Giveaway 35

Remember how I said I wasn't giving away books in September?

Well, Oops, I did it again.

Blame Beth Revis, author of ACROSS THE UNIVERSE. She said that Michelle Hodkin's THE UNBECOMING OF MARA DYER was unputdownable. Which made me curious, because books are rarely unputdownable when people say they are. And life is hectic right now, I just didn't have time to read the whole back. So I decided to check out a few chapters.

2.15 am, meet Claire. Claire, 2.15.

I will tell you the truth. I started following Michelle's blog a long time ago. Ether shortly before or shortly after her book deal was announced. And when the summary of MARA became available, it didn't do much for me.

It was so vague.

From Michelle's Blog:

Mara Dyer believes life can't get any stranger than waking up in a hospital with no memory of how she got there.

It can.

She believes there must be more to the accident she can't remember that killed her friends and left her strangely unharmed.

There is.

She doesn't believe that after everything she's been through, she can fall in love.

She's wrong.

Creepy, but vague.

And then, I heard her editor talk about it, and it was still creepy, but less vague, and I wanted to read it. But not in a "give it to us NOW, your horrible Hobbitses. We wants it it NOW" sort of way.

And then release day came, and Beth started gushing. And since the Kindle fairies had already deposited my pre-order (I read all new releases by bloggers I follow), I picked it up.

MY TAKE:

I understand now why summaries are vague. It's hard to explain MARA without telling the whole story.

There are elements of mystery, romance, and paranormal. And don't worry if you're not a fan of "teen paranormal romance". It's not that kind of book. It's more in the sense of "Holy Crap, my jewelry box just spoke to me in the voice of my dead grandmother! Time to up the meds, Doc!"

There's a creepy edge to the entire book. Something happened with Mara and her friends. They died, she didn't. And from that moment, things never quite add up. Her Mom, a psychiatrist, is convinced it's Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. But there's always a vibe that it could be more.

Also, the ending is a doozie. Beth warned that I wouldn't see it coming. So I was extra vigilant. Still blindsided.

And I loved the pop culture references to The Eye of Sauron and Gryffindor, etc.

I can't wait for the next book.

And I couldn't NOT give it away.

TO WIN:
Tell me: What paranormal thing/creature/experience would(or does) creep you out the most in your real life?
Open internationally, followers only.
Open until Wednesday 11.59 pm EST.

(PS, My bloggiversary's coming up. Get ready for INSANITY!)

Dating Yourself

Back when I talked about my YA Pet Peeves, one of the things I mentioned was the fact that so many MCs have fave bands and books from a million years ago. I theorised that they did this either to pay homage to their fave bands and people, or to avoid dating themselves. It seems that back in August I promised a post on dating your work. It also seems I didn't write that post. But looky-look! I'm here now! Yay me!

DOES IT EVEN MATTER?

People jump through all sorts of hoops not to date their work, but I can't help wondering how much it really matters. When is the last time you bought a book that was more than 5 years old, but less than 20? What percentage of your recent book purchases were published between 1991 and 2006? I've read 79 books this year, 2 were fiction published in that period. One was THE BOOK OF LOST THINGS by John Connolly, the other THE BAD BEGINNING by Lemony Snicket. 2% of my reading this year was fiction between 5 and 20 years old.

DRAWBACK OF GENERICS
Is this trend of leaning towards "the book for all times" hurting literature for future generations? Literature from the 1800's is a snapshot of what it was like to live at that time. But there are so many books today with no mention of current artists, tv shows, pasttimes, etc. If they analyse YA contemporary works 100 years from now, what will it say about today's teens? They all loved Wuthering Heights and The Clash?

REALISTICALLY SPEAKING

I've heard a few arguments about the number of teens who DO happen to love The Beatles or Led Zeppelin or Patti LaBelle or Journey. There are two things to be careful of when making that argument.

I can think of more books where the teen's favourite book/artist etc, is from before my time, than books where the teen's favourite artist is current. I might be wrong, but I don't feel like that's representative of the real situation. I'm not saying that sort of teen doesn't exist. I'm saying that teen probably doesn't exist in anywhere near the proportions we see in YA.

