Carrie's Procrastinatory Outlet

Writing Workshop in Charlotte

2011-12-11T05:04:00.001+04:30

Hey Y'all! Just wanted to let you know about a writing workshop I'll be giving at the Myers Park branch of the Mecklenburg County Library (Charlotte, NC) on Tuesday, December 13, 2011 at 6:00 PM. Here's a link for more info!

I hope to see you there!!

Teen Read Week in Florida! [updated with B&N event]

2011-10-17T23:29:00.004+04:30

I love Teen Read Week and I also love the sun which is PERFECT because I'll be spending the latter half of Teen Read Week in Florida this year! WAHOO! You can find all the details on the flyer below or by checking out the events page of my website. I hope I'll see y'all there!!!

UPDATED TO ADD! I'll also be doing an event at the Melbourne, FL B&N on Friday at 6PM! It's the perfect time of year to be talking about zombies so I hope to see you there! More details here.

A few odds and ends on events and stories

2011-10-03T19:16:00.000+04:30

I've been writing a lot recently and when I write I tend to go blog quiet because I don't really know what to talk about. I've never been comfortable sharing details of what I'm working on and all my other blog ideas get turned into tweets or forgotten. But I can say that I've just finished up another short story (not set in the Forest of Hands and Teeth world) and I'm excited about it and the other stories I'll have coming out in the next while! In fact, I should probably write a whole post about my upcoming short stories... I'll start working on that!

MEANWHILE, I have odds and ends to share!

First up, EVENTS! I'm leaving first thing in the morning (Tuesday) for Detroit to meet up with Melissa Marr and Jennifer Lynn Barnes and then we're driving to Lansing, MI to meet Simone Elkeles, Rachel Caine and Melissa de la Cruz for the Smart Chicks Kick it Tour! WAHOO!! Here are the details.

I was so lucky to be able visit Schuler Books and Music for The Dead-Tossed Waves tour and it's an absolutely fantastic store full of really wonderful and passionate booksellers. I'm so thrilled to be returning!!

I'll also be traveling to Florida the weekend of October 21-22 to celebrate Teen Read Week with a bunch of visits scheduled. Preliminary details are here and I'll update my appearances page as soon as I know more! I can't wait!!!

Another event that will be chock full of YA/MG authors is YALLfest in Charleston, SC the weekend of November 11-12. Check out all they have going on here.

Then in December I'll be giving a teen writing workshop right in my backyard in Charlotte, NC. I'm really really excited about this and will post more info when I have it. The Myers Park Branch of the Mecklenburg County Library system will be hosting and the event will be open to area teens. Yay!

Next, I've had a few recent RELEASES!

ENTHRALLED: Paranormal Diversions, a collection of stories edited by Kelley Armstrong and Melissa Marr just came out last week! You can read more about it and order it from your local indie here.

My short story is SCENIC ROUTE and is set soon after the zombie apocalypse that leads to The Forest of Hands and Teeth. It's about two sisters who hide out on top of a mountain where they think they're safe and plan for the day they can take the ultimate road trip.

I'm really happy that this anthology has been getting some fantastic reviews! Of Scenic Route, VOYA says, "the suspense and violence of which will please fans of The Forest of Hands and Teeth" and Kirkus says, "allows for the sometimes-neglected horror implied in paranormal stories to be spotlighted, as in Carrie Ryan's zombie thriller, 'Scenic Route.'"

About the collection as a whole SLJ writes, "These consistently well-written stories offer something for every taste, whether it’s dark, edgy, and violent or funny and sweet."

So congrats to Kelley and Melissa for putting together such a strong anthology and thanks for letting me be involved!

Another recent release I have a piece in is DEAR BULLY. You can learn more about it and order it from your local indie here. This is a collection of tons of YA/MG authors talking about bullying and their experiences. My contribution, Dear Caroline from Canada, is a letter I wrote to a girl I became friends with on a cross-country bus tour of the US.

Caroline really changed my life that summer though I'm sure she has no idea. She taught me to not listen to gossip, to stand up for people and to be compassionate even if it risks your own reputation. Now if only I could find her to send her that letter...

So I guess I now need to go put some laundry in, run errands and pack before heading out to Detroit in the morning! If you're in the Lansing, MI area come out to the Smart Chicks tour tomorrow evening! I promise it will be loads of fun!!!

Foretold Announcement!

2011-09-21T09:37:00.000+04:30

I have news! Super exciting news that I've been sitting on for ages but that I can finally finally share! I sold a book! An anthology, actually, and I'm so in love with the authors involved that I can hardly contain myself! The title is FORETOLD and it's a collection of stories about prophecies and predictions that will be coming out in the Fall of 2012.

Here's the official announcement from Publishers Marketplace:

NYT bestselling author Carrie Ryan, ed.'s FORETOLD, an anthology about prophecies and predictions featuring stories by Laini Taylor, Jen Lancaster, Meg Cabot, Richelle Mead, and Michael Grant among many others, to Krista Marino at Delacorte, for publication in Fall 2012, by Jim McCarthy at Dystel & Goderich Literary Management.

Here's my response: SQUEEEEEEE!!!!

Here's the list of authors as it stands now (this isn't the final list -- once it's final I'll make sure to post the updates)!

Meg Cabot
Richelle Mead
Jen Lancaster
Michael Grant
Laini Taylor
Heather Brewer
Lisa McMann
Kami Garcia
Margaret Stohl
Matt de la Peña
Malinda Lo
Diana Peterfreund
Saundra Mitchell

This entire experience has just been a total dream and I still pinch myself when I get emails from these authors because I'm such a huge fan of their work! It's been truly awe-inspiring to have had the chance to work with such wonderful and creative and just flat out amazing writers. I can't wait to share their stories with you because they rock!

I promise that when I have more info to share (covers, details, etc etc) I'll post them here! YAY!!!

The Impact of One Person

2011-09-08T21:03:00.006+04:30

There are two things that led me to start this post. First was a video by John Green about the impact author Ilene Cooper had in his life by mentoring him through the writing of Looking for Alaska. Second was the news that my former high school director, Bill Dingledine, was in a cycling accident that sent him to the ICU. The good news is that it looks like he'll be okay - thank goodness he was wearing a helmet!

In his video John says that the only reason Looking for Alaska exists, the only reason he has a job writing books, etc., is because of Ilene and it made me realize that all along the paths of our lives there are people who have such influence on who we are and where we're going that without them... we wouldn't be where we are.

Bill Dingledine is one of those people for me.

I like to think that when you begin a story it's like you're standing at the base of a tree and you look out at all the myriad of branching possibilities before you with no clear path where the story will lead you. But when you get to the end of the story -- way out onto the very tips of one of those highest branches -- you can look backward and see the inevitability of the path to where you've come. There is a direct line from the base of the tree, through all the splits and choices, to where you are now.

Life is like this too. And when I look back over the many forks that have led to where I am today I realize that Bill Dingledine was there guiding my way and helping me forward. He was a teacher and an administrator who encouraged all students and made every one of us feel unique and important. I remember sitting in his office when he called Williams College to find out if I'd been admitted early decision (which means he's the one who got to give me the good news).

When I found myself home from college one summer without a job, Bill hired me to teach SAT prep classes for him (he'd moved on from his job at my former high school to running The Princeton Review in my hometown). It was through this job that I learned confidence in myself and in standing in front of large groups of teens which has proven hugely useful for when I'm on tour.

He encouraged my interest in cycling and let me tag along for races, helping out where I could. When I graduated from college he again offered me a job which led to me teaching the LSAT which led to me scoring high enough on that test to get into Duke Law (which led to me meeting my husband, falling in love with zombies and writing The Forest of Hands and Teeth). And throughout all of that Bill probably wrote a dozen letters of recommendation on my behalf: for various schools, for jobs, for fellowship applications.

In essence, Bill was always a cheerleader and he never once told me "No, you can't do that," or "No, I don't have time for you." And there's so much more that I learned from Bill as well. He's someone who volunteers at the local Soup Kitchen every week and someone who shows a tremendous amount of compassion. And as you can imagine, being the head of a high school with a last name like Dingledine probably wasn't the easiest thing in the world but he was always willing to laugh at himself -- volunteering to be the fall man in school skits if it was for a good cause. He showed up to soccer games and field hockey games and school plays not just to cheer on his own kids, but to cheer on all of us.

Sometimes I think it's the way of teachers and administrators that they put so much effort into their students and then we go out into the world and we tackle life and so often we never realize the impact of those individuals on our lives. The English teacher to encouraged us to keep writing (Mrs. Carter), the Biology teacher who instilled in us a love for the macabre (Mr. Titmus) or the first grade teacher who so enthusiastically loved all her students that we couldn't help but take risks, knowing she was there to support us and catch us if necessary (Mrs. Cochran).

Too often we grow up and forget to thank those people who helped us get where we are today. It shouldn't take hearing that they've been in an accident to do so and while I've thanked Bill in the past, I'm not sure he knows just how much he's impacted my life. I wouldn't be who I am and where I am if it wasn't for his boundless love and support and for that I am eternally grateful. Thank you, Bill for being such a loving mentor, ardent cheerleader, and for being so giving with your time and energy! I know I'm not the only one whose life you changed.

A Night in Paris

2011-08-15T20:34:00.000+04:30

When the waiter at the restaurant overlooking Notre Dame suggested my husband and I stay for un cafe or another glass of wine, perhaps we should have listened. I'd been sitting with my back to the river and he had a perfect view of the oncoming storm. Hand in hand, JP and I strolled across the bridge while to our left the clouds gathered.

"Those clouds look ominous, maybe we should go back?" one of us suggested but the other waved the idea away. We'd already been caught in the rain once today and scurried under one of the bridges crossing the Seine where we stumbled on an impromptu street magician show. It turned into a entertaining foray -- damp Parisians and tourists huddled around a man with fewer teeth than buttons on his morning coat as he spent time queuing up C+C Music Factory on his iPod.

"We'll just dash back under a bridge if the storm breaks," we decided as we moved farther and farther away from the shelter of the restaurant awning. Besides, the hour-by-hour weather forecast we'd checked that afternoon indicated the night should be clear.

The first drops hit as we crossed the bridge from Ile de la Cite to the right bank of the Seine. We ran for the steps down to the waterfront only to find them barricaded with a guard to dissuade entry. Our next best option was a row of trees dotting the road.

"It can't storm as hard as before," one of us said as my husband put his back to the tree, tucking me in his arms while the spread of branches above kept the first stirrings of rain from reaching us.

When the wind began and the water came at us sideways, we knew we were in trouble. We were still against the Seine and the other side of the street was nothing but a parade of blank facades -- not an awning or overhang to be seen.

There was a moment we both wondered if this would ruin our night. It had already been such a fantastic day -- we'd arrived in Paris just before noon and had time to stroll around this brand new city before settling into a hotel that was even better than we'd imagined. We'd spent the afternoon wandering -- every street a wonder of beauty and history that was overwhelming in scope.

I stood on my toes and kissed my husband, in the rain, under a tree during a storm in Paris. We both laughed. What does a little bit of rain matter when you're in love in a city that's designed for such a thing?

We assumed we were as drenched as we were going to get before we stepped out of the ineffective shelter of the tree. We were wrong. But somehow, that didn't matter. As we strolled along the streets, cars splashing by, we wondered when the last time was we'd played in the rain. Suddenly it felt so adult-ish to fear a bit of falling water -- we felt free and giddy as we passed by bus shelters packed full of half-dry people huddled against the wind swept drops.

Eventually the rain ended and the night cleared as we made our way back to the hotel holding hands. A few people tucked neatly under umbrellas laughed at us when they scurried past but we weren't the ones to feel sorry for. We were loving this night!

We stopped at a light and glanced across the street where a large stone arch stretched between construction sites and, on a whim, we decided to cross and check it out, not sure where it led. As we walked through the stone entrance we found a group of Parisians, huddled away from the last dregs of rain and passing around bottles of red wine in white plastic cups. Their laughter echoed, following us as we stumbled into a massive courtyard.

The rain washed everyone from the streets, those few who remained were still tucked under anything that could afford a bit of shelter. But we were already soaked so what did a few wayward drops mean to us?

That's how we found ourselves, utterly alone, in the Cour Carree of the Louvre. It was breathtaking, even more so for being totally unexpected. We'd known we were close to the Louvre but during the day it had been so packed with tourists it was impossible to know that such a courtyard even existed. It was by total accident we'd ended up here now.

Lights reflected off the fountain and puddles as we walked around, gazing through windows at ceilings covered with frescos. With damp fingers we held hands, strolling through the night wondering what life was like hundreds of years ago when the ornately decorated walls protected kings and queens.

When we made our way into the Cour Napoleon, known for its steel and glass pyramid, a few more people were tempting the post-storm night, most of them setting up cameras to capture the emptiness. We strolled among them, marveling how just hours ago this space had belonged to thousands who crowded through it and now it belonged to so few.

It felt like the night was ours, that Paris belonged to us. The weather was clearing, the Eiffel Tower glowing bright across the Seine. We tried to take a picture but the night was still too dark around us and besides, the memory burned deeper than any photo could capture.

ALA 2011

2011-07-01T23:55:00.001+04:30

WOW! I feel socrazy lucky to have had the chance to attend three library-focused conventionsthis year: ALA Midwinter in San Diego, TLA in Austin in April and ALA Annual inNew Orleans. At each one I had thechance to meet so many amazing new people and run into old friends. Also, since I’m terrible at sayinggood-bye, it’s been kinda nice being able to say, “I’ll see you in a few monthsat the next convention!”

And of course, as usual, I totally neglected to take manypictures (why do I always fail at this!?).

ALA began for me on Thursday, flying into NOLA and meetingJackson Pearce at the airport (we were renting a car together). Jackson rightly pointed out thatsomehow we’ve ended up seeing each other every two months for several years… itjust seems to work out that way (which makes me quite happy since Jackson is somuch fun!).

We drove into the Garden District where friends had rented ahouse so in a sense the whole trip was part writing retreat and part ALA. The house was really awesome -- one ofthose big rambly types with bathrooms hidden in odd nooks. Plus it had a pool table/ping pongtable that got lots and lots of use J

Friday I headed down to Beau Monde to meet Laini Taylor, herhusband and editor for beignets. So tasty and fully of powdery suger goodness? We ambled around the French Quarter for a while as I triednot to fangirl all over Laini because I’m such a massively huge fan of herwriting. Then it was off to lunchwith another friend, an afternoon hanging out in a hotel lobby (which turnedout pretty great because got tomeet some very cool people) and a stealth invite to a party that night(including dancing which I haven’t done in ages and let me just say, there aresome NYC pub folk who can seriously dance J)

Saturday was another full day at the convention, stalkingdown ARCs, meeting people, fangirling over authors…. Typical stuff J I felt like every time I turned aroundthere was someone new to meet. Andbecause everyone there shares the same love of books it sometimes feels easierto just introduce yourself to a stranger (I pounced on a few people from myhome states of NC and SC).

That night I joined Tessa Gratton and we headed off to the Random House Children's Books party during which there was much revelry and fun (with bonus MardiGras beads!). From there a group of us including James Kennedy and Daniel Kraus headed off to a long dinner at the W Hotel with Jackson Pearce, Natalie Parker, Tessa, Brenna Yovanoff, Cassandra Clare and Javier Ruescas which included much merrymaking. (Again, how do I fail at taking photos of these things?). And yes, I ate fried alligator. And bananas foster (which came with waffles... is that normal?)

Sunday was yet another day hitting the floor to see the likes of Maureen Johnson and Lauren Myracle. We ran into Jennifer Lynn Barnes which was awesome because I love her and it somehow TOTALLY escaped my attention she'd be there. So we grabbed her and Jo Whittemore for lunch -- such a treat!

And yes, if you're starting to get the impression that these events are my definition of utopia, I think you're right: good food, good people, good books... seriously, what could be better?

Monday was a day off at the house (we did manage to track down some shrimp poboys) with much revelry. This is a group of writers who have been doing retreats for several years now and it's always really wonderful to touch base because we always make sure to talk goals and dreams and where we are in our careers/life and where want to be.

Tuesday I had the great fortune of running into AS King, Eric Wight and Snow Wildsmith in the NOLA airport and even greater fortune of being able to sit with Snow for the flight home!

I got to stay at home for one whole day and now I'm at the beach to celebrate the 4th with my in-laws and then it's up to another beach to spend with my family. Of course there will be much writing because deadlines loom... but at least I'll be writing with a fantastic view :)

In fact, my mother-in-law just announced it's time to go crabbing so I'm taking my rancid turkey neck and heading off to the creek!

Thanks to everyone in NOLA and at ALA for making the entire even so utterly fantastic! I can't wait for next year :)

Winners!

2011-06-19T23:36:00.002+04:30

So sorry for the delay in posting some of these winners -- I've been caught up writing and doing little else all week :) It's been one of those weeks where I'm so immersed in the book that at the end of the day I just sort of stare off into space blankly, no words left for conversations.

Without further ado, the winners of my recent giveaways! Winners, email me at carrie [at] carrieryan.com with your address and I'll drop these in the mail! If I don't hear from you by Thursday, June 23 then it might be a while before I'm able to send the prizes (I'll be out of town for a while). Let me know if you'd like the books/audiobooks autographed to anyone and if so, what name.

Winning an ARC of Enthralled: Alex Bennett from More Than Just a Book!

Winning the audiobook of The Forest of Hands and Teeth: Emily (left the comment at 7:22PM)

Winning the audiobook of The Dead-Tossed Waves: jpetroroy

Winning the audiobook of The Dark and Hollow Places: S. F. Robertson

Thanks to everyone for commenting! I'd just created an Audible.com account and now I have a huge list of great titles to check out!

Trial by Fire, Chapter 3

2011-06-12T19:02:00.067+04:30

I'm so excited to be hosting a sneak peek of Jennifer Lynn Barnes upcoming book Trial by Fire!

If you don't know Jen, she is awesome both as a person as a writer. She's wicked smart, crazy cute, super nice and just someone that I look up to immensely. She's also phenomenally talented (her The Squad books are still some of my favorites) and one of the many things I just thought was fascinating about Raised by Wolves, the prequel to Trial by Fire, is how dead on Jen gets the pack dynamics of her werewolf world. Which of course shouldn't be surprising since she studies pack dynamics, but still -- it's was really really cool and fantastic!

This week I'm part of a chapter trail to celebrate Trial by Fire's release on Tuesday, June 14th! To read the first two chapters go here: Chapter One at Ally Carter's Blog & Chapter Two at Sarah Rees Brennan's Blog and for chapter four check out Rachel Vincent's blog tomorrow! So, without further ado here's Chapter Three of Trial by Fire!

Trial By Fire

a Raised by Wolves Novel

by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

CHAPTER THREE

After—but only partially because of—the bombshell I’d dropped on the boys, Thanksgiving dinner proved to be a tense state of affairs. Casey had to leave the table twice: once when Mitch’s hand brushed Ali’s as he reached for the salt, and once when Katie started bawling and Mitch was the one to reach out and distract the temperamental little miss from the indignity of being stuck in a high chair. As for Devon and Chase, they were acting even more high-strung than Ali’s ex.

Apparently, my distraction had worked a little too well, leaving the two of them closing rank around me, like the Thanksgiving steak—a vaunted Were tradition—might leap off the table at any moment and attempt an assassination.

It was just a dream, guys.

I sent the words to the two of them through the bond, thankful that I’d mastered this part of being an alpha and didn’t have to worry about other members of our pack overhearing.

I’m fine. I’m going to be fine, and if either of you move your chairs even a centimeter closer to me, you’re going to be picking stuffing out of your hair while trying to pry my foot out of your you-know-what.

The humorless expression on my face sold that threat. I wasn’t some weak little human girl anymore. For that matter, I’d never been some weak little human girl. I was a survivor, I was their alpha, and I could take care of myself.

“Ouch!” The cry escaped my mouth before I could stop it, and on either side of me, Chase and Devon leapt to their feet.

“Problem?” Ali asked mildly, amusement dancing in the corners of her eyes. Given the whole Casey thing, I didn’t think she had call to be in such a good mood, but what did I know?

“No problem,” I said darkly, rubbing my shin. “Somebody just accidentally kicked me under the table.” I narrowed my eyes at Lake, and she helped herself to another T-bone and smothered it in steak sauce.

“Wasn’t an accident,” she said cheerfully.

“Lake.” Mitch didn’t say more than his daughter’s name, and she rolled her eyes.

“It’s not like I shot her.”

There was a retort on the tip of my tongue, but I was pretty sure Lake had kicked me because she’d picked up on my saying things she couldn’t hear, and I really didn’t want to open up that topic of conversation to the table at large. The boys’ overprotective act was conspicuous enough as it was.

Note to self: in the future, I needed to be more careful about how I changed the subject.

I’ll tell you later, Lake, I said silently. Promise.

Lake met my eyes and nodded, all thoughts of further under-the-table violence (hopefully) forgotten.

I reached out to dish up seconds, and the door to the restaurant opened. Casey crossed the room and slid back into his seat, composure regained. Even though I’d gotten used to his presence, something shifted inside my body. I took a long drink of water and gave my pack-sense a chance to acclimate again, only this time, it didn’t.

Foreign. Wolf.

Through the heavy scent of homemade gravy and pies baking in the oven, I couldn’t even pick Casey’s scent out of the crowd’s, but what I was feeling now had nothing to do with the five senses and everything to do with my psychic bond to the Pack. The niggling sensation persisted, and the longer I waited for it to pass, the larger it got.

Foreign. Wolf.

That was when I realized that I wasn’t sensing Casey. It was something else. Someone else.

Across the table, Mitch glanced toward the door, and then he looked at me.

“Get the kids to the back,” he said.

I turned immediately to Maddy, and with the quiet efficiency that had always made her a leader among the Rabid’s pint-sized victims, she ushered the others away from the table, even Lily, who let loose a comically high-pitched growl at the thought of being separated from her food.

“Now, Lily.” I added my voice to Maddy’s, but my thoughts were on Mitch, who’d already started reaching for the gun he and Keely kept behind the counter.

Ali didn’t ask what was happening. She didn’t have to. Within seconds, she had Katie in one arm and Alex in the other, and she met Casey’s eyes.

“Are you staying or coming?” she asked him calmly.

I could see the temptation of going with Ali warring with Casey’s lupine desire to prove himself—to Ali and to the rest of her pack.

“This is Cedar Ridge business,” I told Casey quietly. “We’ve got it covered.”

