Halloween Book Trail

Hello intrepid and ghoulish explorers,

Welcome to my stop on the Halloween Book Trail! I'm the author of the MG novel, The Mapmaker and the Ghost--which, as you might have guessed, has a ghost in it--and the upcoming Woodstock YA, Three Day Summer--which will be presented ghost-free. (Probably...though I can't really predict future hauntings, so proceed at your own risk!)


And, of course, since The Mapmaker and the Ghost is filled with a very spirited spirit (see what I did there?), I am part of the Cemetery Trail.

Halloween is my absolute favorite holiday so I am delighted to participate in this tour and answer some Hallow's Eve related questions. And as far as giveaways go: you should know that the grand prize for the trail includes a signed paperback of The Mapmaker and the Ghost. Also, I am running a separate giveaway right at the bottom of this blog for a brand, spankin' new signed ARC of Three Day Summer (which is so exclusive, I don't even have one yet...). So read on.

1. If your MC went trick or treating, what would they dress up as and why?

Funny you should ask, because a couple of years ago, I actually did make my MC dress up for Halloween! Her name is Goldenrod Moram, and she is an explorer and budding mapmaker who idolizes Lewis & Clark. So who would she dress up as? Ta-da:



Yup, that's her as the ghost of Meriwether Lewis. She has it on good authority that her outfit is historically accurate too.


2. Please share a photo of your favorite Halloween costume you’ve worn.

This is a tough one because, as I said, Halloween is my favorite! But, also, my birthday happens to be exactly a week before Halloween and for the past several years, I've always thrown a costumed theme party for it. So, for this question, I will share an actual Halloween costume, and one that was for my birthday.

May I present: Maverick and Goose from Top Gun.



Yup, that's me and my husband. Hilariously, this is the photo Facebook randomly chose to display when we got engaged. And by hilariously, I mean awesomely. Because it pretty accurately sums up our relationship.

And, for the record, this might also be the most comfortable Halloween outfit I've ever worn. Flightsuit onesies FTW!

And as for my favorite birthday theme party outfit:



Me as Hermione after she took Polyjuice Potion with the wrong ingredient in it. This was for my Tridecade Tournament when I turned the big 3-0. (It was also was my favorite birthday theme party. There was a Sorting Hat. And house points. And Tridecade tasks to complete....)

3. What scares the pants out of you?

So. Many. Things. Truly, I startle really easily. As in, if I'm walking down the street and lost in my own thoughts (which is about 100% of the time), and you say "hello" to me, I will jump. As in, even if I know my husband is home but he's in a different room than I expected and I catch him out of the corner of my eye, I will jump.

In conclusion: I do not go to haunted houses. I do not watch scary movies. I can't deal with that build-up of suspense at all.

4. What magical/supernatural creature do you secretly want to be?

A phoenix, I think. Flying + healing powers + immortality + wisdom? It basically sounds like Wolverine + Superman.

5. What is your favorite sentence/paragraph from your novel?

You're making me pick favorites?! I will take the PC route and say that here is one of my favorite passages:

"But there are no such things as ghosts," Goldenrod muttered.
"Who told you that?" the spirit of Meriwether Lewis asked.
"My parents, mainly," Goldenrod confessed.
"And they are grown-ups, I assume?" the man asked.
Goldenrod nodded.
"Unfortunately, it has come to my attention that the modern world is sorely lacking in imagination. And grown-ups are the biggest culprits of all. Regardless, the simple fact is, here I am. And seeing how I was born in 1774, I can't very well not be a ghost, now can I?"

So now it's time to go here, to author MG Buehrlen's blog, for the next stop on the Halloween Book Trail!

And, if you want to enter to win a signed advanced copy of Three Day Summer (which I will send out as soon as I get one--probably in the next few weeks!), simply check out the Rafflecopter form below.

Boy meets Girl…at the most amazing concert the world has ever seen.

It’s the summer of 1969, and Michael is a directionless 18-year-old music fan struggling with an uncertain future in a time of cultural and military upheaval. Cora is the obedient candy-striper daughter of an ultra-conservative father who likes her ex-boyfriend, Ned, so much he still shows up for Sunday dinners despite their break-up months earlier. When Michael and Cora meet at the medical tent at the Woodstock Music Festival, their lives will never quite be the same. 

Coming May 19, 2015. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Happiest Happenstance

Do you ever feel that some things are just mean to be?

