Phoebe North's Blog, page 7

Advance Starglass Kudos (and a new look for phoebenorth.com!)

Good evening, lovelies! As you can see, I’ve revamped the website yet again–feels like I change my website almost as often as I change my hair. But I’m much happier with it now. It’s both better organized andlouder. I wanted something a little more reflective of my personality, and what says “Phoebe” better than doodles and exploding sparkles?

Space Katz, maybe?

Feel free to click around, as there’s some new content, too–including some supplementary (but non-spoilery) materials forStarglass cal...

Fortune Favors the Bold: Sleep No More and Being Brave

It was only ten minutes, but it felt like longer that I stood and watched the tailor mend a length of white cloth. He worked a long trail of red thread in an overcast stitch down a sleeve, ignoring the birdlike creatures who watched him, listening to the phonograph skip.

Before that, we stood outside a hut in a forestlabyrinth whose walls seemed to be made of bone. A crazed nurse was inside with one of our companions, but all we could see through the slats were her hands, fluttering, past gold...

On Finishing a Duology

Last night was amomentousone in the saga of theStarglass saga. After six months spent tireless spitting out words–including more than fifty thousand words I threw away–Ifinallyfinished* book 2. It’s an interesting sensation, finishing a book. Toward the end, a sort of logomania tends to overtake me as I write and write and write past the [...]

YA and Boys and the Problem of Limited Historical Context

There’s yet another article on YA and boys making the rounds today, this one from the LA Review of Books. Sarah Mesle writes:

I remember that quandary every time I read an essay about gender in Young Adult literature (which, since I teach it, is often). I see, in the ongoing conversation about Bella and Katniss, our culture pondering whether YA novels support the strong daughters we all want to raise. But as we debate ad nauseum whether, for example, Bella Swan is a dangerous role model for yo...

Thoughts on the Occasion of my Best Friend’s Wedding

My best friend got married eleven days ago. It was a beautiful wedding, in a chapel in a cemetery in Indiana on a day of blue blue skies and the platonic ideal of orange autumn trees. I was honored to walk down the aisle ahead of her, hastily tagged to be her maid of honor. She’s not a planner, my friend, and I love that about her–her spontaneity and her flexibility.

We’d encountered one another a few times in our small town before we truly met. She was a goth girl, with dark curls and pentagr...

Starglasses You Can Buy Online!

If you want astarglass, there are many options!

There are starglasses for doorways

and starglasses for trees.

There are starglasses for winners

and runners up, too.

There are many, many starglasses to light up your life kitchen . . .

and even one to clean it up!

but if theStarglass you want is abook, about a teenage girl on a spaceship and the troubles she faces, well, you can now pre-order that online, too

from Amazon (in hardcover or for your kindle)!

And now I sleep

Thanks to all those who blogged, reblogged, buzzed, WOWed, snarked and shared my cover! What a tremendous, overwhelming week–this book thing just gets more and more real as time marches on on. It feels almost as if one day, I’ll wake up, and be a real author!

(Weird!)

For those interested, there is still time to enter the advanced readers copy giveaway over at the Book Smugglers. Go check it out!

In other news, I had two poems published this week (or was it last week? Man, am I tired!) in Distri...

Cover Reveal (and a note on STARGLASS ARCs)

Exciting things are afoot! Over at the Book Smugglers, the absolutely gorgeous cover toStarglass (designed by the brilliant Lucy Ruth Cummins, the designer behindHush, Hush,The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, andThe Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls) has been revealed! Here is a glimpse of me with a pretty, pretty ARC immediately after receipt of said ARC. If I look a bit delirious, it’s because I was:

Hop on over to the Book Smugglers for a closer look–and a chance to win a copy! And thanks so much...

Double Digits

Thursday was a pretty momentous day for me.

Because on Thursday, Jordan and I celebrated the beginning of our tenth year together.

It’s funny to think about–how ten years ago (on Friday the thirteenth!), I met the person who would eventually become my partner–my best friend. I was eighteen, barely out of high school. A kid, really. The type of girl who was full up on ideas but low on experiences. That night, I gave him a goodnight hug, breathing in the smell of autumn on his leather jacket. It...

Finishing Stamp

I’ve been watching a lot of A Show by Ze Frank lately. I’m not entirely sure why, but somehow his unique mixture of childlike enthusiasm and unbridled honestygets me deep down inside, in the part of myself that used to like poetry and arguing about epiphenomenal zombies. He reminds me a little bit of Bobby Burgess–an online diarist back at the turn of themillennium–but more honest and personally relevant. I like that he’s building a community, not just naval gazing. He’s inspired me in a time...