Yesterday I had the pleasure of doing a teen writing workshop at Lilly Library where I described writing as the "Mad Gift." This is because to be a writer is to be slightly insane, listening to the whisperings of imaginary people in "what if?" worlds that don't exist and devote a substantial amount of our precious mortal time on Earth to writing things down in the greater hopes of sharing them with the world, but most often to simply be allowed to get some sleep. Like much of life, writing is not so much a choice or an occupation, but more like a vocation thrust upon you with a geas from an unknown entity who says, "Here. I give you this. Now go do something about it." Or being hit with a particularly large bat up the head.

We write because we can't NOT write.

I don't know about yours, but my Muse is fickle as the weather in New England; one moment sunny and trilling and free and the next petulant and moody and prone to bite. She is stubborn, recalcitrant and goes into fits and rages at ridiculous times (I often imagine her laughing as she hits me with a bout of inspiration in the middle of a shower or driving in a storm). She is also benevolent and kind when pacified by peaceful thoughts, regular exercise, and creative conversation. She can be hilarious in the wee hours and sparkling when inspired. I accept my lot as her plaything, a puppet on dancing strings, and only hope that I'm lucky enough/gracious enough/smart enough/present enough to be there when the bolt strikes.

And when I'm not, I have to keep writing, anyway.

Writing is like reading: transporting and prone to time-travel. Hours pass unnoticed when I'm at the keys and I have to remember to do things like eat or pick up the kids from school. I accept this and I'm (usually) grateful. I feel it missing if I haven't been writing for too long a stretch of time. And then I wait and a beg and I try to outsmart the fact that I haven't had a new idea or I'm stuck in the Great Swampy Middle and am starting to resemble a hobo in my frizzy hair and sweatshirt, muttering to myself aloud.

This is acceptable if, and only if, you are an artist, right?

Writing is an addiction, with all the highs and lows, and I hit all the verbs in the process: I laugh, I sweat, I rail, I rage, I cry, I get bored, hungry, tired, scared, hopeful, angsty, euphoric and then do it all again the next day. And the next. And the next. Until I hit the magic words "The End"...and then start all over again. I can't help it!

If writers described their symptoms to a doctor, she'd pronounce us insane with a nice rubber room to sleep in or a prescription of pills with very long names. But the hapless world allows us to roam freely amongst them, never realizing that we're watching, listening, waiting, dreaming, imagining, scheming... and writing them all down.

BWAHAHAHAHA!

Here's to hoping that the Mad Gift never leaves you. ;-)

I love Sherlock Holmes. I'm a huge fan. Graduating from Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys to Baker Street felt like growing up. Sherlock Holmes was a man who possessed a dizzying mind, an almost cruel intellect, and was unabashedly outrageous in his improvisation and resourcefulness in his relentless pursuit of the truth at the core of whatever mystery lit him up. His life as seen through the eyes of the more empathetic Dr. Watson, a good man of morals and ethics and heart even after returning injured from the horrors of war, was one of astonishing adventure and perplexing character. I was as astounded as Dr. Watson was of his new roommate. The stories were elegant and exotic and glorious. I read them over and over (the telltale sign of a really good book)!


Okay, I admit, I missed the deerstalker hat and was thrilled when they wrote it in!

I've seen plays and TV shows, and although a big fan of anything Robert Downey Jr. since Less Than Zero, I didn't really think the steampunk-ish romp that had much to do with Sherlock Holmes outside the characters' names. (Honestly, when I first heard the casting, I thought Jude Law would be Sherlock and Downey as Moriarty. Ah well.) So when I heard about the BBC production, I was skeptical, but boyishly bright-eyed Benedict Cumberbatch does an amazing job with his rail-thin loping walk, his thin musician hands and his resonant voice with a sparkling script that somehow manages to blend the original text and intent with modern day things like blogs, texts and modern science. I was astounded at how well they'd brought the stories fast-forward and at the first episode, I was hooked!

This current Sunday Night obsession (sorry, Once Upon A Time) made me think back on my love of this character and the last two episodes of this second season really hit the reason why: as brilliant and observant and decisive and instinctive as Sherlock Holmes may be, he is deeply flawed in the most obvious ways possible. While the heavier addictions in the stories has been softened to a nicotine habit, the real deficit is Sherlock's inability to connect with people. While he understands what motivates people emotionally as the cause and effect of human psychology behind most crimes, he himself is moved by very little outside the thrill of the chase; malaise is his greatest enemy (aside from one "consultant criminal") and he is almost unable to see people as other than means to an end. It is perhaps the most interesting part of John Watson's character why he stays by Holmes, as if to protect the man from himself despite himself, and the most interesting parts of watching the show as Sherlock railroads Molly or bosses his landlady or finds himself livid at Miss Adler or completely undone by his irrational fear of the Hound. Lately, those flaws have been gaining ground over cold intellect and we're getting to see Sherlock Holmes undone, repentant, and (in his scathing words) "sentimental."

