Sarah Beth Durst's Blog, page 48

Booklist Starred Review for Vessel!

Ridiculously excited to report that Vessel received its third starred review, in the October 1st issue of Booklist!!!

I'm simply over the moon about this.  It's so wonderful to hear that people are enjoying Liyana's story.  Yay!  And thank you so much to everyone who has shared their kind words about the book.

Vessel
By Sarah Beth Durst
(Margaret K. McElderry; ISBN 9781442423763; September 2012; Fall Catalog)

Liyana is a vessel, the chosen one, nurtured, trained, and offered up by her clan for a great honor: giving her life so their goddess, Bayla, may return to earth to inhabit her body. But the goddess does not return. At the end of her day of sacrifice, Liyana is still alive, her clan having left her alone, disgraced, and in grave danger in the desert. Vessel is the read-alike for your Hunger Games–obsessed teens. From the quest to find the other clans’ spurned vessels, to the two attractive love interests, to the intelligent, independent young heroine, this folkloric fantasy, while harkening to that ever-popular novel and movie, is unique in its own web of clever, complex characters and attention-absorbing adventure. Its setting alone is so vital that it becomes another character, a part of the action. Readers will feel the desert heat, the earth-numbing droughts, the vicious sandstorms and resulting sandwolves, and the bizarre sensations of a goddess living within the body of its human vessel. Brilliantly riveting, Vessel’s only disappointment is its single volume, a fate that relegates Liyana, her lovers, and her friends to their own vessel, a single book.

-- Booklist, starred review

Baltimore Book Festival and NAIBA 2012

This weekend, I will be in two places at once: the Baltimore Book Festival and the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association (NAIBA) Fall Conference.

I am really excited about this for two reasons:

(1) They both sound like great events.

(2) The cloning machine is functional!  So far, we've only cloned strawberries, but they're delicious so I think we're set to go.

Here is my schedule for the weekend:

Baltimore Book Festival
September 28-30, 2012 (Friday to Sunday)
Mt. Vernon Place, Baltimore, MD

Panel - Fri Sept 28, 6pm in the Children's Bookstore Tent - Michael Buckley, Ellen Datlow, Sarah Beth Durst, Jessica Day George, Adam Gidwitz, Shannon Hale - "Once Upon a Slightly Different Time: Fairy Tales Retold"

Panel - Sun Sept 30, 1pm at SFWA Pavilion - Don Sakers, Sarah Beth Durst, Jack McDevitt, and Alethea Kontis - "Where did that come from?"

Reading - Sun Sept 30, 3pm at SFWA Pavilion - Cat Rambo, Raul Kanakai, Sarah Beth Durst, Andrew J. Fox, and Brandi Tarvin


New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association (NAIBA) Fall Conference
September 29, 2012 (Saturday)
Hyatt Regency Crystal City, Arlington, VA

Signing - Sat Sept 29, 5pm

Author Reception - Sat Sept 29, 9:30-11pm

Hope to see you there!

Books of Wonder on Saturday

I love bookstores.

I know, I know, it's a shocking confession.  But it's true.  I love them like Lucy loves her wardrobe, like Ariel loves her grotto, and like Charlie loves his chocolate factory.  And one of my favorite bookstores is Books of Wonder in New York City.



Walking into Books of Wonder feels a bit like entering Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory, minus the scary boat trip with Gene Wilder.  The shelves are stuffed with books that I want to read, the walls are decorated with gorgeous picture book art, and the people who work there are consistently awesome.  Every time I do a book event there, I have a magnificent time... which is why I am so very excited for this Saturday.

This Saturday (9/22/12) from noon to 2pm, I will be reading/signing at Books of Wonder as part of their Out of This World Teen Fiction panel.  Full lineup is:

SARAH BETH DURST - Vessel
KARSTEN KNIGHT - Embers & Echoes
MALINDA LO - Adaptation
JESSICA SHIRVINGTON - Entice

If you're in NYC, I hope you'll stop by and say hello!

