Five Random Updates

For the sake of expeditiousness, I give you a quick Friday Thursday Five:

• The 100-year-old house my husband and I have been renting in Venice Beach for a year and a half just sold, so it looks like we'll be moving within the next two months. Joy. I'm looking forward to a change of scenery, but moving is something I have recurring nightmares about. One bizarre thing that happened: yesterday while the realtor was giving someone a tour, I stepped out of my office to see Rosario Dawson strolling down the hall. For the record, she was very friendly, but she did not buy the house.
• I'm not blogging much these days because I'm deep in thrall to Book Two. Right now I'm putting together the painfully tiny pieces of the puzzle, and it's kind of torture. A satisfying, wonderful torture, to be sure, but...I do wonder if other authors beat their heads against the wall as much as I do, or if it comes more naturally to some. I started to write a "writing sequels is hard" blog post, and then I figured it would be more useful to me to just work on writing the sequel with that time instead.
• I watched the Oscars last weekend, and...meh. The show was alright. I wasn't too offended by Seth McFarlane's jokes, but most of the presenters were kind of zzzzzz. The singers were great though, and I liked that the awards were almost impossible to predict. For me, at least. And thank you to everyone on Twitter who jumped to answer my question, "Is Wreck-It Ralph really that good?" Apparently it is. It has been queued for viewing.
• Something I am greatly looking forward to: this weekend I am getting together with some of my local writer besties for a writing day/celebratory dinner. What/who are we celebrating?? That's for us to know, mwahahaha! 
• And finally, because you know I love me some rockets, I have to point out that my husband's company is once again sending a Dragon capsule to the International Space Station, with launch taking place early tomorrow morning. If you're curious about watching the launch--and it's heart-pounding, I promise--check here: http://www.spacex.com/. It's scheduled to lift off at 9:30am ET.

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! 

Socially networking

I'm on Facebook, who are you?

Are you on Facebook too?

Then there's a pair of us

Go share--with everyone you know!

How vexing to be on Tumblr!

How befuddling--like a maze--

I search for friends but hit dead ends,

and tear my hair out in a craze!

http://www.facebook.com/RachelSearlesAuthor

Grateful

I want to take a second here to say a huge, huge thank you to everyone who commented, tweeted, emailed, DM'ed, liked, followed, and was just generally awesomely nice to me in response to my book deal news. Every year at the SCBWI Summer Conference, Lin Oliver calls kidlit people "the tribe," and to me that's the perfect expression for all of the wonderful and supportive people I've met in the book world. This also marked the first time I shared my writerly side with a lot of other people (Hello, old friends clicking over from Facebook!), which took some guts and about half a day of dithering. Since I took up creative writing again a few years ago, I've felt more like "me" than I've felt in a long time, and I'm really looking forward to the coming year, even the hairy scary parts. I've worked so hard on this and I'm so excited to share Chase and THE LOST PLANET with everyone.

Anyway, enough with the emoting. In other news, I got my bionic vision installed yesterday and everything went great. Although I'm pretty sure lying tightly swaddled on a table with your head taped down and your eyelids taped open has got to be someone else's nightmare, at least it went quickly. I'm pretty sure I'll still be reaching for the saline solution every night for a while still, but I'm not complaining!

NEWS!

If you happen to subscribe to the Publisher's Weekly Children's Bookshelf newsletter, you might have seen this little tidbit earlier today:

AHHHHHHHHHH I AM SO EXCITED TO BE ABLE TO SHARE THIS!!!!! My book is going to be published by Macmillan!!!!!

We got our first offer about two weeks after we went on sub, so I've been sitting on this news for a few months. Remember my post about flying to Turkey for a family emergency? Yeah, that's when the auction was going down, a testament to Why You Want To Have An Agent, because while I was a jetlagged, dazed, rambling mess, my fabulous agent was handling everything like the amazing pro she is. I am SO grateful to her and the awesome New Leaf team for giving me great support and advice on a really big decision. Since then everything has been going really fast--like, greased lightning fast--and I've been having a great ride with the excellent people at Feiwel & Friends. I'm SO happy to be there!

My friend Jack is going to help me sum up my feelings on everything:

Currently:

Good morning, my coffee-bearing friend!

