I love when reviewers understand and appreciate what I tried to do with a book. It's even better when they also LIKE it! :)
VOYA
Ally and Jake are looking forward to starting their senior year at Orchard Hill High as a happy couple, but considering their past, they should buckle up for a bumpy ride. The bump turns out to be a baby bump. When their mutual friend Chloe, the soon-to-be mom, names Jake as the father, he believes it is possible. Ally wants to stand by her man and Jake wants to step-up for Chloe, but can they do it? Jake's grades suffer and finding a balance between almost-dad vs. boyfriend seems impossible. Ally is dealing with her Mom's upcoming second marriage and supporting the teen parents, but feeling understandably hurt as Jake begins to focus more on Chloe. When doubt is cast on the baby's paternity and Jake refuses to question what he has been told, the truth of this complicated situation takes them for a ride. Oh the drama! Oh the half-truths and outright lies! This story is equal parts juicy teen soap and thought-provoking, discussable novel for all ages. A well-rounded group of friends and family are in the background of this story, and their presence is notable even though Jake and Ally are the only narrators. Understanding the thought processes, explaining the reason behind a choice, and feeling the positive/negative reactions of those closest to the situation allow readers to truly appreciate the outcome. Fans of MTV's 16 and Pregnant and Teen Mom will find this book particularly fascinating, but it will equally appeal to anyone who enjoys a love story with plenty of ups and downs, interesting characters, and a satisfying ending. This is a great conclusion to an engaging series. Reviewer: Stacey Hayman
All right HE'S SO/SHE'S SO FANS, this is gonna be a big weekend for ALL of us!
This Sunday is April 1, and you know what that means! You don't know what that means? OK, aside from the fact that it's April Fools Day, it will also be the day that you can finally shout from the rooftops "THIS IS SO NOT HAPPENING COMES OUT ONE MONTH FROM TODAY!"
Ahem. So. What I have decided to do to mark this special occasion, is tweet my favorite lines from THIS IS SO NOT HAPPENING all day long. Now, at first, I was going to try to do one line an hour, but I realized I can't commit to anything that regularly-scheduled, because for 45 minutes there I'm going to participating in the HUGE Teen Author Festival signing at BOOKS OF WONDER in NYC, so I might not be able to touch my phone for a couple of hours (if you include drive-time). OR there's always the possibility that no one will come for my autograph and I'll be able to tweet like the dickens the whole time I'm there.
You never know.
But the point is . . . well, the points are . . .
1) If you're in New York City this weekend come to BOOKS OF WONDER at 18 W. 18th Street between 2:30 and 3:15 and I will sign whatever books you bring me as long as they're by me. Also, if you're the THIRD or SEVENTEENTH person to ask for my autograph, you'll win a super awesome prize. (Because three and seventeen are my lucky numbers.)
and
2) If you want some special sneak peeks of THIS IS SO NOT HAPPENING (and perhaps a spoiler or two), follow me on twitter @kieranscott or keep checking the SHE'S SO DEAD TO US facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Shes-So-Dead-to-Us/273957676095
Hope to meet you, or at the very least tweet you, this weekend!
This coming Monday, March 26, marks the beginning of this year's SUPER-FANTASTIC, INCREDIBLY EXCITING, UNDENIABLY UNMISSABLE . . . .
TEEN AUTHOR FESTIVAL!
It's one full week of panels, signings and general mayhem brought to you by David Levithan and dozens of awesome YA authors! Including MOI!
There are many, many, MANY awesome panels for you to go see, and at each one the panelists will be discussing an agreed-upon topic, reading from their books and answering YOUR questions. For a complete list of events and panels, click here:
I will be taking part in the first panel on Monday night, called PLOTTING DANGEROUSLY. (Ooohhh!!) I'm so excited to be on a panel with my friends Jen, David, Coe and Melissa, and I can't wait to meet the other authors! (I must confess that one of the best things about this week of merriment is the meeting of interesting people and the making of new friends. And new Words With Friends Nemesis, I'm sure. I've yet to beat Ms. Coe Booth, but it's now one of my goals in life. Along with a #1 Bestseller and the baking of the perfect brownie.) Here's the pertinent info:
Monday, March 26 (Mulberry Street Branch of the NYPL, 10 Jersey Street b/w Mulberry and Lafayette, 6-8):
Plotting Dangerously: Doing What it Takes to Find the Story
Coe Booth Jen Calonita Paul Griffin Deborah Heiligman Melissa Kantor Morgan Matson Kieran Scott Melissa Walker
moderator: David Levithan
I'll also be taking part in the HUGE Books of Wonder signing on Sunday, April 1. There are going to be over 60 authors there over the course of three hours, meeting and greeting and signing books. My designated slot is from 2:45 PM to 3:30 PM. I'd love to see you there! And as an added bonus, the 3rd and the 17th people to ask for my autograph are going to win a LOVELY PRIZE! (I picked 3 and 17 because they're my lucky numbers.) So be there! And no fair mowing over the person in front of you if you're number 4 or 18. :)
Well, I've completely tanked on my resolution to blog at least once a week, but I kind of knew that was going to happen when I made said resolution. The problem is, every time I try to think about what to write about, I don't know if I should write something personal or try to come up with something more shallow, so as not to put my real life out there for people to read an analyze and talk about. But lately there's been one personal thing dominating my thoughts so much I can't really think about anything else. So I've decided to write about it.
