News and Announcements!

EVENTS!

This weekend, I'll be in Charleston, SC, for the first annual Y'All Fest! I have been promised pie, so I will definitely be there.


My events:

Location: THE AMERICAN THEATER, 446 King St.

Time: 3 pm 

PUTTING THE YALL IN YALLFEST • Ballroom

Saundra Mitchell (The Vespertine)

Michelle Hodkin (The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer)

Katie Crouch (The Magnolia League)

Carrie Ryan (The Forest of Hands and Teeth)

Moderator: Beth Revis (Across the Universe)

Note: I'll be unable to sign after this events, as I have to rush off to...

Location: THE AMERICAN THEATER, 446 King St.

Time: 4pm

DON’T DIS-TOPIAN • Cinema

Beth Revis (Across the Universe)

Kim Derting (The Pledge)

Diana Peterfreund (Rampant)

Eliot Schrefer (School for Dangerous Girls)

Moderator: Sarah Rees Brennan (The Demon’s Lexicon)

Note: I WILL be able to sign books after this event.

And I'll also be here:

6 pm YA SMACKDOWN • Ballroom • $5•Available at Blue Bike or here

All 26 writers on stage at once for YA games!

Presented by Chas. County Public Library YA Services

If you live in or near Charleston, be sure to attend! It's going to be TONS of fun--with TONS of authors--and my publisher is shipping down an extra box of swag and goodies JUST for this event! Remember, you can find more information here.

AWARDS!

Holy frex, you guys, I've been nominated for some awards! I am...gobsmacked. Seriously. I can't even begin to express what an honor it is to be even nominated for these.

Carnegie Medal 

(a literature award based in the UK)

Romantic Times (RT) Award Nominations:

Book of the Year

Best YA Futuristic/Paranormal

GoodReads Award Nominations:

Young Adult Science Fiction & Fantasy

Best GoodReads Author

None of this would have happened without you guys, the people who read my book and have been with me every step of the way. I've already informed the husband that should my book progress from the longlist to the shortlist for the Carnegie, we're going to London for vacay. And I will be going to the RT Conference in Chicago next April, so I plan to high-five as many people there as possible (as well as give away a ton of copies of A MILLION SUNS).

If you want to, I would appreciate your vote in the GoodReads book awards. Or you can vote for another book--seriously, I won't know the difference--but if you're a reader and on GoodReads, definitely do make your voice heard and your vote counted. (And I'll give you a hug and a sparkly-eyed-smile if you vote for AtU.)

THANK YOU!

I mean, I know I'm doing the whole thank-you-contest-thing right now, but seriously...thank you. Thank you all. I can never say it enough.

THANKFUL FOR...King Lear

All this week I'm going to be discussing the books I'm most grateful for. Doing a post like this one is all you have to do to qualify for the 19-YA-Book Giveaway I launched yesterday. Just tell people about a book you're thankful for, include a link to the contest and the graphic right there to the right, and you're qualified.

King Lear by Shakespeare

I'll be honest, my first two books I featured were softballs. Who doesn't love Narnia and Harry Potter (don't tell me if you don't love them, I live in a world where everyone loves them).

I also mentioned my love of YA and how reading so much adult lit drove me even further into YA. So let me switch it up today: today I'm talking about my favorite play, King Lear.

My first experience with this play was actually as a child--one of my favorite books growing up was Grandfather Tales a collection of folk Appalachian stories collected by Robert Hillerich. I read and absorbed every single one of those stories, and eventually, as I grew up, I started making connections between the stories and their sources. "Whitebear Whittington" had roots in the classic "Beauty and the Beast" stories, for example, and I realized that many of the stories can be traced back to classic fairy tales. The settlers in Appalachia took the stories of their European ancestors and made them their own.

One story, though, was always a mystery to me: "Like Salt Loves Meat." In it, a girl tells her father she loves him "like salt loves meat," a similarity that he doesn't appreciate, and he sends her away. It's not until a clever cook (his daughter in disguise) makes him a meal without salt that he realizes the depth of her love.

When I was in high school, I was assigned to read King Lear. Within the first scene, I realized I had found the source of my favorite folk tale, and by the end I was as in love with the original as with the bedtime story.

One of my favorite things about King Lear is that it touches on all forms of love--and it most definitely IS a love story, even if the main love story is between a father and a daughter. It's about familial love between parents and children, brothers and sisters. It's about the love between friends and strangers. It's about love turned sour by greed and kept pure by sincerity.

