Marissa Meyer at Book People

#59 on my 101/1001 list is to attend 5 author events. I'm really excited to say that I've gotten to check one off this list this evening!

Book People, Austin's indie bookstore, held an event this evening for Marissa Meyer's SCARLET tour. for those of you who may not know, Meyer is the author of The Lunar Chronicles, which is her reworking/revamping a set of four classic fairytales. The first in the series is CINDER, a cyborg, futuristic retelling of Cinderella. The newest installment is centered on a reworked Little Red Riding Hood, and it's called SCARLET.

(Sidenote: Amazing cover art, no? Some of my favorites, if I'm honest, and I'm hoping the publisher doesn't decide to change them mid-series. I'd be super bummed.)




What I really love about this series is that, really, Meyer has just kept to the bones of the original material, so Cinder's stepmother is evil, and Scarlet's grandmother is missing, but she generally deviates from the rest of the story. Basically, she leaves enough there to allow the reader to make some educated assumptions about the characters, and those assumptions generally play out as you'd expect them to.

And yes, there is a big, bad Wolf in Scarlet. And he's about 100 kinds of delicious, but that is probably beside the point.

Book People is really one of my favorite places in town, so I was really excited to head down there this evening, and they definitely did not disappoint. There were a good number of chairs set up, and they had the cutest snack set up, which really surprised me. Every author event I've ever been to was just Q&A and the author reading a bit of their book. Here's a pic that I posted on Instagram from the event:

 Seriously? Cutest thing ever.

Anyway, Marissa is super adorable. She shared her story - how she started writing, how she began writing CINDER, in particular, and what the inspiration for her writing at all was. It turns out that she started writing Sailor Moon fan fiction, which is probably the best thing I've heard in a long time.

She read two pieces of her novel, and then told a few classic fairytales - Cinderella and Red Riding Hood, of course - in their original formats - no Disney here! Then, she opened the floor up for questions, and there were some really great ones (and one real clunker, but that's besides the point). I asked what we could expect from her - will she be writing more fairytale retellings, or is she interested in expanding into other genres? As it turns out, she's got ideas for two other series, a paranormal thriller and a contemporary one (both YA), and she's just sold a stand alone novel, but it's so new that she couldn't release any real details about it, aside from saying it's a fantasy sort of story.

I really enjoyed the discussion this evening, and Marissa is an inspiration for a writer like me - in listening to the story of her beginnings, I feel we have a lot of similarities, which was a really cool thing to realize. Normally, I'd have purchased a book and had it signed by her, but initially, I didn't think I'd be able to attend this event, so I ordered a signed copy from my favorite book store in Nashville, and it's on the way, via mail to me. (Regardless, though, I've already read an ARC of SCARLET, and it's pretty damn fabulous.)

This was a great event, and I hope Book People has more like it, and soon...

And now begins the incomprehensible wait for book 3, CRESS.

letting go

i'll warn that what you're about to read is a ramble of the worst kind, but hey, it's my blog, right? rambling is probably just fine.

it's strange, isn't it, when your friends become friends, and then sort of drop you like it's nothing. or when you suddenly realize that you're the outsider when you used to be the connective glue that held some other things together. when you realize that there's not much you can really do, either, because things have changed and that's just how it is.

it's the feeling that you're unimportant to people you used to matter to that smarts the most.

it's funny, because for a good number of years, i was certain that these sort of realizations were behind me, something i dealt with just after high school and then everything settled down, all lovely and comfortable and such. but the truth is that i'm dealing with this in a handful of arenas in my personal life at present, and it's really strange how much the constant flow of social media has to do with my awareness of this phenomena in my life. it's one of those things that i know i wouldn't be as cognizant of if everything wasn't so right-at-my-fingertips, if "likes" and facebook statuses and tweets and the like were not a thing.

this idea of whether social media helps or hinders life is something that can be debated in circles, probably forever, and i'd argue that it does both. i'd also say that, for some, social media gives a false sense of intimacy and for others a false sense of distance. it's a weird world we're living in, isn't it?

it really, really is.

i don't mean to sound like i'm sitting in my living room pouting about how much of a sad panda i am, but it's just been a hard thing to process for me, for a plethora of reasons i won't outline here. i have probably needed to say something, somewhere, for a good chunk of time at this point. so here i am, venting a little of the self-propelled angst i've been contemplating as of late.

the lovely thing - the silver lining, if you will - is that through this rather intense life lesson, i've learned that, though the truly strong, grounded relationships that remain in my life are few - - they are there. and they are real. and i appreciate those few folks more than words can really say. and as for the rest...

i'm learning how to let go.

this isn't to say that i won't be available if there is ever a time that the waning friendships begin to redevelop or even start to become something new and fresh, but for my sanity, for my emotional well being, and for my peace of mind...

i'm learning to let go. and while i can't say that it necessarily feels good at this point, it feels necessary, and that feels good.

that is all.

