I have been waiting and waiting for the opportunity to share this good news, and today I finally got the go-ahead from my agent to tell the world about it --

I have sold two more faery books to Orchard, my wonderful publisher in the UK!

Like Knife and Rebel, these next two novels will be more or less complete stories in themselves, but (like Rebel) they are also sequels to the earlier books, so we'll be seeing some familiar characters and plot threads cropping up as well.

If all goes well, then Arrow, the third book, will hit bookstores in the UK and Commonwealth in 2011 and Swift, the fourth volume, in 2012.

My delighted thanks to the good folks at Orchard Books UK, and to all the enthusiastic and loyal young readers, librarians, teachers and booksellers overseas who have helped to make my faery books a success!

Does your draft have dialog that goes on for pages? Feels like a screenplay more than a novel?

You (or more accurately) your characters need some action: Verbs, my friends. You are in need of verbs.

Step 1: Choose a dialog-heavy scene.

Step 2: Brainstorm abut what kinds of actions the characters might be doing while they are having this conversation. F. ex., mom and son arguing at the grocery store about if he can borrow the car Friday night. Potential actions: picking out groceries (be specific!), checking labels, returning groceries to shelf (possibility for character development! Does this character go to the trouble of returning item where it belongs or not?), smelling squeezing, poking. More character development: are items neatly stacked in cart, or thrown in?

Step 3: Insert actions into dialog.

Step 4: See where you can trim dialog by allowing characters actions to speak louder than their words.

So, I really love Beatles Rock Band a ridiculous amount. I love the songs, I love the little cartoons, I love the random screaming girls. Forget vampires and werewolves. If I were a teen during Beatlemania, I would be on Team Paul. I'm sort of on Team Paul now; Rock Band Avatar Paul really is really rather cute.

Of course, it helps that I love the music.

Playing Beatles Rock Band reminds of my my teen theater geeks friends. Between matinee shows we would put on Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and dim the house lights, and have elaborate air guitar concerts. My friends Tom and David loved the Beatles, and I can't help thinking about them and my other CATS friends when I hear those opening riffs of that particular song.

Anyway. Rock Band. I've determined that playing bass is really my niche. I don't want to devote the time to really practice to get good enough for lead guitar, and that stupid kick drum is my downfall when I play drums. After embarrassing myself at Rocksgiving at my friend Jenny's house, I have gotten in sufficient practice that I hope not to repeat my humiliation when we have a rematch.

Your Wednesday moment of zen.



Ruined adobe house in northern New Mexico. © 2006, 2009 Joseph E. Lake, Jr.



This work by Joseph E. Lake, Jr. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

While watching it last night, I knew something was amiss about A Charlie Brown Christmas last night. It felt...lighter, different, thought I couldn't put a single finger on it. Then I read this when I got up this morning and I'm feeling very sad:

An Open Letter to ABC

It's just so sad. I didn't think that the following show (Prep and Landing) was so horrible. I actually liked it and think it would've been a little better if it were a little longer. Anwyay, there my something for the day.

Anyway, I'm starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel for writing soon. I've just got to focus a little bit more...and a snow day would be nice.

So this was going to be a post about the unruliness of story endings, about how you have all these threads you're trying to bring together and tie off and how in the first few drafts they fight you and keep pulling out of your grasp, leaving frayed ends everywhere. And then I thought about how in Bones, there was a whole extra scene in a whole other place that just didn't fit there and made the threads splay out in too many directions, and how I once thought that scene would be at the end of this book too, but it wound up not belonging here either, and wanted to be in some other someday book.

And then I realized that, wait--unlike in the first book, that deleted scene actually does belong in this one--or rather, a climactic scene from the end of this book needs to move to the setting of that deleted scene and take on elements of it--and that if I do that, all those unruly story-ending threads will suddenly start clicking together rather than splaying apart.

And then I thought: but I liked the last 13,000 words I wrote. And: but I was so close to the end.

No matter. If this new thing is the thing the story wants, then those 15,000 words were part of the path to get there, rather than a thing in themselves.

