Belletrinsic

With thanks to Nathan Bransford and Molly O’Neill for spreading this lovely video.

I don’t think you realize how much you mean to me. Yes, I’m talking to you. If you’re reading this post, it means that you have found your way into my life and my efforts. It means you have offered me support, even if only by reading this message.

Less than a month ago, I had a crazy idea. It flashed through my head in a stunning way that made me wonder why I’d never considered it a possibility before. Open a bookstore. But not any bookstore. One especially for children and teens.

For years I’d daydreamed about owning my own store and stocking its shelves with the kinds of books I want to read (as well as others that weren’t my favorites but still fit in with my definition of good books). It had always been “someday.” Then the thought smacked me upside the head and let me shocked. Why? Why wait for “someday”? That “someday” will never come if I don’t do something about it.

So when I got home, I made a plan for how I was going to make it happen. That night I told a few members of my family and got them onboard. Then I began researching just what it would take to do this fool thing: A lot.

Within me, discouragement battles with confidence, and every few hours one declares triumph over the other. I’m realizing it doesn’t have to be all or nothing. I’m planning to call for a ceasefire tomorrow. I need both of them on my side: confidence that I can do this and realistic expectations (discouragement when he’s in a better mood) to keep me from making incredibly stupid and costly mistakes.

And that brings me back to you. Yes, you. You are here, reading this message because, in some small way, you care about what I’m trying to do. You want me to succeed, and so you’re spending a moment to stop by, placing a gentle arm around my shoulders and telling me I can do this.

If this doesn’t turn out well—if I crash and burn spectacularly—please know that I am so grateful for this moment you’re giving me. I can’t begin to express how incredible it feels to know that people who don’t know me are rallying support for a little bookstore in Utah. You are offering hope in a cause that many might not think worth the time or effort. Literacy for children in Utah is nothing compared to the suffering in Haiti. Maybe what I’m doing doesn’t really matter.

But no. You are proving that people can open their hearts to all kinds of causes without making any of them less worthy. During the process of opening this store, I’ve realized that many people doing almost insignificant amounts of work can accomplish something spectacular. It’s not the amount of effort that counts; it’s the combination of multiple small acts that makes the difference.

I’m one woman and can only do so much. But with you, with your support and encouragement, and yes, even a tiny bit of your time and money, I can do something bigger than myself and something important. I won’t be saving the world from hate. I’m not finding the cure for cancer. I’m not eradicating starvation. But what I’m doing still matters.

If nothing else, I hope to prove that communities can work together to do something amazing. You are doing something amazing. And so I thank you. I pray that one day you may feel even a portion of the gratitude I have for you right now, before anything has been done. It doesn’t matter if I change the world. Now I know I could because of you.

I pray that you will realize you can do amazing, incredible, spectacular, gargantuan things by offering a little bit of yourself. And offering it again, to someone else. Then again.

Thank you.

Sports metaphors are widely used, and tonight I realized why. It takes a strong person to compete in such a public way with a huge risk of failure and embarrassment.

The first jump of his performance, U.S. figure skater Jeremy Abbott fell. He got up, kept skating, then fell again. I can’t imagine the discouragement he felt. On the Olympic stage, in from of the world, and his friends and family, and it seemed as though all he could do was fall.

But he kept going. Each time he fell, he got up and skated. As the performance continued, his confidence grew, and his skating became beautiful.

I imagine that, after the first two falls, he knew he wasn’t getting a medal. And so he got up and performed with all of his heart. The pressure was off, and so he skated like he did it just for himself to prove that he could do it.

I’ll avoid waxing eloquent, but I would like to say that I applaud his determination. There have been times when I’ve fallen, been knocked down, and maybe even dragged through the mud. But after each time I got up and kept skating.

The memorable lesson from Abbott’s performance is the improvement he made after those initial mistakes. He could have let those early falls shake his confidence. Instead, he used them to strengthen his resolve, and so he finished beautifully. He didn’t win gold, but that’s okay. He ended better than he had started and did something amazing in the process.

