LATFOB, The Unbound, Scotland, and the COOLEST PRESENT EVER.

Hi lovelies!

Things are so very busy here in Victorialand. I just got back from an amazing weekend at LA Times Festival of Books, and now I’m about to do that thing where you unpack and re-pack in the same breath because OMG I LEAVE FOR SCOTLAND ON TUESDAY. But we’ll get there.

First up, LATFOB!

When I first got invited to the festival, I squeeeeeeeeeeed. And then, when I got my panel assignment, I started laughing nervously. Because, I mean, look at my list of panel-mates:

Lauren Oliver

Veronica Roth

Lissa Price

I mean. (O_O). But once I got over my (O_O) phase, it was an absolute ball! I got to hang out with two awesome members of the Disney publicity squad all afternoon, and the panel and signing went really well!

Here’s a shot of our venue, courtesy of Awesome Publicist Jamie:

And here are a couple close-ups, photo credits to Awesome Publicity Queen Heather, and YAardvarks, respectively:

After the panel, we went over to the signing area, and I got to sit with Veronica, which was at once awesome and humbling because IT’S VERONICA.

Here’s a shot from Ishita Singh that makes me smile:

Thank you so, so much to everyone who came out to support and get books signed! It was such a blast!!! It’s no secret events are my favorite thing in the world, but these kinds of events are by far the coolest/most surreal/most humbling/most happy-making.

After I finished marring people’s books with signatures and sharpie narwhals, Publicist Jamie rounded me up and whisked me off to a Disney Publishing cocktail party that was incredibly fun (and surreal, do we sense a pattern) and came complete with important people and tasty drinks.

And then! I was totally going to go back to my hotel room and edit (I was on deadline) but I got invited to dinner by Elizabeth Wein (as in the author of Code Name Verity aka ONE OF MY FAVORITE BOOKS) and her wonderful editor Cat Onder. And, I mean, dinner with shiny people whose books I adore > edits (but they totally got done I’m getting to that part).

All in all an AMAZING (most over-used word in my vocabulary, I know, I’m working on it) day.

So I flew back today, ate some food, and dove straight back into edits for…

THE UNBOUND.

Ah, The Unbound.

I have never been so happy to hit “THE END” on a book. Again. You guys, I hope this book is almost done. Drafting it gave me hives, revising it gave me an ulcer, and line editing it had me rocking in a corner. I’m still swaying gently. My friends worry. I tell them it will stop eventually.

BUT IT’S GETTING THERE. I HOPE. Let’s move on before I start laughing nervously again.

Another thing that has me fidgeting/rocking/squeeing is…

SCOTLAND!!!

Or as Rachel Hawkins and I refer to it, SKERTLAND!!!!

It’s so hard to believe it’s finally here, but Rachel and I abandon the US for our sexily-accented overseas neighbors TUESDAY. As in, TOMORROW.

As in, the next time I blog, it will be from our apartment in Edinburgh. I’m just going to let that sentence sink in because (O_o).

I am waiting to see if an accent happens. If an accent happens (I usually only get an accent back if I’m in Southern England, but the cadence sneaks in in Scotland) I am sure Rachel will stealth vlog it and then plaster it on the internet. I’m also sure that there will be a variety of SHENANIGANS, because any time Rachel and beer tea and I get together there are shenanigans.

Stay tuned for more on the European adventure front. I’m actually going to be abroad for an entire MONTH. Two weeks in Edinburgh, then a whirlwind of Oslo, Prague, Vienna, Heidelberg, Strasbourg, Calais, London, York. Some of it for play, some of it because I’m doing research for a book about a French girl who falls in love with the devil.

So.

I don’t have a great segue from that to this so I will just say…

OMG HOLY ART

One of my FAVORITE ARTISTS EVER is an extraordinarily talented painter named Duy Huynh.

Lovelies, Duy’s art is…I can’t even put into words how amazing. I mentioned in a blog post a year or two back how inspiring I found his work is. Here’s a snapshot from Google image search.

My parents own an original piece of Duy’s work–a stunning painting of a train, the smoke of which is billowing into a sleeping body–and I have three small prints that I adore.

I ADORE this artist. So you can imagine my shock and glee when I came home from LATFOB to discover a present from my parents.

They had commissioned Duy to do a piece based on THE ARCHIVED.

I’m sorry, let me repeat because OMG. DUY HUYNH PAINTED THE ARCHIVED.

Specifically, he painted Mackenzie Bishop in the Narrows (After he read the book and I just can’t even) and OMG.

LIKE.

LOOK.

It’s about 2 and a half feet tall, 2 feet wide, and I am OBSESSED with it.

