Elfhame book trailer

Can't believe it's already time for my monthly blog update.  Because I know so many thousands of loyal readers are quivering in eager anticipation of everything I post here. What we have here isn't an official release or anything like that; this is something I've already shared elsewhere, but should have shared here, but didn't, for whatever reason, so now I am.  So simmer down.

This is the book trailer for Elfhame, put together using the original artwork by the amazing and talented Nancy Zack.  Right now, our rough, projected release date is in mid-June of this summer, using CreateSpace of course, so it'll be on Amazon.  And this here video will be right up there on the 'product description' page.  Besides the brief subliminal message at :24, so helpfully pointed out by one of my more honest beta readers, let me know if you think it needs any tweaks before then.  In other words -- I would deeply appreciate any and all feedback.  

Raystatus: editing while I'm querying

As of today, I am officially half-way through the absolute last draft of Elfhame.  Why the “last draft”?  Because, if you recall from the last time I blogged about it, Elfhame is my ‘soon-to-be-self-published’ project. (click here to see said post concerning sample covers),

It seems like every time I mention this, people want to know if I’ve given up on traditional publishing, and the answer to that, my friends, is a resounding “No!”  I have a number of very compelling reasons for self-publishing this project (and only this project), which I will share with you now:

1. It’s a book about faeries, and the world where people buy books about faeries ceased to exist five years ago.
2. Out of all the stories I’ve ever written – novel, short-story or otherwise – Elfhame is easily my personal favorite.  For whatever reason, it occupies a large, fuzzy, most-likely BeDazzled corner of my heart.  And so it follows that… 
3. I want it to exist in some form.  Any form.  And by self-publishing it, I’ll have something I can direct people to when they meet me and find out that I’m a writer and then get that doubtful look on their face like I’m too much of a doofus to be a writer (In your face, people who think I’m a doofus!)
4. I’ll have a nifty Christmas gift this year to give to my nieces and nephews and kids.  And my kid’s friends.  And my friend’s kids.  (I know a lot of kids)
5. Despite that fact that I’ve written a few middle-grade fantasies, I don’t want to be typified as a writer of middle-grade fantasy, and I don’t want my first real publication to be a middle-grade fantasy.*  Even if it is special to me in an almost spiritual way.
6. And this one is a particularly compelling reason – the great and talented Nancy Zack has created more than forty illustrations to go along with Elfhame.  All wild and dark and creepy, just like I always imagined.  And its dang good fun seeing your writing illustrated.

So to reiterate: I am self-publishing this one book, but only this one book, because I love it so very much, and because it will never see the light of day otherwise.  Besides putting a link on my blog and maybe my Facebook profile, I don’t intend to invest any effort in marketing it.  I have no delusions of becoming one of those ‘exceptions to the rule’ that achieves both literary acclaim and commercial success from a self-published book (I’m too lazy to make that happen)*.  I just want to see my favorite story in printed form.  And maybe make a special, personalized copy for my mom, who has supported me in so many ways, and was the person who first taught me to love to read.

Strangely, my original reason for blogging was to talk about the fact that I’m editing Elfhame while I wait for responses to my queries.  Somehow I turned into F. Lee Bailey defending my decision to self-publish, which is weird, considering nobody accused me of capital murder.  Sorry about that.  If it makes a difference, I was also going to whine about how I can’t decide which of my other two projects to work on next, so, you kind of got spared there.

*Dislaimer:  At this point in my writing life, my plan is to stick to the traditional route and try to break in with one of my young adult projects.  Probably more science fiction or contemporary fantasy.  I have absolutely nothing against middle-grade fantasy, or self-publishing in general, so no offense to my awesome writer friends who are working in those particular areas.  

Today's the day

After an almost four year hiatus, I'm back in Scary-Query Land.

Besides the announcement itself, I don't have much to say about it, but what I do want to do is dole out some big, BIG gratitude to the following amazing people:

• Kate Walton
• Bryan Bliss
• Paul Micheal Murphy
• Vivi Bickell

Your feedback, support, and encouragement really mean a lot to me.  And as always, I am eager and willing to repay you for your help in any way I possibly can.  So don't ever be afraid to hit me up.  If it's cash, though, I might need some time to liquidate some assets -- you know bidness.  

Live from the Can -- Safe and Sound

This one relates to writing.  It really does.  The song is "Safe and Sound" by Taylor Swift, but more importantly, it's from the soundtrack for the upcoming "Hunger Games" movie.

What we have here, is my 18 year-old daughter Hailie and I reproducing it, somewhat faithfully, in our bathroom.  And can I just say?  I freaking LOVED the Hunger Games books.  You're not likely to like this video as much as I liked the Hunger Games books, but I hope that you are still somehow able to find a way to endure it, and perhaps say something nice about it in the comments, if only to make my little girl feel special.  (Feel free to slam the dorky guitarist)

WIP Wednesday -- Forging a query

Remember WIP Wednesdays?  Sure you do.  It's that thing I used to do on Wednesdays, back when I used to update my blog fairly regularly.


So.  My 'work in progress' this Wednesday isn't a novel or anything like that, it's a query letter.  Actually I've been toying with it for like six months, but these last two weeks, it's kind of been my full-time job (when I'm not working one of my other two jobs).  I'm not even going to mention what a joy they are to write, because that's as obvious as saying "the grass is green" or "gosh this malted beverage is refreshing".  But for those of you who may not have had the pleasure, query fun is multiplied exponentially when it comes time to workshop it on the message boards.


My lil guy spent the past five or six days running the gauntlet in 'Query Letter Hell' at Absolute Write.  Some of you probably know this because of my last blog post, where I asked for your help and crit.  And thanks for your help and crit, but don't bother scrolling down to find said blog post now, because it has since been deleted.  Why?  Because seriously -- who wants a direct link to humiliation on their blog?


Okay, maybe 'humiliation' is a little strong, but I am embarrassed by the first few drafts now.  I didn't think they were so bad at first, but the folks at AW schooled me otherwise.  As always, they did so with their trademark inexplicable hostility, using words to describe me and query like 'pretentious', 'off-putting', 'newbie', and 'preachy D-bag'.  Mostly in response to the statistics I included at the beginning.  


See, a long time ago query letter advice use to encourage writer's to say something about the marketability of their book, but guess what?  Now it just pisses people off.  'Inexplicably-hostile-people-who-may-or-may-not-have-ever-written-a-winning-query-letter' anyway.  Ultimately I was able to see beyond the inexplicable hostility, and accept the fact that my statistics did, in fact, seem pretentious, and off-putting, and even preachy.  So I cut them.  And rewrote the rest of query according to their specifications.  And just when it seemed I'd almost crafted something that softened the inexplicable hostility, a second wave of writers showed up to insult me with renewed fervor.


I'll admit it.  I flaked out a little bit.  I started seeing demons in every sentence and I was convinced that every word I typed was tainted with arsenic.  I lost all perspective and all hope, and more importantly, all confidence in my ability to write anything more complicated than a grocery list.  Until Kate Walton talked me down.  And let me just pause here, and just say a big 'thank you' to her once again -- thank you, Kate -- you're a true friend and inspiration.  (Her book 'Cracked' came out earlier this year from Simon Pulse: check it out here).


As a result of her calm encouragement and sage advice, I have now made the uncharacteristically mature decision to get the hell away from my query letter for a while.  And that's where things stand on this WIP Wednesday.  My query in one corner, and me in my own, catching my breath.  Tune in next week when the bell rings for round two.

Look what's new...

Perhaps you're just now noticing, but things have changed around here.  Wordslinger used to look like this:

Now it looks like this:

(no image posted because, well... surely you can see what my blog looks like now.)

I made the change because I thought the old layout looked a little immature, too comic-bookish or something.  And since I'm quickly approaching the day in which I shall once more enter the query-arena, I thought it might be a good idea to portray myself as some sort of actual, adult-type person.  Legends speak of cunning literary agents who stalk the internet by night, watching from the shadows -- weighing the words we type when we don't know they're there.  And that's kind of a scary thought.  I sure wouldn't want prospective literary agents thinking I'm some kind of irreverent juvenile who lacks the professionalism of a fifth-grader.  Because that's SO not true.  

I really feel more like a high-school freshman.

