 Today I'm super excited to be hosting Jenny Moss, author of Winnie's War, a debut novel set against the backdrop of the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918.
About the book:
Life in Winnie's sleepy town of Coward Creek, Texas, is just fine for her. Although her troubled mother's distant behavior has always worried Winnie, she's plenty busy caring for her younger sisters, going to school, playing chess with Mr. Levy, and avoiding her testy grandmother. Plus, her sweetheart Nolan is always there to make her smile when she's feeling low. But when the Spanish Influenza claims its first victim, lives are suddenly at stake, and Winnie has never felt so helpless. She must find a way to save the people she loves most, even if doing so means putting her own life at risk.
About the author:
Jenny Moss is a former NASA engineer (yes you read that right, she really is a rocket scientist -- how cool is that!?!?). She earned a master's degree in literature and taught writing as an adjunct at University of Houston-Clear Lake. Winnie's War is her first novel. She lives with her two teenagers in Houston, Texas.
My thoughts:
Rather than bring you interview questions, I wanted to give my own thoughts on Winnie's War since I was lucky enough to read an ARC of it. Before I even opened the book I was excited by the premise -- diseases fascinate me. And even more than disease, how people handle disease fascinates me. While Winnie's War doesn't deal with the Spanish Flu directly (and what I mean by that is that it's not a treatise on the disease) it uses it as a backdrop to thrust the main character, Winnie, into the adult world.
The flu comes to her town and suddenly everything changes and she has to examine her whole life against this new threat. I really think Jenny did a great job of balancing everything and intertwining Winnie's own personal problems with the larger problems of those around her. Because when it comes down to it, I think every girl growing up has these moments in her life that are all encompassing to her and I loved seeing the interplay between these moments and the larger issues of her world.
Hopefully that makes sense. In the end, I thought it was a very rich book of Winnie trying to figure herself and her world out and I'm really looking forward to what Jenny Moss comes up with next!
Congrats Jenny on your debut!!
Today I'm heading to the mountains with JP (or more accurately, I'm going with him to Asheville while he meets with a client and then we're headed to the mountains). In the past, I've done a ton of writing up there. There's something about the whole place -- the views, the quiet (it didn't have internet access until recently), the fresh air -- that really stokes my creativity. And JP's parents have always been so wonderful and understanding that I spend my afternoons tapping away on the computer.
Mostly, I wrote up there because I had to write every weekend (or I was under deadline) and so I didn't have a lot of other options. But I realized yesterday that I don't have to write this weekend. And since I'm waiting for my second round of revisions, I don't have a deadline to work with either. I can actually read this weekend!
What a novel idea! And thankfully I have two big TBR stacks just waiting for me! The first is a stack of books I bought for my mom (she's becoming a YA aficionado) and then promptly borrowed for my trip to Curacao. The second is a stack of books I'm reading for an upcoming trip.
Growing up I used to spend all weekend reading. My dad would take me to the local indie (The Open Book) and I'd pick out something (usually Christopher Pike) and then read it. Or I'd peruse the shelves in my sister's bedroom and pick up a Nancy Drew, Sweet Valley High, and eventually romance. I'd stay up late late late into the night and I wouldn't even roll out of bed in the morning -- I'd just pick up the book and keep going.
It's really been a long time since I've done that. Back in law school when I realized I wasn't reading enough, I started reading just before bed. It was supposed to be my way of making sure I got some reading in every day. But I've since realized that that often tends to be my ONLY reading. When I left law, I relished the idea of stopping work at 4pm and just cracking a book (after all, industry reading can be considered work!) and yet, I've never done it!
So this weekend I'm looking forward to taking a stack of books to the mountains and just indulging. Of course, that is... if my current WIP doesn't call to me instead :)
What about y'all? Do you read every day? How do you choose what books to read and when to read them?
Justine and Diana love to make fun of me because I have this need to know the first line of a WIP before I can actually start working on it. I tried really really hard with my latest book (Book 2) NOT to need to know the first line. I started multiple drafts with the notion that I could just go back and change the first line if necessary.
And then, oddly, on the way home from a trip JP and I stopped at a gas station, a first line popped into my head and I used his blackberry to email it to myself. Those of you who've been around here for a while might remember that something similar happened to me with the first line for The Forest of Hands and Teeth -- I was walking home from work one night when the first line came to me and I used my blackberry to email it to myself. (Seriously, I feel like I should be on a commercial for blackberry! Thankfully I have an iPhone now so any future first line emergencies can be dealt with pronto!)
