Once, when I was probably too old for this story to be cute (ten or eleven), my parents were away in the middle of the afternoon. I was in charge of the three siblings younger than myself. I took that responsibility very seriously. I also took all of my Stranger Danger training very much to heart. So when someone called for our mother and my little sister TOLD THE STRANGER ON THE PHONE THAT OUR PARENTS WERE NOT HOME, I was pretty sure we were all going to be murdered.
Thus it was our parents returned home to find us huddling in a fort made of couch cushions, out of view of all the windows, clutching knives.
But were any of my siblings murdered by roving strangers cold-calling houses to find out which ones had no parents at home? No they were not. If that wasn't successful babysitting, I don't know what was.
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Friday, March 9, 2012
Story Junkie
Some time ago, in the past, which is all a blur and I really couldn't tell you whether it was weeks or months, a whole bunch of writers on twitter all tweeted under the banner of "Why I Write."
I seem to recall saying something along the lines of, "I write because it's the least self-destructive addiction available to me."And someone remarked that my response was strangely out-of-character and dark, rather than perky and funny.
Oh, the internets. Some day we will talk about the difference between being personable and personal, and how if you want to have a public persona you need to figure out the line you want to walk and how much of yourself to give, and realize that the balance will shift constantly in relation to things you could not anticipate.
But today is not that day. Today we are talking about STORIES.
When I was younger (and even still now), it baffled me that people didn't love to read. Why wouldn't you love to read? You get to go into a world that isn't yours, into a head that isn't yours, into a life that isn't yours! You get to live that adventure, and then you get to put it aside, but you can go back to it any time you want because once you've read it it's yours. What about that isn't amazing?
I also assumed that everyone had narratives going constantly in their heads, stories they could pull up when things were dull or sad or lonely or when they couldn't sleep. Stories they could slip into like a second-skin, like a well-loved movie, like a song you can sing without even thinking about the words. Stories that served no purpose other than to be lived in, played with, run through again and again until there was nowhere else to take them and another story settled in to that empty place behind the eyes.
Because that empty place? That's a dangerous place. That's the place where, if nothing is there, the negative thoughts pool. The thoughts that say not good enough, not doing enough, wasting time and energy and potential. Not pretty enough. Not smart enough. Don't really deserve to be loved the way the people in my life love me. Those thoughts are like stories, too. They wait for you to look at them, and then they pool and pounce and circle, cycling through the same narrative of worthlessness over and over again.
I don't know if everyone has that spot behind their eyes, the one that gets heavy and aching with the burden of self-loathing. But I have figured out that if I can fill it with other things I can shut it the **** up. (Yes, I just said shut it the asterisk asterisk asterisk asterisk up. I apologize for the strong language, but sometimes a girl just has to slip in an asterisk!)
School was good for this. Love and religious faith and happy relationships and wonderful husbands and amazing children are good for this. But it's a rather large spot to fill, and sometimes the dark and poisonous things manage to find little spongey holes and seep in to try and take me away from the good things that I've filled myself with.
This is the glory of story: it moves me away from focusing on myself. It shifts my brain's tendency to obsess away from me (and my shortcomings that could fill novels in and of themselves) and onto something else. I don't want to be those stories, don't want to live in any life other than my own. But stories that come from inside, that I create and control, they fill those sponge-hole weaknesses better and longer than anything else, leaving me free to live in my life and enjoy all the good things I have. When I have a story to fall back on, there isn't time between living and dreaming for any drowning.
Yes, stories end. But the best thing about them? There is always another one to be told. And if I am creating and imagining and writing during the empty times, I don't have any room in that spot for anything telling me I am less than I am. I'm a wife, and a mother, and a friend.
And I'm a storyteller.
I seem to recall saying something along the lines of, "I write because it's the least self-destructive addiction available to me."And someone remarked that my response was strangely out-of-character and dark, rather than perky and funny.
Oh, the internets. Some day we will talk about the difference between being personable and personal, and how if you want to have a public persona you need to figure out the line you want to walk and how much of yourself to give, and realize that the balance will shift constantly in relation to things you could not anticipate.
But today is not that day. Today we are talking about STORIES.
When I was younger (and even still now), it baffled me that people didn't love to read. Why wouldn't you love to read? You get to go into a world that isn't yours, into a head that isn't yours, into a life that isn't yours! You get to live that adventure, and then you get to put it aside, but you can go back to it any time you want because once you've read it it's yours. What about that isn't amazing?
I also assumed that everyone had narratives going constantly in their heads, stories they could pull up when things were dull or sad or lonely or when they couldn't sleep. Stories they could slip into like a second-skin, like a well-loved movie, like a song you can sing without even thinking about the words. Stories that served no purpose other than to be lived in, played with, run through again and again until there was nowhere else to take them and another story settled in to that empty place behind the eyes.
Because that empty place? That's a dangerous place. That's the place where, if nothing is there, the negative thoughts pool. The thoughts that say not good enough, not doing enough, wasting time and energy and potential. Not pretty enough. Not smart enough. Don't really deserve to be loved the way the people in my life love me. Those thoughts are like stories, too. They wait for you to look at them, and then they pool and pounce and circle, cycling through the same narrative of worthlessness over and over again.
I don't know if everyone has that spot behind their eyes, the one that gets heavy and aching with the burden of self-loathing. But I have figured out that if I can fill it with other things I can shut it the **** up. (Yes, I just said shut it the asterisk asterisk asterisk asterisk up. I apologize for the strong language, but sometimes a girl just has to slip in an asterisk!)
School was good for this. Love and religious faith and happy relationships and wonderful husbands and amazing children are good for this. But it's a rather large spot to fill, and sometimes the dark and poisonous things manage to find little spongey holes and seep in to try and take me away from the good things that I've filled myself with.
This is the glory of story: it moves me away from focusing on myself. It shifts my brain's tendency to obsess away from me (and my shortcomings that could fill novels in and of themselves) and onto something else. I don't want to be those stories, don't want to live in any life other than my own. But stories that come from inside, that I create and control, they fill those sponge-hole weaknesses better and longer than anything else, leaving me free to live in my life and enjoy all the good things I have. When I have a story to fall back on, there isn't time between living and dreaming for any drowning.
Yes, stories end. But the best thing about them? There is always another one to be told. And if I am creating and imagining and writing during the empty times, I don't have any room in that spot for anything telling me I am less than I am. I'm a wife, and a mother, and a friend.
And I'm a storyteller.
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Winners!
Drumroll please! OH NO STOP. I forgot some people have napping children in the comments. So, very very quietly, our ENDLESSLY winners are:
Emily!
Sarah Hudson!
and...
Jessirae!
Thank you for all of your entries! They made me smile and some of them made me laugh. Apparently quite a few of you want supernatural abilities for less-than-savory reasons...who would have guessed my readers have such mischievous dark sides?
Oh, wait, ME. I would have guessed that, and I wouldn't have it any other way!
But probably my favorite comment (of many!) was this, from Katie Savidge:
If I lived in the world of PARANORMALCY, I'd want to be like Lend a shapshifter it sure would come in handy at home being 1 of 11 children and me being the one who puts her foot in her mouth nearly as often as Evie I could then shape shift into one of the good ones and walk straight out the door to no doubt do more mischief
Katie, just for that I'm sending you a signed, personalized paperback of PARANORMALCY. And you're forbidden from sharing it with any of your ten siblings. Tell them I said so.
