Cidney Swanson's Blog, page 6

Musings on Book Reviews

Barry Eisler recently posted thoughtfully (and thoroughly) upon the topic of sock-puppetry and other systems of paid and falsified reviewing in the book industry. (Actually, his article is more focused upon the recent rash of response to it, but includes thoughts of reviews as well.) I’ve been examining my own actions in this regard–something Eisler urged authors to do. His article was, for me, timely. I recently sent SAVING MARS to Kirkus Indie for a paid review. (This is Kirkus’s solution for books unattached to one of the publishers with whom they already work offering not-for-pay reviewing.) I’ve concluded, after consulting with writers whose integrity I trust, that Kirkus Indie provides a very different service from the kinds of services that have come under fire recently. In fact, in these discussions, that conclusion pretty much fell in the category of “self-evident.”  But what about my other review practices? Are they above reproach or not?

My practice has been to send review copies out fairly indiscriminately. Anyone who asks for a review copy gets one. Early in my indie-publishing career, I spent a great deal of time pondering big publishing’s ARCs review system and decided I didn’t have a good way of replicating it. That is, I don’t have the ability, time, dedicated staff, etc. to have a 3-6 month period prior to a book’s release during which I run a buzz campaign. In fact, the indie curve for buzz seems to run the reverse of the traditional curve. That is, a book starts out with no recognition whatsoever and builds buzz in the 3-6 months after it is released. Once I recognized this, I realized I would need a different approach in the buzz department.

I did what many writers do: I wrote to book bloggers and asked if they would review my book. Then, I did something I thought was smart marketing at the time: I added a sentence at the conclusion of my books inviting readers to leave a review so others could figure out if a book was right for them or not. I then offered to send review copies of the next-in-series to anyone who told me about their review.

Now I’m feeling uncertain about having done that, in light of all of the talk about sketchy review practices. Have I added to the number of errors it is possible to commit in the area of acquiring reviews? On the one hand, I want books in the hands of those who are likely to review them. On the other hand, I’ve created a system where there is some incentive (a free review copy) for posting a review. Does that invalidate the integrity of those reviews?

In looking through my reviews, I can’t see much difference between the reviews by those who posted and then requested the next copy as compared to those who post and never make the request. (Or those who post, tell me, and then say, “Don’t send me the next book—I already bought it.”) My books receive super-short reviews from all three groups. My books receive super-long reviews from all three groups. The rankings are all over the place. That is, there is not a pattern of higher rated reviews from the reviewers who wrote to request a review copy of the next in series.

However, in light of Barry Eisler’s musings upon the subject, I’m trying to come up with a better system of which I could say, “That’s above reproach.” Because his message to take the mote out of one’s own eye first sounded like pretty good advice. Do you have any ideas regarding what a better system might look like?

Who Makes the Best Chocolate Chippers? Desserts? Breakfasts?

I’ve been rather

 Mars-focused of late, but I know that most of you reading this found your way here because of The Ripple Trilogy. And you’ve maybe read the bit of back matter in the more recent versions of the Ripple books that makes mention of a cookbook. Well, it is going to be released very, very soon. I am trying to figure out a way to give it to my New Release subscribers for free, so if you haven’t signed up yet to be notified when I publish something new, you should probably stop reading and sign up here. All done? Okay.

So here is a list of what you can expect inside the Official Ripple Trilogy Cookbook:

BREAKFASTS AROUND LAS ABS

Will’s Killer Sourdough Waffles or Pancakes

Sylvia’s Worth Getting Up For French Toast

Sylvia’s Buttermilk Pancakes

Bridget Li’s Stollen Without Those Nasty Fruit Bits

Coach Giuliano Fortini’s Gluten-Free Protein Bars

SOURDOUGH STARTER—A REPORT BY WILL BAKER

SAUCES & SALSAS

Will’s Tomato Sauce for Pizza

Will’s Pico de Gallo

Sylvia’s Mango Salsa

Dave’s 4 Ingredient Killer Barbecue Sauce

Sylvia’s Best Barbecue Sauce

 MAIN DISHES

Will’s Killer Sourdough Bread 

(Yes, I know that shouldn’t be a main dish by normal standards. Just try it and you’ll understand.)