Of course I have to try the new ending, and see if it really does bring things together the way I right-this-moment feel so certain it will. Whatever I find, following that new path is part of the process, too. And I've learned that when that sudden realization makes pieces begin to go click, click, clickety click, I ignore it at my peril.

The Clockwork Jungle Book is out!

Shimmer author spotlight on me — Including a podcast of me reading my story from Clockwork Jungle Book, "Shedding Skin: Or How the World Came to Be".

Jay Lake's Get Well Audio Fiction — A full cast reading of two of my stories at Orycon by Jeff Soesbe, M. K. Hobbson, Dave Goldman, David D. Levine, Camille Alexa, and Mary Robinette Kowal. Thank you so much, guys.

elfs on characters and the monkeysphere — I appear to have an elevated Dunbar number. And more on Dunbar numbers, via writerjeremy on Facebook.

Skxawng! — On created languages. (Thanks to wllyumtx.)

?otD: Where have you guys been, anyway?

---

12/9/2009
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride (long walk planned later)
Hours slept: 8.75
This morning's weigh-in: 230.2
Currently reading: Finch by Jeff VanderMeer

I didn't get to that writing binge yesterday because it rather suddenly cleared up, and as the weatherman on the noon news said that was likely to be the "balmy" day of the week, I headed out to get groceries and do some other shopping-type errands. Of course, I realized after I got home that even though I got everything on my list, I'd left some things off my list, so maybe I'll make another trip on my way to choir rehearsal tonight. With that trip, I should be able to finish my Christmas shopping.

And they were right about yesterday being relatively "balmy." The last time I checked, it was 28 degrees. And it's rather windy. Guess who really needs to go to the bank and post office, which is a walking errand? I think I'll wait until it at least gets above freezing.

I also didn't do any decorating, other than hanging a wreath on the front door. I've decided Thursday is my holiday decorating day.

Now, for that project I've been working on the past few days ...

This will be the last "writing post" of the year, and instead of writing a post, I've put together a PDF e-book of all the writing posts since I started doing this, back in the fall of 2007. The posts have been edited for context and formatting, and I've tried to organize them by topic. While I normally gripe about unauthorized distribution of my novels (those free PDF downloads of my novels aren't legal and are stealing from me -- and possibly keeping there from being more books in my series, if people are stealing the books instead of buying them), this one is free to download, and you're welcome to share it freely, just as long as it stays in this form in this document. I don't want to see anything from the content popping up online. If you want me to do an article or guest blog based on one of these articles, please ask.

You can find this book at:
http://www.shannaswendson.com/write_with_shanna.pdf

I'll get back to doing the writing posts after the holidays, sometime in January (I may have some stuff going on earlier in the month, so it may be mid-January). In the meantime, I'm always looking for questions or topics to address, so if there's something you want to know about the writing life, the craft of writing or the publishing business, let me know.

I'm utterly over the moon: the German book site Das Lituratur-Cafe has put up a German audio translation of my Christmas werewolf story "The Werewolf Before Christmas" today. This free download is a promo for the German version of the anthology Wolfsbane and Mistletoe that I contributed to in 2008. The anthology was edited by Charlaine Harris and Toni L.P. Kelner and it's a sweet collection of werewolf stories for Christmas. Check it out and if you speak German... please stop by Das Literatur-Cafe and check out the reading of Ein Werwolf zu Weihnachten!

It’s that time of year again. The time of year where I start making my New Years Resolutions and then inflict a goals/ resolutions post upon everyone. (Yes, this is a habit.[http://m-stiefvater.livejournal.com/89996.html])

The truth is, me and resolutions are tight. I get righteously angry when I hear folks badmouthing New Years Resolutions. I grow pitifully sad when I hear people don’t have any goals for themselves. And then I get snarkily sniffy when I hear someone make an unwinnable goal without realizing it.

Here’s the thing about goals (and if you have already read 8,000 of my goal blog posts or heard me say this out loud before now, you can skip to the photos). A goal is like a bus. Let’s say you always wanted to get to Cleveland, for some reason. And suddenly a bus shows up outside your door. You say “whoo! buses go places!” and jump on. But you never say out loud that you want to go to Cleveland. You never tell the driver. You never really tell yourself. You just have this vague desire to see Cleveland.

