GCC Presents: Amanda Ashby!

Continuing in what has become a fabulous string of releases from my pals in the Girlfriends Cyber Circuit, Amanda Ashby has the first two books in her Sophie's Mixed-Up Magic series out now! Let's hear about them, shall we?

The Books in Sophie's Mixed-Up Magic seris


Book One: Wishful Thinking 
Be careful what you wish for…
After eleven year old Sophie accidentally gets herself turned into a djinn, she starts to think that it might not be so bad after all. (Of course, that’s after she gets the whole orange skin problem sorted out.) Who wouldn’t enjoy having the power to grant wishes! But when Sophie develops RWD (Random Wish Disorder) and can’t STOP granting wishes, things get more than a little mixed-up!

Book Two: Under a Spell
And that spells T-R-O-U-B-L-E…

As Sophie gets used to her magic, her relationship with the adorable Jonathan Tait is blossoming. There’s only one problem: Jonathan’s twin sister, Melissa. She’s a total mean girl who seems intent on making Sophie’s life miserable. On top of that, Melissa somehow seems to sense that Sophie has powers–and manages to bind Sophie to her in a totally self-serving way. Can Sophie figure out a way out of this–without ruining her chances with Jonathan?

Book one and two are a simultaneous release and watch out for book three in October…

The Author

Amanda Ashby was born in Australia and after spending the last sixteen years dividing her time between England and New Zealand, she’s finally moved back and now lives on the Sunshine Coast. When she’s not moving country, she likes to write books (okay, she also likes to eat chocolate, watch television and sit around doing not much, but let’s just keep that amongst ourselves, shall we?) She has a degree in English and Journalism from the University of Queensland and is married with two children. Her debut book, You Had Me at Halo was nominated for a Romantic Times Reviewer’s Choice award, and her first young adult book Zombie Queen of Newbury High was listed by the New York Public Library’s Stuff for the Teen Age 2010. Her latest release, Fairy Bad Day, has been selected by Voya as one of their Top Shelf Fiction for Middle School Readers 2012 and is a SCBWI Crystal Kite Award finalist for the Australia/NZ region. To find out more, please go to www.amandaashby.com

The Interview

Q: What inspired you to write this book? 

Amanda: I grew up watching televisions shows like Bewitched, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir and I Dream of Jeannie and I really loved how they all had this secret life that they needed to hide. To me it was the perfect recipe for comedy and I’ve always wanted to do something like that!

Q: The main character of my first book, I WANNA BE YOUR JOEY RAMONE, is the kind of girl I wanted to be (a rock star!), the MC of my second book has a lot more in common with teenage me. Is your main character someone you wish you could be, someone a lot like you, or your total opposite? How so? 

Amanda: Sophie is actually a lot like me! She’s a positive thinker who often has to remind herself that she is a positive thinker, she also likes wearing jeans and sneakers and can easily get obsessed by things like music and books!

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: Well, the first song would be Zombie Vegas by Neanderthal Joe, but since I only made up the band and the song for the book, I’ve got no idea what it would sound like (though my heroine Sophie assures me that it’s awesome!!!!!)
Jean Genie by David Bowie – obviously the title makes it perfect but I happen to adore David Bowie and I have never written a book that hasn’t somehow been connected to a David Bowie song.
The Climb by Stan Walker – Stan is a beautiful Australian singer who makes me smile everything I hear him. I love his cover of this Miley Cyrus song.
Hallelujah by Gin Wigmore. This isn’t the Leonard Cohen song, but one that a wonderful New Zealand artist called Gin Wigmore wrote when she was a teenager after her dad had died. In my books, Sophie’s dad hasn’t died, but he is missing and this song always helped remind me how she felt about his absence.
True Colors by Cyndi Lauper. Because it’s awesome and relevant to the story!

Q: In addition to writing books, I also write for a website for teens called Rookie, which has a regular feature called "Literally The Best Thing Ever," wherein we write about a thing that we think is super mega awesome (even if it is the type of thing that others might call a guilty pleasure, we believe there is nothing guilty about pleasure!) and explain why we think it is literally the best thing ever. It's generally a kind of unexpected thing, for example I wrote one about the soap opera, One Life To Live. I don't expect you to write a whole essay obviously, but can you briefly tell us what either you or your character (or both!) would say is "Literally The Best Thing Ever" and why?

