Victoria Schwab's Blog

The Visible Life of V.E. Schwab

Hello, lovelies!

Did you know I have a free monthly NEWSLETTER?

The Visible Life goes out on the first Saturday of each month, and is meant to feel like a conversation between friends, complete with metaphorical table and pot of tea.

And while each one has a different flavor, depending on what I’m currently working on, and where I'm at mentally and in the world, there are a few things you can always count on:

--A Personal update, in which I chat about my travels around Scotland, the furry muppets who live in my house, and whatever I’ve been up to lately outside of writing.

--A Progress bar, in which I catch you up on what I’m working on, and how much headway I’ve made in the past few weeks, so you know where things stand, and what’s up next.

--A Craft section, in which I walk you through an element of work I’m currently facing—sometimes drafting, sometimes revision, sometimes brainstorming—in the hopes of helping fellow creatives, or simply giving you a peak behind the curtain!

--A Press segment, in which I summarize any news you might have missed, including special editions, giveaways, merch, cover reveals, tour stops, etc.

--A Media summary, in which I recount what I’ve loved reading, watching, and listening to since last month’s letter.

Also, my newsletter is one of the only places on the internet where you can write me back, whether it’s with a recommendation of your own, or simply to say hello. I read each and every reply, and when I’m able, I answer back.

Want to join? Just CLICK HERE

On Old Friends and New Beginnings

I was halfway through writing A CONJURING OF LIGHT when I realized I wasn’t ready to say goodbye. 
My characters were on a boat in the middle of the sea, en route to a floating market, when I called my editor, Miriam, and said, “I’m not done.” 

Miriam asked if I needed another book in the Shades of Magic arc—an idea we’d floated once or twice, when trying to decide if the series was a trilogy or a quartet—and I said no. There was a story I was telling in Shades of Magic, a story that started with a simple black stone, a story I wanted to finish. 

CONJURING was the book where I was supposed to tie off all the threads. Closed the doors. Write the end. 

And I did.

But I also took a chance. 

As I wrote, I starting weaving in a few new threads. Not many. Just enough to catch the lock, keep the door from closing all the way.

By the time I finished Shades of Magic, I’d started Threads of Power. 

I knew I wanted to tell a new story, one that included the cast of Shades of Magic without focusing exclusively on them. I envisioned a set of three interconnecting books, each with its own protagonist—a tinkerer who can pull the threads of magic, a noble who has her birthright stolen, a con artist born with a lucky streak but no power—their lives intertwining against a backdrop where a prince has become king, a thief has become a pirate, and new dangers are beginning to threaten the three Londons. 

And here we are. 

I couldn’t be happier to announce that the story that began with a peculiar coat and a picked pocket will officially continue. Not because I dreamed it, but because readers have loved Shades of Magic enough to force it on their friends, neighbors, colleagues, because my agent believed and my editor believed and my publisher believed and you believed it was possible. 

The first three books in the new deal will be Threads of Power. The fourth will be a project tentatively titled BLACK TABS–about a female assassin in futuristic NYC. Additionally, I’m writing VENGEFUL, the sequel to VICIOUS, and a stand-alone story called THE INVISIBLE LIFE OF ADDIE LA RUE, about a girl who makes a Faustian bargain to live forever, only to be forgotten by everyone she meets.

Needless to say, lovelies, it’s going to be a busy few years

On the end of a series, tour, Target, and more.

It’s real. 

As I sit here writing this, I keep sneaking sidelong glances at the finished copies.

A set. Something with a beginning, middle, and end.

I’ve never been so proud of anything in my life. I’ve never had a harder time letting go.

People keep asking if this is The End, to which I say it is the end of This Story.

And in less than 2 weeks, it will be here. In less than 2 weeks, I will go on tour and get to share this book with readers!

Here’s the official tour schedule:

And this time, we are doing something special.

These life-size cutouts of the ADSOM gang will be going with me! Readers at every stop will be able to sign the backs, take photos with them, and have the chance to win their own at the end of tour.

Meanwhile, I’m hard at work on OUR DARK DUET, which comes out in 5 MONTHS.

*cue nervous laughter*

And while I sit in my edit cave, a weird little life goal has come true!

