GCC Presents: Suzanne Young!

Summer really is the season for great new books, isn't it? Suzanne Young, a friend of mine from the Girlfriends Cyber Circuit had a new one release last week called A NEED SO BEAUTIFUL.

It sounds amazing so I wanted to give you the details and let Suzanne tell you more about it.



A NEED SO BEAUTIFUL

We all want to be remembered. Charlotte’s destiny is to be Forgotten…

Charlotte's best friend thinks Charlotte might be psychic. Her boyfriend thinks she's cheating on him. But Charlotte knows what's really wrong: She is one of the Forgotten, a kind of angel on earth who feels the Need—a powerful, uncontrollable draw to help someone, usually a stranger.

But Charlotte never wanted this responsibility. What she wants is to help her best friend, whose life is spiraling out of control. She wants to lie in her boyfriend's arms forever. But as the Need grows stronger, it begins to take a dangerous toll on Charlotte. And who she was, is, and will become—her mark on this earth, her very existence—is in jeopardy of disappearing completely.

Charlotte will be forced to choose: Should she embrace her fate as a Forgotten, a fate that promises to rip her from the lives of those she loves forever? Or is she willing to fight against her destiny—no matter how dark the consequences?



Now let's meet Suzanne:

Suzanne Young currently lives in Portland, Oregon, where she uses the rainy weather as an excuse to stay inside and write obsessively. After earning her degree in creative writing, Suzanne spent several years teaching middle school language arts. Now she can be found at home chasing after her two children and poorly behaved dog and writing novels for teens. You can visit her online at www.suzanne-young.blogspot.com or follow her on Twitter @suzanne_young.

Q: Please tell us what your new book is about and what inspired you to write it.

SUZANNE: A NEED SO BEAUTIFUL is about girl compelled to help people, even though her very existence is being erased as she does. The idea began a few years ago. A family member was sick and I was feeling lost. At my lowest point a stranger gave me advice and it helped me through the tough times. I often wondered how she was there, just when I needed her. It sparked the idea of these beings from the light, meant to help others. And A NEED SO BEAUTIFUL was born.

Q: If there was a soundtrack for your book what are five songs that would be on
it and how do they relate the story?

SUZANNE:

Iris by The GooGoo Dolls
Karma Police by Radiohead
Love Song by 311
The Scientist by Coldplay
Just Breathe by Pearl Jam

Q: Even though music plays in so heavily into my storytelling, I rarely can actually listen to it while I'm writing. Can you? How does music fit into your writing process?

Suzanne: I listen to music a lot of the times when writing. More than anything, it’s a quick way for me to get into the mood of the scene.

Q: What is next for you? What are you working on now?

Suzanne: I’m working on sequel, A WANT SO WICKED, and I have a new series, THE PROGRAM, that comes out Spring of 2013 from Simon Pulse.

The Realistic YA Revolution

I'm all kinds of fired up for revolution this week, aren't I? The #90minWrite revolution (and info on that is here if you haven't seen me tweeting incessantly about it) and now I'm fanning the flames of the Realistic YA Revolution that Tara Kelly is calling for. What can I say? This is how I deal with life when it gets rough. I sulk for awhile and then I remember that only I can change things or decide to be a part of something that is inspiring and will create change. It's a mindset I developed in high school when I discovered Riot Grrrl as I was dealing with the damage caused by an abusive relationship. The cry of "Revolution Girl Style Now!" really motivated me. So why not cry out, "Revolution Writer Style Now!" when I need motivation in that part of my life?

But I digress. We're here to talk about the Realistic YA revolution.

I saw Tara Kelly's blog post about started a Realistic YA revolution a week ago when I was rushing to get packed to travel to a panel called "Writing The Dark" about dealing with realistic, tough issues in YA fiction. Tara talks about the way contemporary realistic YA can be overlooked as these types of books don't often get a big budget from the marketing department. She mentions that she's heard (and I have to) a lot of readers say they *want* more realistic YA out there and they want it to make a splash the way urban fantasy and dystopian has. But in order for publishing houses to seek out more realistic YA and put the money behind it so that it can make a splash, readers have to show how much they want it by buying the amazing books that are already out there. Tara lists some of her favorite realistic YA books (and I was extremely honored that Tara, an author I admire greatly, named IWBYJR and BALLADS to that list). She encourages you to talk about the realistic YA you love in the comments and help spread the word about this realistic YA revolution that we are trying to start. In return, Tara is giving away an ARC of her forthcoming realistic YA, AMPLIFIED, which I for one would die to get my hands on and a bunch of other authors put up signed copies of their books in the contest (including me, I put up BALLADS), so what are you waiting for, read Tara's blog, comment, spread the word and enter! You've got another week, the contest ends June 30th.

