Fort Collins Writer Friends and their Creations!

Hello everyone,

One of the best things about being a writer for teens is the great sense of community that comes with it.  Here are what two of my YA writer friends in town are up to....

Todd Mitchell, another Fort Collinite, had a recent book release -- The Secret to Lying.  Full disclosure: I read an early draft of this YA novel years ago and fell in love with it... and ever since I've been incapable of talking about this book without gushing!

 Over the next few years, the story went through many revisions, but it was definitely worth the wait... it is now a perfectly polished gem.  Here's the review I posted of it on amazon:

Oh, how I wish this book existed when I was a teen! I would have connected so strongly with it. (Now, in my thirties, I still connect with it, but in my teens I was *craving* a story like this!) I love how the book deals with multiple layers of reality and consciousness-- the faces we show to people and the parts of ourselves we don't. The story really resonated with my feelings about existence as a young adult-- how I felt unsure at times what was real, wondering to what extent I could create reality, puzzling over who I was, grappling with how to connect with people. (Deep stuff!) The matrix-like alternate dreamscape works beautifully in the story and really sets it apart from similar books (like John Green's work-- incidentally, I have to say that as a John Green fan, I liked The Secret to Lying even better than any of J.G.'s stuff for this reason). In addition to the psychological thriller/philosophical elements, this book is full of hilarious dialogue and a tender romance and mystery/suspense. Don't miss this fascinating, funny, and utterly engaging read for teens and adults alike! 

 

 Here I am with Todd at last spring's CO Teen Lit Conference

Here's the front jacket flap summary for The Secret to Lying:


          James was the guy no one noticed —another fifteen-year-old living in a small town. So when he gets into the American Science and Mathematics Academy (or ASMA), James decides to leave his boring past behind. In a public boarding school made up of nerds and geeks, being cool is easy. All it takes is a few harmless lies to invent the new James: rebel, punk, street fighter. Everyone’s impressed —except for the beautiful Ellie Frost, whose icy demeanor holds an inexplicable attraction for James, and the mysterious ghost44, an IM presence who sees right through his new identity.
           But James is riding high —playing pranks and hooking up with the luscious Jessica Keen. Things seem perfect until he begins having strange dreams of a dark city haunted by demons. As the line between dreams and reality blurs, James begins to wonder: What’s the price for being the coolest guy around?
            Funny and real, Todd Mitchell's debut YA novel takes readers into a school for the intellectually gifted and socially awkward, as readers discover the secret —and consequences— to lying. 

Todd made a really funny book trailer for The Secret to Lying called "How NOT to Promote a Book"... you can see it here.

Speaking of funny videos, if you've ever wondered how reviews affect the emotional well-being of us authors, check out this short and hilarious YouTube video made by writer friend  (and Fort Collinite) Amy Kathleen Ryan.

Surprisingly, I don't have a photo of us together, but here's her very elegant author headshot...

     I'm looking forward to reading her recent release Zen And Xander Undone -- I just saw the book trailer on her website, and the book looks fantastic.  

Now if you'll excuse me, I must figure out how to embed videos in my blog! ;)

Before I go, I'll leave you with the latest funny thing Lil Dude said... Last night we were on our way back from a bluegrass festival in the mountains (Lyons), and the sunset was breathtaking-- liquid pools of red, pink, orange, all golden and glowing and melting across the mountains.  I told Lil Dude to check out the sunset, and he said, "Aw!  It's sooo cuuuute!"  Hehehe... but his comment did make me think objectively about the words we use to describe sunsets-- spectacular, beautiful, gorgeous... Cute is definitely outside of the box!

Have a cute week!

xoxo

Laura

Winners of the Spring Contest!

Hello everyone!

I'm in high spirits-- just had a lovely morning of NIA (dance), tea at a cafe with friends, and then a fruitful few hours of writing more of The Jade Notebook.  And speaking of Notebooks, yesterday I was delighted to get a UPS delivery...  a package from Random House containing two shiny copies of The Indigo Notebook paperback, with its new cover look.

  (This will officially be on sale on August 10, but you can preorder on amazon or indiebound now).

A cool and refreshing cover, perfect for these 100 degree days we've been having lately in Colorado! I wouldn't mind wading in shady blue-green water right about now...

If you have a few minutes to spare and you like reading about writerly things, swing by The Writing Bug blog, where Kerrie Flanagan talks about "writing what you know", and uses The Indigo Notebook as an example.  (Thanks, Kerrie!)

