Changing, growing

If you've spent any time reading this blog, you'll know I like to garden. I waited ten years to have a garden of my own (container gardening, while nice, only gets you so far). So one of the first things I did when we moved into our house last fall was to tear out the grass along our fence line and put in native grasses and perennials.

Okay, it wasn't just me. Beloved Husband and both kids helped. It was a ton of work, but well worth it, because we now have this:

The neighbors, who thought we were crazy when we started, have all commented on how much they love it. And I love that it will change as the season progresses. By mid-summer, it will have lots of yellow and orange flowers blooming, and by fall, the grasses will be tall and all shades of yellow, gold, and red, some with feathery pink seed heads.

Yesterday, I was pulling weeds (yes, I pull them by hand, more on that in a moment) to the susurrus of baby cardinals begging for food in our lilac. As long as I kept my head down, the parents were content to come and go. I also discovered a bumblebee nest behind that pinkish plant in the foreground (Penstemon, for anyone who's curious).

Weed-pulling: a back-breaking, mindless waste of time, right? Lots of people think so, but I enjoy it. (Now you know why our neighbors think we're nuts.) I like it for many reasons.

• It's hard work, but at the end of the day, I can look at the planting bed and see the results. There's very little instant gratification in writing.
• It's back-breaking, but in a different way from writing. it stretches muscles that sit for too long when I write, so in a way it's soothing. Besides, there's something satisfying about going to bed a bit sore from a hard day's work. And I sleep better.
• It's mindless, which gives my brain a break from constant focus and thought. The inability to sustain focus on something for a prolonged period of time (or the increasing difficulty in doing so as time progresses) is called directional attention fatigue, and studies show that exposure to nature is the best way to allow the brain to recoup and revitalize (source).
• It's inspirational. A good many of my magazine article and picture book ideas (the non-fiction ones) are based on things I have seen while gardening or spending time outside. Gardening is also the perfect opportunity to figure out what, exactly, that random thing that just happened in my novel really means, and how it will play out later in the story (or if I should get rid of it).

And then there are encounters like these. How can you not love seeing something like this?

eastern swallowtail butterfly

Do you garden? What do you like about it? And if not, why not?

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Library Fun

I love when I get to experience something unexpected. Most days go by, relatively the same, but every now and then something comes along to shake things up. Like this.

Look who came to our local library:

There's a great horned owl in the children's fiction section. How awesome is that?

The raptor rehabilitators brought others, too, including this screech owl, a European barn owl, and a peregrine falcon. Gorgeous birds that have all been injured in some way (most were hit by a car while hunting). They were rescued but unable to be re-released into the wild.

It was an incredible afternoon with rarely-seen hunters. I'd do it again in a heart-beat.

When was the last time you got close to an animal that wasn't a pet?

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Marketing Monday: Holly Cupala

Marketing Monday is back! It's been a long time, I know, but it has been worth the wait!

Today, I have Holly Cupala, author of Tell Me a Secret (HarperCollins 2010).

Holly is currently promoting her second novel, Don't Breathe A Word (HarperCollins, January 2012; check out a two-chapter sneak preview). She's chock full of terrific information about how to spread the word. Read on to learn more!

How did you help to promote your first book, Tell Me a Secret?

I pretty much decided that I got to do this debut book once, so I gave it my all. Plus I have an amazing husband who did the same—we had a blast together and did some crazy things. Videos, sneak previews, trailer, events.

I worked hard to plan and work ahead as much as possible, especially with the blog tour and sending two-chapter sneak previews to 150 indie bookstores and at least that many bloggers.

We had a couple of audiobook offers, but we decided to produce our own so that we could hire award-winning actress Jenna Lamia, then ended up making a ground-breaking deal with Audible to distribute it (here). The TMAS trailer we produced was a finalist in the first SLJ Trailie Awards!

Awesome (and well deserved)! What are you doing to market Don't Breathe a Word? Are you trying to expand your audience with the second book, and if so, how?

After everything we learned from TMAS, we went for the highest impact efforts for the DBAW launch. We created a downloadable sneak preview booklet (http://www.dontbreatheaword.com/dbaw-preview.pdf), we’ve released a trailer with incredibly gorgeous graphics from our friend Realm Lovejoy (below), and a blogger fan generously put together a tour (http://www.hollycupala.com/2011/12/dont-breathe-word-blog-tour-coming-soon.html).

