According to my Instagram, these nine photos sum up my 2019:
I see a lot of books (launching The Disaster Days and receiving an honor for The Last Grand Adventure), writing (I took my 2020 release from blank page to revised, final manuscript in 11 months!), and one throwback to my very delicious wedding cake from several years ago. Cakes and books: that seems like the best of a year to me!
Hope you had a happy year, with plenty of opportunities for joy, creativity, and growth.
It’s October! How did that happen? And, more importantly, what am I going to be for Halloween?!
September was a busy month, but I still managed to sneak in a late-season beach day (and I have the Fire Island mosquito bites to prove it).
I also read seven(!) books and wrote 15,000 words of my new project. Oh, and changed day jobs.
Now I’m still writing, anticipating edits for Summer of Lost & Found, and getting ready for some upcoming When Audrey Met Alice events. On October 20, I’m doing a panel with four fantastic MG authors—Tara Dairman, Lauren Magaziner, Laura Marx Fitzgerald, and Michelle Schusterman—at the Voracious Reader in Larchmont, NY. Later that week, I’m teaching a writing workshop for young readers at the New York Society Library. And I’m working on my school-visit presentations for some upcoming visits, too! (Check out my Events page for the details, if you’d like to know more!)
I’m also following a lot of FiDo-related news, good and not as good: the scary security breaches at the White House (although kudos to the off-duty officer on the First Daughters’ detail for stopping an intruder) and the happy arrival of former First Daughter Chelsea Clinton’ new baby, Charlotte. And, of course, I’m slowly making my way through The Roosevelts, the excellent 14-hour Roosevelt documentary on PBS. (Watching an hour is my reward for getting new words on paper.)
What have you been up to?
So you might have seen this in Publishers Weekly this afternoon (click to make big!):
That’s right! I* sold my second book! The Summer of Lost and Found will be in bookstores in 2016. It’s full of everything I loved to read about as a middle-grader: history, mystery, beach towns, and ghost stories.
I’m so excited to be working with the uber talented Jordan Hamessley and everyone at Egmont to tell this story. The way it feels when Jordan shares her editorial vision for your book can only be expressed with a Liz Lemon GIF:
I’ll leave you with a picture of the beach at Fort Raleigh National Historic Site, on Roanoke Island. I was there doing research while this deal was coming together, and while a trip to see such a beautiful and historic place would always be special, this serendipitous timing made it even more so.
*And by “I,” I do mean my fantastic agent, Suzie Townsend. I’m incredibly thankful to her for being such a great advocate for my writing, and to everyone at New Leaf Literary for their amazing support.
ETA: The announcement also ran in the June 13th Publishers Marketplace deal report (you can click to make big). Hooray!
What I’m Reading
I just finished up Louise Galveston’s By the Grace of Todd, a hilariously gross and inventive MG. Thanks to it, I will be deep-cleaning my apartment this weekend. Now I’m reading Jennifer Mathieu’s The Truth About Alice, which is an amazing contemporary YA told from four perspectives. All of the characters feel so very real–the voices in this book are so, so good. I’m having a hard time putting it down.
What I’m Writing
I am finally done (for now) revising that old manuscript. YES! So I’m back to researching/outlining, and I’m having lots of fun with that, asking myself lots of “what if?” questions and imagining what this story could be.
What Inspires Me Right Now
It’s tulip time again!
What Else I’ve Been Up To
I’m busy getting ready for a see-your-setting-in-person research trip next week. More on that–with pictures–when I’m back.
I also did an interview with Keith Muchowski, who volunteers at the Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace National Historic Site. (If you’re ever in NYC, you must stop by the site for his tour!) The first part of my interview is here.
So what have you been up to lately?
What’s Up Wednesday is a weekly meme that helps readers and writers touch base with blog friends. You can find the link widget (and cute buttons!) on Jaime’s and Erin’s blog posts.
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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.
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!
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 know, I know. Synopses are devilish. But hear me out on this one.
I always start revisions by reading through my WIP, fighting the urge to make line edits the whole time. (If I let myself start making edits, I would never get through the read. So if something is really important, I jot it down on my ongoing revisions list, which is usually the length of Ulysses by the time I start revising.) But this time, to help keep my hands busy while I read, I synopsized my WIP. The urge to line-edit disappeared.
I didn’t mind writing the synopsis while doing my first read-through, mainly because I (apparently) forgot what happened in roughly 40% of my WIP. So I wasn’t slogging through dialogue I had memorized and scenes seared into my brain–the story was fresh, and I found it interesting to summarize each chapter after I read it. There’s a reason why teachers make kids summarize/retell as techniques for monitoring comprehension. It works. I remember all of my WIP after synopsizing it.
Summarizing/synopsizing helped me see the places in the WIP where eighty billion things happen at once (I’m looking at you, Chapter 14) and those where nothing happens for a really, really long time and it’s boring. I can clearly see where the pacing needs work. My synopsis is also helping me figure out where I might place the scenes I want to add and where certain subplots disappear/appear. I’m the type of person who needs to be able to see the big picture a lot while revising. My synopsis will now be my map.
For each round of revision I start on this WIP, I’m going to start by updating my synopsis with a read-through. It’ll both refresh my memory and show me which parts saw the most/least work. The best part? By the time I’m done with revisions once and for all*, I’ll have a synopsis ready should I ever need it.
*”once and for all” = for now, because I am a compulsive reviser
Have you ever used a synopsis to help with the early rounds of revision, writer friends? What are your revision tricks? Spill!
I adopted a nifty, new (to me) process while revising my WIP: chunking.
I love getting comments from beta readers. In particular, I love getting comments from my mom as a beta.
Anyway, I got some comments on my revisions from her this weekend. This page cracked me up because, well, it’s my mom’s note: