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!
Sometime this past summer my sister emailed me about a book she was reading that she couldn't put down. Over the course of the next few days, she kept emailing me little tidbits that had me in hysterics and then finally she wrote "I think I might have to go to the doctor because I just shouldn't be laughing this much" or something like that. Quite a recommendation and so I immediately picked up the book in question: Such a Pretty Fat by Jen Lancaster.
And boy was my sister right! I DIED reading this book! She so perfectly nailed so many parts of my life -- it's like she was inside my own brain as she talked about writing, procrastinating, getting in shape, procrastinating, thinking about what to wear on tour, reality TV, etc etc (and though the book is about more than that, these are the parts that really hit home for me). I mean, Jen holds nothing back and she's fricking hilarious.
Naturally, I bought her entire backlist and have been cyber-stalking her ever since. Her most recent book, My Fair Lazy, just came out and in reading the first few chapters I wanted to email her a millions times and say "OMG me too!" Her story about a rat in the house -- we had that (a mouse, but pretty much the same talk with the four legged furry creatures that their JOB is to rid the house of such things); her story about winging over what luggage to buy for tour -- been there and boy have I done that (I dragged my mom around to seven different stores looking for just the right bag); going to a "writing retreat" while under deadline and knowing that really you're going to hang out and swim and not write -- totally done that!
So you can imagine my insane glee when I found out that Jen would be signing in Charlotte! My hometown! We rarely get authors and I've always wanted to go see how other authors do presentations on tour and so I *had* to go. Luckily, my mom (also a fan) was in town and so we hopped in the car and off we went.
Everyone packed in to see Jen!
Of course, we forgot it was Race Weekend so a 20 minute drive turned into almost an hour and ended with me going way too fast down country roads to avoid the interstate. But luckily, Jen was also a little late (due to said race weekend traffic) so I didn't miss anything! Also, granted, the store perhaps wasn't expecting such a huge crowd and the set-up was a little awkward (probably over half the people there couldn't get into the area where Jen was because of people clogging the narrow entrance so we were spread out through the store with some people literally climbing the shelves trying to see her).
this was my view, you can see Jen's
head under the D in Video
But OMG it was so so worth it! Jen is HILARIOUS in person! She's the type of person you want to claim as your best friend (and I know everyone else there felt the same way I did). She's just awesome. She read a bit from her book, answered questions (lots of questions about reality TV that had my mom asking "who?" because clearly she doesn't watch as much as I do :)
While waiting for our time to stand in line (people stood in line according to what color ticket they got when they came through the doors), my mom and I headed over to the YA section where I ran into a display for The Dead-Tossed Waves which made me all squealy and happy!
Yes, I pet it a bit.
And then.... it was my time to stand in line to meet Jen. I'm not going to lie, I got pretty nervous. I mean, she's just a huge idol of mine because I love her writing and her wit and the way she's so honest about so much of this industry. I'd been thinking about meeting her for WEEKS and I was afraid that I'd sound like an idiot or forget to tell her how wonderful I think she is. And what's funny is that I *know* authors are people too but still! And Jen was being wonderful because she was taking her time with each person or groups of people and you could tell that each conversation meant something to her.
It was time for Mom and I to meet her and I honestly can't remember much of what I said. I'm pretty sure I told her how big a fans my entire family is of hers (I'd bought a copy of her book for her to sign to my sister) and then how I'm a YA author with Random House and how much Such a Pretty Fat meant to me cause I'd read it right when I found out that I was going on tour so it just really cracked me up on such a personal level.
Her eyes got bright when I said I wrote and she said "Who are you?" at which point I told her I wrote post-zombie apocalypse books and she started laughing and telling me about a project she was working on. And then she asked if I had a card because she reads a lot of YA and thankfully I did have a card and then she said she'd read my books! *faints* She even tweeted about meeting me the next day!
Seriously, meeting Jen Lancaster was just pure amazing.
Okay, I confess, I watch Reality TV. One of the shows I started watching recently is Tough Love on VH1. The basic premise is that Steve is a matchmaker and he's brought all these woman to a mansion to set them up on dates. There's no elimination and each week he works with the women to overcome some of their "issues" such as self-esteem, emotional barriers, etc.
The first season there was a woman named Taylor and she was a bona fide 100% gold-digger. She proclaimed that money didn't really matter to her that much but she decked herself out in expensive clothes from sunglasses to shoes. In one of the episodes, Steve set her up with a nice guy who had all the qualities Taylor claimed she was looking for in a man except for the money. They (and all the other girls with their setups) had the date at a gorgeous mansion with an amazing view and the twist was that the single and handsome "owner" of the house, someone clearly exceptionally wealthy, was an actor hired by Steve.
Unsurprisingly, within moments Taylor's ditched the guy she was set up with and is ALL OVER the "owner" of the house. She flirts, she says yes when he asks if she'd want to go away with him, blah blah blah. And at this point in the season as a viewer, we've seen her protest that it's not about the money and then pull this over and over again that we're done with her. As viewers, we've lost ALL sympathy for her and relegated her to gold-digging-reality-TV-fame-wanna-be-witch.
So Steve calls her up on the hot seat to lecture her about the way she behaved and she starts crying and says that he just can't understand. "Right," I'm thinking to myself, "no one can ever understand, blah blah blah." But then she starts talking about how she had a baby and she loved that child fiercely and she ran out of money and ultimately ended up having to give up her child for adoption because she couldn't afford to care for her. She started talking so passionately about how she would never in her life allow herself to be in that position again.
