Erica O'Rourke's Blog, page 12
January 24, 2012
Office Space Outtakes + A Giveaway!
Yesterday, the nice folks at Readers' Entertainment ran a feature on my office/laundry room. It was the cleanest this room has ever been, including the day we moved in. Usually there are piles o'stuff in here -- general laundry, clothes that need mending, papers that need filing, bags for Goodwill, and many, many, MANY empty coffee mugs. It's so clean in here, in fact, that the combination of white walls + white cabinetry/counters + white blinds + snow outside is making me feel like I'm in an operating room.
Don't worry. I give it another three days before it's a complete disaster area again.
Before that happens, I thought you might like to see some of the shots that didn't make it into yesterday's post. As I mentioned, our old place was miniscule, and finding space to write was challenging. When we started looking at houses, our realtor was adamant that I needed something -- a room, a niche, even a decent-sized closet -- that could function as my office. I liked the idea, but it seemed impossible and a little selfish to demand that kind of space for myself. But every time I said, "It's okay. I can write in the living room/our bedroom/the dining room table," Paul The Realtor insisted we keep looking. And then we found this house, and took one look at the giant laundry room with its counters and its big windows, and he said, "You can write here. No one will bother you. This is the house for you. Buy it."
He had hated every single house we'd looked at. Paul The Realtor was a hard man to please. We bought the house.
When I think back on it, I'm a little bit blown away at how determined he was to find us the perfect home. He wouldn't settle -- and he wouldn't let ME settle -- for something that didn't fit the life we had and the life we were hoping to have. Which makes him, in my book, the World's Finest Realtor. It is a wonderful thing when the people you love believe in you. It is no less wondrous when people who barely know you do the same.
So. Let us move on to proof that I will never be a lifestyle blogger.
Yesterday you saw the sign my oldest daughter made, but it was pretty small and the glare was fierce. Here's a closeup.
Yes, she did spell my name wrong. Yes, it's her last name too. And yes, it was TORN, not TANGLED, that won the GH. But I still melt every time I see it. She wore her favorite metallic gold colored pencil down to a nub coloring those hearts. One of these days, I'll have it framed.
My mom and dad gave me the old manual Olympia typewriter, which doesn't work but looks cool. Every book gets its own box for all my hard-copy versions -- that box is for BOUND. The blue box on the very end holds notes for future projects.
I have a nice deep ledge running along this wall. From left to right:
:: Fingerless mitts, because it is COLD in my office.
:: One of my favorite mugs -- the image was wearing off, so I repurposed it to hold writing utensils.
:: A sweet olive-scented candle from the French Market in New Orleans. My favorite. (Sweet olive shows up in TANGLED, by the way.)
:: Honeydukes candy jar, from Harry Potter World. Time for a refill!
Until I manage to hang some shelves in here, the ledge also holds my essential books. The rest are in my bedroom or living room.
:: Baby name books, to name characters and to freak out my husband.
:: TORN and TANGLED, so I can check continuity details while I'm writing.
:: Travel guides for fun and research.
:: Craft and reference books.
Told you it was a laundry room! We have three girls. Hence, a LOT of pink laundry. You also see the corner of my whiteboard. I don't use it as much as I should -- I prefer to outline in a big sketchbook or using the notecard function in Scrivener. But it's there if needed, which is nice.
More desk essentials:
Hair elastic, spare flash drive, Swiss Army knife, and a pretty blue stone I play with when I'm stumped about a plot point. Usually there's a mug of cold coffee over here, and some wadded up kleenexes, and a candy wrapper or twelve, and some post-it notes that say things like "TIMELINE" and "Check timeline" and "JESUS. TIMELINE." And hand lotion. Where did my hand lotion go???
Anyway. On to the giveaway!
This is the room where TANGLED was written, and I'm curious: where do you work? Whether it's writing/drawing/household management/your favorite hobby, where is the place you go when you need to focus and Get Stuff Done? Answer below, and you'll be entered into a drawing for both TORN AND TANGLED! Contest will close on Sunday at 9 CST; I'll post the winners Monday morning.
