I have pictures to share and stories to tell and authors to gush over. I'm very, very behind, as the pictures keep piling up.

But I just got back from listening to Neil Gaiman's speech (thank you to the people who put chairs in the back for people to come and listen who can't/don't attend the banquet!!). And so I must spend a few moments before my head hits the pillow sharing what I can with you in a very small way.

Here is Neil. He has a very nice, British accent. You can listen to him read THE GRAVEYARD BOOK if you'd like. He does the audio version himself. (BTW, he was dressed differently than this for accepting the award, but I was sitting far away and didn't get a good picture. So this will have to do)



I really wish you all could have been there to listen.

He made me laugh.

He made me cry.

And deep in my heart, even though I am such a tiny fish in the vast, amazing ocean, he made me feel like what I do as a writer matters. I thank you, Mr. Gaiman, especially for that.

A few quotes for you to ponder:

While talking about the Newbery discussions last year about popular books vs books that are good for you, he said something like, it became apparent I was supposed to choose sides. And then he said:

"But I always have been and always will be on the side of books that you love."

Other notable quotes:

"Sometimes fiction is a way of dealing with the poison of the world."

"Children's fiction is the most important fiction of all."

And with that I will say, good night.

[70] Harry Potter character icons
Over the span of all 6 movies - the 7 main kids

Teasers:



For more, go HERE!

Thanks!

Today, I thought I'd do something a wee bit different with my quoteskimming post. Here are some of the quotes from the first 3 books in the series (or the movies related to the books) to help you get in the mood for Wednesday's big opening in the U.S.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's/Sorcerer's Stone

"Philosopher's Stone" is still such a better title. Ah well.

'Scars can come in useful. I have one myself above my left knee which is a perfect map of the London Underground.' Albus Dumbledore.

'I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death — if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach.' Severus Snape.

'I hope you're pleased with yourselves. We could all have been killed — or worse, expelled.' Hermione Granger.

'It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live, remember that Harry.' Albus Dumbledore.

'Longbottom, if brains were gold you'd be poorer than Weasley, and that's saying something.' Draco Malfoy.

'To the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure.' Albus Dumbledore.

'Your mother died to save you. If there is one thing Voldemort cannot understand, it is love.' Albus Dumbledore.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

'Hearing voices no one else can hear isn't a good sign, even in the wizarding world.' Ron Weasley.

'I will only truly</i> have left this school when none here are loyal to me … Help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it.</i>' Harry's memory of Dumbledore's parting words.

'Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can't see where it keeps its brain.' Mr. Weasley.

'It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.' Albus Dumbledore.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

'I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.' George Weasley, on giving the Marauder's Map to Harry.

'I knew I could do it this time, because I'd already done it. Does that make sense?' Harry Potter.

'You should have died! Died rather than betray your friends, as we would have done for you!' Sirius Black.

'A child's voice, however honest and true, is meaningless to those who've forgotten how to listen.' Albus Dumbledore, from the movie.

'But know this; the ones that love us never really leave us. And you can always find them in here.' Sirius Black, from the movie.

'But you know happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, when one only remembers to turn on the light.' Albus Dumbledore, from the movie.

'The consequences of our actions are always so diverse, so complex, that it makes predicting the future very difficult, indeed.' Albus Dumbledore.

Bonus - What is That Mysterious Ticking Noise? by Potter Puppet Pals



" . . . Ron, Ron, Ron Weasley!"

The male/female issue in voice has always fascinated me, because I have written first-person stories with both male and female narrators. Looking at a sampling of nine of my published short stories, I find these stats: three written in 1st-person male POV, four in 1st-person female POV, and two in 3rd-person POV.

I never sit down and consciously choose a narrator; a voice will just show up in my head, telling a story. Sometimes it's a male voice, sometimes a female one. I've never thought of myself as having a male or female voice; I mostly just think of myself as a person. At the same time, I'm aware that as a reader, I usually give a 1st-person narrator a male or female voice in my head.

The fact is that most writers have to write both male and female voices, because few stories have characters of only one gender, and dialogue must be in each character's voice.

