“…an arch made of stone doesn’t even need mortar. The ancient Romans built arch bridges and aqueducts that are still standing today. The tricky part, however is building the arch, as the two converging parts of the structure have no structural integrity until they meet in the middle.” 

Lamb, Robert, and Michael Morrissey.  “How Bridges Work”  01 April 2000. 

HowStuffWorks.com.

<http://science.howstuffworks.com/engineering/civil/bridge.htm>  11 June 2013.

When building a balanced arch, the two converging parts you’re talking about could be personal life and professional life. Or it might be practicality and risk. There are hundreds of combinations of the forces in our lives that need to lean up against each other to create balance. Today I’d like to talk about two major parts of the author arch–artistry and business. Publishing and Writing. I can’t say this enough. PUBLISHING IS A BUSINESS, BUT WRITING IS ART. And you need them BOTH to create a strong and magnificent arch. It doesn’t work until both sides meet in the middle.

Of course, this is the ideal spot in the blog for me to pull out my secret, magical, architectural plans and tell you how to make that perfectly balanced arch. *brace yourself* There are no secret, magical plans. Everyone arrives at balance a little differently because–well–we’re all different. And really, that’s a damn good thing. You don’t want a bucket load of Kimmiepoppins’ running around out there. That would be a problem.

But don’t feel like there isn’t something out there to sink your teeth into. What I can give you, are some tips to help you find your own way.

*Get rid of the GUILT. Most of the time we are not comparing ourselves to real people. The do-it-all super stars that we use as a measuring stick are usually not a complete picture. If we could see the BIG picture it would be a lot more obvious that the “perfect people” put their underwear on the same as us–one leg at a time. They have issues too, we just don’t hear about them until someone’s in rehab.

*Do you really want to be the next old thing? NO! You want to be the next new thing. The only way you can insure that you’re bringing something unique to the table is to bring yourself. This means believing that you’re special, valuable and that you have worth. Easier said than done, right? It’s easier to respect the quirk in other people than yourself, so let your friends remind you of your awesomeness and make sure you’re letting your friends know that they’ve got it going on.

*Slow down. We move too fast. We schedule to much. We think that if we day dream we’re lazy. We don’t take time to walk, talk, savor and explore. We don’t sleep, rest or relax enough. We don’t notice what’s around us. We definitely don’t listen the way that we should–eye to eye and without interruption. Some times less is more. Here’s the thing, if you write a really good book, it will sell no matter how long it took you to write it. I’ve never heard a publisher say, “This is a fabulous manuscript. I love it, but I can’t take it because well, it took you to long to write it.” The work must always speak for itself.

*BUT–put your butt in the chair and write more. Do I need to explain this further? You know I don’t. You can’t go under it. You can’t go over it. You can’t go around it. You’ve got to go through it.

*Stop thinking you can control everything. You can’t. It’s that simple. You can stack the deck in your favor but the lion’s share is out of your hands. Stuff happens. Stuff doesn’t happen.

*Everything is not always as it appears. One day I was getting ready to get on the highway. I had the strong urge to take the back roads instead. Once on the highway, I ran into a very big accident and traffic that was only inching along. I was kicking myself for not taking the back roads. If I had taken the back roads, I would have avoided all of this waisted time. BUT I also may have been hit by someone running a stop sign. I could have been killed. The point is–WE DON’T KNOW. We might think that we know. We can guess. But we don’t know. Ultimately I’ve had to come to a place where I believe that what happens to me is meant to happen to me. That the map, the plan for my life and soul, is way too big for me to be able to read it. It’s like looking at a pointillism painting from an inch away. It all looks like dots. Just dots, until you’re able to step back and see the full picture. Ahhhhh.  I believe it’s pretty damn hard to impossible for us to see the full picture. But I’ve decided that mine is beautiful and I’m going to trust in that. And that folks, is how I build my arch.

What advice do you have for keeping the balance?

And now, WHEN A DRAGON MOVES IN by Jodi Moore, has a brand new book trailer…

What do you think, is the dragon real?

