The Five Randoms: The Too-Early-for-the-Rooster Edition

What's playing on my iTunes player as I start this: Say What You Want ... Texas

1) I became a writer because of days like today. The words were flying onto the page for a good three hours. I even hated stopping because I wanted to know what happened next (ALWAYS a good stopping point, by the way, since it makes you rush back to the story rather than letting it languish for a month or two in a dusty Desktop Folder). But it's 2:30 a.m. and my sanity is telling me to get reacquainted with my pillow.

2) I love mixing writing with other artistic pursuits. For instance, I love drawing (read my bio on susancolebank.com to see why). When I'm trying to figure out a scene, I start drawing the scene, and the problem I'm having with gestures, background noise or blocking figures sorts itself out.

3) I reread my favorite bits in an old favorite of mine, Beverly Cleary's Fifteen. All I've gotta say is Jane Purdy kissing Buzz, Stan stopping to throw a half-dollar into the river, and Stan Crandall's ID bracelet. SWOON!

4) Valentine's Day is coming up and I'm more excited to give my munchkin her first Valentine's Day present than receiving one from the hubby. As usual, I'll be giving her a book, but it's a book about kittens. Who doesn't love kittens, right? Right?! (See image above to see my side. One day, a boy will get my munchkin romantic gifts. Mommies are the ones who give books, especially since I'm trying not to equate food with special occasions...if only the parents of all the obese Americans in the country had taken note many Valentine's Days ago.)

5) My Phoenix-based critique partners are at a writing conference in San Diego right now. I miss them. Come home, guys, I miss the monkey on my back!

What's playing on my iTunes player as I end this: Lean on Me ... Bill Withers

The One Not-So-Random: Heath Ledger

I hope Heath's loved ones know how much his work resonated with us all on some level. Above is the scene I think about every other week, from one of my favorite teen movies, 10 Things I Hate About You, a retelling of my favorite Shakespeare tale, The Taming of the Shrew.

I know that it wasn't one of his favorite movies to shoot (it was "too Hollywood"), but it's a classic, classic scene that brightens up an otherwise blah winter day.

Rest in peace, Heath, and thank you.

The Five Randoms: The First of 2008 Edition

1) I think it was the sage Meg Cabot who quoted some other sage soul about never having a book deadline on Jan. 1. I used to have a Jan. 1 deadline. I had it changed to Feb. 15 back in mid-November. I read Meg's quote sometime in December. Looks like I'm a sage (and psychic) soul, too.

2) The Book With 100 Titles will be coming out in 2009. In the meantime, I'm revising, revising and rethinking. It's great to hear about fellow YA authors who have the same issues I do. Laurie Halse Anderson, author of Twisted and Catalyst and Speak, just wrote about spending all day on perfecting a chapter only to realize, moments before falling asleep, that it was all wrong. That a character should still be in the dark about something or other. This sounds like a small, easy edit. Trust me, people, it ain't.

3) Speaking of dreaming, I've been having some doozies now that my deadline's less than a month away. I seem to have the most horrific dreams in the world right before a book's due. You know that dream about showing up to class and never having gone to it before even though you're about to take the final? Those dreams are horrible, but not as heart-pounding as mine have been (let's just say mine include forgetting to wear a top--or bra). I blame the HBO series I've been Netflixing--stupid nudity.

4) Let's talk good things on Netflix, since we're on the topic. Big Love, Season Two is a hoot (although it's definitely for the 18-and-older crowd, or at least I'm-with-an-18-year-old-and-watching-this). And I just saw Speak, Anderson's book that was turned into a Showtime movie. One of the most EXCELLENT book-to-movie achievements ever. Not kidding. And the girl who is the lead? Kristen Stewart (who's pictured above)? She's playing Bella in the movie version of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight. (Here's hoping the director/screenwriter does as good a job as those good folks who did Speak.)

5) Lastly, and tangentially, watching Oprah can give you some great plot ideas. Let's just say I owe "O" for an idea that has to do with cans. And since my brothers and I had this same sort of experience with, yes, cans, I totally think this idea will work as a way to build Reggie's character. You'll see what I mean in The Book with 100 Titles.

Have fun reading!
Susan