A long overdue update

So it's been a super duper long time since I posted here, no? I've started and abandoned several posts over the past year, but I just don't have much time for blogging these days and I feel kind of weird posting random thoughts or personal stories that are mostly only interesting to me. But I've been meaning to write up a little State of the Rachel for readers who've been sending me questions, most specifically The Question, and give a general idea of what I'm doing these days.

Once upon a time I was a writer whose husband traveled a lot, who had a great day job and lots of free time to sit and ponder and scribble away. I considered myself possibly one of the most mellow people I knew. In the past two years, this all changed: my husband changed jobs and stopped traveling so much, we had a baby, I eventually left the wonderful corporation I'd worked at for over a decade. We jettisoned half our belongings and moved our entire household to Germany. I spent a lot of time sitting in an empty living room on an air mattress and looking after my wee crawler, and sent lonely emails to the writing group I'd left behind in LA. Mellow creativity gave way to lots of new daily tasks and worry and stress, and my writing ground down to a painfully slow crawl.

As we settled in our new life, eventually I started to regain some productivity on the writing front, and things have been going better in 2016. But for all those readers who've asked about book three in the Lost Planet series, I have to tell you that that's not what I'm working on. I have the third book plotted out and have written the first few chapters, but with publishing being a business and middle grade science fiction being a tough sell, at this point there's been no indication that my publisher plans to pick up a third book in the series. This is life; it stinks, but it happens to a lot of authors. I promise you that I very much intend to finish Chase and Parker's story at some point. I was playing the long game when I wrote THE LOST PLANET and planted a ton of clues in that book that won't be answered until later books. There's a reason for every detail, and a big old backstory about war and tragedy and consequences. It kills me--I can't leave that all unfinished. But again, with publishing being business and me needing to push forward in my career, right now I have to focus my efforts elsewhere.

So what am I working on? Well, I don't like to give away too much this early, but my interests remain the same: adventures, stories about friendships, cliffhangers, thoughts about communication and understanding and why the world works the way it works. I have lots of ideas, and I'm working on putting them to paper. That said, I'm entering a time of upheaval again. After a year in Germany, my family is relocating back to Los Angeles this summer (BIG HOORAY). Also happening this summer is baby #2--which is also cause for jubilation, but holy smokes is this going to be a crazy few months. So, stress level isn't going anywhere, but happiness level is going up, and with it hopefully more motivation and more writing and more good things. Who knows when I'll post here again, but I'm always available to answer questions on Facebook and Twitter, and when I have news to share, I'll send it out to my mailing list--sign up if you want to be kept in the loop!

THE STOLEN MOON is here!

Today marks the publication of my second book, THE STOLEN MOON. I'm so happy that this book is out in the world, and incredibly pleased at the good reception it's gotten so far. After spending multiple years working on the first book as a labor of love, I was really proud to get another book written in less than a year, even if most of that writing happened in a panic-fueled haze.

I got a lot of help with this book, from my husband who cheered me on and left me alone when I needed time to write, from my boss who let me take a three-month leave of absence from my job to write, from my writers' group who are an awesome and supportive group of ladies, from my wonderful agent Joanna and her then-assistant Danielle who heroically read the whole book and got me feedback in two days so that I could make changes before my looming deadline, and to my editor who has been so wonderfully enthusiastic about this series.

But my biggest thanks go out to my critique partner Liz Briggs, who you may already know is a master plot whisperer. When it got down to crunch time and I only had a half-finished first draft and four weeks left to finish this book, she cheered me on through my chapter-a-day writing rampage and critiqued for me every single day, sending me mid-morning her critique of the chapter I'd sent her the night before. Some days she said, "This was awesome!" and my spirits went soaring. Other days she said, "This was terrible," and I had to nod my head and agree. Twice I had to rewrite the entire chapter. I wouldn't have made my deadline without her help, and the book probably wouldn't be nearly as good. So thanks, Liz, for your exceeding generosity and for keeping me sane. And thanks to everyone who's read THE LOST PLANET! I hope you enjoy this next chapter in Chase's adventures!

2014

I can't believe it's already the last day of 2014. This has been a long, weird, happy year for me, marked by some major life moments and a lot of change. It was my debut year! Seeing THE LOST PLANET hit bookshelves--that little book I plugged away at in 2010, determined to finally finish something--has been surreal and exciting. I'm so grateful to everyone who worked with me, helped me out, and cheered me on during that time.

