Beth Revis's Blog, page 32

June 4, 2012

Guest Post: Elana Johnson

Today we have the fabulous Elana Johnson, author of POSSESSION and SURRENDER, which just launched today! If you want to catch up with this fab author, you can find her at her blog, her Facebook, or on Twitter. And now, without further ado: Elana on launching a book!




Countdown to a (Book)Launch!

A guest post by Elana Johnson




Okay, so today is LAUNCH DAY for
SURRENDER! It is always a super-fun day where I get to have my nails painted
and eat as much bacon as I want. My launch party is also tonight at a fantastic
independent bookstore in Salt Lake City, the King’s English. (If you want a
signed copy of SURRENDER, call them! 801-484-9100. You buy. I sign. They ship.)






For this Launch Day post, I thought I’d
bring you through my head as I launch a new book into the world.




T-minus One Week:

Status: Freaking out

Thinking: My book comes out in one
week! Seven days. S-E-V-E-N days!




T-minus Six Days:

Status: The calm before the storm

Thinking: Everything’s fine. The book
is done; can’t change it now. Fine. Everything’s fine. Fine.




T-minus Five Days:

Status: Zoned out

Thinking: I wonder if anyone has played
in Words With Friends yet…




T-Minus Four Days:

Status: Stalking social media for early
sightings of the book

Thinking: I want everyone to read my
book! Hurry up launch day! Hurry up!




T-Minus Three Days:

Status: Can’t sleep

Thinking (all night long):
Oh-my-heck-people-are-going-to-be-reading-my-work-what-will-they-think?




T-Minus Two Days:

Status: Stay Offline, Stay Offline

Thinking: Everyone needs one day they
don’t check twitter or Facebook or anything, right? Right.




T-Minus One Day:

Status: Madness

Thinking: Nothing rational.




T-Minus Twelve Hours:

Status: Planning maniac

Thinking: Launch party tomorrow night!
Prizes? Check. Pens? Check. New jewelry? Check. Blog tours? Check.




T-Minus Six Hours:

Status: Celebratory

Thinking: Thanks for taking me to
dinner!




Launch Day:

Status: It’s my party and I’ll laugh if
I want to

Thinking: I can buy anything I want
today. I can eat anything I want today. It’s my launch day!




So yeah. Inside my head, that’s what
happens during the launching of a book. You don’t want to see what happens
outside of seven days beforehand. It’s not quite as pretty as this…




And that’s not all…




You can win one of five SPECTACULAR
SECOND books this week! It’s easy peasy lemon squeezy. All you have to do is
fill out this rafflecopter widget with what you’ve done, and you can win a
signed copy of either INSURGENT (by Veronia Roth), A MILLION SUNS (by Beth
Revis), CROSSED (by Ally Condie), PERCEPTION (by Kim Harrington), and IN HONOR
(by Jessi Kirby)—all spectacular second novels by some of today’s hottest YA
authors.







a Rafflecopter giveaway













--------------------------------------------




Bio: Elana's work including POSSESSION, REGRET, and SURRENDER is available from Simon & Schuster wherever books are sold. She is the author of From the Query to the Call, an ebook that every writer needs to read before they query, which can be downloaded for free on her website. She runs a personal blog on publishing and is a founding author of the QueryTracker blog. She blogs regularly at The League of Extraordinary Writers, co-organizes WriteOnCon, and is a member of SCBWI, ANWA and LDStorymakers.



She wishes she could experience her first kiss again, tell the mean girl where to shove it, and have cool superpowers like reading minds and controlling fire. To fulfill her desires, she writes young adult science fiction and fantasy.



 About SURRENDER: Raine has always been a good girl. She lives by the rules in Freedom. After all, they are her father’s rules: He’s the Director. It’s because of him that Raine is willing to use her talent—a power so dangerous, no one else is allowed to know about it. Not even her roommate, Vi. All of that changes when Raine falls for Gunner. Raine’s got every reason in the world to stay away from Gunn, but she just can’t. Especially when she discovers his connection to Vi’s boyfriend, Zenn.



Raine has never known anyone as heavily brainwashed as Vi. Raine’s father expects her to spy on Vi and report back to him. But Raine is beginning to wonder what Vi knows that her father is so anxious to keep hidden, and what might happen if she helps Vi remember it. She’s even starting to suspect Vi’s secrets might involve Freedom’s newest prisoner, the rebel Jag Barque…



Purchase your copy here. 







