Booking It

I have not blogged much over the past year and a half. It's not that I haven't had much to say, it's just that at first much of it was frustrated and sad and sometimes angry (as publishing and the world can cause) and then once I was back on track I had gotten out of the habit, was balancing a new job (more on that in a minute), had a bunch of life issues (some good, some not so good) and while I do blog regularly at YA OUTSIDE THE LINES, this blog, which I had curated so faithfully for almost a decade, fell to the wayside.

But. New Year. (Hello 2018!) New start.

Revamped Blog with a focus on publishing as always but through dual points of view: Author and Bookseller because since August of 2016, I've been the Children's Specialist at a wonderful indie bookstore here in Houston and it has taught me so much about the industry, helped me grow in a million ways, and informed what I write and how I write in ways I never expected. So I'll still be talking about writing and my own books and the writing classes I teach, and craft, and all the usual life stuff. Plus I get crazy wonderful access to ARCS -- so many ARCS! So we'll still be talking books a lot. Obviously.

Like right now I'm really excited for everyone to read Holly Black's CRUEL PRINCE, which drops this week. Oh how I've missed Holly's faerie worlds and this book will delight her loyal fans like me and those of you who have not read her before. Jude is a fully human child, as is her younger sister, but her mother had married a faerie and had a child (their older sister) and then escaped back to the human world. But her ex catches up with her and takes Jude and her sisters back to faerie. (Okay yeah, there's some shocking and well-told violence that happens first.) And now Jude is 16 and navigating a world that's not hers and the cruelty of handsome, cruel Prince Carden and his friends, and then it turns out that Jude (who is not truly at home anywhere by now) wants more. She wants power. And she's going to get it. Oh the political machinations! Oh the surprises! Oh this book!

We'll also be talking about what booksellers do and taking some peeks at things like what a buyer does and how it's totally amazing that we're in this reversal moment where indie bookstores are thriving while the big box bookstores are struggling to figure out what to do next. We'l probably have some chats about the Amazon factor. Because how can you leave out that elephant in the room? But let me repeat: Indie bookstores are thriving anyway.

I'll leave it at that for now.
I'm glad to be back.
Til next time!

Fighting the Doubt Monster

So here's the tricky thing about highly competitive occupations: Some days you feel like you will never be enough. I'll be writing along, as fast and well as I can-- loving the story and its complexities and loving the challenge of putting this grand adventure on the page--and then it happens. I catch up on the industry news or I dip my toes into some form of social media or another and there it is: The three book series that someone else sold while I'm still trying to get a proposal to work. Or yet another list of wonderful books which I'm not on. Or an event to which I wasn't invited. Or I read a review that is less than stellar. Or someone says, no, unfortunately, we couldn't budget that for you.

And suddenly I feel like I'll never possibly be enough. I started too late, or I'm just not good in the first place. I'm not smart enough or quirky enough. I don't have a fascinating narrative. My wardrobe is dirty yoga pants. The shelf life on me being labeled a prodigy has expired, and even if it hadn't, I was pretty ordinary to begin with. (my stellar Star Trek fan fic on yellow legal pads and reams of angsty unrequited love poetry aside. Cause that stuff is killer.) I am the Queen of Sucky who lives in Suckyville and that's how it is, you know? What did I expect? Who did I think I was? Aren't I looking at all those Instagram shots of all those people having fun and being uber cool while I'm struggling with this page I can't get right? If I posted right now, I would caption it:  #isuck

Yeah, whatever.
The truth as I see it: You don't have to be the smartest person in the room. You just have to show up and keep at it. And yes, some luck is often involved. (that's the scary part)

Wildly successful fashionista Diane von Furstenburg once said that she often feels like a loser. That in fact, according to her, all successful people HAVE to feel like losers sometimes or they don't get that creative, competitive fire in the belly that pushes them to do something new.

So yeah. I agree.
I think if you're not hungry enough of the time, you stop reaching high enough.

But what can you do when you feel less than enough?

What do I do?

I take a deep breath.

Sometimes I have to take another.

Or walk the dog.

Or buy a new coffee pot.

Or--yes, really -- do something nice for someone who is not me.

I remember that I did come to this later in the game and how freaking wonderful is that? I shifted course  and left a more comfortable niche and found the creative life. Being brave enough to do that has changed everything for me. I am very lucky.

Then I get to work on the one thing I can control--which is, of course, the work.
As Mark Twain once said and as I quote to myself quite often: The world owes you nothing.
But I owe the world my best work. I owe my readers my best work.

Going to finish this book now. You will see it in 2016. :)

Let's Start with Good Stuff

Hello 2014! Welcome, little year.