The dagger eyes Casey shot me in that moment made me realize that he hadn’t forgiven me for being the straw that broke his marriage’s back.

He wouldn’t ever forgive me.

Foreign. Wolf.

Right now, I had bigger issues than Casey.

“If I asked you to come with us, would you come?” It took me a second to figure out that Ali was addressing that question to me, not Casey.

I didn’t answer.

Ali started again. “If I told you to come, would you— You know what? Never mind, but if there’s a hair out of place on your head when I get back, be forewarned, I will kill you, alpha or not.”

With those words, Ali followed Maddy and the rest of the younger kids back into the kitchen, out of sight and, hopefully, out of harm’s way. After a long moment, and another glare in my direction, Casey retreated, leaving only five of us to meet the coming threat.

Devon, Lake, Mitch, Chase, and me.

Foreign. Wolf.

This time, the feeling was so strong that it brought me onto the balls of my feet. There was a foreign wolf on our territory. My territory. He’d come without permission, on an evening when the bar was closed. Teeth gnashed in the recesses of my brain, painting the walls of my mind red with blood as I realized the potential for this to end badly.

Very badly.

The werewolf Senate hadn’t been happy with the idea of a human alpha, and there wasn’t a day that went by that I didn’t think about the fact that I had something most male Weres wanted very, very badly.

Maddy. Lake. Lily, Katie, Sloane, Ava, Sophie . . .

Their names blended together in my mind, and the adrenaline pumping through my veins turned angry and cool. Most werewolves were male. Natural-born females, like Katie and Lake, survived to birth only because they’d been half of a set

of twins, and most packs didn’t have more than a handful of females, period.

Ours had nine, all of them young, none of them mated. As long-lived as werewolves were, most wouldn’t have batted an eye at the idea of taking possession of a female and waiting a decade or two for her to grow up.

If I had to, I’d tear this intruder to shreds with my bare hands to keep our girls safe.

“You even think of telling me to turn tail and hide, and I’ll laugh you out of Montana proper.” Lake’s words left no room for argument, but we both knew that if I wanted her to leave, I could make her leave. That was what it meant to be alpha.

I met Lake’s eyes. “Wouldn’t dream of it,” I said. Alpha or not, forcing my will on someone else wasn’t what it meant to be me.

An alien smell—snake oil and vinegar, feces and blood—permeated the thick wooden door, strong enough that even my human nose could make it out, and though none of the five of us moved, the shift in the room was unmistakable. My pack was ready to fight, and I was ready to let them—and to do what I could to back them up—but whoever the intruder was, he never crossed the threshold of the door.

There was a loud thump outside, like a duffel bag being dropped onto cement, and then a high-pitched gargle—half choke, half whine—filled the air.

Blood.

The smell—and the meaning behind it—finally registered, and I pushed my way through my werewolf bodyguards until the only thing standing between me and the door was Mitch.

“Someone’s hurt.” I said those two words like they were all that mattered. For a moment, I didn’t think Mitch was going to get out of the way or even open the door. He’d spent a long time living on the periphery of Callum’s pack, with Callum his alpha in name only. Mitch wasn’t used to taking orders, and even though he’d joined our pack shortly after Lake had, I wasn’t used to giving them to him.

Please, Mitch. I met his eyes.

With a slight nod and his gun at the ready, Mitch opened the door. I didn’t push him, didn’t rush it, but when Mitch knelt down next to a heap of bones and fur, I couldn’t hold back any longer. I was beside him in an instant—not within biting range, but close enough that I could make out every inch of this ravaged Were’s body.

He looked like he’d been taken apart piece by piece and sewn back together—badly. He was stuck halfway between his human form and his animal one, and the patches of skin that weren’t covered with fur were angry and red, welts layered over bruises layered over burns.

Why didn’t he finish Shifting?

Bile rose in my throat with the question. Weres healed extremely quickly, but you couldn’t Shift and heal at the same time; it was like trying to eat while throwing up. That explained why the body in front of us was still battered to a pulp, but not why its owner had let himself be caught in the throes of Shifting for any extended period of time.

Without meaning to, I moved my gaze to Chase. The expression on his face was completely impassive. Even I couldn’t read it, but I didn’t need to, because the last time I’d seen a Were caught between one form and another, Shifting back and forth with excruciating results, it was Chase. We’d been hunting the Rabid who’d Changed him into a Were, and the monster had turned the hunt back on us, infiltrating Chase’s head.

“Is somebody doing this to him?” I kept my voice low, and it was almost drowned out by the heavy, tortured breaths coming from the porch. “Should I try to break off the connection?”

That was what I’d done to free Chase from the Rabid. I’d gone into Chase’s head, taken the connection the Rabid had formed when he’d Changed him, and snapped it in two.

If I had to, I could do it again.

“No.” Mitch’s voice was sharper than I’d ever heard it. “This wolf isn’t yours, Bryn. Unless you’re wanting war, you’ll keep your little alpha nose out of his pack-bonds. Not all alphas are as forgiving as Callum when it comes to other people stealing their wolves.”

I felt like Mitch had slapped me, like I was stupid and young and completely incompetent as an alpha and a person.

“Whose is he?” I asked quietly, trying to place the wolf’s scent but thrown off by the smell of blood and the mewling sound now making its way out of the creature’s monstrous hybrid mouth.

Mitch didn’t reply; instead, he pointed to the creature’s neck. “There’s what’s keeping him from Shifting.”

My eyes adjusted to the darkness on the porch, and I saw the object Mitch had referenced: a long, thin metal shaft that glowed in the light of the nearly full moon.

Silver.

“Dev?” I could have removed it myself, but impulsive or not, even I wasn’t stupid enough to think that my going that close to an injured Were was a good idea. Whoever he was, the mass of flesh and bones on our porch was out of his mind with pain, and pain had a habit of making Weres unpredictable.

If Devon got bitten, he’d heal in a matter of moments. If I got bitten, I might never heal, and if I got bitten badly enough, I’d end up either dead or Changed—and neither one of those was a future I would particularly relish.

Devon walked forward, and without waiting a beat, he knelt, closed a hand around the shaft, and pulled. Most werewolves were allergic to silver, but as in many areas of life, Devon was an exception. As he jerked the hated object out of the wound, the injured Were reared back, and I heard teeth snapping and the sound of flesh—though whose, I wasn’t sure—giving way.

Chase came to my side, and I thought of that moment of quiet in the woods—how fragile it had been, how fleeting.

Dev tossed the silver rod to one side. “We’ll want to pick that up,” he said, almost absentmindedly. “Wouldn’t want one of the kiddos to get ahold of it.”

Our visitor’s body registered the silver’s removal. It shuddered and finally gave way to one form.

Human form.

If I’d been horrified before, I was sickened now. There wasn’t a piece of flesh that had been left untouched, and for a moment, I thought I might throw up or cry or both.

The injured Were was a boy. Not a man, not a threat. A boy—maybe a year or so younger than me. All business, Mitch bent and hefted the boy into his arms, eliciting a high-pitched whine more lupine than not.

“Tell Ali I’ll need medical supplies,” he said. “Lake knows where they are.” With those words, Mitch turned to carry the boy away, leaving the rest of us standing there, slack-jawed and tense.

Lake was the first to snap out of it, and she hurried back to the kitchen to relay the message to Ali. Chase’s eyes followed Mitch’s progression, and I could see the gears in his head turning as he analyzed the situation. He ran a hand through my hair, assuring himself with every light touch that I was all right, convincing the wolf inside him to still.

Devon didn’t move, and this time, I said his name silently.

Dev?

After a long moment, Devon managed to drag his eyes away from the blood seeping into the wooden planks of the porch. His fists clenched, and he turned toward me. “Bryn.”

There was a wealth of information in that one word, and I knew that whatever Devon said next was going to send a tremor through our pack, like static feedback or a punch to the gut.

“I caught his scent, and it wasn’t pretty.”

I waited for Devon to make a comment about Calvin Klein cologne or something equally flippant, but he didn’t. Instead, he cut right to the chase.

“This kid is from the Snake Bend Pack, Bryn. His alpha is Shay.”

-*-

Remember to check out Rachel Vincent's blog tomorrow to read the next chapter and to pick up Trial by Fire on Tuesday!

Bonus! I'm also going to follow in Ally Carter's brilliant footsteps and offer a bonus gift/prize/offer of an autographed (by me) advanced reader copy of Entrhalled, the smart chicks short story collection featuring Jen, me and a whole bunch of awesome authors! At the end of the week I'll draw a random name from the comments to this post (both on blogger and LJ) - as usual you get an extra entry for tweeting/facebooking/linking to this chapter (just make sure to put that information in the comment so I can give the bonus entries). Enter by midnight EST on Friday June 17th to win!

Thanks to Jen for letting me celebrate the release of Trial by Fire which comes out in only two days! You can order it here: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indiebound

ConCarolinas Weekend!

2011-06-03T22:43:00.000+04:30

It's that time of year again - ConCarolinas weekend! Yay for my local SFF conference!! JP and I came across this conference several years ago and we've loved going since! Because it's small there are a bunch of regular attendees (who totally rock) and it's super awesome to have the chance to hang out and catch up.

So if you're in the Charlotte area, I totally recommend this conference! I won't be selling books there but please feel free to grab me in the hallway (or before/after panels) to chat, sign stuff, etc. (And since someone asked, I don't charge a signing fee).

Here's my schedule:

Fri
Fri 09:00 pm: Twilight: Love it or Hate it? - Olmstead room

Sat

Sat 10:00 am: Magic in the City - Trends in paranormal/urban fantasy fiction.
Sat 12:00 pm: Writing for the Web - Blogs, tweets and other web-based musings (where I'll be hanging with the other participants in the Magical Words group blog).
Sat 03:00 pm: Learning to Write - A new panel of guests give their advice to novice writers.

All of those panels will be in University Ballroom A.

Hope to see you there!!

Go Team Audio (+ a contest!)

2011-06-02T02:13:00.000+04:30

June is audiobook month and I'm super excited to celebrate! I couldn't be more thrilled that Listening Library released audio versions of all three of the books in my Forest of Hands and Teeth series. It's super surreal to hear my words coming out of someone else's mouth -- I think it's the closest I've ever come to understanding how others interpret and internalize what I've written.

You can hear for yourself what I'm talking about! Here's a sample from The Forest of Hands and Teeth:

Here's The Dead-Tossed Waves:

Here's The Dark and Hollow Places:

And to celebrate Audiobooks month I'm giving some away! To enter just comment on this post (and if you're looking for something to comment about I'd love to know what your favorite audiobook is and/or where you tend to listen to audiobooks). I'll be picking winners with a random number generator on Friday, June 10th. You get an extra entry for tweeting or facebooking about this contest (don't forget to comment letting me know about your tweet or facebook entry). The prizes: I'll be giving away a copy of each of my audiobooks.

Happy Audiobook Month!!

Some days, you panic. And then you keep going.

2011-05-26T04:00:00.000+04:30

Sometimes you have those days of writing when you're intricately describing the way veins in a leaf can bleed through cells of liquid green and then you pause and you think to yourself... wait, maybe I don't want veins in my leaves, maybe my leaves should be needles instead.

And that makes you think, wait... maybe I don't want to be describing leaves, maybe I should step back and look at the tips of the branches, the way they knot and gnarl. Or maybe I don't want to deal with the spindly twigs, maybe I need to back up the camera more, gaze up at the canopy and blur the green.

Or maybe... maybe I don't want to be writing about trees at all. Maybe I want to be writing about flowers, great gopping mounds of color and petals dripping with ants.

But what if that's not right either? What if I don't want to be writing about nature at all? What if I've found myself waist deep in all these chapters having to do with leaves and I'm meant to be writing something else. What if I've no passion for leaves anymore? I just found myself writing them because I walked past a tree one day and thought, "Oh, that's passing interesting," and I started writing and now months later I have a treatise on these stupid leaves that aren't even right?

What if it's wrong? Not just every word, but every concept, down through the roots of it poisoning the soil? I've been mucking about in notions of leaves, shifting their hues, turning them dry and brown-edged and then back to wet sticky green trying to find what fits the story -- so obsessively wrapped up in the details -- when the entire concept could be totally wrong.

What if I'm supposed to be writing something more... better than leaves? More passionate, more noteworthy, more interesting, more original. But now I have all these words about leaves, what am I supposed to do with them? Burn them and use their smoke to signal for help? Start over and ignore that in a month I might wonder why I'm wrapped up in the way color shifts down the shaft of a cat's hair plucked from its tail and wonder if I should instead be describing the softness of white on a cat's belly or what if I should be writing about dogs and not cats or what if I shouldn't be writing about animals at all?

There are days like this, where the panic is so high in your throat you can taste it every time you breathe.

Libba Bray wrote something about it recently that was so perfect that when I sent it to my husband he said, "Yep, that sounds like you." Libba said you have to keep going and she's right.

I've learned to take a night off, let dreams replace the taste of panic in your mouth. It's always better in the morning and if not better, it's at least clearer. What looked like a yard of stale leaves after a late autumn storm might be more like a massive pile of possibilities waiting to be jumped into.

Sometimes you take a wrong turn and you end up talking about leaves when maybe you should be talking about flowers or cat hair or some other detail any one of a millions paths could lead to. In revisions I always say you should question everything -- there is nothing sacred in the draft.

Maybe tomorrow I'll love my leaves. Hopefully. But tonight I shall go out, spend time with friends, let the dark of night shutter the trees from my view. I've had enough of leaves today.

The Reading Life

2011-05-23T19:16:00.000+04:30

One of my goals this year has been to read more. I know that may sound strange given my profession, but I started realizing last year that I just wasn't reading enough. When I was growing up I'd devour books on the weekend, usually staying up until all hours of the night. Then, once I hit college I sort of... stopped. Sure I read for class but I rarely read for pleasure anymore.

Part of that was guilt -- the feeling that if I was going to read anything it should be the mounds of homework I was always behind on. Part of it was also my perceived lack of free time. Once I graduated I spent more time reading and the year before law school I practically lived off books as food -- I chewed through several a week.

Law school was a lot like college -- I felt that if I were going to take the time to read it should be the mounds of course work (again, I was always behind -- even if I was up to date with the assigned reading there was *always* something else to read such as study guides and outlines).

And that's when I realized how busy life could be (though I'd later learn it could get a WHOLE lot busier) and that if I wanted to have books in my life I had to make time for them. No longer was reading something I could binge on during a slow Saturday. That's when I made the conscious decision to read before bed every night.

Let me tell you... this step, almost more than anything else, made me feel like I was turning into my parents who always read before sleep. And now I realized why they did that -- there was no other time in the day. For a while this step solved my problem -- it got me in the habit of reading daily and I slowly made my way through the books on my to-be-read pile.

But last year I realized this short bit of reading time was no longer enough. I'm drowning in books so much that my to-be-read piles have become more like mountain ranges (as I type this I have 25 unread books just sitting on my coffee table, five tossed on the couch next to me, a dozen on my ereader and towers of them lined up against my dining room wall -- not to mention the bulging bookcases and stacks on every other horizontal surface in the house).

I could probably break the books down into categories: craft books, research books, friend books, CP books, blurb books and then general reading books (books that look good, recommended books, books to stretch my horizons, etc etc etc). But even then it's hard to prioritize what to read next (though CP books almost always skip to the head of the line -- I've read three in the past two weeks).

So I decided I needed to find more reading time. The first step was figuring out where I spent my time and how to shift it around and right away I noticed something: because reading is something almost always fun, it never feels like work. And because it doesn't *feel* like work I have a hard time allowing myself to focus on it during the work day even though it's something I should be doing for my job. I'd find myself haunting message boards or reading blogs before I'd put down the computer and pick up a book. For some reason, just being at the computer feels more like work that lounging with a book.

Really, all I had to do to find more reading time was (a) acknowledge it's part of my job and (b) allow myself to take the time to read. Simple, right? Sometimes it is -- especially editing CP books or skimming through craft or research books. Other times I have to make the conscious decision to step away from the computer and pick up a book.

At the end of the day I realized it comes down to this: prioritizing reading. During my tour I was talking with one of the media escorts who pointed out that if everyone gave up watching Wheel of Fortune (or some other 30 min show) every day and read instead they'd get through several books a year. I'm constantly talking to people who lament their lack of time to read but when you ask them about TV they'll go on and on about all the shows they watch.

I know how easy it is to let a reading life slip away -- to queue up the DVR rather than flip open a book or to think there are other things that have to come first. I've been there and sometimes I'm still there. This year I pledged to be more conscious about how I spend my time -- to think about what I prioritize and then divvy up the hours of the day accordingly.

I prioritize reading -- reading broadly, trying new books outside my comfort zone, trying to keep up with my obligations while still expanding my horizons. My day reflects that: I read first thing in the morning, last thing at night and hopefully more time in between.

Every day I choose to live a reading life and I hope that each of you choose to live your life according to your priorities as well, whether that be reading or some other passion.

It lives!

2011-05-06T20:31:00.000+04:30

I live! I have much to blog about but I've been lacking the time to actually sit down and write said blogs. And I haven't wanted to short-shrift my blog readers so I've ended up just sort of letting the days pass in blog silence. Sorry!

This same thing happened last year when I left for tour -- I tried to stay on top of things, tried to blog and tweet but then as time stretched thin I was lucky if I had a chance to speak to my husband before collapsing into bed at the end of the day. I just did a quick calculation and discovered that since mid-December I've been away from home more than I've been at home (in the last 137 days I've been away 71 of them and home 66).

Perhaps this accounts for the messy state of my house?

And of course I'm leaving town again. Sunday I head to Weslaco Texas to speak and the next weekend I'll be at the Edward's Memorial Library near Charlotte (hear that NC peeps? I'll be talking nearby! They'll be selling books! Come out! Details here.)

I've truly had amazing times with all the travel -- so much that it's difficult to put into words (and to find the time to wrangle said experiences into words). For example, last weekend I was the keynote speaker at Richland County Library's Kids in Print reception where they unveiled a truly fantastic literary magazine full of kid's poems, stories, photos, pictures, etc.

A friend of mine recently said that the best thing you can do in the world is find your tribe -- those people who are like you in so many ways. The librarians at the Richland County Library are totally my tribe (if they'd accept me). Seriously -- some amazing people down there (Columbia, SC -- my husband's local library growing up) and an equally amazing library.

In my scant time at home I've been diving back into the book I'm working on. I'm still in the obsessive plotting/craft stage which necessitates me taking lots of long walks as I figure out bits and pieces. Thankfully it's been *amazing* weather here and the park behind my house has a wonderfully sloping expanse of lawn that's perfect for lounging and pondering.

I've also read some great books! I shall share them! First, I'm a MASSIVE fan of Sarah MacLean. She gets better and better and the only thing I don't like is having to wait for more. Her latest Regency set romance, Eleven Scandals to Start to Win a Duke's Heart just came out. It's awesome (and isn't YA, FYI). Go forth and purchase and love it as much as I do!

Second, I think I may have been remiss in posting about Saundra Mitchell's The Vespertine. This one has been out for a few months and I still can't stop thinking about it. She is a gorgeous writer and this one is full of yummy romance.

Third, Rage by Jackie Morse Kessler. I've actually had the first of this series, Hunger, at home and haven't read it. But Rage caught my eye and I started it on a whim and WOW. Her writing is stunning and the character is fascinating. I couldn't put it down -- truly phenomenal on all levels. This isn't a book for the faint at heart -- it's tough and raw and can be brutal emotionally but it shouldn't surprise anyone that these are the kinds of books that really stick with me.

Fourth: Wither. I actually read this several months ago (and blurbed) and it's finally out! Lauren DeStefano's writing is also very wonderful and I loved the claustrophobia of her dystopia. I'm definitely looking forward to the next in this series.

I know there are other books I've read and loved recently but they're scattered throughout the house and it's time for me to get back to working on that next book. I still hope to blog more about the amazing tour and other exciting things! Sorry for the long absence!

Original ebook release: Hare Moon

2011-04-08T01:57:00.000+04:30

So remember how I mentioned I had some exciting secret projects? Well I can finally talk about one of them - yay! Last year I wrote an original Forest of Hands and Teeth short story for the Kiss Me Deadly anthology. This year, after a bit of revision with my editor, Delacorte Press packaged the story as a standalone ebook you can now download! It's a prequel to The Forest of Hands and Teeth about Sister Tabitha as a teen.

Here's the cover (which I LOVE):

And here's what it's about:

Tabitha can’t shake the feeling that something exists beyond the fences of her village. And when she sneaks out, past the gates and down the path into the Forest of Hands and Teeth, she meets a boy who teaches her heart things she never knew. But love in a world surrounded by so much death doesn’t come without its sacrifices, and Tabitha gradually realizes just how much she’ll have to give up to live among the Unconsecrated.

From New York Times bestselling author Carrie Ryan comes an original story of love after the Return.

And here's where you can buy it for only $1.99!!: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

I really loved writing Sister Tabitha's story. I realized as I revised The Forest of Hands and Teeth that we only got to see Tabitha from Mary's point of view and in Mary's eyes, Tabitha was nothing but overbearing and incapable of understanding her. To me, though, Tabitha was much more complicated. She had a reason for withholding information from the villagers and every action she took came out of love and a desire to protect the village. I wanted to understand how she got to be that way, what led her to take on the mantle of ruling this village so rigidly and why she believes so much in choice while not allowing those around her to truly make their own decisions.

So I wrote her story as a teen. As it turns out, Sister Tabitha was once a very very passionate young woman who had her own choices to make. When she begs Mary to stop dreaming about what lies beyond the fences, she has her reasons.

Yay!!

The Dark and Hollow Places trailer!

2011-03-26T20:44:00.002+04:30

Squeee!!! I'm so SO excited to present the trailer for The Dark and Hollow Places! This is the short version, 15 seconds (not sure if I can share the reason for that yet... will have to ask but it's VERY VERY exciting). I think there's going to be a longer version released in the future and I'll definitely link to it when it comes out.

This is a scene taken right from the beginning of the book and I love it!

The Dark and Hollow Places officially released Tuesday and I've been having a total blast on tour, Thanks Chicago and Miami/Ft. Lauderdale (first tour recap post coming soon, I promise!). Thank you to everyone who has come out to say hi and hung around to chat about our favorite books (I'm keeping a running list of your reading suggestions!).

If you're in Chicago, Cincinnati, Salt Lake City, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Spartanburg, SC or Austin, I'm coming your way soon! Click here (my blog) or here (booktour.com) for more details!