There are little moments in the play that I relish. When Goneril smashes out Gloucester's eyes and describes them as jelly, I can't help but laugh. Kent's loyalty and Lear's madness are some of my favorite scenes, as is Gloucester's "aided suicide." But one of my favorite aspects of the play is the fact that it's possible for the same actor to play both Cordelia and the Fool--which adds a whole new layer of meaning to the Fool's words.

Shakespeare's probably most well known for Romeo and Juliet...and that's my least favorite of his plays. I don't think that Romeo and Juliet had love at all. At best they had a manic sort of obsessive attraction, but love? No.

If you want love, look at how Cordelia loves Lear.

She loves him like salt loves meat.

Find out what the other Bookanistas are reading here:

Elana Johnson is crazy about Crossed and Shatter Me

LiLa Roecker swoons for Sirenz

Christine Fonseca  interviews Kids Inventing! author Susan Casey

Shelli Johannes-Wells dishes on Become (Desolation Book #1)

Beth Revis celebrates books for which she’s grateful – with gigantic signed book giveaway

Jessi Kirby applauds Virtuosity

Megan Miranda marvels at How to Save a Life

Rosemary Clement Moore is wild for The Iron Witch

Veronica Rossi  is amazed by Shatter Me

THANKFUL FOR... Harry Potter

All this week I'm going to be discussing the books I'm most grateful for. Doing a post like this one is all you have to do to qualify for the 19-YA-Book Giveaway I launched yesterday. Just tell people about a book you're thankful for, include a link to the contest and the graphic right there to the right, and you're qualified.

Harry Potter by JK Rowling

It's probably cliche to say that Harry Potter is one of the books I'm most grateful for. Nearly every writer I know has read and loved these books (and, to be honest, I'm a little wary of those that don't).

Still: it's true.

Let me set the scene for you. I was in college. I was an English major--and had taken the lofty classes and ready the snobby books to prove it. While I loved stories and loved reading, I don't think I'd really read a book for fun in years. In high school, I worked myself to the bone between part-time jobs and AP classes so I could afford college--I used the jobs to buy my first computer and used the schooling and a healthy dose of luck to get a scholarship. In college, I still had this insatiable need to prove myself. I was rather like Lisa Simpson.

So: I took the highest level classes, wrote the longest essays, and read every book on the syllabus.

And somewhere in there, I forgot about how I loved stories. I was so busy finding the symbolism in Frankenstein and parsing the iambic pentameter of Shakespeare and translating the Old English of Beowulf that I forgot about the pure joy of story.

The number one thing that I've gotten flack for on my website is my often-proclaimed loved of YA books and how, in my opinion, YA books are better than adult literature. People seem to think that means I hate adult literature, or that my love of YA somehow degrades or insults their love of adult lit. The thing is, I don't hate adult lit. I spent five years of my academic life researching adult lit and getting two degrees in it. I like adult lit.

But I love YA lit.

So here I was in college, surrounded by Moby Dick and Walt Whitman and Henry David Thoreau, and I went to a bookstore with my roommate, also an English major. We were browsing the shelves--on the adult lit side, of course--and she leaned over and whispered, almost like it was a secret, "I sometimes like to read the books over there."

Over there was the YA section.

My first instinct: turn up my nose and scoff. Over there? Yeah, right. We were adults now, we read adult books. We were scholars! Academics! Why waste our time over there?


But I glanced at the titles on those shelves.

It was like being greeted by an old friend.

You know how a dog always loves you, no matter what? How a dog is always excited to see you, tail wagging, ready to jump in your lap, and it doesn't care what you look like or if you'd been mean to it before, it just wants to love you? YA books are like that. Adult books are like the housecat who does what it wants and often ignores you, but YA books are the happy dog with a tail wagging just waiting to be picked up.

From that point on, I started reading YA books for fun. I fell back in love with story.

And the first books I read, the first ones that reminded me of the joy of story, were Harry Potter.

PS: I love Harry Potter so much that I'll be a guest speaker at Ascendio 2012, a Harry Potter conference taking place in July, in Orlando, home of Harry Potter World! Hope to see you there!


Oh, and, meet my dog...named Sirius.

THANKFUL FOR...Narnia

All this week I'm going to be discussing the books I'm most grateful for. Doing a post like this one is all you have to do to qualify for the 19-YA-Book Giveaway I launched yesterday. Just tell people about a book you're thankful for, include a link to the contest and the graphic right there to the right, and you're qualified.

