A blog in letters

Dear Agent S.,

Thank you for taking the time to talk with me yesterday. I'm so glad you like the latest YA project! I have been thinking about some of the things you suggested, and I plan to write a new first chapter this weekend, when I have a big chunk of time. I'm excited to move forward on this, and I REALLY appreciate your help. A lot.

Yours truly,
Lisa

***

Dear JCPenney,

This weekend I will be visiting. With two kids and a husband in tow. I hope you have gotten more of a selection in your young men's section than the last time we visited. The kids need some slacks and a nice shirt for a wedding in a few weeks. We don't want a suit, nor do we want t-shirts and shorts. Something in between, although you seem to have trouble with that concept. Think about it - there is more to life than the beach and funerals.

Yours truly,
Lisa

***

Dear NBA,

My kids and I have been disappointed to miss The Biggest Loser the past two weeks. Can you pick a different night for games? Please??

Yours truly,
Lisa

***

Dear Jennifer Donnelly,

I know I'm really late reading A NORTHERN LIGHT, and I honestly don't know what took me so long, but I have to tell you that I think your book is in my top ten all-time favorite books. I finished it days ago and still, I find myself thinking about Mattie and hoping she's okay. What a story. Thank you!

Yours truly,
Lisa

***

Dear Maureen Johnson,

You did an incredible thing in April, implementing BEDA, encouraging people to blog everyday in April. Alas, I didn't join in, but I'm now doing my own thing for May called ANOBIMWI, otherwise known as Almost No Blogging in May, Write Instead. Yes, I realize if everyone participated in ANOBIMWI, what a sad blogging world it would be. But I have a big book to write, not to mention an author's event, a wedding, a kid's birthday, Mother's day, Memorial day, Free Comic Book day, the Wolverine movie, and ten other things I could list but won't.

Without you, I probably wouldn't have come up with ANOBIMWI, so thanks!

Yours truly,
Lisa

***

Dear friends,

If you read Author2Author, I'll see you there every Friday. If not, I'll see you in June! I'll miss you. Be good!! Remember, the Beatles said it best - love is all you need. And in case you don't believe me...



Love,
Lisa

Book recommendation - YOU ARE HERE

So, the last two book recommendations I did, WINTERGIRLS by Laurie Halse Anderson and IF I STAY by Gayle Forman BOTH made the NYT bestseller list. Coincidence? Maybe not! Maybe I have the touch! :)

By the way, I buy and read a lot of books by friends in the blogging community, but I don't necessarily do a Book Recommendation. I'm using this feature for those special times I get an ARC and can do a nice little review before the book is out, to help with the buzz and all that. But anyway, I digress. This is not supposed to be about me, it's supposed to be about Jennifer E. Smith's latest book, YOU ARE HERE. Isn't the cover beautiful?



I loved Jennifer's first book, THE COMEBACK SEASON. LOVED it! So of course I said yes when I was asked if I might read an ARC of YOU ARE HERE and provide a little quote for the book if I was so inclined.

Jennifer writes the way I wish I could write. Beautiful prose with little treasures on every page. And her characters are richly developed and unique. In YOU ARE HERE, we meet Emma who has never felt like she fit in with the rest of her family. When Emma discovers a birth certificate and a death certificate for a twin brother she never knew, she feels like maybe there's a reason she hasn't felt completely whole, and feels the need to go searching for her other half. Her next door neighbor, Peter, has been wishing for a way to escape the small town they live in and ends up coming along, making for an interesting, and endearing, road trip.

The cover of the book will say, "YOU ARE HERE doesn't just take you on a memorable road trip, it takes you on a journey of the heart." ~ Lisa Schroeder, author of I HEART YOU, YOU HAUNT ME

YOU ARE HERE is released May 19, 2009, but you can pre-order it from Powell's Books if you'd like.

Happy reading!

This doesn't help my obsession with Taylor Swift

If I had to list my top ten albums of all time, it would be really, really hard. Maybe even impossible.

But one of the ten would most likely be Def Leppard's Pyromania. It came out my sophomore year in high school and it brings back incredible memories. And "Photograph" is probably one of my all time favorite songs.

