Amy Plum's Blog, page 36

Protected: YA Scavenger Hunt

This post is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:

Password:

Let's Talk About…Insta-Love!

INSTA-LOVE. It's a term that I never heard before last year, when I started seeing it pop up in reviews of YA novels. Girl meets boy and lightening strikes. The critics are right—it's all over the place in YA literature. For example:

TWILIGHT – Bella and Edward's eyes meet in that school cafeteria and YA history is made.

STAR WARS – one look at Leia's image projected by R2D2′s faulty disk drive, and Luke's ready to take on the Dark Side of the Force to rescue her.

ROMEO AND JULIET – a fleeting glimpse of each other at a costume party, and they're practically sprinting to Friar Lawrence's cell to tie the knot.

Oh wait, sorry. We're talking about YA novels. Not classic films. Or Shakespeare. But we might as well be, because from WESTSIDE STORY's Tony and Maria to Arthurian literature's Lancelot and Guinevere, Insta-Love is a theme that has permeated storytelling for centuries. (Or millennia, even, if I can get Biblical and mention David and Bathsheba.)

So now that we've established that Insta-Love is neither a purely Young Adult phenomena, nor even that new of a concept, let's take the discussion past TWILIGHT and into real life. Does love-at-first-sight actually exist outside of the minds of writers, filmmakers and musicians?

And what is the difference between Insta-Love and Insta-Interest? I, personally, have never had anyone grow on me, although it has happened to friends of mine so I know it exists. I see. I like. I conquer. (Or fail to conquer, after making a total idiot of myself. Or chickening out after first making a total idiot of myself.)

Some authors give good reasons for there to be an Insta-Attraction. Bella's a "shield." Sookie's part-fairy. But does there even need to be a reason?

Because to those who say, "Love-at-first-sight just isn't believable," I have to say…

Really? I mean…REALLY?

You've never had that moment where you walk into a room and you see him/her, or even get as far as exchanging a few words, and suddenly it's crashing down on you like a car wash—buffeting you from all sides? Never?

I'm not saying that love-at-first-sight is the healthiest basis for a long-term relationship. The French call it a coup de foudre—a lightning strike. Which is a good metaphor: it electrifies you, but it sure does leave your hair a mess. (As well as the rest of your life.) That isn't to say that it isn't realistic. And might actually, on the rare occasion, work out. But is it to be trusted? That's a whole other question.

The fact that it is such a powerful and sometimes devastating force is exactly why writers and poets and musicians and artists choose it as a topic. And why we, as readers, listeners and spectators just eat it up. It's crazy. It's dangerous. It's thrilling. It's tragic. Just turn on WESTSIDE STORY and hand me a box of tissues. I, for one, am not afraid to say that Insta-Love exists and when it comes to well-written love-at-first-sight, I am a complete sucker.

Give Paris for Christmas

If you are looking for something unique to give for Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzai, or any other December celebration, I have a fun idea.

With every purchase of DIE FOR ME from today (Nov. 21) until December 25, I will send a signed bookplate directly to the person you're giving the book to. Not only will your friend, niece, daughter, crazy Aunt Edna have a romance set in Paris to read during the holidays, but they will get a little unexpected surprise in the mail straight from the book's author!

Just send your proof of purchase (either scanned or forward the online sales receipt) to me at katieloumercier at gmail dot com and give me the mailing address of the person you're gifting. (Or if you want to give it with the book, give me your mailing address.)

DIE FOR ME is continuing to sell, even in the long-haul between books. This is my little "thank you" for making it the success that it has been. Merci, and ho ho ho!

The Batcave

My office is a tiny 200+ year old building that used to be a bakery, standing across our yard from my house.

I wrote my first two books in bed. Not because I found it tiring or needed frequent naps in between chapters or anything. It's just that there wasn't a better place to do it. From time to time I would run away to a friend's empty home and spend an intensive four or five days typing my fingers off. But usually it was me, propped up with my laptop in the upstairs guest bedroom, waving to my father-in-law and other construction workers through the glass panes in the door as they came and went doing renovations on our farmhouse. I could see them shaking their heads, wondering what the strange foreigner was doing acting like an invalid on her days off from teaching at the university.

And then I got published. And they stopped shaking their heads and got to work renovating a little house on our property for me to use as my writing hideout. The building served as the neighborhood bakery (boulangerie, in French) a couple of hundred years ago, and then was used as a shelter for seasonal field workers…and their horses. (Half of the floor is in earthen tiles, the other half is dirt, and embedded in the wall over the dirt part is a metal ring to tether a horse.) Then, for at least the last half-century, it was used as a storage shed.

