Holly Black's Blog
May 30, 2012
It’s from 6-8pm and, as usual, I am happy to answer anything and sign anything, store permitting.
HOLLY BLACK- Black Heart
SCOTT TRACEY - Witch Eyes
LEAH CLIFFORD - A Touch Morbid
GRETCHEN MCNEIL - Possess
KARSTEN KNIGHT - Wildefire
VICTORIA SCHWAB - The Near Witch
ZORAIDA CORDOVA- The Vicious Deep
HANNAH MOSKOWITZ- Gone, Gone, Gone
May 13, 2012
(Picture totally stolen fron Jon Skovron's Tumblr)
April 19, 2012
New York, NY — April 19, 2012 — Scholastic, the global children’s publishing, education and media company, has acquired North American rights to a five-book middle grade fantasy series by bestselling authors Holly Black and Cassandra Clare; the first full-length collaboration between the authors. The first book in the series, The Iron Tria, is planned for release in 2014.
We are going to have so much fun!
April 16, 2012
See the contest rules, plus links to entries by fans who have already created passionate, funny, and moving letters, songs, and artwork, inviting a friend to join them on the Border city between Elfland and our World, at:
http://bordertownseries.com/contest.php?news=bring-a-friend-to-bordertown
Visit the newly redesigned Bordertown series website for a chance to win exclusive Bordertown prizes, including a signed copy of the new Welcome to Bordertown paperback, a Bordertown t-shirt and necklace, and rare memorabilia from the Border.
Check out the attached release for details for other exciting happenings on the Border, including the paperback release of Welcome to Bordertown.
Please spread the word about the word about the “Bring A Friend to Bordertown” contest today . . . before it's too late!
Thanks,
Ellen Kushner & Holly Black,
Editors, Welcome to Bordertown
P.S. The editors deeply regret the concurrence of the contest's deadline with that of U.S. taxes. Last time they remembered, taxes were due April 15th! We deeply and humbly thank everyone who took the time to enter the contest during this busy season.April 10, 2012
now available from Bluefire Books!
(Check out that pretty new cover!)And in honor of the paperback, we're running a CONTEST: "BRING A FRIEND TO BORDERTOWN!" Here's how:So you've already found your way to Bordertown. It wasn't easy, but you did it. You've found a place to live, and maybe a friend or two. Maybe you're in a band, or selling your sketches on the street, or just looking for work.... And now you'd like your friend (from the World or from the Realm, depending on your own origins) to come and join you.Write them a letter, or send them a postcard (a photo or a drawing + a short note) telling them why they should come.Then post it on your blog, Tumblr, Facebook notes, DeviantArt account... anywhere your friends can read it. And then, to enter it in the contest (and make sure we know it's there!), put the URL for your post in the Comments section over at: http://bordertownseries.com/contest.php?news=bring-a-friend-to-bordertown The contest runs from now through Tuesday, April 17th at 11:59 p.m. EST (U.S.A. Eastern Time).The Welcome to Bordertown editors, Holly Black & Ellen Kushner, will judge all entries, and award 3 prize sets to the 3 best entries.PRIZE set includes: New Welcome to Bordertown paperback, signed by Holly & EllenA flyer we found in the gutter on Carnival Street announding Eldritch Steel playing at The Dancing Ferret last year ("1 free drink for noobs")A ticket for the Unicorn Trolley (expired, alas!)A Bordertown necklace by ChimeraFanciesA Bordertown T-shirt
April 3, 2012
Spoilers welcome!
I just want to thank all of you who talked up these books, made art for them, and cared about them. It meant more to me than I can say. I read the tor.com review of BLACK HEART with tears in my eyes this morning. Sometimes someone writes a review that makes you feel like you did the exact thing that you hoped you'd be able to do -- and this did exactly that. It was a great pub day present.
March 27, 2012
Oh well.
Anyway, I realized that I could do a new "How I Wrote" post after all, but it would be for DOLL BONES. DOLL BONES is my new middle grade book, which should come in Spring 2013. It's about three kids -- Zachary, Poppy and Alice -- who go on a journey, despite their own uncertain friendship, to bury a doll that may or may not be haunted. It's creepy and fun and about that period in your life when everyone around you has stopped playing pretend and you realize that maybe you're going to have to stop too. It might be the most difficult thing I've ever written, but I am really proud of it.
