Friday Five!

1. The response from having my Neil Gaiman essay published has been incredible! Professors from both universities I've attended have suggested the libraries order them for their catalogs. Old friends came out of the woodwork to like my announcement on Facebook! It's awesome! Also, it makes me want to get a fiction thing published all the more.

2. Got a rejection on a full MS this week. This is a subjective business. It's okay! I want someone who loves the book. I just hope someone will.

3. Yesterday, I had a very disappointing experience at the bookstore nearest me. It's an off-shoot of the Harvard Co-op, a store co-owned by Harvard and MIT, which is basically just a Barnes and Noble. The one I went to is there to provide texts for Harvard Med, but also has a decent children's/YA section thanks to the nearby Children's Hospital, Boston Latin School and (judging by some of the titles) my program.

They did not have a single book I wanted. I went in wanting to spend $20 on a book and the failed me. Bah. I ordered two from Amazon. With my Prime shipping, they came from a New Hampshire warehouse in about eighteen hours.

Alas, I ordered the second book in the Hex Hall trilogy instead of the third. And because I'm a "valued customer" I don't have to return it to get a refund.

*sighs at spare copy of Demonglass*

4. I have a job for the summer! I'll be working as a job coach for teens with disabilities doing internships sponsored by the Boston Center for Independent Living. Actual teens!

At least, I will if we ever find a roommate and get to keep the apartment. *wibble*

5. I reread The Name of the Star, finishing it yesterday. So. Good. And the teaser line on the next book is about Bedlam. Maureen Johnson writing about ghosts, you guys. Crazy ghosts! What more do we want in the world??

Friday Five!

1. I'm home for spring break and there are things I should be doing that aren't surfing Craigslist and blogging. Guess what I'm doing?

2. I sent out my first query for the next project today. It's kind of nerve-wracking to start this all over again so soon, but I'm moderately confident about it. Not cocky like last time, but confident.

3. I had this thought yesterday at the eye doctor that if I ever lost the ability to wear contacts or glasses *shudder* I'd be sitting somewhere tapping novels away on my iPhone. It's a strange image, but it's totally true. My phone and my Kindle are the only things I can see without adaptive devices, so that'd be my solution. At least they exist to give me that reassurance.

4. I'm working on applications for various writing awards and grants. It's strange to think of people you don't know judging your writing in that way, against hundreds of others. Why it's stranger than the same thing happening at the agent level, I'm not sure, but I'm always warier about these things. (Warier is a strange word)

5. Current video obsession:

Friday Five!

1. I am SO behind on my to-read list, guys. Like, I had to renew my library books. This does not happen in my world. It might be because I've regularly had three books per week for class, but come on, still not acceptable in my world. In high school, my theater teacher once said one day I wouldn't have time for recreational reading, "Like maybe when you're in grad school." I am determined to prove her wrong.

2. Another reason I'm behind is that I...uh....

Wrote a novel last week.

The project I'd been querying got three rejections on fulls in three days, and all of a sudden it just clicked with me. I knew how I had to rewrite it. And I had to write it, or go mad with the desire. It fell together in exactly seven days. It's very first-drafty, which is frustrating because it's kind of draft 9,002, but I have to try to think of it as a new novel because it really is.

But yeah. A week.

3. I also have papers coming out of my ears. We had one due Monday, the one due the 27th and I have one due the 12th due to a lottery for oral presentations that clearly hated me. But then I'll be done-ish until the seminar paper. This class (young adult realism) is altering the way I read. I finished a book this week and couldn't stop thinking about the pat ending, and characters who never turned up again. In a way, it's just the culmination of everything I've learned in the past year and a half, but still. Thinky thoughts.

4. I ordered the Slings & Arrows boxset as an early birthday present for myself. The fact that Amazon hasn't shipped it yet makes me sad. I want commentary on Paul Gross being insane and hilarious!

5. This. Song.

Profile: Martin Henderson

Today's scheduled profile has been thrown off the rails a bit by the amount of disability in the news this week. Like Peter Dinklage at the Golden Globes, i wish to draw attention to an event that demonstrates just how hard it can be for an ambitious person with a disability to make their way unheeded in the world.

