BATG Down to 2!

I didn't blog about BATG on Wednesday due to my desire to talk about MYSELF.

Btw, did everyone get a chance to read that fantastic review at Teenreads.com? Just checking.

So we're down to 2 teams - and America votes! I voted. I admit that freely. Normally I don't do that kind of thing. For one, I worry that I will somehow get caught up in a spammer's web and for another, I just never feel that strongly about contests. But this one was different. I had to voice my opinion that I truly believe Dave and Jasmine ought to win. They are the epitome of the show and its "social experiment."

And they're just so gosh darn cute together!

Be warned, though...it cost me a buck to vote, which I think is completely unfair. Didn't Idol and all those other shows eliminate the fee years ago? I mean, come on. These reality shows make tons of money and cost nothing to produce. Can't they foot the bill of text messages from fans? Sheesh. Cheapskates.

Your Hollywod connection,
Leigh

Celeb Encounters

I don't know if these count as sightings so I will call them "encounters" instead.

1. Tom Hanks is on my friends page at MySpace! I am now one minuscule step closer to my goal of meeting him. Note I didn't say actual step; this is a virtual step and really it's more of an inch.

2. I met the amazing author Megan McCafferty at a reading she did at UCLA yesterday! She knew who I was (when I mentioned my name) and how to spell my first name (I had already given her my book) and she was just so cool. And very cute in her pretty dress. She looked just like her head shots, which you know people never do.

She talked a lot about writing and how much she loved to read and write from a very early age and she told us about working for many years in magazines which gave her a lot of experience to draw from when she was writing her Jessica Darling character.

Best of all she sang! And she was good! Someone in the audience asked her to sing Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas is You." (Which is way better than what my choice was gonna be if no one asked her: Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun".) She didn't know all the lyrics which flustered her a bit but she soon hit her stride and belted out the ending. She claimed to want to be a Barry Manilow backup singer but I say no way: she could have opened for him!

Yay, Megan! I'm so glad she visited LA and inspired all of us.

Your Hollywood connection,

Leigh

Toot Toot Toot

That's the sound of me tooting my own horn. Okay, it's a little flat but I'm not a very musical person.

Chris Shanley Dillman at Teenreads.com gave me this amazing Review! Please check it out (and the rest of the fantastic website while you're there). I was thrilled to get this review - and how cool is it that her last name is Shanley, just like Meg?

Do you think that got me the good review?

Hey, every little bit helps.

On another note, I am SUPER excited to go to UCLA today to hear Megan McCafferty read from her new book,"Fourth Comings." I can't wait to meet her and have her sign my book - plus I hope to see how a REAL BIG-TIME author does a reading. Maybe I can pick up some hints.

Your Hollywood connection,
Leigh

Down to the Wire

And I don't mean the good kind of The Wire like season 4 which I am desperately waiting on Netflix to deliver to me.

No, we're talking about good original episodes of favorite shows. The Office has finished with its new shows and is now in repeats. Desperate Housewives will finish this Sunday. Some of the CBS procedural and comedies are also over as well, although I don't watch those and so don't care.

I am most concerned about Lost, Heroes, and Journeyman - three shows which are serialized and kind of have to be watched in sequence. They are also shows which will lose an audience if they don't continue because it will be hard for people to come back to them.

On a positive note, Medium and American Idol will return to the schedule in January - whoo-hoo! Head Honcho tells me he's psyched for American Gladiators; I think it brings back fond childhood memories for him, kinda like Battle of the Network Stars, which he talks about an awful lot. Too much, in fact. I think that show warped his brain.

Nikki Finke, whose Deadline Hollywood column has been following the strike since it was a glimmer in the WGA's collective eye, talks about yesterday's sitdown between the two warring tribes and suggests the strike may soon be over, according to her reputable source (ooh, how "Variety" did that sound?). Let's hope so.

As for me, I am clinging to my final episodes of BATG and Kid Nation this week and hoping Chef Ramsay will keep on yelling at people through the holidays.

Your Hollywood connection,
Leigh

Be My Friend, Tom Hanks!

Okay, I can't figure out how to friend Tom. Unlike normal people with MySpace pages, you can't simply add him as a friend. You have to enter Tom's last name or his email address when you make a request.

