Big Apple

Just got home from a few days in New York City. It's been such a surreal week, completed by the fact that Drew Barrymore was on the airplane on the way home! And I was reading a real copy of my book (yes folks, the ARCs have arrived!) during the flight.

I'll back up. Here's my week:

Monday: Flew non-stop to JFK. Met my agent for dinner that night at a Korean restaurant. Had roast duck in lime sauce, wow, so good. I adore Katherine, and it was beyond wonderful to finally meet her in person. I felt like we immediately fell into a natural, easy friendship. And I was so thankful that she made a point to spend a lot of time with me this trip, just so I wouldn't feel alone, country bumpkin in the Big City.

Tuesday: This was the big day for me, the whole reason I came. In the morning there was a meeting about my book at HarperCollins. I came into the conference room and there, sitting on the table with the fruit tray, were three real copies of my book! The Advanced Readers Copies (ARCs, as I said before) have been printed. Yippee! (I tried not to shout yippee at the meeting. . .) There were lots of people at the meeting, enough that I finally gave up trying to remember everybody's name--my editor and her assistant, Katherine, marketing people and sales people and people in charge. And they all seemed to have read the book and liked it. I sat at the end of the table and they talked about how much they loved Unearthly and asked me questions about how I came up with different ideas and about the characters and about my schedule for winter.

After that they hustled me over to a studio and shot the author's video. That too was crazy surreal, especially when they had me look into the camera and say, "Hi Barnes and Noble readers, I'm Cynthia Hand, author of Unearthly," and then like 6 other bookstores, one after another. I hope the video turns out okay--it's so weird being a writer at this stage, because writing is such a solitary act and then suddenly they drag you out into the spotlight and you have to perform, in a way. I should be okay at this: I minored in theatre, was in probably 25 or so plays way back when, but I still thought it was hard. A lot of pressure, like this is a huge chance to connect with my reader, this is a part where I am actively selling my own book. I really didn't want to screw it up. But then I tried to remind myself that it will only get easier with time, just like with teaching when at first I was stiff and partially terrified during every class I taught and now I'm relaxed and enjoy myself so much. So too, with this marketing stuff.

After the video I hung out in my editor's office for a while and then we headed off to lunch (me, Farrin my editor, and Catherine, her assistant). Again, the food was amazing. New York definitely has some fantastic restaurants, and the people taking me out all the time always knew the best places, so I dined like a queen on my trip. Yum. And again, it was wonderful to get to interact with these people face to face.

After lunch I wandered over to Rockefeller Center and took the Top of the Rock tour, which meant I rode the elevator to the top and looked out on the city. I noticed, not for the first time in NYC, that I am not terribly comfortable in elevators crammed with people. I got someone to take my picture at the top:

Notice that I'm clutching a book--yep, it's MY book, actually an ARC wrapped in the hardback cover sample they gave me. Notice also the lavender shirt I'm wearing--my good friend Kristin Naca (HarperCollins poet herself) Fed-Exed the shirt to me at my hotel. She knew I was having a tough time deciding on what to wear, which she fully understood because she had to do a video interview with Yusef Komunyakaa for the MTVU award. So she sent me the shirt, which turned out to be perfect. It evens looks good with my book, which has purple overtones. Don't I have awesome friends?

That afternoon I headed downtown to Curtis Brown to meet up with Katherine again, and got to meet my other fabulous agents: Holly, my film agent, and Ginger, my foreign rights agent. So fun to sit in a room with them and just get to know them a little. By this point I'd been smiling so much that day that my teeth were all dry. Afterwards Katherine and I caught a movie (Cyrus, pretty funny) and had some dinner. Again with the delicious food.

It was a day that seriously felt like I could have dreamed it up. Even now it doesn't feel totally real.

Wednesday: my birthday. I woke up early and headed over to the Met (the Metropolitan Museum of Art). I had intended to spend a few hours there and then walk around Central Park but I ended up spending lots of hours there, since it was so huge and it had such amazing stuff! It has a whole Picasso wing! It had multiple paintings by famous artists: Monet, Matisse, Van Gogh, Cezanne, Cassatt, Degas, the list goes on and on. It also has an amazing Egyptian exhibit. (I'll load the pics to facebook.)

Then I went to Broadway to see Wicked. I have wanted to see this show for ages, since I've been an avid fan of Oz since I was a kid and read Maguire's book when it first came out. And it was great. I had to laugh at the little boy behind me who kept complaining, "Why do they always have to sing so high?"