So, I shall now officially announce the winners of the Spring Contest!  The winners already know who they are... several weeks ago they received their prizes-- copies of The Indigo Notebook audiobook.  Here was the prompt I gave: 

In The Indigo Notebook, Zeeta interviews people about their views on life, and records their answers in her notebook. Invent a few of your own philosophical interview questions. Then write down your interview with a person (or people) (either real or fictional) as a one-page notebook entry.

And (drum roll please...) the winners are EMMA of Bowling Green, Ohio (age: just-turned-14! Happy B-day!) and DESIRAE of Corpus Christi, Texas (age: 12) !!! Huge congrats, ladies!!!

Here's an excerpt from Emma's fabulous submission:

What song represents your life?  “Blackbird” by The Beatles.  “You were only waiting for this moment to be free.”  Out of my first life with my mother, yes it was wonderful, but I’ve spread my wings and am flying through life, but not to fast because I don’t want to miss any of it!

What is the most life-changing thing anyone has ever said to you?  “Hey!  Watch out!  Life’s throwing you a curve ball, but you’re a MVP of the major leagues of life if I’ve ever seen one, so I’m sure you’re going to hit a homerun.”  I heard this from Mr. Dublin, my hermit, philosopher, and avid sports fan I always turn to for advice.  

And an excerpt from Desirae's fabulous submission:

Q: What is your view on life, Mitch?
A: It’s long. It’s a long road that you go down. It’s got bumps and potholes and sometimes there’s bad weather, but whether you want to stop at a nearby gas station or not, you have to keep going because that’s all you can do.

Q: And what do you think of this road?
A: We all go down different roads. Sometimes there’s a fork in the road and you choose whether you’re going down a highway to a big city or to the country. It’s all about the choices you make. The road I’m going down is passing by very fast. I wish I could go slower.

Q: If you could change one thing about the road that you’re currently on, what would that be?
A: I’d want to know where I’m supposed to go. I don’t have a map or directions. I have to go with my instinct, and right now, I’m not totally sure what my instinct is. I would want some instructions on where to go.

Thank you for your wisdom and creativity and overall brilliance, Desirae and Emma!  Keep writing!

Thanks for reading and have a great week!  The Jade Notebook manuscript is calling to me, in all its messy glory...

Cheers,
Laura

What Would MacGyver Do?

That's actually a line from The Queen of Water, which I just finished going over in page proof form last week.  This is one of the final stages before the ARC (Advanced Review Copy) comes out this fall.  I am SO excited about this book... it's different from my other books in a number of ways.  For one, it's cowritten with Maria Virginia Farinango-- based on the true story of her amazing girlhood in the Ecuadorian Andes.  Here we are together in a photo taken by my friend Ken Burgess, who also took the cover photo on the book!

This book is also the most "sweeping" of my books in terms of timeline... it covers Maria Virginia's life from ages 7-15-- an eight-year span.  In my other books, the action is mostly limited to one season-- summer in the case of Red Glass, What the Moon Saw, and the Notebooks, and spring in the case of Star in the Forest.  It's definitely been more challenging for me to cover such an expanse of time, deciding what scenes to tell and what to summarize and which flashbacks to give and where... I rewrote this manuscript many times, trying to sift through Maria Virginia's entire lifetime to figure out where to begin her story, how to pace it throughout, which years to fast forward through... a monumental task!  It's so amazing to see it all coming to fruition after six years of working on it.

I really love the pop culture elements in her story-- I had fun weaving those in.  She had a crush on MacGyver (with Spanish pronunciation, MacGeever)-- he was her hero, too.  His approach to problem-solving inspired her to overcome obstacles in her own life.  I'm thinking about sending the actor a copy of the book once it's published (March 8 2011)-- I bet he has no idea that he influenced the destiny of an indigenous Ecuadorian girl in the eighties!

I also love the way The Slave Isaura-- a Brazilian soap opera set in the 1800s-- is part of our book... I've never actually seen the show (I'll get it on Netflix one of these days!) but I've read a lot about it online. I think it illuminates the hypocrisy in MV's society as she was growing up beautifully.

 Another thing I enjoyed about writing this book was seeing Maria Virginia's photos from events that ended up as scenes in the book.  Here are a few of when she was in a school play that altered the course of her life.

Maria Virginia wrote and directed and starred in the play... here she is crying over the death of her mother.

Here's the audience... her performance brought some people to tears.

Here she is giving her mother a Mother's Day card... this scene has a lot of emotional significance in the book-- you'll see!!

