Dawn Metcalf's Blog, page 36

Burn the Land and Boil the Sea, You Can't Take the Sky From the Lovers, the Dreamers, and Me!

After my last post, I received this link:


Prints available at www.jameshance.com

Me: HAHAHAHAHA! Brilliant!

I'd never even heard of James Hance before and yet, as a huge fan of Firefly and Muppets, I'd never pictured this particular combination of what he terms "Relentlessly Cheerful Art". (He's right. I keep grinning. The tagline totally slays me!)

Isn't it funny how inspiration can come from all sorts of things bumping into one another in unexpected ways? Cruise around James Hance's site to see what I mean: it's the sort of geeky wonderment that can combine Jim Henson and Star Wars with Mercer Meyer and Joss Whedon. It's awesome, surprising, silly, and fun! And that is how art comes together. It's the only way I can explain how the TV show '24' bonked against the cult classic, 'Quantum Leap', and tumbled into a half-remembered anthropology caricature, a bunch of Marvel comics, and a sculpture on the wall of my favorite Mexican restaurant and somehow creating a fictional person in a fictional world that now lives on the shelves. It's that same sort of magic that makes me love things like Weird Al Yankovic songs (especially his polkas) and Ursula Vernon's "Pearaphim"--things that I never thought of going together but obviously certainly should! It tickles the delighted, twisted cacklings of my mind. *hee hee hee!*


Prints available at http://ursulav.deviantart.com

Anyway, this just goes to show what happens in the "if you have lemons, make lemonade" scenario: take a Wembley day and climb aboard a Firefrog instead! (Or perhaps a "lemonlope" or "Rat Nouveaux"!) I am forever thankful that I am fortunate enough to be a part of a creatively wacky writing community that steps up to carry one another from the doldrums to hilarity. Props to the folks on my Resource List and special thanks to those who take a stand for others & can appreciate the humor!

So this post's for the lovers and the dreamers, from me.

(And thanks to robinbridges for the link!)

Wemble Wemble Wemble

I'm feeling Wembley today.



Cute, heartfelt, supportive, but incredibly indecisive. Adorable photo pic c/o thefullwiki.org

In case you aren't familiar with Fraggle Rock, let me explain: to "wemble" is to be caught between things, able to throw yourself whole-heartedly behind just about anything, but somehow also unable to choose between them. Being between projects right now, I wemble between my enticing, serious WIP and my delightfully silly WIP; they act as foils for one another, balancing my shifting moods, but I'm getting to the point where I should definitely get behind one of them. After yesterday's mishegas with LJ and the spamtastic amount of time I've been putting into housekeeping it, I wemble between continuing to blog on LJ whose format and community I've grown to love, and switching to something less oppressively spammy and more frequented like Blogger or sexy new kid on the block, tumblr, or perhaps stopping blogging altogether for a while to concentrate on wemble #1. There are many things that sparkle enticingly as I begin to shift focus from the Big Shiny Sparkle of launch time as LUMINOUS makes its way into the world, and in the face of all that, I'm kind of agog with the possibilities while simultaneously feeling overwhelmed at all that I've yet to do/am doing/have to do/want to do & generally exists on my To Do List. O_O

Hence, the wembling.

How about you? Feeling Muppety today? And, if so, which one? ;-)

Another Slice of Gorgeous: The Near Witch

I've been very good.

Very very good.

And I can stop now.

When I first got to read the Advanced Copy of THE NEAR WITCH, I obeyed Victoria Schwab's polite request to *not* blog about this book far in advance and to please wait until we were closer to the release date, even though it was soooo hard! Now that we're finally here, I feel free to squee in detail about this absolutely gorgeous debut.

(ahem)

SQUEEEEEEEEEE!!!!

It looks like this:



It teases like this:

The Near Witch is only an old story told to frighten children.

If the wind calls at night, you must not listen. The wind is lonely, and always looking for company.

And there are no strangers in the town of Near.

