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It’s been hot here, people, very, very hot.

Actually, I feel a bit ridiculous even saying that because our high nineties heat can’t compare to Vegas, (117? Really?), but I live in the Pacific Northwest. We may not melt in the rain, but we sure as hell do in the heat.  At least those of us who live on the west side of the Cascades do.

I haven’t been blogging lately because I have been busy doing all the things I love to do in the summer…gardening, cooking, yard work, traveling and writing.  I work in my yard about 20 hours a week and am still so far behind it isn’t even funny. We have three short months to get all the outside projects done, plus those inside projects that require ventilation such as painting or stripping and refinishing old furniture.  Three months is not nearly enough time.

But I am seeing the fruits of my labor. My backyard is lovely and we have eaten garden produce several times.  I feel so accomplished!  And look at what I found! Refinishing this little goodwill find (ten bucks!) is one of my summer projects  along with painting a park bench, painting my living room and kitchen and putting in a new kitchen bar area.

As far as writing projects…there are things things happening behind the scenes that I can’t share yet and I am currently way behind on a secret project. Other projects have had to be scrapped because of lack of time, and still others have risen to take their place. I just need to find more hours in the day… if anyone has figured that out yet, let me know, okay???

A friend of mine was touring my yard the other day, which basically means he stepped into my house and I locked his hand in a manacle worthy grip and forced him out back to look at my garden. This happens a lot nowadays. Even the mailman and the delivery guys look at the house nervously, afraid I’ll trap them in a conversations about how to get your azaleas to turn ice blue or the benefits of fresh beets. But my friend said something that got me to thinking… “Many artists become enamored with their gardens.”

This gardening obsession isn’t completely new. Ever since my husband and I have bought this home, I’ve worked in the yard, some years more intensively than others. Which means one season I’ll put in a rose garden while others, I barely remember to mow. Consistent I’m not.

This year, I’ve stepped off the cliff into the abyss of weeding, clipping, hoeing and planting insanity. I’ve moved some plants so many times, they think we’re playing musical garden. I’ve planted vegetables I’ve never even heard of for god’s sake, let alone know if I actually like them. (WTF is a kolrabi? I have no clue but it’s growing lush and happy in my brand spanking new veggie garden.)

Part of the reason is that my son is getting married this summer and I’m having the rehearsal dinner in my back yard. Things that have been put off must now be done. Another reason for my crazed flora and fauna fixation is that I’m a rabid Pacific Northwesterner and we like to eat shit out of our backyards– preferably in plaid, drinking our designer coffee and micro-brewed beer, our tats glimmering in the weak sun peeping out behind the clouds.

But I also think that part of it has to do with the increased level of creativity in my work.

Looking back, I see that the years where I worked in the garden most feverishly were the years where I wrote the most.  More writing, more gardening. This year, I have been writing at an insane pace and my gardening time increased exponentially.

I made the correlation, (do I get a gold star) but what does it mean?

I’ll explore that in my next blog. For now I will leave you with some before and after pictures of my garden! (You knew that was coming right??)

PS

Before

So I was totally going to do a blog on my first experience canning jam, but I had to can that for something else cause I lost the pix. (You notice that pun? Har.)

So as I navigate this week’s incredible highs, I decided to reflect on the ups and downs of the publishing journey. Enjoy!

High: Publishing your first novel!

Low: Waiting five years to sell another one.

High: Getting an agent!

Low: Realizing that you and that agent are not compatible.

High: Getting a fabulous review from someone who really gets the book!

Low: Getting a review from someone who completely missed the entire point.

High: Book launch!

Low: Post book launch collapse.

High: Feeling the writing flow from your finger tips from a magic never-ending well of creativity!

Low: Pulling words out of your brain one at a time and knowing that it would be easier to yank your teeth out with a pair of pliers.

High: Scoring a great promotional opportunity!

Low: Realizing that opportunity did absolutely nothing for your numbers.

High: Having a movie executive call you after a particularly productive meeting!

Low: Having nothing come from the meeting.

High: Getting the CALL!

Low: Months and months of crickets.

High: Getting an invite to a swanky  publishing cocktail party!

Low: Realizing that no one really wants to talk to you and having to go to the bathroom to check if your pits stink. (Oh, no one has ever had them happen to them? Me either. I just said that because… it happened to a friend of mine once.)

What are your publishing highs and lows?

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Break out the wine! @teribrownwrites dishes on publishing’s highs and lows! (Click to Tweet)

Publishing High: Getting the CALL! Publishing Low: Months and months of crickets. @teribrownwrites publishing highs and lows! (Click to Tweet)

GO FORTH AND PURCHASE!

So I’ve been doing a ton of research on creating an author’s platform, social media marketing, and publicity. I have the pretty site, a very small web presence, (so small it’s more like the lingering fart of a presence than an actual presence) and a blog. I’ve also read quite a few really good books on all of the above and I’ve decided something… I am not that person.  I actually like marketing, but when it comes to pimping my blog and trying to think of relevant things to say in a funny and engaging manner that will drive people to my site and be so impressed they have to buy my books in a robotic stupor, I lay a giant goose egg.  No, honestly, a GIANT GOOSE EGG of MEH.

I don’t always want to blog about the same thing. I don’t want to find a niche. I am not a Chuck Wendig, Joshilyn Jackson, Bob Mayer, Rachelle Gardner, Michael Hyatt or Kristin Lamb.  I can’t roll with the witticisms, offer information vital to the wellbeing of others or grow your damn business, (and if you think someone can grow your business for you, I know a few spammers I can introduce you to). I can’t provide smart commentary on the publishing world, the day’s news events or even how to write a query letter. If you need any of those things you can find them from people far more qualified than I am.