Chronicles of Narnia

by CS Lewis

If I had to pinpoint one book that changed my life, it would be this one.

I remember when I first discovered The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. It was at my local library. The children's section was in the basement of the library, and under the stairs that lead into the section was "my spot," an area were I would pile up books and pour myself into them until my mother dragged me away. 

I had read every single Babysitter's Club and Sweet Valley in the library, and was getting a little sick of it. (Or maybe I was just sick of Jessica. She was never as cool as Elizabeth.) Frankly, at the time there was little else beyond picture books down there. 

Then I found The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. 

It was, in a word, magical. I went through the wardrobe with Lucy, and I never came back out. 

I've re-read the entire series countless times since, but that first time I read it was the best. That was when I realized that books could be more than the words on the page. To an adult reader, the allegorical subtext of the novels is pretty obvious, but to me, a kid with no experience in that sort of thing, piecing together the meaning behind the story was like putting together a puzzle, uncovering each detail as if it were a carefully hidden clue in a mystery I was living with the characters.

I love Narnia not just for the story (and Reepicheep! and Mr. Tumnus! and Puddleglum!) but also for that moment of discovery. I loved it so much that, from a very early age, I dedicated myself to books. I went on to major in English, get a master's degree in literature, become a teacher of English for six years, and all the while weave together stories that always had a hint of snow or Turkish delight in them.

If you haven't yet, be sure to tell me about what story you're most grateful for and sign up for the giveaway! And, after today, I think you can figure out why I decided to include a box of Turkish delight with the prizes... :D

Show Gratitude for Books...and win 19 SIGNED YA BOOKS!

It's fall--and despite the candy from Halloween and the (early) Christmas decorations, the holiday I'm most looking forward to right now is Thanksgiving.

I've got a lot to be thankful for--this year, the dream I've held dear for most of my life came true with the publication of my first novel. And in all honesty--it's been even better than I dreamed.

So this month, in honor of Thanksgiving and all that I've got to be thankful for, I want to thank you, the wonderful people who've been with me on this insanely glorious journey. And to do that, I've turned to some of the fantastic friends I've made along the way.

I tracked down every author I thanked in my acknowledgements--the ones who blurbed me, the ones who critiqued me, the ones who became my friends, and I got a signed copy of each of their books. Add that to a copy of Across the Universe and an ARC of A Million Suns, and this giveaway is...HUGE. 19-signed-books-plus-swag-and-more HUGE.

See? HUGE. 
One winner. One giant prize.

First, let me tell you about the prizes. 

ONE winner is going to win ALL the following prizes:

SIGNED Advance Reader Copy of A Million Suns

SIGNED paperback of Across the Universe

Swag: bookmarks, bracelet, pin button, and poster

A box of Turkish Delight (to celebrate the book I am most grateful for)

Thankful for my blurbers!

SIGNED paperback of Paranormalcy by Kiersten White

SIGNED hardback of Graveminder by Melissa Marr

SIGNED paperback of The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

Signed bookmark of Supernaturally and swag from Carrie

Thankful for the people who helped me crit!

SIGNED paperback of When Mike Kissed Emma by Christine Marciniak

SIGNED paperback of Solstice by PJ Hoover

PRE-ORDER of Incarnate by Jodi Meadows, with SIGNED bookplate 

Stickers for Incarnate trading cards for Solstice

Thankful for the League!

SIGNED hardback of Memento Nora by Angie Smibert

SIGNED hardback of The Eleventh Plague by Jeff Hirsch

SIGNED hardback of Possession by Elana Johnson

SIGNED paperback of XVI by Julia Karr

Thankful for the touring buddies and advice-givers!

SIGNED hardback of Hourglass by Myra McEntire

SIGNED hardback of The Vespertine by Saundra Mitchell

SIGNED hardback of The Near Witch by Victoria Schwab

Bookmarks, swag, and a signed bookplate from Saundra
(which you could use for the sequel, The Springsweet)

Thankful for the friends who listen and share!

SIGNED hardback of Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins

SIGNED hardback of Wither by Lauren de Stefano

That includes a hand-written sneak-peek of the sequel, Fever!

SIGNED hardback of The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

SIGNED paperback of The Liar Society by Lisa and Laura Roecker

Thankful for the Elevensies and the Bookanistas!

