Deb Caletti: Bookless in Seattle
Friday, May 29, 2009
What's a reading fanatic to do when nothing on the shelf quite fits the bill and the local library's closed for the weekend? In today's guest blog, Deb Caletti --- whose latest novel, THE SECRET LIFE OF PRINCE CHARMING, hit stores last month --- professes her own unique brand "book love," and recounts how she spent her Memorial Day looking for "The One."For more info on Deb Caletti, please visit her Facebook fan page.
The night before last, I ran out of books to read. I didn’t actually run out, of course, because I have shelves and shelves of books, not to mention several stacks of unread ones, three feet of magazines, and library books, even, that I hadn’t returned yet. But there wasn’t The One. That certain something that will fill the specific craving, same as an exact and particular food item you are doomed to not have around the house (Lays Sour Cream and Onion chips, but not with the ridges, only the smooth ones). You will understand the crisis, I hope. I started a desperate search, scanned the backs of books unhappily, decided to settle on one I didn’t really want, and then changed my mind again. I pouted. I felt snappish and grumpy. My dear sweet husband asked what was wrong and I didn’t even have words for it. I had just finished a really good book, and now I was left in the sad, empty land of No Book. I was restless and despondent. I always have to be reading something. Left without, I’m some sorry astronaut separated from his shuttle, floating unanchored in space.
The next day, Memorial Day, the library was closed. God, I love the library. I can’t even begin to tell you. Anyway, instead, I went to the Half Priced Books near the Seattle neighborhood of Ravenna, where I live. They were actually having a SALE. I was so excited to be there that I accidentally parked halfway up the curb. I stayed in there for hours, to the point that I started getting weak with hunger. Really. I ate a couple of mints to tie me over. I was so happy in there. When I finally left, the store was still a vast, uncharted territory of missed chances, but I had a stack of eight books (twenty bucks --- ha!), and a better attitude. Tra la la, new book joy.
When I got home, there were things to do. Dinner, life-stuff. I couldn’t do what I most wanted --- spread the books out and do that great, slow, deciding of which to read first. My dear sweet husband asked the dreaded question: “What did you get?” I knew I’d have to show him, and that he would do what he did next: read the backs, open the centers and peruse. The perusing turned to actual reading, and I started getting testy.
“John, you’re reading,” I said.
“I’m not reading, I’m just looking.”
“But you’re looking for a real long time.”
I waited. More reading. “John, it’s against the new-book rule. You can’t read until I’ve read.”
Yes, friends, I was whining. I was whining and not sharing nicely. He put the book down. He smiled at me. This is how dear and sweet he is. He understands these things. He puts up with the greedy two year old I become when it comes to my favorite-est things --- books. I am crazy about this guy.
But I guess I am crazy about books, too. They have some power to turn me cranky and desperate and joyful and even greedy. They are anchors and roots and wings. Can you even believe all the possibilities that are there in books?! Ah... For me, reading is more than a hobby or a habit --- it’s a love and a soul-need. It’s deeply ingrained piece of who I am and how I live.
I could talk about book love forever (as you can see), but I know you’ll understand that right now I’ve got to run. Happyhappyhappy --- eight new books are calling my name.
-- Deb Caletti
Tim Wynne-Jones on THE UNINVITED
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Kicking off our new Teenreads.com Blog is Tim Wynne-Jones, author of almost 30 YA, children's and adult titles. Below, he discusses the inspiration behind his latest novel for teens, THE UNINVITED, while answering the question, "Which of your books is your favorite?"When anyone asks which of your books is your favorite, there is, for me, only one honest answer. This one. The latest. As I write this post, my clothes are tumbling through some cycle or other in the dryer, the iron is heating up, and my suitcase is open on the bed. I’m leaving first thing tomorrow on a promotion tour. There will be a bunch of readings, signings, interviews. What’s my favorite book? THE UNINVITED. It’s all I’m going to be talking about for the next while.
Which is kind of nice, really. Writing is something you do mostly on your own, a solitary business. It’s good to be talking to people about it. It’s good to get it out in the open. When you’re writing a book, you are immersed in it. The story becomes an alternate reality: the place where you live a good part of every day (and sometimes half the night!). The characters become your best friends. When it’s finally finished, it’s a little hard to let go, say goodbye.
