Cindy Pon's Blog, page 8

measuring time

hello lovely readers!

it's been a hectic few weeks. we survived our uk

trip! we had a lot of fun but i'm thinking the days of

all four of us trapped in a tiny motel/hotel room for

11 days may be in the past. the bubs are only getting

bigger and more rambunctious! i hid out in the lounge

most of the night in my pajamas with a book. haha!

i was able to spend my 38th birthday in london with

my bff eating and shopping! best birthday ever! it's been

so long since i've spent my birthday with friends, much

less my actual birthday with my bff. it was a real treat. 8)

i'm afraid i don't take many fotos during my london jaunts

anymore. i've taken so many fotos these last 15 years i've

been visiting. so here's just a few to share with you.

*we spent most of the time in the countryside

near the sea. the tide was out most mornings, and the

locals would come out with galoshes on and a bucket digging

sea snails (?) from the ground to eat!

*one of many english breakfasts i had while there.

i'm afraid to step on the scale since my return. i had lots

of pastries too! love the english bakeries. (at least i hate bacon,

so i didn't eat any of those. =) i tried black (blood) pudding for

the first time and really liked it. i think it's pig's blood? (it's the

black round patty on the plate.)

*i admired the beautiful stained glass windows at

london's natural history museum.

*munchkin especially enjoyed the dinosaur exhibits. here

he meets a real live moving t-rex.

*we also took the bubs to the Tower of London. there was a

period re-enactment outside the walls which was very entertaining.

finally, congratulations to bonnie for winning my original

bird with plum blossoms painting for the great movie poster she

made for the Fury Meets Mad Men contest! she describes the movie

poster in her own words:

I'm sure you can guess who everyone is, but at the forefront, we have Silver Phoenix and Zhong Ye; in the background, we have an image of Ai Ling (okay, I know her necklace isn't magical anymore, but…!) and Chen Yong on the ship. I wanted to feature both couples because unlike SP, Fury is very much about both couples. SP & ZY have a more tragic, immediate, grabbing story that looks best at the forefront.

i love it, bonnie! thank you so much!

i hope you enjoy the brush painting too. =D

and the runner up is eve with this "pitch":

Fury of the Phoenix: A Love Across Centuries and Worlds

eve's prize is two brush art cards of her choice!

thank you so much for those of you who entered this contest!

also, our reading challenge has been extended to 10/1!

LIBRARIANS and BLOGGERS! it's not too late to join and win

over 50 rad diverse middle grade and young adult novels!

check out the details here.

until next time!

london calling

it's been a crazy summer, dear readers!

but i've survived it, and it's ending with a bang

with a trip to london, my favorite city. in fact,

i'll be celebrating my 38th birthday there. it's

been a long time since i've visited london during

the summer. am really looking forward to it.

i'll be tweeting and sharing fotos during my uk

trip, sure make sure to check out my twitter wall

if you're curious as to what i'm up to in the next

two weeks. 8)

a few weekends back, i had a blast at the scbwi

los angeles conference. i crashed with ellen oh for

one night and was able to hang out with her, which

was *loads* of fun. and then meet and see many other

writing friends. as you can tell from the fotos below.

also had a lovely signing at Once Upon A Time in montrose.

another fantastic event co-sponsored by Bridge to Books,

they do such a fantastic job. thank you!

*gretchen mcneil and ellen oh! check out

gretchen's blog for her rad count down to the release

of her debut, Possess!

*martha flynn, me and ellen at the scbwi gala!

*we had an inkies breakfast the next morning bright

and early at 8am! lisa green, gretchen, amaris glass,

me, ellen and robin lafevers. love these ladies. mike jung,

honorary inkie, took the foto.

