I'm so excited to show you the cover for my young adult novel, THE OBVIOUS GAME, which will be published on February 7, 2013, two days after my thirty-ninth birthday.

Those of you who have been reading me for a while know what a labor of love this book was. While there was an awful lot of pain and sweat I didn't write about, I think you saw enough to know there were many days I didn't know if this would ever happen and many days when I really, really wanted to just throw down.

I'm glad I didn't. Not only is this book finally finding its way into the world, my publisher has generously offered to donate a portion of the proceeds of the book (I don't know how much yet) to the Eating DisorderFoundation, which was recommended by my friends at the Eating Recovery Center in Denver. It's my greatest hope that this novel will not only be worthwhile as a novel but will also help parents and families understand and feel compassion for someone suffering from an eating disorder and offer hope for a full recovery to those who are in the grip of it. UPDATED 1/14/2013: My publisher has informed me they have been unable to get in contact with the charity and are putting this plan on hold until they can hammer out details.

This novel was so much harder than SLEEP IS FOR THE WEAK was, and I thought that was really hard. But the novel was so much more personal and so much a combination of craft that I had to learn on the job and inspiration and revisions and rejection and more revisions and hours I could've spent doing something else. I know a lot of writers talk about the pain of the writing process. For me, there is actually never a blank page because I don't sit down to write without a lot of couch time first in which I figure out what I want to say and visualize the scenes in my head. So I guess maybe I'm "writing" when I'm not writing, but that works for me, because I have so little writing time (as does everyone -- how many novelists don't have day jobs?) I have to be getting thousands of words out every time I schedule a 9-midnight with myself after my daughter goes to bed. Usually on Mondays. I seem to be more tolerant of flogging myself on Mondays, not sure why.

But I wouldn't do it if I didn't like it. I love it. I feel energized by it. I love thinking about what I'm going to write next. This is fun for me. Otherwise, I would never put myself through the rejection.

If you're working on a novel, take heart -- everyone feels the way you do on your darkest day sometimes.

“Everyone trusted me backthen. Good old, dependable Diana. Which is why most people didn’t notice atfirst.”

Praise for The Obvious Game:

"Lovely, evocative, painful and joyful all  in one ... much like high school." -- Jenny Lawson, author of LET'S PRETEND THIS NEVER HAPPENED

“I couldn’t put down THEOBVIOUS GAME. Arens perfectly captures the hunger, pain and uncertainty ofadolescence.” -- Ann Napolitano, author of A GOOD HARD LOOK and WITHIN ARM'S REACH

"THE OBVIOUS GAME is afearless, honest, and intense look into the psychology of anorexia. Thecharacters—especially Diana--are so natural and emotionally authentic thatyou’ll find yourself yelling at the page even as you’re compelled to turnit." -- Coert Voorhees, author of LUCKY FOOLS and THE BROTHERS TORRES

"Let’s be clear aboutone thing: there’s nothing obvious about THE OBVIOUS GAME. Arens has written amoving, sometimes heart-breaking story about one girl’s attempt to control theuncontrollable. You can’t help but relate to Diana and her struggles as youdelve into this gem of a novel." -- Risa Green, author of THE SECRET SOCIETY OFTHE PINK CRYSTAL BALL

"THE OBVIOUS GAME explores the chasms between conformityand independence, faith and fear, discoveries and secrets, first times and lastchances, hunger and satisfaction. The tortured teenage experience is capturedtriumphantly within the pages of this unflinching, yet utterly relatable,novel. - Erica Rivera, author of INSATIABLE: A YOUNG MOTHER’S STRUGGLE WITHANOREXIA 

Book Information:

Publisher: InkspellPublishing

Release Date: Feb 7th, 2013

ISBN: 978-0-9856562-7-0(ebook), 978-0-9856562-8-7 (Paperback)

Paperback Price: $13.99

Kindle: $4.99

To be available at all majoronline outlets: Amazon, B&N, The Book Depository

Pre-order now at InkspellPublishing Website at a special discount of 30% on both paperback andebook!

Website/blog: http://www.surrenderdorothyblog.com or http://www.ritaarens.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ritaarens

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rita.arens

BlogHer: http://www.blogher.com/member/rita-arens

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=4048495&trk=tab_pro

Pinterest: https://pinterest.com/ritajarens/

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B002KRLEHE

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1371209.Rita_Arens

And here's a short excerpt!