So sling me some feedback here.  What do y'all think?  Is it still legible?  Is the page too dark?  Fonts too small?  Does my profile picture make me look like a girl?  Please note that all commenters will receive a post-dated, electronic check for one-thousand dollars in space-money, and my grand-children will mow lawns for their grand-children for the duration of one full winter.  (That's a 'Michigan' winter, FYI.)

The whole, long, slightly self-indulgent story.

In the last fifteen years, I’ve finished twelve books, almost finished a few others, plotted another dozen, and jotted down ideas for a hundred more.    Maybe not a hundred, but, you know… a lot.  I just really like making up stories.   And I can totally see myself doing it for the rest of my life.  But it turns out there’s this one thing many writers do that I haven’t done yet – get books published. 

It’s been on my mind a lot lately, and I’ve kind of forced myself to take a hard look at why it hasn’t happened yet.  So bear with me while I reminisce, and ruminate, and most likely over-analyze, because this is probably going to be one of my longest blog posts ever. 

First of all, you should know that it’s not for lack of trying.

The biggest reason I haven’t had a book published yet, I’d say, is due to sheer stupidity.  No, not on the part of the publishing industry – I have only myself to blame.  And I’m not being graciously self-deprecating or anything like that, I really have made some serious mistakes.  Scratch that… I’ve made all the serious mistakes.  Pretty much everything an aspiring writer can do wrong, I have tripped over, and fallen into, and wallowed around in, and raked over the top of myself.

Let’s start in 1998, when I finished writing my first book.  I putzed around a while trying to figure out how to get one of them suckers published, and then, I naturally started querying.  Within six months or so, I landed my first agent: Debbie Fine from Southeast Literary.  Sound familiar?  It might.  If you’re agent research has ever led you to Writer Beware.  Southeast Literary happens to be number 17 on their all-time, “20 worst agencies” list.  (I should mention here, that shortly after signing with them, I ignored a full manuscript request from a legitimate, well-respected agent).  Anyway.  Long story short, I drank every drop of Ms. Fine’s Kool-Aid, paid all her ridiculous fees, and subsequently wasted an entire year waiting for her to send me some good news.  Nothing ever came but placations and excuses filled with important-sounding, publishing lingo.  And requests for more money. 

Finally I wised up (a little), and I moved on. 

For my next trick, I decided to turn my first book into a series by writing three more books.  Because hey – doesn’t a complete four-book series sound infinitely more appealing than a paltry ‘one book with series potential’?  No?  Really?  Well maybe it was just that one premise.  People are reading books about young wizards these days, so I’ll just scrap all that other stuff and write a fantasy trilogy.  But I won’t start querying until I’m happy with both the first and second book.

So yeah.  Somewhere around 2005, I realized that I’d written six books, and really only had one project to market.  And when that didn’t go well, I finally did something I should’ve done before I finished my first – I decided to learn how to write more gooder.  A lot of writer’s resources had blossomed on the net by then, and I know this sounds hard to believe, but I never thought of looking into any of them, or reading any of the amazing ‘how to’ books out there, until I’d written six freaking novels.  In other words, I wrote six books without ever bothering to learn how to write.

I won’t bore you with the details of what I learned, or how quickly, or where I learned it, but I swear to you – I pursued ‘better writing’ with laser-like intensity.  You’ve probably heard it said that many writers don’t produce anything worth publishing until their third book?  For me, because I’d just started to make my first real effort to improve my writing, that was my eighth or ninth book.  Once I started doing all the hard and normal stuff most writers do to improve their craft, my writing finally began to improve.  Obviously, I stopped writing books in a series (I still planned them on paper), and my seventh novel was a little better.  But still not good enough.  My eighth was even better, but still not good enough.  That book, however, was the first one that began to catch the eye of a reputable agent here and there.  I started getting requests for partials and fulls, sometimes several at a time, so I kind of knew that I was finally on the right track.  Ultimately, number eight still wasn’t up to par, and they all passed.  Including one guy who requested six months exclusivity – SIX MONTHS!  Which I happily gave him.  (Another huge mistake, perchance?)  Anyway.  Somewhere around that time, I went ahead and wrote my ninth book.

