Tell the Truth Tuesday: NaNo FAIL

I swear we started off strong. In fact, 9 days in we had over 20,000 words written! But...then we came to a screeching halt after deciding that our agent needed to take an early look. Having your agent hate an early look is slightly less devastating than having your agent hate an entire look. At least that's what we told ourselves when we hit send.

For the next week and a half we wallowed in a bad, bad way. Here's a preview:


Lisa: Can we e-mail Catherine, do you think?


Laura: I have the feeling that she's read it. I mean she has to have at least started it.


Lisa: We just really need to have a plan in place right now.


Laura: This is awful.


Lisa: I'm not sure I can do this anymore. I'm just not cut out for this.


Laura: I know...I feel the same way.

Rinse and Repeat.

Once more.

And then again.

Hello, drama queens. In our defense...okay, there's no defending that behavior. We've got a touch of the crazies. Anyway, 8 days later, we got the gold star agent seal of approval. Whoo hoo!

And then, of course, our page proofs for THE LIAR SOCIETY arrived. And then we shot some footage for the book trailer...and then...and then...and then...

What does all this add up to?

Oh, just a big, fat ol' NaNo FAIL.

But, here comes December. Craziest month of the year? Pshaw! Tons of presents left to buy? *shrug* Nothing's been wrapped? Whatever. We have a deadline. A crazy, ridiculous, divorce-inducing, child-services provoking deadline.

Buckle. Up.

Today is the day...

I get back in the game. That's right. I'm going back to the gym and I could not be more excited about an hour of uninterrupted sweating. I've been battling feelings of guilt about leaving little Ben in childcare, but I need this. I really do. Working out makes me feel like me and I've really missed that the past few months.

I'm overweight, overwhelmed and overtired, but today I take a tiny piece of my life back. Halle-freaking-lujah. Just cross your fingers that Ben doesn't end up with Typhoid or something because I think the guilt might kill me. 

Have you done anything completely selfish lately? Spill in the comments so I don't feel like the worst mom ever.

Want to know what we're thankful for?

Page proofs.

That's right. We'll be spending the long holiday weekend doing this:

If all goes according to plan this will be the last time we read THE LIAR SOCIETY. We'd go crazy if we read the final book cover to cover because we'd probably still manage to find crap we'd want to change.

Gobble, gobble biatches.

Tell the Truth Tuesday

1. We're filming our book trailer Sunday and it involves one of the Roecker sisters traipsing around in a
"school girl uniform" while being photographed by our father. Wrong on so many levels.

2. Said "school girl uniform" was purchased from a second hand store and is made by Limited Two. Needless to say it doesn't zip.

3. We spend approximately two hours every day on the phone obsessing about things that we have absolutely no control over. It goes something like this:

Laura: So, if you had to like guess, what do you think our Amazon rank will be the first week THE LIAR SOCIETY is out?

Lisa: Hmm...I don't know. I mean, wouldn't it be amazing to break 50,000? Do you think we'll get good reviews on Amazon?

Laura: I don't know. I mean, maybe right? People might really like our book, you know?

The hallmarks of these conversations are the words "I don't know." You know why we don't know? Because neither of us can predict the future. I just wish we could figure out a way to stop talking about it already.

4. We are obsessed with The Story Siren's 2011 Debut Author Challenge. Some participants have actually listed THE LIAR SOCIETY as a book they want to read in 2011. It never gets old. We keep sending links back and forth to each other because we're in shock that people we don't know actually want to read our book. Crazy.

5. I got a big old Amazon package in the mail yesterday with MOSTLY GOOD GIRLS, which I'm dying to crack open (among a few others), I have yet to finish REVOLUTION (which I still really love) and I'm listening to ARE  YOU THERE GOD, IT'S ME VODKA in the car (which is so, so wrong, but so, so funny). Will my to-be-read pile ever shrink?

Spill it...what's your truth this Tuesday?

P.S.: Check it out...ahh Black Friday...

Live From New York...It's MONDAY MORNING!!!!

OK, you guys know I love to share my fave SNL bits and this commercial cracked me up.

"The first three people to find and touch Kirk Douglas win a free Kindle!" Sign me up.

Happy Monday!

