Articles in month: July, 2008

Well, it looks like the good times are over for me. I’ve been summoned – in a few days I’ll be heading back to work so that Sara no longer has to bottle up all her feelings or post them anonymously on public bulletin boards under names like FoxyLoxy37. I do feel like I have a little negotiating power now, though, and am going to sit Sara down and talk about an every-other-day schedule rather than six times a week, sometimes seven. Also, I want family medical leave. I mean, what if I decide to have a little bloglet? So, I need to contact my people to have the paperwork drawn up and then I’m packing up and heading home. I hope the resort won’t mind a few missing bathrobes. Between you, me, and the four walls, when Sara gets the bill, I’ll just tell her I “lost” them by the pool.

So I’m getting a hot rock massage and fantasizing about being upgraded to WordPress 2.6 when I get a tap on my shoulder, remove the cucumber slices from my eyes, and am told by Felipe, the masseuse, that I have an “important” call.

“Hello?” I ask, expecting bad news about my stock portfolio.

“Hey! Hi! It’s Sara! Guess what?”

She always does this. Guess what? Like I’m supposed to intuit from 5,000 miles away that she created the perfect peanut sauce recipe or finally found that Essie color she’s been looking for at Trade Secret stores around the country. It’s true that I’m a sophisticated program, but I have my limits. Anyway. “What?”

“I’m calling from my new Blackberry! It’s red!”

“That’s nice.” What I want to say is, Can you really afford that?  But that’s not a conversation I want to have while I’m racking up spa services on her dime.

“And we’re over the halfway point here and G. is doing great in school and my book is shaping up and there’s this great article in Publishers Weekly about my editor and Story of a Girl was named to the 2008 Capitol Choices list and—”

“Slow. Down. I’m on spa time here.”

“It’s not all good news, though. There are a lot of spiders. Last week I was making dinner and found a solpugid in the kitchen and I almost died. We got it out alive because it was too big to kill, really. You’d need a shotgun.”

“Uh huh.” I wave Felipe over so that he can hold the straw of my passionfruit margarita while I drink.

“And I miss my friends, and my blender and my coffee maker and my office and…well, I miss you.”

I know I’m supposed to say, I miss you, too. Awkward. “Listen, Sara, you’re breaking up. Maybe it’s the reception here. Maybe it’s your Blackberry…”

“It’s not my Blackberry. My Blackberry is the most perfect thing in my life!”

“Can’t…hear…you…” I hold the phone further and further out then hand it to Felipe, motioning for him to hang up. I’ve only got about three and a half more weeks still need my widgets exfoliated and to shave a few more pounds off my archives. Don’t worry about Sara. She’s fine. After all, she has her precious Blackberry now. Got to run – my mud bath is ready.

Sara totally interrupted my hula lesson to order me to let you all know that she is the latest member of the Teen Fiction Cafe blog. Apparently, I am not enough for her, and she has to go off with her cool new friends like Wendy Toliver and Kelly Parra and Lauren Baratz-Logsted and group blog because she wants some “space” and the freedom to “see other people” and “explore other sides” of herself. Fine. She made her first TFC post today. La-dee-da. On the topic of friends. How every ironic. Now, if she will leave me alone for five seconds, I’m putting my grass skirt back on.

It has worked hard this year and has put in for some PTO. It wants to see the world, stretch out at the beach, do a little snorkling. I peeked in its suitcase and it is taking my Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and RSS reader with it. I guess even blogs need companionship. It’s leaving email home with me so I don’t get lonely. Hopefully it will send a postcard or two so we don’t miss it too terribly much, and it might have to do a little telecommuting to take care of business, but I have instructed it to truly relax for a change. Bon voyage, blog – and rest up, because it’s going to be a busy fall!

- If you are in Utah, there’s this very cool event coming up on July 19 – Writing for Charity. It’s a workshoppy-type thing that is going to get you lots of up close and personal time with authors and illustrators talking about process and craft and all that good stuff, and the best part is the faculty are donating their time so that the entire registration fee (a cheap, cheap $45!) goes to The Wheelchair Project. You can read all the details and registration info at Shannon Hale’s blog. It’s going to be held at my favorite place – The Salt Lake City Public Library. I am just sorry to be out of town and missing this.

- The enchanting and hilarious Katie Davis has created this site where you can create your autobiography in comic form. I haven’t tried it yet, because I’m not allowed to do such things until I finish my book, but if you don’t have a book to finish or homework to do, you totally should. And post it on your blog and tell me because I want to see. Also, you should tell your favorite kid about this because it would be fun for them – and maybe they could wrangle some extra credit when school starts up again?

- Laurie Halse Anderson has thrown down the WFMAD challenge  (Write 15 Minutes a Day), and if I didn’t feel like had to write 15 hours a day right now, I would totally be doing it. You’d be surprised how much you can do in 15 minutes, for real. And, it’s a great way to create a habit. Dorothea Brande would approve.

Okay, that’s all I have. Happy Thursday! We are over the hump!

In the course of my little writing career thus far, I’ve referred a bunch of people to my agent, either because they ask or because I think Michael might like their work. Now, a referral is not a recommendation. Writers have asked me to read their stuff and then “recommend” them to my agent and I say, well, here is his contact info and you can tell him I gave it to you, but ultimately he has to both love and think he can sell your work, and me loving it will have no influence on that. Which is true. And it takes the pressure off me.

Most of the time nothing ever comes of this. Over the last few months I’ve gotten to know this local author, James Dashner, and it came up in conversation that he was in the market for an agent. I told him about Michael and why he is awesome, and a couple of short months later Michael has sold James’s book to Delacorte! This has nothing to do with me. I haven’t even read the book in question. And like I said, if Michael isn’t excited about something, no amount of me recommending someone to him will mean squat, and obviously Delacorte wouldn’t be buying it if it wasn’t awesome. Still, it’s a great feeling (after 10 years of being on the other end) to be able to help someone through one of the many hoops we all have to jump through get where we are. But if you ever hear someone say something like, “So-and-so got so-and-so his/her agent/editor,” I can guarantee there is no magical string pulling. Most of the time it amounts to saying to your agent, ”This guy might be querying you. He’s really nice.” The work has to stand on its own, and so does the author. So congratulations, James!

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The July/August Horn Book is out and it’s a collector’s item! Brian Selznick’s illustrations are on the cover and inside, along with his Caldecott speech. Oh, and I’m in there, too! I, along with several other authors, wrote a little piece on the guilty pleasure reading from my youth, in honor of the 25th anniversary of Sweet Valley High.

And now, in honor of my 24 hourversary of feeling so much better, I do believe I might have to allow myself a wee nap.