Gae Polisner's Blog, page 26

Real vs. Virtual and my First "Group" Event

from front to back, Geoff Herbach, Christina Mandelski, Amy Dominy
and me in the white shirt, signing books.
This weekend I had the treat of finally meeting in person friends who, before now, I've only communicated with online: fellow Class of 2K11'ers Amy Fellner Dominy (OyMG), Christina Mandelski (The Sweetest Thing), Bettina Restrepo (Illegal), and Geoff Herbach (Stupid Fast). Of course, I had met Alissa Grosso (Popular) recently at an author event in NYC.

The crew has converged on New York City for Book Expo America Week in NYC and we have several events planned together around the city this coming week (see the right sidebar of my blog for places and times or click on the link above to go to our facebook event page). But first, Amy, Christina, and Bettina flew in to Long Island for a slumber party with me, and to attend a local event at the Huntington Library on Sunday, which Geoff and Alissa then joined us for.

We ate pizza and drank wine (and Amy D. and I may have eaten a full vat of three-flavor popcorn ourselves) and then woke up the next morning and drank coffee and had a slumber-gab in my basement on blow up mattresses. We even took a walk around my hilly neighborhood trying to work off the pizza and the full vat of popcorn (only to follow that up with bagels by the pool).

And here's the thing we kept marveling at: as I greeted each new face, previously seen to me only in photos on facebook or small square images on Twitter, it felt like I had known them all my life. There was no awkwardness. There was no sense that we didn't have a long, in-person history together.

We all kept commenting excitedly about how we felt like giddy school girls together, old friends reunited after a few years apart. Yes, even Herbach felt somewhat schoolgirly with us, but only in the most complimentary way. ;)

Of course, I had experienced this before when I met my dear ABNA friends in real life, so I knew it to be possible.

Still, it keeps on amazing me how truly connected we can become in our virtual lives, in a way that transcends the screen and cements relationships in "real" life.

Coolio, people. Coolio.

Real vs. Virtual and my frst "Group" Event

from front to back, Geoff Herbach, Christina Mandelski, Amy Dominy
and me in the white shirt, signing books.
This weekend I had the treat of finally meeting in person friends who, before now, I've only communicated with online: fellow Class of 2K11'ers Amy Fellner Dominy (OyMG), Christina Mandelski (The Sweetest Thing), Bettina Restrepo (Illegal), and Geoff Herbach (Stupid Fast). Of course, I had met Alissa Grosso (Popular) recently at an author event in NYC.

The crew has converged on New York City for Book Expo America Week in NYC and we have several events planned together around the city this coming week (see the right sidebar of my blog for places and times or click on the link above to go to our facebook event page). But first, Amy, Christina, and Bettina flew in to Long Island for a slumber party with me, and to attend a local event at the Huntington Library on Sunday, which Geoff and Alissa then joined us for.

We ate pizza and drank wine (and Amy D. and I may have eaten a full vat of three-flavor popcorn ourselves) and then woke up the next morning and drank coffee and had a slumber-gab in my basement on blow up mattresses. We even took a walk around my hilly neighborhood trying to work off the pizza and the full vat of popcorn (only to follow that up with bagels by the pool).

And here's the thing we kept marveling at: as I greeted each new face, previously seen to me only in photos on facebook or small square images on Twitter, it felt like I had known them all my life. There was no awkwardness. There was no sense that we didn't have a long, in-person history together.

We all kept commenting excitedly about how we felt like giddy school girls together, old friends reunited after a few years apart. Yes, even Herbach felt somewhat schoolgirly with us, but only in the most complimentary way. ;)

Of course, I had experienced this before when I met my dear ABNA friends in real life, so I knew it to be possible.

Still, it keeps on amazing me how truly connected we can become in our virtual lives, in a way that transcends the screen and cements relationships in "real" life.

Coolio, people. Coolio.

TPoG Book Release Party, Recap

A friend pointed out a copy of True Grit in the background.
Indeed, I felt like I had some grit that day.
I remember when my book launch was about 8 months away and I was walking through Book Revue, the place of my future release party, and planning all the distracting gadgets and gizmos and high tech presentation things I might do to keep an audience interested: Toys, power point presentations, planted questions, and hoopla. You know.

But in the end, on May 10, before a crowd of about 100, I stood up alone, without any tricks and spoke from the heart about my journey to publishing The Pull of Gravity.