THE LIAR SOCIETY News

So we've learned a lot about publishing since we sold THE LIAR SOCIETY just over a year ago.

Lesson #1: As you know and we enjoy pointing out, publishing moves SLOW. Slower than mere mortals like us could ever conceive of.

Lesson #2: Publishing is a roller coaster. One second you're on top of the world with dreams of becoming the next Meg Cabot (unrealistic? wha?), the next second you're....not.

Lesson #3: Sometimes things happen that you have no control over and you just have to roll with the punches. In this case, the absolute wrong cover was "leaked" to Amazon and Goodreads.*

At first we were shocked that we were even remotely cool enough to have anything associated with us "leaked," and then we were confused because (just for the record) Kate does not wear glasses. Not that we have anything against glasses, because we totally don't. Glasses are great! They help you see better and they're tres fashionable in the right context. Hell, we even considered giving Kate a monocle, but we decided against it at the last minute.

The point is this cover is wrong. This will not be the cover of THE LIAR SOCIETY. In fact, we have some really, really amazing things planned over the next couple of weeks related to the cover of THE LIAR SOCIETY, so we were a little sad when this placeholder image was released.

But as lesson #3 has taught us, when publishing sends you lemons you make lemonade (or in our case, limoncello). So we've decided to take this opportunity to unleash our fancy new website for THE LIAR SOCIETY upon the interwebs. Click and enjoy. And PLEASE stay tuned because we've got some really cool stuff planned for THE LIAR SOCIETY and it's coming soon!

Your monocle loving writer friends,
LiLa

*Mwahaha the wrong cover has now been removed from both sites, so our cover will remain a mystery until our epic cover contest is revealed. Stay tuned for updates!

Bookinistas: THE REPLACEMENT

We're back...okay, not really. Today we're super-excited to offer up a new perspective. And not only that, but a YOUNG perspective! Matt Rush, the brains behind The Quintessentially Questionable Query Experiment blog has a daughter, Kylie. Kylie is in high school. Kyle is a reader. Kylie has opinions. AND she's offered to share them with us! How awesome is that?! So...we now present you our first ever Guestanista Review of THE REPLACEMENT, by Brenna Yovanoff.

Here's what the back cover has to say:

Mackie Doyle is not one of us. Though he lives in the small town of Gentry, he comes from a world of tunnels and black murky water, a world of living dead girls ruled by a little tattooed princess. He is a Replacement, left in the crib of a human baby sixteen years ago. Now, because of fatal allergies to iron, blood, and consecrated ground, Mackie is fighting to survive in the human world.

Mackie would give anything to live among us, to practice on his bass or spend time with his crush, Tate. But when Tate's baby sister goes missing, Mackie is drawn irrevocably into the underworld of Gentry, known as Mayhem. He must face the dark creatures of the Slag Heaps and find his rightful place, in our world, or theirs.

Edward Scissorhands meets The Catcher in the Rye in this wildly imaginative and frighteningly beautiful horror novel about an unusual boy and his search for a place to belong.

Kylie's Take:

The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff certainly is a wonderful YA novel. It instantly grabs the reader’s attention with the introduction of the main character, Mackie Doyle.


He’s shy, but when you hear his description: blonde, pale, but with black eyes; you’re immediately intrigued. He doesn’t sound like any other character I’ve ever read. I was really curious to see where his story took me.

A changeling in a town of dark secrets, Mackie is an outcast who is lucky to be alive – and his luck is running out. Allergic to consecrated ground, and iron (how weird is that) and with a pastor for a father, Mackie’s life is not a common one.

As compelling as Mackie is, my favorite part about this novel is the story. I won’t give away the details but the plot is exciting, fun and so fast paced I finished this book in one two hour sitting. Any teen who reads this book will connect with Mackie; after all, we’re not even comfortable in our own skin.

I would recommend this book to any reader, and Brenna Yovanoff is now permanently on my radar.



Kylie, we couldn't have said it any better ourselves.

