Writing fever

I'm lost in work. Rewriting a script, working on a new novel, and editing manuscripts for clients, plus we are going away this weekend because it is Hoboken's annual drunkfest, um, I mean pre St. Paddy's holiday. The city opens the bars at six in the morning and lots of clueless idiots from the suburbs or NYC take the subway in to line up so they can be the first one to have fisticuffs, vomit in the street, terrorize the store owners, get nastily sexually agressive or stupid, and clot up the streets. It's single digit IQ time. Why does the city allow this even though they say they have zero tolerance? Betcha it's because they made thousands in revenue from tickets last year.

I'm really having trouble with this script. It's from a story I wrote which everyone seemed to love, but the script is hanging me up. I've been told I wrote it like a novelist. I've been told it doesn't have a world view (but that was quickly disabused by none other than my hero John Truby whose book The Anatomy of Story everyone should read.) All this got me thinking about how things adapt, especially after reading the script for The Other Boleyn Girl, which It hought was a great script, and then reading the reviews for the film, which aren't very good. How can you ensure that things transfer well from one medium to another? Or is it just impossible to know until you do it?

Feed Me!

I am thrilled to report that my essay "The Grief Diet" is going to be part of Harriet Brown's new anthology, Feed Me! due out from Random House December 2008. My essay is about an ex-boyfriend who wouldn't let me eat because he felt I was fat (even though I was 5'4" and 95 pounds and my friends were ready to do an intervention) and how I stayed with him for a while because otherwise I would have had to grieve for someone I had loved who had died.

With that mouthful of a sentence, I'm off to look at all the snow.

See you later, alligators.

Read This Book! Rachel Cline, My Liar

Rachel Cline's terrific novel, My Liar, explores the complex, thorny relationship between two women--a Hollywood film editor and a director. Like her fabulous debut, What To Keep, this novel is complex, gorgeously written and absolutely addictive. That's her, by the way, in the winsome photo. Isn't the flash of gold light great?

I loved the book so much that I emailed Rachel and asked her if she'd let me ask her a thousand questions (okay, just five) and she graciously agreed.

1. What's the difference between being a part of the film community and now being the toast of a literary one?

First off, the only thing I'm the toast of is my small circle of old, weird friends, which is not a complaint just a clarification. But the differences between the life of a movie-worker on the road and that of a fiction writer in New York are almost uncountable. Writing is truly a solitary activity, and even when I have a "day job," which I usually do, I still find it requires a lot of self-discipline to tolerate the silence, and to persist when there is no-particular-end in sight, and to remind myself that this is the only thing that has ever come close to making me happy so it's got to be a better use of my time than whatever it is that wants to yank me away from the desk. It's funny, because the thing I liked least about Los Angeles was the suburban-ness of it, living on a street where the only people I ever saw were the mail carrier and the neighbor kid on his Big Wheel. And now I live in the hive of all hives and I can barely tell you who lives in the apartment next door.

Right, but you were asking about the film community. I guess I never found the "community" part. I hated working on location--I missed my cats and my favorite New York foods (egg creams, hot dogs, pizza) and though I liked to drive I hated never being able to just walk. I was ultimately fairly happy in Los Angeles for several years, but only after I gave up on my career in the entertainment business and got a regular job where the same people showed up every day and eventually started to get my jokes. And I started to get theirs, too. It's a beautiful place, full of interesting people and great smells (unlike New York), but I grew up in Brooklyn and I don't think I'll ever be truly at home anywhere else.

2. What's your writing day like? Your process?

When I know what I'm doing, which is about 30% of the time, I try to get to my desk as soon as possible after opening my eyes in the morning. And I try to get up in the morning at least 3 hours before I have to be at work. The rule is: 2 hours of sitting or 1000 words of writing, and then I'm allowed to do other things, like shower and dress.
The rest of the time, I'm either choosing a new notebook/pen/talismanic photo, reading something tangentially related to what I want to do next, or worrying about being broke and never being able to write again.

3. At the heart of this terrific novel (well beside many other stellar ideas) is the idea of how work can affect friendships, in both good and not so good ways. Can you talk a bit about that? Do you think it's possible to have a great working relationship with a great friend, or do you think the balance of power shape shifts too much and too often?

I've actually had a lot of great and lasting friendships with coworkers, so no I don't think it's inherently problematic. But there are certain people in my life, usually--but not always--women, with whom I am just ferociously competitive. And it's not as though there's any overt confrontation or conflict--I've never been up for the same promotion, or compared bonuses, or anything like that. It's much subtler and more unsettling because I can never tell how much I'm imagining and how much I'm creating the situation out of my own squelched feelings. It's as though something in me triggers something in her and we wind up acting out all our childhood resentments, narcissistic fantasies, and plots for world domination while ostensibly sharing fairly innocent office gossip and fashion tips. So the key relationship in My Liar, between Annabeth, the film editor, and Laura, the director she works for, is a portrait of that kind of dynamic.
It's hardly the most important thing in the book, but one of the things I'm most proud of is a little subplot about an expensive blazer that Laura buys and later gives to Annabeth, and which comes to mean more than it should. To me, that's exactly how these things get acted out: through weirdly insincere compliments, exploitative requests for help, inappropriately expensive (or cheap) gifts... And Hollywood is like the world capital of all those things.
The other aspect of this competitive-yet-exploitative friendship that I think is really interesting is how storytelling fits into it. How the way the two people present information to one another is really unconsciously strategic, and the dramatization and plotting that go into the way we exchange histories with new friends. So, in My Liar, versions of that storytelling behavior wind up having consequences for all of the characters.

4. What's your next project?

I'm supposed to be working on a memoir, which is more than half complete, but I'm dying to get going on another novel and I have an idea that requires research in the form of a road trip through the Southwest. So my goal is to be able to do that next summer. My boyfriend lives in Chicago, and we often spend time together traveling somewhere else (usually somewhere like Cleveland or Buffalo), so I'm hoping we can expand our horizons a little more, next year.

5.What's your life like?

It varies a lot. Sometimes, I teach writing, which I love but of course doesn't pay the bills. Other times, I do various consulting jobs having to do with internet "content" and faceless corporations. The funny thing is, the older I get, the less I mind the corporate thing. I finally have more than one pair of dress pants and I actually kind of like it that the place I go to is silent, and airless, and utterly without drama. Plus, I love getting off the subway in Grand Central Station. To me, that's like visiting the Grand Canyon every day.

Essay at Redroom.com

Hey, please go read my essay at the fabulous Redroom.com. I wrote about why it's just as important to read in front of three as it is to read in front of 300 (Even though the humiliation factor is certainly different!)