After that I walked back to my hotel and rested for about an hour, then headed off again to the East Village for dinner with Katherine and Farrin at a little Mexican place. Again, spectacular food and company. Riding back to my hotel in a cab, I was overtaken by a wave of sadness that it was all over. The trip I'd been wildly anticipating for months was pretty much done.

Thursday: Airport. Drew Barrymore on the plane! And then home, home, home, where my son looked so delighted to see me that it totally melted my heart. Later, as I was putting him to bed I said, "I missed you so much. Every day I woke up and thought, where's my little boy? I miss him!" and he said, "I was right here, Mommy, waiting for you to come back." Aw.

It's good to be home. And writing again, moving forward into Book 2. And yesterday I got the galleys in the mail, my last chance to comb through Unearthly and make changes. So that's what I'll be up to the next few days.

Hot Topic

There's been a lot of buzz lately about angels being "the new vampire," the new wave of books that young adults are reaching for. This past April this article ("Host of books appear as angels become theme of new teenage reading cult") appeared in The Guardian, which discusses the trend and mentions a whole lot of upcoming angel titles. Then yesterday I read this article, ("Hot Wings: Notes On My New Best-Seller") in The New Yorker, which is a hilarious look at a writer attempting to cash in on the angel-market. I love her use of the word "mangel."

 

I thought the Guardian article was very interesting, and noticed with some relief that the angel books mentioned were very different than my own. And I had a good laugh at the New Yorker article. But to be honest, both articles left me a tad unsettled.

 

The reasons: First off, there's the idea that my book is part of a new craze sweeping the book world. I knew this. When my book was being considered by HarperCollins I knew that they were actively seeking an angel-related book, and I just hoped that my book fit the bill. And it did. Which rocked. It's good to have written something on a topic that people want to read about. My husband says that success in the publishing world is a lot like American Idol: most of the time it comes down to song choice. You need to choose something that's current and contemporary and showcases your talent in the best possible way. So I apparently chose a good song.

 

But here's the thing: in my case, it's completely accidental. I didn't write a book about angels because I thought that angels were going to be the new "it" thing. I wrote the book because Clara's story came to me so clearly and fiercely that I couldn't help myself; I had to write it. And it was a lot of fun to write!

 

Part of me kind of cringes every time I think about my book as part of a trend, because trends pass. Fads come and go. I want UNEARTHLY to be more than part of a trend. I don't want it to be dismissed as "just another angel book." But c'est la vie, I guess. Song choice. And I chose a song that everybody's singing.

The other thing that being part of a trend means is that there is pretty fierce competition. Or so I'm told. When I was first networking with other writers I came up with the idea of forming an angel brigade, a group for writers who wrote about angels, a kind of support system. I was informed early on (by other writers, not HC or my agent, mind you) that this wouldn't work because the other angel writers would be too competitive. Which makes sense. I think. But I myself don't really feel very competitive with my fellow angel writers. I think there's bound to be a few similarities between our books; just as vampire books usually have blood-drinking, avoidance of sunlight, fangs, superpowers, etc, so angel books will probably have wings, some element of bright light, maybe some ability with languages and a flaming sword or two--all part of the angel framework. But when I read the angel books, I usually just want a good story. Like any book. I don't feel particularly threatened by other angel novels because I feel like Clara's story is so entirely her own.

Okay, enough on the angel topic. I'm still working out how I feel about the whole thing.

Book news:
There's a lot of news, bear with me.

•  This month I sold the audio rights to the book, which means it will become a book on tape. I got wildly excited, for some reason, about the idea of reading the book officially, of having it be my own voice on the tape, but then I was told that this probably won't happen. My own voice, that is.
• I sold rights to Australia! Woohoo! Thanks Ginger, my agent for UK/Australia, for staying up late to make the deal.
• I also sold rights to Germany! The book will come out in German next summer, and I am totally happy over it. I was in Jackson when I heard the news and coincidentally sat next to a German family at a restaurant, and I wanted to hug them all. I wonder how they will translate the title UNEARTHLY. . .
• There is one other thing that is not official yet, so I shouldn't share, but there is one more big woohoo in order!
• one of my students made an awesome book trailer. She loaded it to facebook here.  It was so exciting to see her take on the book.
• Unearthly is available for pre-order on amazon! Still no cover image yet, but people can now order the book here.
• I recently sent the opening chapters of Book 2 to my editor at HC. Commerce hard-core writing on Book 2.
• Two of my fave YA writers agreed to read my book to see if they want to blurb it. Squee!
• I booked my trip to NYC for later this month. I'm going to finally meet K in person and spend some time over at HarperCollins getting to know the team!

