Giveaway Winner & More Reviews!

I'm so excited to share another starred review with you, this one from Publishers Weekly, for Red Butterfly!

http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-4814-1109-7

Evocative first-person poems divided into three sections—“Crawl,” “Dissolve,” and “Fly”—combine with small, delicate b&w illustrations from Bates to provide a framework that helps organize the chaotic feelings 11-year-old Kara struggles to express. Mysteries pervade her life: although ethnically Chinese, she lives in China in near poverty with her Caucasian mother, hiding her misshapen right hand in long sleeves, speaking English at home, unable to attend school. Mama promises that someday they will live with Kara’s father in Montana, but for now: “Don’t ask me,/ Kara,/ don’t ask me.” Piecing together her story, Kara realizes Mama discovered her, an abandoned baby, and stayed in China illegally to raise her. After this transgression is discovered, Kara finds herself in an orphanage as her Montana parents vie with another family to adopt her. Sonnichsen creates a palpable sense of yearning for home and belonging (“I want to explain, but/ I can’t make my mouth form words./ How a place so beautiful/ can make me feel so sad”) in this heartbreaking, heartwarming, and impressive debut. Ages 8–12. 

And more great news (as if that wasn't enough!) ... this morning my editor forwarded me this lovely review from the School Library Journal:

Gr 4-7–After being found abandoned as an infant in Tianjin, China, Kara was never formally adopted by her American parents, leaving her with no identity papers. Kara’s mother hasn’t had a valid visa in years, but she refuses to leave China without Kara. Now 11, the girl is discovered by police who deport her mother and send Kara to an orphanage for disabled children (she has a malformed hand). There she struggles with her feelings of abandonment, and the emotional conflict from the reality that the Chinese government won’t let the only mother she’s ever known adopt her. But soon a different family wants her. Told in free verse that occasionally plays with form to capture Kara’s mood and decorated with small illustrations mixing watercolor and collage, the narrative is broken into three distinct sections: “Crawl,” set in Tianjin; “Dissolve,” set at the orphanage; and “Fly,” set in Florida. Based on the author’s own experiences in fostering for years before being allowed to adopt from China, “Dissolve” is particularly heartbreaking and occasionally shocking, despite the underfunded orphanage being (under)staffed by caring adults. Readers everywhere will empathize with and root for Kara as she discovers where she belongs and her true home.–Jennifer Rothschild, Arlington County Public Libraries, VA

Thank you to Publishers Weekly and to Jennifer Rothschild at SLJ for these wonderful reviews!

Last, but not least, I need to announce the winner of my Adoption Month Red Butterfly Giveaway. Thank you to everyone who entered and helped spread the word.

The winner is...

Esther! 

Esther didn't actually post on my blog, but she's a regular reader who emailed to ask if she could be included in the giveaway since she didn't have access to the comments section. I'm so happy to send a copy to Esther because she is an amazing girl who I knew in real life when she was little. I even babysat her! She is adopted herself and has lots of adopted siblings. Red Butterfly couldn't go to a more perfect home. 

Congratulations, Esther!

Adoption Books for Adoption Month!

November is National Adoption Month! 

This week we're celebrating books about adoption. (Also, don't forget, I'm giving away a copy of my middle grade novel, Red Butterfly. Click here to enter!)

I know there are lots of books with adoption themes out there, but these are a few that have ended up in our house that have meant something to me.

Bear at the Beach by Clay Carmichael

We bought this picture book not knowing it was about adoption. What a lovely surprise! It gently and beautifully handles the sense of loss that most adopted children feel at being separated from their birth parents, but also gives such a beautiful picture of what family can be. The illustrations are charming and simple, the text sparse, yet engaging. What a touching tribute to adoption. Every time I read it, I choke up, without fail.

Detail from Bear at the Beach, by Clay Carmichael

The Great Call of China by Cynthia Liu


The Great Call of China is part of the S.A.S.S. series, a collection of books written by various authors. My eldest daughter devoured these books when she was a tween. They're perfect for girls who want to read higher than a normal middle grade chapter book, but aren't ready for full-fledged YA. I highly recommend them, because they take kids all around the world in a light and fun way.

