Susan Beth Pfeffer's Blog, page 29

For All I Know, Scooter Wrote It

Out of deference to my Cousin Fran's cat allergies, I've been pretending to clean my apartment. And out of deference to my cat Scooter, much of the cleaning has involved searching under the stove and refrigerator and somesuch places, in search of the twist ties he shoves there. Twist ties (especially the black and white expensive ones) are Scooter's current favorite plaything.

While cleaning the den the other day, I searched around under the computer cabinet. I found a couple of pens (Scooter's previous favorite plaything), and I could hear a piece of paper rattling about.

Scooter heard it too (Scooter likes noisy things), so he went digging. He dragged out a piece of paper with typing on it.

I scanned the paper, but I can't figure out how to post the scan here, so I'm just going to type what was on the page, using that nifty blockquote thing to make it look official.

6

He was a little drunk. I was sure of it. I'd met Trish, once last summer, when Dad and she first began seeing each other, and again over Christmas vacation, when I'd gone for my semi-annual visit, and could tell things were getting serious between them. But in all my conversations and e-mails with Dad, he'd never hinted that he was going to marry her. In fact, he'd expressed some reservations because of Trish's two young children.

"I was just wondering," I said. "What I mean is, why now. Why Vegas?"

"You sound like my mother," Dad said, and I knew that wasn't a compliment. "Megan, Trish and I are grownups. We both happened to have a couple of days off, and Trish's parents were able to take the kids, and it seemed like the best time to do it." There was a pause, and I could see Dad start thinking Daddy thoughts. "Oh honey, are you disappointed?" he asked. "That we eloped? I didn't think. But of course you'd want to be there, see your old man tie the knot."

The noose was more like it, I thought, but I love Dad, and Trish wasn't so bad, not really. "Of course I'm disappointed," I lied. "Disappointed, and surprised. But mostly I'm real happy for you."

"Here. Trish wants to say hello," Dad said, and I could

Here's the thing. I've been in this apartment six and a half years. I was the first person to live here, so I can't assume anyone else wrote that page (besides, it positively reeks of my style). I've written three books here that have been published (Life As We Knew It, The Dead And The Gone, This World We Live In) and one (Blood Wounds) waiting to be published. I've written several books that haven't been published, a YA suspense novel (named, I think, 7 Hours) that I loved but never found a publisher, two middle group novels, one of which my agent thought needed work and one I never showed her because it wasn't good enough, and one completely unpublishable version of a third moon book. And this page 6 doesn't sound like my memory of any of those books.

I have no idea what manuscript it came from. There's no point in my going through all my documents because I'm on Hard Drive #3 since moving here, and I'm not one to back things up. I don't know who these characters are, what happens to them next, or even if there's a page 7 floating about.

My brain is currently hard at work (although it feels like play) at the idea I came up with last week. I'm ready to write a chapter outline, to get a feel for if I need more events in the story. If I stay interested, I'll most likely begin writing it week after next (next week I'll spend recovering from November, a long and tricky month).

I only hope if I do write it, that I keep better track of it, and don't let it vanish under the computer station, only to be dug up by a cat searching for his twist ties!

Maybe I'll Write It While My Cousin Fran Is Sneezing

I don't seem to have begun cleaning my apartment yet. In fact, it seems to get messier and messier, as opposed to neater and neater, let alone cleaner and cleaner.

I'm going with Not My Fault for the messier part. I got a new clock radio and a new telephone and a new heating pad and probably some other new stuff I've already forgotten about, and everything comes in boxes with lots of packaging, and even though I've put the clock radio and telephone and heating pad and probably some other stuff where they belong, I still have all the boxes and cardboard to dispose of.

Also I seem to have stopped reading the newspapers again, so they're piling up.

I did buy a new cordless vacuum cleaner which claims it's pet perfect, but since taking it out of its box would be a commitment to actually cleaning, it remains untouched on the kitchen counter. On top of it are the empty boxes for the clock radio and heating pad and telephone, etc.

I am pleased to report that my royalty check for Life As We Knew It, The Dead And The Gone, and This World We Live In came today and I can afford everything I bought. I can even afford a new box of tissues for Fran, who'll be sneezing up a storm at Thanksgiving if I don't start cleaning.

Did you know sneezing is an excellent weight loss system? I didn't either, until I made it up just now. I hope Fran believes me though, since it's the best excuse I've come up with for why I haven't started dusting and vacuuming yet.

