School Library Journal mentioned my book today in their Interesting Reader Society – Book Reviews by Young Adults. It was my first brush with a pro journal, and it went a little something like this (actually, it went word for word like this, because I’m copying it directly):

Campbell, Chelsea M. The Rise of Renegade X. Egmont. May 2010. ISBN 978-1-60684-060-3. Gr 7–12.

This story was fast, exciting, and fresh. I thought the cover was good, and it showed an important scene when Damien is being forced to jump off a building. The confusion of Damien throughout the book is so real.—Madison C., age 13

Not bad, eh?

While I was doing some research on the Anemoi, the four winds, which make an appearance in Shades of Rome, I came across this hat pattern. I decided to make it while the book is on sub and I’m waiting to hear back from editors, since it seemed appropriate. I started it a little over two weeks ago, just finished it tonight. And hey, it fits!

Obviously this should be my new author photo. You can also kind of see my glasses, which I promised to post pictures of but didn’t.

Here it is on its own:

And on a side note, I have another contest going on GoodReads, this time for a signed hardback copy of The Rise of Renegade X. The contest ends May 11th, the day the book comes out, so if you don’t win, you can go stare longingly at it in the store.

So this probably won’t surprise anyone else out there, but it surprised me. Today I learned that I write Superhero novels. (Yeah, I’ll pause for you to say, “Um, no duh.” Except people probably don’t say no duh anymore.) But the reason you might not be surprised is that you ONLY know of the superhero novel I wrote, and not all the others. You don’t know which ones I loved and which ones I hated and what they had in common or didn’t or whatnot.

I’ve been reading Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat! screenwriting books. (LOVE them, btw. And I don’t love a lot of writing books.) He has ten movie genres he’s defined that cover pretty much any kind of story. (Note that I don’t like a lot of writing books, but the ones I do like are about story.) Well, anyway, I’ve been reading the second STC! book and trying to figure out which genre I write, because it doesn’t seem to be any of these, and while I think my books are good, if they don’t fit into a structure, then I’m missing something, whether it’s in the books or just in my inability to figure it out.

I get to the last chapter in the book, which is about the “Superhero” story. Basically this type of story has three things: a “power” or “mission” that makes the MC super/more than human, an equally powerful nemesis, and an Achilles heel or some kind of weakness. Well, even though some people have said Renegade X isn’t like other superhero stories they’ve read, it also IS because it has all these things. But that’s one’s easy, because, duh, it’s a story about actual superheroes (and villains).

But my latest novel, Shades of Rome, which isn’t literally about superheroes like that, is still a Superhero story. It has an MC that’s given both a power and a mission, an enemy made equally powerful by the same power and an opposite mission, and a key weakness the MC has that hinders said mission.

!!!!!

Yeah, I was pretty ecstatic when I realized I have a story type. Because, you see, recently I’ve been trying to figure out WHY I love writing some books, while writing other types of books bore me to tears (even if the end product might come out good for either one). I definitely love combining the real world with some kind of fantasy element. If the fantasy element is too weak, though, I get bored. I like to have everyday family and relationship drama, yet I need something BIGGER (and, well, just plain fun) to give the story focus and keep it interesting for me. (Note that I read all sorts of books that I love, yet would hate writing. I love reading purely contemporary books, yet writing them not so much.)

So, some of the books I didn’t enjoy writing so much were maybe not balanced right. They were too real world, or they were too fantasy world. But they definitely weren’t Superhero stories. And all the books I LOVED writing were. COINCIDENCE?!?! (A clue: No.) (Yes, I make Sheriff of Nottingham references. What are you going to do about it?)

That’s my big revelation of the day. I write Superhero stories. Good to know, right?