This is actually an event that happened after the book ends... she's graduating from high school.  Notice she's wearing her indigenous clothing, which is significant.  Figuring out her ethnic identity is one of the themes in the book, as you'll see...

All right!  Time for me to write more of The Jade Notebook now... my deadline for handing this to my editor is Dec 31, and I'm trying to get the first big chunk done soon to give to my mom, who's my first reader.  Wish me luck....

xo
Laura

Trailer Tour at Long Last!

Hello everyone!  For two years now I've been meaning to give you a tour of my sweet lil fifties rig, which I impulsively bought as writing studio space just before my baby (aka Lil Dude) came... My trailer now sits happily in my driveway and serves as my tiny creative oasis.

Come in, come in!  This is what you see from just inside the doorway...

To your right is the little booth where I write...

And to your left is the place where I dream and doze read important books and go over copy edits and page proofs, hee hee hee... go ahead, make yourself comfortable...

  As you're lounging on the bed, take in the views...

 If you glance up, you may spot a butterfly...

 Or your gaze may land on a picture of Ian  in a cafe in Oaxaca...

Or on pink lights reflecting off of vintage blue glass (I like to make red Jell-o with lots of whipped cream in these)...

And *red glass*, of course....

You'll notice that most everything in the trailer is old-- from flea markets or from special nooks in my life many years ago... here's a thick, cloudy bottle I found in an ancient junk heap in southern Maryland...



This handwoven carpet came from the Plaza de Ponchos in Ecuador-- I bought it while doing research for The Indigo Notebook and The Queen of Water...

I found this little postcard years ago in Oaxaca-- the artist is Cristina Bayliss.  It's Playa Mermejita near Mazunte, Oaxaca, Mexico...  where The Jade Notebook (my work-in-progress, to be published next fall) is set.  Sea turtles play a big part in the book...

One of the many things I love about my trailer is that it rocks, literally, like a boat, as you walk in it... or even if you make any movement, really... so I've filled it with things that make lovely little sounds when moved... go ahead, wiggle and dance and jump around!

Reach up and ring the bells!

The bells are a favorite of Lil Dude, who likes jumping on the bed, which makes them chime...

Try on the old velvet belly-dancing wrap (another Lil Dude favorite), which was inspiration for The Ruby Notebook...

Peek out the window... listen to the breeze making the chimes tinkle a magical melody...

Make yourself at home and light a beeswax candle...Lil Dude also enjoys the candles (anything involving fire, actually)... This black clay candleholder is from Oaxaca, made in a nearby village. If I'm feeling unfocused, lighting a candle often helps me delve deeper and get in a creative mood. It also makes my trailer smell like honey... mmm...

Peruse some old books, gifts from my flea-market-fanatic-thrift-store-lovin'-ebay-shoppin' dad...

Old children's books inspire me...  I love how they have golden lettering and swirling illustrations inside. And I love how musty and mystical they smell...go ahead-- take a whiff!

Feel free to pick up little trinkets and things lying around... here's a bit of sea glass from southern Maryland, where I lived on a beach on a Chesapeake Bay tributary for a few years during college...

Squint at the wee little shells and sparkles in the Pee Pee Island keychain my friend Amanda bought me in Thailand... Those of you who read The Indigo Notebook may remember Zeeta's Pee Pee Island T-shirt, which she wears out dancing with Wendell in Ecuador...

 Run your fingers over the silky peony table cloth that I found ages ago at a thrift store...

And peer at another lovely peony on this little old vase my grandmother left me...

Tap your fingertip on the butterfly wings to make them flutter...

Try on the vintage trapeze artist outfit I found super on sale in Boulder... it inspired parts of The Ruby Notebook... (actually, on second thought, don't try it on... unless you have a 15 inch waist and 40 inch bust and hips-- those 1920s acrobats had unearthly proportions!)

Enjoy the *pink* lights!  I found a box of these at a flea market store near Loveland... these are another favorite of Lil Dude...

Puzzle over my photos of a bunch of Dali-esque trompe-l'oeil murals I encountered on an island off the coast of Marseille many years ago... part of les Iles de Friouls (which appear in The Ruby Notebook).  Needless to say, the elusive paintings have disappeared... I searched for them to no avail on my most recent trip to Provence.  The bottom right pics are fountains, which also appear (everywhere!) in Ruby...

Read some inspirational quotes from Mary Oliver (poetess extraordinaire) and Elizabeth Gilbert (of Eat, Pray, Love fame) and from other creative people... When I'm sitting there, trying to gather the courage to jump into my manuscript-in-progress, I read their words and feel a bit braver...

