Posts for category ‘once was lost’

The Year of Writing is off to a great start. I love my new writing space. Part of what’s kind of magic about it is that I’ve decided not to do any author business, social networking, or non-creative work in it. I have other space at home for that. It feels very protected, like a monk’s cell, which is how I always imagined the ideal space would be. And I’m not going to post a picture of it because, I don’t know, maybe that will let in a certain kind of energy I don’t want it to have? Really, I’m not usually doo-doo-doo-doo about that stuff (that should be read with a Twilight Zone inflection, not a Manhattan Transfer inflection, and if you don’t know who or what the Manhattan Transfer is, well, you are probably young and vigorous). In this case, I think I’ll keep it secret.

Meanwhile, instead, I shall post the following links:

- My latest Good Letters post – thoughts stirred up while recently kicking back with Season 1 of Hoarders.

- TeenReads.com is giving away up to 25 copies of Once Was Lost for your book club! The contest is open through February 17. Check it out.

- Did you happen to watch City Slickers the other night while everyone else watched football? Did it occur to you, “That kid playing Billy Crystal’s son looks an awful lot like Jake Gyllenhaal?” Well, you were right. Maybe I am the last person in the world to have realized this.

- I shall now remind you about the workshop I’m teaching in June at the Glen Workshop East. More about what it is and my experiences of it here.

- Current song obsession: Miranda Lambert’s “Only Prettier”

- Speaking of music, one of my faves, Elton John, is the cover story of the current Rolling Stone. It’s a really good interview, if you’re an Elton fan. It’s interesting to hear him talk about his old work, and he also has some tough love for Billy Joel re: sobriety. Random: The interviewer said he could barely stand to listen to EJ’s debut, Empty Sky, but I like it. Certainly, the songs make absolutely no sense, but it still has a certain something.

- Edited to add link to this great, great interview with Linford Detweiler of Over the Rhine. Though he’s talking specifically about songwriting, there’s lots here for writers.

- Latest single-song download (though I’m pretty sure we have it on vinyl): Simon and Garfunkel’s “America.” Come on. Great song.

Wow, this post is making me feel old and unhip. Okay. I’m going with it.

Congratulations to commenter Kristen F., whose number came up in the most recent drawing. *throws confetti*

Are you feeling sad about not winning things? Do you have a book club? (Including a school book club?) Well guess what. Teenreads.com is giving away a whole set (up to 25 copies!) of OWL paperbacks – details here.

People, I am in a good mood. HOW TO SAVE A LIFE page proofs are winging their way back to NYC, and I just saw some really exciting potential covers for it. As I read through the proofs, I just kept thinking what a miraculous thing a finished book is. There are always times in the writing process you feel pretttty sure you’ll never finish, and maybe wish you’d never started. Then you keep plowing ahead, baby steps, and some amount of time later y’ got yerself a book.

Also, I’m in the process of an exciting office move and creating new work space. And creating new work.

What I’m saying is: I’m happy! And what I’d like to do is express my happiness by giving away as many books as possible. I’m going to pick five winners from commenters on this post, to end the month with a bang. Yes, I said five. Onetwothreefourfive, maybe you. And there’s lots of time to enter, because I won’t be back in action here until the first week of February. So comment your little hearts out!

First of all, we have a giveaway winner from Friday! (And yes, LiveJournal commenters, I’m including your names in the hat.) Today, Mrs. Glosser’s Custom Random Number Generator gives us Mariska! Contact me, Mariska – info is below in a reply to your comment, in case you didn’t get it via email.

If you’ve read Once Was Lost, you know that the book starts off with a quote from an Over the Rhine song, “Long Lost Brother,” and that the acknowledgments end with another thank-you to Karin and Linford (who are OTR, essentially) for their song “Idea #21 (Not Too Late)”, which became one of my theme songs for the story. I wrote more about those and some other songs over at Largehearted Boy awhile back.

Music always plays a big part in my writing process, whether through songs that capture themes from the novel, or music that gets me in the mood of the story even if nothing about it seems related to the story. Sadly, a lot of the music I like is not the most available for linkage, or is by bands that can’t afford to make videos, etc. But I thought I’d share a couple of songs that I will forever and always associate with Once Was Lost.

