Happy Birthday, SCONES AND SENSIBILITY!!
As of yesterday, the hottest new tween book is on shelves and ready to be snatched up!
If you have a tween on your shopping list, no need to look any further!

![]() |
You are viewing Create a LiveJournal Account Learn more | Explore LJ: Life Entertainment Music Culture News & Politics Technology |
| S | M | T | W | T | F | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||
| 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
| 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 |
| 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 |
| 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 |



Exactly four years ago, I sold my first book to Simon & Schuster, and I wrote this in my journal:
If I had to say my greatest wish, for myself at least, it would be exactly what I’m doing now: working with a wonderful agent, getting the opportunity to work with an editor at a major publishing house. To know I’m going to be published: I feel like I am accomplishing the thing I was meant to all along.
The book that I knew was going to be published was SINCERELY, SOPHIE, originally slated for publication in early 2008. Then a bunch of things happened – my editor resigned, I was assigned a new editor, I wrote a couple more books – and the publication date for SINCERELY, SOPHIE was pushed back a bit.

Stick Man and Christmas Book Picks by Esme Raji Codell from The Planet Esme Plan. Peek: "if I could have one Christmahanukwanzaakah wish, it would be that children's books wouldn't go out of print quite so quickly, and publishers would back artists instead of titles." Read a Cynsations interview with Esme.
An Interview with Marilyn Singer from Children's Author David L. Harrison's Blog. Peek: "Poems to me are about capturing moments in time, answering questions I ask myself, exploring emotions I feel, or, if I’m writing narrative poems, capturing the essence of characters. They're also about playing with language in ways that are impossible to attempt in prose." See also Marilyn on What Makes a Good Young Picture Book? and What Makes a Good Poem? and What Is a Short Story?
Steal These Books by Margo Rabb from the New York Times Sunday Book Review. Peek: "At BookPeople in Austin, titles displayed with staff recommendation cards are a darling among thieves. 'It's so bad lately that I feel like our staff recommendation cards should read: 'BookPeople Bookseller recommends that you steal ________.' Apparently the criminal element in Austin shares our literary tastes, or are very prone to suggestion," Elizabeth Jordan, the head book buyer, wrote in an e-mail message." Read a Cynsations interview with Margo.

Meanwhile, Greg was working on a novel of his own down in the kitchen. Aren't those bangs hilarious in this picture?
But just because we're busy doesn't mean that there's no seasonal cheer to be found. Cynsations will be taking a brief holiday hiatus and resume posting on Dec. 28.