Amanda: Thank you!!! You know a pet peeve of mine is when people describe what they love as a guilty pleasure. Why feel guilty when you love something?

Anyway, for me the best thing ever is an Australian magazine called Frankie! For years I’ve had very strange taste in clothing, furniture and knickknacks and the closest I could come to naming it was to say that it was Nana Chic, because basically if an old lady has had it in her house, then there is a good chance that I would like it. This goes from crotchet rugs through to ugly swan statues and just about everything in between. What I didn’t realize was that other people actually loved all of this stuff as well. Then when I moved to Australia I discovered Frankie and discovered that I’m far from alone in my tastes! And so now, every time I read that magazine I feel so happy to know that there are other people out there who see beauty in strange old retro pieces (my current obsessions are eighties digital alarm clocks and souvenir tea towels and tablecloths!)

Q: What are you working on for us next?

Amanda: I have a third Sophie book out in October and next summer I have a new young adult book called Demonosity, which is about alchemy and two beautiful, scarred demon knights, both of whom I am madly in love with!

GCC Presents: Elana Johnson! (And a giveaway!)

Another one of my girlfriends from the Girlfriends Cyber Circuit has a fabulous new release out! Let's hear about Elana Johnson and her new book SURRENDER, shall we?

About SURRENDER:

Raine has always been a good girl. She lives by the rules in Freedom. After all, they are her father’s rules: He’s the Director. It’s because of him that Raine is willing to use her talent—a power so dangerous, no one else is allowed to know about it. Not even her roommate, Vi. All of that changes when Raine falls for Gunner. Raine’s got every reason in the world to stay away from Gunn, but she just can’t. Especially when she discovers his connection to Vi’s boyfriend, Zenn.

 Raine has never known anyone as heavily brainwashed as Vi. Raine’s father expects her to spy on Vi and report back to him. But Raine is beginning to wonder what Vi knows that her father is so anxious to keep hidden, and what might happen if she helps Vi remember it. She’s even starting to suspect Vi’s secrets might involve Freedom’s newest prisoner, the rebel Jag Barque…

About the author:

Elana's work including POSSESSION, REGRET, and SURRENDER is available from Simon & Schuster wherever books are sold. She is the author of From the Query to the Call, an ebook that every writer needs to read before they query, which can be downloaded for free on her website. She runs a personal blog on publishing and is a founding author of the QueryTracker blog. She blogs regularly at The League of Extraordinary Writers, co-organizes WriteOnCon, and can be found on Twitter and Facebook.

She wishes she could experience her first kiss again, tell the mean girl where to shove it, and have cool superpowers like reading minds and controlling fire. To fulfill her desires, she writes young adult science fiction and fantasy.

The Interview:
 Q: What inspired you to write this book?

ELANA:  Necessity. SURRENDER is the second book in the POSSESSION series. It’s a companion novel, so it was sort of like writing an entirely new book. But I wrote it to follow-up POSSESSION, so I wasn’t technically inspired to write it.

 Q: The main character of my first book, I WANNA BE YOUR JOEY RAMONE, is the kind of girl I wanted to be (a rock star!), the MC of my second book has a lot more in common with teenage me. Is your main character someone you wish you could be, someone a lot like you, or your total opposite? How so?

ELANA: SURRENDER has two narrating characters, and one of them is a guy. So Gunn’s not so much like me. Ha! But his personality is something I wish I could be more: calm and laid back. I’m so intense, and he’s not. Raine is the other MC, and I think she’s a bit like me. She goes along with what her parents want until she reaches a breaking point. I was sort of like that. Then it’s all bets off, baby!

 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: Crush by David Archuletta – This describes Gunn and Raine’s relationship perfectly. Waiting for the End by Linkin Park – SURRENDER is all about the rebellion movement against the controlling dystopian government. So this song is perfect because it talks about waiting for something to end, and how to start something new.

