While Cynsations is Out of the Office . . . Friday Links!

One of my favorite writers, bloggers, and friends is on Summer hiatus from her site/blog Cynsations. Yes, THE Cynthia Leitich Smith! A wonder of a woman, a wonder of a writer, and a wonderful friend to all writers and authors in the children's lit world. Cyn does an amazing Friday round-up of Links and News for Writers and while I can't even BEGIN to do what she does, here are a few links from blogs/articles that I've particularly enjoyed the past month or two.

Check out all her marvelous books right here: Cynthia Leitich Smith's Amazon Author Page

This is a shorter version this week since I've been DRAFTING like crazy! Just hit THE END!! :-)


THE WRITING LIFE:

Write On Con: The biggest, most stupendous online, and FREE Writer's Conference! Editors, Agents, and Authors share their expertise and knowledge about writing and the business! Coming August 130-14, 2013. Read the past two WOC conferences from 2011 and 2012 on the site. It's all archived!

Tim Tharpe on Breaking the Writing Rules

Sharon Shinn on Writing for the Long Haul

Austin Teen Book Festival Line-Up! Wow!

Corsets, Cutlasses and Candlesticks: a Fantastic Historical Fiction Writing Blog

FOR TEACHERS AND LIBRARIANS

Interview with Colby Sharp, Nerdy Book Club Owner

Nerdy Book Club: if you're not already reading this, you should, whether you're a writer, librarian, reader, or teacher. 

Mr. Schu: Watch, Connect, Read! (5th Grade Teacher)

School Libraries are Year Round despite crippling Budget Cuts/

And just because I love it so much! Shayne Leighton did my book trailer. Check out her brand new book in her "Of Light and Darkness" Series at the link!

Enjoy and Happy Weekend!

xo,
Kimberley

Why do I write?

This post will be short and sweet as I'm leaving this morning for a writer's retreat in Taos, New Mexico (about a 3 hour drive north of me) with some of my best SCBWI buddies. I'm taking my brand new laptop with me and an editorial letter for my next Scholastic middle-grade manuscript due out in Summer of 2014. I've got 40 hours more of work ahead of me, I estimate, and little more than a week before the deadline.

I love these two quotes found recently . . . 

Question: Why do I read?

 Answer: 

Whenever you read a good book, somewhere in the world a door opens to allow in more light.

–Vera Nazarian 

 

Question: Why do I write?

 

 Answer:

 

 “Indeed, learning to write may be part of learning to read. For all I know, writing comes out of a superior devotion to reading.”

― Eudora Welty, On Writing

See you next week!
xo,
Kimberley 

Getting back to the Land of the Bloggers . . .

I've been so AWOL the past several months - or is it year? Probably ever since my brother got so ill last summer and I spent the next 6 months traveling like crazy to San Diego to visit him and then for his funeral and internment, and then for research and presenting at several conferences . . . I counted up 14 trips in the past 12 months. From New Mexico/Texas/Utah to California to Niagara Falls to Jordan & Israel. Just, wow. I have never traveled that much in such a short space of time before, including international travel to three countries (with nerve-wracking border crossings and delays and questioning!)

Except for posting SPELLBINDERS blog posts every Monday, my personal blog has been exhausted. I mean, *me* - I've been exhausted. Throw in the trauma and emotion, not only of losing my brother, but 14 months of a hundred doctor appts for my oldest son who has been so ill and now has a severe heart murmur which will probably need open heart surgery, and you have an author who never was a great blogger, but who misses it, too.

I do still read many, many blogs on a daily basis and usually post several time a day on Facebook. (Twitter is getting better for me . . . .:-))

One of my favorite blogs is author Beth Kephart's site. Many times I just want to copy and paste her beautiful, heartrending, perfect words right here on my blog (giving her credit, of course!).

Here is Beth's post from Tuesday and it sums up a bit of the writing life . . .

"Here, on my desk, the notes I have made for the final seven scenes in the Florence, Italy, novel. 

"Seven scenes is a large number and I refuse to write fast; there's too much pleasure to be found in writing slow—in taking the time to look around, in stopping to live in the thick stew of it all, in feeling deeply, in walking to the end of that alley."