In truth, my hands shook a little, but I didn't lose my breath or my place (as I thought I might) and a part of me even managed to enjoy it. Each time I looked out into the sea of faces, I saw people I knew and loved: my parents, my sister, my neighbors, my children, and my unbelievably talented writer friends like, Mike Sullivan, Christine Beth Reish, Megan Bostic (who had surprised me all the way from Seattle!) and James King. It was a sea of warm faces, indeed, that looked back at me, interested and engaged.

The amount of help and support and encouragement I have received
from friends and family continues to boggle my mind (in a good way) :)
After I spoke about my journey to getting published, I showed my brief book trailer (thank you again, Selbern Narby!) then read aloud from Chapter Two of The Pull of Gravity. The audience laughed in the right places and clapped when I was done. Phew.
My son on the right, working the projector like a pro!

During Q&A, the questions came faster and more furiously than I could have hoped. No need for canned ones. I had to eventually say, "Okay, only two more!" and honestly, that part was fun! I mean, who doesn't like to be asked about one's work?

Nobody doesn't, that's who! :)

There was even a guy in the audience who might as well have been a plant who asked me the perfect Of Mice and Men connection question. If I ever see him again, I'm sure I owe him $20. ;)


Nothing sweeter than being in it together.When I finished, my hubby came up to congratulate me, and he was beaming (right through his own nerves which I'm sure were kicked in, because he was about to perform). An exchange of kisses and he took center stage to perform with the group he sings with out in Port Jefferson, Long Island through the Performing Arts Studio called Thursday's Blend.

Of course, we temporarily dressed them all in upside down troll t-shirts and renamed them The Pull of Gravity Band.

:) The crowd was regaled with John Mayer's Gravity (get it? ;)) and Elvis Costello's Every Day I Write the Book, among others, while I signed close to a hundred books, periodically glancing up to be surprised by a friendly face in the line that I hadn't seen in years. 

If any of you want to see a replay of the day, you can find it here... starting at about 15:34 minutes in. Thanks to my friend, Rick Kopstein for hooking me up to livestream and taking awesome photos of the evening. http://www.livestream.com/rkopstein/video?clipId=pla_d7b475bd-1469-45b1-aab8-8f4323936c44&utm_source=lslibrary&utm_medium=ui-thumb

All in all, the day was everything I had hoped for. The love and support and enthusiasm of friends and family continues to bowl me over. This journey would be NOTHING without you.

A happy Anne A rapt (?) crowd

Some teens and the awesome Anne Davidson
who took care of me at Book Revue TPoG cake and cupcakes! My lovely, lovely friends.

Bare with Me . . .

. . . okay fine. I know how to properly spell that particular usage of bear.

I just wrote that to be provocative.

I needed your attention.

Now that I have it, please bear with me. Friday Feedback and other semi-interesting musings on writing and life will return.

But for the next few weeks, it's the all THE PULL OF GRAVITY channel, all the time. Or at least the TPoG and Class of 2K11 Channel.

I'm one week from my official release date and I want to make sure I get the word out for my little contemporary YA novel here. I'm not Stephenie Meyer after all . . .

Speaking of Stephenie Meyer, did you know that if you start to type "Step..." into the google bar, Stephenie Meyer comes up?! I mean, step aerobics could come up, or step children, or the Steppes of central Russia, but NO, Stephenie Meyer comes up!

On the other hand, if you type Gae into the google bar, you get a lot of cool stuff about Gaelic translations.

As Nick says, "But anyway."

So, that's it. You're stuck on this Channel for a while. Speaking of which, if you've missed them on my facebook author page, I've gotten some really awesome reviews lately. Here are links to just a few:

Kidlit Frenzy

The Bookanistas

Red House Books

Books Complete Me

Girls In the Stacks

Bex Book Review

If you want something different, you might check out my Trying to Stay Afloat... blog where, soon it will be about wetsuits and jellyfish and endless Open Water Swimming. WARNING though: that's NOT my YA-friendly blog, so traipse on over there at your own risk.

- gae

Oh me, oh my. . .

APPEARANCES (Open to all):

Saturday, May 14 @ Book Revue, Huntington Book Release Party! 5-7 pm

Sunday, May 22 @ The Huntington Public Library with members of the Class of 2K11 3-5 pm

Wednesday May 25 @ Books of Wonder, NYC with Class of 2K11 6-8 pm

Thursday, May 26, Voracious Reader, Larchmont with Class of 2K11 6-7:30 pm

Thursday, June 16, Harborfields Library, Greenlawn, NY t/b/a

 Long Island Bookstores Carrying TPoG

Book Revue, Huntington
Barnes & Noble, East Northport
Barnes & Noble, Walt Whitman Mall, Huntington
Best Bargain Books, Pt. Jefferson
Blue Door Books
Chapter One Books, Oceanside
Dolphin Bookshop, Pt. Washington

The Mosquito, Pre- Book Release, Anything-but Coast

This is me, low tech as always
the morning of the New York Times Interview
<--------- This is me.

