WONDER by R.J. Palacio

It's been a long, long time since I've posted a book review. And it's not like I haven't read outstanding books in the past year. I have. Oh, I have. But, if there's one book, just one book, you decide to pick up (especially as a read aloud with young people), please let it be WONDER. I'm about a year late (as usual), but here it goes anyway...

I won't describe what I look like. Whatever you're thinking, it's probably worse. 
August Pullman was born with a facial deformity that, up until now, has prevented him from going to a mainstream school. Starting 5th grade at Beecher Prep, he wants nothing more than to be treated as an ordinary kid—but his new classmates can’t get past Auggie’s extraordinary face. WONDER, now a #1 New York Times bestseller and included on the Texas Bluebonnet Award master list, begins from Auggie’s point of view, but soon switches to include his classmates, his sister, her boyfriend, and others. These perspectives converge in a portrait of one community’s struggle with empathy, compassion, and acceptance. 

I began this book by reading an online excerpt and crying. Yep. Just from the excerpt. It broke my heart. It broke my heart because I remember middle school very vividly and I remember what it feels like to imagine that everyone is looking at you and making fun of you and judging you. I now understand that everyone felt that way and for the most part everyone was just looking at themselves and feeling insecure, but this book broke my heart because all of the sudden everyone was looking at Auggie. It made me wish I could have a do-over and go back to middle school and find the person who most needed a friend and be a friend. Back then, I wasn't quite strong enough to be a Summer (read the book and you'll meet Summer and you'll wish you could have a do-over too). But I'm really, really hoping I can pass along some courage to my own children.

Despite the fact that I can't go back, I can talk about this book and buy it as a present and share it with my kids. It can help start a conversation about kindness and opening up your heart and being a friend. It can help you feel and understand what it might be like in another person's shoes. And it will most definitely make you cry. Heartbreaking tears that hurt your throat, but also happy tears as you watch Auggie grow and change and live.

I loved this one. My daughter is not quite old enough to understand everything I'd like her to understand, so I'll count down the days. Or maybe start reading aloud to a random ten-year-old on the street.

They say it's your birthday!

Dear Lisa,
Happy Birthday, sister. I thought it was only appropriate on this very special day in October to dig through my Student Portfolio and personal writings and find a poem I'm not sure I ever shared with you back in '94. This was written shortly after my own birthday when I asked to borrow a certain pair of stinky clogs.

They looked a little like this:

Remember?

We looked like this:

You said no. I wrote this:

Look in my eyes, see who I am.

I am not you, I am me.

See in my heart, all there is to see.

Try to see the good, it is truly there.

Be who I am, just try to think,

what it would be like to be me.

I think different, I am not you.

You always yell, you always scream,

just try to think how I feel.

Your screams put a bruise on my heart.

You may not know, but they do.

I try to ask, but listen you won't.

My words seem to vanish, as if never heard.

Stop for a moment, listen to me.

It is as if some hate beneath you,

is given to me.

What is it?

What is so wrong with me?

The words that mean so much were never said.

I try to understand.

My heart just waited.

No more will I wait.

BAM. I really wanted those clogs. BUT...you made up for all of it by telling me you got me a special present. A Debbie Gibson HAT. I had visions of grandeur. Visions of this: 

It looked like this:

I still love you, anyway. Happy Birthday to my sister! If you want to borrow anything of mine today, it's YOURS. Kids? What? You want to celebrate with my kids? That can be arranged. I love you!

Love,

Laura

HUGE congratulations are in order...

The Reading Room has officially announced the winners of the 2013 Reading Room/WriteOnCon Aspiring Authors' Competition! Thank you to everyone who entered and voted--the talent this year was astounding.

The honor of Third Place and a cash prize of $250 goes to Amy Trueblood and her piece Fighting Chance.

The honor of Second Place and a cash prize of $500 goes to Ashley Laster and her piece Shades and Shadows.

And the honor of First Place and a cash prize of $1000 goes to Michelle Weidenbenner and her piece Love is Just a Word.  

Submissions for the Aspiring Authors competition were judged by a panel of three literary agents. Catherine Drayton of Inkwell Management, Charlie Olsen, of Inkwell Management and Jennifer Rofe, of Andrea Brown Literary.

All of the winning entries will appear in a special e-book, which will be available for download soon! Michelle will also have the opportunity to discuss her manuscript with literary agent Catherine Drayton!

In addition, EVERY voter will be entered into a drawing to win a $100 gift certificate, just for voting. So, technically, we're all winners!   Congratulations again, winners. You did it! Until next year...

How Candy Crush Saved My Life...

Just kidding. Candy Crush is destroying my life one dotted bon-bon (You know the ones. You see them and your heart starts racing and you do everything in your power to get a striped ball of joy next to them so your screen explodes with striped balls of joy working their stripey magic) at a time.

Candy Crush has made me a better mom.

This is happening.

"Busy," "High Energy," "Active," "Curious." These are all words that describe my 19-month-old son James. "Time-consuming," "Addictive," "Crack-laced," "Wasteful." These are words that describe Candy Crush. James + Candy Crush = Emergency.

