My visits to the physio therapist continue, and my collection of torture devices wrist and elbow braces seems to be growing by the week. The latest?



This saucy little number. (Note my lovely "Plugged in Plum" nails - I went to a high school reunion on Saturday night so I had my nails done for the first time in like, forever.) What you can't see, is that embedded under my wrist going all the way up to the palm of my hand is a metal bar:



which, as I'm sure you can imagine, makes it an absolute JOY to type! And I have Major Freaking Revisions on WANT TO GO PRIVATE? to do this Month. MaFreReMo. Uh huh.

One thing about an injury affecting your livelihood is that it makes you take it very VERY seriously. I've been doing everything the physio tells me, including researching laptop ergonomics on the web, because after talking to the hand specialist at the physio place, we think perhaps my elbow tendon was weakened by my poor laptop habits on a repetitive basis and then it was all the tennis playing that just was the last straw.

So getting a new chair wasn't enough. On Friday I bit the bullet and went out and bought a wireless keyboard, mouse, and a laptop stand, so now my keyboard can be at the proper height for my wrists, but the screen is at a height were I don't have to bend my neck to look at it. Then I went and bought a proper foot rest, so that my arms and legs are now at 90 degree angles when I work.

Here's what it looks like:



The keyboard tray is still kind of messy because I was using it as a drawer before and I haven't figured out where to put all the stuff yet.

But take it from this injured Word Warrior. We writers spend a LOT of time on our butts in front of a computer screen, making the same repetitive motions. Take a good look at your writing situation and make sure that it's safe.

Because trying to do Major Freaking Revisions with a big piece of metal sticking in the palm of your hand is NO FUN AT ALL!

On a more fun note: I'm trying to think of a good competition to give away a LIFE, AFTER arc. Any ideas?

or how many topics can I cram into one post when I'm taking a break from revision?

I did want to take some time out to thank all of those who have served our nation in the armed forces on this Veterans Day. In honor of our veterans, Mike and Tim Rauch, the immensely talented forces behind Rauch Brothers Animation posted their award-winning short Germans in the Woods, based on a StoryCorps interview of 86-year-old World War II veteran Joseph Robertson, who fought at the Battle of the Bulge. It's timely and moving reminder of the lasting impact that combat has on our soldiers.




Meanwhile I've been somewhat hampered in my Major Freaking Revision Month (MaFrReMo) efforts by this:



Public Service Announcement: If you think you might have tennis elbow, DO NOT KEEP PLAYING TENNIS.
Even if you do ice your elbow afterwards. Because eventually the pain will radiate down from your elbow into your forearm and down to the hand. The hand that you rely on to type with every day for hours. The hand that you need to DO YOUR JOB. The hand that feeds you.

Some of us (ehem) did not follow that advice, and now are paying the price. But we are also learning from our physio therapists that it's not just about the tennis. It's about the fact that because we write on a laptop, we sit in all sorts of weird positions that are not conducive to good posture and good ergonomics. And that the chair we were sitting in was ALL WRONG.



Too low, so my wrist was pronated upwards to type, and no lumbar support. Actually, I quite often sat with my feet on the desk and my laptop in my lap. Well, it's called a LAPtop, right?

My physio ordered me to get a new chair, pronto, since I spent so much time with my butt in it, so I promptly asked THE ORACLE, aka my favorite YA Listserv, for advice on writerly chairs. As usual, I had expert advice within minutes. eluper who is an expert chiropractor, and who I hope will soon be bringing his fantastic hints to a writing magazine near you, provided me with what I should look for when buying a chair, and armed with my tape measure and his e-mail I ended up with this:



Note the box under my desk: that's to put my feet on, because now that my chair is high enough to get my elbows at 90 degrees, my feet barely touch the ground (cue Randy Newman's "Short People"). The box is a little high, so I need to find something lower. But in the meantime, I'm so much more comfortable, and hopefully I'll get rid of all the various contraptions I've got to wear on hand and elbow and will be back on the tennis court soon.

Meanwhile I learned something else today. lisayee are you listening? Once your MacBook battery is fully charged, you should unplug it. I'd just bought a new battery last year, and noticed last week that it was barely holding a charge for an hour anymore (very frustrating when you spend a lot of your life working around your kids appointments and need to be mobile). I went to buy a new one today and asked the MacGeniuses what I was doing wrong, because I figured they should last longer than a year. And that was my answer. I tend to work with the laptop plugged in whenever I'm at my desk. Now I know. And so do you!

So now that I'm recharged and have a comfortable, ergonomic chair, it's time to get back to MaFrReMo!

Okay for most of you,November is probably best known by it's more recognizable acronym NaNoWriMo. But I was in my own self-induced novel writing frenzy over past two months, so for me November is MaFreReMo: Major Freaking Revision Month.

But I think I'm probably filled with a similar feeling of excitement and dread as the Nano participants. This is a BIG revision (for reasons you will hear below) and that scares me. But I'm also really excited. Because I know that the changes I need to make are going to make this book so much better and add to the tension for the reader - assuming I get them right.

