Soman Chainani's Blog, page 30

Boom! The trailer for The Last Ever After!

Starbucks Squatting, Shiny New Site Things, & Even More Answers

Hi, Evs and Nevs!

I’m writing to you from Starbucks right now since I just moved to a new apartment and we don’t have our wi-fi set up yet.  In fact, we can’t set it up because the place we’re staying in is only temporary.  Our real apartment is still being renovated (uh… even though we were told it would be ready by now).

So, no Internet unless we schlep down the street to Starbucks.  We can’t unpack anything because we’ll just have to pack again to move into our actual apartment — whenever that will be.  Also, none of the electrical outlets in my room work.  And we can’t cook in our kitchen because we can’t turn on the gas.  And the tub drains so slowly that I always end up standing ankle-deep in water, no matter how quickly I shower.

It’s exactly as fun as it sounds.

It could definitely be worse — I could be homeless and wandering the streets like Fantine — but.  When you move you want everything to be perfect and amazing and this is… not… that.

Anyway.  Life goes on!  We’re hard at work on the first few episodes of EverNever TV right now.  ENTV team member Ramon is masterminding a lot of the editing and he’ll be helping us shoot a lot of footage.  You’ll see him onscreen as well!

Also, have you guys seen the amazing trailer for Book 3???  Check it out if you haven’t:

 

What do you think??  EPIC, right?  And now that that’s been released, we’re going to launch the new website this week.

The good news is that if you already have an account and you’ve given yourself a nickname that’s NOT your email address, you’ll be able to keep using your regular login!  Otherwise, you’ll have to sign up all over again.  We’ve also fixed things so that you can choose your own username.

One small note: if you’re wondering where the original Open Chat Forum went, we had to temporarily archive it! Everything is still there; we’ve just made the post private.

Long story short, it used up a LOT of server power — more than we’re allowed to use — and the folks who host SGE.com threatened to shut down the entire site if we didn’t cut back. For now the best way to keep the site running is to archive it, but we’re working out a long-term solution so we can bring the post back.

Answers to your other burning questions:

Sebastian: Unfortunately, I think only one account is allowed per email address.  I’ll ask about this for you to make sure, but I’m fairly certain that’s the case!

Jaz: You should be able to use your RP name on the new site!

Oksa: Yes, the site will simply update to the new version when it officially launches.  So, if you’re waiting around and you happen to refresh the page at the right time, the page will refresh to the new version!

Doe: The Reader Gallery will definitely be transferred, although that process might happen a tad more slowly — partly because we’re updating to a completely new system and partly because there’s a LOT of artwork to copy over.  And the RP section will be pretty easy to find in the forum, don’t worry.

Michael’s Trailer Breaks the Internet, Plus Latest News, What Soman’s Writing Next, and the Return of Douggie

Hey Evs and Nevs,

IT’S HERE. Trailer Day is Here!

Check out Michael Blank’s absolutely awesome preview of THE LAST EVER AFTER at MTV.com by clicking on this link:

http://www.mtv.com/news/2176290/school-good-evil-trailer-reveal/

For quite a while, we were on the MTV news homepage along with Game of Thrones… Check out the awesome picture here:

Needless to say, Michael’s outdone himself. On the last two trailers, he worked with Manny Palad to create the extraordinary animation, but on this one, Michael was all by himself. Which meant for 3 months, he had to pour his heart, soul, blood, and tears into creating a fully-realized dreamscape to bring you into the world of Book 3.

This is not like an ordinary movie trailer, where Michael can shoot some footage and then edit it together. He has to decide on each and every pixel of every frame. Imagine having to control a blank screen over and over and over, for every millisecond, building up to a 90-second trailer. It’s crazy. I don’t know how he did it — but not only did he do it, he created something truly staggering.

It PERFECTLY captures the feelings of Book 3. Watching it makes me feel like I’ve stepped back into the book, which I’ve thankfully closed. Last week, the book went to press on Friday once and for all, which means I’ll never have it in my hands again until you do. It’s an awesome feeling, a scary feeling, and also slightly sad as I truly do love this book and this series, and it’s a bit gutting to have to let go of it for a while.

