Book Review: An Off Year

It’s possible that I gave this a five star rating because it has one of the best covers I’ve ever seen. But, I think it’s more than that. Do you ever feel like you belong to a book instead of it belonging to you? That’s how I felt when I read this book. And though reading it didn’t blow my mind and I didn’t weep and wail, I think this book accomplished exactly what it set out to do, which was give the reader a sense of belonging, and a general feeling of “it’s okay-ness” about being who you are.

I couldn’t necessarily relate to Cecily not wanting to go to college immediately, but I loved that she stopped being the obedient daughter and really made a first decision on her own–not to go to college that year–even if she couldn’t pinpoint why and had a feeling it was a bad decision. I really enjoyed Cecily’s questioning of why high school kids all go off to college in mass, like lemmings to a meadow–or wherever they would actually find fun and safety. She challenged the cliches of partying and dorm living and dating and even learning.

I will look for more books by Claire Zulkey, in the future. The humor in this one was definitely my kind of humor, and the family dynamics were well-drawn. The conclusion I expected came naturally and as promised. But, it was the subject matter that was so unique to young adult books that I appreciated the most. I haven’t seen anything else like it. I really loved this book.

If My Life Were A Book Cover (3)

I love orange. Sometimes it’s my favorite color. Something about it signals the bright part of change. And for me, change is once again in the air.

My literary agent and I have decided to part ways. Perhaps I was a naive young writer to believe that we would be together forever. And the business of writing, while being a business, is an emotional  one. So, the feelings I’m left with are a mixed bag of  disappointment, insecurity, and loss, with a renewed sense of get-to-it-ness, focus, and it-will-be-better-next time. I’m thankful that we are parting amicably and respectfully. And, I am a better a writer because I worked with him. I still believe I will be a published YA author one day.

But, now what? I can’t see exactly where I’m going, but I’ll focus on the orange as I drive off into whatever lies ahead.

Writing Young Adult Books: Q and A (1)

On occasion, I receive emails with questions about writing young adult books. It makes me feel a little bit like an expert in my field, which is sort of flattering. And while I don’t have so much as an inkling about the world of publishing, I do know a little bit about the craft of writing. I never had writing courses in college. I never had the confidence to think I could “be good enough” (whatever that means) at writing until I was staring down at my 28th birthday cake and found the balls to actually practice. So, everything I’ve learned is from reading novels, as well as reading books about writing and publishing, as well as reading blogs and websites and forums, as well as talking to people in the industry. The more I learn, the more I love writing. And the more I hate it sometimes, too. But today I’m going to focus on the love.

Today’s question:

Do you have a set time that you write each day? I saw that you have a full time job (as do I) and I wondered with that and with kids, when and how long do you try to write each day?

Remember how I said I pretty much fling myself at life and get flung? That’s also the approach I take to writing. To be frank, I don’t think people would ever pick the words “responsible,” “tidy,” and “organized” to describe me. That’s because I don’t care. My time with my kids, husband, friends, and writing take priority over things like home and obligation.

I don’t have set times for anything besides my full time job. That means I basically grab what I can when I can. I’m sure this doesn’t work for most people, but it works for me. With Josh having just gone through medical school and now being an intern, it’s actually freed me from the normal constraints of routine living. No one ever expects a family dinner. Sometimes it happens, and that’s nice, but I don’t feel the traditional obligations of most moms and wives. This may be the thing I love most about my life and my family. I really do feel free to be dirty and a little bit fat, to give time to (basically) two careers, and then jump back into the family whenever I want. My family is my landing zone and because it’s fun, relaxed, and forgiving (most of the time), it works. I’m not afraid to tell my kids to leave me alone for the hour, the day, or even the weekend in order to write. I want them to see me working hard at something I love because I want them to do the same thing one day. They are also not afraid to say to me, “You haven’t spent enough time with us.” So then, I try to listen. Hopefully I do. I think I do.