These are the truths that Lexi has heard all her life. But when an actual stranger—a boy who seems to fade like smoke—appears outside her home on the moor at night, she knows that at least one of these sayings is no longer true. The next night, the children of Near start disappearing from their beds, and the mysterious boy falls under suspicion. Still, he insists on helping Lexi search for them. Something tells her she can trust him. As the hunt for the children intensifies, so does Lexi's need to know—about the witch that just might be more than a bedtime story, about the wind that seems to speak through the walls at night, and about the history of this nameless boy.

Part fairy tale, part love story, Victoria Schwab's debut novel is entirely original yet achingly familiar: a song you heard long ago, a whisper carried by the wind, and a dream you won't soon forget.


And here's what *I* have to say about it:

If I had to choose one word to describe this book, it would be "melodious" because the words read like misty poetry that infused the story, the characters, and especially the setting: the moor. The moor itself is a character, a presence the pervades the book and flavors everything from Lexi's own magic to the boy beyond the window. I adored this story! It has every bit of the fairy tale quality I crave with the love of family, adventure, the familiar, the fantastical and the real mixed together with a narrative that I can only describe as lyrical. I couldn't wait to tell everyone about it & NOW I CAN!!! So here's the pitch: read it with some sweet tea and a long block of time because you don't want to put it down once you start; it's *that* kind of book.

And there will be more. Go check it out!

P.S. If you haven't been following the hilariously sweet-as-cupcake adventures of Victoria Schwab, I can't recommend her enough either. She's on the web here and blogging here and on Twitter here. You can't miss her: she's the one in the glasses and the dimples wearing the witch's hat!

How To Drive Yourself Crazy, Writer Style!

It seems obvious to talk about insanity on a writer's blog. Sure, there are plenty of ways to drive yourself completely 'round the bend, heck, there are plenty of substances that'll help you get there all the quicker, but for the entrepreneurial self-starter, I don't think there's any more thorough way to go completely out of your gourd than to enter the world of publishing as a newbie writer.

There are many aspects of this business that can do the trick. Simply getting to the words "The End" is crazy-making enough, but there's the daunting brevity of the dreaded synopsis, the blurb, the hook, the labyrinthine Catch-22 of acquiring agents and editors to separate yourself from the slush, the research and back-reading, the daily updates, the tectonic shifts in the market or changing houses, the different submission guidelines, or the endless *waiting* between the stamp and the returned SASE or hitting "Send" and then "Refresh". Yes, you too can join the legions of artistic minds bashing themselves against a wall with only the blank page for comfort.*

However, there are a few common pitfalls for the would-be writer that are easy to recognize and perhaps even easier to avoid if you know what they are and accept that there is nothing that you can do about them so it's best to save your noggin for other, more meaningful pursuits (like writing):

1) Worry about things that haven't happened yet. There are certain things you cannot avoid: Death & Taxes. Everything else is gravy. Getting your synapses in a twist about whether or not this opus you're working on will be housed in "Contemporary Fantasy" or "Magic Realism" or whether the big chain stores will misfile it under "Teen Sasquatches" and thereby narrowly miss your target audience is really not up to you, it'll be up to marketing, which happens after edits, copyedits, cover art, etc. and long after that pesky detail of getting it sold under contract. Instead of losing sleep compiling your actor wishlist for the movie adaptation, you might be better off writing, re-writing, and revising what's here and now.

2) Worry about things that are completely outside of your control. See #1 but include all the aspects of marketing, especially things like title, cover art, and market receptivity. It is completely beyond anyone's ken why a dozen manuscripts featuring a masked, caped raccoon with a soulful secret all hit the market at the same time. Me, I blame sugared cereal, but in any case, you can't do anything about when a story comes to you versus when it decided to wave "Hi" to anyone else along the way. Same could be said for a bunch of titles all coming out with the word "Blood" in them or when all the covers feature an anti-gravity mermaid at sunset. The business follows its own shifts and swells and while their decisions look, to the poor clueless artist, like something out of a roulette wheel, take some comfort that it makes sense to somebody and those hours you might be creating mock-up covers in Photoshop might be better spent writing the damn book.