I think another of the ten would be Taylor Swift's latest, called Fearless. I've played it more times than I should probably admit. Her song writing abilities are incredible, and I love the music and her voice and well, everything! A few months ago, when S&S asked me a set of questions for their new web site, one of them was if I could change places with anyone, who would I choose. I said no one, because I do like my life, but it would be SO FUN to be Taylor Swift for one day.

And so, when I saw on Jay Asher's blog that CMT did a Crossroads (a special feature where they mix a country star and a rock star or band and have them perform together) starring Taylor Swift and Def Leppard, I immediately went to my DVR and searched for it. And happy day, I found it and have watched it more than once, because it is an hour of awesomeness.

Here, for your viewing pleasure, is a little bit of awesome just for you.

Taylor Swift   More CMT Music   More CMT Music Videos

ARCs & Bloggers - One author weighs in

There's been a lot of talk lately about ARCs and book bloggers.

You can read some fasincating discussions

Here (Presenting Lenore)

and Here (Reviewer X/Steph)

and Here (the Story Siren)

and Here (The Tea Cozy)

Roger Sutton of the Horn Book Magazine even had a little bit to say.

A few thoughts from me:

1) In the past three years, the YA world has exploded with new books and new authors. Do you realize how many more books are on the shelves now then this time three years ago? A LOT! I honestly can't even think about it very much or it freaks me out. Anyway, and so it seems, the same can be said for book bloggers. If a teen wants to start a book blog, I say go for it. But don't do it because of the free books, don't do it because you want to be one of the "cool kids," and don't do it if you don't have the time to put time and effort into your blog. Do it because you LOVE books and want to share that love and help get good books into the hands of readers.

2) I think a lot of bloggers wonder how some of the other bloggers have become so popular. Well, guess what. No surprise here. The same reason an author's books become popular. They work hard at content! They spend time working on their craft!!

3) Authors and book bloggers alike need to remember the golden rule - do unto others as you would have them do unto you. When I approach bloggers about reviewing one of my books, I do it in a kind, respectful way. And I try to approach people I've gotten to know a little bit, by visiting their blogs. Then, if they don't want to, or can't because they're booked, I hope they'll be honest and tell me so. I'd much rather have you tell me the book doesn't interest you than get a book you never planned to read or review.

Turning it around, if a blogger *really* wants to read and review one of my books before it comes out, and they don't know how to get in touch with the marketing folks, I have no problem with a kind, respectful e-mail asking me for a review copy and giving me a link to their blog. I usually don't have ARCs myself, so I have to forward to my publicist. Am I selective about which requests I forward on? Yes, I am, as I think I should be.

Having said all that, I do want to make one thing perfectly clear ---

I ♥ book bloggers!

My first book, I HEART YOU, YOU HAUNT ME had a lot of excitement around its release, and a lot of that was fueled because of bloggers. They liked the cover. They liked the premise. They were excited about it! The second book, FAR FROM YOU, was a much quieter book. It didn't have the exciting hook. To top it off, a year after the first one's release, there were many more big and exciting books to compete with. But thankfully, there were some book bloggers who took the time to read it and wrote reviews, who helped me with contests, etc., even when it wasn't one of the "big" books people were talking about.

So thank you, book bloggers. You hard work DOES make a difference for a book. And I just wanted you to know I appreciate your time and efforts!

The End is awesome, but what about getting there?

Yesterday YA author April Henry talked about how she always enjoys having written, but doesn't always enjoy the writing. She even took a poll, to see if others felt the same, and you can see the results here. She compared it to running, and I totally agree. But I told her there are days where we get in that zone and I think each time we sit down to write, or go outside to run, we hope we'll find that wonderful place. Some days it's just plain hard, no doubt about it.

It reminded me of a blog post YA author Christine Fletcher (author of the amazing TEN CENTS A DANCE) did awhile back which she called Chasing the Dragon. Her blog is here, and you'll have to scroll down a little bit to read this particular blog. But hey, stop and take a look at the beautiful Hawaii pictures on your way down - they're lovely!

Anyway, here is a snippet of what Chris said in her blog post on Chasing the Dragon:

"The first time I hit the zone--that state in which a scene unfurls seemingly with no effort, in which the characters take on life and act with no regard for the author's preconceived ideas, the state in which (as one author once put it) the writer seems to be taking dictation from God himself--I was hooked. Entirely and forever. That first experience was long before I began writing novels, long before I could reliably write even two pages a week for my writing class. But from that day to this, every time I sit down at the computer, I hope that lightning will strike. It usually doesn’t. But the promise of it always brings me back."
YES! That is exactly it. And I have to say, I must be lucky because if I have a big chunk of time, I often do find that zone and can write pages and pages and get swept up and away into the story. The key for me is having the time, and often that's the biggest challenge for me.