Check out what the other Bookinistas are up to this week:

Christine Fonseca is amazed by DESIRES OF THE DEAD

Elana Johnson is in love with PERILOUS

Myra McEntire is wowed by A VISITOR'S GUIDE TO MYSTIC FALLS

Shannon Messenger is awestruck by THE MARBURY LENS and giving away a signed hardcover

Megan Miranda is captivated by MATCHED

Beth Revis is blown away by DEMONGLASS

Carolina Valdez Miller is spreading picture book love for CHICKEN BUTT!

Bethany Wiggins is stunned by STRANGE ANGELS

Just a couple of quitters...

REVOLUTION by Jennifer Donnelly makes us want to throw in the towel. We're not sure if we're ever coming back. You can thank Jennifer. She's that good.

More on this later...no time...must finish reading for book club tomorrow night.

In the meantime, what book have you read recently that was so good you wanted to give up writing forever?

P.S.
If you're missing your LiLa fix (and really, who isn't?) go check out our interview with the amazing Kerri Cuevas!  And be sure to check out the rest of her amazing posts while you're over there!

Wanna hear our rebel yell??

That's right we're guest vlogging for the YA Rebels today. Click here to enjoy a (very) random look at the 10 things that define us as writers. And, um, be kind. We haven't really been getting much sleep lately.

Everyone's a Winner!

Well...kinda. While there can only be one winner of the Pay It Forward with Partials contest, we ALL get to win tonight at 9 PM when Stephen Barbara and Leila Sales join us for a super-awesome, highly-fantastic, totally-radical agent-author WriteOnCon chat.

And there's more! Are we blowing your mind yet? One participant will have the chance to win not only Leila Sales' book MOSTLY GOOD GIRLS, but also a MIX CD. Yes, you heard that right, a collection of songs compliments of Leila. How cool is that? All you have to do is show up for the chat, ask amazing agent-author relationship-related questions and leave a comment on the post entitled LEAVE A COMMENT HERE TO WIN LEILA'S GOODIES (we like to limit confusion; you're welcome), which will post at 8:30 PM tonight before the chat. We'll announce the winner LIVE during the last couple minutes of the chat (you must be present to win, so don't duck out early). Easy as pie, right?

Finally, Random Number Generator has chosen our winner of the Pay It Forward with Partials contest. CONGRATULATIONS Mim! Email us to claim your prize--we can't wait to check out your writing! BUT BEWARE...if we don't hear from you by Friday, we'll have to choose another winner.

Happy Monday everyone and we'll see you tonight!

LiLa's Space-Time-Publishing Theorem

Over the past two years we've been gathering scientific evidence to create a mathematical equation that may or may not result in us winning the Nobel Peace Prize. Yeah, it's THAT good.

If you're not a mathematical genius you should probably just stop reading now because you're about to read one of the most complex space-time theorems (yeah, technically I think it's an equation, but theorem sounds so much more impressive, no?) ever created. For those of you who aced pre-Algebra, hold onto your hats because this is going to blow you away.

PT = RT(1,000,000)

So here's a quick illustration for you:

You submit a manuscript to your agent or editor and they tell you that you should hear back from them within one week. If you're anything like us by the time you hit day five, you're spending roughly 12 hours a day refreshing your e-mail*. So let's apply LiLa's Space-Time-Publishing Theorem, shall we?

PT = 7(1,000,000)

So...publishing time equals 7,000,000 days. Shazam! Get that finger off the refresh button because the human race will probably be extinct before you hear back.

You're welcome.

*It should be noted that I refreshed our e-mail approximately 30 times as I typed this blog post. I'm like Russell Crow in A Beautiful Mind, cursed to have conversations with imaginary friends and dream up conspiracy theories about people deleting my e-mails before I can read them. Being a genius is totally exhausting.

Bookinistas: SELLING HOPE

We first heard about SELLING HOPE through Shannon and when she asked if any of us wanted to read, I was ALL over it! What can I say? I sit up and take notice when writers say a book is good "In that I-should-give-up-writing-because-I-will-never-be-that-good kind of way." That's how we felt about THE SKY IS EVERYWHERE (how has that book not made the best seller list?!) and I was in the mood for another one of those kind of books.

