Today is the launch of the fabulous Michelle Hodkin's debut: THE UNBECOMING OF MARA DYER!!!!!!
I got this book late one day--I was super busy, but thought Hey, I'll check out the first chapter. I then read until 4 in the morning, and as soon as I was done, I texted Michelle and demanded MORE RIGHT NOW.
She laughed at me.
And I have yet to break into her house and/or mind and steal the sequel. BUT I WILL.
Meanwhile, I did give THE UNBECOMING OF MARA DYER my second ever blurb.
"WOW. Michelle Hodkin's debut will keep
you guessing until the last page--
and long after."
Trufax. I am still making guesses about what's going to happen next...and what actually did happen in the story I read. That last page? Will blow your mind.
Want a hint about what the story's about? Check out the creeptastic trailer:
I'll be doing a complete review tomorrow, but in the meantime, check the book out online at these places:
Also: Michelle is awesome. I know this. You know this. Know how you know this? Because she's donated a SIGNED copy of THE UNBECOMING OF MARA DYER (an ARC) for YOU! Yes, YOU! To enter, the only thing I ask of you is that you check out the book--you could click on one of the links above, or watch the trailer, or drop by a bookstore and pick it up.
Just fill out the form below, and you're entered for a drawing for a signed copy of Michelle Hodkin's THE UNBECOMING OF MARA DYER.
And since Michelle's the one who donated the copy for you to win, drop her a comment here to say how much you like the book, the trailer, or how much you want to read this. Show her some love for donating the prize! :) <3
This weekend, I will be a part of the Smart Chicks Kick It tour!! I'm dropping in on the Portland and Vancouver stops, so if you're in the area, please come by and see me! I will sign your book, give you some swag, and/or sign THAT shiny poster over there
Also? If you live in Portland, Vancouver, or anywhere in between, let me know about cool places to see, neat restaurants to chow down at, or whatever else is cool--because I'm actually going to be driving from Portland to Vancouver and would love a mini adventure on the trip.
Some other updates:
Between this and the conference I just presented at, I am VERY behind on email. Like, over a hundred emails behind. If I owe you email correspondence, please be patient with me. If it's super important, please yell at me and tell me to answer your super important email.
I got an email from the guy who is shipping the charms for the creative contest. They are supposed to ship to me this week, and I'm taking cards with me on the road so I can get them made and written over the weekend and therefore get them back to you! Sorry this is taking so long, but please keep in mind that I was not originally prepared to award 50 prizes! I had no idea you guys were so awesome!
I am also super-slow on Twitter right now. I'm sorry. I should catch up after the trips and such.
Giveaway! Yes! Coming tomorrow!
And another one! In October!
And another one! In November! My biggest giveaway to date!
And another one! In December! Even bigger than the November one!
So I just did my post on the League for today--and it was about Banned Books weeks. I'm rather proud of it--I got quite a little rant on--and I realized that there was a perfect quote for me to use for that post:
You want weapons? We're in a library! Books! The best weapons in the world! This room's the greatest arsenal we could have - arm yourselves!
So, I decided of course I should just embed the Doctor Who video with that quote! Of course! So I trotted off to YouTube and looked up one of the best episodes ever, "Silence in the Library."
And...then I watched the whole darn episode, despite the fact that I have a house to clean and a book to write and a dog to wash and a million other things.
Thing is, the weapons quote isn't in that episode. It's in "Tooth and Claw."
A lot of times people ask me when I know that a work is ready, complete and to the point where I need to submit it for publication. Unfortunately, there is no cut-and-dry answer to this, but I can tell you what it tends to be like for me:
Dread and Hate: There is a moment--usually brief--before I start writing that I am filled with dread and hate for the project. I have this vague, wispy idea of what it should be, and I know I'll never achieve the ideal, and so it sort of makes me sick to my stomach to think about writing it.
Falling in Love: Somewhere along the way, usually within the first fifty pages of the manuscript, I start falling in love with it. The words sing, the characters are vivid, and the story's zinging along.
Blind Love: ...and then I start having this sort of blind love for the project. I think every words perfect. I get very self satisfied. This feeling typically lasts all the way to when I write THE END...and as I stare at the whole manuscript, I have this sort of "this-is-the-best-book-ever-written-and-I-am-a-genius" sort of attitude.
