Hey guys! Sorry about the website snafu yesterday. It turns out it was as silly as me putting in extra carriage returns into some code. Oops. Luckily, I have the most awesome website designer ever, and she figured out what I’d done to myself in no time flat. All hail Austin Design Works!
Anyway, in case you missed it, the new secret story is up, and causing *quite* the controversy in the comments section already. And last month’s story, “Poe at the Gates” is unlocked for public viewing. Enjoy!
In other news, I just got word that my newest non-fiction endeavor will be available June 2.*I’m so excited about my essay in MIND-RAIN, Your Favorite Authors on Scott Westerfeld’s Uglies Series. Isn’t that a creepy cover? Apparently Tally took to camouflage once she went all eco-warrior on us. My essay is called “Team Shay.” One guess what it’s about.
The coolest part of the antho is that Scott edited all the essays, so was naturally free to say, “You are utterly mad, I didn’t think that at all when I wrote it!”
But he didn’t. Instead I got an email from him being like, “Huh, you know, I never thought of it like that, but when you pulled all those quotes and put them together it’s pretty blatant, huh? Ah, subtext.”
Which is cool because that’s something that I discover as a writer all the time. People pull things out of my books and show them to me and I’m like, oh, weird, I never thought of that but you’re right, it’s totally there.
At Yale, we called this New Criticism, which boils down to we don’t care what the author thought, the text is its own thing now.**
I’ve had so much fun doing these non-fic anthologies. I hope I get to do more in the future. Right now, I’m actually working on my first fiction anthology (more on that later).
So yesterday, due to my website problem, I was unable to mention what i’m most excited about right now, which is that I have in my hot little hands a copy of BLOODHOUND, the second book in Tamora Pierce’s awesome Beka Cooper series. Yay! I cannot wait to read this! It’s like my little carrot for finishing my book on deadline.
And yes, I admit that I’ve been actively avoiding all the talk of this book online. I really, really don’t want to be spoiled. But man, I love the cover! I love how the cover artist really respects how tough and down-to-earth Beka is and doesn’t try to pretty her up or put her in some fantasy dress with tons of makeup.***
Who else is reading this series? I’m in love with the diary style! It’s so intense and personal… somehow even more than the usual first person. It’s like epistolary novels (my favorite), only more so.
Agggggghhhh, so many books, so little time!
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*I mean, other than this blog, and let’s face it, that’s mostly fiction. For instance, “Rio?” yeah, those are stock photos of some little red dog I got off the internet. And Sailor Boy is an old G.I. Joe figure.
** Oddly enough, this cycles back to the controversy over this month’s secret story. I thought I was writing something very different than what a lot of the readers were getting out of the narrative. Me and Upton Sinclair and John Milton. No, he didn’t mean for Satan to be a hero.
*** More on covers… um, presently. But yes — TOUGH!
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