Laini Taylor's Blog, page 9

Look Ma, we're on TV!!! (+ lots of rambling about writing)

Last month Jim and I drove down to Corvallis, Oregon (with Clementine and my mom) to film a segment for "Back Page," a book program that airs on Oregon Public Broadcasting. We'd never done TV before, or anything even remotely close, so we were nervous! I mean, I get blotchy even doing a phone interview (nervous-blotchy, does that happen to anyone else?) Well, the host Jody Seay was just a joy to talk to and the whole thing was so easy and went so fast. The half hour felt like about ten minute...

The one thing I've learned about photography that has made a difference

Remember how I took a photography class in the fall? Well, I didn't learn much. I mean, if anything, I learned how very much there is to learn! But besides discovering the depth of my own ignorance, there IS one very important thing I learned that has made my pictures better, and that's how to use the "aperture" setting on my Nikon, instead of using the flash. This, in combination with the inexpensive purchase of a "plastic fantastic" 50 mm 1.8 lens, has made a big difference in my pictures. ...

Happy Valentine's Day, Silksinger!!!

Yay yay yay YAY!

Silksinger won the CYBIL* award for Middle-Grade Fantasy novel of the year! Yay!!!!! I love this award -- last year I served on the nominating committee for sci-fi and fantasy, which involved reading a LOT of books -- and this year I was crazy-gratified to see that both Silksinger and Lips Touch made the short lists in their respective categories. I was rillyrilly hoping that one of them would win, and I have to admit it was really Silksinger I was rooting for the most, becaus...

Needle-tooth, meet Nipple. Nipple, Needle-tooth.

Uck. I'm sick. My throat's all crunchy and I have no voice. I hopehopehope I do not pass it along to Clementine!!!!!! She woke up at 4 am and would start to nurse then cry and turn away, so I thought -- oh no! -- her throat was sore, but then she was fine, and just wanted to lay in bed between Jim and me and play and jibber-jabber. Which was pretty adorable, even at 4 am. Of course, I felt like heck with my croupy throat, but I made myself a delicious mug of hot water, brushed my teeth, and f...

Where do the days go? And the months???

Hey, where do the days go??? Among other things, I've been busily prepping for a school visit tomorrow. Why is it middle-schoolers make me so nervous? I could talk to 4th graders day after day and never get anxious about it, and the younger grades are just so adorable and happy -- I want to write some books for the little ones, because school visits to them are so much fun! But start getting up to 5th... well, they're still pretty easy, but I don't know, 6th, 7th, and -- ulp -- 8th? They're t...

Neil Gaiman's Favorite Books + other book stuff + Romance & Books & Marshmallows!!!

I think I mentioned recently I'd had a run of book bummers -- books I read that were only "meh" -- enough in a row that it kind of got me down and I needed a good, no: GREAT, book immediately. So I started casting around for recommendations, and one place I looked was this list I'd come across a while back, where Neil Gaiman gives his ten favorite books (plus, I threw in the preceding question, because that book really belongs on the list too):

What was the book that most influenced your life...

Sketchbook pages

I started a new sketchbook/journal a few weeks ago, and so far it is just sketchbook and not journal, but that's okay. I've been painting and collaging in at midnight most nights it and having much fun:
(Remember the drawings, here?)



Right now I'm working on a piece called "Zebra's Cupcake" :-)

Oop. Clementine awakes . . .

Yummy chocolate cake & a life-size dollhouse

[First of all, awesome news: Dreamdark books have sold Brazilian rights!!!! Yay!!!! Yippeee yipppeeeee! I [heart] foreign editions, and I hadn't even thought about Brazil. I am THRILLLLLLED!!!!]

I made a yummy chocolate loaf cake yesterday to bring to last-minute dinner plans at a friend's house -- it's a good recipe because it's all ingredients I'm likely to have on hand (no sour cream or anything like that), and it was very moist and good. I set Clementine up on a cushy quilt on the kitchen ...

Mama has a new desktop photo

Oh my gooooooodnesssss! Clementine had a particularly good hair day yesterday, which called for many photos:
It's like a rooster comb :-)
Swoon, swoon.

And look at the amazing hat my dear friend Chary crocheted for Clementine for Christmas:
It makes my heart hurt a little. In a good way.

Meanwhile, had a great library event last night at the Beaverton City Library with some of my favorite local writers:
Left to right that's: Lisa Schroeder, who writes beautiful YA books in verse, with a lovely roma...

Little a this, little a that

-- I did some spastic lurch maneuver getting out of bed this morning and knocked my lamp off my bedside table and broke it. Wah! I love that lamp! I've had it less than a year, whereas the terrible one I had before that managed to sit there and not get knocked off for some 10 years. Stupid stupid. It may be glue-able.

-- This was after Clementine decided to be awake at 6 am practicing her raspberries. (I'd gone to sleep around 2). And her raspberries are really LOUD. So, I'm tired.

-- Oh, she ...