squeetus

Cabbages and kings

43,000 words into Daisy Danger Brown! Sure I know, some writers write hundreds of thousands of words every year, but 43000 in three months is great for me. And now I'm thinking that I'll need to write the entire first draft of all three books before starting in on rewrites for the first. Erk. Sometimes I question my sanity.

And today I spent time working on another picture book idea, which is really irritating because I have novels to write and I should learn by now that I'm no good at the picture books. I've written 7 or 8 I guess (not just written down an impression but spent weeks going over the text and fine-tuning) and they're all no good. I showed my favorite to my agent last year, and he said, "Nice try, but no." I finished another I'd been playing with for years and got the guts to show to my editor, who politely turned it down. I should know better, but I keep getting ideas, and whenever I have ideas I have to write them. It's nice for me to work on really short things, to play with the words, to imagine the pictures, to think like my son and wonder what things would interest his rapid-fire brain. Maybe someday I'll work up to being good enough for that medium, but for now I'll just think of it as writing practice.

The new picture book was about a cabbage. Because, you see, there just aren't enough cabbage characters in today's children's books. I'm sure you've felt the lack...

A rainy afternoon

No need to be alarmed! I didn't anticipate that my last post would cause concern. I didn't mean it as a declaration that I'm done with the Books of Bayern. Really, every time I write one I think I'm done. But I still have many ideas, characters and lands I'd like to explore. I'm committed to Daisy Danger Brown (the scifi trilogy) for now, but what comes after that is wide open.

Some have asked how much the 1st edition princess academy went for. I think it was about $120. The forest born ARC is up on the auction now and is currently at $305! I'm blown away by that.

I heard yesterday that Ken Rand passed away. He has been part of the bedrock of the Utah science fiction and fantasy culture for a long time. Besides fiction, he wrote "The 10% Solution," a valuable little book about how to tighten and improve a story even after what you thought was the final draft. Great advice. He was a marvelous writer--inventive, funny, and clever. But even more, he was kind. So kind. Thoughtful and considerate and loving. I can't believe I won't see him at events around town anymore. My thoughts go out to his family. From his obituary: "We'll let dad have the final word: 'Lighten Up.'"

Rin's letter

My publisher requested I write a letter to my readers, to put in the ARCs of forest born. Here it is.

 Dear Reader,
I am both delighted and surprised to offer you another Bayern book. I wrote The Goose Girl as a complete story to itself and didn’t plan on a sequel. Except…
    Enna. She was such a vital, interesting, talk-to-me-non-stop character that I just had to give her a book of her own. Enna Burning challenged me and changed me, and this time I knew I would not write another Bayern book. Except…
    Razo. He popped up in Goose Girl as an unexpected but fully formed minor character. He wasn’t a part of my Enna Burning outline but ended up with a major role. Now he was filling my vulnerable little brain with ideas for his own story, which was hard to resist because he was a delightful character to channel. Okay, fine, Razo always gets his way. But River Secrets was absolutely the last book in this series. Except...
    The history of Bayern kept on stitching together in my mind. There was still growing to be done, dangers lurking, powers untested. My three girls--Isi, Enna, and Dasha--were poised for an adventure, and Razo’s little sister Rin was becoming a character of profound consequences. Okay, one more book, but sorry, Razo, your part is very minor. (Or so I thought. He is persistent!) So here is Forest Born, the final addition to this series. No really, it is. Seriously. I’m serious this time. I swear. (Leave me alone, Razo…)
    Keen gratitude for the readers who have embraced these books. Your love and enthusiasm for these characters enabled me to tell four books-worth of their stories. Thank you.
    xoxo, Shannon Hale

Rating the torture

The other day I listed my books in order of which was most difficult to write. Outside influences aside, just which stories and characters I struggled with the most during the writing process.
Princess Academy
Forest Born
Calamity Jack (upcoming sequel to Rapunzel)
The Goose Girl
Enna Burning
River Secrets
Rapunzel's Revenge
Austenland
Book of a Thousand Days
The Actor and the Housewife

I have very fond feelings for those last four. There were certainly hours and days of wrestling with the story and waking up in the middle of the night unable to sleep for thinking about what was wrong and how I could fix it. But compared to some of the others, they were a breezy walk in the park. There's no real pattern that I can see. Graphic novels can be as hard to write as traditional novels; standalone books as sequels; short books as long books. There's no way for me to know when I start a book if it's going to flow or fight.