Winners, please email me your mailing addresses. Everyone else, please figure out ways to get into trouble even without supernatural abilities, because I like that about you.
More soon. XOXO. Or whichever one is just hugs, because kissing strangers is weird.
Emily!
Sarah Hudson!
and...
Jessirae!
Thank you for all of your entries! They made me smile and some of them made me laugh. Apparently quite a few of you want supernatural abilities for less-than-savory reasons...who would have guessed my readers have such mischievous dark sides?
Oh, wait, ME. I would have guessed that, and I wouldn't have it any other way!
But probably my favorite comment (of many!) was this, from Katie Savidge:
If I lived in the world of PARANORMALCY, I'd want to be like Lend a shapshifter it sure would come in handy at home being 1 of 11 children and me being the one who puts her foot in her mouth nearly as often as Evie I could then shape shift into one of the good ones and walk straight out the door to no doubt do more mischief
Katie, just for that I'm sending you a signed, personalized paperback of PARANORMALCY. And you're forbidden from sharing it with any of your ten siblings. Tell them I said so.
Winners, please email me your mailing addresses. Everyone else, please figure out ways to get into trouble even without supernatural abilities, because I like that about you.
More soon. XOXO. Or whichever one is just hugs, because kissing strangers is weird.
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
ENDLESSLY Catalog Copy and Contest
I just realized that I haven't ever put up the catalog description for ENDLESSLY! So, here you go:
Try as she might, Evie can’t seem to escape her not-so-normal past. And what was supposed to be a blissfully normal school break is ruined when a massive group of paranormals shows up at her house, claiming that Evie is the only one who can protect them from a mysterious, perilous fate.
The deadly war between the faerie courts looms ever closer. The clock is ticking on the entire paranormal world. And its future rests solely in Evie’s hands.
So much for normal.
With a perfect blend of humor and suspense, Endlessly is everything readers could dream of in a conclusion—and the unexpected twists will keep them guessing until the very last page.
Try as she might, Evie can’t seem to escape her not-so-normal past. And what was supposed to be a blissfully normal school break is ruined when a massive group of paranormals shows up at her house, claiming that Evie is the only one who can protect them from a mysterious, perilous fate.
The deadly war between the faerie courts looms ever closer. The clock is ticking on the entire paranormal world. And its future rests solely in Evie’s hands.
So much for normal.
With a perfect blend of humor and suspense, Endlessly is everything readers could dream of in a conclusion—and the unexpected twists will keep them guessing until the very last page.
The nice thing about these is I don't write them, so I don't feel like a braggart over that last paragraph.
Guys, I'm kind of excited for you to read this book. I think it's the best of the trilogy (sorry, Super and Para! I also love you! But this one has EVEN MORE UNICORNS) (and selkies) (and Reth) and I can't wait for you to see how Evie's story ends.
And...since I happen to have several ARCs just lying around, hoping for good homes, how about a contest for your very own signed advance edition of ENDLESSLY? I'm going to make this one a little bit harder for you. But only a little bit. Here's what you have to do:
Somewhere (facebook, twitter, your blog, tumblr, etc) where people who are not me can see it, I want you to say which type of paranormal creature you'd like to be. For example, "If I were in Kiersten White's PARANORMALCY series, I'd want to be a gremlin, because acidic spit would totally come in handy when creepy guys try to kiss me."
Or, "If I lived in the world of PARANORMALCY, I'd want to be a sylph because even though no one knows what they are and it kind of sounds like a disease, they can fly."
Or, "If I could be any supernatural creature, I'd want to be a faerie from Kiersten White's series, because then I could date Reth without losing my soul."
But of course coming up with your own; those are just examples.
You don't have to give me the link. If you comment and say you did it, I believe you. (I'd also love you to paste what you said in the comments so I can see them all!) The goal is to get word out about the series to people who aren't as clever as you are and haven't read my books yet. You are so much cleverer than they are! You should share your cleverness. (You're also better looking, but they can't help that so we shouldn't be mean about it.)
Steps, as a refresher: Post somewhere which supernatural creature you would want to be from my series, or even which one you'd like to see in ENDLESSLY. (Kraken, anyone?) Comment on THIS POST and tell me you did it. Deadline is Wednesday, March 7th. Open internationally.
And...THREE WINNERS. Yup, there are three chances to win! So go forth, declare your supernatural creature preferences proudly, and then comment to enter!
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Things Kiersten Likes Right Now
Let's do an edition of Things Kiersten Likes Right Now.
LIKE:
We saw this with the kids over the weekend. Nobody is making animation like Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli. Such gorgeous, thoughtful storytelling. They aren't afraid to take their time with stories and explore the sheer joy of a visual medium. My kids loved it, I loved it.
If you are a storyteller, I highly recommend watching films from other countries. There is a very American format of storytelling that we see in films, and it's easy to start thinking that is the ONLY way to format a story. It isn't. Branch out in your viewing a bit and explore other methods of getting from Beginning to End.
(Plus, I have to admit that when I was a little girl I used to look at the world and imagine I was only a few inches tall and figure out where I'd live and how I'd get from place to place. Hello, movie made just for Childhood Kiersten.)
LIKE:
TIGER LILY, by Jodi Lynn Anderson. Please don't yell at me for talking about it this early (it doesn't come out until July), but I wanted to before I forgot. A darling friend at HarperTeen knows that the online influence measurer Klout has deemed me influential in all things Peter Pan (umm, no, I don't understand either), and so she sent me this.
I was more than a bit wary, since I don't like versions of Peter Pan stories that make them HAPPY HAPPY ADVENTURES! Not really faithful to the spirit of J.M. Barrie's brilliant (and dark) novel PETER AND WENDY. But Anderson did not disappoint. Narrated by Tinkerbell and following the love story of Tiger Lily, fiercely independent misfit, and Peter Pan, the boy who would never grow old, this is a book about the joyous agony of heartbreaks and tiny betrayals that mark the path from childhood to adulthood. A sense of impending doom pervades the whole thing (it's about childhood, after all, and childhood is nothing but doomed in every single case), but it's so very thoughtful and readable and interesting. I loved it.
Speaking of doom,
LIKE:
Look, objectively I don't think they're that good. But the fact that you can ONLY get them a few months of the year makes me want to buy them every time I see them. Principle of scarcity in action! Curse you, Cadbury, and your stupid eggs.
LIKE:
Quit dragging your feet. Just watch it. The first season is on Netflix. This and Sherlock have been my favorite series of the last few years. Oh, yeah, watch Sherlock while you're at it.
LIKE:
Sleep. Also not having migraines. Both of which I intend to do more of.
LIKE:
We saw this with the kids over the weekend. Nobody is making animation like Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli. Such gorgeous, thoughtful storytelling. They aren't afraid to take their time with stories and explore the sheer joy of a visual medium. My kids loved it, I loved it.
If you are a storyteller, I highly recommend watching films from other countries. There is a very American format of storytelling that we see in films, and it's easy to start thinking that is the ONLY way to format a story. It isn't. Branch out in your viewing a bit and explore other methods of getting from Beginning to End.
