Beth Kephart: Living it Over Again

Maybe I can't stop writing because I have never figured out a way to be the real-live person I always wish that I could be. I make mistakes—put things off until it's truly too late, react impulsively when a counting to ten would be in order, allow myself to say out loud what might better be kept locked up in some private chamber. Not all the time, of course, but enough of the time to wish I could press the rewind button.

In writing my second novel for young adults, HOUSE OF DANCE, I was trying to make right on the page something that I'd failed to make right in actuality. A friend with whom I'd sat every week in church went missing one Sunday, and I didn't call to find out why. I didn't call the next Sunday either, when she again went missing; something inside told me I should, but I was tired and busy and packed myself out with excuses. Next week, I told myself, I'll call, but there would be no chance for that. My friend had of a sudden grown gravely ill, and before I could tell her goodbye, before I could even leave a phone message so that she'd know she'd been on my mind, she passed away. You don't get second chances in a circumstance like that.

In my grief I began to imagine a young girl who might be asked to care for a dying relative—a girl who has to decide, on her own, what love looks like at the end, what gifts might be given to someone who learns that he is living his last days. I named the girl Rosie, a name my grandmother once had for me, and I gave her backbone and sass and the sort of goodness I can only rarely claim for me. I conjured a voice for her, a situation, a town, a fragile family life, and then I listened to see what might happen. I followed her through a long, hot summer.

Many things happened in my own life as I was writing HOUSE OF DANCE, but the writing of this book kept me somehow grounded as I worked to see things through Rosie's eyes, to brand a story with her hard-edged goodness. I wonder if it works like this for all of us writers—if in some small way we are always working our own selves through on the page, even as our fiction takes us further and further from the "truth" of our daily living.

I'd love to know your thoughts on this, and I look forward to your thoughts on HOUSE, when it debuts on May 27th.

Beth Kephart
Author of Undercover & House of Dance

Win a signed copy of HOUSE OF DANCE!
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www.beth-kephart.blogspot.com

5 TIPS FOR SURVIVING IN THE SUBSAHARAN AFRICAN BUSH

Hi!

To write Chanda's Wars, I went to bush camps in Malawi and Zambia to learn wilderness survival tips from local trackers. It let me experience some of skills that Chanda uses as she journeys through a vast SubSaharan national park to rescue her young brother and sister, who've been kidnapped by the brutal warlord General Mandiki.

1) Air Bubbles Mean Trouble

Check for air bubbles any time you're near unknown water -- it's a sign of crocodiles lying just beneath the muddy surface. Pay special attention to the tips of reeds near the banks: some of them may be croc snouts.

2) How To Avoid Getting Trampled By Elephants

Most lion and elephant charges are bluffs. Stand still -- usually they'll back off. If not, make a lot of noise. Whatever you do, don't run. Elephants will trample you, and if really angry will take the time to knock over any small tree you've climbed. BTW, Lions kill by strangulation, not by biting or ripping. By contrast, crocs bite and spiral to tear off a limb, which is how they take down large prey -- one limb at a time. Your only way to survive a croc attack without a rifle -- and it's a longshot -- is to stab it in the eye with a knife.

3) For Sweet Dreams At Night

To sleep safely at night, make a boma (enclosure) of acacia boughs. The thorns will keep nighttime predators away -- lions, leopards usually go for antelope anyway. (Despite their fierce reputation, leopards will usually only attack something small, like a child, never two or more adults. They carry their prey into trees, to feast undisturbed by other predators. Discovering a carcass on a tree bough can be disconcerting.)

4) Stay Awake Around Hyenas

Unless sick, hyenas won't attack when you're awake, but may rip off a chunk of your face, or another hunk of your body, if you sleep unprotected. (See need for acacia boma above.)

5) Waste Not, Want Not

In a pinch, you can survive on bush rats and monitor lizards. They taste like chicken. You just have to catch them. The rats live in nests in the ground. You can smoke them out. Bush rats are generally eaten off a stick -- skin, tail, bones and all. I passed on the rats, but ate mopani worms; these are thick grubs that live under the bark of the mopani tree. They can be eaten dried or fried and have an unmistakable aftertaste. And I mean unmistakable.

If you found this blog interesting, please let me know and I'll write one about what I learned about tracking people or animals!

All the best,

Allan

Allan Stratton
Author of Chanda's Wars, Chanda's Secrets, and Leslie's Journal

www.allanstratton.com
www.myspace.com/allanstratton

THE SHARING KNIFE: Passage

Passage is an adventure story, a love story, and a fantasy novel, but above all, it is a river journey. In it, newly-married farmer girl Fawn Bluefield and her Lakewalker sorcerer-soldier husband Dag take passage on a flatboat to the sea, seeking solutions to the dangerous split between their peoples. (Though finding, among other things, river pirates.)

