Title and Cover for Book 2 Coming Soon!

OTHERKIN is the first in a series of books. It's out July 31, and book 2 will be out in February of 2013.

Which means, given how things work in publishing, that I've written book 2 and will shortly be getting my editors notes on it to do a quick rewrite.

Meanwhile, the fabulous folks at KTeen have been working on other things, like publicity for OTHERKIN (more on that soon!), and cover art for book 2.

I got the art, and I love it. Like, unreservedly, fabulously, LOVE. IT.

I first saw it on my phone in an airport, and my heart leapt. I thought, "It can't be THAT cool, can it?" So when I got home and looked at it properly, I was prepared to find things wrong with it.

Except I just kept finding more things I loved!

So I'll be sharing the cover art and the title for book 2 in the Otherkin series early next week. Seriously, folks, it rocks!

Podcast with Jen Klein and On The Page!

I was very fortunate to be invited to be part of "Pat's Angels" in a podcast with screenwriting instructor/guru Pilar Alessandra in their latest podcast for On The Page. You can find it on iTunes here or here.

The lovely, brainy, writer extraordinaire Jen Klein was my co-guest, making it even more fun and informative. That's her on the right hand side, and in between us (in a redhead sandwich he's long dreamed of) is the fabulous Pat Francis. You can find his wonderful podcasts about music called Rock Solid here.

We discussed book writing versus script writing and the YA market because we're both involved in both things.

Pat and Pilar made it so easy and fun. You really should check out their other podcasts.

My voice sounds so... sleepy and nasally and drawled out and yet pushy and somehow weird. And I was wide awake and not clogged up and trying to be nice. Makes me appreciate folks who do this for a living and sound perky and fabulous, like Jen and Pilar and Pat. They are all truly awesome.

I also talked a bit too much. Shut up, Nina! Let Jen talk! Or maybe that's how I am in real life too. If so, I apologize in advance to everyone, ever.

Who knew doing a podcast would be the case for so much self reflection for me? I'll shut up now and let you go listen to it.

Here I am with the lovely Pilar and Jen:

Goodreads Giveaway - Win a Copy of Otherkin!

My fabulous publisher, KTeen, is having a giveaway on Goodreads for my book! Woo hoo!

Readers in US and Canada can win 1 of 10 copies by entering here.

Go ye and enter!

Why We Must Save Big Cats in the Wild

This man, Dr. Alan Rabinowitz, is the CEO of Panthera, and a hero.

In this 45 minute lecture he will make you understand not only why we must save big cats in the wild, but how. He will change your understanding of how conservation works.


‘The Future of Big Cats’ Lecture by Dr. Alan Rabinowitz, at the Fortune Brainstorm Green Conference from Panthera Cats on Vimeo.


If you're particularly interested in his Tigers Forever program, that starts around minute 29, but the whole lecture is well worth watching.

He talks about how it's not just our encroachment on nature that is destroying it - it's our lack of respect. But if we are to save ourselves as a species, we must respect others. Dr. Rabinwitz has some great ideas on how to start.

Is it Okay to Write About That Person Who is Gone?

I'm thinking a lot about my dear friend Natalie today. She died in what was essentially a suicide back in February of 2005, and that loss still brings up a lot of emotions for me, as I can only imagine it does for her mother and sister and boyfriend. She was my best girl friend, a person I admired and loved. I still do. But suicide is awful for those left behind. I can't begin to imagine the pain she must have felt to do such a thing.

The photo above is of her with her beloved dog, Frances, a Chow Chow Natalie raised from a puppy who was the dearest, most fabulous dog you could ever hope to meet. Raising Frances brought out the best in Natalie, and there was a lot about her that was wonderful.

She was fascinating, brilliant, creative, hilarious. One of the few people I've met in my life whom I immediately thought: "I must be that person's friend." I was lucky enough that she felt the same way about me.

So now I'm thinking about using things I experienced while with Natalie in my writing. I'm still playing with the idea, but it also worries me. Natalie isn't "mine" to write about. She was her own person, with a family, and I can't help worrying I'll hurt them if I write something they recognize as being part of her.

But I learned a lot from Natalie. We had some hilarious, frustrating, nurturing, angry, loving adventures. I think she'd approve of me using some of those times together in my writing. As a creative person herself, she would understand. And she was, without fail, the most supportive person in the world when it came to my writing.

I'm still thinking about it. I wonder how other writers feel about doing this sort of thing. We often use our own emotions and experiences as jumping off places for our writing. But how much of that is good and is art, and how much is exploitation?

Sorry. A weighty blog post today. But it's also fun to share Natalie with the world. I don't want her forgotten. She was one of a kind.

The ARCs of Otherkin are Here!

