Jennifer Gooch Hummer's Blog, page 15

Dear Teen Me: a letter to my loser self

Dear Teen Me is a hilarious website wherein authors write to their teenage selves. There are some letters that will break your heart, and some letters that will make you laugh. Mine is just plain embarrassing.

Robby Auld’s Most Excellent Questions

Robby Auld is a teenager by day, superhero by night. He is one of the fiercest reviewers out there, and I am not afraid to say that I was very nervous about his review for Girl Unmoored. (Which is here if you want to see it)

He also maintains a very insightful and clever blog. Your favorite writer will likely have an interview on it. In five years, if there is still such a thing as traditional publishing, Robby will be running it. If there’s a newer model, Robby will be running that instead. And if he wants to be a best-selling author, he’ll do that too.

If you want to read his most excellent questions for me, you can do so here

If you want to check out his brilliant blog, you can do so here

Robby Auld's Most Excellent Questions

Robby Auld is a teenager by day, superhero by night. He is one of the fiercest reviewers out there, and I am not afraid to say that I was very nervous about his review for Girl Unmoored. (Which is here if you want to see it)

He also maintains a very insightful and clever blog. Your favorite writer will likely have an interview on it. In five years, if there is still such a thing as traditional publishing, Robby will be running it. If there's a newer model, Robby will be running that instead. And if he wants to be a best-selling author, he'll do that too.

If you want to read his most excellent questions for me, you can do so here

If you want to check out his brilliant blog, you can do so here

Totally Awesome Contest

 

Here's the deal.

Now through April 6th, when you comment about Girl Unmoored on my blog you'll be automatically entered into a drawing to win a tote bag stuffed with gifts that blend the hottest 2012 e-reader with totally rad '80s memorabilia and more! And if you purchase the book (print or e-book) and forward your receipt confirmation to contests@sparkpointstudio.com, your name will be entered to win 10 TIMES! That's 11 chances to win the following awesome prizes:

A Kindle Fire, just in time for spring break lounging!
DVDs of Best Of 80s movies to celebrate the year of Girl Unmoored, 1985
Copies of my Top 5 YA books: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie; She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb; Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson; The Center of Everything by Laura Moriarty; and The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
A gift card to 1-800 Flowers in honor of Apron's summer job at Mike and Chad's flower shop, Scent Appeal

The winner will be notified and announced the week of April 23rd. Bonus Fortuna!

Girl Unmoored Has Set Sail

This is Pub Day!

To celebrate this super-awesome-best-thing-ever occasion, I'm launching an exciting giveaway that blends the hottest 2012 e-reader with the most rad '80s memorabilia—so stay tuned to my blog.

Thank you everyone for helping me bring GIRL UNMOORED and its characters—Apron, Mike, Chad and the supporting cast—to life!

My Life as a "The"

Writing a novel is like trying to bend a spoon with your mind. It kind of even hurts a little. Complete and utter long-term focus is required but, for me, seldom happens. If I had a wife like Ernest Hemingway did maybe I too could work from 9-5 on my books. Hemingway has been quoted as saying that there were days (days!) he spent mulling over a single "the." I can only dream of cutting and pasting a nice juicy "the" all day long. "The" is an awesome, powerful word that reigns King Supreme in some cases. Get me the bread, please, allows me to sit on my butt. Get me bread, please, means not only do I have to stand, I have to get in the car, drive to the store and buy some (my husband and I are outnumbered by the non-drivers in our family). So it's easy to see why Hemingway needed to think so long and hard about this single word.

Unfortunately (in this case), not only do I not have a wife, I am a wife. And mother of three bread-eating, non-drivers. None of these four people care where my "the" goes. In fact, they've never even seen my "the." And they're most certainly not going to wait for me to drive/feed/clothe/help them while I'm cutting and pasting it for eight hours straight.

But still, a writer must write. It's taken me ten years to get Girl Unmoored published; two to write it, and eight more to finally get a "yes." I didn't talk much about my writing during this time. It was hard enough to get all those "no's" in secret; I wasn't about to publicly lament over them. But now that word is getting out that I penned a book, I'm starting to talk. And it's been so much fun to share my beloved characters. I'll never get those eight straight hours, but the truth is I don't want them. I like jumping back and forth between my two worlds. Or should I say cutting and pasting myself? Come to think of it, I'm the "the" in my writing world. Take that, Mr. Hemingway.

Wait. "That" is a pretty important word too. I'm going to have to do some thinking on it.