Date: 2008-05-04 17:24 Subject: Iron Man Security: Public

So I saw Iron Man on Friday night. I know nothing about the Iron Man character or franchise, but I went off to see the movie anyway, figuring that even if I didn't know much about it, it's always fun to see a comic geek movie with other geeks.




After the movie I had this conversation with Holly and Kelly:

Me: Who else found Robert Downey Jr. mysteriously hot in this movie?
Kelly: He was indeed hot.
Holly: There is nothing mysterious about it, he has always been hot. He was hot in Wonder Boys.
Me: The only thing hot about him in Wonder Boys is that he plays Michael Douglas' editor and picks up a transvestite at the airport and brings it to Michael Douglas' house, which is something you kind of always wish your editor would do.
Holly: Wonder Boys is Pulp Fiction for writers.

Theo also explained his One Universe Theory of Movies, which seems like it would be satisfying to anyone who has long hoped that eventually Spiderman and Batman will hook up.

The other character who I am finding mysteriously hot is Chuck on Gossip Girl which is especially weird because I only ever read the last Gossip Girl book in which Chuck seems crazy and owns a monkey. But he is strangely fabulous on the show, despite his evil ways. Actually, because of his evil ways. And his insane outfits. (Purple sweater! Yellow pants!) I thought about buying my boyfriend a sweater in Bologna that reminded me of Chuck, but when I asked him about it he plaintively accused me of trying to dress him like the Obviously Gay Brother from High School Musical.





Mmm. Chuck.

Date: 2008-04-05 14:22 Subject: xposted to thegraybook Security: Public

I came back from Italy to a bunch of good news! First, The New York Post featured City of Ashes as a recommended book, and even mentioned my event at Books of Wonder tomorrow.

Secondly, City of Ashes debuted at #3 on the New York Times Children's Bestseller list!




Which is huge! And awesome! But then, just as cool, City of Bones is back on the Times list, this time on the paperback list:



Not to mention that City of Ashes hit the USA Today bestseller list at #96 which is pretty damn awesome considering that the USA Today list counts every single book for sale in the entire country, including self-help, cookbooks, and those Whatever For Dummies books.

Listing with my first book was fantastic, but listing with my second book is in some ways even better, because it means people liked the first book enough to run out and buy the second, and the fact that CoA has moved higher up the list means the audience is only growing. So thank you guys, everyone who went out and bought the book, or forced their parents or loved ones to buy it for them, or put it on reserve at the library, or tortured your local bookstore into carrying it. It's all down to you.

*** Last year when I listed I posted a What Happens When You Hit the Bestseller List" post, including all the phone calls I made that day. Sadly, when your second book hits, mostly only your friends in publishing realize why it's still a big deal. I called my dad after I found out, and he said,

Dad: But you were already on the list.
Me: So every time someone has a birthday, do you say, "Who cares, you already had a birthday?"
Dad: No, I say, "Congratulations on not dying partway through the year."
Me: Well, that's encouraging.

And now, off to celebrate.

Date: 2008-04-01 16:08 Subject: book tour (xposted to graybook) Security: Public

From April 6-18th, I’ll be touring for City of Ashes. A list of the events and locations is below. I hope you’ll be able to come and see me! (And remember, if you've got a postcard, bring it to the event!)

Sunday, April 6
1:00 PM
Books of Wonder
18 West 18th St.
New York, NY 10011

Monday, April 7
6:30 PM
Barnes and Noble Park Slope
267 7th Ave.
Brooklyn, NY 11215

Tuesday, April 8
7:00 PM
Joint Event with Lisa McMann!
Borders
6555 E. Southern Ave., Ste. 1502
Mesa, AZ 85206

Wednesday, April 9
4:00 PM
Joint Event with Lisa McMann!
Phoenix Public Library
Burton Barr Branch
1221 N. Central Ave.
Phoenix, AZ 85004

7:00 PM
Joint Event with Lisa McMann!
Changing Hands
6428 S. McClintock Dr.
Tempe, AZ 85283

Thursday, April 10
5:30 PM
Joint Event with Lisa McMann!
Phoenix Book Company
4134 East Wood St.
Suite 290
Phoenix, AZ 85040

Friday, April 11
4:00pm In-store writing workshop event
Mrs Nelson’s Toy and Book Shop
1030 Bonita Avenue
La Verne, CA 91750

Saturday, April 12
11:00 AM
Mystery Bookstore
1036-C Broxton Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90024