And...if you're so inclined, take a picture of your space, post it somewhere (blog, tumblr, twitter, FB, wherever) and link to it in your comments. I'll post a roundup when I announce the winner. (It doesn't earn you an extra entry, or anything like that. I just like to peek inside people's houses. Legally.)
January 23, 2012
TANGLED: The Playlist
First things first: if you've ever wondered about my office, the lovely people from Readers' Entertainment invited me to be part of their "At The Desk" series, where you can get a peek at the place where the magic laundry happens, complete with my commentary and slightly snarky captions. A lot of spiders died to make that post happen, people. Don't let their sacrifice be in vain.
http://readersentertainment.com/2012/at-the-desk-with-erica-orourke/
(I'll post the pictures that didn't make the cut tomorrow, along with more snark and the story of the World's Finest Realtor.) And now, to the playlist!
I've said many times before that music is a huge part of my writing process. Every book has a soundtrack, every character has a theme song, and many scenes have a specific song that plays on constant repeat while I'm writing it and again when I revise it. Partly, that's just the way I roll. And partly it's the fact that when I was writing Torn, I had no real office. I wrote at the kitchen table or at a local coffee shop. Writing in the middle of chaos meant I needed a way to tune out everything except my story. Writing in short chunks of time meant I needed a way to slip into the world of my story as quickly as possible. Hence, a soundtrack.
Now that I have a room of my own-ish, music is no less necessary. I can't justify spending money on a daily jaunt to the coffeeshop, when I have an office, a perfectly good coffeemaker, and a spouse who will stop by Trader Joe's whenever I ask. Music, then, is a way to transition from my role as mom/wife/doer of chores/keeper of the calendar to Person Who Is Contractually Obligated To Produce A Coherent Manuscript.
Since Tangled is a sequel, there's a natural overlap with the artists and songs from Torn's playlist (found here). And hearing them now, when I've been focused on Bound and future projects, is like listening to a mixtape from an old boyfriend. It brings me back to a very specific moment in time, and it makes me fall in love with the book all over again. I hope you will, too.
Click here to see the (partial) TANGLED playlist on iTunes.
32 Flavors, Ani DiFranco
Read My Mind, The Killers
Devils and Dust, Bruce Springsteen
Smile Like You Mean It, The Killers
Monoplain, Susan Enan
C'Mon C'Mon, The Von Bondies
Undeniable, Mat Kearney
End Love, OK GO
Look After You, The Fray
Us, Regina Spektor
9 Crimes, Damien Rice
Inaction, We Are Scientists
A Sorta Fairytale, Tori Amos
We Don't Eat, James Vincent McMorrow
Humpty Dumpty, Aimee Mann
January 20, 2012
TANGLED Launch Party!
TANGLED is coming out in a bit less than two weeks. January 31st, to be exact. And I am so excited for people to read it, maybe even more than I was for TORN. I have some thoughts about series and second books and the lessons learned in the writing of them, and I'll share some of those thoughts next week. For now, suffice it to say that I love the book and can't wait to share it with you all.
Which is why I'm so happy to be doing a launch party and signing at my local Barnes and Noble on February 4th. This is the bookstore my kids went to on TORN's pub date, since I was in New York. And while they were there, they saw one of my best friends and her kids buying the book. My family has logged many, many hours at this store, and the thought of signing there thrills me to no end.
If you're a student, you should definitely stop by, because every copy you buy enters you into a drawing for a free classroom visit (assuming you're within a reasonable drive, otherwise we'll Skype) AND a set of YA books, including Divergent, The Duff, Deception, Tempest, and several others.
Also, there will probably be chocolate of some kind or another. And swag. You know how I love swag.
The details:
Erica O'Rourke's TANGLED Launch and Signing
Barnes and Noble at Westfield Hawthorne Mall
720 Hawthorne Center, Vernon Hills, IL 60061
Saturday, February 4th
2-4 pm
Can't wait to see you there! Warning: I might leap from the table and hug you just for showing up. It's been known to happen.
