August 2009
Pillow Woes
3 August 2009
Back in May, I had the brilliant idea of washing our pillows. I’d done it several times before, but either I did something wrong this time, or the pillows just weren’t up for it. One came out so lumpy it was unusable. The other only half lumpy, and therefore still kinda usable. Usable enough that Ben’s been sleeping on it since then.
Yesterday we finally went to the mall in a quest for new pillows. I bought some back in May right after “the incident,” but they were way too thick and neither of us could sleep on them. We’ve casually looked since then, but most seem too firm and others too flimsy. Yesterday we walked into Macy’s and discovered all their pillows were half off and so we determined to settle this thing once and for all.
Oh. My. Gosh, is it hard to pick out a pillow.
If it weren’t for McKenna, I probably would have frittered away tons of time in there. You can spend basically as much as you want. (I pointed out a $300 price tag to Ben, to which he replied, “For that price, it better give me a neck massage.”) I’ve suffered the consequences of spending $11 on a pillow, so I wanted to aim higher than that, but otherwise I really had no idea what I wanted. I sleep half on my stomach (for which they recommend soft pillows) and half on my side (for which they recommend firm pillows). So that’s no help. And while I attempted to lie on various pillows and test their squishiness, you can really only tell so much on the very hard floor of Macy’s. Added to the stress of not knowing what’s best for me was the fact that there were tons of choices.
In contrast with the pillow experience, thirty minutes later we were at Backwoods, a sporting goods store that specializes in backpacking and camping gear. We were there for Ben (did I even need to say that?) but they actually carry a lot of really cute, albeit expensive, women’s clothes. They were having a massive sale, and I spotted a shirt I admired about 6-weeks ago. Thinking I was crazy for even checking, I flipped the tag, shocked to find it was now 50% off. I turned the shirt to Ben, my mouth hanging open. He took one look and said, “That shirt was made for you.” (It’s green and there are dragonflies on it. That makes it a “Stephanie” shirt.)
Hope all my fabulous blog readers are having a found-an-adorable-shirt-for-half-off kind of day, rather than a totally-overwhelmed-and-can’t-make-an-educated-decision-on-this-stupid-pillow type.
We interrupt this program for a brief rant…
3 August 2009
Tonight is the book discussion for Me, Just Different hosted by my home church, Southwoods. If you’re in the KC area, you should totally come check it out. And if the book isn’t draw enough, Sheridan’s Frozen Custard has donated a bunch of $5 gift cards that we’ll be giving away. I’m SO excited about this. As if I needed another reason to adore that place…
So I really feel like I need to get something off my chest. I very strongly dislike The Secret Life of the American Teenager on ABC Family. For one thing, I think it’s a total joke it’s on ABC Family. I assume it snuck in there because it was created by Brenda Hampton, the creator of Seventh Heaven. For those who may not have seen it, the show is entirely about sex. About who’s having sex, who’s not, who said they wouldn’t but now are, and so on. One of my friends has a daughter in sixth grade and says all the girls are obsessed with it. Sixth grade is way too young to be watching Secret Life. Honestly, sometimes twenty-five feels too young.
I’m sure there’s a camp of people out there saying our kids know all about sex anyway, and there’s no harm in them watching a show that talks about everything they already know. But Secret Life isn’t just talking about high school sex, it’s glorifying it. I’m sure they don’t think they are. My guess is they think by showing Amy’s life as a teenage mother they’re showing the darker side, but none of the other characters on the show are thinking twice before they “hook up,” so why do they expect young viewers to put on the brakes because of Amy? Aargh.
Okay, stepping off soap box now. (Though, truthfully, I’m still growling as I do so.)
The Glorious Summer of ‘09
5 August 2009
Normally around this time of year, I’m so done with summer. This year, for some reason, I’m happy to have another 6 to 8 weeks of it. Part of this could be that I lost a week back in June when we went to Estes Park where I wore my jacket and long sleeves the entire time. Part is that I’m guessing I’ll eventually feel a little nostalgic about this summer. My first book released, and McKenna’s just so much fun right now. I think Summer ’09 will become one of those golden times in my memory. And while it’s here, I’m going to enjoy every moment of it.