Swag from Matt Blackstone, Keri Mikulski, Stacia Kehoe, Helen Landalf, Caroline Starr, Carrie Harris, Sonia Gensler, Ruta Sepetys, Terry Johnson, Kristen Hubbard, Sara Bennet Wealer, and Kim Harrington--much of is signed!

That's right!

One person will win 19 signed books, a box of Turkish Delight, and a metric ton of swag and book goodies!

There's also going to be four runner-up prizes:

Sharing Book Joy Runner Up:

SIGNED paperback of Across the Universe

Bookmarks, poster, pin button, and bracelet swag

Box of Turkish Delight (to celebrate the book I'm most grateful for!)

Celebrate the Launch of the Paperback Runners-up

THREE WINNERS will each get:

SIGNED paperback of Across the Universe

Bookmarks, poster, pin button, and bracelet swag

So, how do you enter to win these prizes?

Create a post in which you tell everyone about the one book YOU are most grateful for

Include a link back to the contest in your post

Include a picture of the following graphic somewhere in your post
(Lost? I'll be doing an example of this tomorrow with my favorite book!)

<center><a href="http://dft.ba/-win19"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTPgwtfS5eR1EzQpIULNa7jbRtegSlrE1xF812XZDUEXrqWSQiSy3hz4z85e-9gbZ0k40VmJ7t3_j8k3yc3ORvuIjnWdi9l9-HkWkE-f8oyzM0YEo1N3cuSx1iRohyn1vfSBnWpuegeggE/s1600/november+giveaway+static.jpg" width="400”" height="400" /></a></center>

To earn an extra entry each day, you can also spread the word about the contest.

Tweet

Facebook

And finally:

Don't forget to fill out the form below to enter to win!

Remember: a post about your favorite book is mandatory for entry, and each time you spread the word is an extra entry.

If you'd like to share the post you've made with everyone else, please feel free to put it on the Mr. Linky widget below! (Don't feel obligated to do the "add a comment" thing; that's a default of the widget.

Word Count Meter

There are a lot out there, but this is the one I've been using. I like the simplicity, and that I can edit it to only show the percentage.

http://languageisavirus.com/nanowrimo/word-meter.html

On Goals, Failure, and Success

So, last week I set myself a pretty lofty goal.

I didn't make it.

I came close--and I like what I've got done so far, but in terms of the actual goal, all I got done was...

62% done!

So--in a way I failed. I didn't get the number of words that I wanted. But I did get the quality of words I wanted, and that's important, too. And that's a huge chunk that didn't exist a week before. 

But then again, I did make a bet. With y'all. I bet I'd get 100% done in my goal, and I only went a little over halfway. And so it's time to pay up.

At the beginning of the week, I said I'd give a signed copy of the paperback ACROSS THE UNIVERSE to someone who commented or tweeted this week. And the random winner is...

EMILY!

(who doesn't have an email address associated with her blog profile; 

Emily, please email me at bethrevis @ gmail.com with a mailing address)

And even though I wasn't 100% successful with my goal this week, I do think it helped to set a goal. And I also rather liked doing the meter thing--I don't like it much with a whole project (it intimidates me, I'll be honest!) but with a smaller goal, the meter goes up faster. 

Same bet: if I don't make my goal, a random commenter or twitter-er will get a signed paperback of AtU.

Now I just have to start the new goal!

0% done!

Bookanista Interview: Anna Staniszewski, author of MY VERY UNFAIRYTALE LIFE

I first had the pleasure of meeting Anna Staiszewski (aka Anna Stan) online through her blog and I still remember the excitement I felt for her when she announced her first book deal, for the funny and magical middle grade MY VERY UNFAIRYTALE LIFE.


The book officially launches in November--but drop by your local bookstore and see if there are copies available, because a lot of them are showing up early! And Anna's here to tell us all about her charming book!

YOU

We can read all about your life from your bio in the jacket flap of your book. So, what's a completely random fact about you that most people don't know?

I once jumped out of a plane! In Australia! It was by far the craziest—and most amazing—thing I’ve ever done. I totally blame Keanu Reeves. Ever since I watched Point Break when I was in middle school, I knew I had to go skydiving one day.

As a kid, what was your favorite book? Have your tastes changed since growing up?  

There were so many books that I read over and over when I was a kid: Anne of Green Gables, The Secret Garden, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. I was always drawn to stories that transported me to a different time and place, and that’s still very much true today.