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Published on June 04, 2012 21:00

June 3, 2012

Never Surrender

This week is the launch of Elana Johnson's sequel, SURRENDER. Elana's a good friend of mine, so I hope you'll stick around for her guest post (with giveaway!) tomorrow.





Meanwhile, today I'm going to blog about a time I didn't give up. SURRENDER is full of themes of when to surrender and when to stand up for what you believe in, so it's definitely an appropriate blog theme to celebrate Elana's launch. And--if you also blog about never surrendering, you can be entered in a giveaway on Elana's website and get extra points for a giveaway currently going on at Literary Rambles!






Never Surrender






I think I've blogged rather a lot about my query experience, and how many rejections I've gotten over the years. I definitely don't want to beat a dead horse, so instead, I thought I'd tell you about a time I actually did give up.




I was working on the book I wrote before ACROSS THE UNIVERSE. It was a fantasy (just like every other novel I'd written). I was tired of rejections, and I was tired of being close, but not close enough. I looked very carefully at what was selling and how YA was being marketed, and I wrote a book that I thought would hit all the right trends. I had a love triangle, a friendship-sidekick story, a funny character, a tragic character, a school-like setting, a formula for magic that slid into every Hogwarts copycat story there is.




And not only did I make this book fit all the standard cliches, I sent it out to nearly a dozen crique partners and readers. I took every. Single. Suggestion. Someone didn't like the character? I changed her. Someone didn't like a plot twist? Changed. I cut mercilessly, rewrote everything, and did my best to please every single person.




The problem? 




I gave up the story I was trying to tell.




Whenever you do something where you're not being true to yourself, you've surrendered. And I was so desperate at that time to get published that I wrote the story I thought everyone else would like...and lost myself in the process.




That book remains the only book of the ten novels I wrote before publication that I regret. The only thing I learned from my book is that, when it comes to writing (and life): never surrender.




Don't give up your voice. Don't give up what you want to write.




The next thing I wrote after this failure of a book was ACROSS THE UNIVERSE. I had learned my lesson: trying to please other people and write a story for a market didn't work. So I wrote the story I wanted to tell, and it was the story I also thought would never sell. 




And that's exactly the reason why it did.




_________________________________




Come back tomorrow to see a guest post by Elana on how to prepare for a book launch (and to enter into a giveaway for fabulous second novels, including one by yours truly!). Meanwhile, make sure to read this interview with Elana from Literary Rambles, and check out her novels! And if you have an experience where YOU didn't surrender (or, like me, you did), blog about it for another giveaway from Elana!



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Published on June 03, 2012 21:00

May 31, 2012

How to Respond to Negative Reviews

I have a friend who hates puppies. True story. She hates dogs, actually, which is just weird anyway. One day, I asked her, "Okay, you hate dogs. I can kind of get that. Some people are scared of them, or were bit by one, or whatever. But what about puppies? Cute little wiggly puppies with waggly tails and puppy kisses."



"I hate puppies, too," she said.



Just like that. "I hate puppies, too."



I mean, COME ON.





I have a friend who hates Harry Potter. The whole franchise. There is not one thing she likes. She read part of the first book, and put it down. She felt that the whole first half of the first book glorified child abuse. And yeah, I get her point. If you look at it that way, Harry is abused by the Dursleys, and honestly? They don't really get their pay back for the twelve years of abuse.



"But the book is about so much more than that," I told her, trying to get her to read on.



"Oh, I know--there's magic and Hogwarts and shizz," she said. "But I don't really care about that."



MAGIC AND HOGWARTS AND SHIZZ BUT I DON'T CARE ABOUT THAT.



My own husband hates chocolate. I didn't find this out until after we were married. That's the kind of thing that should be discussed, I KNOW, but it didn't even occur to me that anyone COULD hate chocolate. He's not allergic. I have a friend who's allergic to chocolate, and that's bad enough. But the husband? He just doesn't like it. And I'm married to this monster, y'all.



There are people in the world who hate bacon. Seriously. Not for any religious or ethical reason. They just think it doesn't taste good. There's a Facebook fan club that is just about hating bacon. There are 28 members (SO FAR) and they have BADGES. According to one online source, 11% of America's population HATES BACON.



There are what? 7 billion people in the world now? Statistically speaking, there has to be at least one person in the world who hates puppies, Harry Potter, chocolate, AND bacon. *shudders*




My point? If there are people in the world who hate puppies, Harry Potter, chocolate, and/or bacon, then there are people in the world who hate your book. Put in that perspective, things aren't so bad, huh?