On Friday, I was fortunate enough to have another research meeting with the Supervisory Special Agent of the Cybercrimes division of my local FBI office. To prepare, I created a time line of all the events from when my MC goes off with the Internet predator to ....whatever happens. (No spoilers!) I'd listed what her family does, what the local police does, when the FBI is called in etc etc, based on my previous meeting with them and my conversations with the Detective Sargent of the Youth Division of Greenwich Police Department. I knew when I was writing the middle third of the book where all of this is taking place that there were gaping holes in my knowledge of police and FBI procedures and there were points where I tried to fill them in, but after a while I just had to keep writing to get to the end or else I'd get stuck, because I really just needed to see where the story was going. I figured that I could clean all the procedural problems up in the revision process.



We spent two hours going through the time line and it was SO invaluable. For example, I had the FBI raiding the predator's house and the SSA told me at that point they really didn't have probable cause for a warrant. But by changing some of the clues I'd left earlier, we were able to brainstorm realistic fixes for most of the issues. I've definitely got my work cut out for me over the next month, incorporating plot changes, along with fleshing out some of the relationships as requested by my SuperEditor Jen.


I'm so impressed by how dedicated the guys who work on these task forces are to protecting our kids from harm. It's a job that must take an incredible toll on your psyche. I know for myself that writing this book has not been easy. In the first draft, I'd left it somewhat vague as to what happens to the MC while she's with the predator, but my editor said it just seemed like she went for a car ride with him - it needs to be more defined...but without being too explicit. I realized part of the reason I'd been vague is because I didn't really want to know exactly what happened to her - it was too painful for me to think about. But how could I write this book about her and not know? So I had to force myself to write the scene in the sleazy motel room, even if that scene isn't going to appear in the book - except maybe in brief PTSD flashbacks.

I started writing it one evening and couldn't sleep because I was so upset by it. I was talking to the FBI people about it and saying how I don't know how the guys who work on this stuff every day can do their job without going crazy. The SSA told me they can sleep because they know they're doing this to keep these guys from doing such crimes do anyone else. It's true, it must feel very good to put one of the bad guys behind bars.

One of the most disturbing parts of the research was when they showed me some actual chats between a victim and a predator from a closed case. It was from an actual case here in CT and it was heartbreaking and frightening, particularly when I realized that this girl was the same age as my daughter is now. Reading her words, particularly knowing the outcome (she was strangled by the predator during sex, and he dumped her body in a ravine here in Greenwich), just about broke my heart.

All of this has made me extra glad that I have monitoring software on my kids' laptops. I urge parents to install some sort of program on your kids' computers. I use E-blaster by SpectorSoft and it's definitely helped in avert one situation that could have got out of hand. We parents can't afford to be flying blind. Both my kids know the software is on their computers, and that I won't abuse it by talking to them about their chats with their friends; only if it's something inappropriate.

Well, ladies and gentlemen...time to hit the caffeine and start the engines! Whether it's NaNoWriMo or MaFreReMo, productive writing to all!

Last week I finished the sh*tty first draft of my fourth book, which is going by the working title WANT TO GO PRIVATE? and sent it off to my wonder editor for some global comments about if the structure is working before I start revisions. It's about a girl who gets involved with an Internet Predator and I've experimented with alternating POV's to create tension and for some other reasons. It's been both fascinating and disturbing working on this book. Fascinating because after getting permission from the HQ in Washington, I've been doing research in conjunction with my local FBI office. I've also been pestering the recently retired head of the Youth Division of Greenwich Police Department with questions about police procedures.

But because of the subject matter, it's also been a disturbing book to write. When I've written chats between the girl and the predator, I've wanted to take a shower afterwards because having to write as the predator makes me feel so dirty.

The whole language/sex in YA issue has been looming very large for me in writing this as well. I've struggled mightily with the problem of trying to be authentic (where, according to the FBI, these guys get very dirty, very quickly) and not wanting the book to get banned before it even gets to a library. Librarians - answer to the question of do we authors self-censor? That would be a resounding yes. We think very, very carefully about what we put in our books. In this case, I've made a conscious decision to try and focus on the seductive and the manipulative aspects of the chat conversations in order to try and minimize the sexual content. But inevitably,some sexual content must be there, because ultimately that's the reason these guys are chatting to 14 year-olds, isn't it?

Well, once the MS went off to my editor, I had to tackle all the things I've been ignoring over the last four months while I've been on a writing frenzy. Like my kids, and house cleaning and groceries and this blog, for instance. But also, my office. I came home one day, and the Webmeister and my daughter had declared it an official DANGER ZONE:






(Note all the stacked up revisions in the second picture)

So for the past few days I've been reconciling 4 months worth of bank statements, boxing up the MS revisions and putting them in the garage, and excavating my desk. I even dusted, once I realized there was wood under all that paper! I still have to do the filing, but I'm trying to bribe hire my daughter as my temporary personal assistant, so that she'll do that for me.

Maybe it's because I want to procrastinate from crushing tediousness of having to catch up on my accounting, but the idea for my next book has been all I want to work on, morning, noon and night. In between bank statements, I wrote a synopsis and sent it to the Super Secret Agent, who loved it and told me to "get writing". Far be it from me to disobey the words of the SSA. So I'm busy doing research and thinking about characters. Don't want to say much more, other than that this will be the first book that combines elements my two previously very separate writing lives - politics and YA. Stay tuned!