(Plus, I have to admit that when I was a little girl I used to look at the world and imagine I was only a few inches tall and figure out where I'd live and how I'd get from place to place. Hello, movie made just for Childhood Kiersten.)
LIKE:
TIGER LILY, by Jodi Lynn Anderson. Please don't yell at me for talking about it this early (it doesn't come out until July), but I wanted to before I forgot. A darling friend at HarperTeen knows that the online influence measurer Klout has deemed me influential in all things Peter Pan (umm, no, I don't understand either), and so she sent me this.
I was more than a bit wary, since I don't like versions of Peter Pan stories that make them HAPPY HAPPY ADVENTURES! Not really faithful to the spirit of J.M. Barrie's brilliant (and dark) novel PETER AND WENDY. But Anderson did not disappoint. Narrated by Tinkerbell and following the love story of Tiger Lily, fiercely independent misfit, and Peter Pan, the boy who would never grow old, this is a book about the joyous agony of heartbreaks and tiny betrayals that mark the path from childhood to adulthood. A sense of impending doom pervades the whole thing (it's about childhood, after all, and childhood is nothing but doomed in every single case), but it's so very thoughtful and readable and interesting. I loved it.
Speaking of doom,
LIKE:
THIS IS NOT A TEST, by Courtney Summers, also not out until June (I'M SORRY, OKAY?). I will say right now: swearing, sex, violence, etc. It's a zombie apocalypse novel, after all. Do not give it to your eleven-year-old. Do not expect to read it and have pleasant dreams. (The only books that have ever directly seeped into my dreams while reading are Carrie Ryan's zombie apocalypse series and this book. Well done, ladies.)
If you want to see how to write a broken, bleak, emotionally damaged narrator who still remains sympathetic and does not grate on the reader, study this book. It asks the question I think all end-of-the-world stories should: If EVERYTHING is dying around you...why fight so hard to live? The prose is spare and perfect, the narrative voice expertly and devastatingly captured.
Speaking of devastation,
LIKE:
LIKE:
Quit dragging your feet. Just watch it. The first season is on Netflix. This and Sherlock have been my favorite series of the last few years. Oh, yeah, watch Sherlock while you're at it.
LIKE:
Sleep. Also not having migraines. Both of which I intend to do more of.
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
And the Winner Is...
Suz, who pulled out some classic Elizabeth Barret Browning. Always a good choice!
I so enjoyed these entries, from classic poems I know, to ones I am glad I now know, and most especially to those original pieces of writing the brave among you posted! WELL DONE. You all put my high school poetry to shame. (Also, did anyone catch my dad's vaguely naughty entry? DISTURBING. I mean, umm, adorable. I mean...hi Dad! I love you.) (Also, did anyone see that VIVIAN wrote a poem about Evie and Lend?? Viv, that was so sweet of you, considering the whole coma thing.)
If you did not win (which if you are not Suz you didn't, I'm sorry, I hate contests and I never win, either), never fear! There will be another one soon. And only five months until ENDLESSLY is available in all its finished-copy glory!
Since we've already done love poems, next time maybe I'll make you kiss someone to enter...
*remembers twelve-year-old fans* *imagines the angry parent emails*
Nevermind. I'll make you platonically express hormone-free friendship. Or something.
I so enjoyed these entries, from classic poems I know, to ones I am glad I now know, and most especially to those original pieces of writing the brave among you posted! WELL DONE. You all put my high school poetry to shame. (Also, did anyone catch my dad's vaguely naughty entry? DISTURBING. I mean, umm, adorable. I mean...hi Dad! I love you.) (Also, did anyone see that VIVIAN wrote a poem about Evie and Lend?? Viv, that was so sweet of you, considering the whole coma thing.)
If you did not win (which if you are not Suz you didn't, I'm sorry, I hate contests and I never win, either), never fear! There will be another one soon. And only five months until ENDLESSLY is available in all its finished-copy glory!
Since we've already done love poems, next time maybe I'll make you kiss someone to enter...
*remembers twelve-year-old fans* *imagines the angry parent emails*
Nevermind. I'll make you platonically express hormone-free friendship. Or something.
Monday, February 13, 2012
A Very LOVEly Contest
UPDATE: THE CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED.
Oh, hey. Remember how I have ARCs of ENDLESSLY, the last book of my first trilogy? Yeah, I remember that, too.
They're so lonely, sitting in a box in my office. All of that pretty purple with NO ONE to enjoy it! So, how about a contest? Yeah, I thought so.
In honor of Valentine's Day, the entry is very simple: a love poem, in the comments. It can be an original or it can be a (properly credited) poem you've always loved. ENDLESSLY deals a lot with the idea of how far someone should go to save a relationship--how much is too much to give up. I take this topic pretty seriously. I know I'm writing about teens, but fact of the matter is I chose to be with someone forever when I was eighteen. I did not take that decision lightly; I've never had a moment's regret.
So, in honor of first loves, last loves, loves that are somewhere in between, GIVE ME SOME POEMS!
One entry will be randomly drawn to receive signed copies of all three of my books (PARANORMALCY paperback, SUPERNATURALLY hardcover, ENDLESSLY advance copy). Open internationally. One entry per person, though bonus good contest karma to those who blog, tweet, facebook, tumblr, skywrite, etc about the contest.
DEADLINE: Wednesday, February 15th, 12 noon Pacific Time.
How do I love thee? Let me count the entries...
UPDATE: THE CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED.
Oh, hey. Remember how I have ARCs of ENDLESSLY, the last book of my first trilogy? Yeah, I remember that, too.
They're so lonely, sitting in a box in my office. All of that pretty purple with NO ONE to enjoy it! So, how about a contest? Yeah, I thought so.
In honor of Valentine's Day, the entry is very simple: a love poem, in the comments. It can be an original or it can be a (properly credited) poem you've always loved. ENDLESSLY deals a lot with the idea of how far someone should go to save a relationship--how much is too much to give up. I take this topic pretty seriously. I know I'm writing about teens, but fact of the matter is I chose to be with someone forever when I was eighteen. I did not take that decision lightly; I've never had a moment's regret.
So, in honor of first loves, last loves, loves that are somewhere in between, GIVE ME SOME POEMS!
One entry will be randomly drawn to receive signed copies of all three of my books (PARANORMALCY paperback, SUPERNATURALLY hardcover, ENDLESSLY advance copy). Open internationally. One entry per person, though bonus good contest karma to those who blog, tweet, facebook, tumblr, skywrite, etc about the contest.
DEADLINE: Wednesday, February 15th, 12 noon Pacific Time.
How do I love thee? Let me count the entries...
UPDATE: THE CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED.
Thursday, February 9, 2012
The Post Where I Explain My Crazy
So, remember that time yesterday I finished writing the first draft of a new book I had started exactly a week before?
Yeah. I remember that time. So do my fingers. And my wrists. And my incredibly messy house.
I never know quite how to explain these things. I am aware that I make writing look a bit like MAGIC. I sort of wiggle my fingers and POOF! A NEW BOOK EXISTS! Which is true, sort of, and also very not true.
