Sleeping with the Enemy

No, I don't mean your husband or your boyfriend, or your lover. I am talking about yourself. (Though I admit any of the above can seem like the enemy when you are PMSing and they don't understand your need for chocolate to be followed by salty chips to be followed by a crying jag because they don't tell you they love you enough and never take you out anymore......) But I digress.

Can you be your own worse enemy? This week I have been having a rather heated debate with myself over what path my career should take. Do I stay on course with all Young Adults or do I try to do YA and add adult contemporary, which would expand my readers while challenging my brain power but would also stretch my creativity and my writing schedule to the limits. What would be more fullfilling for me? Could I really invest the time to do both or am I setting myself to fail? And the two-sided debate goes on and on in my one little ol' brain.

How many times have I done this to myself? Question my own motives for doing something? I don't think of myself as a totally spontanious person but others would disagree. I mean, I have done spontanious acts before and they have led to questionable results. Who hasn't? But have you ever second guessed yourself to death until the opportunity is gone because you were frozen with indecision? Which essentially means you made the subconcious decision to not make a decision and therefore screw youself because you feared making the wrong choice?

Next time you find yourself debating something to death, go with your first instinct. Don't beat youself up over making the wrong decision. You'll sleep better at night having committed to a course of action without looking back.

Now, what will I do? Should I stick with just YA or branch out into Adult? Let me sleep on it. :)

Eighties Child

I was chatting with a friend today and we were discussing big hair, of all things. You know, that larger than life 80's hair, of which I was a proud wearer. So I thought it would be fun to post a picture of me during my big hair phase. My friend told me that they used a toothbrush to get the right effect. If I had only known then what I know now. I could have been the Queen of big hair. I was about 19 when this picture was taken. Note the really acid washed jeans :)

Where do you come up with these things?

Inspired by Shannon's blog today, I thought it would be interesting to explore where and when I am the most creative. She told the story of how she came up with her first published book (out in 2007) and it occurred to me that we both came up with our books at the Emerald City Writer's conference in 2004.

I kept hearing that paranormal was hot. And they were looking for the ideas that were out there. Hmmm. I like Fish out of Water stories so I was wondering how I could combine a way out there idea with paranormal. I'd just read MaryJanice Davidson's Undead and Unwed book. I loved it. I had never read a vampire book before but the fact that she wrote a funny vampire story really resonated with me. I write comedy and paranormal isn't normally a laugh a minute topic.

So, funny vampire concept in mind I came up with the story of a popular cheerleader who is very driven to succeed, with a life plan who practices daily affirmations. What would happen if she was turned into a vampire? Hmm, not enough of a switch. Aha, what if the vampires didn't like her, couldn't accept her. She was going from Prom Queen to huge vampire outcast. But why? Hmmm, when I was getting prepped for braces, I had oral surgery and they removed 6 teeth. My wisdom teeth and my canine teeth. I could never be a good vampire because my fang teeth were gone. Tada. Poor cheerleader now can't turn into an official vampire because her canines were removed for braces and she can't grow fangs.

So, I immediately call Shannon and tell her my idea, but it's still a huge joke in my head. I mean really, a vampire who can't grow fangs is funny, right? She dares me to do it. Dare me? Well, now I have to and the rest is history. Braced2Bite is born and sold as part of a three book series to Berkley Jam. B2B releases in May of 06 and you can preorder it here.
See, no idea is out there enough if you can create a good conflict. Go ahead and try it. I dare you.

My best friends

(left to right: Shannon McKelden, Christina Arbini, Me, Kelli Estes and Erin Eisenberg)

Writing is a very lonely career. We sit in front of our computers, tapping away, alone in our work and when we finally, finally finish our manuscript we have to wait up to a year for it to hit the shelves and get our well deserved kudo's from our readers. That is why it is so critical to have like-minded friends who understand what you do and can share the load. These gals are my best friends and we meet monthly to chat, commiserate and celebrate. We are also in constant email communication. I adore them and would never be were I am without them.

Here we are enjoying a dinner out during the conference. Erin had the forsight to have a previous engagement that prevented her from being drug onto the Karaoke stage later that evening. Yeah, like we would have had to 'drag' her. Try more like pry the microphone out of her fingers. hehe

Karaoke

On Saturday night, we outed those closet Karaoke performers in the lounge of the hotel. Many of the writers in attendance had no idea they were closet Karaoker's but once the liquer started flowing, well, everyone became a star. I, myself sang Fancy by Reba McEntire. I was so hoarse from singing in the crowd from the players before me, my voice sounded like gravel but it was so much fun.

This photo is courtesy of Christina Arbini who apparently has a very incriminating AVI file of me doing the Thriller dance. Nah, couldn't be. I hope she never learns how to host and upload 120 megs of sheer intoxicating embarrassment.

Promotional goodness

Here are two examples of my promotional T-shirts that I will soon have up on my website and you, yes YOU, could win one. We have the male and female version (but I wear both because they are so cool). My lovely models from left to right: Christina Arbini, Kelli Estes, Shannon McKelden and me, sporting the guy's shirt. All shirts have my books and release dates on the back.

Twister

Here I am with Sinclair Sawhney at Susanna Carr's workshop of the top 10 sexiest mistakes a writer can make at the Emerald City Writers Conference this weekend. Thank goodness we stopped before it advanced to 'really challenging'. Sinclair used to do yoga and would have kicked my @ss.

Have you ever seen a cuter cover for a Young Adult book before? Of course not. muahahahahaha. I love it!!