More zombies than usual...

Thanks for all the ideas for FAQs!!! I can't wait to show off my new site!

A while back I posted a little lol about my book. I mean for real, what can be better than kittens+zombies+lolspeak? (feel free to answer that in the comments).

So imagine my delight when my friend, and amazing author, Saundra Mitchell, sent me this!

Yes, it is a good day!

It's Content Time, Baby!

So my fabulous web designer has sent the prelim design for my website and I love it! I love all her sites (which is one reason I begged her to take me on right after I sold even though she was booked solid), but still - I was so afraid to send her my thoughts when it came time to start the design because I was afraid I wouldn't be able to ever articulate what I like in a website and what I don't like. Hence the delay in getting it done... me not pulling the trigger.

Anyways, all that aside, we're getting closer! So now it's time for me to write content! And what's funny about this is that while I've been happily typing away on Book 2, ideas flowing wonderfully around me, when I sit down to write a FAQ page (notwithstanding the irony of never having been asked any questions much less frequently) I stare at a blank page... no ideas to be found.

So that's where y'all come in! Do you have any questions for me? Even if you don't, are there things you like to know about your authors in general? Questions that you love to see asked and answered? Ideas for what I can put on the FAQ?

Any other content ideas, throw em at me :) Thanks!!

Back Cover Copy (and other book ods and ends)

So it occurred to me that I haven't ever shared the back cover copy for The Forest of Hands and Teeth. In fact, it feels like I haven't talked about The Forest of Hands and Teeth in a bit. I am here to remedy that.

First, here is the back cover copy (this is what I have on the jacket proof which is different from what's on Amazon... I don't know which trumps but I'm assuming the dust jacket).

In Mary's world, there are simple truths.

The Sisterhood always knows best.

The Guardians will protect and serve.

The Unconsecrated will never relent.

And you must always mind the fence that surrounds the village. The fence that protects the village from the Forest of Hands and Teeth.

But slowly, Mary's truths are failing her. She's learning things she never wanted to know about the Sisterhood and its secrets, and the Guardians and their power. And, when the fence is breached and her world is thrown into chaos, about the Unconsecrated and their relentlessness.

Now she must choose between her village and her future, between the one she loves and the one who loves her. And she must face the truth about the Forest of Hands and Teeth. Could there be life outside a world surrounded by so much death?

Very exciting! Technically, that's on the inside flap of the dust jacket. On the back in a beautiful glossy red box (the image of the forest wraps around the spine and across the back as well) is a blurb from Melissa Marr (I can't remember if I shared it before so I'll share it now) that says:

Opening The Forest of Hands and Teeth is like cracking Pandora's box; a blur of darkness and a precious bit of hope pour out. This is a beautifully crafted, page-turning, powerful novel. I thoroughly enjoyed it!"
- Melissa Marr, bestselling author of Wicked Lovely and Ink Exchange.

Thanks Melissa!!! Also exciting is that FHT is up for pre-order (or at least listed) in a few places!
Amazon
Barnes & Noble (not for pre-order yet)
Target

The book also got a shout out on A Fuse #8 Production! And hopefully, I'll be able to share some other fun news soon as well!

I have to admit, it's been very cool and surreal to see mentions of FHT popping up on the internet. I mean, for so long, the only people who have known anything about it are somehow connected with me -- message boards, LJ, related, etc. But to see random mentions... it's like, wow, this book is out there now and totally out of my hands. I get little bursts of joy when I see it mentioned and actually seeing someone like it is really an amazing feeling.

In other news, I bought a new toy for our house: an Apple Time Capsule. This sucker is a router, a print server, and a 500G hard drive. We named it Tardis. It only took a little wrestling to get it installed. For real, the sticking point is that rather than unplugging the cable modem for 30 full seconds when I was installing everything, I unplugged it for 25 seconds. Picky little sucker. But now we have all sorts of back-up for our computers! Yay!

On the Work/Life Balance

Recently, my fiance JP also blogged about the work/life balance.  Since I've been struggling with the whole balance issue myself recently, I thought I'd blog about it.

I think JP brings up a lot of good points, one of them being:

My other thought is that you need to take the time you need to get things done right. And that means that sometimes writing needs to win out, and that means sometimes the Day Job or other things need to win out. The trick is to keep one from pushing other off the face of the map, particularly writing. Too many people let the stress of life be an excuse not to write, myself included. Conversely, though, you shouldn't let the drive to write add more stress to an already stressful period.

