DRAWN is a “Top Picks” Novel!

Happy spring, everyone!  Flowers are bursting out everywhere (and weeds too), and nothing beats being able to take a walk AFTER dinner and have it still be light out.  Love this.

SO busy here, what with all the writing, and visiting conferences, plus doing literary agent stuff like reading queries, pitching books to editors, etc.  All is SO exciting, but most exciting are some of the recent reviews I’ve been getting for my novels.  Before too much time sweeps by too quickly, I wanted to take a moment to share them with you all…

I’m seriously thrilled that my new paranormal novel DRAWN has been selected as a Night Owl Top Pick!  The reviewer said such amazing things, things I only thought my parents would say (if you know what I mean).  The review raved, “This is a thoroughly enchanting novel. The characters are beautifully written, and the story is witty, charming, and an utter delight to read. I could not put it down. This is a fantastic romantic and tender story that will continue to enchant readers for years to come.”  Okay, I admit I’m blushing a little… For the complete review, you can go here.

Nearly all reviews for DRAWN have been positive, which is so gratifying.  When you spend over 2 years writing a book, hearing readers say it was all worth it means more than I can say.  I was pretty disappointed to receive an only 3 star review, therefore, from Romantic Times Magazine this past week.  Blah. Why am I sharing this with you? Because I think it’s important for folks to know that writer’s lives have ups and downs and that it’s okay. We understand that one book isn’t for everyone.  Still, it does sting a little when it feels like you’ve gotten the reviewer who doesn’t “get” what you’re doing.  And when you’ve paid big bucks (well, big bucks for me) to have an ad in that magazine when the review pops up. Double blah.  Still (I note with a raise of an eyebrow), that review site also allows for readers to post their own review of DRAWN right there on the page.  So if you could add your own perspective on that site by visiting here, it would mean a ton.

For that matter, if you enjoyed DRAWN, you can really make a huge difference in supporting this title by simply posting your review of it on its Goodreads page here, or adding your review on its Amazon page here (did you know that DRAWN is currently ranked #87 in its category? Huzzah!) or on its Barnes and Noble page here.  Even clicking “like” on the Amazon page and agreeing with the book’s tags helps other possible book buyers to see it. (Don’t ask me how it does…it’s all very mysterious.)  You can do this sort of thing for any book you fall in love with, and truly help that author.  (Why do I feel like saying “Clap if you believe in fairies”?  Not sure!) My heartfelt thanks to anyone who goes the extra mile.  You are an author’s rock star!

Okay, back to the positive stuff now…  Also just a few days ago, I got this phenomenal review for DRAWN from Clean Romance Reviews: “The characters are all wonderful, filling in two worlds with real people and making you feel like you’re there. The main romance is heartrendingly sweet and will curl your toes.”  

There.  I’m feeling better now.

By mentioning this review, I’m jumping the gun a little here, since the review won’t officially post until 3/28, but consider this a heads up, and check out this great romance review site in the meantime!  After the site reviewer contacted me with the contents of the review, she wanted to know if I’d run a giveaway on her site…my response? HECK YEAH!  There will be a DRAWN giveaway on Clean Romance Reviews which will run April 19-27th, so check back there for a chance to win.

And to wrap this up on another cheery note… My other novel, the contemporary YA Over My Head, has some great news of its own.  This book recently cracked the top 10 in its category on Amazon twice in the past few weeks!  I’m over the moon about this (or, perhaps, over my head?).  And it may have something to do with a really insightful review posted by highly respected book blogger Stephanie Su.  On her site StephSuReads, she says: “The YA world very clearly needs more books like OVER MY HEAD, where the main character is of mixed race, culture is an important part of the story, but the story itself is not about accepting one’s culture or battling people’s ignorance of your culturally different family…Marie Lamba gets numerous kudos for portraying the Jumnal family in such an empathic and rich way…younger readers will most likely find a bit of themselves, their frustrations and their desires, in Sang, and cheer this promising young lady on.”  She’s a discerning reader and a serious critic, and I appreciate her thoughtful comments and perspective about Over My Head.  To see the full review, and add your own thoughts to the conversation, you can go here.

That’s it for now on the book front.  Now get outside everyone and enjoy the flowers, deeply inhale that springtime air, and get some sunshine on your face!