I'm glad to see this enthusiasm spreading about contemporary realistic YA books. I was particularly thrilled to read this post on Stacked, which I believe brilliantly sums up contemporary YA as "truth-driven," and says that from a librarian's perspective that is exactly what teens are seeking. I know it is what I was seeking as a teen and as I've repeatedly said that's what drove me to become a writer. I wanted to tell those stories I needed by I couldn't find. On our "Writing The Dark" panel, I was asked why I write about the dark and I explained that I do so to shed light on it. A lot of the issues realistic YA writers write about are shrouded in secrecy or taboo and when a teen is coping with them, he or she feels very isolated. The more conversations that we start about these subjects and the more stories we tell, the more people can find their way out of the darkness and feel less alone.

I read books of all genres, but I tend to always come back to realistic YA as my favorite both to read and to write. The Bartender Book is "women's fiction," my first venture into writing for adults. (I guess. It's kind of crossover-y just like IWBYJR and BALLADS were.) But it is contemporary realistic whatever it is. I know my next project will be YA and right now I'm struggling to choose from three ideas. One is paranormal/urban fantasy, another is post-apocalyptic, and the third, newest idea is another contemporary realistic YA. Maybe it's because it's the newest idea, but right now it is tugging at me the strongest. It's another book that I know will rip me inside out to write like BALLADS did, but it's a story I really want to tell. So for that selfish reason, I would love to see a realistic YA revolution so my book will be able to find a home, but more importantly it will be able to get into the hands of the readers who may need that kind of story. I also want more books like these to read.

These are some of my favorite realistic YA books. If you haven't read them, I urge you to hit up your favorite bookstore or library and check them out to show the world that you are eager to read realistic YA.

To me SPEAK by Laurie Halse Anderson is the mother of all realistic YA. I wish I had this to read in high school. It shows exactly what realistic YA is about: having a voice.

Just Listen by Sarah Dessen is another essential finding your voice, your strength and your place in the world realistic YA read.
Another incredibly powerful book from Laurie Halse Anderson. This one kept me up all night and ripped my heart to shreds.
As Tara says on her blog, I would concur, Courtney Summers reminds me why I write and I wish I could be as amazing as her.

This is another one that might have made life so much easier for me-- or at least I would have felt like someone got it--if I had it as a teen

Tara's book is a must for those who love music and struggled fitting in.

To me this is such a heartbreaking but true statement about where teenage girls fit into the world and what can happen because of it.

One of the most beautiful and heartbreaking stories I've ever read. Laura Wiess is another one of those authors who I totally idolize. She speaks the truth and creates such real, survivor girl characters.
This explores the complexities of the teenage girl friendship in a way I haven't seen done elsewhere and it rang very, very true for me. Scarily true.
Another classic of course. When I was worried about my agent shopping IWBYJR as YA, she told me YA had changed since I was in high school (even though I was only in high school in 1997 which doesn't feel that long ago) and told me to read LOOKING FOR ALASKA. I was floored and realized that yes, finally the YA books that I needed to read were being written.

A book about teen pregnancy that is so much more than a book about teen pregnancy, it's about friendship, family, living in someone's shadow and coming into your own. Again, Holly Cupala=Idol. I aspire to write as beautifully told and meaningful stories as she does.

This one is almost mean of me to mention because I've read it and you can't until October, but do yourself a favor and pre-order it now. This book punched me in the chest so hard. It's as powerful as a Laurie Halse Anderson novel. It may be my favorite book of the year.

And here is the realistic YA that is next on my TBR pile. I've heard so many amazing things about it and after sitting on that panel with Swati and hearing her talk about why she writes realistic YA, well, she is already on my list of literary idols, too.

Feel free to tell me what is next on your realistic YA reading list and what realistic YA means to you. But don't forget to comment on Tara Kelly's blog post too so you will be entered to in the mother of all realistic YA contests.

Viva Contemporary Realistic YA fiction!

Women Who Rock Wednesday: Elana Johnson!

Welcome back to Women Who Rock Wednesday! See, I'm doing more of them as promised and bringing you some super cool ladies with amazing books out!.

