Beth Revis's Blog, page 61

Answers, Part 1: Fun Questions and Stuff About Me

So, back in December, I asked you guys to ask me questions for me to answer. And I didn't forget about it--I mean, not really. Anyway, a month later: here's the answers!



Also: at first I didn't think this would take that long, but then when I was answering them, I realized this was a realllly long post, so I've got this divided up into three days.







FUN QUESTIONS AND STUFF ABOUT ME







Jordyn asked: I want to know what you think of Star Trek. And Star Wars. THAT IS TOTALLY RELEVANT, RIGHT?

I have a longer history with Star Wars--Princess Leia is the reason why I grew my hair long originally, and my brother's name was Luke, and one of the first memories I have growing up is playing with plastic light sabers. So yeah: hardcore Star Wars fan. That said: I'm not as much of a fan of the new ones. 

As for Star Trek--I watched New Generation rather a lot as a kid, and I liked it, but I never liked it so much until I saw the new Star Trek movie, which totally kicked. 

So: short answer--old school Star Wars, new school Star Trek.

GreenBeanTeenQueen asked: Who do you love more Kirk or Picard?

Ack! I would have SO said Picard before...but I DO love the new Kirk in the new movie...

GreenBeanTeen Queen also asked: Also, what movie is the must see movie of 2010-I'm way behind on my movies and need to catch up!

I thought EASY A was amazingly clever and funny. And the Disney RAPUNZEL was awesome. But my husband will disown me if I don't say that SCOTT PILGRIM was the TOP movie of the year!

And GreenBeanTeenQueen asked: And-what can do I do to convince my husband to watch Doctor Who? He complains that he doesn't like SF!

If he was a girl, I would totally tell him to watch based on the episodes of Doctor Who alone. But since I have a feeling he won't think David Tennant is hot, tell him this: Doctor Who is about history, clever plots, witty characters, and it is AWESOME. Also, I won't think he's cool until he watches.

salarsenッasked: What music do you listen to while writing?? Or do you?

I do listen to music--but I listen to it for the sound, not the song, if that makes sense. Basically, I listen until I don't really hear it anymore. I tune it out.

Kayla Olson asked: If you could be any character in a book/movie/TV show, who would you choose (and why)?

Luna Lovegood--she's minor enough that she gets to do what she wants, but major enough to get to be a part of the cool action. And she goes to Hogwarts, and she gets to do magic, and she doesn't care one whit what other people think.

Kayla also asked: Where, specifically, is your favorite place in the world? Why? (This could be a city, a cupboard under the stairs, a cafe, a park…anything.)

I don't care where I am--I care who I'm with. But I think it might be neat to have all the people I care about in London... :D

Abby Minard asked: What were some of your favorite Sci Fi or Fantasy books/authors as a child?

The Chronicles of Narnia, by CS Lewis 

THE HERO AND THE CROWN by Robin McKinley 

The Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia Wrede

Cold As Heaven asked: Do you like heavy metal?

Not really. I often like to tune my music out, and it's hard to ignore heavy metal. About as hardcore as I can get is Hawthorne Heights.

Heather Zundel asked: What drives you? (to write, especially).

I like telling stories. It's as simple as that.

Heather also asked: What single novel shaped you the most? Why?

Probably THE HERO AND THE CROWN. There's a scene in there--when Tor and Arlbeth see Aerin for the first time after she fights Maur--that I think is possible the most beautifully written prose in the world. 

And she asked: What are three things you find very beautiful?

Sleeping puppies. Trees in the snow. The smell of new books.

Annnnd she asked: When/how did you decide you wanted to become a writer? How did you stay at it when it became hard?

I've wanted to be a writer for a long time--since elementary school. But I knew, even then, that it is very very difficult to make a living off of writing. So, for me, the idea was that you could be a writer, but your profession would have to be something else. When I was teaching, I thought of myself as a teacher who also wrote. So the transition to thinking of myself as a writer was actually very difficult. 

On the other hand, it was very easy to stay with writing even when it became hard. Because, even when it is hard, I like writing.

And finally she asked: And the most important question of all: Pirate or Ninja? Why? ;)

Ninja. They're both romanticized, but I think ninjas, at least had a more complex motivation than greed.

In the end, there are only two words

In the beginning, there were 80,000 words.



At the time, I thought it was the end. The end of the novel--not my first novel, but my best one.



But really, that was only the beginning.



So, in the beginning, there were 80,000 words.



And then there was an agent (whom I adore) and an editor (ditto) and a publishing house (which was all beyond my brightest dreams). And then there were 10,000 more words added to the manuscript.



And three new ones: a title--ACROSS THE UNIVERSE.



And I loved all 90,003 of those words.



