To those interested in the YA Track for the RT Booklovers Convention 2013--

RT 2012 was a huge success. The convention saw record attendance (more than 2500 people!), and the YA events were overflowing. This year, I am again steering the YA events at the convention. In 2011, Jennifer Lynn Barnes co-captained; in 2012, Melissa de la Cruz co-captained; and for 2013, Kelley Armstrong will be co-captaining.  Due to the growth, there are several additional volunteers this year: David Macinnis Gill, Rachel Vincent, Rosemary Clement-Moore, and Mari Mancusi. 

Panels really are at a premium on the YA track. For 2012, we had 71 YA authors, and for 2013—a full calendar year away at the writing of this message—we already have 28 authors  43 authors signed up. We’ve doubled our participating author attendees between 2011 & 2012, and I am already seeing a huge number of signups for 2013. In other words, no promises on panels! The objective when I’ve built the panels the past two years was to a) build around the attending authors, & b) build with those best suited to each panel. To fit as many people as I could in this year, I ended up being a speaker on only ONE panel.

That said, the big Teen Day party, the YA Alley at the Giant Signing, the YA bookseller party, and the opportunity to donate books to the teens on Teen Day are open to all members of the YA track. There are a lot of benefits to participation above and beyond being on a panel : )

Due to the number of contact issues that were in play this year with 15 panels, two social events, 71 authors, and almost 4000 books donated, I had to send a lot of email. I don’t expect 2013 to be less chaotic, so all RT attendees interested in the YA track need to be in direct contract with me. If anyone is interested in participation, s/he needs to email my assistant (donna @ melissa-marr.com) to be added to the database. What I have required the past two years is contact address, YA release data for existing and current YA books (the adult data is unnecessary), and brief book synopsis. Please note that you should only contact me if you are committing to attending. In fairness to all of the authors, I don’t want to hear from “maybes” or those whose attendance is conditional on being assigned a panel.

With regards,
Melissa

OTHER
To see RT 2012 photos, go here.

To read a few readers' opinions of the 2012 YA events:
http://talesofbooksandbands.com/2012/04/19/rt-teen-day-re-cap/ 
http://www.sophistikatied.com/2012/04/event-recap-rt-teen-day-2012.html
http://areaderspensieve.blogspot.com/2012/04/rt-teen-day-in-chicago.html
 

A very limited number of galleys of Carnival of Souls were printed for sales/accounts. In June, there will be advanced reader copies (ARCs). That month, I will sign galleys or ARCs at both Book Expo America (in NYC) and at ALA (in Anaheim).  

A lot of you have asked if there was any way to get a copy before then, so after attempting various blackmail & bribery methods, I have received one of the galleys to give it to one of you. 

. . . the problem is that I like more than one of you, so I am having a contest. 

How To Play:
Pick a mask colour (red, black, white, or blue) and reply to the blog post here on Livejournal telling me what you think that colour means.  Why would somewhere wear it? What does it signify? 

NOTE: The replies you post here on LJ are set to be visible ONLY to me, so no one can see what anyone else answers until the contest is over. 

On June 1st, we will randomly select a winner to receive the galley.  At that time, I will sign it to a specific person (ie your first name) & mail it wherever in the world you are currently living.  This means you must check back to see who won. I don't chase people down. 

You must reply at the LJ blog, not on a RSS feed somewhere. This means that ONLY replies to this blog post here at melissa-writing.livejournal.com will be counted. 

To get extra entries, you can do these things:

+1 Share a picture of you wearing a mask (include the link to where you post the picture in your reply here)
+1 For becoming a fan of Five Finger Death Punch Twitter or on Facebook  (tell me in your reply that you did this)

+1 for tweeting, blogging, or FB posting this contest.

(Maximum of 6 total entries per person--bc, I'm still fixated on #6) 

EXTRA DATA:
To help you guess, here are some clues.

If you want to learn a little bit about the book, you can enter the carnival (more info will continue to appear on that site in the coming months).

You can watch me introduce the book here:

You can listen to the Five Finger Death Punch song ("Far From Home") that started the very blurry weekend wherein I accidentally wrote 35,000 words of the first draft of this novel.  

NOTE:
If you happen to be one of my dear friends who has read it already OR one of the folks who secured one of those limited number of galleys, you are obviously ineligible to enter. 

