File this under the heading of “Isn’t this so lovely?” My new editor Daniel Ehrenhaft just sent me a pile of books from other Soho Teen authors. Extra lovely is the fact that it arrived yesterday — the same day I was scheduled to have dinner with Margaux Froley and Risa Green and Amy Talkington. Look, Margaux’s book is right on top!
What are you excited about reading?
It has been KILLING me to keep this under wraps for the last couple weeks, so I am BEYOND stoked to finally make this announcement:
My debut YA novel — JILLIAN CADE: (fake) PARANORMAL INVESTIGATOR — will come out from Soho Teen in Spring, 2015!
I mentioned this night before, but wanted to post a link to the actual performance. Paul Adelstein totally kills the piece I wrote, which starts at 21:45. Check it out!
1. Many apologies for the lapse in posts. Things have been happening and I will be able to share Good News soon, but in the meantime, all has been phone calls and frantic writing and pitch meetings and the like. Oh, and also laundry and soccer games and dishes and carpool and homework to oversee and squabbles to referee. Such is the beautiful chaotic mess of my life.
I read YA author Sarah Dessen’s blog regularly (well, as regularly as I manage to do anything), and I love how she describes her life. She flies around the country on book tours and gets all kinds of love from GMA and is generally really fancy… but then she goes home to her husband and daughter in NC where they live a somewhat quiet, rural lifestyle that includes chickens. I am totally enamored with her world, which doesn’t seem at all to be chaos. Also, I love her books.
2. Speaking of books, I couldn’t be any happier for my dear friend — and another YA author — Nina Berry! Not only is she is finishing up the last of her Otherkin trilogy (which I get to read almost as fast as it can fly from her sparkling brain down through her fingertips), but she has just inked a deal with Harlequin Teen for a new series! It’s super smart and really glamorous. I have loved what I’ve read so far, and so will you!
3. Under the topic of “Random,” my friend, songwriter-composer Megan Cavallari just sent me a link to this video. There’s a lot of international awesomeness happening here (man, hat, bridge, flag) but, most amusingly, the song that the guy is accordion-rocking is one Megan wrote years ago for a Barbie movie. Doesn’t that make you adore the universe?
4. This weekend, we attended the Grilled Cheese Invitational and saw Richard Cheese and Lounge Against The Machine in concert. The fact that these two things exist reminds me that living in Los Angeles is kinda great. Not as great was my choice of clothing — jeans — combined with what seemed to be the first day of summer. It felt like we were watching the concert from the surface of the sun.
5. Things that have been just so wonderful recently, in no particular order: the loving, connected community of Chime Charter School, my unbelievably smart and savvy book agent, friends from way back in the day who still know how to laugh together, grapefruit from the tree in our front yard, and Game of Thrones.
How are you?
I wanted to share a little piece I wrote recently at the request of Amy Brenneman.* She produced Chimeapalooza — a performance benefiting the Chime Institute — which happened last weekend. Paul Adelstein performed my piece and I can’t wait to see the footage because everyone says he was awesome. **
(that was a lot of hyperlinks; sorry about that)
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When he was three or four, my son Sam went through a licking phase. It was mostly metal: stair railings, playground equipment, the occasional iPhone. We tried giving him a spoon—his own personal spoon—hoping it would mitigate whatever it was about… but no luck. He kept licking.
The grossest of all lickages—the most egregious transgression—was when I took him to the Sesame Street: The Body exhibit at Hollywood & Highland. Solo parent and son bonding was great until potty time. We were in the stall together—because that’s what you do—and Sam had already taken care of his business. I was finishing mine when I realized that he was facing away from me and holding his head at an odd angle. Because he had stuck his tongue in the crack between the stall door and the wall. Probably the third grossest potential tongue-place in the public restroom (with the second being the floor and the first being—obviously—the actual toilet).
Of course, I freaked out, yanked him away, and all but boiled his face in the sink. When he was clean (kinda), we went outside and sat on one of the benches by the jumping water fountains. We had a long talk about why we don’t lick things. It’s gross; it’s dirty; there could be germs; you could get sick; if everyone licked the bathroom, it would be covered in spit, etc.
