Hey, you guys! I vlogged about a little bit of book news and it’s *possible* I also sang a song. Maybe. (Because that’s what I do. Or used to do.) Check it out. (That screen shot’s a NICE look, isn’t it? THANKS, YouTube.)
So, now that I’ve gotten that out of my system…it’s likely to happen again. (The vlogging and the singing.) (You have been warned.)
Hope your week is starting out great. :-)
I’m almost done with the outline of Book Two, and really anxious to start writing it. As I’ve gone through a few drafts of the outline, I’ve been piling them on my desk (which is already piled with plenty of other stuff. I won’t show you a picture because it’s NOT pretty.) I keep glancing at the piles of paper from Intangible, sitting over there on the top of a book shelf, knowing I need to clear them off to have a place to put Book Two drafts.
So today I did. Because I’m starting anew.
Before:
After:
It looks so empty up there. But also FULL of possibilities. (I wonder how full it will get of paper…) Book Two, here I come.
I hope your day is full of possibilities too. :-) Have a great one!
Over the weekend we went to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology to their annual Migration Celebration and Steve took some fabulous pictures of a few of the birds we got to ooh and ahh over. I should tell you that we go to this EVERY year. We LOVE this event. (I even appear for a few seconds in their informational video about the celebration here. It was filmed in 2007/2008, I think. Scroll to the bottom of the page to find the video and you’ll see me at about the 2:30 mark.) (I’m FAMOUS!)
We always get to see lots of really cool birds. Like these.
That’s a turkey vulture. Can you see the hole through its beak? That’s the bird’s nose and it has a super sense of smell, much more sensitive than most other birds.
This is a little black-capped chickadee that they caught in special nets set up for banding birds. You can see the little band around its leg in the photo on the left. My kids all tried out tossing little stuffed animals into the nets to see how they work.
Then we went to check out the birds from the Cornell raptor program. That’s seriously the COOLEST part of the celebration.
A Merlin.
An American Kestrel.
An absolutely gorgeous Great Horned Owl. (Next photo too.)
And my favorite, by far, is this last one…the Eurasian Eagle Owl. Check out those eyes.
They are ORANGE. The first time we saw this bird, probably the first time we went to the celebration (maybe 5 years ago), we fell. in. love. I mean, how could we not? He has ORANGE eyes!
It’s native to Europe and related to the Great Horned Owl (which is native here) but is a much larger bird. Look at how big it is on the arm of this Cornell student.
You’d think it would weigh 30-40 pounds at that size, but it actually only weighs about 7 pounds. (LOTS of feathers.)
It was a seriously cool way to spend our Saturday.
Oh, and on Mother’s Day? I woke to kids, hugs, hand-drawn cards amidst the “Happy Mother’s Day!” greetings. And then my littlest came in and wished me “Happy Meyers Day!” My day was made right there. :-)
I hope you had a great weekend as well, and if you are a mother, I hope you felt very loved. Happy Monday!
P.S. Watching that video reminds me that I have a vlog to do for a fabulous book blogger, that I’m going to try to complete this week. And then I’m going to start vlogging here, too, once in a while. (You have been warned.)
It’s been very bookish around here with having just plundered the library book sale over the weekend, finished reading my friend Megan’s manuscript this morning, and getting some good work done on my next book. I’m getting into the groove, people! My nose has been buried in the outline for book two and I’m actually making progress. (Yippee!) I’m getting excited to start writing. Almost itching for it. It’s a good feeling. :-)
This library book sale—oh, let me tell you about the library book sale. Riley and Torin came with me, we stood in line outside for about an hour (we always go early on the first day, get in line before the doors open) (hey, it’s not crazy! we want the best selection!) (plus it’s not like we’re camping out the night before on the sidewalk, you know) (people do that) (I’m not kidding) (so, see? we’re the normal ones) and together we picked out over 50 books to bring home. (Which was showing restraint—last time I came home with 65 books.) (Also, they have over 250,000 books for sale and I ONLY bought 50. Seriously. I showed superhuman restraint.) (So it’s like I’m a superhero, really.)