Well, I tell you what. I can guarantee you that you will get someplace. And there’s a chance you might like that place. But I can also pretty much guarantee you it won’t be Cleveland. Seems obvious, doesn't it? but . . .

This is a life without goals. You might still enjoy yourself, but you might have ended up somewhere better and actually gotten your dreams if you’d made it a goal. And actually told someone else, so you became accountable.

Basically that’s what resolutions are: goals that become real because you wrote ‘em down. And they have an expiration date. One year later, they kick the bucket. They are at the time the most ordinary and magical thing in the world. Ordinary because a resolution, really, has no power. It’s just something you said. Something you wrote. You could break it if you want to. It won’t make things happen just because you happened to write it down. But they’re magical too because when I write my resolutions, I shape how my next year looks. I am literally crafting my own future, because for me, writing them down is a decision to pursue them. I change my life in the few hours it takes me to choose my goals for the year. Writing them down makes them concrete and a challenge. It tells me the person I’m going to be in 2010 -- the person I want to be.

That’s magical.

Now, that said, there’s good resolutions and bad ones. A good resolution is one that is

- largely in your control
- quantifiable


I’d also add, for me, that I like mine
- slightly out of my reach

I like the challenge of having to stretch to reach a goal. I also like to have a mix of easy and hard goals, because I like to have crossed off about half of them by June. Maggie likes the crossing off. With a big fat Sharpie. But if you make your goals too easy, you are defeating the purpose of them. Goals and resolutions are supposed to change who you are. If they're too easy, yes, you'll always hit the mark -- but you probably would've anyway. Shoot big and you'll win big.

Bad resolutions?

- mostly out of your control
- nebulous
- open-ended
- too ambitious
too far ahead of the game (not the same as too ambitious)


Examples of bad goals are: “get healthier in 2010.” What does that mean? When can you ever cross that off the list? How will you know when you’ve actually achieved that? It’s nebulous and open-ended. A better version of those would be: “get a gym membership” or “learn to cook ten different kinds of stir-fry” or “find a place to buy free-range, grain-fed beef” or “establish a 30 minute home exercise regimen.”





Too ambitious are things like: “take over North America.” Too far ahead of the game is “take over United States.” Unless you’ve already started steps to take over the world, a better goal is: “win favor of local Congressman and infiltrate Virginia cheese shops.” First step to world takeover. Baby steps. Baby steps.

And goals that are out of your control aren’t great either, because you might still achieve them, but you can’t take credit. And more appropriately, if you can’t cross them off, it’s not because of you. They really belong on someone else’s list. That includes things like “debut on the NYT Bestseller List” “make husband take clown lessons” and “get made Employee of the Month” (unless employee of the month has certain steps you can take to get there).

There are some goals that sort of skirt the line, like “do sit ups for 15 minutes every day” -- it’s open-ended, so you can’t cross it off til the end of the year, but it is totally doable. I usually have one or two of those on my list, but a whole list of those would drive me batty.


Here are my resolutions for 2009, written last year.


1) finish LINGER on time

2) write RE: MYSELF (this is a secretive, uncontracted project)

3) *secret writing career goal that I can’t reveal at the moment*

4) *other secret writing career goal that I can’t reveal at the moment*

5) Talk to 1000 aspiring writers (well over)

Move house (just did)

7) Write/ record theme for SHIVER (two of them! you can hear them here!)

8) travel somewhere new on vacation (Savannah! whooo!)

become conversational with my spoken German

travel to the UK if I sell my UK rights before March (UK book tour! whooo!)

I did all of these but two, one of which I crossed out halfway through the year and changed to another (I switched “become conversational with my spoken German” to “become better friends with my guitar”)(see, one of those open-ended ones) and the other was write RE: MYSELF, which I thought would be my next in line to be published. Instead, I have another secretive project (man, too many of these) that’s coming next, and that’s the one I worked on. So I’m pretty cheery -- I feel like I really kept to the spirit of my resolutions.