 As JP points out in his post, there are a lot of people who will say that if you truly love writing, if you truly are a writer, then you'll find the time to write.  No matter what.  You'll sacrifice everything else before you'll sacrifice writing.  But I think that is unreasonable when you've also got other things going on in life: day job, raising kids, moving, a budding relationship, etc.  It's just a fact of life that sometimes, other things will have to come first.

Conversely, I hear from a ton of writers who never put writing first.  Family, job, cleaning the house, volunteer work, exercise, cooking, etc. always comes first.  This is also unreasonable if you want to be a professional writer.

We all know that a writer writes -- it's the bottom line of the profession.  How that happens?  That's the difficulty.  And yeah, it's going to take sacrifice.  If you want to sell a book, I don't think you can just throw writing on at the end of your priorities and have that be enough.  Just the opposite, I think that it has to come first (and has to come first a lot).  That's why I'll be eating a frozen dinner tonight.  And tomorrow night.  And every night this week -- because it takes a lot of time to cook and that's time I could be writing.  That's why our house is often messy -- because we write rather than clean.  That's why our garden isn't winning us any awards in our neighborhood.

We had to prioritize.  One of the first things to go -- most TV shows.  Did I *really* need to know who the last Cylon was right when the rest of the world found out (or has it even been revealed yet)?  Nope, that's what Netflix is for.  Do I *really* have to see the million different shows about planning a wedding?  Nope, that's what eloping is for (just kidding mom!).  Even when I go online and find myself following comment trails on blogs and message boards I ask myself: do I really need to spend time doing this?

And sometimes the answer is yes, sometimes other things must take priority.  Yes, JP and I take the time to walk the dog and spend time together.  We take the time for our day jobs because we happen to like our house.  But we looked at what could go, and we cut it.  I do think often that's the investment writing to go pro requires.

But you know, the thing is, sometimes life just gets in the way.  You meet someone new.  You get buried at work.  Sometimes, even though it's a big priority, writing just has to get bumped down for your own sanity.  For me, the key is then to ENJOY that time not writing.  I think of it like dieting, if you're going to eat that tres leches cake, enjoy it!  Don't sneak it in, pretend you're not eating it -- no! sit there and savor it!  Same thing with time off -- admit that you're taking time off.  Live with the decision, and don't beat yourself up.  But also acknowledge that taking that time might mean extending personal deadlines -- again, you have to make that decision knowingly and honestly and then live with it!

In the end, remember that you're going to mess up.  We're human, it happens.  Sometimes the alarm will go off at 5:30 and you'll jump out of bed ready to write.  Sometimes you'll keep hitting snooze until your fiance rips the clock cord out of the wall.  I think it's a constant struggle and it constantly needs tweaking.  Bottom line, I think you just have to be honest with yourself.  It's way too easy to fritter away time rather than being conscious about the choices you're making.

All that being said... I have some pages to write :)  What are y'all's thoughts on the work/life balance?

Clean house, clean mind

Since this blog is all about procrastination, I thought I'd talk about it some more.  In college, my favorite form of procrastination was cleaning.  And I'm generally not a huge fan of cleaning.  And I'm also really really messy.  I try not to be messy, but inertia tends to lead me in that direction.  I think part of my problem is that I like stuff and form stupid superstitious attachments to things easily.  For example, from cleaning out my apartment FIVE years after college:  "Oh, that's the shirt I wore for my ninth grade school picture, I can't get rid of THAT!"

So, as you can imagine, there's clutter.  Thinking back to this room yesterday afternoon:  I still had Christmas cards on display.  I had a calendar on the wall from 2007 (but it has pics of my niece and nephews which I love).  Old phonebooks - check!  Magazines (bridal, Publishers Weekly, Romance Writers Report).  In this room alone were four computers!  And for some reason, a burned out lightbulb in a basket.  With dog toys.  And pens, half of which don't work.  And PILES of mail.

As you can see, clutter.  Even when I get into a mood to throw away, I always have some stupid reason to hang onto things (what if the power goes out and we need the energy company number and can't find the most recent phone book?  Maybe if I scribble enough I can make some of these pens work...etc).

I realized that for the last few weeks, it's been more difficult to write.  Then yesterday, JP and I spent all afternoon cleaning and THROWING AWAY CLUTTER.  Our hurby curby is full!  And suddenly... I'm writing more.

