Random Thoughts on a Friday

4 Things I Wish I Had the Guts to Do

1. Contact people who give me crummy ratings or reviews and ask, "Why no love?" Why give my book a 2? Why say you hate the ending? Why make nasty comments?

In this age of the Internet, no posting is truly anonymous. I can easily email or message someone and ask them why they wrote or rated the way they did but what would that get me? Reviewers and readers should feel free to give their true opinions without fear of being stalked by a maligned author. But honestly, if you don't like something, it would be really great - and helpful - if you can say why.

I'm just sayin'.

2. Contact old boyfriends just to say, "Hey! How ya doin'? Ever wonder what happened to me?" Believe me, I am a happily married woman and I would not want to get in touch for any reason that's, shall we say, untoward, but I kind of just want to sort of know if they ever think about me.

Wouldn't you want to know if someone considered you "the one who got away"?

Again, just sayin'.

3. Stop posting at Facebook and Goodreads and Myspace for, like, a week.

Ah, who am I kidding? I can't go a day without looking at all those sites. Maybe I could cut down to once a day?

Oh please, yeah, that's not happening.

4. Stop weighing myself every single morning.

I'm a freak like that. I'm way into the numbers game: Amazon, my scale, blog visits, website hits. I wish I didn't care but I do.

Again, so not happening.

Creating book lists

Earlier this week, a writer friend of mine asked me for some recommendations for a book list for teen girls (I'll post the link when she gets it up on her site). I have to tell you, it totally freaked me out for about 12 hours. Asking a writer to compile a list of favorite books is like asking a computer to figure pi - it just goes on and on and on and on...

When I was growing up, I read everything and I do mean everything: all genres, all writers, all types of stories. Shorts and classics, sci-fi and true crime...seriously, everything. But there was one sort of sub-genre of fiction that I fixated upon briefly when I was about 12 or so: the sad and depressing main character stories.

So herewith are My Favorite Mental Illness Books:

LISA, BRIGHT AND DARK by John NeufeldTHE BELL JAR by Sylvia Plath

I NEVER PROMISED YOUR A ROSE GARDEN by Joanne GreenbergONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST by Ken Kesey

SYBIL by Flora Rheta Schreiber

What does this say about me as a teenager? Only that we all get obsessed with certain things at different times of our lives.

Next: great true crime novels

New (Zoo) Reviews

I'm sure no one in the blogosphere is old enough to remember the New Zoo Review, are they?

A show of hands? No? Okay, moving on then...

I'd like to take a brief respite from blogging about all the things I like and all the things I eat and all the things I do to mention some very cool reviews about, ahem, my books.

Seriously, I so love hearing from readers and it's just amazing the kind of feedback you get on the web. Where it used to be - before the Age of the Internet - you had to post a letter to an author you liked and send it to her publishing house in New York and then someone there would hold onto it for a year and finally forward it to the author herself, now it's just a click of a button and you can share your opinions with the world - or whoever happens to read your blog.

Good, bad, an author has no control over what people think or interpret or ultimately write about her books. And in the anonymous webspace, anyone can pretty much say anything with very few repercussions. So that's why it's especially satisfying to read positive reviews, like these:

Here is Chelsea the Page Flipper's review of ALL ABOUT VEE. She uses the word "surprising" which I have to say - and told her - many, many people say about my books. I would love to know why! Is it that they are expecting something completely different based on the title or the cover or what they've heard? And if so, what were they expecting?

Is that a question for the ages? I hope one of you amazing reviewers out there will enlighten me if you can.

Here is Frenetic Reader/Khyrinthia's review of LOVE, MEG. Again, she is also surprised at what she got. I'm so happy she thought the characters were realistic and I do love that she appreciated the ending - while most people love that it had a not-happily-ever-after ending, I've heard from a very few who didn't. And that surprises me. Thank you, K, for putting the book in the Realm of the Very Good.

And for just one more, here is The Book Muncher's review of LOVE, MEG on her site. Another insightful analysis of the book that thrilled me to pieces. I love that she said she could connect with Meg, and really, that's the character I put my heart and soul into.

While I can't speak for other authors, I know I appreciate thoughtful reviews that give context for what and why a reader did or did not like about my books. It's nice to hear someone loved a book I wrote, but when they can tell me why (or why they didn't), I both appreciate and respect their opinions and the fact that they took the time to give them.

Thanks to all of you.

The winners are...

Eileen Micale - ALL ABOUT VEE
Thao Tran - LOVE, MEG

Congratulations, Eileen and Thao!

I hope you both enjoy the books and that you'll let me know what you think when you've read them. I love getting feedback from my readers! And no, I don't think free books make people like the book better. Heck, I would give them all away if that were true!

