Mette Ivie Harrison's Blog, page 107

who are we?

So this is a question I have been thinking about for a while. Specifically, are we more the person we appear to be under stress? Or more the person we on an everyday basis? How do I remember myself? My own version of myself is bound to be flawed, with certain parts edited out, either consciously or not. But do I think of myself as a writer primarily? As a mom? As a triathlete? As a thinker? Do I have a different reaction when one part of myself is taken away?

As a child, I was sure th...

autism

I have been interested/fascinated by autism for at least twenty years. I spent a couple of years in grad school as a teacher of an autistic child for two hours a week. And then my best friend's oldest was diagnosed with Asperger's. And two neighbors had autistic children who are mostly nonverbal that I have tried to help with (without much success). My agent knows that I have tried to write numerous novels either about autism or with autistic side characters. It just keeps coming up. (No...

disappointment in series

I was talking to my husband recently about the impossibility of satisfying fans of a first book like Twilight or The Hunger Games with any sequels. The expectations are so high. And the schedule that authors are put on to produce books on a yearly schedule seem difficult, to say the least. If you consider the fact that an author is probably doing quite a bit of touring/self-promotion for each book, and the time that has to be set aside for editing and so on, I doubt that there is six month...

new titles

I think my editor and I have worked out the titles for the new series (previously called Two Princesses, Two Magics, Two Queens). They are:

A Crown of Diamonds and Sapphires
A Sword of Rubies and Pearls
A Necklace of Onyx and Emeralds

I tend to listen to my editor about titles because a) the publisher chooses the title and the cover, not the author b) most of my titles have changed after I sold the book and c) I choose incredibly literal titles that could use some polishing.

If I have a book abou...

reflections on time

I am turning forty in a couple of weeks and I suppose that's why I have started to look at my life a little differently. My husband has this macabre desire to celebrate his "half-life" birthday, calculated according to some internet attempt to determine his life expectancy. If so, I've got another decade to go before I hit mine. There are some long-lived women in my family. Also, I have a very healthy life.

I don't feel that I have done my best work and will now be looking back at it. I d...

better

So with the kids off to school, I am starting to look around the house and realize what a mess it is. I have a friend who will not let me into her house. Literally, I have never seen the inside of her house. We meet for lunch and talk on her porch, but I do not go inside. This is because she is embarrassed about how messy her house is. My daughter has been inside a couple of times (when Mom wasn't home) and she said the house is about as messy as ours is. I have a certain standard, and ...

August 2010 monthly stats

Books Read and Recommended:

Palace Beautiful by Sarah DeFord Williams (i)
Lance Armstrong's War by Daniel Clute
It's Not About the Bike by Lance Armstrong
Rose Sees Red by Cecil Castellucci
Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Robinette Kowall (i)
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (i)
The Clockwork Three by Matthew Kirby
Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
Freak Magnet by Andrew Auseon
Half World by Hiromi Goto
Black Hole Sun by David MacGinnis Gill
Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
Marcelo in the Real W...

race report Utah Half 2010

I make myself race goals about a week before every race I do. I try to make what seem reasonable goals, based on my training and my knowledge of the course (if I have any). But I have not reached a single goal this year. Not one. For most of the races, about 2-3 hours in length, I have been about 5 minutes off of my goals. For longer races, I tend to be off a similar amount, as a percentage. Sometimes I feel bad about not reaching my goal. Other times, there are reasons that I have no ...

the new vampires

So I said that my friends don't ask me to read their manuscripts and this is true. I do, however, have plenty of "friends of friends" who want to ask me for advice about a career in writing. I am never bothered by these sorts of questions because they seem to be relatively easy to answer. I point people to "Writer's Market" at the local library, which has lists of publishers and addresses to send manuscripts to, or queries. Or to "A Guide to Literary Agents" which does the same for agents...

author musings

Postulate:

Authors who are successful figure out who their market audience is and write to that market.

Problem:

Authors who are successful become less and less interesting as their careers go on because they take fewer and fewer chances with their writing.

Example:

Do you remember Adam Lambert singing the Johnnie Cash song during country week?

(I know he's not an author, but I'm trying to avoid pointing the finger at an increasingly large group of author friends--call me a coward!)

Anyway, I rolle...