I'll be honest here, though: I struggled with The Great Call of China. I read it before my daughter did and, afterward, wanted to hide it away and never let her read it! My Olivia is adopted from China and the story follows an adopted, ethnically-Chinese teenage girl who returns to China with a study abroad program, harboring a secret hope to find her birth family. I didn't want Olivia to read it because I thought the ending was completely unrealistic. **Spoiler Alert** I didn't want her to get her hopes up, to think she could go back to China, poke around a little, and instantly find her birth family!

Olivia saw the cover, however, and begged to read it. Can I just say that she has now read this book at least five times? Several times I've walked into her room to find her randomly rereading it!

Which shows how much I know. And really, maybe I was overprotective in trying to keep a book like this away from her, not wanting her to get her hopes up about finding her birth family. Maybe I need to give her credit for being a smart young lady who can think for herself, and apply reasonable expectations for herself, and dream for herself....

I still think the novel handles the subject unrealistically, but I'm so glad my Chinese daughter found a character with whom she could identify. That in itself is priceless!

Twenty Things Adopted Kids Wish Their Adoptive Parents Knew by Sherrie Eldridge

This is non-fiction! And sort of a self-help book! If you know me, you know I rarely read non-fiction (though sometimes the occasional biography) and generally have an aversion to self-help books. (I might be a little overly confident that I can figure things out on my own.) A friend of mine gave me this book, however, after it changed her perspective. She said, "I wish I'd had this book when my kids were growing up!" Since that's pretty high praise, I decided to go ahead and read it.

I'm so glad I did. The author is a grown adopted child and her insight is priceless. Reading this book has given me a whole new empathy for my adopted child. It softened my heart when my heart was in danger of growing hard. It gave me a new perspective, just like it gave my friend. It gave me a lot of hope, too.

I'd love to hear if you've read any of these books, or if there's an adoption book you've loved. Please comment here, but also make sure to comment on my post for the Red Butterfly giveaway! 

Have a wonderful week!

Winner! ... and a Tension #WritingTip

First and foremost, Janet and I want to congratulate

Susanne Drazic

on winning our ice cream contest giveaway!

*WILD APPLAUSE!*

Congratulations, Susanne! You can email me (a2sonnichsen (at) gmail (dot) com) or Janet to claim your prize. You can choose two 10-page critiques -- one from each of us!-- or a gift card to buy books. 

I thought today it might be fun to share some writing wisdom I learned at the recent SCBWI Western Washington conference last month.

I went to a session on pacing ... and we talked about tension.

I went to a session on plotting ... and we talked about tension.

I went to a session on characterizations ... and we talked about tension.

*Personal share alert* With my last book (which is now shelved) I got a Revise and Resubmit from an amazing editor who said I needed to work on PACING.  

So, I worked on pacing. I cut out more than a thousand words that I thought might be unnecessary. I made sure I was jumping into the middle of scenes instead of meandering my way into them. I mistakenly thought that's all pacing was--making sure your story flowed smoothly.

Don't get me wrong, these measures did improve my novel, but, when I heard back from the editor after resubmitting, her response was the same. There was still a pacing problem, dang it!

So, how thrilled was I to arrive at this conference and find such an emphasis on pacing in so many of the sessions I attended? (Answer: incredibly thrilled!) And I learned something that may be old news to all of you, but was new news to me: Pacing is set by the amount of tension on each page.

Now I'd heard about tension and I'd heard about pacing, but I'd never put the two together.

The more you increase tension, the faster readers will turn pages. 

Lower tension = a slower read

Lit agent Abigail Samoun talked about identifying the master tempo of your story on a scale of 1-10.

1= Tortoise slow

10= Hare fast

Few stories will survive at a master tempo of 10. Probably even fewer stories will survive with a master tempo of 1. Most of us write somewhere in the middle. While the tempo goes up and down, depending on the scene, we have to be aware of our master tempo. We also have to be aware of the doldrums in our books, the places where the tension drops below our master tempo for too long. These are the boring bits, where readers are likely to put our books down and never pick them up again. 

