In Which I Tear Up on Panel and Have Dinner with Literary Luminaries

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It would have helped if I had gotten a good night of sleep, but I lay awake on Thursday night perseverating on the NYC Teen Author Festival, and the panel I would be on called Under the Influence, with literary luminaries Libba Bray, Carolyn Mackler, Barry Lyga, Susane Colasanti, MaryRose Wood, Alexandra Bullen and Adrienne Maria Vrettos.

I knew that I was invited on the panel because of Gran. What would I say? I am not her, but to say she hasn't had a profound impact and influence on my life just isn't true. You who read my blog regularly, know that I explore this dance between paying homage to her, and having my own voice. People would be mighty disappointed to read my work and expect another Madeleine L'Engle.

How could I possibly be her?

Yet sleep evaded me, so I treated myself to a pedicure and electric green toes before hopping on the train to get to the main branch of the New York Public Library on 42nd Street. I met fellow debutante author Arlaina Tibensky, whose book And then Things Fall Apart comes out this July. (She is also the curator for the fabulous Pen Parentis, for which I read in December. If you are a parent and a writer, please check them out!)

Arlaina was on the debut author panel, and she KILLED. Really, I can't wait to read her book! I wasn't nervous through her panel, or the next panel, until it was my turn. Then all of a sudden . . .

You all know that I heart Carolyn and Barry, and that I was dying to meet Libba. Just dying. I sat in between Carolyn and Susane Colasanti. Barry was moderating the panel as well as being "on" it. (Or "of" it?) I was cold, which didn't help my out-of-body feeling. Fortunately, I was #5 to talk about my "influences" after Susane, who talked about The Outsiders. (Hell, yes!) Libba before her, talked about Stephen Sondheim and John Irving (more head nodding.) And then me. I was going to add Shakespeare and Marion Zimmer Bradley to the mix, but instead I said: "I'm nervous to tell you who my influence is. It is is my grandmother . . ." and then I said her name and the audience gasped. I talked about how she has help shaped my world view and introduced me to the world of literature, and I choked up when talking about getting the chance to read to her during her years of decline.

I got through it! Afterward, they had to kick us out of the library, and we stood on the outside steps for ages, authors everywhere getting to know each other. Nine of us went out to dinner at a Mediterranean Brasserie called Pera: Adrienne, (who has written three books while juggling a full time job and two small children - can I just say, WOW!) - Carolyn Mackler, Libba Bray and I sat on one end of the table, David Levithan sat in the middle, while his assistant Zach, Barry Lyga, Arlaina and another debut author Margie Gelbwasser (Inconvenient) sat at the other end.

We had so much fun - I was loath for the evening to end! Libba and I have more in common than I had originally thought - I was floored by how similar our backgrounds and interests are. And I probably talked WAY too much! Nerves have a way of doing that to me . . . and I'm kicking myself for not having pictures!

Up next on the blog and in RL? The big Teen Author fiesta book signing at Books of Wonder tomorrow, starting at 1PM! I will be there as a fan gurl, and signing Edges from 1:45 to 2:30. It will be veritable mayhem! Join us!

And then: big train trip to Richmond, Virginia on Monday, appearance on Good Morning, Virginia (I know!) and then a workshop and book event at Fountain Books!

Thank you YA Community!

I had a hard time falling asleep last night I was so excited. Everything is coalescing as my book birthday looms in front of me, only five days away. I had lunch with new friend and neighbor Katie Davis the other day. She asked me what my book was about, and I faltered in the telling.

"Why are you hesitating?" she asked.

"Well, people don't think that alcoholism and recovery are very sexy," I said.

"Says who?" She challenged. "You've got to own this. It sounds AWESOME. And it hasn't been done before."

Yeah. My book IS awesome. Thanks Katie! Katie not only writes amazing kidlit and YA, but also does a weekly podcast and is a social media/twitter maven. She told me about twitterbookbday.com and I struggled through the signing up, but I did it! (So hopefully a lot of people will be tweeting about Edges next Tuesday.)

And more thanks go out to Judy Blundell for her endorsement of Edges and for her friendship; Sandra Jordan for being with me through the long haul:  Courtney Sheinmel for her adamant insistence that I have a book birthday party; Rebecca Stead, Daphne Grab, Deborah Heiligman, Lucy Frank, Elizabeth Winthrop, Jeanne Betancourt, and Carolyn Mackler for their support and encouragement during our monthly lunches. (Happening TODAY! Must train to the city with Judy in mere minutes!)

