mary e. pearson

My latest post is up over at Tor, The Sexy Unsung Hero.

Come on over and share your "sexy unsung hero" title with everyone.

and libraries going paperless over at Tor today. 

Hope you'll come by and share your thoughts on the advantages (and disadvantages) of traditional books.

Bells, Whistles, & Books:  Going Paperless

My latest post over at Tor.com is up!  

From ruby red slippers, to spelling spiders, to honking fail, to yes, even lambadoodles, I share some thoughts on 
Suspending Disbelief. 

Please, come share your thoughts with me! 

My post over at Tor today is about What YA Lit is and isn't--at least to me. 

Come on over  and share your thoughts and your latest teen read.

Blogging today over at Tor.com about everyone's obsession with the future (yes, even you!) 

Hope you will pop in. 

~ Thank you brilliant ones all for your replies to my last post about magical realism. I got a lot of wonderful suggestions.

~ As I mentioned a few days ago, I am going to be at Comic Con this Friday. I will be presenting on a panel with several amazing authors: Michael Spradlin, Michael Reisman, Sarah Rees Brennan, James Owen, aka coppervale, P.J. Haarsma, and Alyson Noel. Lucky me, I probably won't need to open my mouth once--I can listen to them!  But what to wear. what to wear . . . I have never been to Comic Con, but since it is held in San Diego it is always covered on the news here, and it is madhouse. A billion people at least attend this conference and they are all dressed in very wacked out crazy um, interesting attire.   It is very tempting to get into the spirit of things.  Oh the possibilities . . .  Bright blue contact lenses so that my eyes glow?  Blue face paint?

~ Look what came in the mail! Anyone out there speak Dutch?


The House of Books is publishing the Dutch version of The Adoration of Jenna Fox. They did a beautiful job--plus French flaps, and the sparrow and butterfly details on the cover are shiny. I am like a fish when it comes to shiny things. They are also publishing the Dutch version of The Miles Between.  I can't wait to see what they do with that.

~ In other foreign news, I just got the draft cover for the UK version (April 2010)and was told that more shiny detail will be involved. The fish in me rejoiced. I also learned yesterday that JENNA has sold Spanish (as in Spain Spanish) and Catalan rights.  It had already sold Spanish/Latin America rights a while back, and while I know there are a lot of different dialects of Spanish I hadn't thought about it being published in another kind of Spanish.  This got me to wondering about Latin, the foundation of so much language.  Is there such thing as Latin rights?  Isn't that the official language of the Vatican?  Surely the Pope must want to read some YA, right?

~  Anyone hear about George Orwell's book, 1984, being zapped clean by Amazon from their customer's Kindles?  Not a proud day for Amazon or Kindle.  I like that Amazon is trying to prevent bootleg copies--that part is good--but you can't break into someone's house to retrieve contraband. 

~ Off to seach my closet for  wacked out crazy   interesting blue clothing . . .  

Better yet--I will go search my daughter's closet.

It's really nice when you see that sales of at least something, are up. 


 
I was reading in The Week that ice cream sales are up as much as 20%.  Apparently bad economies are good for ice cream because it is a "comfort food."  I eat ice cream in good and bad economies, so maybe I always need comfort.

So I have two questions for you:

1.  What is your favorite flavor of ice cream?

2  What other food is "comfort food" for you?

To answer my own questions, I am an equal opportunity ice cream lover, but my favorites tend to run seasonal.  Winter time?  Double fudge brownie chocolate, chocolate, chocolate.  Or anything in the chocolate family.  Summertime?  Right now peaches are in season so I have been on a fresh peach shake kick.  Oh yeah, comfort in abundance.

As for another comfort food,  macaroni and cheese has to be right up there.  I remember when I was a teen and my friend's parents would take us down to the beach in wintertime to surf.  They had a camper and would make us mac n' cheese for lunch, and when we came in from the freezing ocean, they had a warm bowl of Kraft macaroni and cheese waiting for us.  Over the years I've tried making fancier versions of mac n' cheese, but they just don't have that same comfort factor that Kraft  right out of the box has.