Let us now praise Roy Scheider

Ok, I'm really upset about Roy Scheider's death.

Forget Jaws, though he was certainly good in that. The photo on the left is Scheider in All That Jazz. Written and directed by the great Bob Fosse, this film was and is one of the most innovative, astonishing films of all times, and next to Blade Runner, one of my favorite films.

I saw it when I was living in Pittsburgh, truly unhappily married, yearning for New York City, unsure how to escape, miserable. I wandered into a revival house (by myself, of course, which was my usual state in Pittsburgh) and was immediately transfixed. As Joe Gideon, the self-destructive womanizer-slash-genius-slash-choreographer-slash-Fosse alter ego, Scheider tore up the screen and inhabited the part. The film's brilliant and sly and ferocious and he's just knockout in it, and though he never did anything as spectacular after that, I fell in love with him and always kept hoping he might. (By the way, he was nominated for his performance and didn't win--a travesty if you ask me.)

If you haven't seen the film, go rent it immediately. And if you have, go watch it again in tribute. I swear it's perfect from first frame to last and Scheider saying, "It's show time folks," gets me every time.

Writers' Strike is OVER!!

The strike is over! This is fabulous news! I lost a few opportunities because of it, but I stayed solid and now I am back to work pitching, writing, and generally making a pest of myself.

That's Dana Herko, producer and writer on the left on her last day of strike. She's a fabulous producer and also the co-author of the upcoming The Tao of Fertility. (She's also a wonderful friend.)

On the other news front, Barack Obama is now a member of Redroom.com, this writers' site I belong to. Bet that drives a whole lot of traffic there!

first chapter!

Oh it's bliss to have a good first chapter. I'm deep into the beginnings of my new novel and I'm at that incredibly hopeful stage where all seems as though it's going to go well. Having that chapter is my lifeline because I know the waters are going to go murky and full of writer-eating sharks very fast indeed. I'm also working on a script that I want to send to the Nichols (hey, I won quarter finalist at Fade in! And I was Nickelodeon finalist! That counts, doesn't it?)

But now what I have to do is find photographs of my characters so I can stare at them while I write, which means going through magazines, but actually, I just emailed an actress/writer friend and I think I'm going to use her as my image of one of my characters. She has this really intelligent sort of beauty (think Cate Blanchett) as opposed to the generic Kate Hudson. Which leads me to another question, how does everyone out there see their characters? Do you use photographs? Do you do a whole list of everything about the character the way Richard Price does?

Writers' communities

OK, I know this is embarrassing, but I am on myspace and facebook and I still don't quite know what I'm doing there or how to proceed. I feel like I'm the odd girl out there somehow and whenever I get emails to be someone's friend or contact, I'm always happy and surprised! If anyone knows the intricacies of either of those places and how I should or could be on there, please let me know.

So where else do I hang out?

I like Backspace (see a few entries down), which I've just discovered, a lot. I also like Hybrid Fiction at first glance. I'm a rabid fan of Linked In, too. And I love redroom. Mostly, though, I'm at my computer writing and if I break it's to get to my real online community--I email other writers to talk about our latest projects, offer and receive encouragement and support and bad jokes.

Smart, savvy women's forum about to launch

Seal press does these really smart, quirky books about all sorts of women's issues, (Ah Hem, I'm in one of them, For Keeps, edited by Victoria Zackheim, about how women view their bodies) and they now have a forum for women to talk to other women and build a community.

Go join. And say hi to me when you see me there!

Writing, writing

OK, I have a new first chapter of a new novel. And no title. Sometimes titles just come. Traveling Angels was from a John Truby story structure lecture and the image just stuck. Two novels back, my novel Coming Back to Me was renamed in England Come Back To Me, because it sounded stronger to them. But does it?

How does anyone find a great title? I'd love to hear from people on how they find their titles or on what titles grab them in bookstores, because every title I'm coming up with just sounds....well not like a good fit.

Sky Pilots

Jack Bordon (he's a former Boston TV newsman) is the famous founder of this very cool organization called For Spacies Skies, a nonprofit based in Massachusettes, which I just love. Dedicated to fostering awareness of the sky (Come on, what could be more fantastic?), he urges millions to look up and gain access to what Ralph Waldo Emerson called "the ultimate art gallery above." Borden has stamps that he calls skyscapes (they're gorgeous) and his work has been the subject of Smithsonian Magazine, the New York Times, and more.

Says Jack, "How do I get turned on looking at the sky? I just say keep looking at it, and sooner or later it will happen to you, too."

Bordon's sky program goes from the sublime (a look at the sky in great art) to the inspirational, where he gets inner city kids to write poems about the sky. Sky awareness, Bordon also believes, can be a crimestopper, because the sky is just so soothing!

For more info contact, For Spacious Skies, BOX 191, Dept S.A. Lexington , MA 02173

By the way, I have my own copy of his cloud chart, and it's breathtaking. "The sky is a show that you are mising," says Jack Borden. And admission is free.

Coffee, tea and me

When I was writing my first novel, I lived in fear that I wouldn't finish in time for my deadline. I lived on these lifesavers called Eat a Cup of Coffee. Each one was supposed to power-pack as much jolt as six cups of coffee. Wired to the gills, I wrote and panicked at warp speed, and of course, since all good things must come to an end, the company stopped making the lifesavers. (But I did finish my novel way ahead of schedule.)

Sigh and alas.

Though I love caffeine (I know, I know, it's not healthy, but sometimes you really need it), I'm more of a tea fanatic than a coffee one. But Laurel at the fabulous mediabistro alerted me to a brand new coffee joint opening in Soho, the all-new Gimme! Coffee bar at 228 Mott Street (between Prince and Spring.) All I have to know is that a. she loves it and b. they have pastries from Balthazar, to know this might be my new home away from home. (Though I am partial to Hoboken's Frozen Monkey Cafe.)

Oh and another fun coffee fact: For years now, when I sign books, I always draw a coffee cup, spoon and fork beside my name.

Come on, you know you love Chip Kidd!

You can tell a book by its cover, especially if it's one of the flat out fabulous covers by Chip Kidd. Case in point, the cover of his new novel THE LEARNERS actually has the red part as a kind of overleaf. It's smashing to look at and to touch (I dare you not to.)

The great news is that cover designer and novelist Chip Kidd will be coming to Boston for an event at the Art Institute and to read at Borders Back Bay on Thursday, February 21.

