Bad Blogger, No Cookie

The internet is a wonderful thing.

However, it is also a time-eating monster.

I want you all to know that I love you, you're fabulous, and I actually really do enjoy having an online presence. I want to apologize for my extended absence, and I want to apologize in advance for the extended absences you will continue to suffer. :) Because it really comes down to this: I am so busy writing books for you to read that I'm afraid writing blogs for you to read is sort of falling by the wayside.

(Besides, the blogosphere is a bit of an echo chamber anyway, where the shrillest voices tend to to overpower the most thoughtful ones... but that's a blog for a different day.)

Because there are super-convenient iPhone apps available for places like Twitter and Facebook where a once-sentence update doesn't look ridiculous (as it would here), I am actually more active on those pages, at least for the moment.

I'm NOT quitting blogging. At least not yet! ;) In fact, I have high hopes for the future. But it's been almost a month since I blogged and I figured you could all use an update. :) So here's your update!

1. I'm done touring for Spells! It was lovely to meet so many of you. I'm sorry I didn't make it to more cities, but I love traveling and if I didn't catch you this time, I hope to meet you next time around! :)
2. Spells enjoyed four weeks on a very tight NYT list--thank you again to all of my readers for putting it there! John Grisham and Rick Riordan are pretty heavy competition!:D
   
3. I'm down to copy-edits on Book 3.
4. I've graduated from outlining to scene writing in Book 4!It's just shy of fifty pages!
   
5. It has been very busy around here.
   
6. I got an iPhone 4. Eeeeeeee!!!!! (Also, thank to my hubby who found it for me.:D)
   

So that's me in a nutshell. How about you guys? :)

Ciao!

Party!

I met Tom at the YAllapalooza that Changing Hands held several months ago and heard about his book, PARTY. Honestly? I'm not really a contemporary realism girl and although I was pleased to meet him and happy to hear of his success with his book, I wasn't really rushing out to read it. What can I say? As I often tell people, I think books are boring unless they have kissing or magic, and preferably both. But I did get a chance to read an ARC a couple months later and took my friend up on it. (And proceeded to destroy the binding on her ARC on accident. I still feel very badly about that!!!)

When I am doing school visits, I challenge kids to read outside of both their demographic and their comfort zone. If they always read realism, I challenge them to pick up a fantasy now and again. If they always read fantasy to dip their toe in the real world now and again.

It is obvious that I need to take my own advice.

PARTY is a novel told in eleven chapters, and eleven voices, all of whom you only get to hear from once. More interestingly, the main character is chapter one. Never to be directly heard from again. It is about one night--about 18 hours--that change everyone. It's like a novel-experience of the movie Crash, which I have yet to see, but because of this book, now have on my Netflicks cue list.:D

So what does this have to do with anything? Well, PARTY came out at the end of April and Tom and I continue to be good friends and we thought that since our books are so closely related *sarcastic snort* we would do a signing together!

So come see us at The Poisoned Pen in Scottsdale at 7:00 tomorrow (Tuesday, June 8th) as we discuss what it's like to be a new novelist, how we got where we are, and why we write reality or fantasy (sadly, no mud wrestling will be involved.)

Hope to see you there! (And hopefully I will be able to stop talking about the new bookshelves in my office long enough to actually discuss the topics I mentioned.:))

Hope to see you there!!!

(Also, just as an added incentive, this is the last signing I am doing in the Phoenix area for a while. Please come!)

Ciao!

You Are Not Your Book!!

It's something we hear constantly as aspiring authors. Mostly as a way to distance ourselves from rejections, blindingly painful revisions, rejections, apathetic agents and editors, rejections. You know.

But can I suggest that it is something you should keep in mind even after you are published? And not just to distance yourself from bad reviews. Do not judge yourself, or based your level of self- or professional-confidence on how "big" or awarded your book is. Please!

I have traveled a lot this year and one of the aspects of that that I have really enjoyed is meeting other authors. People like me who have the same oddities, obsessions, and neuroses!! Hooray!