 Q: In addition to writing books, I also write for a website for teens called Rookie, which has a regular feature called "Literally The Best Thing Ever," wherein we write about a thing that we think is super mega awesome (even if it is the type of thing that others might call a guilty pleasure, we believe there is nothing guilty about pleasure!) and explain why we think it is literally the best thing ever. It's generally a kind of unexpected thing, for example I wrote one about the soap opera, One Life To Live. I don't expect you to write a whole essay obviously, but can you briefly tell us what either you or your character (or both!) would say is "Literally The Best Thing Ever" and why?

ELANA: I think one of the best things ever are cell phones. Literally. I was watching an episode of Seinfeld (also literally one of the best things ever!) and Jerry was stranded at someone’s house after a party. He had to ask to borrow their phone, and then Kramer was late, because he couldn’t find the place. All of that would’ve been eliminated had there been cell phones in the early 90s. So my cell phone is literally one of the best things ever.

 Q: What are you working on for us next?

ELANA:  I’m polishing a sci fi thriller with time travel aspects.

GIVEAWAY:

Elana is hosting a Spectacular Seconds giveaway this week! You can enter to win one of five signed sophomore books by Beth Revis, Ally Condie, Veronica Roth, Kristi Cook, and Kim Harrington. CLICK HERE for all the details and to enter.

Backsliding & a new method to get back on track

I've been in a writing slump again. It's been going on for about a month now and I'm beyond frustrated with myself, especially things were going so well before that. At the beginning of April, I met my goal, I was reinvigorated by a vacation to Seattle and an excellent experience at the RT Conference. I'd given my agent a chunk of the Modern Myth YA and she loved it... so much so that she decided that we should start submitting it as a partial. So I put together a synopsis (the bane of my writerly existence, but I was motivated so I pulled it off!) and out into the world it went.

At first I was excited. So freakin' excited! I love this book. Lovely Agent A does as well. Surely an editor will and my career will turn around any day now.

Quickly excited turned to scared. What will I do if this book doesn't sell? It has now been 4 years since a project of mine has. A large part of that was my own fault, focusing too much on the promotion stuff I couldn't control and slowing down the already slow writing process. But the Bartender Book has been on sub for a while now (or at least what feels like a while to me, this industry is notoriously slow, and as my husband will tell you, I am not the most patient person on earth) and if nothing happens with it or this project.... Fuck. I'm not sure I can keep doing this, especially since the bartending job has been stressful as hell lately (and not in that good busy way, in the not-busy-not-sure-I-can-make-ends-meet way).

There is a lot (a lot a lot A LOT) of doubt in my life right now, which I will not go in to boring, overly-emotional detail about (though I'm ashamed to say that some of it leaked out on to Facebook and Twitter during my really low moments). But let's just say that between the stress (which unpleasantly manifested in an ulcer flare-up), the too-freaking-excited-to-focus, the too-freaking-full-of-self-doubt to focus, I've been... well... entirely unfocused. Okay, not entirely, even though my friend Lindsay is staying with me again (which provided me with a great many distractions while I was in the heart of my last slump), I have been forcing myself to sit down at the computer every day, but despite my best intentions, despite my check-ins with author buddies, despite my attempts to do my usual 90 minute write sessions, I usually end up obsessively checking email/Facebook/Twitter, or looking things up... like jobs that maybe I can apply to if life doesn't turn around soon.

I tried writing fast, then slowing down. I tried backtracking and skipping ahead. I thought maybe there was just too much stress tied up in the Modern Myth YA or maybe I'm just stuck in the murky middle or ::enter the self-doubt monster:: maybe it just totally sucks, so I tried cheating on it by working on other ideas like the Contemporary YA I have on the back burner or the New and Shiny Adult Book idea and The Oft-Pondered Memoir that I just last week finally figured out a theme/structure for.

Those gave me temporary relief, the reminder at least that I do have other ideas and I haven't completely lost my ability to write (and maybe even do it well), but they weren't totally satisfying.

I want to write this book. It's an idea I've been playing with for years and I feel like I finally have it right or at least almost right and I just need to finish it. As for those larger doubts about my career and if I can continue to sustain myself as a writer/bartender/freelancer/teacher, I keep telling myself that I will figure it out at the end of this year. Since the world might end in December (I really doubt it, but who knows), I want to spend this year putting my all into the writing. It is unacceptable to keep not focusing and not writing.

