Eternal by Cynthia Leitich Smith is now available in paperback from Walker Books Australia and New Zealand! See more information from Walker Books Australia and New Zealand.

The companion book, Tantalize, also is available in both hardcover and paperback from Walker Books Australia and New Zealand.

Note: the type style is much more elaborate than on the Candlewick (US) hardcover, mimicking the Walker Books (UK) cover, and there's also a photo of part of an angel instead of a whole, stand-alone wing.


CLASSIFIED ADS: WANTED Personal assistant to Her Royal Highness. Duties: Whatever is asked, without hesitation, including but not limited to secretarial / administrative, household, defence, blood donation, driving, companionship, prey disposal, and love slavery.

"At last, Miranda is the life of the party: all she had to do was die.

"Elevated and adopted by none other than the reigning King of the Mantle of Dracul, Miranda goes from high school theatre wannabe to glamorous royal fiend overnight.

"Meanwhile, Zachary, her reckless and adoring guardian angel, demoted to human guise as the princess’s personal assistant, must try to save his girl’s soul before all hell arrives, quite literally, on their castle doorstep.

"In alternating points of view, vampire Miranda and angel Zachary navigate a cut-throat eternal aristocracy as they play out a dangerous love story for the ages."

Check out the Eternal blog buzz, interviews, reviews, and readers' guide. Note: my most recent interviews may be found at Tu Publishing (Cynthia Leitich Smith on Living in a Multicultural World) and HipWriterMama (Writing the True with Cynthia Leitich Smith).

Note: the Dec. 1 publication date is found on the publisher website. If the book hasn't reached your local store or library yet, please follow up there for more information. The bookseller or librarian should be able to look it up for you.

Eternal Trailer

I also took a video the other day, and forgot to post it here yesterday. This was taken on the path next to the river, very close to where I took my first video a few weeks ago.



Things look quite different now! I really like the way the shadows from the trees carpet the path. It's such a pretty spot; I've taken many photos in that area.

The iPod is so little, it's hard to keep it steady as I pan around, and even just holding it still. I need more practice. *g*

Have you seen the awesome book trailer for Magic Under Glass?

You've got to see it!

Want to win a hardcover of MAGIC UNDER GLASS by Jaclyn Dolamore plus more prizes? See http://fabulousfrock.livejournal.com for details!

 

Write on!

My mind has been preoccupied by this Chemistry Equation lately. I'm not a mathematician, and I've never played one on TV (I did portray Einstein in a school play once, Greg Einstein - a lawn mower salesman working the Arctic Circle).

Still... this problem has really plagued my dreams. I think I figured it out.

Here... let me show you an example of how these things are figured out.



So... I'm working with these two chemicals...

( + )/3 = ?

(H1N1 + A1)/3 = ?

I spent hours on the chalkboard...



It came down to rearranging the letters in the proper elemental order. When I divided by 3, I was able to eliminate the integer. FINALLY...


( The Answer... )( Read more... )

much decompression to do. updates will follow.

If you are the kind of person who likes waiting for the graphic novel, just so that you are not left hanging for the Next Exciting Episode!, now is the time to listen to all of Book Two of the Secret World Chronicles. They wrapped it up at the end of October, but I was busy with the move.

http://www.secretworldchronicle.com/booktwo.php

This of course presumes that you have listened to both Book One and the Prequel, if you have not and you like the Urban Superhero genre, then you have THREE new books to listen to, you lucky, lucky bastich.

Looks like they used the audio podcast to sell the series to BAEN Publishing.
CLEVER.

Well folks, looks like hard work and the support of you loyal folks that have stuck with us through a lot of bumps in this road( and hurricanes--and sickness--and babies) has paid off. We've managed to sell this series to Baen books.

This doesn't mean that the podcasts are stopping. Oh no. Baen is FIRMLY behind giving things away. The books will also be a much trimmed down and slightly altered version of what we have here, so you folks will be privy to Web-only content, not to mention a lot of Secrets and backstory. And sidestory. Well, you get it. And Contests!

Audiobooks can be made or broken by the reader, and Veronica Giguere lends a great touch to the whole thing. In book one she is still learning some of the characters, but by book two she is the Queen of Voice.

Five muses pay homage to one of their own muses with both poetry and prose. An introduction by Greer Gilman is followed by four poems, one each by J.C. Runolfson, Sonya Taaffe, Francesca Forrest and Erik Amundsen, works inspired by the song Midnight Feast by Lal Waterson. Lal's voice has the same quality as that of Buffy Sainte-Marie, a woman who has rocked my world since I first saw her perform in 1982. That quality is one of winds and wilds, of woman at her fiercest.

This miniature book will be made of sea and sky. Feathers and shells for the cover on a background of paper dyed to look like blue slate. Four color photographs of the sea compliment each poem as they spread across the pages, like the ocean itself lapping up the shore. This one is being printed this week. We're doing 33 of these, so I can't really guess at when they'll be done, but I can assure you that they will be well worth the wait.

Let me tell you a story.

There was once a girl who got two colds. Then she got chicken pox. Then she got the stomach flu. Then she got a head cold (present date).

But.