VESSEL Now Available

On the day she was to die, Liyana walked out of her family's tent to see the dawn. She buried her toes in the sand, cold from the night, and she wrapped her father's goatskin cloak tight around her shoulders. She had only moments before everyone would wake...

I am thrilled to announce the release of my new book, VESSEL!

VESSEL is a fantasy novel for young adults, published by Simon & Schuster / Margaret K. McElderry Books.  It's set in a desert land where serpents made of unbreakable glass fly through the sky and wolves made of only sand hunt within storms.  Liyana is destined to be a vessel, to sacrifice herself so her clan's goddess can inhabit her body... but her goddess never comes.

I loved writing this book.  I loved creating Liyana's world, and I loved immersing myself in it.  Sitting down at the keyboard felt like stepping through a portal.

As a kid, I used to routinely check my closet for an entrance to Narnia.  VESSEL is my plunging into that closet and bursting out the other side into a land of sun and sand.

Really, that feeling is part of why I love books so much.  Books are (or can be) portals into other worlds, other lives, and other adventures.  I love crossing through those portals, and I love that when I cross back out again, this world feels wider and fuller.

To create Liyana's world, I researched several deserts (the Sahara, the Gobi, and the deserts of the Southwest US), and then I filled Liyana's desert with its own magic and mythology.  I wanted the feel of a rich storytelling tradition but in a unique world.  The act of weaving together these bits of reality with pieces of imagination felt very much like fulfilling a childhood dream.  As a kid, I used to spend hours inventing imaginary lands.  I'd tape together all the scrap paper I could find and draw enormous oceans and mountains and deserts.  I'd doodle pictures of magical creatures and fantastical plants in my school notebooks.  I even read the phone book in search of names for magical characters.  Okay, yes, maybe I took it a wee bit too far, but in my defense, it was a safer way to spend an afternoon than attempting to ski off the roof of a two-story building (which my brother tried, until our mother suggested he and his friend find a slightly less life-threatening activity).

The story itself for VESSEL came not through research but through a dream.  I don't always remember my dreams.  (The one with a legion of spiders was a standout.  Ditto the one with the killer robot Gonzos.)  But this one stayed with me.  It was just an image really: a girl, dancing.  She was barefoot in the sand, and the moon was shining over head.  And she knew that when her dance ended, she'd die.  But still, she danced wildly and joyfully.

When I woke up, I was still thinking about that girl.  I couldn't shake the image of her -- her skirts swirling around her and her tattooed arms reaching toward the sky.  I kept wondering why she was dancing, why she was joyful, and why she was going to die.  And that was the moment when VESSEL was born, when Liyana danced across my desert.

VESSEL is about losing your destiny -- and what happens after.  It's a sweeping, romantic, epic adventure.  And I am so very, very excited about it!  I hope that you will join me on the journey to Liyana's desert and dance on the desert sands with her as the sky serpents fly overhead and the sand wolves howl.

Much more about VESSEL, including the first two chapters, can be found here.

Suddenly, September

Suddenly, it's almost September.

All the stores started showing back-to-school displays in July, and I rolled my eyes and ignored them... and then September stealthily sneaked up on me.

And now it's only 14 days until VESSEL comes out!!!

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Eeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!

(That was me being extremely excited for you to meet Liyana, not me suddenly seeing a mouse.  Just to clarify.)

I'm also extremely excited about my fall schedule.  I have lots of fun book events coming up, including appearances at:

Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA) Trade Show on September 7-9

New York Public Library, Teen Author Reading Night on September 12

Baltimore Book Festival on September 28-30

New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association (NAIBA) Fall Conference on September 29

New York Comic Con on October 13

For all the details and for updates and additions, please visit the Appearances page of my website.

Hope you're enjoying these last few weeks of summer!

Ivy - Steinerne Wächter

I am very happy to announce that the German edition of Enchanted Ivy -- Ivy - Steinerne Wächter -- is now available in Germany!


