Another Level of "Done"

I just sent an email to the copy editor assigned to my book. This was not just any email. Attached to it was the Cape May chapter -- the last chapter in my book. Over the last few weeks, I have re-read my book from cover to cover, approving the changes the publisher wanted while also clarifying and correcting anything that need to be clarified and corrected.

This is not the last time I'll see the book before it goes to press, but it's the last time I could make any major changes. So if any more casinos expansions want to catch on fire, restaurants decide to fall into the water, or shore towns opt to use digital beach tags, could you please wait until after my book comes out?

I feel a little sad letting that last chapter go. Right now, I'm sitting in my office with a crick in my neck and an empty feeling all over. It's a lot of information, and I poured, so far, almost a year of my life into creating this book. I guess when I started I never thought ahead to this point, just like when you're 17, you can't imagine what it would be like to be 27. But, sure enough, I'm 27 now, and the book is almost published.

Anyway, this is not something to feel glum about -- it's something to celebrate, so I'm going on a run. While I'm at it, check out my bookaweekwithjen.blogspot.com blog for an update on how my "52 books in 52 weeks project" is going. I'm tempted to make my book #7 of 52 since I did read it within the 52 weeks. But I don't think my own work should count!

What I'm Listening to: Air Stereo by the Damnwells

Down the Shore with...Caroline Leavitt

This week's installment of "Down the Shore with" takes us to Ocean City with Caroline Leavitt. Not only is Caroline a big OC fan (of the town, not the TV show), but she's also a fantastic writer, counting eight novels, like Girls in Trouble and Coming Back to Me, to her byline, as well as numerous essays and articles in magazines you know and love.

Writers, listen up (or read up). She gives great advice to us ink stained wretches and aspiring authors.

1. What do you consider your shore town? Why?
Ocean City! Neither my husband Jeff nor I are really beach people (I didn't own a bathing suit until we started to go! I have parchment pale skin so I always burn, too, which makes the beach less fun) but when we had our son, we realized we couldn't deny him the experience of the beach. We chose Ocean City because we heard it was a family-friendly place, and because we heard it had a boardwalk! (One of our first dates was on the boardwalk of Atlantic City. We both love kitsch and ended up spending way too much money on figurines and snow domes!) We have both come to love Ocean City and go every year. I even buy new bathing suits and go in the surf and slather on sun block with a SPF of about two thousand! Every year we also hit the arcades and get one of those photo booth shots of all of us making silly faces. We have about ten of them framed at home to remind us how much fun we have at Ocean City.

I just love everything about it--the salty air, the arcade, the boardwalk, the food, the ocean. We're still not major beach people (we only stay four days and we usually limit our beach time to an hour and a half every day), but anyone who knows us always thinks it remarkable that we can't wait to come here.

2. A lot of people go to the shore just to eat. What's your favorite Ocean City hot spot?
Bashful Banana is FABULOUS. It's right on the boardwalk. They make incredible (and healthy) sandwiches, wraps, hot stuff, and even better is their banana whip, which is a frozen banana that they somehow puree with honey so it becomes this extraordinary dessert. Plus, the waitstaff is always really, really friendly.

3. Which do you prefer? Wonderland or Playland?
This is a question for my 11-year-old, since just looking at rides makes my head swim! He adores Wonderland and would rent an apartment in there if he could. However, I admit I love the LOOK of the place, especially at night when everything is all bright and shiny with lights, and we have taken a zillion photographs of it.

4. When did you start writing fiction?
As soon as I could hold a pencil. I made up books for book reports, I wrote stories instead of reports and I always knew I wanted to be a writer. Nothing seemed more fun than making up whole worlds! I didn't get really serious about sending things out until after I graduated college, though!

5. This blog is read by a lot of writers -- what advice would you give to aspiring fiction writers?
1. Never, ever give up. No doesn't always mean no when you approach agents or editors--and even if it sometimes does, remember a "no" is just one person's opinion.
2. Write every day if you can, or at least five days a week. Don't wait for inspiration. Instead train your subconscious to help you.
3. This one is the most important, next to number 1. Write what obsesses you, what you are most passionate about. Don't write for the market! That's a huge mistake because the market always changes and because if you just write what you think might sell instead of what you really care about, the work will be dry and flat.
4. Befriend other writers whenever you can because writing can be a lonely business and it helps to have the support of others who know what you are going through.
5. Read everything. Pay attention to how other writers solve problems about character or plot.
6. I repeat, NEVER GIVE UP!

