New authors are often advised by those more experienced to avoid reviews. Joelle admitted in her post on reviews that she has turned off google alerts and doesn’t seek out online comments about her book. She is wise and sane, but what is she missing? For her, and for you, here are some snippets from Goodreads reviews of her debut, young adult novel Restoring Harmony:
Princess Bookie says: “My Thoughts: I can not stress enough how I can’t seem to get the words out. I will say what I feel in 5 words. This book was freaking awesome.”
Cleverly says: “Restoring Harmony was like magic on paper.”
Briana says: “I positively adored Molly, who was so believable and authentic. I found it so easy to relate to her character, as we had so much in common. I fully believe that if I were to be reincarnated, I’d come back as Molly.”
Restoring Harmony tells the journey of Molly McClure, a teenager in the year 2041. Her world is different from ours: worldwide financial collapse over oil shortage has created a life with far less technology. Molly plays the fiddle and is adept at growing food, two skills that see her through the hard times the story throws her way. She travels from Canada to Oregon to find her grandfather and bring him home with her. But what if he doesn’t want to come?
First line: “When the plane’s engine took on a whining roar, my grip tightened on my fiddle case.”
Won’t you join Molly for the ride?
Buy Restoring Harmony at:
Barnes and Noble
Borders
Amazon
Visit Joelle at:
Her website
Her blog
May 10th, 2010
| Posted by Emily Winslow | 2010 Debs, Joelle Anthony
| 10 Comments
Some people say you shouldn’t use the word love lightly. I suppose there are cases where this is true (like on a first date, gentlemen), but for the most part, I’m all for throwing it out there. Sure, there are different types of love…I mean, I don’t feel the same kind of love for my husband as I do for an avocado, but a good avo is hard to beat, so if I’m feeling the love, I’m gonna use the word. If I haven’t already established that the husband goes at the top of the list, well…he does. Here are a few other things I love in a totally random order:
Packages in the mail
Books
My family
Rain
Hiking in the woods
Chopping firewood
Walking on my treadmill while I write
Popcorn
Reading in front of the fire
Sunbathing on my deck
The deer in the yard
Standing on the front of the ferry with the wind blowing
Sunday Soup
My agent
Birds
Homemade cookies
Warm clothes
When my husband makes dinner
My blankie
The internet
My friends
High heel shoes
My husband’s southern accent
Riding my bike
Living on an island
Being in a play
The Grade 6/7 class
Chocolate
Baseball/Chicago Cubs
Writing
Spiders (outside)
My husband’s photography
Music
The cats
Cooking
My editor
Vintage handbags
My apron
The cover of my book
Sleeping in
Knitting
Typing (weird, I know…but I do)
Harry Potter
Butter
Writing in my journal
Surprising people
Order
Filling in forms
My critique group
Pizza with homegrown tomatoes
Potatoes from the garden – in February!
Publishing (yes, even at its glacial pace)
My husband’s laughter
The Blues
The movie Bull Durham
Trees
Honey
Getting paid to write
The ocean
Book bloggers
Colour
Audio books
The Archers
ARCs
Teaching cooking
The Debutante Ball!
What do y’all love?
February 12th, 2010
| Posted by Joelle Anthony | 2010 Debs, Joelle Anthony
| 14 Comments
When I lived in England after college, I worked at Outward Bound in the Lake District. The closest town was called Penrith, and I would go there on my days off to eat at tea shops and browse the local bookstore. It is a lovely shop, still there nearly twenty years later, called The Bluebell Bookshop (the link is not for the store, just their address as they don’t seem to have a site).
One of many treasures I found there was a whole shelf of John Rowe Townsend books, a writer I posted about here already. They have a great Young Adult section for such a small store. The rest of the shop is packed with wonderful books on the Lakes, England, Scotland, art, photography, poetry, and fiction. Not surprising, this shop is one of the first places I took my husband to in 2004, when we went to visit.
As I perused the YA upstairs, he drifted around, looking at this and that, a bit of everything. When I came downstairs, he had a small, white* book in his hand. “We have to get this,” he said, holding it up. Well, it’s not like I really am one to say no to any book purchase, and so we left the store with it.