Today--today I heard four words I didn't dare dream that I would hear: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER.



And a number: 7.



When I worried about my book doing well enough, living up to the expectation and making my editor and agent proud, my husband would say: is there anything you can do about it? And the answer was simple: no. I'd already written my 90,000 words, and I had to hope they were enough. And my publisher--my brilliant, wonderful, better-than-I-ever-dreamed-of publisher had marketed their hearts out to promote it. There was nothing else I could do; there was nothing else they could do.



This was all YOU.



YOU, the ones who believed in me from the start. The ones who ordered my book. The ones who read it--and re-read it, and told me how you cried when X happened, or how you thought Y was funny, or how when you got to the end, you started over again to find the clues I'd hidden.



This was all you.



And so, in the end, I don't really have 90,000 words, or three, or four. I only have two:

Update on Contest

Hey guys! So...the snow messed up a lot of people. And I've gotten quite a few emails from peeps about how they were delayed getting their copies because of the snow, and that they still want to enter but haven't been able to get their pictures in yet.



So...I'm going to extend the contest to January 31 (at least my side of it).



And just to remind you:



PRIZES:



FIFTY custom metal AtU water bottles (US/Facebook only; all other prizes international)
An iPod nano touch! 
Copies of the audio book of AtU
Signed hardcovers of AtU
Secret hidden prizes
MORE!
Also: to clarify--you don't have to be on Facebook to enter--you can also email your entries directly to me at ATUContest@gmail.com (and they won't be online at all unless you say it's okay). 

Don't forget--the most creative picture gets it's own prize, and the person with the most referrals gets their own prize. Right now, you have an EXCELLENT chance of winning the referral prize--just saying... :D



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Tour Details! Retreat Info! Other Important Things!

I don't know what happened.



But somehow I got grouped in with a whole pile of awesome. I can barely believe my luck.



But I'm happy to announce the details of my upcoming tour--starting with the fact that I won't be touring alone!!!





Breathless Reads National Book TourFeaturing: Ally Condie, Andrea Cremer, Kirsten Miller, Beth Revis, and Brenna Yovanoff



Wednesday, February 9th – 7:00 PM

Books of Wonder

18 West 18th Street

New York, NY 10011



Thursday, February 10th – 7:00 PMHennepin County Library (Ridgedale Branch)12601 Ridgedale DriveMinnetonka, MN 55305

 Friday, February 11th – 7:00 PM

Tattered Cover (Highlands Ranch)1628 16th StreetHighlands Ranch, CO 80202 Saturday, February 12th – 2:00 PM

King's English Bookshop, hosted by the Salt Lake City Public Library210 East 400 SouthSalt Lake City, UT 84111











Friday, February 25th – 7:00 PM

Quail Ridge Books and Music

3522 Wade Ave.

Raleigh, NC 27607























Right now, this is all I know. A few of you have asked about maybe meeting up before/after events and...to be honest, I just don't know. Our schedule is TIGHT. We've got a flight every single day of the tour, and I honestly just don't know if I'll be able to do anything at all other than showing up at the event.



Speaking of other things that are happening...





ABA Winter Institute!Next weekend, I'm off to go to American Booksellers Association Winter Institute!  I will be at the Author Reception and then am going to dinner afterwards--hope to see you there! 



Writer's Retreat!

At the beginning of February, I'll be on a writer's retreat! Yes! Imagine the awesome, all packed up in one place! I have been assured that there won't be any moose ghosts, but I've still got my fingers crossed. I've also been assured that we're going to be productive little writers during that time, but I've got a feeling that we'll be up to SHENANIGANS as much as writing. Or, perhaps, WRITING SHENANIGANS.





Ask a Question!Anyway, the coordinator of this awesome is Maggie Stiefvator (perhaps you've heard of her?), and she's doing something fairly cool: ask a writer a question. Go to her blog here if you have any question you'd like me to answer on video (or that you'd like to ask anyone else on the List of Awesome: Maggie Stiefvater, Tessa Gratton, Brenna Yovanoff, Carrie Ryan, Jackson Pearce, Jackie Dolamore, Dawn Metcalf, Kiersten White, Jenny Moss, Julie Kagawa, Frankie Mallis, Sonia Gensler, Victoria Schwab, Natalie Standiford, Saundra Mitchell, Myra McEntire, Jessica Spotswood, Carrie Jones, Jeri Smith-Ready, Julia Karr, Elizabeth Scott, and Sarah Darer Littman).





Order Signed Books Now!This is all a really round-about way to say: I'm going to be gone for most of February. This means, if you want to order a signed copy of ACROSS THE UNIVERSE from Fireside Books and Gifts, you might want to do that soonish...or wait until after February.  