Not only is Chip Kidd the man who singlehandedly changed the world of book design, but he is a clever and thoughtful novelist in his own right. His new book, THE LEARNERS is out February 19 and it brings the advertising culture of the 1960s to life. The main character, Happy – who is, well, happy -- becomes part of the 1961 Milgram experiments (faithfully recreated here by Kidd) which measure just how far people will go to inflict pain on another person when under orders from an authority figure. His life is changed forever.

Augusten Burroughs says “This gleefully roguish satire of 1960’s advertising-gone-mad is delightfully shrewd, droll and urbane. And any novel that includes the phrase ‘bloated dirtpig’ and features the beloved Milgram Experiments earns a place on my shelf. A must-read for the ambitious, creative, or chemically unbalanced.”

I say (I just got the book) "Genius outside. Genius inside."

Is it true? The Writers Strike may be over this week? And pint-sized politics

Oh God, would this be FANTASTIC if the writers strike were over! I cannot wait, I cannot wait. I have all these ideas for scripts I want to do.

But on the political front, yesterday we drove two 9th grade boys along with our 6th grade son to a chess tournament. The whole ride, the big boys were arguing about politics (Max quietly listened as they shouted over his head--he was sitting in the middle) and boy, was it polarized and strange.

Both boys go to a top notch private school and are really bright, by the way. Both have really smart parents. The Republican boy announced (scarily) that he wants to join the army as soon as possible, that every person should own a gun, abortion clinics should be bombed if it were possible not to harm the picketers, and he insisted that the reason why George Bush failed was because of democratic interference.

The Democrat boy debated him on every point (yeah, yeah, of course I sided with him, but outside of one, "You're a little delusional on that point," I kept my mouth shut and just listened. ) It was truly fascinating. First, because I was so happy that young people are so intensely interested in politics now, but also because I couldn't fathom how a 14-year-old could be so, rigid! He believed there absolutely were weapons of mass destruction and even if there weren't, "there could have been." Absolutely pro-war, he believes we are fighting for freedom. He believes, most frighteningly, that there is no such thing as global warming, but it is a Democratic plot and "a bunch of crap" and he knows for a fact that the footage on George Bush reading My Pet Goat for seven minutes after 9/11 was doctored, maybe even by Michael Moore, whom he insisted was the anti-christ. (He insisted this with a straight face.) Hillary was the spawn of Satan and anytime any criticized Obama, he said it was racism, so therefore you couldn't really tell where he stood and you wouldn't want "soeone like that" as a president.

More bon mots he came out with:
Jimmy Carter and Clinton were the worst presidents ever.
Bush was the best. And of course he adores Reagan.
The sixties were a time of civil war and produced nothing of value.
Democrats produce nothing of value and Clinton is responsible for the fiscal mess that we are in, and it doesn't matter that Clinton produced a surplus after the Bush bust years, and that that surplus was quickly depleted by George W. because Clinton orchestrated it that way so Republicans could get blamed.
Everyone should own a gun because it's in the Constitution.

What was also fascinating was how well these kids debated. No one got so furious they were calling names, no fists were flying, tempers were in check, and there was a real dialogue going on here, and it was great. Freedom of speech rules! It's just great to hear kids talking! A few weeks ago, we were driving Max's friend home (another 6th grader) and he started saying, "Let me tell you what I think about same sex marriage," but he had to run home before he could answer the question for us! (Later, we found out he was against it, but he didn't know why.)

It also made me now think that I may vote for Obama simply because if he's the one firing up the youth who may be Democrat, than I want to fuel that flame, too.

Writer's Voices_Who's LIstening

From Jeff Lyon's great blog,

In these dangerous, polarizing, and sometimes too politically correct times, writers who bravely tackle issues of international or homeland security, or U.S. involvement in you-know-where, and who are not sufficiently cautious to keep at least one creative foot firmly planted in God-Bless-America territory, are quick to grow bullseyes on key body parts.

Just ask George Larkin, a Los Angeles writer, developer, and producer of award winning film, theater, and television. For the past five (or more) years, Larkin has been trying to get his play, Baghdad Prom, produced and the reception of the project has been other than embracing; even in liberal-land L.A. The play is a weaving of an American writer’s life and family, with five Iraqi writers and their lives and families; people who have lived through the invasion and occupation, and who are doing the only thing they can to deal with the horrors of that life—write about it. In the play, the main character “talks” with the Iraqi writers through e-mail and these e-mails act as the source material of vignettes from the writers' lives, which are acted out.At one point, Larkin tried to gather help for the production and contacted the main Yahoo bulletin board for Los Angeles-based actors, some 1,200 members strong.

Here’s what Larkin wrote on the bulletin board:"For the past three years, I've been getting in touch with writers and artists in Baghdad and getting their stories about what's going on now. We've heard from our media, government, pundits and even soldiers, but we've heard almost nothing from the Iraqis themselves. I've gotten amazing stories of life there, both fiction and nonfiction, of kidnapping, robbery, murder and forbidden love. They've also written to me what it was and what it is now like to be an artist there, and how dangerous that was and still is. I think we have a real chance to have our artists working with theirs. If you're interested in helping, or think your theater group would be, let me know."“Smart boy,” you say. “Artists helping artists,” you say. “This is a no-brainer. He’ll have to turn actors away!” Well, the result? "I got nothing," he says. "Not a peep."

I read this and my jaw fell open. For the past three months I’ve been reading how militant, and activist, and committed actors are (and have been) to union activism supporting the writer’s strike, and I have a hard time reconciling this image with the deafening silence Larkin received in his appeal for help. When it comes to Iraq and the war, people get weird, and it becomes easy to slough off the indifference to, “L.A. isn’t a political town.” Well, tell that to the Democratic front-runners! They’re banking on just the opposite come Super Tuesday.But, it’s not just L.A. that sees the world through narrow, self-interest-colored lenses. I suspect Larkin has had similar responses in other parts of the country, and not just from actors, from everyone. How does someone create a sense of urgency about something like this? How do you shake people awake or distract them from their mortgage worries, or their daycare problems, or general life-stuff that in the moment seems (and is) so important, and get them to care about five pissed off writers from a country we’re all sick and tired of hearing about?

Sadly, I don’t have the answer to that question. If I did, Baghdad Prom would be at the Geffen Playhouse.Now, granted, I haven't seen the play and don't know if it's good or bad as art, but I'd sure like the opportunity to see it, and make up my mind. What Larkin is doing is heroic, important, and uncomfortable. You don’t have to even like what all these Iraqi writers have to say—because these guys (yes, they’re all men) don’t sugar coat anything. But, as one of them (Safa Saad) stated so eloquently, “If they [his stories] can reach the American reader, I will write all these stories and I will never be tired. All the people in the world are brothers."