At this point, my memory's a little fuzzy.  I’m not even sure what year we’re talking about – 2007 maybe – but for some reason, I never queried that book, and I never let anybody read it.  My wife claims she’s read it, but I think she tells me lies to make me feel better.  In retrospect, I think it was a fun story with a unique premise, and perhaps the most interesting narrative voice out of all my novels.  I finished it, I edited it a bunch of times, but then I just kind of set it aside and wrote another book.  No clue why.  If I know me, though – and I think I do – I probably just got excited about the premise of my next book.  My tenth book.

Here’s where things get interesting.  Also, where I did the thing that turned out to be my most major setback to date.  I began querying my tenth book in the Fall of 2008, and within a few hours of my first day of querying, I had a full manuscript request from a very reputable agent: Ethan Ellenberg.  For the sake of brevity, I’ll just tell you that I ended up signing with him – after only sending out a grand total of five queries.  I thought I was “in”.  I was sure I was “in”.  I’d paid way more than my fare share of dues and there was nowhere to go but on to absolute, best-selling, blockbuster success.  Because getting an agent is the hard part, right?  They just send it on to some of their editor buddies, and ‘cha-ching’ – book deal!

Of course, if it’d all worked out that way, I wouldn’t be writing this now.

I’m guessing that if you’re still reading at this point, then you’re probably going to be very curious as to what went wrong in our three year relationship.  Unfortunately, I can’t give you a concrete answer to that.  But you know how all the advice, in all the forums and all the articles, says that you should make sure you and your agent are a “good fit”?  In retrospect, Mr. Ellenberg and I were not.  I think I even sensed that during our initial phone conversation, but I swept it under the rug.  Because after ten books… I finally had a good agent, baby!

I like to think that I’m a big boy.  I’m pretty thick-skinned and independent – I really don’t need anybody to hold my hand.  So before I type this next thing, you should know that I rarely approached Ethan with concerns or questions.  But in three years of ‘working together’, we had only three phone conversations, and maybe twenty emails.  He seemed pretty excited about old number ten, but after one round of submissions, he suggested we turn our attention to my next project.  So I wrote another book.

And he passed on it. 

Honestly, that threw me a little.  I didn’t know agents “passed” on books by writer’s they’d signed.  But whatever.  I started yet another book, and meanwhile, pitched him the most promising of my older books.  He passed on that too.  And when I did finish my twelfth book, guess what?

He passed.

On the surface, that might seem weird or callous, but one thing I haven’t mentioned yet is that all of my books are very different from one another.  I don’t just get one kind of idea for one kind of genre, I get crazy-stupid, butt-loads of ideas from every obscure corner of the cosmos: adult, young-adult, middle-grade, science fiction, horror, high fantasy, mythic fantasy, contemporary fantasy – the only thing my books have in common is that they depart from reality in a major way.  So Mr. Ellenberg got excited about (and wanted to represent) a first-person urban fantasy with an irreverent narrative voice.  The next thing I sent him was a serious-toned murder mystery set in the distant future.  And after that, a book about freaking faeries.  Should I have, instead, gone with the haunting tragedy based on Scottish folklore?  I don’t know.  But I don’t think my books were all that bad, and I don’t think he was a bad agent.  I think he simply wasn’t interested in representing the kinds of things I was trying to send him.

So like I said – “bad fit”.  And unfortunately, it took almost three years to admit it.  That whole time, I knew things weren’t going well, but I figured that as long as I already had an agent, one who sold a lot of books for a lot of writers, it was still my closest and best shot at getting one of my books published.  And finally, in the Summer of 2011, I realized I was deluding myself.  Because really, why would anybody take time away from clients who earn them money to promote books they’re clearly not excited about?  And how many more books was I going to have to write before I came back around to something that excited him again?

So I wrote him a friendly, ‘I don’t think this is working’ letter, and that’s where I’m at now.  Unagented, unpublished, with twelve books on the shelf, and somewhere near the middle of one of the longest ‘road to publication’ stories ever.   Notice I’m still assuming there’s a “pub” at the end of this road.  And even if there’s not, I’m probably going to keep on writing.  Even if the only form my stories ever take are Lulu beta copies that I circulate among my friends and family and co-workers. I just like doing it.  Like I said in the beginning – I LOVE making up stories.

