Jennifer Echols's Blog, page 4

That time of year again

I never re-read my books unless I absolutely have to. I would find awkward sentences that would make my skin crawl but that I would not have the power to do anything about. This way lies madness. And perhaps more importantly, I have a new book to write. I always try to stay in that book rather than getting distracted.

However, right now I am very, very tempted to re-read The Boys Next Door and its sequel, Endless Summer (both are in one volume called Endless Summer), because the action starts a few days before Memorial Day, a.k.a. next week, and lasts until the Fourth of July. In those books, I tried to re-create a really fun time from my teenage-hood. Nothing in the world is as exciting as getting out of school and hanging around with adorable boys on a lake when you are almost sixteen.

Well...maybe this is as exciting. I love these books because they reflect the beautiful lake where I really grew up, and because the main character is more like me than any other character I've ever written (possibly I am the only one who finds her endearing), and because I got the nicest editorial comment on The Boys Next Door that I have ever gotten on a book. This was so important to me because the book got off to a rocky start. My editor then, Michelle Nagler, who heartbreakingly left Simon & Schuster right after this to become the editorial director of Bloomsbury Children's (so let's not feel too bad for her), did not like any of my ideas for follow-ups to Major Crush. We went around and around about it, and finally she told me to take the love triangle from one book idea and put it in the setting for another book idea, the lake where I grew up. I was a little miffed by this time, so I just wrote the book the way I wanted. I put in jokes that made me laugh out loud in Starbucks, but I figured nobody else would think they were funny. And Lori...I felt about Lori like Jane Austen felt about Emma: "I am going to take a character whom no one but myself will much like." In the end, I had a book that made me smile when I thought about it, and I figured that might have to be enough.

So imagine how thrilled I was when I saw the first line of Michelle's revision letter: "I am so in love with the BOYS NEXT DOOR--both of them." And then--

Okay, pause to giggle. As I am looking through my files for this stuff, I see that it has been so long ago that the rubber bands around my manuscripts have rotted, and...I have a copy of The Boys Next Door saved on floppy disk! Isn't that adorkable?

--and then, at the bottom of what is now page 196, she wrote the nicest thing an editor has ever said to me.



I have thought for a long time about cutting out this comment and framing it. Maybe now I will.

Literary agent Rachelle Gardner blogged recently in 7 Bad Habits of Successful Authors , "It’s a well-known fact that all writers think they can’t write. One book in, six books in, 47 books in... every writer is convinced, over and over again, that it was a fluke, they’re not a writer, they’ve lost it, they can’t possibly do this again." Guilty. In fact, I'm having quite a time keeping my footing and my cool as I write the current book, which is also set at this same time of year. So it's doubly tempting to put it aside and re-read a book I really wrote for myself. I may have doubts about my writing most of the time, but at least in this one case, in my tale of young love in my old hometown, I feel like I got it right.

The Girlfriends' Cyber Circuit presents Jessi Kirby!

The Girlfriends' Cyber Circuit is a web ring of YA authors. Check these posts for the latest releases!

Jessi Kirby is the author of Moonglass, published in May 2011 by Simon and Schuster. She is also a wife, mom, English teacher and former librarian, beach bum, runner, and lover of Contemporary YA, strong coffee, and dark chocolate.

IN HONOR is in stores now!

Honor receives her brother’s last letter from Iraq three days after learning that he died, and opens it the day his fellow Marines lay the flag over his casket. Its contents are a complete shock: concert tickets to see Kyra Kelly, her favorite pop star and Finn's celebrity crush. In his letter, he jokingly charged Honor with the task of telling Kyra Kelly that he was in love with her.

Grief-stricken and determined to grant Finn's last request, she rushes to leave immediately. But she only gets as far as the driveway before running into Rusty, Finn's best friend since third grade and his polar opposite. She hasn't seen him in ages, thanks to a falling out between the two guys, but Rusty is much the same as Honor remembers him: arrogant, stubborn. . . and ruggedly good looking. Neither one is what the other would ever look for in a road trip partner, but the two of them set off together, on a voyage that makes sense only because it doesn’t. Along the way, they find small and sometimes surprising ways to ease their shared loss and honor Finn--but when shocking truths are revealed at the end of the road, will either of them be able to cope with the consequences?