And the weird thing is that this intense relationship, this friendship with these imaginary friends, all begins with an idea or two clanging around in your head. A few choice “what if” kinds of moments. In fact, in the case of THE UNINVITED, it all began with a single word; a word I’d never heard before.
“You’re moving to the what?”
“The snye.”
“What’s a snye?”
Well, it turns out a snye is a secret little stream that slips away from a river and cuts its own path around a series of rapids. “Snye” is the word the folks around here call such a waterway. It’s not in most dictionaries. I love that!
When I saw the house my friend was going to fix up, I wanted it for myself. There it sat, in the middle of nowhere, nestled under willow trees, on the banks of this sly little stream, reached by a broken bridge. I totally coveted it! It was such a magic place: a place where surprising things could happen. What if you were running away from something or someone? What if you got here and found that you were being watched? Hmmm.
Yes. I could definitely do things with this place. Oh, don’t get me wrong; I didn’t want to live there, not exactly. But I did want to inhabit the place. What I mean is that for me, it was the perfect setting for a story.
I often start a story with a place. That’s not as odd as it sounds. I know theater friends who discover a good stage: an old ruin of a mill, or a decrepit factory, and suddenly the ideas start to flow. They begin to imagine actors on that stage. It’s the same for a writer, sometimes. In fact, if you read THE UNINVITED, you’ll probably realize that the snye isn’t just the setting; it’s more like one of the characters. It always seems to be watching, listening, waiting. What’s going on in that little house? Who is that hiding in those woods?
For Jackson Page, who’s just finished his music degree, the little cabin is a place to compose in. It’s quiet; there’s no one around to bother him. That’s what he thinks, anyway. He’s got a studio there, his instruments and computers. For Mimi Shapiro, running away from a disastrous first year at NYU and a relationship that went way bad, the snye in the wilds of Eastern Ontario is a perfect hideaway. That’s what she thinks. Her father owns the place though he hasn’t been there in many years. A lot has happened since her father was last around.
There’s a third person drawn to the house like a magnet. Kramer Lee. He has problems all his own. He’s taken to spying on Jay. And then along comes Mimi and everything changes. The thing is, all three of them share more in common than any one of them knows.
That’s the story the snye led me to write. To me, writing is a journey of discovery. I never know where I’m going when I first set out. You think you’re writing about one thing and it turns out you’re writing about all sorts of other things, too. I’m just so glad to have been given the gift of that sly little word “snye.” I’m so glad I paddled my canoe up that mysterious stream right into the heart of this story.
-- Tim Wynne Jones
Labels: The Uninvited, Tim Wynne-Jones
Introducing the New Teenreads.com Blog!
Thursday, May 21, 2009
I have a confession to make.
When I was a teenager, I NEVER read YA books.
There. I said it. It's a difficult fact to admit, since I am not only a self-professed book junkie, but am also an employee at Teenreads.com; but, it's true, and I thought it was about time I came clean.
I'm not sure who or what's to blame for this travesty --- perhaps my ambitious English teachers, my strict parents, or my own unusual combo of natural curiosity (read: nosiness) and sibling rivalry that prompted me to steal from my older sister's shelves instead of building up my own --- but it seemed like one day I was making my way through Roald Dahl's entire backlist and the next, I was all over Jane Austen, Edgar Allan Poe, Agatha Christie, and J. D. Salinger... all at the tender age of 12. And in that time since, I never knew what I was missing.
Luckily, all that changed when I started working at Teenreads.com almost four years ago. One of my first assignments was to interview Laurie Halse Anderson, and reading her novel, SPEAK, single-handedly altered my already well-established reading habits, as well as my overall approach to children's and young adult literature. It prompted one of those "A-ha!" moments where I found myself asking, "Why weren't books like this around when I was younger?!" It was the instant I realized that there were, indeed, gems to be found outside the world of adult literary fiction.
