Jen K. Blom's Blog, page 10

How an Editor MUTATES YOUR MIND

The following is a true story.
So you are a writer. You write and write and write, and revise and revise, and edit and edit, and crit crit crit. You find an agent, and depending on the state of your book when they take you on, you do it a little more. Then you go out on sub, maybe do a little more in between, and BAM!
You got yourself a book deal, mister! (mister, in this case going for both girls and boys).
Then you get the line edits and the copy edits and you die a little inside. I mean, there is a LOT. There is a LOT that goes into making a book that perhaps people don't really realize until you're staring your lovely book in a face that looks like it is bloodied out of all recognition.
SO you do them, the edits and you think, "huh, I didn't know that" or "really? That is supposed to be that way?" Or "that is how you fix the sentence? Wow" and so on. Until you're done, and you send them back to your editor and she says AWESOME JOB and WE ARE DONE and WE NOW GO TO GET SET.
It sounds like we're going steady, no?
Anyway.
So then you open a new doc to do the fun manuscript that has been banging around in your head for ages and ages and you find yourself SELF-EDITING as you write. No longer the halcyon days of just writing it out, no, now you KNOW how t-shirt should look, you know the best way to cut a sentence, you watch against excessive emoting, etc.
The question I ask myself is: does this make my writing experience better? Yes and no.
Yes because now I have a better handle on things. I can make sure that my draft is even cleaner than before. That I am learning to copyedit myself better on the fly.
But no because (IMO) the naive thrill of simply writing, opening yourself up and just letting the first draft out, is changed. The freedom is there, but you're a bit more tied to the ground.
I notice this. I miss the way it was. But I'm happy I am learning and changing too.
I think.

Egads.

Remember when I said I had big cool news and I'd tell you all about it on Friday?
*ahem*
Well, I forgot. Sorry! We're switching out my hubs staying home with Loki for me, and between her not sleeping, me deciding I really needed to write two books at once, and working some from home for the day job (not to mention all the household stuff, two neurotic cats, shopping, etc...)...yeah. Sorry.
I forgot.
Anyway, here's the SUPER AWESOME NEWS!!!!!!!!
We've started an English Book Club in Berlin for kids age 11-16 !
Here's our WEBSITE!
Our first book will be the marvelous THE UNDERNEATH by Kathi Appelt, and wonder of wonders, this remarkably talented, fascinating writer and poet is gonna skype with our kids!
To say that we're not totally over the moon about this would be lying. Because we are.
All the details are over on the website! So if you're around in January, definitely join us for wonderful books and even better discussions!

A different type of insanity for NaNo

Heya guys!

How's NaNo? Are you doing it?

I'm not. BUT. I'm doing something waaaaaaaay crazier. Wanna know what it is?

*waits*

I'm writing two books at once.

If you follow me on Twitter, you might have seen this little conversation I had with lots of my buddies (seriously, if you're not on twitter, why not? Best. Convos. Evar). I had an idea of one I've been wanting to write forever, but didn't. Why? Mainly because it patently did not fit my "brand":

a) the kid is a SMART ASS
b) it's got magical realism elements
c) it's freakin' funny, for crying out loud
d) it does not make people cry.

Clearly I need to keep my crying element on the up and up. I'm working on one now that makes me cry; it makes me want to curl up in a corner and suck my thumb when I'm finished with pieces of it, so I was getting pretty depressed. It's ultimately an uplifting story but there's sure as heck no happy ending WHICH, well, I was wanting from SOMETHING. I don't normally do happy endings but I needed one.

Anyway. I totally digressed there, didn't I.

So what I ended up deciding is that I would write that one for ME. For FUN. Alongside writing the one that is deep and thought provoking and also something I love doing just needed a break from.

So yesterday I got about 2k of words on each, and I'm feeling pretty saucy. I'll let you know how it continues, but at least the first day wasn't a total wash.

:-D

Have you ever tried to write two at once? Any tips or tricks I ought to know?