And if a negative review really gets you down? Here's what to do: think about your absolute favorite book of all time. We all have one. A book we love, one that's practically perfect in every way.



Got the book in mind? Now go to GoodReads. Look the book up. Filter the reviews for 1-stars (because I promise you, it does have one stars). And smile. Because if people can rate your favoritest book in the whole world with one star, then of course people can rate your book that way, too.




FUN FACTS!




Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (my fave of the series) has 2,843 one-star reviews.
A Wrinkle in Time, one of the best science fiction titles for teens and young people, has 4,359 one-star reviews.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which is funny and insightful and a classic, has 11,212 one-star reviews. Eleven thousand, two hundred, and twelve.
Hamlet, written by Shakespeare, arguably the most popular work by the most influential writer in the English language, has 2,198 one-star reviews. King Lear, my personal favorite Shakespearean play, has nearly a thousand one-stars.
Okay, okay, okay. We can all agree that some of those above titles might have elements that some people don't like. But who can dislike a classic children's picture book? Let's say...Where the Wild Things Are. I'm not sure, but I'd wager that's the most popular children's book in America. And it has over 2,000 one-star reviews. Curious George? Nearly 1,000 one-stars. The Cat in the Hat? Over twelve-hundred.


If there are people who hate these books, there are people who hate yours. Go pet a puppy, eat some chocolate and/or bacon, and read your favorite book again. Things aren't so bad. People are just weird different is all. 








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Published on May 31, 2012 11:05

May 28, 2012

The Reason You Need Crit Partners

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I came across this quote the other day and while the image doesn't make much sense (um, a fish? Why?) and although the post it's talking about something else entirely, it made me think of one thing instantly:



Critique Partners.



Recently someone on my Facebook page asked me if I paid for editing on my novels. The short answer: no. Of course my novels are edited, but that's something that comes with the book deal. And I did self-edit my novels when I was submitted them, but I didn't pay for an editor.



Instead, I got critique partners. And I have to be honest--I think finding the right match in critique partners might just be one of the very best things a writer can do for herself.



And the quote above definitely exemplifies that. Having a good critique partnership means that you give and take. Your work is critiqued--but oftentimes, it's not the critique itself that is valuable. It's the critique you're doing for the other person.



Example: I would often get a critique that I overuse a phrase or word. Then I would look at it in my manuscript and all I'd see is that I used it maybe three times. What was the big deal? But when I read other manuscripts, and see a very specific phrase used three times within that many pages, I realized how annoying it was. By seeing it in other manuscripts, I really started to understand why something small like an overused phrase makes a big difference.



A good critique partnership will definitely put you on the path to writing better manuscripts from the start. You want someone who can challenge you, point out the things you can't see for yourself--but someone whose work you can be challenged by. Helping others really makes you help yourself.





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Published on May 28, 2012 20:35

May 25, 2012

On Goals & Starting Over

Um…wow. I am gobsmacked by the positive response you guys
gave me from yesterday’s post. I have to admit, I’m a little ashamed every time
I have to confess that the book of my heart never sold (and probably never
will), but it’s something I feel needs to be said, especially for people who
aren’t published and think that’s the end. Because, obviously, it’s not.









If you haven’t, please also read the comments to that
post—especially Jo’s comment. She had a different experience from mine, but one
equally important. And also, Nova did her own blog post on the topic, and I
encourage you to read it as well.




Two questions that I got in the comments a couple of times
and then again several times in private emails yesterday was “when did you know
to stop trying to get the book of your heart published,” and “why didn’t you
just self-publish the book of your heart?”




I knew when to stop
submitting that book when two things happened: I was able to look at it
objectively and identify the reasons why it was a hard sale, and I began
writing the new thing.
This is one reason why I am such a supporter of
people writing the next book—because once you write the next book, you realize
that life can go on, that this isn’t the end. It gives you perspective. It
helps you see where you went wrong, and it helps you to correct your mistakes
before you make them. Once I finish a book—totally finished it, even the
rewriting and editing—I start the next one. Always. And there is—always—a moment of panic when I think
“there is no way I can write another book.”




When you’re staring at a blank page, it seems impossible to
fill. And, for me, it’s harder every time, because I remember the work that
goes into making a book. Since publication, it’s become harder to write, not easier, because the editing process is so much
more rigid than my own self-editing process I went through before being
published.