Martin Henderson, an aspiring actor and a Little Person, played a goblin in two of the eight Harry Potter movies. But if you google his name with search parameters that limit your query to all items posted before January 13th 2012, you don't find much of anything. Henderson's Google results will always hone back to three days before Peter Dinklage gave him a shout out on Sunday night, to an inciden reported in the Telegraph on the 13th.

Last October, a month after English Rugby player Mike Tindall was shamed for allegedly participating in a "dwarf-tossing" contest in a bar in New Zealand, Henderson was injured by what he believes to be a copycat attack. He wasn't a willing participant, however. This is not the time to talk about why some Little People are forced by circumstance or society to participate in being thrown around for others' enjoyment. This is about why a man having a cigarette outside of a pub can be subjected to such treatment, without safety gear, or even his consent.

Many wonder why, if Henderson's injury is now showing to be so life-altering, he didn't bring attention to it earlier. I point to my Google search. I point to the fact that Henderson probably did not want to be associated with the occurrences of dwarf-tossing that still happen all over the world. He more than likely didn't want this to be all the information available about him, any more than I wanted to have my first profile piece focus so hugely on such a horrible setback for a person with a disability.

But now that he's found himself having difficulty finding acting jobs due to partial paralysis, he and Peter Dinklage are speaking out to make sure this injustice doesn't happen to anyone else. And so am I.

Life Stories

First of all, I'm going to be AWOL for a couple of days, not related to the Piles of Books. I'm having surgery today--just a quick one--and I'll be in the hospital for a couple of nights. Don't pine for me too much while I'm away.

While going through the Book Piles (and boxes) I've also encountered other things I kept on my shelves in the old house. Notebooks. Tons and tons of notebooks. Some for school, with quotes for this paper or that thesis, but mostly with stories.

I went through my start-a-story-but-never-finish-it stage very early. I think most everything I've written since tenth grade or so has ended up finished, if never revised, but there are notebooks with the beginnings of countless stories. I love going through them and tracing my ideas, tracing the writing style and tracing my life through the notes and doodles in the margins.

And amongst all of those is a notebook where the first plans for the MS I'm now querying are written out. In another, there's one post-it from a plot chart i made for it two summers ago.

It helps remember how long I've believed in that story specifically, and my writing in general. And it makes me more determined than ever to keep believing.

What are you believing in this season?

Book Musings: Become by Ali Cross

DISCLAIMER: Ali is one of my fav author friends. She is my querying cheerleader and gets me off a lot of ledges. But that will not color my review of her book, promise.

Gah. Such a gorgeous cover.

BECOME is the story of the devil's daughter. In an interesting mix of Norse and Christian mythology, Ali brings us Desolation (Desi), the daughter of Loki aka Lucifer aka Satan aka Hugh Jackman. (Okay, he just looks like HJ). She's, in effect, Lucifer's little minion, sent to collect teenage souls who are on the edge.

But after her last mission cost her someone she maybe-loved, she's not sure she's going to obey orders anymore. She might. She's not sure. Desi vacillates a lot, which makes sense with her character--the cover hints at why--but it can be a little frustrating for the reader who just wants her to pick a side already. Like I said, though, it makes sense. Desi's character is very well-written (she's a total badass!).

Ali's writing is incredibly lyrical and gorgeous, which did make some of the pop culture references seemed off to me. Before I knew Desi went to the human world, especially, I was like....where did she get an iPod? And even once she's in the human world she is so aloof from humans that the references--specifically to Buffy--irked me. And made me smile, too, because let's face it, I've done nothing but watch/read Buffy since May.

The secondary characters are INCREDIBLY well-drawn. Miri, who becomes Desi's best friend. Lucy, her sister/Mom figure. James, the bad boy who loves Miri. They were all fabulous.

I can't comment much on the plot. I have trouble following actiony/fantasy plots, and angel stories aren't my thing, but the book is worth reading for the writing and characters. Ali pulls them off without a hitch.

BIO:
Ali Cross is the sensei of the Writer's Dojo where she holds a black belt in awesome. She lives in Utah with her kickin' husband, two sparring sons, one ninja cat, two sumo dogs and four zen turtles.

You can reach her:


On her blog.
At the Writer's Dojo.
On Facebook.
Or Twitter.

Passing and Coming Out--No Homo

That clever and perhaps slightly a little offensive title is meant to remind us that there are other traits people can hide, particularly behind the wall of The Internet.

