Annie Laurie Cechini

It was a senior year English teacher at El Camino High School, however, that pushed her to nurture her natural gift for words and regain her confidence.

Today, the 1998 El Camino graduate is kicking off a new career as a full-time writer, already holding book signings for her debut novel, Liberty, a young adult work about a space captain navigating life after losing her ship and crew.

In an interview earlier this year with San Juan Unified School District’s marketing department, Chechini discussed what motivates her work, how she is a relentless self-editor and how young writers have more resources than ever to pursue their passion. Here are excerpts from the conversation:

Explain your book for us.
Liberty is about a teenage girl who has lost her family. And she’s a space captain. She’s trying really hard to be tough and run everything and find a little piece of the world that she feels safe in. And everything just keeps backfiring. She’s got bad guys chasing her for something that she feels like she has that she shouldn’t, and her friends get threatened, and it’s just a big fun mess.

Were you a sci-fi fan growing up? What inspired you to tell this story?
I’m kind of a very big geek. I had very, very long hair when I was five years old, and Return of the Jedi came out that year, so I kind of grew up thinking that I was Princess Leia. … There’s something about science and the fact that we don’t have all the answers yet that lends itself to more imaginative writing. Because there’s still just a little bit of magic in science and space – because there are so many things we still don’t understand – there’s a lot more wiggle room to do some really interesting things in science fiction.

The central character is trying to find her place and is overcoming obstacles. Did you draw on any personal experiences for inspiration?
When I wrote Liberty, I was trying to remove myself as far away from the character as I could. Some writers feel like they need to have a direct life experience that correlates, and for me, that’s just therapy that I don’t want to deal with. I would love to just leave that at the door and write interesting characters.

But inevitably what happens is little parts of you sneak in, and I think authors try really hard not to let that go completely crazy. But I know one of the things that was really hard is there’s this theme of loss in Liberty, and I know everyone has had experiences with loss, but the year that I wrote Liberty there were some pretty big losses in my life, and that kind of found its way in. I didn’t even notice it until I was talking to a writer.

This is your first novel. Had you had any other writing published before this?
When I was at El Camino, I actually tried to publish a poem I wrote, and I think it was soundly rejected for being kind of terrible.

That’s good experience, too, right?
It absolutely is a good experience, because rejection is a permanent aspect of being an author. The sooner you can learn to tolerate rejection, the better.

Was this book difficult to get published?
Yes and no. I actually tried to start writing full time in 2009, and the first novel I tried to write was a total train wreck. It was huge and cumbersome and just a disaster. Liberty I actually wrote for fun on kind of a lark. I finished writing in March and I signed a contract in January of the next year. That’s pretty quick.

Can you talk about submitting your work to publishers and what that process is like?
Just in the time that I’ve been writing, there have been incredible changes. And really good ones, too. The first manuscript, or query letter, that I ever sent out to an agent, I had to send him a big manila envelope … and now, everything is digital. And because everything is digital a lot of publishers, small presses, agents, anyone connected to the industry – they’re online, they’re on social media, they have blogs, they tell you exactly what they want. So once upon a time, you had to … try and figure out who was accepting your type of book and then figure out if they were querying or not. And sometimes they wanted manuscripts, and you would have no clue what they wanted, so you were just throwing stuff out there hoping something sticks. And it’s not very effective.

Now, you can go online and visit a site like Query Shark – it’s a blog that I love – and it will tell you what not to do in a query letter to an agent, and … you can look at agents individually and see what they’re looking for and what they represent. … There are so many great resources out there for the aspiring writer to get their career going.

Can you talk about why you dedicated Liberty to your grandfather (a former English teacher at Rio Americano)?
When I was a kid, I lost a sibling to cancer, a younger brother, and when I was 7 or 8 years old I was just an angry, angry nightmare child. My parents were going back to school, so we lived with my grandparents for a time, and my grandpa would give me grammar sheets … for me to play with. And I did, and I learned stuff.

Then I started hounding him to let me help him grade papers, and of course that was never going to fly. But he did let me help him correct text, and I just developed this fierce love of the red pen.

Do you use the red pen a lot on your own work?
Yes. I think that’s one of the best things that you can possibly develop as a writer: the ability to see your stuff, and see where it sucks, and learn how to fix it. If you’re not able to take that step back and say, “This really isn’t working,” then it’s really hard to progress as a writer. You have to be really critical of your own stuff.

This story is courtesy of the San Juan Unified School District.

To help the City of Sacramento save money, collecting your next batch of leaves from in front of your home may cost you more, particularly if you live in a very “leafy” neighborhood.

LEAF COLLECTIONS are often made with tractors in neighborhoods such as Land Park, Curtis Park, East Sacramento and the Pocket. / Photo courtesy, Steve Harriman

Yard waste collection is provided by the City’s Department of General Services. Residents with this service can place a single pile of yard waste, up to two cubic yards, between the sidewalk and the curb for collection.

This spring the Department of General Services will ask the City Council to place a measure on the November 2012 ballot repealing 1977’s Measure A, the law which prohibits the City from requiring containerized yard and garden collection.