2:00 PM
Barnes and Noble
7881 Edinger Ave.
Huntington Beach, CA 92647

Sunday, April 13
2:00 PM
Mystery & Imagination Bookshop
238 N. Brand Blvd.
Glendale, CA 91203


Monday, April 14
4:00 pm-5:30pm Cody’s Books
2201 Shattuck Avenue
Berkeley CA 94704


7:00 PM
Books Inc., Palo Alto
Town & Country Village
855 El Camino Real, Suite 74
Palo Alto, CA 94304

Tuesday, April 15
7:00 PM
Copperfield’s Books Petaluma
140 Kentucky St.
Petaluma, CA 94952

Friday, April 18
5:00—6:30
COMICON
New York ComiCon City of Ashes signing
Jacob K. Javits Center
655 West 34th St.
New York, NY 10001

Date: 2008-03-15 15:54 Subject: (no subject) Security: Public

So to celebrate the release of City of Ashes, which should be out sometime this week, I purchased these shoes:




I had boot envy of Maureen, and now I feel better. And the boots are so red. And not only that, but since I had to order them from the Fleuvog store or Newbery Street, they came with a handwritten note that said:

Dear Cassie, These are killer boots! You will change the landscape whereever you go in these beauties. Thanks for shopping Fluevog!

My boyfriend is unimpressed with this (I think he believes I have a shoe addiction, which is possible). He says,
"For three hundred bucks, they should send you a handwritten note every Christmas."

Off to England Wednesday. Yay!

Date: 2008-02-13 21:54 Subject: best contest ever Security: Public

It is not yet quite too late to enter the contest to win a copy of Maureen Johnson's new book Suite Scarlett, over on Inside A Dog. The contest is called the Insert a Zombie, Win a Prize contest, and proceeds on the basic theory that all scenes in literature would be better with a zombie in them. Maureen leads with an scene from Pride and Prejudice that I think we can all agree is an improvement on the original:

What think you of books?” said he, smiling.
“Books? Oh! No, I am sure we never read the same, or not with the same feelings.”
“I am sorry you think so; but if that be the case, there can at least be no want of subject. We may compare our different opinions.”
“No. I cannot talk of books in a ballroom; my head is always full of something else.”
Hearing this, a nearby zombie turned, lured by the prospect of whatever was contained within Elizabeth’s head. He was within striking distance of her when the other dancers caught him up and swept him away by accident.

There is more, and I highly recommend reading it.

The rules are:

1) Keep it to one paragraph. (250 words or less. Less is better.)
2) Make sure to give the title and author, so we can know whose work is being zombified. If these are not given, the zombified work will not be considered!
3) E-mail the entry to maureen@maureenjohnsonbooks.com. Please use the subject line: ZOMBIE INSIDE! You may enter as many times as you like. (So, if you want to zombify 30 stories, you can! But they must be different ones each time.) The deadline is February 14th. You can go right up to midnight (US, east coast time).
4) All of these wonderful entries will be read by Maureen and the other celebrity judges: Meg Cabot, John Green, E. Lockhart, and Justine Larbalestier, all excellent writers and true zombie experts.

I wrote an entry just to give an example, though I am not entering the contest as I have my own ways of weaseling copies of Suite Scarlett out of Maureen, mostly by threatening Simon. I also recommend Scott's entry as well as Justine's adding of zombies to Ulysses.

I myself decided why not go for the truly bizarre, and added zombies to the To Be or Not to Be speech from Hamlet. I am sorry, William Shakespeare. But at least your work is out of copyright.


To be, or not to be: a zombie.
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
Having your brains munched by a walking corpse,
Or to take arms against the ravening undead,
And by opposing end them? To die: to get right back up;
and eat your way through the employees of the local Costco;
To come eventually to the realization
That flesh is pretty tasty, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to be dined *on*;
Possibly by a neighbor: perchance even your own mom; aye, there's the rub;
For once the toxic zombie virus has taken over
And you have shuffled off to the local mall
You'd better hope those plate glass windows hold.

ETA: Zombie contest now extended into multiple rounds!

ETA #2: Holly enters the zombie contest. A win for Team Zombie!

Date: 2008-02-03 21:45 Subject: tips for teen writers Security: Public

Can you tell me how you started out and any pointers you would give to a thirteen year old girl who wants to write like her favourite author?