My blog won’t change the world, your life or even your lunch hour.

So from here on out, my blog is going to be about me and what I want to write about on any given day. Sometimes it will be about my garden, because I’m suddenly obsessed with growing food and flowers. Or it might be about cooking because I am out of my freaking mind obsessed with food, (you try eating smoothies for months and see if you don’t develop a food fixation.) Sometimes it’ll be about writing or family or pets or cancer or pollution or spiders. But whatever it’s about, it’s going to be something I care about and something I want to share with you all. And if you all don’t exist, that’s okay too.

I’m good with that.

xoxo

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Platform Schmatform! Why @teribrownwrites  blog won’t change your life. Or even your lunch.  (Click to Tweet)

  I have so much to tell you and so little time, so I’m cheating and giving it to you bullet point!

• BEA was fantastic. Ran out of time and books before running out of people who wanted them!
• NYC was amazing! I was equal parts enchanted, enthralled and appalled by the city. So much fun!
• I met with both my literary agent and my film agent and all of my editors. So nice to get to know them in person.
• I updated my news page. You can check it out here.
• Speaking of news, I am hoping to have some to share very, very soon!
• Born of Illusion comes out in ONE WEEK! (6/11)
• I have temporarily turned off blog comments because I have been getting 30-40 spam comments a day.
• The BOI blog tour has begun! You can see the whole tour, at Rockstar Book Tours. I’m giving away some amazing prizes so go check them out!

I am heading off to Book Expo America  this morning via a 4 day stop in Nashville to visit some dear cousins and kidnap one of them on a ride along for my NYC adventures. I have never been and am out of my mind excited. I was really hoping that I wouldn’t have to work this trip, but publishing production schedules wait for no man, woman or author and I will be doing  a bit of editing on this trip.

It’s been a while since I blogged, too busy with writing and the fact that when spring springs here in the PNA, it’s like a weed stampede. Every year about April, my hubby and I  are overwhelmed by all the yard work. Then we put our nose to the grindstone (I should have posted a cliche alert, eh?) and about Mid June are completely enjoying our lovely yard. This year we have the added bonus (and work) of watching our veggies grow in our garden patch that we added. It’s incredibly satisfying, not to mention feeds the creative well.

Come see me at BEA! I’ll be signing at the Harper Collins booth at noon on Thursday, May 30th!!!!

In an unprecedented collaboration, Glamour Doll Eyes and Young Adult Author, Teri Brown, come together to bring you an eye shadow collection created exclusively for Brown’s upcoming young adult novel, Born of Illusion, (Balzer+Bray 6/11/2013).

Set against the underground world of the magicians, mediums and mentalists of 1920’s New York City, Brown’s Born of Illusion brings back the allure and the excitement of the jazz era and these earth mineral shadows are a perfect reflection of that glamour.

To celebrate, Glamour Doll Eyes and Teri Brown will be holding a Twitter party to launch the collection, (which will be available for a limited time only), and a very special makeup tutorial. Follow along Wednesday May 15^th at 8:30 Eastern Time with the hashtag #BOIGDE

Prizes to be given away at the party include:

• Five sets of the Born of Illusion eye shadow collection
• Two ten dollar gift cards to the online book retailer of your choice
• One advanced reader copy of Born of Illusion
• Two ten dollar gift code to purchase Glamour Doll Eyes makeup.

As someone who writes books set in the twenties, I was incredibly excited to see The Great Gatsby. Now let me quantify this by admitting upfront that I don’t think Fitzgerald’s book is the last word in great American novels. I wasn’t a huge fan of the story. I am however a screaming, raving devotee of the writing. The words of The Great Gatsby thrill me to my ever-loving, word geeky soul. So I had kind of a love/meh relationship with the book. I’ve read it at least five times, so what does that tell you? Conflicted much?

I felt the same way about the movie.

On one hand, the cinematography was lush and gorgeous, the acting superb. On the other, the style of the filming, the narrator, the music and the over the top feel of the movie took me aback. I was bewildered and I don’t go to movies for bewilderment. I go for enjoyment and it’s hard to enjoy something when you’re all WTF?

You know those in-between parts in a musical, where you’re just waiting for the cast to break out in song? The Great Gatsby felt just like that only the musical numbers never came.

It didn’t help that I was watching it with someone who ended up LOATHING the film, so my enjoyment of those parts that were noteworthy were a bit diminished. After watching it, I met the girlfriend of a young friend who just loved it. She was nineteen. My daughter thought it was phenomenal. She is twenty-two. I  find it extremely interesting that young people adore it. Maybe that was the point?

Perhaps that is why I wasn’t fully on board with the production. Even though I write YA, I am most decidedly NOT a young adult, or even a new adult.  The movie’s slick MTV style threw me because I was expecting movie realism rather than an excessive interpretation of the era of art deco and jazz, (the absence of which actually pissed me off, jazz lover that I am.)

But isn’t excessive opulence what the jazz era and The Great Gatsby was all about?

So I am going again. I am going with a different mindset to watch a movie that just might be an accurate representation of a book I love… even though, you know, I really don’t. But I do.

If you know what I mean.

Have you seen the movie yet?

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@terbrownwrites thinks The Great Gatsby felt just like a musical except they never broke out into song. (Click to Tweet)

After a lifelong love/meh relationship with The Great Gatsby, @teribrownwrites reviews the movie! (Click to Tweet)