Go here to read the rest - only two paragraphs, but they are powerful paragraphs. http://beth-kephart.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-writers-life-is-all-here-in-making.html 

Then go read her gorgeous book, SMALL DAMAGES.

Maybe someday I can write just a little bit like that. Perfect word choices, perfect cadence, perfectly beautiful thoughts and wisdom.

xo,
~Kimberley

Must see Harpercollins "How to Make a Book" videos to watch this weekend!

My YA trilogy will debut with Harpercollins Fall of 2014 and HarperKids recently launched this amazing series about How a Book is Made AND Revised, Edited, Designed - and BORN. All with the real people at Harper doing the videos and talking about their jobs (inside their offices in NYC) and what they do. It's fascinating. Of course, as a writer, I'm pretty familiar with the first few and had heard a lot about the rest of the in-house process, but the Production video was especially interesting to see the pieces of the book and how it all goes together. I've read about that process, but it was fun to actually *see* it.

These videos were created and narrated by the amazing writer, Lauren Oliver. I love her MG books.

There are 8 total, between 3-5 minutes apiece.

If you're in the book writing and publishing business, you'll enjoy these.

1. How a Book is Made: Developing Ideas w/ Lauren Oliver
2.Writing the Story w/ Lauren Oliver
3. Editing the Book w/Editorial Director Rosemary Brosnan
4. Creating the Art w/ Harper Art Director
5. Proofing the Story w/ Harper Managing Editor
6. Printing the Book, w/ Production Director
7. Reading the Book w/ Lauren Oliver

Enjoy! 

~Kimberley

P.S. If you start the first one, they will automatically take you to the next one in order on Youtube. :-) 

The New Year of 2013, a Personal Message

2012 was a tough year for me, for my family, for my writing. I'm hoping 2013 will be much more "lucky", even if it does end in a "13". 

A month ago I lost my brother to terminal brain cancer, after 16 months battling the horror of 5 growing tumors and being paralyzed and unable to speak for the last 5-6 months of his life. He was confined to a hospital bed, unable to say goodbye to his family, especially his beautiful wife and three young sons which about broke my heart. The tumors finally took over his brain until he slipped away at last on December 12, his twin boy's 6th birthday. A week later, he would have been 44 years old on December 19th, the same day our own father died 39 years ago in an airplane crash when we were kids and, ironically, unbelievably, on Kendall's very own 5th birthday. So my baby brother who grew up without a father now leaves his own children without their Dad. History repeating in a surreal and mind-boggling way. 

When my brother returned from his last overseas tour in the Navy, after serving for nearly 25 years, and much of the last 20 years in the Middle East, he couldn't wait to be home, to be with his kids, to finish raising the twins as well as his 12-year-old son. To be the Dad he never had - and that was taken away from him.

I've spent many days and weeks and months the past year railing against the inevitable, the sadness, the grief, the anger, and the whole unreality of this happening all over again to my family. I hide it well in public, but at home I often fall apart. I've spent hundreds of hours on the phone the last 16 months with my mother and sisters and other brothers talking and crying and weeping and trying to understand. 

Life is not fair. It's just not. And even though I know there is a plan for each of us that comes from God our Heavenly Father, and a purpose to our lives and challenges and trials, it is often extremely difficult to accept it and not become angry or full of despair. 

I'm grateful for the MANY emails and messages and cards from my online community. This is not something I've talked about very much at all - more so on Facebook, but even there not that much, out of respect for my sister-in-law who wore herself out trying to make life as normal as possible for the three boys while my brother spent most of this past year in the hospital or very sick at home.

I'm also very blessed to have understanding editors and an agent who let me cry on the phone with her. Editors who sent me numerous lovely and generous and supportive emails and cards and flowers, as well as pushing back deadlines when I was falling apart the last four months. 

Thank you all so very much. It has meant a lot to me to know that people care and are thinking about me and have been praying for me - even strangers. We prayed for a miracle and we didn't get it, but I haven't lost my faith in an eternal plan of happiness, in our Savior, Jesus Christ who carries our burdens and loves us unconditionally, and helps us get through each day.Who knows our grief and weeps with us. Who has taken Kendall into his safe arms along with our father. That is the one thing that helps me get through this, is knowing they are together. They're catching up, probably talking a mile a minute, and Kendall is free from pain. 