I want to be a writer when I get older and I would love to get some tips.

what tips do you have for an aspiring writer? Help out a teen writer.

I have been writing since 3rd grade and have writen numerous series of books, some of which I really hope to get published some day. However, I was wondering if you would be able to give me some advice regarding the life of a writer such as yourself

do you have any advice for a young, aspiring writer that won't rest until her story's out there?

Awhile ago I posted some answers to questions I often get asked in email about my own writing. Now I'm going to post about the questions I get asked most often in email, which are not about my writing but rather about other people's. In other words, writing advice. Now, the internet is awash in writing advice, some of it good and some of it, as noted by MJ, shockingly bad, but there certainly is a lot of it. I'm not much for giving out writing advice in general, but I *am* lazy, and posting this will give me a handy way to answer all those emails with a single link. And the emails I get are very specific: they're emails from teenagers, asking for advice about being a teen writer, and since there's less advice out there speaking to that particular issue, I thought I'd address it briefly here.

Now my first thought when people ask me for writing advice is: why are you asking me? I have one book out. Uno. Any wisdom I have to impart will be trumped by sentence #2 by the accumulated wisdom found, for instance, in Tammy Pierce's FAQ section. She has links that direct you to magazines that publish work by teen authors and all sorts of good stuff. In fact, I strongly suspect you are asking me because you feel that other writers are too busy to answer while I, for one, seem like I do not have that much to do. I would say you were wrong there but here I am writing a long blog entry so clearly my ground is shaky on that one.


I'm generally uncomfortable giving writing advice not just because of my own inexperience, but because this sort of thing is subjective and you can often come across conflicting bits of writing advice that are both good. I can only say what works for me or what I've observed, and in this post I'll talk about what I remember about being a teenage writer and what was helpful for me. The observations are pretty general, so hopefully they'll be helpful. In general I'm much more comfortable being asked questions about the publication process because that stuff is at least objective: what's a literary agent do, how do advances and royalties work, print runs, returns, all that stuff. But you wanted to know about writing, so here we go:




1) You need to develop a self-critical eye.

If you're looking for tips you could do worse than read John Scalzi's post on the topic: 10 Things Teenage Writers Should Know About Writing. His advice is good. Many people take objection to the "Your writing sucks" aspect of it. What I find enlightening is reading through the comments and seeing all the posts by teenage writers who claim their writing doesn't suck. And yes, in the case of teenage writers, there are always those whose writing is surprisingly good. The youngest person I know to sell a book was nineteen at the time. But the people who are posting and saying that their writing doesn't suck are probably the ones whose writing does suck. That's because it takes a long time to develop a self-critical eye and see where your writing is going wrong and what about it needs improving. Among the writers I know, many very successful and award-winning, they all think their writing sucks about half the time. The writers I know who think their writing is unimpeachably wonderful mostly do suck, and that goes for adults as well as teens. What you need to do is develop a sense of what you're doing, what needs fixing, how you're writing is flowing, all that stuff. And developing that sense takes time. I often suggest critique groups or classes at this juncture because having someone else critique your writing will get you started on being able to critique it yourself.

2) Quit worrying about being published RIGHT NOW.

Jeez, guys, what's the rush? The number of people who get published in their teens is vanishingly small. And as Justine Larbalestier points out in her wise article Too Young To Publish, when they do get published, it is not always a good thing. Being published before you're thirty is considered young to be published; when you're published as a teen, it's newsworthy because you are so young, but you're also treated like a dog who paints. It doesn't really matter if the paintings are good, it's just exciting that the dog can do it in the first place. That's not always such a great feeling. Anyway, telling yourself that you need to be PUBLISHED RIGHT NOW is putting an awful lot of unnecessary pressure on yourself. Being published is not the ultimate measure of the worth of what you do. What you should be concentrating on now is working on your writing, polishing it, and making it better. Show it to people (not your parents) who can critique it for you — an online writing workshop like critters.org can be helpful. Or take writing classes — if your school doesn't offer them, a local university probably does. I took writing classes at UCLA when I was in high school, frinstance. Objective, professional adult readers can tell you how ready you are for publication.

3) Read a lot.

