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Journal August 23, 2010 Summer always inspires me to ponder life's big questions. For example, why does a 20-gallon trash can require a 30-gallon bag? Why can't the hair on my head grow as fast as the hair on my legs? Should I be eating raw cookie dough in the middle of an egg recall? Why even put DO NOT CONSUME RAW on the cookie dough package when that's the only reason anybody buys it? And since half the country IS eating raw dough, can't they just pasteurize it? How do they de-salmonella-ize the dough they put in ice cream? Do I spend too much time thinking about cookie dough? The other thing that's always on my mind this time of year is heading back to school. I haven't attended school in quite a few years, so you'd think its start date would be off my radar, but no. The horror that is back-to-school stays with you for life. I've barely stopped having nightmares about forgetting my locker combination while finding out there's a final for a class I've been skipping all semester and can't remember the room for. There are some good things about going back to school, though, like meeting up with friends you haven't seen all summer, checking out the crush you also haven't seen all summer and have been obsessing about constantly, and, of course, cafeteria food. (Kidding! Unless the food's good at your school, which I'm pretty sure breaks some law.) And let's not forget that before any of this happens, we still have two more weeks of summer to savor to the fullest. Got plans? If not, I'd like to suggest reading something fun in a comfy place beside your favorite body of water. And I'm here to help with that!
(Okay, so I've just realized the winners' books won't arrive before school starts, but outdoor reading weather stays good well into September, right? There's always weekends!) Have a great end of summer! Laura August 7, 2010 Clearwater Crossing #3, Heart & Soul, has been digitized and is now available as an e-book!
In related news, I now know more about Optical Character Recognition, HTML code, and creating mobi docs than I ever imagined I would. One of the coolest things about being a writer is that I end up doing all kinds of other, unexpected things in addition to writing. These things are frequently a lot of fun (for example, making book trailers), but they can also turn challenging fast when I don't know how to do them. If you're thinking of pursuing a career in writing, I strongly recommend learning to love messing around with computers and figuring out new software by yourself. I (mostly) enjoy these challenges, not least of all because I generally come away with the skills to conquer their tasks again anytime I need to. In the case of digitizing Heart & Soul, I'd like to think I've got the OCR situation (mostly) under control now, which is (semi-)sure to make my job easier when I move on to the e-book for Clearwater Crossing #4; Promises, Promises. I'd also be willing to bet that somewhere down the line I'll end up using OCR for some other project—something I haven't even dreamed up yet—and I'll be smiling when that day comes. In the meantime, please check out Heart & Soul and my other Clearwater Crossing e-books on Amazon.com. Did you know that you can download Amazon's e-book reader software for free, so that even if you don't own a Kindle you can read "Kindle" e-books on computers and cell phones? Did you also know that you can download a pretty big chunk of any Kindle book to see if you like it before you buy? Most importantly, did you know that there are usually quite a few cool Kindle titles being offered completely free? Big publishers sometimes offer free e-books as a way of promoting upcoming releases by their authors, especially authors in the middle of series. I've picked up some extremely popular YA novels that way, not to mention a slow cooker cookbook. You should definitely click here and see if any of the free books appeal to you. Happy reading! Laura July 15, 2010
Yes, they're jellyfish, and they're ready for their close-up:
These are not delicate little creatures we're talking about. The one in the top photo is probably three feet long. The dome on the lower one is more like a platter than a dinner plate. And I counted 36 of these guys along a stretch of shoreline only about a mile long. Do they sting? I'm guessing they do. Does it hurt? I'm making it my personal mission not to find out. Because you know what you have to do for a jellyfish sting, right? Meanwhile, last night our local TV news reported a rash of stingray attacks on ocean-facing beaches (as opposed to beaches facing the bay). Attacks. While all those people soaking injured feet in buckets may not agree with me, I don't believe it's an "attack" when you have to step on a creature's back in order to get stung. If I were a stingray, I'd not only plead self-defense, I'd probably accuse my "victim" of breaking and entering, too. So even though we have a jellyfish invasion, not to mention stingray "attacks," I don't want you to get the impression that San Diego is a dangerous place. We haven't had a big earthquake here for eight days, and the local couple who were attacked by killer bees this week are completely fine now too. Thanks for visiting! Laura June 28, 2010 Deep in the middle of summer, publishing is planning ahead to January. Actually, publishing is planning ahead two Januaries, but while January 2012 is still shrouded in mystery, January 2011 is already going public—so public, in fact, that the new paperback cover for Green has begun appearing on bookseller sites. I loved the hardcover jacket, but Green's new paperback look might be even cooler. Ready?