I've learned, after years of trial and error and a ton of rejections, that this is NOT the time to submit a manuscript for publication. This is the time to submit a manuscript to peers for critique.
So, then I submit the manuscript for crits. And my feelings when I get back the critiques--which have NEVER said that the manuscript is perfect and I am a genius and deserve a cupcake--my feelings are this:
Anger and Denial: My initial reaction, no matter how much I love and respect my critique readers, is that they are WRONG. Wrong, wrong, wrong. And MEAN. And they're out to get me. So I usually read a crit, then give it a day before I feel...
Determination: I think this comes from my Southrn upbringing--I get this bull-headed attitude where I want to prove the critiquers wrong, and I'll write the best frexing book there ever was no matter how hard it is, so I pull up my boot straps and get to work.
Until...
Falling in Love...Again: When I get to the point where I've started to fall back in love with the manuscript--that's when I know it's ready. I no longer have blind love for it, I can see the flaws, and I can see the bandages I used to patch it up after I broke it down, but for the most part, I love it again.
When I was a kid, I was obsessed with My Little Ponies. I had dozens of ponies, I had the knock-off ponies (sea-ponies, anyone?), I had a barn made of popsicle sticks, I had audio books on cassette tape...I was obsessed.
I am totally hooked on the re-boot of the show and have seen every episode at least five times each.
Other details: freckles, to symbolize her fair complexion,
and shoes, because she's a runner!
Elder Pony!
Type of pony: Unicorn, because he's the leader
Body type: tall
Body color: dark brown, just like his real skin
Eye color: blue, like the sky he longs for
Mane and tail: black, like the real Elder
Cutie-mark: a series of stars, because once he sees them, he can never be the same
Other details: I gave him a stern expression, to show how he's trying to be a leader
Harley Pony!
Type of pony: Pegasus--he wants to fly through the stars
(I did a screenshot without the wings, though, so you could see his cutie mark)
Body type: average
Body color: blue and yellow spatters--like the sea and the stars at the same time
Eye color: gold, to represent his heart of gold
Mane and tail: What I really wanted was a rainbow colored mane and tail, like Rainbow Dash has. BUT I couldn't do that in the generator, and I was too lazy to edit it in Gimp Update! Thanks to @literaticat, I was able to give Harley a rainbow mane!
Cutie-mark: A koi fish, of course
Other details: Of course Harley would be laughing!
I was finally able to get all the entries into the creative contest in one location! The permanent home of the images will be here, (I'll be snazzing up that page more soon) but I wanted to make sure everyone got a great good look at them all, so I've got them embedded below, too, with credit links.
I think you will be able to see why I couldn't pick just one winner from this. Every single person who entered will be getting a prize...although the prizes are currently back ordered! Apparently the seller didn't expect someone to order fifty at one time! But as soon as the prize is shipped to me, I'll be shipping them back out to you.
And let me also take a moment to say: YOU GUYS ARE THE BESTEST READERS EVER AND I <3 YOU ALL.
Seriously. This contest was just...wow.
That said...I do still have a prize that I'd set aside for the most creative entry. It was just one thing, a secret extra gift from Jennie, who designed the bracelet. I think what I'm going to do is just slip it in the person's envelope and let it be a surprise when s/he opens the envelope with the thank you :) What do you think? Good idea? I do like giving people little surprises and such :)
Meanwhile, I really want to know, which one is YOUR favorite?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Short story by Julia:
‘We want the book! We want the book!’ The crowd chanted. The scared booksellers huddled in the store, using the boxes of the book they were supposed to be selling, Across the Universe, to barricade the door.
‘They’re against the doors! GET THEM!’ one man yelled.
The crowd surged forward, using their hands, clubs, pitchforks, other people in the crowd, whatever they could get their hands on to beat on the doors. They slowly moved in. The crowd was no match for the heavy boxes.
‘Yes!’ several people yelled. ‘Autographed copies of Across the Universe!’ They eagerly flipped through the pages, looking for the author signature.
‘What the heck?’ someone hollered.
‘There’s no author signature in here!’
‘Well, um, she was supposed to come in today to autograph them,’ the timid salespeople volunteered.
O O O
Beth Revis, the author of the aforementioned book, huddled in a janitor’s closet at the back of the store. She wasn’t about to go out into the angry mob, no way.
O O O
‘All right, all right We’ll tell you where the author is if you just stop!’ yelled the bookstore’s manager.
