Jacqueline West's Blog, page 11

jacquelinewest @ 2010-12-02T08:45:00

Just got my first interview request from someone who was actually hoping to talk to Jacqueline West, the costume designer.  One way to tell us apart: She has infinitely more Oscar nominations than I do. 

Matters of Perspective

In the town where I grew up, there were two public elementary schools: Greenwood, the old(er) school, and Westside, the still-relatively-new-school.  Once every year or two, the schools would be united for a special event -- an end-of-the-year picnic, or an elementary olympiad or some such.  These attempts at unity generally devolved into Westsiders and Greenwooders shearing apart like the farmers and the cowhands at the Oklahoma! barn dance.  Sometimes we even formed two separate, facing battle lines, the Westside kids chanting, "Westside is the BEST side!" and us Greenwood kids retorting, "Greenwood is the GOOD wood!" which apparently was the best we could come up with.  (Even at the time, I think we knew our chant was lacking a bit of luster.  Worse was the fact that "Greenwood is the MEAN wood" actually fit the existing rhyme scheme.  This was used to great advantage by the Westsiders, believe me.)  Since then, the town has built a third elementary school, called Rocky Branch.  Those kids have a name-rhyming challenge cut out for them. 

This morning, I visited both Westside and Greenwood, and I had an absolutely wonderful time.  I read, talked, signed lots and lots of books, answered lots and lots of fantastic questions, and felt very lucky to have come from such an encouraging, supportive place.  It's good to get away from my desk now and then, and to be reminded of the actual, excited, curious, imaginative people who I'm writing for. 

SPELLBOUND Cover! (And some rambling about bad dreams.)

Here it is: the cover of The Books of Elsewhere, Volume Two: Spellbound, due out in July 2011. 



And here it is in ARC form, posing with antique Christmas baubles and a gold glass bowl. 



I spent much of the day yesterday at a local middle school, talking to groups of 7th graders about The Books of Elsewhere and the writing process, and the kids were attentive and fun and everything went smoothly.  This was especially nice because I had spent the previous night immersed in highly detailed nightmares about public speaking.  I seem to be prone to these hyper-realistic work-related nightmares, when all the little anxieties I've managed to overcome (or to hide) bubble up to the surface.  A couple of years ago, while I was teaching high school English, I dreamt that I had to teach my classes in a hotel lobby, which was of course full of hurrying people and ringing phones and giant sleep-inducing armchairs and blaring widescreen TVs, and when I finally caught the attention of one distracted student, he called me a 'bumpkin.'  (Yes, a bumpkin.  My subconscious uses words that I never employ.)  Back in my restaurant work days, I had frequent waitressing nightmares, in which tables of angry customers demanded to know why their food was taking so long, and the cooks had lost all my tickets, and I was always suddenly realizing that I'd forgotten someone's Mountain Dew refill.  I would jolt awake, heart pounding, hands sweating.  Other waitresses have told me I'm not alone in this.  

Anyway, this particular dream started out well.  I was supposed to speak to a small group of teachers and librarians, and we were all seated in a circle in a lavish Victorian hotel lobby (A hotel lobby again!  You’d think some horrible trauma had befallen me in the lounge of a Marriott or something.  Perhaps I’ve repressed it.), with marble-topped tables and lots of shiny green silk and dark polished wood everywhere.  Very promising.  Then the woman who was supposed to introduce me instead launched into a sales spiel for a line of candles, all the while holding a flaming, three-wicked, Jell-O-mold-sized monstrosity above my head and slopping hot wax all over my hair.  The wax had the consistency of turkey gravy, so at least I was able to rinse it out in the little nearby bathroom, although I was left with a dripping wet head.  I returned to the fancy lobby, only to be told that more people were coming, and we should all move down to the basement.  The basement: not so pretty.  Still, I tried to sound enthusiastic and semi-coherent as I began my speech.  I’d only gotten a few words out before a big group of families with children stomped down the basement stairs, all talking loudly.  Soon people were shouting that they couldn’t hear me, so I stood and waited, smiling awkwardly at the spaces just above people’s heads while they stared back at me, looking more and more annoyed.  At last, someone brought me a cordless microphone.  It was the size and weight of a six-cell Maglite and I could barely lift it to my mouth with both hands. 
 