In the meantime, I don’t mind taking a few steps backwards.  It’s kind of fun learning to query all over again, and seeing which agents I remember and what houses they’re at now – they’re kind of like old friends who were never really my friends but I haven’t stalked in a long time so now it’s interesting to see how they’re doing and who they’re representing and what their houses look like on Google Earth.

Let’s just hope that there aren’t too many more mistakes an aspiring writer can make, because if there are, then I’m probably destined to make them.  In fact, if you can think of one that doesn’t appear in my little ‘comedy-of-errors’ here, then post it in the comments.  Maybe I’ll see ‘em coming for a change.

And hey… thanks a heck of a bunch for taking the time to read all this.  My hope is that maybe one little writer somewhere will see this blog post, and perhaps, just maybe, learn enough to avoid one or two of the idiotic blunders I’ve made in my ‘not-quite’ writing career.

Waiting to sleep

No, it's not part two of my conference experience. It's not even about writing. Unless 'songwriting' counts for something. Sorry for leaving you all hanging on that, and for neglecting my blog and whatnot, but this is kind of more important. This is a song I wrote for Cindy, recorded on my phone, and then made a video. Watch and enjoy. (And cut me some slack for being a bad writer/blogger guy).

BTW, this is my first post from my Android. Now that Blogger's on my phone maybe I'll update more often. Or not.

The SCBWI conference experience, part one: 'Who I met'

Honestly, at this point, I could sit here typing for hours trying to capture every aspect of the whole conference experience -- maybe write the longest post in the history of my blog.  But don't get bored and click away, friendly friends, because I would never do that to you.  I like you.  Actually I'm kind of in a sweet spot right now, still buzzing from all the wisdom and information and the thrill of the whole thing, yet I'm not quite done mulling everything over.  The way it plays out is that everything is still fresh in my memory, but I haven't yet over-analyzed it, so I can blog about the high-lights without boring you with pontifications over the deeper meanings and far-reaching consequences of my various encounters throughout the weekend.

And to abbreviate it even further, I've decided to break it up into two blog posts: 'Who I met', and 'What I Learned'.  Come back Monday-ish, because I've got a feeling that second one will have more value to those of you who were unfortunate enough to have missed it.

So here it is: 'Who I met at SCBWI 40th Anniversary Summer Conference'

• First off, to save money, I shared a room with three other dudes.  Little did I know that they would turn out to be the 'Three Horsemen of the Apocolypse'.  (My name for them, by the way.)  They were messy.  They were subversive.  They were 'too-cool-for-school'.  They actually had an important message to share with the rest of the conference-goers, and the YA/MG publishing industry at large.  They were the crew of 'Boys Don't Read'.  And if you want a good laugh, not to mention a reason to scratch your chin and say, "Hmmm...", I highly suggest you visit their site.  They are becoming a phenomenon.  In no specific order, they are:

• Jeff Geiger: (http://www.jcgeiger.com/)  Actor, playwright, computer guy, and MG author.  Dude had loads of personality and an infectious grin, and best of all, next time he's in Michigan, we're getting together to hit some of the local brew places.  I stole this picture from his blog so you can kind of get an idea of what kind he's like.  Notice the shirt.  (Henry Winkler was there because he's co-written a series of children's books: "Hank Zipzer" --  click here for a good Winkler story)
• Steve Brezenoff: (http://stevebrezenoff.blogspot.com/)  Author of 'Brooklyn Burning' and 'Absolute Value of -1'.  Steve is very cool.  I'd even call him 'mysterious'.  He watches the world from under a ballcap, with the kind of eyes that you can just tell are absorbing way more than they're saying.  I hung out with him a bit less than the other two, but still... Brezenoff impressed the hell out of me.
• Bryan Bliss: (http://bryanbliss.blogspot.com/)  Most of you who follow my blog know Bryan, but unfortunately for you -- most of you haven't had the good fortune of meeting him in person.  Well I have, and I'd just like to say, "Ha-ha, suckers!"  Bryan has been one of my best writing buddies for a few years now, and in fact, he's the one who invited me to stay in the room with, well... him and the other two horsemen of the apocolypse.  But I digress.  Surely those of you who know Bryan are wondering what he's like in person, and here I am rambling on and on about things other than what Bryan is like in person and yet you're still reading because you want to know what Bryan is like in person.  Here it is then -- Bryan Bliss is a freaking rock star.  The man has insane people skills: charming, witty, intelligent, friendly -- the whole package.  At one point, I looked across the party and saw him shmoozing one of the biggest publisher/editor ladies at the whole conference.  And as straight-laced as the lady seemed, Bryan had her doubled over with laughter.  (Bryan says he doesn't remember her being 'doubled over', but as a sworn witness, I will attest that she was bent slightly forward, hand over mouth, vigorously engaged in 'belly laugh' type activity.)  Anyway, it's starting to look like I could write a blog post just about Bryan alone, so I'll move on.  First though, I want to say that I'm very grateful to Bryan for letting me hang with him when he was chatting up the more experienced writing folks.  I wouldn't have made half the connections I did if it hadn't been for his cheerful introductions and warm compliments on my behalf.  Again, notice Bryan's shirt in the picture.

