Hi guys. So today is the day--the end of the blog tours and BELLADONNA's release day. Man, it seems so long ago that I finished writing that book. Publishing is weird like that--by the time your book comes out you're like, "Wait, which one is that again?" :)
So I had big plans for this contest. I was going to turn the whole Where in the World thing around and do a Where in St. Louis, featuring some of my local hangouts and some of the things I love about my city.
But then I got another edit letter for my first contemp, and some unrelated distressing news. And then I wasted some time being sad and anxious and going through the whole "I am working twice as many hours for half as much money. Is this whole writing thing worth it?" line of questioning.
And it is. It really is. But my work-life balance sucks right now. I can't remember the last day I quit work before midnight and I don't foresee doing that anytime in the next week until my next round of edits are done. So instead of spending all day wandering the city in search of fun photo ops for this contest, I'm going to do something different with the contest and spend today working on revisions. I hope you understand.
To some lucky US or Canadian person, I am giving away a VENOM paperback, a BELLADONNA hardcover, and a STARLING ARC--a trilogy of books for one big winner. All signed to whomever you want. All with matchy-matchy covers. I am going to select the winner of the contest randomly, from people who comment in the comments below, but I am giving everyone an extra entry (up to 15 total entries) for each of the US/CA blog tour posts they comment meaningfully on.
I don't normally angle for comments/likes/etc. in this manner, but I worked hard on the tour posts and all of the awesome US and CA bloggers worked hard too, getting everything up on time and laying out their posts in a visually appealing way. (Australia--you guys also rocked, but I can't send books overseas at this moment and you guys wouldn't want our US covers anyway, but for realz, I love you too). All of my lovely blogger peeps retweeted each other and supported each other and I feel so lucky to know them. They deserve your page hits and your comments.
For your comments on this post, I am curious to know how you feel about blog tours: Why do you like being a tour stop? Do you only read the posts with giveaways? Do you ever follow an author's entire tour? What do you wish you could see more of in blog tours? What do you want to see less of? I offered a stop to one US blogger who said, politely but frankly: "No thanks--I don't want an excerpt." You won't offend me with any of your thoughts. For your first entry, tell me anything you want to tell me about blog tours so next time I can make mine even better :)
This contest will run from now until the morning of July 22nd at which point I will close comments on this thread, count up the comments elsewhere, and use a random number generator to pick a winner. BEST OF LUCK!
Rants, raves, and random musings from a professional daydreamer. Now with adorable cat pictures.
Showing posts with label I should be working but. Show all posts
Showing posts with label I should be working but. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 16, 2013
Friday, March 1, 2013
Where in the world is BELLADONNA??
As a traveling type of chick and all-around international woman of mystery, I decided to safeguard the rest of my ARCs by hiding them in exotic, hard-to-reach places.
Only strong-willed, pure of heart, sound of mind, intrepid explorers will be able to locate these rare tomes. (Or, you know, if you're good at googling that might help too).
The logistics:
1. I post clues to the location of the ARC on the blog at random times. The clues will be released in the evenings or anytime on the weekend (where I live--sorry I can't make that happen for the whole world) so as not to put teen readers at a disadvantage while they're in school. This is me being nice. Do not send me a thousand emails about when you have cello practice or soccer games and hey can I please work around all that. Answer: No. Life's about priorities. Choose wisely :)
2. You figure out the location from the clues. You must be specific.BELLADONNA is in Chicago--NO. BELLADONNA is at Wrigley Field--NO. BELLADONNA is leaning against second base at Wrigley Field--YES. Got it?
3. You post your guesses in the comments beneath the latest clue.
4. Each intrepid explorer (that’s you) can guess a max of twice per clue. Once a new clue is released, you can't go back and guess on the old clues.
5. If your guess is super-duper-close but not quite there I won’t post it. Instead I will email or DM you on twitter (meaning you'd better post your preferred method of contact with your first guess) to give you one shot to be a teensy bit more specific.
6. If somebody else guesses the exact location before I get a hold of you, they win.
7. To win you just have to guess the location. Note: You guys were SO good at this last time that I have tried to make my clues harder this time. The hiding place is in a country I have actually visited--that's a bonus clue for reading all the instructions, but no, you cannot guess on this post.
8. Once again, you don’t have to follow the blog to play, but I will be posting clues at random times so blog followers will probably have an advantage.
