Susan Beth Pfeffer's Blog, page 25

When The Shade Of The Moon Meets The Sleep Of The Pill

As you may know, inspired by your poll votes and comments , I've been playing with an idea for a fourth moon book. Playing with is clearly not the same as working on, since I refuse to commit to work until I find out if Houghton Mifflin Harcourt wants a fourth moon book. They have standards too, you know.

But I do love playing with ideas, and mostly I've been thinking in terms of setting The Shade Of The Moon 15-18 years later (or as I fondly think of it, Peyton Place The Next Generation). This would allow me to catch up with all the characters while seeing what the world looks like and having teens as my focal point.

But I noticed the character that was intriguing me the most was Alex. I kept picturing him as angry, angry at Miranda, once he finds out the truth, angry at God, angry at the government, angry even at Julie, but most of all angry at himself. Anger like that might not last 18 years, but it would affect who he becomes. I had a glorious moment or two of picturing Alex as a terrorist, but I also thought of him as a community organizer, and also a successful politician.

Last night I bumped into one of those can't fall asleep nights (blame it on the excitement of American Idol's Top 9- Paul's dazzling teeth alone could cost one an hour's sleep), and I got to thinking about Alex again, and what becomes of him smack after This World We Live In. Once Miranda tells him the truth, he'd break away (he has the least at stake in remaining with the Evans family unit), to go off and be angry. Well, angry young men are at a premium in the post LAWKI world, so I imagined him doing all kinds of highly dangerous work, and because he doesn't care if he lives or dies, becoming almost legendary in the jobs he accomplishes.

Then I thought of my dream matchup, Miranda from Life As We Knew It and Chris Flynn from The Dead And The Gone, and I came up with a way they might meet. Then I started thinking about how people would be writing letters all the time, which is just as much fun as writing diary entries, maybe even more fun, because Miranda could write a letter and so could Jon and so could Alex and anyone else I wanted to write letters for and The Shade Of The Moon would be a collection of their letters.

The next thing I knew I was popping sleeping pills in a struggle to fall asleep (which is after all what sleeping pills are for), but my mind was still racing. Things get a little hazy at this point, but it would seem I got up and typed some notes, just in case I wouldn't remember what I'd come up with between 1/2 and 1 full pill.

Now I know there are those of you who hate spoilers, but I don't see any of this as spoilers given that I don't even know if HMH will ever want a fourth moon book, not to mention that the brief description I gave of one in an email was more Peyton Place the Next Generation than Miranda/Alex and Co. one year later. But if you don't want to read the following notes, feel free not to. And if you do read them and still don't understand, well, that's what sleeping pills do to the creative, restless, bad typing mind!

Miranda is pregnant and tells Alex the truth about Julie's death. Alex is enraged and cannot delal with Miranda, He goes away to dangerous locations, and is in a statet of ratge, whih he works through by taking on the most dangerous tassks- suicidal explosoions of ovoklandodo a dbd wirb in highly nuclear reastor plants, Each job he gets there is an assumpton he will be survive, but a t he does, his lesson and fame inceases.

Jon goes ijto the safe town but find its veryundomfortabke, and seazies a chance at an aeducation as a physicial sassistant, sartting at atge 16, He leadsv gthe safe town to to go the school, and there meets Dris fliyynm who believes in talking about th past, and rereverals hi connection to Ales, and wishes to get back tin trouhc with hin, Chris suggested using Miranda as a go belieteween.

Nirada neantime hs gotten a gjobm maybe thgrough Haon's health teachting skating and skwining t the kids in the safe tiow, Sje lives outside of town with mom and dad abut has a card that allows her access to the safe townm as slong ashs she leaves each night. A family that has lot chuildene is informed of her daugther Juliet and suggests they be abkkiwed ti aditot her, Nurabda ciykd serve as west nurse and hen babby nurse for Julies first two years or so, until they could get a proper nanny for her, They would help set Miranda up with a husband so she coulc sart a a family of her ow,=, and if she were abke ti concentric herself sge cikd ve k=limited contact with Juliet, who of course would not be known she wss her nother. Then Lisa dies ian a pandemic, one whih traps Miranda in the twon and Juliet outside with Mom. /the family agreeds to adopte gabe as well, assuring Miranda and dad that the children would e brought up to understand the are kid, Miranda cold stay with the children unil they are 4, at want hoint, she would leave the familu. Dad supports this idea as being best for the children; Mom is opposed. Oppossiley Mom dies in the thir pandemic.

