Suite Scarlett by Maureen Johnson

I gobbled up Suite Scarlett!

This is the first Maureen Johnson book I've read and I hope it won't be the last. She is an amazingly witty writer. Her characters were wonderful, from Scarlett (who is adorable), to her brother Spencer (who is hilarious and nuts), to Mrs. Amberson (who is the embodiment of eccentricity), to Eric (who is more complicated than he seems at first).

I enjoyed them all -- their crazy lives and their foibles. Maureen Johnson kept me on my toes with a nice, twisty plot. But overall, this was simply a fun read.
 

Here's the jacket copy to whet your appetite:

Scarlett Martin has grown up in a most unusual way. Her family owns the Hopewell, a small hotel in the heart of New York City. Her nineteen-year-old brother, Spencer, is an out of work actor facing a family deadline to get his career in order. Eighteen-year-old Lola has the delicate looks of a model, the practical nature of a nurse, and a wealthy society boyfriend. Eleven-year-old Marlene is the family terror with a tragic past.

When the Martins turn fifteen, they are each expected to take over the care of a suite in the once elegant, now shabby Art Deco hotel. For Scarlett’s fifteenth birthday, she gets both a room called the Empire Suite, and a permanent guest named Mrs. Amberson. Scarlett doesn’t quite know what to make of this C-list starlet, world traveler, and aspiring autobiographer who wants to take over her life. And when she meets Eric, an astonishingly gorgeous actor who has just moved to the city, her summer takes a second unexpected turn.

With Mrs. Amberson calling the shots, Spencer’s career to save, Lola’s love life to navigate around, and Marlene’s prying eyes everywhere, things won’t be easy. Before the summer is over, Scarlett will have to survive a whirlwind of thievery, Broadway glamour, romantic missteps, and theatrical deception.

The show, as they say, must always go on . . . .

I had to return 13 Little Blue Envelopes, also by Maureen Johnson, to the library before I could read it (somebody else wanted it - garrrh!), but I'm going to get back in line to check it out again. Have you read any Maureen Johnson books? Which are your favorites?

I Don't Like Pain

I'm heading to the doctor's office in about an hour for minor surgery.

I'd appreciate your prayers. I don't know why I feel so nervous about this. I asked my MD father-in-law if the procedure would hurt and he looked at me like I was crazy.

"You've given birth four times and you're worried about THIS?"

I just don't do well with annoying pain. You know, pain that throbs or stings and you never know when it's going to go away.

In childbirth I got something nice at the end. A baby.

With this procedure, all I'll get is a scar.

Yep, prayers appreciated.

Something Done

Today I just wanted to get SOMETHING DONE.

But it seemed like every time I sat down at the computer to get something done, SOMEONE ELSE needed something.

By the time the dashingly handsome sidekick* got home I was getting snippy. I turned the kids over to him and sat down to get SOMETHING DONE.

Behold, I did it. I edited my query letter. It wasn't much, but at least it was SOMETHING.

Ever have days like that?

*Many thanks to the marvelous DHS, who continues to keep me borderline sane and puts up with my weirdnesses.

Learning to Swim by Sara J. Henry

These last few weeks have been fun because I've had so many great books to read. I brought home a bunch from the library. And then there was LEARNING TO SWIM by Sara J. Henry, which I received as a Christmas present on pre-order. It arrived right after its release date last month.

I tried to pace myself with LEARNING TO SWIM, just so I could finish some of my library books and get them back to the library. But pacing myself didn't work. I kept going back to it. Which meant that I had to return several of the library books without reading them. Good problem to have, though: liking a book so much you can't put it down.

Here are some things I loved about LEARNING TO SWIM:

1. Main character, Troy Chance, was savvy. She was smart. She was a do-it-yourself type of woman. I liked her and was jealous of her all at once.
2. The plot kept me guessing. I won't spoil it for you, but something happens about a third of the way through that I was not expecting. And then it is resolved in a way I wasn't expecting. And then I thought I had the whole thing figured out, but of course it wasn't as straight-forward as I was expecting. Which, when you're reading suspenseful literature is a very good thing. Exactly what I wanted from this book.
3. The psychology of the book made sense. Troy's actions weren't always *right*, but I never blamed her for anything she did that went against the grain (though, at times, she did make me squirm, which is also good).
4. While I was reading, I kept hearing echoes, pleasant echoes of another book I enjoyed long ago. I had to rack my brain to figure out what it was reminding me of, but the book I landed on was REBECCA. Then on the back cover I noticed someone else had made a connection to REBECCA and after that I knew I wasn't crazy. I loved REBECCA. LEARNING TO SWIM shares the same mysterious flavor. Troy Chance feels like an interloper and has to unravel this family's mystery and it's intriguing and wonderful.