But I force myself to do it. And the first words aren’t
easy…but they get easier. And eventually, I forget about what’s hard about
writing because I’m so caught up in what’s good.




The other question I got so often yesterday—why didn’t I
just self-published—is easier to answer, but I want to be careful about what I
say, because I don’t want to accidentally make anyone mad.




When I started writing, I did it for fun. It was a hobby;
it’s what I did instead of watch TV (especially those college years when I
couldn’t afford TV). And the first
couple of (terrible, unpublished) novels I wrote, I half-heartedly attempted to
sell, but there was no real direction in what I was doing.




After I wrote the book of my heart, I thought to myself: this is it. This was the best thing I’d
written to date, and I felt that it deserved publication (at the time). And I
asked myself what I wanted out of it.




People go into publication for different reasons. Maybe they
want to make their story available to a wider audience, or see their names on a
book, or walk into a bookstore and find a copy of their book. There is no right
reason to want publication—and that’s why there are so many paths to
publication.




But when I forced
myself to think about what I really wanted, it was simple.
I wanted to be
published by one of the Big Six publishers, and I wanted a traditional career
in publishing.




That was my goal from the start of when I really started
seeking publication. It honestly never occurred to me to self-publish, because
that was not a part of my goal. And while I eventually did come close to an
offer from an indie publisher with another title, I ultimately decided to pull
the submission, because that was not a part of my goal.




Other people have different goals, different definitions of
success. And that’s fine. But I encourage you to do two things, particularly
when you’re starting out. Think about what success means to you. Is it more
important to you for one specific book (i.e. the book of your heart) to be
published, or is it more important to you to create a traditional career path
with publication? Is it more important to you to get published quickly, or do
you not care about the timeline? None of these have a right or wrong answer—but
they define what you want, what your goal is. Analyze what’s important to you,
and then don’t go back on your principles. It’s fine to change a goal later if you
feel it would be better, but never
change a goal because you’ve just given up on it. 




I guess, in the end, the only thing I can really say is this: the book of my heart didn't sell, but that doesn't mean my dreams didn't come true. 
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Published on May 25, 2012 10:51

May 24, 2012

The Book of My Heart

There is a phrase I'm hearing more and more: "book of my heart." It's a term writers are using to explain to others that the particular project they're working on is one that is very personal and dear to them. All books are works of art and take some of ourselves to write, but a "book of your heart" is one that is ripped from your very soul. It's the important one, your baby, the one that you wrote with blood, sweat, and tears; the one that means more to you than any other.



And it's a beautiful sentiment. If an author tells me she's on submission with the "book of her heart," then I know it's a particularly important time in her life. If an author tells me he's just finished the "book of his heart," this calls for more than a toast--it's an all-night celebration of joy.



But I also think there's an important thing for everyone who's a writer (published or not) to know.



The book of your heart doesn't always sell.




I have a book of my heart. I wrote it in college, and it was my third (unpublished) novel. Writing it was like magic. The world consumed me, and despite the fact that I was working on my Master's thesis and writing academically nearly full-time, I would give up sleeping and eating in order to keep working on the book of my heart.



I loved that book. It had everything I loved: magic, a touch of romance, excitement, mystery, family themes, heartache, tough decisions.



It was the first book that was mine. The other two novels I'd written before were not really good, and they were basically copy-cat novels of other books I loved. But the book of my heart was all me. It is still, I think, the most original thing I've ever written.



But it never sold.




Not for lack of trying. And it came close--very close. Thanks to a connection at a writer's conference, it got to the acquisitions table at one of the Big Six publishers (agentless), and I even got a revision request and a ten-page edit letter. I thought the book of my heart would break me into the market; I thought it would be my debut. And--after about a hundred rejections from agents and a rejection from the Big Six publisher I'd been working with...it didn't sell.



I eventually moved on to the next book. And the next. And the next. And as I wrote each subsequent book, I worried that I would never write a book as good as the book of my heart. That that book had been The One, and since it didn't sell, nothing would.



That's why I'm writing this post today. Because I'm starting to see this phrase, "book of my heart," more and more often, and a lot of times it's accompanied by a corollary: "it's the best thing I can ever write."



And too often? People will only write the book of their heart.