Yesterday I woke up and as usual dread and determination began to battle. Dread (which always leads to total lack of productivity) was winning, but then I noticed something on Twitter. Nova Ren Suma, Holly Black, Beth Revis and Kami Garcia were having a conversation about plotting, productivity, and this blog about massively increasing your daily word count. I've said in the past that I am not a big word count person, specific word goals freak me out, I value quality over quantity, etc. But the fact remains that for the past month I've been unsuccessful tinkering with a chapter. Not cool. Not at all.

That blog post's simple formula of Knowledge + Time + Enthusiasm = More Productive Writing made sense. For me, it is not about getting up to 10K words a day. I haven't even been able to crack 1K a day in a month. I need to get focused and figure out a way to write steadily and productively. The part about "Knowledge" in particular makes sense to me. "Knowing what you write before you write it." This is what I used to do in my classes at Columbia when we went through "seeing a scene in our mind's eye" before writing it. Starting each day by writing out a sketch of what I'm going to be working on could be the key I've been looking for to hone my focus. The "Enthusiasm" part is essential as well. I feel like I have been stuck in the murky middle for a while because I'm not excited about my scenes. Hopefully doing those short pre-writing sketches will help me figure out what is excited and fix my story before I even start writing. And the "Time" aspect... well I love data. I've been trying to track my own progress and figure out things about my process through this blog, but I think something more detailed is in order.

I've made a spread sheet with the following categories:
Date, Project Worked On, Time Started, Time Finished, Breaks, Total Time, Total Words, Notes.

I may switch that around and eliminate the break thing and make a new entry for before and after lunch writing (as that is my usual break), so I can get a better sense of when I'm more productive, what kind of breaks help, what are disruptive, etc. As for the "Project Worked On" category, I thought about eliminating that and forcing myself to work on the Modern Myth YA and only the Modern Myth YA, but I've decided that I really do want to keep working occasionally on one (perhaps more, but definitely one) of my cheat projects. Maybe once a week, or a half day once a week will be a cheat day.

Anyway, I started making notes yesterday and actually figured out a big part of my problem with the chapters that have been stumping me. (I was trying to introduce an unnecessary character.) I was also trying to figure out if I would skip ahead past the point where I've been stuck or if I should start with rewriting the messy chapters I've been working on. Now that I figured out what has been stumping me, 3 of those 4 chapters will need to be entirely rewritten anyway and my decision is to give myself just the morning to write through the scene that has been plaguing me (or really it's more of a transition). Either it gets done or it doesn't and I skip ahead.

So I'm starting this new method today and so are a few of my other writer friends (ie. the people whose Twitter conversation I bombarded and my lovely CP Tara Kelly. I'll report back next week (probably on WIP Wednesday) to let you know how it goes. If you're looking to spice up your writing life and trying something new and potentially really helpful, please join me! The more, the merrier, and check-ins do keep me focused and responsible. Also if you have any other suggestions that might help me right now, I am happy to hear them.

Here goes that writing/focusing thing....

GCC Presents: Melissa Walker (and an awesome contest!)

Melissa Walker is not only one of my Girlfriends Cyber Circuit sisters, she is one of my favorite YA authors and an amazing writing bud. I'm super excited to read her new book UNBREAK MY HEART and to share this interview with her about it so you can learn more!

About UNBREAK MY HEART 

Summer will be the season for Melissa Walker fans to fall in love all over again. UNBREAK MY HEART is told in alternating chapters that chronicle the year that broke Clementine Williams’s heart and the summer that healed it. Inspired by Melissa’s own experience sailing with her family as a teen, this is the perfect beach read for fans of Sarah Dessen, Deb Caletti, and Susane Colasanti.

Usually Clem would dread the idea of spending an entire summer sailing with her family—two parents, one annoying little sister, and no internet, all on one tiny boat; however, right now escaping her life on land sounds pretty good. Clem did something bad during her sophomore year, even though she didn’t mean to. She fell for her best friend’s boyfriend and thought that he was falling for her too. Now the school year is over, the truth is out and he’s been excused while she’s been exiled, leaving her with no friends and zero social life.

When she and her family set sail the last thing Clem is looking for is another romance, but perhaps it found her anyway. His name is James. He’s cute, funny, and best of all, doesn’t know anything about her past. He and his dad are sailing the same route as Clem and her family for the summer and he's just the distraction Clem needs. Can he break down Clem's walls and unbreak her broken heart?

