Fifty!

Fifty followers! Hooray (and thank you!) From my first post, I loved blogging (because hey, it's writing) but wondered whether anyone would ever read what I'd written. Thank you so much for sharing this journey with me. I sincerely hope each of you can say in the future "well, I was a follower before she was famous!" (See my last post on the danger of delusions - I'm not good at taking my own advice.)

Speaking of delusions, have just gotten news from editor Jill and publisher Michael about absolutely fabulous cover plans!! Top secret for now, but will share as soon as I'm able. Speaking of amazing, but creepy artistry check out this Wolf Parade video. Happy Wednesday!

Diagnosis: Delusion

Dreams are great - they're more than great, they're vital. However, sometimes we can let dreams morph into delusions that lull us into irresponsible procrastination (a little procastination is healthy) or steer us off a cliff into the chasm of unreasonable expectations.

My little post derives from a much bigger, and excellent, post by agent Holly Root. Holly describes a problem she sees among new writers that she calls "cart-before-the-horse-itis." First of all, big points for awesome virus name. Second, let's all take a big dose of reality check as Holly suggests.

I'm not a patient person (that's an understatement), but I'm experiencing necessary patience growing pains because writing and publishing require lots of time and patience. Without allowing for one's craft to develop, your readership to grow, your ideas to evolve and make even better books, a writer's delusions can end up a career train wreck. Writing is a way of life, not a manuscript, not a sale, not a signing. Dreaming is good, delusions get us nowhere.

Umm, Not a Democracy

Thank you so much for the votes and lovely comments. I was grinning all weekend as I read responses to the photo poll.

Photo #3 was the winner, with #2 and #5 close behind. Thanks to all you dark horse #4 voters - I love number 4!

Despite the fact that in a pure-vote world #3 would be the photo; other factors intervene to make #5 the official jacket photo. *Cries of protest erupt from the #3 galleries: 'Why? Why?' While photo 5 voters cheer*
The reason being NIGHTSHADE has some...ahem...dark content, and my editor and I decided that the swing set didn't quite reflect the book's themes.

However, all of the photos will appear on my web site. Everybody wins!

Thanks again for all your support and enthusiasm. You guys are fantastic :)

From Here to There

Last Saturday I had the opportunity to meet one of my writing heroines, Maggie Stiefvater. Because she is so fabulous she is on an amazing book tour and had some stops in my city (she will soon be in London, continuing said book tour, ack! so jealous!!)

The reason I admire Maggie is not just for her beautiful prose and thrilling plots - she's also a startlingly impressive human being.

Take her post on the difficulties of becoming an author. When I signed with my agent and then got my book deal I felt as though I was walking on stars. I still feel that way. If I am so lucky as to be able to write books for the rest of my life I don't think that feeling will ever go away. But the star-filled life is also very hard. As Maggie points out there is doubt, there is rejection (lots of rejection), there is the sense that you might be crazy and that you may be the only person who understands why the dream of starwalks defines your very existence. It can be a lonely, lonely road.
But the choice to walk it belongs to you alone, and the reasons for which the path matters also belong to you alone. If you believe, that is enough. Listen to Maggie; after all, she's been on the New York Times bestseller list for several weeks now and still going strong. And...she just got a movie deal - ahem.

Vote!

The time has arrived to select my official author photo and guess what?

My family is split on the opinion, so are my agents. I have yet to run the pics by my editor, but will be doing so very soon.

In the mean time I'd love to hear what you have to say. What photograph should become my author photo? I'd also like to thank the amazing Gina Monroe for her spectacular photography skills - I wonder where she gets that from (ahem...Ed?). Gina, you rock!

If you don't already know who Kiersten White is and that's she's awesome, go read her blog. Since imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, I'm snatching Kiersten's idea of having blog readers vote for her jacket photo.

Thanks for helping me with this decision!!

Photo 1:

Photo 2:

Photo 3:

Photo 4:

Photo 5:

Banned Books Week Adieu

Thank you for all the wonderful comments and thoughtful responses during my dedicated week of Banned Books Week posts. Thanks especially to Irene Latham for her wonderful guest blog yesterday (go buy her awesome book, Leaving Gee's Bend!)

A few last words on book bans and challenges. If it wasn't already abundantly clear...ahem, I'm against both. I'm taking a page from Carrie Harris who has a lovely BBW post on her blog today. Bans and challenges are about fear and the burden of replacing fear with understanding falls to us - the authors (and to readers, keep reading and talking about why reading widely and deeply is important!)

And because I love any Muppet-like creatures, I'd like to give the last word to the good folks at bannedbooksweek.org

Guest Blogger: Irene Latham

I'm honored to host author, and fellow Tenner, Irene Latham not only for her contribution to my Banned Books Week post, but because her book focuses on a wonderful subject very close to my heart - women's and family history!

Leaving Gee's Bend will be released January 7, 2010 (Putnam), but Irene has already bumped up against a book challenge. She's been gracious enough to share her experience here:

When I set out to write a novel set in the tiny, isolated African American quilt-making community of Gee’s Bend, Alabama, I had no idea this was the work that would land me on the list of Authors of Banned Books. I had no idea that my family story, one that celebrates courage and survival and the power of home, would, by a committee at an elementary school, be reduced to one word: “afterbirth.”

As a mother of three sons, I’ve always been frank with my children. We don’t use euphemisms for body parts, we talk about sex and drugs and all the things that make us human, including birth. In fact, one of my kids’ favorite birthday rituals even now, at ages 9, 12 and 15, is pulling out the scrapbook and poring over pictures of me pregnant and those precious first moment of life outside the womb, complete with blood and vernix and umbilical cord. And what is the umbilical cord attached to? Ah, another miracle, the one that has by then served its purpose. And in 1932 Gee’s Bend, Alabama, the thing that was buried in the orange dirt beside the cabin.

The fact that this book was banned in Alabama, when I am an Alabama author and this is an Alabama book, is particularly disappointing. Anytime a group chooses to deny children a meaningful reading experience due to their own fears or discomfort is a tragedy. Especially when it is something as innocuous as “afterbirth,” a word that has nothing to do with sexuality or violence or competing religious beliefs. One might blame it on the “gross” factor, but I still see Walter the Farting Dog and Captain Underpants on the school library shelves. Which is why we need parents, more than ever, to read to their children, to choose stories that reflect the human experience in all its complicated glory.

And just as I was inspired by the brave, unadorned practical beauty of the Gee’s Bend quilts, I hope other readers will pick up LEAVING GEE’S BEND and experience it not as a book that contains the uncomfortable fact of afterbirth, but one that reminds us of the strength and grace that exists in each of us, no matter the year or place on the planet. That even if you are barefooted and don't have a map to guide you and the path is unknown -- go your own way. Create the life you want. And tell your story in whatever way that makes sense to you. Maybe even in a quilt.

Thank you so much for your post, Irene! Can't wait for the book!!