How do you say Gossip in Chinese?

That's right! Not only did we get a deal for Spain, but now GOSSIP FROM THE GIRLS ROOM will be translated then published over in China! How cool is that? The timeframe is a little longer for publication there, but I don't mind that :)

Here's the official announcement in PM:

Complex Chinese rights for Rose Cooper's GOSSIP FROM THE GIRLS' ROOM, to Dee Ten, by Franca Bernatavicius at Intercontinental Literary Agency, on behalf of Rosemary Stimola at Stimola Literary Studio.

The Name Game

Some people might say naming their baby is a difficult decision. Or even their car (raise your hand if you know people like this). But for writers, naming their book and characters can be just a difficult.


Lets start with titles. About 90% of the time I’m backwards with this. I FIRST come up with a title, then I figure out what the story will be about. This has worked great for me. It worked this way with GOSSIP FROM THE GIRLS ROOM, when inspiration struck and I came up with the title from back then called Bathroom Blog. For other books in this series, I thought about which titles sounded good, worked them into the storyline of the previous book, and again, RUMORS FROM THE BOYS ROOM was born , as other titles, which I won’t bore you with those right now.

But then just recently I came up with a couple of story ideas WITHOUT a title (gasp!). Really, I don’t know what’s happening to me. And I felt stuck. I wrote down the concepts and then I lost a few nights of sleep because it didn’t have a title. And we all know titles can very easily be changed by your editor, and even after that. But we all like to have working titles, something we can identify the story with. Imagine if we all went around saying “I’m working on story #15 today, but i'm thinking tomorrow I’ll finish revisions on story #4.” Nobody would have any idea what anyone was talking about it, and lets face it, we would be so bored we wouldn't even care. And I don’t know about you, but I need a good working title. I can’t work on a story if I have to keep calling it by a name that is awkward or that I really hate.

Sometimes, I just have to wait it out. If I think too hard, it never pans out. For instance, I grounded my son the other day and it flooded my head with all sorts of title ideas! Thanks, Chris! Here are a other ways that help my mental block, since I sometimes get stuck on one specific theme:

1.  Asking a writer friend or critique group. Usually they can come up with a new direction of ideas and that will give you a whole new perspective to look at.

2.  Pick one or two words from your story. Is it about Zombies? And Midgets? There’s your working title! Maybe it’s about a girl who runs away to join a family of ghosts. You can’t call it GHOST GIRL since that’s already a book, so what about RUNAWAY GHOST? We don’t know enough about the story yet to determine if she is a ghost or considered one, that’s why its called a “working title.”

3. And lastly, you can always resort to using your characters name as the title. Worked for Harry Potter and Judy Moody!

Character names. These are way more simple, IMO. When I think of my character, a name usually just comes right to me. Every once in awhile I might need a little help. And if that's the case, then tihs is what I usually do:

1.  Keep a list.  I always write down words that I hear or see that might make a good name for future stories. So when I get stuck I look at my list and see if any of those names will fit my characters personality. I particularly like uncommon type names (not every time) but most of the time. That way the character will be more unforgettable.

2.  Name them after what you know. I have characters named after streets, cities, words I’ve made up, and my favorite-nicknames I create based on their character traits.

3. BabyNames.com.  If I need more of usual name but not a totally common one, I will go to the baby name  website and look up names there. And I love using first names for last names as well. Oh, and the name should always roll of the tongue easily. If it’s a tongue twister to say it aloud, it will probably be the same when someone is reading it and they will just skim the name instead of really wanting to get to know the character.

So, that’s my thoughts! How do you come up with titles and character names?

A Magical Night with a Bit of Fright

4th of July was awesome! I actually didn't write for the entire day and spent it with family. In the early morning Hubby and I gathered up the boys since we were all going to be in a parade. My oldest son, Christian is a Boy Scout and theme for this year was Scouts & Family and the Scouts were celebrating 100 years.

Chris in his Scout Uniform

So we had to dress in patriotic colors and we carried little flags while pulling our youngest boys (ages 5 and 2) in a wagon. It was a lot of fun, even though it felt like 1,000 degrees outside. We walked for 1.7 miles, with the Fire Truck leading the way, who then got a call and sped away.

Yes, my 12yo is almost as tall as me. And yes, I do wear a type of flower in my hair on a daily basis just like one of my characters in GOSSIP FROM THE GIRLS ROOM!

My little Sammy, 2yo.

My 5yo Alexander, either squinting against the sun or blinking. Either way, he has amazing blue eyes :)

Also in the parade were the old vintage cars--So cool! Dance groups, Karate groups, and so many cute dogs! They were encouraging people to adopt a pet and they dressed them up.

Hard to see, but there's a dog in the passenger seat. Better than the drivers seat, right?

