A.C. Gaughen's Blog, page 16

The Fire is Catching

IGNITE Change Essay Contest Banquet!

The finalists in their own words!

Well, it turns out, the fire of IGNITE Change is already starting to spread. Check it out:

#IGNITEChange Live Coverage of the Banquet on Twitter

Boston_GLOW on Twitter

From Sarah Aronson on THROUGH THE TOLLBOOTH:

As writers, we are advocates.

We raise money for important causes.

We speak out about injustice.

We write books for people whose voices need to be heard….whose voices MUST be heard.

As writers for young people, we have the unique ability to address social issues. We have an opportunity to empower young people. We show them that there is hope. It's not just a slogan. Our books show readers that all voices are important. Everyone can ignite change.

Read the rest here!

Positively GLOWing

Wow.  Sorry to start this post in such a state of inarticulate disbelief, but again, wow.  Last night we had the IGNITE Change Awards Banquet (at Maggiano's Boston, which, if you are ever looking for an event function space that takes care of everything, responds to your needs, and does it at a reasonable price point, please contact Michelle Romano at Maggiano's Boston) and I was totally floored.  Floored by the support, floored by our finalists, floored by the journey that has come to fruition in the past eight months.  It hasn't even been a year since all this was first conceptualized, and now it feels like part of my heart.  Part of my soul.  So I'd like to share with you briefly all the things I've learned in the past eight months.

First, as a quick primer: IGNITE Change is an essay contest created by me and Boston GLOW, a local Boston non-profit that seeks to empower women and girls.  This contest reached out to teen girls in underfunded Boston school systems to offer support and encouragement from local writers, young adult authors, and book professionals in addition to the community at large.

[image error]

IGNITE Change Panelists, Finalists, and Organizers

Contrary to what I thought was true before this contest, it is amazing what people will give of themselves when you ask them.   It seems to me that the world is filled with incredibly generous people that are just waiting to be asked, and waiting for the opportunity to say yes.  To those that said yes to me, thank you so much.
Given a month and five determined women, there's no limit to what you can achieve–IGNITE the NITE, our first annual fundraiser, was pulled together in such a way by five creative, incredible women (and me).  The money we raised astounded me, and the response we got–both in donated items to our silent auction and donations from our supporters–humbled me.
Eight months ago me and an old friend were talking about things we wanted to change in this world.  We were talking about the way women get bullied and intimidated and the way we let it happen, and we said, there's something we can do about this.  We felt like, finally, with my book contract and her non-profit, we could do something.  I've learned that we could have done something long before.  I've learned that we didn't need anyone's permission.  And I've learned that seeing a problem and working together to contribute what we could to fix it was the single most empowering experience I've had.
I was reminded of the soul that a young woman can possess.  As a young adult writer, keeping in touch with my 13-16 year old self is crucial, but I forget about it.  In my efforts to grow–and grow up–I had forgotten what she went through.  I'd forgotten her pain, and her silence.  Because to be honest, being silent was a really big issue for me when I was a teen.  Not in the day-to-day; i was a loud, obnoxious girl.  But in the important stuff.  My parents were divorcing, I was in pain, and I didn't know who–if anyone–I could talk to about it.  I switched schools and felt like I lost my friends.  Within a few months, I felt like I lost my voice.  And to some degree, I feel like I'm just finding it again now.  To see these young women who took their chance to speak up was inspiring and incredible.


The spirit of professional women is kinder and more supportive than I was ever led to believe.  When I was a student at Mount Holyoke, a women's college in Western Mass, I really thought that smart, ambitious women would never do more than tear each other down.  Last night proved me so very wrong as Deb Sloan, Mitali Perkins, Sarah Aronson, Anna Staniszewski and Angie Frazier (in absentia), eagerly led the discussion with the finalists, giving them their time and their attention.  I think there's no more gratifying experience for a young person than to realize that someone really cool is invested in you.
Men may have the boy's clubs, but women have a legacy within.  Mothers and daughters, sisters and aunts, so many family members came out last night.  There were undoubtedly some proud fathers there (mine included!  hi daddy!)  but the bond of the feminine legacy was totally evident.  Encouragement will always be blind to sex, but as a daughter, there is nothing so important nor hard-won as a mother's approval.  That natural spirit is within us.  Women may always stand as our harshest rivals, our closest competitors, but they are also our sisters, our compatriots, and the ones who know exactly what we're going through.


