Posts Tagged ‘events’

Crows, crows, crows! And reviews.

Crows, crows, crows! Is what I call out when I’m setting out their morning food. Not terribly original, I know. But they’re hard to name. They all look the same only slightly different sizes. In my head I call them Cro-heme, Cro-tein Shake, and Theodore Cro-sevelt, because I hate that stupid Geico weightlifter commercial.

They are out of the nest now, and eating our offerings on the regular. We have good luck with unsalted peanuts in shell and goldfish crackers my mom bought but didn’t eat. Oh no, she said, I want the regular goldfish, not the flavor-blasted. Well, I bought both, and she proceeded to scarf down the flavor-blasted and left me with bland, plain goldfish crackers! But I digress. The crows also enjoy tater tots, and certain lunch meat. They are picky about cheese. I’m eager to try giving them eggs, but if they ignore them then I have to go clean the yard before the dogs get to it and that sounds gross.

On to bookish stuff: THREE DARK CROWNS has received three positive trade reviews. Two with stars. That’s nuts! Plus many excellent blurbs.  I’ll get the Three Dark Crowns page updated soon, and Harper has already gotten them up on the Amazon page. Well, not the Booklist one, yet.

Three positive trade reviews. I feel very lucky. And like I paid someone off and just don’t remember doing it. But, there will be many bad reviews as well. Bad reviews that I hope sound like this: This book is not even a book! I couldn’t stand a single page and after I closed it I pooped on it! NO STARS!

That’s right. I want to get a no stars review from the Brita Water guy.

For those of you who don’t know, I read reviews of my own books. This is something that many writers manage to not do, as it can be quite unhealthy, like constantly refreshing your Amazon ranking (which I also do). Buuut, I can’t stop. Reviews are the Ennis to my Jack: I can’t quit them. Even if it is true that the right bad review on the wrong day can leave me shuffling around my house in mismatched socks asking the cat if he’s seen the last half of my sandwich. It’s all part of the process.

In two weeks, I’m off to GeekyCon, then back home until late September. My full schedule is up on the events page. I am having a launch gathering at University Bookstore in Seattle on 9/22. There will be cupcakes. Three flavors, one for each queen, and also just because I want to eat three different cupcakes. If you can’t be there but would like a book signed, call the store and they will make sure I sign and doodle. If you aren’t local, they will ship. All of the stores on the tour will ship, I imagine.

Thank you to anyone who comes out and sees us on tour. And as ever, a huge thank you to everyone who has pre-ordered Three Dark Crowns already. I thank you, my publisher thanks you, and Obi-dog thanks you, too, because he has to be involved in everything the little nose-beast. We are all very, very grateful.

The Last #31HorrorFilms31Days Post (plus event recaps)

I did it. Oh yes. 31 Horror Films in 31 days, and man, what a ride. I feel….all caught up on my horror films. Now if only I could say the same thing for my reading pile.

THE LAST OF THE LIST (Films marked with * indicate a film I had never seen before)

24. THE POSSESSION* – once again, a demon targets a tiny little girl. Come on demons, go infest The Rock or Vin Diesel. Make it interesting. Bonus: Kyra Sedgwick, a.k.a. Mrs. Kevin Bacon, gets to play it really, really clueless as the mom.

25. THE THING* – the 80’s one, not the one with Scott Pilgrim’s girlfriend. Lots of fun with steroids-au.com defrosted aliens in the isolated arctic. Lucky for the aliens, these people have severe trust issues, and are horrible at not becoming infected.

26. ANNABELLE* – Creepy doll. The initial satanic home invasion was the scariest thing about this. And I couldn’t stop thinking of the spoof in A Haunted House 2, where Marlon Wayans bones it.

27. FRIDAY THE 13TH* – I kept waiting for some prime Kevin Bacon full frontal, but I guess he had to warm up to it. Fine. This was his first movie. Also, man, this final girl deserved to die. Stop just briefly incapacitating Mrs. Voorhees!

28. HALLOWEEN* – Very enjoyable yarn about inept people chasing a superkiller, and a little boy who just can’t articulate what the Boogeyman looks like, dammit.

29. HALLOWEEN II* – Because the first one just wasn’t finished. Thank god we stopped before Season of the Witch.

30. NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 5 – Did not mean to watch this. Got sucked into a marathon on IFC.

31. NEW NIGHTMARE – I love this movie. So meta. And I had to end on Wes Craven. I only wish he’d had the courage to ask Johnny Depp to appear in it, like he wanted.

For the last two nights, I’ve been on the ILLUMINAE Tour with Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman, as well as fellow local guy Shawn Speakman (THE DARK THORN, set in Seattle! Check him out, he’s got rad tales), and man it’s been fun. First stop was at University Bookstore, which is always fab, and where I finally found my heart’s desire, a copy of Milan Kundera’s THE FESTIVAL OF INSIGNIFICANCE. Me and a bottle of wine have a date with that book. There will be weeping. And joy. And inappropriate touching.

Anyway, night two was in my old stomping grounds: the Lynnwood Barnes and Noble!  Another great panel. Amie and Jay tell the best stories. If you can get your butt to one of their stops, I recommend it. And if you haven’t read ILLUMINAE yet, stop reading this and go do that instead. Then come back and we can talk about my love of AIDAN.

This weekend, I’m in Portland to hang with April Genevieve Tucholke, McCormick Templeman, Cat Winters, and many, many others at Wordstock. Fun times will be had. Come on out, if you’re around. It’s at the art museum.

Now, it’s back to the THREE DARK CROWNS grind. Did I mention I saw the flap copy? Did I mention that it’s bitchin? Cover should be coming soon.