Big round of applause for author Sara J. Henry! And boy, am I glad there's a sequel. Maybe it's the romanticist in me, but I turned the last page and literally gasped, "This can't be the end!"

Offline

I woke up this morning and discovered we had no internet connection.

But perhaps it was a blessing in disguise.

During naptime (theirs, not mine) I actually pushed through and finished my big edit instead of fluttering around reading blogs and obsessively checking the comments on my first 100-words for Sharon Mayhew's awesome contest. (The feedback has been so helpful so far. One commenter even pointed out a huge typo in the second sentence that I missed every time I read it. If you click over, please know I mean my main character can devein a shrimp in five seconds, not five minutes. Five seconds is admirable. Five minutes is ... slow.)

It was a strange day. More than once, when I had a few moments to spare, I found myself wandering into the office to check my inbox. I'd look at the computer and remember I had no connection and wander out again to find something else to do. Which meant I had a more productive day than normal. At least, the house is a bit cleaner.

And I did mention my edit is done, didn't I? Time to break out the bubbly!

It's funny how dependent I am on the internet for my social interactions. When was the last time you disconnected? Was it by choice? Did it feel as weird for you as it felt for me?

Just Curious....

At a Pampered Chef party I attended last night, two ladies I didn't know were talking about rural postal routes.

I couldn't believe my ears.

In my WiP there's a minor character who's a rural postal carrier. And here I had EXPERTS sitting in the same room! Brilliant!

I swallowed my shyness and asked one of them some questions about schedules and the US Mail sign they put on the top of their cars. It's not a huge part of my novel, but I wanted to make sure I had all my facts straight. Everyone knows there's no better source than a first-person source, right?

(The lady I interrogated probably wondered why I was so curious about rural postal routes.)

I didn't tell her I was writing a novel. I don't mind being an out-of-the-closet writer online, but when people ask me what I do, I tell them I'm a stay-at-home mom, not a novelist. And when I ask questions pertaining to research for my novels I never say, "I'm wondering this because in the novel I'm writing...." I'm still too shy for that (unless the expert is part of my family and already knows about my writing obsession).

How do you handle research? For those of you who are unpublished like I am, do you come out and say you're doing research for a novel? Or are you shy like me? I wonder if I'll change and be more bold if I'm ever published....

True Love Can Be Pizza, Dr. Pepper and Comments

You guys are all so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so nice!

I loved reading all your comments on my last post. You helped put it all in perspective and I thank you.

However, next time I will still try to give myself more cushion time so I don't have to spend the big bucks on last minute submissions. Live and learn.

Yesterday had to be one of the worst days of my life (which actually shows what a charmed life I've led up to this point).

I was running on empty anyway because of two bad nights of sleep. (One was my fault because I stayed up too late editing my WiP and then inevitably had to wake up several times with our resident nursling.) I made the mistake of taking all three of the little girls to the doctor's office. It was an hour-and-a-half in a small room and I didn't even bring toys. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. On top of that, my baby got her two-month-old shots, which meant that her tiny body was exposed to six (potentially deadly in living form) viruses.

She became incredibly fussy after the shots. She wouldn't eat. She just cried. And cried. And cried. And while she was crying and crying and crying, my two older kids came home from school and both threw HUGE temper tantrums about totally unrelated things. I tried to deal with them rationally (and probably failed) while holding the screaming and screaming and screaming baby. Am I giving you the kind of headache this experience gave me? Does anyone wonder why I already have so much gray hair?

By the time the Dashingly Handsome Sidekick came home, I was sitting on the sofa crying, holding the (finally) sleeping baby.

He said the words every stay-at-home mom loves to hear: "Let's order pizza tonight."

Bless him.

And then he said the other words every stay-at-home mom loves to hear: "Do you want me to go to the store and buy you a Dr. Pepper?"

No one should wonder why I love this man. He is pure lovableness.

And no one should wonder why I love this community of bloggers, either, because you guys gave me encouragement when I needed it. Your sweet, sweet words helped me to get through yesterday, too. (And you probably didn't even know it!)

Confidently Stupid?

My wonderful friend Dora, who is also a writer, reminded me last week about the SCBWI grants and wanted to know if I was going to apply for one.

It took me a day or two to check out the website to remind myself what the grants were for, but after looking through the requirements and checking through my folders for material that I might have ready to go, I decided to go for it.

