Today my interview with my publisher is up on their website, InkSpell Publishing.

My favorite part of the interview is the reveal of THE OBVIOUS GAME playlist. The chapter titles are actually all album titles from the late eighties and early nineties for no reason other than it's my book and I wanted to and the novel is set in 1990 and nobody ever either a) figured out they were album titles or b) told me that was hokey and ridiculous and I had to take it out. I haven't actually pulled this playlist together on iTunes yet, but dammit, I should do that.

The Obvious Game Playlist

Chapter 1: Pride by White Lion (1987) – When the Children Cry

Chapter 2: Appetite for Destruction by Guns N’ Roses (1987) – Welcome to the Jungle

Chapter 3: Scarecrow by John Mellencamp (1985) – Small Town

Chapter 4: True Colors by Cyndi Lauper (1986) – True Colors

Chapter 5: Can’t Hold Back by Eddie Money (1986) – Take Me Home Tonight

Chapter 6: Hysteria by Def Leppard (1987) – Hysteria

Chapter 7: Nothing’s Shocking by Jane’s Addiction (1988) – Jane Says

Chapter 8: Just Like the First Time by Freddie Jackson (1986) – Have You Ever Loved Somebody

Chapter 9: Use Your Illusion by Guns N’Roses (1991) – November Rain

Chapter 10: Bat Out of Hell by Meatloaf (1977) – Bat Out of Hell

Chapter 11: Head Games by Foreigner (1979) – Dirty White Boy

Chapter 12: Faith by George Michael (1987) – Monkey

Chapter 13: Cuts Like a Knife by Bryan Adams (1983) – Straight From the Heart

Chapter 14: Double Vision by Foreigner (1978) – Hot Blooded

Chapter 15: Disintegration by The Cure (1989) – Fascination Street

Chapter 16: Poison by Bell Biv DeVoe (1990) – Poison

Chapter 17: Achtung Baby by U2 (1991) -- Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses?

Chapter 18: Nevermind by Nirvana (1991) – Smells Like Teen Spirit

Chapter 19: Listen Without Prejudice by George Michael (1990) – Something to Save

Chapter 20: Out of Time by R.E.M. (1991) – Losing My Religion

Chapter 21: The Way It Is by Bruce Hornsby (1986) –  Mandolin Rain

Chapter 22: Infected by The The (1986) – Out of the Blue (Into the Fire)

Chapter 23: Strange Fire by Indigo Girls (1989) – Strange Fire

Chapter 24: Little Earthquakes by Tori Amos (1992) -- China

---

I put a three-book giveaway on Goodreads. If you use Goodreads, go enter! And if you don't use Goodreads, consider using Goodreads, because it's such a great way to discover new authors. And friend me there so I can see what you like. I think my username is Rita Arens.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

The Obvious Game

by Rita Arens

Giveaway ends February 05, 2013.

See the giveaway detailsat Goodreads.

Enter to win

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And, I've been writing a ton on BlogHer and forgetting to tell you about it. I bet you won't spot the theme!

• Marriage and Relationships During Unemployment
• Is Your House Above Average?
• I'm Doing the 52-Week Money Challenge
• Tips for Living on One Income During Unemployment

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!

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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.

It's just over a week until my cover reveal (those of you who signed up on the form to participate will get info soon! And if you still want to sign up, I'll put the form at the bottom of this post) on December 20th, and I've been thinking about my novel and trying to decide whether or not it's worth it to write a reader's guide for it. I myself always read them but from a writer's point of view -- what did that writer (or his or her editor or publicist or hired hack or whoever wrote the thing) think was important about the novel? But for some reason, I'm really struggling with trying to write one for myself. And I'm not sure normal people actually use them.

And I feel silly every time I try to write it. That's the truth, and that's why I'm struggling. It's like writing a bio about yourself in the third person, which I've also had to do a lot and I feel silly every single time I do that, too. It would be easier to use the royal "we."

We would like you to tell us whether or not we should persist in the writing of a reader's guide for THE OBVIOUS GAME.

It would likely not be in the novel, but I could put it here in the new THE OBVIOUS GAME section that I haven't created yet because the cover hasn't been revealed yet and also because I can't afford to hire help and haven't yet figured out how to hack Typepad advanced templates to redesign the navigation of this blog which is going to morph into an author website somehow, how, I haven't figured out yet.

WHAT SHOULD WE DO?