- A live/bootleg video of Over the Rhine performing Idea #21. After the initial and obligatory fan screaming out, it’s a pretty great version of the song even though you can’t see Karin and Linford’s beautiful faces. Lyrics here. (Scroll down through the I’s.) (I hope they don’t mind me posting. I know some musicians don’t like bootlegs out there because they can’t control the quality, but I think this is gorgeous.) This song is on their album Ohio.

- “Nightingale” by Laura Veirs. Oh how I love this song. It was on my list of songs to get me in the mood of melancholy and longing that permeates the book. When the horns come in: oh. This is from the Saltbreakers CD.

Leave a comment to be entered in the next round of giveaways. And to make up for the fact that in posting these YouTube videos I am possibly violating…something…, the winner of this round will get (along with one of my books, and a surprise book) a Laura Veirs or Over the Rhine CD, for which I will pay full price!

WOW, you guys, thank you for all your comments/entries! Using Mrs. Glosser’s Custom Random Number Generator, I came up with comment #44266 as the winner. So, congrats, Shari Green! And thanks again to all of you for the participation and for celebrating with me. And! There are five more chances to win this month! Including right now. Same deal – leave a comment on this post, even just a “yeah so I didn’t win last time” and you’ll be entered again. Comments will close in three days.

Speaking of Once Was Lost, as you may know by now, I was inspired to write it when Elizabeth Smart was kidnapped from her home here in Salt Lake City. If you’re not from around here, you may not know that it’s taken years to bring her kidnapper to justice. He worked the system like a pro, causing delay after delay in the courts. But finally, just about one month ago, he was found guilty for his crimes.

The next day, this picture ran on the front page of the Salt Lake Tribune. It still gives me goosebumps. Elizabeth Smart’s boldness in facing the man who made her life hell for nine months, but, more, her refusal to let his cruelty and evilness keep her from living her life, are powerful, and I admire this young woman very much. She and her mother and sister were named Utahns of the Year.

This is only tangentially related to OWL, of course, because the book turned out not to be about the Smart case, specifically, at all. But the process of writing OWL, the questions I was asking myself, and the mood of the book will, for me, always be associated with the time Elizabeth was missing.

Happy 4th of January 2011! I hope your holidays were rejuvenating, and not soul-sucking. And if they were soul-sucking, I hope you’re starting to feel back to your normal self.

I find this day particularly exciting, because it’s the official release date of the Once Was Lost paperback. Paperbacks are cute, affordable, and light, but sturdy. Since it’s going to be awhile before it’s time to start talking in any detail about my next book, I will still be talking about Once Was Lost (OWL) a bit throughout the year. (And would be happy to talk about it with you, on your blog, to your students, etc.)

This book was oh-so-difficult to write (which is partly why there’s a longer gap between it and my next – I needed to recover), but it’s done well for itself out in the world, far beyond my expectations. In summary, and if you’re just tuning in, OWL was:

Winner of the Utah Book Award
Winner of the inaugural INSPY Award
A Kirkus Best Book of 2009
An ALA Best Book for Young Adults
A Fall Reading the West pick by the Mountains & Plains Independent Booksellers Association
A Texas Tayshas Reading List pick
…and it received starred reviews from the three major trade reviewers: Kirkus, Booklist, and Publishers Weekly. (See review quotes here.)

Sometimes, often, I need to remind myself to celebrate these things. To help me do that, I’m embarking on a month of giveaways on my blog. From comments on every blog post in January (I’ll probably post about six times this month), I will randomly pick someone to receive some stuff. If there’s a particular one of my books (print or audio) you want, you can have that. If you have all my books, let me know what you like and I’ll select something from my massive piles of books and ARCs by others to send you. Your comment can be as simple as, “Hey! I want some stuff!” [Edited to add: I'll set my blog so that posts comments close 3 days after it goes up, just for January.]

Meanwhile, here’s a video I made last year about OWL for Holly Cupola’s blog (teachers or librarians may find this useful – feel free to show it wherever). Below that are some other OWLy links. Thanks for celebrating with me!

Audio – Interview with Mr. Media on Blog Talk Radio

Audio – Podcast Interview at ReadWriteThink

Book Notes playlist at Largehearted Boy

Blog interview with Cynthia Leitich Smith