Jessica Day George

Monday, April 28, 2008

They're heeeere!

Yes, today is (as far as I ever know with these things) the official release date of Dragon Flight and the paperback version of Dragon Slippers

Hip hip hooray!  Hip hip hooray!  Hip hip hooray!

They have exciting and shiny covers, the paperback of DS is completely different from the hardcover, to match Dragon Flight.  (The artist for the hardcover of DS took a couple of years off to live in the Argentine jungle.  No, seriously.)

But they should be in bookstores and shipping from Amazon and all those good things today.

Is this so crazy to anyone else?  This is my THIRD book, and it's exactly one year since DS came out!  ONE YEAR!  In fact, although it came out at the end of March, I didn't do a launch for Dragon Slippers until May 12th, and Dragon Flight launches this weekend.

What's a launch, you say?  Well, that's when I go to a bookstore (or two), and talk about how great the new book is, and read from it, and hand out cookies, and sign the shiny new copies.   And I'll be doing two of them this very weekend.  So if you happen to be in the Salt Lake area, check it out! 

May 2nd, 7 pm, The King's English Bookshop

May 3rd, 2 pm, Barnes & Noble at Jordan Landing

May 10th isn't just for me, but it's going to be a GREAT time.  The Orem Barnes & Noble is doing a HUGE Authorpalooza.  From 2 pm to whenever, me, James Dashner, Brandon Mull, Brandon Sanderson, Rick Walton, Mette Ivie Harrison, Nathan Hale, and I can't think how many others will be strewn about the store signing books (maybe some that aren't even ours!).

So if you're lucky enough to be in Utah in the next two weeks, come say Hi!

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Ha! Take that, Editing Fairy!

Yes, despite the fact that I still feel like crud, with all the coughing and sneezing and sore throaty-ness, I have finished my rewrite!

I think.

I went over it, tore it apart, put it back together, printed it out, went over it with a red pen, and incorporated those changes.

Enough?

Who knows?

That's the trouble with editing.  I could probably read over and over this manuscript until I went insane and started tying scraps of yarn in my hair and calling myself Queen Pooh-lah, but I could always find SOMETHING to change.  I think at a certain point you have to step back and say, this is good.  This will work.  Any more changes and I might as well write a new book.

Also, I want to get feedback from my sister, who is supposedly reading the manuscript. . .  Hint, hint.

And then we'll see what Melanie the Editor thinks.  So this is by no means the last time I will go over this manuscript.  It's just the last time this round. 

Ding!

And the winner is . . . ME! 

(For not going nuts and calling myself Queen Pooh-lah.)

Now I can lie here coughing and read John Marsden's Tomorrow When the War Began series in peace.  I'm halfway through book two: The Dead of Night.  Love these books.

Also, it might be a good time to finish knitting the baby blanket I'm making for my cousin Chandrea's baby, since he's already a month old (or more).  I ran out of yarn, and haven't been able to drag myself to the store for more this week.  Ugh.  Sorry, baby!

Sunday, April 6, 2008

Sick, sick, sick, sick!

So very, very sick!

Congested, head going to explode, can't stop coughing, nose running.  So very, very sick!  And Boy is sick too, which means he wakes himself up coughing and wants to climb into bed with Mommy and Daddy, so no one is getting any sleep.  We just got Boy a "big boy" bed which looks like Lightning McQueen.  (Spoiled?  Or just really, really lucky?)  And due to his illness we can't keep him in it all night.  We were hoping it would improve his sleeping, but with him being sick, how can we tell?

Gleeb.

Must. Finish. Rewriting. Princess Under Stone.

But sick!

So here's some fun stuff:

I'm reading H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds, with illustrations by Edward Gorey.  Love it.

At www.freerice.com you can test your vocabulary, and they donate a grain of rice to the UN's World Food Program for every correct answer.  I did it for about twenty minutes the other day, and donated six bowls.

At Shannon Hale's website (www.squeetus.com) she recently interviewed Jennifer L. Holm, author of the fabulous Penny From Heaven and the Babymouse graphic novels.

And, for those of you trying to figure out what the deal with Dragon Flight's release date, here's the scoop:  It does not have a "hard" release date, because I am neither J.K. Rowling nor Stephenie Meyer.  It will start shipping to bookstores sometime after April 10th, and they are free to put it out as soon as they receive it.  We put the release date as May, because I was originally told "May-ish", because it should be in all stores by May.  Amazon.com will ship it on April 26th.

Sick!