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First, I need to round up a few links!

We've got:

A review of Take the Reins from Mara at Whitebrook Farm. Thanks, Mara! :)

An interview up at Harmony Book Reviews. Thanks again, Harmony!!

A guest blog at Presenting Lenore. I did a Letterman-style "Top 10 Things I've Learned About Writing" list. Thanks for letting me stop by, Lenore!

And now, back to my little writing corner. I'm *almost* finished with TRIPLE FAULT.

Probably a week or so until it's done. Then it gets sent off to Editor K. But my OMG-I-so-suck cycle begins just before I email the draft. :) Hitting the send button to email my book off to EK or Agent A is still sooo hard! I pull up Hotmail, attach the file, sit, stare and then close out the window. I open the Word doc, scan a few pages and then convince myself it's really time to let it go. So, Hotmail comes up again and I reattach the file. There's pacing, glossing of lips, eye rolling at myself and then I finally press send.

Then?

Nooooo! Why did I press the button?! It wasn't ready! Take it back!

But, of course, I can't take it back. I force myself to close the laptop and walk away. I remind myself that EK and AA haven't said, "JB, you just emailed us a hot mess. You're fired." before, so the draft might be okay.

Yes, that's my process. :)

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I think I STILL have a turkey hangover. Seriously. I stuffed my face with cranberries, turkey and waaay too much other food. The day was great! I was pretty much banned from the kitchen cause I'm quite dangerous in that department.

I did, however, volunteer to make the cranberry sauce. Simple, right? Water. Cranberries. Sugar. Boil. Stir. I could do this! Wellll...after the water and sugar had boiled, I went to pour in the cranberries. While I poured, I rested the bag on the superhot pot rim. Yep, the poor bag started to melt. On my berries.

Mom was like, "Thank you! Feel free to go back to work now, hon."

Ooookay.

And then...we were filling up our plates and I decided I needed to stick my sweet potatoes in the microwave for JUST a few seconds. I could handle the microwave. So, I put the plate inside, closed the door and my finger hovered over the time button.

Mom appeared. "WAIT! NOOOO! That's a gold rim on that plate!!!"

Ohhh. Oops. Blowing up Mom's fancy china would have been quite sad.

That ended my time in the kitchen.

Anyone have a Thanksgiving mishap to share?

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A couple of weeks ago, I got copy edits in the mail. My first set of copy edits, mind you. I got instructions via e-mail to address the notes and change them in the colored pencil of my choice. So, I picked a pretty purple pencil and stalked the mailman until they arrived.

And then...IT happened.

I tore open the package with glee and noted sticky notes on the side and then I saw them. Lots of weird marks on every page. Marks I hadn't seen when I'd worked at a newspaper. What did these mean? OMG. I had failed at publishing because I didn't know what these meant! Eeek! I hopped online and researched copy editing marks. But these were weird ones. Did I miss the class at school that taught these?

Did I really have to, gulp, address the zillion strange marks in 24 hours before sending back the manuscript?

I emailed Agent A and it went something like this: "Um, hi. Got the copy edits. Errr...what do I do, exactly?" What I really should have said was "OMG! What's all of this stuff?! Help!!" But I didn't want to convey the extent of my freak out.

To sum this up (because it could go on for a while) I talked to Editor K first and while trying not to sound like a total newbie idiot I asked her if I was supposed to address every mark on every page and type that up in a new draft and send it back to her.

Here's why she's the best editor ever--she did not snort in disgust or hang up on me and tear up my contract. No. Through laughter from both of us, she explained I was to address the sticky notes only. Ooooohhhh. The rest of the marks were for the keyboarder.

Then I remembered Lauren Barnholdt's copy edit vid that I'd watched weeks before. Yeah. Sticky notes only. Ugh.

That e-mail to Agent A? She never got it and we both had a good laugh. So, here's the lesson. Next time you get super-panicky about something--use the phone. E-mail--no.

Now, I'll be one of those author stories at conferences. You know, those nightmare author stories? "Yeah, I've got this client and she got copy edits and..." LOL

And that sums up Copy Editing for Complete Dummies, Idiots and Other Derogatory Names. :) If this saves one new author from thinking he/she has to play the role of keyboarder than this post was a success.

In other news...

We've got big changes over at Teen Fiction Cafe! We've added super-cool authors Stephanie Kuehnert and Sara Zarr! Welcome, ladies, and we're glad to have you! :)

Also, a little while ago (on my blog vacay) I posted an extended version of my "How to Become a Freelancer" video. I had to post it on MySpace because it was too long for YouTube. In the first 2 minutes, it has new footage of my acceptance letters, magazine credits, rejections and more. Check it out here!


Diary of a Debut Author: How to Become a Freelance Writer


Reading today: Chasing Harry Winston and Lock and Key

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Before I Die Jenny Downham

A few months ago, some friends and I were talking online, because Rachel had picked up this book in a bookstore and read the flap copy. She was slightly disgusted about a book whose premise was that a girl who was going to die of cancer had a list of things she wanted to do before she died like HAVE SEX!

And then everyone was all like, ack! promiscuous sex! maybe! but none of us had actually read the book.

Well, I finally did and it is absolutely amazing. And yes, there is sex, but it's a rather minor part of the overall story.

We're all going to die, but for Tessa Scott, it's going to happen soon rather than later. Before she dies, she has a list of the things she wants to accomplish. Travel. Fame. Love. And because she'll never see her seventeenth birthday, Sex. Drugs. A little law-breaking. A day where she has to says "yes" to everything.

Before I Die is a story about coming to grips, and maybe even peace, with your impending mortality. It's a story about dealing with your family and friends as they try to do the same thing. Tessa's narration through her final months is straight-forward. She's sometimes scared and sometimes brash, but she never veers into the melodramatic.

Heartbreaking and fantastic.

Dramarama E. Lockhart

Sadye and Demi are busting out of razzle-dazzle free Ohio to spend the summer at drama camp. At camp though, Demi is insta-star but Sadye has a much harder time of it. She gets stuck with the straight play (a disastrous production of A Midsummer's Night Dream) and, even thought she's a dancer in the 10-day wonder, she's told to lip-synch the singing bits. It doesn't help that she seems to stick her foot in her mouth whenever possible.

Drama camp was supposed to allow Sadye to be as big and fabulous as she wanted, but she ends up feeling small and worthless.

Lockhart perfectly captures the behind-the-scenes drama, tears, laughter, and glitter. Sadye and Demi's changing friendship is pitch-perfect. Reading it, I relived every horrible audition and spot-lit curtain-call. Wonderful.

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