So, have you created a scene with sensual tension between the guy and the girl in your YA novel? Maybe a little flirting? A kiss? More?
Check out the Maryland Romance Writers (Maryland chapter of the Romance Writers of America) contest here:
http://www.marylandromancewriters.org/mrw/index.php?page_id=9
The final judges of the YA category are: Krista Marino, Delacorte; Lindsey McGurk, Samahain Publishing, Inc
All finalists receive a brief critique by the final round judge, a certificate, and mention in a paid advertisement in the next issue of the RWA® Romance Writers Report. First place winners receive a $50 prize.
And the deadline is June 1, 2009.
The YA category is brand new this year. Why not give it a try? Could be fun.

So, yesterday was Talk Like Shakespeare Day in Chicago. Sponsored by the Chicago Shakespeare Company, and officially proclaimed by Mayor Daley, the event was in honor of Shakespeare's birthday--or at least the day we think was his birthday!
There's some fun stuff on the Chicago Shakespeare Theater site:
http://www.talklikeshakespeare.org/
Check out the video of "Who's On First?" and the "B or not a B" here:
http://www.talklikeshakespeare.org/main.taf?p=0,10
And, if you want to follow the bard on Twitter, go here:
http://twitter.com/shakespearesays

So, what did you do for the planet today?
For some cool pics, go to:
http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/

So, today was Teen Book Drop. Go here for more info:
http://readergirlz.blogspot.com/2009/04/rock-drop-report-in-authors-and-rgz.html
This is the idea. Readergirlz, GuysLitWire, YALSA and publishers dropped 8,000 new books into hospitals for teens. the organizers invited us to get into the act by dropping a book in a public place.
I dropped my books off at a local mall, at the food court. High schools are on spring break, so it seemed a logical place.

Only, after I left my books on a table, I wondered: what if no one, no teen, picks them up? What if the cleaning staff think they are abandoned, and dump them in the trash?
My poor books looked so vulnerable, so lost, so alone....
So, I went over to a table with four teen girls and two of their moms. I explained the whole book drop thing, and handed them two books. At first, they didn't quite realize they could keep the books, share them around, read them, give them to friends, etc. It was pretty cool to see their reaction when they realized these were a gift. Here's two of the teens, with their moms.

Remember how I posted recently, under a subject "No good deed goes unpunished?" I talked about running out of a coffee shop to tell a woman her trunk was up and was rewarded with a dirty look? Well, what goes around comes around. I participated in the Author's Fair yesterday, at WEMTA, and accidentally left my camera and my blood sugar monitor at the Convention Center. Well, I figured someone might turn in the monitor (value $18) and keep my nice, relatively new Canon digital camera.
Nope. Some kind, honest soul turned BOTH in to Lost and Found. The Convention Center will mail them back to me (it's an hour and a half drive, or I'd go get them.)
So, every good deed goes rewarded!
For pics on the event, visit Pam's blog at http://pamberes.livejournal.com

I'll be in Madison tomorrow, at the WEMTA (Wisconsin Educational Media and Technology Association) Author Fair. About 30 authors will be there to sell and sign books. Each author will have about ten minutes at the mic to talk.
Here's the link:
<http://www.wemtaonline.org/se3bin/clientgenie.cgi?geniesite=141&statusflag=gogenie&job=&schoolname=school1000292&mid=>
The very odd thing is that the author links lead to each author's homepage--but mine leads to my bio! It's my "for fun" page, showing old pics of me and stuff--not as professional as my homepage. Oh, well--I'm not complaining. I'm glad to be included, and appreciate any link to my website!