It's up to us to hold fast, to stay true and faithful, to not lose hope, to believe. To always believe. 

Even though the world may be crumbling around us, there is always hope. There is always love. There is always our Heavenly Father and Savior who know what we need, and there is always family and friends to lift us up and catch us when we fall, as well as cry with us. Sometimes that's all we need.

So now I'm trying to get a grasp on a new year. To organize myself once again. To try to make my whirling life into something I can manage (ha!) to get my work done, keep up with a busy travel schedule, a revision/editorial schedule for two books, a drafting schedule for two new manuscripts (possibly three), a  crazy school/conference/presentation schedule - and try to stay sane through it all. Um. Yeah. Right. Fingers crossed big time!

BUT: My writing has often been an escape for me when life wrings me out to dry. Hopefully I can still escape, still enjoy the writing, the stories only I can tell, the stories I need to tell, the stories I love.

So what are your writing and reading goals for this brand spankin' New Year of 2013?

I hope there are other crazies out there with me . . . :-)

With love to you all, 
Kimberley

Happy birthday, Elana Johnson, Blogger Extraordinaire and Very Special Friend!

It's your birthday, Elana Johnson!!! And I'm excited to be a part of the blogging world who is wishing you the very best birthday *ever*! 

If you don't know Elana, you simply must check out her blog which is chock full of advice and writerly help and experience and teaching. And she does it all with style and humor and wit - and bacon! 

Elana is one of the founders of Query Tracker, an online resource for querying literary agents as well as HOW to write those terrific query letters!

AND WriteOnCon - a free online, fantabulous writer's workshop every August!

She also has written a FREE E-book called From the Query to the Call, which I recommend to everyone! A **Must-Read** for any aspiring or experienced writers.  Get yours HERE.

And I am lucky and blessed to call her my friend. (I get to meet Elana every May at LDStorymakers workshop and dish about books and writing!) 

And it's YOUR (my blog readers!) lucky day, too! Guess what?!? 

Christine Fonseca, another online buddy and wonderful writer is giving away a set of ALL of Elana's YA novels to celebrate this wonderful day - plus a few other books and E-books and goodies! (Check out all of Christine's awesomely delicious YA novels, too! She is the brains behind the birthday logo and giveaway!)

Enter below! Easy Peasy! 

Have a blessed birthday, darling Elana! 
xo,
Kimberley

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Happy Thanksgiving!!! Check out the pie . . .

Giving Thanks to all of You!!! 

I'm grateful to my blogging friends; writers, readers, teachers, librarians, parents, students, bookstore owners, kids, and family.

Hope your weekend is lovely! 

I'm enjoying family time and game nights (we stay up until midnight, at least!) with both the in-laws and the out-laws as well as meeting up with an old friend, reading books, and doing a bit of writing in the car on the long drives. (And Sssh! We're going to watch the last Twilight movie, too!)

AND I'm enjoying a LOT of turkey and pie! 

What are you favorites? I baked Razzleberry, Cherry Strudel, Key Lime, Homemade flaky delicious apple pies - and pumpkin! Yum.

See you next week! 5 lbs. heavier, I'm sure . . . 

Deadlines? Did anyone say Deadline? Escaping into the Open . . .

I had a manuscript due yesterday. Well, not exactly. It's due to my publisher in October, but back in early August I had my schedule planned out to get the first draft completed sometime this week - and if all went well, maybe even by September 8th. Yeah, yesterday.

The reality? I only have one chapter finished. And I keep rewriting it over and over again, trying not to hate it. (Oy!)

Life happened. Life got in the way. Life--yeah. That.

It's a bit panicky-feeling to think I'm three weeks behind. With 2nd round of revisions looming for my Harpercollins YA and Book 2 of the trilogy to draft no later than October 25th, too.

Did I say I'm panicked? Naw. I meant, TERRIFIED!

I'm also adding something new to the schedule. A trip back to San Diego next week to see my baby brother who has been so ill with brain cancer. I was there over the summer, but I can't put off seeing him again. It's that serious. And that makes me crazy terrified and emotional every single day.

One moment I'm gushing tears and sobbing at my desk.

