Dec
10
2010
Lindsay R., that’s who! The random thingy chooser found her to be the most random of all my entrants. I will send you an email, Lindsay, so please respond by midnight tonight–Central time–or I will send the prize to the next most random person.
Thanks, everyone, for playing. But don’t despair–I’ll have another giveaway in time for Slice of Cherry’s book birthday, which is January 4th. So stayed tuned. 
Dec
6
2010
Because I’m giving it away! And because I’m awesome, I will also throw in a copy of Bleeding Violet as well as some signed bookmarks.
I’m going on vacation at the end of the week so I want to do this quickly. Like this week. Also, I just hate drawing things out–I’m an instant gratification kinda gal. So if you wanna win the books and the bookmarks, leave a comment, and yes it’s open to everyone everywhere. I’ll announce a winner this Friday using the random name thingy. And that’s that. Good luck!
Dec
3
2010
Do you know who Grant Hill is? He was this basketball star who was kind of a big deal about ten years ago. I don’t know who he played for or whatever happened to him. All I know is that he was in this awesome Sprite commercial back in the nineties. So if you ever see me point to my face and scream, “I can only be Jake!”, watch this commercial, and you’ll understand where I’m coming from.
Nov
27
2010
So I went through all the entries and the most interesting comment was the last one, Anne’s bizarre fantasy recipes. I especially liked it because Cindy Pon’s first book, Silver Phoenix lovingly describes the different meals the characters eat on their way to the Palace of Fragrant Dreams, and Anne’s comment definitely captured that vibe.
All Anne has to do now is email her address to diathewriter at yahoo and I will mail her the ARC and the Slice of Cherry bookmarks.
And Ashley I decided your comment was runner-up-worthy, so if you send your address to the same email, I will mail you some bookmarks too. Who knew there were serial killer coloring books? 
Anyway, if you didn’t win, don’t fret. Cindy’s contest for a Fury ARC and other goodies is still going on. Just click here to enter, and thanks everyone for playing!
Nov
18
2010
I have an ARC (advanced reader copy) of Fury of the Phoenix, the sequel to Cindy Pon’s most excellent debut Silver Phoenix. The picture on the left is the cover, but the painting Cindy had commissioned is on the right and is more accurate–and prettier. The only things missing are the demons. If you’re curious about Silver Phoenix, I talk about how much I love it in this post. Here’s the summary from the back of Fury:
Ai Ling has been marked by the Immortals, and her power is extraordinary–and as yet untamed. When Chen Yong, the young warrior she met on the road to the Emperor’s city, decides to journey overseas to search for his birth father, Ai Ling–following her heart–daringly joins him in his quest. Fluid exhilarating writing, a strong female lead, and a starcrossed romance make this a deeply satisfying conclusion to Silver Phoenix, the book Meg Cabot called “an addictive gem.”
Groovy, right? The book doesn’t come out until March so I’m super stoked to get an early read, and after I finish reading it, I’m going to give it away on my birthday, which is November 27. Since I also just got my Slice of Cherry bookmarks, I’ll include a few of those as well, signed of course.
The giveaway starts today and all you have to do to be eligible to win is leave an interesting comment below. What constitutes an interesting comment you ask? It has to be the opposite of lame. So as long as your comment doesn’t bore me, consider yourself in the running. The person who leaves the coolest, most interesting comment will win the Fury ARC. As I said, I’ll announce the winner on my birthday.
(Here’s a tip: To increase your chances of winning a copy of Fury, go here to enter Cindy’s contest. There’s a bunch of cool stuff you could win in addition to the ARC.)
This is only for the US as I am broke, but my giveaway next month for signed copies of both Slice of Cherry and Bleeding Violet will be open internationally, so stay tuned for that one.
Good luck, y’all.
Oct
22
2010
If you don’t know what that is, it’s a contest to try to write a 50,000 word novel during November. That’s right: 50k in thirty days. You don’t win anything except the satisfaction of a job well done. I’ve done it for my first two books, and now I’m doing it this year for book 3. I’ve actually already started noodling with it, but I’ll only count what I write during the month of November toward the 50,000 word goal.
I don’t do nano every year, only when I’m trying to finish a book. It shuts off the inner editor and really forces you to focus and just get it done. It’s awesome. The icon is over on the left–I’m DReeves if anyone wants to buddy me. Anyway, here’s a more in depth explanation of what nanowrimo is. I would explain, but I haven’t the strength for details, not today.
