Ok. This isn’t easy to admit. I may—just may—be having a hard time writing my next book. But who could blame me? It’s called The Candymaker’s Son, and my sweet tooth is making it hard to concentrate on writing. The only problem is that my deadline is rapidly approaching. I can clearly picture my editor checking her watch as she waits for the pages. That said, here’s a peek into my day today. You can decide for yourself how well I did.

1. Drive to library. Pick up book on candy making. Pay huge library fine. Drive to another library. Pick up book on history of candy and jobs in the candy industry. Pay even huger library fine. Joke about sending the librarian’s kid to college with my fines. While driving to third library, keep mini tape recorder by my side to record any sudden bursts of inspiration. Fill it up with reminder to buy flip-flops for the gym shower, eggs because you’re supposed to be able to stand them upright on the first day of Spring, and to revise the opening scene of Chapter Three. Hey, at least the book got in there somewhere.

2. Eat PB&J sandwich, drink V-8 in parking lot of third library while listening to audiobook of New Moon by Stephenie Meyer. Wonder if Bella is ever going to be turned into a vampire. Bemoan the fact that it’s noon already and I haven’t started working yet.

3. Enter third library. Hand in the winning poems for the 8th grade county-wide poetry contest I judge each year. Chat with children’s librarian who has become a friend. This is new for me since growing up I got shushed a lot in libraries. Pay fine.

4. Set up laptop in my usual spot by the library fireplace. Fix window shade so sun isn’t on screen. Cover air vents on floor blowing cold air. Switch chairs due to original one having a spider on it.

5. Type notes about history of candy into file marked RESEARCH FOR THE CANDYMAKER’S SON. Answer three emails. Read AOL article on foods for a flat belly. Watch preview for new Indiana Jones movie. Return to note-taking and promise myself not to look up for an hour.

6. Ten minutes later, search frantically through my bag for something sweet. Find a packet of Rolo’s with one Rolo left. Grin. Unwrap. Eat. Go back to work with new, sugar-charged vigor. Learn that chocolate grows on trees and that corn syrup is really just the pulp of corn, and how bad could that really be for you? Learn that candy has been around for 4,000 years, and our abiding love for it has to do with the fond memories of our favorite childhood candies.

7. Daydream about favorite childhood candies--Fun Dip, Volcano Rocks (discontinued), Good ’n Fruity (discontinued), Circus Peanuts, Pine Bros Cherry Cough Drops (not officially candy but should have been. Also discontinued.) Shake myself out of daydream. Return to candy books. Learn that 16 BILLION jelly beans are eaten at Easter time, along with 90 million chocolate bunnies. Wish I had a chocolate bunny right now. Or jelly beans.

8. Revise opening of Chapter Three. Begin Chapter Four, a scene that takes place inside the cotton candy room of my main character’s candy factory. Yes, they have a whole room just for cotton candy. Mind wanders back to childhood favorites. Curiosity gets the best of me. Embark on an internet search for Good ’n Fruity, the candy whose disappearance has been the hardest for me to deal with. Find a petition with over two thousand names calling on Hershey to bring them back. Eagerly sign petition. Then discover that unbelievably, GOOD ’N FRUITY ARE RETURNING TO THE MARKETPLACE! Now! This Very Month! Heart leaps. Mind races. Will they be as good as I remember? The slightly crunchy outside, the chewy fruity inside? Would the box have the black background of my earliest years, the pink one of my adolescence, or the purple one which graced the final box before it was yanked with no warning?

9. With much effort, force myself to go back to work. Keep researching stuff for the book. More I learn about candy, its ingredients, the history of the candymakers who brought it lovingly to this country, the more I can’t stop thinking about that darn Good ’n Fruity.

10. Can’t take it anymore. Pack up my stuff and tell myself that somehow my quest to rediscover this candy of my childhood will put me in a clearer state of mind to write this book.

11. Search the candy shelves of 7-11, CVS, and Shop Rite. Do not find Good ’n Fruity there, but do pick up eggs, flip flops, and a lottery ticket.

12. Pass Best Buy on the way home. Do a u-turn as recall they have candy there by the check-out aisle. No Good ’n Fruity, but I do find a new candy that is pretty much blue goo inside a red tube. The red tube is licorice, and the blue goo has Nerds mixed into it. Cannot pass this up. Wait until I’m in the car to sample it. Nice consistency and sweetness, slightly soapy aftertaste though. Doubt I’ll purchase it again, as it’s really not a candy a grown-up can eat without pretending it’s their kid’s, but it does take the edge off the disappointment of my failed mission.

13. In the interest of my impending deadline and the high price of gas, turn to the Internet after dinner. Track down the illusive Good ’n Fruity at candywarehouse.com. To my surprise, the new incarnation is now called: Good & Fruity. No more “’n” in the middle. I do not think this bodes well. Still, I have to try, and candywarehouse promises to have a box at my doorstep in 5-8 business days. More precisely, they promise to have TWELVE boxes at my doorstep, since I had to buy them in bulk.