I was lucky enough to snag a little interview with Jessi...

Jenn: How does this book fit in with your others? Is it part of a series, unrelated but the same sort of book, or a real departure?

Jessi: In Honor is a standalone contemporary, completely unrelated to Moonglass, but there is one Moonglass character who has a little cameo in it.

Jenn: What’s the weirdest thing you were doing or the weirdest place you were when you came up with part of this book?

Jessi: I often come up with ideas in the shower or while I’m doing the dishes, which I guess qualifies as weird!

Jenn: What good books have you read lately?

Jessi: Ooh, I love this question! I just recently read Bittersweet by Sarah Ockler and The Story of Us by Deb Caletti. Both were excellent!

Jenn: What’s next for you?

Jessi: Right now I’m revising my third novel, Golden, which will be out in 2013. After that, it’s book #4, which is still in the percolating stage right now.

Jenn: Thanks so much for stopping by. In Honor sounds fantastic. Happy release week!

Visit Jessi's web site at www.jessikirby.com for the latest on her books, friend her on Facebook, or follow her on Twitter.

Up next on the Girlfriends' Cyber Circuit, Melissa Walker will be touring at the end of May!

Where I'll ACTUALLY be

The date of my book signing at Barnes & Noble Patton Creek in Birmingham has changed to RELEASE DAY for Such a Rush, July 10 from 5-7 pm. Please plan to stop by on your way home from work, camp, practice, or whatever you're up to this summer. I would love to meet you!

My baby is going to middle school!

In the past couple of days I've been to a couple of meetings for parents of new middle schoolers. The principals and teachers have repeatedly assured us that it will be okay and we should not worry ourselves sick.

I have to say, I'm not worried. In part, this is because my son's middle school seems awesome, with excited and engaged teachers. In part, it's because I remember my middle school years so fondly. It's an age when you're old enough to know what your interests are and how to pursue them--sometimes beyond what your parents can help you with--but you're young enough that your afternoons aren't so filled with homework and work and extracurriculars and your social life that you don't have time for yourself.

At this age, I spent whole days on nothing but me. I guess it wasn't until 9th grade that I started arranging music for whole marching bands--that's another story--but in middle school I painted, I wrote, and above all, I read. I would spend entire days reading. I would read books I liked over and over and over, which is why I am flattered but not particularly surprised when readers tell me they've read my books ten times (Endless Summer, usually). That kind of free time is luxurious and delicious and particular to being twelve.

As I am writing this, there was just a big BANG from my son's room. He was supposed to have gone to bed and NOT READ half an hour ago, but obviously he has dropped The Hunt for Red October, which he has hardly put down since I checked it out for him today, or something else has fallen off his bunk bed in his trek down the ladder to retrieve the forbidden tome. Whatevs. If his nocturnal reading habits remain what he gets in the most trouble for, middle school will be fun, and I'll take it.

Because I am very curious about you

All I want to do is write novels. I don’t want to talk about them, market them, design them, make them, edit them, or sell them. And ten years ago, that would have been fine with everybody.

However, as we all know, the internet has changed the game. Some authors are designing, making, editing, and selling their own books. The rest of us still have to talk about them and market them, or we’ll get left behind.

Because of this, I’m curious about how things look on your end. I want to know which things I’m doing actually touch you as a reader, and when I’m spinning my wheels. Would you help me by filling out this survey? There are 10 questions. I am not collecting any info on you personally, just on what you think. I appreciate your help!

Click here to take survey

Happy news!