Would I have done these things if I hadn’t written them down? Some of them. The easy ones. But all ten? Not. a. chance. They gave me purpose, direction, and drive. They gave me that bus to Cleveland. It’s especially important, I think, when you’re doing something creative with your life or when you’re not doing your writing, art, music, etc., for your living. It’s far too easy to say that you’ll work on your latest creative endeavor when the muse strikes you or that it’s not a priority because it’s not making you money. Believe me, doing something because you’re being paid for it is the least important reason of all to do anything. ANYTHING.

So I’m going to be working on ten new resolutions this month; I’ll have ‘em done by Christmas. Once again, it will completely define what I do with my year. I fully intend to smack 2010 around and generally make it succumb to my will.

How about you guys?

Extremely weird weather. First it rained so hard it woke me up, and after a high yesterday of 48F, today it's already in the 70's and sunny. But a freeze is coming, so I finally picked all the peppers out of the garden and took up the pretty-much-finished basil. I have bell peppers, serranos, bananas sweet and hot, cayennes, little purple thai peppers, and some various other ones I don't even know. Lot of spicy eating in the days to come--and some pepper vinegar for presents, if I can find some cute jars or bottles.

And now I have to go pick up the new monk at the airport. Maybe I should bring him some peppers as a welcome gift...

In an online article on indiereader.com, a New York publicist says this about book tours: "There's no reason to throw money at venues hosting authors if you're not also getting local media. It is important to support independent booksellers since their staffers will handsell a book if an author visits that store and they'll put the book out front. That matters - we don't discount those impacts. But it is hard to justify book tours without the media coverage."

The article continues,”Two of the most valued cities for books coverage - Seattle and Denver - have each lost one of their two daily newspapers this year, cutting books' coverage there by half, or more.”

And, in case you’re curious, the article also has a widely accepted “A list” of tour cities:
New York
Washington, D.C.
Boston
Chicago
San Francisco
Seattle
Los Angeles
Portland
Denver

[Full disclosure: even though we’re on this list, I still see lots of authors skipping right from San Francisco to Seattle, without a stop in between.]

It's a month of reruns!! (originally published on 4/6/06)

It was fun finding this entry. Here is where my career changed directions. Right here. I went from trying to be a PB/MG writer to a YA writer. Still, 3+ years later, I can remember what it was like writing that book - in a word, amazing. It was like a gift from God, it flowed so easily. I've only had one other book like that, and it's coming out in March: IT'S RAINING CUPCAKES.

***

A new story is inside me
and now starting to appear
outside of me.
On paper.
Where it can become
what it is meant to be.

It haunted me all night.

Haunted is exactly the right word.

It is written in free verse.

I don't know if I know what I'm doing
but I know I love what I'm doing
so I'm going to keep doing it.

I got up at 5:30 and have written
6 chapters.
6 short chapters
Almost 1000 words.

I could write it all day long
if only I could write all day long.

But there's that thing called work.

So, Ava and Jackson,
I will see you again,
later on,
if not on paper,
then in my dreams.

robinbridges wins my critique auction! Message me, Robin, once you've submitted your donation to the auction, and we'll figure out our game plan! (You can email me at tiffanytrent at msn dot com, if you like).

I call this a Christmas Cookie, but of course, it is not yet Christmas and of course it is not my present to you all!

My present to you all is a short story called Nick's First Word and I have sent it off to my web designer, so it should be up some time between now and Christmas, and I hope you will enjoy it! But this is not that story.

Since I put up the first chapter last month on this day, it has become Official Cookie Day, and thus you are due a cookie.

I chose this bit of The Demon's Covenant because it has lots of Nick in it, and chapter one cruelly deprived those who like that sort of thing. Feedback on what sort of thing you wish for in Cookies of the Future much desired.

Major, huge, world-ending spoilers for Demon's Lexicon within.

( Christmas Cookie for The Demon's Covenant )

Learn about Heather Vogel Frederick, and Set Sail for Adventure. Her latest release is Dear Pen Pal (Simon & Schuster, 2009).

