L.R. Lam's Blog, page 33

Hayward High Visit and Heading Home

Giving a presentation at the Hayward High Library

Yesterday I went to my old high school and had a school visit with about 120 students over the course of two periods. I kept comparing it to my last visit to Hayward High, which was in September 2012, before the book was out and my first ever school visit. I can tell that now I’ve grown a lot – I know what to expect, how to tailor my approach to different age groups, how to try and keep the audience engaged. Before my first visit in 2012 I was terrified. Now, I still get nervous before it starts, then once it gets going the nerves fade away and I’m pretty comfortable.

I showed them the presentation I’ve shown a couple of schools now (Gordonstoun and Keith Academy), which looks at my process of writing – through coming up with the initial idea, outlining, researching, drafting, sending to betas, editing, and eventual publication. It’s not very long, as I know it’s difficult to lecture at people for much longer than fifteen to twenty minutes, tops, before they get antsy. I forgot to do a reading in the first group, but during the second I read the first chapters of both Pantomime & Shadowplay, which are both very short. I then opened it up to the usual Q&A. This is my favourite part because the questions are always different from group to group. Teenagers seem to be more interested in me – moving to Scotland, how I met my husband, when I started writing, whereas at the CSUEB event they were more interested in the mechanics of writing (understandable, as a lot of them were creative writing students). There were a few teens there from the Hayward High creative writing group, and they came up after and asked me for tips on research.

It’s always so strange to be back at my high school. The memories of me being there are overlaid with the present. I was so different in high school – super quiet and shy, basically hiding in a classroom and reading every lunch time, or going on the computers at the library at lunch to chat with Craig before he went to sleep. I always end up ruminating about how much I’ve grown and yet how I’m still in many ways the same person. I do know that if little teenage me saw me present in the library like I did yesterday, I think she’d be very proud of what I’ve done and who I am, and that makes me feel very good.

Today is my last day in California. In about three hours, I’ll be heading back to the airport to begin the long trek home. Life will settle down again and I’ll be back in my usual routine of work and writing. Launch excitement will die down and that’s fine. It’s been such a great trip back, and I’ve spent a lot of time with my family and managed to see lots of friends. Between my various events I’ve signed around 110 copies of Pantomime and 90 copies of Shadowplay. I do miss California, much as I love Scotland. It is hard being an ex-pat, though. I can’t help but feel I’m missing so much by no longer being here.

I’ve gotten a fair few notes through my contact this week of people telling me how much they’ve enjoyed my work and asking about the third book in the Micah Grey series. Thanks so much for them – I do try to respond to every one, and I hope I’ll have more information for you soon.

Shadowplay Launch: CSUEB Edition

Yesterday I had another event at California State University East Bay (CSUEB) as part of the English Department’s Distinguished Writers’ Series. I graduated from there with a BA in English with a Creative Writing option in 2009. And it was so, so, so cool. I’m still buzzing from it today. I thought there’d maybe be around the same amount of people as the SF launch, or a few more – maybe 35, 40 tops. There were over 75 people and it was even standing room only at the back. Just before going up I was understandably freaked out. It was so many more faces to stand in front of, and because two classes met there, it wasn’t mostly people I knew like the previous event.

But it went really well, or so I hope. Because I’d gone through the steps at Borderlands, I expanded on that, also reading from the start of Pantomime, putting both books in context, explaining my path to publication, and reading from Shadowplay. I opened it to questions as usual, and since it was a lot of English majors there were some really good questions. There were a few familiar faces of students because on Monday I went to one of my former professor’s senior seminar class to talk about the professional side of being a writer (and urging them not to quit their day jobs right out of university, heh):

After the event, there was a reception at my mom’s house. My mom teaches at the university I went to, so I met a lot of her colleagues that I hadn’t had classes with when I went through the programme. Overall, I sold around 45 books yesterday. I felt so thankful to my alma mater and how supportive so many people were. It was such a great night.

The room! More people arrived after this.