I got a box of advance reader copies (ARCs) of my book today!  I picked them up at FedEx and opened the box right in my car using a key because I just. couldn't. wait. And - behold! The most beautiful sight I've ever seen! (You can tell I took this photo in my car. That's the inside of the passenger door of my beloved Accord.)

Advance reader copies are used for promotion before a book comes out. So despite my zombie-like urge to wander the streets blindly handing these out to everyone I meet, I have to use them for giveaways and reviews to supplement the publicity my publisher does.

They are uncorrected, unofficial, without the texture or cover copy of the final book - and they are  GORGEOUS.

I may take one to bed with me. Like a teddy bear. I can still give that one away right?

Keep an eye on this space for giveaways and contests!  Huzzah!

Book 2 - Turned In!

I've been missing in action for the last couple of months due to the looming deadline - I had to turn Book 2 (the sequel to Otherkin) in to my editor by April 1.

Then in mid-March I got the flu. I got it bad. After about a week of fever and exhaustion, I made myself go in to work because I just couldn't believe I wasn't better yet.  But your body doesn't care if you think you're better, does it? I must have looked kind of gray, because most folks at work took one look at me and said  "Go home."

So I stayed home for another week! Fricking flu. Get your flu shots, cherubim. I don't like getting shots, myself, because my last tetanus/polio booster was so painful. But I hear the flu shots aren't nearly that bad, and it'd be worth it not to be stuck on your couch for two whole weeks.

I got relatively little writing done while I was sick. Writing takes energy, even if it's all in your brain. I did manage to finish up a short story I contributed to Two and Twenty Dark Tales (coming this October 16!), but Book 2 wasn't progressing as fast as it needed to.

Enter my fabulous agent and equally fabulous editor, who conspired to give me two extra weeks to hand the book in.

Those last two weeks I only really left my house to go to work and to buy groceries. The rest was a blur of computer screen, typing fingers, and a grumpy cat who wanted to be played with.


Speaking of the cat, along the way, she got a massive toothache and had to have five teeth removed. Poor kitty. She's so stoic, I had no idea she was in pain from tooth decay until it got really bad. Here's my sweet Lucy a couple of years ago. Note her pyramidal shape (we're still working on that), her fluffy blackness w/brown highlights, and how she has co-opted my pillow. Since our beloved older kitty Max died, we have  bonded all the more, even though she remains a bit of a feral cat at heart. I rescued her from the outdoors when she was about six months old.

Cover Reveal! Two and Twenty Dark Tales

Over at The Story Siren you'll find the gorgeous cover of a fall release I'm proud to be part of - TWO AND TWENTY DARK TALES, an anthology of dark short stories inspired by Mother Goose rhymes.

It was a blast going through my favorite nursery rhymes (I still have the copy of Oxford Nursery Rhymes my parents gave me when I was three!), doing some research, and writing my own crazy twist on it. I'm really looking forward to reading the other stories to see how my fellow writers approached it.

The list of YA authors included is most impressive. I'm so excited to be in their company!  Head on over here to check it out and enter a contest to win swaggish goodies!

Page Proofs for Otherkin!

Got this via Fed Ex from my publisher today:

Page proofs of my book!  I'm so tickled, I think I'll just giggle quietly to myself for awhile. I wrote a book! I still can't quite believe it.

After that I'll need to get down to work and read the whole thing very carefully, checking for typos and factual errors. This is my last chance to catch them.

Meanwhile, am down to the wire finishing Book 2 (whose title shall be revealed later...) at the same time! Woo hoo! Bring it on! These are excellent problems to have.

He Speaks for Animals Who Cannot

Checking in from deep writing and a terrible flu to share with you my current hero - Dr. Alan Rabinowitz, CEO of Panthera. He told his story to Stephen Colbert in a far better way than I ever could:

The Colbert Report
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He's been diagnosed with leukemia. I don't know how much longer he has, but he's dedicating what may be his last years to trying to save the tiger. You can read about it here.

This is his book.

This is his organization.

Okay, back to the writing cave. I'll emerge in a few weeks. Meanwhile, be well.

Save the tiger!

Alas, No Hotties Here

I'm sicker today than I was yesterday, so I'm really sorry to have to bow out of the Hotties of Literature Event being organized by the fabulous Brigid Kemmerer. 

It isn't often that I'm too bleary to hunt the internet for cute guys (and girls) to cast in a book I love, but this cold or flu thing is slamming me hard. Disappointed!

So I wanted to apologize for falling down on my YA author duties and not offering up my ideas for who should star in the movie of AWKWARD (Marni Bates's first novel - so funny and sweet) and CLOCKWORK ANGEL (Cassie Clare's awesome first book in the Infernal Devices series). But even typing up this apologetic blog post is exhausting enough to make me want to lie down.

Please excuse typos or incoherence. I hope to be back to my snappy writing self in a day or two.