Hi Bloggers and Readers and Librarians! If you liked When You Were Here, please leave a review on Amazon or BN! They help so much!

— DaisyWhitney (@DaisyWhitney) June 6, 2013

And of course it got me thinking. Reviews ARE important. Really important. We live in a media and statistical world, at least until the zombie apocalypse comes. This means that review are right behind the act buying the book in importance to an author’s success.

Kinda cool. Kinda scary. But here’s how I’ve been visualizing it. It’s like surface space…

In today’s social media age, a book without reviews is like a flat piece of paper. It’s there, but it has trouble standing out. Add reviews (positive or negative) and the book starts to become more visible and textured. It’s surface space appears to expand and it catches the eye. There are more options to touch the surface. Yeah, I went there LOL!

The truth is, authors need your reviews, just as much as we need your word-of-mouth recommendations.

This, of course, got me thinking about effective marketing strategies. The world is a busy place. Who has the time to write a review when there are a zillion other things we could be or should be doing. I’m guilty of this myself. In such a busy world, is there an incentive to get those fingers typing?

I didn’t have to look far for a great idea. My wolf pack sister, Jennifer Iacopelli (debut author of GAME. SET. MATCH.) and her publisher Coliloquy came up with this…

GSM Review Raffle: be in the 1st 100 reviewers! Win a $200 Amazon GC or a $50 GC from @smashingonline! #OBXers amazon.com/Game-Match-Ten…

— Jennifer Iacopelli (@jennifercarolyn) May 14, 2013

I LOVE the idea! So here’s what I’m going to do…

I would love to increase the number of reviews on my Amazon TOUCHING THE SURFACE page and my Barnes & Noble TOUCHING THE SURFACE page. If you write a review of TOUCHING THE SURFACE for Amazon, you’ll entered to win a $100 Amazon gift card. If you write one for Barnes & Noble, you’ll be entered to win a $100 Barnes & Noble gift card. If you’ve written a review on Goodreads already, all you have to do is post it to Amazon and Barnes & Noble for two entries. If you write one review for Amazon, it can also be posted on Barnes & Noble or visa versa. One review (that you may have already written) gets you entered once or twice for a gift card.

In order to make sure I can reach the winner, use this Rafflecopter to record your entry. The contest will be open for the whole summer. And I’ll be posting it on my website home page so it’s easy to follow.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thanks so much for taking the time to do this. And if you have other authors that you love and you’d like to see them continue to put books on the shelf, help them out with a review. They will love you so much, they want to share their chocolate with you. I’m serious.

There is nothing I love more than promoting books and authors that I love.

Filled with humor, raw emotion, a strong voice, and a brilliant dog named Sandy Koufax, When You Were Here explores the two most powerful forces known to man-death and love. Daisy Whitney brings her characters to life with a deft touch and resonating authenticity.

Danny’s mother lost her five-year battle with cancer three weeks before his graduation-the one day that she was hanging on to see.

Now Danny is left alone, with only his memories, his dog, and his heart-breaking ex-girlfriend for company. He doesn’t know how to figure out what to do with her estate, what to say for his Valedictorian speech, let alone how to live or be happy anymore.

When he gets a letter from his mom’s property manager in Tokyo, where she had been going for treatment, it shows a side of his mother he never knew. So, with no other sense of direction, Danny travels to Tokyo to connect with his mother’s memory and make sense of her final months, which seemed filled with more joy than Danny ever knew. There, among the cherry blossoms, temples, and crowds, and with the help of an almost-but-definitely-not Harajuku girl, he begins to see how it may not have been ancient magic or mystical treatment that kept his mother going. Perhaps, the secret of how to live lies in how she died.

And because I love love you, dear blog reader, you get an exclusive (never before seen) video of Daisy in Japan!