My love of lakes grew from my own childhood, but my father's happiest youthful memories were from the 1920's at summer cottages -- I think we'd call them "shanties" today -- on a river island just upstream from Pittsburgh. His own father, for vacations, would take him and a canoe by train some two hundred miles up the Allegheny River, and spend a week or more paddling back down. I recently had a chance to read some of his journals he kept in his youth; as a late teenager, he wrote that he couldn't decide if his life's ambition was to become an engineer, or to loaf on a houseboat. He eventually did both, although by his sixties when he finally acquired his houseboat on the Ohio River, he had rather lost the knack of loafing. So when I sent Dag and Fawn on their own journey of discovery down my book's equivalent of the Ohio, I had plenty of material, having both experienced the river first-hand, and inherited my Dad's library of river lore.

American landscapes are often neglected as sources for fantasy settings. Can you imagine, fifty years in the future, what tales of your parents' time you would tell to your grandchildren? What parts do you think they would find utterly alien or fantastical?

Lois McMaster Bujold

Michele Jaffe: Kitty Kitty

Hi gorgeous Harperteenlettes!

So I’ve been informed that in this space I’m not supposed to just talk about This and That and Candy, but rather my book, KITTY KITTY. So: KITTY KITTY is the sequel to BAD KITTY and it’s set in Venice, Italy. The first question everyone asks me—I mean apart from How do I stop acting like the Queen of the Giggling Loons when talking to my crush (see www.michelejaffe.com/blogspot) or Do your really wear sparkly shoes all the time? (A: Yes! Except in the shower)—is Why did you set your book in Venice?

KITTY KITTY takes place in Venice because it is a city crammed with Mystery and its best friend Wonder and I wanted a place that would be a real challenge for my heroine Jas’s hair due to the humidity making it massivo and also, I just love it there because it is the bOnKeRsEsT place on the planet.

For one thing: there are no cars.

For another: they serve ice cream with lit sparklers in it.

Yes.

Also there is a restaurant with 142 kinds of pizza.

But the best thing about Venice, and Italy in general, is that every month there’s a special national holiday. And every holiday has a special cookie or fried treat. Honestly, if that is not the most brilliant idea in the world, I do not understand the definitions of ’most’ and ’world.’

Take San Martino day. For some reason this day involves all children under seven putting on clown make up and wandering through the streets banging on pots and pans with wooden spoons which, if you are trying to write a book and were up all night and they are ranging around beneath your window, is, um, special (to pick a random example). But it also involves these cookies about the size of my face, in the shape of a knight on horseback onto which magic elves then glue CHOCOLATE CANDIES. Still wrapped up! So first you get to eat the candies, and then you get to eat the cookie! And then you get to fall into a sugar coma! Until the next morning when you get to do it again!

(Yes, they are really magic elves. No, I cannot tell you how I know. They swore me to secrecy when I visited them in their...oh no I already said too much!!!)

But my all time 100% favorite thing is during Carnivale, which takes place in the month before Easter (i.e. now), when the frittelle arrive. There’s no real way to describe frittelle except to say that "fritto" means fried so the literal translation of their name is "tiny fried object filled with unspeakable deliciousness." They are sweet and can come studded with raisins or filled with cream or drizzled with chocolate or dusted with cinnamon or just dipped in sugar. You can get them pretty much anywhere this time of year and somehow they are always hot out of the frying pan and they kind of melt in your mouth and...

What? This was supposed, finally, to be about my book? Oh. Well, there are no frittelle in my book because I decided that would be cruel. But I will talk about my book next time I blog, I swear. In the meantime, I’m looking for a place to set Bad Kitty 3 so leave me a comment about what the MOST delicious thing you’ve ever eaten is and where it was.

Be supergelatotastic!

Airkisses,
Michele

Michele Jaffe
Author of Bad Kitty, and the forthcoming Kitty Kitty

www.michelejaffe.com
www.myspace.com/michele_jaffe<

Susan Juby: Traps for Writers

Being a writer is a wonderful thing. However, the path of the writer is strewn with distractions and dangers of all sorts. Here are two you should watch out for.

1. The Internet.
Here's how it starts. You're writing away after school in the time you've set aside. You're going strong. Onto something good. Then it occurs to you that you haven't checked your email in a while. So you stop mid-sentence and check your email. There's a message from your friend, who just posted a video of herself impersonating Céline Dion on Youtube. So you click through and watch. Then you discover that hundreds of other people have put up their Céline Dion impressions and you watch them all and you post links on your blog and Myspace page. Then your parents call you down for dinner and that's it. Céline Dion and the Internet have ruined your writing session.

2. The phone.
You're writing away one night. Burning the midnight oil, writing something quite powerful, and the phone rings. Ring! Ring! It's your friend, the Céline Dion impersonator. She's calling about the backless dress she just sewed for her next Youtube appearance. She's already called you six times to update you on her progress. "I cut out the pattern!" "I sewed a side seam!" "Did you know my dress is a size 0? JUST LIKE CÉLINE DION!" You pick up because you want to be sure that she hasn't had a serious sewing accident. It turns out she's calling to report that her boyfriend is getting weirded out by the Céline Dion thing. He doesn't find Ms. Dion that attractive and wishes your friend would imitate Gwen Stefani. Obviously he doesn't understand that Céline is an artist. A chanteuse! You talk her through it and when you finally get off the phone you realize it's midnight and your writing session is over.