I just…*goes back to petting*

*falls over from long blog*

Writing retreats, NASA tours, and a publishing moment that took my breath away.

My suitcase is sitting at my feet, still packed. Or rather, unpacked and then repacked so fast it feels like it simply stayed packed.

I just got back from a week in Texas, and I’m getting ready to leave tomorrow for several days in NYC (Teen Author Festival, details on the Appearances page), and for once in my life I wish I could sit still. A large part of that is because I’m working on a new book-shaped plaything, but I’ll get to that in my next post.

Today, a recap of Texas.

Texas was a trip broken into three chapters, every one of them wonderful.

It started out with a writers retreat. 21 authors, myself included, gathered in a house overlooking a river. For four and a half days we ate and drank and worked and chatted and had an all-around wonderful time. I find nothing more inspiring than being around other writers, especially those at various stages in the publication journey. This was my third year being part of this retreat, and it was incredibly surreal to go from being a publishing newbie to one of the “veterans” (I certainly don’t feel like a vet).

Even though I never got over the strangeness of that ever-changing dynamic, the trip was both grounding and uplifting and I only wish I’d taken more photos.

The next chapter was beyond cool.

As the retreat closed up shop, Carrie Ryan, Beth Revis and I drove to Houston. We’d been given an incredible opportunity, thanks to the amazing Kate (Ex Libris): to take a VIP tour of NASA. We were allowed to not only observe mission control in action (they were communicating directly with an astronaut on the ISS at the time!!) but also walk the floor of Apollo 13′s mission control, tour the Neutral Buoyancy Lab, and even go inside the full-scale replica of the ISS used in training.

I’ll be doing a full NASA post as soon as I get the CD of photos (we not only had our own guide, but our own photographer!) but suffice it to say, one of the coolest author perks EVER.

The final chapter of the Texas trip proved to be an amazing conclusion.

Carrie and Beth and I had a signing at Blue Willow Bookshop in Houston. It was my first Texas event ever, and I was over the moon.

But it wasn’t just the fabulous crowd, or even signing with my friends (which is always a blast), that made the experience. Sitting there, signing after the panel, I had a Moment. Moments (instants where you realize something is on the cusp of changing, or is changing, or has changed) are rare enough that I really stop and savor them.

What was my Moment?

It wasn’t that almost everyone in the front row had a copy of THE ARCHIVED in their lap. It wasn’t that the store sold out of my books (though that ties in). It was this: as a newer author, I’m quite accustomed to having a shorter signing line than my friends, most of whom are at least a generation ahead of me. Signing with the likes of Carrie and Beth, I was TOTALLY prepared to wait while they signed. God knows I’ve done that. Often. In the beginning it can make you feel silly or self-conscious, but you get used to it. I had.

But at the event, I wasn’t sitting there, waiting for Carrie and Beth (both of whom have full trilogies out) to finish. I kept signing. In fact, I only finished signing books a person or two before they did. And that may sound like a small thing, but in that moment it felt like such a big thing. It kind of took my breath away.

So often I’ve been the baby author tacked on to established authors’ events, and I’ve been so thankful, because that’s what a baby author needs, but it’s trained me to assume that people coming to those events weren’t coming to see ME. They were coming for the other authors, and if I was lucky, or a good enough speaker, I could woo them into trying out my books, too.

But at the event, some of the people in that audience came to see ME.

And there aren’t words, though I’ve used a good deal of them here, to describe that feeling.

 

In which I finally spill what VICIOUS is about and share what people are saying!!

Yesterday Tor.com did an amazing piece on VICIOUS, complete with sketches, design snapshots, and the gorgeous finished product you see above.

And here today, as promised, I get to share the catalog copy for the book, as well as some blurbs that just make me want to lie down and make floor angels.

First, after months of *mumblesuperpowersmumble* I can finally tell you WHAT IT’S ABOUT.

THE PITCH:

A masterful, twisted tale of ambition, jealousy, betrayal, and superpowers, set in a near-future world.

Victor and Eli started out as college roommates—brilliant, arrogant, lonely boys who recognized the same sharpness and ambition in each other. In their senior year, a shared research interest in adrenaline, near-death experiences, and seemingly supernatural events reveals an intriguing possibility: that under the right conditions, someone could develop extraordinary abilities. But when their thesis moves from the academic to the experimental, things go horribly wrong.

Ten years later, Victor breaks out of prison, determined to catch up to his old friend (now foe), aided by a young girl whose reserved nature obscures a stunning ability. Meanwhile, Eli is on a mission to eradicate every other super-powered person that he can find—aside from his sidekick, an enigmatic woman with an unbreakable will.