First off, we have a prize to announce. The winner of Jessica Brody's MY LIFE UNDECIDED is Mitzy from blogger! I will be emailing you today, Mitzy, to get your mailing address.

Now let's meet Elana Johnson and learn about her book POSSESSION, which, yes indeed, you will get the chance to win!

Q: Please tell us what your new book is about and what inspired you to write it.

Elana: POSSESSION is about an angry teenage girl who lives in a futuristic society where she can’t make her own choices. Well, that doesn’t really work for her, so she breaks the rules. Chaos ensues.

I wanted to write a dystopian novel, and I love exploring things that cause a strong human emotion—and free will (or the absence thereof) definitely does that.

Q: If there was a soundtrack for your book what are five songs that would be on it and how do they relate the story?

Elana: 1. If You’re Not the One by Daniel Beddingfield (this is Zenn’s song. He’s just so in love with Vi, and can’t understand why he feels that way, and she doesn’t.)

2. Perfect by P!nk (This is Vi’s song. She has so much pressure to conform, to be perfect, and she’s not sure she can shoulder it.)

3. She Will be Loved by Maroon 5 (This is Jag’s song. He’d pretty much do anything to let Vi know how valuable she is.)

4. Waiting for the End by Linkin Park (This is just a great song about the ending of a relationship, of which there are many endings in POSSESSION.)

5. Paint It Black by The Rolling Stones (Just because I like the idea of painting over everything in black to block it out or whatever.)

Q: Who were some of your inspirations to become a writer or the inspirations that keep you writing? Feel free to include other authors, teachers, parents, or people in other creative fields, whoever is an inspiration to you!

Elana: I have two author friends who email with me regularly. Their work ethic constantly inspires me to work harder: Christine Fonseca and Ali Cross.

I also think of Lisa & Laura Roecker and Beth Revis as two inspirations to keep my chin up and keep forging ahead.

Q: Even though music plays in so heavily into my storytelling, I rarely can actually listen to it while I'm writing. Can you? How does music fit into your writing process?

Elana: Oh, yeah. Music is the only thing I have found that drowns out the kids! I love listening to music, especially during the editing stage. It really helps me tune everything else out and focus on what needs to be done.

Q: What is next for you? What are you working on now?

Elana: Up next are edits on the companion novel to POSSESSION. It’s tentatively titled FUGITIVE, and will release in June 2012.

Q: I have two questions that I always ask my Women Who Rock, the first is a two-parter. What was the first album you bought and the first concert you attended? Be honest, we don't judge, we like to see the roots of our women who rock!

Elana: I am lame, but I was an adult before I attended a concert, and it was The Dixie Chicks. *hangs head in shame* I can’t remember the first album I bought…

Q: Tell us about your biggest rock star moment, perhaps it's a moment of real success in your career, a time when you met someone super cool and had that Wayne's World "I'm not worthy" moment, or just a time where you felt like you got the rock star treatment. I get a huge variety of answers for the questions, so it's pretty much whatever "rock star moment" means to you!

Elana: My first rock star moment was when I met LaVell Edwards, the head coach of the Brigham Young University football team. He was buying oranges at the grocery store (who knew celebrities do that??). It was pretty awesome to see someone in real life that you see on TV.

Today's Contest:

After hearing more about it, I'm guessing you want POSSESSION and you are in luck! Elana is offering up a copy!

This contest is open to international entries!

To enter all you have to do is leave a comment. However you can gain additional entries:

+1 for tweeting or posting on facebook about this interview
+1 for tweeting or posting about POSSESSION
+5 for blogging about POSSESSION

Note your additional entries in your comment as well as giving me an email address or some way to contact you if you win. I will be drawing the winner next week on June 29th when I bring you another lovely gal who rocks, Stacey Jay!

Tuesday Tunes: The Joy of New Bands & Small Shows

The last two weeks have sucked. Holy Hell have they sucked. Mostly it's all shit too personal to share on my blog (yes, I do draw that line sometimes, though I should probably do so more often), but let's just say it's crowning glory was coming home from a lovely panel (more on that later this week) and one-night visit with friends in Wisconsin to find that some asshole kid decided to use our car for BB-gun target practice, shattering both passenger's side windows, denting up the body of the car, and basically costing us a whole bunch of money that we don't have to spare. Of all the crap that has gone down in the past two weeks, that actually registered pretty low on the suckitude meter, so yeah, things have been bad.

I needed a little Chicken Soup for the Soul.... except yanno, my style. Meaning it's vegan, but also not lame, pat on the head, this fuzzy little cliche should make you content. As usual, I relied on music to make things better.

