The Ways We Struggle – Deva Fagan

Posted on by February 16, 2012
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Click here for an explanation of the The Ways We Struggle guest post series.

This week I’m pleased to welcome Deva Fagan, my long-time friend and critique partner, and the author of three MG novels: the fantasies Fortune’s Folly and The Magical Misadventures of Prunella Bogthistle and the science fiction-y Circus Galacticus. She lives in Maine with her husband and her dog, and loves tea, gardening, and playing the fiddle. Today she talks about the problems with seeking validation in numbers.

     

Struggling with Numbers by Deva Fagan



When I was in school, I loved report cards. I was a shy, bookish, industrious kid who always did her homework and studied faithfully for tests. And every semester, I’d get back a piece of paper that proudly proclaimed my GPA. That thin slip of paper was my proof that I was doing okay. That I was worth 
something.



(I also had bushy brown hair and front teeth that stuck out a bit. It will perhaps come as no surprise that Hermione is my favorite Harry Potter character!)



There were other numbers. My AP and SAT scores. My class rank. My orchestra seating. And they defined my life! I remember breaking down into tears one day in the practice hall, because I was worried I might slip back from fourth to sixth spot in the violin section.



Even after I left school (with, ironically, a degree in Mathematics) I looked to numbers to tell me how I was doing. My salary. My weight. The number of books I read each year. The number of words I wrote each day.



But it wasn’t until I published my first book that it got really bad. Because up till then, I’d been pretty good about not comparing my numbers to those of other people (well, except for that day in Orchestra). I just loved the validation of “good numbers.”

     




After publication, though, it became horribly easy to start comparing my numbers to those of other writers. Amazon ranking. Number of Facebook friends. Advance size. Print run. And, as Leah Cypess describes so eloquently and honestly, in her own The Ways We Struggle post, that way lies madness.


Thankfully, I pass a certain dance studio on my daily lunchtime walks. (Okay, maybe not daily. I also struggle with laziness!) One day I noticed this quote in the window:



I do not try to dance better than anyone else. I only try to dance better than myself. — Mikhail Baryshnikov



It was one of the few actual epiphanies I’ve ever experienced. Numbers were never going to tell me whether I was truly successful. Sure, of course I’d be happy if my books were best-sellers or had perfect 5.0 rankings on Goodreads. But “good numbers” are a byproduct of something much more important: pushing myself to be the best I can be.



I’ll admit that I haven’t entirely shaken my addiction to numbers. I still get a little thrill when I go to Worldcat and see how many libraries have copies of my books. But I don’t compare my numbers to those of others.



I don’t worry about trying to write better than anyone else. I only try to write better than myself.



(Thank you, Mikhail!)

View all the The Ways We Struggle posts so far.

Creepy disease post: Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome

Posted on by February 16, 2012
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Disease name: Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS)

Caused by: Certain types of hantavirus (there are many), spread to humans via rodent bites and by inhaling particles in the air contaminated with the droppings, urine, and/or saliva of infected rodents.


(a deer mouse, one of the most common carriers of the virus)

Symptoms: It starts with flu-like signs such as fever, chills, muscle aches, headaches, and nausea. Within a few days of initial symptoms, blood pressure drops and the lungs fill with fluid. Death, due to respiratory failure, often results.

History: HPS was first documented in Canada in 1989 and in the United States in 1993, when there was an outbreak in the Four Corners region. It took doctors weeks to identify the source of the disease and find methods of treatment.

Current status: Cases of HPS continue to be reported throughout North America, particularly in the southwestern US and western Canada. About 50 total cases have been observed in Canada, and more than 400 in the US, as of 2010.

Creepy factor: With a mortality rate of over 50% even with treatment, HPS is almost as deadly as viruses that seem more distant to us here in North America, like Ebola. But it’s right here in our backyards, and caught as easily as breathing in a little dust. It strikes fast, rapidly becoming fatal after seemingly innocuous flu symptoms. And the manner of death is particularly creepy — essentially, your body drowns itself as your lungs are flooded from the inside. *shudders* Let us all be thankful it’s so rare!

If you want to learn more: I read about the initial outbreak of HPS in the same reference book I mentioned last week, Virus X, which gives an excellent (and frightening) day-by-day breakdown of the spread of the disease and the doctors’ attempts to respond.

