latin for "breathe.")
- Joined my local library board.
- Tended bar three nights a week and briefly made a tumblr about my adventures.
- Visited my favorite place on earth, Seattle.
- Saw (and met!) Mark Lanegan (whose music inspires my writing big-time), as well Garbage, Social Distortion, and several amazing bands (and legends like Iggy Pop!) at Riot Fest.
- Hosted a college friend for about half the year and went on adventures with her like to my first Renaissance Faire.
- Visited with several other friends from out of town, reconnected with my childhood best friend/sister after she moved back, spent as much time as I could with my amazing teenage niece who is my heroine, and made the ultimate birthday package for my BFF to celebrate eighteen years of friendship.
- Went to my first Comic Con where I met people like the stars of one of my all-time favorite shows, Twin Peaks.
- Went to my first RT convention, participated in a panel about boundaries in YA and in Teen Day. Met Francine Pascal, author of the Sweet Valley series that ruled my childhood.
- Watched the last five seasons of Buffy for the first time, all five seasons of Angel for the first time, and most recently, watched all of the first season of Game of Thrones in 3 days.
- Turned old t-shirts into new shirts, and in one case, a dress.
- Celebrated my third wedding anniversary in Portland, Oregon. We also visited the gorgeous Oregon coast and met up with one of my best writing buds, Tara Kelly, who took this photo of us.
- Nursed my elderly cat/best friend of 17 years, Sid, for several months and then said a sad but beautiful farewell to him the weekend after Thanksgiving and wrote him a tribute.
- Wrote 17 columns for my local newspaper, the Forest Park Review.
- Wrote 20 essays, some deeply personal, others pure fun, for Rookie as well as countless reviews of books, movies, TV shows, music, hot chocolate, candy, and electronic items that do and should exist.
- Wrote my first essay for Ms. Fit Magazine, a real world feminist fitness magazine that will debut in January of 2013.
- Made zines with my niece and her BFF at a Rookie Road Trip event.
- Took part in an amazing reading to celebrate the release of ROOKIE YEARBOOK ONE.
- Did a vlog to celebrate the release of the DEAR TEEN ME anthology, which features my letter to my teenage self about an abusive relationship.
- Researched (both by visiting the library and sneaking into a cemetery after hours) and wrote my first short story in umm... eight years? It's a ghost story--my personal twist on a local urban legend about a hitchhiking phantom flapper--which will come out next October in an anthology called VERY SUPERSTITIOUS published by Month9Books.
- Went on a writing retreat in Arizona.
- Wrote about 50,000 words of one YA novel (ie. the Modern Myth YA)
- Wrote about 60,000 words of another YA novel (ie. the Contemporary YA)
Yeah, looking back, even though I often beat myself up for not doing enough... that's a lot of stuff! Sure, I wish that total of 110,000 words could have been on one novel so I could feel like I finished a big project this year. And of course what I really wish is that "sold a book" could be one of the bullet points, but I worked hard and I have to be proud of what I have accomplished and the difficulties like losing Sid that I got through.
I guess the biggest question is what came of my self/life evaluation in the year of evaluation?
Ultimately, I've decided that while writing doesn't always make me happy and the current state of my career (or more specifically the way I've had to cobble together way too much work that pays way too little to support my writing habit), writing will always be a part of my life. I'm hoping that 2013 will bring adjustments and changes that will make me happier. The biggest one is that my husband and I are hoping...or at this point PLANNING to move to Seattle in summer of 2013. I need a fresh start in a place that I actually like. I grew up in Chicago and came back for school, but then got stuck here. It's not where I feel like I belong. I'm hoping that going where I feel like I do belong will shake things up a bit. It will definitely mean a job change. Bartending has its moments and it did inspire an entire (though as of yet unsold) book, but like all service industry jobs it can be really draining and demeaning. I have discovered a love of teaching this year and especially a love of writing for and connecting with teenage girls via Rookie. I'm hoping to find a job that incorporate both of those things--maybe some sort of after school arts program for young people that I can teach in. I'm not sure what is out there, but I'nm hoping to find something, and it may be a full-time something meaning novel writing will have to fit in other places in my life. I want to have nights to read and spend time with my husband, weekends to go on adventures with him. That will be the priority once we move out west.