101/1001 - #23 - Random Acts of Kindness

#23 on my list is to do 5 random acts of kindness. there are a few qualifiers, for me, for this one. i can't know the people well and, whenever possible, i need to remain "out of sight, out of mind," for lack of a better phrase. basically, i really don't want them to be able to come say thanks. it just needs to me a kind thing i did that will, hopefully, put a smile on their face. monetary or not, it doesn't matter. just something, for someone else, that i wasn't asked to do.

1. took neighbor's trash downstairs for them (it was waiting outside their door). 3 flights of stairs, single dad, two daughters and one son. and though we don't know him, he's a police officer. least i can do, really. 2/2/2013

101/1001 - #56: Paint a canvas - Done!

i went to a great painting class tonight with a dear friend. it was one of those classes where everyone paints the same prompted image, and it was held at GeeBerry Art Studio here in austin, texas. it was so fun, and the instructors were really wonderful. we're already planning to go back.

so, here are a few photos. pardon the probably questionable quality; they're from my really old 3G iPhone.

me, painting the initial blue background.

near the beginning of the process - just the background colors.

outline for my eiffel tower

 

 

finished product

so, i'm definitely *not* a painter. i'm also really heavy handed with the paint, but i found that i really like the texture the canvas has as a result. 

our table was most definitely the coolest of the four, and all the ladies we were with were really kind and funny. i definitely recommend taking one of geeberry's classes to anyone, because everyone is really supportive, so it's a really low stress environment where you can just sort of create what you create. 

they offer kinds courses from age kindergarten up, so i'll definitely be looking to take my munchkin when she's of age. 

regardless of my personal talent, though, this was a really good time. you should try it yourself. :)

p.s. when i arrived home, my husband's first response, aside from telling me he liked it a lot, was to say, "hmm, the eiffel tower or narcissism at its best?" hardy har har, sir. hardy har har. ;)

 

In Which There is FLAIL

I JUST SENT MY FIRST QUERY LETTER!

AUUUUUUUGH.

via

but also some of ok, a lot of this:

via

 

all in all, though... HOOOORAAAAAAY! 

 

101/1001 - #78 - Complete a Photo Challenge - WIP!

in order to cross this one off the list, i'm participating in fat mum slim's photo a day challenge. i've even managed to get all but one of this month's prompted pics posted (say that 5 times fast) on their assigned days.

i'm still debating on whether i'll post all my photos here, particularly because one of them from this month includes two of my friends' kids, and i don't want to put their adorable faces on the internet without parental consent.

however, for posterity's sake, i'm going to make a list here, and cross off each month as i complete it. :)

january 2013

february 2013

march 2013

april 2013

may 2013

june 2013

july 2013

august 2013

september 2013

october 2013

november 2013

december 2013

A Few Words on Self-Publishing

this has been something that folks have broached with me a handful of times here recently, because i've been pretty vocal about the fact that i have (finally, praise little sweet baby jesus) finished the edits and revisions for my manuscript. a couple people seem to think that i'm willing to contact amazon digital publishing or one of the other ePub companies at this point, and while i don't want to appear dismissive...

i don't.

like, not even a smidge.

i have no interest in pursuing that, and while i have a whole litany of reasons why, i thought i'd address the major hitters here. before i do this, though, i must repeat: these are my opinions. if you don't agree, that's fine. move along, then.

first and foremost: i believe in the traditional route to publishing. for those of you who may not actually know what this entails - because really, why would you, unless you are involved in said industry? - here's a quick and dirty version:

• have completed/edited manuscript in your possession
• query (this is the process of contacting literary agents for representation)
• sign with agent; work on manuscript more
• agent acts as liaison for you with publishers
• secure publishing deal

there's a ton of in-between work that happens within and after these five points, but all things considered, this is the basic gist.

i believe in this route to publishing for a million reasons, but one of the top ones is the sheer quality of work that tends to come out of this method. yes, you'll have some clunkers. but if you compare/contrast the quality between a traditionally published work and a large portion of self-published novels, you will see a distinct difference in quality, both with regard to writing, but also to marketing, and editing.

CAVEAT: of course there are some self-published/ePublished works that are of impeccable quality (an excellent example of this is Hugh Howey's WOOL series, which was originally published via amazon). unfortunately, this is not the norm.

second, an author is far less likely to receive a truly lucrative deal via self-publishing than traditional. there are a long list of reasons why this is the case, but primarily, this is because all of the big publishers - think harper, simon & schuster, penguin, scholastic - will not read your work unless an agent is involved. why? plain and simply: quality. so, you see, this is a rather circular discussion, eh?

third, generally speaking, self-publishing and then trying to attain the representation of an agent is rather difficult, for reasons that have to do with royalties/intellectual property/contract law/etc etc. translation: red tape ahoy. no, thank you.

now, if you asked me if i would CONSIDER self-publishing at any point, i would tell you that the answer is yes. but that would not really be an option for me unless i felt that i had exhausted all other resources, and to be frank, at this point, i am confident in my ability to attain the representation of an agent, which is a good chunk of the battle.

anyway, i just wanted to talk briefly (or, not so briefly, as it were) about this, because i do have strong feelings on the topic, and this is, after all, my little corner of the internet. ;)

happy sunday, all.