LDStorymakers conference--fun, fun, fun without the T-Bird

Granted, I know it makes for a boring blog to just go on and on about how much fun a writing conference was--but I can't help it. I'm a writer and therefore live a boring and solitary life until I go to conferences. Then I not only get to hang out with other writing adicts, but I get to be around people who actually think I'm cool.

It's such a nice change from hanging out with my children, who rarely think I'm cool.

So here are some pictures of me with other cool people. Try to pretend like you're interested, because that's the polite thing to do.

Here I am with James Dashner, whose book Maze Runner is Random House's lead book for the fall. His publisher is sending him on a book tour where he'll be given VIP treatment, the works. After he becomes Stephenie-Meyer-famous, I'm going to use this picture on my Christmas cards to make other people jealous. Some My Fair Godmother readers may notice that his name popped up in the book. (James still hasn't read my book though. Thanks, James. Next time I use your name for a character he will be turned into a toad in chapter four.)

Here I am with ANWA founder, Marsha. She rocks!

Okay, here are more pictures of me.

This is me with James, Jeff Savage, and Rob Wells. I'm in the middle of reading Jeff's book Farworld right now (unless you happen to be my editor, in which case I'm not reading anything at all; I'm working diligently on my revisions for Faking It.) So far Farworld is great. Jeff is the master of the cliff-hanger chapter ending. Plus he's an all around wonderful guy and has an incredible wife. I want her to come live in Arizona and work for me.

Rob is a crack up. He did a presentation of how the LDStorymakers came to be and I laughed until I cried. I would put his phone number on my speed dial so I could call him at random times and make him tell me jokes, but unfortunately the restraining order forbids that sort of thing.

This is Jennifer Savage and Annette Lyon. I'm just guessing, but I think Annette may have been up late working on her presentation.

Here is a more alert Annette with Elodia Strain and me. Elodia made my day by telling me she loved my books and then laughed when she realized I'm Sierra St. James too, because she's also a fan of those books. Elodia clearly has great taste in literature.

Here I am with the amazing Kerry Blair. Kerry walks on water. Seriously. Kerry's only failing is that she hangs out with Jeff, Rob, and few other malcontents on the Six Writers and a Frog, blog. Maybe it's just me, but I've always found that frog annoying. Sadly, it mysteriously disappeared from the conference table. Don't worry frog bloggers, I'm sure a ransom note will show up soon.

Stupid things celebrities say

I've finally started doing the revisions on Faking It. One of the things the bow-tied one wants is for my celebrity diva, Kari Hale, to say more stupid things. Believe it or not, it's actually hard to come up with stupid dialogue so I googled some real celebrity quotes for inspiration.

Here are a list of my favorites as reported by other blogs: (And we all know you can't get more reliable news from random celebrity bloggers)

Brooke Shields - "Smoking kills. If you're killed, you've lost a very important part of your life." (Glad to see that tuition to Princeton wasn't wasted.)

Britney Spears - "I get to go to lots of overseas places, like Canada." (Well, some people consider Lake Superior a sea . . .)

Christina Aguilera - "So, where's the Cannes Film Festival being held this year?" (I think they keep the location the same every year so blond celebrities can find it.)

Mariah Carey - "Whenever I watch TV and see those poor starving kids all over the world, I can't help but cry. I mean I'd love to be skinny like that, but not with all those flies and death and stuff." (Mariah has obviously been talking to Brooke about death.)

Pretty bad, eh? Personally I think the politicians are worse.

"Outside of the killings, Washington has one of the lowest crime rates in the country." - Marion Barry, Mayor of Washington, DC. (I'll stay in Arizona, thanks.)

"I haven't committed a crime. What I did was fail to comply with the law."
- David Dinkins, New York City Mayor, answering accusations that he failed to pay his taxes. (And the thing is, I bet he paid his publicist a lot of money to come up with that answer.)

"I'm not going to have some reporters pawing through our papers. We are the president." - Hillary Clinton commenting on the release of subpoenaed documents. (Come to think of it, my editor uses the royal 'we' too . . . coincidence?)

And even after all of that, I still can't think of a stupid line for my character. It's something she should say in a library to a guy she's trying to pick up. Any of you with celebrity or political aspirations--comment away!

And for those of you attending the LDStorymakers conference this weekend--see you soon!

