Delilah S. Dawson's Blog, page 36

help! speech! egad! (and a teensy, weensy giveaway)

(That's what I look like signing things. With a pen!)

So I have my first panel this weekend at S.T.E.A.M.Fest in Atlanta. The title is "It Was a Dark and Steamy Night", and the topic is on writing and publishing a steampunk book. But as it's my first actual panel, I was curious.
What... should I actually talk about?
My instinct is to do a choose-your-own-adventure sort of talk and basically find out what the audience would like to hear about through a show of hands. I could have one loose outline for How to Write a Book Without Going Mad, one for How to Get Published or Die Trying, and one for Tips, Trends, and Silly Stories Regarding Steampunk Books and Also the One I Wrote. With question-and-answer afterward, if anyone is interested. I seriously have no idea what to expect.
So here's the deal: Tell me in the comments what you would most want to hear about at such a talk, and I'll randomly choose one commenter to win a signed bookplate.
Or, if you know me in real life, a four-leaf clover, or a cup of tea, or WHATEVER, because I've probably already written something thoroughly embarrassing in your book.
Thanks in advance for helping me to not appear a complete fool!
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the imaginary rabbit and the phantom tollbooth

The first thing I remember this morning is ripping an animatronic duckling from a box. Then came coffee and that lovely, carefree holiday feeling, when you feel like the answer to every question is yes.
Then came brunch, with raspberry mimosas, strawberry and Nutella sandwiches, cupcakes, and taco dip. I snarfed so many cupcakes that I will sneeze sprinkles for a week. And then we went to the next party, with birthday cake and ice cream and frozen Twix. There was egg hunting and grandparent hugging and cactus-sitting-on, which was not my favorite part of the day. And then we watched Total Recall with my dad and I trimmed the chihuahua's toenails and flopped on the sofa in my conspicuously impractical shoes, wishing I could take a nap.
This is our Easter. It's a comfortable ritual with friends and family that I look forward to and love. But something odd happens every year.
Every Easter afternoon, I get this horrible feeling.
I start out lazy, sleepy, tired. My eyes feel heavy. The couch looks so inviting. But a nap is somehow always impossible, and I start thinking of all the things I have to do. A book to finish. Emails to write. Deadlines. Reviews. So very much mail to send. A huge stack of books that I would be reading if I wasn't so anxious over nothing. And housecleaning. Don't even get me started on that.
I get frachetty. Annoyed. Resentful. Grouchy. I pace a bit like a cat in a cage. Things feel like they're falling apart, like I'm trying to keep too many plates spinning. And yet I'm powerless to do anything, and any attempt at work is met with stubborn malaise.
I start to think about Douglas Adams' The Long, Dark Tea-Time of the Soul.
It makes me want to throw tea in someone's face.
I start to think about the Easter afternoon when I was seven and I first discovered The Phantom Tollbooth. I was in a very Milo mood, and it started on TV, and I watched it, thinking, THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN ME WHO RECEIVED THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH, FOR EVERYTHING IS A WASTE OF TIME, AND EASTER IS STUPID, AND MEH.
Every year it happens, and despite how awesome the morning is, by afternoon, I've decided that Easter is indeed the stupidest holiday ever and is somehow broken.
And then today, I finally recognized the problem.
It's not an existential crisis. It's just a massive sugar crash.
And next year?
I'm totally doing it again.
Happy Easter!
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10 steps to bliss

1. Put on a sundress and biker boots, just because you can.
2. Leave an hour early for your meeting because you have an unholy yen for sushi.
3. Discover that the cute little sushi place downtown is packed and there's no parking.
4. Discover that the hibachi place is closed on Saturday afternoons.
5. Discover that Circle Sushi is too dark and cold for a pretty day and get your sushi to go.
6. Discover that you don't have a drink and realize that you can't go to a meeting with roe in your teeth.
7. Stop at the gluten-free cupcake place for a water. And a mint chocolate chip cupcake with a bunny toothpick.
8. Realize you have 15 minutes until your meeting and an awful lot of yummy things to enjoy.
9. Get to the historic home where your meeting is being held. Grab the picnic blanket you've kept in your trunk since 1994 and toss it in the grass. Sit down in your sundress and biker boots and pull out your chopsticks and chow the hell down while reading a John Green book.
10. Realize that you kind of look like an idiot in a lot of ways, but that you accepted your own ridiculousness a long time ago, and it doesn't matter, because MY MERCIFUL HEAVENS YOU'RE HAVING A PICNIC IN FRONT OF A PLANTATION HOUSE ON A BEAUTIFUL SPRING DAY WITH SUSHI AND A CUPCAKE AND GOOD GRAVY, BUT LIFE IS WONDERFUL.
Simple as that.
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under the covers