14. Quest now behind me, I can return to writing my book. In an office across the Hudson River, my worried editor breathes a sigh of relief.

So did everyone see the lunar eclipse the other night? Wasn’t it awesome?? I took this picture from my backyard and magnified it.

My fingers almost froze, but it was worth it. When I was working on EVERY SOUL A STAR, which is about a total eclipse of the sun, I got hooked on eclipses. I think it’s so interesting that the whole country could have seen this eclipse of the moon (unless it was covered by clouds), but only the smallest areas of the earth can see an eclipse of the sun. We tried to use our new telescope, but every time we centered the moon in the eyepiece, it moved again and we lost it! (The earth constantly rotates, so you have to keep moving the telescope in order to keep something in view). We’re so clueless about how to use it, that we finally had to give up before we missed the entire thing. You’d think the moon would be too big to lose! Apparently not! Binoculars worked almost as well though.

As promised, here’s another excerpt from my 5th grade diary:
“Dear Diary,
I’ve been thinking, when everyone asks me who my boyfriend is I always say Bobby, but a boyfriend is when you like the boy and the boy likes you. Now I’m all mixed up.
Yours Truly, Wendy”

I’m glad to say I finally got THAT all sorted out!

On the last page of the diary I had my younger-by-a-year sister Jennifer “rate” me at the end of each day. Here’s how I did:

Day One: Wendy is a good kid most of the time. We get into fights but we usually make up. She’s smart. 10 +
Day Two: Wendy did not get a good rating today. No offense. Good kid!! She’s tricky. -5
Day Three: We got along good today. She’s nice. 10
Day Four: Wendy was very nice to me today so I am going to give her a very high rating. 100.
Day Five: Wendy let me make rice krispy treats and she gave me TWO complements. 1000+

I’ve always been fascinated by the idea that we’re all different people to each person who knows us. Our parents see us one way, each of our friends another, our teachers a whole other way, etc. No one really gets the whole picture because we act differently around each person. We show different sides of us. This is what made me choose the opening quote for my second book, LEAP DAY – “The real you is who you are when no one’s watching.” So in keeping with this theme, I thought it would be fun to look back over my old report cards to see what my teachers thought of me:

Grade 3 – “Now that Wendy has begun to rely on her own good judgment, instead of a friend’s, her workbook and worksheets are much improved.”
Ok, so is this my teacher’s way of saying I was...gasp…CHEATING? Harrumph!

Grade 5 – “Wendy’s papers should be done more neatly.”
I’m sure this was true. My handwriting is still horrible.

Grade 6 – In the section under “Personal and Social Growth” my teacher wrote: “Inconsistent self-control.”
What does that mean? That I answered questions without raising my hand? Did I get up and dance on the desk? Alas, it is lost to the sands of time.

At least my 8th grade Hebrew School teacher appreciated me! She had this to say on my progress report: “Wendy is a lovely girl and a real pleasure in the class. She has a high interest level and great ability to learn. Let us teach her and encourage further studies in Judaism! Let’s also try for better attendance!” I love the dig at the end about how often I was absent. I’m not surprised. After all, instead of using a rabbi when we got married, my husband and I each had a close friend ordained over the internet to co-officiate. Instead of a rabbinical robe, his friend wore a college graduation gown, while mine wore a long black coat like Keanu Reeves wore in the Matrix movies. Actually, it WAS the one Keanu Reeves wore (or at least the Halloween costume version). Instead of reciting the prayer over the wine during the ceremony, my friend mistakenly recited the prayer over the Chanukah candles instead. It was pretty funny. Maybe if I hadn’t been absent so many days during Hebrew school I could have prepared him better. :o)

Well, I hope everyone has a wonderful Leap Day on the 29th (or HAD a wonderful Leap Day, depending on when you’re reading this!). I had a lot of fun learning about what it would be like to be born on this day when I was doing the research for LEAP DAY. Take advantage of this extra day and do something special. I’m planning on learning a new magic trick and donating business clothes I don’t wear anymore to my local Dress for Success branch. You can also donate fancy dresses like prom and bridesmaid dresses to the glass slipper project (www.glassslipperproject.org) which offers prom dresses to girls who might have trouble affording them otherwise.

Leap On, everyone!

Thank you to everyone who commented on my new site and first blog. I really appreciate the kind words. My sister Allison says I should write about the time she put a big garbage bag full of hand-me-down baby clothes in the backseat of my car as a surprise, but realized 10 hours later she had actually put her GARBAGE in my car, since they were both by her front door.

Imagine my surprise when I opened my car (which had been sitting in the sun all day) and was greeted by the smell of cat litter and rotten eggs. Good thing I love my sister.