I had a little bright light in my two weeks of suck when a lovely girl named Tiffany tweeted me about seeing my book chilling at the merch table at a show she went to. She thought I'd like to see a picture and that I'd like the band. I always like seeing my book in the wild and I always like music recommendations, so I asked her about the band, Farewell Continental. She said she wasn't the best at describing a band's sound, which I totally get. If I were to describe them, I'd probably generically say "Indie," meaning it's not on the radio (yet... and maybe it is since I don't listen to the radio much anymore), it's not punk or heavy, it's got a bit of that Sonic Youth experimental sort of vibe. But that totally doesn't do the band justice at all, so I'm just going to do what Tiffany did and show you a video:

I was instantly smitten and since I was having an ADD-not-doing-the-90-minute-writing-challenge-like-I-was-supposed-to sort of day, I went to their record label's website and downloaded all of their music. I put it to the ultimate test and went running while I listened to it. I have a love/hate thing with running and need really good music to enjoy it. Generally this means a band that is tried and true and I am currently obsessed with, but even though I didn't know Farewell Continental's songs, they were so catchy, I happily pushed through my run. What can I say, I'm a sucker for girl and boy vocals and songs I can dance to. While posting a dorky, fangirly comment on their facebook page, I saw that they were playing a show at Schuba's, a smaller club in Chicago on a Sunday evening. Sunday's are writing group day for me, but since my writing group is basically just me and a friend who loves discovering new music as much as I do, I proposed to her that we write during the afternoon and make the trek to see Farewell Continental. She was game. I almost bailed after the car window smashing incident the night before, but decided that since the tickets were already bought and paid for, why not go?

I can't tell you how happy I am that I did because I got my vegan faux-chicken noodle soup for the soul in the form of a half an hour of unexpected headbanging.

Hopefully you watched the Farewell Continental video. If not, do that. I'll wait.

Now, picture the band you imagine opening for them.

Did you expect face-melting guitar riffs, pounding drums, throat-shredding vocals, and a frontman banging metal garbage can lids together?

Nope, neither did I. My friend and I were sitting down when Wilson started. Thirty seconds in, we were on our feet because you do not sit down when there is real hardcore on the stage. At the end of the song, the singer instructed us to come closer. He didn't have to ask, we would have anyway. I was awestruck. Suddenly I was back in eighth grade, the year that my best friend moved away and I'd spent a summer at theater camp being bullied and everyone thought I was suicidal, which maybe I kinda was but mostly I was just pissed. That was also when I started discovering bands like Motorhead and early Social Distortion and hardcore punk when it was actually hardcore, pre-guyliner and emo and boys whining about their broken hearts. I had this long, long hair back then and I shaved it underneath, inspired by Mike Patton from Faith No More. It felt so good to whip that hair around to metal and hardcore songs.

Although my hair is short now, that is exactly what I needed and exactly what I did last night. I headbanged my way out of my funk to this beautiful fucking noise, which I think my friend described best by calling it "feral":

Hands down this was one of the best shows I've been to and I've been to hundreds of shows since my very first in 1989. (Janet Jackson, my tenth birthday present, it was so loud that I asked my mom to leave after four songs. The next show was Soul Asylum and Screaming Trees in 1993, the summer before freshman year. Same venue, but I was on the lawn and my eardrums had been damaged by blasting music on headphones for a few years so I didn't wuss out that time.) My first two shows were at a huge outdoor amphitheater in Tinley Park, Illinois that has gone through more names than I have musical phases. My next was at the Aragon Ballroom (or Brawlroom as we lovingly called it), an indoor venue with a 4,500 person capacity, that bands tend to play right before they reach the sports arena fame level. The next was at the Metro, a smaller 1,150 capacity venue that quickly became my favorite place to see shows. Eventually I was spending every weekend and as many weekdays as I could get out of the house at the Fireside Bowl, which makes an appearance in both of my books. It's a bowling alley that let punk bands perform. (I guess it still does, but I don't know. I was constantly hearing that the Fireside was closing/not having bands anymore and then lo and behold another show.) Those Fireside shows were the smallest shows. They were also some of the best.

If I really love a band, I'll go see them wherever. I'm not one of those people who decries sellout once a band I like is playing the Aragon or the Whatever Bank It's Named After Now Amphitheater. At least I'm not anymore. When I was sixteen, I did have a "I will not listen to anyone on a major label" phase. Who doesn't? Now I may make snarky remarks about the other audience members or complain about the sound quality at the I Used To Be Named For A Town But Now I'm Named After An Insurance Company Arena, but I go and I have a good time, an amazing time usually.

