Wendelin Van Draanen's Blog, page 2

Sammy-opoly

Do not get too excited. This is just a mock up! There is no deal with Hasbro/Parker Brothers to actually make this.




But...isn't it fun? 




This is what comes of sitting around the dinner table with my family, discussing how Sammy's world might translate to the Monopoly board. By midnight I had obsessively mocked up a Sammy-opoly board. Typical me.




But I'm sure it could use improvement and I would love your ideas and input. If you see something missing or think of something you think would be better, speak up!




I chose how to group/place the properties by balancing value, location (proximity to one another in Santa Martina) and theme.




The  Heavenly Hotel edged out the Senior Highrise for cheapest property, but it was a tossup! 




And I love that Hudson's Porch is the most valuable property. Not Marissa's house, not the Landvogt Mansion, not East Jasmine at all...and not Hudson's house, but his porch.




I don't know about you, but whenever I play Monopoly, the most disappointing properties seem to be the ones between Free Parking (Skateboarding) and Go To Jail (Detention). They never pay off. And getting through them is such a slog. I'd rather go to jail.




Speaking of...don't overlook the little letters around the jailbird.

Cover Reveal! New Sammy Keyes #4-8

Add caption

I'm so excited, are you?




Covers #4-8 have been finalized, and I'm sharing them here first. 




Some of you have already seen Runaway Elf (#4) at online bookstores...which, yes, is confusing because it isn't out yet. Don't know how or why that happened.


But you haven't seen the other four! 




I'm loving the new covers - aren't they good? You may recall from a previous post that the illustrations are by Australian artist Craig Phillips. (If you're on Twitter you should follow him - his work is amazing!)




Anyway, do you have a favorite from the new batch? Can you find the hidden numbers? (Click to enlarge image.) Some of the numbers are easy to see, and some...not so much! 




When they first came across my desk I even used a magnifying glass while searching Snake Eyes for the 7. How classic-mystery is that? They've increased the contrast a little in the final, so you (probably) won't need to do the Sherlock thing, but humor me and say you didn't see the 7(s) right away. (That, by the way, is a hint.)




This batch (#4-8) will be available on September 12th. And together with the first three they'll make up 8/18, or 4/9, or 0.444444, or almost half of the image that puzzles together along the spines. And all of them have book club/discussion questions inside. 




In case you missed last week's post, or haven't seen the flurry of giveaways I've been doing elsewhere online, I hope you'll jump in and have some fun trying to win copies of the new editions. I'm doing a Free Book Friday, Get-1-Give-1 drawing each week through summer (and probably to the end of the year if I can get organized enough to coordinate it while I'm on the upcoming September/October tour for Wild Bird).




So go find me on Twitter and Instagram (@WendelinVanD) and visit the Sammy Keyes (books) Facebook page. You can enter at all three places to increase your chances of having your name drawn. Plus you'll get to see a different "Sammy Square" each week, which is a lot of fun in and of itself. (I love how they remind me of what Sammy went through in each book.) I'll give you a sneak peek at next week's because that's what I do here, right?



And last, but certainly not least, the results of last week's blog giveaway!



(Drum roll, please...)





Psst! Did you notice the background cloth?

Randomly selected by good ol' names-drawn-from-an-actual-hat technique, the winner of two copies each of the first three new issue Sammys is...JESSICA, who identified her favorite Sammy scene as being from the pirate date from Dead Giveaway.




Can I get a chorus of "Billy Pratt!"?




Amen.




Congrats to Jessica (please email me your mailing address), and to those of you who didn't win (or didn't check in last week), we will do it again sometime! Meanwhile, try your luck over on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. 



See you in the comments!

Easy-Peasy Giveaway!

Giveaway time! If you follow me on social you know I've started a giveaway where every Friday throughout summer we draw a winner who receives two copies of a new Sammy Keyes edition.



If you didn't know that and want to join in, separate giveaways are happening:



1) at the Sammy Keyes (books) Facebook page




2) on Twitter @WendelinVanD


3) on Instagram at @WendelinVanD.




It's super easy to throw your name in the mix, so I encourage you to enter everywhere to increase your chances of winning.