Baghdad Prom recently had a reading at a theater in Massachusetts, and they were overjoyed 45 enthusiastic people attended. What’s next? They don’t know. No one has stepped up to take this project under his or her wing. This play has no home. It is one more Iraqi refugee.So, the next time you're browsing through Yahoo bulletin boards looking for a job, just remember: writers helping writers, artists helping artists, and like the man said, “All the people in the world are brothers."

How do we know how our reading affects others

The AWP was fantastic. I mean it. 7,000 writers, editors and booklovers all in the fabulous Hilton. Within ten minutes of milling around, I ran into the wonderful writer Jo-Ann Mapson, who told me she had run into someone who said he had seen me. (We never figured out who he was, though.) Of course I was anxious, but armed with my tips and my mantra, I went to my reading. The room held about 70 people and by the time I got up to read it was packed! People were standing up! Best of all, writers Masha Hamilton (The Camel Book Mobile) and Susan Ito (A Ghost at Heart's Edge, fiction co-editor of Literary Mama ) were there to offer support to me! Afterwards, I met with Edges's author Leora Skolkin-Smith.

I read from Traveling Angels, the novel I just finished, a passage where the weary mother of a chronically ill son has just reached her tipping point, gets in a car with a small suitcase and is about to leave for destinations mysterious. Her son, coming home early from school, sees the car (she's inside the house) and the suitcase and hides under a blanket. When he wakes, they've been on the road for hours and she discovers his presence and something terrible happens.

I read and read (you could read for 15 minutes), really getting so lost in the story I forgot the audience, but then I looked up and I felt sort of stunned because everyone was so silent. I thought, oh God, was this too intense to read? Do they hate me? Do they want me to go away or die? But I kept reading, propelled and when I finished I looked up again, and the room was dead quiet. I felt sick to my stomach at that point because usually people are talking or picking at their nails or smiling encouragingly, but this was absolute quiet and no seemed to be moving and everyone was looking at me sort of shocked. I went to my seat and listened to the other two writers who were funny and everyone was laughing and I thought, great, the story of my life, too intense for the planet once again, and I've failed here.

But when it was question time, I got a barrage of questions and people began to tell me how knocked out they were by my story and my reading and how much they had loved it! One woman afterwards (thank you, thank you, I don't remember your name) came up and grabbed my arm and told me she had never heard anything like it, and she was amazed and dazzled. I was astonished! How could I have not known that they all liked the reading?

I think the answer is, that as a writer, you never know how people are going to respond to your work. You do it alone. So your clues to what works are often from your own gut, or from readers or your agent or your editor, but they know you, and you know them, so there's already a sort of sacred covenant going on. But somehow that eerie audience silence and stillness, which I thought was the worst thing I had ever heard turned out yesterday to be the best.

I'd be really curious to know others' stories about readings. How do you take the temperature of your audience reaction? Has this ever happened to you? And has anyone ever read before an audience that didn't like your work? (You can be anonymous on this.)

Read, they said

Ok, so tomorrow I'm reading at the AWP which fills me with a mix of excitement, honor at the invitation, and, oh okay, a little terror. One on one I'm gregarious and happy, but put me in a big crowd and my heart starts to stutter. I love giving readings when I'm lost in the story and then I can use all my 9th grade drama club skills. I love making eye contact with people who are listening. LOVE hearing laughter (bliss!) or intakes of breath (double bliss!) and of course I am a slave to applause because who is more insecure than I am on this planet? To my surprise, I'm told I'm a great reader, too, and unless that is just people being lovely to me, (and thank you, if it is), that's really wonderful to know. But before I get up there, I am a quivering mass of stage fright? What if no one shows up? What if 600 people show up?

I should be better by now. I've done zillions of readings, some wonderful, and my all time worse, on a bright sunny Sunday afternoon where NO ONE showed up. No one! The staff was very kind and three of them, wearing bookstore nametags sat in the audience for my reading (I went ahead and read because I was too mortified not to), and they told me that the day before a local celeb had had a reading and no one came, but they were probably just being nice.

But truely, writers are a solitary bunch, yes? I mean, I used to tell the people at the horrible video club corp. where I once worked a thousand years ago, when they asked why I never went to the company picnics or parties or after work drinkifests, that if I had wanted to be a social butterfly, I wouldn't have been a writer. But getting out there and charming the pants off the world is now part of the writer's job description, and so, get out there I do, with radio, TV, print, and yup, readings.

All this leads to my favorite reading story of all time. Michael Dorris, who usually got 500 people at his standing room only readings all the time, told me that once (actually it was after the three person reading I gave on that sunny Sunday) that he gave a reading and only 4 people were there. He loved to read so he figured, well why not? But halfway through the reading, cops arrived and to his shock, arrested three of the audience members. Turns out they were bank robbers on the lam and they figured no one would look for them in a reading!

So tomorrow, armed with my mantra (thanks JL), and my favorite black velvet dress (it's lucky) and my lucky earrings, I'm going to read.

Hey. Wish me luck. And if anyone has any great tips, well here I am....

In Praise of Patry: Liar's Diary Blog

Writers are a solitary bunch. We live in our heads and in our work, and come out to do readings. But when one of our own is in trouble, we all band together as a community and help out. Case in point: Patry Francis.

Patry’s Francis’s debut THE LIAR’S DIARY came out in hardcover from Dutton last spring. The trade paper release is set for January 29th, but a few weeks ago, Patry was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer. She’s had several surgeries, and her prognosis is good, but given that she won’t have much energy for promoting, ITW Debut Author members Laura Benedict and Karen Dionne, along with Susan Henderson and Jessica Keener, have banded together to do it for her with THE LIAR'S DIARY BLOG DAY.Brilliance Audio has also put together a special audio clip with excerpts from Patry’s novel, and Circle of Seven Productions is producing a promotional video.This is no ordinary blog day. Rallied by ITW members Laura Benedict and Karen Dionne, along with Susan Henderson and Jessica Keener, over 300 people from the publishing community have agreed to mention her book online on release day.

Liar's Diary has an irresistible premise. Suburban school secretary Jeanne Cross has a loveless marriage with a slickly creepy husband, and a secretive son. But when new teacher Ali Mather comes to the school, the two women begin to bond. But what are the secrets in Ali's diary and who is breaking into her house? and stalking her? And what secrets of her own is Jeanne harboring that could shatter them both?