But not forever. As you’ll soon hear in a future announcement

In the meantime, I had BEA and BookCon craziness to deal with, as you’ll see and hear about in a future episode of EverNever TV (to be launched in late June.) I had a wonderful time signing Book 3 posters, doing panels and meeting fellow authors (including new friends Libba Bray, Jacqueline Woodson, David Levithan, Meg Medina, I.W. Gregorio, and Aisha Saeed.) I got to go to Jenny Han’s fab book party, hang out with Jory John (who wore the same outfit as me by accident at the Harper Party), meet the wonderful, fabulous Ellie and her family who is as lovely and amazing and smart and perfect as all her posts on here would suggest… and basically have four days where I didn’t think about writing or worry about deadlines, and could stay out late and just me me. Fun, silly, unstressed me.

Here’s the bad news. Once I finally felt unstressed… I got very sick.

Everyone had predicted this. They told me once I finished the series, to leave a week or so to allow myself to get violently ill, because that’s what happens when you finish a stressful period in your life — let alone FOUR STRAIGHT YEARS OF WRITING. I didn’t really listen… but on Saturday morning I woke up thinking I was going to die. I had a very high fever, could hardly breathe, terrible sore throat, and was shaking like a crazy person.

I don’t really get sick much — as you all know I’m OCD-Sophie-style about health, so I usually stave off anything that’s coming up with a lot of sleep, weird Chinese herbal concoctions, and hanging out in a steam room and sweating things out. But this time nothing worked. I was destined to be sick.

But by Monday, I was feeling a bit better and I’ve just needed to sleep more than usual and not exercise much the past few days, and by tomorrow, I’m hoping to be 100% back to normal. And by mid next-week, I should be back to writing…

What are you writing, you might ask. Good question.

A producer at Disney has an idea for a movie they want me to do, so I’m working on an outline for them. Then I’m doing a short story for We Need Diverse Books’ anthology, that’ll be released in late 2016, with stories from Sherman Alexie, Jackie Woodson, amongst others. And then I’ll start plotting my new top-secret series, which I hope to have figured out by October or so.

So that’s the general plan. Until then, there’s a trip to ALA in San Francisco to meet librarians and educators from around the country, and I’m also doing a panel at… get this… SAN DIEGO COMIC CON! Yes. The one and only Comic Con. I practically fainted when I found out — but then 5 minutes later, the MTV trailer went up — and now I’m remembering about Comic Con… and it’s just all too much to kind of take in at one time… and then I see this next to me…

… and I realize there’s no point really getting worked up about anything, because in the end, it’s all as ephemeral as Douggie Farts.

But still pretty cool.

On movie news, Universal’s still tinkering with the script, but we’re on schedule to hopefully cast up this fall, so stay tuned. (My mother called me: “CAN I HAVE EARLY COPY OF THE DVD TO SEND TO INDIA.” My response: “Um. It’s a bit early…” MOM: “YES BUT THIS WAY YOU’LL WRITE IT DOWN AND REMEMBER FOR WHEN THE TIME COMES.”)

Meanwhile, we’re furiously getting ready for all the other big SGE #3 reveals this month… including the new website next week. Don’t worry about your usernames; we’ll find a way for you to keep using them. And remember, JoAnn is your contact for all things website related, so keep shuttling her any questions you have via the blog.

EverNever TV will also launch in late June, so get ready for that; we’ve been filming the first few episodes and having a blast.

And keep sending in your brilliant contest entries for spin-off novels! Excited to judge the contest next week and reveal the winners on the brand new SGE site….

And with that, I’m going to go make lunch and get back to bed, so I can shake off the lingering doldrums from this clearly existentially-motivated illness.

More from me next week!

xo

Soman

All Trailer Post Coming Tomorrow!!

Hey folks,

Since the trailer posts tomorrow on MTV look for my weekly blog tomorrow rather than today! I’ll tell you how you can see the trailer on MTV and give you all the behind the scenes scoops!!!

In the meantime definitely read JoAnn’s Sunday post if you haven’t already for all the latest info on the brand new SGE website coming next week!

xo

soman

Book Madness, RP Limbo, & First Full SGE Site Exclusive

Hi, Evs and Nevs!

Weird to be writing to you on this blustery, drizzly Monday instead of Sunday.  I’m just getting a chance to catch my breath after a hectic week: first BookExpo America, then BookCon!  (On top of everything else we’re doing. Oy.)