And speaking of major life moments, it was around this time last year that I found out I was having a baby, though it was less like oh surprise we're having a baby! and more like thank heavens something finally worked! That whole experience ate up a lot of my attention this year, and in August we welcomed a sweet little girl into our lives. She is the happiest, giggliest baby I've ever seen, and we are having so much fun with her. The best part is how she makes everything we do matter a little bit more because we're always conscious of the fact that we're shaping her childhood memories. Christmas this year = awesome.

Of course, not everything was peaches and starshine in 2014. We got bumped out of the house we were renting and had to scramble to move across town. My husband stepped back from his career for a bit to make some long-overdue changes. With everything that was going on, I got really frazzled and lost the ability to focus well for a very long time, meaning that everything took me ten times longer than it should have. I read little. I wrote even less. For the first time in my life I was unable to get simple tasks done not because I was procrastinating, but because I actually never got the minutes I needed to empty the dryer or answer an email or put the leftovers into the fridge. It's crazy-making. (And just lolololol that I thought I could join in NaNo this year. L. O. L.)

But just in the past month or so, I've started to get my groove back. I'm learning how to make time for myself again. I've been writing more, skipping around on multiple projects and feeling creative joy instead of stress. Regular reading might actually be a possibility again. I'm heading into 2015 with a healthy, happy family, and high hopes for what I can accomplish this year. I can't wait to watch my daughter grow and change (so fast!). And to start things off with a bang, January 2015 will bring the publication of my sequel, THE STOLEN MOON (aka the book that nearly broke me). I'm proud of this book and excited about the great early reviews it's getting, and I can't wait until it's out in the wild. I'll post news very soon about the launch event.

Wishing you all a happy, safe, and successful 2015!

What's Up Wednesday

It's been a while since I've posted, so I'm jumping in on Jaime Morrow and Erin Funk's weekly blog hop. Just like 2010 went down in my memory as the year that blew ALL THE CHUNKS, I have a feeling 2014 will be remembered as the year where EVERYTHING HAPPENED ALL AT ONCE. When I tell people about the amount of transition in my life right now, they just kind of pat me gently on the back and look for an escape route.

What I'm Reading:
There hasn't been much free time for reading this year, but last week things lightened up a bit and I managed to fit in a quick beta read for my CP Liz Brigg's upcoming NA release, which was fun and funny and romantic and I highly recommend. I also read Kathryn Rose's debut Camelot Burning (which comes out NEXT WEEK!), a completely unique steampunk retelling of Arthurian legend with a feisty, brilliant, metalworking heroine that I very much enjoyed. If you live in LA, come to Kat's launch party next Friday at Mysterious Galaxy Redondo Beach!

I've got a huge stack of wonderful new books waiting on my nightstand, but right now I'm working my way through A Dance With Dragons and hoping that book six isn't far away. I'm also listening to an audiobook of The Martian in the car--I had recommended it to my husband for a three-day drive he took, and since then he's been raving about it, and it's really excellent.

What I'm Writing:
Right now I'm in that glorious phase of having turned in all my work, and I'm just waiting for feedback and letting my brain relax for a bit. I had a hard time writing earlier this year due to a long bout of nausea and general busy-ness, so it's a huge relief to feel finished, at least temporarily. Book two in the Lost Planet series is coming along nicely, and I'm getting so excited to share this next chapter in Chase's adventures! I've seen a sketch of the cover already, which is just as fabulous as the last one. Hopefully we'll have something ready to reveal soon!

What's Inspiring Me:
I recently had the chance to see some of my favorite authors at the LA Times Festival of Books, including the wonderful Laini Taylor. I'm so excited to read Dreams of Gods & Monsters, which has been patiently waiting for me on my e-reader ever since it came out. I'm saving it for my vacation in about two weeks.

What Else I've Been Up To:
Preparing like a Boy Scout. My husband and I are leaving in a couple of weeks for a three-week trip to Turkey, partly traveling with friends, partly visiting his family. Which is grand...except for the part where we found out our landlord wants us and our two cats out of our house midway through our vacation. Scrambling to find a way to make that happen, which would be easier if my husband didn't have to also cram in two business trips to Europe in the tiny space of time before we leave. Hopefully we'll find a solution so that we can come back from Turkey to a home where we can continue prepping for the babygeddon that's coming our way at the end of summer. It gets even more hectic from there, but I'll withhold those updates until the details are finalized. Things are just kind of bananas right now.

So what's up with you this fine Wednesday?