Here's what the back has to say:

It’s May 1910, and Halley’s Comet is due to pass thru the Earth’s atmosphere. And thirteen-year-old Hope McDaniels and her father are due to pass through their hometown of Chicago with their ragtag vaudeville troupe. Hope wants out of vaudeville, and longs for a “normal” life—or as normal as life can be without her mother, who died five years before. Hope sees an opportunity: She invents “anti-comet” pills to sell to the working-class customers desperate for protection. Soon, she’s joined by a fellow troupe member, young Buster Keaton, and the two of them start to make good money. And just when Hope thinks she has all the answers, she has to decide: What is family? Where is home?

Lila's Take:

Oh, we just loved this one. We loved Hope's asides (Kristin has integrated internal monologue jokes throughout the plot that say so much about Hope's character in so few words.) The setting is fascinating--think 1910, Vaudeville, in the midst of Halley's Comet hysteria. I found myself Googling images of Vaudeville in the 1900s just to get a visual. It's been a while since I've read historical fiction and I forgot how much I love it. I've never read about this topic before (the only thing close would be WATER FOR ELEPHANTS, which I loved, but isn't nearly as sweet--understatement of the year there) and I can only imagine how engaging this book will be for middle graders and beyond. I asked all sorts of questions while reading--What must it have been like to think a potentially devastating comet was on the way? Would I have thought pills could save me? What if something similar were to happen today? Would we even know about it or would the government keep it a big secret (Armageddon-style) for our own good? I can only imagine the questions middle schoolers could come up with!

But the best part about this book are the characters. Everyone from Hope's dad (a goofy, bookish, passionate magician), who randomly brought to mind my college roommate's husband, to Buster (another performer a bit older than Hope who is totally swoon-worthy and helps Hope with her grand idea and more) and obviously Hope, the star of the show, whose voice jumps right off the page are written impeccably. I only wish I had a class full of middle school students to share this with. The teacher in me is thinking about all sorts of cool extension ideas--I wonder if Lydia's too young to invent her own anti-comet solution?!

Luckily, I do have teacher friends who are going to get an email all about SELLING HOPE. Kids are going to LOVE this one!

Check out what the other Bookinistas are up to this week:

 Myra McEntire spreads some love for SELLING HOPE
Elana Johnson is nuts about NIGHTSHADE
Christine Fonseca swoons over SIREN
Shelli Johannes-Wells is over the moon about THE ORACLE TO REBOUNDS and her fab giveaway.
Shannon Messenger marvels over MUSEUM OF THEIVES (plus she's having another epic giveaway).
Carolina Valdez Miller is struck by SHIP BREAKER.
Megan Miranda is in love with I AM THE MESSENGER 

The Future is NOW

Ben has a new bestie. That's right, the elusive third Roecker sister finally popped. Welcome to the world Tommy!

Aren't they adorable?

You know what's not even remotely adorable? What these two are inevitably going to be doing in 15 years.

God, I'm so not ready for this...

Classy Ladies

Okay, so a lot of you guys are writers and some of you are parents. I think we can all agree that names are vitally important.

I mean, no one wants their kid getting beat down on the playground for having some goofy name that you burdened him with at birth. And reviewers have enough things to be critical about when it comes to our writing, why give them further ammo by choosing inappropriate names? We spend hours obsessing about choosing a name that will embody all of the perfect characteristics we want for our child/fictional character and demonstrate to the world exactly who we hope this person will become.

Now let me introduce you to sisters Annalynne and Angel (yes, you read that right, ANGEL) McCord.

Um...yeah. Guess it's clear what their parents were hoping to tell the world when they named their daughters and it looks like they're both doing a fantastic job of living up to their names. Bravo girls. BRAVO.

Paying It Forward With Partials

Since we began writing together, Lisa and I often sit down to procrastinate have long conversations about the amazing people we've met. You read our blog every day, give incredible feedback on our writing and send chocolate and wine when we're curled up in the fetal position. With Thanksgiving fast approaching, we want to give thanks to each of you and somehow give back some of what we've gained by getting to know you guys over the past couple of years.

So when Shannon approached us with the Pay It Forward With Partial proposition, we couldn't pass it up. We're not experts by any stretch of the imagination, but we are readers. Not to mention we provide BOGO critiques. A two-for-one steal. You can't beat that!

Even better, there are four other (far more talented) writers participating--that's 5 chances to win people! Here's how it works...