If something is going to be overwhelmingly present in YA, it should at least have the decency to also be overwhelmingly present in real life. Like paranormal romance, where a girl falls for an 'unattainable' guy, but attains him anyway. Or the love triangle where a girl has an entire trilogy to debate between two guys. These trends are both annoying, especially when they're not done well, which is way too often. But even if I hate them, I know that the majority of teen girls probably do have a crush on someone they consider unattainable. And they probably do dream of two amazing guys fighting over them.

And that brings me to the second point, stuff gets old. If 50% of the YA contemp books that come out next year have MCs who love Justin Beiber, that will be annoying. Despite the fact that it's quite possible that 50% (or very much more) of REAL teen girls love JB.

So, I don't think reality is a good enough excuse in this case, but that's just my humble opinion, based on the 2 points I gave. Also, I'm not American/British, etc, so it is quite possible that in an American JHS/SHS or British secondary class of 15 girls, there are 10 who love really old bands and books. I've only got widespread experience with Barbadian and Japanese teens, and it's quite possible their norm of liking contemporary stuff is not the norm in other places.

If, however, you still want to avoid dating your novel, here are a few quick tips for doing so.

ARTIST vs SONG

If I mention Bug-a-boo, we're talking Destiny's Child, circa 1998. But if I say Beyonce I could be anywhere in a 15 year range.

ESTABLISHED ARTIST

Another consideration is to use an established artist who's cracked the top 10 more than a few times. If you use an artist who's only got one hit song, you're never sure they won't be a 1 hit wonder.

FAKE IT

If you're really afraid of your work being dated, you can make stuff up. Invent a band, or a book, or a social networking site.

BIG PICTURE

If you're afraid that specificity will date you, stay as vague as possible. One warning about being vague though, it has to fit the voice/character. No teen would say "I logged on to a social networking site, to update my status." They'll say Facebook or Twitter or Blogger. A teen wouldn't say, "We jammed to the latest hot up-and-coming emo band." Not unless they hated or were indifferent about emo. Or there were too many emo bands to keep track of. (And if that's the case, why not just fake it?)

TECHNOLOGY AND SLANG

When I was born, the World Wide Web did not yet have any applications to the public. Since then, the internet has rolled through several things that were the "hotspot" of communication.

When I was a kid, it was email. I didn't get an email address until I was 16, back in 1998. But it was still kind of pointless because most of my friends didn't have one, and the phone was still a more common way to chat. I think Geocities was also the 'ish' back then.

In 99'ish, I made the transition to Instant Messenger (AIM, Yahoo, MSN). Then there was social networking, hi5, myspace.

2007ish, I finally dragged myself onto Facebook. And I've only joined Twitter this year.

In that same time period, we've moved from two-way pagers to cell-phones to smart phones.

Ditto for slang. If you think slang changes fast in your corner of the world, you want nothing with the Caribbean. We use BOTH British and American slang. And we adapt slang from reggae and calypso songs. And then there are words that just pop up everywhere. When I was a teen, everything was "sick". You could dress sick. You could dance sick. You could get on (act) sick. The new word these days in Barbados, is "jones". It's a verb. Hell if I know what it means- lol - but every now and again I'll again I'll see on facebook, "We was jonesing all day yesterday."

Technology and slang are both liable to change in a blink. But I think it's unrealistic to avoid technology in this day and age, and I think that books with no slang at all (especially in YA) are stilted.

So how do you insert them in a way that won't make your novel completely unreadable by next year?

Leave out the nitty gritty. Don't talk about the interfaces, the concepts stay mostly the same. So if facebook flies off into the sunset on the back of a pteradactyl, noone's going to freak out that your MC used facebook to say something. On the other hand, if you get into description minute details of whatever technology's going on, then it'll draw attention to the technology. Ignore this, if it's your aim to draw attention.

Sprinkle it in. Pick a few things, and spread them throughout the book. You know how weird it is reading Ye Olde English, if you try to include every piece of slang, so that your dialogue is EXACTLY like it would be in real life, then it will probably be fairly indecipherable or sound ridiculous in a few years time. Remember when rappers did that "-izzle" thing, and everybody was, "in the hizzle fo' shizzle my nizzle?" Man, I can't even type that without laughing.

How do you feel about dating yourself? Does it matter to you? If it does, how do you avoid it?

PS, Every time I write "dating yourself" I keep remembering that time Mr. Bean took himself out to dinner. lol.

