Susan Beth Pfeffer's Blog, page 49

Pink Thing Says Hello

I love Pink Thing but it's not easy to write on.

I just wanted to say hi (and hi in particular to people who've left comments), and post a few pictures so you can see I'm actually at a skating event.

The one good closeup picture of a pairs team (James and Bonheur, I think), I didn't take. My friend Renee did because I was too shy to ask them to pose.

I also took a bunch of videos but I can't figure out how to load them. I am definitely not the queen of 21st century technology.

There's a place at the

I've Written Books Shorter Than This Entry

I sent This World We Live In to my editor and my agent Monday evening. Oddly enough, neither of them stopped every single thing they were doing it to read it.

To compensate for their lack of instantaneous response, I told my friend Cynthia the entire plot yesterday. It is a tribute to her inherent goodness that she listened to the whole thing and remains my friend (at least I sure hope so).

Life As We Knew It was nominated for the Abraham Lincoln High School Book Award in Illinois.

Sally Young, a s

Wonderful News From Jenni

Back in early December, Jenni left a comment on one of my entries. I'll quote a bit of it:

To be perfectly honest, LAWKI changed/strengthened perceptions I had about my own life. It was actually the topic of my admissions essay in applying to colleges this year.

To which, I responded:

Hi Jenni and thank you for your comment. Talk about being nervous. I will now be nervous until you come back and assure me you were accepted by all the colleges of your dreams. Which, I'm sure you will be, but I'm a

Feeding My Well Fed Ego With B3

It's been a while since I've written a B3 entry. So remember- if it says B3 in the title, it will most likely contain This World We Live In Spoilers.

I've been working and working and working on B3, writing the first draft, then changing the ending a few times, then changing or adding scenes so the ending makes sense, and the past couple of days, line editing and making small revisions. For those who are interested, I just posted a new entry over at thirdmoonbook, with a couple of before and afte

Twitter Me Kindles

My big brother taught me Pirate Talk.

I got an email a week or so ago, asking if Life As We Knew It and the dead and the gone were available on Kindle. The answer is yes and no. Apparently one must beg and plead for a book to make it to Kindleland, and d&g hasn't been begged and pleaded for sufficiently.

I have no idea what my royalty rate is for these things, but if there's any chance I could make money, I'm in favor.

Last week I got a mystery package (I love mystery packages). It contained the Pl

This Will Not Be The Post About Redecorating My Den

Although I did run out this morning and buy a new desk chair. You can see why I wanted a replacement.

But the real reasons for this entry are twofold. One is to announce that last night at 10 PM, I finished the first draft (yet again) of This World We Live In, with its fabulous, never to be revealed, ending. I worked a lot later than I thought I would because my friend Cynthia dropped by with homebaked hamentashen (yum yum) and my cousin Ellen called for some social chit chat, and American Idol

Yet Another Excuse To Postpone Working On The Rewrites

Someday, I'm going to figure out why every day it's been a struggle to get to work. I enjoy it when I'm doing it, and today most likely I'll finish the fabulous new ending of B3 (which I've written in my head about 100 times at this point, and when I read to my friend Christy the future final sentence, she said, "Wow." Which definitely beats "Yikes" and should be an incentive to get to work and write that final sentence. And yet, I continue to dawdle).

Where was I? Oh yeah, the reason for this bl

We Interupt The Intended Blog Entry All About Redecorating The Den

To announce that Life As We Knew It is the Garden State Teen Book Award winner for Fiction, Grades 6-8.

I have already exchanged emails to confirm that I'll be getting a certificate (I'll hold off completing the redecorating until the awards luncheon).

My mother says she's very proud.

And so am I!

Marching Towards The B3 Ending

I'm assuming there'll be spoilers in this entry, so you probably should assume the same.

There was a very interesting comment on the previous entry, which I'm going to quote almost in its entirety:

Linda Joy Singleton said...

Because I get the sense that this ending is one which could be dire...I'll share a little something I learned from Betsy Byars who learned it from Lois Lowry.

In the book, MUD BLOSSOM, Betsy was going to kill off the grandfather & the dog at the end. The book was beyond galley

It Made Sense At One In The Morning

I have worked out the ending to This World We Live In.

You may notice there's no B3 in the blog entry title, and I'm not warning you about spoilers. That's because I decided I'm not to going to tell you what the ending is. Not now, not ever. Or at least not until the book is published, which is a year or more away.

I came up with the idea last night during a particularly nasty bout of insomnia (I had a fine time at my cousin Danny's wedding, by the way). My brain clicked into gear and when it does