On Pub Day

Wow, guys. It's finally here. Today THE LOST PLANET officially leaves my hands and heads out into the world, to hopefully find its readership among science fiction fans, and maybe even some readers who don't think they like science fiction.

I've been so busy getting ready for this point, I haven't had a lot of time to reflect on how I feel about it. It's been about fifteen months since my book sold, but I still kind of can't believe that something I wrote is going to be sitting on the bookshelves of people I've never met. That is beyond surreal to me.

But I'm also incredibly proud of this little book. When I was in grade school, I loved writing SO MUCH--it wasn't so much a dream that I would be an author some day as an expectation. And then I grew up and got sidetracked by life and the zillion wonderful and not-so-wonderful distractions it offers. I still thought about writing, and even tried it again every once in a while, but I didn't get serious until the day about four years ago when I realized that if I didn't put forth some serious effort RIGHT NOW, my dream/expectation was probably never going to happen. And that scared me.

Writing a book takes a ton of effort, and a lot more knowledge than just how to put pretty sentences on a page. But I've had the best, most satisfying time putting in that work, and I've made some amazing friendships along the way. I hope my little book brings readers as much enjoyment as it brought me writing it.

Every once in a while when I'm talking about my book to someone who's not a writer, they'll ask a few more questions than usual and get a bit of a hungry look that makes me think, This person probably has a book they've always wanted to write. And I wish I could just grab these people and say "Start writing NOW." Nobody says, Man, I wish I'd spent more time at the office, right? I wish I'd watched more TV series, seen every single episode of Law & Order at least five times. I wish I'd spent more time loafing around on the Internet, browsing my social networks over and over. If you've got a dream, carve out time for it. Find a way to make yourself do it--a calendar, a reward system, whatever it takes. Because keeping that promise to your dreamer self? It feels really good.

I'm not going to rewrite my entire acknowledgements here, but a huge thanks to everyone who's cheered me on along the way--family, friends, critique partners, my agent, my editor, friends who I've only met online. Your support has pulled me out of my hidey-hole, gotten me through some ruts, and most importantly, made this whole endeavor a ton of fun.

What's Up Wednesday: The Where I've Been Edition (With Cat Photos)

Well, hellooooooo there, strangers! If it looks like I'm blinking a lot in the bright sunlight, it's because I've just crawled out of the deadline cave. And I survived! Because I cannot word anymore, I'm easing back into blogging with a What's Up Wednesday (the weekly meme started by Jaime Morrow and Erin Funke, go sign up on either of their blogs!):

What I'm reading:

Not much since early August, but I'm commencing a major reading binge, starting with these lovelies:

What I'm writing:

The sequel to THE LOST PLANET! I turned in my completed draft to my editor Sunday night, and I'm feeling about a million pounds lighter. I had fun writing it, but it's no joke what people say about the first book under contract being a completely different animal than a book you write in your own free time. I learned a lot about what it takes, particularly energy- and focus-wise, to produce a book in a year, and I plan to use what I learned to make writing the next book go a little more smoothly. Because I'm not going to lie, there were some panic moments and maybe even an epic meltdown in there somewhere. Whew! I can laugh now because I'm on the other side.

What inspires me right now:

Having free time for the first time in six weeks where I don't feel the constant pressure of a deadline. I haven't entirely lost that feeling of productive churn, and I'm trying to harness it to pick away at some new projects. More sequel ideas, and one Shiny New Idea that hit me like a hurricane while I was revising and has been vying for my attention ever since.

What else I've been up to:

Um, besides my day job, that's about it. I've been a serious house rat for the past month, swearing off the gym, turning down social invitations, and ordering delivery when my refrigerator ran out of food. Luckily for my productivity, my husband has been out of town for most of the past month.

One thing I did keep up on was my Instagram account (which is all cats and food, because what else?), so I'm going to paste in some shots of from this time period. As you can see, I was not entirely alone. I had my two house goblins, Jack and Simon:

Nothing to see here. 

I don't function without breakfast. Every day.

My desk weasel.

I ate a lot of kale. What can I say? I live in California. And kale is delicious. I pretended I was a vegan for part of the month.

Until my husband came home for Labor Day, and cooked up this 9-lb rib roast.

We took our cat out on the patio on a leash. He loves his leash. Or at least the outdoor time that it brings. The leash is more like a hobble.

My cats are there for me when I'm writing.

There when I'm revising.

There with me burning the candle on those long, late nights.

