Have You Got Your Act Together? What Are You Waiting For?

Do you ever think to yourself, What if I'd started sooner? What if I'd really gotten my act together with this writing thing when I was twenty instead of fo...something else. Where would I be now all those years later? I do think it, sometimes. I know I'm supposed to be bigger than that and say, This is my journey blah blah blah, I'm where I'm supposed to be yadda yadda.

My act was so NOT together at twenty. I'd like to say it was in scattered little pieces, awaiting assembly with one of those confounding metric IKEA allen wrenches. But, no, my act was a vapor cloud hovering somewhere over New England. This is why I'm so blown away (not my twenty-year old vapor cloud, me now) by my fellow debut writers who are college-age students. Some of them even have movie options. I just think it's pretty remarkable to write a book while pursuing an education: those two acts use really similar parts of your brain.

Other news: my WIP was launched into my editor's orbit last night. Then I promptly clicked something that sent up flares and flashing and red lights for a possible computer virus. Still wondering if I dodged that bullet or if there's something percolating behind the scenes. Then I poured hot boiling potato water all over my foot. Yeah, I know how to party. I know how to celebrate.

After being very restricted in my reading for my WIP, I'm reading for leisure again. Crossing Stones by Helen Frost---that's only semi-leisure reading because it will be in My Mom's Mock Newbery. Frost is a long-time favorite (The Braid, Diamond Willow). She has great focus and awesome ability to keep a story under control, even within the confines of very tightly controlled poetic forms.

So much emotion. The characters were so developed. And the different poems were shaped like a meandering stream for one character, and stepping stones for the others. When I read the note at the end, Frost said the stones were sonnets with interwoven rhyme schemes. And I'd missed it all because I was so involved in the story and so busy wiping my eyes. Maybe I should rate books on how many tears actually fall off my face. I'll be looking at it again, anyway, closer to Mock Newbery time. (What a cover, huh?)

Hey, You Like Stuff, Right?

You like swag: bookmarks, stickers, postcards, and other book-related goodies, etc. Who doesn't right? Well, get over to Tenners and leave a comment. Then think positively or say an incantation or do whatever you do to improve your chances.

But wait there's more! And it ain't a set of Ginsu knives (they slice, they dice, they even cut through tin cans...) There was a really fun Tenners Tell All: The Casting Call (great idea Bree). One of the most fun questions for writers is Who would play your characters in the movie version?

Another fun question, though not necessarily for writers is Who would play you in the movie of your life?

Or the one I used to ask my English 101/102 students (partly to help me tell them apart early in the semester): What famous person are you told you look like?

I'd love to hear your answers: give me something to read besides my own WIP! Even better if you have a profile pic.

Read with Your Ears

I used to say I wished I could read Braille so I could read while I drive. The library had just coughed up the latest by Louise Erdrich and it felt practically alive on the passenger seat next to me. Lucky for life and limb, and for anyone who's ever been near a highway, it eventually dawned on me that I could listen to books and have both hands on the wheel.

Still, sometimes I forget for a while.

Until I remember again. Or until I have a huge backlog of reading to catch up on. Like after a long stretch of research when I don't allow myself very much leisure reading.

I just listened to Tropical Secrets by Margarita Engle on audio. This is one of the few performed by multiple actors. Four voices. Favorite turns of phrase: "liquid hatred" and "a danceable sorrow."

And I was all unraveled by the young Daniel following the Cuban tradition of adopting an orphan with the same name. Imagine the circumstances that would make adoption by a 13-year-old child look like a viable proposition.

A Great Book

I'm reading A Swift Pure Cry by Siobhan Dowd, one of my mother's favorite authors.

It makes me want to put myself on ice for one hundred years and learn to write like that. I'll never read another book again.

What a Week!

Well, Tuesday was my Six-Months-Out Day, meaning only half a year until my pub. date. Not the kind where you meet some guy from match.com for a beer in an establishment that has corner booths and brass railings. NO! Not that kind of pub. date. I know: hardy har har. The release date. So that was a good day and I celebrated wildly, mostly in my head.

One way to celebrate was to launch my website. I cut the ribbon with a pair of giant scissors and smashed a bottle of champagne on the bow. What a waste of good champagne...I know. Sad really. Just think of all the thirsty people in some far-off land...tsk tsk.

Another piece of the celebration was getting the official okey-dokey to include the links for Audible and Brilliance on my website. They're the nice folks who are going to bring you Three Rivers Rising on audio; downloads and discs respectively. At the end of the summer, over a lovely lunch, we talked about what the characters would sound like and what qualities the voices would need to convey. A whole new industry for me to learn about!

Last but not least, the caboose on the good-news train: I think I'm done, I think I'm done, I think I'm done. My work in progress. My book #2. Whatever you want to call it. I think its done. I will continue reading about the Bridgets and the Fairies and the Typhoid Marys while my mentor has it, but I'm hoping its pretty darn ready for its close up!

Where Do You Get Your Ideas?

Good Tenners Tell All today: comments will be pouring in all day I'm sure. The question is "Where Do You Get Your Ideas?"

And scroll down if you want a free book. I extended the deadline.

Six-Months-Out Day!!!! And a Surprise...

Happy October 13, 2009---six months from the release date of Three Rivers Rising!

I'm calling it Six-Months-Out Day, like a half birthday only in advance. To celebrate, I'm giving away a book* (not my book obviously, if you were paying attention oh, like one sentence ago!!). I read an excerpt on the author's website and it made me leap out of my chair to go buy it. Now I can't wait to share it. (And I'll throw in some of the bookmarks I just ordered.)

I'll give 5 hints. Then I'll tell you where to send your guess. If more than one person guesses correctly, then it's names in the hat for the winner.

Good luck! I hope you win! Not you, the other one...behind you.

1. The book is by a 2009 Debutante, buddies of the Tenners.

2. It is a beautiful upper-YA hardcover.

3. Now charades. Three fingers. First word. *tugs on ear*

(Second word of image.)

4. Still charades. Second word. *tugs on ear*

5. Last hint. Still charades. *tugs on ear*

Everybody's got it? Now, make your guess at contact@jamerichards.com

What? Jame, you don't have a website...SUPRISE!! Guess who's been secretly building her new website. It wasn't meant to be a secret---I just thought I'd take a crack at it and if I hated it, I would at least have the domain and hosting taken care of. But I'm pretty darn happy with it, if I do say so myself. And what better day to launch that sucker than SIX-MONTHS-OUT DAY!?!

Please hop over to

http://www.jamerichards.com/

after you make your guess and have a look around. Also, if you have a link to my blog anywhere, please update it to the website. You can still access the blog from there.

Edited: Contest will close at midnight Friday and I'll announce the winner Monday! Yay!

Thanks for playing and thanks for stopping by!

*Sorry, U.S. only.