Author Interview & Book Giveaway: Kristin O'Donnell Tubb and SELLING HOPE

The SCBWI Crystal Kite award winning novel, Selling Hope, had been on my TBR list for quite some time when I happened upon the book and author earlier this  month during the SCBWI Summer Conference in LA. I found both the author and novel absolutely delightful. 

It is my pleasure to offer an autographed copy of SELLING HOPE to one randomly chosen commenter. Drop down and say hello. This giveaway is open internationally and ends at midnight,  9/6/11. You don't have to follow this blog to enter, but if you want to, I will warmly welcome you .^_^. 

Here are a few thoughts from Kristin: 

On Writing:

Favorite thing about writing a first draft:

The surprises.

Best thing about writing for kids and/or teens:

The readers!

Favorite word?

Peace

One word that describes your path to publication:

Gratitude-filled (Is that cheating? ;-) )

If I could have two dream careers, I’d be an author and:

An astronaut

On Life:

If I could snap my fingers and solve one of the problems here on earth, it would be:

Consumption levels

One question I wish I had a definitive answer to:

How to be the best parent for my children.

Best thing about being a child:

Creativity hasn’t yet been limited

Worst thing about being a child:

Not being heard

Best thing about being a teenager:

Discovering your voice

Worst thing about being a teenager:

Finding your voice

Most memorable teen moment:

Driving in a red convertible on a sunny fall afternoon with Michelle Searcy and David Hughes, all of us singing at the top of our lungs. I remember thinking, “This is what alive feels like.”

One thing I’d like to say to my teen self:

Think before you act. Think!

A quote I live by:

“There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in." - Leonard Cohen, songwriter

My dream vacation:

A quiet beach with my family, buckets of seafood, and gobs of writing time.

In My Perfect World…

Everyone would get a good education and hugs at least once a week.

There would be an abundance of food and clean water.

No one would be deprived of sleep (she says as a parent! J).

Every child would have someone who loves them more than anything in the world.

No one would ever be lonely.

The expression of ideas without disdain would be free for everyone.

Kristin O'Donnell Tubb

Selling Hope
Available NOW
"A bouncy tale populated by a terrific cast of characters."
Booklist, starred review

Autumn Winifred Oliver Does Things Different
Available in paperback from Yearling
Nominated for the Volunteer State Book Award, 2011-2012 list

Please visit her website: http://www.kristintubb.com

WIPMADNESS--Last August Check-In

ANOTHER NEWSFLASH!!!

House buyer backed out because association won't let her keep GOATS in our residential neighborhood.
So we're not moving yet (insert very sad face here). 

We drowned our sorrow by camping  here this weekend

Welcome to the last three days of the month. For those of you who set writing goals at the beginning of August, how are you doing? For new followers, welcome and feel free to join in on the madness. 

The excitement of selling our house, planning the move, then having hope dashed to pieces, kind of threw me into a frenzy this past week, but I've been writing through it. The toughest thing, as I blogged about on Friday, has been my reluctance to end the story. I have one more big climatic scene to write, but I'm dragging my feet to get to it. I'm at 16K of my 20K goal for the month.  

Next month our WIPMADNESS host will be Jaye Robin Brown. I believe she'll be posting this Friday, so if you'd like to join in on the fun, be sure to check in with a new set of goals for September.  

So we have THREE MORE DAYS to reach our goals. Some of you are already there. Yay! How about the rest of us? Are we getting close? 

The Most Interesting Thing I Learned This Week--Endings Hurt

“If you want a happy ending, that depends, of course, on where you stop your story.”--Orson Welles

Bellingham Bay at the End of the Day

A warm welcome to all the new readers here, and "hi" to the regulars. Fridays are the day I talk about the most interesting thing I've learned about writing during the week. Or something I'm struggling with. This week it's endings. A struggle.
  
It's been a while since I've written the end of a story and even though it's very satisfying to finish a draft, somehow I forgot how difficult it is to let go. It's like when I'm devouring a fabulous book and I get to the last chapter and force myself to slow down so I can savor it, make those last bites last a little longer.

Right now I'm about three scenes from the end of my historical YA, and though I'm eager to revise this one, the words are coming out painfully slow. 

Why am I reluctant to finish this story? Because it hurts to walk away from these characters, not knowing what will happen to them when I write THE END. Because this story doesn't end for a long time. And though Mr. Welles is right and I'm stopping the story in a happy place, I know that worse times lie ahead for these kids. Some of them may not survive.  I'm going to miss them.

What about you? Are endings hard? Why?  

Author Interview: PJ Hoover, author of SOLSTICE

Book Trailer  

P. J. Hoover first fell in love with Greek mythology in sixth grade thanks to the book Mythology by Edith Hamilton. After a fifteen year bout as an electrical engineer designing computer chips for a living, P. J. decided to take her own stab at mythology and started writing books for kids and teens. P. J. is also a member of THE TEXAS SWEETHEARTS & SCOUNDRELS. When not writing, P. J. spends time with her husband and two kids and enjoys practicing Kung Fu, solving Rubik's cubes, and watching Star Trek. Her first novel for teens, Solstice, takes place in a Global Warming future and explores the parallel world of mythology beside our own. Her middle grade fantasy novels, The Emerald Tablet, The Navel of the World, and The Necropolis, chronicle the adventures of a boy who discovers he’s part of two feuding worlds hidden beneath the sea.

