Save the Snow Leopard!

If you go to SnowLeopard.Org and vote, you could help save not only snow leopards, but help people in nearby communities, and the ecosystems that support this top predator.

Check out the video below if you're wondering how that works, plus revel in some amazing footage of these elusive, magnficent creatures:

Joss is boss

Duh.

Happy Halloween

Last night, the Saturday before Halloween, I went to a concert at the El Rey Theater here in LA to see Amanda Palmer and Jason Webley perform.

The crowd alone would have made it worth the $25. I saw everything from a Victorian chorus girl to a lady sperm, with an emphasis on lots of black, fedoras, and tulle skirts, on both sexes.

Then Jason Webley came out and made playing an accordian sexy. Later, to the strains of Thriller he climbed into and out of a giant red balloon.

I'm getting too old to stand in a dark room with strangers for over three hours, but then Amanda came on and showed us what passion is with gut wrenching renditions of songs like Astronaut and Ampersand. And I was very glad to be there.

Particularly moving to me was a new song she said was about one of her major influences, writer Judy Blume. When she puts it on the web I'll post a link because it really shows why writing for kids is so important. It reminded me of how I felt when I first read Deanie, and why I write what I write.

Top Five Hawaiian Recordings

You'd never know it by looking at me, but I was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii.  It was truly a wonderful place to grow up, and part of the fun there was Hawaii's unique melting pot culture.

So, to introduce you to some of the Hawaii I grew up in, below are my top five Hawaiian recordings . I say "recordings" instead of songs, because one is a comedy routine by the brilliant Rap Reiplinger. I'm curious as to whether the local humor translates to those who don't know the islands very well. But let me tell you, when we were kids, he was our comedy idol, and to kama'ainas (locals) he's both legendary and hilarious.

1. "Ulili E" - Gabby Pahinui
 There's no video of the late great Gabby Pahinui currently available doing this classic Hawaiian song. But just listen to what the man can do with a ukelele. It's in Hawaiian, but all you need to know is that it's about a bird, named in the title. Gabby's fingers on the strings and his voice do all the translating you need.

2. "Ku'u Home O Kahalu'u - Olomana
This is probably my favorite local song of all time. When I listen to it, I see the windward side of Oahu (where the town of Kahalu'u is), and I remember all the times I spent with my friends on the beach in Kailua, hiking Mount Olomana, driving the Old Dump Road at high speeds way past somebody's curfew, grabbing a shave ice, or bodysurfing at my favorite place on Earth - Bellows Beach. But this song perfectly captures the bittersweetness of memory, even if you've never been to Hawaii.

3. "Honolulu City Lights" - Keolo & Kapono Beamer

A prom theme many years running, a song we sung in choir, sappy and strong and sweet. I love Honolulu.

4. "Far Too Wide For Me" - The Peter Moon Band
I would listen to this when I was horribly homesick for the islands, far across one sea or another.  The "Cane Fire" album by The Peter Moon Band is one of my all time favorites.

5. "Room Service" - Rap Reiplinger

Just a classic. If you understand this, you understand the islands.

Official Author Photo

Is that really me?

Thanks to Joe Camareno for taking the photo, and to wonderful make up artist Ramona Doerning for her steady hand and with the blush.

How I Survived my Author Photo Shoot

Thank goodness for good friends with good connections.  That's how I found a terrific photographer to take the headshot I'll be using as THE photo on my books and all that kind of jazz.

I'm not an actor or performer, so I'm not the most comfortable person in front of the camera. The photo you see currently on my blog is one I took myself, in my own bathroom mirror.  I find that a much more comfortable way to get my photo taken than to pose for other people.

Okay, I can be a bit of a goofy ham when I feel comfortable. Which is why it was great having Joe shoot my photos, since he was so easy to chat with and told me to "flutter my eyelashes" at the beginning of the shoot.

Still, it took me awhile to warm up.  Later, as I went through the (over a thousand!) photos, I noticed how sort of squinty and skeptical I looked in the early shots.  Sort of a "Is this really necessary?" attitude.  Which isn't fair, since I set the whole thing up and yes, it is necessary, thank you very much Nina, you squinty skeptic.

It was kind of surreal, going through all those close ups of myself.  I re-noticed my grayish front gums (thanks to a bike accident I had when I was ten that knocked my front teeth out and lead to all sorts of traumatic dental fun over the years), and how I seem to like the left side of my face better than my right given how I angle it toward the camera pretty consistently. 

And ah, the schnozz.  It's a gift from my Berry forebears. My beloved Aunt Janet had this nose, until she got a nose job in her twenties.  No nose job for me, thanks.  I love my big schnozz, my freckles, my squinty green eyes, my weird gums, and tendency to smirk. It's easy to love beauty and symmetry. More a point of pride to love your own faults.  It's a struggle, one that will go on my whole life, I suppose, but I'm determined to keep at it. Beats hating yourself!

The main thing, as a redhead, is to wear green. I'm not kidding. For someone with my coloring, it's like a magic trick to make your hair look good, you eyes glow, and your skin say 'Thank you!"

