Susane Colasanti - Journal

1. I just had dinner with the Goddess of YA Literature.

2. It was Tex/Mex.

3. She drove.

i went to the implant dentist today. the implants have integrated well with the bone, and so in a few weeks he will take off the tops, put on the fittings, and then i go straight down to my regular guy who will take an impression and make me temporary teeth.

soon i will have bottom molars again

i can't wait to stop eating what is, basically, pre-chewed food.

Okay. Let me just say that I am super glad that I am not famous.
Here is why:

There are no paparazzi following me around.

If there were I would ALWAYS be on sites like THE SUPERFICIAL and GOODCELEBSDOAWKWARDTHINGS.COM (I made that one up) because I am SUCH a klutz.

Bella in Twilight has nothing on me. NOTHING!

Why?

Well, all in one day I:

1. Drove the MINI over a curb.

This is not my MINI unfortunately
2. Twisted my ankle and did that half fall-down thing when going into the post office.

3. Drove the MINI over the curb AGAIN!

Also not me or my MINI. Kelley (My MINI is red).
4. Set the microwave on fire.
There were blue flames and fire and now there is a GINORMOUS scorch mark in the microwave.

5. Wore two different shoes out in public.
Not my feet. Sorry.

Can you imagine if people were filming my life? They would totally think that I was:
1. Lindsay Lohan
2. Britney
3. Drunk

Sigh. I feel so badly for famous people. It's not just all those horrifying up-skirt shots, it's also just all the goofy faces and awkward moments and wardrobe malfunctions. I know some famous people don't mind and actually get off on that stuff, but I bet a lot more don't.

GOOD LUCK FAMOUS PEOPLE! I AM ROOTING FOR YOU!

http://elizabethwrites.com/blog/2009/11/thursday-brings-no-more-nightmares-i.php

I can't remember the last time I was glad to get up, as normally I will lie in bed until I absolutely have to get up, but this morning, I could not *wait* to get out of bed. Why? Million dollar check on my lawn? I wish! A shower of free books on my doorstep? Alas, no. (But wouldn't that be lovely?)

Rather, I gladly got up this morning because I had the weirdest thing happens last night. I had a nightmare, and it woke me up. I did the usual things--you shake off the dream, you look around, you think "Good! A dream!" and then go back to sleep.

But then the nightmare started again. And it would. not. stop. I woke up every single hour from it until I couldn't stand it, and then I just hopped out of bed and read for a while to try and clear my head.

I feel better now, but it was just... strange. I technically got plenty of sleep, but when you have the same nightmare in a non-stop, never-ending arc for over three hours (minus the times where you wake up and go "What? Why is this still happening?"), does any of that time count as sleep?

Has anyone else had a nightmare that just would not go away? And if you have, any tricks you know of to make it go away?

Anyway! In an effort to cheer myself up, I'm going to do one of the things I love most, and that's give away a free book! Today, it's Melissa De La Cruz's latest Blue Bloods novel, the outstanding The Van Alen Legacy.

For your chance to win, all you have to do is leave a comment telling me what you'd rather see from an author right before/as a book comes out: a book trailer or a virtual signing party? Just leave your comment before midnight EST tomorrow, November 13th, and then I'll pick one name at random and that person will get The Van Alen Legacy!

And, of course, the links:

Agent Jessica Faust on why agents turn down queries -- "I think the biggest reason I reject something is that it just doesn’t excite me."

Pimp My Novel on movie tie-in novels

Interesting post from Genreality about what to do when you're stuck on a writing project -- Some great tips, but I think my favorite it this: "Move Forward.

John Scalzi talks about writers and financial woes -- as he wisely points out--and in a neat list of 10--writers aren't the only people suffering in the current economy, but he also goes on to offer his thoughts as to why some writers may be suffering a bit more (starting with 3 and running through 10.)

Agent Kirstin Nelson on sales thresholds for Out Of Print status in contracts--one of the things I think every writer should do is learn as much as they can about the industry, and this is one of those things that doesn't get discussed a lot but that you need to know about.

Agent Jessica Faust on putting your credentials in your query letter

The Intern has more inspired revision tips

A solid list of ten tips for aspiring writers

If you read only one of the links I post today, make it this one--Agent Rachelle Gardner talks about how much it really costs a publisher to buy your book

One last thing...don't forget to let me know what you'd rather see right when a book is supposed to come out--a trailer or a virtual book signing!

http://editorialanonymous.blogspot.com/2009/11/you-dont-hate-me-you-really-really-dont.html

Do good reviews matter? If one's first book sold few copies, but received excellent reviews from Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, VOYA, and others, will a publisher take that into consideration when deciding whether to offer a contract for a second book?