“Our primary objective is not to raise rates for several years, but part of the challenge is it’s very inefficient and expensive to have two different green waste programs,” explained Steve Harriman, integrated waste manager. He said his office operates like a business and staff are currently looking at different scenarios for the collection programs.

“The monthly collection fees we charge customers pay for labor, employees, disposal of the material, equipment, maintenance and replacement,” Harriman said.

The City collects a total of 80,000 tons of green waste through the City’s two programs, the Containerized Yard Waste Collection Program and the Loose-in-the-Street  Collection Program.

City officials say that current rates for the Loose-in-the-Street program aren’t enough to pay for the program. An increase may need to occur to help the city’s budget.

Nearly 13,000 residents on the program pay $13.71 a month to have their bags collected. Only those on the program have their piled leaves on the streets picked up. If rates don’t increase, frequency of pick-up of leaf piles and lawn trimmings for those who don’t use green bins would have to be reduced.

“During leaf season, between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, the City collects nearly 27,000 tons of yard waste,” said Harriman. “Containers are not enough during this time of the year. The leaf collection program helps keep leaves from blocking storm drains and prevents decaying leaves from polluting our lakes and streams.”

Nearly 103,000 city residents use the 96 galloon green bins that the City provides, at a monthly rate of $10.35 for the weekly pick-up. They also benefit from the loose leaf service eight times a year. A majority of the residents on the program live in midtown, Land Park, Curtis Park, East Sacramento, the Pocket, and Del Paso Heights.

“It only takes one employee and one vehicle to pick up the bin collection, therefore using much less fuel, less traffic congestion,” Harriman said. “Versus the Loose-in-the-Street piles takes two employees and two vehicles with rear loaders and ‘claws’ that scoop up the leaves. The container program also leaves the street quite a bit cleaner, less spillage on the curb, less danger of leaves spilling over onto drains, less residue left behind.”

Brady Helmes lives in the leafy district of Curtis Park and said, “Leaf collection is a basic city service that should be funded through existing revenue. The goal is to have storm drains free from clogs and our neighborhoods looking clean. If this system doesn’t work, then we need to explore other options.”

City staffers are currently working with the Utilities Rate Advisory Commission to come up with new solutions.

“In the next couple of months, we’re also getting ready to go out into the community and neighborhood associations to ask for people’s input,” said Harriman.

One idea the City is playing with is having a bi-weekly collection for their curbside recycling collection.

OVER 27 THOUSAND TONS of leaves are collected by Sacramento’s yard waste collection staff. / Photo courtesy, Steve Harriman

“All the other jurisdictions inside Sacramento County pick up every other week. Weekly collection is very convenient and easy for customers, but it’s also very expensive,” Harriman added.

“We used to have it as a bi-weekly pick up in the past, and I think I can live with that if it keeps my monthly rate down,” said Land Park resident Pete Madefield.

The City offers containerized customers eight scheduled Loose-in-the-Street collections per year. To comply with state law, the City can only provide the service as it is defined onto those customers who are paying for it.

• January: Collection second full week
• February: Collection last full week
• May: Collection last full week
• October: Collection last full week
• November and December: Collection will be two times per month, however schedules may vary during leaf season

For more information about the Containerized Yard Waste and Loose-in-the-Street Service Guidelines log onto www.cityofsacramento.org/utilities/solid-waste-recycling.

Illegal dumping an issue for City collectors

City officials from the Waste Program are conducting “spot checks” of city streets to make sure there is no illegal dumping in neighborhoods.

“It’s a headache, people are abusing the program and it’s costing the City money that we could use in other places,” said Harriman. “Gardeners doing yard maintenance in other cities are driving their waste into the City of Sacramento and dumping it in neighborhoods where they know we have regular pickups.”

The Department of General Services has one code enforcement officer whose job is to locate and cite the illegal dumping.

“It’s a big city and the enforcement is difficult, especially when the dumping happens at night,” explained Harriman. “We’ve confronted a number of gardeners, but it’s also helpful if residents that see the illegal dumping report it so we can take action.”

Where does all the waste go?

Waste collections from city residents are not recycled back to Sacramento.

“The collected leaves are made into compost to fertilize agriculture lands and landscaped areas outside of Sacramento, “ explained William Skinner, collections superintendent. “Compost places in urban areas like Sacramento are hard to manage. They always have an odor that affects the neighboring homes.”

Yard waste consists of materials normally generated in the maintenance of gardens, yards, lawns, or landscaped areas whether residential, commercial or public. This includes leaves, grass clippings, plants, shrubs and pruning. State law says that 50 percent of all waste generated in the City of Sacramento is to be recycled.

The Department of General Services works with a private company that takes the collected material for different types of recyclable usage:

• Alternative daily cover goes to Yolo County Landfill. The garbage has to be covered with dirt and other material, such as yard waste to keep birds and other animals away from the landfill.
• Cogeneration facilities burn waste materials as a fuel source at Rio Bravo-Rocklin Power Station in Lincoln. The burning occurs mainly in the spring and summer months.
• Compost and mulch facilities turn waste into compost and this then goes to Napa County. The compost is mixed with manure and sold for agricultural use in the area.

elizabeth@valcomnews.com