Halloweird -- Jay

’Twas the day before Halloween,
and all through the library…

Okay, I can’t think of a decent rhyme for library, so I’ll save you the eye-roll and just get to the point. Last Thursday was my final day working at the public library, and my co-workers put together a delicious potluck for my going-away party. So while the day felt bittersweet, it tasted like frosting and quiche.


I bequeathed a couple of my toys which had been put to great use over the past five years. I gave my pigapult (it’s like a catapult, but flings tiny plastic piggies) to Marci, my boss. But to keep the peace in my absence, I gave the piggies to Diana. I gave Mr. Peabody, who can shoot a stream of "water" up to ten feet, to JoAnn (for the past few years, her desk was well within Mr. Peabody's reach).


I received a few parting gifts, as well…including a pair of shiny red boxers. (Don't ask.) And when Halloween rolled around the next day, those boxers made a great addition to my costume. Thanks, Barry!


That night, my wife and I had a Halloween get-together at our house. While I was organizing the photos for this post, I realized that most of you have never seen a picture of my brother. So here’s Nate (do you notice the resemblance?), along with his girlfriend, Sarah (Moaning Myrtle!).


I had no idea what my wife was dressing up as. So when she came downstairs dressed as Hannah Baker (from Thirteen Reasons Why), I freaked out. Freaked! Out!!! How often do authors get to hang out with their characters?


Overall, we didn’t have as many trick-or-treaters this year, but we did have more teenagers. At one point, a group of three girls were at the door. My wife and I were letting them pick their favorites from the candy bowl. As they turned to leave, and we began shutting the door, one girl whispered something to her friend.

TEEN: She looked just like that girl from that book.
ME: Wait, what was that?
TEEN (turning back around): What was what?
ME: You said something about a book.
TEEN: She’s dressed like someone in a book I'm reading.
ME: Really? Really??? What book?
TEEN: Thirteen Rea—
ME: She is! That’s who she is! She’s Hannah Baker!
TEEN (to my wife): You read that book?
ME: I wrote that book!!!
TEEN (looking my costume up and down): You? You did?

- Jay

Found in Translation -- Jay

Last week, I got an e-mail from someone working on one of the foreign translations of Thirteen Reasons Why. He needed a few things clarified to help with his translation because his job isn’t simply to swap one word for another, but to interpret each word for another language. His job is to make my story make sense. And some of his questions fascinated me!

Here are some examples:

What does "Boy Scout" mean in this context: "my tongue twisted into knots even a Boy Scout would walk away from"? (p.17)

I gave him a fairly detailed answer to that question. How he’s going to whittle my answer into a few simple words to convey context, I have no idea (which is why I never did well in my foreign language classes).

On page 57, Ms. Antilly says "Or... not." Does this mean "Maybe it was not a good idea to introduce you two to become buddies"?

One thing I am excessively conscious about is slang. Pop culture and slang will age a novel like nothing else. Unless a novel is meant to be timefull (which is my made-up opposite for timeless), most pop culture and slang can be deleted without being missed. “Or…not” was said with a little sarcasm in my book, making it a tad slangy...and making the translator earn his pay.

On page 59...
Then, on page 194...

Ah, yes. Something was found in translation, as well. Because a translator can’t take any word for granted, they need to pay special attention to everything. And sometimes they can catch little inconsistencies no one else has caught. (Yes, I already contacted my editor and said, “How did we miss this???”)

On page 283, it says "Class of '93". Just out of curiosity, is there some special meaning in the year 1993?

It's extremely cool to know that the person working on the translation also enjoyed the book. Can you imagine if the translator hated the book? Yikes! So it meant a lot to me that there were details he wanted to know just out of curiosity. And in case any of you are suddenly curious, 1993 is when I graduated from high school.

- Jay


P.S. Speaking of graduating from high school, the list of people taking the challenge of sharing their senior photos is still growing. Did you show us yours?

Great Charlotte -- Jay

Last week, I spent three days speaking and signing books at the 18th Annual Novello Festival of Reading in Charlotte, North Carolina. Was it amazing? Was it amazing? Yes. It was amazing!

