Lisa Nowak's Newest YA Novel, Getting Sideways is Out

Getting Sideways: Book 2 in the Full Throttle Series

Getting shipped off to live with his uncle Race was the best thing that ever happened to fifteen-year-old Cody. Then a wreck at the speedway nearly ruined everything. Cody’s making every effort to get his life back on track—writing for the school paper, searching for the perfect girlfriend, and counting the days until he gets his drivers’ license—but there’s no escaping the nightmares that haunt him.

A chance to build his own car seems like the perfect distraction. Until Cody realizes he’ll have to live up to Race’s legendary status. But that’s the least of his worries, considering he doesn’t have his dad’s permission. All he has to do is the impossible: keep Race from discovering his lie until he can convince his dad that racing’s safe.

Yeah, sure. That’ll be easy.

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Haven't read the first book? Running Wide Open is on sale now for 99 cents.



Running Wide Open: Book 1 in the Full Throttle Series

Cody Everett has a temper as hot as the flashpoint of racing fuel, and it's landed him at his uncle's trailer, a last-chance home before military school. But how can he take the guy seriously when he calls himself Race, eats Twinkies for breakfast, and pals around with rednecks who drive in circles every Saturday night?

What Cody doesn't expect is for the arrangement to work. Or for Race to become the friend and mentor he's been looking for all his life. But just as Cody begins to settle in and get a handle on his supercharged temper, a crisis sends his life spinning out of control. Everything he's come to care about is threatened, and he has to choose between falling back on his old, familiar anger or stepping up to prove his loyalty to the only person he's ever dared to trust.

Praise for Running Wide Open:

"It doesn’t matter if you are a racing fan or not, Running Wide Open will captivate you and capture your heart." – Cari J, Amazon reviewer

“The roar of engines practically explodes off the page in this compelling, heart-thumping debut. Cody Everett is a straight-shooter with attitude, smarts, and whip-cracking wit; he doesn’t pull any punches, and neither does author Lisa Nowak. The collision of Cody and the world of stock car racing makes for a great story, one of the best I’ve read in a long time. Running Wide Open is a book not to be missed.” - Christine Fletcher, author of Tallulah Falls and Ten Cents a Dance

"The racing is easy to understand and does not get in the way of a rattling good story. I still couldn’t put it down on a re-read." – Elisabeth Miles, Amazon reviewer

"We race stock cars during the summer and even though this is a recommended read for Young Adults, we are seniors and enjoyed every page. We can hardly wait for the sequel to come out. MUST READING!" – Maxci Jermann, Barnes and Noble reviewer

"I say read this book, it’s fun, it’s beautiful, it’s a very cool read that will give you a feel-good state of mind. Awesome read." - L.E.Olteano, Butterfly-o-meter Books

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• Buy it at Barnes and Noble


• Buy it on Smashwords

Author Bio:

In addition to being a YA author, Lisa Nowak is a retired amateur stock car racer, an accomplished cat whisperer, and a professional smartass. She writes coming-of-age books about kids in hard luck situations who learn to appreciate their own value after finding mentors who love them for who they are. She enjoys dark chocolate and stout beer and constantly works toward employing wei wu wei in her life, all the while realizing that the struggle itself is an oxymoron.

Lisa has no spare time, but if she did she’d use it to tend to her expansive perennial garden, watch medical dramas, take long walks after dark, and teach her cats to play poker. For those of you who might be wondering, she is not, and has never been, a diaper-wearing astronaut. She lives in Milwaukie, Oregon, with her husband, four feline companions, and two giant sequoias.

Connect with Lisa online:

• Twitter: http://twitter.com/Lisa_Nowak


• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/LisaNowakAuthor


• Google +: http://bit.ly/LisaNowakGooglePlus


• Blog: http://lisanowak.wordpress.com/


• Subscribe to her newsletter for updates about coming attractions: http://bit.ly/LisaNowakNewsletter

Daily Good

I recently subscribed to Daily Good, a site that delivers good news to my inbox every day. Every morning I read a positive message, often telling of some extraordinary or even ordinary act of kindness or a bit of information that brightens my outlook. Recently I learned how wisdom is defined. The article referred to a study conducted at UCSD into the nature of wisdom.

