Michelle Zink's Blog, page 22

A Week, er, MONTH in the Life!

Since I’ve been off the radar so long, this week’s Week in the Life is a Month in the Life.

Enjoy!

And don’t forget this is the last day to enter the Escape Into Books Super Summer Giveaway!

Here I Am!

So sorry for the radio silence, guys. The last month has been extremely busy as I’ve prepared for Rebekah’s high school graduation and attended book events, all while under some very tough deadlines.

But Rebekah is officially a graduate (I can’t believe it!), book events are past until August when I attend YA Fest in Pennsylvania, and my deadlines are starting to feel somewhat under control.

Whew!

Having said that, it IS summer, so while I’ll try to keep up with my regular blog features, I hope you’ll forgive the occasional lapse. I plan to spend the summer working on three new proposals (and getting back to work on my adult novel), hiking, sleeping, catching up on movies, and spending time with my teens (especially Rebekah who will be moving into her dorm August 23rd). In between, I’ll do my my best to keep up with Song of the Week, movie reviews, Thursday Night Write, the Friday Poll, and my Week in the Life.

A couple of quick updates;

You can still enter to win one of two big summer prize packs in the Escape Into Books Super Summer Giveaway. Entering is easy, and both prize packs contain summer essentials like a big stack of my favorite guilty reads, a tote bag, gift card, lip balm, body spray, etc. But it only runs until the end of the month, so hurry!

Also a quick reminder that the first two Prophecy of the Sisters novellas, Whisper of Souls (told from the point of view of Lia and Alice’s mother before her death) and Mistress of Souls (the highly anticipated novella from Alice’s point of view) have both been released and are available for download from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, and Apple. It’s been super fun to explore these Prophecy stories, and I’m especially excited for the release of the final novella, Rise of Souls, which will let you in on what happens when Lia returns to Altus Island after Circle of Fire.

I hope you enjoy them!

Escape Into Books Super Summer Giveaway

Back in April after the release of A TEMPTATION OF ANGELS, I promised you guys monthly giveaways. The fact that I haven’t done one until now is solely due to a writing schedule that quickly turned insane. You may have noticed over the past couple of months that my posting — and even my regular features — have been sporadic.

I’m sorry! Lately, it’s been all I can do to keep my head above water.

But I’m finally seeing a light at the end of the tunnel, and to celebrate, I’m giving away not one but two AH-mazing Summer Prize packs!

Each of this prize packs contain a summer tote, a $10 iTunes gift card, lip balm, a nail care kit, nail polish, Bath & Body Works body spray, summer candle, and a Hope notebook for all your secret summer thoughts.

One of the prize packs contains the first four books of one of the Fever series by Karen Marie Moning (one of my new favorites!). The other contains four books that I ADORED in my early twenties because they made me want to travel the world, do amazing things, and fall in love in exotic place; Mistral’s Daughter, Princess Daisy, and Scruples by Judith Krantz and Wanderlust by Danielle Steele (such a great ravel book!).

In addition, I’ll give each winner a free download of any one of the three Prophecy of the Sisters novellas; Whisper of Souls, Mistress of Souls, or Rise of Souls.

There are a couple of ways to enter. Get one point for each of the following;

Post a link to the giveaway on Facebook (tag me)

Post a link to the giveaway on Twitter (mention @michellezink in your tweet)

Write a blog post about the giveaway (post a link here)

Post a comment telling me your favorite summer read (doesn’t have to be YA)

Contest runs now through Saturday, June 30th at Midnight EST. Two winners will be chosen at random. Giveaway open to US/Canadian readers.

 

Fast Car by Tracy Chapman

I’m on deadline this week and didn’t have time to poll you guys for a song, so here’s one of my tried and true favorites.

Hope you enjoy it!

And check back tomorrow for the Escape Into Book Summer Reading Giveaway! I’ll be giving away two big summer reading packs with tote bags and other summer essentials along with some of my favorite addictive reads. I want to help you guys start your summer off right!

Friday Poll; Dresses, Dresses and More Dresses!

This is a picture of Rebekah, on her way to Senior Ball as I type this. At her high school, Prom is Junior year and is a formal event while Senior Ball is a semi-formal event.

It seems a little backward to me, but whatever. We got to buy two kinds of dresses over the past two years. That part was fun.

Anyone who know Rebekah knows she is a true girl-girl (in short, the exact opposite of me). She’s always been this way, often changing 3-4 times when she was as young as two, wanting to wear different outfits for different “events”.

If we went to get ice cream, she wanted to change first. If we went to the park, she wanted to change first. If we went to her grandma’s, she wanted to change first!

Not much has changed. If there’s an opportunity to dress up, Rebekah will take it. And sometimes she’ll make an opportunity if she’s in the mood (one time she wore a fancy dress to the store, just because it had been awhile since she’d had occasion to dress up). So she lives for time like this when she actually has a reason.

What about you? Do you like to dress up? What are your favorite kinds of dresses to wear when the occassion calls for something other than pants?

Weigh in with the Friday Poll!

View This Poll

The Cuh-razy Coffer of Carnival Madness!!!

Okay, so I promised something special for those of you coming to see me at this year’s TEEN AUTHOR CARNIVAL, and I’m here to deliver.

Behold, the Cuh-razy Coffer of carnival Madness!!!

