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Writing is hard. It's a lesson many of us learn early on in our writing careers. And so it is easy to let the rest of our lives slip as we focus our entirety on mastering this craft and business. But author Jeanne Ryan is here to remind us that what we write about comes from the lives we lead. Even if it means jumping (or shimmying) through hoops! (And congrats to Jeanne on having her first book, Nerve, being adapted for a film by Lionsgate!)
The Importance of Mastering a Second Skill by Jeanne Ryan
Whenever I’m asked to share advice with other writers, a theme I often return to is the importance of
having a life while you’re struggling to
make a life of writing. For one thing, nothing you do goes to waste since it can be incorporated into your writing. So the Type A part of your brain can rest assured it’s all in the name of research. However, there’s a broader issue at stake. Publishing is a business for folks with the long-term view, measured in years and decades. During those eons spent in limbo between celebratory “news”, we’re advised to keep writing, keep learning, and keep trying--which is great advice. The writers I’ve seen make it have put in tons of work toward mastering their craft. But all this single-minded toiling, striving, and angsting can have a downside, when the focus turns to obsession, and too much of our perceived self-worth hinges upon meeting an overarching publishing goal.
That certainly happened in my case, so much so that those around me could easily see how my quest was progressing (or, more often, not) by how morose I was on any given day. One afternoon, back in 2007, after three years of “serious” writing and a year of rejected queries, I was (morosely) ambling around town and stumbled upon a professional hula-hooper. It was an unusual enough sight to get my attention, and, instantly, I perked up. When I tried out one of his hoops myself, I was transported back to my childhood and the fun I had shoop-shooping. But I’d given it up when I got older (i.e., bigger) and the hoops no longer worked. The secret, it turned out, was that grown-up hoopers need grown-up sized hoops. (Um, duh?) Once I learned that, my sweetheart constructed one for me out of PVC tubing. (Yes, homemade hoops are a thing; thanks, YouTube!)
I spent that summer teaching myself tricks from online videos (YouTube once again to the rescue). Knee hooping, chest hooping, halos and helicopters, with a galaxy of bruises to mark my attempts. I enrolled in a class at a local circus school to learn tricks, and then another at a yoga studio to focus upon flow. Yes, I kept writing, but what a marvelous thing it was to try something out of my comfort zone, and then practice until I saw progress, actual progress, which had become difficult to witness in the middle of my writing journey, especially when rejections were telling me otherwise. (Hooping also turned out to be a great stress reducer when those icky emails arrived in bulk.)
I believe a second path, one where you can witness tangible results, is an empowering antidote to the rejection-filled, hair-pulling angst we so often feel in the publishing biz, where the milestones are so few and achingly far between. If I could produce video commentaries like John Green, sing like Gretchen McNeil, or draw/play bagpipes/excel in a gazillion forms of artistic expression like Maggie Stiefvater, I would. But, for me, the “other” skill was found by shimmying a hoop of PVC tubing up, down, and off my body. And, who knows, there may be a hooper in one of my books someday, because it’s all research, baby, research.
About the Book:
A chance at the ultimate makeover means deadly consequences in this Sarah Dessen-meets-Robin Cook thriller
Aislyn suffers from crippling shyness—that is, until she’s offered a dose of Charisma, an underground gene therapy drug guaranteed to make her shine. The effects are instant. She’s charming, vivacious, and popular. But strangely, so are some other kids she knows. The media goes into a frenzy when the disease turns contagious, and then deadly, and the doctor who gave it to them disappears. Aislyn must find a way to stop it, before it's too late.
Part medical thriller, part social justice commentary,
Charisma will have readers on the edge of their seats.
Amazon |
Indiebound |
GoodreadsAbout the Author:
I’ve lived all over the world, raised in a family with eleven brothers and sisters. I spent my early childhood in Hawaii and the rest of my growing-up years trying to figure out a way to get back there, with stops in South Korea, Michigan and Germany along the way. Before writing fiction, I tried my hand at many things, including war game simulation and youth development research. But I decided it was much more fun to work on stories than statistics.
These days, I still love Hawaii, but have found my home under the moody skies of the Pacific Northwest.
Website |
Twitter |
Goodreads-- posted by Susan Sipal,
@HP4Writers
Heather Alexander has been hired as a literary agent at Pippin Properties, Inc.
For six years, Alexander served as an editor at Dial Books for Young Readers. Some of the authors and illustrators she has worked with include Anne C. Voorhoeve, Jeanne Ryan, and Sophie Blackall.
According to the agency's email announcement, Alexander "is looking for new talent from a broad range of children’s book authors and illustrators, from picture books through young adult, including graphic novels. She’s most interested in unique characters, strong voices, and quirky humor."
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
No, that’s not an ostrich, it’s an EMU.
