A note on gratitude…
| My twentieth book (The Candymakers and the Great Chocolate Chase) came out this year. That feels like a big milestone when I worked so hard and dreamed so long of just writing one good enough to get published. I’ve thought a lot about gratitude over the years (Oprah really had something with that gratitude journal idea, or at least that’s where I first heard of it.) If you start writing down four things at the end of each day that you’re grateful for, you’ll spend your whole day looking for wonder, I promise you, and you’ll almost always find more than four.
In the Candymakers books Logan lists the things he’s grateful for each night before he goes to bed, and look how happy HE is! (although of course that might have something to do with living inside a candy factory, but you get the point. ;o). Top on my list for today (and every day) are my loved ones of course, but so are the readers out there opening book covers and falling into other worlds. You all know the power of being transported somewhere else, and returning to yourself feeling changed in some way. Thank you for taking my books with you on your journeys, and for trusting me to enough to let my stories live inside you. I will never take that for granted. Without the editors, librarians, teachers, and booksellers who have the seemingly magical gift of getting the right books into the right kids’ hands, I’d never be sitting here about to start book number twenty-one, so my deepest appreciation to you all. I wish everyone a happy, healthy, safe holiday season. A few thoughts to leave you with on gratitude, passion, and hard work…
If you’d like to order any personalized/signed books as gifts for the holidays (or anytime) you can do it through my local bookstore–I go in and sign them, they send them, someone reads them. Easy peasy! ps. Thank you anyone who has commented on previous blogs, and thank you for your patience in waiting for them to show up. pps: This was originally sent out to readers who signed up on the mailing list on wendymass.com, feel free to do that if you haven’t. Thanks!
|
Hi Wendy, I just wanted to say that one thing I’m greatful for is your books. I love how I can pick one up and know that I’ll love it because I’ve loved every book I’ve read that was written by you. I can’t pick a favorite because I like all of them for different reasons. One thing that I’ve noticed in your books that I like is how far ahead you have to think when writing. That’s not something that I can do easily. I also love how you can make really unbelievable things happen in totally believeable ways and deal with real life situations in an interesting and informative way without taking away from the story. I’m actually a writer myself but I’ve been dealing with writers block for months and I hate everything that I write even though people tell me that it’s really good but I feel like I can write better like the books that make you think while still maintaining suspended disbelief. Any idea on how I can improve my writers block…or the quality of my writing?
Thank you so much for your lovely thoughts! Just the way you put that comment together lets me know what a great writer you are. It’s true that you need to think ahead, but it’s not as hard as it sounds–i pretty much use the same format/process to write each book, even though they’re all (hopefully!) very different. In the “Resources” tab on my website you’ll find an article describing “blueprinting” your novel. This helps you plot things out ahead of time in an easy (ish!) and fun way. Maybe it will help you…other than that, keep reading and taking writing classes, you never know what will stick and be that “aha” moment. Have fun with it! All my best to you! Wendy
Hello!
I know CM2 only came out a few months ago but I was wondering if you have any plans on a third installment in the series.
Thanks,
Kainan Simonds
(if you ever make a candymakers movie, Im an actor. Just putting that out there XD)
Life is Sweet, coming fall 2024! And very cool on acting!! still hoping for a movie. 🙂
Dear Wendy,
I love all your books!!!! 🙂 They are amazing. My favorites are the Willow Falls books. There are so many mysteries!!! 🙂 I want to be an author too, so you are a really big inspiration. I wish I could meet you in person, but I know that that probably won’t happen. 😛 I hope I can write like you some day. You are amazing! 🙂 😛
From, Daisy
PS you’re books are great!!!:)
You’re very sweet, I’m glad I named a Candymakers character after you!!
Can you make any Twice Upon A Time books about:
* Mulan
* Snow White
* Jasmine
* Tiana
Or…
* Ariel
Please?
Thanks again!
Love your books so much!
🙂
i will put this in my “to think about” file. Thank you for reading!!
