Y.S. Lee's Blog, page 32

The end of the beginning

As I've mentioned before, I am a lousy almanac. I forget birthdays, anniversaries, significant dates – all the things women are often assumed to be good at. But it dawned on me today that this is the end of my debut year: the year my first novel was published in North America.

It's true that Spy was first published in 2009 in the UK. But it was such a theoretical debut. I never saw it in the shops. I didn't do any events because I was, well, here. So this is the year that things became real. The year I became, officially, a novelist. And oh, I'm sorry to see it go.

This is the year I met so many passionate readers and writers of YA fiction. The year I found an online community of bookish souls. The year I made friends with other working writers. The year I first read aloud my own prose to a crowd of people (then joked about it to the same crowd, just for fun). The year I received fan mail. The year someone looked at me in a store and asked, "Are you Y S Lee?" (True! It happened just this week.) The year I felt confident answering the "What do you do?" question with, "I write books."

It's been a rich, hectic, tumultuous, joyful year in so many other ways. I have tons to celebrate and even more to look forward to. But I'll never have another year quite like this one. And right now, that feels bittersweet.

What did this year mean for you? And what are you looking forward to in 2011?

P.S. My last blog post of the year will be next week at the Book Smugglers and I'll be running a little contest to celebrate. Join me then!

Lightning strikes twice

For the second week in a row, a new international cover just popped up in my mailbox. This one's for the Spanish edition of the second Agency novel, to be published by Ediciones Versatil in January 2011.

Los Crimenes del Big Ben

To me, it looks like a film poster but apart from the title font, I can't quite explain why. And the title, translated, is The Big Ben Crimes – Another Mystery for Detective Mary Quinn. What do you think?

Performances and translations

Isn't life great? Sometimes, you just get an email out of the blue telling you stuff that makes you squeal with surprise and delight.

The audiobook editions of A Spy in the House and The Body at the Tower are now on sale! They're performed by Justine Eyre, who has an absolutely beautiful voice.

And finally! The French edition of the second Mary Quinn novel, The Agency: Le meurtre de l'horloge, will also be published in February. I was wondering what they'd call it.

I think The Clock Murder works very nicely indeed. And I thoroughly approve of the orange. What do you think?

What I did last week

I was in Toronto and Ottawa for a mini book tour and mostly what I did was talk – to strangers, to friends, to booksellers in many Chapters & Indigo stores. I also ate a lot of really memorable food, some of it amongst beardy oenophiles at a basement pub in Cabbagetown.

But I also had a party at Type Books, to which my Toronto friends came out in force. (Photos are by my uncle, Meng Cheah. Thank you!)

TYPE Books, Queen St West

Toronto really does look its best after dark.

Always clutching the same darn book.

And isn't TYPE gorgeous? If I end up as a ghost, I'll definitely haunt this bookstore.

I owe thanks to many people: to Becky, Samara, and Kyle of TYPE, for making the party run so smoothly; and to Jennifer Herman, Nicola Makoway, and Jacqui Bester of Random House Canada, for organizing the bookseller visits and lunch. I'm so lucky to work with you.

Special thanks to Steven "Stevelchase" Succi, for procuring the wine when I thought my head might explode; and to Steve and Sarah Sweet (ha! surname ambiguity!), for being such lovely hosts. I am stone-cold sober, but *sniff* I love you guys. And you make me love Toronto. (A little bit, anyway.)

Book attack

This week, I'm in Toronto and Ottawa meeting with booksellers and launching Body. It's a flying trip and I won't have time to catch up with old friends, buy handmade chocolates and pungent cheeses, or lounge in cafés – all things dear to my heart. But I will be in bookstores. Oh yes.

So it's fitting that this week, I finally got around to looking at that Facebook meme – you know the one. It claims to be the BBC's list of 100 books of which the average person will only have read 6. I've been tagged with it about a dozen times and always ignored it. But Fate is tricky like that. You see, there are almost 40 books on that list I haven't read. A few that I've long intended to read. And others I feel shame in admitting I haven't. (I'm sorry, Tolstoy and Dostoevsky!)

You see where I'm going with this. In a week when I'll see more different bookstores than I typically do in a month, what can a bookish girl do but make up for lost time? I shall be buying

and 

as well as presents for my family (who, fortunately, prefer presents with pages). And this is where I need you, bookish friends.

What are some of your favourite books? They don't have to be from that silly meme, of course. They don't have to be YA or recent, either. Just books from your personal Top 100.

P. S. At the risk of sounding repetitive: I'll be at Type Books (883 Queen St West) tonight from 7 to 8.30. See you there!

The "E" Word

Hello, friends. This week's blog post is over at the Story Siren, where I launched PoC Lit Days, a 2-week celebration of cultural diversity in Young Adult literature. It's called The "E" Word. Don't miss the lively discussion going on in the comments!

And just a quick reminder for Toronto-area readers: I'll be launching The Body at the Tower at Type Books (883 Queen St West) next week (Thursday, November 25) from 7 to 8.30 pm. Hope to see you there!

The Traitor and the Tunnel

So there's been a little hitch with the posting of the UK cover of Traitor. Lawyers, lawyers. But while they work, there's no reason I can't share with you MY summary of the third Mary Quinn novel! Without further ado:

Queen Victoria has a little problem: there's a petty thief at work in Buckingham Palace. Mary Quinn takes the simple case, going undercover as a domestic servant. But before long, a scandal threatens to tear apart the Royal Family.

One of the Prince of Wales's irresponsible young friends is killed in disgraceful circumstances. Should the Queen hush things up or allow justice to take its course? Mary's interest in this private matter soon becomes deeply personal: the killer, a drug-addicted Chinese sailor, shares a name with her long-lost father.

