Jennifer Brown

Attention: All undead, please step to the front of the bus! 

Today I'm tossing 3 Qs at Stacey Jay, author of YOU ARE SO UNDEAD TO ME, and her newest YA novel UNDEAD MUCH? You may remember I posted Stacey's awesome "Red Thursday" video to celebrate the launch of UNDEAD MUCH?, and since I love videos, I thought I'd also post this great video trailer of the book as well:

About UNDEAD MUCH?:

Even Zombie Settlers with Super Hot Boyfriends get the Blues... 

A few months ago I was a normal girl with a normal life. But that was before my power to Settle the Undead returned and someone tried to kill me with zombies. 

Now I work magic and practice kicking butt while trying to find time for pom squad and my boyfriend, Ethan, and trying NOT to think about how freaky my life has become. It can be tough. Still…things could be worse… 

Oh yeah, right:

1. Feral new super-strong zombies. Check.

2. Undead psychic hottie predicting a zombie apocolypse. Check.

3. Earth-shattering secrets that could land me in Settler prison for life. Check.

4. Cheerleader vs. pom squad turf war threatening the end of the half time as we know it. Check. 

I’m going to need therapy (and a cookie) if I live through the week. Unfortunately I’m learning that’s not something Zombie Queens can take for granted.

3 Qs for Stacey Jay:

1) What non-writing activity most inspires you to write?

Playing with my two little boys. They make me laugh so hard and nothing inspires creativity like laughter. (Except maybe getting really hacked off. But laughing is a lot more fun and better for my blood pressure.)

2) Do you keep your rejection letters? If so, what do you do with them?

Nope. I pitched them. I didn't want to be tempted to dwell. I mean, it's not like I'm going to forget what they said anyway. (Believe me...I've tried!)

3) What was the moment where it really sank in that you are officially "an author"?

When I started getting fan mail after YOU ARE SO UNDEAD TO ME. It really brought home that there were people out there reading my book!

Thanks for hopping aboard the tour bus, Stacey!

By the way, this won't be the last time Stacey drops by my tour bus this year. She'll be back in April to celebrate her next novel, MY SO-CALLED DEATH! Woohoo!

About Stacey Jay:

Stacey Jay is a workaholic with three pen names, and a sick sense of humor. She loves creepies, crawlies, and of course, romance. What would a zombie novel--or any novel--be without kisses that make your toes tingle?

Stacey has been a full time writer since 2005 and can't think of anything she'd rather be doing. Her former careers include theatre performer, professional dancer, poorly paid C-movie actress, bartender, and waiter.

Visit Stacey at her website: www.StaceyJay.com

Get your copy of UNDEAD MUCH? here!

Though I've already started my 2010 blog tour, I've still got one more "Lunching with Leads" blog to share with you. It's a beautiful day, and a perfect time to grab some lunch with Fiona, the main character in Kristin Walker's debut novel, A MATCH MADE IN HIGH SCHOOL.

About A Match Made in High School

When a mandatory marriage education course forces Fiona to “try the knot” with super-jock Todd Harding, she’s convinced life could not possibly get any worse.  Until moments later, when her long-time crush is paired with her arch-enemy (otherwise known as Todd’s obscenely hot, slightly sadistic girlfriend).  But that’s nothing compared to her best friend’s fate – a year with the very shy, very goofy, very big Johnny Mercer. 

A series of hilarious pranks and misunderstandings leave Fiona wondering: is there something her supposed “best friend” hasn’t told her? Could there be more to Johnny Mercer than a deep voice and an awesome music collection? And perhaps most intriguing of all, is it possible that Todd Harding could actually have a heart – and a brain – beneath his pretty-boy exterior?

I did get a chance to read this book, and I thought is was hilarious, so I'm really excited to meet feisty Fiona! Here she comes now!

Where are we eating?

School cafeteria. The decor kinda sucks, but at least it's not fish sticks day.

Okay, it's a little known fact that I actually really love school cafeteria food. So I'm totally down with this lunch. What's on the menu?