When the sound of the alarm clock is a relief instead of an annoyance, it’s actually a pretty nice change.       

Snowlump

We had our first big snow yesterday.  The Twin Cities and suburbs got 6 - 10 inches in places, meaning that my planned reading/signing at Stillwater's Valley Bookseller was canceled.  (My bookstore events seem to be weather-cursed.)  Here in Red Wing, we got just enough to make things sloppy and slippery...and to allow for snow sculptures. 

The neighbor kids made this:

Requisite Jack O'Lantern Photo

Here, as of exactly 5:51 yesterday evening (thanks, microwave clock!), are our 2010 jack o'lanterns.

The Boy made Death, and I made the graveyard with the leafless tree (or the leafless tree with the graveyard, depending on your priorities, I suppose).  We had bought a third little pumpkin to make a jack o'lantern for Brom Bones, but by last night it had become rotten and squishy.  Fortunately, Brom did not seem disappointed.

In Book III news, I've passed the 24,000 word mark, and I think I'm about halfway through the story that wants to be told -- at least as I envision it at this point.  It's strange to think that my first version of The Shadows -- the version that I sent out into the world, which got me an agent -- was only 24,000 words long.  So, I guess this is a milestone.  An arbitrary milestone, but a milestone nevertheless.   

Ecstatic Giggling.

Okay.  Trying to calm down. 

Yesterday morning, my Google-alerted husband pointed out that Monica Edinger (of the wonderful blog Educating Alice) had written an article for the Huffington Post in response to Neil Gaiman's suggestion that people ought to start a new tradition of giving friends and loved ones scary books at Halloween.  Monica suggested The Shadows as one of seven potential scary books to give to children (Hooray!).  You can read the article here: www.huffingtonpost.com/monica-edinger/my-response-to-neil-gaima_b_772941.html

And then, yesterday afternoon, Neil Himself (yes, I'm one day behind in my blog-reading, and yes, I did mean to capitalize the 'H' in Himself) posted a link to her article on his very own, read-by-millions journal.  My book has been sort of, almost, peripherally mentioned in NEIL GAIMAN'S JOURNAL.  And yes, I am also an idiotic fangirl.  

Diabolic Windmills (and other good things)

To celebrate having finished Volume Two, I got myself a present at Red Wing's annual art fair.  Actually, it's not just for me - that would be greedy.  It's for me and Ryan and anyone else who visits our house, and now it's hanging over the piano, and I get little shivers every time I look at it.  It's a fancy canvas print of Andy Van Schyndle's (yes, he is blessed with a last name that could have fallen straight out of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow") painting "My Diabolic Windmill," and you can see it and many other incredible pieces at his website: wagalabagala.com.  It was tough to pick just one piece, because there wasn't a single painting in his little black velvet art show tent that I wouldn't have loved to own.  Each one tells such a rich, strange story.  These are the sort of amazing, beautiful, funny, frightening paintings that make you (or me, anyway), want to go home and make something brilliant.  Then you go home and make lunch.  But at least you've got a cool new painting on your wall.  (We also got a slightly less fancy print of "Superior Dreams," because it is equally gorgeous, and because in the end I couldn't pick just one.)   

I spent last Friday in Stockbridge, Wisconsin, visiting the school where I used to teach English, and it was wonderful to see everyone and to catch up with former co-workers and students.  I can't believe the kids I had as freshmen are getting ready to graduate -- it makes me feel old and disoriented and ridiculously proud of them.  An education reporter from the Appleton Post-Crescent interviewed me and wrote about the visit; the article can be found at www.postcrescent.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article.  (Ignore the double chin in the photo.  I'm looking down, I tells ya.  Way, way, down.) 

Good news:  I just learned that The Shadows has been nominated for a 2010 Cybil (the awards given out by YA/children's lit bloggers: www.cybils.com) in the fantasy/science fiction category -- as has the first volume of Jack Blank and the Imagine Nation, by my fellow Upstart Crow Matt Myklusch.  Wheeee!