In preparation, Daughter and I went to Sephora yesterday and picked out a new writing scent. Having
a special perfume while I work on each book has turned into one of my Weird Writing Rituals. Our choice: Le Bateleur by Dolce and Gabbana. Le Bateleur means "The Juggler" in French, and besides loving the fragrance, it's an appropriate name for both the MC of the new book - and for me!

I'm writing this while I wait for my son to finish the PSATs. Ah, the memories.

My daughter has a summer birthday and usually everyone is away, so we often end up having a family party but she misses out on doing stuff with friends. But this year she was determined to do something, and we wanted to come up with something a little different that wasn't too expensive. See we live in Greenwich, CT, where the standard for birthday parties is pretty out of this world. When my daughter was in third grade, one of her friends took the kids to see a Broadway musical in a stretch limousine. I'm forty-six, and I *still* haven't been to Broadway in a stretch limousine. My daughter's been to parties where they drove around in a Stretch Hummer (I gave her no end of grief because she was wearing her "Protect the Environment" T-shirt that day, irony of all ironies), where they went learned how to go on trapezes, the professional manicure/pedicure fashion show parties. This is a tough place to raise kids with a sense of perspective. These sure ain't the Pin the Tail on the Donkey, Pass the Parcel, and eating Jello and cake parties that were my experience growing up.

As a single mom, there's no way I can afford to shell out for that kind of stuff, so we had to be a little more creative. Between us, we came up with a Mall Mission. I took them to the Mall and gave them each an envelope containing the mission, if they chose to accept it. (They were all too young to get that reference, sigh.)



Inside the envelope was this note:

Recessionista - Urban Word of the Day

A person who is able to stick to a tight budget while still managing to dress stylishly.

A recessionista can shop on a limited budget and still manage to be up to date on the most current fashions. A recessionista does not let a bad economy, inflation, or a strong recession damage her wardrobe and opts to search for sales and shop at thrifty discount stores instead.

Example of Recessionista shopping:

I’ve had a zillion compliments about this bracelet. How much do you think it cost?*




YOUR MISSION: BE THE BEST RECESSIONISTA YOU CAN BE!

Here is $10. Search out the best fashion finds you can get with this budget. You have until 6:45pm and we will meet at the entrance to Barnes and Noble. We will then proceed to California Pizza Kitchen for dinner and to debrief and compare our Fashion Finds.

Some of these girls had no concept of bargains shopping, and they were amazed to see what the girls who did (girls like my daughter, who are forced to bargain shop by necessity if they want to look good) managed to get for $10.

I got them all really cute bags to put their bargains in and a lipgloss at Forever 21 for $1.50 each for the bag and the lipgloss.

They all had a lot of fun, and hopefully they learned something in the process.

And the bracelet I get so many compliments on? I got it for less than $6.50 at PacSun when we were back to school shopping. For $16.50 my daughter got a necklace, I got the bracelet, and then we split a thing of two peace sign bracelets that are our "friendship bracelets".



Even if I am the most embarrassing human being to ever walk the face of the planet.

Now they're downstairs for a "sleepover". More like a "wakeover", if experience is anything to go by. Unfortunately my bedroom is right above the family room, where they are camped out with their sleeping bags.



Fortunately, while they were shopping, I slipped into the bookstore and got myself a copy of Libba Bray's GOING BOVINE, so at least I'll have something to amuse myself while I'm kept up all night.

Poor son is hiding out in his room with his video games, afraid to emerge for fear of losing his sanity. Can't say I blame him.

Why hello! *blows dust off blog* I've been one heck of a delinquent blogger, haven't I? Chalk it up to back to school craziness, editing first pass proofs of LIFE, AFTER, Jewish holidays and mostly being in a crazy frenzy to finish the sh*tty first draft of my Internet predator book, which now has a working title, WANT TO GO PRIVATE? But this fantastically good cause has got me off my lazy blogging butt.

Kevin of Always Home and Uncool has asked me to post this as part of his effort to raise awareness in the blogosphere of juvenile myositis, a rare autoimmune disease his daughter was diagnosed with on this day seven years ago. The day also happens to be his wife's birthday.

*

Our pediatrician admitted it early on.

The rash on our 2-year-old daughter's cheeks, joints and legs was something he'd never seen before.

The next doctor wouldn't admit to not knowing.

He rattled off the names of several skins conditions -- none of them seemingly worth his time or bedside manner -- then quickly prescribed antibiotics and showed us the door.

The third doctor admitted she didn't know much.

The biopsy of the chunk of skin she had removed from our daughter's knee showed signs of an "allergic reaction" even though we had ruled out every allergy source -- obvious and otherwise -- that we could.

The fourth doctor had barely closed the door behind her when, looking at the limp blonde cherub in my lap, she admitted she had seen this before. At least one too many times before.

She brought in a gaggle of med students. She pointed out each of the physical symptoms in our daughter:

The rash across her face and temples resembling the silhouette of a butterfly.