But just for kicks, I thought it would be fun to see if a person really does get a sense of whether a character--and the author behind the character--is male or female, even from a small sample. So I'm posting a totally unscientific quiz that I threw together from books lying around the house. If you care to participate, read the following 1st-person selections and write down whether you think the character is male or female, and whether the author is male or female (in the comments, if you want--I would love to see people's answers.). If you recognize a quote and therefore know the character and author, skip that one. I'll post the answers later in the week, along with the sources.

( Quiz behind the cut )

I am at an intersting point, post-release, for Prada and Prejudice. I've had a number of good reviews, both official industry ones like Publisher's Weekly and SLJ, as well as those from review bloggers and regular teens. I feel good about my book, and I know its finding it's audience.

But I still stalk my Amazon and Goodreads reviews like no tommorrow. As time goes on, I know my chances of discovering some really bad reviews goes up.

So why do I keep looking for more? I feel like I should stop while I'm ahead, and yet I keep checking over and over, hoping to see more reviews. If I quit now, I can skip merrily into the sunset, feeling good about my book.

A Q for Authors: do you continue reading your reviews long after release? If you don't, how do you keep yourself from reading them?

Also, many thanks to those who have shared their thoughts of Prada & Prejudice on Amazon, Goodreads, or their blogs. It really has made this whole experience so real-- people are actually reading this thing I wrote. WOW!

http://maureenjohnson.blogspot.com/2009/07/ask-mj-writing-is-like-cooties.html

Has it really been THREE WEEKS since I blogged last?

But soft . . . I should explain where I have been. Or rather, where I AM, for I am still there, in the place where I am. I am in England. I’ve been here since the 24th of June. I come here a lot, as you may know if you have read this blog over time.

What have I been doing on this particular trip? Well, seeing a lot of people. There was the London Gathering. I’ve also been working on the SEQUEL TO 13 LITTLE BLUE ENVELOPES, and another project for AFTER that. I’ve been spending a lot of time doing research around London. And I will be going to Ireland later this week, if I ever get around to making the arrangements. I’ve also been watching Torchwood and have eaten some cookies and had some tea and got a tan in the hot English sun.

But I wasn’t always busy, friends. Which brings me to today’s question.

Kira902k asks: How do I survive this entire summer doing NOTHING?

Kira, I know your pain. When I was in high school, I had a few summers of such excruciating boredom that when I even think about them, my teeth begin to strike together and my shoes get too tight. It was horrible.

The reason for this was a complicated matrix of badness. Thusly:

- I went to school in the city, and thus, lived kind of far from my friends. (And I went to a girls’ school in a convent for the rest of the year.)

- I didn’t drive in high school. This was partially because I was kind of young, and because car insurance was expensive, and I generally wasn’t allowed to get it even though I wanted it more than I wanted anything. This was a great divide at Chez Johnson, one we don’t even talk about TO THIS DAY, and I am totally grown up and everything. Bottom line: I was never allowed to do ANYTHING.

- So I was totally stuck in my podunk suburb. This, remember, was BACK BEFORE THE INTERNET . . . or, at least, it was back before there was anything good to do on the internet. I am sure it was AROUND. So all I had was the phone and friends with cars who would rescue me as often as they could. Which wasn’t often enough.

- Compounding the problem was the fact that for my junior and senior years (from when I was 15 until I was 17), my father’s job transferred him around the country, first to Louisville, Kentucky (where we knew no one) to Houston, Texas (where we knew no one).

I will never forget my 15th summer, simply because it was so excruciatingly boring that it seemed to warp time and space. I sometimes wonder if that summer isn’t the reason I tend to write books about summers. Suite Scarlett, for instance, is about Scarlett’s 15th summer. Perhaps I am on permanent redo on that one.

That was the summer my dad was in Kentucky, and it was about 105 degrees every single day, with a heat index (that was the summer I learned what a “heat index” was—it means “how much you will actually suffer”) of about 115. We had to go visit my dad for six weeks, so I couldn’t plan to do anything else that summer, like get a job, or give myself up for medical research, or sell myself as a child bride. We flew to Kentucky, and we spent SIX WEEKS sitting around in my dad’s apartment. SIX WEEKS.



