The Post In Which I Dish All About The Much Younger Man I've Been Spending My Time With

Hello? Anybody out there? *blows dust bunnies off blog* Oh, there you are! Yes, I haven't been here in a while and it looks like the spiderwebs have taken over, but nothing a little spring...er,summer, cleaning won't do.

You see, 2014 has been quite a year. Between family health dramas, unplanned home remodels due to water leaks, thus displacing me and my computer mid-novel, and my son dealing with a shooting at his college and the loss of a friend, it's been more "write what you know" material than I could ask for in a lifetime. But sometimes when the volume is turned up, it acts as an interesting catalyst to make the time you otherwise might not for the things that are really important to you.

In my case, that was finishing my latest YA contemporary novel, REBEL WITHOUT A CLUE. And naturally, I wrote this when I was supposed to be revising another novel, but often that's the way these things go. Rule #1 of writing: Never fight the muse.

So what's it about? Glad you asked! When 17-year-old Hank Kirby's attempt to ask a girl to Prom by lighting sparklers on her lawn literally goes up in flames, he attracts the attention of a very different girl, Peyton, a brooding loner and budding pyromaniac with some dark secrets of her own, who admires his handiwork and thinks he's a kindred spirit.

I LOVE this novel, these characters, this story, and I hope that one day they will be out in the world to share with readers too. This book just flowed out of me, as if the story demanded to be told, and the characters themselves told me where the story was going. I did not outline at all. Not that this is unusual for me - I am indeed a total pantser (but so is Stephen King and he's doing all right) but this went above and beyond the normal way I write. Usually, I have some idea where things are going, but there were twists and turns and all the feels moments I didn't even see coming until I wrote them, and that's when you know deep in your gut that you might be on to something good. I got some encouragement that I might be on the right track when REBEL WITHOUT A CLUE (then titled HANK KIRBY) recently won second runner-up for Best Young Adult Novel at the Los Angeles SCBWI Spring 2014 Writers Day, which was beyond awesome.

This is a novel about friendship and loss and second chances. It's about finding the friends that understand you and get your crazy and about the places where we're broken. The older I get, the more I appreciate the value of those friendships of the heart with those people who saw the flaws and loved me despite them. The people who stuck around. The people who knew just what to say and when to say nothing at all. But most of all, this book was inspired by my understanding through the events of my life that darkness is merely a temporary absence of the light.

Of course, just because you finish writing a novel doesn't mean it's really done. Some could argue a novel is never really done, even after it is published, as the writer can always go back in and find little things to tweak and change. From here, I get feedback from critique partners and fellow writer friends, I dive back into revisions and the process begins anew until it is ready to go out on submission to editors. That could take anywhere from a few months to over a year. It's really hard to say.

Fingers crossed in the meantime that this is the one, and that you will get a chance to meet Hank and Peyton and all the other quirky characters very soon!

90 Days And Other Craptastic Realities of Being A Published Author

Today I went to Barnes and Noble to pick up a middle grade novel a friend of mine told me about. The book is by an author who shall remain nameless, but suffice it to say she generally writes beautifully written, quiet books and has a respectful following, though her books are not necessarily bestsellers. However, just getting a book on the shelf at Barnes and Noble is no small feat, so good for her that she had a shelf presence at all. Unfortunately, after seeing it on the shelf for the last few months (it came out in May), when I finally went to purchase it, I couldn't find it anywhere. I asked a bookseller and what I learned next truly opened my eyes to the reality of how competitive publishing really is.

Turns out this book was in the back, which is where they pull books that have not sold a single copy in at least four weeks. There they languish for another couple of weeks just in case people like me come in looking for them and specifically asking for them. If no one asks for them, back to the publisher they go and their shelf-time is all done. So what's the window Barnes and Noble allows for your book to languish on their shelves if it's not regularly moving copies? 90 days. That's right, 90 DAYS. You have longer than that to return something to Costco (unless it's electronics, but I digress...)

When they pull up a title within the store computer, they have a special section that tells them how many copies have actually been sold of that title per month, and the numbers can be startling, if not a bit maddening. Here's an author I've heard of, a book I've read wonderful reviews of, and in looking at the actual sales data, she had sold exactly 3 copies of that book in that store since May. Period.

So when you think about how many copies she has to sell nationwide to make any money, let alone earn her advance, it's disheartening. And it may make the publisher take pause on considering how much they'll pay for her next novel, or if they even want to fill a coveted spot on their list with it, not to mention that Barnes and Noble, upon reviewing the sales record, may not elect to stock her next book next time since this one may have underperformed for their expectations.

There are so many hoops to writing. People think that once you get an agent, it's a cakewalk, but that's so not true. You can get an agent, but that agent now has to get the interest of an editor. An editor can fall in love with your book, but their team may not and so they pass. Or they may only have one spot on their list for a book in the genre you've written, and despite its merits, it's taken. But let's say they DO buy it - now they have to put it in their catalog and advertise it to vendors, hoping that above all else, the big daddy barometer of the publishing industry, Barnes and Noble, will carry it in their brick and mortar stores. And if you're so fortunate to get the green light on that front, you have 90 days to prove your worth. 90 frickin' days.

Wow.

It is critical to realize that the competition is fierce and that the bar is raised ever higher daily. Our work must be polished and exciting and fresh, because without that something sparkly, no matter how beautiful or poignant or delightful, it will probably never reach its intended audience.

This is undoubtedly why so many frustrated authors are taking to e-publishing, which certainly provides a wonderful alternative to getting one's work out there. However, e-pubbing, with few exceptions, usually can't deliver the potential readership and exposure that traditional publishing can, and much of the work falls on the author exclusively to market him/herself.

Depressing as that state of the union may be, I hope it serves to empower us all to be better writers; to up our game and to reach a little further to find that extra somethin' somethin' so that our book never sees the back room.

And for the record: I read the flap of the book I came in for and was on the fence if I really did want to read it, but after learning what I did, I bought it in the hopes that the powers that be will see the sale and bring her book back out on the floor. We have to support each other where we can, right?