• Amazon announced the 6 finalists (3 general fiction, 3 Young Adult fiction) for their 2009-2010 Breakthrough Novel Awards. Go check out the excerpts (which you can download free in PDF format) and vote! Support writers! Enjoy stories!

• In squee!-worthy news, HarperTeen posted an excerpt of Kiersten White‘s forthcoming debut (Sept 2010) Paranormalcy:“Just as he reached for my neck, I tased him. I was there to bag and tag, not to kill. Besides, if I had to carry separate weapons for every paranormal I took out, I’d be dragging around a full luggage set. Tasers are a one size-fits-all paranormal butt-kicking option. Mine’s pink with rhinestones. Tasey and I have had a lot of good times together.”
  
  Full excerpt here!

• Editorial assistant JJ blogged about why e-books are not the cannibals that many in the publishing industry fear they are.

• And last but definitely not least, Mark from Café Lopez pointed me to this great article: “Top 5 secrets to landing a book deal.” The “secrets” have been very helpful for me to consider while working on my Twenty-Somewhere proposal.

Now, I didn’t subject Andrew to an interview like I did Todd, but the Q&A on Crossing‘s Amazon page is what got me interested in his book. I highly recommend checking that out.

Verdict? Crossing took me by surprise. I wanted to read it because of my Chinese heritage, and because of how the Virginia Tech incident affected me, but somehow I wasn’t expecting the book’s emotional depth. Furthermore, the mystery element made it a very compelling read, and certain passages struck me with their literary beauty. Like any book, Crossing won’t be to everyone’s taste, but I certainly enjoyed it.

Of course, I had to laugh when Andrew mentioned (in the Q&A) how most immigrant books feature “clichéd scenes of family meals, flowery mother-daughter relationships, and cathartic returns to the motherland.” Because that’s sort of the book The Good Daughters was. (TGD = my first ever completed novel, currently shelved but slated to be rewritten.) Well, okay, TGD’s mother-daughter relationship wasn’t flowery, and no one went back to the motherland, but it did feature more “typical” or expected elements. (Hence why it needs to be rewritten.)

So in addition to enjoying Crossing as a story, I also appreciated how Andrew stepped away from a lot of the stereotypes. (But not all of them. And hey, some exist for a reason.) Andrew used Chinese culture to enhance Xing’s character, not to define him. Xing could have been a loner for any reason; he just happened to be Chinese.

Similarly, actress-writer-director Fay Ann Lee created Falling for Grace, a Chinese-American rom-com. Yes, that’s right: a Chinese-American romantic comedy. Hollywood liked the story but wanted Lee to change the main character to a white or Hispanic woman. Lee refused and put the movie out independently. It’s not 100% polished like the slick things we usually see on-screen, but it’s got a lot of raw truth in it, particularly in the scenes about Grace and her family. In fact, my favorite part (sorry, this is a teeny bit of a spoiler) is when Grace gives her brother some money for culinary school:

Ming: I’ll pay you back, I promise!
Grace: Just cook for me for the rest of my life.
Ming: … I’d rather pay you back.

Did that have to take place between Asian siblings? Of course not. But throughout the movie, their heritage is reflected in their interactions with each other and with their parents, and it makes those relationships feel rich, and real.

Now don’t get me wrong, I love (love LOVE) Amy Tan, and a lot of the more “typical” Asian American fiction that’s out there. (LOVE.) But I think it’s great that some writers and artists are exploring their heritage in other ways. We need to represent the whole spectrum of experiences, you know?

Andrew Xia Fukuda and Fay Ann Lee are doing that, and when I rewrite The Good Daughters, I plan to as well.

…

This weekend was beautiful, despite my allergies and the gnarly headache I got on Sunday. Andy and I played 9 holes of golf, checked out the iPad, and ate at a new restaurant downtown. For the record, yes, the iPad is very cool. Andy is even thinking about getting one. Personally I’d prefer the Verizon iPhone rumors to be true, buuuut I’m not gonna hold my breath.

Other than that, I just did the usual: read, write, sleep, play with Riley, and eat too much (particularly of the chocolate variety).

My life is fascinating, isn’t it?

Oh, it’s not? Well… okay then. Maybe you’d like a little break from me. Maybe you’d like a glimpse into someone else’s life? Maybe you’d like me to blog about something other than myself for once?

Done!

This week I’ll be posting a 2-part interview with blog-friend and fantasy author Todd Newton. His book The Ninth Avatar has just been released by Trapdoor Books, and he kindly took the time to tell us a bit about the book and its (unique) journey to publication. He also has some great thoughts on writing, and pictures of his 2 adorable pups.

Sound good? Great! Then stay tuned.

In the meantime, I’ll be at the driving range working on my swing. ^_~

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?

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 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.

>_<

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

I just wanted to let you know that I did not advance to the Semifinals of the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Contest. Don’t worry, I’m not upset at all. I knew the second half of my book had some problems that I hadn’t fixed, so I was very happy just to get this far.

The best part of this whole thing for me has been the overwhelming support I got from you all. It really energized me at a time that I was feeling a little burnt out, and now I’m ready to get to work making the whole book just as good as the opening excerpt – or better!

So thank you very much for your kind words and encouragement. It’s the end of the Amazon line, but definitely not the end of my journey to publication. ;)

“Everybody in this league is successful,” Allen said. “Everybody in this league has made it to this level where they’re a flagship in their society and their community where they grew up. People look up to them. They’re outliers in their world.

“We’re not outliers among ballplayers, but we’re outliers amongst the people that we grew up around. I started analyzing why that is. What made me successful? I was successful because of the opportunities that I had, outside of the other opportunities that people had, the breaks, people pushing me forward. The communities I grew up in, people were always adding an extra five bucks to get me to camp. The same thing that Bill Gates went through with the computer access. I had access to a gym, just the same. Once I started going there, people started seeing my passion for it, they started helping me.

“That’s why I always tell people, no matter what sport you’re in, whether it’s team or individual, everybody has a team. There’s a crew that helped get you where you are, no matter how you see it, how you look at it. You start thinking about it, analyzing situations. Anybody in this locker room, people helped you achieve your goal.”

(From a great ESPN column by J.A. Adande. Emphasis added by me.)

• Green Pasture Christian Bookstore – The Good Daughters (link gone)
• Intelligent Investor Club – The Good Daughters (link gone)

I’m neither a good Christian nor a good investor, so I’m not sure what to think…

Anyway, there’s just about a week left until I find out the fate of my novel The Good Daughters in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Contest. If you haven’t gotten a chance to read, rate, and review it yet, I’d love for you to check it out before the 15th. After that, it will probably be taken off Amazon. Unless of course it makes it to the Semifinals (top 100 entries), but that’s highly unlikely.

(That’s not modesty, haha, that’s insider knowledge. The excerpt is WAY more polished than the rest of what I submitted. But I’m working on getting the rest up to par…)

For those who have already helped me rack up my ridiculous number of positive reviews, thank you so much!!