Will’s  Pizza Crust to Die for Recipe.

Will’s Hula Lula Pizza

Coach Giuliano Fortini’s Sausage Pasta

Coach Fortini’s Pad Thai: Carbs for Gluten Intolerant Runners

Dave Ruiz’s Easy Carnitas

Dave Ruiz’s Cheater Enchiladas

Mickie’s Pesto Pasta

Sylvia’s Lasagna

Cassoulet, Recipe by Sir Walter Jean-Baptiste de Rochefort

DESSERTS & TREATS

Bridget Li’s Chocolate Chip Cookies

Sylvia Ruiz’ Chocolate Chip Cookies

Mickie’s Fabulous Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough

Bridget Li’s Regular Polvorones

Bridget Li’s Nut-free Cinnamon Polvorones

Sylvia’s Cheesecake

Bridget Li’s Syllaberry Pie  

There you have it. Twenty-six tried and true recipes from Las Abuelitas, California including a version of Chocolate Chip Cookies from three very strong and opinionated women. Be sure you’re on the mailing list so you can find sample them all! After all, don’t you want to know who makes the best chocolate chippers?

 

Where Were You on August 5?

I spent the first part of August in California goat-sitting for my sister. Well, honestly, my daughter did most of the goat-y work as well as taking care of the cats, dogs, and chickens. But caring for my sister’s farmyard meant that I was within an easy distance of NASA Ames for the landing of the Mars Science Laboratory CURIOSITY Rover. 

Boy, am I glad my sister’s animals needed someone to be there for them.

The visit to NASA Ames was one of those highlight-of-your-life adventures. We arrived some four hours ahead of Curiosity’s scheduled touchdown and got to enjoy food trucks and the company of other space geeks as well as an impressive array of exhibits pulled together by scientists at NASA Ames who contributed to Curiosity’s mission.

My favorite moments? Watching my daughter and nieces converse with scientists who did Really Cool Things to make sure the SUV-sized rover would land rather than crash. Running my fingers over a strip of the parachute fabric used to slow Curiosity’s descent through the shallow Martian atmosphere.

Knowing the three teenagers beside me understood the function of the heat shield, parachute, and sky-crane thanks to NASA Ames’s brilliant videos and exhibits at the event. Buying a windbreaker with the NASA logo when it became clear my lightweight cotton jacket wasn’t going to keep me warm through the 10:31PM landing time. (The event was held out of doors.) Feeling like I got so, so much more from NASA’s use of my tax dollars ($7.50) than I could have from anything else $7.50 would have bought me. Whooping and hollering with my family as each stage of the final entry, descent, and landing was completed flawlessly.

Like I said, boy, am I glad my sister needed someone to keep an eye on the goats!

So, Internet–where were you on August 5th?

Mars Themed Prize Packs!

Well, I had a bit of fun shopping at http://www.thespacestore.com/ and now it’s time to give it all away! (Enter using the Rafflecopter form below.)

Five Lucky Winners will receive:

A Prize Pack including

Astronaut Ice Cream
A Saving Mars Bookmark (signed!)

 

 

Three Lucky Winners will receive:

A Prize Pack including

Astronaut Ice Cream
A Saving Mars Bookmark (signed!)
A NASA Mars Project Patch (yours may vary)
A Mars Marble (super cool!)

 

 

And there are two Grand Prizes as well.