And I *love* it!

I've always loved the tragic hero best, the one that struggles to overcome adversity and, in the face of total loss, sticks to their gins/principles/ethics/honor and fulfills their mission even at the cost of their life. Central to being tragic (or caring about the character at all) is being flawed, deeply flawed, and that those flaws are the root and center of the conflicts that most often are the worst things that we can do to ourselves. The things that make the readers think, "If only they wouldn't *do* that then everything would work out fine!" But then again, they wouldn't (and couldn't) be the characters that they are.) George's curiosity or Winnie the Pooh's all-consuming love of honey is like Katniss' distrust of emotion and Harry Potter's inability to be truthful with Dumbledore, even when asked (but then again, he hasn't had much reason to trust adults in the past). There are reasons for the flaws, some origin point for a lust for shiny objects or a fear of snakes that often spell the character's doom just as effectively as an outside flaw: Who would Elric be without the sword? Who is Frodo without the One Ring?

I wonder if emotions will be this Sherlock's undoing or, as I hope with many the tragic, flawed characters I've come to adore, it will make him stronger than ever to triumph in the end? I'll be tuning in to find out every Sunday at 9pm to find out!

The other day I was in the dentist's chair for some emergency work (don't ask) and while a trip to the dentist isn't what I'd consider a relaxing affair, the thing I found most disturbing as I lay taut in the recliner with tools and tubes and fingers sticking out of my mouth wasn't the high-pitched whine of grinding bone or the sudden spritz of water in my face, but the conversation taking place over my head between the hygienist and the assistant. They were talking about wanting a total face lift and what it felt like the last time one of them had Botox. I looked again. These were both ladies in their thirties, both pretty and fair; one with a happy, round face and funky glasses and the other with delicate features and a chirping voice like a bird. What I really wanted to do was start ranting about body image and self-esteem and manipulative media but since I was otherwise choking, I wished I could do the next best thing and shove a copy of UGLIES into their hands.



It's not for me to say whether or not someone can feel better about themselves by "having something done"--it's not my opinion that matters, it's wholly theirs--but the assumption that there is already something wrong with you and that if you could just have it "fixed" then everything in life would be better is advertising psychology 101 run amok. Scott Westerfeld did an *amazing* job of shining a light on that cultural baseline that lurks inside the hearts of many a girl (and guy), but as we're coming up on our yearly celebration of Moms, I think about how much our bodies and psyches change after spawning small people who look vaguely like our genetic heritage and the pressure to somehow rewind things to the way they were "before" (or "better") can be a subtle sort of...well, not evil, but close.

So in anticipation of Mother's Day, I gave myself the gift of peace of mind, a little proactive defiance, perhaps nipping a little bit of cultural self-hatred in the bud. I showed my own budding little girl this video from Dove's Real Beauty Campaign, which simply shows-not-tells that the ads we see on billboards and magazines and TV aren't something we have to compare ourselves to, because they're often less real than what Mommy writes for a living.

She got it. So I'll give it to you. Go share this with a friend. (Sadly, this video can't be embedded, so please click & pass it on!)

I just found out that LUMINOUS is a Top 40 Pick for the Pennsylvania School Librarians Association! It's one of the fiction titles that state librarians want to suggest to their teen readers and, really, what could be higher praise? A full fiction list is here and I'm gobsmacked to be in such esteemed company. (These are really amazing titles and authors!)

All of which is to say: Thank you, Pennsylvania!!!

Last night was a total comedy of errors.

The only thing worse than being told the night before that your daughter has a performance at school tomorrow night is to find that she needs to wear a white top and black bottoms, discover that she has no black pants that fit, drag both kids out at 7pm to buy a pair of pants, call around to ask someone if they can pick up your daughter so your son will keep his first appointment, cancel your son's second appointment, get home late and pop the kids into bed, receive a call from the school the next day at 2:50pm that your daughter is curled up on the floor with a headache, have daughter insist she still wants to go to the friend's house, agree, drive an hour to get to the school early, eating dinner with son in the car en route, sit for an hour in the assembly clapping for other peoples' children, try to ignore squirming son screaming that he wants to play Angry Birds right NOW! just in time for daughter to sneak up and say she feels really sick and wants to leave. Leave (but not before she throws up (twice) and then drive the hour home...without ever seeing the kid's performance).

Yes, that's real life. It really happened. However, there's no point including such malarky in a book because basically, it's so unbelievable, only a sitcom would run it.