You'll see what I mean about it being hard for me to write the book as you scroll through my chart. I gave myself the goal of 500 words a day. After all, in my mind this was a 40K novel, so it seemed like I could get it done very quickly at that pace and that with such a modest goal, surely I could hit it every day...right? Oh, and I was going to take weekends off. Ha!
SEPTEMBER
26 − 600
27 - 400 (400)
28 - (400)
29 - 100 (500) <-- what all those strike-throughs mean is that I kept writing the first pages of the book & then deleting them
30 − 400 (400)
TOTAL SEPT = 400
OCTOBER
1 - WEEKEND
2 - WEEKEND
3 − 1000 (1400)
4 − 500 (2,100)
5 − 1,600 (3,700)
6 - working on another project
7 - working on another project
8 - WEEKEND / FAMILY
9 - WEEKEND 600 (4,300)
10 - TRAVEL FOR WORK
11 − 600 (4,900)
12 − 100 (5,000) (in office training assistant)
13 - TRAVEL FOR WORK 400 (5,400)
14 - REVISING (5,400)
15 - WEEKEND / BOSTON BOOK FESTIVAL
16 - WEEKEND / REVISING 100 (5,500)
17 - What did I even do this day?
18 - SICK
19 - READING AT KGB
20 − 1000 (6,500)
21 - ADMIN WORK AT OFFICE
22- WRITE ANGLES - 200 (6,700)
23 - WEEKEND - 800 (7,500) <-- at this point you can tell I have entirely given up on not working on weekends
24 − 400 (7,900)
25 - 500 (8,400)
26 - WFC - travel 100 (8,500)
27 - WFC - 500 (9,000)
28 - WFC
29 - WFC
30 - WFC
31 - WFC
TOTAL = 9,300
NOVEMBER
1 - travel home from WFC
2 - OTHER PROJECT (100) 9,400
3 - Kalamazoo - 0 (9,400)
4 - Kalamazoo - 0 (9,400)
5 - Kalamazoo - 0 (9,400)
6 − (300) 9,700
7 - (500) 10,200
8 - (200) 10,400
9 - Birthday festivities - 0 (10,400)
10 − 40th Birthday in Vieques, PR - 0 (10,400)
11 (100) 10,500
12 (100) 10,600
13 - Wedding anniversary (100) 10,700
14 - 500 (11,200)
15 − House cleaning for Sarah Rees Brennan’s arrival - 0 (11,200)
16 − 500 (11,700)
17 − 500 (12,200)
18 − 600 (12,800)
19 - Release party for Flight of Angels - 0 (12,800)
20 - 600 (13,400)
21 - 500 (13,900)
22 − 700 (14,600)
23 - 600 (15,200)
24 - Thanksgiving 0 (15,200)
25 - Day after Thanksgiving 0 (15,200)
26 - 700 (15,900)
27- 500 (16,400)
28 - NYC event 0 (16,400)
29 - 400 (16,800)
30 - 500 (17,300)
TOTAL NOVEMBER = 8,000
DECEMBER
1 − 900 (18,200)
2 − 100 (18,300)
3 − 500 (18,800)
4 − 700 (19,500)
5 − 200 (19,700)
6 − 600 but then deleted 700 (19,600)
7 − 400 (20,000)
8 − CRAFT DAY
9 - 100 (20,100) rewriting, much deleting
10 − 500 (20,600)
11 − 500 (21,100)
12 − 300 (21,400)
13 - 500 but then deleted 300 (21,600)
14 − 1,100 (22,700)
15 - 200 (22,900)
16 - 800 (23,700)
17 - Cleaning
18 - Cleaning and wrapping
19 − 800 (24,500)
20 − 200 but then deleted 400 (24,300) SICK
21 - SICK
22 - TIME OFF
23 - TIME OFF
24 - TIME OFF
25 - TIME OFF
26 - TIME OFF
27 - TIME OFF
28 - TIME OFF
29 - TIME OFF
30 - TIME OFF
31 - TIME OFF
TOTAL DECEMBER = 7000 (24,300)
JANUARY
1 - TIME OFF
2 - TIME OFF
3 − 1000 (25,300)
4 - 200 (25,500)
5 - 100 (25,600) Sickish
6 − 300 (25,900) - 400 (25,500) + 200 (25,700) = 500
7 − 26,000 (300) - 500 (25,500) + 300 (25,800) - 600 (25,200) = 600
8 − 800 (26,000)
9 − 700 (26,700)
10 - 500 (27,200)
11 - 300 (27,500)
12 − 100 (27,600) TRIP TO NEW YORK
13 − 0 (27,600) TRIP TO NEW YORK
14 − (500) 28,100
15 − 800 (28,900)
16 - 900 (29,800)
17 − 700 (30,500)
18 − 900 (31,400)
19 − 500 (31,900)
20 − 500 (32,400)
21 — 600 (33,000)
22 −- 600 (33,600)
23 -- 1000 (34,600)
24 − 100 (34,700) CRITIQUING
25 - (must finish draft!) 1300 (36,000)
26 - TRIP TO NEW YORK
27 - 200 (36,200)