THIS SAVAGE SONG is in Target!!!!

Until the end of February, you can find a copy of my strangle little monster book in the book aisle!! If you do, please take a photo.

Now, I must go back to work. Have a picture of Alucard Emery in my kitchen. 

A Year in Reading – 2016

Hello, lovelies! I’m sorry I’ve been so absent here on the blog. I’ve been drafting OUR DARK DUET, preparing for the CONJURING OF LIGHT launch, and safeguarding what little sanity I have left against the dregs of this horrific year.

I’ll have a new post in a few days about 2017, and what’s on tap on the book front, but in the meantime, I come to you as a reader, not a writer.

 

I read 103 books in 2016.

I didn’t set any particular goals for the year–I simply reached for what interested me at the time.

Of those 103 books:

81 were fiction and 22 were nonfiction. Only 30 of them were new releases, proving my reading tastes are as ornery as ever.

62 were by women, and 41 were by men, but only 15 were by PoC and/or LGBTQIA.

 

Of all 103 books, my top 15 were:

Lab Girl by Hope Jahren (2016)

Nimona by Noelle Stevenson (2015)

The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers (2015)

Captive Prince by C.S. Pacat (2015)

Rivers of London by Ben Aaronvitch (2011)

The Tiger’s Daughter by K. Arsenault Rivera (2017)

Queen of the Night by Alexander Chee (2016)

Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys (2016)

Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire (2016)

Devil in the White City by Erik Larson (2002)

Mr. Monster by Dan Wells (2010)

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Wells (2005)

The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins (2015)

The Siren by Tiffany Reisz (2012)

Queen of Blood by Sarah Beth Durst (2016)

 

Books I’m hoping to finish before January 1:

Roses and Rot by Kat Howard

Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman

Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

 

The first books I’ll be reading in 2017:

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes by Caitlin Doughty

House of Shattered Wings by Alliette de Bodard

More than This by Patrick Ness

 

This is the second year I’ve set a goal of 100 books, and the second time I’ve managed to reach that goal, so I’ll be setting the same one in 2017, with the hope of seeing a higher percentage of PoC and LGBTQIA on my end-of-the-year report. It won’t be hard, since there’s a wealth of wonderful work hitting shelves.

This book is broken, and other things I tell myself while writing

I am currently writing/attempting to write/failing to write my 13th book.

Authors often talk about murky middles or needing to stick the landing, but I’m going to be honest. For me, writing a first draft is one long doubt-ridden roller coaster, punctuated by brief moments of hope and long swells of you-suck-you-suck-you-suck.

This isn’t a matter of self-doubt and self-loathing.

This is a matter of being WILLING to write badly. To let yourself fail over and over again, to resist the urge to hold down delete and get. To. The. End.

For me, writing a first draft is an exercise in controlled failure. Or at least, controlled falling.

The dilemma is that, the more books you write, the more aware you become of when things are Not Working, but no matter how many books you write, you don’t become magically capable of fixing something until you have something to fix.

The amount of time I spend resisting this, the time I spend trying to nail a landing without ever hitting the springs, is astonishing. 

It’s also compounded by the fact that, while trying to write something good instead of letting myself write something bad, I’m ALSO usually doing the final read on a book I’ve already written, and revised, and seen through every painful step. So not only am I faced with an inferiority complex born of other writers’ work, I’m faced with my own evident decline, since there’s no way I’ll ever write something that good again.

Ignoring, of course, the fact it wasn’t good when I first started. The fact that at some point I had to simply let go, enter that controlled fall that is a beginning. 

This isn’t a post with any advice. It’s simply a post to say that no matter how many books you write, some voices don’t go away. Some voices even get louder. And the only way to shoulder past is to remind yourself over and over and over again that the only thing you can’t improve on is a blank page.

Yours from the trenches,

V

On the slow pursuit of Overnight Success

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post over on Tumblr about success.

I’d just walked into a bookshop in Edinburgh, hoping, as many author do, to spot my own work tucked away somewhere on the shelf. When I found not one, but two major displays–a table stand and a wall runner–I stood very still, trying to make a memory, and then, realizing I couldn’t be counted on, I snapped a photo instead. The photo doesn’t do the feelings justice.

