Back cover copy for FREEFALL.

Super-duper locked.

Sometimes, when it comes to marketing this book, I feel like my editor and I are drowning in a sea of ineptitude.  We both freely admit that this sort of stuff is not our strength.  And yet, we continue on because we have to.  It's, like, our jobs.  It's kind of terrifying really, especially since the description is going to be the deciding factor for most people in whether they'll buy/read the fricken book.

Anyway, she sent me her first draft of the back cover copy with an invitation to rip it apart.  I actually like the first paragraph a lot.  But I'm not entirely sold on the second.  I'm going to put in some work on it and see if I can come up with something better.  In the meantime, I thought I'd post it here if anyone has ideas and wants to share.  Like I said, I know this responsibility falls on Liesa and me, but we do need all the help we can get... if anyone feels like helping!

How do you come back from the point of no return?

Seth McCoy was the last person to see his best friend Isaac alive, and the first to find him dead. It was just another night, just another party, just another time where Isaac drank too much and passed out on the lawn. Only this time, Isaac didn’t wake up.

Convinced that if he'd just done something differently his friend wouldn’t have died, Seth is torn between taking the chance to turn his own life around, or losing himself completely in whatever makes the thoughts stop. Then Seth meets Rosetta, beautiful and different from everything and everyone he's ever known. Rosetta has her own secrets, and together the two of them make their way toward figuring out what comes next.

Thank you!

Thanks for all your comments on my author pics entry from yesterday! 

I'd say, um, there is no consensus happening here either.  But I appreciate you all taking a look for me.  I'll definitely be considering your feedback when I choose. 

Which... I'll need to do tomorrow -- Tuesday the 19th!  Eeeek!  :-)

Author pics. Please vote. If you wanna...

I had my pictures taken last week to get some shots for my forthcoming website and to submit to Pulse for book-ish stuff.  

I think I have a lot of good options for my website, but I'm having a hard time choosing which picture might be appropriate for the book.  Like, is it okay to have pictures taken at weird angles and/or with part of my head missing?  And what about with umbrellas?  Probably not?  I don't know! 

Anyway, the more people I ask, the more difficult it becomes.  Maybe LJ can give me more of a consensus?  :-)   (Keep in mind, these are not yet airbrushed.  And also, they'll be cropped more appropriately and stuff.  Yes.)

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The George Washington poem.

 There's something I've been keeping from you all:  I am a published poet. 

(And I'm not just talking about the sexy-ish haiku I wrote for creative writing in college that ended up in our class's self-published thingamagig that could still in the GRCC library to this day for all I know!  Although, that part is true, too.)

No, you see, when I was ten years old, there was a contest where the fifth graders at all the elementary schools in my town had the opportunity to write a poem about George Washington.  It was a competition!  There was one winning poem selected per school and a total of four or five schools.  I don't know about the other teachers, but mine made it a homework requirement that we write and submit the poem.

To compose mine, I pulled out the encyclopedia to learn a few things about Our Nation's First Pres and then put together a selection of words which included a fictitious conversation, flippant comments about the original G. Dub's dead mother and new stepmother (WHAT), and historical inaccuracies galore.  The only thing it had going for it is that it mostly rhymed.  ("Stones" rhymes with "Washingtons," right?  And  "die" rhymes with "apple pie"?)

I liked my poem well enough at the time, but I knew I wasn't going to win.  I didn't want to win.  All I wanted was to get credit for turning in the homework and move on with my life.  But win, I did.  First place.  I took the gold.  (A gold-colored George Washington metal, that is.)

The moment it was announced that I'd won was one of the most humiliating moments of my life.  It's been twenty-two years and I still haven't recovered.  I had to stand up and read the thing in front of the judges, my classmates, and my teachers.  (A total of maybe fifteen to twenty people.)  I was so anxious that I giggled the whole time I read.  Which meant that no one could understand me, and then the kids all made fun of me for days afterward.  Ugh.  It was worth it, though, because I would have much rather have been mocked for laughing through my own reading than for the actual words I'd written.

Part of winning first place meant that my picture and poem were published in the town's newspaper.  It was a pretty big deal.  I was glad enough about it because my mom seemed glad.  She curled my hair and had me wear a matching sweater and skirt for my photo shoot.  As the years went on, though, I realized more and more what a horrible poem I'd written as a ten-year old.  I cry a little with embarrassment whenever I think about it.

(One thing I realize now, it was an early glimpse of what would become my colloquial writing style for homework.  My poem started with the words "Today I thought how it would be..."  See?  I made my poem about my own experience in learning about George Washington instead of having it be all about him.)

Freaking out. TOO MUCH TO DO!!!!

It's like this, I guess.  For months and months after getting a book deal you wait for a whole lot of nothing to happen.  And then, suddenly, there is so much to do that you don't know if you'll ever catch up.

I got to see a cover comp for FREEFALL yesterday.  The marketing peeps at Pulse are in heart with it, and I am, too!  I keep gazing at it, and am looking forward to getting to show everyone after it's finalized. 

My editor asked for my help with a cover tag line.  Which is not my forte.  I hope someone else comes up with something because I'm drawing a blank right now.

Today, I've been notified that I need to turn in my author photo and bio before January 20th if I want it in the catalog.  Even if I don't want to be in the catalog, they need it by February for the book cover.  Now I'm scrambling to get the contact info of the girl I want to take pictures, and I'm regretting like crazy that I didn't do this in the summer/early-fall when Seattle wasn't so gray and dead looking.  Sigh, sigh.  I have a certain look in mind, and I'm hopeful we can find an appropriate location. 

Oh, and I need to get my hair trimmed!  And a new outfit!  Quickly!

My website is in the works and has been since December.  As of yesterday (after seeing my cover for the first time), I am rethinking the pop-art look I wanted for it.  I don't want to the cover to dictate the look of the site, but I do think they should complement each other.  The book cover is too--I don't know--elegant and and stark and powerful to be set amongst wild colors and such.  I'm thinking now that I want to go back to my original Fiona-Apple-inspired idea.  I guess I'll need write content or something, too, huh?

Anyway.  Not to sound all complain-y.  Obviously, there are much worse problems I could have in the world.  I'm just stressing and trying to get shiznit done on time.