Anyway, I like to think that I don't *need* to know the first line to a book before I start writing. But recently I've had to face facts and at least now I've figured out why knowing the first line is so important.
The first line is everything. Everything.
It's the entry into the book. It sets the tone, it sets the time and it sets the place. It sets the character, it sets the POV and the tense. It defines the book. And of course you can go back and change it later, but for me the entire story changes depending on when, where and how it starts. Trust me, the book I ended up writing for Book 2 is VERY different from what I'd been writing before with a different first line. And honestly, once I had the right first line, it all clicked into place where it hadn't clicked before.
So that's where I find myself now. -- casting about for the right first line. It can be quite maddening, really, because the need to write builds and builds inside me and I can't do anything about it until I have that line. Yes I know, I know, why don't I just throw something down on paper and get started -- there are always revisions? But I think part of the way it works for me is like an egg timer or something. The "ding" is when I get the first line. Maybe before that point I don't have it all sorted out in my head, maybe the idea needs more time to coalesce.
All I know is that right now I want to try writing this story, but I don't know where it starts. Oddly, I know many of the plot points (which I rarely know before starting a book), but not the beginning. It's quite frustrating!
Hey! As y'all know, I'm part of a group of YA and MG debut authors called the 2009 Debutantes. Throughout the course of the year I'm going to be hosting many of them on my blog as part of a Deb Blog Tour (Stacey Jay was my first guest last week!). So here's my question... what do you want to know about these debut authors and their books? I've been trying to come up with a set of interview questions when it occurred to me that since y'all are the ones who will be reading the interviews that maybe y'all are the ones who can help me come up with questions! I also want to make sure that for those of you reading other Debs blogs you don't get bored :)
In other news, it snowed last night! Just a dusting which of course will paralyze the city for hours I'm sure. But it's still pretty nonetheless!
Drumroll please.... the winners of a personalized, autographed copy of Saundra Mitchell's amazing debut, SHADOWED SUMMER, are....
Please email me at carrie @ carrieryan.com and let me know how you'd like the book to be personalized and where I should send it. Cause it doesn't come out for another week, it might be a little bit until I can send it out :)
Congrats!! And thanks to everyone else who entered - I loved all the excitement! And because so many people are stoked to read this book, I'll be giving away two more next week to celebrate the official release day!!
Okay, I have to say that this week has been off to a good start :) This morning I was scrolling through the Publishers Weekly reviews (as I do every Monday morning hoping to spot good reviews for friends) when I saw my name, my title, and a STAR!! Seriously, I clapped my hands over my mouth and started screaming and laughing with pure joy/excitement/relief/amazement/shock -- you name it and I was probably feeling it!
And then, just as I'm starting to calm down a bit, I heard a knock at the door and it was the FedEx man with a package from Random House. Inside, a copy of my book. My real book -- finished, done. Like, what will be going on the shelves in 35 days.
Wow! What a great morning!! I can't wait for JP to come home so we can celebrate (and finally pop that bottle of champagne left over from new years :)
Here's the Publisher's Weekly review: Mary's village has been trapped for generations by a very near, very visible menace: the Unconsecrated—insatiable, flesh-eating zombies that constantly tear at the village's fences. Yet the Sisterhood—a conventlike order of religious women charged to protect the village's survival—is as much responsible for the submission of Mary's village as the Unconsecrated. When the fences are breached and the village overrun, Mary and several others escape through gated paths and arrive deep into the Forest of Hands and Teeth, forced to search beyond it for their future. Mary's observant, careful narration pulls readers into a bleak but gripping story of survival and the endless capacity of humanity to persevere. That Mary maintains emotional distance serves to render her yearnings and romantic feelings even more poignant and powerful. Fresh and riveting. And here's a picture of The Boss with a copy of my finished real book -- he approves, thankfully! (we all know that The Boss can be quite persnickety about his likes and dislikes!)
Just a reminder for y'all to enter my giveaway for an autographed (and personalized!) copy of SHADOWED SUMMER by Saundra Mitchell! Just post a comment on my blog or LJ to be entered and for an extra entry, link to the giveaway and put your link in the comments so I know you've done it :) I'll pick a winner some time after midnight on Monday! And I'm giving away two copies so there will be two winners!
And just to entice you more, check out this awesome review!