The contemporary comedies are much less demanding of me than the period fantasies, as evidenced by austenland and the actor and the housewife there at the end. The scifi trilogy I'm starting is in a contemporary setting (like the adult books) and first person narrator (like book of a thousand days) so I'll see if those choices make a difference.

I get asked often if it's easier to write books now than it was when I was starting out, or if writing later Bayern books is easier than the goose girl because I already know the world and characters. The answer appears to be no, sadly. When you're compelled to be a novelist, you're in for a long haul of excruciating torture as well as ethereal bliss. I don't think writers are allowed to live for long in the cozy in-between.

On taking risks; or, why I'll never be rich

There is a great inclination to take the safe road. I'm not a gambler by nature. The safe road sounds very inviting to me. In my writing, the safe road would be to keep doing what I've been doing, giving my fans what they expect. If I was smart, if I was a product manager and analyzing consumer data to figure out what product to produce next for young adults, this is what I would do:
1. a sequel to princess academy
2. a fifth Bayern book
3. another fairy tale retelling like book of a thousand days

What I would most definitely not be doing: Investing three years in a science fiction trilogy.
What form of insanity is this? That is not what we want from Shannon Hale. She is a brand! She should deliver what we expect and want! I'm being somewhat facetious here, but some fans have let me know that they will not be reading my scifi books because it sounds too different from what I usually do.

And for my next adult book, if I were that savvy product manager, I would order up a chick lit, something in the vein of austenland, a light romp about a single woman looking for romance, full of humor and complete with a Hollywood ending.

What I would not have done: the actor and the housewife, a book that doesn't fit into a genre.
There's lightness and humor and romance of a kind, so people might get confused and think it is chick lit. But it's about a middle-aged woman, a religious woman (a MORMON!), a mother of four (a mother of four in UTAH!). It's not a quick jaunt, not a tight arc--it takes place over eleven years. Lots of stuff happens. Not all of it laughable. It's not what a lot of readers are going to expect. That may make them angry. That may cause them to warn others against the book and declare, "I used to like Shannon Hale, but she changed. I don't know what to expect from her anymore."

Alas, here I am. Not a smart businesswoman, but a weird little hausfrau still in my pajamas clicking away at a scifi trilogy one word at a time and biting my nails while I await reaction to my new book for adults. I knew I was taking a risk when I decided to write the actor and the housewife, hands-down the biggest risk I've taken as a writer for so many reasons. But I chose to do it anyway. And people have warned me, "Don't risk your career on a scifi trilogy--do another fairy tale retelling." Yet here I go. I'm not a brand. I'm not smart enough to write for my fans. I'm not clever enough to select a marketable story for my next project. And I'm not melancholy enough to pull off the "alas, poor me, how I suffer for my Art" persona.

I'm just clicking away. Wearing pajamas. And grateful that I don't have the pressure of supporting my family on my madness. So blame my husband. Since he's gainfully employed, I have the luxury of chasing down the stories that call to me. Even if they lure me off the safe road, onto risky cliffs that fall straight down.

I hope I don't come off as self-congratulatory here. I'm not the noble artist refusing to sell out; I'm the lame writer for whom writing is so hard, I can't tell any story but the one that is shouting at me the loudest. And I'm so easily bored, I have to keep trying new genres and styles so that I don't get complacent or discouraged and give up. I hope indeed to do more books like goose girl and book of a thousand days, and austenland too. We'll see where the next years take me. For now, I'm sailing new seas. Risks sometimes pay off. Maybe these will, maybe not. But I remind myself that the "payoff" isn't why I write in the first place.

