Author: Beth Hull

Stocking Stuffer Bags

Posted on by Beth Hull

Raise your hand if you LIKE wrapping stocking stuffers.

Anyone?

For me, it usually involves neck cramps and teeny tiny pieces of wrapping paper and teeny tiny pieces of tape and why do we wrap them anyway if they get stuffed in a stocking? I guess some people don’t, but since this is how we roll, I have come up with a solution.

Reusable stocking stuffer bags.

Yes. This idea might not help you now, with only, what four days until Christmas? But after Christmas, get thee to your nearest fabric store and buy up the holiday fabric at a nifty 75% off. I think Jo-Ann’s Fabrics still had Christmas fabric marked down in June. And pick up some clearance holiday ribbon as well.

If you can get enough different fabric prints, you might even be able to make enough bags that each person in the family gets an individualized print for his or her stocking. Then you can just stuff all Z’s stocking stuffers into the Hello Kitty bags, give Homes the manly holly, and there’s no need for name tags even! Yes! Brilliant!

I even made long skinny bags for toothbrushes! Doubly brilliant!

Caveat: this idea works better if you don’t foolishly hope, for the better part of the year, that the stocking stuffer bags will make themselves. Because I am wiser and more experienced in this craft, I can assure you: they won’t. So now I am madly sewing stocking stuffer bags. And while I sew, Z is very, very quiet in her bedroom.

And then, I finally notice how quiet it is, so I get up to check on her, and find her room looking like this:

After I make threats and cry, I take a look around her room and realize that at least 64.4% of the things strewn about were stocking stuffers from last year. So I might just take her stocking stuffer bags and stuff them. In the garbage can.

You know I won’t. But I gotta admit, it’s a tempting idea.

I won’t be updating the blog over the next week so that I can focus on sewing more stocking stuffer bags spending time with family. Happy Holidays, everyone!

The Gift of Belief

Posted on by Beth Hull

The Gift of Belief. No, I’m not talking about Santa Claus.

Last week, the YA Muses wrote about gifts for writers. What do writers want for the holidays? Things like people to read their books (Katy), ultra-fine tipped Sharpies (Donna), conferences and retreats (Talia), fingerless gloves (Veronica), and guilt-free writing time (Bret). Yes, sign me up for all of those. But the most important thing I want is something I already have, which is a community of people who believe in me. They believe in me not only when things are going well, but even when I have no faith in myself. When I’m thinking of herding goats in a cold remote country that has no computers or typewriters or notebooks.

Friends and family – writers & non-writers alike – post encouragements via email, texts, and Facebook. They listen to me whine. They talk me down when I’m facing the Crevasse of Insecurity. They celebrate the good things, and believe more good things are to come.

They also read my words over and over and over and come up with brilliant suggestions to make my words into something people – not just goats – would want to read. They listen to me obsess about plot, character, revisions, querying, success, and failure.

And all this time invested comes down to one very simple thing: belief. They believe in me.  Maybe they don’t think This Book is the one, but they won’t say so. Because even if it isn’t This Book, it’s the one after that, or the one after that, or – you get the idea. And they’re all along for the ride, with all its ups and downs.

I’m frowning a little as I write this, because it’s so sappy. But it’s true: I love you.

So We All Understand Each Other: Just because I’ve already received the Gift of Belief does NOT mean I will turn down other, more materialistic offerings this holiday season.

So tell me – who do you have to thank for believing in you?

Pandora’s Lunch Box

Posted on by Beth Hull

Since last week’s Momming Around post was abandoned in favor of self-congratulation, let me offer a few actual momming tidbits here.

  1. Baby-to-be is a boy! We’re all excited, even Z, who said she wanted a sister. I’d kind of enjoyed thoughts of two little girls with that sister relationship I never had, but I’d also wanted a boy, so…yeah. Happy either way.
  2. Z’s lunch box is absolutely disgusting. While my morning sickness is mostly gone, I still have gag-moments. Opening up her lunch box today was one of those moments. Her school has a policy of kids taking home their leftover lunch, so parents/caregivers can see how much their child is actually eating. It’s a nice idea, and gives controlling, obsessive parents one extra bit of control. However, the sight – and scent – of a day-old cream cheese-and-jam sandwich had me gagging. Z had to take a break from breakfast to dump the offending food in the trash. Note to self: deal with lunch box as soon as Z gets home. The problem is, I put it off because it’s disgusting, and I never know what I’m going to find.
  3. Next week, she’s off from school. But Homes still has work, and there are currently no grandparents volunteering to come ease my pain. Am I a horrible stay-at-homie for considering the option to pay extra for a day of childcare next week? $30 for one day really isn’t so bad. Today is the last day to sign up.
  4. I’m awful. We’ll do play dates and get the house ready for Christmas instead.
  5. We’ll hate each other by Christmas.
  6. No. I will a) go to bed early each night, b) plan outtings to friends’ houses, the grocery store, the library, and wherever else I can think of, and c) liberally self-medicate with chocolate ice cream in the evenings.
  7. It’ll be fine. Really.

NiFtY Author Katherine Longshore

Posted on by Beth Hull

I’ve had the immense pleasure of getting to know Katherine through SCBWI and through following her (and her critique group) through their blog at the YA Muses. Here today, we get some questions answered about her upcoming debut novel, GILT, due out in May from Viking/Penguin.

BH: Welcome, Katy!

KL:  Thank you so much for having me on your blog, Beth!  It’s a pleasure to be here.

BH: Tell us a little about GILT. (To our studio audience, click here to read about Katy’s agonizing title-selection process.)