I had to wait until a family of birds moved out and shoo away a lot of mice before it was even usable. But now I've got electricity and a wireless connection (beamed over from our house) and a wood-burning stove to keep the place reasonably warm – if I sit directly in front of it with my laptop on my lap – during the winter.

It is a haven for me. It is the place I come to conceive ideas. As well as carry them to term and give birth to them. (To push the metaphor right over the edge of acceptability, the two drawings to the left of my desk are me when I was pregnant, sketched by the amazing Chuck Bowdish.) It is a womblike place. Especially when I draw the black-out curtains over the door and window and get the fire roaring.

There is a book on writing that I really love entitled, appropriately, "On Writing" by Stephen King. I had read a couple of other guides to writing over the years, but found them either too worryingly melodramatic or transcendentally vague. Stephen King actually gives specific advice about how to write, where to write, how much to try to produce, and other concrete tips. He told me what I really wanted to know – facts that other writers either thought were too trivial or too personal to divulge.

And what he said about "place" really made sense to me. He suggests writing in the same place every day. "The space can be humble…and it really needs only one thing: a door which you are willing to shut." He suggests no telephone, TV or video games in the room, and drawing the curtains or pulling the shades unless the window looks out at a blank wall. Check, check, and check.

I admit it would be nice to have a bathroom handy instead of having to run across the yard through the elements, but I'm not complaining because I am so grateful for what I already have. King said he wrote his first two published novels "in the laundry room of a doublewide trailer, pounding away on my wife's portable Olivetti typewriter and balancing a child's desk on my thighs." He says that John Cheever wrote in the basement of his Park Avenue apartment building, near the furnace. After those examples, a toilet doesn't seen terribly important.

For me, it's all about getting away from The Everyday. If I'm in our house, I'm going to find a million little things — besides writing — that I really should be doing. In The Boulangerie I can sit at my desk or lay on the floor or lounge on the couch – but these are my only choices – there are no other distractions. All I can do is sit and think and write.

My couch with the horse-hook above it, black-out curtains and mat covering the dirt floor.

Trivial Pursuit

Since several people have asked me about it, I thought I'd blog about Kate's name. She has lots of them. Or, rather, she has lots of nicknames.

I love nicknames. I think my using them is a wish fulfillment thing, because I never had one when I was a kid—you can't do much with Amy. And since that left me with a weird sense of deprivation, I piled nicknames on my characters. For me, a nickname is a term of endearment. So Vincent got a couple (Jules calls him "Vince" and Ambrose calls him "Vin" – a point that helped me clarify who was who when Jules possessed Ambrose's body). And Kate got a lot.

Here is the deleted part of DIE FOR ME that explains that her name is actually just Kate, not Katya as some have guessed. (It was, as you will see, too long and explanatory, thus it's deletedness!) So for the record…

My mom had named Georgia after the state she grew up in, and gave her the middle name "Frances" after her own Mom's name. In the good old Southern tradition, I got my mom's last name "Beaumont" as my middle name, but my first name was as normal-sounding as they came. "Kate." Georgia got both the exotic name and the knockout looks.

However, besides my mom, no one actually called me Kate. Dad called me " princesse", Georgia called me "Katie-Bean", or just "Bean", and Mamie called me "Katya." All that to say, I answer to almost anything.

The first book you remember loving

Hi all! This is a follow-up to this week's CONTEST MONDAY, in which I asked what was the first book you remember loving. Several people asked afterward for a list of the results. So here they are, along with my first favorites.

The first book I remember loving that was read to me was "Old Hasdrubel and the Pirates." I mean pirates, treasure, and a guy dressed up in an alligator skin saving the maiden who was tied to a tree? What more could you ask for?

And the first book I remember loving that I read myself was Pippi Longstocking. Oh, how I wanted to be Pippi and have her absolute freedom and independence. (And hair. And horse. And house. I wanted all of it!)

So what was the top choice?

But just one point beneath them was:

Check out all of the answers left on FB and Twitter. There are a lot of classics and some surprises!

2Young 2Go 4Boys

Tess of the D'urbervilles, by Thomas Hardy

Miles to go, by Miley Cyrus

Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins

Hop on Pop, by Dr Seuss

The Secret Garden, (4 votes)

Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein

The Babysitters' Club series (4 votes)

Fly Away Peter, by David Malouf

Matilda, by Roald Dahl (2 votes)

Harry Potter (13 votes)

Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

A book of letters that the reader's grandfather wrote her grandfather while he was away at war. (sigh!)