Enter to win one of three signed copies of Watersmeet by Ellen Jensen Abbott (Marshall Cavendish, 2009), one of three copies of The Pillow Book of Lotus Lowenstein by Libby Schmais (Delacorte, 2009), and/or one of three signed copies of Ninjas, Piranhas, and Galileo by Greg Leitich Smith (Little, Brown, 2005)!
Moving along with the PBs. I have 3 and they are tight, but I’m not sure if they are any good. I have surprised myself by having the MC go through a revelation at the end. Maybe that is good. I got some quick feedback from my online group and I seem to know what I‘m doing. Again they inspired me to revise and that is always great when you are at a wall.
Still writing about 5 or so blinks a week. Dementia ensuing.
Getting to know my MC for BF more and more and getting deeper into what the book is about. I’m a good 20k words in, which is almost half the length. I predict this to be about 40-45k words. The action is moving along –
(just got an idea to foreshadow the tension later in the book. Sorry I just blanked out with it.)
I seem to be doing that lot in this draft, for the first half, foreshadowing tension and conflict instead of kicking off with the main conflict. I’m wondering if that is a bad. Yeah, you should get a sense of forward motion, and I think I’m doing that. The MC is active, she’s facing changes, but is she active in a way that I want her to be or in a way that the reader expects her to be. Know what I mean?
I feel like I’m stuck in three different expectations.
1) How I expect the character and story to unfold.
2) How the reader expects the character and story to unfold.
3) How teachers/manuals expect the character and story to unfold.
Now I know what you are thinking. 2 and 3 go hand in hand, right? I don’t think so. I think a reader can forgive a lot more than what teacher/manual can accept. Vonnegut said that one of two things must happen in the pages of the book: we either move the story forward or learn something of the character as it pertains to the story.
I try to not follow 3. I don’t like mapping, as I said before. I prefer to be spontaneous and let the characters surprise in their actions. I strive to be original, and I don’t think you can be original by strictly following what a teacher/manual says is original. Doesn’t that make for a cookie cutter novel? Plus, aren’t characters deeper by not going with expectation? Like, if a character did something bad, that would make them more real, right?
I may just be whining here. I’ll get off the ego for a sec. First draft anxiety passing.
Again, I ran into the same problem about my first chapter. But I thought I had it handled and maybe I do. I still need more people to give me feedback on it.
I had one reader tell me that I could state the MC’s sex and sexuality earlier in the chapter. At this time it is stated by page two. Earlier? I don’t know if I can. I spend the first page drawing out the action as to portray the character’s future struggle, their wants and whatnot; trying to let you get to know the MC from the inside before we deal with the outside.
To remind you I am writing first person, female, lesbian. The story is not about being a lesbian or being a female. That is not what she is struggling with. Every one is cool with it. Now those two facts are dramatized in the first chapter, so it is there, but how soon should they be stated. Line one?
So I went back and read a few pages to the beginning of other 1st person novels, also novels written by women who have male MCs. A lot of them don’t state the MC’s sex until page two at least. Maybe I’m ok for now, right? I mean other authors are doing it.
Then I think: is it because the reader knows I’m a man and reader expectation states that if I am a man then I should be writing main characters that are male? It would make sense. It’s an easy expectation.
Further, when I was checking out those other books, the reader already has an expectation of what sex the main character is by just reading the jacket flap. So they are clued in and maybe they don’t have to think about it.
Ah, but wont an agent or publisher who is reading the book throw it away because I didn’t state the sex of the character on the first page throw it away? I would think that the query letter states it all, much like a jacket flap, that they wouldn’t.
So what should I get out of this in the end? Always key the cold reader into the story before you give them the pages? Maybe not write in first person so that the reader can see the character’s name on line one and get the easy answer to life’s great mysteries?
I don’t know. I don’t have much of an answer. I guess that is why I use M.E. Purfield for my novels instead of Mike Purfield. I want that kind of freedom to challenge myself with the writing.



The Sheepdog
U.A. Fanthorpe
After the very bright light,
And the talking bird,
And the singing,
And the sky filled up wi' wings,
And then the silence,
Our lads sez
We'd better go, then.
Stay, Shep. Good dog, stay.
So I stayed wi' t' sheep.
After they'd cum back
It sounded grand, what they'd seen.
Camels and kings, and such,
Wi' presents - human sort,
Not the kind you eat -
And a baby. Presents wes for him
Our lads took him a lamb.
I had to stay behind wi' t' sheep.
Pity they didn't tek me along too.
I'm good wi' lambs,
And the baby might have liked a dog
After all that myrrh and such.
It's seriously sugary at my house.
It won't be Mom's. But today, I'm going to bake my first Our Family's Christmas Eve Boston Cream Pie. Wish me luck :-) And Stonewall Kitchen, don't you dare let me down! 
Congratulations! It's a bouncing book-baby! Rob and I have returned from seeing Avatar. His verdict? It’s just bad. Mine? It’s very silly, with horrifically bad science and yet, if you are a visually based person, it is worth seeing on the big screen in 3-D.
If you are a logic based person, then skip this film.
Question: If every life form on the planet has nostrils in their necks and six limbs, why do the Na’vi have noses like we do and only four limbs?
Question: Where do the feathers on the bow and arrows come from since we never see a feather creature, ever.
Question: Kiss? What is this thing you call kiss, James Cameron? I mean really, there are HUMAN cultures that don’t have kissing.
I could go on. That said, it’s some damn impressive CGI.