Trying to catch up today and write some on a shiny new project. I'm in that happy editing the first 50-75 pages stage, which is what I do once I've spit out most of act 1 of a draft and need to see if this is actually a book or just random monkeys typing. Looks like it's a BOOK! And I still love the idea! Because it is January 2nd. And all good things are possible.

Also need to sit and read the keynote aloud. I'm giving a keynote talk to a literacy conference for HISD teachers next week, sponsored by ABYDOS, which is the brainchild of  Dr. Joyce Carroll Armstrong of New Jersey Writing Project fame. It is one of those moments where my world comes full circle since when I was first teaching, we were trained in the New Jersey Writing Project and now someone whose scholarly articles I have pored over has asked me to open the conference with a talk! To 200 teachers! Yikes!

Also, a few days ago, there was this:
http://bumblesandfairytales.blogspot.com/2013/12/my-top-13-favorite-books-of-2013.html

Which makes me deliriously happy! Because it means THE SWEET DEAD LIFE was her favorite along with some other amazing books that I personally also adore! For those moments when I've asked myself, "Hey! Is anyone reading my words?"-- this is a nice answer.

Also yesterday there was this!
http://bumblesandfairytales.blogspot.com/2014/01/my-top-14-must-have-young-adult-books.html

Which means she's looking forward to THE A-WORD, too!

Well, so am I!!

Thank you, Bumbles and Fairy Tales for making my year both end and start well.

And in other news, I am also caught up with Blacklist. Started watching two days ago, and it's been a worthwhile TV binge! Oh James Spader. You never disappoint me even though you are now middle-aged and bald. You do conflicted snarky bad guy better than anyone else, probably because you were so good at non-conflicted snarky bad guy in the 80's. You know - James Spader in that white suit in Pretty in Pink, being horrid to poor Molly Ringwald? There is nothing better. If you haven't watched Blacklist, go forth and do so! It's not unpredictable and I'm not sure how many seasons they can carry out the over-arching secret, but for now it's a great time!

The Writing Life

The writing life gets to you sometimes. Cause really - although it may seem a romantic way to earn a living (or a piece of a living) it's really you, sitting at the laptop for hours on end making up stuff that sometimes works and sometimes gets sent back to you by your agent/editor/beta reader/critique partner/random person in line at Target with the basic commentary that it sucks and so do you and maybe you better get that application filled out for Walmart greeter. (not that that is a bad thing)

You learn to be heartened by the tiniest bit of good news. (My editor answered my email!) And you dash about the house thinking ah, they love me. It will be okay. And then, even though you swear you're above it, you stumble on a mediocre review or someone else gets a Newbery (even though you don't write middle grade and thus will never get the Newbery) and you think crap! What am I doing? I'm a poser, a fake. What was I thinking? And then you get a really good piece of news, but it has to remain secret for awhile and so you walk around thinking crap, I'd like to tell this really good piece of news so no one thinks I'm a loser who will never win the Newbery. Often these things all happen in the same day and sometimes in the same hour so that while you're writing and trying not to suck at it you're riding the writer life roller coaster and you forgot to take your Dramamine.

Or in the words of my Sourcebooks housemate, the witty and droll Geoff Herbach, "And then, for no apparent reason, things got better! And then worse! And then better!" Which pretty much covers it, wouldn't you say?

So the short of it is, it's best to let it all go and enjoy the ride. When you do, you realize that mostly, it's good stuff. Really. Or as we say in our house since I have spent a lot of years on public education where you learn to laugh at pretty much anything, "It's a good day when no one spits on you." (Cause in public education this can sometimes happen)

But to end on an upbeat, here's some good stuff:

• The above picture of PJ (Tricia) Hoover, me, and blogger/librarian Jen Bigheart at Greg Leitich Smith's release party for Chronal Engine this past weekend. Celebrating a new book is always the best!


• The book I'm writing and trying to finish this week. I love it. I really do. It's funny and very romantic. And it has kissing.


• Although I can't show it to you yet, Soho Press has created the best cover ever for THE SWEET DEAD LIFE which is coming out in May 2013. This is wondrous, people! Wait until you see it.


• Sourcebooks is having me sign advanced reading copies of ANASTASIA FOREVER at TLA in April! I am so stinkin' excited about this that you have no idea!! Thursday 4/19 from 2-3. If you want to find out what happens before everyone else, come to the show!


• My agent Jen Rofe is going to be here on Friday for Houston SCBWI! And I am very excited about her welcome gifts. All of which have a cowgirl theme. Cause, um, Texas!

So what's up and down with all of you, dear readers?