I shut off my modum and turn off the phone when I write. What methods do you use to deal with distractions?

Susan Juby
Author of Another Kind of Cowboy, Alice, I Think, and Alice MacLeod, Realist at Last

www.susanjuby.com

Susan Juby: Traps for Writers

Being a writer is a wonderful thing. However, the path of the writer is strewn with distractions and dangers of all sorts. Here are two you should watch out for.

1. The Internet.
Here's how it starts. You're writing away after school in the time you've set aside. You're going strong. Onto something good. Then it occurs to you that you haven't checked your email in a while. So you stop mid-sentence and check your email. There's a message from your friend, who just posted a video of herself impersonating Céline Dion on Youtube. So you click through and watch. Then you discover that hundreds of other people have put up their Céline Dion impressions and you watch them all and you post links on your blog and Myspace page. Then your parents call you down for dinner and that's it. Céline Dion and the Internet have ruined your writing session.

2. The phone.
You're writing away one night. Burning the midnight oil, writing something quite powerful, and the phone rings. Ring! Ring! It's your friend, the Céline Dion impersonator. She's calling about the backless dress she just sewed for her next Youtube appearance. She's already called you six times to update you on her progress. "I cut out the pattern!" "I sewed a side seam!" "Did you know my dress is a size 0? JUST LIKE CÉLINE DION!" You pick up because you want to be sure that she hasn't had a serious sewing accident. It turns out she's calling to report that her boyfriend is getting weirded out by the Céline Dion thing. He doesn't find Ms. Dion that attractive and wishes your friend would imitate Gwen Stefani. Obviously he doesn't understand that Céline is an artist. A chanteuse! You talk her through it and when you finally get off the phone you realize it's midnight and your writing session is over.

I shut off my modum and turn off the phone when I write. What methods do you use to deal with distractions?

Susan Juby
Author of Another Kind of Cowboy, Alice, I Think, and Alice MacLeod, Realist at Last

www.susanjuby.com

Kim Harrison: Becoming a Writer

"I love reading. Do you have any advice on how to become a writer?"

I can't tell you the number of times I've been asked this question, and though every author's path to publication is different, I do have a few tips for the young (or new) writer that can help.

Writing is just about the only job I can think of that is still pretty much self-taught. To help, there are lots of classes available both at the high school level and higher, and I always suggest taking as many creative writing classes you can. I didn't, and when I sat down to write, I had a lot of catch-up to do. Which goes to prove that even if you miss those early opportunities, you can make up the difference. When it comes right down to it, it's you and the keyboard and lots of practice.

Write every day. You don't have to write for a long time--just twenty minutes or so--but make them good twenty minutes. You might ask, why write every day and not for an hour once a week? Writing every day teaches you how to flick on your creative process fast and make it work for you. If you want to write for a job, treat it like one and write whether you're in the mood or not. This is hard work, or everyone would be doing it. Or should I say, everyone would be finishing their manuscript.

Which brings me to the next suggestion. Finish what you start even if you've lost interest in it. Find a way to rekindle the spark, and then do it. A lot of people confuse true writer's block with a lack of planning. There are many people who write by the seat of their pants. (Called pantsers) That's what works for them and it is a perfectly acceptable way to write--if you finish your manuscript. If you have six stories started and haven't finished one, then you're not a pantser, you're a plotter who hasn't plotted enough. I'm a plotter with a pantser's need to follow my instincts. I have to have an outline when I work, but I'm always changing it. If you have a hard time finishing a story, you might want to consider spending some time outlining to the end--and then finish writing it, even if it is painful. The confidence you will get from that will astound you. If you can finish one, you can finish them all.

Another piece of advice I love to give out is to do lots of research, but by that I mean reading your favorite books, not once or twice, but several times over the course of a couple of years. Pick your favorite author's work apart to see how he or she handles character growth or plot development. See how she hid clues in the prose so that you missed its significance until the end when you hit your head and say, "Oh! That makes perfect sense now!" Watch how she built the world and drew you into it. Was it the love the main character had for her pet that first drew you to understand her? Or her friends? Or maybe the trouble or success she had at school?

Okay, so what if you have the pattern of writing every day and you've finished something? Now you're ready to start sharing your work. Sharing your writing with others is one of the best ways to get over your love affair with your own words. Loving your work is a positive thing, but it can stand in the way if you love it so much that you think it can't be improved upon. Try to join a writer's group that meets face to face. Not only will you make great strides in polishing your voice and developing that thick skin needed, but there's usually a published author in the group who can open doors and make introductions to help get that first publishing credit.