At somoe point Chris comes to the ssafe town and meets Mirnada. Tney;ve already exchanged letters, bt they find hey ae very tttrachd t each oher, When Alex find s out this provokes a severe reaction in him since he was aways comeptietornve with Chris in hisgh scool and now he's losing ht o erh again.

No wond on Matt abd Syll how left right away so hey wouldn;'tbe stuck with Mom all the time, Maybe Momn founds ou what's hppening with her dna work, helping bringing families together buy tryacking their names and dna, as different arts of the countri are made livaeabe again

Vyt bbiijss end, maybe Miranda is raising Juliet and Gabe with Chris, or maube possibly Alex.Mom mau be died in he third pandemic. Conditions are slowly getting more stablelsnf Dvooyrt yhinkd zi h

ETA(and an oh dear ETA it's about to be). I should have spell checked before putting the notes in. Poor blogspot is gonna have a nervous breakdown!

Chapter Ten Was Particularly Good

Monday I took my mother to the doctor (her blood pressure is lower than mine) and Tuesday I took my mother to the dentist (no cavities). Then today I got a reminder from the vet that Scooter is due his annual checkup. It is considerably easier to get my mother into the car than it is to get Scooter into his cat carrier, so I'm none too pleased about this particular obligation.

Scooter won't be either.

I am pleased however to announce that I have finally figured out what Scooter thinks I am. In his eyes, I am a Mouse With Benefits.



Speaking of benefits, I have certainly benefited from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's support of the moon books (am I slick or what). Look at this
You looked at all of it, didn't you. I'm crossing you off the dedication list.

Meanwhile, now that the paperback of This World We Live In is sort of officially published, I've been obsessively following its Amazon rankings . It's the first of my books to have an extended period of availability as an ebook before coming out in paperback, and I'm very curious as to how that will affect its sales. Ebook sales are flourishing, but children/YA paperbacks seem to be suffering:

In the Children's/Young Adult category, Hardcover sales were $31.2 million in January 2011 vs $31.8 million in January 2010 (-1.9%) while Paperbacks were $25.4 million , down 17.7% from $30.9 million in January 2010.

Today was the first chance I had to read Hart in all its gothic/romance/thriller/horror/noir/fairytale glory. Of course I loved it, but I have no taste whatsoever when it comes to my own writing. Still, I plan to polish it and offer it to my agent to see what she thinks.

Assuming I survive getting Scooter into his carrier. Think of me as a mouse with high blood pressure!

Oddly Enough, There's Still No Chapter Seven

About a month ago, I posted what was then the most up to date outline of Hart, the gothic/ronance/thriller/horror/noir/fairytale book I was writing. All the potential chapters were neatly numbered, but Mr. Cavin commented that there was no Chapter Seven. Apparently in a few previous outlines, there weren't any Chapter Sevens either.

The reason there was no Chapter Seven was because Hart, unlike every other book I ever wrote, got written piecemeal. I'd write a chapter, then completely change my mind and either rewrite it or dump it or place it in a different section of the book. Since I wrote Hart essentially for my own entertainment (the two times I've mentioned it to my agent, she has chosen not to respond), I didn't really care how I wrote it.

But now the first draft is finished, and probably on Wednesday I'll read the whole thing and start thinking about rewrites and polishing. I never wrote another outline, but out of curiosity just now I wrote down the chapter numbers and their order. So without giving away any part of the plot but all of the disorganization, here's the listing of chapters exactly as they now stand:

Prelude
One
Two
Three
Chapter Three
Four
Five
Five
Chapter Five
Chapter Eight
Twelve
Chapter Nine
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Eleven
Fourteen
Thirteen
Sixteen
Thirteen
Fifteen
Thirteen
Seventeen
Fourteen
Twenty One
Twenty Two
Chapter Twenty Three
Twenty Four
Twenty Five
Twenty Three
Twenty Four
Twenty Four
Twenty Seven
Chapter Thirty
Thirty One
Unnumbered

I'm still torn between putting a number on Unnumbered or making it an Afterward, to balance the Prelude.

