Companions Along the Journey

Let me introduce you to my writing partner: 

Max has been a part of our family for close to fourteen years now.  He was a gift for my son on his fifth birthday, but I’ll let you in on a little secret. 

That was just a ruse. 

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Finding a Mentor

In one-hundred and two days The Promise of Amazing will be out in the world.  Even after all the work I've done on it this past year -the excitement of the sale, the editorial letter, seeing the cover, walking into the HarperCollins offices and trying desperately not to fangirl as I met my editor for the first time, holding a bound galley in my hand- it still seems surreal.  To put it in perspective, last year at this time I was busy polishing up the final draft to send to my agent.  In my wildest dreams I could never have predicted the route my manuscript has taken.  There are people who sell their novels and have to wait a few years before ever seeing it in print. I know I'm one of the lucky ones, and I never take that for granted.

I should be cracking open the bubbly, eating dark chocolate truffles and propping my feet up, right?

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Fly, Be Free

As I sit here on this rainy morning pondering what words of wisdom I'm going to lay on you, my lovely Paper Wait readers, I realize no matter what I say, I will most likely fall spectacularly short. Confession: at the moment I'm feeling a bit empty, maybe even melancholy.

This past weekend, my son went off to college for the first time.  And oh...so many feels.

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Characters on Vacation

Over on the OneFour KidLit YouTube channel this month, we are highlighting places our characters would go on vacation.  Since THE PROMISE OF AMAZING takes place in New Jersey, I didn't have to think too hard about where the teens in my book might venture on a sweltering summer day.  I had such a blast creating this video that I thought I'd share it here as well!
Where would your characters go on vacation?

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COVER REVEAL: THE PROMISE OF AMAZING

 
Dearest Paper Waiters,

This is a moment I’ve been dreaming about since, well, forever.   And the fact that I get to share it with you means so much to me.  Some of you have been with me since the beginning of my writing journey – at least the “official” writing journey.  I remember walking into Penny Pollock’s picture book class and feeling instantly at home, like “I’ve found my people”.   The creativity and the support in that room made me believe that I could follow this crazy dream of being an author.

The road hasn’t been easy for any of us, has it?  Ups and downs, almost theres, near misses and those wonderful moments we could bring out the champagne.  You were there for my first good rejection, nurtured me when I said I thought I wanted to write a novel and patiently supported me when tears of frustration would leak out during meetings.  There are no guarantees in this business except one: writer buds make the fiercest of friends.

So thanks for ‘getting me’ Paper Waiters! 

Oh, yes, I was revealing a cover wasn’t I?

Revealing this here, on The Paper Wait, feels especially sweet!! 

Here it is… yes, you have to jump to see it!!

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Full Catastrophe Writing

One of my favorite feel good books (you know, from that section in the book store* nobody wants to be seen in) is Full Catastrophe Living by Jon Kabat-Zinn.  In it, he recounts the line from the movie of Nikos Kazantzaki's novel Zorba the Greek:

Zorba, have you ever been married?

to which Zorba replies...

...Of course I've been married.  Wife, house, kids, everything...the full catastrophe.

So, maybe if I heard my husband refer to our life together as a catastrophe I might get offended, but actually the term 'full catastrophe' here and in John Kabat-Zinn's book is meant to express the richness of life and all its many faces —good, bad and the gray stuff in between.  It speaks to the joys and sorrows, our personal trials and triumphs.

If that isn't a perfect metaphor for the writing journey, I'm not sure what is!

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Getting Myself Out There

Did you ever see the movie Limitless?  One of my favorite lines is right toward the beginning of the film where we see a truly disheveled Bradley Cooper walking through the streets.  His character is narrating the scene and says:  My excuse for looking like this?  I'm a writer.

I really did LOL with that one.  Mostly because I can relate.

One of the aspects of having an author platform is being...well...visible.  

After years of keeping my writing cards close to my chest and spending my working days looking fairly disheveled, becoming visible has been one of the more challenging things to do.

So I'm taking baby steps.

And I'm sharing those baby steps with you Paper Waiters!

Here is my Intro Interview on the OneFour KidLit blog, where I talk about my sometimes arduous path to being published. 

And here is my first ever YouTube video, made with assistance from my ten year old!!  The OneFours have a YouTube channel, and each month we'll be covering a different topic. April's topic is INSPIRATION.   In my video I talk about some of what inspired me to write THE PROMISE OF AMAZING.  If you have a chance, take a look!

Thanks! 

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Stoking the Creative Fire

Years ago I had the opportunity to hear Anne Lamott speak.  A friend in my critique group happened to have an extra ticket for her lecture and I JUMPED at the chance to listen to one of my favorite authors discuss the writing process. I don’t quite remember the venue, suffice to say a large, old, theater/auditorium somewhere in mid-town Manhattan, and I’d be hard pressed to come up with an exact quote, but I remember nervously handing Ms. Lamott my copy of Bird by Bird, and squeaking out something that was supposed to sound like thank you as I scuttled away.  I do remember laughing a lot as she talked about her process.   And I do remember leaving inspired to dive into my own writing.

One of the writing tricks/tools that Ms. Lamott spoke about that day was The Observation Deck – A Tool Kit for Writers by Naomi Epel.    I may have ordered it that night when I got home, but I think if Anne had said that it was important to eat artichokes and hop on one leg for ten minutes before sitting down to write, I probably would have done that too.  (So glad she didn’t recommend that, btw.)

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