One of the best things about wanting to be a writer is that if you write, you are one. It's that simple. The only sure way to fail to find publication, is to stop trying. Success is simply a matter of time, effort, and maybe a good whack of luck to get it all going.

--Kim Harrison

Browse Inside:The Outlaw Demon Wails

www.myspace.com/kimharrisonbooks

Suzanne Harper: Fact in Fiction

It's surprising how much research you sometimes have to do when writing fiction. You'd think that, if you're making stuff up, you could just sit in front of your computer all day, lost in your own world, preferably wearing pajamas.

But no.

My next novel, THE JULIET CLUB, is based on a real organization, so that's where my research started. (You can read about it here.) Then I started creating my fictional world, which involves three American teens (Kate, Lucy and Tom) who travel to Italy to take part in a Shakespeare seminar, along with three Italian teens (Giacomo, Silvia and Benno). As part of the plot, they have to perform an Elizabethan dance and a scene that involves stage sword fighting.

When I started to write those scenes, I realized that I had a major problem since I do not dance or fence. So I asked a couple of friends (Anneclaire, a dancer, and Dan, a fight director) to tutor me in the basics. (Check out Dan's web site here.)

Now I'm creating videos of the lessons for my website. I'm curious to see whether readers like learning about the facts behind the fiction.

What do you guys think? Do you think behind-the-scenes info like that would be interesting, or would you rather just stay in the world of the story?

Suzanne Harper
Author of  The Secret Life of Sparrow Delaney

Paula Yoo: Good Enough

Let's get one thing straight. GOOD ENOUGH is a FICTIONAL NOVEL. I'm not as smart as Patti, and I don't play the violin as well as she does!

But eagle-eyed readers caught real life tributes, like my "random name generator" technique using real friends' names for many of the minor characters.

My real life and fictional worlds collided on Thanksgiving when I attended my 20th high school reunion. I was nervous because I was a geek outcast amongst Beautiful Perfect People who attended Prom while I stayed home to practice my violin. Would everyone stick with their cliques and ignore me? Would my teen angst bubble to the surface again?

To my surprise, I had a BLAST! Gone were the cliques. Everyone was genuinely happy to reconnect on equal footing. I even met the real-life "Ben Wheeler"! Still as cute as ever... and we had fun bonding over our memories. My teen angst was replaced with pride in having survived high school. Turns out everyone - even the Beautiful Perfect People - felt at one point they weren't good enough. So congratulations to everyone in the Avon High School Class of '87 - you guys are MORE than good enough!

Paula Yoo
Author of Good Enough

www.myspace.com/paulayoo

Paula Yoo: Good Enough

Let's get one thing straight. GOOD ENOUGH is a FICTIONAL NOVEL. I'm not as smart as Patti, and I don't play the violin as well as she does!

But eagle-eyed readers caught real life tributes, like my "random name generator" technique using real friends' names for many of the minor characters.

My real life and fictional worlds collided on Thanksgiving when I attended my 20th high school reunion. I was nervous because I was a geek outcast amongst Beautiful Perfect People who attended Prom while I stayed home to practice my violin. Would everyone stick with their cliques and ignore me? Would my teen angst bubble to the surface again?

To my surprise, I had a BLAST! Gone were the cliques. Everyone was genuinely happy to reconnect on equal footing. I even met the real-life "Ben Wheeler"! Still as cute as ever... and we had fun bonding over our memories. My teen angst was replaced with pride in having survived high school. Turns out everyone - even the Beautiful Perfect People - felt at one point they weren't good enough. So congratulations to everyone in the Avon High School Class of '87 - you guys are MORE than good enough!

Paula Yoo
Author of Good Enough

www.myspace.com/paulayoo

Cherry Cheva: Writing a Book vs. Writing for TV

So I'm psyched that She's So Money just came out, but writing books actually isn't my only job-- in fact, it's kind of my second job, since my day job is writing for the TV show "Family Guy." I wrote the book almost entirely on nights and weekends, because my days (when the WGA isn't on strike, that is) are spent at the office, sitting around with fifteen or sixteen guys and doing the following in no particular order: watching youtube, deciding what to eat for lunch, messing with our cellphones, arranging the various toys and figurines on the table into obscene positions, surfing for celebrity gossip on the internet, making fun of each other, making fun of ourselves, going out on the balcony to get a better look at hotties walking by on the street, and oh yeah, occasionally writing some jokes and gags involving the Griffin family, talking trees, Swedish bakers, gay sharks, vomiting, and anything else we can think of. It is, without exaggeration, an *awesome* job.

Of course, writing a book is awesome too, because I can do it at home and in pajamas and if I get stuck on something (or just plain bored), I can walk away from the computer and take a nap, or start a spontaneous one-woman dance party, or watch a Top Model marathon on MTV, or go to the mall.

But really the biggest difference between my two jobs is that in writing for TV, there is lots of free candy. Writing a book, there is no free candy.

Unless I stole some from work.

