Oh, here’s what I’m going to be doing; I suppose that would be useful to include:
“Join Sara as she reads from her work, leads the group through a few short writing exercises, and answers questions about writing and publishing.” It’s part of the library’s Third Tuesday Author Series.

In other news, Rich Johnston is the first person to publicly make the connection between my new project and my story for Significant Objects. Good catch!

(See, PW says.)

Okay, backstory: ten years ago my husband Steve Lieber illustrated a graphic novel called Whiteout, written by Greg Rucka.

A while after that, Wolfgang Petersen thought he might want to make a movie based on it, but he didn’t. Then Reese Witherspoon thought the same thing, but she didn’t, either. Then Joel Silver bought the rights, and he did. The red-carpet premiere is Wednesday night, and Steve and I are going to be there.

So, this event is utterly and completely not about me. I am attending in a spousal support capacity. Nonetheless, I have anxiety.

I didn’t think I did, so much. And then today, I realized: I’ve displaced all my anxiety about the trip into Extremely Specific Fashion-Related Quests.

Despite The Storied Glamour of Hollywood, I am certain that no one’s going to care what I look like. But if I obsess about finding neutral-toned fishnets, an exactly correct black tank top, and the precisely right pair of jeans to take with me, my brain has less room to worry about, you know, coming off like an idiot to any Important Hollywood People to whom I might randomly end up talking.

On October 9th, I’ll be speaking at the Washington Library Media Association conference in Yakima, Washington.

My talk is called “Balancing Act: Being an Author/Librarian And How You Can, Too!” (Yes, it will be a talk filled with enthusiasm and exclamation points. But don’t worry, it won’t be annoyingly chipper, or at least that is not my intent.)

Anyway, I bring this up for two reasons:

1. Some of you may be attending this conference and I’d love it if you would come to my session, and

2. I’d like to ask y’all for your thoughts on how I can make this talk most useful and effective.

Even if you’re not a library-person-with-authorial-ambitions-and/or-accomplishments, feel free to imagine that you are, and comment about what you think I should discuss, explain, cover, or otherwise address.

Enormous thanks in advance from me and on behalf of my audience!

Here is the object:

I’ve written about it in the voice of Anne Cole, a character from my forthcoming graphic novel.

WAIT, WHAT?

Yes, I have a forthcoming graphic novel.

It will not be forthcoming any time soon, but it IS forthcoming.

I’d love to tell you more. I’d love to tell you who’s working with me, and from where it will be, eventually, coming.

I can’t yet.

But that story is your first glimpse of one of the characters. I hope you like it, and her. (If you do, comment! And, um, you could bid for the object plus story on eBay, too!)

I’m thrilled to be part of the Significant Objects project. The question the project asks — What value does a story add to an object?– dovetails eerily well with one of the questions I’m asking in the graphic novel: How do we infuse objects with meaning?

That’s all I’m gonna say for now.

On the librarian side, I will attend many fascinating meetings and programs and peruse the exhibits with an eye to the book collection at our Juvenile Detention Hall, which I’m now responsible for maintaining. Librarian friends who work with incarcerated teens, find me and tell me about titles that have gone over well with your folks! (And/or comment here…)

On the writer side, on Sunday July 12, from 8:30am-10am, Marriott Chicago, Chicago A-D, I’ll be part of YALSA’s Morris Award Presentation & YA Author Coffee Klatch, where I will talk very fast to many people about the project I can’t really talk about yet (it will be a neat trick!), and hand out some Rules stickers if I can hunt up any.

Hopefully by Sunday only my enthusiasm will be infectious.

And may I beseech y’all once again to head over to Chasing Ray, read What A Girl Wants #3 — yeah, it’s a long post, we all have a lot to say! — and add your thoughts in the comments, and also to Significant Objects to read, comment, and bid!

From the site, curated by Josh Glenn and Rob Walker:

THE IDEA

A talented, creative writer invents a story about an object. Invested with new significance by this fiction, the object should — according to our hypothesis — acquire not merely subjective but objective value. How to test our theory? Via eBay!

A whole bunch of writers, including but not limited to Luc Sante, Kurt Andersen, Lydia Millet, Annie Nocenti, Stewart O’Nan, Jenny Davidson, Michelle Tea, Curtis Sittenfeld, and me, have written stories about a wide variety of unlikely objects. Said objects — the actual, tangible, physical objects — will be auctioned on eBay. If you win the bidding for an object, you’ll get the object AND a printout of the story.

SPECIAL BONUS: My object’s accompanying story — and I’ll alert y’all again when it’s live on the site — is a sort of prequel to my next project, which I Cannot Yet Talk About With Specificity, but about which I am extremely excited.

]]> http://sararyan.com/2009/07/significant-objects/feed/ 0 http://sararyan.com/2009/06/what-a-girl-wants/ http://sararyan.com/2009/06/what-a-girl-wants/#comments Fri, 05 Jun 2009 16:43:39 +0000 Sara http://sararyan.com/?p=1243 I am thrilled to be participating in the latest awesomeness from Colleen Mondor, “What A Girl Wants.” Here’s part of Colleen’s introduction to the project:

I’ve been a bit bothered for awhile now about the kind of books being published for teen girls. As anyone who reads YA titles knows, there are a lot more books for girls out there than boys. We formed Guys Lit Wire partly to address this discrepancy – and to recommend titles for boys that are older or might have been overlooked. But for girls, I can’t help but think that while there are a lot of books with female protagonists, there are not a lot of books with diverse female protags. You have romances – where the girl is usually chasing a boy or passively pining for one; you have problem novels where the girl is depressed and grieving, depressed and overweight, depressed and sick or depressed and dying; and then urban fantasy where the girl is running for her life from vamps, werewolves, evil fairies or other fantastical creatures – unless she is falling madly in love with them. There is also the huge contingent of rich white girl novels which are all about being rich and white and occasionally snarky. I see dozens and dozens and dozens of these types of books and honestly, it’s getting kind of old.

Click the link above to find out more about the project and the excellent company I’m in!

As What A Girl Wants gets underway, I’ll link when there are new posts, and I might even expand on my answers here, if I’m feeling long-winded. I’m honored and excited to be part of the conversation.

Here is a comics-themed T-shirt I did not buy on my most recent trip to Goodwill:

Locals, I hope to see a bunch of you this weekend! Corvallis and Newport folks, I hope to see you on the tour!
Readers who do not live in Oregon, what are y’all up to this weekend?