These days I see my name paired more and more with the words “overnight success”, and I’ve heard that the average overnight success takes 10 years. It’s taken me 9, so if that means I’m ahead of the curve, so be it.

I started writing when I was a kid, poetry mostly, didn’t try my hand at anything longer than a short story until I was in college. I wrote my first novel as a sophomore, an acid trip through the underworld that will never be published, but it got close enough for me to get my first true tastes of failure. A literary agent, a year on sub to publishers, five separate acquisitions meetings. Five times getting all the way to the door and then being told it wasn’t good enough to go through.

I was a college senior when I decided to try again.

It would have been easy to walk away–failure isn’t fun, and I was pretty good at other things that wouldn’t take so much flesh, but I couldn’t bear the thought I was a fluke. Pride and all that. Plus I had this idea swimming through my head. Two sing-song lines about a village and a witch and a secret in the wind.

It was called THE NEAR WITCH, and the summer after I graduated, it sold to Disney.

It didn’t get much press aside from the fact it was a debut (the industry loves to tout debuts, as though lack of experience is the natural precursor to massive success). The book was in a select number of stores for a very short time, 1-2 copies max, and disappeared by the end of its first season. Out of print at 18 months.

I wrote a sequel, THE DARK REMAINS, but the publisher decided after it was written that they’d rather have something else, so back into the drawer it went.

Instead I wrote THE ARCHIVED, about a library of the dead. That one got a bit more traction, and a loyal cultish following, but by the time its sequel, THE UNBOUND, hit shelves, I’d been informed that the publisher wouldn’t be finishining the trilogy. It had earned out, but still under-performed by some invisible, unknowable measurement. (The hardcover of THE ARCHIVED was just taken out of print.)

At 25, I was scarred, terrified that my career was over, because I’d given something everything I had, and it wasn’t enough, and I didn’t understand how or why or what I was supposed to do next, and part of me wished I’d walked away back when that first book didn’t sell, but I didn’t. I couldn’t. And my anger, my frustration, my stubborn resolve was louder than my fear, so I sat down and wrote something else.

It was a book for me. A book to restore my joy, to remind me why I did this masochistic thing. And it was a secret, a sheltering of the creative process so that that no publisher could take away what the writing of it gave me.

That book was called VICIOUS.

It was a strange supervillain origin story and it took me to a new publisher, Tor, that took a chance on me. And that, over the next four years, would restore my faith in myself and my industry. The book itself was a risk, a niche, but I had an editor who championed me and a team who believed in my work and nearly 3 years after release, that book is still selling strong.

Also in the midst of the dear and chaos and loss of that first series, I signed a work-for-hire contract for an early Middle Grade at Scholastic. The book were designed for Scholastic Clubs and Fairs titles and sold more than 600,000 copies, and STILL got turned down by Barnes and Noble. I never got to see those on shelf.

My eighth book, A DARKER SHADE OF MAGIC, was probably the one that launched my ship, the one that first garnered me that title of “Overnight Success”, though it would be refurbished with each subsequent release. ADSOM was the first title to get great store placement, amazing reviews, and it’s still selling strong–the hardcover is now in its 9th printing, the paperback in its 6th, and every signing I do is filled with fans of Kell and Lila, Holland and Rhy, and it’s an amazing to have a readership that cares as much about these books as I do. I recently sold TV rights, and was signed on to write the pilot episode.

My ninth book was part of a multi-author platform at Scholastic. I hope I didn’t tank that series. It feels like I might have, or maybe it was just winding down, as series do, but I’m really damn proud of that book.

My tenth book, A GATHERING OF SHADOWS, the sequel to A DARKER SHADE OF MAGIC, was my first book to ever hit the New York Times list. It was the first time I got to go on a national book tour, and see hundreds and hundreds of readers, some who were new, and some who’d been with me since the beginning.

THIS SAVAGE SONG was my 11th book. It was my first YA since THE UNBOUND, a strange, dark, existential novel about what it means to be monstrous, what it means to be human.

And this past week, it debuted at #1 on the New York Times list.

This is not a post meant to brag.