Last night was the book discussion gathering at Southwoods Christian Church here in Kansas City. It was awesome. We had about 25 girls there, and I can’t even describe how cool it was to sit and listen to them discuss, with great animation, what Skylar should have done differently, what their advice to her would have been, etc. The most popular question of the night was, “Do Skylar and Connor stay together?” followed closely by, “Do Abbie and Chris stay together?” The most impressive observation of the night came from Emily, who pointed out that Skylar and I share initials. (Or we used to. We don’t now that I’m married.)
This was the first in-person interaction I’ve had with readers. I’ve done some on-line, and of course I had a book signing, but this was so much better. The girl coming to mind right now is Courtney. I said to her, “What kind of books do you like to read?” She grinned and said, “Books like this!” That made me so happy, I wanted to give her a BIG hug. I restrained since we’d just met.
And now I need to come back to earth and actually get to work. Have a good day, everyone!
Fantasizing about going to the movies…
5 August 2009
I’ve seen a couple previews now for The Time Traveler’s Wife, a book I love and need to reread. I doubt the movie will be everything I want, but the previews at least look promising. Rachel McAdams seems like a good cast for Claire, and most the dialogue I’ve heard is straight out of the book. All good signs.
I’m also interested in seeing Julie & Julia. I’ve liked Amy Adams since her appearance in the first season of The Office, and I’m always intrigued by food-oriented movies. I’m a big fan of food.
Will I actually get to the theater to see either of these? My record indicates no. (Until The Proposal last week, the last movie I saw in the theater was … Juno, maybe?) But Ben has agreed to go with me to see New Moon, and that’s plenty. It won’t be the midnight showing or anything, but hopefully sometime in that first week. And then maybe again the following week…
Happy Thursday everyone!
Book Friday, Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen
7 August 2009
I believe this has been mentioned on here before, but I’m a huge Sarah Dessen fan. Particularly of This Lullaby. She’s released four books since then, and each one I’ve been like, “It’s good … but it’s not This Lullaby.” Reading her latest, Along for the Ride, evoked the same reaction.
Auden, the narrator of Along for the Ride, is very loveable. I spent most of the story wanting to hug her and hand her a couple Tylenol PM. (Auden has sleep issues.) I liked Eli a lot, I liked the secondary characters, the plot, and the resolution, it just … it wasn’t This Lullaby. I don’t know if the problem here is Sarah or me. Likely me because she’s … Well, she’s Sarah Dessen. She’s the queen of the quiet YA books. This book hit number one on the New York Times best seller list. Clearly, I just have attachment issues.
Hope everyone enjoys their weekend!
The Pros and Cons of Being an Adult
9 August 2009
This weekend was crazy hot. Like the kind of oppressive heat you expect in Kansas City in August, yet it’s still always shocking when it arrives. We wanted to take a walk, but we aren’t stupid, so we thought about going to the mall. Only we didn’t need anything at the mall, so we decided instead to go to Costco. We needed a couple items, one being milk, and it’s big and air-conditioned. The decision made, we loaded McKenna in the car (“hot car,” she told us) and headed to Costco with the rest of suburbia.
As we looked through fresh pasta or toddler raincoats or something, Ben spotted the Wiis.
Getting a Wii has been a frequent topic of discussion in our house in the last couple weeks. Mostly, because I said to Ben one night, “I think I’d like a Wii,” and he said, “Okay. Your birthday’s in a couple months.”
So we’re standing there looking at them, not even educated to know what a “nunchuck” is, and Ben turns to me and says, “Wanna get it today?”
And herein lies the beauty of adulthood. Along with dishing yourself a big bowl of ice cream at 4 in the afternoon because dinner is whenever you say it is.
After a few minutes of debating, I said, “No. I can wait until my birthday.” And it wasn’t because I wanted to wait until the end of October, it’s because of the big bummer of adulthood. Responsibility. I know a lot can happen in the next couple months, and we might need that money. I also know how I am, and it’d feel like kind of a sad birthday to have nothing to open on my birthday.
And similarly, I can eat ice cream at 4 everyday, but it would really make the dinner schedule wacky for everybody else, so it just makes more sense to eat it after dinner instead.
Though I could eat ice cream if I wanted. And I still find that pretty exciting.
The Burdens of an Over-Explainer
10 August 2009
I have tendencies toward being an over-explainer. You know, the people who you’re riding with in the car and they’re like, “If you’re wondering why I’m taking this road, it’s because the other day I got caught on the interstate in traffic around this time. And I could have taken such-and-such street, but there’s that round-about that I really hate, and so I decided…” When really you don’t care at all, and in fact hadn’t given it a single thought.