But I'll always prefer a small venue and when I went to the show at Schuba's I was reminded why I like the really small ones. Not only does the music sound best, you are more likely to get a bill of bands that are all amazing instead of waiting around through some crappy opening act. I'm not sure why this is, but it's true.

The act between Wilson and Farewell Continental was called Into It.Over It and I say act because it was a guy with his guitar singing those acoustic songs I've been craving lately:

All three performances were stellar. They were totally wildly different, but that is what made the show so perfect.

I used to do this more often, go see a band in a small venue that I'd just started listening to or heard was good. In fact for a few years in high school that was my life. There is nothing more satisfying than discovering a band before they get big and turning your friends on to them. I don't get much of an opportunity to do this anymore, so I wanted to do it with these bands.

I went in knowing that I loved Farewell Continental and that I wanted to share them on the blog so I bought their very last copy of their newest CD. It's kinda beat up because it was taped to their merch table throughout the tour, but Justin and Kari signed it. Then I realized that since Wilson had saved my fucking soul, I had to share them too, so I uploaded the CD of theirs that I bought to my iPod and now I'm going to give it away too. Unfortunately I had this brainstorm on the way home or I would have forked over my last dollars to get something from Into It.Over It too, not to mention I would have asked the guys in Wilson to sign the CD because I did talk to the lead singer and he was super nice. I think he'll be pleased that I am spreading the party.

So what I'm trying to say is...

CONTEST!

This is your chance to win either:

"Standing On The Reel" by Wilson

or

"Hey, Hey Pioneers!" by Farewell Continental

As usual you get one entry just by commenting. Tell me about your favorite show or a band you discovered, whether you like big venues or small ones, whatever.

Then you can get additional entries as follows:

+1 for following Farewell Continental on Twitter

+1 for liking Farewell Continental on Facebook

+1 for following Wilson on Twitter

+1 for liking Wilson on Facebook

+1 for sharing either band's videos on Twitter or Facebook (and the more you tweet/post, the more entries you get)

+1 for sharing the link to this blog entry on Twitter or Facebook (again, the more you tweet/post...)

+5 for writing your own blog entry about Farewell Continental and/or Wilson

Yeah, that's a lot of ways to enter. That is because I like these bands a hell of a lot and as a fellow struggling artist (writers, bands, we aren't that different), I like to help spread the word.

When you enter, note your additional entries, leave me an email address to contact you, and tell me which CD you would prefer or if you would be okay with either.

Oh, because I have broken car window bills, I can really only afford to ship to US Mailing Addresses only. Sorry, but that's the way it is right now.

I'll draw a winner on Tuesday July 5th. So that's two weeks. Get entering!

The 1.5 Hour Writing Challenge

ETA: Per my lovely friend Annika's stroke of brilliance, this now renamed "The 90 Minute Writing Challenge" as it is a hell of a lot more tweetable!

Today on Twitter, I called for people to join me in a 1.5 hour writing challenge. A few people joined in. Others asked me later, "What is this 1.5 hour challenge and will you do it again?"

So I decided I better type up a quick explanation.

The Article That Spawned The Idea

Last year when I was struggling hard to get into my first draft of that troublesome but lovely project that my regular blog readers know as The Bartender Book, a friend of mine told me about an article she'd read in the New York Times about how to deal with distraction and our brains being constantly bombarded by information, etc. I tried to find the article again but couldn't so I'm just going to summarize the three major points I took from it and applied to my writing process:

• We are at our most focused at the beginning of the day before we are bombarded by email and oooh, look at that cool YouTube video and hey, my friend posted an interesting link on Facebook and holy crap, how is it noon already?
• Though we want to be multi-taskers, it often leads to doing a crappy job on things or a task taking much longer than you intended.
• And this is the big one: we focus best in hour-and-a-half intervals. Then we need a short break to refresh (though in my case, that break must be closely monitored and can't be doing something too distracting.)

The 1.5 Hour Writing Routine

I consider myself a full-time writer with an additional part-time job (I bartend three nights a week). This means whenever possible, I feel like I should be writing 5 days a week, though being productive for 8 hours a day is not always possible. So using what I gleaned from that article, I came up with my 1.5 hour writing routine. I use this at the beginning or during the hard parts of writing when I can't just get sucked into what I'm writing and binge. Or when the rest of my life is stressful and I'm letting that interfere with getting writing done.

