Y.S. Lee's Blog, page 35
July 1, 2010
3 Favourite Books
If asked to pick my ultimate, all-time, top 3 desert-island books, I'd be paralyzed with indecision and fail to choose before being exiled to said island. But I enjoy the game enough to play a little, and talked about it briefly with Tiffany Trent on Twitter last week (hers are here). So, with heavy qualifications, here are my 3 Favourite Books (reflecting my reading passions from ages 8 to 25, presented in chronological order).
1. L. M. Montgomery, Emily of New Moon.
I read the Anne books...
June 24, 2010
Marriages, births, deaths
The next couple of weeks hold, for me:
1) A family funeral,
2) The wedding of a dear friend, and
3) My first meeting with a nephew who was born last year.
Being confronted with Major Life Events always makes me reel, but don't worry – I'm not going to wax overly philosophical. What struck me this evening is how very Victorian this triad of events is, yet how much our expectations have evolved over a century.
The nineteenth century was an age of high infant mortality, lower life expectancy...
June 17, 2010
Winners of the Tardy Contest
Good day! You all made the Tardy Contest difficult and I felt serious anxiety just reading some of your comments:
Joanne missed her best-friend-from-high-school's wedding by 7 days. Eek!
Steph almost missed a transatlantic flight by 24 hrs.
Mary, Penny, and Christie have missed doctor's appointments by pretty wide margins.
Ari's family was 4 hours late to an event they thought was the next day (which makes them early, kind of…)
Lizzy was late to a grad school interview. (She got in anyway – yay!) ...
June 10, 2010
FAQ: Are your books funny?
Heigh ho! You have 5 days to enter the Tardy Contest to win ARCs of The Body at the Tower. Don't be late! (har har)
Also, I'm featured at Books on the House this week. Enter there to win copies of A Spy in the House plus an Agency t-shirt.
When Misa Ramirez of Books on the House interviewed me, she asked, "Are your books serious, or does your wit come through?" I'm not really happy with the answer I gave then, so I thought I'd try again here. Ahem.
Long answer:
The Mary Quinn novels are dramatic ...
June 3, 2010
Happy June!
Hello. Would you like an ARC of The Body at the Tower? Enter to win one here.
I feel oddly unencumbered at the moment because I've just delivered the manuscript for the third MQ novel, The Traitor and the Tunnel, along with the proofread galleys for the UK ed of book 2, The Body at the Tower. It's a lovely, surreal sort of freedom and much of it involves wondering, "What shall I write next?"
This might be my favourite part of the writing life: cooking up the next project. Once I've dealt with t...
May 27, 2010
The Tardy Contest
Care to win one of two ARCs of The Body at the Tower? Read on!
Are you always running late? I try very hard to be punctual but occasionally, bad planning and fate get the better of me. I once missed a flight out of Paris because the journey to Charles de Gaulle took 3 hours, instead of the planned 1.5. (A lovely airline employee took pity on my idiocy and put me on the next flight.) Another time, I was 60 minutes late meeting friends in Victoria, BC because I missed my ferry (I didn't have a c...
May 24, 2010
Happy birthday, QV!
portrait by Sir George Hayter*
Did you know that Canadians celebrate the anniversary of Queen Victoria's birth each year? Truly. May 24 (or the closest Monday to it) is a national holiday. It's a bizarre little colonial hangover** but today's the day, and I could hardly let it pass unremarked.
The real reason I'm posting today is because I've put up an excerpt from The Agency 2: The Body at the Tower. Click here to read! And do come back next week, when I'll have sent off the ms for book 3...
May 21, 2010
blogging fail
Hello friends,
For shame – I forgot to blog this week. (I'm cranking through the first round of revisions on The Traitor and the Tunnel – the only things I'm doing, really, are eating and writing.) Please accept my sincere apologies. On Monday, I'll be back with an overt bribe: an excerpt from book 2, The Body at the Tower.
Until then!
May 13, 2010
Le pendentif de jade
Hello friends,
On Tuesday, I finished the first full draft of the third MQ novel, The Traitor and the Tunnel. (*weak cheer*) Consequently, my brain most resembles a smallish bowl of cooling tapioca. Today I'll confine myself to announcing that yesterday was the official pub date for the French edition of A Spy in the House. Here's the cover:
As you can see, they've changed the title to The Jade Pendant. I like that the series is still called The Agency, and not L'agence. What do you think?
La pendentif de jade
Hello friends,
On Tuesday, I finished the first full draft of the third MQ novel, The Traitor and the Tunnel. (*weak cheer*) Consequently, my brain most resembles a smallish bowl of cooling tapioca. Today I'll confine myself to announcing that yesterday was the official pub date for the French edition of A Spy in the House. Here's the cover:
As you can see, they've changed the title to The Jade Pendant. I like that the series is still called The Agency, and not L'agence. What do you think?