My mom is in the hospital for the sixth time in two years. She's only 66. I know that sounds ancient to a lot of people, but it's not. Or it shouldn't be. Not in this day and age. But right now, if you met my mom, who used to be the strongest, feistiest, funniest, most engaging person I know, you'd think she was 99. And all because she could never quit smoking.
Here's the thing. Everyone knows smoking is bad, but when you're told that in high school and you're shown the pictures of the dirty lungs or the corroded heart or whatever you think "Yeah, whatever, that's not gonna happen to me." Which makes sense. You feel invincible when you're young, and I get that. And part of me thinks kids deserve to feel that. But it's also kind of stupid. Because none of us are invincible. And those pictures of dirty lungs and corroded hearts are stupid, too, because it doesn't translate into anything real. You don't know--you can't FEEL how having those symptoms will really affect your life. So let me tell you what I've seen my mom go through lately.
In 2000 she came down with throat cancer due to smoking. The chemo and radiation saved her life, temporarily, but we now know that they also started a slow deterioration process in her neck. A few years after the treatment she started getting severe laryngitis for about six weeks each winter. Then, she started having trouble eating. She couldn't swallow properly. Food would go down the wrong way and she'd choke. At first this was once in a while, but over the years it became more frequent to the point that she can't eat a meal without choking about every fifteen seconds. And no, I'm not exaggerating. Just imagine trying to get through a cheeseburger or even a bowl of Cheerios while choking into a paper towel every fifteen seconds. Not fun.
Meanwhile, thanks to the radiation damage AND the fact that her arteries are all clogged from the smoking, she had a stroke in August and now she can't walk without a walker or cane. Then, last Thursday, she fainted in the bathroom and slammed her head on the wall and passed out and she's been in the hospital ever since.
What we've now learned is she has pneumonia because food got in her lungs and irritated them and they got infected. She has low blood pressure from the clogged arteries and low oxygen from the pneumonia, so she's on an oxygen tank. She can't eat anymore, so they're going to insert a feeding tube into her abdomen so that food can be directly inserted into her stomach. So here we have a 66 year old woman, who a year ago was vibrant and happy and she
a) can't talk
b) can't eat
c) can't breathe on her own
d) can't walk on her own
e) can't be left alone because she might faint and
f) is severely depressed (as you might imagine)
Part of me wishes I could bring everyone I know who smokes into her room to talk to her and see if she says she doesn't regret smoking. I know it's so hard to stop, but God, if you could feel the way she's felt for the last five days even for five minutes, I bet you would work your ass off to quit. So do me a favor people, don't start. Because I don't want anyone else I care about to go through this. Ever.
And I thought putting this down in words would make me feel better, but it didn't. Probably because I love my mom so much this is killing me. And my sister. And all her friends. It just sucks.
As many of you know, tonight, in about 41 minutes actually, I'm going to be giving away an ARC of THIS IS SO NOT HAPPENING via twitter. If you're not aware, then you still have time to enter. All you have to do is click your butt on over to twitter and tweet "I can't wait for THIS IS SO NOT HAPPENING @kieranscott!" and you're entered. But the problem is, only one person can win. And I feel kind of badly about that. So for all of you guys who DON'T win, here's what I'm gonna do. Right here, right now, I'm going to give you my favorite line from the very first chapter of THIS IS SO NOT HAPPENING. And then, next week, I'm gonna get the digital file from my editor and post a big, fat, excerpt. But for now, it's just a line. And that line is . . . .
Chloe Appleby, princess of perfection, queen bee of Orchard Hill High, she who had never stepped a pinkie-toenail out of line in her life, was going to have an actual baby. This was what I like to call a holy-crap moment.
Okay. So it was two lines. A little extra giftie just for you. ;) Check back next week for the whole first chapter or two. I can't wait for you to read it and let me know what you think!
And now it's only . . . 36 minutes until I announce the winner!
(Other than Global Thermal Nuclear War. Thank you John Badham.)