Author Robin LaFevers suggested assigning each scene a tempo number and then plotting those numbers on a graph to identify the slow points in your novels. 

Remember, low-tension numbers aren't always bad. Sometimes our readers need a breather, especially in a fast-paced book, to get their bearings and connect to the characters more deeply. What we want to avoid are those spots (saggy middles, anyone?) where we write scene after scene of our characters experiencing little or no tension.

A few tension killers:

• Description
• Backstory (Challenge: try taking all backstory out of the first 50 pages of your manuscript)
• Character sits and thinks

A lovely environment for tension:

A DIFFICULT DECISION: when a character is of two minds. Tension festers well in a complicated problem ... and that's GOOD!

Now repeat after me: I will add more tension to my novel. I will add more tension to my novel.

Any other thoughts? Was any of this new or striking or am I just repeating the same old, same old?

The Decision (And a Mother's Day Bonus!)

We tried.

You tried.

But the consensus? It was just too close to call.

We can't tell who ate more ice cream!

Besides, it's like Theresa Milstein said in her comment on Janet's post, "How can anyone lose in a game of ice cream?"

I also agree with Andrea that NEXT TIME (because of course there will be a next time!) we will have to have a couple of those mail scales on hand so we can weigh the ice cream and decide that way. OR, as Julie suggested, we could just eat the entire pint and see who finishes first. (*groan*) Yes, next time we'll be smarter.

Either way, our lack of a decision is still GREAT news because now everyone who voted for either person will be entered in the drawing! Hurray! *throws pints of Ben & Jerry's*

We'll announce the winner Monday, so be sure to come back to find out if it was you!

As a compensating bonus today, even though it's post-Mother's-Day, I want to throw a funny video at you that my friend, Hersha, helped produce (her sister is the star & she has a cameo appearance). You probably already know (because it says so in my bio off in the side bar) that I grew up in Hong Kong. This one's set in Hong Kong, and even though there are several snippets of this video that make me want to rip my eyes out with homesickness (I know that's weird, but it's one of the downsides to being a Third Culture Kid), the mothering aspect applies to moms anywhere in the world. Even if you're not a mom, you'll enjoy it!

Happy belated Mother's Day! (And don't forget to check back on Monday to see if you won our celebratory giveaway! Yeep!)

Help Needed! Ice Cream Eating Contest in Jeopardy!

We did it.

We came.

We saw.

We got on Skype at the same time (even though my mic was broken so I had to talk to Janet on the phone).

We even had the same kind of ice cream.

And our nine-year-old boys STUFFED OUR FACES.

Here's my video evidence of the grand competition:

But we have a little problem. Janet and I are in grave disagreement about who WON. Janet says I ate the most ice cream. I say she ate the most ice cream. We need your help.

Who ate the most? Watch Janet's video here and leave a comment with your decision on one of our blogs. We'll add up the votes to see who YOU think ate more, Janet or me. Then we'll draw the name of the ULTIMATE WINNER of our blog competition and announce it next Monday (find out what the awesome prizes are here).

Please give it up again for our FANTASTIC FRIENDS who are signing left and right with literary agents and editors at big houses. We're so, so, so proud of and happy for you ... which is why we were willing to embarrass ourselves in this way.

SO. Who's the ice cream-eating champ?

Celebration Critiques

I'm celebrating some stuff.

First, I'm getting absurdly close to 300 bloggy friends. (Yay!)

Second, it's my birthday tomorrow. (Yay!)

Third, I'm heading to the SCBWI Western Washington regional conference this weekend. (Yay!)

In honor of all these YAYs, I want to have a little giveaway.

This is going to be easy, I promise.

There are THREE prizes, all for writers:

• One (1) full manuscript critique
• Two (2) first 10 page critiques

All you have to do to enter:

1. Make sure you're a blog follower (Can you see your tiny avatar under Friendly Followers in the sidebar?)
2. Leave a comment.
3. If you tweet, facebook or spread the word on your blog, I'll give you extra entries. Just let me know in the comments that you shared.

I'll leave this little giveaway open for a week (April 19-April 25) and announce the random winners on April 26. I have a very special interview planned for that day, so you'll want to make sure to check back anyway.

