This House, My Home

17 Monday Jun 2013

Posted by in In Real Life, Uncategorized

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We’ve been in the new old-house for one month. For one month, I’ve been a slave to this house. Painting, painting, stripping, repairing, patching and painting. I’ve been a slave to this house, and yet I feel as though I owe it to this house.

While I don’t believe in ghosts or spirits, per se, I’ve always felt that old houses have a certain spirit, a life to share. I suppose it’s a child-like, magical fancy, like believing a wardrobe can take you to another world, or attributing feelings to your stuffed rabbit. This house is alive with a past and the promise of a future. It will shelter me and share its warmth through all that is to come. It will love me and protect me.

When I first saw this house, it was hurting. It had been neglected for years. When I first saw this house, I was scared of it. I was scared of the love that it needed. But on the first day that I saw this house, I had the opportunity to walk through it alone. I took my time. I stared at the cracks in the walls and the gouges in the wood trim.

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I looked at the craftsmanship of the ceiling, the original glass doorknobs, the old brass lighting.

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I looked and I made a decision. I decided to love this house. I decided to give it another chance at life.

As I work now to nurture these walls, I can’t help but think of Dickens’ phrase, “Recalled to Life.” With each stroke of the brush, I give new life to something so much older than me. This house, this 1922 bungalow, has stood strong for years. And now, in its new life, cherished and loved, it will love again.

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It will share my heartaches and my dreams. It will shelter me and share my voice as I sit down to think and work and write.

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Writing and the Psychology of Happiness, Part I

13 Thursday Jun 2013

Posted by in In Real Life, Quirk, The Writing Life

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Last month, while considering the connection between creativity and depression, I discovered some research about the evolutionary cause of depression. The more I thought about it, the easier it was to file this research under the “Interesting but Irrelevant” section of my brain. However, it provided a springboard for a discussion that I’d like to continue, because depression is a fact of life for many writers.

IMG_0406_2_2So often our initial response to depression is how can we make it go away? Common remedies run from pharmaceuticals to yoga to macrobiotics. We medicate, we meditate, we vegetate. And at the end of the day, the depression still lingers. We have become experts in misery, as Edward Hallowell has said.

What if, instead of focusing on making depression go away, we sidestep it, and consider what will bring us happiness? I’d like to spend some time looking at some different research — research that connects creativity and HAPPINESS rather than depression.

In his book, The Childhood Roots of Adult Happiness, Edward Hallowell presents a five-step cyclical program that he believes leads to a joyful life. Though originally developed with the child in mind, these thoughts seem particularly relevant for writers.

In Hallowell’s cycle, the first step is to connect. Hallowell says that connection is at the root of every joy, and too often, its importance is trivialized. Connection is why writer’s groups, MFA programs, writing retreats, conferences, and critique partners are so important. In these environments, we are not alone. We are part of something big, something worthwhile. We join in the discourse. We create the discourse. This also explains why we spend so much time with social media. We crave connection.

Connection gives a person the security that leads to the second step: play. Hallowell defines play as “any activity in which you become imaginatively involved.” Sound like writing? Play allows us to enter a state of “flow,” a term coined by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, in which our minds light up, and we lose track of time and space. This is the very definition of a good writing day to me.

Play leads to step 3: practice. When you enjoy play, you want to do it over and over. Practice may not make perfect, but it does lead to mastery, step 4. Mastery is meant to imply growth and the feeling of making progress, rather than being the absolute best at something. Mastery, Hallowell says, is vital to confidence, motivation, and self-esteem.

Recognition, step 5, follows mastery. Recognition is the stage in which you gain validation for the work you’re doing. Recognition connects you to the people who see and value you, and the cycle begins anew.

For a writer, any one of these steps can be a stumbling block. Spend too much time at the computer? You lose connection. Working under deadline? Play becomes work, and work = stress. Not sure when your revisions are enough? You get stuck in a never-ending cycle of practice, practice, practice. Get a rejection? Or two? Or seventy-five? Mastery seems out of reach, and publication light-years away.