[Holly is also holding a contest for the trailer launch, so be sure to check it out!]

With the guidance of a couple of wise fellow authors, I enlisted the help of a street team to get the word out, so of course we’ve made stickers and posters and fun swag to send to them. We had a big launch party in Seattle, and I’ll be doing a few local and national events as well. I’m really excited to report it’s gone into a second printing, and I just found out Barnes and Noble chose DBAW as a Top Teen Pick for the month of February!

Sounds like your marketing efforts are really paying off! What advice do you have for debut authors who are just starting to think seriously about marketing?

Put a Google Alert on your name, your book name, your name + book name (spelling variations, etc., since if you are like me you will run into a fair number of misspellings). Watch for bloggers waiting for your book—you can always politely contact them about interviews, etc.

You can’t always send review copies (and most of the time publishers don’t give that many), but you can respond and see if they’d like to do an interview or guest post. As a side note, setting up blog tours can be very time-consuming, but there are a couple of blog sites out there that may want to organize one for you.

If you have an ARC to spare, check out some ARC tour blogs—they usually sign up ~10 bloggers who will mail one galley among themselves and review.

If you can get to a major conference (BEA, ALA, etc.), it’s great for exposure—see if you can get your publisher to sponsor you and/or schedule you for a signing.

And…pace yourself, because marketing can be consuming and exhausting! You can always do more, but I think it’s good to do what you can do well and what is fun for you.


Thank you, Alison, for inviting me to your blog, and I hope your readers enjoy Don’t Breathe a Word!

* * *

Thank you Holly, for taking the time to share the secrets of your marketing success!

Holly is the author of Tell Me A Secret (HarperCollins 2010) and Don't Breathe A Word (now available!), two young adult novels about...well, secrets. Readers and reviewers are saying very nice things about her novels—she hopes you will read them and tell her what you think.


If you are a published author and you would like to share your experiences with marketing and promoting your book(s), I'd love to share your story! Please contact me at anpstevens [at] gmail [dot] com.  

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Zen moments

I just had to share this incredible time-lapse photography. Take three minutes out of your day to watch the beauty of nature. With thanks to Stephen Messer, who first passed this along.


The Mountain from TSO Photography on Vimeo.

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Inspiration

Alex asked if I'd be willing to share my ideas for NaNo... well, no. not really. (Sorry Alex.)

But a funny thing happened after I'd figured out the gist of the story. I knew (generally) where it would take place and what the conflict will be, although I'm still figuring out who the characters are. I was tossing around ideas, and then I picked up the August edition of National Geographic. This was on the cover:

Taken by Paul Nicklen at National Geographic

A white black bear, also known as a Kermode (Ker-MODE-ee) bear or spirit bear. And I knew. This bear is a part of the story, too. Can't wait to see where she takes me.

If you're looking for inspiration (or just beautiful photos), check out the National Geographic photo gallery.

What inspires you?

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Embracing Failure

This is a couple of years old, but the messages are so important, I thought I'd share them. J.K. Rowling on the fringe benefits of failure.


J.K. Rowling Speaks at Harvard Commencement from Harvard Magazine on Vimeo.

"What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality." -Plutarch.

How will your imagination inspire change?

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Piecing it all together

I'm single-parenting this week while Beloved Husband attends a conference.

First and foremost, I have to say that I have the utmost respect for single parents. Honestly, I don't know how they do it every day. I love spending time with my kids, but it's hard to give them the attention they want (and need) when I need to feed them, keep them in clean clothes, bathe them, and teach (my day job).

And then there's what I want... to spend quality time with my kids and quality time writing. Trifocal is nearing the end, and I want to get 'er done before I start traveling next month week. Gah!

So how is it possible to do anything writing-related? Well, Trifocal might be on hold for a bit, but... I started doing a bit of research for NaNoWriMo by collecting inspirational photos from magazines.

Jennifer Daiker at unedited does character collages, and Tera Lynn Childs did a vlog about character collages at WriteOnCon last month. And they got me thinking (yep, it happens sometimes)... not only can I do character collages to better understand who my characters are, I can also find great images of locations or events that I might incorporate into a story.