Your book, MY VERY UNFAIRY TALE LIFE, the main character, Jenny, works in a magical kingdom. Would you live in a magical kingdom if you could?

Jenny’s job is to visit magical kingdoms and solve the problems she encounters there. If I had the opportunity to live in one of the magical kingdoms Jenny travels to, I think I’d pass! Magic is great and all, but Jenny discovers that magical creatures can be pretty clueless and a tiny bit…annoying.

YOUR BOOK

It's the inevitable question: what inspired MY VERY UNFAIRY TALE LIFE? 

A few years ago, I was working on a very dark YA novel that was starting to suck the life out of me. I knew I needed something fun to work on to get me out of my funk. I sat down and started writing a scene about a girl who comes home from school one day to find a talking frog on her bed. What interested me about the scene was that the girl wasn’t surprised or excited to discover the frog in her room; instead, she was annoyed. It was such an unexpected reaction that I knew I had to find out more about this girl.

One of the great things about MY VERY UNFAIRY TALE LIFE is the way it turns ideas about fairy tale creatures on its head: the unicorns are bloodthirsty and the magical kingdom is falling apart. Can you tell us a little more about how you built the world of your novel?

I’ve always loved stories about young people who are swept off on magical adventures. But in this story, I wanted to play around with what happens after you’ve been an adventurer for years and you’re tired and fed up. Once I knew I wanted to do that, it was fun to take elements we expect in fairy tales (talking animals, mythical creatures, etc.) and make them into obstacles that get in Jenny’s way.

Can you tell us a little bit about the process--particularly the timeline--of writing MY VERY UNFAIRY TALE LIFE?

The process was pretty sporadic. This was the fun story I came back to when I was stuck on other projects, so I would write it in spurts. Once I signed with my agent (with a different project that never sold) she asked me if I had anything else in the works. I’d just finished a huge revision of the story—which was then titled JENNY THE ADVENTURER—so I sent it to her. She liked the concept but said the story needed more focus, so I worked with her on several major revisions before it was ready for submission. From the moment I first began writing the book to the day it actually sold, the span of time was about four years.

If your reader could only take away one emotion, theme, or idea from MY VERY UNFAIRY TALE LIFE, what would you want it to be?

Oh this is a hard one! The story is about adventure and magic, but most of all it’s about discovering—and accepting—your identity and your purpose in life.

YOUR WRITING

What's the most surprising thing you've learned since becoming a writer?

How loooong everything takes. Patience is not exactly one of my virtues, but I’ve been forced to become much more patient as I’ve trudged along through the writing and publishing process. I’m still tempted to have a little tantrum once in a while, but I’m getting much better about it.

Beyond the typical--never give up, believe in yourself--what would be the single best advice you'd like to give another writer?

Never stop writing. I had a few other projects that I thought would get me published: they didn’t. Luckily, I kept working on new things and one of those projects was finally The One.

What do you think are your strongest and weakest points in writing?

Because I have a theater background, dialogue is something that seems to come fairly naturally to me. In fact, my first drafts tend to be almost all dialogue. As for my weakest points? Where do I start! One major thing I have to work on as I go through my later drafts is putting a concrete sense of place into my stories. In early drafts, the characters are just floating around in space. I have to work at grounding them in a specific time and place so that readers can see what I’m imagining.

Thanks so much for having me, Beth!

Thanks for coming by, Anna!

Bio

Born in Poland and raised in the United States, Anna Staniszewski grew up loving stories in both Polish and English. She was named the 2006-2007 Writer-in-Residence at the Boston Public Library and a winner of the 2009 PEN New England Susan P. Bloom Discovery Award. Currently, Anna lives outside of Boston, Mass. with her husband and their adopted black Labrador, Emma. When she's not writing, Anna spends her time teaching, reading, and challenging unicorns to games of hopscotch. You can visit her at www.annastan.com.

 Check Out What the Other Bookanistas Are Reading by Clicking the Links Below!

• Elana Johnson REVEALS something awesome!!!
• LiLa Roecker  announces a winner - plus a Past Midnight series giveaway
• Christine Fonseca  reveals books she cannot wait to read
• Beth Revis interviews My Very UnFairytale Life authorAnna Staniszewski
• Shannon Whitney Messenger interviews Skyship Academy-Pearl Wars author Nick James & agent Jennifer Rofe – with giveaway
• Jessi Kirby twirls for Audition
• Shana Silver burns for Circle of Fire
• Carrie Harris devours Deadly
• Stasia Ward Kehoe travels to The Day Before

Tuesday's Live-Blog

Read this First!