Armed with terrible power on both sides, driven by the memory of betrayal and loss, the archnemeses have set a course for revenge—but who will be left alive at the end?

AHHHHHHHH! <–Sorry, that is how I feel finally being able to share.

AND!

I get to share some seriously amazing blurbs, too.

Ready?

BLURBAGE:

“A dynamic and original twist on what it means to be a hero and a villain. A killer from page one…highly recommended!”
—Jonathan Maberry, New York Times bestselling author of Marvel Universe vs The Avengers and Patient Zero

“Schwab gathers all the superhero/supervillain tropes and turns them on their sundry heads…. I could not put it down.”
—F. Paul Wilson, New York Times bestselling author of the Repairman Jack series

“Vicious is dark and intricate and daring, twisting back and forth through time and morality and life and death until you can’t turn the pages fast enough. I loved it.”
—Dan Wells, author of I Am Not a Serial Killer

“Utterly brilliant. Schwab takes the notion of superhero fiction and bashes it on its head. If you like it dark, then prepare to be thoroughly entertained.”
—Jackie Morse Kessler, author of the Riders of the Apocalypse series

The sequel to THE ARCHIVED has a title!!!! And it’s…

Lovelies!

After holding my tongue for months, I can finally tell you that the second book in the ARCHIVED series has a title! And believe it or not, it’s not THE ARCHIVED #2! Or ARCHIVED…AGAIN.

Are you ready?

It’s…

That’s right, book 2 is called THE UNBOUND. And there’s your little sneak peek at the color palette for the book

First off, let me just say that I’m so nerdily (totally a word) excited that we get to continue the book/library motif in the titles! AND on top of being bookish and awesome, this title fits the book so well. Many thanks to my editor, Lisa, for coming up with it!!

Now, I know you might be thinking, didn’t THE ARCHIVED just come out??? It’s so early to talk about sequels! Well, my publisher has a new 2 catalog/year schedule, and the catalog for September–March is being revealed now, and since I’m a January title, it means you get to see my pretty things alongside the fall list

Now, lovelies, the excitement is just beginning! Tomorrow, the COVER (!!!) and JACKET COPY (it’s spoiler-free!!) will be revealed on YABC–YA Books Central–so be sure to follow me on Twitter because you’ll know I’ll shout that joy from the rooftops when the post goes live.

In the meantime! A few quick myths I’d love to dispell, since they pop up like roaches in a Brooklyn flat.

Myth #1: THE ARCHIVED is a dystopian novel.

Truth: I have no idea where this idea is coming from. I don’t think it’s coming from me. And while I have nothing at all against dystopian novels, I haven’t written one yet! THE ARCHIVED is probably best described as a supernatural thriller. It’s not set in the future, or even an alternate world. It’s set in modern day USA. The idea is that the Archive exists in the here and now, most people just don’t know about it. So nope, not dystopian! If Mackenzie Bishop existed solely in the Archive, as compared to living in the real/mundane world from which she accesses the Archive, then you could begin to create an argument that the Archive is a flawed–if not failed–utopic system. But not as it is. Nope. Sorry kids. So if you see this myth creeping bug-like around the internets, squash it

Myth #2: THE ARCHIVED is the sequel to THE NEAR WITCH.

Truth: Nope. THE NEAR WITCH was my first novel, and a standalone. THE ARCHIVED is the first book in a series. There is no connection whatsoever between Near and the Coronado. Not that a meeting of Lexi and Mac, or Cole and Wes, wouldn’t be fun But let’s keep those two worlds apart.

Myth #3: VICIOUS is the sequel to THE ARCHIVED.

Truth: Wrong again. VICIOUS seems to be causing a swell of confusion, so allow me to set a few things straight. VICIOUS is my first adult novel. It comes out this September! September 24th, to be exact, with Tor Hardcover. I am over the moon about this book, but you probably haven’t heard me talking much about it. That’s mostly because adult publishing moves at a different pace than YA, so where I get my cover/pitch a full year before a YA book hits shelves, these things come together roughly 6 months before release in adult. Different schedules means different timing. But the time is now upon us, and you’ll hear my talking much more frequently about it! So no, it’s not a sequel to anything, it’s a new book.

The other reason you might be confused is that I’m not writing it as Victoria Schwab. I’m writing it as V.E. Schwab. V.E. Schwab is not a secret identity by any means. My blog is veschwab. My twitter is veschwab. Everywhere I’m on the internet I’m actually listed as veschwab aka V.E. Schwab. I’m not endeavoring to hide! It’s just that I have a number of younger readers (THE NEAR WITCH being lower YA) and I’d rather they not automatically reach for my gory supervillain book because they see my name. Also, to be very honest, I’m aiming for world domination here, and sometimes it pays to be shelf-stealthy, especially in a branch of the industry that is largely male. I’m having a blast proving that young ladies such as myself can write as sick and twisted as the rest of the writer race, but it serves me best if my initial impression is of my book, not my gender.