9. I am law. This ain't nursing school. You don't get to debate with me about the answers. Sorry ;)
10. Questions? Put them in the comments. The first clue will be posted sometime on March 1st. Good luck!
10. Questions? Put them in the comments. The first clue will be posted sometime on March 1st. Good luck!
The fine print:
Can international people play?
Always.
What if the post office ninjas steal this book too?
The best I can do is priority mail with delivery confirmation or 1st class overseas. If the ninjas still prevail (they seem to have a grudge against me) I'll pre-order you a copy of the BELLADONNA hardcover.
So what do I win?
Because the fearless assistants and I know you have a choice when it comes to blog contests, we have packed Ms. BELLA alongside a swagorific, stunning array of other tempting goodies, but we're not telling you what they are. That's right. You win a signed ARC of BELLADONNA, and...mysterious other stuff :) I am also going to award a $15.00 US e-gift-card to Powellsbooks.com to one random contestant.
Sunday, December 30, 2012
How not to let your writing make you crazy in 2013
When I began to write Venom at the end of 2010, in collaboration with Paper Lantern Lit, I was also working full-time as an RN, going to grad school, and writing a contemporary manuscript. I had always been the kind of girl who got things done, so I naively thought: I can do all of this. No problem.
And it wasn't, for awhile. But then the revising and copy-editing for Venom started to blend together with the outlining for Belladonna. All of a sudden I got emails about flap copy and promotional stuff. Meanwhile, school got busier and I had finished my contemporary manuscript and managed to land my dream agent. But now I had revisions to do for her before we could look for a publisher. I found myself working on three books in the span of a single day.
I started to go crazy. Like teary-eyed, stressed out, starving, sleepless, scary-crazy. I was snapping at everyone. I had road rage. I had rage in general. My friends and family tactfully voiced their concerns. And I knew they were right. So I decided to take a semester off school.
But I really wanted to finish my Masters degree. The reality is, even after my agent sold my contemp in a two-book deal and I was writing five books for two Big Six publishers, I still wasn't making enough money to survive on my writing income alone, and I knew an advanced degree would give me more choices.
Since I wasn't willing to quit school, I decided to take a year off from my job as an RN to finish my degree and the books I had under contract. This was a hard choice because I LIKE nursing. It has a way of making you feel useful, like you're giving something back to the world. Writing can do that too, of course, but I have always gravitated toward writing fluffy fun books, not big life-changing stories.
Believe it or not, once Venom's release date came near and I was doing promotional stuff for it, doing copy edits and jacket flap stuff for Belladonna, and beginning to write Book #3, which was going to have to be drafted in less than three months to meet its deadline, the crazy came back. I was just as busy, just as rage-filled and stressed-out even without my RN job.
What I'm saying here, in the most verbose way possible (as usual), is that writing is fluid. It will spread out, suck up all of the free space that you give it. It will drown you if you let it. This is especially true once you have a publishing deal and all of those optional things like blogs and FB pages become less optional. So with that in mind, here are some suggestions that might help you stay sane as a writer in 2013.
Note: I realize many of you will not need these suggestions, as you are undoubtedly more enlightened and less obsessive than I am. But those of you who are compelled to do everything, all the time, read onward. Perhaps something will resonate.
1. Whenever possible, schedule your writing time for the week: Whether you write 4 hours or 40 hours, if you start the week with an idea of your butt-in-chair schedule and (mostly) stick to it, you can prevent yourself from spending 99 hours in front of the computer and still feeling like you didn't get anything done.
2. Give yourself tiny goals with tiny rewards once you meet them: Write 500 words and then you can check twitter. Write for an hour and then you can play with the kitties. Revise 10 pages and then you can go for that walk or read another chapter of that book. Trust me, you really don't need to check twitter every single time someone posts a new tweet #BeenThereDoneThat
3. Have designated web-free days: Two days a month I unplug and go do something completely not writing-related. Like hike or kayak or shop or go sledding or take a cooking class. Try it. Do whatever it is you've been wishing you had time to do, or else do something new and interesting you've never tried. Turn off the email alerts on your phone and limit your usage of it to checking messages once or twice and jotting down any amazing ideas that hit you while you're biking or climbing a mountain, etc. You'd be surprised how days off actually recharge your creative batteries and increase your overall productivity.