One thing you can be sure of, this photo will NOT be my author headshot. Though I love it for obvious reasons:

I'll post the official photo when it's ready. Meanwhile, am treasuring the ugly/goofy/crazy face photos too.

My Book's on Amazon!

I'm on vacation, typing away here in on my bed in my motel room, with travel buddy Wendy on the other bed doing the same, and she just casually says - Otherkin's on Amazon.

WHAT?

So yeah, it is.  Here.

No cover. No info. But HOLY DINNER PLATES! 

There's, like, a release date and everything.  I had no idea.  July 31, 2012.  Sounds good to me.

Who are we kidding?  Sound great to me!

Maine, the first day

View from our window, Maine. That's our deck, with chairs, and the dunes and Atlantic beyond.

Then once I get to the beach, I'm out there with no one but a lone surfer and a friendly gull for company. I find a huge empty blue gray shell, and then sit on a bench to breathe in the ocean and sky.

Back at our motel, Wendy and the Teddy on my bed enjoy their books.

King's Chapel and Burying Ground

Boston. One thousand bodies. Only 505 headstones.

I'm weird. I love cemeteries.

Wonderland

You've got to love a town where the last stop is Wonderland. Yay for Boston.

What's on My Wall

I found this at a Polish photography studio called Stereolit and had to have it and two others.The photographer, Piotr Vasco Wasilkowski, titled it "Bloody Skeletons and Wolves Howling."  I framed the photos, then grouped all three in a vertical line down the wall. To me they tell a different story every time I look at them. Sometimes this photo is the beginning of the story, sometimes the middle, and sometimes... the end.

If you're in the mood, visit Kasia and Piotr on Stereolit's website. They made it very easy for me to buy the photos online, and they arrived very quickly, in perfect shape.  I just love them.

What's on your wall? And why?

Advice for Young Writers

Happy Birthday, John Lennon

Dreaming of a world where John Lennon still lives. Dreaming of a better life. Dreaming of his dream.

Cover Copy

My latest learning experience as a soon-to-be published author has been in writing/editing cover copy for one's own book.  The lesson is this:

It's really fricking hard.

My fabulous (truly, she is wonderful, so colloborative, insightful, nice...) editor sent me her company's first stab at the copy for the front and back cover of my book, and invited me to give her my thoughts.  Now, I work in Hollywood by day, where writers get no say in the taglines for their TV shows.  Vast publicity and marketing departments determine how a film or show will be presented to the public, and as a writer you just sit there and are grateful you got paid to write the script.  So this was rather revolutionary to my way of thinking. Asking the writer's opinion?  On anything?  As a writer I have to say - Huzzah!

I liked a lot about the copy they sent me but because I'm so close to the material, I, of course, had opinions. Hey, I'm an opinionated person about most things. But about my book?? Puh-lease. I try NOT to think of it as my baby, but you get the idea...

I wrote them down. I tried to be more clever than the copy they sent. I read the back covers of tons of other books.

Okay, maybe not non-fiction books like this, but you see what I mean. I rifled through my library, focusing on YA books. Hard backs didn't help me much, since they often don't have any copy on the back. Also, everything on my Kindle was pretty useless for these purposes.  (Poor Kindle users don't get to see the pretty pretty covers or read the blurbs we writers work so hard to get!)  But fortunately for these purposes, I'm a total book hoarder.

But really, that wasn't very useful because there were infinite ways to approach writing back cover copy. Do you tell a bit of the story, naming the main characters, and being very explicit about the main conflict?  Here's the text of the back cover of the UK copy of GAME OF THRONES:

In the game of thrones, you win or you die.

As Warden of the north, Lord Eddard Stark counts it a curse when King Robert bestows on him the office of Hand. His honour weighs him down at court where a true man does what he will, not what he must. . . and a dead enemy is a thing of beauty. The old gods have no power in the south, Stark's family is split, and there is treachery at court. Worse, a vengeance mad boy has grown to maturity in exile in the Free Cities beyond the sea. Heir of the mad Dragon King deposed by Robert, he claims the Iron Throne.

Or do you show the conflict, but emphasize mostly emotion? Here's the back of Stephanie Meyer's YA blockbuster, TWILIGHT, with what I think is a masterful pitch on the back cover.

Or do you tantalize and tease, hoping to ensnare folks with just enough of a mystery that they want to find out more? Check out the back cover copy for Karsten Knight's new YA book, WILDFIRE:

I am the fieriest depths of hell

I am the surface of the sun.

I am the belly of a volcano.

I am the unstoppable force that

has formed new islands, and the

same unstoppable force that has

brought cities to their knees.

I am the volcano goddess who has

survived a thousand years.

I am Ashline Wilde, and I may

not survive another thousand

years, but I'll go down in flames

before I go up in smoke.

Intrigued?  That's what they're hoping.

I pretty much tore my hair out over the weekend trying variations of all three approches.  I reread most of my book, hoping to pick out useful quotes.  I consulted my critique partner, doubted everything I'd ever written, then kept going back to the thesaurus to make sure there wasn't a better word in there for "power" or "lurk" or "prowl." I ended up going for the more mysterious sort of copy.  My editor approved, but cleaned it up and made it much better, much less awkward. Now we think we've basically got it.  