The purple-brown spots and smears, called heliotrope, on her eyelids.

The reddish alligator-like skin, known as Gottron papules, covering the knuckles of her hands.

The onset of crippling muscle weakness in her legs and upper body.

She then had an assistant bring in a handful of pages photocopied from an old medical textbook. She handed them to my wife, whose birthday it happened to be that day.

This was her gift -- a diagnosis for her little girl.

That was seven years ago -- Oct. 2, 2002 -- the day our daughter was found to have juvenile dermatomyositis, one of a family of rare autoimmune diseases that can have debilitating and even fatal consequences when not treated quickly and effectively.

Our daughter's first year with the disease consisted of surgical procedures, intravenous infusions, staph infections, pulmonary treatments and worry. Her muscles were too weak for her to walk or swallow solid food for several months. When not in the hospital, she sat on our living room couch, propped up by pillows so she wouldn't tip over, as medicine or nourishment dripped from a bag into her body.

Our daughter, Thing 1, Megan, now age 9, remembers little of that today when she dances or sings or plays soccer. All that remain with her are scars, six to be exact, and the array of pills she takes twice a day to help keep the disease at bay.

What would have happened if it took us more than two months and four doctors before we lucked into someone who could piece all the symptoms together? I don't know.

I do know that the fourth doctor, the one who brought in others to see our daughter's condition so they could easily recognize it if they ever had the misfortune to be presented with it again, was a step toward making sure other parents also never have to find out.

That, too, is my purpose today.

It is also my birthday gift to my wife, My Love, Rhonda, for all you have done these past seven years to make others aware of juvenile myositis diseases and help find a cure for them once and for all.

To read more about children and families affected by juvenile myositis diseases, visit Cure JM Foundation at www.curejm.org.

To make a tax-deductible donation toward JM research, go to www.firstgiving.com/rhondaandkevinmckeever or www.curejm.com/team/donations.htm

I wrote double today than I've written any day this week - and I've had a very good week since I switched to first person POV. The MS has really come alive and now I can't stop these characters from talking - in fact they keep interrupting each other so whereas I wrote the first 13,000 words sequentially, now I find I'm jumping from scene to scene as each character starts talking.

Do any of you get superstitious about writing habits? I wear a spritz of perfume every day and generally I switch between two or three fragrances I like depending on my mood. When I was writing LIFE, AFTER I only wore one perfume, Hue Turquatic by MAC, because it seemed like when I wore that I wrote better and it got to the point where I was afraid to wear anything else. With the book I'm working on now, it's Chance by CHANEL. When I switched gears from writing the new book to copy editing LIFE, AFTER last month, I switched perfumes. Do I sound like a lunatic yet? Well, stay tuned...

So like I said, today was a very productive writing day, despite the fact that someone:



woke me up at 5 am, the little rotter. I had a hard time getting back to sleep, because a different character than the one from whose POV I'd been writing from was in my head chattering away. I half dozed for a little while longer then finally got up and showered and started writing.

But it took me until 4pm this afternoon to realize that I'd been wearing my undies back to front all day long.



Oh yes she did! So now I'm wondering...hmm, I had a really good writing day.

Does this mean:

a) I should wear my underwear back to front all the time when I'm writing a first draft?

b) I am certifiably insane

c) I need more sleep and/or

d) I need IV caffeine before I get dressed in the morning

So do any of you have weird writing superstitions/rituals?

I've been very remiss on my blogging lately, but that's because I've been wrestling with the "sh*tty first draft* of a new book. After writing 11,000 words in third person past, I had this sudden insight that actually it needed to be in first person present, but with alternating points of view, in order to create more suspense, because then the reader will only know what the MC knows. It's also the first time I've ever written a suspense novel, so I leaped on the offer from an avid suspense book reader middle school friend that I reconnected with on Facebook whose kindly said he would read early drafts and help me with pacing. aprilhenry also sent me some useful tips, which I'm going to pin above my workspace.

So now I'm rewriting what I've done so far in first person, and it's amazing how the manuscript has suddenly come to life. It's like I've slipped into a pair of comfortable slippers after dancing all night in stilettos. I hate to think that it's because first person is what I'm used to, and that I'm just a one trick pony who will never have the ability to write effectively in third person. But I genuinely feel for this novel, it's what works - at least until my editors tell me otherwise!

Research for this book has been fascinating. I had to write to FBI Headquarters in DC for permission and send them all my questions in advance, but after months of waiting, I finally got the go ahead to meet with the supervisory special agent of my local FBI office in New Haven, CT. He was incredibly helpful, and gave me a lot of good ideas for the book, some of which required reworking what I'd done so far anyway and changing certain plot points.

Now I just need more time. Time without kids interrupting me to tell me that they're bored or need to be driven somewhere. As much as I love the lazy routines of summer, I'm getting ready for school to start so I have hours of lovely uninterrupted writing time to try to crank this thing out so I can then get to the part I like best, revising. Hands up if you would rather revise than write. (*ME! ME!*)

Meanwhile, LIFE, AFTER (July 2010) is moving ahead - my avatar is the cover, which I love, and I've just added a new page to my website about it. More to come in the near future.