And now, here, for my faithful blog followers, I'm offering up two copies of the first three Sammys - one set for you, one for a friend.  ('Cause you guys are awesome

Turtle Mountain Chippewa Reservation

A few months ago, an ELA teacher who works on the Turtle
Mountain Chippewa Reservation in North Dakota got in touch with me. She wrote
to tell me that she has used Flipped in the curriculum for years, with
great success in engaging her at-risk students. She sent me photos, letters
from students, and art. In return I sent her a big box of assorted books
for her and her students. It included a copy of Runaway which she
immediately took home and read.






During the next round of communication, I learned a lot more
about her and the job she does. For 25 years she has commuted 40 miles each way to teach on this
reservation, which is right up near the US/Canada border. It's a very rural, high poverty area, and a lot of her students live in housing
projects based on government funding. Drug use and abuse are
extremely high, and she deals with deaths of former students almost
monthly, trending toward weekly, from incidents related to addiction.  A lot
of her students are raised by grandparents, relatives, foster homes, or live in
the local shelter. She said that her students tend to thrive with reads that deal with the issues presented in Runaway, because they
can relate directly.








Despite this bleak reality, one thing shined through her correspondence with sharp clarity: She loves her job. She loves the kids. She’s their
cheerleader and champion, and she goes to work each day with a determination to
pave a path away from the statistics that face her at-risk students. 




You may have heard that I have a book coming out on
September 5th. The title is Wild
Bird and it’s the story of Wren Clemmens, an at-risk teen who gets sent away
against her will to a wilderness therapy camp in the Utah desert. It has a
Native American component to it because almost all wilderness therapy camps
have one, and I wanted to make Wren’s experience as authentic as possible. (And to ensure the Native representation was done correctly, I worked with a sensitivity reader from the Southern Paiute Nation, which is featured in Wild Bird.)




What you probably haven’t
heard (because I haven’t told anyone and the dates/times/places aren’t entirely
cemented) is that my publisher is sending me on a West Coast tour when Wild Bird comes out.  Mostly, I’ll be in Los Angeles, the Bay Area,
and Seattle.






The publisher’s purpose in sending an author on tour is to
help launch the book. To help sell
the book. It’s very expensive to send authors on tour. Where they send them is
tied to the return they expect/hope to get on their investment. They like to
work with stores that have a good track record of smoothly run, well attended
events, with good community outreach. It also helps if the store is in or near
a big city, where multiple tour stops can be arranged from a single flight into
that city.




Publishing is a
business. One that has had to tighten its belt over the past decade to stay competitive.
It doesn’t make financial sense for a publisher to send an author someplace
where books won’t sell, or is too remote.






So I knew there was no chance that my publisher would add a
tour stop to Turtle Mountain Chippewa Reservation. For one thing, being at the
tippy-top of North Dakota, it’s nowhere near the West Coast, and the tour is
specifically West Coast. For another thing, it’s, like, seventeen flights and a
three-hour drive to get to the reservation. And, of course, the ELA teacher
made clear that there's not a lot of money for discretionary things like, say, books.




So, yeah. No chance in France my publisher would even consider sending
me there.




And yet, I asked.




And to my astonishment, they said yes.




Well, actually, they said, “We think it’s a fabulous idea!”




It may be a business, but my publisher (Random House) has a
heart!




And so, added to my tour stops this fall is Turtle Mountain
Chippewa Reservation, where I will do my best to convey a message of hope, and encourage
the students to find power through both reading and writing. I am so looking forward to meeting the students and staff there, and plan to do a lot of listening to them.




Meanwhile, I’ll post my tour dates and locations when they
become official, which should be soon.






Thank you for checking in. I’ll see you in the comments! 

Girl Power

When I was a kid, "girl power" was not a thing. Girls who would rather do sports or dared to compete with guys were called "tomboys."




I was definitely a tomboy.




For me, this was partly survival. I was sandwiched between two brothers. If I was going to have any fun, I had to keep up with the things they wanted to do.




Also, nowhere in my parents' playbook was the notion of treating their daughter like a princess. They were immigrants, and in this land of new opportunity, they valued hard work, discipline, and education. I wasn't treated differently or given "a pass" on things because I was a girl. We all worked together. We all helped out. My hands were as calloused as my brothers'. Hard work knew no gender.




In school, I was different from my peers, and it made me uncomfortable around them. Girls had Barbies, fashion sense, and pop culture crushes. Me? I could beat every boy on the playground in the 100 yard dash.




What I wish for my young self is that I'd grown up in a time when my mom - or my teachers or my Scout leader or my librarian or anybody - would have known how to articulate the notion of "girl power."




