After countless hours of dithering, procrastination, and occasionally being held accountable my inestimably patient designer, I finally have a website! Parts of it are still under construction (meaning, spectacularly devoid of content), but it’s real, it exists, it appears on Google! And you can see it here: brennayovanoff.com.
Category Archives: News and Announcements
A Quick Reminder Before I Go
Over at Merry Fates, we are having a CONTEST EXTRAVAGANZA in honor of New Orleans!
The prizes are good, and entering is easy–all you have to do is choose your favorite Merry Fates story (or three), let the internet know you like it, let us know where you posted it, and you’re entered to win something cool that the Merry Fates will pick out together while we’re there. What the prize will be is a mystery–all we know is that we plan to personalize/customize it in some way, and it will probably be bizarre.
Runner-up prizes include: a copy of SHIVER, a copy of BALLAD, and an ARC of THE REPLACEMENT. Books will be signed by the author and drawn-on/otherwise made unique by the rest of us.
We’ll draw names Monday–possibly, with Jackson’s () help, in the form of a video blog–so check out the link for details on how to enter.
Also, expect Shakespeare hijinks.
Travel, Plus Two Other Things
So, I’m very bad at talking about things before they happen. Mostly because I am terribly superstitious and absolutely convinced that I will jinx it. However, I feel quite comfortable saying that a week from today, I will be in New Orleans with my fellow Merry Sisters, Tess and Maggie, and Jackson Pearce, Vlogger Extraordinaire, and there will be food, book-talk, and antics galore!
For a much more lucid account of our upcoming trip, you can check out this post, in which Tess explains the details, draws a picture of one of my characters brandishing a handgun while on his way to mail her a love-letter, and speculates that I may or may not be a Jenny Greenteeth.
It’s times like these that I suspect I should not be allowed to summarize anything. (Also, times like this.)
Other things:
- I’m currently attending the AWP conference, which is taking place in Denver this year, so I’ll be scampering around morning to night without internet for the next few days. I’ll be checking my email sporadically, but might not be a good correspondent until Monday.
- Exciting news on the Foreign Rights Front! In addition to the US and the UK, THE REPLACEMENT has officially sold in Germany, Hungary, and Taiwan. My book will be printed in complex Chinese, and I will have no clue what it says, which, when you think about it, is kind of awesome!
Hello There, 2010
It’s That Time of Year again!
What time, you ask?
To which I reply, New Year’s Resolution time!
You’ll note that I am filled with joy. This is because, despite my vague and flighty demeanor, I am a big resolver. In fact, last year was the first year I didn’t make any resolutions in . . . well, years.
The thing is, this time last year, I was in an awesome, but very weird place. I knew that whatever happened in the coming year was going to be significant, but I had no idea what it was going to look like. Which was scary. (Why yes, I do like things to have a structure and a plan.)
I was in the middle of a big revision for my newly-acquired agent and every writing-related thing was contingent upon the end result of that revision. If the manuscript didn’t sell, I would need to write and polish another manuscript to shoppable condition, and it if did sell, I would need to prioritize editorial revisions over any of my own writing goals, potentially nullifying them, and therefore making them impossible to cross off my list. I hate not crossing things off.
In some ways, I’m in the same position this year, and out of necessity, it’s changing how I make my resolutions.
Here are some things about the coming year that I already know: I know I’ll be revising and polishing Book 2. I know I’ll need to start writing whatever comes after Book 2. I know I’ll be participating in contests and blog interviews. In previous years, any of these would have made really good goals, but this year, as overwhelming and novel as they are, they now fall under the heading of doing my job. Which is, in and of itself, overwhelmingly novel.
So this year, a lot of my resolutions are non-writing related. Which means I have complete control over them and will achieve them or not, based solely on my own efforts. The thing is, it’s been more than ten years since I’ve formulated goals that don’t revolve entirely around writing. I don’t really know how anymore and as a result, some of them have turned out to be quite frivolous:
-Finish at least four of the numerous sewing projects malingering in my closet.
-Travel to a minimum of three places.
-Finish my rough draft of 14 Dreams—an uncontracted semi-literary YA, and possibly the hardest project I have ever undertaken. In its final form, it will be unbearably awesome. Or else, a total wash.
-Make a croquembouche. Yes, really.
-Weed the deadwood from my closet, to equal one quarter of the total mass. No matter how much they plead, no matter how fiercely I tell myself that I really am going to wear that dress again, if it hasn’t made a grand entrance in the last year, it goes.
-Get up to FoCO to see more than just bi-monthly (I basically already do this, but sometimes, we are remiss).
-Take better care of my hair.
-Ditto fingernails.
-Work up to at least three miles, treadmill or otherwise. I’ll call it research, if that’s what it takes.
-When in doubt, call everything research.
Hang on, I’m Telling a Story
Okay, so . . . it gives me great personal satisfaction to announce that at long (long, long, long) last, I’m on submission! Like, real. Official. Submission. To publishing houses!
Which means all kinds of fun possibilities, like adequate sleep and a return to rational thought, but especially that I get to have a life again, and read books and go out with friends, and other far less glamorous things, like raking the flowers beds.
Overall, I feel that I’m taking this on-submission thing rather well. I am composed. In fact, Tess and Maggie have both expressed alarm at my general tranquility (read: glacial). I started thinking about that. If I’m honest, I do tend to meet most large-scale developments with far more composure than, say, getting a flat tire or finding out that Vitaminwater has discontinued their line of energy drinks. Actually, it’s pretty unreasonable.
So, in honor of my contextually inappropriate self-possession, today I’m offering up definitive proof that I can be just as histrionic as anyone else. What follows is for posterity, and most especially for Tess and Maggie.
Now, I am going to tell you the Centipede Story.
Brenna Yovanoff 