Yes, yes, I've been TERRIBLE about updating my blog! Last week two interviews posted with me online, and I'm just now getting around to linking to them.
Sorry.
My short attention span seems even shorter these days. I'm supposedly finishing the sequel to Princess of the Midnight Ball, but didn't have more than two minutes to write last week and . . . .well, it's just a whole big thing.
Anyway.
The first interview was with Rachel Bishop over at www.pinkraygun.com. Pink Ray Gun is a sci fi site for ladies, and I love it dearly. They review books, movies, and tv, rant about all things sci fi related, and have a pretty hilarious comic strip that updates weekly They are also running a series of free jack-o-lantern patterns you can download, with characters from popular tv shows on them. My interview has already been bumped to the Archives. So go to www.pinkraygun.com, click on Archives on the top left, and you'll see that it posted on September 22nd.
The other interview is actually a podcast, so you can download me giggling and chatting with the lovely ladies of LDS Womens' Book Review. We talked so much that it looks like they're doing the podcast in two episodes, and so far only Part 1 is available. Go to www.ldswomensbookreview.com, and click on Download Podcast. It's the most recent episode, episode 26.
Which reminds me: Vote for the Whitneys!
I met the LDS Womens' Book Review ladies last spring at the Whitney Awards Ceremony. The Whitney Awards, as some of you may remember, are a new award for fiction written by LDS (aka Mormon) authors. Anyone can nominate a book, and then a panel of judges in each category (Novel of the Year, Childrens' Book, Sci Fi/Fantasy) choses the winner. So go to www.whitneyawards.com to nominate your favorite book published this year by an LDS author. (Hint, hint: I've had two books published this year!) I'll "out" a few people while I'm at it: Shannon Hale, Brandon Sanderson, James Dashner, Orson Scott Card, David Farland, J. Scott Savage, Stephenie Meyer.)
And in other awards news: Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow is one of YALSA's picks for Teen Reads Week, which is October 12-18, and Dragon Slippers has been nominated for a Beehive Award. So if you live in the state of Utah, get yourself over to your local library and vote for Dragon Slippers! (I'm assuming if you read my blog, you also like my books.)
And now time for Jessica Recommends:
Ten Cents a Dance by Christine Fletcher
The Patron Saint of Butterflies by Cecelia Galante
Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer
All these books were fan-freakin'-tastic, and I couldn't put them down!
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Sunday, September 14, 2008
FAQ (again) and Oh, Those Wacky Victorians!
I am really going to have to get a Frequently Asked Questions page on here, and soon, because once again, due to the high volume of emails I've been getting, I need to answer some FAQ's!
Yes, there will be a third book about Creel and the dragons.
I will not tell you anything about the plot. I'm just that mean. Sorry.
It will come out in spring of 2009.
It does not have a finalized title or cover art.
I will put up the cover art, tell you the final title and the more exact release date as soon as I know them.
I don't know when that will be.
Even if you promise to be my best friend forever, and even if you promise that you are my biggest fan and will always be my biggest fan, I still will not tell you the plot.
Even if you send me chocolate.
Even if you send me your firstborn child.
My own firstborn child is enough of a handful, and I will send yours right back, although I'm sure they're very cute. I will provide them with fruit snacks and a juice box for the trip.
And now on to the Victorians!
The Victorians fascinate me. They really, really do. We always think of Jane Austen and Charles Dickens and their contemporaries as being so cute! So prim and proper, with their corsets and their tea and their young ladies fainting left and right.
But look more carefully. . . .
A friend of mine is working on a book set in an imaginary country that is sort-of, kind-of like Europe in the 19th century. In it, the two main characters are childhood sweethearts who at one point are talking alone together, holding hands. A woman critiquing her story was SHOCKED at this. According to her, they never would have been alone together (in the real 19th century) and they NEVER would have held hands. She advised my friend to read Jane Austen for an example.
My friend looked at this woman and said, "Have YOU ever read Jane Austen?"
Seriously, have you?
Sure, there are no heaving bosoms and ripping bodices, but there's a lot more going on there than hand-holding. Shocked? Don't believe me? Take a look at Pride and Prejudice: Wickham and Lydia run off to London and are living together for weeks before Darcy finds them and they are forced to get married. Sense and Sensibility? Colonel Brandon's foster daughter has a baby out of wedlock with the handsome cad who is now wooing Marianne!
But I'm not just talking about torrid affairs. (Although it was fun.)
