May » 2010 » 32 Candles

Have You “Liked” 32 CANDLES Yet?

Friendly reminder that we’re trying to get 500 people to “Like” 32 CANDLES before June 1st. At the time I’m writing this post, we have 468 members, so we’ll need 32 more people before next Tuesday. If you’ve already liked the page, please ask your friends to like it either with a status post before next Tuesday.

That all asked, congrats to today’s T-shirt winner Regina Davis! If you want a chance to win your own 32 CANDLES T-shirt, just pre-order the book, let me know that you did, and we’ll throw you in the pool. Meanwhile click on the pic to “Like” our 32 CANDLES Facebook page!

How Do You Watch TV? [Tote Bag Comment Challenge]

They say that opposites attract, and at one point my main characters Davie Jones and James Farrell get in an argument over their very different television viewing habits. Davie doesn’t own a TV set, she either watches her favorite shows on her computer or on DVD. James however has a flatscreen in his room, in all of his guest rooms, and even in a few of the bathrooms.

My own TV viewing habits are a mix between the two. I used to watch my favorite shows exclusively on my computer — and this was before the days of broadcast channels streaming their shows online, so I ended up watching series, either after they were completely over (ANGEL, FARSCAPE, SIX FEET UNDER) or a season behind (VERONICA MARS, GREY’S ANATOMY, THE WIRE).

This made life a bit difficult. I pretty much had to stop reading Entertainment Weekly or any online entertainment sites, and I couldn’t talk about current television shows at parties — which is hard every place else, but renders you somewhat ridiculous in LA. On the other hand, it left me with a lot of time to read, and I only watched the shows that I truly loved.

However, after I met my husband, I happily welcomed the TV set back into my life, and now we have a television in our livingroom and a television set in our basement for guests, workouts, videogames, and whatnot.

I watch THE PRICE IS RIGHT in the morning with a bowl of cereal and occasionally, I’ll watch DAYS OF OUR LIVES with my MIL before I go downstairs to write. Then I’ll watch JEOPARDY around 7pm, and the rest of my TV watching happens after my husband gets home. This seems like the perfect balance for me. I try not to ever watch television alone, much like drinking alone, it makes me feel like I’m straying into full-on addiction territory. But I think my current TV relationship is a pretty good balance for me.

I’ve heard the argument that TV rots your brain, but being a writer, it often feels like TV is a necessary part of my continued studies. I love thinking about structure, plotting, and writing while watching something enjoyable. I would counter-argue that not only does TV not rot your brain, but in many ways it fuels your imagination and makes you think — not the THE PRICE IS RIGHT per se, but I’ve never thought about life and death the way I did when I was watching two seasons of SIX FEET UNDER in a row. And DR. WHO is referenced heavily in my next women’s fiction novel.

But that’s how I watch TV. How do you watch TV? Have you given up your set or are you one of those people who likes to always have the TV running, even if it’s just background noise. Do you turn on the TV first thing in the morning or is it a purely afterwork experiences for you? Let us know how you watch TV in the comments and the winning comment will win a 32 CANDLES tote bag.

Speaking of which, you guys made it really difficult to pick a comment winner from last week, b/c I agree with so many of you about what might be nice to wear other than the 32 Candles T-shirt for a six week stint. But I chose J.Nicole from “Today’s book on a train” b/c I loved her “contemplation”:

Boyfriend tee (specifically from Target) & yoga pants. The most comfortable outfit that I own & don’t look like a complete schlumpinista in, haha!. I keep contemplating wearing it to work on a casual Friday to see if I can get away with it, heh.

Congrats, J. Nicole!

Photo Credit: Rev. Xanatos Satanicos Bombasticos (ClintJCL)

YOU in a 32 CANDLES T-shirt!

Congrats to today’s T-shirt winner, Mary Kruger (aka Lucy Ballbreaker of retired Derby Doll fame). She pre-ordered 32 CANDLES and now she’s going to be rocking a 32 CANDLES T-shirt this summer. Want one of your own? Just pre-order the book and let me know that you did, you’ll be entered to win.

Speaking of which, if you have already won or received a 32 CANDLES T-shirt, please take a picture of yourself in it and either post it on the 32 CANDLES Facebook page or send it to me directly [etc at 32 candles dot com]. We’re working on a little art project for the week of the premiere and we want you to be part of it! Meanwhile check out my bestie, Monique from “Political Physics.” rocking her T-shirt with her dredhawk. And click on the pic to pre-order the book!

BLACK WATER RISING

You know what phrase I love to live? Killing two birds with one stone. Not IRL of course. I don’t do my own bird-killing, and even if I did, I would use stones. That’s just impractical. But proverbially, I’m about killing two birds with one stone all day.

