Cassandra Clare's Blog

Insane Reading Project

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 00:07:46 GMT

So over on my writing blog (soon to be combined with this blog for ease of updating), I just announced that I've sold a new Shadowhunter series, this one set in Victorian England. [Description from the press release: While The Mortal Instruments is set largely in present-day Manhattan, The Infernal Devices takes us back one hundred and forty years to the heart of Victorian England, exploring an earlier era in the history of the Shadowhunters — a time before the Accords, when Downworlder and Shadowhunters were at each other's throats. A time when orphaned teenager Tessa discovers she isn't human after all, but a warlock, capable of changing her shape to resemble anyone she desires to be. Tessa must use her power to descend into London's supernatural Downworld, where vampires stalk the gaslit streets of London, werewolves slink in the shadowy lanes of Whitechapel, and warlocks hold masquerade balls for demons and Downworlders in opium-smoke-filled ballrooms. But living in Downworld isn't simple — Tessa has to learn to trust her natural enemies, the demon-killing Shadowhunters, if she ever wants to control her powers and find her brother. Torn between the darkly gorgeous and devoted Will, a Shadowhunter hiding a deadly secret, and the brooding Jem, whose addiction to a demon drug is slowly destroying him, Tessa must draw on all her strength to save her brother and keep herself alive in this deadly new world.]

Now, I'm very excited about getting started on this series. I love the Victorian era, and I did a concentration on Victorian lit in college. I love the clothes, the politics, the fast-moving urban technology and development, the spiritualism, the novels, the popular arts, the strange fruits of colonialism, the gaslight, the whole business. I am of course also scared silly at the thought of having to do all that research, though Libba has kindly offered to lend me her research books. I've also bought an inordinate crapload of research books on my own, from A Victorian Household to The Victorian Visitors, to Leaves from a Victorian Diary, Slumming, The Victorians and their Reading, and a ton more. WHICH! — leads me to my Insane Reading Project.

I have decided that from the moment I finish final copyedits on City of Glass, I am going to read nothing but books — fiction and non — published in the Victorian era, or written later but set in the Victorian era for the next year. I have a fairly loose definition of this — my book is set around 1865 but the Victorian era stretched from 1837 to 1901, and I'll read anything set within those dates. I'll accept alternate history, too. ("The Difference Engine" would count.) Overviews of history with sections about the Victorian era are ok too. ( London: The Wicked City, and Gotham both count.) And I'll take anything set in London, New York, India, China, or Paris in and around that era, because the book series visits all those places.

And yet... I am still wondering how long it will take before I start going cross-eyed. I talked to an author at Vericon who said he'd done the same thing while writing his historical duology, and it had turned out to be a fabulous, immersive experience, but I have a feeling he may be much more disciplined than I am. But — I am looking forward to it nonetheless.

So, in short, if anyone has any recommendations for fiction, contemporary or otherwise, set in the Victorian era (mysteries, I've found, are especially helpful as they're often exhaustively detailed in terms of location and legal and social detail) — please let me know! Or nonfiction reference books you think might be helpful. I will read basically anything that sticks to my rules.

Any and all help appreciated!

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 03:23:16 GMT

I kind of want to see the new Incredible Hulk movie, not because it looks good, but because Tony Stark is in it. For like, a minute.

Or, I could just go look up illegal clips on YouTube.

A reader named Tasha drew me this (click image to make big):

That's Jace over by the bar, Tony Stark with the sunglasses, and Chuck Bass getting a drink thrown in his face. Also Magnus on the wall, posing in . . . a Speedo? I'm not sure who the peevish dude drying the glasses is, though.

Iron Man

Sun, 04 May 2008 21:56:40 GMT

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.

xposted to thegraybook

Sat, 05 Apr 2008 18:23:07 GMT

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.

book tour (xposted to graybook)

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 14:08:45 GMT

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

Sat, 15 Mar 2008 20:04:33 GMT

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!

best contest ever

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 03:02:20 GMT

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!

tips for teen writers

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 02:59:15 GMT

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.

Jamaica, City of Glass

Sat, 08 Dec 2007 00:03:55 GMT

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.

