Luuurve Post: The Breaking Dawn Movie & Me

So I was one of those girls who fell fast and hard for Twilight when it first came out, avidly read (and re-read) the series, and was waiting at midnight for the release of the Breaking Dawn book when it came out. I went to an all night IHOP, got about 100 pages in and was like: oh no. Pregnant Bella? No, no, no, no, please don't be going there! I loved this series because it was all wish-fullfillment teenage romance before the complications of marriage and kids! And she's too young!!! Please, NO TEENAGERS HAVING BABIES!!!!!

But as we all know now, it went there:



Then when the movie came out last Fall, I was in a rough place personally, so while there some moments that were really gorgeous and awesome, I couldn't love it. I myself got engaged at 18 and married at 19. And there were some really hard times. All I could see when I first watched the movie were the potential hard times ahead that were maybe glossed over by this perfect wedding and happy ending feeling. I thought: they're too young to be pledging forever!

But I bought it today and watched it again with my husband (married ten years now, huzzah!), and with my personal stuff all sorted through, and expectation of Baby Plot from the beginning, I really enjoyed it. And from the box office numbers, it looks like a lot of other people did too.

I mean, it's got that slow, luscious wedding scene. Let's face it, we are wedding crazy in this country, and we got this fairy-tale wedding, completely tucked away in the forest with dripping flowers and a to-die-for dress. There were no bridezilla's, there were a few requisite funny/awkward family and friends moments, but it was pretty much perfect.

And then we got to go on the honeymoon and there was so much screen time devoted to the naked/semi-naked newlyweds getting it on or wanting badly to get it on! So much naked kissing! Where other movies would do one maybe quick sex scene, this movie draaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaws iiiiiiiiiit ooooooooooooooout. I don't even know what to say about all that skin shown except: well, at least the actors are of age now!

And then there was Baby Plot, which I guess you can consider a metaphor for real life Hard Times as a Newlywed. Bella looks perfectly creepy as she gets more and more skeletal. I loved the gore of the birth scene too, but there was one moment in particular that really caught me and made me tear up. It's right after Edward hears the baby's thoughts (which should not be that coherent at this point, but I digress), and anyway, we finally get to see the tender bonding moment of them being a family together.

I couldn't find the exact still I was thinking of, but the scene starts here:

And then eventually they are snuggling on the couch together and finally laughing again for the first time since their honeymoon and I thought: ahhhhh, finally they get to enjoy each other.

So as I mentioned earlier, I've been married ten years. And there have been some ups and wicked downs, but in the end, having a partner in life and being able to laugh together with a person who knows you pretty completely is downright magical. It doesn't matter when you meet, what matters is the long haul together. So today I'm raising my glass to toast LOVE---something you don't just get to grasp hold of one day when you're wearing a pretty white dress, but the everyday magic of having someone to hold, for long as you both shall live.

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Heather Anastasiu is the author of GLITCH (St. Martin's Press/Summer 2012) Glitch in three words: Dystopia, Superpowers, & Love :) Check out my website for more news and updates.

How To Trick Yourself Into Writing, Even When You Don't Feel Like It

So lots of writers will tell you the hardest part of being a writer, in spite of all the craziness of marketing and self-promoting and all that, is actually writing. Sitting down with the blank page and the little cursor on your Word document winking like it's mocking you.

This weekend I hit a giant wall of resistance. I had to drag out every trick in the book this weekend and then invent a few new ones to get myself writing again. So here, for your viewing pleasure, are a few Magical Tips Against Resistance.

1. I'll start off with the oldie but the goodie. It's the one that I continue to find extremely helpful: Butt In Chair. Just start typing, no matter how you feel, no matter if you feel like the most uninspired piece of crap that ever tried to write a novel. Just. Do. It.

2. Make up a treat for yourself to use as a reward for hitting your word count. This is really the trick I probably use the most. Natalie Goldberg suggests chocolate, but I wasn't in a chocolate mood this weekend, so I promised myself a new haircut. I hit word-count, and got to chop off some hair that had begun to look alarmingly like a mullet. Hitting word count + no more mullet = double win.

3. Get out of the house. Go write at a coffeeshop or cafe. There's nothing like making an Event of writing time to encourage you to actually do it and not just eat the day away by staring at Twitter or Facebook.

