Category: Writing

Contest fun

Two contests going on this week, all in an effort to help you survive Valentine’s Day.

First, The Geek Girl’s Guide to Cheerleading is being featured on Free Book Friday. Four copies (signed by both me and Darcy) are up for grabs, along with an interview for your reading enjoyment. (Free Book Friday also has a main/adult site–same deal, simply submit your email address to win. Doesn’t get easier than that.)

Second, we’re hosting fellow 2009 Debs author/Simon Pulse sister Rhonda Stapleton over at the Geek Girl site. Not only do we have a signed copy of Rhonda’s début novel Stupid Cupid, but a totally cute T-shirt from Think Geek. Stop on by to read Rhonda’s interview and check out Stupid Cupid.

Today’s post brought to you by the letter Squeee!

Okay, so squee isn’t a letter. It should be. Yesterday, our editor informed us that The Geek Girl’s Guide to Cheerleading is going into a second printing.

Am I excited? Is Darcy? Maybe a little. (Okay, maybe a lot.) But more than that, we’re grateful. Because, clearly, if people weren’t reading Geek Girl, there wouldn’t be a need for a second printing.

So, thanks to everyone who has read and support Geek Girl. We wouldn’t be here without you.

Where all my words are going

Where are they going? Clearly, not in this blog. But! I’m up 5,800 words this past week and 4,300 the week before that (these would be revised, new, and “blended” words).

And even though I know this won’t be my only trip through the manuscript (Oh, revision, you have just begun), I’m pleased with my progress and process of finding time to work every single day.

Of course, yesterday I thought to log on to RWA National to see if I had any Rita books coming my way for judging. It turns out that somewhere out there, a box with seven books has my name on it. Seven books I must read/judge by February 28. And I don’t have them yet.

Oy.

But thanks to the magic of Kindle, I’ve started reading. (And yeah, I’m thinking these seven anonymous authors all have a Kindle sale in their future. It’s worth paying for the convenience.)  

Last, but not least, the 2010 American Library Association award winners are in!

Huge congrats and serious squees to 2009 Deb L.K. Madigan for winning the Morris Award for her debut novel Flash Burnout.

I also want to congratulate my friend Nora Raleigh Baskin for winning the Schneider Family Book Award for her middle grade novel Anything But Typical (which I just finished and knew it was going to win).

I also want to mention the Michael L. Printz Award, which goes to Libba Bray this year for Going Bovine—which was one of my favorite books last year.

What do you think of the finalists/winners this year?

This is my brain … on revision

I’ve been writing. I’ve been writing/revising/brainstorming nearly every day (if not every day) of 2010. Okay, so we’re only on day 13. Still. I also started back in December on this revision, so I’ve been at it for a while.

I’m working to integrate a new subplot, remove a few other plot threads, and I’ve combined a few characters, which means the relationship vibe between many of the characters has change.

It’s like The Novel 2.0 or writing the alternate universe version of the original manuscript.

It’s also a lot of fun.

But here’s the thing: the spine remains essentially the same, but what the characters do and how they react to each other has changed. So, same problem = different solution.

This is also fun. But here’s where it gets weird. The other day, while I was walking to the car after work, I was pondering one of those plot problems and thought:

“Wow, MacKenna had a really good solution for that.”

Yes, that’s right. My character, a fictional creation, is thinking up answers to the story’s plot problems. Or at least, that’s how I apparently view it in my mind.

Nice.

This is why I haven’t been blogging much either. At some point, MacKenna might just take that over too.

My kids, they write

Our school district recently changed their curriculum to place more emphasis on writing. This is one of those changes that has been a very good thing.

Andrew has always disliked having to write things like essays and reports. And honestly? I’ve never liked it either. Worse, when you’re a writer, people sometimes expect help with that sort of thing. The conventional wisdom being: Dude, you’re a writer, why can’t you write a scholarship application essay/grant application/whatever.

Well, for the same reason that if I didn’t write installation instructions five days a week, I wouldn’t be very good at that.

Anyway, I’ve seen a huge turnaround in Andrew’s writing in the last year. And they have designated free writing times for the younger grades as well. They do learn proper spelling, punctuation, and so on, but for free writing they’re encourage to sound things out of their own and keep going.

I’ve been amazed at their progress.