My mom lived it, but the words, the concept, the discussion of the value of being true to yourself would have helped me embrace who I was, rather than try to conceal my differences. Because all kids want to have friends. All kids want to fit in. All kids are afraid that their differences will ostracize them. Back then there wasn't a movement to empower individuality.




Regular readers of this blog will know that I'm in the process of delicately updating all 18 books of the Sammy Keyes series as the new covers roll out in 2017 and 2018.  (You can read about that process here if you're interested.) Next year will mark 20 years since the first title (Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief) was published, and the truth is, I hadn't read that book (or any of the books I've written) since it went to press. So I was a little concerned that the actual edition I held in my hands wouldn't compare to the romanticized version I held in my head.




The wonderful surprise (and relief) for me has been how Sammy is even better than I remember. She really is, in the wonderful words of Sue Grafton, "feisty, fearless, and funny," but more than that, she is unique. She is herself. Despite all the pressures against it, she is true to herself and the things she believes.




And in revisiting the books, I'm understanding better why the impassioned young women who come to my signings with sacks of Sammys have the same message for me:  Sammy empowered them to embrace themselves and pursue extreme goals. In short, Sammy gave them girl power.




I didn't set out to write girl power books. Sammy was just a kid - like any kid - struggling to figure things out. She was me and you, our fears and frailties, flaws and strengths, stumbling through life for truth, trying to find her way, and in doing so, somehow helping us find our own.




It is still mind-boggling to me how much I have learned and grown from a character I created.




Looking back, I can see that my being an outsider influenced the creation of her as an outsider, which, in turn, helped kids who feel like outsiders see that their uniqueness is a strength; that it's okay to be different; that it's okay to be strong. But it has gone beyond my wildest dreams to see the empowering impact that Sammy has had on young girls.




Today, "girl power" is everywhere, and it fills me with joy. When I was in New York for the Bank Street College of Education award, I had the privilege of meeting a huge Sammy Keyes fan and her son. They have read the entire series together three times and are starting on a fourth go-round. 




It turns out that this Sammy fan / mom - Julie Kerwin - is also the founder of iamElemental - a company that makes girl-power action figures. Their motto is "Play with Power" and their action figures are named after power "elements" like Creativity, Ingenuity, Curiosity.... I have Logic on my desk - she's awesome!




So if you're looking for something for girl-power play, I encourage you to check out the iamElemental line of female superhero toys. Smart, fun, and empowering.






I also exclaimed "Hallelujah!" when I first saw Strong is the New Pretty. Anyone looking for a book to encourage young girls to embrace themselves should check this one out. The pictures are gorgeous, the quotes will make you laugh and cheer, and the opening essays before each section are truly inspiring. And if you're a grown woman, reading this will make you want to go back and be a girl all over again....and this time do it your way.




It's important that we promote the idea to girls that it's okay to be feisty and fearless, that it's okay to be different - to be unique - and that strength is beautiful. 




Because the girls who will go on to change the world are not the ones who conform to it.

The Dark Cloud

During lunch with a former student this week, the conversation turned to depression. She shared some personal stuff and then apologized for going into such depth about her life, her family, and that Dark Cloud that's so good at creeping in to block the sun.




In a rare moment of candor I told her that I knew the Dark Cloud well. 




Everyone thinks I have the perfect life, I explained, and I do. I have a great marriage, two amazing sons, we live in a slice of heaven, I have over thirty books in print, two have been turned into movies, strangers tell me how much my work has helped them in their life, and I'm healthy.  




And compared to the way my life used to be? Wow. I know I've got it good.




So what could I possibly get depressed about?




But that's just it. Depression can defy logic. And trying to reason it away is usually futile.




Also, it's not the same for everyone who suffers from it (or bouts of it), so the remedy - or battle plan - to defeat it is going to be different for different people. The chemistry of the brain is way too complex to prescribe universal solutions.




I try to shake my Dark Cloud by running away. Literally. I know exercise is good for health and fitness, but my real motivation is mood elevation. Can I just say this? I don't love running. I love the result of running. I love the way it calms me down, lifts me up, makes me ready to tackle the things I have been putting off. 




It's all about the endorphins.




I also escape in my writing. 30 novels (8 chapter books) in less than 20 years is the output of a woman possessed; one preferring to create worlds where good can triumph than face off with her own demons. When I'm absorbed in the production of pages, the Dark Cloud stays a safe distance away.




