Yesterday, my fabulous agent got me in touch with some other writers she represents. It’s really neat having these new friends to talk to – to go through this crazy writing/editing/publishing trip with. That said, I noticed that a few run the website YA Highway. Each Wednesday the site hosts a blog carnival, so I’ve decided to participate this week. Here we go!
NAME YOUR LIFE: What would your memoir be called?
Let’s be honest – my memoir wouldn’t be that great. I’m 28. I haven’t accomplished that much. But let’s ignore all that for right now. Let’s pretend I’m super interesting and important. And my book, instead of being a normal memoir, will be a book of essays, a la David Sedaris or Sarah Vowell.
And it would be called: Ready, Hup.
And here’s why:
Joining a circus was much like visiting a foreign country – you had to learn the language first. Starting on day one I had to learn a slew of new words that eventually became part of my normal speech. But the most important word was hup. Hup meant go. When about to do a trick, our partner or coach would yell “ready…hup” and then we went, whether we were ready or not. We’d whisper it to ourselves when coaches weren’t needed. We always went.
Even though I’m not an acrobat anymore, I still use hup. Whenever I’m afraid, i’ll say it. Because I love taking chances and seeing what they’ll bring. When I realized that teaching wasn’t for me, , I said hup and went to library school. When S asked to marry me, I said hup and said yes (actually, I kind of went “…..” but that’s another story). And with my book – something I always dreamed of accomplishing – I said hup and wrote every single day. I said hup and sent it around. I said hup to my agent. (Not really. I didn’t want her to think I was weird.) With work, life, or even love I use hup because it’s what pushes me to do the things I want to do, but may be too scared to try. My body was trained to go and I’m all the happier for it.
Because, really, what’s the worst that could happen? I’m not 30 feet in the air anymore and I know my limits. I know that, no matter how crazy my action is, there will always be a safety net waiting to catch me.
What would your memoir be called?
Lauren Gibaldi 
I think that’s a great life philosophy. So many of us, me included, get held back by fear even off it’s subconsciously. There is no reward without risk.
Great way of putting it. I say next time fear gets in the way, just think of me virtually yelling at you. 🙂
I don’t know about you being too young to write your memoir. Memoir authors are getting younger and younger all the time. (Have you heard about the 22-year-old Alice Ozma and her book The Reading Promise that came out from Grand Central Publishing last year? I am, morally, slightly jealous.) Besides. You were in a circus.
As for my memoir title . . . I’m stumped. I’m going to have to think on it.
Very true – age doesn’t matter. I mean, I think Bieber has a memoir now, too.
A fellow writer (upon reading my stuff) once asked me if I’d ever considered trying out the YA genre.
I’m still not sure how I feel about it.
Why not sure? You may be great at it!
…That is so cool.
😀
Thank you!
Love the title and the philosophy! Also, this is going to sound all Internet-stalkery but oh well! I clicked through from YA Highway, read your About page and we have something in common! I also went to Florida State, although I sadly never joined the circus. We’re the same age so we were probably there at the same time, too! 🙂 Small world…
Oh how cool! I just saw you’re a teacher and writer too (my turn to be Internet-stalkery)…did you major in English or Education? I was an English Lit major, with an education minor. Perhaps we had a class together? I’m excited to check out your books!
I actually didn’t major in either! I did my undergrad in music performance, although I did take enough English classes to get a minor. I took a Shakespeare class, a Critical Theory class, several writing workshops, and a few other lit courses I can’t remember. I would not be surprised if we had been in a class together at some point! 🙂
I went back to school in my hometown to get my teaching degree when my big musical dreams turned out to be not so lucrative! (So now I’m writing…I’ll never learn!)