Ellen Jensen Abbott's Blog, page 3

Still being read!

It’s fun when something like this–a good review from a first-time reader–comes up–three years after the book came out! People are still reading it! Yay!! It’s what every author hopes for, but it’s easy to wonder if your books are mouldering on a shelf somewhere….(The usual writing insecurities surface…)

http://nafcteens.wordpress.com/2012/08/15/rave-watersmeet/

Thanks to Rants and Raves!

Reflections on a hard writing winter–

This winter was tough. I had new responsibilities at my job, my kids are both teenagers now (gulp), my son changed schools, my mom was seriously ill for a while, and the sale of my publishing company to another company brought a lot of uncertainty.

Then there was the fact that my characters were not behaving. I followed where I thought I was being led and ended up having to throw out six months of work. Certainly, they were not a particularly productive six months, but it’s awfully tough to be looking at a manuscript in April that is essentially the same manuscript you were looking at in September.

And when I did start over, I found myself, for the first time, writing a draft with only the vaguest sense of what the end point was. In my earlier manuscripts, I always knew the final scene,  the climax, the final resolution. It’s like climbing a mountain and looking up now and then at the peak, telling yourself, “Soon I will be there, staring out at a gorgeous vista, looking back over the arduous trail, and feeling the wind on my face.” But in this one, I couldn’t see the peak. I knew the nature of the resolution, but I didn’t know what the climax was or any of the particulars of the resolution. It was disconcerting–even as I recognized that I was learning a new writing lesson as I did it. And it took some faith because I had to climb this mountain in a fog, believing the peak was there and that I would get there and it would be worth it, but never really being sure.

This summer has been, at times, different. Since chucking out all my work in April, I’ve been clear that starting over was the right thing, but it has still been a real slog. There were times, LOTS of them, when I thought that there was no way to the peak of this mountain. Finally, in desperation, I called a friend and told her the story. She’s read drafts for me before, loves sci-fi/fantasy and is a history teacher/PhD so she brings an interesting perspective to the whole “world-building” aspect of fantasy. She gave me enough hope and confidence to keep going. And the fog began to clear.

Suddenly, I had an ending. The peak was still far away, but  I could see it and I knew the ascent was possible.

I’m not there yet. (Don’t tell my editor!) But I will make it. If there was only a little more summer left….

Fantasy Decor

Below is a photo of a lamp that sits in my office:

 It was made by my wonderful friend, Cara Graver, who is a fabulous potter/ceramicist. I saw it and knew I had to have one! If you look closely, you can see that it is a gnome house, complete with gnomes, sheep, mice (and a beeswax dachshund my daughter made). The shade is cool, because when you turn it on, butterflies and dragon flies appear! You can see them here:

I have other whimsical items in my office–to keep me in the right mood for writing fantasy. (One of them is the statue of the Green Man, featured on my Facebook fan page: Ellen Jensen Abbott, author).

I’ll put some other photos up in the future!

Oh! And check out Cara’s website at http://www.thecobstudio.com/ She built this house out of cob–a material I  have had in and then edited out of both of my books! My kids and I even helped a tiny, tiny bit with building it. You make the cob by putting straw, sand, clay and water together (I may be forgetting an ingredient…) and mixing it with your bare feet! Cool!

The Green Man!

You’ve read about him in both Watersmeet and The Centaur’s Daughter. Here is an IMAGE:

I just LOVE this guy! And now that you know what to look for, you’ll see him everywhere. He is the spirit of things green and growing and was an important deity in pre-ChristianBritish Isles (and elsewhere). One source I read said that there are more images of the Green Man in older churches and chapels in England than there are of the Virgin Mother or Christ!

Enjoy the photo!

Amazon promotion!!

Great news! Amazon is running a promotion of my books through next weekend! Kindle versions are $3.99 and the books themselves are 60% off the cover price! Never a better time to stock up! :p

Amazon is promoting both of my books this week! $3.99 Kindle versions; 60% off cover price! Check it out: http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=br_lf_m_1000821871_grlink_1?ie=UTF8&plgroup=1&docId=1000821871

Lots of great festivals coming!

