The 10’ers is a livejournal community of young adult and middle grade authors whose books are debuting in 2010. Lots of great stuff on the site. I recently joined, and you can find my introductory bio here: http://community.livejournal.com/10_ers/322902.html. I might cross post there from time to time, if the subject matter also seems appropriate for that site.
There’s over 80 other authors listed on the site. Check them out!
This is Belle. She came to try us out over the weekend — a one-year-old Boston Terrier looking for a new home. With Mankato passing away only a few months ago, I wasn’t really looking to add a new dog for a while, perhaps even a year, but sometimes an opportunity presents itself. She’s a sweetheart, and she’s won over everyone. Well, not the cats yet. They’re sulking in the garage. But they’ll come around.
Fall may have officially began September 22, but it’s only now that it really feels like autumn here in the Willamette Valley. The air is crisp in the morning. The leaves have begun to turn brown and litter the pavement. Another summer has passed.
I like doing these quarterly updates to assess where my writing — and to a lesser degree, my life — currently stand. I’m working on a new young adult novel, one that should appeal to readers of The Last Great Getaway of Water Balloon Boys, and I’m aiming to have it done by the end of month. It’s a good thing, because I’ve got a pretty good idea what book I’m writing next, and I’m feeling butterflies in the stomach about it. There’s two or three other books lined up after that, too. Always more books to write. I’m starting to feel a bit like manufacturing can’t keep up with R&D. In other words, too many ideas, too little time. I guess that’s a good thing. Better than the alternative.
Beyond that, I’ve still got a mystery novel that needs a bit more work before it’s ready to send out into the world, so I need to make time for that. It’s close, but I needed to let it sit for a month or two to really look at it objectively.
I just mailed the signing sheets to PS Publishing for the limited edition mini collection I have coming out later this year, called A WEB OF BLACK WIDOWS AND OTHER STORIES OF LOVE AND LOSS. Nothing like autographing your name 100 times to swell your a head a bit — and give you hand cramps. I’ll have more on that soon.
I also recently sent back the copyedited manuscript of my other collection, THE DINOSAUR DIARIES AND OTHER TALES ACROSS SPACE AND TIME. With luck, that one will be out from Fantastic Books early next year.
On the life front, the summer went by too quickly, as usual. We’re enjoying our remodeled home. We spent a week in July camping in our tent trailer in the Redwoods, down in the Prairie Creek area, which included a quick overnite jaunt to the town of Eureka. We made a quick weekend trip to Minneapolis, Minnesota for my cousin’s wedding — with the added benefit of my ninety-two-year-old grandmother getting to meet her three-year-old grandson for the first time. Otherwise, we spent most of those warm summer days in our own back yard — literally.
The kids are growing up fast. My daughter started first grade. First grade! It seems only yesterday that I was strapping her into her car seat for the first time to bring her home from the hospital, this tiny, fragile thing nearly lost in the folds of her blanket. Where has the time gone?
I did something authorly today (pronounced aw-thor-lee). I define this as doing something aimed squarely at promoting myself as an Author of Important Things, as opposed to doing something writerly, which, of course, has to do with that boring business of sitting in a room and typing.
With a book and two short story collections soon out — and at the prodding of one of my publishers for an author photo that didn’t look like a bad Polaroid — I decided it was time to create a press kit. Putting my wife’s Cannon SLR camera to good use, we headed down to a local park and spent an hour taking a few photos. Actually, it was more than a few. It was 250. Yikes! That’s right, it took 250 photos just to boil it down to three or four that were decent. That’s why I’m not Kate Moss. Well, that and I like to eat too much. Plus the gender difference thing. And, let’s face it, I have the face of a writer and not a male model — which, at the end of our photo shoot, I was actually grateful for, because I was completely exhausted. I told the photographer I wanted to go to my trailer, but I got no sympathy. I tell you, modeling is a grueling business.
Anyway, check out the full press kit here. It’s just the photos in various sizes and a couple different biographies, but I plan to add more in time. You know, when I feel like doing more authorly things.