6. Tell us a little bit about your Boston Globe column.
I started out writing part of their "A Reading Life" column, where I could talk about three books around a theme--for example, three first novels all about sky diving, or three books that all look at betrayal! I did that until they had a budget cut and then I simply reviewed for them. Recently they offered me a new column--about self-help books, but they told me I could write about the smarter, quirkier ones, such as titles by Annie Lamott or Peggy Orenstein or that wonderful book, EAT, PRAY, LOVE. I'm out to transform the genre! It's every other month, and so much fun. I'm originally from Boston, which makes the job all the more fun, plus it's truly a wonderful place to work. I also review books for Dame Magazine and People, teach writing through UCLA online, mentor writers, write novels AND I'm a professional namer! (I just named a brand of potato chips!)

7. What writers do YOU like to read?
I love Dan Chaon, Alice Hoffman, Robb Foreman Dew, Maggie O'Farrell is wonderful. Leora Skolkin-Smith, Rochelle Shapiro, Elizabeth Strout. I have a soft spot for new writers (Dean Bakopoulos' Please Don't Come Back From The Moon is astonishingly good) and I also love nonfiction about history and science.

8. What's next?
I just turned in my 9th novel, Traveling Angels, to my beloved agent and immediately started a new novel. It's set in 1950s suburbia so I am doing some research and in that dreamy stage, which is bliss. I am working with Leora Skolkin-Smith and a producer and director to adapt her novel Edges to the screen and am hoping to sell two other scripts I completed (both just got into the quarter finals of the Writers Network Screenplay competition, so my fingers are crossed so tightly, circulation is about to be cut off.) And I am trying to learn to knit socks so they come out properly!

Check out Caroline's blog at carolineleavittville.blogspot.com.

Prep Alert

A welcome surprise from yesterday's trip to the shore: a new JCrew outlet has opened in Atlantic City.

JCrew is one of the more recent additions to Atlantic City's "The Walk" (Atlantic Avenue, Atlantic City) and both the Walk and that JCrew are hard to miss if you're coming into town via the AC Expressway. I'm wary of outlets since I think you can find better deals on the sales racks in the regular stores. But I scored a few great sales on pants yesterday at JCrew, which is a major plus considering I'm updating my wardrobe (being back "on the market" and all). It's much easier to try out new looks, like winter-wear shorts paired with tights and boots as a "going out" outfit, at discount prices. I never though of trying that look until I found the pants for $9.97 at this JCrew outlet (and put in two months of serious running to get my legs back in the kind of shape where I could fathom pulling this off -- I rarely wore shorts this summer). And you know what? It looks pretty good -- much more interesting than my fall back of "jeans and a cute top."

Speaking of 'the market,' Saturday night I'll be at the Bridesmaids Ball, which benefits the Eastern Pennsylvania Chapter of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, with a few people who were in my Avalon shore house. I'll probably be the only woman wearing a ladies' tux (which is pictured in this post), so stop by an say hi if you happen to spot me.

Now, I didn't buy that outfit at JCrew, nor in Atlantic City. The tux was purchased a few years ago from a Guess? store in King of Prussia -- BUT there is a Guess? outlet at The Walk in Atlantic City, and I've seen a tux almost exactly like the one I'll be wearing on the outlet racks at an outlet price. It's an extremely versatile piece of formal wear -- I'm just glad I finally got rid of all my "testing every pizza parlor, Italian restaurant and ice cream shop at the Jersey shore" weight (thanks again to running) so I can fit into this on Saturday night!

News from Around the South Jersey Shore

Here's a Q&A with Sarah Silverman, who's performing at the Borgata on Saturday night.

This upcoming weekend is also the Sherlock Holmes weekend in Cape May. Yes, Sherlock Holmes weekend. Sleuth to your heart's content.

Studio Six, a legendary gay club in Atlantic City, has closed.

This doesn't look so good -- Harrah's is getting sued.