One person who comments on this post by Sunday, November 14th, 11:59 EST will win a 25 page manuscript critique compliments of LiLa. The winner will be announced Monday, November 15th!

But don't stop here. Click on the links of the amazing authors below for even more chances to win!

 P.J. (Tricia) Hoover is a MG/YA Author, married, mother of 2 awesome kids, 1 crazy Yorkshire terrier, and 2 demanding tortoises. Also an ex-electrical engineer. She is represented by Laura Rennert of the Andrea Brown Literary Agency. (Texas Sweetheart and the creator of one of our favorite WriteOnCon vlogs.)

Elana Johnson is the founding author of the QueryTracker blog, a blogger with the League of Extraordinary Writers and organizer of WriteOnCon. She is represented by Michelle Andelman of Regal Literary and her debut novel, POSSESSION, will be published by Simon Pulse (Simon & Schuster) in Summer 2011. (We also have the sneaking suspicion that she's cloned herself purely to ensure she has time to read and comment on approximately 10,000 blogs per day.)

Shannon Messenger writes Middle Grade Fantasy and is repped by Laura Rennert of Andrea Brown Lit. She is also one of the founders and organizers of WriteOnCon. (Known best for her random vlogs and virtual dancing at WriteOnCon events.)

Sarah Wylie is repped by Suzie Townsend at Fineprint Lit. Her debut YA novel, ALL THESE LIVES, will be published by FSG/Macmillan in 2012. (One half of the most mysterious pair of sister writers on the interwebs and our biggest competition for the love of Ryan Gosling.)

Thanks again for all of your support you guys. We are so incredibly lucky!

Across the Universe (Part 2)

Lisa here. Laura is busy NaNo-ing and I'm two glasses of wine deep, which might not sound like a lot of much, but after approximately 10 months on the wagon...it's enough.

So here's the deal. Beth Revis = Awesome. Elana Johnson once called her the smartest person she knows and after reading ACROSS THE UNIVERSE (Penguin/Razorbill, January 11, 2011) we totally understand why.

Anyway, to celebrate her book launch Beth has gathered some amazing authors on her blog (including us, YAY!) to share their personal adventure stories. Laura is up today and while her adventure doesn't involve passing out on a train and ending up in Germany, it does involve surfing. And blue water. Sorry, that's all I can really remember about her blog post. Don't forget, I'm a little tipsy here.

Anywho, the clue for today is

T

Happy code cracking! 

Across the Universe

Good morning Across the Universe-ers! Welcome to Lila Land where everything is a little delayed...totally on purpose, of course.

If you haven't heard, Beth Revis, incredible author of ACROSS THE UNIVERSE (Penguin/Razorbill, January 11, 2011) has put together the most epic journey of all time. Authors have gathered on her blog and are sharing their own personal adventure stories.

Now here's where YOU come in. Go to Beth's website and search for the hidden link--LOOK for it and you'll SEE it. Visit Beth's blog everyday to pick up your clue and eventually unscramble the entire secret password for a chance to WIN! Not only will you win advanced secrets about Beth's incredible book (yep, we've read it, and we have no words. NO WORDS. It's that good), but you'll be entered to win a doodled ARC of ACROSS THE UNIVERSE and other swag--in addition to a MAJOR prize to be announced!!! How cool is that?

Anyway, we hope you're enjoying your trip so far. Your clue for today is...

H

See you tomorrow where we swear we'll be more punctual.

Top 5 Things We Learned This Week

5. NaNo isn't for the faint of heart. AND there are two of us! Bravo to you solitary NaNo-ers out there. We thought 2,000 words every other day was hard. We can't imagine not being able to ship off our nonsense with a "fix this" message. Thank God for writing partners.

4. We LOVE the new Senior Editor at Sourcebooks, Leah Hultenschmidt. Love. Love. Love. Total raging girl crush. You'll understand completely when you see some of the stuff we've got cooking for THE LIAR SOCIETY. It's genius. GENIUS! Even better, she blogs!!! Commence cyberstalking immediately.