Hi Wendy I Just wanted to say that where I live there is a store called Apple Grove Antiques this is kind of weird after reading all your books
Ha, that’s so funny! Wonder if there’s a real Willow Falls, too. Probably somewhere!
Hi Wendy, I am a fourth grader and I absolutely love your books, especially the candy makers series. When I read your books it’s like a whole new world opens for me and I automatically start zoning out from everything happening around me except in the book. You are an incredible writer and I hope I can write books as well as you one day. Keep writing, Cecilie
Aw, thanks Cecilie (very cool name by the way!!). I hope you’re enjoying writing your own stories these days! xo, Wendy
That sounds so awesome, this really helped me because I’m doing a report on you in school and I needed to know more about you. Really want to get one of those signed books now. You are my favorite author I hope one day that I will meet you if you come to my school.
Hi, Wendy, I’m your reader, but I’m a Chinese girl. Your book is very interesting. I like it very much. I hope you can write more books. I like your mango cat best, it’s amazing, or it’s incredible, great! Of course, I really like you.
I’m so glad Mango was translated into Chinese and that you reached out to me. I hope the past few years have been good for you! Hugs! Wendy
Hello Wendy! I wonder if you are really reading this. I want to say that A Mango Shaped Space taught me that not everyone saw my name as a darkish blue with a little bit of green. It also made me realize why my dad looked at me so weird when I played with crayons and he asked my why I was playing with crayons I told him, “I’m not playing with crayons, silly! I’m playing with the colors!” Or when I got some letter making art and I asked my friend if she wanted one. She said ya and I asked her what letter and what color. She said a G and she didn’t care what color it was. I said orange cuz that’s the color of the letter. I haven’t seen her in a while…or when I was really little and I colored my first letter of my name, an A all the time. I only did it in red cuz that’s the color of A. My favorite color is blue so my sisters kept asking why I chose red and not blue. I told them, “it’s the color of the letter.” Honestly I love how funny those moments where looking back.
Oh wow, synesthesia! I’m glad to give you a way to show the people around you who don’t have it, what it’s like for you, and maybe you’ve uncovered more synesthetes along the way (even in your extended family!). It sounds like you already embrace your colorful world that the rest of us can only envy. :). Thank you for sharing, and I hope you enjoyed Mia’s journey. Best wishes to you!! -Wendy
Hi Wendy,
I just wanted to say that I read all your books and I would love to meet you someday. You are my favorite author and I have been reading your books since third grade. I am in 7th now and I have gotten my friends hooked on you too. I am so happy about your twentieth book. Congrats!! I used to hate reading but because of you I now love to read and want to be an author someday. This is getting long and i know you have better things to do than read this comment (like writing!!!) thanks for being amazing!!!!!!
Your friend and loyal reader (always :D)
-Libby
P.S. Please, please, please consider putting my name or middle name’ (Morgan) in your next book!!! Nothing would make me happier!
Hi Libby! It’s been a few years and now 20 books have turned to 30 and you’ve probably already written your first novel (if you still enjoy writing, that is!). Thank you so much for sharing my books with your friend, and for reaching out. I hope your journey has been grand!! xo, Wendy
I have read a few of your books and noticed that in the candymakers 2 the meet mia from a mango shaped space. I would like to know more about any other things like this such as do they meet anyone else in the book?Have you done this an any other books? Please reply soon!
Hi! So glad you noticed the cameo in that book. I put a few others in there from other books, too (Jeremy Fink, and Every Soul a Star). I hadn’t done crossovers like that before, but thought it would be fun for eagle-eyed readers like you. 🙂
Hello Wendy,
My daughter loves your books and is hoping you are planning to write another Candymakers book… she is just finishing up the second. Any chance you’re planning a third?
No plans for a third at this point but please thank your daughter for enjoying my books. Tell her it means a lot to me. 🙂
Dear Wendy Mass,
You are an AMAZING AUTHOR!
You insipired me to write stories that I hope to one day publish!