 I couldn't be more thrilled to be hosting debut YA author Stacey Jay on my blog today. For those of you who don't know Stacey and her book, YOU ARE SO UNDEAD TO ME, she's a fellow zombie author and you know, we zombie chicks have to stick together! Also, check out her cover -- I LOVE that cover!
About the book: Megan Berry's social life is so dead. Literally. Fifteen-year-old Megan Berry is a Zombie Settler by birth, which means she's part-time shrink to a bunch of dead people. All Megan wants is to be normal--and go to homecoming. But someone in school is using black magic to turn average, angsty Undead into flesh-eating Zombies, and it's looking like homecoming will turn out to be a very different kind of party--the bloody kind.
About the author: Stacey Jay is a workaholic with three pen names, four kids, and a decidedly macabre sense of humor. She loves zombies, creepies, crawlies, blood, guts, gore, and of course, romance. "You are So Undead to Me", Stacey's debut paranormal Young Adult Romance featuring Zombie Settler, Megan Berry will be a January 22nd 2009 release from Razorbill books.
The Interview:
My blog is known as Carrie's Procrastinary Outlet which  showcases my penchant for procrastination and making up words. First... do you ever struggle with procrastination and what do you do to (a) procrastinate and/or (b) not procrastinate.
I don't like to call it procrastination, I call it internet research. Lol. Yes, I struggle. Daily. The internet is The Evil Time Suck. I try my best to avoid the lure of blogs--mommy blogs, writer blogs, blogs about cupcakes, I'll read just about everything--but it's hard. When it really comes time to buckle down and get things done, I have to turn off the internet. Or better yet, go someplace without Wifi access.
Second, what are your favorite made up words?
Scrimshank--something sketchy and potentially painful if handled improperly. My husband and I made this one up years ago and it's still a favorite.
What's your favorite flavor or Dum Dum? (or alternatively, if you eschew Dum Dum's what's your favorite candy?)
 Cherry, but my four year old steals them all before I can get to them.
Do you like playing board/card games? If so, which ones?
"Candyland" is a daily occurance around my house. As is "Don't wake the Hulk", a new one my son got for Christmas that sends him into giddy, twitchy fits when the Hulk actually does wake up. VERY exciting stuff.
If it could rain anything (cats, men, fish, frogs) what would you choose?
Diapers. Those things are expensive! Or maybe beer. Can I say that on a young adult blog?
Lightening round, choose one: PJ's when writing all day or actually getting dressed?
PJ. No time for dressing.
Law or Order?
Order. Who cares about law as long as we're all getting along.
Left or Right?
Left. It's different, but still a hand.
Thanks Stacey Jay!!
Hello all! Today I'm super excited to bring you an interview with my friend, imprint buddy, and all around fabulous author, Saundra Mitchell. Her debut novel, SHADOWED SUMMER (Amazon, B&N, Indiebound), is coming out in less than two short weeks (!!!!) and at the end of this post I'll have details for how you can win an autographed copy of this really amazing book.
A bit about the book: I love the tagline for SHADOWED SUMMER: In a town as small as Ondine, every secret is a family secret. It's about a girl growing up in Louisiana one hot summer who begins to be haunted by the ghost of a boy who disappeared years ago. But the book is more than that, it's about friendship and that age when suddenly your best friends start to notice boys and your friendships are tested. It's about growing up, and realizing that you're growing up.
A bit about the author: Saundra is a screenwriter and author. She's funny, she's brilliant with graphic design, and she writes phrases that make me literally put her work down so that I can close my eyes and savour them.
The interview:
My blog is known as Carrie's Procrastinary Outlet which showcases my penchant for procrastination and makig up words. First... do you ever struggle with procrastination and what do you do to (a) procrastinate and/or (b) not procrastinate.
The answer to both a and b is housekeeping. The procrastination starts with some light desk organizing, and has been known to mushroom into tasks like painting the hallway ceilings, or organizing the linen closets.
And the thing is, I hate to clean. I loathe it, I find it deeply unjust that it must be done. So I do eventually get to the point where I would rather write than clean, and the procrastination is over... for the moment.
Second, what are your favorite made up words?
Oh, I like bazam which is a catch-all for full of awesome and other essential win. (She's all sparkly with bazam! Ooh, he's got some bazam right there!) I'm also on the sauce- awesomesauce, failsauce, winsauce, pwnsauce.
According to ads on the internet, Chuck has pre-ordered your book. What do you think draws Chuck to Shadowed Summer (other than its obvious awesomeness).
