Michael Gerard Bauer: I COULDA BIN A SAMURAI!

Gidday! from beautiful Brisbane Australia.

What's the weirdest thing you wanted to be when you were little?

When I was a kid I never thought of being a writer, I wanted to be a Samurai warrior and failing that, a Ninja. So while other future writers might have been sharpening their pencils and honing their writing skills when they were little, I was running around my backyard with my homemade wooden samurai sword, leaping and screaming and attacking the clothesline.

Sadly my samurai dreams ended when a careers advisor at school asked me, 'Michael if you could be anything in the world, in your heart of hearts, what would you be?' Naturally I replied, 'Samurai Warrior!' I remember the careers man staring at me like I'd just stepped off the alien mother-ship. Then he looked at my report card and said the most devastating thing I'd ever heard up to that point. 'Michael,' he said, 'unfortunately you have taken the wrong subjects to be a Samurai – I think you should consider Accounting.' I didn't.

It was at University that I really fell in love with words and stories and dreamt of becoming a writer of some kind. When my first attempts at writing were rejected, I figured it meant I was no good, so I quit. Luckily, later in life I got a second chance.

So for what they're worth, here are my two pieces of advice to anyone who wants to be a writer.

Firstly, anyone can want to be a writer, but real writers have to write something.

Secondly don't be pathetic like I was and give up when you get rejections. People say you should follow your dreams. I say you should stalk your dreams - track them down, corner them and don't take 'no' for an answer. (NB Don't stalk people. Stalking people is bad. It's also illegal and time consuming when you should be writing.)

These days I wouldn't swap being a writer for all the Samurais in Japan. For me at least, the pen really is mightier than the sword.

Cheers Michael

Michael Gerard Bauer
Author of Don't Call Me Ishmael

Meg Cabot: Pets

It's that time of year again—no, not to break out the snow boots and shovels...to say hello to Princess Mia and her friends as another installment of the Princess Diaries hits bookshelves today!

But this edition is special, and not just because Princess Diaries, Volume IX, Princess Mia has a shiny red, newly re-designed cover (with a companion turquoise paperback--Princess Diaries, Volume VIII, Princess on the Brink--released on the same day)!

No, in Princess Mia our heroine hits new heights—and depths—of comedy as she deals with a break up, a betrayal, a royal mystery, and a possible new romance...all while juggling an eleventh grade class schedule and princess lessons...not to mention psychotherapy, into which Mia is lovingly pushed by concerned family and friends when she begins devouring every meat-based product she can find in her refrigerator when she succumbs to depression over the direction her life has suddenly started heading.

Hey, who hasn't been there? Leftover Chinese pork dumpings...yum!

Fortunately Mia has Fat Louie, her beloved cat, to help her through the tough times. I know my cats, Henrietta and Gem, are always there for me when I'm feeling down….which is why I made the video blog below (okay, Gem wasn't really a stray cat, but the family she originally lived with had a bunch of other pets, including roosters and iguanas, and Gem couldn't handle not being the center of attention. So she migrated over to our place, where she pretty much rules the roost).

Enjoy...and don't forget: Pets—and books—both cure the blues!

Love, Meg

Meg Cabot
Author of The Princess Diaries books, the Mediator series, the 1-800-Where-R-You series, All-American Girl, How to Be Popular, Pants on Fire, and Jinx, among others.

Beth Kephart: A Voice of Her Own

I learned yesterday that UNDERCOVER will be made into an audio book and the news made me stop, for a moment, and wonder: What sort of voice will carry my Elisa, the protagonist of UNDERCOVER, onto a digital recording? Pitch, tone, inflection, emphasis—the way a story is read out loud defines (in that instant) the story itself. It tells listeners what matters, what is yet tender, what doors have been closed. It shapes perceptions.

It's important, I think, to write our stories and poems with an ear for how they will sound when read aloud. I keep my own office door closed when I work—not for fear of being disturbed by the world beyond my desk, but for fear of disturbing the quiet soul in the living room, who doesn't necessarily want to hear me reading my sentences out loud again, and again. Which is what I do. Which is what I am doing right now. Even with this blog I am testing the words as they might sound if someone chose to read them aloud.

I learned the importance of all this slowly, over time, by going to bookstores and listening to writers read their own work. I like testing my sense of how the words should sound against the way the writers actually voice them. I like looking for clues on the page as to how a passage is meant to be delivered, and then I translate what I've learned into my own work.

I think we writers owe our readers that. We need to remember that words are active, meant to be lifted from the page or the screen by tongue, throat, and air.

Beth Kephart
Author of Undercover

www.beth-kephart.blogspot.com

Michael Spradlin: OKAY, BUT WHAT’S A MANGA?

When HarperCollins asked me if I wanted to turn my beloved Spy Goddess series into manga, it took me a while to make up my mind. The conversation went something like this:

Them: Hello, Mike? HarperCollins here. How would you like to turn Spy Goddess into a manga series?

Me (in serious writer voice): Well, I'll have to think abo...OKAY!