So how about you guys -- is there room for both books and TV in your lives? What books would you love to see as shows…or what shows do you think would be cool to read?

Cherry Cheva
Author of She's So Money

Enter for a chance to win a $500 gift certificate and a copy of She's So Money signed by Cherry!

www.myspace.com/cherrycheva
www.myspace.com/familyguy

Beth Kephart: Words in Motion

Perhaps because I was one of those perpetually active kids—ice skating during winter days, playing kickball through the summer, racing my brother around the block, forever honing my tennis—I grew attached to the idea, rather early on, that writing and motion are true blood sisters: one cannot exist without the other. I can't find new ideas or next scenes sitting down; it just doesn't work. I've got to go out and take a walk, or stand up and start dancing, or climb aboard my very miniature exerciser.

It's as if the movement floats my thinking forward. I hear rhythms, I feel stretch and pause, or rush and clamor; I get pointed north or east. It's a beautiful thing, really, a privilege to climb inside that fluid space, look around, and see what I see.

I wonder if any of you have discovered this link between the body and the mind, the heart beat and the story?

Beth Kephart
Author of Undercover
www.beth-kephart.blogspot.com/
Beth Kephart on Red Room
An interview with Beth

Check back to hear from a new HarperTeen author!

Hilari Bell: Rules for Writing

As I write this it's about 9:30 at night. I'm sitting at my kitchen table using the laptop, because my niece is doing homework on my computer. I've spent all of today, and most of the previous month, writing my brain into mush reworking the second book of the Goblin Wood trilogy. I'm tired, slightly, and really need a few days off... And I'm still incredibly grateful that I can make a living as a writer.

It's got to be the best job in the world--particularly when you're not writing your brain to mush--but it's weird in a lot of ways. There are no rules. A few things, sure, but even the most repeated truisms, like "show don't tell" are more like guidelines. ;) Still, every now and then some writer comes up with "unbreakable" rules for writing--and every time they do, I know of someone who successfully breaks them. So it's pretty stupid of me to put forward rules of my own, but I think I've got three that really are almost unbreakable--at least for writers who want to be published--so I may as well pass them on. This is:


Bell's Modification of Heinlein's Three Rules:
(Yes, I stole the first two.)

1: You must write.

2: You must finish what you write.

3: You must submit what you've finished to editors who are likely to buy it until one of them does.

It sounds obvious, but you'd be amazed how many writers miss one of those steps. And Heinlein's third rule was not to rewrite except for an editor, but I think he was wrong about that.

So are there any of my rules you think are wrong? And what are some writing rules that work for you, even if they might not work for everyone?

Hilari

Hilari Bell
Author of The Last Knight, The Prophecy, The Wizard Test, and The Goblin Wood
www.sfwa.org/members/bell

E. Lockhart, Sarah Mlynowski, and Lauren Myracle!

E: My blog readers told me they want me to post more about the writing life, and I thought: since Sarah, Lauren and I wrote HOW TO BE BAD together, even though we all three live in different places, it might be kinda fun to compare how we work. I've been up since 6:30. There is a stack of laundry on top of my printer, proofs and magazines and lists of things to do on my desk, plus a glow-in-the-dark skeleton pirate, a hat that has the ears and nose of a panda bear on it, my watch, and two cups of cold tea. It is 10:23 AM and I have written nothing because I spent a chunk of the morning on the phone with Sarah discussing minor changes to the proofs of our book.
Sarah is meticulous.
I am not.
I would not have caught any of the errors she's found.
It is still too early to call Lauren, because she's in Colorado while we're in Brooklyn and Manhattan.
Maybe I will skip writing this morning and do some yoga. Or make guacamole and then eat it.

S: Meticulous! I love it! Can I still be meticulous even if I am the messiest person in the entire universe?
Unlike E., I've been up since eight. Fine, eight-thirty. Okay, okay, nine-fifteen. The snooze button is the devil.
Like E., I should be at my desk, but instead I (along with HOW TO BE BAD page proofs, revision notes, a blue pen that has run out of ink, a black pen that is about to run out of ink, two cordless phones, a yellow pad of Post-It's, my laptop and possibly some miniature Reese's peanut butter cup wrappers) are sprawled all over my couch. A Law & Order rerun is playing on my television. I am not actually watching TV, but I am convinced the show's "Dah-Dah!"s help me think.

Lauren? Laaaaaaaauren. Are you up yet??? I just sent you an e-mail instructing you to call me ASAP. No, it's not about the book. We urgently need to discuss last night's American Idol!

Lauren here. Oh, wait, let me rephase. "L" here, tee-hee. And yes! I'm up! Yay! And I have to say, I have grown a little fond of Ryan Seacrest, despite major cheese-factor reservations..

