Friday, May 2, 2008 – Beginning at the End

As I scrambled to finish my new young adult manuscript before my next critique group meeting, I felt like I was a little lost. I thought it was because I could write these certain scenes because I didn’t have all the information I needed from the police officers and the juvenile court judge. But as I tried to write around these scenes I still wasn’t feeling particularly directed.

I decided to try something my friend and mentor has done for years—write the ending first. I used to think she was crazy—wasn’t that like eating dessert first? The ending was my favorite part; I wanted to savor it, treat myself to it after working hard over 200-300 pages in a manuscript.

But I decided to try it because I wasn’t sure what I was doing after a big turning point in the book. And it was amazing! I wrote and rewrote the ending scene, which expanded into the last chapter. Suddenly I had all this clarity about where the earlier chapters should go and how I needed to shape certain relationships and events. So, of course, Julie is trying not to say “I told you so.” But go ahead and say it, I don’t care. I’m just thrilled the book is chugging along again!

I also tried her method of writing random scenes and putting them together. This was mainly because I was at the Pikes Peak Writers Conference last weekend and had brought my Dana AlphaSmart which is fantastic but doesn’t handle large documents as well as smaller ones. So I gave up trying to work on my big novel and wrote different scenes I knew I wanted in the book. It was a lot of fun and got my juices flowing.

Yesterday I was sick so today I’m playing catch up with my Blab, the Blab-o-Readers, and Erin’s blog. This weekend I should be able to get back to the novel.

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Saturday, April 19, 2008 – Websites & Writing

So it’s 75 degrees here in Denver today. Beautiful sunny day but I can’t let it fool me. It was 80 on Tuesday and snowed on Wednesday—that’s Colorado weather for you.

I’ve been spending a ton of time on my new website, and I’ve also been working this week on getting my new Shout Out stuff going. People can subscribe and receive a quarterly newsletter (starting in May) and occasional announcements in between if something amazing happens that absolutely cannot wait until the next newsletter issue—like maybe I’ve won the Nobel Prize in Physics—right.

So that’s kept my sister and me very busy—she’s my moderator and all-around assistant. I couldn’t do all this “extra” stuff without her. She also took the photo of me that will appear on the book jacket for Grandmother, Have the Angels Come? Multi-talented woman.

My other fun thing was finishing the book trailer for Fact of Life #31, which comes out May 13. I created the trailer and then my bro-in-law, Wayne Applehans, wrote the “score”--original music that goes perfectly with the visuals. Another multi-talented person in my family! They’re everywhere, let me tell you, and it’s fantastic to be able to go to family for help and have all these amazing things happen.

This week I also made some progress on the Male POV book but I realized I have to change the name of his best friend. I can’t use the name because I keep thinking of my son’s friend with the same name and they aren’t the same people at all. So now I’m on the hunt for a new name. It has to be one that can have a nickname—like Jon for Jonathan or Bill for William. But not those, because I know people with those names too!

I also wrote a brand new picture book manuscript last week and had two people in my online critique group review it and give me feedback. Caroline Stutson and Marjorie Blain Parker are absolute masters of the picture book, especially the rhyming picture book (as is Linda Ashman, who is also local). If you want to learn the craft of writing a picture book—get books by these authors! I made several changes to my manuscript based on their feedback and then sent it to my agent. We’ll be talking about what publisher to send it to when she has a chance to read it.

So, how proud am I that I’m writing here again this month? Very, very proud. And I also added a new entry for Erin’s blog. Three cheers for me.

TTFN

Sunday, April 6, 2008 – Inspiration

I’m what’s called a Co-Regional Advisor for the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (RMC-SCBWI). We had our first Spring Workshop yesterday at a new venue and it was really wonderful. I loved being surrounded by so much talent and found it invigorating and inspiring. I did critiques with five writers who were all amazing—not only as writers but also at giving feedback, even though for some of them it was their first time to do such a thing. Truly fab.

This week I will be working hard on my new novel—we’ll refer to it as the MALE POV book until my publisher wants to publish it and it has a title. I had a great time meeting with two of my friends who are also Denver police officers because my character in this book gets into a bit of trouble with the law. My meeting was very eye-opening with regards to the juvenile justice system and just some of the kids who are going through it. Wow.

Until next time…

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Wednesday, April 2, 2008 – A New Leaf (I hope)

With the launch of my totally new and improved website, I thought I’d better write at least one more entry.

Let’s see. I’m still working on that YA novel from the boy’s POV and it’s going along really well. I’m having lots of fun with the characters and the story. At the end of February I met with two friends who are also Denver police officers because my character gets into a bit of trouble with the law. They were fabulously helpful, as was a juvenile court judge who responded to a series of questions I had. I’m very excited to incorporate all of the stuff I learned about the Denver juvenile justice system into my book.

Did you see the Blab-o-Readers page? I’m very excited to FINALLY have something up from all of my very, very patient readers who have written. If you haven’t had a chance to read some of their messages to me and my replies, you should definitely check it out. I am going to try very, very hard to respnd once a week to e-mails that come in!

I’m also determined to write in this blab and update Erin’s blog more frequently so let’s see if I can do it and still write my books!

Laters…

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Friday, January 4, 2008—Happy New Year!

2007 was a very busy year, with three books coming out in 2008: FACT OF LIFE #31 in May, BUILD A BURRITO in the fall, and GRANDMOTHER, HAVE THE ANGELS COME? next winter. I'm also working on a brand-new young adult novel told from a boy's point of view, which has been really fun and challenging. I'm also teaching some writing workshops.

I wish everyone a fabulous and joyous new year!