In which I feel stupid...

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

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

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!

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)

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!

Jen Lancaster ate my brain

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.
 

Mom, Jen and I.  I <3 Jen Lancaster!

What I learned about creating characters from Reality TV: it's about the motivation

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!

But when are you going to write something happy? Also, what's up with the love triangles?

note: this post has some specifics about my books. I tried to mark them as spoilers, but just be aware.

I was just reading Beth Revis's blog about writing dystopias and I think she does a great job of explaining why dystopian literature isn't always depressing and I thought I might piggy-back off of her discussion here.

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.

Anyone have any questions? Time to update my FAQ

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!

Thanks!

Charlaine Harris liked FHT and other things I learned at RT Convention

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 :)

Signing in Columbus, Ohio Tomorrow (Saturday)

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!!

Mac Freedom

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.

Signing in New Orleans this Saturday with Maggie Stiefvater and Jackson Pearce

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 :)

Yes, there's a third book in the series! Plus, three short stories in 2010

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!

I also have three short stories set in the World after the Return (the same world as The Forest of Hands and Teeth and The Dead-Tossed Waves).

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.

Come chat with me this Thursday!

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 :)

Anyways, come hang out tomorrow night and chat!

And the winners of Nine Rules are.....

read this book!!

Thanks to everyone who entered my contest for an autographed copy of Sarah MacLean's amazing romance Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake!  The winners are:

YAbookaholics and cmoh

Email me at carrieATcarrieryan.com with where to mail the books and if you want them personalized, to whom!

And congrats to Sarah on a fantabulous debut!  For the rest of you, pick up her book anywhere books are sold!! You won't regret it!

Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake -- a must read! (plus giveaway)

Fabulous indeed!

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!

Last day of DTW tour - San Francisco

I always wanted to be on a NYMBC poster!

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!!!!

DTW tour: day ? - I'm still here.... somewhere

They drove from IN to Schuler Books!

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!

me on tour... blog tour that is

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.

Anyway, I'm just popping in today to share some links.  Today I kicked off a blog tour with the wonderful New York Times Best Selling author Cynthia Leitich Smith.  Read my interview with her here.  I also wrote a Big Idea piece for John Scalzi's blog about The Dead-Tossed Waves.

Over the next few weeks you can find me in the following places with guest blogs, interviews and top ten lists.  Thanks to everyone for hosting me!

3/16: Cynsations
3/17: The Book Smugglers
3/18: MTVNews.com “Hollywood Crush”
3/19: The Page Flipper
3/20: Through A Glass, Darkly
3/21: readergirlz
3/22: Mundie Moms
3/23: Cheryl Rainfield
3/24: Just Blinded Books
3/25: The Story Siren
3/26: Bildungsroman
3/27: Beautiful Creatures

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).