It was hard not to be content in Jamaica. We were there with awesome people for one thing, and for a second thing, this was the view from our main room:

And this was where we worked diligently on our work stuff:

(two novels got finished on the trip, by me and Gwenda, and several short stories written or started or thought up, by Maureen and Karen and Kelly, and proposals and creative editing from blackholly and castellucci, and Gavin came up with an idea for a series of novels starring himself as a detective, and Christopher Rowe chased Holly around the bonfire making pterodactyl noises, which isn't technically a creative work, but was my personal vote for best moment of the trip.

And this is what we had for lunch:

And this is what we had for dinner:

Here is the shopping list that Holly made for Theo to go buy us groceries. Note that it relays both a request for " a lot of fruit" and a request for "citrus fruit" and also a request for "wack-ass fruit." Helpfully, the instruction to "get stupid with fruit" is also included.

And yes, as you probably figured out if you were reading diligently above, I have finished City of Glass, or at least the first draft. Given how long it is and how much revising I am going to have to do,
I do not FEEL done, and the fact that I have a proposal, a novella, a short story, and an essay all due RIGHT NOW isn't helping either. But when I did actually write the last line of the last chapter of the MI trilogy, I admit to briefly feeling like this:

CITY OF ASHES ARC giveaway contest

Thu, 08 Nov 2007 20:22:47 GMT

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

questions, questions

Tue, 30 Oct 2007 18:50:03 GMT

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.

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/Glass?

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, and if so, for the love of God, why?

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.

BUT WHY DID YOU MAKE IT THAT WAY????

It's always hard for me to answer the question "Why did you decide to make Clary and Jace brother and sister?" It's the most common question I get, aside from "Are they really brother and sister?" It's like asking "Why is Clary a girl?" Well, because that's the story as I imagined it.

The truth is that the revelation at the end of the book was the seed idea out of which the whole series plan grew. In other words, yes, it was always the idea from the very beginning that at the end of book 1, Valentine would tell Clary and Jace they were brother and sister. Without that, there would be no book series. It's not a plot twist, it is the plot. That Jace and Clary are in love but that it's impossible for them to be together is part of the engine that drives the story of the next two books.

The question of Jace and Clary's relationship to each other is part of the overall themes of the book: blood, family, and identity. The questions these books ask are questions about whether whose child you are defines you, how you define yourself, and how much your upbringing molds you versus how the blood in your veins decides who you are. Being a Shadowhunter is a hereditary thing — it's about your blood. But whether you are a good or bad person is not about blood. There are good and bad Shadowhunters just as there are good and bad mundanes. How do you define family? Clary clearly rejects Valentine as her father and chooses Luke instead, even though she's related to Valentine by blood and not to Luke. Jace's family is clearly the Lightwoods, even though they're not his blood. And Jace and Clary are clearly in love with each other, even though their shared blood — if they do share blood — ought to make that impossible. The way they feel about each other is part of the issue of family, love, destiny and blood that makes up the backbone of the series.

Jace has always believed that his blood defines him: the blood that makes him a Shadowhunter, and the blood that makes him Valentine's son. His love for Clary is the key to everything that makes him question that. As Valentine tells Clary in City of Ashes, the love Jace feels for his sister is his greatest fear — and in City of Glass, it will prompt him to make a decision that changes the entire course of events for everyone in the Shadowhunting world forever.

Now, you can certainly hope that Clary and Jace are not related; many readers believe they aren't and have found "clues" to prove it. I can also assure you that Simon isn't Clary's only other romantic option besides Jace, and that many things happen to Simon in City of Ashes that change his life and his relationship with Clary forever. I can also assure you that I didn't spend all that time building a relationship between Clary and Jace for no reason. You'll just have to read all the way to book three to find out what that reason is!

high school musical

Thu, 20 Sep 2007 19:33:19 GMT

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.

So Fey

Wed, 19 Sep 2007 17:00:03 GMT

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.

DragonCon, Linketyness

Mon, 10 Sep 2007 16:30:29 GMT

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.

On the way to DragonCon I took the Dragon Train. This is the Amtrak train that leaves New York and gets to Atlanta eighteen hours later. I shared a roomette with Maureen Johnson. Holly and Theo Black and Justine Larbalestier and Scott Westerfeld completed our entourage, except they did not have roommettes. Roomettes are sort of like rooms, but small and with a squalorous toilet right in the middle. I can't imagine who in their right mind would up and pee in their squalorous roomette toilet right in front of their roomate and God and everyone. I can see no reason to do this at all unless you're in jail and your roomate is named Vinnie The Death Maker, and that was not the case, so Maureen and I vowed to never ever use the squalorous toilet, then piled everything we owned on top of it in an attempt to pretend it was not there.