Now how about you?

I haven't had much of a chance to walk around blog town lately, so it was kind of cool to discover:

Pimp My Novel - This is a blog written by someone who works in  the sales department of a major trade book publisher.  He gives you the inside scoop on all the mysterious workings of sales, bookstores, and lingo you never heard of before.  Skipped?  Let me just say, it ain't a happy-go-lucky kind of thing to do when it comes to books.

There is an ongoing and interesting discussion over at Chasing Ray about ethnicity in literature, and the blandness or homogenization of white culture in books.  Still mulling over that one.

Brenda Bowen posted a blog about her first day  wearing her hat as an agent.  She also posted a picture of a totally girly fun frilly hat that I SO wanted to try on, and it made me wish that fun flashy hats would make a comeback for the everyday person like me (my mom used to wear them!) or that someone would invite me somewhere where I could actually wear one.  My baseball cap, sigh, just doesn't seem to cut it after seeing that.  Come on, someone have a hat party.

I received an email from a reader yesterday and it reminded me why I love writing about teens and for teens. It was from a girl who shared insights and observations and feelings that she shared with characters and there was surprising clarity and freshness and depth and honesty and I felt like a teen again just reading her letter. 

It reminded me that sometimes, we as adults with our "vast body of experience" can not see as well as teens who have very little clutter in their paths to block their view and they are observing so much, and paying attention so carefully, and caring so much.  I want to hold on to that careful observation forever.

So yeah.  Sigh.  Thank you "A" for letting me see through your eyes.

Last month when I had a live chat over at Readergirlz, the questions were flying fast and furious and I didn't get a chance to answer them all. One particularly stopped me:

Which book has made the biggest impact on you?

Hm. That is a BIG question. Considering the hundreds of books I have read, how do I choose one? Where to start? And then an unlikely choice came into my head--a book I hadn't thought about in years--of all things, a basal reader. The old whole language reading teacher in me recoiled. But it's true. The Dick and Jane basal readers had a huge impact on me--the six year old me.

A world, at last, was unlocked. I was reading. I got it. Even after several decades I still have the fuzzy memory of a little girl sitting with an open book on her lap at school and the magic that had once only belonged to my mother, my teachers, or other adults, now belonged to me too. I could read independently. So what that Dick, Jane, and dear old Spot weren't the most imaginative of characters. And maybe they were just a tad too good. Maybe that is when my own imagination kicked in and I wondered about all the other stories that could be told in a book.  But Dick and Jane got me started on that journey of exploring the worlds that existed in between the covers of books--and exploring it on my own. That was huge and had an incalculable impact.



But still, I pondered that question some more, and I realized that there were lots of books--and usually quite unexpected ones--that had impacts on all the different me's, the many readers I have been over the years.


Do you know who's asleep out in Foona Lagoona?
When I was seven I received my very first hard cover book that was all my own. It wasn't part of our very modest "family library" which was only two small bookcases. This book was all mine. I discovered the thrill of book ownership--a book that would always be mine:  Dr. Seuss's Sleep Book. 

There is something intangibly wonderful about owning a book. I suspect the wonder of it is not in the physical book itself, but perhaps in the feeling that you will always have a partnership or relationship to the story. It will always be there for you to re-experience. There will be more "conversations" with the story down the road--some joys to be rediscovered and new ones to be uncovered. It is a trust that you may both show up at any moment in time and bring something new to the story.

And then of course, this thought made me remember another book that lit a light in me:



When I was in high school, our whole class read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. After reading Beowulf I think our class thought this was going to be easy. I thought the teacher was nuts. It was a children's book for goodness sake. I had seen the Disney movie. Why were we reading this in a high school English class? That was the year that I learned that great books can be enjoyed on many levels by many ages (and also that a Disney film is by no means representative of all that a book holds.) Our wise teacher showed us the stories behind the story, the symbolism and the sarcasm, and introduced us to a new kind to literary criticism, exploring the adult subtext in a children's story.  And even now, years later I see new things that speak to the new person I am.
". . . she pictured to herself how this same little sister of hers would, in the after-time, be herself a grown woman ; and how she would keep, through all her riper years, the simple and loving heart of her childhood: and how she would gather about her other little children, and make their eyes bright and eager with many a strange tale, perhaps even with the dream of Wonderland of long-ago: and how she would feel with all their simple sorrows, and find a pleasure in all their simple joys, remembering her own child- life . . . "

I think it's time for me to revisit Alice again . . .