So this weekend, we pulled out the last two years' worth of National Geographics and went to town. I cut out anything that I thought might come in handy at some point in the future: scenery and people for my novels and cool animals that might make good subjects for a non-fiction PB. The kids got to tear out anything I didn't want that interested them (which, for the oldest, was just about everything... I listened to a constant stream of "Oh, wow, look at this!" for over an hour).

The result? I have a little box filled with inspirational bits and pieces to post on my magnetic board, so when I get back from my travels, I'll be ready to jump into NaNoWriMo. And I got to spend quality time with my kids. Win-win situations don't get much better than that.

If you have a family, how do you carve out time for family and writing?

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Getting a new perspective

"I like your orange blog, Mama."

"Thanks, honey. I see it as green."

"OK." Boss Man shrugs and walks away. He's used to us telling him that we see things differently.

Boss Man is color blind, so he sees the world in a completely different way from most of the rest of us. It's a permanent condition, there is no "cure" (at least not yet). But really, why would we want to fix it? It's not a disease, it's just how he sees things.

Animals see the world differently from humans. Many birds and insects can perceive ultraviolet radiation that is invisible to the human eye. With so much variation, no individual (human or otherwise) sees the world how it "really" looks. Who is to say that we normal-vision people see things the same way?

I used to wonder about this when I was a kid. What if my blue sky looked green to you? Meaning, what I see as blue, you see as my green, even though you call it blue. This would actually explain wild variation in color combination preferences. For example, I really dislike orange and blue (or green) together, but other people really like it (or so I assume from the orange/blue and orange/green clothing that has been so popular of late). Maybe someone else's orange is my yellow, which completely changes the picture.

Perception is a highly  individual thing. It's easy to get caught up in our own perceptions, but it is probably worthwhile to occasionally take a step back, take off our perceptual goggles and try on someone else's. If we all did this (in all parts of our lives), it would help us to better understand each other and be more compassionate.

Trying on someone else's perceptual goggles also helps spark the creative process. To give you an example, this is how Boss Man sees the rainbow (what you and I see is on the left, what he sees is on the right).

His world looks completely different from mine. The green leaves that I adore look brown to him, except for a few weeks in the fall, when they turn yellow. Dark reds look black (he often thinks that black ink on his hand means he is bleeding). Pink looks gray and purple looks blue. He loves pink and purple, and I have to remind my husband that those colors look gray and blue to him (very manly, think Dallas Cowboys).

There are other forms of color blindness and varying stages of loss of vision, too. If you are looking for a bit of inspiration, whether for a story, a painting, a drawing, or something else, do a little experiment. Put yourself in someone else's perceptual position for a bit. You might just find the inspiration you were looking for. Here's a web site to get you started.

A few inspiring words

Mondays have been difficult for me, lately, as a quick review of my recent posts shows. Today marks the first day of final exams and overwhelming amounts of grading. So here are a few quotes from well-known creatives, scientists, and the like. I hope they might provide you with a bit of inspiration.

Often people attempt to live their lives backwards: they try to have more things, or more money, in order to do more of what they want so that they will be happier. The way it actually works is the reverse. You must first be who you really are, then, do what you need to do, in order to have what you want.  ~ Margaret Young

It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that they are difficult.  ~ Seneca

Take your life into your own hands and what happens? A terrible thing: no one to blame.  ~ Erica Jong

Artists who seek perfection in everything are those who cannot attain it in anything.  ~Eugène Delacroix 

Did you ever observe to whom the accidents happen? Chance favors only the prepared mind.  ~Louis Pasteur

We are always doing something, talking, reading, listening to the radio, planning what next. The mind is kept naggingly busy on some easy, unimportant external thing all day long.  ~Brenda Ueland

Figure out who you are. Dare to try things and allow yourself to do them, even if they're not perfect. Keep an open mind, and put aside the daily distractions. You may just find some creative inspiration in the process.

Author inspiration: Meg Rosoff

Last week, I recommended books by the fabulous Meg Rosoff, and I mentioned that I had sent her a message asking about the inspiration behind Just In Case. The lovely woman replied and allowed me to post it here.

Hi Alison

I'm really pleased that you like my books, or at least my 'voice'!