This morning I woke up thinking about falling in love. I'm not sure if it was the end notes of a dream or the cozy feeling of coming off three nights spent alone with Beloved and no little angel, but I woke up with that feeling in my throat of the first time someone says, "I think I love you."

A few minutes ago, I read Schmutzie's post on happiness, and I thought about waking up to thinking about love. My husband and I ran into a college kid on our recent trip, and the kid asked if we were married. "Almost twelve years," I said. And this kid, who up to this point had been bragging about getting 98 percent in a class without ever having cracked the book's spine and getting laid the night before glanced over with utter sincerity and said, "That's cool. That really makes me happy, that you guys have been together so long."

Well, son, I'm glad I restored your faith in humanity. Because let me tell you, being in love -- long-term love -- is awesome. It usually feels a little different than the falling-in-love, though, and that's a tough one to swallow. Falling in love lasts, what, a few months at best? Being in love -- now that's a different story. That can last forever.

There are ways to tap into that first-few-months feeling, though. I spent years thinking about that feeling while I was single and realized part of falling in love is getting to know a new person, but if I'm honest with myself, part of falling in love is finding a new audience for your tired old stories, a new person to feel new around. Part of falling in love is feeling interesting again.

Part of falling in love is falling in love with yourself.

Maybe that's part of why artists and performers and writers are so crazy about our work. Creating something new is like getting to tell your stories again, maybe even stories you just learned yesterday, stories you didn't even know you knew. Or maybe they are old stories but nobody yet has received them quite the way you were hoping for.

Falling in love, I think, has little to do with falling in love in the conventional sense.

Falling in love, I think, is being able to tap into the part of you that finds yourself still interesting after all these years.

Turn it up. Relax into it. Happy Thanksgiving.

I rounded the corner of the path, trailing a tarp of yellow leaves and two tweens, thinking about how this seventy-five degree day was perhaps it, perhaps the last perfect day of autumn.

And I saw this.

I dropped the tarp, and the three of us stared at it without saying anything for a few seconds. We'd been in the woods before, but not this deep. The neighbor asked us to go deeper so the leaves wouldn't blow back in his yard.

It is the perfect tree in every way. It has sturdy, low branches for climbing, hedge apples for decor and obsession and thorns for an element of danger. The girls named it Hedgepoint.

They stayed in the woods for four hours. I'd long since hung up my rake and washed my car and was reading a book when it was finally time to go get them.

When I was growing up, we used to play Narnia in the thicket next to my parents' house. There was a special fallen tree and a lane and a creek with a bridge over it. Every child needs a perfect tree in her life, and now my girl has one. I'm relieved, as the age for properly respecting a tree like Hedgepoint has nearly passed her by.

I'm not sure I'd ever really seen a hedge apple before I moved to Kansas City, but I read these trees were planted to prevent soil erosion after the Great Depression.

Whereas I played Narnia, they played Boxcar Children. It doesn't matter. Doesn't every child pretend to live in the woods without parents at some point?

The most amazing tree ever in the history of the earth.

My publisher emailed me today to let me know the cover for my debut YA novel, THE OBVIOUS GAME, will be ready on December 20. That's a little over a month away! PLEASE TO FREAK OUT WITH ME!

If you'd like to be part of the cover reveal action (basically put it on your blog or other social media), please fill out the form here. You can also fill out the form if you'd be willing to review the book when it's out in February 2013, tweet about it, tell your barista, you know, whatever. I use the form so I don't spam people. At least, I hope I don't spam people. I really have no interest in spamming people because it makes them not like me.

Here's the form. 

I know what I want it to look like in my head, but I don't know how it will look. This publisher was very cool in that they sent me a sheet asking for all sorts of information about my vision for the cover. I'm fairly certain this is highly unusual. I got to see six or seven cover designs for SLEEP IS FOR THE WEAK and weigh in, but I don't recall anyone asking me what I wanted it to look like. I've heard from other authors they didn't see their covers at all until they got ARCs in the mail. (An ARC is industry-speak for advanced review copy). Is asking authors for cover input part of the new world order or is it just something smaller presses do? I have no idea, but I like it VERY VERY MUCH.

I'm not going to share the entire form, because a) I didn't ask and b) it reveals too much about the book, but I found it fascinating they asked so much about my protagonist, Diana.

