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We interrupt our regularly promised next post to say, Listen to this TED talk:


Brené Brown: The power of vulnerability




Amazing. Freakin' amazing. We know these things to be true, but when you hear it, you can use it in a new way. Especially if it ties into your book. But your book comes from your life, too. So we really have to know what we're doing. embrace not knowing what we're doing?

Something like that.
In order to do it.

:)
r

Kind of like what M.T. Anderson once said at a past SCBWI Summer Conference: "The experiment is the piece of literature, not the preparation for the piece of literature."

So with life!

P.P.S. With thanks to Irvin Lin at Eat the Love for leading me to this talk, after an amazing weekend of Irvin and AJ hosting me in SF. Love you guys so much.

Some of my favorite reads (and examples of Voice!) this year: Agnes Parker . . . Girl In Progress, by Kathleen O'Dell; The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg, by Rodman Philbrick; I Am A Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want To Be Your Class President, by Josh Lieb; Hold Still, by Nina LaCour; Gorgeous, by Rachel Vail; The Monstrumologist, by Rick Yancey. (All images from GoodReads.)


All right. So here's the promise Lee and I made to the world in our latest e-blast about the SCBWI Westside Schmooze.

Subject: The SCBWI Westside Schmooze -- Wednesday, October 13th at 7 PM

Does October mean thrills, chills, and suspense to you? Well, it should if you attend the next meeting of the SCBWI Westside Schmooze! Because on October 13th, at 7 PM, we will meet to unmask . . .

VOICE: The End-All Definition

That's right. Editors and Agents often say that while they can fix everything else in a manuscript, Voice is that one special quality a manuscript must have from the start, for them to fall in love. Yet when it comes to defining what Voice IS, even the greats flounder, with many falling back on the axiom "You know it when you see it."

What is THAT about? Are we in the business of describing things or aren't we?? At the next Westside Schmooze we aim to settle this mystery once and for all--AND come up with an End-All Definition--by showing great examples of Voice, analyzing WHAT IT IS, and sharing exercises that will help each of us find and perfect our own. For Picture Book through Young Adult, fiction and non-fiction. Let's do this. It's time.

(Because the SCBWI Summer Conference is coming up, I feel some pressure to post something cheery and rah-rah about the writing life, in case SCBWI friends stop by. But, I'm like a 5th-year senior at these conferences by now. I'm just gonna tell it like it is.)

Today the table I sit at every day, to write, smelled like B.O. It's in the far corner of the cafe, in its own sunny little glass case, not unlike a phone booth.

I set up all my stuff anyway—because I need this table—wondering how long the smell would last and whether I'd be sitting in it all day.

After ordering, I bussed a small plate with an open muffin wrapper on it. Then I thought, This muffin was probably eaten by the person with the B.O. I wondered if sweat glands were on me.

I washed my hands.

Of course, I'm probably sitting in the same chair as that person. And because the table hadn't been bussed, it also hasn't been wiped. I feel very connected right now.

I hope he got a lot of work done.


On an unrelated note, here are my photos from SCBWI-LA Writer's Day 2009! (It was only five and a half months ago. :P ) I was so worked up about entering the Writer's Day contest for the first time that I felt like I didn't take as many photos as usual. But apparently the habit kicked in. There's reasonable coverage. :) (During the slideshow, click "Show Info" to turn on captions.)

Also for your viewing convenience:

SCBWI-LA Writer's Day 2008: Photos | Blog entry

SCBWI-LA Writer's Day 2007: Photos | Blog entry

And if you want to hear me say something not jaded—

On the one hand, I want to downplay the meaning that winning the Writer's Day middle grade fiction contest this year had for me.

On the other hand, irrationally . . . that was one of the greatest days of my life.  

r

Thank you, Lee Wind, for making a point of getting a photo of me!

It is really true that chocolate always tastes better if someone else gives it to you.


(Assuming two equal pieces of chocolate; not a nasty, mushball version vs. the high-quality chocolate you buy yourself.)

;)
r

The holidays are nuts.

It takes a higher quality grilled cheese sandwich to make me as happy now as a bad grilled cheese sandwich made me then.

Ever since about the beginning of the year, my life has been a blur:
- Doing line edits for Fire, Kiss, Electric Chair
- Working with a co-writer on a new series - and creating character sketches, a detailed outline, and writing the first 65 pages.
- My first two-week vacation ever - to Europe!
- Working full time.
- Working full time at a place that has turned over about half its staff in less than a year.
- Learning that Shock Point was a Quick Pick, on the Texas Tayshas list, a Pennsylvania Reader's Choice nominee, on the New York Public Library's list of Books for the Teen Age, and one of just 25 books nominated for the Top 10 Books for Teens award.
- Doing a couple of school visits - and trying to set up some more. (Texas librarians - if you are interested in having me come to your library next fall, let me know. I'm ganging up a bunch of schools. Or any librarians, for that matter.)
- Juggling being both a mother and a daughter.
- Writing an article for The Writer.
- Writing book reviews for the Oregonian.
- Teaching a weekend-long class for The Oregon Writer's Workshop.
- Being sick a couple three times.

Which explains why when I leaned into the fridge today and wondered why it smelled kind of like lemon and kind of like rotten. In the bottom of the vegetable crisper I found a plastic bag that held what used to be a lemon.

Only now it was basically water. Rotten lemon water.

Eeewww!





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