The con was good. This was my second DragonCon, and I find the experience almost like being at some kind of World's Fair of the weird — wandering from place to place and being amazed by the craftsmanship and skill put into the costumes. I saw the alien from Aliens hanging out with Batman, Jack Sparrow, and a guy with a missing head; Claire from Heroes with John Constantine, some steampunkers, and the White Witch, and the guys from 300 poking each other with spears. I was there as part of the Young Adult Lit programming, and did some cool panels including one on Blood and Fur — vamps and werewolves in YA — and one general writing panel with Scott, Justine, Maureen (dressed like Wonder Woman) and Holly which was great and suffered only from being cut off at the end before we could talk to anyone who had questions. So if you were there and you had a question, I am sorry. There was also a panel on YA girl heroines who kick butt, on which Maureen managed to start a fight about Bella Swan and then stuck up impassionedly for "expanding pants" books — which I think from the context was what the other panelists were calling realistic fiction for teen girls, which seems overly general; you can't toss Gossip Girls in with Sara Zarr and Meg Cabot, for they are not the same.

There was a Yule Ball, which was Harry Potter themed. I did not go to it, but I did pass by in front of it and saw Hagrid and the Whomping Willow through the door. It appeared to have been scheduled at the same time as the Pirate Ball and there were many confused pirates streaming in and out, expecting to have their swashes buckled within and instead being confronted with people mostly dressed as male British schoolteachers.

PIRATE ONE: Avast! Where are the wenches?
PIRATE TWO: Arr. This be not my kink.*

On the way back from DragonCon, we read aloud from the Worst Book Ever Written. This book is a popular book, or at least a very good seller, and it is one of Holly Black's favorite books, except not in the way where you like something but more in the way where you find something hilariously bad. Reading aloud from this book is a transformative experience, especially for writers, because this book does everything you're always told not to do, and does them in spades. Justine describes it here: "It takes a kajillion chapters for the protag to cross a steet. All conversations are replicated in their full tedious detail—Including repetitions and broken sentences and ums and ahs. And this tediously described every second of the protag’s day is interspersed with some of the most horrifically bad sex scenes ever written."

Both Maureen and Scott are dignified individuals. They rarely giggle. But I caught both of them giggling at this book. It was an experience. And no, I can't say what book it was. It was not YA, though. Justine actually threw up during the reading. Now that is the power of prose.

It made me think about why some things are just bad, and other things are so bad they're fantastic. Something to cover in another post, perhaps.

All in all, a great con experience.

*Okay, the pirate didn't say that, Scott said that while observing the pirates in distress. It was funny, though.

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

What's Hot Right Now

Wed, 15 Aug 2007 16:11:55 GMT

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.

London, Wales, Scrivener

Thu, 26 Jul 2007 18:48:15 GMT

(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?)

So, in Wales, there were many pretty things to see, including:

	an adorable bed and breakfast
	stark but lovely walking country
	desolate castles high on hills
	views of lovely patchworky countryside
	and a gorogeous view from the b and b window

Two covers

Fri, 29 Jun 2007 20:13:27 GMT

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.

romance

Sun, 24 Jun 2007 19:09:51 GMT

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?

BEA

Wed, 06 Jun 2007 02:22:04 GMT

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:

I also got a copy of the annual Ellora's Cave calendar. Ellora's Cave is a romance publisher and their annual calendar is manboobtastic. Last year I got the calendar and hid it somewhere in Holly and Theo's house and it took them months to find it and then they didn't know where it had come from. Each accused the other. It was awesome.

I also went to a fab children's book breakfast where Libba was the MC and Mo "Knuffle Bunny" Willems taught us all how to draw pigeons. My pigeon sucked.

There were other awesome folk at BEA including the aforementioned Scott Westerfeld (code name: Todd Eastermeadow) and his lovely wife Justine Larbalestier. In fact Justine mislaid her BEA badge so my boyfriend spent much of the first day wearing it. Nobody seemed to question this except one security guard, so Josh told him Justine was his girlfriend and he'd put on her badge by accident. (Josh: "Somewhere, Scott Westefeld is mad at me and he doesn't even know why.") Other folks I ran into: Maureen Johnson, David Levithan, Emily Lockhart, Sarah Beth Durst, Troy CLE, Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman. I also went by Small Beer Press to visit Gavin Grant and Kelly Link, only to discover that Kelly had grown a luxuriant beard.