OH. I'm supposed to be talking about my writing life. At this very moment, I am at Starbucks enjoying a delish maple scone and a venti mocha. I'm supposed to be writing the ending of a novel, but instead I'm... enjoying a delish maple scone and a venti mocha. But here's what will happen in just a minute: I'll put on my super high-tech noise-blocking headphones, shoo away the real world, and delve into my private world of characters, plot, silliness, and occasionally setting. Though I hate setting and find it boring. Except in HOW TO BE BAD, since in HOW TO BE BAD the girls are ROAD-TRIPPING through Florida, and how could that setting possibly be boring? Especially as there are alligators! And boys! And house parties with scuzzy guys and gum-popping girls, at which Mel (one of the girls in the novel) doesn't want to use the nasty hand towel in the nasty bathroom, so she wipes her hands on her hair. Which led to a big discussion between S, E, and myself (that's me, L!) about whether girls really do that.

So I put it to you, lovely blog readers: have you ever dried your hands off on YOUR OWN HAIR? I have completely strayed from the dignified topic of My Writing Life, and that, my sweeties, is just as it should be. Because that is my writing life—typing away and letting my brain go wherever and, best of all, having dear friends with whom to process it. But hey, if y'all want to ask us questions about writing or books or whatever, that's okay, too.

Here's to dear friends!!!!

E, S, and L

E. Lockhart, Sarah Mlynowski, and Lauren Myracle
Authors of How to Be Bad (in stores May 6th!!)

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www.myspace.com/laurenmyracle
www.myspace.com/theboyfriendlist
www.myspace.com/sarahmlynowski

www.laurenmyracle.com
www.theboyfriendlist.com
www.sarahm.com

Anna Godbersen: Open Book

I'd heard of this phenomenon from other writers I know, how the experience of having a book come out can be somewhat anticlimactic. A book's actual publication, after all, is separated from its completion by months at least. There is so much copy-editing and typesetting and marketing preparation between when an author stops living her novel and when she has to talk about it. I felt a little bit of this: By the time I was asked to talk about The Luxe, it did feel slightly remote to me, and I occasionally wished that I had bottled up some of my thought process during the writing of it to share with interviewers. But at the same time I experienced something else far more rewarding, which is the joy of writing in serial form. Many authors, high and low, have revisited their characters in multiple books, and I knew from the beginning that The Luxe would be a series. But I hadn't anticipated how exciting it would be to come back to these characters in Rumors, the second installment of The Luxe series, and find that I had more to learn about them, that there were all these other aspects of their personalities that I had left unexplored in the first book. It was so wonderful to find that they weren't set in stone, that they were still open and that they could have new memories and new desires.

I'd love to know what characters from literature you wish had a sequel and why?

Anna Godbersen
Author of The Luxe

www.myspace.com/annagodbersen

Mark Crilley -- The Readers: Know Them, or Die!

Okay, the title's a bit extreme. But I really do believe that I'm in trouble as an author if I don't make serious efforts to get to know my readers. Especially now that I'm trying to reach manga readers, a group that until a few years ago was slightly mysterious to me.

I do narrated "how to draw" videos on Youtube. The other day I got a comment on one of my videos from an Australian reader named Dimitri who had read Miki Falls. The comment was: "You're drawing the chins too big." Well, some of the other Youtube watchers gave that comment so many thumbs down it ended up becoming hidden, but to me it was like gold. "Note to self: Reduce size of chins!"

And yes, I messaged Dimitri, saying how grateful I was for the honest feedback.

So now, thanks to Myspace and Deviantart and, yes, Youtube, I really am getting to know my readers and what they want. Does that mean I make characters jump off bridges if they tell me to? Definitely not. But I do take note of everything they say and keep all of it in mind as I shape my next project. No author is an island, and if I stay in my ivory tower saying, "My job is to write, your job is to read"… well, I probably won't have any readers before very long.

So how about you? Do you show your writing to others and ask for their thoughts? Have you made use of their feedback, even the negative stuff? Please reply and let me know. I'd really love--as you've probably figured out by now--to hear from you.

Until next time, keep writing—or blogging!

Mark Crilley
Author of Miki Falls: Winter, Miki Falls:Autumn, Miki Falls: Summer, and Miki Falls: Spring

www.youtube.com/markcrilley
www.markcrilley.deviantart.com 
www.myspace.com/markcrilley
www.markcrilley.com

Bennett Madison: The Blonde Myth

What's the thing about blondes? According to popular idiom, they have so much FUN, right? So why they are always dying of mysterious circumstances, going to rehab, having outrageous FREAKOUTS, getting pigs' blood dumped all over them at the prom, going to jail, (maybe) falling under Satanic curses and (sort of) being decapitated, et cetera? There's more to blondness than having fun and being preferred by gentlemen, that's for sure.

In high school and college, many of my best friends included: kooky blondes, bitchy blondes, bombshell blondes, troubled blondes, good-time blondes, tragic blondes, and wild blondes. There was not a dumb blonde among them. Instead, what they all seemed to have in common--besides a distinctive SCORCHED EARTH strategy when it came to bleaching--was a certain (sometimes misguided) joie de vivre that tended to result in dramatic situations of both the disastrous and the awesome variety. What I am saying is that they were never boring.