This summer, I interviewed the woman behind the "Where the Hell is Strathmere" bumper stickers. They've got a new one now -- a car magnet that says "Shhh." Why? Because they want to stay a sleepy shore town. Read the story here.

Ocean City is reporting that it had a great summer. And, no, I am not related the to the person writing this article. Unless my little brother wants to tell me something.

I'm headed down to Atlantic City this afternoon for meetings and maybe a bit of early Christmas shopping. Nothing too crazy last night for Halloween, though my dog had a flying good time:



Gotta love dogs in costume.

What I'm Listening to: Preston and Steve on 93.3 WMMR
What I'm Reading: The First Campaign: Globalization, the Web, and the Race for the White House by Garrett M. Graff

Happy Halloween!

More shore info tomorrow...

Down the Shore with...Eric Nuzum

Halloween treat for this installment of "Down the Shore with..." Today's victim, er, subject is Eric Nuzum, author of The Dead Travel Fast: Stalking Vampires from Nosferatu to Count Chocula.

I interviewed Eric for the October issue of Washingtonian, and he's one of the people who kicked off the idea for this series. He doesn't live in NJ or PA but still has strong ties to the South Jersey Shore. I'm going to stretch that boundary line a bit up to LBI for Eric -- I didn't cover that part of the coast in my book, but how could I pass up the opportunity to interview someone who wrote a book about vampires?

1. What do you consider "your" shore town? Why?
Long Beach Island. My family has been visiting LBI since my mother was a child. Since I was a toddler, we've spent a week there every summer. Aunts, uncles, cousins--relatives from all over come and go throughout the week. We've had as many as four generations gathered there at once. Photos from Long Beach Island really become a chronicle of our lives and our life together as a family. In many ways, whenever I think of summer, I think of LBI.

2. A lot of people go to the shore just to eat. Any place that sticks out in your mind?
The LBI Pancake House. I consider myself kind of a pancake connoisseur and often seek out the best pancakes wherever I travel. The LBI Pancake House entered the list in the Top 3, and while its position changes periodically, it's never left those top spots. If the line is terrible for LBI Pancake House, I suggest going down to Beach Haven to Uncle Will's. While they aren't stellar, their pancakes are pretty good and the rest of their menu is very yummy.

I have to say, though, that one of the best parts of going out to LBI is an excuse to eat a lot of Jersey produce. Seriously, pancakes and ice cream aside, local veggies are my favorite things to eat there. Eating New Jersey vegetables reminds you what good produce should taste like.

3. Tell our readers about one special shore memory.
It actually happened this year: finding an erect ship mast in the middle of an island forest on LBI.

Recently, I've discovered geocaching as a new (incredibly geeky) hobby. For those uninitiated into the joys of geocaching, it's kinda like playing hide and seek, but with GPS units. This past year was the first year I tried geocaching on LBI. The clue for one geocache was that the target of the hunt was something that didn't belong. That was, obviously, the ship mast.

When the Powers That Be were working to slow down the erosion at the northern tip of the island (home to old Barney--the Barnegat Lighthouse), they ended up drying out a few hundred yards of former ocean just south of the lighthouse in the process. This newly exposed bit of beachfront quickly filled in with wild trees and shrubs--forming a small forest that covers most of the land.

Many years ago, when this area was covered with water, a cargo ship got caught in a sandbar and eventually sunk. When the area became dry land--there was the ship mast, sticking up out of the sand.

Why is this a special memory? Well, because often the places that are special to us are quite static--they stay pretty much the same and we like it that way. We get upset when they change. LBI changes all the time (different businesses, new houses, etc) and I'm okay with that. What makes that alright, and why this memory is special, is that a place as rich as Long Beach Island is always revealing new facets of itself to you as you spend more and more time there.

I just totally dig that I can go to a place for 30-plus summers and still discover something completely unexpected there--like a ship mast.

4. I visited Zombie World on the Wildwood Boardwalk. Any ties between vampires and zombies?
Besides the whole blood-drinking vs brain-eating thing? I'd have to say the answer is motive. Zombies are like animals--they have a singular purpose that is built into their DNA: find and eat brains. Zombies don't put a lot of "thought' into what they do. Vampires are different. They often retain their higher functions and can combine their new fangs and lack of morality with the ability to reason. In other words, they can still make decisions (just not ones that would be shared with mortals, especially the mortals they are about to bite). I believe that's what makes the vampire such a perfect monster.

