Gae Polisner's Blog, page 16

Summer Reading for Tweens and Teens, Got Gravity?

“What summer reading list is complete without a road-trip novel? Especially one that extols the virtues of reading sad books and contains the sentence: ‘Parents are such idiots.’ ” —Newsday 
Summer is coming. 

Not that I'm wishing away spring.

omg, no. I love spring. Stay here forever, Mr. Spring!*

But, ready or not, soon summer will be here. I know many teachers, librarians and other reading clubs are already making up their summer reading lists, and I'm really, truly hoping, with the book now out a shiny new, paperback format, THE PULL OF GRAVITY will be on yours.   

The Pull of Gravity is a National Battle of the Books selection (7th - 8th grade) for 2013-14.

If you are a local library or program, and you use the book in a group setting, I would be thrilled to pay an in-person visit. If you are not local, I'd be happy to Skype in and talking about reading and writing and do a Q&A.

You can reach me here on my blog, or email me at g.polisner@gmail.com for more information.

If you'd like to watch the charming paperback trailer made by a fifteen-year old boy, you can HERE!

Happy reading!

- gae

*could be a Mrs. What do I know?

Bookish Biz

So, just a brief catch-up on all things bookish, in no particular order.

THE PULL OF GRAVITY .
For those who don't know, THE PULL OF GRAVITY is now out in paperback
and making a pretty good showing in
Barnes & Nobles across the country.

Not all of them, no, but a pretty good showing.

B&N 82nd & B'way in NYCIt's also a National Battle of the Books selection, 7th - 8th grades, for 2013-14, as well as appearing on some final nomination lists for State BOB lists around the country. One or two (or more?!) of those would be great for the book.

Movie news has been quiet, but I know they are plugging along. Like I said, Pie-In-the-Sky. Fun and flattering but I'll believe it when I see it come to fruition.


And last, but never least (!) TPoG continues to grow its school audience. I'm very excited to have landed in another Indiana High School where TPoG will be read with Of Mice and Men in the 11th grade. Of course, attendant Skype visits shall ensue, which you all know how I love (love, love) to do.

Mrs. Vorhis' box o' books arrived for Northwood HS, Indiana. :D.
As for other upcoming author appearances, you know you can find those in the sidebar of my blog right HERE, don't you? Yep, I know you do.

MY NEXT YA . So, for those who follow me here, you already know my next YA, formerly referred to as Frankie Sky, sold last spring to the amazing and wonderful Elise Howard, and is due Spring 2014 from Algonquin Young Readers. For those who don't know, Algonquin is the esteemed literary publisher of such books as WATER FOR ELEPHANTS, but this fall will mark their first season as a publisher of Children's fiction and YA. If you'd like to follow them and check out their exclusive inaugural season of releases, you can here on facebook. Because "Frankie" is a summer story (much of it taking place at the beach and at a country club pool), it will be in the second half spring launch. However, as often is the case after sale, it has a brand spanking new title which I love with all my heart, THE SUMMER OF LETTING GO, and if you want to, you can add it to your to-read list on Goodreads, HERE. You can also read more about it on my website, HERE.

OTHER WRITING STUFF . In other writing stuff, I got a sort of bite on my always-heartbreaking women's fiction, so I spent the last several weeks revising the manuscript previously known as Swim Back to Me that I am now calling THE SWIMMING SEASON. I'm sure, as always, it will come close but no cigar, and break my heart again. Still, I wouldn't mind you crossing your fingers for me. . .

And, that's that. Back to work on an old YA ms that my agent thinks has potential but right now is in the I-hate-you-now-die stages of revision. Hopefully, that will change soon.

Anyway, hope you're enjoying your spring... or, I guess, hope you're about to, as in most places the weather has belied any glimpses of same.


I'll leave you with my paperback book trailer for THE PULL OF GRAVITY because I never get tired of it. Made by 15-year-old Jude Bourke (available to make yours!), illustrations by his dad, and my friend, Karl Bourke.