My mom used to say, clean house, clean mind (I think she said that, at least).  I thought it was just a trick to make me clean my room.  But now I think she's right.  Not only was cleaning a great way to procrastinate writing papers in college, it put everything else around me in order so I wasn't distracted.  Sitting here now, with the mountain of mail gone, dog toys put away, a broken piece of furniture moved out, I feel lighter.  We still have a way to go, but the bookcase is in order, the floors are clear, and I can see the top of our huntboard.  JP and I were even able to eat dinner and play Scrabble on the dining room table!

Plus, it feels good to have accomplished a goal that's been hanging on my back for a while.  It's like, if I can clear things away in life, I can clear them away in my head.  

So that's one of my procrastination techniques.  Oddly, it's a circular game because when I don't want to clean I procrastinate by.... writing.  Go figure!  What are some of your favorite procrastination techniques?

Manuscript Maven Jamboree!

A little note to say that the Manuscript Mavens are having our first Anniversary Jamboree! There are prizes, books, and answers to those questions everyone has always wondered! So pop on over and check it out!

Today's question asks what's the best Halloween costume you've worn? Ironically, I was just home this weekend scanning in pictures and I happened to scan in one from Halloween my first year of law school. I was a Bond girl... wish I could remember my Bond name.... and for some reason Blogger is being mean and won't let me post the picture so you'll have to go HERE to my LJ to see it. 

Suggested Bond names welcome in the comments :)  So head over to the Maven site and let me know -- what's your favorite Halloween costume?

Author Photo - the results

Hello world!  Insert obligatory apology for not posting more.  You know it's been a while when your mother reminds you to post on your blog so she knows what's going on in your life.  Mayhap I should call home a little more often....

Recently I posted about getting author photos taken... well, here are two of the ones I really liked.  I have to admit, the photographer did a fantastic job -- everyone did.  It was fun to feel like a superstar for a few hours with people slowing their cars down to wonder who the chick was and why people would be taking her picture.  I had tons of pics to choose from, but I think I like these two the best.  What do you think?

We just got back from our annual treck to the beach for the Fourth of July.  Growing up, my family used to go spend the summer at my grandparent's house on Cape Cod.  I have amazing memories of these summers.  Even though they all tumble together into one happy blur of sailing, sitting on rocks watching the sunset, the generic car, Crystal Lake (yes, that was the name of the lake) and more memories than I could ever list here, they're all how I think of "summer."  

Going to JP's family's house at the beach reminds me of those times.  It's something about how laid back it all feels, about the layers of history you feel in every aspect of life there, and about the smell of a house near the ocean that doesn't always run the air conditioner.  There's just that same sense of pace to it all - nothing exists outside of that house and its world.

This time, it was interesting to stand on the dock and look down at the tide filling the marsh and take a snapshot of life how it is now.  This time last year I was revising The Forest of Hands and Teeth.  I was looking for a new day job.  I wasn't yet engaged (though to us that was just a technicality).  This year I've signed with an agent, sold a book, started to get feedback on that book from readers, gotten engaged.  Next year... who knows?  JP and I should hopefully be married (if we get around to planning the wedding), my book will be out, the book I'm writing now should be finished and hopefully I'll be writing a third.

I think it's nice to take stock of things every now and again.  It's so easy to head-down and plow through life -- looking towards the weekend or waiting for ARCs or wondering about things off in the future -- that we fail to think about where we are now.  Where we've come from and where we're going.  It's crazy how much things can change in a year!

He's a Pro!

A while back y'all may remember me announcing the news of JP's first pro-level sale. The post is here. Now, many of you may not be familiar with the short story market (esp. the SFF short story market) I certainly wasn't before JP started writing in it. But it's a tough market -- an incredibly tough market. And there are levels -- SFWA (Sci Fi Writers of America) has guidelines which essentially rank markets and the highest level is pro -- it's a tough market to crack!

Baen's Universe is one of the pro-level markets and a while back they created an "introducing slot." The way I think of it is that these are writers who Baen's wants to claim saying "we're the ones that found him! We're the ones to thank for bringing you this amazing new talent!"

JP is one of Baen's Universe's introducing writers for June with his story, Spamdemonium. It's an amazing story. I thought it was an amazing story when he first wrote it years ago. And the story behind his sale is even more amazing. He wrote Spamdemonium a long time ago, back after we'd conceived of the 10 Year Plan. He submitted it to Baen's and got feedback which he used to revise before submitting it again. It was passed up the main editors out of the slush and there it sat. And sat. And sat. For over a year. For 480 days.