I feel I have to be honest- Chuck Bass would hate my book. It's languorous and longing, and entirely chaste- not his speed at all. However, Blair Waldorf, closet classicist and romantic. would love it. Therefore, Chuck would buy my book and carry it around, just to annoy Blair.
And I have to say- I'm okay with that!
What is some good advice you've gotten during your career as a writer? Any advice you've gotten that you think is worth ignoring?
I think the best advice I ever got was to avoid listening to advice. Seek counsel, definitely; take critique, absolutely. But the only way to write a book is to sit down and write it. Anybody who says that you must outline, you must not outline, you must do character sheets, you must know whether they call it soda or pop- they're talking about what works for them. Every writer has to figure out their own method and you can make yourself sick trying to fit other people's conceptions of HOW TO WRITE.
 What's your favorite flavor of Dum Dum?
Root beer! I love root beer lollies.
Do you like playing board/card games? If so, which ones?
I'm from Indiana, so by law, I have to enjoy playing Euchre, and I do. But board and card games invariably tick me off. There's something about the repetitiveness, same board, same pieces, same color, same suits, blar! They make me crabby.
If it could rain anything (cats, men, fish, frogs) what would you choose?
Money, duh.
Then again, are we talking about small, localized showers, or worldwide deluge? Because if it's raining money everywhere, dude, inflation nightmare time. Can I offer you a wheelbarrow of million dollar bills for a loaf of bread, please? Also, if it rained change, that would hurt.
This question is surprisingly difficult.
Okay! If it were raining in my back yard only, then money. If it were raining everwhere, Skittles. Taste the rainbow, right?
Lightening round, choose one: PJ's when writing all day or actually getting dressed?
Sweats, so technically, I am dressed while I'm in my PJs!
Law or Order?
Oooh, that's hard. That's like asking, Briscoe Pun or McCoy Loophole. How do you survive without both??
Zombie or Unicorn (only fair you fess up on this one since you ask it during your interviews!)
Zombies forever!
Left or Right?
I actually can't tell my left from my right unless I raise my hands. (Left hand makes an L!) So I say both. Or neither!
Head, shoulders, knees or toes?
Shoulders. Ooooh, shoulders. I bought A Great and Terrible Beauty and A Northern Light on the same day because of the girls with their pretty shoulders and profiles on the covers. I  love shoulders. You know who has good shoulders? Sendhil Ramamurthy. Hello kitty; that's some bazam right there.
Cats or Dogs. If cats -- the boss or the mailroom clerk?
Cats! And the clerk. After what happened to that intern, I avoid the boss!
Now for the GIVEAWAY! I truly am so excited for SHADOWED SUMMER to come out and to finally be able to share the love. So leave a comment on either my blog or livejournal to be entered in a drawing for an autographed copy of SHADOWED SUMMER (I'll be giving away TWO). You get an extra entry if you also link to the contest (and put the link in the comments so I know). I'll choose a winner midnight (eastern) on Monday.
And speaking of giveaways, Saundra is having a huge one at her site soon -- go check it out!!
Hey Y'all! We're back from Curacao and had a fantastic time! I promise to post more about it soon (and to post more pics) but first I wanted to share that news I talked about before I left... I've sold a third book to Delacorte Press! Squee!!! I don't have much more info about it -- we're not sure yet what the book will be (if it will be another book set in the same world as The Forest of Hands and Teeth and its sequel or totally different) but I do know that it should be coming out in Spring 2011. Yay!!!!
Brainz for everyone to celebrate!
Hello all! I can't thank you enough for the birthday wishes -- seriously y'all made my day feel so special!!
Sorry to say, not going to be able to share that news today but almost certainly when I get back. Yes, that makes me a tease and for that I apologize. Yay, I turned in my revised draft of book two (DTW) today! I have many many errands to run and bags to pack to get ready for my trip to Curacao, but just wanted to pop by and say good-bye and I'll be back in a week!
And just so I don't leave you empty-handed, may I present double-decker cats:
First, happy birthday to me. Wheee!!
Second, happy first month of Debsness!! Squeee! Third, I don't think I'll be able to share that news I was going to share until after I get back from Curacao. But I have other news to share! I think I do at least... I can't remember right now as brain is fully congealed from revisions. Huzzah!
Fourth, I've finished rewriting the end of Book 2 and now just have to read it again and tidy things up a bit! Hurrah!
Fifth, I should be getting the cover for Book 2 soon which, now that I think of it, probably means that I can share the title since I guess it must not be changing! w00t!
