My book is on Amazon–with the cover and the book-trailer!
Totally. Surreal.
Monthly Archives: March 2010
Book Two
It should come as no shock that I’m currently writing Book Two.
I mean, the realness of it is shocking—it surprises me pretty much every day—but the actual fact of the matter is, this is what people who write books do. They write books. (Yes, I’m still having a hard time getting over this.)
Book Two is hard to talk about. Book Two does not have a title. I love Book Two more than I have loved anything I’ve ever written. I’m not just saying that because it’s new and shiny and exciting—even though it is.
I can’t get specific, since I’m writing it and things change, but here are the parts that are inviolably true: it’s about demons and mortal peril and moral ambiguity, and like everything I’ve ever written, it is a love story.
In some ways, it’s the resurrected corpse of a different story I started a long time ago and then started again, and kept starting. In other more important ways, it’s brand spanking new. The old story had fun characters and interesting prose, and this one tiny little problem where I just never knew what to DO with it, and kept making a lot of different messes.
Now, I know. I mean, I know in a vague, urgent way that keeps me guessing and trying things and IMing tessagratton and saying things like What if I . . .? and Can I do that? Really?
What I’m saying is, I know in the best way possible.
Also, I have a playlist and the playlist is this:
July 2010, ETA—Lala apparently doesn’t exist anymore. So, no more playlist. For posterity, it was:
- Dropping Like Flies – Firewater
- Against All Odds – The Postal Service
- Prayer of the Refugee – Rise Against
- Caroline – Firewater
- Four Winds – Bright Eyes
- Hurt (Quiet) – Nine Inch Nails
- Whistling in the Dark – Firwater
- Sweet Dreams – Marilyn Manson
- Isle of Dogs – Firewater
- Mouth (Stingray Mix) Bush
- Laughing With – Regina Spektor
Tiny disclaimer: I do not make playlists based on what I like (although I do like a lot of these songs). My playlists are made up of songs that encapsulate characters and plot points and themes. They are like a photo-collage, only without cutting up magazines.
Also, a special note: This book would not exist at all without The Ponzi Scheme but I couldn’t put the whole album on the playlist, because that wouldn’t be a very good playlist. Then it would just be an album.
Hush, Little Baby
I have a cool thing!
Penguin made a teaser trailer for THE REPLACEMENT:
Also, johnjosephadams just posted the table of contents, so I’m officially allowed to tell you that my mid-apocalyptic zombie story “Obedience” is going to be reprinted in his new anthology,
THE LIVING DEAD 2.
I have two cool things!
Inside-Out and Backwards
Sophomore year was the year of Learn by Watching, and this worked out, because watching was what I was good at. I learned about rules very quickly, mostly because I have always had an unhealthy obsession with them. And what I learned was this: even though they told us that the rules applied to everyone, it was not actually true.
That fall, I went through an ill-advised phase where I borrowed my dad’s clothes a lot—especially this one particular T-shirt from Flying Dog Brewery, with a Ralph Steadman drawing advertising Road Dog Porter. Due to the shirt’s alcohol related message, coupled with Flying Dog’s PG-13 marketing slogan, the dress-code violation was twofold, but I was never once told that I needed to cover the shirt or turn it inside out, or even to stop wearing it in the future.
So yes, I’d begun to suspect that rules did not apply equally, but I didn’t know it for a fact until this happened:
The scene – As with most of the more dramatic scenes that first semester, it takes place in English class.
The star – A boy who sits at the back of the room and typically sleeps through class. Apart from spotty attendance and a general lack of involvement, he’s remarkably well-behaved. He rarely does the work, but is never unruly or impolite. He holds doors for people. He never draws attention to himself, which is something that sophomore Brenna identifies with to an excessive degree. The class is the last one of the day, and is basically an exercise in chaos.
Other players in the drama –
- Nick has the desk directly behind our reluctant star. Nick is very tall, very loud, and can usually be counted on to be the one instigating the chaos.
- TS sits next to me. She likes Punky Colour hair-dye, Vans skate shoes, and Kevin Smith movies, and is the closest thing I have to a real friend.
- Lucas, who early on cemented his role as resident humanitarian and classroom advocate, is unable to resist getting involved, and in a misguided attempt to secure justice, kind of makes things worse.
- M is still M, but becoming more so every day.
Brenna Yovanoff 