About the author

MELISSA WALKER is the author of Small Town Sinners, the Violet on the Runway series and Lovestruck Summer. She has worked as ELLEgirl Features Editor and Seventeen Prom Editor. Melissa manages I Heart Daily, an e-newsletter and blogs for ReaderGirlz, an online community for teens. A Chapel Hill, NC native, Melissa now lives in Brooklyn, NY.

The Interview

Q: What inspired you to write this book?

MELISSA: A painful friend breakup I went through has been on my heart forever, and I wanted to write something that captured those emotions.

Q: The main character of my first book, I WANNA BE YOUR JOEY RAMONE, is the kind of girl I wanted to be (a rock star!), the MC of my second book has a lot more in common with teenage me. Is your main character someone you wish you could be, someone a lot like you, or your total opposite? How so? 

MELISSA: Clem feels a lot of the emotions I felt when going through a situation similar to hers, in terms of losing a friend. But though my characters start out somewhat like me, they always end up being wholly their own person.

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?

MELISSA: There is one! It's here, with explanations for each song: http://iheartdaily.com/novel-playlist-unbreak-my-heart/

And if you create your own breakup playlist, you can enter to win a copy of the book plus an IPOD loaded with songs!

Q: In addition to writing books, I also write for a website for teens called Rookie, which has a regular feature called "Literally The Best Thing Ever," wherein we write about a thing that we think is super mega awesome (even if it is the type of thing that others might call a guilty pleasure, we believe there is nothing guilty about pleasure!) and explain why we think it is literally the best thing ever. It's generally a kind of unexpected thing, for example I wrote one about the soap opera, One Life To Live. I don't expect you to write a whole essay obviously, but can you briefly tell us what either you or your character (or both!) would say is "Literally The Best Thing Ever" and why? 

MELISSA: Clem would probably say that "literally the best thing ever" is Root Beer in a glass bottle. I don't go into it at length in the book, but she has serious love for the thick glass that the old-fashioned root beers were served in, the way the coolness clouds the bottle when it's ice cold and condensation drips down the sides. The first sip of a soda served that way, out in the cockpit of a sailboat on a hot summer day? Heaven.
 Q: What are you working on for us next?


MELISSA: I have a letter in DEAR TEEN ME, an anthology of YA authors writing letters to their teen selves, which is out in late October. And I've got another book in the works for 2013, but I'm keeping mum for now. (Aside from the "ack! This book is so hard to write!" rants on twitter.)

Aches & Pains and Grown-Up Nostalgia

Since I write primarily for teenagers, I probably shouldn't write a blog post about feeling old, but yanno... I have that whole honest-to-a-fault thing going and until I have an outlet for writing about grown-up type things (which I'm looking into both in terms of freelance and I still really, really hope my adult book AKA the Bartender Book AKA Getting Back To Nowhere sells) this is my space for babbling about everything, so yeah.

These thoughts are stemming from two places. The first, unfortunately, is physical pain. I spent most of last week in such terrible back/shoulder/neck and knee pain that it made it almost impossible to concentrate on writing. You see I was always this flexible kid who could do things like sit crosslegged in an office chair all day with no problem. Now, at nearly 33, this along with my ability to snap back from a hangover and my drinking tolerance in general has diminished considerably. I've developed really bad habits in terms of how I sit and write and I know it is going to be a major pain in the ass to break them. It also may involve a new chair and/or desk neither of which I can afford right now, so it's frustrating. And the knee thing comes from a combo of running, standing all night at my bartending job and sometimes slipping and twisting it... Not cool. Anyway, I don't mean for this to be a whine fest. I only bring it up because A. if any of my fellow writers have chair/lumbar support pillow or other ergonomic typing at desk for long hour suggestions, I would love to hear them and B. my week of grumpiness over my old age/aches & pains probably fed into this grown-up nostalgia moment I had that was really bittersweet and one of the few things I've really felt worth documenting on the blog for a while. (That is why my posts are sporadic. If I don't have anything that I really want to reflect on, I don't try to force myself to post because I have novels and freelance articles to write that are more urgent.)