*a few members of the Asian Mafia in children's literature.

ellen oh (Prophecy, 2013) and mike jung (Geeks, Girls and

Secret Identities, 2012).

there have been rumblings and rumors (started by

ourselves, HAHA) of the mafia. what exactly is it? well, basically,

we get together, eat, and take fotos (sometimes awkward

and goofy). oh, and we also write Kick Ass books. no lie. 8)

*one of the highlights of the weekend was

finally meeting nova ren suma and hanging out

wish suz young for more than five minutes at a time.

i enjoyed both their novels, Imaginary Girls and A Need

so Beautiful–so different and original. and Once Upon A

Time created such a fantastic display for our novels.

*it's always a happy book event if khy shows up.

she's my Original Teen Fan!! had a lot of fun chatting

to her and her mom, as always.

*the fantastic group that helped with YA Rising Stars

event! janelle, alethea, me, holly goldberg sloan, aly,

vania, nova and suz. i was kicking myself for not taking

a foto with vania alone! she's always the one behind the

camera.

*suz, bethany griffin and mandy. was so excited to

find out that bethany is a new greenwillow books author!

her debut, Masque of the Red Death will be released in 2012.

check out a rad interview with bethany by fellow soon to

be published author lenore appelhans!

*we had a delicious and beautiful cake pops bouquet

at the event! me, nova, holly and suz, the authors at the

signing.

*and finally, fun to hang out with lindsey leavitt always.

she just makes me laugh and smile. she even gave me

a signed copy of Sean Griswold's Head. so excited to

read it!!! thanks lindsey!

that's my last post among scarce posts this summer.

i've been busy and doing good authorly things, i promise!

remember to check me out on twitter if you want to get

a peek of my uk trip! 8) until september, lovely readers.

i've got loads of rad books to give away for tgifbm

(Thank Goodness It's Free Books Monday)–so stay tuned!

awkward author fotos

i survived comic con! the panels i attended

(one as a panelist and the other as a YA fan)

were great and i also enjoyed the very short

Fringe presentation i got in on after waiting almost

two hours in line with thousands of other fans.

took two fotos over the weekend that are totally

filled with Pretty People but are also totally

Award Author Fotos.

behold and judge for yourself!

(back row L to R: Elizabeth Bunce, Kiersten White,

me, Dave Roman. front: Shannon Messenger, Kirsten

Hubbard and Nikki Katz.)

we have a wonderfully fun and supportive MG and YA

writing community here in san diego. so it was lovely

for shannon, kirsten and nikki to come to the signing after

kiersten's and my panel together. author fotos during

signings are always awkward. from the mere logistics

of The Table. whenever i can, i'll run to the other side of

the table to take a less awkward foto, but it didn't happen

in this case. haha! still a great foto tho!

me, Malinda Lo and Marie Lu.

on saturday night, was lucky enough to catch

malinda and marie (with beau in tow) to have dinner

together at extrao desserts. of course, we had to take

a foto of this tremendous occasion!

but as you can see, marie's beau wasn't quite sure

which was more important, the cake and mimosa or

the women in the foto. he wanted it all! and malinda

somehow decided it wasn't cool to drape her arms around

us like "the don", and instead, chose to hover between

marie and me like the Head of Oz.

dudes. i could NOT stop laughing after i saw this foto!

i mean, crying laughing. and everyone else thought it

was hilarious too! (i swear i cannot look at this foto and

NOT laugh. hhahah!)

pretty people. awkward foto.

haha!

i am bleeding words. at least half way through

novel 3 and Trying Not to Panic. 8) but the first

half is rad, so i'm happy with that.

next week, i go to scbwi (unofficially). you can find

me in the lounge or by the pool. if so, stop and say hi!

also, my exciting signing with Nova, Suzanne and Holly is

next sunday as well at 1.30pm hosted by Bridge to Books

and Once Upon a Time. click here for details!

win original chinese brush art!

yes, yes, i'm still here!

completely immersed in writing my third

novel as well as reading loads (Forbidden

by tabitha suzuma, The Gray Wolf Throne by

cinda chima, Legend by marie lu, Dreams of

Joy by lisa see and now Madame Tussaud by

michelle moran). i've also been researching

and brainstorming and trying to figure this

novel out.

i'm not an outliner, and rough drafting can be

a terrifying experience for someone who tends to

be a Control Freak in every other aspect of her life.

there's nothing like the challenge of The Blank Page

and that oh crap, what happens now feeling. haha!

but i will say, i've got very intriguing characters and

situations in this novel and i'm at that stage where

i love it a lot and can't leave it alone. i'll enjoy this New

Cute Boyfriend feeling while it lasts. 8)

now that my annual brush painting show is over as well

as the exhibit at the san diego county fair, i know what

paintings i can give away as grand prize(s) for the Fury

Meets Mad Men contest!