4. Write at unusual times. Or, in my case this weekend, drink wine, try to go to sleep, and when you can't, get up at 3am and write 800 words. There's no stress because it's the middle of the night and you don't really expect to write so there's no pressure to actually produce, and then anything you DO manage to produce is just extras, gravy on top. Which frees you to actually write! Changing it up can throw off those patterns of stress we create for ourselves. Sometimes going against routine is the best way to get the juices flowing.

5. And now to completely counteract the previous statement because everyone loves a good contradiction, routine can be a good thing! If you have a routine where you get up, drink your cup of coffee, and start writing, the actual writing sometimes comes more easily. It's not like a giant tug of war of will-I-or-won't-I-write-today. When it becomes something you just do, it can be easier to produce steady word count.

6. Do not let yourself get on the internet until you have met word count goals. Okay, I cheat on this one, but I've heard it works well for people. I tend to write three or four paragraphs, check Twitter, go back and write a few more, Twitter again, and usually somewhere in there I get usually caught up enough in the writing that I finish a scene. And then I check Twitter ;)

7. Write first thing in the morning. I haven't tried this one lately, but I've been thinking about giving it a go again, because it's true: if you get your word count out first thing, then you don't spend all day worrying about if you'll get it done or not!

8. Arrange to get together with another writing friend, not to talk, but to WRITE! I can't always get out of my house, but I've found the internet equivalent of this sometimes with #wordwars on Twitter. They've been wicked helpful on getting out word count on days when I'm not feeling it.

9. When you DO manage to hit your word count, try writing another hundred words or two before you stop. You're already in the groove, it's easier to keep going than stop and gear up again the next day. This little trick has really added up for me in the past. There's less stress for me once I've already hit word count knowing I can stop any time, it helps on other days when I can't quite make it, and it makes my novel overall come out a little bit faster.

That's all I've got for now. What are some of the tricks you use when you hit resistance?

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Heather Anastasiu is the author of GLITCH (St. Martin's Press/Summer 2012) Glitch in three words: Dystopia, Superpowers, & Love :) Check out my website for more news and updates.

Heather's Simple New Year's Resolution

I’m a little late chiming in on my resolutions this year, but I still have felt like this January was a new beginning for me in a lot of ways. Stuff was intense last year, and the New Year seemed to me a sign of hope and good things.

My life is very quiet and small right now, like a winter day. Some of the slowness is being physically enforced since my chronic illness has relapsed and I spend most of my day in bed. But, like Natalie Goldberg’s teacher once told her: “if you go deep enough in writing, it will take you everyplace.”

I recently read an article where NYT bestselling author Laura Hillenbrand said something similar. She has the same condition as I do, and in the interview she talked about how writing was a way to escape the stillness and confines of her body, to vicariously experience life and freedom through the subjects she writes about.

So my resolution is simple this year: enjoy writing as a gift, and find out what new places it can take me.

Link to the interview with Laura Hillenbrand, if you’re interested: here.

Heather Anastasiu's GLITCH Cover Reveal and Trailer!

I'm so excited to be able to officially reveal Glitch's cover and trailer!

And the trailer! Click on the YouTube version on the

bottom right of the screen if you want to see it larger!

Want to know more?

• Add Glitch on Goodreads
• Glitch on Amazon.com
• Facebook page for news and updates
• Heather's website
• Heather on Twitter

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Heather Anastasiu is the author of GLITCH (St. Martin's Press/Summer 2012) Glitch in three words: Dystopia, Superpowers, & Love :) Check out my website for more news and updates.

Veronica Rossi's UNDER THE NEVER SKY

Tee hee! Look what I found early on bookshelves today, our own Veronica Rossi's Under The Never Sky, out in the wilds of a Minneapolis B&N, a few days before it's official release next week!

A Little Romanian Saying

There is a saying in Romanian which goes: incetu cu incetu, invitsum alfabetul. Translation: little by little, we learn the alphabet. It’s a little of the same idea as, ‘one day at a time,’ or, ‘one foot in front of the other.’

It’s a saying that’s meant a lot to me over the years, and this week again runs through my head whenever I get scared by deadlines, or mistakes I’ve made, or dealing with hard things. Incetul cu incetul, I whisper in my head.