The lovely Gwenda Bond did an interview with me at Lightspeed Magazine (which you might recall I talked about last week here). You can now read the full interview online, for free. This is one of the most specific, detailed interviews I've ever done, so if you've ever had any questions about Across the Universe, my writing process, or my road to publication, I definitely suggest checking it out. And while you're there, you should also totally check out Lightspeed--it's a reasonably priced online magazine that is chock full of fantastic information on super cool authors and short stories by some faves--the story ahead of my interview is a steampunk by Cassie Clare and is brilliant.

Now on to the Live-Blog!

As usual, this will be updated throughout the day as I continue writing.

10:04: Wake up. No shame.

10:05-12:55: Things happened. I dunno. I guess I was there, but I don't remember most of it.

12:55: Ban myself from Twitter, open up Scrivener.

32% done!

12:56: I need to write 33% of my goal...today...and another 33% tomorrow to win my bet with Steph--and with you guys. *sigh* Procrastination can suck it. Now is GO TIME.

1:06: Right. Now is GO TIME.

1:16: When I get 35% done, I can eat lunch. *chugs coffee* I have to force myself to get through this scene; I hate writing scenes where people are angry at each other. I have no idea how JK Rowling wrote Book 6.

1:19: Ha! Caught Steph on Twitter! ...except, to catch her on Twitter means I was on Twitter... *ignore that fact*

1:53: Kiersten White is totally conspiring to distract me. She blogged about Nathan Fillion today!

2:08: Woot! I earned lunch!

36% done!

Just a quick one, though--still stuck in that terrible scene, and I've got to write my way out of it.

3:02: Quick lunch what?

3:19: You guys, I am so caught up with this whole Much Ado About Nothing thing. I mean--zomg! Nathan Fillion AND Sean Maher in a film by Joss Whedon based on a play by Shakespeare?!?! With original music?!?! I cannot focus with this much awesome pumping through the interwebs.

3:21: Joss Whedon, btw, is my hero. Like, for realsies.

3:45: Going strong.

40% done!

3:58: Back in.

42% done!

5:16: I have been productive! I did the dishes! By which I mean: I put them in the dishwasher. SHUT UP IT STILL COUNTS.

8:05: I...don't wanna work..

9:33: I'm going to take a notebook and sketch out ideas for the next bit of the book--maybe that'll help me get a jump start tomorrow.

Winner!

The winner of the October contest is:

Kristin C!

Now, there were a couple of Kristin C.'s, but I don't want to put last names/email addresses online. But the winner is the Kristin C who got an email at 9pm tonight from me :)

Also: zomg, you guys are awesome. I'm working on adding a little more material to the Password Protected Page, but it's giving me a little of a hangup--I want to make sure it's not spoilery. And I'm also working on November's giveaway. I'm rather excited about it.

In Which I Send You Elsewhere

It's almost Halloween! Yay! So I wrote you a scary story. Or...at least the first part of one. The girls over at the #YASpooktacular organized a choose-your-own-adventure style spooky story, and my story opens one of the three they are featuring! Go here to read--and enter contests for books--and start clicking on to read the continuation of the story from other authors.

PS: My story is called "The Pond in the Forest." Can you tell that, while writing that scene, I was I also working on another Across the Universe story dealing with Kayleigh and the pond and the goldfish?

Also, Phoebe North was kind enough to do a guest post for me on the League today, so if you'd like to read all about the classic sci fi titles you should know as a lover of YA, go there and check it out!

And while you're at it, be sure to also check out Phoebe's YA sci fi review blog, a new venture called The Intergalactic Academy. Here I was, thinking I had a good handle on what YA sci fi is being released now, and I've already found two new titles to read through this awesome review site!

And speaking of review sites and finding good new books, I'd like to also point you in the direction of Destination Elsewhere. This is a ning that Penguin's made to feature all the fantasy and sci fi titles. Basically, if cool, strange stuff happens in the book, it's the perfect fit for Destination Elsewhere. The background is made of the cover art for Eona, one of the best fantasy novels on the market today, so check it out at least to see the beautiful cover art!


Visit Destination Elsewhere

(Also, for those of you who don't know--because I didn't!--a ning is basically an online community. This one is focused on fantasy and sci fi books in the YA market. There are forums, chats, photos, videos, and more. And if you'd like to friend me there, my page is located here.)

