Thursday, March 19, 2009

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.

* * *

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!)

* * *

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.

19 comments:

Kunegond said...

I cross fingers for you.

Unknown said...

Sorry, can't help it - typo in the fourth para, "fortune tellers".

The blurb was ripping though - it sounds like a great adventure.

Anonymous said...

Maybe if you write about her, she'll show up to read over your shoulder.

Amber Lough said...

Here's to our muses, both kinds. I'm hoping either one of mine will show up today. If not, I give up. (Ok, not really.)

Laini Taylor said...

Thanks, Merliee! I knew I'd seen a typo, but I couldn't remember where!!

tanita✿davis said...

WOW. I'm halfway between hoping really hard your Muse shows up, and praying I someday can BE her. She sounds awesome!

Luck, buddy.

Unknown said...

oooooooooooooooo! I'm so excited for the adventure!! I'm going to re-read blackbringer in anticipation.

good luck on your suckstravaganza. If I lived close to you I would bring you cookies for you and your mini human. then it would feel like a party!

Steph said...

I love your new ladies! I also blogged about them recently here:

http://stephcupoftea.blogspot.com/2009/03/lainis-ladies.html

Rachael King said...

I found some Laini's Ladies in a lovely store here in Christchurch! A nice surprise. You must have good distribution.

Shelli (srjohannes) said...

yippee! I love the Katy quote!!! Im on it :)

Charlotte said...

lovely ladies!

Your muse sounds a bit like The Fox in Msgic For Beginers...I hope she is there with you even as I type!

storyqueen said...

I think your muse wants a book of her own...be careful, she might start to appear as a newt!

Seriously, I would read a book about that free-spirited little muse with the fox tail and her adventures as she tries to inspire writers, over-riding those manicured muses.....(as long as it wasn't like Xanadu or anything...I hear the union of muses staged a revolt after that movie.)

Hoping your suckstravaganza is sucktacular!

Shelley

Deirdre said...

I Love the idea of two muses! It never occured to me that I might have more than one and that she (of course she's a she) would only show up when she felt like it. This opens something entirely new.

Anonymous said...

The new ladies are gorgeous, and super-duper congratulations on the mega-fantastic early Silksinger blurbs!!!

Suzanne Young said...

I'm a bit in the suck right now, but your post insired me! "Get off of me, editor monkey! Let me work!!!"

Thanks. lol.

Anonymous said...

I think your foxy muse was whispering her own description in your ear just now. I could totally see her dancing with her swishy tail before I even read she could dance. She must have been the one who helped you with the crows--the crows were like that.

Thank you for your "suck" post. I've been shirking the suck all month, and after three really productive months too. I wrote for a little over an hour last night, and it didn't suck. It wasn't swishy tail muse magical, but it was progress. And I got to put up one of my thousand word post it notes. Cyber-hugs and kisses to whoever came up with the post it note idea and to you for sharing it.

Anonymous said...

Now THAT's a MUSE! Perhaps you could lure her in, off the gypsy caravan, with a wild blueberry pie, a la Patry?
Love the new ladies!

Christine Fletcher said...

Lovely new Ladies! I know exactly which one I'm sending to the friend I introduced to Dreamdark--she'll love it.

Congrats on the blurbs! Kudos to your editor. He so deserves those cookies.

Hope your muse (tattoos in alphabets she can't even read...this gave me shivers) kicked the patootie out of your inner editor on freewrite day!

Heather said...

I think I'll donate Twilight, just to make it go away from me.