Yes. As long as we're in agreement about what "excellent" means.

I know some authors who think the world is ready to crack open and give them an oyster the size of Hong Kong if a reviewer simply refrains from impaling their book on a bloody spike.

Most really glowing reviews are starred reviews, and that's what really makes a difference to how ready I am to overlook bad sales history.

http://www.megcabot.com/diary/?p=1193

It’s perfect stay-indoors weather here because of pesky Tropical Storm Ida--windy and rainy, with palm fronds flying everywhere!

And while I hope it clears up in time for the book fair in Miami this weekend, it’s kind of a good opportunity for us to dip into Meg's Mail Bag, since ...

::sounds a fanfare::

Without further ado, I bring you the greatest gift a writer can ever receive:

http://editorialanonymous.blogspot.com/2009/11/in-which-i-am-proud-of-my-bruises.html

Do you know why some really, really prominent children's books - like the last volume of a certain boy wizard series - are edited so badly? I'm certainly I'm not the only person who read through the last few installments of Harry Potter thinking OH MY GOD CUT CUT CUT!!!!
The obvious explanation is that a bigshot author can demand their immortal prose be left untampered with, on threat of decamping to a different publisher.

Yes, in large part.

Another still more depressing possibility is that the publishers just don't care and skip the editing process in order to get the big-name book out there bringing in all that lovely money as soon as possible.

Yes again.

But if the latter, that seems short-sighted, as a well-edited book is surely more likely to stand the test of time and keep making money for the publisher in future (if, of course, that publisher retains the rights - if not, maybe they don't care.).
It's certainly difficult to imagine that Bloomsbury couldn't find someone competent and willing to work on HP. Was there some poor editor weeping in her office over being prevented, by authorial ego or sales department supremacy, from doing her job properly?

Yes, that's possible. There are also a few editors who, unfortunately, just don't really give a crap.

I agree with you that there are further books in certain series that could have done with a sh**load of editing beyond the editing I know they received. (Never assume they weren't edited at all--they were.)

But I'd like to say a couple things about the short-sightedness of publishing, to provide some context, without actually defending it.

For one thing, for 99.99% of books, publishing is about the now. Being able to sell 500,000 copies now is the very best most books can ever hope for. Trying to create a book 'for the ages'--a book that will last past the author's own lifetime, nevermind just making it to two years from now-- is playing with such long odds it's ridiculous. That's a fact of the industry, and something to bear in mind.

It's also worth remembering that as long as the first book in a series is in good enough shape to keep hooking readers, it doesn't matter so much how badly plotted, excessively adverbialized, and padded with filler the last books are. Readers will still want them. That's a fact of the reading public.

So yes, sometimes authors prevent editors from doing their jobs. Sometimes publishers prevent editors from doing their jobs. Sometimes editors just don't do their jobs. And sometimes it's a combination of all three.

It takes a lot of fight to be a good editor. And it also takes knowing what fights are worth fighting.

Regular readers of this blog know that I am a fan of Good Morning America. Okay, it's more like obsessed. I mean, look at my face in this picture:

So if you are a Today or Early show zealot, you might want to skip this entry. I will not be offended, promise.

Okay, so I LOVE Diane Sawyer. Which is why I am somewhat devastated (if you can be somewhat devastated) that she's leaving the show at the end of this year to take over World News Tonight. Don't get me wrong: I know this is a great thing for Diane. It's like the golden ring of broadcasting, and she totally deserves it. Not to mention that I watch World News every night, so it's not like I won't be seeing her.

But I've been watching the Morning Fab Four for years now. And I hate to think of them getting broken up.

(This is not the greatest picture, I know. But I am writing this while my daughter is temporarily distracted, so time is of the essence.)

I have to be honest. When they first put this group together, I was all about Diane and Robin. But I quickly developed a huge thing for Sam Champion as well. Chris Cuomo....well, at first I wasn't so sure. See, I look at GMA kind of like high school. (This is a pitfall of being a YA writer, I think. You see everything in terms of high school.) Anyway, if Diane is the all-around gorgeous achiever, Robin is the tomboy who is friends with everyone in every possible clique. Sam is the funny guy who sits behind you in art class and you never really want to date, necessarily, but have more fun with than just about anyone else. And Chris, initially to me, was the jock. You know the type. The guy who is kind of swaggering, and sits in the back of the bus picking on people and it's funny, as long as it's not you. I think I felt this way because I thought he teased Sam a lot in the early days, and it bugged me. Plus the cool-but-kind-of-mean jock was pretty much my LEAST favorite person in high school.