And just for fun, try taking a stab at guessing how old I'm turning in the comments. Don't worry, you won't offend me. Age is practically a virtue and I'm very good-natured. But I will give you some hints (this has nothing to do with winning or not winning the critiques ... just for fun):

• My oldest child will be eleven this summer
• I was born in the Year of the Snake
• The hit song in the US the day I was born was by someone named Thelma Houston

Go have fun in the comments & thanks for stopping by to celebrate with me! 

Photo credit: earl53 from morguefile.com

Winner! & Review: This Burns My Heart

Well, Sam, you did it. I have you to thank for these dark circles under my eyes, because there were three nights in a row I stayed up WAY too late reading THIS BURNS MY HEART when I should have been sleeping!

This novel was not only beautiful, but it was an interesting exploration into the anatomy of a wrong decision.

Here's the back copy to give you an idea of the plot, because I'm terrified of giving away too much:

On the eve of her marriage, beautiful and strong-willed Soo-Ja Choi receives a passionate proposal from a young medical student. But caught up in her desire to pursue a career in Seoul, she turns him away, having impetuously chosen another man who she believes will let her fulfill her dreams. Instead, she finds herself tightly bound by tradition and trapped in a suffocating marriage, her ambition reduced to carving out a successful future for her only daughter. Through it all, she longs for the man she truly loves, whose path she seems destined to cross again and again....

What I loved about this book:

• The characters felt real and I think this was because Samuel Park did an expert job giving each one depth. As a writer, I know what a temptation it can be to make our characters extreme. We want to make our villains purely evil and our heroines purely good, but Park's characters were never wholly evil or wholly good. They were a mix and balance, just like real people are. Soo-Ja does make a bad decision when she marries her husband, Min. But Min isn't purely bad. Park could have easily made him a drunk wife beater, but he held back so that I liked, pitied and hated Min at different points in the novel. I felt this way about all Park's characters. I was in awe of main character, Soo-Ja, and of course liked her and could relate to her, but I was aware of her flaws, too.
• There is a portion of the book that I cannot describe without spoiling it for other readers ... but in this portion my heart bled for Soo-Ja and I could not put the book down even though I knew it would mean I would only get a few hours sleep. Perhaps it was the mother in me that related to her so strongly and it's true-- Soo-Ja had a three-year-old daughter and I also have a three-year-old daughter. I could imagine myself going through her situation, imagine the panic attached to it, imagine my own daughter as the victim. Ugh! It was intense! (Incidentally, my dreams after I finally went to sleep were very weird that night.) Bravo, Samuel, for making me feel so strongly for your characters!
• You all probably know I have a soft-spot in my heart for Asian novels. I love novels set in China, especially, but Korea has to be a close second. When we worked in China, seventy-percent of the kids in our international school were Korean nationals. Koreans were some of my husband's favorite students and my kids' best friends. I also got to rub shoulders with many Korean moms and eat their kim bop. So, even though I've only been to Korea once, I found the setting for this novel and the cultural nuances absolutely fascinating. I love enjoying an amazing, heartfelt story and also learning about a different part of the world at the same time.
• Along those same lines, I loved the time period Park chose for this novel. I didn't know a lot of Korean history from this era (1960's & 70's) and I feel more educated now. The descriptions of the protests at the beginning of the novel were fascinating, as were the details about the city of Seoul near the end.

Overall, this was a beautiful, heart-felt read. I won't quickly forget Soo-Ja, Yul or Min. Even Eun-Mee burrowed her way into my heart, although this was more for pathetic, pitying reasons (...which shouldn't surprise you at all if you've read the book).

If you missed it, I interviewed Author Samuel Park last Wednesday about query letters and first pages, and thanks to Simon and Schuster's generosity, I'm able to award a free paperback copy of THIS BURNS MY HEART to one lucky commenter from that post. 

Without further ado, the winner is (thanks to Random.org) :

SAM Posey

Congratulations, SAM!

 

I hope everyone has a great rest of the week. We're on spring break here, which, when you have five kids, translates into craziness. I'll be posting again next Monday. Until then, enjoy your spring!

