Kristin Butcher... has novel ideas

I don't know how other authors do it -- reading for pleasure while while they are writing. I try, but I struggle, and I definitely don't enjoy what I'm reading as much as I would like. I think it's because I'm distracted. While I am crafting a story, I am so consumed with the characters and the plot, that there isn't room in my head for someone else's story. It must be my inability to multi-task showing itself yet again.

But because I am currently between writing projects and have sworn to stay that way for the rest of the summer, my mind is empty. (No wisecracks, please.) So I couldn't race to my stack of 'to-be-read' books fast enough, and the one on the top of the pile was Still Missing by Chevy Stevens. I met Chevy (a penname; her actual name is Renee) at the BC Bookfair Breakfast last February. We were both presenting upcoming books along with Adam Lewis Shroeder and Susan Juby. Because this was a promotional event, there were free copies floating around, and being addicted to books, I helped myself.

Still Missing is Chevy Stevens' first novel, but it is certainly not going to be her last. In fact, her second novel, Never Knowing is scheduled for release in 2011. This young lady better buckle her seatbelt, because her career as a writer is about to skyrocket.

Though Still Missing didn't actually hit bookstands until this month, advance reviews have been stellar. In this suspense thriller, Chevy tells the story of Annie O'Sullivan, a young realtor in a small Vancouver Island town, who is abducted and held captive for a year by a deranged man she refers to as The Freak. The story is told in hindsight through Annie's sessions with her 'shrink', but knowing Annie survived the ordeal in no way detracts from the intensity of the story. I was horrified and dumbfounded by the atrocities she was forced to endure while in captivity and amazed at her resourcefulness, tenacity, and mental strength.

Chevy says that her purpose in writing this novel was to explore the aftermath of an abduction. Even when Annie physically returned to her 'pre-abduction' life, her ordeal was not over. She was no longer who she had been. Her experiences had changed her, and her absence had changed the people who had been in her previous life. Annie was, in fact, still missing.

This is a fabulous book. Read it. You'll be glad you did.

Golly, I can't believe it's been a month since I last wrote something in my blog. My excuse is that I've been working, and I haven't had much noteworthy writing news to pass along. I still don't have much to report, but I sent the first draft of Zach & Zoe and the River Rescue off to the editor yesterday, so I'm feeling wonderfully unburdoned and ambitious. It's funny how deadlines can weigh me down. I don't even realize they're affecting me until a project is done and suddenly a huge weight is lifted from my shoulders and I can breathe deeply again.

Which is where I'm at right now. For the first time in two and a half years, I have no project waiting in the wings. That's a little bit scary, because -- though I had a new book out in the spring, another set for release in the fall, and another for next spring -- I have nothing lined up after that. Of course, I have a ton of ideas and I shall definitely pursue some of them, but not right now.

For the next few weeks I'm pushing all things writing-related to the back of my desk. I'm going to paint the kitchen cupboards, dead-head flowers, read in the sunshine, party with family, do some pickling, try some new recipes, and drink wine on the deck ...

... Oh, yeah ... and breathe.

This morning I was up bright and early and down at my local bookstore (Coho Books) to present a seminar titled The Truth About Writing. Coho Books is a warm and charming bookstore, but it isn't huge. So when the owners put a press release in the local paper, advertising the event, they advised people to phone early and reserve a spot as space was limited. Apparently, the phone rang off the hook, because the seminar filled up quickly and there was a waiting list hoping for cancellations. Needless to say we had a full house.

The event was scheduled from 9 am to 11 am. I was only going to speak for about an hour and then field questions -- and hopefully sign some books. But one thing led to another, and I ended up talking the whole two hours. The following Q & A period lasted another 25 minutes. THEN people purchased my books and I signed them.

The time positively flew by. I still can't believe I spoke for the entire two hours. Talk about long-winded! (Who knew I knew enough to fill that length of time?!) 

I obviously had a fabulous time. I hope everyone else did too.

As I sit in my office winding down from the day, I can hear the television in my husband's office. I'm pretty sure he's tuned in to SPEED, because I can hear the racing commentators. (I think you have to be from the South to be eligible for this sport.)  Anyway, part of my brain is tuned into what I'm doing, but another part is unconsciously tuned in to my husband's TV, and I hear one of the commentators say, "He started out with nothing, and he still has most of it left."

And though I don't realize I'm listening, I feel myself smile.

It's all in how you say it.

Beauty.

Wow! My books are really on a roll. The second installment in my Zach & Zoe series -- Zach & Zoe Bully and the Beagle -- has been shortlisted for the 2011 Chocolate Lily Award. How fantastic is that!

Colour me very happy!

(It makes me want to work harder on the next book. It's called Zach & Zoe and the River Rescue and should be out next spring.)

Golly, The Last Superhero has only been in bookstores for a month and already I'm thinking about the new book that's coming out in the fall. That's because the catalogue from Orca Books arrived in yesterday's mail, and there was the cover and blurb for Cheat large as life on page 16.

I love it when we reach this point in the publishing process. There are still a few things that have to happen with the book before it is actually published, but I'm not the one who has to do them.

