Do Things Different

Taking a Vacay from Writing Rules

2009-07-05T19:13:00.001-05:00

It’s peak vacay season, and in the spirit of all things sunscreeny and coconutty, I thought it’d be fun to compile a list of all those pesky writing rules we writers would like to break away from every once in awhile (grammatical structure of previous sentence included in said vacation – ahem!). So, here are some rules to think about breaking on a “writing rule vacay:”

-Mixing Metaphors. As welcome as a soft chair at the end of a touchdown.

-Clichés. Why think outside the box when cookie-cutter solutions are staring you in the face?

-Subject/Verb Disagreement. Because sometimes the expressions that we pour our heart into just needs freedom.

-Exclamation Points! In excess!!! Because you CAN!!!!!!

-DITTO ALL CAPS!!!!

-Sentence Fragments. Yeah. Went there. Did that.

-Adverbs. Who among us doesn’t truly, wholly, and thoroughly miss them?

-Overwrought Phrases. Just the thought of them makes my pulse quicken, my heart race, and tears of joy leap into my once-dead but now – maybe, now? – glistening, glimmering eyes.

-Passive Verbs. Because those sentences were constructed by us to be that way, that’s why.

-POV Hopping. You shouldn’t have to stay in one person’s head the entire time. I rather enjoy knowing what other people think.

-Plotlessness. Because following a story that never goes anywhere can be

-Two-Dimensional Characters. For real – don’t we all know someone we suspect is really 2D in the privacy of his/her own home?

And finally:

-Rhetorical Questions. Why not?

Do you have a few you’d like to add? Please, comment away! J

Word of the Day

2009-06-28T21:29:00.004-05:00

"chert:" waste that is removed from mines. Think piles of rock dragged out of a hole and heaped in far-away fields.

Kinda reminds you of the revision process, right? Digging through that first draft, getting rid of piles of rock you don't need, in order to find the gems.

Chert. It has to be there, and you have to get rid of it.

Revision Tips at Cuppa Jolie

2009-06-26T09:15:00.003-05:00

Jolie Stekly, writer and all-around cool person, has a great blog called Cuppa Jolie. Drink it up here. I was recently asked to give my favorite revision tip. Hop on over and check it out! :-)

Marvelous!

2009-06-22T17:09:00.001-05:00

What do you know - I'm a "Marvelous Marketer!" :-) Check it out: http://www.faeriality.blogspot.com/. Thanks to Shelli Johannes-Wells for the interview!

Guest Blogger!

2009-06-17T13:59:00.003-05:00

Me: An excited guest blogger on the Writer's Digest "Guide to Literary Agents" blog. You: A very welcome visitor! Please click through here! :-)

HOPE!

2009-04-30T22:11:00.004-05:00

Okay, I admit it. I'm a spotty blogger.

There. I said it. I'm inconsistent. I'm not-at-all CONsistent. Not in the least. So I don't really expect you to remember way-back-when, when I was blogging about a character of mine who was giving me FITS! She was slippery. She was mysterious. And most of all, she was sometimes not very nice.

Her name is Hope. And I'm delighted to let you know that Hope has found a home! SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! :-)

My second middle grade novel, Selling Hope: Or, Gaining Glorious Asylum from Mr. Halley's Fiery Beast, will be released by Feiwel & Friends/MacMillan in Fall 2011. *does hurkey* *laughs at the word "hurkey"*

Want to learn more about this slippery, mysterious girl named Hope? Please read more about the book here.

Doubly - no, TRIPLY - exciting is the fact that Feiwel & Friends is releasing my friend Jill S. Alexander's debut, The Sweetheart of Prosper County, this fall. Folks, this book is geeeee-orgous. Truly. More on my love of this book later, when I bribe - erm, ask - Jill to join us for an interview here. I predict you will hear a lot about this book this year. Just thinking about it as I type this is making me smile...

Ah, Hope. Slippery and mysterious indeed. :-)

Stoked!

2009-03-23T09:55:00.002-05:00

I am WAY excited about a recent review of Autumn that appeared in the Asheville Citizen-Times (Asheville, NC). Click here to read it. Thanks for the smiles, Jennifer Prince! :-)

#queryfail day on twitter!