I was shocked. And suddenly, this character who was so flat and one-toned and who I hated... I started to understand. I totally understood her motivation and she made sense to me. This really hit home to me as a writer too because it didn't even take much for me to utterly change the way I approached her character -- just a little explanation about motivation.
It really made me think about how I approach characters (written and read). Sometimes, that little glimpse of each character's story can go a long way to making you understand decisions that might otherwise be hard to swallow. Understanding other people's motivations can be a very powerful thing!
This is a question I got asked at almost every tour stop: when are you going to write something happy -- your books are SO DEPRESSING! And here's my answer: my characters live in a pretty brutal world, there's just no way around that so yeah, some bad things happen in my books.
But here's the thing (and I hope this isn't a spoiler but just in case you're extremely spoiler averse, stop reading now): when all is said and done, at the end of my books my characters know who they are. They know the core of their strength and they survive. They go up against some pretty difficult odds where daily existence isn't a given and they make it through -- they push themselves farther than I think many people could.
To me, that's a happy ending: knowing who you are, knowing you can survive, knowing what you want in life and how to go after it and not settling. These are good things.
**and here's where I do actually get spoilery and explainery**
If a happy ending for Mary were just about ending up with a man and a dog, she'd have stayed in the village and married Harry. That's what her mom did and though it didn't work out terribly well in the very end, she seemed to live a fine life up until her husband got infected.
I meant for Harry to be a viable choice for Mary. And I meant for Travis to be a viable choice for Mary. To me, that's the essence of a love triangle -- each man is a viable choice for the heroine but each speaks to a different part of who she is. The heroine isn't choosing between two men, she's choosing who SHE wants to be and that will dictate who the right match is.
If Mary chose to be content and not seek answers to her questions -- to let the status stay quo -- then Harry was the right match. If she chose to ask questions and seek out answers and push past the fence, then Travis was the right match. Mary wasn't choosing between them -- she was figuring out who *she* wanted to be.
**and here's where I get general again**
To me, a love triangle done right isn't about a female* character's affections bouncing back and forth between two men, it's about her internal struggle within herself as she figures out who *she* wants to be and what's important to her. This internal struggle then gets reflected externally as she wars within herself and grows. And that's the heart of any book -- a character's growth from first page to the last. Generally, even as a character grows and changes she backslides (what sometimes looks like a flip-flop in affections) and sometimes a character will cling to their old way of being even as the struggle to adopt a new way.
Growth isn't easy. Figuring out who you are isn't easy. That's why I think that a book that ends with a character who knows who they are and what they want is a good thing.
I think Beth makes an excellent point when she says: "That's why dystopic literature isn't really depressing. Because it's about the strength of humanity beyond the cruelty of the world." Someone once said that happy people make for short books. I tend to agree with that.
* I'm talking about a love triangle between one woman and two men, I'm sure the same applies to one man and two women or three women or three men or what have you.
I've realized that my FAQ page on my website is woefully out of date. I decided to toss it out to y'all to see if you have any questions you'd like me to answer -- feel free to ask anything and I'll answer all that I can and upload to my website (you can ask about me, my books, the world in The Forest of Hands and Teeth, writing, etc). Come on... I know y'all have questions :) Post away!
So I'm standing in line with Holly Black to buy books for one of the autograph sessions at the RT Convention (I was finally going to meet John Scalzi in person and was pretty stoked about this) when I get a tweet pointing me to Charlaine Harris's blog. I follow the link and lo and behold, she's not only read The Forest of Hands and Teeth, but also liked it! As I'm sure you can imagine, this excites me to no end and I blurt out to Holly something along the lines of, "OMG! Charlaine Harris read Forest!! And she liked it!! OMG!! She called it remarkable!!" and there might have been some jumping up and down as well.
Next thing I know, the woman in front of us in line turns around. Not in that "you're acting crazy what's wrong with you" kind of way but in that "did I just hear someone say my name?" kind of way. Holly breaks into a huge grin and I glance at the woman's name tag.
Yep, I was standing right behind Charlaine Harris in line and she heard it all. I'm pretty sure I blacked out everything that came next: Holly assures me that I said thank you and yes, I did turn bright red and stammery. I remember thanking her for taking the time to read and post and she said that she hadn't have said it if it weren't true. I pretty much beamed the rest of the day.
Seriously, that kind of coincidence is the type of thing I'd read in a book and roll my eyes at -- how crazy! Crazy awesome, that is :)
In a nutshell, the RT Convention pretty much rocked. I'd never been to RT before (I'd only gone to RWA Nationals) and I had no idea what to expect. Pretty much, the convention had everything: craft panels where I was struck with inspiration and furiously took notes, events like the Mr. Romance contest that had everyone hooting and hollering and laughing, and in between lots and lots of hanging out with pretty awesome people. Ally Carter has a great recap with lots of photos here and Jen has a list of ten things she learned here (yes, the evil hair is important!).
Pictured (clockwise from back left): Holly Black, Jeaniene Frost, me, Vicki Pettersson, Ally Carter, Patrice Michelle, Jennifer Lynn Barnes, and Melissa Marr. Photo taken from Ally and Jen's blog
I'm sitting here trying to put into words what the whole experience was like and feeling like it's an impossible task (even though it's kind of my job to figure out how to put things in words, d'oh!). I think this is the best I can do for the moment: one night we were talking about going to our first writing conference and Holly mentioned going to World Fantasy when she knew no one and what that felt like. It reminded me of going to RWA Nationals in July 2006. I knew of a few people online but not that many and I went to the conference by myself.
