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Yesterday I was at Albert Einstein High in Silver Spring, MD, for things entirely unrelated to writing, and a friend said, "do you see your book on those posters? They're everywhere!"

No, I did not see it--in fact I had been strolling past all of these great posters and not even glancing! In my defense, I was day-dreaming about my WIP at the time. Or maybe I was thinking about cupcakes. I'm not entirely sure. Either way, I was entirely distracted. 

As I've announced previously, CANDOR is a Black-Eyed Susan 2010/2011 Nominee. The winner in each category will be chosen by student readers' votes. It looks like the Media Center at Einstein High put together these great posters to encourage students to read the nominees and vote. What a thrill to see CANDOR up there!

One (top left) seems to be fanning the flames of the school's rivalry with Clarksburg High--love it! That's right, pick up a book and show those Coyotes! 

The next (at right) shows all of the Black-Eyed Susan noms for the high school level. I love that my book is next to my friend LK Madigan's FLASH BURNOUT. I like to think that Oscar and Blake are telling dirty jokes to each other from behind the book covers. It looks like Oscar is giving all the other noms the stink-eye. C'mon, Oscar, play nice. 

My favorite poster, below, would warm the heart of every good CANDOR teen who goes to SAT review parties on Saturday nights. 

"IMPROVE YOUR SAT SCORE... READ FOR PLEASURE", it entices. Better yet, do it with one of Campbell Banks' special CD mixes. Guaranteed results.

I take naming my characters very seriously. There isn't a single character in my books that doesn't have a name of significance. Sometimes readers can pick up on why I chose that name--but other times it's a private meaning, just a touchstone for me.

A few examples:

--In my upcoming book, DROUGHT, the main character's name is Ruby. I chose that name for a number of reasons. First, rubies are a precious stone, and Ruby is precious to the Congregation that is her family. Even though most of them don't know it, her blood sustains their lives. I also liked naming this character after a gemstone that needs cutting, polishing, to be made beautiful--because Ruby will have to go through transformations before she reaches her potential too. And then there's the most obvious reason: rubies are red. So is blood.

--But the main character in my first book, CANDOR, got his name--Oscar--quite differently. In the first draft of CANDOR, he wasn't the son of the town founder. Heck, he wasn't even the main character. No. He was the son of the school custodian. He had the bad luck to be named Oscar, which meant he had to deal with a lot of kids teasing him--the custodian's kid living in a trash can just like Oscar the Grouch, etc. That gave him a chip on his shoulder. It's one of the few characteristics that survived as he evolved into the rich, smooth main character with big secrets. Somehow, I couldn't bear to change his name. I figured it sounded fancy, like a boy born into privilege. Besides, he wouldn't let me call him anything else. 

--I won't reveal any of the names in my new book, since it's still just a little baby idea and these things DO change, but I will share a few of my favorite places to research names:

• US Census Records. If I'm writing about teens in 2015, then I like to check their birth years to see which names were most popular then. Some characters should get very popular names, and others the most obscure.
• Baby name books--a favorite writers' tool. My go-to book is titled THE BEST BABY NAME BOOK IN THE WHOLE WORLD, by Bruce Lansky. 
• Graveyards records and landholder records--some you can find via Google while others you will only find at your local research library. I chose some of the last names in DROUGHT (Pelling, Prosser, Schuyler) from common property holder names in upstate New York. 

Happy character naming!

Who knows? Maybe other real-live-Candors are lurking out there too...

And here's the book trailer for your viewing pleasure! I will post soon about how I made it, where I found the photos and where I found the music.

Hope you enjoy it!

To celebrate the posting of my brand-new book trailer for CANDOR, I am hosting a Spread the Message contest! 

Here are the prizes:

• Two lucky winners will each receive a signed advanced reader copy of CANDOR
• Two lucky winners will each receive a signed hardcover copy of CANDOR, as soon as they are available
• One lucky winner will receive a $20 iTunes gift certificate (maybe they will make their OWN hidden Messages in music...)
• One lucky winner will receive a t-shirt of their choice from my CANDOR t-shirt store (shipping only available to US, Canada, Mexico and Puerto Rico)

Here are the rules:

1. Watch the trailer
2. Post a link to the trailer or embed the trailer online (here's the YouTube link). . You get a new entry in the contest every time you post at a different place. Some spots you can post: your blog, Twitter, Facebook, LJ, Myspace... wherever you like! If you tweet about it, please use the hashtag #candor.
3. Comment back here telling me where you linked it. Please include a link to each post to save my sanity!

Contest closes at 8 PM ET on Saturday, July 25. I will post the winners here and on my website, in the news section.

Thanks to Betsy Bird for the CANDOR love over at Fuse #8. Lots of great details about the Egmont debut Fall list--not to mention a lovely pic of the Harvard Club's stuffed elephant head (or maybe there's more than one? yikes).

I am very pleased to announce that CANDOR will be traveling abroad: my US publisher's sibling Egmont UK has purchased the rights to publish CANDOR in the UK, Australia and New Zealand! It will most likely pub in those areas sometime in 2010.

Just as I'm adjusting to the idea of people in the US actually reading my book, now I am wowed to imagine people in far-away countries reading my book--and not just because they brought it with them on vacation! They will actually be able to head to their local booksellers and get their very own local edition of CANDOR.

Wow! Did I already say that? Wow! (whoops, there it is again...)

In just 5 months exactly, CANDOR will be released in the US. Just 153 days away... but who's counting?

