Author Archives: marlo

Brave, Sara Bareilles, and The Secrets We Keep

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Early last year, I began work on a new young adult novel, a contemporary mystery/thriller, The Secrets We Keep. (The original working title of the project was Out of Body Experience.) As is always the case with a shiny, new project, a flood of ideas poured into my head and my fingers could barely type fast enough. Early on, I knew I wanted Lyndsay, the main character of this book, to be a kickass heroine who has to travel the treacherous path from fear to bravery. She would have to be brave enough not only to face a dangerous adversary in this thriller, but also brave enough to stop avoiding conflict and stand up for herself, brave enough to say what she wants to say and be heard, and brave enough to believe in herself and follow her dreams.

Around the same time I started writing the book, a new song came on the radio and on my radar – “Brave” by Sara Bareilles. I fell in love with it immediately – it was as if Sara Bareilles had written the perfect theme song for my main character. In many ways, the song and its message helped me to shape Lyndsay and her story.

You can listen to the song and see the lyrics here:

Brave by Sara Bareilles

The song embodies exactly what my character is facing – she’s an outcast, the backlash of somebody’s lack of love and she has to learn how to be brave, in more ways than one. “Brave” quickly became the theme song for my book and actually for me as a writer, as well. I would start each writing session by listening to the song and letting it inspire me. I can honestly say the song helped me write this book and carried me forward to finishing it.

Now, I have to admit, at first I didn’t know much about Sara Bareilles, the artist. Sure, I knew she had some hits on the radio, but I didn’t know much more than that. But since the song was proving to be such an inspiration for me, one day out of curiosity I decided to Google her. What I found was nothing short of amazing. Turns out, I’m not the only one inspired by this fine artist and her incredible song. Watch this video posted by the patients and staff members of the University of Minnesota Amplatz Children’s Hospital:

Brave at U of M Amplatz Children’s Hospital

I also had no idea there was an “I Am Brave Enough Campaign” which you can read about here: http://sarabfans.com/brave/

I have to say now that not only have I fallen in love with the song, but I am now a huge fan of Sara, too. She’s a talented artist and a class act, as she shows in this video from Dec 15th when she brought a young cancer patient, Joshua Chambers, on stage to sing with her at the House of Blues in Orlando:

Dec 15th House of Blues

A few weeks ago and just a day before her birthday (December 7th), Sara Bareilles received the amazing news that she had been nominated for two Grammy Awards – Album of the Year for The Blessed Unrest and Best Pop Solo Performance. Incredibly well deserved and I hope she wins both!

So, show me how BIG your brave is – what have you been brave enough to overcome this past year? Or, fill in the blank, “I am brave enough to ____________” and share something you will be brave about this upcoming year. (You can even tweet it under the hashtag #IAmBraveEnough)

Or, just leave a comment to say hi 🙂

 

Lauren Oliver at New Jersey SCBWI13 !

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This past weekend I had the pleasure of attending the New Jersey SCBWI Conference – listening, learning and interacting with so many wonderful people, not the least of which was Lauren Oliver! For those who don’t know, Lauren is the New York Times and internationally bestselling author of Before I Fall, and the Delirium series, both of which have been optioned for film. She is also the author of two books for younger readers, Liesl and Po, a finalist in the 2012 E.B. White Read Aloud Awards, and The Spindlers. Despite the fact that she was recovering from the summer flu, Lauren managed to drag her humble bones to our conference and give an inspiring closing speech, as well as, sit for a long book signing. Paraphrasing from Lauren’s speech, here are just a few of the things we learned about her.

First off, her love of reading and writing began early. Her parents were both literature professors and greatly encouraged her in these endeavors. In fact, she loved reading so much that when she finished a book she would often continue writing the story. Nowadays, we would call this fan fiction. For this reason, to this day, she still likes open endings to books (sometimes much to the chagrin of her editors!)

Lauren also told us that in her household, the line between what was real and what was imagined was blurred and her family would have discussions at the dinner table that reflected this. In other words, they encouraged her imagination and story-telling mind. Her father, who is also a writer, taught her one of the most important things about writing – write every day. She was humble enough to admit that writing is hard work, even for her, and that it “never gets any easier”. Lauren said, “Writing every day helps you build up a tolerance for it”, and then she jokingly added, “kind of like drinking every day.” Lauren also admitted that in the beginning of her writing career she struggled with plotting. Obviously, she’s overcome that obstacle because her plotting is now brilliant 🙂

Lauren also discussed how she now thinks the best way to tackle trilogies is to write all three at once. If you don’t, by the time you get to the third book you may realize that you might have made different choices with the first book. She treated the audience to the very first reading from her new project, Panic, which is set to be released in Spring of 2014. What a great sneak peek that was!

During the Q&A, Lauren mentioned that she often employs a three act plot structure, feels books on screenwriting could be very helpful for novel writers, and says printing out and reading her material helps her to edit and revise better than trying to do it on screen. She tackles a word count of a thousand words a day if she’s working on one project. Right now, she’s working on three simultaneously, so she’s writing 750/500/500 respectively on those.

All in all, Lauren’s speech was informative, inspiring and humble. I came away from the whole experience hoping that some of her brilliance might’ve rubbed off on me (but not her flu germs!)

So, if you’ve read any of Lauren’s books, do you love them as much as I do? And if you haven’t read any of her books, come out of your cave and get thee to a bookstore immediately!

 

Jammin’ in Jamaica

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Three weeks ago my family and I had the pleasure of going to Jamaica for spring break. I know, I know, cue the tomatoes of jealousy. But hear me out.

Yes, it was warmer and sunnier than back home in New Jersey. Much warmer. Like 80’s every day.

