My mom is my biggest . . . critic?

I love getting comments from beta readers. In particular, I love getting comments from my mom as a beta.

My mom isn't just a sweetheart reader, although she is very encouraging and supportive and tactful. She's also a really good critic. I must have gotten my reading genes from her--she reads more than almost anyone I know. She's also a former English and Language Arts teacher, so she's a stickler for proper grammar and usage. Thanks to her years teaching teenagers, she is really familiar with YA and a big fan (sample conversation: What do you mean you haven't read SPEAK yet? You really should. or Oh, I love the HUNGER GAMES.) She cares enough about me and my writing to push me and ask tough questions and be critical. Yay, Mom!

Anyway, I got some comments on my revisions from her this weekend. This page cracked me up because, well, it's my mom's note:

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Life gets in the way

I kind of realized that while I have been posting a lot about books lately, I've been posting very little about writing. There are a couple of reasons for that:
1) I feel weird posting about a WIP that is still being worked out in my head (although somewhere between 1/4 and 1/3 are drafted)
2) I spent a lot of time revising this month
3) Life has sort of gotten in the way of my writing schedule lately

About the third reason: Two weeks ago I got a letter from my evil, dastardly landlord informing me that my lease wouldn't be renewed and my boyfriend and I would have to vacate our apartment. This sucked because:
1) We love our apartment and it is awesome
2) We spent like 2 months finding it last summer
3) I still haven't unpacked some boxes (although now I can stop feeling guilty about that)
4) We weren't prepared for a move on any level: logistically, financially, emotionally, etc.
5) The current rental market in NYC sucks, big time

Finding an affordable place with comparable space (and we need lots of space because we both do a lot of writing work at home) is like finding a needle at the bottom of the ocean, while blindfolded and without SCUBA gear. A lot of things about NYC are exaggerated (people do sleep and a New York minute is still made up of 60 seconds) but one thing that really is insane, bizarre, and hyperbolic is the expense and weirdness of apartment renting. Have you ever seen It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World? The whole process reminds me of that movie.

Hence, I have been a bit of a madwoman.

Spending all of my free time scouring listings and traipsing all over the city to look at overpriced, tiny apartments has not left a lot of time for writing. It's really annoying, but in a way it is just going to make me appreciate my regular writing schedule even more when I can get back to it. I am going to be so motivated.

It's just one of those times when extenuating circumstances make sticking to your writing schedule a little impossible. And you know what? That's okay. I've realized that there's no point in beating myself up about being mildly unproductive right now because I have a really valid reason. It's not laziness or slackerdom. Sometimes life just gets in the way. When that happens and you stray from your WIPs, it's best just to remember that it's temporary. Do the best you can with the time you have, and let the angst go.

Who knows? Maybe I'll end up in a new place with an awesome space for writing and reading. I did last time!

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The Sky is Everywhere

I read a lot of books. I enjoy many, if not most of them. You have probably figured out from this blog that I have effusive things to say about all the ones that I mention here.
But every now and then, I'll come across one that just stops me in my tracks. Blows the others away. (Insert other reading-an-incredible-book cliches here) One that makes me think, Wow and This is incredible and I need to give up writing because I could never write something even 1/10th as good as this book (but I mean that in a good way, an inspiring way). One that makes me laugh and cry at the same time like the crazy person I am.

Anyway, The Sky is Everywhere is that book.

I feel like every single word used in the book is both deliberately and perfectly chosen. The poetry is lovely, and the prose reads with the exactness and lyricism of poetry. (The incredible author, Jandy Nelson, holds an MFA in poetry as well as writing.) The characters are completely unique, lovable, eccentric and real. The relationship between the sisters, Lennie and Bailey--it kills me. (While I was reading it, my sister was abroad and unreachable by phone, and that was unbearable. I just needed to talk to her. You'll understand why.)

The love story had such depth and sweetness and was sexy in such an organic, non-vulgar way.