The last thing that was made clear to me last night?  Despite the fact that women do face a lot of discrimination in the workplace, in government, even in pop culture and the ways we are taught to envision ourselves, there is no reason for it. And one way or another, these strong, self-confident women are fast exemplifying that this kind of discrimination will soon be a thing of the past.

Now, since I'm fully in non-profit mode, if you're hearing about this for the first time, would like to continue being involved with Boston GLOW, or are a professional woman in Boston looking to create a stronger network, check out BostonGLOW.org for more information.  Also, please save the date for Firelight on June 9th–this is GLOW's first professional women's networking event, and we are so eager to get the chance to put all the cool women we've met over the past few months in a room together!  Sign up details will be coming soon–don't worry, I'll keep you posted.

xx

[image error]

Paint by numbers. Er…

Show and tell–I've been playing with photoshop and making little teaser pictures of SCARLET quotes.  You like?

[image error]

[image error]

[image error]

I intend to put them on little mini cards from moo.com (mad love, moo, mad love) and just make millions of them.  maybe.  haven't decided yet.

of course, this is all because i don't have the cover art yet.  more fun to be had when i do!

focus and fear

my superpower has always been thus: i know, unquestionably and unwaveringly, what i want.  it's always been writing.  it's always been YA.  i'm specific, i am consistent.  i am the horse with the blinders that poops in the street because frankly, it doesn't care about anything else.

i've lost some of that.  mostly because there's not just one thing i care about (besides not defecating in public).  i want to write; i want to be a successful author.  i also want to mentor and inspire young writers and young women.  i also want to make SCARLET the best it can be; i also want enough money to, you know, pay bills and stuff.

un/fortunately, i also have a lot of opportunities to do all of these.  between writing, my night job, working with Boston GLOW (what was that?  you heard the IGNITE Change awards banquet is coming up on tuesday?  SO IT IS!), and of course, finishing up copy edits, my focus is frayed.

and thus, i'm afraid.  i think, as is the fear of any busy person, i'm worried that with so many things calling my attention, i'm not going to do any of them well.  i'm afraid that i won't think of something brilliant and crucial to promote my book.  i'm afraid thinking about these other things will not allow me the mental capacity to write.  i'm scared that what i'm doing with glow isn't going to be effective, and isn't going to be enough.

so i work harder.  i try to do more, and yet, in many ways, this intensifies the fears.  and then i put on lea michele and let her ask me, "what do you do when your good isn't good enough?" and i wonder.

the worst part is that i won't get any answers.  ever, probably.  i don't know if i'll have the divine luxury of looking back and saying, if only i spent five more minutes doing this, then my book sales/career/prospects/mentoring relationship would have turned out differently.

will i?

::sigh::

shhh! pass it on

I love me some etsy.  And frankly, i try not to talk about it too much because part of me thinks the word will get out and the prices will go up and it will be somehow less amazing.  but screw it, these are some awesome things to talk about.

I'm pretty excited about Lorelei Rose, who is helping me out with some gifts for an upcoming function, custom engraved with a message on the inside and outside of the bracelet. How pretty is that?  $20!

World Traveler Pendant

I've literally bought half the store from Kimiko611, who makes (among other things) custom domed necklaces, with an image or piece of a map underneath.  They're just so pretty!  And she'll customize them for you how ever you want–she flipped through several different maps and gave me different options for a version of the necklace with St Andrews in the center.  LOVE.