1. Uh, isn't his last name Hanks?

2. How am I supposed to get his email address?

3. And are you telling me 24K people have his email address?

According to his page, he's a big reader and I'd love to give him some reading suggestions (hint, hint, Tom, it starts with a LOVE and ends with a MEG). No, seriously, I just think it would be awesome to have Tom Hanks as a virtual friend. I don't have many so to have him as one of the few would be way cool.

Today's research: "Star Wars" characters' names.

Well, I have much work to do this week. Not the least of which is trying to figure out how to friend Tom Hanks. That could take days!

Your Hollywood connection,
Leigh

Tom Hanks has a MySpace page!

TMZ reported this a month ago but I finally saw Tom (with Julia Roberts looking amazing) on Oprah recently and Oprah asked him about it.

Tom Hanks, the movie star, has a MySpace page (over 24,000 friends at this writing)! But it's not so easy to find. I tried with a quick search but all sorts of fake pages that came up. One had me completely fooled. I figured this Tom had a great sense of humor when he said his hometown was "Somewhere in Seattle," and that he was the "first Tom in space." But then I looked more closely and realized it was a goof. I mean, I get the sense the real Tom Hanks can laugh about himself but this went a little too far.

So I googled instead and found the TMZ article, along with a whole host of reader comments, some of whom took issue with TMZ's assertion that Tom was way too old to have a page. Why not? Why does it have to be just young people, they want to know. And I have to agree. One of the cool things about MySpace is searching for old friends - high school and college friends you lost touch with. You kind of have to go through high school and college to have gotten those friends you are gonna lose, right?

So I say, right on, Tom. He's one of my favorite actors of all time (Head Honcho and I are probably the only two people in the world who loved "Cast Away" which is one of the reasons we crave Lost so much). I will see him in pretty much any movie, regardless of how crappy it is.

The only question remains: should I try to friend him on my own page? Oh Tom, be my MySpace friend!

Your Hollywood connection,

Leigh

Selling a Book - Part 2

I shocked you, didn’t I? With that work-related post yesterday? You thought C. Leigh would be all sleepy and lazy after a long Thanksgiving meal and that she’d post something about nice friends and watching “The Incredibles,” but she fooled you! She went for the serious stuff!

Who writes about publishing the day after Thanksgiving? Who’s crazy like that? Your Hollywood connection, that’s who. She’s got work on her brain and has been for days and days. She’s woken up early thinking about scenes she wants - nay, must - write. Characters who are desperate to speak to her and get their words down on the page. And for two days she’s been so flippin’ busy with other pie-related matters that she didn’t have time to work! And now she’s so crazy, she’s talking about herself in the third person.

So I wanted to mention the next thing about the book sale and that is the work after the fact, after the deal is struck. The honeymoon ends very quickly when you get the editor’s notes. They usually come in the form of a long email and in the case of my editor, begin with generalities (as in, shorten act one and lengthen act two) and then get into specifics (as in, shorten act one by fifty pages and get rid of these characters). You freak out ever-so-briefly because you thought you’d sold a book that was going to be printed into book-like form and then you find out alas, no, you only sold something resembling a book.

If you’re like me, you outline the book again and look for the sections of problems that your fantastic editor (who has a much greater image of the big picture than you do) has clued you into. Then - before you have a conversation with him or her - you figure out where you can make some of the changes he or she needs and what you absolutely have to keep. It’s really a good idea to know this going in because this is a process of compromise. This is why you (and I) did the earlier edit: to show that you (and I) can be flexible when it comes to the rewrite.

This will happen over and over again. So get used to it. And trust me, it’s way better in the long run. You will be much happier and so will your editor and publisher. Having sold and rewritten only two books with my editor, I can’t pretend to be a Stephen King-level expert but I’ve seen a trend or two emerge from the process.

The rewrite can go on for a year and a half, as it did with LOVE, MEG or just a few months, as it did with ALL ABOUT VEE. Why am I telling you this? Why did I even label this “Selling a Book” when clearly this is post-sale? Because this is what is involved in selling a book. You don’t just sell it and go away and write another. There is much work to be done and I think it’s important that writers realize this.

And this isn’t nearly as bad as the movies. In that business, writers are rewritten constantly: by producers and directors and actors and other writers. You get used to it. You have to. In publishing, it’s just you and your editor and that relationship is very important to the ultimate health of your book. Cherish it, nourish it, respect it. You will be much better off if you do.

Your Hollywood connection,
Leigh