In cheery news, the cover for VICIOUS is going to be revealed SOON. As in, a matter of days! So, whee!

Myth 4: Victoria feeds on reader tears.

Fact: Oh, well, this one is actually true.

Myth 5: Victoria thinks Earl Grey tea is an abomination to the senses.

Fact: Also true. Seriously, kids. Don’t get me started.

That concludes this installment of myth-busting! And I hope you guys like the title as much as I do!! I’m so excited to tell you more about THE UNBOUND in the coming months!

A recap of mischief managed and more to come.

(Photo by Vania Stoyanova)

Oh my goodness, I’ve been such a delinquent blogger.

The last couple weeks have been a whirlwind. From the Nashville launch party on the 1st, where I got this AMAZING gift…

(My Little Ponies modified into Mackenzie and Wesley from THE ARCHIVED)

…to an amazing Malaprop’s event on the second, where I made this face, which apparently I make a lot…

(Photo by Vania Stoyanova)

…I was home for a mere two and a half days before heading to NYC.

NYC involved a school visit, a Teen Author Reading Night, and the scariest part…a SOLO EVENT.

A SOLO EVENT.

AT BOOKS OF WONDER.

I was terrified that no one would come (solo events are scary, because it’s all on you, and this was my very. first. one) and then the day before the northeast was hit with a MASSIVE WINTER STORM and I spent most of the hours leading up watching the weather and resigning myself to the fact I’d be making book forts with my housemates.

And then the feared hour came, and…people came.

Like, a lot of people came. Between publishing professionals–editors, agent friends, author friends–and bloggers, and friends of friends, enough people came that they had to sit on the floor and gather at the back, and little by little my fear dissolved (or at least, stopped showing), and from what I’ve been told (I have a REALLY hard time remembering what comes out of my mouth when I’m nervous), it was a wonderful event. Goodness knows, I had a BLAST, and spent the rest of the day giddy from relief and joy.

(Photo by Nova Ren Suma)

The next day, I said goodbye-for-nows to my housemates and city friends, and trained out to PA to hang out with one of my closests, Tiffany Schmidt, and prep for the epic shenanigans of the following day.

On Monday, Tiffany, K.M. Walton, April Lindner, Jonathan Maberry and I trekked to a middle school, a high school, a library, and then a bookstore!

One of my favorite moments was encountering an uber fan at the high school. She sat down in the audience and proceeded to say, “Oh my god, oh my god, I’m sitting across from Victoria Schwab. Hi Victoria Schwab, oh my god this is cool…” and it was kind of the most adorable thing ever.

Over all, it was an exhausting, delightful day, and the greatest highlight probably came at the final event, at Children’s Book World, when a nun came up to me, clutching THE ARCHIVED, and said she’d heard about me because of Neil Gaiman on Twitter. That might have been the coolest collision of elements ever.

And the next morning it was back to the airport, and home, where I promptly got sick (this ALWAYS HAPPENS ARGH).

I also came home with a cover for the ARCHIVED sequel (I cannot wait to show you), a new book idea (I cannot wait to write it), a notion of what VICIOUS’s cover will look like (I cannot wait to see it),

One of the things that made the NYC/PA trip so delightful was that it was the first time in nearly six months I didn’t have multiple books on multiple looming deadlines. What a joy to be able to breathe and savor the experiences rather than fretting about how to steal an hour to work.

So, what’s next? Well, this weekend I will be in St. Louis for what might be the coolest event yet. You guys, I’m at the St. Louis County Library on Saturday night…with Ally Carter.

ALLY FREAKING CARTER, KIDS.

I can’t even.

Like.

What.

In the meantime I’m loading up on vitamins and minerals and chicken soup. And hopefully the next time I post, I’ll have some insightful things to say, but at the moment, I’m still a little flaily from NYC and a little sick from this stupid cold, so forgive the recap of mischief.

OH OH. Before I forget. The YA2U campaign ends TOMORROW, so if you haven’t entered your city yet, do it!!! The pie chart on the site has shifted A LOT this past week!

LASTLY, I just want to say thank you. I know I’ve been saying it a lot lately, but it doesn’t diminish its propriety. THE ARCHIVED has been out three weeks now, and the continued influx of reviews, ratings, pictures, and messages has brought so much light to my life.

Carry on, lovelies.