Hot-to-the-dogs, dog.

Well, I was kinda hoping it would be pizza day, but I'm cool with a hot dog, too. Looks like you've invited another guest to join us. Who is it?

Mybest friend, Mar. She doesn't partake of the highly processed, nitrate-filled, tube-shaped meat so much, though. She's having a salad.

Well, now that you put it that way, I'm not so sure I'm so into it anymore, either. Let's just not talk about what hot dogs are made of. Oh, and speaking of what we won't talk about... What is the one subject you hope I don't bring up?

Callie Brooks's seventh birthday party. Let's just say there was a horse involved and some urinary incontinence, too. Seriously, don't ask.

Okay. No traumatic birthday discussions. Got it. What is the one subject you hope I will bring up?

How absolutely amazing and gorgeous Jack White is and how he should totally leave his model wife and come ravage me.

He should. He really should. So, you're getting tons of attention from fans. How do you feel about all this limelight?

Yeah, I'm not exactly loving it. Limelight's not really my thing. I'm more of a stand-off-to-the-side-and-make-fun-of-the-idiot-who's-in-the-limelight type of person.

You and me both, Fiona! I think the bell just rang, so we should probably wrap this up. I brought some candy for dessert. Which begs the obvious question: How do you eat a Reeses?

Any and every way humanly possible.

Amen, sister!

Thanks for stopping by my blog for lunch today, Fiona! And good luck, Kristin, on your book!

Pick up your own copy of A MATCH MADE IN HIGH SCHOOL here!

About Kristin Walker

Kristin Walker grew up roaming the Pennsylvania countryside. She finally landed at Penn State, where she earned a BA in Theatre Arts. In addition to being actor, Kristin was many things on her way to becoming an author, such as a lifeguard, a nanny, a beginning ballroom dance instructor, a library circulation clerk, and very nearly a nurse. A Match Made in High School (Razorbill/Penguin Group) is her first novel. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Ladybug, Wee Ones, and two Chicken Soup for the Soul books. Kristin lives in a Chicago suburb with her husband and three sons. Visit Kristin at her website: www.kristin-walker.com

Tonight I'm meeting with a local book club who chose HATE LIST for this month's read. This is the 2nd local book club I've met with. I've also Skyped with three others and chatted with a couple others. I love it! LOOOVE it!

Here's the thing about book clubs that make them so awesome (aside from the obvious, which is that an entire group of people are buying and reading your book): they are discerning readers.

See, it's one thing to get feedback from other writers, or from an agent or editors. When those people give you feedback on what you've written, you'll hear nuts and bolts kinda stuff. The how-to of writing. Such and such character needs motivation. This or that sub-plot is weak or too strong or cliche or gratuitous. This wording is clumsy and that dialogue feels forced, and so on. All great advice, without which you'd be turning out some pretty craptastic work.

But book groups... they look at the whole story. They question everything. They wonder about why you wrote what you wrote and, more importantly, how what you wrote applies to their own lives. What it means to them. They give you the so-what of writing.

Whenever I meet with book groups, the first thing I tell them is that I learn from them, and thus I encourage them to be brutally honest, just as if the author of the book they're discussing wasn't sitting there with them at all. I encourage them to tell me if there are things about the book that they didn't like... to discuss problems they had while reading... to tell me if they flat-out hated the book. One of my favorite book club meetings was one where I actually wasn't invited, but was streamed online. So I got to be a listener-only of this group, which had some very insightful comments about my book.

Some things I've learned from book clubs:

1) If you create a character your reader cares about... they're going to flat-out HATE other characters who are unusually mean toward that character.

2) Many readers are very particular about endings.

3) Readers like a "bad guy" with a little bit of good in him.

4) Readers like to know what inspired a story, especially if the story is dark, emotional, or hard to take.

5) You can NOT pass off a cliche character, action, response, thought, feeling, plot, subplot or pretty much anything else on a discerning reader.

I've learned other HATE LIST-specific things, too, but this is a spoiler-free zone and I can't share them with you.