“Not all intelligent people are wise — somebody can be intelligent and yet not wise,” psychiatry and neurosciences professor Dilip Jeste said. Researchers found that wisdom is a uniquely human characteristic defined by six prominent qualities: general knowledge of life, emotional regulation, insight, helpfulness to others, decisiveness, and tolerance of different values. They also found that it can be learned and increased with age.

That last point is hopeful--you can increase your wisdom and you don't have to go to Harvard to do it. All you have to do is be aware of the ways you can practice it in your daily life. In the past week, news of Osama bin Laden's death has been the occasion for many to rejoice. Others fear backlash, and some shake their heads sadly at the continuation of hate and violence. Thinking about the definition of wisdom in light of bin Laden's death, I focus on tolerance of different values. It may be naive to believe you can change something so deeply ingrained in civilization as war is. But you can practice it on a personal level and perhaps become wiser for it, not to mention making your own small piece of the Universe a happier place.

The Pitch

I was nervous, felt the heat rise from my throat to my hairline, but I did the pitch, leaning heavily on my index cheat cards. The young woman hearing the pitch encouraged me with her eyes and her smile and when I was done, she invited me to submit a full proposal. She said she'd known almost as soon as I started talking it was a book they would be interested in. Whew! On to the next step: I've written the proposal, now need to select 40 to 60 consecutive pages of the book to send along with it. Several readers are still looking at it and I'd rather get their feedback before deciding on the pages to send. But I am thrilled, and proud that I made it through and I'm still in the running.

Pitching

Pitching a home run, pitching a hissy fit...no, pitching my nascent novel to Ooligan Press on Saturday, hoping it turns out to be a home run. I hadn't expected to do this until August, at the Willamette Writers Conference. Instead, on two weeks' notice, I kicked it into high gear, did a complete edit, came up with a pitch with a little help from one of the Chrysalis angels (my beloved critique group). Thank you, Alice, you're a gem. Then I started fidgeting over the ending. I've rewritten it four times and am still not happy with it. I rearranged the first two chapters and am not sure it still makes sense. Or whether it ever did. I'm not sure I'm happy with any of it. It sags in the middle. Maybe I should start over and re-write it. Or go into hiding and forget the whole thing.

Invasion

It's early spring and time for the annual invasion of tiny ants. They stream in, goodness knows how--through narrow gaps at windows and outside doors--wave after wave, by the thousands. Their first line of attack this year was the desk in my upstairs office, where I spend about 80 percent of my waking hours. What would attract them there? I don't nosh at my desk; there are no crumbs or spills to lure them. Maybe that's why they changed course and moved their attack to the kitchen front. Much more profitable. I found hundreds of them in my supply of dried fruit. Many of them live, albeit briefly, in the dishwasher. I find them on countertops, in the cupboards, entire brigades marching across the hardwood floor, climbing walls, hiding in the coffee maker. I find them in my tea, in my hair, and, embarrassingly, on my neck or forehead while out to lunch with friends. They live in my sweaters and I'm constantly slapping and brushing when I feel a tickle on my scalp or in my armpit. Often it turns out to be just a stray hair, or nothing but my imagination. How long will it last? I don't use pesticides because we have two cats indoors. Two cats who sleepily watch the ants march by in front of their nose without twitching a whisker. My friend Laraine gave me a tip: spray them with Windex. They can't wash off the soapy coating and it suffocates them. What a boon for the Windex folks--you can go through bottles of the stuff and the ants just keep coming, undeterred by the corpses of fallen troops. But the house sure smells clean. Once the ant season has passed and peace comes again, I'll forget they were ever here, as I do every year, and when spring comes again next year, they'll take me entirely by surprise. Yet again.

The Power of Words

We take words for granted. They're the mundane work-a-day tools we use for communication. But once in awhile one strikes us for its clarity, its beauty, its unfamiliarity, or its misuse. In a well-written work you often see words used deliberately to shade, shape, or even politicize a message that might have been neutral had a different word been chosen.

