Happy Monday! I spent my weekend holed up indoors–despite being a Wisconsin native, I’ve gotten used to the milder weather in the Northeast and the sub-20s temperatures this past week are killing me. Okay, not killing me–but I do have a cold. It was the perfect excuse to stay inside and read and revise.
Anyway, today my OneFour KidLit interview is up on the blog! You can check it out here:
Rebecca Behrens: WHEN AUDREY MET ALICE
How was your weekend?
State of Wonder ~ Revolution ~ The Fault in Our Stars ~ The
Disenchantments ~ The Handmaid’s Tale ~ True Grit ~ Love? Maybe ~ The
Future of Us ~ Rebecca ~ The Snow Child ~ All These Lives ~ The
Thirteenth Tale ~ Hemlock ~ Enchanted Ivy ~ A Young Wife ~ The Guernsey
Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society ~ Wanderlove ~ The Art of
Fielding ~ The Espressologist ~ Dear American Airlines ~ American Born
Chinese ~ The Book Thief ~ Promise the Night ~ Amelia Anne is Dead and
Gone ~ The Time it Snowed in Puerto Rico ~ The Wilding ~ Jellicoe Road ~
Insurgent ~ The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer ~ How Should a Person Be? ~
Laura Rider’s Masterpiece ~ Audrey, Wait! ~ Skinny ~ So Much Closer ~
Monstrous Beauty ~ The Conscious Bride ~ Moloka’i ~ The Bungalow ~ MWF
Seeking BFF ~ Between Shades of Gray ~ Prairie Evers ~ Laura Lamont’s
Life in Pictures ~ Liar & Spy ~ Roanoke: The Abandoned Colony ~ Gone
Girl ~ Mark Twain in Hawaii: Roughing It in the Sandwich Islands ~
Roanoke: Solving the Mystery of the Lost Colony ~ The Butterfly Clues ~
The Age of Miracles ~ Beautiful Ruins ~ Life As We Knew It ~ The Raven
Boys ~ The Sinister Sweetness of Splendid Academy ~ Samantha Sutton and
the Labyrinth of Lies ~ Frost ~ Ask the Passengers ~ Rules of Civility ~
My Very UnFairytale Life ~ Catching Jordan ~ The Year We Left Home ~
Real Mermaids Don’t Wear Toe Rings ~ Mira’s Diary: Lost in Paris ~
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of Universe
That’s 62 books!
27 were YA, and 8 MG. I think 17 of those were 2012 releases.
How did I do on some of my reading goals?
1. Read more books than in 2011: Achieved! I read 52 books in 2011.
2. Catch up on classics: Not much progress here, although I did finally read Rebecca, and I read some obscure Mark Twain.
3. Read some YA Nonfiction: I did! I read The Pregnancy Project.
4. More genres: I read fewer scifi/fantasy books than in 2011, but more thrillers and more historical fiction.
5. Reread old favorites: Total fail. I didn’t reread anything. Can you blame me, though, when there are so many wonderful books to read?
This year, I want to keep up my book-a-week pace, read more debuts, and even out my MG-YA reading ratio.
I switched the settings for comments a while back, mainly so people could link to their URLs in their names. It was a good tweak to make, but it has resulted in an impressive influx of comment spam. Whatever, Blogger generally does a good job of weeding out spam comments automatically, so I’m not going to change back to the “registered users only” setting.
The only annoying part is getting all the notification emails about faux comments, typically from “Anonymous.” Usually Anonymous is trying to get me to visit web sites about tribal tattoos, which is kind of random, or treat acne, which sadly is already a routine part of my post-teenage life. However, reading the comments has taught me a lot about a bot’s strange grasp of grammar and syntax. Behold, some of my favorite spam comments, with their original weird formatting, along with my imagined replies:
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An impressive share! I have just forwarded this onto a coworker who
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I found it for him… lol. So allow me to reword this.
… Thanks for the meal!! But yeah, thanx for spending time to discuss this matter here on your web site. Hey, any time a post gets a reader free dinner is a win, as far as I’m concerned.
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work fellows. The “fellows” and I thank you, and are happy to provide “people knowledge.” As opposed to robot knowledge, I guess.
Its like you read my mind! You appear to know a lot about this, like you wrote the book in it or something.
I think that you could do with a few pics to drive the message
home a little bit, but instead of that, this is excellent blog.