I could have been doing so many other, more useful things.

It was too hot to spend any time outside. Seriously. Your lungs would just explode. Not that we knew where to go, or had anyone to see. We were Philadelphia people, and this was a new, strange place. We had my dad’s car during the day, so my mom and I just went to bookstores, often used, where we would buy up huge piles of books, crank through them, and then resell them at the end of the week. I know I read a lot that summer . . . but for some reason the only books I clearly remember reading are the entire Fletch series up to Fletch and the Man Who. Somewhere in there, I also remember reading The Great Gatsby for the first of what would be about 200 times. So that was a summer romance that LASTED. And I think that’s probably when I read Roughing It by Mark Twain, to try to give my westward journey some exciting context. There were a lot of books, but a strange proportion of them seemed to be Fletch-related.

And I wrote. There was that.

When not reading, we baked cakes. One week, we baked a cake every day. We didn’t even want the cakes. We just baked them because it was something to do. I remember my mom saying, “I have never been so bored.” And my mom has 105 Cat’s Meow decorative houses, if this gives you any idea of what she can withstand.

Throughout it all, I missed my friends. To quell the pain, I would bake YET ANOTHER cake and put it with the others, which we lined up on the kitchen bar, using the same display method used in olden times, when countries used to line their architecture with the severed heads of their enemies to send a message. Our message was: we are bored.

What I’m saying, Kira, is that you have come to the right person. I understand. But you know what? It’s almost impossible to do NOTHING. I feel I came pretty much as close as I am (hopefully) ever going to come to doing nothing during that summer, and in retrospect, I was doing things. They just weren’t the things I necessarily wanted to be doing at the time. But all of that reading and writing . . . it paid off! There is something to be said for dealing with this nothing. Creative acts come out of the quiet—when you simply must make something.

What I am saying is, if you spend the summer doing nothing, you will end up EXACTLY LIKE ME! Think about that!

Badhandwroter asks: I have a lot of ideas for stories that I'm currently working on but I can't seem to buckle down and work on just one and fully develop it. What are some ways to keep my focus on just one idea?

We writers have a saying, Badhandwroter. Well, not a saying. More of a commonly accepted idea that has yet to be assembled into an easy-to-carry quote. I will attempt to correct this now: “There is nothing so appealing as the next thing you want to write.”

When you first start writing something, it is all sweetness and joy, because you are skimming those awesome ideas of the top of your brain—that delicious sweet cream. Sometimes it’s an idea for a first scene. Sometimes just one character. Sometimes you get a cluster of ideas: a location, a bit of dialogue. Some people ride high on just a title and a mental image of a cover.

Oh, it is a fine drug, this “first idea” stuff. The unwritten story or book is always SO GOOD. Sure, when you flip the pages in your mind, you can’t actually SEE ANY WORDS, but you know when you fill them in, they will be like NECTAR.

Thing is . . . once you actually start writing, you have to live up to that Shangri-La in your brain. So you sit down and start working, trying to produce that wonderful, shimmering stuff. And while it may go well for a while, you are probably going to reach a point where it DOES NOT, and you have NO IDEA what is supposed to come next, and you take a DIM VIEW of what you’ve done so far, and it’s all HOPELESS and you are TERRIBLE.

This is usually when the new shiny thing comes into your mind . . .



Your innner LOLcat comes out.

This is also where the writing BEGINS. This is precisely the point where you press on. You can jot down the note about the other shiny thing, but if you want to write, you keep going.

Now, you may ask, “But mj, don’t some ideas just die because they have no legs?”

Some ideas are maybe a little shaky. That’s true. But stories are like Cootie. Ever play Cootie? That game where you get the plastic body of a Cootie bug, and you have to keep playing until the thing has eyes and a mouth and antennae and legs to stand on? The more you work on a story—the more you press on—the more you’ll find that you get new parts. New ideas will grow.



Cootie.

But your question is: HOW? HOW do you keep focus and press forward?