See, besides this crazy blog, I also belong to EMU’s Debuts, which is even nuttier because it’s run by debut kidlit authors repped by the Erin Murphy Literary Agency. (Get it? Erin MUrphy?) And we’re one bizarre bunch. (C’mon, we named our blog after an Australian flightless bird. It’s worse than vegemite, mate.)
We did something today that took a lot of NERVE for the release of Jeanne Ryan’s YA debut!
We’re playing “Truth or Dare”, video style!
Check it out because I make a complete fool of myself!
(Which, ya know, is pretty easy to do.)
I call my video “Truth or Date”.
If you can, please leave a comment (I realize that’s difficult while making the cuckoo-sign) because we’re hoping to get more comments than ANOTHER BLOG who DARED us to this challenge!
Today, I am so excited to have author Jeanne Ryan on the blog (full confession: she’s also my critique partner). Her YA thriller, NERVE(Dial), releases tomorrow, 9/13/2012. When I read the first draft of this high-tech truth-or-dare game gone very, very wrong, I told her this was going to be her first published book. After getting my very own copy in the mail last week, I can tell you that the finished book is even scarier. Please check out Jeanne’s new website and make sure to follow her on Twitter.
I’m also giving a copy of NERVE to one lucky person. Enter by Tues. Sept 18th for your chance to win-- either tell us a dare you did (for the brave), or you can enter by less scary means.
Here is the cover for NERVE:
Hi Jeanne—thanks so much for joining us today, and huge congrats on NERVE! As I’ve told you before, I think the concept of a high-tech truth-or-dare game is awesome! Where did you get the idea for this book?
From watching my teenage niece and her phone. Seeing how fluidly she moved between her “real” life and her online life with her friends, with a lot of overlap between the two, got me to thinking about a story where a lot of the excitement and danger would be delivered via phones. I wondered how far a game of Truth or Dare could go if strangers could be brought together to perform and record the dares.
Yeah, this book was a far cry from the dares of my youth, like ringing someone’s doorbell and running. How long did it take you to go from writing it to publication?
I started writing it in May, 2010. It sold in April, 2011 and is being published September, 2012. So two and a half years from start to finish.
Less than a year between starting the book and selling the book is pretty darn impressive. Was this your first book?
Nerve was my fifth manuscript. Although I decided to become a writer at age eleven, many other dreams got in the way between then and the time I started writing a manuscript that I’d actually finish. I got serious about writing in 2004, finished my first manuscript in 2006, signed with an agent in 2009 and got my first deal in 2011. That doesn’t count the years beforehand when I wrote many tortured poems, awful short stories and an unfinished novel (also awful).
It goes to show that persistence pays off, and you always need to be working on the next book. Speaking of which, can you tell us what you’re you working on now?
Two things. One is another YA thriller which is scheduled to come out with Dial in early 2014. It’s called CHARISMA and is about a terribly shy girl who turns to an experimental therapy that's supposed to make people more sociable. It does, but comes with some scary side effects.
The other thing I'm working on between revisions is an MG historical set in 1974 South Korea. It may never see the light of day in the publishing world but it’s a great way to cleanse my mental palate after working on the darker stuff.
Yay for another book deal! I love your MG historical, and definitely hope it sees the light of day…and what I’ve seen of Charisma is fantastic. Writing several things at once seems daunting. Do you have a set writing routine or schedule?
During the school year, I try to get in about four hours a day, Mon-Fri, in the morning. During school breaks and summer vacation, I grab time whenever I can.
What advice do you have for aspiring writers out there?
Keep working on the craft. The writers I’ve seen who eventually landed agents and book deals are the ones who kept producing manuscript after manuscript until they wrote the story that everyone who reviewed it knew was “the one.” (Sometimes, the author is the last to know. J) Sure, there are those lucky few who sell their first attempt, but viewing that as the norm is a good way to set yourself up for misery. I speak from experience.
That’s great advice. So why don’t you finish by sharing something weird or random with us. (It doesn't have to be writing related)
Weird or random. Hmmmm. When I was a little girl living in Honolulu, our house was rumored to have a ghost, which everyone in the neighborhood called a Kahuna. My parents had a difficult time finding babysitters, because everyone was scared. (Their reluctance could also have been due to the fact that the number of kids in my family was already at six and growing.) Anyway, my parents finally solved the babysitter problem by hiring two at a time. And they approached the Kahuna problem the way a lot of things were solved in the hippie days--by throwing a large party that involved lots of chanting and alcohol. Whatever the grown-ups did worked, because we never had any weird bumps in the night after that. And the babysitters were eventually willing to work solo.
That’s a great story. Thanks so much for joining us today and Happy Release Day (a day early!)
Today, I am so excited to have author Jeanne Ryan on the blog (full confession: she’s also my critique partner). Her YA thriller, NERVE(Dial), releases tomorrow, 9/13/2012. When I read the first draft of this high-tech truth-or-dare game gone very, very wrong, I told her this was going to be her first published book. After getting my very own copy in the mail last week, I can tell you that the finished book is even scarier. Please check out Jeanne’s new website and make sure to follow her on Twitter.