A few weeks ago, a clip aired on the local news about a parent wanting to ban “gay books” at the West Bend Memorial Public Library in Wisconsin. There was a meeting to discuss it, but too many people showed up for the fire code. The meeting was cancelled, and will be rescheduled in a few weeks.
I called the young adult librarian, Kristin Pekoll, to find out more and to offer my support.
The parents, Ginny and Jim Maziarka, are objecting to a list of recommended books dealing with GBLT (gay, bisexual, lesbian, transgender) issues which is posted on the library’s website. In an email to the Daily News, they state: "We believe our library should be offering appropriate, wholesome literature to our youth instead of pursuing the illegitimate goals of transforming the views of other people's children on the contentious issue of homosexuality."
Here’s the article:
< http://www.gmtoday.com/news/local_stories/2009/March_09/03022009_04.asp>
Here’s the link to the list on the library’s website that inflamed the Maziarka’s.
<http://www.west-bendlibrary.org/yara.htm>
It includes a list of GBLT books under the title, Out of the Closet. You’ll notice that there are many OTHER lists as well, for good mysteries, paranormal, sports, adventure, historical, romance, and Christian books.
The parent objects to the Out of the Closet list in general, as well as the books Geography Club by Brent Hartinger, and The Perks of a Wallflower by Steve Chbosky, in particular. She wants them removed.
Now I feel a parent has the right to monitor the books her own child reads, but does not have the right to make that choice for an entire community. She also does not have the right to remove books because they go against her personal beliefs.
What can you, as a parent, an author, an illustrator, do to help? An email, sent to Michael Tyree, the Director of the West Bend Community Memorial Library, would be great. His email is: mtyree@west-bendlibrary.org. Michael will forward these emails to the Library Board in time for the next public meeting. It would be good to copy Kristin Pekoll, the ya librarian, as well, kpekoll@west-bendlibrary.org. She is feeling frazzled and could use your words of encouragement. It doesn’t need to be elaborate. Something simple is fine, such as:
“I support the West Bend Community Memorial Library in its decision to include Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Fiction and Non-Fiction in its collection. I object to the proposal to remove books in this category, including Geography Club and The Perks of Being a Wallflower.”
Please spread the news, and ask your friends, especially your writing friends, to send an email of support. Librarians have the right to choose the books for their library’s collections. And those of us who write books have the right to include characters regardless of their sexual orientation.
If you prefer, send me an email at deborahlynnjacobs@deborahlynnjacobs.com, and I’ll send a group email with your name on it. Be sure to include your name, and your city and state. If you are 18 or younger, please just provide your first name (not last) age, and the city and state where you live (not your full address!!!)
Don't let censorship go unchallenged! It could happen in your home town, or to your books!

So, are you watching the Oscars tonight? I am. I like seeing clips of movies, even though I usually haven't seen many of the movies yet. The problem is that I'm cheap. A movie ticket is way more expensive than ordering through Blockbuster online or Netflix. So, I see all the movies way after the awards are awarded.
This year, I saw all the movies in one category--animated. Grin. I guess that says something about me. I wonder, though, how much of the awards is subjective. Sure Wall-E was great, and I predict will win, but Kung Fu Panda was a total riot, and kept me laughing all the way through. Which was the "best?"
I saw Slumdog Millionaire yesterday, and although I liked it I really didn't think it was worth all the hype. I wanted to see Benjamin Button instead, but it was only on at 5:00 and 8:00 and is such a long movie that my movie companion (that would be my spouse) would have fallen asleep, thus wasting the price of a ticket!
It makes me think about book awards. How many times does something win an award (or NOT win one) and there I am, scratching my head, thinking, HUH?????
It's all a little subjective, don't you think?
Ah well, subjective or not, political or not, I'll be glued to my set tonight. How 'bout you?

Honestly, our local tv station gets soooo excited about the weather. A major snowstorm means they suspend daytime programming to do hours and hours and hours of snow watch reporting. It gets a little old. Yup, still snowing...still snowing...uh huh, more snow...
And then, during my much anticipated evening shows (like Idol, Supernatural, Bones--important stuff!) they have a streaming feed at the bottom of the screen about all the delays and closings. This shrinks my screen to a wee little window, and drives me nutty.
So I was happy today, in one way, when the predicted three to five inches just didn't happen. But, darn it, I'd been looking forward to SNOW. It's that ugly end of winter here. The snow is gone, the grass is gray, the first crocuses haven't pushed out of the ground (I checked.) Today's meager snowfall, a greasy, thin, slick coating, did nothing but make driving tricky.
Ah well. I set a vase of tulips where I could see them, lit a leftover Christmas candle,put on some music, and got on with the job of writing.
Five pages so far today--not bad! God, but I hate first drafts...I never know if I'm on the right track or not.

Can you recognize your favorite authors by their words? If you were handed a manuscript with no name, would you know who wrote it?
My husband and I were watching a movie on Valentine's day. It had an unsatisfying ending, one where the lovers don't get to stay together (one dies.) It wasn't surprising though. The author who penned the novel often kills off one of the lovers. It's as though he believes that we can have happiness only for a short time before fate steals it from us.
Another author I read starts her books with an exciting beginning, and she keeps the pace going well through the middle of the book. But, her endings are rushed, with new characters and new situations introduced late in the book. Her endings are happy, with everyone getting what they want, but I find them unrealistic.
Graham Salisbury once came to an SCBWI event, said that authors often struggle with an issue or theme that runs through all their books. (Apologies if I mangled that, or misquoted!) He gave the example, in his own books, of the father/son relationships. I think he said that we work out our own issues, like his father/son relationship, in our writing, in order to work out unresolved issues in our own lives.
In my own books, I work out issues of growth through struggle, people pretending to be someone they are not, and living with the consequences of our choices.
So, do authors reveal more of their own selves in their books than they realize? Do we project our own needs--the need for a happy ending, the need for a poignant story of discovery and loss, and so on? Could you recognize a favorite author's work by reading their book?

