News

Jul

Conflict & Endings & Kisses

Personally, I shy away from conflict. It drives me crazy when people are angry with me. I seldom raise my voice. My temper flares up and dies away all within ten minutes. So it’s hard for me, writing conflict. My instinct is for everyone to say "oh, it’s okay" and make up. But that’s not very dramatic, is it? What we want in real life isn’t the same as what we want in our fiction. Yesterday I struggled for hours with a pivotal scene between my main character and her love interest. She was already having a crap day, and then she had to tell him something that was going to make him feel betrayed, and they were both going to say some stupid things, and some dead-on but hurtful things. It surprised me, how difficult it was to write. It hurt. But I think it’s good. Cate is getting...

Jul

Getting Unstuck

Jessica

I don’t do many process posts because I’m not sure yet what my process IS. Thrice is only my second book. I didn’t use an outline until I was halfway through Garolass; I wrote one before I started Thrice and have hewn pretty closely to it. I wrote with music on for Garolass all the time; I can’t with Thrice. I massively rewrote Garolass from third-past to first-present, excised and combined characters, cut the scenes that first inspired it. Thrice is much tighter; I don’t envision such huge overhauls (although who knows). One thing I have learned is what to do when I get stuck. Depending on the problem, I try: 1. Using a different font or writing on a different computer. It rejiggers my brain somehow. 2. Writing out short vignettes by hand (for me, this is usually dialogue). 3. Skipping ahead to the next scene I’m excited to write, then...

Jul

ALA, Days 2 and 3

Jessica

I am so glad that I went to ALA. I met amazing people and authors and fellow book-lovers. I have the chance to read wonderful, buzzy books before they come out. It was hard, sometimes. I’m an introverted girl, and wandering a conference alone, making small talk, waiting in lines, standing on the fringes of groups, feeling invisible–arg. Awkward. When people would ask whether I was a librarian, I’d explain that I’m an aspiring YA author. Sometimes they’d ask who my publishing house is, and I’d explain that I don’t have one yet. Authors were chatting with their author friends, Debs, Tenners, Elevensies, and I don’t have a debut group yet. It is hard feeling like I’m so close, I have a fabulous agent, my book is out on submissions, but I don’t have a definitive place in the room. Yet. But mostly it was amazing. Sunday was the day...

Jun

ALA, Day 1

Jessica

So, ALA is amazing. It is a giant room filled with books and people who love them. So, heaven, pretty much. My best friend Jenn and I got there around 8:30 to pick up our badges. When the exhibits opened at 9, we hightailed it to the Penguin booth, where I learned that if you asked nicely, they would totally give you ARCs. I still can’t believe that I didn’t have to swear eternal devotion or anything. They just gave them to me! It was amazing! Everyone was so nice! (Warning: many exclamation points still ahead.) My first order of business: I had promised Kiersten White and Stephanie Perkins that I would introduce their book babies and then snap a pic of their first play-date. I can’t wait to read these two! While Jenn (a high school English teacher intent on building her classroom library) snapped up free books indiscriminately...

Conflict & Endings & Kisses

Top 10 Reads, January-June

Getting Unstuck

ALA, Days 2 and 3

ALA, Day 1

FIND ME ON SOCIAL MEDIA

BOOKS AND ANTHOLOGIES

POSTS FOR WRITERS