ETA: I have been informed that that is not Kelly after all, but Small Beer's intern, Jed. The guy on the right is still Gavin, though.

One other thing publishers do at BEA is throw parties celebrating their books and authors. This time around there was a Spiderwick party celebrating Holly and Tony and Spiderwick, not to mention the upcoming Spiderwick movie. I was happy to be invited to said party, although my cat Linus was bitter than he couldn't come and tried to eat the invite.

He was right to be jealous. The Spiderwick party was fab. (Maureen has some excellent pictures on her blog here.) No sooner had I arrived that Ellen Kushner came up to me (dressed as always in some beautiful designer gown — no one is better dressed than Ellen) holding what looked like a mutated dead bug. She placed the mutated dead bug in my hand.

Me: Why did you give me a dead bug?
Ellen: It is the gummi spider from the bottom of a Spidertini.

As it turned out, the event had a signature drink, the Spidertini. The Spidertini was green and luminous. It was reportedly horrible, though I did not try it. At some point Eddie, my film agent and an all around cool guy, brought me a Spidertini. Gavin immediately took it away from me.

Me: Why did you take my Spidertini?
Gavin: Because if you drink it, you'll die.

I would have been mad but Gavin brought me some white wine instead thus averting catastrophe. Then Holly made a speech, and Tony did not, being as he was not there because his wife had just had a baby. A feeble excuse.

Then white steam jutted out of the ceiling and some doors slid open and there was a huge room decorated with mushrooms and giant plants and bugs. The idea was that we were all tiny sprites and the world was very big. This idea was hammered home when they served us the world's largest hamburger.

Kelly tried to get me to some giant hamburger but I was ill from eating the gummi spider at the bottom of the Spidertini.

They showed clips from the movie in a separate screening room. I would like to say I went and saw them, but I didn't. As you can see from the above photo, I was pretty drunk, so my guess is that I forgot.

I spent some time bothering Justine, who was very very jetlagged after flying back from Australia. I have no photos of her because she wouldn't let me take any. Eventually Scott did get tired of me bothering his wife and tried to kill me.

Okay, he didn't, but in that photo it looks like he's considering it, doesn't he.

Later we all staggered from the party in search of Korean food. It is never easy to get a table in Manhattan when you have fourteen people, but we managed it. There was karaoke after that but I was wearing uncomfortable shoes so I staggered home. Somewhere, my agent is laughing at me. Good times.

Tourblogging #2: San Francisco

Tue, 22 May 2007 17:12:18 GMT

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. :>

Goth Prom at Books Inc. was awesome. Tons of people came, dressed in finery of the Gothic persuasion. Holly and I got tiaras of leave and flowers to wear.

The PLANT! It's coming for me!

So far on tour I've met people who've come from as far away as Mexico and Canada to see us, but at Goth Prom there was a lady who came all the way from Finland, though I didn't get to talk to her as much as I would have liked. She wins. I didn't have time to suggest to her that next time she can fly us out to Finland instead and we'll spend as much time with her as she wants! I've always wanted to see Finland. Reindeer! Unnaturally beautiful people! The home of the umlaut!

I thought we might all enjoy the Dumble Door. This is at Hicklebee's in San Jose, one of the most legendary children's bookstores in the country. Whenever they have authors visit, they have them sign the doors and walls in marker. Here for instance is JK Rowling's signature, from the first time she visited:

I signed the wall, too, but made sure to sign far away from Rowling's signature in case they ever want to pull off the door she signed on and sell it on ebay for a million bucks. I wouldn't want to stand in the way. **

I am such a dork.

At our event at Borderlands books, we met Ripley the Hairless Cat. Ripley has her own flickr fan photo group, from which I gacked this picture.

My question is, are people who are allergic to cats still allergic to hairless cats? Because if not, I'm buying one for my friend Kelly Link, whose husband Gavin is allergic to cats. Apparently she ordered some hypoallergenic cat pieces from those people who sell hypoallergenic cats and rubbed them on Gavin, and nothing happened. But a hairless cat would be a cheaper proposition.