When I get up in the morning the only internet stuff I will do is tweet about a blog post I may have written and scheduled for that day. (I do all blogging and non-writing internet activity in the evening AFTER writing whenever possible.) I exercise, shower, feed my cats and myself, make some tea and head to my computer. I turn off the wireless on my laptop and hide my phone someplace where I can't see it blinking every time I get an email. Then I focus on my writing for a solid hour and a half.

I don't have a word count goal. I learned the hard way that that doesn't work for me. (I wrote really fast and ended up getting 3/4 of the way through The Bartender Book before realizing I had to cut a major plot thread and rein in the story.) Sometimes my first hour-and-a-half is simply rereading what I wrote last and tweaking it. Sometimes I only write a paragraph. Sometimes I cut an rearrange. Sometimes I end up on a massive roll and write a ton. It depends on the project and where I'm at with it.

If I'm not on a tear, I stop after an hour and a half and make lunch. I take a half an hour break. Since the internet distracts me, I usually only check it quick on my phone to see if there are urgent things. Then I spend my half-an-hour doing whatever little household tasks that may need doing or just eating my lunch and reading a book or magazine.

Then I settle down for the next hour and a half of writing. Again, if I don't get lost in the story, I stop for a fifteen minute break. Then I do my last hour and a half of writing for the day. My routine since I'm a late riser generally looks like this:

10:45 to 12:15: Write

12:15 to 12:45 Lunch Break

12:45 to 2:15: Write

2:15 to 2:30: 15 minute Break

2:30 to 4:00 Write

And after four, I do my internet stuff, get ready for work etc. Sometimes it varies depending on when I get up or if things get hectic that day. Obviously this is easily adaptable for any routine and you can do a single 1.5 hour writing block before or after work if you have a full-time job or kids or whatever else.

It works for me better than word counts because it doesn't put that pressure of writing fast or not editing or whatever else on you. It follows what I believe is the cardinal rule of writing: GET YOUR BUTT IN THE CHAIR.

And Now The Challenge Part

I am no saint at this. I get distracted easily. Particularly if I'm at the beginning of a project or if there is a lot of stress in my life (which pretty much sums up the past two weeks). Another thing I learned while writing The Bartender Book is that I'm better at staying focused when other people are holding me accountable. One day YA authors Melissa Walker and Mari Mancusi and I were all tweeting about how distracted we were and we had been all week and man, we had to be good tomorrow. We decided to check in the next morning, state our goals and use each other to stay off the internet. We've been doing this for quite a while now and it really helps.

Today I was determined to be focused, but my first two writing periods were interrupted by phone calls I absolutely had to take. This happens. However I have a bad habit of using it as an excuse to call my whole day a wash. I decided to use Twitter/Facebook to make myself accountable.

I posted: "Been unfocused today? Me too. So I call a 1.5 hr writing challenge! Get offline, eliminate distractions & c what u can do. Check in @ 4 CST"

I didn't know if people would reply, but I wasn't waiting around to find out. I'd made myself accountable and said I was writing til 4 pm so that's what I was doing.

Like I said, a few people replied, a few people asked me questions after the fact, so now I've decided to start a 1.5 Hour Writing Challenge Revolution!

It's selfish really because it will keep me accountable, but anyone can play and I want as many people as possible to join in. I will be tweeting and posting on facebook when I'm doing one (usually around 10:30 or 11, 12:30 or 1 and 2:30 or 3 CST) and if you see it and have been procrastinating, use it as your cue to GET OFF THE INTERNET AND JOIN IN!

Of course, I don't write every day or at the times of day that some people write, so the revolution depends on others calling out for challenges too. If you have been procrastinating and need to focus and be held accountable to have your butt in the chair, then you should call out for a 1.5 Hour Writing Challenge and catch some other slackers or at least get some work in yourself.

Maybe we can even come up with a cute twitter hashtag or something like #1.5hrWC ? Of course for all the time I spend on twitter, I don't know if there can be periods in hashtags, but whatevs, we'll figure that out. As long as it gets people writing.

So are you up for the challenge?

PS. DAMN, Hashtags definitely don't work with periods in them. Someone else got a cute twitter tag idea?

PPS. We are going with Annika's first suggestion #90minWrite because I like it best, but if someone does think of something better, I'm still open. I just think Annika was being very genius-like as usual.

