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On sharing and being me…

I’ve decided to be a bit more, well…me. At least, I’m going to try. It’s quite hard, you see.

Let me explain.

Back before I was a PUBLISHED author (and yes, you should read that in a big booming voice, because that’s how it feels to you before you’re published), I had a blog. In fact, you could call me an early adopter. I’d had a blog for years. The majority of those posts have actually been imported into this blog now (under the category My Old Writing/Personal Blog — it’s all from when I lived in Kentucky and Florida and was writing but not published).

I was interesting (some of the time). Funny, even (not always intentionally). Random people I didn’t know read my blog. But most of all, I was me, warts and all (I don’t literally mean warts, because that would be kind of gross–no offense to anyone who actually has warts or anything–I mean it in a metaphorical kind of way…and here I’ve figured out I should probably just have skipped the warts thing entirely. Oh well.). I didn’t sugarcoat things (much). When I was feeling ambivalent or scared or excited or whatever, that was how I posted. Nowadays, there’s the pressure to put up a good front. We’re not supposed to talk about the bad things (oooooh scary shivers). We’re supposed to put a positive spin on things. We’re not supposed to piss anyone off.

So when I had to share with fans that (some of whom write me on a daily or weekly basis) that my old publisher would not be publishing any more Sucks to Be Me books, I had to do it in as positive a way as possible when, if I’m being honest, I feel really sucky and miserable about it (don’t get me wrong, I love my editor and I don’t blame her at all…it comes down to business decisions and publishing is a business. And they’ve gone back to just publishing their core D&D stuff.). And when I talk about possibly releasing the third book in serialized eBook format myself, I’ve tried not to let on how much that really terrifies me and worries me that it will be a complete waste of time, even if it would make some diehard fans really happy.

Or, on the flip side, when talking about the new book I’m working on, I’m supposed to keep it all close to the vest and not let out too many details. So I’ve talked about my Sekrit Project or the dark thing I’m working on rather than actually coming out and saying, hey, I’m working on a new book. My working title is Ask Me. It’s quite dark, but I’m pretty excited about it. It’s got a girl heroine who starts out really kind of paralyzed by her situation and her otherworldly abilities and it’s got a couple of hunky guys, each of whom may or may not be a murderer. It’s got some funny moments, but mostly it’s dark. I kinda worry that it’s different than what my fans are expecting, but on the other hand, it may open doors to me because, honestly, it’s got a really good hook and could probably be considered really commercial. There’s one big publisher potentially interested in it already based just on the hook alone which, yeah, I didn’t actually share just now, but that’s because even though I’ve decided to share more, I do have to keep some things back and this is the big wild and wooly Internet.

So. Anyway.

I really am going to try and be much more me. There may be more sentence fragments and there’s definitely an excellent chance there will be a plethora of parentheses.

Feel free to ask me any questions. I’d love to answer ‘em. You know, in the spirit of openness and whatnot.

 

A Poem for Grace

Yes, I’m going to be maudlin and post the poem I wrote about my cat.

Grace

We named her Grace
because there was not a graceful bone in her body.
As a kitten, she would fall off of everything,
a skinny pile of soft black fur and big eyes.

She grew into herself
and became a diva of a cat
with a tummy that swayed as she swaggered
and moves that would put a wrestler to shame.

She was not a delicate cat…
no lithe, undulating tabby
padding through the night on tip-toe paws.
She was the opera singer of cats.

That is how I want to remember her,
larger than life,
vocal and insistent, but still sweet and soft,
always wanting to be near, but not too close…

A true cat.

A Poem for Tabitha @TabithaMichelle

And lastly, my third promised poem to Tabitha Michelle, the “Bodacious” book blogger who, I have to admit, I don’t know well either, but…here goes.

You remind me of me

A long time ago (longer, perhaps, than I care to admit),
I was you.

No, really.

I was that teenage girl who loved books–
(and big words, bodacious being one of them…
it trips so well off the tongue)
and found myself in them
sometimes more than I found myself in me.

I wrote poetry
and read
did things with my friends
and read
sometimes avoided my family
and read
went to school
and…snuck books to read

Always, always, the books,
the stories, the characters, the pages…

turning, turning, turning

Someday, I hope you see a girl
who reminds you of you

…and makes you smile.

A Poem for Christina @clabahr

This poem is a little tougher since I don’t really know anything about Christina other than that she’s a) on Twitter and b) apparently likes cats (like the Cheshire cat). So, um.

I Don’t Know You

I don’t know you,
and you don’t know me.

That’s the beauty of the Internet, isn’t it?

Here we are, two strangers,
colliding, connecting
over twitter handles and hashtags

Two bits in cyberspace
running into each other out of nowhere
and forging a connection
however tenuous or small

It’s a virtual tea time,
minus the scones.

So, let’s have a chat.

You want to talk cats?