I’m rereading Dealing with Dragons by Patricia Wrede in audiobook form. (I have all of The Enchanted Forest Chronicles sitting next to me right now in hardback, but the library had the audiobooks and I’d never heard them before, so there you go.) I first read these books when I was 12 and I LOVED them. I was crazy about them. For anyone who hasn’t read them, the first book, Dealing with Dragons, is about a princess named Cimorene who doesn’t want to be a proper princess, and instead of learning embroidery and other princess-like skills, she learns how to cook, how to fence, how to do magic, and how to read Latin. She doesn’t get to learn anything very long before her parents find out and put a stop to it, so she ends up kind of a dabbler in “useless” skills. Then when she’s 16 her parents decide to marry her off to a prince she can’t stand, and she ends up running away and becoming a dragon’s princess who doesn’t want to be rescued.

And best of all, as a dragon’s princess, all her “useless” skills become very important.

This book influenced me a lot as a kid. Listening to it now, I remember reading these sentences for the first time, and how much I learned from all of them (about life, about storytelling–it was just packed full of INFO I hadn’t learned yet at the age of 12). And I got to meet the author at the library! Which was awesome.

I’m reading this book now and thinking, “Huh, is this book why I wanted to learn Latin so much?” Because Cimorene knows Latin and ends up using it to organize the dragon’s library. Because even though knowing Latin is a very useless skill for a regular princess, it turns out it’s very useful as a dragon’s princess. And I don’t think it’s what made me interested in Latin, because I’m pretty sure I was already fascinated with it–or at least with the idea of it, because of course I didn’t know ANY Latin at 12–though I’m sure the book did increase my interest. But I think this book is the reason I’ve never given up learning things I liked that other people thought were useless.

And boy do I learn a lot of useless things! In fact, all the things I’m good at are “useless.” Latin is useless–ask anyone who’s never studied it. Try telling a business major you chose Latin and, no, you don’t have any concrete plans for what you’re going to do with it, and they get this look. They get this look, kind of a smile that slips over their faces, that says they’re SO glad they made the right choice. Because I might have picked something that made me happy, but they picked something that’s going to make them money instead, and in that moment they feel validated and are certain they have their priorities straight. (To be fair, not all business majors are like that, and there are plenty of other majors who give you that look, too–business was just my example.)

But I have always firmly believed in my heart that there will be the equivalent of a dragon’s library to sort out someday, and then having learned the things I loved will make all the difference.

And speaking of useless things I’ve learned, we can’t forget writing. Because until the day I was published, if I told someone I was a writer, they also gave me the look. Or they gave me a confused look, like they just couldn’t even fathom what I was saying, glanced away for a moment, and then came back changing the subject, as if I’d never said anything about being a writer at all. O__o Or they would tell me they had thought about being a writer for a while, but ultimately decided there was no money in it and quit. They have a point, but there’s also a lot of happiness and fulfillment in it. (And, okay, a lot of heartbreak and angst and unhappiness, but that’s what makes the successes so ridiculously satisfying.) And, for the record, writing is the only job I’ve ever had that pays the bills, unsteady as it may be. That’s not true for everyone, and some people have, you know, real careers instead of only working the minimum wage gigs where working full time barely keeps them surviving, and the money they make at writing doesn’t compare to their jobs anyway.

But my point is, I’ve always chosen to learn things that make me happy, instead of what other people think I should be learning or doing or whatever. And I think that’s a very good thing, and I think this book, Dealing with Dragons, has had a lot to do with that.

I may have opened the door to find three boxes of books and shouted YES! for all the neighbors to hear. Except I don’t think they were listening. But here they are, my shiny new hardback copies of The Rise of Renegade X!

Here they are in their boxes. I was not impressed with FedEx’s handling of said boxes, since they were kind of falling apart, but oh well.

Here’s one on my favorite photo location, the cat tree:

And spread out so you can see the wrap around cover:

A couple of them in a stack, a book’s natural positon:

Ta da! And, as a bonus, here’s the summary listed on the copyright page. I think they did a good job:

Expecting to become a supervillain on his sixteenth birthday, Damien Locke, son of one of Golden City’s most notorious supervillains, is horrified to discover that he may instead be destined to become a superhero.