Look, it matches the book trailer! One of my favorite things about publishing is the hardcover/paperback schedule. It's exciting enough to have a hardcover come out, and seeing it re-released in paperback is almost like a twofer. I'm always just as thrilled about the paperback as I was about the hardcover, and in a couple of ways I'm more thrilled. Why?
Both of these reasons lead to more readers, making paperbacks the classic win-win situation. The paperback edition of Green won't be out until January 11, though, so there's plenty of time—and a whole lot of holidays—between now and then, starting with Fourth of July this weekend.
Fourth of July is one of my favorite holidays. It may actually be my second favorite, next to Halloween. After years of wondering why I like those two so much, I finally made the connection: the best parts of both holidays happen at night. Love Halloween candy, love fireworks, love not having to lift a finger before noon. . . . The great thing about Fourth of July in California is that it tends to involve the beach. After a full day of boating, swimming, boogie boarding, sunning, paddling, picnicking, sand castle building, or whatever, there's nothing prettier than fireworks over the water. My husband and I usually putt around in our inflatable boat to see what everyone else is doing; if the weather is extremely warm, we might even get into the water. I hope you have something fun planned too—and if you spot us out on the bay be sure to wave! Thanks for visiting! Laura June 3, 2010 I'm so excited! Can I get a drumroll, please? Ta da!
The first two titles in my Clearwater Crossing series have just been released as e-books! Please click on the banner to read all about it. Thanks for visiting! Laura Update 6/12/10—In honor of the e-book launch, there's a new Clearwater Crossing book trailer!
May 6, 2010 I've been out of town for a couple of weeks, brainstorming my next project and taking in the scenery around Santa Ynez, California. I'd been to Santa Ynez before, many years ago, but I'd forgotten what it looked like. The short description is, beautiful. I caught the front edge of a three-day rainstorm driving up and my windshield got pounded through much of L.A., but here's how that same storm looked on my first evening in Santa Ynez. It's almost worth putting up with the rain when it ends in a sight like this!
Living in coastal southern California means that I am rarely surrounded by open space. All of the land in my usual haunts has been subdivided to the point that even the rich people rub elbows (and knees) with their neighbors. What a joy to be reminded that there are still large, undeveloped properties in my home state! I wish that land could stay open forever. Of course, property values in California being what they are, undeveloped rarely means unused. Those brown and white specs in the photo above are grazing cattle. There are vineyards and ranches all over the place (including a "ranch" you may have heard of called Neverland). And there are horses. Lots and lots of horses. Which put me in mind of these lines from Tennyson:
Some sort of large annual horse event/gathering was being held while I visited Santa Ynez. And there was this:
I wish I had a person in this photo for scale, because these are the miniature horses of Quicksilver Ranch. Check out this link to see adult horses next to humans. The fence the horses are standing in front of here is only about as high as my waist and its top isn't even showing!
In Green, leprechauns use dogs to pull their wagons, and Lily equates the size of leprechaun dogs to Labrador retrievers. These baby miniature horses are smaller than Labrador retrievers! I'm not exaggerating—this little filly is only a few days old and was about 21" tall at birth. I could lift and carry her, no problem. Meanwhile, there's a Lab in my extended family that weighs over 100 pounds. Because it's spring, the ranch had lots of babies in its fields. And like babies everywhere, it turns out baby horses are cutest when they're sleeping:
No, really. Look at those little teeth!