- gae

Two (very) Old Love Poems

photo credit: Rick Kopstein
(with added help from the simians at Pic Monkey)
So, it's World Poetry Day, and my good friend Jim King got me thinking of the old poet in me.

The truth is, before I ever wrote books, my first love was poetry, though the last poem I wrote was probably in my mid-twenties.

After that, there was the law school phase and then the lawyer phase that I'm fond of saying, "sucked the creativity right out of me."

Then there were: marriage and kids, and the practice of law, and, ultimately, when I returned to writing, it was with the (daunting) hopes of writing a novel in mind.

There was The Jetty (agented, but never sold), Swim Back to Me(agented but not sold, with new life breathed into it -- maybe, maybe not,  The Pull of Gravity  (sold!) Frankie Sky now The Summer of Letting Go coming Spring 2014, etc.

But before all that, I wrote poetry.

It was my first love, and my friend Jim has sent me into a bit of a reverie. . . (bear in mind I was only 21... ;))

Verging 

I breathe
heavy air blankets the up-down rhythm
clocks and other night noises
float to me
here            aah, settle
to Autumn patterns
                   play and remind
                   (play and remind)
and, hey, you're too big for my heart
these days

                   The fan
and hot covers stifle
as somewhere water drips
slow            one, two
the radio and other sounds turned on to drown out
the constant, hollow fall of wet

but the man tells:
                    gunfire where you are
like he's reading from cue cards through static

Somewhere, between dark and mourning
I wake to call you
through dry cracked lips and no sound
only your name in my ears
                     swelling
and, hey, you're too big for my head.

-gae, 6/21/85


Temptations in Blue

(when you close your eyes, he said,
                           think only of blues)

so tightly I do
that I am at once surrounded and carried off
to where we can be.

there I float, as sea upon sea takes me
                             (though I tell no one, I recognize it is the blue of your eyes)
                              and I am safe to fall back where
somewhere, between childhood and pain
it begins to break
                            and scatter
into icy-cold marbles that tease and elude my uneasy hands
the fingers left groping at angels' wings
then
air.

I drift,
          where I resurface I am lightheaded and weightless
                             flooded by turquoise so brilliant it pulls me

I do not follow but hold
                             to the edge of a peacock's tail
its cobalt center
                             trembles and bursts
                             and silently folds
                             into green.

There
          where I cannot remain
but try to
anyhow.

- gae 8/13/85

Bye, Bye, title Frankie Sky. . .

I grabbed a wistful photo.
If books are our babies,
kissing the old name goodbye
can be a wistful thing. . . 
With apologies to Don McLean. . .

So, bye bye title Fra-nkie Sky
Took my book-y to the pub sale, 
but the title felt dry 
Them good ol' teens like their titles to fly,
 singing... 
This'll be the day, me-oh-my. . . 
This'll be the day (I won't cry). . . 

Yeah, well, whatever. 

I never said I was genius or anything.

Anyway, I was going to wait a bit to do the title reveal for my next YA book (the actual book is still a ways away) but I'm on a few blogs this week and next and they seem to be linking to the Goodreads page where somehow (however these things work) my next book is up there as it sold as Frankie Sky.

So, I'd rather quell further confusion. 

So, as you all know by now, my next YA comes spring 2014 from Algonquin Young Readers. 

Now, I'm no stranger to title changes. I mean, The Pull of Gravity sold as Steinbeck, The Scoot & The Pull of Gravity (and its first working title in my computer was actually Fat Man Walking). I never once looked back after we made it TPoG, and I can't imagine it having any other name. So, yes, it's one of the first things I think we learn as new authors about the biz. A working title is often just that, working, and as much as I love "Frankie Sky," I'm ready to let it go and to introduce my next YA into the world with its proper title. 