My AUTHOR Photos! Please help!

Hello all! Today we have a lovely Author Photo vote happening here at JKB!

My darling husband has treated some of my lovely photos with his new iPhone app, iMut8tr, and I thought I'd ask you to help me choose an Author Photo! I think you'll agree that it's quite difficult to choose ONLY ONE.
So here we go.










First, to get you started off, a picture of my Lovely Muse, BlackCat. I think he spoke with my hubs about providing him some hair:




Now. I'm particularly liking the ears on this one:



I am a BLOOD SUCKER, yo!



Perhaps my favorite. The demon eyeballs really add something:




My witch one. Needless to say I was not impressed with the fact that he FIRST made me a witch. *grumble*


So what's your favorite?

Well, maybe I'll just go ahead and use this one.

I think it won't make the children cry.


HAPPY HALLOWEEN! What will you be doing this Sunday? We have a book Halloween party at my lovely local indie, and then after, some trickertreating. Darling Loki will be a very scary blue monster.

:-D

Interview with AS King - BLOG TOUR!

Ding dong. Pizza delivery. I've got one mushroom, green pepper and ham here for Jen Blom…

What? Pizza Delivery? In the middle of the night in Germany? Is A.S. King off her meds? (Official Rules here, if you're the curious type.) Full disclosure: Two weeks ago, my book Please Ignore Vera Dietz came out. It's a pretty exciting time, but more exciting when you can traipse around to your friends' blogs and deliver some [imaginary] pizza and answer some questions.


JKB: Were you as mocked and made fun of when you were younger as I was?

ASK: I was very weird. Very weird. That's what all those yearbook inscriptions say. "To a very weird girl I met…." Or "To a weird girl in my homeroom…" So yeah. I was mocked. I had very strong tastes in music in Jr. High school thanks to my influential older sisters, so while most people my age were bouncing around to 80s synthesizers or that awful frizzy-haired pseudo-heavy-metal, I was digging Black Flag and Iggy Pop and classic David Bowie and Elvis Costello and wishing I was Chrissie Hynde circa 1978. Though I smoked (boo! Do not smoke!) and listened to Black Sabbath, the other girls who smoked and loved Ozzy wanted to beat me up because I was weird and liked "punk rock."
I wore weird shoes. I had freakishly large feet, so this was just a side-effect of being me. And I had really really really bad haircuts.
All mock-worthy.


JKB: Can you recommend an awesome pub in Ireland? Someday I'd love to go and I don't know any!



ASK: One of my favorite pubs in Ireland is a place called Andrew Ryan's pub in Kilkenny City. The trad music sessions there on a Thursday night are unbelievable. Completely lift you out of it! And the craic is mighty. (Translation: It's a lot of fun.) A quieter time would be had in Dublin at a place called Byrnes in Stillorgan. Sit by the fire and have a good chat.
BUT my all time favorite pub? You have to take a boat to see. It's called The Jolly Roger and there's a mural my father-in-law on the side of it. If ever you are in County Cork, do take the ferry from Baltimore to Sherkin Island and have a pint at the Jolly for me. Many a night and day and night and day was spent in that place. Ask around for Norman. Kiss him for me. Tell him I sent you.

JKB: How close to your high school is Vera's? Did you find yourself thinking about those days and did you have fun, back in the day?



ASK: Please Ignore Vera Dietz is set in a fictional town that is really similar to my hometown. So, my high school and Vera's high school are probably the same high school, in many ways. Except my high school has been modernized and looks nothing like it did when I went there.



I had fun when I was a teenager. I wore hats. A lot. I wish I could still wear hats, but I can't get away with it now. (Picture to the left was taken by Mr. King the summer we met, when I was 17. That's a sailor hat. I was also quite fond of the beige old man fishing hat.) Looking back, I'm thrilled I was myself, and did what made me happy. It didn't always make me popular, but it made me me, and I'm okay with that. I had most fun at work or playing basketball or doing things with my friends. I wasn't much of a student, so the school part wasn't really something I like to look back on all that much. That said, I had some awesome teachers, so it wasn't all bad.

