This year, rather than a list of resolutions (and believe me, I have many), I thought I would tally the reading/writing things I’ve managed to accomplish.  Some of them represent the fulfillment of last year’s resolutions (Book Three has been revised without undue emotional distress!  The dratted play has been finished, and titled!), some waver in that scribbly gray place between success and failure, and some have nothing to do with resolutions at all.  Here goes.

What I Wrote in 2011:

Short stories: 4  (I am happy with one of these, semi-happy with another, and vaguely dissatisfied with the remainder.)
Poems: 19 (I only like two of them.)
Novels: 3 (One is revised, edited, and FINISHED, one is substantially revised but probably several steps from done, and one is in first draft form.)
Plays: 1 (A surprise, even to myself.)

What I Read in 2011:
(Titles in bold represent a reread; titles with an asterisk were read aloud to Ryan)

THE POISONWOOD BIBLE – Barbara Kingsolver
THE WIND-UP BIRD CHRONICLE – Haruki Murakami
FRAGMENTS – Marilyn Monroe
TALES OF THE CITY (three volumes) , SURE OF YOU, SIGNIFICANT OTHERS, MICHAEL TOLLIVER LIVES, MARY ANN IN AUTUMN
LITTLE DORRITT – Charles Dickens
SHORT STORIES – O. Henry
SKIPPING STONES AT THE CENTER OF THE EARTH – Andy Hueller
SCHULZ AND PEANUTS – David Michelis
SORCERY AND CECELIA, OR THE ENCHANTED CHOCOLATE POT – Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer
UNPACKING THE BOXES – Donald Hall
THE BIG SLEEP – Raymond Chandler
THE WIKKELING – Steven Arntsen
THE BLACK DAHLIA – James Ellroy
BACKLASH – Susan Faludi
SULA – Toni Morrison
MOON OVER MANIFEST – Clare Vanderpool
THE EDIBLE WOMAN – Margaret Atwood
THE PASSAGE* – Justin Cronin
A HOME AT THE END OF THE WORLD – Michael Cunningham
SPLIT – Swati Avasthi
AT HOME* – Bill Bryson
NOW AND FOREVER – Ray Bradbury
GUNN’S GOLDEN RULES – Tim Gunn
THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ALICE B. TOKLAS – Gertrude Stein
CHARMED LIFE – Dianna Wynne Jones
THE IGGYSSEY – Daniel Pinkwater
THE FINAL SOLUTION* – Michael Chabon
PRINCE OF STORIES: THE MANY WORLDS OF NEIL GAIMAN – Hank Wagner, Christopher Golden, and Stephen R. Bissette
GODLESS – Pete Hautman
FIND THE GIRL – Lightsey Darst
BOOKY WOOK 2 – Russell Brand
THE REPLACEMENT – Brenna Yovanoff
MY NEW ORLEANS – Rosemary James, ed.
ROALD DAHL’S BOOK OF GHOST STORIES – Roald Dahl, ed.
FEET ON THE STREET: RAMBLES AROUND NEW ORLEANS – Roy Blount Jr.
DARK PLACES* – Gillian Flynn (read twice in a row, second time aloud)
THE STRAIN* – Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan
THE BORROWERS – Mary Norton
TO CHARLES FORT, WITH LOVE* – Caitlyn R. Kiernan (reread a few months later, aloud)
WHERE ONE VOICE ENDS, ANOTHER BEGINS: 150 YEARS OF MINNESOTA POETRY – Robert Hedin, ed.
GRIMM’S FAIRY TALES
IN THE GARDEN OF BEASTS* – Erik Larson
SELECTED WRITINGS OF GERTRUDE STEIN
SIGHTSEER – Cynthia Marie Hoffman
THE WRITER’S DESK – Jill Krementz
LIFE – Keith Richards
AMERICAN THIGHS – Jill Connor Browne
PORTRAITS AND OBSERVATIONS – Truman Capote
SHARP OBJECTS*  – Gillian Flynn
THE 2011 RHYSLING ANTHOLOGY – David Lunde, ed.
BOSSYPANTS* – Tina Fey
DEATHLESS – Catherynne M. Valente
THE CRYING OF LOT 49 – Thomas Pynchon
A GIRL NAMED ZIPPY* – Haven Kimmel
SMILLA’S SENSE OF SNOW – Peter Hoeg
IODINE – Haven Kimmel
TIMEQUAKE – Kurt Vonnegut
SHE GOT UP OFF THE COUCH* – Haven Kimmel
EVERY LAST ONE – Anna Quindlen
LOVE AND OTHER IMPOSSIBLE PURSUITS – Ayelet Waldman
THE HOUSE NEXT DOOR – Anne Rivers Siddons
LONG QUIET HIGHWAY: WAKING UP IN AMERICA – Natalie Goldberg
THOUGHTS IN SOLITUDE – Thomas Merton
WISHFUL DRINKING – Carrie Fischer
TROLL’S EYE VIEW – Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, eds.
MENNONITE IN A LITTLE BLACK DRESS – Rhoda Janzen
SWEETBLOOD – Pete Hautman
FREETHINKERS* – Susan Jacoby
OTHER VOICES, OTHER ROOMS – Truman Capote
FEVER 1793 – Laurie Halse Anderson
THE THIEF OF ALWAYS* – Clive Barker
GONE WITH A HANDSOMER MAN – Michael Lee West
ANSWERED PRAYERS – Truman Capote
THE GOBLIN WAR – Hilari Bell
AND THEN THINGS FALL APART – Arlaina Tibensky
QUEEN BEES AND WANNABEES – Rosalind Wiseman
THE GOBLIN GATE – Hilari Bell
THE GOBLIN WAR – Hilari Bell
THE TIME WARP TRIO: THE NOT-SO-JOLLY ROGER – John Szieska
THE MOSTLY TRUE STORY OF JACK – Kelly Barnhill
MODEL – Michael Gross
THE WOMAN IN BLACK – Susan Hill
THE HAPPY PRINCE AND OTHER STORIES – Oscar Wilde
THE TIME WARP TRIO: THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE GOOFY – John Szieska
SILK* – Caitlyn R. Kiernan
RAT GIRL – Kristin Hersh
THE BEAUTY MYTH – Naomi Wolf
BECAUSE OF WINN-DIXIE – Kate DiCamillo
ENCYCLOPEDIA GOTHICA – Liisa Ladouceur
STRANGE CANDY – Laurell K. Hamilton
THE AGE OF AMERICAN UNREASON – Susan Jacoby
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE CZECH LANDS TO 2000 – Petr Cornej and Jiri Pokorny
THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH – Norton Juster
THE DAY OF THE PELICAN – Katherine Paterson
DESIDERIA – Nicole Kornher-Stace
BACH, BEETHOVEN, AND THE BOYS: MUSIC HISTORY AS IT OUGHT TO BE TAUGHT – David W. Barber
THE HUNGER GAMES* – Susanne Collins
FINISHING THE HAT – Stephen Sondheim
CATCHING FIRE* – Susanne Collins