If you don't like reading, and you don't read, you probably won't ever be a good writer. That's about as close as I get to making incendiary and definite statements about writing, but I think it's true (and was first said to me by a writing professor in college, who said she couldn't figure out why people who don't like to read want to write — would you really want to be a singer if you didn't like music? — and said that in all the years she'd taught she'd never come across anyone who didn't read who was any good at writing.) Reading will help you develop your own voice, and the more widely you read, the sooner you'll develop an individual voice that doesn't sound just like whatever your favorite book or writer sounds like. Reading can teach you what writing is supposed to sound like, and also what it's not supposed to sound like. For instance, the other day a teen writer sent me a story that began something like this:

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAURGGHGHGHGGH," he screamed. It was dark. Dark! Everything was dark!!!!!!!!

Have you ever read a book which featured quite so many exclamation points after an observation like "Everything was dark?" Probably not, right? If no one in the history of the published word has pulled this sort of thing off there's probably a reason.

4) You're going to write just like your favorite writers do, and that's okay. For now.

When I was a teenager, everything I wrote sounded like whatever book I liked at the time. After I read The Mists of Avalon I wrote an Arthurian book and after I read the Anne Rice books I wrote about vampires and after I read Ender's Game I wrote science fiction and it was all very derivative and silly. But it was still good practice. All writing is good practice and individual voice develops over time. I can't count the amount of letters I get from teens saying they're writing a book about a girl in love with a vampire. Aha. So you love Twilight, and that's great. It's wonderful when you love a book so much. But it can also be helpful to look under the surface of what it is that you love about a book. Is it vampires you like so much, or the idea of eternal, immutable yet impossible love? — i.e.: maybe it's the dynamic of the book that truly moves you, and there are all sorts of ways to ring changes on that dynamic, and make it your own. Often that comes over time — influences never really fade, but by the time you're an adult writer, you'll probably be a varied amalgam of all your influences, and mixing them together is a great way to come up with something entirely new. Go ahead and be influenced, just be aware of how and why.

5) Don't worry about being perfect.

Yeah, I know I just said you need to be self-critical and you should be. But you should also be having fun with your writing. All that crappy writing I was doing when I was a teenager, I was having a hell of a good time. I wrote a 1,000 page romantic epic called The Beautiful Cassandra based on the story Jane Austen wrote about her sister when she was twelve. (You can read it here. The Jane Austen story I mean, not my novel. ) It was terrible, but boy did I have fun writing it (and my friends had fun reading it.) One of the great joys of being so young and writing for fun is the lack of pressure and freedom to write whatever you want. So don't endlessly beat yourself up about getting everything right — enjoy what you're doing, accept that writing for practice alone isn't writing wasted, and neither is writing for fun alone. Enjoy yourself. Oh, and just as a tiny side note, when you're writing to authors and asking for advice, don't write to ten authors at once and tell them all they're you're favorite author. We do compare notes, and we're on to your shell game. *beady eye* This means you.

Date: 2007-12-07 18:30 Subject: Jamaica, City of Glass Security: Public Tags: city of glass, jamaica, writing

This is what happens when you go to Jamaica for a writing retreat and leave your laptop sitting out on a table.




At first you think: "Cool, a frog. I like a frog." (Not as much as Holly, who spent our trip to Jamaica chasing frogs all over the villa and imploring them to be her frog friend.) Then you sit down at your laptop to work and realize things look a little different. Surely your book wasn't called "City of Frogs" before, was it? And was it about the struggles of a valiant band of frogs against the evil Lord Toad? Perhaps not, but hey, this version is pretty good, anyway.

( further pictures of Jamaica under the cut )

Date: 2007-11-08 15:21 Subject: CITY OF ASHES ARC giveaway contest Security: Public

I'm giving away five Advance Reader Copies of City of Ashes on my Grey Book LJ. You can check it out here!

http://thegraybook.livejournal.com/220588.html

Date: 2007-10-30 14:33 Subject: questions, questions Security: Public

Good things of the moment:

City of Bones has gone into a fifth printing. That means it's still selling extremely well, thanks to you, awesome readers.

Scott Westerfeld's new book Extras booted Jenna Bush's book out of the number one New York Times bestseller spot. This is like striking a blow not just for Scott but for all that is good and right in the world.

I've been inspired by my friend Maureen's current blog question-and-answer polls to answer some of the questions myself. This is sort of a distillation of email I get, with the most oft-asked questions.


Do you have general writing tips?

That's always hard because I don't know what kind of advice to give unless I know what the problem is. Everyone has their different issues with writing. Everyone has the stuff they're good at and the stuff that needs work. Also, I tend to feel like, who am I to give advice? I have one book out. One. Punt! You know who has an excellent writing resource page? Holly. You can find it here.