A Poem for Gordon @MuffinTruck

I promised three poems yesterday to people who commented on my new website on Twitter (see, people, you should be following me over there…not only can you win a t-shirt, you can get a custom poem all for yourself…I am totally a full service authoress). Here is the poem for Gordon (@MuffinTruck):

Gordon

There’s this librarian I know—
you might have seen him…
can’t miss him, really.

He’s the tall one over there,
with the glasses
and the
slightly unruly hair…
and the always ready smile
framed in a rather glorious mustache.

Can’t miss that, can you?

And you definitely can’t miss
how much he likes…no, loves
Books.

(hey, he is a librarian)

…but it’s not only the reading he loves, but the sharing of books
with the local teens, who come slouching or sauntering or shouting
into the library, caught up in their own world and drama and details
to suddenly be mesmerized and entertained and captivated

with books.

Yes, you can’t miss that.

And so the story begins…(literally)

Today I got to work on the new Mina short story featuring the contest winner, Astrid. It’s really interesting trying to get back into Mina’s head since in between the time I finished up Still Sucks to Be Me and now I’ve been in Nat’s head (Cat Girl’s Day Off) and in Aria’s (my current work-in-progress). All three very different people. I had to pick up one of my shiny new paperback copies of Still Sucks to Be Me to refresh myself.

Of course, it’s actually harder to get back into first person, present tense than it is to get back into Mina’s head. It’s just such a different way of writing.

Anyway, I’m 1600 words into the new story which isn’t *just* a short story. I’d say it’s also the start of the third book (wherever or however that’s going to go in the long run I dunno, but we’ll see). And, just for you…here’s a tiny little sneak peek at the very first bit:

Myth: Vampires keep to themselves.
Truth: Hey, we’re as friendly as the next fanged bloodsucker.

I hate airports. Actually, I hate airport security. I especially hate that point where you have to empty your pockets of everything, step through some weird time-machine looking contraption, and smile politely or risk being frisked by total strangers. But mostly I hate the part where everyone takes off their shoes.

Having a vampire-ized supersniffer really, really, really sucks sometimes.

This Playlist Brought to You By Melancholy and Angst

So. Remember how I’ve always said how I don’t listen to music while I write? Well, scratch that. This book, in fact, is becoming more and more musical by the day. I’d had a bit (kind of late on) where music was in a bit of the plot and my new agent made a suggestion that made perfect sense to me. Music (and hiding within it) is actually *very* important to this character. From the beginning.

What I’ve got here is a girl who feels very alone and the music is something that sustains her through the day. It’s another way she hides from others. It’s a curtain or a veil between her and everyone else.

Come on. We’ve all had those days, haven’t we? Where the pulsating drum beat in our ears is more real to us than our own heart beats? Where the lyrics take the place of conversation…where you can see their lips move, but what you’re hearing is the music, not the voices.

I’ve been asking people on Twitter for good song suggestions. Angsty, melancholy, you-against-the-world, lonely kind of stuff. Maybe ethereal too. I don’t see this girl as a heavy metal fan. If you’ve got one, I’d love to hear it.

Here’s the playlist as it is developing so far:

  1. Solitude by Evanescence
  2. Cold, Cold Heart by Norah Jones
  3. July Flame by Laura Veirs
  4. Real Love as sung by Regina Spektor
  5. All the Same to Me by Anya Marina
  6. Sullen Girl by Fiona Apple
  7. Tower of Song by Leonard Cohen (though, yeah, the character probably wouldn’t have heard of him)
  8. Studying Stones by Ani DiFranco
  9. Circle by Edie Brickell (probably too old, but still)
  10. Baby Did a Bad Bad Thing by Chris Isaak
  11. Beautiful by Christina Aguilera
  12. Hey Pretty by Poe
  13. Losing Hope by Jack Johnson
  14. The Shining by Badly Drawn Boy
  15. Mr. King by Nerina Pallot
  16. Jar of Hearts by Christina Perri
  17. Truth by Alexander
  18. Escape Myself by Nouvelle Vague

 

And I’m going to be adding to this as I go. Here’s hoping I don’t drive my husband crazy. He’s more of a Blues man.

 

Want an all-access backstage pass to Cat Girl’s Day Off?

Harley and Grace

Grace, about to pounce an unsuspecting Harley

Seeing as how the cat is out of the bag now about my new book…

I had an idea.

Yeah, I know. Dangerous.

While I’m really excited that Cat Girl’s Day Off is coming out in Spring 2012 rather than in, say, Fall 2012, Spring still seems like an awfully long time away. I know that it’ll actually be here before I know it (um, hey, is it really June? Almost the end of June? And have I really been living in London for like 6 months now??) but at the same time it feels like forever since I started working on the idea.

Actually, I just checked and the original kernel of the idea was written down in July 2008. It’s changed and morphed a lot since then and I didn’t actually start really writing it until November 2009 (according to Word…at least, that’s when I created the original file). So, yeah. Cat Girl’s been on my mind for a while. And I want you to get to know the characters too (especially Oscar. I admit it. I love Oscar.).