Patry's book makes me want to use all the best adjectives: seductive, dark, thorny, mesmerizing. What I also loved was the way the novel twists, turns and comes to a razor sharp finale. Patry's psychological portraits of these two women are tense, acute and unforgettable. Nothing is what it seems (oh, how I love that) and the last chapter is truly shattering. So Patry, you wrote a gorgeous book that gets under your skin and stays there and I urge everyone to go on out and snap it up. Read Patry's blog. And when you're up at three in the morning because you can't stop reading the book, feel free to email me because I know the feeling.

Now get well fast, Patry, because we need you to write more books. And more importantly, because we need you.

More AWP news

OK, I am officially getting excited and nervous about reading at the AWP. They have so many writers there, and parties and all sorts of wonderful things, and that means I have to get out of my jeans and into some sort of dress! The good thing about the conference is that it's right here in NYC so I don't have to take a plane or a train and I can still get my work done (I'm starting writing a new novel ...) but the bad thing is that it's right here in NYC which means I still need to attend to the needs of my son, my students, my clients, my work so I won't get to see as much as I would really like to. (So everyone please forgive me if I whisk in and whisk out.)

Besides me, me, me, AWP is also host to my friend Susan Ito, so I'm putting her details here. She's a fantastic writer (and a fabulous person) so please go check out her reading, which looks fascinating.

Mercury Ballroom
Hilton, 3rd Floor
Friday, 10:30am, February 1st
F131. "Any Number of Old Ladies": Writers Revealing Family. (Joy Castro, Bich Minh Nguyen, Lorraine Lopez, Karen Salyer McElmurray, Susan Ito) Drawing on Faulkner's line about a real writer's being willing to rob his mother for good work ("the 'Ode on a Grecian Urn' is worth any number of old ladies"), our panel investigates the impact that writing about family members has had upon writers's relationships with their own. Where and how do we draw boundaries? When and why have we chosen to write about family--and when have we refrained? How have we negotiated ethical dilemmas? What fallout and benefits have we experienced as a result?
Susan's blog is www.readingwritingliving.wordpress.com
and her column at Literary Mama is: http://www.literarymama.com/columns/sandwich/

The Best of Bellevue Literary Review

I am honored to announce that my story "Breathe", which won a literary prize, and which is also part of my just-finished novel Traveling Angels, is going to be part of The Best of Bellevue Literary Review, available now on Amazon.

I'm also honored, thrilled and exited to be reading from that piece at the AWP conference on Thursday, January 31. (Best of all, I get to read first, so I can relax sooner and enjoy the other readings instead of worrying.) So if anyone is going to be there, please come say hello to me. I'll be the one with the mop of hair wearing all black, except for my earrings which will probably be garish!

You can't have enough story structure

Everyone who knows me or who takes my classes know that I harp about story structure. It's the backbone, the lifeline, the thing you turn to when you feel like hurling your computer out the window or giving up a project. A friend of mine, Jeff Lyons, whose helps pull me out of my screenwriting abyss (and on one occasion, I wept via email for him to just tell me in a sentence what my novel was about because after four years, I hadn't a clue--and guess what: HE DID.) has started this uber-fantastic blog that I think everyone on the planet should check out. It's funny, smart, and really helpful and it has the great name of Storygeeks. Go take a look.

The Best Book you Haven't Read YET!

Being sick is no fun. I was up all last night and rather than feel sorry for myself, I picked up my friend Clea Simon's latest " just-completed-and-no-publishing-home-yet" manuscript, Shades of Grey.

I loved, loved loved the book. One of the things I always tell my UCLA students and clients is that in order for your novel to live, you've got to have great, living, breathing characters. Plot alone won't do it. So, with that in mind, let's talk about Dulcie.

Dulcie's the kind of character you want for your best friend. She's writing her literature thesis at Harvard and working at one of those corporate nightmare temp jobs we've all had (or at least, I've had. I reminded me so much of my stint at Columbia House that I was gleefully cringing. She wears overdyed black t-shirts and Indian skirts (we love her for that), yearns for her recently departed cat, and finds her roommate's body in the apartment. Who dun it and why? And why are subtly supernatural things going on, like possible warnings from her beloved cat, weird computer malfunctions, and in one of the most inspired moments, a very freaked-out fish? Is she going crazy?

What's so wonderful about this novel is that Clea gets ALL the details right--and rich. Cambridge is palpable. Office politics, school, and living on less money that you should have. All pitched perfectly. But the mystery, too, kept my flu at bay and kept me turning pages until four in the morning. Truly. I never had a clue who the culprit was and so I got that delicious intake of breath when I was surprised.

The book is funny and smart and so knowing about literature--really, really impressively wonderful. Wait for it to be snapped up. Then you'll see, too.

Flu and cranky politics

I have my son's stomach flu, and have already lost 3 pounds and all desire to eat chocolate but I am so cranky. The media seems to be running this election. Of course it's more interesting to pit the black man against the white woman, but Edwards is totally lost in the news--even though, to my mind, he has the best Democratic ideas, especially with the economy (Time is calling him today's version of the New Dealer). I admit I don't trust Hillary and I find Obama a thrilling speaker without any substance to back things up, plus I really am annoyed that he says he is going to solve the health crisis by "sitting down at the table with health care people." Uh huh. Even worse is his calling himself a Reagan Democrat.



I wish Gore would run.



I wish I felt better.

Victorious Girls! "Stepping out on What is Right!"

Come on, admit it. Don't you hate the Bratz dolls? (I admit a nostalgic fondness for Barbies, but that's another story.) My son's elementary school swarms with young girls and they are all beautiful without makeup, fancy hair and dress. Who wants their young daughters playing with dolls with half shirts, belly button rings, high heels and full face makeup? What kind of role model is this for a six-year-old, let alone a ten-year-old? Well my friend Cindy Bokman (She runs hellodollface and Conversations with famous writers and the author of Thousand Dollars for a Kiss) and her friend Christalyn (the founder!) decided that girls needed dolls that carried a more positive message. And so Victoriousgirls.com was born.

The website is chock-a-block full of ideas for young girls-there are stories, music, workbooks, trading cards and more. Cindy's writing a book to go along with the dolls and even some uber-cool t-shirts are in the work. A soundtrack is being put together by Tamara Billen.

These five Victorious girls don't need boyfriends or sexy clothes or makeup to bolster their self worth. That comes from within. These are girls who are actually interested in and inspired by school work and sports and doing creative things like sewing clothes, writing stories, dancing, singing and being friends and being a kid!

The first book is finished and it can be ordered as a packet with the workbook and music. There are postcards and book marks and we are writing the feature film along with a complete soundtrack. The message is clear about making good choices, following your heart, doing your best and being happy with ones self. Both creators are out to ignite young girl's self confidence and any smart production company (after the writers' strike ends, of course) would be really smart to snap up these books and this concept for a series of films. Girl power is real power, so go and check out the website, Victoriousgirls.com.