I don’t think I’m quite that bad, but sometimes I really crave making my situation understood. This happened to me last night at my husband’s softball game. It’s our church team, and Ben, my brother-in-law Chris, and my father-in-law all play on the team. (I just had the inclination to explain that my father-in-law doesn’t usually play, but he always keeps score and sometimes plays if they’re short a player. But do you care? No. See what I’m talking about?) All of us girls—my mother-in-law, Chris’s girlfriend, and I—were there to support the team. My very patient mother-in-law had Chris’s puppy, who’s about 4 months old and wants to be on the go all the time. So she’d been walking all over the ball park with him when McKenna decided she wanted Grandma’s attention. So we made a trade, she took over keeping an eye on McKenna, and I had the puppy.
The puppy wasn’t as happy with me. I wasn’t in the mood to indulge walking all over the park. I wanted to sit and watch the game. So after a couple minutes, he started whining, which I ignored. And then he paid me back by peeing all over the cement around my feet. (Though fortunately not on my feet.) I turned to Heidi, Chris’s girlfriend, and said, “Oh gosh, Royal just peed.” Here he’d been walking all over the place for the last twenty minutes, I had him for two, and he peed all over. Heidi and I giggled about it, and all was fine until I heard the women two rows behind us—who were there for the game after ours—say to one another, “That’s really gross that the dog peed.”
And out of my embarrassment, the desire to explain myself struck. I badly wanted to turn around and explain how it wasn’t my dog, that I’d only had him for a few minutes, that there wasn’t a hose around, and so on. Instead, I fought it down and joyfully turned over the leash to my mother-in-law when she and McKenna returned.
I guess this is part of the satisfaction for me in writing novels—lots of time to make situations completely understood. Because what a frustrating part of life it can be.
Hope everyone’s having a great Tuesday!
For love of tomatoes
11 August 2009
When we found out we were having a girl, I expected our house would soon be full of Disney Princess stuff, like all the houses of my friends with daughters. And maybe we’ll still get there, but for now McKenna’s obsession has taken a different path.
Tomatoes.
That’s right—tomatoes.
It started with the tomatoes in our garden. She liked looking at them. When our grape tomatoes reddened, we gave her one. She liked carrying it around and smelling it, but whenever she took a bite, she spit it right back out.
Then about a month ago, I put on a VeggieTales sing-along video. The only ones McKenna liked were the ones with Bob the tomato, and she would point wildly and say, “May-toe sing! May-toe sing!” And when Bob left the screen, she’d look up at me and say, “More. More may-toe sing.”
Then she started randomly talking about the tomato plants, telling me that the tomatoes were outside. And sometimes that they were sleeping. We’d go out back, and she’d run over there and wave. “Hi may-toes!” But she still preferred carrying them around and smelling them to eating them.
And then, I don’t know what happened in the last couple weeks, but suddenly McKenna loves eating tomatoes. One day she ate all nine ripe grape tomatoes off the plant and still wanted more. I put a tomato on her sandwich yesterday, and she ignored the bread, cheese, and turkey, and went straight for that tomato.
McKenna’s other passions are shoes, motorcycles, balls, tractors, and dirt, so it’ll be interesting to see how this all shakes out.
In other news, my designed pages for Out with the In Crowd arrived this morning. They sure look pretty!
Happy Wednesday, everyone!
I Should Not Be Allowed to Help/Book Giveaway
12 August 2009
When Ben and I do home improvement projects, we have a very specific window of time that we can work—late at night. You can also read this as “after Home Depot closes.” Which is a real bummer, because our recent home improvement projects have required spontaneous Home Dept trips.
We’re in the process of painting our kitchen right now. Tuesday night, around 10, as I slithered behind the fridge to paint, I bumped into a hose-thingy. It didn’t appreciate this and took out its revenge by beginning to leak. We thought we had it fixed, but then as Ben pushed the refrigerator back into place, we heard a hissing sound and found water spraying everywhere from one of the copper pipes. So the focus turned from painting as we (okay, as Ben) got the water shut off and attempted to patch the leak. He assures me this wasn’t my fault. My guess is he’s just being nice. I swear, I’m like a little kid when it comes to projects around here. I’m not really helping, but Ben wants to encourage me all the same. Like when McKenna “helps” me sort laundry.
