What First Pass Edits Look Like...

Hi! Interrupting my blogging break to let you all know that I'm in the midst of first pass edits on TRAIN WRECK.

This was me before the edits arrived...

And this is me now...

So it's going...er, well, I guess.

I can't wait to come back on October 1st!!!

Writing and Reading and Catching Up

Okay, it's been awhile since I've done a bloggy catch-up. I apologize. I actually have been reading lots of blogs, but I've found it difficult to comment because I'm so late to the game that everyone has already said what I want to say. I wish that I could just write "Yeah, what they all said" on the comments so you all know I've been to see you.

A few things...

1. Today is the LAST day for you to vote on the Band Camp contest. So go read all the hilarious entries and pick your favorite. Winner will be announced next week when I get back from LA.

2. Yes. I'm going to LA for the SCBWI conference this weekend. It may be the only chance I get to meet my Alaskan collaboration partner Jolene. My roommates/writer friends have dubbed it #BarCon. So yeah, if you're there and looking for me...you know where I'll likely be.

3. I've been writing a lot. Jolene and I finished GESTAPO. Sort of. It's with beta readers right now. As most of you know, this book has been the thorn in my side ever since it got to the quarter finals in ABNA. It's so very different now from then. We've written it so many different ways. Jolene has been really patient about all of it. This might be my last effort on this book. If it doesn't work, then I'll likely let it go. Evidently, I am slightly allergic to writing commercial fiction. I also started a new book that I wrote 50 pages of in 2 days. It feels like one of those books that will never be published, which I said about TRAINWRECK so that's maybe a good sign. It's probably the only true YA romance I'll ever write. And yes, it's a girl-girl love story.

4. TRAINWRECK edits start in the next week or so. I don't really know what that'll mean for me. I shall check in and let you know how it goes.

5. I'm reading my friend Holly's e-serial: KING SOLOMON'S WIVES: THE HUNTED. It's great. Part suspense, part historical. It's kind of like a woman's Da Vinci Code in it's complexity. But better because it's a serial and you get to vote on what you want to see more of in book 2.

And finally, the winner of THE BESTEST RAMADAN EVER is Golden Eagle. G.E. shoot me an email with your snail mail addy and I'll send you your book.

Now, what are you all up to? Writing? Reading? Any of you going to LA?

My kids judge YA books by their covers

So I don't know if any of you saw this, where a 6 year old judges books by their covers, but I thought it was pretty spectacular. It made me wonder what my kids would say about YA books. I originally started with about 15 books, but my kids have little patience and no amount of bribery was going to engage them so I stumbled through as many as I could. You will note that not all of them answered on each one. They kind of picked their favorites.

Also, I should caveat this by saying that my children are precocious readers. My boys have been reading since they were two and my daughter reads more books in a week than I do. So titles did factor into these books in all cases.

5 yr old-- "It's just what it says. It's about saving lives."
8 yr old-- "I think it's a true story."
10 yr old-- "It's about the girl on the cover and there's someone she loves and something bad happens to him or her and she has to save their life."

5 yr old-- "This book is about fighting."

8 yr old-- "I think it's about time travel, but I read the top part."
10 yr old-- "Well, if it's about time travel, then it's where this girl meets someone when she goes back in time, but she can't marry him or her because she's from a different time."

5 yr old-- "This book is about girls and lipstick, maybe not Barbies though."

8 yr old-- "A girl and a boy are friends and they discover something special."
10 yr old-- "It's about a girl who discovers a secret. Or maybe it's 13 reasons why we named our dog after this author."
5 yr old-- "Yeah, it's a book about the dog."

8 yr old-- "It's about a girl who is beautiful and dangerous."
5 yr old-- "And she has a lot of lipstick"
10 yr old-- "It's about a girl who would do anything to be beautiful."

5 yr old-- "It's about a girl who is sad."
10 yr old-- "It's about someone who used to have a privileged life and now she lost everything."

8 yr old-- "This one is easy, Mom. It's about a girl who lives in France who has a crush on someone."
10 yr old-- "Yeah, and it looks like it's a crush on a boy."









And finally, just for fun...

10 yr old-- "This book is about a guy who's a ghost."