The Way We Fall in Hungary

Posted on by February 15, 2012
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To my great excitement, today I get to share with you some foreign edition news, including a new and very striking cover!

The Way We Fall will be published by Egmont Hungary this March (I don’t have an exact date yet), under the title elSZIGETelve, which Google Translate informs me means “isolated from” — quite fitting, yes?

The publisher’s page for the book is here, and it doesn’t have the cover yet. But that’s okay, because I have permission to share the cover here on the blog! 🙂

What do you think? I find it interesting that roads are becoming a common cover theme. As well as yellow! Very curious to see what the other foreign covers will look like.

How to support authors and show your book love — inexpensively

Posted on by February 14, 2012
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Valentine’s Day seems like a good time to talk about love. I’d assume most (if not all) of you reading this love books, and love the authors who write your favorite books.

I tweeted earlier today about getting books in legitimate ways vs. illegally. I’d imagine you all recognize that buying a book supports the author in a way getting it for free doesn’t: some of that money goes directly to the author, so they can afford to write rather than doing other work, and every purchase shows the publisher that readers are enjoying these books, which means they’re more likely to publish more books from that author. But I also know that the vast majority of us can’t afford to buy every book that catches our interest. I certainly can’t!

I’m not going to lecture you on what you should or shouldn’t do. You have probably heard all the arguments against reading illegal copies already, and you’ll make up your own mind. But for those who’d like to support authors and show their love of books even when they don’t have much money on hand, I’d like to offer some suggestions. 🙂

Getting books for less

-Watch for sales. Many bookstores, online and off, offer remaindered books for a fraction of their original cost. Ebooks are constantly going on sale — I’ve picked up several in the last month simply because the price had dropped on titles I’d been curious about.

-Buy used. Check websites like AbeBooks or local used book shops in town.

-If you can’t wait for a book to turn up on sale or used, share. Have reader friends? Get together with them and pool your resources. A $10 book only costs $2 each if five of you buy it and then pass it around.

-Trade online. I’ve seen bloggers offering to trade books they’ve reviewed. Or you can go the more organized route and join a service like BookMooch (which I myself have used a lot). All you have to pay is the postage for your end of the trade.

Getting books for free — legally

-Libraries. Checking a book out from the library shows them that readers are interested, which makes them more likely to pick up later books from the same author. If your local library doesn’t already have the book you want, you can usually submit a request that they add it to their collection in person or on the library’s website.

-Contests and giveaways. Follow authors you like on their blogs, Twitter, and/or Facebook. Most authors hold giveaways of their books fairly frequently. You’re not guaranteed to win, but the more you enter, the better your chances! Also keep an eye on book reviewer blogs and publisher websites for additional giveaways and contests.

-In-person swaps. Get together with all your reader friends in the area, and have everyone bring all the books they’re willing to part with. Everyone takes a turn picking one they want out of the pile.

(Do all of these methods mean the author is getting “paid” directly? No. But they do mean a copy of the book had to be bought at some point, and that still supports the author.)

Other free ways to show your support (regardless of how you got the books)

-Talk about books you’ve read and enjoyed. Tell your friends and family about them. Tweet or post on Facebook about them. Write reviews and share them online — on your personal blog, on book community sites like GoodReads, and/or on store sites. Maybe you can even publish a review in the local or school newspaper. It’s all good!

-Follow authors you enjoy and share their news — by telling people in person, retweeting, FB sharing, reblogging — again, it’s all good!

-If you’re in the bookstore and see someone browsing, point out one or two of your faves on the shelves as a friendly suggestion. And it never hurts to let store employees know which books you’ve really loved.

-If you see a book you like on the library shelf, check it out and then drop it in the returns bin on your way out. Every check-out shows the book’s popularity, and means the library is more likely to keep that book around.

-Write to the author and tell them how much you enjoyed their book. I suspect even bestselling authors have moments of doubt and worries about how their writing is being received. And nothing makes an authors’ day like hearing from someone who read and loved one of our books!

Have other ideas for spreading the book love? Share them in the comments!