I just saw the miniseries "Daniel Deronda", based on the book by George Eliot. No, I haven't read the book, although now I really want to, and I swear I will! (I do at least know that George Eliot was actually a woman, so there's one point in my favor.)
This was the most amazing thing I have ever seen, largely because it tackled a number of heated issues that it never would have occurred to me to associate with the cute little Victorians. Racism. Psychological abuse. Spousal abuse. For example: a woman gives up her child because he's getting in the way of her career! Seriously! And what makes the bad guy so bad is that he marries this young girl just so that he can torment her! Honestly! He marries this spoiled, pretty girl just so that he can teach her a lesson. For the rest of her life he's going to play mindgames with her and treat her like dirt, just because he can. It was like evil Taming of the Shrew! Then there was also the extreme prejudice against the Jews, which was dealt with at length, and the problems they faced of being hated in England, and just about everywhere else in Europe, but having no country of their own to move to.
Heavy stuff.
And I started to think about how we really don't get the Victorians much credit. We think of them as being so . . . good. So quaint and, well, old-fashioned.
And then you realize that Mansfield Park has a subplot about the horrors of slavery!
Makes you kind of wonder if there ever was such a thing as "The Good Old Days."
Yes, there will be a third book about Creel and the dragons.
I will not tell you anything about the plot. I'm just that mean. Sorry.
It will come out in spring of 2009.
It does not have a finalized title or cover art.
I will put up the cover art, tell you the final title and the more exact release date as soon as I know them.
I don't know when that will be.
Even if you promise to be my best friend forever, and even if you promise that you are my biggest fan and will always be my biggest fan, I still will not tell you the plot.
Even if you send me chocolate.
Even if you send me your firstborn child.
My own firstborn child is enough of a handful, and I will send yours right back, although I'm sure they're very cute. I will provide them with fruit snacks and a juice box for the trip.
And now on to the Victorians!
The Victorians fascinate me. They really, really do. We always think of Jane Austen and Charles Dickens and their contemporaries as being so cute! So prim and proper, with their corsets and their tea and their young ladies fainting left and right.
But look more carefully. . . .
A friend of mine is working on a book set in an imaginary country that is sort-of, kind-of like Europe in the 19th century. In it, the two main characters are childhood sweethearts who at one point are talking alone together, holding hands. A woman critiquing her story was SHOCKED at this. According to her, they never would have been alone together (in the real 19th century) and they NEVER would have held hands. She advised my friend to read Jane Austen for an example.
My friend looked at this woman and said, "Have YOU ever read Jane Austen?"
Seriously, have you?
Sure, there are no heaving bosoms and ripping bodices, but there's a lot more going on there than hand-holding. Shocked? Don't believe me? Take a look at Pride and Prejudice: Wickham and Lydia run off to London and are living together for weeks before Darcy finds them and they are forced to get married. Sense and Sensibility? Colonel Brandon's foster daughter has a baby out of wedlock with the handsome cad who is now wooing Marianne!
But I'm not just talking about torrid affairs. (Although it was fun.)
I just saw the miniseries "Daniel Deronda", based on the book by George Eliot. No, I haven't read the book, although now I really want to, and I swear I will! (I do at least know that George Eliot was actually a woman, so there's one point in my favor.)
This was the most amazing thing I have ever seen, largely because it tackled a number of heated issues that it never would have occurred to me to associate with the cute little Victorians. Racism. Psychological abuse. Spousal abuse. For example: a woman gives up her child because he's getting in the way of her career! Seriously! And what makes the bad guy so bad is that he marries this young girl just so that he can torment her! Honestly! He marries this spoiled, pretty girl just so that he can teach her a lesson. For the rest of her life he's going to play mindgames with her and treat her like dirt, just because he can. It was like evil Taming of the Shrew! Then there was also the extreme prejudice against the Jews, which was dealt with at length, and the problems they faced of being hated in England, and just about everywhere else in Europe, but having no country of their own to move to.
Heavy stuff.
And I started to think about how we really don't get the Victorians much credit. We think of them as being so . . . good. So quaint and, well, old-fashioned.
And then you realize that Mansfield Park has a subplot about the horrors of slavery!
Makes you kind of wonder if there ever was such a thing as "The Good Old Days."
Sunday, September 7, 2008
School days, school days!