Another book that made a lasting impact on me during my high school years was one I accidentally happened upon in my parent's bedroom:


Ewwwww. My parents were still having sex? Ewwwww again. And they were looking for new ways to have it?! Omigod. The illustrations! It was too gross. But darn, if I didn't look at Every. Single. Page. And here I thought that all non-fiction was boring. Wrong. There was a whole non-fiction world out there beyond my high school textbooks that I hadn't discovered. Since then I have read and loved much non-fiction. I devour writing memoirs and how-to books especially. There is so much experience out there waiting to be shared for the price of a book. It's practically a miracle, really.

Still again in my high school years I was especially taken with another book. It belonged to my mother and I returned to it again and again: 101 Famous Poems

Although I read many books of poetry, there was something special about this one. On every single page, along with the poem was a photo or drawing of the author. So as I read the poem I could imagine the real human being behind it. You have to remember that this was in the days before "author visits" and I had never seen a real live author and rarely did any of their photos appear on book jackets. I was especially drawn to the photos of the female poets, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Mary Howitt, Emily Dickinson, and more. These were real women authors. Some of them looked like they could have been older relatives. Women I might know. The photos gave me another connection to their work, and also perhaps hope that ordinary people do become writers and authors. And at seventeen I certainly was and felt ordinary. Of course now today, I know that writers are ordinary in every way--they simply have a passion for their work which happens to be writing--but maybe back then, those tiny photos that peeked out to me from every page gave me a first glimpse of a real writing life.

And finally . . .

I am not a crier.  I rarely cry when I read a book, even when I am deeply touched.  I am more likely to pause, feeling a knot in my throat, and wait to go on.  But cry?--rarely--even when I'm writing my own very difficult scenes.  But I do remember finishing The Outsiders when I was sixteen and sobbing.  And then turning right around and immediately reading it again, and sobbing again. 


But I think I was crying for myself as much as the story.  I knew I wanted to be a writer, I just didn't know what kind.  I had mostly read classics and poetry by--as far as I could tell--dead people.  They wrote of other times and worlds.  But this book here, this was my world.  This was real to me.  This was the kind of story I wanted to write.  I hadn't known such books existed until I read The Outsiders.  Most of the YA books I had read belonged to my mother's generation.  I don't think they were even called YA or teen books back them. Yes, I had enjoyed them, but they didn't speak to me as deeply as this book did.  I recognized the characters.  I understood how they spoke.  Their fears were mine even if their exact situation wasn't.

It wasn't until many years later that I actually began writing for publication, but  the impact of that book, and all the others that came before were still there, sewn into me not just as a reader but as a writer as well.  Ultimately, I am a selfish writer.  I write books for me, the kind I want to read--the six year-old me, the fourteen year-old me, the seventeen year-old me, and the me I am today.   I think the legacy of many books--even those that aren't necessarily our favorites--is that they open doors and introduce us to new ways of thinking or understanding.  That's what those books did for me. 

Now it's your turn. Share a book or books--perhaps unexpected ones like mine--that left a lasting impact on you. 

Share.

has officially declared  today as Say Something Nice day. 

She has also suggested we twitter-tag it:  #peoplesucceed 

Even though I twitter, I am not sure exactly what that means, but I am sure that you in-the-know will get it.

So now, a Say Something Nice blog--and tweet--from me to you:

1. I already mentioned that my sister takes great photos, and here is another one.  Her pictures always make me smile and that is no small thing.  It is a gift to give that to someone.