A few weeks ago I went in for my mammogram.  I turn 40 in a few months, and this has been on my to-do list for my 40th since my 20s when I went through a series of surgeries.  Back then my ovaries, breast, & cervix all decided to grow unnecessary growths (bad cells, cysts, & a tumor). I've been surgery-free since 1998 though!  Still, my grandmother had breast cancer & I had that unnecessary lump (and surgery to remove it), so it's something I need to be vigilant about . . . and I THOUGHT I was. My doctor, however, gently chastized me with a "you should've started going at 36."  Still, she didn't find anything in the exam, so I expected the mammogram to be non-eventful.

I was wrong.  They called the next day, but I wasn't freaked out.  Because there was nothing in self-exam or doctor exam I though it was a mistake.  Still, better safe & all that, so I had a diagnostic mammogram and an ultrasound. Those revealed a tumor.

We needed to see if it was malignant. . . except that I needed not to have any meds that were blood thinners for a week before they could check. I waited 6 days, & then they harpooned me & took their samples.

. . .and then I waited 4 more days to learn the results.  

Last Monday, I learned that the tumor is NOT cancer. I'm fine. (And a week and a half AFTER the harpooning, the incision is mostly healed and the bruising is almost gone!)

So why am I telling you?  
Because they only found it because I had a mammogram. I KNOW (especially after the number of them I've had in the past 3 weeks!) that they suck. They're uncomfortable. Seriously? Round object squished into square box? Totally NOT comfortable. However, they can find things our self-exams can't. The first time I needed surgery for an alien growth was because of a doctor's exam, so yeah, they CAN be found that way.  Do your self-exams & doctor exams too. Just don't overlook the mammogram either.
 
Things that are related
In one of those weird timing things, I had signed the papers for life insurance the morning of my mammogram. Last year, I tackled will & estate planning paperwork. I'd had a basic will for years--the result of being married to Marine was that we both had that--but it didn't cover my book stuff.  I'd also had life insurance until 3 years ago, but that was also via Loch's job.

So here's the footnote . . . I've had all of that stuff for years because my daughter isn't mine biologically. That means that I had to put it in writing that I INTEND her to be to treated as if I were her biological mother. Motherhood isn't only biological. She & I find the term "step-mother" offensive, and we have never used it. If I'm the one who cares for her daily needs, who RAISES her, the fact that there were 9 months when she wasn't growing inside me is truly unessential data. The law isn't quite so reasonable though, so I needed to have paperwork that clarified that my children are equal even though only one has my DNA. Knowing that my kids financial needs would be met via life insurance & will made those couple weeks a lot easier. 

We all hope we don't need that stuff any time soon, & luckily, this tumor (which my son named "Howard") is benign. Still, waiting until you might need it isn't an ideal plan. 

So therein ends my sorta mothering reminders. Get your mammograms, women, and men/women, be sure your paperwork is in order BEFORE you need it bc if you run up against the possibility that you will need it, having it already squared away really does decrease the burden of things to worry about.
 

[NOTE: I'm still aiming for blogging semi-faithfully. I think the key is using this space to ponder & be random--which is what I first used it for. Any & all are free to comment, ignore, etc. I read all comments.]

Every so often, I see remarks about books (including my own) on the difference point of view and "head hoppping."  Head hopping could be multiple point-of-view (my preferred way to write), but more often it means an unspecified narrator who has the ability to be omniscient (know all characters thought & feelings at once). I think there are benefits to both--and to various other types of narrative structure. Right now, I only enjoy writing one way: 3rd person, past tense, with multiple limited point of view narrators. Most days if you ask why I write, my answer boils down to point of view. What I like about stories is that hazy space between voices, the sense that truth in stories is completely impossible because all stories are told via subjective stance.

Why I write so many povs . . . I write because who tells matters, because who doesn't tell matters, because several tellings change everything. I don't know if absolute truths exist. In the real world, we have the illusions of truth. "What happened?" is a question that can only be answered from the voice we possess. Our voice is filtered through our beliefs, our experiences, and the physical space where we exist. It's filtered through memories . . . which are further filtered by emotions . . . and by any number of factors.

When I write a book, I choose several characters with disparate experiences, conflicting motives, and the story is left to unfold through those narrating characters. If the chapter is in Kaleb's point of voice, the emotions are filtered through his world-lenses. HIS opinion of the other characters is what conveys.

His chapters are in his head. Other chapters are in other characters' pov. Multiple pov is the narrative structure that makes sense to me (& yes, in my personal belief structure I'm pretty wide-open as a result of this).