The music of The Way We Fall – “How Far We’ve Come”

Posted on by February 13, 2012
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I said earlier that I see “Crowd Surf Off A Cliff” as The Way We Fall‘s theme song, and that’s true, but if the unofficial soundtrack has a secondary theme, that would be Matchbox Twenty’s “How Far We’ve Come”:

You could probably say that “Crowd Surf” is the theme of Kaelyn’s personal story, and “How Far” is the theme of the town as a whole. All the different reactions to the increasingly devastating epidemic. The almost upbeat tone of the song makes me think of the initial denial, as people try to believe that everything will be okay and things can’t get any worse, even though underneath they’re terrified (from the lyrics: “I guess we’re going to pretend”).

The chorus addresses what I think is the most important decision each of the townspeople make. “Let’s see how far we’ve come” — are we civilized enough that we’ll stick together and look after each other in the face of tragedy? Or are we going to let ourselves slide back into a more animalistic state, focused only on survival? I wanted to explore how long will people continue doing what’s “right” when they’re pushed to the edge, because I don’t think it’s a blanket decision that society makes at the same time, or that the majority of people everywhere will necessarily make the same decision.

Weekly link round-up

Posted on by February 12, 2012
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I’ve been sharing a lot of posts, articles, etc. that I find interesting, fun, and/or important on Twitter and Tumblr recently, so I figured it’d be worth starting a weekly link round-up for the blog readers who don’t follow me those places or who missed them! The best of this week:

-Diana Peterfreund on the tendency of the internet to get outraged by the bad but not support the good.

-A BBC documentary tracks down and confronts internet trolls (article includes a video clip).

–Lord of the Rings Lego collection revealed.

-A whole bunch of excellent authors explain why freedom of speech is important.

-Various re-imaginings of the Batman movies if done by famous directors. The ones I’d most want to see: Wes Anderson and Ang Lee.

-Hilariously cute video in which Kristen Bell freaks out (excitedly) over a sloth.

-An examination of the focus on “manpain” in popular media, and why it’s problematic, including a fanvid as a powerful illustration.

The Ways We Struggle – Jennifer Rush

Posted on by February 10, 2012
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Click here for an explanation of the The Ways We Struggle guest post series.

Today’s post comes from Jennifer Rush, whose her first two books are coming soon: the YA action-thriller Altered in Fall 2012, and then the science fiction MG Bot Wars in Spring 2013 (as J.V. Kade). She lives in Michigan with her husband and two kids, and loves office supplies (particularly pens), caffeine and bad boys in fiction. Her struggle illustrates the importance of enjoying what we have instead of always looking ahead to the next goal.

The Way I Struggle by Jennifer Rush

There are so many things I struggle with that when I first started brainstorming this post, I figured it’d be an easy one to write. Not so, because while I may struggle with basic writing things (like world-building) and getting on a consistent schedule (don’t even get me started on my atrocious sleeping habits), those are just surface things. And who doesn’t struggle with time management and writing? I feel like they are a given, especially in the publishing industry.

So I sat down and dug deeper and realized that what I truly struggle with is wanting what I don’t have.

When I first started in this business, I wanted nothing more than to sign with an agent and subsequently score a book deal. Preferably a multi-book deal in the high six figures. I couldn’t stand it when someone else got all the things I wanted. Why them? I asked. Why not me?

Once I finally did sign with an agent, I couldn’t wait to sell my first book. And once I sold my first book, I wanted to sell the next one. And now that I’ve accomplished all those things, I’ve already moved on to my next goal (which I have yet to admit to anyone).

That same need is not exclusive to my career. It’s part of my everyday life. I may have finally run a mile without stopping (running is another one of my struggles!) but now I want to run one more. And I may have lost ten pounds, but I want to lose five more. Like now. Like yesterday.

I suppose in some ways this drive to succeed could be seen as a positive thing, and I think in some ways it is. It’s hard to break into the publishing industry, and without that blind ambition, I might not have kept going. But sometimes it consumes my life. I will do whatever I can to get the things I want, but once I have them, the cycle starts over, and I set my sights on the next goal, never allowing myself the time to enjoy what I’ve accomplished.

That’s something I need to change. I don’t want to live my life feeling like I’m constantly trying to fill a bottomless hole (sometimes with chocolate cake)(chocolate cake makes everything better). There are so many great things happening in my life right now. I have two completely different books releasing in the next eighteen months that I’m excited about, that my editors are excited about. I’m finally writing full time! I have a loving, supportive family behind me. Amazing writer friends. I have nothing to complain about.