So imagine how happy I was to see that Attica Locke was today’s T-shirt winner from our pre-order pool. Attica is my editor mate under Dawn Davis at HarperCollins/Amistad, and her novel, BLACK WATER RISING has recently out in paperback.

Set in 1980s Houston, BWR revolves around a civil-rights-activist turned low-heeled lawyer who finds himself entangled in a case that involves unions, politicians, and of course, lots good ol’ dirty money. I can still remember reading the novel when it first came out and not being able to put it down. It felt like the kind of well-written mystery I had been waiting for all my life. I even said to my husband, “This is how I felt the first time I watched CHINATOWN.”

I wasn’t exaggerating, the novel is THAT good. So please do Attica and yourself a boon by clicking on the pic to buy her fantastic debut novel. And congrats, Attica, on being today’s T-shirt winner!

If the rest of you want to get entered to win a 32 CANDLES T-shirt, just pre-order the book, let me know that you did, and we’ll throw you in the pool. Remember we’re giving away one t-shirt every weekday until June 22, so your odds of winning one are very good!

If You Had To Wear The Same Thing For Six Weeks, What Would It Be?

So in a bid to get better at IRL self-promotion, I determined to wear a 32 CANDLES T-shirt until the book comes out on June 22, 2010. At first, I thought it was a great way to get into the IRL self-promotion groove, which let’s face it, I’m not nearly as comfortable with as the online self-promotion groove. Also, Davie Jones, 32 CANDLES’s main character, wears the same thing almost every single, therefore it felt appropriate to do the same in her honor. So what’s it like wearing the same shirt every day. Well, in a word … challenging.

I’ll go over the bad stuff first: I usually dress according to mood, and there have definitely been days that I wasn’t in the mood to wear a bright pink T-shirt, advertising my book. And then there were days when it was just embarrassing to stick to this commitment. For example, I met with fellow Smithie alum and writer, Jessica Brody, last Friday, and while I usually would have worn a cute top with my cute jeans, I was forced to wear my 32 CANDLES T-shirt, which would be cool if I were like a swaggeriffic entertainer as opposed to a somewhat humble author. But as it was, I fell all over myself explaining that this was part of a six-week challenge. Then I re-explained later that same day when I had lunch with an old co-worker … then just this past Monday I felt compelled to explain the situation yet again to the old grad-school mate that I met for lunch while vacationing in San Diego.

So as opposed to self-promoting, I’ve been making a lot of excuses for wearing my own swag everywhere I go. Also, since I’m rotating between five t-shirts, I’ve learned the hard way to be very careful about not placing my dirty clothes anywhere near my clean clothes while getting dressed in the morning lest a smelly mistake be made.

But then there’s also been good stuff: Packing for our 4-day vacation to San Diego was a breeze. And I really haven’t missed trying on different outfits in the morning until I find the right one. Also, it is free advertising, and as embarrassed as I was to actually take several meetings in the shirt, a few of those people asked about the shirt and committed to pre-ordering the book. Plus, you know, easy-breezy advertising.

I can’t say that I’d take on the same challenge for my second book, but it’s been all sorts of interesting for my first one, and I’ve decided to stick it out.

This little experiment actually got me to wondering, if you had to wear the same thing for six weeks straight, what would it be? The winning comment will get a tote bag, and a big shout-out in next Wednesday’s Comment Challenge.

Speaking of which, Di Koob is the winner of last week’s Comment Challenge for answering the question, “What Have Your Bullies Taught You?” Go here to see her answer, and leave a comment today if you want to join the tote bag winners’ circle.

100% Swagalicious,

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The 32 CANDLES Trailer!!!

First things first: Congrats to Sara Towber, who not only became a new mother this weekend, but also won Friday’s 32 Candles T-shirt. I’m sure she’s way more excited about the latter. But the main point is that she pre-ordered the book, let me know about it, and got entered to win one of the 32 Candles T-shirts that we’re giving away every day until June 22nd. And you can, too! Just pre-order the book and let me know, so that I can add you to the list.

Second things second, after weeks of hard work the 32 Candles trailer is ready for public consumption. Thanks so much to CH for directing, Art Freed from Hot Pixel for editing, Ashley-Nicole Sherman and Demetrius Grosse for starring, Teri Vore for choreographing, and Kalimba Bennett for narrating. Let us know what you think in the comments!

The Things Your Bullies Taught You

Click on the pic to find out how you can get a 32 CANDLES T-shirt!

People ask me all the time if 32 CANDLES is based on my life. The short answer is no. My mom wasn’t abusive, and other than being dark-skinned, Davie and I have very little in common. Though, like Davie, I did learn a few lessons courtesy of my main bully.

