Elizabeth Miles's Blog, page 4

TOP FIVE WRITING TIPS (or, THE "OUT" LIST)

After not using a Power Point or any type of formal presentation for the first set of tour stops with Becca and Moira, I finally decided to create one before I met BF in Toronto at the end of October. I found that it helped me stay on target while talking to school groups. In addition to the requisite "childhood embarrassing photo" and info about FURY, I included five writing tips at the end. My little gimmick (you gotta have one...)? All of them contain the word "out." Here's what I mean:

1) ...

TOP FIVE CONSEQUENCES OF NOT SETTING UP A BLOGGING SCHEDULE

Here are the top five consequences of not heeding your friend Lauren Oliver's advice to set up a "blog-posting schedule," i.e. allotting times to blog every other day or scheduling blogs to post automatically, etc.

1) You blog too infrequently.
2) Then when you think about blogging, you think about how your first sentence has to be something along the lines of, "This is why I haven't been blogging as frequently as I should."
3) Then you don't blog at all because that's a lame way to start a blog...

FURIES @ SIMON PULSE? + SCOTT TRACEY ON #YESGAYYA, VERONICA MARS, TWITTER, and more!

Check out how the Simon Pulse sales team dressed up for Halloween! Who are those pretty, mysterious women? Is Manhattan being overrun by Furies???? EEK!!



NEWAYZ, I feel very lucky to be hosting Scott Tracey on the blog today; his WITCH EYES is an awesome debut, fresh and romantic and paranormal, with bits of darkness and magic. He talks about teen television, his writing process, future projects, and online promotion in one of my favorite author interviews yet!


Elizabeth:So, WITCH EYES...

HALLOWEEN LINK BONANZA + LISA MCMANN GIVEAWAY!

Would you ever buy one of these supposedly haunted homes?

Interesting essay explaining Why Our Brains Love Horror Movies.

HD's posting some great author interviews (with yours truly, Courtney King Walker, Jennifer Archer, and more to come) about writing creepy books at Reading, Writing, Breathing. Check 'em out!

If you're in search of some short-form scariness, definitely follow along with the YA Spooktacular stories (I contributed to The Corn Stalker). It's an awesome, online, interactive, Cho...

TIME DETOX

You guys.

I am reading the most wonderful book. It's by Christian McEwen, who I heard speak at the New England Independent Booksellers Association All About the Books event in September. The book is called WORLD ENOUGH AND TIME: ON CREATIVITY AND SLOWING DOWN. In it, McEwen, a poet, professor, and writer living in Northampton, Massachusetts, meditates on the benefits of slowing down and smelling the roses - and listening to the world around you, and breathing deeply, and re-prioritizing. There...

LEILA SALES WINNER + COURTNEY SHEINMEL INTERVIEW!

I'm so excited today to be hosting Courtney Sheinmel, author of the recently released ALL THE THINGS YOU ARE, along with POSITIVELY, SINCERELY, and MY SO-CALLED FAMILY. I was lucky to meet Courtney this summer and I was totally impressed by her upbeat attitude and knowledge of musical theater tunes.
But before we delve into that, I have even more exciting news: the winner of the PAST PERFECT giveaway is....MUNNAZA! (Through random number generation). Email me your snail addy and I'll get...

DAY OFF

Thanks to (that juicebox) Columbus, I have today off. Usually I work on Monday holidays because of the paper's publication schedule, but today is a rare exception. You know what? It's making me think about what my life would be like if I was "an author" every day all day instead of "a journalist who also is an author." Here's whhat I've done so far: I got out of bed when the bf did, he went to work, I got coffee and then went to my computer. Wrote for a couple of hours (working on a short sto...

HOME AGAIN

I'm home. I'm tired. I'm eating pizza and watching Dexter and cuddling with my bf. I'm so happy I went. I'm so happy I get to keep going (in Boston next  week). I'm thrilled that I got to see one of my bestest friends (we were roommates, in college and beyond, for FIVE years!). I'm excited by people's reactions to Fury - even the people who haven't read it. I'm missing Becca Fitzpatrick and Moira Young, who rule to the extreme. I'm sorry to Lauren and Lexa and my bf for my mini-breakdown - I ...

LAUREN KATE ON BRAZIL, BRISBANE, RAPTURE, AND ADVICE FOR A NEWBIE (LIKE ME!)

As many of you know, Lauren Kate said THE NICEST THING about my book - so nice, in fact, that it ended up on the cover.

Well, I tracked her jet-setting-self down for a short interview; she's in the UK now, having spent time in Brazil, Australia, and other far-flung places earlier this year. She's currently working on RAPTURE, the fourth and final book in her FALLEN series. Here, the author dishes about book-touring, keeping perspective, and dreaming.



Elizabeth:You have been touring pretty much...

PRE-TOUR MUSING / CONFESSION

I'm leaving for the airport in a bit. One week of book-touring in California! Wahoo! I packed last night. On Becca Fitzpatrick's advice, I crammed everything into my carry-on (losing my luggage before a school visit would be the ultimate nightmare).

Here are the top three things I am excited about:
1) Meeting excited and potential readers.
2) Spending time with Becca F. and Moira Young.
3) Sleeping in hotels. I looooooooove hotels.

Here are the top three things I am nervous about:
1) No one liking...