At first, I wasn't sure what lava bubbling out of the ground had to do with books (oh, wait, that's magma!)....

I was excited because I grew up reading and loving comic books. And manga is the comic book of the new millennium. So a chance to turn Rachel Buchanan, Spy Goddess, into an illustrated action hero? Where do I sign up?

Writing manga was a real challenge compared to writing novels. With manga, you quickly learn what it means to "show don't tell." Everything has to literally be seen on the page. No interior monologues. No long descriptions of places or events. Show.

Stretching my writing wings was fun. You'll have to read SPY GODDESS: THE CHASE FOR THE CHALICE (on sale in February) and tell me if we succeeded or not.

But I'd like to know if you've ever tried a new style or format for your writing? How did you find the experience?

Michael P. Spradlin
Author of the Spy Goddess series

www.michaelspradlin.com
www.myspace.com/michaelspradlin
www.myspace.com/spygoddess

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Jason Hightman: The First Job of Being a Writer

Is writing.

I have several friends who identify themselves as writers (I hope they'll still be friends now) yet they have very little actual writing experience. They view themselves as writers mainly as a hopeful vision for their futures. That's fine; it truly is. Whatever gets you through the day is a good thing.

But, if you honestly want to be a writer, you have to write. Just start--start right now, today--and begin telling your story.

You don't have to show your work to anyone. (That's the second—and hardest—part anyway; getting criticism and dealing with it properly.) For now, just start talking on paper. Ask yourself if the words say what you want, or if they subtly created a different impression than you wanted. Do it over again until it's right. Write every single day. Even if you get home late, even if you're tired, put something down. If you don't, it only gets harder.

There are so many great authors, so many great books about the craft; I think if I have anything special to offer it is this: I will be your private Champion. I hereby grant to you the Inner Champion's Motto: Get it down in writing, get it down, get it down, get it down. Use this to silence your Inner Critic (I know the guy, and by the way, he's a Royal Pain). Get out your motto. Use it like a mantra. Get it down, get it down, get it down...

I meant now, right now!

Jason Hightman
Author of The Saint of Dragons and Samurai

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Louise Rennison: Rambling on for England

Blimey O'Reilly, it is getting to be very nippy noodles over here in Billy Shakespeare land, as I write to you from genius headquarters (my bed). I have a hot water bottle on my head for max toastieness. I sincerely hope someone gorgeous does not unexpectedly come in.

In theory I am hard at work writing my new work of genius (as I like to call it), it's called Stop in the Name of Pants. As usual, I have had a lot of trouble getting the title past people who seem to think that I am a rude and wayward person. I wrote a book called And that is when it fell off in my hand and it was not allowed to be called that in your land (Hamburgeragogoland) because the publishers thought it was too rude.

I said, "How do you mean?"

And they said that they thought some people might think it was something rudey dudey… I don't know what on earth they mean (ish). In fact as any fool (i.e. me) could have told them, the thing that fell off was nothing to do with trouser snake addenda type stuff, but a false eyelash.

It's all quite groovy here at the mo, we are all in pre Chrimboli mood. I, of course, am trying to work but its hopeless really, people keep bursting in covered in tinsel and saying "Stop writing your childish books and let's groove."

And that is just my mum. Honestly. She is doing an M.A. in Medieval studies in York which means she mostly pretends to be Shakespeare in tights as far as I can tell. She has gone all 'studenty' and bolshie. Won't get off the couch, expects me to do her homework for her, etc... At the weekend she said "I am coming clubbing with you" even though I wasn't going clubbing, and was in fact asleep in bed. Which is probably her revenge for all the years she has had to put up with reading about herself in my books.

Anyway I must dash. Deep luuuurve…
Louise xxxxx
www.georgianicolson.com

P.S. What is YOUR favorite title of all of my books?


Louise Rennison
Author of the Confessions of Georgia Nicolson

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Gaby Triana: The Temptress Four

Alright, so here's the scenario:

You and three of your best friends decide the best way to celebrate high school graduation is to take a Caribbean cruise aboard The Temptress--the newest ship by Caribbean Cruise Line. You're all packed. You're psyched. You're leaving in the morning, and it's going to be the most awesome week of your lives.

But the night before leaving, the four of you stop by the senior fair. After a night of riding rides, you see it--a blue and yellow tent. Madame Fortuna can read your future--5 tickets. Why not? you ask. You've never visited a fortune teller before. So you all go in, giggling nervously, ready to have some fun. But then you see her--charcoal-black hair, eyelashes, clumped with mascara. Lips, bright pink, lined a quarter-inch on the outside. She might be a hundred years old. She might be a zombie. She deals you several tarot cards. The Fool... there will be a voyage. The Tower... eight days of storms and strife...bonds will be broken. And finally... Death. "One of you," she says, "will not come home."

So I ask you... would you still go on your trip?

The Temptress Four, coming May 2008, from HarperTeen.

Gaby Triana
Author of Backstage Pass, Cubanita, The Temptress Four (May 2008), and Motor Girl (Summer 2009)
Visit Gaby on MySpace
www.gabytriana.com