I know I did this meme a few months ago, but I just saw that the delightful Katy Upperman recycled it, and so I'm blatantly copying her (thanks for the idea, Katy!):

Loving:
It's film awards season, which I know is not everyone's cup of tea, but I love both the glamour of the shows and the awkwardness of actors trying to act funny in front of a room of their peers. Jodie Foster's Cecil B DeMille speech, anyone? I'm sure she knew what she was trying to say--too bad the rest of us didn't. Still, the babbling seemed very heartfelt. This year my husband and I have been trying to see more of the nominated movies, and last Sunday we fit in a Silver Linings Playbook matinee and an Argo late showing. Both were excellent.

Reading:
I'm multi-booking it right now. Just about finished with Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi--I wasn't pulled in immediately, but once things got going (about the time Roar hit the scene, I'd say) I really got into this one. Rossi's got talent fo sho. Also reading Victoria Forester's The Girl Who Could Fly, a very fun middle grade read that I want to share with my nephew. He mailed me his copy of Wonder on loan a few weeks ago, and I want to pay back the favor with a book of my own. And finally, I'm also reading The Barbarous Years, an excellent history of the brutal settling of North American by the Europeans. That one's more for research purposes, but I'm enjoying it a lot.

Watching:
My husband and I have been sick the past couple of weekends, and we used that time to tear through every episode of The Walking Dead. It. Is. Awesome.

Thinking about:
My WIP, every day, always. I've started writing it, and I'm hoping for a quiet, solitary MLK day next week to make some serious butt-kicking progress. Which would be so much fun. I know you know what I mean.

Anticipating:
Flying out to NYC in about two weeks for the SCBWI Winter conference! Who's with me?

Listening to:
I've been putting together a "getting me in the right place" playlist for my new WIP, which so far consists of mostly Skrillex (don't ask why, it just works for this one...). Also enjoying this catchy song (profanity warning for the young or delicate):



Wishing:
For more time, as usual. Who isn't? Or maybe I just need better time-management skills. Anybody have any tips?

Making Me Happy:
So after 28 years of being a spectacle-wearer (well, 23 years of being a contact lens-wearer, but yes I was one of those little kids in thick glasses), I've finally decided to pull the trigger on getting corrective vision surgery. This was something I promised myself a few years back if I ever hit a personal milestone, which I did, huzzah. I can't get Lasik though, because once your eyes hit -9.0 or thereabouts, your cornea is stretched too thin to start scraping it away. So instead I'm getting ICL, implantable contact lenses that will be permanently inserted in my eye. I've had to wear my glasses for the last week or so to prepare--you may have seen me griping about this on Twitter, but when your vision is that borked, going from full-time contact wear to full-time glasses is a rough adjustment. The surgery is in two weeks, and people, I am SO HAPPY to think of a life without corrective lenses. YAY SCIENCE!

Happy New Year!

Puerta del Sol, panorama-style

I'm a few days late with this post, but I just got back from holiday travels and my brain is finally catching up to the local hour. The trip was great--first we spent a few days in NYC being shown the sights by some friends who used to live there, eating great food (the pastrami, omg) and walking until my legs declared mutiny. I even got the chance to swing by the New Leaf office to meet Joanna, who was delightful and enthusiastic and made me all the more excited about working together. After New York we flew to Paris for Christmas, and I am now making a concerted effort to convince my husband that that city should be our next home. Love. I could totally see myself strolling in the Tuileries and eating lemon macarons every day, because that's what everyone there does, right? We finished up our trip by flying to Madrid for New Year's, which we celebrated in the freezing rain in Puerta del Sol, jamming a dozen grapes into our mouths at midnight per tradition (only they had all these tiny seeds and there was no time to spit them out, so I don't think I actually choked down my grapes until about 12:03).

Overall it was a fun vacation, but you may have noticed that all the cities I mentioned are in the colder climates, and since we are soft little Anglenos, of course we got sick--my husband considerably moreso than I. So it's with several levels of gratitude that we returned home to rest up and snuggle with our warm furry cats. And now it's 2013, hooray! I've been reading everyone's New Year posts and getting inspired by all your resolutions and words of the year. I've got my own resolutions lined up too--some boring and ordinary, others scary and for my eyes only. I'm writing a new book, and that's going to be the focus of early 2013 for me. Looking forward to a quiet January full of hard work, and the reward at the end will be that I'm flying out to NYC with my critique partner Liz for the SCBWI Winter conference! Will I see you there? Let me know!