Jen! Thank you so much for having me around to you blog! Before I go, I hope you don't mind if I tell your readers what the book is about!



PLEASE IGNORE VERA DIETZ
is a Junior Library Guild selection for Fall 2010


18-year-old Vera's spent her whole life secretly in love with her best friend, Charlie. And over the years she's kept a lot of his secrets. Even after he betrayed her. Even after he ruined everything. So when Charlie dies in dark circumstances, Vera knows a lot more than anyone. Will she emerge and clear his name? Does she even want to?

"Brilliant. Funny. Really special." --Ellen Hopkins, author of NYT bestselling Crank, Glass and Tricks


Anyone reading this who might live close to Exton Square Mall in Exton, PA, I will be there on the 30th from 1-3pm signing copies of Vera and being weird. Do stop by!

November Pizza Delivery Stops on my blog!

A sure-fire way to shoot yourself in the foot...

...brought to you by Jen K Blom, foot-shooter.

Everyone gets down about writing at some point. Maybe more than the one point. Maybe it's fairly often... you compare yourself to others, you look at your writing and wonder how exactly you consider yourself a writer, you have life get in the way to where you wonder if you can ever churn anything out again...

*raises hand*

At some point in the last three months, I've done all these things. And more.

While I won't bore (or horrify) you with the horrible details, I will tell you what I try to make my mantra every day. "Only you can make yourself feel bad. Only you can compare yourself to others and come up short. Only you. You have the power to control your life. So do it already!"

While it doesn't help every day, it does help more often than not.

I know my writing and publishing journey is a work in progress, just like I am, and I've also derived a new strategy. Positive thinking in cinematic form.

I sit and think about the coolest things I think could happen to me. Then I think about how I would act if they did. Then I try to keep that sense of happiness and positivity as a basis for my thoughts about everything connected to writing.

I think it helps.

Do you have any positivity tricks? Lay 'em on me!

Good things to keep in mind...

...when your book has been bought. (And it will, so keep it in mind!)

So at present, while I wait on last-round line and copy edits, wait on agent revisions to my wonderful new MS, wait for my kid to start crawling, wait for my house to clean itself (I'll pause here and let you laugh) I thought I'd finalise something I've been working on, on and off since January:

My individual marketing plan for my book.

Don't get me wrong. My publisher is a-maz-ing with ideas on how to promote POSSUM SUMMER, and I'm super happy to go along. But with anything, you can either help or hinder your publicist and I would *prefer* to help.

This in mind, I've specifically done something that they wanted me to do (which you can start to do right now): Make a list of 'important' people for your book, who have agreed to read it when the time comes.

This does not mean approaching them for the first time out of left field, but knowing *who* you want to target and building a relationship with them. My beautiful agent had told me it was important way back, so I'd built my list organically as I went along...to where once I received notice they needed it, I had a list of 12 super great people that wanted to read - as well as two *faints and dies* fantastical authors who'd agreed to blurb. I mean, we're talking legendary authors - to me.

But more on that later (she says, enigmatically.)

A view of my marketing plan/numbered To-Dos/budget/Release part plan

I'm the first to admit that I am a bit of a control freak, and when I thought up my Amazing Marketing Idea, I worked on it a good two months before finally sending it to my publisher. I wanted it perfect beforehand (for instance, it has 45 'ToDo's on my list) and I've also had an attorney vet the rules and information just in case I'm missing some legal bit.

The most important thing is that you liason with your publisher. I've prepared everything in a big doc, with visuals, and am preparing to send the rest (It's not a huuuuge lot though it looks like it...control freak, remember?) to my publisher as soon as I have the last little bits done.

Would I do things differently if this was my second or third or fourth book? Maybe. I know that POSSUM SUMMER is based in Oklahoma (where I coincidentally grew up *g*) and I wanted something that really ties in with that, as well as the themes in the book.

