It’s been a little over a week since my kids left for their annual trip to England with their dad, and after the initial transition wobbly that always happens as I adjust from perpetual noise and chaos to a quiet house, I’ve been having a really productive and enjoyable time. It had been really stressful being on a tight revision deadline with them home, but once they left I finished my revisions in a day and a half – it’s AMAZING how much work you get done when you aren’t being interrupted every twenty minutes to be informed that someone is “bored” or to have to drive someone to an appointment, and you can actually focus on your work for hours at a time. Heaven. I just got word yesterday from fabulous Editor Jen that she loved the edits and LIFE, AFTER is now on its way to production. Yay!

As my reward, I lay out on my hammock over July 4th weekend and read CATCHING FIRE. Wow. I want to take a master class in pacing and plot structure from Suzanne Collins. She had me so wrapped up and involved in that story that I didn’t realize that my stomach, which hadn’t seen the light of day all year and given that none of my kids were around to tell me that I should not do so, I’d dared to bare in a bikini, was frying to a crisp. I ended up with second-degree sunburn. But I’m such a fangirl that I’d even say it was worth it.

Speaking of master classes, the amazingly bright and insightful Cheryl Klein is putting together a book of her essays, talks and blog posts on publishing, writing and editing. She needs a commitment of $2,000 to put it together and you can sign up for a copy here. She’s already more than halfway there. I can’t wait to get my copy!

Part of the reason for that is because I’m starting the writing phase of my fourth book, which is a bit of a departure for me in a few ways. Firstly, because I’m writing it in close third person, with occasionally shifting POV. At least that’s what the plan is so far. The other thing is because it’s going to be more of a suspense novel, very different from my first three. That’s why I was so enthralled by CATCHING FIRE, and why I plan to read it again for craft. I was really nervous about writing in the third person because I felt like I wasn’t getting the voice, so I backtracked and wrote quite long character sketches for the three main characters and then wrote most of the first chapter. I read it to my critique group last night and they felt like I’d got the voices okay, so I think the character sketch time was well worth it. They also gave me some new subplot ideas as I was working on them.

I’m hoping to make some good progress on the first draft before the kids come home and the chaos starts again.

Meanwhile, I’ve been playing a lot of tennis and read and loved THE GUERNSEY LITERARY AND POTATO PEEL SOCIETY (thanks Debbie for the recommendation!) and saw “Whatever Works”, the new Woody Allen movie, which I really enjoyed.


How is your summer going?

I took a break from Revisionpalooza last night (have a July 1st deadline, just got my notes on the 17th and as of Friday, both kids are now out of school, AAAAAAHHHHHH!!) and headed on up to Wallingford, CT to take my daughter to see The Fraywith opening band Jack's Mannequin. Despite the pouring rain, we had a fun drive up in the car, listening to a "Fray channel" on Pandora and commenting how it seemed like it seemed like they were just alternating Coldplay and Fray tracks. They must be music genomically very similar.



The lead singer of Jack's Mannequin, Andrew McMahon, is one of my daughter's school friend's cousin, so she was texting her friend back and forth during the performance. He was a stellar performer, and personally I actually liked the energy of their performance better than the Fray, although the Fray were very good; just, it seemed to me, a more workaday and "we're here doing our job" kind of performance. Still, Daughter had a fab time and we'd bought the tickets at a silent auction at her school benefiting a school in Uganda, so it was a win/win because we had a good time for a good cause.



While we were there, I was thinking back to my teen years, and the concerts I attended, where a pall of smoke (cigarette and otherwise) hung over the crowd and even if you weren't smoking the otherwise, you could probably get high just by being there. Of course at the end of the concert, everyone would hold up their lighters as a sign of appreciation. I remember being at my first concert at Madison Square Garden (This will date me, but I believe it was Jethro Tull) and being awed at the wave of energy at end as everyone shouted for an encore and I looked around and there were thousands and thousands of twinkling lighters like the building had been invaded by fireflies.

These days with the no smoking laws, it's much easier for people like me who have asthma to survive being in a concert hall for 2 1/2 - 3 hours without having to resort to an inhaler, but I miss the sight of the lighters at the end of the concert. Well, I'm happy to say, "There's an app for that!"



It's called Zippo Lighter and you can get it on your iPhone. It doesn't have quite the same authentic feel of burning your fingers in honor of your favorite artist, and if you're like me, you feel a bit of a prat waving your cell phone in the air, but at least you're waving your cell phone in the air in an OLD SCHOOL kinda way.

Check out the Readergirlz blog today for an interview with yours truly. I had a great visit yesterday at Eastern Middle School where one of the health classes had used PURGE as part of the eating disorder curriculum.
One of the girls said, "I really enjoyed your book because it really sounded like a teenager."

