Emmy Laybourne's Blog, page 9

Post-Apocalypse Now

Hello friends!

About a month ago I was contacted by Allison Verost, one of the excellent publicity people at Macmillan, about doing an event at NY Comic Con. I woud have 45 mins and could pick any topic to present…

They said I can wear a costume, if I want too. But this one's obviously taken and taken in style, so I won't.

This was thrilling and a teeny-teensy titch intimidating. I decided to give a talk on trends in Post-Apocalyptic literature. I even came up with a catchy title: Post-Apocalypse Now.

I promptly called an old friend, Kevin Maher. Kevin is a pop-culture guru, terrifically funny and ALSO smart. I know. It seems like too much for one person. Kevin agreed to come on board as a co-host and I was thrilled.

But then I started thinking about what I had agreed to do – and then the anxiety began.

Yes, I read a lot of Post-apoc lit. But have I read ALL of it? The Comic Con fans are really sharp. In my nightmares, I saw myself trying to make a presentation to a bunch of people who all knew more than I did about my subject. I saw myself being upbraided by people in costume. That would be really hard to take.

But I dug in. I used the Amazon gift card I got for my birthday (thank you, Renee Podunovich) to order a bunch of new releases. I went to my favorite place on earth besides Massage Envy, the library, and checked out a tall stack of End of the World novels. I got busy reading.

I read some GREAT new post-apoc books. The Last Policeman, by Ben Winters. The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker. Peter Heller’s The Dog Stars. And I started to develop some theories. Hallelujah! I had some ideas!

I started structuring my thinking, pulling together a Prezi (this is like a powerpoint, but a trillion times cooler). I got pretty far into it and then I found out that not only would Kevin and I have no screen or digital projector (goodbye Prezi) but we would also have no room! We wouldn’t be in a little room, speaking to a small group of attendees. Our event, Post-Apocalypse Now, would be on the Unbound stage, in the center of a large space with people freely moving around.

You are probably imagining that I freaked out.

But no! It’s the opposite. I was terrifically relieved.

You can’t do a thoughtful little panel on trends in a genre in the center of a giant, milling crowd. You gotta do a show.

But I know how to do a show! I called Kevin and within about 30 seconds, we completely ditched our presentation and moved into show format. I’m going to sing a comedy song I’ve been working on and have my talented friends Ava Anderson and Doug Goodhart sing other songs inspired by Monument 14. I’ll also read an excerpt from Sky On Fire (Now, you gotta get there!). Kevin’s going to put together a trivia-show envelope for the whole thing. And you know what, Post-Apocalypse Now is going to be the best damn, comedy and trivia show about the End of Days that the Javitz Center has ever known.

It can't be THIS big, can it?

I do think it’s funny that presenting a discussion to a small group is more intimidating to me than singing in front of a huge convention floor, but you know what, I’m just gonna roll with what God gave me!

Comic Con, here I come!

Best of the Blog Tour

Hello friends,

In June I did a 14-day blog tour to celebrate the release of Monument 14. I’ve selected my top three favorite posts to link to here, in case you missed them. It was hard to pick the top three – many of the bloggers asked me some great questions, but I think these three give a lot of information about my process writing the book – and they’re fun!



Number 1: Marjolein Book Blog



A nice, straightforward interview to get you started on your mini-tour of my tour!

In this post I answer some of the most frequent questions about Monument 14. I believe they are known in the industry as FAQ!

Number 2: Gone With The Words

A playlist of songs I listened to while writing Monument 14.

I like it in the comments where one person says that my mention of Travis made them recall their childhood. Sigh – it makes me recall my early twenties!

Number 3: ProudBookNerd

Heather asked me who my dream picks would be for movie casting… Did I cast Josh Hutcherson? Heck yeah, I did!

I figure you might be interested to know what my favorite Post-apocalyptic books are – so here’s a little:

BONUS: Hooked to Books

Okay, like I said, it was HARD to pick my top three blog tour posts. So in this one, you get to read about what I like to read!

Sneak peek of Reprint cover!

Hello friends,

I’m thrilled to announce that Macmillan will be running a second printing of Monument 14. The second run will feature a cover with blurbs. Yay blurbs! Prominently featured, of course, will be excerpts from the recent New York Times articles.

There will also be a blurb from my friend, Lish McBride. I feel very lucky that Lish and I met on the Fierce Reads tour and had such a great time!

Lish and I are blurry in Seattle

She’s nice AND a great writer AND a fan of kittens, what more do you need in a friend?

Lish’s new book, Necromancing The Stone, is coming out on September 18. I’ve read it and it was both scary and funny. This is kind of hard, to write a book that’s both scary and funny, but Lish sure makes it look easy. Also, it has a living, breathing lawn gnome named Gnome Chompsky in it. So now you pretty much have to pre-order a copy I guess.

I digress! Here’s the sneak peek of the new reprint cover. Please bear in mind that this won’t be in bookstores for a few months… I’m going to make it full size, so you’ll have to scroll around a bit to be able to read it, but otherwise, you can’t really sink your teeth in. My gratitude goes out to Rick Deas, for the beautiful cover art. You can really see the detail when it’s blown up this big and it’s gorgeous pixel for pixel.

