All the Pretty Notebooks

This week I've finally started drafting on my new project. I wish I could tell you more about it, I really do, but I can't. All I can say at this point is that it's a completely different world from my Unearthly universe (although, in some ways, not so much, as this new novel takes place largely in Idaho--at least the settings are similar) with a very different type of main character. Which is a good thing. I love Clara, and I've had so much fun with her for the past four years, but at this point I am getting a bit tired of her voice. It happens.

Love you, Clara. Now be quiet.

One of the things I love best about a new project is a new set of notebooks. These days I often write my draft zero out long hand, so I can get away from the computer and the allure of facebook and Twitter and the tons of emails that await me every time I sit down at my desk. I get a lot more done if I slip off to some quiet place with a notebook. And, like most writers, I am particular about the kind of notebook I work with. I like me a lined journal (college ruled or smaller, if I can find it) that will lay flat on a table. I like these pens I found about a year ago from Pilot that are made of recycled water bottles-- a gel roller with a super smooth line. I love those days when I go through all the ink in a pen in one day of work.

Yes, I'm a pen murderer. At least these pens are refillable.

I've found that one novel typically takes me 4 notebooks, to get from the first draft through the last draft of major revisions. I'm getting quite the collection, see?

Not all of my notebooks, but some: the bottom one is for Maggie's story, which I've been jotting down for a couple years just to understand Maggie and her past, the white and green is 2 out of the 4 of Hallowed, the 4 green with elephants is Boundless, the black and white composition book is--can you guess what that might be? If all goes well you might get to find this out in December or so-- and the top, my new project!!)

So, yay! New project! I have been refraining myself from working on this new book for almost a year now. The story is burning bright in my brain, and I only hope I can get it down fast enough, so it does not burn out before it's all on the page. I have about 50 handwritten pages of notes on the characters and their world so far, just waiting for me to pick it up for serious and draft.

I am so ready! Let the fun writing begin!

Endlessly and YA Author Week

Hi, y'all! Today I'm off to do a YA library event and signing with Kiersten White, Marie Lu, and Robin LaFevers! Love those ladies and their books!

Yes, for some reason they put up a copy of my UK Hallowed, but hey, it's all good. If you're coming to Oceanside, see you there at 4pm! Be sure to get a few of my Unearthly temporary tattoos!

Also, big happy book birthday to Endlessly, the amazing and fantastic end to the Paranormalcy trilogy by Kiersten White. I am totally going to give Kiersten a big ol' awkward hug and say congrats! Because it is a great book. I blurbed it, actually. Like this:

“There’s not a character in YA fiction that I enjoy reading more than Evie’s. Endessly had me in its clutches from the first hilarious page to the last breathtaking sentence. A fun, heartfelt, and dynamic ending to a marvelous series.”

So yeah, I dug that book. A lot. Check out the trailer.

The Very Busy Spider

Ever so often, I read this book to my son:

It's about a spider building a web.

On every page, a new animal shows up and asks the spider to hang out with it: "'Quack, quack,' said the duck. 'Want to go for a swim?'" But the spider never answers. She is always very busy spinning her web. This goes on and on, page after page, from morning until night, the spider not responding to anybody, just spinning and spinning and spinning, until finally she finishes her web. Then an owl flies by and says, "Who? Who? Who built this beautiful web?" But the spider doesn't answer then, either. She's asleep. "It had been a very, very busy day." And thus ends the book.

I am so totally the spider right now.

(Eric Carle, by the way=genius.)

So. I have turned in the next round of revisions for BOUNDLESS. Over the past several weeks many, many people have tried to get my attention, and I have not responded. So sorry for that, people. I was very busy spinning my web.

Revisions are usually tough and slow for me, but THIS revision. Oh dear Lord. So many threads. So many characters and their arcs. So much to set up. There were days a pesky fly flew into my web and thrashed it to shreds. There were days when I was inexorably trapped in the web and I started to feel suspiciously like the pesky fly. There were days I honestly considered whether this web-spinning thing was a healthy career decision. 