The next I'm trying to keep my mother's and sisters' spirits lifted.

Or I'm numb. In shock that this is actually happening to my family.

Every day I'm hugging my babies tight. Or escaping into a book because I have to stop weeping and if I keep thinking about this I'll truly go ballistic; throwing things and swearing.

And then guilt rushes over me for whining and complaining when my brother has lost all ability to do anything, even to speak, the cancer has taken over so badly. And yet, he's fully aware of everything that is happening to him, as his life and all the things he loves have been taken away the past year. His music, his guitar, his books, his gaming friends, his navy life he was so good at. He's spent most of the last 6 months in the hospital trying treatments that don't work--or give him terrible side-effects. Frustration, disappointment that no treatments have worked, depression, anger and fear are daily battles for him as well as his wife and three sons who are so young (the twins in Kindergarten). Ironically--unbelievably--my brother was only 5 years old, the baby of 6 siblings, when we lost our father to a tragic accident (plane crash). And yet, it struck me today as I worshiped during church services and heard some incredibly inspiring talks, that he will be the first of all of us to see our father again--a father he barely remembers--on the other side of heaven's veil. I wish I could see that reunion. Father and son embracing, weeping tears of joy, and talking, talking, talking, catching up on all that they both have missed these last 30+ years.

Writing has, many times in the past, given me an escape. A way to cope with life's trials and heartaches. I think I'm ready to go there this week. I hope so. My character, Larissa Renaud, of Bayou Bridge, Louisiana, is reaching out to me from her own heartaches and scars that have come from many sides. And she will be called to do something big and wonderful--and terrible, too. She will learn that her family is in danger. Terrible danger that could kill her mother, her baby sister, and herself, and she will be able to save them. And, as she becomes stronger, the heartache and scars and loneliness will diminish. They won't matter so much because of the person she discovers that she truly is deep inside.

Faith and sacrifice are always stronger than fear and doubt.

I leave you with a writing quote from the beautiful book, Escaping into the Open by Elizabeth Berg:

"All writing is communication; creative writing is communication through revelation--it is the Self escaping into the open."
--E.B. White

I hope I can escape into my Open this week, and write true and write strong. 

Thank you, Dad, for giving me a love of literature, a love of words, a love of writing--your own dream of publishing a book never fulfilled.

xo,
~Kimberley

I my writing life I will . . .

Caroline Starr Rose's Final Installment of NAVIGATING A DEBUT YEAR: The Writing Life

In my writing life I will...

• Write the stories that speak to me: I will continue to write what nourishes and interests me first and worry about the market second.

• Seek guidance, support, and direction when needed: I will ask questions of my agent and editor when I’m unsure or need help. I will go to other writers in the same life phase or those older and wiser when I need assistance.

In my writing life I will not...

• Lose my love for story, kids, or words: Once you’re published, art becomes commodity. It’s not right or wrong, it just is. I want my motivation and passion to remain firmly in the place it always has been. While there are no guarantees of success in writing this way, their is much joy, and this, in the end, is more important to me.

• Compare one book against another: I choose not to be paralyzed by comparing my titles to previous books I’ve written. Each deserves to stand alone and has its own merit. The rest of the publishing world has the freedom to compare if they choose. For me to do so is unfair to new stories beginning to form.

• Despair: If you know me well, you know panic is a part of my writing when I’m drafting something new. I fret that I don’t know how to write or have nothing new to say. But I can’t let that panic lead to despair. Reminding myself that things always start this way keeps things in perspective. Allowing myself to play with language and ideas is much more doable than telling myself I’m writing an entire book. Choosing to nurture rather than berate gives me permission to try.

It’s my hope that holding to what I’ve processed these last few months will keep me grounded, help me grasp the deep satisfaction writing brings, and hold at bay the things that only lead to disappointment.

ME, TOO, Caroline!!!

These three posts by my friend have been incredibly inspiring. I got a chance to spend three days with Caroline during IRA at the end of April and she is the real deal in these posts. These truly are her beliefs - and mine - when I can keep the imps of fear and envy at bay, that is! 

Beautifully done, Caroline. These are truly words to live by. 

So go forth and embrace your life!

Be grateful daily for your blessings!

xo,

Kimberley