Here's the part that I'd forgotten: standing in my room, wanting to cry because there were hundreds of people downstairs and I was going to have to push myself to go down there even though I knew no one. I remember standing outside the entrance to a ballroom where one of my chapters, the ChickLit chapter, was having a mixer and having to take a deep breath and tell myself over and over again, "You can do this" when all I wanted to do was go run and hide in my room. I remember forcing myself to go into the room, to introduce myself to people, to smile and not let anyone see how terrified I was.
For a moment, at the start of RT before Ally (my room-mate) arrived I had to tell myself the same thing: rather than stay safe in my room I had to tell myself "you can do this," and force myself to go downstairs. The elevator doors opened, I took a deep breath and stepped out onto the convention floor. The first people I saw were Holly and Jen and Melissa and that was that: I wasn't alone anymore. It made me feel like I'd found a home.
I've always thought that one of the best things about this industry is the people in it, and the RT Convention was no different. I feel so lucky to have had the chance to hang out with such amazing people and soak in their wisdom. And now that my well is refilled... time to get writing :)
Hey y'all! Just wanted to let you know that tomorrow, Saturday, I'm taking part in the big signing at the Romantic Times Convention in Columbus, OH.
The signing will be at the Hyatt Regency Downtown and it runs from 11:00-2:00.
I believe there is a $5.00 fee at the door (or something similar). There's more information at rtconverntion.com (including a list of authors there - there will be tons including some superstars of YA (Melissa Marr, Holly Black, Ally Carter, Jennifer Lynn Barnes, Kelly Armstrong, Heather Brewer, and many, many more!)
Thanks Ally for letting me steal all thi info from her blog!!
Okay, so I've known about Mac Freedom for a while but was never really interested in it. Essentially, it's a program that will lock your computer from the internet for whatever period of time you specify. If you want to go online you either have to wait until that time is up or you have to reboot your computer. It's SUPER easy to use.
Honestly, I never though I'd need this program. Sure, other writers raved about it, but I've always been able to pretty much restrict myself to writing when necessary (usually the closer I get to a deadline, the more restrictive I become). I've been known to turn off my wifi during writing sprints if necessary but I always thought that if I totally disconnected from the internet -- and such disconnection was beyond my control -- that I'd just spend that time wondering about what I was missing (and checking my iPhone for email instead).
And the thing is, I *know* there are times when I'm in the middle of a scene and a new email comes in and I go check it and when I finally get back to the scene I've lost momentum. I've done this countless times. And even if I force myself *not* to check the email but to finish the scene then there's just this little gnat buzzing in the back of my head that there's an email there's an email there's an email.
I also know that I have a tendency to go flip around through twitter or email when I'm stuck on a scene and what I really should be doing is forcing myself to work through the stuck bit. Sometimes it's too easy to distract myself when what I really need is to not be distracted.
I don't even know why yesterday or the day before I tried Mac Freedom. Maybe I was more distracted than usual but for whatever reason I booted the program up (I'd already downloaded it ages ago) and gave myself 30 minutes of Freedom. Essentially all that does is just stop your computer from connecting online (my computer was still connected to my home network so I could continue to back up and access the time capsule).
Suddenly I didn't have to worry about interruptions. I didn't have to worry about *me* interrupting myself. Sure, I had one point where I really wanted to double check research online but waiting 30 minutes to do so is hardly a hardship.
It's hard to express what the feeling was like when Freedom kicked in. The best I can explain it was that there was just this calm silence filtering over everything. Suddenly, the part of my brain that's wondering what's new online and what I'm missing just... vanished. I thought it would get louder and more insistent but apparently even that part of myself can last for just 30 minutes.
It really was like silence. That's exactly what I felt at the time: calm silence. Life didn't have to jostle around in my brain: it was just me and my story and everything else could just wait half an hour.
I've used Freedom several times since then -- in fact, my new routine is to play around online (see eg. now) and then lock down for 30 minutes and write and then play around online. So far it's really worked: I've written over 9k words on my new project since coming home from New Orleans a few days ago. (I'm sure it doesn't hurt that I'm still in the honeymoon phase with this project :)
So yep, I was a total skeptic and thought I didn't need an external program to help me focus but it turns out that whether I need it or not, it sure is nice to have. Now I actually get a little tingle of excitement when I open up the program because it feels like I'm about to go on a date with my manuscript -- just the two of us and no distractions :)
PS: I have a free trial version, I can't tell from looking at their website if you can try it out before donating $10 to unlock the full version.
Last year I went to Savannah on a writing retreat with the Gothic Girls and it was awesome. This year I'm headed to New Orleans with several of the same authors and I'm anticipating that it will again be awesome. I'm totally planning on badgering everyone there to let me read their books (Tessa Gratton's Blood Magic and Brenna Yovanoff's The Replacement (I've already read Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce - loved it!) and Maggie Stiefvater's Forever (I already know she ain't gonna let me pry that out of her fingers, sigh!)).
To kick the week of right, I'll be joining Maggie and Jackson at Octavia Books on Saturday, April 17th from 4-6. I hear Maggie will be putting on a show that may involve rolling around the bookstore. We can only hope! I'll be signing and answering questions (and watching Maggie roll through the aisles).