What I have been doing the past few days is working on that book idea I came up with Monday when I was exercycling. It's been so much fun to plot that that's what I've been doing pretty much every quiet moment. I have the end worked out (it's a book where you have to have the end worked out before you even think about writing it) and a hefty amount of the middle and the beginning isn't that much of a concern for me, since the idea is to get to the middle as fast as possible. The truth of the matter is (is that one of those easily italicized cliches like LOL- TTOTMI?), if Fran weren't coming on Wednesday, I might even start writing it on Monday; that's how quickly it's developed itself

But Fran is coming on Wednesday, and for all I know, by a week from Monday, I might have forgotten all about the book idea. It's going to be a very distracting visit, what with Thanksgiving dinner with my mother and Fran and Marci and her husband Bill at my mother's assisted living facility and then on Friday a trip to the Bethel Woods Museum (devoted to the 1960s) and then dinner for Fran, Marci, Bill and my friends Cynthia and Joel (I'm looking at vegetable curry recipes). Saturday, I take Fran to the airport and don't do anything again for the next four months (aka winter). Or maybe I'll write the book.

But first, I suppose, I should take the pet perfect handheld vacuum cleaner out of its box, and see if I can vacuum up Scooter!

It Wasn't Samuel Goldwyn Or Adolph Zukor

I brought my mother back to her apartment Sunday afternoon. The whole process took several hours, and in spite of her relaxing month in the nursing center, by the time she was settled back in, neither she nor I were any younger.

I was pondering the injustice of all this Monday morning, as I sat on my exercycle and peddled away to last week's episode of TCM's series, Moguls & Movie Stars: A History Of Hollywood. .I was in Texas when it was on last week, and my goal is to not fall even an episode behind (I'll watch last night's episode later this week).

Episode 2 was about the transition to Hollywood and the rise of both the moguls and the movie stars. It didn't tell me anything I hadn't at one point or another in my life known, and it skipped some things I did know, like that Tom Mix's death rated a top of the fold front page New York Times obit (I used to have a trivia question where I asked people to name the stars that got top of the fold front page NY Times obits, and he was the one no one ever got). But these kinds of shows are always entertaining, and I was enjoying it when one of the names caught my attention.

That would be a good name for a character, I said to myself as I peddled away. Boy or girl, I asked. Boy, I decided (peddle, peddle, peddle*). So who is the boy with the great name? Well, he could be a...

That's as far as I'm taking you. But as I watched and peddled, and then as I meandered about the apartment and later took my mother to the doctor for her checkup, and did all those everyday sorts of things, my brain worked on this possible new idea for a novel.

Am I going to write it? I dunno. It's outside my comfort zone, so there'd be work involved. On the other hand, this morning before I got out of bed, I developed the plot some more. The characters are talking, and I've visited
But whether I write the book or not, I did learn a lesson, and that is fiction exists to distract. That's why people read novels (Christy agreed to this). That's at least one reason why I write them. My woe is me mood vanished as soon as I began thinking about this character and that and where the story could go.

I have to spend the week cleaning the apartment because my cousin Fran is coming for a Thanksgiving visit and she's allergic to cats.*** But dusting and vacuuming aren't nearly so bad if you have an idea to play with!


*That's like a sound effect, which is a very classy thing to have in a blog, and is proof that I was a film major at NYU. The * is also pretty darn classy. In fact, this blog entry would get a higher grade than I ever got for any of my papers at NYU.

**The best website ever.

***

Purr! Achoo!!

If Only Beverly Aadland Had Played Sandra The High Priestess

While I was away in Texas, my much awaited DVD of Cuban Rebel Girls and Untamed Women arrived. I was too tired to watch it Wednesday night, but last night I devoted myself to it. And since I know you're breathlessly awaiting my review, well, here goes.

First off, I was very pleased with the quality of the DVD (as opposed to the quality of the movies). They looked about as good as they possibly could. And there were some neat trailers included on the DVD, all for movies I'd never heard of and will most likely never hear of again. What was super great about the trailers were a couple of them had exact same shots as Untamed Women, thus suggesting the dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures (which mostly looked like lizards and armadillos), got a lot of work. Although I did have my doubts about the vicious tigers in Africa. Not that I'd expect placid tigers in Africa either.

I watched Untamed Women first and it was exactly as I remembered only more so. The guy from Brooklyn had a lot more dialogue than I'd remembered, and the High Priestess Sandra's disciples danced a lot more (and had fabulous early 1950s hairdos, thus suggesting that even on deserted islands, you can still get a perm). The attacking hairy men (who I had forgotten) were a lot hairier than anticipated. And I was very impressed that all the untamed women said "ye" and "thy" a lot, but turned out to be descended from Druids, who'd left England a couple of thousand years ago to avoid the Romans. Forgive me if that's a spoiler.