I hope I’ll remember that as I embark on new adventures. Some things may not work out the way I want and others may fail spectacularly, but I’ll learn from those mistakes, realize that I won’t win gold, but it’s okay. I will do something beautiful with my work so long as I

keep skating.

If you found your way here looking for the Fire Petal Books auction, you can hop on over to www.firepetalbooks.com/blog and see the amazing selection of items you can bid on.

You can also email info@firepetalbooks.com for more information.

See you there!

I’ve decided to embark on a new adventure, and it comes after years of semi-pondering the idea. I’m opening a bookstore.

Not just any bookstore, but one catering to children and teens. We’ll sell books, yes, but we’ll also sell community, support, and education. My plan is to create a place where conversations happen, whether through book clubs, story time, or a chat upon the couch. There will be classes on to show adults how to write for teens and children—but more importantly, classes where teens and children learn how to write.

I’m posting a widget here that will show how the worldwide reading and writing communities are supporting the idea financially. If you haven’t heard of Kickstarter.com before, I recommend visiting their website to see the incredible things people are doing to improve their corner of the world, and then support them as well.

If you’d like to receive updates on the project’s progress, I’ll be posting to the updates page on Kickstarter as well as the Fire Petal Books blog (http://www.firepetalbooks.com/blog), twitter account (@firepetalbooks), and Facebook page.

I don’t know about you, but I’m incredibly excited for the Apple press conference today that will unveil the new Apple tablet, unicorn, iSlate, etc. Whatever it will actually be called, I really want one.

But more than that, I want to hear what Steve Jobs is planning for the publishing industry as a whole. As Apple did with revolutionizing the music industry with the release of iTunes, some are predicting they will do the same for publishing using a variation of the iTunes format for books.

You can read more about the predictions in this Wired article. Plus they have a link to the press conference where you can watch it live at 10 a.m. Pacific time.

This may seem like something only publishing insiders would care about, but every author should be aware of how their content is being published. If this is as exciting as I think it will be, it will dramatically affect how we think of books in the future.

Yes, there will still be physical books. That will never change. But the possibilities for getting your book out before a new and fresh audience are enormous.

I don’t know about you, but I will be waiting in restless anticipation to know what the future holds.

Save the Prince (sure, easy) from an enemy kingdom (no problem) without them knowing (of course) and before the planned execution (obviously). Oh, and don’t forget, your guards will betray you (that’ll make things more exciting), then lead the foreign army in its hunt for you (time to dodge and roll).

Yes, and the Prince will try to claim you as his next conquest (Wait, what? We said nothing about romantic entanglements. I’ll get in and out, do my job, but there’s no way I’ll let some prick of a prince put his moves on me.)

If you could finish this by next month, it’d be appreciated, as we’ve a war to plan. (Sigh . . . )

GOAL: Revise a 60,000 word manuscript in a week.

PLAN: Spend every waking moment (not at work) revising and rewriting.

Can I do it?

I won’t know until I stop playing on the internet and get to work.

I found this post by Editorial Anonymous about a “Mormon Mafia” in publishing rather hilarious, for reasons I’ll explain in a moment. First, click here to read the post.

Now that you’ve stopped puzzling over why I found it so funny, I’ll share this secret tidbit of information about myself: I am a BYU graduate from Utah who writes young adult fiction! I only need to find me a husband and pop out a few kids before my multi-million dollar contract will arrive in the mail.

All joking aside, the letter writer has stumbled upon an interesting phenomenon at the moment, and I was curious when the talk would really start. Well, here it is, and now I think it’s time to explain:

Mormons have been given an ultrasupersecret mission to take over the world by writing young adult fiction with a scifi/fantasy bent. You may want to lock up your children.

Aw, shoot. I shouldn’t have said that. But honestly, anyone who thinks it’s some big conspiracy or divine mandate is reading too many paranormal romances and should lay off them for a few months.