Waiting to go up.

Reading.

Posing with my books.

Shows how full the room was! This was right after it finished.

At the signing table.

Cheesy photo with one of my best friends, Shawn.

Signing.

Shadowplay is Out Now!

Shadowplay is now officially, officially released! It should be available from your local retailer, and it’s on Amazon, Kindle, Nook, etc. I’m so excited that the next installment of Micah Grey’s story is now available for anyone to read.

I’ll do a roundup of all the links etc that have happened lately. Launch day is always such a flurry – but within a day or two, things will be mostly back to normal and I’ll get that weird come-down post-book-release.

Tomorrow I have an event at my alma mater, California State University East Bay, in the Biella Room of the library at 6 pm. It’s being thrown by the English Department as part of their Distinguished Writers series. Here is more information on the Facebook event page. If you’re in the area, please come!

Here’s a blog post I wrote about how to help sophomore authors.

My Shadowplay Blog Tour Post is all up to date, if you’d like to keep up with the guest posts and interviews I’ve been doing.

There’s an extract of the first two chapters over at Tor.com (spoilers for Pantomime)

Max Edwards wrote an academic essay about Pantomime, Malinda Lo’s Ash, and Patrick Ness’s More Than This. It’s called Normal People, Abnormal Worlds: Young Adult Speculative Fiction as a normalising force for queer adolescents.

Today’s stop is My Favorite Bit at Mary Robinette Kowal’s site where I talk about Shadowplay.

There have been some really lovely reviews recently:

SoSoGay Magazine says: “We freakin’ LOVE THIS BOOK! . . . Shadowplay is a fantastic novel because it is gripping and bold, with characters that are inclusive and stories that are non-judgemental. As it closes, you can really feel the fantasy elements drawing in, and so the third book in her trilogy, unnamed as of yet, is going to be spectacular – we can feel it.”

Me on Books says: “Shadowplay is a mysterious and haunting continuation of a series cloaked in magic and secrets.”

A & P have reviews by Ashley & Paul: Ashley says: “Shadowplay definitely does NOT have that second-book syndrome, and is a must read for fans of Pantomime! I would also recommend this series to anyone looking for an excellent YA fantasy full of magic and intrigue and secrets and world-building and basically just a fantastic series. You don’t want to miss these books.” Paul says: “This is a wonderful sequel to an amazing novel. What Pantomime did with the circus, Shadowplay does with stage magic. “

Lastly, here’s all the relevant order links. Please do pick up the book if it’s your thing, and if it’s not, then please help spread the word to people who may enjoy them.

UK: Amazon – The Book Depository - Hive

US: Amazon – Barnes and Noble – Indiebound – Powell’s

Canada: Amazon – Indigo

Australia: BookAdda

NZ: Fishpond

Shadowplay’s San Francisco Launch

Yesterday was my launch at Borderlands Books in San Francisco. If you haven’t been to this lovely independent store, I highly recommend visiting if you’re ever in the area. It’s beautiful, bright and airy, with a brilliant selection, a lovely cafe, and really wonderful staff.

There was a good amount of people, and it was so nice to see some familiar faces after several years. I always feel so thankful standing up there in front of people who gave up their time to come see me. I read from the start of Shadowplay and then answered questions before signing copies. An especially huge thank you to Jude from Borderlands for organising such a fantastic event.

Launching the second book in a series is interesting. I’m still excited, but I also know more what to expect. It’s more fun and less scary. Fly, little Shadowplay!

Craig and me in front of the Borderlands Cafe

Window display

Always have to point cheesily at my book in the window.

Pantomime and Shadowplay in the shop

The awkwardest part is sitting up there waiting for everyone to arrive.

Reading from Shadowplay

Signing books.

With Erica, my best friend and often my first beta – she sees my books when they’re really ugly.

With Natalie, who was a close friend when I was a kid, and now SHE has a kid!