I've read two wonderful books by LJ friends in the last two weeks: SAY THE WORD by onegrapeshy aka Jeannine Garsee and JUMPING OFF SWINGS by joknowles Both are highly recommended. Daughter has already read and loved Jumping off Swings (and apparently been book talking it to my neighbor) and is about to start Say the Word.

I also highly recommend the film JULIE AND JULIA. Daughter and I went to see it and we both loved it. Meryl Streep is amazing. She should get an Oscar for her portrayal of Julia Child. She made me want to come home and start sauteing everything I possibly could in mounds and mounds of gorgeous butter. I mean, I'm on Lipitor, so it's okay, right?

Fear not, dear readers, I am restraining my butter urges, although I did sneak a tiny but into the pan with the PAM when I was sauteing mushrooms and garlic, just for flavor the other morning. It made the omelette taste sooo much better.

Stop 3

While in Chicago, we went to the Museum of Science to see the fabulous Harry Potter exhibit. Daughter was sorted into Griffyndor. If you get a chance to see the exhibit, run, don’t walk. It’s fascinating to see actual props from all of the movies, right up to the Half Blood Prince. What really struck me, though, was seeing the costumes from the first movie and realizing just how small those kids were when they filmed the first film. Thinking back, I guess my kids were pretty little too. My son was still at the age where he dressed up in his Harry Potter robes when we went to the opening night. Now he’s at the stage where I have to remind him to change his socks and wear deodorant. However, he was blowing everyone away at the HP trivia game they had before letting us into the exhibit.

My fangirlism for JK Rowling was rekindled anew as I remembered just how awesome and fantastically detailed was the world she created in her novels; and little things that made me chuckle like “Spellotape”.

I did, however, manage to resist the gift shop at the end of the tour. I’d thought to buy each of the kids a treat, but even the kids thought it was crazy expensive, and that’s saying something. My son worked out the JKR must be getting a cut of everything sold, and was asking his slacker mom when she’s going to come up with some great merchandisable idea for a novel like this. Yes, his slacker mom and her agent and publisher would like to know that, too.


Stop 5 - Cedar Point

The Webmeister and my daughter love roller coasters. I used to, but having the kids did something to my vestibular system and now I get motion sick. So Daughter and TWM went to Cedar Point, where Daughter successfully completed her first triple loop de loop rollercoaster, and the more vestibularly challenged Son and I went next door to Soak City water park where we had a great time on the body slides, particularly the Eerie Falls and the body slides.


Stop 6 Cleveland

I was looking forward to Cleveland because of our visit to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but also because I was finally going to meet in person my longtime blogfriend, the hilarious and amazing onegrapeshy. I managed to pry the kids out of bed with a crowbar gently wake my kids so we could meet her in time for brunch at iHop to talk about life, writing, and crazy people.




Then it was time to indulge my inner rock chick at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I was wishing that writerross was there with me, because there is a great Bruce Springsteen exhibit going on right now, with lots of his songwriters notebooks and clothes and guitars and scrapbooks from his early days.

As a writer, I always find the songwriting exhibits fascinating. For example, did you know that Billy Joel’s song, “We Didn’t Start The Fire” was originally a song called “Jolene”? When you see the manuscript, it’s almost verbatim, except instead of the current chorus it’s got this chorus talking about some chick Jolene which makes no sense in context of the rest of the song. It works so much better as a protest song.

It did make me feel a little…historical myself at times, such as when we watched the history of music videos film and I realized I’d been there from the start (I heard myself saying “That’s back when MTV was good and actually played MUSIC VIDEOS instead of garbage!”) and when I saw all these concerts that were in the exhibits as historical artifacts and realized that I’d been at them or similar concerts around the same time.
As Daughter would say….I’m “OOOOOOOOOOOOOOLD.”

But at least I have good taste in music.

Boston to Erie, PA. Miles 542. Hours in car (including stops) 9 1/2.
Words added to WIP in car 1,132. Not while driving, you will be relieved to know!

Fights between kids - Two, minor.

Car games played - Three.

Times I was told to stop singing - once. ( A minor miracle!)

Tomorrow, another long day in the car, en route to Chicago, where we get to stay put for a few days!

It’s hard to believe that my last blog post was about enjoying peace, quiet and solitude, because it’s been life has been anything but that since the kids got home on July 18th. They came home with my niece from England, who is six weeks older than my daughter and whom I hadn’t seen in three years. We had such a great time. Once of the many difficult things about divorce is that you still love all your nieces and nephews from the other side of the family and you don’t feel like you divorced them. Fortunately, I have a good relationship with my former sister-in-law, so she was willing to send my niece over for a visit. Although after seeing this picture from our visit to the Abercrombie flagship store in NYC, I’m not sure she’ll be willing to entrust me with her daughter again:




After the girls got their picture taken with the bare-chested hunk, I asked “So is it my turn now?” (Hey, if Demi Moore can do the cougar thing, why not me?) My daughter rolled her eyes and dragged me away before I could embarrass her further.

We went to see SHREK the Musical, which I highly recommend. Humor as good or better than the movie and great songs. My new theme song is “Freak Flag”



We also had a visit from four of my cousins from Israel, making for a fun and full house. Lots of Guitar Hero and barbecuing and just hanging out and enjoying the family.