3) Worry about the future of publishing. Okay, to be completely blunt, we're all worried about this. But, again, there's not much we can do about it other than a) buy more books in a way that supports the mode you wish to keep going, be it indepedent bookstore, a local chain, or e-book, b) pay for it, c) tell others to do the same, & d) keep writing good books. I like to think at the end of the day, there will still be people who like to read and still be people who like to write and therefore, books and book publishing will continue to exist. Thousands of years of human history can't be too wrong! Instead of sweating ink over it, be proactive, take charge (or, better yet, charge card) and put your money where your mouth is. If you can't afford your TBR pile, go to the library. Requests there are counted, too, and show demand for books that get noticed.

4) Worry while watching the clock and/or calendar. This is the fast-ticket on the Crazy Train. In the age of electronic, push-button satisfaction, the world of publishing feels abominably slow. How long does it take to read a query letter, anyway? It's fifty pages for heaven's sake! I read that in a heartbeat. The guidelines said "4-6 weeks"--I've checked it three times! Can't anyone be bothered to send a quick email saying, "I'm sorry, life's come up and I'll get this back to you in another two weeks"? That's just polite! And while I certainly sympathize and empathize and just about any other "-ize" you could imagine, the truth is that the person on the other end of this Waiting Game is just a person--another person like you--who may be waiting for their own reasons or, more likely than not, swamped with about a zillion other peoples' work who are worried about the same thing and some of those people are already clients and thus, take precedence. Sorry, it's true. There are only so many words that can be read, so many emails that can be sent, so many fires that can be put out and they're all happening behind the curtain so we on this side of the line aren't privy to it and thus find ourselves like the stereotypical 1950's teenager waiting by the rotary phone, willing it to ring. It's a horribly powerless feeling and we all hate it, but patience (or, better yet, ignorance) is a virtue or at least a balm. Hit "Send" or drop that envelope in the mail and--here's the tough part--go write something else! Not the next book in the series, mind you, because that way lies More Ultraviolet Madness, but a new project: a book, short story, poem, fanfiction, article, something outside your genre, but write something else to keep your mind from becoming tapioca and weeping into your Hang In There kitty poster.

5) Worry about someone else's success/failure as if it has any relationship to your own. This seems to be a big pitfall for those who manage to get on this side of the dotted line, but honestly, I think a "win" in publishing is a "win-win" for everyone because when a book gets a lot of press, goes overseas, is made into a movie, more people get excited about books! This benefits everyone. It's really phenomenal when the gal next to me gets to squee about her latest book deal or a great advance or selling film rights and I get to popcorn with her and jump up and down and cheer. It's a smile on my face! Sure, I want that for me, too, and it's another jolt of inspiration to remind me "I Can Do It!" Here's the difference between this and the Sugar article: I don't want another person's success, I want my own, and when I believe in myself and my writing, I feel that as very, very real. Remember: you can always improve and you are the best person to champion your writing to an agent, an editor, a critique partner, a reviewer, a stranger. That's all you. Thank goodness for fellow writers warning us of the pitfalls, the realities, the hard lessons that they learned and can share with us, too, and that's why we follow them online (hopefully not in person...that's stalker-y) but they also are the biggest support network you'll ever find south of the keyboard. Ask! Thank! Cheer! There's lots of success to go around. Together, we can *all* win at this game.

So here's the deal: you can only control that which you can control, i.e. your writing. It is completely up to you to focus on that one thing instead of all the other shiny objects that lure you into thinking that there's something else you can obsess over that will give you the Keys to the Kingdom, as it were. Don't. It's false gold. A will-o-the-wisp. A trick to make you think that you are powerless in the face of adversity, but if (as I am lead to believe by many reliable sources) it all comes down to good writing, good writing is all up to you. Take a class. Improve your craft. Read, read, read, read, read. Get critiqued. Critique others' writing. Write a new project just as soon as you take a breath after the words "The End". Push your envelope. Get inspired. Listen to a lecture or a vlog or interview. Find your sparks. Mine your gold. Listen for the ping. You are in control of your writing.

Take comfort in that. Avoid the long-sleeved jacket with the buckles in the back. The worry is just noise.

Go write now.


