Author: Janci

I’m doing NaNoWriMo this year, because I finished an intensive outline on October 31st, mostly by coincidence, and I was planning to write the novel this month anyway.  I’ve started Nano twice before and never officially finished, mostly because both times were when I was in college, and late November is not a great time to be writing a novel with papers and tests and things right before Thanksgiving (and the second time, a thesis defense).

However that second novel?  I wrote half of it during November, stopped to do revisions and defend my thesis, and then wrote the second half of it the first two weeks of December.  The first draft was far short of 50k words, but it was in fact the first draft of CHASING THE SKIP, so I’m going to call it a success anyway, even if I technically failed to write 50k in November.  (Fun fact: the published version is also under 50k.)

I like Nano.  I think it’s a good exercise in writing consistently and diligently for many, many people.  But I’m more committed to my work than I am to the exercise, so if it turns out my new novel needs to be written slower, I will do so.  If some personal crisis pops up, I won’t feel bad about not hitting 50k.  If the draft isn’t that long and it’s finished, huzzah.

I also like having the goal, though, so I’m going to try.  This morning I wrote 550 words (on the nose!) and I can already tell I’m going to get to keep every one.  (This was not the beginning of the book.  I started in the middle, because that’s how I roll.)  And I couldn’t ask for a better start to drafting than that.

We’re having a gray day here on the Wasatch front.  So here’s a flower.

Also, on Friday I had an interview up at Ink & Angst.  This is my favorite interview I’ve done.  I wanted to talk forever about every question.

Happy Monday!

It probably won’t surprise you to know that I own a lot of books.  It probably also won’t surprise you that my child is now at the age where she wants to pull all the books off the shelves.

What has surprised me, though, is that I don’t care.  I’ve never really cared when my child makes messes, because they can be cleaned.  But I also don’t really care to protect my books from her.  I don’t really care if she destroys them when I’m not looking.  (I’m also not going out of my way to get them destroyed, so I do take them away from her when I see, but I’m not particularly concerned about their fate if she does rip them to pieces before I can get to her.)

Other people seem very concerned about my books.  I say my house is pretty baby proofed.  They look at my books and give me knowing glares.  But when I say baby proofed, I mean I’ve eliminated most things that could hurt her.  The safety of the books wasn’t really a consideration.

Here’s the thing.  If my books get destroyed, I will throw them out.  Then I will have fewer books, and more space.  And if I really care that much about a particular book, I can replace it for a few dollars.  (The exception is the gaming books–I care about those, because we use them regularly and they are much more expensive to replace.)

And that’s got me thinking about the nature of copies.  In book publishing, there is no original work, only copies of a thing.  I value books; I value stories; I value information.  But the individual copies that I own I don’t value beyond their cover price.  So while it’s not like I’m handing my books over to be chewed on, I also am not going to be upset if the corners get soggy and the pages get ripped.

I’ve already read the stories.  Now they’re just copies of words, taking up space.  And copies of things are replaceable.

Um, remember that giveaway from a week ago?  Yeah.  I’m finally announcing winners now.  Sorry about that.

Kristy and Gaby, there are ARCs coming your way.  I will email you shortly for addresses and stuff.  Thanks to both of you, and to everyone who spread the word about the book.

I also neglected to link on Friday to Katherine Longshore’s Friday  Five, where I talked about snack foods, adjectives, and other things.

If you’d rather listen thank read, I guested in an episode of Writing Excuses, where we talked about pitching books.  (I have since figured out that no, my book is not available in audio yet.  Sorry about that.)

And lastly, here is a picture of a  flower.  Because every day needs more of those.

Today is the quarterly teamTEENauthor Dare Day, or the day in which we must complete dare challenges and then post them for all to see.  Here, therefore, is a video of me putting extra chunky peanut butter all over my face.  (The dare was only to take a picture, but I figure if a picture is good, a video is better.  And we only had chunky peanut butter in the house.  Yeah.  I should have bought creamy.)

For the record, editing together this video (because my camera kept shutting off randomly) was more embarrassing than the peanut butter escapade.  And despite my predictions, I didn’t in fact break out.  Maybe peanut butter is good for the skin, as well as for getting gum out of hair.

Over at Julie Cross’s blog you can find not only an ode to her celebrity crushes (and you can consider me a ditto on everything she says about them, although I was a Brandon Walsh girl, myself) but also a giveaway for lots and lots of books, including mine.  