The people from the mob stood in the middle of the store, surrounded by a pile of white paper and torn covers.
‘Well, where is she?’ multiple people hollered out.
‘In the janitor’s closet at the back of the store next to the YA novels.’
The mob stormed off. A few people started lagging as they looked at the book displays, but they were quickly herded back in by the rest of the mob.
When the mob reached the closet, everyone stepped back as a large man, who looked like he would be more comfortable in a pine forest then a bookstore, ran against the door.
It moves slightly.
‘AGAIN!’ yelled the crowd.
The man rammed into the door again, and continued to do so until the flimsy wood shattered, exposing the terrified author to the crowd.
‘Don’t hurt me, because if you do you’ll never find out what’ll happen between Amy and Elder,’ squeaked Beth Revis.
‘Hurt you? Why would we hurt you? You are going to go over to that table RIGHT NOW and sign out copies of Across the Universe or else!’ screamed the aforementioned lumberjack-like man.
Beth slunk over to the table and chair, plopped down heavily, and pulled out a pen.
‘Who’s first?’ she hollered.
A collective ME came from the entire crowd.
‘Okay, you,’ she said, pointing at random. ‘You’re first.’
A little boy skipped up to the table, holding the book to his chest.
‘Aren’t you a little young to be reading young adult novels?’ asked Beth.
‘It’s not for me, it’s for Mommy!’ he said. ‘Will you sign it, please?’
So she did.
All day, Beth sat there signing until she thought her hand would fall off. And then she signed some more. The author signed books for small children, old men, teenage girls, mothers, the list goes on. By the time she signed the last book, she had gone through fifteen pens and her name looked more like a scribble then her name.
The bookstore employees came over as the author stood up.
‘You owe me. That was the most people I’ve EVER signed for at a time, and the first time
I’ve ever hidden in a janitors closet!’
‘So… does this mean you won’t be coming back next week?’
A beautiful ship flew into the sky. They all knew it wasn’t goodbye. . They’d be home soon, a new home at least. They had them all fooled a mystery to piece. . Until Amy came along, this fiery redhead, she strung it together like needle and thread. . Something was wrong. A lie was covered. She saw these “stars” and the truth was discovered. . A beautiful ship flew into the skies. Too bad that the ship runs on nothing but lies.
Stars Awakening by Nicole We knew we couldn’t sustain. I think that was the worst part; knowing for so long, but never doing anything about it until it was nearly too late. I wish I could say I was one of those people who went wholeheartedly onto Godspeed, but being dragged unwilling doesn’t quite fit the description. It would be an understatement to say I’m claustrophobic, and my father has known that ever since I was a boy. It mattered little to him, in the long run.
That’s why I’m down here now, I suppose, in the deepest, darkest hull on the ship, with my knees tucked close to my body, shivering uncontrollably. It’s nearly frozen down here; I wonder what they hold in the wall-high containers, why they have to keep the room so cold. I looked for a light earlier, but the motion detector must be malfunctioning. It’s better this way, I think. The last thing I’ll see is darkness, the one thing I’m most afraid of. So many things can go wrong being trapped in a ship that’s on a course to a far-off planet that we’ve never even seen before. When I first got down here, I thought about all of them, until I exhausted myself and my eyes were weak with tears. I think I was hoping they’d be searching for me, check their video footage, and come rushing in. That someone, anyone, would care.
The quiet, distant hum of the machines reminds me that I’m not alone. I press my hands onto the freezing metal and push myself off the wall. I hear a click and I’m blinded by the sudden white light, and greeted by the slight stench of burning. The motion detector must be working after all. One of the long bulbs across the ceiling flickers, goes out, but there’s enough light to see what’s in the chambers.
They’re bodies. Rows upon rows of bodies. My jaw hangs slack. I feel myself stumble over the grated metal floor to the frozen chamber in front of me, placing my hands against the cold glass. It’s a girl. A girl with flowing red hair, full lips and closed eyes. She’s naked, completely exposed–more beautiful than anything I’ve ever seen. She has the strangest look on her face, and I wonder what her last thoughts were. Her face is slack, but her lips look pinched, like she was afraid. Or in pain.
I bang my head against the glass. Get a grip, Kyle. I’m letting a girl that lies immobile in a cryochamber distract me from why I came down here in the first place.
