What?

Oh, meme! Sorry...


kimberleylittle
has tagged me, so here we go:

What were you doing 10 years ago?

Living in Georgia...with little kids...writing really bad picture books and getting lots of rejections.

What are 5 things you need to do today?

1. Pay bills
2. Finish addressing book-announcement postcards
3. Buy penny stamps (see #2 above)
4. Plant the flowers I bought the other day
5. Write up an outline for a library presentation I agreed to do...eek!

What are some snacks you enjoy?

Chocolate
Potato chips
chocolate
cheese and olives
chocolate

What would you do if you were a billionaire?

Hide

What are 3 bad habits?

I pull my hair out -- one strand at a time...when I'm stressed or bored
I'm always late
I swear when I drive (according to my kids)

Name 5 places you have lived.

Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Scottsdale, Arizona
Long Beach, California
Marietta, Georgia
Connecticut

What are 5 jobs you've had?

Country club poolside waitress
Nursing home laundress
Woolworth's warehouse order-filler
Hospital quality assurance officer
Freelance proofreader

Who do you want to tag?

lstolarz
dorichaconas
d_michiko_f
volleypop

SCENE: Signing table, bookstore. Last night.

ACTORS: Me, and three girls about 12 years old.


They circled the signing table...nudging...retreating....

They circled again, and this time they each picked up a book. Set them down. Disappeared.

They circled again...each picked up a book and opened it...one at the beginning, one in the middle, and one at the end. Energetic discussion ensued as to which was the best way to judge whether to read the whole thing. They solicited my opinion. (Middle.)

ME: "What grade are you in?"

GIRLS: "Fifth. How much does the book cost?"

ME: "$9.95 plus tax, so about $10.60."

They put the books down and disappeared.

One of the three reappeared.

GIRL: "I'm going to buy one."

ME: "Thanks! Would you like me to sign it for you?"

GIRL:

ME:

GIRL: "YOU wrote this book?"

ME:

GIRL: "That's so cool! I thought you just worked here!"

I belong to a few listservs that I never really intend to post to. (Oops, I think I just admitted to lurking.)

But the reason I lurk is to learn...these listservs are mostly made up of librarians/teachers/academicians, who are a lot smarter than me and have a different perspective of literature for young people -- a perspective I find helpful and interesting and informative.

Once in a very great while I'll post privately, if I have a question or comment that I think is pertinent.

So yesterday I sent one of those private posts, suggesting MY book for a particular use for a particular librarian, because I thought MY book fit pretty perfectly with what she was looking for. Still, it felt a little weird because I don't really like to toot my own horn, but it was just one post to one person, so what the heck, right? I was polite; professional. A little humble one-on-one tooting can be a good thing.

So you can guess what happened next.

So how come SOME listservs are set up so that REPLY means your message goes only to the sender, but on other listservs, REPLY goes to everyone? Why doesn't my email program provide an idiot-proof confirmation like it does for deleting messages and such?:

WARNING! Are you SURE you want to send your message to THIS address??

I mean, are you ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY sure?

I didn't think so.

Tracie Vaughn Zimmer and I have a few things in common (besides writing for kids). We both have twin sisters who (until recently, for Tracie) live too far away. And our sisters are both geniuses with needle and thread. So I think Tracie and I are soul-twins or something.

Read her beautiful new novel in verse, 42 Miles, which says reams in just a handful of evocative poems.

And you can read Tracie's interview with me on her blog. And see the awesome wonderful reader guide she wrote.

Thanks, Tracie!

Librarian Lauri posted a nice review of Jump the Cracks on the Teen Spot Blog over at the Booth & Dimock Memorial Library in Coventry, CT.

Thanks Lauri, and happy reading, Coventry teens!

Two bits of nice news for Jump the Cracks:

The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books has published an awesome, wonderful review. Here's a sample:

With a combination of lively adventure and humane treatment of its characters, this is an absorbing and emotionally effective read.

And my favorite line about one of my favorite characters, Miss Theresa:

...a character with such force that she makes her impact felt on the book merely through phone appearances until the very end.

And secondly, Jump the Cracks has been nominated as a Popular Paperback by YALSA and ALA.

Yay!

Thing One:

Today is Rock the Drop Day!



Look for "abandoned" novels in a happenin' spot near you and READ and PASS IT ALONG! And if you want, click on the logo to join the forum tonight. There will be over 10,000 books dropped today.

