Woe is Koko

So, this is what I've been dealing with for the past few days...

The pouting is seriously getting to me, guys, I have to say. The thing is, the reason for the collar is that she recently had surgery to remove a couple of tumors (still waiting to hear what type/stage they were) and if she ISN'T wearing the collar, she licks her sutures. :-(

But still. It is SO, SO hard to resist that face. She also has this technique of walking up to you and pressing the plastic cone into your leg and standing there, unmoving. Her passive aggressive way of saying she is NOT. PLEASED.

Moving into position

But overall she's been a very good sport. (And sometimes we let her take a break and curl up on the bed, cone free. Cuz we're suckers like that.)

In other news, for the first time in MONTHS I had a good writing week last week! SO, SO excited about this and seriously hoping it continues. The past few months have been tough on the new work in progress...revisions on other projects kept needing to be done, and there were holidays and trips and...frankly...some discouraged feelings to overcome. But the WIP is starting to take over my brain again and I'm finally beginning to feel the story consume me. Yay!!

A few of my hopes for this week: We'll get good news regarding Koko's tumors/prognosis, I'll reach 30k on the WIP, and SMASH will be as awesome as the previews make it look! ;-)

COVER LOVE!!!

Alright, I am so, so excited about this post. My writer pal Corrine Jackson is letting me help spread the word about her debut novel, IF I LIE, which comes out on August 28, 2012. And not just "the word"...but the cover too! Squee!!

I met Corrine last February when I was in San Francisco for a writer's conference. We'd "met" online and had bonded over our mutual love for Christian Slater and cheesy 90s movies, so we decided to meet for real. And proceeded to have one of the best conversations about writing and publishing and life that I've ever had. It was fantastic. Corrine is the real deal...super smart, talented, and one of the nicest people you'll ever meet. She even invited me to lunch with her Bookanista gals, who were fabulous themselves!

Since then, Corrine and I have kept in touch, and she's been a wonderful writing/pub resource, cheerleader, and provider of awesome videos (check out her YA Rebels gig!)

Wait...were you waiting to see her cover? You mean you didn't want to read about how we know each other and how cool she is? You want to hear about her BOOK?

Oh, alright. ;-)

I GUESS

I could shut up

And get to the good stuff...

Corrine Jackson's debut, IF I LIE, comes out on AUGUST 28, 2012 from Simon Pulse.

And THIS is what it's about:

A powerful debut novel about the gray space between truth and perception.

Quinn’s done the unthinkable: she kissed a guy who is not Carey, her boyfriend. And she got caught. Being branded a cheater would be bad enough, but Quinn is deemed a traitor, and shunned by all of her friends. Because Carey’s not just any guy—he’s serving in Afghanistan and revered by everyone in their small, military town.

Quinn could clear her name, but that would mean revealing secrets that she’s vowed to keep—secrets that aren’t hers to share. And when Carey goes MIA, Quinn must decide how far she’ll go to protect her boyfriend…and her promise.

Sounds AMAZING, right? When Corrine first told me about this book, MAJOR HOTSAUCE was deployed in Iraq, so I was particularly interested to hear how she was approaching a situation I had so much personal experience with...and listening to her talk about it, I couldn't WAIT to read it. Still can't!! (Hurry up August!)

And now that I've seen the cover, I'm even MORE excited!

What's that? YOU want to see the cover too? You don't want ME to have all the fun? 

Oh, all right....

Wait for it....

Is this getting annoying yet? ;-)

TA-DA!!!

Isn't it GORGEOUS?? I love the physical tension between the girl and the boy, and the blurred edges, with that one bright splash of color in the title. LOVE IT! Plus, I don't know if this is intentional or not, but I find the fact that the guy pictured on the cover does NOT have a military haircut VERY intriguing..... 

To read more about this awesome book, and the awesome Corrine Jackson, click here to visit her website. You can also follow her on Twitter and Facebook!

Never Been...

Last week I rewatched the 90's Drew Barrymore film NEVER BEEN KISSED. This is one of my college favorites, but oddly, I've never gotten around to adding it to my DVD collection. So it's been a while since I've seen it.

And maybe it was because I was watching it at 2am while fighting insomnia or because I've been thinking a lot lately about young adult fiction/characters/scenarios...or perhaps because the publishing industry sometimes makes me feel like an awkward, delusional child whose dreams are there to be crushed...

But this movie GOT to me, in a way it hasn't in the past. During the flashbacks of "Josie Geller" in high school, with her frizzy bangs and unfashionable clothes...a little chunky and a lot awkward...I ACHED for her. I was fortunate not to have to deal with too much bullying in high school, but I was absolutely, certifiably NOT. COOL. I WAS, in many ways, Josie Geller. I was a dork, not quite smart enough to be a "brain", socially awkward, glasses-wearing...I suffered the embarrassing, irrational crush on the unattainable guy(s) (in my case, there were many), the excruciatingly cheesy poetry writing...the deep and fearful suspicion that the things I wanted in life - my dreams - were nothing but that...dreams, destined never to become reality.

The funny thing is...my dreams in high school stayed pretty consistent as I grew up. I wanted a handsome, funny guy to adore me. To accept all of my quirks and think I was the most beautiful girl in the world. I still can't believe that dream came true.