Except, I almost forgot, I am mad at Kelly and Gavin because they totally betrayed me in the Great Zombie Versus Unicorn Debate. (if you've been to a signing, you know what I'm talking about.) Holly sides with unicorns. I side with zombies. But Gavin and Kelly totally betrayed me by sending a postcard to Borderlands before our event in which they switched their allegience to uncorns even though they had previously been on the side of zombies.

No bald cat for you, traitors.

We had a fantastic teen event is Sebastopol, where the kids fought over who got to wear The Hat.

The teenagers we have met on this tour so far totally refute every negative stereotype of teenagers I have ever heard. Instead of being hulking, surly adolescents who are obsessed with video games and don't read, they are hulking, surly adolescents who are obsessed with video games and DO read.

Fortunately I can always talk to them about Dead Rising.

**There is Potter stuff everywhere we go, in preparation for the Deathy Hallows release party. I generally ask everyone who's getting a book signed what they think will happen in book seven. Most people think Harry's going to get it in the neck. I talked to two lovely booksellers who had definite views on the topic.

Me: So, book 7. Harry dies?
Bookseller 1: God, I hope so.
Bookseller 2: But I don't want him to go out like Sirius. He's got to bite it in a definitive way so we know he's really dead and is NEVER COMING BACK.
BS1: I want to see internal organs hanging from the ceiling. I want his liver splattered on the wall.
BS2: And then Draco should eat it.

Next up: Chicago!

Tour Blog 1: Los Angeles

Sun, 13 May 2007 23:50:51 GMT

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.

This problem is:

SHOE ADDICTION.

That's right. These are the shoes we brought, spread out on our hotel room floor. And this doesn't even count the shoes we have on while we're taking the picture. No wonder my suitcase weighs 54 pounds.

The hot pink shoes are mine.

Damn, that's a lot of books to sign.

We had an excellent time at our signings in L.A. Holly took pictures of the crowds which ranged in size. We also did an event at a high school. School events are the sort of thing I've never done before. I just saw Freedom Writers on the plane over so I was worried there would be gang violence and Holly would get shanked. But it really wasn't that kind of high school. The kids were smart and fast on the ball. They also looked a lot older than I remember kids looking when I was in high school. They were freshmen and I swear some of them had long, flowing beards.

We have a couple props that go with our signings. Our books, obviously. Our lucky pens. And The Hat. The Hat is what get passed around and people write questions and drop them in the hat. I was charged with going out and buying the hat before the first signing. I made my dad try it on first.

At the Mystery Bookstore in Westwood, they make all visiting authors sign an antique jail registry before they leave. Leaving aside the coolness of signing something that's also been signed by the likes of Mickey Spillane and Jasper Ffforde, Holly and I had a hard time coming up with what crimes we'd been incarcerated for (my favorite one: "SEX WITH A MINER (COAL)" and how we'd managed to escape. I finally decided my crime was SHIRKING and my method of escape was surfing out on a tidal wave.

Next entry: Goth Prom, my hair has pink streaks, tiaras are worn, a hairless cat, and two booksellers discuss how they hope Harry Potter dies in the last book and Draco eats his liver.

xposted to thegraybook

Sun, 15 Apr 2007 16:59:07 GMT

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.

Your agent (Let's call him Barry) calls you on the phone.

Agent: Are you sitting down?
Me: No. Yes. Why? Did something bad happen? WHAT'S GOING ON?
Agent: *name of head of publishing imprint* called to say that you're on the New York Times list for next week.
Me: NO WAY. YOU'RE LYING.
Agent: Yes, because I am a sadist who occasionally plays these jokes on my clients for fun.
Me: I am going to throw up, I think.
Agent: No, don't throw up!
Me: I think I'm going to.
Agent: This is not as much fun as I had initially thought it would be.

Then you call your parents, because who is going to be excited if they're not going to be excited?

First Mom:

Me: Mom, guess what?
Mom: Did something bad happen? Have you broken your leg?
Me: No, I'm on the New York Times bestseller list!
Mom: That's nice, dear.
Me: Nice is what you said when I won the bronze medal in ping-pong in the fourth grade Olympics.
Mom: You were so cute back then!