Mike Resnick spoke at ConCarolinas about being an editor for Baen's and the time the slush readers sent way too many stories up for review -- hundreds of them. And how it took almost a year to cull through them. He said that only those amazing few made it past his review-- and one of those was JP's. And I know this because after Mike's talk JP introduced himself and Mike told that to him-- that JP must have been one of the few really incredible ones. For those of you counting, his story came out 735 days after submission. Wow!!

I'm in constant awe of short story writing. I'm amazed at the economy of words, the ability to parse things down to their most important. I realized a long time ago that I would write novels because I don't have the skill for short stories -- I'm way too verbose.

But JP has that talent. He really is an inspiration. And I have learned a lot from him and his writing.

So I urge you to check out his first pro-level sale, Spamdemonium. It's worth it! Totally worth the wait!!

Plus they commissioned original art to go along with his story -- how cool is that?

This morning in the Ryan-Davis household

JP: get up

Carrie: grrrmmmph

JP: get up or I shall sick my minions on you

Carrie: please not the dogs

JP: don't think I won't do it

Carrie: I dreamt of zombies last night

JP: I'm so proud of you!

Carrie: twice. I dreamt of zombies twice.

JP: awesome!

And the thing is, the man wasn't being sarcastic! Welcome to our life.

Oh, and very oddly, the first time I dreamt of zombies, Gena Showalter was there. It was a zombie attack and I was running to get away from them and I see Gena coming out of a restaurant gripping her side. She was getting into a zippy black little sports car -- clearly a chauffeured car -- but no one would drive it cause they thought she was about to turn. Me, I wanted that car so I could get far far away. So I asked her "are you about to turn into a zombie?" her: "no, I know I look like it, but no." So I asked her where her hotel was and drove her there. I mean, I drove right inside the doors of the hotel and left her off at the elevator -- talk about door to door service! I hope she made it to her room without becoming a zombie!!

Picture Day!

Yes, I recognize y'all are due for a longer post about ARCs, etc., but my family has been asking for photos so it is photos I shall post! Yesterday I went to get my picture taken for the book and while I don't have any of the official photos yet (and won't for a few weeks), I did take a few with my own camera. So here they are!

It was an interesting day -- the air conditioning in the photography studio broke and it was ninety degrees inside when we showed up. Thankfully another photographer owed my photographer a favor and she let us use her studio. She even helped out! So we were our own little posse traipsing down the street taking pictures wherever seemed cool -- railroad tracks, fences, broken down sheds. Even with all the delays I think we timed it right because even I (not a photographer and knowing little about it) recognized how cool the light was at the end of the day. And my photographer seemed pretty excited about it too! he was really fantastic, made me feel like a supah-star! I knew watching ever season of America's Next Top Model would work out in my favor one day!!

For some reason, more than anything else since selling the book, getting the picture taken has been a stresser. I think I finally figured out that it's the permanence of it -- this is the picture that will go on the cover. This is the picture that readers will associate with me, that will say "This is Carrie Ryan, author of The Forest of Hands and Teeth." And while I doubt people really care about the author photo, it's still a matter of figuring out what you want to convey. My book is dark, I'm generally upbeat -- how do you reconcile that in a picture?

So I just took my dust jacket with me, showed the photographer where the picture would be going. He was very excited about the idea of post-apocalypse and zombies and he ran with it. He really got into it which I loved.

Fingers crossed the pictures turn out!

ARCs!!!!

Agent as Terrifying Beast

This is cross posted from the Manuscript Mavens!

Last week I was talking about a conference I went to and some of the writing myths that I kept hearing over and over again. This week, I want to talk about another myth: the agent as terrifying beast.

Someone at the con told the story of a friend of hers who was so stressed out every time her agent called -- so terrified and nervous -- that she had to get a phone with a mute button so that she could take the call in the bathroom. We're not talking about the first time they talked, we're talking years of this.

Yes, it's easy to get nervous when you're talking to agents, especially the first time. And yes, my heart was pounding when I first talked to my agent on the phone. But the thing to remember is that you and your agent are partners -- you're working together to get the best deal that you can get (for you personally and your book).

I think sometimes it's easy to feel like it's us versus them: the writers versus the agents who are the gatekeepers to our goals. But like I said last week, agents want to make a sale as much as writers do. Agents want to find that great book, that promising client to work with.