BEA is more of an industry conference whereas BookCon is definitely a public convention.  Both, however, feature a lot of the same stuff.  They’re simultaneously every bookworm’s fondest dream (BOOKS EVERYWHERE) and worst nightmare (PEOPLE EVERYWHERE).

…All right, “nightmare” is a strong word.  I don’t hate people, truly.  But being surrounded by literally thousands of them while also trying to navigate the labyrinth of the exhibit floor can be overwhelming. 

Overall, though, it was a great experience and I’m so grateful to HarperCollins for giving me passes to both events!  Soman’s panels in particular were loads of fun — he’s always so eloquent and funny in person, and there were some great people speaking with him.  Here he is in action (with Libba Bray and Aisha Saeed):

And yesterday I even got to meet Ellie, who is as awesome in person as she is online!!  She was at BookCon with her family, all of whom are just as lovely as she is — the apple really doesn’t fall far from the tree. ♥

On the subject of the Open Chat Forum, we hear you guys destroyed an entire world??  Or, rather, Jack did.  Totally understand your frustration since you did it in anticipation of a brand-new forum where you would be building a brand-new world.  I promise it hasn’t been in vain, even though the timing doesn’t quite match up!  Your efforts will come full circle next week.

However, maybe instead of despairing, you can view this unexpected state of limbo as an opportunity.  You have an entirely blank slate right now — why not experiment while you’re waiting to establish something more permanent?  Is there a different kind of character you’ve been wanting to try?  Are there alternate timelines or even time-jumping scenarios you could explore?  Maybe you can answer crucial questions that have plagued mankind for ages, such as: What exactly is wibbly wobbly, timey wimey stuff?  What happens to us after the world ends?  Where do we go?  Do we go anywhere?

SO MUCH coming up soon!  In particular:

– The trailer for THE LAST EVER AFTER will premiere this Wednesday, June 3rd on MTV.com!  I’ve already seen the finished thing and you guys are going to love it.  Michael Blank and his team did a phenomenal job; it captures the essence of Book 3 perfectly.

– The SGE Spin-off Contest, for which you still have a week to enter!!  We’ve already got some amazing entries in the Reader Gallery; I can already sense that this is going to be another tough one to judge.

– The new website, of course, which will go live next week.  I know we mentioned it would launch at the beginning of June but as I mentioned before, this week is LAST EVER AFTER trailer week and we want to give you guys plenty of time to soak in its splendor! 

As promised, though, here’s your exclusive look at one of the biggest additions to the SGE website:

The hulked-out registration page!  Even if you’ve already done it on this site, you’ll need to re-register in order to a) participate in the community forum, and b) build your own avatar.  Here’s how it works:

First, go to the Enroll page (you can get there by clicking the link at the top right corner OR by going straight to the Common Room).  Scroll down, and you’ll see a place to generate a username.

You’ll do this by selecting categories from the drop-down menus and then choices from those categories.  (Note: the categories and options in the screenshot are just examples, not the real thing!)

Once you’ve made all of your choices, your new username will be generated! 

We’ve done it this way to make sure your identities stay private.  I know most of you make up online aliases anyway, but this guarantees that no one will get ahold of your real name.

Next, you’ll keep scrolling until you reach this form:

Filling out this part is for password purposes only!  If you ever forget or lose yours, you can have it reset without having to re-register.  We’ll never email you or send you spammy content.

Once you have this completed, it’s time to hit “Next Step” and go on to the avatar builder!

From here, you get to choose your face shape, skin color, nose, mouth, hair style and color, and your eyes:

Once you’ve made all your choices, voila!  You have an avatar! 

It will serve as your profile picture everywhere on the site, including the Common Room forum aaaand:

The Hall of Portraits.  That’s right — enrolling on the new site means you’re officially enrolling in the School for Good and Evil and your avatar will serve as your portrait.

What do you guys think? Are you excited??  (Or are you still mourning the destruction of your RP world?)

I can’t get to any more of your questions in this entry, I’m afraid, but if you still have any for me or Soman, please ask them!  We’re going to answer as much as we can in the coming weeks, as well as in episodes of EverNever TV.

Have a fantastic rest of the week!  Here’s your song of the day:

 

~JoAnn

Postponed!

Hi guys,

Just letting you know a few things:

1) The new website will be coming a bit later than expected since we want to focus on the trailer for Book 3 this week. We realized that if we launch the new site at the same time, things will be totally nuts.  We want to give you guys enough time to bask in the awesomeness of both!