The Great Chocolate Chase (which I read and finished the day it was released) was no exception for you amazing writing skills! I have to say, it made me cry hard when I finished the book because I was happy, yet confused until I realized what it meant, I also cried because it was over. I think that it was EXTREMELY kind of you- no that’s an understatement- it was awesome-sauce of you to include the ideas that people (such as myself) had for the slogan for the Harmonicandy!
You are such an awesome-sauce person and I cannot wait to read your next book!
From,
Eleanor
Dear Eleanor
I can feel that same way when I finish reading a good book and writing a book. It can feel like you are saying a big goodbye to the characters. Thank you for sharing this. xo
I love Wendy mass thank you especially for the willow falls series!!!!!!!
Dear Wendy Mass,
I just want to start off this comment by saying how much I LOVE your books! My personal favorites are The Candymakers series, and Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life, although all your books are great! I just finished reading the Great Chocolate Chase, and I absolutely loved it! I just couldn’t get enough of it! I was just wondering if the whole Candymakers Movie thing was still a thing, because I remember you posting about is awhile ago, but I haven’t seen anything about it. I was also wondering if you accept fan mail, because there are many more things that I would like to ask that would make a very long comment. Thanks for the great books,
Ethan
Hey Ethan! So glad you liked those books!! I know it’s been a while since movie news, but still hoping!! Maybe a TV series? I feel like the movie biz is so unusual in that things more REALLY SLOWLY but then REALLY FAST when something is underway. So will continue hoping! :o) Thanks for writing me about it!! 🙂 Wendy
Dear Wendy Mass,
I am 14 years old and a huge fan of your book A Mango Shaped Space! I had never heard of something like Synesthesia before, and I’ve done so much research on it since. It’s just so fascinating, I wish I had it! I think your such a great writer, and I really hope you write another book in addition to A Mango Shaped Space. I’m actually supposed to be writing a biography you right now, but I need some more information about you…current life & at least two in text citations. Thanks so much!!
-Sarah(:
Hi Sarah
Thank you for loving Mango so much to do a report on it. This reply might be a little too late but you can find a bunch of info on me in this very website in the about me section and there is more info on the fun stuff page. Hope this helps. 🙂
Hi Wendy mass,
I love your books and everything about them. When I read your books I feel as if I am in another world. I hope that all your books go well and you are the best author in the world.I hope everything goes well you are the best! I have always wanted to meet you! You are such an inspiration to me. Hope to see you soon.
You are so lovely, thank you!! I hope we get to meet, too!!
🙂
Wendy
Hi, so I really love your books!! I was wondering, will there be an Ever Soul a Star sequel? cause it’s my FAVORITE book of yours and one of my favorites overall. In fact, I’m going to see the solar eclipse this year and I’m so excited because of that book. I think it would be really cool if you could write about Ally, Jack and Bree after the eclipse and then when they meet up again at the next star party. Thanks!! keep up the amazing work!
-Rachel
Hi Rachel! I hope you got to see the eclipse in 2017 after all, and I’m so glad you enjoyed the book! There isn’t a sequel, but I do give the characters an important scene in my book The Candymakers and the Great Chocolate Chase, so you’d see them again if you read that one. Your comment is making me think that it really would be fun to revisit that book. Hmm…thinking now! ;o). xo, Wendy
Wendy, I just wanted you to know that one of the very first book reviews on our new site is by a ten-year-old who loves “Candymakers.” You can see the review at http://www.kidseyebooks.com. Feel free to share it – Thanks!
Dear Wendy Mass,
Congratulations on your twentieth book! (I’ve probably read all of them!!) And I’m glad your twentieth book was CM2 because that book was stellar and I can’t wait for book 3! I also can’t wait more of your books to come!