So. The idea. Every month until the book comes out (whenever that will be in Spring 2012), I’ll be posting a Behind the Scenes look at one of the characters or something to do with the story. There will be some deleted bits from the book, character bios, that kind of thing. If you have questions as things come out, let me know (I’ll tell you what I can without giving away the story).

I’ll be notifying newsletter subscribers of each bit as it posts or you can just keep an eye on the blog (or on the page I’ll be creating for the book). Hope you enjoy!

Cat Girl’s Day Off TEASER

Okay, I got the go ahead to post this teeny tiny little teaser about Cat Girl’s Day Off… (if you’re wondering what I’m talking about, check out this announcement about my new book coming in Spring 2012):

“Okay, Natalie, give me one good reason why I should bail you out of jail and not tell mom and dad.”  Viv widened her eyes at me, making her look even more like a living, breathing manga than normal. “And you know I can tell if you’re lying.”

That’s true; one of my older sister’s many Talents is her built-in lie detector. But will she even believe the truth when it’s so far out there it sounds like a lie? And will she believe it in time before someone bites the big one?

This is all Oscar’s fault. Him and his stupid celebrity addiction. But then again, none of it would have happened at all if that idiot blogger hadn’t come to town.

I should never have listened to that cat.

My New Book: Cat Girl’s Day Off!

Woot! I am SUPER excited to finally be able to talk about my new book!

Kimberly Pauley’s CAT GIRL’S DAY OFF, when a girl’s celebrity-addicted friends make her watch a viral Internet video, her secret “talent” to understand the language of cats catapults them into a celebrity kidnapping mystery with ties to Hollywood and Ferris Bueller’s Chicago, to Stacy Whitman at Tu Books, in a nice deal, for publication in Spring 2012, by Larry Kirshbaum at LJK Literary Management (World).

Yes, if you’ve been following me on Twitter, this is the book I wrote last year before we moved to London from Chicago. In fact, if you’ve been following me on Twitter and replying to my tweets, you may very well have influenced the book…

If you couldn’t tell from the title and the description, it is another funny book. :) Nat Ng is a girl who can talk to cats…in a family full of people with Talents like levitation and laser vision. Her Talent puts her — very unwillingly — right in the middle of a celebrity kidnapping plot, along with her two best friends. There’s some romance too and lots of snarky cats (seriously, if you’ve ever “owned” a cat, you can imagine what they would say, can’t you?).

I’ve already turned in one revised draft to my editor, Stacy, and I’m super excited. Can’t wait for everyone to meet Nat!

Noir me, Baby

I was a weird teenager.

No, really.

From the time I could read (and talk my mom into taking me to the public library), I went through seriously intense book adoration phases. I didn’t just read a book on a topic or “like” an author…I devoured everything to do with said topic or said author. And I seriously mean EVERYTHING. Did you know that Louis L’Amour wrote over 120 books? I read every single one of them when I was fifteen (and no offense to Mr. L’Amour, but quite a few of them are essentially the same story with different characters).

My interests were far reaching (as evidenced by my foray into cowboy literature read primarily by middle-aged men) and literally knew no bounds.

One of those phases was a Mickey Spillane one. And I don’t mean just the Mike Hammer books either. My two favorites, that I read and re-read until they were dogeared beyond recognition (and I still own, by the way…I couldn’t get rid of the ratty old paperbacks even now, not even when I had to purge over half my book collection when we moved to London) were The Deep and The Delta Factor.

Why?

I don’t really know. Goodness knows they are rife with violence and have, ahem, antiquated & stereotypical views of women (to say the least). Would I recommend that thirteen and fourteen year olds pick them up and read them like I did? Eh, I dunno. Of course, in today’s world, the violence in them seems really quaint compared to the majority of the movies and TV shows that we all watch on a daily basis.

There was just something about them. Something primal. And fast, lordy, they were fast reads. They are slim volumes, probably half the size of the books that I write (and I write for teens, which historically have been shorter than adult novels…okay, unless you’re J. K. Rowling or Robert Jordan or Stephenie Meyer). I could read them in about an hour. And I did. One after the other, like so much literary candy.

In fact, sitting here typing this…I really wish I had those books in front of me right now (our stuff is still in storage in Chicago).

What books do that for you? Take you away, wring you out, and bring you back?

If you’re wondering why I was thinking about this today, it’s because I posted up a “new” free short story for download (One of the Boys) and it’s one I wrote years ago during a Spillane-ish writing phase. I even found a home for it (which was hard, since noir-ish fiction hasn’t really been in demand for a long while) at Hardboiled magazine back in 2004. Reading it again brought it all back to me.

Man, just looking through potential cover images over at iStockPhoto was like a blast from the past. There are some amazing photos over there (just look up noir). I finally settled on this one guy because I liked the craggy lines of his face, even though the main character in the story probably has a much weaker chin (he’s that kind of guy).

Anyway, any Spillane or Hammett fans out there?