Boyfriend #7, enshrined in cotton

Wowee! Yee-ha! Cowabunga! rapunzel's revenge is an Eisner nominee in the teen/tween category! The Eisners are the Oscars of comic books/graphic novels. Dean especially is super-pumped, having been raised by wolves and comics, cutting his teeth on Eisner-winning tales. We'll be going to comic-con in San Diego this summer, where the winners will be announced. Here's the full list in our category:

Best Publication for Teens/Tweens
Coraline, by Neil Gaiman, adapted by P. Craig Russell (HarperCollins Children’s Books)
Crogan’s Vengeance, by Chris Schweizer (Oni)
The Good Neighbors, Book 1: Kin, by Holly Black and Ted Naifeh (Scholastic Graphix)
Rapunzel’s Revenge, by Shannon and Dean Hale and Nathan Hale (Bloomsbury Children’s Books)
Skim, by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki (Groundwood Books)

Also, I'll be at BookExpo America (BEA) in May. I was asked to host the ABC Dinner (Not a Dinner). The other speakers will be Mike Lupica and Katherine Paterson. (Would it be too much if I bowed to her? Because that would feel natural. Wow.) I'm so honored to be asked. I feel like the authors who get asked to do those things are the big name, A-list, top tier type, and I so don't feel like I belong. I've talked with other authors about this, how we're just waiting for it all to come crumbling down, for someone to say, "Wait, she's a fraud! Who let her in?"

One more pic from the Book Babe Event. Check out these awesome ladies in their austenland-themed shirts. Aren't they darling? Love it!

I cut my hair yesterday. I'ts to my jawline now. It was driving me crazy last weekend, so chop-chop. Part of the fun of being a girl.

One last thing--I donated a signed, hardcover, first edition, first printing of princess academy for the online auction. It's up now.

Book Babe Event...unleashed!

Prepare yourselves for long post, many photos, little sense.

My awesome helper Debbie. The event had over 70 volunteers helping behind the scenes. Debbie was assigned to me. I gave her my camera and she saved the day, snapping some awesome photos. Thanks to Debbie and her cute sister Connie!

 
We had a lot of signing to do. Each of us signed about 150 books for giveaways and 1000 posters. (Stephenie signed 600 books). Here are Janette Rallison, James Owen, and Dean Lorey hard at work. Huge thanks to Bloomsbury and Walker who donated all of Janette's and my books for the event! BLOOMSBURY ROCKS!

 
I emceed with J.S. Lewis. We managed to keep each other laughing, which felt good.

 
Back stage, the goddess Megan and I help Dean Lorey into Stephenie's Eclipse prom dress...

 
...so he could model it on stage for the audience. PJ Haarsma is his handsome escort. Can I tell you how seriously awesome these guys are? Everyone was awesome. I'd say, "Hey guys, how about we do ___" and they'd say, "Sure, why not?" I was in heaven.

 
Here I read a poem written for the event by Laura Middleton, limericist extraordinaire. She made references to all the attending authors in there.

Twelve authors, reclusively hiding,
Were quietly doing their writing,
But when cancer messed
With their Book Babe's breast,
They emerged from their caves to go fighting.

They unsheathe their pens for this battle,
And cages of monsters they rattle.
So, cancer beware,
You haven't a prayer
Against Janette's cheerleader's prattle.

The robot dog's up for a scuffle,
The playing card soldiers, a shuffle.
Even Morgan LaFey
Gets into the fray.
And what could survive this kerfuffle?

Oh, cancer, the West Wind is blowing.
The dragons and gorgons are lowing.
You cannot unhinge
Rapunzel's revenge,
And that rascal Edward is glowing.

The cancer has got to be shrinking
In fear that a Softwire is linking.
Mull and his ilk
Sip magical milk,
And guess what the vampire's drinking.

Then after this awesome poem, Brandon Mull added:

Roses are red
Violets are blue
Cancer sucks

 
Backstage, we found ourselves huddled in a perfect circle, circle, so why not do an Eight is Enough shot? Clockwise from the pink: Laini Taylor, Brandon Mull, Chris Gall, Janette Rallison, Stephenie Meyer, Shannon Hale, Dean Lorey, PJ Haarsma, & Jon Lewis. Hey, we make nostrils look good!