*I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. 

Samuel Park talks Querying & First Pages

Today I'm delighted to welcome Samuel Park, author of the gorgeous debut novel THIS BURNS MY HEART, back to my blog. His novel was just released in paperback and to celebrate, I thought it would be fun to pick his writing-brain about first pages and query letters. Samuel thought it would also be fun to give away a copy of his book, so check the end of this post for details on how to enter.

Me: What is the most important characteristic of a first page?

Samuel: Hi Amy! Thanks for having me on your blog again. Doing your WQI was one of the highlights of my pre-publication experience, so I'm delighted to be back. To answer your question, I would say that, far and away, it's the VOICE. Which, to me, is just another word for style, and how you use sentences and metaphors and language. In other words, it's the DNA of the writer, the way she sounds on the page. It is far more important than action, plot, or even character. If the voice captures the agent and/or the editor, that wins over the first gatekeepers you need to get past to get to your readers! In This Burns My Heart, the first page gives you the sense that this novel has a melancholy air, and the language describes longing, loss, and heartbreak--giving you a good sense of what is to come! 

 

Me: Yes! Come back for my full review of  This Burns My Heart next Wednesday, but let me tell my blog readers now, this novel definitely has a unique and beautiful voice.

 

How much did your first page change from querying to the final product?

Samuel: It didn't change a lot, because by then I had already worked on it for a while. The first chapter of the book had changed numerous times before, and it was really tricky to capture the narrator's voice. As it is, it's a third person point of view, mostly describing what the character does and sees. It's very visual, which I happen to like, since I'm a very visual person, but other people like having other senses emphasized. I have poor sense of smell, for instance, so my novel, one may notice, rarely describes what rooms smell like. The prose is also very quick and spare, giving you a sense of the character's thoughts and her environment, without dwelling too much on either.   

 

Me: What was querying like for you? Can you give us a brief timeline?

Samuel: Querying is not fun. Not fun at all. I'm amazed any writer doesn't just jump off a cliff during it. It was certainly the most stressful period in the entire process for me. Part of the reason is this: there's no standard procedure for it. Some agents ask for the first five pages, some ask for a full, some ask for 20 pages. Now, you'd think the agent who asks for a full is more interested than the one who asks for five, but that's not always true. So you essentially have to reinvent the wheel with every single interaction. It's like being in a crazy Indian market in the 1920s with everyone screaming at the same time, and no one can make any sense of it. From the time I finished the book to the time I found my agent Lisa, it took me about six months. Now, some people will say that's not a very long time, but when you're going through the process, it feels like forever.   

 

Me: Ha ha! I love the analogy. Any query letter wisdom you'd like to share with us?

Samuel: I would say to imagine that you're writing the description in the book jacket. But not one of those catchy one-sentence ones, but those that really describe the essential plot of the book. Also, focus on the thing that is unusual or different about your book. That process, by the way, can lead to real discoveries, and you figuring out what is the book that you really wrote, as opposed as to the one you meant to write. The interesting thing, though, is that people obsess so much about query letters, but the truth is that by the time you get to that stage, your book's fate has already been decided. You've already committed to a plot that may or may not be marketable; you've already amassed whatever other writing credits. It's a bit like writing up a CV. By the time you write it, you've already lived the life that shows up on it. So I've always felt that I wish we could write the queries first, and then the book! Finally, I would make sure the agent can get a sense of your voice, and how you put together sentences. A query letter is also a writing sample, and your style is just as important as the contents!

Thanks again for hosting me, Amy! 

 

Me: Thank you so much for being here and for your wonderful answers, Samuel! If you'd like to be entered in the drawing for a paperback copy of This Burns My Heart (US residents only, please), simply leave a comment in the section below. If you spread the word through your blog, Twitter or Facebook, I'll give you extra entries, so let me know in the comments section. 

This contest will run until next Wednesday (April 4) , when I'll review This Burns My Heart and announce the winner of the giveaway. Best of luck!

Just in Case....

We've been under a plague of stomach flu since last Thursday, so this will be short.