For the rest of the week, I shall be basking in the joy of being around other creative types. There's something just so joyous in being surrounded by other authors and talking about craft, goals, ideas, careers, stories. Just thinking about it has me excited beyond belief! Also, hopefully, there will be writing.
I'm actually working on two different books right now. One of them I can't seem to get out of my head and I've oddly been hand-writing it. I've wanted to handwrite a book for ages and even spent an entire afternoon driving around town looking for *just* the right journal with *just* the right type of paper.
What happens? I find two perfect journals, buy six different pens and then end up writing in an old spiral notebook with a pen I found tucked in the couch cushions. And naturally, being the superstitious fool that I am, when I needed to find another spiral to write it, I went to three different stores all over town looking for the EXACT same kind (in different colors). And for some reason I'm writing it back to front (not the story, but physically I started writing in the back of the notebook). I do not understand myself sometimes.
Anyway, because of said superstition I don't want to say too much about the book. It's like a secret and though I stink at keeping secrets, this one I like to have rattling around in my brain. When I talk publicly about this book I always call it "the wrong book." Because it is the wrong book. And yet, I shall continue to poke at it because I'm enjoying it and if I learned anything from writing The Forest of Hands and Teeth it's to not worry about the right book or the wrong book and just focus on telling a story you're passionate about.
Luckily, I'm also super excited about the other book I'm working on which I'm hoping will soon become "the right book." The problem with not being an outliner is that I tend to spend days and weeks moaning and wailing as I wait for the seed of an idea to develop enough to make sense. At least by now I've come to realize that this is my process and so I haven't agonized quite as much. I've just taken my spiral notebooks outside and tooled around on the wrong idea, waiting for the right one to solidify.
Today I wrote a synopsis of the first quarter of my new idea and so I'm waiting to see what JP says before going forward. It's caused me to bounce around quite a bit in excitement... thank goodness I have a mega-chat tonight to take my mind off the waiting!
Speaking of the megachat: here are the details: http://yalitchat.wordpress.com/88/. I'm off to poke at my synopsis some more... I'm one of those people who gets mongo excited about new things and I'm just hoping my excitement doesn't wear off and that the shiny will still seem shiny :)
One of the questions I've been asked a bunch lately is what's next. I'll update my website soon, but here's the scoop: there's a third book in the series and it should be coming out in Spring 2011. It's already written and the title is The Dark and Hollow Places. I've seen a cover comp and in total love -- can't wait until I'm able to share it!
Antho title:Kiss Me Deadly: 13 Tales of Paranormal Love Antho editor: Trisha Telep Release date: July 27, 2010 Short story title: Hare Moon Short story description: my story is about Sister Tabitha from The Forest of Hands and Teeth when she was Mary's age. It answers a few more questions about the village, the Sisterhood and Tabitha's motivation. As it turns out, she was quite the passionate teen :)
Antho title:The Living Dead 2 Antho editor: John Joseph Adams Release date: September 2010 Short story title: Flotsam & Jetsam Short story description: right around the time of the Return, when no one really knows what's going on, a group of seniors go on their senior cruise and infection breaks out on the ship. Two boys escape in a life raft -- one of them's infected.
Antho title:Zombies vs. Unicorns Antho editors: Holly Black and Justine Larbalestier Release date: September 21, 2010 Short story title: Bougainvillea Short story description: set about ten years after the Return on the island of Curacao, a girl discovers what it takes to survive as pirates threaten.
This Thursday, the fantabulous Mundie Moms are hosting a chat with me at 9pm EST. Their blog is here for details!
I promise updates and photos soon... just have to download pictures from my camera :) It's been nice being home from tour, trying to catch up on things, watching the yard EXPLODE with new growth which is threatening to take control of the house. I'd planned on having most of April to myself to write and get organized but it looks like those plans might change...
In writing news, I've been working on a book that I've been super excited about for months. The only problem is that it isn't want I'd planned on writing next. So... there's that. Jake had an appointment with the vet this morning and, as predicted, got a bit antsy about the whole needle thing so they've had to sedate him. I'm not going to lie, it's a little unsettling being home without him, wondering how he's doing. Poor beast.
Everyone was like "oh, he'll be so sweet when he's home and all woozy!" and to me that sounds like just about every other day. He'll just climb up on the couch and pass out and that will be that -- typical afternoon for Jake. Perhaps I'll pick up a book and snuggle up with him :)
I love this book. That's all there is to it. And it's out today so you should all go out and read it.
I've been a romance reader much of my life (from teens on). During the year before I went to law school I discovered Julia Quinn and devoured her entire backlist, falling in love with Regency. But once I started writing YA, I spent most of my time reading YA and hadn't picked up a romance novel, much less a Regency, in several years.
That changed when I picked up The Season by Sarah MacLean. I met Sarah as a fellow Deb in the 2009 Debutantes and The Season was everything I loved about romance novels. I stayed up late reading, I swooned and grinned and giggled and re-read passages just to experience the thrill over and over again.
As much as I love The Season, Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake tops it. I was lucky enough to read it on my computer and I was so in love it that when my mom told me it was time to go shopping, I lugged my computer along so I could read in the car. I could not put this book down.
Sarah MacLean reminded me why I loved reading romance novels. Her heroine Callie is someone that I just instantly wanted to succeed -- not just in love but in life. And her story isn't just about love, but about finding out who she is and what she wants. And the hero, Ralston.... yummy with his own issues to overcome.