It’s no wonder writers are depressed.

Are you stuck on one of the steps of this cycle? If so, do you see a change you could make that might help shift your state of mind from depressed to positive? What do you think?

Bare

10 Monday Jun 2013

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A few weeks ago, I went to my parents’ house in Bergen Beach, a neighborhood in Brooklyn that was massively flooded by the superstorm Sandy.  I was going out there to paint the ground floor of the house – the floor destroyed by the flooding.  As I drove my car into the neighborhood, something seemed off.  Turning my car onto the block on which I grew up, I realized:  The Trees.

They’re bare this year. I had noticed the other neighborhood foliage – the brown lawns, the random dead boxwoods among surviving boxwoods, the junipers that seemed to be shriveled – but I hadn’t yet noticed the trees until that day.  Maybe it was a particularly sunny day, or maybe I just decided to look up.  Either way, this is one of those things we didn’t think to ask in October:  What was this polluted bay water going to do to all of the landscaping, the lawns, the trees?

I can tell you the answer to this question, now.  The maple trees I grew up with will fare better than the rest.  Many branches will be missing leaves, but most will return. Some of the pines that line the property next door will die, and some of the pines will survive.  The London Planes, whose bark I loved to peel, will be the worst. They’re huge, towering over the houses in the neighborhood, and on many, only a few branches will have leaves.

Bergen Beach had never been the victim of a flood like this before.  Yes, there had been backed-up sewers and random basement flooding during storms, but never before had the basins of Jamaica Bay that surround the neighborhood risen to such heights.  Whatever raw sewage or industrial output that was in that water soaked everything.  Especially the trees.   It’s hard to see it like this, especially since I’m now a visitor, cloaked with memories of childhood summers and heavy shade.

This neighborhood is strong, though.  My parents are probably the last of their neighbors to complete reconstruction of the ground floor.  Many demolished and rebuilt almost immediately, but my parents waited for a FEMA appeal and warmer weather; they wanted to be sure the wooden studs were completely dry.  My dad got the hot water heater and boiler working after the storm, and now he’s in the process of replacing them.  The floors are tiled, the walls are complete and painted, the new washer and dryer are connected.  This week, someone will come and install a new central air conditioning unit.  And then, we will shop for furniture.

The trees are strong, too.  I’m hoping in the years to come the leaves will grow back, make their way out of the branches of those trees.  When I look up, I want to see the trees I knew as a child.  I want to see the green again.

Why morning writing isn’t such a bad thing

06 Thursday Jun 2013

Posted by in The Writing Life

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I know most of you guys aren’t morning writers. Writing late at night, while the world is asleep, is capital-S-Sexy. You have 2 or 3 or even 4 hours of uninterrupted writing time—sleep be damned. As soon as you put the kids to bed and feed the Spousal unit, you’re off to punch those keys and put words on the page. Every night.

Well, let’s be honest—it never happens like that, right? Not every night. Either you’ve had a long day and you’re too tired to write, or little Timmy needs help with his science experiment, or the dog throws up on the couch, or whatever. Good or bad, all these things sap our time and energy to write.

Being a long-time late-night writer, I began writing in the mornings a few years ago. I went back to night writing after my daughter was born, but as of today, I’m two weeks into writing in the mornings again. And I love it.

I know you aren’t convinced. Neither was I at first. But here are some reasons why I love morning writing.

1) You can get it out the way. You know how it is when you have a long to-do list, and the thing you most want to do is at the bottom of the list, teasing and taunting you? For me, that most-loved thing is writing, and by moving it to the morning, I guarantee I can check it off my list. And at least for me, it makes my day go so much better.

2) It’s even better when you get to write at night, too. I don’t always get to write at night, but when I do, it’s like having ice cream for breakfast and cake for dessert—without the calories. It’s a win-win. (And don’t let me get started about when you write during lunch as well….)