Taxes--even Robin Hood isn't spared

Paying taxes as a writer is a hassle (all those expenses and mileage to keep track of)and also really painful. Taxes don't get taken out of royalty statements, advances, or school visit payments, so there's always a big chunk to pay at the end of the year.

Never fun. When you have to pay the check, it becomes real money not just numbers on a paycheck.

Luckily my husband, Techno Bob, patiently pours over the tax code--which by the way is so thick it could be used as a step stool. Also it's written in legalize a language about as coherent as computer code.

But at least the good folks at the IRS have a sense of humor. I mean they had to be joking when they defined income to report.

They wrote--and this is a direct quote: "If you steal property, you must report its fair market value in your income in the year you steal it unless in the same year, you return it to its rightful owner."


Do you suppose a lot of criminals are going, "Oh, Dang I guess I have to report those stolen cars after all . . ."

Sorry Robin Hood, but you owe a lot of taxes.

Project Book Babe

Where do I start about Project Book Babe? I would have blogged about this earlier, but for the last few days my computer joined my children’s labor union—meaning it only worked when it wanted to, which was about three minutes a day.

Project Book Babe actually started the night before when Stephenie Meyer, Shannon Hale, Laini Taylor and I went over to Jon Lewis’s house where his lovely wife fed us dinner and made us feel at home while we signed roughly a gajillion posters.

Laini shares an editor with me: the illustrious bow-tied one.
Here she is posing with My Fair Godmother. Maybe it's just me, but I think there’s a striking likeness to Chrissy.

The next day we went early to Marcos De Niza High to practice our fab dance number where James Owen would be singing Baby Baby I Love You, by Aretha Franklin. Shannon had sent us backup dancer instructions earlier, which my six-year-old and I practiced faithfully.

Unfortunately the band was practicing on stage plus we found out that we had not in fact signed all of the posters and there was another bajillion waiting for us.

So we had to go on stage and do the song without ever practicing it. As you can see I came up with a gold sequined top to wear because I am just that cool.

Despite not having practiced together, the dance number went pretty well. Okay, there was a moment when Brandon Mull thought we were doing our free dance portion of the song, and we had to tell him that no, actually we weren’t to that part of the song yet, but that sort of thing adds to the ambiance of our free spirits.


Next we did the author panel. Since we were running behind we were told beforehand at our author pow wow

(and yes this is what our pow wow looked like from underneath) that we shouldn’t all answer every question and that in fact we should only speak if we had something smart or funny to say.

Luckily we are all very smart and witty people so it went well.(Here we are clearly being smart as opposed to witty.) And the audience laughed at all the right places which goes to show you that we have brilliant fans. (Okay, they were mostly Stephenie’s fans, but they were still brilliant!) They were also very generous when it came to the auction items and we raised lots of money for or dear friend, Faith, and breast cancer. Faith is the lovely lady in blue.

Here is P.J. Haarsma with Dean Lowery modeling one of the auction items, Stephenie’s Eclipse Prom dress.

Didn’t have a chance to come? You can still bid on some cool items at ebay under project book babe.
Next we did a story activity where we let the audience choose the title of a story—they chose Stephenie’s dress-- and then we went down a line and gave a one sentence to add to the story. Yeah, it was bizarre but funny and just goes to show you why there aren’t a lot of books by ten authors.

Anyway, I have to say that all the authors there were wonderful and I was so glad to have a chance to hang out with them all. (And I haven't gotten all my pictures off of my camera so I will add a few more to this.)

Project Book Babe is Saturday, April 4th

Just a reminder that all the hot vampires and ultra cool werewolves will be at

Marcos de Niza High School Auditorium,
6000 S. Lakeshore Dr.,Tempe, AZ 85283
from 2:00-5:00

Stephenie Meyer will be auctioning off her Twilight prom dress and if you can go by some Twi-moms blogs, it looks like the competition will be fierce.

I've offered to auction off my prom dress as well, but somehow the project organizers don't seem to be thrilled with this suggestion.

Ah well, it's all for a good cause.

Hope to see you there!

Book signings then and now

When I first became an author I thought book signings were all about meeting my public, finding out what they wanted, and making them happy.

Sorry public, I gave up on making you happy long ago.

Now it's all about not looking bad in front of the book store personnel. If that means begging everyone I know to come into the store then I will do it unashamedly. Because there is nothing worse than having the book store personnel think you are a friendless, readerless author who can't draw a crowd.