And of course, you can always pick up a copy of my book at any of the following places: Random House | IndieBound | Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Borders | Walmart and your local indie!

What do you think of the trailer?

Book Birthday And Details About Tonight!

2011-03-22T17:41:00.000+04:30

The Dark and Hollow Places comes out TODAY!

I will be in Ft Lauderdale tonight for the Launch Party at The Museum of Art. Please note that this event starts at 6pm (not 7pm as I had previously listed). If you're in the area, come join us!

Don't forget to pick up your copy of The Dark and Hollow Places (ahem, or two or three... they make great gifts!) today at any of these fine establishments: Random House | IndieBound | Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Borders | Walmart

The next stop on the tour is Chicago. Be sure to check my Events page for information on tour times and locations. I hope to see you soon!

Yay for makey-outy scenes!

2011-03-21T18:59:00.001+04:30

I'm super excited to welcome all you treasure hunters to my blog, especially since it's for a cause I believe in: the makey-outy scene. So, in honor of Cassandra Clare's treasure hunt for the scenes too hot to include in the trailer for City of Fallen Angels I thought I'd give a brief teaser of a kiss from The Dark and Hollow Places, the third book in my Forest of Hands and Teeth series, which comes out TOMORROW!

We're twirling so fast now that the force of it tries to pull us apart, but he holds me tighter, snowflakes spiraling around us. I let my head fall back and revel in the joy that erupts from every part of me for the first time in so long.

Finally, he stops and we stand there hiccuping and gulping frigid air. He reaches out absently and tucks a wet strand of hair behind my left ear, his fingertips just barely brushing my jaw. For a minute I forget to tense, forget to care that the hair was there to cover my scars, to hide me. For a minute I feel normal.

I don't let hesitation crowd my mind. Instead I let the buoyant freedom of the moment overwhelm me and I stretch up onto my toes and push my mouth against his.

And no, I'm not telling you who the guy getting kissed is :) If you want to read more, starting tomorrow you can pick up The Dark and Hollow Places at the following places: Random House | IndieBound | Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Borders | Walmart

Also, if you live in or near Miami/Ft. Lauderdale, Cincinnati, Chicago, Salt Lake City, Phoenix or Los Angeles I'm headed your way for tour starting today! Click here to find out where I'll be and come say hi!

So, now the clue you're looking for! Hello, treasure hunters! Your letter is : L

Your next blog is Kami Garcia and Margie Stohl, authoresses of Beautiful Creatures. Go!

Waiting for my real life to begin

2011-03-19T22:40:00.000+04:30

This past weekend I attended a Colin Hay concert (you probably know him best as the singer for Men at Work). He's AMAZING in concert -- hilarious and talented. Seriously, if you ever have the chance to see him I highly recommend it!

So one of the songs he played was, Waiting For My Real Life to Begin, which is probably familiar to a lot of y'all:

And as I sat there listening to him the words really began to sink in and I thought about my life and where I am. I've been asked a lot recently about how I became a writer -- when I knew I wanted to become one and what I did about it. I know I've shared a lot of that story here before: I never realized I *could want* to become an author until I read an interview with a romance author in which she said she started writing when she read a book and thought "Hey, I could do that." I read those words and thought, "Wait, I could do that too!"

But I was in high school. I felt too young to write a book. So I waited. And when I graduated from college I started working on my first book and after a couple of years I put that aside to attend law school (which I don't regret in the slightest seeing as how that's where I met my husband... and also? I just really loved law school -- call me a nerd :)

I always thought I was too busy to do anything else in law school other than be a student. AHAHAHAHA! Once I started practicing law I realized just what it was to be busy. And I had this moment where I thought: I don't want to be doing this, practicing law, for the rest of my life. So I asked myself: if I could do anything, what would it be? The answer was easy: an author.

The next question became: what was I going to do about it? Because I really was busy, probably busier than I'd ever been at any other time in my life. And that's when I realized I had a choice: go after my dream of being a writer or let it go. I didn't see a sense in always saying to myself, "This is what I want more than anything else but I just can't be bothered to do anything about it."

Because there's a part of me that thought: what would have happened if I'd just kept writing through law school? Looking back I realized that I had the time -- I could have done it. I just didn't. I made excuses. If I'd written all through law school maybe I'd have gotten published, maybe I wouldn't have, but at least I'd have been farther along towards my ultimate goal.

And I realized: I don't want to wake up in five years and ask myself the same question.

It's funny how we do that with dreams: put them off. I wonder if we're afraid to chase them down because we fear they won't taste as sweet or because we're scared we can't catch them. I'm not going to lie, there's a terror in holding your dream in your hand because if you break it, you have only yourself to blame.

It's easy to tuck your chin to your chest and plow through life. I do it: focus on today's tasks and then tomorrow's tasks, and then the ones after that as the days roll past beneath me. Listening to Colin Hay sing the words, "I'm waiting for my real life to begin," made me step back and look at the larger picture -- how all the days piece together. You hear all these cliches about how life isn't a dress rehearsal, etc., and often they're meaningless but then there are those moments when you understand exactly.

I'm thankful that five years ago I decided not to wait for my life to somehow arrange itself to my liking. That I'm not waking up today and wondering, "What if I'd just started writing a book five years ago? Where would I be?"

On signed books, tour stops, memory, and other things

2011-03-14T18:18:00.001+04:30

In one week I leave for The Dark and Hollow Places tour! Wahoo! I can't wait to visit Miami, Chicago, Cincinnati, Salt Lake City, Phoenix, Los Angeles and Austin! All the details are here. This will be my fourth time in Chicago which is kind of neat because I feel like I have friends there now -- so many familiar faces and it's always cool being able to catch up :) I'm also very excited about the new stops to meet new readers (and see new places)!

However, if I'm not stopping in a city near you or if you're not able to come out, you can still get a personalized/ autographed book. My local indie, Park Road Books, is fantastic and only a few miles away which works out perfectly! At any time in the year you can place an order with them and I'll swing by to sign it. You can also pre-order a signed copy of The Dark and Hollow Places and they'll get it in the mail to you -- I'll be dropping by probably on Saturday, March 19 to sign them all so just make sure you get your order in before then (otherwise, I won't be able to sign any until I'm back in town on April 18).

Here are the details about ordering a signed book. Essentially it's as easy as giving them a call: 704-525-9239 and placing the order! Make sure to let them know how you want it personalized!

Okay, topic two is my signing policy. The venues hosting me go through a lot of planning and work to pull off these events even though they always make it all look so seamless and effortless. These booksellers are passionate about books and I couldn't be more honored that they're willing to expend some of that passion on my behalf. Therefore, I like to ask anyone coming to hear me speak -- if you're going to get a book signed, please purchase a book from the store. Every store has its individual policies on signings and so you'll want to check with them about what you can bring to be signed, etc.

Here's my policy: I'll sign anything (well, within reason - lol - if you have a massive stack I might ask you to run back through the line again so other people have a chance to get through). Or if you just want to show up to hear me talk and ask questions and not get anything signed, that's great too! But I would love it if, to show support for the store, you'd purchase a book from them (purchasing ahead of time is fine or purchasing someone else's book works too). Again, the store's individual policy on these things trumps mine so always check with them if you have a question! Thanks!

Finally... I have a bad memory. I joke about this a lot but it kind of gets both scary and frustrating when I'm traveling. I'm terrible with names -- HORRIBLE -- which is embarrassing and I'm sorry if/when I'm not able to remember yours. However, I do have a good situational memory which means that I just have to connect all the dots in my head so please, when you come up to meet me just remind me who you are. Tell me your twitter handle or your blog name (because I have a visual memory I'm likely to remember your handle picture - lol). Please don't think that because I can't remember your name, I don't remember you!

I can't wait to see y'all! Only one more week!!

On finishing a series

2011-03-10T23:07:00.000+04:30

Okay, so I missed Teaser Tuesday - oops! Before I get to the meat of the blog, announcements first!

Don't forget to enter for a chance to win one of 10 signed ARCs of The Dark and Hollow Places! The giveaway ends this Sunday, March 13th!
I'm headed out on tour! Over the course of many weeks I'll be in Miami, Chicago, Cincinnati, Salt Lake City, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Spartanburg SC and Austin! I'm so excited for all of these visits and would love to meet y'all in person! Here's the whole schedule!
Teaser Time!! The first TWO CHAPTERS of The Dark and Hollow Places are up online! Click here for the Chapter Sample from Random House Children's Books (link opens a .pdf file).
And not to forget about the recent release of The Dead-Tossed Waves paperback, I shared five bits of trivia about that book on Suvudu here.
The fantastically wonderful and NYT/USA Today/International bestselling author, Rachel Caine, blurbed The Dark and Hollow Places which thrills me to no end!! She wrote:

"Carrie Ryan has penned a story of the undead that magically, unexpectedly transforms into a painful, beautiful, aching story about life. I can't say it more plainly than this: I loved it. I wish I'd written it." - Rachel Caine, bestselling author of The Morganville Vampires

I can't believe that The Dark and Hollow Places comes out in 12 days. TWELVE DAYS!! It's funny because I've been asked a lot lately how it feels to have this series draw to a close which is a tough question to answer. First of all, I still have some short stories set in that world coming out this year but also... I feel like since I finished writing the book in 2010 that it ended a long time ago. I'm already excited about what comes next!

But honestly what it feels like is this... have you ever just focused on one day and then the next and suddenly you look up and a week or a month has gone by? That's what the release of The Dark and Hollow Places feels like. I've been putting one foot in front of the other and suddenly... the series is done. It kind of snuck up on me!

The past couple of days I keep looking up and realizing... soon I'll have three books on the shelf. THREE BOOKS! And there will be more coming (not in this series, but more!). This is a dream come true! Sure, I wanted this to happen, I've worked for this to happen, but when I sat down to write The Forest of Hands and Teeth over four years ago (actually, 1589 days to be exact since I have the email I sent to myself when I thought of the first line) I never every thought I'd be here. I dreamed I would one day make it here... but I probably wouldn't have taken the odds it would have happened like this :)

So how does it feel? Overwhelming. I think that's one reason that I can only lift my head up from the day to day and look around every now and again because otherwise I'll be stunned into inaction. I feel too lucky, almost as if it isn't fair. There's still so much more ahead of me that I'm crazy excited about, but sometimes it's nice to sit here and realize... wow. Three books.

And I wouldn't be here without y'all, so thank you!

Now to put my head back down and motor through the rest of my looming to-do list :)

The Writing Life Part 2: reality

2011-03-04T23:08:00.004+04:30

Recently, I posted what I expected or dreamed my life would be like writing full time. I think the fact that it took me twelve days to post the follow-up should tell you something :) Here's the reality:

Wake up -- I'm actually impressed this happens at a reasonable hour. I don't set an alarm but I've learned that I pretty much get out of bed just after JP leaves the house in the morning (which can throw me off if he leaves early for a meeting). He still doesn't believe this is the case (me actually getting out of bed) and he's been known to email me when he gets to work to see if I'm at my computer.¹ He doesn't know I put my iPhone on the bedside table because I'm wise to this trick of his :)

Some mornings I'll read in bed because sometimes that's the only time I'll get to read all day and I've fallen SO VERY BEHIND. Or because I'm reading a book I can't put down which is always an awesome experience. Once I'm up, I drag on clothes -- whatever's handy (aka yoga pants and a t-shirt).

Let the dog in. Give the dog his pills. Follow dog around to ensure he swallows said pills (usually not a problem).

Check email -- I'd like to do what John Scalzi has done and put a moratorium on email until after my words are written but... I'm not that disciplined (yet - I live in hope). Checking email first leads to wails of despair at how very far behind I am and then I try to get through some of them. I might spend an hour on this. At the end I've accomplished much less than I feel I should have.

Listen to cat barf. Finish up email real quickly before going to clean up barf. Forget about barf.

Cook breakfast -- lately I've been on an eggs kick. So I go cook eggs and then eat them while reading the news. Send snippets of news to JP which inevitably start email conversations that trickle back and forth through the day.

Remember cat barf -- go find it and clean it. Ignore Dog's sad look that I wouldn't let HIM be the one to clean up cat barf because in his world that's considered a delicacy. Let dog out.

Check to-do list -- yes, sometimes I add things to my list just so I can check them off and feel accomplished. Here's a sampling of my current to-do list:

sign and mail books to editor
mail books from contests (figure out contests and what to mail)
send paperwork to mortgage company for refinance
~~clean house for appraisal~~ (took a solid day)
design/order tour schwag
~~update website~~ (yay! it's in the works!)
email two friends to set up dinner/lunch
taxes (collect and organize all data -- print out bank statements)
~~take Jake to vet for hip analysis~~ (turns out he has a torn ACL, which means I must research repair options and schedule surgery)
figure out how to get people to new facebook page
answer interviews (STOP AVOIDING some interview questions just because I'm crazy late on them and so very very embarrassed)
~~set up goodreads contest~~ ~~(figure out if page was fixed)~~. Check in on Goodreads contest, tweet about it.
check in on contracts for secret project (yes, SECRET PROJECTS!!!)
call for estimates on home repair

And then of course the perennial stuff: go to store, drop off/pick up dry cleaning (to be fair, JP usually does this but mostly that's because he's the only one with dry cleaning), go to the gym (ahahahaha, this still makes me laugh), run errands to post office, drop by local indie to set up pre-order signing, blog, etc. There's also the bigger stuff: revising short stories and books, writing short stories and books, etc. And also things like reading for blurbs, reading for friends, reading for research, critting, etc.

Let the dog in. Move coffee table out of the way so that dog can approach the couch from the other side in order to avoid the Mean Sleeping Kitty (it's either that or listen to him whine and our dog is a Champion Whiner).

Try not to stress about phone interview from newspaper. Keep checking the clock to make sure I am Prepared and Ready for phone call when it comes. Do interview, totally enjoy it and hang up with sense of excitement and glee.

Attempt to make some headway on the to-do list -- realize around 2pm that (a) I haven't eaten and (b) I haven't written (well, written on any of my writing projects). Figure out food -- whatever I can scrape from the cabinet. Realize I can't go out in public because I'd have to shower and that would take Too Much Time.

Skype with friend re: book (mine or theirs, take your pick). Friend has AMAZINGLY perfect idea for the idea I've been toying with. Drop everything to write up a synopsis and send it to my amazing agent.

Dog barks: UPS man here!

Turn on MacFreedom to enforce some internet-free quality time. Get words written. Hopefully.

Agent's emailed back! Engage in banter with him about exciting idea. Remember yet again how much I adore my agent (Jim McCarthy at Dystel & Goderich). Day dream about exciting idea.

Aim to go to the gym at 4:00 before the after-work crowd. Perhaps arrive at 5:15 along with the after work crowd. Fight way onto elliptical and read or listen to writing podcast. Eavesdrop while in the sauna.

Or, due to aforementioned timing, just turn on the xBox kinect and dance :) Dance, dance, DANCE! Realize how out of shape I am after fifth pass through Poker Face and pledge to hit the gym tomorrow. Or, if it's a gorgeous day, I'll take a walk (can't wait for dog's knee to be fixed so he can join me again).

Get back to writing. Neighbors are home -- dog wants out so he can bark at them. Let dog out to bark because he only has one week of freedom before surgery and eight weeks of being cooped up for recovery and he should have fun while he can.

Spend two hours trying to cobble HTML into a facebook landing page (it worked! Check it out here! And while you're there you could always hit the like button :)

JP comes home. Run towards the door with dog in excitement to see him (dog stops to pick up a toy offering making me feel empty handed). Babble about day because I like to Talk and I haven't been able to do Enough of It today. If it's still light out, maybe take a walk through the park. If it's late, throw something from freezer into the microwave and sit down to eat, watch an hour or so of TV and then read before bed.

Rinse. Repeat.

That's pretty much what my days this week have looked like. The week before last I travelled Thurs-Fri which involved a delayed flight, missed flight, and sprint through the airport to catch the last leg home. I think all told I figured I'd been traveling for 21/39 hours. BUT, I was able to get a big chunk of a short story written during all the delays and that made me Very Very Happy!

This post describes what I call a "drafting" day when I'm not overly crunched by deadlines. My revising days always look different and my "Deadline Is Looming days" put a lot more emphasis on the writing. Right now I'm waiting on edits from my editor and am trying to tie up a bunch of loose ends before heading out on tour so my days are a bit more scattered than they are otherwise. Or at least, it feels that way.

I shall have more to say on this topic soon (and feel free to ask any questions in the comments!)

¹ BTW, he doesn't really check in on me to make sure I'm working -- this is really a joke between JP and I more than anything else. I'm extremely lucky that, because he also writes, JP understands the ins and outs of my job and is phenomenally supportive.

Teaser Tuesday: The Dark and Hollow Places

2011-03-01T21:31:00.000+04:30

Only three weeks until The Dark and Hollow Places comes out which means... time for a teaser! So, without further ado, here's the opening:

This city used to be something once. I’ve seen pictures of the way it gleamed—sun so bright off windows it could burn your eyes. At night, lights shouted from steel like catcalls, loud and lewd, while all day long white-gloved men rushed to open doors for women who tottered about on skyscraper heels.

I wonder sometimes what happened to those women when the Return hit—how they were able to run and survive with such absurd contraptions strapped to their feet. How different the world must have been before—safe and comfortable.

The City’s nothing like that anymore. Now, bare beams scrape the sky like splintered finger bones. Half the high-rises have fallen, and scavengers pilfered the intricately scrolled ironwork long ago. There’s not much of anything left anymore, just the fear that seeps fog-like through the streets.

Fear of the Recruiters. Fear of the Unconsecrated. Fear of tomorrow.

Even so, this city’s been my home. Other than the village I lived in as a child, this is the only world I’ve known. It’s sharp-cornered and raw but it’s a refuge for those with a burn to survive. You pay your rents, you follow the rules and you do what it takes to keep living.

Which is why I find myself on the Neverlands side of the Palisade wall that cordons off and protects the Dark City as the last dregs of evening slide across the sky. This is the place where Elias would go when he was desperate for money, desperate to trade so we could pay our rent and stay in our tiny flat for another year. It’s the place where anything can be found for the right trade, and where, after the blade of my only knife broke this afternoon, I’ve come for help.

Clutching the replacement blade tightly, I’ve started to cross over one of the bridges strung between two buildings when I hear a deep rumbling cough. It’s approaching dusk and storm clouds hover over the river, causing the light to drip a dull green. I shuffle faster toward the next roof, determined to get back to my flat in the Dark City before full night, but as soon as my foot lands on the rickety bridge connecting the buildings a voice calls out, “Wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

I freeze, the frayed rope railing in one hand. I’ve been alone long enough to have learned to look out for myself, yet something about the warning makes me hesitate. Just as I start to take another step the voice says, “Look down,” and I do.

The alley a dozen stories below is dim and choked in shadows, but even so I see something moving. A moan floats up, echoing softly between the buildings as it rises. The sun breaks through a narrow gap in the clouds and the light reflects down the alley, glinting briefly off what looks like eyes and a row of cracked teeth.

As my gaze adjusts I can make out dozens of clawing fingers reaching for me amid a pile of broken bodies that should have died from their fall but didn’t. Or maybe they did die and infection’s brought them back as plague rats. I shiver, disgust rolling through me.

Carefully, I inch back onto the roof, noticing how the wooden boards I was just about to walk onto are rotten. One step more and I’d have been down on that heap as well.

“You’re the first one to listen to me and not take a dive,” the voice says, and I spin, pulling my new knife between us. A woman sits tucked between two crumbling stone chimneys. In her hand she clutches a charred wooden pipe that feebly chokes out smoke.

I glance around the roof, expecting some sort of trap. The woman gestures toward my knife. “Don’t bother,” she says. “Just me up here.”

She puts the pipe back in her mouth, the end of it burning a bright red, and in that instant I get a clear look at her face: thick dark lines painted around eyes smudged by tears or sweat or both. Then the ember fades, pulling her back into shadow.

But not before I see the raw circle around her wrist, festering with infection. The flesh edging the wound puffs and oozes, and I recognize it as a bite. I pull my knife back up between us, refusing to let it shake.

I’m usually pretty good at avoiding any confrontation with the Unconsecrated. No matter how careful you are, there’s always the risk that something will go wrong and they’ll get their teeth into you one way or another.

The woman shrugs and inhales. The light makes her skin glow again and I watch how her hand trembles. Cracks etch through the powder she used to make her old skin appear blushing and fresh—it looks like a fractured mirror instead.

I think of my own face, the scars overlaying the left side of my body like a thick spider web. Her cracks can be washed away. Mine can’t.

It’s easy to see that she’s close to the end—when the infection will kill her. I glance down again at the pile of bodies below, their feeble moans filtering into the night. She’ll be one of them soon. If she’s lucky someone will take care of her before she turns. If she isn’t…

I swallow.

With a sickening heaviness in my stomach I realize I’m the one who’s going to have to kill her.

*insert ominous music here*

So, just to recap... here are the details: The Dark and Hollow Places is the third Forest of Hands and Teeth book and will be coming out March 22, 2011. You can pre-order a copy here: IndieBound | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Borders | Personalized/Autographed Copies. And if you don't feel like waiting that long, you can enter to win one of ten signed Advanced Reader Copies (ARCs) here:

Goodreads Book Giveaway

The Dark and Hollow Places

by Carrie Ryan

Giveaway ends March 13, 2011.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.
“The best dystopian novel we’ve read, period.” -Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, NYT bestselling authors of Beautiful Creatures and Beautiful Darkness

Enter to win

A huge thanks to everyone who has already read The Dark and Hollow Places and let me know what you thought -- it means so much to me!! Only three more weeks!!!!!

The Bad and the Good

2011-02-24T19:07:00.000+04:30

I know I owe y'all a post about what the Writing Life actually looks like in reality (following up on an earlier post) but I'm going to bump that post to next week because there's something else that's been occupying my mind.

Yesterday I received some very sad news. A friend of mine, YA author L.K. Madigan, passed away. She'd written a very eloquent blog post about her diagnosis of pancreatic cancer and still, I wasn't prepared for her to actually die. I guess in my mind I'm not ready for my friends to die. I'm too young. She was too young. She had so many exciting things in her life and then... it just seemed too fast. So unfair.

And then, on the same day that I learned this news on Twitter (of all places) there was also something else going on. Maureen Johnson woke up and decided to do something good for the world. She tweeted about an organization a friend of hers works for called Shelterbox that essentially sends boxes of necessary supplies to people in need after disasters. Each Shelterbox costs about $950 and she wanted to raise enough money to buy one Wednesday. As an incentive, she pledged her last ARC of her forthcoming release, The Last Little Blue Envelope and pledged to make up the difference in donations to fund the one box.

