The Post Where I Get To Share News Bigger Than A Gilmore Girls Reunion

I haven't updated this blog in a while, but not because there was nothing to say. In fact, there was SO MUCH to say, but I couldn't say any of it!! So I'll bring you up to speed.

Back in late November, my amazing rock star of an agent, Leigh Feldman, sent my book out on submission to editors. Back then it was called REBEL WITHOUT A CLUE, and it was met with a lot of interest. Publishing moves at somewhat of a glacial pace, so I basically bit my fingernails to nubs and drank a lot of coffee (and sometimes things slightly stronger) as we waited to hear back. We'd gotten an offer of interest from one publisher, and although they would have been an absolute dream to work with, the offer wasn't quite what we were hoping for as a debut. Several other publishers had it too, but we still hadn't heard further.

And then, in mid-February, right when I'd decided to throw myself a pity party of one and climb back into bed and stream Gilmore Girls all day on Netflix because I was sure nothing was going to happen, my cell phone rang. It was Leigh, and said that Annette Pollert-Morgan, an Editor at Sourcebooks Fire, loved my book and wanted to set up a conversation with me that morning.

OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

An hour or so later, I was on the phone with Annette, who just completely "got" this book, and told me she wanted to make an "I Heart Hank" t-shirt. She told me all her favorite lines and scenes, and the ways she wanted to help me make this an even stronger book where the scenes and characters would just pop off the page. It was surreal to hear someone talk about my book this way who seemed to understand every nuance and detail of it as well as I did.

After we hung up, I took a picture of my caller ID, mostly because I'm a noob but also becase I wanted to remember that moment in time forever. The moment my lifetime dream to be a published author came true as an amazing editor offered to buy my book. I made it the background screen on my phone!

Over the next couple of days, the details of the offer were ironed out, and Annette sent me a beautiful note along with a box of books she had previously edited with personalized post-it notes on each one, saying why she thought I'd like each in particular. (Oh, did I mention we share a mutual love of office supplies??!!)

But then....silence. This is, of course, the norm, as I've come to find out. In this time period the publisher goes back and forth with the agent to sort out the contract, the Editor is typing up her edit notes, and the author is making her way through a Costco jar of milk chocolate covered almonds. I wasn't allowed to say anything until the publisher gave me the thumbs up, because they wanted to announce in Publishers Weekly, and it couldn't have been announced elsewhere in order to do so. However, in the interim, some concerns grew over my title. While REBEL WITHOUT A CLUE was fun and certainly captured the humor of the book, the publisher worried that teens might not get the reference to REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE. Annette and I put our heads together over the next month until we came up with the truly perfect title: MY KIND OF CRAZY. And then, with all green lights in place, this happened!!!

So now I'm back in the revision cave, armed with Annette's amazing edit notes, and having a blast. Once I send this draft back to her, she will send me her line edits, and once she signs off of my draft of those, MY KIND OF CRAZY is well on its way to becoming a real book. Sometime in the Fall, there will be Advance Reading Copies (or ARC's as they are called) that will be sent to reviewers, bloggers, etc. and most of all, I will get to hold my actual book in my hand, albeit not the final version. That comes in April, 2016, just in time for my birthday, which is pretty much the best present ever, am I right??

This morning I discovered the book is already up on Goodreads, so I hope you'll check it out and consider adding it to your reading list!

Six years, three books, two agents, and hundreds of rejections later, it finally happened. There are SO many times I wanted to give up, but at the end of the day, that's not who I am. This is what I love to do, and this book is truly the book of my heart. The delay is never the denial. And it takes a village to make it happen, for sure. So many incredible people I've met along the way that are part of helping make this happen. I'm pretty excited to share it with the world! (And also, not gonna lie, also slightly terrified!!)

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!

The "Moral Story" Dilemma

I recently had an interesting request from a family member to recommend some uplifting books for a troubled teen that would help inspire and offer hope and a positive message, and it awakened me to a definitive hole in the literature that is out there for young people today. This is not to say there are not plenty of feel-good stories, or fun and light adventure stories or romance stories, but what about the books with a true message? Why are they not out there?

One of the comments I got on some earlier versions of BAND GEEK was that it felt very "preachy", like the morals I tried to convey within the story were laid on too thick for the reader and gave it too much of a Hallmark-y feeling. Apparently, sending a "message" is a bad thing when it comes to talking to teens, as teens as a rule do not like concepts shoved down their throat and do not like being told what to do or how to think or act. Heck, I know I didn't when I was one.

