Teaser Tuesday: The Dead-Tossed Waves tour

Hey Y'all! It's Tuesday and I'm back to share more about the upcoming release of The Dead-Tossed Waves. Yesterday I was THRILLED to get an actual real got-to-hold-it-in-my-hands copy of the book. SQUEE!! Here's a picture of my cat no looking nearly as thrilled as I was:

And yes! That's a picture of both the hardcover of DTW *and* the rejacketed hardcover of The Forest of Hands and Teeth. So if you ever wanted a copy of FHT with the old jacket, now's the time to snag it from the store if you find it. From what I've been told, all the copies left in the warehouse are now bearing this new cover! Yay!

I also got word last week that I'll officially be touring for DTW in March (!!!) and here's where I think I'll be going so far (this could, of course, change as we get closer): Baltimore + DC, NYC (and area), Chicago, Detroit + Lansing, Seattle, San Francisco. I'm also trying to set something up in Atlanta and of course my hometowns Charlotte & Greenville :)

I'll add details as I get them - so excited!!!

Words.

Sometimes coming up with a first line for a blog (after taking way too long of a hiatus) is just as hard as coming up with a first line for a book!  So I'm just going to jump right in :)  A few times this year, someone's asked me what advice I have for writers.  I actually love this question because I love to see how OTHER people answer it.  I'm constantly wanting to change my answer and offer caveats because there are no rules in writing and to ever talk in absolutes in the writing world can often get you in trouble (there is always an exception to every rule but that's for another blog).

But there is one absolute rule that I have: if you want to be a writer, you have to write.  Not every day, not every month but at the end of the day/week/month/year/decade, you should have more words on the paper than you did at the start.

Writer's write.  Writers may also blog, tweet, critique, whine (I'm a fan of that), outline, vlog, etc., but they all write.  Or should write (and that's a topic for another blog as well).

As some of you who've been around my blog for a while might remember, back in 2006 I started on what I called the Ten Year Plan.  It was a pretty basic plan: I would write and seek publication for 10 years without quitting.  If I didn't make it in ten years, then I could re-evaluate.  Really, it was my way of dedicating myself to the task of seeking publication and giving myself enough time to really truly see if I could do it.  Also, I was hoping that if I said I had to do it for 10 years that I wouldn't wuss out when I got rejected or thought it was too hard.

At the end of that first year, I counted up the words I'd written that year: 171,701 (you can see the post here - the project without a name that I mentioned is The Forest of Hands and Teeth).

I could probably go back and tally how many words I've written in the years since then (and might once I'm out from under this deadline) but after re-reading that post I became curious about how many words I'd written in 2009.  Here's my tally (and they're rough cause I failed to keep a proper log this year and can only look at the documents I have):

The Dead-Tossed Waves: (first draft written in 2008 but about 50,000 words added in edits in 2009)

Untitled Book Three in Untitled Series:  85,000
Short Story 1: 10,500
Short Story 2: 5,100
Other Short Story starts: 3,500
Cut Files: 190,000
Other Projects: 4,000

TOTAL WORDS IN 2009:  348,100

And yes, looking at the sheer size of my cut files (which I always name "errata and lost words") makes me a little sick to my stomach (okay, a lot sick to my stomach).  Also, I find it REALLY interesting that my output of words is about double what it was in 2006 - I'm not sure I ever would thought that to be the case.

So what do I have to show for those words?  The Dead-Tossed Waves will be out March 9, 2010 and those two short stories should be out in the fall of 2010.  The Untitled Book Three in Untitled Series will be out in Spring 2011.

I never wrote down my goals for 2009 so I'm not sure what I was expecting to accomplish, but I'm pretty darn happy with what I ended up with!  Speaking of goals, I guess I should start thinking of those for 2010... hmmm....

Countdown to the FHT paperback release!

Yes, this is what I do when I'm avoiding other things :)  It makes me feel productive while also tapping into my laziness.  Anyway, I thought I'd post this here -- I had no idea there were that few days until the paperback of The Forest of Hands and Teeth releases - ack!  I happen to have a copy of the paperback in my hands right now and it's so gorgeous that I've found myself staring at it quite often (another form of procrastination).  I'll post pics this week!

Also... I've heard some people say that these kind of sprout thingies (look at that fine tech lingo there) slows down pages and gets annoying.  If that's the case, just let me know and I'll take this down soas not to slow down my blog loading.

So here you go!

Random things I sometimes wonder...

What if the The Forest of Hands and Teeth weren't woods full of zombies? What if, instead, The Forest of Hands and Teeth were an accessory shop? How creepy would that be?

What would it have? Fake Fangs? Nail extensions?

Teaser Tuesday: The Dead-Tossed Waves

Over the next weeks, I'll try to post more information about The Dead-Tossed Waves in the run up to its release on March 9, 2010.  Today, I'm posting a snippet of the opening:

The story goes that even after the Return they tried to keep the roller coasters going.  They said it reminded them of the before time.  When they didn't have to worry about people rising from the dead, when they didn't have to build fences and walls and barriers to protect themselves from the masses of Mudo constantly seeking human flesh.  When the living weren't forever hunted.

They said it made them feel normal.

I'm so super excited about this book coming out!

Happy Birthday to me!!!

I'm pretty terrible about remembering birthdays (except my own) and am always feeling terrible when I forget to call or email someone to wish them the best.  My grandmother used to say that if anyone forgets your birthday it's your own fault and after pondering that for a while, I agreed with her.  Since then, I make it a point to announce my birthday loud and clear :)  I know some people are more demure than that but they all must have a better memory than I do!

New years and birthdays tend to be the times when people reflect on where they are and where they're going and since these days come pretty close to each other for me, it means I spend the first part of the year thinking about such things.  I dashed off a few resolutions this year (including blogging more - whee look at me go!) but I still need to sit down and really pay attention to what I want to accomplish this year.  Perhaps resolutions isn't the right word but goals.

I have a lot I want to do this year (which I shall blog about soon).  And I have a lot I'm proud of from last year (which I will also blog about soon).  In fact, there's a lot I want to blog about -- some people have asked me to write about my schedule, to talk more about The Dead-Tossed Waves, and I want to do a series on how I found an agent since that's a question I get asked about a lot at events.  If there's anything y'all would like me to talk about in the coming weeks, just let me know in the comments!

Now if you'll excuse me, JP snuck out of the house this morning so he could bring me bagels in bed (little did he know I'd be up and at work earlier than usual!).