Happy reads,

Marie

Marie Lamba, Literary Agent

I know that lots of my posts are tongue in cheek, but this time I’m actually serious. I’m pleased to announce that I am now an associate literary agent for the Jennifer DeChiara Literary Agency in New York.

Actually, I’ve been doing this for a few months but as a “secret agent,” reading manuscripts on the sly…maybe wearing black leather boots, dark shades, and slinking about clandestinely, who knows?  But now it’s finally time to fess up.

Yeah, I’m still an author, but being a writer plus an agent feels like the next natural step for me. And I’m hoping to bring my years of experience as an author, an editor and an enthusiastic book promoter to the table in a way that will benefit future clients.

I’m especially thrilled to be a part of Jennifer DeChiara’s firm.  Jennifer has been, and continues to be, my literary agent, and she’s an agent of the best sort.  She doesn’t just represent a book, she represents and supports an author over that person’s entire career, through all the peaks and valleys.  When I take on clients, I plan to do the same, looking beyond just the one title the writer presents to me and onto the entire career of that writer. It’s about making smart moves for that writer, about mentoring, and about building their future successes. It’s exciting stuff!

Here’s my agenting bio:

As an agent, Marie is currently looking for young adult and middle grade fiction, along with general and women’s fiction and some memoir.  Books that are moving and/or hilarious are especially welcome. She is NOT interested in picture books, science fiction or high fantasy (though she is open to paranormal elements), category romance (though romantic elements are welcomed), non-fiction, or in books that feature graphic violence.

Some recently favorite titles on her shelf include Searching for Caleb by Anne Tyler, Just Listen by Sarah Dessen, Paper Towns by John Green, The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffeneger, Twenties Girl by Sophia Kinsella, The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, Shug by Jenny Han, and Doing It by Melvin Burgess.  She also admits to watching many many chick flicks.

To contact her, send only a query letter with the first 20 pages of your manuscript pasted into the bottom of your email to marie.jdlit@gmail.com.

…So, if you have something that you think I’d be interested in, please do send your query letter to the above email.  I ask that you use only this email to contact me in my agent capacity. To keep things sane, I will not respond to unsolicited manuscripts or to queries that come to me via other avenues, including other email addresses, social media venues, etc.

Thanks!

Celebrity Poodle Insulted

Ella the poodle's unhappy reaction to her portrayal in new novel: "Call my lawyer at once!"

Invasion of privacy. Unauthorized biography. Poodle protocol violation.

Shocking accusation: Poopsie the Poodle, the sometimes star of the novel OVER MY HEAD, may be modeled after real-life apricot poodle Ella Lamba.

“We are not amused,” barks Ella’s lawyer, who points to allegedly insulting comments such as the following from Marie Lamba’s new young adult novel:

I pick her up and rub her pom-pom ears. “No more surprises, okay?” She licks me in the nostril. We’re the best of friends. “Okay, I’ll see you later.” I set her down.

Poopsie does her head tilt thing again like she’s trying to understand. It must be tough having a brain the size of a walnut. I wave bye and she tilts her head the other way, suddenly seeming sad and lonely. I leave and lock the door, feeling sad myself. Poor Poopsie.

“This is an outrage,” says the attorney for real poodle Ella.  ”Brain like the size of a walnut? It’ll be poor author once this is dragged through the courts.”

Lamba the author went on record saying, “It’s fiction. And it’s supposed to be funny.”

“Funny?” the attorney said. “In this novel Poopsie, who is obviously modeled after my client, is insulted, dressed in American Girl clothes, even misplaced.”

“But no dogs were harmed in the writing of this novel,” Lamba said in a weak voice. “I love my dog. Sang, the character in the novel, loves Poopsie and does her best to take care of her. It’s not Sang’s fault the dog is a little loopy. I mean, wait. Not loopy. Can you strike that? What I’m saying is off the record, right? Right?”

Later, after this blatantly anti-poodle comment, TMZ caught up to Ella the poodle at her favorite posh doggie spa, and asked for her reaction to this latest insult.

But Ella, ever the classy one, just rolled her eyes and would only reply, “Grrr.”

Over My Head on Sale!!!!!!

It’s summer. And high school senior Sang Jumnal is in way over her head.