* Actually, thank goodness for writers' communities such as Verla Kay, Absolute Write, & SCBWI.org not to mention those folks on Blogger and LJ and a myriad of specialized niche groups. And with all the helpful blogs and interviews put out from agents, editors, publishing houses, literary agencies, TED talks, etc., it's easier to feel clueful and supported by folks in the know now more than ever! If you don't know what I'm talking about, check out the list of links I've collected as my faves to Pay It Forward.

Bordertown, Neverwhere & Bookgasms

Sometimes I need to go somewhere to recharge, to open myself to new ideas, fresh creativity and inspiration. I'd gone to an art museum, visited friends and family, heard a concert of classic and modern opera, and now I was off to SFF bibliophile heaven: ReaderCon.


Ironically, this is the exact shape of many of us who were sitting around for days discussing books.

The truth was, I'd never been to ReaderCon and really had no idea what to expect beyond their impressive syllabus of topics, most of which went straight over my head. (Of course I'd never been to GenCon in all the years I lived in Chicagoland, either, but that was mostly because it scared the begeezus out of me...should there have been any begeezus left in me after meeting my high school crew.) That said, I was unprepared for the reality and basically sat back to watch and learn.

I love genre reading. My introduction (aside from fairy tales) was science fiction handed to me by my father during our epic family trip to Washington D.C. because, essentially, he wanted to shut me up. It worked. I read the 1066 page tome of BATTLEFIELD EARTH all the way down. (This was evidently before I developed carsickness while reading and perhaps not the wisest choice to give a ten year old girl.) However, I was hooked. I inhaled Asimov and Aspirin, Bradbury and Norton, Robinson and Zelazny, all the way to Gibson, Anderson, and Stephenson. And while I enjoy science fiction still to this day, I don't *love* it the way these people do.

I decided early on to simply listen for the nuggets of gold and wait for the 'ping'. My notebook pages filled with bits of wisdom like "Try for 5" by Isaak, (meaning when you write for assignment or to qualify for an anthology, you should write down your first idea, then your second, then your third until you get to the fifth; the one which is most likely yours and less influenced by the obvious influences we all share...which is how one zombie anthology ended up with several stories mentioning zombie penises. New truism: "When writers reach, they reach for zombie penises." - Edelman.) Some other moments of brilliance:

"The words on the paper are just a reminder of the story you are trying to say." - Kowal
"Try to find out what is working and why." - Ryman, regarding critique
"Romance is a hopeful genre." - Kelner
"The danger of using paranormal creatures as Other with People of Color is that these Others are dangerous in ways that real people are not." - Klages
"All beginning fiction is 'fanfiction' or adaptive to learn the narrative constraints." - Langan
"When you think about power, you think of power like supernatural power but there are others, like social power." - Johnson, regarding social and racial class in genre fic
"'Grown Up' is really in the late 20's and 30's - these are the key decisions that happen much, much later; after they get married and leave the house. It is in the urban, nuclear family phenomenon that YA lit exists." - Menon, regarding YA literature
"Kids don't want responsibility, but they do want power, but the Coming of Age novel is discovering that power requires responsibility." - Klages
"Every person thinks they're the only one who didn't get the manual." - Klages
"Tell your real truth." - Kushner

You'd think that'd be inspiring enough, but I had the fortune of being introduced to Ellen Kushner (that's *THE* Ellen Kushner) and managed not to keel over as I shook her hand and complemented her gorgeous outfit and thanked her very sincerely for Bordertown. As the Tribe would say, "Dayenu!" and that would have been enough. However, the next day I heard her speak on Gender and Sexual Identities in Speculative Fiction and I was completely blown away by her poise and insight and the gold sparked in my mind like fireworks. (Dayenu!) But I couldn't help it. I went up afterwards and said that she was glorious (which she is) and we ended up meeting to chat on the lawn with a bunch of other insightful people and was introduced to the lovely Delia Sherman (at last!) and basically got to bask in the intellect and humor of incredible writers I'd known growing up. It was...basically indescribable.


Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman. Dayenu! Dayenu! Dayenu!

