Rachel Hartman's Blog, page 21
March 7, 2013
Back to old Kentucky, where I was born and raised
Hello, friends! I’m so sorry to have absented myself quite that long, but apparently I had to crawl into a hole for a good long while. Who knew writing could make you tired? Anyway, I am recovered and – astonishingly – feeling something like cheerful again. It helps that spring is here. Here’s the cherry tree in our courtyard:
Hard to stay grumpy when that’s just outside your window.
Anyway, I’m here because: NEWS! I will be in Lexington, Kentucky later this month, and I’m going to have a books...
February 24, 2013
The sleepy dormouse speaks
It never fails that exciting things happen when I’m trying to stay off the internet, and I can either report them and let myself succumb to distraction, or I can stay off the internet and appear even more oblivious than usual. So yes, while I was gone, I learned that Seraphina is one of the finalists for the 2012 Andre Norton Award. I’m not so jaded by my other nominations that I’m impervious to the tremendous honour of this one. What a wonderful list to be on. I am so very, very awed and gra...
February 18, 2013
Away
Ah, friends, once again I’m burying myself in work for the next foreseeable while. I want so badly to get this draft of the sequel off my chest; you don’t even know. I am keeping my nose to the proverbial grindstone, thinking I can finish it soon. You may not hear from me before March. Keep well until then, and I will see you on the other side.
February 14, 2013
Honoured
I learned today that Seraphina has won aCybils Awardfor YA SF/F. My heartfelt thanks to all the nominators and judges from the book blogging community. This is a relatively new award, but Random House notified my editor that I’d won, so I’d say the publishers are taking notice and keeping track.
It was also announced today that Seraphinahas been short-listed for the Waterstones Prize in the UK. The story made the BBC news site (I’m linking to that story because the title cracks me up. Beavis a...
February 12, 2013
Weep, O Mine Eyes
I’ve joined a madrigal choir, which is kind of exciting. We’re singing this:
Isn’t it lovely? Although I have to admit “and cease not” sounds a lot like “and see snot” when you’re singing. There was a certain amount of giggling about this, not all of it mine.
This video is also super useful for learning the song, since it follows right along with the music. I sang alto (although I managed soprano for “Mille Regretz”, which we also sang). I’m technically a mezzo, I think, and am trying to preten...
February 11, 2013
The real St. Gobnait
The St. Gobnait in Seraphina was inspired by a real Irish saint, whose church and sacred spring we visited years ago. Today (Feb. 11) is her holy day in Baile Bhuirne (Ballyvourney). Here’s an articlementioning Gobnait and some other ancient holy wells in Ireland. The Diocese of Kerry page has fewer pictures but is more informative. The last several paragraphs are in Irish, and are (according to my husband, my resident translator) a description of how to do the devotional tour. I will just br...
February 5, 2013
New North American cover!
I know, I know, I wasn’t going to post this week. I was going to ensconce myself in my Chamber of Clandestine Composition and work until my fingers bled (and believe me, that’s what I’ve been doing). However, I have news so exciting it couldn’t wait. I had to bust out and tell you (also: get myself a cup of tea. Composing clandestinely is thirsty work!).
It’s the new cover, darlings. Here it is!
When you see it in shops, it will have the Morris sticker on it too!
So it turns out, ha ha, the new...
February 1, 2013
Lytherus guest post, another list, and news
So my guest post on “genre bending“, the big finale to Rachel Hartman Week on Lytherus, is up. It’s been fun over there this week, and I am so flattered that they thought of me.
I have also been informed that Seraphina made another list, the ALSC 2013 Notable Children’s Books list. I am reliably informed by multiple librarians that it is very tricky to get on both this and yesterday’s YALSA list, so I am feeling quite fortunate to have done so.
But oh, you lovely folks. It has been a wonderful...
January 31, 2013
A big interview, and another honour
What a week I’m having! It’s “Rachel Hartman Week” at Lytherus, as I’ve mentioned before, and today they’ve put up a conversation I had with Christopher Paolini, Lauren Zurchin, and Mike Macauley back in July at Comic-Con. Tune in tomorrow for a guest post from me!
In other news: Seraphina made the top ten on YALSA’s 2013 Best Fiction for Young Adults list. Thanks again, YALSA!