 

In which I explain my absence, a new book deal, and hey, come hang out with me.

Where’d the summer go? That crafty son of a b, it went and had itself a fine sunny time whilst I was trapped inside bent over this scraggly old computer. So, that’s where I’ve been. Or rather, here, is where I’ve been. Right here, writing on Secret Project 3D, which is now not so secret, because it was announced today:

Publisher’s Weekly Book Deals: Week of September 15th, 2014

Wahoo! I’m very excited about this project, and I can’t wait for you to meet the three triplet queens. Mirabella, the elemental, Arsinoe, the naturist, and little Katharine, the poisoner. Only one can have the crown, the poor dears, and they’re in quite the bloodthirsty pickle. So there it is. THREE DARK CROWNS. I wonder how long it will take for me to stop referring to it as 3D.

But first! I’ve got MORTAL GODS tour dates and festivals and such! Check out the Events page for the updated schedule. There might be one more after the Louisiana Book Festival, but I’m not certain yet. Come on out and hang! I would love to meet you.

I feel like there’s something else I’m supposed to mention, or that I wanted to talk about. But I was in Minnesota visiting family until this morning and I have plane mush brain. Ah well. It couldn’t have been that important.

 

 

First I plan to soil myself. Then I’m going to regroup and come up with another plan.

Austin Powers. For months afterward whenever my mother asked what I was going to do that day, the line about soiling was my reply. My mother is a patient woman.

But this is a post about plans. Plans about signings with amazing authors. I'll put a list at the bottom.

So onto the other things. This has been a week of catching up, after the crazed sprint that was ANTIGODDESS revisions. I've caught up on some reading, which I'll be posting or tweeting about shortly. I did a fun game of Truth or Dare with the Friday the Thirteeners. Resumed my french lessons. Basically, I cleared my desk to write a new short story about Cas & Co., which I'm really looking forward to. I miss that boy.

Saw the preview for The Raven, starring John Cusack, you know, that movie that turns Edgar Allan Poe into an action hero, or sort of. I love Poe and Cusack as much as the next person who has seen eighties movies, but I don't know about this. Action hero? I thought he was just a brilliant, occasionally incestuous pedophile. Okay, okay, girls married young back then. Still. Ew.

Okay, here's the list:

The New Kids on the YA Block mini-tour, with Kiki Hamilton (THE FAERIE RING), Helen Landalf (FLYAWAY), Kathy McCullough (DON'T EXPECT MAGIC), Megan Bostic (NEVER EIGHTEEN) and Carole Estby Dagg (THE YEAR WE WERE FAMOUS)

March 14th, 7pm
Third Place Books
17171 Bothell Way NE
Lake Forest Park, WA
206-366-3333

March 15th, we'll be visiting Capital High School and then signing at the Timberland Library at 7:30 in downtown Olympia, WA.

March 16th, it's off to Tacoma where we'll be joined by Alexa Martin (GIRL WONDER) at:
Garfield Book Co.
208 Garfield St. South
Tacoma, WA 98444
253-535-7665

At each there will be speed reads, Q&A, and we've sworn to bring goodies.

OTHER EVENTS

In April, I'll be at the LA Times Festival of Books, doing a panel and a signing, April 21st and 22nd. Times TBA.

Also in April, I'm headed to the International Reading Association conference in Chicago. I'll be signing on Monday April 30th from 2-3 and on a panel Tuesday morning from 9:45 or so until 11. Then a podcast of some sort. Kristen Simmons (ARTICLE 5) is going to be there too. I hope we get up to the dickens. Whatever "dickens" are.

And it appears I'll be at ALA in June. Awesome. George RR Martin is going to be there and I'm going to stare at him. And make that "V" gesture toward my eyes, and then in his direction. Until people remove me. Shouldn't take long.

If anyone is anywhere near any of these places, I'd love to meet you. And I know, I have virtually no info yet about the LA Times Festival, and I apologize about that to those who have asked. I'll update ASAP.

The Greatest Trick the Devil Ever Pulled was Convincing the World He Didn’t Exist.

Title today is from The Usual Suspects, a lovely film in which Benicio Del Toro defies all rules of accents. Why am I using it? I don't know. Although admittedly, a week before a book comes out, there is a not so small urge to POOF! And disappear. Even if there's nothing wrong. I'd still like to spend the week slinking from bottom of rock to bottom of rock, only pausing to lift my head and squawk incoherently.

But I can't! Curses! Revisions of GIRL OF NIGHTMARES are past the halfway point, and if I'm lucky, will almost reach the wrap zone by the end of today. Hmm. I guess between revisions and release I have not a whole lot of use to say. Damn. I expected more from me. So, I'll finish this non-post with a brief list of places I (and Anna) are going to be.

INTERNATIONAL PUBLICATION- A few have asked whether Anna Dressed in Blood will be published anywhere besides the US and Canada. I still have basically no idea, but here is a short list of territories where I'm pretty sure it will release eventually:

The United Kingdom (2012)
Australia (2012)
New Zealand(2012)
Thailand (TBD)

PLACES YOU CAN THROW STUFF AT ME: But please make it soft things. Even if you say, "Hey, Kendare! Heads up!" I am still going to let it smack me in the face, and not attempt to catch it at all. Seriously. Who's got two thumbs and really slow reaction time? THIS GUY.

Scout & Morgan Booksellers, Cambridge, Minnesota (September 24, 11:30 to 1pm.)
West Hollywood Book Fair on some kind of panel, Los Angeles, California (October 2nd, time TBD)
Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Trade Show, Portland, Oregon (October 14th, signing from 4:45-5:30)

Until then, I'll be underneath the nearest rock. The nearest chocolate rock.