ALA: A Post in Pictures

Okay, so, yet again ALA was a phenomenal time. I swear it gets better and better every year.

So, here's what went down in New Orleans:

I ate my FIRST EVER beignet. Holy delicious.

Seriously, are you drooling yet?

I got to hang with some of my favorite writing friends!
Cristin Terrill, Alexandra Shostack, PJ Hoover,
Jessica Lee Anderson, & Carolina Valdez Miller

And Shannon Messenger

And Tere Kirkland, whose NOLA knowledge was invaluable!

I also got to meet some AWESOME authors!
Here, with Franny Billingsly, who wrote Chime, which I can NOT wait to read.

With Lisa Desrochers, author of Personal Demons and
the recently released Original Sin!

With JAY ASHER! I heart his books. A lot.

With the HI-larious Jonathan Auxier, author of
Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes

With Kimberley Griffiths Little
Author of many books including recently released
The Healing Spell

With Elana Johnson (Possession), Jenny Han (The Summer I Turned Pretty),
Jessi Kirby (Moonglass), and Corey Whaley (Where Things Come Back) 

I mean... Who could resist?

And then we ate some more beignets. 

The End.

Sike, not really. 

It's not the end. Not yet. 

Because first I have to give you a little heads up (twss) to visit again on Thursday for a giveaway in which I share some of my ALA spoils with you. 

ARCs. 

That you want. 

Like, a lot. 

Trust.

xoxo

Me and Orson Scott Card (+ SIGNED ENDER'S GAME GIVEAWAY)

That's right, you read that title correctly!

Two weeks ago, I MET ORSON SCOTT CARD!!

*dies*

*revives*

*dies again*

PROOF:

Me & Orson Scott Card!!

Orson came to Northern Virginia for his first ever signing of his new book Pathfinder. (More on the amazingness that is that book later.) It was hands down one of my favorite signings ever. Not only because this man and his book Ender's Game (and the rest of that series) had a huge impact on the reading side of my literary journey, but because he was funny, and personable, and would sign as many books as someone wanted!! (Okay, that last part is just an added extra...)

He shared some fun stories and anecdotes, one of which I found really interesting: he doesn't reread books when writing their sequels. I guess an added benefit to having such a large fanbase, is that he's able to go to his online forum to ask questions if he can't remember. (For example, he couldn't remember what he'd already written about one character's father, so he just asked his forum and a reader answered for him!)

He also mentioned his love of nonfiction books, because those, he says, are the books that can really fill your head with foundation for great fiction. He spoke a bit about the Ender's Game movie in the works. (I can't wait!)

The entire experience was so... surreal to me. And yet, it so wasn't because Orson Scott Card puts it right out there that he's just a regular guy. But he's not, really. Not to me anyway. Ender's Game was required reading for me in either 8th or 9th grade in high school. I fell in love with it--and all the books that followed. I've reread it once every year or two since then, and I'll probably do so for a long time to come.

I still have my original copy, that I had for school, with my maiden name written in Sharpie across the top of the pages. It's pretty much in tatters, and I love it that way. But guess what? Now, I have a new, crisp signed copy--personalized, just for me! I know I'll continue to read my first copy because there's something about opening those soft and worn down pages that's as familiar as coming home to me (<---cheeseball alert!) but I love,love,love having my own signed copy.

And guess what else? I got a second signed copy to giveaway to one of you guys! I mean, I KNOW I'm not alone in my love of Ender's Game. I couldn't be selfish and just get my own without getting one for you guys too.

Therefore, my giveaway for the month of December is for a SIGNED Ender's Game and a SIGNED Pathfinder!

Two winners. One for each book. All you have to do to enter is:

1) be a follower
2) leave a comment on this post, telling me
        a) which book you'd rather win, if you're chosen
        b) or let me know if you don't have a preference
        c) OR if you don't win the one you prefer, please let me know
            if you don't want the other one
3) tell me where you're from, since this contest *IS* open internationally
    and I love to know where you guys come here from!
4) and leave your email address

You don't have to blog it or tweet it or whatever, though if you choose to that'd be cool too :) (Leave links to the places you spread the word in the comments of this post and I'll give you an extra point for each!)