The transcript from the ARCHIVED chat.

Hello, lovelies!

We made it through release week! Now this doesn’t mean all the work is done and TA will just drift off on an infinite current, but right now it feels like something to be grateful for.

So before I say anything else, I just want to say thank you. To everyone who’s tweeted, bought, gifted, shared, whispered, or shouted, thanks. It doesn’t just make a dent. It makes a book. There’s a certain amount of fear (And a certain amount of letting go) that comes with hitting that first week on shelves mark. You have to trust, if not in an infinite current, at least in a one that lasts awhile, so every time someone reviews the book, or spreads the word in any way and adds to that current, it gives me hope.

ANYWAY. There I go feelings feels again. Let’s move on.

Yesterday, to celebrate the fact THE ARCHIVED was finally available in ALL formats (the digital one was delayed a week due to technical difficulty), Disney*Hyperion and I did a little Twitter chat, and I thought I would post some of the transcript here, for those who missed it and might be interested.

D*H: How does it feel to have ARCHIVED out in the world??

V: SURREAL. This book has been in the works for 4 yrs. Every time I see a pic of it w/ a reader or in the wild, my heart flutters.

V: Like, EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. I get fluttery. And people have made release week SUCH a shiny thing, cheering with me.

Reader: What was your inspiration for the library?

V: A morgue. W/ those little nametags. I thought, wow, there would be a lot of bodies. And then I thought there would be a lot of MEMORIES in those bodies.

D*H: Mackenzie “Mac” Bishop is a complicated main character – broken, sad, courageous – tell us a little about how you created her?

V: I wanted an MC who was very strong but far from perfect. Mac’s no saint. She’s flawed, full of cracks. Not an ideal. She’s real.

V: She’s a product of this strange environment and trying to exist in a normal world and struggling to keep her selves separate.

Reader: How much of the book did you have plotted out before writing? How much uncovered as you began to write?

V: I’m a connect-the-dotser. I need to know 5-6 specific plot points, and discover the lines between.

Reader: How did you come up with the concept of people lying on shelves like books where you can flip through their histories?

V: It was strangely intuitive, the concept. I mean, this is what lives ARE. Stories. And to me, the scariest part…of death is the idea that we spend a life gathering knowledge/memories, and lose them. The Archive was my solution.

Reader: How much do you know before you start writing?

V: When I start planning, I have a setting. And conflict. When I start WRITING, I have the rest.

Reader: What are some of your favorite books that are in any way similar to The Archived?

V: I love Neil Gaiman. It’s no secret I love the idea of strange worlds overlapping normal ones.

Reader: Why does Mac call her grandad Da? What was the influence?
‏
V: In retrospect, the name Da was HIGHLY problematic bc some confused with Dad. But that was always his nickname. He didn’t FEEL like “granddad” or “Papa”.

Reader: Have you ever considered doing a novella featuring Da in his early days?

V: I have considered SEVERAL shorter pieces, including one for Da and one for Roland

D*H: The #Archived is YA, right? But in some ways it’s not. Do you consider the tropes/conventions of the genre when you’re writing?

V: It is, but its themes aren’t classic YA. It asks strange/complicated/metaphysical Qs, ones that don’t always have a RIGHT answer.

V: I like gray worlds (not black and white, good and evil). This is a world that makes the reader think, and question.

V: I would say I’m aware of the tropes/conventions, but I don’t gravitate toward them. In fact, I tend to turn and go the other way.

V: EX. there are two boys in TA. Neither is a love interest. There’s a like interest, and a lust interest, but this isn’t a triangle.

V: And Mackenzie Bishop is not a hero. She’s not an ANTI-hero, either. She has light gray moments, and dark gray moments.

Reader: Do u make a point to write everyday or just when inspiration strikes?

V: I try to write every day (these days with deadlines I have to).

Reader: Did you know who the “villan” was at the beginning or did you discover it?

V: I always knew who the villain was.

Reader: How many books are planned for the #Archived series?

V: There are at least two books in the Archived series…but Let’s be real, kids. I want enough books that one day we can call it the “Collected Works of Mackenzie Bishop”

Reader: Were the nods to Tennant (the converses, the hair) deliberate, or am I just a fangirl?

V: There are THREE nods to Doctor Who in THE ARCHIVED. Two of them–crack in wall, Roland–are intentional…one of them–the library–was accidental!

Reader: Is there a backstory for Roland? I feel like he had a lot of heartbreak in the past (much like Ten).

V: Yes, Roland has a backstory. You get glimpses throughout the series.

D*H: What’s your best advice for aspiring writers?