Jessica at Teen Free Book Fridays told me over 300 people entered her contest which was just so shocking and thrilling. I love that so many people wanted to win one of my books!

Yay!

Random Thoughts on a Friday

4 Things I Won't Ever Be

1. A car aficionado - As much as LA is a car culture, I just can't wrap my mind around spending the equivalent to a year's worth of college education on a car. I can't make the words "I drive an Avalanche" sound right coming out of my mouth.

2. A vegan - I like soy products, I really do, but I also like wearing cashmere. Is that so wrong?

3. A Tom Cruise fan - His bland likability may appeal to a wide swath of the movie-going public but he's too...bland and too...likable for my taste. He has no edge, unless you count jumping up and down on Oprah's couch edgy, and virtually no potential for criminal activity and I truly dig that in my Tinseltown idols.

4. A romance writer - Not in the sense of "a writer of romantic fiction," no, but perhaps in the "a writer who thinks it's romantic to be a writer" vein. For while I believe spending one's life in the pursuit of the perfect turn of phrase, the plot twist that no one saw coming, and the story that makes every reader cry at its end is both noble and worthy of great sacrifice, I simply haven't mastered the ability tot make a romance the centerpiece of my MC's world.

I tried it once and it turned out gay - literally. I wrote a novel about a girl whose life is turned upside down when she falls in love with another girl. Not that there's anything wrong with that...but it's certainly not a conventional love story.

Not that there's anything wrong with that either.

3 Movies I'm Jazzed About

Seven Pounds, starring Will Smith and directed by Gabriele Muccino (who also directed Smith in "The Pursuit of Happyness"). Will Smith is a suicidal IRS agent who decides to help seven people before he kills himself. I know it doesn't sound very promising - sort of maudlin with a likely sappy ending - but in the hands of these two, I know it will be heartfelt and sincere, if nothing else. Also, didn't they say that about "It's a Wonderful Life"?


The Day the Earth Stood Still, starring Keanu Reeves and based on the classic 1951 sci-fi film which was directed by Robert Wise and was itself based on a short story by Harry Bates. "Gort, Klaatu barada nicto!" Come on, who in the free world has not heard those words before? The first time I saw the original film, I was in junior high. I have no idea what class it was or why the teacher showed it to us, but I absolutely remember every frame of it. Will the Reeves version be as good? Hard to tell. It's got a great cast and likely amazing special effects but will people believe Reeves (and lord knows he's one of my favorite actors of all time and I'll watch him in just about anything) is Klaatu and not Gort?


The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, starring Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett, directed by David Fincher, and based on a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald (one of my absolute favorite writers ever - ever!). A man is born very old and ages backwards. Pitt and Blanchett - together? My heart does a little pit-a-pat. I love Cate, adore her like I do Meryl and Michelle. The movie, I can tell from the trailers, will break my heart. I just know it. Sigh. Bring it on.


Don't forget to enter the Teen Free Book Friday contest to win a signed copy of LOVE, MEG or ALL ABOUT VEE! Contest ends Friday, December 5th!

You lie!

I'm writing a character now who lies to manipulate other people, including my narrator, to bend them to her will - but in a nice way. I have written lying characters before (see Reed in VEE, who lies to be cruel and Lucie in MEG, who lies to protect herself) but I've never written one like this.

Obviously, writers have to create characters who are nothing like themselves to populate their stories. Otherwise it would be unbelievably boring to have everyone act like one person - the author. But whenever I write someone who is so different from me, it makes me think about my own personality and if there's a part of me in there too.

I am not a liar. It never occurs to me to lie to get my way. Maybe it's the way I was raised, maybe I've seen other people get in trouble for lying. Ultimately, I do believe in karma - that whatever you put out there into the universe will come back to you in some way. I'm the kind of person who responds to email in a day, who returns every phone call, who doesn't pretend to be busier or more important than she is to make herself look smarter or more popular. If anything, I'm a glass-half-empty gal, while HH would love for me to be more glass-half-full. He wants me to be more elusive but to me that's a false note. If I'm busy, sure, that's one thing but if I'm not, why pretend to others that I am?

Sometimes in my personal life, I have a hard time understanding where people who lie are coming from. What drives them to fib about how much money they make, how busy they are, how popular their books are...I don't cut them much slack because it's something I never do.

But when I write, I can imagine all sorts of motivations for characters who lie. Interesting that I can't do that with real people.

A reminder: Teen Free Book Fridays is featuring me as their author this week and will be giving away 2 signed copies of my books, one each of LOVE, MEG and ALL ABOUT VEE. So head on over and sign up to win!