While I'm Away

I'm on rare vacation w/ the hubby and whilst I'm away here's some fun news!:

NIGHTSHADE is in the running for YALSA (that's the YA division of the American Library Association) Teens' Top Ten for 2011. I'd be ever so grateful if you'd stop by their site to cast a vote for NIGHTSHADE!!

WOLFSBANE is in this week's print edition of Entertainment Weekly, has spent two weeks on the NYT bestseller list, and it's #7 on the Publishers Weekly bestseller list! Woo hoo!

Wishing you a wonderful week and here's a wolfish pic I took while gallivanting around Portland last evening.

ALA: Take 2

Wow! I've been home two days now and I'm still reeling from the awesome that was ALA.I've already blogged about the wonder that was spending time around writer heroes. I also had the joy of meeting more Nightshade fans!

Big shout out to Mitali (Alley of Books), Amy (ReadingTeen), Andy (Reading Teen Too) who spent loads of time chatting in the Penguin booth. I couldn't believe how many people showed up. The line was so long that the actually ran out of Nightshade ARCs! Yikes!

On the one hand I'm so sorry to those of you who waited for an ARC and were unable to get one, on the other hand OMG I can't believe so many people showed up that they ran out!!!

Meeting readers and librarians who are so excited for Nightshade's release was such a gift. Thank you to all the librarians who are bringing Nightshade to their teens and book clubs. Having spent so much of my life in libraries, from summer reading programs as a wee one to my first job in high school, I can't thank you enough for all you do!

In addition to meeting writer heroes I also had the geek-out of the millenium when I showed up at Penguin to find this:
Wow! Darth Vader and Storm Troopers. Wow!! Wow!! Wow!!

As you can tell I had a blast. Fingers crossed that they invite me back next year :)

Humor Us

One of the incredible benefits of being a Penguin author is that I get to meet other Penguin authors. My first night at ALA I attended a dinner with wonderful librarians, great Penguin friends, and amazing writers like Laurie Halse Anderson, Ally Condie, and David Small.








Too much happened at ALA to squash it into a single post. So I decided to start with the pinnacle of my debut ALA:

They say you shouldn't meet your heroes.
"They" obviously picked the wrong heroes.

Hanging out with these guys exceeded all expectations.
Through some amazing trick of fate, I got to spend pretty much the duration of ALA with David Levithan and John Green.











And I learned a few things.

One - that David Levithan is my writing soul mate. I don't think any other person could make it seem like a good idea - natural even - to sing "You've Lost that Lovin' Feelin'" into a mic in front of 100 teenagers. Yet somehow this happened. And it was awesome. Meeting David has given me two new goals in life: To at some point go on tour with David, so that singing about writing is always part of the deal. The second goal is to somehow convince David that he needs to collaborate on a YA novel that has a paranormal element and then to convince him that I should be the other half of that collaboration. I do not know how I'm going to make this happen - but I am working on it.

+
= Werewolf Bands of London (or New York? Chicago? David??)









Two - John Green is not the zany character you think he is.



I think he is a spy - or possibly a super villain of the alluring variety. It's just something in his eyes. Sure, he's charming and witty. Sure, you love him the moment you meet him. But beneath that lively exterior lurks something else. Something complex and brooding. I'm now fleshing out a theory that Nerdfighters are actually a secret society working to overthrow the world (not that their rule would be a bad thing...). John Green would be just the guy to pull that revolution off. And nobody would see it coming.

If you haven't read John and David's books, you need to start right now. My favorite books are those that make me laugh out loud and sob. David and John both write with that type of insistent and authentic emotional quality. I reread John's Looking for Alaska on the plane right home, and had to constantly apologize to the person sitting next to me for my torrents of giggling and crying. I told him it was the book. I'm pretty sure he was convinced I was going through a break up that was somehow hilarious but tragic.

Spending time with these two authors made me feel better about the state of the world. Seriously.

Meet your heroes. Just be sure you pick good ones.

Finished!...But Not

Last night I finished Bloodrose (Nightshade #3).
Finishing up a manuscript is an amazing feeling, euphoric and draining. I cried a lot - it's not unusual for me to cry when I'm writing a book, particularly at its conclusion. This book evoked more tears than usual though because it's the third book in the Nightshade trilogy. It's the first time I've ever completed a full series arc and I have to say I was a bit of a basket case when the story came to a close.