Do you write in groups or by yourself?

I like to write with other people. In fact, I'm writing in the company of Maureen Johnson at the moment, which is probably why I was thinking about her blog. She is wearing a lovely striped scarf today. But that's not really what you want to know. As I've said before, I like writing in groups because it keeps me from too much procrastinating, like deciding that now is the time to watch the first season of Life on Mars with the subtitles on because I can't understand anyone's accent. It's harder to do that when you have people with you, watching you, making sure they don't do more work than you do, because if they have to suffer, so do you.

Of course this has its downsides. As the lovely Meg Cabot, points out, one spends a lot of time chatting about stuff that has nothing to do with work. Often publishing gossip type stuff, but just as often a discussion of Britney being naked around her kids. (And Meg is correct, you can't get D-Listed in this particular cafe, but that's because the free wifi thinks it's porn.) On the other hand, you have ample opportunity to take advantage of what Scott calls the Wisdom of the Crowd. If you're having a writing problem, you can lay it on your friends and they'll help you out. At least, in theory they'll help you out.

How do you name your characters?

See, that's where your friends can be helpful. In fact, the other day I was looking for help naming an evil character. "I need help naming an evil character," I said.

Writer 1: Hot evil or hideous evil?
Me: Hot evil.
Writer 2: Montague.
Me: Montague? Is anyone actually named that?
Writer 2: It's an evil name.
Writer 3: Exactly. You might as well name him Evil McDarkington.
Writer 2 (in an unfriendly tone): So what do you suggest?
Writer 4: Ed.
Me: My uncle's name is that.
Writer 5: See, that's the problem with naming characters. You'll always know someone with that name and it'll skew your view.
Writer 2: That's why Montague is a good choice.
Me: I'm not naming him Montague.
Writer 5: Okay, I've got this great evil name. I've been saving it up. It's awesome. I'm going to give it to you. It's a gift. My gift to you.
Me: Great. What is it?
Writer 5: Magnus von Magnus.
Me: What?
Writer 5: MAGNUS VON MAGNUS.
Me:: . . .Thanks.

Meanwhile my friend is trying to name some characters in her vampire pirate saga, so she asked me for help.

Me: The problem there is that most vampires have names like Sebastian de Montclaire-Fotherington and most pirates have names like Bloody Beard, so the two don’t really go together.
Writer 1: How about Plaid Beard?
Her: Plaid Beard?
Writer 2: He’s the fashion-forward pirate.
Her: This character is not just a pirate, he’s a vampirate. And he’s Spanish.
Me: How about Enrique?
Her: Enrique what?
Me: Enrique Iglesias.
Her: Great! *writes it down*
Writer 1 (aside): Are you going to tell her?
Me: Eventually.

So it’s not like I’m a lot of help either. Clearly if you need assistance naming characters you should ask someone else.


Do you like fanart?

I would bet you that all authors like fanart. I love fanart, myself. I would beat up my own mom for fanart. Okay, no I wouldn't (my mom reads my blog.) Hi, mom. But I do love fanart, so if you draw some send it along to me and I'll put it on my website.

I think you should make a movie out of your book.

As far as I know, the only person with enough money to make movies on their own is George Lucas. Otherwise a studio has to make the movie. It would be nice if the books got made into a movie, though I kind of visualize them as being a better TV series in some ways. Anyway, it is not up to me.

Do you get any say in your cover art at all?

No. None. Nobody does. Well, I read somewhere that Cormac McCarthy does, so I guess maybe if you win the Nobel Prize you do, but I don't feature that as a likelihood. In general, no one, but no one, gets a say in their cover art.

Can you move up the release date on City of Ashes?

No. The publisher decides when the book comes out, not me. They've already moved up the date, too - from April 2008 to March.

Plot-related questions (spoilery)

Is Alec really gay?

I get this question a lot, though I'm never sure if it means "Is Alec actually gay?" or "Is Alec really, really, disco-dancing-closet Christina Aguilera fan gay?"

The answer is that Alec is actually gay.

Are Jace and Clary really related?

I'm sorry I can't tell you whether Jace and Clary are really related. You'll have to read all the way to the third book to find that out.

Why are they related?

Why not?

No, seriously, don't you have a better answer than that?