Also of benefit is the simple act of "ditch digging" - the chores of life. If I can get myself up and moving when the Dark Cloud is hovering, I can bat it away. But getting yourself up and  moving when it's upon you is hard. Why bother with chores? I don't feel like going for a run. No, I don't want to answer the phone, the front door, my email. Nothing seems worth doing, and the less I do, the less I feel like doing. It is hard to break that cycle. 




I never, ever talk about this except with Mark, who helps me get up and get going on the things that will chase the Cloud away. I dodge and weave my way through life, and pretty much manage to keep the darkness at bay. And I don't want to acknowledge the Cloud to others because...well, everyone has things they're dealing with, and I have, you know, everything.




But there you have it:  Like many people, I struggle with a powerful and persistent Dark Cloud. And the reason I'm sharing this with you now is because that former student gaped at me when I shared it with her and said, "You have no idea how much better that makes me feel."




She seemed so...relieved. She laughed out loud. She shook her head. She smiled a warm, radiant smile. 




Her reaction made me realize how much we can help each other, just by admitting it. Twenty minutes in the weight room may not work for you the way it works for me, but maybe a hike through the woods will. Or maybe you've tried sweating it away, or writing it away, or scrubbing it away, and it's still there, dark and foreboding, and you just can't shake it. Maybe it's time to seek professional help.




I am not a doctor, and I don't claim to understand the intricacies of brain chemistry, depression, or even mood swings. 




I just want you to know that you're not alone. 

Just a Hater

There will be haters. And with the anonymity of the internet serving as barracks, they will shoot freely with their negativity, aiming to hurt you, but willing to settle for knowing they got to you. 




This week I saw that there was a 1-star rating on Goodreads for my upcoming YA novel, Wild Bird. Goodreads reviews can be tough. The majority of people there take their reading very seriously. They are stingy with their 5s. 4-stars is a complement. 3-stars is really good. But a 1-star? Those are much rarer than 5-stars.




You can get a 1-star on Amazon if someone's book wasn't delivered on time (like that's the author's fault?). Not the case on Goodreads. Most reviewers are there for a legitimate love of literature and have more class than to give a 1-star rating unless they have real issues with a book....and then they'll usually voice those in a review.




There was no accompanying review on Goodreads for the 1-star rating of Wild Bird. And since this is a book that's really only available to reviewers and select educators at this point (because it won't be out until September 5th), I was puzzled.




And then I realized that this same "reviewer" had given all my books--and pretty much only my books--1-star ratings. And that they'd all been rated on the same day.





Ah. A hater.




What did I do to deserve this hate?




I have no idea, and it doesn't matter--I was immediately over it.




Creative people are usually sensitive people, and it's easy to get to us. Especially when our creations are from the heart. It takes me two, maybe three, years of of research, writing, and revising to finish a YA novel. Yet with the split-second tap of a touch pad, someone can give your book one-star and feel that they are in a position of power. Or equal footing. Or that they are somehow a player.




My creative friends: these people are not players. They are not in your court, on your field, or swimming in your pool. They are benched. Their lives don't work to a point that they resort to this to make themselves feel better. How sad is that? How pathetic is that?




So don't give them that power. Don't let them infiltrate your thoughts. Don't even bother to ask who or why. The who is easy: a coward. And the why will never make sense coming from the thoughts of an illogical or hateful mind. Don't waste your time.  




Also, you will lose if you engage. Maybe you can get their profile removed, but they'll just come back as a different fake user, with a different fake profile, and a different fake photo. 




So don't give them your energy. Go back to the creative work you do. Keep driving toward your mission. You have a purpose, a direction, a contribution to make. They have hate, cowardice, and, almost certainly, little to show in the way of actual accomplishments.




Turn your back, walk away, and pity them. 




Hate is a terrible way to live.

An Interview with Tara Sands, Voice Artist Extraordinaire

I’m so excited to
share this week’s post. It features Tara Sands, the voice artist for the Sammy
Keyes books, done through Live Oak Media (“where great children’s books play
nicely”). 




For the record, Tara is awesome. Kind, generous, excitable, and
funny. She also adores her rockin’ grandma, which, come on, says a lot.








The Sammy
Keyes books came out before the audio recordings did. My kids were too young for Sammy, but I tried reading them aloud to them anyway.
Let's just say they didn't have the enthusiasm I'd hoped for.  