But as much it was a bit sad, mostly I was ecstatic. I did it! The book is written!!

Except that I'm not actually done.

Sure, I wrote the first draft. And yes, that's a big deal.

My experience of writing is that I'm jumping up and down about it immediately after draft one, and then I'm suddenly terrified that it's no good. Those fears get worse once it's out in the hands of my crit partner (I'm looking at you, Lisa!) and my agents. Their feedback is the first I get in the revision process. They are brilliant and I trust them completely; even so, waiting for their reads is always a bit of a nail-biting experience. The nagging insecurity about sending a new story into the world is something that I doubt will ever go away.

Soon I'll begin the revision process. The first time I went through the revision cycle with Nightshade I was really nervous, not sure what to expect or if I'd be able to do it well or efficiently. Now I look forward to it, knowing that the draft I'm excited about is still a work in progress - and that's a good thing. Writing the first draft is a frenzied, all-consuming experience. Revisions are where I get to take stock and really fine tune the piece.

As much as I *finished* Bloodrose last night it's thrilling to know that my journey with this book is far from over.

This weekend I'll be in Washington D.C. at the American Library Association annual meeting. Anyone who will be around D.C. at the convention, I'll be signing at the Penguin booth on Sunday at 10:30 a.m. and I'd love it if you stopped by!

Go, Go Graphic Novel!

In further tales of ALA, BEA buzz, the belle of the ball seems to be David Small's graphic novel, Stitches.
I wasn't a comic book kid, though I do have fond memories of perusing my piano teacher's children's cast-off stacks of X-Men while I was waiting for my mom to pick me up. So when it comes to comics and graphic novels I feel like a newbie trying to sneak into a venerated and esoteric society.
I stumbled into the land of graphic novels by way of loyalty to Buffy the Vampire Slayer. When Joss Whedon announced the series would continue in Season 8 with Dark Horse Comics, I'd signed up months before the first issue was out.

And I loved the new format instantly. Graphic novels are an incredible medium of communication. The monumental devotion that fans of Neil Gaiman's Sandman display are enough of a testimony to the depth and strength of writing and worlds built by creators of the graphic medium.

With the growing interest in graphic novels, publishers and marketers alike are bringing more and more of the medium to an ever-growing audience.

There's even a Twilight graphic novel in the works.

My question then becomes how does one go from writer to writer of graphic novels/manga? One of my favorite YA authors, Melissa Marr, has manga in the works that complement her novels.

My only brush with this medium is the comic I made for my husband's birthday last year. And while I'm still blushingly proud of the creation, it hardly makes me a graphic novelist.

Who is the keeper of the bridge between novelists and graphic novelists? How does one cross over, or preferably, live a writing life on both sides?

Ode to Librar(ies, ians)

I'm enjoying reading various ALA roundups. Descriptions of the conference buoyed my spirits not only because the ALA had record attendance, despite the economic slump, but also because I love seeing crowds of folks gathered to celebrate books.

Libraries have a special place in my heart. When I was very young the Vaughn Public Library in Ashland, WI functioned as my de facto babysitter. The library was across the street from my dad's office and I curled up in the stacks surrounded by books often enough that all the librarians knew me by name.

That familiarity helped a great deal when it was time to get my first job. The summer before my sophomore year in high school I applied to work, where else, but at the library! I worked amid those stacks I loved so well, full-time in the summers and part-time during the school year, for the next three years.

When I went to college my work study jobs were always at the library. I love the way libraries smell and though I am adjusting I still have a strange reaction to seeing computers instead of a Dewey decimal card catalog when I visit my local library. Libraries make and sustain readers, librarians are astounding founts of knowledge and exceptional defenders of civil rights.

Huzzah steadfast librarians, thank you for all you do every day!!
Getting back to that greatest of all librarian gatherings, my favorite rundown of the ALA thus far comes from the fabulous Maggie Stiefvater, whose upcoming book Shiver was well-feted at the conference (I can't wait to read it! And its release date happens to be my birthday...ahem).

Too much press of late has been disheartening about the "end of publishing" and how hard it is for new writers to break into the industry. While all this may be true, it only takes a few images from the ALA to remember how exciting a good book really is and that reading is here to stay.