But I can’t help reverting my gaze back to her. Girls never paid much attention to me back home, and I’ve never seen this much of a body at one time, but somehow that matters little. I want to meet this girl, more than anything I’ve ever wanted.
I push myself back from the glass with resolve, my jaw tightening, and scan the panel of buttons along the bottom of the glass. There’s so many, and all unlabeled. I’m about to press my finger to the only green button–when the door to the room whooshes open and I’m knocked to the ground.
I land with a thump and a grunt, feeling the rivets in the floor digging into my back, the air forced out of my lungs. I fight my attacker, but they take their weight off of me almost immediately, pinning only my wrists to the floor. I stop fighting. It’s father.
“What,” he seethes, “do you think you’re doing down here?”
I grit my teeth. “Waiting to die.”
Surprise flashes across his face, but it’s fleeting, replaced quickly by anger. “Don’t be so foolish, boy,” father says. “You know not to be down here. I should have known I could not trust you on your own.”
“Who are they?” I ask, ignoring his conceding tone.
Father starts. “What are you talking about?”
“The bodies in the cryochambers,” I say, unwavering. “Who are they?”
Father clears his throat. “None of your concern.”
“I want to talk to one of them,” I say.
“Absolutely not.” He stiffens. “Out of the question.”
“Will you tell me nothing?” I plead. Secrets are all my father has, but if he tells them to anyone, it’s always me.
Father snorts out a breath, and his eye twitches. “Which one?” he asks, releasing his grip on me. I can hear the defeat in his voice no matter how hard he’s trying to cover it up as I climb off the floor and get back on my feet. I have to stop myself from smiling.
“Her.” I point to the slim, red-haired girl. I’m still looking at her, my heart beating faster unwittingly, when I hear my father suck in a quick breath.
“It can’t be…”
Another crashing sound echoes through the narrow room, and I look beyond father towards the door, just in time to see one of the guards bring his blade down onto father’s back, sliding the blade cleanly through his body before pulling it out again. I hear someone screaming, and I realize it’s me. The sound cuts off when the guard advances on me, stepping uncaring into the pool of blood that’s appeared from beneath my father’s body. I swallow hard and scramble backward. The guard’s expression is cold, hard, unforgiving.
“Please,” I whisper. “Don’t hurt me.”
He smiles then, toothy and ruthless. My head snaps back as he brings back his blade for the strike–
“Stop!”
The guard turns around so quickly that he nearly loses the grip on his blade, the set of his shoulders giving away his surprise. And I can see why. There’s a man in the doorway, dressed in a white lab coat, with gray-speckled short hair and stormy eyes. He’s standing with his fists clenched at his sides, jaw tight, expression hard.
“This area is restricted.” The man’s voice echoes low and deep along the metal walls. “Even to guards.” He eyes the guard, and the murderer’s shoulders sink in submission. The doctor steps into the room, ignoring the dead, bleeding body on the floor. He moves his gaze from the guard, who leaves the room in a rush, over to me, his eyes traveling down the length of my body and back up again. He’s turned curious, less menacing.
“Why are you here?” he asks me.
I don’t answer, and without thinking, my eyes find the girl in the frozen chamber. She remains unchanged. The doctor follows my gaze and a small smile finds its way onto his lips. He looks back at me, eyes sparkling.
“We can arrange that,” he says.
My eyes widen, and I’m about to speak when the doctor lunges forward, stabbing me with a needle. Pain shoots up my arm, but I can’t cry out; whatever he’s injected me with has already slowed my mind.
“It’s better this way,” he assures me. My vision blurs and he manages to hold me up before laying me down on the floor. “You won’t want to feel the pain when I freeze you.”
I wish I could panic, but I can’t feel much of anything now as the poison makes its way through my system. He won’t kill me; somehow I know that. But…
“You’re going to see us land in the new world, child,” he tells me softly. “There’s nothing left for you here.”
Finally my vision leaves me, along with the rest of my senses. And all I can think is that, when I wake up, I get to see the girl with the red hair again.
Maureen Johnson is a must-buy for me. I see a book with her name on it, I buy it.
If you are an MJ fan like me, then you will be so freaking excited by THE NAME OF THE STAR--possibly the best of her entire work, rivaled only by DEVILISH. If you are not an MJ fan (for shame!) then this is a GREAT book to start your upcoming MJ love. GET IT. READ IT.