FYI, it helps a lot that I love it (!!). Plus, it's a little extra special because my agent, the wonderful Jim McCarthy, came up with it. We were hovering around a few similar ones, but none of them quite perfect for different reasons, when BAM! the email from Jim came in. Winner, winner chicken dinner! Hooray!

But first, for posterity's sake, let's give Frankie, the proper send off: 


*dabs eyes a little*

See? That's nice. He had a few days in the sun. . .

And now for the title of my next YA, due spring 2014 from Algonquin Young Readers:



There it is. The Summer of Letting Go . Coming spring 2014. 

Isn't it lovely? I think so.

If you want to read the rest of the little blurb about it, that's from my website. Go ahead, click on that, there. (p.s. that "cover" is a place holder. Cover drama will come next.  It's what we do ;)).

Anyway, peeps, I can't wait. Although, I'm not wishing spring or summer to go too fast, because you know how I love my warm and water and sun. So, no, let those linger. I'll wait. We'll wait.

See you all to "let go" with ARC's in the fall!

-gae

Snow-covered, Windblown, and Busy

Windblown me.
I was in Florida last week with my family. 
We got a whopping two days of sun :( out of the five we were there, one during which the winds whipped 30 miles per hour.
Still, I lay at the pool, grateful to soak in the sun and relax dreaming of the open water swim season that is just around the corner.
Right?
It IS just around the corner?!?!
I mean, you guys know that I need two things:
water and sun.
And, instead, THIS is what I had left behind in New York:

my husband's car is under there somewhere.
Yes, indeed. The New York weather gods had the good graces to dump nearly 3 feet of snow on us the week before.
Anyway, I'm back now, and behind and have a sh*tload of writing stuff on my plate.
"Frankie Sky" is finally on it's way to copy edits (btw, my new publishing home Algonquin Young Readers has a lovely new website and facebook page (as does my TPoG publisher, Farrar Strauss Giroux Books for Young Readers, finally!) and I am in the throes of doing all the behind-the-scenes stuff on that one -- getting permissions, fretting over my author photo ;\ , and mulling over new titles (not sure if I'm allowed to share the front runners here. Maybe next time).
Next will come cover ideas and the dreaded, dreaded jacket copy. How can that be so hard?
In the meantime, I had submitted a potential option book -- if you follow me here, you've seen bits of it, called In Sight of Stars, and while my editor says she liked a lot of things about it, she didn't think it was a best "next" book (she gave me some reasons and I must begrudgingly admit she might be right) so that one's going to simmer on a back burner.
Which means -- horror of horrors -- I need to get going on another book. I do have another completed rough ms that I haven't picked up in two years... and my agent is looking at that, but I think that may suffer the same issues as Stars, making it not a good NEXT book. Also have another one in the works that might be better, but all it is right now is a big old pile of mush. :\
In the midst of this all, I've started work on a high-concept YA collaboration with another writer friend which is a HUGE departure for me, and will probably be something I work on in between projects, AND also got a bit of a bite on a piece of my beloved women's fiction which is requiring me to try to do a rewrite. 
So, my writing plate is full and let me just say that, THIS WRITING GIG IS HARD WORK!!!

As far as The Pull of Gravity goes, it is now out EVERYWHERE in paperback and I would surely love you to go out and grab a copy from Barnes & Noble or your local indie bookstore. It's also got a spiffy new trailer that was made by a 15-year-old kid, Jude Bourke.

He's the son of a friend and his dad, Karl, did the amazing original drawings. If you like it, leave him a note, and please, please, please pass it on. 
Anyway, that's it for now. 
Back soon!
xox gae

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

OOOH, who is the lucky winner?

Okay, fine, paperback novel, whatever.

So, the other day,

"Do you have any strange or funny habits? Did you as a kid?" 