So, although I know it seems like I just told you about a book signing, (because I did,) now I'm telling you about another one. I'll be at Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe with super fun author Janni Simner doing readings and a signing.

This is your official invitation begging you to come!

Tuesday, March 31
7:00 PM

Changing Hands Bookstore
6428 S McClintock Dr.
Tempe, AZ 85283.
480-730-0205

Want to hang out with Stephenie Meyer? (Okay, that got your attention, didn't it?)

Come to projectbook.babe on Saturday, April 4th 2009, 2:00PM to 5:00PM at
Marcos de Niza High School Auditorium,
6000 S. Lakeshore Dr.,Tempe, AZ 85283

Look at this a-list of authors who will be there (in alphabetical order):

Frank Beddor-The Looking Glass Wars series
Chris Gall-There’s Nothing to Do on Mars
P.J. Haarsma-The Softwire series
Shannon Hale-The Princess Academy
J.S. Lewis-The Revenge of the Shadow King
Dean Lorey-Nightmare Academy series
Stephenie Meyer-Twilight saga
Brandon Mull-Fablehaven series
James A. Owen-Here, There Be Dragons
Janette Rallison-Just One Wish
Laini Taylor-Faeries of Dreamdark series

And it’s all for a good cause too. We’re helping out our very good friend and YA advocate, Faith Hochhalter, who is going up against cancer—a nasty villain in anybody’s book.

Everyone who buys a ticket will receive an autographed copy a book. Really, it is going to be a ton of fun, and I won’t let the cat out of the bag, but Shannon Hale is busy at work guaranteeing that we will all make fools of ourselves. Also Stephenie is auctioning off some Twilight memorabilia, which as you all know, has an ample sprinkling of vampire dust on it. I’m pretty sure Edward Cullen has touched all of it, so touching it is just like being caressed in his marble cold embrace.

You can buy tickets to this fab, once-in-a-lifetime event by going to projectbookbabe.com

Hope to see you there!

Book signings and teaser

Despite the fact that I'm always afraid my book signings will turn out like a bad version of a Junior High dance--me standing idly around trying to look like I'm perfectly happy to not be doing what I came to do, but desperately wishing that I could be on the dance floor--I have two book signings set up this month. (Where I may be sitting idly around trying to look like I'm perfectly happy to not be doing what I came to do, but desperately wishing that I could be on the dance floor--er, I mean, signing books. Although the dance floor would be a great reprieve too.)

Here are the dates/times/places:

Tuesday March 24th at 7pm
Barnes & Noble
Desert Ridge Marketplace
21001 N. Tatum Blvd. Suite 42
Phoenix, AZ 85050
480-538-8520

Tuesday, March 31st at 7pm.
Changing Hands Bookstore
6428 S McClintock Dr, Tempe, AZ 85283,
Cross streets: Guadalupe and McClintock



Just One Wish

It seemed like a good idea at the time, a foolproof plan, and not something that was likely to get Annika Truman, say, thrown in jail. All she was trying to do was help her six-year-old brother, Jeremy, beat his cancer. He’d been so afraid of his upcoming surgery that she was trying to use some of that “Power of Positive Thinking” everyone keeps talking about.

Annika told Jeremy that she had a genie and still had two wishes left. He could use one for anything he wanted and one to make sure his surgery went well. She knew he’d ask for the new action figure of Teen Robin Hood. It’s all he’d talked about since he started watching the TV series.

But there is no such thing as a foolproof plan where six-year-olds are concerned. Instead, Jeremy asked for the real Teen Robin Hood to come teach him how to shoot arrows. And now Annika has just a couple of days to drive to Hollywood, find the actor who plays Teen Robin Hood—incredibly hot and way too famous Steve Raleigh—and convince him to visit her little brother.

At times like this she could use a genie herself.

More thoughts on revisions

I was just at the Tucson Book Festival last weekend where I got to hang out with many fun writers including political cartoonist David Fitszimmons. He gave me this cartoon that he used during his presentation. No particular reason why. Nope, none at all.

Round two of revisions for Faking It

I got my second revision letter and manuscript comments from the bow-tied one. I will share some of it with you and interpret it for you along the way. In his email to me, he said, “You’re doing great! We love it!”