V: My BEST advice for writers is to BE BRAVE. Make sure your want always outweighs your fear.

V: This is an industry with A LOT of rejection. Dozens of doors to get through. If you want in, be brave enough to keep knocking.

Reader: Did you base any other characters (besides Roland) on people? Like Da or Mac? their relationship seemed so real.

V: Roland is the only one who is a direct nod to another FICTIONAL character (the Doctor).

V: I borrow personality traits from people–defense mechanisms, body language, quirks–but not whole people.

V: If I insert real people into my books, I start to feel an obligation to the fact, not the fiction.

D*H: Sum up THE ARCHIVED in ONE tweet!

V: Girl works for library where dead are shelved like books, returning those that wake/escape, until one fugitive changes everything.

Release week orders of business!!!

Hey, lovelies!

Soooo…THE ARCHIVED hits shelves tomorrow.

TOMORROW.

As in, it’s only a day away I might be freaking out we can count in hours instead of days TOMORROW.

Hold me.

But before the book officially hits shelves (it’s showing up a few places already!), I have a few things I want to mention.

THE DIGITAL DELAY:

I spoke about this online on Friday, but I know it will be impossible to reach everyone through one medium, so I’m posting here, too. The digital version of THE ARCHIVED got pushed back from the 22nd to the 29th because it wasn’t registering properly.

I’m really upset–I know a lot of people preordered TA for their devices looking forward to a midnight release–BUT you must trust me when I say it’s better to wait a week for a lovely, readable copy of the book than get a broken version on time.

THE ARCHIVED’S FIRST WEEK:

A book’s first week on shelves is really, really important, not just to the author, but to the publisher. Everyone is looking very closely at numbers, and even though the patterns have shifted slightly, spreading out so that a book doesn’t have to spike right out the gate, or even be its strongest in the first week, that’s still what everyone WANTS to see. Myself included. Because, you know, I’d like to keep writing books (well, right now I’d like to sleep, but in the big picture, more books happy V).

Things you can do to support a book on release week:

–Buy the book in-store or online
This is the most straightforward way to help a book’s sales. Plus, you guys, it’s a really pretty book. I mean, I know I’m biased, but did you SEE the vlog? Soft matte finish, black and silver end papers, I could go on. BUT I know not everyone can afford to run out and buy a copy, so here are a few other things you can do that REALLY help.

–Call a bookstore and make sure they’re stocking the book.

–Order/put a hold on it at your local library (these holds often translate to more copies being ordered!)

–If you’ve read the book and reviewed it on a site like GR, upload those reviews to Amazon/BN
You guys, please, please, please do this.

–Spread the word online
Run! Shout! Wave your hands! Tweet! Pin it! Every little bit counts when it comes to buzz, and these days, the biggest generators of buzz are YOU.

SHADES OF EARTH WINNER:

The winner of the signed copy of SOE is…jovialvampyre!

ETC:

I think that’s all I have for today. I’ll be back tomorrow with RELEASE DAY FLAIL!!!

Orders of business: giveaway winners, charity money, YA for NJ, and my first ever YA scavenger hunt!

Several quick orders of business!

1. THE GIVE THANKS GIVE BACK GIVE AWAY.

Results are in. Math is done. Here we go.

368 people entered!

The charity breakdown :
The Red Cross : $153
Nashville Humane Society : $111
Books of Wonder : $104

Because I allotted $500 for the giveaway, I will break the remaining $132 down evenly. That means each charity will get an extra $44!

So the totals become:

The Red Cross : $197
Nashville Humane Society : $155
Books of Wonder : $148

(Also, if you haven’t donated yet to Books of Wonder’s campaign, please know that a generous donor will be MATCHING all donations between now and the end of the day, if they can get a total of $20k new donations in that time! So our $148 will become $296!)

Now, the winner of the key worth signed books for the next three years is…

CHRISTINE AT CHASING FAERY TALES!!!

Thank you all so, so much for making the two month giveaway so wonderful!

2. YA FOR NJ.

I’ll be participating in the YA FOR NJ fundraiser, which starts November 30th. I’ve donated a 50-page manuscript critique, a signed paperback of THE NEAR WITCH, and a signed hardcover of THE ARCHIVED as soon as my author allotment comes in.

I’ll make sure to post links to my auction when it’s up!

3. YA SCAVENGER HUNT.

Tomorrow kicks off the winter edition of the YA SCAVENGER HUNT, which is a huge, 50-author game with TONS of free books, and it will be my first time playing! In addition to donating a signed hardcover of THE ARCHIVED (also from author stash), I’ll have a very special little snippet up on my host’s blog.