Don't do this. Don't do this. A book of your heart comes rarely--and sometimes you'll only ever taste that magic once--but publishing isn't just about the magic. And sometimes the book of your heart? It isn't that good. Despite the fact that my book of my heart is my mother's favorite thing I've ever written, I can look at it objectively now and realize why it didn't get published and why it probably never will. It slips between the cracks of genre, it doesn't really have a home on any shelf, even in YA. It's too weird. Maybe one day I'll be able to revise it, but for now, it's more like "Jabberwocky" than Alice.



If you're a writer who is unpublished, then I hope and pray you will eventually write the book of your heart. It's a wonderful thing, and the closest I've come to touching magic. But I also want you to know something very, very important: the book of your heart is not the apex of your writing. It is not necessarily the best thing you've written, and it's not necessarily your only shot at getting published.



Very often the book of your heart is a practice novel--you've written it too early in your career, and the quality isn't there (even if you can't see that). Or it's so close to your heart that you can't properly edit it. Or it's a story important to you--but not the rest of the world. Or it was easy to write, and the next thing isn't. Or it was hard to write, and you don't want to think of writing the next thing because that will be hard, too. For whatever reason, chances are that the book of your heart just isn't meant to be published. But that doesn't mean it should be the last thing you write.



And also? The magic will come again. ACROSS THE UNIVERSE was not the book of my heart. I know of no writer that has more than one book of her heart. But I felt the magic when I was writing ACROSS THE UNIVERSE. Maybe the point of writing the book of your heart is to open your eyes to see the magic in everything you write, to find the scenes that speak to your artistic soul.



My point is this: don't weigh all your dreams on one book. Don't think you've only got one chance. If you write the book of your heart and it doesn't sell, remember this: not all of them do. And the important thing is not to stagnate at that point, but to try to find the magic again where you can.
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Published on May 24, 2012 10:30

May 22, 2012

Live in the Zone

So yesterday I tweeted this:







And I so meant it. As of right now, I've listened to the song 237 times. (I told you I get slightly crazy while rewriting...)



Anyway, soon after this, my friends over at @FigmentFiction tweeted me a link to Paradise Fears, a band that did an acoustic cover of the song.







The song is addictive as-is, but the cover as it's own sort of addictive quality. So, during writing breaks, I'd watch the video of them playing again and again.



One of the things I loved about it was the way the main singer gets totally into the song. Check him out at about the 1:40 minute mark--he is totally in that song.



He's in the zone.



Yesterday, I got to a point in the story where I totally fell into it. (It was the source of this status update, btw.) I was typing so fast that my fingers were skipping words as I trying to get the words in my head onto the computer screen. When I was finished, I was breathless and literally on the edge of my seat. And just like that, 2,000 words were written in about a half hour.



That doesn't happen often, but when it does, it's magic.



Whatever you do that you love--sing, write, paint, build--whatever it is, there has to be a moment when you enter that zone.



That's what I live for. That's why I love writing.
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Published on May 22, 2012 21:00

May 21, 2012

A Post With Puppies

So, I had this whole rant about grammar already written and scheduled for today.




And then I realized that no one cares about a rant about grammar.




So have some pictures of puppies.




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Source




If you're really into rants about grammar (which would make you my kind of person, lemme tell you!) then the gist of it was this:




Dear Writers: A painter doesn't paint a masterpiece with dirty paintbrushes. 

Have respect for your own art and use good grammar.




Except that it went on and on for like a page.




And obviously, puppies are more entertaining.




In other news: it's possible, if I've resorted to rants about grammar and .gifs of puppies, that I should be offline for a bit while I finish up with the rewrite of SHADES OF EARTH...
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Published on May 21, 2012 21:00

May 20, 2012

Poetic Revenge

If you follow my Twitter feed, you might have noticed that I have been tweeting links to a new artist I found online, Australian Gavin Aung Than, who creates Zen Pencils, a series of comics that illustrate inspiring quotes and poetry. 




His work is lovely, and an evening spent reading the archives is time well spent, in my opinion (I've done it twice recently!). I don't think I could possibly pick a favorite (oh, wait, YES I CAN), but I think one of the most stirring and inspiring has been a series that follows one protagonist through three different poems. 




The first is this one: a dramatization of "Invictus" by William Ernest Henley. It's a wonderful poem to start with, but the story that Gav puts with the poem is...stunning. (There's a link at the bottom of the pic for you to see a full-size version. Do that, don't squint.)





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Click here to go to the full version. DO IT.