Ohhoho. I know better than to believe those words. He is not taking me in with those pretty exclamation points. He always says those sorts of things right before he butchers my manuscript and sends me back the bleeding entrails.

I opened the revision letter and braced myself. I read a few lines and then he said, “We can discuss deadlines after you’ve had a chance to sit with all of this.”

Ahh, the truth first peeks out with its beady little eyes. The bow-tied one knows full well that when I read what follows I will be so torked out of shape I will not speak to him for a solid week. It is going to be bad my friends, very bad.

He then says, “You will be relieved to see that there are fewer comments on this pass (only 407 this time, down from 435), so clearly you are moving in the right direction!"

AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

I would make some other sort of statement about his 407 comments, but I haven’t read them yet. I can’t. I’ve made a bargain with myself. I will only read his revisions notes until I get so upset that I want to scream, then I will walk away from the computer and do something else for the rest of the day. It is the only way I can get through this.

It will take me at least another day to finish his revision letter before I even open the manuscript.

I have finally figured out why he wears a bow-tie instead of a regular one. Bow-ties are harder to grab a hold of when you want to strangle people.

Just One Wish is out! Well, maybe sort of . . .

The long awaited and much anticipated (at least by me) release date of Just One Wish is here! According to the Amazon and Barnes & Noble websites, my latest book was released March 5th.

Unfortunately someone emailed me that their book store didn't have it yet, which made me call my local book store and they told me that although they had the book on order it hadn't come in.

I emailed the bow-tied one to see if there was a distribution problem--I also haven't gotten my author copies--and he told me not to sweat it because we hadn't reached the release date yet.

Which proves what I've said all along, that editors have no concept of time.

So anyway, I'm not sure if your store has copies yet, but it should, and if it doesn't, then you should demand in a loud voice that they get it in soon because obviously there is going to be a rush on the limited first edition copies and things could turn ugly like they did years ago when shoppers were trampling each other to get Tickle Me Elmos.

Maybe we can create a frenzied shopping demand for the book. I'd be happy with that.

Utah trip--the first family wedding.

Okay, I'm finally blogging about my Utah trip. I went up for my niece's wedding, did three school visits and basically had a blast hanging out with my family. Because my family is hilarious. Some people think I'm funny. This is only because they haven't met my family. The rest of them are way funnier which means that every time we get together I usually laugh until I cry.

My brother-in-law, Dante, was telling us about the overpriced four-dollar pastries being served at the luncheon, and how even though he was paying an exorbitant amount for the catering, the wedding-palace-place was only serving enough pastries for 60 people. Unfortunately they had invited 125 people so the night before the wedding we were devising solutions to this problem. Our best idea was to have a rating system for the gifts, and only people who'd brought really nice ones got to get in the pastry line.


The most expesive blackberry my daughter will ever eat.

My oldest daughter (code name Serena, after her favorite cartoon character) was assigned to sit at the check-in table, take the gifts, and have people sign the guest book.

I've always found those guest books intimidating. I mean, here is this keepsake that the bride and groom will cherish forever and you want to write something deep, meaningful, and unique but after standing with the pen poised in your hand for long enough that the line backs up, you finally scrawl out, "Best Wishes!" and move on.

So the family got to talking about that too. Or rather, we talked about the things that you should not write in the bride and groom's guest book.

Here is the top ten list of things you shouldn't write:

1. This was really nice for your first wedding.
2. It's not too late for a pre-nup.
3. The office pool is giving you two years.
4. And who says you can't find nice bridal dresses at Sears?
5. Apparently she couldn't have done better.
6. We don't actually know you. We just came for the four dollar pastries.
7. He must be a good catch; his first three wives had no complaints, God rest their souls.
8. For your wedding gift I got you that supply of penicillin.
9. At last, you found a way to get your green card!
10. Don't worry her ex didn't make parole.

I bet after hanging out with all of us, Serena will never want to get married.



This is a picture of Serena and her cousin who was the namesake for the main character in How to Take the Ex Out of Ex-boyfriend. Isn't she gorgeous?

Another cool night to be an author--meeting Avi

First of all, let me say that I don't recommend you take an active six-year-old to an author presentation. Really, what was I thinking? Well, I guess I was thinking she was invited so why not take her? They had a build-a-book activity going on for the kids and I really wasn't clear about the fact that afterward she would have to sit politely on a chair while Avi spoke.