Buffalo News gives The Shadows a nice little review in its list of Halloween-y books for kids: www.buffalonews.com/entertainment/article217386.ece

Now, back to work on Volume Three. 

Links! (And a brief update, but really: Links!)

Yesterday evening, I read and talked and signed and answered questions at the library in the little town where I grew up, which was wonderful and reunion-ish.  I then proceeded to have extremely vivid and realistic dreams about the event, and the result is that I think I may have only dreamed that certain people were there.  (Like the lady carrying the large white poster with nothing on it but a row of blank lines, as you'd make for a game of Hangman.  I don't think she was really there.  But I do wonder what word she was thinking of.)

Current draft and I are riding a seesaw.  I'm making continuous, creaky trips up and down between doubting and loving the MS, which is pretty much par for the course at this point.  Sigh.

And now: Links!

I'm a few days late with this (and Cynthia is so speedy that there have already been several interviews posted after mine), but I was recently interviewed on Cynsations, the amazing blog of YA author Cynthia Leitich Smith, who does slews of debut authors a massive favor with her "New Voices" feature.  You can find mine at cynleitichsmith.livejournal.com/286833.html  or cynthialeitichsmith.blogspot.com/2010/10/new-voice-jacqueline-west-on-books-of.html.  Cynthia -- you rock. 

Yesterday, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette published this review of The Shadows: www.post-gazette.com/pg/10278/1092632-369.stm.  I can't tell you how much I appreciate it when reviewers discuss the book in such depth and detail.  Two more very happy-making reviews can be found at Not Another Book Blog (vancie917.wordpress.com/2010/09/23/the-books-of-elsewhere-the-shadows-by-jacqueline-west/) and Books4Ever (kamannix.wordpress.com/2010/07/01/the-book-of-elsewhere-by-jacqueline-west/).  

Each time a breeze or a car passes down my street, I get to hear one of my favorite sounds in the world: the papery clatter of dry leaves swirling against the curbs.  Oh, October.  I wish there were more of you. 

Dust. Wind. Dude.

(I really want to italicize that "dude," but LJ won't let me.) 

Since the release of The Shadows, I've been asked to give quite a lot of interviews and talks and advice about writing, which is all very flattering and wonderful...and rather scary.  Even though I've been writing for years and years (and years), I still feel like a novice at this.  A whelp.  A pupa.  Plankton on the writerly food chain.  When it comes to writing, I feel much more like a student than like a teacher, and I'm not sure that this will ever change.  Maybe it's better if it doesn't.  

Anyway, when I was invited to contribute to the Guide to Literary Agents blog, one of my options was to write for the recurring column, "Seven Things I've Learned So Far."  Claiming to know much about writing and publishing  is beyond my capabilities (or at least beyond my confidence level) at this point, but learning? --That I can do.  www.guidetoliteraryagents.com/blog/7+Things+Ive+Learned+So+Far+By+Jacqueline+West.aspx.  My list features my dog, a Bill and Ted reference, and considerable paranoia. 

Things, and Things, and Things

I spent the end of last week in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, signing, reading, and speaking at the annual South Dakota Library Association convention.  It was the biggest 100% adult audience I've spoken to so far, and everyone was extremely kind and welcoming, as I've found librarians (and South Dakotans, for that matter) to generally be.  

While I've been busy preparing talks, wrapping up copy-edits on Volume II (SPELLBOUND!)  and working on volume III of The Books of Elsewhere (its title is still a blurry little blip on the horizon at this point), other wonderful news for The Shadows has been piling up.  The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books gave it a starred review, accompanied by what I think is a beautifully perceptive write-up.   You can read the whole thing, if you're so inclined, at the Upstart Crow blog: upstartcrowliterary.com/blog/.

Two more lovely reviews can be found at www.themusingsofabookaddict.com/2010/09/books-of-elsewhere-shadows-by.html and readschmead.wordpress.com/.

And that's all for now.  But there will be more later.  As always.