So the shorter answer to the question of the day is, I generally don’t write every day. There are no set times. Fridays are a time I can usually count on, but nothing is guaranteed. If you want to write, then get used to the notion that nothing is guaranteed. Sometimes I go weeks without writing. In May, I don’t think I wrote at all. But, I love the time when I do write. And I would even say that the time away is a good thing, because I really can come back to it with fresh eyes and clean heart. I say “clean heart” because if I’m writing that heavy feeling scene, and I’ve been there for days and days, then I can really work myself into feeling what I hope the reader feels; it’s a false feeling. If I come back in a week, I’ll see it’s drivel. On the other hand, sometimes I hit my stride and spend twelve hours on a Sunday writing really good stuff.

I’m not sure this is helpful to hopeful writers with families, or not. But I think the time constraint issue is less about how to juggle time and more about feelings of obligation to family and home. I’m going to guess “obligation” is what stops people with families from becoming practiced, career writers. So, if I could drive home one point, it’s that if your family is worth their salt, they will allow you to do what you love whether that time is scheduled or not. Feel no guilt; your family wants you to be happy.

This Is Intern Year

This is who I live with right now. When Josh isn’t sleeping we have conversations about our day to day life including STDs and butt abscesses and people who have swallowed razor blades or brake fluid. And good news, we finally met some of our neighbors! Their kiddo broke her arm and ended up in the ER. Who said interns never get to socialize? When we run out of doctor-related things to talk about, we discuss my day with Google, how she only kicked me off the Internet for ten minutes, but not before I found the foreskin restoration forum (tag-line: the Intactivist network). Josh is asleep before I can say foreskin. Yes, these are the days of our lives.  And as I understand it, the worst of Josh’s schedule is yet to come. When will the killer rotations be, you ask? During the holidays of course.

I’m not worried. I’ve already started planning our Christmas tree this year. We’re going green, and not even cutting it down. Plus, this works for our budget. See the presents are already underneath, too. The kids like nature. Josh is already thinking of family games like, whomever can climb to the top of the tree first will win a hug. “It’s okay if you fall. Daddy’s a doctor.” At this point he’ll be beyond tired.

I’ll be married to this guy. And so irresistable is he, that I’m like this:

And we’ll head back into the house, which hasn’t been cleaned all year. After all, I’m not only working full time, I’m also writing another young adult novel, and raising two kids. There’s no time for dishes or laundry, so we just go to Goodwill and buy clean clothes and dishes. When they get dirty we add them to the pile. It’s starting to stack up a bit, but it’s cool.

Because we’re living on love.

 

The Cardturner

I’m trying to make my blog more of a home base of operations, so I’m going to start including my “book reviews” here. I say that loosely because the way I talk about books is kind of lame. I know I should be reviewing them for literary merit, and I’ll try to do that more, but usually it ends up being a list of things I liked, including my favorite line. Also, I read many debut authors, so it’s probably nice to publicize for them even to my small amount of readers.

Having just said that, my first review is Louis Sachar’s The Cardturner. Sachar is no newbie to writing. You may recognize him from such books as Holes. I was excited to see a slightly older narrator, traditionally YA, show up in his writing. And I was not disappointed. I’ve had a run of tremendous books I’ve read, recently. The Cardturner is among the best YA literature I’ve read this year and will be joining a couple other books in my list of this-deserves-a-Printz-award.

Sachar’s attention to detail with character and voice is brilliant. There’s one line I love love love about 2/3 of the way through the book. Alton, the main character and narrator is shy and often pushed around by his family and friends, but he’s never whiny. In fact, he’s polite and gives everyone the benefit of the doubt, which made me fall in love with him a little and root for him to change, a lot. Because this is a book about playing Bridge with his great uncle, you get Alton’s charming descriptions of the elderly: “For the record, I never described Lucy as overweight. I simply reported what she said. I have been very careful not to refer to any woman as old and fat.”

And let me go back to the fact that this is a book about the game of bridge. I admire Sachar for pulling this off. His nod to Herman Melville is priceless. As an adult (but not one that grew up playing Bridge) I found the book completely absorbing. And I think teens will too. I also admire the way Sachar brought two stories from different times together, in the same tradition as Holes. Watching them collide was great. Sachar has a way of making the inevitable happen, but not being predictable, which is masterful. The chapter on synchronicity was my favorite.

And he’s funny, too! I loved this book!