Then, though, something happened. I think it was around when they did this segment about facing fears. Diane walked on coals, Sam did something with bees, and I think Robin's had to do with flying, I'm not sure. Chris admitted to a serious fear of heights. Which, alone, was very non-jock on the back on the bus. Then, he did a bungee jump off the side of a huge building. And as I watched him, as he got ready to do it, I saw this total fear and vulnerability that made me like him. Okay, maybe love him.

And as I started to follow him on Twitter, and watch him more often, I saw that he was not at ALL what I'd originally thought. He's, like, a total sap. He tears up talking about his kids, he gets totally geared up doing segments about people being screwed by The Man (insurance companies, big business, etc) and he admits that his mom always says he eats too much during the cooking segments. He gardens and loves to fish. In short, he won me over. Big time.

Which is why, when I read in the paper yesterday that they're making a decision next month about who will replace Diane, all I could think was it had to be Chris. It HAS to be. What are they going to do, bring in someone new? If so, how weird will that be? They moved Robin up to co-anchor when Charlie left, now they should move Chris up and put someone else in the news reader position. Not that anyone's asking me, but I'd suggest Kate Snow, or JuJu Chang, or, ABC, if you're feeling kind of daring, what about Bianna Golodryga? She's insanely smart, will bring in the younger set, and pretty much drop dead gorgeous to boot. I mean, look:

Plus, when she walked by in the hallway, when I was in the makeup room at GMA with JuJu Chang, she smiled at me. And she TOTALLY didn't have to do that. Consider me convinced.

All right, so I just read this entry over again and I sound like a total psycho. Which is not really new, except I'm usually going on about Friday Night Lights or coffee. Oh, well. It's worth it if even ONE person who knows someone who knows someone who knows someone at ABC sees this and passes it on. One entirely too devoted fan's opinion. Give Chris the job. I mean, can Matt Lauer do this?


I didn't think so.

Have a good day, everyone!

Signing my very important autograph at Granada Elementary School last Spring:

I know I said I wasn't going to have time to post again until I got back from SF. I am a lying liar. I do have time to relay a little Once Was Lost biz. Such as:

a nice review by way of San Jose you pack your car and ride away (with apologies to Burt Bacharach),

a third starred review, this time from Booklist, in the issue that is mailing out tomorrow. I may be breaking some kind of law by telling you that today, but I'm leaving town for the next week and how can I wait until the official date to share such good news? I'll mitigate my transgression by not quoting from the review until after the 15th.

And, in case you didn't realize, Once Was Lost is also available in audiobook format right now, as a CD set or download, both unabridged, from our friends at the Listening Library. Hi Cassandra and Dan! If you missed it, when I went down to L.A. to record the book I made a little behind the audiobook video.

Finally, there's a new interview with me here, in which I reveal that success doesn't make writing any easier. Also, Tabitha, my host, is giving away a copy of OWL this month---check it out.

Okay, time to pack! This is the second-to-last time I will have to pack in 2009. Huzzah. Don't forget to come see me in San Francisco--details here.

I love Texas. Yeah, me, a Jersey boy. The thing is, the librarians in Texas work really hard to get kids into reading. I'm visiting five middle schools in Sugar Land (near Houston) this week. In most of the schools, I'm only speaking to one grade. Why? Because many of the middle schools bring in a different author for each grade. Imagine that -- three author visits to coordinate each year. And the libraries have great displays of the Lone Star Book lists. It's just really good in many ways. As I wander around each library, I just marvel at how much good stuff is out there for kids to read.

The kids I've spoken to have been wonderful. I had 7th graders on Monday, and they were among the best behaved I've ever met. The same for today's sixth graders. The teachers were also wonderful. So, yeah, I love Texas. On top of everything else, it's warm. Once I go back home, I won't be warm again for months. But even if it was cold, I'd be happy to be here.

I was sitting in my office minding my own business when the UPS man paid me a visit. He brought this:



Now, I knew what was in this package but, as usual, I wanted to prolong the suspense. So, I placed it next to me and continued answering emails. When the suspense got too great and my hands were creeping all by themselves toward the scissors, I opened it.