Kody Keplinger's post yesterday--part confession, part pronouncement--has made me think a lot. I'll be completely ones, the accolades she received for "coming out of the disability closet"and the many comments and tweets calling her "brave" made me a little bitter.

I admire Kody, but mostly because I've been there. I have low vision, and I know how frightening it can be to navigate the world when things are blurry. I didn't leave my bedroom two weeks ago when I lost my contacts, and I dreaded having to navigate to class without them (spoilers: found them)

But here's the thing--by applauding her decision to admit to her disability, we're saying it's okay to hide it. Her reasons for doing so are heartbreaking and true--an article about her book made a fuss about her being blind and very little about her book--and i truly, truly am glad she decided to stop. However, now she has the "post about disability." The thing everyone's retweeting, saying We Had No Idea! and Talent > than disability!

Disability isn't something to be overcome. It isn't something less than talent. It isn't something that makes talent better or less, that should be hidden or screamed about, that makes anyone better or worse. Note: Kody isn't claiming to be any of those things, but the explosion about the post--which is intelligent and eloquent--makes me a bit bitter, because I live my life as writer-with-disability every day without the major accolades--but then I don't want them.

And I know it affects thing. I made the choice, I chose to put that I have a physical disability on my online dating profiles, and I've had guys flat out tell me that's why they don't want to go out with me. They "want something they can do outdoor activities with." But that's not on me. It's on them.

And in having these thoughts I realized what a hypocrite I am.

I used to mention my disability at the bottom of my query, because my book features the point-of-view of a character with a disability and also it's a huge part of who I am. But I took it out, because I didn't want it to be assumed I wanted it to get me attention---positive or negative. Since my blog address isn't the name of my blog, all hints were taken out.

I am just as guilty, in my own way, of hiding my disability.

Or maybe not, because in that area it doesn't have to matter.

And no one else can make that choice for me, or say whether or not i should make it. So I can't judge Kody, even though i've been there.

I can just be glad she decided to be real about her disability, and glad that people are realizing that anyone could have a disability, there are no universal signs, and people with just as capable. That's what I care about, and that's what matters.

November Begins

Good luck to all you beginning NaNoWriMo.

I'm sending out a query today in response to a contest.

And I'm starting a job. My first "real" job. (I worked writing center in Undergrad--essentially they paid me to do my homework) I'm going to be an office assistant at Disability Services.

*fidgets nervously*

NaNoQueryMonth

What they don't tell you is that being a person with a disability involves a lot of phone calls. Today I have talked to all the doctors, insurance people and disability services providers ever.

I have also started this post several times, and eaten in the dining hall (I forget why I avoid that place. Then I eat fruity Cheerios for lunch and remember...)

November starts tomorrow, and all over the world writers are preparing to write a novel in a month. But not this writer. I've been there, done that for the past seven years, but this year because I have Way Too Much Else Going On, I'm not.

Instead, I will be focusing n querying. I've sent out many queries since I started the process in June, but I've been sort of...timid about it. Batch querying works for many people, but all it does is make me second guess myself. So I'm going to jump in with both feet.

I'm going to send out one query every weekday in November.

With the random number generator and my (hella long) agent list at my side, I am going to query whoever it tells me to (N.B. my list is already-researched. These are all agents I believe would be a good fit for me and my MS)

Twenty queries in thirty days.

That's my November goal. What's yours?

Friday Five!

1. I brought out Henry for the first time this year (okay, since April. This school year). For those of you new to the blog, and my wacky ways, Henry is my sock monkey hat. He was my post-NaNoWriMo gift to myself last year. He's lovely and warm and gives a certain je ne sais quoi to my attempts to be professional. That said, it is not yet Halloween. Henry should stay on the hat rack for another month at least, what is going on here New England? it snowed last might. SNOWED.

2. Speaking of NaNoWriMo, I'm not NaNoing this year. For the first time since I was fifteen, I will not be attempting the insanity of writing a novel in a month. Partially, this is because I wrote a novel in September and October. It needs to be revised, and I'm revising another one. Secondly, I don't have a good idea for a NaNo at the moment. Thirdly,  I realized something recently. I've only really liked and continued to work on one of the NaNoNovels I actually finished in a month. My two other main projects weren't actually finished during the month. Their final versions came when they were good and ready.