Answer: I am a believer in messing with reader expectations. I don't really like it when I read a book and I can tell from the beginning exactly what's going to happen and who's going to get together with who. I like not knowing. I know not everyone feels that way, and that's understandable. But I like impossible love, and when I say I like impossible love, I mean impossible love, not love that is made complicated by misunderstandings a la Three’s Company. I said impossible and I meant it.

If you must know more, there’s a slightly fuller answer to the “why” questions after the LJ cut below. (I know, a lot of questions about Jace and Clary, but really that’s 90% of my mail)

( But seriously, why did you decide to make Jace and Clary brother and sister, thus wrecking my good time? )

Date: 2007-09-20 15:15 Subject: high school musical Security: Public

So last Friday, as previously reported by Maureen, I watched High School Musical at Libba Bray and Barry Goldblatt's house, along with Scott and Justine. This is because it was Justine's birthday and what she wanted to do was watch High School Musical on the theory that we all write for teens (except for Barry and my boyfriend who were there because Barry lives there and I guess my boyfriend felt that he had nothing better to do) and therefore we should watch High School Musical because teens watch it and we should understand why.

Now, I am not someone who likes musicals generally. As a small child my grandmother used to take me to classic musicals on Broadway like 42nd Street and Singin' in the Rain and I always thought that the songs were the boring part you had to sit through to get to the part with the dialogue and plot. Clearly because I am a Philistine. Fortunately for me High School Musical only has about four songs in it.

Now, I am also someone who is against the idea that there are books, for instance, that I am "too old for." I think good children's books have a lot to offer adults. I defy anyone not to get some enjoyment out of Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus. That thing is a masterpiece. But I did start to wonder at the outset of HSM if maybe we weren't all kind of too old for it. It stars Zac Efron, a person who looks so bland I have already forgotten his appearance, and Vanessa Hudgeons, a person who has sent naked pictures of herself to Drake Bell, the main problem there being, I think, that he is on a different Disney show than her and she is supposed to date in-cast (in theory she is dating Zac, I recall from my days at Star Magazine, but I doubt it somehow.) The movie starts with the tag line:

NEW YEARS EVE

Justine: Shouldn't New Year's have an apostrophe in it?
Scott: Shouldn't the name Zac have a "k" in it?

Later there's a scene where the brainy kids club tapes Zac secretly and shows the footage to Vanessa. Across the bottom of the screen is the word "receeving", presumably because it's a live feed.

Barry: Wait, these are the smart kids. Shouldn't they be able to spell the word "receiving"?

At the end they do not actually ever put on a musical, but there is a big dance number, of course, and the two leads almost kiss, but don't quite.

Me: Wait, after two hours of this, there's not even any KISSING?
Libba: (revealing secret knowledge): That's because this movie isn't for teens, it's for nine year olds.
Scott: THEN WHY ARE WE WATCHING IT?
Justine: And for my next birthday, High School Musical 2.

Date: 2007-09-19 12:54 Subject: So Fey Security: Public

I'm happy to say that the anthology So Fey is now hitting shelves. There are a lot of really terrific stories in this anthology by the likes of Chris Barzak, Holly Black, Eugie Foster, Delia Sherman and Sarah Monette. It's been a long time since I contributed my story, Charming, which is a very traditional sort of faery tale, taking place in actual Faeryland (and co-written with my friend Ruby) but it was one of the more fun things I've gotten to write, and I'm very glad an anthology like this, fantasy focusing on GLBT characters, exists.

Date: 2007-09-10 14:41 Subject: DragonCon, Linketyness Security: Public

I would have posted earlier, but the moment I got back from DragonCon I caught a horrible virus. This was not the con's fault, but rather the thought of my boyfriend who had spent that weekend roistering in Montreal at a bachelor party and eating a pig head, so he was punished for his sins with illness, and then I was punished for his sins because I live with him.

( DragonCon report, also the Worst Book Ever Written )

And lastly, I'm planning a YA book recs post, so if anyone has read anything particularly awesome lately let me know!

Date: 2007-08-15 10:50 Subject: What's Hot Right Now Security: Public

So recently I was out on a writing date. Writing dates are where you get together with other writers and write in an astounding burst of group-fueled creativity. Actually, it's where you get together ostensibly to write, but in fact mainly to gossip and harass each other — occasionally to offer suggestions and support, but mostly harassment.