And to you, dear readers, and the community we are building through Facebook and through this blog, your support means everything to me. Thank you so much for reading and for reaching out your hands in friendship - I am reaching back and holding on - you're coming with me!

Addendum: I have to also give a shout out to fellow debutantes Lish McBride and Jen Violi, who both live as far west as you can get in this country, and whom I never get to share a real plate of french fries with, but who have been crucial partners in crime, traveling the zig-zag road of YA Lit and publishing! I heart you guys!

EDGES Available for Pre-Order on Amazon!!!

And I need to sub title this: SHAMELESS NAME-DROPPING & SELF-PROMOTION.

I've been pondering how much more pro-active I can be about marketing EDGES other than blogging, and beating down the doors of my publishers. I've been worried: am I doing enough? I've been insecure: but so and so blogs 5x a day and has 3000 followers! I can almost hear my Gran quoting John Donne as she was wont to do in these times of self doubt: "Comparisons are odious", and I try my best to heed her advice.

But I know I need a swank and hip website, and Elizabeth Winthrop sees my need for career control and keeps telling me to make a teaching guide and a workshop around EDGES - she is so write! I mean, right . . . I've been getting antsy about the whole promoting angle, and resolved to do most of it myself.

So . . . last night when I should have been sleeping - now, I may embarrass myself - I googled "Léna Roy", out of curiosity, not expecting anything earth shattering, you know, maybe a couple of links to this blog, when I found a link to Amazon, and to EDGES! Mon Dieu, it is seven months away from publication, and already available for pre-order. I don't know what this means, but suffice it to say, I am VERY excited, and had energy to bring to this months' Writers 4 Writers lunch with Rebecca Stead and Elizabeth, Carolyn, Lucy and Jeanne. Rebecca had other "promoting" news for me - she had just come back from the International Reading Association convention in Chicago, where she was very busy presenting, but had taken a picture of an ARC of EDGES being displayed next to my Gran's AND BOTH WERE YOUNG! How's that for exposure?

And my friends tell me that they never know anything either until it happens. Or it doesn't - we have to be prepared for that too. (Buy oy! Worry can be crippling!) Suffice it to say that I couldn't get a hold of anybody who knew what was going on today, but at the same time, what this shows me that I need to have a little more faith, and that just because I am blind and naive about this process doesn't necessarily mean that I'm going to fall on my tush. And if that happens, as it certainly has on numerous occasions, then I need to pick myself up and redouble my efforts! (After wallowing in chocolate for a week or so of course!)

AND . . . if anybody decides to check out Amazon to see if it's TRUE, (or maybe even pre-order the book? I told you I would be shameless - ah, but you are waiting for my book launch party on December 7th, maybe, yes?) there is no information about the book yet, and I don't have an author page. (Have signed up, but they need verification from the publisher.)

More from me on . . . Saturday!

Writers for Writers

Oh, I just came back from an amazing lunch at PICNIC in my hometown, NYC with six amazing women writers! How did I get to be so lucky? (And please forgive my blatant name dropping, but I AM so excited, and this is the lit.life, huh?) Well, let me tell you a story . . .

Last year a parent in my sons' school kept telling me about her childhood friend Rebecca, and that we would really like each other. "Her book is coming out in July, and the main character carries around a copy of A Wrinkle in Time." Nice! Then my sister told me about a book she was doing a blurb for where the protagonist . . . you got it, carries a copy of Wrinkle . . . well, I put two and two together. (I'm not just another pretty face you know . . . ;-))

In late August, I finally read When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead, and was entirely captivated. So I went to her website and sent her a fan letter and a bumbling would-you-like-to-have-coffee-with-me sort of thing. She did! She suggested we meet for breakfast at PICNIC on the Upper West Side and completely hit it off. She has long brown hair and the warmest eyes ever - she is so down to earth! We talked about growing up in NYC in the late 1970's (when her book takes place) and how different it is raising our kids today. I asked her if she would be interested in forming a children's writer's group - not a critique group or a workshop, but more of a support kind of thing. She was on board! We decided to meet once a month, and to invite a few other kid lit authors. She knew a few writers who might be interested, and I was hoping that Carolyn Mackler (who I was having lunch with the next week) would be interested too. Rebecca was the one who came up with the moniker Writers for Writers in the heading of an e-mail confirming our next meeting. It felt like an actual entity, a real thing. (Again, I keep pinching myself because I'm actually feeling like a writer, rather than just playing at being one. Although my grandmother always said that if you write, you are a writer . . . too bad that I didn't completely internalize that one!)