I drank a lot of iced tea. Which helped me stay up into the wee cool hours of the morning when the house was quiet and I could think. And then I would lie in bed later trying to turn off my brain, which insisted on revising my book, even when I'd clearly told it to stop. Even in my sleep, I revised. I often woke with a dull headache and the sense that I had been working all night.

I am a morning person, by the way. I suck as a night owl.

I am, quite frankly, exhausted.

Stay tuned for the Grouchy Ladybug, is what I'm saying. . .

But, at least for now, it's turned in. I am finally free to work on a new project. (and possibly a new, NEW project that is Unearthly-related. I shall tell you when I know. . .) And this is great. I have been wanting to work on my new project for almost a year, and I can't wait to really dig into it.

Tonight my husband came into my office to warn me about a spider on the back patio, who was building an enormous web. My husband thought it would be, er, icky, if I walked into that web on my way to water the lawn in the morning.

"He's out there now, building it?" I asked. For some reason I think of this spider as a he. Don't ask me why.

Yes, he was.

I went out on the patio and located said spider-and-web. My husband was right; it's a big web. The supports easily stretch across a ten-foot space, with the center positioned to intercept any unlucky bug who happens to make a suicide-run for the porch light. (Well played, spider. Well played.)

I've seen this spider before. He's a very large orange and black orb weaver, with stripey legs exactly like in the Eric Carle book. I have resisted the temptation to squash him, because he eats many bugs, and he's not doing any harm or trying to get in the house to bite my babies. He's a good spider, and I have just read Charlotte's Web to my son and James and The Giant Peach and I am supposed to be okay with good spiders. (Embarrassing side note: someone recently asked my son about reading Charlotte's Web. He said he never wanted to read it again. Because it -and I quote- "makes Mommy cry like crazy." Seriously, though. Those last lines: "It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and good writer. Charlotte was both." I could start sobbing right now. . .)

Ahem. So back to the patio spider. I haven't ever seen a spider building its web before, not in real life, anyway. So I stood there for a good twenty minutes and watched as the little guy worked to fill in the web. Around and around and around he went, the glossy threads occasionally catching the light. And I noticed one thing right off:

Part of the web is easy for the spider. Starting from the bottom left, he just cruises along, goes a little bit, secures the thread to the support, spins a bit more, secures, climbs the left side, secures the line, goes across the top, spins, secures, spins, secures. No problem, right?

Until he hits the top right, and he has to go down.

Then the spider falls out of his rhythm, he wobbles, the entire web dangles unsteadily as he lowers himself, secures the line, twists and waves his legs frantically and looks all kinds of unbalanced, then finally reaches the bottom and hiccups across two more anchors before he finds his groove again.

Every single time.

I can practically hear the little guy cussing: "Oh for $%^&&**$*!!!! This stupid #$^*&#$&!!! web!!!!" And toward the end there he was looking so very tired. Like, "Please, please, can't this web  be finished now? Pant, pant. I need a vacation." But on he went, until the web was done. I wish I could have taken a picture of it for you, but it would not show up with my camera. Trust me, it was glorious.

It made me smile. Because I am so totally that spider.

This web building stuff is HARD. Even for spiders. And they were made to spin.


(This web is a fair approximation of what both my spider's web and BOUNDLESS look like right now. . .)

Join me tomorrow morning where I forget about the web and walk right into it on my way to water the lawn and run around screaming and swiping at myself. Because that's going to be fun.

Fancy New Blog

I'm still in the cave feverishly working on revisions for Boundless, but I wanted to stick my head out for five minutes to tell you that I have a new and improved blog / website. The biggest additions are the left-hand sidebar, where I have the foreign covers of my books linked to the publishers' websites. At the bottom are countries where the rights are sold, but no book has been published yet. I think. And I've moved the right-hand sidebar up to my fancy new events tab.