That evening, he was so engrossed in the little book that neither I, nor my friend Carole, could get a word out of him. When he was done, he said, simply, “You have to read this.” And so I did.
What he gave me was a novella called Snow by Maxence Fermine. It is one of the most beautiful, lyrical, and loveliest books I’ve ever read. On the cover, it says: and they loved each other suspended on a thread of snow
Frankly, I think that should be enough to make you go straight from here to order a copy for yourself. But if it’s not, just try and resist this:
Yuko Akita had two passions.
Haiku.
And snow.
On coming of age, Yuko is expected to become either a monk or a warrior. He decides instead to become a poet. And to write poems about snow. But to become a master poet he must also master the arts of painting, and of music, and of calligraphy.
And lastly, the art of love…
*I know this cover is pink, but the one we bought is white.
January 29th, 2010
| Posted by Joelle Anthony | 2010 Debs, Joelle Anthony
| 6 Comments
I’m kind of a Google Queen, but I’m guessing you all know about Google already, so I wont’ bother posting about it here. One of my favourite online resources is one you may not know about. It’s called City Daily Photo. All around the world, photographers, both professional and amateur are taking a photo of their hometown every single day. They all have blogs where they post these daily photos, and City Daily Photo is how they are all linked together. As these photographers post their picture, it shows up as a thumbnail on CDP and you, the internet surfer, can go there and click on any pictures that look interesting and it will take you to the blog itself.
Now, I know what you’re thinking…”Boy, she’s perfected procrastination to a fine art, hasn’t she?” Yes, yes I have. But that’s another post entirely. Now I am going to tell you how this wonderful little resource can help you as a writer. At CDP, you can also search for specific places. So if you want to know what Gresham, Oregon (the setting for most of Restoring Harmony) looks like, well, click on this link. I used to live in Gresham so I’m pretty clear on what it looks like. However, if one of my descriptions needs a little boost, then I can go back and have a look at these photos. Always dreamed of going to Paris? Well, here’s your chance (you can also go to Paris, ME with that link).
Or let’s say you want to see something you’re reading about. Like…never been to Deep Valley, Minnesota where the Betsy-Tacy books by Maud Hart Lovelace are set? Well, no one has because she made up Deep Valley, but you can check out a bunch of photo blogs of Minneapolis where Betsy lives in the last book. You can go to Scotland or South Africa, to middle America, and you can even start your own photo blog if you’re so inclined. In fact, this photo blog is special to my heart because it is my husband’s and it’s of our island. Want to know what Molly’s world looks like? Well, I expect that even though my book is set in the future, her island will probably look a lot like this (the photo in this post is by my husband, Victor Anthony, for his blog).
I will leave you with a most amazing story that happened to me BECAUSE of CDP, two photographers, some lucky shots, a musician in the right place at the right time, and what can only be considered destiny. However, it’s a long-ish story, so in the spirit of this week’s topic, I give you this link.
Where are you going today?
November 6th, 2009
| Posted by Joelle Anthony | 2010 Debs, Joelle Anthony
| 10 Comments
It has been said that I am patient. I know that’s true. And it’s a very good thing if you want to be a writer because really, not even immigration is slower than publishing. And it’s slow. Trust me. When we applied for permanent residency in Canada, they received our application, opened it up, cashed the cheque for processing fees, gave us a number, and proceeded to ignore us for twelve more months. And then it was another ten after that before we were good to live here. It took me that long just to get an agent!
Restoring Harmony was sent out right after the 4th of July holiday in 2008. It was probably around the end of August before I asked my agent if he’d heard anything. Not because I wasn’t interested, and not because it hadn’t crossed my mind, but simply because I was pretty darn sure he’d call if anyone, you know…wanted to publish it. He didn’t call, so there wasn’t any news. Seemed simple enough.
I think there might’ve been a few moments where I said to my husband, “Someone is reading my book! How cool is that?” but that was pretty much the extent of it. I just kept working on a new book and stayed busy.
When Michael did finally call in mid-September he said, “How’s your day going?” and I said, “Great!” (my standard answer) and he said, “Well, it’s about to get a whole lot better!” I could practically hear him bouncing in his seat. It was like someone had given him a whole box of his favourite caramels!