And finally, a shot from the final stretch. Husband sent flowers and a sweet note of encouragement. Awwwww.

And that's where I've been! What have you been up to?

What's Up Wednesday

What's Up Wednesday is a weekly meme, started by Jaime Morrow and Erin Funk, that helps readers and writers touch base with blog friends and let them know what's up. If you'd like to join in, you can find the link widget on Jaime's and Erin's blog posts. 

What I'm Reading

I've had to fit my reading in between the cracks lately, so I'm not reading anything very quickly, but at the moment I'm really enjoying the copy of The Fifth Wave I picked up at BEA. I'm also gradually slogging my way through A Clash Of Kings. I'd like to finish all the Ice & Fire books before the next season of the show starts, but holy LONG. It's kind of painful when you read and read and don't even advance 1% on the progress bar. I do have some binge reading time coming up because I'm leaving tomorrow for a 17-day vacation. I've got some fun ARCs, but I don't like to bring physical books on vacation with me, so I'll be hitting the backlog of awesomeness on my e-reader.

What I'm Writing

I'm racing for the finish line right now in the first draft of the sequel to THE LOST PLANET--hoping to get it done before take-off at 7pm tomorrow! I may treat myself to a little champagne on the flight if that happens, because writing a sequel on deadline is to writing the first book like motocross racing on a mudslide is to taking a two-week bike tour of Provence. This is a draft that's for my eyes only--I was figuring it out as I went, so right now the front end doesn't match the back end...at all. But at least the hard part's done!

What Else I'm Doing

As I mentioned, I'm leaving tomorrow for a vacation, aka the European wedding tour. We're going to an old friend's wedding in Bonn, Germany this weekend, and then joining a group from the wedding party to vacation in Israel for a week. I've never been to Israel before, and I'm so excited to see it! Afterwards we're flying up to Istanbul for the wedding of one of my husband's best childhood friends and to spend time with family--including my husband's brand new nephew! I love Istanbul so much and I can't wait for sunny, tea-filled mornings and warm Bosphorus evenings. (And don't worry, we'll be perfectly safe there.)

What Inspires Me Right Now

I can't listen to music while I'm writing, but I do keep a playlist of music for getting into the mood of each book. If you're curious about these kinds of things, here are two of the main songs from the playlist for the book I'm drafting:

(Note: Apparently you need to have Spotify installed for these buttons to work...blerg. Embedded YouTube videos of these songs don't play on Blogger, but if you really want to listen to these tunes, you can check them out on YouTube: Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites, and Allegretto from Palladio.)

Interview and some updates

Hey all, my intro interview is up over at the OneFour Kidlit blog:

http://onefourkidlit.wordpress.com/2013/03/25/rachel-searles-the-lost-planet/ 

Pop over and check it out, and then stick around and read all the other intro posts of my fellow 2014 debut kidlit authors. But be prepared to get very excited, because there are some amazing books coming out next year!

Other infobites:

• My book is up on Goodreads! If you add it to your shelves, I will feel all happy and loved. 
• Something fun to read: my publisher, Feiwel and Friends, has been running a weekly feature on their Facebook page highlighting different members of their staff. Lots of fun facts and pictures--even a photo of a Newfoundland getting acupuncture. I wonder if they do that for anxious cats...
• After reaching 3,000 likes on the Grisha Facebook page, the powers that be have made the second chapter of Leigh Bardugo's Siege and Storm available here! As if your appetites needed any more whetting for the June 4th release date. 

As for me, right now I'm preparing for some upheaval since we're moving house in about a week. I've been stressing about how to keep packing, unpacking, and all the accompanying address-change paperwork from overtaking my daily allotment of writing time. But certain adjustments in have been made to accomodate this, and as long as I keep some degree of discipline, I'll have more writing time than ever. This may be the point where I draw up a daily time management chart. Have any of you ever used one? Did it work?

The Next Big Thing

I've been tagged by Alexis Bass to take part in the Next Big Thing blog hop!

Some of you may remember that I already participated in this blog hop back in September, when I was tagged by Caitlin Lane. At that time, however, my book was out on sub, and so out of caution I wrote a very vague post about an MG fantasy idea I was mulling. Yeah, sorry 'bout that. But now that my title and pitch is out in the world, I think I can share a few details!

What is the working title of your book?

My book is being published under the title THE LOST PLANET, but it's gone through a series of working titles. I wrote the first draft under the title FAIRWEATHER, which means absolutely nothing, and when I started querying I was calling it FULCRUM, which has meaning, but is also a terrible title for a children's book. Title-writing, not my forte...

