On Gabrielle Harbowy and My First Published Story

I have a lot to thank this gal for.

Years ago, for no reason that is clear to me, Gabrielle Harbowy took an interest in me--or at least in my blog.  In 2010, she interviewed me for her blog (the link is no longer active, else I would share it), which was a big dose of affirmation for me.  The following year, I met her for breakfast in San Francisco, and she posed for what has turned out to be one of my favorite pictures of people-wearing-my-red-hat.  She was utterly lovely, and made me feel like she was honestly glad to meet me.

You have to admit she wears the hat well!

For those of you who don't know Gabrielle, here is her bio:

Gabrielle Harbowy copyedits professionally and is a submissions editor at the Hugo-nominated Apex Magazine. With Ed Greenwood, she co-edited the award-nominated When the Hero Comes Home anthology series; their latest anthology endeavor is Women in Practical Armor, from Evil Girlfriend Media. Her short fiction can be found in several anthologies, including Carbide Tipped Pens from Tor. She’s also the author of two novels: Hellmaw: Of the Essence (TEGG) – which won Runner-Up in the Science Fiction/Fantasy category at the San Francisco Book Festival, and Gears of Faith (Paizo). For more information, visit her online at @gabrielle_h or gabrielleharbowy.com.

Gabrielle has been a big supporter and participator on this blog over the years, showing her face in places like The Baker's Dozen and Adorable Editors as well as announcing open submissions for Dragon Moon Press (and nabbing authors!).  I've always been grateful for this.

I was especially grateful, though, when, in 2012, Gabrielle invited me to submit a short story for an upcoming anthology from Dragon Moon.  When the anthology was published in 2013, the only thing I wasn't happy about was that I couldn't share it here on the blog, because of, yanno, the anonymity.  (Which is now gone!  Hooray!)

So it gives me great pleasure to finally let you know about WHEN THE HERO COMES HOME 2, a collection of science fiction and fantasy stories by a wide range of authors.  I'm honored that Beginning, my first short story, is included in this terrific mix!

You can buy your copy at AMAZON or BARNES AND NOBLE or INDIEBOUND.

Of course I'm dying to hear someone say, "Hey, I've read this! Never dreamed Jillian Boehme was Authoress!"  If that's you, please don't hold back!

Thank you, Gabrielle, for the part you've played in my writing journey.  And thank you for being a friend.

Hi, Everyone!

C'est Moi

Jillian Boehme

Author of Books for Teens

Represented by Danielle Burby of Nelson Literary Agency

Home:  Middle Tennessee (Greater Nashville area)

Originally from:  Lehigh Valley area, Pennsylvania

Love of my life:  Eric Boehme (a.k.a. Mr. A)

Education:  Bachelor of Music, Susquehanna University (piano)

Most important job:  homeschooling mom of 5

Volunteer:  Soprano with the Nashville Symphony Chorus

It has been my privilege and delight to speak into your lives for the past nine years as Authoress.  It will be my ongoing delight to continue to do so!

Over the next few days, Authoress: The Real Story will post as a series on the blog.  (It may or may not contain previously unpublished photographs.)  I've spent nearly a decade being very much myself online, while keeping the most important bits of my private life...well, private.  Authoress: The Real Story will give you a glimpse of my real world as it lines up with key posts/events on the blog.

I hope you'll join me.

Love, Jillian

The Power of a Story

I grew up in a small town with an even smaller library.  For a while, my mom worked there, and through her, I befriended a new librarian who took me under her wing when she discovered that I loved to read fantasy.  Throughout her short stay, she sent books home with my mom for me to read, simply because she thought I'd love them (and I did).  Sometimes they were new releases that she would set aside for me; other times, they were simply books off the shelves (and who knew how old they were...and who cared!).

What a tremendous gift to give a child--stories to feed her hungry soul and stoke the deep wells of imagination within her!  This lovely woman, whose name I can't even remember, played a huge role in turning my heart forever toward the world of fantasy.  How I wish I could thank her.

Amid all those wonderful novels, a certain story niggled at my memory throughout my adult life.  I couldn't remember the title, the author, or even the main storyline.  In fact, there was really one scene that stuck out in my mind, tantalizing and frustrating me because it was all I could remember.

A sister and brother inside a barn.  A Pegasus foal hidden there.  Something evil outside, trying to get in.

Over the years, I tried to find it on the Internet.  Surely, I thought--surely--if I type in "Pegasus" and "brother and sister" and "barn", it'll pop right up on this list-of-forgotten-books.

Nope.  No luck.

Then, a few months ago, I decided to try again.  AND I FOUND IT.

It took me five minutes, and there it was.  And here it is:

The Stolen Telesm by Caroline Baxter was published by Lippincott in 1975.  It is, of course, out of print.  As you can probably tell by the photo, the copy I purchased is an old library book.

I was SO VERY EXCITED to read it.  Suddenly I was ten years old, eager to fall once again into the world where Pegasus was real and children my age got to have a grand, scary, fantastical adventure.

You guys.  The writing was horrible.

HORRIBLE.

Not only that, but the plot was lame.  Point of view jumped erratically between the brother and the sister to the point of distraction.  And the clunky, adjective-heavy sentences went on ad infinitum.