Music covers, that is. In the immortal words of Dark Helmet, FOOLED YOU.
I've been wrapped up in a few playlists as I finish one deadline and dig my teeth into the next one, and I've gotten obsessed with a cover of one of my all-time favorite songs, which is #1 on the list below. When I was younger, I would have screeched about blasphemy and the artist's original message and purity. But right now, I just dig what I dig and can't help admiring how a musician can take something I love and make it both different and awesome.
Some of my top covers, which you can find here on Spotify:
1. The Lovecats by OK Go, originally by The Cure.
2. Goodbye Horses by The Airborne Toxic Event, originally by Q Lazzarus
3. Bizarre Love Triangle by Stabbing Westward, originally by New Order
4. Take On Me by Reel Big Fish, originally by A-ha
5. I've Just Seen a Face by Jim Sturgess, originally by the Beatles
6. I Want It All + We Will Rock You on the Sucker Punch soundtrack
7. I Want You Back by The Civil Wars, originally by Michael Jackson
8. The Book of Love by Airborne Toxic Event, originally by The Magnetic Fields (painful but good)
9. Such Great Heights by The Postal Service, originally by Iron and Wine
10. Hurt by Johnny Cash, originally by Nine Inch Nails (painful but good)
11. Romeo and Juliet by The Indigo Girls, originally by Dire Straits (painful but good, because I only cried to that, like, a million times in high school)
12. G33k and Gamer Girlz by Team Unicorn, originally something much less entertaining by Katy Perry
13. Where Is My Mind? by Placebo, originally by The Pixies
I'm sure I'm forgetting loads of them, but those are the ones that spring to mind... or are nudged into memory by crowdsourcing.
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In any case, I'm digging the covers right now.
Anyone have a favorite cover?
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this sound. what is it?

I had a writing dilemma last night, and so I asked Twitter:
What is this noise?
It's like a rueful, smirky, one-note laugh. Almost a snort.
Some people said it was a chortle, but I'm not so sure.
What do you think?
I NEED TO KNOW WHAT IT'S CALLED.
Even if we have to make up a new word for it.
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the secret forest

I'm a series of little obsessions, and for a while, I was obsessed with this place.
Between City Hall and the City Auditorium in my home town, there's a bridge.
Under that bridge is a secret forest.


The trees start twenty or more feet below the bridge and rise up on either side. A creek trickles underneath. Deer roam there, birds twitch in the leaves. In the winter, you can see a little bit of what happens so far below. But once the leaves start unfurling, you can't be so sure.
Anything could be down there.
Velociraptors. Fairies. Chupacabras.
Wild cats.


In middle school, I was in a play at the Auditorium. While I waited for my mom to come pick me up, I would stare off the bridge and into the secret forest, wishing I could skid down the hill and explore it.
I never got to. And for a long, long time, I forgot about it. And then I drove by, and it caught my eye, and it became one of my little obsessions.
I couldn't help wondering. What if there was a big pipe down there? What if there was a door in the pipe? What if that door led to an abandoned hotel full of doors and a whole new world?
Umbra, I called it. It was a place where everything was in shades of gray, where the ruined air forced everyone into elaborate plague masks and dark cloaks. A place where octopi roamed on land and rats were venomous and anteaters walked on leashes.

The key to that world was a gray tabby cat named Inky, and a boy named Ren had a grand adventure.
That book didn't sell, unfortunately. I don't know why. I didn't ask for notes. And I'm still licking my wounds. On one hand, it's a failure, writing a book and taking it out and knowing it wasn't good enough. On the other hand, I know that one day, I'm going to find a home for it.
The secret forest has a story to be told. I called mine The Psychopomp of Umbra. One day, it'll come into the light.
And one day, I'm skidding down that hill, to see if it's true.
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The Virtual Launch Party Giveaway of THINGS

Remember all these goodies?
Most of them were door prizes for the Wicked as They Come book launch party last Friday. But I kept some packets back JUST FOR Y'ALL. Because you're always so sweet and supportive and it's not your fault you don't live just down the street from me and invite me over for margaritas all the time.
So here's your chance to win!
There are several prizes up for grabs, and I'm happy to send a signed and personalized bookplate with each of them-- as soon as the bookplates show up. The grand prize, if you care to call it that, is a copy of Wicked as They Come in which I will take my pen and write secrets. About the inspirations, things that happened while I was writing it, that sort of thing. SECRETS, PEOPLE. So enter that Rafflecopter and win, baby!