2009-03-09T18:37:00.003-05:00

Ok, for some reason I've become totally obsessed with this idea. March 5 was declared "#queryfail" day by a handful of literary agents who tweet regularly. Throughout the day, they posted the worst of the worst queries. Here are some of my personal favorites:

-"It would be a huge mistake if you don't publish this book." A threat? Always a good career move. ;-)

-"What if everything you knew to be true, turned out not to be true? What if it were, in fact, false?" Actually, this sounds like it could be an interesting idea, but the cliches are just too much.

-A query that included 50 other agents in the email address box. Ugh! Slushy slush slush.

-A query in which the writer asked to schedule a phone call, because the book is just too difficult to describe in writing. Huh?

-A query that describes a "fictional novel." As opposed to the one that really exists?

Want more? Visit www.twitter.com and search "#queryfail"

We all make mistakes. I've sent out my fair share of mediocre queries. The above post wasn't meant to poke fun as much as it was meant to remind us all to polish, polish, polish and then RESEARCH before submitting to agents and publishing houses. Being published is a dream many of us share. Being published on #queryfail is NOT! :-)

Write on!

Interview with tween author Jessica Burkhart!

2009-02-19T10:24:00.014-06:00

Alright, writers...if you *ever* needed motivation to start/maintain a blog, read the interview below with tween author Jessica Burhart, author of Take the Reins, the first book in the new Canterwood Crest series! Many thanks, Jessica, for stopping by!

Please tell us a little bit about Take the Reins and the Canterwood Crest series.

Take the Reins introduces readers to small-town girl Sasha Silver and her horse, Charm. Charm and Sasha leave their tiny hometown and come to Canterwood Crest - a ritzy Connecticut boarding school. Sasha has to fight for a spot on Canterwood's advanced riding team. And, of course, she juggles new friendships, mean girls and an oh-so-adorable boy.

I'd categorize the series as tween chick lit with horses.

Okay, um...you have four books coming out this year?! Wowza! However do you do it - juggling the writing, revising and marketing? Please give us a glimpse into your work day.

Actually, my schedule just got bumped up to SIX for 2009. *grins* Oh, yeah. I thought I knew what "busy" meant. Nope. I didn't. I'm up early and I work all day on writing, edits, revising, marketing, blogging and everything else that goes along with being a writer. It's a tough schedule, but I love it.

With that said, I'm working on finding the balance between total workaholic and a girl who wants to figure out more things about herself and what she wants out of life. :)

What's the trickiest part about writing a series?

Remembering what happened in what book. It gets confusing sometimes. I have to go back and check drafts to keep things straight!

You started freelance writing at 14 - so cool! What kinds of writing have you done?

My first published piece was in Teen Ink Magazine when I was fourteen. It was a personal essay about how moving so many times had affected me. I wrote about how difficult it was to get used to new places and how it wasn't easy to make new friends every year or so.

After the Teen Ink piece, I kept writing personal pieces about whatever I was going through. I had a few poems published and it was an outlet for me to express what I wouldn't say to friends or family about how I felt. It sounds odd to say that, since the poems were published. But it was easier to have strangers read my thoughts than to say them to people in my life.

Worry about putting too many personal pieces out there crept in as I got older, so I switched to non-fiction articles. I've written about lots of topics from drug addition to starting a rock band, so I've never been bored with freelancing. I'm focused on fiction right now, so I only do pieces that are assigned to me by editors.

Please tell us about your path to publication. Any advice for pre-published writers?

I started with freelancing and I did that from fourteen to nineteen. Then, I switched over to focus on fiction. I wrote Take the Reins for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writer's Month) 2006 and then blogged about that December. An agent stumbled onto my blog, saw that I was seeking representation for a horse-themed novel and asked to see it. She liked it, we clicked and I signed with her. I revised from January 2007 - May 2007 and she put it on sub. Within a few days, we had a four-book offer from Simon & Schuster. What a crazy ride!

I'd advice pre-pubbed writers to blog! My agent found me through my blog, so I'm a big believer in Blog Power. :) I heart blogging!

Who has been your favorite character to write, and why? Your least favorite?

Heather Fox, my #1 mean girl, has been my favorite to write. She says the most awful things and they're so fun to write! I love writing her dialogue and being mean (in fiction!) is fun.

Least favorite...hmm. Maybe the guys just because they're harder to write. I have to put myself in a guy's perspective and that can be difficult depending on the scene.

And finally: do you do things different? :)

Why yes, Kristin, I do! And I hope to do even more of that in the future! Yay!