Most of the time writing for me is work. It's work I am passionate about and that I love, but I have to carve out the time for it, I have to set goals for myself so that I actually meet them, I have to make my friends hold me accountable. Like any self-employment, it's about discipline, and most books, most writing, most editing is a force of will. I will finish this chapter. I will have a completed manuscript done by [x] date. I will do another read through even though I never want to see those pages again.
ENDLESSLY was a hard book to write. I was not in a happy place, and I did. not. want. to write Evie's rather perky voice. So I set ridiculous, insane word count goals for myself. I made Shannon Messenger and Scott Tracey, two author friends, have competitions with me every single day so I would have an external motivator. I needed to write the book, so I sat down and I wrote the book.
And you know what? It's probably my favorite of the three. There are parts of that book that are magic. And even if it didn't feel like magic while I was writing it--it felt like a whole lot of work--the magic found its way in anyway. When I was listening to Neil Gaiman speak last fall, he said the days when everything flows and the writing is easy and the days when everything is hard and he has to force it all look the same in the finished draft. (Of course he said it more eloquently and with that accent and that hair, so please just imagine it that way.)
In the comments of the last post, Gennifer Albin asked, "Do you feel like you refilled your creative well when you just let the voice drive you? I'm hard at work on the book I owe my editor, but it's slow going and frustrating, and there's this other book that keeps popping into my head. I keep wondering if maybe I need to write it to remember why I like writing, because navigating sequel-writing is proving frustrating."
I honestly don't know. I don't usually allow myself to cheat with other ideas. When you are slogging through a difficult sequel, pretty much any idea sounds more appealing. I think it's because a new idea is pure potential. Sequels have a good deal of pressure associated with them, and you're working in a voice and a world the rules of which you have already established. There is less room for the sheer giddy PLAY aspect of a new idea. But I know myself, and I know that most of those ideas I think would be so much more fun crap out at about twenty pages.
But this time something happened that made it impossible to work on the sequel I was writing that day. (It was a traumatic event that ended up being fine, but left me really shaken and unwilling to deal with the themes of that book.) I needed to cleanse my palate, so to speak, and so I wrote the sequence that had been playing in my head. And I knew that this idea, this voice, was probably going to be one of the magic ones. So I let myself go crazy.
But not too crazy. Because I knew I could write it fast, and that I wouldn't be taking too much time away from the things that should have been slated before it on the work calendar. If this book had been a matter of committing months, I would not have pursued it. I would have taken notes and tucked it away. Fortunately I know myself and I knew that I could chase this, that it would be worth it, that losing myself in the mad giddy rush was okay because I would not be lost too long. I knew I would be cranky and obsessive, I knew when it was over I would crash. I accept it as part of my writing process, just as I accept those books that take consistent, determined work.
So, I don't know what to tell you. Sometimes taking time away from a project can refresh you and let you go back to it excited. Sometimes it can remove you even further from it and make more difficult than ever. Sometimes the writing is magic, and sometimes the writing is work, but our job is to put in the time we need to so that when it gets into the hands of readers, it always reads like magic.
No pressure.
Yeah. I remember that time. So do my fingers. And my wrists. And my incredibly messy house.
I never know quite how to explain these things. I am aware that I make writing look a bit like MAGIC. I sort of wiggle my fingers and POOF! A NEW BOOK EXISTS! Which is true, sort of, and also very not true.
Most of the time writing for me is work. It's work I am passionate about and that I love, but I have to carve out the time for it, I have to set goals for myself so that I actually meet them, I have to make my friends hold me accountable. Like any self-employment, it's about discipline, and most books, most writing, most editing is a force of will. I will finish this chapter. I will have a completed manuscript done by [x] date. I will do another read through even though I never want to see those pages again.
ENDLESSLY was a hard book to write. I was not in a happy place, and I did. not. want. to write Evie's rather perky voice. So I set ridiculous, insane word count goals for myself. I made Shannon Messenger and Scott Tracey, two author friends, have competitions with me every single day so I would have an external motivator. I needed to write the book, so I sat down and I wrote the book.
And you know what? It's probably my favorite of the three. There are parts of that book that are magic. And even if it didn't feel like magic while I was writing it--it felt like a whole lot of work--the magic found its way in anyway. When I was listening to Neil Gaiman speak last fall, he said the days when everything flows and the writing is easy and the days when everything is hard and he has to force it all look the same in the finished draft. (Of course he said it more eloquently and with that accent and that hair, so please just imagine it that way.)
In the comments of the last post, Gennifer Albin asked, "Do you feel like you refilled your creative well when you just let the voice drive you? I'm hard at work on the book I owe my editor, but it's slow going and frustrating, and there's this other book that keeps popping into my head. I keep wondering if maybe I need to write it to remember why I like writing, because navigating sequel-writing is proving frustrating."
I honestly don't know. I don't usually allow myself to cheat with other ideas. When you are slogging through a difficult sequel, pretty much any idea sounds more appealing. I think it's because a new idea is pure potential. Sequels have a good deal of pressure associated with them, and you're working in a voice and a world the rules of which you have already established. There is less room for the sheer giddy PLAY aspect of a new idea. But I know myself, and I know that most of those ideas I think would be so much more fun crap out at about twenty pages.
But this time something happened that made it impossible to work on the sequel I was writing that day. (It was a traumatic event that ended up being fine, but left me really shaken and unwilling to deal with the themes of that book.) I needed to cleanse my palate, so to speak, and so I wrote the sequence that had been playing in my head. And I knew that this idea, this voice, was probably going to be one of the magic ones. So I let myself go crazy.
But not too crazy. Because I knew I could write it fast, and that I wouldn't be taking too much time away from the things that should have been slated before it on the work calendar. If this book had been a matter of committing months, I would not have pursued it. I would have taken notes and tucked it away. Fortunately I know myself and I knew that I could chase this, that it would be worth it, that losing myself in the mad giddy rush was okay because I would not be lost too long. I knew I would be cranky and obsessive, I knew when it was over I would crash. I accept it as part of my writing process, just as I accept those books that take consistent, determined work.
So, I don't know what to tell you. Sometimes taking time away from a project can refresh you and let you go back to it excited. Sometimes it can remove you even further from it and make more difficult than ever. Sometimes the writing is magic, and sometimes the writing is work, but our job is to put in the time we need to so that when it gets into the hands of readers, it always reads like magic.
No pressure.
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
I Have No Words Left for a Title
So, in the week since I last posted I went ahead and wrote a book.
You know. Start to finish. A whole book. One of those things.
It's number ten for finished drafts. Ten books. Wow.
You will excuse the choppiness of this post. I wrote 60,000 words in seven days. I need to go to the store and stock up on some more; the word cupboards are quite bare.
I don't say this to brag. It's crazy, even for me. Only two of my ten manuscripts have been written comparably fast--PARANORMALCY and MIND GAMES. Both came to me in a deluge, the stories spilling out as fast as my fingers could manage.
SUPERNATURALLY, ENDLESSLY, Isadora's book, and the sequel to MIND GAMES I was working on (before this story descended like a swarm of locusts onto my brain) all took significantly longer. I had to set aside time to write. I had to force myself to plot, and work at it, and be disciplined enough to choose to get the writing in instead of napping or watching television or sitting on the couch staring at the wall.
