February 25, 2010
Once Was Lost Story Secrets, PEN/Faulkner & L.A. Times Prize finalists

Author and Readergirlz diva Holly Cupola graciously invited me to participate in her Story Secrets series, and I put together a video blog about how the story of Once Was Lost developed from real life events. (No spoilers, don’t worry.) Thanks for having me, Holly! Don’t have your copy of Once Was Lost yet? Find it at a local independent book store, or ask for it at your school or public library.

Congrats to the PEN/Faulkner fiction award finalists—a blessedly diverse group in light of the white-male-ification this season among the bigger awards. I’m especially pleased to see comrade Sherman Alexie honored for his wonderful collection War Dances. Congratulations also to L.A. Times Prize finalists; I love how comprehensive the categories are. The only book from that entire roster that I’ve read is Dave Cullen’s Columbine, which is definitely a worthy selection.

See you back here next week, or in Jacksonville this weekend!

February 24, 2010
Newsies: Interview, Jacksonville Book Fest, manuscript critique in support of indie book store…
  • Teen blogger Robby interviewed me over at his site, Once Upon A Book. His blog is a big “nuh-uh!” in the face of all the hand-wringing there often is about how teen boys “don’t read.” Thanks for having me, Robby, and keep up the great work!
  • Jacksonville, here I come! This weekend is the big Much Ado About Books festival in Jacksonville, Florida. I will be there, giving two (two!) sessions during which I’ll talk about my books and writing YA. These sessions are a great option for those interested in being published in YA—plenty of time for Q&A during which I will reveal my PUBLISHING SECRETS. (Okay, I don’t actually have any, but I do promise to tell you anything you want to know. About publishing.) The details:

Saturday, Feb 27 – Jacksonville, FL – Much Ado about Books

Free and open to the public! At the Main Library on Laura Street. All the info here.

11 a.m. at the Teen Library of the Main Library, ground floor

11:45 – 12:30 signing

12:45 – 1:00 signing

2 p.m. – Session off-site from the festival, at the Mandarin Library Branch (I will also be happy to sign afterward)

  • Panic in the industry? Please. Some book lovers simply will not be stopped. For example, Michelle Witte is gearing up to open a new book store here in Utah, specializing in children’s and YA books. When I heard about this, I got very excited. The location, just north of Salt Lake City, is perfect as there is not a lot up there serving book buyers, and told Michelle to let me know what I could do to help. Right now, Michelle/Fire Petal Books is holding an auction to raise money for the venture. I’ve contributed a manuscript critique. And there are lots more great things for readers and writers, from signed books to a phone conversation with editor Molly O’Neill. All the info is here—bid early and bid often! Auction closes March 20. (Though some of the auction items are location-specific, you do not have to live in Utah to participate.)
February 17, 2010
Hittin’ the road

I’ve always had this fantasy about taking a trip with nothing but the clothes on my back and some beef jerky wrapped in a handkerchief. I love the idea of that kind of freedom—no “professional outfits” for appearances, no hair products, no assortment of appropriate yet comfortable shoes, no “oh no what if I need that one cardigan with the pockets?” panic. I figure this research trip is my best chance. The only thing resembling an appearance is the casual fan meetup, and I am doing one leg of the trip by train (okay…sleeping car, not boxcar), so it feels right. I’m putting on my jeans, sweater, and boots and packing light. That rhymed. Maybe I will write a road song.

Some road songs (hi Justin!):

Car Wheels on a Gravel Road – Lucinda Williams

The Road’s My Middle Name – Bonnie Raitt

Guitar Town – Steve Earle

Ventura Highway – America

Interstate Love Song – Stone Temple Pilots

Next Best Western – Richard Shindell

And here’s one I bet you don’t know – The Girl Who Never Saw a Mountain by Vince Bell, from his masterpiece, Phoenix:

‘Cross the plains
like a rangefire,
lakes like inland seas.
Freezing fields of powder
full moon flying through the trees.