So, short story: Not doing Nano. What I will be doing is querying. More on that later.

3. I read The Night Circus last night. It is the perfect book for a Massachusetts fall, even though most of it takes place in London. Still, the detail and description of spiced cider and hot chocolate made me feel warmer in my frozen state. Pick it up before the snow dulls the Autumnal love. Oh wait...

4. I'm not going to link to the article because I don't want to inadvertently unleash people onto the family featured, but I came across an article in my research for my volunteer position (I'm running a disability-related non-profit's social networking). It was one of your standard kid-with-disabilities-does-well (in this case plays football) local news pieces, but done horribly.

The term "special needs kid" was used. I understand special needs vs. disabilities. People consider it more all-encompassing. Whatever. But PEOPLE WITH SPECIAL NEEDS. Not SPECIAL NEEDS PEOPLE. It's important.

His MOTHER asserted the kid would probably never get a chance like this again, "being that he's limited". Being. That. He's. Limited.

He has Cerebral Palsy and Epilepsy according to the article. He's not the boy in the plastic bubble. I'm sure he has to do stuff differently but....

Being that I'm limited, I don't have the words to express my annoyance.

Being that I'm limited, I am simply going to show you a video of the muppets and move on.

Being that I'm limited, I totally don't have to write this paper on an 18th century children's novel! Oh...Wait.

Being that I'm limited means jack squat. Right.

5.

Final Muppet trailer (watch 'til the end. It gets HILARIOUS)

A Year

Those of you who are a part of my querying journey know I'm impatient.

More than impatient, actually. I am, to quote Meg Murray from A Wrinkle in Time, "Not in the least patient!"

Yet somehow time passes anyway.

In my phone, there is a note from a year ago tomorrow reminding me to write a scene that would later become a pivotal scene in the novel I'm now querying. At least one of my favorite scenes didn't exist. The novel was in third person.

Not a soul had read the full. In fact, the draft wasn't finished until the 25th.

I didn't have many friends in the writing world, and had only ever gotten one positive response on a query.

Many, many things have changed in that year. I have a manuscript I'm proud of and people in my corner. ;I've attended my first writer's conference, written eleven hundred drafts of my query (true story), written three new novels and learned many things.

And whether or not things have moved significantly forward in a year, I can't wait to see what has changed, because if it's half this much it'll be pretty good.

What's changed for you this year?

Friday Five!

1. I'm in the query trenches officially now with my first rejection. Ready, boys? We're going in!


2. Can you imagine having a dad who dressed up in costumes to wave to your bus every day? This kid did. The blog goes through and shows all 170 costumes. Some of them are quite inventive! I still think I'd be humiliated, though.

3. A story of the powers of modern tech. Last night my dad--born in 1940--started singing some song about Lemon Trees, basically to be obnoxious. However, my mom--born in 1951--recognized the song, so I Youtubed it to get the tune. Mom said the one I found was it, but Dad thought it was slower. Turns out, they knew the same song, but covers from several years apart.

Posting Mom's version because it made me ask if everyone in the sixties was on a contact high.



4. I don't have many opinions on the items Mac introduced in the Keynote except being a bit dismayed we have to wait longer. The Versions feature for Lion--saving regular versions of documents--will be a lifesaver for writers, and I'm happy about iCloud though I was it were streaming and not downloading. Overall, though, we'll have to see it all once it lands.

5. I forgot my phone today at lunch, and honestly twitched every time I thought to use it, like I had a phantom limb. It can't be good to be so attached to technology but... oh well....

Book Musings: Possession

Possession by Elana Johnson

Full discretion: Elana is one of my favorite people in the YA world. She has been so, so nice to me. Trying not to let this color my review!

I first started reading this while standing in the middle of the floor of my room. Through the first two or three chapters I didn't move--from standing in the middle of the floor in my pajamas. The voice is incredible, and Elana tosses you straight into the story. We all know dystopian isn't necessarily my thing, but this book is my favorite of the numerous dystopian books this year. 

The book has so many incredible things going for it. The amount of mind-boogling that goes on is completely incredible. The constant shifting of alliances, Vi's character development as she learns to trust someone other than herself, and then has to question that trust is fabulous, as well as her personal ties to the corrupt government. The lines of good and bad are blurred in a way I haven't seen before, and the ending will leave you reeling, absolutely guaranteed, and I think this is what I most learned from Elana's book, how to not be afraid of going where the story needs to go. 