Or maybe I'll just name it Chapter Seven. Every book should have one!

The Day I Understand This World

Will probably be the day I destroy it all over again.

I was just about to write an entry about how my new printer hates me and vice versa (okay, not an entire entry, but the entry into an entry so to speak), but as I got ready to sign in and start whining, I looked over at the poll votes, and the total had gone up. Lookit->

I thanked all of you yesterday and said there were 217 votes, and now there are 252 votes. The thing is yesterday morning when I checked, I saw some of the previous night's votes had vanished,lowering the total to 217, but I decided to be all good and mature about it (although I did mourn the lost votes at lunch with my friend Hilarie), but it really made me sad. Of course that was before I broke my new printer and sad turned into irritated and grouchy. Only who can be irritated and grouchy when they get those 35 votes back, even if one of them is No. Well, I can, but I'm naturally gifted.

Still,I love having 252 votes on the poll. Although with my luck, it'll be back to 217 by the time I finishing posting this post. Le pessimistic sigh.

Anyway, it's a very good thing that my printer didn't break until today, because yesterday after I got home from lunch, I found an email from darling Google, leading me to this review of Life As We Knew It on the Woman's Day magazine website, and I was so excited, I printed a copy. Which I could, because my new printer was working yesterday, as opposed to today.

Darling Google wasn't through with me (unlike my new printer and vice versa), and today it sent me a link to this list from YALSA , declaring This World We Live In is an Amazing Audio. Which it is, thanks 90% to Emily Bauer who did the reading, and 10% to me who did the writing and the printing on a printer that didn't hate me and vice versa.

Meanwhile, for those who are still reading and wondering, I completed the first draft of Hart last weekend, but I decided it needs a new Chapter 2, which most likely I would have written this afternoon, except for a run-in with a certain printer that shall remain nameless (and rightly so, because who the heck names their printers?).

And speaking of names, if (Blogspot doesn't let me underline, so bolding will have to do) I write Book 4 (only time and my publisher will tell), the working title will be The Shade Of The Moon. It has 5 single syllable words, just like Life As We Knew It, The Dead And The Gone, and This World We Live In, and since the trilogy never got an official trilogy kind of name, I call them the Moon books, so one of them should have Moon in its title even if then becomes a quartet, so it would thus lack a quartet kind of name. I know the UK and Amazon think of the three books as The Last Survivors , and a fine thing it is, but I still think of them as the Moon books (or sometimes the moon books).

Oh dear. Wouldn't it be awful if the 252 vote total is a nasty Blogspot April Fool's joke, and tomorrow I check and it's back to 217. Le triple pessimistic positively mournful irritated and grouchy sigh (and vice versa)!

Thank You

I just want to thank the 217 people who voted in the poll (far more than I ever thought would) and the 60 or so people who were kind enough to leave comments. If I'm ever feeling blue about my life or my career, I'll reread those comments and cheer myself right up.

I emailed my editor a couple of mornings ago to let her know about the poll, and she responded very quickly to say how impressed she was at the number of people who had voted and who had left comments.

An idea for a possible fourth book has been floating around in my mind. If Houghton Mifflin Harcourt indicates they're interested, and if the idea stops floating long enough for me to work it through, I'll certainly let you know.

Thank you again. I know how fortunate I am to have you interested in my books, and I am very very grateful.

Should There Be A Fourth Moon Book?

Personally, I have no idea.

So I've set up a poll to learn what you think. It's pretty simple- you either vote Yes or No.

Then again, if not many people vote, that's kind of a No in and of itself.

Either way, I'll let my editor know how the vote goes. And thank you for your thoughts and opinions.

The Paperback Of This World We Live In Has Arrived!

In my apartment, at least. Ten copies last night by way of UPS.

