…OCTOBER
Sunday 10/14 Mission Viejo Book festivalReading and Talk at 4:15pm in the Palo Verde room
Thank you to everyone who came out for any of my other events last year! Stay tuned for more 2012 appearances, US and abroad!
New Event at the Grove in Los Angeles
One week before the Rapture tour, please join me at the Barnes and Noble at the Grove in LA with four other terrific writers:
The Passion Pastiche
While you’ve been patiently waiting for Torment…
I’ve been hard at work on the first draft of Passion. It’s third book in the Fallen series, and a prequel to everything that occurs in Fallen and in Torment. In its conception, this book felt like an impossible project to me: It covers a span of 5000 plus years, dips into a new setting, a new country, and usually, a new century with each new chapter. And it aims to explain just about every important moment that ever passed between Luce and Daniel. Definitely the biggest narrative challenge I’ve ever given myself.
I was nervous before I started writing it. I’d had such a great, fun, charmed experience writing Torment, but I know this book was going to be much more complicated, much more taxing. Just as I did when I started writing Fallen, I turned to books for help. Only this time, in addition to the theological research books I used for Fallen, I also got to look at some of my favorite novels for help with period and setting. Recognize any of these?
Comic Con
My first trip to Comic Con was a great time this weekend. I did a few video interviews that will be available on youtube very shortly. I got to sit on a Bite Me panel with six other fantasy writers, where we spoke to around 350 Comic Conners about everything from demented unicorns, to how we do our research, to whether or not proper vampires have fangs.
I had a really nice signing after the panel:
The Only Immortal Boy in New York and My First TV Appearance
I hear it was cold this weekend in New York. Luckily, this guy was there to heat things up.
On Friday, right before Valentines Day, “Daniel” hit Times Square to promote Fallen. People often ask me my favorite part of writing teen novels. I’m not embarrassed at all to say that promo events like this are dangerously close to the top of the list? Look at this! It’s fantastic!
While Daniel was busy wooing the ladies of New York, I ventured back up to northern California for my first ever TV appearance. I used to watch Good Day Sacramento when I lived in Winters while I was in grad school, so it was a lot of fun (and very nervewracking) to be asked on as a guest. Here’s a shot of me prepping in the Green Room and a link to the clip on Good Day’s website. (It will load, eventually, on the right side of the page.)
Driving Lessons
My husband launched his car off this cliff a half an hour before hour wedding. Some of you already know this little story, but for those of you who don’t: Relax! No one was in the car, no one was hurt (save an olive tree that was split in two), and our wedding was pret-ty perfect after that. As the Jewish side of the family was quick to point out: “What’s a wedding without a little broken glass?”
I bring this up now because the car we bought to replace the wrecked one is a stick shift. And I have never driven a stick shift. So the time has come for me to learn.
Pictures of ze Day
The Fallen display at the ALA Midwinter conference in Boston. Sounds like it was a great weekend!
From my reading last night at the Borders in Mission Viejo. Thanks to Carlos and Rose at the store and to the great group who braved the apocalyptic storm to come out!
Next Up: A blog tour and SoCal signings
On Monday, January 11th, I’m excited to embark on my first blog tour. I’ll be guest blogging about all sorts of things from forbidden love, to why I sometimes ignore my mother, to what it felt like to get the news that Fallen hit the New York Times Bestseller List. Here’s a list of the blogs where I can be found–and I’ll post what I write here as well:
January 11th Beatrice
January 12th Through a Glass Darkly
January 13th A Patchwork of Books
January 14th The Reading Zone
January 15th The Children’s Book Review
January 20th TeenReads.com
January 21st The Book Butterfly
January 26th CynthiaLeitichSmith.com
I also have a few upcoming events in Southern California, so those of you who live nearby, please come out!
On Saturday, January 16th, I’ll be signing books at Chevaliers in Los Angeles from 1-3pm.
On Tuesday, January 19th, I’ll be reading from Fallen and signing books at the Borders in Mission Viejo at 7pm.
On Saturday, January 30th, I’ll be reading from Fallen and signing books at the Borders in Long Beach at 2pm.
When I was in Arkansas recently for the holidays, my publisher sent 300 copies of Fallen to my mother in law’s house for me to sign for the ALA mid-winter conference. It was a tough job, but at least I had a helper:
I wish my nephew David Franklin could come to all of my signings with me, but I understand he’s got other things on his plate.
That’s all for now. If you’re local, I hope you can make it to one of these upcoming bookstore events! If you’re reading this from afar, I hope you’ll join me on my blog tour.
Have a great weekend, everyone. Tonight I’m going to see a double feature of Crazy Heart (an overdue birthday present to Jason) and Youth in Revolt (because Michael Cera is the bomb). Living on the edge here!