Where did the idea come from for the book?

I've been asked this question before, and I wish I had a pithy answer, but the honest truth is: This book is the product of much, much revision. The only real idea I had going into it was that I wanted to write an epic space adventure for kids, and the story grew organically over a long time. My original goal was more like a set of technical specifications: I wanted it to fast-paced and cliffhangery, I wanted it to have a rich backstory that emerges gradually in tiny reveals, I wanted it have depth and some degree of subtle moral reflection, but MOST IMPORTANTLY, and I cannot stress this enough, I wanted it to be a FUN read--I wanted it to be a sci-fi book that would be enjoyable for people who claim to not like sci-fi.

What genre does your book fall under?

It dances a fine line right between MG and YA, so I'm going to call it upper MG science fiction.

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

My preference is for actors who act, and not actors who are celebrities that moonlight in acting.

HOWEVER, and I can't believe I'm telling you this because it's totally embarrassing, but when I was drafting back in the day and I got stuck at one point, I made this awesome photo collage of very famous actors to help me "envision my characters" (i.e. procrastinate), and so I will share it, cheeks aflame. The few of you out there who've read my book will find this hilarious, I'm sure. As this was made during my first draft, at least three of these characters have either been cut or changed species.

My characters, circa 2010. Oh, the silly things we do on that first draft.

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

I'll use an adapted version of the PM announcement: After 13-year-old Chase wakes up with no memory of who he is or how he received a terrible wound to the head, he and two unlikely allies are hunted through the galaxy while trying to discover the truth about his past.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

I am extremely fortunate to be represented by the brilliant Joanna Volpe, and my book is being published by the wonderful people at Feiwel and Friends.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

The first time I took a stab at this story, the only thing it had in common with the final version is the names of the three main characters. I wrote about thirty pages and torched it. On a business trip in 2008,  I had a little breakthrough moment on how I could make the story work, but I guess I wasn't in much of a rush because by the end of 2009, I only had about 30,000 words down. And most of these were scenes that would later be cut.

I don't know why I couldn't get serious about writing. Well, no, I do. It's hard. It's easier to go to the gym and go to the movies and hang out with friends and do just about anything else. I wanted to write the book, I wanted to finish, but I didn't know where it was going or how to get there. And then sometime in December 2009, I got sick and spent a day on the sofa reading Stephen King's On Writing, and that made me think, Well I can write 1,000 words a day, can't I? So that became my New Year's resolution, and it came with the happy timing of my husband's being out in Cape Canaveral to build a rocket for months on end. I set goals for myself and logged my daily word count in Google Calendar, and as you can see below, I finished on April 28, 2010. You will also see that I missed my completion date by about a month, and that my goal was to write a 100,000-word book. Oh, the things I've learned since then...

Started at 33,274 words! Of garbage!

Finished at 94,795! Time to kill some darlings!

What other books would you compare this to within your genre?

Um, I don't know. This is a bad question. It's nothing like the Chaos Walking trilogy, but I loved the crap out of those books, so go read them. They're great.

Who or what inspired you to write this book?

I love the endless possibilities of space. I love that my mind can't even begin to fathom how huge or old the universe is. And although I haven't read a ton of classic science fiction, I do love almost any space movie or show, and you might recognize the influence of Star Trek, Star Wars, and Battlestar Galactica in my book. I love them all equally.

What else about your book might pique the reader's interest?

My breakthrough moment on that business trip in 2008 was that my story needed to start in the aftermath of some terrible catalyst (hence the title FULCRUM, yes? yes? okay, no). And then I spend the rest of the book trying desperately hard to kill all my characters. You'll have to read the book to find out whether I succeed or not...

Tagging:
Wow, so just about everyone has done this one already...I dug through my feed and found a few writer friends who look like they possibly haven't yet, so I'm tagging Dana Elmendorf, Karen Akins, Cortney Pearson and Morgan Shamy. Ladies, feel free to participate--or not participate--at your leisure! 

Year's End

Happy holidays! Are you all surviving them? I've finally finished all my shopping, packing, and shipping, on the very last possible day available to me. I know this process would be more enjoyable if I didn't leave it until the last second, but I just...it's just not in my nature. My husband headed to the airport this morning for some meetings on the East Coast, and tomorrow I'm joining him for a three-city vacation. It's been a big, complex year for both of us, and a little wandering time together will be just the thing to wrap it up.