So here's the thing: MJ knows how to tell a story well. Just follow her Twitter--if she can make 140-character tweets that entertaining, imagine what she can do with a whole book.
But the best part about THE NAME OF THE STAR? Is the plot itself. It's riveting. The basic plot is a girl from America goes to England for boarding school just as a Jack the Ripper copycat killer goes on a rampage. But then the girl becomes a witness--to a killer only she can see.
There's a little of everything in this book: a little funny (true laugh-out-loud moments), a little sad (I cried, I'm not ashamed to admit), a little mystery (who's killing--and how?), a little adventure (see: final battle), and a whole lot of amazing.
Here's the short story: this is a fantastic story wrapped around amazing writing. What's not to love?
So I've been thinking about updating my website. I've already revamped the Books page, and if you were clever enough to find the secret page on the website, get your eyefull now, because that's about to go down and be redone, too...
Meanwhile, the page that I think is most lacking in my website here is the For Writers page. I always meant for it to be more, I just....never got around to it.
But when I stare blankly at it, I wonder...what would YOU like to see? Because honestly? I'd like to really make that page for fellow writers, not me. Now, keep in mind that I'm not expert and I don't really know what I'm doing and I spend a lot of time just bumbling around in the dark, but given that...are they any topics you'd like to see on that page? Any specific items or whatever you'd like to see?
I was in college when 9/11 happened. I worked as an RA, and I woke up early and grumpy to do my assigned hours at the front desk in the lobby. There was something on the radio--an attack, something happening in NY--but I flipped it over to a music station.
Another RA came by. "Did you hear about the attack?"
"What attack?" I asked.
We turned the radio back to the news station.
As soon as I could, I ran back to my dorm room and turned on the television. By that point, only one tower had fallen. Before my eyes, I saw the second fall, too.
It was at that moment when I knew things had changed for me forever.
Glimmers of memories stand out from that time. Classes canceled. A friend, whose mother worked in the towers, crying unconsolably. My boss, who was a Muslim and wore a traditional head scarf, afraid to leave her office for a week. A campus-wide meeting, in which we warned, since we were located at the state capital, that we might be next.
But I don't think I really understood how the world had changed until I became a teacher, and started teaching kids who couldn't really remember a world before 9/11.
***Just to clarify--I'm not trying to disparage self published authors with this post. The point of my post was to just extend the conversation; I was curious to see YOUR thoughts.
Even though I'm still in my debut year as an author (holy cow, that's insane, no?!), I've been writing for ten years and reading for most of my life. And I'm an avid reader--constantly seeking the next book, with a veritable of TBR books and even more already-read shelves of books.
So: I'm completely aware of books, authors, and--the subject of what I want to talk about today--publishers.
As you can probably guess: I'm a somewhat unusual reader. I definitely pay attention to who publishes what, and I have very clear, distinct opinions on publishers. Through years of reading and paying attention to who published what, I know that some publishers tend to publish books that I will universally like--and some publish books I universally don't. When it comes to buying a book, I first weigh the story: if I love the premise, I buy the book, if not, I put it back down. If I'm on the fence, though, I'll consider the author--if I know him/her (even just through online stuff), I'll buy the book. If not, or if I'm still on the fence, I look at the publisher. If it's from an imprint that I usually like--I buy the book. If not, I don't. There's one imprint in particular--and, merely because I've been paying attention to this stuff for so long--there's one editor in particular at that imprint, whose books I just don't like. It's not that they're bad--it's that this editor and I clearly have very different tastes. There were agents who I didn't query before I signed because I just didn't like the books that thanked that agent in the acknowledgements--and I could safely assume that our tastes were so different that those agents wouldn't have liked my book, either.
But as I've said: I'm an unusual reader. Most people, don't know the editor at a publishing house at all. Most readers, I think, don't even pay attention to who publishes what.
I'm thinking about all this today because of a post Nathan Bransford recently had on his blog. In reference to ebooks in particular, I think that if readers are not currently looking at who publishes what, they will be soon. Right now, we're in a weird sort of "anything goes" age of epublishing--people are trying new things (different price points, established authors self-pubbing ebooks, interactive content, etc.) to see what will stick and what will be the best method in this new epublishing age.
Not too long ago, there were a lot of fight about what the maximum price an ebook should be. Many publishers and professionals insisted on a $9.99 price point--and Amazon, notably, was in favor of a lower price point. This is me just spit-balling here, but from that debate, it seemed to me that Amazon figured it would make more money with ereaders than with the sale of ebooks.