GCC Presents: Amanda Ashby

There are a slew of amazing books coming out right now and one of them is FAIRY BAD DAY by Amanda Ashby who is part of the Girlfriends Cyber Circuit with me, so naturally I wanted to bring you an interview with her about the book. Let's get the skinny on FAIRY BAD DAY first, shall we?

It’s going to be a fairy bad day

First, my rightful designation of dragon slayer is STOLEN right out from under me by Curtis Green. Sure, he’s really cute, but that doesn’t give him an excuse.

On top of that, I am assigned to slay fairies. I know what you’re thinking—how hard could it be right? Wrong! These menacing beasts with their tiny hipster clothes and mocking sarcasm love taunting me. And they won’t STOP!

But the thing that tops my list of stuff to ruin my day? That would be the GIANT KILLER FAIRY that I have to hunt down and slay because I am the only one who can see it. There is someone who can help me. Unfortunately… it’s Curtis.

Now let's meet the lovely Amanda!

Q: Please tell us what your new book is about and what inspired you to write it.

Amanda: My new book is Fairy Bad Day and to be honest it all started with the title, which I thought was cute. I wrote a chapter for it but my agent wasn’t keen. However, she agreed that the title was cute and so we brainstormed a new idea and then went from there. And if I’m making that sound easy, then I’m lying! I think because it had such a weird start, it took ages for me to find the true story that was lurking within!

Q: If there was a soundtrack for your book what are five songs that would be on it and how do they relate the story?

Amanda: I actually wrote Fairy Bad Day over two years ago and since then my laptop died, taking with it my playlist and I honestly can’t remember all the songs that I had on there, so this is what I would put on it now rather than what was on when I was writing!!!!!!

Dog Days are Over by Florence and the Machine
Modern Love by David Bowie
Hymm to Her by The Pretenders
I Will Always Love You by Dolly Parton
Ant Rap by Adam and the Ants

Q: Who were some of your inspirations to become a writer or the inspirations that keep you writing? Feel free to include other authors, teachers, parents, or people in other creative fields, whoever is an inspiration to you!

Amanda: My desire to become a writer has always stemmed from the books that I’ve read and so to begin with it was just me and the computer trying to figure the whole process out. Since then I’ve met lots of writing friends and some have totally inspired me but the two people who keep me on track every single day are my cps, Sara Hantz and Christina Phillips.

Q: Even though music plays in so heavily into my storytelling, I rarely can actually listen to it while I'm writing. Can you? How does music fit into your writing process?

Amanda: I listen to music everyday when I’m walking, which is also when I do my thinking and plotting, so I really like to have a playlist to inspire me. Sometimes I will have music on when I’m actually writing, but often I’ll be so lost in the story that I won’t even notice that it’s finished!

Q: What is next for you? What are you working on now?

Amanda: I’ve got a middle grade series called Sophie’s Mixed-Up Magic that starts next year, hopefully in summer and I’ve also got a new YA book called Demonosity, which will be out either at the end of 2012 or the beginning of 2013 (and I’m really excited about this one because it has demon knights in it!!!!!!)

Tuesday Tunes: Acoustic Punk

Some time last year I came up with the idea that at least once a month I'd do a new music Tuesday post to talk about what I've been listening to and find out what you are listening to since I haven't really listened to the radio much in years and MTV hasn't had a cool music video show in even longer and the internet is overflowing with too many bands for me to sort through, so word of mouth is the best way to go.

Of course I've been seriously slacking on the blog front for a while, but I'm trying to find a way to balance out my daily schedule and I need new muses for new writing projects (you can read all about my struggle for balance and attempts to focus on new projects in my latest YA Outside The Lines blog post, by the way), so I'm going to give it a go again.

My latest musical obsession is what I'm going to call acoustic punk for lack of a better term. (Maybe that *is* the term, I'm no music critic, just a music lover.) It seems like a little bit of a contradiction, at least if you think about punk the way I thought about it when I was in high school. The music my parents listened to was acoustic. Growing up, I'd loved some of that stuff (ie. The Beatles) and hated others (ie. Bob Dylan. I'm sorry, I know to some people it's blasphemy, but I really can't stand the sound of his voice. You can blame my father and all the Dylan he inflicted on me during childhood roadtrips.) But by eighth grade or so, I felt like such an outcast and had been bottling up so much anger and sadness about it for so long, I needed my music to match. It had to be loud and furious. Sure I understood that punk was political, a form of protest like the folk my parents listened to in the 60s, but I wanted the bands to shout their political and personal discomforts over raging guitars and drums.