3) I’m more productive. Yes, when that alarm clock goes off at 4:30, I am DEAD (Game of Thrones /Red Wedding dead). But by the time I’m at my desk, I’m ready to work. No one is posting on Twitter or Facebook that early in the morning, so it’s easy to stay on task. I’ve found that I can consistently crank out more in an hour and a half in the morning than I can in twice as much time at night.

4) My subconscious does a lot of the work for me. Aside from the occasional dream about me being stuck on the Poseidon or dating the Victoria’s Secret Angels (okay, maybe that one’s not so occasional), I dream a lot about my manuscripts. While many of those concrete details dissolve by the morning, the impressions of those dreams remain, and help to fuel my writing. I may not know what my characters were arguing about, but I know they were arguing, and that’s enough to suck me back into the manuscript.

5) Deadlines are your friend. When I know I only have 1.5 hours to write, I want to make it as productive as possible. Facebook and Twitter become less of a liability. (And like I said, no one’s posting there, anyway.)

6) Guess what—the world is still asleep at 5:00 AM. It’s just as quiet in the morning as it is at midnight. It still feels magical. It still feels like it’s just you and the manuscript, alone in the universe. (That is, until your kid wakes up because she lost her socks.)

Really I hope you try it. All you have to lose is a few hours of sleep.

Feminism, Social Media, and Us

03 Monday Jun 2013

Posted by in The Writing Biz, We're Inspired

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My Twitter feed had a lot to say about sexism and feminism this weekend.

During Book Expo America, Jennifer McCartney posted a picture of some troubling titles for kids, the pink Nice and Pretty and the blue Brave and Smart from AZ Books.

Later, she wrote about it for XOJane.

Meanwhile, at the Centre for Youth Literature’s Reading Matters conference in Australia, some great conversations were taking place on the gender panel featuring Gayle Forman and Libba Bray.

Here’s a round-up of the conversation from Hypable.

#Coverflip of course refers to Maureen Johnson’s fantastic challenge:

If you’ve had your head under a rock and haven’t heard about Coverflip, read this HuffPost article, then search #coverflip on Twitter for all the good stuff that came of it.

All weekend, tweets flew over sexism in the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America bulletin. Some, like E. Catherine Toblar, decided to leave the organization over it. Others, like Anne Lyle, are joining up:

Kameron Hurley wrote a great post about the mess and the difference between censorship and criticism. The SFWA has since announced a Bulletin Task Force to address members’ concerns.

That might not have happened at all, and certainly not so quickly, without social media. But as Kameron Hurley says:

Well, welcome to 2013. And the world wide web, where everybody, even those underprivileged nobodies you never had to listen to before, has a chance to be heard.

Unfortunately, speaking out often comes along with consequences. Ann Aguirre posted yesterday about the sexism she’s encountered in the SFF world, and she’s already receiving hate mail in response, which can be found at the end of her post. As she warns, it’s harsh and could be triggering.

Right after reading about the SWFA mess, I read IGN’s excellent feature on Anita Sarkeesian’s “Tropes vs. Women in Video Games.” And even though I’d been warned, I made the mistake of reading the comments.

I felt like this guy:

Anita Sarkeesian is one of my heroes, and she’s endured an online campaign of misogyny, bullying, and hacking. Between reminders of that and reading snippets from the SWFA bulletin, I fell into a (thankfully brief and mild) depression.

One tweet that has stuck with me from these past few days is Justine Larbelestier’s in response to the SWFA hubbub:

It so often feels that way, but all of the voices discussing and calling for change have heartened me.