In writing and in life, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the big picture. There can be so many things to worry about! Will I finish this last round of edits, is my book turning out right, oh god oh god, this is my last chance to change something on it, I hope I don’t crap it up! Oh no, I've spent too much time editing this page, and there are three hundred and eleven to go. What if people don’t like my book and I never sell another? How do I deal with fallout from other Life Stuff I’ve messed up?

Worries, shockingly, tend to focus on the negative. It’s never wondering about roses and buttercups that keep me up at night. It’s the fears that start cinching in around my chest.

So I whisper: incetu cu incetu. I breathe in and out. I count my breaths as a way to distance myself from all my worries and gain some control. The worries rise up and I say to them: incetu cu incetu. Focus on what you can do right now in the present, trust that things will be okay, and let go of the rest. When times are tough, sometimes it’s the only way to stay sane :)

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Heather Anastasiu is the author of GLITCH (St. Martin's Press/Summer 2012) Glitch in three words: Dystopia, Superpowers, & Love :) Check out my website for more news and updates.

Getting a Book Deal

2011 has been a super bizarro year for me, for a lot of reasons that I won't go into here. Truth be told, it's been a pretty dang rough year. But the best of the bizarre reasons is at the top of my To Be Thankful For list: getting a book deal.

I know, I know, I should say all the altruistic answers first, that I'm thankful for my family and friends. And I am thankful for those things, but let's see, is there a way I can say this without seeming too dramatic? The book deal literally changed my life. Or at least my path for the next three years, which is as far as I can handle thinking ahead anyway ;)

Getting a book deal (after a LOT of failure and rejection, writing-wise over the past few years) was unexpected--like actually catching the carrot you thought you'd spend your life chasing. It was a validation of this quiet side passion I'd been steadily fighting for. Now that passion gets to take a central place in my life: I get to spend my days writing. As a job. This is quite insane and surreal.

And I guess, more than the book deal itself that I'm thankful for, is the journey it's propelled me on. The experiences I've gotten to have, like talking to my editor for the first time, getting an Edit Letter, working on one book until it was kick-butt instead of stopping and moving on to another project when it got hard. And then writing book 2, which was just plain hard (because here's the thing most new author's don't expect you first finally catch that shining carrot--there will be new carrots, more books to write, and these under contract, under deadlines). Not that I'm complaining! I know what a blessing, what a lucky thing it is that I was able to get an agent, and then an editor! I'm quite aware that there are so many good books out there overlooked for one reason or other: lists too full, too like something else they're represented, too niche, voice didn't catch. I got lucky to break into the publishing gig, and now I'm as determined as hell to make my book shine and be brilliant.

At the end of the day, that's what this journey is about, both within my books and outside, in my real life: touching the magic of feeling deeply moved. That mystical thing about a good book that moves you emotionally, all the way down to the center of your sternum. To feel passion. At the root, that's what I'm thankful for--the ability to participate in magic.
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Heather Anastasiu is the author of GLITCH (St. Martin's Press/Summer 2012) Glitch in three words: Dystopia, Superpowers, & Love :) Check out my website for more news and updates.

TV Shows That Hook and Don't Let Go

So, something weird about me? I like TV shows better than movies. I cannot seem to sit through a movie lately AT ALL, but I can totes have a giant 5-episode marathon of my favorite tv show. In fact, I save episodes up for this very purpose (it's so annoying, after all, to have to agonize waiting each week to find out what happens next! I want to know right away!).

You see, I think TV shows have more to teach a writer, at least about perfecting longer story-arcs, that movies can't. Movies can teach a writer how to keep things fast paced, to think in terms of scenes, and to focus only on the things that move a story forward without meandering. But it's TV shows where you really get some deep characterization, the kind where a character burrows into your head so that you can't stop thinking about them. And because there are hopefully at least a few seasons of a show, you get to inhabit the life of the character for longer, and more intimately than movies. It's what I love best about storytelling of any kind--stories that move me.

So, without further ado, my top five favorite shows.