Interviewing Break!And--not to end on a bad note--but I'm going to put a hold on doing interviews between now and the end of February. (I'm already on a break from doing Guest Posts.) It's gotten to the point where a lot of the interviews are asking the same basic questions, and I don't want to inundate your blog feed with the same sort of things. I've still got a few interviews in the queue--I'm going to do those, but not accept any more until I'm back from the tour and things have settled down a bit. 

Launch Party!

Last night was the launch party for Across the Universe! Judging by the fact that it's now 2:20 pm and I am only now getting to the point where I can sit down and write about it, I'd say yes: yes it was quite a success!!! (Pictures all by my mom, unless otherwise noted.)





Me in front of the "dump" full of my books!

PS: I'm not smiling good: I'm full of nervousness.


I was terrified no one would come. I mean, first of all: it snowed and the date got switched. Second of all: I don't have the best track record for parties. But! People came!







The line actually got really long...





Picture stolen shamelessly from Jeremy's twitter.


Of course, one of the reasons they came was for cupcakes:





Picture stolen shamelessly from Taylor's Facebook. 


But they also came for my book! Holy amazing, it was cool to see people lined up to buy my book and get my signature and...wow.



First, I read from the first chapter of the book, and then I answered Q&A.





Picture stolen shamelessly from Laura's Facebook.


I got to reconnect with old friends:





Some teaching buddies I'd not seen in forever!




A friend from high school--so good to reconnect over my book!


And I got to meet new friends:





Jeffery and Jeremy from Novel Thoughts.




Lois from Lotus Rising.


Overall, it was a night filled with smiles and hugs.





OMGOMGOMGOMGOMG: YOU GUYS!

IT'S STEPHANIE PERKINS AUTHOR OF ANNA AND THE FRENCH KISS!

My curls cannot compare to the awesomeness of Stephanie's blue hair.

Picture stolen shamelessly from Stephanie's twitter.






Me, Laura and Leslie, friends since my teaching days.




My college roomie who knocked my socks off in surprise--

she drove six hours just to give me those flowers!!!


After the actual signing, I sat at the table, talking with friends and former students and it was awesome.





And, of course, I had to thank some of the most important people of all: my parents.





 At the very end of the day, Valerie, the manager at Fireside, pulled out one of the chairs. The tradition at Fireside is for authors to sign the chairs. I'd sat in the chairs enough times to wish to see my signature there, with Sharpies. It was crazy that I got to add my name to a slat.







The very last picture, and one of my favorite. Neither me nor my husband is looking at the camera. My face is shiny and my head's at an odd angle, and I could care less. I think those smiles say enough.

Commemorating Across the Universe

So, when I found out a book deal, I went on the hunt for something really special to commemorate it. I decided on jewelry--I wanted something I could wear, maybe even pass down. There are a lot of star-shaped jewelry, but I wanted something special and unique.



My next thought was to get a class ring made. Instead of a school name, I'd have the book title engraved, and my "graduation year" would appropriately be 2011. There were few designs I liked, though, and the ones I found were all vastly overpriced. I grew really frustrated with the whole idea.



Then I went to my source for unique, amazing stuff: Etsy. And I found Rickson. Rickson designs and makes her own jewelry--and when I say this, I don't mean she pieces together strands of beads or twists wire, I mean she created custom molds and works with liquid metal and is amazing. Take, for example, this necklace which is beautiful on both sides:

[image error]  Beautiful, right? I just adore it--I love how the staircase leads to a door, how the heart is so dark on one side and light on the other--it's amazing.



So clearly I was dealing with an artist here, but I wanted something specific to my book. Well, as most of you know, the book's title came from the Beatle's song, "Across the Universe." Not only is it the title, but it's my favorite Beatle's song, and something that I listened to over and over and over again while I was writing the book.



And Rickson makes what she calls song rings--a ring with a snippet of the actual music notes of the song engraved into the metal. Can you make me one using "Across the Universe?" I asked. "Can you get it to me before my book launch?" And because she's so awesome & amazing, Rickson got it to me (after shipping express from Canada!) just in time for the launch!







I love it--it's perfect. Totally unique, and totally perfect to commemorate the book launch! And not only does the outside have the musical notes of the song, the inside is engraved with something from the song that perfectly fits the book... "words are flowing."



Remember when I said Rickson was awesome? She's so awesome that she actually made a video of how she handcrafted the ring!!!! Be sure to check it out here: she makes the ring out of wax first, then pours plaster around it, then melts the wax and uses the plaster as a mold. Even when I knew the basic process, I had no idea how much detail and care went into the ring's production until I saw the video. Thank you so much for making the ring and the video, Rickson!!