Like Chris said in a comment on my blog yesterday, "I write just so I can tell myself the story."

Exactly! And sometimes getting started on a new day is hard, but once I get going and I'm in that story, I want to know what happens next, and it's one of the reasons I've never really outlined. I have a general direction of where I'm going, but I love just sitting down and seeing what happens next! It keeps it exciting and fun for me.

So yeah, I love having written, but I also love writing a lot of the time too. Not all the time. There are certainly days where it's like running uphill in mud. But I try not to think about those days. I like the other ones MUCH better!

What about you? Do you find that zone often or not?

One day at a time, one word at at time

The busy season is upon me.

For me, the season of thousands of renewal letters at work. For the kids, the season of tests and research projects at school. Citations are oh so important these days, I guess, putting the name and page number of your source after the sentence, whether it's a direct quote or just a summary of a point. Back in my day, you simply did a bibliography. At least that's what I remember. Anyway, the kids are gathering information, struggling a bit to get the outlines written, and after that there will be rough drafts, and so on and so forth. The 6th grader is writing about Oskar Schindler, the 9th grader is writing about tanks in WW1. Exciting stuff, huh?

I have some health issues I'm trying to resolve which is frustrating me (nothing serious, just those two horrid words - hormone imbalance) while my 11 YO decided to pull a muscle and come down with a nasty cold all in the same week. He's staying home again today, with his daddy, who will no doubt find some fun ways to entertain him.

And yet, through it all, I write. I write because I love it and perhaps because it is a necessary escape from all the demands of life. It's not much during the week, some words in the morning first thing, and again at night before bed. But I plug along, each time, happy to return to my characters and the story.

I've always believed it's good to have things to look forward to, so those times when life is dark, you have a light shining brightly, waiting for you on the other side.

For me, right now, one light is Disney World, and the other light are simply the words - The End. I love the process of writing, of course, but isn't it just oh so satisfying to get to the end? To do that which at times seems almost impossible?

One day at a time. One word at a time. That's how I get through.

Happy Earth Day and Wednesday Winky Links

Happy Wednesday! I have a few links to share with you all today.

First of all, I'm wishing everyone a Happy Earth Day!



Today is a great day for us to take some time to reflect on what we can do to help save this precious earth from further and further destruction. I care deeply about this issue, but it's hard for me to know what to do. Here at home, we use the compact flourescent lights, recycle as much as we can, etc. But I wanted to do more. So last year I joined the World Wildlife Fund. For a very reasonable amount each month, I'm helping them to not only work to protect imperiled species like the sea turtle, tiger, elephant, rhinos, great apes, and more, but also helping them to initiate projects that remind the world of the important issue at hand. You may or may not not realize that WWF is the organization who initiated the Lights Out Earth Hour many of us participated in last month. The web site says this:

"WWF is working to build support for an international agreement that will sharply reduce greenhouse emissions and prepare the world for the disruptive consequences of climate change. We also are engaged in efforts to ensure that U.S. Government policies and initiatives are consistent with those international objectives."

At this point in time, I can't think of a better investment. If I don't invest in earth's future, my grandchildren or even my children may not have a comfortable, beautiful place to live! If you are looking for a way to help save our beautiful Mother Earth, perhaps you'll consider giving to World Wildlife Fund. You could probably even do a one-time payment today, as a way to do something to honor Earth Day.

Second link - yesterday, agent Nathan Bransford talked about book concepts and how originality is somewhat overrated. I thought it was an interesting post, and I shared with him another one that tries to define high concept by agent Holly Root, which I also think is worth reading.

Third link - I loved Mary Beth Kelsey's first MG novel, TRACKING DADDY DOWN, and now her second one is just about out, and she's having a contest to give one away! The book is titled A RECIPE 4 ROBBERY and you can see the cover and enter the contest HERE.

Finally, I love this post Liz Gallagher did at the Toll Booth in response to a question I asked her about writing details and description. It's worth a click and a read, I promise!

Have a great day!