This is the face of hope.

Okay, so it's just a half-dead flower. But isn't "the face of hope" a lot more poetic?
After frost clipped a few of my impatiens last fall, I took a cutting or two and rooted them in water. This one grew roots, so I planted it and set it in a sunny window.
It bloomed for Christmas.
I thought it was surely a deader after that, but look--another bloom!
I know, I really DO know, that this plant is only fulfilling its biological imperative of reproducing before it dies. I mean, it's an annual! But look at that flower! So pretty, even though the rest of the plant is clearly riddled with disease, shriveled, dying. Remarkably, it has two more buds. That's hope.

It's like someone who keeps going, through everything, still producing, still living, even when death is near.
Speaking of which, I just read BEFORE I DIE, by jenny downham.
Two words--read it! (but have a box of tissues near by...)

So I was having a coffee with my writing friend, Shawn, when I looked out into the parking lot. An elderly woman made her way slowly to her car, leaning on her walker. A few moments later, I glanced back to see her drive away...with her trunk wide open. Should I run out and tell her?
Nah...it was cold outside, and warm inside, and my coffee was only half finished and...
So, yeah, I ran out, dressed in a top, jeans and running shoes. She didn't see me waving. She pulled out of the parking lot, and stopped at a red light.
Across the parking lot I ran, over a snow bank (sinking to my knees in the snow), and across the road. I tapped on her window, and pointed to the open trunk.
"I know!" she mouthed at me, clearly annoyed, gave me a dirty look, and then gunned the engine and took off as the light turned green, leaving me standing in the middle of the road.
So, here's my question: do you still get karma points if you do a good deed, but the recipient of the good deed all but flips you off for your troubles?

Mess? What mess? Just because there are:
two gubby bathrooms
ten mile-high piles of dirty laundry
a dining room table covered in grant application stuff
a couch smothered by a scattered printout of my work-in-progress
a kitchen table with an avalanche of unpaid bills and junk mail
a coffee table with more bills, and stuff to be filed
The other day I made dinner. "Want to eat in front of the TV?" I asked hubby. He agreed. After all, once I cleared away the throw fleeces and a sweater or two, it was perfectly easy to sit down!
I wonder--if I worked outside of the home, would my house be this messy? I remember working--you leave the house in the morning and it looks the same when you get home. A clean up on the weekend lasts all week (except if you have kids, then all bets are off!)
It's a matter of priorities. I DO cook a great dinner most nights. (See how modest I am?) No, seriously, I do make nice dinners. Last night was bay scallops in a brothy, stewy, vegetably, spicy kind of soupy sauce, with brown rice and asparagus. The night before, butter chicken, a hot curry concoction that hails from India, along with fresh raw vegetables and homemade tzatziki, with a choice of quinoa or riced cauliflower.
Maybe that's why hubby doesn't complain about the mess???

I'm not feeling much like posting about anything today. I received the news that one of my aunts died. It saddened me, though she'd lived a full life and died at the age of 94. It's all you can ask, really.
Just the same, it made me think of all the aunts and uncles, and parents, who are no longer here. My memories of them are like watching an old movie, where the actors are in their prime. You don't want the movie to end, and the illusion to fade away.

Today I participated in Author Mania at a local bookstore. Fun stuff. I sold a few books, which is always good, but I learned a lot.
To back track, when I do my presentation for new participants at our SCBWI retreat, I have a theme: "We are all teachers; we are all students."
As a student today, I learned:
1. Younger kids are attracted to my books (like 10 to 12!!!) Older teens are too cool to stop and talk to me.
2. It takes a ten-year-old to effectively use my quill pen. I suck at writing with it. She was doodling with it within three minutes. Beautiful doodles.
3. People like candy. There is no age limit on this....trust me.
I'll post some pics tomorrow.
(It's November 23. I'm thankful that my daughter will be home for Thanksgiving. She wasn't sure she'd get the time off work. I'm also thankful that my son and dil will be here. Guess I should cook a few pies, eh?)

Tomorrow I'll be participating in Author Mania at Martha Merrell's Books in Waukesha, Wisconsin. About 22 authors will be there, to sign books and help shoppers get into the Christmas spirit.
This is part of Waukesha's Holiday Stroll, with businesses having special events and the town hosting its Christmas parade.
It'll be fun to see some of my writer friends at the event, and I know I'll have a great time meeting new people. Still, there is something about appearing at a public event that I find a tad intimidating. I know other writers sometimes feel the same way. Writing is such a personal and introspective thing. Selling and signing books means putting on a different hat becoming someone else. It's okay, in fact it's great. It's just...different.
Today, I am thankful for independent bookstores, like Martha Merrell's.