The two books that made the strongest impact on me–that ended up being the sort of book I wanted to gift wrap and force into the hands of everyone I know–were Gillian Flynn’s DARK PLACES and Susan Jacoby’s FREETHINKERS.  I can’t say enough about DARK PLACES; the voice, the characterization, the atmosphere, and the plotting are all pitch-perfect.  It’s brutally beautiful and beautifully brutal.  FREETHINKERS was fascinating, simultaneously frightening and encouraging, and full of incredibly important things to keep in mind as the U.S. continues to redefine its identity.

There.  That’s what I got done this year.

I wish everyone a 2012 full of adventures and discovery and joy.  And speaking of joy, here is Brom Bones, enjoying his largest Christmas present.

And here it is:

THE BOOKS OF ELSEWHERE, VOLUME THREE: THE SECOND SPY.

Gorgeous, isn’t it?  Poly Bernatene just keeps making me happier and happier.  Check out the three volumes, all lined up together–

THE SECOND SPY will be released on July 5, 2012.  It’s already available for pre-order from Amazon, but I hope you’ll buy or pre-order it from your favorite local bookstore.  (BTW, Here‘s an interesting blog about one of Amazon’s latest schemes, written by an independent bookstore owner.)  Of course, you could also order a signed copy through my own local bookshop, Best of Times, once the book is released…

When I visit schools, kids often ask me which of my own books is my favorite, and I always say that it’s the one I’m planning to write next, which is still pure dream and excitement and potential, without any flaws in it (yet).  And this is the truth.  But it’s also true that I had a ridiculous amount of fun while writing THE SECOND SPY, and I can’t wait until it’s out there in the world, being read by people I’ve never met.