Soooo many people made fun of me all the way until I went into college, but funnily enough, I only remember the name of my first one, who I’ll just call Bully Zero. Bully Zero wasn’t a physical bully. She never hit me, but she was an emotional bully. She often said mean things to me in front of the rest of the class, then would turn around and be my friend when no one was looking. I worried myself silly, trying to figure out how to make her stop teasing me in public and how to make her my friend all the time, as opposed to when she just wanted a piece of my candy bar or didn’t have anyone else to talk to. Also, she had everything I lacked: huge popularity, huge personality, and huge good looks — even her mom was prettier and more popular than my mom. It was like that.

For a long time after I switched schools, I held Bully Zero up as my bogeyman. From the age of like 12, I had visions of becoming a successful writer and then rubbing it in her face somehow. But sometime in my early twenties, during my most starving of starving artist days, it occurred to me: we were just kids. I didn’t forgive her — it wasn’t even a situation that demanded forgiveness, because we were children. I just let it go.

Actually I’m a little grateful for Bully Zero. She taught me how to get through life without being well-liked. She taught me to avoid people (especially boys) who run hot and cold. I now value not being popular in school, because it forced me to read a lot instead (these were before the days of 24/7 Nickelodeon or the Cartoon Network).

But enough, about me. Let me know what your bully taught you in the comments. One comment will be chosen and featured next week, and its writer will receive a 32 CANDLES tote bag.

Speaking of which, last weeks comment were off the hook. It was SO hard to pick just one. But kim from the West Coast, you have a 32 CANDLES tote bag headed your way, because of your answer to the question, “What did you used to not like about yourself but now rock with pride?”

My lips and my arms!

I always thought my top lip was much bigger than my bottom lip and it drove me nuts. Plus freshman year in high school the one brutha that shared social studies class with me and sat in the next row across from me happened to ask me one day “why is your top lip darker than your bottom lip”. Now what was I supposed to say to that kind of inquiry? When I told my mom about it she said I should have asked him why he was paying so much close attention to them.

Thank god I actually grew into my lips and I finally felt somewhat pretty by college. It also helped that my freshman year in college I took an Ancient Egyptian art class and I saw a slide of what was left of an Egyptian bust of Nefertiti. It just showed the bottom half of her face with just her lovely smooth lips. They looked like mine and I thought they were beautiful.

As a big girl growing up in the 80′s and 90′s finding clothing was always a hassle. But nothing made me more self conscience than baring my upper arms. I thought they were big, ugly and I could swear you could see the stretch marks from outer space.

Making peace with my arms came much later in life (around age 25). I was going to the mall with a friend and was taking too long getting out of the car for her. Basically I was trying to dig out my sweater to cover myself up in the middle of July instead of rocking my tank top like the rest of the folks in California were doing. She demanded that I leave the sweater in the car. I seriously hesitated because I felt like I was walking in the mall completely naked and exposed. On our way in a group a guys started flirting with me and my friend said “See! I told you didn’t need that stupid sweater”.

I realized I was so busy being worried about people looking at me for the wrong reasons I was actually hiding one of the best parts of myself. After being liberated from my sweaters I have received lots of compliments about how soft my skin is from friends who have hugged me while sleeveless. I have also been randomly stroked by men in bars who apparently couldn’t resist the allure of my silky milk chocolate biceps.

I am happy and loving myself now. I just wish it hadn’t taken such a long journey to get there.

Cat Photo Credit: Kevin Steele

Winners and Future Winners [Wassup T-Shirts]

Okay, we took the names of all the people who had sent a message to 20 of their friends, asking them to join the 32 Candles Facebook page, assigned them numbers, put those numbers in a hat, covered our eyes … and the winners are

Monique King-Viehland, NJ

Mildred Taylor, MO

So the basic lesson is Monique and Mildred wanted bags, they took five minutes to send a message to 20 of their Facebook friends, and now they’re getting bags. Good job, guys. And it’s not too late for the rest of you to get a bag either. Just do what Monique and Mildred did, send me a message, letting me know that you’ve invited at least 20 of your friends to “Like” the 32 CANDLES Facebook Page, and your name will be put into the pool for next week’s drawing.

Not on Facebook, but still want a bag? Go here to see the other two ways to win a tote bag.

But wait, wait, wait, what’s better than winning a 32 CANDLES tote bag? How about winning a 32 CANDLES T-shirt? Our first week’s sales our crucial to the success of the book, and pre-orders are a must.

Therefore, if you pre-order the book on Amazon or anywhere else, let me know at etc at 32 candles dot com, and your name will be entered in our 32 CANDLES T-shirt raffle. We’re giving away one T-shirt EVERY WEEKDAY starting tomorrow, so pre-order one book and you’ll have 29 chances to win a T-shirt. Pre-order two books and you’ll have 58 chances to win and so on and so on. One T-shirt per reader, and if you’ve already pre-ordered a book, just let me know, and we’ll put your name in the pool. Huzzah!