My friend, I feel your pain. It’s hard. But the only way is JUST TO DO IT. The most useful technique, aside from flat-out discipline, is to be accountable to someone. Joining a writing group, for instance, where you have to produce a chapter by a certain date for the others to read. More hardcore people might chain themselves to their desk using a time lock or deny themselves showers or food until they have met their daily writing quota. These are also very effective methods.

And then, when you are done your story or book, you get to TAKE IT APART and MAKE IT COOLER. Because now that you’ve made it once, you can get a good look at the thing and see where improvements and changes are necessary. Then you enter into another time-honored writerly period, the opposite of your first problem: namely, the endless revision . . . which is sort of the literary equivalent of projectile barfing.

Trouble ahead and trouble behind, Badhandwroter! Happy writing!

[9] Pride & Prejudice



here in a multifandom post @petitemerci.

It’s always strange coming back from a retreat, and remembering that oh yes, things like e-mail and day jobs and other non-writing things do after all still exist.

The retreat itself went quite spectacularly. It was our largest yet, with eight of us gathering together in what turned out to be quite a spacious cottage, on 13 acres of land all for us. And thanks to our photojournalist member, I have much visual documentation!

We explored the rather interesting grounds…

Roasted marshmallows…

And of course did much writing out in glorious nature…

My goal was to get the first 25,000 words of the japan book done; I managed to make it to just over 30K, so I am a happy writer. First draft half-done in five days! We all agreed we need to do this retreat thing more often.

The obligatory group picture:

Originally published at Megan Crewe - another world, not quite ours. You can comment here or there.

If this review was helpful, by the way, go CLICK "yes" on Amazon!

http://teenfictioncafe.blogspot.com/2009/07/my-vacation-wishlist.html

I don't know about you, but I'm often dreaming about what I'd do if I won the lottery. The big bucks, that is...... like millions and millions (unfortunately, it didn't happen this week, I've just checked my ticket).

Top of my list is to travel. I have so many places I want to visit (I'm lucky enough to have visited many countries, but there are so many more).

So.... where have I visited so far: UK (does that count I lived there most of my life?), New Zealand (I live here now), Australia, Portugal, France, Italy, Greece, Corfu, Rhodes, Ibiza, Israel, Turkey, Venice, Singapore, Hawaii, San Fran, Spain, Fiji.

Where do I want to go: Vietnam, China, Hong Kong, Japan, New York, Canada, New Caledonia, Egypt, Dubai, Barbados, Peru, Switzerland, Alaska, South Africa, Russia, Poland......

Okay, I'm sure there are many more places.

What about you? Where would you love to visit, and where's the most memorable place you've been?

We have one of those triple play packages from Comcast - Internet, phone, and TV. In April, our year-long expired and the price jumped more than $40. I called and asked them to bring it down (I hinted I was thinking about switching to Qwest), and they dropped the price $20.

Then came a new deal, that was $20 cheaper and included free HBO and a free DVR for six months. Only for new customers. But, if you talk about Qwest again and have a good payment history, you too can get the good deal.

On the ugly side, a local Comcast guy came up with a great way to make some money. He cut the phone lines to a check-cashing place. When the woman who worked there showed up for work, he was right there.

As the Oregonian reports:
===
The manager and employees of The Chair Outlet were the first to realize that something was amiss next door at Ace Checks Cashed, which shares the same building at Southeast 73rd Avenue and Powell Boulevard.

Chris Herman, 28, manager of The Chair Outlet, said he found his phones dead when he came to work. He called Qwest, and then checked with Ace Checks Cashed to see if their lines were working.

When he went in, he saw a Comcast man, slightly slouched with his head down, standing behind the locked partition with the clerk of the check-cashing store. "We can't help you, all our systems are down," the woman told Herman.

Herman pointed to his business shirt, and said his phones were out too.

"She said, 'Well, maybe he can help you.' "

"I said, 'We don't have Comcast. We have Qwest.' She said, 'Maybe you can take him with you,' " Herman recalled.

Herman sensed the clerk was trying to hint that something was wrong. As he returned to his shop about 10:45 a.m., he called 9-1-1 and told dispatchers "something was fishy" next door, possibly a robbery.