2.  Somehow I get by in the tech world, usually by the good graces of others. (see, I still don't get all the @, RT, and # of twitter, but I am sure others will graciously clue me in.)  And yesterday, a very busy and brilliant librarian took the time to walk me through Skype.  She wants me to talk to students at her school, but I didn't even own a webcam, much less know how to use it.  So she walked me through step by step--and I made some pretty dumb steps along the way--and she never once laughed or threw up her hands.  That is what I call NICE.

3.  I have such a supportive editor.  She "gets" the writing process.  She understands that ideas are fragile and wispy and even when I can't articulate exactly what my story is about, she gives me encouragement.  And the truly astonishing thing is I can ditto everything I just said about my agent too.  They are amazing women.

4.  Mitali Perkins always has the most interesting posts and tweets.  This one was particularly thought-provoking.  I wrote about five responses to it but none seemed just right so I didn't post them.  I am still thinking about her post and article and that is a good thing.

5. My husband cracks me up.  All the time.  And at all the right times he is sweet and tender.  If I live to be 100 it will be because of him. 

Now, your turn. 

Go say something nice!

 Me.
 
Well, not me.

I am going to a cooking class tonight with my husband and some friends.  I've taken cooking classes before but never with my hubby--should be fun--and interesting. 

All I have had to eat today is yogurt and my stomach is rumbling and I keep thinking about what we are making tonight.  Here is the menu:

Beet Salad with Candied Walnuts
Asparagus Rissotto
Steak Diane
Champagne Zabaglione

A bit more than our usual Friday night pizza.  I really have no idea what Champagne Zabaglione is, but I am assuming it is some kind of dessert.  Hm, a very good dessert.  Maybe even a tipsy dessert?

If any of the dishes are knockouts I will post the recipe.  The Asparagus Rissotto is especially calling me . . .




 

Thank you all for the cheers and comments on my new cover yesterday. Glad you think it is "trippy." Me too. And in this case, that has the perfect double meaning.

Now, around blog town . . . .

Over at the Readergirlz blog learn about Operation Teen Book Drop which is coming in April!

Also TOMORROW NIGHT, March 19th, at 6pm Pacific time/9ET . . .  I am chatting on their blog!  A live chat!  Please come!  They are testing out a new software so it might be a little crazy, but that's okay, because we're all a little crazy, too, right?  So pleeeeze come by and chat or ask a question!  Any question!  Or I will ask YOU one!

The brilliant Sara Zarr has an equally brilliant post that must be read.

Melissa Wyatt is very generously setting something free!   (Hint: her new book!  I got a sneak peek and trust me, it is fabulous! Go try and grab it.)

See you tomorrow night!

How pathetic is that?

This lady on my wall used to have flowing cascades of donkey tears hair. I am not sure when she started balding, but just the other day I saw that pitiful single strand and added another project to my mental list. Give crying lady on wall some hair!

But I have a hundred other projects too.  Dumb little things like piles of paper to be sorted through and filed, and more major things like painting the deck which is looking pretty dreadful right now.  What I really want to do is get outside and plant spring flowers.  I've been so busy I hadn't even noticed until yesterday that my Lily-of-the-Valley are in full bloom.

But all of these projects have to take a backseat to my writing projects.  I'm juggling three different books now that all need my attention--one published, one about to be, and one that is just taking form (and is really pulling at me--yay!)

So the poor hairless lady may have to wait awhile, though I LOVE to work in the yard.  Especially in spring.  And I do have those poppy seeds that need planting soon . . .

Are you ever overwhelmed with your "to-do" list?

I hope my husband doesn't see this blog.  Today our Naked Juice goes from "enjoyable" to "drink at your own risk."  He believes at the stroke of midnight all expiration dates go into effect.  Actually, that isn't quite true.  If he sees that it expires the next day, he'll ask me, "you think this is still okay?"  He's a date checker.  (I wonder if I can doctor that oj date into a 29?  Think he would remember that this isn't a leap year?)

.

My daughter, who is married and living in the next town called me one morning asking me about eggs she had that had "expired."  (gad, it sounds like they're dead, doesn't it?)  "You think they're still good, Mom?" I think they were one or two days past the expiration. 