I'll use random.org to select the winners.

This contest closes at midnight on December 31st, 2010--that way the winners can start the new year off with their new SIGNED Orson Scott Card books!

Thanks for stopping by!
♡Sara

Science Fiction: Other Places, Other Universes

One quick note: If you like cherry blossoms, I've posted several shots I took during sunrise last Friday on my other blog: Simply Saradise. I'll be updating it with more for the next few days!

I mentioned last week that I'd gone to several panels at the Virginia Festival of the Book. Science Fiction: Other Places, Other Universes being one of them. The panelists were: David Louis Edelman (Infoquake), Katherine Kurtz (Deryni Series), and Kim Harrison (White Witch, Black Curse). 

David Louis Edelman (DLE) wrote Infoquake (think: Doon meets the Wall Street Journal). The novel is half satire, half serious about running software on human bodies. Natch, the MC is an amoral entrepreneur.

Katherine Kurtz (KK) wrote the Deryni Series--a 10th & 11th century medieval fantasy, set in the land of Gwynedd, one of the fictional Eleven Kingdoms, about both humans and Deryni, a race of people with inherent psychic and magical abilities. (I LOVED this series--though I misplaced it during one of my many post-college moves. I'll get it again someday soon for sure.) She wrote the Adept Series--set in present day Scottland, and she's also got an urban fantasy coming out called St. Patrick's Gargoyle--set in Dublin with the premise that gargoyles used to be God's avenging angels. 

Kim Harrison (KH) writes The Hollows series (think: Buffy meets Columbo)--set in an alternate reality in the 40s. The series will cap after book 12--not because the publisher mandates it, but because Kim is ready to move on to something else. She's also started a young adult series, staring 17-year-old Madison Avery, who is killed by a "dark reaper" named Kairos on her prom night. But by stealing Kairos's amulet in the process, Madison manages to retain her soul.

The moderator asked questions and the panelists answered. Here are the questions and responses:

QUESTION: Do you write people that you know into books?

KH: Bits and pieces of other people and lots of myself

KK: You can't help but have parts of people. I give villains names of people that piss me off. A close fan friend passed away and I wrote her into my current book as a mother--the friend had always wanted to be a mother, but never had the chance.

DLE: Started as a dot-commer and used the dot com employee patterns in Infoquake. Once, around 1998, my boss refused to pay $75 for electricity at a trade show. Instead he brought an extension cord and stole the electricity from someone else. (I believe he said he wrote this into his book.)

QUESTION: How do you handle writer's block?

KH: It doesn't happen often to me. When it does, it's usually when I try to make a character do something they wouldn't really do. If that happens, I'll either rewrite the scene or create a history for the character so that their actions would make sense.  I outline all of my novels--I don't always necessarily stick to the the outline, but I replot it when I need to. I also always write the dialogue first and then go back and fill in the blanks.

KK: Unconscious causes writer's block. When it strikes, I play with my characters--look at their geneological charts to determine interactions that make sense. I also stick to a writing schedule.

DLE: Editor deadlines help writer's block. I also set goals.

QUESTION: Something about outlining the worlds of your story--world building...

KH: I build a part of the world and then throw a character into it. The two grow together.

KK: Planning only gets you so far. The world doesn't actually exist until you write it.

DLE: Plotting and writing go hand in hand.

KK: Build the bones of your story and start flushing it out.

QUESTION: Who are your influences?

KH: Robert Heinlein, Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke. I consider myself a science fiction writer--though  my novels are urban fantasy--because I set up the pacing a lot like science fiction novels. Characters are killed off, etc.  