Here’s how it works; if you’re at the Fourth Annual Teen Author Carnival tomorrow night at the Jefferson Market Branch Library in New York City, all you have to do is get in my signing line with a book, and you get to choose a prize from the Cuh-razy Coffer of Carnival Madness. There are an array of goodies on offer – all wrapped to preserve the surprise – including nail polish, picture frames, iTunes gift cards, body sprays, candles, lip gloss, Prophecy of the Sisters t-shirts, vouchers for free downloads of Whisper of Souls (the first of three Prophecy novellas which release tomorrow), picture frames, books (hardcovers, paperbacks, and ARCs) plus ONE $50 VISA gift card.

YOU MUST HAVE ONE OF MY BOOKS TO SIGN in order to play. It can be an ARC. a book from home, or one you purchase at the Carnival. I’m happy to sign anything else you want to bring and also happy to say hello and chat for a minute, but you can only pick from the Cuh-razy Coffer of Carnival Madness is you have one of my books in hand to sign.

And don’t forget! There will be TONS of amazing authors at the 2012 Teen Author Carnival. It’s always a blast with fun, interesting panels and ample opportunity to chat with authors and book people.

Hope to see you there!

Friday Poll; Self-Satisfaction vs. Success

This week’s poll was suggested by Tiffany, a reader who posed the question;

Would you rather write a novel you were really proud of that achieved no measure of commercial success or write a novel you knew was crappy but that made you a ton of money?

I think this is something all writers think about from time to time. Sometimes, the work we’re most proud of is a book that goes silently into the night, making nary a blip on publishing’s radar. Some of my very favorite books to read are ones that others have never heard of, books I’ve found in the bargain bin or stumbled across on some obscue shelf, only to read them and think, “This is GOOD.”

All of which is to say that a commercially successful book doesn’t always equal a GOOD one.

I know the answer to this question for myself, but I’m not going to tell until you guys have weighed in! So how about it? Which would you rather write?

View This Poll

Shadow Days

This week’s song is straight from me to you. I’m really loving this new one from John Mayer. He disappointed me for awhile there, but this makes me think he might just be back.

Enjoy!

How Do You Like to Chill

Since we’re getting ready to host 30+ teenagers from Rebekah’s future college class (SUNY New Paltz Class of 2016! WOOT!), I thought it would be a good night to ask you guys about hanging out.

Namely, how do you like to do it? I’m a small crowd person, in general. I like hanging out in a more intimate group of people, sharing wine and great conversation. There are a few exceptions – concerts and film festivals to name two. But most of the time, I like to keep it low-key.

How about you? Weigh in with the Friday Poll!

View This Poll

Living

Well, it’s 11:36pm and I almost didn’t post this week. I’m in a somewhat scary place right now, sort of teetering on the edge of an abyss I’m all too familiar with.

But that’s not what I’m going to talk about tonight.

Last Friday morning, I handed in a project and realized I hadn’t had a whole weekend off since sometime around Christmas. And let me tell you, I was feeling it. I was (and still am, really, because one weekend can’t totally make up for five months of all-out work) totally fried. Mentally, physically, spiritually, and creatively fried.

It’s my own fault. I have a difficult time just being in the moment, being happy with where I am. I’m what my old boss called a “driver”, someone who’s always pushing herself to do more, better, and who pushes other people – for better or for worse – to do the same.

Even when I’m working on one project, my mind is already half-tuned into the next alluring possibility. The next story, the next idea, the next project. It’s not uncommon to see five projects with back to back deadlines lined up on my whiteboard. What’s probably more uncommon is that often these projects and deadlines are entirely of my own making. It’s not enough for me to think, “Oh, I’m super excited about this idea! I’m going to work on finishing it sometime this year.” Instead, I think, “If I write 3,000 words a day seven days a week, I can have a draft done in 6 weeks, allowing for the inevitable crisis, and THEN I can start XYZ project and have that one done a month later.”

I’m exhausting myself just thinking about it. Now you know why I’m a fan of naps.

But I really needed this weekend, and it was one of those rare times when I had drained the creative well so totally, that I couldn’t possibly write one more word. So I took it. I didn’t exactly lay around eating bon-bons, but I did cook and bake for the sheer enjoyment of it, slept in (thank you, Rebekah, for taking Andrew to track Saturday morning), took naps, planted our garden, and read almost the entire Sunday Times.

And I have to tell you, even with the stuff I didn’t get to (like walking, which I’d planned to do because I so love visiting my river spot), it was shocking how different I felt. Not just better (although, there is that), but DIFFERENT. Something as simple as reading the paper – the Travel section, the Arts section, the Magazine – was a rediscovery. An “Oh, yes! I remember that I LIKE the world! It’s fascinating and interesting and full of wonder and curiosity” moment. It made me want to walk the streets of a strange city and talk to people I’ve never met and sit and stare at the water with NO PURPOSE except to drink it all in.

Most of all, it made me want to LIVE.

And therein lies the rub. For someone like me, someone whose work is more than work, it’s an obsession, a lifeline, it is all too easy to forget that what we write about is LIFE. And it is very, very difficult to write about life if you are too busy writing to live it.

So I’m going to try and be better about taking time for myself. Not to run errands and clean and organize, but to LIVE. To read and sing and listen to music in the car and meditate by my river and roam the beautiful backroads of this place I love and call home. Maybe, even, to take a nap on the sofa, read the paper, or read something, not for research or because I SHOULD, but simply because I want to.

I’m going to start with Sundays. I figure I should be able to keep myself away from a keyboard one day a week. Right?

With love…

MZ