So after our super late night of painting/plumbing, Ben got up crazy early to get to Home Depot and get our pipe replaced before he rushed off to work. And in the process of fixing the pipe, a screw got dropped down the dishwasher, and that required some disassembly. All this to say I’ve had two late nights in a row, and I’m not exactly firing on all cylinders today.
In other news you might actually care about, my friend Georgiana hosting a giveaway of of Me, Just Different on her blog. It’s the usual drill—leave a comment to be entered to win.
And now for a nap…
Book Friday – The Signature of Jesus by Brennan Manning
13 August 2009
Something a little different for Book Friday—non-fiction. In general, I’m not a big non-fiction girl. I’ve bought several biographies over the years, having the best of intentions to read them, and still they sit on my shelves. (Actually, they don’t. Right now they sit in a bag on my washer waiting to be donated to the library.)
The Signature of Jesus was given to me by my mom about a year ago when I confessed that I don’t really know what Jesus is supposed to be to me now. I understand what he did for me, but I hear people talk about Jesus being their “best friend,” and I’m just not there yet. So my mom, a huge Brennan Manning fan like everybody else who’s read his stuff, gave me The Signature of Jesus. And last week I finally cracked it open.
It’s amazing. I’m not terribly far into it; I’m reading just a few pages in the mornings before McKenna wakes up. But I love how it’s challenging me in my issues of faith and views of the church. As far as I can tell, Brennan Manning deserves every bit of praise he gets for his fabulous writing style.
Have a great weekend everyone! (As a side note, we finished our kitchen last night, and I didn’t break a thing!)
My Wonderful Garmin/Hanging out with Writers
16 August 2009
So, two cool things happened on Saturday.
As I used my new Garmin to navigate my way to Books-A-Million for a meeting, it first directed me in the style I’m used to (I’ve had the luxury of owning a GPS for nearly two years now). Then, as it instructed me to stay on 435, the screen changed from the regular map to street view. So I was actually looking at a picture of 435 splitting off one direction and K-10 the other, with a big yellow arrow pointing me in the right direction, then it went back to the map. These are the kinds of directions I need—the clunk-you-over-the-head type.
The other cool thing is the meeting I had at Books-A-Million. The Kansas City area members of American Christian Fiction Writers have been getting together once a month for a few months now, but this was the first time I was able to go. There were ten of us, writers of all stages. Some who were just starting out, and then Judith Miller, who just turned in her twenty-sixth book to Bethany House. This was my first time getting together face-to-face with local writers, and I really enjoyed myself. Sally Bradley said, “I just like getting together with people who think like me,” which sums it up much better than I could. I wish five years ago I knew to seek out other area writers, but it all worked out okay so I won’t lament too much.
Hope everyone had a great weekend!
Why I love Abbie Hoyt
17 August 2009
So my fabulous friend, Debbie, read my blog about McKenna loving tomatoes. On Sunday, she brought a couple of yellow tomatoes from her garden which McKenna loved. She devoured one for a snack in the afternoon, though at first she was hesitant because that morning we wouldn’t let her have one for breakfast. So she kept looking from the tomato to me, saying, “May-toe—no bite.” I finally convinced her that yes, I did in fact intend for her to eat the tomato I’d just set on her tray.
Then, yesterday, McKenna pulled out her phone and called the tomatoes. It seems with the yellow tomatoes, her obsession has increased. She then wanted me to call the tomatoes. It was difficult to keep a straight face as I did the whole, “Hello? Oh, hi tomatoes. Sure, you want to talk to McKenna…”
On days like Sunday, when I deal with the extremes of McKenna being a sobbing mess because we won’t let her eat a tomato for breakfast, and then her being the happiest child in the world that afternoon as she shoves a big yellow one in her mouth, I often think to myself, “How would Abbie handle this if she keeps the baby? How would she deal with the unpredictability?” It’s tough for me, and I’m ten years older than her. These are the kinds of things—the joy of a pretend phone call to tomatoes juxtaposed with the frustrations of tantrums over breakfast foods—that no amount of studying can prepare you for. And it’s why I have such a heart for Abbie Hoyt.