Here's a link to her blog post about it. Here's a link to her Twitter feed.

I knew that Twitter could be a force for good, but watching this expand over the course of a day was pretty extraordinary. Other authors offered giveaways and donated money. People spread the word. And at the end of the day Maureen raised enough money to fund SIX ShelterBoxes. Plus enough donations of schwag to hold another fundraising day today.

It was heartening, last evening, to watch my twitter feed: friends and colleagues expressing sorrow over Lisa's passing and joy in her life. Others donating money so that those in need could find some relief. It really made me understand that life can be so hard and so sad, and yet there's such a community of loving people always there.

I'm so grateful to feel a part of this community -- this group of people who, through large and small acts, accomplish great things. Thanks for reminding me of all the awesome in the world on a day when I was reminded of the sad.

The Dark and Hollow Places tour!

2011-02-22T21:07:00.004+04:30

I'm so excited that I get to hit the road for the release of The Dark and Hollow Places (comes out March 22, 2011)! I had such a blast last year meeting readers and fellow book lovers and hanging out and I'm thrilled to be doing it again! Here are the preliminary details on the tour!!

THE DARK AND HOLLOW PLACES TOUR:

Tuesday, March 22, 2011 at 7:00 PM

Miami, FL

Books and Books

Thursday, March 24, 2011 at 7:00 PM

Chicago, IL

Anderson's Bookshop

Naperville location:

123 West Jefferson

Naperville, IL 60540

Tel: 630-355-2665

Saturday, March 26, 2011 at 2:00 PM

Chicago, IL

Borders Schaumburg

Sunday, March 27, 2011 at 1:00 PM

Cincinnati, OH

Joseph Beth Booksellers

2692 Madison Road

Cincinnati OH 45208

(513) 396-8960

Monday, March 28, 2011 time TBA

Dayton, OH

Books and Co.

Tuesday, March 29, 2011 time TBA

Salt Lake City, UT

The King's English

1511 South 1500 East

Salt Lake City, UT 84105

Wednesday, March 30, 2011 at 7:00 PM

West Jordan, UT

Barnes and Noble

Thursday, March 31, 2011 time TBA

Phoenix, AZ

Changing Hands

6428 S McClintock Dr

Tempe, AZ 85283

Tel: 480-730-0205

Friday, April 1, 2011 at 7:00 PM

Phoenix, AZ

Barnes and Noble

Saturday, April 2, 2011 at 3:00 PM

Los Angeles, CA

Barnes and Noble, Glendale

Sunday, April 3, 2011 at 2:00 PM

San Diego/Los Angeles, CA

Barnes and Noble, Oceanside

Monday, April 4, 2011 at 7:00 PM

Los Angeles, CA

Mrs. Nelson's

Tuesday, April 5, 2011 at 7:00 PM

Los Angeles, CA

Book Soup

8818 Sunset Blvd.

W. Hollywood CA, 90069

This is a joint signing with other awesome authors :)

April 6-10
Los Angeles, CA
Romantic Times Convention
I'll post details on my panels as we get closer

Saturday, April 9, 2011 all day

Los Angeles, CA

RT Convention: Teen Day

click image to make bigger so you can read all the fun details!

Monday, April 11, 2011 from 7:00-9:00 PM
Spartanburg, SC

Hub City Bookshop

I'm giving a writing workshop on how to put tension on every page, especially when it comes to writing YA. Space is limited -- click here for more information!

April 12 - April 15, 2011

Austin, TX

TLA (I don't have a schedule of events yet and don't know what will be open to the public but will post when I do)

April 15 - April 16, 2011

Austin Texas

Writer's League of Texas, YA A to Z Conference

Also, I do hope to set up a signing in Charlotte this spring... still working on the details!

As always, you can find details about my upcoming events here (yes, that's a backdated post but it's where my website points to so I can update it easily on the road). If there are any changes to my tour schedule (which there likely will be as we're still early in the game) I'll be making them to THAT POST.

The Writing Life Part 1: what I expected

2011-02-21T21:43:00.000+04:30

I just returned from a panel up at Williams College with a few literary superstars: Jay McInerney and Gary Fisketjon. It was amazing just listening to them -- their lives, how they got where they are, their wisdom. Amazing!

The topic of the panel was "The Writing Life" and as I've settled in to work this morning I've been thinking about the first question we were asked: what is the writing life? Our answers were generally broad, dealing with how we got to where we are, but there was also the question of "how/when do you write?" Jay brought up that some people can write a book and then spend their life talking about that book rather than writing another. His advice was to write every day -- that's what it comes down to: writing.

As I settled in to work today after so many disrupted weeks, I started to think about what that meant on a daily basis. Over breakfast after the event I asked Jay if he still writes every day. He said he still writes most days. It made me think about my own schedule because I *don't* write every day even though I work every day. I've learned that there's quite a gap between "writing" and "working" and this really highlighted for me the difference between what I expected my life as a full time writer to be like and the reality.

This is what I expected:

I'd wake up in the morning after a luxuriously restful sleep. I'd yawn and stretch in my sun dappled room and perhaps spend a few moments pondering the day, thinking over what I've been writing and composing a few lines to get me going. After rising from bed and donning a cute yet relaxed outfit (perhaps something yoga-ish) I'd make my way through my clean house and alight in my office where I'd answer a few emails before getting down to work: writing.

I'm a fast writer so I'd probably knock out a thousand words before wandering into the kitchen for breakfast. Perhaps I'd make an organic fruit smoothie with fresh fruit from the farmer's market. I'd think about my latest writing project and return to the office, finishing my word goal for the day before lunch-time.

Lunch would be something light -- a salad or soup, again made from ingredients purchased at the farmer's market (because I'd have time for such things). Maybe I'd set something aside for dinner -- begin marinating something or start a stock. If I didn't go to the gym in the morning, I'd head there now, taking advantage of the afternoon lull.

Upon returning home from the gym perhaps there'd be some business I'd have to take care of -- a few emails, a blog, updating the website. Nothing too taxing and I might even finish all the work by 4:00 whereupon I'd lounge on the couch and read. I'd have dinner ready for JP most night -- all fresh and tasty.

Some days I'd go to a movie, other days I'd make the rounds of various bookstores to sign stock. I might even fit in a nap!

I'd write more than one book a year -- after all, I'd written my first published novel while also working a taxing job (some of it during a trial where I billed over 300 hours for a couple of months). With all this newfound time I'd be a writing machine!

All would be neat and organized, all would be timely. The house would be clean, my office would be tidy. I'd have it all together and it would be wonderful.

It was a glorious dream. And so very much not reality.

Two events: Charlotte, NC and Williamstown, MA

2011-02-16T01:12:00.000+04:30

A quick post about two events:

The first is a panel on the Rise of the Young Adult Novel hosted by the Women's National Book Association in Charlotte, NC. I know this is super late notice but it's being held tonight, Feb 15th, at 6:30 at the Quail Hollow Estates Clubhouse. It looks like a great panel and I know the questions we'll be discussing are really thoughtful and interesting. I can't wait! More details are here. Also, I think I'll be signing books afterward!

The second event is a panel discussion on "A Life Writing" to be held at Williams College on Thursday, February 17th. The other panelists are Jay McInerney, whose novels are essentially the anthems of his generation, and Gary Fisketjon, editor-at-large at Knopt who has worked with Raymond Carver, Annie Dillard, Cormac McCarthy and others.

I heard about the other participants and my first thought was to sing, "One of these things is not like the rest of them" to myself. Seriously, I'm pretty awestruck by Jay and Gary and will likely spend much of the panel just staring at them and hoping to bask in their brilliance. I am so crazy honored to be speaking with them.

The event starts with a reading by Jay McInerney at 7pm followed by the panel discussion at 8pm. Both events will be held in Griffin Hall, room 3 and are free and open to the public. If you want to learn more about it, here's a link.

Hope to see some of y'all there!!

Dedicating The Dead-Tossed Waves

2011-02-08T23:20:00.000+04:30

Today marks the release of The Dead-Tossed Waves in paperback. When I had to figure out who to dedicate The Forest of Hands and Teeth to it felt pretty obvious to me: my husband JP is the one who introduced me to zombies, who read every page of that book several times, who endured countless walks and conversations as I talked through the plot. I felt like that book was as much his as mine.

When I got to the end of writing The Dead-Tossed Waves I also felt it was pretty obvious who I would dedicate the book to: my mother, Bobby, and my step-father, Doug. This is a post about why. [There are spoilers, sorry! I'll mark the spot in the post later on where there are no spoilers.]

The dedication reads:

to Roberta Hatch
the light on the horizon that means home

to Douglas Keith Kidd
for loving her, and all of us, so much

and to love at first sight (and Chiquita bananas)

The Forest of Hands and Teeth is about Mary and her quest to determine how she wants to define her life. Yes, there's a love triangle and I've talked before about how I think love triangles work -- each boy (in my case) represents a different part of the heroine and she must choose who SHE wants to be before she can choose which partner best compliments that part of her.

In the first book, I think it's pretty clear that while both Harry and Travis are totally viable options for Mary, she loves Travis. He's the one who is willing to venture past the gates, to question their life in the village and to dream big. Harry represents a more stable love and companionship. Travis, to me, is a like a bright blazing conflagration while Harry is more of a steady burning ember. They're both great men (or I hope they come across that way), but Travis is who fits with Mary best in The Forest of Hands and Teeth; he compliments her passion and drive.

The Dead-Tossed Waves picks up with the story quite a bit after the end of The Forest of Hands and Teeth and from a different point of view: Mary's daughter, Gabry. At some point in the book, Mary leaves to go back to her village and when we meet her again she's standing with Harry and I hope it's pretty clear they've rekindled a relationship (or are in the process of doing so). Mary says at one point that she doesn't need Harry to complete her anymore, just to be with her. And she's pretty clear that it never would have worked out between them when they were young -- both of them had to grow up and have their own separate lives and become their own independent person before they could come back together again.

But she also acknowledges that they share such a deep past -- a deep bond that will always tie them together. They grew up in the same village with the same friends and fears and questions. This shared background created such a lasting foundation between them: they understood everything about each other because of that time.

[The spoiler free bits follow:]

I based this relationship on my mother and step-father who have an amazing love story. Both of them grew up on banana plantations in Latin America. I think my step-father, Doug, knew of my mother (she was one of four girls who caused all kinds of trouble, I think everyone pretty much knew them) but they don't remember meeting each other officially (though it's likely there were times when they were on the same banana boats from the plantations up to school in New Orleans).

They both grew up, got married, had kids, lived completely separate lives. And then one year in the summer of 1995 they both attended the Chiquita Banana Reunion in New Orleans (yes, such a thing exists). My mother was a smoker at the time (boo!) and was standing by an ashtray looking for a match when Doug offered her a light. They started to talk. Then they went to the party and started to dance. They stayed up all night dancing. Doug was supposed to leave the next day and cancelled his flight. When he did eventually leave (on my Mom's birthday) he sent roses to her room. As it turns out, he lived only a few hours from my mom and he came to visit that next weekend (and left her a love note in Spanish not realizing that I, who was the only daughter still living at home, spoke Spanish and found it first - haha!).

It was truly love at first sight for them. They got married later that year (yes, it was their kids who said "wait a minute, perhaps slow things down a bit?") and I got a step-father and two older brothers (really, truly, awesome). Mom and Doug spoke Spanish around the house. He called her "Mi Amor," they danced. They went back to the Chiquita Banana reunions every other year. A large part of their bond was that shared history: they both understood what it was to grow up on those banana plantations. He'd even lived in one of the houses my mom lived in as a kid. They knew the same people, the same banana boats, the same language.

And I honestly believe that it took them growing up, moving into separate paths, having their own lives, and coming back together again later to find such love and compatibility. My mother just wasn't the same woman when she met Doug as she was when she met my father. If she and Doug had met earlier in life, I'm not sure they could have shared the same kind of love and companionship. What they looked for in a partner changed over their lives and it really did seem like, at least from an outsider perspective, that they didn't need each other to complete the other one, they needed to just love each other and be companions. Which they were.

Many of you may know that my step-father, Doug, passed away on December 22, 2010. My mother sat by the bed, holding his hand. I stood behind her, watching. Before he was moved into hospice, when he was still upstairs in the ICU, we told one of the nurses how he and my mom met. He smiled and chuckled (wishing he could cut in and tell the story right, I'm sure). Really, that's the last time I saw him be aware of any of his surroundings.

He was diagnosed with kidney cancer in the summer of 2006 and in the spring of 2009 he ended treatment and we called in hospice. Honestly, I thought I'd never see him get out of bed again. But then we got our miracle two years. He gained strength and weight. He and my mom flew to Costa Rica for a two week bus tour to all their old haunts with their buddies from the Chiquita Banana Reunions. He got to see his son, my brother, coach the winning state soccer champs. His other son got married. I got married, my sisters and brother had kids. He was there for all of it (well, except for JP and I'd elopement, but he was there to congratulate us later). Truly, it was a miracle two years.

So we knew it couldn't last, though we didn't know it would happen quite as quickly as it did. But, like so many of that generation, he'd smoked for most of his life and in the end his lungs couldn't stand up against the COPD.

I knew when I was writing The Dead-Tossed Waves that Doug was terminally ill. And I knew that I'd be dedicating the book to him and my mother because they shared a deep and lasting love and I'd used it as a model for Harry and Mary. I didn't know when I finished writing The Forest of Hands and Teeth that this would be in Mary's future but when I looked at the way Mom and Doug held hands, the comfort they shared in talking about their childhoods, I knew that this is what would bring Mary comfort and joy later in her life. She'd had her adventures (and boy did she have adventures) and she had a daughter she'd raised and loved fiercely but who had grown and would be leaving the nest.

I dedicated the book to my mother because The Dead-Tossed Waves is as much about Mary being a mother as it is about Gabry being a daughter. And of course because it's from Gabry's POV she doesn't necessarily spend that much time thinking about her mom because that's what we do when we're young: we go off on our adventures. But Gabry always knew that her mother was there -- the light on the horizon that meant home -- and would always be there. I'm lucky to live my life the same way, knowing that my mother is always a phone call or a short drive away. That she will accept me unconditionally with open arms.

I'm very lucky to have had Doug in my life as well. He taught me patience, kindness, unconditional love and acceptance. He was the man that knew everyone -- the produce stocker at Publix, the UPS man, he knew their stories and their dreams. He listened and loved. As my sister so perfectly said at his service, "Doug had the ability to make you feel like you were the only person in the room. And you were the BEST at what you did."

So I thank Chiquita Bananas for bringing them together. Mom and Doug made me believe in love at first sight. I miss him. I'm glad I had the chance to hand him a copy of The Dead-Tossed Waves and thank him for being in my life.

Thanks to mom and Doug for letting me borrow their love for my book and thanks to all of you for letting me share it with you.

Thanks!!

2011-02-08T21:34:00.002+04:30

Thank you SO MUCH to all of you who came out to the live show last night and asked questions and showed support for The Dark and Hollow Places! I'm really surprised at how nervous I became when reading. I really thought I was finally at the point where I'm comfortable speaking and reading in public but (a) it's easier to do in person when you can gauge reactions and (b) this is really the first time I've read anything from The Dark and Hollow Places out loud and in the middle of it I began to realize that fact and it freaked me out a little. So, thanks for all the kind words, tweets and emails!! I appreciate it SO SO MUCH!

The Dead-Tossed Waves pre-release round-up plus how to get a DHP teaser...

2011-02-08T00:08:00.000+04:30

Okay, people, tomorrow marks the release of The Dead-Tossed Waves paperback. Cue confetti!! Yay!! Crazy how time flies! In honor of the release I'll be reading the first couple of pages from The Dark and Hollow Places tonight during the live show from Branson, MO. I don't know when during the hour I'll be reading but you can tune in here at 8:00 PM Eastern. Also, just a note that I forgot to bring an ARC or a copy of the paperback with me so I'll be reading from the last draft I have so... there might be some changes between that and the final (just assume that the final is moar awesome).

In very VERY happy-making news, Jen Lancaster, one of my absolute favorite authors of adult books (crazy hilarious writer!) chose The Dead-Tossed Waves as one of her winter recommendations. She wrote:

What I appreciate so much about Carrie's books is that even though her characters are tormented by external factors (e.g. being pursued by zombies while in pursuit of a safe zone), she still gives us a very real sense of what makes the characters unique and whole. Their internal drama's often as profound as what's happening around them.

Thanks Jen!! The whole list is here.

And also, thanks to the lovely internet I've already seen some pics of The Dead-Tossed Waves out and about! Vania took this photo (thanks!!):

Speaking of pictures, Aimee Ferris, author of Will Work for Prom Dress, has put together an awesome website of various authors in their own prom photos. Mine just went up the other day. Here's the link. And yes, I still do have that dress in my closet (well, my attic really) because I totally loved it! I remember shopping for it with my mom and picking it out (I even wore it two years in a row).

Branson's been snowy, cold and totally awesome! Don't forget to head to the chat tonight if you have any questions for me about books, writing, life, etc etc. Can't wait to talk with y'all!!

And she's off...

2011-02-04T23:08:00.000+04:30

Obligatory announcements first:

The Dead-Tossed Waves paperback out in four days. Be there. And by "there" I mean you can purchase a copy from the following places: Barnes & Noble | Amazon | IndieBound | Personalized Copy from my local indie, Park Road Books.
SciFiNow had their third annual awards and the gave The Dead-Tossed Waves the "Potter Award for Adaptation Potential" saying, "Given the current zombie fever, and the taste for romance in the genre, we'd be amazed if Ryan hasn't had discussions with film studios. Her first novel, The Forest of Hands and Teeth, was practically built for film and the follow-up is cinematic too." Thanks SciFiNow! Also, yes, I have been in talks -- we sold the option in 2009 and they renewed it in 2010!
SciFiNow also reviewed The Dead-Tossed Waves as a "must read now!" and said it "maintains the same bold characterizations as its predecessor," and "with great world building and cinematic form, this is a high quality novel." This makes me very very happy!
Thanks again, everyone, for indulging me as I play with QR codes. I've pasted below the first paragraph of The Dark and Hollow Places (which, astute readers may notice on Tuesday, is slightly different from the one in the back of The Dead-Tossed Waves... these things change).

This city used to be something once. I've seen pictures of the way it gleamed -- sun so bright off windows it could burn your eyes. At night lights shouted from steel like catcalls, loud and lewd, while all day long white-gloved men rushed to open doors for women who tottered about on skyscraper heels.

So as it turns out, I've got a lot of traveling in my future. Tomorrow I leave for a writing retreat in Branson, MO. I hear there may be some live BlogTV where you can ask questions of the authors there but I don't know when it is or how it works (deadline brain means I haven't paid attention to much else, I'm just glad I actually remembered to buy my plane ticket!). When I know anything I'll likely post it to my twitter feed.

Then when I get back I turn around and go to Williamsburg, VA with JP. This is a tradition we started the first year we began dating and we've only missed one year! I truly TRULY love this trip: we forget about the internet and work and modern day and just get to daydream and relax and pretend the rest of the world doesn't exist. In fact, JP proposed to me in Williamsburg three years ago!

A few days after that I'm heading up to my Alma Mater, Williams College, for a panel on jobs in the creative industry. If any of you are in the area and want more info, just leave me a comment and I'll post it! I'm pretty sure I've forgotten just how cold Massachusetts can be in February.

After that it's home for a bit and then off on a family trip to Reno with my mom to visit my aunt. I've been told this will be a Very Fun Trip.

AND THEN... The Dark and Hollow Places tour! Wahoo! I don't have all the details but here's what I know so far: I'll be heading to Cincinnati, Miami, Salt Lake City, Phoenix, Chicago and then Los Angeles in conjunction with the RT Convention and Austin in conjunction with TLA and the Writer's League of Texas YA A to Z conference. I can't wait!!

So yes, lots of travel which means... perhaps I should get packing!

On finishing a draft

2011-02-02T23:38:00.000+04:30

First, more announcements! Yay!

Cassandra Clare, author extraordinaire of the Mortal Instruments series and the Infernal Devices trilogy, took part in a video for Barnes & Noble discussing some of her favorite books and The Dead-Tossed Waves made her list! HUGE SQUEE! You can watch the video here. It's a pretty awesome and diverse list so I'm very thrilled and honored to get a shout out.
Speaking of The Dead-Tossed Waves... the paperback comes out on Tuesday, Feb 8th. Eee, less than a week! And I won't even be in town or anywhere near a bookstore!
Speaking of Tuesday, in celebration of the paperback coming out, I think I'll post more excerpts for The Dark and Hollow Places (the first chapter of which is in the paperback of DTW). Here's the first paragraph!

(In order to read the first paragraph of The Dark and Hollow Places above, download a QR code reader to your smart phone (I use the app i-nigma but I've read you can also direct your browser to scan.mobi) and then point it at that QR code above). I'll post the actual first paragraph in my next post :)

So yesterday afternoon ago I hit send on a draft of my new book to my agent and editor (can't share details yet, sorry!). And for a while I just sort of sat there, trying to figure out what to do next. I've done this before -- turned in first drafts -- and I'm sure I felt similarly then but even so, this sort of snuck up on me. I think because I was prepared to spend all day working on the draft getting it in just before midnight so pressing send in the middle of the afternoon was unexpected. I suddenly had no idea what to do with myself.

Mostly, I just never really spent a lot of time figuring out what came after checking off "turn in draft."

I've learned over the past few years that I tend to be a linear thinker when it comes to tasks: I prioritize a list and then I methodically move through one after another. Which means that when the top of the list is "write book, deadline looming" it's hard for me to see past that to anything else (such as "answer email," or "update website" or "write short story" or "read"). The closer I get to the deadline, the more one-track my mind gets. I feel guilty working on anything else even though it's almost impossible to spend all day every day just straight up writing. And yet, everything else falls to the wayside.

At the beginning of the year I sat down and made a chart of all my deadlines (external and internal) and what I needed to do to meet them. So I know that logically, next on my list is "write short story due imminently" and I'll move on to that soon.

But it's really sort of hard to describe the feeling of turning in a draft and what that does to your head. I remember experiencing a similar feeling when I finished writing the first draft of The Forest of Hands and Teeth. I'd spent months carrying this story around in my head, spending every free moment putting the pieces together and figuring out how it could work, what should come next, etc. That book was always in my thoughts.