4. Find a writing community: No matter where you are in your writing journey, you can find a group of like-minded individuals locally or online who will understand the stresses specific to being a writer. I feel so fortunate to belong to the Apocalypsies and to have 'met' the 2012 Breathless Reads girls online. These groups, along with my crit partners and a couple local writers, have been there to tell me when I'm being unreasonable, support me when I'm not, and to occasionally pull me back from the ledge, so to speak. Love you guys! :)
5. Make to-do lists: I realize to-do lists are not for everyone, but when you find yourself getting charged excessive late fees by your credit card company because you were so busy that you forgot to pay your bill, a little reminder about those mundane obligations goes a long way. I find them especially helpful to coordinate my writing and grad school deadlines. If you don't like lists, try just jotting down crucial things on a paper or phone calendar.
6. Read your negative reviews, or don't: I started out ostrich-style, fingers tucked securely in ears. LALALALALALA Whatever I don't know can't hurt me! Then one day I was just like "Whatevz. I am busting my arse writing these books, and working with a development company means I have to please three or four editors so if I can manage that feat then who cares if I can't please all the readers." So I read all of Venom's bad reviews. And you know what, some of them were really helpful. Some of them inspired changes in the later books. So it's a trade-off. Your negative reviews might help your writing, but they might also make you feel bad or discouraged. I think every writer has a balance when it comes to letting reviews into their world. Find yours and be okay with it.
7. Remember that you are not your book: Seems obvious, right? But when you're tired and stressed and everyone you know is getting starred reviews and movie deals and your book seems to be getting scorned by the world, it's easy to internalize those negative words. Whether it's Kirkus or your crit partner who doesn't like your book, it doesn't mean they don't like you.
8. Ask for help if you need it: Do you have to write 12,000 words per week to meet a deadline? Perhaps you should ask for an extension. Not possible? Perhaps you should ask your professors for an extension on that term paper. Maybe you should ask your spouse to grocery shop this week, or do the laundry. Maybe a friend would be willing to watch your kids for a couple of days so you can grind out more words. Don't try to do it all. No one likes a Mary Sue :)
9. Know when to step away from your writer community: Insane jealousy over everyone else's successes got you down and distracted? Log off the message boards. Publisher's Lunch announcements all starting to read like this: Someone younger than you just sold a trilogy about that thing you wanted to write about that everyone told you was overdone and wouldn't sell, in a 7-figure deal, at auction. Movie rights for all three books to JJ Abrams. Time to unsubscribe, dude.
10. Institute a universal cooling-off period: Yes, wait. Before you quit your job, buy a car, decide to move, press send on that email, etc. Writers spend a lot of time embroiled in fictional drama. If you let down your guard, it might leak over into the real world.
11. Regress and regroup: Watch Cartoon network in your penguin-print pajama pants and your NIN hoodie. Have a big ugly cry. When the stress starts to pile up, allow yourself to do whatever you need to do to feel better. Then get back to work.
12. Don't forget to do other stuff: This is sort of a catch-all that includes things like sleeping and showering (not optional), as well as more whimsical things like watching your kitties sleep and having snowball fights (though not with your kitties--they don't seem to like that). Even if you're on a huge deadline writing 60+ hours a week and mostly ignoring everything except your laptop, writing is still not TEH ONLY. Doing other stuff is kinda fun, and if nothing else it gives you more things to write about.
Got more sanity tips? Share them in the comments :)
And it wasn't, for awhile. But then the revising and copy-editing for Venom started to blend together with the outlining for Belladonna. All of a sudden I got emails about flap copy and promotional stuff. Meanwhile, school got busier and I had finished my contemporary manuscript and managed to land my dream agent. But now I had revisions to do for her before we could look for a publisher. I found myself working on three books in the span of a single day.
I started to go crazy. Like teary-eyed, stressed out, starving, sleepless, scary-crazy. I was snapping at everyone. I had road rage. I had rage in general. My friends and family tactfully voiced their concerns. And I knew they were right. So I decided to take a semester off school.
 |
| This is how I look when I'm crazy, except not as blue or as cute. Or as fluffy. Fine, this looks nothing like me, but I love me some Bumble. |
But I really wanted to finish my Masters degree. The reality is, even after my agent sold my contemp in a two-book deal and I was writing five books for two Big Six publishers, I still wasn't making enough money to survive on my writing income alone, and I knew an advanced degree would give me more choices.