I’m working on page proofs for book two right now, one last check for typos, and I just want to sob for Abbie as she continues in her pregnancy. I loved being pregnant, but of course I had been married for a couple years, felt ready to have kids, and I wasn’t doing it by myself. Writing Abbie’s parts in The Reinvention of Skylar Hoyt series was often the most exhausting and the most rewarding.
In the next day or two, I’ll have the new blurb and cover for Out with the In Crowd up on the web site. It’ll still be another month or so before I can get the first chapter for y’all, but as soon as I can, I’ll post it!
Stephanie the not-model
18 August 2009
I’m so glad I’m not a model.
That’s what I learned yesterday at my photo shoot with The Kansas City Star. My photographer was incredibly nice. She did a great job asking me questions about McKenna that made me laugh so she could get natural smiles. Which is good because anytime I held a pose for ten seconds, my smile started to feel completely forced. I cannot imagine making a career out of fake smiling. (Or fake scowling, or fake looking sexy, whatever the case may be.)
In other news, I’ve scheduled another book signing for Me, Just Different. If you’re in the Kansas City area (or willing to travel to the KC area, I guess) mark Saturday, November 7th from 1-3pm on your calendars. I’ll be signing books at the Barnes and Noble on the Country Club Plaza. Which is super exciting because it’s the first bookstore I ever fell in love with, and it’s also the B&N Skylar would shop at. If Skylar were much of a recreational reader.
Happy Wednesday everyone!
In case you hadn’t noticed, I’m a Jacob
19 August 2009
So while getting settled at the table for dinner a couple nights ago, I made some playful comment about Ben being in a bad mood. He wasn’t—he rarely is—I was just teasing him. When he denied it, I said, “It’s okay. I don’t mind you being in a bad mood.” And he said, “I know. That’s why you’re a Jacob.”
(This story has been contested by Ben. He claims I said something pessimistic [Me???] and then he said I was a Jacob. I don’t remember this at all, and it’s my blog, so my version will be posted in detail while his is a side note.)
The point is, regardless of what led up to the “You’re a Jacob” comment, it happened. A year or so ago when Ben quoted Pride and Prejudice to me, I wasn’t sure if I could love him more, but turns out I could. I’m so impressed with him, and feel so touched that he pays attention even when I’m talking about Twilight stuff. And that he volunteered to go see New Moon with me even though the trailer features a shirtless Jacob.
As soon as I finish Emma, I’m re-reading Eclipse. Ben is heading off on a backpacking trip soon, and that’s the perfect time to get totally absorbed in life in Forks. This time maybe I’ll actually slow down and really read it. When I read it in March, I was so eager to find out what happened that I totally blew through it.
Hope everyone has a good day. Even you Edward people.
Book Friday – The Pact, Jodi Picoult
20 August 2009
When I started blogging, I was a judge for a contest so I couldn’t talk about the books I was actually reading at the moment. Well, the problem is I chose to talk about some books I planned on reading soon, like Emma. So I’ve been reading Emma for the last couple weeks, but don’t really have anything fresh to say about it. I still find it hilarious, and it’s still one of my favorite books.
Last week I talked about The Signature of Jesus which I’m reading in my morning quiet time. The only other book I’m currently reading is my chronological Bible, so for this Book Friday, I walked over to my shelf of favorites and made a random selection.
It’s been a couple years since I read The Pact by Jodi Picoult, but there are still times when my mind wanders to Chris and Emily. Now that’s a sign of a killer book. The Pact was my first Jodi Picoult book, and the thing I love most about it is how it was nothing like I expected it to be. I thought it would be a romance that built up to the murder-suicide thing, but instead she opens with the murder-suicide and we bounce around in time a little. The mystery of it really captured me, and I think that’s partly because I didn’t expect there to be so much mystery.
Another thing I love about The Pact is how we lived in Chris and Emily’s minds, but also in the minds of their parents. In books, there’s often a choice made to either focus on the teenagers (these are predominately YA books) or to focus on the parents. I love that Jodi Picoult somehow does both so effortlessly. She also does this in My Sister’s Keeper and Plain Truth. Maybe others as well, but those are the ones coming to mind.
I think Jodi Picoult is one of those rare writers who lives up to the acclaim she receives, and The Pact was an excellent introduction to her.
Out with the In Crowd is (basically) done
23 August 2009
So just before starting this blog entry, I sent an e-mail to my editor with a handful of corrections of Out with the In Crowd. Then I put a rubberband around the manuscript and shoved it to the side. On my end, it’s done. Which is pretty incredible. And nerve-wracking, because I just know there’s some annoying typo buried in there.