-A Huge Wendy Mass Fan
P.S. If you make CM3 could you possibly make Daisy and Phillip happen? I’m a Daisy and Phillip Shipper. And if you would some more of your other book characters in the book! These are just suggestions though, you don’t have to use them. 🙂
Love the Daisy/Phillip shipper! I wouldn’t be surprised if something blossomed there when they get older. It could be fun to think about what could happen after that book, but those books are pretty hard to write (and long!) so I’m not sure I’d be able to do it again. ;o). But maybe! :o) Thanks for the kind words! xo, Wendy
I am very grateful for your books. I am excited to get the next candymakers book. I have just finished reading the willow falls series. I LOVE that series. I just read Graceful and I loved it as well, but I need some clarification on why you ended Rory’s story the way you did. Thank you so much.
HI! so glad you liked them! with Rory at the end of Graceful, I just felt like it wouldn’t be realistic if everyone wound up having the future based on where they were in their childhood, if that makes sense without giving anything away…
All my best!
Wendy
Wendy I really enjoy your books! The Willow Falls series has to be my faveorite❤️I think you should make movies based on those books (11 Birthdays, Finally, 13 Gifts, The Last Present, and Graceful) they would be so interesting and sold out everywhere!! Just a thought because I know everyone would enjoy the movies just as much as the book????♀️I hope you take this thought to some consideration. Amanda, Leo, Tara, Rory, David, Grace, and Angelina would love to be brought to life????
Aw, thanks! I really hope they become a movie or TV series, too. That stuff is really out of my hands though, but I’ll cross my fingers and toes!! Thank you for the support with it!! xo, Wendy
Hi Wendy, i just wanted to say that the Candymakers is really good and now I am reading a Mango Shaped Space and so far it’s really good. I want to read a lot of your other books too.
I love your books! I’m 12 and I read The Candymakers and A Mango shaped space. They are soooooooooooooooo good! Keep up the good work, I look forward to more great books:)
I know you might not get a lot of fan mail from 26 year old guys, but I’m an educator and picked up Every Soul a Star from the library where I volunteered (in South Africa!) three short years ago. Yesterday, I finally realized my #1 dream since then, of traveling to a wonderfully rural setting to catch an eclipse with my own eyes. Your novel brought to me a sense of nostalgia for something I had never experienced, yet the reality actually lived up to it in the most surprising ways. Not so much the eclipse: I was unfortunately unable to make out Bailey’s Beads, and was too busy looking up to see the racing shadow! But the sense of finding home, transition, and friendship that the characters experience, proved just as relevant to me as it was them. Amazingly, the motion of two spheres of matter can stop us all and teach so much about perspective and beauty. And fittingly with your blog post, the greatest lesson for me was about gratitude, that we are here to experience this at all. Thanks for planting the seed of an epic journey, for which the stars truly did align.
Thank you so much for sharing your journey and experience, I’m truly honored and agree with your assessment! That’s amazing that you went to see the eclipse from where you were (and how odd/interesting where you found the book!! I love how they take on a life of their own!). If it makes you feel any better, when I traveled for the eclipse I pretty much forgot everything I’d learned from the book of what to look for! I was too taken by the daytime-darkness. That turned out to be the thing that struck me the most. Now looking forward to the next one in 2024 where I’ll try to remember to pay more attention!;o). I hope the last few years have brought you even more adventure! Wishing you clear skies! 😉 Wendy
Hi Wendy you are my favorite author. I have read Every Soul a Star and it is my second favorite book. My favorite book is A Mango-Shaped Space and I’m only half-way done reading it! I have grapheme-color synesthesia, spatial-sequence, Chromesthesia (But not as bad), Ordinal linguistic personification, and my mom can feel if numbers and letters are hot or cold. She also has grapheme-color synesthesia. I was wondering if that website you mentioned in the story is real. If it is, can you please reply to this this comment with the link? Thx!
P.S.
I love to paint too. I think it has to do with the colors like maybe synesthetes can see more colors than other people.