What I hadn't remembered was how existential the whole movie was. Or how terrificly the volcano erupted. Or the armadillos the size of elephants (or maybe elephants the size of armadillos). Or what a truly dreadful actress the woman who played the High Priestess Sandra was (and yet, when I looked at the actresses playing her disciples, none of them cracked a smile).

It turns out Beverly Aadland wasn't much of an actress either. I'd never seen Cuban Rebel Girls, so the plot, such as it was, came as quite a surprise to me. Who knew it was a good thing for all freedom loving people that Fidel Castro came to power? Or that Errol Flynn was quite so chunky at the end of his career?

Beverly Aadland played an American Cuban Rebel Girl, who didn't know the difference between Castro and Batista, but her boyfriend had joined the rebels and she wanted to see him. She had long blonde hair, and there was a recurring, unintended, joke, whenever there was a long shot of the rebels marching, with her hair swinging away in solitary blonde perfection.

The easiest way of describing the movie (other than lousy) is by saying it's kind of like Bananas without any of the funny stuff and with Woody Allen role played by Kellie Pickler. And while the Cuban Rebel Girls and Boys did sing a lot, they could have used a few more dance numbers.

An existential armadillo or two wouldn't have hurt either!

The End Of The Road (Trip)

I got back from four days in Fort Worth, Texas yesterday evening. Two days of travel (including driving under the New York Marathon runners Sunday on my way to the airport)and two days of school visits.

I had a great time. I always have a great time doing school visits because everybody is incredibly nice to me, the students have interesting and unexpected questions, and I eat every food substance I normally don't allow myself.

I don't have any more trips planned until April and even then I have a very limited schedule. I'm pretty much saying no to anyone who asks me now. Because as much fun as school visits are, they're also very stressful (the getting there and back is never easy)and I'm less and less comfortable being away from my mother. Not to mention Scooter, who is deeply opposed to my not being around so he can attack me at his convenience.

Today is a day devoted in equal measure to the things I have to get done for myself (that I can get done; some things will have to wait until it's no longer Veterans Day) and things I have to get done for my mother (5 days worth of laundry await). Tomorrow it's going to be more like 75% my mother, 25% me. Next week the balance will go in the opposite direction, since my cousin Fran is coming for a Thanksgiving visit and she's allergic to cats, so a major cleaning is required.

My mother will just about definitely go home this weekend; I'll be talking to the social worker later today about all that.

I've been thinking of November as a lost month for a while now, between the traveling and Fran's upcoming visit. By December though, I hope to have my life is some more calming order. Then I'll take a deep breath, see where I am, and prepare for blizzards. At least I have a working flashlight!

My New Official Publicity Photograph

First of all, thank you for voting on my poll (I sensed a strong preference for one of the pictures) and for all your really nice comments.

Marci and I did the "photo shoot" at my mother's assisted living complex. My mother wasn't there (she's still in the nursing center, but should be going back to her apartment next week), but it was too cold (at least as far as I was concerned) for an outdoor picture, and I knew there were some nice looking rooms at the complex. The pictures were taken in their library. That's why there's no Scooter in either of the pictures.

I decided that much as I loved the picture of me with the golden curtain, I'd love it even more as a head shot. So I asked Marci to edit my arms and hands out of it. Then she emailed the picture to her daughter Alice, who knows how to gussy things up. She did the gussying, and last night I got the completed picture.

So here's what I now officially look like!

Personally, I Couldn't Last A Week Without Fresh Bagels

Publishers Weekly has a wonderful article about people who emulate Life As We Knew It by going without trips to the supermarket.

Read it for yourselves!

Help Me Select A New Publicity Photograph

My editor asked for a new publicity picture for me for Blood Wounds, so I grabbed Marci and made her take pictures of me. She took thousands but these are the two we like best.

I thought I'd see if you have a preference. I'll be setting up a quick three day poll. Vote between the first picture and the second (after I look at them again, I'll describe them a little bit in the poll).

Marci and I both have a favorite, so I can't swear this poll will be binding. But it never hurts to get a second or third or fourth opinion!

Picture 1




Picture 2

Two Things That Make Me Very Happy

My editor emailed me earlier this week to ask for a new publicity photograph for them to use for Blood Wounds. No, that isn't what makes me happy. If I were thirty years younger and weighed thirty pounds less, it might make me happy, although my recollection is I wasn't all that pleased with how I photographed then either. But I'm willing to go for a new picture, so I emailed Marci to see if she'd be willing to take it. She agreed (because as we all know, Marci is a sweetheart). So today she emailed me to discuss whether Monday would work for me (it will) and in the course of her email, she mentioned that her cat, who had been missing for two months, had returned home.