 
After hearing Adam Kump's wonderful set, Jon and I felt inspired to serenade Faith, aka the Book Babe. We chose Islands in the Stream. It wasn't going well, so we called in backup...

 
James Owen on lead, we did Aretha Franklin's "Baby I Love You," with Laini, Janette, and Brandon joining Jon and I on back up. Let me preface by saying, we had never rehearsed all together, the backup dancers had never heard that version of the music before, and we couldn't hear the music for most of the dance. It rocked.

 
Can you shimmy? Oh baby.

 
Hey, who's back there dancing across the stage?

 
James Owen, first runner-up in Finland's 2008 Aretha Franklin look-alike contest.

 
Jon totally gave his all with the low dip followed by slow up slide. Look at the concentration on his face. A true professional.

 
Here Brandon thinks we've reached the end and our "free dance" portion too early. He was going wild then after a moment said, "Isn't this the free dance?" We shook our heads. It was awesome.

 
NOW is the free dance. For Bailey, Jon Lewis's little girl, I go down into my Joan Jett.

 
I scraped up my knees. All for you, Faith!

 
Check out my dance mates! They trip the light fantastic, baby. Hats off to Brandon, Janette, and Jon, and especially Laini who was shaking it up five months pregnant.

These are the beautiful posters we signed for many of the attendees. Frank Beddor didn't make it from California as his kids were very sick, but Dean Lorey, not pictured, came.

 
After the Adam Watts Band and their amazing set, I introduced the authors. Apparently they all called each other and said, "What are you wearing? Jeans and a dark shirt? Okay, I will too." Here I believe Brandon and Jon are doing a chest butt? Probably?

 
I'd introduced everyone and we were moving on, getting ready to start the authors' panel, when Jon said, "Haven't you forgotten someone?" I looked at my list--no, I was sure I'd announced everyone. He pointed at the empty spot at the table and the name STEPHENIE MEYER. Oh. Whoops. Yeah...so, I'd forgotten Stephenie, who was waiting patiently in the wings to hear her name. I could not stop laughing, as you can see. She had to wait a while longer.

 
Chris, PJ, me, Jon, and the top of Dean's head.

 
And the rest of the panel, as named. I think this may have been my favorite authors' panel I've ever done. We all agreed beforehand, "No long rambling stories, keep it quick and light and fun." And we sincerely had fun. No obnoxious self-promoters here. Every single author was a sincerely nice, generous person. We laughed a lot. What fun.

 
Jim Blasingame, YA lit titan, was our wonderful moderator. Behind him, you can see one of our lovely interpreters for the deaf.

And on to the raffle. All the authors had donated at least two signed items. Lots of books, some prints. Dean Lorey blew me away by raffling Nightmare Academy 3 manuscripts, an early draft and a final draft. The book isn't published yet. Talk about a sneak peek! At one point (I can't remember why) I mentioned how difficult it was for Stephenie to have to go to the New Moon set and observe the wolf pack, who occasionally do push-ups before going on camera.

 
Without hesitation, Jon dropped and gave us 20. Or two. Who's counting?

 
Stephenie gives him the thumb's up. Surely Jon will be considered for the understudy for Taylor Lautner.

 
I'm holding an early manuscript of Eclipse, one of the items auctioned. I had a pin-on mic, so Stephenie was talking to my collar bone.

 
I breathe on the Host skateboard deck to increase its value. Jon's looking around, trying to figure out what was going. The audience had started to laugh hysterically and with some alarm. We finally found out that Adam Kump and his bandmate were helping to throw Hoto Skate t-shirts into the audience, and one had pelted a baby in the head. I guess you had to be there.