Success is a thing so largely out of our control.

Overnight Success is almost always a myth.

Half of this industry is luck, and half is the refusal to quit.

 

My San Diego Comic Con (and Non-Con) Schedule!

Hello, lovelies!

 

As I head home today from the wonderful SAVAGE SONG tour, I am getting ready to turn right around and head to San Diego for SDCC! Below is everything you need to know about where to find me. ALSO, if you’re NOT attending SDCC, please note that there’s a special coffee shop date set up just for you!

THURSDAY, JULY 21ST:

1:30-2:30PM: NERD TRIVIA–PANEL! Horton Grand Theatre.
Nerd Trivia Challenge is a one-hour game show featuring three teams of today’s biggest authors competing for the chance to be the champions of nerdy knowledge. Authors Patrick Rothfuss (The Kingkiller Chronicle), Pierce Brown (Red Rising), Romina Russell (Zodiac), Chuck Wendig (Invasive), Sam Sykes (The City Stained Red), Cecil Castelucci (Star Wars: Moving Target), V. E. Schwab (A Gathering of Shadows), Camilla D’Errico (Pop Manga, Pop Painting, Pop Manga Coloring Book), and Duane Swierczynski (Revolver) test their knowledge of everything from Marvel Universe characters to Harry Potter. Moderated by Brandon T. Snider (What Would Captain Kirk Do?).

3:45-4:45PM (I THINK): NERD TRIVIA–SIGNING! I know that it’s after the panel, but I don’t know the EXACT time or Autograph Area, so check back, but they will definitely say at the panel.

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SATURDAY, JULY 23RD:

9-11AM: NON-CON EVENT! The amazing Kevin Hearne has organized an informal signing/chatting date at Upstart Crow Books and Coffee. Come by at 9am and you can hang out and get books signed by Kevin, Chuck Wendig, Richard Kadrey, and ME!

2PM: IN-BOOTH SIGNING: I’ll be at the Tor booth, 2707, signing free copies of VICIOUS! They will also have copies of ADSOM and AGOS for sale, and of course, you can bring your own.

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SUNDAY, JULY 24TH:

11AM-12PM: WHAT’S HOT IN YA– SIGNING. Autograph Area 09. Please note that the signing for our panel is BEFORE the panel, not after.

3:45-4:45: WHAT’S HOT IN YA–PANEL! Room 5AB.

Strong protagonists, engrossing romance, humor, action, and angst! Join us for this popular annual chat about the hottest new titles and trends in YA fiction. Moderated by Nathan Bransford (The Jacob Wonderbar series) and featuring Renee Ahdieh (The Wrath and the Dawn series), Victoria Aveyard (The Red Queen series), Michelle Hodkin (The Mara Dyer Trilogy), Lauren Oliver (Vanishing Girls), Brendan Reichs (Virals series), Victoria Schwab (A Darker Shade of Magic), Laini Taylor (Strange the Dreamer), and Adam Silvera (More Happy Than Not).

My Mental Illness is a Storm

I’m always searching for the right words.

For my stories. For my life.

After all, words are the form we give ideas, a way to make the intangible tangible, conceivable, real. Words confess, they admit, they ground.

I’ve always been an anxious person. Neurotic. Hyper-vigilant. I have high walls, struggle with change, emotion, vulnerability. At some point, it tipped. When I get overwhelmed, my body shuts down. I start shaking, in that teeth chattering, heart stuttering, flushed and sick to my stomach way. I try to mask it, to pretend I’m okay, and sometimes that works, and sometimes it gets worse and worse until I’m sitting on a bathroom floor, wishing I could find the plug and pull it.

It’s always been a war, mind versus body, mind over body, body over mind.

For someone who’s pretty good with words, I’ve struggled to find the right ones for this. For myself, but also for my family and friends, who wanted so badly to help, to understand, the storm in my head.

A storm.

It’s taken me a long time to settle on that word. But the more I think about it, the more it fits.

Sometimes my mind is so cloudless and blue that it’s hard to imagine there ever was a storm, let alone that I’ll see one again.

Sometimes there are dark clouds in the distance, I can see them, but I’m able to skirt the weather. Other times I can’t, and I’m forced to watch the weather roll in.

