Hey! My former hometown paper the Los Angeles Times published an essay I wrote about my memory of the L.A. Riots
Archive for the ‘Los Angeles Memoir’ Category
Los Angeles Times essay: L.A. Riots Memory
Posted in Los Angeles, Los Angeles Memoir, Uncategorized, tagged amy dezellar l.a. riots, l.a. memories, l.a. riots, los angeles, los angeles memories, los angeles riots, rodney king, rodney king riots on April 20, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Tormented Teens! True Crime! IFC! Kevin Smith!
Posted in Cinemas, Los Angeles Memoir, Seattle Cinemas, writing, writing life, tagged IFC, Independent Film Channel, Kevin Smith, memoirs, Movies, paranormal romances, seattle's neptune theater closing, writing, writing life, young adult novels on February 25, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Good God. I’m coming into the home stretch with my young adult paranormal romance.
I’ve written 175 pages in the past six weeks. That is lightning-fast for me, because I am not a speedy writer. I really wanted to get to 300 pages and finish by March 1, but sadly it looks like that is not to be. Damn February and its short number of days. It would have been so excellent for me psychologically to be done before I flip the calendar over, but there’s no way.
Oh, but I love my characters and their swooning and their problems and their magic! Good times. I cannot wait to start editing. I haven’t let myself read anything I’ve written so far, so it will all be (sort of) new to me when I read it–the second week of March, I guess.
After the YA PR is written, I will attempt to get on the Stephen King-recommended schedule of writing in the morning and editing in the afternoon.
The next project I want to write will either be the L.A. memoir (which I think I’ve written 200 pages of?) or my self-publishing experiment, which I’m thinking may be part of a true-crime book I wrote from 2008-2010. No one knows what to do with it, including me. I tried to integrate a relationship memoir with this ripped-from-the-headlines story and… it hasn’t worked yet. Although everyone who’s seen it has said it’s an intriguing idea.
Also, I’m getting a lot of love from the independent film community and I’m not quite sure why that is. Big sloppy love right back at ya, though, guys. I’m a great believer in the cosmic flow or whatevs, so there must be a reason that in the past couple months I’ve 1) Broken a news story about a classic Seattle theater closing, 2) Been mentioned by the Independent Film Channel and 3) Been given a pep talk by one of my favorite filmmakers, indie upstart Kevin Smith.
I don’t know what it means, but it means something and I’m gonna figure it out after this teen novel is done.
Until we meet again, I’ll be off surfing the universal waves and typing ’til my arms fall off.
Deciding Which Book to Work on
Posted in Los Angeles Memoir, memoirs, paranormal romances, writing, writing life, tagged amazon, paranormal romances, publishing, publishing news, self-publishing amazon, writing, writing life, young adult books on January 14, 2011 | 1 Comment »
Just wanted to write a quick update before I hide my wireless router from myself for the day so I can get some book writing done.
I’m starting to feel more embarrassed than usual when people ask me how the book is going, because I keep falling in love with and then completely dropping manuscripts. I wonder if people are thinking, “Amy is really flaky.” I mean, they probably think that already. What kind of linear progress and constancy would you expect from someone who first got published for writing about going on 50 dates?
I also wonder if people think I can’t publish again. That DATING AMY was a one-time thing.
It wasn’t, or at least I don’t think it was. The thing is, it’s hard to know which book is going to be the most viable. Financially, I mean. I read this really brilliant quote on twitter last year that writing a novel is like filling out a lottery ticket for two years.
I don’t know what’s going to take off in the marketplace, but I can at least make an educated guess. The last two books I was working on (since 2008? Ish.) were memoirs, and even though I love them and other people love the idea of them, I am not completely certain I want to risk all my time and pin all my hopes on memoirs. As far as I know they’re not selling to publishers really well. By that I mean they’re not hot.
So I have switched yet again from my memoir about Los Angeles (which I LOVE, by the by, and have written 200 pages of since November 1), to a young adult novel about witchcraft, kinda. It’s my first YA and my first try at fiction. And… now I even sound flaky to myself.
Sigh.
I’m also completely enthralled with the idea of self-publishing, especially for paranormal books, because you could crank them out like an old-fashioned serial without the two-year publishing time lag. The entrepreneur in me gets all excited about selling books directly to readers through Amazon, etc. Also the 70% royalty rate is the bees knees. (The usual with traditional publishing is like 8-12%)