Twilight (12 votes)

Aztec by Gary Jennings

Breaking Dawn

The Tales of Peter Rabbit

Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger

City of Bones, by Cassandra Clare

The Fever series, by Karen Marie Moning

Super Fudge by Judy Blume

Moby Dick & collection of Jules Verne lesser known stories

Othello, by Shakespeare

Key of Light, by Norah Roberts

Tomorrow When the War Began, by John Marsden

The Worst Witch

The Magic Faraway Tree series, by Enid Blyton (4 votes)

Mio my Mio, by Astrid Lindgren

The Power of One, by Bryce Courtenay

Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes, by Eleanor Coerr

The Old Man And The Sea, by Ernest Hemingway

The Monster at the end of this book, starring Grover

Battle Royale, by Koushun Takami

Iron King, by Julie Kagawa (2 votes)

Charlie and The Chocolate Factory, by Roald Dahl (2 votes)

Keeper, by Mal Peet

Charlotte's Web (2 votes)

Alice in Wonderland (2 votes)

Anne of Green Gables (3 votes)

When Ghosts Speak, by Mary Ann Winkowski

The Devil Rides, by Dennis Wheatley

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (5 votes)

Careless Whispers (A Sweet Dreams book, no. 216)

Way of the Peaceful Warrior, by Dan Millman

Die For Me (3 votes. ah, flattery)

The Thief Lord, by Cornelia Funke

A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L'Engle (2 votes)

The Eleventh Hour

Guitar Girl, by Sarra Manning

The Stars are Upside Down, by Gabriel Alington

Avi The Good Dog

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, by C.S. Lewis (2 votes)

The Nancy Drew mysteries (2 votes)

The Wicked Lovely series, by Melissa Marr

The Little Creature series

If You Loved Me by Marilyn Reynolds

The Pokey Little Puppy

The Series of Unfortunate Events, by Lemony Snickett

Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lingrin

This Lullaby by Sarah Dessen

Gone with the Wind

R.L. Stine's books

The Little House on the Prairie series, by Laura Ingalls Wilder (2 votes)

The Giving Tree by Shel Sliverstein (3 votes)

Vampire Academy, by Richelle Mead

The Outcast, by Louise Cooper

Summer of My German Soldier

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

The Tiger Who Came for Tea

A Summer to Die

The Brothers Lionheart

The Lord of the Rings

Ella Enchanted (2 votes)

The Bearenstein Bears (2 votes)

The Replacement, by Brenna Yovanoff

Hamlet by Shakespeare

Never Spit on Your Shoes by Denys Cazet

The Diary of Anne Frank

The Outsiders by S.E Hinton

Dragon Rider By Cornelia Funke

The Land of the Unicorns by Bruce Coville

The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi

Vampire Diaries

The original Winnie the Pooh series

The Count Of Monte Cristo

Red Riding Hood Puffin Books Edition

The Magicians' Guild by trudi canavan

Blister

Georges Marvelous Medicine by Roald Dahl

She's Come Undone by Waly Lamb

The Invention of Hugo Cabret

Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle

The Foot Book by Dr. Seuss

Start Girl by Jerry Spinelli

Peter Pan and Wendy

I love you this much

Tubby and the Lantern by Al Perkins

The Velveteen Rabbit

Amelia Bedelia by Peggy Parish

Angus, Thongs and Full Frontal Snogging

The Mediator Series by Meg Cabot

Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis

The Witches by Roald Dahl

Emily of New Moon

Dragonsong by Anne McCaffrey

Clifford the Big Red Dog

The Last Unicorn

THE GOLDEN COMPASS by Phillip Pullman

The Percy Jackson Books

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

Harriet the Spy

Battle Royale

UNtil I Die – UNreveal (the one you don't have to search for) !CONTEST OVER!

Yesterday I let you search for the leaked British cover of UNTIL I DIE…but today you get the real deal, in all its high-definition glory.

Are you ready to experience its swirly Parisian violet-and-sapphire loveliness?

Sigh. It's gorgeous. Once again, Little, Brown/Atom used the talents of designer Mark Ecob and illustrator Johanna Basford to produce the sequel's cover. Do you recognize the swirls from DIE FOR ME? How about from the header of this blog? (Yes, I am a huge fan of Johanna's.) Once again, The Cover Fairy has waved her wand and made me a very happy author.