When reading this book, I felt every emotion on the page. I was enthralled and in love and did I mention I swooned? I love this book so much I've been dying for it to come out so I can spread the word. Thanks to Sarah MacLean I've fallen in love with romance and Regencies again. Thanks Sarah... now I'm dying for the next one!!!
In honor of this fantastic book, I'm giving away two autographed copies of Nine Rules. To win, leave a comment below for an entry. For extra entires, blog, tweet or facebook a link to this entry (another extra point for every time you use a copy of the cover when you blog, tweet or facebook). Remember to tell me in the comments if you linked and if you used the cover image! Contest ends Sunday at midnight!
Congrats on the release of such an amazing book, Sarah MacLean!
Wow, so I really thought I'd have more free time to blog while on tour but apparently not! Today is my last day and I'm beyond excited to be topping off the tour with a visit to Not Your Mother's Book Club. This is one of those things that I've watched so many authors do and I've always wanted to do it myself -- I'm gobsmacked that I actually get to now! Squee!
I have only a smidge of time before I have to run out the door to some stock signings. The tour so far has been fantastic and after that little "there's too much wind so no one can leave NYC" incident, the weather has been gorgeous. I know it feels lame to blog about the weather of all things, but it's made me want to move to each and every city I've visited so far.
Tomorrow I fly home and try to organize my life which I don't think is going to be easy. I have the blog to update with all sorts of amazing pictures and stories, I have taxes to complete, emails to return, interviews to complete, two short stories to copy-edit and a fiance to spend time with (not to mention two very ornery cats and dog). Of course, JP is preparing for a big trial so who knows when I'll actually see him, even if I am in the same city again :)
And now thinking about going home makes me very very sad that this is all coming to an end and a sad blogger isn't a fun blogger so I think I'll sign off now. Thanks to everyone who's come out to say hello and I can't wait until tonight!!! YAY!!!!
Hey y'all! I'm writing from Detroit mere hours before getting ready for a Zombie Prom tonight. Yes, that's right -- ZOMBIE PROM!!!! I can't tell you just how thrilled I am about this event and I promise to take pictures. Yesterday I had a fantastic time up in Lansing at Schuler Books. Krys and Whitney put on an amazing event (complete with pizza) and the crowd was just so great. Earlier in the day I had a fun time at Haslett High School where the students grilled me on surviving the zombie apocalypse. Perhaps it makes me a very strange person, but I always love debating various survival techniques.
Let me tell you, Lansing goes all out for St. Patty's Day. Michelle (media escort) and I drove through Michigan State and there were green-clad students EVERYWHERE -- dangling from roofs, sprawled on lawns, furniture on sidewalks and lots and lots of green beer. It was a gorgeous day so I totally understood the urge to be outside -- the entire place had such a festive feel to it.
Backing up a bit... Last week I was in NYC and apparently, it got quite windy. So windy, in fact, that all modes of transportation were rendered inoperable. I was supposed to fly out to Chicago on Saturday night and all was going according to plan when someone careened into the airport restaurant (I'd just ordered dinner) to say basically all flights were cancelled. Yup, it was true.
Amazing publicists Kelly and Jessica totally kicked in and went above and beyond trying to reroute me (there was an event scheduled for early afternoon in Chicago I really REALLY wanted to make it to). Of course, NYC had been canceling flights to Chicago all day so the earliest I could get there was Monday afternoon (just in time to fly to Detroit). So we decided I'd hop a train to Philly and catch a flight there. I book it to Penn Station incidentally ending up with tickets on two different trains. And then I wait. With everyone else.
note the Eat, Prey Love sticker
I love this picture of us all staring up at the boards cause the girl in front of me is crossing her fingers so hard, clearly hoping the DC train boards. When the board listed a track for us to board there was a quick cheer by the crowd and then crazy stampeding to the tracks (I'm surprised no one was crushed). I made it to my seat and settled in. And waited. And waited. For five hours.
Turns out, power was down on the tracks. We were lucky to be in the station -- there were trains stuck out on the tracks with no power (which means no bathrooms - ick!). After a while I realized how surreal it is to be an author who writes about post-apocalypse worlds to suddenly be in a situation where there was no escape. Sure we were allowed to leave or go up to Penn Station, but there were definitely moments when I thought "there could be zombies up on the street and I'd have no idea."
There were plenty of people trying to find cars or flights or any other way out of the city who couldn't (rumor was the NJ turnpike was shut down). Makes you realize how fragile our infrastructure is and next time a readers asks "would everything really fall apart that fast?" I can say "well, wind make it impossible to escape NYC!"
Also, I'd forgotten that when you throw strangers into a situation where things go wrong, they often become friends. I ended up selling a copy of FHT to an Australian on the train :)
Me and adam talking zombies
Finally, we gave up and I stayed at a hotel and took a flight out the next morning. When I landed in Chicago I went straight to my event with Adam Selzer, author of I Kissed a Zombie and I Liked It. Totally awesome book which I loved.
After that was dinner with a few very awesome and funny folks (and yummy food). Yeah, I totally dug out my phone and shared pictures of my dog and cats. I'm that kind of person, apparently.
On that note... it's time for me to prepare for the zombie prom. You know you totally want to go!! I promise to recap more soon! Thanks to everyone who has come out to see me -- I've had so much fun meeting fans and chatting! Y'all rock!