What did we do before expiration dates?  We smelled and tasted and if we didn't gag, it was good.  How much food gets thrown out because of dates on packaging?

Look at our milk.  It is only three days away from becoming highly suspect.



Are you a date checker?  Or do you live dangerously and sniff and taste?

hm, what if WE had expiration dates?  Humans, I mean, but I suppose we all do.  It is one of those inevitable things. Like taxes.  But what if we knew the exact date?  Would you want to know?  I'm not sure I would.  Several years ago, when my mom was sick and given six months to live, she used that time to get everything in order, and she died in three months.  She appreciated knowing, I think, because she was ready.  And it wasn't an exact date, just a time frame.  Sometimes I wonder, what if she hadn't been told?  Would she have lasted longer?

wow, how did expiring orange juice take such a heavy turn?  (the scary mind of a writer--one thing leads to another.)

Anyway, back to my question, are you a date checker? Do alarms go off in your house when food expires?

 

I've loved reading all the "simple smiles" over the past couple of days.  It was good too, to see some friends surface who I hadn't seen in a while.  Keep those smiles coming.

Today a friend sent me this article about publishing:

http://julieannelong.typepad.com/julie_anne_long/

This part here reminded me a bit of my talk at NCTE where I spoke about relationships:

" . . . that we’re profoundly social beings and . . .  We need common experiences—indeed we seek them out. It’s part of who we are."

Amen to that.  Look at all the social communities we have.

and this part cracked me up:

"And frankly, if publishing isn’t making you a little neurotic, you’re just not paying attention."

I figured my writer friends here would appreciate that.  Maybe even smile.

The whole article is fascinating and provides much food for thought.

Bottom line:  write!

gacked this meme from onegrapeshy


1. How old were you when the craft of writing called you to perform?

I remember writing an Easter play when I was eight years old with parts for all my friends. The fun was all in the writing--the play was never performed.

2. What's your favorite writing outfit?

Comfy jeans or sweats, and depending on the time of year a T or sweatshirt. But pajamas do nicely too.

3. What computer program do you use for your writing?

Word Perfect all the way! It is vastly superior and more intuitive than Word. It used to be the program of choice until Word started being pre-installed on new computers. Revolt! Go back to Word Perfect, America!

4. What's the name of your most difficult character to write?

Without a doubt, Jenna Fox! I didn't think about it until I was several pages in, how incredibly hard it is to write about a character--in first person no less!--who doesn't even know herself! Yeah, lots of head banging, but then I finally shifted into her head entirely and resolved to discover things right along with her.

5. When is your favorite time of day to write?

Twilight. I feel like I am between worlds. It is a very calming part of the day.

6. What's your favorite genre?

I will read anything. I have very eclectic tastes, but of course I naturally read a lot of YA, though that is not really a genre.

7. What writers have inspired you the most in your career and why?

The writers who inspire me are the ones I know, like the ones here on LJ and in my writer groups--the ones who return to the keyboard day after day, dedicated, trying to improve their craft. They are not in it for the money or the fame (though there is nothing wrong with those things) but are in it to do justice to a voice in their head. They share their highs and lows and frustrations and joys with me and that makes me feel very much less alone when I experience all those things too. They keep me going.

8. Do you think you're smarter than a fifth grader?

No, but my dad's bigger than their dad.

9. What's your favorite thing to do when you're stuck on a scene?

Take a break. Might be a shower, a walk, a drive, or a little yardwork, but it gives my brain a chance for me to get out of the way.

10. If you could give one piece of advice to your fellow writers, what would it be?

Don't share your work too soon. I know it's tempting, but a vision for a story is a very fragile thing. We can barely hold onto it ourselves. Sharing it before it has bones and skin and teeth carries the very real possiblity of making it vanish altogether.

Tag! You're it.

"When considering a book's worth, think about the quality of the writing and the story that is told, not the section it's shelved in or the label on its side—or the stigma or the hype or the cover, for that matter."

This quote is from an interesting article written by Little Willow slayground over at The Edge of the Forest about prejudging YA books. Check it out.