As I was typing this post, came this tweet from Angie Manfredi:

(She was in the midst of calling out an ill-informed article (book promo) titled “How to Write a Feminist Young Adult Novel” in Jezebel, and she wasn’t alone, but you’ll have to visit to Twitter for more on that …)

And here’s another heartening one, from Justine Larbelestier:

Change is slow, but it is change. Social media opens the door to rants and trolls and  bullying and harassment, but it also provides a forum for conversation, for calling out poor choices, and for empowering young people.

And any “nobody” can join the conversation. So participate. Pay attention. Be critical. Listen. Stay positive. Share.

Depression and Writing

30 Thursday May 2013

Posted by in The Writing Life, Uncategorized

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On bad days, when I am tired of wearing my mask of composure, when fortitude seems unfathomable, and all is far from well, I consider the relationship between affliction and art. Why is it that so many writers and other creative souls stumble under a nearly paralyzing emotional weight? Are we all like Jonah in The Giver – the receptacle for our society’s emotions, both good and bad? Why do so many writers suffer from depression? Does the creative soul feed on depression? Or does depression afflict the creator?

Some psychological research reported in the past three years indicates an evolutionary reason for depression, and while there are flaws in the hypothesis (as in the case of severe chronic depression), it’s interesting to consider that there might be an upside to depression for those who spend their lives in the pursuit of creativity.

The hypothesis, called analytic-rumination hypothesis (ARH), authored by J. Anderson Thomson and Paul Andrews, proposes that depression (characterized by rumination, or fixating on one’s problems) evolved as a means of problem-solving. (Full text found here)

The hypothesis states that the characteristic and continual process of rumination triggers the area of the brain that is associated with intense focus. Rumination = focus. This area of the brain is also responsible for analysis. We fixate, we ruminate, we analyze. The logical next step? We solve a problem. But this is a slow process, and the brain gets tired and shuts down. The authors of this study see depression as a booster to this process, allowing the person an increased ability to focus, and therefore an increased ability to solve the problem at hand. Depression = rumination = focus = problem solving.

Paul Andrews conducted an experiment to begin to understand the connection between negative mood and analytical ability. He administered an abstract-reasoning test to 115 undergraduates and found that even non-depressed students felt lousy after taking the test: “the anatomy of focus is inseparable from the anatomy of melancholy.”

So what does this mean for writers, members of one of the top ten professions at risk for suffering depression?

Consider the length of time required to produce a novel. Consider the focus required to craft a truly believable character. Consider the narrative arc, the world-building, the emotional line. Even non-depressed writers would feel lousy after such intense and sustained focus.

Nancy Andreasen, a neuroscientist studying  the correlation between depression and creativity, believes that depression is braided with a “cognitive style” that increases the likelihood of creating successful works of art. The cognitive style? It’s what we writers call “Butt-In-Chair.” Andreasen says that “successful writers are like prizefighters who keep on getting hit but won’t go down. They’ll stick with it until it’s right.” We writers ruminate. We focus. We despair.  “Unfortunately, this type of thinking is often inseparable from the suffering,” she says. “If you’re at the cutting edge, then you’re going to bleed.”

As they say, writing is easy. Just put your butt in the chair, open up a vein, and bleed. Your neurological chemistry’s got your back.

Writer Boot Camp – Chicago Style

23 Thursday May 2013

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As part of my New Year’s Resolution to write more, I pledged to write 1500 words a week.

To say that it’s been a colossal failure would be a colossal understatement.

In an attempt to jump-start my writing, I decided to take a pseudo-impromptu mini-retreat. I’ve taken days off for hard-core writing sessions before—me hunkered down at my desk with nothing but gummi bears and microwave meals to sustain me—but that’s been a lot harder to do with a toddler running around the house. In addition, my work-life of recent has flared up EVERY TIME in go on vacation—which means that when I’m in town, I go to the office, vacation be damned.

So this time, I decided to travel. Good-bye Austin. Hello Chicago.

