Susan Juby's Blog, page 14

Another Stop on the Blog Tour

Thank you to my colleague Kathy Page for inviting me to take part in this blog tour. Kathy’s new collection, Paradise and Elsewhere, is a stunning achievement that is garnering all sorts of well-deserved attention. There are stories in that collection as original and beautifully executed as any I’ve ever read.

The idea here is to answer a few questions about my writing process. So here goes:

What am I working on?

In spite of nearly losing mind due to overwork and poor organizational skills, I recently managed to hand in a revision to a new novel called Republic of Dirt. It’s a sequel to the Woefield Poultry Collective (Home to Woefield in the U.S.) Republic will be published in January 2015. Yesterday I finished reviewing the copy edited version of a new YA called The Truth Commission. It will be on shelves in March 2015.

Suggestion to others: don’t write two books at the same time unless you’re feeling strong. You may need to carbo-load to get through it. I know I did.

I’m going to give myself a week off and then dive into a new YA located in the fictional art high school that is the setting for The Truth Commission. I’m not sure about the title, but the essential elements are floating around in my head waiting to be put down on paper.

How does my work differ from other work in its genre?

At risk of sounding even more glib than usual, it’s written by me, for one thing. My work is infused with my voice and sensibility and humour. For better or worse, my novels are unlikely to be mistaken for, say, Jonathan Franzen’s. (A sad thing from the perspective of my bank account and award shelf, but hey, it’s a good thing from the perspective of Susan Juby scholars. Which reminds me, where are all the Susan Juby scholars?)

Why do I write what I do?

Because I am deeply troubled. And because I like to laugh. I suspect most humour writers would say the same thing. I write stories about peculiar people finding someplace to belong because I love oddballs and because I love the idea that there’s a wrench for every nut. Or a hammer for every nail. A tablesaw for every board? You get the idea. Those comparisons all sound violent. Not intentional. Community is never about violence, unless you are part of the MMA community.

How does my writing process work?

I am afraid to stop writing in case I never start again, so I write six days a week. I try to write between 2 and 4 new pages a day and when I’m editing I aim for between 10 and 40 pages, depending on how seriously far behind I am. Most of what I write is very bad. That means I revise each manuscript four or more times before my agent sees it. I revise once more based on her comments and then off it goes to an editor. I keep thinking I know how to write books and then I start a new one and realize I have no idea whether it’s going to work out or not.

Writing is an exercise in faith and magical thinking: “Please, please let this year or two of work not be wasted.”

I write in the morning and edit in the afternoon.

A major barrier to productivity is the %$# internet. I block myself from it using Freedom™. Another major barrier is our puppy. I block him using his X-Pen.

I coaxed hilarious and multi-talented Vancouver Island writer Karen Rivers, author of books for all ages, including What is Real, The Healing Time of the Hickeys and Finding Ruby Starling to share her secrets, which she does with rather breathtaking eloquence, and I invite any other authors who might be interested to take part. For more juicy details on process or if you’d like to take part, please see blogs by the following writers:

Karen Rivers

Janie Chang

Kathy Page

Marilyn Bowering

Matilda Magtree

Jason Heroux

From the Department of Getting Others to Do My Work For Me

As most of you know, I’m working on revisions to a sequel to The Woefield Poultry Collective (known as Home to Woefield in the U.S.) The working title was Republic of Dirt, but my editor wisely suggested that the title should in some way reflect the original. In other words, the title for the new book needs to sound like it belongs with The Woefield Poultry Collective.

I’m generating ideas at the rate of… well, they’re coming slowly. So I’m throwing it out there for suggestions. Here are some hints to help those of you who enjoy naming things such as babies, pets, bands and sequels. The new book features a mule (whom the Internet already helped me name), holidays (Halloween and Christmas) and hot sauce. And many other things that might be spoilers.

If I pick your title you will receive an acknowledgement in the book and… that’s pretty much it! SO EXCITING! Well, there may be a little prize in it for you, as well as a free book, but mostly you’ll have the satisfaction of saying, “Yeah. I named a book once.” Which is huge.

The top contenders will be posted here on the blog and on my facebook. If I chose my own title, I will give myself all the accolades.

xo

Rolling Stone Gives Alice a Happy 14th Birthday Present

Rolling Stone magazine, showing tremendous good sense and superb taste, names Alice, I Think one of the top 40 young adult novels. Ever.

Many of my fave books and authors are on that list, including those by Meg Cabot, Susin Nielsen, Rachel Cohn, Tanuja Desai Hidier, Judy Blume, Mariko Tamaki, David Levithan, Sherman Alexie, S.E. Hinton. J.D. Salinger and many more! Good lord. It’s enough to make me faint.

To celebrate this honour, I offer the internet a picture of our puppy. Because, Internet, you deserve it.

This one is called: Rolling Stone? Are you sure?