Other news:

• I am home, finally. Just spent a month in Idaho/Wyoming/northern California, which was great, but I am glad to be home. And it's a new home; I moved in on a weekend and left on a Monday, leaving a lot of boxes to be unpacked. I've been totally occupied for the last few days, just finding places for things and discovering things about the new house. (I love the new house!)
• I should wrap up this blog. More news later--and I'll tell you more about my trip to Jackson Hole. 

Playing Catch-up

So I've been busy: finals at Pepperdine, moving to a new house, and before the boxes were even unpacked I headed off to Idaho for some decompression time. Right this minute I am sitting in a hotel room in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. My room overlooks the Tetons and a horse corrall; I'm in bliss. But more on that later.

In my time of radio silence a lot has happened: I've sold the audio rights to the book and my agent is working on foreign and film rights, which is crazy. HarperCollins hired a model to represent Clara and shot the photos that will be on the covers for the first three books. Then they printed up a trial-run cover for UNEARTHLY and shipped it to me. I had to pretty much open the package, look at it, and then ship it back. (I wish I could show you, but I think I better wait for the big cover/launch date reveal until HarperCollins tells me. . .) Needless to say, it was a beautiful cover.

All of this is getting pretty surreal. This time last year Clara was a ghost haunting me, an image in the back of my mind. Now she's real-represented by a real, flesh-and-blood person on a real cover with real pages being printed about her. When I told my dad about Harper hiring the model (they had a casting call where over 100 girls showed up) he said: Good job! You're causing employment! I had to laugh at that. Yes, that ghost in my head is now keeping lots of people plenty busy.

So that's news. But the thing I REALLY want to write about is that I got to meet with Aprilynne Pike. In person. She came to Idaho Falls to do a reading and some school talks, and was sweet enough to meet me for dinner last week. For those of you who don't know Aprilynne (read Wings! Read Spells!), she's a HarperCollins writer whose debut novel, WINGS, spent 8? weeks on the New York Times bestseller list last year and whose sequel, SPELLS, debuted a couple weeks ago at number 4. See her awesome blog here. Not long after I got my offer from Harper I emailed Aprilynne and asked if she might mentor me a little bit, being that we're both from Idaho (Aprilynne lived in Driggs, which is very close to Jackson Hole, where my book is set) and we're both moms and writers, and all the HarperCollins people could not stop gushing at how great she is. And she and I have emailed back and forth for months, and she has given me such great advice and encouragement.

I will try not to gush at how great she is. Dinner was great; Aprilynne was friendly and fun and a font of useful information. Afterwards, I went to her reading, and I was so impressed with her easy, energetic presence in front of the crowd of adoring fans who'd gathered at the Barnes and Noble. She talked a lot about the publishing process and what it's really like (as opposed to in the movies where writers always write a novel in a montage that last a couple of weeks and then sees their book on the shelf almost immediately) and read from the book and made them laugh and signed copies and stood up to have pictures taken with them.

The whole time I was thinking: Wow. Wow. Wow. I hope I can do as well as this when my time comes. 

The next day I went to my old middle school: Rocky Mountain Middle school and watched Aprilynne do a talk. And she blew my socks right off. Middle schoolers can be (hmm, how do I phrase this?) hooligan monkey children. Do they ever have a lot of energy! But Aprilynne immediately held their attention and got them involved and answered their questions. She was, in short, amazing.

See now, I'm gushing. Sigh. The whole thing was a great big dose of reality, a "this is what's possible" moment. And it was scary and wonderful. And, oh yes, surreal. Let's not forget surreal.

Afterwards I went up to my dad's house in the mountains and spent the next few days writing, writing, writing, on book 2. And then I came back to IF for a day and then headed up to Jackson. Tetons! Horses! More on that later.

The cave, part 2

So there was a part of the cave experience I forgot to mention: copy editing.  This was a hardcore process with many, many hours involved, after which I lapsed into a mini-writerly coma that I am just now waking up from.  So now I am REALLY coming out of the cave.  That and I just turned in the grades for the semester at Pepperdine and I am ALMOST done buying a house.  So I am nearly to the light at the end of the tunnel, which, in my mind, is Book 2 and Idaho.

In May my son and I are off to Idaho for my bi-yearly visit  I am totally stoked, as usual.  Idaho's my heart's field.  This is funny since when I was a teenager, I really desperately wanted to get out of Idaho.  Now I can't wait to get home.  So every year I spend a few weeks visiting my old haunts in Idaho Falls and going to Jackson Hole and the Tetons and Yellowstone (which are all, coincidentally--right? :) settings for UNEARTHLY), a week or so at my dad's house way up in the desert mountains, fishing and riding around on ATVs and antelope-watching, and a week or so in the Boise area catching up with the oodles of friends I have there.  It's wonderfully restful time for me.  That and my mom tends to watch my son in the mornings so I can write.  Which is good, since the first few chapters of Book 2 are due very soon.