I received a lot of fun answers -- um, thank you, I think?! -- but none of them exactly right. *winces*
It was a little hard to choose which answer came closest. *rolls eyes* 
I decided to go with the answer provided by:

drumroll:

Kandice!
Since hers and mine both have something to do with going to the bathroom. *coughs*

Kandice's answer: "You couldn't help yourself, while at slumber parties, from dipping your sleeping friends' hands in warm water, then giggling like an idiot until someone woke up, discovered a *cough* mess, then you pretended to be asleep and feigned complete and righteous innocence?" 
My answer:


Yes, that is the best I could do. I hope it's okay with all of you. :) 
So, if you want to read the rest of the Q&A, you'll have to pick up a snazzy new copy of The Pull of Gravity, NOW out in paperback, at your favorite online or, better yet, brick & mortar bookseller. 
But, don't just buy it for the Q&A, I think it's a pretty good story.
Oh, and if you read it already and liked it, please tell a friend or two about it. 
The Pull of Gravity, Bank Street Best Fiction,
Nerdy Award Best Fiction, Pennsylvania School Library Top Forty.

xox to all!
gae
p.s. don't forget that if you're local, I'm giving a free writers workshop followed by music and cake at the Huntington Public Library! Registration Required (Ages 11+) this Sunday, February 10th, at 2pm. 

Who Wants a Quickie?

One book, three covers.
Which do you like best?
I know, I know. I'm such a tease.

But five days until the paperback of THE PULL OF GRAVITY officially releases so I decided to do a quickie giveaway.

FYI, I am not a fan of giveaway contests.

A. I save most my giveaways for charitable endeavors or teachers & classrooms and

B. in case you don't know this (and why would you?), other than a short supply of "author copies" we get upon release of the new edition, authors end up buying every book we give away.

Yeah, you heard me: we buy our own darned books. :)

BUT, having said that, I am truly uber excited about the paperback release (can you say "The Pull of Gravity for $9.99?!)  -- and more excited since I Skyped with an awesome book club from the Lacey Branch Library (Ocean County, NJ) last night and they hands-down loved the shiny new paperback cover.

So, here it goes. Oh, and I'm not making it easy.

(If you want your quickie easy *coughs*, you can go HERE, to my blogger pal Kelly's BLOG - she's hosting a giveaway where all you have to do is comment to enter. I'm making you work a little harder than that!

So, the paperback has some shiny new features that the hardcover doesn't. And one of them is an Author Q&A in a section called Go Fish! (the paperback is published by Square Fish).

See?
For the past two weeks, here and there, I've been posting some teasers of the questions.

The truth is, some of my answers are kind of funny, though some I would change today, and some I totally didn't remember how I answered...

Anyway, one of the questions -- well, really a two-parter -- is,

"Do you have any strange or funny habits? Did you as a kid?" 

Your job, if you choose to accept it, is to guess in a comment the answer to part one or part two (now or then) or both. And, um, please be appropriate because I have tween and teen readers and we all know no one is more appropriate and proper than teens. (shhh).

Anyway, the contest is open for the next five days. The person who comes closest to guessing right, will win a signed paperback and a The Pull of Gravity swag pack (signed buttons, bookmarks, a mini slinky, wax lips, and one of the few remaining and uber-exclusive mini troll dolls with a signed butt).



So, get to it. I'll see you here again late on February 5th for the winner!

xox gae

p.s. if you read The Pull of Gravity and loved it, please spread the word. If you haven't put up a review on Amazon and are willing... I would be grateful!

In which I ramble on about the paperback and stick to my new habit of using mostly pointless footnotes

added some color to my
hair to help spread the word. fn1 Yep, just me again,

trying to get the word out  fn1 

about the paperback release

of my book,


THE PULL OF GRAVITY!



(while also annoying you with some more pointless footnotes because I can).


After all, I'm excited about the book coming out in paperback and you should be, too.

Why?

Um, because you should read it and now, if you haven't, it is uber-affordable and has that groovy cover.