 
Jon was the auctioneer, and he was so overwhelmed by the generosity of the winners, he just had to give them hugs. The auction blew us away. Here was the going price for the fantastic items Stephenie donated:

Twilight ARC - $1500 (I think)
The Host skateboard deck - $1200 (I think)
I can't remember how much the marked early ms of The Host and Eclispe went for
Forever Dawn epilogue - $5100
Eclipse prom dress - $5500
Lunch with Stephenie (not at Taco Time) - $6500 (two winners)

 
At the end, we wanted to leave the audience with a story, so we improvised one, each of the authors taking one sentence (most definitely unrehearsed, if there was any doubt). The audience gave us the title "Stephenie's Dress" and the genre "horror." Let's just say that story will never be published, but we made ourselves laugh anyway. Here Brandon finishes it off with aplomb.

 
We are somewhat aghast at the direction of the story. I just love this woman.

 
Group photo! All the authors gather around the person that brought us together--the book babe, Faith Hochhalter. Here we are instructed to look right.

 
Look left.

 
Look straight. We're good at following directions apparently...except Laini. Look at her in each photo. This is a woman with her own agenda. Beware the seemingly sweet pink-haired one! Beware!

 
I gave Faith a rare Shannon Hale lipstick kiss. We should have auctioned that!

 
Laini poses with Janette's book My Fair Godmother, as she and the cover model both sport rosy locks. Laini really is a darling, kind, sweet, wonderful person. I was kidding about the caution earlier. (No, really...BEWARE!)

Thank you a TON to everyone who pulled off this feat! As emcee, I was up in front and it might have looked like I was leading the pack, but that was not the case. I was honored to be included, and there were dozens of people off-stage contributing tons of time and talent. And it paid off. We raised a significant sum of money for our friend. The online auction is in full force. New items are put up every few days. I have four items that will make an appearance, so keep watch. Thanks all!

Delete happy

I got so many questions about why I cut the lines I posted in a previous post. Those were just a few lines. Let me tell you...this book...boy, howdy! I suspect I've never cut a ms like I did with this one (except maybe goose girl). Everything I trimmed could easily be it's own book. Every pass, I was at that sucker with a hatchet. So many false starts. I like, nay, love, so much of what I cut. Let no one accuse me of not being willing to kill my darlings. I'm a murderous brute. I am cruel to those poor little lines. It's hard every time, but liking a line isn't reason enough to keep it for me. I have to consider pacing and story flow, importance to the character and her arc. I work hard, people. This is what I'm trying to say. And it's my job and I love it, and I don't deserve any special lauding for it. But there's no doubt, writing is hard work.

Caution: ARCs are out there now, spreading around. And there are SO many spoilers in this book. I warn all of you who do not like to have stories spoiled, do not read any reviews of this book before you've read it. Avoid them! I just know people are going to let a couple key items slip early. Those of you who tend to read the end of a book first, you freaky, freaky people, go about your business. But the rest of you, shut your eyes! You really don't want some things spoiled too early.

And dear reviewers, if I could make one humble request, please do not reveal in your review a couple key plot points that come to light about mid-way through the book or the eventual outcome. If you need to do a plot summary, please couch that information in code. I'd be ever so grateful.

I'll have a forest born section on my site soon. In the meantime, here's my first page. Those of you who have the river secrets US paperback will notice that it's nothing like what was originally the first chapter in the book. I mentioned the cutting?

Ma had six sons. The eldest boy was big like his father, the middle boys were middling. By the time Razo was born, all the family’s largeness must have been used up. The brothers called him runt and made him feel that word. He spent winter nights longing for a younger sibling, someone he could call runt, someone he could push and pinch.
    Ma was longing too, but for a girl to share thoughts with, a daughter cut and sewn from her own soul.
    When Razo was almost five, he and Ma both got their wish. The baby girl was born on a night so hot the wind panted and the summer moon blazed like the sun.
    “Rinna,” Ma named her.
    “A girl,” said the father.
    “Rinna-girl,” said Razo, peering over the side of the cot.
    The baby blinked huge, dark eyes and opened her mouth into a tiny circle. All desire to push and pinch hushed right out of Razo.
    He bent closer to her ear and whispered, “I’m going to teach you to climb trees.”