You will notice that I have a new event coming up:

July 24, 2012, 6pm, at the Oceanside Barnes and Noble with Kiersten White, Marie Lu, and Robin La Fevers, all of whom I adore. (Okay, technically I haven't met Robin yet, but I adore Grave Mercy, so I am pretty darn likely to adore Robin as well.)

I will be there with bells.

Also, for those of you who haven't seen it on my Facebook/Twitter feed, I thought I would toss you a crumb. Below is a picture of my research board for Boundless. There's a lot of stuff on there you won't understand, some clues, perhaps. Closer to the release I will be sure to make a video where I walk you through the board and all its many wonderful parts.

Now back to revising.

Boundless Cover Reveal

Wow, am I ever excited! My editor has given me the go-ahead to share the cover for BOUNDLESS!!!!

First off, I want to say that this might be my favorite cover out of all of them, and I love all my covers. But this one. . .  I love her expression, I love her dress and the way the wind is moving it, I love the lake rocks under her feet, the suggestion of water, the parting of the clouds, and I love the color. It's all LOVELY.

Squee!!!!

Ready to see?

Okay!

Ta-dah!

What do you think?!!!!

And again, in honor of Boundless, I'd like to share another song that I listened to a LOT to get me in the Boundless frame of mind: Human, by Civil Twilight. Let this play and stare at the cover for a minute, I dare you. See if you don't feel what Clara feels. . .

Title for Book 3

I've been a bad blogger. People are always asking me how I juggle all the balls in my life: writer, author, mother, wife, professor, blogger, housekeeper, laundress, cook, dishwasher, etc, and my answer is always the same:

I am always dropping one or two of the balls.

Blogging is a ball that's been left on the floor for a while now. I hope to pick it up again soon. Right up there with housekeeping. :)

Right now I'm on the road, a combination research/publicity/family vacation kind of trip. This past week I've been at Stanford, interviewing students and hanging out the way I did with Jackson Hole High School when I was writing Unearthly and Hallowed. I lived near Stanford a few years ago, and worked at the Stanford Cancer Center as a "social science research assistant" for a while there, so it's a pretty familiar place, but let me tell you, going there with the writer's cap on, trying to understand the university the way Clara would see it as an incoming freshman, has been so fun and and the same time overwhelming! Special thanks to Estella Go, especially, for showing me around and answering all my endless questions! You rock!

On Thursday I did a signing at Not Your Mother's Book Club with Brodi Ashton and Bree Despain, which was awesome. I love those ladies. We laughed. A lot. And Brodi occasionally went completely blurry, she's so quick-witted. See, here's the proof. And here's me in my new purple glasses trying to sound like I know what I'm talking about. It was awesome.

Later this week I'm off to The Dalles, Oregon for an awesome event with 11 other writers on June 2. See the sidebar for details.

And then I'm headed to Boise for a couple of days and then to my dad's mountain house to revise Book 3 while my dad takes my son on long tractor rides.

Oh, wait.

I don't have to call it Book 3 anymore.

It has a TITLE.

And I've been given the green light to tell you that title!

So I suppose I should get on with it!

Okay, here's the definition:

adjective

having no bounds;  infinite or vast; unlimited: His ******** energy amazed his friends.

Synonyms 
limitless, endless, unbounded, inexhaustible, illimitable. 

Can you guess?

What's that you say? Stop stalling and just tell us? You've been scrolling down frantically ever since you saw the subject line of this post.

Okay, okay. 

The title is (deep breath)

Boundless

I am so happy with this title. Like all of my titles, I like that it works on multiple levels, each that can be applied to what happens in the book. Because what happens in this book is VAST, people.

Yay titles!


BOUNDLESS is still (fingers crossed) on schedule to be released in January 2013. I know that's a long ways off, but I still need some time to tinker with it.

In honor of this big reveal I also want to share a song that inspired me as I wrote this book.

Sigh. I love this song. When I listen to it I always imagine it being sung to Clara by Christian AND Tucker, alternating with the lyrics.

