Monday, August 31, 2009

Some cool stuff including quite belated Book Expo audio & video

Two cool book-person things today, and then some belated Book Expo audio and video!

First cool thing: Thank you, Patrick Rothfuss! Thank you, that is, for recommending Blackbringer on his blog today! If you don't know Patrick Rothfuss, he is the author of the incredibly awesome fantasy tome The Name of the Wind (sequel due out some time in the nearish future; can't wait!) that I kept raving about last year. I loved that book, and I hereby declare that even if you're not a "big fantasy reader" (so many people aren't; I don't get why they're not, but so it is), you'll still love this book. It's just so freaking good. So man am I thrilled to get Pat's endorsement. I'll admit Jim and I couldn't help taking a few peeks at the oh-so-mysterious Amazon rankings** and noticing a very drastic spike today for all of my books!!! Ah, the power of Pat. THANK YOU!!!

(Also, his blog is really funny; you should definitely read it!)

Second cool thing: this morning Jim and Clementine and I had breakfast with Cheryl Klein -- editor at Arthur A. Levine Books -- and her boyfriend James. They're in Oregon on vacation, and joined us for aebleskiver at this little Swedish place on Clinton St. (Yum!) We talked about books and movies and plays and other good stuff, while Clementine slept like a little kangaroo joey in my *pouch*. Just like she is now (only earlier it was the peanut shell sling, and right now it's the moby. We're getting the hang of "baby-wearing" -- she's my cutest accessory EVER. We've been out to lunch and dinner too, and even to a movie -- District 9, and she slept through the whole thing up until the very last five minutes, which I had to miss. Still: it went well! And the movie is AWESOME!)

**My fellow Putnam author Royce Buckingham summed up perfectly the silliness of author's watching their Amazon rankings: he said it's like befuddled cats batting at birds on a TV screen. So true! What does it all mean? Apparently, next to nothing. But still, it's about all we have to look at, so we do :-)

Belated Book Expo stuff!!!
This is reaching back a few months, but you might recall that Lips Touch was one of six YA titles for fall selected to be presented on the first-ever YA Editor's Buzz Panel. This was super-exciting, and even better was the fact that Scholastic brought Jim and me to New York to attend! Well, I thought I'd have links from the panels to post right away, but I could never find them! Today, at last, Jim happened upon them:

1. The first is audio of the YA Editor's Buzz Panel, with my fabulous editor Arthur Levine talking about Lips Touch. The whole panel is on here, but Arthur talks first -- after the great and super-flattering intro by David Levithan (I mentioned before how he compared the experience of meeting Marcus Zusak to the experience of reading my book; how great is that?), so if you wanted you could listen to just the first 10 minutes or so. But the other books are really interesting too, so you could listen to the whole thing. Or not.

Here's Jim and me with Arthur in the Scholastic booth, sharing the Lips Touch love [heart heart flower flower; we love him!]

And with Arthur and David:
David Levithan is Editorial Director at Scholastic, and is also an author. His new book Love Is the Higher Law just came out; you may know, among other titles, Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, which he co-authored which Rachel Cohn, and which was a movie last year starring Michael Cera. He's also one of the nicest people you'll ever meet. David Levithan, that is, not Michael Cera, though I genuinely hope that Michael Cera is nice too. It would suck if he wasn't, you know, since his "persona" is so nice? I would hate to find out that he's an a**hat!

2. And here, video of the YA Author's Buzz Panel, where I talk about Lips Touch and Jim flashes some glimpses of the artwork. And yeah, all the other authors are there too :-)

Okay. That's all. Cheers!

7 comments:

Charlotte said...

That's so cool about Pat Rothfuss! I shall head there next.

It's also cool that you are able to enpouch your baby. I tried, but couldn't get used to where I was in space, and after clonking poor little Ben about 20 times against door frames and granite counters etc, I gave up. sigh.

Mary Campbell said...

I sent you an e-mail, but I'm not sure you received it. I reviewed blackbringer and my blog Literarygirls.blogspot.com. My book club read your book and we took some fun pictures. Hope you get the chance to take a look at it.

Tana said...

Thanx for the video I can't wait to watch it.

Em said...

That's so exciting, Laini! And I'm such a David Levithan fangirl, how fabulously cool that you met him!! :)

jaecy bells said...

Hi, Mz Taylor, I have a question. It might be better suited for "Not For Robots," though.

Anyways, I have completed my first draft of my first novel (applause.) But that there is my problem. You recommended a break from writing, which I fully agreed on. But it's been barely a week, and I want to get back into it. But I'm worried that I would baby it too much. I don't want to rip it apart yet! My heart is still melting over the thought of finishing. I am not one for finishing big projects. Do you have any suggestions on WHEN to get back into revisions? (I will probably have a whole new round of questions there, as I have never revised a novel before. But let's not cross that bridge before we get there.)

I would appreciate any advice. And by the way, I am jealous of Clementine Pie. Firstly, her name, which is amazing. I adore unique names. Plus, I can't help imagining how AWESOME it would be to grow up with such artistic, awesome parents. She will be a prodigy, or unique in her own way.

Employment said...

This would be a perfect gift for my daughter she loves to read fantasy books. Thanks for the links.

training courses said...

I just read the blog link you posted, judging by the book’s cover plus reading the blog, I think this is a very thrilling, adventure and fantasy book to read. Thanks for recommending it.