Thing Two:

Contest!!





Tracie Vaughn Zimmer is giving away copies of her beautiful new book of poetry, 42 Miles, at her blog.
I love the title and the cover!! Just a hint of what's between the pages, I'm sure.

Writer’s conferences are energizing, educational, and fun.

But they’re also expensive, exhausting, and they take you away from your family for an entire weekend.

At that price, you have to look at it as an investment in your writing career. If you can get enough out of the conference to make the expense worthwhile, go. If not, stay home and write.

There’s a lot you can do before a writer’s conference to make it pay off:

1. Look over the conference program to see what kind of sessions they’re offering. Are there enough workshops that will tell you something you don’t already know?

2. Have some inexpensive business cards printed with your email address and website or blog address if you have one. (You don’t need to include your street address or phone number.) Vistaprint is one good online source.

3. If you can possibly swing it, pony up for a one-on-one critique session. Preparing for a critique is a great exercise because:

a. It gives you a deadline. We all need to learn how to write to deadlines.

b. It gives you a word count or page count. If you can only send the first 10 pages of your novel, you’ll have to view those pages with a critical eye. Do they grab the reader and make her want to read more? Can you end at a good spot, even if it’s not the end of a chapter?

c. You’ll make a new connection and get some tips on how to improve your writing. You might get an invitation to submit your ms to a publisher or agency that’s normally closed to submissions.

4. Do a little research. Read up on the presenters to see what they’ve written, represented, or edited. You never know who you’ll bump into at happy hour, and you’ll want to be ready.

5. Pack nice clothes. Think business casual. Yes, it’s the weekend and you should be comfortable, but remember, “Investment in your career.” This is a working weekend. You want to be a professional writer? Dress the part.

6. Bring an empty canvas bag for collecting publisher’s catalogs and bookstore buys. (Tip: Set a budget and stick to it!)

7. Psych yourself up to be outgoing and friendly. One of the best things about conferences is the networking.

Next time I’ll write about what to do AT the conference to get the most out of it.

Blogger and bookseller Little Willow (slayground) has listed Jump the Cracks as one of her "Best Books of March."

And on the Readergirlz MySpace page, she lists it again as one of this week's picks from her Book Bag.

Yay!  I'm honored.

The nice people at Teens Read Too host a monthly contest, and this month you can enter to win one of ten copies of Jump the Cracks.

All you have to do is send them an email. If they draw your name, you get a book!

Thanks, TRT!

You know it's spring in Connecticut when the neighbors stop by for a bite.







Or maybe a lick:

One of the best things about having a website and blog is hearing from old friends.

I got this email today from a woman in England. We were childhood pen pals!

We first corresponded when we were about 10 years old, and kept up for a few years, until high school, when I probably decided I was too busy and too cool to write letters.

And somehow, she found me. I'm glad she did.

Hi Stacy

This is a long shot but something I have been thinking of doing for some time now.  I am interested to know if you are the same Stacy I had as a pen friend in the 1970's?

I cannot remember the name of the organisation that put us in touch but I do remember it came through school.  I think there was a bit of a drive to put youngsters from all over the world in touch.

I don't remember the organization either. But they surely did put us in touch!

CHEERS to the release of two awesome-sounding books by two very nice people and genius writers:



Greetings from Nowhere
by Barbara O'Connor

Barbara and I have been on message boards together for a long time. When I first met her in person, I reached out for a handshake, and she responded by pulling me into a tight hug. That's really all you need to know about the kind of person she is. That, and she's a wonderful writer.

We share similar career trajectories -- we both started out writing biographies for school and library publishers, and we've both worked as freelance proofreaders (yes, we're the nitpicky ones). If my ventures as a novelist follow Barbara's road even halfway, I'll be very blessed.




Keeping Score
by Linda Sue Park

A baseball book!!! By one of my favorite authors! With a girl on the cover! That girl reminds me of...me. I was a stadium rat, back when bleacher seats were $2. I can't wait to see what that cover girl's story is.


And the Nice Thing:

Linda Sue blogged about Jump the Cracks here. I'm so glad she liked it. To live up to the expectations of someone you hugely respect...that's a sweet reward. (And btw, LSP, yes, you DID tell me that about YA vs. MG.)

Could there be anything better than having your novel published?
Or seeing it in the bookstore?