Since I wasn't willing to quit school, I decided to take a year off from my job as an RN to finish my degree and the books I had under contract. This was a hard choice because I LIKE nursing. It has a way of making you feel useful, like you're giving something back to the world. Writing can do that too, of course, but I have always gravitated toward writing fluffy fun books, not big life-changing stories.
Believe it or not, once Venom's release date came near and I was doing promotional stuff for it, doing copy edits and jacket flap stuff for Belladonna, and beginning to write Book #3, which was going to have to be drafted in less than three months to meet its deadline, the crazy came back. I was just as busy, just as rage-filled and stressed-out even without my RN job.
What I'm saying here, in the most verbose way possible (as usual), is that writing is fluid. It will spread out, suck up all of the free space that you give it. It will drown you if you let it. This is especially true once you have a publishing deal and all of those optional things like blogs and FB pages become less optional. So with that in mind, here are some suggestions that might help you stay sane as a writer in 2013.
Note: I realize many of you will not need these suggestions, as you are undoubtedly more enlightened and less obsessive than I am. But those of you who are compelled to do everything, all the time, read onward. Perhaps something will resonate.
1. Whenever possible, schedule your writing time for the week: Whether you write 4 hours or 40 hours, if you start the week with an idea of your butt-in-chair schedule and (mostly) stick to it, you can prevent yourself from spending 99 hours in front of the computer and still feeling like you didn't get anything done.
2. Give yourself tiny goals with tiny rewards once you meet them: Write 500 words and then you can check twitter. Write for an hour and then you can play with the kitties. Revise 10 pages and then you can go for that walk or read another chapter of that book. Trust me, you really don't need to check twitter every single time someone posts a new tweet #BeenThereDoneThat
3. Have designated web-free days: Two days a month I unplug and go do something completely not writing-related. Like hike or kayak or shop or go sledding or take a cooking class. Try it. Do whatever it is you've been wishing you had time to do, or else do something new and interesting you've never tried. Turn off the email alerts on your phone and limit your usage of it to checking messages once or twice and jotting down any amazing ideas that hit you while you're biking or climbing a mountain, etc. You'd be surprised how days off actually recharge your creative batteries and increase your overall productivity.
 |
| No cell service? No problem. |
4. Find a writing community: No matter where you are in your writing journey, you can find a group of like-minded individuals locally or online who will understand the stresses specific to being a writer. I feel so fortunate to belong to the Apocalypsies and to have 'met' the 2012 Breathless Reads girls online. These groups, along with my crit partners and a couple local writers, have been there to tell me when I'm being unreasonable, support me when I'm not, and to occasionally pull me back from the ledge, so to speak. Love you guys! :)
5. Make to-do lists: I realize to-do lists are not for everyone, but when you find yourself getting charged excessive late fees by your credit card company because you were so busy that you forgot to pay your bill, a little reminder about those mundane obligations goes a long way. I find them especially helpful to coordinate my writing and grad school deadlines. If you don't like lists, try just jotting down crucial things on a paper or phone calendar.
6. Read your negative reviews, or don't: I started out ostrich-style, fingers tucked securely in ears. LALALALALALA Whatever I don't know can't hurt me! Then one day I was just like "Whatevz. I am busting my arse writing these books, and working with a development company means I have to please three or four editors so if I can manage that feat then who cares if I can't please all the readers." So I read all of Venom's bad reviews. And you know what, some of them were really helpful. Some of them inspired changes in the later books. So it's a trade-off. Your negative reviews might help your writing, but they might also make you feel bad or discouraged. I think every writer has a balance when it comes to letting reviews into their world. Find yours and be okay with it.
7. Remember that you are not your book: Seems obvious, right? But when you're tired and stressed and everyone you know is getting starred reviews and movie deals and your book seems to be getting scorned by the world, it's easy to internalize those negative words. Whether it's Kirkus or your crit partner who doesn't like your book, it doesn't mean they don't like you.