And want the inside scoop on Laini, Danny’s sister? Here it is…

Yes! Thank you! Laini was always a bit cold, and she had her reasons. Being hard to love was a part of her character makeup from the start. She has a chip on her shoulder and she believes she has reasons for it. As such, she was a hell of a lot of fun to write with her sternness and self-righteousness! But I also think her relationship with Danny shows that while you might not ever be close with a sibling, you can at least respect and understand their choices. And though she’s nearer to brittle than not, I think Danny ultimately “gets” her.

She wouldn’t have left the family the way she did. She would have gone back and said the things she needed to say to their mom sooner. But she’s glad she eventually said them.

Embrace them. Love them. Don’t run from them. Don’t assume you know everything.

While I didn’t intend this as I wrote her, I would say she typifies how families today are created. She’d an adopted daughter from a foreign country, and the identity challenges she faces are ones other adopted children may confront. But she also feels an intense, deep-seated love for her homeland, and I think the depth of her love for China – a complex and fascinating country – is important to consider in our global world.

If WHEN YOU WERE HERE were a television series, Laini and Kana would be the characters I’d most like to see in a spin off series. Have you written the rest of their stories in your head? Would you ever consider giving us more Laini?

I have considered writing a story for Kana! I thinks she would be a fascinating main character. I often imagine a handsome British boy sweeps her off her feet. Perhaps that’s because I like British boys.

*   *   *

I know, I know–there can’t possibly be more to this awesomeness. But there is. I have FIVE copies of WHEN YOU WERE HERE to giveaway to some very lucky readers!!!!! *fist pump*

I’m so glad I wore those comfy puppies on my feet and stashed my fancy shoes and top in my bag for the Simon & Schuster Pulse/Aladdin happy hour. Because the first thing I had to do when I hit NYC was wait in about a 20 person taxi line in the sweltering heat. OMG! Liked the Wicked Witch of the West–I was melting!

This was when I only had 3 or 4 people in front of me and I was getting excited. LOL!

A sweaty but very happy me in the cab with air conditioning until….

My driver stopped at a red light, pulled out a book and started reading. It was pointed out to me how cool it was that I was going to Book Expo America and my cab driver was reading. NO! Sorry, not cool. Even with air conditioning–not cool! Unless a new Harry Potter book comes out–then I’ll totally let you do it. But that’s it.

Made it to BEA alive and who was waiting for me? Lisa Lueddecke from The Young Adult Connection. <3 We were roomies for BEA last year and this was our 1 year Friendaversary. It was so awesome to see her, but I’m going to straight up say that between her evil, painful shoes, my lunch with my agent and the poor cell phone service, I didn’t see her nearly as much as I wanted to. Such a tease. We are totally going to have to Skype or something. Soon. If I could figure out how to Skype. I seriously have SDD Skype Deficit Disorder. *le sigh*

But just like old times, Lisa and I went ARC hunting and we found OMG!!!! LAUREN MYRACLE!!!!!!! AND I HUGGED HER!!!!!! AND SHE IS MORE AWESOME IN REAL LIFE THAN ALL CAPS CAN REALLY EXPLAIN.

And of course I had lunch and hung out with the agent of awesome…MICHELLE WOLFSON!!!! One of my favorite things in the whole world. <3 I also got to finally meet my Wolf Pack Sistah, Jennifer Iacopelli, debut author of GAME. SET. MATCH. Which I started reading on the train ride home and LOVE!!!!! And I also ran into my local book buddy and friend Emily.

There was more, a hazy hot blur of more. I actually ran into a lot more friends and met a bunch of amazing new people between BEA and the Pulse/Aladdin Happy Hour, but my phone battery!!!! The Javits Center eats battery bars for snacks, but on the bright side I met old and new friends while hanging at the charging station. LOL!

So, what have I decided about BEA? I need less than three and a half days and just a little bit more than one. And on the bucket list…I plan on signing there at some point. And on that note–it’s back to work.

PS I’d just like to add that I REALLY REALLY WANTED an ARC of FANGIRL by Rainbow Rowell. And I may have threatened to mug a young book blogger at the charging station, when she whipped out her copy. But I didn’t. So–there was that. What book from BEA would you have almost mugged a book blogger for?