Sometimes I hear writers who are terrified to ask their agent questions and raise legitimate concerns even after they've signed a contract and been repped for a while. They're afraid of being "that client" that all agents dread -- needy, whiny, too much work to want to deal with. Sometimes it's hard to remember that not only are you in a partnership with your agent, you're also in a business relationship. And if you need information to handle your end of the business, you shouldn't hesitate to ask.

At the end of the day, I try to remember that agent and author are working towards the same goal. They're people just like us writers. They hate rejection, just like us writers. And they hope for that amazing sale, just like us.

Titles

My friend, RJ, just posted about titles and it got me thinking. I think titles can be terribly hard to figure out and feel uber lucky that my title (The Forest of Hands and Teeth) was accepted by Delacorte. Incidentally, this book has ALWAYS been FHT even though I never intended that to be it's eventual title. I just titled it that to have something to save it under and it stuck!

Anyways, right now, many of my friends are in that stage where they're having to figure out what their final titles will be -- they sold the book under one title but the publisher wants a different one. Aprilynne's book went from "Autumn's Wings" to "Wings." RJ's book is being published under it's original title "Knife" in the UK, but will be "Knife, The Hunter" in the U.S. And on top of that, other author friends who might be keeping their original titles have to come up with series titles (or maybe they have a series title and need to come up with individual book titles).

And all of this reminds me of two fantastic articles by Barry Eisler that I read a while back about titles and their significance. I think these two articles, more than anything else, totally changed the way I think about titles and titling books.

Part I - Automatic Resonance -- resonance that's present in the title of a book you know nothing else about

Part II - Acquired Resonance -- resonance that's acquired from reading the book

When I think about automatic resonance I think of books that are almost clear on their face -- John Grisham titles, for example. But it doesn't have to be something a clear as a John Grisham, I think a title can also be the way the words converge to evoke a mood (A Great and Terrible Beauty, for example).

Acquired resonance, on the other hand, takes reading the book for the meaning to become really clear. As Barry Eisler points out, a lot of books with place names have acquired resonance (he uses the example of Watership Down). Another example he mentions of acquired resonance is The Kite Runner. I just read this last weekend and I completely agree with him -- The Kite Runner is a title that doesn't mean much until you read the book and then - WOW - powerful title.

Barry goes on to talk about what type of resonance works best for what kind of books and concludes with, "Simply put: automatic resonance tends to help a book gain momentum; acquired resonance is what sustains it."

So here are a few titles that I've been mulling over as I ponder automatic and acquired resonance. What are your thoughts (on these titles or on the idea of resonance period?) Any other titles that spring to mind?

Shadowed Summer (Saundra Mitchell)
Flash Burnout (LK Madigan)
Fairy Lust (Cyn Balog)
The Demon's Lexicon (Sarah Rees Brennan)
Wings (Aprilynne Pike)

And of course, there's also my title - haha! And if you're interested in learning more about these books (which might help with figuring out acquired resonance) you can find them all here.

Five things on a Friday

I've never done a Five things on Friday before! But, well, I felt like posting. Now let's see if I can come up with stuff to say..... and yes, Maggie, I do remember that I owe you a meme :)

1. Books! I love books. This is kind of a duh statement, I recognize. But it's more than just reading books and talking about books, I love being surrounded by books. And, as I mentioned the other day, Amazon Prime is like a drug pusher. Every time I even think about a book, I'm usually hovering over the "order now" button on the Amazon website. In fact, even though JP bought me a new bookcase of our anniversary (that man knows how to give gifts), it's already full! But let me tell you, I got some awesome books this week and am so excited about reading them all!

2. ARCs. A friend of mine just got her ARCs which makes me so giddy for her! She's also Delacorte Spring 2009 which means that I am now obsessively checking my front porch when I get home from work (oddly, UPS delivers the Amazon packages to the side door that we regularly use -- very nice of them). I think I'm a while off yet and trust me, when they arrive you will hear the shouts of glee through your computer screens :)

3. WIPs. I'm in the middle of writing Book 2. Um.... and that's that I guess :)

4. Zombies. Not only did JP and I get some awesome zombie games as ConCarolinas last weekend, I also ordered Diary of the Dead and it arrived yesterday (thank you Amazon Prime!). So it's shaping up to be a very zombie weekend. I was at a summer associate event for JP's firm last night and we were talking to one of the associates about the Con (she's a HUGE Star Wars fan complete with tattoos) and some of the summer associates joined the conversation. I'm not quite sure they didn't think we were crazy what with the chatter about the costumes, etc. But the costumes there were really cool -- I'd never seen anything like it before!