Recently, Amazon announced that they will be developing a new tablet (think: iPad, but with an Amazon brand name), and I read an article that speculated that the tablets will likely be sold at cost or even at a loss to Amazon in an effort to drive more sales to ebooks--which seems to me to indicate that Amazon now sees ebooks as the driving source of funds, not ereaders.
I think the shift has come from people who are burnt out of the 99-cent price point. Speaking on solely a personal level, I got an ebook reader for Christmas last year. I downloaded a crap-ton of free and 99-cent ebooks...and quickly became really rather disgusted by them. It became a matter, to me, not of how much money I was willing to spend, but how much time. To put it frankly, many of the cheap or free books were not worth the pennies I paid for them. I became the type of ebook reader who would rather take a chance on a $9.99 book than on a 99-cent book: I valued my time in reading the book more than the money I spent to purchase it.
Personally, I think a lot of people are going to end up doing the same. They are going to seek out quality over quantity--rather than buying many cheap books, they'll spend more money on fewer books of quality.
As Nathan points out in his article, one way that people can distinguish quality is through a publisher--it's a type of cachet, a sort of assurance that the book has been vetted in some way. A quality seal.
But of course, that only works if people actually notice who a publisher is.
So, I wanted to turn to you, fair readers: Do you notice who publishes a book?
And, to go along with that: What influences your purchase of an ebook? Please note: I've allowed multiple answers for this one!
I...am still just so gobsmacked by the Creative Contest that I cannot even begin to put into words how awesome you guys are. I think it's pretty obvious that, basically, I have the best readers EVER and I will monkey-cage-fight anyone who disagrees with me.
Now, if you remember, there were originally going to be two prizes for this contest. The first was going to be a random drawing of all the entrants, and that winner would get a signed ARC and a custom-made charm bracelet by Jennie on Etsy.
So, after putting together all the entrants and using the trusty-old Random.Org, I'm happy to announce that the random-drawing winner of the Creative Contest is....
Now, you'll remember that I also said that I reserved the right to give a prize to the person whose entry I thought was the most creative and neat.
And that's where I ran into a problem.
Because. Um. I couldn't pick.
It's YOUR fault, really. I mean, come on! You guys were making amazing things here! Paintings and henna tattoos and songs and videos and dances and sculptures and jewelry and poetry and MORE. How on freaking earth was I supposed to pick just ONE thing from that list of awesome!??! I can't, that's how.
Sooooo.......
I decided to do something a little crazy.
I decided to give every single person who entered the contest a prize.
That's right. If you entered the contest, you get a prize. It's not huge (and not ARCs, sorry! I don't have that many!)--but it is a special, unique prize, and it is a secret prize. Why a secret? Because the prize will actually be a clue about A MILLION SUNS. And if you were one of the 42 people who entered the contest, then you get it. And no one else. Nanananabooboo.
I've emailed all the entrants already about this special prize--but three emails bounced back to me. If you entered and didn't get an email, shoot me a line so I can tell you how to claim your prize, and please include a link so I know it's you! :)
Meanwhile, stick around! I'm working on a new webpage right now featuring all the entries--and you'll be able to see for yourself how impossible it was to decide on just one winner!
ALSO: Safari Poet was awesome enough to translate my German book trailer, so check out the comments of yesterday's post to read her awesome translation!
Still recovering from Dragon*Con and Decatur Book Fest--I think I picked up a nasty cold there, which is sad-making. Also sore-throat-and-runny-nose-making. But! Big announcement of prize winners TOMORROW!
And until then, can I entice you with the German Book Trailer for Across the Universe? I have NO IDEA what it says, but that bit at the end gave me goosebumps! Click here to see for yourself.
I'm leaving! For the rest of the Labor Day Weekend, I'll be splitting my time between Dragon*Con in Atlanta and Decatur Book Fest in Decatur (near Atlanta). If you're near the area, come introduce yourself to me!
Before I go, a few quick updates:
In the past two days, the entries for the Creative Contest literally doubled! Between the increase in entries and the fact that I'm leaving tomorrow--I just can't decide on the winner right now. It will be the first thing I do when I get back early next week, though, I swear! It's just that you guys are so awesome that I can't decide!!
