Categotry Archives: The Floating Saloon
Before the Blank Page; or, Help! I Need a Story (Part the First)
In my last posts, I wrote a bit about ways to move an existing draft along when you find yourself staring at the screen. But that assumes there’s a draft there to move along. What about when there isn’t? What about when you still need to find the story? I’m a stationery junkie, so here’s how it goes in my world: I literally find myself staring at a blank page. (All right, I like quad-ruled paper, so it’s never a [...]
Just Sitting Here, Staring at this Blank Page: Do You Need a Kick in the Pants?
Nothing like updating your website with a glitchy plugin that requires hacking and constant refreshing to force you to look 18 times at the nearly month-old blog post that’s the most recent thing (other than the glitchy plugin) on your front page. Granted, I kinda like that I also got to look at that swoony picture of Stephen Decatur every time, but that’s no excuse for lazy blogging. I never have a good excuse. I also don’t feel like I [...]
Slinking Quietly to the Blog and Typing Some Stuff
Let’s just ignore the fact that I haven’t updated things here in a month, shall we? But since you know I haven’t been blogging, let me tell you what I have been doing. Firstly, yesterday was the official publication day of Shadowhunters and Downworlders, a Mortal Instruments Reader. I was invited to contribute a piece, which was awesome because I enjoyed the heck out of the books and I adore when cities become characters. My essay, Unhomely Places, opens the [...]
I Wrote a Christmas Shopping Post! Warning: Immediate Family Should Not Read This Post Due to Potential Christmas Spoilers.
A couple weeks ago I got an envelope in the mail from my editor at Clarion, Lynne Polvino. Inside were two books I had really been wanting and which Lynne tracked down at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and sent over. After reading one of them I realized that even though I now had my own copy, I needed to get more for the Nephew Collection. This got me thinking about writing a post about stuff I’m very excited about giving this [...]
The Next Big Thing Thing: I Have Been Tagged and I Will Have My Revenge.
Erin Bow is a much faster runner than I am, so I was pretty easily caught and tagged it. I had not heard of this “Next Big Thing” thing, but among my favorite pastimes is to talk about the writers and books that I love, and since this appears to be basically the point of the game–one person talks about his/her next project, then tags a few others in hopes that they’ll talk about theirs–I am so totally in. First [...]
Shopping Today? I Have Some Ideas, Only One of Which is Self-Serving.
So it’s one of my twice-weekly bookstore days, and having just deleted eleven emails about Cyber Monday deals, it occurred to me that the world needed one more. Except this isn’t about Cyber Monday, except that I figure lots of you are shopping today and therefore this might be relevant. So without further ado, here’s some bookish shopping food for thought on this lovely Monday morning. Great Idea #1: Help Victims of Sandy While You Shop. There are lots of ways [...]
Grab your Harpoons and Your Tarpaulin Hats, and All Hands to the Moby-Dick Marathon!
Remember that time we were talking and you said you had always meant to read Moby-Dick, but really you had never had the time, and if only someone would arrange for you to be able to read it in three days, sort of without stopping except for chowder and sleep you would TOTALLY be in? Seriously? We’ve had that conversation like five times. And guess what? It’s time! It’s happening this weekend! This Friday, November 16 through Sunday, November 18, [...]
It’s Thursday! Come Hang out with Me (and Some Even Cooler Folks) at Books of Wonder
What are you doing tonight? Say, from 6-8 pm or so, before your fashionable Thursday night on the town or, for those of the younger persuasion, bedtime? May I suggest a couple hours of listening to seven (count ‘em, seven!) awesome fantasy authors reading from their books of awesome fantasy at one of the most awesome independent bookstores in the city? I thought you’d like that. Conveniently enough, the magnificent Books of Wonder will be hosting Libba Bray, Rachel Cohn, [...]
The Importance of Dark Stories; or, Kate Talks for a Long Time about Lois Lowry and Crying a Lot
Wednesday night I got to meet Lois Lowry and spend 45 minutes in conversation with her before her appearance in conversation with Anna Holmes and Lizzie Skurnick of Jezebel.com. I was the guest of Jen Doll at the Atlantic Wire (you can read her interview here), because the two of us are reading The Giver Quartet for her YA for Grownups column (first part here), and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt had asked if we’d like to meet Ms. Lowry since she was going [...]
Float a Bone in the River
Greenglass House deadline: T-13 days. The good news: I’m really close to done. The bad news (earmuffs, Lynne Polvino): some of what I have left, I simply haven’t figured out yet. Except that this isn’t exactly bad news. Not to me, anyway. For me, part of the joy of finishing a book is seeing all the pieces come together, in much the same way that it’s part of the joy of reading. Part of the reason I like writing by [...]
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I wrote this book. Daniela Volpi took this picture.
Messing around on Pinterest
