My first interview as an author

Thanks to Heather Kelly at Edited to Within an Inch of my Life for profiling me yesterday in her Friday Feature series.

It was so much fun to answer everyone's questions at Heather's blog -- if you haven't had a chance to check it out, please stop over at Heather's and review all the past writers featured in her archives. She has a great resource of authors in various stages of publication.

Also, I'm excited to have won the fabulous blogosphere game, WIBIJ this week. Hosted by the aforementioned Heather Kelly, Jonathan Arnston, and Tina Laurel Lee, this is a great way to get to know children's writers by racing to solve clues hidden in their blogs. (And, just to be clear, my interview w/ Heather was completed before the game this week!)

My winning medal is now proudly displayed in my sidebar. 

It's been a busy week for me in the blogosphere, and now I need to concentrate on writing.  I'll be trying to unplug this week and give myself some room to finish the revisions on my WIP.

Girl Athletes: Dairy Queen by Catherine Murdock

Welcome to my first post profiling a novel that features a girl athlete as a protagonist. I've also got a dedicated page with a running list of books. Let me know if you've got something to add!

I wanted to profile Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock first because it's a realistic contemporary sports romance (sort of) for young adult girls.  The sport is different, but that genre describes my WIP as well.  

This synopsis is from Bookbrowse. 

          When you don’t talk, there’s a lot of stuff that ends up not getting said.

Harsh words indeed, from Brian Nelson of all people. But, D. J. can’t help admitting, maybe he’s right.

Stuff like why her best friend, Amber, isn’t so friendly anymore. Or why her little brother, Curtis, never opens his mouth. Why her mom has two jobs and a big secret. Why her college-football-star brothers won’t even call home. Why her dad would go ballistic if she tried out for the high school football team herself. And why Brian is so, so out of her league.

Welcome to the summer that fifteen-year-old D. J. Schwenk of Red Bend, Wisconsin, learns to talk, and ends up having an awful lot of stuff to say.

(Isn't that a great synopsis?  I wonder if it's what Catherine used in her query letter or if it came later??)

I read this book last summer when I was doing research on comps for my WIP.  I really liked DJ Schwenk.  She's not your "typical" YA protagonist.  She helps her family business, she works hard, she's not stick thin, and she loves football.  She busts the stereotypes.  I also love this interview of Catherine talking about writing DQ.

I haven't read the two sequels yet, but they're on my list.  If you've read Dairy Queen, I'd love to know what you thought.

Read more about Catherine Murdock.

Writing to your strengths

I attended a great (and funny) workshop with Lisa Papademetriou, author of Accidentally Fabulous and Sixth Grade Glommers, Norks, and Me (among others!) on Saturday, May 16 at the New England SCBWI conference in Fitchburg, MA.

She talked about maximizing your potential.  The thing I wrote down and underlined was this:

Write to your strengths, Revise to your weaknesses

I think Lisa means you should focus on the things you're good at while you write a first draft.  Focus on your story, focus on getting words on paper, focus on the positive.

So, what does it mean to me?  It means I have permission not to revise as I write.  Not to be perfect at the skills that aren't my strongest while I'm first drafting.  Not to stress that it's not perfect.  Because a first draft (or second, really) isn't perfect.  It sucks actually.  Focus on what you're good at.  If you like dialogue, work on that first.  If you like description or character analysis, do that.  Write to your strengths.

When you're done writing your first draft, put your manuscript away.  Leave it alone for at least two weeks.  Then you can start revising, but not before then.  Go back and fix the things that don't work.  Fix the things that you missed the first time through. Fix the rough patches. Work on stuff that's not your favorite, work on the things you thought you hated, work on what doesn't work.  Revise to your weaknesses.

My hat is off to Lisa Papademetriou - I want to thank her for her words of wisdom.  She's a very busy, smart, talented and funny lady.  And I want to be just like her when I grow up!

What good advice have you received lately?

Something new

I'll be revealing a new weekly (or bi-weekly) series this coming Friday.

As a hint of where I'm going with this, if you have a favorite middle-grade or YA novel with a sports theme (specifically targeted at girls), let me know!  Any sport!

If you have written a sports themed book, even better...