All I will say is that the snippet is from the unpublished sequel to THE NEAR WITCH (I get asked a lot about a sequel, so yes there is one written and no I don’t know if it will ever be on shelves).

4. MAKING HISTORY #11.

This week on MAKING HISTORY, I talk about a car accident on graduation night that could have changed everything. Click HERE.

5. ALSO.

–I put up the first little chunk of appearances for THE ARCHIVED, and immediately got asked about a bunch of other cities. I promise, the first little chunk is just that, a geographically specific little set. My publicist and I are hard at work putting together other groups of signings in different parts of the country, and I’ll post those as we get closer to release! But if you’re in the northeast, and northwest, I’m working on it!

–I just wanted to say thank you for the incredibly supportive response to the last blog post. For all my stress and fear and frustration, I’ve never felt alone, and that’s because of you. <3

The year of stress and self-loathing and far-off light.

I knew 2012 was going to be a hard year.

I knew it before it ever started. I had a 2-year window from sale to shelf on THE NEAR WITCH, and I swore I would never let that happen again. Why? Because 2010, the full calendar year between the book’s sale in 2009, and it’s publication in 2011, was HARD. It was useful, in that it gave me time to find my online voice, and to become comfortable with my digital surrounding. But those benefits were things I wasn’t able to appreciate until AFTER my book was on shelves, when I could do signings and smile and chat about the waiting that was finally behind me.

I remember hearing at the end of 2011 that my publication date for THE ARCHIVED was going to be January 2013.

And I remember sitting on the floor, and sobbing.

I could. not. do this again.

But I had to. My agent assured me that I’d be busy, and I wanted to believe her, but THE ARCHIVED #2 hadn’t sold yet and VICIOUS hadn’t sold yet (both were being held until after the holidays), and 2010 was still burned into my memory, and I was scared.

And that might seem silly, in hindsight, unless you know WHY I was scared.

It might seem like I was scared of being BORED. But my agent was true to her word, and made sure I would be BUSY. She sold a total of FIVE books for me this year, and I’ve been BUSIER than ever, juggling two and sometimes even three deadlines at once.

But you see, boredom wasn’t–isn’t–the thing I’m afraid of.

I’m afraid of myself.

Writing/Editing/Breaking/Fixing/Making books is an equation.

One with a lot of variables, so at its best, most elegant, it is still messy. The author’s emotions tangle and create and work for and against their books. Their minds generate and solve and get in the way. I often feel like I’m trying to find the best possible equation, the way to minimize my self-loathing, and love my job.

And I knew that 2012, like 2010, was going to complicate my already-messy equation.

How?

Because in those years off, that tricky emotional balance is upset by increasing the deadlines and decreasing the promotion–meaning the actual, in-person book-on-shelves time.

Some authors, I imagine, love that. Maybe they pine for a few years where they can go into their caves and be alone with their work (and we all need to be alone with it, for a time, to focus).

But I LOVE promotion. I love the part where the book’s on shelves and I get to put on real clothes and travel and talk to people and smile and soak up the energy like sunlight.

I NEED that light.

Subtracting the promotion–really, the CELEBRATION–from the equation means that I end up spending far too much time in my own head. And while it’s an okay place to be if I’m in the throes of a new idea, or if I have the balance of public time, it’s not always the kindest, healthiest place for me to be.

I try to be kind to others.

I’m not very kind with myself. I second-guess everything. I doubt everything. I hate everything. I feel worthless. I feel like a fluke. I feel like it’s hopeless. Like I’m not doing enough. Like I’ll never be able to do enough. I want to hold down delete. I want to quit.

I worried I would find myself back in this place. And I did. Only it had changed. It wasn’t as simple as in 2010, with the impatience and the want. No. This place, the 2012 version of my dark mental landscape, had gotten worse. I’d learned a lot from publication, and all my doubts and fears were able to adapt. I fretted about things I didn’t know existed in 2010. I lost sleep and sanity over things out of my control.

And EVERYTHING felt like it was out of my control. It still does, most days, but I’m trying to find calm. Trying to breathe.

I ended up making myself very literally sick from stress.

2012 has been a strange, busy, hard, productive, destructive, stressful year. It has been wonderful in obvious ways, and awful in less obvious ones.

2012 is finally ending. I do not want to seem ungracious. 2012 has been one of the most important years of my life. And time is a gift. It is always a gift. I have lost enough people to know how precious a year is.

But lovelies, I look forward, and finally see the promise of light. I’ve always loathed the way time trudges on, and under deadline I might want to pause it, but the truth is that right now, I want to cry because this year–this messy, beautiful, hellish, essential year–is almost over.

THE ARCHIVED comes out in January.

