Learning to love myself at age 41

Tip of the Day: If your kids STILL have too much candy, offer to buy it from them and throw it away. Who knows, it might actually save you money if you prevent a cavity or two!

Warning: I apologize in advance if my posts get more and more angsty with each passing week. I have a book coming out in less than two months. Need I say more?

Sometimes I wish I could go back to the days when the internet didn't exist. Do people even remember those days? Like, when I was in high school? No internet. We didn't send e-mails or IM each other or even text on our cell phones. We wrote notes and passed them to each other in the halls. By the way, how come I didn't keep those notes? Dang. I want those notes!

Anyway, reading blogs lately is not a good thing for me. It's like I read blogs of really famous authors who are selling mega books and their careers are booming and I think how I'll never be that famous, and I get depressed. Then I read about authors getting awards and how great their books are and I think, I'll never be that good of a writer. And I get more depressed. Then I read about all these new up-and-coming authors with two and three book deals and their stories sound SO awesome, and I think how they could be the next Stephenie Meyer and lucky them, and then I get super-duper depressed.

And now I'm probably making you depressed. Which is not something I want to do. But seriously, I think this is something that writers, published or not, have to figure out how to deal with. Just like in real life, there are always going to be people who have more than me. I have become pretty good at being thankful for what I have in life, and counting my blessings every day. I don't care that much about things. I care about relationships. I care about doing something that matters to me and hopefully helps to make the world a better place. I care about saving money, not spending it, so hopefully I can send my kids to college and do some traveling later in life.

So, in my book life, how can I be thankful for what I have, and not get caught up in wanting things I don't have and letting it weigh me down? Is it possible?

Perhaps I need to ask myself WHY do I find myself wanting the success, the awards, the fame?

Money is a small part of it. No, I don't want things, nor do I want a bigger house or a fancy car. But it comes back to saving for the future, and knowing with some peace of mind that things will be okay. I'd love to have a little more peace of mind.

Mostly, though, I think it's about how I perceive myself. There is something inside of me that no matter how hard I try to turn it off, I want to be one of the cool kids. One of the popular kids. I always have. I never quite made it in high school and I know in my heart I'll never quite make it in the publishing world.

So what's a girl to do?

A girl is to smack herself upside the head and say - "Knock it off." This is no different than me staring at the People magazine and getting all sad because I don't look like Heidi Klum. It's ridiculous! There is only one Heidi Klum. And it's NOT me.

As writers, just like teens, we have to become comfortable in our own skin. We have to be who we are and learn to accept ourselves as we are. Is it easy? No. Of course not! But it's the only choice, really. Every day, we can choose to be happy for what we get to do, which is WRITE, or we can choose to be depressed because of all that we don't have.

Now, I'm off to sit at the benches where the cool kids *don't* sit and there is no internet, and write a book that may or may not be fabulous. Care to join me? I'll write you a note with lots of Xs and Os. That's something I'm REALLY good at.

~Lisa, Miss Pinch Me I'm Pubbed

I Don’t NaNo and I’m Okay

Tip of the Day: Try the new Espresso Truffle at Starbucks. It's YUMMY.

It’s that time of year again—NaNoWriMo. Every year when it comes around I think oooh—that looks like fun. So many writers do it and everyone is blogging about how their projects are coming along and look at them all whip books out in just a month. It’s pretty cool. I’m in awe of those of you who can do it. But I just can’t do it. I’d love to, but it feels like an impossible thing for me.

1) I don’t work that way. I can’t just force myself to hammer out X amount of words a day. For me personally, most of them would probably be thrown out if I was forcing them like that. I need time to think about things—like sometimes days thinking about a scene or what should happen next. And THEN I sit down and write it. I may only get 1000-3000 words written a week this way. Definitely not good for NaNo-ing.

2) I can’t find the time every day. I don’t work really well when I’m tired so waiting until the end of the day is useless. I just want to go to sleep. First thing in the morning doesn’t work out for me either because that’s when I exercise and I can’t just ditch that either. All that time in the middle is all the stuff with the kids. So I have to set planned writing dates where my husband is hanging with the kids and I go out to write somewhere. Totally not conducive to Nano-ing.

3) I also always wonder why this takes place in November. Isn’t November a busy month for everybody? What with Thanksgiving and then getting ready for the winter holidays? Maybe Nano should be in February or March?

Anyway, I just wanted to let everyone know that I don’t NaNo and I’m okay. I used to feel guilty about it (like every good writer should be doing this! Why am I not doing this?!) and maybe that is just a mom thing—we always feel guilty about one thing or another. But I’m okay with it now—my system works for me.

Kristina, Miss Soon-to-Pub

Hallow-Teen Psych Night (or What I Do For YAs)

Tip of the Day: Save random Halloween costume pieces year after year -- you never know when they'll come in handy again!

On Thursday night, I proved that libraries can be cool.