A great read. I’ll definitely be back. Thanks for the unsolicited advice. I’m glad that despite the lack of pics, you will definitely be back. (Ironically this was on a post about the White House, and I did sort of write a “book in it.”)
Fortunate me I found your website accidentally, and I am stunned why this twist of
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bear grylls bear grylls bear grylls Dude: anyone who knows me knows that I watch I Shouldn’t Be Alive, not the Bear Grylls show.
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| Kennedy Family at Camp David (source: Wikimedia Commons) |
It’s not surprising that I wound up writing a story about a pair of first daughters; I am a First Kid superfan. My interest in children in the White House has been lifelong–I remember seeing old photographs of the Kennedy children in the Oval Office when I was a kid and being fascinated by them. Same for ones of Amy Carter. Chelsea Clinton is not much older than me, and when President Clinton was in office, I soaked up every tidbit I could (harder to do, in the pre-Internet era) about her tweenage life at 1600.
I also have strong memories of some of the media scrutiny Chelsea faced as a first daughter. There were SNL skits that meanly mocked her, and snide comments from journalists like this tone deaf essay from Frank Rich at the NYT, “The Chelsea Show.” Yes, a grown man publicly called out her “gawkiness, frizzy hair, and orthodontically transitional smile.” It appears he was trying to be sympathetic to Chelsea’s plight in his “humorous” essay, but dude: what an ass.
Margaret Truman Daniel, a former first daughter herself, wrote a famous Letter to the Editor to chastise him. It was part of the reason why the media generally stopped reporting on the children of presidents. (The NYT describes that as an “informal pact” between the press and the White House in their article on how Malia Obama’s spring break trip almost became news. It clarifies that unless the girls are with their parents, they are considered off-limits by much of the media.)
I’ve had a lot of impulses over the past couple of years to blog about the Obama girls, for obvious reasons (they are first kids, and they also seem like very cool kids). I’ve tried to hold back. The thing is, it’s a different situation to write about historical first daughters (those that are now deceased), former first daughters (those who are now adults), and the current two. It’s clear that the information released about the Obama girls is closely guarded, as it should be. Administration officials must work very hard to protect a little privacy for the first family, and that is an admirable thing. Perpetuating public interest in the Obama girls–even simply through linking to photos or articles on other sites on my humble blog–doesn’t seem fair. The smidge of privacy they maintain has been hard-won, and it’s important to respect that.
I hope to start sharing more of the information I’ve learned about life at the White House and famous first kids over the next TK-many months until When Audrey Met Alice comes out. Only the fun stuff, though–I promise not to bore you! But one thing you won’t read about here are the current occupants of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, unless it’s a link to or sourced by some kind of official information.
What do you find interesting about First Kids*?
*A nerdy little grammar note: So far as I can tell, it is not grammatically correct to capitalize unofficial titles such as first daughter and first kid. Even First Lady is not an official title, although it is commonly treated as such and therefore capitalization is accepted. Sometimes I do capitalize first daughter or first kid, though, as a stylistic choice to highlight the title. The copy editor part of me is annoyed by this. I should probably start being consistent.
The movies don’t get everything wrong when it comes to archaeology. Even in real life, there’s plenty of adventure to be found.
As an archaeologist, I’ve gotten to work high in the Andes at Chavin de Huantar—crawling through unexplored tunnels full of bats and rubble and scattered human bones. I’ve excavated Crustumerium, just north of Rome, where Bronze Age peoples lie at rest in a sprawling city of the dead. I’ve worked in the United States as well, clearing cemeteries in advance of major construction projects, excavating cliff dwellings, and digging the toilet of a California governor from the wreckage of his earthquake-totalled mansion.
But of course, this sort of adventure is only part of the job.
An archaeologist’s task is to study past cultures through what they’ve left behind. These pieces of evidence—or “artifacts”—can be as big as an Egyptian pyramid or as small as a speck of pollen, stuck to an ancient cooking pot. But the information they contain can be surprising. Archaeologists can use these artifacts to reconstruct how people once lived—from the food they ate, to the way they fought, to the religions that they practiced and their views of the world around them.
