Misc.

Look! I won a badge and I didn't have to do anything. Isn't it cute? Thanks to Lisa McGlaun for thinking of me.




In the writing world, things are winding down. I'm on little break from writing at the moment. Working on some marketing ideas. Speaking of that, if you aren't my friend on myspace, facebook, or goodreads, why not? The links are in the side bar. Come be my BFF.

I am trying to decide what to cook for Christmas dinner. It'll be just the four of us, so I hate to put a ton of effort into it. I may have my new favorite place, Midwestern Meats, deliver me one of those "just put it in the oven" meals. If you live in the Mesa area, they are wonderful butchers and they know everything.

And as for Survivor last night... plah. I wish Courtney had won.

Best Book You've Read This Year

I've read a lot of books this year. More than most years. Mostly I read young adult novels, and some of my favorites this year were:

Every Crooked Pot by Rene Rosen
Evolution, Me & Other Freaks of Nature by Robin Brande
Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes
by Chris Crutcher (which came out years ago but I just re-read it last month)

Also by Crutcher -- his latest, called DEADLINE. I'm in the middle of this one right now.

What have you read this year that you'd recommend?

Happy Thanksgiving to those in the U.S.

Test your vocabulary, have fun, and give free rice to stop world hunger, all at the same time.

Go here: Free Rice

NYC

What a blast.

I just returned from a short trip -- my first time in the big city. With me was author Lisa McGlaun. We had a blast together!

It was a tremendous visit. I spent Thursday with my amazing editor Jennifer Klonsky (who is so funny and very cool) and the fabulous team at Simon Pulse. It was so cool to meet them all and put faces to their email addresses. They are really supportive of my book and we had a great meeting. Then Jen took me to lunch at a cool restaurant in Rockefeller Center where our prime seat overlooked the famous ice rink. Cool! I also saw Tori Spelling in the S&S offices. Maybe I should contact Gawker. (Nah.) My roommate Lisa saw Holly Hunter.

That evening I dined with my agent, Michael Bourret, whom I love love love. We went to Sapa, an Asian-French restaurant. Michael knew the chef, who kept sending out extra dishes for us to try. It was delicious, great music too, and I highly recommend the restaurant.

Friday I hooked up with a smattering of friends including the highly entertaining Antonio Pagliarulo, who kept Lisa and me laughing all evening through the pouring rain that night.

And Saturday, before we headed back to the airport, was breakfast in Times Square. I paid $3.75 for some cream cheese to go on my bagel. That? Is ridiculously funny to me.

You? Must now tell me about your trip to NYC and your famous people sightings.

November is National Peanut Butter Lovers' Month

When Janie Hannagan, the main character in WAKE, needs some fast protein, she'll go for the peanut butter jar (if she can't get a Snickers bar, that is). Coincidentally, peanut butter is one of my most favorite foods.

For a recipe on making your own peanut butter, and for instructions on how to grow peanuts right there in your very own house, check out brownielocks.com.

If you manage to grow some, let me know!

Contest winners

Winners have all been notified via email!

If you didn't hear from me, that means you didn't win -- not this time anyway! But I will have more contests in the upcoming months, so stay tuned.

Thanks to all SEVENTY of you who entered -- your nightmares were great! I loved reading them all. Some of them were very much like nightmares I've had myself. Freaky! Janie wouldn't want to get sucked into half of them, that's for sure.

Congrats to the winners!

Contest ends Halloween at midnight!

If you haven't yet entered to win fabulous prizes, see the post below this one for details.

Yesterday I received the WAKE dog tags and they are suh-weet! They are all silvery-shiny aluminum with the word WAKE etched into them. Very cool, not obnoxious.

And today, Robin Brande shared a little bit about WAKE on her blog (she managed to get her hands on an ARC of the book). Just a little over 4 months to release day!

CONTEST!! Ends Halloween Night at Midnight

Woo, baby! It's time, peeps.

Time for the First Official WAKE Contest!! Follow the directions below and you could win one of the following very free, amazingly fabulous prizes:


-- An advance copy of WAKE (1)*

-- A giant 24" x 36" glossy WAKE poster (1)*

-- A smaller, less glossy, yet still completely delectable WAKE poster (1)*

-- A WAKE dog tag on a 24" chain (10)*



Here's how you enter:

1. Click to go to my official website, here http://lisamcmann.com. Scroll down until you see the link, "Email Me!" and click on it.
2. In the subject line, write "WAKE CONTEST"
3. In the body of the email, tell me in a few sentences about a nightmare you've had. (Keep it G or PG-rated, puh-leaze! Or I'll delete it and you'll be disqualified.) If you don't remember dreams, make something up! I'll never know the difference.


That's it. Simple. GO!


WINNERS WILL BE NOTIFIED ON NOVEMBER 1, 2007, via email. If you don't hear from me by midnight Pacific coast time, you did not win.



Contest FAQs (well, actually, just the answers. You can guess the questions if you are bored):

1. Chosen randomly.

2. Draw them from a hat.

2.5 A cowboy hat, if you must know.

3. Because I said so. It's my contest.

4. No, I'm totally serious. G or PG-rated dreams only.

5. No, I'm not a cowboy. I just like hats.

6. I will ask winners for their mailing addresses via email -- don't send them now.

7. Teens, college students, librarians, teachers, dads, moms...anybody reading this is eligible to enter the contest.

8. (x)* <--- indicates the quantity of that particular item I have to give away in this contest. One prize per person.