I have sold three more romantic comedies to Simon Pulse! The announcement on publishersmarketplace.com probably says it best:

"Jennifer Echols's untitled trilogy of romantic comedies, about high school students selected by their class for the senior superlative Who's Who categories like Biggest Flirt and Most Likely to Succeed, and how the labels change the way they view themselves and alter the course of their lives, to Annette Pollert at Simon Pulse, in a very nice deal, in a three-book deal, for publication beginning in early summer 2014, by Laura Bradford at Bradford Literary Agency (World English)."

Unlike my previous five romantic comedies for Simon Pulse, these won't be part of the official Simon Pulse Romantic Comedies line--they're their own series. And though it's hard to say with the publication dates so far away, we're thinking they will be published in May 2014, December 2014, and August 2015.

Hooray, more to write! I love writing romantic dramas like Such a Rush and the book I'm cooking up now, but I would feel a hole in my heart if I didn't have the chance to write YA romantic comedies again. I'm looking forward to these!

Finally, swag.

By popular demand, I finally have Such a Rush bookmarks! If you'd like one, send a ***self-addressed stamped envelope*** to Jennifer Echols, PO Box 190032, Birmingham, AL 35219, and tell me how many you want. I'll send you up to six if you promise to give them to your friends. If you'd like more for your bookstore or library, please e-mail me at echolsjenn at yahoo dot com .

Where I'll be

I don't get out much, as we've established. A ten-year-old child and lots of deadlines prevent me from traveling to conferences and book fairs. But I do have some events scheduled for the year. If you're in the area, I would love to meet you! Just please don't ask me where the bathroom is. At least, not loudly.

A week from tomorrow--that's Saturday, April 14, from 4 to 6 p.m.--I'll be signing my books in Birmingham at the Barnes & Noble at Patton Creek, which is the shopping center behind the Galleria. Directions are here. At 5, Luther Dickinson from the North Mississippi Allstars is going to play leading up to their concert at WorkPlay, so you can come see me and listen to some great blues at the same time, and maybe nobody will even hear you when you ask me where the bathroom is.

Such a Rush, my HARDBACK DEBUT OMG, will be in stores on July 10, and I'll be signing copies hot off the presses from 2 to 4 p.m. on Saturday, July 14, again at the Barnes & Noble at Patton Creek in Birmingham.

Switching sides of the country for a moment, I'm attending the Romance Writers of America national convention, as usual, this time in Anaheim, CA. If you're registered for the conference, please come see me & my buddy Rosemary Clement-Moore give a presentation on using regional flair in writing YA. But whether you're registered or not, everyone is welcome at the "Readers for Life" Literacy Autographing, which is a seriously spectacular booksigning with 500 authors in attendance. Deets are here, but closer to time there will also be a list posted of all the authors who will be there, and if you're a romance fan you will not believe your luck. It will be held at the Anaheim Convention Center from 5 to 8 p.m. on Wednesday, July 25.

And finally, back in Birmingham, I'll be attending the Romance Readers Luncheon thrown by my local chapter of RWA, Southern Magic, on November 3 starting at 11 p.m. We're so excited that the keynote speaker is mega-superstar bestselling author Sherrilyn Kenyon. You can register here.

Hmmm, I guess that might not sound like much to you, and I have only one book coming out this year, so why am I so busy? I'm very happy to report that I'm writing like a mad woman. In 2013 I have another YA drama coming out, along with my first two adult romances, all from Simon & Schuster. I also have some happy news to report soon--maybe I will be able to tell you if you come see me a week from tomorrow!

How I ran a marathon

I've got a couple of metaphorical marathons going on in my life right now. I'm trying to finish my adult romance by March 1, and the first pass of Such a Rush is due back to the publisher on March 6. This is the first time I've seen the text as it will actually look in the finished book, and y'all, the design is SO PRETTY.



But what I wanted to blog about today is the real marathon I ran last Sunday.

In the grocery store on Saturday, the tall, thin, twenty-something cashier asked the tall, thin, thirty-something customer in front of me, "Are you running tomorrow?" The customer looked shocked and said that she works out but she could never run a marathon. The cashier said, "Oh, you just look like a runner! I'm running tomorrow. I'm so excited!" Then she turned to short, could-stand-to-lose-ten-pounds me, scanned my box of pasta, and asked, "Did you find everything you needed?" The idea that I might be running the marathon obviously never entered her mind.