OK, many of you blog readers already know that libraries are cool. I certainly know they are. But this past Halloween Eve, I invited a psychic, a palm-reader/astrologer, and two graphologists to my library for Hallow-Teen Psych Night to help me prove Brighton Memorial Library's coolness to my teens.

And it was a hit! I had 52 teens show up -- most in fantastic costumes! Here's a shot of the fun festivities.

And check out who that is on the left in the blue frock. Why it's children's author Vivian Vande Velde as a fair maiden and her lovely pirate daughter! Yes, I was very psyched that they came by.

As for me, I reused an old dress and dollar store ears/tail for my costume. The lovely DJ Cat (who spun spooky tunes all night long) bailed me out with the whiskers since I forgot my eyeliner at home. Go glittery brown eyeshadow!


I'm not sure if any of the teens who came checked out materials, or if they'll be back for other events, but it can't hurt, right?

What do the teens in your community think about your public library? How often do they use it -- and for what?

Deena, Miss Recently Repped

Writing Goals

Tip of the Day: Don’t Forget to Vote!

There will no doubt be tons of blog posts today about the importance of voting, so I will leave all those awesome bloggers to the voting posts, since they will put it much better than I can. Instead, I’m going to continue on discussing about NaNoWriMo, as Kate did yesterday.

I absolutely love NaNo and had no idea there was such hate towards it as evidenced here. I’ve participated in some capacity over the past two years and I’m amazed at the motivation it gives me. Having writing buddies that you can compare word counts with and push each other is irreplaceable. Sure you could do this any time of the year, but for some reason the simple act of signing up, allowed me to set better writing goals and follow-through with my actions. Being a competitive person, I love the challenge of it all.

Granted if you are going into NaNo expecting to have a perfectly, polished novel by the end that isn’t very realistic. But it will help you to get writing on the page, and that is never a bad thing in my opinion.

So if you aren’t signed up yet. And are wavering whether to do it. You still have 27 days left in the month to write. So you might want to give it a try.

Unfortunately, I will not be officially participating in NaNo this year, due to edits I’m making on a previous book that need to be completed in a timely manner. And also due to the fact November has become Official Travel Month in my household (YAY!).

Even though, I’m not participating, I still love to do a huge writing push during the month of November. It gives me a sense of accomplishment as the year is coming to a close. And since setting goals is a big part of NaNo, I decided to announce my writing goals for the month of November on this blog. And I’ll hope you’ll join me in doing the same.

1. Finish edits for CG Book, and send off to awaiting parties.
2. Complete 20K words on SC book, including the chapters already written.

Doesn’t sound too hard, so hopefully I can follow through. And I encourage you to set your own goals this month. For some reason, November seems to be a great month to write and edit.

Good luck on your November Writing Goals everyone!

--Emily, Miss Awaiting

P.S. My non-writing goal this month is to have fun in Reno and Toronto/Niagara area. So if anyone has suggested sites to visit, places to eat, or things to do in either area. Please let me know!

Good Luck NaNoWriMo-ers!

Tip of the Day: Try a 15-minute sprint and write as fast as you can for 15 minutes in your work in progress. Don’t stop to second guess yourself. You’ll be surprised what you can produce “going for speed.”

Yay, it’s November! I love November. The kids are used to their school schedules, the holidays are around the corner but still manageable, and people’s minds turn to new writing projects. November is National Novel Writing Month, when writers voluntarily commit themselves to writing 50,000 words before December 1. (Check out the website at http://www.nanowrimo.org/.)

I’m not “NaNo-ing” this year due to prior commitments and I’m feeling a little left out, although last year was the first year I participated. I managed to write 37,000 words of a middle grade novel that consisted of 0 words in October—so basically, almost a whole draft of a book in one month! (Unfortunately I haven’t had the opportunity to properly run it past my critiquers yet but it’s coming so soon, my friends, insert evil chuckle here.)

I loved the camaraderie of NaNo: running a word count before I shut down my PC for the night and emailing it to my NaNo buddies in the morning; naming a secondary character in my book after a NaNo buddy who wrote the most words in a given weekend; meeting at a bagel place with our laptops to type as much as we could in a family-free hour. Definitely, there were a lot of unneeded words in my NaNo draft to up the word count (oh, the comparisons I used, and the described characters who never appear in a scene in person) but you’d be surprised how fast it moved. Because I have a short attention span. When I write a little a day, I can stay in the same scene forever. But sitting and writing it all at once, I was like, “This is boring. I’m bored. How could they still be in the basement? I’m making them climb out the window.”

