Manufacturing Beauty

Yes, it's old, but I love this!




On this date: In 1968, Apollo 7 was launched.

Fabulous Friday Free Stuff!

They're here! Bookmarks and postcards and business cards oh my! Thanks to fabbo author and swag designer Saundra Mitchell I now have lots of cool things to give away. I didn't notice it at first, but on the back of the postcard and bookmark is a very faint image of a stack of National Geographics. Genius!

Want a signed bookmark or three? Drop me a line and I'll drop them in the mail.

On this date: In 1940, John Lennon was born.

Which Way?

I'm at one of those places where I have to make an uncomfortable decision. As many of you know, I like to write books. It's fun and as long as you can get your behind in a chair and your fingers on a keyboard, it's not all that hard. Well, not that hard compared to being a killer bee remover, a skyscraper window washer or a deep sea fisherperson. Unfortunately, for most of us, it takes awhile (if ever) to be a lucrative way to make a living.

I also do internet freelance writing. Again, not the hardest job in the world (see above), but a bit taxing on the old cerebral cortex if done for more than four hours a day. This particular job also makes the prospect of sitting down and writing fiction at the end of a long day less than appealing. Work was slow recently, hubby is making good (if long-distance) money and because of that I'm doing solo kid-wrangling a lot deal of the time, so I decided to take a month off of the freelance writing. It was great. I felt less stressed, I got a good chunk of my revision for the (hopefully) next book finished and got to read some actual books written by other people at the end of the day.

Now my freelance clients are ramping back up again and I'm trying to decide whether to go back to it or not. I feel like I really need to focus on my career in fiction, but it is very hard to pass up real money that appears every month in my freelance account. Guaranteed rewards now, or possible rewards later?

So hard to know...

On this date: In 1982, Cats debuted on Broadway.

Fiction Means I Made It Up

While there aren't very many ARCs of Dirty Little Secrets (one thing I found out in NYC - people in the biz such as editors and publicists call them A.R.C.s. while most of the rest of us call them Arcs as in Noah) out in the world, a few people have read one. Most of the people who have gotten one from me have a personal connection as in friends and/or family.

This is good. Mostly. One thing I didn't expect (although in hindsight I probably should have) is that people who know me read things into the text that I didn't intend to be there. Now, writers do tend to put things that are familiar into their fictional stories - I might use some places that I'm familiar with because it's easier to navigate in a familiar landscape. I might use a characteristic of someone I know in one of my fictional people. Sometimes I like a name and use it in a book. None of this means that I'm building a character around someone that I know.

I love love love David Sedaris (and I get to go see him in Marin at the end of the month - clap, clap, clap!) and one of my favorite lines of his is from Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim:

"In my mind, I'm like a friendly junk man, building things from the little pieces of scrap I find here and there, but my family's started to see things differently. Their personal lives are the so-called pieces of scrap I so casually pick up, and they're sick of it."

The difference here is that David writes in a more autobiographical style, while I write fiction. I have two sisters. My character Lucy has a sister. Are they in any way similar? No. Am I making a commentary about one of my sisters with the character of Lucy's sister? No. Same goes for my parents, cousins, home town and pets. Another writer was commenting on a writing board the other day that a friend had read her book and had told her that her marriage must be a mess and she could tell that this writer hated men by what was in her book. Huh? It's fic-tion-al.

All of this makes me a little nervous as more and more people read DLS. I'm here to state, unequivocally, that this book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to people living or dead is purely coincidental. So if you see your name in my book, it can only mean one thing. I like your name.

It's fiction baby.

On this date: In 1951, Sting is born.

If I Can Make It There...

Just got back from a whirlwind weekend trip to NYC. DH has been working out there quite a bit recently and I didn't want him to spend our anniversary alone, so I flew in on Friday and out last night, so that I could get in a quick trip to visit both editors for the first time.