On Thursday and Friday, I spoke at four high schools: Ardrey Kell, Performance Learning Center, North Mecklenburg, and West Charlotte. It's unbelievable how every presentation can be a totally unique experience. And yet, you should believe it cuz it's true!

As usual, I use a PowerPoint to show my journey as an author and how Thirteen Reasons Why came to be. And, as usual, this slide here seems to get the biggest reaction. My favorite part, every time, is when I get to read a few pages with one of the students. Their interpretations of Hannah are always different (and not just because of the various accents they give her around the country) but they're always great!

This was the first time I arrived at a school, greeted by my name on the marquee. Did that give me the chills? Uh...kinda!

At another school, for the first time, they had posterboards and whiteboards all over the place announcing my visit. One whiteboard was overflowing with favorite quotes from the book. One posterboard was full of positive messages derived from the book. Here's Ashley and me in front of one of the whiteboards. (She designed the audiotape!)

The library across from my hotel had a gallery of original children's book art. There was a Tomie dePaola. A Garth Williams. And check out this close-up of a David Wisniewski paper cut-out piece.

Down the street was another library...just for children and teens. The ImaginOn is amazing! Aside from plenty of things to read (except for Thirteen Reasons Why...it was checked out!), there are a million cool things for children to play with. The teens even have a studio where they can film animated cartoons, live-action scenes (with a blue-screen for special f/x), or record their own music. And all you need is a library card.

Plus, they have some huge art structures.

Oh, and there were other authors in town, too! That's what Novello does. They bring in all types of authors to speak with all types of readers. And, quite often, I need to pinch myself over the people I find myself hanging out with. Here I am, dining with A.M. Jenkins, Margaret Peterson Haddix, and Ellen Hopkins. (Pinch-pinch!)

On the final day of the program, all of the authors and illustrators for children and teens did a group Q&A at ImaginOn, followed by an autograph party outside. Here I am being clawed by the author of The Cheetah Girls, Deborah Gregory. Growl power!

I swear, Cynthia Kadohata, author of Kira-Kira, started it! But at least I can say I fulfilled my long-held dream of putting bunny ears on a Newbery-winning author.

Before going home, I paid a visit to a traveling Pompeii exhibit. The rooms were full of items excavated out of the ash, bringing back to life an amazing city. But the final room was heartbreaking. The walls and floor were black. Overhead spotlights illuminated the famous plaster casts of the final moments of people and animals trapped in their homes and on the streets. A slave still had shackles around his legs. A man held a handkerchief up to his mouth. A man and a woman spend their last moments together.

It's funny how authors are attracted to things like Pompeii. Ms. Haddix and Ms. Jenkins were walking the exhibit and ran into Ms. Kadohata. And then they ran into me. As Ms. Haddix pointed out, only one of us opted to purchase the audiotour device. And if you had to guess, based on our books, which author would be most fascinated by the idea of an audiotour...you might pick me.

And you'd be right.

- Jay

In Your Head -- Jay

Awhile back, I told you I was re-examining my life’s passions. I wanted to find a way to occasionally stop worrying so much about writing and promotion. I needed to think about something else. I needed a hobby!

But that, apparently, wasn’t what I really needed.

This week, I did something I never thought I’d do. And I definitely never thought I’d tell anyone about it if I did. But it was such a great experience that I want to tell you about it. So here it goes: I went to a shrink.

Wait, wait! I mean, I went to a therapist. (Sorry. Old habit.)

My time “on the couch” wasn’t at all like it’s portrayed in the movies and cartoons. The room was small but brightly lit and I sat on a two-seater couch facing the counselor across the room, as opposed to lounging on my back while staring at the ceiling with the lights dimmed.

So what did I learn? Nothing that shouldn’t have been totally obvious…but wasn’t.

Like most writers, I’m an observer. And I don’t simply observe what other people do, but I try to predict what they will do based purely on visual clues. It’s a fun little exercise which helps when it’s time to figure out individual traits for my characters.

The problem? I’m an observer, but I hate being observed. Even by me!

As a writer, here’s what I found so interesting. Whenever I’m asked which character in Thirteen Reasons Why I most identify with, my answer is automatic. And most outside observers will guess that same character. But when I get really deep into motivation and how a character thinks as opposed to just acts, my answer is different. And looking back at my previous (unpublished) manuscripts, I actually identify more closely…in a much more personal way…with different characters than I originally thought.

