Is it just that I’m the YA author here, or does everyone else also think each Group Goodbye is high school graduation all over again? Group Goodbye. You know what I mean, not like saying goodbye to far-flung relatives after a vacation. Those people stay tethered to you, and you know you’ll all get together in the same way sometime in the future. I’m talking about saying goodbye to a…
I was about to write a whole piece on how I create characters… until I realized I just did that post a few weeks ago. My mind is clearly not working well. Instead, I will briefly wax rhapsodic about some of my favorite all-time characters… the whole cast of Harry Potter. The books, not the movies. I’m not against the movies, but I just saw Order of the Phoenix right…
What? I’m talking about Traveling! In 2006, I worked with Fodor’s on a travel guide for marathoners, The Traveling Marathoner. It didn’t step on my status as a 2011 Deb, because 75% of it was already written — reviews of sites, restaurants, and hotels already in the Fodor’s database. My job was to visit each marathon city (the book featured 12 of them — one great U.S. marathon per month),…
I’ve gotta be honest – I’m not usually a big fan of the Young Adult genre. Maybe I’m too far removed from being a teenager, or maybe I’m not removed enough. Whatever the case, it’s seldom my first choice in genres to read for pleasure. Deb Elise’s Populazzi made me rethink that It’s not hard to figure out why. Deb Elise did a phenomenal job creating a narrator who is…
Sorry, we’re a Dr. Seuss family and well, it just worked. Would you could you on a blog? Would you could you in the fog? If that’s someone asking you to learn about, buy and DEVOUR Populazzi then the answer is YES! Congrats to Deb Elise on the launch of her YA/MAA (Hey, I loved the book and I’m a middle aged adult, so I think the genre is perfectly legit)…
Guess what? It’s time to celebrate Deb Elise Allen’s Populazzi! I met Deb Elise when I was in LA, but we only got to talk for about three minutes, and we were so excited we forgot to take a picture, but I loved her immediately, and reading this book only cemented that. Let me catch you up with a back-of-the-book summary first: Cara has never been one of those girls:…
True story. I came back from an overnight at my daughter’s summer camp, sat down at the computer, wondered, “Hmmm… better write Monday’s Deb Ball post. Wonder what the topic is?” Then I clicked on the page and realized… I’m the topic!!! Originally, when we realized Tawna and I debuted on the same day, I volunteered to have Populazzi take the week before launch. Launch week is a big deal,…
Since this week is all about “Voice,” I thought I’d talk about my favorite voices… the ones I hear in my head. Don’t freak out; I’m sane… reasonably. The voices I hear are my characters, and I know I’m not alone. It’s practically a cliche for a writer to say he or she hears their characters speak to them, whispering their stories like ghosts to a medium. What’s interesting to…
She thinks about George Michael, of course!!! Specifically, she thinks about the fact that dear George has not one but TWO songs called Freedom, one on Wham!’s Make It Big, and one on his solo Listen Without Prejudice Volume One. While the second Freedom (technically called Freedom ’90, to distinguish it from its ancestor) is a superior song, I love them both, and hereby present them as the perfect way…
I loooooooove lists!!!! I have a Franklin Planner — not an electronic organizer, but a pen-and-paper binder — and I’ve been using it for years. When I keep up with my daily lists, I’m productive and sane. When I don’t — and all too often I don’t — I’m frazzled and overwhelmed. For today’s post, however, I don’t want to write about to-do lists. I was out with friends the…