 

One Lucky Winner will receive:

Astronaut Ice Cream
NASA Mars Curiosity Pin
Saving Mars Bookmark (signed)
Sign with Mileage to Mars

One Lucky Winner will receive:

Astronaut Ice Cream
NASA Mars Curiosity Pin
Saving Mars Bookmark (signed)
Signed Copy of SAVING MARS

(If you win the grand prize and have a strong preference for one over the other, let me know!)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Saving Mars-Chapter One

Have I told any of you lately how grateful I am to have readers? I just paused for several minutes after writing that sentence.  I was trying to find an adequate way to express the big-ness of the gratitude. And words failed me. Not an admirable quality in a writer, but there you have it. My breath gets knocked clean out of me every time I consider that there are thousands of people out there enjoying the books I wrote. Thank you, dear reader, for reading. Thank you so very much.

I know that some of you are jumping-up-and-down excited that I have a Sci/Fi series coming out while others of you are side-eyeing the whole idea and wondering why I didn’t stick to something a bit more like Rippler. Well, for both groups, I now present Chapter One of Saving Mars so that you can have a gander and see if it is for you. (The early reports from non-Sci-Fi lovers are that this transcends their aversion. So–yay!)

Let me know what you think!

Chapter One

PS MARS-THEMED PRIZE PACKS TOMORROW FOR LAUNCH DAY!

Writing What You Love-Part Three

I promised the cover reveal in July. Um, so, it’s still July, yes? (Whew!) Here it is, the cover of SAVING MARS. Squee! I’ve thought a few times that I should change the title of this blog series because, as it stands, it sounds like I am giving you advice on How To write what you love. Which I’m not. But, this novel came about because I wrote in a setting and genre I love… I think you get the idea. So, is it okay if I don’t change the blog title? ‘Cause I’m kind of out of words right now after all the revisions and line edits and proofs and…and…and… (Scroll to the bottom for a summary of the book!)

 

SAVING MARS: When the food supply of Mars’ human settlement is decimated, seventeen-year-old Jessamyn Jaarda, the best pilot Mars Colonial has ever seen, flies to Earth to raid for food. Earth-Mars relations couldn’t be worse, and her brother is captured during the raid. Breaking rules of secrecy and no contact, Jess finds an ally in Pavel, nephew to a government official, but their friendship only makes more agonizing the choice before her: Save her brother or save her planet? (Williams Press, Aug 2012, 325 pp.)

Tomorrow, I’ll post the first chapter for you! You can get my blog via email over on the right side there>>>>> and ^^^^^to be sure you don’t miss it. For today, I’ll just tease you with the first line:

She was the kind of girl who slept with books on her bed.

(Can any of you relate to that?)

 

Remembering Why I Write

I try to attend a writer's conference every three to six months.Writing is a lonely venture. Just me and these imaginary people who talk to me sometimes. I spend most of each day seated behind my desk, typing on my computer. It's a life I love, but I need to get out every now and again, and conferences provide that opportunity.

While the food is usually mediocre and the strange hotel beds creak in ways that wake me early, the workshops and the networking opportunities provide me with a bit of oomph. That is, I come away with  a nugget or two that will help me in either my craft or the business side of being a writer. And sometimes I come away with a bit more--with a reminder of why I write in the first place. (Hint: it's not for the book signings, lovely as they are.)

The SCBWI  Oregon spring conference I attended this past weekend was one of those that gave me "a bit more" and will no doubt be helpful the next time I question why I do this crazy art-making called novel writing.

Two different editors said things that really struck me.

First, Melissa Manlove, editor at Chronicle Books (check 'em out here) addressed her passion to create books that will resonate with young readers who have, perhaps, never experienced that magic which lies inside a book. She pointed out that it only takes one book for a non-reader to become a reader and that everything changes for the child who makes this transition. "Once you become a reader, it will change your whole life," said Manlove. Um. Wow. Yes. I might have cried a little when she said this. It's why I write. Because reading changes your life.

Next, Andrew Karre, editorial director of Carolrhoda Books, Carolrhoda Lab, and Darby Creek, issued a prescriptive for writers of young adult fiction. He insisted YA writers shouldn't write for teens. Rather, we should think of ourselves as writing about teens. Now, the difference is subtle, and may even seem to fly in the face of what I found so moving about Manlove's observation that books change lives.