What I see as the common thread with all of the popular and successful Mormon writers has to do more with cultural influence. Let me explain.

Members of the Mormon or LDS church (full name The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), have always been proponents of the arts, including music and dance from the church’s inception in 1830. The first, and probably most prominent, artistic endeavor was the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, formed in 1847.

Literary endeavors came later, near the turn of the twentieth century, with the admonition to write faith-promoting stories. For many years, those were the kind of books LDS authors wrote. I still remember all of the LDS books that were written when I was younger. I’d honestly say it was about this time (the late 70s to early 80s), that LDS fiction really began to develop and grow, as well as LDS authors turning to mainstream fiction with Orson Scott Card at the forefront.

In addition to Stephenie Meyer and Ally Condie, other popular LDS young adult fantasy authors include James Dashner, Shannon Hale, Aprilynne Pike, Brandon Mull, Brandon Sanderson, Jessica Day George, Mette Ivie Harrison, and Julie Berry.

An interesting article from The Boston Globe (click here to read) posits that the influx of Mormon writers in young adult fiction is due to the more wholesome nature of children’s and young adult stories. Members of the church are, on the whole, very conservative when it comes to sex, drugs, and violence. In adult literature, the progressing trend is to include one or all of those elements in great doses. It gets harder and harder to find well-written books with wonderful stories that don’t include graphic sex or violence. I readily admit that as one reason I prefer young adult books.

As for the fantasy aspect, author Shannon Hale says it best in the Boston Globe article: Mormonism and its tenets can seem pretty fantastic by others, so we’ve never really had issues with thinking imaginatively or outside commonly accepted ideas. Plus the fact that fantasy generally has clear concepts of good versus evil, right and wrong directly corresponds with church teachings on the same.

BYU, or Brigham Young University, is a church-sponsored university where members from around the world attend. It has an incredible atmosphere of diversity and learning. It has excellent programs in the arts, especially English, theater and film, music, and dance. I participated at one time or another in each of these (with the exception of theater). Each program is well supported and encouraged at BYU.

Finally, I see the influx of Mormon writers as a growing trend for Mormon artists in all areas. If you don’t believe me, I’ll offer a smattering of actors/singers/musicians/directors who are taking to the world stage (and I’m not even talking about the Osmonds).

Music:

David Archuleta

Brandon Flowers (The Killers)

SheDaisy

Brendon Urie (Panic! At the Disco)

Film:

Amy Adams (raised LDS)

Katherine Heigl (raised LDS)

Aaron Eckhart (BYU grad)

Eliza Dushku (Dollhouse, raised LDS)

John Heder (Napoleon Dynamite)

Jared Hess (wrote/directed Napoleon Dynamite)

Paul Walker (raised LDS)

Dance:

Julianne Hough (Dancing with the Stars)

In conclusion, there isn’t anything in the water or in the church doctrines that says we should write children’s or young adult literature. It’s a combination of cultural and other influences. Plus, there is a strong and supportive community of LDS writers, especially in Utah. I’ve met most of the writers I’ve listed above (no, I haven’t met Stephenie Meyer, but if I do, I’ll tell her hi) at various literary and cultural events. They are a down-to-earth group that encourages other would-be writers and accepts them into the fold whether they be famous or not. I’ve learned a lot about writing from them, especially what it means to give back and support others.

This is why I work in publishing:

The author of Pocketdoodles for Girls* was so excited when I handed her an advance copy of the book, she started screaming, and then began crying. Seeing her so excited made me so happy for her and so excited that we’d produced such an adorable and wonderful book. I absolutely adore this book, and I’m not just saying that because I was the editor. I plan on buying a copy for myself to doodle in, and then giving it (and the boy book) out to every kid I know as gifts.

*The book doesn’t come out until March, but you can pre-order several copies now on Amazon. There is also a sibling book called Pocketdoodles for Boys that is awesome. So whether you know boys or girls, giving them these books will guarantee you the title of Coolest Person Ever.