Calling the over-30 crowd: whatcha remember about 1986?

My new novel, a romantic comedy about a teenage drama-geek with an unfortunate set of orthodontia, takes place circa 1986. That’s right. Sixteen-Candles land.
Already checked: Aquanet, acid-washed-and-don’t-forget-*pegged* blue-jeans, on-the-rag, Van Halen, Jem, Lite Brite and scrunchies (thanks slayground). I just started writing, so if you have any special memories (clothing items, bands, sayings) from the latter part of the mighty 80′s, please drop me a comment.
Your Jem may make it into my novel. And that would be super rad.

GRRRRRRR…ME HATE BOOK BANNING

Just read YA author Maureen Johnson’s post about her novel, which features some same-sex girl kissing, being banned from an Oklahoma Library due to one mother’s complaint. Grrrrr…I’ve despised censorship and banning since my high school play of WILD OATS was shut down because of ONE mom’s protest about ONE line. My awesome director chose to produce FAHRENHEIT 451, the futuristic story in which all books are deemed ‘bad’ and are therefore burned, as a form of protest. I don’t think anyone in the admin said a thing about the show, which turned out beautifully and permanently opened my eyes.
So if you don’t already own THE BERMUDEZ TRIANGLE, go out and buy it today. Or go make sure your local library carries it, because censorship sucks and must be fought each time it happens.

MUY Improved Meatless Nugget

Doesn’t inspiration strike at the oddest times? For me, it’s when I’m lying (laying?) down with my son to help him fall asleep at night. I have nothing to do, but lie (lay?) in the dark and think. So tonight, I think of this fabulous nugget (hate that word, makes me think of chicken) for my novel! Because my novel is about something so serious: child survivors of the Asian tsunami who are dealing with their PTSD and the psychiatrist’s daughter who goes along on the volunteer mission to help them, it’s SOOOO hard to explain (in one paragraph) that it’s also funny.

FAKE SAMPLE: 15 year-old Sienna travels to a post-tsunami run-down orphanage in Indonesia where she falls in love with an Muslim boy with PTSD. Yeah, and it’s also really funny!

Doesn’t quite work.

So…please check out my updated profile and my staring-at-the-dark-ceiling meatless nugget.

Coe Booth wins the YA LA Times Book Award for TYRELL!

The super-sweet YA author Coe Booth has won the LA Times Book Awards for her novel TYRELL! She was among the excellent company of Prom-King John Green and M.T. Anderson, so it makes it even more uber-cool that she won (at least in my oozing-admirational opinion). I’m even happier, because our indy bookstore, the fabulous Kepler’s Books, had NONE of her books in stock when I went in to buy it. In fact, the children’s bookseller hadn’t heard of it. Well, she will now. Congratulations, Coe and TYRELL and PUSH books! And hats off to all the other nominees who are all super-awesome too.

STICK FIGURE MAN, by Ethan age 4

Stick Figure Man is made of sticks.
He is half-bad and half-good.
He has a basket made of sticks.
In his basket is a coin.
He flips the coin to see if he’s good or bad that day.
He lost the coin, then he found it.
So he flipped it.

One thing is for sure, I will never be as talented as my boy.
by Heidi, age 35

Is blogging a waste of time?

A Disco Mermaid commenter (certainly NOT a disco mermaid) posted that blogs are useless and people should stop talking about writing and JUST WRITE. I wrote something funny back. I’m not going to get in a blog war with an obviously uptight person, who ironically chastised us bloggers for blogging while SHE WAS BLOGGING! Anyway, since I’m a recent blogger–I’ve only been at it for a month–I have found the neatest contacts, coolest conversations, entered the most brilliant contests and have been overall entertained. Writing is hard work. A novel takes a lot out of you. To be able to take a break from that and make up three-part movie title to describe your book (props to Disco Mermaids) is just FUN. FUN. FUN.

BTW, I described my novel SEA as: ROMEO AND JULIET meets GOOD WILL HUNTING meets BEYOND BORDERS.
A waste of time? I think NOT. Thanks for coming to sea me! XO

Protected: Sea Heidi’s Theatre

Thanks for coming to SEA me!

The most awesome YA book-buyer in the world, Jenn of S.F. Books Inc. the creator of uber-famous Not Your Mother’s Book Club, kindly created this journal for me because “myspace is lame.” Being the ancient, matronly, mother-of-a-four-year-old-boy that I am, I actually thought myspace was cool. Sort of cool anyway. Right? I mean, I like how a song pops on when I read a profile. So, here I am. And here’s my story: I’m a YA writer whose novel, SEA, is under consideration at a major publishing house. I was lucky enough to have the editor ask for the whole manuscript after reading the first ten chapters and now I’m waiting to hear.

I also write and direct pee-wee children’s theatre. Pee-wee meaning kids 3-5. My son is one of my assistant directors and is scarily good at it. I’ve only been at this blogging thing for a month. It’s like I’ve discovered chocolate and now I’m totally addicted. My faves are: Disco Mermaids, 7 imps, Prom-King John Green, and the Longstockings (the Pippi gals because they are MFA in writing for children New School alumni like me, only more successful).

I’d like the focus of this blog to be about Mommy-writers. How? What? When? Why? How again, wait I already said that. Can you write and be a mom and excel at both? Don’t know. Also like to talk about the waiting period between finishing your first book and starting your second. Do you need an agent when an editor is already looking at your book? How much blogging is considered normal and when do you cross the line into BLOGGERS ANONYMOUS?

Longstockings and Disco Mermaids are chatting about this now, well the mommy thing anyway. Seems like a whole lotta mommy-writers and non-mommy writers out there have tips and suggestions on how to make this whole literary world thing happen.

Thanks for coming to sea me!