Another highlight was finally getting to meet Cindy Lord in person! After all these years of being LJ friends and communicating by e-mail I felt like we already knew each other, but it was so wonderful to meet face to face and chat. We brought her a Statue of Liberty duck for her collection (seen below atop my daughter’s head) from our excursion to NYC the day before.


Somehow, amidst all this I’ve managed to squeeze in a few minutes here and there for my WIP, but not nearly as much as I’d have liked. I’m finally getting the hang of writing in close third person POV and most exciting of all, after months of waiting, I got permission from FBI headquarters in Washington to interview an Special Agent at my local FBI office as research for this novel. I can’t wait!

Meanwhile, the kids, The Webmeister and I are off today on the first day of our Magical Mystery Tour. More from the road!

It’s been a little over a week since my kids left for their annual trip to England with their dad, and after the initial transition wobbly that always happens as I adjust from perpetual noise and chaos to a quiet house, I’ve been having a really productive and enjoyable time. It had been really stressful being on a tight revision deadline with them home, but once they left I finished my revisions in a day and a half – it’s AMAZING how much work you get done when you aren’t being interrupted every twenty minutes to be informed that someone is “bored” or to have to drive someone to an appointment, and you can actually focus on your work for hours at a time. Heaven. I just got word yesterday from fabulous Editor Jen that she loved the edits and LIFE, AFTER is now on its way to production. Yay!

As my reward, I lay out on my hammock over July 4th weekend and read CATCHING FIRE. Wow. I want to take a master class in pacing and plot structure from Suzanne Collins. She had me so wrapped up and involved in that story that I didn’t realize that my stomach, which hadn’t seen the light of day all year and given that none of my kids were around to tell me that I should not do so, I’d dared to bare in a bikini, was frying to a crisp. I ended up with second-degree sunburn. But I’m such a fangirl that I’d even say it was worth it.

Speaking of master classes, the amazingly bright and insightful Cheryl Klein is putting together a book of her essays, talks and blog posts on publishing, writing and editing. She needs a commitment of $2,000 to put it together and you can sign up for a copy here. She’s already more than halfway there. I can’t wait to get my copy!

Part of the reason for that is because I’m starting the writing phase of my fourth book, which is a bit of a departure for me in a few ways. Firstly, because I’m writing it in close third person, with occasionally shifting POV. At least that’s what the plan is so far. The other thing is because it’s going to be more of a suspense novel, very different from my first three. That’s why I was so enthralled by CATCHING FIRE, and why I plan to read it again for craft. I was really nervous about writing in the third person because I felt like I wasn’t getting the voice, so I backtracked and wrote quite long character sketches for the three main characters and then wrote most of the first chapter. I read it to my critique group last night and they felt like I’d got the voices okay, so I think the character sketch time was well worth it. They also gave me some new subplot ideas as I was working on them.

I’m hoping to make some good progress on the first draft before the kids come home and the chaos starts again.

Meanwhile, I’ve been playing a lot of tennis and read and loved THE GUERNSEY LITERARY AND POTATO PEEL SOCIETY (thanks Debbie for the recommendation!) and saw “Whatever Works”, the new Woody Allen movie, which I really enjoyed.


How is your summer going?

I've only been reading YA for a while and am looking for some "grown up" book suggestions. Anyone read anything wonderful recently?

I took a break from Revisionpalooza last night (have a July 1st deadline, just got my notes on the 17th and as of Friday, both kids are now out of school, AAAAAAHHHHHH!!) and headed on up to Wallingford, CT to take my daughter to see The Fraywith opening band Jack's Mannequin. Despite the pouring rain, we had a fun drive up in the car, listening to a "Fray channel" on Pandora and commenting how it seemed like it seemed like they were just alternating Coldplay and Fray tracks. They must be music genomically very similar.



The lead singer of Jack's Mannequin, Andrew McMahon, is one of my daughter's school friend's cousin, so she was texting her friend back and forth during the performance. He was a stellar performer, and personally I actually liked the energy of their performance better than the Fray, although the Fray were very good; just, it seemed to me, a more workaday and "we're here doing our job" kind of performance. Still, Daughter had a fab time and we'd bought the tickets at a silent auction at her school benefiting a school in Uganda, so it was a win/win because we had a good time for a good cause.



While we were there, I was thinking back to my teen years, and the concerts I attended, where a pall of smoke (cigarette and otherwise) hung over the crowd and even if you weren't smoking the otherwise, you could probably get high just by being there. Of course at the end of the concert, everyone would hold up their lighters as a sign of appreciation. I remember being at my first concert at Madison Square Garden (This will date me, but I believe it was Jethro Tull) and being awed at the wave of energy at end as everyone shouted for an encore and I looked around and there were thousands and thousands of twinkling lighters like the building had been invaded by fireflies.

These days with the no smoking laws, it's much easier for people like me who have asthma to survive being in a concert hall for 2 1/2 - 3 hours without having to resort to an inhaler, but I miss the sight of the lighters at the end of the concert. Well, I'm happy to say, "There's an app for that!"



