Dim the lights and cue the dramatic music.

Tonight ... on The Great Book Publishing Challenge ... we'll decide which novel will be published. Will it be the romance? The mystery? The western? Your votes decide. So, who will be ... the next great American novelist?

Does this sound like a reality show you'd watch? It might sound silly, but some publishers are running American Idol-style competitions to publish books. An article on NPR talked about how a social networking site ran this competition, and it actually found very talented people to get published.

I think it's great that people are getting excited about writing. And this is definitely a way to get your foot in the door of the publishing world.

But I wonder what the "audition" round would be. Instead of wannabe singers screeching "Unchained Melody," would it be wannabe writers sitting in front of a computer, staring at a blank screen? Would it be a video clip of a person stuffing his manuscript into an envelope and getting a paper cut? (Ouch!)

Would you enter a contest like this? You know what, I think I would. Of all the reality shows out there, this seems like it would be the one with the least amount of humiliation. No eating pigs' brains, no vying for the love of a washed-up 80's singer, no singing. And the chance to become a published author. Sounds pretty good to me.

If you entered this contest, what would you submit? A poem? A short story? Your biography? Hey ... wait a minute. No need to even enter a contest. [Shameless plug alert] You can be published on this very blog! Yay! Go on and e-mail your masterpiece to word@weeklyreader.com.

Jessica, out!

Spotlight fades to black as credits scroll over the screen.

OK so yes, I've been slacking. If you're an avid reader of the bloggy, then I apologize. Sorry Deb. Ha!

Anywho, to quickly recap, the National Book Festival was held last Saturday, September 29 on the National Mall in our nation's capitol. And it was cool.

Terry Pratchett is a very funny speaker. He's an author of science fiction and fantasy novels and is probably most famous for his Discworld series. Admittedly, I have never read him. Sad, I know. But after hearing him speak and guffawing (that's right, guffawing... look it up) over almost everything he shared with us, I would be out of my mind not to pick him up soon. Here, allow me to share a few of Mr. Pratchett's anecdotes from the day...

"People come up to me all the time and say, 'You know Mr. Pratchett, your books mean so much to me. They get me through bad times.' Well, they get me through bad times, too!" - Pratchett on surviving trials of life through the power of writing.

"Adult books give you money. Children's books give you prestige." - Pratchett on balancing a writer's soul against balancing his checkbook.

"This Book Festival has all sorts of writers that come up here with their note cards and share with you their ideas... They're all very smart writers! Whereas I just sit there in front of a keyboard until my eyes bleed." - Pratchett on his own personal writing pains.

"The way to describe a character in your writing is through mannerisms... not dialogue and not by writing pages and pages of description. Character back stories tend to occur on their own accord. For me, I think about my characters long and hard for a very long time and eventually, they just come out." - Pratchett on intimate relationships with one's characters.

When the Q&A portion came around, one fan asked him if he had any sort of writing process. Pratchett answered, "Yes. I absolutely must have oxygen." The audience laughed, of course, and then he got serious. "No, but you write when you can," he said. "You write against a wall or in a phone booth if you have to. Wherever and whenever you can. ... Although I do have one daily ritual I should tell you about. When I first sit down to write, I feel overwhelming panic. But it eventually goes away."

The National Book Festival was full of such words of wisdom and laughter. Readers got their fill of their favorite authors, live and in-person (isn't that the same thing?). To learn more about the many great writers and artists that were in attendance, check out the web site. Or better yet... see you there next year.

As I mentioned previously, I attended the National Book Festival in Washington D.C. this past Saturday. Authors were everywhere and it was all I could do to keep a professional air about me.

First up was Patricia MacLachlan. Ms. MacLachlan is the author of the 1986 Newbery Medal winning novel, Sarah Plain and Tall. Have you read it? Because I am very sorry to say that I have not. Could you please tell me how great it is without ruining the plot for me? Email your thoughts on the book to word@weeklyreader.com. Or just leave a comment below.

Anywho, Ms. MacLachlan stepped up to the microphone and started to tell us about the time she received a letter from an 8 year old boy. It read:

Dear Ms. MacLachlan,
   Thank you for writing Sarah, Plain and Tall. It is the second best book ever!"

"Sadly, I never found out what the first best book ever was." She told her laughing audience.

"As a child," she went on, "I would invent imaginary friends and characters for myself. ... I see there are a lot of children here today and I just want to tell you that you are living the lives right now that you will write about later on in life."

Ms. MacLachlan seemed very relaxed throughout her talk. She told us about how she sometimes finds it really really hard to write. In fact, sometimes she hates writing! "I don't always know how to write plot," she said. "What is plot? Seriously. What is it? Plot is hard!"

