Lessons of a First Year Author

May 10, 2012 By 3 Comments

On May 10th, 2012, OyMG officially debuted.  Hard to believe that it was one year ago today.  So much has happened..so much has changed…maybe me most of all. In honor of the day, and the anniversary and the journey of a debut author, here is just a few of the things I’ve learned.

I LEARNED: It’s always a thrill to see your book on a shelf or in someone’s hands–that doesn’t change in a matter of (365) days.

I LEARNED: You may be an author, but you still have to be a writer.  That means writing every day.

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Filed Under: Life in General, On Writing, Writerly Tips Tagged With: , ,

An Impromptu Discussion on VOICE

March 19, 2012 By 4 Comments

This week, I ended up doing something I rarely like to do — I’m reading more than one book at a time.  In fact, I’m reading three.

1. Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes, by Jonathan Auxier  (A middle grade selected for my Reading Young Book Club.)

2. Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos (a middle grade, Newbery winner–picked it up for a dinner with the author.)

3. Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor (A YA audio book that I bought to keep me company on a road trip.)

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Filed Under: On Writing, Writerly Tips

Why Reviewing Books Sucks When You’re an Author

March 17, 2012 By 2 Comments

Once upon a time, reviewing a book was pretty straight forward.  I read a book.  I logged on to Goodreads and shared my opinion. End of story.  (Sorry, couldn’t resist the pun.)

Then, I became an author and the whole reviewing thing has become a whole lot more complicated–and a whole lot less fun.  Here’s the problem:

1. I know the sting of a harsh opinion.

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My Week in Pictures

March 10, 2012 By Leave a Comment

For a writer who is usually chained to her desk, I got out and about a lot this week.  March 7th was WRAD–World Read Aloud Day, so it was cool to be a part of that!  I thought I’d share some of the pictures and highlight moments while it’s all still fresh in my mind.

MONDAY: I went to Lincoln Elementary and faced the bright eyes of about 40 kindergarteners during two different classes.

With author Tom Leveen

Kindergarteners are squeezably cute

 

 

 

 

 

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Seriously Funny

February 21, 2012 By Leave a Comment

“You need to make her suffer.”

As I spoke these words to a friend today, I caught the horrified glance of an older man sitting at the next table.  No, I wanted to tell him, I’m not a professional hit girl.  I’m an author.

Today was my monthly critique meeting at Wildflower Bakery (highly recommend the new chicken pomegrante salad, by the way), and I was offering my usual variety of advice.

Kill him off.  You’re not in enough trouble.  Can’t you drive her closer to despair?

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Questions Anyone?

February 8, 2012 By Leave a Comment

If you could ask an author anything, what would you want to know?

This is the question.  My question.  About your question.  Or, more to the point, about the questions I might get from a class of eighth graders.

On Friday, I’m going to a middle school to speak to 120 eighth graders.  I’m going to be in an area without a projector or screen so my handy-dandy powerpoint presentations are out.

So instead, I’ve decided to do a Q & A thing.  I’m going to write up index cards of all the questions I can think of that kids might want to know.  Then, they can either ask one of their own, or pick one of mine.  Such as:

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February 1, 2012 By Leave a Comment

What’s your playlist?

As an author, it’s a question I get a lot.  I always feel so lame because I don’t listen to music when I write.  I also feel like maybe I’m missing out.  A piece of music can inspire you, put you in the right mood, recreate the feeling of a character, set the scene and evoke a unique place…  And I have none of that because I have no playlist.  But then this morning, I realized I had something just as good.

Shoes.

Yep, shoes are my own version of a playlist.

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Filed Under: On Writing Tagged With: , , , ,

What Goes Up…

January 24, 2012 By 2 Comments

During the past week, my book received a wonderful award, got panned by a thirteen-year-old, and then I saved a woman’s life and wasn’t good enough to make the finals of a playwriting contest.

Just your typical week. :-)

UP

On Monday, I had an email from The Sydney Taylor Book Award Committee:  OyMG had been selected as Notable Book for Teens, 2012.

 

DOWN

On Tuesday, I had another email.  An online site was going to review my book but the editor contacted me to tell me the thirteen-year-old reviewer had written something less than glowing.  Did I still want him to run it?  (Uh…NO!)

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Filed Under: Life in General Tagged With: ,

Living in the Before

January 17, 2012 By Leave a Comment

The other day I got one of those reminder postcards in the mail from my doctor.  You know, the ones they have you address yourself at the end of your visit so they can mail it out in a year to get you back in?

So there it was in the mailbox, and it was supposed to remind me to call for an appointment, but instead it reminded me that a year had passed since I’d filled it out.  Not just any year, but a momentous year with the debut of OyMG.

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Can you Spell Optimism?

January 10, 2012 By 2 Comments

Life dealt me a bad hand.

Okay, not really.  It was WORDS with FRIENDS that dealt me the bad hand.  (For those who don’t play, WORDS is a game of Scrabble that you can play against your friends either on the computer or on your phone.)  Right now, I’m in a heated battle with a number of worthy opponents.  It’s a lot of fun, and a nice way to de-stress.   But did you know WORDS can teach you a little about life?

Well, neither did I.  Until a few days ago when I opened up a game and looked at my seven tiles.

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Filed Under: Life in General, On Writing Tagged With: , , , ,
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