So Friday morning I was cleaning the house. I'd just gotten Jack White's new album Blunderbuss on vinyl so I put it on. I haven't really followed Jack's post-White Stripes career. In fact my White Stripes obsession started to fade after Elephant, but I'd heard good things about Blunderbuss and was in the mood for that rock/blues mash-up that Jack does best, so I got it and let me tell you, it did not disappoint. It made me nostalgic for the White Stripes though, so I put their self-titled record on and wow, holy shit, hello flood of memories! But something was very strange about it....

I'm a very nostalgic person. It's a Cancer thing. It's also why I write for teens because I still have such a strong bond with who I was between 1992 and 1999, ie. 13 and 20. I love writing for Rookie because I get to reflect on that time period. I can channel those emotions for my books and my articles so easily. And of course, being me, the main way I've channeled them is music. 

The bands I'm super-attached to, the ones that changed and defined my life are for the most part from my teen years: Nirvana, Hole, Rancid, Social Distortion, The Cure. As I was listening to the first White Stripes album, I realized that they were the first band I fell in love with as a grown-up. I discovered them when I was 21, just moved back to Chicago to finally go to college and try to act like an adult. I'd delayed this for a few years. Even though I'd been emotionally messed-up in high school, I'd kept my shit together and graduated early, but after my eighteenth birthday things just fell apart. The three years that followed are a blur of booze, sleeping pills, other drugs, reckless behavior, slashed arms, lots of tears, lots of fights, bad relationships, spending all the grocery money on boxed wine.... You get the idea. (I'd love to write a book about this time period, like fictionalized, but it seems that despite this being almost as interesting and drama-filled a period as the high school years, no one is really buying...)

Thanks to an incredible mother who knew how to apply pressure using equal parts encouragement and mild threats, I pulled myself out of it. (Well, most of it. The bad relationship and alcohol abuse would continue a few more years.) I need music that was completely different from the angry punk of my high school years and the goth and glam of my late teens/first two years of my twenties. Via a music messageboard I discovered The White Stripes right before they exploded with their White Blood Cells album. I obsessed over them the same way I obsessed over bands as a teenager. I went to see them in concert every time they came to town, including once on my birthday and one expensive but totally worth it New Year's Eve show. I got posters and cut out pictures of them from magazines and added them to the collage the existing collage in my old room (because due to the pathetic way I'd been existing, I'd had to move back home to go back to school):

Also, since things had changed a bit since I was a teenager, ie. the internet had become this insanely awesome thing, I also found websites where I could trade bootlegs of their live shows. So I had like a million White Stripes CDs and could listen to them constantly. And that's pretty much what I did from the end of 2000 to 2004-ish. Then, I discovered the next obsessions (The Distillers, Against Me!, Civet and The Gaslight Anthem) and moved along, much like I did as a teenager. 

I'm used to certain bands and songs bringing me back to moments from my teenage years. If I hear anything off of Rage Against Machine's self-titled album, I'm instantly transported to fall of sophomore year, the overcrowded backseat of a black Saturn where I'm smoking cigarettes and stoned as fuck on top of my not-really-a-boyfriend's lap. Early Sleater-Kinney takes me to the smoky Fireside Bowl or a nearby apartment on Talman in Logan Square where I spent so much of my junior year of high school. The Queen Is Dead album by The Smiths takes me to my very first apartment in Madison. But it has never happened with grown-up memories until Friday morning when I put that first White Stripes album on and all of a sudden it was the summer of 2001 and I was at the pool with my four year-old niece and her mom.

My niece is not my niece by blood, but she is in every way that matters. Her mom and I have been friends since third grade and considered ourselves sisters since fifth. We've fought horribly just like real sibilings and have that same unconditional love that has carried us through. I have that same kind of love for her daughter, but it's like even more potent. I can't even explain it because the kind of love I have for that kid is like nothing I've ever experienced. At this point I can safely predict that she is probably the closest I'll ever have to a daughter of my own and I just have those mother-lion, I will kill for you feelings about her.