Silver Widows Web Pocket Watch Necklace

Birdsnbeez has the coolest steampunky necklaces and lockets EVER.  Most of the really cool ones (pictured) are a little more than I'd like to pay for them, but they're so cool!  and interesting!  the necklaces I have from this store always become conversation pieces because they're just cool and interesting.

now, I dearly do love all of these sellers, but so far my total favorite is undeadmushroom.  weird name, awesome stuff.  i first noticed his/her wares when i bought a pair of hair forks stamped with EMMA and KNIGHTLEY.  Obviously, done deal.  since then i've bought several more forks and i also got bracelets custom made for all the girls who worked on IGNITE the NITE  (I happen to be wearing mine as I type this) and getting more hair forks stamped with SCARLET or OUTLAW is currently in my book promotion plan.  this shop is super fast, super cool, always unique and also uses recycled materials!  LOVE!!

Autobots and Decepticons!

Honorable mentions?  I think adorned7 is expensive but worth it (I have a necklace from there that is light and beautiful and I wear almost every day); fink studios has the coolest cufflinks that made an awesome christmas present for my brother, and piperblue has beautiful, delicate jewelry at really reasonable prices.

So do you etsy?  What are your favorites?

copy edits rain dance and awesome women

I have no idea why, but upon receiving and beginning to tackle my copy edits, which are the first round of the real production oriented stuff in publishing (frankly i don't really know what comes next, typeset pages i think, or something similar) but basically this means that one, tangible day soon, this will be an ARC.  which will then be a book.  which will then freak me out.

oh wait, but that was a run on sentence and not my point.  my point was, i received, and my inner who (this is a tiny little person inside your ribcage and/or stomach that generally represents your innermost self and desires) grabbed this giant cardboard tube filled with beans and pierced with toothpicks until it sounds like rainfall and began to jump around a metaphorical fire and shake it like a polaroid picture.  maybe it was to call down awesomeness from my hippocampus (does awesomeness come from there?  that and the frontal lobe are the only brain parts i know, and hippocampus sounds more auspicious), maybe it was just to call down fortitude from my heart, but one way or another, the who wanted help.

which is just, i'm told, another part of the publishing process.

and i'm going to err on the side of fortitude, because i've got other things going on right now (naturally).  [image error]the IGNITE Change Awards Banquet is in two weeks (conveniently the day after my copy edits are due) which is going to be AWESOME, because it's everything i've been working for, and i don't really have to worry about anything.  maggiano's boston is providing a wonderful meal for us that i don't have to worry about.  one of the fabulous women i work with is organizing gifts, another programs, and i have to do some light stuff to facilitate conversation.  but it's going to be awesome, because the things these girls wrote show simultaneously how many kids get left behind unintentionally, how many girls fail to believe in themselves, and how much hope there is left for the entire situation.  because these girls are damn smart and so incredibly passionate, and I really really believe that by connecting them with the other women in the room, they'll see how many people want to help them succeed.

and what women!  incredible people are involved.  mitali perkins, sarah aronson, anna staniszewski, deborah sloan and angie frazier are all panelists (read their bios here), and so many of my friends and colleagues have been coming out to support the contest.  I just can't wait to get everyone in a room and see what happens–see what conversations get started.

which has led me to think about incredibly cool women.  did you see Sarah Kay on TED?  a friend sent me this video about two hours ago and i've sent it to probably ten people already.  I'm obsessed.  i think she's amazing, and if you read about the work she's doing on project voice–how cool.  how ridiculously cool.  talk about using writing in an incredibly creative, amazing way!  and it's so obviously, so deeply personal too.  that's what writing should be.  that's what art is.

so i'm feeling a little rain dance-y, but i'm also feeling inspired, and creative, and feminine in that awesome, life-really-can-be-a-sisterhood way.  lets hope this lasts!

assumptions

when i read, in that blank-until-identified vacuum that is a page, I make assumptions.  we all do.  what's become quite clear to me, however, is that i think we instantly make assumptions that are accessible and similar–that is, we are the same until proven different.

for example, i read slushpile hell.  LOVE.  So love.  and i'd always assumed that the deliberately anonymous agent provocateur was white, young and female.

a lot like me, in fact.