What’s that? You want to see our haul? Okay.
(This isn’t all of them. The kids have scattered the rest all over the house.)
(I LOVE that my kids love books.)
(Even more than I love the library book sale.)
(Which is a LOT.)
A great combination of books for the kids (lots of great fiction and non-fiction books—I LOVE those DK books!!) and books for me (research/reference books for my writing and some good YA to read). *Sigh.* Have I mentioned how much I LOVE the library book sale? (Does it show?)
Oh, and does anyone know where I can get some more bookshelves? ;-)
Hope you’re having a bookishly great week!
1. This has been a WEEK. My brother John had surgery on his spine today that appears to have gone very well. They removed 80-90% of a couple of tumors that have been causing him a LOT of pain lately. He’s in a lot of pain post-op, so if you have some spare positive thoughts you could send his way, I know he could use them. I’m going to spend a bit of time tonight feeling very grateful for modern medicine. I’m an alternative healing method person for a lot of things, but there is a time and a place for modern medicine and this is definitely it.
2. We were lucky enough to spend good time with friends this week—meeting at a park with a new friend, going over to another friend’s house. There was archery involved at the latter and my kids were SO excited about that. Even the littlest gave it a try and she was totally thrilled to get a turn. My boys have been fascinated with archery for the past year (at least) and were over the moon to discover that we had friends armed with REAL bows and REAL arrows. Previously the only thing they’d had to shoot with was sticks they’d tied elastic string to. So there were huge smiles all around (and a wee bit of frustration at the learning curve, but we got through that pretty well). Sigh. Friends are the best, you know?
3. I went to the library and lost my head, coming home with 4 fantastic-looking books that I should not be taking the time to read right now because I have an outline that MUST be finished and a book to start writing. But I cannot resist a good book. EVER. I was scouring the YA shelves (because, you know, I love YA lit) and spotted Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson. I’d heard great things about it last year, but hadn’t seen it in my library. So I picked it up with the full intention of not taking it this time because it wasn’t really what I wanted to read right now, but I had to pick it up because it has the most beautiful cover. Then I made the mistake of flipping it open, reading a few lines, and I got totally sucked in. I started it as soon as we got home, and honestly I couldn’t put it down. It’s an incredible book that I highly recommend, though it’s a tough subject. The main character is anorexic and cuts herself. As with most (if not all) YA books, it ends with hope for the future, but still. It’s painful at times and absolutely gripping.
4. My area library book sale starts this Saturday, and it’s HUGE. It’s like bibliophile HEAVEN, and I’m a total bibliophile so I’m going to *be* in heaven. You know I’m going to be standing in line before the doors open (as I do every time). Sigh. I *love* my library book sale. (I may have mentioned that here.) I come home with a pile of new-to-us books and I don’t see my kids for the rest of the day (and not because my nose is buried in a book but because theirs are). (I love that.) I think I’m going to be armed with two kids when I go, which is great for two reasons. 1) I don’t have to remember which books they already have—they know it very well themselves, and 2) there’s a 50 books *per person* limit on the first day. So I’ll actually be able to buy 150 books if I want with three of us there. :D :D (Don’t tell Steve or he won’t let me take the children with me.)
That’s it for me. Now back to the outline! Hope you have a GREAT weekend (and I hope yours will be as filled with books as mine will be).
I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately because there seems to be some disdain, apparently, toward adults who read YA. Now, I’ve never experienced that personally, and really I couldn’t care less what someone thinks about the books I like to read. I like to read them. That’s all that matters.
But there was a recent NYT Room for Debate piece on adults reading YA that got people riled up. This isn’t a response to that so much as it is a puzzling out of just what it is about YA lit that I connect with and love so much, what I have in common with millions of other people—teens and adults alike. YA lit does not just speak to teens, and I’ll tell you why.
1. It’s often about making your own decisions—which leads to making your own mistakes—and having to deal with the consequences. Teens are just starting to deal with this on a larger level, and adults have been dealing with it for years. Doesn’t mean adults are any better at it or less likely to make mistakes. We can all relate.