Writing for Rookie is my other big priority. It doesn't pay much, but every piece I craft for them, I put my heart and soul into the same as I have my novels. I'm able to write incredibly personal things and I feel like I'm a part of the type of publication I'd been dreaming of since I was thirteen years old. Rookie readers are my audience, always have been, and I'm so grateful to have the opportunity to share my words and stories with them.
As for my fictional stories, my novels, my career as Stephanie Kuehnert, YA author (or just author in general), I still hope and dream and work my ass off in hopes that 2013 will be the year it relaunches. (13 is my lucky number after all.) I'm taking much needed time off until after the New Year, but then I will get back back the Contemporary YA and I hope to finish it in a month or three. After that, I will return to and reevaluate the Modern Myth YA. Maybe I'll press on with it as it is, maybe I'll re-write it again, or maybe I'll decided it needs a different form--a TV pilot instead of a book, perhaps.
I'm not setting deadlines or making specific goals. I just want to keep doing what I've been doing--finding the faith and the drive to keep writing and enjoy writing each day that I sit down to do it. To treasure life's sweet moments, to find something to be grateful for every day.
Oh and I think I might sign up for a spinning class....
What about you? What were your accomplishments big and small in 2012 and what are you hoping to do in 2013?
This Tuesday marked the release of DEAR TEEN ME: Authors Write Letters to Their Teen Selves, an anthology edited by E. Kristin Anderson and Miranda Kenneally.
It was born from this website, which I wrote a letter for back in 2011. I was honored when I was asked to write a new letter for the anthology, which includes a bunch of extremely cool, interesting, and talented YA authors, who have had a variety of teenage experiences.
Here's the official description of the book:
Dear Teen Me includes advice from over 70 YA authors (including Lauren Oliver, Ellen Hopkins, and Nancy Holder, to name a few) to their teenage selves. The letters cover a wide range of topics, including physical abuse, body issues, bullying, friendship, love, and enough insecurities to fill an auditorium. So pick a page, and find out which of your favorite authors had a really bad first kiss? Who found true love at 18? Who wishes he’d had more fun in high school instead of studying so hard? Some authors write diary entries, some write letters, and a few graphic novelists turn their stories into visual art. And whether you hang out with the theater kids, the band geeks, the bad boys, the loners, the class presidents, the delinquents, the jocks, or the nerds, you’ll find friends--and a lot of familiar faces--in the course of Dear Teen Me.
The Vlog:
To celebrating the release, I put together a vlog--now, mind you, "put together" is a very loose term. Basically I used to crappy webcam and the Windows Movie Maker software on my computer, so please don't judge me too harshly. In it I talk briefly about why I participated in this project/why I write for teens in general and I share a short excerpt from my letter.
The Contest:
It's not a party without presents!!! So I'm going to giveaway a copy of DEAR TEEN ME to one lucky winner. It will be signed by 4 to 5 Dear Teen Me contributors and come with bookmarks and postcards!
To enter all you have to do is leave a comment with your email address (so I can contact you if you win).
Want extra entries?
+1 for every time you tweet or share something on facebook about Dear Teen Me, could be my video, a link to this blog entry, a link to one of the other blogs on the Dear Teen Me blog tour, could just be your own thoughts on how awesome Dear Teen Me is.
Note your extra entries in your comment and enter as many times as you want before Friday, November 9th when I will be drawing my winner. This contest IS open internationally!