there was another post a while ago that led me to understand the agent in question was in fact male, but never the less, it totally hit me again when i read this, mentioning his wife (and yes, it could still be a girl, but like i mentioned before, there was a post in which he referred to himself as "he").  it's so JARRING!  I'm like, wait, that's not right.  and then–oh, yeah, i guess it is.

the second thing that hit me today was this discussion on uncreated conscience.  i mean, i didn't actually picture katniss as like super white, more like vaguely greek for some reason, but that's not the point.  I think the point is that assumptions in literature become an access point for a novel–they are, in fact, good and encouraged.

but what about assumptions in daily life?  they can be damaging, of course.  they can set society back.  but i kind of think of it like yawning.

yawning is contagious, and more so in certain people.  i have a deep, pathological need to yawn when someone else yawns.  and that is because (and I'm sure at least a certain one of my readers will correct this with discussion of mirror neurons, etc) it is deeply instilled within my dna to conform.  to match.  to run with the herd.  almost as much as is consciously there to differentiate me, there is an unconscious need to be codependent. so someone else yawns, and years of biochemical reactions tell me if i yawn too, i'll be part of the group.

so i yawn.

when i meet someone, i assume they're probably just like me.  even as i find the ways in which we differ, i'm always eager for the similarities.  they're bonding!  from the same town?  OMG, no way!  been to the same country?  didn't you love it!?  had the same life experience?  we're totally stronger because of it.

ultimately, seeing someone as similar to yourself makes them sympathetic.  juries are less likely to convict someone of their same race, age, or background.  you're less likely to condemn your neighbors.  it's too close.  we don't judge those we find similar because the judgement would apply to ourselves. and isn't that the goal?  isn't that how we break down the racial, gender, socioeconomic and myriad other barriers we erected to keep our society divided–ceasing to judge one another?

we look for a character to be just like us in any number of ways so that we can slide into their story, and when we close our eyes we become katniss, and harry, and maybe even bella (though i'll pass on that one).  we connect, and it allows us to hold on. we see ourselves in our books, in our neighbors, in our rivals and it allows us to develop compassion.

so maybe assumptions aren't so bad.

xx

fun stuff

so, i've been doing a lot of research on fun promotional stuff for boston GLOW, which is a non-profit i work with and kind of talk about non stop.  anyway, in the coming months, we're looking into doing some branding opportunities, and i've been having a BALL.  so, we're going to have show and tell on the blog today.  mostly of things i'm NOT buying, because they're funny.

Toiletry Kit--kind of cool

I dig the toiletry kit.  it's kind of for a specific audience, though, no?  i mean there don't seem to be too many segues into "here's a toiletry kit".  "remember me when you cleanse yourself"?  or perhaps "think of my company in the shower"?

Bracelet USB--AWESOME!

I would love one of these.  In fact, the next company that gives me one of these, I will buy their product.  Further in fact, if anyone would like to mail me one because you saw this on my blog, I will buy your product and blog about it profusely.

Flexi-vase? Not really getting this...

Nope.  No idea.

Nail Polish! Promotionally!

I LOVE this idea.  I love it to the point that I'm trying to figure out how to link this in to SCARLET so that I can get away with giving it away with books/at readings, etc.  It doesn't really work for the whole, my main character is in medieval england thing, but hey, details.

Sewing kit and lint brush! in ONE!

Okay, as an employee at a fancy-schmancy hotel, i shouldn't like this as much as i do.  but it just looks so HANDY!  it's the reason people steal stuff from hotel carts in the first place. but it has absolutely no relevance to the things i'm actually researching.

Have any promotional items worked particularly for you?  I'm researching this for GLOW, but in a few months i'll also be coming up with my own promo items for SCARLET and book promotion and everything.  traditionally in the business this seems to mean bookmarks, maybe postcards, maybe temporary tattoos or something, but i just want something fun.  like nail polish!

any good ideas?

sing it for the world

Sooo I thought this entry got published last week, and then I see it sitting in my drafts folder….this was intended to go up on March 15th, and should clarify some of the risks I mention in RETREAT AND ATTACK.