I adore the cover.  It looks so magical.  And Lily is so clearly poised to enter that magic.  Here's the book description in German:

DER SCHLÜSSEL ZU EINER MAGISCHEN WELT … Die sechzehnjährige Lily träumt davon, an der Princeton University zu studieren. Dazu muss sie einen geheimnisvollen Test bestehen und einen Schlüssel finden, der angeblich ein Tor zu einer anderen Welt öffnet. Eigentlich glaubt Lily überhaupt nicht an Magie – bis sie von einem unheimlichen Wesen angegriffen wird und sich plötzlich zwischen den Fronten eines Konfliktes zwischen Menschen und magischen Kreaturen wiederfindet. Bald steht nicht nur ihr Leben auf dem Spiel, auch ihre Familie gerät in größte Gefahr …

Huge thanks to my German publisher, Egmont/LYX, for making this book possible.  And to the wonderful translator, Katrin Harlaß.  And to all my German readers!  Lily, Tye, and Jake are very excited to met you!

In related news, a good friend of mine visited Germany a couple weeks ago and took this photo of Ice in Dresden:


So happy to see Cassie and Bear traveling the world!  I feel like a proud parent.  Must resist the urge to send them care packages...

London Olympics 2012

I love the Olympics.  It's full of stories about people reaching for impossible dreams.  I eat that stuff up for breakfast (along with my Olympic-themed Wheaties*).

A few thoughts, in the order in which I watched events:

Opening Ceremonies

Very nice.  I like how they transformed the idyllic agrarian Middle Earth into the Age of Orcs and then forged the One Ring.  Somewhat disappointed that the torch was not lit by Ents.

Also disappointed that Katniss didn't ride out during the Parade of Nations.

And I don't understand why the Opening Ceremonies has commentators.  It's like watching TV with an overly talkative friend that you didn't invite.  I kept expecting to hear Bob Costas munching on chips.

Archery

Never watched Olympics archery before.  Surprisingly satisfying, even though Merida didn't appear and no one split an arrow down the middle (which the movies have taught me happens in all archery tournaments). 

I do wish the event had taken place in Sherwood Forest.

Beach Volleyball

I love that it was someone's job to create a massive sandbox in London.  Hope they let kids play in it when they're done.  Also hope they don't have too many cats around.  Wonder if it's someone's job to clean out that oversized litterbox every morning.

Water Polo

Always disappoints me that water polo doesn't involve swimming horses.  Or (as my Twitter friends suggested) giant seahorses or hippocampi.  Or for an extra dose of danger: kelpies**. 

Skeet Shooting

After hitting 99 out of 100 skeets (best score for any Olympics), gold medal skeet shooter Kim Rhodes said, "Sometimes you just miss."

I kind of want that on a mug.


* Full disclosure: I've never tried Wheaties.
** I mean the murderous water horses of Celtic mythology, not the fluffy puppies.

VOYA Starred Review for Vessel!

I'm thrilled to report that Vessel received a highlighted review from VOYA!!!

VOYA, Voice of Youth Advocates, is a trade magazine for YA librarians.  It has its own book rating system -- see graphic below -- but a highlighted review is essentially the VOYA-equivalent of a starred review.

I was so excited to see this and am overjoyed that people are enjoying Vessel!

Here's the review:

5Q - 4P - J - S - HIGHLIGHTED REVIEW
Durst, Sarah Beth.  Vessel.  Margaret K. McElderry/Simon & Schuster, 2012.  432p.  $16.99. 978-1-4424-2376-3.

Liyana of the nomadic Goat Clan is destined from birth to be a vessel for the goddess Bayla. When her goddess and those of many other tribes are kidnapped by a vengeful citizen of the Crescent Empire, vessels bereft of their divine possessors are killed outright or left to die in the desert. Survivors have little choice but to track down the abductors to save their deities and reclaim a place in their clan. Also struggling to survive is young emperor Jarlath of the Crescent peoples, who are suffering through a terrible drought. Believing the magic of a far-off lake will save his people, he attempts to protect the empire at the cost of losing all the neighboring tribes to a famine. With sand wolves and giant worms, the folklore of the tribes comes to life as magic wielding gods and goddesses join the cast.

