Happy Second Blogiversary!

Happy Blogiversary to me!
Happy Blogiversary to me!
Happy Blogiversary, my-sellllllf,
Happy Blogiversary to me!

If I might be permitted a brief (and hopefully non-pompous) speech on the occasion:

*clears throat with a ladylike ahem*

Thank you to all of you who have taken the time to visit, read, comment, link, or in other ways contribute to Brooklyn Arden in the past two years. This blog began as my continuation of a correspondence gone defunct; evolved into a journal and observational bulletin board for my friends and family; and, upon its discovery by writers in November 2005 or thereabouts, became a repository for occasional thoughts and comment-conversations on publishing and the editorial life. What all of these things have in common is that they offer me the very great pleasure of thinking out loud, on everything from September 11 to Jane Austen movies to submissions to (of course) pants and the funk; I've always loved E. M. Forster's quotation "I know what I think when I see what I say," and that's been proved true here over and over again. But just because I'm thinking out loud doesn't mean you have any responsibility to listen to it, so again, I appreciate your kind attention.

Another great pleasure of this blog has been the community that has grown up through the comments here -- the frequent posters I've gotten to know through their thoughts on my words, and the great blogs I've discovered through their comments. This is why I'm always glad when commenters sign their names to their remarks: It's hard to be part of the conversation without a name or a face! I understand the reasons writers might wish to remain anonymous, particularly if you've submitted something to me, but I do hope that if you post, you might consider using at least an alias (Natasha Badunov, Roonil Wazlib, Harriet the Spy), so we have a name to know you by. And if you lurk here and something interests you -- why not add your voice to the mix? I am a great believer in the power of creative energy: The more you say, the more you think, the more you create, the more you do -- always with thoughtfulness and passion -- the more people come together around you and the more possibilities blossom everywhere. But it starts by saying, thinking, creating, doing. This blog has proved that for me in the last two years, and I feel extraordinarily lucky because of it. Thanks again to all of you for being part of it.

Time Warp for a Tradition!

On Tuesday I thought, Hey, it's February 9.

That means February 4 has passed.

Shoot, I missed my own blogiversary.

And since this was my fifth blogiversary, and I've done a blogiversary post every year since 2006, this seemed a pity. I decided to wait until February 11, so I'd have a one-year anniversary plus a week exactly; and if you will all now read the rest of this paragraph, close your eyes, and say, "Dee-dill-ee-boop! Dee-dill-ee-boop! Dee-dill-ee-boop!" . . .

~~ a time warp happens and ~~

It is now February 4 again. Happy blogiversary to me! And thanks to you all for visiting, reading, and commenting as always -- a one-sided conversation is really boring, and I sincerely appreciate your input. Also, I regret that I can only hold the warp open for so long, so time will revert to its February 11 flow once you leave this page. Have a wonderful last Thursday!

Marking the Occasion

Happy blogiversary to me!
Happy blogiversary to me!
Happy blogiversary, Brooklyn Arrrr-den . . .
Happy blogiversary to me!

Yes, it's the one-year anniversary of the reinvigoration of this blog. Thanks to all of you for coming by!

Happy Blogiversary!

Today, February 4, is the fourth anniversary of Brooklyn Arden. (I hoped this would also be my 600th post -- hence the flurry of posting on Sunday -- but alas, that milestone is still a few days further off.) And just to be totally self-indulgent, here are ten of my favorite posts from the last year, in no particular order, judged solely by my pleasure in writing them:

• Baby Got Book
• The Author-Editor Relationship
• Behind the Book: Timothy and the Strong Pajamas
  
• Welcome to the Neighborhood
• A Grave in Green-Wood
  
• What Words Are Worth
• Flap Copy: Three Takes on Operation Yes
• Spreading Some Canvass
• A Hypothesis of Sweets
• Go, Go, Go, Said the Bird

To celebrate, please leave a compliment on the website of your favorite blogger. (And I really sincerely don't mean this to mean me -- much more fun to have my blogiversary celebrated throughout the Internet, I think.) Happy my-blogiversary to you!

A Blogiversary!

Today is March 4, and that means it is the seven-years-and-one-month blogiversary of Brooklyn Arden. I will allow these fine gentlemen to express my feelings on the occasion:

Some other things to celebrate:

• Words in the Dust by Trent Reedy was named a Golden Kite Honor Book for Fiction by the SCBWI!
• My Plot + Structure Master Class for the Inland Empire SCBWI went well on Saturday, and while my brain felt finely fricasseed afterward, it has now recovered!
• I just ordered a second printing of Second Sight!
• It is Sunday night and I just watched an episode of Sherlock I have never seen in full! (It was "A Study in Pink," and it was delightful.) 

Here's wishing you all many Kool, exclamation-point worthy good things this week.

Blogiversary and Book Cover!