Sometimes every day for weeks the forecast is dark, and I have to keep my umbrella handy, shuddering at every distant piece of thunder.

Sometimes whole seasons are made of lightning, hail, turbulent winds.

Sometimes the storm is so bad that all I can do is hunker down somewhere safe and remind myself over and over that storms pass. It’s what they do.

One of the most insidious things about mental illness is that it lies. It tries to convince you that this–how it is at its worst–is how it will always be. That the storm in your head is the new constant. That because all you can see is bad weather, that’s all there is now.

All there will ever be.

You will never see the sun again.

But that’s not how storms work. Which is why this metaphor is so important.

Because no matter the weather, the most important thing for me to remember–for anyone to remember–is this:

Storms pass.

Sometimes fast and sometimes slow, sometimes without any damage and others with wreckage in their wake.

But they pass.

I guess I’m putting this here as a reminder–to myself and anyone else who needs it–that storms are meant to be weathered.

THIS SAVAGE SONG makes the Indie Next List! And an important reminder about preorders……

A couple of weeks ago I got the wonderful news that THIS SAVAGE SONG, which comes out in just 6 weeks, made the Summer Indie Next List, a pretty hard-to-land-on list of new and upcoming titles that will be featured in independent bookstores across the country. And as someone for whom indies have been absolutely vital, I couldn’t be happier.

Here’s the review that landed me on that list: This Savage Song , by Victoria Schwab
(Greenwillow Books, 9780062380852, $17.99, available July)
“August and Kate live in a broken world where violence breeds actual monsters. Kate wants to embrace her monstrous side, while August would do anything to be human. This Savage Song takes the darkness of the world around us and gives it form. Schwab has gifted readers with a fascinating — if gory — urban fantasy world, a pair of unforgettable protagonists, and a question that will linger long in the minds of readers: What does it mean to be inhuman in a world where humans do such monstrous things?” —Nicole Brinkley, Oblong Books & Music, Millerton, NYAnd while we’re talking about indies, now’s a GREAT time to remind you that if you pre-order THIS SAVAGE SONG through either Parnassus Books or Books of Wonder (two of my favorite indies), you will receive:–A signed/personalized hardcover!–A set of limited edition HUMAN/MONSTER tattoos!–My undying affection!**Pre-ordering a book is like a gift from present you to future you. It’s also one of the best ways to show a publisher there’s excitement for a book/series. It’s not a necessary thing, by any means, but it really does help.

On Little Gods

I’ve been thinking a lot about control. As a writer, you sculpt a world from scratch, populate it with people, with stories, and control them all. From the geography to the folklore, the smallest details to the largest plots. It’s in your hands.

In that sense, as a writer, you become a ‘little god’.

But in publishing–that business side of the art, your control dissolves.

You don’t control whether the book sells.

You don’t control the marketing budget if he does.

You don’t control the publisher’s investment.

You don’t control your place in-house.

You don’t control the sales plan.

You don’t control the cover art.

You don’t control the jacket copy.

You don’t control how the book is portrayed, publicized, given, sold to the world.

You don’t control anything.

Or at least, it can feel that way.

Because, of course, you still control one thing.

The words.

The content between the front cover and the back.

In the cyclone of publishing, it’s easy to forget how important that is. Easy to feel like the words don’t matter as much as a six-figure marketing campaign, a national tour, a lead title push.

They can feel like big gods.

It can be terrifying, if you let it.

(Sometimes I let it.)

But it can also be freeing, if you let it.

(I try.)

Because marketing is fickle. Publishers are fickle. The industry is fickle. And in that cyclone, the solid ground–the only patch of solid ground–is the story you want to tell. Your words on the page.

Yes, marketing matters.

Yes, a good cover helps.

Yes, you’re fighting an uphill battle to be seen, to be heard, to be read.

But.

The single greatest thing you can do–the only thing you can do–is write.

The big gods will throw around money and mountains, but the little gods with their delicate sculptures, those are the ones that matter. Those are the ones that last.

So go.

Pick up your pen.

Tune out the noise.

Focus on the thing in your control.

And write.