The Sky is Everywhere is simply masterful, deep and raw and wise and funny and readable, and if you haven't already, you must read it.

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More on those Mockingjay parties

I was obsessively checking NY Mag's blog yesterday (okay, full disclosure is that I'm an internet addict and I read their blog fairly obsessively every day) because I knew their reporter was at the Word party interviewing Hunger Games superfans. Finally, the story is up!

Meet Obsessed Mockingjay Fans

And the slideshow is awesome, particularly because it features not only Heather from the HG Readalong blog in her super-cool Cinna costume, but also agent Suzie Townsend!

(Okay, I'm done posting about Mockingjay . . .  for now)

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Mockingjay!

NYC was Team Katniss last night, from Greenpoint to Chelsea.

HG bag clip--the prize for trivia winners

I ventured on the 6, then E, then G train to make my way to Word Bookstore's Mockingjay release party. It was awesome. There was Haymitch punch (this was a 21+ Mockingjay event), homemade bread (presumably from the Mellark family bakery) and fruits of the forest to nibble on. Attendees were split into Districts to compete in a Hunger Games trivia contest, and my district (12!) won.
There was a costume contest (Heather from the Readalong blog was wearing my favorite get-up--a Cinna devotee from the Capitol).

And finally, at midnight, we all counted down and snatched up our copies.

I'm not going to post any more about the book itself because I don't want to reveal anything even slightly spoileriffic. But I started devouring it last night, and during my commute this morning, and it was terribly hard to put the book down. (I think the wonderful Suzie Townsend is perhaps the first person to finish reading it, at 4:56 am EST? Check out her photo essay about the BOW party that Suzanne Collins herself attended here)

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Back-to-School ARC Therapy Giveaway

I'm not in school anymore, I don't work directly in education, and I don't have children, so the back-to-school time of year doesn't mean that much to me. (Although I do always want to buy school supplies in August; I miss that. Nothing quite like new notebooks and colored pens.) Even for those of us removed from the school calendar, it's still a bittersweet time of the year because it marks that summer's almost over and the colder months are on their way. Sayonara, sandals and hello, Smartwools.

To make us feel better about kissing summertime goodbye, I'm giving away some wonderful ARCs that will be releasing this fall/winter. Consider them our Required Reading:

Matched by Ally Condie
Bloodthirsty by Flynn Meaney
Nightshade by Andrea Cremer
Babe in Boyland by Jody Gehrman

To enter, just comment below and leave your name -- and your email address, so I know how to find you.

Extra credit (please let me know in your comment if you qualify for any of these):

+1 New followers
+2 If you're already a follower
+1 Tweeting this giveaway
+2 New follower on Twitter (@rebeccabehrens)
+3 For posting about this giveaway on your blog.
+2 Add me to your blog roll

The contest will end on Labor Day, September 6th at 11:59 pm Eastern time. I'll be randomly selecting the winners from all the entries. I am happy to ship one ARC internationally. Winners will be announced on September 8th. Good luck!

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Matched

First things first--there's a sequel, right? There's gotta be a sequel. I mean, the story can't just stop there!

Matched is hotly anticipated for a reason. Much like Delirium, it tells the story of a frighteningly controlled future society (the dystopian societies in each control love, albeit in very different ways) and one girl who begins to question the path her life is taking and her lack of choices. It's also a beautiful love story. From Amazon:


Cassia has always trusted the Society to make the right choices for her: what to read, what to watch, what to believe. So when Xander's face appears on-screen at her Matching ceremony, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is her ideal mate . . . until she sees Ky Markham's face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black.
The Society tells her it's a glitch, a rare malfunction, and that she should focus on the happy life she's destined to lead with Xander. But Cassia can't stop thinking about Ky, and as they slowly fall in love, Cassia begins to doubt the Society's infallibility and is faced with an impossible choice: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she's known and a path that no one else has dared to follow.