He had called to say that we had an offer from Stacey Barney at Putnam and while I was dancing on the inside, I have to admit, I was pretty much my normal calm, cool, and collected self as we spoke (maybe I really am British!). I wrote down the details and asked a lot of questions – I’d had plenty of time to learn all the ins and outs of foreign rights, and I love business, so I asked about all the terms and facts and figures.
We agreed that we wanted to go with Putnam without waiting for a couple other editors to get back from vacation because Stacey had a reputation for being a really fantastic editor and we didn’t want her to think we weren’t excited. The negotiations began. In a couple of hours, after a few back-and-forth phone calls with Michael, him still excited, me still taking notes, we had a deal.
What was so funny was that after it was all sorted out, I got an email from him saying, “Ummm…are you sure you’re okay with all this. You seemed so…well, quiet.” Up until that point, I’d rarely sent him an email without a few !!!!!! He probably had expected me to scream in his ear. Or at least cry!
The thing was, I truly was too stunned to react like I’d just won the book lottery. Nothing more, nothing less. Just completely stunned that not only did someone want to publish my book, but Putnam wanted to publish it. The imprint whose books I have loved for years and years. The imprint who seemed so far out of my league I’d once put them on the “dream list” instead of the “possible imprints that I’d be good at” list. I emailed him back quickly and said: Of course I’m fine! I’m better than fine! I was just totally dumbstruck. Excuse me now while I go find my husband so we can hold hands and skip back and forth across the porch.
And we did. For days. Even now we do it occasionally, just to remember that moment.
October 23rd, 2009
| Posted by Joelle Anthony | 2010 Debs, Joelle Anthony
| 9 Comments
My husband calls me a rule follower. I prefer the term traditionalist. I sleep at night and work during the day. Why? Because that’s how things were done in my home growing up. Besides, I am at my best for writing between 10am and 4pm, so that’s when I work.
Every once in a while, I wonder what it might be like to write at midnight or sleep during the day, but generally I get over that idea pretty quickly because if I nap I wake up cranky and crabby, and I’d need entire meals to stay up all night because that’s when I’m hungriest. Also, these fantasies of writing at all hours never occur to me on my own. They’re always spurred by some other writer’s tweets about pulling an all-nighter and finishing a draft. It’s not that I’m in a rut…it’s more that I live by habit. It was only a few years ago that I was standing in the grocery store on the cereal aisle looking at the Cap’n Crunch and I realized that if I wanted some, I could just buy a box. Seriously. I’d never considered this an option because we didn’t eat sugar cereal when I was a kid. I actually did buy it, although I hid it in the cart under the vegetables so no one would see it. Guess what? It hurts the roof of your mouth if you eat too much. It’s not just crunchy, but scratchy too.
From early childhood, I learned that rule-following was a good thing, so it’s not surprising about the cereal. My mother was a light sleeper and had to get up early and even as teens we were sent to our rooms at 9pm. We could read or do homework or sleep. My brother generally just climbed out his window and went over to the neighbour’s while I went to bed because that’s what rule followers traditionalists do. That’s right. All the way through high school I was in bed by 10pm, snoring away. Sometimes on weekends I’d fight the battle for the right to watch music videos, the volume so low you’d think I had it on mute, until midnight, but only when I was feeling rebellious.
I am blessed and cursed with a roaring fast metabolism. I can pretty much eat whatever I want, but I can rarely sleep through the night without waking up hungry, even if I’ve had a snack before bed. For the most part, I combat this by getting up and having a glass of soymilk around 3am. I guess it gives my stomach something to do until morning besides keep me awake. Anyway, I knew I’d chosen the right man to marry when shortly after we were together, I woke up hungry and brought a bag of cashews back to the bed to munch on quietly. My husband sat up, leaned towards me and held out his hand. “Hey,” he said, “Can I have some or are you going to eat them all?”
I wonder if he likes Cap’n Crunch?
October 9th, 2009
| Posted by Joelle Anthony | 2010 Debs, Joelle Anthony
| 10 Comments
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