But don't take my word for it. This guy, for example, seems to love it:

Just a teacher in Michigan who is the bomb. fn2
or this smart lady, Cindy:



Er, don't pay attention to KAL, Cindy is the important one.  ;)

So, see, most people who know about it and read it, love my little book. fn3 

And, it's got pretty much everything:

A road trip;

A dying kid;

Star Wars and Steinbeck;

Wax lips, Slinkys, a hotel room and troll dolls; and

A princess (Buttercup), a pirate, a gentle giant, R.O.U.S., the Pit of Despair, some Iocane powder, and a Spanish swordsman who seeks revenge on the six-fingered man. fn4

Oh! And, of course, a little romance.

So, if you want all that, then you want to pre-order the paperback (officially on sale 2/5), and you can do so at all your favorite on-line stores, or, better yet, walk into your nearest B&N or other INDIE bookstore soon and ask for it by name. fn5

In other "ME" news, I'm trying to Tumbl(r) more fn6, so if you want to, you can find me HERE. An awesome dude that I love and adore to total bits and pieces, named Justin (but I won't tell you his last name) hooked me up with a better Tumblr page so I can seem just a little less lame. THANK YOU, thank you, thank you, Justin!! :)

So, yeah, I think that's it. If you buy the paperback, there's a fun "Go Fish" Author Q&A in the back, where they ask me questions and I, um, answer them, I suppose. fn7



So, yeah, now that's it. So, go to it.

Buy my book. (please)

Tell your friends.

Tell them to tell their friends and their friends to tell their friends and then add in that nice little infinity sign.

Oh, and if you're local, come get a copy signed and eat cupcakes with me at the Huntington Public Library on 2/10. All of the details are HERE.

Now, scat. That's enough of you. You heard me.

xox gae

p.s. Oh goodness, I almost forgot, for the cost of a comment, you can enter yourself in a PAPERBACK GIVEAWAY here!!! (thank you, Kelly!)

essential footnotes:

fn1 Hadn't you heard about the word?  




fn2  he is, of course, only the bomb if being the bomb is still a good thing. otherwise, he is so not-anything-like-the-bomb.

fn3 or, you know, at least two people.

fn4  that is, too, all from MY book. I don't know what you're talking about.

fn5 The Pull of Gravity, yo.

fn6 You young un's think you're so hip and cool with your Tumblr, and I'm down wit dat, but truth be told, all I ever think of when you say Tumblr is this:


which just shows you how old that I am. :)

fn7 of course, some of those answers are lies. If you want the real answers, you may email me at g.polisner@gmail.com but only if you know what the questions are. ;)

Got Paperback?

This is me in my monkey hat.  
Are you sick of me yet?

(please say no, please say no, please say no...)

It's okay, sometimes I'm sick of me too.

Still, it's a dog eat dog world out there, and writers have to promote themselves.*fn1

So, once again, here I go.

If you prefer not to read any further blatant self author book promotion, here's a lovely place to sit, instead,

looking out over my father's gardens. Feel free to stay here and relax:


Nice, right?

(Are you still here?)

If you are still reading, guess what?

Square Fish did a fabulous job with the cover! 
My paperback is out! Well, the official release date is February 5, but the ship date is 1/17 which means boxes and boxes of the The Pull of Gravity in paperback are now circulating all over the country. *fn2

Meaning this: It would make me really happy if:

a) you buy one for yourself; b) you buy one for a beloved tween or teen; c) you read it and loved it and told two friends to a) buy one for themselves or b) buy one for a beloved tween or teen.

also, it doesn't hurt *fn3 if you put up a review on Amazon.

But what would make me happiest -- at least if you are local -- is d) if you come and join me to celebrate the paperback release on 2/10 at the wonderful Huntington Public Library (it's a Friends of the Library fundraiser). If you want to read more about the launch party, you may do so HERE or HERE (you must register to come!).

If you don't come, be warned. You will be missing:

a) monkeys *fn4;

b) jugglers *fn5;

c) flame-throwers *fn6;

d) delicious cupcakes *fn7; and

e) a live, bravura performance by an internationally-acclaimed musician! *fn8.