So I just discovered in my diary that there was a point in my life I didn’t like reading! I couldn’t believe it. Here’s what I wrote on February 14th, when I was ten years old:

“Today was pretty great. I got 11 valentines, and Miss Goodman gave out big heart shaped lollypops, were they ever delicious! We also didn’t have reading witch I’m glad about. We had science. I love science! It’s so neat! I pulled a fast one on Mrs. Lahm in piano. I said I had my report on Beethoven in my Chord Speller, but I also forgot my Chord Speller! From, Wendy.”

I love the fact that I spelled Beethoven correctly, but messed up on witch/which! The very next day I apparently had a change of heart. You’ll notice below that my best friend was also named Wendy, except her last name started with a “B”. A lot of the stories in Heaven Looks a Lot Like the Mall were inspired by our “misadventures”. Wendy really helped a lot with the end of the book, too. She’s a very deep person. She’s probably never even HEARD of American Idol. Which I’m about to go watch as soon as I finish this. But I digress.

February 15
“Lunch time was the best! Me and Wendy B. got to stay in Mrs. Horey’s room and look through magazines for a picture of a typewriter for the talent show. I found one, but Wendy B. found two and Mrs. Horey took hers. We did have reading today. It really wasn’t that bad. I think I’m beginning to like it. After school I played with Robin. It was fun. Allison said Bobby smiled at me. I don’t know if I should believe her. From, Wendy”

I seem to remember that back in 5th grade when I wrote these things, “reading” meant reading out loud, not reading to ourselves. I was very nervous having to read in front of people. I’m glad it didn’t scare me away from reading on my own, because I can’t even imagine my life without books in it. Although there would be a lot more room in my house!

Check out my Author Pals section for some new photos from this weekend. And below is a sneak peek of the cover for my next book, Every Soul a Star. It’s not coming out until September but I really love the cover and couldn’t wait to share it.

Parting thought: “We do not see things as they are. We see them as WE are.” - Kare Anderson

Cheers,
Wendy

Welcome to my first blog, and my new and improved web site. I hope you enjoy looking around. If there’s anything you don’t see here that you’d like to, please leave a comment below. You’ll notice on my contact page that my email address has changed.

I’ll be using this space partly to talk about book stuff—what books I’m loving, what new projects I have going on, and fun stuff like the fact that my first novel, A Mango-Shaped Space, is going to be made into a Manga comic in Korea! Mango/Manga, I guess it was fated to be.

I’d really like this to be interactive. Feel free to say what’s on your mind and I will too. I’m big on making lists. I honestly couldn’t function in life without a daily list. I even have to write “shower” on my list or else I might forget. So, in no particular order, here are some things on my mind today:

1. Since my New Year’s resolutions (things like work out more, eat candy less) usually just get transferred to the list the following year, I’ve decided to go easy on myself this year and do something that I might actually have a chance of sticking to. In 2008, I resolve not to click on any headline that has the words “Britney” and “Spears” in it. If I had back all the time I’ve spent reading about her antics (and those of her celebrity peers), I could have written another book! Plus, I’m starting to feel sorry for her. Can you imagine if your every waking moment was documented for the world to see? I shudder at the thought.

2. Quote of the day: “Most of the shadows in this life are caused by our standing in our own sunshine.” -- Ralph Waldo Emerson. I used this quote in Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life because I liked it so much. Emerson was talking about how we put limitations on ourselves and hold ourselves back. Life has a way of doing this all on its own; it doesn’t need our help. If we always tell ourselves negative things, we’ll start to believe them. I invite all of you to join me in this one—dwell on the positive, give yourself a break, don’t block your own sunshine.

3. When I write a book I always have to figure out the title before I can start writing. I work really hard at coming up with the right title to reflect the kind of book it is. Some are easier and some take more time. For instance, it took me weeks to come up with Heaven Looks a Lot Like the Mall, while Leap Day was pretty obvious since the book takes place on Leap Day. So when I see a great title on a book in the store, it always catches my attention. Favorite book title of the day, spotted in Borders in Rockaway, NJ: Stop Dressing your Six-Year-Old Like a Skank. Love it!

4. My mother recently made me a scrapbook of my childhood. I couldn’t believe the things she’d kept. My pre-school diploma! A photo of me in our driveway where the snow is taller than I am. The stuffed purple shark I got a “D” on in sewing class in eighth grade (do they still HAVE sewing class??). She also saved my diary from 5th grade. It ends abruptly when one of my sisters found it hidden under my mattress and told the boy I had a crush on that I liked him. I never kept a diary again. Lesson learned: never hide anything under your mattress, that’s the first place snooping sisters look! In my next blog I’ll include some funny passages from the diary.

5. Ok, it’s getting late and I have the second half of Season Three of LOST to watch on DVD before Season Four starts in a few weeks. I’ve gotta say, this Writer’s Guild strike is giving me a lot of extra time at night with no new sitcoms to watch. Although as a card-carrying member of the Guild, I do hope it ends soon so everyone can get back to work. (Not too soon though. It has also come in handy when my husband asks me to do something around the house. I simply shake my head and say, “I can’t, I’m on strike.”)

Cheers, and Happy New Year!

Wendy