Now you can be too!  HUZZAH!!!!!   My new novel Over My Head is now officially on sale in print ($12.99) and in ebook ($2.99).  To find out how to snag your own copy, just click here.

The book (a perfect beach read if I must say so myself) picks up two years after What I Meant… ends.  It’s the start of summer before Sang’s senior year in Doylestown, PA, and nothing goes as planned.  Sang definitely doesn’t plan on falling for 20-year-old lifeguard Cameron Cerulli. And she can’t tell if he’s the love of her life or a player out to break her heart. Serious Trouble.

So dive on in for some summertime fun, and enjoy.  As for me? I’ll be busy setting up a huge beachy book launch party (details coming soon), and generally working hard to spread the word everywhere.  But I just wanted to take a minute (and a deep breath) and share the happy news with you all.  My. Book. Is. Finally. Out!

Fist pump.  Heel click. Yessssss!

As always, thanks so much to you all for supporting this wacky writer and her work. It really means a lot. <3

Marie

Sneak Peek at Chapter One!

Hey gang,

Happy summer! Since my new young adult novel OVER MY HEAD starts off on the very last day of school at Central Bucks West High in Doylestown, and that very last day is TOMORROW, I’ve decided for a limited time to give you all a sneak peek at chapter one.This is especially for all of you who are just finishing school and turning your minds, finally, toward summer. Congrats!

OVER MY HEAD will be published in the next week or so, and I’ll definitely announce that here.  It’ll be a $12.99 paperback and a $2.99 e-book.

In the meantime…For your glimpse at chapter one, click here.

And enjoy!

Psst! Secrets…Pass it on!

It's a secret...so tell everyone!

Hey gang, just wanted to let you in on a few secrets…

First of all, I’ll soon be revealing the cover for my new young adult novel OVER MY HEAD.   Look for this, and for the book to be coming out in June!  Very excited.

This novel picks up two years after WHAT I MEANT… finishes, and you’ll get to hang out with Sang, Megan, Dalton, Gary, Doodles and some new characters the summer before senior year as Sang falls big time for the one guy everybody thinks is wrong for her.

And for the many of you who have read WHAT I MEANT… and have asked me, “What happened to Gina? Why did she act like that?”…well, I’m putting the finishing touches right now on a short story that will soon appear in an anthology including stories written by the wonderful authors of The Liars Club.  I can tell you the anthology will be called LIAR, LIAR!  I can tell you that Gina is running from something, and hasn’t been entirely honest with Sang. And I can tell you the story will be called, “What I Did…”  And I can tell you that I can’t tell you much more just yet.  But I will. Soon. Honest.

Look for details, including when and how to purchase LIAR, LIAR! as well as OVER MY HEAD on this site. Soon. Cross my heart.

In the meantime, like all good secrets…Shhh! (And be sure to pass it on.)

Book Review: The Bird House by Kelly Simmons

What is true? What is real? What is forgotten and what can never be erased?  In a lifetime of good intentions we all have our share of secrets, regrets, and undiscovered passions.  And digging through old letters, connecting the importance of a ring with something said long ago, really looking at what is around you, well, it can change your entire view of your world.

The Bird House by Kelly Simmons (Washington Square Press) takes the reader on a mesmerizing journey into one woman’s past and beyond in this sparkling and engrossing novel you’ll want to recommend to everyone you know.  The characters are real, the situations at once startling yet believable.  I found myself glad that I couldn’t sleep last night, because that meant I could get back to this novel and read it through to the end. How many novels are good enough for that? After finishing the last page I had that “I just read something truly amazing” feeling. The lingering of images and emotions. The sadness, as if parting from a very dear friend….

Simmons writes of a granddaughter who is brutally honest, and who needs to do a family heritage project with her grandmother.  She takes us into the head of Ann, a seventy-something woman of high intelligence and so-so memory, who skips us back and forth through time. Her past is a life full of promise, then terrible loss and guilt.  In her present, Ann finds her heart being won over by her granddaughter, a child who asks all the wrong questions in just the right way. And Ann finds answers she hadn’t even known she was seeking.