But I am going to scream, if I hear another author say, "Oh, I'm just the author of (fill in the blank.)"

No!! You are not "just" anyone!! You are an author! A published author who has gone through the sweat, blood, and tears of rejections, revisions, the stress of launch day, the gut-rolling rollercoaster of sales. You are an amazing person who has accomplished great things! Some of the most wonderful people I have met are "small" authors who have books at specialized publishers. And those authors will often practically apologize for the niche-ness of their book. Please don't! Your book doesn't have an award next to it--it's not a bestseller. SO?!?!?!? You are still a wonderful author and you deserve my respect. More than that, you deserve YOUR respect.

Repeat after me, I am not my book.

And if you are on the other end of the spectrum and you are an awarded or bestselling author who treats other authors as lesser? I have no words for you. Not any that are appropriate for this blog anyway.:D

Ciao!

Supernatural Summer!!!

It's June! How did that happen!!

Let me tell you about my last week, and perhaps you will understand why I didn't blog.:D

Last Monday I went out of the country for the first time. (Yay Canada!!!) Tuesday through Thursday I got to participate in Harper Canada's Supernatural Summer with Kim Harrison and Lesley Livingston. Oh. My. Gosh!! What a fun week!! Lots of traffic, strange jokes from Kim's hubby (Hi!), and my first high tea with fellow Harper author R.J. Anderson (look for Wayfarer later this month!) were just a couple of the notable moments. I had such a blast! We not only did our nighttime events, but we also had lunches with librarians and corporate people (as well as each other! I LOVE hanging with other authors!) and some five-minute (which means 20-30 minute) meetings with store staffs. It was an amazing week!!

On Friday morning I headed to the airport after waking up at the equivalent of 3:30AM my time *takes a deep breath* got through customs and took a four-hour flight to Phoenix (during which I literally worked on line edits every moment from when they let me take my computer out, to when they made me put it away. Whew!

So then I got off the plane, went home, hugged my kids and hubby, took a shower, and headed right of to the Phoenix ComicCon. (I cut it a little close there, I admit.:D) I spent a good part of the entire weekend at ComicCon and got to meet John Scalzi (!!!) and a new author, Leanna Renee Hieber as well as Dean Lorey, Sam Sykes, and old favorite James Owen. A lovely, if somewhat rushed weekend.:)

That left me one day to pack and spend with my family. Oh, and clean my house. Thus, no blogging.:D

I hope you will all forgive me! Luckily, the Phoenix Airport has free Wi-fi, and my breakfast is awesome, so I am happy to munch and blog this morning.:) I am actually hoping to blog twice this morning as I've had a topic I've been ruminating on for a while. We'll see. They do get a little twitchy if you wait till the last minute to get on your plane.:D

But first things first, business!

It is Supernatural Summer this week and I want to make sure you all know where I am.:D

Tonight (Tuesday, June 1st):

June 1, 2010 – 7:00 pm

Rainy Day Books (Kansas City)

Please note this is an off-site event:

Johnson County Public Library

Central Resource Branch

9875 West 87^th Street

Overland Park, KS 66212

Tomorrow (Wednesday, June 2):

7:00 PM

Barnes and Noble Mansell Crossing SC

7660 Northpoint Parkway Ste 200 Alpharetta, GA 30022 770-993-8340

Thursday, June 3rd:

7:00 PM

Borders

965 West Bethany Dr. Allen, TX 75013

The first two events will be me, Kim Harrison, and Ellen Schreiber. In Dallas we will pick up the inestimable Kimberly Derting as well! After that I am peeling off to Tulsa for a writer's conference (I'm the Keynote. Isn't that weird?!?!?) but the Supernatural Summer tour rolls on!! Check out the schedule here: Kim and Ellen and Kimberly will continue and they will pick up the awesome Kelley Armstrong for more events!

Seriously, come see us, people! Group tours are SO fun and if you are an aspiring author this is a great time to hear real experiences and get tips and suggestions. And if you are a fan, this is your opportunity to grill us for spoilers!;)

Ciao!