28 - [EDIT CHAPTERS 1-6] 100 (36,300)
29 - [EDIT CHAPTER 7 & 8] 400 (36,700)
30 - [EDIT CHAPTER 7 & 8] (-700) +500 (36,500)
31 - [EDIT CHAPTER 9] 500 (37,000) - 100 (36,900)
TOTAL JANUARY = 12,600
FEBRUARY
1 - NYC
2 - NYC
3 - [EDIT CHAPTER 9] - (-900) +500 = 36,500)
4 - [EDIT CHAPTER 10} 800 (37,300) (Actually, I deleted so much that I wrote like 1,800 today)
5 - [EDIT CHAPTER 10] 600 (37,900) (Again, so much deleting and rewriting) −900 (37,000) +400 (37,400)
6 - [EDIT CHAPTER 11] (PREPARE FOR SHOWER] Finished chapter 11
7 - [EDIT CHAPTER 12] Finish Chapter 11
8 - [EDIT CHAPTER 12] Half of Chapter 12 (37,400)
9 - PACK ACTUALLY FINISH 2000 (39,400)
10 - TURN IN
You'll see that this time, I deleted so much that I started counting some of the deletions to make myself feel better. I rewrote so much of this book trying to get it right and I still have to actually revise it! I've been working on the first four chapters this week and my workshop is convening on Sunday, so I have lots of revising still to go.
So, editing aside, it took me about 114 days to write. With editing, it took me 127 days to write. Of those 127 days, I actually wrote on about 90. The rest were mostly conferences, appearances, other travel, holidays, or the occasional day off.
So, that means if you count all 127 days, it only took me 300 words a day to reach my goal. That's pretty slow writing, I know. But the reason I put these word counts up is that I want it to be clear that whatever it takes to get a book done, whatever plodding or sprinting method you have: in the end, if you keep at it, you get a book.
And also, you people who have day jobs, look -- 310 words a day! You could do that! You could do that at lunch! You could do it on the train ride home! You could do it in the dark of night while watching television!
Okay, yeah, it's harder than it looks sometimes, but still!
If you only count the 90 days when I was actually working, it still took me only about 440 words, which was only a little shy of my 500 word goal. You will notice, however, that unlike BLACK HEART, where I spent a month abroad, intensively writing, this book was written without any writing retreats or trips -- just a little at a time, almost every day.
So there you have it. In the fall, when I am actually done, I will put up the word count chart for Coldtown -- a book that, so far, has ONLY been written on writing retreats.
March 26, 2012
I am really, really, really excited for the release of BLACK HEART on April 3rd. It's the final book of the Curse Workers series, full of twists and turns and reveals that I hope you'll be surprised by. This series was a real departure for me and I've had a lot of fun writing them.
I've just come back, two weeks ago, from my annual writing retreat to the mountains of Mexico and am settling back into my real life with some reluctance. Cindy Pon did a great job of blogging the retreat over at her journal (much better than I have done, clearly). The last time I was there, I wrote the last half of BLACK HEART and this time I wrote the middle of COLDEST GIRL IN COLDTOWN. Writing the middle of a book has many inherent frustrations, but I still got a lot done.
Here's the city at night, view from the room where I slept.
The city streets - and yes, it was as warm as it looks. Warm enough to swim in a pool, for instance.
Like this one.
And lots of inspiring (and sometimes strange) happenings around town.