2. It’s often about coming into your own. We think of this as happening during the teen years, but for many of us it doesn’t happen until our twenties, thirties, or forties when we really figure out who we are and become comfortable with ourselves. When presented in adult lit, it often seems pathetic or sad when a character hasn’t figured themselves out yet. But in YA lit there’s a feeling of promise.
3. It’s often about finding our passions. Teens are figuring out what they want to do with their lives, pressured to pick a college/university, pick a major, pick a career years before they’ll be working at it. Some adults still haven’t figured out what they want to be when they grow up, haven’t figured out their passions. In YA lit, it’s approached with hope. In adult lit, oftentimes it seems the characters who haven’t found their passions are portrayed as downtrodden or lost. Who wants to connect with that—with the feeling of being stuck, hopeless? Even if some of us may feel that way in our lives, it’s more enjoyable to read a book that explores finding one’s passion with promise for the future. It may inspire us to do the same. (And don’t we all like to feel inspired?)
4. It’s often about overcoming great obstacles when you don’t know what you’re doing or how you’re going to get through. Hello, Life! We grow and learn our whole lives. There’s always something that you have to figure out how to cope with, how to do, feel overwhelmed by and fear that you’re not equipped to handle it. Having babies, raising kids, medical problems, new jobs/careers, caring for elderly parents, etc. This is life. This isn’t just teen life. It’s Life life.
5. It very often involves falling in love—the first flutter of feelings, first touch, first kiss with someone can happen at any age. That initial excitement you feel tingling throughout your entire body, making your heart beat faster, giving you a grin you can’t hide doesn’t change as you age—it still feels the same whether you’re 16, 26, or 56. And we all love it, don’t we? Isn’t that the best part of falling in love? But it’s mostly glossed over in adult lit. There’s a hurry to get to sex, maybe marriage, children—what we often think of as the results of falling in love. The initial flutterings and excitement are barely explored in adult lit, if at all. But in YA, they are detailed slow and exciting just as we feel them in real life. It’s the build up to that first kiss when your senses are all heightened, when you feel most alive. It’s the process of falling in love. Some of us haven’t experienced that for a very long time and may never again (us old married folk!). That’s sometimes what people miss most about being single—the thrill of that first kiss and new love with someone. But we can feel it again through a book. We can experience vicariously.
Overall, YA lit is written with hope and optimism. Even the tough subjects, even the issue books are written with hope for what happens for the future of the characters, after The End. The characters don’t all necessarily live happily ever after—YA lit isn’t dipped in sugar. But it is steeped in hope. We lead happier lives when we have hope. We can get through tough times when we have hope. We can identify with characters who’ve been through the worst but survived with hope.
Reading books written with hope gives us hope for ourselves. Who wouldn’t love that?
1. My littlest turned 3 this week amidst homemade gifts, cards, and lots of love. She’s such a person. I mean, she has been for the past year and a half, she’s been becoming more and more who she is. But she’s *such* a person. I LOVE that. Even when her personhood is showing signs of stubbornness (don’t know where she gets that from *ahem*) or following in her brothers’ sometimes undesirable footsteps. And she’s quick, wicked smart, and doesn’t miss a THING around here. I swear each child has gotten more clever than the last, which means she could easily become a criminal mastermind. Sigh. I LOVE that.
2. Riley and Torin spent the day with Steve at work this week and they were so. darn. cute. about it. The night before, they gathered their clothes (button-down shirts and ties, just like Dad) and asked me if I’d make them sandwiches for lunch. Riley woke up at 10pm that night and came out thinking it was morning and time to get ready. He even complained that Steve hadn’t woken him up yet. Steve pointed him back toward bed, laughing. The two of them were wide awake by 5:30 am, ate breakfast right away, took showers, asked Steve to iron their clothes as he was ironing his own, and told me AGAIN what kind of sandwiches they wanted. They were giddy with excitement. Torin couldn’t believe his luck that he was going to get to spend the whole day with Dad. “I’ve never gotten to spend the whole day with Dad before,” he said over and over again, a huge grin on his face. (I didn’t bother pointing out all the time he has days with Steve on weekends, holidays, and when Steve takes them all away for the day for adventures sometimes. I didn’t want to taint his happiness AT ALL.) Then they called here two or three times to check in, see what we were doing, if they were missing anything exciting. Cute, I tell you, CUTE!