Happy 14th Birthday, Alice

Alice makes it into Rolling Stone!

Many of my fave books are on that list. Hmmm. What would it take to get Alice into Revolver?

Summer Fun for Writers

As noted, I will be teaching a one week master class on writing for young adults this July at UBC. Bring your works-in-progress and we’ll take them to the next level during our week together on the beautiful UBC campus.

WC 1301 FLY JUBY_S14_Formatted

Kootenay Bound! Plus a Puppy!

I’m excited to announce the dates for my trip to the Kootenays. I’ll be visiting local libraries and reading from already published works and from upcoming titles, including The Republic of Dirt (sequel to the Woefield Poultry Collective, due out in January) and The Truth Commission (due out in March). I hope you can join us and many thanks to the Kootenay Library Federation for the invite.

03-June Grand Forks

03-June Nelson

04-June Nakusp

04-June Kaslo

05-June Fernie

05-June Sparwood

05-June Kimberley

I may or may not have a companion on the tour. This companion looks a bit like a raccoon and acts a lot like a monkey.

Rodeo (Rodie, Roadie, Rhododendron, Mr. Farty, The Tas Man, etc.) has been in residence for about ten days. We are all aging rapidly, especially me. His ears are now standing up. Mine are about to slide off my head due to exhaustion. It’s a good thing puppies are so cute or no one would put up with their shenanigans.

But Roadie the Poopster is way out there on the cute continuum and so I’ve been forced not only to put up with him but to join Instagram to share his every moment of adorability.

If you’d like to be inundated with pictures of our new raccoon herder, find me at susanjubypants. And if he’s halfway settled, he’ll be available for visits in person in June at a library in the Kootenays. Or he’ll be in lock down at home with James learning not to cause chaos a.k.a. causing chaos.

Uneven Contest Department

I just learned about this CBC contest to name the most iconic Canadian Character. Alice has been pitted against… the English Patient. If she survives this round, she’ll face God in the semi-finals. You can vote for her here.

My Loaded Valentine

Happy belated Valentine’s Day! Thanks to Candice for sending along this photo of Nice Recovery:

Ah, the powers of the red and white cover!

In other news, friends on facebook have been helping me to name the mule in the sequel to The Woefield Poultry Collective (The Republic of Dirt.) If you have any suggestions, please send them along. The mule is a chronically disobedient appaloosa cross who might look something like this:

or this:

or this (though I think this mule might be plastic):

When he was a baby mule he might have looked like this:

Or this, when he was feeling frisky:

As you can see, I can’t get enough of spotted mules.

What would you name such a mule? Send me your ideas or join the discussion on facebook!

Coast Reads

Thanks to the Sunshine Coast Literary Council for choosing Nice Recovery as a Coast Reads selection for 2013/2014. This is an initiative that engages readers in schools and the community at large. More info here: www.coastreads.org.

The lineup of books by Susin Nielsen and Ken Oppel and many others is sure to get people enthused. I look forward to visiting schools in the area this spring to talk about my drinky-pants days and early recovery.

Updates, updates, updates

On the infrequently updated blog!

I am not blogging because I am writing. Hard.

Here’s the latest on the book arrival dates: The new YA called The Truth Commission will be published in March 2015 by Viking in the U.S. and Penguin (Razorbill) in Canada. I’m revising like a madwoman. It’s been a tickle to write because I got to invent a fictional art-focused high school. I’ve always wanted to go to art school, but writing about an art school is the next best thing, esp. since I don’t have much in the way of art talent to take to art school. Another great thing about the Truth Commission is that it’s going to be the first of my books to have illustrations. And, for the sake of your eyeballs, they won’t be by me! The very talented Trevor Cooper is doing the art and I couldn’t be more pleased.

I’m also scribbling away on the sequel to The Woefield Poultry Collective (Home to Woefield in the U.S.) It’s due out in January 2015. As noted, the working title is The Republic of Dirt and it has also been a lot of fun to write. Why? Because it has a frequently renamed mule. Currently he goes by the name Captain Call (thanks to Larry McMurtry, my new literary hero. McMurtry’s work is a bit heavy to the torture, but no one is funnier or meaner or more generous or better at writing plains weather and peculiar people). Of course Republic features Seth, Prudence, Earl and Sara. Eustace and the Mighty Pens as well as Halloween and Christmas. What more could any writer want?

That’s pretty much it. When you write one book in the morning and work on another in the afternoons and evenings and teach in between you generate NO NEWS.

Seriously. Friends call and ask me what’s new and I give them page counts. You will be shocked to learn that people eventually stop calling when they realize they’d get livelier conversation from sediment at the bottom of a pond.

P.S. Thanks for condolences on the loss of Frank. We miss him. We appreciate your words. I’ve got some residual bitterness about his last days but probably won’t write about it. Unless it gets the best of me and I have to write a bit of flame-y stuff on the Infrequently Updated Blog.

xo