December 25, 2011
The Winner(s)!
This is a quick-and-dirty post, because I am visiting family and still have to prepare the the turkey for tomorrow's dinner.
We have winners!
For the bracelet giveaway, the winner is:
Kim H!
For the Grand Prize Giveaway, the winner is:
Mrs. S! (For your comment on Phoebe North's post)
I will be notifying both of you via email, but just in case it goes astray, please email me your snail mail address (erica AT ericaorourke DOT com).
Congratulations to both of you! And thanks, everyone, for your participation! It was fabulous to see so many Whovians speaking so passionately about the show.
December 22, 2011
In Which I Master The Ukelele
And by "master," of course, I mean "learn three notes on a cheap kid's ukelele that untunes itself every time I play a note."
But! It's all in good fun! The awesomesauce Saundra Mitchell, author of THE VESPERTINE and THE (soon-to-be-released) SPRINGSWEET asked if I sould like to be part of the YA Winter Wonderland Mashup of DOOM.
Naturally, I said yes. And offered to play the ukelele we were giving Big Marshmallow for Christmas. Which meant I had to learn how to play the ukelele. In secret. Three notes, and it took me days. DAYS.
Then I sent it off to Saundra and she worked her magic. Then her computer ate the video and she worked her magic AGAIN. And...here you go! Watch all the way to the end, okay?
Link not working? Try here:
Long Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blxabUY29Q0
HD Long URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blxabUY29Q0&hd=1
Happy Holidays from YA to you!
December 16, 2011
WIP Friday: Eleven
No, not this one. (If you're looking for the 13 Days of Doctor Who Bloghop schedule, click here.)
This one:
My oldest girl is eleven. Eleven! This is what she looks like most days:
The running joke is that she is my mini-me. We look alike, we talk alike, we love the same sorts of books. But happily, she is her own person as well: a far better artist and musician than me, much more diligent about homework than I EVER was, and generally delightful. I know that people say the teen years are tough (the number of people who offer me condolences on the prospect of fourteen straight years of at least one teenaged girl in the house is legion) but I have to say, watching her come into her own and become this interesting, funny, intelligent, hardworking, mischevious person gets better each day.
Happy birthday, sweetheart.
PS: Every year on my daughter's birthday, I read this essay by the incomparable Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (AKA The Yarn Harlot). This section in particular resonates with me:
North America wants children (especially little girls) to be polite. Obedient. Pliable. Kids who fight back and say no and think for themselves are hard to raise and not thought well of at all. We all talk about how "good" an obedient child is, and it struck me at some point while I was raising you, that I couldn't have a child who did as they were told really well, and then suddenly expect you to turn into an adult who was assertive, independent and free thinking. I realized you couldn't tell a kid "do what I tell you" and then turn around when they became a grown-up and suddenly say "think for yourself".
The entire essay is wonderful -- whether you're raising a daughter or a son, it is such a wise and loving long view of parenting. She's the kind of mum I aspire to be.
December 13, 2011
The 13 Days of Doctor Who: Wibbly Wobbly Schedule
To make it easier for you to keep track of the bloghop as it hurtles through space and time, the schedule below will tell you who's hosting each day.
Monday, December 12
Erica O'Rourke: The Moment I Fell In Love With The Doctor
Tuesday, December 13
Eliza Evans: Vincent and The Doctor: Or, How I Became a Fangirl Without Even Trying
Wednesday, December 14
Allie Pleiter
Thursday, December 15
Sarah Enni
Friday, December 16
Erica Stroup
Saturday, December 17
Phoebe North
Sunday, December 18
Clara Kensie
Monday, December 19
Kim Samsin
Tuesday, December 20
Patricia E. Riley, at Tangled Up In Words
Wednesday, December 21
Ryann Murphy
Thursday, December 22
Lisa Bigelow
Friday, December 23
Pamala Knight
Saturday, December 24
Becky, at Libri Dilectio
Sunday, December 25
Erica O'Rourke: Grand Prize Drawing!