My days are flying by.

I am caught in the whirlwind of pre-debut book release chaos.

I try not to be, but the fact is, I never feel as if I'm doing enough.

"Dear so and so, Let me introduce myself, yadda, yadda, yadda. . . " Some of it has really paid off. I have had librarians as far as Hawaii say they viewed my trailer and will order in the book. I have had some major academic organizations say they are interested in TPoG for their purposes. I have connected with terrific teachers, principals, librarians, and, yes, even some reporters, across our country.

Better yet, I've connected with some truly awesome teens.


And, yes, I even somehow got myself a New York Times profile, allegedly to run in the May 1 Metro section of the NY Times.

Frances on the right with
author Barbara O'Connor
(we really need to take a photo together...) The reporter spoke to my editor yesterday (the fantabulous Frances Foster).

Apparently, in addition to asking Frances what she loved about my book, the reporter talked about my "persistence." Knowing Frances, she likely smiled amusedly and answered, "yes, yes, I'm familiar with that as well."

I guess we'll see what she really said on May 1st. ;)

In the meantime, let's hope that my unique style of "persistence" is a good thing, and not akin to a mosquito on a hot summer's night, buzzing loudly in your ear.

And, better yet, lets hope all these hours and connections (and persistence) amount to book sales. Because, lord knows, in all those hours, I could have written an entire other manuscript instead.

To those of you following my journey, posting interviews, reviews, and generally propping me up with your humor and good wishes, not to mention ordering the book, do not underestimate my appreciation. From the bottom of my slightly-exhausted heart.



- gae

Friday Feedback, Frankie Sky

So, I decided to toss a brief Friday Feedback together because I'm suddenly really needing some feedback.

Frankie Sky is one of two YA manuscripts I've been working on during the past 18 months, and I've just started a big revision and am wondering about the opening hook. I've been spinning my wheels a bit on the very opening and would love your honest feedback.

Are you interested? Is there a hook? What do you like? What do you not like?

And, if you want to post an excerpt for the same feedback, please do!


Chapter One
The first time I see Frankie Schyler, he's diving into the Lawrenceville Country Club pool, which is only the first of many coincidences that will make me question everything I know about life, death, and the nature of our existence during the short eight weeks of summer.

It's not so much coincidence as stupidity that Frankie marches to the edge of the coping, arms raised above his mop of blond curls, and purposefully plunges himself headfirst into the water, but rather the coincidence is that I am here, too, staring at the very same water, wondering if I might walk over and slip myself in, then sink to the bottom and disappear.

Or, maybe that's not a coincidence either, since I've spent much of the past four years thinking about ways to disappear.

For example, there was the Year of Non-Breathing the year I turned twelve, which was one year after I let my brother Simon die. I'd read a story about a Buddhist monk who had meditated himself right into his own death. The article described how, knowing his body's physical demise was near, he sat by a tree and made his breath so slow and barely, until he simply ceased to exist. I wanted that, too. I wanted to cease to exist.

For months I practiced endlessly. Every day after school, I would sit in front of the beautiful, old oak tree in our backyard, close my eyes, and make my inhales and exhales slower and more shallow until I couldn't feel my chest move or the air go in or out. But when I'd finally open my eyes, I'd still be there alive, our house in front of me, everything intact, except Simon.


- gae

5 Stacks from Girls in the Stacks :)

Well, here it is, my last review on my first ever blog tour with The Pull of Gravity. And Stacy of the revered Girls in the Stacks gives TPoG five whopping stacks. You can check it out here:
http://girlsinthestacks.com/reviews/ya-novel/2011/04/review-the-pull-of-gravity-by-gae-polisner/

Only two stops to go. But it's been fun. Thanks to the Teen Book Scene for having me.

- gae

An Interview and an Excerpt

 Next stop on the Teen Book Scene Tour.

http://bibliophilebrouhaha.blogspot.com/2011/04/author-interview-gae-polisner-author-of.html

Where you can read a sneak peek at the opening of Chapter 10.

- gae

I'll Take Giddy. :)

this is me today,
in NYC looking giddy.
So, figured I'd go with it. Today's stop on
The Teen Scene Blog Tour:
(click on link below)
http://www.bookscompleteme.com/2011/04/pull-of-gravity-by-gae-h-polisner-tour.html