I am not a vengeful person, nor am I a competitive one, except with myself. But I really wanted to find this girl at the marathon and pass her.

No, I don't look like a runner or an athlete of any sort. But guess what? I am. I think a lot of people have a perception that only certain people can be athletes, and those people are not them, so they never try. But there's been some interest lately among writers trying to get into shape--an accountability group that got started on Twitter, an article in Romance Writers Report--and several friends have told me that my running has inspired them to try it too. I certainly am not an expert or a health professional, but I can tell you about my journey.

I started running after I had a baby and couldn't lose the last 15 pounds. I'd struggled with post-partum depression, too, and I knew that exercise is a great way to elevate your mood. Previously I'd only trained for a few weeks and then run a 5K with my friend Jessica (to whom The One That I Want is dedicated) because we were forced to for P.E. in eighth grade. As a result of that experience, I had that two-mile distance in mind, so that was my goal, slowly, struggling, walking a good part of the way.

Then we moved from Birmingham to Atlanta. The neighborhood was hilly. At first I was committed to running every day, but the baby stroller was heavy, and it was so much easier to walk up the hills and jog down them. Come to think of it, it was even easier to walk the whole way.

A couple of years later, in 2005, we moved back to Birmingham. I was pretty disgusted with myself for basically blowing my nose in my exercise routine. To get out of this rut, I decided to find an official run and train for that. I signed up for the Vulcan Run 10K (that's 6.2 miles) before I could back out of this idea. 6.2 miles seemed like an absolutely impossible distance to run, but I found a training schedule online called Couch to 10K in 10 Weeks and the creator swore that this was not impossible. (If you follow this link...the program is just a schedule for how much you should be running every day. It's not something you pay for. Scroll down.) Ten weeks out, I started training.

At the beginning of the program, the schedule calls for you to break the distance up into 1/4-mile parts. You walk a part, jog a part, walk a part, jog a part. The easiest way to do this is to find a 1/4-mile track. That's what I did--it's the park in Going Too Far, which I was writing at the time (which is also why Meg and John are runners, of course). It sounds very short and very easy. But as I have been telling some of my friends who are just starting out, this was BY FAR the most painful part of my running journey. I felt like my lungs were going to fall out of my chest, and I would get these horrible debilitating side cramps. I thought that this was just not something I could do. But I kept doing it, and the pain went away, and pretty soon I was running three and four and five miles without cramps, and my lungs were staying put.

However, as race day approached, I was honestly not sure whether I could do it. I was very afraid of embarrassing myself by breaking a leg and crawling in tears to the side of the road. But that first Vulcan Run was one of the best experiences of my life. I started on a cold morning in a huge crowd of people. I had a great playlist on a newfangled invention called an iPod, which my husband had bought me specifically for running. We started in beautiful downtown Birmingham, amid the skyscrapers (or the tallest buildings we have, anyway). We jogged through the warehouse district and the homeless people cheered for us. We turned north and passed the gorgeous Orthodox church with a mosaic of the Virgin surrounded by glowing gold leaf, like a blessing before the course's one hill, which I thought might kill me. We ran through one of Birmingham's most beautiful old neighborhoods, winding around three parks--one of which I had crashed a helicopter in before, in an unfinished manuscript with a crazy hero I still love. We came out of the trees and into Five Points, past the fountain that John likes so much in Going Too Far, and straight back downtown to finish where we started. I did not break my leg. I did not cry. And when I turned the corner and saw the finish line--I have rarely experienced such a high.

Time: 1:20. That's a 13-minute mile, folks. For the uninitiated, this means S-L-O-W. And I did it.

This started my six-year stint of running the Vulcan Run, dashing home to shower, and skating into the Homewood Library just in time for the Southern Magic Readers' Luncheon , because they are ALWAYS on the same day. I ran one other 10K. I trained for a 15K a couple of times but got sick with allergies and had to stop. But mostly I was content with this one race per year.

