I’ve been hard at work on the first draft of Passion. It’s third book in the Fallen series, and a prequel to everything that occurs in Fallen and in Torment. In its conception, this book felt like an impossible project to me: It covers a span of 5000 plus years, dips into a new setting, a new country, and usually, a new century with each new chapter. And it aims to explain just about every important moment that ever passed between Luce and Daniel. Definitely the biggest narrative challenge I’ve ever given myself.

I was nervous before I started writing it. I’d had such a great, fun, charmed experience writing Torment, but I know this book was going to be much more complicated, much more taxing. Just as I did when I started writing Fallen, I turned to books for help. Only this time, in addition to the theological research books I used for Fallen, I also got to look at some of my favorite novels for help with period and setting. Recognize any of these?

Everything a writer reads, loves, and is inspired by eventually sneaks its way into his or her own work, but it isn’t so often that a writer gets to say the books truly become a part of the story. I turned to North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell, The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov, and A Farewell to Arms by Hemingway. I read books about horse racing, books about the Globe Theater in London, books about the Mayan ball court at Chitzen Itza. If this sounds crazy and disjointed, believe me, there were moments when I felt precisely the same way. But the cool thing about this book, I think, is that Luce and Daniel’s story stays clear and solid across time, place, and history. It’s a survivor.

I still have a long way to go with this book. The first draft is a skeleton compared to all that will be fleshed out by the time the second and third and, cringe, sometimes even fourth drafts are completed. But the book has a shape and a backbone now, thanks in big part to all these texts I had so much fun weaving in.

My computer and I are going to take a break from each other. Just for a little while. This weekend, I’m running a half-marathon in memory of my grandfather. I’m running with a group called Team in Training to support the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. (To those of you who took part in my auction: you helped raise over $2300!)

After that, I’m heading to Berlin for a week for my publisher’s 175th Anniversary Gala. And then—the moment we’ve all been waiting for—Torment comes out on 9/28!!! And I start touring across the US and the UK. Those of you who live near one of the cities I’ll be visiting, I hope you’ll come out and say hello!

I had a really nice signing after the panel:

I saw some amazing costumes, including a few that I was too stunned by to even photograph. One was made of only a strap of red patent leather fabric about an inch thick.

And after the con, we had a great time in San Diego. We stayed near Ocean Beach and walked all around the neighborhood, eating many fish tacos and watching Milo take his first brave dip in the ocean.

Great weekend! Now it’s back to writing PASSION….

On Friday, right before Valentines Day, “Daniel” hit Times Square to promote Fallen. People often ask me my favorite part of writing teen novels.  I’m not embarrassed at all to say that promo events like this are dangerously close to the top of the list? Look at this! It’s fantastic!

While Daniel was busy wooing the ladies of New York, I ventured back up to northern California for my first ever TV appearance. I used to watch Good Day Sacramento when I lived in Winters while I was in grad school, so it was a lot of fun (and very nervewracking) to be asked on as a guest. Here’s a shot of me prepping in the Green Room and a link to the clip on Good Day’s website. (It will load, eventually, on the right side of the page.)

There's the car down at the bottom.

My husband launched his car off this cliff a half an hour before hour wedding. Some of you already know this little story, but for those of you who don’t: Relax! No one was in the car, no one was hurt (save an olive tree that was split in two), and our wedding was pret-ty perfect after that. As the Jewish side of the family was quick to point out: “What’s a wedding without a little broken glass?”

I bring this up now because the car we bought to replace the wrecked one is a stick shift. And I have never driven a stick shift. So the time has come for me to learn.

I take that back. When I was fifteen, a boy I had a crush on gave me a lesson driving his car in a parking lot. I don’t remember what kind of car it was (junky, red) or even how it happened that I got him to agree to teach me. But I was so fearless—popping the clutch, grinding the transmission—I didn’t even know how fearless I was. He was cringing in the passenger seat, then scowling, then yelling at me to get out of the car.  Never worked out between us, in case you were wondering.

Fast forward to this weekend, when Jason and I decide to go out to the desert (where it is flatter than hilly LA) for a couple of days so I could get comfortable driving a manual car. So there we are: out on the open road, entering the surreally beautiful Joshua Tree National Park.

Healing waters at our hotel in Desert Hot Springs

I take the wheel—and suddenly, I’m terrified.

Do I look nervous?

Why was it so much harder than I remembered when I was fifteen and didn’t even know how to drive at all? Maybe, I realized later, because I was fifteen and didn’t even know how to drive at all. This weekend, that fearlessness I felt at fifteen seemed impossible. Not when there were cars honking and flipping me off at four-way stops, not with all the false starts and shuddering shut-downs. Jason, it must be said, was patient as a little saint. I was the one growing more and more frustrated. Yes, there were some tears.

The trope about teaching old dogs new tricks kept springing to mind. But come on, I’m not that old. The premise of one of my favorite childhood movies, Defending Your Life, was starting to make sense in a whole new way. Is it possible that the older we get, the rarer—and more difficult—it becomes to pick up a truly new skill? Do we have too many excuses and too many reservations? If all that’s true, then what’s the quickest way around fear?

I was thinking about this when we left the desert yesterday (with Jason driving) to head to a reading and signing at the Borders in Long Beach. The passage I read was from the prologue of the novel where Luce is at her most fearless with Daniel.

It blew me away to see so many people turn out for the reading!

After my driving lesson, I wanted to focus to this brave opening moment in Fallen, and I realized I want to write more and more scenes like it in the books to come in the series. Maybe there’s even a bit of hope that some of this bold impulsiveness will rub off on my life off the page. It’s what’s so beautiful to me about teen stories. It’s why young adult writers get to focus on falling in love, and leave break-ups and baggage to adult books. Because vaulting oneself into something new and unknown—whether it’s driving a stick shift or falling in love—is much easier with a little bit of fearlessness.

The Fallen display at the ALA Midwinter conference in Boston. Sounds like it was a great weekend!

From my reading last night at the Borders in Mission Viejo. Thanks to Carlos and Rose at the store and to the great group who braved the apocalyptic storm to come out!

January 11^th Beatrice

January 12^th Through a Glass Darkly

January 13^th A Patchwork of Books

January 14^th The Reading Zone

January 15^th The Children’s Book Review

January 20^th TeenReads.com

January 21^st The Book Butterfly

January 26^th CynthiaLeitichSmith.com

I also have a few upcoming events in Southern California, so those of you who live nearby, please come out!

On Saturday, January 16th, I’ll be signing books at Chevaliers in Los Angeles from 1-3pm.

On Tuesday, January 19th, I’ll be reading from Fallen and signing books at the Borders in Mission Viejo at 7pm.

On Saturday, January 30th, I’ll be reading from Fallen and signing books at the Borders in Long Beach at 2pm.

When I was in Arkansas recently for the holidays, my publisher sent 300 copies of Fallen to my mother in law’s house for me to sign for the ALA mid-winter conference. It was a tough job, but at least I had a helper:

I wish my nephew David Franklin could come to all of my signings with me, but I understand he’s got other things on his plate.

That’s all for now. If you’re local, I hope you can make it to one of these upcoming bookstore events! If you’re reading this from afar, I hope you’ll join me on my blog tour.

Have a great weekend, everyone. Tonight I’m going to see a double feature of Crazy Heart (an overdue birthday present to Jason) and Youth in Revolt (because Michael Cera is the bomb). Living on the edge here!