Book Tour Day 4 – catching one’s breath

Saturday! There is no school on Saturday! This is both the bad and good news for me. Bad news because I have been having a blast at the schools I’ve visited. Good news because I have a massive mountain of email to deal with, and – oh, that’s right – I want to write. That is, after all the point, right? Write?

Before I share my Denver highlights, three exciting headlines.

Headline 1: Awesome review in the Chicago Tribune compares and contrasts CHAINS and OCTAVIAN NOTHING, VOL. 2. I have been waiting for a reviewer to do this and I am so happy with the result!

Headline 2: The teens of America voted TWISTED onto the 2008 ALA Teen Top Ten List!!! It was one of only three non-fantasy/alternate reality titles on the list, which is very interesting. I keep thinking I should try my hand at a fantasy, but there are so many people out there writing imaginative and gripping books, I think I’ll stick to my corner of the sandbox.

Headline 3: Vet Volunteers is going to be translated into Polish! OK, maybe it’s not quite as exciting as the first two headlines, but I had such a lovely time in Poland last year that I am totally stoked my books are going to be available to Polish readers.

TODAY’S EVENT: Saturday, October 25 at 1:00 pm: The Bookstall of Chestnut Court, Winnetka, IL 847-446-0882

TOMORROW’S EVENT: Sunday, October 26 at 2:00 pm: Center for Teaching through Children’s Books, National-Louis University, Skokie, IL. This is at 5202 Old Orchard Road – 3rd Floor Public Forum Room. Sorry, I don’t have a contact phone number, but I do know that lots of teachers and grad students are expected to attend. There is also a discussion group meeting about teaching historical fiction at 1 pm, so you might want to come early to be a part of that.

And now, the Denver summary. The people in Denver are so nice, they arranged the weather patterns so that everytime I stepped outside, I could see the mountains. I can’t imagine a person would ever get tired of that sight.

My last Denver day was simple: One school, one stock signing, one bookstore event.

The school visit was a 2-hour visit to the 7th-grade creative writing classes at the Denver School of the Arts. We can all rest easy knowing that there is a very talented generation of young writers rising up behind us, preparing to supply us all with great stories well into our dotage.

Image and video hosting by TinyPic They play with word magnets when bored.

Image and video hosting by TinyPic A good sentiment to live by.

Image and video hosting by TinyPic The evening event was at Tattered Cover, a legendary independent bookstore.

Image and video hosting by TinyPic The crowd was a mixture of teachers, librarians, and a cool mother-daughter book club. The girls in the club promised me they’d email me their comments about CHAINS. It’s very nice to have reviewers like the book, but the true test is the opinion of real readers. I’ll let you know what they think.

Delights & Scribbles

I am very happy to report that the new issue of the Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy is online. There is a terrific interview with Professor Joan Kaywell, her teenage son Stephen, and me, too, that gives some background into TWISTED and into my writing process. (Joan is the brilliance behind LETTERS OF HOPE, which should be in every middle and high school English classroom.) I would love to see more teenagers brought into the reviewing of adolescent books. What do you think?

I wrote all weekend, ignoring the whimpering of my rather fertile garden and shunning all thoughts of watching football. I’ve had a couple of serendipitous moments in this new book which were absolutely magical. I know I whine a lot about the workload, but I have to admit: I really, really love writing.

BH and I have been talking about how social networking has ramped up between the release of TWISTED 18 months ago and the upcoming release of CHAINS. I love how easy it has become to communicate with readers. In the last two weeks, I’ve had more than two dozen notes – via my various blog places and website – from readers who had a strong and positive response to one of my novels. Last week, a teacher who saw my posting on Facebook about the tentative tour dates contacted me and we were able to add an appearance in her area for teachers and grad students. This morning, I had a lovely note from a father of a reader in Mumbai, India, also on Facebook. More and more people are reading this journal (which is echoed on MySpace), and are giving me wonderful feedback on my work. There was a terrific comment from a teacher using SPEAK yesterday (scroll down to the bottom of the comment list).

I think I’ve managed the art of not letting the online stuff take over. I have stopped feeling guilty about not answering each and every blog comment (though I do read them all). My strongly worded email policy has cut waaaaaay back on the number of homework help requests I’ve been getting. My forested corner of the blogosphere has become like the corner diner for me, filled with buddies and the smell of coffee.

How are you balancing your blogging and social networking with your writing?

Book Trailer Contest Revision

Thank you to everyone who commented and emailed me about the book trailer contest deadline yesterday. You confirmed my hunch.