Weird!

It’s almost like my writing could have been used as therapy, but I wasn’t letting it.

Alright, I’m gonna pull myself back into my head for awhile. Thanks for listening. And who should I make the check out to?

- Jay

BONUS COOLNESS: Here's the Italian cover of my book, known over there as 13.

Bonus Scenes -- Jay

There are several questions I get asked about Thirteen Reasons Why almost every time I do a school visit or book club event. One question concerns the characters (other than Clay) mentioned on Hannah's cassette tapes. They want to know how those people reacted to being singled out as reasons for her suicide. How did it affect them?

My answer? I have no idea.

Once I recorded...I mean, wrote...Hannah's words, and conveyed Clay's reactions, my contribution to the story was finished. Whatever happens outside of those 288 printed pages (or 5 compact discs) is entirely up to each reader.

But I won't disagree with the following two-part student project. In fact, I absolutely love their ideas...as well as how they're presented. If you haven't already read the book, don't be afraid to watch. Nothing will be spoiled for you. The only scene I wrote is at the beginning, when Clay first receives the package of tapes.

Everything else is brand new...and brilliant!

Part 1



Part 2

- Jay


P.S. Did you notice my book made two cameos? That is so cool!

Golden Gate to the Windy City -- Jay

Last Thursday was one of the biggest nights of my literary life...and I nearly missed it. My wife and I raced over three hours to San Francisco, peeled into a valet parking garage, and with the valet standing nearby, changed out of our comfy work clothes and into our much less comfy (but much more appropriate) dress clothes. Then we ran a couple blocks and made it to the California Book Awards ceremony just in time.
Here's Agent-of-the-Evening Laura Rennert squished between two of her authors, Ying Chang Compestine and me, co-winners in the Young Adult category.
Paul Fleischman (the man can write anything) won in the children's lit. category.
A couple winners you may have heard a little something about are Michael Chabon...
...and Khaled Hosseini.
I swear, I felt like such a dork giving an acceptance speech to a room filled with authors of this caliber. But I had fun, and even had a chance to work Ross: Dress for Less into my speech!

The next morning, my wife and I flew to Chicago for the Chicago Tribune Printers Row Book Fair. Here's the view of the fair from our hotel window.
We went to a ceremony honoring S.E. Hinton, where she took audience questions for an hour. For such an influential writer, she's extremely down-to-earth. Unfortunately, I had to run to my speaking gig and didn't have a chance to faint in front of her. So my wife stood in line to get an autograph. And without being asked, she knew I'd want a photo to put on the blog!
Then I spoke on a very fun panel with Jennifer Smith, Renee Rosen, and David Wartik, with Kait Steele moderating. Everyone on that panel was so nice, and it was great to hear so many different perspectives on writing issues. I even used the water bottle in front of me to play an impromptu game of Spin-the-Bottle (because, apparently, everyone's played it but me)...but when it stopped spinning, it pointed back at me. Sigh!
Then we stayed in Chicago an extra day to check things out. We caught a show at The Second City. Hilarious! Took an architectual boat cruise. Awesome! Heard (but couldn't see) B.B. King play at the Blues Festival. Insanely cool! Got caught outdoors in a thunderstorm. Wet! And checked out a few museums.
Of course, we had to eat, too!

Best pizza of my life!

- Jay

BEA & MB -- Jay

I apologize. I'm a blogger, yet I walked around BookExpo America without taking one picture. Un...forgiv...able. I know!

BEA is this huge deal in the publishing world where booksellers from around the country come to see what publishers have in store for their stores in the near future.

I began my weekend late Friday night by hanging out with Stephanie from Moravian Book Shop and Jill from Square Books. Moravian is the oldest bookstore in the world (and Stephanie is Laurie Halse Anderson's daughter!). Square Books is in Mississppi, and my fingers are crossed that I can visit there next April (hint-hint, Jill).

