via Twitter.

Starting today (and ending um, whenever I get bored or realize that it just isn’t working out) I’ll post random excerpts from the journals I kept between 1983-1999 (ages 10 to 26) 140 characters at a time. (retro)Tweeting, if you will. To me, this could turn out to be the best of all worlds. I can:

1. Embrace new technology and convince myself that I’m not a curmudgeon after all.

2. Cling to my (retro)blogging roots whereby I use old material to avoid writing about my real (i.e., contemporary) life.

3. Stay connected to readers without neglecting my top work priority: writing BUMPED.

This experiment in microblogging might not work. But I’m willing to give it a try if you are…

Before I begin writing a novel, I need to know how it ends. Perhaps this method grew out of the creative frustrations I felt during my earliest years as a fiction writer. When I was in first grade I would often start a short story without any idea as to how I would finish it. When the plot reached a dead end, I would conclude the story thusly:

I started the (retro)blog in 2005 as a way of blogging without really blogging about myself (because I don’t enjoy blogging about myself). For four years, I posted many, many, many pages from diaries, creative writing assignments and other miscellaneous scribblings from my youth. Alas, there’s only so much material worth recycling. Instead of digging deeper into my trove of juvenilia, I’ve decided to bring the (retro)blog–in all its forms–to an end so I can totally focus on writing BUMPED.

Please stay connected by signing up for my mailing list or friending me on Facebook.

Thanks for reading the (retro)blog…

That’s all I have to say.

No more Senryu Tuesdays.

It’s time to write BUMPED

I finally got to sing Weekend in New England. Thanks to all who came to Brick, NJ the other night to make my last event for Perfect Fifths so…well…perfect. (Except the part where I nearly fell off the table. Which will make it to YouTube eventually I’m sure.)

I am also reconsidering the (retro) aspect of the (retro)blog. Details to follow.

I love Mandy Moore’s new song.

Hammond organs rule.

Q. Will the Jessica Darling series be released as a boxed set? I want to buy the whole series but if there will be a box set forthcoming, then I will wait for that.–Sarah Mae, Los Angeles

A. Now that the series is finished, it makes sense for them to all be packaged together in one convenient set, right? I’m sure that will happen eventually…but not in the immediate future. As I understand it, Perfect Fifths will come out in trade paperback about a year from now (I’ll let you know as soon as I know), along with slightly redesigned versions of the previous books in the series. I imagine a boxed set mass market paperbacks (those are the smaller “drugstore” paperbacks) would be the next logical step after that. Think: 2011. Ish.

(Another question answered after the jump:)Q. Will you write a book about Marcus’s stolen journals?–From Claire Bear and too many readers to list

A. I actually have a file on my laptop called Marcus’s Journals that I worked on while I wrote Fourth Comings. But the more I wrote, the less interested I was in incorporating that material into any of the books. The fascination with Marcus Flutie requires a fair amount of mystery. The contents of his journals, I think, are best left to a reader’s imagination.

Got a question? Ask me. I might answer it next Monday.

A year’s worth of poetry

Where did the time go?

I got so many questions (keep sending! keep sending!) that I was considering breaking it up into two different Q&A days but then I realized that such a decision would no doubt be detrimental to my overall productivity because I am not the impressive Meg Cabot who somehow manages to be both a prolific blogger AND novelist AND has still finds time time to ride her bike AND watch awesomely bad reality TV. I know my own limitations, so I’m sticking to Q&A Mondays, Senryu Tuesdays and (retro)blog Thursdays for now. That will keep me busy enough while I write BUMPED, my first post-Jessica Darling novel.

The first question comes from Amber Lyn, who happens to be the creator and mod of the longest running Jessica Darling fan site. Q. Why is it still called a retro blog, when obviously you need to admit to yourself that you are writing a real blog?

A. I came up with the concept of the (retro)blog–posting pages from my old journals and creative writing assignments–because I wasn’t interested in blogging the quotidian details of my life. That’s because a.) my life is pretty boring and b.) I want to keep those boring details to myself. When I’m not  blatantly pimping my latest novel, most of my blog entries have to do with stuff that happened long ago, well after the statute of limitations on mortification has run out. So even though the original concept of the (retro)blog has evolved over the years, I feel like the overall spirit is in keeping with the name.

Got a question? Email me via megan@meganmccafferty.com. Maybe I’ll answer it next Monday.