3. Know who else we love? Leila Sales. Not only is she chatting live with her rockstar agent, Stephen Barbara and fielding all your nosy questions about her debut novel MOSTLY GOOD GIRLS, she's also giving away a signed copy and a killer "mix CD that has nothing to do with my book. It's just that the only thing I am capable of providing, other than books, are mix CDs." Awesome. If you participate in the chat and leave a comment on the WriteOnCon blog post, you're automatically entered to win! We'll announce the lucky winner LIVE on November 15th immediately following the 9 EST chat. Be there.

2. And we've finally figured out who we want to be when we grow up. Read this post and you'll understand completely. I mean, don't we all want to be able to tell the story of how we went from slinging burritos and stalking female basketball stars to New York Times Bestselling authors?


1. Turns out fun size Snickers really do satisfy you. Particularly when you eat 7 of them in one sitting. Now that's fun.

Have a fab weekend everyone! As always, we'll be back next week with more nonsense.

P.S.
Be sure to stop by and congratulate our phenomenal agent sister, Katy Longshore, on the sale of her debut novel GILT, the story of teenage Queen, Catherine Howard, told in a vibrant and contemporary voice, the first in a series of novels set in the court of Henry V111 (And yes, it has been brought to our attention by copy editor extraordinaire, Matthew Rush, that it should read Henry XVIII, but Katy had it this way on her blog and it's kind of grown on us. It reminds me of VH1 and that makes me happy. Speaking of VHI, does that channel even exist anymore? What the hell happened to VHI and why haven't I watched it since 2004?), to Kendra Levin at Viking Children's, at auction, in a three-book deal, for publication in Fall 2012.

Selfishly we're just really excited that she's getting published so we can read it! Congrats Katy!!!!

Bookinistas: THE LOVE GODDESS' COOKING SCHOOL

We were lucky enough to get our sticky little fingers on an ARC of Melissa Senate's latest THE LOVE GODDESS' COOKING SCHOOL and we have one warning. It's like the rule don't grocery shop on an empty stomach; don't read this book if you're hungry. I may or may not have gained five pounds over the two days I devoured it (those Halloween candy wrappers littered around me have nothing to do with it). It's also not a coincidence that every meal I've prepared over the past week has been Italian-inspired. And I seriously have Melissa to thank for helping to end my stove-strike. I even made chicken parmesan using homemade spaghetti sauce. Okay, okay, it wasn't my homemade sauce, it was Stacey's, but it still counts, right? Right.

Here's what the back cover has to say: Holly Maguire’s grandmother Camilla was the Love Goddess of Blue Crab Island, Maine—a Milanese fortune-teller who could predict the right man for you, and whose Italian cooking was rumored to save marriages. Holly has been waiting years for her unlikely fortune: her true love will like sa cordula, an unappetizing old-world delicacy. But Holly can’t make a decent marinara sauce, let alone sa cordula. Maybe that’s why the man she hopes to marry breaks her heart. So when Holly inherits Camilla’s Cucinotta, she’s determined to forget about fortunes and love and become an Italian cooking teacher worthy of her grandmother’s legacy.

But Holly’s four students are seeking much more than how to make Camilla’s chicken alla Milanese. Simon, a single father, hopes to cook his way back into his daughter’s heart. Juliet, Holly’s childhood friend, hides a painful secret. Tamara, a serial dater, can’t find the love she longs for. And twelve-year-old Mia thinks learning to cook will stop her dad, Liam, from marrying his phony lasagna-queen girlfriend. As the class gathers each week, adding Camilla’s essential ingredients of wishes and memories in every pot and pan, unexpected friendships and romances are formed—and tested. Especially when Holly falls hard for Liam . . . and learns a thing or two about finding her own recipe for happiness.