SUPPORT THIS CAUSE

Hey all, my birthdaybash weekend is still going on, but I just got this from Backspace, and I feel it's really important.

A Backspace member, Patry Francis, whose debut novel THE LIAR'S DIARY is due to come out in trade paper on January 29, was recently diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer. She's had several surgeries and her prognosis is good, but since she's home recuperating, she won't be able to do anything with regard to promotion.

A few of her author friends are arranging a THE LIAR'S DIARY Blog Day for her on January 29, and the idea has REALLY taken off. In just one week, 120 authors have already agreed to blog about Patry's book on the 29th, including a couple with amazingly huge readerships, like Neil Gaiman and Jennifer Weiner, as well as a few who blog in conjunction with online magazines like Writers Digest and SMITH Magazine.

Most of the bloggers, though, are ordinary folks whose blogs haven't yet attained that reach, but still want to help. Susan Henderson is keeping the list on her website, LitPark. It's growing by the minute, and no wonder; Patry is a lovely person, who is dealing with her situation unsentimentally, and with courage and grace. http://simplywait.blogspot.com/

We're asking folks who'd like to join this project to email me, so I can add them to the bloggers' list. Brilliance Audio is making a special clip available, and Circle of Seven Productions is putting together a short video, and I'll email these materials along with a press release from Patry's publisher and appropriate links to bloggers a few days before the event.

It's our hope that as the number of bloggers continues to grow, this event might expand beyond the Internet to radio and print. Individually, there's not a lot any one of us can do, but collectively, the impact will be significant!

If you could help spread the word by forwarding this email to those you think might want to get involved, or by blogging about her book on the 29th, that'd be great!

Thanks very much on Patry's behalf for your support and help -

All best,
Karen

Karen Dionne, Administrator, Backspace LLC www.bksp.org www.backspacewritersconference.comFREEZING POINT (coming October 2008 from Berkley) www.karendionne.net

Happy birthday to me!

Psst, tomorrow is my birthday and it's the start of a blitz of activity! Opera at the Met! Music at Joe's Pub! The Pirates of Penzance! My sister coming to visit and play! What do I want? Well, I already have a lot of what's important (love, friends, family, work I adore, health and no dental work that I know of that needs to be done) but who says you can't have more? I would like a democratic president, affordable health care, a movie deal (after the strike is over, of course), a huge book sale, more love, peace, understanding, chocolate, happiness, joy, enough money to paint the inside of our house and get new windows (and new blinds!), and I would like to discover the theory of everything.

Cheneycare

By the way, I urge everyone to go visit http://www.cheneycare.org and sign the petition for every American to get decent (i.e. the same health care Cheney gets) health care.

Please.

Why I hate health insurance companies, part twenty

I know, I know. My health insurance saga is not a pretty one.

My husband and I are both writers so we pay for our own health insurance. Because we live in NYC's unofficial 6th borough, Hoboken, we have to abide by NJ health insurance rules rather than NYC ones (even though all our doctors and our hospitals of choice are in NYC--best health care in the world.) From what I understand, and I could be absolutely wrong, so correct me if I am, NJ is so expensive because of medical underwriting. Get sick in a NY hospital and need a kidney transplant and insurance can deny it. Do it in a NJ hospital and they have to proceed. That's why it's so much more expensive.

This means our insurance in extraordinarily expensive because we have to pay for it ourselves. It also means a high deductible and fighting the insurance company on just about every issue. I've gotten used to using the phrase, "well, my attorney says..." and I now am armed with this fantastic woman whose job is to fight these companies for the coverage they categorically deny.

This means that The Writers Union won't insure us because it's too expensive for them to insure anyone in NJ, plus they've had far too many insurance companies cancel coverage for their members in midyear, so now they are only insuring NY.


This means the Author's Guild won't insure us because it's too expensive--well they will if we want to pay $2550 a month for insurance. Isn't the Author's Guild job to HELP writers who are not exactly rich?

This means that TEIGIT (the entertainment industry insurance) will ensure us for a mere $1600 a month.

Our insurance now is only 80 percent hospitalization. Think that sounds good? Last year I had a high fever and went into the hospital for one day. The bill was ten thousand dollars, and it would have been more but most of the tests they did were done in the Er which was fully covered. Turned out the fever was nothing and I had to get a pay plan from the hospital.

But wait, there might be hope on the horizon, and I don't just mean a democratic president--though I am not overly impressed with any of them, to be really truthful. Working Today, the Freelancers Union is a fabulous organization. They offer health insurance where the rates for us, while not cheap, are at least doable. But we need to prove billable NYC client hours. I'm not sure if selling a novel counts and how can you prove how much time you spent reading books to review them for NY sources? It's confusing, but at least it is a glimmer of hope.

Mediabistro.com, another fabulous place also offers insurance, but I'm waiting to hear from their agent. Of course, as soon as I said New Jersey, there was that pause....

I hate doing this every year when the rates rise and rise and rise. I hate having to research plans because I don't really understand them. I hate having to learn to understand them. I hate having to pay exhorbitant sums for insurance and then have to still fight the company to get anything paid for.

If anyone knows cheap decent, non HMO (oh, the horror!) insurance, please contact me and I will knit you a silk scarf or mittens or bake you cookies or edit your novel. You can call me on the phone and I'll listen to your personal problems for three whole weeks!

Portrait of a great guy and a great cause

The photo of the handsome man over there is one of my oldest and best friends, Peter Salzano. I met Peter millions of years ago when we were both toiling away at Macy's. He was my boss! One day he made the mistake of going on vacation and because I was bored I made up twenty five phone messages for him (Peter, please call the doctor, that nasty rash can be treated!; Peter, Jo says to meet him at Spitty's and bring a lawyer). I wasn't sure how he'd react, but we soon became fast friends, embarrassing each other every chance we could get.

I adore him. Together we've braved dating, divorce, birth, death of loved ones, marriage and illness. Every time I moan that I should stop writing and get a real job he yells at me. He's bought all of my books, and not at The Strand either! He spoke at my wedding and I toasted him at his (to the extraordinary Doug). In May 2003, Doug called me to tell me that Peter had been diagnosed with a brain tumor, a stage four Glioblastomia.


Yes, we were all terrified. But Peter smashed the odds and here he is five years later. He used yoga, visualization and a whole lot of silliness and love. Though he has to get MRIs more times than he would care to, he's tumor free now--and only 2% of Stage FourBrain tumor patients make this milestone. And even better, he and Doug started The Salzano-Smith Foundation for Brain Tumor Research in 2004. He's raised over 50,000 and the next one is coming up May 1, 2008. For details, or just to say hi to a magnificent human being, email Peter at Psal4444@aol.com.

