It's Friday. And a Question and giveaway

And oh crap, now that song is back in my head.

But Friday it is. And writing I am. (hello, Yoda, how did you wander into my speech pattern?)

And pondering a question that sort of kind of came up when (see previous post) agent Jen and my tallest friend Lauren and I were sipping wine and eating delicious cheese at Artisan Cheese Gallery in Studio City and generally enjoying life.

In matters of life, love, making a living and maintaining a writing career - can you have it all? Or is that just a pleasant fantasy? And if you're a woman (yes, I know it's 2011, but I think the question that takes us back at least as far as Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own still applies. I just do.) - is it harder?

Would love to hear from you.

In fact, if you comment, I'll put you in the contest hat and give away a Haunted t shirt to one lucky winner!

Doing Things a Little Differently: Day One

Back from a long weekend in LA - hanging with family and friends. Out of the Texas heat, beach time at Malibu, and some quality play time with intrepid agent Jen Rofe and the very tall and very delightful Lauren Strasnick.

And today - my very first day writing full time! So far it's been good. I'll let you know how it goes. For the first time since I kindergarten (I have a late birthday so I wasn't even five yet!) I did not go to school today. I am not sitting at inservice. I will not be there tomorrow. Instead I am writing and working and plotting and planning and just emailed Kay at Sourcebooks without having to sneak it in while no one was looking.

Doing some part time gigs to make up the slack... Gonna see how it goes for a year.

And so I must get back to it! The WIP is calling me and I must obey. Soon my Again and Again edits will arrive so I'm working on something new while I can. I may even be able to tell you about it soon... ooooh...

In Which I Pimp My Friends

Just back from brunch with the fabulous Houston almost debut author - and friend - Crystal Allen. Crystal's MG novel, How Lamar's Bad Prank Won a Bubba Sized Trophy will be out from Harper Collins in February. Crystal is not only hysterically funny, she also has a whip smart ear for "boy voice." You guys are going to love love love Lamar. And in case you're curious what we ate, this is our brunch that we consumed at Empire Cafe on Westheimer. If you are so inclined, go sit on the picnic bench in the outdoor section on the side of the restaurant. It is now officially the Crystal/Joy section. We named it. Feel free to ask for our table.



This is Crystal's book cover.








And in other bookish news, Lauren Strasnick's newest book is coming out next week - 10/5 - from Simon Pulse. It's called Her and Me and You. Lauren's debut, Nothing Like You, came out last October and is brilliant piece of achingly spare prose about love and loss and the mistakes that can haunt us. Her and Me and You promises to be equally as wonderful. Lauren is the hippest human being that I know. Check out her blog at http://laurenstrasnick.com

SCBWI LA and beyond

Back from SCBWI LA. Always, always wonderful to listen, learn, and catch up with friends, my darling cowgirl agent, meet new people, just soak in everything. Plus LA. I've got a little love affair going with LA. Took me awhile - but I do. This trip, I got to explore Culver City, see the Culver City Hotel where the cast of Wizard of Oz (yes, munchkin shenanigans!) stayed, see Culver Studios and Sony... Plus a decent meal at a little restaurant called Rush. Next year, I vow to get out to Malibu...

This year I was focused on craft. So the character development workshops w/Carolyn Mackler and Rachel Vail were honestly where I needed to be. Rachel Vail's Form to form a character check list? Gold, baby! Serious gold. What I have learned since about a character in a book I'm working on has been phenomenal. I started typing how she saw herself and then out popped her larger story about why she'd done some of things she'd done in the story. I'd always known her surface reasons. But there were deeper reasons to mine. And I hadn't. Having done so now makes such a huge difference that I'm flabbergasted!

So that's the short version, dear reader. Next time I'll post on some of the writers I met and their wonderful books that are coming out soon, including the fabulous Crystal Allen.

Til then, if you haven't yet read Nothing Like You by Lauren Strasnick, it's out this week in paperback. Lauren is a phenomenal talent; her spare, wrenching prose puts me to shame. And those last two lines- they make me weep every time. Her MC Holly has recently lost her mother, gets involved with the absolutely wrong boy, and the spiral that happens from there will dig in and grip you forever.

Til next time... and maybe some news about Dreaming Anastasia and Haunted. You never know.