The story is at once heart-wrenching and hilarious.  Ann has a tart tongue and a sharp eye, making her the ideal narrator casting a witty eye on everything from egocentric architects, Main Line Philadelphia elite, the claustrophobic existence of a new mother, the horrors of those tacky birthday party activity joints, and the temptations of a forbidden lover.

The author quickly envelops you with sharp imagery, true tension, mystery, passion and deeply-felt love. Her writing reminds me of Anne Tyler’s: amazingly brilliant, yet so accessible.

So read The Bird House, love it, share it.  Your friends will be glad you did!  Very highly recommended.

How Writers Ruin Relationships

This entry is cross-posted at the Liars Club website as the answer to: How does writing affect your relationships?

Writing is a solitary business when you are in the creative stages of things, but life is not a solitary business, so naturally there are conflicts.

I’m a wife, a mother, a homeowner, a scout leader, a friend.  I belong to various groups, have to attend meetings, clean house, make meals, food shop, do laundry, watch out for my kids, listen and lend a helping hand to people I care about. But when I’m in the creative mode, it’s like other parts of my brain just shut down. I don’t know how else to describe this. It can definitely cause problems.

See, when I’m in the middle of plotting a scene, I have no idea that several hours have passed and my daughter is waiting impatiently in front of her school for me to pick her up.  I don’t feel hunger, unlike my husband, who will tiptoe into my writing studio around 8:30 p.m. and say, “Are we ever going to eat?” When I’m really into the thick of writing, I don’t notice that someone is out of clean underwear, or that I’ve missed a meeting. And I won’t even go into what my poor dog has to endure.

I try to keep functioning. I talk on the phone in the evening with my mom, and find I barely can form sentences. I run to the food store, but wander around without a clue of what to buy. I can’t seem to plan anything but what happens next in my book. To the untrained eye, I’m just another flake.

But actually, I’m only like this when I’m in the midst of my writing.  When my scene is written or my deadline met, I’m a whirl of efficiency. I’m organized, I’m a planner, I’m a cleaner, I’m Supermom. In short, I’m coherent. This is confusing to folks. Who am I, really? The person who seemed to check out of a conversation? Or the one who thoroughly planned a trip to Europe for a slew of Girl Scouts? Well, I’m both.

I’ve had some pissed off friends over the years who have never called me back because my brain misplaced some very important detail about their lives. It’s as if I’ve forgotten their name (and sometimes I have). As if they don’t matter. I try to explain this away: I’m vague. I’m sorry.

But the people who are still with me – my family (who is stuck with me) and my friends – have come to understand this ebb and flow part of my personality.  My husband sees that writer mode kick in and suddenly starts feeding me and the kids, and handling life’s daily demands.  My kids recognize what is happening and suddenly become more self-sufficient and start reminding me of things like “sign this form now” and “remember the parent teacher conference in one hour.”  And my friends don’t expect me to necessarily call them back. They understand that they have to grab me out of my studio if they ever want to hang out with me.

And I’m grateful.  I feel taken care of.  I’m allowed to be that creative productive writing flake for a while.  And when I finally come back to earth, I make sure to take extra good care of the understanding folks in my life. Man, do they deserve it.

So I wonder, am I the only one like this? If you do creative writing, does your everyday brain get scrambled too?  Comment with your thoughts!

Can we talk about dialog?

Last night at the Bucks County Romance Writers monthly meeting, guest speaker Kathryn Craft gave an interesting chat about dialog, covering formatting, punctuation, and the many things that dialog should and shouldn’t do.

And this got me thinking about the best advice I’ve ever gotten about writing dialog: Think of it as power shifts. A push and pull between characters.  I don’t remember who told me this, and I really wish I did so I could thank them.  When dialog between characters is a push and pull, you know you’ve got tension going on and plotting advancing, and your characters expressing their points of view.  It’s everything that good dialog should do.

Here’s an example of this push and pull between characters in a scene from my most current manuscript DRAWN. The book’s about a teen artist from NJ who moves to England in search of “normal,” only to find herself channeling one very hot ghost.  Of course, my character doesn’t realize at first what is going on. In this scene from near the beginning of my novel, Michelle’s sketching at the castle when some guy dressed in a cape appears yet again:

“Who sent you?” he says.

“Nobody,” I say, all too aware of the dagger he holds against me.

