Well, it’s been shipping from Amazon (and being downloaded onto Kindles and various other devices) for a week or more, but today is still exciting!  Even if there are no parades or fireworks, it’s still the culmination of years of work.  I’m grateful and happy.

The only proper way to celebrate is large amounts Mexican food with my stepsisters, who happen to be the dedicatees of Faking Faith.

Here is a picture of us from back in the day:

Emily, me, Alyssa…moments before one of us tried to push another of us into the water.

I was a reserved and lonely only child until they came into my life. I didn’t even know what I was missing until they were there, trying to push me in the water.  It wasn’t always the smoothest situation, which is often the case in blended families, but my teenager-hood would have been a whole lot more dull and solitary (albeit less damp) without them around.

This is part of the reason why I dedicated Faking Faith to my stepsisters.  In the story, Dylan Mahoney is a very lonely girl.  She’s messed up her friendships, she took a bad gamble on a jerk guy, and she feels completely alone and disconnected from the world.  Dylan desperately needs connection and support, and she finds it in the most unexpected place – the blog of Abigail, a girl whose life is completely unlike her own.

There are bad decisions and bumblings (and a scandalous incident with Abigail’s cute older brother) but in the end, what redeems Dylan  – and what can redeem all of us, I believe – is how she reaches to connect with other people again.  People who see her, just as she is, and love her anyway.  She heals and grows and thrives by learning to once more be open and vulnerable.

These days I count Alyssa and Emily among my closest friends.  We shared a three-person canoe through the wilderness last summer and danced until 4 a.m. at my last birthday.  Our sisterhood has made me a better person, and I’m proud to dedicate this story of friendship and victory over loneliness to them.

(You can buy Faking Faith here and read the first few chapters here.)

I’m super psyched for the Faking Faith release, though, especially since getting the news that it’s an official Junior Library Guild pick for this winter.  I’ll be honest…I was entirely 100% certain that I wanted to write this book, and I’m entirely 100% certain that I’m proud of how it turned out.  But I was NOT entirely 100% certain that it would appeal to the rest of the world.

The anonymous and benevolent “They” instruct you to write what delights you, to write the book that you want to read, the book that makes your blood run fast and your brain gears spin, and to forget about the what the rest of the world might think.

And I find that separation is fairly easy to accomplish when you’re actually wrapped up in writing the book. You put down the words and create the story and live in a little universe under your control, just you and your characters hanging out together and making stuff up.

Eventually you finish the book and lovely people help you edit it.  Then the months creep by, the publication date gets closer, reviews start coming in, and you have to face the fact that after all that work and all that time spent living in that story, those words are not yours anymore.  Your part is finished and the book has to stand all on its own.

It’s a disassociation that can be pretty jarring, especially if the book is on a potentially controversial topic, such as Faking Faith.

It makes me think of the theme song I used for this book, which I still listen to almost daily (plus the cutest video in the world):

Beth Orton – Shopping Trolley

(For some reason, I can’t get it to embed, but watch it here! I swear it’s the best thing ever.)

I think I’m gonna cry

But I’m gonna laugh about it

All in time

I know I’m gonna cry

But I’m gonna laugh about it

All in time, all in time…

It started out a little fraught…YIKES.

But then it got pretty and sun-spackled! (And OMG so hot.  Hot.  During the summer.  Who would have known.)

I went to a Little League game and ate some candy of my childhood. (Not as good as I remembered.  And kind of stale.  This particular push pop might have actually have been made DURING my childhood)…

Then I spent some time hunting the wily and mythical wild lawn flamingo (unsuccessfully)…

But mostly it’s been as much of this as I can manage.  Ahhh.

Hope you’re having a lovely summer, too! (WATCH OUT FOR LAWN FLAMINGOS.)

To the shock of everyone, most of all myself, I survived the back-country canoe trip in Canada!  Here is photographic proof it actually happened:

Me in Quetico Provincial Park at the top of Louisa Falls, which I somehow managed not to fall down.  This was, like, day six without a shower.  Situation was dire.

