I am very excited to share the Carlsen catalog page for Secrets of Truth & Beauty. Or, translated back from the German: Truth, Beauty, and Goat Cheese.
I love the new cover. Isn’t that the cutest goat ever? She only looks mildly annoyed by the tiara. I believe the headline is “Summer on the Hippy-Farm” or maybe “Summer of the Hippy-Farm.”
If I’m reading the German Amazon site, you’ll be able to get the German version in February of 2012. I can’t wait to see it!
One of the cool things about being an author and a librarian is that when ALA has conventions, I get to see my library peeps and my author peeps. And my current peeps introduce me to new peeps. (All this talk of peeps and libraries reminds me of one of my favorite sites.)
On Friday, I did a workshop about standards for school library media programs that was awesome. It was led by Pam Berger, who was just fantastic. Then I went to the author panel with Eric Van Lustbader, Chuck Hogan, Tracy Chevalier, and Julie Powell. Ostensibly it was about books into movies, but they talked about all sorts of things. As a new author, I found it fascinating and reassuring when they talked about reviews. Except for Lustbader, who insisted he didn’t read his I should have taken notes and written down quotes because they were interesting. Chevalier talked about how the reviews balanced her, since most people who write to her or come to her events like the books. Both she and Hogan mentioned that they wished they could learn something from them, which is one of the fallacies of book reviewing, I think, that the author will read it, incorporate it, and somehow improve their work.
Really. They do. Although I must admit that sometimes I have a hard time picking the right book for the right person. This year I took a Salvation Army ticket — you agree to buy the presents on the ticket for the child. In my case it was a teenager and she wanted book. I’ll give her a copy of mine, but I wanted to give her a few. So, not knowing anything about her except her other requests (art supplies and a dog or cat), I chose Let It Snow by John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle. I figured it’s a fun, seasonally-appropriate title. And then since maybe she likes more sci fi type of stuff, I also got her Uglies by Scott Westerfeld. I’ve found that people like this series whether they are die-hard sci fi fans, or never touch the stuff.
I still need to get the art supplies. No dog or cat, though. Sorry, my dear, but I don’t want your parents on my doorstep about that one.
Anyway, if you, too, are planning to give books for gifts, and are planning to shop at Barnes & Noble, then please print out a voucher and take it with you. You can use it at any B&N in the United States, and, if you do, a portion of the sales will go to Seacoast Academy, an independent school in New Hampshire. They will use the money raised for classroom and library books.
If you yourself happen to be in New Hampshire, please drop by the book fair at the Newington Barnes & Noble. It’s this Sunday, December 6th, from 1:00-4:00. I’ll be there signing books, and there will be student performers, and gift-wrapping, and other fun stuff. Hope to see you there!
P.S. If you are planning to buy books — what’s on your gift giving list?
I am an unabashed feminist. Many women and girls, for reasons I have never been able to understand, are afraid to identify themselves in this way. I suppose that they have what I would call a misunderstanding of the word. If you are feminist, it does not mean that you think women are better than men, or that men are worthless, or that the world would be better off if women were in charge. It means that you think that everyone, male or female, deserves an equal shot. That the choices we make should in fact be choices and not dictated by our gender.
When you hold a belief so centrally and firmly, it’s bound to reveal itself in your writing. Feminism does make its way into Secrets of Truth & Beauty. Most centrally, I believe that weight bias is a feminist issue. However, sometimes an issue can overtake the writing, as it did in the following deleted scene. While I agree with Dara’s sentiment that feminism does not mean replacing one set of rules for another, in the end, this exchange came off a bit forced. I believed in it philosophically, but creatively, it never quite worked for me. So I cut it out. Only to resurrect it after the break. Enjoy!
(P.S. The town of Hollis was originally called October Grove)
Also, Secrets of Truth & Beauty is going to be published in Germany!
Also, I am on Cynsations today!
I love Erin Dionne’s debut Models Don’t Eat Chocolate Cookies, and not just because it, like Secrets, has overweight girls and pageants. It is laugh-out-loud funny, touching, and honest. The only downside is the cover makes you crave Oreos like there is no tomorrow and I don’t even really like Oreos. (I do however like chocolate covered peppermint Joes O’s from Trader Joes.)
Recently, Erin was interviewed in a great article about “positive characters of size.” I need to get reading some of the other books mentioned in the article. I would also like to add Wrenn from Leigh Brescia’s One Wish. I’ve only just begun this book, and I am finding it tremendously powerful — and a bit like Leigh read my middle and high school years’ diary.
It just so happens that Erin and I, along with fellow Deb Deva Fagan, will be doing a panel at the Bar Harbor Book Festival about positive, unconventional female characters in YA and MG lit. We’d love to see you there!
I’m a writer, not a musician. So why do I do Music Mondays? Because music is a key part of my writing, especially Secrets of Truth & Beauty. In particular, Cass Elliot is key.
In retrospect, Cass seems like the perfect person for Dara to emulate, but it actually took me a long time to figure that out. I was fixated on it being a country star, and thought about Patsy Cline or Dolly Parton. Dolly Parton is an amazing woman, and, like Cass Elliot was misjudged because of her appearance. But really, Cass was the right choice.
So then I started doing research. I read Dream a Little Dream of Me by Eddi Figel and used the Official Cass Elliot Website, maintained by her daughter. As I did my research, some interesting coincidences came up. For example, Dara’s last name is Cohen, and so was Cass’s originally. And Cass’s daughter is named Owen, just like one of my leading characters.
After I chose Cass, I had to pick one of her songs, and that was an easy choice. “Make Your Own Kind of Music” expresses themes of the book almost perfectly. But my favorite song of hers is “Dream a Little Dream.” So here it is from the Smother Brothers:
I was talking to a good friend of mine who had loaned Secrets of Truth & Beauty to her boyfriend. Now a man in his mid-thirties is not exactly what you would call my target audience. But he loved it! He would actually read parts of it aloud to her.
However, he took the dust jacket off when he was riding the NYC subway because he was embarrassed to be seen reading it.
Come on, now!
It’s a beautiful girl and a gorgeous guy. What’s so embarrassing about that?
It’s the pink, isn’t it?
Well, first of all, gentleman, you should be aware that it’s not pink, it’s magenta.
But even if it were pink, so what? Pink is a power color! Don’t fear it — embrace it!
I ran the entries through ye olde random number generator, and we have a winner of the Find Secrets of Truth & Beauty in the Mall Contest!
Congrats, Alexa!
Every summer I meet up with my best friends from high school, and that happened this past weekend. Basically, I went away and missed the end of my own contest.
So . . .I am offering one frenzy of a last minute extension of entry time!
If you are already entered, and want more entries, get more people to fan my facebook page! For every person you recruit, you get a new entry. When they become a fan, just have them leave a comment here telling me you referred them. Or you can leave the comment. I trust you.
If you have not yet entered, what are you waiting for?
Sweetening the deal – Hyperion sent me copies of the poster, so the winner will also get one copy of the poster to hang in their room, library, bookstore, wherever! This is in addition to the signed copy of Secrets of Truth & Beauty and one of the following books:
You have until midnight tonight, so enter, enter, enter!