2) My regular Sunday post will be pushed to tomorrow. Among other things, I’ll be posting a primer on the new site that explains some of the shiniest, fanciest new features. So you’ll still get your first full-length look!

3) I have recently discovered that the ezo momonga is an animal that exists:

I WANT ONE.

My regular post (plus your song of the day) will go up tomorrow! See you then, loves. ♥

~JoAnn

ALA Annual Conference

Soman will be at ALA’s annual librarian conference in San Francisco to give out the very first copies of SGE #3: The Last Ever After to librarians around the country. Stay tuned for more details.

Saturday
1–2 PM: Signing at Booth #3100

3–4 PM: AAP’s Teen Author Speed Dating

http://www.ala.org/

Summer Jaunts, Website & Trailer News, Answering Questions, and a New Spin Off Contest!

Hey Evs and Nevs,

As stressful and difficult as March and April were, trying to finish Book 3 and make it what I wanted it to be, the only advantage of it was that I was solely focused on one thing. Nothing else in life mattered except writing and that’s all I did, between sleeping and eating (and playing tennis.)

But this week… This week is insane! Finishing last passes at the Book 3 proof, which should be off to press any day now; prepping for BEA and Bookcon appearances; getting my haircut, going to dentist, eye doctor, and all the other medical appointments I postponed during Book 3; helping JoAnn get the website ready for launch; finalizing the trailer for the June 3rd reveal on MTV; trying not to kill Douggie for his tantrums (does summer bring out the crazy in dogs??); and trying to destress after the long Book 3 haul… It’s all pretty insane.

But hot weather tends to make everything okay. I just accept being sweaty, accept I have no control, and take things one problem at a time.

Speaking of sweaty, I have no air conditioner because A/C makes me sick and I prefer to just live the way cavemen did. Plus I’m from Miami and as a Floridian to the core, I feel like it’s my job to be perpetually sweaty. For those of you who don’t live in NYC, btw, it is HOT in NYC during the summer. So humid and sticky — going into the subway is like a descent into Hades — and you have to keep drinking water all day long otherwise you’ll pass out from dehydration at some point.

I did get some time to relax over Memorial Day, however. Here’s a couple pics: one on a tennis break with my big German trainer Christoph, and one with my friend Deb on a very, very windy pier in Manhattan.

Few pieces of news:

It’s looking like the new website will launch on June 1st or 2nd. JoAnn will explain exactly how to work the new website this Sunday, as you’ll likely have to create new usernames in order to migrate over to the new avatar system.

Meanwhile, the new Book 3 trailer will launch on June 3rd on MTV.com! It’s the best trailer yet, so stay tuned for more news on how to find it.

Also, check out this awesome countdown standee that will be in bookstores across the country starting 3 weeks before THE LAST EVER AFTER comes out! (That’s me and Toni, the best editor on the planet, btw.) If you see one in your bookstore, starting June 30th, take a picture of it for me!

OH. And check out this awesome cake of the German cover of SGE that the German publisher made for it. I hate cake, as you know, but I’d make an exception for this one and basically eat the whole thing.

And now to your awesome questions… I’m going to answer as many as I can before I have to go back to work on new website copy…

MYSTERY MAIDEN: I’m hoping to come to Canada later this summer — probably Toronto. As to how I got into publishing, I was in the movie world and had a great agent who realized one of my movie ideas (SGE) deserved to be a full-fledged book series, and she worked with me to find the right publisher! As for food, I’m all about the Ever food — it seems like a lot of smoked chicken, fish, salads, and creative desserts that don’t involve cake. I’m game.

OKSA: I’ll be in England in August on tour. More info to come…

GRACE OF WONDERLAND: Yes! Read JoAnn’s Sunday post for more info on avatars and the new website.

CAMMIE: “Love” in the world of SGE is just that. Real love. It’s not a world with categories or labels. I find labels quite boring in general. I’m all about trying to experience life as if labels never existed to begin with.

KATHRYN: I’m a total Slytherin. I played the scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz in school. And you’ll see which ship I like best in Book 3!

CAI CAI: I wanted to write books ever since I was a kid, but I thought SGE would be a movie versus a book until I really started working on it! I’d prefer non-celebrities in the movie actually.

MEGAN: I make up conversations in my head alllllll the time.