And if you do write him, please nag him to write his book! And give him huge hug for me because I adore him and if I can help it, I want him to live to be 90, because I have lots more ways to embarrass him in elevators.

Happy New 2008

Jeeze Louise. 2008. I'm incredibly grateful for what I have--an adoring and adorable husband, a fantastic and amazing son, a home I love in a city I love, great friends and work I love. And health! Great health! But I am making a few resolutions.

1. Give negativity the boot. I know it sounds new agey, but seeing the glass as overflowing is a lot more fun than seeing it cracked and empty. Oh, and this goes for shame, too.
2. Be grateful. I already bought thank-you notes and I know how to use them.
3. Be loving and adventurous and bold. Shy no longer exists if I can help it.
4. Stop knitting every sweater in the round and learn how to put the pieces together so it looks professional. (If anyone can offer advise, PLEASE DO.)
5. Write as if my life depended on it. It does.


For everyone who has read or commented here, my thanks are huge and my gratitude the size of China.

Welcome to Redroom

I'm happy to announce a brand new website for writers and readers, redroom.com which just went live! And I'm thrilled to say that I was one of the founding authors, especially since the site calls itself "the online home of some of the world's greatest writers." (blush)

On redroom.com, you can view my author bio, published works, blog, book reviews, videos, and podcasts, as well as find out more about good causes I support. In fact, once the site has paid advertising, just viewing my page will send a portion of the proceeds to these causes.

Want to be a member of such a cool site? Then go to redroom.com, and become a member (it's free). Click "Join Now" on the homepage or "Join" in the upper right corner of the page. Then select your unique Red Room username. They encourage you to use your real first and last name; I've done so. Or, if you don't have time to join now, sign up for the Red Room email list at www.redroom.com/newsletter.

Once you've joined, please feel free to comment on my blog and media content (I'm a fantatic for comments), helping build a community around my work or the work of any of the other writers on the site. If you have time, you can even write reader reviews of books, adding to the literary conversation. Questions? Contact the member services manager at http://www.blogger.com/support@redroom.com.


Are you a published writer? They're happy to help you as they helped me build my author page. You can be in on the ground floor of building this community. Feel free to forward this invitation to your friends, family, and colleagues, too. And if you are an author, once you've joined redroom.com (again, it's free), you can apply to create an author page like mine. So come on in, the community's fine!

Happy New Year, well almost

Back from Boston, which is a gorgeous city (I grew up there) even though it isn't as spiffy as my beloved NYC. Lots of fun and now I'm back and here is the nine million dollar question. Does anyone out there know of any decent and reasonably priced health insurance? (Not an HMO please.) Ours just went up a whopping 25% and we are sticker shocked. I belong to a million organizations, but either they don't offer insurance for NJ (we live in Hoboken but our docs are all in NYC) or the policies are just plain scary (a $7000 cap, anyone, which is about the cost of half a day in a hospital or one test)?

Sigh, now I have to go answer 243 emails.

see you later health-insured alligators

In Which the author gets a ROAR!

Harriet Brown is wonderful. She was the editor of two truly great anthologies, Mr. Wrong (about all those loves you wish you hadn't had) and the upcoming Feed Me: Real-Life Tales of Our Pleasure, Shame, Anxiety, and Ambivalence About Food. I'm really excited about the Feed Me book, and not just because I get to work with Harriet again and because I'm in the company of some truly stellar talents, but because I got to write about an ex who wouldn't let me eat. Writing the piece made me feel as if I were performing a kind of literary exorcism of a fearful time for me (I was 93 pounds and so skinny my friends were about to do an intervention). Why couldn't I leave this guy? Because then I would have had to grieve for another man who had died--which was the reason I got involved with this guy in the first place.) In the essay I also get to put in a little Valentine to my husband--I fell in love with him on our second date because at dinner he insisted that I have no one dessert, but two!

But what really made me so happy was that in her blog, Harriet called me a fearless writer! Who doesn't want to be fearless? I always the writers I work with at UCLA to get that blood on the page, to risk everything--and this comment just made me so joyful.

Here's to a fearless 2008!

Happy Holidaze

We're off to Boston to see my amazing mother (she's 90, lives in her own house, drives and can hear every syllable from ten rooms away!We packing, getting a housesitter and we have an industrial strength alarm system! ) I'll be blogging again when I get back around the 26th--the day after Xmas, so here's what I'm hoping to be blessed with from Santa and the Channukah Bunny,
1. Decent health insurance that will pay all claims, 100 percent
2. literary success--for me and my friends and students and clients!
3. The Writers Strike to be over, so I can add, movie success!
4. Of course, the most important--love, health, happiness, friendship, warmth.

See you later, alligators.

Synopsis gives me headaches

First, the Nurse Molly Pin I have on (thank you, Houston Street Flea Market and forgive the blurry cell phone shot. My hand looks the size of Jupiter!) is indicative of my writing state of mind. I need Valium!

I know, I know. I make my students write synopsis because I feel that when you have 300 pages of mess and you don't know where you are, writing out a synopsis of your novel can help you identify story holes and pacing problems. Having one when you are starting out (and knowing you will probably throw out everything but the main idea which urges you to write) is helpful, too. But I agonize over my synopsis. I start surfing the net to see if it's too late for me to go to dental school (yup. It is.) I stare at it and think why did I ever imagine that I could write a grocery list, let alone a novel? The characters sound moronic, the plot forced, and the theme like something that should be in a fortune cookie. I pull out my Truby Story Structure notes and stare at them and then go alphabetize my books. I make notes and print them out and them hurl them on the floor. (My office is not exactly neat. When I had a job job, my review always said, "Excellent work, but you need to keep a tidier office."

I have one main reader who reads my stuff and I showed it to her and got the OK. (Bless her, bless her.) But here's a question: why can't I give myself the okay? Why can't I be sure of my own work? I can look at my students' writing and tell what needs to be done. I can look at my private client's manuscripts and know what they should do. But with myself? Clueless. Absolutely clueless. Sometimes I believe that every other writer knows exactly what he or she is doing at every moment. This other writer sits down gleefully, writes twenty pages a day in a heartbeat (and they are GOOD pages) and never agonizes over a single syllable.

Of course I also believe that huge quantities of chocolate are good for you.

Let's hear it for the boy!

