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I’ve painted through almost my entire backlog of minis this year, but I haven’t posted any.  To rectify that, here is a dragon.  His name is Nethyrmaul, and he is halfway rotten.  Makes me happy.

I’ve decided to publish some of my own novels this year.

I tried about fourteen times to write the paragraph that precedes that one.  I tried to explain why I’m making this decision–why it isn’t a political move against traditional publishing nor a vote of confidence that self-publishing is the future.  But it all comes down to this:

I’ve been sending books to editors in New York for thirteen years.  I still think that big publishers have lots of things to offer.  I’m glad I sold Chasing the Skip to a traditional publisher.  But I’ve been doing it so long that a lot of the creative challenge is gone.  I think about sending more books to my (wonderful) agent, and I feel tired.

When I think about trying something new with my work, I feel terrified, but also excited.  I feel the energy I need to revise, and to write new material.  Mired in the realities of the industry, creative energy can be scarce.  I have to seize it where I find it.

What I need right now is a new challenge, so I’m building myself one.  And I think it’s so wonderful to be a writer in 2014, when there are so many options.  I think it’s so great that if something isn’t working for me the way I would like it to, that I can pick something different.  I can try something new.  And if it doesn’t work out, there are more options after that; there are more things to try. Possibilities breed opportunity, and I’m thrilled for the chance to chase after them.

I don’t have any specific announcements to make right now, but as the year progresses, that will change.  I plan to share lots about the process, the work with my editor (because yes, all books need editing), and with my cover designer (because I’m quite aware that I’m not one), and so forth.  Right now I’m at the beginning stages, where I’m just beginning to winnow down the options.

What I do have now is this news for the New Year: I’m going to publish some books.  I hope you’ll want to read them.

Stay tuned.

Every once in a while I read a book and I feel like it was written precisely for me.  Don’t get me wrong–I enjoy reading a wide variety of books.  But once in a great while I find a book that does all the things I like in a story, and nothing that bothers me.  That’s when I really fall in love.

I first picked up Natalie Whipple’s Transparent because it sounded intriguing; it’s the adventures of an invisible girl, whose mob-boss father wants to turn her into the perfect assassin.  When he gives her a job she won’t perform, she and her mother flee to a small town in Arizona, but it’s surprisingly difficult to hide when you’re the only invisible girl in the world.

So I figured this would be an exciting adventure story.  It would be fun.

And it was fun.  But it was also so much more.  Natalie ties superhero elements into the kind of emotional journey I’m used to only reading in contemporary novels.  Fiona’s dad isn’t just a mob boss–he’s an abuser, and Natalie handles all the nuances of that sort of parental relationship with grace.  Fiona has an invisible body, which makes for lots of fun adventure, but also teen awkwardness and self-doubt, making her at once a competent hero and a believable teenager.  Oh, and there’s romance, too.  With a geeky boy.  I really couldn’t believe what a perfect combination all of these elements made, nor how gracefully Natalie wove them all together.  She’s so skillful at it, she made it look easy.

I really can’t tell you how much I love this book.  So I was super excited to get an advanced copy of Blindsided, which is out today.

It’s better than Transparent.  And I don’t say that lightly.

So you should read them both.  Right now.  Or, if YA isn’t your thing, you should buy copies for the teenage girls in your life.  Because these books are made of awesome.

Also, keep an eye on Natalie.  She has House of Ivy & Sorrow, a YA fantasy about witches, coming out in just a few months.  And then she’s publishing her first indie novel a few months after that.  And it’s about Ninjas.  Seriously.

Great writer?  Check.  Fun, fast paced adventure?  Check.  Slick fantasy elements?  Check.  Emotional journeys with nuanced character arcs?  Check.  Prolific?  Check.

I’m going to read all Natalie’s books forever, and I think you should, too.

If you haven’t read Hold on to your Horses, by Sandra Tayler, you are missing out.  In fact, you can read it for free in PDF.  Amy’s beautiful ideas always get her into trouble, so her mother tells her that her ideas are like wild horses, and she needs to focus on steering them to good places.  The artwork is truly beautiful–with multicolored horses on every page.  (And some of them have wings!)  The book is aimed at children who have difficulty controlling their impulses, which, when you think about it, is every child.

My daughter is too young to understand the metaphor, but she loves this book.  I first read it to her when she was about 18 months, and for weeks she asked for the “horsie!  book!” over and over.  It’s well written enough that I don’t mind, which if you’ve ever read a book dozens of times in a row, you know is a high compliment.  We saw some horses a month or two later, and she shouted “horsie!” and then immediately began looking around for Amy.  (She sadly didn’t find her.)

The sequel just funded on Kickstarter this weekend.  (That means if you pledge now, you can get copies of the book in March.)  In this one, rather than learn how to control her impulses, Amy discovers that having wild ideas gives her a gift that can help the people in her life, rather than just making her life difficult.  I read the text of The Strength of Wild Horses while it was being written.  I loved it even more than the first one, and you can see a lot of the artwork on the Kickstarter page.  It’s beautiful.

Sandra is a friend of mine, but I’m independently a fan of her work–especially these picture books.  The project still has a few days left, and if you haven’t yet, you should go pledge.  It’s just $5 for the PDF of the new book, or $15 for a hard copy, or $30 for a hard copy of both books.  If you have (or know) children, this is a great purchase.  There are some extras available, too, from cards to canvas prints to original art.  My daughter still loves Amy and her horsies, so I’m thrilled to be able to give her a sequel.

