I just got back from a weekend with my favorite writing buddies – nearly 50 young adult authors. I took lots of pictures, and even made a video of them introducing their books. The main thing I got out of it, was how much these books mean to readers; even if they’re scifi or fantasy, they still make readers feel accepted or not alone. PennedCon was set up as a charity fundraiser for autism, by YA author Amy Miles.
I attended as an author, and even though I didn’t bring books to sign or a full display set up, I still met a few readers who knew me (and were waiting on more books!) I can’t tell you how much that means to me.
I also got to speak on a self-publishing panel, moderated by Mark Coker of Smashwords, with several NYT bestselling authors, including Amy Bartol (one of my fav writers).
More importantly, I got to connect and hang out with a bunch of YA authors as a peer, and see how they interact with fans
GIVEAWAY
I bought a lot of SIGNED books, and I’m putting them all in a giveaway before we leave for Thailand this week… here’s a video of some of the YA authors introducing their books. Scroll down to enter!
I don’t update this blog often enough, so here’s the plan if you’re curious.
still wrestling with the last few chapters of Selfie, so I can announce it
want to finish Scarlet Thread 3, maybe 4
want to finish Taste 2 and Shearwater 2
Also have an epic fantasy I’m excited about
Not sure I’ll get all that done this year, but that’s what I’m working on, and I plan to be faster and more consistent with releases, and also focusing on finishing up series and being less sporadic with new ideas.
This month I’m in a 12th century Austrian fortress, working on my Nanowrimo book project with a few writing friends. Right now it’s snowing outside. We have a couple goats, alpaca and rabbits in the barn, tons of space, and almost too much peace and quiet – apart from the continuous clacking of our keyboards as we increase our wordcount (I jut crossed 30K – I’m about halfway through the vampire dystopia book I’m working on).
Here’s a video tour and some pictures – I’ll upload some new stuff soon!
Last weekend we left Taiwan and headed to London for #yalc (London’s Young Adult Literature Conference, which was part of ComicCon). I got to see some young adult authors, some pro-wrestlers and about half the cast from Game of Thrones, which was awesome.
I also gave out 400 mini booklets I’d printed, which had the first four chapters or so of the four books I have on Amazon. So that was fun.
Now we’re in Plovdiv, Bulgaria and it’s amazing… beautiful weather and ice cream every day (really good gelato) and roman ruins and history everywhere.
I’m catching up on work and fixing some of my platforms so that this fall I can focus on writing – I’d like to finish up each of the stories I’ve started so far, and hopefully put out a few more.
In the meantime, I’ve made this giveaway for you of books I got signed at YALC.
The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge
The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
Beautiful Broken Things by Sara Barnard
Half Bad by Sally Green
This Savage Song and A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab
Just finishing my PhD and finally, finally moving on with my life… this year I managed to put out some fiction, which was a huge goal of mine, but now I’ll have the time to finish what I’ve started and start writing full-time. I have dozens and dozens of novels sketched out; first up will be finishing Shearwater this fall. I wasn’t really planning on doing live events until I had 10 finished books out, but since we’ll be flying into London and I wanted to go to the London Film and Comic Con July 29-31st, I just decided to book my own table.
I won’t be bringing books with me, but I will have some “I’m really a mermaid” stickers and some cool stuff. If you’re in London, come visit!
The Europe trip has three main goals: my book Orpheum is set in Sofia, Bulgaria but I haven’t actually been there yet… so we’ll stay there for about a month soaking up culture and visiting the ancient Thracian temples. I also REALLY want to stay at this amazing mountainous apartment and do some writing.
After that we’ll head to Ireland to check out the places mentioned in Shearwater around Portballintrae, like Dunlace castle and Giant’s Causeway. I think I’m going to giveaway a free trip to join me, as part of my launch for Shearwater part 2, but I’ll announce that later.
We’ll end up in Dublin for the Claddagh Author Event … there are a few authors I’d like to meet.
Finally, in November we’re meeting 10 bestselling authors and some of the top YA booktubers to spend a month in a castle and it’s going to be epic. We’ll be posting lots of fun stuff on social media, and do some contests and things. This is the place we rented (in France).
I plan to do at least one major “writing retreat in a castle” per year from now on.
Mostly however, I need to focus on finishing more complete books and then building them up into series… I’m shooting for 100 books in the next 5 years.
