Category: Writing

Writing

Happy Book Birthday To Me!

sashikaufman

Yesterday I stood up in front of 800 middle school students and told them I would not show them the dance I did when I learned that my book would be published because, well, they don’t know what “the running man” is and that’s best for everyone.

Readathon 3

Today my book is in the world  -like really in the world and that is very exciting. It’s exciting mostly because I have an excuse to celebrate with my wonderful friends and family here. It’s exciting because awesome readers like Lucy at The Reading Date will write really cool reviews that make me feel known and understood as a writer. And that is really cool and different from your friends and family reading your book and knowing you as a writer (which is also very cool).

Yesterday I stood in front of 800 middle school students and told them that the first line of my book is “When do girls fart?” As you might imagine, this got a good reaction. Including the one from my principal who was standing in the back and shook her head and gave me a little eye roll and a warm grin. “Oh Sashi,” her eyes said.

A student asked me somewhat skeptically. “What made you think to write a story about people who are dumpster divers?” I could tell from the way he asked the question that this was one of the weirdest most unlikely things he could think of to write or even think about. So I said something along the lines of , “Just you wait. The world is even weirder and wackier than you could imagine and it’s full of stories  that are too strange to be believed.” And I felt lucky that I could tell someone about a book that I wrote that maybe, just maybe might expand someone’s ideas about what it means to be an adult.

In the mean time, until you can rip into your brand-spanking new copy. I offer you this.


Hungry for more?

Book birthday interview here!

Super Power interview with Jodi Meadows here!

Win The Other Way Around and read another interview  with Valerie Cole here!

Uncategorized, Writing

Author Events: Where You Can Find Me!

sashikaufman

This Friday I’ll be hanging out with some awesome children s and YA authors at the Nerdy Evening with Authors and Illustrators at the McArthur public library in Biddeford this Friday evening from 6-7:30.

So in addition to seeing my smiling face you can check out the following who will be there to hang out and sign books. (Books will be available for purchase too!)

Ed Briant           Megan Frazer Blakemore      Gail Donovan
Kate Egan         Cathryn Falwell                     Kevin Hawkes

Cynthia Lord      Lynda Mullaly Hunt               
Lynn Plourde     J.E. (John) Thompson       Lisa Jahn-Clough

If you can’t make it to Biddo I have a few guest posts and interviews up right now.

A post I wrote about the dangers of writing what you know is here.

And I’m interviewed as part of a series on YA releases in 2014 here.  There’s some fun info about the book and the writing process in general.

Writing

Book Signing!

sashikaufman

Last weekend I had the opportunity to hang out with approximately 6,000 other English teachers. I was attending NCTE or the National Council of Teachers of English conference which was in Boston this year. I had a grand old time! More conference details in a later post.

By far the highlight of my weekend was the author signing I got to do with my publisher Lerner Books. Lerner gave away 100 copies of my book and I got to sign them all and chat with all the really cool teachers who took time out of their conference to wait in line.

As if that wasn’t enough I got to share the stage with one of my favorite YA writers who was signing copies of a Lerner anthology called Losing It -which features short stories about, yup, you guessed it; losing your virginity.  I always hope an author who’s writing I admire will also be a cool human and in Amy’s case my hopes and dreams were wildly exceeded.

I’ll let the photos tell the rest of the story:

Here I am, very excited about the shiny poster with my head on it. I always try and control my emotion in photos.

Poster

Photo bomb
Yup, that’s Amy -photo bombing my author shot. I told you she was cool.
Giggles
Here we are giggling and signing books like a couple -a school girls. Shucks. Seriously though a few tips. When you sign books next to a famous author -don’t sign their name in your books. Also, not a great time to try and bust out your high school Spanish to impress the teacher from Los Angeles. I’m fairly sure what I wrote was not offensive but I doubt it made any sense.

 

 

Me and Lauren
Lastly, here is some love from my agent Lauren. This photo was taken the night before when I signed my first ever book for her. Every writer deserves an agent like Lauren. She rocks!
Writing

Why I No NANOWRIMO

sashikaufman

It’s that time of year again; NaNoWriMo. For those of you not aware of this phenomena. National Novel Writing Month is something of a writer’s marathon. The event, which began in 1999, eggs on participants to crank out 50,000 words of a new project between November 1st and 30th. Writers from all over the world, both professional and amateur, participate.  More information about NaNoWriMo here.

I know a lot of writers, newbies, and those with multi-book deals who participate. But not me. “What’s the matter Colonel Sanders, chicken?”

Maybe. And perhaps you’ll find that what follows is nothing more than a massive rationalization. But it’s my rationalization. I do have a project I’m working on currently. I’m about 8,000 words in. So this year NaNoWriMo comes at a pretty ideal time. This year, for the first time, I truly considered it. For about a minute. I’m not going to offer you any excuses about day jobs or kids (I have one of each). My reasons are about balance. For multiple reasons I believe I write best in small chunks.

  1. Small chunks makes writing a treat instead of a chore
  2. Small chunks gives me time to revise a bit as I go -smoothing out the rough edges before moving on.
  3. Small chunks means I have time to go for walks, read a few pages before falling asleep, watch some of my guilty pleasure tv shows.
  4. Small chunks means I’m not up at 3 in the morning obsessing about what my characters are doing.
  5. Small chunks has worked really well for me so far.