And then I finished the draft and suddenly... I could let it go. It was such a relief! That's what it was like turning in that draft yesterday. I've been carrying this book around in my head for so long, and now... it's out of my hands. It will be back in my hands soon enough, I'm sure, but now my mind feels almost a little empty. I don't know what to turn to when I'm taking a walk or staring into space. It's a crazy kind of freedom!

So what did I end up doing? I had some miscellaneous work that had to be done, and then I took a walk to a local burger place and sat and had a long lunch with my ereader and a beer. I came home, talked to some friends, and looked at all the books on my shelf I've been wanting to read and haven't had the time for. I picked a few of them up and put them back, almost giddy with the choices and unable to decide where to start. I actually spent some time with my husband while I wasn't stressing about a deadline and when I went to bed I let my mind wander over the various other projects waiting for me.

And yes, already I'm thinking about revisions :)

First lines, oh my!

2011-01-31T20:18:00.000+04:30

First off, announcements:

The paperback of The Dead-Tossed Waves comes out a week from tomorrow (Feb 8th). How did time pass at such warp speed!? And yes, it has the first chapter of The Dark and Hollow Places in the back :)
The very talented and super nice author Sarwat Chadda reviewed The Forest of Hands and Teeth and interviewed me about it on his blog as part of his Kiss Me, Kill Me blog series (a really awesome series!). Here's the link!

Thank you all for indulging me in my quest to play around with QR codes. Seems that it worked so I think I'll keep playing :) For those of you who, like me until recently, didn't know what a QR code was or don't have the ability to scan one, here's the first line to The Dark and Hollow Places:

This city used to be something once.

I've posted before about first lines (here's a list of some of them from works that will never see the light of day). Generally, I can't really get going on a project until I have that first line and usually, that line never changes. The opening to The Forest of Hands and Teeth is still the same as it was when I emailed it to myself in November 2006 when I first came up with it.

Now, I'll admit that the first line to The Dead-Tossed Waves changed several times as I kept changing who the protagonist was and where/when it was set but the line that made it into the book is still the same line that started out that particular draft (and in the interesting tidbit category, I also came up with that first line while on the road and emailed it to myself -- seems to be a trend.)

Of course, all that being said... the first line of The Dark and Hollow Places changed. For a very long time it used to be, "It was only a matter of time before the Dark City fell." And oh, when I look back on the proposal that included that first line I just have to laugh because WOW did this book ever change from inception to final product!

For proof of that, let's look at the "outline" I created using post-it notes and my hallway (let's not discuss how long it's actually been there...). Even now I sometimes pause and read one of those little notes and laugh and laugh and laugh because almost none of those plot points ended up in the book.

Yes, I wish I had a different process that didn't include hallways of notes that never see the light of day and yet at the same time, I've started to embrace the process I do have. Because by putting all those notes together I understood more about the structure of the book and the characters and their roles individually and together.

Also, I got to spend a beautiful spring day outside just brainstorming various scene ideas and that's always fun :)

Anyway, it's interesting to think back on the process of how The Dark and Hollow Places got from point A (time to ponder the third book!) to point Z (on shelves March 22, 2011!). Especially as I embark on new projects (lips sealed) and get excited about where those might be in the future. For me, there's always something a little magical about the process -- a part of me that will likely never understand how it works and thus is terrified that one day it won't. But there's fun in the magic -- in that moment when you realize you've written the foundation for a point you hadn't even considered but once you realize it... wow, it works (or rather, that's the hope!).

The Dark and Hollow Places teaser...

2011-01-28T21:13:00.000+04:30

Earlier this week on twitter I promised that I'd share the opening of The Dark and Hollow Places. Then I got this in the mail:

And opened it up to find these:

Which made me realize that OMG THE PAPERBACK OF THE DEAD-TOSSED WAVES IS COMING OUT IN A LITTLE OVER A WEEK!!! Ahem. Somehow, this event totally snuck up on me. It's only ELEVEN days before release!!

And then after I spent the proper amount of time petting my new abundance of paperbacks, I flipped open to the back of one to find this:

Yes, that's right -- in the back of The Dead-Tossed Waves paperback you'll find the opening scene of The Dark and Hollow Places. And then it occurred to me that if I just went ahead and pasted that opening here on my blog, y'all might not want to run out and grab the paperback of The Dead-Tossed Waves when it comes out on February 8th.

And yet, I did make that promise so... here's the fist line to The Dark and Hollow Places:

Tricky, tricky, I know! I'm thinking of running a contest for The Dark and Hollow Places that will involve QR codes (that blocky little thing above). So this is me testing it out and playing around. Basically, all you need to do to read the first line of The Dark and Hollow Places is download a code reader to your smart phone (I use the app i-nigma but I've read you can also direct your mobile browser to scan.mobi) and then point it at that QR code above. Viola! Instant first line!

For those of you without smartphones, I'll post the actual first line on Monday! For the rest of you, thanks for indulging my experiment with QR codes (and feel free to drop your thoughts about QR codes in the comment)!

Seen around the net

2011-01-26T19:06:00.000+04:30

I've been mostly remiss with my internet wanderings lately but I have picked up some interesting links I thought I'd share:

My pal Sarwat Chadda (who wrote The Devil's Kiss which I loved and whose second book, Dark Goddess, came out yesterday and I have in my hot little hands and can't wait to read) is hosting the Kiss Me, Kill Me blog series where he's reviewing YA paranormal author's books and then interviewing them. Here's the link. Mine will be up Monday and I have to say, Sarwat wrote such a review that I blushed upon reading it (he really put so much thought into my book that it was humbling). I had a great time with the questions and will share the proper link when it's posted!
Agent extraordinaire, Jennifer Laughran, also known around the internet by her handle, Literaticat, posted a blog about when authors should keep their mouths shut (she talks mostly about how she cringes when she sees authors shoot themselves in the foot by discussing how often they've been rejected while they're still out on submission). Here's the link. I may add to this discussion later once I've winged my latest project to its destination (not for another week). But whether you choose to heed her advice or not, it's still worth thinking about and considering or at the very least being aware of.
In a similar vein, Stacia Kane wrote a blog post about how being published changes things in which she specifically talks about the difficulty of being both a published author and a reader/reviewer. Here's the link. Again, this is something I might delve into more in my own post but for now I wanted to point it out because I think it raises a lot of interesting points that are also worth considering and being aware of.
Who doesn't love and need a zombie flowchart in their life?
Saundra Mitchell, whose writing I could eat like candy, recently posted about the effect of book piracy on an author's career. Here's the link. It's definitely sobering and I applaud Saundra for sharing in such detail because that's hard to do!
Don't forget about the L.K. Madigan Feast of Awesome Giveaway happening over at the Debs until the end of the month! Here's the link!
I've noticed people getting ARCs of The Dark and Hollow Places in the mail. I continue to try to remember to take deep breaths and remember that it is all out of my hands at this point. Also, I've noticed that the Goodreads listing for DHP, for some reason, shows the UK version as the default. Here's the link. This happened with The Forest of Hands and Teeth as well. I've heard that Goodreads defaults to the edition with the most "adds"which, up until this past weekend, was the US edition (I've been paying attention this time because of what happened with FHT). I've emailed to try to get it straightened out, and am still waiting for a response. But if anyone out there knows how to fix it, I'd love it! I tried and...er... probably mucked it up more.
Magical Words, where I blog every second Thursday of the month, just celebrated their third anniversary. Here's the link. That blog has a crazy amount of useful information on the craft and writing industry and I highly HIGHLY recommend it.
I'm slowly, but surely, switching my facebook page from my personal page to a new one. Here's the link. Ideally, the new page will be the place where I share all the book and author related information and at some point I may start deleting people from the old account. Just to give warning -- it has nothing to do with y'all, it has everything to do with me and the fact that I'm trying to pare down a bit and streamline things before the third book comes out and I head out on tour for a month! If you have suggestions for my new page, I'd love to hear them!

And that's about it for now! I had other links to share but somehow have lost them in the attempt to clear my browser tabs which have, quite frankly, grown so out of control that it's scary. Please feel free to share your own fun links in the comments!

Thanks!

Spreading the Love

2011-01-24T05:20:00.005+04:30

Recently, a friend, Lisa (L.K. Madigan), shared difficult news on her blog: that she's been diagnosed with stage IV pancreatic cancer. I still can't type those words or think about it with tearing up. Maybe that's one reason I haven't blogged about this yet. Another reason is because her news fell so shortly after I sat by my step-father's side while he passed away that I just chose to ignore it all. Too much sadness.

Her post is so amazingly eloquent that I honestly can't find much to add. I met Lisa through the debs and as a group we've shared so much together. But we were never supposed to share things like this. When we started I assumed it would all be about books but we've shared so much else in the past three years -- parents dying, sick kids, births of new happy healthy kids, bad news and good news. So much that falls into the broad category of life.

Honestly, there are times my fellow debs feel like a family more than just friends or colleagues. And so it is too painful to think about one of them going through something like this. I've always been amazed by Lisa and I'm even more amazed by her strength in facing this news.

As Cindy Pon wrote on a recent debs post:

so how can we best express our love and support for
lisa during this time? through the celebration of her books.
only a fellow writer can know the angst and turmoil associated
with creating stories--because we put so much of ourselves in them.
won't you help us in spreading L. K. Madigan Book Love?

So that's what this post is about. Spreading the love about Lisa's books -- a book that won the Morris Award (for best debut novel) and another that has touched so many people. The debs are giving away 40 sets of Lisa's books and you can find out how to enter here.

Thanks for taking this time to help us show how much we love Lisa and how much her friendship's meant to us. And thanks Lisa for being so awesome!

Why didn't she fight harder for him, aka: He's just not that into you

2011-01-20T20:13:00.000+04:30

This afternoon I read through a few of my old high school journals as research for an essay I'm writing and I found a theme: I spent a lot of time thinking about boys. I spent even more time wondering if the boys I liked liked me back. I analyzed whether they waved to me in the halls, if they called, if they made eye contact and I tallied up conversations.

Everything fed into this great matrix in my mind trying to determine: does he like me back? A part of me worried that perhaps the reason my crushes weren't giving me signals of reciprocation is that they, like me, were scared of showing their hand and all it would take is me showing them I liked them. I'd wonder whether I should go to their soccer games, cruise around their neighborhood on my bike (yeah, I was cool like that), or try to sit next to them in class.

Ultimately I realized, long after high school unfortunately, that if you like a guy and a guy likes you (or you like a girl, etc) then it shouldn't be that hard. You'll end up working to make sure they know you like them just as hard as they work to show you that they like you. You'll "coincidentally" end up in the same places at the same time, you'll find excuses to talk to each other and spend time with each other: both of you will be working toward the same end.

JP, my husband, hates it when I tell this story because he remembers it differently but... back in law school, when I first had a crush on JP, I asked him if he wanted to come watch a TV show at my place (we'd already been emailing about the show, he knew I'd gotten a new TV and wanted to see it -- it seemed like a good way to move things forward).

His response: I have to study tonight, but I'll pencil you in for next week.

What I heard: you're not exciting enough to skip/postpone studying for and I'm leaving my options open for next week.

I'm sure in high school I'd have taken his response as something different and I'd have kept working on him -- convincing myself he just didn't know I liked him. But (trying to be older and wiser - ha!) I instead thought "you know, if he was into you, he'd figure out a way to get his schedule in order to be at your place during that TV show... move on."

(To be fair, JP was a big geek first year of law school with grades in the top 5% of our class at Duke Law so... perhaps I'll concede he was studying but still... I should have been more exciting than contract law. Also clearly, things worked out with us (because we were both interested in each other we both ended up on the same team at trivia night at a local pub, we both stayed late, etc etc)).

My point is this: I spent a lot of time in high school making myself miserable trying to figure out if the people I liked liked me back. And if two people like each other, it shouldn't be that hard.

Why am I blogging about this? (here's where the SPOILER comes in so if you haven't read The Dead-Tossed Waves then be warned I'm spoiling it): I got an email a while back asking me why Gabry turned away from Catcher at the end of DTW -- the reader pointed out that Gabry promised Catcher she'd fight for him and when it came down to it, she stopped fighting.

The reader is right: Gabry did promise to fight for Catcher. Initially, I wrote the end of DTW differently; I made the resolution much fuzzier. But then when I read back over it I realized that Catcher spends a lot of time explicitly saying: "I can't/don't/won't love you Gabry" and Elias spends a lot of time saying: "Gabry, you're an amazing and wonderful woman who I love." I've mentioned before my theory on love triangles and I feel like Catcher represented who Gabry used to be and Elias represented who she became.

But what really mattered to me is that I wasn't going to watch Gabry put her life on hold and wait for Catcher to figure himself out, if he ever could. Catcher essentially was telling Gabry, "I have to study tonight, maybe I'll pencil you in for next week." And maybe he'd have gotten his head out of the clouds in time to take her out the next week or maybe he wouldn't have. But I've gotten tired of characters sitting around and taking abuse from people they "love" while waiting for those people to figure out what they want in life.

Gabry had to take the bull by the horns -- she had to grab life and that meant choosing Elias who was also ready to live. My personal feeling is that if Catcher finds the right person to love, he'll get over himself because that person will become more important to him than his internal issues. And yeah, maybe there's a chance that will never happen -- all I know is that it wasn't happening with Gabry and I wasn't going to force her to stick around and hope that someday it might. That doesn't mean they can't be great friends, it just means they weren't destined to share a great love. [END SPOILERS.]

Listen, I understand -- I write and read romance where a big part of the plot is about getting two people to fall in love with each other and work it out. Often times that means one person being in love and fighting for the other to reciprocate. I just feel like sometimes... there just comes a point where it's clear the two people aren't going to end up together and the one person continuing to fight for the other starts to look desperate and sad. It's almost cruel. I worry sometimes that there's a teen out there (like I was) who, when faced with the "hero" shunning her, thinks it means that he's tortured deep down inside and only the heroine can save him if she tries hard enough when in reality... he's just not that into her.

There comes a point that when someone tells you "I don't prioritize you," you need to listen. You need to realize you deserve better. I don't think you should have to fight that hard for love because love isn't cruel.

Here's my theory: if a person likes you, they'll treat you like they like you. They'll compliment you, they'll smile at you, they'll respect you. If a person loves you, every time they look at you they'll think "I can't believe this amazing and wonderful person has chosen ME" and you know what? You'll be thinking the exact same thing if you love them back.

Speaking of catching up...

2011-01-15T01:14:00.000+04:30

San Diego at sunset

1. So I just got back from a week long writing retreat in San Diego. It was kind of a whiplash transition to go from sitting outside in the sun looking at the water to holed up in my house while the snow and ice refuses to melt outside! I miss the warm afternoons! I had a fantastic time at the retreat -- really lovely conversations with smart, thoughtful and talented people. And of course I got lots of work done which makes me happy. I hit that stage in the book where I need to step back, re-organize, and then revise so toward the end I was doing less writing and more pondering/planning. I'm already looking forward to the next retreat (Branson, MO in Feb).

2. Speaking of coming home, what with all the craziness around the holidays JP and I had to put off exchanging gifts and when I got back to the house I walked in to find his present to me: bookcases! I can't tell you how much this thrills me! So this weekend I'll be re-organizing the books piled around the house. YAY! I realized just how dire things had gotten with my lack of book organizing a few weeks ago when I was standing at my local indie trying to remember if I'd bought a particular book and if I had, where it might be (i.e. which stack littered around the house). I'm still not sure this one big bookcase will be enough to set things right but it's a start!

3. Speaking of books... I just shipped home a big box of ARCs I picked up at ALA. So... perhaps I'll need another bookcase after all!

4. Speaking of ALA, I went and it was awesome! BOOKS EVERYWHERE! I also was lucky enough to run into some awesome authors, readers, librarians, booksellers. Honestly, it was almost overwhelming at times. And yes, many many ARCs.

5. Speaking of ARCs, Random House had The Dark and Hollow Places at their booth and were handing it out. This is slightly terrifying to me because that means people are going to be reading it soon.

6. Speaking of The Dark and Hollow Places, for the first time today I realized that the release date -- 3.22.11 -- is pretty cool when you write it out like that.

7. Speaking of cool... did I mention there's still snow and ice outside? Like to the point where I could skate across our front yard? Of course the neighbor's house is totally melted because it's in the sun.

8. Speaking of the lack of flowers in our yard, I just saw the Italian cover of The Forest of Hands and Teeth. It's totally unexpected but at the same time I think it's utterly GORGEOUS! I think the title translates into The Forest of Death and Lost Love (any Italian speakers out there want to correct me?).

9. Speaking of unexpected, my birthday is this weekend. Usually I'm much more on top of this sort of thing but this year it's snuck up on me! I haven't even decided what to get myself!

10. Speaking of not being on top of things, I just found a folder of email in my email program from a year ago. I'm slowly making my way through it. I can't tell you how embarrassed this makes me!

11. Speaking of getting embarrassed, can I tell you how much I'm loving Dance Central on Xbox Kinect and how glad I am that our account is in no way connected to twitter or facebook to share the pics the program takes while you're dancing?

12. Speaking of dancing, I think I'll go do that now :)

Looking ahead in 2011

2011-01-04T20:34:00.000+04:30

A few days ago I posted a wrap-up of my 2010 and promised a look ahead to 2011. I've meant to write a New Year's goals post for several years ago and just... never get around to it. But this year I have promised myself and I will prevail!!

Over the weekend I took the time to sit down and write out, month-by-month, my goals and deadlines and it's looking fun (and a bit overwhelming)! Lots of things I'm super excited about and several challenges that have me just on the edge of scared (which I feel is a great place to be).

BOOKS:

I have two books coming out this year. The first is the paperback of The Dead-Tossed Waves on February 8, 2011 and the second is The Dark and Hollow Places out on March 22, 2011. I'm super excited about this book (and the very first review I found said that fans of the first two books would like this one so wohoo!)

I've gotten a few questions about this book and I thought I'd do a brief FAQ:

What is The Dark and Hollow Places about?

Here's the back cover copy:

There are many things that Annah would like to forget: the look on her sister's face when she and Elias left her behind in the Forest of Hands and Teeth, her first glimpse of the horde as they found their way to the Dark City, the sear of the barbed wire that would scar her for life. But most of all, Annah would like to forget the morning Elias left her for the Recruiters.

Annah's world stopped that day and she's been waiting for him to come home ever since. Without him, her life doesn't feel much different from that of the dead that roam the wasted city around her. Then she meets Catcher and everything feels alive again.

Except, Catcher has his own secrets—dark, terrifying truths that link him to a past Annah's longed to forget, and to a future too deadly to consider. And now it's up to Annah—can she continue to live in a world drenched in the blood of the living? Or is death the only escape from the Return's destruction?

Is The Dark and Hollow Places the last book in a trilogy?

While the front cover calls it "a Forest of Hands and Teeth book," this is the last book I have contracted in the Forest of Hands and Teeth world though I will have another short story set in that world (unrelated to the books, though) tentatively coming out in the fall.

How does The Dark and Hollow Places relate to the first two books?

The first book, The Forest of Hands and Teeth, is set generations after the Return (zombie apocalypse) and is told from the point of view of Mary. The second book, The Dead-Tossed Waves, is set a generation after the end of the first and is told from the point of view of Gabry, Mary's daughter. The Dark and Hollow Places takes place just a few months after the end of the second and is told from the point of view of Annah. Personally, I tend to think of the third book as more of a sequel to the second (i.e. books 2 and 3 are much more closely related than books 1 and 2 are).

Are there ARCs for The Dark and Hollow Places and how can I get one to review?

There are ARCs! They're gorgeous (perhaps I'm biased...). However, I only got a few copies and I gave two of them to my sisters for Christmas (it's dedicated to them and it was super special to have the chance to give it to them in person!) which leaves me with one (which I'll hang on to for my collection). So as of right now I don't have any to send. If you're interested in reviewing one, please contact my wonderful publicists Meg and Jessica (info here under representation tab).

When is The Dark and Hollow Places coming out?

March 22, 2011. I can't wait!!

Any other quick questions? Post them in comments and I'll add them to the list! Thanks!

SHORT STUFF:

I should have two short stories and two non-fiction essays coming out in 2011. Because I haven't found any official mention of this online from the publishers/editors I'm keeping it a bit quiet for now but will def post about it here and on my website when I have more news!

I'm also super excited about a few other short stories I'm writing that will hopefully be coming out in 2012! I've really loved writing these short stories and I'm excited about branching out into new worlds with them! (It's at this point in the post that I wonder if I've used the word "excited" way too many times...)

FUTURE STUFF:

Nothing I can mention yet :) Lots of deadlines and things I'm really pumped about!

ONLINE STUFF:

When I started writing full time I spent a lot of time online (which I loved). I definitely felt more keyed into the online writing community. Then, at the end of the year I looked back and wondered if perhaps I should have been writing more and I spent the next year (last year) focusing more on writing. Which made me feel less a part of what was going on online. I'm still trying really hard to find that balance but what I know for sure is that I wish I'd kept things more up to date in the past year.

So this year I'm striving for a better balance. To that end I'm planning on a few changes. First, I plan to blog more. Second, I'm switching to a different Facebook page which is here (my goal is to shift everyone away from my personal page to that one). Third, I'm keeping up with Twitter. I just like Twitter a lot :) Those are generally the three places I can be found. Unfortunately, while I think Goodreads is an awesome site, I tend to not visit just because I try to avoid reviews of my books. And if you need to reach me for any kind of request (skype visits, etc) the best way to contact me is always through email -- I just tend to forget about the mailboxes on other sites (like Facebook and Goodreads).

TRAVEL STUFF:

This Thursday I'm headed off to a writing retreat in San Diego and then am off to another writing retreat in Missouri in early February. I hope to get tons accomplished though it's always hard not to want to spend all day talking to everyone else and soaking in all their collective wisdom. Then I'm touring in March/April (YAY!) and heading to TLA in April as well. I can't wait! I hear such amazing things about TLA!!!

OTHER STUFF:

A few days before Christmas my step-father passed away. This stunk for many many reasons, but one thing I realized is that the choices we make about our health during our life can have significant and lasting consequences. So this year I really want to concentrate on creating a foundation of health that can last me for a long time. My goal is to exercise more, give my body what it needs and be more mindful about what I eat.

So what are some of y'all's goals or things you're excited about in 2011?

Year in Review!