Thank you for sharing your insights, Jessica! Best of luck to you, Take the Reins, and the Canterwood Crest series!

Thanks so much for hosting me, Kristin!

Words of Wisdom from NYC

2009-02-07T12:12:00.003-06:00

So before I had to sequester myself from other human beings at last weekend's national SCBWI conference, I heard these words of wisdom from Jarrett Krosoczka:

"Be really patient with your career."

Many of us are aware of how long it takes to get published. Even masters like Dr. Seuss got rejection letters. Even Madeleine L'Engle was asked to rewrite. Most of us realize that there is usually somewhere between 18 - 24 months between a "yes" and seeing your book on the shelf.

But what Jarrett was really referring to, I believe (based on the rest of his speech and the hilarious video he showed - see link below), was that a *career* takes a lifetime. Literally. If you, like me, want to make a living at this, then we must patiently wait for the right idea to spark. We must patiently research that idea, and patiently tweak the words/pictures until they are perfect. We must ride out rough patches in the publishing industry (ahem!). We must be constantly attuned for lurking opportunities. We must listen, with open ears and open minds, to what our critique group members tell us. And then, when we do get a yes, we must work our booties off selling our book, book by book.

I'm an impatient person. My iPhone and my Tivo and my commercial-free satellite radio all feed that impatience. Perhaps the universe pointed me toward a career that would balance all of that. I'm still learning what it takes to build a career. But I'll do whatever it takes, for however long it takes, to make this my career. I love it too much to be impatient with it. (Kinda like being a parent, no? :-) )

Now if you'll excuse me, I have a lot of waiting to do.... :-)

Update One from NYC

2009-02-02T16:10:00.002-06:00

I'm home from NYC, and as much as I'd love to tell you all that the conference was enlightening and insightful, I can only report what it feels like to wallow in self-pity as one experiences a nasty stomach bug. :-) Ugh! But I *did* manage to make it to the key note speech delivered by Jarrett Krosoczka (Punk Farm), who showed us one of the funniest "home-made" videos I've ever seen! Anyone who has ever struggled to put words on paper will love it. Enjoy!

I'll post more updates in the past few days!

Life Snipits

2009-01-29T20:04:00.005-06:00

A conversation today between me and my 4-and-a-half year old daughter, the Bean:

Me: "How many kiddos are you gonna have, Bean?"

Bean: "10. I can handle 10 kids."

Me: "If anyone can do it, it's you, Bean! What are you gonna name all those kids?"

Bean (without pause): "Uno, Dos, Tres..."

And *that's* why writing for kids is such an outstanding career! I mean, who thinks like that but a 4-and-a-half year old?! Love it!

Also this week: congratulations to Jessica Burkhart on the release of her first book in the Canterwood Crest Series, Take the Reins. And...it's Jessica's birthday this week! Hope you're celebrating with mounds of chocolate, Ms. Burkhart! Join us back here on February 19th to learn more about Jessica's road to publication (which, BTW, includes four - yes, FOUR - books out this year in the Canterwood Crest series. Wowza!)

Tomorrow, I'm leavin'...on jet plane... (ah, John Denver!) to New York, New York (ah, Frank Sinatra)! Yipeeeeee! I'm attending the National SCBWI conference, and will follow up here with some of the gems of wisdom I always glean at these wonderful get-togethers. I heart kid lit gatherings! I leave each one practically crackling with inspiration.

Peace!

Books Make Great Gifts!

2008-12-12T19:04:00.003-06:00

Everyone is clinching their belts a little tighter this Christmas. But you can get everyone - EVERYONE! - on your list a gift they will love, a gift that might even change their life...for under $20 a person! Give BOOKS this holiday season! And I'm not sayin' that because, well, I just so happen to have one out there myself. ;-) No, the experts agree: Books Make Great Gifts! See for yourself, here.

The Trew Crew Blew Me Away!

2008-12-03T22:24:00.007-06:00

This pic of me, Emma and Bess Trew was taken the day before Thanksgiving in Athens, TN (give it up for the Big A, yo!) at a signing at the E. G. Fisher Public Library:

There is *nothing* cooler than chatting with readers. Nothing! And really, what author doesn't love to see this:

That's Bess, holding 10 - 10! - purchased copies of Autumn. The Trew Crew is making it their personal mission to see Autumn's name on the bestseller list. I am making it my personal mission to tell the world how very wonderful the Trew Crew is! In true (Trew?) Autumn-speak, "Thanks, y'all!" :-)

Meeting "Autumn!"