When I do workshops or attend writer's conferences, especially critique feedback, I hear a lot of "But that really happened!" and "That character's based on a real person!" and I don't doubt that it's true, but the problem is, it's too true to be believed and therefore, it reads like a lie.

Ever hear that clichés are clichés because they have a grain of truth in them? Well, that tiny little grain of truth that makes it resonate with the reader is also the bit that we can choke on if we don't have enough of sugar coating to swallow it. Only Non-Fiction writers have the audacity to write the unbelievable truth and get away with it (or not)*; fiction writers have to invent half-truths even--or especially when--they deal with the truth.

And speculative fiction writers have to write things that are totally unbelievable in a believable way.

Whoa.

Fiction is not about being strictly true-to-life, fiction is when we get to live the lies we wish were true. When I was struggling to make one of my MCs believable in that first scene where she was facing some pretty surreal and bizarre stuff, the feedback I got was that it didn't sound realistic. Excuse me? "Realistic"?! NONE of this stuff was realistic! It's fantasy for heaven's sakes! But that's when Better-Than-Boyfriend (a.k.a. the karate instructor) said something brilliant: people don't want to imagine how a person would really react in a tough situation, what people want to imagine how they wish they would react. We'd like to imagine that we got to throw that knock-out punch, made it in just under the wire, delivered that last parting shot, or said the perfect thing that made the love of our life finally get what we'd been trying to tell them all along.

Do those things ever happen in real life? Sure. But we all know when it doesn't and that's when we, as authors, have to lie in order to deliver the truth: no one said life was fair, that's why we read books.

* I actually went to high school with this guy. True story.

It's May Day! Or should I say "M'aidez"?

I had to explain to my kids that a pilot going down for a crash landing isn't talking about the first of May, but screaming "Help Me!" in French, which is all too appropriate as I struggle with the demons in my WIP with the help of willing crit partners who are armed, ready, and able to hold me up, dust me off & throw me back to the wolves on the page. Thank goodness for them!


Curse you, Red Baron! Thank goodness for Charles Schultz!

If you are fortunate enough to have critique partners, I hereby declare it to be Critique Partners Appreciation Day -- send a little something, even just an e-card will do, to tell them how much you appreciate all that they do for you because, frankly, without them we'd be lost in the mire of our own blackest imaginings, doomed to mutter to the voices in our heads in lonely corners wearing stylish white coats whose sleeves buckle up snug in the back. I seriously could never have survived my first years of attempting to become a writer without them and, now that I have things like "deadlines" and "contracts", I need their savvy little synapses more than ever.

Thank you, Crit Partners!!!



P.S. If you do not yet have a critique partner, get them. If you ask "Where can I get some?" I would join an organization like SCBWI, RWA, SFWA, Verla Kay Blueboards or any other relevant place where people like you can find other people like you and start working together to pull each other higher. Seriously, it's the very best thing you can do for yourself and your writing!

I have been very lax in sharing doses of steampunk lately. I'll admit, being brain-deep in mythic fantasy, I have to sometimes set aside the glamor of brass, cogs and gears for the other "glamour" of lily pads, inkwells, and straight razors (don't ask...more to come soon!) but everyone needs to stop for a breath of fresh air, a chance to recharge, and clear the mind of myopic cobwebs. And for me, that's snuggling down with a warm scone and a steamy cup of punk!

I know "steampunk" is all the rage and yet manages to still defy description. I can say a lot about what I think is steampunk-y, but it's a very subjective "I know it when I see/read it" sort of thing. But the one thing I can say that I like most about the genre is that it is so accessible; open to interpretation and cultural spin-offs, drama or humor or adventure or romance, even making room for paranormal tropes and magic--like the little black dress, steampunk goes with everything!

This popped to mind when I recently stumbled across a bunch of brilliant "steampunk sculptures" by an artist that struck me as having very French-like black humor, sporting brown leather and thick goggles and a touch of Burton-esque, child-like macabre. I have no other way to describe Belgian artist, Stephane Halleux's work, but it's close enough for grenades.

My favorites may have to be his "Beauty Machine" and his little bat-winged "Homme Volant":





Both awesome pieces, and many more, can be found on his Portfolio page at www.stephanehalleux.com.
Be warned: you may want to set aside time to gawk!

These reminded me of something from Nightmare Before Christmas meets The City of Lost Children sprinkled with a liberal smattering of Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Despicable Me. (And if that doesn't turn your brain over in butter, I don't know what will!) It was just the right thing for my palette cleanser, a blending of whimsy and eerie mecha that was impishly delightful. I've decided Inq would have one in her collection...if she had any place to put it! I could imagine epic stop-motion stories of adventure and excitement in a dark world on the edge of science and monsters. Inspired, I feel ready to tackle the rest of Book Two! Huzzah!

Go take a peek and come tell me what you think.