On the back flap, the author bio states that Ms. Baxter wrote this story when she was seventeen.

And Lippincott published it.  Well, huh.

Here's the thing, though, and it's a big one:  When I was a child, I didn't know about points of view or plot arcs or overwriting.  All I knew was that there was a Pegasus foal trapped in a barn with a boy and a girl.  

Now, this isn't a nod of approval toward bad writing for the sake of good story.  I think it's a travesty--really, I do--when someone who's a good storyteller does not hone his craft so that he also becomes a good writer.  (Good story and good writing are two separate things. Sometimes they are mutually exclusive.)  What I'm really saying here is that stories are powerful.

So powerful, in fact, that the best one stick with us for years despite deficiencies of writing.  So powerful that, decades after having read something, a wistful adult will search and search until she finds the long lost treasure.

You are a writer.  YOU HOLD THIS POWER IN YOUR HANDS.

It's not about lovely sentences or a wonderful premise.  It's about STORYTELLING.  And yes, there is plot arc and character arc and all that really important stuff.  But the ART OF STORY is what will draw your readers in and keep them hooked--sometimes for life.

As for me and my little book?  I passed it on to a sweet young person in my life who happens to be a fantasy-loving bookworm.  She devoured it.  Loved it.  Raved about it.  Like long-ago me, she wasn't bothered by the weak plot or point of view mess.  It was all, "Pegasus! Magic! Scary things!"

She has a steady diet of well-written literature in her life, so I don't think I've ruined her by handing her a book that would certainly never be published today.  I have it under good authority that she has recently started Fellowship of the Ring, so there you have it.  (She's not quite ten. I know for a fact that I was not reading Tolkien at that age. The sad truth is that I didn't know who Tolkien was. But that's a story for another day.)

And there you have it.  We all remember things from our childhood that, upon being revisited, don't come close to living up to our memories.  Like Moon Pies.  And freezer pops.  And Michael Landon as Pa.

But if even one kernel of a story nestles in our hearts and inspires us for years to come, it's worth revisiting, and worth giving credit to, despite its faults.  Go forth and find a story that's lodged in your brain from your own past.  Who knows--it may actually be as wonderful as you remember!

Beth Revis's Winners!

The response to our contest was admittedly disappointing.  Nevertheless, those of you who DID enter definitely benefited, because Beth Revis has decided that YOU ARE ALL WINNERS.

GRAND PRIZE WINNER:  Krystal Jane

Her winning entry:

I don't have a plea. I have only the fact that I'm starting to not want to try anymore. I've written sixteen novels. Queried seven. I think I might be crazy for continuing to try. But it looks like you had to write a lot of books, too. And I think maybe Paper Hearts can give me some new motivation from someone who's fallen down a lot as well. ^_^ So if I don't win, the sky will explode and the moon dragons will fly down and eat me.

Why Beth chose this entry:

It spoke to her heart.

(See what I mean about Beth?  You definitely want this gal in your corner!)

THE PRIZE:  A signed paperback copy of PAPER HEARTS!!

TO ALL OTHER ENTRANTS:

Beth would like to send each of you a digital copy of PAPER HEARTS!

Winners, please email me your email address.  I will send your addresses to Beth, and she will contact you with instructions on how to claim your prizes.

Hooray!

Spuds (a.k.a. The Beauty of Voice)

I'm going to tell you to do something I've never told you to do before, and it's this:

I want you to read a picture book.  Out loud.  To yourself or to a loved one (or, if you're really lucky, to a child).  Specifically, I want you to read this:

There I was, doing my weekly grocery shopping.  If I hadn't zipped over to the back entrance to grab a coupon from a store flyer, I would have completely missed the "bargain bin" of books.  (I know, right?  Books in a grocery store.)  Of course I had to take a quick peek--especially considering the "80% off" sign.

Right on top sat this luscious-looking book by Karen Hesse.  The cover drew me in immediately (which is saying a lot, because I find many picture book illustrations cloying at best).  I cracked open the book, not expecting too much (again, it's hard to find a superbly written picture book).

And I was transfixed.  In fact, by the end, my eyes were tearing up.  Not because it's a sad book (it isn't, really), but because it was so beautiful that I was moved to tears.

Seriously.  So I bought it. 

That's not the only reason I want you to read it, though.  The beauty of SPUDS is in its voice.  The author's careful word choices and spare language perfectly capture the setting and draw you immediately into the narrator's world.

Here is the opening page:

The night me and Maybelle and Eddie harvested potatoes,
Ma was workin' night shift.
Our ma, she's mighty fine,

but lately it seems like she got nothin' left over,

not even for us kids.

Hold me back, you say.  That first sentence has a pronoun error!

Exactly.  The story is told by Jack, the middle of 3 siblings, and that's the way he talks.  We are completely inside his head on every page.  As such, we feel like we know him--really know him--and care about what happens as the story unfolds.

So Jack and his siblings sneak out at night, after their mother leaves to work the night shift, in order to "harvest" some potatoes from Mr. Kenney's field.  Which brings us to what is probably my favorite page in the entire book:

We three kids headed out Waddell Road in that rattle-bang fashion. 