On Writing:

Favorite thing about writing a first draft:

The third chapter. The voice seems to really start developing and feeling natural around this point. Before that it’s sort of a struggle with backstory and a shaky voice. And at the third chapter, I still love the story.

Best thing about writing for kids and/or teens:

Fan mail. There is nothing better! Tell me you love my book, and I’ll have a smile on my face for the rest of the day.

Favorite word? 

OMG

One word that describes your path to publication:

Fascinating 

If I could have two dream careers, I’d be an author and an:

Electrical Engineer (which I really did used to be)

On Life:

One question I wish I had a definitive answer to:

How to get my next book published.

Best thing about being a child:

Not yet being at the age of reason. When kids hit the age of reason (maybe around 8 or 9), the fun starts to slip out of life little by little.

Worst thing about being a child:

Not yet being at the age of reason.

Best thing about being a teenager:

Hints of freedom. Pretending to be a grown up.

Worst thing about being a teenager:

Wanting to break away from the set of rules you have to live by but not being able to

Most memorable teen moment:

Seeing The Grateful Dead, Tom Petty, and Bob Dylan in concert at RFK stadium.

A quote I live by:

"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us." —J. R. R. Tolkien

My dream vacation:

Taking a month and hiking the Great Wall of China with my family

In My Perfect World…

Everyone would get positive reinforcement and encouragement at least once a week.

There would be an abundance of hugs and kisses.

No one would be deprived of a safe environment.

Every child would have a great role model who is always around.

No one would ever be abused or exploited.

Health care would be free for everyone.

Author Website 

  

Liebster Blog Award and The Platform Building Campaign

For my new and old followers, I've got two bits of blogger love to share with everyone today.  One is a blog award I was given last week and am paying forward, the other is a campaign I learned about while perusing blog links posted on Verla Kay's Message Boards

The Liebster Blog Award is for blogs that have under 200 followers. This award is a great way to share some blogging love, get people’s names out there, and help bloggers build up their followers. There are some rules that come with the Liebster Blog Award:

1. Thank the person who gave you this award and link back to them.

Thank you, Marilyn!!! Marilyn Almodovar 

2. Reveal your top 5 picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog. (see below)

3. Copy and paste the award on your blog.

4. Have faith that your followers will spread the love to other bloggers.

5. And best of all - have blogging fun!

1. Mary Ann @ Haunting The Broken Tree

2. Jaime Callahan  

3. Marie Andrews

4. LS Taylor

5. Candy Fite

And another exciting blogger campaign is about to get underway. When I learned about this one, I had to jump on board because it seems a great way to meet other writer/author/bloggers and also sounds like loads of fun. You can find the details here:

Rachael Harrie's Platform Building Campaign

More Madness!--#WIPMADNESS Check-in Week 4

NEWSFLASH!!!

Our house sold!!! So if all goes well, we'll soon be on our way home to sunny, Flagstaff, Arizona!

San Francisco Peaks--Love this town!

Okay, now that I've gotten that off my chest, I can turn my attention to the more important stuff, like all the progress that I've heard about on the WIPs this week. From what I can tell, there's a whole lot of writing going on in our group. How's your week been? Chaotic? If so, you're in good company.

Staying focused while in the midst of a move is going to be my biggest challenge. Right now, I'm 7500 words away from reaching my 20K goal for August. Yesterday I read this post from Laurie Halse Anderson about staying calm in the center of chaos. Seems appropriate. I'm going to do my best to keep up my early morning writing routine. We'll see what happens.

Anybody ever have to write through chaos? How do you do it?

The Most Interesting Thing--Donna Jo Napoli Made Me Cry

"Civilization is built on empathy. If dreadful things happen to you, you learn empathy. The safest way to learn empathy is through a book. "--Donna Jo Napoli

If you don't know who Donna Jo Napoli is, visit her website.
If you'd like to read a summary of her Keynote, go to the Official SCBWI Conference Blog here.
If you'd like to know why that Keynote, "How Writing about Terrible Things Makes Your Reader a Better Person" made me cry, keep reading.

Just for the record, I can count on one hand the number of times I've shed tears in the past twenty years. Go ahead and analyze that all you want, but the point is that I rarely cry. So what did this spunky author say that opened the floodgates of my dammed up heart? Without knowing it, she talked about my novel, passionately putting into words the essence of why I wrote a story titled WHY I TOLD, a story that earned me the 2009 SCBWI Work-In-Progress Grant for A Contemporary Novel.

Here's what she said: 

 "Unprotected children, because of family problems, don't talk out of a sense of loyalty, because they feel alone, guilty, unworthy. Then they meet that person in a book and realize they're not alone, it's not their fault, that bad things happen to good people. Children don't have the power to change their world. These books help them to be hopeful, introduce them to those who managed to survive."

This was the point in the talk in which I started asking everyone around me for kleenex (which, by the way, no one had). Why did these words rip me wide open?

Because until I wrote this book, I didn't realize that (A) the majority of abused children never tell.

Because until I wrote this book and put it out there for others to read, I never realized (B) how few people truly understand an abused child's reasons for silence.

These two facts (A & B) make me very, very, very sad.

Just at the moment when I needed to hear it, Donna Jo Napoli touched my heart by reminding me why I write about terrible things.

Sometimes, it's good to cry.