Enjoy!

And the mystery prize for adding to the list of Great Books for Awesome Girls is:

robinellen!!!

Please email me to claim your prize, which is a OOAK Armored Warrior Elf Clothespin Doll!


Oooo! Ahhhh! Actually, I did quite like how this one came out.

She has a suit of silvery plate armor and bracers, a bejeweled dagger with matching belt clasp and wooden shield face, and pointy elf ears peeking out from her hair. May you and your little girl enjoy many happy ever afters with her! Congrats & thanks!

It's almost impossible to capture the feeling of NESCBWI. Try to imagine a giant roomful of the best writer friends you've ever had who you happen not to have met yet. Now add speakers whose books you admire and whose words you adore, who want nothing more than to give back to their community, who know what it's like to struggle and persevere. These are the expert's experts who will stand at the podium, share their passion and their laughter and then invite you to come find them in the hall to ask anything you want. They're here for you. We're all here for you.

Yes, you.

Okay, I don't want to make it sound like an entire experience of writerly kumbaya but yeah, it kinda is. (Although after a bunch of years, it feels more like Cheers, where everybody knows your name...I aspire to being Carla.)


If you don't know what this is...um...*sigh* Netflix.

I managed to miss the anniversary celebration last year due to not signing up before the entire thing sold out so I knew better this year. I convinced my friend Heather to come check it out and had the most fun reliving my first NESCBWI experience by seeing it through her eyes: people were really nice and everyone was genuinely in the spirit of Paying It Forward, from the speakers to the hotel staff to the volunteers--even the door prizes were giveaways with the instruction to keep one book and give the other one away to a total stranger at your table.


The stars of our inspiration: Frog & Toad

Generosity was the keyword for me this weekend. Sara Zarr's keynote speech was incredibly engaging, nostalgic and real, and her "Charm School" session is something that should be made into a pocket-sized book and carried around, dog-eared and highlighted, by every writer everywhere. Jo Knowles always inspires me, prompting good writing and laughs, and it never ceases to amaze me how such a smiley person's stories never fail to make me hurt (a good hurt, because I care so much about her characters)! Kate Messner shared her incredible TED Talk that asked the most important question "What If...?" to the world and provided avenues of consideration that I couldn't *wait* to run home and share with my daughter. ("How would you like to join other kids in saving the world?" Check out here and here!) Her intense session on revision was the most complete and inspirational that I'd ever seen.


Our hope for the future looks like this. Thanks to kqued.org for the pic!

Linda Urban and Cynthia Lord shared their real, heartfelt experiences about writing that second book after their first exceeded all expectations. Mitali Perkins is always my favorite speaker, appropriately taking on the power of dialogue, transforming how I think about the spoken word when it's embodied as the written word. Lisa Papademetriou never fails to blow my mind; she nailed what it's like being stuck and getting unstuck and does so with straight-talk and wry humor. Sarah Darer Littman was honest and emotive. Cindy Faughnan was funny and generous. And everyone and their crit partner referenced Twyla Tharp's book, THE CREATIVE HABIT.

And then there was the incomparable Jane Yolen sharing another gift (a midlist authors grant!), a last good-bye, and then it was over.

They gave these gifts held out in both hands and nothing in the world is better than seeing eyes light up because the receivers know they've been given something genuinely precious.


Thank you, NESCBWI, for another phenomenal conference this year!


Official adorable banner was made by my incredibly talented friend (whom I met at NESCBWI 6 years ago), Jennifer Carson

I read this post by Mur Lafferty, a letter to her daughter about the fact that being "a girl" is considered one of the worst insults in the English language and as a mother of a pretty remarkable little girl, yeah, I get it.

It's hard enough to raise functional, happy, healthy members of society without the added benefit of having the world judge them inferior for any reason--from their skin color to their use of limbs to their interior plumbing--but as a mother, I totally agree with Mur that the best way to beat 'em is to show 'em how wrong they really are by being the amazing person they are, no matter what. As a mother who happens also to be a writer, I think about the books I can offer her. From Protector of the Small to Judy Moody to Frankie Landau Banks to (my own little gal's current biography project) real gals in the real world like Golda Meir. I want my little girl to know that she can be ANYTHING and totally rock it, too.

So let's open this up to smart people: what books would YOU recommend to the girls in your life? Plunk them in the comments and share the love because you never know what book can change someone's life! And, just for the heck of it, I'll pick a contributor to the comments and announce a winner on Wednesday, April 25th and send them a prize To Be Determined Later, but I promise it'll be good!

1) Comment with your favorite books for fallopian-tubed folks below.
2) Next week, you could earn a prize!
3) Open internationally, tell everyone because the more the merrier!

P.S. Thank you from the moms of the world.