Anne Spollen's THE SHAPE OF WATER & her blog on THE ZONE OF NON PRESENCE

I keep hearing wonderful things about The Shape of Water, by fellow FLUXOR Anne Spollen.



And she has an interesting blog on what she calls THE ZONE OF NON PRESENCE. My novel in progress is set in this time Anne references, when one had to find a pay phone, when a friend across the country was far, far away. It's fun to write about because if gives the characters some space---free from parents, free from each other.

But I'm not sure how the the current realm of hyper-connectedness feels to others---especially teens in regards to missing people, abscence, and the possible lack of space . . .

Here's a bit of what Anne has to say:

I realized that most teens are never away. Not anymore. Remember when your family went to the cabin or the beach for a week and you had to wait for your friend to return? My kids will never have that memory: they text, call, and send immediate pictures - here we are RIGHT NOW at dinner and here we are RIGHT NOW in our motel room, and here we are RIGHT NOW, texting YOU...

Too Many Links! Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist Movie! A Contest! & A Question . . .

Andrew Karre told me, and Sara of Sara's Holds Shelf told him about this first. But tonight I read about it on Rachel Cohn's myspace blog: the film adaptation of Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist! Sara wondered, but sounds like it's going to be fantastic. When I brought this book to school last year, my students were practically fighting over it, and they are going to be really psyched about this flick. When I first saw this pic of Rachel and Kat Dennings, I thought Kat looked almost too beautiful to be Norah:



I like this picture because it shows me something else, not exactly Norah-like, but, well, you know, gangsta.



Also check out Andrew Karre's album and book coupling contest and win yourself a book!

Question: I'm keeping my livejournal, because I can post simultaneously. And I love my myspace like a baby blanket. But should I keep my blogspot, or direct my traffic to my mandabach.com website?

Invisible Children, Mandabach's literary debut, and you?

I'm getting excited about my book launch party. This should be a fun little gathering at an amazingly cool place: a nursery and garden with cool statuary everywhere, little copses of trees, and a gorgeous sunset-over-the-Peak-view!


There'll be music and sodypop and Cassie's favorite vegan food.

And you? Come on up the Colorado and join me! :)

Hosted By: Mandabach, author of OR NOT
When: Thursday Oct 11, 2007
at 5:00 PM
Where: Hillside Gardens
1006 S. Institute
Colorado Springs, CO 80903
United States
Description:
Mandabach, author of OR NOT

Click Here To View Event

Alexgirl's book!! BACK TALK

I have so much to say, after being off line and on vacation for a good long while.

But tales of the heavenly beach, all the books I read, and the stingray from hell will have to wait, because THE MOST IMPORTANT THING NOW IS

BACK TALK

by the hilarious and way too cool

ALEX RICHARDS!!

If it's not on the shelf, ask your bookstore to order it, ask your librarians to get it, grab Mommy's Visa and order it from Amazon, but get this book!



Goodbye small town hell . . . hello Big Apple!

Sixteen-year-old Gemma Winters couldn't be more ecstatic—and terrified—about scoring a summer internship at one of the hippest daytime TV talk shows, Back Talk with Kate Morgan. To top it off, she's staying in a palatial brownstone in Manhattan with celebutante Dana Cox (a virtual E! True Hollywood Story in the making) and world-weary millionheiress America Vanderbilt. Gemma's corn-fed naiveté melts away as she gets a taste of designer clothes, underage clubbing . . . and a cute Johnny Depp look-a-like.

The glamour fades by nine a.m. when Gemma becomes slave labor for harried producers. Not even her borrowed Manolo Blahniks can shield her from an office romance turned ugly and backstabbing fellow interns. When someone is unfairly fired and a show is at risk, Gemma goes out of her way to prove this small-town girl is more than just a "photocopy bitch."


Here's a link to Amazon:
BACK TALK


And here's an interview with Alex on Slayground, by that miraculous girl, Little Willow

Summer Reading: LOG THE HELL OFF!!

Livejournal, myspace, blogspot: they all SUCK!!!

Even as I write, indulging in this vampiric wastetime, I must briefly rail against!
Especially for an ADD person with a strong tendency towards hyper-focus, such as yours truly, it's hard not to get sucked in. So, I have begun unplugging my wireless at 5 pm. It's a start. While I love my internet friends, and I have fun reading interviews & book reviews by the likes of
Little Willow as well as the hilarious observations of Emma, I'm now reading like crazy.


I FINALLY finished I'm with the Band: Confessions of a Groupie, the touchingly innocent and simultaneously earthy (though never pornographic) memoir of Pamela Des Barres (who refused the advances of Mick Jagger because she was so in love with Jimmy Page!)


Then, it was Alias Grace by my favorite Canadian writer, Margaret Atwood. (The Boob Lady
is second, sorry!) She's amazing. I'm in awe of the combination of her research and imagination into pure seamlessness. And her mastery of voice in multiple points of view--including Grace herself, who is far from reliable--helps Atwood spin a tale in which I was far from certain what the truth was or exactly what the truth meant.

On to Stephen King and the finale of The Dark Tower. In the thrall of Mr. King and his gunslingers, I'm no good to anyone. I was was told yestereve, as I read myself into another world, oblivious to the familial chaos around me, "I think Daddy's checked out."

So much for the idea that I'd would be a better family member after unplugging the wireless. I was no good at all this morning either, on account of being up until after one last night reading until I had not the strength to make it into bed. Waking on the couch around five, I pulled myself out from dreams of Low Men, were-spiders, and portals to other times and worlds, and managed to make into bed with a sore neck.




Next, it's going to be one of my fellow FLUX authors Carrie Jones
or Brian Yansky, probably Carrie because now that I'm in Maine with King, I might as well stay there. Ayuh. :)

Escape! Isn't it best with a book? Forget about my former righteousness in getting offline--I just needed a better way to slip out of the real world. I do say so and thank ya!