1. Doctor Who. I was only introduced to the fabulous Doctor about a year ago, when I started watching Season 5 with the Eleventh Doctor, Matt Smith, and fell head over heels with the show. I promptly went back and watched all the previous seasons. But unlike many, for whom David Tennant will be their favorite Doctor-par-excellence, I really like Matt Smith. And again, I've heard all over the internet that people were bummed about this past season, but I LOVED IT! I like Amelia Pond. I love Rory (well, everyone loves Rory), and I am a huge fan of the River Song story line and seeing how that all played out this year. If you have no idea what I'm talking about: stop what you are doing this instant and go watch this show!!!!

2. Fringe. I only sorta liked this show the first couple seasons, it wasn't until last season when it was less episodic and they went full throttle with the mythology of the two parallel universes that I fell hard for this show. The ideas and epic world-bending-and-potentially-ending scope combined with the interpersonal relationships make this show a Must Watch.

3. Once Upon A Time. Okay, so there's only been three episodes of this show so far, but it's my favorite debut this fall. I can talk a good post-modern game sometimes, but really I'm a giant sap at heart. I always loved fairy-tale retellings where there's a happily ever after. I think this show is smart in playing with the tropes and familiar story-lines, I love that portions of the show are set in the fairy-tale realm where it's knights and thieves and royalty, and I really like seeing the familiar characters turned on their head in the cursed realm of our world--the place 'where there are no happy endings.' The pilot wasn't as stunning as I'd hoped, but last week's episode and the one tonight completely wrapped me up.

4. Revenge. This is my other favorite new start-up show this year. The premise of a girl slowly destroying the group of people who destroyed her father, so perfectly summed up in this tag-line: "This is not a story about forgiveness." The first episode literally gave me goosebumps. It's wandered a little since, but it's still the show I always watch first on my dvr each week. This show is all about character--viewers are given intimate looks at Emily's thought processes, what drove her here, how the revenge consumes her so completely. But the wrenching part of this show is you want to just be like: no, stop Emily! You could just stop now and find a way to be happy if you'd just let all this go! But like the tag-line says: it's not a story about forgiveness. And I can't wait to see how deep and dark this all goes, and if Emily can still manage to find a modicum of her own happiness.

5. The Vampire Diaries. When I first started watching this show, I thought: hmm, it's good, but I wonder if it can stay interesting past the first season? Yeah, it's on it's third season, and it has amped up with every episode. The thing that hooks me with this show (and a lot of people, I think) is the two Salvatore brothers--one dark, one light, always in love with the same girl and locked into this pattern of eternal competition, but also, this bond between one another. So it's got that nice Cain and Abel thing going, but the show never lets it be simple. The two brothers, especially this season, morph in and out of roles of clear-cut 'good' and 'bad', and who are we kidding, we all probably love them best when they're being bad boys, right on the verge of being good. The show makes all of the characters and relationships so perfectly tangled, you're not sure what to hope for to happen next. But no matter what, you can't stop watching.

When I First Knew I Wanted To Be A Writer

The year was 1994. I was twelve, and I'd been devouring David Edding's The Belgariad series, and watching Far and Away over and over until I wore out the VHS tape. My head was full of high fantasy and historic love sagas spanning the globe (and people with accents, we can't forget the importance of accents!). Also, there was Nicole Kidman's fabulous hair in that movie. It quite captivated me. *why, oh why was my hair so entirely boring and straight?!*

And for some reason, I've no idea what put it in my head, I started writing a novel on my computer, though I certainly didn't think of it as writing. But we had this new computer (a Mac Classic!) and I spent time on there, and there were these text documents you could open and so I started typing. A high fantasy novel about a rebellious young girl with amazing hair, naturally ;)

It wasn't until I printed out a bit of it and took it to my fourth grade teacher that I realized being a writer could be a person's job, when she said out loud the unimaginable thing: she said I should be a writer, a published writer. I guess that's what astonished me was she thought I actually could get published. That I could write something that people might buy in bookstores. Bookstores were holy shrines to me, where I went eagerly every week to blow my allowance money! And she thought I could be one of the people that wrote those books!

So at twelve, I finally had an answer to that question grown-ups were so fond of asking: what do you want to be when you grow up? A writer. I wanted to be a writer.

