The Wonder That Was Thursday

Thursday was the day I went to BEA. The first amazing thing that happened was I got my badge. It said:

VERONICA ROTH
HarperCollins Children's
PUBLISHED AUTHOR



(Published author? MOI? Surely you jest.)

Anyway, I had no idea what to expect when JSV and I pulled up to the Javits Center in our cab.

After we met the fantastic Molly O'Neill, we all walked up to the main floor, which made me instantly salivate. Basically, all you need to know about BEA is that it is Wonderland for writers. I didn't get to nibble on a snack cake that made me tiny, but I did see a sea of publisher's names dangling from the ceiling, including, drumroll, HarperCollins. Love.

But there wasn't much time for that, because I was whisked away to a little meeting room, also labeled...you guessed it...HarperCollins.

(Smack me if this gets annoying.)

The people who waited for me in that room were people I never thought I would meet, not in my wildest dreams. Among them were Susan Katz (president of the HC), Kate Jackson (Editor-In-Chief), Katherine Tegen (of Katherine Tegen Books), Andrea Pappenheimer, and Jennifer Sheridan (of Sales), and of course, other wonderful people who I hope will forgive me for forgetting their names.

You would think, of course, that these people would be intimidating to Captain Introvert over here (anyone who can accurately call themselves "president" or "in-chief" is sort of a badass, wouldn't you say?). And in the spirit of honesty, I must say that I was intimidated, but only for a few seconds. Once we all started talking, I realized something.

They were freaking COOL.

I don't mean because of what they do. For example, certainly what Susan Katz does is cool. But she's also personable, smart, and didn't have to take time out of the crazy that is BEA to meet with me, but did anyway. All of those things are cool, and they applied to everyone sitting at that table. They were laughing, smiling, real, kind people who set me at ease and, most amazing of all, were interested in my book and in me.

Really, what more can you ask for from your first publishing experience?

By the time we skidaddled out of the Javits Center an hour later, most of my nerves were gone. Then me and JSV and Molltasia, aka Molly, and Katherine Tegen hopped, skipped, and jumped over to HarperCollins.

The HarperCollins building is basically a black-glass pillar of incredible. You can see great buildings from every office, including this beautiful Episcopal church.

We saw Katherine's office, which was FULL OF BOOKS, and then went downstairs to meet Patty Rosati and Laura Lutz, who work in school and library marketing. At this point, I realized that the people I was meeting had actually read part/all of Divergent and actually enjoyed it. But I'll talk more about that later. Suffice it to say that Patty and Laura were easy to be around, and then Laura (who is very sweet) asked me for my first signature on her copy of the manuscript, which I gladly gave.

Then we met with Helen Boomer in subrights (she explained subrights to me. Finally I understand!), and also Suzanne Daghlian, the marketing director. Suzanne, who is one of those instantly-likable people we all aspire to be, took us downstairs to the HC video studio (yes, that's right) where I got my nose de-shined and answered a few Divergent related questions for this large green circle of light, also known as a camera. Upon emerging from said studio, I felt giddy like a little kid, but thankfully managed to suck it in, lest I seem even more looney tunes than I actually am.

Then we went back upstairs and met Joel Tippie and Barb Fitzsimmons, who will be developing and designing my cover, and if you've seen some of their previous covers, you'll know why I'm so excited about it.

I feel like I'm not going to sound genuine because I'm not usually this gushy, but really? I am being honest. I had a lot of fun in that building. I haven't even talked about the best part, which is: most of them had read my book, or at least part of it, and they LIKED it.

Cue brain explosion.

I don't know if I can explain this feeling well. I wrote Divergent because I had an idea and I loved it and Beatrice was screaming her head off inside me, telling me to freaking finish already. (She's really annoying sometimes.) I somehow didn't believe that anyone would ever connect with it the way I did. But the more people I met at the HC, the more I realized that they did, or that they connected with it in other ways that I never anticipated. I've realized that this is the greatest thing about getting published. It's not people liking my writing, or my story, although that's great. It's realizing that I'm not shouting into emptiness; people hear and understand what I'm saying.

All right. That's enough misty-eyed-ness today.

They have this huge meeting room in the HC with frosted glass sliding doors that pull back when they need to expand the room into the hallway and into the other meeting room on the other side, and massive screens so everyone can see what's going on, and I could have ogled at that giant empty table for an eternity, I swear. Everything in that building is clean and sharp and modern. I want to live there.

