THE WINNER and Trying to be Productive

First off, thanks to everyone who participated in Spread the Awesome and thanks for all of your comments and book recommendations! I now have more books on my TBR list than I could read in a year, but I'm excited to dive in.

I selected a winner this morning using Random.org. The winner of a copy of When You Reach Me is Christina Lee! Congratulations Christina! I'll email you to get your address.

Now onto today's post.

My kids get out of school in four weeks. Once summer comes they will be at home 24 hours a day. I'm really excited about this actually. I love having them home. I love walks to the park and lazy afternoons in the backyard.

But... I know my writing (and blogging) will have to move to a back burner. And that is why this month needs to be productive. I've been working on the same first draft since November and I need to get it done before summer comes. I have a few REALLY good excuses for taking so long to write it, but my excuses have run out and now I just need to get it done.

So, for the rest of May I am committing to write 1000 words a day and finish this manuscript.

I've mentioned before that I do better with deadlines than daily word counts so I'm also going to set a date for finishing. I will be done with my first draft by Monday, May 31.

Do you have something you need to finish? If you need a kick in the pants to get something done I urge you to join me. Let me know what you plan to accomplish in May. It will be fun.

Spread the Awesome: When You Reach Me

A few weeks ago Elana Johnson had this great idea to have a day celebrating the books and authors we love. Today is the day. A bunch of bloggers will be highlighting favorite authors and a lot of us will be giving books away (some people even have SIGNED books to give!) Go check out Elana's blog for a complete list of participants. With so many giveaways the odds are in your favor to win a book or two. And who doesn't like free books?

For me choosing a favorite book is like choosing a favorite child. I just can't do it. So instead I chose a recent read that I really enjoyed: Rebecca Stead's When You Reach Me.

I am not too good at book reviewing, and I really don't want to give anything away (there story has some great surprises), so I'll keep this short and sweet. This was an awesome read--well written, page-turning, and sweet. I was engrossed from beginning to end. It was brilliant, and you don't have to take my word for it, it won the Newbery. Um yeah, that means a lot of other people thought it was great too.

Read it.

I'll be giving away a copy. To win it all you have to do is:

1. Follow this blog

2. Leave a comment telling me about a book you love

I'll pick the winner Wednesday morning. If you comment before midnight on Tuesday, you'll be in the running!

We're doing a blog chain so you can check out all the Spread The Awesome posts if you want to. Next up is Windy Aphayrath. She's highlighting Elizabeth Scott and she's giving away SIGNED books. Enjoy!

Someone You Ought to Meet

I've been doing a lot of beta reading this last month. I think I've read from 5 different manuscripts. I still don't feel like I'm a very good beta reader, but I've definitely getting some practice.

A few days ago I got a note from a friend I read for last fall. I also read a different novel for her last summer and it was the first piece I had ever beta read. I had no idea what I was doing either time, but she claimed my notes were helpful, and she was writing to tell me SHE SIGNED WITH AN AGENT!!! I love hearing great news! She is a writer who really deserves this, and I'm thrilled for her.

I won't give too much away about her story or her agent because you can go check it out on her brand new blog. I hope you'll stop by and say congratulations.

Work in Progress

When we bought our house a couple years ago we liked the house, but what really sold us on the deal was the HUGE garden area hidden behind a hedge in the back yard. My husband and I imagined what we could do with the space and we dreamed BIG. We'd transform the dirt patch into a garden worthy of the Martha Stewart catalogue-- raised beds, stone walkways filled in with Irish moss, mini fruit trees in giant pots, and a fountain to add ambiance. It was going to be awesome.

Two years later it is not awesome... yet. We've started the raised beds. My husband spent half the summer carting giant stones for the walkway and only finished about a third of it. The moss doesn't really like growing between the stones, but weeds LOVE it.

So now mostly we have a giant weed patch with some pretty rectangular structures filled with vegetables in the middle. I know it's a work in progress and it's better than what we started with, but most days all I can see are the weeds.