REBEKAH: My favorite book series… I do love Potter, but I loved the Oz series most of all. Welcome back! We missed you!

FLUFFY PENGUINS: I’ll definitely be writing another series. As for spin-offs… see the contest below!

Z: I think I always wanted to be an author. I love writing too much to do anything else!

ELLIE: I’ll answer my favorite of your question: What first comes to mind when I say pineapples? My answer: those horrible little jello cups that they give you in the school cafeteria filled with jello and pieces of pineapple.

HANNAH J: Read Book 3 :)))) And no, I tend not to base characters on real-life people or myself, because then it wouldn’t be as much fun to invent and use my imagination.

MEGAN: All good questions! You’ll get the answers in the last book.

SEEHA: I’ve read ‘Auntie Mame’ by Patrick Dennis at least 55 times.

OPALSAUCE: Casting will be via video around the world! There are TONS of new features on the website, including new quizzes and games. Accupuncture doesn’t hurt; it actually feels good to me. Waxing? What is waxing?? And in Book 3, Tedros… is in it. How’s that?

BONNIE: I am exactly 186 years old. As old as Yuba.

AZARIN JILAN: For anyone outside the US, I’ll give you a list of bookstores soon from where you can order signed copies of Book 3 to be shipped to you! You’ll just have to pay the bookstore extra shipping to get it sent overseas.

SOPHIE4EVER: The book description is always meant to be a little vague in order to avoid spoilers. We write most of it long before the book is done, so I wouldn’t go by the description at all, to be honest. Go in with a clear head.

BANANA HAR HAR: Yes! There will be plenty of bonus content in the PB of Book 3, as you’ll see soon enough. I’ll do an international tour for Book 3 starting in August (beginning in the UK), then the US, and perhaps Canada, Phillippines and beyond. As for a yearbook… keep your eyes peeled for more information on my next book soon… We’ll be announcing it this summer

CRYSTALLLITE: I’ll answer your question in Book 3!

LAI: Don’t worry about getting published quite yet. Focus on learning to become a happier, better writer and when the time to get published appears, it’ll happen naturally.

SOPHIE N: I love Hort. You’ll see.

CG2156: SGE isn’t just for girls; boys just get nervous sometimes when there’s girls on the cover of something. But trust me; I go to signings ALL the time where there’s plenty of boy fans. They just are a little secretive about it.

I’ll answer more questions in my post next week!

Now for this week’s contest… it’ll be super fun. Here’s the challenge. Now that I’m done with Book 3, I know all of you want SGE spin-offs! So your challenge is to create a cover for the SGE spin-off you’d want to see! You have two weeks and here’s the rules:

1. All entries must be posted to the Reader Gallery

2. You have to draw the cover of the book, with the title of the book and a subheader of what it means, along with your name.

So for instance:

HORT’S LOVE POTIONS

A Weasel’s Guide to Winning Your True Love

by

Montana Mockingjay

3. You can decorate it however you like, but entries will be judged less on artwork than on what spin-off you propose and how creative it is!

4. Entries are due Monday, June 8th at noon! And you can upload to the old site or new site. The Reader Gallery will carry over.

Have a great time with it!!!!

xo

Soman

Answers on the Way…

Hey folks,

Today’s been nuts, because I’m prepping for BEA, managing the last tweaks to the Book 3 proof, and I’m about to step into the release party for Jenny Han’s PS I STILL LOVE YOU… So look for my next post tomorrow, in which I answer many of your questions from last week, along with other special surprises.

xo

Soman

Death by Paper plus Q&A Answers

Hi, Evs and Nevs!

Hope you’re having a lovely Sunday. As the proofing process for Book 3 winds down, I’m finding myself with a ridiculous amount of paper on my hands. We’ve mentioned before how long the book is — imagine me carrying around three times that number of pages.

That’s what happened the other day. I had a copy of the newly proofed draft for Soman, a copy for me, & then a copy of the old draft with all of our notes. Part of my job was to compare both versions to make sure we’d corrected all of the old mistakes before going over the new draft, so… yeah.  I walked very carefully that day, keeping in mind that “Local Woman Trips on Stairs, Is Smothered to Death By 2,000 Sheets of Paper” would make a terrible headline.  (For multiple reasons.)

Luckily, today I had only one copy of the book to carry while I was at the park.