The archaeologist’s “typical day” takes a variety of forms. Some work mostly in the field–surveying the land, digging precise excavation units into the earth, looking for patterns, making comparisons, and drawing careful conclusions from whatever pieces of the past still remain. Others work in laboratories, using the tools of science to discover how old an object is, exactly what it’s made of, or precisely where it came from. Still others spend their days in museum storerooms, re-examining the evidence recovered by their predecessors. And some archaeologists work with governments and companies in order to protect sites from destruction through development, looting, neglect, or war.
But archaeology also carries a lot of responsibility. One awkward truth is that excavation destroys sites, meaning that each particular discovery can be made only once. It’s up to the archaeologist to record everything he or she can–otherwise, that information is lost forever. Just as importantly, archaeologists have a responsibility to the people who live nearby the site, or who claim it as their ancestors’.
At its best, archaeology is a little like time travel. Holding an artifact in your hand can make you feel a connection to someone who lived centuries or millennia before. It’s intimate. It’s humbling. Seeing the fingerprint of a potter on the surface of a plain and broken pot is a reminder of the humanity all people share–no matter where, or when, we live.
*Full disclosure: I share a publisher, Sourcebooks Jabberwocky, with Jordan Jacobs. I purchased my own copy of Samantha Sutton, however, and any opinions are my own.*
Last Friday I attended the White House Fall Social Garden Tour. In short, it was awesome. You can read more about how I lucked into the Social here, and you can see a wrap-up from the White House here: A Fall Social in the #WHGarden. (Excuse me while I freak out that my name/tweets/photos are on the White House’s web site.) My twitter feed from Friday is also chock full of observations and photos.
I’ll be posting some of my thoughts about visiting the setting of my book later in the week. But first, here are some of my favorite photos from the day:
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| The quiet before the public tour starts |
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| The view from the South Lawn |
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| The White House Beehive. Best quote of the day, from Executive Pastry Chef Bill Yosses: They didn’t add a second hive because then the bees might fight each other for territory and, “we didn’t want any more conflict in Washington.” |
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| Veggies growing in the Kitchen Garden |
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| The swing set. How badly did I want to go for a swing? (Badly!) See the Oval Office behind it. |
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| The Oval Office. Guess who was inside working? |
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| Me, thrilled to be in the Rose Garden and standing in front of the West Wing (Eisenhower Executive Office Building in the background, too) |
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| Crowds of people outside |
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| Who knew there were so many grills at the White House? |
ETA: Thanks for all of the compliments on my dress! It was nice to fold up my writerly pajama pants for a day. 🙂 That dress was a gift from my mother in law, and she made it!
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| “Gratitude and Rust” by Shannon Kringen (CC) |
Thanks for all of the kind words yesterday! I’m overwhelmed in the best possible way with the support and enthusiasm of the writing community. 🙂
(Borrowing this meme today from Katy Upperman)
From Publisher’s Marketplace today:
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| Click to read, or see below: |
Rebecca Behrens’s debut WHEN AUDREY MET ALICE, featuring the thirteen-year-old First Daughter who finds Alice Roosevelt’s secret diary hidden beneath the floorboards of the White House and is inspired to “eat up the world” though one wrong step could mean tabloid scandal, to Aubrey Poole at Sourcebooks, by Suzie Townsend at New Leaf Literary & Media (World English).
Dude! My book is being published! It’s definitely surreal to write this post announcing my good news. The closest approximation to how I feel right now is this. I’m thrilled that When Audrey Meets Alice will be in print! I’m so excited to be working with Aubrey Poole and the rest of the Sourcebooks team. And I’m incredibly thankful to the amazing Suzie Townsend for being such a great advocate for my writing and finding a home for my book.
I’ll leave you with a slightly dorky picture of me at Alice Roosevelt’s childhood home, Sagamore Hill. I already had a visit planned for the weekend after I found out this great news, which was serendipitous and awesome. Happiest day trip ever! I don’t think I’ve stopped smiling since I got the call. 🙂
Thanks to Katy Upperman for tagging me. I loved reading about her fabulous WIP, Cross My Heart. Here are some answers about my upper-MG WIP:
What is the working title of your book?
When Audrey Met Alice
Where did the idea come from?
It’s kind of a long story. I knew a little about Alice Roosevelt from my dad, who has always been a huge Teddy Roosevelt fan. I have always been fascinated by the lives of first daughters, and I suppose that interest was re-sparked when the Obamas moved into the White House.
