Kristin Cashore's Blog, page 69

Life Gets Better

If anyone has been trying to register for the Teen Volume Conference in Chicago using the link I provided the other day -- I provided the wrong link. I've corrected it, and here it is again if you want to go there now.

A shoutout today to Massachusetts voters! You may or may not be aware that there's a confusing question on the ballot for the mid-term elections on November 2. (FYI: The deadline for voter registration in Massachusetts is October 13.) I'm talking about Question #2, which regards the repeal of a law called 40B. 40B is Massachusetts' affordable housing law. It's not a perfect law, but nonetheless, I think that its repeal would be a terribly mistake. Here's a blog post that explains why -- and my apologies for not explaining it myself. I'm traveling right now and am pressed for time (I know, always an excuse). Please vote no on Question 2!

Also -- I'm guessing a lot of you -- particularly in the wake of the heartbreaking news about the suicide of Rutgers freshman Tyler Clementi -- have heard of the It's Get Better video project, but for those of you who haven't, I want to point it out. Dan Savage started the project to reach out to young LGBTQ people who're being bullied, to give them evidence that many LGBTQ adults are living good, fulfilling, loving lives. School can be hell, but if you can just hang in there, life does get better. Here's an interview with Dan Savage in which he explains why he started the project. And here's a rational and thoughtful post at the Bitter Buffalo that talks about why the project is worthwhile, even though it is, of course, not a "magical cure" for the problems of LGBTQ bullying and teen suicide. If you think it might help you or someone you know who's young, LGBTQ, and struggling -- go look at these videos, read these articles, talk about it.

Mamet, Hogwarts, Plus, Come See Me in Chicago

Every once in a while, I watch the movies of a writer/director whose writing style is completely different from my own, and think about how funny it would be if that writer were to make my books into movies. For example, David Mamet.

Here's the scene between Katsa and Po, when they're arguing in Katsa's rooms near the end of Part One after Katsa has had a Very Bad Conversation with Giddon (that was me trying not to be spoilery...):

KATSA: The thing is -- how DARE you! How could you --
PO: I never -- Katsa, I never -- see, the thing is --
KATSA: But, see here now, listen, I've got to get downstairs. He's calling me, you know he's calling me.
PO: He's -- calling? But -- what --
KATSA: It was terrible.
PO: Did you -- no, you didn't. Did you? Tell me --
KATSA: It was your idea! You said -- you TOLD me!
PO: I'm not saying I said --
KATSA: Oh, what does it matter? The thing is, he's calling, so what should I do, bring a knife?
PO: You think -- a -- what? A knife?
KATSA: Should I bring a f***ing knife?
PO: But -- Katsa! A knife! No one can make you -- Katsa!
KATSA: Should I? Tell me! Otherwise, how the hell --
PO: You keep --
KATSA: Oh, hell. Would you just go away?
PO: Would I just --
KATSA: Would you please, would you just go away?
PO: I'm not going away. I'm going to Monsea.
KATSA: You're going --
PO: I'm going. To Monsea.
KATSA: Oh.
PO: I'm going --
KATSA: I'm sad.
PO: You're sad?
KATSA: I'm sad. Oh, hell. You're going to Monsea? Oh, hell. I'm f***ing sad.

Quite possibly, that only amused me and, like, three other people in the entire world. My apologies to everyone else. Here are some movies I recommend, most of which Mamet directed and all of which he fabulously wrote: The Spanish Prisoner; State and Main; The Winslow Boy (from Terence Rattigan's play). And one of my all time favorite movies: Glengarry Glen Ross, directed by James Foley and fabulously acted by Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, Alan Arkin, Ed Harris, and Kevin Spacey. (Those of you who know the movie may be thinking, "And Alec Baldwin!" I can't deny he did a great job. But for some reason, I never liked that scene. I don't know why. It never felt like it fit into the movie, IMHO.)

Unrelatedly: Did you hear that Hogwarts finally got Internet access? (H/t, Sam!)

******

Here's the information for my event at the Lozano Branch of the Chicago Public Library:
Date: Wed. October 27, 2010
Time: 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm
Location: Lozano, 1805 S. Loomis Street, Chicago, IL 60608
I'll read from my work, blather a bit, do a Q&A, and sign any books you bring along. Here's a link with more info.