“Anyone who threatens the Earl is my own sworn enemy.” He nods toward my messenger bag. “Show me it.”

I hand it to him.

Keeping his lime-green eyes on me, he dumps the contents of my bag onto the ground. “What weapon is this?” He holds up my sharpener.

I narrow my eyes at him, stick my pencil into the sharpener, and turn it a few times. Pull it out and blow on the tip.

He squints at me. “What of this?”

I take my Chapstick from his fingers, pop off the top, and coat my lips. “Really dangerous,” I say.

“This?” He holds up a tampon.

“God, enough.” I push away the point of his dagger. I snatch the tampon from his hand, pick up my bag, and start putting my things back into it. “You’re nuts, you know that? Or I am. One of us is, that’s for sure.”

He looks amused and stows his dagger in the side of his boot. “You lay in wait, yet are unarmed. What manner of assassin are you?”

“Assassin? You’ve got problems. I get it. Boy, do I ever get it.” I scoop up my coins, nubs of pencils, and a pack of Conte crayons, along with the countless other little items I always tote around, like tissues, hair ties and, because I once sliced open my finger cutting a linoleum block for a print, a tiny first aid kit. Thinking about this, I automatically rub the small white scar on my left thumb. “Try taking your meds,” I tell him, stuffing my things back into my bag. “Try not wearing that cape and boots all the time. While you’re at it, why don’t you try taking up a hobby, like going to Star Wars conventions as a Jedi knight?” I hang the bag over my shoulder, and grab my drawing pad. “I’m leaving right now, and if you follow me, I swear to God I’ll scream and you’ll be in prison faster than you can say Society of Creative Anachronism. Got that?”

In her talk, Kathryn also highlighted that your dialog should always be multi-tasking. If it isn’t, you’re doing something wrong.  So, if you follow this, along with the power shifting rule of thumb, you will never have characters doing idle chitchat, like,

“So, how’s that new exercise regime working out for you?”

“Not bad. Enjoying the great outdoors.”

Unless it is tied into tension building. Like, say, your characters are teetering over the edge of a cliff, and trying to muster their courage.  Example:

“So, how’s that new exercise regime working out for you?” Brett asks, his foot sliding, sending a shower of stones down the steep cliff’s edge.

“Not bad,” Jessie says, his powerful hands clutching the sapling’s branch. “Enjoying the great outdoors.”

Yup, you want to avoid all boring stuff.  Cut anywhere that a character is recapping what has already been said in your story.  Just say: Jessica told Rachel everything. And consider it done.  And don’t have your character state the obvious.  Like if we’ve just seen her be shot, don’t have her then say, “I’ve been shot. I’m bleeding.”

You’d be surprised how many of us make this mistake over and over again. At least in drafts.

One final thought about dialog: each character needs its own voice.  Remember those people who told you stories about what he said, she said? And how they would mimic each person’s speech pattern and mannerisms to make that story come to life in the telling? Yeah, I know. It was a bit annoying, but effective as well.  I think of dialog in those terms.  I’m telling the reader what happened, and making sure that they know who is doing the talking and how the speaker moved and felt in the telling.  It all comes through in the speech patterns, word choices, gestures.  And hopefully, if you do this all correctly, it feels real.

That’s all I can say.

Resolution: Put Writing First

Happy 2010 all!  Confession: New Year’s is my least favorite holiday.  If it were up to me, I’d just go to bed at 10 and wake up the next morning around 10 and have a nice brunch. I know, exciting, right? Fact is that as a fiction author I’m all too often plotting in my head the what ifs. What if we, or someone we know is driving home from a party, and some drunken jerk is on the road. Shiver…

But there is something I do love about New Year’s: the fresh start.  Here’s where the fiction writer in me can plot eagerly. What will come in the next year? What do I want to change? What do I look forward to?  Naturally, I’m really into the whole resolution thing.  And I love to hear what other people’s resolutions are, too.  But every single person I’ve hung out with in the past few days has had no resolution. Or, worse, a resolution to never make resolutions.  Bummer.  And just this morning on the news they said just having a resolution makes you 10 times more likely to accomplish your goal. So feel smug resolution holders! (They also said that telling people your resolution and putting it in writing, keeps you more on target and keeps that goal from just fading away. If you want to add your resolution in a comment after this post, go for it, dude.)