As I thought through the apparent conflict between the two most moving things I heard at the conference, I began to see ways in which the two ideas co-exist. You see, a writer's job isn't to figure out how to write that book that will change someone's life. Rather, the ability of a book to affect someone (even profoundly) is an outgrowth--a side effect, if you will--of writing. The calling of a writer is to make the best art he or she can. If, each time I sat down at the keyboard, I asked myself the question: how can I change the life of a teenager through what I write, I would simply freeze. That is too weighty a calling, too large a task, and quite honestly, it's out of my control. But I can tell the kind of story I like and write it to the best of my ability; those tasks falls within the pale of "things I control."

And so, with the awareness that books can change lives and the awareness that I write about and not for teens, I'm inspired to sit down today and not rise until I've put in my 2,000 words, telling the best story I can.

To satisfy my not-so-idle curiosity: Do you have a book that changed everything?

Author Interview: LISA NOWAK

I'm so very pleased to bring Lisa Nowak here today for an interview as a part of her DRIVEN Blog Tour! Lisa is a fellow member of SCBWI and a very funny author. She's also one of the most generous and sharing individuals I know. In addition to writing, Lisa is a faculty regular at SCBWI regional events and will present at Willamette Writer's Conference later this summer. Without further ado, here's Lisa!
Cidney Swanson When did you start writing?
Lisa Nowak I started writing when I was thirteen. My first book was about a young girl and her telepathic cat who got abducted by aliens. It was all one long paragraph. My school librarian took pity on me and explained that I needed to create a new paragraph every time someone else started speaking. 
CS What are some of your favorite books? LN I really love YA and mostly read that genre because it’s such a dynamic, emotionally charged time in a person’s life. Within the genre, I like coming of age, contemporary realistic, and any story where a kid is in a tough situation—where he feels alienated and alone and finally finds someone to connect with. A couple of books I really enjoyed when I was young and have re-read through the years are The Changeling by Zilpha Keatley Snyder and Dogsbody by Diana Wynne Jones. It’s the emotional connections in those books that appeal to me.
CS What do you remember about your first time behind the wheel?
LN The very first time I remember driving a vehicle was when I was thirteen and my older brother thought he’d be cool and give me a lesson. It was in a white, older truck, probably a Chevy or Ford from the ’70s, though I have no memory of that truck other than in this particular incidence. I don’t recall our family owning it. At any rate, the snapshot in my head is of driving down the Old Scenic Highway, approaching the road we lived on, and wondering how I was going to figure out how to slow down and turn at the same time. I don’t even think shifting was an issue. As I recall, it was an automatic. The main thing going through my head was, “oh crap!”
CS How about your first time racing?
LN I can’t specifically recall my first race. Weird, huh? But I do remember there was this huge sensory overload my first few times on the track, then again after I’d sat out a couple of seasons and started racing again. You’re belted into the car, trying to watch your gauges, listen to the engine, pay attention to the traffic around you, win the race, and follow so close to the guy ahead that you can’t even see where his taillights would be if he had taillights. Totally nerve-wracking. Your brain can’t process it all at once. But you get used to it, and after a while it becomes second nature.
CS I hear a rumor that Euphoria Chocolate sponsored you when you used to race. What is the best flavor of chocolate truffle at Eugene's Euphoria Chocolate?
LN Indeed they did. A little cash, a little free chocolate, total bliss. My favorite truffle flavor is amaretto, but I also love the Mexican and won’t say no to Oregon Mint. Aw, who am I kidding? I won’t say no to any of them. Great, now I can hear the tinkle of the bell on their door, smell that decadent scent of chocolate, and taste the sweet smoothness of a truffle melting on my tongue. And they’re a hundred miles away. Thanks a lot, Cidney!
~~~~~~~~~~
Book description:
The last thing on 16-year-old Jess DeLand’s wish list is a boyfriend. She’d have to be crazy to think any guy would look twice at her. Besides, there are more important things to hope for, like a job working on cars and an end to her mom’s drinking. Foster care is a constant threat, and Jess is willing to sacrifice anything to stay out of the system. When luck hands her the chance to work on a race car, she finds herself rushing full throttle into a world of opportunities—including a boy who doesn’t mind the grease under her fingernails. The question is, can a girl who keeps herself locked up tighter than Richard Petty’s racing secrets open up enough to risk friendship and her first romance?~~~~~~~~~~
“The first romance is captured beautifully—just the right combination of natural and awkward, of eager and scared.” ~ Bob Martin, writing professor, Pacific Northwest College of Art
Sales links:Buy it on AmazonBuy it on Barnes and NobleBuy it on Smashwords~~~~~~~~~~Author Bio:
In addition to being a YA author, Lisa Nowak is a retired amateur stock car racer, an accomplished cat whisperer, and a professional smartass. She writes coming-of-age books about kids in hard luck situations who learn to appreciate their own value after finding mentors who love them for who they are. She enjoys dark chocolate and stout beer and constantly works toward employing wei wu wei in her life, all the while realizing that the struggle itself is an oxymoron.Lisa has no spare time, but if she did she’d use it to tend to her expansive perennial garden, watch medical dramas, take long walks after dark, and teach her cats to play poker. For those of you who might be wondering, she is not, and has never been, a diaper-wearing astronaut. She lives in Milwaukie, Oregon, with her husband, four feline companions, and two giant sequoias.

Book for You, Food for Kids

I'm very excited to announce a week of royalties donated to one of my favorite charities: Feeding America. As my readers know, the teens in my books eat--a lot. But not all children are so lucky, and Feeding America provides food for those who would otherwise go hungry.

From now until May 12, I'll be donating the proceeds from the 9.99 sale of my trilogy set (about $7) to feed kids.

Please visit Amazon.com to buy a copy for yourself, a mom in your life, or a friend--a week or so of reading for you, two weeks of food for a child in need.

Thank you so much.

PS I've included a sneak preview from the Official Rippler Cookbook in the Ripple Set. Will's Killer Pizza, anyone? Enjoy!

The One That Started It All

How many of you own a copy of Maurice Sendak's WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE? I own three. The one my parents got for me, the one I bought for my kids, and the one I bought (in an uninformed moment) for my children, in a French translation.
WILD THINGS was the very first book I ever "bought." That is, I saw the title in the Scholastic SeeSaw flyer and chose it, out of all other books, as the One I Had To Have. I can look at the back cover and see that my parents handed over 95 cents for this acquisition--a lot of money when I was in first grade. It would've paid for milk in the cafeteria for a solid month.
But my parents said yes.

I don't remember the moment when my teacher handed the brand new book to me, but I remember the feeling of having a shiny new book all my own delivered to my desk. There was no better feeling. Even Christmas morning paled compared to the day (every month or so) when the Scholastic books arrived at school.
I found my oldest copy yesterday and immediately sank down on the floor to read it. I thought I would only glance at the first page or two, but I was swallowed right in to the story, into its magic, into the marvelous and terrifying pictures. I recalled long hours spent staring at tiny details in the beautifully rendered illustrations. I recalled the the mortification of being sent to one's room and the shattering prospect of No Supper. And the wild rumpus! Oh, the wonder of it all!
Decades have passed and I'm so very, very grateful that my parents kept this little paperback safe through the years. Did they perhaps remember how it held my attention? I'll have to ask sometime. They brought it back to me with a box of Oz books, Nancy Drew mysteries, and Star Trek paperbacks. As much as I was happy to be reunited with all of these old favorites, the one that made my face light up like a menorah was Sendak's--the one that started my personal library oh-so-long-ago.
Do you remember your first book? Do you have it still? (Or did you, like me, repurchase a copy?) I'd love to hear your story!