So.  The people I met through Bryan.  It's kind of a nice segue into one of the more enlightening things I realized while at the conference.  Turns out, there were really two kinds of people there.  Not to generalize, because I'm sure there were plenty of overlaps and whatnot, but the people I met sort of fell into two categories, the 'veterans' and the 'up-and-comers'.  The veterans were people that have had a few books published, maybe many, or maybe just one soon to be released.  These guys seemed to be there more to network, socialize, visit their friends, meet their agent or editor for lunch or dinner.  They didn't do much of conference-ey type stuff, and in fact, some of them hadn't even registered for the conference.  I visited with a number of them -- wouldn't say I "made friends" -- but just being around them and over-hearing their offhand discussions about their books, and their agents, and the biz in general -- it was utterly invaluable.

The "up-and-comers"; these were my people.  People like me.  Folks that were there to learn, break in, meet an agent in line at Starbucks and successfully pitch their book to them.  These guys (mostly they were ladies) went to all the sessions and keynotes and whatnot, and took notes, and traded business cards.  Turns out I was more comfortable with them, maybe because we had more in common, but when I was them, I felt like this spirit of comraderie, belonging, fraternity.  Basically, let's just say I made some good friends with many people I'd love to see again at future conferences.

Moving on (hopefully towards some kind of end), here are some shout-outs to the folks I met at SCBWI:

• Caz Williams:  A very hip and friendly lady from Australia who greeted me in the elevator, and from then on, ended up sitting with me for most of the rest of the keynotes and 'big room' stuff.  Caz also made me dance.  (http://cazwilliams.blogspot.com/)
• Angela Driver:  Another hip and freindly lady from Australia.  I had a lot of fun visiting with Angela, and in fact, she was the only person I swapped stories with in any detail -- 'stories' as in 'our books'.  Angela bought me coffee.  A really really big coffee.  (http://angeladriver.com/)
• Jody Lamb:  A fellow Michigan writer.  Jody might have been a little quiet, but I felt like this sibling-ey connection with her right off the bat.  I would have liked to visit with her more, but oh well... maybe at a regional conference?  (http://www.jodylamb.com/)
• Sarah Perry: Author of 'Pajama Girl'.  Another Michigan writer.  Sarah is also a librarian, and therefore worthy of our respect and admiration.  I had several great conversations with Sarah, about writing and books and work-shop-type stuff, but more importantly, she was the one who helped me find the courage to brave my way back through LAX.  (http://writertherestless.blogspot.com/)
• Suzanne Young: Author of 'The Naughty List', and 'A Need so Beautiful'.  Suzanne struck me as very warm and very kind, and she gave me some terrific prospects for when I begin querying my next book.  Agents with whom, apparently, she is on a first name basis.  Did I mention there were a bunch of them?  (http://suzanne-young.blogspot.com/)
• Tracy Wymer:  Someone I didn't expect to see.  We have a few blog friends in common, but never really followed each other, and then he walks up and introduces himself at the conference.  He struck me as this smart, sincere, friendly guy, and although I only bumped into him a few times, I enjoyed meeting him a lot.  (http://www.tracyedwardwymer.com/)
• Bethany Griffin: Author of 'Handcuffs' and the soon to be released, 'Masque of the Red Death'.  This lady wore pigtails and leaned against the firepit, and mostly, I just listened to her talk, because she was so freaking funny. And interesting... very, very interesting.  (http://www.bethanygriffin.com/)
• Mary Kole:  Yes, Mary Kole, of the 'Kidlit' blog fame.  In case you don't know, Mary is an agent with Andrea Brown Literary Agency and a big deal in the children's literature scene.  I didn't pitch to her or anything like that, but I can honestly say I got a huge kick out of hanging out with her.
• And finally, "Kelly".  Author of a bunch of books I'd check out if I knew who she was.  I never got her last name, and I wish I had, because in one particularly candid and alarming conversation, she peeled back the veneer of children's book publishing, and laid bare all the deceptions, consipiracies, and pitfalls an ignorant writer can fall into.  And hello?  I happen to be an ignorant writer.  If anybody knows who I'm talking about, and what her last name is, let me know.  I'd like to send her a thank-you email.  