Light some pinon or copal insence at my altar-ish area...

If you've read Red Glass, you might remember the mention of the Virgin of Juquila, Oaxaca's patron Virgin ... well, here she is!  Years ago, when I was teaching English in Huajuapan, some friends of mine (an adorable older couple who ran the juice stand on the zocalo) went on a pilgrimage to Juquila, and brought back this for me.

Here's another Virgin from Oaxaca... La Virgen de la Soledad... this is a very old one that I bought in a little shop near the Santo Domingo church in Oaxaca.

Here's another old one that I got at a market in Otavalo from an antique vendor... La Senora del Rosario de Agua Santa is an important Virgin in Ecuador.

This next Virgin came from the antique section of the street market in Aix-en-Provence, France--  I bought this while researching The Ruby Notebook a couple summers ago... and there's a scene in Ruby that takes place in this section of the market!

I believe that any act of creativity is sacred-- it involves tapping into something deep and wise and mysterious and beautiful... I've found that surrounding myself with objects that feel sacred to me is essential to my writing process.  The smell of beeswax candles burning, the sound of silver and brass bells ringing when I shift in my seat, the feel of old velvet and silk, the sunshine filtering through old colored glass... all of these sensual details help me tap into the source.  Here's some ocote wood for burning with copal in a clay incense holder that an old friend in Oaxaca gave to me... smells and textures that inspired bits of What the Moon Saw...

Et voila... that concludes our tour!  If you'd like to read about how I ended up getting this much-loved trailer, click here for a little article I wrote about it. Thank you so much for stopping by... I hope you enjoyed your moments in my trailer... come back again sometime... I hope you gleaned some ideas and inspiration for your own creative space.  Now, if you'll excuse me, my pillows are calling to me ...

xoxo
Laura

Colorado Book Award!

Hi all! 
Exciting news-- The Indigo Notebook won the Colorado Book Award in the YA category!!!  Yippee!

The awards ceremony was in Aspen on Friday, so Ian and Lil Dude and I made it a fun weekend excursion. We didn't know what to expect from Aspen-- I'd always associated it with rich people and movie stars-- but we discovered it was a really comfortable-feeling place where you could find reasonably-priced mac n cheese and mickey mouse pancakes (well, if you weave through the Lexuses, and go past the Prada shop...)  Lil Dude had a blast playing in the fountains and jumping over (and into) the narrow little creek-water-feature that winds through downtown.  A comedian-balloon-man made him a Little Mermaid balloon sculpture, and Silly Susan sang him The Farmer and the Dell while he banged on the bongos. Bliss!

But since this is my book blog, I'll move the focus back to the awards... I wish I had pics to share, but Ian's camera was acting weird. (It's funny, in the two previous Colorado Book Awards ceremonies I've attended, we had camera issues, too... in those cases, forgetting the camera altogether!  At least this one was a step in the right direction...)  Here is an exclusive, behind-the-scenes photo of me powdering my nose in the hotel bathroom before the event.  (Who knows what possessed Ian to take that pic...  ;)

You can sort of get the idea of the indigo dress I got on ebay (Mom, this is mostly for you, since you were asking about it...)  It's too bad the skirt part is cut off, since that's Lil Dude's favorite part-- he made me twirl around in the hotel room for a while in princess fashion (he's really into princess dresses, and feels they're best accessorized with his big plastic chainsaw and fireman hat, which, fortunately, were left at home.)

Here is the single photo we have of the actual event...

That's me in the middle... the one with three faces... To my right is Helen Thorpe, who wrote Just Like Us: The True Story of Four Mexican Girls Coming to Age in America (she won in the nonfiction category!) Yay, Helen! (who is incidentally the mayor of Denver's wife, and brought their son along, too)  I've heard so many good things about this book, and I'm looking forward to reading it.

To my left in that picture are my friends Karla Oceanak and Kendra Spanjer, who won in the juveline category for Artsy-Fartsy: An Aldo Zelnick comic novel.  I just read this on the way home from Aspen as Lil Dude was (thankfully and finally) napping.  What a funny-yet-edu-ma-cational book!  Highly recommended for boys ages 8-12 everywhere, especially reluctant readers!

I was also thrilled that my friend Denise Vega won in the children's category for her beautiful book, Grandmother, Have the Angels Come? Sweet and moving and poetic, with gorgeous, colorful illustrations.