I just watched the new Doctor Who. If you’re out of the loop, this was the first episode with the new Doctor, played by Matt Smith, since beloved David Tennant decided to leave the show. David Tennant was, like, the PERFECT Doctor. Of course, I’d been upset when 9 was leaving and we moved onto 10, and THAT worked out, but now I look at 9 and think Psh, why did I care about him again? Every time I expect the writers of Doctor Who to disappoint, they don’t. They not only don’t disappoint, but they wow me. They go so far beyond not disappointing, I don’t know why I ever doubt them.

Well, getting a new Doctor is a big deal, and I may have said some rude things about Matt Smith’s giant forehead. I may have doubted him… a lot. Not only could I not believe I’d ever love another Doctor, but, well, I certainly couldn’t like him. And that stupid brown suit and bow tie they put him in? BARF. AND AND AND the lead writer left the show!

Well, another awesome writer took over (Steven Moffat, the one who wrote Blink and The Girl in the Fireplace, some of my fave episodes), so that was a relief. The writing on the new episode was amazing. It was creepy, hilarious, and full of adventure… and I just sat there in awe the whole time. (I can’t think of the right words to describe the feeling you get when watching Doctor Who, but hopefully you know what I mean.) And Matt Smith did an excellent job. I expected to hate him, and at the least still dislike him. But I not only didn’t hate him, he was so endearing and funny and “just right,” that I’m glad they picked him. I can’t wait to see more of his adventures as the Doctor!

So all the changes they made to the show? Not awful at all. I might possibly even call them improvements. I was so sure I’d be horribly disappointed and that my heart would be broken and never heal. And instead… I think it’s awesome and everything’s going to be okay.

Thankfully averted. Because, oh noes, woe to us, there was NO INTERNET for about 12 hours. It was a horrible ordeal and I have already blocked out most of it from my mind. But now it is working again and I can breathe. I think next week the new book might be going on sub (assuming I get agent approval), and if there was no internet then, I think my brain would short out.

The new book used to be called DEAD ROMANS, as of a few days ago, but my agent said it might be too funny, so I took a poll. Because I had no idea it sounded funny, and several people had told me they loved it. Anyway, an alarming majority of people asked did indeed think it was funny. Some people then admitted they loved the title because it made them laugh.

And, er, that would be great if this was a comedy. It definitely has funny moments and lots of snark, but is not, overall, a comedy, and a title that makes most people laugh wasn’t going to work. (Though I’m still keeping it in mind for a backup title if somewhere down the road I have to change it again.) Anyway, coming up with titles is NOT my specialty. (Even if you think secretly maybe it is, because you like my titles, I assure you it’s not.) So you can imagine my devastation when I realized Dead Romans wasn’t going to cut it. Well, okay, in the beginning I wasn’t that devastated. I was like, okay, a creative challenge! I can handle that! It will be, dare I say it, FUN.

And then that wore off and I wanted to cry and beat my head against the wall, except not really because I’m not a fan of head pain. But you know that feeling. Anyway, it was about then that I broke down and started a discussion on twitter about it, and lots of people offered up suggestions and were really helpful. And it was while I was looking up Latin words for ghosts that I got the idea for shades. Shades as in ghosts.

And then I thought SHADES OF ROME. It seemed to good to be true–I couldn’t have actually just figured out something cool, because it was all feeling kind of bleak at this point. But I considered it for a minute and thought, no, wait, maybe it IS cool. Because even if you don’t realize it means shades as in ghosts, it still means something. It still sets the feel for the book and you can guess it’s about/set in Rome. And then if you get the ghosts part, then it’s even cooler.

So ANYWAY, what all that was actually leading up to was I wanted to tell you I rearranged some of my books. I still had all my research books for Shades of Rome sprawled all over, and I didn’t really want to put them away downstairs where I will never actually read them. They’re, like, the books I actually use the most, and yet I put them the farthest away from me. (Does this make sense? No, it does not.) So I switched some things around and now I have all my Latin and Rome books nearby, and as an added bonus, they’re even on a shelf instead of gathering hair and spilled sunflower seeds on the floor. And there was even enough space to put my ARC of The Rise of Renegade X on the shelf! So yay.