But let me backtrack, because I'm skipping over the coolest part of the evening. When I got to the Arizona Natural History Museum where the build-a-book activity and Avi presentation was happening, all the 3-hour parking was taken so I had to park in a 1-hour parking space.

No, that isn't the cool part.

The cool part is that when I left my kids building books--with strict instructions for my older kids that they were to WATCH YOUR LITTLE SISTER AT ALL TIMES SO SHE DOESN'T TIP OVER THE REFRESHMENT TABLE, KNOCK OVER THE BOOKS, OR SCALE THE DINOSAURS BECAUSE I HAVE TO REPARK THE CAR, I walked out of the room and who did I see standing by the stairs waiting to give his presentation? Yup, Avi.

At first, I just walked by because I didn't want to bother him. I mean, I'm sure he's constantly bombarded with people telling him how much they love his books and most likely he hadn't gone into the room full of teachers and librarians because he wanted some private time.

But then I thought, private time is overrated. And maybe he's just shy. And when am I ever going to have the chance to talk to him again? I mean, I would probably kick myself for the rest of my life if I at least didn't say hello. Besides, most authors I've met, even the really famous ones, are down to earth, nice people.

So I walked back up the stairs and introduced myself, and we spent about ten minutes talking about writing and editors. (Yes, Tim, I told Avi you were a great editor.)

After that I had to hurry to go repark my car, retrieve my kids, (little sister was parked in front of a book case reading a book while her older siblings finished up their book projects--hello, would they have even noticed if she disappeared?) made a pit stop at the bathroom because little sister drank way too much lemonade and I didn't want her having get up in the middle of the presentation, and then were in time to find chairs in the back of the room.

Avi gives a great presentation, by the way. He does cool voices while he reads his books.

Little sister was fairly good--at least for her. This is because I bought her a new toy dog and told her she could only have it if she was good. If she wasn't, I was taking it away and she'd have to wait until her birthday to get it back. So she wasn't loud, although she kept lying down on her chair, and then on the floor, and managed to spill the contents of my purse on the ground. And she still had to get up to go to the bathroom after 45 minutes. (I knew I shouldn't have let her drink the lemonade.)

The plus side to having a wiggly six-year-old with you? The kind Scholastic lady told us we could go to the front of the very, very, long signing line. It was probably a wise choice. I don't think anyone would have liked to see what a bored, active six-year-old would do while her mother was waiting in line next to dinosaur replicas.

And here is a picture of Avi signing our books.

Impulse buy

Okay, I was at the store today buying all that reduced price Valentines candy. (Discount chocolate--it is my siren call.) and I saw this and had to buy it. It is so true.

How you know you're a seasoned author

I was thinking about this as I got ready for my panel last night at Changing Hands. My how things have changed since my first book event!

First book event an author does:

You have dreamed about this day for years. You spend two weeks shopping for the perfect dress. You count down the days. You have your hair done by a beautician. You go out with your friends beforehand to celebrate. Your husband is there to take pictures.

After a few years:

You buy a new shirt for the book event. Hey, it's time you went shopping for yourself and this gives you a good excuse. You mark the event on your calendar with pride but don't obsess about it. You make sure you color your hair before the event so you have no gray roots showing. You barely remember to take your camera so someone can snap your picture with the other authors there.

After a few more years:

You mark the date on your calendar to make sure you don't forget. (How embarrassing would that be?) You figure what you have in your closet is fine to wear and iron something nice looking the day before. Your hair? Well, you probably can squeak by another day without anyone noticing the gray. Only a little is peeking out. When you get to the event you realize you forgot your camera and ask one of the other authors to forward a picture to you.

After 12 years:

You write a memo to yourself on your hand so you won't forget. (Yes, it's on the calendar but that's no guarantee you'll remember to go when it's time.) You wonder if it's possible to color your gray roots with an eyebrow pencil. You find yourself an hour before the event rifling through your closet looking for something clean. Forget the camera, if you're lucky you will remember to zip your fly. (Because how embarrassing would that be to have you're fly down again?)

And by the way, my fly was zipped last night, but while I was sitting on the panel I realized that I had forgotten to change my socks form when I was sloughing around the house earlier in sweats and they didn't match my dressy shirt.

Oh well, authors are supposed to be eccentric right? And hey, Michael, if you're reading this, forward me that picture you took of the authors so I can use it on my blog!