But when the audio
books came out, I let Tara do
the talking and it suddenly became fun. For them and for me! They wanted to hear more. And then when my sons discovered that Tara voiced
for Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh, well, they were over the moon excited to listen. They
looked at me differently. “You know Tara
Sands?”








The cool thing for
me was, the audios hooked the boys on Sammy. When the new books came out, they wanted
to know what was happening in Sammy World now. And since the audio books weren't out yet, they broke down and started reading them. That’s right. I have Tara Sands to thank
for getting my own kids into Sammy Keyes.








So, if you haven't already gotten to know Tara, let me give her an official introduction:








Tara can be heard
as over 50 characters on the original “Pokemon” series, including Bulbasaur,
Richie, Jasmine, Oddish, and Tori. Other favorite roles include Mokuba Kaiba in
"Yugioh",  Circe in “Generator Rex,” Summer in "Barbie: Life
In The Dream House," Kari in "Digimon Adventure Tri," Karla in
"Gundam Thunderbolt," Kombu Infinity in "One Punch Man,"
Cynthia in "Pokemon Generations," Anna in "Shaman King" and
lots more.








Tara has narrated
over 150 audiobooks (including the Sammy Keyes series) and for over 100
episodes, Tara was the on-camera host of the Cartoon Network show “Fridays.”
There, Tara interviewed dozens of celebrities and had more on-camera food
fights than she cares to remember! She has received numerous Earphones awards from
Audiofile Magazine and has been nominated for Audie awards as well.







And now, on to the interview!



Welcome to the blog, Tara! We have a lot of Sammy Keyes fans here so we appreciate your taking time to chat with us about what it’s like to voice the audio books for the series.







WV: Walk us through the audition process for a voice
artist. How did Live Oak Media select you to be the voice of Sammy Keyes?








TS: It was a long
time ago, so I am a bit fuzzy on the details! I remember Paula Parker, the
amazing director of all the books, asked me to audition. I am pretty sure I
just read a few pages into a tape recorder!! And then I was lucky enough to get
the job!!








WV: How did you prepare to record the first book – Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief – where
all the characters were brand new?








TS: This series is
unusual in that the producer and director were very involved in helping me
prepare before we got into the studio. We had some phone conversations about
what we envisioned for the characters’ voices, and then tweaked them a bit when
once we started recording. Back then I would highlight every character’s
dialogue in a different color! Now I use an ipad to read off of and I do make
some notes, but nothing that intense! I was very new to audiobooks when I
started the Sammy Keyes series, so that preparation was really helpful.








WV: You’ve just recorded the sixteenth title – Sammy Keyes and the Showdown in Sin City—how
do you prepare to record a Sammy Keyes title now? Do you revisit previous
recordings? Do you read the entire book before entering the studio?








TS: It is crazy to
think this is Book 16!! Yes, I definitely read the book ahead of time and I
make a list of all the characters who appear. Then we cross reference that list
with characters from the older titles and listen to sound clips of their voices
to get them right. A lot of the kids in the books have really matured or
changed over the books, like Casey , so I try to make his voice reflect that
change.








WV: I have a newfound appreciation for what you do
after voicing the bonus pages for the new Flipped
audio. It’s not easy! I wasn’t even doing any characters--it was just me being
me—and about twenty pages took me a big chunk of the afternoon. On average, how
long does it take you to voice a Sammy Keyes book?






TS: It depends on a few things….if there
are a ton of characters it takes a little bit longer. The pacing of the scenes
also makes a difference. For the high energy scenes I definitely read faster,
and for the more emotional scenes I pace it a little slower. If the voices are
hard on my voice (like Officer Borsch) I need to take a lot more breaks to rest
my throat! The general rule with audiobooks is that it takes us about 2 hours
to record 1 hour of finished audio. So a 7 hour audiobook would take me about
14 hours in the studio. When the writing is good (like yours) I make less
mistakes and can go a bit faster.








WV: The cast of Sammy Keyes characters continues to
build across the series. Do you have a method, or maybe an ‘audio bible’ that
helps you keep the voices straight from book to book?








TS: Well, for many
years we didn’t and would have to have stacks of cds and time code lists to go
back and listen to each of them. Then last year I took a few hours to make mp3
files of all the major characters and now I have them in a handy dandy folder
on my computer.








WV: It seemed that you especially enjoyed voicing Sammy Keyes and the Power of Justice Jack.
Was it the character of Jack? Billy Pratt? 