I don't want to focus on the plot here because I'd hate to spoil any of it. Instead, I want to tell you how much I loved how Matched is rich with allusions--to art, to Greek mythology (Sisyphus), and to poetry. Dylan Thomas's poems, in particular, are woven throughout the story. Alluding to poetry is fitting because the writing is skilled and poetic. Matched doesn't just tell an interesting, thought-provoking, and emotional story but it tells it beautifully.


The pub date for Matched is November, 2010.

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Happy 80th, Nancy!

My favorite girl detective is turning 80 this year: Nancy Drew.

(Funny, she doesn't look a day over 18.)

I loved reading all the Nancy Drew mysteries as a kid and like Sonia Sotomayor, I went through a "I want to be a sleuth when I grow up" phase. Obviously, that didn't happen (yet--there's still time for a mystery to drop in my lap, I suppose).

If rereading The Secret of the Old Clock or The Clue of the Dancing Puppet isn't enough celebrating for you, Fred Flare has tons of Nancy Drew merch, from skeleton key rings to ND stationery to clothes for all your dress-up needs. Personally, I think I need to get my hands on a copy of Nancy Drew's Guide to Life.

(Thanks to Galley Cat for the heads up)

PS: Has anyone read the updated books? Or seen the recent movie? If so--thoughts?

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Future Me

I moved to New York almost exactly 4 years ago. August 15th, 2006, my Budget truck full of cheap IKEA furniture (which somehow I really, strongly felt was worth moving cross-country at great cost--note I do not still possess any of it) rattled across the George Washington Bridge and some place totally new and weird became home.

Moving was exciting and exhilarating and wonderful but also really, really hard. I came here for personal reasons but also to start a grad program, and I was just very naive about how much work that would entail, how much the move would unroot me, how unbelievably homesick I would get for the Midwest, and how freaking hard it is to find employment in NYC.

Shortly after I set up the internet in my craptacular first apartment, I stumbled across the FutureMe website and wrote myself a really, really melodramatic and cathartic email. Then I completely forgot about it until it showed up in my inbox a year later. I was at work, and I cried when I read it, because all of those just-moved-across-the-country, I-don't-know-which-way's-up feelings came flooding back to me. I wasn't sad, just overwhelmed and weirdly moved. (Is it narcissistic to say that a letter you wrote yourself was moving? Well, sorry, in that situation it was. Call me a navel-gazer.) I kept up writing myself a new email each time one popped in my inbox for a few years, but none of them had the impact of that first one.

Why is this getting a blog post? Well, see the annotated first email below.

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On Writing

Remember how a few weeks ago everyone was laughing about being told "I write like . . . Stephen King?"

We should all be so lucky as to write like Stephen King.

I have to confess that I've never read one of King's novels, although I'm familiar with a lot of them through film and TV. I've read his Entertainment Weekly columns for years and loved them, and I've also read excerpts or essays he's written about writing. I finally decided it was time to read through On Writing, as a mid-WIP refresher on what exactly it is that I am doing, this whole writing thing.

On Writing blew me away. First--who knew that a "memoir of the craft" could be such a page turner? I burned through the book. It kept me up. Yes, that's right-- I couldn't stop reading about basic elements of form and style. King's voice in this nonfiction book is wise, funny, warm, interesting, wry, generous. Somehow he's managed to tell the story of his own life as a writer--equal parts picaresque (doctor's trips as a little kid, school shenanigans), suspenseful (details of his life-threatening accident), and touching (details about his enviable marriage to Tabitha are worthy of their own novel-length love story)--while writing an incredibly useful manual for writers of all levels. It not only opened me up to confronting the things I need to improve in my own writing, but it gave me the tools (and confidence) to do so. All the while, I felt like King was saying, Hey, don't sweat it if X isn't working. Just pull out your writer's toolbox and get to work on fixing it. All of us writers make mistakes.

King makes great use of the toolbox as a metaphor for the skills writers need. I can say that On Writing will be stored in my toolbox. Sometimes for when I need advice from a master, and sometimes when I just need company during the process.