Blogger failed me again and never posted Gae Polisner's Letter to My Future Self to Google Reader. Just in case you didn't see it, I'm giving away a copy of her book, THE PULL OF GRAVITY, back on >>that post<<. You won't want to miss it!

Because of the technical difficulties, I'll leave the giveaway open until Wednesday night, so you still have time to enter (over there).

Also, on a side note, have you seen all of Sarah Fine's amazing news lately? So happy for her!

And, Valentine's Day is almost here. The DHS and I are hoping to steal away for a couple hours tonight if everyone's feeling well enough here at home. We're thinking maybe Greek food. Do you have any big plans?

Stay well, everyone! There's some nasty stuff going around (especially in Mexico, I hear). And after watching Downton Abbey last night, it's better to stay away from all these weird, mutating flus. Right, Lavinia?

Gae Polisner: Letter to My Future Self

Please welcome the awesome author of THE PULL OF GRAVITY, Gae Polisner.

 Barnes & Noble

Amazon

Christa Desir and I are doing a joint-blog hosting today. Gae wrote a letter to her Past Self over on Christa's blog and a letter to her Future Self here on my blog, so you absolutely MUST read them both. 

So excited to have Gae here. *fans self* There was some rumor going around that she had agreed to do a vlog for my blog in her swimming costume -- or without pants -- or something like that -- in an attempt to join the Hacky Sack Club (see side bar), but these rumors were groundless, people. GROUNDLESS. She is here, completely clothed. And without a vlog (dang it!).

So without further ado, I give you the unique, absurdly-talented, uber-adorable Gae Polisner....

Dear (ugh, older) Future Gae,

Sh*t. Here we are. Man that went fast.

(gazes back). Hmmm. Not bad. Not terrible. But, I see you’re still hard on yourself. It’s okay. It’s the thing that drove you to keep going, to do your best to seize every day. To keep making something of yourself. And keep remaking yourself.

Some days you did better; others, not so much (see, for example, endless hours spent on facebook. . . speaking of which, remember facebook? How we thought it would never wane...). Anyway, I don’t care what anyone says, I still think idle days are overrated.

So, let me look at you.

*breathes*

Yep, old. Hah! You knew it would happen, but, still, you didn’t believe it.

Well, so what. You’re what? 60? 61? That’s the same age Susan Sarandon was when she dumped Tim Robbins and ran off with that ping pong guy! Fine, allegedly, allegedly. Whatever.

Still, see? Not terrible.

So, let’s see what’s still intact. First and foremost, it’s nice to see you found those things that were important in your life and held on to them, despite sometimes-shinier looking new distractions. The best piece of life advice you managed to cling to was that -- that the novelty always wears off. Even in ping pong palaces.

I remember how hard you worked to see beyond the shiny distractions, to what lay grounded beneath the surface. And, you know what, Gae? You did good.

Also, it’s nice to see you pushed yourself to be brave, and try new things. To write new and different stories, to put your words out there, at the risk of inevitable rejection and criticism (which always came). 

And, it’s also nice to see that, the older you got, the farther you swam, and only partly because you learned fast that neoprene, though tight, actually hides a whole lot of flaws. 

Yes, there was that (some habits die hard), but there also wasn’t a day you weren’t grateful for the water, a day you didn’t marvel at the skies.

There really wasn’t a day where you didn’t try to breathe them in and try to memorize them, and internalize your good fortune.

And remember the winter you got those Psycho gloves? Oh dear. It was like, once you discovered them, there was no stopping you, even on the coldest of days. You impressed even me then. You surprised me. That’s a good quality as you age.

Remember to keep surprising even yourself.

But also remember that, eventually, even the neoprene and Psycho gloves won’t save you. When you reach that point, you can still look to the same things that mattered as a kid: good family and friends, a loving heart, and, maybe above all, a constant sense of humor.

Keep working to be graceful, Gae. Surprise me. And make me proud.

Love, 

Present Gae

Now tell me -- what would you say to YOUR Future Self? I'll send a copy of THE PULL OF GRAVITY to one lucky commenter. 

And don't forget to check out Gae's other letter here.