This fall has been insanely busy, but I'm not complaining--I'd much rather feel like I'm running a marathon to fit in all the things I want to do than feel like I'm not taking advantage of the time I've got. At the moment I'm preparing to start writing a new book, and as I have not drafted a book since 2010, I'm pretty eager to get started. Back in school, I was that weirdo who enjoyed taking tests--not because I loved schoolwork so much (give me some credit), but because I liked the challenge of seeing how much I could remember and how well I could apply it. This is kind of similar--I learned a lot about writing a book on the first one, but how well will that knowledge serve me now? I'm optimistic, but also well aware that I may be rocking in the corner by the time I hit the second chapter. *cue nervous laughter* Anyway, I'll be working out the tricky bits on notepads during my vacation, to hopefully begin hammering away on my keyboard come January. What are your writing plans for 2013?

I won't be posting again for the rest of the year, so seasons greetings, dear writer/blogger friends--I wish you all a very happy holiday season, and a joyful and productive new year! I posted this video last year, but as a Yooper ambassador to the rest of the country, I feel the need to post it again. Please enjoy a little bit of goofy Northern Michigan holiday cheer (skip to the 1:00 mark to get right to the song):

That WIP meme...

I've been tagged by the fabulous Caitlin in the WIP meme that's going around. Now, I tend to play my cards pretty close to my chest when it comes to my writing, but I like to be a team player. So I'll share a thing or two about the newest project I've been toying around with, and hopefully my vagueness won't be too annoying, ha.

What is the working title of your book?
Err, yeah, I'm pretty terrible with titles. This one's just filed under TOWER for now, and fyi, there's no tower planned in the book. Yet. My last project had the working title FAIRWEATHER, and that never ended up having anything to do with anything. 

Where did the idea come from for the book? 
Sooo...I can't really say I've got the idea figured out yet. This one came more as a desire to do some fantasy worldbuilding, followed by lists of names I liked and thought went well together, which led to an initial setup. I've got some fun characters lined up, but right now I'm testing them out in my head and trying to plan what kind of torture I want to put them through. This is about the same order of creation I went through on my last book as well.

What genre does your book fall under?
Middle grade fantasy

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
I'm too unfamiliar with child actors to cast my own books in my head, though sometimes I visualize the adult characters as looking like certain actors. Not for this one yet though, sorry!

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
No plot = no synopsis. No fun, right? But I'm still waiting for the pieces in my brain to settle into a configuration that grabs me. This could take a while. 

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript? May we see an intro?
I've written one practice scene so far, and it's not the intro. I'm not sure how long it took me to write the first draft of my last project, because I dawdled and dawdled for ages on the first 30k, and then I finally realized OMG RACHEL THIS DREAM IS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN IF YOU DON'T GET SERIOUS and set a goal of writing 1k per day until it was finished (sound familiar?), and that took about 3-4 months. And yes, the first draft was way too long.

Who or what inspired you to write this book?
See my previous post re: Leonora Carrington and her demented fairytale paintings...it's got me thinking that I'd like to try writing a sort of bizarro dark fantasy at some point.  

What else about your book might pique the reader's interest?
Hmm, ask me again in a few months and I might have an answer. I'll leave you with this image instead:

Blogfest: MAY I tell you something about myself?

Today is the first day of the Blog Me MAYbe blogfest, hosted by Sara McClung. Jump over here to check out the other participants' entries!

Tuesday's writing prompt is: MAY I tell you something about myself? Since I might be getting some visitors today who've never been to my blog before (Welcome!), I thought I'd give the quick and dirty version of how I got to this point.

Elementary school: Win a blue ribbon at a Young Authors event in first grade. Write stories obsessively throughout the rest of elementary.

Middle school: Decide I want to be a nurse. Still enjoy writing stories.

High school: Start studying French, go on a trip to Morocco. Pick up Spanish and German courses as well by the end of high school, decide I want a glamorous international job that requires foreign languages, intend on being fluent in at least six. Still enjoy writing stories.

College: What else could I become but a diplomat? Major in Political Science, second major in German and near-minor in French. Story-writing ceases entirely.

Post-college: Move to Germany on scholarship. Intern at U.S. consulate, decide I should become a lawyer and get a job at a patent law firm in Munich. Worst-looking career ever. Office mate presents the idea of studying journalism because I like politics and writing, which leads to brief stint in Istanbul writing for English-language daily paper. Creative writing idea flutters like a tiny, near-dead moth in the back of my head.