Got to get that one onto iPod before I leave. (What, you think that hobo doesn’t have an iPod wrapped up in his bundle?)

February 15, 2010
Weekend in the Life of a Writer – Pictorial

Bobbie Pyron (THE RING---about a troubled girl who takes up boxing), Paul Genesse (DRAGON HUNTERS/Golden Cord series), me @ Salt Lake City Public Library on Saturday. This turned out to be a great event, the kind you always hope for but don't always get. Thank you Paul (from whom I got this picture), Bobbie, library staff, and audience!

For process nerds: draft revision set-up. On left, paper manuscript covered in context-specific notes. Index-card outline of new draft in Scrivener, on big monitor. On right, laptop with general revision notes on TaskPaper. I took this picture with Pano, an iPhone app that lets you take panoramic photos. Fancy. Of course it is too wide to actually display at decent size here. Oh well. This is my office desk.

I laughed when I noticed this coffee ring on my manuscript, because it's such a big old writer cliche. (I wouldn't want to spoil plot for you, hence the blurrage.) The little leather journal in the top of the frame is from Exacompta (through shopwritersbloc.com). The refillable insides are made from Clairefontaine quadrille paper---sooo nice with the fountain pen. I'm keeping a bit of a revision/writing life journal in it, having recently destroyed a bunch of journals that may have been filled with incriminating secrets. You'll never know. This is my home desk.

February 12, 2010
Event Reminders: Salt Lake, Omaha, The Glen Online

Saturday, February 13 @ SLC Main Library – 1 p.m. (that’s tomorrow!)

400 S / 300 E

“Young Adult Authors You’ll Love to Meet.” Yes! You will love to meet us, and we will love to meet you. It’s a panel with me, Paul Genesse and Bobbie Pyron. Whether you’re a writer yourself, an aspiring writer, or a fan, the discussion should be great. We will answer anything you ask. Within reason. There will be a signing afterward.

Friday, February 19 @ Aromas Coffeehouse, Omaha, NE – 7 p.m.

Fan meetup! This is my totally experimental/guerrilla/crapshoot thingie. I’m going to be in Omaha for the evening on this last-minute trip, and while it’s too late to line up any store events, I know authors don’t often come your way and I’d be happy to hang out. If you are in the area, come by to say hi and have a chat and a latte (and I will bring my good signing pen in case it become necessary). We’ll see how this goes…I for one am going to bring a book in case it’s just me, myself, and I.

11th and Jones in the Old Market Lofts building

1033 Jones Street, Omaha, Nebraska 68102, 402-614-7009

I will stay there until 8:30 for sure.

Now, Tomorrow, Six Months from Tuesday – The Comfort of Your Own Home

It’s the Glen Online!

Whether you’d like to improve your writing in a particular genre, or have a specific project in mind, the Glen Online offers the perfect opportunity to set reasonable creative writing goals with a mentor’s guidance, all while working at your own pace.

I’m teaching a YA fiction class—I know many of you have already contacted me saying that you wish you could do this if you had the money. If all goes well, I’ll be doing this well into the foreseeable future, so maybe it will work out for you later. If you’re not into YA, TGO also offers classes in beginning, intermediate, and advanced fiction, poetry, and memoir. All the info here.

February 9, 2010
In Conversation with Matt de la Peña

Matt de la Peña is the author of three acclaimed novels for young adults, and has also had short fiction published in various literary journals. I’ve known Matt awhile—our friendship began when we were forced to ride around in a stretch limo together at the Rochester Teen Book Festival. Yes, sometimes this job is hell.

While on tour for Once Was Lost, I picked up a signed copy of Matt’s latest book, We Were Here, at BookPeople in Austin and read it on the way home. This story, about three boys who break out of a group home and embark on a journey down the California coast, moved me from page 1, when the narrator, Miguel, muses about the book he’ll someday write:

“About what it’s like growing up on the levee in Stockton, where every other person you meet has missing teeth or is leaning against a liquor store wall begging for change to buy beer. Or maybe it’d be about my dad dying in the stupid war and how at the funeral they gave my mom some cheap medal and a folded up flag and shot a bunch of rifles at the clouds.”