Some FAQs about Writing, Plus Upcoming Appearance Info

1. My goal is to write a New York Times best seller someday. Do you have any advice?
Well, yes, but I'm guessing it's not the advice you were looking for. My advice is to change your goal. Here's the thing: becoming a NYT best-seller is an achievement that's almost completely outside your control. It depends a lot more on unknowable factors (like the future demands of the market) and on uncontrollable factors (like how many other "big" books are out at the same time as yours or how aggressively your publisher decides to promote your book) than it depends on your ability to write a good book. Many, many good books never become NYT best sellers.

Your question makes me want to ask you a question: Do you actually want to write? Or do you just want to be rich and famous? Being a best-selling author is super nice -- but it does NOT necessarily make you rich and famous. The book biz is NOT the movie biz. Shannon Hale, who is an award-winning and NYT best-selling author, wrote a great post once about the financial realities of being a writer. If you're under the misapprehension that writing a best seller means becoming a millionaire or some such, you might want to check it out.

Also -- I'm not going to sit here and pretend that things like being published or being a best seller are meaningless, or that they don't feel good, or that they don't have the potential to help you a lot and even change your life in a lot of wonderful ways. But they aren't solid, rich, deep identities in and of themselves -- at least, not the way writing is. Being a best-selling author, in particular, is more of a "thing that happens to you" than anything else. Writing is a way of life. It's a kind of life you can choose to have.

Good luck to you. I hope you do get published someday, and that your books take off. It's a whole lot more likely to happen if you focus on the writing, which is within your control, rather than on the post-writing stuff that's pretty much out of your control.

2. I once heard someone say that if you aren't happy as a writer before you get published, you won't be happy after you get published. Is this true?
Well, I don't know. I'm sure it's true for some people and not true for other people. I can say that I was happy as a writer before I got published, and I know that it helped me get through some of the more stressful and even terrifying aspects of becoming published. It gave me a solid base; I could always remind myself that I loved writing, and doing all this scary stuff would help me continue to have time for writing.

On the other hand, there are new kinds of happiness that I've experienced as a published person that I don't think I would have experienced without being published. In particular, I've met SO many great people -- people at my various publishers, fellow writers, agents, people who have become true friends. Did I need to be happy before in order to feel that happiness now?

Happiness can be complicated, you know? Except for when it's simple. I'm not going to comment on other people's feelings or experiences. But if writing makes you happy, simply and for its own sake, then I think you're a lucky person and you're starting from a good place.

3. In the acknowledgments for Graceling, you thank "Liza Ketchum, who taught [you] to think like a novelist." What does it mean to "think like a novelist?" What did she teach you?
Writer Liza Ketchum was my mentor during a creative writing independent study I did while I was getting my M.A. in children's literature at Simmons. We met every few weeks and she gave me feedback on the pages I'd written so far. At the time, I was struggling through my first novel, which was middle grade realistic fiction... and I had a lot of thoughts and feelings, and characters in my mind, but I didn't really have a PLOT. One day, her feedback finally sank in, and I came to our meeting with a page in my notebook to show her -- a page on which I'd created a book plan of sorts -- a possible plot to structure my novel. Liza took a look at it and said, "Now you're thinking like a novelist!" Wow, did it feel great to hear that!

I think the moment I started to think like a novelist was the moment I forced myself to come up with a book plan, a clear story I wanted to convey to the reader -- rather than just waxing poetic and trying to fit everything that had ever happened to me personally, and every feeling I'd ever had, into my book.

(That book, by the way, lives in my closet. I might rewrite it someday, or I might not.)

******
Some soon-to-happen thingeys:

On Saturday, October 16, I'll be at the (FREE!) Boston Book Festival, along with writers Francisco X. Stork, Kathryn Lasky, and Noni Carter. Our event is at 4pm at the Trinity Church Forum. I plan to bring my messy notebook and yammer a little about my process. I think each writer will have a few minutes to talk, followed by a discussion, Q&A, and signing.