I am still mystified why someone who would read The Secret Life of Bees which is shelved in the adult section, would not read Surrender by Sonya Hartnett which is shelved in YA.

I had to drive to downtown San Diego this morning. Along the way I noticed a lot of "storage" facilities. Twenty years ago, these places were non-existent. I have to admit, *I* have a storage unit. I am really pretty good about throwing stuff out, but it seems to multiply when I am not looking. Some of that storage is for business of course, but it still seems like I am contantly trying to get rid of stuff (when my husband isn't looking.) It really makes my mind wander to a basic existence on Walden Pond . . . I bet Henry didn't have a storage facility.

Any of you overrun with stuff?

From What Privileges Do You Have? - Based on an exercise about class and privilege developed by Will Barratt, Meagan Cahill, Angie Carlen, Minnette Huck, Drew Lurker, Stacy Ploskonka at Illinois State University. If you participate in this blog game, they ask that you please acknowledge their copyright.

(my personal comments in italics)

Bold the true statements.

1. Father went to college

2. Father finished college

3. Mother went to college

4. Mother finished college
(neither graduated from high school-but that is another whole post. These first four statements sent me on a long binge of thought about education and priviledge vs. other intelligences)

5. Have any relative who is an attorney, physician, or professor

6. Were the same or higher class than your high school teachers.
(I am not sure what this means. Where we lived? Income? Whether we picked food out of our teeth at the dinner table?)

7. Had more than 50 books in your childhood home

8. Had more than 500 books in your childhood home.

9. Were read children's books by a parent

10. Had lessons of any kind before you turned 18.
(do swim lessons at the local Y count when I was six?)

11. Had more than two kinds of lessons before you turned 18

12. The people in the media who dress and talk like me are portrayed positively


13. Had a credit card with your name on it before you turned 18.

14. Your parents (or a trust) paid for the majority of your college costs
(but that was when the CA state colleges were a bargain. That's not the case anymore.)

15. Your parents (or a trust) paid for all of your college costs

16. Went to a private high school

17. Went to summer camp
(church camp for one week that I paid for out of my allowance. I don't think that is what they meant)

18. Had a private tutor before you turned 18
(my older sister taught me a lot)

19. Family vacations involved staying at hotels
(only the kind with wheels attached and beds converted out of tables)

20. Your clothing was all bought new before you turned 18
(there were five years between me and my sister and I was a shrimp to boot so no chance of her clothes fitting me)

21. Your parents bought you a car that was not a hand-me-down from them
(a used VW. I was the last child and by then my brother and sister were gone so they could afford it.)

22. There was original art in your house when you were a child
(there was a paint by numbers Mary and Joseph that hung in my parent's room, and some original art painted by my mother in our livingroom)

23. You and your family lived in a single-family house

24. Your parent(s) owned their own house or apartment before you left home
(owned but with a mortgage they were still paying. Their house cost them 8K. Yep, you read that right. Their monthly mortgage payment was $35. Last I saw, that house is going in the 500K plus range. All 1,100 square feet of it. Close to LA. It's all about location I guess)

25. You had your own room as a child
( Sort of. I shared with my sister until my brother moved out and I got his room. I was about 14 then. Joy!)

26. You had a phone in your room before you turned 18
(inherited from my brother and it was also the second family phone which meant anyone could come in my room and use it. My dad worked for the phone company so it was a freebie.)

27. Participated in a SAT/ACT prep course

28. Had your own TV in your room in high school

29. Owned a mutual fund or IRA in high school or college

30. Flew anywhere on a commercial airline before you turned 16
(I thought flying was only for the rich)

31. Went on a cruise with your family

32. Went on more than one cruise with your family

33. Your parents took you to museums and art galleries as you grew up
(Well, not exactly, but I visited every lake and campground in California. My dad loved to fish. Lots of beauties and wonders to see and ponder outdoors.)

34. You were unaware of how much heating bills were for your family
(in CA it isn't a big deal)


Hm. That's 13 give or take a little fudging on interpretations.