I read an article in this morning's Oregonian on the topic of Social Security and other programs for the elderly. The source was the Washington Post. The author wrote: "...Democrats are sharply divided over whether to tackle popular but increasingly expensive safety-net programs for the elderly, particularly Social Security."

Can you guess which word I take exception to? It's the adjective "popular." There are any number of other adjectives he could have used, including, for example: "crucial," "life-saving," or "useful." Or he could have taken a completely neutral stance and not used an adjective at all. My question is: did he use "popular" deliberately or carelessly? Am I being overly sensitive or nit-picky when I interpret his word choice to suggest the programs are frivolous? When I think of the word "popular," I think of such usages as, "She was a popular girl in high school." "Baseball is a popular sport." "The Bahamas are a popular vacation spot."

When I think of Social Security, I recall all those paychecks I received with Social Security taxes deducted. I think of the years I was self-employed and paid significant amounts into Social Security to ensure I would receive benefits after I retired.

As I read the rest of the article, it seemed to be fairly even-handed, so perhaps I'm being unfair. On the other hand, I feel journalists have a responsibility to choose their words carefully and use them accurately. If the article had been an editorial, the bias would have been appropriate, but it wasn't. It was a news article. In this case the author allowed his bias to show through. But then, consider TV news as it's presented today. It's entertainment, it's biased, it's written to have shock value. The line drawn between news reporting and editorializing has been erased. For those who remember Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite, news reporting today has become no more trustworthy than the tabloids we thumb through as we wait in line at the supermarket.

What are your thoughts about this?

The Bewildering World of Publishing

Now that I've finished the first draft of my novel, I'm often asked whether I intend to publish it. I'm from a generation of writers for whom that question would seem ludicrous. Of course. If one writes, she dreams of being published. But that would not have been up to me. It's something the gods at the publishing companies would decide. I would lovingly pack my immaculately typed manuscript in a box and mail it off with a prayer that an editor would be drawn into my story with the first paragraph and not put it down until she'd turned the last page. I would get a letter in the mail--I picture the postman at my door asking me to sign for it--offering a contract with an advance. The editors would polish it until every word sparkled, make sure there were no embarrassing gaps in the plot, or characters who slip out of character, and soon I'd be flying from continent to continent signing books for my adoring readers. That was the dream, but the reality depended on someone in the ivory tower of publishing recognizing a story that would capture the hearts of its audience.

But it's an entirely different scene in the publishing world now, and it is, in fact, up to me whether I publish my book or not. The options are dizzying and I have steadfastly kept my eyes closed to that part of a writer's responsibility. "I'll think about that when the book is finished." Well, guess what. The time to think about it comes before you finish the book. It's the writer's responsibility to "build a platform," create a "following." In case the terms are unfamiliar to you in this context and you're picturing me standing on a soap box in the Park Blocks, it means I have to have a strong presence in the social network--people who check out my Facebook page daily and read my blog.

Reluctantly, I have stepped out into this unfamiliar and uncomfortable new world. Fortunately, when I started writing this book, I joined a critique group. I was extremely fortunate to have found one where the feedback is intelligent, helpful, and, most important, humane. Chrysalis is a critique group for women writers. It's free and open to as many as want to come. The leader, Pat Lichen, keeps us on track and makes sure no one exceeds the time allowed in reading their work. Now Chrysalis has a Facebook page where all of us can have a presence. And, thank you, Universe, a possible door into the bewildering world of publishing.

This past Sunday, the women of Chrysalis joined others in celebrating the launch of Puddletown Press, a new e-publishing company founded by two members of Chrysalis and another woman savvy in the business. I don't know whether this will be an avenue for my novel to find its way to an audience, but just being this close to the people who know how to make it happen has opened my eyes to the possibility. I don't have to go out on my own and try to figure out how it's done--I have access to the people who can tell me. Four of my Chrysalis friends now have their books out.

I still don't know which route I'll take--e-publishing, self-publishing (the least likely option), or submitting to a traditional publishing house--but at least I know what the options are. All I have to do is build my platform, start a fan club, and edit my book until it shimmies and shines and there are no embarrassing gaps in my plot.