5. Friends. Can I just say that I love my friends? It's just like this amazing warm fuzzy feeling to know that there are people you can go to with almost anything and they'll understand -- be it writing related, life related, day job related. And it's not just about having someone there when you need it, it's having someone there to gab with, to just share life. If I don't say it enough, thanks :)

Yummy books!!

I have been so excited about this book and it's finally here! I love Amazon Prime -- this actually arrived yesterday on its release date. Congrats on the release Sarah!! Now to dig in!!
The Magic Thief, by Sarah Prineas. You can get it here. And the sticker on the cover points to a special website just for the book!

The Con Agent

This is crossposted from the Manuscript Mavens:

This weekend I went to a local con - ConCarolinas (for a recap, see JP's post here). It was awesome -- totally tons of fun and my first SFF con! Of course, because I didn't even hear about the con until the Monday before and therefore couldn't pre-register, I went rather stealth :)

But here's the thing, over the course of the day I attended, I heard a few authors give advice that kinda made me squirm. And it made me want to blog about it because I felt like some of this advice was perpetuating some myths about agents and getting an agent. Of course, rule number one that I must highlight is that there are often no hard and fast rules. Everyone has their own approach and you have to figure out what works best for you. Even so... here are my thoughts on some oft perpetuated myths (spread out over a few posts...).

One thing that really stuck out to me: a few people (and some of them well published authors) said that the best was to get an agent was to go to cons. Now, while I agree that you can make some great connections at conventions, if you're *only* going so you can attend a pitch session and stalk some agents at the bar, you're wasting your money. Here's the thing, you can be the most fun person ever, you and the agent you meet can go get manis and pedis, you can spend all night sharing embarassing stories and margaritas, but if your book isn't any good, none of that matters. Sure, knowing the agent might get a little more attention, but you still have to deliver the goods.

Agents are generally on the lookout for books they can sell -- they want to fall in love when they open their slush. You don't have to go to cons and meet agents in person in order to have them fall in love with your work. Trust me, I've met plenty of agents at cons and none of them ended up offering me representation for my book (in fact, one of my queries didn't make it past the slush reader for an agent I'd met several times). All the offers I got were from the good old fashioned slush pile. Yes, agents do read queries and they request pages and they make offers without having ever met you!

Don't get me wrong, cons are great things. It's a super fun way to meet other like-minded people and to be surrounded with the buzz of it all. Meeting agents is part of that buzz and it's part of the business. But it shouldn't be the only reason you go. Save the money from plane tickets and hotels instead and invest them in stamps :)

More myths to come next week (unless, you know, I forget or get distracted :)

So tell me what you think -- is the best way to get an agent to go to a con?

The beginning part 2... from loving zombies to writing zombies

In my recent post I talked about how I became fascinated with zombies. This post is about how that transitioned into me writing a book with zombies :)

Now, don't think I'm this complete nut-case. It was mostly just a fun thing to talk about every now and again. When we were moving into our new apartment we'd joke of it's capability to withstand the zombie apocalypse. Really, it's not just the zombie apocalypse I find interesting, but any kind of apocalypse and survival.

So when How I Live Now and Life as we Knew It came out and I read them back to back in the fall of 2007, I was in heaven. Two YA books touching on the subject I loved: how to survive the unexpected. And I wanted more. But I couldn't find other books like this.

About that time, I was in transition. I'd gotten a form rejection on a chick-lit YA partial that I thought had a real chance, but the book wasn't finished. I'd just started taking a YA writing class and the heroine of the book I was writing for that sounded too much like my other chick lit YA heroine. I had to clear my mind of her and so I needed a new character -- someone decidedly NOT chick lit. JP suggested I write what I love and I joked "what, the zombie apocalypse?"

It was the end of October, and for Halloween JP and his brother were each writing a zombie flash piece. JP and I were at lunch when he asked me what I thought about a forest full of zombies, right after the apocalypse, and the Forest of Hands and Teeth became so clear to me. JP had a totally different vision than I did -- there were roads and cars in his world and the people lived on the edge of the Forest. But my world was set much later, generations later, in a village set in the middle of the Forest completely cut off from everything. It was so long after the Return (the zombie apocalypse) that memories and history and knowledge had faded.

Still, for a while, it was just a mental exercise. On our walks we'd talk about how such a world would work and I'm not sure JP was convinced of my ideas :) I started NaNo with the second Chick Lit YA and was making progress.