It's enough to make a girl wish she had a property big enough to keep one on. Although, realistically, if I had that kind of land, I'd probably have a dog ranch instead. Baby horses are cute, but they can't hold a candle to puppies. Still, if I had enough property—say Neverland-scale property—I could have dogs, miniature horses, and some zebras too. What? Did I forget to mention the zebras? Thanks for visiting! Laura April 17, 2010 Thursday, April 22, is the 40th anniversary of Earth Day.
You can join the people pledging to help the planet at the Billion Acts of Green Web site. Or you can start your own movement and make an earth-saving pledge with yourself. Plant a tree, ride your bike, or maybe just recycle something. It all adds up to green.
Thanks for visiting! Laura April 6, 2010 Okay, so I missed posting on April Fools' Day this year. That's probably because the most serious prank I encountered all day was Google replacing its site name with Topeka. And that didn't even register on me as a prank until much later because let's face it: Google does what Google wants. I try not to pay attention. I have not always been so fortunate in the April Fools' department. If you want to read about the worst prank ever played on me, here it is. I'm quite happy to have escaped drama-free this year. It turns out we saved the drama for Easter. There was a magnitude 7.2 earthquake in Baja on Sunday that was felt very clearly here in San Diego. Having lived in southern California all my life (and also studied geology), I tend to take earthquakes in stride, but I was actually starting to think about getting out of my chair for this one when the shaking finally stopped. The most surprising thing about this quake was how long it lasted, and the longer the earth keeps rolling, the more the buildings sway. My neighbor had water slosh out of his pool, and he wasn't the only one.
Given the large magnitude of this earthquake, there were very few injuries and relatively minor damage—and faults need to slip a little now and then, or else that pressure builds up until it releases as something stronger. Looking at it that way, a quake like Sunday's can actually be viewed as a good thing. That's not much comfort to people with injuries or damage, I know, but the outcome could have been much worse overall. And finally, on the e-book front, we have this:
Thanks for visiting! Laura March 17, 2010 Wishing you all a happy St. Patrick's Day! And in case you're looking for a leprechaun book to help you get in the mood today, I just happen to have a suggestion. :-)
We also made the Daylight Saving Time change this week, which is a lot less fun than St. Patrick's Day. I've covered the evils of Daylight Saving Time in previous posts, so I won't go into it all again—but I will add two new reasons why America (or at least California) needs to ditch DST with all possible speed:
Human bodies aren't clocks; our government can't reset us an hour and expect us to tick along without glitches. I hereby promise to vote for the first person of any party to actually figure that out (assuming he or she is not, you know, crazy). In the meantime, though, it's St. Patrick's Day:
Eat a green doughnut for me! See you soon, Laura March 1, 2010 I love the Olympics, and I especially love the Winter Olympics because figure skating is my favorite sport. I don't skate anymore myself, and I was never very good at it, but I skated enough to appreciate how extremely hard it is, even when the best skaters make it look easy. The undisputed pinnacle of figure skating is ladies' singles skating, which may be another reason I love this sport. Figure skating and gymnastics are the only sports I can think of where there is more interest in the women's competition than the men's. (And not just on my part; TV ratings back me up.) How people value the competitions after ladies' singles probably varies, but for me, the next best thing is men's singles. (Congratulations, Evan!) Pairs are a distant third. And ice dancing isn't even on the map. At least, it wasn't, until this year. My opinions of ice dancing were formed, for better or worse (okay, for worse), in the 80s. That was the decade when what ice dancing lacked in jumps, spins, lifts, and throws (pretty much everything), it compensated for with ridiculous, over-the-top costumes and tortured facial expressions. It was all so very dramatic. And lame. I didn't think there was anything that could make me watch ice dance again. And then I saw this (okay, a version of this, since NBC is still monopolizing the Olympics performance video and rudely requiring people to load Microsoft Silverlight in order to view it):