But sometimes I get an idea and a voice that demands I do nothing else, and I have learned to oblige. My kids get to watch a lot of movies, and my friends ask if I've been sick, and I do not sleep and I forget to eat and the days pass in a mad blur with one foot in this world and the other foot in a world that exists only in my head.
Have you ever tried to stand with one foot shoved into your own head? IT ISN'T EASY.
Anyway. Now comes the crash where I sink off the story high and begin to wonder if I was out of my mind to think it was as special as I felt like it was when I was writing. I have pages of notes on what I already know needs to change, and I'll start at the beginning and read through and make those changes and hopefully find something magical.
This all has to be done quickly, of course, because locust-swarm-books are inconvenient things and I have copyedits for MIND GAMES needing to be done and a few other very pressing projects waiting, not to mention the book I am actually supposed to be drafting right now.
I used to do a sum-up of books when I finished. I'm not sure how to do that with this one. It's a strange book. I hope it will be the Mysterious Fourth Book of my most recent deal with HarperTeen, but you never know. All I will say is:
Plus imperialism and sexism and romance and a mathematician heroine. Do with that what you will. I will be over there. Asleep.
You know. Start to finish. A whole book. One of those things.
It's number ten for finished drafts. Ten books. Wow.
You will excuse the choppiness of this post. I wrote 60,000 words in seven days. I need to go to the store and stock up on some more; the word cupboards are quite bare.
I don't say this to brag. It's crazy, even for me. Only two of my ten manuscripts have been written comparably fast--PARANORMALCY and MIND GAMES. Both came to me in a deluge, the stories spilling out as fast as my fingers could manage.
SUPERNATURALLY, ENDLESSLY, Isadora's book, and the sequel to MIND GAMES I was working on (before this story descended like a swarm of locusts onto my brain) all took significantly longer. I had to set aside time to write. I had to force myself to plot, and work at it, and be disciplined enough to choose to get the writing in instead of napping or watching television or sitting on the couch staring at the wall.
But sometimes I get an idea and a voice that demands I do nothing else, and I have learned to oblige. My kids get to watch a lot of movies, and my friends ask if I've been sick, and I do not sleep and I forget to eat and the days pass in a mad blur with one foot in this world and the other foot in a world that exists only in my head.
Have you ever tried to stand with one foot shoved into your own head? IT ISN'T EASY.
Anyway. Now comes the crash where I sink off the story high and begin to wonder if I was out of my mind to think it was as special as I felt like it was when I was writing. I have pages of notes on what I already know needs to change, and I'll start at the beginning and read through and make those changes and hopefully find something magical.
This all has to be done quickly, of course, because locust-swarm-books are inconvenient things and I have copyedits for MIND GAMES needing to be done and a few other very pressing projects waiting, not to mention the book I am actually supposed to be drafting right now.
I used to do a sum-up of books when I finished. I'm not sure how to do that with this one. It's a strange book. I hope it will be the Mysterious Fourth Book of my most recent deal with HarperTeen, but you never know. All I will say is:
Plus this:
Plus imperialism and sexism and romance and a mathematician heroine. Do with that what you will. I will be over there. Asleep.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Book Recommendations: Featuring Rather Less Kissing and Rather More Pictures
In today's edition of Books Kiersten Recommends, I'm actually spotlighting Books Kiersten's Kids Recommend. And, since my kids have impeccable taste (naturally!), hopefully your kids (and you) will enjoy these as well.
Nayna recommends:
Stephanie Perkins, fine connoisseur of all things wonderful in writing, has been recommending this series of graphic novels for my seven-year-old for ages, and of course she was right. The storytelling is delightful--a central plot populated by Babymouse's hilarious flights of fancy. The writing is sleek, the pictures simple but expressive. I love sitting by Nayna as she reads (and re-reads) and letting her point out all her favorite visual gags. The world owes Jennifer and Matthew Holm's parents a debt of gratitude for not stopping at just one child.
Nayna also adores Dave Roman's ASTRONAUT ACADEMY and Ursula Vernon's DRAGONBREATH series. Both are excellent; the bonus of Babymouse is that there are already sixteen books out.
I really love these fun, funny, completely age appropriate graphic novels. They have the movement and sustained plots of longer books but with so much more visual engagement. Nayna loves reading, writing, and drawing, and these are the perfect books to feed those interests.
Dojo recommends:
I got to hang out a bit with Adam this weekend at the Changing Hands' YAllapalooza party. It's always nice when artists and authors whose work you adore turn out to be just as cool in person. Once you got past his five bodyguards, of course. He's kind of a big deal--he has a book coming out with Neil Gaiman, after all. His bodyguards were also lovely people, in case you were wondering, though I would have preferred fewer concealed weapons at a library event.
Speaking of Mac Barnett, his newest picture book EXTRA YARN with Jon Klassen is getting all sorts of starred reviews (as well as hitting the NYT Bestseller list). I'm getting it for my kids for Valentine's Day. Nothing says love like books!
So, tell me: If you have kids, what are they reading? And what are your favorite books to read aloud to them?
Nayna recommends:
The Babymouse Series
Stephanie Perkins, fine connoisseur of all things wonderful in writing, has been recommending this series of graphic novels for my seven-year-old for ages, and of course she was right. The storytelling is delightful--a central plot populated by Babymouse's hilarious flights of fancy. The writing is sleek, the pictures simple but expressive. I love sitting by Nayna as she reads (and re-reads) and letting her point out all her favorite visual gags. The world owes Jennifer and Matthew Holm's parents a debt of gratitude for not stopping at just one child.
Nayna also adores Dave Roman's ASTRONAUT ACADEMY and Ursula Vernon's DRAGONBREATH series. Both are excellent; the bonus of Babymouse is that there are already sixteen books out.
I really love these fun, funny, completely age appropriate graphic novels. They have the movement and sustained plots of longer books but with so much more visual engagement. Nayna loves reading, writing, and drawing, and these are the perfect books to feed those interests.
Dojo recommends:
FRANKENSTEIN MAKES A SANDWICH
We're big Adam Rex fans in our house. Dojo's one request for a prize on my last trip was FRANKENSTEIN MAKES A SANDWICH. It didn't disappoint. The poems are delightful and ridiculous, and the paintings are varied and charming and filled with enough humor for beginning-reader Dojo to appreciate even when he can't read all the words. I read it in the car on the way back from Phoenix and forced Shannon Messenger, my travel companion, to listen to most of the poems read aloud. They're that funny. I can't tell you how much I appreciate books for children that are also entertaining to read aloud.
I've talked about GUESS AGAIN, a collaboration between Mac Barnett and Adam Rex, on this blog before. It's in my top five picture books of all time, just for the sheer joy of watching my kids first get mad that it defied their rhyming expectations, and then laugh their heads off. (Even better was hearing them try to explain the book to other people. "But it wasn't a mouse! It was a VIKING! How could he live in the walls??")