TS: Yes! I love
Billy Pratt!!! He is exactly who I would have been friends with. I love how
kind he to Sammy and how he is up for anything. His relationship with Marissa
was a really interesting story line. I imagine he and Sammy staying friends as
adults. They would make a good couple.








WV: What have you most enjoyed about the evolving
series storyline?









TS: Honestly, I
love the writing. I believe that these are real people and I find them
incredibly relatable.  You have given
them solid histories and back stories to explain why they are who they are. I
haven’t stayed with any other series as long as this one and it has been so
much fun. I get excited to see what happens next and I know that you don’t
write typical “happy ending” stories which I really appreciate. I also love the
Grams/Hudson relationship.








WV: Does character evolution mess with voicing those
characters? 








TS: “Mess with” is
such a strong way of saying it!!! But yeah, in this last book, I had to figure
out how to sound like Heather without being mean. That was tricky. She started
sounding like Marissa at times, and Paula would make sure I stayed on top of
making them different.








WV: You attend lots of Cons and seem to have a really
good time doing it. Which character(s) do you voice that create(s) the most fan
fever to meet you?








TS: I’ve been
lucky to do a lot of  cartoon voices over
the years, but the one fans are most excited about is Bulbasaur from Pokemon.
It’s so much fun to watch their faces when they ask me to do that voice in
front of them – which is especially funny since all he says is “Bulbasaur”!!!!








WV: You’ve voiced all but the last two books
to go in the Sammy Keyes series, and it suddenly occurred to me that you
probably don’t know how the story ends…or even that the last one isn’t in the
voice of Sammy Keyes! I’m not sure how Live Oak will choose to approach the
last book, but regardless, it’s almost over! Any reflections on Sammy and the
broader purpose or value of these stories, or the series as a whole?






TS: Wow!!! I
didn’t know that! I purposely haven’t read ahead! But now I need to!! When I
heard you had written a final book, I was so sad. But then I remembered how
much I loved re-reading my favorite stories as a kid and I know that’s what
people do with these books. It’s especially fun re-reading a series because you
know where it’s going and you see all the smart little hints the author planted
along the way. So, while I would love it to go on forever, I do love a great
ending! I feel really lucky to have been involved since the beginning and
hopefully I’ll be at least somewhat involved in the final book.





WV: Thank you so much for your contribution to this
body of work. I know you have some ardent fans inside the Sammy Keyes
community. Maybe someday we’ll have a Sammy Con! You game?




TS: YES YES YES!









Isn’t she awesome? If you’ve read through
the entire Sammy Keyes series and have been missing our girl, try listening to the audio books. It's a whole new (and really fun) experience.








And finally, if you do the social media thing,
you can follow Tara here:





Twitter and Instagram: TaraSandsLA




Facebook: TaraSandsTaraSands




And her website is: http://www.tarasands.com/




As always, thanks for checking in. See you
in the comments!

Puppy Love

Ko-Hii-Ko and me


I am a dog person. I absolutely love them. They haven't come...or gone easy, though.



When my siblings and I were young, it took a lot of nagging to get a dog. Mom had three, then four children, with absolutely no need for more to do.



She bought us goldfish instead. 




After she got tired of netting up dead goldfish, she thought a lizard would be a more practical pet. She converted the aquarium into a terrarium and it was our responsibility to capture live flies for the beastie. This is not as easy as it might sound. Plus, apparently a lizard needs more buzzy things than we were able (or inspired) to catch, because before too long the lizard was dead, too.




Then came the guinea pigs. First Scooter, then Scamper, then hordes of babies in a pen in the back corner of the yard squeaking away. We kids didn't want (or particularly like) the guinea pigs. We wanted a dog. 




This is all chronicled (in a barely fictionalized setting) in my first book, How I Survived Being a Girl, where narrator Carolyn relates how her older brother Jack finally has a little fit about the pet thing.



From Chapter 9 "Rodents and Reptiles": So just when I was thinking we'd never get a dog, Jack got real mad and told Mom he didn't want fish or lizards or guinea pigs--or rabbits or snakes or goats for that matter. He wanted a dog. A dog's what a boy's supposed to have, and no other animal would make up for not having a dog. Except maybe a monkey, if she wanted to give him that.