I have two announcements.

1. To everyone who has submitted a book trailer as of today. Please email your mailing address to Officemouse AT writerlady DOT com as soon as possible. Your trailer is still entered in the contest, but since I am changing the rules in the middle of it, I figure I owe you something. I want to send you one of my books. In your email, let me know if you want SPEAK, CATALYST, PROM, TWISTED, or FEVER 1793. If you are in the mood to be patient, you can request my new historical novel, CHAINS, which comes out on October 21, or my next YA, WINTERGIRLS, which will be published in May, 2009.

2. To the rest of the world: the new deadline for the book trailer contest is midnight (Eastern Standard Time in the US), October 31st, 2008.

NEW OFFICIAL BOOK TRAILER CONTEST RULES

1. Create a book trailer for SPEAK or TWISTED. You may not use clips or images from the SPEAK movie (it is copyrighted, that’s why). Your trailer must qualify for a PG rating. Try to keep it under two minutes long: four minutes is the absolute maximum length allowed.

2. Post the trailer on YouTube. Include the phrase “TWISTED trailer contest” or “SPEAK trailer contest” in the title. Submissions must be posted by midnight (Eastern Standard Time in the US), October 31st, 2008.

3. Once the trailer is posted, notify us by emailing the Office Mouse: officemouse AT writerlady DOT com . When you notify us, please provide a link to your trailer and a valid email address so we can contact you if you win. Please include the name of your school librarian or English teacher and her (or his) email address. If you are home-schooled, include the name of your public librarian.

4. Watch and wait. Winner will be chosen by Laurie Halse Anderson (aka me).

5. NOTE! Contest is only open to people who will be 21 years old or younger on October 31, 2008.

6. Contest is open to anyone on the Planet Earth. Teens working aboard the space station are welcome too. Entries from other planets and galaxies will be considered, as long as they can be watched on Earth-created technologies.

7. If your trailer is chosen as the winning entry and you are not 18 yet, your parents will have to sign a release form granting me all rights to use your trailer. If you are over 18, you get to sign for yourself. You will be credited as the producer of the trailer, but the only payment you will receive is the prize described below. If you win, be sure to include this on your college or film school application.

8. If you win, your school or public library, or your English teacher, will receive 5 signed copies of my books.

9. There will be two grand prizes awarded; one for the best SPEAK trailer, one for the best TWISTED trailer.

10. The creator of the winning trailer will be awarded an 8GB iPod Touch. Winner agrees to be responsible for setting up and paying for Internet connection and any warranty protection plan for the device.

11. If the winners do not live in a region where the iPod Touch is supported, a substitute prize of equal value will be awarded.

12. Winners will be announced on this blog at some point in November and will be notified by email.

I think that’s everything. Please feel free to post this announcement to listservs and on your blog. If you have any more questions about the contest, please post them in the Comments section.

need help with a muddle

So…. that giant book trailer contest I am having? It turns out that summer is a bad time to do these things.

I have had many more requests from teachers and librarians to extend the deadline into the fall than I have had entries.

Do you think I should extend the deadline? Is the middle of October long enough, or should it go longer?

left coast scribbling

The trip out to Anaheim was lovely and uneventful. They even gave us free crackers on the plane.

My ALA whirlwind doesn’t start until this evening, so I am sneaking in writing time while I can. Poolside. Coated in sunscreen, sitting in the shade, but, yeah, I’m lounging next to what I think is a bougainvillea plant, underneath a palm tree.

Some parts of this job do not totally suck, I must admit.

Another cool thing is the email I’ve been getting recently. I don’t know why, but suddenly teen boys are reading TWISTED (because it’s out in paperback?) and are emailing me; often at 4am. Several of them are demanding a sequel like this guy, who wrote:

Thank you for grasping what us, as teenagers go throu on an daily basis and putting it into words. Reading your books, gives me hope to get throu the weeks. Espicllly TWISTED, its my favorite so far, and I would like to know what ends up happening to Bethany and Tyler, Yoda and Tylers sister Hannah??(name has slipped my mind) and if Tyler continues on with his new ways and becomes the man he wants to be.

Many of the guys who are writing want to see more of the relationship between Tyler and Bethany. Must ponder this….

I will try to take lots of pictures this weekend and post them (and yes, I’ll try to make a video again), but the Internet connection at my hotel is really slow, so it might take until Monday before I can put up anything substantial.

Now I will lean back, close my eyes, and absorb this memory so I can pull it out during a blizzard next February.