Sneak peak of Reprint cover!

Hello friends,

I’m thrilled to announce that Macmillan will be running a second printing of Monument 14. The second run will feature a cover with blurbs. Yay blurbs! Prominently featured, of course, will be excerpts from the recent New York Times articles.

There will also be a blurb from my friend, Lish McBride. I feel very lucky that Lish and I met on the Fierce Reads tour and had such a great time!

Lish and I are blurry in Seattle

She’s nice AND a great writer AND a fan of kittens, what more do you need in a friend?

Lish’s new book, Necromancing The Stone, is coming out on September 18. I’ve read it and it was both scary and funny. This is kind of hard, to write a book that’s both scary and funny, but Lish sure makes it look easy. Also, it has a living, breathing lawn gnome named Gnome Chompsky in it. So now you pretty much have to pre-order a copy I guess.

I digress! Here’s the sneak peek of the new reprint cover. Please bear in mind that this won’t be in bookstores for a few months… I’m going to make it full size, so you’ll have to scroll around a bit to be able to read it, but otherwise, you can’t really sink your teeth in. My gratitude goes out to Rick Deas, for the beautiful cover art. You can really see the detail when it’s blown up this big and it’s gorgeous pixel for pixel.

Google Diary on Monument 14

Hello friends!

In the next few days I will be updating my blog – I will link to a bunch of blog articles from my blog tour and also some recent press.

In the meantime, I wanted to link to this great blog post by Jessica B at Books, A True Story. It’s so clever!

An image from Jessica's blog post!

Interview with The Grindstone

Hello dear friends!

I have so much to say about my book tour but I think it will have to wait because I must get some ZZZs. But tonight we had the final Fierce Reads event at Books Of Wonder in Manhattan. They actually sold out of my book – selling more than 90 copies in a two hour period. What can I say — I have great friends, many of whom bought multiple copies!

As if that weren’t enough, I got a fantastic interview in The Grindstone today. The Grindstone is a really cool site for working women and I’m truly honored to be featured on it. The title delights me to no end: “This Comedic Actress May have Written The Next Hunger Games.” From your lips, to God’s ear, Grindstone!

First tour stop was awes.

I’ll be giving a full report on the tour on my Thursday blog tour spot, but let me say that tonight’s event at Mrs. Nelson’s bookstore in lovely La Verne, CA, was a big hit. Connecting with readers in person is really fun – I could get hooked on these book tours!

Look at them! Aren’t they gorgeous?!

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Happy Book Birthday to my baby

Hello Friends,

We launched Monument 14 last night with lots of laughs. My Los Angeles friends and family all turned out to toast me and the book and I was so touched and honored and thrilled and jet lagged I very nearly broke down in tears.

This morning I woke up and got another THRILLING surprise. Monument 14 has a 4 1/2 star rating on Amazon. Now, it’s only 6 am and there are only 3 reviews, so this is very, very, very, really , very too early to be patting myself on the back. As reviews come in it’s entirely likely that that number will go down. And of course, when your book launches on Amazon, it’s usually reviewed by your friends and family, anyway, so of course the reviews are good and the customer approval ratings are high.

Here’s the thing: none of the reviews is by someone I know. They’re all legit reviews from readers. Book bloggers, to be more exact.

I got 4 1/2 stars and nice, thoughtful reviews from real, actual readers. And that’s a great way to start the day.

Happy Book Birthday, Monument 14. I hope you make lots of friends and travel to faraway places and enjoy lots of success out in the big, wide world…

CONTEST: You know you love post-apocalyptic stories when…

Hello friends!

I posted this fill-in-the blank question on FB and got such a great response I’m going to use it as a contest to kick off my Blog tour – first stop is on Sunday, June 3rd at the Carabosses Library blog!

Answer the question with a comment here or on my FB page or on the M14 FB page by noon on Saturday, June 9th. My very own mother, Geraldine Laybourne, will review and judge all the entries based on one criteria: funniness.

I will then announce the winner at my “With A Book” blog tour spot on Monday, June 11th.

The winner will receive a FREE signed copy of Monument 14!

So, fire up your medula oblongata: You know you love post-apocalyptic stories when…

Reviews in from The Horn Journal and Kirkus

and whaddya know, they’re pretty good.

Check out my review from Kirkus – It’s pretty good review then you consider that “The World’s Toughest Book Critics” is their trademark!

I like this part best: “Characterization is strong—the children emerge as fully as the teens—and narrator Dean keeps the pages turning.”

And here’s their zippy little ending for the review. Snarky, but I’ll take it: “Lord of the Flies this ain’t, but it is a pretty decent adventure story, and readers will eagerly await the second volume.”

Monument 14 was also reviewed in The Horn Review. Now, the review isn’t out yet, so I won’t print it. I don’t know if I’m allowed to! But here’s the last sentence:

“Initially, Laybourne focuses more on the disaster-building than on the characters, but she later deepens the characterization and includes some touching scenes before bringing it all to an exciting conclusion.”

And with that exciting conclusion, I’ll draw this blob post to a close!