But what about someone who is looking for hope that life really can get better? Those stories generally seem to come shrink-wrapped in darker tales of suicide, anorexia, loss of best friends or parents to diseases or accidents, and offer the reader a tale of survival and overcoming of obstacles and odds and learning to redefine a new normal. That's great, but what about kids who don't want any more of the darkness because they have enough of that in their own lives, and really just want a road map via a character's positive journey of finding themselves and navigating the tough waters of teenagedom without werewolves, vampires, cutters and cancer? (And I'm not knocking these stories - I've read some brilliantly written, moving ones, believe me!) Many books have messages quietly hidden (Believe in yourself, It's the journey, not the destination, etc.) and it is up to the reader to extract them on their own. This masks the "preachy" factor. But what if they can't relate to the characters or the world they live in so the message they desperately are needing to hear is too buried?

There is truth in saying that life really is filled with these perils and pitfalls, and without some level of drama, there is no conflict, which lends to a boring story. But it seems to me, there must be some happy medium.

The key books that immediately come to mind are the Harry Potter books, but they are also mixed with fantastical elements of darkness which do not exist in that form in the real world. Of course, we could probably all find the Harry, the Ron, the Hermione, the Snape, the Professor Dumbledore and the Voldemort in our lives, but I'm talking about a real-world relateable setting that teens can sink their teeth into and say "This is just like me. How did this character find their happy place?" However, I literally could not think of any contemporary book that fit this mold that I've read recently, and it seems that publishers have shied away from them for all the reasons stated above, yet here is a reader in need. If there's one of her, there must be plenty more like her. To assume every teen reader is looking for the same thing is like assuming everyone loves pizza or Disneyland. Every person is different, and when we read, we are all looking for two things: to escape and to be entertained. So why is there so little for those who "need" that moral story, or in fact, want it, because in those pages they may discover a truth about themselves that makes them realize that maybe they do have what it takes inside of them to move forward and take the next step to being the person they want to be?

Have you read any books that fit this mold? If so, please do share, as I would love to be able to pass this along to this young reader in the hopes that she finds what she is looking for. Teen writers have an important job in the ways we connect to our readers, and it seems to me that this gap, though it may be more of a crack than a chasm, does indeed exist. What are your thoughts?

The Fastest Way To Date Your Writing (And I Don't Mean Take It To A Movie And Dinner)

There is nothing that can shorten the lifespan of a book (or movie) quicker than references that make it seem dated. But how do you write for today's teens without including the ever-evolving latest technology that is so much a part of their lives? If you want your voice to ring true, you must. However, you need to keep on top of what the latest trends are.

For example, when I was a teenager, it was a big deal to get one's own phone line, and to communicate with my friends, we hung on the phone until all hours every night and wrote notes that we slipped in each others' lockers in the mornings. (And no, I did not also ride a dinosaur to school.) However, when my sixteen year old son wants to communicate with friends, the phone isn't even on the short list of possibilities. In fact, the mere suggestion of actually calling someone and speaking to them incites strange looks and rolled eyes, as if that is just simply too much effort. Even email, according to him, is already old and outdated by the time one gets it, reads it and responds. Kids today want everything instantaneous. Therefore, they text. Incessantly. They instant message. Sometimes they Skype. Sometimes they group chat online or on Facebook. But they rarely talk on the phone.

Chances are, whatever scene you write today about the mode of teen communication, or the game system they are playing on, etc. will already be somewhat outdated by the time your book goes to print, so sometimes it's best to keep things more general. For example, cell phones will be around for awhile, but the style or the features will rapidly change. Your characters may be playing Halo 3 on their Xboxes, but by the time your book comes out, they may be on to Halo 6, or Halo will be a game no one plays anymore, having been usurped by another hot title. Try and avoid referencing specifics unless you are writing something along the lines of THE FUTURE OF US by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler, in which the character exist in the 80's and are accessing their future selves. And what makes THE FUTURE OF US so damn funny? Among other things, the references to things like the AOL start-up discs we all got in the mail offering 100 free hours. Instantly, we're transported to a different time. If your book is set in present day, you want to make sure your readers really do feel like they are there.

If you're in doubt as to what the latest technology and trends are, I can't recommend enough the starting point of sitting down and talking to a teenager. They'll tell you everything you need to know. You can also regularly peruse websites like cnet.com, which talk about new technology, and keep up to date with the latest unveilings from Apple, etc. Keeping yourself savvy will lend authenticity to what you write. And obviously, if you're writing something in the future, use your imagination, building upon the realities of what exists today so that it still feels like something believable.