Speaking of Barnett and Rex and brilliant combinations of brains, they have another book coming out. Here's the trailer. Tell me you don't want to read it:
I got to hang out a bit with Adam this weekend at the Changing Hands' YAllapalooza party. It's always nice when artists and authors whose work you adore turn out to be just as cool in person. Once you got past his five bodyguards, of course. He's kind of a big deal--he has a book coming out with Neil Gaiman, after all. His bodyguards were also lovely people, in case you were wondering, though I would have preferred fewer concealed weapons at a library event.
I had to wait in line five hours to get this picture. Honestly, these rockstar author-illustrators--and the paparazzi! It was insane.
(Unnecessary parenthetical: I am lying. Though that's how it OUGHT to be. And no bodyguards, though apparently his mom has mad skills with a bowie knife. But only versus dinosaurs.)
(Further shockingly necessary parenthetical: You know my kids aren't actually named Nayna and Dojo, right? Because...yeah.)
(Though of course my husband's driver's license says Hot Stuff.)
Speaking of Mac Barnett, his newest picture book EXTRA YARN with Jon Klassen is getting all sorts of starred reviews (as well as hitting the NYT Bestseller list). I'm getting it for my kids for Valentine's Day. Nothing says love like books!
So, tell me: If you have kids, what are they reading? And what are your favorite books to read aloud to them?
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
A Super Hot Interview
(FYI, yesterday I guest vlogged a truth-or-dare on this blog. In case you missed it. Which you totally should have, don't go watch it, it's not ridiculous or embarrassing and you definitely don't want to hear poetry I wrote when I was seventeen.)
SO. A while ago I put out a call for interview questions for my husband. A "The man behind the woman behind the books behind the back of the bookshelf where they got knocked down and you won't find them until you move" sort of thing. So, people asked and Hot Stuff answered.
(Now you will understand why my life is so happy. AND I finally got it confirmed that he is being passive-aggressive when he puts dishes away where I can't reach.)
1) Mr. Hot Stuff how do you handle this lil firecracker you call your wife, lol?
SO. A while ago I put out a call for interview questions for my husband. A "The man behind the woman behind the books behind the back of the bookshelf where they got knocked down and you won't find them until you move" sort of thing. So, people asked and Hot Stuff answered.
(Now you will understand why my life is so happy. AND I finally got it confirmed that he is being passive-aggressive when he puts dishes away where I can't reach.)
1) Mr. Hot Stuff how do you handle this lil firecracker you call your wife, lol?
Great question. You know, I'm not sure how I handle her. I do know that she could beat me up fairly easily. She likes action movies, whereas I can barely handle "The Wind in the Willows." She also knows some karate and used to own various ninja weapons.
2) Do you speak and treat her the way she talks about you?? :)
Yes. I actually treat her much, much better than she treats me.
Gonna have to slug him for that answer.
3) Has he read your books? Especially Endlessly? And what did he think?
I have read her books. I usually read them once she finishes a draft. Every once in a while I can get plot details out of her before she writes a story, but she's pretty good at being secretive. I do like her writing, and Endlessly has the best scene Kiersten has ever written in it. I don't think I'm allowed to give it away, but it made me laugh out loud. It's kind of disturbing what goes on in her head.
Whatever. He totally loves the Dark Side.
4) Mayo, or miracle whip?
Mayo. Actually, I'm kind of in a kick right now where I don't use any dressings on sandwiches or anything else. I don't know why I started doing it, but for some reason I can't stop. I like mayonnaise better though because it works the best with Romanian potato salad.
Hot Stuff's hand by a Romanian slug. Not an ingredient in Romanian potato salad.
5) What's the best part of being married to a short wife?
Being able to use my height and weight to push her around. She can't move me off the couch, or reach things I put on a high shelf. Whenever she's acting like she's too cool for school, I can just pat her on the head and tell her how adorable she is. That usually brings her back to earth. She does have a HUGE advantage in crowds though, and walking under trees.
Also advantage in Romanian Castles.
6) Does your wife sometimes call you Lend? :)
Nope. She calls me his full name: "Lenderson" . . . or was it "Lendrew" . . .
7) Does she ever ask you for your input when writing and better yet does she take your advice?
Some days she'll ask me something or tell me a plot point and ask me what I think. Then she ignores my answer. I think she figures if I understand or like something, no one else will. I was pretty happy once because I told her to change something in "Paranormalcy" and she ignored me, but then several other people told her to change the same thing so she had to follow my original advice. HA!
8) How has having a bestselling author for a wife changed your life?
Not too much actually. I still have the same job, and we still live in the same area, and I still go running every other morning, and I still am somewhat scared of coyotes. My wife is gone more on work trips, but it's not that bad since she usually buys me candy before she goes.
9) I hear an author gets $1 for every book sold, and seeing as I've gotten 2 (with 4+ more on my wish list) you've gotten at least $2 from me, what have you done with those $2 and what will you do with the other $4+?
I used your particular $2 to buy 5/8 of a California Burrito at my second favorite place in the whole world: "Mexican Fiesta." It's kind of a long wait for a burrito, but it is well worth it if you are ever in Little Italy in San Diego. I will probably spend your next $4+ on 1.2+ California Burritos from the same place. That's really the only reliable thing I spend money on.
10) Who is the hottest person in his family?
My wife, Kiersten.
This is not a photo of Hot Stuff.
11) Who is his favorite sister in law?
All of them.
12) What's it like being married to a writer?
It's kind of how one would imagine being married to a hippy female version of Captain von Trapp from "The Sound of Music." Mix that with the plot of "Blue Crush" and you pretty much have my current life.
13) Which is your favorite book of your wife's?
All of them. They are all the best books ever. "Mind Games" is extra the best, in my opinion.
Monday, January 23, 2012
From First to Final: A Journey Through Edits
In conjunction with the lovely (and newly Printz honor award winning! I loved THE SCORPIO RACES, one of my favorites from last year) Maggie Stiefvater and a bunch of other authors (click on link to view a list of all the participants!), I thought I'd give you an actual glimpse into what happens between a first draft and a final. I do have some huge overhauls I've done with other books, but PARANORMALCY managed to stay fairly intact. That doesn't mean it didn't get redlined and cleaned up like crazy, though.
I've copied the very first version of the first half of the very first chapter (pulled from my email from 2009, when I sent it to Natalie Whipple under the title "A Present"), and then shown the markings for how it varies from this to the final version, along with commentary on why I did what I did. I hope it's helpful!
Chapter One: Oh, Bite Me
We cut this opening paragraph entirely, feeling that starting with the vampire reaction was a stronger setup. It rendered this paragraph redundant. The fact that she is yawning is enough to tell us she's not impressed by vampires. Also, I didn't start out with chapter titles, but added them pretty quickly in the first draft.
“Wait—did you—you just yawned!” The vampire’s arms, raised threateningly over his head in the classic Nosferatu Dracula pose, dropped to his sides. He pulled his exaggerated, gleaming white fangs back behind his blood red lips. “What, imminent death isn’t exciting enough for you?”
Ah, Nosferatu. You'll always be my favorite, but you aren't as instantly recognizable to the masses as Dracula and were thus replaced. It's important to keep audience in mind when making cultural references. Writing for teens is not writing for my generation, and the cultural touchstones everyone recognizes are different. I also cut just a few of the descriptors--here we have exaggerated, gleaming, white, and blood red. A little much.