Me and Tushka


And that's pretty much how, in the real world, we got Ko-Hii-Ko. (If you know anything about my mom, you'll know right off she's the one who did the naming.) Mom insisted that Ko-Hii-Ko be an "outside dog," and we kids didn't argue, or ask for any other kind of pet, ever again. 



When we moved to a new town and Ko-Hii-Ko was hit by a car and died, we were all heartbroken. My mom was the one who said we should adopt a German shepherd puppy from neighbors who had a litter of them. We picked out a cute little shy girl from the back of the pack, mom named her Atushka, and she immediately allowed her into the house.  




Atushka (or Tushka, or Tuki) was a wonderful pet. She adopted our pack, slept on our beds, and wanted to be with us wherever we went. Her favorite activity was wrestling with a running hose. She would bite it, shake it, pounce on it like it was an enormous writhing snake that she was determined to take down. She was also my running buddy. I would take her on long runs up the grade or along the trails on the outskirts of our neighborhood. She was an awesome friend and companion to all of us and lived a long life. So even though she was old and far beyond enjoying life any more, it was still absolutely heartbreaking to have to put her down.




Mark's family had always had dogs, too, and usually in pairs. So when we were ready to get a dog of our own, I said I wanted to get a Siberian husky. I'd seen the most beautiful female husky at a dog show, and that was the dog for me!






Kai-tu and Lassen

To make a long story short, we did not wind up with one cute little female. We got a two-for-one, last-of-the-litter special, and they were males. Males who became big dogs, with lots and lots and lots of shedding fur. 




Protective and sweet, they were so funny when they'd start up a howl. They'd eye each other - one revving up, looking to the other to join in - and soon they'd have enough harmonics going to be mistaken for an entire pack.



Kai-tu and Lassen became my running buddies...or really more my extreme-sport coaches. They had to be on leash or they'd instinctively take off after cats, and since they're bred to pull sleds, my runs became as much an upper body workout as one for my legs.



Endless tufts of fur and all, they were inside dogs...until we had a baby and caught them drooling beside our "mewing" infant in the bassinet. We immediately pulled a classic Lady and the Tramp. "Out!"




Running is how I stay tethered to sanity, so the way I continued to incorporate that into my life as a new mom was by pushing a baby jogger while running with Kai-tu and Lassen. We were a wild entourage, full-steam ahead, and yes, people wisely made way. Especially when the second child was in the jogger and the first one was peddling alongside on his (training-wheeled) bicycle. 




Both dogs lived to "old age" where we, again, had to make the heartbreaking decision to put them down when it was cruel to continue to nurse them through each day.



After that, I was done. I swore I never wanted to go through that again. Besides, I had kids now. And too much to do. I did not need dogs!




But then our kids started asking for puppies. Begging for puppies. 




We got them goldfish.




That bought me a few months.



Then came the Summer of Lizards. They caught wild ones and somehow trained them to perch on their shoulders. Great fun. And it bought me a few more months. 



But lizards are not dogs. (See Chapter 9.) And I knew better than to bother with guinea pigs or rabbits or snakes.



But if I was going to agree to this, I had criteria!





Off the bed? You're kidding, right?

#1: NO FUR. Or, at least, not pillow-sized volumes of it. I'd done my time with the huskies.



#2: SMALLER. Mark and I had different days off, and I needed to be able to pick the dog up and take it to the vet. But it also had to be large enough so there was...



#3: NO YIPPING. It had to have a good bark.



And... #4: It had to be big enough to be a running companion.



And, oh yeah, #5: it had to be good with children.




Being the agreeable guy he is, Mark had only one real requirement, but it was a big one: We had to get two dogs so they'd have each other as company during the day when everyone was at work or at school.




The kids also had a requirement: They had to be puppies.




After much research and talking to lots of people, we wound up with whippets - a breed I would never have imagined for myself. But it didn't take long for them to invade my heart. Look at those faces! I didn't want to love them but I couldn't help it. What incredibly sweet animals. 






Our boys and their boys

So for the past fifteen years they have been part of our family. They were definitely inside dogs, sharing the bedrooms with our sons, doing "the changing of the guard" each night at around 2:00 am when they would switch rooms and look after "the other boy." They lived a good, long, spoiled life.



And telling myself all that should balance out the heartache of recently having to say goodbye, but it doesn't. They went within weeks of each other, and I keep looking for them, keep expecting them to be waiting for us when we come home.  