"Invictus" is beautiful no matter what, but Gav puts a face to the poem--literally--and grounds us in a situation that I think everyone can relate to. 




Here's the reason why I love graphic novels and books that use images (like LIPS TOUCH: THREE TIMES by Laini Taylor)--the graphic adds something to the words. A graphic should not just be a literal interpretation of what is happening. You, the reader, need to gain something more from seeing the picture. You should walk away with the idea that the illustration added a new depth, new understanding, new meaning to the words. This is what Gav does so well. "Invictus" is about fighting, and standing up after being knocked down. Gav's illustration of the poem tells a story within the story. And that, my friends, is brilliant.




Next, Gav took a favorite of mine, Rudyard Kipling's "If," and continued the story started with "Invictus." Not all of Gav's illustrations are linked (in fact, most aren't), but this one is continued through a new poem. And this was the moment when I really sat up and paid attention to the story Gav was telling with his illustrations. He's linked two poems together that have nothing to do with each other--they aren't written by the same person, they aren't written with the same historical background. "Invictus" is about standing up again--"If" is about being the person you should be in a world that encourages cowards. 




And the story Gav tells weaves in and out of these two disparate poems.





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Click here to go to the full version. YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO.

Now when I finished "If," I thought Gav's work was done. He'd told a complete story--one of downfall and redemption. There's a whole circle here. 




But there's another poem. 




For the next (last?) in the series, Gav brought in Walt Whitman's "O me! O Life!" You can make and argument that "If" and "Invictus" are linked in theme, if not in background, but you'd be hard pressed to find such a link with Whitman's poem "O me! O Life!" 




But Gav did a brave thing. He illustrates not just the fight and the hero's resolution. He shows the aftermath. It's nice to see the hero rise up; it's lovely to see the reconciliation with the father. But in real life, your story keeps going. And you have to wake up the next day, and learn to live with the choices you've made.





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Click here to read the full version. IT IS SO WORTH IT.

It's the last one that brought tears to my eyes (although I'm not really a fan of Whitman). I think the easy interpretation of this poem is one of striving to make worthy art, but I love that Gav took it in a different direction--that learning to live with yourself and to be yourself despite others is contribution enough. 




Like I said before, I highly encourage you to read all of Gav's archives. And buy a print, why don't ya? 




Today's question: what poem or quote most inspires you?
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Published on May 20, 2012 21:00

May 16, 2012

Music Post: In Which I Wear Hipster Glasses

So, I'm currently working on edits for SHADES OF EARTH. It is starting to be in real book shape, and I am very excited and extremely terrified by this. I am physically restraining myself from running up to strangers and shouting "THIS BOOK I AM WRITING IS MY GIFT TO YOU I HOPE YOU LIKE IT PLEASE LOVE ME."



My husband tells me I should avoid going out in public until edits are done, and I think he's probably right. Also I tend not to bathe regularly while editing, and I eat a lot of string cheese, and I wear yoga pants and holey t-shirts, and all in all, I'm just not fit for public right now. If I had a butler, he'd actively tell all the society people that "Madame is not in at the moment, please leave your card."



Meanwhile, I have been working rabidly on SHADES OF EARTH. And I know that I'm working rabidly on a project by my music-listening habits. People have often asked me for a playlist, and that's not really my sort of thing. I don't keep track of what I listen to--and often, I will actively listen to music that I can then tune out. Also, I'm boring. I tend to listen to one song over and over and over and over on repeat. Really loudly.



Right now, on the SHADES rewrite, the song I'm listening to over and over and over and over and over again is this one:







The musician here is Alex Day. I found his music in a rather circuitous way. I started off as a nerdfighter, which led me to the hilarious Charlie McDonnell (better known as Charlie Is So Cool Like). Charlie's roommate is Alex Day, and they did a few videos together, so I started looking into his videos, too. This led me to Chameleon Circuit, a Doctor Who fan band, and I discovered the song that I listened to obsessively while writing the first draft of SHADES:







Given the title, it seemed really appropriate for the third and final volume of my book. I love the duet style of this song, and it's just, simply, gorgeous.



Anyway, this all ultimately lead me to downloading all of Alex's songs, where I discovered "The World is Mine," the first song I have listed here. It's got the perfect tone and the most beautiful lyrics. Also: it perfectly fits the final volume of the AtU trilogy.



What songs are you listening to obsessively now? Do you have any fun stories about how you discovered a new musician or song?
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Published on May 16, 2012 21:00