KL: I came up with the idea to write “something” about Catherine Howard several years ago.  She is often depicted as an air-headed little tramp, and I just felt there was something else about her that needed to be told. And then the voice of her best friend came to me, to do the telling.

BH: What were some of the joys of writing this book?

KL: I love being able to reach deeply into history, to live and breathe it. I love that I can find a connection to historical characters, and hopefully create that connection for my readers as well.

BH: If you had a daughter, which of Kitty’s attributes do you wish she shared? Which ones would you never want to see her display?

KL:  I love Kitty’s loyalty.  She has strong convictions and believes that friendship is sacred.  But it’s that same loyalty – a misguided loyalty – that gets her into trouble.  So I would wish for my daughter to value friendship, and to be loyal to it, but to have the insight to apply it to worthy people.

Katherine's Critique/Blogging Group - yes they are wearing endearingly dorky sweatshirts at SCBWI-LA 2011

BH: The other day we were discussing a writing slump you’d been in with the second book in this series. What do you do to get yourself out of a slump? Or do you wait for it to pass?

KL:  I think it depends on how deep the slump is. Sometimes, I can get over a block by just continuing to keep my bum in the chair, my fingers on the keyboard, and my mind spinning. Sometimes I have to write a kissing scene. If it gets really bad, I bake. If it gets worse, I clean. But the one we were talking about the other day is the worst I’ve ever experienced, and I cried. A lot. It helped to be able to talk about it with a good, close writing friend. But the only thing I could do was wait it out. My house was pretty clean that week.

BH: What does your workspace look like?

KL: No matter how hard I try to keep it tidy, my workspace is always a mess. It’s a little desk in the window bay of my bedroom, looking out into the back garden, where I can watch the hummingbirds and scrub jays. I’m surrounded by books, and a giant poster on the wall with the entire genealogical heritage of the British royal family on it. Plus my storyboard.

BH: What is your favorite book on the craft of writing?

Katherine's Storyboard

KL: Bird by Bird, by Anne Lamott. She is so honest. I suppose the ultimate appeal isn’t her description of craft, though her take on character, dialogue, and setting is spot on. For me, it’s the fact that she gives me permission to write a shitty a first draft, she acknowledges the radio station that plays constantly in my head, and she understands the pain and joy of it all.

BH: Any words or advice to aspiring writers for keeping the hope alive?

KL: Love what you do.  Don’t try to write to trends or stay ahead of them.  Don’t second-guess whether or not your concept will sell.  If a story and character come to you, write them down.  That passion will come through in your writing, and it won’t matter if it’s another vampire book, or that mermaids were so last year or that historical novels don’t sell.  Good writing sells.  Passion sells.  And in the long run, writing what you love is the ultimate reward.

BH: The end. Seriously,  just read Katherine’s response above, over and over again. Thanks, Katy!

ETA: Today through Tuesday, December 12, you can enter to win an ARC (Advance Reader’s Copy) of GILT. See this post at the YA Muses for details!

Blog:  http://yamuses.blogspot.com

http://katherinelongshore.blogspot.com

Twitter:  http://twitter.com/#!/KALongshore

Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/katy.longshore?ref=ts

Baker’s Dozen Auction…again

Posted on by Beth Hull

This is not a Momming Around post. It was a toss-up: either write about what happened yesterday with the Baker’s Dozen Auction, or give a list of reasons why I should move into our bathroom (it’s actually a compelling list – you may see it posted in the future).

Yesterday, I was all set up to do multiple page refreshes and comment-feed checks. Like, for hours. I had no idea how the auction would play out, and frankly, not a lot of faith in myself or my writing at that point.

That’s not entirely true. I vacillated between, “I am the QUEEN WRITER and no one can eff me up!” and “Woe is me, my writing is horrible, and why did I ever listen to Kristen about entering this silly, silly contest where the agents will ridicule me in the comments section and tell me to get a job raising goats in a remote, cold country that has no computers or typewriters or notebooks.” Sadly, I was mostly in the second, insecure frame of mind.

So yesterday morning, I left home at 8 to drop Z off at school. When we arrived at school, I received a text message. It was Melissa, telling me I had a bid!

By the time I got home, I’d received numerous extra text messages from Melissa, each one spazzier than the last, culminating with the Big News: a full manuscript request. In all this time, I was trying to turn my laptop on and actually SEE the bids, because I was convinced that some jerk out there was pretending to be agents and making bids even though he was a jerk and not an agent, so that suckers like me would get all excited and squeal and dance and then find out, the lottery ticket was a total fake (see: joke my high schoolers played on me for my birthday) (I haven’t actually written about that and I never will, because it was a cruel, cruel trick and besides you get the idea anyway).

To my non-writing friends in the studio audience: no, this does not mean the book is being published, and no, it doesn’t even mean I have an agent. It means that the winning agent who has excellent taste (especially based on the other entries she bid on), will read my manuscript. That’s all. She will read it, and do one of (I think) three things: 1) offer representation, 2) suggest revisions and invite me to resubmit the manuscript, or 3) decide the project isn’t for her (boo) but hopefully give me a clue why (yay!).

The bids were exciting, and it was fun to watch the bidding on the other entries, as well. But I think the truly beautiful thing about the whole experience was being a part of that group, that community of writers who were cheering for each other and encouraging each other and giving just the best critique and feedback they had to offer.

Miss Snarks’ First Victim has secret agent contests on a nearly-monthly basis, and in-house critique sessions, in addition to the annual Baker’s Dozen Auction. If you write fiction, I strongly recommend joining in the fun, because you won’t be disappointed in the talented, warm-hearted people who frequent her blog.

ETA: the auction from an agent’s perspective: click here for Josh Getzler’s blog post.