My copies of the Greek and Catalan translations of THE SHADOWS recently arrived — and here they are, atop my Christmassy tablecloth.

(It’s a wonderfully odd thing not to be able to read a single word of your own book.)

In other fiction news, I’ve just sold a short story, “The Emperor’s Nightingale” (a sort of dystopian/environmental retelling of  Anderson’s fairy tale) to Aoife’s Kiss, and am looking forward to seeing it published next summer.

Tomorrow is the Anderson Center’s Holiday Celebration of the Arts.   I’ll be there from noon to five, signing and selling copies of THE SHADOWS, SPELLBOUND, and CHERMA.  If you’re in the Red Wing area and are looking for unique Christmas gifts, come and visit; the beauty of the Anderson Center itself makes it worth the trip.

I meant to post this a week ago, but between revising, pie-baking, family reunion-ing, and Christmas play and concert rehearsing, there has been no time left for blogging. So here it is, pathetically late…

I am a Simpsons fanatic. I can quote seasons 1 – 8 practically verbatim, and countless Simpsons references have become part of my personal vocabulary. (“Unpossible”; “Boo-urns”; “[Person X] cares not for beans!”  “Cranberry sauce a la Bart”… The list goes on.  And on.  And on.  I also once named a pet snail “Bort.”)  However, I haven’t watched the show for the last twelve seasons.  However, however, I did watch Episode #492 (Good lord, can there really be that many?), “The Book Job,” because if The Simpsons is going to base an episode around trends in young adult writing and have Neil Gaiman as a guest star, I am going to watch it.

There are plenty of quirks in YA/kids lit that the show could have targeted.  As it turned out, they focused on a fairly esoteric one: group ghostwriting, or book packaging, in which a team uses market research to write and sell a trendy book, with a semi-imaginary “author” to be the face or figurehead of the whole business — a sort of book world Betty Crocker.   Frankly, other than those long-running series like Nancy Drew and Sweet Valley Technical School or whatever it’s called now, and the novels “written” by teenaged TV/pop music stars, and whatever it is exactly that James Patterson does, this formula doesn’t seem to be all that prevalent (at least, not yet).  And it wasn’t the idea of book packaging as presented by “The Book Job” that interested me, anyway.  It was the idea of the author as Betty Crocker figurehead/mascot/advertising character, and the differences between writers as authors and writers as human beings.

When I visit schools, I talk about why I didn’t believe I could be a writer when I grew up.  I was an imaginative, book-obsessed child, and yet I never planned to be an author myself.  I believed in stories so entirely, I never really bought the idea that ordinary human beings could have simply made them up and written them down.  Those names on the covers of the books I loved were just names, without real people behind them — or, if they were people, they were magical, otherworldly, romantic versions of people, hardly human at all.  (Even now, I expect writers to have a spellbinding, larger-than-life presence… Ridiculous, I know, especially when I spend so much of my own time in too-large socks and slightly smudged glasses, microwaving a third cup of coffee and feeling so much smaller than life.  But it’s true.)

And perhaps an author should disappear into his or her work that way.

The episode’s idea that a hot “tween” book needs a giant author photo on the back cover, complete with an intriguing biography for marketing purposes, doesn’t quite hold water.  Everybody has heard J.K. Rowling’s amazing tale — the penniless single mother suddenly struck with inspiration, scribbling away in Edinburgh coffee shops — but her books would be just as popular without that background.  And there aren’t many other author biographies that have become common knowledge in that way.   Perhaps that’s because the backstory of many–if not most–authors is so much duller.   It seems to go something like this: “I sat down at a desk.  I wrote.  Then I wrote some more.”

It’s work, not romance, that creates a book.  The story you write is the story.

As a child, I didn’t care who A. A. Milne was; if he was a man or a woman, old or young.  Ditto Roald Dahl.  (In my mind, he was sort of a living, ever-changing Quentin Blake sketch.)  I still remember my surprise when I saw a photograph of L.M. Montgomery for the first time and realized that she didn’t look exactly like Anne Shirley.  I vaguely assumed that Stan and Jan Berenstain were bears.  I was shocked to learn that John Bellairs had died before my sixth grade class could send him our fan letters, because in my mind, he wasn’t mortal in the first place.  And maybe that’s the highest sort of praise a reader can give: To believe in a writer’s work so completely that they forget the writer exists at all.

BTW, the whole “Book Job” episode can now be found here.

Oh, and Lisa’s writing routine?  –That part rang 100% true.