Maybelle, she goosed us with the meals Ma'd make out'a them spuds.

"You'll see.  Ma's gonna boil 'em, and bake 'em.  She's gonna

slice 'em thin as fingernails and fry 'em up crusty brown with

lots of salt sparklin'."
Man, my mouth juiced up just thinkin' about it.

Luscious!  "Rattle-bang" perfectly describes the kids pulling a wagon along the side of the road.  And how about slices "thin as fingernails"?  Can't you just see them, all crackly good on your plate?  And the "salt sparklin'" says so much more than just "salt" or "salty" could ever say.  (Because salt does sparkle when the light catches it--have you noticed?)

Picture books are HARD to write (as anyone who has tried knows).  Language needs to be spare yet beautiful, conveying a simple tale in simple language in such a way that the story is compelling--and also that it's a pleasure to read out loud (since these books are primarily meant for reading to children, right?).

(Side note:  I read this book out loud to Mr. A, so that he could experience the beauty of the language.  I'm sad to say that it did not resonate with him the way I'd expected it to.  But then, he's not a writer.  Or a child.)

I'm sure you can see by now how this translates to our novel-writing.  We have a lot more words to play with, true.  But we should still take this careful, choose-each-word-like-it's-a-diamond approach, too, because it will make our writing sing.  And voice?  We already know that voice is where it's at.  I believe that it's voice, more than anything else, that ultimately draws us into a tale, whether we're aware of it or not.

You may or may not like Karen Hesse's story, but you must admit that it's got a powerful voice.  The voice might not speak to you--you might totally hate it--but as a writer, you can acknowledge that it's there.

That's what your novel needs.  VOICE.  It's not something that can be taught; it's something that can be CAUGHT.  By reading good stuff, and by continuing to write and write and write (until our voice develops).

I've written exactly one picture book (it's not amazing) and will probably revisit this category at some point.  So I'm always interested to see what's out there.  Here are two others I've recently discovered that are worth taking a look at:

THE TIPTOE GUIDE TO TRACKING FAIRIES by Ammi-Joan Paquette

AT THE BOARDWALK by Kelly Ramsdell Fineman

Now get thee to your local library or bookstore (or, um, grocery store) and grab SPUDS.  Read it quietly, read it out loud, read it so that the words seep into your soul.  Then, take what you've learned and apply it to your own work.

I am going to do the same!

Happy Release Day to Beth Revis

No, this blog isn't turning into a bulletin board.  But Beth has been a huge part of my journey, as you already know.  And today has got to be the COOLEST release date ever.  1-11-11!

So here's to an amazing release day for ACROSS THE UNIVERSE (Razorbill/Penguin), and huge hugs and huzzahs to BETH REVIS!

(One of my, yanno, heroes!)

Fabulous Announcement: Book Publication!

It's official: the first Real Book Deal in which this blog played the teeniest part is happening!!

Here are the authors' own words, used with their permission:

Dear Authoress,

I'm not sure if you remember us or not, but we participated in one of your Secret Agent contests back in February 2009. We didn't win, but we did get a ton of amazing feedback from Kristin Nelson and your fantastic readers. We used all of that great feedback to revise our manuscript and ended up scoring an amazing agent in March 2009. And now we've hit another huge milestone. Our debut novel, A Kate Lowry Mystery: The Haunting of Pemberly Brown, will be published by Sourcebooks in Spring 2011. We are beyond excited and we can't help but think that we have you and the community of writers at your blog to thank.

Thank you so much for all of your hard work! We can't imagine all the time and effort that goes into maintaining your blog, but we sure do appreciate it.

Sincerely,

Lisa and Laura

Woot woot and triple woot! It's a measureless honor to have been part of this book's exciting journey.

Read their blog post announcing the deal.

They're even giving away a Kindle to celebrate!

Throw confetti along with me. When two of our "own" make it, we're all part of the happy that happens. You could be next!

A Wonderful Book For the Warped Among Us

It isn't often that I stand in the children's section of Borders and laugh out loud. Come to think of it, I don't think it's ever happened before.

But as I turned the pages of Lemony Snicket's The Lump of Coal, I couldn't help myself. The writing is so quirky, so clean, so delightfully dry -- that this book is currently on my Christmas Wish List.

It's a small book -- a hardcover specialty book for the holidays. I would go so far as to say that it is a particularly small book. Which is why I didn't want to fork over the $12.99. Hence the wish list.

You tell me, though: can anyone resist a book with the following sentence on its opening page?

Miracles are like pimples, because once you start looking for them, you find more than you ever dreamed you'd see, and this holiday story features any number of miracles, depending on your point of view.

It's the not the opening sentence, but it's the one that hooked me.

This book is not for your overly-sensitive nephew, your writing buddy who lacks a sense of humor, or, frankly, any child under the age of six. It's a delightfully warped tale, imbued with humor as only the Brits can do it.*

Seriously. Buy this book for someone you really love. And buy a copy for yourself.



*Except, of course, that Lemony Snicket was born in San Francisco. Many thanks to the anonymous reader who pointed that out. Urgh.