Self-Deprecating Sunday FLASHBACK

Which treats of YA authors sharing the great and awkward of their teenage years.

Today is Mindi Scott’s Birthday! Happy Birthday, Mindi. Almost as exciting is that it’s her debut young adult novel birthday – or will be on Wednesday! She stopped by my blog a couple months ago to delight us with her teenage self, and it was one of my favorite guest blogs of last year. I thought it would be fun to re-post it in celebration of her tremendous accomplishment in achieving book publication. So, enjoy this self-deprecating Sunday re-run, friends:

I’m honored to have a guest post by the sweet Mindi Scott, debut author of FREFALL, available October 5, 2010 from Simon Pulse. Visit her blog or website to learn more  about Mindi and her book. I immediately added FREEFALL to my Goodreads list.

From Mindi:

1990: I was in eighth grade and things were going groovy for me.  (And, yes, I actually used the word “groovy” at that time; Julia Roberts said it in Pretty Woman, which made it cool and retro.)  I was on a volleyball team and had lots of friends, good grades, and clothes I was very proud to wear.

Brand names were of utmost importance at my school.  My family couldn’t exactly afford them, but I saved up and used all my back-to-school money that year for a new wardrobe that consisted of mainly T-shirts and sweatshirts by Guess and Esprit and Keds in a variety of colors. Hooray and stuff!

Unfortunately, I was very skinny with long arms and legs.  But for some reason, no one in the whole world bothered to clue me in that my Guess Jeans T-shirt tucked into my very high-waist, tapered-leg, size-double-zero stretch jeans wasn’t a flattering look. Nor did they let me know that my permed hair with swooping bangs weren’t doing me any favors either.

What’s up with all that? Seriously.

Mindi, I love this photo!  I applaud your courage. Thank you so much for allowing me and the world to see you in your teenage years.  Congratulations on your novel. I’m excited to read it, and commend you for your publishing success. (Also, I noticed Chutes and Ladders on that self. Maybe we could play that together someday.)

If you are a YA author and would like to do a Self-Deprecating Sunday post over here at Sparks and Butterflies, please contact me at Jody(dot)mugele(at)gmail(dot)com. It’s more fun than church.

What, This Old Thing?

How much attention do you pay to what your characters wear? I tend to pay it a lot of attention, but I wonder if that’s because writing for teens tends to focus on identity. When a teen character steps out of the bounds of normal for what’s in fashion, it sets up some tension in the book. You know, like Stargirl. I dare you not to feel for her.

Currently I’m writing a character who consistently goes braless and wears longs skirts. Her grandmother was a hippie in the classical sense. It started because I like to wear long skirts. Write what you know? One of my skirts has a special story. It’s a vintage prairie skirt: steel gray, hand-sewn, embellished with small ruffles at the bottom, and designed with layers of hooks and eyes so that it can be fastened no matter how big around the waist you may become. I cannot imagine how long it took to make such a garment. I’ve only worn it a handful of times.

I was living in Southeast Michigan at the time my sister-in-law gave it to me. It had been purchased from a vintage store in Texas. One day as I was slipping it on, I saw a handmade tag sewn into the seam, saying it had been made in Jackson, Michigan – just twenty minutes from where I lived. It may sound silly, but I felt like the skirt had come home. I wondered about it’s travels and how it originally made its way to Texas. What were the women like who wore the skirt? Was the garment simply stuffed into a chest, hated, and never worn? It’s in such good shape that I have to wonder. Maybe I’m the only one to love it, but I do, and even if it hasn’t been worn too much, it has found its way into my manuscript. And speaking of that, I’m off to write.

This Archaic Practice of Banning Books

People, we live in the Internet age and there’s a world of information (much of it, shitty, or useless) to start banning there, yet when I Google “Do people try to ban websites,” I get a high percentage of posts regarding how to block people from your own websites. I suppose there are just too many people using the Internet to attempt to ban something? Maybe it’s because it’s self-published? It would be a lot more work than rallying a librarian or mayor or principal or whomever. Who exactly are the gatekeepers for the Internet? It’d be interesting to try to strike a bargain with Google. Not that I mind the small-minded, who are still trying to ban books. Just look at the publicity that the authors receive.  Have you seen all the banned book chatter that goes on in September on the Internet? Let’s try to ban it.