Vessel is a fast-paced, thrilling adventure set in a hostile world filled with complex clan feuds and strong traditions. Throughout the book, characters share stories of their clans. The storytelling culture is reminiscent of other peoples with strong oral traditions, like many Native American tribes. In addition to the unique history Durst has created as a backstory, the highly descriptive writing forms intense visuals for the reader so that characters, animals, and locations feel rich and realistic.  -- Laura Perenic.

THE LOST, THE MISSING, and THE FOUND

I have news!!!

I sold my first novel for adults!  Actually, three novels -- my very first trilogy!

This is how I feel about it:


Or in words:

YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here's the announcement in Publishers Marketplace:
   
Fiction: Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Sarah Beth Durst's THE LOST, THE MISSING, and THE FOUND, about a woman running from her bleak life who finds herself trapped in a small town where all things lost -- luggage, keys, people -- are mysteriously deposited, to Mary-Theresa Hussey for Luna, by Andrea Somberg at Harvey Klinger (world).

I am making my debut into the world of books for adults.  But don't worry!  I'm not leaving the YA world!  I will be writing two books a year -- a book for adults and a book for teens -- and I am tremendously excited about this.  (Pub dates are still up in the air, but my best guess at my upcoming publication schedule is here.)

You might ask, "Why two books a year?"  Quite simply, I'm a faster writer than I used to be.  (Or more accurately, I'm more efficient with my writing time.  I think it's because I understand my own writing process better.  This was a really pleasant discovery.)  Also, I have more stories that I want to tell!

You might ask, "Why books for adults"?  In a recent interview, I was asked about writing for different audiences.  Here's what I said: "I love writing fantasy.  I love creating a story that could never happen and taking readers on a journey into the impossible.  Some of these journeys call for a younger protagonist; some call for an older one.  I actually try hard not to think about the audience as I write.  I think about what works for the story and its characters."  This trilogy calls for an adult protagonist.

You might ask, "What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?"  Well, the average cruising airspeed of a European Swallow is roughly eleven meters per second, or twenty-four miles an hour, but I'm not convinced that's a relevant question.

I'm really, really excited to write these books and to share them with you.  And I hope that you'll join me in performing the traditional Snoopy dance of joy!!!

Kirkus Starred Review for Vessel!

Super excited to report that Vessel received its first trade review, and it's a starred review from Kirkus!!!

Woohoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Without further ado (though you should know that I am completely doing the Snoopy Dance of Joy as I type this), here's the review:

Vessel
By Sarah Beth Durst
(McElderry; ISBN: 9781442423763; September 2012; Fall catalog)

STARRED REVIEW.  When a summoning goes awry, Liyana must try to save her people and learn how to live for herself, in this sweeping adventure. Chosen as a "vessel" to host the Goat Clan’s goddess, Bayla, and abandoned when Bayla doesn’t come, Liyana finds herself alone in the desert. Korbyn, god of the Raven Clan, rescues Liyana and provides her with a purpose: find the four other vessels who are also missing deities. Soon, Liyana and Korbyn pick up stalwart Fennik (horse god Sendar), princess-y Pia (silk goddess Oyri) and angry Raan (scorpion goddess Maara). Besides the desert’s many dangers, the ragtag group faces the massed army of the Crescent Empire, led by a young Emperor and his malicious magician, Mulaf. The tribes need their gods to save them from illness, starvation and drought, but the gods need to possess vessels to work magic—an arrangement whose logic several characters begin to question. Liyana is self-sacrificing but not a saint; stubborn, loyal, and curious, she finds new reasons to live even as she faces death. Durst offers a meditation on leadership and power and a vivid story set outside the typical Western European fantasy milieu. From the gripping first line, a fast-paced, thought-provoking and stirring story of sacrifice.