Eventually I went to lunch with Katherine and Molly, because JSV had to hustle back to the Javits to be at the panel Kody Keplinger was on, and had a great time. Katherine is cool and collected and on top of things. Molly is bright and sweet and enthusiastic. Basically, by the end of lunch I was convinced (not that I wasn't convinced before) that I was in very good hands.

Then I hauled butt back to the Javits Center so I could catch the second half of Kody's panel. She was on it with Sophie Jordan (who wrote FIRELIGHT, and is another HC author, whatWHAAT), Ally Condie (author of MATCHED), Erin Bowe (author of PLAIN KATE), and Rebecca Maizel (author of INFINITE DAYS). I missed Kate Sullivan reading a section of the DUFF with the "f" word in it, which is sad, but I did catch enough to be convinced that I need to read all of those books (two down, three to go). Kody was, of course, very natural and genuine and great on that panel, which pretty much summarizes how Kody is all the time, and why she's my eighteen-year-old writer hero, but that is beside the point.

JSV and Kody and Sara (assistant at Nancy Coffey Literary and generally great human being) and I wandered back to the HC area after that, and I had my first starstruck moment when I met Melissa Marr (and her chicken-dancing husband). Melissa Marr is pretty much a badass, in the nicest of ways. I also met Sophie Jordan. Have you seen her book's cover? It's stunning:



(Original is here.)

Also at the HC area, I got an ARC of "I Am Number Four" and pretty much salivated. Because, seriously? The tagline at the top of that book is "THREE ARE DEAD." Three are dead, I am number four? HOW AWESOME IS THAT?

Somewhere in there, I met Janet Reid. Okay, so I don't want to damage her sharklike reputation, and I only met her for a few seconds, but I could already tell that Janet is really a kind person. And funny, of course. This was only further confirmed when I read her blog post about Kody and JSV (which is here).

Let me transition into the people I hung out with there. Suzie Townsend-- wait, did I say "Suzie Townsend"? I meant General Townsend. Or Swag-Collecting-Rockstar Townsend-- who is hilarious. Diana Fox, who is many kinds of awesome. Michelle Hodkin, her client, who is, aside from making me laugh and getting me ketchup with absolutely no fear, a genuinely cool person (AND OMG DID YOU HEAR ABOUT HER BOOK DEAL? Congrats to both Diana and Michelle! I'm so excited to read it!) Kody, of course, who I've already gushed about. I also met a bunch of Twitterpeople, including Mitali Dave and Shelli Johannes (who may rival Suzie in her swag-collecting skills, I'm told).

By the end of the day, though, I had a sack full of books, my feet were about to fall off, my shoulders ached, and I was happy, happy, happy.

I think I need to stop there, because although there were other things I did that day, this post is fast approaching WAY TOO LONG.

What a beautiful day it was. Slept happy, soundly, and blessed that night.

Why A Trilogy is Like a Long-Term Relationship

First off, I have to say that my long and unannounced absence was due to a Florida vacation with unexpected internet deficiency. I thought I would have wireless there, but as it turns out, my computer refuses to connect to wireless networks unless it is fifteen feet from the router, and I had no idea where the router at this retreat center was.

I am back now. Hello.

The other day I had what we in the writing community refer to as a SNI, or Shiny New Idea. Many of you know what this feels like: the idea creeps into your mind when you least expect it and then bangs its fists as hard as it can on the inside of your skull, trying to force you to pay attention to it.

But this SNI will have a problem worming its way into my life, because I am in a long-term relationship. Also known as a trilogy.

Back when I was just dating-- wait, did I say dating? I meant writing stand-alone books-- I could feel free to flit around from SNI to SNI if I wanted to, knowing that I could go back to whatever Work-In-Progress I wanted to work on at any given time. Now, that practice is somewhat unwise, because you should really focus on one eventually or you'll never finish anything, just like if you keep jumping from significant other to significant other, you'll have trouble discovering the person you want to marry.

This parallel really does work. Because in a long-term relationship, you can desperately love the other person but still have days when your relationship frustrates you and you have to work really hard to make it work. And that's how I feel about Divergent. I love this book, and I am excited for the next two. But it has just dawned on me that I really do have to just write down those SNIs and put them away until a few years from now when I can give them my full attention (this is when the parallel breaks down. Because eventually, the trilogy will be done, whereas the real life long-term relationship, if successful, will continue indefinitely.)