Here’s a “journal” entry that Kyra wrote. I cleaned up the spelling, but I feel compelled to add that she got all the apostrophes correct.

I’m a little girl. It’s close to Halloween. I’m going to get a costume that’s a devil. It’s going to be fun.

Kyra would like everyone to know that she’s going to be a good devil.

Here’s part of an essay that Andrew wrote, the goal being to write about yourself in the third person:

Andrew is so messy you cannot see the floor of his room because it is covered in stuff, mostly books and junk. Unless the floor is clean and the mess is really holograms. But what is the point to go through all that trouble. Unless he does that so when his mom or dad asks him to clean his room, he turns off the projection of the holograms, and then gets a raise in his allowance. I guess that theory does not work because sometimes when he cleans it, it actually gets messier. IT ACTUALLY GETS MESSIER.

I’m hoping his English teacher doesn’t ding him for the use of all caps.

As you probably guessed, I’m psyched that both of them are writing. Whether they become writers is neither here nor there. I think being able to express themselves in writing will server them well.

A funny thing happened on the way to the post office

Well, actually it happened at the post office. I had a big stack of books I was sending out (eleven to be precise). The guy working the counter asked me about them, thinking I was an eBay bookseller or something.

I, seizing upon opportunity (somewhat uncharacteristically), said, why, no, this is a book I wrote.

Post office guy? He. Was. Astounded. I had to tell him all about it. His wife had to know because she loves to read.

It’s at this point I think to myself: wow, I should really have some book business cards made up.

Then, the woman next in line piped that she has teen daughters who love to read.

Insert an image here of me kicking myself.

I was reduced to writing down titles on scrap paper.

So, I need some cards, ASAP. I tried some of those online design-your-own type places, but the results looked like someone with no graphics arts ability using one of those online design-your-own type places. But something is better than nothing, so I’m pushing this task up on my to-do list.

I also need a better answer to the question: “How long does it take to write a book?”

“It depends.” did not go over too well. The guy working the counter looked at me like: What? Is she crazy? She doesn’t know how long it takes to write a book? Isn’t that what she does?

I guess I could’ve told him four years. I got the initial idea for Geek Girl’s Guide in February of 2004. It sold in March, 2008 (and we still had another revision to go through).

Of course, I wrote other things during that time. Shelved it, took it out again, shelved it, started working with Darcy … hm, I had a moral in mind, I’m sure, beyond persistence and being in it for the long haul.

But all I really can think of is: book business card.

Must. Have.

Writing is hard

This was Andrew’s conclusion last night. More precisely, it was: Writing a short story is hard. But he did it.

To cap off the mythology unit in English, his teacher had everyone write their own original myth (emphasis on original–apparently, she’s read many a variation on Harry Potter, Star Wars, and so on).

Andrew came up with: The Adventures of Gulix.

It has prophecy, an orphan hero, a wise old mentor/sage, fiery death, sword battles, skeleton armies, river journey, wolves with diamond teeth (now that’s original), and romance.

All in 1,250 words.

He was proud, but realistic, said to me, “You can tell a kid wrote it, can’t you?”

And I told him it was a really good story for a kid. And he knows to do things I’ve seen many an adult writer not know or understand. His writing has really improved this year (and yes, I’ll be sending his English teacher a thank you note).

Plus, his story contained lots of terrific action verbs. Andrew is all about the verbs. Of course, with all that fiery death, sword battles, how could he not be?

But you want to know about the romance, right? After the epic battle with Hades, Gulix comes to and sees the most beautiful girl he’s ever seen before. He asks her name (it’s Persephone). Apparently satisfied with this answer, he goes back to sleep.

I’m going to have to figure out how to work that scenario into one of my stories (minus all the fiery death and skeleton armies, of course).

Corralling cats and words

Yes, it’s a commercial, but it’s still pretty funny (and kid safe–my kids loved it). It occurs to me that everyone else has already seen this except for me, since I don’t watch television.

In any case, enjoy!

 And by popular (?) demand, I’ll post that 490-word sentence, but below the cut. Click through if you’re curious/bored. And yes, it’s one big fat paragraph because, after all, it’s one big fat sentence. It also features Dating on the Dork Side characters.

Continue reading “Corralling cats and words”