2011-01-01T21:33:00.000+04:30

So every year I always plan to write a comprehensive post about the past year and then I always forget or get wrapped up in the holidays. But this time I’ve promised myself: I WILL WRITE THAT POST. Mostly because it’s kinda cool to look back down the road and see what’s changed from year to year. So here we go:

BOOKS:

The paperback of The Forest of Hands and Teeth came out in February and hit the NYT list for several weeks. You can read about that here. Almost a year later I’m still pretty stunned about the whole thing. Seriously -- this was a majorly huge dream come true!

My first sequel, The Dead-Tossed Waves, came out in March and I got to go on tour. This was massively exciting! To have the opportunity to speak to so many readers and book lovers was utterly amazing. I’m super excited that it looks like I’ll have the opportunity to tour again this year for The Dark and Hollow Places (out March 22, 2010) -- WAHOO!

I’m not going to lie -- I was super nervous about The Dead-Tossed Waves when it came out. That book changed so much from my initial idea to the final product and there were times when I detested that book (and times I loved it). I was pretty terrified to read the first reviews and I can’t really explain how relieved and excited I was to read that people liked it better than the first (and yes, I’m experiencing the same thing with The Dark and Hollow Places).

SHORT STORIES:

My first three short stories came out in 2010:

"Bougainvillea" in the Zombies vs. Unicorns anthology edited by Holly Black and Justine Larbalestier. This was the first short story I’d written since college and I found it a challenge. I’m so used to thinking of ideas big enough to fill a novel that it was hard to figure out an idea that would only fill 1/10^th the words (hence why this is my longest short story). I’ve been very very gratified by the lovely reviews and have definitely fallen in love with writing short stories!

"Hare Moon" in Kiss Me Deadly edited by Trisha Telep. This was my chance to go back directly to Mary’s world in The Forest of Hands and Teeth and explore another character. I chose Sister Tabitha because I found her kind of fascinating with a few scenes I wrote during revisions and wanted to understand better why she is the way she is. I really love this story (and hope to have it available for free in the next few months).

"Flotsam and Jetsam" in The Living Dead 2 edited by John Joseph Adams (read it for free here). This was my first story from a male point of view and is my shortest story. I really kind of love it.

WORDS WRITTEN

Several years ago when I started writing seriously, I felt a little discouraged because I’d dedicated a year toward my goal but didn’t feel like I was any closer. So I calculated the number of words I wrote so that I’d at least see that I was working and accomplishing things even if it didn’t feel that way.

Unfortunately, I’ve skipped counting some years but here’s what I have so far:

2006: 171,701

2009: 348,100

2010: 320,000

Here's the breakdown (though I recognize it's cryptic -- I'm recording it for my own future reference):

DHP: 157k

TGO: 25k

F&J: 5k

HM: 10k

SR: 7k

BK4: 76k

TDE: 35k

HGE: 4k

ATC: 1k

This is down a bit from last year but is still in a similar range. Also, it was hard for me to figure out how much of The Dark and Hollow Places was written in 2009 and how much I’d revised in 2010. What I do know is that I’m learning my processes is to write more of a Zero Draft and then revise, revise, revise. Seriously, my cut file for DHP is HUGE and when I think about the original opening…. Yikes. So yeah, lots of cut words in my process but it tends to work out in the end (I hope readers think so too!).

CITIES VISITED:

New York, Baltimore, Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco, Orlando, Atlanta, Detroit, New Orleans, San Diego

Awesome readers and booklovers met: waaay too many to count. But this is seriously one of the best parts of the job!

CONTRACTS SIGNED:

Heh, I’m seriously looking forward to being able to talk about this soon J Let’s just say I have some projects I’m SUPER excited about and have already started working on!

GOALS ACHIEVED:

I’ve meant to blog about this before (and have even written the blog but not posted it) but waaay back when I started writing I wrote down my dream list of goals. These were the things wholly outside of my control but that would still be a major achievement that, at the time, I felt was impossible. What’s astounded me over the years as I revisit that list is how many of them I’ve hit. It’s always a totally surreal moment and, yes, I’ve had to pinch myself several times.

This year the goals I got to cross off that list:

Hitting the New York Times bestseller list. This was huge. I’m still stunned. Getting that phone call in the car from my editor is a moment I’ll never ever forget!

Having my name on the cover of an anthology. I can’t really explain why this was on my dream list of goals, but I’ve just read so many anthologies that I felt like having my name on the front would mean that I’d achieved a mileston. To have my name among some of the best zombie authors writing right now is a massive honor!

I had a couple of sales thresholds on my goal list and I hit those as well -- another huge milestone that’s changed the trajectory of the next couple of years in very exciting ways.

Another of those goals is in the process and I’m not sure how much I can say about it so… I’ll just leave it at that.

PERSONAL:

Highlight: I got married! YAY! Finally, after six years of being together and two years of being engaged, JP and I eloped to the park behind our house and tied the knot on April 1. It was perfect and wonderful and I’m thrilled to finally call him my husband!

Lowlight: My step father passed away a few days before Christmas. This stunk and I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it in the coming weeks. The silver lining was that my entire family was able to be together for Christmas which is exactly the type of gift my step-father would have given us.

Otherlights: I finally joined the YMCA late in the year and have been going fairly regularly. Just like with writing, I’m a creature of habit and travelling definitely throws me off but I love our Y (esp the sauna in the winter) and I’ve very much noticed that what would usually be a very stressful time is more conquerable when I’m exercising regularly.

THOUGHTS:

For some reason, I felt more settled in 2010 than I had the year before. I think part of that was learning more about my routine: how I write, where I write, how important momentum is. I also focused more on the actual writing than the periphery things (which explains why my facebook page isn’t as updated as it should or my blog suffered). However, to compensate, I was way more active on Twitter, which I love -- it’s just so easy to chat and keep up with people on Twitter!

In 2009 I spent several months planning my launch party, designing giveaways, setting up my office and working on social networks and at the end of the year I wondered if I’d have been better served to have spent that time writing (or more of that time writing -- finding a better balance). So in 2010 I erred on the side of writing and while I may not have as many words written as I did the year before, the number of projects I have and opportunities has grown significantly. Much of this is because I’ve been super fortunate to be involved in several anthologies and I’ve LOVED LOVED writing short stories in between other projects. I’ve also been very honored to be considered for these anthologies and by the reader response to them. So far all of my stories have been set in the Forest of Hands and Teeth world but in 2011 I’ll be branching out into two new worlds I’m excited about!

At the end of the day (or rather year, I guess) I look back and I’m rather stunned. It’s still hard for me to believe that this is my life -- that I get to be so fortunate. It’s not always easy, but the rewards are immense and I’m so truly lucky to have the support of my family and friends. I’m also so awed by my readers -- thanks to all of you and may your 2011 exceed your expectations! You certainly helped 2010 exceed mine!

Coming soon... a preview of my 2011 goals!

A random confession about t-shirts

2010-12-07T21:00:00.000+04:30

I'm oddly particular about t-shirts in that often they feel like they're strangling me and therefore it can be hard to find ones that are comfortable. Add to that the fact that I've been going to the gym every day (and thus needing many t-shirts because I'm too lazy to do laundry that often) and you understand why, when I find a t-shirt that fits and is on sale, I buy several at once.

And it just so happens that some of my favorite t-shirts are from Old Navy (love the cotton, love the distressed look, love the fit, etc). And it also just so happens that the recent batch of shirts on sale were the ones with sports team logos on them. So I bought a bunch. Sure, because I live in Charlotte I got one for the Carolina Panthers, but other than that I chose based purely on color and design of the logo.

not me

Which is how I ended up with one for the Indianapolis Colts (blue with a horseshoe), the Philadelphia Phillies (pink/red with a P on it - wearing it right now), New York Giants (blue with NY), and Green Bay Packers (I liked the green). Notice that there's no theme -- different sports, different types of logos, different seasons, etc. I'm telling you, I really just chose based on pure aesthetics.

What I didn't really think through when I bought these is that there are a lot of people out there who care very much about their sports teams. And walking around with their team emblazoned on your chest is an open invitation to chat about it. While I enjoy all sports and generally understand them all (and played several), I don't particularly have the time these days to stay really on top of things. Which is perhaps a mistake.

Because almost every day, someone comments on my shirt and asks me things about whatever team I happen to be wearing. I walked to lunch a few weeks ago and someone shouted at me across the room and gave me a thumbs up. At first I thought they might know me, might be commenting on my style (which I soon dismissed because I was in full-on author deadline mode) and finally realized that, no, they were fans of the Giants and I was wearing my Giants shirt.

Yesterday, someone asked me how my team did this weekend. I had to look down at my shirt (Colts) and thankfully remembered Barry Goldblatt had tweeted about the Cowboys beating the Colts so at least I could answer that question. The day before that I walked into the gym and the guy behind my desk mentioned something about my team and I had to stammer that I wasn't even quite sure who the logo represented (he let me know which was very nice of him).

This post is really apropos of nothing, just that I always find it very lovely how complete strangers become less so when one person is wearing something familiar to the other, especially a sports logo. But I also feel a little bit like a liar every time I put one of these shirts on -- like I should apologize to those strangers who do start conversations with me only to realize that what they thought we have in common isn't true.

And who knows, maybe they'll make a fan of me yet!

Books -- the adventure begins

2010-12-03T21:27:00.000+04:30

I have a habit of giving books as gifts, especially to my nephews and niece. I was just talking to my sister about what my oldest nephew might want and she suggested his first Hardy Boys. So I went and looked it up and then I started to remember the books I read at his age.

Encyclopedia Brown. Boxcar Kids. Bunnicula. Nancy Drew.

I'm not going to lie, I actually got a little teary. Part of it was remembering how much joy I found in reading those books. But most of it was imagining the worlds my nephew has yet to uncover. All of these books! All of these mysteries he has yet to solve, the characters he's yet to meet.

He has so much waiting for him!

Maybe buying books doesn't make me the coolest aunt, but that's okay because there will be those nights when he's reading late (with his lego headlamp) and racing toward the end of one book so he can reach for the next... I just love that in some small measure, I'll be a part of that moment because I helped start him on those journeys.

I can't wait for his adventures to begin!

NCTE and ALAN recap plus a huge thanks!

2010-11-30T20:13:00.000+04:30

I'm home! The Halloween decorations are down (okay, I admit, they're not put away yet, just piled out of sight). Christmas lights are up outside (another admission: they stayed up all year but NOW I get to turn them on!). I have a whole month stretching ahead of me of nothing but writing (and perhaps one more trip).

I've learned over the past season that traveling throws me off schedule and if I'm anything, it's a creature of habit. I have to get into a groove and any disruption takes several days to shake itself out. It's the same thing with writing -- if I take a day or more off from the book I forget what I've been doing... threads get dropped, storylines forgotten, little ideas lost. I had HUGE plans to keep writing through all the traveling but if there's anything else I know about myself, it's hard to hole up in a room and write when there's fun to be had (and for the record, I did write most days I was gone!).

Most recently (well, before Thanksgiving rather), I had the chance to attend NCTE and ALAN. First of all, I owe a massive thanks to C. Lee McKenzie, who was the point person for putting together a panel for NCTE that I got to participate in (you can read more about it here). Also on the panel were Cheryl Herbsman, Erin Dionne, Cynthea Liu and Kurtis Scaletta. We talked about the use of language, specifically dialect and misspellings and accents, in writing and it was fascinating. Everyone had such fantastic points -- I loved Cheryl talking about how readers assume her character is dumb because she speaks (as written) with a Southern accent and Kurtis discussed how he made his Liberian characters sound Liberian. The entire panel was just fascinating and eye opening.

As I mentioned in my speech, I was one of those students who always scoffed at the idea that authors paid attention or put that much thought into such tiny details. Being walked through the thought processes of these authors and the decisions they made with language and why just proves that a HUGE amount of thought goes into those choices!

I discussed how I came up with the words for zombies in my books which essentially meant creating a slang passed down over more than a century past an imagined event. I'm actually going to blog about it soon!

A few times I got to walk the floor at NCTE (basically stroll through the booths all the publishers set up) and naturally I was too busy oogling all the books to take pictures. I love books. LOVE books! So it was with a massive amount of strength that I was able to walk out of the conference rooms with armfulls of them (I had to carry my luggage home and I refuse to add significantly to my book collection until I buy more bookcases!). Sigh... I could have spent HOURS in that room with all those books...

This year was also my first time at ALAN and I fell in love. Essentially, the set up of the ALAN conference was two days of authors speaking... basically a new author every 10 minutes. I looked at the list of attendees and about died -- so many amazing authors! I couldn't believe when I saw my name next to theirs!

And the attendees for both NCTE and ALAN -- all booklovers! It's almost impossible to describe the energy that comes from being surrounded by so many people who not only love books, but live books and share books and spread the book love.

Of course, another big highlight was being able to see friends again and meet new ones. It's always sort of mindboggling to me to meet an author and know that I have every one of their books sitting on my shelves and I've looked up to them for years. I've been asked before why I wanted to be a writer and part of my answer is that growing up, authors were my rock stars and movie stars. Finding myself talking to them, grabbing lunch or sliding down the Jaguar Slide or sitting at the bar with them, is a massively surreal experience. Seriously, I've actually pinched myself several times.

view from lunch

Also, there were giraffes. And zebras. Not at my hotel but Ally Carter's. I couldn't get enough.

I flew home from Orlando incredibly pumped up. There are so many smart and engaged and enthusiastic librarians and teachers and professors out there and I'm thrilled for the students who get to interact with them on a daily basis. I also got reminded, once again, how lucky I am.

Sometimes I just entrench into my daily life of habits: writing, despairing over my to-do list, etc., and then there are the moments when I raise my head and realize: I can't believe this is my life. I can't believe how lucky I am. I get to live my dream and it's because of the amazing people I met at NCTE/ALAN and because of such wonderful readers like y'all.

So thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Darren Shan in Charlotte Thurs and NCTE/ALAN schedule!

2010-11-16T19:24:00.000+04:30

in Charlotte Thurs!

I'm so bummed I'm leaving town on Thursday and won't be around to go see Darren Shan at Park Road Books (even details here)! Most of y'all probably know him for the Cirque du Freak books and I think he'll be signing those in addition to his latest project, a sequel to Cirque du Freak, The Saga of Larten Crepsley: Birth of a Killer.

Where will I be on Thursday? On my way to Orlando for NCTE and ALAN which I'm super crazy excited about! It's my first time at either event and I'm trying not to be nervous as I go over my presentation. I think one of the things I'm most excited about is geeking out with fellow book lovers -- there's really nothing more fun than that!

If you're also headed to NCTE or ALAN, come say hi! Here's my schedule:

Friday @ 2:30 in the Coronado/Durango Room 2: Why "Ain't" and "Gotta" Gotta be in Todays' Books for Kids and Teens with Erin Dionne, Cheryl Herbsman, Cynthea Liu, Kurtis Scaletta and C. Lee McKenzie who just posted a fabulous blog about what the panel is about here. I'll be talking about how I created the language I use in my world and what considerations went into formulating the words my characters would use (Unconsecrated, Mudo, Breaker, etc) and how I hope that influences the reader experience.

Friday @ 5:00 I'll be autographing at the Random House Children's Booth in Coronado Veracruz Exhibit Hall, Booth #733.

Tuesday @ 1:55 in Coronado Ballroom H: ALAN Workshop: Finding Mystery in Strange Company with panelists Holly Black and Marlene Perez.

on NaNoWriMo

2010-11-05T01:41:00.000+04:30

Yep, it's that time of the year again: National Novel Writing Month! The thirty days in which people all over the world pledge to write a novel (defined as 50,000 words). Some of y'all may know that I started writing The Forest of Hands and Teeth for NaNo in 2006. At the time I was in the middle of writing a chick lit that had already been rejected once and had just started a new YA for a writing class a few weeks before but one of the "rules" of NaNo is that your NaNo book must be word 1-50,000 and not 20,000-70,000.

I was a stickler for the rules and so I started casting about for a new idea -- something to stretch my writing voice and take me in a new direction -- and that's when JP (my husband) suggested I write what I love which was zombies and that was that. A year later I sold The Forest of Hands and Teeth.

Did I "win" NaNo (i.e. write 50,000 words during November)? No. I only wrote 20-30k. I became unerringly stuck and ran out of time, etc etc, but I kept writing and finished the first draft in April, 2007. Did it stress me out that I "lost" NaNo? Nope.

To be honest, my goal wasn't really to write 50k words in a month, it was to WRITE. See, I've found that it's crazy easy to *want* to write, to *think* about writing, to *plan* to write but not always easy to actually sit down and write. It's too easy to find excuses in life -- to have other priorities (cleaning, exercising, watching TV, sleeping) and to put off writing until tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow.

Furthermore, while motivation ultimately has to come from the inside, sometimes it's nice to have external cheerleaders and having someone expecting you to write words is the motivation you need to sit down and pound out some words. And once you develop that habit, it gets easier and easier to keep sitting down to write.

To me, that's the beauty of NaNo. Some people don't need the added incentive to sit down and write, some don't need the insta-community of like-minded folks because they already have a support system. But others need to have that opportunity to, for one month, put writing first and have a community of folks doing the same -- reinforcing the decision.

Here's my takeaway message for NaNo: why not? Why not challenge yourself and push? Why not delve into the task along with hundreds of thousands of other writers and take this one month to put writing above all else. If you find that it's destroying your writing, if it's making things worse... then walk away. There's no guilt for failing to write 50,000 words in 30 days. Writing is hard enough with pressuring yourself unreasonably.

To me the guilt comes from not writing at all. If you want to be a writer then there is one thing you must do without fail: write. If you want to sell a book, you have to write a book. And if NaNo is what it takes to motivate you, then jump in with both feet. If you fail, the key is not to give up -- the key is to keep writing.

So good luck to all you NaNoWriMos out there! Yay for putting writing first and regardless of the outcome, I hope all of you keep writing!!

Upcoming events in Charlotte, NYC and beyond!

2010-10-20T19:57:00.001+04:30

Hey y'all! Just wanted to let you in on a few upcoming events:

Thursday, October 21 at 4:30 PM
Kinston, NC
I'll be speaking at the Kinston-Lenior Public Library. You can find more information here.

Friday, October 29 at 6:00 PM
New York, NY
The Princeton Club, 15 West 43rd Street
I'll be speaking at the Williams Club and reading from The Dark and Hollow Places (the first sneak peek!) and signing afterward. T
here should be books for sale after the event! The event is free but reservations are required -- you can email eventsATprincetonclub.com or call 212.596.1261 to reserve. See below for more details!

click to view full size

Saturday, October 30
Charlotte, NC
Charlotte Geeks Gala
I'll be the guest judge for the Geeks Got Talent contest! There is a cost for admission and all proceeds go to Youth Homes, an organization dedicated to providing supportive human services to children and families. For more information about the event, click here. This is going to be a super fun gala and I can't wait to see y'all there!!

To learn more about the Charlotte Geeks, the Gala and to see me on TV, click here! I have to admit, I was SUPER NERVOUS about the whole experience until I realized that I just had to sit there and the head of the Charlotte Geeks, Joey, was the one to do all the talking. She did a brilliant job! Also, she organized to have some zombies, some trekkers, Bat Girl and someone dressed up in an awesome steampunk outfit. Joey totally outdid herself -- she rocks!

Michael Grant in Charlotte Monday!

2010-10-08T23:23:00.000+04:30

I love Michael Grant. I love his books and I think he's hilarious and thoughtful in person. I had the great pleasure of speaking on a panel with him last year in NYC and have been hoping that we'd be able to cross paths again. So you can imagine how excited I am that he'll be in town doing a few school visits and then signing at my local indie!

Here are the details:

When: Monday, October 12 at 4:00 PM
Where: Park Road Books
What: He's touring for his new MG series The Magnificent 12 which has been getting some truly excellent reviews. But I hear rumor he'll also be signing his other books as well!

One of the questions we got asked while on the panel in NYC was about the limits of what we can and can't write about as authors (or rather, what limitations we feel put on us by editors, publishing houses, readers, etc). Michael discussed the interesting intersection between writing violence and the words authors can use to describe that violence and how often that creates a situation where something violent happens and the character's response is "oh darn" rather than an expletive. His answer has always stuck with me because I think there's a similar intersection between writing about violence and sexual situations -- how much more leeway I feel writers have in writing violent situations than they do writing about sexual situations.

If you're interested, you can actually watch the panel here. It was a post-apocalyptic teen panel featuring Michael Grant, Scott Westerfeld, James Dasher and me.

Hope to see some of y'all on Monday at the signing!

Novello Festival of Reading in Charlotte October 9th!

2010-10-06T19:02:00.001+04:30

This weekend in Charlotte NC is a Tribute to Novello Festival of Reading! Here's the info on my panel, Saturday October 9th:

1:15 p.m. Young Adult
Carrie Ryan: Dead-Tossed Waves, Forest of Hands & Teeth
Karon Luddy: Spelldown
Joyce Hostetter: Comfort, Blue, Healing Water

I have a very deep love for the Novello Festival. For those of you who don't live in Charlotte (or for those who do and didn't know about Novello), it's a festival put on by the Charlotte/Mecklenburg library system (PLCMC) that began in 1991 (this would have been the 20th anniversary) and, as its name implies, is a festival that celebrates reading.

I first heard about it in 2007. The day after I sold my book to Delacorte Press I found out that Libbra Bray, another Delacorte author, would be one of the guests at Novello and that it was happening that weekend -- less than a week after my deal went through. I couldn't believe my luck! So my husband and I both went down to hear her speak and nervously, I stood in line to meet her and I introduced myself and told her I'd just sold to the same house she wrote for.

ZvU - even back in 2007!

She leapt up, gave me a hug, signed my book (yay team zombie!) and I walked on air for weeks after. It's hard to explain how awe-filled that moment was for me -- I'm such a huge fan of Libba's writing and I spent half of the festival staring at her and thinking, "One day, that could be me! I could be on a stage talking about my books! One day, I'll have a book on the shelves people might ask me to sign." And of course Libba was so funny and gracious and flat out awesome... she was so welcoming to me as a brand new author.

I always remember that feeling -- how full I was on the absolute joy of that day at Novello.

So I was upset when I learned that, because of budget cuts, Novello had been cut from the PLCMC budget. I wasn't surprised by the news -- I'd seen the signs, library budgets all over the country are being slashed and all told, a festival can be expensive and perhaps that money could go to keeping a library open one more hour or day a week -- a service desperately needed.

