One of the secret delights of being the author of three standalone fantasy novels that differ in their protagonist, their emotional tenor, and their pacing is that a lot of readers will tell me which one they prefer. And (astonishingly), readers’ preferences seem to be pretty evenly divided among the three books. It makes me… Read more »
being an author
FAQ: Why don’t you allow comments on your blog or involve yourself in most social media?
A couple of years back, I closed comments on my blog and removed email access. When I started using Twitter as an amalgamation feed for my blog, I decided to make it clear in my profile that I don’t read @-replies. And I’m not on Facebook. All of these were rather soul-wrenching decisions, I’m afraid… Read more »
More October Randutiae — Including Something About Self-Exposure as a Writer
I like the funny political videos the folks at actually.org are creating. Rosie Perez sets Mitt straight on whether it’s easier to get elected as a Latino; Sarah Silverman and Lizz Winstead agree with Mitt that people aren’t people, corporations are people; and here’s W. Kamau Bell, who hates science: (Thanks, B.) *** Sometimes, after… Read more »
Advice to New Writers: Green Triangles Should Be Both Triangular and Green
Advice to new writers: don’t worry too much about reader reactions that don’t seem to be connected to what you were actually trying to do. What do I mean by that? Well, say you produce a yellow square and put it out in the world and the reactions are like, “Oh my goodness! As yellow… Read more »
Blather, + a Bit of Advice for Writers Nervous About Promotion
Serbian cover of Graceling, published by Carobna knjiga. I didn’t even know this book was out until Carobna knjiga’s Fire landed in my mailbox. Click to enbiggen, this is a cool one! I love the blood in the font. —–> For those who’ve been wondering, my ankle is feeling better every day. I’ll just be… Read more »
On Blogging
A friend and I had a conversation recently about the concept of blogging — or tweeting, if that’s your thing, or being on Facebook — about generally having a public internet presence. This is something I think about a lot — what it means, why I blog, whether I should keep blogging. These are surprisingly… Read more »
Stuff and Things
The mailman left me a package slip, and in the space where he was supposed to write down the name of the sender, he wrote “Poland.” …? Poland sent me a package? I’m guessing it’s copies of Fire (see snazzy cover —->) from my Polish publisher, Wydawnictwo Nasza Ksiegarnia. Can’t think why he didn’t just… Read more »
“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so”
(Says Hamlet, who thinks himself straight down the path to disaster, but anyway. I’ve been thinking about thinking, and the ways that thinking can be good. ^_^) FAQ: How would you respond to an interpretation of Graceling that reads Katsa and Po’s relationship as abusive? (Okay, this isn’t actually a frequently asked question, but I… Read more »
Authors, Appearances, Anxiety, and Dropping One’s Pants
I’m annoyed that my voice recognition software recognizes Ludwig Wittgenstein on the first try but doesn’t recognize Miss Marple. Humph. (To be fair, it doesn’t recognize Lord Peter Wimsey, either. But nor does it recognize Luce Irigaray. But it recognizes Jo March. But not Gilbert Blythe. AARGHHH!) (Incidentally, my favorite VRS kerfuffle recently was when… Read more »
Still Not Quite Moved In
I’m taking a moment away from the boxy madness to point out the profile Publishers Weekly did of Fire this week. The online version is here. The focus of the piece is something that’s close to my heart — the wonderful way that Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (Graceling‘s publisher) and Penguin (Fire‘s publisher) are working together… Read more »