If you watch the new movie 30 Days of Night (which I recently reviewed for the DCist , you'll see that sometimes unimaginative filmmakers will make zombies and vampires pretty much the same.

5. If I were to dress up like a vampire for Halloween, what essentials would I need?
Sure, you could go the typical fang, slicked back hair, and cape look, but that isn't how vampires have looked throughout their history. Even Count Dracula, as Bram Stoker envisioned him, is much different than the Bela Lugosi icon we've all come to associate with the undead. Stoker's count was rather rat-like--with long pointy fingers, pale skin, jagged teeth, and a wild mop of hair. Going back to vampire folklore, most vampires looked like...well...they look like dead bodies. There are lots of variations: the Indian version of a vampire had six arms, the Japanese vampire looked like the Creature from the Black Lagoon. There is also an old European vampire that smears cow dung all over himself, but that probably wouldn't lend to a lot of fun at parties.

6. I just finished my book -- any advice on how to pick your next project?
I spent almost three years after my first book trying to find another book topic. I think the key was to stop trying. Once I did that, the subject literally fell into my lap. I had never given any thought to vampires beforehand, but afterwards it felt like my life would never be complete until I wrote a book about vampires. I guess the bottom line is that a good book subject is never obvious (at first) and the only way to discover it is to just forget about the book part and be curious about the world.

7. And the question we all want you to answer: how is Lolly?
Lolly is amazing. For the unaware (which is probably everyone), my wife and I just adopted a French bulldog puppy who just turned 14 weeks (and is sleeping next to me now on top of a pile of her toys). I'm sure most people think their puppies are smart and amazing, but we were very fortunate. Lolly came home just a week before the book was published, so it has been a crazy time in our house. When you are dealing with the highs and lows of putting a book out into the world, it's great to come home every day to something that is just about to flip its lid because she's so happy to see you. And since you asked, you now have to suffer through some photos.

Eric will be reading at Politics & Prose in Washington, DC on Halloween -- 7pm, so plenty of time for trick or treating. Read more about The Dead Travel Fast here.

Let's Take it Way Back

As a freelance writer, I spend a lot of time marketing myself, whether it be sending emails to editors to remind them that I'm alive (hi there!), or taking ideas that never quite hit the mark, revising them, and sending them to other magazines (to get the skinny on how to do this really well, check out www.therenegadewriter.com).

Part of this process involves going through my "My Documents" folder and pulling up old queries. While doing that this morning, I came across a file labeled "countrymanpres_pitch," which I created on April 14, 2006. The heart of that document is this:

"Have you considered a guide to Atlantic City? I write about Atlantic City for Philadelphia Style and Inside Magazine, and the changes in our playground down the shore have been big. Since the Borgata opened its glossy doors, Atlantic City has become a new East Coast hot spot. Jay Z located his 40/40 club there, and the House of Blues has taken up shop in the Show Boat Casino. There’s lots to see and do: gamble (every casino has done something to spiff herself up), shop (a new $175 million pier of top tier shops and restaurants is opening across from Caesars this summer), relax (spas, spas and more spas), indulge (a $1,000 brownie at Brulee) and be entertained. Plus, there’s the Steel Pier side of Atlantic City that families can enjoy."

And that, readers, was the seed that grew into the book that you will (hopefully) be reading in May. Granted, That paragraph wasn't all I needed to do to land the book contract. The idea was revised to include all of the South Jersey shore, and I wrote a 16 page proposal before getting the thumbs up in the fall of 2006.

The neat thing about reading this today is that not much has changed about my vision for the book, or at least the Atlantic City chapter, which I just re-read this week (except Brulee closed this summer). It also reminds me that, when the book's published in May, it'll be two years ago that the idea for the book started. No one said publishing was a swift industry!

Stay tuned for an excellent "Down the Shore with..." on Monday. This is the guy who, indirectly, gave me the idea for the series (and it's Halloweened themed!)

What I'm Listening to: Dulcinea by Toad the Wet Sprocket