It's called Zippo Lighter and you can get it on your iPhone. It doesn't have quite the same authentic feel of burning your fingers in honor of your favorite artist, and if you're like me, you feel a bit of a prat waving your cell phone in the air, but at least you're waving your cell phone in the air in an OLD SCHOOL kinda way.

Check out the Readergirlz blog today for an interview with yours truly. I had a great visit yesterday at Eastern Middle School where one of the health classes had used PURGE as part of the eating disorder curriculum.
One of the girls said, "I really enjoyed your book because it really sounded like a teenager."

I guess I did my job :-)

I can't remember on which social networking platform I saw the suggestion, but I've been reading Elizabeth George's book WRITE AWAY, and am finding it's given me some useful new tools that I'm experimenting with for my fourth novel. This novel is the first that I've ever tried writing in 3rd person POV so I'm looking for all the help I can get! I'm finding that it slow going, so I've had to back track and do a bit more exploratory writing. But I think this is a good thing, and will actually help me with plot outlining, another thing I'm trying to do more.

Meanwhile, after attending a writing workshop with Mitali Perkins and Rachel Vail a week or so ago, I finally went over to the Dark Side and started Twittering. You can follow the author me at SarahDarerLittand the political me at realsaramerica.

I was afraid it was going to be just another massive timesuck, kind of like Facebook can be at times, but what with the compelling historic events going on in Iran at present, Twitter is a fascinating real-time way of keeping up with people who are actually there. The Twitter revolution. If you're at all a political junkie like me, I recommend signing up for an account if only to follow the #iran election thread.

I'm very excited that the Readergirlz Postergirlz have chosen PURGE as one of their recommended reads to accompany Sara Zarr's amazing novel SWEETHEARTS, which is the Readergirlz book of the month for June.

Meanwhile, I emerged from my lair this morning to attend a Master Class on Resonating with Young Readers at the Greenwich Arts Council. Featured authors were the wonderful Mitali Perkins, whom I knew from Kindling Words, and the very amusing Rachel Vail. I haven't made it to any craft related events since Kindling Words in January, so it was great to hear some insights from talented authors. It reminded me that sometimes you really need to get out of your lair, and not just virtually!

Meanwhile, my daughter and I experimented making alfajores, these Argentinean cookies that the MC in LIFE, AFTER longs for. I followed this recipe, including making the homemade dulce de leche because I figured I can't have my character dreaming about these cookies if I've never tried them myself. Well, they came out really well, but I managed to give myself a really nasty burn on my wrist while making the dulce de leche, and it's right where my wrist hits the edge of my laptop when I type. I tell you this writing research is dangerous (albeit yummy) work!

I'm thinking I might make alfajores for my book launch party next year, except I'm going to buy myself a pair of full length oven gloves first.

I've been living every day with my head in Buenos Aires, a city I've never visited, as I'm deep in revisions for my novel LIFE, AFTER. Part of my research has been watching news footage on YouTube of the bombing of the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (A.M.I.A) building on July 18th, 1994, as it figures heavily into the background of my story.

So it was really eeiry and horrifying to read about the attempted bomb plots against two Riverdale synagogues. Fortunately, good intelligence and police work (note: not water boarding, but good intelligence and police work) foiled the plot and saved innocent lives.

At the same time, I read recently of a violent attack in Buenos Aires against Jews celebrating the 61st Anniversary of the establishment of the State of Israel, plus bomb threats against synagogues in the Belgrano neighborhood.

Unfortunately, some things, like violence and anti-Semitism, refuse to remain in the history books.

I became good friends with Malaine and Jonathan, my wonderful neighbors down the road, when their daughter wrote me a fan e-mail. Well, I'll let her tell the story. Recently, she was asked to do a sermon for her Hebrew School class about a Jewish experience, and she chose to speak about meeting me. I just had to share, because it's so lovely:


"Today, I am going to talk about my Jewish experience with the author of the book, Confessions of a Closet Catholic. The book is about a Jewish girl named Justine who is secretly pretending to be catholic in her closet. I would never want to be catholic because I appreciate being Jewish.

The story all started when I was at my Hebrew School book fair. There was a book called Confessions of a Closet Catholic, by Sarah Littman. It looked sooo interesting and I really wanted to get it, but someone had just bought the last copy. I was so mad because I really wanted to buy it, even if it was with my own money.

When I got home I asked my dad if he could order the book online. He said, like he always does, “But sweetie are you sure you’ll read it?” I begged him to get it and promised I’d read it. A couple days later it came. I was so excited!

As I read the book I found out that not only was the main character’s name Justine, but that she also lived in Greenwich, CT, loved chocolate and Harry Potter, she was 12 years old, and… the most fascinating thing was that she was JEWISH! She was just like me!!!!! I felt like she was my twin already! I was astonished that the girl was Jewish since, most girls I know are not Jewish. After I was done reading the book, my dad and I went online and found Sarah’s website which had her email address. I really wanted to find out more about her, so I emailed her expecting not to hear back from her.

An hour later I checked my email and surprisingly she had written back. I emailed her asking if she would like to do a book talk at my synagogue, because she was also Jewish. She wrote back saying that she would love to meet my friends and me. I was jumping for joy!!!