Lila's Take: We've been so caught up in the world of YA that reading this book reminded us of our first love, chick-lit women's fiction, that we've been neglecting the past two years. It was a little jarring to read about a main character in her *gasp* thirties who *gasp* drinks wine and is*gasp* allowed to have sex! But we liked it. We liked it a lot. Holly might start out with your typical broken heart, but her journey is unique and exciting. She heads back to Maine where she used to spend the summers and plans on helping her grandmother with her Italian cooking school to distance herself from her ex-boyfriend and his little girl. Of course, things don't always go according to plan, and when her grandmother unexpectedly passes away, she decides to try to take over the school to keep her grandmother's spirit alive. Throughout the course of the novel, Holly teaches herself to cook (it is obvious that Melissa has a great knowledge of Italian cooking, because the language, recipes and ingredients are authentic and ridiculously mouthwatering to boot. Our Grandma Josephine would be proud!), helps to heal the hearts of her broken students and even manages to stumble upon some love of her own. It's feel-good in the best way possible and even includes exact recipes in the back for brave readers to try on their own! What more could we ask for? Well, besides Melissa coming over and cooking for us.

Check out what the other Bookinistas are up to this week!

Elana Johnson marvels over The Mockingbirds



Lisa and Laura Roecker dish about The Love Goddess' Cooking School

Christine Fonseca is nostalgic over books she loved growing up

Shannon Messenger is excited about the Ninth Ward

Megan Miranda adores The Adoration of Jenna Fox

Myra McEntire raves about NetGalley

Kirsten Hubbard considers the good, the bad and the ugly impact of reviews

Bethany Wiggins can't get enough of Black Hole Sun

Jamie Harrington is thrilled about The Secret Society of the Pink Crystal Ball

WTF Wednesday - The Molly Ringwald Edition

According to UsMagazine.com Molly Ringwald has some fabu parenting advice that really hit home for team LiLa:


"I don't let my babies watch TV at all since there have been tests done that link it to ADD [because of the rapid editing]," mom to twins Ringwald, 42, tells The Washington Post. "I didn't have a TV for the first four years of my older daughter's upbringing, and now she really just doesn't much care for it."

This is bad news bears for the two women currently attempting to write 50,000 over the course of the next 30 days with 4 kids under the age of five and six measly hours of preschool a week for childcare.

In honor of Molly's exceptional parenting advice we're rewriting a scene from Pretty In Pink to reflect our feelings on the issue:


Molly: What do you want to hear?
LiLa: Tell me!
Molly: What?
LiLa: You think we're bad mothers!
Molly: No, I don't!
LiLa: You're ashamed that we believe that Nick Jr. really IS preschool on demand. You're terrified that your god forsaken nannies aren't nearly as effective at teaching multiculturalism as Dora.
[Lisa hits Molly]
LiLa: Just say it!
[Laura hits her again]
LiLa: Just tell us the truth!
Molly: You don't understand that it has nothing at all do with you. I just can't stand for my kids to watch television shows that I'm not starring in.
[LiLa runs away]
Molly: [wipes a tear] LiLa!!!!

[End scene] *LiLa bows*

LiLaWriMo

That's right bitches, we're officially NaNo-ing this year. Because obviously it's like the best idea ever to attempt to write an entire novel in one month immediately after one half of your writing team has popped out a baby and is operating on 4 hours of sleep per night. I mean, it's not like she has anything better to do, like, oh, I don't know, attempt to keep child services at bay.

Anyway, we'll still be on our five day a week posting schedule because we clearly have some kind of death wish. Stay tuned to find out if this is ends in twin divorces. All signs point to YES.

Mark Your Calendars!

That's right...we're excited to announce another WriteOnCon Live Event scheduled for:

Monday, November 15th

at 9 PM EST

featuring...drum roll please...

agent extraordinaire Stephen Barbara of Foundry Literary + Media as well as author and client the lovely Leila Sales

Stephen Barbara represents everything from Young Adult fiction to picture books as well as adult fiction and nonfiction with a young, hip feel, and crossover potential. His clients include (Leila Sales, of course), Lynne Jonell, Lauren Oliver, Laura Amy Schlitz, Todd Strasser, and Tom Venuto. Before Foundry, Stephen worked previous stints at HarperCollins and the Donald Maass Agency.

Leila Sales' debut novel MOSTLY GOOD GIRLS released on October 5th. She grew up outside of Boston, Massachusetts, and graduated from the University of Chicago. Now she lives in Brooklyn, New York and spends her time thinking about sleeping, kittens, dance parties, and stories that she wants to write. She also works in publishing, so we've got a two-for deal on our hands.

The topic for discussion will be the Agent-Author relationship, so start brainstorming questions now! We'll see you on the 15th!