Grad school: Realize within a month of starting journalism school that this is not the field for me. Also within a month of starting j-school: 9/11, which shapes the entire experience. Squeak through with an internship in copy editing and a thesis in photo (wanna see the pics? more on that here).

Real world: Land a great job at a great company, who could ask for anything more? Using my foreign language skills, job satisfaction high. And yet. These stories, they keep popping up in my head, and so little by little, in my spare time I begin trying to write them down. And they're awful. But I keep starting stories, and eventually one sticks, and I finish it. And it's awful. And then I begin the very long process of learning how to tell a story.

So that's me and my writing journey in a nutshell! Did you tread a similar path?

Road Trip: Writing Journey

The ladies over at YA Highway are asking a pretty personal question this week:

What has your writing journey looked like so far? Excitement? Traffic jams and detours? Where are you going next?

Like most of you reading this, I've wanted to write stories ever since I first got hold of a pencil. I wrote in fits and starts over the years, taking a long hiatus in my early twenties, but it was never an option that I wouldn't write a book someday. And then I realized that if I was going to write a book, I had to actually do it. I spent a year or so putzing around on a story that I eventually realized had no real plot, and then I wrote a few pages of another idea that I thought had potential, but also: no plot. Adventure stories are what feels right for me, but when your adventurers are kids, they need to have special circumstances or else logic will come calling, asking Why don't the adults here just stick these adventure-loving kids in juvenile detention and be done with it?

I sat down to figure out this problem in a cafe while waiting for my husband to meet me, and a bunch of ideas came tumbling down at once. I remember getting very excited, beating my pen against the table. I was listening to my iPod but the only song that I recall hearing is Britney's Toxic. What can I say--it was in my running mix, okay? Still I didn't write the book. Occasionally I'd find the motivation to get my characters to the next scene, but I wasn't serious. It took, of all things, a New Year's resolution to get me to write the whole thing in 3-4 months.

And then what? I polished it, I let a few friends read it, but in my gut, I knew it wasn't ready. I wrote a query letter that I didn't send (thank the heavens above--I will never share that catastrophe with you). My husband commented, It's a story about people reacting to stuff that happens to them, and that's exactly what it was.

Looking for a way to get to the next level, I joined SCBWI. I went, all alone, to my first writer's conference. I started to feel a little bit more like a real writer. And then I found the perfect critique partner, Liz Briggs, who told me on one of our first meetings, "Your character doesn't do anything. And nothing's happening." (She later told me she was terrified to say this and thought I would hate her and run away. Ha! No way, Liz! You're stuck with me!) She helped me figure out where my story was, pointed me towards helpful blogs and craft books, sent me threatening messages when I hadn't revised a new chapter in a while.

It's been about a year now, and I'm almost finished with content revisions. I've cut almost a third of my word count, changed my target age group, empowered my main character. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention my other critique group, the Damn Fine Writers, who are mostly offline but also give me great notes and encouragement. I wish the process had gone faster and that I could make more time to write, but if wishes were horses, etc etc...

Where am I going next on my journey? Well, pretty soon I'll try out querying. I tested my (much revised) query in the WriteOnCon forums and it did pretty well, but I know there will be plenty of rejections in my future. I'm pretty confident, though--I know I've still got lots of room for improvement, but I'm learning, and I'm having fun. So maybe it won't even be with this book, but I like to think that someday I'll see my name on a bookshelf.

Road Trip Wednesday: Writer's Block

This week, the good ladies over at YA Highway have posed this question:

How do you beat writer's block?

I think this is a topic we all have something to say about, unless I suppose you're some sort of freak who never gets writer's block. WHO ARE YOU? WHAT IS YOUR SECRET?

I saw a funny tweet once (can't remember who) that said something like, Gangsters go to the mattresses--writers go to the showers. It's true, I've had a plotting breakthrough or two in the shower. Also while running, or cooking, or playing Attack Horses with my cat. 

Sometimes the key to beating writer's block is as simple as letting myself write a really crappy first sentence, using brute force to get that first awful paragraph down. Sometimes it involves a Google spreadsheet and a hundred cells of stream-of-consciousness notes. Picking up someone else's book and reading for a while can help untangle the brain snarl too.