________________

i've been thinking a lot lately about the ways we speak.

this is, in many ways, nothing new to me.  as a writer i spend an inordinate amount of time considering the ideology of expression.  how does word choice effect perception?  how does rhythm change the way we hear a thought?  how do things translate across languages, across subcultures, across genres?

i guess, at the crux of it all, how do we, as human beings, connect?

my voice is inexplicably tied up in water.  a fine misting rain makes me feel like i'm connected to everyone the world over, like i can touch my friends in scotland because droplet to droplet, the mist makes the world, the air, tangible.  like a thread drawn across the atlantic.  when i feel misunderstood and unheard and angry, i feel like i'm pounding on the wrong side of a frozen pond, trapped underneath the ice, while everyone i'm trying to talk to is above the water, mesmerized by the quietude.

and in the loneliest times of being a teen, i felt like i was lying in my backyard in the dead quiet of night as snow drifted down, blanketing me and freezing me and slowly stealing my voice away.

see? water.  I don't know what the deal with that is.  like i said, i can't explain it.

as i've grown up (a bit), I've always been confronted with the ways i can't speak.  the arguments with friends and roommates where i bit my tongue, the disagreements with coworkers or family, even the easy moments with the best of friends when you feel like there's something you want to say but you just don't know how to form the words.

yes, maybe as a writer i'm more concerned with it than most.

but now i get the chance to see it in a more proactive way.  working on IGNITE Change has been intense, in good ways and bad, and we're coming to a close for the 2011 contest.  the awards banquet is just about a month away, all the preparations have been made and set in motion for it, and i'm working on things for next year.  things to hear more voices, to let more voices speak up.

and i think this is what the story i'm writing is about too.  it's about staying silent, speaking up, hurting.  to be honest, it might be too close to home.  what i'm writing about is, in someways, not foreign at all from my own experience.  some of it is my experience.  some of it is the hardest things i've ever had to deal with.

i realize i'm being vague, but understand–this is a new voice for me.  i'll talk more about the project later, when its fully formed, but for now, i

retreat and attack!

after the lackluster experience of the scbwi conference, taking the four hour sunny drive up into the mountains of vermont for the vermont college of fine arts weekend novel writing retreat was possibly the most welcome thing i've experienced in the past several months.  just driving up there i knew i was going someplace stress free and just incredibly warm.  this is my third time at this program, and every time i feel like i'm amongst friends.

and this time it was more literal than usual!  about a third of the people I knew through NE SCWBI events or online or helping with GLOW and IGNITE (wow that's all a lot of acronyms). i walked in and instantly the conversations started and they didn't stop until i left.  the people i met!  the craft we reviewed! i just feel so invigorated, refreshed, and totally supported.  which is just…amazing.

things that i really took away from the weekend: the importance and approachability of outlining.  claudia gabel gave a great talk on how valuable it can be, but it was disguised as a talk on the importance of plot in a novel.  and i've always been a plot girl!  i think a great story can overwrite any gaffe or mistake.  i think a great story holds your heart and your memory more than anything else.  and what she said made so much sense–outlining is all about supporting and structuring a great story.

i also took this away from the weekend: http://twitter.com/#!/MitaliPerkins/s...

And I just got some great time to sit down and work on this new project i've been getting into.  it's funny because this book may well be the riskiest thing i've ever written; it's dragging up a lot of the emotion of my parents divorce and a lot of the difficulties of being a teen–that stuff is kind of intense to tap into.  Aside from which, it's also about art and graffiti, which as a private school (mostly) girl from the suburbs of Boston, i don't feel like i have a very authentic point of knowledge, despite trying my damnedest to do my research.  i just feel like the research is pretentious, and academic, and missing the point.  which is risky, to say the least.

but after the conference, to be honest, i feel empowered.  i feel like taking risks will make me a better writer, even if i come under fire for it.  and taking risks with my personal emotions is worth it as well.

right?

right.

xx