A librarian friend of mine knew I was sad and missing Bongo and Jazz, so she gave me Gary Paulsen's My Life in Dog Years, which I read cover to cover. It's a collection of short stories about each of his most special dogs, and how they saved him (both literally and figuratively). It was actually very comforting to read. Dog people understand that losing your pet is like losing a friend who was, without reservation, always happy to see you.



Real dog people understand that dogs are not accessories.



They're family.






Bongo and Jazz

I know cat people feel the same way about their feline friends and go through the same end-of-life trauma. I've never had a cat, and I'm not planning to start, so keep your adorable kittens away from me, okay?



Our friends assume that we'll be getting new dogs, but I don't know if I can go through this again. For now we'll just enjoy other people's dogs. 




Or maybe we'll get some goldfish. 




You think?

Mystery Solved!

We weren't allowed to talk about it. I guess that falls nicely under the mystery writer umbrella. After all, you're not supposed to know who-dun-it until the end of the story.






But since the 2017 Edgars were announced at a fancy-pants banquet in New York City on Thursday, I'm now permitted to tell you that I dun it. Or, at least, I helped.




I was on this year's Edgar committee in the Young Adult category. There were five of us. I was not the ringleader, and I'm glad. This was my first time serving on a committee like this and it has given me a broadened perspective (and newfound appreciation) of what goes into selecting a handful of books from the many titles submitted.




In theory I knew that there'd be a lot of reading, but...reality check: There was a lot of reading!




You wouldn't think there'd be that many young adult mysteries published in a given year...and it's true, there aren't. But publishers submit books that are thrillers, or suspense novels, or any story, really, that has some tangential mysterious element to it. So you wind up with all these books that don't really qualify as mysteries, but you read them anyway because there must be a reason they were sent in for Edgar award consideration, right?





Required reading


So...what do you do if a book is really good, but only tangentially a mystery? Should it be considered for "best young adult mystery of the year"? I sure didn't think so, so I asked several times for clarification. What definition of mystery are we using? Is a thriller eligible, even though we know the whole time who the bad guy is? Is a simple suspense story a mystery? Does there have to be a central crime?




I guess the best way to summarize what I learned is to share that there's a nominee this year that's not a true mystery. It was one of the best books, suspenseful, thrilling...but not a true mystery. And yet, it made the short list.




Having been on the other side of the process for sixteen Edgar cycles (the span of the Sammy Keyes mystery series), I would now say that - strictly for the purpose of being considered for the Edgar - I  would not want a mystery I'd written to come out in the fall. Books to be considered for the Edgar are all published within a given calendar year, so titles start trickling in early in the year when committee members have time to read-read-read. By fall, there's a deluge of books arriving, and all must be read before mid-December while the holidays and other end-of-year pressures are all bearing down on you. 




It becomes a power-read process...not something you're really hoping for as the author. You want people to savor your book. To enjoy it! To revel in the mystery and try to puzzle it together, not just power through it. 






After reading the submissions is complete, it's time to vote. And I would tell you more about that but there's the section in the Rules for serving on an Edgar committee that states "Any discussions among committee members may not be shared outside the committee."  So I'm not able to really tell you anything other than that the winner  - Girl in the Blue Coat by Monica Hesse - was very high on all our lists. We were unanimously happy with the winner, which (I've heard) is not always the case. 






The other nominees were Thieving Weasels (by Billy Taylor), The Girl I Used to Be (by April Henry), My Sister Rosa (by Justine Larbalestier), and Three Truths and a Lie (by Brent Hartinger). 




The Edgar Award "Dress to Kill" banquet is always a fun night. For each and every one I attended as a nominee for a Sammy Keyes book, I was game to fulfill that instruction the best I could...but always in a dress that was $29 or less. It started that first year (when I won for Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief) and wore a dress I'd bought for $29 at a "vintage" store. After that, the price tag of the dress I'd wear to the Edgars became a fun $29 tradition for me. And now, in addition to fun stories I have from each and every Edgar banquet, I also have one for how I found each and every $29 gown. 






"It's just an honor just to be nominated," is also very true. Especially now that I know how crazy-many books get submitted for each category. 




But let me also confess this: It's a lot more fun to win! 




And both are much more thrilling than serving on a committee. I'm glad I did it...and grateful in a brand new way for those who served on committees in years past when there was a Sammy Keyes book lurking in their mile-high stack of reading. 




As always, thanks for checking in. See you in the comments!