C. Leigh Purtill's Blog, page 16

Applying ballet lessons to writing and to life

As some people know, I not only write but I also teach ballet to teens and adults, from absolute beginners to advanced dancers. I love ballet and I truly enjoy teaching others. It's something I hope to be able to do for the rest of my life.

Not long ago, one of my students expressed surprise that I still take classes myself. My fragile ego assumed she meant I was too old to dance but then I realized she thought I didn't need to take class anymore, that I had learned everything. After all, ...

Things I Kept When I Cleaned

1. One of the last letters from my late maternal grandmother.

2. Cards from friends congratulating me on the publication of my first book.

3. A perfume sample from a store in Florence, Italy.

4. A collection of Phi Beta Kappa keys from my late paternal grandmother.

5. A Simpsons watch from Burger King that chimes with Bart's and Lisa's voices, "Are we there yet? Are we there yet?" when you press the button.

6. A conch shell bracelet my brother and his family brought me from the Caribbean.

7. A pho...

I don't hate Dan Brown

Darn it, this Parade magazine article humanized him! When I read "The Da Vinci Code" years ago (at the behest of my brother who insisted it was pure awesome), I did what any normal writer would do with it: I trashed the writing while praising the plot. It was the very definition of a page-turner, even more so than "Twilight." No matter how wooden the dialogue or trite the prose, I couldn't stop reading.

I learned a lot from Brown's book: keep chapters short, end chapters on mini-cliffhanger...

Random Thoughts on a Friday

Of Monkeys and Metallica

Every morning, I wake up to classical music on KUSC. Great station, not pretentious at all. And terrific hosts who know a lot about music and composers but don't make you self-conscious about your inability to remember the difference between 2/4 and 6/8 time.

I know, I know...I should know that, since I do teach with classical music every day but I just can't make it stick in my brain.

Anyway, during the news portion, as I lay in my bed thinking about my day ahead of m...

God will probably strike me down for this

I grew up surrounded by Catholic guilt and Irish pessimism. The Catholic in me was always wary of doing or saying something that might require me to confess to God (wouldn't He know when it happened?) while the Irish in me was concerned the mere mention of something going my way would incur God's wrath.

Who are you, mere mortal, to think positively? Don't you dare get too big for your britches or I will smite thee...

Or however God talks. Is it Olde English? Seriously?

It's amazing that we h...

Random Thoughts on a Friday

A jumbled mess of Friday

1. Soda Fail - yes, I took this one at the studio...it cracked me up!! If you can't read the sign, it says "Coke Machine Now Working" - right on top of the big Pepsi logo!

2. Tuesday, September 1st was an anniversary for me: celebrating 8 years of not smoking! Quitting was - hands down - the best thing I have ever done in my life. Yeah, yeah, I shouldn't have started in the first place (kids, don't try this at home!) but I was a cool kid - or at least I wanted to be, ...

Marketing you can't buy

You publish a book. You get a marketing plan (or not) from your publisher. Now it's your turn to get out there. You do it all: school visits, blog tours, interviews for the hometown paper, drive-by signings.

Yay, me!

Your publisher definitely appreciates your willingness to do the work of getting out there in front of potential readers but honestly, it doesn't affect the bottom line much. All of those things are lots of fun and many are personally satisfying but the amount of legwork involve

People keep talkin' about Vee!

Here's a post by Susan Johnston at Lemondrop, a lifestyle site for young women at AOL. I love that she mentions the cover model for my book:

For the record, though, the girl on the cover of "All About Vee" looks like she had most of her 217 pounds Photoshopped out. Just sayin'.

I know! This is the argument I had with my editor when I saw the cover. As gorgeous as she is, she's clearly not extra-large size. But as my editor told me, according to the modeling world, she is.

Obviously the post was

National Press for Vee and me!

A couple of weeks ago I was interviewed for this article by AP journalist Leanne Italie. Leanne is a tremendous interviewer - she makes you feel very comfortable talking to her about all sorts of issues. I'm not surprised she put together this terrific article about plus-size characters in today's teen lit.

Teen Lit Has Positive Plus-Size Characters

And check out the list of recommended books for teens that feature plus-size characters:

Plus-Size Recommended Books

Although these articles are on AB

Fake words I hate

I've talked before about phrases that bug the $*&% out of me. A few more were thrown into my face this weekend and lodged themselves into my brain. I'm hoping that releasing them into the blogosphere will cure me.

1. disorientated - Merriam Webster claims this is a word. Yet my brain implodes a bit when I hear it in conversation. I know I'm not alone in thinking this but I believe this is a word that people have repeated so often that it's become acceptable and commonplace. Still, I can't br