Now that I am home, I have switched brains and am in the middle of editing DOLL BONES. And sometime this week, I will post my "how I wrote" for BLACK HEART, listing the day-by-day word counts that let me finish it.
Here's an excerpt from the very beginning of the very first chapter of BLACK HEART:
My brother Barron sits next to me, sucking the last dregs of black milk tea slush noisily through a wide yellow straw. He’s got the seat of my Benz pushed all the way back and his feet up on the dash, the heels of his pointy black shoes scratching the plastic. With his hair slicked back and his mirrored sunglasses covering his eyes, he looks like a study in villainy.
He’s actually a junior federal agent, still in training, sure, but with a key card and an ID badge and everything.
To be fair, he’s also a villain.
I tap my gloved fingers impatiently against the curve of the wheel and bring a pair of binoculars to my eyes for about the millionth time. All I see is a boarded up building on the wrong side of Queens. “What is she doing in there? It’s been forty minutes.”
“What do you think?” he asks me. “Bad things. That’s her after-school job now. Taking care of shady business so Zacharov’s gloves stay clean.”
“Her dad won’t put her in any real danger,” I say, but the tone of my voice makes it pretty obvious I’m trying to convince myself more than I’m trying to convince my brother.
Barron snorts. “She’s a new soldier. Got to prove herself. Zacharov couldn’t keep her out of danger if he tried — and he’s not going to be trying real hard. The other laborers are watching, waiting for her to be weak. Waiting for her to screw up. He knows that. So should you.”
I think of her at twelve, a skinny girl with eyes too large for her face and a nimbus of tangled blonde hair. In my memory, she’s sitting on the branch of a tree, eating a rope of red licorice. Her lips are sticky with it. Her flip-flops are hanging off her toes. She’s cutting her initials into the bark, high up, so her cousin can’t claim she’s lying when she tells him she got higher than he ever will.
Boys never believe I can beat them, she told me back then.
“Maybe she spotted the car and went out the back,” I say finally.
“No way she made us.” He sucks on the straw again. It makes that rattling empty cup sound, echoing through the car. “We’re like ninjas.”
“Somebody’s cocky,” I say. After all, tailing someone isn’t easy and Barron and I aren’t that good at it yet, no matter what he says. My handler at the agency, Yulikova, has been encouraging me to shadow Barron, learning second-hand so I can keep myself safe until she figures out how to tell her bosses that she’s got hold of a teenage transformation worker with a bad attitude and a criminal record. And since she’s in charge, Barron’s stuck teaching me. It’s just supposed to just be for a couple of months, until I graduate from Wallingford. Let’s see if we can stand each other that long.
Of course, I’m pretty sure this isn’t the kind of lesson Yulikova’s been imagining.
Barron grins, white teeth flashing like dropped dice. “What do you think Lila Zacharov would do if she knew you were tailing her?”
I grin back. “Probably she’d kill me.”
He nods. “Probably she would. Probably she’d kill me twice for helping you.”
“Probably you deserve it,” I say. He snorts.
Over the last few months I got every last thing I ever wanted — and then I threw it all away. Everything I thought I could never have, offered up on a silver platter — the girl, the power, a job at the right hand of the most formidable man I know. It wouldn't have been that hard. It probably would have been fun. And if I didn’t care who I hurt, it would still all be mine.
I lift the binoculars and study the door again: the worn paint striping the boards and crumbling like breadcrumbs, the chewed up bottom edge as ragged as if it’s been gnawed on by rats.
Lila would still be mine.
Mine. The language of love is like that, possessive. That should be the first warning that it’s not going to encourage anyone’s betterment.
Barron groans and throws his cup into the backseat. “I can’t believe that you blackmailed me into becoming Johnny Law and now I have to sweat it out five days a week with the other recruits while you use my experience to stalk your girlfriend. How is that fair?”
“One, I think you mean the extremely dubious benefit of your experience. Two, Lila’s not my girlfriend. Three, I just wanted to make sure she was okay.” I count off these points on my leather-covered fingers. “And four, the last thing you should want is fairness.”
“Stalk her at school,” Barron says, ignoring everything I’ve just said. “Come on, I have to make a phone call. Let’s pack in this lesson and get a couple of slices. I’ll even buy.”
I sigh. The car is stuffy and smells like old coffee. I’d like to stretch my legs. And Barron is probably right — we should give this up. Not for the reason he’s saying, but for the other one. The one about it not being okay to lurk around outside buildings, spying on girls you like.