I’m proud (and excited!) to be a contributor in the upcoming Dear Teen Me book (based on the blog by the same name) from Zest Books. 70+ Young Adult authors are part of the book, including Ellen Hopkins, Carrie Jones, Cynthia Leitich Smith, Tera Lynn Childs, Mitali Perkins, Sara Zarr, Bethany Hegedus, Janet Gurtler, and many more fantastic YA writers, all writing letters to their teen selves! The letters in Dear Teen Me cover compelling and important issues including sexual and physical abuse, body image issues, bullying, friendship, love, and insecurity–all things I think we need to talk about and know that we’re not alone in.
My own letter to my teen self (and teens today) is titled Keep Hold Of Your Strength. I talk about the effects of abuse and the things that helped me survive and later thrive.
The book is edited by E. Kristin Anderson and Miranda Kenneally, who are also contributors to the book.
Miranda Kenneally is the author of Catching Jordan, a contemporary YA novel about football and femininity (December 2011). Other books include Playing Parker (Fall 2012) and Bad, Bad Thing (Spring 2013). Miranda is also the co-creator, with E. Kristin Anderson, of the Dear Teen Me blog and book (Zest Books, November 2012). @MirandaKennealy
E. Kristin Anderson is the co-editor of the upcoming Dear Teen Me anthology (Zest Books, November 2012), based on the website of the same name. As a poet she has been published worldwide in around two dozen literary journals, from the indie-queen Fuselit, to the prestigious Cimarron Review. She is also an assistant editor at Hunger Mountain for their YA and Children’s section. @ek_anderson
Dear Teen Me releases October 31, 2012 from ZestBooks, but you can pre-order it now!
You can connect with Dear Teen Me on their blog and Facebook page.
Happy Saturday!
I'm just about to start writing, but wanted to say a huge THANK YOU to everyone for embracing my DearTeenMe.com essay. It went viral like I'd never imagined and the Tweets, comments, emails, etc., about it were so kind.
I've got a *lot* of work to do this weekend, so I'm going to get to it, but thank you all again.
I hope everyone's doing something fun!
xoxo
I'm very proud that my essay is posted on Dear Teen Me. It wasn't easy to write and, honestly, I'm feeling kind of queasy/excited right now. It was a great exercise for me, personally, and as a writer. My YA proposal, KEPT, is about this very topic and now it feels like people are getting a sneak peek at what KEPT is about. (If you're interested in more about KEPT, e-mail me or check my Publishers Marketplace page for details.)
But a portion of the essay is on DTM and you can read the full piece on my Jessica Ashley blog post right
here.
*Please note that this essay contains some mature content.
I wrote a letter to my teen self at Dear Teen Me. I hope you’ll check it out.
It also features some of the art I did as a teen, including one drawing I mentioned in Scars.
2012 was the year I burned myself out and made myself miserable. All I want in 2013 is to be happier.
Another fantastic and introspective post, Stephanie. Looks like you've done a ton of great stuff over the year inspite of the writing process taking its toll. Keep living one fabulous moment to the next. By all means leave Chicago and get a change of scenery. I just moved to the west coast and I am the most productive (and happiest) I've ever been. Much luck and prosperity to you for 2013 and beyond.
Annika, I hear you on that in a very big way. 2012 was one in a series of those years. That's what I want in 2013, too. I hope we both find it!
bmcox, thank you very much. And that is great to hear about your west coast move. Here's hoping the same for me. Much luck and happiness to you as well!
Love this post, Stephanie. It inspires me to take stock of my year too. So easy to forget all the things we accomplish when we're stuck on the things we DIDN'T do or finish.
You are such an inspiration Stephanie! An amazing person and an amazing writer. I hope 2013 will be a wonderful year for you!
Sounds like you had a pretty productive year. But it has been trying, this 2012 business. I've got a feeling about this new one. It's going to be good. We adore you, Stephanie.
I didn't really answer the question last time. So I'll comment again! On a very private, personal level I got really off course last year. But this year I'm going to be self-publishing a novel I wrote as an ebook, as well as launching a vlog channel on youtube this spring, focusing on my life here in lovely Colorado Springs, Colorado. And, of course, world domination will ensue =p