I was delighted to come across this quote today. I'd actually never read it before:

"I almost wish we were butterflies and lived but three summer days--three such days with you I could fill with more delight than fifty common years could ever contain." ~ John Keats

I honestly wish I could tell you I was clever enough to have picked the title of Three Day Summer from that quote because it is just so perfect for the book. But the title really came as a collaboration between my editor and me and was picked from pages and pages of options. And this...well, this is just one of those wonderful serendipitous things. Because it encapsulates so much of what I think the book is about...

And speaking of the book, I am in the middle of copyedits as we speak. This is one of my favorite, albeit most nerve-wracking parts of the publishing process. Nerve-wracking because this is pretty much my last chance to change things before the book goes out into the world and in the hands of readers (there are also first pass pages but, at that point, I'm pretty limited to what I can change). And exciting because...well, really for the same reason! This story will be in the hands of readers soon...

For what it's worth, I'm personally really proud of this book. I feel so much of my heart is on the page. And I'm grateful that I will get to share that soon.

Colored pencils + decoder = copyedits!

The One About the 'Three Day Summer' Cover

The cover for Three Day Summer has just been exclusively revealed on Hypable! I'm going to link out to it here and then ask you to come back because I want to share some feelings about it.

....

....

Did you feast your eyes on it? What do you think?

I will tell you my thoughts: it is the cover of my psychedelic dreams! Quite honestly, when my editor told me the concept behind it (it's based on '60s concert art), I may have given out an inadvertent, not entirely ladylike, squeal. Why? I've been enamored of the art on those posters for almost as long as I can remember. I had quite a few of them plastered on one wall of my teenaged bedroom.

And when my husband and I got married last year, we based our Save the Dates on two specific '60s posters (the proof is here).

And when I was writing the book and daydreaming about possible cover art, that is exactly the concept I most wished it would be. But I didn't share this with the Simon & Schuster team. They just read my mind.

So, quite simply, I love it. I love that it so thoughtfully pays homage to the era without being clichéd. I love the joy that seems to emanate from it. I love that it looks so modern and fresh and still tips its hat to the '60s. And I love how very colorful it is. I can't wait to see it on a bookshelf.

So HUGE props (and my gratitude) to designer Krista Vossen for rocking out this whole cover thing so very much.

'Three Day Summer' Is Now on Goodreads!

I've been a Goodreads user for a long time. You might even say that I'm a hipster Goodreads user, because I was totally on there before it was cool.

Those glasses are not even prescription.

In all seriousness though, I love being able to keep track of books I want to read, what I've read, and even how I felt about them. So it was extra special to me when my first book popped up on there and it's just as special to have my new book up there too! (It says "2 distinct works" underneath my author profile now. That sounds all kinds of official. Possibly a little pompous, but, hey, that all works with my new hipster persona.)

So Three Day Summer is now available on Goodreads! Shelve it on your to-be-read list and Goodreads will actually even alert you on its release date (May 19, 2015). Which is a feature I've found to be extra helpful when I'm waiting on a book to be released.

Just click the button below and it'll take you directly to Three Day Summer's shiny new Goodreads page.

'Three Day Summer' Peace, Love & Music Giveaway!

Tomorrow marks the 45th anniversary of the Woodstock Music Festival! Now, do you want to take a gander as to where my upcoming book, Three Day Summer, takes place? If you said "Woodstock Music Festival," virtual love beads to you, my friend!

IN FACT...take a look at the very first page of Three Day Summer:

Does that date look familiar?!

Although my book won't be out until next year, I couldn't let this momentous anniversary pass by without doing something to mark the groovy occasion. So I present to you: the Three Day Summer Peace, Love, & Music Giveaway!

The Prizes:

Peace: This lovely sterling silver dove necklace, on a 16" chain, represents peace and the iconic emblem of the festival.

Love: Not just love, but summer love, courtesy of the wonderful The Summer I Turned Pretty trilogy by Jenny Han published by none other than Three Day Summer publishers Simon & Schuster BFYR. This is the paperback boxed set of all three books.

Music: $25 iTunes Gift Card. For purchasing whatever music makes you feel young, free, and happy (whether that's Hendrix, Creedence, 5 Seconds of Summer...)

How to Enter:

Everyone gets one free entry (because how else would you celebrate the mother of all free concerts?). Other entries can be gained by following me on Twitter, Facebook, or this blog; leaving a comment on this blog telling me which three bands (past or present) you'd most like to see in a live festival; or tweeting out a link to the giveaway from the Rafflecopter form below (2 entries per day for that one).

Check out the form below for all the details! The giveaway runs from today through to Monday, August 18th (the last day of the festival).

Good luck! And, can I just say, I'm pretty excited to see what sort of amazing virtual festivals you come up with.