How I interview

Some amazing authors have passed through and sat on the virtual couches here at Points of Claire-ification. I've even had an agent and a publisher stop by and answer my questions. As a sempai blogger (ie, one who's been around longer than some others), I'd like to share my interview process. Now, I'm not saying that anybody has to do it this way. This is just how I do it.

'Hot' contacts

In this case, the word 'cold' refers to doing something with little or no prior preparation. For example, if I stuck a script in your hand, and gave you a minute to read through a page, and then told you to read for the part, that would be a cold reading. You haven't had time to familiarise yourself with the script or get inside the character's head.

I've never heard the word 'hot' used in this context before, but I'm linguist. I make shiz up. By my logic, a 'hot' anything then, is where you've done a decent amount of prior work.

The majority of my interviewees are bloggy-friends. People whose blogs I read every day, and usually comment on. I feel like I know them, and they, at a bare minimum remember my name. 'Hot' contacts are easier, because a writer's time is limited, and they are more likely to grant an interview to someone they 'know.'

Cold contacts

I don't do cold contacts very often. My showcasing books and authors is a very personal thing. If I'm following a blog from back before an author even sells a book, I feel connected (in a totally non-stalkerish way) to that author. And I want to do everything to let the world know they've written something, and to go buy it. Whether or not it's something I'd normally read. Case in point, the hilarious Tawna Fenske and MAKING WAVES.

So I don't make cold contacts willy-nilly.

When do I make cold contacts? If I read a book, and I feel like it's something I've never seen before (FIRELIGHT by Sophie Jordan). Or something I identify strongly with (FAIRY TALE FAIL by Mina Esguerra) . Or it's ouside what I normally read, and I'm shocked to find I like it (CASSASTAR by Alex J. Cavanaugh). Or it totally shakes my foundations so hard (SORTA LIKE A ROCKSTAR by Matthew Quick). And I have to share it.

How I contact

For hot contacts, I've used everything from private messages on Twitter to emails to leaving comments on blogs. If I'm used to bantering with the author on Twitter on their blog, than those routes are fine. If not, I write an email, reminding them who I am, giving them blog stats, and asking them if they'd like to do an interview/giveaway.

For cold contacts, it's got to be a letter. So far, I've only used email, but I'm not opposed to hard copy. Like the cold contact, I give blog stats, and ask if they're interested in an interview/giveaway. And of course, I preface that with an introduction.

I try to ask authors at least a month ahead of when I'd hope to publish an interview. Authors are busy people.

What I ask

One of the reasons I really prefer to contact people I know, is that I like personalising interviews. Like zombie dogs for Carrie Harris, the jam-packed lifestyle of Holly Thompson, historical research for Dianne K. Salerni, HBMs (Hot British Males) for Stephanie Perkins.

I try to acheive a similar personalisation for cold contacts too. Which means cold contacts are a lot of work. Reading their blogs and websites. Looking at the books they've written, and sypnopses, and reviews.

This also means reading the author's books where there are available. Because I like to ask specific (non-spoilery) questions about the book.

Since this blog's audience is mainly aspiring authors, I ask about publication journey, agent, choice to self-pub, etc.

I firmly believe that interviews shouldn't be transposable. I shouldn't be able to use my template for Lisa Descrochers to interview Amy Holder.

I like to think I ask the questions you'd ask if you could talk to the author directly. If there's something that I haven't been asking, but you'd really like to know, then tell me. Because that's the point of the interview: to introduce my readers to an author/book I adore. Many times, I already know the answers (I've been stalking - er - following some of these people for years), so it's definitely not for my benefit.

The mutual benefits of interviews

So you know that you know the HOW, let me just spend a minute telling you WHY.

Firstly, the benefits to authors. I interview authors because I absolutely love them/their work, and I want to spread the word. So the author's getting a free advertisement. Also, I always do a giveaway with an interview, so the author is getting a sale. In an ideal world, the winner of that book is also talking about it to others, and selling more books.

Obviously there's also benefits for me. I think having authors, agents and publishers appear here raises the quality of my blog. I might still be a complete nutmonger, but I'm a nutmonger who spoke to Beth Revis. I think giveaways generate excitement, especially since I'm the only blogger I know who guarantees that if there's a way to ship to your country, from either Amazon or Book Depository, you're elegible to win. (Caveat being unless the writer or their publisher is doing the shipping.)

