One of my agent’s suggestions for the book we’re working on (formerly known as Touch) was to change the title. Two YA books came out last year with that same title, plus one called Touched.  There’s the new TV show Touch, an adult novel from 2011 and others before that.  Touch is a really good fit for my story…and, it turns out, a lot of others. So, I’m a hundred percent on board with finding something more distinctive. But what? And where do I go for inspiration?

The Manuscript Itself. Sometimes there’s a phrase or word that fits the story perfectly, like Touch. I was hoping there’d be something else. I found Stark Black Numbers, Don’t Touch Me, The Things They Say About Me, A Huge, Ugly Something…nothing quite right.

Poetry. Super-evocative short phrases work great as titles.  When There Is Nothing In You, Only Stand and Watch, The Things You Give Your Life To.  I think poetry-inspired titles are really memorable and intruiging, but they tend to sound very literary. My book is a YA speculative fiction pre-murder mystery, not Moby Dick.  Next.

Quotes. Like poetry, but not as poetic. I plugged in my key words touch, see, death and a few others at brainyquote and got Finishing Touch, The Human Touch, If We Touch Tomorrow, A Touch That Never Hurts and a bunch of other stuff. Nothing I loved.

Friends. My agent threw in some ideas and I asked some other writers. A Touch of Murder, Touching Murder, The Hands of Death. Too mystery/genre. Destiny’s Touch, Touch Me Not. Too…romance novel?

After a while the eighty-plus titles on my “maybe” list all sounded equally bad. Or equally good. So I took the weekend off, came back to it this morning and think I have a favorite - a combination of friend suggestions, the original title and a poem.

Naming a book, like naming a child, feels really hard. At first, everything sounds weird and foreign and it seems so important to pick Just The Right One. But eventually you decide, maybe still second-guessing, and a month later, you’ve said and thought it so many times, it just is and you can’t really imagine it being called anything else.

I tweeted about it last week, but 140 characters doesn’t usually cut it on the blog and I couldn’t squeeze in more with all the work we’ve been doing.  So, The Announcment:

I’ve signed with a new agent, Melissa Sarver of Elizabeth Kaplan Lit.

If you don’t know Melissa, let me tell you a few things about her:

1. She wears glasses (okay, that was a gimme…but doesn’t she look like she’d be fun to hang out with?)

2. She worked as an assistant at multiple agencies before starting to take on her own clients a bunch of years ago which means she’s paid her dues and learned the business from people with different styles and perspectives. Invaluable experience.

3. Her clients say things like: she’s patient, a fantastic editor, great communicator, I LOVE her, fantastic, professional, smart, enthusiastic cheerleader, the one part of publishing I’m never frustrated with, got my manuscript read by [super-editor] I was fixated on, supportive, clever, fun, works very hard to get the best exposure for each manuscript, my ideal agent (sorry, clients, I hope you don’t mind my sharing!)

4. None of her clients had a single bad thing to say - not one caution. You might think: well, of course not, she’s their agent!  But three times before when I’ve asked about agents, current clients have red-flagged things. In one case, it was about my former agent and the red flag ended up the reason for our split. Current clients speak the truth – often delicately, but still honestly. They don’t want to be on the hook for your future problems.

5. She was the first agent to request a partial of The Mark way back when. Funny coincidence, no? Ultimately she rejected it. Good call since that version was about a year and four drafts from ready.

6. She remembered The Mark and read it when it came out (major bonus points!)

7. I was referred to her by another agent, Holly Root, who said even more good stuff about her and her publishing contacts.

8. She’s fast. Read my manuscript lightning-quick and gets back to me right away. LOVE that!

9. She’s a Pats fan living in NY. I’m a Pats fan living in NY (okay, we haven’t actually talked about this but I saw it on Twitter. Also, my husband’s the real Pats fan. I’m from PA, but the Eagles stink and I can’t root for a guy who beats dogs so what the hey)

10. We’re already knee-deep in manuscript and title changes, write-ups of the next book and it is all good. She’s had really solid suggestions and guidance so far and I am super-psyched to be working with her!

If you want to know more about Melissa, you can follow her on twitter, check out the agency page and read interviews she’s done here and here.

I started writing a retrospective on 2011, but to me this year still feels unfinished. There’s been a fair amount of change and uncertainty. I split with my agent, had a book come out, wrote two more whose futures are still being determined, flirted with the possibility of a TV series. A lot of stuff happened, a lot is still happening and there’ve been few tidy conclusions.  So I’m going to skip that post for now and do the other – much easier – end of year summary.