The days continued and I kept scribbling and talking to people and sharing bookmarks. Some things kept coming up like a zeitgeist of current ideas: Tolkien's LoTR, WAS by Geoff Ryman, the Parasol Protectorate series by Gail Carriger, the movie, The Incredibles, and THE CITY IN THE CITY by China Miéville. This fed a lot of great conversations (most notably with my friend, Heather Albano, and some of the talented folks from Clarion, Class of 2009!) I was enjoying such a conversation, admitting that a lot of China's larger work hurt my brain and I wasn't as interested in "weirdness for weirdness' sake" ala Clive Barker as I was more interested in things like Neil Gaiman's NEVERWHERE, (my absolutely favorite book of all time), where I could believe that each strange creature or character was supported by an entire culture and that this was one person representing many, many more. It was that sort of believability that made his stories "solid" for me. We were talking about the Sandman pantheon being completely unique and not derivative of Greco-Roman or Egyptian pantheons and that spoke of a brilliant mind when we sat down to our next lecture, I looked up and saw this:



My brain spasmed.

"That's Neil Gaiman," I said.
The person next to me looked up. "Are you sure?"
Hands shaking, I stumbled for my camera and said, "I am very, very sure." I snapped the picture.
"You should go speak to him."

What a ridiculous notion! He was one of my foremost literary heroes. The person I wanted most in the world to know that his book influenced me as a writer, a student, an anthropologist, a hermeneuticist, a lover of fantasy and culture and folklore and humor. I felt myself getting up and tucking my camera into my pocket. I stopped Neil Gaiman (whose name tag cleverly read "Mr. Amanda F. Palmer") and shook his hand saying that NEVERWHERE was my favorite book and influenced me greatly and that I now had a book coming out and I just wanted to say "Thank You" and some other babble, which I am sure he must be used to. He smiled sincerely and shook my hand and said "Thank You" and wished me "Good Luck" on my book and then leaned in and said, "What's your name?" I laughed and told him. Then he was whisked away with his two new Shirley Jackson awards and it only occurred to me later that I hadn't asked anyone to snap a picture. But that's okay. That moment was mine to keep and treasure.

And if *THAT'S* not inspiration, I don't know what is!

A Good Day in my Old Stomping Grounds

It's been a very good day.

It began with my sister-in-law on my old stomping grounds; it's amazing how much things change and yet stay the same when you haven't visited a place for years.

Harvard Square is just as I remember it, some of the buildings may have changed, but the sloping cobblestone walkways and the busy college students crowding in the streets remain the same. The cool change was to discover that the parking meters now accept credit cards! Great news for someone lacking in the bucket of quarters department. The sad change was to see the big sale signs in the windows of Curious George bookstore and I couldn't imagine the corner without it. Hurrying across the street was like running from potential heartbreak.

I dove into the Harvard COOP waiting for my friend, Dave. I went to the Information Desk asked if they had stocked my book. (As an alum, I'd contacted the COOP ages ago with the release date and they assured me it would be in stock.) Indeed it was: one copy in the Teen section which I then asked a manager if I could sign, which I did, and a shiny "Signed by Author" sticker was placed on it, face-out. I was giddily pleased.


EEEEEE! Dream come true! EEEEEE!

Of course, that's when Dave pointed out that there was a *STACK* of my books proudly displayed on the YA Picks table (next to copies of DIVERGENT and FOREVER) right next to the information booth! (Duh!) I signed all of those, too, and we left for lunch. We had a fantastic conversation about books, trends, projects and big laughs which was fabulous except for Dave slicing his finger and I played my "Mom" card and ordered a Band-aid. He survived both the wound and the Jewish Mothering.


He's okay! And he's kind of famous.

Then we went to the Museum of Fine Art to see the Chihuly exhibit, which I'd heard was wonderful, but nothing could have prepared me for the work itself. It was like Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory meets a mix of Dr. Seuss and Shaun Tan surrealism made of colored glass and natural flora, inhabited by surreal underwater creatures. I wandered around in awe, looking at tentacles and flowers and long seed pods and translucent nesting bowls set on beautifully-lit reflective podiums. It was a perfect shot of inspiration that I craved without knowing that I'd needed it so badly.