2008-11-12T21:47:00.003-06:00

I'm behind in my postings; something about launching a book, finishing a draft of another, and - oh! - raising two kids has made it difficult for me to make it online as much as I'd like. But I *had* to post the picture above - yes, that's me and the cover model for Autumn Winifred Oliver Does Things Different! We met earlier this month, and I gotta say, it was so surreal, meeting the girl who has come to represent Autumn. She's a delight. Thank you to Amber Rose and her father for their support! And for the record, she does *not* have a green mustache... ;-)

I'm Cyn-sational!

2008-10-21T21:43:00.002-05:00

Cynthia Leitich Smith has been called "the sweetheart of the kidlitosphere," and rightly so - her website/blog is a one-stop shop of all things kid lit. Cynsations turns 10 this year, and I'm honored to be a part of her posts highlighting debut authors! Check it out here!

Something Wicked, and Something Free

2008-10-20T21:53:00.003-05:00

Congratulations to my friend Alan Gratz on the release of Something Wicked! Wicked is a Horatio Wilkes mystery, a modern-day version of MacBeth. I'm lucky in the ARC department, and happened to win one of these puppies. Wicked is funny, snarky, and mysterious - in short, wicked awesome! And - bonus! Alan is one of those fantastic authors who wants to get his books in the hands of more folks, so to celebrate the release of Wicked, he's offering the first Horatio Wilkes mystery - Something Rotten, based on Hamlet - for FREE on his website. That's not a misprint, folks... the whole book, F.R.E.E. The catch? You gotta download it before November 30. Run!

www.alangratz.com

Do I have the best friends in the world, or what?!

2008-10-16T15:33:00.007-05:00

My friends in the St. Paul's Playgroup (see the Acknowledgments page in Autumn to learn more!) threw me a surprise BOOK shower today! (Think baby shower, with pages instead of diapers!) They even made a birth announcement (that's it, above). Here's what it says:

"I'm proud to announce the birth of AUTUMN WINIFRED OLIVER DOES THINGS DIFFERENT

Born after years of hard work on October 14, 2008

Weighing 9.8 ounces,

Measuring 7.8 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches, and

Coming in at 224 pages

ISBN 978-0-385-73569-8

Proud Mama,

Kristin O'Donnell Tubb"

And.... they bought me bubble bath! And chocolate! And wine! These ladies are the best. I am forever grateful for their friendship. I love y'all!

All Sorts of Cool Stuff!

2008-10-13T14:09:00.005-05:00

Whew! What a wonderful, whirlwind week! This past weekend I presented with two other members of the Class of 2k8 - Laurel Snyder (Up and Down the Scratchy Mountains) and Jenny Meyerhoff (Third Grade Baby) - at the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville, TN. Our panel, The Class of 2k8: Three Debut Middle Grade Novelists Tell All, was a blast! Here we are, signing our books after our presentation. I wasn't sure I'd have books available, because my release date is this week (um...tomorrow, to be exact. Two short hours from now. But hey, who's counting? ;-) ) But I *did* have books, and guess what? People bought them! I signed them! It was totally surreal. (Laurel is far right, Jenny center, and I'm far left. The Bean - my four year old - is far, far left. Love that kiddo!) Another pic of me signing can be found here, at my friend Kathy Rhodes's blog. Thanks for the shout-out, Kathy! ;-)

Oh! And the book trailer! It's up, it's running, and you, too, can watch it if you just click here! Hope you enjoy - please, let me know your thoughts!

Tomorrow is the official launch date of AWODTD. I'm participating in an Educator's Appreciation event at my local Barnes & Noble. The nation's best CRM, Robbie Bryan, tells me my books are already on the shelves. Bringing the camera for my first in-store Autumn sighting! Wheeeeeeeeeee!

They're Really Real!

2008-09-23T20:44:00.003-05:00

I got my first two hardback copies of Autumn Winifred Oliver Does Things Different last week, and boy, are they GEEEEE-ORGEOUS. I told my SuperEditor, and I quote, "I am a delighted/ecstatic combo with a side of thrilled, I'm so happy with them!"

You might not be able to see the tears running down my face in this photo, but believe me, they're there.