9. You really need to email me if you want to enter, yes. If you post a comment here, you are not officially entering the contest. I might forget about you if you are not tucked safely into my CONTEST inbox folder, and I don't want that to happen.

10. Absolutely NOT. I will not send you spam or sell your email address or do whatever those nasty people do without telling you. I hate that.

11. Truth? Because I want you to visit my website. That's why. Humor me.

12. I <3 u 2

The best advice

I've ever received about writing was this:

Think of the one thing your protagonist would never, ever do.

Then, make him do it.


On a related note:

Think of the one thing you would never ever do again.
I know what mine is.

Acrylic fingernails.

1. Ow. They hurt.
2. I couldn't type. TRAGEDY!
3. I woke up in the middle of the night in a panic, dreaming that each of my fingers were in tiny individual jail cells. And ow! (see #1)

Never. Ever. Again.


What's your one thing?

Fine dining

On Thursday night I had the pleasure of dining with the fabulous Robin Brande, author of Evolution, Me, and Other Freaks of Nature, and PJ Haarsma, author of The Softwire. PJ's lovely family was there as well. So was a terrific school librarian and several of the staff of Changing Hands Bookstore, including the amazing children's book buyer, Faith, who never seems to rest, and Faith's wonderful parents. It was a great little party.

We went to this cool gourmet pizza place called Picazzo's in Tempe.

We talked about very important things like wheat gluten and Sharpie pens, and then Robin let me try her sacred book signing pen. It was so amazing -- I *had* to have one. So Faith's mother invited me over for coffee and said she would give me one of her Sharpie Ultra Fine Point pens if I came over. Isn't she so sweet????

Anyway, after dinner I went to the rest room and there...

in the restroom was...

a carafe...

of mouthwash. With cute little disposable cups.

The mouthwash was blue.

And so I dragged Robin into the bathroom to show her this interesting development in restroom etiquette. And then we had a great little discussion with Faith's mom about religion and the church right there in the bathroom, all the while urging patrons to try out the mouthwash.

The thing about the mouthwash, though, that still niggles on the edge of my brain, is the thought of all those strangers spitting into the same sink.

Is that weird?

Yarrrrr!

I got my first bound copy, an uncorrected proof, an ARC, a galley...whatever you like to call it, of WAKE. It's so cool! Yarrrrr!


And? Also? Happy National Talk Like a Pirate Day.

(What else do pirates say besides "Yarrrr?")

The Simon & Schuster Spring Catalog sez:

Lisa McMann
Wake

a dark paranormal page-turner in the tradition of
The Sixth Sense.

For seventeen-year-old Janie, getting sucked into other
people’s dreams is growing tiresome. Especially the falling
dreams, the naked-but-nobody-notices dreams, and the
sex-crazed dreams. And then there are the nightmares. Like the
one where she’s in a strange house . . . in a dirty kitchen . . . and a
grotesque monster with knives for fingers is coming for her. This
is the nightmare she keeps falling into and, for the first time, Janie
is a participant in someone else’s twisted psyche.


(This is for the adult catalog -- only six children's books make it into the adult catalog, so woo hoo! There will be another listing in the S&S Children's catalog)

With thanks to my friend Eva...a cool new banner.

I am happy to report

that I have made significant progress in the area of "appropriate bookstore behavior." Yesterday, I successfully brought postcards of my book into Changing Hands Bookstore (the best bookstore in the world) and delivered them to a wonderful employee named Steve, and I did not trip, swear, or fling my purse at any old ladies.

However, when searching for a pen, I did have to dump all my stuff out of my purse onto the counter, and a tampon rolled out and fell on the floor on the other side. (Yes, OF COURSE it was unused and still in it's wrapper. How crass do you think I am?)

Score one for me!

Oh dear.

37%

Mingle²

More about my workspace

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

Take that, you neat freaks!

xox

Looking for an agent?

Pitch your novel to dozens of agents at this cool seminar:

Let's talk about workspaces, woo hoo.

I used to have a desk. Like any good desk, it was covered with craploads of stuff, because that is what desks are for -- to put things on.

I don't write at my desk. There's too much crap on it, and it's not a comfortable place for me to write. I write in the green chair in my "office," which consists of the green chair and ottoman in the living room.

So now, my crapload of stuff is on the ottoman. Mail, magazines, notes about manuscripts (yellow sticky notes, of course -- can't find a notebook to save my life), my sexy half-glasses -- yup, nothing makes you feel old like 1.5 prescription half glasses so you can read the computer screen.

And today, I think we have reached maximum capacity. Things are falling off. I have a small space cleared for my tootsies to rest, and the piles are bleeding over into my space.

I may actually have to go through and sort things.

I hate doing that.

What does your workspace look like? Am I alone? Or is clutter important to you too?

And most importantly, what is on your desk?

Never mind the wrinkles...

You Are 23 Years Old

Under 12: You are a kid at heart. You still have an optimistic life view - and you look at the world with awe. 13-19: You are a teenager at heart. You question authority and are still trying to find your place in this world. 20-29: You are a twentysomething at heart. You feel excited about what's to come... love, work, and new experiences. 30-39: You are a thirtysomething at heart. You've had a taste of success and true love, but you want more! 40+: You are a mature adult. You've been through most of the ups and downs of life already. Now you get to sit back and relax.

What Age Do You Act?

Website

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