One of the Venetian "Boat" pieces via Susan Henschen


Gorgeously surreal landscape via mocoloco.com

Then it was a quick turn-around to freshen up and change in order to run about fifteen minutes late to my own congratulatory dinner at an Ethiopian restaurant with friends (eek! and yum!) and then scoot over to Pandemonium Books & Games where I met up with fellow authoress, Heather, who helped me set up my Dia de los Muertos table and all my goodies including chips, salsa, mole, sweet Maria cookies & sweet-hot organic chili-lime lambada lollipops. (One must have one's priorities in order!) It was a blur of black pens, good laughs, lots of friendly faces and some great questions. And I learned first-hand why it's a good idea to bring your own books: the place sold out and then sold half the box I brought! (Note to authors: always bring additional books. Check.)


Reading while trying to project my voice over the RPGs going on downstairs.

The evening ended with many hugs and meets planned for ReaderCon where I get to bask in a love of books and sff all over again!

Yes, it was very, very good day. Hope you had one, too!

Artistic Insanity a.k.a. A Luminous Launch

Ever have a picture in your mind about how you wish things would go? Well, I'm here to say that with a little creativity, a little luck, a bit of advanced planning and a metric ton of patience, anything is possible. Anything. Really. In this case, not only was it true for getting a book published, but also for having a rockin' launch signing! I'm sure I'm not the only one who dreams of this day, so here's my Handy Dandy Guide for Launch Signing Success:

First, have an idea. Have a vision of how you'd like it to be (what's in your control, that is, not the stuff that's beyond your control like when the book will be released or how many people will be there, but it's nice to Dream Big anyway)! For me, this was all about "beautiful skulls" (as many balked about conceiving of such a thing) and a nod to Dia de los Muertos which, for me, involves food. I also knew that I wanted to have my launch signing at an independent bookstore and wanted to invite a lot of local people so I did my research and made a contact guest early so when I found the greatest place to be (The Odyssey Bookshop, which, by the way, is awesome!) I could hand them my list of people for numbers and I had an invitation ready to go!

Then there was the all-important matters of ambiance & food, two of the MOST important elements to having a good gathering. (And, if you know anything about me, games, theme parties, or the famous story of the Birthday Moth cookies, you know what was bound to happen next...)

It starts with insanity. In this case, beginning with buying Styrofoam skulls on sale post-Halloween and storing them forever. Knowing the incident of the Birthday Moths, it is vitally important to invite some equally-insane artistic friends to join in the fun! Hand each creative person a skull with the instruction, "Make this pretty." and sit back to witness the magic.


I am amazed any ANYONE who can make a paintbrush go where they want and this was just stunning!

A gem-studded skull! We joked she should have used a Bedazzler gun.

Vines and floral gems and dot-dot-dot-dot-dot-dot-dots... You can see my daughter's contributions in the corner!

These were to be displayed with butterflies and orange flowers on purple tablecloths with pink and orange napkins ala Dia de los Muertos colors. (Of course. Naturally. Anyone else would do the same! *rolls eyes*) The result was something like this:



In the meantime, there is the matter of food. There must be something snack-y, something salty, and something sweet--and, of course, there *must* be chocolate! Aside from the obvious chips and salsa, including hot chili-and-chocolate mole sauce from my favorite inspirational restaurant, Sarapes, I was deeply committed to having sugar skulls, the traditional sweet from Dia de los Muertos. Alas, having the holiday 6 months later than the book launch made this pretty unlikely and while I credit myself with mad skillz in the foodie department, I'm no great shakes with meringue powder and was leery of the molds. But I found these:



*inspirational ping* Oooo! Chocolate! Lollipops! Pearl Luster Dust! *squee* So while the artist friends were busy painting, bedazzling, and beginning to crack under pressure, I experimented with other creative-with-food-and-good-humored friends in the kitchen and we came up with this prototype:



A simple design with small amounts of colored white chocolate. Completely adequate. Lovely. I could have stuck to that and everyone would be quite happy...but I got carried away again.