I will probably be unable to check email, post here, etc., but I DO plan on tweeting (yay for SmartPhones!), so if you want to keep up with me, follow me at @BethRevis
And, just in case you'll be in Atlanta for it, here's my schedule!
Friday
·5:30-6:30: DragonCon: A707 Marriott
oThe
Hunger Games: What did you love the most about the series? (all three books)
·8:30-7:30: DragonCon: Hanover C-E Hyatt
oHarry
Potter from Page to Screen: High and low points of the movie franchise; did the
books translate well?
Saturday
·11:00-12:30: Decatur Book Fest; The Escape at
the Decatur Library
oPast
and Future Loves: the allure of romance both historic and futurisitc
·1:00-2:00: DragonCon: Hanover C-E Hyatt
oThe
Hero’s Journey of Neville Longbottom: How does the Hero’s Journey translate to
Neville and other secondary HP characters?
oThe
Why and How of YA: Is YA right for you? Discuss differences in YA, MG, and
adult fiction
·1:00-2:00: DragonCon: A707 Marriott
oOnline
Interactions: How do kids and teens use technology to interact with books and
authors today? Do they expect more as they turn the last page of that novel?
You have until midnight to get any last entries in, but I wanted to show you all the entries I've received so far!
To showcase everything, I created a Glog for you--an interactive poster with all the entries on it! You can click on any picture--or the song, or the video--and you'll go to the site of the artist. If the embedded poster below is too small to see (there were a lot of entries to fit in!)
Below is a list of full credits for the above Glog and links to other entries. If the entry was sent via a link, I've linked it both below and in the Glog. If it was emailed or given to me in person, there is no link. Please let me know if anything doesn't work!
Not Pictured:
-Across the Universe Badges by Margaret (she gave them to me in person, and my camera's broken at the moment! Will upload pics ASAP!) -Across the Universe Press Kit by Jess (it's not really the kind of entry that can be pictured!)
-Work by Sheri--there was one entry that came through as an error. If you're Sherri and your work isn't pictured, please let me know
-Anyone who submitted their entry after 2:00 EST August 30 isn't in the Glog, but I'll be adding updates here when I can!
I'm working on a way to present the entries I've received so far, but I wanted to remind everyone:
You've only got one more day
to enter the Creative Contest!!!
You can find out more information on the contest here, but make sure you get your entries in by 11:59 PM Eastern Standard Time TOMORROW, August 31! We've got some simply AMAZING entries so far--like you would not even believe--but remember, there are two prizes--one is for the most creative, one is a random drawing of everyone who enters!
And the prize? The very first signed copy of A MILLION SUNS that I've giving away! The only other people who have signed copies AT ALL are my parents, my in-laws, and my husband!
Also: a custom-made charm bracelet. Also: a secret prize to the creative winner.
I think that my favorite thing that authors do in writing is foreshadow. A good use of foreshadow will make me fall in love with an author like nothing else.
To be honest with you, my adoration of JK Rowling started with foreshadow--she layered in the Polyjuice Potion that was crucial to Book 4 in Book 2, and by that point, I was just head-over-heels. Guys, good foreshadowing is just smexy.
Foreshadow takes skill. It requires one of two things--either the author has to plan out the important clues from the beginning (especially difficult if you're dealing with a series instead of just one book) or the author has to use the situations/objects/characters she's already established in the story in a significant way later on.
And either way you do it, you've got to make it clever.
In a lot of ways, foreshadowing is like a magic trick. Magic are all about diversion. I make you look at the flash and bang over here and you don't notice the card up my sleeve over there. Likewise, (good) foreshadow is all about showing you something in plain sight over here, but hiding its significance over there.
Foreshadow is essential--essential--to a good story.
But bad foreshadowing? Bad foreshadowing can kill a good story.
Doctor Who Spoiler Warning Below This Point
For example: y'all know I have some love for Doctor Who, right? Well, last night I watched the latest episode "Let's Kill Hitler" (and if you've not seen it, stop reading now to avoid spoilers). And...as much as I love Doctor Who, I have to say...the entire storyline is weaker to me now because it didn't use good foreshadow. In fact, it didn't use any...and it totally should have. Here's the thing: it tells the story of Mels, Amy and Rory's childhood friend who is (a) obsessed with the Doctor and (b) brings him up all the time and (c) is the person Amy and Rory named their daughter after. And...she has never EVER been brought up on the show AT ALL. There's a complicated plot twist about Mels that you can read about here, but the thing is--I didn't care at all.
