Comments | lurban: What Does It Feel Like

lurban

What Does It Feel Like

Oct 07, 2010 10:18

I got an email this week from a reader who wanted to know how Zoe in a Crooked Kind of Perfect knows which keys are under her fingers. I explained, best I could, and likened it to the very keyboard that my reader was using to type me an email -- that there was a certain arrangement to the keys, that they had a shape and an order that over time ( Read more... )

Comments 9

lisa_schroeder October 7 2010, 14:41:10 UTC

Lovely.

Whenever a girl e-mails me after reading CUPCAKES and asks for other books she might like, A CROOKED KIND OF PERFECT is always at the top of the list! :)

lurban October 8 2010, 09:56:24 UTC

Thank you, Lisa!
I just overheard someone talking about Cupcakes the other day -- and with a big smile on her face! I'm not a very consistent blogger so forgive me for not knowing what you may already have shared, but do you have a title for the follow-up yet?

lisa_schroeder October 8 2010, 12:55:14 UTC

Yes we do, finally!

Sprinkles and Secrets. It will be out in Sept. 2011.

Thanks for asking!!

goadingthepen October 7 2010, 16:13:52 UTC

Linda- What a great reminder.

lurban October 8 2010, 09:56:52 UTC

I was so glad to be reminded, too.

wordsrmylife October 7 2010, 16:46:22 UTC

You've hit on the reason why I prefer children's lit to most of what is written for the adult market. Helping young readers understand how the world works, including how other people in the world live and feel, seems to me to be one of the chief goals of writing for this audience. For whatever reason, that doesn't seem to play much of a role in books written for adults.

lurban October 8 2010, 10:01:23 UTC

I'm not sure about that -- I think a lot of adult genre fiction is about trying on different lives and feelings, imagining yourself as the heroine of a romance novel or the hard-boiled investigator of a crime, etc. Of course, there is a difference between those two things -- one allowing you to try on a fantasy world, the other (regardless of the genre) letting you try on skills and ideas you might want for this one? Not sure about that, though . . . needs more thought and I am sleepy.

barbarabaker October 7 2010, 22:16:31 UTC

I love that idea of giving enough of the familiar to understand the strange and new. That's definitely something worth applying in my own work. Thanks

lurban October 8 2010, 10:04:07 UTC

At some level it is all about metaphor: this is like that, this is the way we interpret and talk about that. Every once in a while I read a kids book that says something like: x was as boring as paying taxes, and I think -- What kid ever paid taxes? How are they supposed to understand that?