No lanterns necessary, I already know they’ll be coming by UPS.

I’m ready…I think. My busywork is down to just four or five things. The kids’ end-of-year school projects are underway and events in my calendar. My next book is revised and with my agent. The one after is far enough along that I won’t forget what I’m writing about.

I’ll only have a few weeks to rip How It Ends apart and put it back together so I’ve been getting ready. But, of course, I’m secretly hoping there won’t be that much ripping (oh, pleeease…). My editor said its in fantastic shape. Well, except for just at the end. But she said the changes are light. That’s good news, right?

The thing is, even small changes often wind up bigger. Sometimes huge. Like when I had to make a character sixteen instead of eighteen. Changes pretty much everything.

So, this time, I’m waiting to see if I’ll need to come up with a new who for the whodunit (BIG change). Or just lay a better foundation for the who I have now (easy peasy). Or something in between.

Whatever the case and however painful, my books always come out better after agent and editor revisions. So, there’s that to look forward to.

For now, I gotta go stock up on coffee and yogurt*.

*Yes, I know chocolate is the preferred staple of revising writers, but that’s way too dangerous.

If you want to know how I juggle kids and writing, 2014 debut author and agent-mate Jen Longo is doing a series on just that (my interview is here). Mostly, it involves stuff like…

…and my netbook.

If you don’t care about any of that, maybe stop by her blog and show her some love anyhow…she’s having a nutty month. Follow her on twitter and you’ll know why.

I haven’t done one of these in a while so here’s some of the stuff that’s come through the inbox…

ACTUAL FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:

Will there be another book in The Mark series? Probably not. The Mark (the first book) was never meant to be a series but the ending changed during edits in a way that made a sequel feel natural. So I wrote one. And my publisher bought it. But at this point, nothing is in the works for a third book.

What’s your next book about and when will it be out? Its called How It Ends, is a YA mystery sort-of-thing and will be out in Fall 2014 or Spring 2015.

What ever happened to the TV deal for The Mark? The same thing that happens to a lot of TV and movie options…the writer and director who were interested gave it a good shot and pitched it to execs at NBC, ABC, Fox and a few other networks, but didn’t get a green light for a pilot. No pilot = no series = end of TV deal, but it was cool learning about the whole thing.

Can you send me a copy of one of your books for review/giveaway on my blog? Unfortunately, I’m long out of copies of The Mark and The Vision to give away, either for review or contests. But both books are widely available in libraries and I’d love for you to read/review that way.

Can you send me some swag? Yup, I’d be happy to…once I have it again. Shoot me an email or use the website contact form and I’ll hang onto your info until I have new bookmarks and stuff to send.

Will you do an interview on my blog? Yup, probably. As long as I can fit it in. Email/website contact me and we’ll talk.

When do you find time to write? When my kids are at school. And any other spare time I can find. Also, on scraps of paper when inspiration strikes.

Want to try Farmville/Mall World/Slingo/Add Your Birthday? No, no, no and no. My birthday is February 4. If you want to add it to something, that’s awesome…I love birthday wishes. But I don’t want to do any facebook games or add-ons, thanks.

ASKED QUESTIONS…BUT NOT THAT FREQUENTLY:

Why do you write about such dark stuff? Because happy stories aren’t that interesting.

Will you review my book? Maybe. If I read it and its really good and fifty-bazillion other people haven’t already reviewed it on Amazon, I probably will. But since I’m not a reviewer, I don’t do reviews on request.

Would you believe it if I told you I see the glow around people like Cassie does in The Mark and The Vision? Yeah, I actually would. Because, believe it or not, a few other people have told me the same thing.

QUESTIONS NO ONE ASKS, BUT PROBABLY SHOULD:

When are you going to update your website? It still has that TV deal on it. Yeah, I know. The whole thing’ll need an overhaul once I have a pub date for How It Ends. So, that’s what I’m waiting for. But then I’ll probably want to wait to see what the cover looks like. I dunno. Soon.

Tuesday, I broke from my normal kids-computer-kids routine and went into the city. On the plus side, it was a balmy 50-something degrees. On the minus, it was raining and windy in the way that turns your umbrella inside-out fifty-five times before you’ve even walked a block.

Needless to say, I looked like a drowned rat when I arrived at my first appointment, to try on chichi bridemaids dresses for my sister’s wedding in September. Here’s proof:

Also proof that strapless dresses aren’t for everyone. Moving right along…

I ran a few more errands (still raining) then looked for somewhere to write before heading over to Folio Lit where I was meeting my agent for drinks to toast the book we just sold (yay!) and also just to meet. Because in publishing, you can work for months and years with someone, but never actually find yourselves in the same room. I guess this happens in a lot of businesses. But since I live, like, thirty minutes from NYC there’s just no reason for that.