'Writing dates' are good. They get me out of the house and off the sofa and somewhat out of my own head, which is good, because being too much in my head is bad for writing. I just wind up thinking about how I have to clean the house and wondering whether the cat is stuck in the storage bin again. Or I wind up putting the TV on just to have some noise. I watched Ghost Rider (Spanish title: 'Ay, Mi Cabeza es en Fuego") the other day. That was a low point. Thankfully Justine is good at organizing writing dates, which can involve herself, Scott, Maureen, Lauren, libba_bray, Emily,, and others. Since it is so hot, anywhere with air conditioning and a constant supply of beverages is good for a writing date.


Anyway, writing dates are good, even if we do spend 50% of the time gossiping. And one of the things we gossip about is what's popular right now in YA. Now, when I say what's popular *now* I don't just mean what's out right now, but what publishers are buying, especially in terms of fantasy, and what's about to come out. Urban fantasy is big right now, but there are trends within that genre too. For a while it was vampires. Everyone wanted vampires. Recently, I was told by a bookseller in England that right now it's all about airships and prostitutes. Everyone wants airships and prostitutes. Possibly the most saleable book idea would be one involving an airship full of vampire prostitutes. Also, people want stuff that has to do with Jane Austen, but otherwise no historical novels. Kids won't read historical novels. (I think this information would be a surprise to libba_bray and her massively bestselling Great and Terrible Beauty series.)

I for one think vampires are always saleable. Vampires are perfect for YA because they offer you the possibility of something very like sex without any actual sex. Instead there is biting and books don't generally get banned for having biting in them. I proposed my idea of a teen novel which would be rewriting Pride and Prejudice except that Mr. Darcy would be a vampire to my writing date group.

WDG: Good idea. You can entitle it A Naked Grab for Cash.
Me: Or, if I really want to sell a lot of copies, Mr. Darcy, Naked, and the Grab for Cash.

I suppose perhaps I am merely worried because my next proposed series is about shapeshifting witches in Victorian-era New York and London. I have no idea if shapeshifting witches are hot right now, and historical is apparently bad. But what the hell. At some point you have to not worry about what is and isn't a sure thing and just write what you want to write. And if that doesn't work out there's always writing about Jane Austen driving an airship full of vampire prostitutes under a pseudonym.

So look for my second book, A Naked Grab for Cash, in bookstores in 2010. It will shortly be followed by the sequel, entitled An Oprah's Book Club Selection.

Date: 2007-07-26 14:19 Subject: London, Wales, Scrivener Security: Public Tags: london, travel

(Yes, I have read the new Harry Potter book, and I blathered about it here for those who are interested.)

So I just got back from London. Went there for my UK book launch, ostensibly, and also to buy an inhuman amount of books and have them shipped home at a spectacular cost. I might as well have been shipping diamonds. But what can do you do, it would cost more in the end to have them all shipped to me from amazon.co.uk, and besides a lot of them were secondhand books I wouldn't even have known to look for till I found them (the best kind!)

I got to hang out with the lovely folks from Walker, and also see mistful, titanic_days, malachan, aegeus, folk, olympia_m and the lovely vinagrette. Also I got to see my friend Clary, which was nice although I think my publisher thought I was slightly cracked when I told them I had to leave because I was spending the afternoon with her.

Me: And now I must go meet my friend Clary.
Them: But Clary is the name of your main character in your book.
Me: Yes, I know.
Them: She isn't real, you know.
Me: Yes, I know she isn't real. It's not like I buy my characters Christmas presents or anything. I just named her after a friend of mine, who *is* real, and is waiting for me at the London Eye.
Them: Are you sure you wouldn't maybe like to lie down and rest a bit instead?

After London, Josh and I headed to Wales. Why Wales? Well, partly because I wanted to buy lots of books in Hay-on-Wye, which is a small town that has the largest collection of used books in the entire world. (And I knew they'd have a lot of *old* books, and since my next project after this trilogy is tentatively a Victorian-era fantasy, I thought I should try to get my hand on as much research material as I could. Although I did promise Barry I wouldn't talk about my new series till I was at least mostly done with my current book. So.)

Also, Wales has a lot of beautiful countryside and since the book I'm working on right now, City of Glass, doesn't take place in New York but in fact mainly in a made-up country called Idris, I need photo references of the sort of scenery I'm imagining for Idris in my head. And Wales has a lot of varied terrain: green hills, barren stretches, seaside, and towering mountains. We were only in the Brecon Beacons this time but I took lots of pretty pictures which I am currently affixing to my Scrivener corkboard.

(As a side note, Holly talked me into getting Scrivener and I kind of love it. Has anyone else used it?)