*U.S. entries only please.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

On Depression

I actually wrote this post in March and waffled a lot about whether to post it. In the end, I chose not to. But then now--this week--it seemed like maybe it was time to post it anyway. Robin Williams, I am thinking of you and your family, and wishing things were different...

I've been thinking about Ned Vizzini a lot lately.

I never met him, but we had many things in common. Ned was the same age as me. He grew up in the neighborhood I now live in and I would see his name on workshop posters at my local Barnes & Noble a lot. We had friends in common. We both wrote MG and YA books (though he did it a lot more successfully and prolifically).

Something else we had in common: suffering from clinical depression. I unfortunately have to use the past tense here not because I no longer suffer from depression, but because Ned lost his battle with his in December. He died just a few blocks away from where I live.

Somehow, all the clichés you hear about depression are true. Though, I guess, that tends to be the thing about clichés, doesn't it? That it's like a fog. That it's like drowning. It's not sadness, not really. Everyone experience sadness, grief, bad feelings. But those things usually have a source; they are feelings that can be linked to events. Long-term depression is like churning magma, always there, just waiting to be prodded into roaring life by sometimes the slightest disturbance. It's not terribly logical. It lurks like a thief, in the unexpected corners of your mind, popping up when you're not looking and pilfering away your joy slowly. So that you don't even notice it ebbing away until suddenly you feel completely hollow. By then, sometimes it's too late.

The way J.K. Rowling wrote about it, disguising it as how dementors make you feel, I always thought was entirely accurate. Two of my favorite (and, incidentally, funniest) pieces of writing on it come from the immensely talented Allie Brosh and can be found here and here. There are so many talented people who have written so eloquently about it, actually. I don't think it's much of a coincidence that a lot of writers, and creative people in general, suffer from it. I think the same neurons that nurture imagination and creativity, that have one foot in a made-up world, are the ones that are most inclined to turn on you in this way.

I've never written publicly about my depression before. In fact, I rarely ever talk about it. I can probably count on one hand the number of people who even know, empirically, that I've been diagnosed with it. I can list the reasons I've been so quiet about it, even though it's been a through-line of much of my life: I've been embarrassed and ashamed. I didn't want to be perceived as weak. I didn't want it to define me. It didn't really seem like anybody's business... I can list lots of reasons, actually. And very few to be writing this blog post.

Except, I think of people like Ned and like L'Wren Scott...and now Robin. Also people like David Foster Wallace, Kurt Cobain, Sylvia Plath, John Kennedy Toole, Nick Drake...such a long list of people who have battled and, just one day, were not able to win. Countless more whose names I don't know but who suffered just as much. And I think...maybe it's time we talk about it more. Maybe it's time I talk about it more, as a real illness, not as a weakness or a character defect.

So there it is. Me, coming clean. I know I'm not alone. And if you, reading this, suffer from depression too, I just want you to know that you aren't either.

A Manuscript of Firsts

There's something I tend to do with almost any writing project I've ever embarked upon and that is to try something new. It can be something as all-encompassing as a new genre or medium, or something as small as a different POV or tense.

Part of the reason is a purposeful focus on craft. Trying out new things and seeing what works (and what doesn't) is, I think, the only way to continuously grow and get better. Part of the reason is that different stories just call for different things. And another part of the reason is that it's just plain fun to try something I've never done before.

Not surprisingly, then, Three Day Summer is a manuscript of firsts for me. It is:

- my first completed YA manuscript. I loved focusing on teenaged characters and all of the inherent conflicts that they would have. Coming-of-age stories have been one my very favorite genres since I can remember, and to dive into writing one was extraordinarily fun.

- my first historical novel. Not only that, but it took place in an era that I have long had a huge affinity for (I'm talking about since I was 8-years-old). So researching it was a total blast. And, I'm going to be honest, was my primary reason for starting to write the book.

- my first book told from dual first-person POVs. It was challenging and fun to get into the different characters' heads, move the story along, and make sure they each had their own distinctive voices.

- actually my first book written in first-person at all.

- my first book written in present tense. Which it wasn't initially, until I was about 150 pages into the first draft and realized that it needed to be. Changing tenses in the middle of a draft? That was definitely a first, too (and though I was annoyed at the discovery at the time, I really think present tense ties into the themes of the book so much better).

- my first time writing from the first-person POV of a boy. I have long suspected that being a boy would be sooooo much more fun. I can definitely confirm that writing from the perspective of one was.


I have to say that I'm pretty proud and happy with all I've learned from all these firsts...and I hope that they ultimately make for an enjoyable read!