I, of course, DO have a resolution: Put Writing First.

I’m a full-time writer, and I do spend plenty of time on my computer, but just how much of that time is devoted to fiction? Hm, definitely not as much as I’d like.  Like most authors these days I spend a huge amount of my time doing promotion. Setting up signings, getting in touch with press, doing interviews, organizing and running workshops. It’s fun and rewarding, but time consuming. (If you’d like to see what promotion you can do for your own writing, visit my post on it by clicking here.) Yet promotion is something we authors just can’t walk away from, not if we want our books to get into the hands of our readers. Gone are the days when writers wore tweed and cat glasses and squirreled themselves away into a room for months on end, only emerging briefly, blinking from the shock of daylight, to deliver a manuscript. Gone are the days when promotion was up to the publisher.  We writers today must be experts in every phase of a book’s life.  Writing is less and less a part of an author’s everyday ritual. Phooey.

A typical day for me involves checking my emails on various accounts and following up on what’s there. Next I stop by facebook, twitter, wordpress, verlakay’s blueboards. Sometimes I’m updating folks on appearances I’m doing, sometimes I’m promoting a fellow author’s accomplishments, and sometimes I’m just giving folks a glimpse of my life. Then I read the free newsletters sent to me: Publisher’s Lunch, and Shelf Awareness. This keeps me current with what’s going on in the industry. And that’s just for starters.

If I have a busy appearance schedule, I’m doing back and forth correspondence with organizers, I’m writing features and press releases about the events, I’m sending out this press. This can eat up DAYS. And if I’m actually making an appearance, there is time spent preparing for it, printing up promo material to bring, plus the time spent getting there, and being there. More days gone. And still no writing.

In addition to all this, there’s junk that I do. I confess that before I get down to really writing something, I get nervous. Especially if it’s a dicey bit of a novel. A complicated scene or a section that I’m unsure of. Then I hit the games on my computer. Huge confession: I’ve played so much spider solitaire that I’ve developed carpal tunnel syndrome. Luckily I’m not one to waste time watching t.v. (and luckily daytime t.v. sucks), and I actually have a fairly serious work ethic, but still…

Then there’s the other stuff I’m involved in. I’m in two different writing groups. One involves lengthy and rewarding critiques, the other involves lots of promotion. Since I am technically the stay-at-home-mom in this family, I’m the one who cleans the house and buys the food and cooks the meals. (My wild fantasy is that someday I will be able to afford a maid. Ooooo!) I’m also the one who ferries the kids to lessons, sports, etc. etc.  Plus I’m a scout leader.  As a writer, I’m an organizer.  I love to envision stuff and pull it all together. I like to think big. My scout troop is going to London this year, and guess who is planning the bulk of it…

So life is full. Life is good. But in 2010 I resolved to PUT WRITING FIRST!  One thing I know about myself is that once I start working on my fiction, I’m instantly on a roll. Four hours, six hours, ten hours. I can sit there forever and time flies. Because of things like meals and kids and sleep, I really can’t write like I want to. If it were up to me and only me, I’d write all day all night, and someone would slip great food under my door until a novel is complete. I don’t live and write in a bubble, but what if, instead of checking all those on-line sites, answering all those emails, and doing all that promotion, I simply start my fiction first? What if I didn’t play spider solitaire? Or follow up on what’s happening in the industry everyday? Or didn’t book so many appearances until I’ve finished a manuscript? Wouldn’t I have so many more manuscripts to put out there in the world? Wouldn’t I be happier?

So here’s the goal…first thing in the morning I go to the computer, forget about going on line (this is going to be a tough one), forget about playing spider solitaire-solitaire-minesweeper-hearts (this is going to be even tougher), and I will spend the next few hours writing. Just writing. Not press releases, not feature stories, not emails, just fiction. And then I can do everything else. AFTER.

Okay, I’ve officially put my resolution in writing. I’m ten times more likely to accomplish it now. I feel mighty. I feel like playing a quick game of spider solitaire. But no. I’m redoing my writing life. I can do this. I can!

To my fellow writers, be bold, be organized. Remember we do have some control over what we actually create, and we CAN make better use of our time.  2010. A new year. A fresh beginning.

May all of your writing dreams  come true.