---

Prologue

1987

When we were in seventh grade,Amanda and I snuck out of her house one foggy Saturday night to meet herboyfriend, Matt. We spent more time planning our escape than we did actually conductingit.

We’d made a list while pretendingto do our homework:

Wrap flashlights with blackelectrical tape. (check)

Make fake bodies out of pillowsto hide in our sleeping bags. (check)

Booby-trap her bedroom door withstring across the threshold so we could see if her mom had tried to check onus. (check)

Assemble all-black outfits,complete with stocking caps, so we would blend in with the shadows as wewalked. (check)

Arrange the rendezvous pointahead of time with Matt: the third-grade playground at the elementary school.(check)

It wasn’t until we’d successfullyshimmied down the fence, jogged the four blocks up the street, and seen Mattsitting there alone on the seesaw that I realized I had nothing at all to dowhile they giggled and kissed. I’d been so caught up in the planning portion ofour escape that I didn’t notice how pathetic my part in it seemed.

I twirled on the swings acrossthe playground and out of view, once again pretending to be totally cool withit. The thing was, though, I wasn’t cool with it. I felt about as important asthe guy who wrote the cooking instructions for Pop-Tarts.

We probably would’ve stayed therefor hours if I hadn’t finally strode over to the jungle gym, coughing andkicking rocks as I went. Amanda poked her head out.

“What’s up, Diana?”

“Can we go soon? I forgot tobring a book.”

Her expectant smile turned sour. “Okay,”she finally said, disappearing in the darkness. “Just five more minutes.”

I wandered to the edge of theplayground, thought about turning back on my own, letting her get caught outthere by herself. But I wouldn’t. That’s what friends are for. She knew it. Iknew it.

Everyone trusted me. Good olddependable Diana. Which was why most people didn’t notice at first that I wasin trouble.

---

It's really happening! Huzzah! Let's bring out DJ Nibbles.

In 1998, I moved to Kansas City from Chicago in search of a new start. In 1999, I enrolled in the graduate writing program at the University of Missouri -- Kansas City. I kept working full time, and it took me four years to complete a two-year program ... four years of nights and weekends spent absorbing a novel a week, my short stories and poetry, detailed analyses of the merits or not of some other writer's work. 

Whenever someone asked me why I was doing it, I replied it wasn't for my work, I just wanted the degree.

I lied to myself.

I was afraid I couldn't make it as a writer, and if I told everyone I was going back to school to get better at it, then of course they would expect me to fulfill on that expectation. At the time, I'd been writing since third grade but had only had a few poems published here in there in the sort of chapbooks short on white space and long on printing margins. And also? The writing program itself was quickly shattering my confidence.

Advanced degrees will do that. You might be a big fish in the little pond of high school or even college, but when you get into a masters program, everyone there is paying dearly in money and time to accomplish something -- and they might be better at it than you are.

My ego took a huge beating. I had never undergone a serious writers workshop before -- the kind in which you turn in your short story and then sit there, silent, taking notes, while everyone around you describes what they liked and hated about it. They always started with the encouragement, of course, and I appreciated that, but I was eager and remiss to get to the part that would actually improve the work -- the critiques. And, they were sort of brutal. At that point in my writing career, my skin was translucent, it was so thin. I couldn't even handle criticism of my grammar, let alone my characters or plot. I held it together in class, usually, but the drive home would be clouded by tears. The worst part? The classes were at night, so they always ended at nineish or later and I would go home and be up until midnight contemplating my writerly sins.

Then I'd get up and go to work and if anyone asked, I'd tell them I just wanted to be a better writer, even if it never went anywhere.

And that was a lie.

Last Friday, I was gratified to spend a mind-blowing day with a bunch of truth-tellers at BlogHer Writers '11. 

Beginning Thursday night with the opening reception, I talked to writers who were being completely honest with themselves: They wanted to write a book. They wanted to succeed. They were prepared to own that, with all the fear of rejection and potential social humiliation that might come of it. It wasn't a huge group -- around 200 or so -- and I got a chance to talk to probably a third of them over the course of the day. My biggest takeaway? 

Stop lying to yourself. 

Stop telling yourself you don't really care.

Stop telling yourself you can't handle rejection.

Stop telling yourself you'll only try until a certain date or some other arbitrary deadline.

Stop telling yourself you can only achieve success by one path.

Stop telling yourself it matters to your friends or family if you don't hit it out of the park immediately.

Stop telling yourself you have no platform, nothing to share.

Stop telling yourself the only book you have in you is based on your blog.