Afterwards celebrating with Thai food with friends and family: me, my brother Ian, his girlfriend Tiara, my mom, my mom’s boyfriend Bob, my high school friend Teresa, my super close friend Shawn, and my bestie Erica.

Books Read in December (plus a 2013 roundup)

And so 2013 is gone. Here’s what I read in its last month:

1. Fables Vol 7: Arabian Nights - Bill Willingham

2. Fables Vol 8: Wolves – Bill Willingham

3. Fables Vol 9: Sons of Empire - Bill Willingham

4. Mapping the Mind – Rita Carter. I really recommend this book if you have an interest in neuroscience. Engagingly written and understandable to people with a limited scientific background. The human mind is an extraordinary thing.

5. Dragonfly in Amber – Diana Gabaldon. A strong follow up to the first book. At some point I’ll continue the series.

6. Fables Vol 10: The Good Prince – Bill Willingham

7. Fables Vol 11: War and Pieces – Bill Willingham

8. Fables Vol 12: The Dark Ages – Bill Willingham

9. Fables Vol 13: The Great Fables Crossover – Bill Willingham. Obviously I’m continuing my Fables re-read, though now I’ve reached the part of the series I haven’t read before. This volume crosses over with Unwritten (which I’ve read) and Jack of Fables (which I’m behind on)

10. About a Boy – Nick Hornby. As cute as the film.

11. Conjoined Twins: An Historical, Biological and Ethical Issues Encyclopedia – Christine Quigley. Research book – another very good one. I’ve had consistently good luck with non-fiction this year.

12. The Elites – Natasha Ngan. An engaging dystopia in Neo-Babel, starring a girl who discovers that everything she’s been lead to believe is a lie.

13. The Ghost of the Citadel (part 1 of The Copper Promise) – Jen Williams. Jen is a Team Mushens agency sister. I really enjoyed the first bit and love the idea in general of serialised e-fiction. Part 2 is out imminently, so I’ll pick that up too.

Totals for 2013:

82 books

26,078 pages (according to Goodreads), which is about 71 pages a day. But it’s probably less as I think Goodreads accounts for all of the pages, even if it’s copyright info, etc.

I started doing some OCD analytics to figure out how many YA versus fantasy versus nonfiction etc I read, but…I can’t really be bothered, and to be honest I don’t think anyone really cares! Goodreads does have a neat little pie chart, though:

Here’s the previous months’ recaps:

Books Read in November

Books Read in October

Books Read in September

Books Read in August

Books Read in July

Books Read in June

Books Read in May

Books Read in April

Books Read in March

Books Read in January & February

As a bonus, when looking through really old photos on my mom’s computer, I found my TBR list from 2004…ah, before Goodreads! I’ve read quite a number of these by now.

Pantomime is a Cybils Finalist!

So far, I approve of 2014. A few months ago, I learned that Pantomime was nominated for the Cybils Blogger award. I woke up and checked my Twitter to discover that it’s now one of the 7 finalist titles for the YA Speculative Fiction section! I’m so excited.

The website states:

Magical, atmospheric and spellbinding, Pantomime is more than just a story about a circus. With complex worldbuilding, full of culture, mythology, and magic, Lam manages to weave a story full of intrigue and emotion. Lam’s characters are fully realized and three-dimensional and the way Lam presents Micah’s struggle with gender identity and sexuality is handled deftly and without being didactic. Pantomime is a touching, complex, and fantastic story of a teen struggling to find a place in the world; a timeless theme.

— Sarah Mulhern Gross, TheReadingZone

Congratulations to the other shortlisted titles as well:

Conjured by Sarah Beth Drust (which has magicians and a carnival, so I’m sold!)

Dark Triumph by Robin LaFevers (I’ve seen her on the shelf next to mine because of our last names. Plus – an assassin nun? Awesome.)