Marci said given how much weight the cat had lost, she'd probably been to a spa. I should try that spa myself, but I only have until Monday, and I'm not sure I could shed thirty pounds and thirty years in approximately thirty hours.

Speaking of shedding, the other thing that makes me very happy (although probably not quite as happy as the return of the missing cat) is that Barnes & Noble has shed its offer of pretending to let people read my novel About David for free while actually sending them a book about the Constitution of the Great State Of Arkansas. Now, if you go to their ebook page, all you get by me are Life As We Knew It and The Dead And The Gone. It'd be nice if they bothered to put up pictures of the book jackets, but I'll take what I can get in this world, and I got the removal of their mistake.

Now if Marci can just get the magical removal of thirty pounds of wrinkles and body fat, I'll truly be happy indeed!

I'm Not Going To Let The Fact That I Forgot The Incredibly Clever Title For This Blog Entry Stop Me From Writing It

What's really annoying is I came up with that incredibly clever title not once but twice. And both times I forgot it.

But it sure was incredibly clever.

I know the incredibly clever title had the work Book in it because this entry is about books. Or book to be a tad more accurate, that book being Life As We Knew It.

The books part comes from the fact that yesterday, armed with a 40% off coupon, I went to the Borders bookstore at the mall to go shopping for (you guessed it) a book. It's not like I don't already own a fair number of books, some of which I actually intend to read someday. But I have a trip to Texas coming soon, and I'm in a state of low level terror that I won't have enough to read on the flights there and back and in the evenings in my hotel room. So I'm accumulating as much travel reading (i.e. novels) as I can find.

While I was deciding between a paperback novel and a non-fiction hardcover about Edwin and John Wilkes Booth (I opted for the novel), I noticed Borders had a display of books in the front of the store, that said if you bought this book, you could buy a second one at 50% off. There were a number of books with that enticing sticker, and one of them was LAWKI. Another was The Book Thief, so LAWKI was in good company.

I couldn't figure out then, and frankly still don't know, if this is a good thing or an insult (not that I can imagine Borders insulting The Book Thief). Did the sticker indicate that Borders thought the only way to get people to buy LAWKI was to entice them to buy something else at a highly discounted price? Did they have so many extra copies of LAWKI that they put the stickers on to get rid of them?

Or did they pick LAWKI because it's so irresistible they knew it would inspire people to buy, buy, buy.

Ultimately, I suppose, it doesn't matter. A copy bought is a copy sold, and a copy sold is 50 cents give or take in my wallet. Two of those 50 cents adds up to a dollar (minus the 15 cents my agent takes before I ever see it). And there's a lot I can buy with that 85 cents. Don't ask me what, since offhand I can't think of anything, but maybe there's something of interest in the Dollar Minus Fifteen Cents Store.

(Speaking of shopping, I still haven't ordered my copy of Cuban Rebel Girls/Untamed Women. I keep going over to the website and they keep saying it's coming soon and they don't allow preorders.)

Back to Life As We Knew It (the book that allows me to afford my as yet unordered copy of Cuban Rebel Girls/Untamed Women). You know how much Google loves me. They worry so much that I'll feel lonely unless my mailbox is full that they send me email alerts about places that mention me. Lately, most of the alerts are about eBay listings of my books, which aren't all that exciting (like not at all) to me, but I can hardly blame Google for its excessive enthusiasm.

The other day though, they emailed me the following:

Apocalyptic Teaching
Education Week News
My favorite, however, is Susan Beth Pfeffer's Life As We Knew It, a tale of a fifteen year old girl and her family after a meteor knocks the moon out of ...

I scurried over to Education Week News to read the rest, but they wouldn't let me because I didn't have a subscription. Well, that wasn't going to stop me, especially after I saw there was a way of registering without paying money. So I registered, using my real name and everything (under what was my professional connection with teaching, I put Other, always a useful option). I'm glad I did, because here was the complete quote:

My favorite, however, is Susan Beth Pfeffer's Life As We Knew It, a tale of a fifteen year old girl and her family after a meteor knocks the moon out of orbit. Not only is it more feasible than a world-wide zombie attack, it also deals with themes of growing up, examining what we value, bravery and courage—all of which our kids can use in strong doses in these tumultuous days.

I'd give you a link but you wouldn't be able to read the article if I did. So I'll let you know that Dina Strasser wrote the article and I'm very glad she did. It makes me very happy to think of all the teachers and educators and others hearing about my book.

Now if they scurry over to my Borders bookstore, they can buy LAWKI, sticker and all, and make me 42.5 cents richer. And two of those purchases might be just enough money for me to buy a title for this blog entry at the Cheap But Incredibly Clever Blog Title Store!