This girl never gave up on her creative side.

So later today I will update you all with a mudslide of photos. I'll have to post every day, probably, so that I can catch everyone up on what I've been doing. I did finish that sweater for my niece-and I'm very (overly) pleased with it. I have also since then started a baby blue aran scarf (and I'm not telling you who it's going to belond to, friends and family who are reading this!! So don't try guessing. :p). I also made 2 pairs of
fingerless gloves.

I will be posting a lot of Christmas projects this month-so keeping checking back-it should be entertaining!

So until later, my good readers, I leave you a gift. A delicious recipe-the best oatmeal raisin cookies yet. They are chewy and sweet and wholesome and oh so good. Recipe from Martha Stewart Living Magazine: http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/classic-oatmeal-cookies

After talking to my doctor yesterday, I decided to get an H1N1 vaccination as well as a regular flu shot. So far I’ve only experienced one side effect: soreness and swelling at the injection site of the H1N1 shot. This morning, it feels as if someone punched me in the upper arm, leaving a bruise. Didn’t sleep well last night as a result because I tend to toss and turn a lot, and the soreness woke me up each time.

Hopefully this shouldn’t last more than another day or two. Totally exhausted today, so am going to crash after I finish my Market Watch column. To those of you who haven’t yet gotten your vaccinations but still plan to, I’d suggest getting it on a day when you have the option of sleeping in the next day if at all possible.

Reached my 50,000 word mark in NaNoWriMo yesterday, woohoo! Will post more about that in Inkygirl.com later today.

I created the image at the top of this post years ago as part of an Illustration Friday project. A music group called The Stowaways used it as their CD cover.

Mirrored from Debbie's Blatherings.

My Thanksgiving Giveaway ended last night, and the winner of the prize pack is...*drumroll*:
Jenny N!
And the two runners up are: Rob C. and Chelsea H.

Congratulations, everybody! Just send me your mailing addresses, and I'll get your prizes in the mail.

Meanwhile, it's December 1st, which means...yes! I'm finally allowed to listen to Christmas music every day. Bwaaaahahahaha...poor Patrick. Poor, poor Patrick.

I understand it's an addiction. But it's a jingly happy Christmas addiction! So that's all right, right? Right?

Oh well. Every so often it's Patrick's turn to have his music on, and his heavy metal balances out my Christmas music nicely.

Although his turn is the length of one CD, whereas my turn is the length of my Christmas playlist. And my playlist has many, MANY Christmas CDs on it.

*cacklecacklecacklecackle*

It's lucky I have a very good husband. :)

And in the true Christmas spirit, here is a comic that made me laugh out loud today with sheer, embarrassing recognition and pleasure: In Which Beth Keeps Her Books. Enjoy!

Oh, oh, oh, it’s cold outside, but it’s hot inside, because we get to spend 5 minutes with sister Deb Rhonda Stapleton. Rhonda’s one of the sweetest, funniest, most talented women I know- I mean seriously! Not only is she irrepressibly cheerful, she knocks my socks off with every partial I get to read. Her debut novel, Stupid Cupid, is about as charming as charming gets. I’m so glad to get the chance to spend five minutes with her!

So before we talk about writing, tell me about photography! How did you get started? What do you like to shoot best?

I love photography! I really dig shooting downtown scenes. I also like doing model photography, as well as weddings. I have a modest portfolio I’ve been building up–it’s so much fun.

I heard you auditioned for American Idol once. If you could record a cover of any song, ever, what would it be? And why?

TEE HEE. Why yes…yes, I did. It was quite an experience. :D If I could record a cover, I would choose the song, “A Case of You” by Joni Mitchell. I love this song–it’s quiet, poetic, but very deep and stirring. And I think it would be fun to update it a bit and add my own flair.

Okay, so now about the books! Dude, you have 3 books coming in the same year! What’s the process like, trying to write, edit and copyedit three books at once?

OMG it was chaos. hahaha. I would turn in first-pass pages for one and get the revisions back for the other…my head has been in Stupid Cupid land for so long now. But one good thing about it is that it made it easier to write the trilogy while I’m already entrenched in their world!

When you read, do you read to escape or to experience? And when you write, do you hope to offer an escape or an experience to your readers?

I read for both. Sometimes I try to read with an analytical eye, to see how authors pull off such wonderful characterization or amazing pacing. I also like to escape sometimes into lighter or romantic reads, or ones that sweep me away to the past or future. But mostly, I love to FEEL when I read. I’m drawn to books that evoke a strong response, whether it’s laughing, crying, feeling horrified, etc. For Stupid Cupid, I hope to provide a fun escape. Let’s face it–we’re not talking War and Peace here. haha. But if someone can read my stories and get some good chuckles and enjoy spending their time in my book, then I feel honored and like I’ve done my job.

Okay, YA Author Matchmaker Time- if you had a Loveline 3000, which celebs would you hook up on a trial basis?

Ooooooooh who would I match up…I assume this goes by my book’s rules that you can’t match yourself, right? haha. Because the manpanion already knows about my, um, appreciation for certain actors’ talents. Seriously though–I would pair up Daniel Day Lewis with Cate Blanchett. I think they’re both really good at embodying the roles they take on, and they’re dedicated actors who are constantly improving their craft. Plus, they’d probably make some attractive babies.