Meanwhile, Chair Outlet employee Sean Lamb went into the outlet's warehouse, which directly abuts the cash store. Herman soon joined him. They put their ears to the thin wall.

The two men heard some thumping and muffled screams.

The two ran out and saw the Comcast man race off in a Comcast van. Then they went next door to find the check-cashing clerk. "She was up behind the counter, jumping up and down, covered in blood, and she was bound and gagged," Herman recalled.

But they couldn't get to her. She was still behind the locked partition.
===
Comcast says their hearts go out to the victim. Well, if I was that lady (who will be okay in the long run) I'd want their wallet to go out too.

PARIS PAN TAKES THE DARE by Cynthea Liu
Paris's new friends convince her she must spend the night in the woods to channel the spirit of a girl who died on her property 20 years earlier, but when China dolls and noises in her shed disturb her sleep, Paris isn't so sure The Dare is harmless or spookless. Great MG with fantastic, funny siblings who torture each other like sibs do, a mystery that was satisfying in the end, and Chinese parents with an accent and style of their own. Recommended.

THE SEASON by Sarah MacLean
During her first season, Lady Alex and her two best friends dread the parties and balls where they are to attract husbands, but when secrets are overheard regarding the recently attractive Earl of Blackmoor and his father's untimely death, Alex must bend the rules of behavior to save Blackmoor's life. The entertaining dialog between Alex, Ella, and Vivi was enough to keep me reading, and the somewhat forbidden romance between Alex and Blackmoor was enticing. It didn't feel so much a mystery as a historical romance, but it was a great read.

BREATHING by Cheryl Renee Herbsman
The summer of Savannah's 15th year, she meets Jackson, an 18-year-old boy staying with his cousins for the summer, but when they fall for each other, Savannah's not sure she can breathe through her asthma when he has to return home. The beach setting, southern dialect, and pining romance were perfectly portrayed. I could completely feel that first love pain in the MC, and I looked at asthma as a serious disease instead of a simple nuisance. Really well written love story with more.

THE DEMON'S LEXICON by Sarah Rees Brennan
Nick and his brother Alan run from demons and magicians, the same creatures who killed their father and ruined their mother. The magic and fantasy elements were a little too detailed; they took too much thinking for me to follow the rules about demon marks and how they get their power from magicians. Just not my kind of story, though I think I'd like it if it were a movie. Read to page 80.

96 Icons: Scarlett Johansson (With Woody Allen in some), Lost in Translation, Harry Potter (Movies and Cast), “A Very Potter Musical” Quotes, Paolo Nutini, Genlia D’Souza, Priyanka Chopra, John Abraham and Taylor Kitsch.
19 Banners/Headers: Scarlett Johansson, Lost In Translation, Harry Potter (Movies & Cast), Genelia D'Souza, John Abraham, Love Aaj Kal, Taylor Kitsch.
1 Wallpapers: Harry Potter (R/Hr)


here

 As y'all know - I don't do a lot of book reviews. And, this may not qualify as one, but...

Yesterday at ALA I picked up a copy of Cindy Pon's debut novel, Silver Phoenix. About five hours ago, I sat down to read a chapter or two. Uh, yeah... right. I. COULD. NOT. PUT. IT. DOWN!

Cindy - you have written a beautiful, lyrical, enchanting fairy tale! This book drew me in and held me captive with silken-corded words that bind up a fantastic story. The magical elements were intricately interwoven with the real. The description of the food O.M.G., my mouth is still watering! I am a fast reader, and often find myself skimming some of the setting details - but, I found myself re-reading, savoring many of the descriptive passages. I will be first in line for the sequel. Cindy - you are an amazing storyteller. Woot!

I missed Five on Friday and Six on Saturday so here is the Seven on Sunday, random edition. There may or may not be a Flyboy edition after this.

1. They started the new roof on Friday. The baby finches are handling it just fine. Cassie, not so much.

2. So far only one plant took a hit with the roofing and I needed to move it anyway so I potted it up and I think it will be fine. However the pointy top of one of the arbors broke off and flew over the fence into the backyard of the house of evil. I can see it over the fence in her planter box. I have asked for it twice. You would think since I gave her all that stuff we were cleaning out of the garage that she could give me back my broken piece this is of no use to her but no, house of evil. I wish I had one of those "grabber" things and I could stand on a ladder and reach over the fence and get it myself. Grrrr. 

