Sunday, November 02, 2008

New ladies, new book

The first things I do when I design some new Laini's Ladies are: email the design files to the Bottman Company, who licenses the artwork and creates the products; and make two sets of samples by hand, with ribbons and beads, and send those along by snailmail. Above and below are the cut out, laminated samples ready for beads and ribbons.
And here are the samples, finished. The Bottman Company will keep one set and send the other to the manufacturers (in China) for bead and ribbon matching.
These four new ladies will be available in spring '09. This lady and many more, including holiday ornaments, are available now:
Incidentally, children's book lovers, the quote on the purple and orange lady -- "Talent is something rare and beautiful and precious, and must not be allowed to go to waste." -- is from A Cricket in Times Square. Remember that book? Ooh, I realize right this second that I have misspelled the author's name. Eek! It should be Selden, not Seldon. Luckily, I have not sent the design files yet and can still fix it!

The quote on the yellow and orange and sea green lady is also from an old children's book, Gypsy by Kate Seredy. It goes: "Each thing she learned became part of herself, to be used over and over in new adventures."

And speaking of Laini's Ladies, the shwag packs are ready to go out tomorrow. Here they are behind sweet old Leroy:
By the way, I've written down addresses of everyone who emailed me. Next round of shwag will go to you first :-)

And speaking of shwag, I have every reason to expect a landslide of books arriving on my doorstep tomorrow. Oh HAPPY! Most of the others Cybils judges got eight deliveries from publishers at the end of last week, but I got only one, from Tor. I've just started reading Zoe's Tale by John Scalzi, which genre-wise is in the same vein as my current work-in-progress. I haven't mentioned writing much lately because I was doing final futzes on Silksinger and designing the new ladies, but I am back at it as of yesterday (which, incidentally, was the first day of NaNoWriMo), and it's not "newt" that I'm working on but the book I had begun over the summer and then broken my own very clearly stated rule of not jumping to a new book when a w.i.p. gets tricky. I reasoned with myself that I wasn't far enough invested in it for that rule to apply, but still, it was a beeg meestake. I should listen to me more often. So I'm back to the sci fi book that has been burning in my brain for the past year and a half. "Newt" needs some time to gel, anyway. It sprang out of a freewrite one day (when I was frustrated with the sci fi) and made me giddy with the incredible fun and possibility of it. It seduced me. It also had me checking airfares to Morocco, where I suddenly needed to go for research. Snort! Like I went to India for Lips Touch? Not. The Himalayas for Silksinger? Not. Scotland for Blackbringer? You guessed it: not. But I rillyrillyrilly would like to go to Morocco (and Venice) when I am ready to write "newt," so it's just as well I'm letting it gestate right now. Ripen, little idea, ripen. There's nowhere I could go to research the current book anyway, since. . . it is not of this Earth. . .

Shhh. I think I've said too much. Tell no one.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm so excited for NaNoWriMo! However, I am worried I won't be able to reach my word count goals with my own revisions taking place plus homework and school projects (our science project is to solve the world's oil crisis! psh, we're only teenagers).
I can't wait for Silksinger! Seriously, I'm flipping out! And if I wait much longer my predictions will get quite out of hand, though I'm pretty sure I'm right that Talon and Magpie are going to fall in love ♥ _ ♥ and then Talon will cheat on her with Whisper! Am I right? Am I?!

Laini Taylor said...

Jehsyka, for shame! No, you're not right. Talon is not a cheater! The very idea! Psh, I see I must send you Silksinger as soon as possible before your mind goes down anymore terrible paths of speculation. I promise as soon as I have Advance Readers Copies, I will send you one :-)

And, get busy solving that oil crisis! It's up to your generation to Save the Earth. Obviously. Now hurry up!

Good luck with NaNo! It might be a good time to set revisions aside and get a new draft written. Or not. Have fun!

Lexi said...

Good luck with NaNo, Jehsyka! I signed up too, but I cut the 50,000 words down to 25,000, cause I'm in the kid's program and I can...
Will I be able to make it? I don't know, but you probably will. :) I procrastinate way too much.

Goddess Leonie * GoddessGuidebook.com said...

Laini ~
I so heart your ladies... thanks so much for sharing a little of the process behind them! I have one of yours hanging on my studio door :)
And your interplanetary book scene secret is safe with me ;) hee hee hee!
Wishing you joyful book ripening vibes ~
Blessings to you,
Leonie ~ The Creative Goddess
www.GoddessLeonie.com

Andrea Eames said...

It's nice to see some other people doing Nanowrimo! I'm taking it on this year too.

A Cricket in Times Square was one of my favourite books ever as a kid, and I had completely forgotten about it till you mentioned it. So thank you.

Andrea xx (Long-time Lurker)

Cuppa Jolie said...

Ahh, Leroy. If Hank were to look up, that's just what his face would look like. Poor old guys. Just read the comment you posted. You know, sometimes I think Hank's so used to licking that I think he does it in his sleep.

Yay for ornaments! I love the ladies.

J.M. said...

Count me in for NaNoWri, too! There are seventeen reasons why I shouldn't with commitments etc..But I really want to so I'll try my very best. I decided that I must cut something - like blog reading time - to fit it in and focus on my work.

Do you dare pull yourself away from web life to create?

In case I'm true to my word, your dedication is inspiring, Laini! Sparkle sparkle luck to all.

meghan said...

YAY!!! They're done!! I never thought I'd get to say I get to buy myself!!

giggle!

xo

Maryam in Marrakesh said...

oh, yes, yes, yes.....when all that ripening is done.....peacock pavilions must be ready:)

lizardek said...

I love your ladies, love your artwork! :)

Amber said...

Ooooh when you go to Venice-- take me along!

I am trying NaNoWriMo...*yikes*!

:)

tone almhjell said...

The Ladies are so beautiful and Leroy looks so kind and sweet! I can just imagine him saying 'That's okay, you can have the remote.', or 'I like waffles, you know.'

But the coolest thing is your project. Not of this Earth? I really can't wait to hear more.

Now, to quote my darling sister, because it's such good advice, and no doubt extra useful if it's a different Earth:

Don't forget to look up.

tone almhjell said...

Also Jehsyka - Talon cheat? No way. And they're already in love, aren't they?

Stephanie Perkins said...

Ooo pretty ladies!!

And the only person Talon is cheating on Magpie with is ME. After, you know, I take a trip through a Shrinky Dink machine.

Vivian Mahoney said...

I love these new ladies! We have to wait until Spring '09?