Since then, not only have I caught up on all the "classics" I missed --- THE CHOCOLATE WAR, THE GIVER, THE OUTSIDERS, and FAHRENHEIT 451 to name a few --- but am also racking up quite a list of favorite contemporary YA authors, like Markus Zusak, John Green, Libba Bray, Maureen Johnson, Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler. Among these current obsessions are IF I STAY by Gayle Foreman, THE FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH by Carrie Ryan and THE HUNGER GAMES by Suzanne Collins, and I am practically-falling-out-of-my-chair excited for the release of its sequel, CATCHING FIRE, in September.
This discovery may be about 13 years late, but I'm finally coming around.
That said, I couldn't have been more thrilled when all of us here at Teenreads decided to launch this new blog, as a way to bring you --- our readers --- even more book and author news on a more frequent basis, in addition to our regular monthly updates. But, what makes this feature stand out is that we're asking authors to help bring this content to you directly. So, over the next several days and weeks, you'll hear from Tim Wynne-Jones about his new book UNINVITED, and Cynthia Leitich Smith on her own reading list for this summer, not to mention Deb Caletti, Jenny Han, Michael Spradlin, Susane Colasanti, and many more.
More importantly, we'd also like to hear from you. If you're interested in submitting a piece for this blog, please fill out this form. Tell us a little bit about yourself in the "Notes" section, and under "Submission," please include your piece (or a few sentences on what you'd like to write about) --- which can be on just about anything book-related, and maybe even a few things that aren't. We look forward to hearing from you!
Marisa Emralino
Editorial Coordinator for Teenreads.com
When I was a teenager, I NEVER read YA books.
There. I said it. It's a difficult fact to admit, since I am not only a self-professed book junkie, but am also an employee at Teenreads.com; but, it's true, and I thought it was about time I came clean.
I'm not sure who or what's to blame for this travesty --- perhaps my ambitious English teachers, my strict parents, or my own unusual combo of natural curiosity (read: nosiness) and sibling rivalry that prompted me to steal from my older sister's shelves instead of building up my own --- but it seemed like one day I was making my way through Roald Dahl's entire backlist and the next, I was all over Jane Austen, Edgar Allan Poe, Agatha Christie, and J. D. Salinger... all at the tender age of 12. And in that time since, I never knew what I was missing.
Luckily, all that changed when I started working at Teenreads.com almost four years ago. One of my first assignments was to interview Laurie Halse Anderson, and reading her novel, SPEAK, single-handedly altered my already well-established reading habits, as well as my overall approach to children's and young adult literature. It prompted one of those "A-ha!" moments where I found myself asking, "Why weren't books like this around when I was younger?!" It was the instant I realized that there were, indeed, gems to be found outside the world of adult literary fiction.
Since then, not only have I caught up on all the "classics" I missed --- THE CHOCOLATE WAR, THE GIVER, THE OUTSIDERS, and FAHRENHEIT 451 to name a few --- but am also racking up quite a list of favorite contemporary YA authors, like Markus Zusak, John Green, Libba Bray, Maureen Johnson, Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler. Among these current obsessions are IF I STAY by Gayle Foreman, THE FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH by Carrie Ryan and THE HUNGER GAMES by Suzanne Collins, and I am practically-falling-out-of-my-chair excited for the release of its sequel, CATCHING FIRE, in September.
This discovery may be about 13 years late, but I'm finally coming around.
That said, I couldn't have been more thrilled when all of us here at Teenreads decided to launch this new blog, as a way to bring you --- our readers --- even more book and author news on a more frequent basis, in addition to our regular monthly updates. But, what makes this feature stand out is that we're asking authors to help bring this content to you directly. So, over the next several days and weeks, you'll hear from Tim Wynne-Jones about his new book UNINVITED, and Cynthia Leitich Smith on her own reading list for this summer, not to mention Deb Caletti, Jenny Han, Michael Spradlin, Susane Colasanti, and many more.
More importantly, we'd also like to hear from you. If you're interested in submitting a piece for this blog, please fill out this form. Tell us a little bit about yourself in the "Notes" section, and under "Submission," please include your piece (or a few sentences on what you'd like to write about) --- which can be on just about anything book-related, and maybe even a few things that aren't. We look forward to hearing from you!
Marisa Emralino
Editorial Coordinator for Teenreads.com