Then Dad:

Me: Dad, guess what?
Dad: You want money.
Me: No, I'm on the New York Times bestseller list!
Dad: Well, don't think you can move home with your parents.
Me: Didn't you hear what I said? My book is on the New York Times bestseller list!
Dad: Yeah, and I said you can't move in with me. I have a lot of stuff and you'd break it.
Me: Clearly you decided we were having one conversation back at the beginning of this phone call and you refuse to acknowledge that we are in fact having a different conversation.
Dad: Also, you can't have my car. Not even when I'm dead.

So then you call your best writing buddy, Holly, who has managed you through all the various crises you have had regarding your book, including when you decided no one would buy it but your Aunt Rose.

Me: Holly, I'm on the New York Times bestseller list!
Holly: That is AWESOME!
Me: Now, that's more like it.
Holly: You know why it is awesome?
Me: Because it means people are reading and liking the book...?
Holly: No, because you promised that if you got on the bestseller list you'd take me out to dinner and buy me anything I wanted!
Me: I have no memory of this.
Holly: It was on March 3rd. I tape-recorded the conversation.
Me: So what do you want?
Holly: A house.
Me: But you have a house.
Holly: I want a house for Chamberlain.
Me: Your dog?
Holly: That's right.

So I am still going to Amsterdam on about three days, though now it is a celebratory tulip trip instead of a fleeing from anxieties tulip trip.

amsterdam

Wed, 11 Apr 2007 14:55:25 GMT

So I am going to Holland next week. I decided this sometime this week, because I was tired of sitting around the house festering on the couch, trying to start book 3 and failing, and fretting about book sales and tour, two things I can do nothing whatsoever about. I decided what's the point of quitting your job and not having a set schedule if you don't do something with your time? So I'm going to Amsterdam next Wednesday. *cowers away from wrath of parents and agent*

Although really, my parents have only themselves to blame for this sort of thing, since they dragged me all over the world from a young age and I grew up thinking of travel as a prerequisite for life, rather than an occasional indulgence. I'd rather travel and go without other things, like, I don't know, shoes. (Except maybe really cute shoes, like these.) Also I want to see tulips. I haven't been to Amsterdam since college, and I realize I never saw, for instance, the Anne Frank House or various other landmarks, because in college no one goes to Amsterdam to see landmarks. The last time I went was with my friend Barbara when we were nineteen, and Barbara immediately went and bought some kind of brownie with a dubiously legal substance in it. After that she climbed into a giant wooden shoe that some tourist shop had put out on the street as an advertisement and refused to get out of it. Eventually the police arrived.

Police: Why is your friend in the shoe?
Me: I'm not sure but she seems to like it in there.

She wasn't quite the same afterward so I had to take her to a small town called Zandvoort so she could recuperate. That wasn't as bad as the time we went to Mexico together though and stayed in a tiny beach hotel in Tulum and she hooked up with the guy who ran the generator. I had left my boyfriend at home so we could have "girl time" together, but I never saw her because she was with Jorge, the generator guy. This would have been less annoying if it hadn't meant that I spent half the trip sitting around in the dark because nobody was running the generator. Moral of the story: don't go anywhere with my friend Barb. Also, I am going to Amsterdam. W00t! Tulips.

Thu, 05 Apr 2007 17:40:42 GMT

1) I'm happy to say that City of Bones has sold so well that my publisher has ordered a second printing! That means the first printing has sold out or is on its way to doing so. Which is pretty good for a book that isn't even technically out yet.

2) Last night I read at Teen Author Reading Night at the Tompkins Square branch of the New York Public Library. It was the second time I have ever read anything from my book out loud, and it was moderately harrowing, though my anxiety was tamped down by the fact that David Levithan, who was moderating, was extra enthused about the hot guy on the cover of the book. Which meant I got to tell my uber-secret tale of the hot guy on the cover of the book, but it is uber-secret so you have to come to a reading to find out what it is. Anyway, that took some of the pressure off.

I was also happy that many of my peeps showed up to
cheer me on. That was appreciated. After the reading I fled into the audience to seek the solace of my friends, and John Green asked me if there were any copies of my books around that were for sale.

Me: Well, no not really, because this is a library and they don't so much sell books as... give them away.
John: But I would like one.
Me: I can give you the one I read from.
John: For free?
Me: Well, you are my friend so you can have the book if you want it.
John: Have I ever given you a book for free?
Me: Uh, no.
John: So?
Me: Fine, give me twenty bucks and I'll give you the book.