Any other questions about interviewing? I've done around 15 interviews for this blog, and while that doesn't make me an expert by any stretch of the imagination, I can tell you a thing or two.

Sometimes I wanna go home

Last week's school trip was A for Awesome-frikking-sauce! Despite the hilarious episode of walking 200 m to from the restaurant to the theater through a TYPHOON, and the school nurse almost blowing in the bay, and me and a hotel staff member having to save her, and her freaking out and not wanting to go outside ever again, and her holding me arm in a death grip while we finally made our way to the theater. lol. Good times!

Lion King musical was fab! And it occurred to me mid-musical that I've never been to a musical in English, unless I was working in it. For some strange reason, I've only seen musicals in Japanese. I need to go to Broadway. (And to think I lived in Connecticut for 2 years - how did I NOT go to Broadway?)

And the next day we went to Tokyo Disney. The highlight for me was Mickey's Philharmagic. But I love fairy tales, so just breathing Disney air turns my brain to mush. Then I realised there are only 4 Disney Lands in the world, and I've been to the 2 in Asia, the 2 Westerners hardly get to see... In my strange twisted brain, that means I HAVE to go to the other 2.

But I digress.

While the school trip was fun, there were several times I made mistakes that made me feel very aware of the fact that I wasn't Japanese.

First off, the pre-departure meeting at school started at 7.40 am. Actual departure was at 7.50. I figured I'd aim for being 10 minutes early not to stress myself. At 7.26, I got a call from one of the other teachers.

T: Where are you?
C: On my way, by the station.

I thought nothing of it, and just continued on my merry way to school. When I got to school at 7.32, the Vice Principal RIPPED ME A NEW ONE.

VP: You are late! You need to be here at least 10 minutes before so as not to cause people stress. Today is a special day. You can't be late today.....

Then on the first morning in the hotel in Tokyo, I was determined not to be late, so at 7 am, I was at the restaurant door for breakfast. None of the other teachers were there, so I gave the restaurant dude my breakfast ticket, and headed over to the buffet.

I was halfway through my breakfast when the principal walked in. The Maitre D' pointed him to a table with a reserved sign on it. Soon after two more teachers joined him, and they all just sat there waiting for the others. I felt like a complete cow.

Noone had said anything about all of us eating together or waiting for the rest to turn up. But that was the Japanese thing to do. In fact, in both cases I'd screwed myself over by thinking like a Westerner and not like a Japanese.

You see Westerners think for themselves. When I thought about what time to go to school, I thought about what time would get me there without ME worrying. When the Vice Principal ate me alive, he was talking about what time would get me there without THE GROUP worrying.

And it's not just that. My Vice Principal is a lot more vocal than Average Japanese Dude. He (and my old lady neighbour) will tell you if you're wrong, but most people won't. I have no idea what's expected here half the time. For all I know, I'm committing major faux pas, all day every day, and noone is telling me.

Sometimes it feels like it would just be so nice to go home.

Home where I know what is right and wrong. Home where I know what is good and bad. What is acceptable. What is late. What is expected. Home where I can read the newspaper. Where I can understand everything on tv. Where I can read signs. Where the bookstore has mostly books in a language I can read without a dictionary. Where I can participate in poetry slams.

I love it here but sometimes I wanna go home.

It's Monday (in the West, at least), and that's what's on my mind.

Introducing Cover Drive

A little over a year ago, 4 teens from my home island, Barbados created a band. They called it Cover Drive. "Cover Drive" is a type of hit in the game of cricket. Cricket looks a bit like baseball, only the bat is flat, and held downwards. Cover Drive became known for their covers of popular songs in their "Fedora Sessions"


The first Fedora Session


A cover of Kesha's Tik Tok


Bruno Mars The Lazy Song


Wotless by Kes (from Trindad and Tobago)


And, of course, being Bajan, they had to cover Rihanna. Rude Boy.

All that talent couldn't stay undiscovered for long. They were contacted by Sony after their FIRST youtube upload. While they were in talks with Sony, they were also contacted by Polydor, a UK division of Universal Music. They chose to go with Polydor, because they wanted to stay true to their Barbadian roots, and they felt that might not happen in the US.