Shadows by Robin McKinley (I read so many of her books as a teen that this is very surreal to be on a shortlist with her. Beauty was one of the books that made me want to write)

The Summer Prince by Alaya Dawn Johnson (heard nothing but amazing things about this, and it was an io9 book club pick)

The Waking Dark by Robin Wasserman (also heard really good things about this, too)

William Shakespeare’s Star Wars – Ian Doescher (I hadn’t heard of this book before, but wow, it sounds like such a nerd dare: “I dare you to write a mashup of Shakespeare and Star Wars!” “Challenge accepted.” Would be interested in picking it up.)

So, if the rest of 2014 could continue in this trend, I would be okay with that.

2014 Resolutions

I like resolutions well enough, even if often I don’t stick to them. But here’s what I’m planning for next year:

Writing:

1. Finish editing Bonkers Book and send to my agent by March.

2. Finish one of my two other WIPs, though which one depends on certain factors I’m waiting to hear about. (I hate waiting).

3. Finish my Ellada short stories and perhaps self-publish them in summer.

4. Apply for a couple of things that would be really awesome. *cagey*

Life:

1. Bump up the exercise. I’ve been good at exercising more consistently in 2013, but I want to do it more often and push myself more.

2. Eat better. As ever – I get into a good habit for awhile and then it all falls apart. My mood is so much better when I’m eating healthy food, though. I can’t be too stringent, or I take it too far, but I’d like my usual habit to be good food, with the odd splurge when out with friends.

3. Sleep less. I’m a chronic oversleeper and I hate it. I really want to train myself to get up early as I’m productive in the mornings.

4. Freak out less. Yeah, this probably won’t happen, but it’s worth trying. My anxiety has been more manageable in 2013 than 2012, but there’s room for improvement.

5. Be off the internet/computer more in the evenings. I spend far too much of my life looking at a screen, between the day job, the writing, and watching TV. I should spend more time doing things in the real world.

Reading:

1. Read at least 80 books. No other stipulations – I can read whatever genre I want, re-read, what have you.

Kirkus.com and California Events Reminder

I hope everyone’s having a lovely holiday season!

A few days ago, Leila Roy of Bookshelves of Doom wrote a lovely feature about Pantomime & Shadowplay for Kirkus.com.

“[Pantomime] stars Micah Grey, an immediately likable and somewhat naive runaway who has some completely understandable trust issues. It’s a very personal story . . . at the same time, it’s also a HUGE story . . . Seriously, the worldbuilding is so excellent: rich and sprawling, but not overpowering . . . I very much enjoyed spending time in Ellada again, and I especially loved being behind the scenes of a magic show and a fake seance or two . . . So if you haven’t read Pantomime yet, DO. Go out and read it, and then read Shadowplay.” - Bookshelves of Doom at Kirkus.com

In other news, I’m back in California and it’s lovely so far to see friends and family again. It’s so bright and warm and sunny…why did I leave again?! Last night I had a reunion with a bunch of folk from my youth group as a teen. It’s so strange to see us all grown up now – some of them have children, and it’s interesting to see which fields and jobs people have fallen into. I’m also looking forward to my two California events:

January 4th at 3 pm – Shadowplay launch at Borderlands Books, Valencia St, San Francisco

January 8th at 6 pm – Reading at California State University East Bay, Carlos Bee Blvd, Hayward

Those both link to the Facebook events pages.

If you’re in the area, please do feel free to come by or invite others that you know who might be interested.

2013 Round-up: Writing & Non-Writing Life

2013 was, overall, a very good year. Busy, and at times stressful, but overall, good. There were no catastrophes. My health was sound. I was surrounded by friends and family, did not have to worry about finances, and was able to travel. I had my first book out and now, at the end of the year, my second book has arrived and evidently is already available in some shops. I have a lot of be thankful for.

So, writing round-up. In 2013 I:

- Launched Pantomime, out into the big, wide world.

Edited Shadowplay at least 3 times. No idea of word count, as 10k was cut overall but there were plenty of tweaked scenes and such.