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Half-truths and Historical Fiction

I couldn't have read this article in The Guardian at a better time:

The Lying Art of Historical Fiction

James Forrester explains that, "Judging historical fiction is not as simple as 'accurate equals good' and 'inaccurate equals bad'. It depends on whether the inaccuracies are constructive lies or accidental mistakes."

About 1/3 of my new WIP has a real historical figure as the protagonist (the other 2/3 are not based on real people and are contemporary). Part of the reason why I didn't start writing the first draft until July was that I needed to do lots of research on the person. And I mean lots--I have over 20 pages of single-spaced notes on her, culled from a dozen sources. All of the information I gathered is great, and it's wonderful to know a character so well when you start writing her.

But.

In the 20K I've written about said person, I've struggled with sticking with the facts and telling a great story. Her life is already a great story--one that other writers have captured in nonfiction works. She herself wrote an autobiography. I'm not trying to retell the facts of her life as it was lived; I'm trying to tell a great story with her as a character. It's hard to find a balance between being truthful and realistic and crafting a good story and satisfying character arc.

I like this article's theory: that the distinction in historical fiction shouldn't be true versus false, but accidental mistake versus intentional untruth. If a falsehood is there deliberately because it advances the story: that's okay. If it's there because I was lazy, or if it's there and it makes the story distractingly unrealistic, not okay. As I'm revising the historical fiction part of the WIP, I'll use that distinction as my guide.

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Feeling lucky?

My agent sister Lisa Desrochers has a contest on her blog to win a signed ARC of Personal Demons.

Personal Demons August Debut Contest

I guarantee that if you read the sneak peeks on her blog, you will be hooked from the first paragraph. It's going to be phenomenal.

And, fellow agent sister Julie Cross is holding a truly epic contest over at her blog, too:

Roni and Julie's Totally Epic Contest

Prizes include books, ARCs, and query/first five pages critiques from agents and editors (including the amazing Suzie Townsend). Good luck!

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Catching Fire

ARGH! CLIFFHANGER ENDING! NOW I HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL THE 24TH TO FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENS! HOW DID ALL OF YOU WHO READ THIS AGES AGO SURVIVE?!?!?!?

Sorry, just had to get that out of my system. I finished Catching Fire last night--I had two chapters left when I got off the subway on Tuesday morning. Then I had to sit at my desk, staring at the book poking out of my purse, until the work day was over and I could devour the rest of the story. I actually thought about trying to hide the book on my lap and surreptitiously read it at my desk (because having to stop reading two chapters before the end is torture), but the intelligent, rational, non-fan-girl part of me won out. It's okay. I survived the wait.

I love how Katniss has matured throughout the two books, although she's still very realistically a teenager. I love how she's both a very honest narrator but also unrealistic, because sometimes Katniss herself doesn't know how she really feels about what is going on in her life. I was impressed that by the second half of Catching Fire, the stakes were raised even higher than they were in The Hunger Games. While reading the first half of the book, which had a little too much recapping for my taste, I wondered how the eventual action would compare to that of the Games. I didn't see the Quarter Quell twist coming, so I was totally shocked--and hooked--when that cruel surprise was revealed.

As for the whole Team Peeta/Team Gale--both are such appealing characters, and so wonderful to and for Katniss in their own ways, that it's impossible to choose. I guess I'm Team Katniss, and I hope there's some kind of resolution in which she doesn't have to choose between them. (Not in a weird polyamorous way; I have no idea how that would work. I'm trusting Suzanne Collins to figure how to honor all three in Mockingjay.)

Having a hard time waiting for Mockingjay's release?
Here's a link to a new interview with Suzanne Collins in School Library Journal--no spoilers on super-secret Mockingjay, but she provides authorial insight on the first two books and the trilogy as a whole.

And, the blog Inkcrush has done two really cool comparisons of all the different international covers for The Hunger Games and Catching Fire. It's interesting to see which characters and themes were emphasized on the different versions. They're all pretty striking, although I prefer ones that don't depict Katniss--none of the illustrations match up with how I picture her.