VICIOUS comes out in September.

And the relief I feel–still tangled with fear, always with fear, and doubt–is immense. Relief not only because two books I’m deeply passionate about will finally be on shelves, but because I will once again have something to celebrate.

35 days until 2013.
56 days until THE ARCHIVED.

Thank you for sticking with me. You are such a vital part of my equation. I would have lost myself by now without you.

FIVE YEARS IN…a look at my publishing road, brick by brick.

I am writing this post because time is tricky, and prone to sneaking off if we don’t keep an eye on it.

And I’m writing this post because five years ago, I finished my very first book.

I should say that five years ago I finished the first draft of my very first book and then proceeded to make all the mistakes a shiny-new-penny writer makes, especially when they’ve never written anything book-shaped before.

I queried too soon, learned the manuscript wasn’t ready, and because I didn’t really know what to do from there, I shelved it.

But six months later, I came back. I wish I could say I came back because I was ready. I’d certainly been thinking about the book in the interim, but what made me dig it up was a competition. I’ve always loved competition. I pulled the manuscript out of the drawer for a dialogue contest–one of Nathan Bransford’s–and entered this snippet:

The shadow woman pointed down the street and spoke.

“It’s a left. Don’t forget,” she said, patting Nell’s shoulder. It was an awkward feeling, not quite solid but certainly thicker than air. “Always a left. Never go right. Right never goes where you want it to.”

Nell nodded slowly. “Right’s wrong. Got it.”

The shadow woman shook her head and the hole where her mouth should be pursed. “No, no. Right’s not wrong. It’s just not right for you.”

“Mildred, you’re confusing her,” sighed the shadow man. He raised a long shadow hand and pointed.

“At the end of the road, turn left. Straights are unpredictable. They don’t tend to lead you straight to anything.”

“How will I know when I’ve found an Out door?” asked Nell.

“Don’t worry about that,” said the shadow woman. “You found an In door. An Out door will probably find you.”

“You’ll stumble upon one, if you’re lucky,” added the shadow man.

Nell thanked the two, and apologized again for intruding. She took a step, then stopped.

“I’m sorry, but would you mind telling me what this place is called?”

“You don’t know?” asked the shadow woman. “But…”

“It’s called the Shadow Mile,” interjected the man.

“Oh,” said Nell. There was a flicker of familiarity, but then it was gone. “That’s a strange thing to call a place.”

“It’s a strange place,” said the man.

(This book is not THE NEAR WITCH, obviously. THE NEAR WITCH would be my second book, written after this one had been on sub for eight months, and came oh-so-close so many times, but didn’t sell.)

Five years.

So strange to think. Five years since typing my very first THE END (which I find funny now, since real books don’t actually end with THE END), and I might not be as shiny-new-penny as I was then, but in some ways I’m still the same hungry little writer, desperately wanting to be seen. To be READ.

Five years, and in that time I’ve graduated school, lived in three cities, two countries, gotten an agent, changed agent, and finished five books, four of which you’ll get to read–THE NEAR WITCH, THE ARCHIVED, VICIOUS, THE ARCHIVED #2, and one of them you might not. Five years, five thousand followers, god knows how many highs and lows and highs again and middles.

Someone asked in the live chat Monday night if it felt easier now that I’d signed on dotted lines and seen one of my books–soon two–take shape as finished things on shelves, and I want to say it does get easier, but I think that might be a lie.

Five years, and I think some days–most days–I’m more nervous now than I was before it all started, more aware that my career, my future, lies largely in the hands of others. That’s a strange thing, isn’t it? I’ve always found it to be the strangest, most disconcerting part of publishing (or any creative industry for that matter), the idea that an artist/writer/creator’s success lies in the hands of the recipients. On those who take, consume, and experience what we create.

It’s scary, and thrilling, and filled with enough uncertainty to set your head spinning and leave you ill. Every day seems to have more question marks than periods, more ellipsis than exclamations.

There’s this lovely notion that once you sell a book, you’ll be okay, the rest is paved, but nothing in publishing is certain, nothing promised.

Every book is a brick, and you’re constantly building your career, constantly constructing, except that metaphor doesn’t work, because it doesn’t account for the reception, the consumer. So every book is a brick if the public likes it, if it does well, and a bit of straw if it doesn’t, and you’re trying to build a structurally-sound house, and you have to hope that every brick is a brick as you set it in place because you won’t know until it’s there, holding up a wall.

Five years in, and where am I?

Simply trying to make good bricks.

And you better believe I’m going to keep building my house as long as they let me. As long as YOU let me.

And I have to say, right now I’m feeling thankful for every single chance to build a brick.