Like all proud (yet humble) authors, I immediately pulled out my contract to see what my royalty rate is. I get (or will get is a tad more accurate) 7% on the list price of $8.99 (writers are among the very few people in this world who actually like inflation). Out of deference to my limited mathematical skills, I round $8.99 to $9 and times it by .07, and the next thing I know, I anticipate getting at least 63 cents in royalties (I mean someone is going to buy a copy someday somehow probably).

63 cents will buy a can of cat food for Scooter with a couple of cents to spare. That's all he cares about.

Anyway, I love how the book looks, and I especially love the front cover which includes my ever favorite designation: The New York Times Best-Selling Author . And I super especially love the quote: "The Ultimate Dystopian. A Very Exciting Read!" credited (quite properly) to Good Morning America.






No new arrival is complete without a family get-together, so here they are, the hardcovers and paperbacks of the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt editions of Life As We Knew It, The Dead And The Gone and This World We Live In.



May they all earn me at least 63 cents. Scooter has a very big appetite!

Get A Life (As We Knew It)

Recently, one of the many anonymous souls who leave comments on this blog (and I love each and every anonymous one of you)suggested, not unkindly, that I get a life.

I gave this some thought and decided I wouldn't know what to do with a life if I got one. Or worse yet, what if the life I got wasn't as good as the life I sort of have.

Not that this past week's life has been particularly easy. I had printer problems and computer problems, and had a glass bottle in my bathroom shatter into a zillion dangerous pieces (the bathroom being a place both Scooter and I walk around barefoot in). Speaking of Scooter, he has now figured out an extortion racket. If I don't play with him and his new favorite toy, he attacks me until in self-defense I get the toy and start playing. Since Scooter can play with this toy (and me) for an hour straight, and since it involves the use of my right hand, it's getting very tricky to get work done on the never ending Hart manuscript. Which I would really like to end. I'm expending far too much energy on a book that may never see publication.

Hey, with all that energy, maybe I could get a life. There's got to be a fun one around somewhere.

On a considerably cheerier note, Jason's Bookstack was kind enough to interview me. And I got my copy of Chroniques De La Fin Du Monde Au Commencement, and learned, just as I expected, that Lisa est enceinte.
As is my wont, I brought the newest LAWKI over to meet its family.



And as is Scooter's wont, he decided to help with the reunion.



Now if he would only help me get a life!

I Think Of It As Free Advertising

There's a Supermoon coming on Saturday.

Let's hope it inspires lots and lots of sales of Life As We Knew It, The Dead And The Gone, and This World We Live In.

Okay. I may be the only one hoping, so I'll hope enough for all of us!

Three And A Half Questions You Alone Know The Answers To

I was talking to a friend of mine the other day about writing, and in the course of the conversation I came up with three and a half questions that I think might be helpful to anyone working on a writing project (book, story, script, etc.).

My friend liked the questions too (or at least she likes me and pretended to like the questions). So here they are:

1 and 1/2: Who is the person you picture reading your book and why is that person reading it?

2: If you were pitching your book to a movie producer, what is the one scene you'd use to sell the idea?

3. What was the Wow! I Want To Write That moment when you were working on your story?

I can probably answer all these questions about all my books (at least my books I remember writing, which at this point is no longer all of them). For the moon books, par example*, I pictured a young teenager reading the book for the fun people get from living vicariously. Any of you who aren't young teenagers or who are reading the books because they're homework assignments or who care deeply about the characters are simply wonderful bonuses as far as I'm concerned.

As far as pitching a scene goes, I immediately thought of the Yankee Stadium scene in The Dead And The Gone.**

Finally my Wow moment with Life As We Knew It was the immediate rush I felt at the concept: What would it be like to be a teenager living through a world wide catastrophe? For d&g, it was all of that with the additional twist of not knowing if the people you love most are alive or dead. And for This World We Live In, I felt an enormous sense both of Wow and relief when I realized Alex could show up in Miranda's home, rather than trying to work out a way where they'd meet on the road.

So there they are, my three and a half questions. These are all just focus questions, but it's really easy to lose focus when you've been working on a writing project for a long time.

Have fun answering them about your own work!

* Notice that little bit of French? It allowed me to avoid using the word "for" twice in a single sentence. Not to mention how classy it is.

** Pitching a scene about Yankee Stadium is a tres clever play on words.