KK: History is fascinating because of the people who made this stuff happen. Dune made a huge impact on me. Robert Heinlein also.

DLE: Frank Herbert, Arthur C. Clarke, Tolkien, Ursula Le Guin, Stephen Donaldson. William Gibson is my current influence.

QUESTION: What is the most tedious part of the writing process for you?

DLE: Getting from awesome scene A to awesome scene B. The "fill in" stuff. Granted, after rewrites, I end up enjoying what I used to consider filler.

KK: Figuring out where to start and rewriting chapters when you belatedly realize you have to start sooner.

KH: Page proofing nuts and bolts. GRAMMAR. 

QUESTION: Do you correlate music with writing/characters?

KH: I use music to help me figure out characters--I think it helps to free my subconscious.

KK: I don't use music to help with writing because I only listen to music that I love and when I listen to it, I don't want to be doing anything else! I sometimes use gregorian chants. I did use Song for Athena to help write a funeral scene.

DLE: I don't listen to music while writing either. I often find that writing goes at its own musical pace and real music would compete with it.

And then the panel was out of time, so the panelists wrapped up.  So there ya have it!   

♥ me

Book Signings

Over the weekend I went to a signing by Maggie Stiefvater. And I was totally impressed. (I mean, even more so than the fact that she wrote one of my favorite books of all time.)

In all honesty I was only there for about seven minutes. I, being the blonde that I am, left my house in Northern Virginia at 12. The signing started in Charlottesville at 1. Um, yeah. It takes 2 hours to get there from my house. Woops! So, I made it there by 2. And I'd previously planned to meet a friend for Alice in Wonderland at 2:35 in a different part of town. Sara=Einstein with time management. So I didn't have a chance to stick around (though Sara also=super shy and probably would have been too shy hang around anyway).

But still, I am really glad I went. Aside from getting to meet one of my favorite authors, in those seven minutes, here are a few of the things I was impressed with/learned:

• IMPRESSED: Maggie was super laid-back and friendly. Clearly comfortable in her surroundings, she was joking around and made the entire atmosphere seem relaxed. 
• LEARNED: We were talking about my crit partners (because obviously I got all of them signed copies of Shiver) and she remarked that we sounded like good writers.  I mumbled something like, "Well they are... We'll see how I do." And then she dropped this goldmine: "You rise to the level of your peers." Which, 1) made sense, and 2) made me super excited because my peers are pretty freaking amazing.
• LEARNED: It's okay to beat up on your husband as long as it's in the name of research for a book. Maggie even hit her unsuspecting love with a guitar to see what sound he'd make. (It was ow, followed by something hyphenated, just use your imagination.) I've already got some "research" ideas in mind to try out on my own husband =) (just kidding!) (okay, not really...)
• IMPRESSED: Maggie didn't want to murder me (or chose not to remark upon it if she did) for the cramping her hand had to have felt from all the books I asked her to sign. (What? I wanted copies for my CPs/friends and I might, just might, have gotten a copy for an upcoming giveaway...)

And now that I have my own shiny signed copy, I'm dying to reread Shiver. I was going to try and hold out until right before Linger releases, but I just can't wait. I'll read it once now and then again in July. (Excuse me while I go cry again over not winning an ARC of Linger... *SOB*) So, when I make it through the next few books on my TBR list, I'll definitely be diving back into Shiver. AND look at the awesome wine I got to drink while I read! Seriously, if I thought she'd accept wine from a stranger, I'd send Maggie a bottle.

Seriously, how perfect?

(The wine is from a VA winery--Sweely Estate Winery--and is a blend of merlot and cabernet franc. I have no idea if it's any good, but I'll be sure to let ya know!)

PS. even though you can't see all the books in that left column--that's my current TBR pile. 

You know how some girls fantasize about Brad Pitt? Well, I fantasize about book signings--my own book signings. And now I know a little bit more about how I'd like them to go if that time ever comes my way.


♥ Sara