But the specific idea for a book about a first daughter who “meets” Alice Roosevelt came to me while I was walking home from work one day. That’s not very special, but I later found out that I was walking past a home where Alice once lived, as a young person, right at the time that this concept popped into my head. Which is a little spooky.
What genre does your book fall under?
A blend of contemporary and historical fiction
Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
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| Alice Lee Roosevelt (from Wikipedia.org) |
I am a huge Mad Men fan, and one of my favorite characters is Sally Draper. I would love to see the very talented Kiernan Shipka as Audrey. As for Alice, I’m not sure. Any suggestions?
What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
Lonely first daughter finds Alice Roosevelt’s long-lost diary, and shenanigans ensue.
Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
I am so fortunate to be represented by the amazing Suzie Townsend at New Leaf Literary.
How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
Hmm, I got the idea in summer 2010, and I had a finished first draft by the end of that year. I wasn’t working on it continuously, though: there were some distracting life events (e.g., a move) and some revisions on a previous manuscript that pulled me away at times. So I’d say about five months. But that was a first draft of two completely separate narratives, which I had to try to weave together.
What other books would you compare this story to?
In some ways, the structure is similar to Revolution, which I read long after the first draft. But my manuscript is upper middle grade, so the subject matter is a little lighter. Promise the Night, an MG about famous female aviator Beryl Markham, is also kind of similar. I like to think that both Audrey and Alice have strong voices, and there is a lot of humor in the stories they tell. So I might compare it to some of my favorite voice-driven books.
Who or what inspired you to write this book?
Alice Roosevelt, of course. She was a scandalous White House wild child at a time when girls had a lot of social constraints. Also, there was a photograph of Sasha Obama on a beach that I found really poignant–she’s in her swimsuit, playing in the sand. But you can see behind her a horde of people gawking at her and taking pictures. First kids are afforded some incredible opportunities and experiences, but I imagine they also lose a lot of privacy, freedom, and normalcy. I wanted to explore that situation.
What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?
There is a very cute boy. And lots of descriptions of food.
Have you shared about your WIP? If you’d like to, consider yourself tagged for the Next Big Thing!
I can sum up Teen Author Carnival 2012 in one word: fantastic.
So fantastic, in fact, that while I was enjoying listening to all the wonderful authors speak, I neglected to take notes about the panels. Doh.
I did take some pictures, though:
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| The Keeping it Realistic panel |
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| Authors Lauren E. Morrill and Siobhan Vivian |
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| The Where Have You Been All My Life? panel |
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| Such a gorgeous library |
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| More gorgeous library (through a door, hence the crappy photo) |
I also got to meet up in person
with some super-cool writer peeps, like Ghenet, Gina, and Elodie! And
learned an important lesson about why it is finally time for me to get a
smartphone (I still use a slide-out qwerty phone without internet):
because I missed out on meeting quite a few other writer friends because
I had no access to Twitter until I got home. Sad face. It’s time, so
I’ll head to the Apple store this weekend, and into the 21st century!
Have you been to any BEA week events this week?
That’s my new motto, at least when it comes to weeknights. I used to try to do a lot in my off-work hours: hit the gym, cook dinner, whip up a blogpost for the next day, catch up on other social media, read, call my fam, and get in some writing time. Sometimes I’d go really crazy and try to add cleaning, laundry, or (gasp) some kind of socializing in the mix.
Shocker: I ended up half-assing a whole lot of stuff.
My new philosophy? One thing well.*
On weeknights, aside from the non-negotiables (some kind of exercise or activity to destress; healthy eating, whether I prepare it or someone else does) and quality time with fiance/catching up with friends and family, I get to do one task. And I will try to do it well.
If it’s a night on which I want to revise two chapters, I’m not going to try to write a post, too. If I need to vacuum my insanely dusty apartment,** then maybe I’m not going to finish a read-through. I know what my priorities are, and it’s surprisingly easier than I thought to balance one-thing-per-night in accordance to them. Maybe I’ll clean less if I’m trying to finish a draft. Maybe I’ll blog more once a project is off with beta readers. Etc.
And you know what is kind of great? Going to sleep knowing that maybe you didn’t get everything done, but you sure whole-assed what you did.
*Slightly different context, but here’s a nice post from Zen Habits on Do One Thing Well
**Seriously, why is dust not a form of energy; because if it were, I would be so very filthy rich. Science, please get on that.