Hi, I’m sorry I didn’t see this earlier and I’m sure by now you’ve found many resources for you as there is much more info on synesthesia online now than when I wrote the book with a fictional website. I love hearing about the types of synesthesia that you have, so interesting!! Feel free to share more about it works for you. And with your mom, I’d never heard about temperature factoring in, that’s really fascinating. If it wasn’t too late, I’d add that to the book!! I really like your theory about painting, it could very well be true! An unusually large number are artists of all types. Thank you for reaching out and sharing! I’m so glad you found the book! All my best wishes to you, and enjoy your colorful world. 🙂 Wendy
Dear Wendy,
I have been on the Battle of the Books team for three years and this summer I hated every book I read. I was thinking about not joining the team but then I started reading your book “The Candymakers”. I loved it so much and it was the fist book I finished in about five months. I feel like if I had not picked up this book i would not have joined the Battle of the Books team and not have been motivated to read and eventually fallen behind in school. I am so excited to start reading your sequel.
Hey there! I’m so honored that it motivated you, and that you found it (or that the book found you! That happens a lot, I truly believe that half the books I’ve read have found me and not the other way around!). I hope the last few years have been full of more books for you, and wish you the best!! 🙂
Wendy
Dear Ms. Mass aka Passion Sharer,
Thank you for sharing your gifts with the world. You have touched my family (1 son, 2 daughters, and myself) in a very special way. We are NEW fans of the Willow Falls series. I am extremely grateful of our moments in the car listening to your books. You have given me many sacred moments of peace and pure joy such as: * no bickering, pinching, arguing siblings in the car, * family dialogues about which characters we will encounter next, * a pet toad named Rory after your character * quiet sanity time for myself during a divorce and career change, * being a role model as a real person modeling living life as God intended, etc. I am THANKFUL for you doing YOU! And to think I have only read 2.5 books of yours…. I CAN NOT WAIT TO ENJOY the Wendy Mass roller coaster of awesomeness. You go girl! Sincerely, A Mother, A Teacher, and A Fellow Woman of Gratitude (Stacy)
Hi Stacy! Ah, keeping kids quiet in the car is every author’s goal, lol! I’m SO glad you guys found the Willow Falls books! Do you really have a new pet toad named Rory?? I’m honored!!!! Poor Rory in the book, I had such fun making things go wrong for her. I still giggle when I think about her, ;o). Your note was really sweet, thank you for connecting with me and for letting me connect with you through the books, it’s a privilege that I don’t take lightly xo! Hugs to you and your wonderful kids!!
I just finished “Heaven looks a lot like the Mall”. I’m 55 years old and got this book recommended from Google. It was one of ten listed but caught my eye. I know this is young adult but I love to read no matter. I just have to say I LOVE this book and went right out a bought a copy for my granddaughter to read. Wonderful dosen’t do it justice. Great book!!
Hi Hope, that is SO nice to hear! I really enjoyed writing that book and don’t get to hear much feedback about it. I’m glad you stumbled across it! I felt like my daughter was finally ready to read it and I don’t have any copies in my house. I’d have to buy my own book lol! ;o).
Thanks again!
Wendy
Dear Ms. Mass,
I love your book, The Candymakers and its sequel. The Chocolate Chase ended on a cliff-hanger for me! I was wondering when they would use the special chocolate. Would you please reconsider writing another book in this great series? My friends and I really enjoyed these books and are very much hoping that you will consider continuing the story from where it left off?
We read this book in Literature and did a group project where we selected the 5 most suspenseful moments in the first novel. We had fun making our presentation and we will enjoy giving it to the class.
My favorite character in your book was Daisy because she was super secretive and fun. This book series is one of my all time favorites. I hope you will please reconsider writing more in this series!
Your fan,
LAS
Hi LAS!! SO fun that you chose 5 moments from the first book, I’m curious what they were. I edited out a few spoilers from your note (sorry about that!!) but to answer your question…I’m not sure what would happen after Book 2…or even who the character was who the last paragraph shows. (trying not to give things away lol). It’s a mystery to me too! Maybe that’s why the next book in the series is a prequel, so I don’t have to figure that out lol. Thanks to you and your friends for diving into the books! :o)
All my best!
Wendy