On Tuesday, October 26, I'll be the keynote speaker at the Teen Volume Conference at the Chicago Public Library. The conference is entitled "Putting Passion into Library Books and Services for Teens" and is intended for librarians, teacher-librarians, teachers and reading specialists. I will yammer my heart out and also attend a bunch of the break-out sessions. More info is available here.

On Wednesday, October 27, I'll be doing another event with the library and will post more info about that on my Appearance Schedule page as it becomes available.

On Thursday, October 28, I'll be in South Bend, Indiana, where I'll be doing a reading, Q&A, and signing at Saint Mary's College. The event will take place at 4pm in Welsh Parlor, Haggar College Center. Yammering will abound.

That's it for now!

Checking in with Some Monday Randutiae

Last week, while stuck in traffic on I-95 in preparation for being extremely late to my trapeze conditioning class, I noticed that the leaves are starting to change. Hooray!

I'm reading a mystery by Ellis Peters called The House of Green Turf. I've been enjoying it from the first sentence: But for a five minute shower of rain, and a spattering of pennystone clay dropped from the tailboard of a lorry, Maggie Tressider would have driven on safely to her destination, that day in August, and...

In Which the Author Regales Her Readers with Tales of a Maritime Journey (And One Small Rant)

Just for the record, if I were standing on a mountain counting my money and some guy came along, first produced a pistol, then produced a rapier, and said, "Stand and deliver, for you are a bold deceiver! Musha ring dum-a do dum-a da, whack fol the daddy-o, whack fol the daddy-o, there's whiskey in the jar!".... I really would have no idea what he wanted.

So, in case you didn't believe me on Monday when I said I'd been to Prince Edward Island, well, that would be weird of you, but anyway, I ju...

The Story of My Vacation (In Books and Music)

Here's the story of my vacation: I went to Prince Edward Island. Now I'm back.

la la la la la

Hey, listen, I am not a travel writer, okay?

Actually, I do expect to have some things to say about the trip, but I'm waiting for the pictures from my photographer, also known as my mom.

In the meantime -- I read lots of books, listened to lots of music, went to a ceilidh, and *bought* lots of music (all of which tend to happen when I'm in PEI) -- so here's the report.

I Read and Recommend:
The Ballad...

Forever Incomplete

I'm still away, but I set this up to post while I was gone. A friend gave it to me just at the moment when I needed it most. Thanks, Sandra, for sharing these lyrics with me:

I have been running so sweaty my whole life
urgent for a finish line --
and I have been missing the rapture this whole time
of being forever incomplete.

Ever unfolding, ever expanding --
ever adventurous and torturous --
but never done.

They're from the song "Incomplete" by Alanis Morissette. Here she is singing it:

Off I Go in Search of Zing and Pep

A Dunder Mifflin staff meeting, called because Michael Scott, Regional Manager, wants to change things up in the office, create some new excitement:

MICHAEL: So, what we need to do is we need to get things going. We need to get percolating a little bit. Anybody have any ideas of what we could do? Any suggestions? Yes -- Andy?

ANDY: What if we changed our outgoing answering machine message so it just had a little more ZING and a little more PEP?

MICHAEL: Zing and pep! See, those are the kinds of ...

The Men, the Guns, and the Stupidity

I've recently been compelled -- not against my will, exactly, because I did say, "Yes, okay," but let's just say that there are other things I would rather be doing -- I've recently been compelled to watch a lot of Westerns in succession.

I reckon Westerns just ain't my thing. I reckon in most cases -- note, there are exceptions -- I was pleasantly surprised by High Noon and True Grit -- whereas even Morgan Freeman wasn't enough incentive ever to watch Unforgiven again -- where was I? I reck...

Clarity plzzzzzz

So, here's a small tip for writers out there: you know those moments when you get a great idea and jot it down on the nearest ink-accepting object? Your hand; the pizza box; if it's a good day, a post-it note? Well: WRITE THE IDEA OUT IN COMPLETE WORDS, NOT SHORTHAND. You think you'll remember later what you meant. But you won't, really. YOU WON'T.

I was going through some post-it notes the other day, looking for ideas, and I came across one that said this: an experience that doesn't fit ...