Continuing with the Best of 2009 Challenge…

December 21 Project. What did you start this year that you’re proud of?

Hmm. I’m waffling on how to define “project” here. Maybe I’ll just list “efforts” that I’m proud of. They are:

• Using “waffling” in a blog post.
• Using a lot of quotation marks in same post.
• Making it to the quarterfinals of the Amazon Breakthrough Novel contest. But I probably could have gotten farther had my manuscript really been ready, so that’s a little bittersweet…
• Earning my first royalties by experimenting with Amazon’s Kindle publishing platform. A total of like $25, lol, but hey, getting paid to write is getting paid to write!
• Realizing I would probably be better suited (and happier) writing for people in their teens and twenties. This doesn’t sound like an “effort,” but believe me, it wasn’t an easy thing to put away the notions I’d carried about my literary career for over 15 years.
• Writing Twenty-Somewhere for fun — and then having it attract the attention of St. Martin’s Press! Completely unexpected and wonderful, even though its chances of getting published are about as good as my chances of… ending this sentence with something clever and amusing.
• Reading all of Kiersten White’s blog archives. Well technically I’ve only read 60%, but at the rate I’ve been devouring her words, it will almost certainly be done before the end of the year. Or maybe even before I finish writing this post…

All right, maybe it hasn’t been such a good-for-nothing year. In fact, maybe it’s been a pretty decent one. But I’m hoping 2010 will be even better. At least in terms of “projects to be proud of,” and specifically for my writing career. I guess you’ll just have to check back in a year to see how I fare! ;)

But enough about me. Seriously. What projects (or “efforts”) from this past year are you proud of?

Continuing with the Best of 2009 Challenge…

December 4 Book. What book – fiction or non – touched you? Where were you when you read it? Have you bought and given away multiple copies?

Hmm. This is a tough one. I read a lot of great books this year.

• The Secret Life of Bees was the first book I’ve read and really thought, I wish I’d written this.
• For all its flaws, Twilight totally engrossed me, and was the straw that broke the camel’s back in terms of convincing me that I should be writing for readers my age and younger, instead of writing “Literature.”
• The Host was just awesome.
• I made a deal with Andy and now he gets to pick every other book I read. This year that included Ray Bradbury’s classic collection of scifi short stories The Martian Chronicles, which was excellent.
• Bad Things Happen (by Harry Dolan, one of the original Amazon Breakthrough Novel contestants) and Motherless Brooklyn (another of Andy’s picks) rekindled my love for murder mysteries.

There were many, many more. And thanks to our public library system (you should be a member of yours!) and some discount books I bought over Thanksgiving, I look forward to 2010 being another great year of reading.

What did you read this year? Books, short stories, backs of cereal boxes? As a writer, I’m always interested in “what the kids are into these days.”

(I already know at least one of Sonja’s answers! We’ve been emailing about her love of John Irving.)

I’m up to episodes 9-12 of Twenty-Somewhere for Kindle/iPhone/iPod! So far I’m really enjoying this “experiment.” I’ve only sold about a dozen copies between the 3 episode “bundles,” but it’s fun to obsessively check see my Amazon Sales Ranks and to realize that someone liked the stories enough to buy all 3!!

I think the plan for 20SW is to continue writing episodes until the end of 2009. Then I need a break. I will leave off in such a way that MJ, Claudia, and Sophie get some closure, but of course we’ll know there are more adventures to come. I’ve already envisioned a novel for these 3 women, but I have at least 1 other book to finish before I get started on a project like that…

Speaking of things I don’t have time for, Angie and I recently redesigned our joint blog. I love the new look, and now I’m itching to redesign my site…

Too bad that would be silly right now. I have too many other things to write do. Sigh.

Speaking of distractions, yesterday I received my copy of Bad Things Happen by Harry Dolan, an Amazon Breakthrough Novel from 2007-2008. BTH didn’t win, but it was my favorite entry, and I am SO excited to be reading the whole thing!

(Other 07-08 ABNA books coming soon: Casting Off by Nicole Dickson and The Wet Nurse’s Tale by Erica Eisdorfer!)

Speaking of funny — I wasn’t? Oh, oops. Well, I’m not funny, so I probably won’t enter/win, but if you are funny (JOE) then you should think about entering the Funniest Analogy contest at Writer Unboxed. You could get a lot of attention for your blog/site, or at the very least, some good laughs.

Andy left for a business trip at the butt crack of dawn on Monday morning and was supposed to return at I-don’t-know-what-the-right-saying-is on Wednesday night. Instead, bad weather stranded him in Baltimore. Also, we were supposed to drive to Rochester today for his sister’s wedding tomorrow. Instead, he flew directly to Rochester (after spending an extra night in Baltimore) and I got to pack my stuff, his stuff, the puppy’s stuff, and the wedding presents and drive all 7.5 hours by myself.

>_<

Despite my anxiety about this long and completely unexpected solo road trip, it went quite well. I made good time, even though I stopped twice to get gas and let Riley walk around, and I didn’t really feel too bored or tired. Thank goodness my iPod lasted the whole way… (And thanks to Angie, who chatted with me for half an hour!)

But, since driving + typing is probably worse than driving + talking on a cell phone, I decided not to finish Twenty-Somewhere. My apologies to those of you who care. Those of you who don’t, go read and start caring!

Since I promised you more juice & spice, here it is, albeit in a slightly different form…

JUICE:

• Fellow ABNA contestant Eric Shonkwiler has a great series of posts about how to write a novel: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.
• Alice Hoffman’s new book The Story Sisters sounds awesome!
• Agent Jessica Faust of BookEnds, LLC posted a glossary of key publishing terms.

SPICE:

• Margot posted this AWESOME picture of herself to Flickr. (Click to see larger version.) I told her I want her to take pictures of me, but she has to make me look as gorgeous as she does herself.
• Pseudo guest-blogged a hilarious post about being “the cool aunt,” which I unfortunately have never been (or had?).
• Cardamom. Thyme. Oregano.

Love is playing Prometheus, strapping yourself to the side of the mountain and sewing up your own side so the birds might pick at you afresh.

- fellow writer and former ABNA contestant Eric at My Heart’s Porch