Sam was sweet and contrite and receptive. He nodded. He understood. He agreed to the rule: if you have a question about whether or not something is okay to lick, ask Mom or Dad before you take the express-train to tongue-town.
All good.
So I let him strip down to his underpants to play in the jumping water, and I sat on the bench, watching his little boy body splash and sing and dance in the sun…
… and then he ran over to me and licked the bench so we went home.
Dude! So gross!
Later, however, my mother-in-law asked if maybe he had a mineral deficiency so we bought this liquid supplement… and Sam stopped licking. It turns out that was what he needed. Not consequences. Not speeches. Not judgment. He needed something he couldn’t express because he—himself—didn’t even know. He didn’t have the words for that something, but he needed something.
Chime is like that. A place where children are given what they need.
One of my kids had a classmate who couldn’t sit still. Squirming, wiggling, tapping. In another school, maybe it would have been hard for that kid. Maybe he would have been labeled a bad listener, a trouble-maker. But at Chime, someone figured it out. Someone got a thick piece of elastic—like a really big rubber band—and slid it around the two front legs of his chair so he could bounce his feet up and down on it without disturbing his friends or the lesson. It was quiet, it was no big deal, and it was what he needed. He just needed an outlet for that energy.
That’s Chime. A place where each kid is special and where their differences are both accepted and celebrated. A place where they get what they need. A place without judgment.
Unless you turn left onto Collier off of Jumilla Street. You do that, and I will judge your ass. ***
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* You probably know Amy as an actor, but she is also a gifted writer who has this incredible ability to splash her heart all over a page. Check out her beautiful essay in the Huffington Post.
** I wasn’t there because I had a family commitment. It involved Polynesian fire dancers, if that tells you anything about my family.
*** Total inside joke for Chime parents. Again I say: sorry about that.
TOUGH THINGS ABOUT BEING A WRITER:
When it’s noon and your neighbor pops by to borrow something and all of a sudden you realize you’re STILL in your pajamas and now you look like a lazy bum even though you’ve totally been working for four hours straight but who would believe you when you look like this?
The waiting.
Financial security: who needs it?
Being paid on time: HAHAHAHAHAHA!
Self-promotion.
Feeling awkward about self-promotion.*
3:00am when you wake up and realize something crucial in your story suddenly doesn’t make sense and nothing in the universe will fix it.
That weird moment when someone asks what you’re working on now.
Jumping around from project to project.
People you don’t know kinda think you’re pretentious. Or a dork.
The inevitable middle part when you loathe everything about the world you’ve created—the inhabitants, the smells, the reasons for existing—and you lose sight of why—WHY IN THE NAME OF ALL THAT IS HOLY—you ever set foot on this particular path.
AWESOME THINGS ABOUT BEING A WRITER:
Going to work in your pajamas.
Getting to hang out with a bunch of super-smart, funny people.
Being paid to make things up.
Seeing your name on a screen or a book cover.
Somehow suckering people into believing that both coffee and wine are essential for “the process.”
Spending time with your imaginary friends totally counts as working.
Falling in love with those imaginary friends… even though sometimes you have to kill them.
Jumping around from project to project.
People you don’t know kinda think it’s cool.
That AHA! moment when you find it and everything makes sense.
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Writer friends, anything to add?
* like this blog
What are you doing for Valentine’s Day?
1. Those goat-climbing goats above exist in real life. Aren’t they cool? If you follow the link and read the article, however, you will notice a disturbing similarity to a previous post…
2. Although I am not a big restaurant-goer, I have recently discovered not one but TWO new L.A. restaurants that I adore. Both gastropubs. Both with small plates (my fave) for sharing. Sadie in Hollywood (Pantages Theatre adjacent! mixology galore! fancy deviled eggs!) and The Village in Studio City (drinks with bacon!).