There are a few road blocks. Elana's mentioned that she has issues with setting, and I see it here. Sometimes I had a hard time figuring out where they were, or how they got there. Also, I had a hard time imagining exactly what life in the Goodgrounds was like, since we first see Vi being arrested and never really see her "normal life." It's a trade-off for starting the story so quickly, but it also may be my freakish desire to know absolutely everything about the world of a story. 

Overall, I would say you absolutely must read this book Also you must go say hello on Elana's blog, and check out her query-writing ebook, because it is one of the best out there for writers, and dude, Elana is cool. 

Time Warp Again

I've been at home a week. I've read a few books, done some writing, some revising. My writing buddy cheered me on last night while I cut dialogue from the MS I'm about to query, and helped me work through a scene that wasn't working quite right. I'm really proud of it now.

My final box from school came the other day, and so my "inspiration books" are piled on my bedside table. These are the books I currently aspire to the most. Revolution, Lock and Key, The Splendor Falls, Anna and the French Kiss, Neil Gaiman's two volumes of short stories and a paperback T.S. Eliot collection. There are more I had to leave at school, but these are the mainstays.

It's so weird how coming home feels like slipping back in time. Writing in my bedroom until all hours, sitting downstairs and drinking coffee with Mom. All so normal, nothing changed.

But I hope something changes this summer. I'm hoping to send out queries starting in June. Then again, I've queried from this room before, late summer nights spent typing "Dear Agent..."

But if this summer isn't the success story, I'm so much better prepared than I ever was before, and that's only going to keep building. So the summer won't be a waste, no matter what.

Don't forget! I'm giving away a copy of The Splendor Falls at this post!

Purgatory

I suppose as a writer I should get used to the state of Not Knowing. Of waiting for an email that can determine my entire future. I should accept and do what I can do in the meantime.

But I have to tell you.

This sucks.

It's not really writing-related. I'm waiting to find out if I have an internship that will put me in New York all summer, or not in which case I'll be home. Either option is okay with me, truthfully. I want NYC, but I miss home. The thing is, without knowing I can't plan two weeks ahead of now. And a lot of other things are in limbo too:

• My query and my final paper abstract are with my writing professor
• I'm going steadily on my WIP but I'm a night-writer
• The book I'm currently reading you really need to sit down and focus on (ask me about my focusing skills...
• My dad is proofing the paper I'm submitting to an anthology in July.
• The fandom projects I have going can't be worked on until the season finale.
• One can only watch so much Buffy in a day (that's a lie)

It's all a lot of in-between. And as soon as time passes and emails are received it'll be hit-the-ground running. I'm trying to enjoy the downtime, and definitely remembering to start the next book once I'm in the querying process, because if I don't have something else to focus on then I'll go nuts.

Friday Five!

1. I almost forgot it was Friday. Days have lost meaning for me because they are all "one less day until I'm out of purgatory." That's what these next two weeks are. The end of the semester, without much to look forward to before big changes. I'll either be going home for the summer, or I'll be in NYC. I can't plan for either because I don't know. I'll be querying, but the MS is with a final beta and my writing prof is reading my query. There is literally nothing I can do except work on next WIP. Which I am. But still. Purgatory.

2. Why didn't anyone tell me that Massachusetts skips spring before I moved here? We completely jumped over cool-but-wear-a-hoodie-you're-fine and went to wear-as-little-as-possible-or-die. I don't approve. I lived in Georgia the last five years. I love spring! Where'd it go??

3. I have listened to the Grey's Anatomy Music Event version of "How to Save a Life" thirty times. Don't judge me, you have shameful play-counts too, admit it!

4. Jo Knowles did a Skype visit to my writing class on Thursday. Not only was it INCREDIBLY less awkward than that time I Skyped into class so I wouldn't have to miss a friend's wedding, but it was very informative. She taught us about the way she storyboards her novels to track the important images and emotions. I plan to try this with my next first-draft. Or, possibly, the WIP that has gone through approximately five drafts and still feels like it's a first draft.

5. Kitten wif a hat.

Friday Five!

