I’m going there tomorrow (!)

I’m going to meet my agent and my editor for the first time, and visit the Penguin offices, and also probably be forced to overcome my phobia of hailing cabs, unless I can coerce the desk attendant at my hotel to do it for me.

Maybe I can walk everywhere. I do have a map . . .

This is kind of my favorite thing today:

. . . finally gets to tell her secret!

Okay, this has been driving me crazy, because it’s the kind of thing you just desperately want to tell everyone already! (Which I realize does not remotely compare to what it’s been like for Tess.) But now she can tell everyone, because the deal was officially posted this morning!

The resident blood-bunny signed an awesome two-book deal with Random House Children’s, the first book is slated for 2011, and will, of course, deliver blood.

Chances are, you’ve seen this. Tess, Maggie, and I have a lot of overlap in our f-listers and I am chronically late to everything lj-related. So, I’m not going to re-post the whole thing, since you’ve probably already seen it, but I will provide a general rundown, plus important links.

Maggie’s new novel Ballad is coming out. If you spot it in the wild and take pictures, you’ll have the chance to win fabulous prizes. Maggie does a better job of explaining, using visual aids. Plus, she tells you how to actually, you know, enter.

Prizes (this is where it gets fabulous): The grand prize is a one-chapter/15-page critique by all three . Second prize is books, and everyone likes books, right? Right? Also, a slick messenger bag. Third prize is a signed audiobook of SHIVER.

If someone goes well above and beyond the contest requirements, we may just have to work out a fourth prize. So, get those cameras out and start stalking!

Hey all,

While I’m not an official entrant, Jackie, AKA has a really
cool contest going on, so if you’d like to win an ARC of her upcoming debut Magic Under Glass, personalized with adorable illustrations, you should head over and check it out!

Just a note to say we’re doing the Oklahoma/Kansas thing again, so I’ll have absolutely no internet and very little phone reception until Wednesday night.

Tessa’s being good enough to post my fic for me, but I won’t be able to respond to comments until I get back.

I’m hoping to get some good photos out of this–possibly even some author-type photos, since Little Sister Yovanoff is bringing her camera with all the fancy parts, so I’ll be posting pics when I get back.

See you all next week!

First foreign rights!

My book (which is currently between titles) is coming out from Razorbill next fall, and now it’s also going to be published simultaneously by Simon & Schuster UK!

This means I will be on two continents. Which is indescribably novel to me!

My book is going to be British.

This book–m-stiefvater‘s beautiful, luscious book–has debuted at #9 on the NYT Bestseller list! Go forth and tell Maggie that she rocks!

The revision cave is a nice place to live. It’s quiet and dark. There are no bright lights and no loud noises. Or maybe there are, but you certainly can’t be counted on to notice them.

There is no such thing as laundry in the revision cave. There are no dishes to wash, no plans. The gym is a thing of the past, and so is vacuuming. News, politics, and series television grind to a halt. The world stalls.

Occasionally, there are anxiety dreams involving carnivorous rabbits that dig all the way down to the water main and flood your basement. You try to shoo them away, but they are, unfortunately, carnivorous. So you get a stick and poke at them half-heartedly. This is a metaphor for revision, even if you have no idea what it means.

In the cave, in the dark, everything is a metaphor for everything else. Sometimes, not a very good one. You consider all the ways that language feels inadequate, and then use it anyway.

Sometimes, you look around and discover with delight that there is coffee.

I’m writing a funeral . . .

However, due to certain biological constraints that prevent him from actually setting foot on hallowed ground, my main character/first-person narrator is unable to attend.

I’m writing an implied funeral . . .

Revision is awesome.