BEA Harlem Shake

I’ll let you know if it was just like this–recap next week! Have a great weekend.

If I could snag any ARC of any up-and-coming book? What would it be???

Nothing But Love Policy 

I know I’ve mentioned this before, but as an author, I feel there is no room in my life for negatively critiquing the work of my peers. If I have a book gripe, I share it on a personal level, not a public one. But on the other hand, I have multiple reasons for wanting to positively promote books.

Here are some of my reasons…

*It helps authors to have reviews posted in places like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Goodreads etc… If you want to help your favorite author continue to write books, please support and endorse them. It does help, but even if it didn’t, I’m positive it would make that author very, very happy to know you care.

*I love connecting books I love with people I love. *fist pump* And it’s even more fun if after the connection, we get to talk about the books. Yup–I’m a book nerd and seriously proud of it!

*I enjoy writing quirky reviews. I am incredibly impressed with the time and effort that goes into the in-depth reviews that most bloggers write, but I honestly don’t feel I can live up to the standard they’ve set. Rather than not share at all, I review books in my own unique way. I try to see the book through my own personal filter. Hopefully, by coming at it a little differently, I catch the attention of someone who will love the book the way that I do .

Not sure what a REALLY UNIQUE Kim review might look like? Here’s an example…  LOL!

*I read reviews. They help me to pick out my own books. I can only read about 100 books a year (I hate that I’m such a slow reader) so I like to increase my chances of finding something utterly awesome. Plus, I’m simply fascinated by the fact that so many different people can feel completely different emotions about the same book. The oddities and intricacies of human nature simply suck me in, I also like being a part of the process–not just a taker, but a giver too.

As I mentioned earlier, with May drawing to a close, we’re celebrating the start of summer and another great beginning: THE RELAUNCH OF THE BOOKANISTAS! New members, new logo, new website design and a whole lot more of the book love we all adore!

Signed copies of these Bookanista-authored books…

IF I LIE and TOUCHED by Corrine Jackson PLUS ARCs of JUST ONE DAY and SPEECHLESS

LET THE SKY FALL by Shannon Messenger

BY BLOOD by Tracy Banghart

POSSESSION, SURRENDER and ABANDON by Elana Johnson

TOUCHING THE SURFACE by Kimberly Sabatini (plus a swag surprise)

BAD TASTE IN BOYS by Carrie Harris

AUDITION by Stasia Ward Kehoe

THE GIRL GUIDE by Christine Fonseca (plus sweet swag)

MILA 2.0 by Debra Driza

LEVEL 2 by Lenore Appelhans

AND A SECOND WINNER WILL GET A BOX FILLED WITH Bookanista-beloved reads including WILL GRAYSON WILL GRAYSON (signed!) by John Green & David Levithan, DITCHED by Robin Mellom, JELLICO ROAD by Melina Marchetta, TAKEN by Erin Bowman, CLOCKWORK ANGEL by Cassandra Clare, MONSTROUS BEAUTY by Elizabeth Fama and SPARROW ROAD by Sheila O’Connor.

* You can find lots more Bookanista Relaunch Book Love at our sites around the interwebs: Carolina Valdez Miller, Carrie Harris,  Christine Fonseca, Corrine Jackson, Debra Driza, Elana Johson, Jessica Love, Katy Upperman, Lenore Appelhans,  Nikki Katz, Rebecca Behrens, Shannon Messenger , Shelli Johannes-Wells, Stasia Ward Kehoe, Tracey Neithercott , Tracy Banghart  

What has you the most excited about the BOOKANISTAS Re-launch?

I’m taking a Kim Pole Poll…Any of these ring familiar?

*Don’t forget you still have time to support a great film…PROMISE LAND…and earn yourself one of five signed copies of TOUCHING THE SURFACE or a 10 page ms critique from me. GO HERE!!!!

*The winner of the caption contest is….