Peek a boo, ARCs!



So, what does one do with a big pile of ARCs? I like to stack them and pose them in different ways, not unlike doing funny things with lawn gnomes. Here was my first pose.



Now what to do with all of these extra copies??? Hmmmm....

5. Miley Cyrus - I remember when I used to get annoyed by the obnoxiousness of a post-LIZZIE MAGUIRE Hilary Duff. Now I yearn for those days. Can somebody please Boot Scoot this girl's bony behind back to obscurity? Pretty please, with sugar on top?

4. Anyone whose last name rhymes with "Smardashian." I have never understood the appeal of these "ladies." I doubt I ever will.

3. Levi Johnston - While I find it hilarious that Kathy Griffin used him to get herself more press (the woman is a freaking brilliant self promoter), I do not understand why this boy keeps showing up again and again and again. All he did was get his teenage girlfriend pregnant. Why do we reward these things? I'm no fan of Sarah Palin, but man. GO AWAY.

2. Jon Gosselin - I have no words left for this moron. In fact, I'm actually kind of bored by him at this point. Definitely a top contender for Reality TV Douche of the Year award*

1. Carrie Prejean - "Everyone's out to get me!" "It's not a sex tape if I'm the only one in it, right?" "Good Christians know that marriage is between a man and a woman and that the only people who should have sex are husbands and wives. Well, and that husband's mistress, and that woman's golf instructor, and the babysitter they hire on Thursday nights, and me when I was 17 and sending naked videos of myself to my boyfriend." If there is such a liberal bias in the media, then how does Ann Coulter keep scoring air time on programs I actually watch? Also: sexting? Really, Carrie Prejean? Really? JUST SHUT UP ALREADY.

Flame on!


*Not a real award. I just made that up.

Forty years ago today, the first episode of Sesame Street was born. It was sponsored by the letters W, S and E and the numbers 2 and 3. Since that day, the show has done a brilliant job of evolving with the times. It is still relevant. It is still teaching in a way that speaks to us. And it is still freaking awesome.

I've posted some clips of the Yip-Yip Aliens already, so here's one with Kermit, Cookie, and the Mystery Box. I love that Cookie has recently explained how cookies are "sometimes food" while fruit is for everyday. Not that he's thinking about fruit here.

Happy birthday, Sesame Street!

http://elizabethwrites.com/blog/2009/11/arc-update-for-unwritten-rule-tour.php

Okay, more updates on the ARC situation--two copies for US residents, and one for Canadians, are going to be put up for blog tour at Harmony's 1 ARC Tour blog.

If you are interested in getting one of these, you *must* first sign up for Harmony's fab program (and trust me, you want to--she gets ARCs of books for bloggers that I dream of reading!)

It's super easy to sign up, and all the details are here (for feeds that strip links out, just go here: http://onearctours.blogspot.com/2009/07/about-1-arc-tours.html

And then, once you are all signed up, when the posts for The Unwritten Rule go live, you can just sign up to get your turn with an ARC! (yay!)

I will of course, post links to Harmony's tour sign-ups as soon as this happens.

Also, I've heard from Princess Bookie, who is a little overwhelmed at the over 40 people who signed up for her one copy of the ARC, and since I'm not sure the ARC will actually last through 40+ readings, if you did sign up there, I'd encourage you to think about signing up for Harmony's tour as well--like I said, there are a lot (A LOT) of great books up there for blog review and I'm not sure the one copy will last through forty readings! (In fact, I know it won't--ARCs are FABULOUS, but they are not nearly as sturdy (or finished) as a final book)

So that's the ARC update and I wouldn't be me if I didn't have some links as well:

Justine Musk, of the always thought-provoking and elegant blog posts, writes about the need to write

And oldie but one worth sharing again--Libba Bray on revisions

In the comments to the post I linked to yesterday about having a three-book contract canceled, someone pointed to one of JA Konrath's (famous for his huge and innovative publicity pushes for his books with Hyperion) blog posts--at first, I thought it was just about ebooks, but read the comments and you'll see a very lively discussion going on about publishers cutting back or eliminating certain lines as well as what the future holds for writers.