Here are the words:

I'll sing it one last time for you
Then we really have to go
You've been the only thing that's right
In all I've done

And I can barely look at you
But every single time I do
I know we'll make it anywhere
Away from here

Light up, light up
As if you have a choice
Even if you cannot hear my voice
I'll be right beside you dear

Louder louder
And we'll run for our lives
I can hardly speak I understand
Why you can't raise your voice to say

To think I might not see those eyes
Makes it so hard not to cry
And as we say our long goodbye
I nearly do

Light up, light up
As if you have a choice
Even if you cannot hear my voice
I'll be right beside you dear

Louder louder
And we'll run for our lives
I can hardly speak I understand
Why you can't raise your voice to say

Slower slower
We don't have time for that
All I want's to find an easy way
To get out of our little heads

Have heart, my dear
We're bound to be afraid
Even if it's just for a few days
Making up for all this mess

Light up, light up
As if you have a choice
Even if you cannot hear my voice
I'll be right beside you dear

Sigh.

Uh oh. The kids are awake now. Time to go.

Oh, but there's one more bit of news:

THE AUDIO FOR HALLOWED IS NOW AVAILABLE. Click here for the Audible.

And now I go back to juggling.

Spring Into the Future

So I haven't blogged in a while. Sorry.

I pretty much exhausted myself finishing this draft of Book 3. Writers often talk about "the fainting couch," where you go after you finish a particularly demanding draft for a certain recovery time. Boy, did I ever need the fainting couch after finishing this draft.

Only, I didn't really do the fainting couch this time. I took one day to clean my house. And then I set out to really live it up with my kids. Poor little people spent so much time watching videos and being shuttled off to daycare while I wrote and wrote and wrote, so I figured they could really use some fun, special time. So that's what we did. We went to children's museums. I took my son to Disneyland, where we had an entirely pirate-themed day. We went to the farm, the beach, an assortment of parks. I made it my goal to do something super fun with them every day.

A few days ago, my son asked me, "Mommy, how much longer can we have fun?"

Me: "I don't know, honey."

Will: (big sigh) "I hope we can have fun forever."

Me: (big sigh) (because I know the revision letter from my editor is coming. Soon. And then it will be back to the grindstone.)

So yeah, I didn't feel much like blogging.

Then I went to RT (the Romantic Times Book Convention in Chicago!) That was AWESOME. I will totally recap all about it in a couple days.

Then (and I mean like the minute I got off the plane from RT, seriously) I got sick with a nasty cold.

Which brings us to now. This morning I can breathe a little. The kids are eating their lunches. And I am BLOGGING.

I have a lot to catch up on, obviously.

First things first, though, I need to announce that I am part of the Spring Into the Future tour with Tahereh Mafi (author of SHATTER ME), Anna Carey (author of EVE), and Veronica Rossi (author of UNDER THE NEVER SKY). Tahereh was sweet enough to ask me to do their event in Pasadena (since I live thereabouts), and then we noticed that we were all going to be in Chicago the following day, so she asked me to join them there, too. It was a blast. I am a HUGE fan of all three of these ladies.

Anna Carey, myself, Marie Lu, Tahereh Mafi, and Veronica Rossi signing books at Vromans in Pasadena

So I was so honored and thrilled to be asked back to be part of the Pacific Northwest leg of the tour.

Here are the dates and information:

May 3, San Francisco, signing at 7pm at Copperfields in Petaluma.

May 4, Portland, signing at 7pm at Barnes & Noble in Clackamas.

May 5, Seattle, Teen Brunch at 11am at the University Book Store, Mill Creek.

So come see me! I will be doing some other events a bit later in the summer. Keep checking my sidebar on the blog here for future events.

In other news:

We have an official title for Book 3. I am just waiting for the greenlight to tell you. I have also seen a mock-up of the cover, and I can honestly say, it is my FAVORITE of all my covers so far. It is GORGEOUS. Swoon. I loves.

I am working on a new project. Which has been lots of fun. It is a completely different world and voice from the Unearthly series, and that is pretty much all I can tell you about it. See my progress in the sidebar, also.