Do you know how cool it would have been if, when we saw Amy as a child last year, we also saw childhood Mel? How about if Mel had been at Amy and Rory's wedding (if she was significant enough to be the namesake of their child, why not have her at the wedding)? How about if--in the last freaking episode--Amy had mentioned that her daughter was named after her childhood friend?
But no--none of that was there. Which made the entire story not very believable. Which drove me mad. Which meant that this story of Doctor Who--which I've loved so far, full of time travel and witty dialog and clever plot twists--is diminished in my eyes.
Here's my dark secret: I like reading book reviews. The snarkier the better. In fact, I prefer it when the reviewer just rips the book a new one, decimating every single plot point and tearing the characters apart in an inky massacre.
But...uh...I don't like reading those sorts of reviews if they're about my book.
When I'm feeling really bad about my writing, or I've lost confidence in myself, or if the word-well has just run dry, I log onto GoodReads. I shield my eyes of any reviews of ACROSS THE UNIVERSE (good or bad), and I look up my absolute favorite books, and read the negative reviews of them. It reminds me that all writing is subjective, and that not everyone will like every book.
But if I'm feeling really bad, I'll look up the books I don't like, and I will read the snarkiest, meanest reviews of them, and in my head, I get my snark on, too. It still reminds me that writing is subjective--but it also reminds me that I care about quality. I think of the things I value in writing, and I take comfort in the fact that others value that, too, and call other writers on those issues.
And also? It reminds me that people do pick apart books for entirely valid reasons. It reminds me that when someone reads my books, they may be doing it with an eye to poke holes in the plot, dig into the characters with a sharp knife, rip apart my words.
There's a problem with the idea that just because you wrote a book, it's good enough to publish. There's also a problem with the idea that just because a book is published, it's good. Last night, I was up until 3:30 am writing out notes for my last-chance changes to A MILLION SUNS. I'll be honest: there came a point where I was just staring at the page, debating whether or not I really needed the comma to set off the prepositional phrase, or if it was fine without.
So I read a review of a book--a truly vicious, nasty, snarky review, and it tore apart the text word by word. And it reminded me: I'm not a special snowflake. People can--and will--do that to my book, too. So I better make it the best I possibly can.
I've been getting a lot of questions about Advance Reader Copies (ARCs) recently, so I wanted to do a quick post about them. First: yay! ARCs! They are shiny and pretty and also terrifying--eep! People are actually reading this thing!
And before I go further, I want to remind you: if you're a reviewer who would like to request an ARC, please do so through this form. But also, please know: my publisher will be selecting who gets ARCs, and I've already been informed that we've gotten more requests than ARCs currently available, but not all have been sent out yet. You can read more about Penguin's ARC request policy here. Also? Please don't ask me for one. I honestly don't have any to share. I got just enough to share with a few members of my family and for the contests that I am planning on doing from now to the end of the year.
There are two specific reasons why I wanted to bring up ARCs today. The first is: Please don't feel bad if you don't get an ARC. There seems to be a strange sort of hierarchy on blogs lately, a sort of grouping between the "haves" and the "have-nots." ARCs are not a status symbol. It's not a bad thing if you don't get an ARC. The Waxman Literary Agency did a great post about this not too long ago that I highly recommend, but the long and short of it is simply that ARCs are a tool used by publishers for publicity, and there's no reason at all for you to feel bad if you don't get one.
The second reason why I wanted to talk about ARCs is that: Please remember that ARCs are advance, uncorrected copies, and that there WILL be changes between ARCs and the final copies.Michelle Hodkin recently posted about this, and, like her, there's going to be a change between the ARC and the final copy of my book. In fact, I'm bouncing off the walls about a particular change. I mentioned in a note to my publisher that I thought it would be neat if we did something with a certain scene using a graphic, and I honestly thought it was just not feasible to do...but I am reading the final pass pages of the final copy of the book right now, and THEY DID IT! And it's so PRETTY! And I can't wait for people to see the final copy of the book!!! ZOMG!!! I sort of want to go like a ninja to every person who has an ARC, rip it out of their hands, and say, "WAIT! WAIT! The final copies are going to be so much BETTER!"
*sigh* I guess I'm going to have to wait until January for all of you to see the pretty. *stares at the clock* *stares some more* *taps foot impatiently*
