Friday, January 23, 2009

Woe is me. . . but not really

Look what came back to me today. My current boomerang.
Yes. Silksinger. This time, she's typeset, and I get to read her. . . AGAIN. Good thing I love this book. Note: be sure only to write books you rillyrilly love, because you will have to read them minnyminny times. Also: try to keep them short. This is not something I have managed to do, but it seems like a good plan right about now.

Typeset, and without the art (which Jim is working on now), she comes in at 439 pages. Blackbringer is 437. Huh. Pretty close!

So, this weekend I have a reading date with my Dreamdark crew: Magpie and Talon, Whisper and Hirik, and multitudinous imps and hobgoblins and faeries and devils.

This is going to be a year for me of many exciting moments. I will get two boxes of ARCs in the mail, and two boxes of new books. This is the "Back to the Future" moment I've mentioned before -- how all writers I know seem to remember the minor scene in that movie in which the Crispin Glover character gets a box of books from his publisher. Only aspiring writers take note of that scene, and we remember it forever.

I will also read reviews, which I hope will be good, and I will see the German edition of Blackbringer, not to mention the very beautiful paperback, which I am going to show you NOW:
Isn't it gorgeous? I love the new type treatment, and you can't really tell here, but the type and the image of Magpie and Calypso are spot-laminated so they stand out shiny against the misty matte background. It's scrumptious. And I'm very excited that Holly Black blurbed the front cover. Thank you Holly!

I'm also very excited that Firebird chose to use Magpie as the lead page to their section in the Penguin Young Readers catalog:


I'm giddy about 2009, for lots of reasons. GIDDY. So if I seem to be complaining about having to read my own book again, know that I am doing so with a sense of total grace and gratitude for the year that is upcoming.

Now, on to something very funny. Well. One of the Cybils shortlist titles in sci-fi/fantasy, selected by me and my co-panelists, is Lisa McMann's Wake, a book I read in one sitting (well, one "lying" because I was in bed and didn't fall asleep until I finished it at 1:30 or so). When I posted about it, a friend in Arizona emailed to tell me essentially, "Yeah it's great, and did you know she wrote it in seven days?"

At which point I swore violently and laid curses in the general direction of Arizona, where Lisa McMann also lives, because, you know, just because. Because writing a good book in seven days is just plain showing off!! So, this same friend from Arizona, a YA book enthusiast and his wife, a 6th grade teacher and also a YA book enthusiast, were in Portland last weekend and when we got together for lunch, they had this gift for me, a copy of Wake inscribed, by Lisa McMann, as follows:
Tee hee. I find this very, very funny, and it's made funnier by the fact that the book was handed off at night between car windows in a parking lot, the way FBI agents meet informants in TV shows. All clandestine-like. So, thank you Daanon and Michelle for the gift of the book, and thank you Lisa McMann, for good-naturedly rubbing my nose in your absurdly fast writing abilities. :-)

[psst. I don't really think she was showing off. I'm just jealous. And I really liked this book. It's about a girl who has the very bad luck that, whenever someone falls asleep in her vicinity, she gets sucked into their dream. It's a thriller and a romance, and an unputdownable read, AND the sequel is coming out in like 17 days or something. It's a good read for adults or teens, and you can count on it for teen reluctant readers, because it is so fast-paced.]

[Totally off the subject, but I want to say Halleluja to PRESIDENT OBAMA for rolling back the "gag rule" today. As I understood it from previous reading, Bush's first act in office eight years ago was to deny funding to any NGOs around the world that provided abortion counseling or services. This effectively meant depriving women and families in desperately poor countries of not only abortion (that is, hypocritically depriving them of a service that is still legal here), but birth control and HIV prevention, as well as other life-saving counseling and services. Well, that funding is now restored. Thank you, President Obama, for your first three days in office. Off to a good start!]

19 comments:

Cuppa Jolie said...

Seven days! Unbelievable. And yet you have the signed book to prove it. That's really fun. :)

Jay Asher said...

That's pretty amazing, 437 pages...and then 439 pages. Funny how it just naturally worked out that way. And yes, the design on the cover is very cool.