Saturday morning, I had breakfast with my fantabulous agent, followed by an exhausting stroll through the Los Angeles Convention Center, trying to grab as many free books as possible. Then I had an amazing book signing, where I got to walk out from behind a blue curtain to face a long line of people waiting for my autograph. Seriously, this job rocks! I met lots of cool booksellers from all over, and even had an unexpected visit from the teens of Vroman's Galley Group, hereby lovingly referred to as The Screamers! Here's a photo from the signing (courtesy of Love the Books? Meet the Authors!). And no, that's not Jeff Bezos behind me, but Ben Schrank, my publisher.


Lunch with Mr. Schrank was interesting. Great conversation, good Mexican food, and people dressed as pirates carrying books by L. Ron Hubbard (no, I have no idea what that was all about). That was followed by a meeting with Mr. Schrank, Don Weisberg (the new president of Penguin's Young Readers Group), and Barbara Marcus (P.Y.R's strategic advisor). People kept asking if I was nervous about the meeting, but they're a fun bunch of Penguins with lots of exciting ideas about the future of Thirteen Reasons Why!

Oh, and then I got an autographed copy of Holes. Woo-hoo!

By the way, am I the only writer who was unaware that publishers spend a ton of money on parties? I went to (read: crashed) the Little Brown party...held on top of a building in downtown L.A.!


The entire Andrea Brown Literary Agency crew was there, but here's me with my beautiful agent, Laura Rennert.


Then I attended a party put on by Publishers Group West, thanks to a generous invite from David Diaz. That was held in a dance club, the El Rey, where they hired an amazing dance troupe to perform. Here's Mr. Diaz, Vicki Arkoff, Jen Rofé (Jaeger), and me. Jen is an agent at A.B.L.A. and Vicki writes for MAD Magazine!!!


On Sunday, now completely exhausted, I drove to Morro Bay for a wonderful booksigning with Catherine Ryan Hyde at Coalesce Bookstore. Lots of friends came, as well as our parents, which capped the weekend beautifully. Here I am with the Coalesce staff and Ms. Hyde (to my left).


And then I slept harder than I have in a long, long time. So let me end with a second apology to anyone out there who heard me snore.

- Jay


Meet a Mermaid: If you happen to be in the Chicago area this Saturday, come say hi at the Chicago Tribune Printers Row Book Fair, where I'll be speaking and signing.

Faster than Hollywood -- Jay

When Hollywood's moving too slow, you can always count on the students in Alabama*...



and Pennsylvania to pick up the slack!



- Jay


*also responsible for the awesome teen book review site, NotRequiredReading.com!

L.A. L.A. Land -- Jay

When the Mermaids first arrived at the L.A. Times Festival of Books, we were amazed at the amount of people who showed up on a scorching hot weekend purely for the love of books.

Then we went backstage to the V.I.P. room and were like giddy fans, surrounded by so many big-named authors. Mo Willems! Jon Scieszka! T.C. Boyle! Mary Higgins Clark! We ate as many cheese squares and fruit wedges as fast as we could in case anyone suddenly decided we weren't cool enough to be back there.

Then we met a bunch of L.A. writers of teen lit. in the Angeleno hotel, which gave an amazing view of the city at night. We followed that by having dinner with Robin Benway, debut author of Audrey, Wait!...which has quickly added itself as one of my favorite books. Don't wait! Go out and get it!!!

Of course, when we're in L.A., we just have to pretend like we're from The City and go out dancin'. (Sidenote: Eve's allergy pills made her so drowsy, she had to sit out most of the songs, which is why she's not in this photo...and it took about 85 photos for her to get even one where Robin and I look only partially goofy.)

Back at the Festival the next day, I got to meet Sherman Alexie, author of the National Book Award winning The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. This was an especially fun first-meeting because Mr. Alexie recently wrote a blurb for the paperback edition of Thirteen Reasons Why, which you can read at the bottom of this post.

After signing books for an hour with Ms. Benway, we headed to our panel on teen literature. As the room started to fill up, I began to get insanely nervous. I expected our panel to barely sell-out a small classroom...not a whole lecture hall! This photo doesn't even show the two side-sections of seats.

Along with Ms. Benway, I was joined by Cecil Castellucci and Michele Serros. The three of them were so articulate and thoughtful, part of me wanted to just sit in the audience and watch. But it was a lot of fun...and quite an honor...to be up there with them!