What do you love most about your creative life? Why?

The very best part for me is the moment I surrender completely to the story. I call it "entering the slipstream." Real life falls away; time stands still. You’re transported. You live the story, exhilarated, and when you finally emerge, it's as if surfacing from deep underwater. You blink, momentarily disoriented, and discover in amazement that hours have passed, hours that to you seemed like minutes.

I’ve talked with artists across the creative spectrum about this – painters, poets, dancers, musicians, sculptors, and so on – and am intrigued to find that it's a common experience. It’s where the magic happens, where art is born. It's the point at which you know beyond a doubt, this is what I was put on this earth to do.

How do you psych yourself up to write and to keep writing?

Ah, that’s the trick, isn’t it? Getting to that slipstream can be tough. There are days when I’m instantly in the groove and it’s no effort at all, and others when I would rather do anything but write. You know it’s bad when you'd rather clean the fridge than work on a story! And then there are days when you're raring to go and nothing comes out the end of your pen but ink.

I have found that in many cases, the greater my resistance to writing, the greater the reward when I finally manage it. There's an excellent book on this subject, one I highly recommend to all writers. It’s called The War of Art (Grand Central, 2003), and in it author Steven Pressfield deconstructs this resistance brilliantly.

For me, when the muse balks, I go into what I call "Golden Retriever mode." I’m like that dog who circles and circles in front of the hearth before finally settling down for a nap. Only in my case I'm settling myself down to write.

I might tidy a bit, take a walk, putter in the garden, fix myself a cup of tea. That sort of thing. Eventually, these stealth tactics lull the muse, and I can sneak up on her and make her get back to work.

When and where do you write? Why does that time and space work for you?

I write mostly in my office here at home, sitting in a comfortable armchair. I rarely write at my desk. I often start out longhand before switching to my laptop. It's a bit like priming the pump, I suppose. I'm a morning person, and am up early. I'm always in my office by nine at the latest. This is my job, and I'm disciplined about showing up on time for it.

I've been writing for a living for over 25 years, first as a journalist shortly after college, then as a freelance writer and now as a novelist. I have a well-honed work ethic, which I think is half the battle in just about anything we undertake in life.

Occasionally I'll write in a coffee shop, just for a change of pace. If the weather is nice, in the afternoons I head for the back yard. There’s a quiet, sheltered corner under our cherry tree that serves as my satellite office. I like to sit there and read, answer mail, maybe blog a bit – work on the business side of things.

So far, as a reader, what is your favorite children's-YA book of 2009 and why?

There are several, but leading the pack is unquestionably Heart of a Shepherd by Rosanne Parry (Random House, 2009). It's an absolutely stunning debut novel about war and its impact on family – in this case, a ranching family in Eastern Oregon. It will break your heart.

How do you define professional success?

Longevity. I look at writers like Susan Cooper and Avi, Jane Yolen and Walter Dean Myers and Richard Peck (I'm currently madly in love with his books) and others I admire, writers who have been in the game for decades and are still going strong. That's who I want to be when I grow up.

What can your fans look forward to next?

I have a couple more Mother-Daughter Book Club (Simon & Schuster, 2007-) tales up my sleeve, and there are also several picture books in the pipeline that I’m really excited about. I’m eager to see how the artists involved envision the stories. Illustration is just a complete mystery to me. I’m in awe of anyone with artistic talent – I can’t even draw a stick figure!

After that, as far as novels go I'm looking forward to working on something a little different. Still middle-grade, as that's the shoe that fits most comfortably and the voice that always seems to emerge whenever I sit down to write fiction, but the story I have in mind at the moment is a departure from contemporary realism into more of the fairy tale/fantasy realm. I'm holding it close at the moment, because it's still a newborn, so that's all I’m able to share just now.

Cynsational Notes

The Craft, Career & Cheer series features conversations with children's-YA book creators about positive aspects of their creative and professional lives.

You know when you're sitting at the keyboard, typing away, letting the words flow out of you. Maybe they're flowing like Niagra Falls, maybe a running faucet, or even a simple drip is a good thing. Whatever the case... your producing and your happy about it.