Barf. I can’t write “small chunks” any more. So there you have it.  I think NaNoWriMo is great and really helps some people jump-start on to the page. But it’s not for me. At least not this year…

Additionally, the first person to comment and tell me correctly what movie the Colonel Sanders quote is from gets a brand new The Other Way Around bookmark and some smarties for being so smart. I’ll send ’em to ya!

Uncategorized, Writing

Woman who writes like a boy

sashikaufman

There’s a lot going on in book world right now. Specifically there’s this:

Note the play-fort and the mega blocks framing the shot just so you don't think the author's life is too glamorous.
Note the play-fort and the mega blocks framing the shot just so you don’t think the author’s life is too glamorous.

Yup, that’s a box of books. A box of books that all have my name on it. They’re here, and the only reason I’m not going to let you look is that I’m doing an official cover reveal on the YA Books Central website on October 24th. Mark your calendars people because not only can you see the actual book on that day, but you can enter to win one of two advanced reader copies.

I’d like to say they’ll be worth millions one day, but what I can guarantee is that owning one means you’ll get to read the book before anyone else does. The real thing is now set to launch into the world on March 1st.

If you’re a super kidlit dork (like me) then you might recognize the title of this blog post as a riff on Tamora Pierce’s Alanna books. The 3rd in the series is called Woman Who Rides Like a Man. The series was one of my favorites in 6th grade and featured a young woman who dresses up like a boy so that she can train as a knight and generally be a badass.

Though I do not ride like a man -I like to think I ride like a suburban woman on a two hour trail ride, I do sometimes write from the perspective of a teenage boy. Now that I’m starting to consider new writing project ideas, I’m thinking about POV.  I know there are a lot of people who struggle with writing from the opposite gender’s perspective, but I really enjoy it.  I find it easier especially when I try to separate a character’s ideas from my own.  When I write from the perspective of a girl or woman, I’m much more concerned about whether or not I’m voicing the character’s thoughts or my own. When I write from the male POV it seems obvious that these are not my thoughts. Gender is probably less of an important distinction than our society makes it out to be anyway. (Soapbox issue for another post)

A.S. King and A.M. Jenkins are two female writers I admire who write the teenage male voice with notable aplomb.  Do you know or admire any women who write like men?

Writing

Hot shots and book hints

sashikaufman

There are many things that happen in my new book The Other Way Around that have never happened to me.

For example:

  • I am not, nor have I ever been, a 16 year old boy.
  • I have never attended an all-girls school.
  • I never had a teacher meeting for bad behavior (though I did behave poorly on occasion -I guess it just never got that far.)
  • I never ran away with a group of street performers.

There are several part’s of Andrew West’s story that are based on feelings I’ve felt and a few instances of things I experienced.  My favorite example of this is the scene where Andrew’s new friends cover him with body paint and the lot of them run around a suburban neighborhood pool-hopping and generally wreaking havoc. If you don’t believe I ever did this, please see photo below.

Harkness

This is Harkness Cooperative at Oberlin College circa 1995. The guy sitting next to me who was also covered in paint was my Resident Adviser.  Me and my roommate Carrie were the preppiest people living there by a long shot. If you don’t believe me, look closely at my hair -that’s a scrunchy.  Carrie was the Cleanliness Coordinator (it was a real job). It was a very interesting year.

There’s a part of me that wanted to use this as my author photo. Because really, have I changed that much? But in the end I was persuaded to go with something slightly less controversial which my brother-in-law, the talented Travis Gray, was able to provide.

Author 4

Ah maturity.

Writing

What’s In a Name; Book Status Update

sashikaufman

My book has a new and permanent title!!!! It was quite a process and I’m happy to report I had a lot of input in what was a truly collaborative process with my editor, the amazing Andrew Karre, and my agent the fan-tabulous Lauren MacLeod.

Without further ado the new title is…..The Other Way Around…coming to a bookstore near you next Spring!  This title is evocative of the journey Andrew, my main character takes, both physically and emotionally. Andrew embarks on a literal journey; jumping in with a group of itinerant dumpster diving anarchist street performers. But his emotional journey is about learning to appreciate what’s good in his life instead of lamenting about what he’s missing, learning to be an actor in his own life instead of an observer and a passive participator.

Even more exciting, I’ve had a chance to give ideas and feedback on potential cover ideas! I’m not at liberty to share yet but I can tell you this; there might be a trapeze on the cover, or a frayed rope, a kid in the rear view mirror, or a starry night and an open road. Once again I feel really lucky and grateful to be working with the incredible collaborative and creative team at Carolrhoda Lab and Lerner Books.  I can’t wait to share more!

Random musings, Writing

Seize the Lady Balls

sashikaufman

lady ball

As you might imagine I’ve been waiting for a while to title a post this way.  In Westbrook Maine there was a business establishment called Lady Ball’s Tea Room, as Dave Barry might say and the residents of Westbrook can attest to, I’m not making this up.  The full name was actually Lady Ball’s Victorian Boutique and Tea Room and for years I drove by thinking that I should really take a picture of the sign which can be partially viewed here. Alas one day it was gone, replaced by the Emerald Management company which is probably a perfectly reputable business with a much less interesting name and sign.

The point is simple, and frankly obvious. A.S. King who is one of my YA literary heroes wrote a great post about why you should write what you want. It’s part of a longer series, which I also recommend, called Writer’s middle finger and can be found here.  So write what you want and try and live the way you want, because life is too short to miss out on your chance to grab it by the Lady Ball’s. (I promise with only one or two crossed fingers behind my back to never say Lady Balls in a post again. That was the last time, I swear.)