So I guess my point is this. If you're in a book club, thank you. Even if your book club isn't reading MY book, still... thank you. Because book club-goers are passionate readers and you help keep the written word alive.

But also, if you're in a book club, you should try to reach out to the authors whose books you're reading. You'd be surprised, I'll bet, on how many writers will be willing to participate in a free 30-minute Skype chat or a free 30-minute online chat, or maybe, if they're local, will even agree to meet with your group for a slice of pizza or two.

And if you're an author and you haven't yet reached out to book groups... you really should try it. I think you will be pleasantly surprised by how much your writing improves.

Beep! Beep! Blog tour bus coming through! And today I'm slinging questions at Erin Dionne, author of THE TOTAL TRAGEDY OF A GIRL NAMED HAMLET.

Just happens, this book was one of the first books I read for my 100 Books for 2010 reading goal, and I loved it! (Not a surprise -- I also loved Erin's first book, MODELS DON'T EAT CHOCOLATE COOKIES, too) (Also not a surprise, because I kinda totally love The Bard myself).

But I won't try to tell you about the book, because I think Erin herself can do a much better job of it:

About THE TOTAL TRAGEDY OF A GIRL NAMED HAMLET

Hamlet Kennedy just wants to be your average, happy, vanilla eighth grader. But with Shakespearean scholar parents who dress in Elizabethan regalia and generally go about in public as if it were the sixteenth century, that's not terribly easy. It gets worse when they decide that Hamlet's genius sevenyear- old sister will attend middle school with her-- and even worse when the Shakespeare project is announced and her sister is named the new math tutor. By the time an in-class recitation reveals that our heroine is an extraordinary Shakespearean actress, Hamlet can no longer hide from the fact that she--like her family--is anything but average.

3 Qs for Erin Dionne:

1) What non-writing activity most inspires you to write?

Driving. I always get ideas when I'm in the car, and it's so frustrating!! I want to race home and jot everything down. Alas, I usually end up standing in the grocery store aisles, trying to remember what I am supposed to be purchasing and muttering to myself about some character or another...

2) Do you keep your rejection letters? If so, what do you do with them?

I do keep my rejections. Some are stuffed in an ancient issue of Writer's Market; some are in a file folder in a cabinet. I use them when I give school presentations.

3) What was the moment where it really sank in that you are officially "an author"?

I still don't feel like "an author"--I envision authors feeling a lot more confident about their work than I do-- but when I received my box of ARCS for MODELS, I opened it up, saw my name on the cover, and just started crying. I couldn't believe that I was seeing MY BOOK. It was incredible.

About Erin Dionne:

Erin Dionne’s debut novel, Models Don’t Eat Chocolate Cookies, was inspired by events that occurred in seventh grade, when she wore a scary peach bridesmaid dress in her cousin’s wedding and threw up on her gym teacher’s shoes (not at the same event). Although humiliating at the time, these experiences are working for her now. Erin lives outside of Boston with her husband and daughter, and a very insistent dog named Grafton. She roots for the Red Sox, teaches English at an art college, and sometimes eats chocolate cookies.

Visit Erin at her website: www.ErinDionne.com

Click here to purchase a copy of THE TOTAL TRAGEDY OF A GIRL NAMED HAMLET.

Thanks, Erin, for stopping by! Good luck with your book!

Last night at the dinner table, Percy Jackson-obsessed Speed Demon was quizzing his sister on her knowledge of Greek mythology. The conversation went like this:

Speedy: Okay, the god of the sea was...?

Teen Goddess: Poseidon.

Speedy: Correct. And the god of the sky was...?

TG: Zeus.

Speedy: Yep. And the god of the underworld...?

TG: Hades.

Speedy: Right. And who was Ares?

TG: Uh... I don't know.

Speedy: The god of war. And who was Hermes?

TG: No clue.

Speedy: *rolling eyes* The messenger god. And Apollo was the god of...?

TG: Speed skating!!!