Today when I heard Jack White sing, "I felt just like a baby, til I held a baby..." I practically burst into tears because it so perfectly summed up how I felt during her early childhood. She was born a few months after I graduated early and moved to Madison, so I didn't meet her until she was 9 months old and I was home from my disastrous first year of college. I've babysat. I've had lots of little cousins around. But this was completely different. This was my sister/best friend's baby. She was only 18 when she had her and I was still 17, so it was surreal at times. We were still kids. We were so immature. We screwed up in a lot a LOT of ways. But oh how we loved her. Oh how it was love at first sight when she smiled at me. Since I was living in another state, I didn't get to really spend much time with her until I moved home at 21. The summer of my White Stripes obsession, was the summer after she turned four and listening to it, I just see her splashing in the pool, running around with those gorgeous brown waves trailing out behind her. The song "Astro" where Jack sings about "Tesla doing the Astro," when I first heard it, I misheard the lyric as "Tessa does the Astro," my niece's name. And I still sing it that way.

She just turned fifteen last month. Fifteen. So when I found myself thinking of her as a four year-old, I realized that I was reflecting on a memory that was over ten years old. Definitely, officially nostalgia. The White Stripes are my first grown-up band and my first source of grown-up nostalgia. It's surreal. It's bittersweet. I feel old, but god those are some beautiful memories.

And I really do want to distill those ups and downs into stories like I did my own teenage years in IWBYJR and BALLADS and the new book I'm working on. Once an older reader of BALLADS asked me on Facebook if I would ever write not necessarily a sequel with the same characters, but a book with characters who'd lived through teenage years like my characters in BALLADS as adults. What are those people like now, he asked me, saying that he was one of those people. I'm one of those people, too, and I really do hope I'll get the opportunity to write a book like that because I have an idea that's been percolating for a couple years now, ever since that question was asked of me. But I've got to sell the Bartender book first and hopefully the new YA I'm working on, so I can support this habit, this job of mine that keeps me forever young despite the grown-up nostalgia and aches and pains. I've got thoughts and worries and concerns about that too, but I'll save it for another time.

Hope you didn't mind me being an old lady and waxing nostalgic today. Fair warning that it may happen again in a few years when I put on an Against Me! record and reminisce about my fabulous semester in LA after a bad break-up and the early days of my relationship with my husband. Oh music, the power you have over me.

GCC Presents: Jessi Kirby

One of my lovely ladies from the Girlfriends Cyber Circuit has a new book out! Here are the details on Jessi Kirby's new YA contemporary, IN HONOR:

Honor receives her brother’s last letter from Iraq three days after learning that he died, and opens it the day his fellow Marines lay the flag over his casket. Its contents are a complete shock: concert tickets to see Kyra Kelly, her favorite pop star and Finn's celebrity crush. In his letter, he jokingly charged Honor with the task of telling Kyra Kelly that he was in love with her.

Grief-stricken and determined to grant Finn's last request, she rushes to leave immediately. But she only gets as far as the driveway before running into Rusty, Finn's best friend since third grade and his polar opposite. She hasn't seen him in ages, thanks to a falling out between the two guys, but Rusty is much the same as Honor remembers him: arrogant, stubborn. . . and ruggedly good looking. Neither one is what the other would ever look for in a road trip partner, but the two of them set off together, on a voyage that makes sense only because it doesn’t. Along the way, they find small and sometimes surprising ways to ease their shared loss and honor Finn--but when shocking truths are revealed at the end of the road, will either of them be able to cope with the consequences?

 Jessi Kirby is the author of Moonglass, published in May 2011 by Simon and Schuster. She is also a wife, mom, English teacher and former librarian, beach bum, runner, and lover of Contemporary YA, strong coffee, and dark chocolate.

 Let's meet her and hear more about her new book, shall we?


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

Jessi: IN HONOR is a road trip story that begins with a pair of concert tickets and a mistaken last request, and ends with truths discovered on the road.

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?

Jessi: Theme song of the entire book: Sparks Fly by Taylor Swift
And a few more:  Long Trip Alone by Dierks Bentley, Free Fallin’ by Tom Petty, Fans by Kings of Leon, and Where Are You Going by Dave Matthews

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!

Jessi: Judy Blume was my very first inspiration.  I first read her books when I was in 3rd grade, and that’s when I decided I wanted to be a writer.  Along the way I’ve found so many amazing writers, all of whom inspire me every time I read their work:  Sarah Dessen, Deb Caletti, and Sarah Ockler, to name a few!