This is their first single, LICK YA DOWN. It debuted at no. 9 in the UK.


I'm so proud to be Bajan. Rihanna, Shontelle, Livvi Franc, Hal Linton, and now Cover Drive. And only 166 square miles.

Looking forward to big things from these guys.

Sorry this isn't a real post - Tokyo

I meant to write a real post today- although I've forgotten what about- but it didn't happen for two reasons.

Firstly, I'm in Tokyo and I've travelled with my Japanese netbook. The keyboard is pain to type on, and the layout is in Japanese, which is fine until I try to press a symbol key. Please forive any strange spellings and punctuations.

Secondly, I'm on the school trip and the days are seriously long. It's almost midnight and I jst got in. (Kiddies went to sleep at 10 though.)

So, in lieu of actual post, I'm going to give you a round-up of my day.

The students split into groups today to wander around Tokyo/tour places/ do shopping. Most of the teachers had the day free. I'd have just lounged in my room- it's Tokyo, not Timbuktu. I think I've been here more than I've been to NYC- about 20 times,but who's counting?

Now all of this would have been fine, had it not been for the typhoon. Seeing as the other teachers seemed hellbent on me actually doing something, I wondered off to Shinjuku. I know that area really well, because it's where the newbies stay when they come in.

When I was leavng the hotel, I forgot to ask where the trrain station was. I hate looking lost more than I hate being lost. (Yes, I'm a man in girl's skin.) So I refused to turn back and ask where the station was. I just picked a direction and started walking. After about 10 minutes, I gave up and went into a convenience store.

Me: excuse me, where's the nearest train station.
Attendant: Next door.

Lo, and behold, there's a train sign not 50m from the convenience store exit. I swear they put it up while I was in the store!

I went into the subway. Figured out which line it was. Figured out which colour was the right line on the map. And then promptly read the wrong line. Went down to the platform. Got on a train, all the while wondering why it didn't say the station I thought it should. Got to the end of the line. Wondered where the heck I was. Only to hear'...departing for Shinjuku from track...'

Essentially, I got to Shinjuku purely by accident.

Bought a movie ticket for the only movie I hadn't already seen that I might like watching: Green Lantern. In an evil twist of fate, it was actually in English! I don't think i've ever seen a movie in English here. I watched the last two Harry Potters in Japanese. The Twilights in Japanese. Princess and the Frog in Japanese. Cars 2 in Japanese. Kung Fu Panda 2 in Japanese. And I go to a movie I'm lukewarm about and it's in English. Go frikking figure.

I had an hour and a half to kill before the movie so I nipped across the street to the bookstore. This is why I love Shinjuku. Huge cinema directly across the road from the biggest Japanese bookstore, which also boasts an English section. The only ting that would make it better is an anime parade down the road that seperates them :)

By the time the movie was over, the typhoon was starting up. I grabbed a Subway sandwich and then attempted to take the subway home. Only problem: I have no idea how I got to Shinjuku. As none of the lines looked familiar, I decided to use a different line, that would stop at a station almost as close to my hotel. But when I got there, I had no idea how to get back to the hotel.

I peeped at a map, but all Japanese maps suck, so I just kind of guesstimated. I suppose a random perk is that I found HOOTERS. I need to go there sometime, because the Japanese are notorious for NOT having hooters, so I ned to see the waitresses. :)

The typhoon was going at a good clip by now, and on the 15 minute walk to the hotel, I succeeded in semi-destroying my umbrella, and soaking myself from the waist down.

An hour later, after a near futile attempt at drying my skirt, we loaded into buses to go to dinner and the Lion King.On the way, we amused ourselves watching people get blown down the street. And we marvelled each time an umbrella met an untimely death. After a while, people stopped trying to use umbrellas. You were getting soaked anyway, and the umbrellas were just getting broken.

We passed the theater first. The theater and the restaurant hotel are literally back to back. It took us two seconds from the bus to the hotel door, but that was enough to be almost-drenched. We had dinner in a high-end restaurant. Japan has the dubious distinction of being one of few places where hamburger could be served as high-end.