I keep meaning to have more non-writerly posts (or, you know, just more posts in general), but then I think no one wants to hear about my mild-yet-mysterious foot pain, or how everyone at the grocery store smells and stands in front of the milk right when I need it, or what a success it was making gravy with TWO packets instead of one the other night. SNORE.

So anyway, today I thought I’d talk about where ideas come from. Because this is something that non-writers often ask, expecting it to be something cool. Possibly even a Sekrit. And sometimes I can pinpoint the exact moment an idea really came to me, and that can be cool. But usually it’s not so glamorous or exciting.

Usually coming up with ideas is a matter of sitting down at the computer and typing until something makes sense. Which sometimes doesn’t take long at all, and sometimes takes days. Sometimes I hit on something I want to work on right away, but usually it takes a couple days of typing out nonsense to get a feel for what I might work on. And then it takes more nonsense after that to refine the idea and figure things out. If I let this process only go on in my head, not on the keyboard, then it could take months for an idea to properly form and will be pretty undeveloped. Not that there’s never any point where I’m only thinking about potential stories, not hashing things out on the computer, but it’s not how work gets done.

I think everyone has their own methods for how they get the work done, but in my case what generally works for me is sitting down and working the keyboard until some sort of order appears in the chaos. Then I outline it. It’s not glamorous or awe inspiring, but it works.

Not my mailbox. This is not an exciting tale of getting something cool in the mail, but of finding something lodged in a public mailbox. Wait, you say, what do you mean, lodged? And what would be lodged in a mailbox? A public mailbox that’s supposed to be available for everyone to use?

As far as I could tell, there was some kind of purse or bag jammed into the opening of the mailbox. You know, the part where you pull the handle and it tips open and then you slide your letters down the hatch. Well, my letter didn’t go anywhere (I pulled it back out) because of the bag crammed in there, along with what looked like a ledger of some kind. What?

Who stuffs a bag and possibly an important-looking ledger into a public mailbox and abandons it? Was it hobos? I think we can rule them out. Hobos don’t have nice bags and ledgers, and if they do, they probably have better places to keep them than jammed into the mailbox opening. And I don’t think anyone could have gotten their stuff crammed in there on accident, either. The mailbox is right outside the courthouse, though. Maybe it was EVIDENCE. Maybe some panicked person charged with destroying the evidence was in a bind and chucked it into the mailbox.

Or… not. But still. It’s a mystery. (Note that I only speculate on mysteries–I don’t actually solve them.)

I do a lot of knitting and crocheting, especially when I’m not writing. It’s a nice way to be creative without having to actually think too hard about anything, because I just follow other people’s patterns and voila. It’s more fun if I’m watching shows or movies at the same time, so I usually do both, and this has the side effect of embedding the memories of what I watched into the knitting. Er, sort of. I mean, not that someone else could look at that one scarf I made and see the Waltons or the doll I just made for someone and think of Skins. But I do, and I normally have an amazingly crappy memory when it comes to these kinds of things. I’ll watch a movie and then not remember what happened in it five minutes later, but I can look at a knitting project and suddenly remember what I was watching while I made it.

I have some knee-high lace socks I knitted last summer. One sock is all three seasons of Arrested Development, and the other is a season and a half of Desperate Housewives. Some fluffy scarves I made when I was first getting back into knitting are a couple episodes of Gilmore Girls (and so are some Christmas presents I made people a few years ago). A Harry Potter scarf I made for someone is some British movie I can’t remember the name of (but it had that guy that played Leonides and some kid waiting for letters from his father) and a Monk marathon.

I don’t remember what I was doing with *every* project, but I’m always amazed at how vivid some of the memories are and how much they stick. And it’s not like they’re important memories, since it’s just me watching TV and working on projects. (Do not ask what else is going on in the world while I write novels, because it’s all one big blur and I have no idea. Those are theoretically more important memories, and they are all whirlwindy and crazy.) But it’s interesting anyway.