This is kind of how I feel about my manuscript right now. I haven't even finished the first draft yet, but all the imperfections are driving me crazy. I just have to remind myself that my last one felt like this too. Writing, like creating the perfect garden, just takes time. I need to finish it before I move on to massive revisions.

Maybe in a year I'll have another finished book AND a garden that would make Martha Stewart proud. Or maybe just another finished book.

Do the weeds slow down your writing process or are you able to forget about them until after the first draft is done?

Writing is Rewriting

"Writing is rewriting. A writer must learn to deepen characters, trim writing, intensify scenes. To fall in love with a first draft to the point where one cannot change it is to greatly enhance the prospects of never publishing." ~Richard North Patterson

and

"Books aren't written--they're rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hasn't quite done it." ~Michael Crichton

Um, yes. That's really all I have to say today.

Do you want to have your work published someday? Does your story need another rewrite? Mine does.

Are E-readers Really the Greenest Option?

First off, Happy Earth Day! My six-year-old has been looking forward to Earth Day all month and she's insisting that she use every bit of trash we create today to do an Earth Day art project (I think she got the idea from PBS). I want to do my part too, so my post today is about the environmental impact of books in their various forms.

I've been thinking about buying a Kindle or a Nook or an iPad for a while, but I've wondered if this cool new technology is really as green as it appears to be.

I did some research and unfortunately there don't seem to be any concrete answers. From what I've read, purchasing an e-reader could leave an equivalent carbon footprint to anywhere from 15 to 100 real books. That's kind of a big discrepancy.

The best break down I read was in a NY times article entitled How Green is My iPad? The authors describe e-reader and paper book footprints in 5 steps: materials, manufacture, transportation, reading, and disposal. It was fascinating. You need to read it.

My other concern is that I might buy more books than I do now if I had an e-reader, just because it's so easy to click a button and download. I usually buy one or two books a month. I try to limit my book consumption to new releases that I HAVE to read ASAP and books that I already love and want in my home library, so my family can enjoy them too. Most other books I try to get from the library. I wonder if an e-reader would make it so easy to get a book that I'd end up buying things I would never read again.

Also, if I stay on my current book buying schedule it would take me 5 or 6 years to purchase 100 books. It's likely that the technology will be so old by then that it will be time to upgrade to a new e-reader anyway.

So, I think I'm still a real book girl for the time being. I feel pretty good about real books and I think it's awesome that more and more books are being printed on recycled paper, using soy based inks (these are very landfill friendly, though I always wonder, who throws their books away?). Plus, I love the feel of a real book in my hands. I'll probably cave in and buy an e-reader someday, but not yet.

For those of you with Kindles, iPads, Nooks, etc., was environmental impact something you thought about when you purchased your e-reader? Has your e-book consumption been enough to offset the opportunity cost of buying real books? For the rest of you, is e-reader greenness a factor in whether or not you will buy one in the future?

Meeting Writer Friends in Person

I had the opportunity to meet a writing friend over the weekend and it was so fun. Sarah Skilton was in town and we got to have dinner together and chat about writing, reading, and the road to publication.

I live in a place where there are not a lot of writers (or at least not any writers I know). I'm so jealous of some of you with great local writing communities. It must be amazing to get together and talk about writing on a regular basis.

Don't get me wrong, I have GREAT writing friends. They just all happen to live on the other side of the country, so we basically only communicate through email.

I think there's something to be said for being able to meet and talk to other writers face to face. In an hour Sarah and I were able to cover every topic from recent reads to submission experiences. It was wonderful to chat with someone who is doing the same things I'm doing. I came away feeling energized and excited about writing.

This is the main reason I think every writer should consider going to a conference. I don't know about you, but I tend to get lost in my little bubble. I get busy with the kids, cleaning, running errands, blogging and writing and I lose sight of the big picture. I forget that behind those blogs there are REAL people--people who love writing and books as much as I do. Meeting other writers in person brings it all home. We are not alone in this. We may type away on our computers all by ourselves everyday, but there are thousands of other people who know what it's like. They "get" us in ways our friends and family probably don't.

Have any of you met writer friends in person? What have you gained from those experiences?