Thanks!

Changing Hands Author Panel Tonight at 7:00

Hey fellow Arizonians,
If you're looking for something fun and free to do tonight, stop by Changing Hands Book Store for the Teen Author Panel Discussion at 7 pm.


Explore how to write, market, and publish first-rate teen literature with authors Lisa McMann (Wake), James Owen (Indigo King), Janette Rallison (My Fair Godmother), and Laurie Brooks (Selkie Girl). Joining them is literary agent Erin Murphy. Panel moderated by Changing Hands Bookstore’s children’s book buyer Brandi Stewart.

(Did you notice it called my book first-rate literature? This is validation. I'm first rate.)

Changing Hands is located at:

6428 S McClintock Dr
Tempe, AZ 85283
480-730-0205
McClintock at Guadalupe

Princess of the Midnight Ball

When I was little I always wanted to be a princess. In fact when adults asked me what I was going to be when I grew up, I always told them I was going to be a princess. My older siblings tried to dismiss this career choice by pointing out that you had to be born a princess, and besides, queens had the real power.

But I was adamant. I wanted to be a princess.

This is because I adored fairy tales and princesses were always the ones wearing poufy dresses, looking gorgeous, and having fun and adventures. I wanted all of that. Especially the poufy dresses.

One of my favorite fairy tales was The Twelve Dancing Princesses. The short synopsis of this story is: Although the twelve beautiful princesses are locked in their room every night, every morning their dancing slippers are worn through. The King, vexed by this mystery, offers the hand of one of his daughters along with his kingdom to any man who can find out where his daughters go. If they fail, after three nights they will be beheaded. Many kings’ sons come to try and solve the riddle but they all fail.

Finally a soldier comes through town. He meets one of those kindly old magical women who just hang around street corners waiting to help the pure in heart. She tells him not to drink anything the princesses give him (which is laced with a sleeping potion) and gives him a magical invisibility cloak. He follows the princesses to an underground world where they dance with twelve princes (The Grimm brothers don’t say for certain, but I’m pretty sure these underground princes all look like the Jonas brothers.) The soldier brings back proof of this magical place to give to the king. Having solved the riddle, he wins the princess of his choice and the kingdom.

If you had asked me what the moral to this Grimm fairy tale was when I was a child, I would have said that it was either a) your father does indeed want to stop all your fun or b) if you are going to dance the night away with secret princes you should get sturdier shoes.

Now that I’m an adult I clearly see that this story is a cautionary tale for men: If you can’t figure out women and their secret worlds, you don’t stand a chance. Your head might as well be rolling on the floor. However, if you can stay awake long enough to discover the inner world of a woman, you get the whole kingdom.

And a very good moral it is too, men, so listen up.

This by the way, is not what Jessica Day George’s book, Princess of the Midnight Ball is about. At least not moral-wise. She does follow the fairy tale pretty closely, except that her version makes a lot more sense than Grimm’s did.

She explains who the underground princes are, why there are twelve of them and twelve princesses, and why they must dance every night. She also explains why the princesses have to keep it a secret, why the princes who fail to solve the riddle end up dying, and why there was that kindly old lady hanging around the street with magically items. (I don’t know about you, but even though I occasionally give money to beggars on street corners, not one of them has ever produced a magic cloak for me.) Jessica Day George even supplies what was missing in the original fairy tale, a villain who is capable not only of dooming the princesses but their whole kingdom as well.

The story is both believable and enjoyable and you will like the twelve princesses—especially the heroine, Rose. Galen, the soldier, is also a great character. (You have to love a man who not only sends flowers to a woman but can also knit his own socks.)

This is one book that the whole family will enjoy reading.


Here are some questions I asked Jessica:

Were you like me as a little girl--did you always want to be a princess? If not, what were you going to be when you grew up?

I did want to be a princess! I had a whole imaginary world I lived in. I had a horse, and a pet wolf, and a dragon, and I had hair down to my ankles (can you imagine actually having to wash hair that long? ugh!), and I lived in a marble palace with a huge pool in my room for bathing. There was more, it was very elaborate.

What is your favorite fairy tale?

East o' the Sun, West o' the Moon, which is the basis for my book Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow. Polar bears, trolls, and magic, oh my!

Did you imagine any specific person when you wrote about Galen or Rose? If so who?