As a reminder, many of the participating blogs will be running individual contests -- follow the directions on each site to enter.
For the grand prize, The Complete Sixth Series on DVD, all you have to do is leave your name and email. You may enter once at each site, for a total of thirteen chances. The grand prize contest will close at midnight CST on December 24th, and the winner will be announced on Christmas Day. We will also notify the winner via email. Good luck!
December 12, 2011
The Moment I Fell In Love: 13 Days of Doctor Who
(Banner by Studio D)
Welcome to The 13 Days of Doctor Who Bloghop! A collection of authors, reviewers, librarians, and fans have banded together to count down to the Doctor's annual Christmas Special. This year's special is titled "The Doctor, The Widow, and The Wardrobe."
(Let us all take a moment to reflect on the fact that I will be TRAVELING on Christmas and therefore will MISS the Christmas Special. If you think I'm not going to watch this trailer over and over until I get home, you are clearly not a regular visitor here.)
Nevertheless, we wanted a way to pass the time until the Doctor's return. Over the next thirteen days, we'll be posting entries around the Interwebs on all sorts of topics DW-related, and we'd love you to come along.
To that end, we're also hosting a giveaway! Many of the individual entrants will hold contents on their sites, but we've also got a grand prize: The Complete Sixth Series DVD. (The one with the Silence and River Song and THE NEIL GAIMAN EPISODE.) There are more details and instructions at the end of this post, as well as information about a second giveaway specific to today's entry.
So...let me tell you about the moment I fell in love with The Doctor.
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People often ask me which Doctor is "my" Doctor. While I am certainly fond of David Tennant, the current incarnation, played by Matt Smith, is probably my favorite. The Eleventh Doctor might look human (conversely, we might look Time Lord) but he is not human. He's an alien, replete with strange taste buds and two hearts and the ability to regenerate. Something about Matt Smith gives us a hint of that, even in his most prosaic moments. Like the TARDIS itself, he manages to seem both ancient and brand-new at the same time. And Series Five, to me, is utterly magical.
(You might disagree, and that's okay. I'm not saying he has to be YOUR favorite Doctor, after all.)
But of the three Doctors we've seen since 2005, Christopher Eccleston's Ninth Doctor seems to get the shortest shrift. I've yet to meet someone who considers him their favorite. At times, the writers didn't seem to understand how to write for Eccleston, and many of his episodes seem to be about the writers deciding what they wanted to do with the character, instead of writing to the strengths of the actor. But I happen to LOVE Eccleston's Doctor. He's cranky and haunted and impatient, rigid and rough-hewn. He's carries the weight of those 900 years every single day, even in his lightest moments. He's not MY Doctor, but he's the one I fell in love with.
A confession: I was not super-impressed with the first few episodes of Series One. I managed to catch "Rose" and then "Aliens of London"/"World War Three" and frankly...meh. The living mannequins? Carnivorous trash cans? The flatulent Slitheen? The breathtakingly craptastic special effects? This was the long-running pinnacle of British television? I did not get it, and so I didn't bother to watch every episode.
And then, up one night folding laundry, I caught "The Empty Child" and "The Doctor Dances."
Everything changed.
A brief plot summary: The Doctor and his companion, Rose Tyler, land in London during the Blitz, looking for an object they've been chasing through space. Soon enough, the Doctor and Rose are separated. The Doctor runs into a boy in a gas mask whose presence terrifies a group of vagrant children and is tied to a series of bizarre phone calls; Rose encounters a roguish Time Agent named Jack Harkness. Eventually, Rose, Jack, and the Doctor reconvene, along with Nancy, leader of the vagrant children. The object they've been searching for is slowly transforming the entire town into zombies with gas-masks for faces. Seriously. No, seriously. There are all manner of hijinks and moments of sheer terror, but in the end (spoiler alert) the Doctor triumphs, the zombies are returned to normal, families are reunited, and the Doctor and Rose dance sweetly in the TARDIS while Jack Harkness looks on.