I'd only been to NY once before, and that trip was all about kid-friendly eateries and where the nearest playground was located because of the one year old we had in tow at the time. This time, we were kidless (thanks to some impressive kid-wrangling by our fabulous friends and neighbors)and got to go and play in the city. So what did we do? Totally tourist stuff.

We went to Central Park:


and to the Museum of Natural History, although the kids all know it as that "Night At The Museum" place.



In the People of Africa hall, there was a display of Yoruba ceremonial costumes that brought back some terrifying childhood memories for DH, so of course, I'm thinking about making this shot into a poster:


We went to Times Square (I didn't notice the guy in the I heart NY shirt until today, but it looks like I meant to put him there):



and I got so freaked out by the sheer numbers of people that we had to repair to the top of the Penninsula Hotel for drinks. I then discovered that the higher off the ground you are, the more expensive the drink.



We did a lot of "running into stuff", which I guess is what NY is all about. We ran into some dancers in Central Park:



and a city-wide chess tournament by the fountain:


and the start of a mile-race that featured a runner named Lagat who is apparently quite famous and made DH very happy:


Unfortunately, we couldn't run fast enough to see the end. I got into taking pictures of the tiled subway signs because they are so cool:






On Monday, I showed up here:


which is where Walker/Bloomsbury is located. I got to spend time with my editor Mary Kate and Anna the publicist and then went a few blocks to Clarion/Houghton Mifflin to spend more time with my other editor Lynne and Jen the publicist. The whole experience made me feel like a real author talking books and stuff and stuff with the people in the biz. Plus I got to take some books with me (Jen Nadol's The Mark which is coming out next year has one of the best opening chapters I've read in ages). I was so jazzed to be there that I forgot to take any more photos. But it's a nice building.

The whole trip was totally worth sitting on the runway at JFK for two hours in the rain trying to get home last night. At least there was TV - go Jet Blue! Can't wait to do it again - spring break isn't all that far away...

On this date: In 1907, Gene Autry was born.

What I Did on my Weekend

Besides the fabulous book party that took place on Friday, Saturday brought another first - my first Book Festival up in Sonoma. The location of the booth was a bit "eh", the traffic was a bit "eh" but the day was fantastic because I got to hang out with fellow YAers Malinda Lo (Ash), C. Lee McKenzie (Sliding on the Edge) and Cheryl Herbsman (Breathing Lessons).



They all had books come out this year, so I pretty much spent the entire time picking their brains and learning from their experiences. The main downside was that I spent way more than I made buying signed books from them. My "to read" list just got a lot longer...

On this date: In 1846, Neptune was discovered.

So...How Was It?

Awesome! As you may recall, I was a bit nervous about the book launch party on Friday (anyone who saw me in the hours leading up to it, saw me muttering "I so don't want to do this"), but it was completely unfounded.



We had a great time, although it was a little like a wedding in that I remember seeing people for a few seconds, but really didn't get to talk to anyone for long. I was so touched that so many people came out to celebrate - there must have been somewhere north of 100 people.


The bookseller brought 50 books and sold out, saying he could have sold many more. We had munchies from some of the countries we visit in the book and the cake...well, you can see the amazing, TV-worthy cake for yourself. The top was Six O'clock and was double chocolate, and the bottom was a preview of Dirty Little Secrets and was vanilla/raspberry. When it came time to cut it, I was wincing at defiling the art, but the creator assured me that it was okay. And boy, was it.


The adults had fun, the kids had fun and the author had fun.



Special thanks go to Tim at Zocalo for the fabulous location (if you ever need a warm and wonderful place to throw a party, talk to Tim), Julie Durkee and Sue McDonough for the amazing cake, Jill Raimondi for donating said amazing cake, Kate Miller for keeping me sane and Kavita Lalwani for taking me to the Indian store for samosas. We had people from the North Bay and San Francisco - I can't thank them enough for taking time out of their Friday night to share such a fabulous moment.

I'd do it again in a minute. Oh wait, maybe we will in February!