Plus, clearly, I will do the entire reading standing in a pool. *fn9



So, see, in the end, this isn't really about me and my blatant self promotion.

This is about YOU, reading a good book, telling your friends about a good book, and having an awesome Sunday afternoon in February with live cupcakes and live music. *fn10

Also, there's a Writer's Workshop and Publishing Q&A beforehand, if that's your cup of tea. *fn11

So, that's it. I love my readers and need my readers and I'm grateful if you spread the word.

Speaking of which, my next book, still unnamed but referred to as Frankie Sky, comes soon from Algonquin Young Readers. They've launched their Fall 2103 line of galleys into the Universe and have gone live on Twitter (@AlgonquinYR) and facebook. If you're either place, you should check them out and follow them. I'm sure there are monkeys and jugglers galore! *fn13

Thanks for reading.

xo gae

footnotes:

*fn1: did you skip over that link? Because seriously, at least if you're a writer, it is one of the funniest things I've ever read. Just in case, I'll give you the link again. Hell is My Own Book Tour.

*fn2: this may be a slight exaggeration.

*fn3: it actually helps -- some Amazon algorithm that does something to do something.

*fn4: lie, no monkeys.

*fn5: lie, no jugglers.

*fn 6: lie, no flame throwers

*fn7: all completely true!

*fn8: I promise "David and David" are talented, plus, we must have some relatives in another country somewhere who will vouch for them...

*fn9: hey, I will if the Huntington Library will let me! :)

*fn10: okay fine, no such thing as live cupcakes, you say? What if I put spirulina *fn12 in them?!

*fn11: my cup of tea lately is Tazo Zen Tea (I mean, come on! Lemongrass and Spearmint?!). I'd be genuinely curious what yours is, if you want to tell me. I'm an excellent listener that way. :)

*fn12: i promise not to put spirulina in them.

*fn13: has no idea if there are monkeys and jugglers. You'll have to buy the books and open the pages to see. . . :)

plate full #overload

with apologies to ee cummings (what if a much of a which of a wind...)
what if a much of a which of a blog
gives truth to a writer's lie
buries with dizzying sheafs, the page
and yanks manuscripts awry? 
blow facebook to twitter and tumblr to g+
(blow screen to scam: blow space and time)
—when pages are hanged and screens denied,
the single secret will still be pen… . . . my way of saying, my plate is full... i am on overload. all good,  but an endless shiny parade of things to do and attend to. The Pull of Gravity comes out in paperback on 2/5 (well, today i held the first shiny copy in my hand -- you can see the video HERE);The novel formerly known as Frankie Sky has been delivered and accepted by my editor which means it now moves on to copy edits;The novel known as In Sight of Stars is in my editor's hands... *bites nails*The novel I started working on this summer (The Memory of Things) calls to me, but requires some research to be done too, and so does a quick revision of Swim Back to Me, with the thought that I may submit it quietly to the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest this year... rather than have it just "sitting there." If I do, I know some people will hate me -- a published author -- especially if it does at all well, but the truth is, I simply have not managed to yet break through with my women's fiction (nor, do i necessarily expect it to do well. But I have made some changes to it since it was shopped, and it would be nice to just see how it does. . .) ?In the middle of that, a friend who wrote a rough YA that isn't quite working yet, has asked me to step in and collaborate. The book/story is way different than anything I ever write, so the challenge is kind of fun for me. But this was unexpected, and suddenly I'm elbow deep in things.In the midst of all that writing stuff (and the constant effort/need to market The Pull of Gravity), there's also my usual swimming, and my new year's resolution to get back to yoga at least twice a week. And then there are my kids and my day job. :) All this to say, my plate is full and I am on overload, and sadly, dear blogger and facebook and twitter etc,  something's got to give. . .  xox gaep.s. if you are local, please come to my paperback launch party 2/10 from 3 - 4:30 pm. DETAILS HERE! (preceded by a one-hr writer's workshop, ages 12+ welcome!)