At 11:02 am A.N.Remtulla said:

Your mouse? I eated it.

I’m still chuckling about that one. <3 Beans loves a good mousey. Reeces on the other hand loves a good hair elastic. Cat diversity.

*I’ll be at BEA on Friday May 31st!!!! I’ll be having lunch with my spectacular agent and hunting down ARCs with my roomie from last year, Lisa Lueddecke. <3 It’s our friendship’s one year anniversary!!! I’m also hoping to finally see Rachel Simmons in person. We just miss each other every where we go. LOL! I’m also going to miss my girl, Grace Smith who made me smile every time I saw her last year. Hoping to see a bunch of people who I connected with last year and of course make some new face to face friends. If you see me, don’t let me pass you by–I’m a little bit of a spaz when it comes to remembering names of cyber friends and then attaching them to real live people. HELP ME OUT!!!!

*On June 2nd I’ll be participating in the Chronogram Kids & Family Fun Day. When I have more information on the author panel, I’ll let you know.

*Interesting observation: I’ve been cleaning and prepping the house for sale and I’ve been writing and revising. One of those things burns a lot more calories than the other. Damn.

*On June 12th I’ll be a guest speaker at the Orange County Librarians Dinner. I’m super stoked about that!!!! Watch out Orange County Librarians, I’m giddy with excitement about hanging with you.

*And I’ll leave you with my very entertaining Goodreads review of…

“I’ll be honest. My boys and I LOVE Roald Dahl books. All of them. Rather than review this book in my predictably gushy manner, I thought I would tell you a funny story that happened during our nightly reading sessions…

For those unfamiliar with the story, a grandmother is instructing her grandson on the multiple ways one might recognize a witch in disguise. While giving this info to my eight year old, he checked me over to confirm that I was indeed, not a witch. When he heard they wore itchy wigs, he checked my hair line. He investigated my toes and fingers for cat like claws and block like feet without toes.I thought I’d passed inspection, but a few days later, I caught him staring deeply into my eyes. (There had been a mention of a witches pupils being multicolored.) After a good hard look, he pronounced that I was definitely not a witch–I didn’t have multicolored NIPPLES. I corrected him and indicated that he meant PUPILS. His response was…whatever…it’s the same thing.

And there you have folks.”

I figure I’ve given you enough information for the comments without having to light your way. ROTFL! Have a fabulous holiday weekend. I WILL NOT BE BLOGGING ON MONDAY (Memorial Day) I’ll be picnicking and celebrating my 12yo’s graduation and move up to middle school. I’ll also be very busy being proud to be an American. May the force be with you!

I fell in love with Katherine Longshore‘s writing with her debut novel GILT.

TARNISH by Viking Juvenile, is available on June 18th (Pre-order HERE) and it’s even better!

GOOD READS SUMMARY

Anne Boleyn is the odd girl out. Newly arrived to the court of King Henry VIII, everything about her seems wrong, from her clothes to her manners to her witty but sharp tongue. So when the dashing poet Thomas Wyatt offers to coach her on how to shine at court–and to convince the whole court they’re lovers–she accepts. Before long, Anne’s popularity has soared, and even the charismatic and irresistible king takes notice. More than popularity, Anne wants a voice–but she also wants love. What began as a game becomes high stakes as Anne finds herself forced to make an impossible choice between her heart’s desire and the chance to make history.

MY REVIEW

I LOVED Katherine Longshore’s debut novel, GILT, and you should get excited because TARNISH is even better! The one thing that kept running through my mind as I read TARNISH, was how hard it must have been to be a woman in a man’s world. To have very little, or no control of your own destiny. The thought is frightening. And yet, against the odds, Longshore gives us Anne Boleyn. She wants more. Anne has a spark and it makes me think of her as one part of a long, bright, string of lights. Anne is part of a chain of women through out history, that have helped to shape our role in the world today. But it’s not just Anne. Reading TARNISH made me realize that Longshore is another light–one that continues to guide our way.