Luckily, there are people in Charlotte who were unwilling to let Novello go. Who very smartly realized that there's a difference between reviving something that's mostly dead rather than all the way dead. They decided that when the economy gets better it would be easier to say "hey, can we allocate a little bit more to this existing program?" rather than "hey, can we restart this program that had to be cut?"

A professor with UNC Charlotte, Mark West, and a former librarian and owner of Black Forest Books and Toys, Pat Siegfried, worked tirelessly to put together a Tribute to Novello to keep the tradition going. Authors chipped in their time and hopefully the Charlotte community will turn out and prove how important it is to keep events like this going.

When all is said and done, I feel so amazingly honored to be part of the Novello tradition. Three years ago, mere days after signing my first book deal, I dreamed of this moment. I feel so amazingly lucky that it's coming true.

Smart Chicks Kick It Tour starts today!

2010-09-13T18:21:00.001+04:30

I'm so super excited that the Smart Chicks Kick It Tour starts today in Austin, TX! Wahoo! For those of you who haven't heard about it, the Smart Chicks Tour was the idea of Melissa Marr, Kelley Armstrong and Alyson Noel who wanted to put together a tour of authors from various houses (usually, if authors get to tour in groups at all they're all from the same publishing house but they wanted to break this mold). All told there are 17 authors going to 12 different cities over the next two weeks -- holy cow!! Only Melissa, Kelley and Alyson will be at each stop so the mixture of authors will change from city to city.

My stops are in Chicago and San Diego -- here are the details:

September 21st, 2010 6 PM
@ Encinitas County Library, hosted by MYSTERIOUS GALAXY, San Diego, CA
Melissa Marr, Alyson Noel, Kelley Armstrong, Mary Pearson, Rachel Caine, Rachel Vincent, Carrie Ryan, Margaret Stohl & Kami Garcia.

September 22nd, 2010 7 PM
@ Wentz Concert Hall at North Central College, Hosted by ANDERSON'S Naperville, IL
Alyson Noel, Kelley Armstrong, Melissa Marr, Jackson Pearce, Jennifer Barnes & Carrie Ryan
NOTE: for this event, it is free with the purchase on one book by a featured author or $5 without purchase.

Here's the full schedule. Here's the list of authors. And here's the blog where you can follow along with all the fun shenanigans (and get FAQs about the tour answered).

I'm just super excited about this tour because I love meeting and chatting with readers and I'm also pretty psyched to meet and hang out with such crazy awesome authors (I just started Rachel Caine's Morganville Vampires series -- why have I not read these before! I'm addicted!)

After the Smart Chicks tour I'll be at the Baltimore Book Festival and will post more details soon!

Other than that, I'm sick (which always happens after I hit a deadline and my body realizes that it's okay to relax and get sick) and working to catch up on all the things I let slide over the past month: emails, interviews, snail mail, etc etc. My to-do list is long enough to make me weep but I'm determined to prevail!

The Living Dead 2: Flotsam & Jetsam (free!)

2010-09-10T22:32:00.000+04:30

It's been the summer o' anthologies for me! First my short story about Sister Tabitha as a teen, Hare Moon, came out in Kiss Me Deadly, in a few weeks my short story set in Curacao (which explains where the term Mudo comes from) will be out in Zombies vs. Unicorns, and just a week ago another short story, Flotsam & Jetsam, came out in The Living Dead 2 anthology edited by John Joseph Adams! (for links to more information and how to purchase, click here).

Flotsam & Jetsam is about a group of teens who go on a senior cruise right when the zombie apocalypse happens (they clearly were unaware). Infection breaks out on the ship, two boys escape into a life raft and one of them's infected (cue dun-dun-dun music). I really love this story -- it's the first time I've written from a male POV and wrote something actually in the range of short story length.

I can't tell you how amazingly thrilled I am about this anthology and it's been getting a lot of love out there -- a starred review from PW and even Simon Pegg (of Shaun of the Dead fame) called the collection a "must for any self respecting zombie completist." It's packed with stories (44!) that are a mixture of reprints and originals and the author list blows me away: Max Brooks, Robert Kirkman, David Wellington, Charie Priest, Jonathan Mayberry and Kelley Armstrong to name a few -- there are so many wonderful authors!

Honestly, I'm still stunned I got to be a part of this anthology. And not just be a part of it, but have my name on the cover. I'm not lying, I cried when I saw it (I'll blog more on that later).

John's set up a fantastic website for the anthology here. There are interviews with various authors (my interview is here) and even free stories (you can read Flotsam & Jetsam for free here).

Yes, that's right -- you can read my short story FOR FREE! Yay!

I hope y'all like the story and love the anthology as much as I do. Being such a big zombie fan, I'm thrilled to have so much to sink my teeth into :)

Decatur Book Festival!!

2010-09-04T01:09:00.000+04:30

Yay for Decatur Book Festival weekend!!! I've heard such amazing things about this festival and if the rest of the weekend is as awesome as today it will rock! I spoke to 8th and 9th graders at Decatur High School this afternoon and they were an amazing amazing group -- I felt like the luckiest author to be talking to such avid readers and engaged students. Now I'm all pumped up for tomorrow!

On Saturday I'll be on the Zombies vs. Vampires Smackdown panel with Alyxandra Harvey. It's billed as a very audience involved panel so I'm really hoping a lot of y'all come out! The list of authors here this weekend is both awesome and intimidating so if zombies and vampires aren't your thing, I'm betting there will be another author and panel right up your alley!

The panel is at 3pm at the Escape at the Old Courthouse.

I also got to meet up with friend and author John Bemis (whose second book, The Wolf Tree just came out -- the first, The Nine Pound Hammer, was so much fun) at Little Shop of Stories which is just one of my favorite bookstores. One of the things I love about this shop, other than just the ambience of it, is how enthusiastic everyone there is about books and reading. I pretty much love anyone whose first question is "What are you reading now" and then you can both geek out on awesome books. Terra and Krista were super helpful getting me to the event and just being excited about the whole weekend.

I'm not going to lie, it's strange to be sitting in my hotel room thinking "there are people out there who love books and I need to go find them and talk to them!" I also haven't eaten all day so... I think I'm going to find some book lovers to join me for some food!

Hope to see many of y'all tomorrow! I'll also be around before and after so if you can't catch the panel just come say hi (I might be wearing a kraken shirt... haven't decided...).

The Dark and Hollow Places -- in all its covery glory

2010-08-30T22:02:00.002+04:30

YAY! I finally get to post the US cover for The Dark and Hollow Places! I know many of you have seen versions of this cover out and about but they were still working on some tweaks and I wanted to make sure I had the final file before posting. But here it is! I am IN LOVE with this cover! LOVE LOVE LOVE! I love the model, I love the dirt and grime, I love where she is, I love the expression on her face, I love everything. It fits the story sooo well and I just feel like the luckiest author in the entire world.

click for high res

Here's the back cover copy:

There are many things that Annah would like to forget: the look on her sister’s face when she and Elias left her behind in the Forest of Hands and Teeth, her first glimpse of the horde as they found their way to the Dark City, the sear of the barbed wire that would scar her for life. But most of all, Annah would like to forget the morning Elias left her for the Recruiters.

Annah’s world stopped that day and she’s been waiting for him to come home ever since. Without him, her life doesn’t feel much different from that of the dead that roam the wasted city around her. Then she meets Catcher and everything feels alive again.

Except, Catcher has his own secrets -- dark, terrifying truths that link him to a past Annah’s longed to forget, and to a future too deadly to consider. And now it’s up to Annah -- can she continue to live in a world drenched in the blood of the living? Or is death the only escape from the Return’s destruction?

Right now, the release date is scheduled to be March 22, 2011! YAY! Here's a link to a recent post about ARCs and who to contact to request one. Please leave any questions in the comments and I'll try to answer them all!

You can also pre-order The Dark and Hollow Places: [Amazon] [Barnes & Noble] [autographed copy from Park Road Books -- my local indie] (I'll add links to IndieBound, etc., as they come available)

Also, don't forget I'll be at the Decatur Book Festival this weekend and appearing on the Vampires vs. Zombies Smackdown panel on Saturday at 3PM! More details are here.

A HUGE thank you to everyone who's emailed or tweeted to tell me you're looking forward to The Dark and Hollow Places -- you truly make my day!

Overheard around the house

2010-08-27T19:28:00.001+04:30

JP: Why are their containers of frozen water in the freezer?

Me: Because I plan on setting them on fire.

JP: Okaaaaay... why are their several of them?

Me: Because I want to use different fuels. You weren't planning on drinking that 151 anytime soon were you?

JP: I'm still not sure that answers the fundamental question of Why.

Me: Research.

JP: I'll get the fire extinguisher.

Antho! Kiss Me Deadly in the wild!

2010-08-20T20:34:00.000+04:30

My first story in an antho!

My first short story has been released to the wild! The anthology, Kiss Me Deadly, just came out a few weeks ago and my story in it, Hare Moon, is about Sister Tabitha from The Forest of Hands and Teeth when she was a teen. I've actually written a whole blog post about this -- why I chose to write about Sister Tabitha and what she means to me -- but I still haven't decided if I want to post it.

I always struggle with the tension between my belief that once the author is done writing the story it belongs to the readers on the one hand and my wanting to discuss why I made decisions in the story on the other hand. I feel like explaining things can get close to defending decisions and... I just don't know how I feel about that. I have no problem having these dicussions live at signings but for some reason when I write blog posts about the same things I feel like I'm just sounding defensive rather than informative.

Sister T's story

What do y'all think? Should I talk more about the decisions I made when writing and why?

In the mean time, here's a taste of what people are saying about Hare Moon:

Carrie Ryan (The Forest of Hands and Teeth) offers a story about devastating decisions in villages threatened by the Unconsecrated.
- Publishers Weekly

This is definitely another favourite. It is part of Carrie Ryan’s Forest of Hands and Teeth series. I have yet to follow this series but Thea is a HUGE fan and now I understand why.... The writing is evocative and beautiful about a very fundamental conflict between love and duty, history and memory and choices.
- The Book Smugglers

I supposed I can't hate Tabitha now that I read her beautiful but bittersweet story. Fans of The Forest of Hands and Teeth series, this is a must read!
- I Just Want to Sit Here and Read

For fans of Ms. Ryan's previous works The Forest of Hands and Teeth and The Dead-Tossed Waves (like me)... this is a treat, one that will hopefully hold you over until the next book in the series... As always, Ms. Ryan's stories are bittersweet, heartbreaking but so beautifully told.
- all about {n}

Thanks for all the fantastic reviews y'all!! I've been so thrilled by the responses to Sister Tabitha's story :)

A quick note about The Dark and Hollow Places ARCs

2010-08-07T01:55:00.000+04:30

Hey y'all! I've started to get some emails requesting advanced reader copies (ARCs) for The Dark and Hollow Places. How stoked am I that people are already looking forward to it? Wahooo!! Thanks y'all!! I just wanted to let anyone who is interested know that (a) there aren't any ARCs yet (I'm still revising); (b) when there are ARCs you'll know it because I'll be jumping up and down on the blog and posting pics; and (c) I very likely won't have any ARCs to give away. I tend to only get a handful and my family has already called dibs (seriously, my brother-in-law cornered my mom yesterday thinking she might have a draft on her kindle (she doesn't -- if she did my sister would kill me)).

Have I mentioned how much I love my family and how excited I am that people are excited about The Dark and Hollow Places? YAY!

Me and Appa got some revising to do

Anyway, if you'd like to review The Dark and Hollow Places you should contact my publicists directly and their information is under the contact tab on my website (under Publicity down in the middle of the page). They'll be the ones with the ARCs (when there actually are ARCs).

(also, I might point out that when I was copying the link to my website above I almost accidentally copied the link to the RockBand download of Do You Want To Date My Avatar - ha! We know what I'll be doing this weekend).

So it should surprise no one that I haven't been blogging or tweeting as much seeing as how I have revisions to finish so that said ARCs can be produced. Such silence will probably continue for a few more weeks. Sorry!

Thanks again for all the interest in The Dark and Hollow Places -- seriously, knowing that people are looking forward to the next book makes revising fun... or at least tolerable... or at least not quite so terrifying (actually, that's not true either, knowing people are looking forward to it does make the revising a bit terrifying). And thanks to the teen readers at the Terryberry Branch of the Hamilton Public Library and their librarian Pamela for a fantastic Skype session yesterday -- what a great way to end the day!

Apparently I'm not one to throw things away

2010-07-30T21:01:00.000+04:30

I'm not talking about the disturbing tower of diet coke cans piling up around my desk (though that exists at the moment -- I'm revising, everyone knows that revisions are fueled by diet coke). Instead I'm talking about other things... clothes, electronics, bottles of lotion (I'll be explaining that last one, never fear).

As it turns out, I'm someone who is apparently afraid of throwing something away that might, some distant day in the future, be useful. Of course, because I'm also not the most organized person, I tend to not be able to find said thing and usually end up buying a new one. This is why we have at least a dozen three-to-two prong plug converters (in our house you can never really have enough) and why I have a laptop from 1997 in my attic (complete with stacks of floppies brimming with old papers and short stories). In the attic at my dad's house I have every paper I wrote in college, including the drafts (which, now that I think about it, probably has print outs of what's on those floppies like my old short stories - score!). In my own attic I have clothes I bought with my first pay check as a summer associate at a law firm in 2003 (not only do those clothes not fit any more, why would I ever need them in my current profession of sitting around the house in PJs?)

Half the things I keep around are broken: all of the ethernet cables I've hoarded are missing the little clip at the end that keeps them plugged in so I'm constantly having to shove the suckers back into their ports -- but they work so why replace them? We have three couches in our living room currently because I can't bear to throw out a comfortable, yet raggedy, old couch that still works. In the attic I think I have every pair of shoe I've ever owned since college... even though most of them have the nails worn through on the heel but maybe I'll get them fixed one day (unlikely, we all know I'll just buy new ones). And OMG I just realized I still have Halloween candy from two years ago (JP wouldn't let me hand it out last year) and Valentine candy hearts from when I was in law school which is over five years ago now! Yet when I go to throw them away I think "They've stuck around this long..."

Sometimes saving things works out. I still have my original rejection letters from when I queried my first book in 2001. What's pretty cool is that I eventually got an offer from one of the people who initially rejected me way back when. I'm super glad I have that stuff to look back over and remind me of my journey to where I am now. I just found not only my first blue-tooth headset but also the charger (let me tell you how many times I almost threw away the charger but hung on to it JUST IN CASE I found the headset). I bought both in 2006. I don't think either works. Sigh.

So what made me think about all of this? The lotion bottles on my bedside table. There are fourteen of them. All of them (except one, the current bottle) in that stage of "almost empty but not quite and yet annoying to get lotion out so I should pick up a new one at the store to have on hand for when it runs out" stage. There are also five canisters of Burt's Bees Lemon Butter Cuticle Creme which I use as chapstick -- they're empty except for probably one "emergency if you scrape your nail under the rim you might just get enough" dose. Also, two tubes of chapstick, one of them has been floating in an empty vase for probably two years. Oh, and I think there are two more almost empty bottles of lotion in the hall closet "just in case."

Seriously, am I preparing for the apocalypse here? An apocalypse in which I'll apparently be eating dusty candy hearts and scraping lotion from old bottles? And yet, there is still some value to those lotion bottles -- I feel wasteful throwing them away. Fourteen is a little much which is why I was laughing hysterically when I went to bed last night after having counted them all. Fourteen! *shakes head*

What's funny is that this story will surprise no one in my family. My Psych 101 prof said on the first day that everyone exhibits some form of obsessive behavior to which most people disagreed until he started asking people to recite random habits: one person could only go to sleep if the last time they saw on the clock was an even number, another person could only set their alarm to go off on a 3 or a 7, someone else always counted stairs, another flicked a light switch on then off then on again. Apparently I hoard lotion bottles, shoes, and rejection letters just in case they'll become useful again.

When the apocalypse hits you're all invited to my house: we'll run away dressed as fancy lawyers with busted shoes, our skin won't be dry and our bellies will be full of old candy.

Reminder: Spartanburg, SC on Monday!

2010-07-24T20:38:00.000+04:30

Just wanted to remind y'all that on Monday I'll be speaking at the Spartanburg County Library and then doing a reading and Q&A with Holly Black at the Hub City Bookshop. Details are here. Hope to see y'all there!

Where do ideas come from?

2010-07-22T19:13:00.000+04:30

I was talking to my brother in law down at the beach last week about ideas. He's a fourth grade teacher and one of the things he teaches his kids is creative writing. I always find talking to him fascinating because he so often has to get at the origin of things. It's one thing to talk to a teenager or an adult about writing a story because they've been exposed to them so much -- they know the basics -- but he often has to start at the very beginning and I'm not sure I'd know how to do that.

So we ended up talking about ideas -- how to find ideas to write about which is something he talks to his kids about. It got me thinking, how do you find ideas? It's a question a lot of writers get asked and the answers vary from "Walmart" to "my dreams" to "who the heck knows?"

I think my ideas come from wanting to know more. I see or read or hear or feel something and it doesn't leave my head -- it tugs at me for a bit like a little string unravelling and I have to follow it. Sometimes the string is short and sometimes long but I never know in the beginning.

For example, I don't even remember what kind of research I was doing when I stumbled upon a link for "brazen bull" on wikipedia. I realized I didn't know what a brazen bull was and that if it had it's own wiki page, there had to be something there. So I clicked. Turns out it's a horrific torture device. Like crazy crazy cruel (don't click that link unless you have a strong stomach!)

The first thing I did was email the link to my husband, JP, saying "There's a story there. I don't know what it is, but it's there." I couldn't describe why I felt that way, it was just that when I read that article I could see the whole of things; I could see more than just the object, I could see the people who created it and feared it and died in it.

What I find interesting is when something that sparks my imagination clearly sparks someone else's. The other night JP and I were talking about the brazen bull when he brought up something else he hadn't know the origin of. Once he told me what it meant an entire book unfolded in my head. I'm talking from title through the setting, the climax, the end.

I've never had a book so powerfully come together in my head that fast. I started to get excited and then JP said "Er, I think there's already a book about that," but I wasn't to be deterred. Just in case, though, I looked to see if there was a book and yep, sure enough. Not just a book but one with a Newbery nod. Sigh. Clearly I'm not the only person who'd been sparked by that idea (I'm still hoping I can find a way to make that idea work down the road).

Sometimes these little sparks of ideas fizzle out -- there's not enough there to sustain interest or to hold up the plot of a book. Sometimes they spark other ideas and steamroll into something totally unexpected. The Forest of Hands and Teeth all started with the idea of what it would be like trapped in a village where zombies were the norm, not the new horror.

Sometimes the sparks just add flavor to a current project -- I found a working title for a new project when I was following interesting sounding links doing research and I came upon a definition of something that just perfectly fit the book (and no, not sharing - sorry!).

So if you're casting about for a new idea try to pay attention to those little things that grab at you. The little things that make you wonder "who" or "why" or "how." Maybe they won't turn into the perfect new idea you're looking for but they could lead you in the right direction :)

Upcoming events!

2010-07-19T17:32:00.026+04:30

Just wanted to let y'all know about some upcoming events! Hope to see y'all there!

Tuesday, January 10, 2012, 7:00 pm
Fireside Books and Gifts, Forest City, NC
Join author Stephanie Perkins and me as we help Beth Revis celebrate the launch of A MILLION SUNS! Book talk, discussion, signing and just generally hanging out :) There will also be a virtual component of this event, click here for more details!

Tuesday, January 17, 2012, 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Books of Wonder, NYC
Discussion and signing featuring me, Beth Revis, Julie Cross, Megan Miranda and Maureen Lipinski. For more info, click here!

PREVIOUS EVENTS:

Monday, July 26, 2010, 3:00 pm - 5:00 pm

Read & Feed

Spartanburg Public Library Headquarters - Barrett Room

151 South Church Street, Spartanburg SC

Monday, July 26, 2010, 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm

Reading and signing with Holly Black

Hub City Bookshop, Spartanburg, SC

July 28-29

Romance Divas Not Going to Conference Conference (NGTCC)

Online YA Workshop Panel

Link to come!

September 4, 2010, 3:00 pm

Decatur Book Festival

The Escape at the Old Courthouse, Decatur, GA

I'll be on the Zombies v. Vampires Smackdown on Saturday Sept 4th at 3PM at The Escape at the Old Courthouse.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010, 6:00 pm

Smart Chicks Kick it Tour!

Encinitas County Library, hosted by Mysterious Galaxy, San Diego, CA

Event with Melissa Marr, Alyson Noel, Kelley Armstrong, Mary Pearson, Rachel Caine, Rachel Vincent, Margaret Stohl & Kami Garcia

Wednesday, September 22, 2010, 7:00 pm

Smart Chicks Kick it Tour!

Wentz Concert Hall at North Central College, hosted by Anderson's Bookshop, Chicago, IL

Event with Alyson Noel, Kelley Armstrong, Melissa Marr, Jackson Pearce & Jennifer Barnes

NOTE: for this event, it is free with the purchase on one book by a featured author or $5 without purchase

Friday, September 24, 2010, 5:30 pm

Baltimore Book Festival

Baltimore, MD

Panel Discussion: Zombies vs. Unicorns debate with Justine Larbalestier, Holly Black, Scott Westerfeld, Diana Peterfreund and Kathleen Duey.

Saturday, October 9, 2010

Novello Festival

Tribute to Novello Festival of Reading! Here's the info on my panel, Saturday October 9th:

1:15 p.m. Young Adult
Carrie Ryan: Dead-Tossed Waves, Forest of Hands & Teeth
Karon Luddy: SpelldownJoyce Hostetter: Comfort, Blue, Healing Waterils to come.

Thursday, October 21, 2010 at 4:30 PM

Neuse Regional Library, Kinston, NC

I'll be speaking at the Kinston-Lenior Public Library. You can find more information here.

Friday, October 29, 2010 at 6:00 PM

New York, NY

The Princeton Club, 15 West 43rd Street

I'll be speaking at the Williams Club and reading from The Dark and Hollow Places (the first sneak peek!) and signing afterward. There should be books for sale after the event! The event is free but reservations are required -- you can email eventsATprincetonclub.com or call 212.596.1261 to reserve. See below for more details!

click to view full size

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Charlotte, NC

Charlotte Geeks Gala
I'll be the guest judge for the Geeks Got Talent contest! There is a cost for admission and all proceeds go to Youth Homes, an organization dedicated to providing supportive human services to children and families. For more information about the event, click here. This is going to be a super fun gala and I can't wait to see y'all there!!