What exactly do I have planned? If you could see that picture you'd know everything, *hee*, but as it is, I'll be putting it on this little blog here first. So just make sure and come back by, and you'll know all - before long.

You? What interesting ideas do you have planned for your book?

---

FYI - author Saundra Mitchell has an awesome group of posts on what an author can do for their marketing here. It should be recommended reading!

SO EXCITED

So guys!

I got approval back on my huge awesome idea for POSSUM SUMMER !!

Once I get some details fine-tuned, I'll be introducing it here for everyone to see !!

Have a great weekend !!

*wheeeeee*

Loki updates

Today my brain is going 90 miles an hour so I'll give it as it seems to come today...in fits and starts.

1. Loki can pull out her binky, look at it, and put it back in. She can bounce herself in her bouncy chair, and BlackCat and BlueCat are her very favoritest animals in the ENTIRE WORLD. Everything stops when one of them visits her, she just gets so tickled.

1a. She gets bored of toys super easy but adores computers. In fact her papa sent me her very first email on Monday. It was very cute.

2. She likes to flip onto her stomach but *still* can't figure out how to get back. She gets so incredibly frustrated and she's just a _step_ from doing it and papa has to keep me from helping her. I know she won't learn it if I help her but still. She is so advanced everywhere else and then this little arm stays in her way and MAN does she have a temper.

3. She sings to herself when she's full and warm. It's the sweetest thing I've ever heard.
4. She will eat anything, and a cubic metric ton of it too. Not like her mum, who refused everything except Dr Pepper and french fries when small (Hey, the parents allowed it!)

5. She has the best and cutest dimples ever.

6. I am knitting her a scarf/hat/mittens set. So far the scarf is done, and the hat halfway. She will be so adorable. Picture will be here.

7. Even though Germany doesn't really do Halloween, we're having it. My BFF and her family are travelling over, we will dress the chitlins up (Loki is a VERY SCARY BLUE MONSTER) and go to Tony Romas. Quite the American weekend. There is even the rumor that in the southern American sector trick or treating is possible. I'll keep you posted.

8. We love her like the sun loves the moon. I didn't know we could be so happy.

9. I have turned into one of those people that can talk your ear off about their kid. I never would have thought this about myself.

10. I can't believe she's already so big. And so perfect.

Crit it like you hate it

I'm finishing up line edits with my editor, and while I'm in a great crit group *waves* and assist others in their writing, I feel like working with my editor has been the single best thing that could have happened to my critting and editing side ever. Why?

She's taught me to crit it like I hate it.

Let me explain. You have a chapter, you're reading through it. What do you normally check for?

1. misspelled words
2. funny placed words
3. basic idea carried through...
4. time schedules, where applicable

She's got me thinking about:

1. extra words. Are you saying too much where you could cut it down? Be more succinct? Editors don't pay by the word! Cut them out!

2. plot development. What actually *happens* to move the plot forward in this chapter? Because no matter what you think about how beautiful that paragraph is, if it's not bringing the story forward? It's gotta go.

3. Backstory. How much do you actually need? How much can you trust your reader to build for themself? Reading is a very individual activity, and imagination must be used. Are you taking away from the story and the reader's imagination by delivering everything on a platter?

4. Chunks. As in, 'blow chunks'. This relates to plot development. Everything should mesh...this goes for those parts that are beautiful but useless. They've got to go.

When I got the first marked-up manuscript, I almost had a HEART attack. She used pencil (thank goodness! It would have looked like a stabbing victim otherwise!) but it seemed everywhere I looked I needed to cut, cut, cut.

I trusted her, though, and decided to do it. I cut. And cut. And I realized, as I went along, that I could have seen lots of the cuts coming if I would have been honest with myself. I was just too in love with some paragraphs to let them go. But let them go I did, and I have a leaner, tighter, better book for it.

I will do this from now on, this critting technique. It's worth its weight in gold.

(x posted from our fourcorners blog)