Things to Do on the Day Your Book Launches

You know: it was kind of nice to get buried under the snow and be forced to stay inside. I'd been running around like mad to get everything working for the launch party--arranging cupcakes to be made, putting up posters, calling newspapers, sending invites, and one thing after another.



So when the snow came and said, "Nuh-huh," I was actually mostly okay with it. Instead of spending the day rolling my hair and stressing about being witty, I spent 70% of the day in my pajamas, ate terrible junk food with my husband, and played with my dog.



And then we made a snowman.





So of course I had to add a Gryffindor scarf and a Jayne hat, but then I found some red berries, and stuck them in the snowman's head, and suddenly it wasn't just a snowman...





IT'S AMY!!!!!!! Red hair: check. Made of ice: check. Short: check.





And lookit! She even likes to read!



The husband and I spent rather a lot of time trying to make it look like SnowAmy was actually reading, but her arms are made of tree branches (so she doesn't have opposable thumbs) and her body is made of snow (which is made of water, which is not healthful for books), so in the end, we gave up.





She's a GREAT listener, but I don't think she actually paid attention....her eyes sort of glazed over....

Party with AtU!

So this happened:





SNOOOOOOOOOOOW!


Let's set the mood properly: How about some Dean Martin?







And because of the snow, Fireside Books and I decided that the best course of action would be to postpone the official book launch party until Thursday.



In some ways, this was good. ACROSS THE UNIVERSE got to sleep in:





There's a scene in the book where Amy has a teddy bear named Amber. This is Amber.


And AtU likes to sleep in. After sleeping half the morning away, AtU was happy to read the local newspapers.





My mother bought ten copies.


"But AtU," I said, "it's your birthday! Your FIRST birthday! Right now! We should celebrate!!" So I put on some party music that Lost in Believing found for me:









And then I hung up a banner made by Jeremy over at Novel Thoughts:







And AtU and I were in the mood for a party!



First we had to get all dolled up. I started with painting our nails--and of course, I used Across the Universe nail polish!





Notice the new ring? Some of my Twitter followers will remember how I tweeted about this jeweler, who makes rings engraved with the musical notes of a song. And, well, there's a certain song by the Beatles that really seemed to fit with AtU...



And since it's a VIRTUAL book birthday, one AtU and I did two things. First, we checked out the official AtU page. Yesterday, it was a countdown, and AtU and I (and a bunch of fellow nerd Twitter followers) are such nerds that we snagged a screen shot at 1:11:11:11.





But this morning, the website was all changed! And HOLY AWESOME, it's amazing. AMAZING. Guys. YOU GUYS. Go check it out!!!!





After that, AtU and I checked out the Facebook page and looked at all the new entries into the contest--so much fun to see what you guys are doing with YOUR AtUs! And don't forget guys--enter that contest! Because my husband keeps looking at my water bottle and the iPod multi-touch nano and threatening to steal them....



But you know what? AtU isn't really the kind of book that wants to stay cooped up inside--we'd much rather go outside and play in the snow! First, we had to put on our snow gear.







Recognize the hat AtU is wearing? That, my friends, is a Jayne hat. And if you don't know what I'm talking about, you need to watch more FIREFLY.




[image error]
"How's it sit? Pretty cunning, don't ya think?"
Well, it doesn't really fit AtU, so I took the Jayne hat back. AtU didn't seem to like it, and one thing led to another, and....





SNOWBALL FIGHT!
Don't feel bad for AtU. It's quite good at stockpiling snowballs...





AtU is such a cheater. Hiding snowballs behind its back. Tsk, tsk.
After that, we chilled by making snow angels.





And then we got together and made a snowman.





By this time we were freezing! Time to go inside for a cup of cocoa!





Did you notice the Penguin cocoa?
But you know....something was missing.





We made a wish when we blew out the candle.


Happy Birthday, AtU.

BOOK LAUNCH PARTY POSTPONED

It's official!



The book launch party at Fireside Books and Gifts that was scheduled for tomorrow is officially going to be postponed for this Thursday, January 13th, from 5-7 PM.



If you can still make it: please come out!!! I think the Party Curse has descended on me full force, but I hope I'm proven wrong on Thursday!



If not: you can still order a signed copy of the book through Fireside Books and Gifts (website: http://www.firesidebooksandgifts.com/) if you'd like. (They're closed today, but please leave a message or order online.)



And! And! And! Since I don't get to have a launch party tomorrow, I'm going to do a VIRTUAL launch party here on the blog!!! Pictures (and cupcakes) (no, really) to come!!!

Winter Wonderland...of DOOOOOM

This is my back yard:





AND IT IS STILL SNOWING.



No word yet on whether or not we're postponing the book signing, but....it's likely. Especially because it's supposed to move to sleet and ice tomorrow....