Well, here it is June -- though you wouldn't know it from the weather -- and here I am, once again making resolutions to improve myself. I do this sort of thing all the time. Every new year, month, week -- heck, even every new hour -- is an opportunity to turn over a new leaf.

Primarily I'm focused on defeating my tendency to procrastinate. Considering all that I've had on my plate for the last two or so years, some people might not think I procrastinate at all. But I do -- a lot.

Some of it is good procrastination -- if there can be such a thing. In other words, while I'm playing computer games or surfing the Internet, I'm thinking about what I'm not writing, and that is a necessary process. Sometimes my mother will ask if I've written the next chapter of something and then is clearly (though quietly) critical of my lack of achievement when I confess that I have not. I explain that writing is different than cleaning the bathroom or washing the floor. Those are mindless jobs. They require no thought. You just do them. My mother doesn't understand that writing is different. You can't just sit down and begin to type. You have to have something to say, and you have to know how to say it. And that requires think time. So I might as well do those other mindless things while I'm thinking.

Unfortunately I can't put all my procrastinating down to that. Much of it is simply due to a reluctance to begin. Once I get started, I'm fine. So that's what I shall aim for in this new month. I'm going to stifle my procrastinating tendencies and get right to work.

Right now! 

My trip to Ontario was great. All the school and library visits went really well, and the Silver Birch celebrations were amazing. The big provincial gala was held on Thursday at Harbourfront Centre in Toronto. Organizers say it was the best attended gala to date. Over 250,000 Ontario students took part in the Forest of Trees Reading Programs, and over the two days of celebration, 7,000 young people showed up at Harbourfront to cheer on their favourite authors and stand in line to get their autographs. Sixty authors attended (the most in the history of the event), and despite the cold, windy, rainy conditions, a good time was had by all.

One of the highlights for me was spending the day with Martha Newbigging, the illustrator of Pharaohs and Foot Soldiers. Though we'd exchanged emails and spoken on the phone during the making of the book, we had never actually met. But we hit it off right away and even did a tag-team autograph session. Martha accompanied every signature with a quick sketch of one of the characters from the book. She's so fast! And so good too. We got to thinking perhaps we should do some classroom visits together. Wouldn't that be cool for the kids!!

On Friday I took part in a regional Silver Birch gala for Durham, held in Whitby, Ontario. And I drove there on the 401 all by myself. Okay, maybe not quite all by myself -- I had Gloria with me (my GPS). At any rate, I made it there on time, in one piece, and without an ulcer. I started the day with a couple of classroom presentations at FM Heard School. What fun! Kids love learning about the mummification process -- especially removing the brain through the nose. Then there was the Silver Birch Luncheon held at the local rec centre. I understand there were around 1,000 young people in attendance, and they were all pumped. Even though the results had been announced at the previous day's event, students hadn't been told, so they were just as excited as kids had been the day before. It was Fantastic!

In total, I was away 8 days, and for the first time in at least 10 years, I got to spend Mother's Day with one of my children. My daughter may be a mom with 4 kids of her own, but she's still my kid, and sharing the day made it special. The only thing that could have made it better was if my son and his family had been there too.

Because I knew I was going to be mega-busy and because I also knew I would be spending all my free time with family, I left my computer at home with instructions to my husband to download my emails every couple of days so that the server wouldn't get overloaded. (That spam takes up a lot of space, you know.) I didn't check email once while I was away. So it was a lovely surprise to come home and find out my books had received two more award nominations. Return to Bone Tree Hill had been shortlisted for the 2011 Manitoba Young Readers' Choice Award, and Zach & Zoe and the Bank Robber had been shortlisted for the 2011 Red Cedar Award. Hurray!

I would love to rest on my laurels and just enjoy the rewards of my labours for a while, but if Zach & Zoe and the River Rescue is going to be published next spring, I have to get working on it. The first draft is due August 3rd.

So away I go. 

Pull out the suitcase -- I'm off again!

This time I'm bound for Toronto and the Silver Birch Gala. Pharaohs and Foot Soldiers is a nominee in the non-fiction category. I was nominated for the Silver Birch only once before, way back in 1998, when The Runaways was a regional winner in the fiction category. It was my first nomination for any award (first book too), and it was a fantastic experience. Back then the gala was held at St. Lawrence Market, and the memory that stands out most about the event was the number of young people who were there. It seemed as if there were thousands, and the line-up of kids wanting to get their books autographed seemed to go forever. This time around the festivities are at Harbour Front Centre on Lake Ontario, and I'm anxious to see what that's like.

Speaking of The Runaways, a Winnipeg school has just purchased a class set from me. The book went out of print two years ago, but teachers are still using it in their classrooms, and that makes me feel great. I was wondering what I was going to do with all the copies I was hoarding.

It's officially out there, people -- The Last Superhero.

My first copy arrived in yesterday's mail. The rest will follow shortly. The distributor likes to get the books off to the bookstores first (I have no problem with that), so the rest of my share should arrive within the next week. Then I'll be mailing them off to family.

I love it when the new books come out. This is #17 for me, so you'd think it would be old hat by now, but I still get that rumble of giddy excitement in my stomach when I hold the published book in my hand for the first time. 

Just one more reason why I love my life.