My Dad tells me that I need to be blogging more. I agree. However, this won't be a long post because I still have a few miles left to go before I can sleep. Right now I'm writing from Detroit having just come back from a signing at the Borders in Novi and polished off a dinner of blue cheese and bread that I stole from the little "snack room" down the hall (which has free diet cokes... this could spell trouble for me over the next two days!).
warm welcome at Jefferson JHS
So I promise to blog in the next day or two about everything so far which includes getting stuck on a train (and selling my book to an Australian in the process cause hey, there's always a bright side) and having some really and truly fabulous visits. One thing I've learned on my trip is that media escorts totally rock -- they are just fascinating people with endless stories! Also it's been really REALLY amazing to talk to fans and hear their thoughts and questions about my books -- nothing is really cooler than that.
Tomorrow I'll be at Schuler's Books and Music for a pizza party at 6 (yum!!) and on Thursday I'm going to a Zombie Prom (!!!!!) hosted by the Barnes and Noble in Rochester Hills (prom starts around 5 and my talk around 7 I *think*). So can't wait for both of these events - squee!!!
Also, just a note to say that for some reason I'm not able to send mail from my work account (the one listed on my website) away from home so if you're wondering about the radio silence... that's why. Sorry!!
And yes, Dad, I'm still alive :) If you want to know what's going on in between blog posts you can follow my tweets here. I tend to update them more often (easier to tweet on the fly).
Hey y'all! Wanted to let you know about a new event just added to the schedule in Chicago. I'll be at the Harold Washington Library Center (400 South State Street) from 2-3 on Sunday (tommorrow), talking, signing books and hanging out! Hope to see you there!
Hey y'all! I'm writing from my hotel room in NYC! My publicists are really spoiling me because this is my view (last night I sat on the window seat and talked to JP with the lights of the city -- it was really quite awesome!) It was my first time ever taking the train and while I'm very used to how planes work, the train was something new. Of course I ended up sitting backward but even that was okay because there was lots of space, great people watching, and a table for me to work (oh, also? the woman announcing the trains totally did the "AAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLL aboard!" which was awesome!)
Yes, we got 2 double orders
Once in NYC I trekked down to the Random House offices which always fill me with a special kind of glee. I wish I had a picture of my publicists Kelly and Jessica greeting me, but they had a sign with "New York Times Bestselling Author"on it in big red letters which was just hilarious and awesome. I got to hang out, sign some books, catch up, thank people in person and just absorb the wonderful feeling of being surrounded by books and people who love books. Then we all headed to dinner complete with table-side made guacamole and pomegranate margaritas -- totally awesome!
Brilliant Editor Krista
Sneaky publicist Kelly snuck away when we ordered dessert to tell them about my hitting the NYT list and that it was also my editor Krista's birthday. So when the chocolate cupcake and churros came, one plate said Congratulations and the other said Happy Birthday! So fun! This is why I love working with all these women - they never miss a detail :)
Friday was lunch with my agent Jim who is always so much fun to hang out with. We grabbed sushi and caught up on everything which is just so nice to be able to do in person. Then I signed stock at the Union Square Barnes and Noble (where I spent so much time hanging out the summer JP worked in NYC and we lived nearby).
lunch on Thurs - pretty!
Friday afternoon was back to the Random House office to meet more people and sign more books (I still get a total thrill out of signing books!). Then we headed off to Manhassett for the signing. This was one of those crowds that was so fun to talk to because they were really into it. One boy even said that he'd never been a reader before and his mom gave him The Forest of Hands and Teeth and it turned him into a reader -- that he loves books because of The Forest of Hands and Teeth. Seriously, I almost broke into tears right then and there and gave both him and his mom a hug. Totally TOTALLY amazing.
Tomorrow I'm SUPER excited about the event at Word in Brooklyn. Apparently it's listed as one of the six events to make Your Perfect Weekend in Time Out New York magazine - eep! They're serving zombie doughnuts at the event -- I can't wait to see what those are :)
zombies + paula abdul = perfect weekend.
I also think we've added an event with the Chicago Public Library on Sunday -- when I get more info I'll be sure to post it! You can also follow The Dead-Tossed Waves facebook page for the most current info.
Thanks to everyone who has come out (esp in the cold rain today!) and said hello in person and to everyone who's emailed or tweeted!!
Hey y'all!! I'm writing to you from overcast Baltimore (it's totally fine that it's overcast because yesterday was amazingly gorgeous!). Even though the tour didn't start until yesterday, I flew up early on Sunday so that I could hang out with my pal and critique partner, Diana Peterfreund (she blogs about the visit here, including picture of me looking like I'm about to eat her dog's brains). Yesterday, as per my amazingly organized and detailed itinerary (thanks Kelly and Jess!!) she drove me up to Baltimore where we strolled down to the docks near the hotel and partook of Maryland crab soup with a wonderful view.
Yum!
Then it was back to the hotel to prepare for the signing and what should have been a calm ordered afternoon turned into a circus. First, the room was 90+ degrees which meant we had engineers coming in and out (couldn't switch rooms for some reason). That was fine, I got to hear some pretty funny stories about things gone wrong in the hotel :) Then someone came and dropped off wine and cheese -- always appreciated and happy-making :) And then the phone rang about seven times -- the front desk with a package, the engineer checking in, etc. Thank goodness Diana was here to field everything as I ran around trying not to get nervous!
Emma Joanne and I
Trusty rent-a-pal and escort Craig picked us up and drove us out to The Childrens Booksstore for the launch of The Dead-Tossed Waves!! They had signs up, books displayed and were just wonderful. It's a great little bookstore that has that feeling when you walk in that makes you want to just stay and sit and read. I prob read a little too fast (I'm still not used to reading my own work out loud) and had just a total blast talking to everyone. I even got to run into a family who'd been at my The Forest of Hands and Teeth launch in Greenville and a few other people I'd chatted with online.