The plan was simple—I’d meet up with VCFA chums Rachel Wilson and Mary Winn Heider, and we’d write. I was working on edits to The GREAT GREENE HEIST (Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic, 2014). Mary Winn was finishing a second draft for a funny middle grade. Rachel had just turned in edits for her debut YA (tentative title: DON’T TOUCH, Harper Collins, 2014) and was working on a short story and new novel. And we stuck to the plan.

Mostly.

I arrived in Chicago at 9:30 AM on Thursday morning and made my way to Mary Winn’s place. Being the urban commando that I am, I took the train and the bus. I only missed my stop by three blocks and only got honked at once for jaywalking. (I’m counting that as a win.)

Mary Winn and I spent a few minutes catching up, then we got to work. We set our cell phone timers for 1 hour to 1.5 hours chunks, and we wrote (or in my case, edited). We took breaks every once in a while to take a walk or each lunch (Bean and Bagels—highly recommended), but we always went back to the timed writing.

Later that evening, we met up with Rachel, ordered a mushroom / artichoke / olive pizza from Fireside Pizza (also highly recommended), and got back to writing.

(Interesting bit of randomness—Mary Winn’s neighbor is author James Kennedy. James and I shared an editor at Delacorte—Stephanie Lane Elliott. James is also famous for his 90-Second Newbery Film Festival. James was hosting librarian / author / celebrity Betsy Bird, who was in town to promote her picture book—GIANT DANCE PARTY (ill. by Brandon Dorman, Harper Collins, 2013). So for future reference, that’s how you meet famous authors—camp out at Mary Winn’s place. It’s where all the cool kids go.)

Friday through Sunday was more of the same. We played around with the length of writing time—two hours seemed like too much, while 40 minutes didn’t seem quite enough. We’d take little breaks between each session to talk about what we were struggling with, or to just take a walk (or in my case, to make out with Rachel’s dog, Remy), but we always went back to the writing. And whenever I would try to steal a peek at emails on my phone, Mary Winn would take it from me. We discovered that if we worked really hard during the day, we didn’t feel too guilty about stopping at 5:00 or 6:00. We were pretty wiped out by then anyway.

By the time we reached Sunday afternoon, this is what we accomplished:

Rachel wrote 4677 new words and revised 2100.

Mary Winn wrote 9,777 new words, or 33 pages, bringing her to the end of her second draft.

Varian edited 150 pages, and wrote one synopsis and a rough outline for a new novel (2686 words).

We also went through four bags of gummi (though one was accidentally—but completely—filled with water). Other snacks/candy consumed included one bag of licorice, half a bag of jelly beans, some chocolate, and a bag of popcorn. Oh, and lots of coffee. And wine.

(We also went to an awesome fundraiser put on by Rachel and Mary Winn’s theater group, Barrel of Monkeys. Mary Winn was a cheerleader / cat at numerous points during the night. Rachel was a witch. And a twelfth-year senior. And prom queen. It was awesome.)

Looking back on our boot camp, I’ve found that I really learned a number of things about myself and my process:

1) I had never set a timer to keep myself focused on writing, but I’m going to try it more. It’s similar to when I write during lunch or before I go to work. When I have a full day available to write, I find that I let the time trickle away. When I’m on a deadline, I punch the hell out of my keys.

2) It’s so much easier to be productive when the people in the room with you are being productive as well. It makes you not want to cheat.

3) Walking does a body (and mind) good. It’s a good way to relieve tension.

4) Never let Mary Winn make coffee. EVER. I had the shakes for two days.

5) When it doubt, make out with a dog. They love you whether you wrote all day or not.

remy2

I’m a lover, not a fighter.

“To be everywhere, is to be nowhere.”

20 Monday May 2013

Posted by in In Real Life, Uncategorized

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My husband receives a theological magazine entitled Modern Reformation. In this month’s copy, “Wired and Tired,” all of the articles focus upon the state of our technology-driven society. At my husband’s prodding, I read over the list of this month’s featured articles. Interesting. I read an article. Fascinating. I read the whole magazine, all of “Wired and Tired,” cover to cover, in one sitting.

