The "What's Your Writing Process" Blog Tour!

I was chatting with my writing partner and my agent last week (confession: I set up this sentence just so I could say "my agent," which still feels magical and almost illicit, like saying "my boyfriend" after months of does-he-like-me, or "my pony" if you're the kid whose dream actually came true), and she brought up the idea of blog tours as an additional way to promote a book.

I promptly admitted I had basically no understanding of blog tours. I've seen them, of course, but I have no idea how one sets such a thing up. Do you just call up the blog and offer to stop in and read from your...no, that's wrong. No one has given their phone number to a stranger on the internet since the early days of AOL chat rooms (and then only because you were the person who was ACTUALLY 11 and were really, really stupid, even for 11).

Which of course meant that less than 24 hours later, my awesome writer friend Julie Artz--author of amazing MG adventures and a great lady to grab a cocktail with--asked me if I'd be interested in doing one. Thanks, karma! I must be helping all the old ladies these days!

Anyway, Julie's tour is about writing process, something I mostly don't have. Without further ado...

What are you currently working on?

Looking busy at my day job. But that's good, since I use it as research; I've spent the last year and a half working on an office-based humor book with my amazing writing partner Mike MacDonald (but don't tell him I said that). And then there's the YA novel that's done-but-needs-help, and the SUPER early draft of the other YA novel, and the essays and humor pieces and advice column and...shit, what am I NOT working on? (Answer: anything serious.)  

Guess which one I am? Actually, I don't know, either.

How does your work differ from others in its genre?  

Voice (generally darkly funny and/or cynical), willingness to go further (than some; this isn't performance art), and main character gender neutrality in the humor book. No, really. 

Why do you write what you write? 

I write what I would want to read. I've basically chosen not one, but TWO genres that get looked down upon by "serious" auteurs. But honestly? I think nailing humor, or getting a pitch-perfect young adult novel that both captivates readers AND moves them with your amazing writing, is at least as hard, if not harder, than being Jonathan Franzen (though he might argue there has never been a trial greater than being Jonathan Franzen...). 

How does your writing process work?

I'll tell you it's fueled by ample supplies of both caffeine and bourbon. For collaborative stuff it involves a lot of talking (about FEELINGS...EWW); for fiction, less pre-work than I ought to be doing...then frantic mid-stream pre-work several thousand words deep.

And now the really fun part: I get to send you to other amazing writers--much bettter than me, generally speaking, and all with great hair--and you get to learn about THEIR processes. And see just how deeply crazy we all are, and how much booze and coffee is involved (or is that just me?)

The first person you should visit is Kathleen Hale.  She writes amazing YA literature, as well as ridiculously funny articles for places like Vice, masterwork defenses of reading and writing YA, and gut-wrenchingly honest personal essays on really important topics. We have a complicated series of connections to one another. The most important one? We're both pretty awesome. (Update: see what she has to say about her process here!)

Make sure you also spend some time getting to know Theresa Milstein. She's not just an amazing writer of everything from MG and YA stories to beautiful poetry, she's an incredibly insightful critic who can zero in on the root of your story's issues with scary accuracy. We met through the magic of the NESCBWI listserv, and I am so grateful we did!

And absolutely don't miss Jen Russ. I've had the chance over the last few weeks and months to read the new book she's working on and it's amazing. Seriously, this lady is going to be the person you wish-you-knew-when, an achievement I've been able to claim since we met last year at the Yale Writing Conference. She's a thoughtful reader, a moving writer, and her background in improv comedy is immediately apparent to anyone lucky enough to email with her ;)