Deadline: March 15. No exceptions. Mailed applications only.

I finished polishing on Friday night. Saturday morning I printed off my application form. Bundled a screaming baby into the car to the printers and then the post office, only to realize both were closed on Saturdays. (I thought post offices were open half-days on Saturdays, but I guess that was before the recession?)

After the printer and post office disappointment, I wondered, should I even bother entering? I had Monday. I could still overnight the material to California and make the deadline.

I made my photocopies at church on Sunday. Sunday night I looked into UPS costs.

Thirty dollars for their cheapest next-day service.

I asked the Dashingly Handsome Sidekick what he thought about me spending thirty bucks on getting a grant application in on time. He's such a nice husband, he said it was okay.

Today, I walked down to the hardware store where they accept UPS packages and found out they don't have a morning pick-up time, only an afternoon. Which would make the cheapest overnight cost fifty dollars.

I hesitated. Of course I did. Fifty bucks and no guarantee I was going to get this grant.

But I went for it.

Call me confident. Call me stupid. I don't know which I am. My stomach was in knots all the way home over what I'd just done. I knew spending that money might be comparable to throwing a fifty dollar bill in the toilet bowl and flushing it down. As I walked, I thought of all the other things I could have spent that money on. It was a painful walk home.

But I'd come so far and invested so much valuable time, part of me felt there was no turning back.

Have you been in this same type of situation before? Give me some perspective. How did it turn out for you? I don't mind hearing the bad outcomes as well as the good.

WiP Wednesday: Maybe, Possibly, Hopefully....

It's been about four years since I've written one of these posts.

Okay, I exaggerate, but it has been awhile. Months and months, I think.

So, where am I with my WiP?

I'm doing a hard-copy edit and feeling pretty good about it. I'm finding a lot of little things to tweak, but nothing plot shattering. So far, I am really enjoying the hard-copy edit. I find that it gives me a better sense of the flow of the novel. I'm not sure why that is, but so far that's what I've discovered.

Because the hard-copy edit is going so well, maybe, possibly, hopefully (yay for adverbs!) I'll be ready to query this baby in the next month or two.

*Deep breath*

Spring may be a good time to query. The sun is out. The weather is warm. If you're feeling bad about rejections you can go outside and get over yourself. Right? So, that's my plan. Start in spring.

How are your WiPs going? Any query plans in the works?

To Swear or Not to Swear

I had a thought the other day while reading a YA book thick with swear words.

Wait. Pause a minute. Please know that I'm not opposed to the well-placed expletive. Honestly. And even books liberally peppered in swear words don't bother me. I can handle it. I realize that a lot of people in the world talk this way, and I know authors are simply trying to be realistic.

But I'm starting to think of swear words the same way I think of adverbs. In books, I think the rule of thumb should be: Use them sparingly.

I think a lot of writers use swear words as a crutch.

Why?

Because bad language automatically heightens tension.

Because it can (though not always) cover up poorly-written dialogue.

Because it provides shock value.

So, if you're using a lot of them, try going back through your manuscript and analyzing them as you would adverbs. Do I really need this word here? How can I make this sentence stronger without this word?

Overuse of swear words makes them, in the long run, less effective. So use them only when you need them, when they really fit what your character needs to say. Otherwise, chop them.

And another thought: I know the main reason for using swear words in books is realism. But don't forget, books are not reality. We prune dialogue, saving only the most crucial elements of conversation, at the expense of realism. So, we shouldn't distract readers from the plot with too many swear words.

But, that's just my humble opinion. What are your thoughts? Please feel free to disagree!

Paperless vs. Print Happy?

I have a confession to make.

Today I'm doing something I've never done before.

I'm printing out my entire novel so that I can edit in hard copy.

Considering this is my third attempt at a novel, trying out this editing strategy is long overdue.

I waited so long because I'm slightly stingy (printer ink is expensive!) and I hate the idea of sacrificing practically a whole tree for the sake of a novel that may never be published.

But this time I'm determined to be more HOPEFUL (read: confident) when beginning my querying process. And I'm also determined to make this manuscript the best it can be, even if that means spending some extra money on printer ink this month.

I know a lot of you already print out your manuscripts in those final stages of editing. But tell me, did you ever have qualms about this method? Has it worked well for you? Do any of you still choose the paperless  route?

Reading Binge

Here's what I just finished reading:

Here's what I'm currently reading:

And here's what's on my bedside table waiting to be read:

So tell me, what's on your reading list these days?