3. In totally unrelated, but happy, news I’m making good progress on the outline for book two. (YAY!) (And WHEW.) Ideas are flowing, I’m figuring out my lore (isn’t it weird that I didn’t have to have it all figured out for the first book? I didn’t, which was good because I couldn’t make up my mind about a few things…of course now I HAVE to), and I feel like I’m on the right track. It feels good. It’s funny. For some bizarre reason I’d totally forgotten how much work making the outline is, how much thought, puzzling, and problem-solving goes into it. It sounds like it should be a quick thing, doesn’t it? I can tell you it’s decidedly not. It’s writing the entire book in shorthand, and it takes a while to get everything in a logical order, throw in/think up twists, turns, and as much misery as possible.
4. In really, really unrelated news I’m thinking about cutting all my hair off really short and donating my hair to Locks of Love. Okay, I’m not just thinking about it, I’m planning on doing it in the next month or two. In all honesty, I’m tired of coloring my hair and have decided to go natural (which is brown with LOTS of gray now—the latter of which I’m actually very happy about because I look better with lighter hair). I can’t quite bear growing out the color while my hair is long, and since I have enough length to donate, I’m going to chop it off nice and short. (And then I’ll proceed to grow my hair out again. Because that’s what I always do. Short hair is NOT my best style.) If I don’t look too terrible afterwards, I’ll post before and after pics.
5. Lastly, I’m feeling so grateful for the internet these days and the virtual friends I’ve been making all over the country. People I would never have met otherwise, who are becoming real friends and who I hope to meet in person someday. It’s amazing me this week—that I can get to know and care about wonderful people so far away, without having met them in the traditional sense. That friendships can develop over time, just like they do in person. That I can “get together” with these friends or bump into them on Twitter and have a conversation just as if I’m bumping into friends at the grocery store. It’s really so lovely. Thank you, my new friends. (You know who you are.) I’m feeling so blessed by you.
Hope you have a wonderful weekend, everyone!
Done. Just in time.
I’ll be back later in the week and I promise to be more verbose. But for now I’ve got a cake to make and some 3 year old birthday plannings to attend to. :-) And I’m going to steep in the bittersweetness of children who grow up way too fast.
Hope your week is starting out great!
My super-secret weekend wip (work-in-progress) for a very soon-to-be three year old.
Have a great weekend, everyone!
I have one bit of book-related news, and then you’ve just got to watch that TED talk below. (I know, I know, but TED talks are amazing. I *love* them. I know it’s hard to tell…but I digress.) So, my news is that I have a store here on the site to sell ebooks for ALL ereaders as well as SIGNED paperbacks. I know, right? Total excitement! I’ve had requests for other sources to buy Intangible in ebook form by people who own ereaders other than Nook and Kindle, and inquiries as to where people can buy signed books. If you know anyone who’s totally dying to get one, call/email them right now! (Or well, more realistically, if you know someone who might be interested, please let them know.) ;-) And if you look up there to the top menu right under the banner, you’ll see the store link.
Okay, so now, this TED talk. The man speaking is Sir Ken Robinson and he’s funny, charming, and absolutely inspiring in this talk about the importance of keeping creativity in education. If you have kids, if you know kids, if you used to be a kid, watch this video. If you’re in education, have an interest in education, pay school taxes or vote on school budgets, watch this video. It’s almost twenty minutes long, but so worth the time (and he’s incredibly entertaining, I promise you—he’ll have you laughing the whole time). Our kids need their creativity nurtured, and yet they are having their creativity educated right out of them. It’s a trend we really need to turn around in our education system, in our education mind-set.
(Thanks to Julie for the link.)
I hope YOU are having an incredibly creative week!
(Title quote is taken from Robinson’s talk. And it’s so true.)