BY MINDI SCOTT

Photo by Dwayne Scott. March 2014

It’s hard to believe, but it’s been over three years since Michelle and I started brainstorming for the story we’ve been writing together. As you might have seen yesterday, our book is going to be published by HarperCollins, perhaps in late-2015 or early-ish 2016! (Edit: It will be summer 2016.) And if you haven’t, please check out Michelle’s post. We are so excited about this!!!!

I thought it would be fun to share Michelle’s and my original correspondence about the story that would become FAR FROM US, so I’ve pasted below two days’ worth of emails from 2011. Some of what we discussed in these first emails didn’t come to be at all (like our two narrators not loving the girl who died), but a lot of it will be in the book in some form. For extra context, here’s a one-sentence pitch Michelle and I put together very recently:

FAR FROM US is a dual narrative of heartbreak, hijinks, and healing, in which two grieving teens, Cloudy and Kyle, who have avoided each other for the past year, spend their mid-winter break traveling, along with a stray kitten, through Oregon, California, Arizona, and Nevada to see the organ recipients of Cloudy’s deceased best friend, who was also Kyle’s girlfriend.

FYI: These emails are unedited. Michelle’s are in black and my responses are in blue. The conversation ends abruptly because all the emails that followed are incredibly lengthy and detailed; we’d decided at that point that we were really going to write this. It took a while to start it, though, because I was on deadline with my second novel for all of 2011. 🙂

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From: Michelle Andreani
To: Mindi Scott
Sent: Fri, April 22, 2011 6:26:47 AM
Subject: RE: Does this sound stupid?

Hey! I know you’re in the middle of your first draft right now, so sorry to bother you! 

But I had an idea on the ride up to work and wanted to share it before a) I forgot it, and b) before I thought about it anymore, only to find out it’s stupid. (I think the subject line of this email is perfect, btw.)

So, this is it: A girl whose best friend/sister/boyfriend/parent/miscellaneous loved one has died, and she somehow goes to find the people who received this loved one’s donated organs. Wouldn’t that be an interesting road trip??

Is that gross?! Or creepy? Or too sentimental? 

Okay, sorry again. Back to work!

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Date: Fri, 22 Apr 2011 11:38:26 -0700
From: Mindi Scott
Subject: Re: Does this sound stupid?
To: Michelle Andreani

Ha, I’m so glad we’re able to keep using this subject line!

BY MINDI SCOTT

Photo by peddhapati

I don’t know what it is, but few things make me cringe more than hearing a recording of my voice. Over twenty years have passed since this happened, I still have a clear, uncomfortable memory from when I was around age 14.

(Side note: This was the very early-90s when few people had cell phones or voicemail. Instead, entire households shared one phone number and had devices called “answering machines” where callers could leave recorded messages that were played back later on a speaker than anyone in the room could hear. *shudder*)

So I was visiting my friend Mignonne for whom I’d left a message earlier that day. Someone forgot to erase it or hadn’t yet listened to it perhaps. Much to my mortification, Mignonne’s dad started playing the messages on the machine and said, “There’s one from Mindi on here.”

Hearing my own voice on the recording, I suddenly jumped up from the couch screeching, “Turn it off! Turn it off!”

I think Mignonne’s whole family probably looked at me like I’d lost it juuuuuust a little bit.

My feelings about hearing my voice haven’t changed. Even though I did a few vlogs (most of them during the summer of 2010 before my first novel came out), I’ve never gotten used to it. I did watch a few of the videos, but not all. Some of them, I know that I will never be able to subject myself to.

Anyway! That was my lead-in to let you know about the fun podcast that I recent was involved in with Sarah and Laura at the Clear Eyes, Full Shelves blog! I haven’t listened to it yet (you know, because of my phobia), but I totally invite you to do so. 🙂

The topic we explored is “Personal Agency” and how it applies to characters in fiction (including my own) taking control of their own lives. We also veered off into sub-discussions about zombies, Vince Howard (a wonderful character on the TV series Friday Night Lights), and Courtney Summers (an author whom I ADORE).

We were very, very chatty, so the entire conversation is split into two parts. Sarah has put together posts at her blog for each part. Part 1 is here and Part 2 is here. I’ve gotten feedback that some listeners have learned a few things from what I had to say about my approach to writing, which is exciting to me. If you listen to the podcast, I hope you’ll like it!

BY MINDI SCOTT

The other night as I was falling asleep, I came up with an idea for a blog post! My mind was going crazy with how great it was going to be:

I’ll write about [this] and [this] and [this]! And I’ll find a picture of [this] to include. Oh, and also use [this] as a cute anecdote. (And why can I never spell that word? Antecdote? Antidote? What?) Then I’ll embed the video for the song “More Than Words” at the end to tie it all together. YES!!!!!!

A funny thing happened. As you might guess from all the brackets above, I woke up the next morning with no recollection of anything that the Super-Great Blog Post was meant to include except for the video. I’ve thought about it long and hard, but the idea has not returned to me.

This meant that I had a choice to make. I could continue to not have a post on “We Have Words” featuring “More Than Words,” or I could, you know, post the video for no good reason at all.

This is it. This is what I have to do:

I think I made the right choice.

(One thing I do want to say about this, which probably has nothing at all to do with my blog post that is forever forgotten: This song and the video for “More Than Words” by Extreme came out when I was in eighth grade. I remember that there was much tittering amongst my friends and me about the fact that that one guy flips off the camera while playing guitar. As I’ve gotten older, I’d come to think that we were silly and clearly knew nothing about how guitar playing works to think he did that on purpose. HOWEVER, re-watching this video all these years later, I can see that we were truly onto something. In this somewhat long song where a number of different guitar parts are played and various angles are shot, why does the camera zoom in precisely when his middle finger is lifted, and only then? WHAT WERE THEY TRYING TO GET ACROSS?)