The highlights from this year's Idaho bliss will be going to a reading by Aprilynne Pike in Idaho Falls on May 11.  She's a fellow HarperCollins YA writer who has been such a fantastic mentor to me during the publishing process.  And I've never met her in person.  And now I'm going to!  Squee!  (Aprilynne's on tour for the sequel (SPELLS) to her bestselling novel (WINGS).  I'm determined to get a signed copy of both!  Squee!!!

And I am returning to Jackson Hole High School.  Last year the principal was super sweet and welcomed me to haunt the halls of his high school for a couple of days.  This was such valuable time for me--I had written about 2/3 of the book before I arrived at the school, ironically the entire school section of the book, but even so there was SOOOO much I learned by going there.  I took gads of pictures and interviewed the students and teachers on a whole range of subjects, and then I came home and rewrote a bunch of the school sections to make them more specific to JHHS, and I was amazed at how great that turned out--the school really came to life for me.

(me at the top of the tram at Jackson Hole ski area, last May)

So now I'm going back to do the same sort of thing with Book 2.  But last year I was this dreamy little writer who flattered them by wanting to write about their school.  This year I am a soon-to-be-published author with a major publishing house, and they know that people are going to read what I write, and I know that people are going to read what I write, and it feels very different.  I just hope that I can convey my admiration of the school and share part of this amazing experience with them. 

The crazy days have begun

I have now officially entered production time.  So far this week I've looked over the jacket copy and the galley copy of my book, written my bio for the back of the book, and sent an entirely new author photo to HarperCollins.  It's all becoming more and more real.

Couple this with the fact that my agency is sending the book off now for certain foreign rights and film rights.  So we're back in the time when crazy news could come in any day.  And, in the meantime, more people are reading my book and every now and then I get a really wonderful call or email from someone who really loves my book.  Already.  And it won't be published until winter.

This is encouraging.  I went through a little panicky time right after the novel went into production where I seriously could not step back from my book enough to know whether or not it worked.  I completely trust my amazing and brilliant editor at HarperCollins, but I had completely lost my own sense of the book.  So now it's great that some people who are involved in this publishing/agenting/acquiring rights process are letting me know that they love the book.  It's a wonderful feeling to have even a few fans, even if they are at this point all professionals who are reading my book for professional reasons.  It gives me a sense of just how much I'm going to love having YA fans and getting to connect with them.

Very exciting time! 

 

Coming out of the cave

Phew!  What a couple of months it's been!  I've been in what some of my other fellow writers call "the cave," where we all disappear for a while while we revise our novels.  I am so happy to announce that UNEARTHLY went into production yesterday, which means that while there may be a few little changes here and there, I am largely finished writing this book. 

Now comes the really fun stuff, seeing the cover HarperCollins comes up with and writing the acknowledgements and marketing and the part where my little Word file becomes a real book, like Pinocchio becoming a real boy.  I am beyond excited.  It seriously feels similar to how I felt when I got engaged to my husband and knew that this wonderful wedding day was looming in the future.

Oh, and for those of you who are curious, I picked photo #4.

More soon!

Author Photo

This week, in addition to completing this round of revisions with HarperCollins (almost done, crossing fingers!), I also have to fill out my author questionnaire and send in a photo that will be my official "author" photo for this book.  I am really stuck about which photo to send, so I'm asking for your vote.  I've narrowed it down to four:

Choice #1:  This one is ideal, because I am rather desperate to get a picture of the Tetons somewhere on my book (the mountains are an integral part of the setting of the novel) and this would be a sneaky way to do it.  Still, the lighting is a bit off.

Choice #2:  Here's another with the Tetons and again (argh!) the lighting is not great.  My husband pointed out that in Choice #1 and Choice #2, you can tell that I'm taking my own picture.

Choice #3:  I include this one in black and white because what's behind me is actually mud, which doesn't look great, but I like the picture well enough.  One thing that good author photos evoke, I think, is the sense that the writer could represent the main character (good luck with this for me, ha!, since my MC is a 17-year-old strawberry blonde ANGELIC being).

And Choice #4: my go-to author photo, with books in the background. I think every writer everywhere has a photo like this stashed away, standing in front of books with a contemplative expression, like you're just about to sit down and whip out the next great American novel.

So, let me hear from you! Which photo would YOU see on the back of a book and say to yourself: "Hey, this writer looks like she could really tell the kind of story that I would love to read!"