A few Sundays later she came to my synagogue. My parents were filled with joy, because they too had read the book and loved it. Sarah came with her daughter Amie and Amie’s friend. They were just one year older than me, which I thought was nice. Right when Sarah first arrived she asked my mom and dad if they knew where XXXXXXX Road was. My parents said that we live on XXXXXXX Rd. “Well… there is a house for sale and we were thinking of buying it!” I was obviously listening to their conversation and screamed, “OMG!!!!!” I was so joyful and also wondering; would it be fun to have an author living on my road? I pondered that question for the next couple of days. It was swimming around in my mind. My friend in the neighborhood expected a limo to drive up to their driveway and pick them up. He thought she was a celebrity, but not all great authors are treated like a celebrity.

But it was the exact opposite. They were a normal family. And it turned out that we have become close friends over the 2 years they have lived here. A is now like a cousin to me she’s like a 3rd daughter to my mom. Confessions of a Closet Catholic was Sarah’s first book and she is now surprisingly already writing her 4th book! My strong connection with Sarah and A makes me feel good about being Jewish."



Awww. Isn't that wonderful? Remember that you guys, the next time you feel like you're not getting enough love for your book. "Not all great authors are treated like a celebrity." It still cracks me up that my next door neighbor's son expected me to drive up in a limo. Little did he know that I'm the chauffeur around here, and the limo is a dented, dirty Mom-mobile.
Still, I'm glad that even though I'm not a celebrity, I'm made a positive impact in one girl's life. That's what it's all about, isn't it?

I have to take my hat off to Lisa Dolan and Maria Suttmeier, the organizers of the First Annual Hudson Children's Book Festival, held last weekend. Over 4,000 people attended, which is pretty incredible for a first time event, and the whole thing was well-run and staffed by friendly volunteers.



One of the best parts for me was getting to meet friends that I only knew from online, like Laura Hamor artistq and Robin Maccready seen here, also Jo Knowles jbknowles.



Also got to catch up with Julia DeVilliers, who I hadn't seen in a while, Daphne Grab (I was on a panel with Daphne, Rebecca Stead, Jo Knowles and Carolyn MacCullough) and the ever amusing Michael Northrop.

But the best part, as always, is meeting the people who read our books. Especially when they're cute as anything like these three:

What with a son in a play and a daughter in a dance recital AND a play (dance recital now successfully over, one down, two to go…) plus a revision deadline at the end of the month, saraclaradara has been a very neglectful blogger. How could I have left you all hanging as to the outcome of Daughter’s fateful venture into a Connecticut Writing Project fiction workshop taught by her freakish, embarrassing MOM? Especially after said Mom had spent the day at her middle school the week before doing workshops for the 8th graders and when daughter had entered Media Center to wave hello, Freak Mom had the nerve to blow her a kiss ? (Dum, dum, dum….)

Well, the car ride up to Fairfield University was extremely entertaining. What with budget cuts, no bus transportation was provided for students (nor any teachers to accompany them, because we were told there wasn’t funding, even in tony Greenwich, CT, to pay for a substitute to cover) and since I was going anyway and am in possession of a Mom Mobile, I ended up with a carpool of six (count ‘em) 7th grade girls. Oh, the singing! Oh the texting! Oh the dialogue! Of course, if I happened to like a song, and made the slighted sign of enjoyment such as head bobbing or, heaven forbid, singing, I was rewarded with a stern glance and a hissed warning: “Mother!”

Upon arriving at the CWP, Daughter was extremely mortified to learn that her name tag had her last name on it. Horrors! What if the other kids put two and two together?

Fortunately she wasn’t in my workshop until the afternoon, so I had a practice run. Because strangely enough, as freaked out as she was about having me as her teacher, I was kind of nervous about having her as much student. I wanted her to be proud of me.



One of her good friends was in the morning workshop and was kind enough to give me a good review. At lunch, I notice Daughter eating outside in the sun with a group of her friends and I casually strolled by.

“Hello Mrs. Littman, who is not related to A!” one of her friends joked, earning themselves a dagger glance from Daughter.

“GOODBYE Mrs. Littman!” said Daughter.

I scurried away back to the land of older people, who happened to include keynote speaker Yona McDonagh

Afterwards, my daughter told me one of the other kids who didn’t realize we were related asked her: “Why were you being so mean to the fiction teacher?”

Yeah?! Why indeed?!! ☺

When the students came in for the afternoon workshop, someone from Daughter’s school saw my name on Powerpoint and called out, “Wow, she has the same last name as A – are they related?”

I followed my instructions and denied all knowledge. “I’m not sure…are they?”

Noticed Daughter smirking out of the corner of my eye.

Workshop went well, and afterwards, my daughter even admitted she enjoyed it. I asked her how I could improve it: “don’t talk so much”….hmmm I wonder if this is a daughter specific comment or a general comment – like is it just that she’s sick of the sound of my voice or do I really talk too much?



(See if you can spot Daughter. Hint: she’s the one giving the teacher attitude ☺)

So another hurdle passed successfully, and both Mother and Daughter survived intact!