I guess I did my job :-)

I can't remember on which social networking platform I saw the suggestion, but I've been reading Elizabeth George's book WRITE AWAY, and am finding it's given me some useful new tools that I'm experimenting with for my fourth novel. This novel is the first that I've ever tried writing in 3rd person POV so I'm looking for all the help I can get! I'm finding that it slow going, so I've had to back track and do a bit more exploratory writing. But I think this is a good thing, and will actually help me with plot outlining, another thing I'm trying to do more.

Meanwhile, after attending a writing workshop with Mitali Perkins and Rachel Vail a week or so ago, I finally went over to the Dark Side and started Twittering. You can follow the author me at SarahDarerLittand the political me at realsaramerica.

I was afraid it was going to be just another massive timesuck, kind of like Facebook can be at times, but what with the compelling historic events going on in Iran at present, Twitter is a fascinating real-time way of keeping up with people who are actually there. The Twitter revolution. If you're at all a political junkie like me, I recommend signing up for an account if only to follow the #iran election thread.

I'm very excited that the Readergirlz Postergirlz have chosen PURGE as one of their recommended reads to accompany Sara Zarr's amazing novel SWEETHEARTS, which is the Readergirlz book of the month for June.

Meanwhile, I emerged from my lair this morning to attend a Master Class on Resonating with Young Readers at the Greenwich Arts Council. Featured authors were the wonderful Mitali Perkins, whom I knew from Kindling Words, and the very amusing Rachel Vail. I haven't made it to any craft related events since Kindling Words in January, so it was great to hear some insights from talented authors. It reminded me that sometimes you really need to get out of your lair, and not just virtually!

Meanwhile, my daughter and I experimented making alfajores, these Argentinean cookies that the MC in LIFE, AFTER longs for. I followed this recipe, including making the homemade dulce de leche because I figured I can't have my character dreaming about these cookies if I've never tried them myself. Well, they came out really well, but I managed to give myself a really nasty burn on my wrist while making the dulce de leche, and it's right where my wrist hits the edge of my laptop when I type. I tell you this writing research is dangerous (albeit yummy) work!

I'm thinking I might make alfajores for my book launch party next year, except I'm going to buy myself a pair of full length oven gloves first.

I've been living every day with my head in Buenos Aires, a city I've never visited, as I'm deep in revisions for my novel LIFE, AFTER. Part of my research has been watching news footage on YouTube of the bombing of the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (A.M.I.A) building on July 18th, 1994, as it figures heavily into the background of my story.

So it was really eeiry and horrifying to read about the attempted bomb plots against two Riverdale synagogues. Fortunately, good intelligence and police work (note: not water boarding, but good intelligence and police work) foiled the plot and saved innocent lives.

At the same time, I read recently of a violent attack in Buenos Aires against Jews celebrating the 61st Anniversary of the establishment of the State of Israel, plus bomb threats against synagogues in the Belgrano neighborhood.

Unfortunately, some things, like violence and anti-Semitism, refuse to remain in the history books.

I have to take my hat off to Lisa Dolan and Maria Suttmeier, the organizers of the First Annual Hudson Children's Book Festival, held last weekend. Over 4,000 people attended, which is pretty incredible for a first time event, and the whole thing was well-run and staffed by friendly volunteers.



One of the best parts for me was getting to meet friends that I only knew from online, like Laura Hamor and Robin Maccready seen here, also Jo Knowles.



Also got to catch up with Julia DeVilliers, who I hadn't seen in a while, Daphne Grab (I was on a panel with Daphne, Rebecca Stead, Jo Knowles and Carolyn MacCullough) and the ever amusing Michael Northrop.

But the best part, as always, is meeting the people who read our books. Especially when they're cute as anything like these three:

What with a son in a play and a daughter in a dance recital AND a play (dance recital now successfully over, one down, two to go…) plus a revision deadline at the end of the month, .. has been a very neglectful blogger. How could I have left you all hanging as to the outcome of Daughter’s fateful venture into a Connecticut Writing Project fiction workshop taught by her freakish, embarrassing MOM? Especially after said Mom had spent the day at her middle school the week before doing workshops for the 8th graders and when daughter had entered Media Center to wave hello, Freak Mom had the nerve to blow her a kiss ? (Dum, dum, dum….) Well, the car ride up to Fairfield University was extremely entertaining. What with budget cuts, no bus transportation was provided for students (nor any teachers to accompany them, because we were told there wasn’t funding, even in tony Greenwich, CT, to pay for a substitute to cover) and since I was going anyway and am in possession of a Mom Mobile, I ended up with a carpool of six (count ‘em) 7th grade girls. Oh, the singing! Oh the texting! Oh the dialogue! Of course, if I happened to like a song, and made the slighted sign of enjoyment such as head bobbing or, heaven forbid, singing, I was rewarded with a stern glance and a hissed warning: “Mother!” Upon arriving at the CWP, Daughter was extremely mortified to learn that her name tag had her last name on it. Horrors! What if the other kids put two and two together? Fortunately she wasn’t in my workshop until the afternoon, so I had a practice run. Because strangely enough, as freaked out as she was about having me as her teacher, I was kind of nervous about having her as much student. I wanted her to be proud of me. One of her good friends was in the morning workshop and was kind enough to give me a good review. At lunch, I notice Daughter eating outside in the sun with a group of her friends and I casually strolled by. “Hello Mrs. Littman, who is not related to A!” one of her friends joked, earning themselves a dagger glance from Daughter. “GOODBYE Mrs. Littman!” said Daughter. I scurried away back to the land of older people, who happened to include keynote speaker Yona McDonagh Afterwards, my daughter told me one of the other kids who didn’t realize we were related asked her: “Why were you being so mean to the fiction teacher?” Yeah?! Why indeed?!! ☺ When the students came in for the afternoon workshop, someone from Daughter’s school saw my name on Powerpoint and called out, “Wow, she has the same last name as A – are they related?” I followed my instructions and denied all knowledge. “I’m not sure…are they?” Noticed Daughter smirking out of the corner of my eye. Workshop went well, and afterwards, my daughter even admitted she enjoyed it. I asked her how I could improve it: “don’t talk so much”….hmmm I wonder if this is a daughter specific comment or a general comment – like is it just that she’s sick of the sound of my voice or do I really talk too much? (See if you can spot Daughter. Hint: she’s the one giving the teacher attitude ☺) So another hurdle passed successfully, and both Mother and Daughter survived intact!

Sticking my head above the revision parapet to let you know about two exciting things that happened this week:

1. On Sunday night, the kids and I attended the ASIFA - East Film Festival at the New School, where Q & A, the animated short of the StoryCorps interview between my son and me by the wonderful Rauch Brothers took Best in Show!! It was so incredibly exciting! I felt like I was at the Oscars (minus the red carpet and a fabulous dress, loaned diamonds and Joan and Melissa Rivers and the E Network). J and I got to go up on stage when Mike and Tim accepted the award. I stood there sporting a cheesy grin like an ad for some bad dentist, but I couldn't help it. It was Just.So.Cool!



me, J's head, Mike Rauch speaking and Tim Rauch


I don't either J or I ever would have imagined when we stepped into that booth in Grand Central Station in February 2006 that our discussion would have reached so many people. And now we're going international! "Q & A" is one of 3 US short animated films chosen as an official selection at the Annecy Film Festival next month. Unfortunately, we're not going to that one, but Mike and Tim are, we'll live vicariously through their blog.



A, Me, J, Mike Rauch, Tim Rauch

2. In other exciting news, The Webmeister was mentioned on the FRONT PAGE of the New York Times! Our trip to Germany two summers ago was prompted by this research - Dr Brockmann was at the Max Planck Institute at the time. It's fascinating to see the real life applications of the research. And it's a terrific example of how it pays to always try to keep your awareness open because there are so many potential connections that are easily missed.

And now, back to revisions.

Head over to My Favorite Author today for an interview with yours truly and a review of Purge.

I'm really happy that the book is starting to generate discussion about body image and eating disorders. And you know what makes me REALLY happy?

This:



It's always wonderful to see your child engrossed in a book. But there's something really special when they are engrossed in YOUR book.

The problem is my daughter keeps asking me what's going to happen, and I won't tell her.

"You're just going to have to read the book, honey. Most people don't have the author standing at the kitchen counter making dinner while they're reading."

I'm such a meanie, aren't I?

I'm recovering from the launch party, which went very well and I'll be posting pictures and a report later. But in the meantime I'm proud to be a part of Body Image Week, a very exciting event taking place over at My Favorite Author

Feeling good about yourself is important and it's something that everyone struggles with every day. It's not just a problem for teens . . . adults have this problem, too. So I think it's important to talk about all the different ways that this issue affects us and how we can deal with it.

We have invited bloggers from The Story Siren, Presenting Lenore, and In Bed With Books to participate and share their perspective and experience. And we are excited to also have authors Deborah Lytton, Sarah Darer Littman, Sara Zarr, Megan Frazer, Laurie Halse Anderson, Sydney Salter and Erin Dionne share their perspective, experience and advice. At the end of the week, we'll have a great giveaway for you to enter (by accepting & reporting on the Body Image Challenge) to win some of the books that we blog about this week!

Head over there to sign up for the Body Image Challenge, and then check back tomorrow for an interview with me! There's an interesting conversation in the comments about how people have difficult accepting compliments - seems to be a common problem, one that I certainly share. Is it because we feel that we don't deserve them? I've struggled for years to learn to just say "Thank you" when someone gives me a compliment, instead of making some self-deprecating remark.

Come join the discussion!