R.L. LaFevers's Blog, page 21

Anne Lamott on Creativity

I don't usually post on the weekends but I came across this link on Twitter yesterday (via Jules Dominguez) and wanted to be sure everyone I knew saw it.

http://www.sunset.com/travel/anne-lam...

It's an interview with Anne Lamott where she talks about making room in our lives for creativity. Pretty much a must read.

Some Random Thoughts on Craft and Writing

When one of my kids was in kindergarten, the school's director explained to me that in order for a kid to learn new task, they had to repeat it about a thousand times to fully internalize it. She also said there were two kinds of learners; external and internal learners. The external learners were perfectly happy to practice their task a thousand times with other people watching on, while the internal learners preferred to practice their task a thousand times in private before attempting it i...

East Coast Book Tour!

Okay peoples. The details of my upcoming book tour are finally in place.


Monday, May 17 3:30 - 5:00 at The Children's Book Store in Baltimore, MD

Tuesday, May 18, 10:30 a.m. Politics and Prose, Washington DC

Wednesday, May 19, 4:00 p.m. Curious George Bookstore, Boston, Massechussetts

Thursday, May 20, 6:00 p.m. Wellesley Booksmith, Wellesley, Massachusetts

Friday, May 21, 4:00 p.m. The Flying Pig Bookstore, Shelburne, Vermont

Remember, I will be far, far from home and would LOVE to see any f...

Recognizing The One

Lucy asked in yesterday's comments how one knows if a manuscript is The One, worthy of a lasting relationship and the commitment of the writer. This is such an excellent question, and the answer is so convoluted*, I decided to use it as a blog post.**

One of the simplest but least reliable ways to tell is our passion and interest level for a project. If we wake up every day thinking about it, and can't wait to work on it, then clearly, it's The One. If it haunts us, invades our dreams, or see...

Fare Thee Well

An old manuscript was calling to me last week, so I went digging around to find it, pull it out and take a look at it. I loved this book idea, and had written about 80 pages and a pretty detailed outline. But as I reread it, the voice felt flat to me. I still love the idea, but either my passion for it had evaporated or some vital element that I had in my head never made it onto the paper. Or....perhaps simply the perfect culmination of interests, compulsion, and vision that begets a story ha...

Smoke and Mirrors

The frustrating thing about publishing is that so much of publishing buzz is smoke and mirrors; the way to market some books is to make people think that everyone ELSE is loving/buzzing/dying to have it. As Newberry Honor Winner Grace Lin said brilliantly over on Blue Rose Girls, "A lot of good marketing is about making it seem like your book is selling like hotcakes, that your fans are rabid and you are just the hottest thing out there, even if you're not. Many marketing gurus see it as prop...

It's a Fludd!

Although not one of the water variety. :-)

UPS delivered a box today and I was surprised to find in it my author's copies for Nathaniel Fludd, Beastologist: THE BASILISK'S LAIR. A full six weeks early! I usually receive them right on the pub date. Hm. I wonder if that means they'll ship to stores early? I'll keep you posted. I guess that also means I ought to have another contest.

Either way, I cannot even say how much I love the design aesthetic Houghton Mifflin and Kelly Murphy have brought t...

Slugfest

Okay, I give up. This has been the least productive morning I've had in recent memory. I think I'll quit pretending I'm going to get anything done and go take a hot bath, then paint my toenails.

Okay, not so much with the toenails. It's cold today, and I don't think I can go barefoot until they dry. But definitely a hot bath. And reading. In fact, I think I shall declare a reading vacation until my revision letter for Theo IV arrives. I have SO many terrific books in my pile, calling to me.

I'...

In Honor of Poetry Month

I was digging around on my computer files, looking for an old document and stumbled across an entire folder full of poetry.

Truthfully? I had kind of forgotten I ever wrote poetry. However, in reading through them, I am reminded of why it is so important to do, even if you are the only one to ever see it: It forces us to see the world in news ways and distill things down to a sharp, visceral image.

Since I'm feeling kind of devoid of words right now, I'm thinking it might be a good exercise t...

LIbrary Giveaway Winners!

And the winners* of the THEODOSIA AND THE EYES OF HORUS Library Giveaway are…









Jonathan
Ariadne
SueBooktooAngieGregory KTanita DavisAnoynymous-Ellwood SchoolSeranissima (who snaked in just under the wire!)

With the GRAND PRIZE of books and $100 to spend on books going to:

librariantish

Winners, please email me with the address you'd like me to mail the books, either yours so you can take it to them personally, or the library's. Also, let me know if you think they need a copy of Theodosia and the Ser...