I didn't, actually. Galen just popped into my head one day, marching along and wearing about five scarves because he was a knitter as well as an ex-soldier , and then I asked myself: what kind of girl would Galen fall for? What kind of girl would the oldest of twelve cursed princesses be? And Rose came from that.

I know you have small children. What's your writing schedule like?

Any free moment I can get! Usually the afternoons, now, when my four-year-old is watching a movie or playing, and the baby's sleeping. I used to write in the mornings, but with the late night feedings, I usually sleep until almost eight, and meanwhile the four-year-old has started waking up at 6:30! He just hangs out in his room, chatting with his toys and monkeying around, until I get up. What a nut!

What's next?

Dragon Spear, my third and final book about the seamstress Creel and her dragon friends!


Sounds great! Thanks for stopping by my blog!

Where I get my characters' names

I love choosing my characters' names. I get to use all the really cool names that my husband wouldn't let me name my children. (I tried to strike a deal with him that he could name all of the children he pushed out of his body, and I got to name all of the children I pushed out of my body, but he wouldn't go for it.)

He's sort of a traditionalist about names. In his mind a name has to be around for at least as long as the Bible for it to be considered a valid name. Which is why 4/5of our children have Bible names. (After 18 hours of labor with our last daughter, and a spinal headache, he patted my hand and said, "You can name her whatever you want." I should have named her Chanel, because then she would be our Chanel number 5, but no, that idea didn't occur to me until long after the ink was dry on the birth certificate.)

Anyway, while I was writing My Fair Godmother (and Just One Wish) I was teaching the nursery class at church. The kids were sooo cute and had such hip names, that I admit I stole several of them for my novels.

Here is a picture of Savannah

And here is a picture of Hunter. (Although the Hunter in the book never wears rabbit ears)

Aren't they so darling? And as a bonus, both of their parents want to buy the book. I should have thought of this idea long ago. My next character may be named Oprah . . .

Optioned!

Good news! My Fair Godmother was just optioned! This basically means that a very brilliant producer wants to make the book into a movie. Now I'm waiting and crossing my fingers that everything else will come together, because I've always thought this book would make a great movie.

Statistically speaking, most books that are optioned don't actually make it to the box office, but I'm happy regardless because the fact that it got optioned feels like validation to me. Someone else in the business saw the potential in this book. Yay!

professional jealousy

I was going to put up pictures of my Utah trip, but alas, Techno Bob is on a scout camp-out with one of the offspring, and I am pathetically unable to upload pictures onto my blog. (And no, I don't know how to work my cell phone or our DVD player either. I have mastered the toaster, even though it came with three additional buttons that didn't used to be on our older, less techno-savvy toaster. Seriously, the new one has a cancel button--I suppose for people who change their mind about making toast and want to retrieve their uncrispened bread, yet have never figured out how to flip the toast lever up.)

However an interesting subject came up on one of the writers' lists I'm on. Someone who hasn't seen any nibbles on their novel was bemoaning the fact that a high school friend submitted a book to an agent and two weeks later had a contract.

Yeah, that happens. And it's hard.

I remember how badly I wanted to be published. It wasn't just a want--like you want ice cream, or you want that new dress. It was an actual physical ache that I couldn't really explain to anyone else or to myself.

Pre-published authors tend to see that book contract--or better yet, that fresh new book--as the finish line: the accomplishment of the goal.

It's not though. It's just the beginning.

And that whole jealousy/want cycle doesn't end when you get published.

Once you're published you'll have friends that get this award or that award, or the book tour, or that speaking engagement, or that movie deal, or that Newbery, or hit the bestsellers list, or um, get constantly compared to J.K. Rowling. (And yes, in fact I did know both Shannon Hale and Stephenie Meyer before they became ultra-famous.) And I don't think any of us want our friends not to do well, we're thrilled when they do, we just feel a little left behind.

For me, I've decided that it's much more important for there to be good literature out there for kids than it is for me to be famous/rich/compared to JK Rowling. I have a good life, a wonderful family, a husband who loves me and who thankfully can support our family. I have no cause at all to complain. So I can applaud the success of all of the authors that I love and realize that all gifts (talents) no matter how big or how small are equally important if we're striving to make the world a better place. It's like the parable of the widow's mite. I may only have two pence to contribute but it's still enough.