Be sure to visit Brigid's blog tomorrow. She'll have a whole list of blogs participating, so get ready for the hotness!

Crawling back into bed now. Send chicken soup if you get a chance.

Looming Deadline Looms!

I have a big fat deadline on April 1 for book 2 in my Otherkin series (which I'm very excited about!), and another, smaller, but very important deadline on March 25 for a short story that will be part of an anthology published by Month 9 Books. (More on that super cool project in another post!)

So that's why I haven't been blogging much lately, and why I won't be blogging much for the next couple of weeks.

Also, I managed to catch a bad cold and am doing that weak sickly thing at the moment. Sigh. Bad timing, virus, you jerkface.

I'll be pouring most of my energy into writing to meet those deadlines (plus my cool regular job in TV development, once I get better) so this blog will be a bit of a wasteland for a little while. But I shall return!  And with some very cool stuff to discuss.

Till then, have a fabulous March! Keep working on making your own dreams come true.

Kindle Edition of Otherkin now available!

It's still not really real to me, but the evidence continues to pile up that my book is really coming out.

The latest such evidence is that the Kindle edition is now available for pre order.

YAY!

I'll share reflections on yesterday's YALitChat soon. Mostly it was nutty and fabulous!

YA Lit Chat, here I come!

The fabulous non-profit organization YALitChat does a chat on Twitter every Wednesday, usually at 9pm EST./6pm PST, and this week, on Leap Day, Feburary 29, I'm one of the featured authors!  Woo hoo! And lucky me.

If you're on Twitter, just follow the #yalitchat hashtag at 6pm PST tomorrow to join in the conversation, ask questions, play word games, plus win books and other swag!

I've compiled a juicy little gift bag o' swag for one lucky winner. Details tomorrow. Since my book's not out till July and I don't have any Advanced Reader Copies yet, it'll be cool fun stuff in the theme of my book, Otherkin.

Other 2012 debut authors on the chat will be giving away copies of their books and related goodies as well.

It'll be a Leap Day full of tasty book goodness and flying tweets!

Otherkin - Latest Postings

Things are ramping up slowly, publication and publicity-wise.  I submitted an application to YAbookscentral.com (a wonderful site jam packed with cool YA books and reader reviews) and they just approved and posted it on their site! It's here. Woo hoo!

Also, Publisher's Weekly gave the book and the whole series a brief mention in their Fall 2012 Preview here. (Scroll down to Kensington/KTeen.)

It's weird how huge these things loom in my mind. I'm just one of hundreds or thousands on these sites. But for me this is BIG. It's all crazy and official-like. I don't know if I'll ever get used to this! I kind of hope not...

How Publication Works - The Copy Editing Stage

I have now officially gone through the copy editing stage of publication, and I have this to say - copy editors rock!

For those curious about publication, here's how my copy edit process worked.

1. You're done making the changes your editor asked you to make on your manuscript. Congratulations! You send it to your editor and she sends it off to the copy editor. My book went out as a Word file (NOT .docx, by the way, folks seem to hate that format) set up to mark all changes and add comments.  The file still showed all my editor's comments/changes and my edits thereafter.

2. Super Copy Editor goes over ever single word in the manuscript, using his/her Mind Boggling Grammar Knowledge and Special Punctuation Insight, making changes (which were marked in the Word file), asking questions about inconsistencies, and so on.

In my case, he/she also made something called a "style sheet" which listed the different kinds of marks used on the file and their meaning. The style sheet also contained all the unusual or unique terms I used in the book, alphabetically, along with queries about any inconsistencies, as well as a list of all the characters in the book, along with their distinguishing characteristics.  This list has become incredibly useful as I write Book 2 in the series.

Thank you, Super Copy Editor!

3. The copy editor sends the file back to my editor, who forwards it to me with instructions to make changes so that they are marked, and not to delete any other marks or comments.  Also, please save the file as .doc or as the earlier form of Word, not the most recent Word, which is the evil .docx.

4. I go over the manuscript on my computer, checking every change. As I soon realize that Super Copy Editor (hereafter referred to as SCE) fricking knows his/her business, I give up studying every added or deleted comma and concentrate on the queries.

In my case, because I'm writing fantasy, I made up a lot of terms to fit my world buillding.  For example, Otherkin contains an organization called the Tribunal. At some points I referred to it as a singular entity, at other times as a plural one. SCE asked me to choose.  Singular it is!

At other, awesome points in the file, SCE corrected my spelling of Pepe LePew (note that both the L and the P in his last name are capitalized), and asked me very politely if perhaps I'd like to choose a different word here because I'd used the same word in the previous sentence. Yes, please and thank you!