But the world has a weird attitude when it comes to blondes. I spent a lot of time researching blonde jokes for my new book, THE BLONDE OF THE JOKE (natch), and discovered that not only are most blonde jokes totally unfunny--did you hear about the blonde who thought day rates were cheaper than nitrates?! LOL!-- but also that a lot of them are straight-up misogynist and sometimes actually violent. You don't even want to know the one about the blonde who tried to blow up her husband's car.  Trust me, it's a joke only John Wayne Gacy should find funny, but there it is on 101 Best Blonde Jokes! (Or wherever; I forget.) Clearly, our fascination with blondes is pretty, um, COMPLICATED. We--meaning, you know, SOCIETY--love to obsess about them, fantasize about them, worship them, make fun of them, torment them, judge them, and then feel sad and sorry when they run into trouble.

What is it about blondes? Or maybe I should ask: what is it about the obsession with blondes? It's possible it has nothing to do with how blondes actually ARE. Maybe we're just projecting all our own mommy issues, all our insane virgin/whore complexes, all our jealousies and pettinesses, onto these women who, other than their choice (and it IS a choice) in hair color, are just regular people. Poor Britney. How could anyone handle the weight of all that?

I don't know. I've thought about all of this a lot, and I still don't have a conclusion. So I wrote a book about it.  In preparation for THE BLONDE OF THE JOKE, I'll be also be writing a weekly essay on my blog about my favorite blondes in history. Who should I include? Nominate subjects here in the comments.

Bennett Madison
Author of Lulu Dark Can See Through Walls, Lulu Dark & the Summer of the Fox, I Hate Valentine's Day, and The Blonde of the Joke (coming September 08)

www.bennettmadison.net

Francesca Lia Block

A few months ago, Moira, a friend from MySpace sent me a photograph of herself standing in a field surrounded by streaks of rainbow light. I sent the image to my editor and we decided to use it as the cover of my upcoming book of poems, HOW TO (UN)CAGE A GIRL. We got permission from the model and her friends, the photographers, and are looking forward to one of my loveliest, most intriguing covers ever. Although I have never met Moira before, I now feel as if I know her quite well based on her almost daily communications with me through MySpace.

Over the years I have become increasingly disconnected from my readers, except when I do an occasional book signing. As a single mom with young children and books to write, I often don't have time to be in touch.

MySpace has provided me with the opportunity to bond with my readers in a very personal way. I post my most intimate poetry and photos on a regular basis, as well as adding songs that inspire me and updates about my newest books. I have also used it as a way to advertise upcoming writing workshops that I have started to lead. Although I don't always have time to respond to my messages and comments, I always read them.

They are comforting and inspiring and because of the attached profiles, I feel as if I am really getting to know my MySpace contacts. I want to thank everyone who has already visited me and to encourage others to do so. Come read the poetry, listen to the music, see the photos and find some new friends. Who knows? Maybe we'll use your picture on one of my next books or include your poetry in an anthology.

What ideas do you have for my upcoming book covers:
THE WATERS AND THE WILD (a book about a changeling) PRETTY DEAD (a very scary vampire love story)?

Much Love to all of you in the New Year.

Francesca
myspace/francescalia
francescaliablock.com
francesca lia block shrine

Francesca Lia Block
Author of Dangerous Angels: The Weetzie Bat Books (collection), Ruby, Psyche in a Dress, Weetzie Bat, Goat Girls, Wasteland, Echo, The Rose and The Beast, Violet & Claire, I Was a Teenage Fairy, The Hanged Man, Girl Goddess 9, Missing Angel Juan, Guarding the Moon: A Mother's First Year, Ecstasia, and Primavera

Allan Stratton: TRAVELLING THE WORLD!

Do you like to travel? I do.

When I was teenager, I was lucky to win a year's scholarship to a small high school in Switzerland. After graduation, I trekked around Europe with a couple of friends. I was hooked.

My favorite memories come from Egypt, Botswana, Turkey, Cuba, Thailand and China. (I went to China with my mom when she turned eighty. Mom's the most amazing person I know. She's absolute, unconditional love. And a divorced, single mother with a career in the 1950s! That didn't happen back then. I think Mom's why I write such strong female characters.)

Anyway, what I love most about travel is meeting new people. The thing I discover over and over is that no matter how different the surface of things, under the skin we're all alike. It's the key to what, and how, I write. With each character I ask: if I was this person, what would I want most? What would I do to get it? How would I think and feel at each moment of my struggle?

Chanda's Wars is set in a world of child soldiers. But at its heart, it's a story about love, friendship, and a courageous young woman who refuses to give up hope.

In writing the book, I met with former child soldiers, their rehabilitators and victims, a village headman, spirit doctors, farmers, and many others from various African countries, both in SubSahara and in the Diaspora. I visited villages and cattle posts, and went into the bush with guides and trackers, who taught me some of the skills Chanda would need to rescue her young brother and sister from the warlord, General Mandiki. It's an experience that changed me.