Everyone who knows me knows how crazy I am about my son, Max. Chess champ, piano wiz, Johns Hopkins scholar (ask me about double replacement equations--he taught me!), novelist (he wrote MOVIES OF DOOM last year, which came complete with his own author page, reading group guide, author photo and cover design), voracious reader, and theater star. He auditioned and got into the company of the Hoboken Children's Theater (run by Chase Leyner who is amazing, and who is also the sister of hilarious author Mark Leyner) and here he is in Annie (tuck your shirt in, Max!)

He's just a superlative boy, and no, no, Mom, he is not cutting his hair. (Jeff and I aren't cutting ours either!)

A mouse in OUR house and a pox on health insurance

Eek! A mouse! Vermin. He races from behind my bookshelf. He's in the kitchen and he tore through a whole plastic wrap to get at some spicy potato chips. There are bite marks on the chocolate.

We tried humane traps. He laughed at our pitiful attempts and ate the chocolate we used as bait, gobbled the peanut butter and then used the trap as his personal lavatory before whisking away unharmed. I won't use glue traps (I used one once in my old NYC apartment and woke to agonizing squeaks and a tiny writing body.) The snap traps seem too brutal. So we hired an exterminator who told us about the brownstone down the street that had so many mice he had to open the walls where he found hundreds (HUNDREDS) of them nesting in the walls. So now we have green pellets that they seem to love to chew on so much they want their friends to join in the fun.

I found a dead mouse in my office. Jeff found a dead mouse tucked under the stove.

Added to this are health insurance woes. When you are freelance you have to buy your own policies which are about the same you might pay to buy a small country all your own. And they don't pay for anything. Ten years ago, when I was critically ill, I spent a whole year after I got well fighting the insurance companies because they refused to pay. Conversations would go like this:

Insurance: We need you to pay that 800,000 bill (this is for real) right away because you didn't sign a consent form for the operation. Your husband did.

Me: I was in a coma! I couldn't sign anything!

Insurance: It doesn't matter. Can you write us a check today?

It took us two years of fighting to get things settled (and I can never thank my doctors enough, who often told us, "You don't have to pay me." My beloved obgyn wouldn't except payment from me for years.

We are now battling the insurance again because a procedure they assured us was covered and in network, they are now claiming was not in network, and they say they have no records of our ever calling. Clearly, something has to be done about health insurance. So many of our friends don't even have it because they can't afford it. And even when you do have it, they don't pay. I know we are going to have to find a new policy but what? And how will we ever afford it? If anyone knows of any great insurance in NJ (we use all NYC doctors) that is at least semi-affordable (the price of a small city, rather than a small country), please let me know.

Sigh. I hear the mouse.

POSTSCRIPT: Our incredible GP called the place on our behalf (he's a mensch, a writer, and a stellar human being) and got them to drop the bill. All of it!

Let us now praise pandora.com

When I'm writing, I have to have music. A steady stream of it. It relaxes me (and it drives my writer husband crazy because he writes about music for a living and the thought of listening to the same thing over and over again is sacrilege to him--it may even be punishable in six states.) So I've discovered pandora.com. It's this very cool website and it plays a steady stream of music for you--most of it new music. You rate the songs when you remember (I sometimes forget) so it somehow knows to play music that is like (or unlike) what you've just rated.

Plus, the people at Pandora are really, really wonderful.


And other big news, I'm going to be reading at the AWP (The Associated Writing Programs) in NYC the last week of January. I'm reading from my prize-winning story, BREATHE, which was published in the Bellevue Literary Review, and which became part of my just finished novel TRAVELING ANGELS. If you come, please grab me and say hello.

NBCC Reviews the Review Process..sort of

I belong to the National Book Critics Circle, a great organization if there ever was one. Recently they took a survey of all of us members about the whole process of book reviewing. The finds are the kind that made me dying to know who in the NBCC thought what! Shoot, it's anonymous!

Anyway, here are just the facts, ma'am, and see if you agree with them. For me, this all applies to the reviewing I do for newspapers and magazines, not for my blog, where I give full disclosure if I know someone in any way before I rave about his or her book.


68.5 percent of book reviewers think anyone mentioned in a book's acknowledgements should be barred from reviewing it. (I agree)

64.9 percent think anyone who has written an unpaid blurb for a book should also be banned from writing a fuller review. (I agree)

76.5 percent think it's never ethical to review a book without reading the whole thing. (Oh, gosh, I agree. You have to read the whole book! What if a dull book catches fire on page 450?)

And 52 percent think it's not okay for a book-review editor, in assigning books for review, to favor books by writers who also review regularly for that editor's book section. (Oh gosh, it's the word favor that gets me....)

40.1 percent think a reviewer shouldn't read other reviews of a book before writing his or her own, but 17.9 per cent think that's perfectly okay, and 33.5 per cent feel it's complicated enough to require commentary rather than a firm answer. (I don't think it's okay, but sometimes it's hard not to see the other reviews!)

60.5 percent think it's okay for a newspaper book section or magazine to ignore self-published books that authors submit to them, e.g., iUniverse type books. (Well, it depends. Nowadays there are some writers who started out that way and ended up with deals with the bigger publishing houses. It's worth a three minute read of a first page, no?)

See the whole survey here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/sr.aspx?sm=oe_2bklUHwCmVaYIdiR0zw82a9Gdykw2Tl900qjJw9Z8I_3d

And the winner is.....This Young House

Novel writing (and screenwriting, but after the writer's strike!) is as hard as it is glorious, and sometimes while I am taking a work break from my new novel in progress, I like to wander the net and look at blogs. Of course I look at writing and bookish blogs, but I also love film ones, knitting ones, vegan cooking ones, and anything out of the ordinary. The keyword is fun.

Jeff and I spent almost a year renovating our 1865 rowhouse, so I fully understand what the whole process is like and how things can look much worse before they start to look better, and how important a sense of humor is--which explains why I adore Sherry and John Petersik's uber-cool blog, This Young House. The truly cool news is that she and John just won (beating out 46 other blogs in the running) the Remodel, Blog & Win contest by RemodelingMySpace.com a few months ago--a $5000 win which will presto chango into any number of things like tiles, sinks or built-in bookcases.

The blog is quirky and hilarious. They watch paint dry, they yearn for neighbors, they post gorgeous pictures (I wrote Sherry because she seemed to have discovered the perfect blue and I wanted to know the exact name so I could grab it up for our bedroom.) They have entries like "Our kitchen cabinets are like Brangalina" and "Our kitchen cabinets are like slugs". The photos are fab, the writing is stellar, and the house in progress is to die for.

So go check out the blog and send congrats to Sherry and John--and then please, tell me if I should paint my office white or a color..(Is a color to distracting? Is white too clinical?)