I read about our Facebook society, the shift from printed material to less tangible e-texs, and the general distraction of our society, where multi-tasking has become the norm. All fascinating. But the most interesting article I read was not even an entire article. It was a sidebar entitled, “Scatterbrains.” It began with this quote:

‘I don’t read books,’ says Joe O’Shea, a former president of the student body at Florida State University and a 2008 recipient of a Rhodes Scholarship. ‘I go to Google, and I can adsorb relevant information quickly.’ O’Shea, a philosophy major, doesn’t see any reason to plow through chapters of text when it takes but a minute or two to cherry-pick the pertinent passages using Google Book Search. ‘Sitting down and going through a book cover to cover doesn’t make much sense,’ he says, ‘It’s not a good use of my time.

With a sick turning in my stomach, I read on. The sidebar continued by describing “Generation Net” as people who have learned to scan and search rather than be absorbed by a text. This was supported by Professor Katherine Hayles of Duke University who said:

I can’t get my students to read whole books anymore.

Professor Hayles is an English teacher. Her students are Literature students. As horrified as I was upon reading this, I must confess I have seen the same in my own middle school students. A vast majority won’t read books even when they are assigned. They won’t read them, and they freely admit to their negligence as they tell me about the You-tube videos they watched the night before.

The magazine insert concluded with a quote by the ancient Roman philosopher Seneca, who said:

To be everywhere, is to be nowhere.

How well these ancient words describe our technological society. How pertinent. How sad.

This magazine has haunted me for days, now. How often, as authors, do we discuss ways in which to engage our readers? You must have an inciting incident. You must create memorable characters. You must increase the tension by leading the reader to ask questions. How much of our labors are lost to a society that doesn’t want to be engaged by books?

You can not truly enter Narnia with a simple scan and search of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. How do we bring our children to a place and a time and a moment when they are content to be nowhere?

May Reading Report

18 Saturday May 2013

Posted by in Uncategorized, We're Reading

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Annemarie

Holding Silvan by Monica Wesolowska

Carol

APE by Guy Cawasaki and Shawn WelchDanielle

The Strange History of the American Quadroon by Emily Clark

Danielle

Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

Ginger

The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate

Blink and Gollie, Best Friends Forever by Kate DiCamillo

Divergent by Veronica Roth

 

Larissa

The View From Saturday by E.L. Konigsburg

Linden

The Haunting of Charles Dickens by Lewis Buzbee

Sue

How Not to Find a Boyfriend by Allyson Valentine

Rachel

Liar by Justine Larbalestier

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

Partials by Dan Wells

Varian

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michale Chabon

Jen

The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J. K. Rowling

 

Carol Lynch Williams and WIFYR

16 Thursday May 2013

Posted by in Interviews, The Writing Biz, We're Inspired, Writing Craft

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I adore Carol Lynch Williams. She is not only a talented and prolific writer, but an amazing woman with a wicked sense of humor, and a fine alto to boot. (I know this because I got to sit next to her in church one Sunday during our VCFA residencies). Following graduation, she has continued to write (a lot), teach (a lot), and mentor (a lot) all while mothering her five daughters. And did I mention she blogs?bio-carol

One of Carol’s huge undertakings is directing the Writing and Illustrating for Young Readers Conference. It takes place this year June 17-21 at the Waterford School in Sandy, Utah.

Recently, Carol answered some questions about the conference, her work, and life in general.

Tell us about the WIFYR conference? What makes it special?

Writing and Illustrating for Young Readers is all about helping those who want to write and publish for kids and young adults. Our goal is to help your work become publishable — and not just that great first chapter. The conference — which lasts a week long — has all kinds of classes. For example, we have a class if you are struggling with those icky middles, one if your novel is completed and needs fine tuning, one that addressees the first 50 pages of work. There’s an illustrator class and, if you don’t have all day, you can sign up just for the afternoon sessions.