It's finally here! The fantasic final cover for CANDOR is complete, with a thumbnail below. Click on the image to see a larger version of the cover. It does a great job of tying into the story, introducing the elements of isolation, conformity, rebellion, and a really hot guy who obviously is up to no good. Just 6 more months until you can all find out exactly what Oscar Banks is up to!

Many thanks to the Egmont USA team for working so hard on making this cover. It was well worth the effort!

I have my ARC! Just one, for now, but that's enough to relish, to wave about gleefully, to make it all so very REAL.

NOTE that this is not the final cover--which is common in ARCs. Although the spray-paint font DOES relate to an important element in the book. As soon as I've got the final cover (and my publisher's OK!) I'll be happily unveiling it on this blog.

For the uninitiated, ARC stands for Advance Reader Copy. They are not the final text, but are close enough for the publisher to distribute ARCs to reviewers, librarians and booksellers. Using ARCs gets the book out there much earlier than waiting for final hardbound copies.

Excuse me while I go cradle my pretty little baby and coo to it.

 

Tonight I hit the halfway mark on reviewing my CANDOR page proofs--happily ahead of schedule, despite an offspring ear infection and an awesome trip to NYC. I shouldn't gloat. The universe will deliver some giant smackdown, like a catastrophic ginger tea spill or something.

I love peeks into other people's workspaces, so I'm sharing mine. There's the page proof, with my blue pencil waiting for action. In the background is the Winston Churchill paperweight my husband gave me--it reads "never, never, never give up". Smart dude, that Churchill. You can just glimpse my lab-beaker pencil holder and yes, in the far edge, that's Knuffle Bunny egging me on. Just one See's candy wrapper. Must be early in the session. And it's all on top of my beloved $125 oak desk from the antique mart in Mount Dora, Florida. Part of it is made from a citrus crate (admittedly that portion of the desk is probably not oak!). 

Next time I'll have to post a pic of my crazy writers' wire running overhead!

FedEx delivered my page proofs today. My story is laid out in page format, complete with copyright page, acknowledgements, and dedication. I'll have about two weeks to do one last read of CANDOR and mark any necessary changes.

I can't calculate how many times I read CANDOR while I was working on it. But now it seems entirely different. I read the first chapter and it felt like someone else wrote it. It's amazing the difference a simple layout can make.

My sister just pointed me to Wordle. Paste in the text of your book and it'll make a word cloud from most frequently-used words. You can pick the font, the colors, and tweak the layout. Addictive--and actually could be a good writing tool, if you want to see what words you tend to use most frequently.

I pasted the first three chapters of CANDOR into Wordle, and here's what I got (click on the image to see the full version):

CANDOR is the word of the day on dictionary.com! Gosh darn, it doesn't mention my book. :-)

I particularly like the old Latin definition of "purity and openness"--which is the opposite of what reaaaaaly happens in my fictional town of Candor, Florida. Lots of hidden dirt and secrets!

Astounding exciting gratifying news. My lovely and amazing agent, Elana Roth at Firebrand Literary, has sold CANDOR to Regina Griffin at Egmont USA. It's a two-book deal and CANDOR will hopefully be on the debut Fall 2009 list. 

CANDOR, a dystopian YA, will be my first pubbed novel. It is the third novel I wrote (and the other two shall stay forever dustbinned).

For those who like the gory details on the sale:

It all started with bad luck. I grabbed my toothbrush late one Thursday night--but it fell, and landed on my hand mirror. The glass shattered. Curse you, heavy Sonicare. I looked at the clock. 

12:05 AM. It was officially Friday the 13th. 

To satisfy both my Irish and Gypsy ancestors, I immediately walked counter-clockwise three times. Just for safety's sake, I threw in a tribute to my husband's grandmother Bea and muttered "poo poo poo bad luck" the whole time (her answer to any bad luck or bad thought). I know it sounds crazy. But a girl has to cover her bases. And give me some credit for not dashing downstairs to get salt.

Still, I was nervous. "That's it," I told my husband. "Seven years of bad luck. Or maybe more, since it's Friday the 13th."

That afternoon, Elana called. Egmont loves the book, she said. They want to publish it. She didn't have any other details--they would need a few more days to negotiate--but she wanted me to know. "You're going to be a published author," she said. 

I spent the next week in frothy, delirious denial. Was it real? Had CANDOR really found a home? Today I got the go-ahead from Elana: I can tell the world.

So, world, here it is: CANDOR is on its way to being flesh and bone (or, paper and binding)! The next step will be receiving edits from Regina, and then I'll be aiming to get the final edited manuscript to her by September. Summer promises to be busy.

Maybe Friday the 13th is now my lucky day. My sister says it figures. I never do things the normal way.

At the risk of sounding all Sally Fields, I want to thank everyone who ever encouraged me, or read some/all of CANDOR. My journey to this point proves that critique groups, SCBWI conferences, family support, and good writing friends make a huge, huge difference. As does a fabulous agent! I wouldn't have gotten to this point without all of them.

 

Brasília

Coordinates: 15 47 S 47 55 W

Population: 3,341,00 (2006 est.)

It will be another 27 months until this modern metropolis can truly celebrate its golden anniversary, but 2007 did give the Brazilian capital two reasons to celebrate nonetheless. First, the famed construction of Lúcia Côsta’s Plano Piloto began here on the plateaus of Goiás state fifty years ago, although work on the airport and the presidential palace had already started in 1956. (more…)

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