Oct
20
2010
Oct
18
2010
For this edition of Music Monday, I’m going waaaaaayyyyyy back. To, like, the eighties, man. xD Anyway, the first song is “Dr. Soul” by some group nobody’s ever heard of called Foster and McElroy, featuring the great MC Lyte. I have very distinct memories of doing the wop to this song.
And this one by Young MC. EVERYBODY knows this song.
And speaking of busting a move, just in case you’re wondering what kinda funky fresh steps to perform with these songs, here you go. This guy is totally representing for the eighties, yo.
Sep
27
2010
So here it is at long last:
And here’s the wrap:
Now, originally they’d wanted the cover to look more like Bleeding Violet, but my agent and I convinced them to veer away from the whole erotic romance vibe to something that was a better reflection of the content. I think they did a great job pulling together the two main aspects of, not just the novel, but my writing style, i.e. blood and whimsy.
In case you’re wondering what’s up with the teacups, in the novel, the sisters are usually sitting around drinking tea while they plan their murderous escapades. Also there’s a “mad tea party” scene that involves one of their victims, which I won’t go into because I know how delicate y’all are. Now the flowers on the back are there because of the many references to plants and gardens; the Headless Garden in particular plays a big role in the story. And all the handwritten font styles mirror Fancy’s dream diary entries that begin each chapter. Don’t you just love getting all this insider info?
Anyway, I’m really excited to see how people react to this book. I keep wondering what the mindblower scene will be. In BV, the boy at the lake is what tends to stick in people’s minds (for better or worse), so I’m curious to know what Slice of Cherry scene will freak people out the most. Cuz there’s kind of a lot to choose from.
To give you a taste of what you’re in for, I’ve included the first chapter of SoC under the Excerpts tab above. Give it a read if you want, but if it blows your hair back, don’t come crying to me about it. You have been warned, children.
Sep
4
2010
I was just on Twitter, which led me to this post. It’s full of passion and worry and outrage and the comments are full of people shouting, “Amen!” But I don’t get it. I read stuff like this, and it makes me feel like a complete sociopath because I just don’t get it. My first reaction was to laugh because it reminded me of how people were so freaked out in the fifties about rock ‘n roll corrupting their sweet lily-white kiddos. They stood around tearing out their hair and screaming, “Oh won’t someone PLEASE think of the children?” Sixty years later, the kids are all right. Or dead. Whichever.
The points about YA writers being cliquish and how difficult it is to know what teenagers really want to read and ohmygod what’s happening to YA can be summed up quite handily: Who gives a shit?
I’m not saying that in a mean way, but rather in a wide-eyed and totally bewildered way. If a bunch of writers want to stroke each other’s ego by giving each other totally undeserved five stars on Goodreads or join a group like the Tenners (Tenners RULE!) or the Debs or Contemps in order to commiserate about the ups and downs of writing life with the handful of people in the world who could possibly understand what it’s like (the YA world is frigging small and there aren’t that many of us) then how does that hurt anyone?
It doesn’t hurt teens, the majority of whom don’t know or care about our cliques and various other inbred dramas–the only one of us they could even name off the tops of their heads is Stephenie Meyer. And maybe Maggie Stiefvater if they’re feeling brave enough to attempt pronouncing her last name. It doesn’t hurt other writers–the YA community is friendly as crap. Even a misanthrope like me is made to feel welcome. (And if other writers never bothered or don’t care to join a group then that’s their choice. That’s the beauty of living in a free society–nobody has to do anything they don’t want to. Except pay taxes.) It doesn’t hurt bloggers–the blogger/writer relationship is symbiotic; they like to blog about stuff, and we like to be blogged about.
As far as what teens want to read, if there was a simple answer to that we would all be zillionaires. Because then we would write books they would love every time and everyone would be happy and unicorns would slide across the sky on rainbows. Look, when I write something, I do NOT think about what anybody wants but ME. I write what I want to read, and I’m lucky that so far it’s been what other people want to read as well, but I’m not about bending over backward to make anybody happy. (My Goodreads rating will totally testify to that.) I’m the only one I can make happy, and that’s enough of a challenge, believe me.
So, I don’t know. If you wanna be upset because you can’t figure out why people act the way the way they do or what it is they want, then okay, but settle in for a long haul because you’re never gonna figure it out. For my money it’s always better to look inward than outward.