Katherine Longshore takes history and mystery and weaves it into magic. Irresistible.

ABOUT KATHERINE LONGSHORE

(Taken Directly from Katherine Longshore’s Website)

I’ve always been a writer. I’ve been writing stories since I learned how to hold a pencil, asking my dad how to spell words while I worked under the bar stools at our kitchen counter.

In my teens, I fell in love with theater. I wanted to act. On the stage. I loved the hush of the crowd, the sticky odor of pancake makeup and the dusty resin of wax on the stage floor. I loved to be able to look out over the audience, the flash of glasses reflecting the stage lights. I loved to hear their laughter. But mostly, I loved losing myself in a character made of words. To make that character live and breathe. Now, that is magic.

I played bit parts (including that of a catatonic in a mental institution—my only line was a scream) and grew into bigger roles on the high school stage. I spent five summers spouting Shakespeare beneath stars and redwoods, hoping one day to play Rosalind in As You Like It.

I got an acting scholarship to a good university and went on to study acting and costume design for two years. But then I traveled on the Semester at Sea—a program on which students study on board a ship and travel around the world, visiting ten countries in one hundred days. It changed my life. I realized I didn’t want to spend my entire life in a windowless black box (a theater) but in the greater world.

So I created my own major, planning to use it to be a travel writer. I spent two months traveling Europe by train. I worked for nine months for the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Association on a research boat as a steward (making beds and washing dishes) in order to earn the money to backpack around the world. The ship went to Chile and the Antarctic, and even stopped at Easter Island—one of the most remote locations in the Pacific Ocean. After so long at sea, I needed time on land, so I packed up my sister and her puppy in a beaten-down station wagon and drove across North America.

And then I packed a single bag and flew to Africa. Alone. I spent five months in southern Africa—South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Malawi, Zambia, but primarily Zimbabwe. I saw elephants and rhinos and kudu, was woken up from a dead sleep in a tent by the roar of lions and sat for hours on the banks of the Zambezi watching Victoria Falls. I spent the rest of that year in Southeast Asia—mostly eating coconut curry. After a few restless months at home, I traveled to Australia and New Zealand and completely depleted my travel fund.

And then I went to England, invited by an Englishman I’d met in Zimbabwe. I went for two weeks and stayed for six months—I left the day before my visa expired—and the next year I married him.

I lived in England for five years, in a little town in the county of Kent. I lived within spitting distance of Hever Castle—Anne Boleyn’s childhood home. Penshurst Place, once owned by the Duke of Buckingham and Knole House, once owned by King Henry VIII himself were also nearby. I grew to love the English countryside—so different from the forests and volcanic mountains of California. And I came to love English history—so much more violent and colorful and ancient than my own.

In the course of my life, I’ve worked as a dishwasher, lingerie seller, coffee barista, cake decorator, ship’s steward, video rental clerk, freelance journalist, travel agent, waitress, contracts manager, bookseller and Montessori preschool teacher.

But in writing for teens, I’ve finally found my calling.

And through writing, I am able to encompass all my loves. Becoming a character made of words. Exploring new worlds. And living history.

YOU CAN CHECK OUT MORE GREAT BOOKANISTAS REVIEWS HERE

Elana Johson is enthralled by CROWN OF EMBERS by Rae Carson

Stasia Ward Kehoe is mesmerized by GRAVE MERCY by Robin LaFevers

Christine Fonseca  adores DEAD SILENCE by Kimberly Derting

Corrine Jackson revels in ALONG FOR THE RIDE by Sara Dessen

Katy Upperman is charmed by QUINTANA OF CHARYN by Melina Marchetta

Kimberly Sabatini is touched by TARNISH by Katherine Longshore

Lenore Appelhans  loves The Originals by Cat Patrick

What amazing women do you think has/had the spark that’s helped to change the role of women in the world today?

And yesterday I told you that I had a BIG Anniversary coming up today. I’d like to wish my wonderful, amazing husband, John a Happy 20th Anniversary today.

I love you more today than yesterday. <3