(I know, I know.  I’m a blogging slacker.  And I have no excuses.)

I’m working on a first draft right now.  First drafts are always so…drafty.

I had forgotten, specifically, how much I hate to write first drafts of action scenes.  The setting details are always insufficient for the reader to picture the action, and I know it.  But since I don’t know exactly how the action is going to play out blow by blow, I don’t know what’s important until after I’ve written it.

All scenes are about tension, about setup and prolonged setup and more stretched out setup–and then the fear of failure, the decision point, and the release.  This is much easier for me to do with dialogue, where characters are reacting to each other directly.  I say this, you say that in return.  It’s clear how we’re in conflict!  I don’t like what you’re saying to me and I’m going to tell you about it!

But with action, unless it’s a direct fight scene (which I rarely write), the back and forth is, by definition, unstated.  So I spend a lot of time in my drafts writing setting details that don’t matter, so I can find the ones that do.  Having the characters get themselves into physical positions that are total distractions from the direction of the scene, and will ultimately have to be deleted.  I never know which details are the important ones until I can step back and revise the scene holistically, and it inevitably turns out that the important details are the ones I didn’t write, and the unimportant details are the ones I did.

But I can’t see the scene as a whole until it exists.  And it can’t exist until I write it…badly.

The badly writing part though…it’s not my favorite.

But it’s necessary.  So back to it.

Congrats to Rachele Alpine, whose debut novel, Canary, made its appearance at the beginning of this week.  I was happy to have the opportunity to interview Rachele.

First and most importantly, tell us about the book.

Kate Franklin’s life changes for the better when her dad lands a job at Beacon Prep, an elite private school with one of the best basketball teams in the state. She begins to date a player on the team and quickly gets caught up in a world of idolatry and entitlement, learning that there are perks to being an athlete. But those perks also come with a price. Another player takes his power too far and Kate is assaulted at a party. She knows she should speak out, but her dad tries to silence her in order to protect the team. The world that Kate was once welcomed into is now her worst enemy, and she must decide whether to stay silent or expose the corruption, destroying her father’s career and bringing down a town’s heroes.

I’m hooked already.  Family drama and fighting silence are two of my favorite themes.  Now for the fun stuff.  Suppose you’ve skipped bail, and a bounty hunter is looking for you. What three things do you bring with you?

*My dog, Radley
*Coffee maker
*Flat Iron (hey, a girl’s got to look good, right?!)

So you’re alert, well-groomed, and in good company.  Where does the bounty hunter find you?

Hanging on a small beach in Montezuma, Costa Rica. I studied abroad there when I was in college, and fell in love with the sleepy little beach town.

That sounds heavenly.  Also, pro-tip if you ever do jump bail, bounty hunters can’t follow you out of the country.  So you’re gold!  Now you’re the bounty hunter. When three things do you bring with you while tracking your skip?

The same three things!
*My dog, Radley (so can help smell out the bad guy!)
*My coffee maker (to keep me alert and ready for the chase)
*A flat iron (a girl still has to look good, right?!)

You’ve found your skip, right where you thought they would be. Describe your location and approach.

They are at Chipotle just about to eat the biggest burrito in the world. I patiently wait while they eat it, because everyone knows how sluggish you feel after eating one of those burritos. The burrito is done, the skip is now practically dozing off in a burrito coma, so I sneak over and tie them to the chair by wrapping the burrito aluminium foil around and around them!

With a burrito in his stomach and an aluminum foil casing, you’re sure to catch the skip.  But please take off the foil before you stuff him in your car.  We wouldn’t want to bake the man.  As you‘re unwrapping him, you’re surprised to find him attractive. What three things make them irresistible to you?

*The abilty to chow down on a chipotle burrito and not even leave a drop of sour cream
*They were reading a book while they ate!
*My dog gave me her wag of approval

Thanks, Rachele!  Congrats again on the debut! You can find more about Rachele and her website, facebook, and twitter.  

When someone asks me what we’ve been doing, I say this:

Oh, you know.  The usual.  Painting minis.  Writing books.

Because at my house, that’s what we do.  I mean, that’s what we do besides change diapers and read board books and make duck sounds and blow bubbles and mow the lawn and look at the unpulled weeds and then finally pull the weeds and check the mail and do the laundry and vacuum and do the dishes and ignore the dishes and do the dishes again.

Drew paints minis.  I write books.  Sometimes I paint minis.  Sometimes Drew listens to the new ideas that are going in the books.  Sometimes he reads for me.  Sometimes he sculpts.  Sometimes I revise.  We interface with clients.  We redo the schedule.  I do some accounting.  We talk about money.  We talk endlessly about what else needs to be done and how to keep making progress on these goals of painting minis and writing books.

And then, when we’re done with all that, we walk around a park.  We play video games.  Sometimes I have writing group.  Sometimes we have roleplaying.  If we’re feeling really ambitious, we play with all those minis that we’ve painted.  Those games might sit out on the table, unfinished, for weeks, while we go back to the business of painting minis and writing books.

So I don’t have anything to say when people ask what I’m doing with my life.  It’s nothing new.  It’s nothing exciting to talk about.  What are we doing with our summer?  Are we going on vacation?  Are we doing anything new and exciting?

No.  We’re doing something old and exciting.  We’re painting minis, and writing books.

I’ve done a lot of things in my life.  And this, I tell you, is the best of all possible lives, this painting minis and writing books.   I just don’t think that it possibly gets any better than this.

So, sorry all, but I’m just going to go on being happy that I have nothing new to say.

I hope it lasts forever.