Diana Peterfreund on why you don't need to have a novel published to get into college, and why it really is okay to be older than 15, 16, or even 19 (or 29! or 39! or 49!) to have your first book published

Finally, here's a really inspiring guest blog post from one of agent Kristin Nelson's clients, Mari Mancusi, about the power of never giving up

http://editorialanonymous.blogspot.com/2009/11/definitions-for-perplexed-assistant.html

Could you explain exactly what an Editorial Director does? Where does she fit in with the general hierarchy of a publishing company? (I assume she is more senior than a Senior Editor, but is there anyone more senior than her?) Does an Editorial Director have to go through a committee to acquire, just like everyone else, or is she more autonomous?

Ha-ha! I will never tell. The industry is conspiring against you to make this information inaccessible!

Ok, I don't mean that. But I can't tell you the answer, because what an editorial director does, how she fits in the hierarchy of the company, and how she acquires will vary unpredictably from one house to another.

So if I told you what "editorial director" means at my house, my colleagues might be able to figure out which house I work for. Every company uses titles to suit their specific needs and interprets titles according to bureaucratic whim. There's no communal chart for what a particular title means in publishing.

Perhaps some of my publishing readers could give anonymous examples in the comments of what "editorial director" means at their houses.

http://www.megcabot.com/diary/?p=1187

It was an exciting weekend here in Casa Cabot. Why?

Well, since I’m going to be speaking and signing at the Miami Book Festival this coming Saturday (the fair starts TODAY! Click here to see all the amazing authors who are going to be there!) the Miami Herald ...

I think that possibly I will only write about things that happen at the grocery store from now on because it's kind of more interesting than the things that happen at my house.

My house is like a bat cave:
 You can guess which one I get to be.

Seriously. There is no light in there. It's so bad that sometimes I step out into the driveway and realize that not only do my socks don't match, but my shoes don't match! 

Yes, I do turn on the lights.
No, they don't help.

I think pretty soon I'm going to end up looking like this: 

This might actually be an improvement. He's kind of cute.

But this transformation probably won't go over well on the book tour because instead of talking about my books and characters and how cool it would be if NEED was turned into a movie, I'll just be all, "SCREECHING_BAT NOISE_ SCREECH!"

This may be an improvement too actually.

Anyway, the ATM/CREDIT machine broke today in the grocery store FAST/EXPRESS lane, which made it not so fast/express.

The guy behind me was:
1. Cute
2. Impatient to get to lunch
3. Buying toothpaste.

And the woman in front of me was:
1. Cute
2. Patient
3. Buying $10 worth of things.

I was merely buying this:


Yes, it is that kind of day.
So, I said to the cashier clerk man who JUST had to go through a similar 20 minute ordeal with the machine where everyone in the entire grocery store had to come fix it, "I'll buy her stuff and my Mr. Bubble Bubblebath for sensitive skin and his toothpaste."

Everyone looked at me.

And I said, "I have cash!"



Which I did! Amen! And the cute lady who I love hugged me and the cute man was all, "Thank you, you didn't have to do that." He looked at me like I was this super angel person, which I am not, but it was nice to have someone think that.

And I have decided now that cash is a very good thing.
So is bubble bath.
Bats don't like bubble baths, right? So, I am still human, right?
Just checking.

Last week kind of sucked. On Monday and Tuesday, I felt like I was coming down with a cold, but it didn't really materialize into anything serious. Then on Wednesday it was like, Wham! What I thought was a cold revealed itself to be a nasty stomach virus. Not cool. It was disgusting. Fortunately, it was not as disgusting as that crazy food poisoning thing a bunch of us had a while back. Which was caused by E. coli from tomato plants, by the way. Judy Blume had it. She posted a photo on her blog where she was sleeping on the bathroom floor with pillows and blankets and stuff. I remember being like, Dude! That's such a good idea!

This was not that bad. Mainly, it just made me exhausted all week. I'm not good about working when I'm sick. I probably could manage to write, but I'm sure that everything I write would sound all groggy. So I took several sick days. Luckily, my boss is flexible about such things. That's a joke because my boss is me. Hilarious. You know Michael's World's Best Boss mug on The Office? I just got a World's Best Boss mug keychain, since it works both ways.

So yeah. It's back to work time! Plus, there are lots of things to look forward to this week. I will hopefully be making progress on this second draft. I'm visiting Manhattan Village Academy's book club today as part of the Adopt-A-School program. Sesame Street is celebrating its 40th birthday tomorrow. I'm finally going to see Whip It this weekend, if it's still playing. And I just heard some exciting news from my agent. Something Like Fate is Penguin's lead book for the Summer 2010 season! That means fun times are ahead. I should have marketing details to share with you soon. In the meantime, back to making some second draft magic...