It's this fantastic combination of elements: history and time travel, sly humor, creepy small children, the Doctor trying desperately to unravel a puzzle, and the entire story hinging on truth and love and forgiveness, as it so often does. But there's something different about this episode: so often on DW, the victory takes a terrible toll. People die, either by someone else's hand or as a noble sacrifice. The Doctor recognizes this fact, but you can see how it wears on him. It makes him set his jaw, bow his head, and shoulder through yet another tragedy. It's like his life is one long string of losses: the Time Lords, his companions, innocent people, entire species. When he succeeds in saving people, he knows that it's the exception, not the rule, and those victories are few and far between. There is always collateral damage.
Eccleston conveys this melancholy perfectly. Even when he's giddy with delight, there's a sadness lurking underneath the daft grin, waiting to resume its rightful place once the moment has passed.
But in "The Doctor Dances," it's different. When the Doctor's risky, crazy, all-in plan works...you see this look on his face: absolute wonder. Complete astonishment. Christmas morning. Celebration and joy, completely unfettered. Nobody died. The broken family is reunited. The bomb is transported to outer space. England is going to win the war, very soon. Smile splitting his face, manic with delight, he cries, "Everybody lives, Rose. Just this once...everybody lives!"
I tear up every time I think of it.
Because it's great, that everybody lives. But what you see isn't just his relief that he managed to save himself, his companions, Nancy and Jamie, London, and the rest of the planet. He's been saving the planet forever, after all. It's old hat. This time, it's not even that they won. It's that nobody had to lose. For a man as familiar with loss as the Doctor is, it's a staggeringly beautiful thing. In that instant, Eccleston's face shows not just his joy, but the memory of every single time he's lost someone. Every time his best was not enough. It makes this victory even more bittersweet -- and like a true time traveler, it's not just the memory of other battles, but the realization that he will endure more losses in the future.
But just this once...everybody lived. How could I not fall in love?
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Ready for Day Two? Tuesday's post will be at www.elizaevans.com. I'll also post a schedule on this site listing every stop on the tour, so if you get lost, check back here to see where you should go.
Now, on to the giveaways! Want to win your own copy of the newly released Complete Sixth Series?
To enter the grand prize giveaway, please leave a comment with your name and email address. You may enter once at every stop on the blog tour, for a total of thirteen chances. The Grand Prize giveaway is limited to the US and Canada, due to regional restrictions on the DVD. Individual contests will close at the discretion of the author, but the Grand Prize contest will accept entries on any site until midnight CST on December 24th. We will post the winner on December 25th, and notify the winner via email.
I'm also running an individual giveaway at the same time: A bracelet from my one of my favorite Etsy shops: Foxwise. It features a quote from the end of Series 5. "We're all stories in the end. Just make it a good one."
All you need to do is leave a comment on today's entry -- although, if you watch the show and have a favorite doctor, I'd love to hear it. I'll announce the winner on for the individual contest on December 25th as well.
Note: Leaving one comment here enters you in both the bracelet contest AND the Grand Prize giveaway. There's no need to comment twice, and we won't count duplicates.
Good luck, and enjoy the rest of the blog hop!
December 11, 2011
Gifts for the Doctor Who Fan, or, Someone Please Send This To My Husband.
Perhaps you are not a fan of Doctor Who ( I don't know how this could be, but apparently it happens sometimes. I'm so sorry.) but you love someone who is. Perhaps you want to impress a certain someone with your thoughtfulness and insight. Perhaps you're just strapped for ideas. Whatever the case, here's a collection of gifts that would please any Doctor Who fan. Some might require a little more research or time, but all would make the Whovian in your life very happy.