Confession: Every time I come up with a new idea for a book, I live in fear that someone else is going to come up with the same idea and write it or sell it before I get the chance.
I know. It sounds a little insane. Like what other person in America (or anywhere else for that matter) was going to wake up and think "Huh. What if a brunette cheerleader from New Jersey had to move to Florida and join a competition squad completely made up of blondes?" right around the same time I was pitching I WAS A NON-BLONDE CHEERLEADER? But believe it or not, it has happened to me. More than once.
A few years back I had a writing partner and together we wrote three screenplays. The first one was a teen body-switch movie that was cute, but ultimately silly, I guess. The second one was about a guy in his twenties who still had a frat-boy mentality who, on learning his best friend was engaged to a girl he detested, went about trying to break-up the wedding. We had just finished our sixth draft and were very excited to send it out, but we couldn't come up with a title. We racked our brains for days, weeks, trying to come up with just the right moniker to catch the reader's attention and get us our first big movie deal. And then, one day, I was at the theater and I turned around and almost walked right into a huge, cardboard standup ad for a movie called SAVING SILVERMAN! My first thought was "Omigod! That's the perfect title for our movie!" And guess what? It turned out it had the EXACT SAME PREMISE AS OUR MOVIE!
I almost threw up. And then the movie sucked and it made no money and everyone in Hollywood who read our script said, "It has a lot of funny parts and memorable characters, but Saving Silverman bombed, so . . . no." And that was the end of that.
So we came up with a new idea, wrote a new screenplay (took us a couple of years of toil, btw), put the finishing touches on that one, and were ready to send it out when I went to the theater and saw a trailer for a movie called DOWN WITH LOVE, which had THE EXACT SAME PREMISE AS OUR MOVIE! Except it was set in the 1950's and ours was set in the present day. That time I actually had to get up and go to the lobby to have a panic attack. My date (now my husband), thought I was having a nervous breakdown. It's kind of a miracle he stuck with me after that public display.
Anyway, my writing partner and I kind of gave up after that.
In the last few years, there have been two separate occasions that an idea I was mulling was basically written by someone else. Both times someone more famous and successful than I am. So as much as I happen to appreciate my own creativity, I've learned to believe in the maxim, THERE ARE NO NEW IDEAS. (Most notorious case in point, TWILIGHT? Yeah. THE VAMPIRE DIARIES came first, people.)
So I've had this idea that I totally, TOTALLY love for the past month, but I haven't had a chance to perfect it and send it out yet, because first Christmas happened, then the kids were home for a week, then they both got sick and have actually been sick EVER SINCE! I've spent the entire month of January tending to sick children. Which, let's face it, is my more important job, but still.
Every day I get that email from Publisher's Marketplace listing the deals of the day, and every day when I see it there in my inbox, I get this awful, hollowed out feeling. I click it open, actually leaning back, away from my monitor, as if it's going to detonate in my face. Then I quickly scan all the deals for key words that might point to something similar to my beloved idea, and only when I see that there are none (not today), do I exhale. Right now, my worst fear, is that I open that sucker and see the line:
PITCHED AS A TEENAGED ________ ________ who must save her ________ ________ from _________ by going to _________ and ________ _________.
What? You thought I was just going to give it away?
So anyway, wish me luck. I plan to have this thing finished by the end of next week, provided I can keep the germs at bay. If all goes well, you'll see MY name in the Marketplace soon with all the blanks above filled in. NO MORE FEAR!
The bad news is, my entire family, baby and all, had the dreaded stomach flu this weekend. If I were writing a novel, I would share with you all the gory details, but as this story of true heinousness is about those I hold the most dear, I will withhold said details in order to protect the innocent.
Let's just say, it wasn't pretty. And in fact some of us have not yet fully recuperated.
The good news is, I found out exactly how strong I am during the ordeal. I mean, if you can pull off the things I pulled off--dragging a mattress up the stairs so I could sleep on the floor of B's room, rocking W to sleep, making bottles and cleaning up other people's--you know--all while retching every five minutes yourself--well, I'm still pretty impressed with myself. I'm not saying I'm a Katniss Everdeen-level ass-kicker, but at the very least I could win a Mom of the Week award.
The other good news? It turns out that line in The Devil Wears Prada about being one stomach flu away from one's goal weight? That's actually possible.
And the third good news? I just wrote the first few lines of the prologue of my new novel. Or what I hope will be my new novel. If my publisher buys it. Which maybe they'll do once they read this and realize I started writing it at 1:45 am after bringing B some Gatorade in the midst of five days of nasty bodily functions. I mean, pity has to play a factor on some level, right?
Aren't you SO glad I decided to blog every week? Look at the kind of fun stuff you get to read!