( Beware, for there are vacation photos under cut )

Date: 2007-06-29 16:09 Subject: Two covers Security: Public

The cover for City of Ashes, with original art by Cliff Nielson. He even asked me what background I wanted (i wanted the East River and the Brooklyn Bridge) and gave it to me!




And the cover for Magic in the Mirrorstone, the Mirrorstone anthology being edited by Steve Berman. I'm pretty excited to be in an anthology with such awesome people. I wrote a Cthulian horror story in which the Old Ones consume the popular kids in high school.



(I think they're changing "Cassie" to "Cassandra" in the final version.

Date: 2007-06-24 15:09 Subject: romance Security: Public Tags: romance, writing

My friend Justine Larbalestier recently posted a great entry about romance — not her own personally, though that would also be fascinating I'm sure, but romance in fiction. What makes it work, and what doesn't.


I can tell you what I like. I like tension and obstacles. I like lots of longing and unrequited love. I like to start a book and not really be sure what's going to happen in the end, if the author's going to mess me around or break my heart, or break up the lead couple and plonk them down with other people, or maybe end the story with them all alone. I like characters who can't tell each other how they really feel for whatever reason (King of Attolia does a great job with that.) Most of my favorite fictional romances are not in books that one would classify as romance. (You can find a whole bunch of them listed here, including explanations of why I like them.) I adoreforbidden love of just about every variety. I even like that Mulder/Scully friends-who-would-do-anything-for-each-other-but-are-they-in-love business, even though it'll make you crazy after a while.

What I really, really like: When the romance works seamlessly with the plot. What I don't really like: When the romance is the plot.

So, my question is, what makes romance in fiction (and hell, media in general) work for you? Turn-ons, turn-offs?

Date: 2007-06-05 22:42 Subject: BEA Security: Public

So this weekend was BEA. Otherwise known as Book Expo. One goes there to meet booksellers and librarians and other authors. Or at least that is the cover story. Actually one goes there to steal ARCs. See, the book expo is a trade fair for books (Scott Westerfeld has some good pictures of what it looks like on his blog here) and it is HUGE. Every publisher has a booth and they give away copies of books that are coming out in the near future, so there are stacks of books everywhere. The first time I ever went to BEA was with theoblack who will take any book on offer as long as it is free and who has perfected the snatch-and-grab book aquiring method.

These are the books I got:



( More BEA )

Date: 2007-05-22 13:12 Subject: Tourblogging #2: San Francisco Security: Public

First, congratulations to JUSTINE LARBALESTIER for winning the Norton Award! *blows kisses to Australia* Well done, Justine.

IRON AND BONE TOUR JOURNAL: ENTRY 2

In tour news, pink streaks are out of hair. I didn't dye it, I just bought a can of that spray-on-color hair paint and put my hands over my face while Holly sprayed it on, declaring that the 80's were back. It gave my hair approximately the texture of a wooden board. Good stuff.




Look, a Harry Potter book 7 release party! Oh, right, and some Goth Prom thing. :>

( Below the cut: many events, a hairless cat, Draco eats Harry's liver, and the zombie vs. unicorn debate. )

Date: 2007-05-13 18:49 Subject: Tour Blog 1: Los Angeles Security: Public

IRON AND BONE TOUR JOURNAL: ENTRY 1

Right now my hair has hot pink streaks in it because I just got back from Goth Prom at Books Inc. It's Wednesday, so it must be San Francisco. But I'm blogging L.A. because I have to catch up somehow and I haven't pulled the Goth Prom pics off my digicamera yet. Next up: Holly and I in tiaras, and Draco Malfoy eats someone's liver. But today, we begin at the beginning.

It was right around the time I first arrived in LA and met Holly and the fabulous castellucci that I realized that Holly and I have a severe problem that really should prevent us from ever going on tour, anywhere, ever.

( problem revealed, and other photos under cut )

Date: 2007-04-15 12:58 Subject: xposted to thegraybook Security: Public

To quote Scott Westerfeld:

Listed! Times! Bestselling!




Actually, I've known about this for a few days but I didn't say anything because I wanted to wait until the list was online. And now it is, though I note they have messed up the book's title in the online (but not the print) edition. Also I do occasionally wonder who comes up with these summaries. But it is not like either of those things really matters.


( In case anyone is terribly interested in what happens when you hit the New York Times list, much to your own and your publisher's astonishment, this is it: )