Interview--Inside the Audiobook Studio

I had a great time doing this interview for Mary Burkey and her audiobook blog! 

My Heart is Popping

A Book Review of Gordon Korman’s Pop.

I’ve been a supporter of Gordon Korman for many years. He was one of the very first YA authors I had to the pleasure—decades ago—of recommending to my students. He can make me laugh, he can make me cheer, he can make me cry.

Pop was, for me, a don’t-stop-except-to-sleep read. I am no athlete. In fact, I have never been able to understand people who are.  And I was still in love with this book about a football-loving teen who meets an ex-NFL linebacker, Charlie, in need of a true friend.  I loved Charlie. I loved Troy. I felt empathy for Charlie’s family, and wished I could meet Mac in person. And I cheered on Troy as he made tough choices about—and took personal risks for—his new friend.

There are some sad moments in this book, but Korman handled them in a way that left me feeling good—hopeful—at the end of the book. I strongly recommend Pop.

YAYApalooza

What an extraordinary opportunity I had this past week. When I attended a gathering at Brilliance Audio that’s been dubbed YAYApalooza, I had a number of fascinating experiences. 

Let’s start with what it’s like to finally meet in person the disembodied voice you’ve been talking to for nearly a year, one that has negotiated contracts for you, and encouraged you when you thought you weren’t going to make it through the next round of revisions. This person is otherwise known as “your agent.”

How wonderful it truly was to meet Josh Adams—who, until last week, I had only known through tools of technology (email and phone). I’m so glad that I have the chance to work with all the people at Adams Literary. They are tireless advocates.

Meeting the many people at Brilliance Audio who participate in the making of an audio book was another awesome part of YAYApalooza. Tim Ditlow, who acquires the novels that will be a part of the children’s line of Brilliance Audio, is such a friendly and fun guy. Then there were studio managers, plant managers, sound engineers, an entire sales force…everyone there contributed to my wonderful experience learning about how audio books are made.

I also got to meet Tavia Gilbert, who is the narrator of The Everafter. Her voice is perfect—at least it is when you can hear it. The day I was there to meet her, she had laryngitis, but the book’s director made sure I got to hear some of the book’s recording session from the day before. This is why I know she has the perfect voice to be the narrator of Madison Stanton. She’s also just a marvelous person and fun to converse with.

As far as I’m concerned, there are never enough opportunities in life to talk about engaging books with people who are widely read in YA literature, but YAYApalooza was a bookworm’s heaven.  Talking with Cindy Dobrenz, Lynn Rutan, Mary Burkey and Ed Spicer (all fantastic bloggers) gave me quite the fix. Walter Mayes is a fabulous storyteller, and an expert on young adult literature. Much to my delight, I had the opportunity to meet him, too.

Meeting Mike Winerip of the Adam Canfield series was another great part of this trip. Any time I can meet a fellow author, I’m ecstatic. Mike is fun to talk to and his enthusiasm is contagious. Oh, and it helps that he writes for the New York Times and I’m a fan of that newspaper.

I’m so thankful I had this awesome opportunity!

I Love Librarians

I'm so glad I got to go to the American Library Association Conference this weekend. 

Okay. I'll confess: part of the charm was that I got to have my very first book signing. It felt pretty strange to get to scratch my name across the title page of my ARC, the wonderful smell of book pages wafting up to me as I did it. And I got to sit next to the amazing Kathryn Fitzmaurice while I did it. (See picture!)

I'll also admit that part of the charm was getting to meet my editor in person for the first time. It was amazing to finally see her after nearly a year of phone conversations about The Everafter.

And the opportunity to pick up ARCs from several different Harper Collins imprints? The teacher in me was squealing inside with delight. Had to contain her so as to maintain something approaching a professional demeanor. 

But what was beyond amazing was meeting so many dedicated, enthusiastic and passionate librarians.  They made me stop to think about how important (even if quietly waiting in the wings) librarians and school librarian parapros have been to me for my whole life. I remember them helping me find books in elementary school, giving me writing contest information in high school, taking me on tours of MSU's monstrously large library in college. How would I have made it through my first year teaching high school history without the help of the building's librarian? She was phenomenal.  Today, the librarian in the building I work in still goes to bat for me whenever I ask for help with something. She's an incredible and enthusiastic resource. And who did I see right away at ALA as I was getting ready to sign books for my first time ever? My local East Lansing Public librarian--a long time co-conspirator in bringing mid-grade, young adult and teen novels to kids.   Even though so many of the other librarians who have impacted me throughout my life weren't or couldn't physically be there, all the others who were brought home to me what stars librarians have always been in my life.

Thanks, guys. You're amazing.

Greenrock Photos!

Greenrock Writers Rock!

I had such a good time today with the Greenrock Writers. I got asked all kinds of awesome questions (like "What inspired The Everafter?" and "Do you have everything planned out before you write it?" and "How do you go about being published?") It was such fun to be with kids who love to write. They made me feel so welcome. As they well know (because they had to do it in the retreat) reading our own work aloud always causes some jitters, but the GRW's made me comfortable from from The Everafter. In the next few days, I'll post some pictures of our fun together.

All in all, my day with Greenrock left me feeling refreshed...and ready to come home and revise. Thanks for inspiring me today, Greenrockers. 

To any teen who hasn't attended this retreat and enjoys writing: this is an experience that I highly recommend to everyone within a reasonable distance of Michigan State University. If you can't go there, find a site of the National Writing Project near you. See what kinds of summer programs they have for young writers. Having a writing community is incredibly important, and the National Writing Project is eager to help you do it!

From Here to Eternity

So let's say I decided I liked writing sometime in middle school (thanks C.S. Lewis and Judy Blume!)

Then let's say I decided I wanted to be an author in 9th grade.

Next we'll grant that my high school class prophecy stated that I would someday be an author.

What took me so long????

Decades after the fact, that prophecy was haunting me. It wasn't that I had given up the dream. More that I was fiddling around with it in a pretty non-committal way while also trying to run a decent high school English classroom and be a wife and mother. But there was something about the (very unpleasant prospect) of nearing forty that made me take the whole process a million times more seriously. What would be the universal cataclysmic result if I reached the age of, say 50, and had still failed to fulfill my class prophecy?

Obviously, the world as we know it would end.

Okay, I didn't take my new commitment quite that seriously, but I took it seriously enough to join SCBWI. There I met a wonderful local critique group who spurred me on to write The Everafter. This story was, quite surprisingly to me, about one teenage girl's journey to Eternity (named in the book, The Everafter).

Five months and two or three drafts of the novel later, I started shopping it to agents. What a discouraging process that was. I wasn't getting much interest in it from my queries. I sure learned how hard it was to stand out among the hundreds of queries agents were getting every month.

One of my critique group members, though, has an agent who agreed to look at my novel (then named Life Hopping) for me. She told me that while she couldn't offer to represent me, she thought my work was publishable and just needed to get into the hands of the right agent.  She referred me to Adams Literary.  A few months later, Adams offered to represent me, and Josh Adams navigated the remainder of the journey into the hands of an editor (Donna Bray) who made an offer on the book. And then put me through the wringer on revisions, I might add (for which I will be "eternally thankful," as the saying goes)

Total time from story conception to publication? Three years, much rejection, and lots of reminders of how hard it was for Margaret Mitchell to sell Gone with the Wind.

Total time from first dream of being an author to success? Umm....more decades than I want to admit to. It often has felt like an eternal trip. 

But the arrival is worth the journey.