You can see the full list of winners by category here. Thank you, Colorado Humanities and Center for the Book for this honor! If you live in Colorado, you should swing by their website and see what they have going on, especially if you're a teacher.  They do loads of cool literature-related programs.

Let's see, other news... here's a pic of me and Lindsay Eland at our reading at The Tattered Cover a few weeks ago, showing off the pretty silver engraved bookmarks that the TC gave us in honor of our event.  TC is my absolute favorite giant indie bookstore ever!

If you ever get the chance to hear Lindsay read from her book Scones and Sensibility, do it!  She does such a great job reading her narrator's voice with this funny, snooty English accent... it'll put a smile on your face, guaranteed...

Twas a lovely wee crowd... here I am with an enthusiastic young reader.

That's all for now... but soon I'll be posting the winners of the Spring Contest, so stay tuned!

In the meantime, I'll keep doing my happy dance... join me if you'd like! ;)

photo credit m frost

Thanks for reading!

Laura

Star Teacher Reviews and French Pastries and Giant Boulders...

Hey all,

Happy summer solstice to you!  Summer's flowing along swimmingly for me... just had a fun camping trip to Wyoming with Ian and Lil Dude, who pretended the giant boulders scattered across the landscape were fire stations and fire trucks (and of course, he was the fire chief). 

 I've been going on nice long walks along the river nearly every day, which is so good for my soul!  Today, though,  I was determined to catch up on emails and mail packages of books and organize files and make phone calls and all those things that pile up while I'm on long walks.  I got a big chunk of it done, thankfully, and I'm hoping tomorrow I'll be able to focus on writing more of The Jade Notebook and wandering by the river.

 I can never get enough sunshine through leaves, especially quivering aspens...

I recently taught Lil Dude what "dappled light" is, and now he points it out every time he spots some!

I want to get some good writing days in before I leave for Aspen for the Colorado Book Awards (this Friday (!!!)  The Indigo Notebook is one of three finalists in the YA category, and of course I used the occasion as an excuse to I buy an indigo dress from ebay (which you'll see pics of next week!)

I've come across some lovely online reviews of Star in the Forest, which I thought I'd share with you in my blog since Ian hasn't had time to post them on the actual website. The two I'll quote from now were written by educators, which brings a nice perspective. 

Here's a blurb from the blog "Tina Says..."  She's a librarian-teacher in Iowa at a diverse school:

"I have already ordered this one for my school library, knowing that many of my students may have their own experiences about immigrating to the United States...This is definitely a thought provoking book, appealing to many readers in my school."

And another review  from Kristine (who was a fourth grade teacher for many years and is now a Curriculum Coordinator) that appears in her blog The Best Book I Have Not Read --


     "I really enjoyed the entire story from sad beginning to happier ending. If you are working with students, I would recommend having them read Zitlally’s Papa’s folktale from the end of the book (p. 132) when the tale first gets mentioned. For younger readers, I think it help them stay grounded in the story and prevent confusion.
     As my daughter is immersed in an immigration study this week for social studies, I’m thinking this would be a perfect book to introduce the idea of modern-day immigration, both legal and illegal. With the background knowledge of Ellis Island, I think many students would appreciate having a simple, hopeful tale to help build their understanding of current day immigration.
      A great story that I could see being a read-aloud, a literature circle selection, or a book used in social studies as part of an immigration or culture study.
     Highly recommended."

Thanks, Kristine and Tina for your thoughtful reviews!  (You can read more reviews of Star and my other books if you click on the links on the right sidebar.)

Update on my accordionist search (for The Ruby Notebook release party):  I talked with a delightful award-winning accordionist today, who says that she (Vicki) or her talented brother Thomas will be able to play.  Yipeee!  And last Friday, when Ian and I were at La Creperie downtown for a rare lunch date, we talked to the owner, Jean-Claude, who will be preparing *French pastries* for the event!
 

I'd planned on making this release party a low-key event since I've been feeling overwhelmed lately, but I couldn't resist adding a few bells and whistles-- there are just too many scrumptious things in the book that I want to share with you!  So... Fort Collinites, mark your calendars for Oct 2, Sat, 7 pm, Old Firehouse Books (the event room in back...  follow the polka music...)

 
Please send The Indigo Notebook good wishes this Friday (although I'd be truly happy if either of the other finalists-- Rage by Julie Ann Peters or After by Amy Efaw-- won, too.  They're very nice author buddies who'd deserve the honor.)

Thanks for reading, everyone! 
xo
Laura