Admitting you don't know where a story comes from is the first step to recovery, I suppose. The second step, in this author's mind, is keeping her ears open.

"One evening, I was eating dinner with my family and my daughter wouldn't touch her food. I asked her why and she said, 'Because the broccoli is moving on my plate.'" Awww. How cute is that? Good enough to write a short story about. Yeehaw! Inspiration, thy name is child.

"Life is mysterious. You never know what's going to happen." Ms. MacLachlan wrote her latest book, Edward's Eyes, for her mother, who has Alzheimer's disease. In it, she included a great many characters from her mother's life (friends, loved ones, etc.) in order to help her remember. What a story, huh? I want to read it just for that truth.

When the Q&A portion came around, Ms. MacLachlan was asked by one of her youngest fans, "How do you stay focused as a writer?" She replied, "Well, it takes me a long time just thinking about a book. Sometimes I think about a book for a year or more before I even begin writing it. Oh, and I play a lot of computer solitaire."

Still more to come from the 2007 National Book Festival.

Stay tuned...

Before you get started reading this entry, you should click here to read a general overview of the YPulse Tween Mashup.

Both Deavon and Seth commented on Tuesday's blog entry. Neither of them quite understood what the word "tween" means. Sorry guys, my fault for not being clear. A tween is basically a young person that falls between the age of 10 and 13. It can be quite a confusing time in life. Tweens aren't kids anymore but they aren't quite teenagers either. They want to be soooo bad though. And in an effort to grow up too fast, tweens sometimes start acting older than their age even though they might not really know the mistakes they are making as they make them. It's OK to make mistakes. Everyone does. That's how you learn. Just don't run the race so fast! You'll miss all the good stuff.

GOOD STUFF GOOD STUFF GOOD STUFF!

Heh. Nice transition. As if.

I learned about quite a few things at the YPulse Tween Mashup last Friday. First and foremost was that I never really knew the extent to how drastically times have changed. When I was a tween... well first of all, the word "tween" didn't exist when I was a tween but whatever. As I was saying, when I was a tween, my friends and I certainly had our distractions, our games, our fun. But we never could have fathomed all the myspaces and youtubes and AIMs of the future. When I was a tween, I had this clunky Garfield phone in my room. Looking at the picture now makes me both nostalgic and, admittedly, a little angry actually. You see, the handset there in Garfield's back? Well, when you pick it up and put it to your ear, there's this big button that sits there next to your mouth. All you have to do is breathe on it just a little too forcefully and Garfield hangs up on you. End of conversation. Sorry friend. Call back later when the Internet comes to town.

Well we all know that the internet (or internerd as I like to call it) is here to stay now. Everyone is so wired these days! It's almost impossible to remember a time when "www" simply meant... well it didn't mean anything. I'm losing track here. Why don't I just chill out and tell you about Kiki.

Nope, not even trying for transitions anymore.

I learned about Kiki magazine at (where else?) the YPulse Tween Mashup. Kiki is the magazine "for girls with style and substance". If you're a tween or early teen girl, you want this magazine. It's full of wise fashion sensibility, tips for better health, book reviews, and even nifty projects you can take on yourself!

You know, there's a lot of magazines and websites and clothing stores and music and media and T.V. and celebrities and all sorts of nonsense telling you who you should be. The masses and the advertisers shout, "Britney is cool! Be like Britney!" And lots of people do exactly what they are told. But Kiki is one of the few entities that doesn't tell you who you should be. Kiki asks you who you want to be. And then they try to tailor their pages to suit your needs. I had a chance to meet Jaime, Kiki's founder and editor at the Mashup. She's a very nice woman with two tween daughters herself. She started the magazine with their, and your, best interests in mind. To learn more about Kiki, or ask Jaime a question, click here.

And while we're on the subject of being a girl, something I'm sure I know nothing about, you can also check out Beinggirl.com. It's a website "for girls, by girls" that answers all your questions about, well, anything girl related, and that includes slumber parties! Click the image to the left to read more. (How do they get it to blink? Wild.)

In Beinggirl's own words, "Girls have fun. Girls have opinions. Girls have a lot of questions about stuff like PMS, dating, their bodies and even serious subjects like addiction and abuse – just about anything you can think of that has to do with being a girl."

Don't look at me. I'm just here to give you literary news. But definitely check out Beinggirl.com if you seek answers.

Let's see, what else is in the news?

Just stop it. Your transition ship has sailed long ago...

Well that's just fine and dandy cuz I think it's getting a little too tired in here to write anymore now anyway. But we'll be back soon, from the front lines of the YPulse Tween Mashup... or not... At any rate, I have a funny feeling that WORD's gonna be in DC again tomorrow though.

Stay tuned...