Later, Miguel joins up with Mong and Rondell, and together they’re three characters I’ll never forget. While traveling for OWL and doing school visits and trying to connect with bored-looking teenage boys, I kept thinking, “I wish they could be listening to Matt de la Peña instead of me.” Not that I don’t have anything to say to bored teenage boys, because I think I do and usually once I get my talk rolling they are bored no more, but We Were Here truly speaks their language. It speaks your language, too, if you’re a writer, with prose that is both immediate and poetic, clear and complex, and has real drama and humor without straining for either. Matt and I have been having an email conversation about WWH for a few weeks—edited below for your reading pleasure.

My first and most important question before we even start: how do you get the little accent mark/tilde thing over the n in Peña?

So, the tilde over the “n” is tricky on the web. It’s easy on word — you just go to special characters. But I really don’t know what to do on the web. They make it hard to be Mexican online. And when I see my name without the tilde I feel naked. And I feel like I’m disrespecting my grandma.

(Fortunately, I figured out how to do this, because of course there is an entire wikipedia entry about it. On a Mac, you do option+n then the letter you want under the tilde. /PSA) Okay, at the risk of sounding like I’m asking where you get your ideas, what was the genesis of We Were Here?

When I was writing short stories I developed a weird strategy. I’d always take two partially finished stories and throw them together, no matter how odd the fit (sort of like Ben & Jerry’s Half Baked). It usually took me in totally new directions. One time I paired a landscaping story with a story about a relationship that was messed up by a cheating dude (not based on my own experience) (well, maybe a little). It seemed to work. For We Were Here I did something similar. Main character Miguel’s crime is something I took from a college basketball teammate of mine. He came to the first open gym of the year with one of those house arrest anklets. It wasn’t until six months later that he told me what happened. It broke my heart. And I always secretly watched him when everybody was goofing off or messing with each other. He’d be laughing like everybody else, but there was always something sad in his eyes. Such a complex crime (I guess I shouldn’t give it away). So, I took his crime and made it Miguel’s backstory. I also worked in a group home for a couple years after college. Tough job, but I remember looking through all the kids’ files after they went to sleep. Heartbreaking stuff. At least in some cases. So I threw Miguel into a group home setting. And last came the trip down the California coast. Seven years ago I started a failed novel about a musician living in LA. He’s originally from Stockton in Northern California. After his old man dies he drives the coast to LA and stops at random places to hang out solo. The book died because it didn’t have enough plot. But I stole the section where he travels the coast and gave it to Miguel, Mong and Rondell. And the last thing I had to do was find the right voice. Remember that story collection we were both in, Does This Book Make Me Look Fat? That was the first time I’d ever done 1st person in YA. And I was sort of practicing the voice I eventually gave to Miguel.

Anyway, that’s a very long-winded answer to your question, I know. The point is, We Were Here is a bit of a mashup. It came from all over. But the genesis, the core story I wanted to explore, was what happens to a kid who commits the kind of crime Miguel commits. What does that do to his psyche moving forward.

Ever since you mentioned Half Baked, I am jonesing.

Sara, I want you to seriously trust me on something, okay? Häagan Dazs’ Caramel Cone. Please try a pint. This son of a bitch ice cream is so good I can’t believe it.

(Insert several-day interval during which I ignore Matt’s advice, yet do consume a pint of Everything But The, against doctor’s orders.) The case files. The scene in which Miguel reads his friends’ case files had this powerfully physical effect on me I don’t often get when reading. I had to keep putting the book down, and was talking aloud to myself: “Oh God. Oh no.” Did you know when you started the story what would be in each of the three main characters’ files? On a related note: how much do you know when you start a book? Do you have it pretty well mapped out or do you allow yourself to be surprised, and allow the story to change because of those surprises?

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