Apparently This is What I'm Supposed to Be Doing on My Spring Break...The Mail Says So

It's Friday; It's a Good Thing: Friends and Reviews

The good thing/thankfulness thing seems to be making it's way around the blogosphere today, and how cool is that? It's been a while since I've done one, I think, so I'm back with a special edition today.

What's a good thing?

Having someone you don't know read your book.

Having that person email you to say how much they like the book.

Finding out that person has a blog and becoming buddies.

Flying to a book launch of another author and actually getting to meet new blogging buddy!!

Finding out that person is even better in person than on the computer!!

THAT is the best!! But to top it off, she wrote a fantastic review that made me cry. Here's a peak:

And she leads us to discover that the story isn't about diabetes at all, or about controversial research, or really even about faith. It's about the love a mother has for her children, and the strength we find within ourselves to get up every morning and hope again, when we're certain there's no hope left.

In moments of panic and desperation, Babs will make you laugh out loud with her honesty and absolute simplicity. But don't be fooled by her candid humor; you're going to need the Kleenex, too.

But to read the rest, go visit her blog. All I can say is WOW!!

Hey Tam - You're my good thing this week! I love writing, just so I get to meet people like you!

Getting a Little Perspective

It's that time of year again in Washington D.C., where the snow melts and the rains come in and the weather starts to get just warm enough that you think you might have survived the winter after all; and all along the National Mall, the cherry blossoms start to bloom.

There's something special about the cherry blossoms. People come from all over the world to see them. When they are in full bloom, you can't hardly walk; the tourists and photographers as thick as ants. Some people say this is because they're so beautiful, but I think the truth lies somewhere closer to this: in a year of 365 days, the cherry blossoms are in full bloom only about five of them.

That picture above? I took it last year on the only day the blooms were at their peak and the rain wasn't beating down on them.

One day. One chance to get the perfect picture. And really, you don't even know if you got it until you get home and download or print them. And if you didn't? It's too late.

Last year I took that one day off from my regular routine and strolled around the tidal basin with the millions of others looking for that perfect photo. I knew exactly what I wanted. I took about 300 pictures in a few hours, and some of them were truly spectacular.

But none of them was the one I wanted so badly.

On the metro ride home I tried to figure out how I missed it. Of the hundreds of photos, how could I not get a single shot in which both the cherry blossoms and the Jefferson Memorial were in focus?

See what I mean?

I've seen this picture a thousand times by other people. How come I couldn't get it right? No matter how much I fiddled with the shutter and the aperture, no matter how I framed it, one of the two turned out blurry.

And then I realized what was wrong.

I was too close.

I was so close to the cherry blossoms that the camera couldn't open wide enough to focus on both something that near, and a subject that far away.

I needed distance.

This coming week the cherry blossoms are back, and most likely, I will trudge back into the city to get that one elusive shot. All I needed was a little time to figure it out, and a little distance.

Writing is like this. When we are in the midst of our masterpiece it's easy to feel like time is running out. Others all around us are hitting the jackpot, but it seems just out of reach to us.

Sometimes what our writing needs is a little distance. A little time to ponder and wallow in, to figure out not just what we want but how to get it, to finagle a bit to get all the parts to come together.

And a little perspective to remember that while it can seem that the opportunity is fleeting, it's not. It comes again. And again. And again.

Doris Lessing was 88 when she won the Nobel Prize for literature.

Now there's a little distance, time and perspective.

A (Pictorial) Anatomy: The Book Launch of The Body Finder

As many of you probably know, I flew from my home in D.C. to Seattle last week to be there for Kimberly Derting's book launch of her debut YA, The Body Finder.

This was my first book launch to be present for (my own aside, of course), so it was so much fun getting to participate in such a huge celebration!

I have to say, I think having a large base of friends and family was totally key for Kim. That, and a great book that the publisher clearly loves! :)

I wanted to get to the book signing early because I'd heard they were expecting somewhere between 200-300 people. They weren't completely wrong.

The event started with a quick introduction of Kim, and then she got to talk about how she started writing and read the prologue to The Body Finder and answer questions. My favorite questions were about her film agent (shhh!!) and who she saw playing the main characters if it got picked up as a movie.

Kim was, of course, coy about that, and there were no shortage of volunteers! In fact, Kim used many of her family and friends as names in the books, and so a group went out and commissioned t-shirts for the occasion with the book cover on the front, and the name of the character named after them on the back.

I loved this one:

I'm not sure how I would have felt, though, if the character named after me was one of the murder victims. Or the vapid high school cheerleader. I saw her. She looked really sweet in person.