People in relationships talk about being "in a rut" after they're married for a long time, so I thought I would look at their advice for getting out of it and try to apply it to writing. (THE PARALLEL GOES BOTH WAYS. AHA!)

The relationship tips I'm using are from here. Prepare yourselves, guys. This is going to be weird.

1. A Weekend Away: Take some time to reconnect with your trilogy. Put away the message boards, Twitter, Facebook, and hilarious website in which you can find de-motivational Twilight posters involving velociraptors. Re-read it. Get in touch with why you fell in love with it in the first place.

2. A Weekly Date: Reread your manuscript every week. Yes, that's right. Every week. How are you going to remember all the good times you had together if you don't revisit them, eh? You should know your trilogy like you know the back of your hand. Better, actually, because who memorizes the back of their hand? I have a scar on mine and I have no idea where it came from.



3. A Peaceful Room: Maybe there should be at least one place in your home/apartment/dorm room/bedroom that is clean (unless you don't like clean), organized (same here), or at least, dedicated completely to writing. Where else are you going to go to "get away from it all" together?

4. Write a Letter: Make a list of all the things about your trilogy you would like to fix. Is it too long? Too short? Does it constantly nag you to do the dishes? Does it always watch football when you want to watch a Lifetime movie? Then make a list of all the things you like about it. Like: the main character is a badass. The antagonist haunts your dreams. And sometimes, when the light hits it just right, you can see a little bit of blue in its eyes.

I told you this would be weird.

5. Make Plans for Your Future Together: One word. Brainstorm. This trilogy has a future, right? It has an arc. And you'd better know what that arc is, dangit.

6. Spend Ten Minutes Together Daily: I need writing time every day if I'm going to get in the groove. Even if I just sit here and stare at the screen for a half hour, that half hour is useful. And I don't think I'm the only one. And no, opening the manuscript while you watch Glee is not quality time with your trilogy. I don't care how hunky you think...that one guy...is. (I don't watch Glee. I don't know their names.)

7. Do Something New: I really like this one, actually. Sometimes, what I need to start to love my manuscript again is to just write a new scene. It doesn't have to make it into the draft. I usually have a bunch of ideas laying around that I haven't written out yet, and I bet you do, too. And I've done this twice in the past few weeks, and discovered that those scenes I had bouncing around in my head are actually useful for the manuscript. WHO KNEW? And now they're in the draft, and I love them. Putting your characters in new, random, ridiculous situations sometimes recharges your trilogy batteries.

Sometimes it makes you feel like you're writing fanfiction for your own novel.

But whatever.

So there you have it. Ways to get your relationship with your spouse--er, I mean trilogy-- out of a rut.

Let's see if they work, shall we?

Any other suggestions?

Interview Navigation System/Flashback Friday

Today's post is going to be a two-parter, because I wanted to participate in Flashback Friday (you can see all the other Flashback Friday posts at GotYA, and they will make you feel nostalgic for times you didn't even know existed), but I also have something book-related to talk about.

First of all, if we're going to talk about songs that take us back, this is the first one that comes to mind. When I listen to it, I wonder why the hell I ever liked this kind of music. And why anyone ever frosted their hair and spiked it. And how I ever got my dignity back after dancing around to this in my bedroom.



Oh, pre-teen nostalgia.

("Chinese food makes me sick" is a lyric? REALLY?)

Anyway. I promised to sort of drag you guys along in this whole book process, kicking and screaming, so I have to talk to you about interviews, also known as When Your Alma Mater Finds Out You're Getting Published.

I got interviewed twice this week, the first time by our school newspaper (we have a very intense journalism program here), and the second time by someone in the Office of University Relations. If you know anything about me, you know that I'm constantly wondering if I sound stupid when I talk to people I don't know, particularly if we're talking about my writing. I am sure that some of you have that same problem. Writers, as a bunch, are not mega-outgoing. We're more likely to put on giant sweaters and hole up in our bedrooms than, you know, dress up like Lady GaGa and crash a college party, or whatever those outgoing people do.

I did notice that in these two interviews, I was asked some of the same questions, which is the helpful part of this post. You will probably need to know how to answer these questions, even if you aren't in the process of getting published, because people will ask you them in normal conversation, too. And it's just easier to get started on figuring out how to answer them now, lest you be like me, pacing back and forth on the phone in my bedroom and picking up carpet fuzz when I don't know the answer to something.