Then IT shows up. Yeah. IT. We've all got one. That little coniving creature spouting nothing but negativity.

It freaks me out when mine appears. It comes right out of the manuscript. Pushing its way through the paper. It looks something like this...



Then it scuttles up my arm and perches on my shoulder and begins to whisper mean things in my ear. Things like...

"You suck!"

"No one will read this!"

"You haven't Twittered in a while!"

"You're no writer!"

"Your bald spot is getting bigger!"

Then... when I glance over at it... it's giving me the 'loser' sign! I HATE that thing! I want to squash it! Kill it! Make it pay!

But how?

Usually, when this thing appears, I can ignore it or simply wait it out. But right now... I don't have that kind of time. I need this little bastard out of my life! Immediately!

So... what are some good ways to defeat IT?

And what do you call IT?

Aside from GLEE (which I blogged about yesterday) and FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS (which I haven’t started watching yet- I have season one on DVD), I’m not sure how many network (ABC/NBC/CBS) shows there are that concentrate largely on teenagers- but lately, I’ve been paying a lot of attention to the way teens are depicted in shows with mostly-adult casts. A lot of these teens I love. Claire has always, always been my favorite character on Heroes (she’s a cheerleader with Wolverine’s power… how could I not love her? And the whole “I’m Claire Bennett, and that was attempt number six” thing was a most excellent introduction). I’ve just started watching Castle, but one of my favorite parts of the show is Castle’s teenage daughter, Alexis, and watching Nathan Fillion (as Castle) interact with her.

So I was incredibly excited to hear that they were introducing a recurring teen character on Grey’s Anatomy: the eighteen-year-old daughter of McSteamy (aka Dr. Mark Sloane). I literally squealed when I saw the “next week on Grey’s Anatomy” preview the week before the first of little Sloane’s episodes aired. Teenage character! Sudden fatherhood! So many of my favorite tropes, all condensed into one!

And then I actually saw the episode in question, and I was severely underwhelmed. In the past, Grey’s has done such an incredible job introducing new characters. A lot of the recurring parts build slowly, until the characters take center stage. At this point, besides Bailey and occasionally Cristina, all of my favorite characters on the show were introduced this way at one point: Lexie (love her!), Callie, Arizona… even McSteamy himself.

So I had very high hopes for the Sloane daughter story line. And then when met her. She’s petulant. She’s utterly convinced of her own hotness. She’s a total flake. And she’s (SPOILER ALERT) about to make McSteamy a grandfather. Maybe the Grey’s writers will peel back some of her layers, and turn her into a force of awesomeness, like they did with Addison. But at the moment, she feels a lot more like a plot device (let’s complicate McSteamy’s relationship with Lexie! And give him an identity crisis! And then do a crossover with Private Practice, because little Sloane can go to Addison if and when there’s something wrong with her baby!) than a person.

And for a show that, in general, does a great job of having a really diverse and interesting cast of characters, from different backgrounds and with different perspectives on life, love, and medicine, it’s so disappointing to me that the first even semi-major teen character on the show might turn out to be little more than a cardboard cut-out. I’m hoping I’m wrong, but as of the last episode, I just turned off the television set feeling like the writers felt like it was okay for the only eighteen-year-old on the show to be two-dimensional, because she’s a kid, and everyone knows that you don’t develop your second or third dimension until the magical age of 21.

Now, to be fair, Grey’s has featured teens in minor story arcs before- as patients. And some of those teens were really interesting. Beyond that, a lot of the main characters on the show have really fascinating back-stories and there’s been some discussion about what each of them were like as teens, so it’s not like the writers think ALL teenagers are as flat as mini-Sloane. And as I said before, it’s definitely the case that Grey’s often introduces characters who seem really unlikeable or one-dimensional for a couple of episodes, and then, as we get to know them, more is revealed.

All of which goes to say that Grey’s could still make little Sloane awesome, by some definition of the word. And I’m hoping they do. Because right now, the “generic teenager” (as if there is such a thing!) vibe just isn’t working at all.