So, I was feeling kinda glum today, and I stopped by my library. I owed them money, for one thing, and had overdue materials for another, and I was running a bit low on books to read.
I'm a big fan of libraries in general, and my town's library in particular. Free books, right there, for the asking!
My dad took me to a library once I could read, and I got my first library card. I was a weekly visitor, leaving with as many books as I could carry. Reading was an escape, a refuge, and a form of entertainment that pre-dated video games or even rental movies! In a way, that library card said "I exist." It was before I had a student card, or a driver's license, or a passport or a job! It was my identity, ME, right there on a little card that said I was old enough and responsible enough to be a citizen--and a reader!
Today, the library was just what I needed--a refuge, an escape and entertainment. I left with a bunch of books, both fiction and nonfiction. I also spent some time looking over the latest Pop Sci, which was relevant to my work-in-progress.
Today, I am extremely grateful to free public libraries, to towns that support them, and, most of all, TO ALL THE WONDERFUL LIBRARIANS out there.
Thanks, guys.

Omg, I can’t believe this. You wouldn’t believe what Hotmail threw into the Junk file. I’m RICH.
Listen to this:

· Republic of Nigeria has chosen you by the board committe on appropriation and finance
as one of the final recipients of this new year contract and inheritance file to
celebrate the fiscal 2008 an ATM CARD has been issued out $5,500,000.00 (HMMM, MUST BE HOW THEY SPELL COMMITTEE IN NIGERIA.)

· The Russian Foundation for basic research
(http://www.rfbr.ru), would like to notify you that you have been chosen by
the board of trustees as one of the final recipients of a cash
Grant/Donation for your own personal, educational, and business
development. (HA, YES, I'M RECOGNIZED OVERSEAS. IT WAS JUST A MATTER OF TIME)

· I have been waiting for you to contact me for your Confirmable Bank Draft of $700,000.00 United States Dollars, but I did not hear from you since that time. Then I went and deposited the Draft with NEXT DAY XPRESS, West Africa, I travelled out of the country for a 3 Months Course and I will not come back till end of December. (CONFIRMABLE? IS THAT A WORD? I CAN'T BELIEVE THEY WERE KIND ENOUGH TO WRITE BACK, AFTER I DIDN'T RESPOND THE FIRST TIME)
·
Congratulations, you have just won yourself £750,000.00
(Seven Hundred and Fifty Thousand Pounds Sterling) in the satellite software
email lottery conducted by UK National Lottery. (HUZZAH! GOD SAVE THE QUEEN!)

And there was MORE. WAY MORE. AND, I got a phone call today from somewhere in Louisiana, and I didn’t understand much of it but I did catch the word “DINERO” and we all know what that means. MORE MONEY!!! WHOO HOO.

Now I can give up writing, right? RIGHT?
So, today, Nov. 20, I'm thankful that I'm not that gullible.

Remember Shakespeare In Love? Where the guy says, "you need a bit with a dog" and so young Shakespeare puts a dog into the play? Originally, I envisioned a dog as a character in my wip. But, when I started writing, I didn't include him. I think I was more focused on the plot, and the main characters, not the secondary characters.
Have you ever noticed how many ya novels don't include a lot of siblings or pets? When I wrote Powers, the character Gwen was an only child. Her cousin was like a sister, though, and so had to be fleshed out as an important character. Adrian, in Powers, had a older brother who we never saw--he was already married and living in another city.
In Choices, Kathleen had an older brother, but, since he dies in the first chapter, we only see him in the briefest of flashbacks. He is still "there" however, in photographs around the house, in the clothing that's left in his closet, etc.
Every sibling needs their own story. Even a pet needs a personality! But every extra character, be it a sib or a pet, needs to be fleshed out in their own right and integrated into the story. That's a lot of work!
On the other hand, siblings and dogs can add layers of depth to a story.
I think I need a bit with a dog...
(today, I’m thankful for my critique group!)

There are a few things I'm trying to quit.
One--donating to police associations/sheriff associations, etc. Now, I seem to be on EVERY list in the state. And I DO appreciate the good work they do. I just can't afford to donate to every association that calls. (It's like one a day, I swear!) A few days ago I finally said NO.
Guess what? NO doesn't work.
"I can't this year" doesn't work.
"I'm putting my money into other causes" doesn't work.
What works?
"Take me off your phone list." (said politely but firmly!)
Yup, worked like a dream.
Two, canceling my contract with my TV provider. Every time I try (3 times now) they offer a better deal. Makes me wonder why I was paying so much before! But the bottom line is that we've gone back to antennae. You know, that metal thing that picks up signals from the air. Only now, it picks them up in clear, perfect HD. We don't get a lot of channels, but we get what we want and need.
Now tomorrow, I will call and cancel it once and forever.
Well, maybe. Who knows what deal they'll offer...
(so today I'm thankful for a working furnace--it's COLD out there.)