“Oh, stop pouting. But really—the widow’s peak? The pale skin? The black cape? Where did you even get that thing, a fetish costume store?”
Hee. Yeah, decided to cut the reference to a fetish store, given that this is a book for twelve-and-up. I dialed back a lot of Evie's commentary in edits. If you can say one funny thing instead of two, probably best to go for one.
He raised himself to his full height—just over six feet—and glared icily down at me. “I’m going to suck your life from your pretty white neck,” he whispered.
We don't need to know exactly how tall he is. Glaring icily down lets us know he's taller than Evie. I also cut about 75% of my dialog tags in revisions, always. Be ruthless with dialog tags.
More cleaning, refining, taking out unnecessary words. A lot of editing Evie is pulling her back--cutting down the number of times she addresses the reader, eliminating a good bulk of her running commentary. Also, and this is weird, I have always hated that I let the copyeditors take out that comma in the middle of "Mine's pink, with rhinestones." In my head she says it with a pause. I should have fought for that comma.
Messy, messy. More cleaning, streamlining, tightening. I also had to be careful not to let Evie pull the reader out of the narrative too much, which is what her "Oh yeah, the vampire." thing did--reminded the reader she'd been off on a tangent and that they needed to get back to the story.
Tasey’s work done, I reholstered her and pulled out the vamp-specific ankle bracelet. Bracelet being a loose definition of a fairly complicated and bulky device. They’d been streamlined in the last few years—you should have seen the early versions. It was like the difference between that great big camera your dad used to take pictures with when he was a teenager and your sleek, slim digital camera. And still they complain.
Again, too much explaining. I took out a lot of her explanations (though I still kept her talking directly to the reader as a narrative device, just in moderation) because I needed to trust my reader to a) suspend disbelief and b) wait long enough to get answers about just who she was and what she was doing. A mistake I (and many writers) make in first drafts is not trusting the reader. You give them just enough to hook them--they'll keep reading to get answers. They don't need you to hold their hand through the first few chapters. I find my first chapters always lose the most lines out of any sections. That's okay! First chapters are when I am feeling out voice and setting up world. Sometimes I need to write things for me and then lose them later on.
I'm going to stop there; I think you have a clear enough idea of what my edits look like. It's all about tightening, refining, streamlining. Don't use four bland details when you can use two really good ones. Don't have something happen and then have your narrator think about exactly what just happened. Don't underestimate readers' ability to go along with you. These are things I have to remind myself every single book! Also worth noting is that many of these edits were my own, but several of them were also suggestions from my crit partners and my phenomenal editor, Erica Sussman. Sometimes you stop being able to see your own writing; this is where working with people smarter than you comes in handy.
Friday, January 20, 2012
Upcoming Event + Missouri Love + I Don't Actually Understand the Mechanics of the Human Body While Dancing
First: If you live in or around the Phoenix area, I will be in town Saturday the 28th to do a YA writing workshop and then a GREAT BIG PARTY with Changing Hands bookstore! The party is free; the workshop is $85, but you can attend three classes group-taught by many seriously awesome and absurdly photogenic authors. (Why did they invite me then? I invited myself. Of course.) I'm teaching with Aprilynne Pike and Anna Carey on heroes and villains; we'll also answer publishing questions!
I like Phoenix, and I adore Changing Hands, and you should totally come hang out!
Second: PARANORMALCY is a nominee for a Truman Award, given by the Missouri Association of School Librarians. This makes my heart happy on a great many levels. First, I adore school librarians, and I think they do severely under-appreciated but massively important work. So any time people whose whole job is putting books in teens' hands choose my books it fills me with joy. Second, my dad is from Missouri and my grandparents (as well as aunts and uncle and cousins and even a brother-in-law and his family) still live there, so it's extra nice being recognized by a state with so many genealogical connections! (Incidentally, my mother's ancestors lived there briefly as well before they were kicked out because they were Mormon. We like to joke that my dad's ancestors kicked my mom's ancestors out. Starcrossed lovers!)
Third: It took me clear until the end of this music video when she started flying to figure out that no, it wasn't amazing that she could jump and hover in the air for that long, it was special effects.
Guys, I'm super bright.
I like Phoenix, and I adore Changing Hands, and you should totally come hang out!
Second: PARANORMALCY is a nominee for a Truman Award, given by the Missouri Association of School Librarians. This makes my heart happy on a great many levels. First, I adore school librarians, and I think they do severely under-appreciated but massively important work. So any time people whose whole job is putting books in teens' hands choose my books it fills me with joy. Second, my dad is from Missouri and my grandparents (as well as aunts and uncle and cousins and even a brother-in-law and his family) still live there, so it's extra nice being recognized by a state with so many genealogical connections! (Incidentally, my mother's ancestors lived there briefly as well before they were kicked out because they were Mormon. We like to joke that my dad's ancestors kicked my mom's ancestors out. Starcrossed lovers!)
Third: It took me clear until the end of this music video when she started flying to figure out that no, it wasn't amazing that she could jump and hover in the air for that long, it was special effects.
Guys, I'm super bright.
Thursday, January 12, 2012
A Night in the Life
Kiersten and Hot Stuff, sitting downstairs, though more accurately collapsed on the couch and the floor, respectively.
Nayna and Dojo, upstairs, brushing their teeth.
Dojo: Screams. "Nayna brushed her teeth first! It was my turn!"
Kiersten: "It doesn't matter!"
Dojo: Yells even louder, working himself up to a fit, which often ends in puking.
Kiersten: "Fine! You can brush your teeth first the rest of the week!"
Nayna: Anguished wails and sobbing.
Kiersten: "You go up."
Hot Stuff: Wisely does not move.
Kiersten: Stomps up the stairs. "WHAT is going on?"
Nayna: Mournful wailing. "You said...I can't...brush first...ever again!"
Kiersten: "I didn't say that."
Dojo: "YES YOU DID. I ALWAYS GET TO BRUSH FIRST NOW."
Nayna: Heart clearly broken clean in two by this incredible injustice, continued sobbing.
Kiersten: "Tomorrow! He gets to brush first tomorrow!"
Dojo: "NO. EVERY DAY."
Nayna: Will never recover from the trauma.
Kiersten: "Two days! You get to brush first for two days!"
Nayna: Already desperately in need of intense therapy sessions to heal from this.
Dojo: "Nayna, I'm never playing with you again!"
Kiersten: "OH NO YOU DON'T. YOU DON'T GET TO BE MEAN OVER SOMETHING AS RIDICULOUS AS BRUSHING YOUR TEETH. THIS IS THE SILLIEST FIGHT YOU'VE EVER HAD."
Nayna: A thousand Care-Bears watch from the clouds, crying in sympathy to her tender feelings irreparably shattered.
Dojo: ''IT IS NOT SILLY! SHE WAS BEING MEAN!"
Kiersten: "Did she hurt you? Did she take something away you can never get back? Did she say something mean?"
Dojo: "No."
Kiersten: "THEN IT IS SILLY."
Dojo: "IT IS NOT SILLY. SHE TOOK MY TURN."
Kiersten: "SO YOU GET EXTRA TURNS."