*baby panda will come matted in chinese fabric

and framed. it is a small painting.

*i really love this bird plum painting. i didn't clean it up

in photoshop but it's a huge painting, matted in green chinese

bordering and rich with spring colors. this prize will come unframed,

as it is so large!

as i've said before, the Fury contest is open to fans who have

read the novel and can come up with a slogan or ad, etc, to help

"sell" my rad sequel. 8) check out the original post for full details.

contest closes on september 1. WINNER chooses

which painting s/he would like.

now for some upcoming author events i'l be participating

in! comic con starts this thursday and i'll be on a panel

with some great authors on SATURDAY, 7/23! with a signing

right after. hope to see you there!

12:30-1:30 Diversity in Young Adult Works— It's not all about being torn between vampire and werewolf boyfriends. This panel is a celebration of different genres, protagonists, and media for young adult readers. The diverse authors participating include Cindy Pon (Fury of the Phoenix), Kiersten White (Supernaturally), Dave Roman (Astronaut Academy), Vera Brosgol (Anya's Ghost), Gene Yang (Level Up), and Elizabeth Bunce (A Curse Dark As Gold). Moderated by Malinda Lo (Huntress). Room 8

and i'm so excited to say that i'll be participating in another

Bridge to Books co-sponsored event and signing with nova

ren suma (Imaginary Girls), suzanne young (A Need So Beautiful),

and holly goldberg sloan (I'll Be There) at Once Upon a Time in

montrose on Sunday, 8/7 at 1.30pm.

click here for full details!

as you know, i had a blast at the first Bridge to Books event

which was YA in Bloom!

that's all for now, dear readers. i hope you're

all having a wonderful summer–especially since

it's already half over!

where in the world is cindy pon?

hello lovely readers!

i apologize for dropping off these last few weeks.

it took me over two weeks to get over my gross

summer cold and in the mean time, i leapt right into

rough drafting my third novel.

so i'm officially in Troll Mode.

while rough drafting, i don't often feel very chatty,

tho you can always catch me (usually late at night)

on twitter. =)

it's very strange to be writing completely new characters

and stories. i know some writers (like dia reeves) who

doesn't enjoy writing the same characters because she

finds it too constricting. i, in turn, very much like writing

the same characters because there is a familiarity to them–

like an old friend.

but ai ling's story ended with Fury of the Phoenix so

i move on–to characters i don't know at all. to a story

i don't know enough of. the whole thing is rather maddening

and scary and hard. i'm trying to write at least 1k words

a day, so i plod faithfully on this summer. wish me luck!

in the meantime, i went to the first YA in Bloom event

run by Bridge to Books, a few saturdays back. and had

a blast! i sounded a little like a man due to the tail end

of my cold–but that didn't stop me from having fun! =)

*teen readers chloe and khy, the Original Teen Fan! =D

*i had the pleasure of meeting ashyln, teen reader and blogger!

*was able to hang out with marie lu which was

so much fun. her debut LEGEND is a rad read!