All in all it was a fantastic event -- I really adore when everything's relaxed enough that we can all sit around and chat and have fun!
Eat. Prey. Love.
Then it was back to the hotel where Diana and I set off in search of more food. As it turns out, there's a gorgeous Barnes & Noble in an old building near the harbor-area and so we stopped by to sign stock. That's where I got my first glimpse of the book dump in real life and there was much squee-ing from me :)
Today I'm supposed to be catching up on blog tour posts but don't tell my publicist that I might sneak out this afternoon to go explore that really cool ship and make a visit to the National Aquarium right down the block. I LOVE aquariums and don't want to miss this one :)
Thanks everyone for all the love yesterday -- I can't tell you how amazing it was to open my email or twitter feed and see the mentions of The Dead-Tossed Waves!! It really felt like one huge party that lasted all day :) I also woke up to find out that my local paper, The Charlotte Observer, had an article about me on the front page! And then I saw that MTV reviewed DTW and had wonderful things to say!
I'm sure I'm forgetting all sorts of stuff I planned to blog about today :) I've been trying hard to keep posting to my twitter feed though! Thanks again y'all for sharing all this with me!!!
Living in the South-East growing up, both JP and I went to Williamsburg at some point or another for history class and I'd pretty much not given it much thought beyond that. But then for our first Valentine's day while in law school JP surprised me with a trip up there and it sort-of became our new tradition. It's amazing how easy it is to slip away from the real world when you're there -- to take the time to stroll around outside and take pictures of cows and talk about what life would have been like then or share stories or convict a fictional woman of being a witch (for the record, JP and I voted not guilty and had an absurdly in depth conversation afterward about the evidentiary burdens of such things -- you can take the girl out of the law but not the law out of the girl apparently).
We've stayed somewhere different each year and this time we stayed at a tavern right on the main street. Tiny room but nothing beats stepping outside and seeing a gang of fife and drum players going by. It just feels like stepping into another world, especially when it's the dead of winter and there's hardly anyone else around so the place feels like it belongs only to the ghosts and us.
We did a bunch of walking around, drove the Yorktown and Jamestown loops enjoying a sunny sky and spent the obligatory afternoon at the Williamsburg Winery (where JP proposed to me two years ago). We ate lots and LOTS of yummy food :)
We also played this game called Once Upon a Time which was awesome! Basically, there are two decks of cards: one with endings and one with people, places, descriptions, etc. You deal an ending to each player and then a mish-mash of the other cards and the object of the game is to tell a story using your cards to get to that ending (and you can interrupt other players at certain times). Winner is the first to play all cards.
We set a fire in the tavern common room and turned down the lights and opened a bottle of wine and jiggered the rules a bit -- basically we had one common ending ("And for all I know they may be dancing still") and we chose cards from our hands and passed them to the other player and they had to use that card to continue the story. It ended up being really amazing -- probably took a couple of hours to tell this story that we got totally wrapped up in. One of the best nights ever!
Sometimes it's nice to step into another world to get away from it all :)
I have news!! I'm so crazy happy and excited and overwhelmed and just flat out giddy to announce that the paperback of The Forest of Hands and Teeth just debuted at #8 on the New York Times Best Seller List!!!! HOLY COW!! Even more awesome and cool is that Cynthia Leitich Smith also debuted on the list at #5 for her book Eternal! How wonderful that we get to share this experience together!!
Here's how it all went down... I was racing around Greenville with my mom all day Wednesday picking up some last minute things for the The Dead-Tossed Waves tour (like a suitcase, socks, shoes) and I finally got in the car to drive home around 4:00pm. Since I'd been out of town for a long weekend with JP, I called my friend Diana to chat and catch up during the drive. About five minutes into the call I saw a 212 number flash on my screen and said something like "Oh, that's New York calling - I should get this" (I still always get such a thrill when I see the 212 number - lol). I figured it might be my publicist calling to chat about release details or whatnot.
Nope, it was my editor Krista. So here's the thing -- I know that a call from your editor around 5ish on Wednesday afternoon/evening often means one thing: the NYT list released and they're hopefully calling with happy news. I've had some great friends go through this but it never ONCE crossed my mind this could be the reason for Krista's call. NOT ONCE!
This was the gist of the call:
Krista: I have some good news!
Me: Ooh exciting! What? (thinking that perhaps she got a review or numbers or something fun).
Krista: Guess who's a New York Times Bestselling Author?
Me: Who? (thinking it odd that she'd call to tell me about another author of hers hitting the list).
Krista: You are!
Me: What?!?! NO!
Krista: Yes!
Me: No! What? You're kidding. That can't be right. Trust me, that isn't right.
Krista: (laughing) It's true! You're number 8!
Me: No way! What? No. I don't believe you. Krista: Yes! Me: NO! What?! NO!!! Seriously? OMG!
This went on for a while until I basically started screaming and almost sobbing and having a hard time catching my breath while going 80 mph down the interstate. Stunned doesn't even begin to capture the feeling. Neither does euphoric or elated. It was just one of those pure states of emotion where I felt like my body might explode in a burst of happy light.