One thing that I sometime do is rewrite scenes in several characters' pov. Over on my website, I have posted a excerpt from Radiant Shadows that is originally in Ani's pov (ie in the book it's in hers), but I rewrote in Irial's pov. It was helpful to me to see what the same exact events and words mean when in different skin. 

The difficult part is that in doing this it's always pretty clear that there are very few villains. In most cases, if we understand the villain's pov, we might realize that they're not as bad as we think.  This is why I never wrote Beira or Bananach's pov in the WL novels. It's why when we see Keenan through Leslie's eyes he's a lot less good than when we see him through his pov OR through Donia's eyes.  It's why Seth looks so perfect in Book 1, but by Book 3, we know he's NOT. In that first book, we saw him through others' gazes--a girl who loved him, a faery who admired him, and a faery king who saw him as a threat.  

I'm not interested in "head hopping" in the sense of an omniscient narrator, but I'm rarely content with the idea of only one narrator. Maybe a story will present itself one day that requires omniscient or even first person, but for now I'm happy writing multi-pov 3rd but reading the other types of books .  

  

I don’t do proper reviews. In truth, I rarely even name 90% of the books I read, but there are those books that stand out, books that make me feel COMPELLED to recommend them. Recently, I read an early copy of Barry Lyga’s I Hunt Killers.**  When I'd heard about the book, I liked the idea of it and hoped it would be interesting. It was . . . but it was so much more than that. 

If you know me, you know that I’m fascinated by serial killers. I read bios, histories, and fictional accounts. If I watch TV, I like Criminal Minds or one of those movies my spouse calls “horror for women” (ie stalker, serials, etc). One of my exes back in my 20s was an older man who’d done over a decade in a maxi security prison (not for murder!), and I used to nag him to regale me with stories of the serials he’d been in with.***  In other words, I have high hopes when it comes to serial stories.

I taught Joyce Carol Oates’ brilliant short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” regularly when I taught university, but I have had a hard time finding a serial book that hit all the right notes for me. I wanted beautifully constructed, compelling, and emotionally satisfying. I wanted chills, but not the cheap sort. I wanted A LOT.  My standards were unfairly high.

To make matters more difficult, I Hunt Killers was aiming to integrate the disturbing realities of serial killing into a Young Adult novel.  I had worries. Will the book avoid maudlin or gratuitous content? Can the plot be intricate enough to make me turn the pages? Will the protagonist be believable without being unsympathetic? Lyga satisfied every one of my requirements.

I read all but 60 pages of it one evening, and then decided I had to stop to avoid dreaming of death. An hour passed. I realized I couldn’t wait till daylight to finish. A few days later I handed the book to my 18 year old daughter. Asia’s a critical reader, preferring Shakespeare and Faulkner to YA books these days. She read I Hunt Killers cover-to-cover in one sitting. This one is a well-written, intense page-turner. 


---
** I don’t know the author and have never read his prior books. I received the book from the kind folks at one of my publishing houses (Little, Brown).

***: I don’t recommend dating ex-cons as a rule, but I was young and on a self-destruct kick back then. Note Part 2: Ink Exchange is dedicated to said ex-con, & if you catch me on an open day, I might admit that Irial’s character may be more than a little influenced by him.

I'm thrilled to be able to FINALLY be allowed to share more about Carnival of Souls. This is the description of my new book directly from the Harper sales catalogue:

With bold, original vision, bestseller Melissa Marr presents an all-new world, where pleasure and murder are for sale, identities are masked, and everyone faces a struggle for power—and survival—in the Carnival of Souls.

In a city of daimons, the Carnival of Souls hosts a deadly competition. Once in a generation, every citizen can fight to join the ruling elite. Without the competition, Aya and Kaleb would both face bleak futures—if for different reasons. For each of them, fighting to the death is the only way to try to live.

In our own world, Mallory knows that her father—and every other witch—fled the daimons’ city long ago. She trains to be lethal because it’s only a matter of time until the daimons catch up with them.

While Mallory possesses little knowledge of The City, every inhabitant of The City knows of her. There are plans there for Mallory, and soon she, too, will be drawn into the decadence that is the Carnival of Souls.

From Melissa Marr, bestselling author of the Wicked Lovely series, comes a brand-new tale of secrets, love, and the struggle to forge one’s own destiny.