Click here to buy the book

As always, let me know if you have any questions in the comments.

100% Rooting For You,

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My New Reading Rules

Sadly, I didn’t do as much reading as I thought I would do on my trips to Scotland and France. I spent most of my plane ride either sleeping or greedily watching movies of my own choosing. However, I did do a lot of reading — just not a lot of finishing. Unbeknownst to me, I had finally drawn a long overdue line in the sand. If a book doesn’t capture me within the first 100 pages, or by Location 500 on my Kindle, then I have to put it down.

It’s funny, because I tend to be afraid that I’m going to miss out on something great if I don’t keep reading, and in a few cases that has been true. I loved Orson Scott Card’s Pastwatch (this was before I found out he was a raging homophobe), adored Eugenie’s Middlesex, and thoroughly enjoyed King’s and Straub’s, Talisman, even though all of these stories took a while to really get pumping. I actually put King’s Bag of Bones (yes, he definitely has a problem with long, labored beginnings) and Gaiman’s American Gods down only to pick them up again due to the raves of multiple friends.

However, for every bad start book that’s worked out, there’s at least two or three that haven’t. I won’t go into the list, but yes, King is on this one, too. So what changed over the course of my multiple plane rides? Well, I guess I realized that my physical reading time is very limited. It’s fine if audiobooks disappoint me, because I would have been taking my daily walk or driving to wherever I’m driving anyway. But I rarely have a chance to just sit down with a book, so when I do, whatever I’m reading needs to come correct and be worth my precious physical-reading time. So on my flight back to America, I switched out of my hard going novel, and switched over to another one that wasn’t popping, so then I switch to another one. This one I liked and I should be finished with it in time for next week’s book review.

But this all got me to wondering, what are your rules for reading? Do you attempt to power through any book that has been labeled “good” like I used to, or do you also have a rule about putting books down if you’re not enjoying them by a certain page? Let me know in the comments!

The Things I Used To Hate About Myself [Win a 32 Candles Tote Bag!]

A lot of 32 CANDLES is about reconciling the kid you were with the adult you’ve become. And it occurred to me the other day that other than my chronic case of foot-in-mouth disease, most of the things that I hated about myself as a kid are now the things that I love the most.

When I was a child all I wanted was to have super-straight and long hair, a better personality (my general strangeness was like friend repellant), and most of all, skin that wasn’t dark. Light-skin would have been best, but I would have settled for brown, or even just not being the darkest girl in my elementary school classroom.

Well, I ended up getting a perm, only to cut it out and go natural at the age of 17. As it turned out, relaxers were expensive and a lot of work, and I didn’t have time, money or energy like that. So, I went with the much-easier natural, and eventually moved on to dreadlocks at the age of 21.

Funnily enough, my locks got so long, that they became a lot of work, too (hard to clean, hard to style, hard to manage unless I pulled them back and out of the way). So I cut those off, too, and now I’m once again rocking a natural — ie a wonderful style that I could have easily maintained when I was a kid and just hated my kinky hair.

As for my personality problems, those were solved, too. When I was a kid I went through several phases of trying to reshape myself into someone that other kids would like. I tried dressing like people I saw on TV, catering to the popular kids, and lying to fit in or stand out. As you might have imagined, all of these attempts at personality-modification backfired horribly, and I remained unpopular until I struck upon a solution so perfect that to this day, I wish I had figured it out sooner. I just accepted that I was unpopular and started being myself: loud, obnoxious, nerdy, and strange . Lo and behold, this solution won me a ton of quality friends. I doubt I’ll ever be in the position of just scads and scads of people liking me, but I think it’s better to know that those who do like you, like your for yourself, and those who don’t probably aren’t people you’d want as friends anyway. Oh, and all that lying I did as a kid was a nice little primer for my writing career, so hoorays all around.

Last but not least, I can’t quite put my finger on when I began to not just be okay with but completely adore my dark skin. Maybe it was my late teens or my early twenties, but somewhere along the line, the aesthetic quality that used to make me heart-cringely different became my best feature. I love that I tend to stand out in an LA crowd. I love that colors really pop on me. I love the kind of men who have been attracted to me here in America: usually kind, deep thinkers who operate outside the box and don’t let the MSM dictate to them who should be considered beautiful — my husband being the best of them. I love that I’m rarely told by others that they have another friend who looks just like me. To simplify, I just love the skin I’m in.

So hair, personality, and skin — those are the things that I used to hate about myself when I was a kid, but am totally in love with now. How about you? Tell us what you used to not like about yourself but now rock with pride. One comment will be featured in next week’s Wednesday column and (drumroll please) the writer will get a 32 Candles tote bag.

100% Yay!

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