Me: (wiping a tear of pride and channeling my inner Long Duk Dong) I've never been so happy in my whole life!

Gots me some new shooooes!

Black and red, zippers, polka dots, peace signs AND ribbons, too? OMG, I think I am in love!

I always say that I love revising. And it's true -- I do love digging out flaws in my writing and making the good parts really shine. I love the end result of a well-revised manuscript.

But what I think I've forgotten (sort of like post-natal amnesia, only this is post-publishing amnesia) is how scary the first round of revisions really can be. Feels like standing at the bottom of a very large mountain, poised to climb to the top, knowing that if you stray off the narrow and winding path at any point, a mountain lion will pounce on you and eat your face off.

That's where I am today. Standing at the bottom of that mountain, mentally willing it to turn into a molehill (moles aren't really that frightening when it comes to the prospect of face-eating).

I've given my editor's revision suggestions days' worth of thought. I've re-read my manuscript with an open mind and an eye for error. I know her suggestions are spot-on. I know what I need to do. I've taken notes and plotted out new scenes and have no next step except for that first step up onto that molehill.

*sigh* It's still a mountain.

This first round of revisions tend to be the big, sweeping changes. Problems with the plot. Problems with characterization. Problems with relationships between the characters. Big, sweeping changes means big, sweeping slashes into my manuscript. Heck, with Hate List, I not only removed whole scenes, but even whole characters. Sure, it stings on the old ego, but the bigger problem is the fear. Forcing myself to make that first cut. Forcing myself to get into the manuscript and start hacking away.

What if I screw it up worse than it already is? What if the problems aren't fixable? What if I just can't do it?

These are things that are going through my mind, along with embarrassment (yep, I always feel a little embarrassed, especially by the obvious mistakes), frustration, fear, and the nagging certain knowledge that if I don't get it totally right... the very first reviewer to set eyes upon the finished novel will point out exactly where I got it wrong.

But there's also excitement. We're in revisions! That means not too many months before I'm looking at cover designs and ARCs and doing all the fun (and exhausting) leading-up-to-publication stuff!

And there's pride. I've done it. I've finished a novel. And I don't care if it's your first or your hundredth novel... it feels like an accomplishment every. single. time. (I have five finished trunk novels, so I know for a fact that the sense of accomplishment hangs on for at least five).

And there is the wish that it would just stop stinking snowing outside and the kids would have a full week of school, but I'd probably be wishing that if I didn't have revisions on my desk right now.

So that's where I am. Standing on a molehill and seeing a mountain. Today I make my first changes to The Novel That Desperately Needs a New Title Because If I Look at The Working Title Again I'm Going to Vomit (<-- that title seems a bit on the long side, doesn't it? Hm. Back to the drawing board).

It's a good day.

So last year I joined The Debs, an amazing and awesome group of YA writers who debuted in 2009. You might recall that, as part of supporting the amazing and awesome Debs, I hosted a "Lunching with the Leads" blog tour on my blog. Sadly, 2009 is over, and we've all debuted. *sniffles and cues "Memory")

Happily, many of my fellow Debs have 2010 books coming out! So it's time to get the blog tour bus gassed up and rolling again. This time, however, I thought I'd focus on the author, rather than the main character, so I'll be asking each Deb three author-focused questions.

To launch the tour, I'm grilling Shani Petroff, author of the Bedeviled series, and the January 2010 release, Bedeviled: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly Dress.

(In case you missed it, check out the trailer for her first book, Bedeviled: Daddy's Little Angel

)

About Bedeviled: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly Dress:

Angel Garrett knows two things for sure. The first is that she inherited her devil-dad’s powers. The second is that she wreaks havoc whenever she tries to use them. Especially  when she’s trying to impress her crush, Cole. Angel’s only solution is to stay as far away as possible from him until she learns how to harness this new gift. But how do you avoid someone and get him to ask you to the school dance at the same time?

My three Qs for Shani:

1) What non-writing activity most inspires you to write?