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Revision Road Trip

Summer is the season for road trips--and revisions. Use the publishing industry's slow season to take your MS on a journey, following these tips:

Have your roadmap at the ready: I'd never take off on a road trip without making sure there's a Rand McNally in the dash. Same thing when I undertake revisions. Before I start revising, I pull together all of the notes I've gotten on a MS: from my wonderful agent, beta readers, friends, family, anyone who ever said anything about the MS when it came up in conversation at a party, etc. Then I evaluate all of the comments, giving negative feedback much higher priority. I decide what I think needs changing or attention in the MS and write myself an editorial letter detailing what I want to accomplish in the revision. Whenever I get off track, I can go back to this document and find my way back to productivity--hence, it's my roadmap.

Bring some good tunes: Nothing breaks up a long drive like some good music. Even if you don't like writing with music playing, pull together some inspiring tunes for breaks. Yes, you will be taking breaks (see below).

Pack a cell phone, with a charger and/or extra batteries: It gets lonesome on the road. Sometimes you just need to check in with a friend (writing buddy? agent?). Other times, you might need directions or advice (Mom, how do I check the oil again? And what do you think my MC needs to do about that test she failed?). Keep a lifeline to those you support you in your writing and make use of their support.

Go where the road takes you--to a degree: Road trips are a great way to explore and see unexpected things and places. On a whim, you might turn down a country road and find an incredible vista. Revisions can do the same for your writing; you might start playing with a minor character and discover that he/she adds something great to your story. Unfortunately, sometimes you can get really, really lost when you take unfamiliar roads. But guess what!? You have that trusty roadmap at your disposal, and it can help you get back on track.

Take breaks: Remember that time in college when you decided you could totally drive 15 hours straight to visit a friend? That you didn't need to stop overnight; you could do it all yourself in one day? And then remember how the first four hours were great, but then you got stuck in traffic on I-94 and suddenly you'd been behind the wheel for 6 hours and had at least 12 to go? Your eyes started drooping and your only solution was coffee, lots and lots of coffee. . . . It was harrowing. Yeah, don't do the equivalent of that while revising. It's easy to want to rush through revisions and work without stopping. Breaks are your friend, though. They let you recharge and they keep your writing good and your sanity safe. Take a day or two off, here and there, and NO ALL-NIGHTERS.

Avoid Tourist Traps: Tourist traps are the shiny, lovely, polished sections of your MS. Everybody loves them, including you. Avoid the crowds and visit the places in your writing that are lesser known or ignored, i.e. the trouble spots. They're the ones that need your attention during revisions.

Bring along some good books: I hope I don't need to tell anyone that one should not read while he/she is driving. Likewise, you can't read another book at the same time as you are revising your own. However, remember those breaks you will be taking? A good way to spend some of them is reading. Reading while you're immersed in the revising process is a great tool. It helps you see what you like and don't like in other books, it hones your ear and taste and that will improve whatever you write. It also keeps you up-to-date on the marketplace, particularly if you are reading within your genre.

Don't drink and drive: Obviously there is a long history of drinking and writing (Dorothy Parker, Ernest Hemingway, Dylan Thomas--I'm looking at you). I myself sometimes like to have a glass of wine or a beer while working. I certainly don't drink every time I write (nor do I have more than one), but sometimes it helps the creative juices flow. I never imbibe while I'm revising, though, because (I am a lightweight and) I want to be as sharp and steely and critical as possible. Drinking is a personal choice, of course, but I tend to think that you need to stay below the legal limit when you're behind the writing wheel.

Don't forget your first-aid kit: I'm not thinking about medical supplies here (although you should watch out for carpal tunnel syndrome and nasty paper cuts, as they are occupational hazards for writers) but this kind of first aid. Whether your personal comfort junk-food product is chocolate, ice cream, red vines, pretzels, or donuts, make sure you have some on hand for times when revisions have have kicked you around.

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