2009 sounds like it should be great. I'm so happy for you!

Laini Taylor said...

Hi Jay! Nice to hear from you :-) And I'm not sure it could be said it "naturally" worked out that way. There were a fair amount of "Please cut 7,000 more words" requests from my editor!! I cut a lot of words. And all for the best!

I hope you are having a great year so far!

And Jolie, I know. Seven days!!! I'm just telling myself there were lots of revisions between that seven days and now. Snort!

Anonymous said...

That lady is insane. ;)
Gotta respect her fast writing...and typing skills.

Ah, yes. Totally true about the scene in Back to the Future.

Lisa McMann said...

Hey Laini! What I didn't mention is that it took seven days for the rough draft, and months for the revising, and the final product is approximately two hundred-something-something pages shorter than yours.
So there's that.

(I'm glad you got a laugh. Our mutual friend is quite awesome...there's not many people I'd drive out to a parking lot to meet, just to sign a book)

Lexi said...

Yay for happy things in the coming year! So good to have something to look forward to!

Also, the "our one and only wild and precious life" quote was in a prayer in assembly this week!

!!!

Lisa Schroeder said...

Oooh, love the look of the paperback!

2009 is going to be a VERY wonderful year for you!!! :)

Katie Anderson said...

What's up with Lips Touch??

Loved the german cover :-)

Laini Taylor said...

Hi Katie! I did some last copyedits on Lips Touch last week, and expect I'll be getting the typeset ms of it very soon. (And it's a lot shorter, so a quicker job of proofreading!)

And hi, Lisa M -- thanks for stopping by :-)
I figured there was some revising involved. I'm just teasing. I think it's wonderful the book came to you in such a burst of inspiration, but I know that doesn't mean, for one second, that there wasn't a ton of work involved too :-)

Stephanie Perkins said...

How AWESOME you got the lead page in the catalog!!!

Magpie and Calypso look beautiful in their new edition. (And everyone is going to freak out when they discover how ***AMAZING*** Silksinger is!)

YAY for 2009 and Laini!!!

Sarah Beth Durst said...

Oooh, pretty, pretty paperback! Congratulations, Laini, and have fun with your multiple Back-to-the-Future boxes! So exciting!

Best,
Sarah

Amber Lough said...

Stephanie is right about Silksinger being amazing. I am super excited for your fantastic year!

I want to write a novel in a week. I think I'm going to end up rushing like that if my next is going to be finished by April. But my books run a few hundred pages shorter than yours too, so it's not as monumental. Not that Wake isn't monumental of course!

Rachael King said...

Hey Laini, I can't remember if I asked you when we met if you have read Dreamhunter and Dreamquake by Elizabeth Knox (NZ author). FanTAStic YA fantasy with perfect cross-over appeal, set in a kind of alternative historical NZ. Check her out if you get a chance!

I'd love to come and play in the snow for a while. My son isn't getting to sleep until 10 or 11 at night some nights because it's so hot (no air conditioning - yet!).

Rachael King said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Laini Taylor said...

Hi Rachael! We actually got more snow in the night -- not like the December snow, but still, it's pretty and white. A little New Zealand sun is sounding pretty good to us right now!

And I haven't read Elizabeth Knox YET but Jim did get me Dreamhunter for Christmas and it is in my bedside stack -- I've been wanting to read it for a long time.

Em said...

I just love the new cover. Very cool color change. :)

Amber said...

LOL! Oh my gosh I SO remember-- and even still think about from time to time-- that part of "Back to the Future"! hahaha I just asked Kory is he remembered that part...he said no. lol

~ they used that picture of Magpie because it is way cool!

:)

Unknown said...

Happy Michelle and I could setup the parking lot signing. It was great when I pulled out the book to give it to you and you said something like, "but I already have this," and then I showed you the inscription.

And to all of those reading, Stephanie Perkins is correct, Silksinger is AMAZING!!!

tone almhjell said...

Oh, the paperback is so, so pretty!! Congrats! I do get why you're excited about this year. Share some sparkle with me, please. I can't get anything done.

Seven days, huh. Bah. Humbug.