So this is the beginning of an exciting few months in the DIE FOR ME universe. HarperCollins will be coming out with the American cover soon, and I will be revealing that to you in the form of a countdown widget. (Along with a UK version, which I will make available at the same time.) I will be revealing the synopsis of UNTIL I DIE. And more teasers will be released.

But for the moment, running until Oct 31, I am having a cover reveal contest. I will be drawing one name for an Advance Reader Copy of UNTIL I DIE, and you can win several chances at having your name put into the hat by posting the UK cover to your FB, Twitter and Goodreads profile, as well as posting to your blog and other ideas you come up with to spread the cover news. Just tell me what you've done by commenting on this page, or leaving a tweet with the hashtag #UntilIDie. I will count up all of the points and do the drawing first thing in the morning on November 1 (France time).

Thank you all for helping me celebrate another beautiful cover for the DIE FOR ME trilogy!

-UPDATE – the winner is Nicole Cardenas! Congratulations, Nicole, and thank you to everyone who participated!

UNtil I Die – UNreveal (the one you don't have to search for)

Yesterday I let you search for the leaked British cover of UNTIL I DIE…but today you get the real deal, in all its high-definition glory.

Are you ready to experience its swirly Parisian violet-and-sapphire loveliness?

Sigh. It's gorgeous. Once again, Little, Brown/Atom used the talents of designer Mark Ecob and illustrator Johanna Basford to produce the sequel's cover. Do you recognize the swirls from DIE FOR ME? How about from the header of this blog? (Yes, I am a huge fan of Johanna's.) Once again, The Cover Fairy has waved her wand and made me a very happy author.

So this is the beginning of an exciting few months in the DIE FOR ME universe. HarperCollins will be coming out with the American cover soon, and I will be revealing that to you in the form of a countdown widget. (Along with a UK version, which I will make available at the same time.) I will be revealing the synopsis of UNTIL I DIE. And more teasers will be released little by little.

But for the moment, running until Oct 31, I am having a cover reveal contest. I will be drawing one name for an Advance Reader Copy of UNTIL I DIE, and you can win several chances at having your name put into the hat by posting the UK cover to your FB, Twitter and Goodreads profile, as well as posting to your blog and other ideas you come up with to spread the cover news. Just tell me what you've done by commenting on this page, or leaving a tweet with the hashtag #UntilIDie. I will count up all of the points and do the drawing first thing in the morning on November 1 (France time).

Thank you all for helping me celebrate another beautiful cover for the DIE FOR ME series!

UNTIL I DIE Cover Un-Reveal !CONTEST OVER!

The U.K. cover of UNTIL I DIE is out. But this is not a cover reveal. Because I'm not going to show you the cover. *evil laugh* You have to find it yourself!

The DROP DEAD GORGEOUS cover of DIE FOR ME's sequel has been leaked by a couple of wily book bloggers, and it's up to you to find it. And once you have, you can win a chance at reading it.

Post UNTIL I DIE's cover somewhere on your blog and get 1 point toward winning the ARC. Use it as your profile pic on Twitter along with the hashtag #UntilIDie and get another point. Goodreads profile pic gets you another point, and so does FB. And if you do something else amazing with it, I will lob you some more points. MORE EYE CANDY = MORE POINTS. (Surprise me – I love surprises!)

This is international, as usual, and I will choose a winner on October 31, drawing randomly as usual, but your name goes in the hat once per point. Just tell me in the comments what you've done with links so I can see them and I will start bestowing points.

I hope you love UNTIL I DIE's cover as much as I do!!!

-UPDATE – the winner is Nicole Cardenas! Congratulations, Nicole, and thank you to everyone who participated!

UNTIL I DIE Cover Un-Reveal

The U.K. cover of UNTIL I DIE is out. But this is not a cover reveal. Because I'm not going to show you the cover. *evil laugh* You have to find it yourself!

The DROP DEAD GORGEOUS cover of DIE FOR ME's sequel has been leaked by a couple of wily book bloggers, and it's up to you to find it. And once you have, you can win a chance at reading it.

Post UNTIL I DIE's cover somewhere on your blog and get 1 point toward winning the ARC. Use it as your profile pic on Twitter along with the hashtag #UntilIDie and get another point. Goodreads profile pic gets you another point, and so does FB. And if you do something else amazing with it, I will lob you some more points. MORE EYE CANDY = MORE POINTS.

AMAZE ME. WOW ME. AND I WILL EITHER LOOK AT YOU LIKE YOU ARE AN INSANE PERSON OR INVITE YOU OUT FOR TEA. OH YOU DON'T WANT TEA  YOU WANT AN ARC.