Doing this the second time around (and by “this” I mean galleys, page proofs, interacting with the fabulous team at Revell) is so much better. Like anything in life, you get smarter the more you do things. Now for a really lame example, when I read over the page proofs for Me, Just Different I made my corrections right on the page. And then when I was trying to e-mail my editor, I discovered that the only way to find my corrections was to flip through all two hundred and fifty six manuscript pages. This time I knew to use little flags. Made e-mailing her take only twenty minutes rather than forty-five.
And these are the fabulous gems that I have for you this Monday morning. It wasn’t a weekend of great sleep. On Friday night we went and watched the Royals lose in extra innings. (No snarky comments, please.) When I say “we,” I mean McKenna too. We didn’t leave the game until about 10:30 and she was an angel. It was actually me who was grumpy and ready for bed. And when she woke up at 7:30 the next morning yelling, “Mama, come! … Please,” I was not thrilled. Then yesterday we had to be at church early because it was our morning to hang out with the kiddos in the 2/3-year-old room, and of course this morning it’s back to regularly scheduled life, which doesn’t allow for sleeping in. So hopefully I’ll be able to be a little more interesting for you tomorrow.
Yawn…
A dorky admission regarding Muse and Twilight
24 August 2009
As if the world needs further proof that I’m a total dork, here it is.
I’ve liked Muse since 2003, but I liked them in a very passive, “I like them. Haven’t bought any of their stuff, but I like them,” kind of way. Ben caught on fire for them a couple years ago. To the point where I was like, “Oh my gosh. ENOUGH,” because it was all he played.
And then I read the Twilight Saga. Stephenie Meyers, as anyone who has read her acknowledgements knows, is a huge Muse fan and credits them for inspiring much of her series. So a week or so after I’d read all the Twilight books, McKenna and I were playing in the living room one day, and I felt like some music. Muse was in the CD player (no big surprise) and I thought, “Yeah, okay. We’ll listen to that.”
Something clicked. Suddenly I noticed the lyrics, how beautiful they are. I repeated Stockholm Syndrome a couple times. Then Time is Running out. Then Hysteria. And then I listened to the CD on a loop for the rest of the afternoon. And now, five months later, I’m still in this thing where I really don’t want to listen to anything but Muse. Today in the car I tried something else but after a song, I ended up skipping back to the live Muse CD.
To make things even weirder, when I read Eclipse in the next couple weeks, I really want to listen to Muse while I’m doing it. I shared this with Ben, totally aware that it’s nutty, and he just gave me this look. On one hand, he’s grateful that I’ve come around on the Muse thing, that it’s now me who says, “Let’s watch the concert DVD again.” On the other hand, wanting to listen to specific music while I read a specific book is a little … It’s not normal. It’s taking my love of Muse and Twilight to a new extreme. And it reminds me of those crazy people who say if you listen to Pink Floyd’s The Wall while you watch The Wizard of Oz, they line up perfectly or something.
So I’ll report back on if reading Eclipse with the music that inspired it enhances the experience at all. Unless, like Ben suggested, my experiment opens up some kind of energy pocket, and I wind up living in Forks with Bella, Jacob, and Edward. Which, contrary to popular belief, I would rather not have happen. I like my vampires and werewolves safely contained in pages or on the movie screen.
Writing Wednesday – How did you become a writer?
25 August 2009
I’ve actually been really surprised by how interested non-writers are in my writing life, so for a while—at least until I run out of topics—I’m going to address those questions on Wednesdays. Why Wednesdays? Because both “writing” and “Wednesday” start with W. Brilliant, right? So if you have a specific question for Writing Wednesday, you can e-mail me using the form on my web site, or post your question in the comment box.
By far the most common question I get sounds something like this, “How did you … so, like, you had an idea, and then … I mean, you wrote the book, but then …?” And then I usually interrupt and say, “How did I become a writer?”
That is a long, complicated question to answer. And what they’re really asking is how did I go from writing a book to being published. Here’s my attempt to break it down:
1. I wrote a really sucky book.
2. I asked my family and two close friends to edit my really sucky book.
3. I used their feedback to make my book less sucky.
4. I sent out query letters to a variety of agents. If you’re looking for an agent, you can try www.agentquery.com as a springboard. If you’re writing for the Christian Market, try Sally Stuart’s guide.