Then, strange as it sounds, one day at work I read an article on CNN about tuna. Now to understand what happens next you have to know something about me... as a kid, I always wondered what would change during my lifetime that I would say to my kids "I remember life before X." Like "I remember life before men walked on the moon." Or "I remember life before color TV." So anyway, I read this article on CNN about tuna and how in a few decades they could be totally fished out. That at some point, the populations will decline rapidly and become protected.

I thought of the cans of tuna on my shelves, how cheap and easy it is to get now. And I thought about telling my kids, way in the future when tuna was rare and rarely eaten, that once upon a time it was cheap and easy. This would be my "I remember life before..." story.

I shrugged away the thought and went back to work. That night, as I was walking to the parking garage, that thought must have still been tumbling through my head because a first line popped into my head: "My mother used to tell me about the ocean."

I remember repeating the line in my head and then I had another line. And something made me whip out my blackberry and email them to myself. When I got home, I should have started working on my NaNo project. But instead I opened the email and pasted the lines into a new document. And then I took off.

When JP came home from work I had over 2k words written. In two weeks I had 20k words. This was the book I wanted to read, and the book I wanted to write, and I loved nothing more than reading it to JP every night when he got home. Regardless of anything else -- its marketability, its saleability, etc. -- this was OUR book, the book I was writing for both of us.

It's always funny to me how life can work out sometimes. Somehow JP talked me into going to see that first zombie movie and that's what started it all. Thanks JP :)

The Beginning part 1.... how I learned to love zombies

So, after my recent post on how much an author should share about their writing, life, etc., it occurred to me that there really is a whole lot I can share that doesn't involve word counts and plot points. And, since I have to start coming up with website content anyways, I might as well start out with a little bit about how I came to write The Forest of Hands and Teeth (that link will take you to my post with the PM announcement for those of you who don't know what my book is about).

I think I've always been afraid to write this story down because I'm afraid of getting it wrong. Or rather, not getting it right. So why not use y'all as guinea pigs!?

For the life of me, I cannot figure out how JP was able to convince me to go with him to see the premiere of Dawn of the Dead (the remake, the one with fast zombies). I am (or was) definitively against horror movies. They scared the blank out me, I didn't like them, I didn't watch them, and I didn't understand them. See, way back when I was a kid, a babysitter came over and my parents went out (and my sisters I guess, all I know is I was home alone with this teen girl). I don't know how old I was, but my parents sold that house when I was 5 so I had to have been younger than that.

Anyway, the babysitter decides to watch a movie, and to convince me to go along she says, "oh, the girl in this movie is just like you! Her name is Caroline, she has long blond hair and is your age. Oh, and she has a walk-in closet full of toys just like yours!" And then she promised me that if I got scared, we could turn it off and go into the other room. As you may have guessed, the movie was Poltergeist and I got scared quick. The babysitter said I could leave the room if I wanted, but the rest of the house was dark and the only way to turn on the lights was to go through that darkness. No way.

So I suffer through. And then my parents come home right at the climax -- right when everything goes to hell. And they turn off the TV and take the babysitter home without pay, and I spend the next however weeks unable to fall asleep in my bed. I sometimes wonder if I'd seen the end of the movie, if I'd seen the resolution, if I'd have been able to get over it. But I didn't and I haven't. Hence my very strong aversion to horror movies and my utter surprise that JP was able to talk me into going to one.

The theater was packed and it was packed with the type of people who love to yell at the screen. To this day I swear I checked the clock on my cell phone every five minutes, mentally calculating when the movie had started, how long it might be, and when it might end. I was terrified. More than anything else, I was stressed -- how were these people going to be able to survive against ever increasing odds?

But it got me thinking... how would you survive something like that? How far would you go? Could you do it? Could I do it? JP and I spent the rest of the night talking about it, it was just fascinating to me. JP suggested other zombie-esque movies like 28 Days Later (and I made him tell me when the scary parts were so I could prepare myself, that's how I made it through.)

A few weeks later we were in the bookstore and JP found The Zombie Survival Guide. It was a total joke at the time, but he bought it and would read aloud from it (we were 3Ls in law school, we had a lot of time and a lot of booze). It too was fascinating because it went beyond the zombie apocalypse dealing with things that hadn't occurred to me before (I know, I know, sounds crazy). But suddenly, the mental game of how to survive became more complicated. And honestly, I started having dreams about zombies.

Over the next few years, JP continued to introduce me to zombie movies and we were both hooked. We'd watch anything with zombies (and there are truly some horribly terrible zombie movies out there).