What I Read in 2011

1. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

2. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

3. 13 to Life by Shannon Delaney

4. The Help by Kathryn Stockett

5. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson

6. A Love Story Starring My Dead Best Friend by Emily Horner

7. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

8. Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson

9. The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger

10. The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy

11. Numbers by Rachel Ward

12. My Soul to Take by Rachel Vincent

13. Gone by Lisa McMann

14. Glass by Ellen Hopkins

15. Undone by Brooke Taylor

16. Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A. S. King

17. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

18. Stolen by Lucy Christopher

19. Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

20. Crank by Ellen Hopkins

21. Trapped by Michael Northrop

22. The Eleventh Plague by Jeff Hirsch

23. Fallout by Ellen Hopkins

24. Story by Robert McKee

In 2010, I read eighteen books. Seventeen of them were young adult. I was hoping to be a little better rounded this year and I was…a little.  Five of this year’s twenty-four were adult novels. I really liked most of them, but what’s funny is they were all in the early part of the year. After that, my true bent took over and I went back to YA. SO many of the YA books I read in 2011 were awesome. I’d be hard pressed to pick a favorite, though Glass by Ellen Hopkins wowed me so much I did something I rarely do: sought out the first and last book in the series and read them, too (I usually like some breathing room between like books). All of them were such powerful and powerfully written stories.

For all the re-reading I thought I did, neither this year nor last year’s lists include any re-reads. Too short on time these days, I guess.

I’m not a huge non-fic reader, but ending the year with a book on the craft of writing was the perfect way to launch 2012. I couldn’t do much writing in December with the holidays and kids off school, but reading Story was a great way to gear up for digging back into my WIP this week.

My reading resolutions for this year? Read more books, pick whatever speaks to me and end the year with another book on writing.

I’ve had a forced abandonment of the computer for a while largely due to school break beginning mid-month, kid birthdays, Christmas…you know the drill.  The blog would have been pretty quiet anyway since I’m in one of the many, long stretches of NOTHINGHAPPENING that’s just part of being a writer.  And when NOTHINGHAPPENING falls around the holidays, you can be pretty sure its going to stretch on for a while. No new news on The Mark or The Vision or Touch. I made some decent progress on Book Four (The Box for now)…I think it’s almost ready to show someone. Maybe.

If Santa or someone else brought you an ereader, The Mark ebook is still $1.99 in all formats (links in the post before this one) for a few more days.  And, if he didn’t, there are two copies of The Vision (ARCs) up for grabs until January 1st on goodreads.

Merry everything! I’ll be back when there’s SOMETHINGHAPPENING.

Bloomsbury is having an awesome holiday sale on e-books from now through January 6, 2012.  There are over sixty adult, YA and MG titles under $3.99, including The Mark for $1.99.  The full list of available books is here.

Direct links to The Mark for $1.99 are below:

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/The-Mark-ebook/dp/B0045I6TO4/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1322443368&sr=8-2

Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/mark-jen-nadol/1100390532?ean=9781599906607&itm=2&usri=nadol+jen

Sony: http://ebookstore.sony.com/ebook/jen-nadol/mark/_/R-400000000000000286716

Powells: http://www.powells.com/biblio/95-9781599906072-0

Because love would be too strong a word.

I’ve finished the first revision of The Box (the book I wrote this about four weeks ago) and we’re definitely on speaking terms again.  I recognize all the things I was head over heels for way back when, though starry-eyed infatuation has been replaced by more practical considerations like whether the storyline is believable or whether the characters feel as fleshed out on the page as they do in my head (and some of them weren’t even that fleshed out there)

There’s SO much more to do.  Like deal with…

-Chapters that start with a nice, voice-y paragraph and devolve into: WRITE MORE HERE

-Notes like: make MC nicer/more sympathetic and add a scene where MC and love interest talk about X and do something with the Y theme

Plus I know I need to map out the story arc on about five different levels, cut out at least two chunks of text that are in there twice (I couldn’t decide if they belonged in chapter A or B so I put them in both!), work on making emotions more tangible and, at a more detailed level, stop having everyone “glance” and “shrug” so damn much.  Oh, and change the title and make sure the chapters are numbered correctly and eliminate the second space after every period in the whole manuscript (when did this change?  and why?  and, no, I probably won’t actually do this.)