Then, in 2009, my husband decided to lose weight. I think some people at work had been making a comparison to Jon Gosselin. Not sure. But he lost thirty pounds in three months. He ran the Vulcan Run with me. And then he announced that he was going to run the Mercedes Marathon just three months later. If anyone but my husband had said this, I would have tried to talk them out of it because they would get hurt, but really I would have thought they would just drop out on their own before too long. But because it was my husband, I knew he would do it. And he did.

It was terrific that he lost weight and got back into shape. But maybe the best outcome of his marathon was that he set up a Sacred Run Time And Then Coffee with two of his best friends from college. They have been religious about this ever since, and I know he's a happier person because they've grown even closer.

The side effect for me was that I now had three people running marathons, showing me that it was possible for normal, middle-aged folk, and telling me that I could do it too. And they were giving me practical info I'd had no idea about before, such as: NO, you will never get faster unless you use a watch and consciously try to increase your pace; NO, nobody expects you to be able to run that long without drinking, eating, and peeing; YES, there are bathroom stops and water stops around Birmingham that are okay for runners to use; and EW, you have to learn to like Gu , which is not as bad as it sounds once you get used to it. By 2011, I believed them. I ran the 15K that had eluded me before, the Statue-to-Statue, a wonderful and horribly hilly course that runs from the statue of Vulcan in the center of town to the Statue of Liberty on the outskirts. I ran my favorite race ever, the Talladega Half Marathon , which goes around and up and down and through the famous NASCAR track. I ran the Montgomery Half Marathon through the gorgeous historic district. Instead of the Vulcan Run, which seemed very quaint and short by now, I ran the Ruben Studdard Half Marathon last November, and then I decided to run the Mercedes Marathon, and I signed up for it and told everybody I was going to do it before I could change my mind.

From November until last week, I followed a marathon training schedule I found online. Most weeks this meant a couple of days of rest, a couple of five-mile runs, an eight-mile run, and then a long run on the weekend. Looking back, I know that when I was training for the Vulcan Run, I would have said YOU HAVE TO RUN EIGHT MILES AND YOU ARE NOT CALLING THAT YOUR LONG RUN? But no, innocent and naive Jennifer, the long run is a half marathon, then fourteen miles, then fifteen miles, all the way to twenty. You never run twenty-six. And then you back off the training to give your body time to rest up.

Let me interject here a peculiarity of marathon training. Stuff that never bothers you at six miles or even thirteen miles will drive you batty at fifteen. Your shoes that fit perfectly will rub blisters on all your toes. And if you every forget to apply anti-chafe gel under your sports bra YOU WILL BE SORRY, believe me.

Let me also say that if you started running to lose weight, that's pretty much over by the time you train for a marathon. You would think the marathon would make everyone look like the grocery cashier and her not-marathon-running customer, and you ARE burning a huge number of calories. But you're also taking in more because running makes you HUNGRY. And you're taking food with you to eat on the run because you simply can't finish without it. I think the whole experience gives you a much healthier understanding of food, though. It can be pleasure, it can be entertainment, it can be solace, but that's not what it's FOR. It's fuel, and your body needs it to go. Too little and your body will not go. Too much and your body gets bloated and doesn't function as well as it could.

I was very afraid going into the marathon because I had never run that far. Again, I did not want to break my leg and crawl to the side of the road. This possibility seemed more real this time. But as my husband and my friends kept reminding me, I had trained and I was ready. I had a super run until about mile eight, when I started to get an unfamiliar calf cramp, something that happened to my husband on his second marathon. His were so bad that he finished with a terrible time, and I was afraid that mine would bloom into something like that, so I had to stop a number of times to stretch. Luckily, they never got that bad.

