New Laini's Ladies; Website Update; Muse Musings

Look, new Laini's Ladies! I designed these back in the fall and they're available now. I love them, and I especially love that two of the quotes come from children's books.

"I have always imagined Paradise will be a kind of library." -Jorge Luis Borges
"Talent is something rare and beautiful and precious, and must not be allowed to go to waste." -George Selden, A Cricket in Times Square
"Each thing she learned became part of herself, to be used over and over in new adventures." -Kate Seredy
"In this tangled world, what is there other than friends?" -Rumi

These can be ordered HERE, as hanging adornments or greeting cards.

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And, I just did some website updating. The main thing is that I've added a Silksinger page, which includes a description and -- very exciting for me -- my first blurbs! This was such a nice surprise: I got unbound galleys in the mail last week from my editor Tim (and his lovely assistant, Shauna). Unbound galleys are basically the typeset book exactly as it will appear in the Advance Readers Copies (ARCs), but it's not in book format yet. So, the Silksinger galleys, I was delighted to see, begin with a really lovely letter to the reader from Tim, followed by four blurbs by librarians and other readerly folk who've ALREADY READ SILKSINGER!!! I didn't know anybody had read it yet! I mean, I didn't know any strangers had read it yet, so it was so cool to see these quotes, which are really really nice. You can read them at the above link. Tim is great. He really believes in my books and it's so terrific knowing that he's doing crafty things behind the scenes like send manuscripts, even pre-ARC, out to readers! (He is getting some cookies in the mail very soon!)

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On the subject of my last post, that is, on the subject of enduring suck, I am planning an all-out suckstravaganza tomorrow. Freewriting! A big, messy, terrifying binge of it. This whole week I've been a very uptight writer, with my inner editor perched right on my shoulder pointing and snarking at every single sentence I write. I've managed two short chapters, verrrry slowly. Tomorrow is going to be different. That inner editor is getting stuffed in the freezer for a few hours AT LEAST while I unleash a volume of suck onto the innocent computer screen. I need some things to HAPPEN, I need some serendipity, some flow, some of that dancing-fingertip magic that only happens occasionally, when a story unspools, all silky and surprising, from who-knows-where. I think maybe I have two muses, and one of them has a perfect manicure and pursed lips, and she's reliable. She's around all the time, and I need her, but the best days are when the other one deigns to show up -- the flaky flambuoyant one who has tattoos in alphabets she can't even read. She pops by, fresh from hitchhiking in some gypsy caravan from Turkey to Romania, and she's got rings on her toes and hasn't combed her hair in days, and she's singing some peasant song she just learned from a blind revolutionary. And she's got a jar of honey given to her by a witch. She's fallen in love three times since I saw her last, maybe even married a fox prince and then decided the creature life wasn't for her. Maybe she got a fox tail out of the bargain, and swishes it with a mixture of dignity and coyness. And, oh yeah, she can dance, baby. She can dance.

I want her to show up tomorrow. Please?

Lastly, have you heard of Operation Teen Book Drop? It's a drive to donate YA books to teen patients in hospitals. The divine ladies at Readergirlz have teamed up with YALSA and 12 publishers to donate 8,000 books to 12 different hospitals. Click the link to see how you can donate too. This is what I'm doing with some of my stacks of leftover Cybils books. Oh, and here's a video announcement:
Good stuff.