8. Ask for help if you need it: Do you have to write 12,000 words per week to meet a deadline? Perhaps you should ask for an extension. Not possible? Perhaps you should ask your professors for an extension on that term paper. Maybe you should ask your spouse to grocery shop this week, or do the laundry. Maybe a friend would be willing to watch your kids for a couple of days so you can grind out more words. Don't try to do it all. No one likes a Mary Sue :)
9. Know when to step away from your writer community: Insane jealousy over everyone else's successes got you down and distracted? Log off the message boards. Publisher's Lunch announcements all starting to read like this: Someone younger than you just sold a trilogy about that thing you wanted to write about that everyone told you was overdone and wouldn't sell, in a 7-figure deal, at auction. Movie rights for all three books to JJ Abrams. Time to unsubscribe, dude.
10. Institute a universal cooling-off period: Yes, wait. Before you quit your job, buy a car, decide to move, press send on that email, etc. Writers spend a lot of time embroiled in fictional drama. If you let down your guard, it might leak over into the real world.
11. Regress and regroup: Watch Cartoon network in your penguin-print pajama pants and your NIN hoodie. Have a big ugly cry. When the stress starts to pile up, allow yourself to do whatever you need to do to feel better. Then get back to work.
 |
| So cute when he's not being bad... |
12. Don't forget to do other stuff: This is sort of a catch-all that includes things like sleeping and showering (not optional), as well as more whimsical things like watching your kitties sleep and having snowball fights (though not with your kitties--they don't seem to like that). Even if you're on a huge deadline writing 60+ hours a week and mostly ignoring everything except your laptop, writing is still not TEH ONLY. Doing other stuff is kinda fun, and if nothing else it gives you more things to write about.
Got more sanity tips? Share them in the comments :)
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
My Cluttered Bookshelves
A couple of weeks ago, real actual hilary (formerly known as the Intern) did a fun blog post exposing her bookshelves to the world. Cool idea, but at the time I was too busy obsessing about how busy I was to do the same.
Today I just had to snap my own pics.
Today I just had to snap my own pics.
If you're wondering what Assistant Mufasa clawed out in order to make space for his wiry body, it was The Art of Happiness by the Dalai Lama, The Only EKG Book You'll Ever Need by Malcolm Thaler and The US Army Survival Guide. Very interesting reading, indeed! (That's his copy of Twilight, by the way :D).
What are you and your cats reading?
Friday, September 7, 2012
Win VENOM!
Question: Dear Fiona, Can I have VENOM for free? Kthxbai.
Answer: Man, I wish I could give everyone VENOM for free. Okay, I guess that would negatively impact my sales, so maybe not everyone. But lots of people. Especially people in Bangladesh and Romania and super faraway exotic places that probably won't be stocking VENOM on their library shelves. But I can't. So I did the next best thing and scoured the interwebz for you in order to compile this awesome list of places you can try to win VENOM.
#1 Fellow Apocalypsie Lauren Morrill is giving away a copy. You have until September 15th to enter here. I am not sure if this giveaway is international, so check with Lauren for more details.
#2 Goodreads is giving away three copies here. This contest closes Sept 15th and is apparently for US residents only. I'm not sure who is sponsoring the giveaway because to be honest Goodreads kind of scares me *delicate writer soul* so I don't delve very deeply into GR things anymore.
#3 Nikki at Fiction Freak is giving away an ARC of VENOM or a choice of about a bajillion other books on her blog. Her contest is open until September 30th.
#4 Blogger Monica Lopez, one of my original tweeps, will be giving away my last ARC in combination with an interview I did for her, sometime in September. I know, I know, that's vague, but she's got like school and stuff so just be patient and stalk her blog and/or my twitter feed for more info. This giveaway is sponsored by me so the ARC will be autographed, and hellz yeah it will be international :)
#5 Blogger (and awesome St. Louis Children's Hospital pediatrician) Christina Ahn will be hosting my first signed hardcover giveaway contest which will start on September 25th and run for about a month. Sponsored by me. Autographed. International. Watch her blog for more details.
#6 Author Nova Ren Suma has invited me to participate in this year's What Scares You blog series. I'm totally honored to be invited to Distraction 99 and since I am scared of basically everything, I know writing a guest post for her will be loads of fun. My post will go up sometime in October and will include an autographed hardcover giveaway of VENOM. Sponsored by me. International.