If you haven’t had enough, good news!  You can find more Dare Day posts today by the other members of teamTEENauthor.  Here are some links.  Hope they work.  If they don’t, well, that’s embarrassing.

Laura Ellen

Elizabeth Amisu

Eugene Myers

Erica O’Rourke

Mindee Arnett

Kimberly Sabatini

Hilary Weisman Graham

Whew.  I got to this week and now my schedule looks normal again.  I couldn’t be happier about that.  There are a couple of things still coming up on the blog this week–my favorite of which is a guest post I wrote for Dear Teen Me.  Their blog specializes in letters by authors to their teen selves, and I’ve loved it for a long time.  I’m so excited to be able to contribute.

Also don’t forget to enter last week’s giveaway, which goes through tomorrow.   It’s easy–all you have to do is tell someone in a non-spammy way about CHASING THE SKIP.

And, because it’s still been warm here despite already being October, I took some pictures of flowers last week.  Here’s one:

Thank you to everyone who came to the launch event last night, and especially to the awesome folks at The King’s English for a great event.  If you’re in the area, you really need to stop by their store.

Also, thanks to everyone who tweeted and talked about the book.  It felt so good to see the word spreading.  And of course, thanks everyone who bought the book.  I hope you enjoy it!

I neglected to link yesterday that I have a post up over at Mary Robinette Kowal’s blog about my favorite thing about CHASING THE SKIP.  Have I answered that question in six different ways by now.  Feels like it, but at least it means I’m not repeating myself.  Also, don’t forget I’m giving away my last two ARCs.  You can enter until next Tuesday.

Here’s some pictures from last night.  I couldn’t have asked for a better launch event.  Thanks again, everyone!

Um, hi.

My book is out.

It’s no longer sitting on my computer waiting for me to revise it, or sitting on some editor’s desk, or sitting on MY editor’s desk, or waiting waiting waiting forever to be published.

It is out.  People, if they are so inclined, can buy it.

That feels pretty surreal to me.  To celebrate, my husband pulled out a bottle of Martinelli’s that had been sitting in our cabinet for nine months.  Because that’s how we roll.

But I feel like celebrating some more.  So, let’s have a giveaway, shall we?  I have two ARCs left, and I’d love to give them to you.  (Well, one of them to one of you, and one to another of you.)

To enter, tell someone about CHASING THE SKIP.  You could tell them in person.  You could post about it to Facebook, or Twitter.  You could pin it to a board on Pinterest.  (Do I sound like I don’t know what I’m talking about?  I don’t use Pinterest yet.)  You could blog about it.  I know how that works.  We’ll go through next Tuesday, the 9th .

You could, if you want, do all of these things, because you’ll get one entry for every way that you help spread the word about the book.  Just tell me in a comment how many ways you chose to tell people about it.  (And I probably don’t have to say this but please be polite and considerate and don’t spam, okay?  Everyone hates spam, especially me.)

Also, if you’re not tired of links, I have some interviews up today, talking about technology and workspace on Cynsations, my favorite things over at Leanna Renee Hieber’s blog, and ridiculous binaries with Saundra Mitchell.

I’m going to do my best to make the rest of today a normal day.  Don’t forget, though, about launch event tonight at The King’s English in Salt Lake.  I’ll be there at 7.  If you’re local, I hope you can make it.

Hey, all.  The book comes out tomorrow.  I fully expect tomorrow’s post to look like link salad, and here’s a preview.

Adventures in YA Publishing has included CHASING THE SKIP in their giveaway for this week.  You can enter over at their site, and also read about my favorite thing about the book.

I have a post up today on the Apocalypsies blog about CHASING THE SKIP’s path to publication.  That slice of my publication story is by far the nicest, smoothest part.

Also, the Deseret News did a nice article on Sunday about the book.  Here’s the review from their website.    And another review from Elitist Book Reviews, on why the reviewer liked it even though he would never have picked up a book like this.

And, because I, too, am tiring of all the links, here’s a photo of a flower.  Enjoy.

This is another drive-by post to let you know that I have another little piece up over at Ink and Angst, about elevator pitches.  Mine is near the bottom.

The Book Academy yesterday was awesome–if you’re local, I highly recommend it for next year.  The presentations I went to were truly wonderful.

Things will be less scattered here in about a week, I’m thinking.  My book comes out in four days!