Actually, it would be fantastic if authors could look at their books the way website owners look at their sites. Why not block the haters from the author’s material? Oh, you don’t have anything nice to say about my book? I’m sorry, I’m going to have to block you from ever commenting on it, checking it out from a library, or purchasing it. You can blog about how much you hate it, though. Just do it in your own corner of the Internet.

Summation: Banning books is to the public as outlawing the purchase of alcohol on Sunday is to Hoosiers.

Update: Apparently I’m super not paying attention to the news. Thanks to my friend Leah, I’ve learned that Uncle Sam may want to censor the Internet. If you don’t like what you read, sign the petition.

Friday Mornings

To be honest, five weeks ago I was near-terrified of taking the job I now have. The people I met there were smart, kind, funny, and relaxed, so it was clearly an insecurity thing on my part. Somehow I’d been offered a seat at the cool kids lunch table, and I couldn’t imagine really belonging. Maybe I was letting my writing world interfere with my real world. Probably I was just overwhelmed with another new beginning. Adjusting isn’t my strong suit, though I seem thrive on big changes like getting married and pregnant in the same month, moving to a new state every five years, earning degrees I realize I’m not going to use, and trudging my way through entry-level jobs trying to see where I fit. But what else can you really do besides fling yourself at life and be flung? Being careful just seems dumb to me. If I were careful, I wouldn’t have flung myself at my new job and I would have missed out. The work is fun. The company is energetic. And as said, the people are good people.

One of the best surprises is having Fridays off. I work like a mad cat during the week, sitting all day with–and even eating at my desk with–my BFF, Google. The relationship is pushy and frustrating. I try to seduce her, and she sends me to go sleep on the couch. It’s the best way I can describe my job without boring you. So when Fridays arrive, there’s a sense of relief.

There’s also my kids smiling at me in the morning because it’s our day to walk to the bus stop together. You know how you have those kind of snapshot memories of happiness? Like when your best friend gets married or your big sister goes off to college? Or maybe even something smaller like laughing hysterically over a hallmark card with your mom or realizing your crush is crushing back? Well, having those kinds of moments with your kids may be the best thing there is in life. The first time I watched Eleanor on the carousel, we were on Pier 39. She was around 2 years old. Josh stood with her as the horsie bobbed up and down circled past again and again. He pointed to me and she waved awkwardly, trying to spot me. She passed by a couple of times, absently waving. When she finally caught my eye and smiled, I cried like she’d just gotten married. I still can’t define why the moment moved me. But the happiness felt pure. It was like the first time we’d ever seen each other. I get that way with Magnolia as she gets on the bus on Friday mornings, plops into her seat and waves goodbye to me as the bus pulls forward. It’s not that she loves school or I love seeing her leave, but there’s something altogether filled with love in that moment.

Happy Friday to you all.

What’s Your Favorite Letter?

This is barely worthy of a blog post. I’m just saying that up front. I’m not even sure how I ended up thinking about this last night. It was one of those falling asleep things where you know what you’re thinking is going to be the best blog post ever, but then in the morning (SHOCKED that you’ve even remembered it), it’s sort of lame. Yet, I type on.

I love P. It’s punchy and demands attention, but it’s not as harsh as T or K. It’s at the front of your lips ready to go, yet it’s not the most popular kid in school. It stands tall, but has some curve. You can draw a heart in it if you’re doodling your boyfriend’s last name with your first name. It plays well with others, both consonants and vowels alike. Also, if try to string a bunch of p-words together in a sentence like that one time where Catherine and I made every word in our conversation use a p-word, you will crack up.

Now take the word poop for example. It’s kind of the perfect P word. It’s allllllllllllmost an onomatopoeia (a word that is spelled like it sounds), but it’s not. Or is it? I don’t think it is. I think it’s that the order of the letters mimics the action. Poop. It can be a verb or a noun. Poop. Poop. It looks and sounds funky, just like what it is. Poop. It turns gross into silly.

P is quite a character.