They are really, really real. Shiver!

Party at Kimberly Pauley's Blog!

2008-09-03T14:24:00.004-05:00

Author Kimberly Pauley launches her first YA novel this week, Sucks to Be Me: The All-True Confessions of Mina Hamilton, teen vampire (maybe)!! I'm tellin' ya, this book is *not* one to be read in the hush-hush corridors of your favorite library, because you will be HOWLING with laughter! Funny, funny stuff.

Kimberly was nice enough to invite me and Autumn Winifred Oliver to Mina's launch party. The whole gang is hanging out at Kimberly's place: click on over and check it out! And go buy Sucks to Be Me! Laughter adds 8 years to your life, you know. (Unless you're a teen vampire. Then you're immortal, anyway...)

Thanks, Kimberly, for all the fun! Yay for Mina!

Writer's Night at Barnes & Noble

2008-08-31T20:56:00.003-05:00

I could talk about writing for hours. Seriously. I did it just the other night, and I felt like I needed a tether to keep me anchored to planet earth. Such fun! It was the Barnes & Noble writer's night in Cool Springs, TN (Franklin). Community Relations Manager Robbie Bryan and wonderful friend Kathy Hardy Rhodes asked me if I'd be interested in talking to a group of writers about the "in between" stages of publishing - in between getting "the call" and seeing your book on a shelf. Would I be interested?! I brought so many visual aids, I had to roll them in in a cart - no kidding. Please visit friend Kathy's blog to read more. Thank you, Robbie and Kathy! And any where, any time, someone wants to chat about writing - bring it on! But I warn you, I am nonstop chatter on this one. :-)

Peace!

Killer Nashville!

2008-08-14T20:53:00.002-05:00

"It was Col. Mustard, in the library, with the candlestick..."

Who knew all those hours playing Clue when I was a kid would come in handy now, in my late twenties? But I am *stoked* about an opportunity that popped up this week - I am presenting at Killer Nashville, a humongo mystery writers conference here in middle Tennessee! I'll be discussing writing for children and young adults on Sunday morning at 8 a.m. (And yes, I can hear those of you who know me well laughing at the idea of me being coherent at such an obscene hour...) My friend Tracy Barrett is on the panel, too, so we can gulp down several dixie cups of coffee first.

I plan on focusing on a series of short mysteries for 6- to 9-year-olds that I wrote several years ago. The characters, Officer Iguana and Sergeant Salamander, are Insect Inspectors; they are, according to their business cards, "The Best Pest Detectives." Iggy & Sal solve crimes using facts about bugs. Two of these stories appeared in Spider magazine a few years ago; three more are due next year. I think it'll be big fun to talk about mysteries for kids, and just as fun to learn more about Dr. Bill Bass, founder of the Body Farm , who is the guest of honor. Too cool!

I'm off to go bone up on skull fractures... Get it? Bone up? Ha! That's why I like kid lit - that stuff kills with the younger set. Get it? Kills... :-)

Yay, Killer Nashville!

An Interview with Little Willow

2008-08-04T22:46:00.002-05:00

I'm so excited about an interview I recently did with Little Willow, book blogger extraordinaire! Please, hop on over and take a look! One thing that I really enjoyed about this experience was how thoughtful Little Willow's questions were. And hey, check out some of the other authors she's been rubbing elbows with. Not shabby company, eh? :-)

Thanks, LW!

I'm in Love! (Again)

2008-06-08T20:47:00.002-05:00

So if you scroll down a bit, you'll see that the main character of my work-in-progress, Hope, has been giving me FITS. I mean, the girl was downright nasty. Well, I'm happy to report that I've undertaken a major overhaul of this story, and she is now a rather pleasant person to spend time with! It's a good thing, too - after all, I take time away from my family to write. When Hope was buggin', I began to question why I was doing this. I'd walk away from the story feeling bitter and short-changed, like I was covering for a lazy co-worker. These feelings are difficult to relay to a 16-month-old: "Sorry Mommy's cranky, sweetie. The people who live in my head aren't playing nice."

But now Hope gives me hope. I received some fantastic feedback that has helped me figure some of the things that just weren't clicking. That, and I've been doing more research (it's historical fiction), and am positively stoked about some of the things I've uncovered about this era (1910). So - yay! I'm in love with writing again. And *that* feeling is easy to carry over to my family.