Travel does that. It opens us up. It lets us see life with new eyes.

Do you have special travel memories? Places you most want to visit? I'd love to hear about them! Or if you've traveled here from someplace else, let me hear about that too. What do you like most? What do you miss most?

Cheers,
Allan

Allan Stratton
Author of Chanda's Wars, Chanda's Secrets, and Leslie's Journal

www.allanstratton.com
www.myspace.com/allanstratton

Alexa Young: WHY DO YOU READ?

For me, diving into a book has almost always been a way to escape—and that's something I needed to do a lot throughout my angst-ridden youth. Back then, when school or family or life in general left me bored out of my mind, I curled up with fantasy novels by C.S. Lewis (I had the entire Chronicles of Narnia collection in a super-cool box set) or twisted sagas by V.C. Andrews (Flowers in the Attic, anyone?). When I was feeling awkward, hideous or otherwise inadequate (especially when it came to certain puberty-related developments that weren't, well, developing), Judy Blume was my absolute favorite author/hero (I think I read Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret at least a hundred times). And when I was obsessing over a guy, a friend (or frenemy!), or anything else on the social stratum, I'd reach for a cheesy romance (at age eleven, I couldn't stop reading a book called Dreams Can Come True by Jane Claypool Miner—see below :-O).

 

Now, as I sit here on the brink of becoming a published YA novelist myself, I'm wondering what people will get out of my little fiction project. I hope it provides at least some of the things my cherished books gave to me back in the day—whether an entertaining, unusual or aspirational break from everyday monotony, or an empathetic reminder that everyone, from the cheerleaders to the honors students to the drama geeks (I was all of the above), struggles with insecurities, relationship crises and manic meltdowns of all sorts.

So how about you? What are some of your favorite books, what have you gotten from them, and how do you hope your writing will affect your readers?

Alexa Young, author of FRENEMIES (May 13, 2008)

www.myspace.com/iamalexayoung

www.alexayoung.com

A CLASSIC!

Scholastic, 1981. Ellynne has dreams of being popular, becoming a cheerleader, and having a great boyfriend. After losing 30 pounds and trying out for the squad, the only thing left is Kip. Should she go for him even though he has a girlfriend? Is it right for Ellynne to want to date him? How close are he and his girlfriend, Merri? All Ellynne knows is that Kip is very, very special…

Robert Lipsyte: Expectations

I've been talking to a lot of football players this year about "Raiders Night" and the big surprise is how many of them have the same issues with their parents that girl violinists have (I talked to them a couple of years ago for a series of newspaper pieces.) Whether you're playing tight end or Mozart, so many kids feel trapped by their parent's expectations, often unrealistically high.

For most kids, I think, having a good time in sports and/or music is reward enough. And you don't have to be a star or a soloist to enjoy the friendships and the sense of belonging. But parents can spoil it, insisting that coaches and teachers push harder, give kids more playing time, prep them for bigger competitions.

Then kids start thinking that if they don't win scholarships to big-time sports schools or famous conservatories they will disappoint their folks and be failures.

This is a tough problem to deal with. Every situation is different, and I don't have a one-size fits all solution. But I think the first question everyone has to ask is this: Am I playing because I love it or because someone else is playing vicariously through me?

Robert Lipsyte
Author of Yellow Flag, Raiders Night, One Fat Summer, Warrior Angel, The Brave, The Chief, and The Contender

www.robertlipsyte.com

Beth Kephart: The Book of Words

Perhaps some of you know that UNDERCOVER, my first book for young adults, has an aspiring teen poet at its heart—a narrator named Elisa who tosses off love notes for boys who have their hearts set on others. Elisa pretends to shrug her shoulders at it all, pretends that her outsiderliness doesn't much matter, but in truth, it's not all that fun hanging on the social margins. I know that because I was a bit like Elisa in high school. I gave advice. I listened. I wrote. But others had the spotlight.

Elisa is saved, in UNDERCOVER, by an honors English teacher named Dr. Charmin, who guesses at what Elisa is going through and begins to help her after school. One of the gifts that Dr. Charmin gives Elisa is a blank journal, to be fleshed out, she explains, as a book of words. Elisa is to collect the words that interest her, keep them in her book. She's to use them to define herself, to grow and to emerge.

Many of those who have read UNDERCOVER write to me about this book of words and ask whether I myself have kept one. The answer is yes. I started mine just after college, and it sits right here, and there's hardly a book I read today that doesn't somehow send me to it with a new word, or a new use of a word. I try the new words out when I can—sometimes in conversation, sometimes in a poem, sometimes in a story—and even if they don't always make a natural fit, even if I edit some of them out later, this book of words is essential to me—contains a partial history of my own development as a writer.

Have any of you ever kept a book of words?

Beth Kephart
Author of Undercover
www.beth-kephart.blogspot.com
Interviews with Beth: Em's Bookshelf and Newsvine