Candy Crush has made my marriage stronger.

I give up.

Sometimes I'll wake up in the middle of the night and struggle to fall back asleep. A few games of Candy Crush never hurt anyone. Until the glow from your phone wakes your husband up out of a deep slumber and he catches you in the act. Candy Crush: 1. Marriage: 0.



Candy Crush has made me a better person.

This is called devotion.

To make up for my shortcomings since being introduced to this devil game, I baked a special cake for our family to enjoy.

Okay.

I'm lying. I didn't bake a cake and I have no intention of baking a Candy Crush cake or any cake for that matter. I did buy some chocolate chip cookie dough batter from Target yesterday, so that's something. Baby steps.


Candy Crush has made me a better writer.

Damn you flashing cursor. Damn you to Candy Crush hell.

If only I could multi-task while writing. If that were the case, I'd have Interior Therapy with Jeff Lewis streaming in the background, my phone in one hand Candy Crushing away and the other hand typing the book of our lives. Perhaps then I could truly say that Candy Crush saved my life. I wonder if those words have ever been uttered. The creator. Only out of the creator who is laughing his way to the bank every time someone agrees to pay 99 cents to continue playing his crack-laced app.


But hey, at least I'm not desperate enough to spend any money on Candy Crush or change the time on my phone to get more lives.

Okay.

I'm lying again. I might have invested a little over $10.00 so far to unlock additional levels. But it's only so I don't have to wait three days or bother Facebook friends. Is that so bad? Is it? IS IT?

And no, I haven't changed the time on my phone.

Yet.

New beginnings...

We've sent a proposal for three new books to our agent. And we're excited. Like, really, really excited. Needless to say, we've been refreshing ever since. And we're afraid she's going to hate them. We're afraid of rejection, we're afraid of failing, we're afraid of change, but we can't help but be excited. Because at the end of the day, that's what this business is all about. Possibility. And hope. And change.

We're bound and determined to re-capture the magic we felt when we first started writing together. And we're hoping these three books will do just that.

Here's to hoping (and refreshing).

I'll tell you one thing that will never get old...

Fans.

If you haven't noticed, Lisa and I have been stuck in some sort of rut as of late. We've let the blog slip, let our writing slip, let our connection to publishing slip. We've put our hands up, taken a giant step back and have shut down just a teensy bit. Okay, a bigger than teensy bit. But all of this is okay. It was summer. Life was crazy. We needed a break.

But there have been signs. They've been sneaking into our lives, tapping us on the shoulders and gently nudging us back to writing. An idea for a blog post. A writing conference that inspires. A writing workshop with young, aspiring writers. And FANS.

We taught a summer writing workshop for The Learned Owl (the best neighborhood bookshop ever) called Embracing Your Inner Teenager: Writing for YA. It was awesome. There were retired women beginning a new chapter of their lives, ACTUAL young adults who loved to write and a few who came just because they were intrigued. At the end of the session, one of the young girls pointed to a copy of THE LIAR SOCIETY and said, "Wait a second. Did you write that book?" Why yes. Yes we did. She smiled widely and took out her phone. "My friend Kaylee is going to DIE. She loves that book. It, like, changed her life. Seriously! It's worn and marked up and has all sorts of creases on the spine because she's read it so many times. She's going to be so jealous that I got to meet you!" This adorable young girl went on to buy a signed copy of the book for her friend and it about made our night.

We felt pretty spiffy. Not only did we have an actual fan, but we'd had the chance to leave a special message in the book, including our email address, to said fan who we hoped we'd hear from soon. Because fans are amazing. But EMAILS from fans?! No words. But then I began to kick myself for not passing along an ARC of THE THIRD LIE'S THE CHARM to our new favorite fan. How easy would it have been to hand over the copy I had at the workshop?! She could have had an early read of the final installment. Boo.

But then the stars aligned as they sometimes do. My new favorite babysitter came over to watch my crazy 19-month-old son so we could head out to kindergarten open house and actually be able to breathe, focus and talk like normal people. Favorite babysitter said, "Lydia mentioned you were a writer and when she showed me your books, I recognized them. They're my sister Joanna's favorite!" Now it was my turn to smile widely. Another fan?! So exciting for us. And Ding Ding Ding, a chance to pass along that ARC. I rushed off to get one and handed it over to the best babysitter ever. But this time, I left some more specific instructions in the book.

"Joanna, so glad you like the books! Read (early!) and enjoy, but try your hardest to find Kaylee Arnold* when you're done and pass it along to her."

Mission accomplished. And now I can sleep at night.




*Don't worry Kaylee. I changed your name.

Hello, my name is Lisa and I suck...

Well, hello blogosphere! You’re still around? It’s kind of been a while.

So, yeah, I’ve been busy and distracted and kind of a mess. But a mess in a good way. We sold our house. We moved in with my parents. We moved into a new house. We got a dog. I’ve accepted a promotion at work. My kids are growing. They say funny things every day. They give me sticky hugs and kisses. They’re meeting new friends, getting ready for a new school. I’ve seen lots of great movies. I’ve read a few amazing books. I’ve watched way too much shitty television.