Protagonist

Gender:Female

Clothes(Urban, Tshirt, skirt, old 1600 clothing): book set in 1990. Jeans,sweatshirts, t-shirts. Diana is not very stylish.

EyeColor: Blue

Haircolor: Brown

HairLength: shoulder-length

I probably should also have noted she was white. It's not something one should assume, though you'll notice I totally did. Still working on not making that a given in the way I move through the world.

Thank you all so much for allowing me to share my excitement about the publishing process with you! 

DJ Nibbles celebrates cover art.

Some of you expressed interest in what I'm doing with my publishing interactions with readers and other authors. My motto is pay it forward and hope and also pray hard and row for shore. In other words, while I think there is something to books sell because they are really beautiful or profound or poignant, there's also even more to books sell because people realize they are there in the first place. That's the toughest part of publishing right now. With 235,000 self-published books coming out yearly -- that's self-published, not even counting the number of books that come out with a traditional publisher -- distribution and discoverability are huge to a book's success. Knowing how hard it is out there for a gangsta, every author I've befriended and whose book I liked has received his or her share of tweets, Facebook likes, Goodreads shelves and now Riffle lists that I can provide. I've even starting to write Amazon reviews -- I didn't realize in the past how powerful those are. I know, naive. But it's so true. The nicest thing you can do for an author is throw out an Amazon or Goodreads review.

I've been digging through the various places in which one can get a review or a mention. In addition to the usual social media channels, there are also very book-specific sites. Today I'm going to cover one in particular: Riffle. It is brand new, and I got the insider scoop because of a job-related connection. As a beta user, I've been busy curating lists:

• Shaped My Life
• Writing I Admire
• Learned Something About Writing or Technique
• Great Reads for a Rainy Day
• Good Books for Teens
• Books I Threw Across the Room (the anti-list)

I also use Goodreads almost daily, but I use Goodreads differently than I use Riffle. Both tools are good for discoverability. On Goodreads, I seek reviews and I give reviews (I need to catch up on that, note to self) and I also use the shelves to track which books I'm going to read in which order. With two to three books a month that I need to read for my job as managing editor of the BlogHer Book Club (another fabulous place to get ideas for what to read next, *cough*), two or three YA novels a month I'm reading to get a feel for what works and what doesn't and a few other picks mixed in, I'm plowing through more pages a week than I have since graduate school. And you know what? It feels great. I feel energized after I read a good book. I don't feel that way after watching TV. Sometimes, I'm too drained for anything but TV, but I've found since I started reading more I feel like the world is more interesting.

And isn't that interesting?

Back to bookish tools. I digress.

As a reader and an author, I want to help other readers and authors find great books. I don't see Goodreads and Riffle as being any more competitive with each other than I see Pinterest and Facebook being competitive with each other -- they tap into different facets of the same communication. Riffle is very visual and very curated -- it's pretty much pure discoverability, and I love the way it works visually. Here's my profile page on Riffle:

Here's my profile page on Goodreads.

Riffle is just pretty, and the lists I curate there are not everything I've read, but things I've read and mentally sorted into a list. Sometimes physically sorted on my bookshelves at home.

I follow other people on Riffle -- people I know and people who have clever list names. Here's the main Riffle page.

I have friends on Goodreads, too, and if someone sends me a recommendation and I know that person, I usually put their recommendation on my shelf. Both Riffle and Goodreads are useful tools for those of us who just inhale literature and don't want to waste our time on books that just aren't good.

Life is short. Read the best.

If you'd like to get an invite to Riffle (it's currently invite-only as the rollout begins), click this link between October 29-31st. They'll know you came from Surrender, Dorothy, and this is the only place you can get access to this particular invite. I know, we're totally snooty around here, right?

And also, please do friend me on Goodreads if you use it so we can see each others' books. I am reading gazillions of things right now and I'm happy to give you my honest take on whether or not I liked it on a variety of levels.

I did actually manage to pack yesterday. I haven't yet determined how much I forgot, other than my phone charger. But Beloved has one just like it! So, phew. Because even though my phone doesn't get reception here in the hinterlands, I still have to have it with me and charged like a woobie.