... to be continued...

How much do you share?

This is cross-posted from my post on the Manuscript Mavens on Tues :)

A writing friend recently asked what my second book was about. Good question. Right now it's a companion book to The Forest of Hands and Teeth, ostensibly it's a sequel but we'll still see if that label fits once it's finished and turned in (incidentally, writing under contract does feel a lot like school, just with longer deadlines before you turn in your homework). As I pondered what more I could say about the book I started to wonder how much people really share about what they're writing.

Early on, when the idea for FHT came to me, I didn't say much about it on my blog. Maybe I didn't want to jinx it, maybe I was following what other writers were doing, but not talking about what I was writing suddenly became my habit. For my previous projects (pre FHT) I had word meters up (which I then protested) and talked at least minimally about what I was writing. And then, at the other end of the spectrum you have authors who have daily updates not only about word count, but also about plot.

On the one hand, I'm a writer and I blog about writing. It seems silly not to talk about what I'm actually working on at any given moment. On the other hand, I don't want to give too much information because I'm very anti-spoiler.

Plus, there's another element at play. It's hard to know how much I'm "supposed" to talk about. Not that there's a blog mafia out there watching my every word, but you start to get advice that maybe you shouldn't complain about writing, maybe you shouldn't talk about the struggles or put up a word count meter that will not only show the added words, but also the deleted words.

Oh, and since I origninally wrote this I found an excellent post by Justine Larbalestier on the topic of word count meters.

So that's the question I ask y'all. As blog readers, how much information do you want? What do you like to read about? As blog writers (or any kind of writer) how much do you share or think you should share?

A drive by posting...

Does anyone remember that scene from Mrs. Doubtfire when (s)he says "It was a drive by fruiting!"? Am I the only one who remembers totally random movie quotes and then uses them all the time?

Anyways, I've been horribly remiss about posting, but remember that I do post every Tuesday over at the Manuscript Mavens :) I've just been lazy about cross-posting those here. I hope to do better (I always hope to do better). In a nutshell, here are the updates...

First, there's been a helicopter hovering over our house ever since I got up this morning. Obama and Clinton have been in the area recently, and I know Chelsea was in the park behind our house last week. Makes me wonder if something exciting is going on outside...

Second, I had a fantastic weekend last weekend at the WRW Retreat in Maryland (that's the Washington DC chapter of RWA). I went mostly to hang out with my friend and CP, Diana Peterfreund, but I was also lucky enough to meet some amazing and terribly fun authors -- Kresley Cole (I now have a stack of her books on my nightstand) and Amanda Brice. It was by far some of the best fun I've had in ages. As much as I adore the online writing community, there's something to be said for sitting with a gallon of vodka and just talking about everything! Also, Kresley gave a fantastic workshop on writing paranormal romance. It was one of those workshops where it all makes so much sense that you don't write notes because you're like "dude, that's so true!" and then afterwards you're like "crap, I need notes!"

Third, I just found this great website -- thanks to Reviewer X for passing it on! It's not only a review site but also has a weekly YA roundup. I'm definitely tuning in!

Fifth, I'm knee deep in Book 2 and it has a title! And even better, I think Delacorte likes the title! But I have no idea how these things go about getting officially approved so until then, I'll just be referring to Book 2 as either B2, WIP, or DTW. Just to keep things confusing :)

Sixth, the puppy is doing great! He's awesome at training and heels, sits, and places beautifully. He really is such a sweet boy! Though occasionally one of the cats will trap him in the kitchen and he whines and whines and whines. Really, it's terribly hard not to laugh!

Seventh, JP is writing a book! And it's awesome and he's racking up words and I've been loving every bit of it! Seriously, I can't wait to read more! Yay JP! Everyone go cheer him on!

Eighth, this weekend is chock full o' fun stuff. Cinco de Mayo party tonight, more margaritas with friends tomorrow, lots of writing and of course chatting with the Debs.

Ninth, soon I shall be working on my website. Anything in particular y'all like to see with websites? Any particular websites y'all like or dislike? Anything you think should be avoided?

Tenth, (really, it was all about trying to get a top ten thing going on here), I finally grabbed the dog and stepped outside to see what was up with the helicopter. To my surprise, this is what I found -- the MetLife blimp has been hovering over our house

PS - bonus picture. Since my family always likes to joke (*cough*) that they keep up with me via my blog, here's a picture of my recent hair cut. Of course here it's all blown out straight, normally it's curly :)