Nayna: Sobs. "I just." Sobs. "You can't." Sobs. "It'll mess up the SCHEDULE!"
Kiersten: "YOU ALREADY MESSED UP THE TAKING TURNS SCHEDULE. THAT'S IT. IF YOU GUYS ARE GOING TO FIGHT OVER THIS, TOMORROW NIGHT NO ONE GETS TO BRUSH...their...teeth DANGIT I CAN'T EVEN TAKE THIS AWAY FROM YOU." Realizes that her kids have picked something to fight over that she literally cannot take away from them. Final tenuous grasp on control has officially dissolved.
Kiersten: "From now on everyone brushes their teeth at exactly the same time, no matter what, FOREVER." Realizes she has become her father, who used to make the same ridiculous statements in an effort to keep things fair. Realizes there are worse things to be, since her father is an amazing guy.
Nayna: Quietly devolves into sniffles.
Dojo: "Snuggle time!"
Kiersten: "YES. I AM FEELING ALL SORTS OF SNUGGLY RIGHT NOW."
Dojo: "Also, I dropped my toothbrush in the toilet."
Kiersten: Gives up.
Dojo: "Nayna, come for snuggle time!"
Nayna: Resolved to wallow alone. "No."
Dojo: "But Nayna! Snuggle time is filled with LOVE!"
At least we've got that going for us.
(If that wasn't enough Kiersten for your day [and really probably it was too much], the longest interview I've ever given is up over at VOYA's website, and oddly enough also includes an anecdote about brushing teeth. Only this time the story is about me, and the time I accidentally brushed my teeth with...well, you can read it.)
Nayna and Dojo, upstairs, brushing their teeth.
Dojo: Screams. "Nayna brushed her teeth first! It was my turn!"
Kiersten: "It doesn't matter!"
Dojo: Yells even louder, working himself up to a fit, which often ends in puking.
Kiersten: "Fine! You can brush your teeth first the rest of the week!"
Nayna: Anguished wails and sobbing.
Kiersten: "You go up."
Hot Stuff: Wisely does not move.
Kiersten: Stomps up the stairs. "WHAT is going on?"
Nayna: Mournful wailing. "You said...I can't...brush first...ever again!"
Kiersten: "I didn't say that."
Dojo: "YES YOU DID. I ALWAYS GET TO BRUSH FIRST NOW."
Nayna: Heart clearly broken clean in two by this incredible injustice, continued sobbing.
Kiersten: "Tomorrow! He gets to brush first tomorrow!"
Dojo: "NO. EVERY DAY."
Nayna: Will never recover from the trauma.
Kiersten: "Two days! You get to brush first for two days!"
Nayna: Already desperately in need of intense therapy sessions to heal from this.
Dojo: "Nayna, I'm never playing with you again!"
Kiersten: "OH NO YOU DON'T. YOU DON'T GET TO BE MEAN OVER SOMETHING AS RIDICULOUS AS BRUSHING YOUR TEETH. THIS IS THE SILLIEST FIGHT YOU'VE EVER HAD."
Nayna: A thousand Care-Bears watch from the clouds, crying in sympathy to her tender feelings irreparably shattered.
Dojo: ''IT IS NOT SILLY! SHE WAS BEING MEAN!"
Kiersten: "Did she hurt you? Did she take something away you can never get back? Did she say something mean?"
Dojo: "No."
Kiersten: "THEN IT IS SILLY."
Dojo: "IT IS NOT SILLY. SHE TOOK MY TURN."
Kiersten: "SO YOU GET EXTRA TURNS."
Nayna: Sobs. "I just." Sobs. "You can't." Sobs. "It'll mess up the SCHEDULE!"
Kiersten: "YOU ALREADY MESSED UP THE TAKING TURNS SCHEDULE. THAT'S IT. IF YOU GUYS ARE GOING TO FIGHT OVER THIS, TOMORROW NIGHT NO ONE GETS TO BRUSH...their...teeth DANGIT I CAN'T EVEN TAKE THIS AWAY FROM YOU." Realizes that her kids have picked something to fight over that she literally cannot take away from them. Final tenuous grasp on control has officially dissolved.
Kiersten: "From now on everyone brushes their teeth at exactly the same time, no matter what, FOREVER." Realizes she has become her father, who used to make the same ridiculous statements in an effort to keep things fair. Realizes there are worse things to be, since her father is an amazing guy.
Nayna: Quietly devolves into sniffles.
Dojo: "Snuggle time!"
Kiersten: "YES. I AM FEELING ALL SORTS OF SNUGGLY RIGHT NOW."
Dojo: "Also, I dropped my toothbrush in the toilet."
Kiersten: Gives up.
Dojo: "Nayna, come for snuggle time!"
Nayna: Resolved to wallow alone. "No."
Dojo: "But Nayna! Snuggle time is filled with LOVE!"
At least we've got that going for us.
(If that wasn't enough Kiersten for your day [and really probably it was too much], the longest interview I've ever given is up over at VOYA's website, and oddly enough also includes an anecdote about brushing teeth. Only this time the story is about me, and the time I accidentally brushed my teeth with...well, you can read it.)
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
A Little Bit More
A lot of people are posting about New Year's Resolutions, goals, what they are going to do this year to introduce broad, sweeping change into their lives.
Mine's not quite that dramatic. My goal is this: Do a little bit more.
Nothing set in stone. No requirements, no quotas, no charts. Just...do a little bit more. In everything. Spend a few minutes more cleaning my house every day. Spend a few minutes more planning and making meals. Spend a few minutes more exercising. Be a little bit more aware of what I'm putting into my body. Be a little bit kinder and more willing to reach out to those around me. Be a little bit better when it comes to documenting my kids' milestones. Spend a little bit more time outside, a little bit more time away from the internet and this worn-out keyboard. Spend a little bit more in quiet, reflective silence that doesn't involve music or screens. Slip a little bit more tongue in when kissing my husband.
HA HA YOU DIDN'T SEE THAT ONE COMING, DID YOU, INTERNETS?
Ahem. Maybe also be a little bit more mature.
But only a little bit. Because a little bit here and there isn't so very hard to succeed at, and doesn't give me anything to beat myself up over if I don't quite manage it today. Because there's always room for a little bit more tomorrow, too.
Mine's not quite that dramatic. My goal is this: Do a little bit more.
Nothing set in stone. No requirements, no quotas, no charts. Just...do a little bit more. In everything. Spend a few minutes more cleaning my house every day. Spend a few minutes more planning and making meals. Spend a few minutes more exercising. Be a little bit more aware of what I'm putting into my body. Be a little bit kinder and more willing to reach out to those around me. Be a little bit better when it comes to documenting my kids' milestones. Spend a little bit more time outside, a little bit more time away from the internet and this worn-out keyboard. Spend a little bit more in quiet, reflective silence that doesn't involve music or screens. Slip a little bit more tongue in when kissing my husband.
HA HA YOU DIDN'T SEE THAT ONE COMING, DID YOU, INTERNETS?
Ahem. Maybe also be a little bit more mature.
But only a little bit. Because a little bit here and there isn't so very hard to succeed at, and doesn't give me anything to beat myself up over if I don't quite manage it today. Because there's always room for a little bit more tomorrow, too.
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