#7 In the days leading up to VENOM's release--October 24th through October 30th--I will be giving away two autographed hardcover books (and possibly more) randomly on twitter to people who have changed their twitter avatar to VENOM's cover in support of the release. Sponsored by me. International. I even made you an avatar. #Helpfulness
#8 Author Jessica Spotswood is doing a Penguin-sponsored hardcover giveaway to celebrate my book-birthday. She'll be bundling it with some excellent Cahill Witch Chronicles SWAG (for some reason I always want to capitalize the word swag. I don't know why) so you'll want to head over to her blog on October 30th.
#9 MY TWITTER PARTY!! OMG guys. The details are still being worked out, but the plan is for me to have a twitter party from 7pm to 9pm Eastern Standard time on October 30th. I'll be giving away my last Breathless Reads slipcase, a signed hardcopy, multiple book-related gift certificates and a slew of ARCs and other stuff that I am currently accumulating via mad begging and bribing of all of my industry contacts. [Edited to add, my editrix of wonder, Jill Santopolo, just offered a few AMAZING things, but I won't tell you what they are until they arrive because the post office ninjas like to steal my stuff.] I'm hoping to give something away every ten minutes, and even if you can't make the party (cuz you know, some people gotta work or go to basketball practice or whatnot) you can still be a winner! More details to come on my blog by October 1st.
#10 My first hardcover signing with my awesome St Louis YA writer colleagues Antony John and Heather Brewer. Come on, dudes. Halloween is on a Wednesday and you're too old to trick-or-treat. Bring yourself and your friends and your kids and your kids' friends to the Spencer Creek branch of the St. Charles Library system in St. Peters, MO on Halloween. (Time TBA). There will be tricks, treats, mask-making, costume contests, and giveaways galore. This is seriously going to be an epic party, and I'm heading to a local haunted house afterward for more fun. So if you want, you can come with and listen to me scream like a little girl as random dudes with chainsaws chase me around.
Answer: Man, I wish I could give everyone VENOM for free. Okay, I guess that would negatively impact my sales, so maybe not everyone. But lots of people. Especially people in Bangladesh and Romania and super faraway exotic places that probably won't be stocking VENOM on their library shelves. But I can't. So I did the next best thing and scoured the interwebz for you in order to compile this awesome list of places you can try to win VENOM.
#1 Fellow Apocalypsie Lauren Morrill is giving away a copy. You have until September 15th to enter here. I am not sure if this giveaway is international, so check with Lauren for more details.
#2 Goodreads is giving away three copies here. This contest closes Sept 15th and is apparently for US residents only. I'm not sure who is sponsoring the giveaway because to be honest Goodreads kind of scares me *delicate writer soul* so I don't delve very deeply into GR things anymore.
#3 Nikki at Fiction Freak is giving away an ARC of VENOM or a choice of about a bajillion other books on her blog. Her contest is open until September 30th.
#4 Blogger Monica Lopez, one of my original tweeps, will be giving away my last ARC in combination with an interview I did for her, sometime in September. I know, I know, that's vague, but she's got like school and stuff so just be patient and stalk her blog and/or my twitter feed for more info. This giveaway is sponsored by me so the ARC will be autographed, and hellz yeah it will be international :)
#5 Blogger (and awesome St. Louis Children's Hospital pediatrician) Christina Ahn will be hosting my first signed hardcover giveaway contest which will start on September 25th and run for about a month. Sponsored by me. Autographed. International. Watch her blog for more details.
#6 Author Nova Ren Suma has invited me to participate in this year's What Scares You blog series. I'm totally honored to be invited to Distraction 99 and since I am scared of basically everything, I know writing a guest post for her will be loads of fun. My post will go up sometime in October and will include an autographed hardcover giveaway of VENOM. Sponsored by me. International.
#7 In the days leading up to VENOM's release--October 24th through October 30th--I will be giving away two autographed hardcover books (and possibly more) randomly on twitter to people who have changed their twitter avatar to VENOM's cover in support of the release. Sponsored by me. International. I even made you an avatar. #Helpfulness
#9 MY TWITTER PARTY!! OMG guys. The details are still being worked out, but the plan is for me to have a twitter party from 7pm to 9pm Eastern Standard time on October 30th. I'll be giving away my last Breathless Reads slipcase, a signed hardcopy, multiple book-related gift certificates and a slew of ARCs and other stuff that I am currently accumulating via mad begging and bribing of all of my industry contacts. [Edited to add, my editrix of wonder, Jill Santopolo, just offered a few AMAZING things, but I won't tell you what they are until they arrive because the post office ninjas like to steal my stuff.] I'm hoping to give something away every ten minutes, and even if you can't make the party (cuz you know, some people gotta work or go to basketball practice or whatnot) you can still be a winner! More details to come on my blog by October 1st.