*authors and organizers of the event! (alethea, me, jessica brody,

andrew smith, lisa yee, nancy holder, katie alender, and aly beecher.)

lisa yee does a wonderful write up of the event here.

i always love hanging out with her and le peep!

diana, who was super fun to meet, recaps here.

and ashlyn also shares her thoughts!

finally, malinda and i are very excited to launch

our next big DiYA endeavor–a summer reading challenge.

librarians are welcome to create summer reading programs

focused and inspired by diverse middle grade and YA novels

for a chance to win over 50 books for her/his library.

and book bloggers are encouraged to read diverse novels

throughout the summer and write an (at least 500 word)

essay on her/his experience. the winning blogger with the

best essay will win over 50 books all for him/herself!

it's an amazing list of books to be won–check it out here.

and all the details here!

challenge closes on september 1, y'all! so get on it!

until next time…

friday fun!

hi everyone! three things today, a School Library Journal

review for Fury of the Phoenix, awesome fan art, and a rad

YA author event and luncheon which i'll be attending in a

couple of saturdays!

First, the SLJ review of Fury:

Gr 9 Up—This sequel to Silver Phoenix (Greenwillow, 2009)

continues the adventure of Ai Ling… who follows her heart

by sneaking onto a ship carrying Chen Yong, bound for the

land of his father. Ai Ling is trying to protect him from the

harm she was warned about in a dream. Interwoven into the

story is the tale of Zhong Ye and his rise to power in the

Emperor's palace and his love for Silver Phoenix. How the

lives of Ai Ling and Zhong Ye are bound together makes for an

intriguing story. Pon engages readers immediately. [The] novel

is sensuous and descriptive, and even readers unfamiliar with

the first book will find themselves unable to put this one down.

—Kathy Kirchoefer, Prince Georges County Memorial Library

System, New Carrollton, MD

yay! thank you ms. kirchoefer for the review! and although

you could read Fury without reading Silver Phoenix first, i think

it's definitely better that you read both novels in the order they

were published.

*click for full image!

and marie, a local (for now, wah!) writer and artist was

kind enough to sketch ai ling for me. i love how loose it

is but how alive it is at the same time! don't you think?

the expression and the eyes are especially wonderful. thanks

so much marie for this lovely fan art piece!

and finally, i'll be attending the first YA in Bloom

luncheon at vroman's on saturday, june 25, 1-4pm!

it includes lunch as well as discussion and fun and

lots of raffle give aways! nancy holder, lisa yee, and

katie alender are the other authors in attendance! if you're

in the los angeles area and are a fan of young adult

novels, you should come and say HI!! click here to purchase

the $12.50 luncheon and register!

this has been a challenging week for me and i'm

looking forward to better health and less craziness

next week. =) everyone have a great weekend!

diversity in new york, new york…

with high kicks!

lovely readers, it's difficult for me to believe that

nearly an entire month has passed since the diversity

panels in new york city.

malinda and i took a very early train from boston to new

york city. i was able to grab a dunkin' donuts coffee and

chocolate donut (yes, this needs to be noted) before the

trip and napped almost the entire way. it was friday the 13th,

and we had a crazy full day in front of us, including checking

into our hotel, a two hour radio interview, then the diversity

panel at the LGBT center.

it was an unusually warm day and we braved the subway

during friday rush hour and managed to get to the panel

before it started at 6.30pm.

*malinda, cris beam, jacqueline woodson, david levithan and me!

i was the moderator for the panel and i think we had some great

discussion and questions from the audience. i especially enjoyed

(or was tortured by =) the "lightning round" at the end in which

every panelist took about thirty seconds before asking deep questions

such as "favorite drink while writing". haha

sturday started with a fantastic brunch with ello and jj

at a greasy spoon diner which really hit the spot (both malinda

and i had the biscuits with gravy and grits!) then we headed

to our Books of Wonder panel. we probably had about sixty

people in attendance, and it was fantastic to see many of my

friends in the audience as well!

*the rad display of all the diversity authors' books right

at the front of the store! i signed TONS of copies of Silver

Phoenix in hardcover, paper back as well as Fury of the Phoenix

hardcovers.

*alison is a super duper teen fan! and i was so excited that

she could come from NJ to attend our panel. it was lovely to

finally meet her. click here to read her post on the signing.

