Lisa Mantchev's Blog, page 9

So I just finished the new book

And I was going to explain ALL THE FEELINGS, but there is too much. Let me sum up.

















Two hours later...



Three seconds later...



Yup. That about sums it up. Minus the hurgle-feeling of emailing it off.  :)

FaerieCon West: the write-up!

The short of it: awesomesauce.

The long: There is too much,

Next day, with Captain Rob, the lead singer of Abney Park:

[image error]

Sketch by Tara Larsen Chang of me on a Steampunk panel with assorted awesome people, including Captain Rob:

[image error]

Sketch by Tara Larsen Chang of me on a "Happily Ever After" panel with CHARLES DE LINT *eep* (I'm the austere one with the ponytail and tiara next to BROM *eep* the fantasy artist):

[image error]

Headed out to the Masquerade with a Bertie fairy (played by Kiri Callaghan):

[image error]

Back from the Masquerade, turning into a pumpkin:

[image error]

With my girls that showed up on Sunday dressed as Bertie (Briana Dyrness and Kiri Callaghan):

[image error]

With Carolyn Turgeon, author of Mermaid, after the "Winged YA" panel:

[image error]

Still pulling pictures from various places, and so very tired. I have espresso/Red Bull withdrawal, and so much laundry I want to cry. Need to get back to actual writing. Some day, I will live in a hotel like Eloise.

FaerieCon West

Thanks to my faerie godmothers (Gwen Hayes and Tiffany Trent) I've been invited to participate in FaerieCon West!


Peaseblossom, Moth, Cobweb, and Mustardseed have already packed their bags, and we hope you'll meet up with us. There's going to be programming, fabulous authors (Charles de Lint! Carolyn Turgeon! Julie Kagawa!) artists (Amy Brown! Brom!) Masquerade Balls, Abney Park...

I may 'splode from excitement before we get there.

Come find me at the event... I'll be giving away theater-themed swag. More information on what else I'll be doing as I get it.

A whole lot of shiny (video and a contest!)

Here it is... the project that's been simmering on the back of the stove alongside the snozzberry jam!

*drumroll*

The animated book trailer for SO SILVER BRIGHT!

*curtain opens*

Special, special thank yous to Lorena Lopez for the background art and animation, and Jason Chan for the character art. And now, to celebrate, we have a contest! Win one of the following...

Team Nate or Team Ariel t-shirts:

 
So Silver Bright tote bags that say "Shakespeare, Fairies, Mayhem... AND PIE":


Plus multiple batches of note cards, posters, window decals, and more featuring Jason Chan's fabulous cover art.

The details:
Post the trailer on your blog, Tumblr, Facebook, or link to it on Twitter
Bonus points: Include a link back here to the contest and/or a link to your favorite place to buy the theater books
Email me: lisa at lisamantchev dot com
Subject line "SSB ANIMATED TRAILER CONTEST" 
Please include your mailing address and links to your posts
Open internationally
Contest closes at midnight PST on January 31st.

*confetti!* Go forth and post!

Yes, please

May the powers that be protect me from myself when it comes to musical guys... and artistic guys... and smart guys.



And more of Steven here *swoon*:



Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go download everything he's ever recorded off iTunes. (Also, Star Wars fans, he and another cellist have a piece on YouTube you want to see.)

Timey Wimey Ice Cream Sammich

Addendum to yesterday's entry:



Yes, this is The Boy's homemade vanilla between two of the ginger cookies.

Boozy Woozy Timey Wimey Cookies

Last year, I gave jennawaterford this:

This year, I am filling it with cookies (she knows this... I promise I am not ruining a surprise!) The Barefoot Contessa's Ultimate Ginger Cookies , with modifications. I started making a test batch this morning, but I questioned my molasses, and the crystallized ginger was hard as rocks.

I remedied the ginger problem by soaking it in warm bourbon. Might have been drunk on fumes when I added too much butter to the batter, then had to compensate with extra flour and leavening.

Worried as I was, the test batch turned out GORGEOUS and ginger-spicy, with a hint of the bourbon in the back.

(not my actual cookies, but damn close. My cracks are smaller. AHAHAHAHAH-my-cracks-are-smaller. *wheeze*)

And I might totally sandwich two of them together with the husband's HOMEMADE VANILLA ICE CREAM for the best ice cream sammich evar.