5. I received lots of rejections.
6. I decided I hated said book and that it should never see the light of day. I started on a new project that became Me, Just Different so for the sake of clarity, we’ll just call it that. I loved my new project (mostly because it was a new project) and told Ben, “This is the book that’s going to get me published.”
7. A year later, I took Me, Just Different to the Florida Christian Writers Conference. A representative for Kregel said they really liked it, but that Skylar was too young. In the original manuscript, Skylar and friends were in 8th grade. She said if I fixed that to follow up with her. (She also told me Eli’s name was weird. I disagree with this, as do Robin Jones Gunn and Sarah Dessen who both have “Eli” as a male lead in their latest books, but I digress.)
8. I got home from the conference and realized changing Skylar’s grade meant changing the whole stinking thing. Discouraged, I set it aside and pulled out the original “sucky” project which eventually came to be called The Escape Route, so we’ll just call it that. Reading through it, I realized it didn’t suck quite as bad as I remembered, that it just needed some finessing.
9. I finessed. Then I e-mailed Kregel, explained that no, I didn’t have the book they expected, but I had this other one… To make a long story short, the representative I’d met loved it, passed it on to an editor who asked for the full manuscript, and then the waiting began.
10. While I waited, I joined ACFW. If you’re an aspiring Christian fiction writer, an organization like ACFW is a must. They have an annual conference for unpublished writers called Genesis, and I decided to enter Me, Just Different.
11. Then came a tremendous slew of rejections. I’d had nothing but positive news for months, then suddenly every agent I queried turned me down, Kregel sent me a form rejection letter after having my book for seven months (Dear Author, Thank you for your interest in our house, etc.), and Me, Just Different didn’t even make the first cut in Genesis. To put it lightly, I was bummed. I’d venture to say I was borderline depressed at that time. Ben deserves full credit for getting me back in my desk chair and getting me back to work.
12. I looked over the comments the judges made regarding Me, Just Different. Some comments were totally wrong, but one judge—I’m pretty sure it was Kaye Dacus—asked me about Skylar’s motivations. As I mulled this over, it sparked a new idea. In short, it sparked the idea of Skylar getting ruffied at the party. And now, when I read Me, Just Different I can’t believe that book ever existed without it.
13. Before the annual ACFW conference, I only had time to write the first three chapters of the new Me, Just Different. We were in the process of moving back to Kansas City, and I was really pregnant with McKenna.
14. At ACFW, during lunches and dinners they spread the agents and editors out to individual tables so that writers can have access to them. I was headed to a very specific table during one of the lunches when I stopped to chat with a fellow YA writer. We’d finished our conversation, and I realized that the table had filled up and lunch was starting. That’s when I also realized that I was at Kelly Mortimer’s table. Kelly had already rejected Me, Just Different a few months ago, so it seemed incredibly stupid to pitch to her again, but also incredibly stupid to leave the table now that the meal was underway. When I pitched to Kelly, I joked that she’d already turned me down, we had a laugh, and she moved onto the next writer. At the end of the meal, she asked us to leave our one sheets for her to review. (One sheets are fliers we make for our books.)
15. A month later, Kelly e-mailed me. She liked my one sheet and asked me to send her the first chapter. Then she liked that and asked for the first 100 pages. While waiting to hear back from her, I was writing the rest of the book. Adding the complication of the party Skylar goes to, as you can imagine if you’ve read Me, Just Different, changed a lot more than my opening. I finished on a Friday and Kelly called me on Saturday asking for the rest of the manuscript.
16. The rest went by in a flash. Kelly sent me a list of suggested edits, all of which I made. Within months we heard Revell wanted to buy it, and that they wanted it to be a series.
The road from writer to author is different for everybody, and this was mine. This timeline covers five years, though I’d written three full manuscripts before this that never saw the light of day. Nor will they ever. The Escape Route might eventually be sellable, although at the moment it requires more effort to revamp than I want to exert.
And since this is already the words longest blog post, I’ll cut myself off here. Hope everyone has a fabulous Wednesday.
Who cares? (I do.)
