A Name Not Ending in "y" Contest

I have a problem. Too many characters in my WiP have names ending in a hard "e" (Merci, Conchi, Lily). So I'm going to have a contest. YOU will re-name my character, Lily.

In the comments, post your suggestion for a girl's name. You can even post your own name, but be forewarned that the girl is a mean girl. She says nasty things about people and people say nasty things about her.

If I choose your name, not only will you be helping me write the book, you'll also win a signed copy of Sarah Dessen's What Happened to Goodbye. Contest is open until Sunday, August 21st 7:00 PM.

Woohoo! This is going to be fun.

Grow Up

"It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are."

--e.e. cummings

Vermont

So, my first residency at Vermont College was pretty amazing. Here, I count the reasons why. (Along with pictures of the campus and the surrounding area, not in any particular order.)

1. Vermont is gorgeous. Did you know this? It's green everywhere and everyone has gardens that I would kill to have.

2. The Writing for Children and Young Adults program is capped at 100 people. In my semester, there were 26 people. 26? I looked around there the first day we all met together and thought, "Hey! There are only 26 first semester students, and I'm one of them! How did that happen?" And then it occurred to me: I must be pretty good. Holy boost to my morale, Batman!

3. To go along with number 2, since they cap the program at 100, that means that the other people in the program are good writers too. I just kept looking around, wondering whose book would be published next.

4. The faculty. Hello! I'm hearing lectures from and am in workshops with best-selling and award-winning authors. And they're so friendly and so helpful and they really want their students to succeed.

5. Remember how I was worried about my roommate? Yeah, I so didn't need to worry about that. She's an incredible person. And we ate chocolate together.

6. Vermont cleared up my cough! Seriously.

So, that's my summer residency adventure. How have your adventures been coming along?

My (Irrational?) Fears About VCFA

As I get just days away from jetting off to Vermont, my fears and anxieties about going to Vermont College and about the MFA residency experience are increasing.

Here are some of them in no particular order of seriousness (*note* I'm posting these fears as a kind of writing exercise/therapy session; please don't feel like you have to comment and tell me that my fears are unfounded. I know most of them probably are, but I feel like putting them in writing will help me to deal with them.):

• Everyone else will be better writers than I am and they'll wonder why I'm even there.


• My roommate won't like me.


• I'll have to hang out by myself the entire time.


• My teachers will won't like my writing/my genre.


• Everyone else will be really skinny and won't want to eat Ben & Jerry's ice cream with me.


• My shuttle doesn't show up and I have no way to get from Burlington to Montpelier.


• My luggage gets lost and I end up wearing the same outfit the entire time I'm there.

That being written, I'm so excited to go. I'm excited to go to New England for the first time, to learn from authors who are publishing right now, to become a better writer. And hopefully to make new writing friends.

Live the Questions

"Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves. Do not seek the answers, which cannot be given to you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions."

--Rainer Maria Rilke

What I Learned About Life from WIFYR 2011 Part 2

Wow. A week went by at light speed. That's what summer is like. Warp speed, Mr. Worf. And then the school year seems like some kind of Groundhog Day where nothing ever moves forward.

Well, here's some more of what I learned about Life From WIFYR (Writing and Illustrating for Young Readers) 2011.

The first day I went to breakout sessions with Emily Wing Smith and Claudia Mills. Emily's was "Surviving and Thriving as a Pre-published Author" while Claudia's was "Defeating Your Demons."

Here's a few of the things I learned about life from these lovely ladies.

1. Appreciating the journey: Emily Wing Smith told us that this time (our pre-published time) is special in our careers as writers. This is a time when we are FREE TO WRITE. For me, and for so many others, not just writers, we just want to hurry up and get there! We want to get to that time in our lives that we see as perfect, and so we don't appreciate the fact that, right now, we're doing the thing that we really love to do and not worrying so much about the business of it.

We need to learn to deal with the roadblocks to appreciating what we have. Emily said these things are Jealousy, Discouragement, and Impatience. Think about these roadblocks: What is your dream, your perfect life? Where are you right now on that journey? Are these three things holding you back or getting in your way? If you said "no", would you please hurry up and develop an online course explaining how you've overcome these things, so I can take it and become just like you? :)

2. "Who do you think you are? You're not a _____________." Claudia Mills had us shout out our "demons," the things that hold us back. And then she quickly defeated those demons with her vorpal sword (snicker snack!). I loved this breakout, because every single demon the other people in the room had, I have too. One that really resonated with me was, "Who do you think you are? You're not a writer!"

I have the hardest time telling people that I'm a writer and an artist. I don't feel like a writer or an artist (although writers and artists would probably tell me that they just feel like normal people...and I am always amazed that the writers and artists I admire are NORMAL PEOPLE! Seriously, Amy can vouch for that. I always get nervous when I'm about to meet an author, and everytime I leave saying, "Wow. She's normal!").

Claudia's weapon for this demon? She said that if we write, and keep at it, then we are writers. Each of us has stories that no one else has. Isn't that true for all of us? Each of us has a song inside us that no one else can sing or a floral arrangement that no one else can create or a poem that no one else can pen. What if we chose to believe this demon? Then the world would never have what only we can give it.

Work+Talent=Dreams Come True

"Work is the miracle by which talent is brought to the surface and dreams become reality."

--Gordon B. Hinckley