During my teen years, I made few exceptions to this rule, but I rediscovered one of them recently while adding a bunch of my old CDs to my iPod. (This will warrant another blog post or perhaps a series of Tuesday Tunes flashback posts after I work my way through the 3000 songs from my past that I've added.) It's safe to say that I was at my angriest during my junior year of high school. For the most part, I was fueled by Bikini Kill, Heavens to Betsy and Babes in Toyland fueled me. But I also loved Tattle Tale. They were different--cello, acoustic guitar, the occasional acapella duet--but somehow just as raw, in fact maybe even more so because the music felt so vulnerable and maybe because I felt so vulnerable, I couldn't listen to them unless I was in a certain mood. They were alone, late at night, writing in my diary music:

I don't feel that vulnerable anymore. I've stripped away most of the really angry layers and addressed what was underneath. I've learned to deal with my rawest emotions and to channel them into my writing. I went through a massive Johnny Cash phase while writing BALLADS OF SUBURBIA because I was trying to produce something as earnest and real as that man with his deep voice and his guitar. Ever since then I've been seeking out more and more of that--songs that feel like stories whether they be stories about a political event or the state of our world or stories about someone's personal growth and experiences. I was pleased to discover there was a type of punk rock that fits that particular mood of mine perfectly. The so-real-it-hurts mood, when you want to crawl inside your own head (or often in my case, the head of a character) or put your finger right on that throbbing raw nerve.

Dave Hause, lead singer of The Loved Ones, recently put out a solo album that kicked off this acoustic punk obsession of mine. His album Resolutions as been playing on my iPod and my record player pretty much nonstop since February. Maybe it's that "early thirties thing" he's singing about, but I haven't related so strongly to an album on such a personal level since I heard Hole's Pretty On The Inside in junior high or Sleater-Kinney's first EP junior year of high school or The Distillers' Coral Fang in my mid-twenties when I was coming out of a messy 8-year relationship and finally learned to use words instead of substances to heal. All of those albums are filled with loud, dark songs sung by women. This is a softer, more reflective album sung by a man, but nothing else has summed up how I feel as someone who is struggling to make a living off of their art, but wondering if the time will come that they have to get an office job and a 401K. I hear my own self-doubts. I hear the restlessness I've been feeling stuck in the same general area where I grew up, longing to move away from the winters that drag me down, but again can I take that risk, can I live in the city I love and still afford to be the struggling writer. I hear my own story of a fucked-up teenager who has grown up and feels relieved to have survived, but sometimes gets nostalgic and tempted. I hear my own thankfulness for the amazing friends that helped her through. And I hear stories of the characters I write about, too. ("C'mon Kid" could be the theme song of the Bartender Book--well, one of them.)

Once I realized how much I loved the sound of Dave Hause's record, I started searching my collection for things that I might have picked up in the past that were similar and I'd overlooked because I was in the wrong place for it. Admittedly even though I'm not that angry, fucked-up teenager anymore, loud, distorted punk is still the main thing I listen to. I also tend to obsess on one band or type of sound for awhile and if I buy something new that doesn't fit with it, it gets set aside.

My husband who is a huge Hot Water Music fan had actually been the one to download Chuck Ragan's solo album Feast or Famine. He'd played it for me a few times, but I always when I was on a Civet and Social Distortion kick or an Alice In Chains and Soundgarden kick or something else that just didn't jive. I saw on twitter that Chuck Ragan and Dave Hause were touring together (and god, why couldn't they have come to Chicago together because it would have been me and the spouse's dream show!) and it reminded me that I had Feast or Famine and should give it another listen.

Sure enough, now I'm hooked. This is like my Bob Dylan, complete with harmonica, which I must admit is an instrument I used to loathe partially because of the aforementioned childhood road trip trauma and partially because of teenage bad alt rock ala Blues Traveler trauma. While I still can't deal with Bob Dylan's voice, I appreciate the kind of stories he tells through his songs and how they struck a chord with my father and my brother. Fortunately I have Chuck Ragan to sing songs with the perfect mixture of the political and the personal, but the kind of raw, punk voice I adore:

So that's what I've been listening to lately. Check out Tattle Tale, Dave Hause and Chuck Ragan if you're in the mood for something stripped down to the most raw and real punk rock heart.

And hit me up with your recommendations. Maybe you know of other similar stripped down punk artists I should check out or perhaps you have a different obsession and can launch me into a whole new phase.