3. As this is technically supposed to be a blog about writing, a couple tiny updates: creative work on Henson project to start up in the new year (yay!). Also, deal made on another television project — this one a soapy, dramatic adult series in an area I’m passionate about. It’s very exciting for a couple reasons. I’m new to working with FanFare (producers) and the people over there have been so lovely and communicative and gracious. Also, the studio exec (Sony) is one with whom I’ve been DYING to work for several years now. I’m not giving out names because I don’t know how much Hollywood people want to be touted on a YA blog, but they’re just so very wonderful.
Speaking of YA, one book is on submission with my agent and I’m doing the early research/outlining work on a new one (contemporary), while also diving into a new pilot spec. After running the pitch/meeting gauntlet for several months now, I can’t begin to explain how great it feels to have the writing floodgates opening. I am one of those weirdo writers who actually enjoys the meetings, BUT they do often get in the way of… y’know… writing. Taking dozens of meetings feels like validation which is a good thing (or just a testament to my ego), but between the scheduling and the prep work and the follow-up — not to mention the L.A. traffic — they take a lot of time and creative brain-space.
4. I know I’m supposed to be watching HOBBIT and DJANGO and PI, but instead, I’ve recently watched CELESTE AND JESSE FOREVER and RUBY SPARKS. Apparently I love smaller relationship dramas with interesting characters and witty banter. Love love loved them both. Eventually I’ll get around to those others.
5. Things that skeeve me out: feet (other people’s)*, when potatoes start growing eyes, tiny peppers that grow INSIDE other peppers, and the movies SE7EN and VOLCANO. I’ll elaborate in a future post (hold your breath!).
Whatever celebrations you and yours enjoy, happy holidays!
*All babies are exempt from this rule; also my own kids.
http://writershaming.tumblr.com/
1. A group of crows is called a “murder.” I think that’s one of those vocabulary terms everyone knows by now but–on the off-chance you missed the memo–you’re welcome.
2. Yesterday, I watched the movie RUBY SPARKS. It’s about an author who writes the girl of his dreams into existence. There’s much more to it than that, and it’s really about his emotional journey, but it’s a little magical, a lot quirky, and I loved it. That being said, the fictional writer in question is self-indulgent and emotionally stunted and painfully unaware. Couple that with another movie I saw recently (but way after everyone else saw it): YOUNG ADULT. Also about a writer. Also one who is broken in so many ways. This one is a self-absorbed alcoholic who is in dark, dark denial, probably beyond repair. Again, I loved it. Thinking about these two movies makes me realize that it is we writers who are the harshest upon ourselves. I think that non-writers often envision the writing profession as glamorous, or at least as a life of art and whimsy and great creativity. One of satisfaction. We’re the ones who point out the holes, the pain, the delusions we must harbor in order to keep putting one foot in front of the other. The way we have to keep our eyes fixed on the sun peeking over the edge of the horizon, never completely sure if we really see the light or if we’ve only imagined it for ourselves. Embracing the written word works like that. Every answer leads to a new question.
3. This month’s rediscovery: the song Brick by Ben Folds Five. Poignant and evocative and beautiful. I’d forgotten.
4. I may need to go into media silence for the next six days before the election. I cannot take it. You’re not *supposed* to talk politics on a writing blog so I won’t be blatant about my vote (here’s a hint: I actually like women and gay people), but this year I find that my feelings about people have changed. Going forward, how I look at some family and friends may just be… different. In relationships, core values matter. They matter a lot.
5. On a lighter note, this week I am compelled to publicly express my deep and abiding love for my screenwriting reps. The team of people who believe in me and work really, really hard — both for and with me — is inspiring. The energy and time they put into my career is truly humbling, and I am so very grateful for them. I’ve had a bunch of meetings lately with producers and network and studio executives and the like, and sometimes they ask about my representation (how’s it going, when did you sign, etc.). When I burst into my verbal love-fest, I am often told that it is refreshing to hear a writer speak so gleefully about the reps, because so often (apparently) there is instead a love/hate relationship. Not here, folks. Here it is all love. My peeps are amazing and I am one lucky girl to be working with them.
6. BOO!