I also had a point at mile 17 where I totally ran out of gas, even though I had been eating Gu as usual (if one can call the intake of Gu "eating"--you really have to experience Gu to understand this). I started grabbing anything the break station people handed me--Gatorade, banana, orange slice. I made it through to mile 20 and thought, "All I have to run now is the equivalent of the Vulcan Run," which was oddly cheering. At mile 22 I got a horrible side cramp like the ones I got when I first started running, except that this one was higher, and I did have a few minutes when I was thinking, "Is that my heart? Am I having a heart attack? That would be so unfortunate. No, I am not having a heart attack. That is not where my heart is." I was kind of wishing sixth grade human anatomy had been a little more thorough on this point. And I said to myself, "This sucks, and I am not running any more marathons."

But by mile 24, I realized I was going to finish and in under five hours which was my S-L-O-W goal--doable and yet respectable, at least in my own mind. I cried tears of joy. I am sure I looked like hell. I turned onto the straightaway--the very same one at the end of the Vulcan Run, around the very same park, to the very same finish line. They called out my name and I threw up my hands in joy.

That day my legs were sore, but I never really had trouble walking, and I didn't experience any of the horror stories you hear about sometimes. The following day, I felt okay at first, and at 11:30 in the morning I completely pooped out like I had the flu. But I took it easy, and the next day I felt all better. And the day after that, I went for a run.

My goal now is to run fun new half marathons and get my time down, because I don't think there's a lot of point in going around running five-hour marathons. However, my husband says I will run the Mercedes Marathon again next year. And I suspect he's right.

New cover!

FINALLY I can show you the cover of Such a Rush. I first saw the basic idea for this cover quite a few months ago, but that example looked harsher. I wasn't sure people would understand this book was a YA romance. Then the publisher went to a cover with a couple lying in a field and an airplane flying overhead--exactly the type of airplane the characters fly in the book! I was impressed by this accuracy because as you know if you read a lot of fiction, often what's on the cover doesn't match what's in the book. But that cover had a problem too: it looked sleepy, and this book is anything but sleepy. So the publisher went back to the first idea and doctored it. I love the way it turned out, especially the soft pink super-cool font for the title.

It so happens that I'm also doing another revision of the book right now. I've gone over the copyeditor's notes, and now I'm reviewing my critique partner cchant 's notes and making lots of nitpicky changes. This is the stage where a book really comes together in my mind and I begin to understand it's almost a finished project that's going to be on shelves soon. I'm so excited about this one. It's way longer than my other books, topping out at almost 100,000 words. It's my first hardcover book. But it's my usual style of dramatic romance, so I think my former readers will be happy. You can read a description of the book on my web site here . And now I'm so thrilled to have a gorgeous and arresting cover to go with the story.

After I turn in the copyedit on Tuesday, maybe I will drive around Birmingham and sign copies of my latest YA romantic comedy, The One That I Want. This book came out as an e-book in December, but on Tuesday it will finally arrive in stores as a paperback. I'm so pleased that it's been getting good reviews. I crack up every time I think about the hero, Max, who is one of my favorites ever.

Then I'm finishing the adult romantic comedy I started during NaNoWriMo . Usually it's so difficult for me to switch gears like this. I'm glad I write different sorts of books so I don't feel like I'm writing the same thing over and over, but the transition takes me a few weeks. However, this time the characters are already nagging me. Scenes are popping into my head when I'm trying to concentrate on this copyedit instead. And that's a good thing, because I don't have a few weeks to make the transition this time. The book is due on March 1.

I AM SO HAPPY TO BE BUSY WRITING. This is the career I always wanted, thanks to my literary agent, Laura Bradford .

Meanwhile, I'm training for my first marathon ever, the Mercedes Marathon here in Birmingham on February 12. I'm not particularly worried about finishing--maybe I should be--but I'm very worried about finishing in under five hours. I am not fast. But whatever happens, I'm proud of myself for completing my longest run ever several weeks ago, 20 miles. And I am trying to calm some of my fears by recalling how nervous I was about finishing my first 10K run (that's 6.2 miles), the Vulcan Run , in 2005. I did finish, and there was nothing like the euphoria of rounding the corner at Linn Park and crossing the finish line. Here's hoping my first marathon ends the same way.