Today, February 4, is a pretty significant day in my personal yearly calendar. In 2003, my dear Grandma Carol passed away. In 2005, I rejuvenated this blog, which had lain dormant for exactly two years. In 2006, I celebrated my first blogiversary, and I've tried to mark it every year since with a few brief words.

And in 2011, this is going to print:

And this is very much the culmination of all the February 4ths that have come before it: Second Sight is dedicated to the memory of my grandma (as well as my papa), and it would never have come about without this blog -- quite literally, as the blog led to my website led to writerly interest led to more talks led to the idea led to Kickstarter led to this finally happening. Thanks to all of you for your support through the years, on the blog and for the book: It is truly, deeply appreciated.

The cover was designed by Whitney Lyle, who is newly on staff at Scholastic, with much gadflyish art direction from me. (Seriously, editor + author + client in one person = designer's worst nightmare, but she has borne it with good grace.) I've been looking at versions of this cover for about three months now, and somehow posting it here and on Facebook today, e-mailing it to my book fulfillment people for my online shop, getting ready to send it to press -- it has finally become really real. Which I find a wee bit terrifying, I confess. But I so admire all you writers and illustrators for your daring and bravery, making things you imagined real in the world; and I'm excited to finally be taking that step myself at last. Hooray!

On Subtext

Dear blog, so much has been happening -- I moved apartments! I have much work to do! I need to buy a sofa! And a dining room set! I'm going to a conference and on vacation! But I must finish the work first! -- that you are being sadly neglected. (Happy belated blogiversary, by the way.) Here is a quick substantive post stolen from the discussion board on my recent Plot Master Class to make up for what will probably be a continuing silence for a bit.

+++


Q. I'm into my week 8 analysis assignment and am very intrigued by the question  "What is the emotional or philosophical subtext to this conversation?" I'd never before considered that I should have a subtext to my scene, and yet, when prompted to think about it, I realized I do have one (at least I have one in the scene I chose to analyze). Cheryl, would you mind expanding on concept of subtexts, perhaps even share a Rule of Thumb or two? For example, should an author consciously create the subtext? How should the subtext of various scenes relate to each other? How should the subtext relate to the plot? Will every scene have one? (And if it doesn't have one, is that yet another sign that maybe the scene needs to go?) 

A. Interesting question! To start with the simplest question first:  I don't think every scene needs to have a subtext, or that the lack of one dictates the scene's deletion. As Freud is said to have said, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar :-) , and sometimes one character is just asking another to stop by the store and pick up some milk (say), with no real implications beyond breakfast the next day.

On the other hand, the presence of subtext is a great indication of the depth and complexity of a character or a relationship. Suppose Characters A & B live together in a romantic relationship, and Character A chooses not to have a job and is terrible with money while Character B is a hard worker and responsible saver. If Character A then asks B to buy milk, B might suspect that A is asking because A has no cash on hand of her own. And if money has been a source of tension between them in the past, then there could be a great subtext to the scene involving power (B has it, A doesn't), love (would B be irritated? Or happy to provide? Maybe it would depend on how long they've been together), fear (does A feel OK asking, or does A herself worry that B will resent it?), and all the other dynamics that can play out in a relationship.

The subtext would relate to the plot insofar as A & B's relationship would be part of the plot or form its own plot . . . Maybe A makes these kind of requests of B all the time and never reciprocates, and it's slowly draining him of money and filling him with secret resentment. If so, then even if nothing is said explicitly about anything other than milk within this scene, the subtext of it could drive a climax to their relationship plot in the book -- a point at which things change irrevocably:  In the next scene, he could break up with A, or decide to change his own communication patterns and tell her how she feels rather than being happy-smiley about it, or lay down an ultimatum that A must get a job.

So I think authors can best create subtext by creating complicated characters; staying aware of all of their complexities as they write; and then revising individual scenes to bring in more of those complexities / dimensions consciously, if they didn't come out in the scene the first time around. Maybe you have a scene that feels like a just-a-cigar scene, but when you look at it again, you realize that you could use it to highlight Character C's underlying defiant attitude when dealing with people in official situations, which will show up again later in a crucial Escalating and Complicating Event. . . . This is all rather Advanced Authoring stuff, once you have the basic dynamics of everything down. And so there's not really a Rule of Thumb to it, other than, as always, the more real your people can be, the richer everything else in the novel can be as well.

Books that have good subtext, off the top of my head:  Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein; the Attolia books by Megan Whalen Turner; Above by Leah Bobet; Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell (forthcoming in March from St. Martin's -- a really wonderful and complicated romance with really wonderful and complicated characters, whose last line and ultimate ending turns entirely on how you read the subtext of everything that preceded it); the spy novels by John LeCarre that I've read, which are so dense with subtext I've sometimes found them impossible to parse.

Blogiversary Grab Bag (with Lots of Announcements, Invitations, and WOO-HOOs!)