And then I got to call my friends and family and let them know and hear them scream like I had! Honestly, being able to share the news with so many people who've supported me and loved me through it all was just about one of the best feelings ever (and included serenades from the back of a taxi :) I can't thank my friends, family, agent and editor and publicist and everyone else at Random House Children's Books enough for all their support and encouragement and just awesomeness! And thanks to y'all and all readers and booksellers and buyers and teachers and librarians -- I'm honored and grateful and so amazingly thankful!
So that's my news! My pinch-me-can-this-really-be-true news! I made it home and JP took me out to dinner to celebrate with champagne and I've been floating ever since! Incredible amazing feeling!
And that's just part of the awesome week it's been!! On Monday RHCB released the book trailer for The Dead-Tossed Waves and I think it's stunning! The kiss -- oh that kiss -- is just sooooo perfect and hot!
I feel so lucky to now have to fantastic trailers for my books! Thanks RHCB!!!
Also cool: Random House has set up a fan page for The Dead-Tossed Waves on facebook - you can find it here.
I still feel like I'm running around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to get things in order before I leave for the tour on Sunday (squee!!!). I have to do fun things like get taxes in order, iron clothes and pack! But I'm just so excited and smiling and crazy happy! More squeees!!!
Thanks all of y'all for sharing this with me!!! And thanks for buying my book!! I can't wait to meet so many of y'all in person during the tour!
(Just a note that Friday is the last day to pre-order signed copies of FHT and DTW in order to have them shipped on release day! You can keep ordering after that but if you want them personalized they won't ship out until the end of March when I get back into town to sign them (likewise with any SASEs I get after I leave for tour on Sunday).)
So it appears then I'm math challenged (which is odd cause I really loved math in high school). Last week I said the release of The Dead-Tossed Waves was a month away when really... it was only a few weeks. I have like five different timers on my computer counting down various things and I think I glanced at the wrong one - oops! To make sure that doesn't happen again, I've created a count-down widget for The Dead-Tossed Waves:
Yay pretty! Please feel free to post that anywhere you want! I've also created an extras page on my website with icons, banners, bookmarks, etc. I have to say, I really REALLY dig the tag line that Random House came up with for this book - I get a kick out of it every time I look at it! And a HUGE thanks to Saundra Mitchell who put all the extras together -- she rocks!
Okay, looking at that timer makes me feel a little ill. Really? Really it's only two weeks until this book comes out?!? Gak! I feel like there's so much to do before then! I have to find clothes to wear on tour, I have to clean the house for a newspaper reporter coming tomorrow, I have to write a proposal and dig out of my email deluge and read and write and get my hair done and ..... deep breaths..... I should know we're getting close since I just got my boxes of author copies in the mail yesterday! YAY!!
This time last year I was preparing for Team Castle. It still kind of boggles my mind that I got to spend my release week in Ireland with a bevy of amazing authors. Did I ever mention how there were peacocks who lived there in the castle courtyard? One peacock and two peahens and they'd fly up and sleep against a window in the alcove on the way to the bathroom on the second story so that you'd just go walking by and they'd shriek and so you'd shriek and they'd flap all over the place. One day I swear they almost marched straight into the kitchen to see what was for dinner.
Yes, this is a blog of random dis-jointed thoughts and now you can see how my brain's been working recently :) On that note... I'm putting together my presentation for school and library visits -- anyone have thoughts of what topics work really well? I've given talks on how I came up with the world of FHT and the role of zombies in popular culture but have found that middle-schoolers often look at me blankly (appears few 8th graders have seen Night of the Living Dead!). My path to publication always feels boring to me... what would be a good exciting topic to speak on (this is for the school visits -- likely they haven't read the books). I really appreciate hearing your thoughts!!
I leave you with my most recent purchase that gives me tremendous glee: monkey slippers. Seriously, can I wear these on the tour!?
Hey Y'all! Only 33 days until The Dead-Tossed Waves releases - yipes! Yesterday Publishers Marketplace reviewed it saying that "readers are sure to be hooked" and talking about the book's "gripping storytelling style and engaging prose." WAHOO!! Booklist also said that "Ryan knows how to write an action scene," and called the final pages "especially thrilling." Publishers Weekly also mentioned The Forest of Hands and Teeth & The Dead-Tossed Waves in an article about the rise in popularity of post-apocalyptic and dystopic fiction. Diana Peterfreund has a great post on that subject that I hope to respond to soon (go read it here!).
So, in honor of my book coming out in only 33 days I thought I'd link to a slightly longer excerpt than I posted before. Here it is! If you want to read the whole first chapter, it's printed in the back of The Forest of Hands and Teeth paperback that went on sale last week (it's hopefully available most places, including Walmart).
Last week I also posted information on how to pre-order a signed copy of The Dead-Tossed Waves -- here's a link to that information again.
In other news, I turned in my short story for an anthology on Sunday night (literally at midnight on the dot so I squeaked by just under the deadline). I'm really excited about the three short stories I have coming out in 2010 and I'm not sure when I can start giving more details. I'm sure some of y'all have already seen hints of one of them here (*cough*vote team zombie*cough*). Seriously, who in the world is showing all this unicorn love?!
Am off to play with my new secret project - so much fun to have a new secret project again!!
I used to be a lawyer who measured my time by 6 minute increments. For a few years, I was able to devote one or two of those increments to this blog a few times a week. In October 2007 sold my debut novel, THE FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH, to Delacorte Press (it came out March 10, 2009 and hit the New York Times bestselling list in 2010). In October 2008 I quit my lawyer job and now I'm a full-time writer.
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