Anyway, finding somewhere inside to sit down in Times Square/Midtown West is harder than you think. Especially on a rainy day. Since I’m toying with an idea that involves homelessness in NYC for my next book, I found this more interesting than annoying and it was a huge score when I finally got a cozy table in a back nook of Starbucks (for the price of a muffin…which might be a morning’s panhandling if you’re homeless). After a productive hour of writing, I packed up and walked over to Folio which I first thought was here:

And while I didn’t expect my literary agency to be in a walk-up over the Yum Yum noodle shop, I figured whatever. Space in NYC is ridiculous. Turns out I had the building number wrong by 20 and it’s really in the big brown building on the left in the first picture.

I meant to take pictures inside the offices and of me and Melissa and all that stuff…but we got to talking and I just forgot. But if you want to see pictures of Folio, there’s some here. It’s very cool and New York-y with books everywhere, of course. I met Molly who shares an office and great city view with Melissa and then we headed out (finally not raining!).

Over wine and cheese and wine, Melissa and I talked about weddings and bridemaids dresses and the state of publishing and agenting and 9/11 and my new editor and foreign rights and Honey Boo Boo and my next book and a whole lot of other stuff. It was great to get together in person (thanks again for coming out with me, Melissa!)…I’m planning to write another book we can sell so we can do it again soon.

I SOLD ANOTHER BOOK!

Actually, my awesome agent did. More on that and other details later. I’m going to try to keep quiet until it’s officially announced, but I just had to say it.

That’s all. Carry on.

Over the weekend, my two older boys (7 and 8) - who each got a basic Kindle for Christmas – spent their own money, earned from chores or saved from birthdays, to buy books*. This makes both writer-me and mom-me tres happy.

I can’t remember them ever doing this before and it got me thinking about how having Kindles has changed our book buying habits. The instant gratification of e-readers plays to kids (heck, everyone’s) natural impulsiveness. And I’m all for it.

I don’t even own an ereader myself and it’s changed my habits. I’ll buy pretty much any book priced $1.99 or less that I think they’ll like. Not sure why I’ve settled on this number…I guess it seems like if I’m willing to spend two bucks on a cup of coffee sometimes, why wouldn’t I buy my kid a book for that price? The caveat is that my kids are very selective…one likes inventions and robots and silly, the other likes sports and meatier novels, but can’t tolerate anything scary. It’s a very narrow market. So, when I find a book that fits, especially for such a reasonable price, I’m in.

I watch for the Kindle Daily Deal every day and my kids ask about it. I’ve found a couple books they really liked this way: The Lemonade Wars, The Seems: The Glitch in Sleep, Herbert’s Wormhole, A Whole Nother Story, The Fourth Stall. And then they’ve looked for others by those authors or in the series. So, publishers…it’s working like it should. At least, in our house.

But here’s the crazy part. I just looked up all our purchases and, over the last six weeks, we’ve bought thirty-nine kids e-books. I love books and I am all for supporting authors, but I’m certain I’ve never bought this many books this quickly before.

In fact, when I decided to get them Kindles, I figured we’d borrow a lot of e-books from our library, but I realized on Day One that our library system didn’t work with the basic Kindle, only the KindleFire and other e-readers. Then I thought maybe we’d join AmazonPrime and borrow from their library, but the limitation of one book a month made it not worth the fee. As a consumer, this was a little frustrating. But as a writer, it was comforting. Because before we had Kindles, I couldn’t understand why people would keep buying books if they could just borrow them from their library or Amazon without ever leaving home. Now I get it. And have the bills to prove it.

I don’t think the things I see in shopping for my kids’ books applies to adults. Or at least, not to this adult. For my kids, I’m just trying to keep up with their reading. For me, knowing I only get to read fifteen or so books a year, each one has to really grab me. Pricing an e-book at $3.99 or $1.99 or even $0.99 isn’t going to make me buy it for myself. I’m not sure where the tipping point is between time and money, but I’d guess it starts in high school, maybe late middle-school, when kids’ time for pleasure reading shrinks and they’re not zipping through three books a day.

All interesting food for thought with ebooks and self-pubbing on the rise.

*Their choices, for anyone wondering: The Candy Smash (Lemonade Wars), Shredderman: Attack of the Tagger, The Hardy Boys: Secret Files A Monster of a Mystery and Ballpark Mysteries #3

Its a good thing I log the books as I read them because otherwise I’d swear I must be missing some, but the truth is I only managed to read fifteen books this year. Not very impressive.