*OM NOM NOM NOM*

*crumbs*

Whoops.

*will be making more batter tomorrow... yanno, for actual cookies to Jennifer*

Buy Indie, Buy Local

Yesterday, I posted a pic taken from the parking lot of my new, favorite local coffee bar. Not only do they offer a "bottomless" press pot of coffee, they have a "100 mile restaurant" that serves local cheese, butter, jam, bread... it's epic awesome, and the perfect refuge for a writer addicted to coffee and carbs.

I never go in there without buying something else. Yesterday, it was Dry Soda in four different flavors. Last week, it was cranberry syrup:



I'm planning to float on orange juice and champagne at Christmas, like this:

[image error]

You cannot buy this syrup on Amazon. And even if I could, I wouldn't. FOR REASONS.

Granted, this may not be a big deal to big box stores, but I implore everyone not to do this to your local Mom and Pop. Better yet, I'd like to encourage everyone to show your pride in local stores and products. Buy something, take a picture, post it to your blog or FB or here in the comments. Explain what you are doing and why you are doing it. Tag me in the post or email me at lisa at lisamantchev dot com with a link. Participants will be entered into a drawing to win all three (signed!) theater books, shipping to US and Canada addresses only, please. I'll close to entries next Friday, December 16th at midnight PST.

So post your pride, and consider joining the Occupy Amazon group over at Facebook.

Just added: Michelle Zink, author of the Prophecy of the Sisters trilogy and the forthcoming A Temptation of Angels is going to donate the complete/signed Prophecy trilogy to this contest! So keep the entries coming!

Two favorite words to type:

THE END.

Oh, it is Tom-Riddled with holes, and I have a LOT of revision coming at me, but I wrote the last chapter this morning at the coffee shop.

Have I mentioned it? They have a "bottomless" French press of coffee for $4. And a TOAST bar. Local cheese, butter, and jam. <3

View from the window:



*will be mentioning them in the acknowledgments, fer sure!*

Winning NaNo

The steampunk book crossed the 50K threshold this morning, so I've officially won NaNoWriMo. Given that this is my first year attempting this (since it was the first year since I've started writing novel-length fiction that I haven't had a deadline to meet in November) I has some thoughts about this.

1) YAY! I wrote fifty thousand words in twenty-seven days . That is pretty darn impressive. Most mornings, I got up an hour earlier than the rest of the household. This is a habit I plan to continue into the near year, because it made for great production and a happy writer-mom.

2) I am nowhere near being "done" with this novel. I don't write fifty-thousand word novels... mine tend to be seventy to eighty thousand. I figure I have a third of a book yet to write, and the plan is to do that over the next 2-3 weeks. The manuscript as it stands now also has all these lovely, lovely holes of "research this" and "need name here" and "what did I call that earlier???" I was filling those bits in during evening editing sessions, but quickly fell behind given that people around here like to eat dinner on a fairly regular basis and I prefer both the kids be clean and in their pajamas at some point before bed.

3) Even if I'd written eighty thousand words and typed THE END, I still wouldn't be "done" with this novel. It needs major editing. It needs proofreading. I don't have any plans of showing it to anyone anytime soon, and that includes friends, family, agent, etc. Hot copy needs time to cool. You wouldn't eat a cheesecake straight out of the oven, would ya?
.
.
.
Ok, maybe I will share the first few chapters with people via email. But I don't really want notes-notes. (Say that like the :"like yous" in "does he like you, or LIKE YOU like you ?") I just need to hear if I've broken anything major and that it's super shiny and keep working on it dammit, it's going to take the world by storm. Notes other than that aren't helpful.

4) At least, they aren't helpful yet, anyway. When I've had a chance to let it cool, read it through, fix the major stuff, THEN I need notes-notes. The kind that make me feel vaguely stupid and want to tear out my hair because I even wrote those words in the first place and what was I thinking and this scene is slow and there's not enough tension here and go back and plant this bit earlier.

5) Even when it goes out on submission, it's not really "done" because the hope is some editor somewhere will like it enough to buy it and make me rewrite it again. Each of the theater books went through two major revisions, not including copy edits and page proofs.

6) So, the moral to the story, kids? That Emerald City is twinkling in the distance. Keep skip-walking arm-in-arm with your wobble-legged Scarecrow story.

And don't stop walking just because the calendar ticks over to December.