Ten Minute Missive

Yesterday I was goofing around on Twitter (I know, big surprise there!) and I started tweeting the hashtag #2truthsandalie. I’m not going to lie, it was a hoot. Have you played this classic “ice breaker” game? The rules are simple: tell two truths and one lie about yourself and the rest of the group then has to guess which one is the lie.

The trick is making the lie so plausible that your audience can’t tell which is the truth and which is the lie.

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I spent the weekend at a retreat for teens that focused on The Hunger Games and the role of  YA (young adult) dystopian texts in our current world. And while it was a bit exhausting to prepare for it, it was exhilarating to be at it. As anyone who likes working with teens will tell you, teens are filled with the kind of energy that when around a collective body of them, you can’t help but absorb some of it. If they were modern pop-culture vampires, we’d all get contact sparkles from them.

My resume reads like I am precisely the sort of person who likes working with teens. All but one job I’ve had since turning 19 has involved working with teens. And like most of my peers, I do not work with teens because of some need to revisit my own teen experiences and years. In fact, nothing could be farther from the truth.

I work with teens because they give me hope.

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Bonus post!!!  Who doesn’t like an internet meme? In the land of blogs and Twitter, a meme taking the cyber-world by storm is a fun version of “Tag!” although I think it is better to shout “Winner! Winner! Chicken Dinner!” myself.

Anyhoo, my dear friend and the kick-ass writer, Bill Cameron,* tagged me in The Lucky 7 Game which is the writer’s version of playing tag. And just like the game of tag you played as a whipper-snapper where you ran all about getting breathless and having a grand old time, I giggled to see I’d been tagged. And then, my critique partner, Jen Stayrook, tagged me too! Holy schnickies, I had better go buy a lottery ticket because I am feeling lucky, very lucky indeed.

*I love Bill’s latest book in a major fan-girl way and not just because he uses my name in it. I cannot wait until it’s published.

The rules are simple:

If you’re tagged, you have to do the following:

1. Go to page 7 or 77 in your current manuscript
2. Go to line 7
3. Copy down the next seven lines/sentences as they are – no cheating
4. Tag 7 other authors

So, for the first ever time, I’m sharing with the whole freaking world (or at least the minuscule part of it reading this here blog) my WIP (work in progress). It is in its third draft which is to say it is much improved from its first draft and miles to go until it is ready for the whole freaking world to read the whole freaking thing. (I’m on my third cup of coffee, why do you ask?)

My novel, Bent Not Broken, is a historical young adult novel with three protagonists. Since I was tagged twice, I’m doing both options in step one – here are excerpts from page 7 and page 77.

On page 7, Anna is talking.

“When she sits back down beside me, I notice how tired and old she looks. A daily cocktail of booze, cigarettes, and pills has a way of wearing a body down faster than out. It’s a long and slow way of killing one’s self.

Excusing myself, I head into the bathroom. The fluorescent bulbs flicker and dance in the mirror. I run my tongue over my teeth and squint at my reflection. Nothing’s broken, only a bit loose and swollen. I’ll live.”

And on page 77, Vera says,

“He puts down the pencil. His slim arms raise and he caresses the broken keyboard like a lover. The piano was surely beautiful once, but now its keys look like the mouth of an apple-faced woman begging from a doorway. It sits there, legless. Its wood is scarred and battered. A broken shadow of itself, the piano balances on wooden boxes that once crated machine parts and vegetables. It too begs for our attention.”

 Well, there  ya go. Now to the less painful part of the process, sharing with you seven writers I think you should read more of…

Oh crumb-bum. How to choose, how to choose…. Oh I know, I’ll pick the last seven books/WIPs/short stories or blogs I’ve read.

Rae Carson

Damien Walters Grintalis

Ilsa Bick

Myra McEntire (Bill also tagged Myra – give us a second quote please Myra, please.)

Sarah Ockler

Jen Stayrook (Also been tagged, give us page 77 of “Spring of Innocents” pretty please!)

Everett Maroon

Whew. How much fun is this? Well, for a writer who wants everybody to read, read, and read some more, LOTS.

Seriously, this is a fun way to get people reading more stuff that might not typically find it’s way on your proverbial book shelves. And also, a fun reason to get lucky. *wink*

A few weeks ago a friend of mine read a short story I was getting ready for submission. She said she was surprised that it wasn’t a comedy and her words made me pause for a moment. But she’s correct. I don’t write funny even though I call myself a comedian. Or it might be more truthful to say I don’t write funny very much.

I started out blogging the funny – searching for the humor in my life as a stay-at-home mom to three small children. It was how I coped with all the varied frustrations of my life. I looked for the funny and then shared it in hopes of making other folks laugh with me, as if having a whole group of folks shaking their heads at my kids’ antics would somehow get me through those moments with more grace.

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Today is the kind of day where everything is going badly.

Littlest is sick. Again. This time it is a fever and cough. Which is less messy than the fever and vomit of last weekend but no less difficult.

Last night while cleaning out the fish tank I did something horrid to my back. Yes, I know all about back safety but I hurt it anyway. Leaning over the tub, dumping out a bucket of water I felt something like an ice pick in my lower spine. Then, it was like a bubble was growing in my lower back, expanding pain up and through my spine. Yep, it was marvelous. Managed a few hours of sleep on ibuprofen and an ice pack.

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