Yes, he is a convict.

After that, being the old person I am (I won't say my age but i'm over 31 and under 33) I had to take a nap. Seriously, I don't have energy like I used to. Later we had a BBQ with fam and friends, then we went to see a fireworks show, which was so great! The only downside was this:

We laid the blanket out on the grass. The sun just went down. The darkness covered us like a blanket. A certain chill of excitment ran through us as we looked up, waiting for sparks and glitter to magically light up the nighttime sky. My 2yr old sitting in my lap, grasping tightly onto my hands saying "now mama, now mama.” It warms my heart as it takes me back to the days when I was kid, that now I get to share the same traditions with my kids. I couldn’t smile any bigger or be any happier, until…

WHACK!!!!

Something smacked me in the head. Hard. I scream, as usual. Not good to do this around kids though. So I try to play it off like I was laughing, which worked unitl I look up and see these…these…bugs? There’s not much light but I definitely see wings and I see these things zooming at my head, diving bombing me. Yes, my biggest fear ever is moths, but it has progressed to anything ANYTHING with wings. When people say “when pigs fly,” I shiver at the very thought. So I’m dodging these hard hitting bugs with my eyes closed (is this possible?) and one of my friends say “eww, they’re in my hair.” What kind of bugs are these? They say they’re June Bugs. WTH is a June Bug?? My mom screams “They’re nighttime bees!” Yes, her major fear since she was a child is…you guessed it, bees. So she’s freaking out. Has anyone ever heard of nighttime bee?!

So we endured this frightening end of the night until the firework show started, and that seemed to scare off the bugs. Well, most of them. I did hear my mom say “OW!” during the show and when I asked what happened she said “one of those bugs hit me in the eye. It felt like a rock.” So I scooted away from her, just a little and looked in the opposite direction to watch the magical show with my boys.

Intermission Post: Embarrassment

Okay, while I'm digging up pictures for my next post, this will be a brief intermission post. And what kind of thing could I briefly pull out of my hat and share? Yes, another embarrassing moment. I think i'm a sucker for punishment. Or maybe sympathy? Or maybe I just have so many of these moments that it's like a form of therapy.


Let me set the scene for you.

It's 11:30pm. I'm in a parking lot. It's dark outside. (aren't you glad I don't write books the way I blog?)

Hubby and I just left Safeway and we're heading back to the car. We're talking about something and just as we get to our car, another car pulls up next to us us and parks.

Me, I'm just blabbing away about nothing, not even paying attention to the fact that a car parked beside us. Or the fact that the car is the exactly the same as ours- a black Prius. The other car turns off the engine. The driver opens the door, gets out, and says to us....

"Hey, we have the same...."

She never completes her sentence, but I think she was going to mention that we were cool for having the same car.

The reason she never completed her sentence is because the moment she opened her mouth to talk, I freaked out, spun on my heels, looked directly at this young blonde girl, open my mouth, and screamed at the top. of. my. lungs.

I will never forget the look on that poor girls face. Her eyes were so wide from fright, her mouth made the "O" shape and she took off so fast, running towards the store, her one hope for safety, away from the crazy screaming girl with the matching Prius.

My husband laughed so hard. All the way home. I kept asking him, did I really scream that loud (my ears were ringing still). He told me my scream echoed through the entire parking lot and half way across town. He said if I ever tried out for a the part of a screaming girl in a horror movie, that I would get booked without a doubt.

Moral of this story: be careful who you approach at night in dark parking lots. Even if they do have the same car as you. And look sweet and innocent. And have fabulous hair. And terrific fashion sense. Because they might be a screamer.

How do you say GOSSIP in Spanish?

Okay, so this news is a bit old and dates waaaay back to June 23rd, 2010. But the point to having a blog, besides meeting and sharing wonderful things with all you wonderful people, is to keep track of dates and all the cool things that happen. Um, and the lame and embarrassing things i'd rather forget but whatever.

So seven days ago this deal was announced in PM (Publishers Marketplace for non-writers out there):

Children's: Middle grade
Spanish rights to Rose Cooper's GOSSIP FROM THE GIRLS' ROOM, to Santillana, by Franca Bernatavicius at Intercontinental Literary Agency, on behalf of Rosemary Stimola at Stimola Literary Studio.

*Happy Dance* So April 2011, which is only three months after my book is released here, it will be translated to spanish and published in Spain. So exciting! Since I'm still going through all the steps of publication for the first time, i'm learning a lot along the way. And what I learned here is that your book doesn't have to be published first to get foreign rights. Which is something I had always thought. And as always, I love my agent. She continues to surprise me and keep me on my toes.

So, it's no longer a secreto (well, as of seven days ago). Isn't that fab? Si, Si!