More Info
The IndieBound and Chapters links aren't up yet but if you want more info, these are live and where the cover and reviews will eventually be found.  (No date on that yet!):

• Goodreads entry.
• B&N pre-order link.
• Amazon pre-order link.
• Amazon UK pre-order link.

and the website in progress: http://enterthecarnival.com/   The website in progress is where all sorts of things will show up (many of which I've already written). 

For those who don't want to read the cover by enlarging on the photo, here is the quote on the bound galley of Carnival of Souls:

"The Carnival of Souls pulsed in the center of The City-a swirl of masked pleasure and violence. Music played constantly as the dancers demonstrated their flexibility. At times it was a glorious cacophony. Jugglers and fire-twirlers showed their skills in time to the music. All the while, hawkers sold their wares to those ensnared by the music, sometimes literally. All around the carnival transactions of varying degrees of legality and ethical questionability were happening. The City wasn't a world that seemed beautiful to everyone. It was their world though."

Carnival of Souls releases in the US/Canada on  4 September 2012. 

I have no cover, no description yet beyond the PW fall preview that Carnival of Souls is abt "3 teens forging their own destinies in the daimon dimension." 

The picture of the galley is over here (http://twitpic.com/8o63md) and the website-in-progress is enterthecarnival.com

OTHER NOTES:
B&N tweeted:  "The story behind her stunning GRAVEMINDER covers is up" on B&N here.

In personal fun notes: I'm excited to share that I'm one of the jurors for the 2012 HWA Stoker Award for YA!

And Faery Tales & Nightmares released this week.  There are giveaways all over the blogosphere, on Goodreads, & the book is in stores/online stores.

I'm midway into my annual anti-travel season. I take trips for family or writing retreats, but every year since I started this job, I've taken to adding "blackout" dates. There are some scattered throughout the calendar--the kids' birthdays (8 Sept & 14 Oct), the days around Oct 31, and Winter Solstice. Overall though, I try to be flexible. This is, in part, to keep my publishers from throttling me, but also because I like to do book events. While being flexible, I still am fiercely protective over this blackout date plan. I believe that to create, to live a life worth living, it is essential to have time to recharge, be with my family, stare in speechless awe at whichever natural vista lures me in, & generally refill the well. This refilling is as much a part of the writing process as revisions. Without it, I have nothing to say. 

Recently, as I am here in my not-travel window, I was asked about promotion/events advice. Here were my replies (originally in very short snippets via Twitter & much expanded here).

Q: "Do you have promotion advice for new writers?"( Read more... )


Short Version of all of that:
Keep looking forward instead of backward.  Yes, your house will ask you to do some PR, but the truth is that being caught in the PR machine will distract from the best part/the reason we all wanted to think about PR in the first place-- writing. 

The six winners are:

1. Avery (Canada)
2. versusthesiren
3. Heather Albrecht
4. Jenna DeTrapani
5. embethrose (Australia)
6. Suzan Lacey (Ireland)

Please contact Donna (donna @ melissa-marr . com) with your book selection & address before Feb 12th. 

Thanks to all who entered.  BOTH Graveminder and Faery Tales & Nightmares are also up for giveaways over at Goodreads right now.

This week I received copies of GRAVEMINDER US paperback which released last week.

. . .and copies of GRAVEMINDER UK paperback

. . . and copies of FAERY TALES & NIGHTMARES US hardcover. Releases 2/21/2012

. . . and there are two 6s in my Twitter followers number. 

Clearly I should have a contest, right? 

I have 6 books to give to new homes.

To Enter:

+1 Recommend a song that makes you think of Faery Tales (link to YouTube video or lyrics page; no piracy links!!!)
+1 Recommend a song that makes you think of Nightmares (see above).
+1 Post a new review (pos or neg) of one of my books on Goodreads or Amazon or B&N.  Link to it in replies.
+1 Post of new POSITIVE review of another book you love (on Amazon or Goodreads or B&N)  Link to it in replies so I can get book recs.
+1  Tweet to this contest blog.
+1 FB link this contest blog.
+6 Make a donation to  RAINN (http://www.rainn.org/) or your local Women's Shelter (You will need to email proof of donation if you are a winner)

RULES/NOTES:
Open internationally. At least 1 winner will be not-US (so tell me what your nation is in the reply)

Randomizer will pick the 6 winners.

Winners will pick which book they want from the 3 listed. 

Winners will be posted on the blog on the 6th of February. 

Winners not claiming prize by the 12th of Feb forfeit.