YA Fest–Easton, PA, August 4, 11-3

http://www.yafest.blogspot.com/

Bring YA to PA!–West Chester, PA, August 25, 12-4

http://bringya2pa.wordpress.com/

Sign up for a writing workshop before the signing! I’ll be giving at talk on World Building, and reading manuscripts! (10-12)

Collingswood Book Festival–Saturday October, 6, Collingswood, NJ

http://collingswoodbookfestival.com/authors/authors.php

 

Check out the deal on WATERSMEET!!

Deal on WATERSMEET on Amazon today! They’re running an Amazon.com promotion of my physical book in support of the Kids Books team’s Summer Reading store! From 4-8 PM WATERSMEET will go on a deal price and be featured on the main Kids & Teens page! Check it out

Hudson Children’s Book Festival–2012!

I spent Friday and Saturday in  NY state visiting the Maple Hill Middle School in Castleton-on-Hudson and then attending the Hudson Children’s Book Festival in Hudson. What a blast! This was my third year at the conference and it is so well run, so well attended, so fun! This is a community that really supports reading and does everything it can to support it. I saw loads of writing friends, listened to an excellent keynote address by Walter Dean Myers, and talked books with readers and writers alike. It was also wonderful to work with the kids at Maple Hill Middle School who asked great questions about writing and being a writer. Photos to follow!

 This is me and friends at Hudson itself: Julia Rozines DeVillers, Ann Heywood Leal, and Danielle Joseph.

 

 

 

 

This is a photo of Valerie Flood, Reading Specialist at Maple Hill, who invited us to visit her school–and put up three of us for the festival–me, Danielle Joseph (Shrinking Violet, Indigo Blues, Pure Red) and Ann Haywood Leal (Also Known as Harper, A Finders Keeper’s Place). We were all in the class of 2K9 together.

Remembering why I write YA….

Yesterday I attended Rick Riordan’s webcast with kids from Westtown, where I teach. Most of the audience was in sixth grade, although there were some tenth graders there, too. Honestly, I didn’t really want to go. I have a ton going on these days and I could have used that hour to “get something done.” I loved Percy Jackson, though, for some reason, I didn’t read the whole series. I read part of The Red Pyramid with my daughter, but then she finished it on her own. But, I thought, I really should go. I should see how a web-cast is done, see how Riordan interacts with his audience, learn something about his process, etc. etc. I also want to support YA, and fantasy, wherever I can, so I left my desk over-flowing with to-do lists and lessons plans and trotted over to the science lecture hall where the webcast was happening.

It was decent. Riordan was in an Egyptian museum and he was engaging as a host, knew a lot about Egyptian gods and magic, and was thoughtful in his presentation to his young readers. Fine. Nothing to write home about, but I was glad I came.

The last question he took was a student asking if he planned to take on a new mythology in his next series. He handled the question with just the right build up to his announcement. Yes, he had been thinking about this for a long time. There was one mythology that always fascinated him–that had really been his first mythological love, in fact, so he was very excited to tell us that he would next tackle…

Norse Mythology.

Throughout the lecture hall sixth graders started cheering, high-fiving each other, fist bumping, grinning from ear to ear. They were pumped. About Norse Mythology. The totally unaffected joy in that room about the promise of a good story–that’s why I write YA.

Muskogee, Oklahoma!

I had a blast yesterday skyping with a group of students at the Hilldale Middle School in Muskogee, Oklahoma! There were some technical glitches, but it was really neat to connect with this group of avid readers and writers. They asked great questions–and even laughed at some of my jokes! Watersmeet has been nominated for the Sequoyah Book Award in Oklahoma, which first brought these students’ attention to  my book.

There are some parts of skype that are difficult. What with trying to look at the camera and not the screen and the delay in what each party says, it’s really hard to read your audience. But all this is made up for by the fact that you get to connect with readers from far away. I would never have been able to make the trip to Muskogee, but there I was–or at least cyber-me was there!

Thanks for the invitation, Ms. Harrison, and thanks to the group of students who welcomed me so warmly and asked such  great questions!