Start listening to writers like Kathy Cano-Murillo, Jean Kwok, Ann Napolitano and Dominique Browning who shared their roads to success, bumps and all, and realize it's never painless, it's never easy, and it's always worth it.

Start believing in yourself (a command delivered to me by someone I was supposedly mentoring, ouch, when I fell back into I'm-an-imposter patterns out loud, eek).

Start setting smaller goals: 500 words, one query, one scene outlined. Move forward every week, no matter how tiny that move might feel.

Start surrounding yourself with positive people and other writers.

Start reading everything you can get your hands on and noting what you like or don't like about that writer's style.

Start scheduling time with yourself to work on your craft. Schedule it like it's a meeting or you won't do it.

Start saying "when" instead of "if." Success comes to those who are relentless in their pursuits.

Start telling yourself the truth. In my case, the truth is this: I want to be a published novelist. I wish it were enough for me to be a published anthologist, but it's not. So I'm taking the next steps.

I left on Saturday morning having spent a lot more time alone with my thoughts than I normally do at conferences. On the plane ride home, I took a lot of notes for the next novel and made lists of how I could support the one I'm currently querying. It occurred to me if you had told 1999 Rita walking into UMKC's registrar's office for the first time I'd be doing that on the way home from speaking at a national writing conference, I would've punched you for getting my hopes up. Back then, I was afraid to hope.

Funny how the world works.

Okay, so I realized I work at BlogHer. And I also realize I am moderating a panel at BlogHer Writers '11. So this is going to look very fake and sales-y, and that's actually not what I'm all about. I will be very direct if I am doing that.  Here is me being direct: I'm writing this post of my own volition and speaking only for me, not for BlogHer in any, way, shape or form. 

Now bear with me while I jump up and down around my library for a second, throwing hardbacks in the air with glee for the love of publishing. Ouch. Of course one just hit me in the head.

I am just really excited about this because it's going to be chock-full of Penguin Publishing editors, authors and publicists as well as a bunch of bloggers who have crossed the print line. And anyone who has read this blog ever knows that I am a publishing fiend, unable to resist any opportunity to find out more about the world's most confusing business. You'd think I'd know everything after a book, right? 

That is not true. Especially with what's happened in the past five years to publishing. 2008 feels like 25 years ago, not four.

There are no guarantees in life, but it never hurts to try for the face-to-face if the opportunity presents itself. 

The conference is three weeks away. It's in NYC. It's only one day -- Friday, October 21. There are basically two tracks -- one for newbies, one for people like me who have been through the publishing wringer before and have the glutton-for-punishment need to do it again. You can get the whole schedule here.

I'm moderating a panel about marketing -- my experience with BlogHer Book Club has been educational and so much fun for me. I've "met" online two of the three Penguin authors who will be speaking -- Jean Kwok (Girl in Translation) and Ann Napolitano (A Good Hard Look). (Haven't yet met or "met" Dominique%20Browning. Will have that on the docket, for sure.) Look! I even get to be on a panel with Jean.

Track 1: Your Role as Marketer in Today's Publishing World

Writers are–or need to be–marketers, and your command of social media provides a critical edge: both pre-book deal, to validate you have a following, and post-book publication, to help you sell your book. BlogHer editor Rita Arens (editor of Sleep is For the Weak) moderates a discussion with Penguin Business Development Manager Colleen Lindsay, author Jean Kwok (author of Girl in Translation), independent PR consultant Lauren Cerand, and Penguin marketer Lydia Hirt.

I'm also waiting eagerly to see old friends/speakers Kamy Wicoff, Carleen Brice, Jane Schonberger, Kathy Cano-Murillo, and a bunch of other heavy hitters I don't know well yet.

And ... the part I'm most excited about is the small-group mentoring. Here are the topics available:

Seeking fiction agent
- Seeking nonfiction agent
- Seeking help with a book proposal
- Memoir group
- Literary novel group
- Genre novel group (romance/mystery/thriller/scifi, etc.)
- Children’s (YA/middle grade/picture book)
- Humor/novelty (ex: LOLcats/Cake Wrecks, etc.)
- Cookbooks
- Shorter works/anthologies
- Expert platform nonfiction 
- Book blogging

That? Is something that never happens. Except it's happening. Next month. Good Lord, I can't wait. (For those who are wondering, the conference is $199.)

AM GIDDY. PLEASE TO JOIN.

END WRITERLY FREAK-OUT.

FOR NOW.