Sixty individually-decorated, wrapped, and curly-ribboned lollipops later looked something like this:



Gibbering and thankful that I know lots of creatively insane and understanding people, I finally decided I was ready to do things like pick a passage to read and find pens. Little things like that. Then the Big Day came: LAUNCH SIGNING DAY!!! Arriving at the bookshop with bags and bags of food, decorations, and willing cohorts, we created a scene on the food table and a little place at the signing desk for me (thanks to my daughter's contributions of tiny, painted skulls and paper butterflies) and in a blur of what people assured me was a nice reading and a witty Q&A, I sat back to sign tons of books from well-wishing friends, neighbors, bloggers and even fellow author, Kim Harrington!


No, I'm not normally this blurry or fuzzy (except for the hair) but I *am* this smiley!

Then it was over with a sigh and a smile and a dinner out on the town. It happened: I was a published author with a book on the shelf and a signature in pages out in the world. I can't thank Joan and Sydney at The Odyssey enough as well as my friends and family who showed up to show their support! This was a moment I can hold in my head and my heart like a gift to my little five-year-old self like a trusted promise: Look, we did it!

Truly, an event worth waiting for.


...and *then* there was the party! (Stay tuned for pics!)

Fourth of July for the WIN!

Happy Fourth of July, Everyone!!!


Shimmering pyrotechnic patriotism c/o my hometown via chicagofree.com

Yes, it's time to celebrate freedom and the birth of a nation with the promise of a representative government for the people, by the people, etc. and so on, but it is *also* time to announce the winners of the LUMINOUS SUMMER GRAND PRIZE GIVEAWAY! (We all have our priorities straight, don't we?) There was a wonderfully huge turnout to support my debut, from early bookmark recipients to puzzle-solvers to followers on Officially Twisted and the Elevensies, but it all came down to a random drawing involving tons of entries per person and a click of a button. All that said, I am proud to announce the following winners:

The AU REVOIR CRAZY EUROPEAN CHICK prize pack goes to: heisereads@gmail.com
The EIGHTH GRADE BITES prize pack goes to: suchateenagebookworm@aol.com
The WAKE prize pack goes to: amelno@gmail.com
The CHIME prize pack goes to: daniellesaunders1984@hotmail.com
The SISTERS RED prize pack goes to: veltara@yahoo.com
The DREAMLAND SOCIAL CLUB prize pack goes to: areadingnook@yahoo.com

and, the Grand Prize THREE LUMINOUS CHICKS OF PARANORMAL FIC prize pack goes to:

*** starcrossedlove01@gmail.com ***

CONGRATULATIONS!!! I'll be emailing the winners with deets after the holiday! And don't worry, fellow entrants, because there will be other giveaways including big blow-out celebration at the end of the Luminous Summer! Stay tuned! In the meanwhile, pick up SEVENTEEN Magazine's beach read and stretch out in the sun for a great story about compassion, empathy, murder, mayhem, and a latina paranormal skeleton being hunted down by a sword-wielding psychopath on a quest to find her way back home!

LUMINOUS is now available at
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Borders | Indiebound

Now go blow things up in the spirit of good cheer, then get back to writing, reading & more summer fun! :-)

Lunch & Launch: LUMINOUS!

(Cross-posted from the The Elevensies.)

Pull up a chair, bring your appetite for a great story, and raise your glass as we celebrate the launch of a new Elevensie title!



LUMINOUS is about a Mexican-American girl, Consuela Chavez, who discovers that she can remove her skin and reveal herself as a pearlescent skeleton, able to craft skins out of anything--air, water, feathers, butterflies, fire--to save people from dying before their time. She joins a cast of archetypal teens with extraordinary abilities in a parallel universe known as the Flow. But when someone starts killing her newfound friends, will she be able to make it back home alive?

***HAPPY BOOK BIRTHDAY, CONSUELA!***
So if we're going to toast to Consuela or Luminous or me, it has to be with chocolate and, trust me, there's nothing better than Cafe D'Amore's Bellagio's Sipping Chocolate! What can I say? I'm an indulgent chocoholic hedonist and with this being the realization of a lifelong dream come true, I want the best! Want to join me?