Here is what you need to know about Doctor Who: He is an alien who travels through space and time in a blue box called the TARDIS. He saves the human race. A lot. The TARDIS makes a noise. Your loved one adores that noise, and this is a way for them to have it whenever they want. This cookie jar can make that happen.
It's a Moment of Great Import when the Doctor gives his companion a key to the Tardis. You can't give a TARDIS key, but you CAN give a Doctor Who keychain, on the chance that someday, they'll have a key worthy of such an honor.
There's no end of Doctor Who-themed clothing on the internet, but here are some of my favorites. Skreened.com allows you to choose what type of shirt you'd like your image printed on. I wear this sweatshirt as often as possible to help find other fans in the wild. Pro tip: Order up -- I bought the sweatshirt in a double XL, and it has definitely shrunk in the wash.
If you're going to give this Tshirt, make sure you find out (stealthily, of course) which Doctor is the recipient's favorite. Trust me. This matters more than you can possibly imagine. There are eleven different versions of this shirt, each with a different Doctor's name highlighted.
Don't mess up.
Fezzes are cool. You don't need to know why. Just know that if your loved one is currently enjoying the show, they will love this hat.
Old-school Whovians love this scarf. Hell, new-school Whovians love this scarf. If you want to knit them something, this lovely woman has a bunch of free patterns to download. If your loved one is a knitter, take the pattern to a local yarn shop and throw yourself on their mercy. They will help you, and you'll look like a genius.
If you're not up for such things, you can also buy one of these scarves off of Etsy.com. They're not cheap, but they ARE fairly priced. That's a lot of knitting.
Fans of River Song would love this journal: TARDIS blue, and a place to record their own adventures. There's a lot of different versions on Etsy, so click around until you findo ne that meets your budget/timeline/taste.
Doctor Who can sometimes be a little intense for kids, despite being considered a children's show in Britain. The Sarah Jane Adventures is a more gentle introduction to the DW universe and great fun to watch. Plus, it's a chance to see the late, beloved Lis Sladen one more time.
Etsy.com and Skreened.com have a wide variety of Doctor Who-themed products. If the ones here aren't to your liking, just plug in "Doctor Who" into the search box on each site, and ready your credit card. You won't be sorry.
Finally, here's a gift that won't cost you a thing and will make your Whovian very happy:
(Banner by Studio D)
Tomorrow begins The 13 Days of Doctor Who Bloghop. For thirteen days straight, authors, reviewers, and fans of the show will be posting entries about Doctor Who on their sites. Some of them will have giveaways, but comments on ANY of the thirteen posts will enter you into a grand prize drawing for THIS beauty:
I'll be hosting the first day of the contest, so check back here for more details, and send your loved one here: because if there's one thing DW fans love, it's connecting with other fans. And it won't cost you a cent.
December 9, 2011
WIP Friday: Restoration of Order (plus a preview)
A few minutes ago, I double-checked the acknowedgments and dedication of BOUND and sent them off to my editor. I have probably forgotten someone and spelled my husband's name wrong, and I'll still do copy edits and page proofs, but those are tiny tweaks, not major writing. For all intents and purposes, I have finished the trilogy.
I'm sure that, later, I will have deep thoughts. But right now, I'm going to clean my kitchen.(Note: I always SAY I'm going to clean the kitchen after I finish a book, but I rarely do. Maybe I'll tweet a picture later, just to prove I did it.) I'm going to read Lee Nichols' SURRENDER, because I love the series and have been anxiously awaiting the chance to find out what happens to Emma. I'm going to watch my kids decorate the tree and maybe -- MAYBE -- I will send out holiday cards.
But I promised you some giveaways, didn't I? The first one will start next week: a celebration of Doctor Who. There will be more details here over the weekend, but for now, all you need to know is that there will be a plethora of giveaways -- both DW-themed and otherwise -- culminating in a giant grand prize that I am tempted to steal.
SO. Check back here on Sunday for more information about the Doctor Who bloghop, and have a wonderful weekend.
I'm going to clean the kitchen now. No, really. I mean it.