In short, there’s a long way to go.  But what I have done is find the story.  I know who it centers on, what their conflicts are and it’s set up to move in a steady progression from beginning to end now.  And, lemmetellya, that’s a long way from where it was a month ago.

So, I’m going to take a break, let it stew over the next few days and give thanks that I’m out of the wallowing misery of reading a freshly minted first draft and on the road to making it something possibly worth reading.

Happy Thanksgiving to all those celebrating.

Though it feels like this draft is trying to kill me.  I’m about two-thirds of the way through a first pass clean-up.  It’s taking shape.  Sloooowly.  For anyone else who’s in the throes of trying to make something out of what feels like a heap of junk, I highly recommend this post on Failure by Sara Zarr.

In other news, goodreads has giveaways of The Mark and The Vision running through November.

And a nice review for The Vision came in from Booklist that said (among other spoiler-y things): This sequel to The Mark (2010) offers up a second helping of romance and ethical puzzles.  Nadol maintains character integrity and tension, and readers will anticipate the next entry in this series.

That’s about it.  Back to the grind.

The first story, The Pond In the Forest, is up today.  It’s awesomely creepy with lots of twists and turns and starts here.  You’ll follow the story from blog to blog to read different sections (mine are at A Reading Nook and Ezine of a Random Girl) – depending on the path you choose for the heroine.

Wait….you don’t know what the YA Spooktacular is?

Backstory:  Nikki at Wicked Awesome Books and Danielle at Frenzy of Noise have organized the second annual YA Spooktacular with three Choose Your Own Adventure style stories with sections written by a bunch of YA authors: Beth Revis, Lia Habel, Kimberly Derting, Shannon Delaney, Nova Ren Suma, Kristi Cook, Victoria Schwab, Tessa Gratton and lots of others, including me.  The Pond in the Forest is the first – posted today.  Two more stories will be up later in the week.

Plus, there are lots of chances to win BIG prize packs of books and swag and extra Trick or Treat surprises along the way.

Visit Nikki or Danielle’s blogs for full details or just go to the start of The Pond in the Forest.

PROLOGUE

It’s done!  Phew.  And hooray!  I did it.  I’m going to take a week or two off – well deserved, if I say so myself - and come back fresh.  Bang out those edits.  I can’t wait to send it out – I love this story!

*Walks away, performs grooming and housecleaning rituals, cooks an actual meal or two.  Calls parents, sisters and others who may think she’s dropped dead.*

TEN DAYS LATER….

DAY 1, MORNING.  Mood: excited.

*Rubs hands, stares eagerly at booting computer*  So psyched to get back to this manuscript!  I know it needs some work, but its going to be AWESOME when I clean it up.  My best yet.

3 HOURS LATER.  Mood: despair.

Oh my god, this is utter crap.  It doesn’t even make sense.  What am I trying to say?  The dialogue is unbelievable.  This character has no voice.  What is this story even ABOUT?  I don’t think this is salvagable.  Would it be better to just scrap it?  But I don’t have another story idea right now.  Let me keep reading.  My drafts always start out slow and come together a few chapters in.  The writing and plot will get better.

They don’t.

This is the worst manuscript I’ve ever written.

*Shuts off computer with complete certainty I will never, ever sell another book.*

DAY 2.  Mood: unhappy determination.

I can’t give up.  I spent months writing this manuscript.  Plus, its still a good idea.  There has to be a way to fix it.

*Wastes a few hours trying different narrative styles*

*Pokes at the first chapter a little.*

Draft still sucks.

*Shuts off computer in despair.*

DAY 3.  Mood: trying to be rational.

*Hunts down 9 Step Plotting chart on another writer’s website.  Tries mapping out the story.*

Turning points are weak and the whole first third of the novel unnecessary.

*Shuts off computer and takes a nap.*

DAY 4.  Mood: depressed.

*Avoids manuscript.  Answers emails and stalks Twitter instead.  Remembers: I don’t have to write books to be a worthwhile human.  Plays Legos with kids.*

DAY 5.  Mood: slightly less depressed.  Only slightly.

Have been thinking about this manuscript.  It’s not a story of a group of friends.  Its a story of two boys and how their lives are entwined.  And how this event sets in motion stuff that’s been brewing for a long time.  The other characters who feel flat and have sucky dialogue aren’t that important.  They need to be more developed, but they don’t need more airtime and definitely shouldn’t be narrating any part of the story.

*Jots down a few notes.*

DAY 6.  Mood: work-minded.  Not optimistic or desperate or depressed or determined.  