26 August 2009
Something I both love and hate about parenthood is how it forces you to not care what others think. Yesterday morning, McKenna left the house wearing a green, orange, white, pink, yellow, and red striped dress, her purple crocs, and a (blue) Royals hat. We were on our way to a friend’s house, but of course we were stopping by Starbucks on our way to pick up coffee. And of course the drive-thru line was about 20 cars deep. And McKenna didn’t want to leave her hat in the car.
These are those over-explainer type moments where I wanted to tell everyone in Starbucks that McKenna has decided she knows better than me what accessories look best with each outfit, and that I was aware nothing she had on matched. (Though any of the parents in the coffee shop probably guessed what was going on.)
And the other day when McKenna and I were outside playing, she decided she wanted to wear her rain coat even though it was dry as could be outside, plus the thermometer was pushing 75 degrees. I just knew I looked like one of the moms I used to see in Orlando who bundled up her kids when the temperature dropped below 80. (Those were the days that we’d go to Disney and the tourists were in shorts and the locals were in down coats.)
The last 20 months of McKenna’s life have brought me a long way in regards to caring what people think of me. Kids can be embarrassing and unpredictable. Like when you’re in the grocery store and your daughter suddenly decides she’s done being in the shopping cart and starts screaming her head off. Or when she won’t stop picking her nose. Or when you’re at somebody’s house, you ask her to do something, and she gives you this look like, “No, I won’t, and what exactly are you going to do about it?”
Not that I’ve experienced any of those things…
I really hope I’ll someday get to the point where I don’t care at all about the opinions of others, where the thought never crosses my mind, “Oh my gosh, what must they think of me?!?!” I still have a long way to go. McKenna’s doing her best to get me there, though.
Happy Thursday everybody.
A lack-of-Book Friday
27 August 2009
So due to a family emergency, there’s no Book Friday today. But we’ll be back to our regularly scheduled programming Monday morning. Hope everyone has a great weekend!
Doggie Drama
30 August 2009
Fortunately, I’ve had little experience with the sinking sensation of, “Oh my gosh, this could be really bad, and I have no idea how to handle it.” My days are mostly laundry and McKenna talking to me about tomatoes, so there really isn’t much room for drama of that kind.
But last night, I took McKenna and KC, our border collie mix, for a walk around our neighborhood. We’ve done this, oh, a million times before. I’m always aware a situation could crop up that I can’t control. KC’s terrified of kids, bicycles, blowing leaves, basically anything that moves. He’s also very well behaved, so even in the situations that we’ve come across the trifecta (kids on bicycles, who are stirring up leaves as they blow by us) I’ve been able to manage him.
What I never counted on was a random German Shepherd running around the neighborhood.
We had just reached the point in the walk in which we were the farthest from the house and circling back when I noticed a very big dog jogging down the sidewalk, headed our way. A collar but no leash. I shortened KC’s leash and tightened my grip on McKenna’s stroller knowing that this could be bad.
The dog was friendly. Too friendly, actually. And KC looked a little bit like I do inside the Fossil store when the sales people descend. (Why do they have four sales people to every customer in that place???) KC really just wanted the dog to leave him alone, and all the dog wanted was for KC to break free of the leash so they could really wrestle. And with every step we took, the dog came along with us.
KC was just starting to get snippy when I noticed that across the street, there was a couple outside with their (adorable) baby boy. I called over for some help (assuming they were the answer to my very short prayer which had been basically, “Uh, God? Help, please!”) The woman came over and spent about five minutes trying to run off the dog so that we could make a break for it. (Both of us tried looking at the dog’s tags, but he was only interested in playing with KC.) FINALLY the dog went scurrying the other direction, as did we.
So I was already feeling a little shaken up, and it didn’t help that every ten seconds KC kept looking over his shoulder like he just knew we were being followed.
My dog is not stupid.
Fifteen minutes later, with our street in sight, I spotted the dog running after us again. KC’s patience had worn thin, and I could see his lips curling. As I was having the thought process of, “I’m about to have a dog fight on my hands,” I heard a man yelling, “Roscoe!” and a truck pulled alongside the curb. Never in my life have I been so happy to see two perfect strangers. “Roscoe” leapt into the truck with his owners, who explained to me that he’d jumped the fence and asked if we were okay. I said we were. She asked if he’d been nice, I said he had, and we went our separate ways.
I felt quite grateful to be home, as did KC. McKenna just asked if she could watch VeggieTales. Sometimes I long to be 20 months old again.
Hope everyone had a much less dramatic Sunday evening than me.