The next month Rebecca brought Daphne Grab, YA author of a beautiful book, Alive and Well in Prague, New York. (Check it out - I loved it!) And the after that, Rebecca brought Deborah Heiligman! (See last post) Wow!

Today, Rebecca couldn't be with us because she is in Chicago as part of a book tour for Newbery Award winning WYRM. But she still brought people! I was the first to arrive and just getting settled when in walks Elizabeth Winthrop, writer of over 55 children's books! I am in awe . . . then she tells me that not only did my grandmother blurb one of her books, but that we have the same agent, Edward Necarlsumer! (More jaw dropping . . . can't wait to tell him!) Then Daphne comes in, followed by Deborah, and Lucy Frank, another YA author with a new book out called The Home School Liberation League, and Carolyn rounded out the group.

FIVE outstanding author's and me! How did that happen? Deborah told us about receiving the phone call about her Printz Honor, (Will make a great blog post, Deborah!) we talked about awards, writing, not writing, websites, blogging, not blogging . . . and all of the above!

(Full confession now - I am ALWAYS scared to POST, but a very wise woman once told me, if you over-think, you'll never do anything. And then I imagine that nobody is reading or cares and this is a good spiritual exercise for me. So here it goes, I'm pressing the button!)

If I'm tired, it's because I could not put down Carolyn Mackler's TANGLED!

Hi, my name is Léna, and I'm addicted to reading. Seriously. Some of you must know what I mean. The urge, the compulsion can strike at any moment, and if I don't get my reading fix in, I'm cranky, irritable and discontent. And reading on my computer doesn't count. Pah! (Take that Kindle!) I need to hold a book in my hands, smell the crispness of the paper, feel the smoothness of the pages. (Sigh. I may have to stop writing and open a book!)

The urge came over me last night when I finally got my overdue order from Amazon with copies of Carolyn Mackler's Tangled, and Deborah Heiligman's Charles and Emma, (the latter of which was a National Book Award Finalist, and both won a Printz Honor and the YALSA Excellence in Non-Fiction Award) Amazon is usually so fast, but this seemed to take weeks!

But whose book to read first? Both Carolyn and Deborah are new-ish friends, "set up" by other friends in our neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan- "Oh, you're a writer? Well, you have to meet so and so, she's a writer too!" (Oh, I am now part of the club and I am such a lucky gal!)

Who I met first becomes my barometer for choice. I pick up Carolyn's TANGLED. (We have a mutual friend who had been trying to get us together for years, so I had already become a fan of Crolyn's writing when we met. THE EARTH, MY BUTT, AND OTHER ROUND THINGS had become a favorite in YA literature and I was a little nervous, meeting such a great author, but I needn't have been. Carolyn is so lovely and down to earth - we hit it off immediately, both of us reluctant to leave our lunch for other responsibilities.)

So I picked up Carolyn's TANGLED, and my book addiction kicked in. Uh -oh. I'm not going to be able to put this one down. There goes sleep. Carolyn has a knack for hooking you into her characters emotional lives right away. TANGLED tells the stories of Jena, Dakota, Skye and Owen, whose lives touch briefly when they meet on vacation. Over the next few months as each one tells his or her own story, Carolyn shows us how it's our own perception of ourselves that matters the most and that we have the power to change the way we think and respond to the world. The story masterfully starts with Jena, a character who I related to without question (and was the reason I couldn't put the book down). Jena introduces us to the other three protagonists as she gets hurt by Dakota, is diminished by Skye, and intrigued by Owen.

I love books with different points of view - they teach me to have perspective in my own life. I wasn't prepared to like Dakota or Skye, because I so closely identified with Jena - but I did. Carolyn uses the philosophy of the butterfly effect to beautifully illustrate how small a change needs to be to have a positive effect, without being didactic or preachy. Her use of humor and pathos didn't help me put down the book when my husband asked if I was coming to bed.

"I have to read!" I exclaimed in a frenzy. This book addict has been sated. For now.

Uh-oh. Now I'm feeling the compulsion again, but I have too much to . . . CHARLES & EMMA! I'm coming!