And of course, the other one....I wanted to be a writer. A real, honest to goodness, published author. 

The scene where Josie finds out she's being asked to prom by the coolest guy in school, the one she's had a crush on for years....yeah, that's how I felt when my agent offered representation. OMFG IS THIS REALLY HAPPENING?!? I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS IS HAPPENING!!! And....WHY is this happening? Did she really mean ME?! It's really not a mistake?

And when Josie discovers it was all a cruel joke...when her "prom date" appears with a more beautiful, sophisticated date, and eggs her on the porch on what was supposed to be the happiest night of her life? When she's all dressed up in the prettiest dress she's ever owned and feels like a princess...only to find out she's not a princess at all, but a cinderella whose fairy godmother never bothered to show?

I cried. Never done that before while watching this movie but boy did I cry. I could feel her agony, the buildup of happiness and excitement only to have her dreams splashed into the mud of disappointed hopes. That feeling that her dreams are within her grasp...only to have it all torn away. God, even thinking about it now makes me ache. (And I know it's only a silly movie!)

Rejection in the publishing world - hell, in any world - can feel like that. It can take you from feeling like a princess to a loser in seconds. It can destroy you.

But Josie Geller survived that moment. She survived high school. She survived and flourished, even, with a great job at a newspaper and...by the end of the movie, a hot boyfriend. :-) And she did that by not giving up. She didn't let her dreams die. Sure, going back to high school as an undercover reporter made her relive those awful moments, but she did it anyway. She turned a horrible experience into a defining moment. A triumph. She overcame the badness, got the guy, AND the dream job.

Rejection sucks. On some level it really does feel like someone egging you for even supposing you could live your dream. You feel stupid, like you should have known better. Bitter, sometimes. Cynical. 

BUT.

It makes you stronger too. If you can get back up, clean off your pretty pink princess dress, and try again...if you can win against the bitterness and disappointment and insecurity...if you can get knocked on your ass and STILL try again...

Well, then. You're someone who will succeed. You're someone who will learn from the experience, try harder next time...someone who will turn that awful moment into a building block on the way to achieving your dreams.

Yay SCBWI!

Over the past few weeks, I've had the opportunity to attend a couple of really awesome SCBWI events. First, the SCBWI Carolinas fall conference.

I heard the tenacious, talented Beth Revis speak about not giving up, revision, determination...and that first, INCREDIBLE chapter of her novel, ACROSS THE UNIVERSE (the rest of it is damn good too!).

Carrie Ryan was also there - and was also super nice! (Her books have such fantastic titles - I totally have title envy!)

I got to spend some quality time with a new crit partner, Maggie, and meet some truly wonderful writer folks. It is always surprising and gratifying to me how friendly the industry professionals who attend these events are...they're so generous with their advice and time. There's a sense of community, comraderie...the only other place I've felt that is on Twitter, and it's even better in person. :-)

The other event I attended was a writer's schmooze in Asheville, where I had the great pleasure of hearing Stephanie Perkins speak. She's the author of two of my very favorite books: ANNA AND THE FRENCH KISS and the newly released LOLA AND THE BOY NEXT DOOR, and is an incredibly thoughtful, interesting person. And yes, I was a TOTAL fangirl and arrived with several copies of LOLA for her to sign (and okay, drove 2.5 hours to see her. Which was SOOO worth it, by the way!) :-)

What struck me about both events was that it was nearly impossible to tell who was aspiring, who was successful...who had a book deal, or a book published, or a manuscript written, by their attitudes. EVERYONE was kind and friendly and supportive. There was no line between pubbed and unpubbed or big deal, modest deal. Everyone who attended these events - at least all the folks I talked to - were just genuinely excited about writing, about the community... and, in the case of last weekend, the GORGEOUS weather and general awesomeness of Asheville. 

I love, love, LOVE the YA lit community. I've said this before and I'm SURE I'll say it again...but it's the best professional community I've ever belonged to, and I am thankful for every single writer, agent, editor, librarian, and bookseller who's a part of it.

And everyone who's made ME feel a part of it.

**  I am also VERY thankful to Stephanie and her husband Jarrod for introducing me to the deliciously chocolatey wonders of Asheville. Soooooo yummy! (MAJOR HOTSAUCE was also very grateful, when I arrived home with a piece of amazing chocolate cake just for him.) ;-)

The Salon

I love getting my hair done. The last time I had my natural haircolor was probably eighth grade; since then I've had blonde hair, red, hot pink streaks, blue streaks, green streaks that were supposed to be blue streaks....short hair, long hair, funky hair, classy hair...you name it. I love walking into the salon, with its scents of rosemary mint shampoo and flowery styling products. I'll sit down in the chair and look at myself in the mirror, trying to imagine who I'm about to become.

The outside world falls away, time ceases to matter, and I'm cocooned in a place of warm golden light and beautiful things. Hours later I emerge, transformed.

This is how I feel about revisions. When I'm really working - when the story has sucked me in - I go to a place outside of time, insulated in the smells and colors and sounds coming alive on the page. I am my main character, sharing her journey, and when I reach the end, blinking back into the light of "real" life, I realize...

She is not the only one who has changed.

In honor of her, and to celebrate one of my best friends' weddings this weekend...

I am transformed! :-)