Hanging out with my friends from my old writing class. They’re fun, upbeat, and supportive, and when I get home I always feel like I can take on the world—or my manuscript!

2) Do you keep your rejection letters? If so, what do you do with them?

Most of my correspondences are through e-mail, and I don’t erase those. But I did get one rejection letter in the mail. I saved it for a few days,and then I couldn’t take looking at it any more. I tore it up into a zillion little pieces and threw it out.

3) What was the moment where it really sank in that you are officially "an author"?

Sometimes it still doesn’t feel real! But then something will happen—I’ll get a letter from a reader, or I’ll speak at a library and all of a sudden it will hit me that I am an author!

To purchase a copy of Bedeviled: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly Dress, click here.

About Shani Petroff:

Shani Petroff is a writer living in New York City. In addition to tween and teen books, Shani writes for news programs and several other venues. When she’s not locked in her apartment typing away, she spends a whole lot of time on books, boys, TV, daydreaming, and shopping online. She has no devil lineage as far as she knows.

For more info about Shani, visit her at her (adorable) website: www.shanipetroff.com

(P.S. Shani will be back on the tour later this year, when her THIRD Bedeviled book hits the shelves! Awesome, Shani! Congratulations!)

A week ago, I began instructing The Hub to stay off of AOL.

Hub: Why?

Me: Because you'll get Olympics spoilers, and you can never keep them to yourself!

Hub: I won't tell. I promise.

Me: *grumblemumblegrowl* BETTER NOT!!! I will seek revenge if you even try!

Since then, twice he's almost "accidentally" slipped a spoiler on me. Once, while sitting on the recliner browsing his laptop while I was watching the Olympics ten feet away. The gall of some people!

He should know better. He knows how I am about my Olympics. Mess with my excitement and things will get ugly and fast.

I just can't help it. I love them. I love love lovelovelovelove them *pets pretty rings on TV*. Summer or Winter. Curling or diving. Skating! Skiing! Snowboarding! Love them all!

I grew up watching the Olympics (Mom is a big fan, too, but probably not as big a fan as I am). I would watch the ice skating, then slip a blanket over my head and twirl around the room, pretending to be the amazing Dorothy Hamill (and, yes, of course I had the hair cut). I can remember most of the Big Moments all the way back to probably Mary Lou Retton. Maybe even farther back than that. I swear, I have some of the footage memorized at this point.

See, there's this thing about the Olympics that we just don't spend enough time on anymore: BELIEF. Not just belief in a dream, but belief in oneself to achieve any dream in the world.

So many of us spend so much time dwelling on truly negative stuff. Arguing with strangers online. Arguing with husbands and wives and in-laws. Worrying about the possibility of bad things to come. So rarely do we spend the quality time with our dreams that we do with our frustrations.

In so many ways, Olympic athletes are just regular people. They have financial hardship and medical emergencies and tragedies and trauma. But they don't let those things take away their belief that they can do something great. That they can have that moment, standing on the podium with the whole world cheering, thinking, "Yes. I did this. I did THIS!"

Last night, while watching Snowboard Cross, Speed Demon turned to me and said, "I think I might want to be in the Olympics someday."

And that's the main reason I love The Olympics so much.

Because

BELIEF

is contagious.

(NOTE: Because I am so picky about my Olympics, I am taking a Twitter hiatus for the duration of the games. GO TEAM USA!!!)

First of all, let me thank everyone for participating in this month's contest. We had 33 entrants, and lots of you got some really great stuff (Yes, I am extremely jealous of the John Mayer tickets in case anyone's wondering).

I have randomly chosen a winner (using, of course, Random.org), and the winner of the signed hardcover copy of HATE LIST is...

Jessy!

Congratulations, Jessy! Please check your email.

Also, two lucky winners get $10 Barnes and Noble gift cards! Those winners are:

Dena!

and

Mollie!

Congratulations, Dena and Mollie. Please check your emails as well.

If you didn't win, don't worry. I'm sure I'll fall off on my blogging again and will hold another please-forgive-me contest someday (probably someday sooner rather than later).