And then I became a teenager, and everything went screwy for a few years and I thought I'd be a musician (a flautist to be specific), and then I thought for awhile I'd be a missionary (check out my Dear Teen Me post for more on this one!), and then for awhile in my twenties I thought I'd be nothing at all because I wasn't special or imaginative or good at anything really, and that was what being a grown-up was about realizing.

But then I started writing again about five years ago anyway. I don't know how long it was before I admitted it, even to myself: I wanted to be a writer. I certainly didn't say it out loud to anyone else! I went back to grad school because Plan A of being a writer was far too ridiculous, so I would studiously pursue Plan B like a good little grown up. But all the while, in my spare time, I kept writing. This year the ridiculous dream came true, I got a book deal with St. Martin's Press.

I still feel funny saying out loud. I just moved to a new place, and the first thing strangers ask each other is, "So what do you do for a living?" And I say, half-awkwardly, "Um, I'm a writer." I feel like I should follow up this statement by saying, "No, for real! For real for real, like, I have a book coming out next year!!!" Fear not, I don't say that out loud ;) After all, I know it sounds silly and impossible, but it is beginning to finally sink in. I'm a writer.

The dedication page in my novel is to my 4th grade teacher.
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Heather Anastasiu is the author of GLITCH (St. Martin's Press/Summer 2012) Glitch in three words: Dystopia, Superpowers, & Love :) Check out my website for more news and updates.

My Writing Pattern: the Kamikaze Approach

So here's the deal. I write books fast. The no-holds-barred, gonna-write-this-draft-or-die-trying approach. I know other writers do it even faster, like 12 hour days writing. I'm not that intense, but basically, I write first drafts of books in a month. This was a habit I developed when I was in grad school and only had time for creative writing on summer or Christmas breaks.

After not having been in Writing Mode for awhile, it takes me about a week to get back into the groove. I start out by telling myself I only have to write 1,000 words a day. Which lasts for a few days until I start getting antsy about how tiny the over-all word count is. I know I'm starting a book that needs to be around 60-70k words for the first draft, and when I only have a paltry 6-8k, I feel the weight of all that has yet to be written.

I have the patience of gnat. I think that's really what my crazy drafting habit is about. I get to 10k and I start thinking in fractions. Okay, I have 1/6th done. So then I start writing 2k in the morning, and another 2k in the evening. The thing is, it's gets more and more comfortable. I don't have to fight as much resistance when it's become habit. It's daunting at first, but eventually, I get into the groove of: I'm going to sit down and write. I'm going to write through this scene and this scene.

Oh, and I'm stubborn as hell. That's probably why I just take the No Matter What I WILL Write Each Day approach (at least during the drafting phase). I have a big outline for the whole book before I start, but each day I sketch out the basics (goal, conflict, climax) of the scene I'm writing. If the blank page starts giving me resistance, then I start writing w/ pen and notebook. If I'm really not feeling it even then, I skip to a scene I'm excited about and can have passion writing (though this is a last ditch solution, I usually force myself to go through chronologically). But there is so NO stopping until I have a book!!!

I imagine we'll be getting lots of tips about how to fight resistance this week as we all talk about our writing neurosis, ahem, I mean, patterns. ;D

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Heather Anastasiu is the author of GLITCH (St. Martin's Press/Summer 2012) Glitch in three words: Dystopia, Superpowers, & Love :) Check out my website for more news and updates.

Back to School Week

It's back to school week here on Brave New Words!

Though it's not boarding school, the Academy in my novel Glitch is a full-time lifestyle for my characters. They go for eleven hours a day, after all. School is the setting for a lot of great YA lit, and I think for good reason (beyond, you know, the fact that kids have to go to school and it's familiar): Drama always seems to erupt when you stick a bunch of teenagers together, even partially cybernetic mind-controlled ones :)

A lot of what gets explored in my novel is the newness of feeling emotion and how it can be sparked by contact with other people. I think this is a beautiful concept--that no matter how much those in power might try to control others, the simple fact of people in relationships with other people (sometimes just because of close proximity alone) has been the catalyst across time for both romance and revolution.

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Heather Anastasiu is the author of GLITCH (St. Martin's Press/Summer 2012) Glitch in three words: Dystopia, Superpowers, & Love :) Check out my website for more info, news, and updates.