Yes. This:

Stacy,

Just wanted to let you know that Julia shared with me that she LOVES your book. She cannot put it down! She has told a few kids in her 6th grade class about it and has informed me that they get first dibs on reading her copy before me!!!!  She picked reading the book over American Idol!!!! That says a lot!!!

-- mother of Julia, age 12

 

And then there's this awesome multicolored e-mail:

Hi-

I LOVE youe book Jump the Cracks!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I love how Victoria is so nice to Wills. Jake scares me!!!!!!!!  I absolutly love the ending.  Is there gonna be a sequal to Jump the Cracks.  I hope there will be.

Again, i love your book,

cami (age 10)

Today's the day -- the official release of Jump the Cracks.

And look -- here's proof!



A dream come true!!

Congrats also to Carrie Jones, fellow Fluxian, for her debut of Love and Other Uses for Duct Tape. And happy birthday, Carrie!! What a cool birthday gift!

I think we should both get a ride in the company car:



Thanks to everyone for your good wishes. It's been so much fun!!

I have many identities:

I am my parents' daughter. I am a sister times 3.

I am someone's wife, and a mom times 2.

I am the lady who puts books back on the shelves in the middle school library twice a month and do I know where they keep that book with the dragon on the cover?

I am a best friend.

And today, after seeing my book on the shelves of my local bookstore for the first time ever, I am a novelist.

Today, I am me!

I was once the classic, clueless newbie writer. I thought it would be easy to write stories for kids. I bought a Children’s Writer's and Illustrator’s Market and I sent picture book manuscripts out by the handful. I thought I’d be published in a matter of weeks.

And then the rejections started coming.

I regrouped. I read every book on craft I could find. Every book on marketing. I attended conferences.

And it was all valuable information, but it was also a distraction. I did everything I could to progress in the business except one thing: I didn’t write much.

Don’t ask me why. It’s kinda stupid. And the thing is, I like to write. So why did I resist?

I think maybe I thought I was better than I really was. I didn’t realize how much you learn about writing by -- writing.

I still have to force myself to write most days. But I’ve finally figured out the secret.

It only took me 10 years.  :)

 

I am blessed.

I spend my days doing what I love. I’ve won an SCBWI Work-in-Progress grant. 
I have a brilliant, well-respected, sought-after agent.
My first novel is coming out in days.

Wow. I am truly blessed.

But one thing I am NOT is lucky.

If you want to be published, you need to do three things:

1. You need to read. A lot.

2. You need to write. A whole lot.

3. You need to want it. Bad. This is not the same as being obnoxious or pushy or unrealistic. It is not the same as obsessing over the submissions process or the mysteries of the publishing business at the expense of #1 and #2 above. It is not the same as attending every conference within striking distance if you don’t do #1 and #2 above. If you want it badly enough, you will never tire of #1 or #2.

 

The list is short, but it’s not simple. It takes hard work.

You make your own luck.

Check out Cynthia Leitich Smith's interview with agent Tracey Adams here.

Cyn is doing a whole series on the Bologna Children's Book Fair, which has been really informative but is also making me extremely jealous and hungry for pasta and chianti.

Va bene!

Announcing the 2007 Cybils winners! 


YA novel:
Boy Toy by Barry Lyga


Midgrade novel:
A Crooked Kind of Perfect by Linda Urban (lurban)  (yay, Linda!!!!!!)


Poetry:
This is Just to Say: Poems of Apology and Forgiveness by Joyce Sidman, illus by Pamela Zagarenski


Fiction Picture Book:
The Chicken-Chasing Queen of Lamar County by Janice N. Harrington, illus by Shelley Jackson


Nonfiction Picture Book:
Lightship by Brian Floca


Nonfiction midgrade/YA:
Tasting the Sky: A Palestinian Childhood by Ibtisam Barakat



Graphic Novels:

Elementary/midgrade:
Artemis Fowl: The Graphic Novel by Eoin Colfer and Andrew Donkin, illus by Giovanni Rigano and Paolo Lamanna

Young Adult:
The Professor's Daughter by Joann Sfar, illus by Emmanuel Guibert



Fantasy/Science Fiction:

Elementary/midgrade:
The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex

Young Adult:
Book of  a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale

Congratulations to all the winners!!  You can read more about the judges' choices here.

I'm honored to have been part of the YA Nominating Committee this year. Children's lit is an awesome art form!

Now go read!!