3. My need for absolute silence seems to be increasing. This has nothing to do with the new roof and everything to do with being an introvert and needing to find my energy from within.

4. . Business plan reassessment was positive. Color me happy.

5. We bought a new (old) buffet on craigslist which means we moved the bar back to the living room which will be forever known as the lounge. I am now on the search for some small leather club chairs. Alas, having seen some beautiful antique ones on a craigslist posting many states away, everything I look at now isn't as nice.

6. I am also on the lookout, via craiglist (because I hate paying high prices for furniture) for a small, round wood coffee table. When I didn't want one, that was all I saw. Now, of course, they have disappeared.

7. The new fridge arrives next week, I think. It will not be as tall as the last one so we will have to have someone finish off the opening with a shelf or something. Hopefully at the same time I can have them remove th built-in ironing board that sticks out and looks very odd in the dining area.

So. Stuff.

We all went out to New York Pizza for Valkyrie's birthday yesterday (I am slightly obsessed with their Fire Island Fajita pizza. IT COMES WITH SALSA!), and then we went to see The Lovely Emily's new house, which is awesome, although I think the first words out of my mouth were, "God, it's huge! --You got yourself a lotta pokeweed there." But it really is awesome (it has an entire Rock Band room).

Finally going to try to learn to knit. Knittinghelp.com is going to be my first stop. My first project is going to be a practice scarf with a bit of leftover yarn on which I can try out random techniques. More of a "scarf," really. I'd really like to knit Lyra a little knee-length pink cardigan, but... that's probably years away, in terms of knitting experience.

I think I have a cavity between two molars. Maybe it's just gum inflammation, but my hopes are not high. I have a dental cleaning appointment at the end of the month anyway, so... whatever.

Dying of cramps. You needed to know this, I'm sure. But at least when I say "I'm feeling really bad today," you'll know I don't mean it emotionally.

A few key linkspam items:

Ryan Reynolds Lands 'Green Lantern'! I'm going to be really interested to see how this does or does not affect his Deadpool movie. (However: congratulations, Green Lantern movie! You now get a tag.)

New Moon and Cameron!Avatar panels rescheduled to avoid riots; The Horrors of Comic-Con 2009: Saturday; GIRLS AT COMIC-CON! GET IN THE CAR.

First Look: Wes Anderson's Version of 'Fantastic Mr. Fox.'

'True Blood' gets truly great with new episode tonight.

"I am not a hero for turning you on, and neither is John Barrowman."

Fin.

After the raucous family reunion, I'm off to a cozy writer's retreat on the Pacific. 
Looking forward to lots of writing, sharing, reading, and chocolate and wine with writer friends (but no internet.)  Yay!  : )
Will report back in a few days.
   

Move over Printz and National Book Award, there's a new sticker in town.

(copied from the ALA website)

The William C. Morris YA Debut Award, first awarded in 2009, honors a debut book published by a first-time author writing for teens and celebrating impressive new voices in young adult literature.

The award's namesake is William C. Morris, an influential innovator in the publishing world and an advocate for marketing books for children and young adults. Bill Morris left an impressive mark on the field of children’s and young adult literature. He was beloved in the publishing field and the library profession for his generosity and marvelous enthusiasm for promoting literature for children and teens.

The William C. Morris YA Debut Award celebrates the achievement of a previously unpublished author, or authors, who have made a strong literary debut in writing for young adult readers. The work cited will illuminate the teen experience and enrich the lives of its readers through its excellence, demonstrated by:

* Compelling, high quality writing and/or illustration
* The integrity of the work as a whole
* Its proven or potential appeal to a wide range of teen readers

I love how the award honors both high quality of writing and wide audience appeal.

Congratulations to Elizabeth C. Bunce and here's the link to hear more about the award and her novel.
http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/yalsa/booklistsawards/morris/morrisaward.cfm

( Can't escape anything in this town )