In my defense I did write two books. And, if you count all the books I’ve read my kids this year – all the Wimpy Kid books (over and over), The Secret Science Alliance, Hardy Boys and Dan Gutman out the wazoo – this would look a whole lot better. But whatever. Here’s what I did read:

1. Beauty Queens by Libba Bray

2. Paper Towns by John Green

3. All Unquiet Things by Anna Jarzab

4. Hanging by a Thread by Sophie Littlefield

5. The Blind Side by Michael Lewis

6. The Way We Fall by Megan Crewe

7. Want To Go Private? by Sarah Darer Littman

8. The Giver by Lois Lowry

9. The Girl Who Played with Fire by Steig Larrson

10. Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer (re-read)

11. The Dead and The Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer (re-read)

12. Feed by M. T. Anderson

13. The Talbot Odyssey by Nelson DeMille

14. Word of Honor by Nelson DeMille

15. The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen

There were four adult titles, one of them non-fiction, and eleven YA. Two books were re-reads (and still so good I know I’ll read them again). There was one “did not finish” on the list (and, no, I’m not going to say what it was).

I think the book I was most surprised by was The Truth About Forever. I shouldn’t have been – there’s a reason Sarah Dessen’s books are so popular – but I’m not usually drawn to romance-y books. But this was really good, with well developed characters and a realistic and reasonable pace to the romance element. I read a fair number of book reviews where the reader complains (justifiably) about insta-romance in YA novels…well, this is how to do it right.

As for my favorite read this year…I would actually recommend almost every book on this list. There was only one that was kind of “meh” – not terrible though – and even the DNF I’d probably have enjoyed at a different time.

At the end of last year, I said my reading resolutions were to “read more books, pick whatever speaks to me and end the year with another book on writing”.  One for three. Maybe this is why I don’t bother with resolutions.

47,416 words and I’m out.

Is the book done? Heck no. But it wouldn’t have been done even if I spent four more weeks on it or six to eight months, like I usually do. It’s a draft and, by definition, drafts are nothing but a start. And mine usually stink.

Is it any worse than my others, for having done it so quickly? I don’t think so, actually. Its shorter, but in some ways, I think it might be better. Working through it quickly made it easier to keep the voice consistent and not lose track of details as much.

There are still a few scenes to be written and LOTS of tweaking and editing to be done when I start revisions in January. My awesome agent is even willing to read this draft – ugly though it is – and add her thoughts. NOTE: Normally, I’d never ask my agent to read something so unpolished (hence this tweet), but I knew she was in a spot where she might be able to do it and her insights were SO helpful shaping How It Ends, so I did anyhow. Though I felt very foolish about it.

So, NaNo? Petty awesome. I got exactly what I hoped for out of it and, if the stars align, I’ll definitely do it again next November. Or use word count goals next time I’m drafting. The key, for me, was outlining. I started with a detailed, almost fifty-page outline that had not just the start, end and hook of the novel, but all of the key turning points as well as a couple of scenes partially written. My next outline might not be so long, but I think my days as a pantser are officially over.

It’s 11:04 EST on Tuesday and with Thanksgiving break/travel/festivities beginning tomorrow, I think I’ve reached the end of this week’s writing time. I’m short of goal by almost 2500 words (10 pages) but I’ve gotta throw in the towel. Too tired. Too much to do tomorrow.

This week’s epiphanies…

Um…

I do have one, actually. And that is how creatively freeing it is to write to a goal. I mentioned before that I’m getting to the end of my outlined action in this book so to meet the word count today, I was ad libbing, deciding what my MC could do totally on the fly and not thinking about it, just writing. A lot of this week’s work might wind up on the editing room floor, but even if it does, it’s given me a start to places my characters might go, conversations they might have. And if I decide the scenes I’ve written don’t work, maybe there are elements I can save or switch-up to fix it. Or maybe I’ll see it needs to go in the opposite direction, the MC doing a one-eighty on what I’d originally written.

As always, words on a page are much more helpful than a blank file.

Yep, its still working. I’m at 30,865 words, just over this week’s goal of 30,720. But I see trouble looming…and not just in the form of Thanksgiving and all the writingless days around it. I still have more than a third of the book left, but have already worked through almost all the chapters I’ve outlined action for. Which means I’m going to have to start making things up. Pantsing.

Not good.

But I’ll worry about that next week.

This week’s ephiphanies…

1. When trying to write a novel in a month, schedule appointments where people try to talk to you and bring the laptop. Not only did I get five pages written at the hair cut place, there was no internet distraction and I avoided an hour of pointless small talk. Perfecto! Next time, I’m using this on my dentist who always wants to chat while I’ve got tools and the spit sucker in my mouth. Cruel.

2. When you find yourself refreshing email repeatedly and checking yahoo and twitter and just about anything except working on your manuscript, move on to a different scene.  This is the beauty of plotting.  I didn’t have to push through a chapter I was bored with to figure out what happens next because I already knew. If the paragraphs aren’t flowing in Chapter 16, well then let’s see if Chapter 17 or 18 or the last scene want to be written. Plotting gave me the option to write something rather than throwing in the towel.

3. Numbers on the calendar. Its like magic.