It really was a great experience, though, and it was nice to know that I won’t fall to whiny pieces if I don’t have access to the internet or air conditioning.  And that I can carry a canoe all by myself and avoid being eaten by bears.  And that I can spend a week in the woods with my family and everyone will probably emerge ALIVE and speaking to each other (mostly).

After that, I took my yearly pilgrimage to the Keeweenaw Peninsula, where we found ourselves compelled to attempt the mentos/coke experiment:

Success!

As my friend Kelly says, there’s something about the wilderness that can bring out the juvenile delinquent in people.  AGREED.

It’s just unending amounts of lovely up there.

But then it was back to work and that’s what I’ve been doing ever since!  Working and writing and researching and thinking.  Pulling a book together is damn hard…even when you know you’re capable of it because you’ve pulled a book together before, it’s still so easy to be filled with doubt and angst and despair.  And honestly, I’ve found the only solution is to just plow right through the middle.

So…off I go, right through the middle!

The pictures that people tweeted were so cool!  I love seeing where people work.  Especially writers, since we as a species are usually pretty attached to our computers and work-spaces, sometimes to the point that we start to feel panicky if we’re away from them for too long (not that I have extensive personal experience with that or anything).  So when I see a writer’s desk, I feel like I know them a little better as a person.

Here is what I posted:

My preciousssssss - ahem…I mean, this is where I work.

I like it okay.

There is an awesome set of photos up on the Guardian website of famous writer’s rooms.  I think the room where the Bronte sisters talked and worked is particularly interesting (and kind of haunting) (also, I would have been totally distracted and irritable and unproductive if I tried to write in a small room with sisters.  They must have been pretty tolerant of each other).

I prefer to imagine them this way:

GRRRR!

Author of ALBATROSS and BAND GEEK LOVE, Josie Bloss’s FAKING FAITH, about a teen shunned for a “sexting” incident who fakes her identity to fit in online with a community of ultra-conservative homeschooled teenage girls, again to Brian Farrey of Flux, in a nice deal, for publication in Fall 2011, by Kate Schafer Testerman of kt literary (NA).

Guys, I’m so excited about this book.  Partly because I’m stoked to continue working with Flux and my awesomesauce editor, and also partly because it finally justifies a long-held internet obsession of mine and basically makes every minute of said addiction into productive research.  Retroactively! Don’t ever let anyone tell you that long-held internet obsessions can’t be purposeful in the end.  There’s a story in everything.  Even (especially?) in obscure, pastel-colored corners of the internet.

I can’t wait to tell this story.  Bring it on, Faith!

So…I am not one of those writers.  When I find stuff online about my books, I read it.  And more often than I’d like to admit, I build a house and dwell on the negative things.  Sometimes I’d really really like to respond, to rabidly defend the story and characters that are so dear to me.

But as almost any writer will tell you, responding directly and defensively to reviews is NEVER A GOOD IDEA!  Nothing positive will come of it and the whole experience will likely end in despair and/or you getting made fun of on the internetz.

(It’s much more satisfying to rant to friends and loved ones, who are contractually obligated to make soothing noises, pour you a drink and say you’re right and everyone else is wrong.)

However, when Donna at Bites asked me to write a guest post about Albatross, I took it as a chance to explain some of the background to the book.  Why I wrote it in terms of my own life experiences, and also in terms of certain trends and debates I see going on in the YA world about romance and depictions of what I personally consider unhealthy and abusive relationships.

And also in order to explain Tess, the occasionally self-destructive and super-frustrating main character of Albatross, who is doubly unable to defend herself due to A) her own issues with her self-esteem, and B) because, well, she’s fictional.

I knew I would eventually hear frustrated comments about the story. “I don’t understand why Tess didn’t just stand up for herself! Why didn’t she kick Micah to the curb after ten pages? He’s obviously a terrible person!” I get that disgust, I really do. It sucks to watch someone make bad choices. In fact, it’s downright unpleasant. Albatross was a hard book to write for that reason. So many times I wanted to reach into the story and give Tess a good shake and yell at her to give up on this jackass, that she deserved so much better.

But even if I could do that, she wouldn’t have believed me right away. And I had to stick with what I knew was true because I had lived it.

The whole thing is here.  Thanks for the opportunity, Donna!