- Jay

Thirteen Reasons Why is a mystery, eulogy, and ceremony. Twenty or thirty times, I snapped the book shut when a sentence, an image, or line of dialogue was too beautiful and painful. But I, afraid and curious, would always return to this amazing book. I know, in the years to come, I will often return to this book.

- Sherman Alexie

"Kiss My Grits" -- Jay

Growing up, "Kiss my grits" was tied with "Whatchoo talkin' 'bout, Willis?" as my favorite TV catchphrase. But, as a California boy, I had no idea 'grits' referred to a food that Mel's Diner might actually serve on Alice.

I spent this past weekend in Alabama and found out exactly what grits taste like. And they're mmm-mmm good! In fact, they're so good, you can eat them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. In fact, many people do just that. But that's not why I took my first trip to the South. I went because a certain school in Alabama held the first of many Thirteen Reasons Why book clubs last December, and there just happened to be a book fair nearby last Saturday. So I hopped on a plane to say thank you in person.

Here's a photo of my first meeting with some of the HMS iREAD Club students. It was taken soon after I stopped blushing from a little joke they played on me. (Don't worry...I'll get you back!)

During my presentation, Carrie helped me read from the book. It was the first time I heard Hannah with a southern accent, which made her words sound so much cooler than they sounded in my head when I wrote them!

An hour later, I found myself sitting on a very fun panel with R.A. Nelson, Loretta Ellsworth, and Jennifer Echols.

Nope, I never outgrew my love for Clifford.

That night, I met some local teachers and MSFKALs (Media Specialists Formerly Known As Librarians) at a restaurant for my first taste o' grits. Then we went and watched the most amazing cover band I've ever seen, The Spicolis, play everything from Take On Me to Smells Like Teen Spirit. (What? No, I never noticed how cute they all were. They just seemed really nice.)

Of course, I couldn't leave without stopping by a Waffle House. Hashbrowns? Covered!

- Jay


Wanna Chat? Join me online this Wednesday at 9pm Eastern. Thirteen Reasons Why is the Assembly on Literature for Adolescents Book Club pick for April.

I'm a What!?!? -- Jay

Exactly twenty-one hours ago I found out Thirteen Reasons Why will be making its debut on the New York Times Best Sellers list. That means, of course, that I’ve been freaking out for exactly twenty-one hours now.

After getting phone calls from my editor and publisher, calling my wife and parents, and opening a ton of awesome e-mails from other writers, my brain took a brief detour to The Silly Side. For example:

During my first conversation with the first girl I ever went on a date with, I noticed my shoelace was untied…yet I never would’ve thought the awkward moment which followed would make it into a NY Times best selling book.

When I slipped on wet grass, my friend tumbled over me, and two girls we were trying to impress began laughing hysterically…I never would’ve thought that embarrassing moment would make it into a NY Times best selling book.

And when I finally identified the bizarre flavor of my first real kiss…I never would’ve thought that taste (slightly adjusted) would make it into a NY Times best selling book.

But it’s true!

So I’d like to send a heartfelt thank you to everyone who read Thirteen Reasons Why. And I’d like to send a gigantic heartfelt thank you to everyone who told their friends that they needed to read it, too.

Wow! You made me a New York Times Best Selling Author!!!

- Jay

Hometown Signing -- Jay

It was awesome to do a signing at the bookstore where I worked while writing much of Thirteen Reasons Why...

Me reading as Clay and Sabrina reading as Hannah...

I never thought I'd say this, but I love public speaking...

Yes, I managed to squeeze Vanilla Ice into my presentation...

I could look at their expressions forever...

If you misspell a name, are you supposed to buy them a new book? Just askin' for the future...

And of course, everything's more fun with the other Mermaids around...

- Jay

Don't Forget to Write! -- Jay

This post, I hope, will give encouragement to other apprehensive writers out there to write as honestly as possible. As most of you know, Thirteen Reasons Why deals with some very serious issues that way too many teens deal with in real life. While I was writing it, I had to constantly ignore the inner-person I refer to as Insecure Jay.