How long have you been running the conference? What made you decide to initiate it?

Many years ago a good friend of mine, Chris Crowe (Mississippi Trial, 1955 and  Getting Away with Murder, just to name a few of his books) called me up. “If you could go to any kind of writing conference,” he said, “what would it be like? What is your dream writing conference?” Chris and I started dreaming together. We’d want editors and agents there. We’d have classes, led by published authors and illustrators. We’d keep those classes small, intimate. We’d focus on craft, on becoming better, stronger writers.  We’d have afternoon sessions all about craft.

I can’t believe it, but we are in our 14th year.

GJ: Who’s on faculty this year?

CLW: Our faculty is pretty amazing. They always are.

We have:

Steve Bjorkman–our illustrator (13 attendees)–this is just a three-day class
Sharlee Glenn–picture book class (13 attendees)
Cheri Earl–working through those icky middles (13 attendees)
Scott Savage–the middle grade novel (13 attendees)
AE Cannon–novel class (13 attendees)
Kris Chandler–young adult novel class (13 attendees)
Matt Kirby–advanced writing class (13 attendees)
Martine Leavitt–advanced writing class (13 attendees)
Carol Lynch Williams–Boot camp class (10 attendees)
Mette Ivie Harrison– Full novel class   (6 attendees)

Steve Fraser is visiting from Jennifer DeChiara Literary Agency
Ammi-Joan Paquette from Erin Murphy Literary Agency
Alyson Heller from Aladdin Books

Our keynote is Lance Larson, Utah’s Poet Laurette. The keynote is free to the public.

There is a great closing social, lots of give-aways, and a book signing.

What is most exciting about this conference is that our faculty WANT to help you publish. I am already communicating with members of my class about Boot Camp. They will be doing homework long before we meet, and that week we will work hard, too. And laugh and have fun and improve.

What can a first-time attendee expect?

To be exhausted by the time the week is over. You’ll be working hard the whole week, with about 40 hours of work (including time in morning classes, afternoon sessions, and homework). If you are the faint of heart, this isn’t the conference for you. You can also expect to walk out knowing more about yourself as a writer, more about your writing, more about what makes GOOD writing and that you can do this! You can publish!

What’s new with Carol the Writer? What’s in the pipeline for you?

Let’s see — I have a series for early readers coming out from a new publisher. george and gracie 1The first two books, GEORGE AND GRACIE, JUST IN TIME will debut with Familius Publishing this fall.

Next year I have two non-fiction books coming out, plus THE HAVEN the-haven_carol-lynch-williams_book(which is my dystopian novel) and a happy book (finally) from Paula Wiseman Imprints. THE HAVEN is released in the spring. Not sure about the Paula Wiseman book.

I’ve just sent in a loose proposal for a companion book to another novel I have already published.

Loyal readers of your blog know your philosophy of celebrating in the form of dinner out or a dance after write-a-thons. Give us your top 5 songs on a playlist for a celebratory dance or the menu for a celebratory dinner out.

What a fun question!
Here are a list of songs that I just shared with my WIFYR Boot Camp class, in no particular order:

1. Hallelujah
2. Loverboy (dang it, not the original video from when I was a newborn baby!)
3. Rock Me Tonight (not the best sound, but fun to dance to)
4. The Leaving Song Pt 2 (Don’t ask me what he’s saying. I have no idea. Also, I saw them in concert, and he doesn’t sing this well in real life.)
5. The Kill
6. Mercy Street (This man inspired a book that I later called The True Colors of Caitlynne Jackson)
7. Queen of the Night

Okay, I could keep going, but I won’t.

Thank you, Carol! The conference sounds fantastic! 

Friends, if you’re in the west and looking for some writing inspiration (and fun!), be sure to check out the Writing and Illustrating for Young Readers Conference June 17-21 at the Waterford School in Sandy, Utah.

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