It was Eleanor Roosevelt who said, “Happiness is not a goal; it is a by-product.” I think that quote sums up my struggle perfectly. Instead of reaching for the next big goal on my long list, it’s time to slow down and enjoy what I’ve already accomplished.

View all the The Ways We Struggle posts so far.

Survival Quiz giveaway!

Posted on by February 9, 2012
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I promised another giveaway — well, here it is! This one should be both fun and super simple. 🙂

All you have to do is take the The Way We Fall Survival Quiz to find out your chances of surviving an epidemic, and then share your result on Twitter and/or Facebook!

You can earn additional entries by tweeting about the giveaway (once per day).

The winner will receive two recent YA novels of their choice. By recent I mean the book must have come out in hardcover or paperback in the last year (between the beginning of 2011 and now). Beyond that, you can pick whichever books you’ve most been wishing for! Let me know in the comments the books you’re hoping to get — I’d love to know.

Open to readers worldwide.

Fill out the form below after you’ve shared your quiz results to enter:


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Friends Infected

Posted on by February 9, 2012
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The winners of the The Way We Fall Infect Your Friends giveaway have been notified by email (so check yours, if you haven’t already)!

Thank you so much to everyone who entered — it really was amazing to see! The highest number of people “infected” by any post: over 300. Wow!

If you were not among the winners, remember, I’m still offering signed bookplates and bookmarks to readers worldwide until Feb 24th. And I have plans for more giveaways to come, even if they won’t be quite as big as this one.

Thank you again!

Creepy disease post: Ebola and Marburg

Posted on by February 8, 2012
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Disease name: Viral hemorrhagic fever (its most vicious forms: Ebola and Marburg)

Caused by: Ebola hemorrhagic fever is caused by various forms of the ebolavirus. Marburg is caused by the Marburg virus (named for the city in Germany where it was first identified). Though Ebola is much more commonly known than Marburg, the diseases are incredibly similar, and the viruses are from the same family.


(the Ebola virus, magnified)

Symptoms: At first, flu-like symptoms including fatigue, fever, chills, a sore throat, cough, headache, muscle and joint pain, diarrhea, and nausea. Often there is chest and stomach pain as well. Disorientation, delirium, and seizures may follow. Eyes redden and a dark rash breaks out on the skin; there may be internal bleeding. Death occurs as the major organs fail.

History: Ebola first emerged in Africa in the 1970s. There have since been several outbreaks (never affecting more than a few hundred people) in Zaire, Sudan, Gabon, the Congo, and Uganda. Marburg was first identified during a brief outbreak in Germany and Yugoslavia in the 1960s (brought there via monkeys shipped from Uganda), and has re-emerged a couple of times in the Congo and Angola.

Current status: Marburg outbreaks have been relatively infrequent, but in 2008 two separate travelers managed to come home with it (to the Netherlands and the US). Ebola outbreaks continued to arise every year or two for most of the last decade, but the last was in 2009. Doctors have not yet developed an approved vaccine for either virus, nor have they definitively determined the animal reservoir for the viruses (from which they spread to other animals and humans to cause the outbreaks). The most likely candidates are bats.

Creepy factor: The diseases have a high mortality rate, even with treatment (68% with Ebola, 82% with Marburg), and are widely considered the most deadly in the world. They involve some frightening symptoms, like the delirium and seizures during which patients lose control of their minds and bodies, and some gruesome ones, like the ugly rash, internal bleeding, and expelling of bodily fluids. They have a long incubation period, sometimes a few weeks passing before symptoms emerge, which means it’s not hard for the viruses to be carried abroad by those who don’t even realize they’re infected. But what I think makes them scariest is the fact that we’re still not totally sure where they come from, which makes it impossible to predict when a new outbreak may emerge or to completely protect people from this happening. Thankfully, so far neither disease is very contagious, since they are spread through physical contact and contact with contaminated materials — but scientists have reason to believe Ebola has at least once gone airborne between monkeys.

If you want to learn more: Richard Preston’s The Hot Zone examines a few major incidents involving viral hemorrhagic fever in intense and frightening detail (including the possibly airborne Ebola case mentioned above). The first book I read during my virus research, Frank Ryan’s Virus X, also includes chapters on Ebola.