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?

Jessi: I can’t listen to music while I’m writing either.  I need quiet.  But I do make playlists for each book, and usually I listen to those while I’m running, before I sit down to write for the day.

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

Jessi: Right now I’m working on revisions for my 3rd novel, GOLDEN, which is another contemporary YA due out in 2013.  And of course I’ve got a few new story ideas percolating.

Work-In-Progress Wednesday: What I've learned about backstory from watching TV

So, as I mentioned in my latest Teen Fiction Cafe post, I watch a lot of TV. I feel guilty about it sometimes, especially when it cuts into my reading time, but I consider television to be a much better storyteller than it used to be. I barely watched anything in the mid to late 90s, I even spent most of the early 2000s scoffing that it was all reality crap. But then I realized there were some incredibly well-written programs out there. (There is some fun mindless entertainment, too, and I definitely indulge in that because everyone needs to unwind.) Suddenly I found myself more engrossed in TV than movies because I get to enjoy a longer story arc. And even though I spent years riding the whole "TV kills brain cells" train, I've actually found myself learning a ton from my shows lately. It's like a free--or I guess cost of my cable and Netflix subscriptions--education in pacing, character development, dialogue, and more.

Since I love to write nuanced characters, who the reader will either love to hate or will love but be frustrated with at times because they are REAL people living in shades of gray rather than black-and-white and making poor choices at times, those are the kinds of shows I seek out. That's why I love Mad Men and it's a large part of the reason why I've managed to watch two seasons of Sons of Anarchy in less than two weeks. Seriously, I watched half of season three on Sunday alone. It was insane. I spend a lot of time pondering the characters and how the writers make me empathize with people I would normally dislike and keep me going on the roller coaster ride with the characters I do like even when they make one bad choice after the next, but character development is something I'd like to think I'm pretty good at... I have a bunch of tools for it anyway.

On the other hand, my biggest weakness as a writer is backstory. It probably goes hand-in-hand with the character development thing. I know so much about my characters and have fleshed out their history in such a big way that I can't help bringing it into the book. Without fail, every time my critique partners get back to me on a manuscript, they ask if I can somehow trim the backstory. It is the bane of my existence. Not them saying that because they are almost always right, but the trimming. Ugh. Especially with this book because there is so much history, not just for my character but for her entire family.

I noticed a really interesting thing while I was watching Sons of Anarchy though. We were thrust into the lives of these interesting, insane characters in this motorcycle club which obviously has a lot of history. Plenty of hints were dropped about the past, many of which caused me to turn to my husband who has already seen the first four seasons of the show and ask questions. Of course, he'd always shake his head at me and tell me to be patient. (And let me just say that gentle reprimand occurs a lot in our marriage!) So I kept waiting for the flashbacks, like the ones we got in Mad Men as Don Draper's secret history was revealed. But three seasons into the show and I've yet to get a single flashback.

This frustrates me a bit because A. I'm impatient and B. I'm so character history obsessed, but for the most part it leaves me in awe. There is still backstory on Sons of Anarchy, it's a show with rich characters who have a lot of history, but it's only given to us in the moment. We learn about the past through dialogue. The past comes up when it's relevant to show, like when someone's former lover shows up. Still, these are places where I would be tempted as a writer to pause and let my character reflect via flashback, but on SOA they never do. You learn all you are going to learn from what the character's say, write (there are some voice over monologues from Jax's dead father, but we only get those when Jax is reading things his father has written), and from the expressions on their faces, body language, and physical reactions.

And I am fucking jealous.

I don't think I'd be capable of doing this. Definitely not with the book I'm currently working on and the other ideas I have also seem too drenched in character history to pull off something like what SOA does. But one day, dammit. It will be a goal.

For now, I just am going to have to rely on my CPs and a bunch of handy highlighters when I finish a manuscript so I can look at where I've gotten too backstory heavy and how I can trim and redistribute. However, when I can I will be trying to find ways to get history across in a scene/through dialogue. And for those of you who struggle with backstory and are RWA members, do check out the recent Romance Writers Report for an interesting article about how to cope with your oversharing habit.

What about you? Do you have backstory issues or tips for dealing with it? And what TV shows have taught you what kinds of writing tricks?