- Wrote 15k of Project GSS before I started over and re-wrote the 30k I had from 3rd person to 1st person. Then I decided it still wasn’t working so I changed the setting and plot and started over again and wrote 40k. Feedback says the 40k is vastly improved but needs more development, historical research, and expansion before I move towards the rest of the story, which is what I expected to hear.

- Wrote the first half of Bonkers Book, which was originally 66k, and has now grown to 74k in the second draft. That’s out with betas.

- Wrote 18k of Project M, and will hopefully be writing more of that in the new year.

- Wrote a Drystan short story called “The Snake Charm,” which is 10k.

- I’m a bit into another Drystan short story called “The Card Sharp,” which I’ll maybe finish by the end of this year, but unsure. I’m still not entirely sure what I’ll do with these short stories.

- Planned a Cyan short story called “The Tarot Reader”, but haven’t started it yet.

- Wrote a very short story for Halloween called The Ghost of Gold and Grey, which ties into project GSS.

- Wrote a poem of linked haiku called “Bamboo Moon” which is a lesbian re-telling of a Japanese fairy tale.

- I wrote about 40 guest posts, plus kept this blog up to date

- Events: spoke at Napier University, Gordonstoun school, Keith Academy, and Dollar Academy, appeared on SCHMU Radio, had a Pantomime launch at Forbidden Planet in London and Waterstones in Aberdeen, had another signing at the other Waterstones branch (now sadly closed), went to WFC in Brighton, and was a guest at the Inverness Book Festival.

Non-writing-wise, I continued to work full-time at my job as a document controller and did half of a PgCert in Information Management, which I received in May 2013. I’ve been better about fitness and go to the gym around 2-3 times a week, mainly doing yoga and running. I was able to travel, and went to the Czech Republic and Germany at the end of last year/start of this year. I also went to London and Edinburgh a few times, to Brighton, Barcelona, Amsterdam, and soon I’m flying back to San Francisco.

Put together – goodness me, but I was busy. No wonder I’m always tired.

Here’s one photo from each month, which I think gives a good overall picture of the year:

January:

Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic.

February. I’m doing two photos for this month as in March I was a hermit and can’t find any photos of anything during that time:

Waterstones Aberdeen launch.

London launch at Forbidden Planet.

April:

Signing at Waterstones Langstane (now sadly closed).

May:

Pantomime on the bestsellers paperback list at Gatwick airport in London.

June:



The only photo I can find from that month is me showing off my spray tan. Yes, that is me with a spray tan. I am very pale.

July:



My friend Erica and I outside the Dali Museum in Figures, Spain.

August:



Heusden, Netherlands.

September:



With James Smythe, Sam Copeland, my agent Juliet Mushens, at Kim Curran’s and Bryony Pearce’s joint launch for Control and The Weight of Souls in London.

October:



A quiet evening with one of my cats, Mowgli.

November:



The best photo ever taken with a langoustine & Tad Williams. WFC 2013 in Brighton.

December:



Me with Pantomime & Shadowplay!

Shadowplay Teaser 10: The True Temnian

10. The True Temnian

“If the Kymri are more predisposed to worship the sun, then the Temnians have more respect for the lunar cycle. During the full moon, or the night the Penglass glows under the stars, there is a huge celebration and feast. Elders dress as the moon and stars and bestow blessings upon those who need them. Special food is created that may only be eaten that night – sweet mooncakes and small sips of a drink called Dancing Water made from almonds, fermented honey, and small gold flakes, which is meant to be an elixir for long life. Small amounts of the drug Lerium are also sampled. On this night, men and women are meant to become closer to the Lord and Lady and their prayers will more likely be heard and wishes granted.”

- The Former Elladan Colonies, Professor Caed Cedar, Royal Snakewood University

Interested in more? Shadowplay, the sequel to Pantomime, will be released January 7, 2014.

Pre-order links:

UK: Amazon – The Book Depository - Hive

US: Amazon – Barnes and Noble – Indiebound – Powell’s

Canada: Amazon – Indigo

Australia: BookAdda

NZ: Fishpond