And in between all of it, THIS IS W.A.R. made its way onto shelves. We got ARCs of the final book in The Liar Society series. We’ve had a million conversations about what we should write next, when we should start it, how we’re going to find the time.

But writing has taken a back seat to life over the past several months. And I’m ok with that. It wasn’t necessarily on purpose. It just kind of happened. I think we needed a break. Time to shift gears and reevaluate who we are as writers and people and moms and friends and sisters and wives.

But now we’re back.

Or we’re trying to be back. I’m trying to be back. We have a new project that we’re working on. I want it to work so badly. I want to recapture the magic that we found writing all of our other books. And I’m so excited to dive back in. But I’m scared too. Because what if this is it? What if we can’t get back to that place where we’re up all night writing chapters. Laughing out loud over stupid jokes we lace between sentences and paragraphs. What if we’re done?

The truth is: I’m scared. I know too much now. I can’t ever be that stupid newbie writer who thought we could crank out a book in a month that would turn into an international bestseller.

But maybe that’s ok. Maybe being scared is good. Hell, maybe being scared will make us better.

Either way, being scared is so much better than giving up.

PS: Today is the LAST day to enter the WriteOnCon/Reading Room Aspiring Authors Contest. What are you waiting for?!

WriteOnCon 2013

If you haven't already heard, WriteOnCon 2013 is COMING. Next Week. August 13th and 14th to be exact. If you haven't joined us before, this is YOUR year.

Our faculty is incredible and the wealth of information blows are collective minds. You will learn, you will connect, you will LOVE.

Click here to read a little about how WriteOnCon came to be and check out our lovely sponsors of the Aspiring Writer's Competition, The Reading Room. The contest is better than ever this year with the chance to win one of 3 monetary prizes. If you have a finished MG, YA or NA manuscript, you have no excuse! ENTER!
 

Earn a key, join the W.A.R.

By preordering a copy of THIS IS W.A.R., not only will you get a beautiful key necklace, but you'll officially be a member of the W.A.R.! So, what are you waiting for?!

ONE WEEK TO GO. AHHHH!

I'll Be Seeing You

It all begins with a letter.

"I hope this letter gets to you quickly. We are always waiting, aren't we? Perhaps the greatest gift this war has given us is the anticipation…"

It's January 1943 when Rita Vincenzo receives her first letter from Glory Whitehall. Glory is an effervescent young mother, impulsive and free as a bird. Rita is a sensible professor's wife with a love of gardening and a generous, old soul. Glory comes from New England society; Rita lives in Iowa, trying to make ends meet. They have nothing in common except one powerful bond: the men they love are fighting in a war a world away from home.

Brought together by an unlikely twist of fate, Glory and Rita begin a remarkable correspondence. The friendship forged by their letters allows them to survive the loneliness and uncertainty of waiting on the home front, and gives them the courage to face the battles raging in their very own backyards. Connected across the country by the lifeline of the written word, each woman finds her life profoundly altered by the other's unwavering support.

A collaboration of two authors whose own beautiful story mirrors that on the page, I'll Be Seeing You is a deeply moving union of style and charm. Filled with unforgettable characters and grace, it is a timeless celebration of friendship and the strength

and solidarity of women.

If you haven't already done so, go ahead and place an order, head to the store, BUY THIS BOOK. It is a stunning collection of letters between two women and will leave you with something so valuable and often rare these days. Hope.

Congratulations to Loretta and Suzy. We are so incredibly proud of all you have accomplished and can't wait to see what happens next!

Happy Mother's Day

From time to time I’ll be struck by a moment. It’s usually something completely ordinary—tickling my daughter to get a belly laugh, the “hi” we get from James every morning when we open his door, my husband reading books before bedtime. I memorize the way her eyes crinkle, his tiny fingers gripping the chewed up crib rail, the two pairs of feet side by side in Lydia’s twin bed. And I’m positive I’ll remember, force myself to etch it and save it and treasure it and pull all of those ordinary moments back up when my kids are too big to be held and too busy to play and too cool for their old mom.

 

I have a bunch of them saved up, in between all the other not-so-fond memories I’ve pushed to the bottom—the morning stress sessions and fights to get out the door on time, the if-you-don’t-get-your-hands-off-your-brother-I’ll-I’ll-I’ll…, the time outs and tears and failures. But luckily the good prevails and the kids sleep. I peek in every night and gaze longingly at their innocent little sleeping faces to erase all of the challenges of the day and no matter what morning brings (James digging through cupboards, Lydia’s aggressive passionate love, disconnections, misunderstandings, exhaustion), they are peaceful and sweet and perfect.

 

Being a mom is not an easy job. I never knew guilt until I became a mom. I never truly appreciated my mom and how hard she worked, how much she loved us, how much she taught me until I became a mom. I never knew pressure until I became a mom. But I would have it no other way. Happy Mother’s Day. Here's to all of those perfectly, ordinary moments ahead.