To learn more about the Charlotte Geeks, the Gala and to see me on TV, click here!

November 19-20, 2010

NCTE/ALAN

Orlando, FL

Details to come!

THE DARK AND HOLLOW PLACES TOUR:

Tuesday, March 22, 2011 at 6:00 PM

Miami, FL

Books and Books

Thursday, March 24, 2011 at 7:00 PM

Chicago, IL

Anderson's Bookshop

Naperville location:

123 West Jefferson

Naperville, IL 60540

Tel: 630-355-2665

Saturday, March 26, 2011 at 2:00 PM

Chicago, IL

Borders Schaumburg

Sunday, March 27, 2011 at 1:00 PM

Cincinnati, OH

Joseph Beth Booksellers

2692 Madison Road

Cincinnati OH 45208

(513) 396-8960

Monday, March 28, 2011 at 7:00 PM

Dayton, OH

Books and Co. at the Greene

Tuesday, March 29, 2011 at 7:00 PM

Salt Lake City, UT

Salt Lake City Public Library, Main Library hosted by The King's English

1511 South 1500 East

Salt Lake City, UT 84105

Wednesday, March 30, 2011 at 7:00 PM

West Jordan, UT

Barnes and Noble

Thursday, March 31, 2011 at 7:00 PM

Phoenix, AZ

Changing Hands

6428 S McClintock Dr

Tempe, AZ 85283

Tel: 480-730-0205

Friday, April 1, 2011 at 7:00 PM

Phoenix, AZ

Barnes and Noble

Saturday, April 2, 2011 at 3:00 PM

Los Angeles, CA

Barnes and Noble, Glendale

Sunday, April 3, 2011 at 2:00 PM

San Diego/Los Angeles, CA

Barnes and Noble, Oceanside

Monday, April 4, 2011 at 7:00 PM

Los Angeles, CA

Mrs. Nelson's

Tuesday, April 5, 2011 at 7:00 PM

Los Angeles, CA

Book Soup

8818 Sunset Blvd.

W. Hollywood CA, 90069

This is a joint signing with other awesome authors I shall reveal shortly :)

Saturday, April 9, 2011 all day

Los Angeles, CA

RT Convention: Teen Day

click image to make bigger so you can read all the fun details!

Monday, April 11, 2011

from 5:00-6:00PM

Spartanburg, SC

Hub City Bookshop

I'll be signing and chatting with readers from 5-6 and then from 7-9 I'll be giving a writing workshop on how to put tension on every page, especially when it comes to writing YA. Space is limited -- click here for more information! You don't have to be a part of the workshop to come to the signing!

April 12 - April 15, 2011

Austin, TX

TLA (I don't have a schedule of events yet but will post when I do)

April 15 - April 16, 2011

Austin Texas

Writer's League of Texas, YA A to Z Conference

Sunday, May 15th, 3:00 PM

Edwards Memorial Library

414 Hasty Street

Marshville, NC 28103

704.624.2828

September 23-25

SCBWI-Carolinas Conference

Charlotte, NC

I'll be hosting a round table of published authors answering your questions (registration for the conference required).

October 4, 2011, 6 pm

Smart Chicks Kick It Tour 2.0

Schuler Books and Music

Lansing, Michigan

Another fantastic lineup of YA authors traveling around the country to celebrate books! Click here for more info.

Friday, October 21, 2011 at 6:00 PM

Melbourne, FL

Barnes & Noble

Details here.

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Teen Read Week, Palm Bay and Satellite Beach Florida.

Satellite Beach Library at 11 a.m. Details here.

Franklin T DeGroodt Memorial Library at 2 p.m. Details here and below (talk followed by a Zombie self-defense class)!

Friday, October 28, 2011

Wingate University, Wingate, NC

Ethel K. Smith Library

Zombie walk at 6pm, hors d'oeurves at 6:30pm, talk at 7pm with signing to follow! Click here for more info.

November 11-12, 2011

YALLFest: Charleston Young Adult Book Festival

Charleston, SC

I'm so excited to be a part of such a wonderful list of authors at this year's YALLFest! For more information click here and I'll update my schedule as I get more details!

December 13, 2011

Writing Workshop at Myers Park library

Charlotte, NC

I'll be giving a writing workshop at my local library. Click here for more details!

Gollancz Cover for The Dark and Hollow Places

2010-07-15T19:00:00.000+04:30

Just last week I posted a collection of the foreign covers for my books and I have a new on to add to the collection! As I said before, I feel so lucky to have gotten such beautiful covers and that means that to a certain extent, I now open cover related emails with one hand over my eyes because I'm just not sure how much longer my luck can hold out.

As it turns out, my lucky streak continues! This is the cover Gollancz designed and it will be released in the UK, Australia and New Zealand. If you read the flap copy for The Dark and Hollow Places you'll understand the significance barbed wire plays in the story. I couldn't be more thrilled with how this cover turned out!!!

Yep, I love everything about this cover: the ominous sounding tag line, "The worst secrets are about the future," the smeared blood, the dirty concrete, the barbed wire heart, even the font (and yes, I also love the descriptor "International Bestselling Sensation" - squee!)

Thank you thank you thank you Gollancz for such a gorgeous cover!! Of course this does mean I've been doing a lot of staring and not quite as much writing/revising. Oops!

The Dark and Hollow Places

2010-07-13T18:38:00.001+04:30

Hurray! I just saw that the listing for The Dark and Hollow Places is up on Amazon - squee! It lists the release date as March 22, 2011 - also big yay! No cover yet, though -- it's not final and as soon as it is and I get permission to post it I'll be shouting from the rooftops :) However, the flap copy describing the book on Amazon (and elsewhere) is wrong so here's the official description of the book:

There are many things that Annah would like to forget: the look on her sister's face when she and Elias left her behind in the Forest of Hands and Teeth, her first glimpse of the horde as they found their way to the Dark City, the sear of the barbed wire that would scar her for life. But most of all, Annah would like to forget the morning Elias left her for the Recruiters.

Annah's world stopped that day and she's been waiting for him to come home ever since. Without him, her life doesn't feel much different from that of the dead that roam the wasted city around her. Then she meets Catcher and everything feels alive again.

Except, Catcher has his own secrets—dark, terrifying truths that link him to a past Annah's longed to forget, and to a future too deadly to consider. And now it's up to Annah—can she continue to live in a world drenched in the blood of the living? Or is death the only escape from the Return's destruction?

Very exciting! I tend to think of The Dark and Hollow Places as more of a sequel to The Dead-Tossed Waves than a companion. I know there's been confusion before about why DTW is called a companion and I'll post more on that decision later this week. It's not really a huge distinction and it was more for clarification and to establish expectations than anything else.

But for those of you who have emailed, wondering if we get to know what happens to the characters from the end of The Dead-Tossed Waves -- yes :)

Foreign Covers!

2010-07-08T05:58:00.001+04:30

I'm not gonna lie, one of the best parts of selling foreign rights is seeing how other countries imagine the covers. There's really nothing like that first moment you see a cover -- whether it's the first cover for your first book or the third. It's been really really fascinating to see what other countries have come up with -- how they see the characters and the books and how different they all are from each other. And I have to say, I've been super super fortunate that all the covers I've seen so far have been amazing -- I really do have some fantastic foreign publishers!!

Here are a few that I've seen so far:

Brazil, Editora Underworld (you can visit the microsite for the book here):

Brazil

France, Gallimard-Jeunesse:

France

Greece, Platypus Publication:

Greece

UK/Aus/NZ, Gollancz

Germany, Verlagsgruppe Random House

Germany

I love all of these so much and am a lucky lucky author!

Random things on a Thursday - beach edition

2010-07-01T21:05:00.000+04:30

Yesterday JP and I drove down to his family's house at Pawley's Island for our annual 4th of July vacation. I have to say, this is one of my favorite times of the year and spots -- our days are filled with playing games, crabbing, picking crabs, eating crabs, kayaking, bocci ball on the beach, sleeping, and one very small town parade that is taken quite seriously. You know, the usual. Of course, it's raining today which means lots and lots of game playing.

Cthulu figurines!!

The game of the hour is Graverobbers III: Suburban Slashers from Sunnydale Street where the object of the game is to create a B-horror-movie. Which is of course quite appropriate for JP and I since we tend to be big fans of B-horror movies. Last night we played Smallworld (an easier and more fun game similar to Risk but without the inevitable fights Risk always causes) and pretty soon we'll probably transition into A Touch of Evil (with expansions -- similar to Arkham Horror but I think more manageable and a little easier), Unspeakable Words (scrabble with Cthulu figures), Bananagrams (word game) and the old standbys Arkham Horror (with too many expansions to fit on our table) and Dominion (with expansions -- always a favorite).

All the games took up most of the trunk for the drive down here -- clearly we are a family that loves games :)

In the writing world I'm working on revisions for book three (The Dark and Hollow Places), working on a few proposals, working on some short stories, trying to catch up on my reading and trying to catch up on various odds and ends. Yesterday I jumped for joy when I found Ally Carter's latest installment in her awesome and fun Gallagher Girl series, Only the Good Spy Young. I LOVE Ally Carter's books and can't wait to dive into this one.

I also brought a bag of other books to read -- more of Richelle Mead's Vampire Academy series (of which I've already proclaimed my love), a few ARCs and some books I'm reading for my proposal :) I'd say what space wasn't taken up in our trunk from games was taken up with books.

Is there any other perfect vacation than one that starts with books, games, and a suitcase full of shorts, tank tops and bathing suits? And of course my wonderful husband and his family! Going to be a fantastic week! And when this one is over I'm heading up to Isle of Palms to spend a week with my family -- one mom, two sisters and six kids under the age of seven :)

In which I feel stupid...

2010-06-24T19:15:00.000+04:30

Way back when I signed with my wonderful agent, Jim McCarthy, he sent me a box of some of his other clients' books. In that box was Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead. My editor also sent me a box of books and I arranged everything on new shelves and started reading my way through them. My mother started to read more and more YA and when she realized just how many books I had, she started making visits to haul them away. (Yes, I've turned my mother into a huge YA reader and it's totally awesome.)

Early on my mom carted away Vampire Academy and it lived at her house for a long while until she picked it up. She devoured it, raced to the store and bought the entire series. Every time she visited or we chatted on the phone, she asked when a new one would be coming out.

See, you'd think that would have been enough to prompt me to drop everything and pick these books up. But I didn't for a whole host of boring reasons like revisions, writing, other books I had to read for whatever reason.

I even met Richelle in person and yes, I was embarrassed that here she's written this amazingly successful series (multiple series!) and we share an agent and I hadn't read her books! I really like to be in the perfect mood for a book because I really really want to love every book I read. And then a few weeks ago the perfect mood struck and I picked up Vampire Academy.

OH. MY. WORD!!! I am SO STUPID for not having read these books earlier!!! Seriously, they're amazing and I've been devouring them! My mother never gave me Frostbite, the second book, and I had to race to the store to pick it up because I just couldn't wait. I was up so early this morning reading the third that it was dark out (I don't do mornings well).

This world is just really wonderfully crafted and complex. Richelle does a brilliant job of building the characters and the plots and raising the stakes and weaving it all together so tightly and compellingly. There are layers and twists and depth -- these are books that have made me gasp, that have kept me up late and gotten me up early (anything that can get me awake at 5am has to be incredible). And yes, these books have made me teary which is a massive feat all on its own.

They're also really well written. As an author I really really love seeing how Richelle pulls it all off -- truly, I'm in awe of her mad skills. And yes, I feel stupid for not reading them earlier but I'm super SUPER thrilled that I get to just devour them one right after the other without having to wait.

Thanks Richelle for writing such phenomenal books and I'm sorry I didn't read them earlier! And everyone else out there who has been putting off picking up this fantastic series, I wholeheartedly recommend it!

Absolute Faith

2010-06-17T22:03:00.000+04:30

I just read this blog post by Kristin Cashore. One of the things I love about Kristin (other than her awesome books and that she graduated from Williams two years before I did, go Ephs!) is that she's so open and honest about her feelings about writing, including struggles and hurdles, on her blog. Sometimes I wish I were more like her in that way -- there's such an honesty and vulnerability in the way she writes about the process of crafting a book and I love seeing how everything comes together in the end.

I think perhaps for me, I'm not someone who shares vulnerability easily, esp when I'm still not sure I'll be able to overcome whatever aspect of the process is making me feel vulnerable. Which is a little ironic (and perhaps hypocritical) since one of the reasons I started this blog way back when was so that I and other people could hopefully one day read the process of writing and selling a book as it happened, without looking back through the lens of success.

In fact, one of my favorite posts is one in which I talk about questioning whether I'd ever actually reach my writing goals -- whether my full faith in myself and my dream of being a published author was misplaced. I love reading that post now and knowing that it worked out (and I love reading JP's motivating response here). And yet I don't write posts like that anymore and I'm not entirely certain why.

Perhaps part of it comes from a need to be a little more protective of myself. At one point after The Forest of Hands and Teeth came out a professional reviewer actually combed through my blog archives and found instances of me doubting myself and used them as reasons my book failed or had holes. That felt like a breach of trust to me -- I felt like I'd opened myself up and shared my fear and hesitation and suddenly it was turned back on me to prove why I somehow failed. After that I just stopped really opening myself up online as much.

And I think that's a little unfair -- not to me because I still have people I can turn to with my thoughts and ruminations -- but to other people out there in this business trying to find their path. Often I feel like authors start to put this "everything is easy" face on so that people don't prod at the vulnerabilities and somehow this makes people believe that it *is* always easy and then when it's not easy for them they think something is wrong with them.

This is one reason I love Kristin Cashore's blog -- she shares it all and it makes me admire her so much for doing so. In the blog post I mentioned above, she talks about the fears and anxieties that intensify as she comes to the end of a draft:

The other thing that happens is less welcome: the hopelessness sets in. I can see the book as a whole now, and every single day, I struggle with the voices that are telling me it's not going to work, it's going to fail. It isn't about anything. I'm not good enough to pull all the loose ends together. I'll get to the climax and realize that it's a dumb climax. It's a mess and revisions won't solve the problems.

And then she goes on to say that she's learned to remember that the voices don't control her. Kristin writes:

You acknowledge the voices, but you write anyway. This faith is performative. I believe in this book.

As soon as I read this I thought "Yes! This!" I'm often asked if I've learned anything from the books I've written and I tend to answer with the oft-repeated phrase that writing a book teaches you how to write *that* book and every book has its own new set of problems. However, there is something I've learned: that I can do it.

With the past few books I've written I've always come to the point when I look around me and think "I've broken it." It's a feeling of utter helplessness -- it's over. Done. The book can't be fixed. It is beyond repair. In fact, on Christmas Eve I found myself sobbing to my husband, JP, on the phone while hiding in the guest bathroom at my sister's house because I could not fix the book I was working on and it was due. I was frozen in panic.

He reminded me that I'd been there before. That I always end up there with my books. And he was right. I'd felt that unbearable helplessness before and I'd found a way to work through it. I'd figured out the character/plot/scene/hole and I'd fixed it and I had to have faith that I could do it again. I just had to keep pushing -- keep writing.

This is exactly what I think Kristin was saying when she wrote "This is faith performative." Not just faith performative, but absolute faith. With no guarantee that I *could* fix the book, only the knowledge that I had in the past, I had to believe I could do it again. I had to have faith and I have to continue having faith.

And just as Kristin sharing her process helped me understand my own, I hope sharing my process helps others. Have faith in yourself and your writing, even the only thing you can hold on to is that faith.

Red Shoes, a guest post by Saundra Mitchell

2010-06-08T04:31:00.038+04:30

Today I have a guest post from Edgar Award nominated author Saundra Mitchell. I've gushed about her book, Shadowed Summer, many many times and it's out in paperback today (Indiebound, Book Depository, Powell's, Amazon)! YAY!! Saundra writes about how we became imprint buddies and honestly, it made me tear up a bit. Saundra is not only a phenomenal writer (seriously, some of her prose makes me want to weep) but she's been a really fantastic friend and critique partner. I feel very lucky to have met her!

Without further ado, Saundra Mitchell:

Out in Paperback Today!!!

When we're still aspiring, our main concern as writers is getting to the agent, and getting to that contract. As it should be- both of these goals require hard work to reach, and wishing and dreaming is only the fun part.

But what no one tells you is that after you get that agent, after you get that contract- it's a lonely place. You never realize how much time you spent researching and querying, until it's no longer your job to do
those things.

Sometimes, the authors you shared those hardships with can disappear. It's not intentional- you're just in different places, and the support they need, the support you need, diverge. And that's why you need an imprint buddy.

I met Carrie on the Absolute Write boards- and you know how I met her? I was scanning the "New Sales!" thread, and I noticed that she had recently sold to Delacorte Press. Hey! Me too! And- completely out of character for me- I sent this total stranger an e-mail that basically said, "HOMG WE ARE WITH THE SAME HOUSE YAY!"

She replied, "HOMG WE SO ARE YAY!"

And that's how we became Imprint Buddies. Her book was scheduled a month behind mine, so we always had someone to compare notes. If I got my copyedits two months after final revisions, she probably would, too. She got her marketing plan a few days before I did. There was so much to learn about being published, and we never had to wonder, "Is this just me?"

Having Carrie for my imprint buddy kept me sane before publication, and she still does- now a full year after my book came out in hardcover. A long while back, we discussed what we should wear if we did events. She was thinking about all black with red shoes, because the splash of red in the dark is an element in THE FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH. And somehow, we agreed that we should both wear red shoes.

It was a silly conversation in the middle of a really chaotic time, but it stuck. Every time I do a signing, or a school visit, or an event- I never have to walk in alone. I've got my red shoes on, and my imprint buddy is with me.

ConCarolinas this weekend!

2010-06-01T21:31:00.001+04:30

Yay! It's time again for Con-Carolinas!! Which this year is also DeepSouthCon and is being held at the Hilton University Place in Charlotte! This is my local con that I've had a total blast going to the past few years and I'm super excited that this time I'm going to be on some of the panels! Wahoo! Here's my schedule:

Friday at 6:00 pm: Book Launch!: Writer guests who have published in the past year share their newest creations.

Friday at 8:00 pm: Scary Monsters and Super Freaks: Creating monsters in your writing - and where have all the scary monsters gone?

Saturday at 2:00 pm: The Harry Effect: What Harry Potter did for young adult literature - and why so many distiguished authors are trying their hand at YA literature.

Saturday at 8:00 pm: I Like the Dark: The appeal of dark fantasy and how to write it.

Sunday at 4:00 pm: Don`t Be a Noob!: Common mistakes beginners make when starting in the writing business.

zombies in love

I'll also be around before and after my panels selling books if anyone is interested! Of course, one of the highlights of ConCarolinas each year is the zombie walk (there's a zombie discussion on Saturday at 4 and the walk is at 6).

me after deadlines

As you can see from the pictures, I've been a very avid participant in all the zombie treats this con has to offer :)

Here's more information about registration and whatnot. I've met some really amazing authors by attending this con and am so excited to be hanging out with them all again soon! I hope to see y'all there!

What's taking so long? I want your third book now! (updated)

2010-05-26T18:44:00.002+04:30

I've mentioned a few times that there's a third book in my series called The Dark and Hollow Places that is already written and should be coming out Spring 2011. I honestly can't be more thrilled about the emails I've been getting asking about it and wanting it sooner!* One question I've been asked a few times is why, since the book is already written, is it taking so long for it to come out?

This is an excellent question and a perfect blog topic :) The short answer: with all the different aspects involved in how a book if published, it just takes a long time. When I first sold The Forest of Hands and Teeth (October 2007) and learned it wouldn't be coming out for 17 months (March 2009) I was surprised. Now I understand how it all works...

So I thought I'd write out the steps involved in getting a book from the author's head into the reader's hands. This is all from my perspective and if I've gotten something wrong please leave a comment correcting me and I'll make the change!

draft of DTW, ready for work

Step one: author writes and revises the book. The length of time this takes can vary wildly.

Step two: editor reads and sends edit letter. It can take anywhere from a few weeks to several months for an editor to put together a round of edits. These days editors often handle lots and lots of authors and they tend to focus on the closest season (i.e. they'll generally edit a Fall 2010 book before a Spring 2011 book because it's more pressing).

Step three: author revises based on editorial letter. Again this can take days, weeks or months depending on the deadlines and extent of revisions needed.

Step four: repeat. Sometimes the editor and author might go through several rounds of revisions.

Sam likes to sleep on edits

Step five: line edits. These are the really detailed edits that get down to the sentence level rather than the plot level. This is where your editor asks if you made the right word choices, if the scene needs tweaking, etc. This can again take days, weeks or months depending on deadlines.

Step six: copy-edits. The manuscript is then sent to copy-editors who pour over the pages with a fine-toothed comb marking inconsistencies, grammar and punctuation errors, flow, etc. Sometimes a book will be sent to a second copy-editor and then to the editor for review. Then it's sent to the author to review and then back to the editor to check the author's comments.

copyedits! (each person
uses a diff color)

Step seven: typesetting. The manuscript is sent to be type set which is the point at which it starts to look like a book. Sometime before this point all the aspects of the typesetting have already been chosen and designed (what font, the layout of the pages, any chapter headers or symbols between sections). One thing I never realized is that new errors can be introduced at this stage so if you find a typo in a book, sometimes this is where it happens.

Step eight: proofreading. The typeset pages (first pass pages) are sent to proofreaders to make sure everything from the manuscript made it into the typeset pages correctly. Sometimes errors will be typos, strange formatting, etc. Then the pages go to the editor for review, to the author, back to the editor.

Step nine: Advanced Reader Copies. Generally I think the ARCs are created from the initial type-set pages BEFORE they've been proofed by anyone. This is why there can be so many errors in ARCs and also why the ARC isn't always the same as the final book (I rewrote part of the ending of The Dead-Tossed Waves at this stage which is why the end in the ARC isn't the same in the final book).

first pass pages

Step ten: books printed. The books are then printed and shipped. Also during this time covers are designed and approved, marketing and publicity departments create plans and put them into action, sales reps and told about the books and go to stores to sell them. TONS of stuff goes on behind the scenes.

Updated to add: as Melissa Marr points out in the comments, the "marketing and publicity plans are created, implemented, etc" phase of the process happens throughout all of these steps, not just at the end.

So there's a fairly lengthy process involved in each book which is why, even though The Dark and Hollow Places is written, it's not nearly close to being ready for publication. But I'm super stoked y'all are excited about reading it!

* I read every email I receive but am behind on responding - sorry!