And finally, now that I am out of exclamations, I must go to bed and dream of cakes and candles and zombies. Yay sleep!
 Hey y'all! I have good news! I found out that The Forest of Hands and Teeth has been chosen as a Junior Library Guild Selection! It's their YA book for April, 2009!! I'm super excited and thrilled about this! I'm also very honored because they have chosen so many fantastic books and it's just very cool to see my book listed in such amazing company.
In other news, it's my birthday on Thursday. Astute readers of the blog will remember that in my family we don't just celebrate the day, but the entire season. So this is officially my birthday season. And I have to say that my fiance, JP, has really topped all gift-giving this year because for Christmas and my birthday he surprised me with a vacation!! On Friday we leave for a week of scuba diving, reading, relaxing, eating, etc in Curacao! Go JP!
Speaking of JP and how amazingly wonderful he is, he's just had a story published in Tower of Light called Those Who Fear. This was one of the stories that he wrote when he and his brother were challenging each other to weekly fiction writing goals and the pitch (the theme or starting point) of their challenge that week was "Those who fear are lost." This is probably one of my favorite stories of his because I think funny is hard and this one cracks me up. I've always begged him to turn this one into a series!
 And speaking of funny stories, I'm reading an AMAZING book right now. Unfortunately it's an ARC and won't be out until May 14, but DULL BOY by Sarah Cross is incredible. I plan to gush more about this book in future posts, but wow. I wish I could be as funny, sardonic, and poignant as Sarah is in her writing. If it weren't for revisions, I'd still be in bed reading it (actually, I would be in bed sleeping because I would have stayed up all night reading it!).
And speaking of revisions, they will be done by the end of the week. w00t. And speaking of w00t, I should have more great news to share in the next few days. Hopefully by the time I leave for Curacao at least.
Happy Monday everyone!
You know you're deep deep in revisions when you're standing in front of the mirror in the bathroom at 1:30am and staring at yourself wondering "have I already brushed my teeth tonight?" And then you realize that yes, your breath is minty fresh and your toothbrush is wet and, oh yeah, it's still in your hand. So you did brush your teeth.
It reminds me of a favorite family story of mine. My uncle is a rather brilliant professor but can also get very caught up in his thoughts. According to family lore, one time he was stopped in the stairway at his university by a student and they were discussion something or another. After the conversation my uncle asked "Was I going up the stairs or down the stairs when you stopped me?" The student told him he'd been going up the stairs to which my uncle replied "Good! Then I've had my lunch!"
I'm still in deadline mode but wanted to pop up to announce something really cool! As many of y'all know, I'm part of an awesome group of debut MG and YA authors call the 2009 Debutantes. It's a totally all-inclusive group: anyone with a debut in 2009 can join (there's a similar group for 2010 debuts call the Tenners). For the past year, we've mostly just been a support group, talking about our process, sharing our goals and accomplishments, helping each other out, etc. I've made some great and amazing friends. I've also read some fantastic ARCs :)
Now that 2009 is here, I'm super excited to start pimping some of these books :) While we're not a marketing or promotional group, we do have some cool group projects in the works (and since it's an opt-in type of group with no requirements, not every project will include every deb).
One project that will last all year is the 12 Months of Debsness. It's a really cool give-away I'm super excited about. We'll be posting more about it soon and the first give-away will be January 15th (which just happens to be my birthday!). So be sure to sign up as a watcher on the community to learn how to win!
As wonderful as 2008 was for me (and it was!), I'm also really really looking forward to 2009! I still have that darn head cold I mentioned yesterday and that deadline still looms so I'm not going to get into posting my goals just yet... but some of the things I'm looking forward to in 2009 are seeing The Forest of Hands and Teeth come out, seeing the cover for the sequel, writing a third book and settling into the job of full time writer (and really seeing what I can do with more time!).
I've met so many wonderful writing friends who also have debuts out in 2009 which will make the entire year just amazing and exciting. My imprint buddy, Saundra Mitchell (whose book, Shadowed Summer I LOVE LOVE LOVE) even got her first review from Kirkus (which said "readers will appreciate the suspenseful plot and tragic story") so the good news is already rolling in!
On the personal front, I'm also looking forward to a few trips that I have planned and perhaps -- if we can ever get things organized and pulled together -- actually getting married :)
Here's to a fabulous new year for everyone! Cheers!!
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Today I'm super excited to be hosting Jenny Moss, author of Winnie's War, a debut novel set against the backdrop of the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918.
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