I feel like I got the most out of NaNo, so here’s what I learned:

1. Have some partners in crime. It adds a level of fun to check in with your friends that can keep you going when you feel like watching TV instead.
2. Make an outline. You don’t have to stick to it, but it stops you from staring at the screen when you’re stuck. You need to be typing, baby! Pick something off that outline and get going.
3. When you get home from work or when you wake up, open up your word processing program immediately and leave it open until you go to bed. You can get an amazing amount done in ten minutes here and there, especially towards the end when you might lose your ability to sit still for hours.
4. Office supply mania! Carry index cards, pens, journals, whatever. If you sit down to the keyboard armed with notes from random times and places during the day, you’ll find the process much quicker and easier than starting all over every night.
5. You will have to give something up. Probably TV or reading or whatever else you did in your spare time, but as a writer, you probably don’t have much spare time to spare. So it’s best to face it right off: you will have to give something up in order to get more writing time. You know that. You live it every day. NaNo is your excuse to do it. If you give up sleep, exercise, or eating right, you’ll pay the price, but you know that too, don’t you? Still … something will have to give. And NaNo’s only once a year.

I’ll be doing a Fast Draft January with some friends who are also booked this November because I just can’t stay away for a whole year! For those of you participating now, I salute you, and I look forward to joining you again next year. I can’t wait to hear about your 2008 NaNo experience … when you come up for air in December, of course.

-- Kate, Miss Apprentice Writer

The Wimpy Author Weighs in on Scary Books

Tip of the day: Happy Halloween - be safe out there!

Okay, confession time. I am a total and complete wimp. I do not like scary. At all.

When I was younger, I watched my share of scary movies. You know the ones. Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I found when I was home alone I would be totally FREAKED OUT and somewhere along the way, I decided no more. Because it is really no fun AT ALL to be home alone and to be freaked out.

So it's actually kind-of weird that I wrote a book about a girl being haunted by a ghost. Except, you know, he's a fairly nice ghost as far as ghosts go. However, the book I'm working on now has TWO ghosts. And one of them ain't quite so nice. EEK! What the heck am I doing?

Anyway, we're supposed to be talking about books we've read, not books we're writing.

This one, CARRIE, by Stephen King, totally freaked me out when I was a teen. Come on, we have to mention it. It's a classic!

And the movie!? Did Sissy Spacek do an amazing job in that movie or what? If I was into watching scary movies on Halloween, I'd totally rent that one. But no, when I'm done handing out candy, I'll go up to my room, crawl into my comfy bed, curl up with the book I'm reading now (GIRL HERO, by Carrie Jones) and do everything possible to NOT think about anything scary. Because I'm old and tired and I need my sleep.

I recently read an ARC of a great book coming out in Spring, 2009. I wasn't sure how I'd do with it, but it was really good and even though there were a couple of scary parts, I managed to make my way through and at the end, I could honestly say I really enjoyed it. Maybe you've heard of it? THE FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH by Carrie Ryan.

It's got zombies in it! (Although they are called the Unconsecrated in the book). And they want the humans in a really bad way. I know a lot of people are going to love this book.

Hey, maybe in a month or so we can talk about our favorite Christmas books! I'm planning on picking this one up next time I'm at the bookstore. John Green, Maureen Johnson and Lauren Myracle, all in one book!? Can't wait! Yeah, pretty wrapped packages and nicely decorated sugar cookies I can get into. Blood and guts? Not so much.

~Lisa, Miss Pinch Me I'm Pubbed

Drippy Drippy BLOOD

Tip of the Day: If you have lots of mini-snickers (say 11-ish) left after trick-or-treating, you can make Candy Bar Apple Salad by making a box of vanilla pudding, stirring in a container of cool whip, and folding in 4 chopped green apples and 11 chopped mini-snickers. It’s yummy. Keep it in the fridge until you’re ready to serve.

I love, love, LOVE scary books and movies. I always have. One of my favorite Halloween traditions is to rent a bunch of scary movies while we carve pumpkins and make pumpkin seeds in the oven. I even tried to write a horror book once (and I’m not even going to link back to the post on that—too embarrassing) before I decided that young adult fiction was my calling. And I haven’t come across any YA horror yet. Until now that is. Guess what I got for my birthday from a super cool friend?

Yes!! My favorite YA author wrote a scary book!!!

Ok, let’s start with the feel/look of this book. Seriously, you can’t wait until it’s out in paper back. It is just too cool as a hardcover. It’s a hefty size (444 pages) and it has THE most amazing cover. The word BLISS is written in raised up letters (blood) on the front. You can run your fingers over it and feel it. So cool. And there are blood splatters on the inside too.

Now for what the book is about.

Bliss is a girl who moves to the town of Mayberry to start a new life at Crestview Academy. She’s hoping to make new friends but is hearing a voice talk about horrible, horrible things (including blood). The school has dark secrets—like the girl who threw herself out of a third-story window long ago. And Bliss’s new friend, a girl obsessed with having people worship her, puts Bliss in the path of danger. As the cover says, “it’s a spine-tingling, unforgettable story of friendship gone very, very wrong.”

Ok, who doesn’t want to read that?!

So new Halloween tradition—every Halloween from here on out I’ll take the kids trick-or-treating, put them in bed, and then it’s a scary YA book for me!

Kristina, Miss Soon-to-Pub