So we made it up here, and I woke up this morning all KA-POW! feeling like myself again, thank you Jesus, because wow that really sucked feeling paralyzed! Interestingly, what snapped me out of it was going through my 117-point marketing plan for The Obvious Game with Beloved in the car. He asked if I were going to get blurbs for my novel, and I was all BLURBS ARE THE TIP OF THE TYPE A PERSONALITY ICEBERG, DUDE. And I read him my plan and he was all, "That is, um, a LOT more than you did for Sleep Is for the Weak." And I was all, "Twitter barely existed in 2008, and I had no idea what I was doing. Also back then I thought it would be easy to sell books."

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA

But even though I'm in a tougher publishing environment now than I was in 2008, I at least now understand the toughness and am prepared to face the toughness and spend a half hour a day four months before publication doing everything I can to get ready for this novel to come into being. I told Beloved that incredibly 31 people have signed up to help me out on my Google form, and he was shocked, and I was also shocked, because that is pretty amazing, the offer to help, and I'm so honored that people would volunteer their time or effort to help me break through the noise a little for a book that I so need to get out into the world.

And that did it. Thirty-one people signed up to help me, so I better get unparalyzed and get off my rear and get back into high production, because there's money to earn at the day job and a wedding to attend in the family job and the book? Well, that's what I do for myself. There are a lot of balls in the air, but doesn't everyone have them, and as I've said before, though your friends and family may love you and want you to succeed, nobody cares if that book gets published but you, my friends. It's a blessing and a curse.

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Part of getting off my rear involved writing this review about the 2012 American Girl party dress and holiday accessories. There is an itsy bitsy Nutcracker, the cuteness. Check it out on Surrender, Dorothy: Reviews!

What an up-and-down month. In the midst of the bad, there is good, and the good is that this past week I signed a contract with indie publisher InkSpell to publish my debut young adult novel, The Obvious Game, in February 2013.

Which is in five months.

Indies! We move fast!

I'm actually thrilled about the pub date, even though it's coming up soon. February is Eating Disorders Awareness Month, and there have been so many people who have emailed me about themselves or their loved ones wanting to know what the hell is going on in that person's head and how to help and what to do if it's you, I decided to write a book about it. Only this one is more interesting than my story ... fiction means you can change the beginning, the middle and, best of all, the end.

Here's the beginning of my query:

"Your shirtis yellow."

"Your eyesare blue."

"You have tostop running away from your problems."

"You're tooskinny."

Fifteen-year-oldDiana Keller accidentally begins teaching The Obvious Game to new kid Jesse onhis sixteenth birthday. As she buries her shock about her mother's fresh cancerdiagnosis in cookbooks, peach schnapps and Buns of Steel workouts, Diana bothseduces athlete Jesse and shoves him away under the guise of her carefullyconstructed sentences. As their relationship deepens, Diana avoids Jesse's pastwith her own secrets -- which she'll protect at any cost. Will Diana andJesse's love survive his wrestling obsession and the Keller family's chaos, orwill all their important details stay buried beneath a game? Nothing is obviousin THE OBVIOUS GAME.

I'm building a pinboard for it on my Pinterest page. The Birthright of Parker Cleaves is the novel I'm working on next.

What will make or break The Obvious Game (and, not to overreact, but my chances for publishing Parker Cleaves and anything else) is the success of this novel. The deck is stacked in publishing, especially for unknown authors, so if you would be willing to talk about my book once it is available, I would be forever grateful. You don't even have to say nice things, seriously. You could even be all DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THAT SUCKY NEW NOVEL, THE OBVIOUS GAME?  And I would actually be fine with it, because then that person might be all WHAT ABOUT IT SUCKS? And next thing you know, you're discussing my book. So seriously, there should be no fear here. You could hate, hate, hate my novel and I will still like you as long as you don't beat me over the head with it.

Because I don't want to spam or turn my blog into a marketing showcase, I've created this handy Google form that will forever live in the My Books page of this website.  If you or anyone you know might be interested in talking about the novel, reviewing the novel, talking to teens about the novel, etc. etc., please pass along the link to this blog and ask the interested party to look at the form on the My Books page.

For those of you who know me in real life, have heard me speak at BlogHer or elsewhere over the past three years or have been hanging around here since 2009, you know this puppy is a long time coming.

So thank you in advance for reading me here at Surrender, Dorothy, and I hope you'll read and enjoy/discuss/talk about/pass along to a loved one The Obvious Game. I'll be mentioning what's up from time to time, but if you really want to be updated, please use the form above.

Never, ever, ever, ever, ever give up.

DJ Nibbles celebrates The Obvious Game!