My fingers are reaching reluctantly for my keys when she walks out of the worn door, as though my giving up summoned her. She’s got on tall black riding boots and a steel grey trench. I study the quicksilver gestures of her gloved hands, the sway of her earrings, the slap of her heel on the steps, and the lash of her hair. She’s so beautiful I can barely breathe. Behind her follows a dark-skinned boy with his hair braided into two antelope horn shapes. He’s got on baggy jeans and a hoodie. He’s shoving a folded up wad of something that looks like cash into an inside pocket.
Outside of school, Lila’s doesn’t bother wearing a scarf. I can see the grim necklace of marks on her throat, scars dark where ash was rubbed into them. That’s part of the ceremony when you join her father’s crime family, slicing your skin and swearing that you’re dead to your old life and reborn into wickedness. Not even Zacharov’s daughter is spared it.
She’s one of them now. No turning back.
“Well now,” says Barron, gleeful. “I bet you’re thinking we just observed the end of a very naughty transaction. But let’s consider the possibility that actually we caught her doing something totally innocent yet embarrassing.”
I look at him absently. “Embarrassing?”
“Like meeting up to play one of those card games where you have to collect everything. Pokemon. Magic the Gathering. Maybe they’re training for a tournament. With all that cash, I’m guessing he won.”
“Funny.”
“Maybe he’s tutoring her in Latin. Or they were painting miniatures together. Or he’s teaching her shadow puppetry.” He makes a duck-like gesture with one gloved hand.
I punch Barron’s shoulder, but not really hard. Just hard enough to make him shut up. He laughs and adjusts his sunglasses, pushing the them higher on his nose.
The boy with the braids crosses the street, head down, hood pulled up to shadow his face. Lila walks to the corner and raises her hand to hail a cab. The wind whips at her hair, making it a nimbus of blown gold.
I wonder if she’s done her homework for Monday.
I wonder if she could ever love me again.
I wonder just how mad she’d really be if she knew I was here, watching her. Probably really, really mad.
Cold October air floods into the car suddenly, tossing around the empty cup in the back seat.
“Come on,” Barron says, leaning on the door, grinning down at me. I didn’t even notice him getting out. “Grab some quarters for the meter and your stuff.” He jerks his head in the direction of the boy with the braids. “We’re going to follow him.”
“What about that phone call?” I shiver in my thin green t-shirt. My leather jacket is wadded up in the backseat of my car, but I don't reach for it, even though I want to.
“I was bored,” Barron says. “Now I’m not.”
This morning when he told me we were going to practice tailing people, picking Lila as my target was half joke, half sick desire. I didn’t think that Barron would agree. I didn’t think that we’d actually see her leaving her apartment and getting into a town car. I for sure didn’t think that I would wind up here, close to actually finding out what she’s been doing when she’s not in school.
I get out of the car and slam the door behind me.
That’s the problem with temptation. It’s so damn tempting.
February 7, 2012
It was hard, guys. There were so many great entries and so many gorgeous artwork. You guys are way talented!
So here is WINNER #1: TALENT
D. Rodil for the amazing portrayal of all three Sharpe boys and Lila too:
Here is WINNER #2: ENTHUSIASM
Kelli Fisher for "sleep caked eyes"
(See, this is what I mean. The art is gorgeous AND wow, was this must have been a huge undertaking.)
And WINNER #3: LAUGHS
(This may be my favorite thing EVER.)
Thanks to Selene Gomez YOU CAN JOIN HEX!
She also made this protest sign (with glitter!) which I love because it exists outside of the virtual world and looks exactly like what someone would actually bring to a protest march:
And here are some HONORABLE MENTIONS (sorry that you don't win an ARC, but you do win glory!):
Corinne Duyvis crazy amazing alternate cover to the first book:
Kevin Cain's gorgeous illustration of Maura:
(To see earlier versions of this, go here. Really interesting to see.)
Constance Villalvazo drew Lila in three outfits that I adore. She looks like a noir heroine who is up to no good in all of them.
Thank you so much to everyone who entered. Every single entry made me smile, touched my heart and made me want to reach out the screen and hug you ... which is kind of creepy, I know. But still. Virtual creepy hugs to all!