Just In Case is kind of a long story -- my youngest sister got breast cancer, then it came back, then my middle sister got it as well, and I noticed that my previously atheist academic family had all started to become very superstitious -- picking up pennies on the street for luck, finding significant numbers in things.....and I started to think about the link between superstition and depression.  Just IN Case is kind of about depression - - what happens when you take an interesting philosophical idea (fate) and can't make limits for it -- until it begins to take on a life of its own.

Anyway, that's roughly the source of the idea.  Years ago I had a friend who said that being depressed makes you see the world as it really is, but that vision of life is intolerable -- that's how I see Justin -- beleaguered and hounded by all the terrible things that might happen to him, and desperate to control his life by thwarting fate.
I could go on....

Thanks again for writing.
xxMeg

Thank you, Meg, for taking a moment to tell us about the source of your inspiration. And yes, I do love your books, not just your voice (but the voice brings the books to life).

As I mentioned in my previous post, I highly recommend Meg's books. And she has inspired me to start interviewing a variety of people (authors and others who rely on creativity for their work) to learn what inspires them, and more about the creative process and how it works for them.

Poetry Friday: Splendid Darkness

I am fortunate to be acquainted with a remarkably talented artist, Pamela Sukhum. I've always admired her art, but she's really outdone herself with her latest work, Splendid Darkness 2.  In fact, I wanted to purchase the painting, but the costs of international shipping and customs would probably exceed the cost of the painting itself. So I admire from afar.

In one of those wonderful examples of one art form inspiring another, Pam was inspired to paint this particular piece by a poem:

Sweet Darkness
By: David Whyte

When your eyes are tired
the world is tired also.

When your vision has gone
no part of the world can find you.

Time to go into the dark
where the night has eyes
to recognize its own.

There you can be sure
you are not beyond love.

The dark will be your womb
tonight.

The night will give you a horizon
further than you can see.

You must learn one thing:
the world was made to be free in.

Give up all the other worlds
except the one to which you belong.

Sometimes it takes darkness and the sweet
confinement of your aloneness
to learn

anything or anyone
that does not bring you alive

is too small for you.

And by wonderful coincidence, intrepid explorer Chris Guillebeau of the Art of Non-Conformity (a web site I love—more on this later) posted an inspirational quote by the same author on his Facebook fan page: "The cure for exhaustion isn't rest, it's enthusiasm." -David Whyte

If you are interested in Pam's work, you can see more at Infinite Vision Art and on Facebook. 

This week's Poetry Friday Roundup is hosted at The Drift Record.  In case David Whyte's Sweet Darkness wasn't enough poetry for you, you can also read one of my original poems from Monday. 

Happy Friday, everyone!

When you're falling

I'm having an incredibly productive writing day today, which means my Monday blog post is falling by the wayside. So I leave you with Afro Celt Sound System, whose music inspires me.

Finding inspiration

The creative process requires input; without it, there can be no output. This is the reason Julia Cameron recommends taking time to "fill the well" with ideas, sights, sounds, conversations, scents. They act as tinder for the creative spark.

So where to turn for inspiration? Anywhere, really. Some of the most delightful ideas come from the most unexpected places...  something lying on the ground, a walk in nature, a ride on the subway, a piece of music, someone else's artwork, newspaper article, blog post, or novel. Yes, reading deprivation can help ignite the creative process, but so can reading. As long as you aren't using it as a distraction.

Pianist and composer Ludovico Einaudi based his composition, Le Onde, on Virginia Woolf's book, The Waves. It is an extraordinary thing when someone can capture the feeling created by one art form in a completely new medium.



Can you hear the waves? I close my eyes and picture myself standing on a beach.

Music also serves as a powerful source of inspiration. Berlin artist Christine Düwell finds inspiration in music, listening to the piece as she creates and incorporating the sheet music from the piece into the artwork, itself. (I love all of her work but am particularly a fan of the Linien in der Vertikalen series).

I would imagine that writers often find inspiration in music and other forms of art, although I have only once seen a writer acknowledge such an influence in their book (according to the acknowledgments section of both Eclipse and Breaking Dawn, Stephanie Meyer found tremendous inspiration in music by Muse). So I leave you with their latest single, perhaps it will provide some inspiration.