a Rafflecopter giveaway
<a href="http://rafl.es/enable-js"&am... need javascript enabled to see this giveaway</a>.Good luck, and may the bluds be ever in your favor!
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always red roses

Whenever I have a big event, it's hard to keep an eye on my parents. They can be shy and slippery, and they usually leave early, but they always bring red roses.
They were there for every play I did in high school, no matter how small the part or how bad my acting. They were there for every solo art exhibit I've done, starting with the one in the basement of the bicycle shop. And they were there Friday night for my book launch. After two months that have surely been hellish thanks to health issues, they still drove out to be there for my big night. They also bought oodles of books, even though I'd already given them one. And my mom is reading it, heaven help me.
The roses just appeared on the table at my elbow. I saw them before I saw my dad. But I knew he was there, lurking somewhere, and I smiled. Even though I was wearing a silly costume and celebrating a vampire book, he was there.
Thanks, Mom and Dad. For being there, and for the roses.
It means the world. It always has.
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best. party. ever!

First of all, enormous thanks and hugattacks to EVERYONE who came out to FoxTale Book Shoppe last night for the Wicked as They Come book launch party. Every time I looked up, I saw someone else that I adore coming through that door, and it was one of the most magical nights of my life.

You know Delilah is happy when Delilah gets gummy and huggy.
I want to thank everyone, but I know I would forget someone, because last night was like a giant hurricane of love and glitter. But I hope you'll indulge me as I thank some of the people who drove from far, far away to be there. Brooke and Kendal of Villainess Soaps came down from Tennessee and brought me my own, beautiful, full-size set of the soaps and perfumes, which are GORGEOUS, as are THEY. The marvelous Kristen Chase, Founder and Editor of Cool Mom Picks and star of The Kristen Show and the Mominatrix herself braved some super-rough traffic to be there. Mandy Horetski of GeekMom came all the way down from North Carolina! My Aunt Sunny and Uncle Bill came down from Tennessee. And the super-talented Meghan of One Girl Vaudeville brought contact juggling worthy of the Goblin King himself and then wowed us with fire spinning on the Woodstock green.

That's right. There was FIRE at my launch party! How cool is she?!


And Jeremy, one of the nicest people I've known for over 15 years now, who brought me a beautiful Zombie Apocalypse Preparedness Box filled with candy and a vintage Starscream Transformer that made my husband so happy he's still talking about it.


And the wonderfully awesome girls of FoxTale, who offered to throw the party and then TOTALLY ROCKED IT. The display was so amazing! Everything was perfectly orchestrated.
And thanks to my family and the Red Door Writers Group and the girls of Willow Tree and Thomas of North Fulton Drama Club's steampunk Tempest and my high school friends and Jon Plsek who made my Facebook cover photo and my Cobb County friends and Dr. Krog's work friends and the ICAN mamas and Cakes by Darcy and Debbie for emergency fangs and Ericka for emergency mustaches and my internet friends and my real-live-people friends and Nanook's friend Hal and author James Tuck and Croft Photography and EVERYBODY EVERYBODY EVERYBODY!
Still haven't heard me gush enough?
Here's the Facebook album of fabulous photos by the darling Vania of VLC Photos.
Here's the link to FoxTale Book Shoppe where you can buy a signed copy.
Here's the link to Villainess Soaps, where you can buy the oh-so-delicious soaps and perfumes inspired Wicked as They Come. The samples were gone in a flash last night!
It was, quite simply, the best night ever, and I'm so grateful for everyone's support.
I JUST LOVE ALL YOUR FACES.
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you want to come to this party.

Tonight.
FoxTale Book Shoppe in downtown Woodstock, GA. 7pm.
The book launch party for Wicked as They Come.
Steampunk, costumes, vampires, really awesome cake, wine, snackies, door prizes, signed books, a reading, and general shenanigans. EVERYONE IS INVITED!
Here are some teaser photos. And watch the video to see how to seal an envelope with sealing wax, although I didn't leave the stamp on long enough and it got gooey. I was just too excited.

Door prizes, including handmade jewelry and adorable journals.
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Soap samples of the Wicked as They Come line by Villainess Soaps. And you might even get to meet the Villainess herself, the lovely Brooke! There are perfume samples, too. YUM.
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A lion in a crown and a giraffe in a party hat. Who wants to miss that?
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Come one, come all! I'll be there in a corset and fishnets, ready to rock. Ready to blush and sign your book as long as you promise not to show it to my grandmother. Ready to feed you the best cake you've ever eaten and chase it with a gulp of Bludwine.
READY TO ROCK.
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