1. My madre linked me to this article in the Huffington Post about Florida's current governor Lex Luther Rick Scott. It's a bit tongue-in-cheek, but the facts stand. Scott has, in a short time, attempted to pass much legislation that will cut funding seriously for projects to help children with disabilities. Florida is my home state, and it's there system that I sprang from and spent years helping my mom to improve. It shouldn't be torn apart.

2. This has been a downer week for me. Query breakdown, misunderstandings with friends, lack of news from other things... just not a great few days. So, trying to look on the upside, I've talked to some great people in the YA lit world over the past few days, participated in some awesome discussions and read some fabulous books. These are things to be happy about.

3. Seriously, though, yesterday I left my phone on campus, had to trek back, run all around the building like a mad woman because they'd already cleaned the classroom (after twenty minutes!) and almost cry in front of a very nice janitorial staff member. These things are not okay. *saves for future protagonists*

4. This video gives me hope for one day finding nerd love! Yay!


5.  Reason eleven-hundred to move to NYC one day? There's a screening of the first two episodes of series six of Doctor Who there on Monday. Oh how I wish I could go. If I didn't have my volinternship on Monday, I probably would, let's be real here.

Friday Five

1. My query is up for discussion over at The Quintessentially Questionable Query Experiment. Go play!

2. I am in unabashedly love with the Grey's Anatomy musical event. I understand all possible objections, but see, Shonda and I are quite similar in our love for all things nerdalicious and musical. I am her target audience for the event. Me. Just sayin'.

3. I've been waiting on an email for a week and a half. My mother says my freaking out about this means I will be impossible to live with if/when I'm ever on submission. She doesn't live with me, so the point is moot.

4. I've transfered my domain off of GoDaddy. If you haven't heard about the kerfuffle, their CEO filmed himself killing and elephant and put it on the internet. When I called support last night, the girl sounded like she'd fielded about a million calls to cancel already. Jump ship. (More about that here) Namecheap is doing a deal where you can transfer for $5.

5. This is my friend Shelby. I've known her since we were about nine, and she and her dad have always been up on the latest in accessibility tech. I think the coolest thing about the video, though, is that her Personal Care Attendant isn't some old woman getting paid by an agency. It's her friend. I think that's what comes out of inclusion these days. The people who care enough to do things like that are your friends. The way it should be.

Queries and other minutiae

Hi everyone who is here from Matt's blog. For those of you who aren't, my query is up for revisions over at the Quintessentially Questionable Query Experiment here. Go check it out. Matt is amazing for putting up with my "Um, so, I don't know how this works, but d'you think you could...." email. It's the kind of thing that comes from trying to get myself out there in the YA world!

Unfortunately this post, the first for some people, might be quite boring! Not much has been going on here. I spent the past three days working to get my new Verizon iPhone activated. Now that it is the score is Apple 2--for being consistently nice Verizon 1/2--for finally finding the problem on their end.

Gotta love the Genius Bar. And I do.

My friend--who is currently reading Background Vocals--and I were chatting the other day and she gave me a blurb I can never use for the book, but I'll share it with you all because you've read the query (right?)

"It's what Izzy Willy Nilly should have been".  This inspired a post about the evolution of issue-books that will probably be up in the next few days, so stay tuned for that!

Road Trip Wednesday!

Quick Announcement: my query is going to be on Matt's blog at The Quintessentially Questionable Query Experiment tomorrow and Friday! Go say hi to him, and comment on my query!

Today's YA Highway Road Trip Wednesday topic is:

What books were you obsessed with as a kid?

I was obsessed with a lot of books as a kid

I don't know how you want me to pick just a few. I mean, I was a very prolific reader.

And my parents were VERY good about bookstores. They never really questioned what I read, so I read all across the board.

And there were a lot of random library finds. All those four-book series from the 90s that never picked up. Bobbsey Twins, Nancy Drew...I'm not sure you could say I was really obsessed with one thing.

Or that I knew the complete guide by heart.

And NEVER did one book series populate my entire list of imaginary friends.....

What? Claudia Kishi's phone number? It's KL5-3231. Why? 

Anyone remember the lame computer game from the late-90s? No! No, me either! No, I didn't spend hours on it....

You know, guys, I don't know what has me thinking this, but one of these days I should do a review of Jessi's Secret Language. That's random, huh?

PS: Why does she look Native American on this cover?