Revising Chapter 1 with new plot focus in mind.  Lots of this is going to be cut.  Whole chapters ahead will be deleted and others added.  This manuscript needs a TON of work.  But it’s not going to write itself…

DAY 7.  Mood: see Day 6.

*Has ephiphany that this is how books get written: you move past the high- and low-flying emotions to the recognition that this is a job and jobs require work – which isn’t always fun or happy or inspired.  And you make a deal with yourself that you’re going to do that work, even if it means re-writing humongous parts of your manuscript and patiently working though its problems.*

Well, duh.  Didn’t you learn that with the last book you wrote?

*Takes a few minutes to blog about it anyway*

*Begins Chapter 2.*

This came up on one of my online writer groups last week – whether customer reviews on Amazon are important.  And how important?  Is it bad if a book only has a few?  Do they play a part in whether a book shows up as “recommended for you” or “viewed by other customers” or whatever?

I don’t know any of those answers - I’m not sure if anyone does – but it got me thinking.  Especially on the heels of having driven past my depressingly empty Borders.

I study reviews for products I’m thinking of buying.  I want to know if the toaster I’m considering is a piece of junk or the best one ever.  If there are good and bad reviews, I’ll read every one (within reason) and I absolutely base buying decisions on what other people have said.

For books?  Not so much.  In fact, I rarely read Amazon reviews.  I’m always worried there will be spoilers and I really hate knowing too much ahead of time.  Sometimes I notice how many people have reviewed a book.  And I do notice the overall rating.  I’m not sure either one has factored into my buying decision – it’s possible – but overall as a consumer, I’d say Amazon book reviews probably don’t matter.

But that’s just me.  Doesn’t mean other people shop like that.  Or that I won’t change how I shop - consciously or not – as the world changes.

Like I said, I drove past my Borders the other day.  It was one of those big two-story ones with huge sections for YA, kids, adult, travel, cooking, lots of face-out books, tables of New & Noteworthy, the Staff Picks area.  I found one of my very favorite books, The Dark Fields, wandering aimlessly through there one day.

I won’t be able to do that anymore.

It’s not new news that the way people find books is changing.  Word of mouth is increasingly important.  But I’m not sure anyone really knows what that means yet.  What kind of word of mouth?  Real person-to-person?  Or what’s listed on those emails that come from B&N?  Or something else? Book blogs and goodreads are great sources of information and – for me - will probably be where I hear about my next favorite book.  But what about the rest of the world?  Because, truth be told, I’d never read a book blog or heard of goodreads until I signed a publishing contract.  And I really doubt any of my RL friends have either.  So is Amazon’s Recommended For You their new bookstore table?  And if so, how does it work?

Which brings me back to whether reviews matter.  Because even though I don’t pay attention to them, maybe in some crazy Amazon (or B&N) algorithm that decides which books get recommended, they are important.

Rather than chasing my own tail to uncover the secrets of Amazon, I just decided to write more reviews.  Not on my blog or goodreads, but the places where people shop.  Just in case.

Am I going to review every book I read?  Heck no.  I loved The Help, but so did most of the other 4,633 people who’ve reviewed it on Amazon.  There’s probably not much I can add to that conversation.  But when I’ve read something like Harmonic Feedback or The Everafter that I thought was really great and only has a smattering of reviews…that’s a different story.

Am I going to post negative reviews?  Nope.  If I bought a toaster that was a piece of crap, I’d probably write a one-star review to save someone else from wasting their money.  Its pretty clear-cut: either it toasts or it doesn’t.  But a book?  They speak so differently to different people.  There have been books I didn’t finish that other people have loved or that have won awards.  I don’t think that’s true of toasters.  As a writer, I’m not comfortable throwing someone else’s book under the bus because it wasn’t for me.  Maybe if I made toasters I’d feel differently.

Am I going to give all my online friends’ books glowing reviews?  No.  I have a tag on my blog for that.  It’s called Totally Biased Book Reviews.  The point of that was to give other debut authors extra exposure and talk about what I loved in each of their books.  The point of my posting on Amazon or B&N is different: to call out books that really spoke to me, probably just a handful over the course of a  year.

I wrote four on Amazon over the past few days (having never written one before I have some catch up to do).  They’re not big, long, detailed things.  Just a few words about why I really, really liked that book.  It took me about ten minutes.  Not much effort and in this age of digital handselling, who knows what kind of difference it might make?