Speaking of other people's books, this reminds me of another piece of advice that Laurie Halse Anderson shared at SCBWI LA (taken originally from Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way): Make an artist's date once a month, if not once a week. This is a regularly scheduled time that you spend feeding your creativity, and there are countless ways you can do this. I found a good page here with some ideas, including flying a kite or coloring in a coloring book. I was thinking something more along the lines of going to a museum or listening to live music, but taking a pottery class sounds like a good idea too.

I don't usually think of myself as an artist when I'm writing, but when we're creating stories out of thin air, we really are. So I guess on top of your writer's block cure, I'm really curious about what you do to feed your creativity. Do you pursue anything artistic outside of writing?

More On The Saving of Cats

Okay, so I wrote a pretty positive little write-up of the first chapters of Save The Cat last week, right? Then I finished reading the book. And now I feel obligated to provide a disclaimer, because I ended up with mixed feelings.

My problems started at page, um, 51%, when the author, Blake Snyder, went off on the film Memento. Written and directed by Christopher Nolan, who I think makes some of the most excellent, intelligent movies around right now, this movie garnered a 93% freshness score on rottentomatoes.com. Blake sarcastically calls it a "low-performing art house gem," blasts it as gimmicky and invites debate on "the value of Memento in modern society." Whoa Blake, them's fightin' words.

Meanwhile, throughout the book Snyder keeps pumping up his biggest hit, the 1994 Disney groaner Blank Check. Freshness score: 14%. But hey, it made $30 million at the box office! Something doesn't add up here. And then I saw that Snyder's argument against Memento is apparently based on how much money it made in the box office. Ding! That's the sound of a (noisy?) lightbulb turning on in my head.

Blake Snyder claimed to have written at least 75 scripts at the point of publication. 75?! Clearly he spends a lot of time agonizing over making the most original, unique, meaningful films around. Ahem. He promotes formulaic writing where the catalyst always happens on page 12, the B story always begins on page 30. He is the Francine Pascal, the Fern Michaels, the R.L. Stine of the writing world. And though he may have great some success with his formula, that is not the kind of writer that I aspire to become.

That is not to say that I immediately deleted my digital copy of this book and set my Kindle on fire. There are some good and useful tips hidden tucked away amidst the trash talk. I liked his discussion of thesis, anti-thesis and synthesis in the course of a story. I liked some of his funny rules, like the Pope in the Pool where he talks about how to hide expository sections by distracting the audience with some sort of interesting action or comedy. And I think the troubleshooting section at the end, where he provides a list of things to check for (proactive hero, distinguishably unique dialogue for each of your characters, a complex plotline, etc.) is pretty great. Great enough that I would still suggest that newer writers give it a read--just read it with a healthy dose of skepticism.

Anybody else feel this way about Save the Cat, or any other writing books?

Application of Edification

Good morning campers! I hope the week is going well for all of you. I've recovered somewhat from the daze of last weekend, and am planning out the next phase of my strategy. As in, how to turn my watery, meandering manuscript into a tightly packaged flavor-burst of awesomeness.

I learned a lot of new and interesting things about my WIP and my writing last weekend. For one, I've got some slight POV issues going on, due to an occasional tendency to drop very literary phrases into the third-person perspective of a fifteen-year-old boy. Oops. More channelling of Rick Riordan, less of Nicole Krauss.

I also tackled an issue that's been concerning me for a while; more precisely: am I writing YA or MG here? My story is an adventure that revolves around two young teenage boys, but it is longish and fairly complex. I was very fortunate to get to talk to the delightful Laura Rennert about this, and she told me that I was right on the cusp and could tweak it either way. She also told me that calling it MG would make it easier to sell, should I reach that point. Certainly something for me to chew on.

And finally, a strong word of advice: if you ever go to a conference where there is even the slightest chance that you'll find yourself face-to-face with an agent who asks, "So what is your book about?" FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DO YOURSELF A FAVOR AND BE READY FOR THAT. Or else you may find yourself staring at your empty breakfast plate, red-faced and stuttering something about boys and space and adventure, and on the receiving end of a kindly smile from a premium agent or two that means they just realized that your work is nowhere near ready. OUCH!

To that effect, I am now (finally) reading Save the Cat, and eating/ dreaming/ showering/ vacuuming a constant stream of loglines, looking for not just any logline, but one that will make an agent sit up and take notice, with the knowledge that the best logline may provoke some necessary changes that could improve my WIP.

It wasn't all gloom and doom--I did get some positive feedback as well, which is why I'm feeling pretty upbeat right now. And on goes the journey. Anyone have any similar stories to share?