THE QUESTIONS:

1. What's with the marshmallow thing? (Okay, so you probably won't get asked this ever, unless you do some kind of bizarre marshmallow stunt. But who does that? Pshh.)

2. What's your book about? (TIME FOR YOUR TWO SENTENCE SUMMARY, everyone! I can almost hear the chorus of groans now. But seriously. I didn't have one and it was nerve-wracking. I mumbled something about mumblemumblechoicedystopianteenagegirlmumblemumble.)

3. When did you write it?/How long did it take you to write it? (Here I was thinking, how do I tell you I wrote a draft in 40 days without sounding like I'm secretly saying I'mawesomeI'mawesome?)

4. How did the process work?/Some variant thereof?

Pause. Be very specific when you answer this one, or they'll end up thinking you sent query letters to publishers and some kid who reads the article will start sending letters to Harper Collins because he thinks that's how it works. Bad bad bad. My second interview I was like "I sent query letters TO LITERARY AGENTS. And when one of those LITERARY AGENTS read my query letter, that LITERARY AGENT requested to read my manuscript. LITERARY AGENT."

5. Why do you write for young adults? (I like this one a lot. I get to talk about how adults sometimes don't give teenagers enough credit, and how young adult novels can be full of depth and meaning, and how the books you read during your formative years have extra sticking power. Basically, I get to sound like I'm not just barely an un-teenager myself. Little do they know...)

6. How did you come up with the idea for the book?

7. Did you write this for the writing program at Northwestern? (You won't get asked this either, unless you're in the writing program at Northwestern. But it's kind of awkward to say "no, that stuff I wrote for the program is going to stay in a folder on my desktop. I wrote this in my free time. What free time, you ask? The free time I created by not doing homework.")

OH. The most awkward question:

8. What do you think it is about your book that made a publisher gravitate toward it?/Something like that? (My response: "Uhhh...okay, you caught me. I sent in the manuscript with CANDY attached to it." Not really, but what am I supposed to say to that? It's like someone asking "why do people like you?" I just want to say I don't freaking know. I'm just glad they do.)

I feel like I'm missing some. Does anyone else have questions people ask you about your writing? You know, aside from "is it like Twilight/Harry Potter?"

Divergent Playlist

One thing that revising does to me is it makes me feel compelled to share what songs I'm listening to in order to get through it. I've been posting links to some of the songs on Twitter, but the talented Michelle Hodkin suggested I post the full list on the blog, and I thought that was maybe a good idea.

I'm a little sensitive about playlists, because when I find songs to write to, I don't really consider what genre the music is or how respectable the band is or any of that. If it makes me think of Divergent characters or scenes, it's on the playlist, no matter how I feel about the artist as a whole. But I think it's time to get over it and just post the darn thing.

I do want to mention a few things that I think are cool, though.

Flyleaf

The Flyleaf CD came out around the time I started to write Divergent, and it was by listening to several of those songs that I came up with the plot. Really. I would put on the song and all these ideas would just pour into my brain. It was insane. That's why four of their songs are on the playlist. But the most important one is "Chasm." Because that song helped me nail down Divergent's tone.

Also, "Again" is the one I listen to when I need to get in the main character + love interest mode. I know it's a song about God, so that doesn't make much sense, but...it works for me.

Evanescence

I don't really listen to Evanescence anymore (not because I don't like them, but because I think I over-listened), but I can't help but give a nod to "Sweet Sacrifice." Four years ago, I was driving to Minnesota (where I used to go to college) and I had to unplug my iPod so I could plug in a heating pad for my super messed-up back (which was even more messed up at the time than it is now). So I had to put in a CD if I wanted music, and one of the only ones I had was The Open Door by Evanescence. "Sweet Sacrifice" came on, and I was too lazy to change it, even though I didn't really like the song that much. And it was because I listened to it that I came up with Divergent's world, at least the early version of it. Something about the line "fear is only in our minds, but it's taking over all the time" in combination with: my fascination with group dynamics, the video I had just watched on exposure therapy in Psychology 101, and my desperate need to ignore my back pain enough to not get hit by that truck. What truck? THAT ONE OVER THERE, AHHH!

It's weird how little things like that lead you to such interesting places.

Anyway, here it is. I didn't put all the songs I've listened to on here, because there are a jillion, and a lot of them aren't available on playlist.com. But most of the important ones are here.

Do you guys have playlists? If so, please share some songs. I'm looking for new writing music.