• The New York Giants! WOO-HOO!
  
• The Light of the World just picked up its third starred review, this one from Publishers Weekly. Also WOO-HOO!
• And A Curse Dark as Gold got a marvelous review from Bookshelves of Doom recently, following another lovely review from Teensreadtoo. There will be lots more on this book coming in the next month or so.
  
• (And anyone who wants to buy me the "Wimsey & Vane 4eva" shirt from BoD is more than welcome to be so generous.)
• The very funny Men of Jane Austen personal ads. I feel insulted on behalf of my dear Mr. Knightley -- he's behind Edmund Bertram, ugh. (Thanks to Jimmy for the link.)
  
• A cool little thing for teachers and parents: The Scholastic Teacher Book Wizard, to help you find the right books at the right reading level for your students and kids.
  
• I'm obsessed with politics right now, and loving Andrew Sullivan's blog on the Atlantic thanks to that. (He offers really cool non-political links too.)
• And Barack! WOO-HOO! I went to an Obama march across the Brooklyn Bridge on Saturday, and it was energizing and inspiring and so exciting to be out with other people who were equally fired up about the possibilities this candidate offers. I have never been involved in a political campaign this early before; I have never cared as much about one specific candidate as I do right now. And a great deal of that comes from the movement gathering around Barack, the sense that I personally can help make a difference today. At church recently, our excellent pastor pointed out that for all the candidates' talk about change, change only happens when there is a true people's movement behind it, as Martin Luther King Jr. and all his supporters created, as women did for decades leading up to the 19th Amendment and then again in the 1960s and 1970s. Our issues are more complicated today, the injustices less clear-cut, but Barack makes me want to take to the streets and help in whatever way I can, and that's why (or rather yet another reason why) I'm going to vote for him.
  
• If you're undecided as to the Democratic candidates, I encourage you to read this fair-minded New Yorker article from a couple weeks ago, laying forth the two very different ideas of the presidency put forth by the two candidates. They're both good people, and I'll vote for either one in November; but Hillary, as a Clinton, carries so much partisan baggage both within and without -- the "vast right-wing conspiracy" both real and imagined -- that she cannot help but to perpetuate this partisan conflict as president. (And that's if she can defeat McCain, which I doubt, because he's more likely to attract the independent vote and anyone who worries about all the Bill complications.) Barack offers a different and, to my eye, more empowering and attractive vision of a presidency for everyone, and working with everyone -- the United and not the Democratic States of America.
• Again, end of lecture.
  
• Besides my political obsession, I'm also drowning in work right now, with the typeset pages of Fall 2008 books circulating, line-editing to do on Spring 2009 books, and concept editing on Summer 2009 and beyond -- not to mention acquisitions pending, Sales Conference coming up, and Spring and Summer 2008 publicity to help coordinate. Thus I'm a little behind on my SQUIDs, but I hope to get them all out by Presidents' Day.
  
• An eBay question: How does one set a high bid and not have it show up in the bidding? I'm trying to purchase some lots of Georgette Heyer Regency romances -- my favorite dessert reading of the moment -- but often I'll put in a bid (say, $10.54) above the current stated high bid (say, $9.27), only to be told I've been outbid on that item, with no record of what this high bid actually is. Could someone explain to me how this happens?
• Mark your calendars: The Park Slope United Methodist Church book sale will be Saturday, February 23, and the afternoon of Sunday, February 24. If you'd like to donate books, you can do that on Monday the 18th or the evenings of the 21st and 22nd. This is an awesome event for either donating books or picking up new ones -- I hope you all will come!
• And if you're a Carleton College alum living in New York, don't forget the Nationwide Trivia event this coming Saturday, 3 p.m. at Mad River Bar & Grill on the Upper East Side. New York has a title to defend!
• If you're coming to New York for the national SCBWI conference, you may be interested in this list of my favorite NYC things to do from last year (plus lots of great suggestions from other people). I'll be at the cocktail party Friday night and Betsy's drink night after.
  
• And if you feel a desire to attend religious services Sunday morning, you're also welcome to come to my wonderful, unusual church, Park Slope United Methodist in Brooklyn. You take the F train to 7th Ave. in Brooklyn, then walk downhill to 6th Ave., turn right, and the church is at the corner of 6th Ave. & 8th St. Sunday services are at 11 a.m. (This invitation is also always open to any interested New Yorkers.)
  
• Upcoming on the blog: A joint review of The Dead and the Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer and Suite Scarlett by Maureen Johnson (hint: one has a much higher body count); a response to Jon's request for thoughts on the editor/author relationship; writing notes from Kindling Words; some great recipes; my mindfulness resolutions; more behind-the-book stuff; a whole new set of poems in April; and doubtless much goofiness.
  
• Today, February 4, is the third anniversary of the reconstitution of this blog, and what a fun three years it's been. Thanks to you all for reading!