I also changed a couple of things in my acknowledgements, opined on where I'd like the epigraph to show up, and weighed in on whether or not I'd like a break in the text when a time break happened in the story. (Yes, please.)

Behold the fabulousness of the SCE! They respect your work enough to want to make it as correct, readable, and entertaining as possible, without intruding on your vision as a writer.

5. I also went over the style sheet, corrected one description of one character and answered several queries, highlighting those changes in yellow.  Then I sent the file back to my editor.

All of this was surprisingly fun. I know I'm a bit of a word nerd, but it was fascinating to look at my book from this kind of distance, to make sure the world inside it was as consistent and correct as I could possibly make it.

I have to say - I'm a little nervous about this post because it probably needs to be copy edited. Alas, when it comes to the blog, I'm on my own.

Hey, we all make mistakes...

The SCE gives you a chance to look like you're PERFECT.

Well, at least when it comes to spelling and grammar. The actual writing is all you. And if you're a writer, you know that "stuf" is never perfect. But making it as good as possible is part of the job. So the Super Copy Editor is your friend. Embrace him/her and your book will be all the better for it.

Cover Proofs of Otherkin!

Just got these gorgeous things in from my publisher...

I'm such a newbie that I had no idea what they are. They're folded, actually, with the complete back and front cover text. Inside the back cover is my bio, and inside the back front cover is KTeenbooks.com info.

I asked fellow KTeen author Brigid Kemmerer about them, and yes, it turns out they have a name: cover proofs.

It's weird how much cooler the cover is in the actual paper (Is it paper technically? Not quite cardboard, but thicker than paper - gah! Newbie-ness strikes!) than as just a jpeg. The lower part, where the black "grass" is in the image is shiny, and the grass as it pokes up is shiny. And the images of Dez, tiger, and moon, are all more matte.  So awesome! Every step of this process makes it seem more and more real.

Oh, and the back features a quote from the lovely Brigid Kemmerer as well. She was kind enough to read it and give me a blurb

Otherkin Cover Now on Amazon!

Finally the Amazon bots have found my book's cover and put it up on its order page - here.

You can gaze in admiration or pre-order. Me, I'm just giggling with glee.

Tonight, I am this kitty: Woo hoo!

Take your children abroad...

(click on photo to enlarge)

...if you can afford it. I was seven when my parents took me to Europe for three months. It made me realize there are all kind of ways of being in the world, and they're all fascinating. It gave me a lifelong love of travel, exploring, learning languages, history, and art. I have a vivid memory of a Greek beach covered with chunks of white marble, and me wading forever out into clear, warm, turquoise water. And many other wonderful things.

Here we are in our favorite taverna in Naxos, Greece. We spent three weeks on that island with our friends, Tommy and Evie Davis and their three kids. Tom played basketball in Turkey (he was quite a celebrity there), so we met up with his family in Greece, then went on to stay with them in a wonderful place just outside Istanbul.

According to my Mom, during our stay in Naxos we went this taverna every day, sometimes twice a day, to eat or just to have a cup of coffee.  My Dad would play chess with John Stanley (at the center back of the photo) and Tom Davis, and drink beer, philosophizing and laughing.  We didn't speak Greek, and the owner and his wife (standing on the right) didn't speak English, but somehow we all became a kind of family. When we got on the boat weeks later, the owner's wife was at the dock, weeping as she waved goodbye.

From left to right: Paul "Doc" Berry (my dad), me, Jacqueline Berry (my Mom, with the great legs), little Tommy Davis, Jill Davis (the almost not visible towheaded girl), John Stanley, Beth Davis, Evie Davis, and the taverna owner and his wife. I don't know who the seated older man is on the extreme right, but I love him.

I wish I knew the names of our hosts in this photo. Thanks to Tom Davis for taking it (he's behind the camera) and for sending it to my parents recently. Now that it's digital, it'll last forever.

See Through a Dog's Eyes

In his book The Tiger, John Vaillant discusses the idea of umwelt, which is a German word meaning "environment," but is used by Jakob von Uexküll and Thomas A. Sebeok to mean an organism's view of the world.

So a tiger's umwelt wold be very different from a human's. The tiger would not only see things differently, but smell, hear, feel, taste, and on and on. How does walking on all fours affect one's viewpoint, for example? To enter the tiger's umwelt, one can only use one's imagination - imagine how the snow sounds to a tiger crunching under its paws, how the snow smells, what the breeze tells the tiger's whiskers.

How about the umwelt of a more common animal - a dog?  The video below, from a camera attached to a dog's collar during a visit to a dog park, is a wonderful aid if you're wondering how a dog sees the world.  The smells, sounds, tastes, and feel of it all is still up to your imagination...



Beautiful Day at the Dog Park from Kelsey Wynns on Vimeo.
It's also quite lovely and just fun to watch. Oh to be a dog at the dog park!