And finally....you might have noticed that Stephanie has already thrown down the gaultlet and started up a live blog today! Eeep! This means...I should probably get to work.

Current status?

24% done!

But--that's going to get cut down later today. So that number will have to go DOWN before up....

A Weekend of Words

Saturday. Oh, Saturday. I did housework instead of write. That's the level we're at.

12% done!

Sunday.

10:30: Overslept. Missed church. Oops.

12:30: Still in pajamas. But laptop is open. That's a good sign, right?

12:41: I should exchange this caffeine-free Sprite for a coffee. 

12:47: When I get the umption to move again, I'm putting three peppermints into the bottom of a cup and making hot cho-coffee. Am considering adding marshmallows. 

12:48: At this point in the morning, I've spent more time thinking about what to put in my coffee cup than what to put in my book.

1:30: Coffee acquired.

2:04: Spent more than an hour looking at the art of this artist. Love practically everything she's done. Also: ordered three t-shirts (one for me, two for Christmas presents). Also: still haven't written anything. 

2:54: Relocate to office. If I want to serious work, I need to get off the couch and do the serious work. PS, I am still in my pajamas.

4:33: Some words written:

15% done!

Personal goal: 20% by the end of the day. That leaves. Er. About 25% to do each on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday...

5:03: Added another 1%, then talked to the husband about current status. Realize that pretty much all the work I've done today...has to be scrapped. It doesn't fit logically within the story. So, back to...

12% done!

5:53: Hrm. Not sure if I like this direction, either. Seems very talky-talky as I try to explain the point I'm trying to make...

24% done!

6:08: The problem is, I'm going to have to cut about 500-1000 words of that--I've essentially written the same scene two different ways, and can't decide which way is better...

6:25: Tweaking to combine the two scenes, but I'm still going to have to cut some. I think I'll wait and see which scene works better after supper...

Daily Percentages: Friday

Live-blogging really helps me stay focused. Mainly because when I record my times, I feel guilty when I look at how much time I just WASTE.

This won't strictly be a live-blog, because I'm not going to post at each stop...I'm just going to work all day and record my times.

So, right now:

1% done!

12:53pm: I've updated the blog, updated Twitter, updated Facebook, turned away from my overloaded email in shame, etc., etc....there is no reasonable excuse for me not to get to work.

12:54: OH LOOK OVER THERE SOMETHING SHINY ON THE INTERNET

12:55: I know. I know.   *sigh*   *opens up Scrivener*

1:03: Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuut! *whining*

1:11: Maybe I should set a timer. Steph updated her liveblog hourly...perhaps I should shoot for that? I'll finish this chapter (and lunch) first.

1:29: Finished the chapter, but had to go into the next one to finish the scene.

11% done!

1:43: I think I earned lunch! 

2:30: I specifically ate at my computer rather than in front of the TV. But instead of feeling energized and ready to dive straight back into work...I kind of want a nap.

I ended at a natural end--the final bit of a scene. I know the next scene I want to write, but I'd have to start it. It feels a little...daunting. I've heard it's often easier to get back in the swing of things if you stop mid-scene...maybe that's what I should have done...

2:39: Dilemma. It's so cold, all I want to do is snuggle into something warm. If I snuggle into something warm (my bed) I will take a nap. If I turn the heat up....I will take a nap. I think nap = inevitable.

2:56: After staring at Tumblr the computer screen for much too long, the idea of a nap has triumphed. 

Words? What words? *stricks fingers in my ears* Tralalalalalalalalalala I can't hear you!

5:06: Unholy bleep! Look at the time!!! *mad scurrying around the house to try to make it at least some semblance of clean so I can cook supper and then hope to write more after that....*  Eeep! No more naps for me!!

5:34: Opened dishwasher to find that the soap hadn't dissolved all the way. Lovely. Stack dirty dishes in sink and re-wash "clean" ones. 

5:36: Stare at still-messy kitchen. Wonders if it's too late to order the hubs to pick up take-out on the way home from work.

5:37: It is.

5:38: Retreat. For now.

5:41: Realize entire house is just as messy (or moreso) than kitchen. Contemplate a "fall cleaning" on top of crazy word deadline thingy for the weekend...

6:20: I am so braindead. I am officially calling it a day today, and telling myself NOT to open Scrivener again. I need a break. 

Today's Final Goal Meter:

11% done!