Is it perfect? No.

Will you get to see it here right now?  Nope. Sorry. Not yet.  (Told you we went for the more mysterious/tantalizing type of copy.)

Will I think of a dozen other ways it could have gone?  Yep.

But I really do need to get to wrapping up my outline for book 2 so I can write the darned thing.  Can't dwell on stuff too long, or you go crazy and never get anything done.

But hat's off to the publicity and marketing folks who come up with this stuff. 'Cause it ain't easy.

'Ware the Apocalypsies!

Thanks to the brilliant Gretchen McNeil (have you read her book POSSESS yet? You must!) I've just joined a group of YA authors called The Apocalypsies, all whom have debuts just before and during 2012, the year to end all years...

Yet another example of how stunningly supportive and nice the YA writing community is. Seriously, the writers I've met (and editors, and agents) have all been nothing but kind and nice and all those words that sound so boring but are actually really great.

The writers are all really funny and talented too, but you already knew that.

My info's not up on the site yet, since this JUST happened. But I'm psyched!  I'll get to meet fellow writers as well as support them.  It's not very apocalyptic, but this is how I feel right now:

National Feral Cat Day Coming Up!

Did you know that if you catch and kill all the feral cats in an area, that area just fills up again with cats?

But if you trap, neuter, and return those animals to that area, the population stabilizes, no new kittens are born, the lives of the returned, neutered cats are improved, and behaviors like yowling, mating, and fighting stop.


Yep, cats have been in the wild, living near humans for over 10,000 years.  They deserve to be respected as much as any other animal. Killing them doesn't work. Trap, Neuter, Return (TNR does. It's been well documented.  Don't believe me?  Check out Alley Cat Allies and learn.

This October 16 is National Feral Cat Day, promoting compassion for cats.

Oh, and cats aren't responsible for the lower numbers of songbirds and other resident species.  Human beings are. We need to use these big brains of ours to make the world safe for birds, cats, and people.  Together we can do it.

Vonnegut on Stories

A funny bit of writing advice from one of my favorite writers.



I'm outlining book 2 right now. This made me think perhaps I'm overthinking things a bit...

Giant Rubber Bunny Suits or What Not to Put in Your Biography

So I have to write my bio today, that thing that describes me on the back of my book.  Somehow, as soon as I heard that, my mind went completely blank, as if I knew nothing about myself.

Serious or silly?  Short, for sure. But just how boastful or loony should I be?  What, if anything, in my life, is really relevant?  What would folks actually care about?

This is a good problem to have, don't get me wrong. It's thrilling to think that info about me will appear on a book by me.  It's mind-boggling, in fact. But I find it hard to describe myself.  Tall, red hair, prone to using a long word when a short one will do...

A friend on Facebook suggested I do a bio from the POV of a tiger.  Very cool idea!  However, after writing something like: "Nina Berry smells like cantaloupe and single malt scotch," I thought better of it.

Another friend offered to write it for me. But I've known her since sixth grade, and she knows waaaaay too much about me.  I mean, we used to sing "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" after French in the most hideous high pitched tones and imagine certain teachers who shall remain nameless dressed in giant rubber bunny suits, for crying out loud.

Sigh.  Off to try to find a balance between giant rubber bunny suits and "I went to college in Chicago."  Wish me luck.

Yes, it's September 11, ten years after, and I'm not going to turn on the TV.  I didn't watch much TV ten years ago either.  I went to work and worried.  I'm worried still.  I'm not even going to stay on the internet much longer. I need to write and move on and be present, not past.

It's a beautiful day here in Los Angeles. The gold sunlight is filtering through the vines that creep over my living room window. And because I'm in a bit of a mood I can't help remembering how Natalie loved those vines, and how Max used to bask in the puddles of sunshine. They're both gone now. And I'm here appreciating it for them.  Not much else we can do for those who have died and left their mark on us.

Back to work.

My Book's on Goodreads!

The news came to my Inbox thanks to a Google Alert, looking like this:

Web 1 new result for "Nina Berry"

Nina Berry (Author of Otherkin) Nina Berry is the author of Otherkin (0.0 avg rating, 0 ratings, 0 reviews, published 2012) www.goodreads.com/author/show/5145815.Nina_Berry

You can imagine how quickly I clicked on that link.  I have no idea how this happens, but my book just appeared on the Goodreads site, and people have already signed on as "to be read."

*Nina's Head Explodes*

God, I love the internet.

I have no idea if I should be doing anything to fill out the author info or anything.  I shall do my research.  Until then:  WOO HOO!

Otherkin

 

by
Nina Berry

My rating:

add to my books

Otherkin

by Nina Berry

0.00  ·  rating details  ·  0 ratings  ·  0 reviews

Nina Berry's OTHERKIN, in which a girl discovers she can shift into a tiger and is introduced into a world where people and objects aren't what they seem.

Expected publication: August 2012 by K Teen