Afterwards we walked around the corner to Lion King. The school nurse and I went last. One minute she's next to me, the next she's blowing towards Tokyo Bay with me and a hotel staff member chasing her down. We had to drag her back into the hotel and wait until the wind died down a little. Then I had to use my immense powers of Japanese persuasion to convince her out the door. (You'd be scared too, if you almost blew all the way to Australia.)

Lion King was awesome! It made me re-decide that I need to see something on Broadway. They had this ridiculous rule about taking pictures- I don't mean during the show, I get that- but even before the show and at intermission. Sigh.

When we came out, the typhoon was all over, and it was back to the hotel, put the kiddies to beddie-bye, and teachers' de-brief. All in, great day.

Off to rest up. Tomorrow is Tokyo Disney!

(In case you wonder about the typhoon, I don't think work is ever cancelled for them, although school might be - teachers still have to go though. I'm not sure, because that's one perk of the frozen North. In more than 3 years, we've only had one anywhere near.)

Beachbody on Writing: Succeed

DECIDE. COMMIT. SUCCEED.
Beachbody motto.

Over the last couple of weeks, I've talked about the first two words in the motto: DECIDE and COMMIT. Today I'm going to talk about the final concept.

SUCCEED

What is it?
Success is not a universal definition. It is different things to different people. Back in school days, success was a passing grade for some people and an A+ for others. In professions, the definitions can vary even more widely. What makes a successful lawyer? For some people it's assets: house and car, for others it's prestige: partner in the biggest firm in the region, for others it's big name cases or track record or always having more demand than you can respond to.

What makes a succesful writer? There are so many facets of writing success and I can't think of a single writer who has it all. A writer who is popular with kids and adults, literary readers and commercial readers, has produced dozens of books, gets 6 figure advances, is always requested for school visits, does an interview with a talk show King/Queen twice a year, wins awards, speaks at conferences, entertains, educates, persuades, whose books will be/ are read a hundred years after publication, whose name everyone in the world/Eastern Hemisphere/ Western Hemisphere/the Americas/Europe/and so on knows, whose books are all made into movies etc. Can you think of a writer who has all that?

I can't.

You have to define your own success. What is your ultimate goal? Better yet, make a ranked list. Is the most important thing an award decided by a 10-person committee, or the popular vote decided by sales? Will it mean the world to you to know your book is translated into 17 languages. And more importantly, if these things don't happen, will it imply failure?

It's easy to always be chasing something in the writing world. There's always some milestone you haven'treached. And if you aren't careful, you'll never be satisfied.

You'll never succeed.

It's not an equation
When my brain first started formulating these posts, it zoomed in on DECIDE and COMMIT. The motto was pretty self-explanatory on the SUCCEED part. You decide, you commit, you succeed. But that's only true in the widest of parameters.
You decide to get fitter. You commit to getting fitter. You succeed in getting fitter.

TRUE.

But just because you decide to have a Halle Berry body, and you commit to having a Halle Berry body, it doesn't mean you're going to have a Halle Berry body.
If your decision is that specific, bear in mind that there's going to be a lot of hard work in there. And there may be external factors that make it impossible. If the bones in your calves are bigger than Halle Berry's thighs, no amount of exercise is going to change that.

It's the same with writing. If you decide you're a writer and your sit your butt in your special chair at your special desk and spend an hour every day but Sundays clacking away on your dedicated laptop, it does not necessarily mean you'll see the success you want to. If you decide to write a book and you commit to writing a book, you'll succeed in writing a book. Getting an agent and a publisher is subjective, committing to them as goals holds no guarantees.

It takes time
When you succeed at what you're going for then the formula has worked. You decided and committed, therefore you succeeded. You can't un-succeed from that point. Conversely, if you decide, and you commit, and you don't succeed, the formula hasn't failed you. It just hasn't worked YET.

There are a million and one stories about people who didn't succeed immediately. There are those who submitted for 20 years before they got a bite. Some were picked up on their 16th manuscript. Some manuscripts were rejected 50 times, before landing a deal. The end result in all of these is the same. Success.

I guess the only thing I can say here is that when you're on your 49th rejection, you just ask yourself, is the possibility of success worth this commitment, even in the face of all the failure?

If the answer is yes, you keep going.

You're not guaranteed to get what you want. You're never guaranteed success. If you were, would it even matter? But what you are guaranteed, is that if you stop committing, and give up, then you CAN'T succeed.