Not a Fan of Holidays

Back when I had a real job, I loved holidays. One (or two) whole days to sit around and relax - ahhhh. Not so much now. Holidays represent one more day of the week when the kids are underfoot, I don't get anything done, and most editors and agents go quiet so there is no hope of a "good news" phone call. Even the email goes into holiday mode. It's a bummer.

Everyone was home from school today. As I work from home, I inherited an extra kid or two for the day. We went here:
Was it as crazy as it looks? Nah. Apparently, most people didn't realize they were open for the holiday and it was pretty empty. See that clover looking thing? That is the hot tub. I spent most of the day in the lower right-hand quadrant helping my BF J figure out how to make a move on the cute guy that was sitting in the corner reading a book. And she did! It was just like Jr. High all over again. Squeal!

Side note: I think I'm going to make it into the City tomorrow night to Books Inc. and the NotYourMother'sBookClub pizza party with fabbo authors including our favorite scribe Jay Asher. Squeal again!

On this date: In 1954, Ellis Island shut its doors.

Doing What They Want

It's always best not to mess with the characters in your head. They laugh at you if you try.

So far, I've got the premise for my new YA, I've got a pretty good handle on the main character and a shadowy idea of the other characters. Not bad, but I was having a hard time nailing down the setting. I was thinking (for reasons that will be revealed later) that it had to take place in a very cold and snowy location - the only problem being that I've always lived in California. So, in my front-brain, I'd decided that this was going to take place in Wisconsin or Minnesota. And then the movie stopped playing. I was getting no more information from my character, no more interesting little tidbits about why she was going to graduate at 17, why she changed her name, etc. Nothing. I started to wonder if the book wasn't going to work after all. I posted a setting question on the Verla Kay Blue Boards, and got wonderful feedback about writing locations that you know nothing about. My great writer friends convinced me that I was probably better off sticking to what I knew.

Last night, I started trying other locations on for size. East Coast? Please, my main character said.. (At least she was talking to me again.) Lake Tahoe? Nope, she said. Okay, I pleaded with her, how about forgetting the snow and setting it in the Bay Area? It gets cold here in the winter. Sometimes. Hmmm, she said. You're getting closer. Re energized, I started picturing different locations in San Francisco where I'd lived before. She seems to like one particular apartment in the Mission District, but we're negotiating between that and a house in the suburbs.

Now that I was doing what she wanted, she dumped a whole bunch of info on me while I was getting ready for bed. I'm so glad we're talking again.

On this date: In 1965, the Great Northeast Blackout.

It's Off...

So I shipped the finished YA off to Agent Erin today - I should have an idea by the end of next week if it's a go or not. It's gotten good feedback from my critique people (thanks Nat!), so hopefully it won't need too much before it gets launched out into the world.

At the same time, Agent E gave me the go ahead on the next YA I want to do, which is great, but now I have to play butt in chair and start writing the thing. Its always hard to start, because I have the situation and the starting point, but the characters always reveal themselves slowly. This next one is going to take place in a very narrow time frame and in a very limited location so it should be interesting. I'll keep you posted.

On this date: In 1916, Jeannette Rankin becomes the first US congresswoman.

Yard Doody Observations

I was taking my turn at yard-doody today when I saw something that tugs at every writer's heart. Two first grade girls were sitting on a bench at lunch reading amidst all the chaos. Being me, I was curious to see what they were reading, so I went over to check it out. They both had the same copy of Magic Tree House, turned to the same page. One of the girls couldn't read very well, so she was following along in her book while the other girl read out loud from her book. It was so adorable I almost got misty. They told me how much they loved the MTH books, and that when they were done with this one, they were going to go back and read number 5 because they couldn't remember what it was about. Sniff.

On this date: In 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected President.

And You Thought Baseball Was Ridiculous...

Check out soccer with the hair people!

There are rumblings of haircuts in the near future - I'm all over it.

On this date: In 1935, Parker Brothers released Monopoly.

Art and Life and Art

My MG has a scene in it where the MC runs away to an RV that is in his neighbor's yard. I even called my mom, who has an RV, to see if this would be possible, and what systems would run quietly enough so that it wouldn't be noticed. A few months after I finished the book, there was a news story about a 13 year old who had run away, only to be found a few days later in - you guessed it - his neighbor's RV. I figured that people would think I copied the story, but I swear, I thought of it first!

The newest YA that I just finished has a scene where the bad guy hacks into the university computer system and "sells" better grades to his frat brothers (and gives bad grades to our heroine). I open the SF Chronicle today to see a story, yup, on two guys who just got convicted for hacking into a university computer system and selling better grades to their friends.

Once is a coincidence - twice is a conspiracy. Would all of the newsmakers please get out of my computer!

On this date: In 1983 the Martin Luther King holiday is declared.

The Procrastination Olympics

If there were medals given for the procrastination decathlon, I'd win gold every time. I had several hours this morning to work on the new piece and I managed to write exactly twelve words of the synopsis I've promised Agent E. There were issues.

First off, I couldn't figure out what that weird smell was in the boys room. Finally traced it to some rank sneakers that had to be thrown in the wash. In order to do that, I had to finish drying and folding the load that was in the dryer so that the load that was in the washer could get transferred. That ate up somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 minutes. Then I had to talk on the phone for awhile. When I finally sat down, I spent a good hour on the baby names websites trying to hit on just the right name for my MC. After websurfing, I discovered that I didn't have anymore blank notebooks. I need one-subject ruled notebooks with pockets for notes, musings and doodles for each new book. That meant I had to go to Target to get some more. As I am rarely in Target alone, I had to go to pretty much every department and look at everything before paying for my notebooks and one air freshener (see shoes above). By the time I got home, it was lunchtime and blog-visiting time.


I did manage to come up with a really nice opening sentence and figured out that although she is a senior in high school, my MC is only sixteen because she skipped second grade. Still not completely sold on the name, but we're going with Lauren for now. She seems to like it well enough.

On this date: In 1512, the Sistine Chapel opened to the public.