I.J. knew there would be people who didn’t approve of the way certain issues were dealt with in the book…or that those issues were dealt with at all. As someone who tries really hard to avoid conflict and hates tense relationships, I.J. constantly considered watering down certain scenes to avoid such problems. But C&H (Confident & Honest) Jay knew that was the wrong way to go because he hates reading watered down scenes in other books. It always weakens the emotional truth of a story.

For some reason, I’ve recently found myself discussing this issue with other authors working on edgy teen novels. (By the way, I’ve decided “edgy” simply means “someone’s gonna disagree with what you have to say.”) I know I would've had a much easier time comforting Insecure Jay if I’d been able to hear what actual teens thought about some of my favorite edgy books.

So…here ya go!

I received permission from two teens who sent messages to my MySpace account to reprint their words on this blog. In exchange, I’m sending each of them a signed audiobook of Thirteen Reasons Why. These messages represent two types of people who seem to really be latching on to my book. I chose them because they arrived close in time to each other (two days apart) and…well…because I love the honesty in their voices. It probably took a lot of guts to write what they did, and I appreciate it.

(To maintain the integrity of these messages, I didn’t change a thing…other than deleting their names.)

Female; 16 years old
Hi there =) My name's (-----). I just wanted to let you know that Thirteen Reasons Why made a big impact on my life. For the past couple years I have actually been struggling with the thought of suicide, and everything you mentioned and portrayed were so accurate; the rumors, the boys, the drama, everything. And it makes me feel so much better knowing that someone understands. Hannah really reminds me of myself. When i read the poem that she wrote that was studied in her class, it really affected me because I wrote a poem very similar to that, prior to reading the book. It's almost eerie how much the book resembles my life. i just wanted to let you know that your book gave me hope. It made me realize that no matter how much you think no one is there, they might be the person you least expect. And i want to thank you for helping make a difference in my life =) I read it in one day. I couldn'y put it down. Please keep the novels coming =) I love your work. Take care, and thanks again.

Male; 19 years old
Dear Jay Asher, Yes your book was amazing and i bet you get that alot. From reading this book i have changed alot. I use to be someone that would be very mean and would be a dick to people. Since your book I have changed from listening to people and being more curtious. I know you have probley all ready thought about this but i think you should make a movie out of this book. Thank you for reading this and i hope to talk to later.

- Jay

Discuss Amongst Yourselves -- Jay

The E.B. White Read Aloud Award was first given in 2004, then divided into two categories a couple years later (one for picture books and one for older readers). Being a rather new award, it’s still building name recognition, and not one I imagined seeing my name attached to…until now.

No, I didn’t win the award. But Thirteen Reasons Why has been nominated for it. Quick! Guess which category!

The nomination got me thinking about an aspect of writing which I never thought about while working on 13RW…or any of my previous (and still unpublished) novels. See, I always wanted lots and lots and lots of readers. Primarily, I wanted to entertain them. And secondarily (if that’s a word, and even if it’s not), I wanted to present opportunities to think about the world from other points of view…and not necessarily my point of view.

But I never considered that amazing D-word: discussion.

Because of 13RW book clubs popping up across the country, schools and bookstores and libraries are bringing teens and adults together to discuss the issues raised in the book. Those discussions allow for even more points of view than what I presented in the book. Which is amazing!

I’ve also heard from parents and children, boyfriends and girlfriends, and best friends who read the book aloud to each other (one person reading as Clay, the other as Hannah). Those discussions led to even deeper understandings among already close readers. Which is amazing!

Why this has me so excited is because it brings me back to my high school days. I remember one teacher, Mr. Miller, who often brought up “contemporary issue” discussions in his classroom. Some of the issues were controversial. But when he raised the issues, he never offered his own opinions. He simply wanted us to hear what other students thought. And I was very opinionated about some of those issues. In response to my opinions, his most common question was, “But why?” And he never accepted, “It’s just how I feel” as a legitimate answer.

After hearing other points of view in that class, my opinions changed quite a bit on quite a few issues…though I rarely admitted that in class!

So whether Thirteen Reasons Why (or future books) are read aloud among close family members and friends, or discussed by large groups in a safe environment, I am beyond thrilled…because discussion is always a good thing. At the very least, even if your opinion isn’t changed, it allows you to know why other people hold differing points of view.

And that, I know, has made me a much better person…and writer.

- Jay