There were some who opted for cuter shirt titles, like "paparazzi" (aptly named as he was constantly snapping photos) and "unpaid intern" (her husband).

This was such a cute idea I'm considering changing a bunch of names in my current book so we can do that when it sells, too.  And doesn't it make a striking statement when the Barnes and Noble looks like this?

Is that totally awesome or what??

After the talking and reading and answering of questions, we lined up for signings. I have no idea how Kim did it. My wrist hurt just looking at the line. It wrapped clear around the top floor. Still, I stood in it, even though I could have walked down the street two hours later to have her sign it because, heck, this is what an author signing is for, right? To drive your author in carpal tunnel purgatory?

I look all geeky and fan-girl like, but it was so fun I couldn't stop smiling.

See that yellow post-it in the book behind me? B&N was so organized, they had someone walking through the line asking who you wanted to book made out to, and then writing it on that sticky so that Kim would have the spelling right there, and it marked the page so she could turn to it quickly. This was a thought-out, perfected process!!

I left before the autographing was finished. That was seriously a long line!! There were cookies (yum!!) and bottled water (in case we had to be locked in all night, because not one of those fans was leaving with an autograph) and a HUGE and AWESOME gift basket with one of those great shirts, a sweatshirt from the high school the main character goes to, a mug from the fire department she works with, a hardback AND an ARC!!! And an ipod nano. Let me tell you, when Kim does something, she does it right!!

A few hours later I got to go to her launch party, in which I met even more really cool people, like fellow author (of Prada and Prejudice!!) and agent, Mandy Hubbard.

The party was so much fun, and I was having such a blast, I nearly missed my plane. Here's a tip for all you travelers: If you are in a hurry to get through security, knee-high boots are NOT your friend!!

I think I was one of the last on the plane, but I made it. I fully intended on reading Kim's book the entire way back, but since the plane took off at nearly eleven at night, I was too tired to even open it.

But I did sleep with it on my lap, front up, so that I could flash it to everyone passing by. It was the least I could do. :)

I was totally inspired to get cracking on my own new book now. If I could just stop dreaming about what the book signing will look like...

2 authors, new friends, a pizza and a whole lot of champagne...

Dinner last night was fabulous!! I "met" bloggers Kim (author of The Body Finder) and Tam, and it was as if I actually already knew them!! Like old friends getting together to talk and laugh and eat some pizza... and celebrate a book launch. You know... every day activities.

I'm sure Shawn wouldn't love this photo because she's laughing so hard, but I love it because we all looked like that all night. I laughed so hard my entire face hurt by the time I went to bed.

Today I'm cruising around downtown Seattle (I love this place!). The weather is gorgeous, the skies blue, Mount Rainier a sight to behold. Tomorrow is the official book signing and party for Kim, and then I fly back home. I miss my family like crazy, but what fun this has been!

I'll post photos of the book signing on Monday. For now, this picture of what I'm looking at right now will have to do.

Happy Friday, and have an awesome weekend!

The Author Has Landed

I'm now in Seattle for the book launch of Kimberly Derting's Body Finder. What a trip! (and by that, I mean both the literal and figurative meaning!)

It's crazy how I got here. Figuratively. Literally, I came on an airplane. That's not too crazy. Except the flight was nine hours and NO FOOD was available. Coke, yes. Food, no. THAT is crazy!

But I digress.

The point of this is, why in the world did I travel across the entire distance of the continental US to be here for a book signing of someone I don't even know??

Good question. One for which I only have a hazy answer, which goes back to how I "met" Kim, which was surpisingly not how I've met any other blogger.

Kim is next door neighbors with a very close friend of mine. Two Christmases ago, standing at the White House Christmas tree snapping photos in the bitter cold, my friend casually mentioned to me that she had another friend who had written a book and gotten an agent and a contract. At the time I was just finished with Some Kind of Normal and getting entrenched in the search for an agent. So I meandered my bloggy self over to Kim's blog to read about her getting "the call," and got sucked into her entertaining writing. I wrote her. She wrote back. We became blogging buddies, but with a personal connection.

So when her big day came, I made the rash decision to fly out. There's a book launch book signing at Borders! There's a book launch party at a restaurant for her 70 closest friends! There's a neighborhood dinner tonight with a few people who I've gotten to know over the blogosphere, but haven't met in person.

To say that being among a bunch of people I've never met in person is freaking me out a bit is an understatement. This is way out of my comfort zone. I didn't even bring my husband, who is clearly my socially better half. But here I am, and I can't wait!

I'm sure there will be pictures to come. Because what's a good book launch without the paparrazzi? :)