Meanwhile, James Easton's engineering firm is repairing the sewers beneath Buckingham Palace. Trouble is, there's a tunnel that's not on the plans. Its purpose is unclear. But it seems to be very much in use.

These overlapping puzzles offer a perfect opportunity for Mary and James to work together again… if they can still trust one another. This is Mary's most personal case yet and she has everything to lose.

And that's The Traitor and The Tunnel, coming spring 2011 from Walker Books UK and spring 2012 from Candlewick Press.

What I did for Hallowe'en

Turns out I'm the murder-mystery house party type, after all...

Photo by my host, the fabulous Annette Willis.

Researching the Victorians

I promised last week to share some favourite research resources for the Victorian era. But first, some news that despite being 6 days old is still enough to make me jump up and down! A Spy in the House is shortlisted for the Ontario Library Association's 2011 Red Maple Award! Yes! Let me throw in a couple of extra exclamation points, like so!!

This is a reader's choice award for ages 11-15, it's linked to a great reading-promotion program in Ontario schools, and the whole thing culminates in a 2-day gala at the Harbourfront Centre in Toronto. The craziest part, though? Being in the company of writers I think of as superstars, like Kelley Armstrong. And Gordon Korman, for crying out loud, whose work I loved as a kid. Plus, there are writers on the shortlist whose work I don't know, but am really looking forward to discovering (click here for full shortlist). It's all a bit dizzying.

But enough diva-ish fluttering. There are thousands of resources, both print and online, that I used when writing the Agency books. This is because my research began long before I thought of writing a novel, back when I was working on a PhD thesis in Victorian literature and culture. And that's the beautiful, maddening, addictive thing about research: you start in one place and end up light years away, with pages upon pages of facts and anecdotes that probably won't make it into the finished work. And it doesn't matter, because you're the richer for having read them. It's brilliant.

But it's also a pretty unhelpful thing to say here. But there are some books and sites that I go back to very regularly, and those are the ones I'll share here today. Without further ado:

Online Resources (no particular order)

I adore Lee Jackson's Dictionary of Victorian London, a compilation of primary sources (that is, sources from the Victorian era). It's addictive reading; I dare you not to spend four times as long there as you'd intended. Don't miss the "Flash Dictionary" of slang!

The Old Bailey Online archives the proceedings of London's central criminal court, from 1674-1913. Again, utterly addictive and a fantastic window into Victorian crime. My friend John Nicholls first told me about to the site. Thanks, John!

The Times Archive is just that – a searchable archive of every article published in that newspaper, from its launch in 1785. You have to pay for access, unless you belong to an institution (eg, university) that subscribes.

The Victorian Peeper (I know – sounds vaguely rude) is an truly wonderful blog written by Kristan Tetens, "a historian of nineteenth-century Britain based in twenty-first century America". It's an endless delight and offers links to previously unknown sources, such as the one below.

Hidden Lives Revealed is a sometimes heartbreaking archive of case files and photographs of orphans at the Children's Society, 1881-1918. The photographs are particularly illuminating.

The Victorian Web is an academic site with about 40,000 short articles on the Victorian period. Many of these were written by Brown University undergraduates and some aren't 100% reliable, but it's a terrific starting point and most of the essays have a partial bibliography for further research.

Print Resources (alphabetical by surname)

Ackroyd, Peter. London: The Biography. 2001. An authoritative history of the city.

Flanders, Judith. Consuming Passions: Leisure and Pleasure in Victorian Britain. 2007. Wonderful social history and a window into real people's lives.

—. The Victorian House: Domestic Life from Childbirth to Deathbed. 2004. You wouldn't think a book about domestic life could be gripping, but this is. One of my favourite non-fiction books, period.

Picard, Liza. Victorian London. 2005. A lively general overview, but if you're already deep into the era, you can skip this one.

Ross, Ellen, ed. Slum Travellers: Ladies and London Poverty, 1860-1920. 2007. Letters and reports from reform-minded ladies of the period. Great for contemporary flavour.

Smith, Stephen. Underground London: Travels Beneath the City Streets. 2004. Useful chapter on Victorian burial practices.

Sweet, Matthew. Inventing the Victorians. 2002. Debunks a lot of tenacious myths about Victorian culture and morals.

Tomalin, Claire. The Invisible Woman: The Story of Nelly Ternan and Charles Dickens. 1990. Definitive biography of Dickens's long-time mistress. It's also a sparkling social history and portrait of theatrical life.

Wilson, A.N. The Victorians. 2002. Authoritative, sometimes infuriating, interesting.

Wilson, Bee. Swindled: From Poison Sweets to Counterfeit Coffee – The Dark History of the Food Cheats. 2008. Gripping stuff – the chapters on "food adulteration" are wonderfully, horribly vivid.

This is a longish blog post but a very short bibliography. Don't forget the goldmine at the back of nearly each of these books: the notes and bibliography, which will lead you in all kinds of wild new directions. I hope you have a blast!

There be readers out there

Hello, friends. I'm very close to being able to share with you the UK cover of the third Mary Quinn novel, The Traitor and the Tunnel. So close. It's gorgeous, as ever, and the suspense is killing me.

Ahem. In the meantime, I can show you a shot of The Body at the Tower and one of its sterner critics:

photo by Philipp of Upper Canada

I suspect Philipp may have to ask ever so nicely if he wants his book back.

And this week I got my first-ever piece of old-fashioned, pen-and-ink fan mail! Thanks, Gabriella, and I'll write back very soon.

Next week, I'll talk about researching the Agency novels and share with you a list of great Victorian resources. Until then!