I’m also giving a copy of NERVE to one lucky person. Enter by Tues. Sept 18th for your chance to win through the form below. Either tell us a dare you did (for the brave), or you can enter by less scary means.
Here is the cover for NERVE:
Hi Jeanne—thanks so much for joining us today, and huge congrats on NERVE! As I’ve told you before, I think the concept of a high-tech truth-or-dare game is awesome! Where did you get the idea for this book?
From watching my teenage niece and her phone. Seeing how fluidly she moved between her “real” life and her online life with her friends, with a lot of overlap between the two, got me to thinking about a story where a lot of the excitement and danger would be delivered via phones. I wondered how far a game of Truth or Dare could go if strangers could be brought together to perform and record the dares.
Yeah, this book was a far cry from the dares of my youth, like ringing someone’s doorbell and running. How long did it take you to go from writing it to publication?
I started writing it in May, 2010. It sold in April, 2011 and is being published September, 2012. So two and a half years from start to finish.
Less than a year between starting the book and selling the book is pretty darn impressive. Was this your first book?
Nerve was my fifth manuscript. Although I decided to become a writer at age eleven, many other dreams got in the way between then and the time I started writing a manuscript that I’d actually finish. I got serious about writing in 2004, finished my first manuscript in 2006, signed with an agent in 2009 and got my first deal in 2011. That doesn’t count the years beforehand when I wrote many tortured poems, awful short stories and an unfinished novel (also awful).
It goes to show that persistence pays off, and you always need to be working on the next book. Speaking of which, can you tell us what you’re you working on now?
Two things. One is another YA thriller which is scheduled to come out with Dial in early 2014. It’s called CHARISMA and is about a terribly shy girl who turns to an experimental therapy that's supposed to make people more sociable. It does, but comes with some scary side effects.
The other thing I'm working on between revisions is an MG historical set in 1974 South Korea. It may never see the light of day in the publishing world but it’s a great way to cleanse my mental palate after working on the darker stuff.
Yay for another book deal! I love your MG historical, and definitely hope it sees the light of day…and what I’ve seen of Charisma is fantastic. Writing several things at once seems daunting. Do you have a set writing routine or schedule?
During the school year, I try to get in about four hours a day, Mon-Fri, in the morning. During school breaks and summer vacation, I grab time whenever I can.
What advice do you have for aspiring writers out there?
Keep working on the craft. The writers I’ve seen who eventually landed agents and book deals are the ones who kept producing manuscript after manuscript until they wrote the story that everyone who reviewed it knew was “the one.” (Sometimes, the author is the last to know. J) Sure, there are those lucky few who sell their first attempt, but viewing that as the norm is a good way to set yourself up for misery. I speak from experience.
That’s great advice. So why don’t you finish by sharing something weird or random with us. (It doesn't have to be writing related)
Weird or random. Hmmmm. When I was a little girl living in Honolulu, our house was rumored to have a ghost, which everyone in the neighborhood called a Kahuna. My parents had a difficult time finding babysitters, because everyone was scared. (Their reluctance could also have been due to the fact that the number of kids in my family was already at six and growing.) Anyway, my parents finally solved the babysitter problem by hiring two at a time. And they approached the Kahuna problem the way a lot of things were solved in the hippie days--by throwing a large party that involved lots of chanting and alcohol. Whatever the grown-ups did worked, because we never had any weird bumps in the night after that. And the babysitters were eventually willing to work solo.
That’s a great story. Thanks so much for joining us today and Happy Release Day (a day early!)
Don’t forget to enter below for a chance to win NERVE by Jeanne Ryan.
Okay! I’ll be your first commenter! Hope you win the dare!
He sounds hot! And after listening to you, thinking about his dark curls, and his dark eyes, I am too….
Good luck with the dare! Be glad you didn’t get the interpretive dance (Which was amazing BTW).
Well, he was really cute. (We didn’t use “hot” back then.) But I recently found a pic of him online. SO NOT the cute boy I remember. Glad it didn’t work out and I eventually met my husband, who is MUCH CUTER.
Loved your video. If only that kid had been able to see your eyes as you talked about him, he would have been equally smitten! But sounds like you made a much better choice later on.
I don’t even know who the other blogger is that you’re up against, but hey, I hope you win. You look adorable talking to your high school crush — almost like you became your high school self for a moment there. Had to laugh at the “totally not my grandpa” comment. Har har!
Good luck, Tara! I’ve read Jeanne’s book, and these dares are much sweeter. That’s one intense book!
I’ll have to save the videos to watch at home. In the meantime, I heard that the Emu and Kangaroo are on Australia’s seal because they cannot move backwards, always forward. So good luck to the EMUs who will always move forward!
Mary, that’s great! I didn’t know that about emus, thanks!
I better leave a comment before you have to go streaking or whatever losing the dare may entail! Your videos are always amazing. You are going to be a school visit favorite.