Ice dancing goes Bollywood? Wow, that's actually . . . cool. U.S. ice dancers White and Davis went on to win the Olympic silver medal. The Canadian team who took gold was also interesting and classy and . . . cool. So what's up, ice dancing? You haven't left the bad costumes completely behind (I could name names there too), and while the so-fake-they-come-in-a-can facial expressions are also still favored by a few, I saw more interesting moves during this Olympics than ever before—not to mention routines that not only held my attention, but made me watch them twice. Next you'll be getting rid of those tired old compulsory dances (remember compulsory figures? Neither does anyone else) and joining the modern world. The day that happens, I might have to change my headline to "Ice Dancing: Not Lame At All Anymore." Thanks for visiting! Laura February 5, 2010 The universe might be trying to tell me something, because last weekend I got my super-fast new computer up and running approximately 24 hours before my satellite TV crashed. And I do mean crashed. After a trip to the roof and three calls to my provider, it was determined that the solution was for them to mail me a new receiver/DVR, which would take three to five days to arrive. Three to five days. You know you're too dependent on TV when news like that seriously annoys you. Now, granted, losing TV for three to five days is far less horrifying than losing the Internet for that amount of time would be. But I do think it should be noted that the Internet has never tanked on me in the middle of Demons, the BBCA show that makes me ask, "Hasn't Joss Whedon already done this?" and answer, "Yeah, but Philip Glenister is in it, so who cares?" The good news is that my new DVR arrived Wednesday afternoon, it only took two more calls to my provider to get it running (mostly) right, and the episode I missed is re-airing this weekend. The other good news is that with all that TV-free time on my hands I read two good books and a great one, made a bunch of performance-enhancing tweaks to my new computer, and cleared up the piles in my office, some of which had bottoms dating back a few months. I'm feeling pretty good about all this—and like I should probably watch less TV even when it isn't broken. Of course, offsetting my newfound productivity is the fact that my new, much faster computer plays YouTube videos without beginning to max out its muscle. And since I missed the Grammys I was forced to turn to YouTube when I discovered that Stevie Nicks had performed. Which led to the discovery that YouTube is full of Stevie Nicks videos . . . It's always something, isn't it? Thanks for visiting! Laura January 12, 2010 Green came out today. Woo-hoo!
I have been asked in the past what authors do on launch day. In my case, the boring-but-true answer has been that I go about living my normal life like on any other day. It's not as if a limousine shows up with champagne corks popping. (Sadly.) There is no congratulatory proclamation from the President. Oprah doesn't call. I don't think I've ever even gone out to dinner. So today I am changing all that! Well, not the limo, Presidential proclamation, or Oprah part. But I am totally going out to dinner. And while I'm out, I'm going to order a green drink. (And I'm really hoping there is a green drink other than a grasshopper, because . . . ew.) And finally, I'm going to do this dressed completely in green, because if a thing's worth doing, it's worth taking over the top, right?
Okay, so I'll let you know how the celebrating goes. (And whether I get sick from the green drink.) What I already know for sure is, this is one launch day I won't forget! Thanks for visiting! Laura PS—If you want to watch the ALA Awards (including the Caldecott, Newbery, and Printz), this year's live Webcast is on January 18 at 7:45 am EST. Or you can read the press release at 9:30. Update—The Green Iguana:
Way better than a grasshopper. January 1, 2010 If you watched the ball drop in Times Square last night, you may have noticed the 2010 sign was green. Granted, it looked white, but the new diode bulbs it was lit with supposedly saved 36 trees. While I'd be interested to see the math on that one, I still accept the general premise that green is good. Obviously:
It seems green is cropping up everywhere lately. That's because green is the new black.
And not just around here. The green movement has caught fire nationwide in the area of reusable shopping bags, but did you know it's also important to keep green in mind when planning your Kentucky Derby hat? (You'll want to check that last link if only to find out how "she dazzled the backside yesterday" ends up in a sentence.) Green influences our food choices, travel plans, major and minor purchases, home energy usage, and just about everything else now. For example, in 2009, being green in San Diego meant letting yards go brown. We've had enough rain since the water restrictions went into effect, though, to hope green will be the new brown, too. So what am I personally doing to make 2010 my greenest year ever? Besides the obvious,
I'll be making the following green resolutions:
Wishing you all a green year too! Laura Update—Just finished the traditional watching of the Rose Parade, on HGTV this year. Couldn't help noticing the Green Street sign behind every band and float. (Yeah, I'm a little obsessed.)
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