Yes, it was relaxing. Very relaxing. Like smell the coconut suntan oil and melt into the lounge chair relaxing.

You can get all that from any old tropical island.

What I love most about Jamaica is the people. This was our second trip to this beautiful island and the people of Jamaica are simply amazing. Their happy-go-lucky attitudes, friendly smiles and fun-loving nature are absolutely contagious.

The first day we were there it rained for a good portion of the day. The afternoon shower, if there is one, usually only lasts for an hour or so. That day, it started at 12:01 and continued till 7:00 pm. No problem, mon. They brought us fruity drinks while we soaked in the outdoor hot tubs in the pouring rain. (Vacation tip – bring covered Tervis cups – keeps rain out and drinks cold).

Another day, the afternoon shower never came, so the temperature and humidity were nearly unbearable. One of the workers at the resort came by to collect used towels and cups. I told him I felt bad for him that he had to work when it was so hot out. He laughed and said, “The sun is good. We love the sun, we hate the rain…and work…well, it’s good to work.” He continued down the beach humming. It doesn’t get much happier than that I think.

They’re so friendly, as a matter of fact, that many of them remembered us from the last time. Now, I kind of expect this from the people that work at Beaches Resort – it’s one of the things they’re known for. But, there’s a man (not affiliated with the resort) that walks the beach every day selling handmade bracelets. He sold us four of them last year. When he saw me this time, he said, “Miss Marlo, your boys have gotten so big.” You could’ve knocked me over with a fistful of sand. I asked him how he remembered my name and he said it was because I was named after That Girl, which made me laugh. So, I actually felt bad that I didn’t know his name. Many of the vendors who walk the beach selling wares and renting jet skis have nicknames like The Captain, Scoobie Doo, and Rasta Man. But I wanted to know what his given name was, so I asked him, and he told me it was Clifton.

Now, I can say I have a friend named Clifton who lives in Jamaica. Respect, mon.

We were so relaxed and having such a good time that somehow, I even let my boys go cliff diving at Rick’s Cafe. Off the thirty-five foot cliff, no less. I guess I just figured it was a once in a lifetime thing to do and I didn’t want to hold them back. Luckily, they survived and so did I.

And after having gone to Jamaica twice now, I think I finally understand that song by Bob Marley, Three Little Birds. All day long, little birds about the size of humming birds dart among the tops of the palm trees. I can’t believe I didn’t notice this the first time I was there. (I blame the rum.)

So, what’s the best place you ever vacationed and why?

 

 

13th Dear Lucky Agent Contest

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This post is for my YA and sci-fi writing pals. Have you heard yet about the Writers Digest 13th Dear Lucky Agent Contest?

You haven’t?

Well, here’s a quick overview of the deets and a link to get the additional information right from the source.

Judge: Victoria Marini, Gelfman Schneider Literary Agency.

Submit: first 150-200 words pasted in body of email.

Include: contact email addy and give your one sentence log line.

Free: but you must mention the contest twice thru any social media (see exact details on this).

Send to: dearluckyagent13@gmail.com

Winners notified: 3 weeks after contest ends

http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/guide-to-literary-agents/13th-free-dear-lucky-agent-contest-young-adult-and-sci-fi

That’s it! Good luck to all who enter and please leave a comment, so I can cheer you on 🙂

The Biggest Thing Ever!

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Have you ever felt like the universe is very, very large and you’re just a tiny, insignificant dust speck floating on the third rock from the sun? Who hasn’t, right? Well, hold on to your dandelion because this news is going to make you feel like the microscopic Who that Horton heard.

Recently, astronomers discovered the largest known structure ever seen in the universe — a clump of active galactic cores that stretches 4 billion light-years from end to end. This enormous structure is something called a Large Quasar Group (LQG), a collection of extremely luminous galactic nuclei powered by super-massive central black holes. That’s a mouthful, isn’t it?

               Photo Credit – ESO/M. Kornmesser

Quasars are the brightest objects in the universe. For years, astronomers have known that they tend to assemble in huge clusters, some of which are more than 600 million light-years wide. However, this newly discovered LQC is so enormous that, according to researchers, theory predicts it shouldn’t even exist. This particular quasar group appears to violate a widely accepted assumption known as the cosmological principle, which holds that the universe is essentially homogeneous when viewed at a sufficiently large scale.  According to this same principle, structures larger than about 1.2 billion light-years simply should not exist. Yet, the newfound, record-breaking LQC is composed of 73 quasars and spans about 1.6 billion light-years in most directions, though it is 4 billion light-years across at its widest point.  Sounds like something that would make Sheldon from Big Bang proud, doesn’t it?

Now, to put that mind-boggling size into perspective, the disk of the Milky Way galaxy — home of Earth’s solar system — is about 100,000 light-years wide. And the Milky Way is separated from its nearest galactic neighbor, Andromeda, by about 2.5 million light-years.

Are you feeling tiny yet? Yeah, I thought so.

The new study surrounding this find was published Jan. 11 in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. The lead author was Roger Clowes, of the University of Central Lancashire in England. Clowes and his team spotted the new super quasar in data gathered by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. The quasar group is very, very distant, and therefore existed when the universe was much younger than it is now. How cool is that?

If this kind of thing tickles your brain fibers, you can read more at: http://www.space.com/science-astronomy/  or http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/01/11/largest-structure-in-universe-discovered/?intcmp=features#ixzz2Hu8wHsd2

So, when you get tired of hearing about what’s going on down here on planet Earth, you can always check out Space.com to see what’s new in the larger universe. Personally, stories like this give me some great ideas. I’ve decided my next novel is going to be a young adult Scifi Romance. I already have a rough outline. How about you? Do the mysteries of our universe tantalize you? Provide you with any story ideas? Do you secretly wish to channel your inner-geek?