Originally published at MSUFaL. You can comment here or there.

I need a good hamster name for a story. It needs to be something that regular people would normally associate with hamsters or rodents. Would Squeakers be good?

Now I know that iibnf and a few others of you can probably come up with some fantastic, original names, but I need regular old common ones. Um, but I'm curious, so go ahead and list the really cool ones if you feel like it.

"...facing real danger, unguarded by those wonderful benign wizards at Hogwarts. They don't have a home to go to." - David Yates



USA Today has article today with the first photo from Deathly Hallows! Um, Part 1?

Less than a year to go!
[sigh]

Welcome to December! We woke up to a snow-covered forest and it is still coming down!




The Lexington Herald-Leader wrote an article about the book banning in Montgomery County High School in Mount Sterling, KY, where the superintendent appears to be breaking district policy by refusing to return the books (Twisted, Deadline by Chris Crutcher, Lessons from a Dead Girl by Jo Knowles, The Rapture of Canaan by Sheri Reynolds, What My Mother Doesn't Know by Sonya Sones, What My Girlfriend Doesn't Know by Sonya Sones, and Unwind, by Neal Shusterman) to the classroom after the books were approved by the district's Review Committee.

The superintendent says that he does not believe these books belong in the classroom.

(From the article) "I wrote the teachers over a month ago and said, 'show me why the books should be in the curriculum and we'll reconsider that decision,"' he said. "I'm certainly not the world's final authority on what ought to be in a college curriculum. But so far I haven't heard a word from anybody about why we should use these books."

That's not exactly true. I have a copy of a five-page letter written to Dr. Freeman by one of the top experts in the field about the use of contemporary literature in high school classrooms. The letter explains exactly why those books have a place in his classrooms, citing state standards, research that validates their use, and the district's own vision statement.

What do you think? Share your opinions with Dr. Freeman (daniel.freeman@montgomery.kyschool.us) or on the newspaper's website, in the Comments that accompany the article. Remember: it is possible to have strong opinions and be polite at the same time.

Congrats on everyone who participated in NaNoWriMo last month. Even if you didn't hit the 50,000 word mark, you wrote something which is way better than nothing. I'm deep in revisions for my next novel, so I'll be posting my own revision tips this month for any of you guys who are interested.

Revision Tip #1
When you finish a first draft, don't look at it for at least a week. Clean up your desk and catch up on your reading. Do some journaling about what you thought the story was at the beginning of the the draft and how it changed when you were writing. Make a list of those pesky little thoughts that are bugging you about places where your characters might not be consistent, or major plot issues. Do this without rereading your pages! Trust me on this one.



PS - A couple of you wondered what was on the back of the shirts we wore for the Turkey Trot 5K. It was a list of all of our names and the tag line, "The family that runs together eats more pie!"

Thanksgiving vacation is over and I'm back to work and looking forward to a December without interruptions. Technically -- we still need to put the house back into order after yesterday's carpet cleaning. That will probably take a good week or so as we do early (extremely early) spring cleaning.

No sooner did I make that last post than the gadgets arrived in the post, bringing with them much hilarity in the form of the attending literature. My personal favorite:

"To help avoid over usage of the mini cigarette, should you smoke it more than sixteen times in one minute, the light at the end will flash for about 4 seconds, warning you to reduce your usage."

The bold is mine, obviously, because sixteen times in one minute is just... do people really smoke that much? In one minute? Good grief. Also, "if you inhale continuously on the cigarette for more than 5 seconds..." Who does that? If you smoke like that, don't bother with these. There is no hope for you.

Is there hope for me? We'll see. I'm going to charge one up and give it a go.

For Christmas, or not really for Christmas but because we care, Dis and I have treated ourselves to electronic cigarettes. My LJ profile says "I smoke when I want to" and that used to be the case, before I became a raving addict as anyone who smokes eventually does. It then became "I smoke when I need to" and for me, using the word "need" to describe a thing that isn't really needed is just daft. It rings false and there is no logic to it, and I like logic. My logic, anyway. I also like Dis, a lot, and I'd like him to be around for as long as possible. I know he returns the sentiment. Also, since we have decided that our wild youths are over, it is time to let go of some of the wilder things we do. Like smoking cigarettes. These little gadgets are the first step.

I won't lie, this whole idea was inspired mostly by jaylake, who has been bravely documenting and dealing with cancer for some time now. His journal of late has been... I don't know. I don't have the words. It just made me realize that yeah, now is the time. He doesn't know me and I don't know him, but such is the power of LJ, that one story can affect you so deeply that it causes you to change your own.

This is one of the reasons I love LJ. You can go back and see what happened two years ago.

Here is an entry on November 28, 2007.

Then my last entry on December 1, 2007 at 3:49am!

I didn't resurface until about almost two months later in February 2008. No one had a clue where I was or what I'd done.

I'm grateful for all the LJ friends who have stuck around since then and all those that I have met since then.

How true that statement, "...it can only go up from here" really was!