There’s also this cool interview that I did with the Indianapolis Star where I talk about similar topics…

Why did you choose to write Albatross?

I decided to write Albatross because I had seen depictions in books and movies of obsessive and emotionally abusive relationships with the underlying message that these are positive and even romantic…I found that really upsetting and I wanted to give a counter-argument.

Sometimes the person we fall for does not deserve it.

On that happy note (?), I hope that you all have wonderful weekends, and eat lots of Cadbury eggs if you’re into that sort of thing!

Perhaps you saw that my writerly hero Meg Cabot interviewed me on her blog?  Here it is if you missed it. Fingers crossed the authorities don’t come after me for admitting that I stole a book from my 7th grade classroom.  I was young!  I didn’t know what I was doing!

I’d make grand and sappy declarations about how Meg is the coolest (not to mention the funniest and the nicest and the prettiest), but I think you all already know that!

I met her the day before I started writing Band Geek Love!  Very auspicious.

(Though apparently she hates her haircut here, whatevs, she’s still the best.)

Meg is running a really great contest to give away copies of Albatross…check it out here.  To win, you’ll have to write in and explain how you’d help extricate a friend from an unhealthy, hurtful relationship without making your friend mad and driving her (or him) away.  It’s tough to do!  I know because I’ve been there (on both sides of the ugly equation).

I also want to point out this kickass Albatross review and giveaway over on the book review blog Bites.  The whole thing is so thoughtful and awesome, but I think this is my favorite bit because it talks about something other reviews haven’t really mentioned:

There isn’t a prince that saves Tess’s day. Only Tess did that and that just reiterated the overwhelmingly powerful message this book has. No one else can get you out of it except you. You need the strength to do it. You just need to listen to that inner voice of yours.

Yes.  Sometimes, my friends, you just have to be your own damn hero!

I had a great time at the East Lansing Public Library, where I met some girls who are current members of my old high school marching band (they even have the same band director!).  They gave me the highest praise possible about Band Geek Love – “You got it right”.  Thanks, guys!  Good luck with drum major try-outs!

And then I visited Haslett High School, where we had a fun talk about bad relationships and boy drama and throwing off albatrosses.  It was not nearly as traumatizing to hang out in a high school as I thought it would be, though I definitely still have a Pavlovian response to the class-change bells.  Not in the form of drooling, at least, but definitely some panic.

And THEN I had a wonderful reading/signing at Schuler Books.  It involved my favorite question of the weekend.  A woman in the audience asked me what are my favorite themes to write about and I answered “A girl finding her inner-badass”.  Then she asked me if I had found my inner-badass yet, and someone else interjected, “Sure she has…look at her boots!”

Me explaining my Badass Boots.

This was a valuable lesson, as it turns out.  Whenever you are anxious and nervous about something, try wearing Badass Boots.  I swear they’ll make you feel ready to take on the world.  Or at least take on public speaking.  Truth.

Here is a great write-up and interview from the Lansing State Journal wherein I admit to printing out IM conversations in high school because I thought they might be useful material someday.  (They ARE.)

Thanks everyone for a wonderful visit!  And for those who I missed this time around, I promise I’ll be back!

Anyway, while I’m home, I’ll be involved in two events that are open to the public and I hope to see you there!

On Saturday, February 27 at 2 p.m., I’ll be talking about my books at the East Lansing Public Library (info about the event can be found here) as part of their Young Adult Author Series.  This was my local library as I was growing up, and I’m so excited to go back and have my first Albatross-related event there.

Then on Monday, March 1st at 6 p.m., I’ll be hanging out and signing at Schuler Books at Eastwood in Lansing (more information about that is right here).  I’ve been told there will be PIZZA.  Pizza + books…if there’s anything better than that I don’t want to know because I might get addicted to it.

Later in the month, on Saturday, March 20th, I will be in Indianapolis at the River Crossing Borders (details here).  First Indy event…hooray!

And some more Albatross love, Publishers Weekly said my “descriptions of lust and envy are honest and captivating”.  Which is so exciting to hear because, in my opinion, lust and envy are pretty much the the most fascinating sins in existence.  Well…except for maybe pizza and book related gluttony.