It's funny how living in Utah has changed my perspective of "fall." I'm getting that giddy, "It's fall, how lovely!" feel: the air is crisp, the days are shorter . . . and then realizing that it's still 80 degrees. That's the thing about Utah: it's so unbeLIEVably hot all summer that you will suddenly think 80 degrees is jacket weather. I actually dressed Boy in a long-sleeved shirt today, because it was "only" 72 degrees when I took him to preschool. (Also, it was a red rugby shirt, and today was Red Day at his school.)
Yes! Boy is in preschool! He's excited, and so am I! He is the world's most social child. Every day of his life he wants to know where we can go and who we can play with. Boys, girls, adults, everywhere we go he'll talk to anyone, play with anyone. Having a mom who doesn't like to leave the house is very trying for him, as you can guess. And, for those of you worried that I'm sitting at home crying because my baby is all grown up and gone to preschool . . . No, I'm sorry, but I really like having the time to myself!
I mean, really, really like having time to myself.
I'm the horrible mom at the preschool orientation going, It's only TWO days a week? Can't he come every day?
Again: he's social, I'm not.
Also, for almost four years now I have been trying to write books while Disney movies play in the background, or without typing too loudly, because my little light sleeper might wake up from his nap courtesy of the clicking keyboard. To be able to lounge across the couch with my laptop, playing whatever music I want for two and a half hours is a luxury I could never have imagined.
Aaaaaahhhh!
Now I just have to keep my short attention span in check, and not just sit there surfing the internet, checking out Maureen Johnson's blog posts, shopping online, watching movie trailers. . . . Oh, dear!
FOCUS!
This is not helped by the fact that, literally minutes ago, the UPS man brought me a present. My editor just sent me Rapunzel's Revenge and the third Alfred Kropp book.
FOCUS, JESSICA!
You may not read Rapunzel's Revenge until you finish the book YOU'RE writing!
(All right, Conscience, fine!)
(Just peeking at the first page. . . .)
STOP THAT!
Fine!
And before you all ask, since I know you're dying of suspense, I am just getting to the climatic finale of a sequel to Princess of the Midnight Ball. HOORAY!
And if you're wondering about Maureen Johnson, she's the FABULOUS author of Suite Scarlett, Devilish, and 13 Little Blue Envelopes, among other books, and I love both her books and her blog. Visit Maureen at: www.maureenjohnsonbooks.com
By the way, we're thinking of ways to make the website more exciting. Juicier info on each book, more pictures, etc. Let me know if there's anything you're particularly dying to see!
Yes! Boy is in preschool! He's excited, and so am I! He is the world's most social child. Every day of his life he wants to know where we can go and who we can play with. Boys, girls, adults, everywhere we go he'll talk to anyone, play with anyone. Having a mom who doesn't like to leave the house is very trying for him, as you can guess. And, for those of you worried that I'm sitting at home crying because my baby is all grown up and gone to preschool . . . No, I'm sorry, but I really like having the time to myself!
I mean, really, really like having time to myself.
I'm the horrible mom at the preschool orientation going, It's only TWO days a week? Can't he come every day?
Again: he's social, I'm not.
Also, for almost four years now I have been trying to write books while Disney movies play in the background, or without typing too loudly, because my little light sleeper might wake up from his nap courtesy of the clicking keyboard. To be able to lounge across the couch with my laptop, playing whatever music I want for two and a half hours is a luxury I could never have imagined.
Aaaaaahhhh!
Now I just have to keep my short attention span in check, and not just sit there surfing the internet, checking out Maureen Johnson's blog posts, shopping online, watching movie trailers. . . . Oh, dear!
FOCUS!
This is not helped by the fact that, literally minutes ago, the UPS man brought me a present. My editor just sent me Rapunzel's Revenge and the third Alfred Kropp book.
FOCUS, JESSICA!
You may not read Rapunzel's Revenge until you finish the book YOU'RE writing!
(All right, Conscience, fine!)
(Just peeking at the first page. . . .)
STOP THAT!
Fine!
And before you all ask, since I know you're dying of suspense, I am just getting to the climatic finale of a sequel to Princess of the Midnight Ball. HOORAY!
And if you're wondering about Maureen Johnson, she's the FABULOUS author of Suite Scarlett, Devilish, and 13 Little Blue Envelopes, among other books, and I love both her books and her blog. Visit Maureen at: www.maureenjohnsonbooks.com
By the way, we're thinking of ways to make the website more exciting. Juicier info on each book, more pictures, etc. Let me know if there's anything you're particularly dying to see!
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