Hot sipping chocolate and my favorite writerly mug. It doesn't get any better than this!

A packet of this little bit of heaven is included in my Luminous Summer Grand Prize Giveaway Contest, along with amazing Elevensies ARCs, "Fan of YA" bookmark collections, sparkly tattoos, and other tasty and beautiful swag & it's happening RIGHT NOW until midnight tonight. Click here to enter! But exclusive to the Elevensies fans, you can leave a comment at the Elevensies with your email for an *extra bonus entry* to win!

Gorgeous prizes look like this:


Grand Prize: Three Luminous Chicks of Paranormal Fic!

What people are saying:

"[V]irtuoso prose...."
— Publisher's Weekly
"The Prose is simply stunning…With her vivid fantastical landscape, evocative descriptions…and facility with powerfully grotesque imagery, Metcalf is a stylist to watch."
—The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

"With this dazzling debut novel, the author proves herself a highly talented wordsmith."
— Connie Goldsmith for New York Journal of Books
"You'll love it if... You were all about Twilight, but now you're so over the whole vampire/werewolf thing. Luminous still has tons of romance and fantasy, but with a totally original plot that is nothing like you've ever read before!"—SEVENTEEN magazine

Luminous is now available at
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Borders | Indiebound

You can also follow my antics at a safe distance on:

My website: www.dawnmetcalf.com
My blog: Officially Twisted
Twitter: @dawnmetcalf
Facebook: dawnmetcalf

Thank you so much for celebrating this incredible moment with me! Salut!

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow

My book is coming out tomorrow.

...

What a totally surreal feeling!

The first time I got my hands on a bound, book-like thing with my name on it, I poked it with my finger, getting a solid and satisfying 'thump'. My brain, fueled with nothing more than random inspiration and an overactive imagination, produced something that went out into the publishing world and became (after a long, hard slog accompanied by research, luck, and a helluva lot of waiting) a book. A real, honest-to-goodness thing of paper and ink. And it will sit on shelves and be mailed across the country and its characters and ideas will take up residence in someone else's head besides mine. Potentially *lots* of heads.

It's mind-blowing, really.

So tomorrow's launch date will be celebrated by posting requisite online thingies, driving kids to and from various summer activities, and finally conclude in an actual date-date where I plan to go out to a lovely dinner with my husband at a quiet restaurant and together toast the realization of a childhood dream. (Good food? Babysitting? Quality time with Better-Than-Boyfriend? Bliss!) And in July there will be fireworks and parades, signings and events, and some great times scheduled for the Luminous Summer months, but online, there will be PRIZES!


Oh yes, my friends, there shall be prizes!!!

So here's how we party:

• Tomorrow (June 30th) is the last day to enter the Luminous Summer Grand Prize Giveaway so go here to enter! Like what you see in the above photo? There's more! (In fact, I've received even more awesome 2011 Debut bookmarks so there's additional surprise cool points thrown in just for fun!) Contest ends at midnight.
• Tomorrow (June 30th) will also be the Elevensies Lunch & Launch announced here. Smiles, folks: it involves chocolate!
• Have you been following the LUMINOUS book tours?* If so, you have collected various letters that can be unscrambled and entered into a Super Special Location to find the Secret Stash of Goodies hidden on my website, www.dawnmetcalf.com.

Here's how that works:

1) Gather up the letters. There should be 15 in all.
2) Unscramble them into a phrase commonly found on summer postcards. (The phrase has 4 words.)
3) You have approximately 24 hours to solve the puzzle or the baby becomes one of us forever! (No, wait, that's Jim Henson's Labyrinth ...sorry.)
4) Go to my my website and click on the "mariposa" on the main page.
5) Follow the instructions, enter the phrase, and get your Secret Stash of Goodies!

Then, tomorrow, June 30th, please join me as I become a real published author.

*tick*tick*tick*tick*tick*tick*tick* YAY!!!

Yes. This.


* If you haven't, that's okay! The letters are: E, U, S, E, R, O, E, H, I, E, W, E, Y, R, H (not in that order). What can I say? I'm a giver. :-)