#10 My first hardcover signing with my awesome St Louis YA writer colleagues Antony John and Heather Brewer. Come on, dudes. Halloween is on a Wednesday and you're too old to trick-or-treat. Bring yourself and your friends and your kids and your kids' friends to the Spencer Creek branch of the St. Charles Library system in St. Peters, MO on Halloween. (Time TBA). There will be tricks, treats, mask-making, costume contests, and giveaways galore. This is seriously going to be an epic party, and I'm heading to a local haunted house afterward for more fun. So if you want, you can come with and listen to me scream like a little girl as random dudes with chainsaws chase me around.
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
BEA Bullet Points
The first day of BEA, in which:
*I successfully hailed my first cab (because no, last year when I just waved at and hopped in the first cab that didn't have people and the driver took pity on me and drove me uptown even though he was off-duty does not count.)
*I got freaked out by the uber-industrialness of Javits Center 5 minutes after I arrived. Helloooooo... hellooooo...helloooo... Do they build ships in this place when they're not having conferences?
*50% of my makeup sweated off in 10 minutes.
*A kajillion awesome people came down meet the Apocalypsies in the sweltering Javits dungeons (and the rest of my makeup sweated off.) Note: if you have an extremely unflattering sweaty picture of me, feel free to Photoshop :D
*Gretchen McNeil gave me hair-styling tips. Must. Get. Diffuser.
*I met a TON of awesome people--readers, writers, bloggers--and got to see my fabulous Penguin editrix again.
*I got to be a part of Teen Author Carnival and be on a panel with Barry-freaking-Lyga! (You must go buy I Hunt Killers NOW.)
*I worried that every other writer I met was funnier than me and more creative and extroverted and talented and totally had their shite together in a way that I absolutely never would.
*I decided that even if the above was true (and it's probably not), being the least funny, least creative, least extroverted (that part might be true), least talented, and least likely to ever have my shite together published author was kind of like being the lowest scoring member of an Olympic team--in short, still pretty freaking great.
I know I'm lucky to live this life.
Good night, New York.
*I successfully hailed my first cab (because no, last year when I just waved at and hopped in the first cab that didn't have people and the driver took pity on me and drove me uptown even though he was off-duty does not count.)
*I got freaked out by the uber-industrialness of Javits Center 5 minutes after I arrived. Helloooooo... hellooooo...helloooo... Do they build ships in this place when they're not having conferences?
*50% of my makeup sweated off in 10 minutes.
*A kajillion awesome people came down meet the Apocalypsies in the sweltering Javits dungeons (and the rest of my makeup sweated off.) Note: if you have an extremely unflattering sweaty picture of me, feel free to Photoshop :D
*Gretchen McNeil gave me hair-styling tips. Must. Get. Diffuser.
*I met a TON of awesome people--readers, writers, bloggers--and got to see my fabulous Penguin editrix again.
*I got to be a part of Teen Author Carnival and be on a panel with Barry-freaking-Lyga! (You must go buy I Hunt Killers NOW.)
*I worried that every other writer I met was funnier than me and more creative and extroverted and talented and totally had their shite together in a way that I absolutely never would.
*I decided that even if the above was true (and it's probably not), being the least funny, least creative, least extroverted (that part might be true), least talented, and least likely to ever have my shite together published author was kind of like being the lowest scoring member of an Olympic team--in short, still pretty freaking great.
I know I'm lucky to live this life.
Good night, New York.
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Friday, March 30, 2012
I should be revising, but...
Awesome crit partner Cathy Castelli sent me this super-cute abominable snow monster, and I can't quit playing with him.
Therefore, I present to you: Fun with Bumble, Volume I
Therefore, I present to you: Fun with Bumble, Volume I
Bumble read.
Bumble bath.
Bumble yoga.
Bumble hide.
Bumble enjoy Bumble-flavored breath mint. (Bumble famous.)
Bumble volunteer as tribute!
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