I need to end this post.  I really do.  So yeah... welcome to the end of the post. 

More on SCBWI in a few days.

"A Scary Good Book"

First of all, I apologize if you clicked here expecting a report of the SCBWI conference.  This is not that post.  Number one, I'm whupped (I flew all night, got home mid-day today, took a short nap, and now I'm at work), and number two -- the whole  experience was so indescbribable, I'm going to need to process it for a few days before I can actually talk about it.  Right now, the only coherent thing I have to say about it is... "Wow".

I'm actually blogging today to congratulate my friend Anita Laydon-Miller on the launch of her new, kid's ebook, A SCARY GOOD BOOK.  Also to help spread the word.  Which, if you don't see the subtle hint, means you should click one or both of these links.  You won't be sorry.

Twelve-year-old Hannah Stone tells everyone she’s “okay,” but that’s a total lie. Two years ago her dad was killed by a hit-and-run driver. The detective in charge of the case never found the driver, but he somehow managed to get Hannah’s mom to fall in love with him. The jerk. And speaking of love, Hannah’s developed a major crush on Ollie Ortega—he’s her best friend and the only one she can talk to—a crush on Ollie is so not a good idea.


Also not a good idea? Searching for a missing person with no help from the police. But that’s exactly what Hannah does when she finds messages in library books—underlined words that point her in the direction of someone who needs her.


And, suddenly, Hannah’s even further from okay. She breaks into a library, gets caught in a kidnapper’s web, and is stalked by her dad’s killer, all in an effort to save a life…but can she save herself, too?

Does that not sound cool?  Of course it does.  (I know you're not supposed to answer yourself when you ask a rhetorical question, but really, this book sounds so awesome, I had to.)

So go check it out.  And then in a day or two, maybe three, come back and hear about SCBWI.

Yeah, I'm going to the conference. You going to the conference?

Holy crap, it's almost here!  In two days I leave for Los Angeles to attend the 40th anniversary 'Society for Children's Book Writers and Illustrators' conference.  And this is a big one, y'all.  It's so big, they had to put the word "international" before the title, so... more than one nation -- that's pretty big.  For anybody who doesn't know, writing conferences are a magical place where powerful wizards emerge into the mundane realms to share the secrets of the arcane arts with willing mortals, or so I'm told.  I don't know because I've never been to one before.  Which is kind of what this blog post is all about.

Any of you been to a conference or two?  Any stories or advice or pearls of wisdom you'd like to share with a runny-nosed newbie?

Shout out to a special family

Meet Amy and Eric.  They're about to meet their son, Grayson (if they haven't already).  She's this cool nurse I work with in surgery, and right about now, she's having one of the biggest moments of her life.  Her and her husband are in China as we speak, preparing to bring home this special little guy that they've been waiting years for.  It's particularly poignant because, ten years ago, they lost their natural son, Ryan. 

So do me a favor: click on over to her new blog and congratulate her.  Personally I think international adoption is one of the more beautiful things in our world, and if you agree with me, go, read her story, leave her a comment letting her know that you support her and that you're excited for her.  I'm sure it'll make an already amazing week even more memorable for her.

Tell her Ray sent you.

http://ourjourneytograyson.blogspot.com/