*it was also a pleasure to meet steph for the first time,

who is a recent college graduate (congrats!) and runs a

great blog. she also came in from out of state for the event.

as with all book signings (which are much like weddings)

i didn't get to talk to everyone like i wanted to. boo.

*my first time meeting jenn and shveta. even tho i had a grand

time with the panelists after the signing, i was sad i couldn't join

jen and shveta for lunch!

*neesha, david, and me! david has been a long time online

friend (he was around when i blogged, hey, i'm going try and

follow a dream of mine and Write A Novel! he is a great spec

fic writer himself. and neesha and i have been friends since we

became debs in 2009! i met both of them at my Silver Phoenix

gathering in nyc in 9/2009!

*so the funniest thing happened. the audience was pretty big

and many kept trickling in during the event. i noticed a tall

gorgeous brunette in the back of the room that looked EXACTLY

like lindsey leavitt (Princess for Hire series, Sean Griswold's Head)

but it couldn't have been lindsey, because there was no reason for

lindsey to be in nyc. she lived very far away! but lo, it WAS lindsey!

she was in town for a romantic getaway with hub for their anniversary

and had the chance to pop in to the signing. it was such a nice

surprise and totally random and funny.

*we didn't get a full group foto, alas, but here are some of

us at the nyc panel, moderated by the fantastic cheryl klein!

neesha, malinda, me, cheryl, kekla, gbemi. i look forward to

reading the books by my fellow panelists!

tomorrow is sweet pea and munchkin's last day of school!

the school year went by so fast! so i'll be escaping to LA to see

my family for a few days and hope to squeeze in some research

reading too as i need to start writing another novel this summer!

congrats to JESSIE who won the arcs for Imaginary Girls and

Daughter of Smoke and Bone! thanks to everyone who participated.

we interrupt this Diversity in Ya program…

hello lovely readers! just a poke in to say that

i've extended the Fury meets Mad Men contest because:

1. i didn't get enough entries. wah!

2. i also didn't publicize it as well as i should have, having

been on tour for most of may.

3. i'd like to have the contest coincide with a summer reading

challenge malinda and i are organizing through the DiYA site!

the new deadline is now September 1!

check the original entry for details and comment there

or email me your entry directly. the grand prize is an

original chinese brush painting by me and signed copies

of Silver Phoenix and Fury of the Phoenix. (this has been

added. =) the contest is open internationally.

links of interest:

so i actually do have some DiYA news! the cambridge

panel got a fantastic write up in The Atlantic today. check it

out, with quotes from sarah rees brennan, malinda, holly black,

francisco stork and me!

and liz burns over at School Library Journal online

writes a very thoughtful review of Silver Phoenix at

her blog, A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy.

have a wonderful weekend, everyone! i'll be at the Spanish

Village in Balboa Park, Gallery 21 this saturday if you're inclined

to stop by and admire some fantastic Chinese brush paintings by

me and my fellow artist friends. cheers!

tgifbm! Imaginary Girls and Daughter of Smoke & Bone

hi lovely readers! i've been reading rad arcs up the

wazoo this past weekend, including Variant by robison wells

and You Against Me by jenny downham. and i'm excited to

be giving away these two arcs today!

nova's Imaginary Girls is gorgeously written, haunting,

and a true original. laini's Daughter of Smoke & Bones includes

fascinating mythos as well as star crossed lovers who not

only have an intense passionate chemistry but a history as well.

sounds radical, right? right!

Chloe's older sister, Ruby, is the girl everyone looks to and longs for, who can't be captured or caged. When a night with Ruby's friends goes horribly wrong and Chloe discovers the dead body of her classmate London Hayes left floating in the reservoir, Chloe is sent away from town and away from Ruby.But Ruby will do anything to get her sister back, and when Chloe returns to town two years later, deadly surprises await. As Chloe flirts with the truth that Ruby has hidden deeply away, the fragile line between life and death is redrawn by the complex bonds of sisterhood.

With palpable drama and delicious craft, Nova Ren Suma bursts onto the YA scene with the story that everyone will be talking about.

Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.

In a dark and dusty shop, a devil's supply of human teeth grown dangerously low.

And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war.

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she's prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands"; she speaks many languages—not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she's about to find out.

When one of the strangers—beautiful, haunted Akiva—fixes his fire-colored eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?

…

you know the drill!

tweet, fb status, lj, blog, etc and mention this

contest and link to this post. then comment with

that link in this post!

contest closes some time on friday, 6/10, when

i'll select a random winner. open to US addresses only.

good luck!!

and then we rocked cambridge…

i'm back! i'm back!

*thunk*

okay, my two full days in nyc

this time were fantastic! i got a chance

to be a bit of a tourist (at least for a few

hours) and the SLJ Pre-BEA Day of Dialog

was wonderful. BEA itself was a bit of a mad

house, but i had so much fun at my signing!

unfortunately, my flight back on tuesday night

was not as fun. we flew over tornadoes and it was

a very very bumpy scary ride. those of you on the

ground where the tornadoes are still going nuts, stay

safe!

now let me catch up a bit by posting about our radical

(i'm working on bring the RAD back =) cambridge public

library diversity event two weeks ago.

boston was the first place in which malinda and i were

actually stopping at for more than twenty hours. so on

thursday morning, we headed over to newbury to do some

shopping. by chance, we came across the john fluevog shoe

store. cassie clare, holly black and sarah rees brennan are

huge fans of these shoes and i've seen them wear these cool

shoes every time we've met. of course, i had to try some on!

i ended up buying this pair of baroques rubens.

yes, they are rad!!!

but by the time we got home (after a great japanese

lunch on newbury), i was pretty much wiped out. all

the plane hopping had finally caught up to me. and i wanted

to show off my new vogs but wasn't into the idea of putting

another dress on. (beauty is pain.) none of my jeans were right

and malinda convinced me to put on my betsy johnson to see

how the new vogs looked with it. beautiful, of course!

so it is thanks to malinda that when i was finally zipped into

the dress, i couldn't be bothered to take it off again. ha! it's

true, i have little opportunity to wear this fabulous dress, so

i'm glad i did for the cambridge event.

*one of the first people i saw was gail who recently

read both Silver Phoenix and Fury and is a rad new fan!

*it was wonderful that kristin cashore came! i had

personally invited her to the event and not only did she

come with two friends to support us, but she also blogged about

it on her site, so several people who attended did so because of

her post! thanks so much kristin! (and i don't think i've ever seen

malinda smile so big! =)

*the cambridge pubic library was beautiful and we

had a really great lecture hall for our panel.

*the panel: sarah rees brennan, francisco stork, deva fagan,

malinda lo, holly black, roger sutton of Horn Book, me and maya

escobar, the librarian who helped to make this event happen for us!

one of the highlights of this entire tour for me was meeting francisco.

he is so sweet and smart, and writes fantasic books. i loved Marcelo

in the Real World (and reading it was what made me realize he was in

boston and i screwed up enough courage to ask him to join us and he

agreed straight away, saying what a wonderful idea it was =)

and got a signed copy of The Last Summer of the Death Warriors!

can't wait to read it!

*although we've been corresponding for a few years,

this was the first time i got to meet leah cypess (Mistwood,

Nightspell). that was a real treat!

*it was also the first time i met liz michalski,

the author of Evenfall. she is a new sarah rees brennan

fan because of our panel. (that sarah, she's such a witty

charmer and radical writer to boot!)

*after the panel, those of us who still had the energy

headed over to grafton street for dinner and celebration.

it was a lot of fun, and i ordered fries near the very end, which

i think was approved by all. =) sarah, leah, holly, me and malinda.

malinda and i really had so much fun at this event, but it was also

intense as both roger and the audience asked some great questions

of the panelists.

here are some links from those who attended in the audience:

kip blogs about cambridge diversity tour event here.

leah cypess recaps over at the enchanted inkpot.

and liz (pictured above) also shares her thoughts at her blog.