So I took his twenty - more than the street value of the thing, I have to say - but it was good, because without that twenty, I would not have been able to afford a cab ride home, and after drinks and dinner with Maureen, Scott, Justine, and Sarah, I was in no condition to take the subway.

3) I feel I should also mention that I quit my job a while ago. I did not do this because I thought, Now I will be a rich and famous author! because I know enough authors to know that most of them are not rich or famous. And I would not want to be famous anyway. I did this because I could no longer take how stupid the magazine I worked for was. In fact, I quit on a particular day when I was given a particular assignment with which I could not deal. It went sort of like this. I was given an article to edit which had a picture of Tom Cruise and Oprah Winfrey as its centerpiece. The point of the article seemed to be that Tom Cruise and Oprah Winfrey were not getting along, or maybe Oprah was having Tom's space alien baby. It doesn't really matter. I edited it and sent it around and it came back with a note on it that said, "Make sure to include in the article the fact that Tom Cruise was recieving the Nobel Peace Prize in this photo, and Oprah was presenting it it to him." So I called up the big editor, which meant that the Big Editor's assistant answered, and I said, "I am pretty sure Big Editor doesn't mean this, because while the photo was taken in Oslo, Tom Cruise has never recieved the Nobel Peace Prize." She said, "Are you sure?" I said, "I am pretty sure. What would he have recieved it for? His work in Risky Business? Also, the Nobel Prize is given out by the King of Sweden or Norway or something, not Oprah Winfrey." She disappeared for a while, then came back and said, "I think you are wrong, so just put that stuff in the article anyway." I said, "Okay, but then I am never coming back." This didn't make much of an impression, because people quit and get fired every day at that paper anyway. So that is why I am home typing this entry and watching 24, which is not what I am supposed to be doing, but I was too lazy to leave the house and meet my writing friends today. Maybe tomorrow.

dispatch from the igloo

Mon, 26 Mar 2007 16:24:54 GMT

The Divine Miss Cherie Priest sent me this photo, very kindly, of my book on the shelf at a local store. Then I spent a while squinting at it trying to tell if it looked like someone had bought one of them. This is probably because I am suffering from PPBD (post-partum book depression) brought on by turning in the final draft of my second book the same day my first book goes on sale. Double whammy! Also for the past two weeks I have been working feverishly on revisions, which involved never leaving the house, and creating a sort of igloo out of blankets on the sofa. Every morning I would wake up, crawl into the igloo with my computer, and not emerge until my boyfriend came home and stared disapprovingly at the igloo. (Sample greeting: :"Are you in there? Did you shower today? Are you ever going to?")

I did develop an addiction to two daytime television shows. The first one is What Not to Wear. (The American, not the British one, which is never on.) I like WNTW because it is endlessly predictable. Clinton and Stacy get their hands on some sad bastard in high-waisted khakhi pants and over the course of an hour they are transformed into a goddess in pointy-toed shoes and structured jackets. Every once in a while I have an unreasonable burst of rage towards someone who won't let Nick Arrojo cut their horrible hair ("Come on, Nick, you've got the scissors and they've got no defense!") but in general the fact that there are no unhappy endings is very soothing.

I have a similar love for the Discovery Channel's I Shouldn't Be Alive! about people who crash-land in the desert in small planes and have to crawl hundreds of miles to water, or whose kayaks drift out to sea, or who get trapped under an avalanche. Their lives are clearly much worse than mine, which is cheering, but nothing permanent happens to them, so I don't feel bad about it. These are all true stories and the interviews with the survivors are interspliced with recreated footage of the disaster, so you never worry that anything will happen to these people, because clearly they survived in order to go on the show. My boyfriend asked me: "Aren't you worried that someone will die and then you'll be depressed?"

Me: "No, because the show is called 'I Shouldn't Be Alive!'" not 'I'm Not Alive!'"

Him: "Nobody would watch a show called 'I'm Not Alive!'"

Me: "Yes, sort of like we're happy to buy 'I Can't Believe It's Not Butter!'" but not the less popular 'That's Not Butter!' or even 'I Can't Believe You Thought That Was Butter!'"

Him: "Ew."

And now back to the igloo.