An Extra Message for Monday, to Make Up for No More Posting This Week

Everybody, good news all around.  And -- I need your help deciding what to toast with!

Graceling is the winner of the SIBA Book Award in the Young Adult category!  (SIBA is the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance.)  Oh my goodness, the indies have been so kind to me -- I can't even express my gratitude.  Thanks so much to SIBA.  And everybody, buy indie!

In other good news, I am heading to MA tomorrow, and my stuff arrives soon after.  I am so ready to be surrounded by boxes that are to be unpacked, rather than boxes that are to be packed.

Hopefully calmness to come -- eventually, anyway -- now that the move is nearing its end.  In the meantime -- I am the happy owner of some new wine glasses that I love madly... but I'm more of a beer drinker, and am only recently getting into wine.  Can anyone out there recommend some nice wines for beginners?  Red wines, please, because my new glasses are big fat balloon goblets, and I think those are for red wine?  :D?

Happy week, everyone... and thanks for hanging in there with me as I make this big move.  My next post will probably be next Monday, from a brand new home. :o)

I'm Not in MA Yet, But at Least There Are Cats

I start every scene with a plan in mind, and occasionally the characters behave, and the plan in mind becomes the scene on paper. But more often, I discover something I didn't realize about one of the characters, or an interaction doesn't play out with the particular type of feeling I thought it would, and the scene starts to go off course, and I have to chase after it, and pages get written and then crossed out, and I can't figure out what needs to happen, and I begin to get Extremely Grumpy and mope around under a storm cloud.

Happily, I'm at my parents' house right now, which means that a cat named Lickety comes by rather often to commiserate.  Well, really, she comes by because she wants to make herself the center of my world and be petted forever. I was lying on the couch the other day in artistic despair when Lickety jumped up and threw herself against my hand, which only ever means one thing.

Me: [not petting her] Lickety, how come this relationship is so one-sided?  I rub your ears, but when do you ever rub mine? 

Lickety: [goes down to the other end of the couch and sits on my foot, usually the cue for me to scratch her with my toes]

Me: I'm not going to pet you.  I've got nothing left to give.

Lickety: [walks up the length of the couch and throws herself against my face]

Me: No!  Not petting you!  I'm the one who needs comfort!  [sneezes and splutters]

Lickety: [lies on my stomach, one eye closed, the other trained on me (feline eyeball hypnosis)]

Me: [with great pathos] O, Lickety, why does writing have to be so hard?

Lickety: [stabs me with all her claws at once]

"Oh, you stupid cat," I say, laughing, and then I pet the stupid cat.

At least if my goal is to please the cat, success is easy.

How is your work going?

Linkage While Moving from Florida to Massachusetts. (Are we there yet? Are we there yet?)

We are not there yet.

But do you know the work of artist Maira Kalman? Her The Principles of Uncertainty is one of my favorite books ever. And she designs awesome umbrellas. AND occasionally her artwork shows up on the "Opinion" page of the New York Times online. Check out her latest -- and when you're done, scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page to see more offerings!

Randutiae for Moving Day

"[Inspector Parker] awoke, after a long day of arduous and inconclusive labour, to the smell of burnt porridge. Through his bedroom window, hygienically open top and bottom, a raw fog was rolling slowly in, and the sight of a pair of winter pants, flung hastily over a chair the previous night, fretted him with a sense of the sordid absurdity of the human form. The telephone bell rang, and he crawled wretchedly out of bed and into the sitting-room, where Mrs. Munns, who did for him by the day, was laying the table, sneezing as she went."

-From Whose Body, a Lord Peter mystery by Dorothy L. Sayers

While wedged behind my washer and dryer the other day, disconnecting that spaceman arm thingy (you know that spaceman arm thingy that connects the dryer to the wall?) and the water tubes, I found myself contemplating the absurdity of the human form. I really did look very silly. The only way I could get back there was to invert myself and stick one leg into the air.

Do you have any favorite funny passages from books? Feel free to share. Laughter will help alleviate the misery of moving.

In other news, watch children's writer Tui Sutherland on Jeopardy tonight! Tui writes under her own name and under a couple of aliases, including Erin Hunter (she wrote Books One and Three of the Seekers series). She is also my friend, fellow Williams alum, and soon-to-be neighbor. (BTW, if you happened to watch Jeopardy on Friday... well, that smart cookie who won? That was Tui. Tonight is her second night on the show. My bad for not giving y'all a head's up last week. Things are a little crazy right now, what with the move and all.)

Have a peaceful week, everyone.

In Which the Author Babbles and Then Offers a Dance as Penance

First, a couple links: a recent beautiful Astronomy Picture of the Day; and, if you happen to be a Battlestar Galactica fan, a recent segment from NPR's Weekend Edition all about the music of BSG. (Ahem. But please don't leave any Season 4 spoilers in the comments, because I'm only partway through the season. ^_^)

Second, I give notice: my blogging is apt to be spotty over the next few weeks as my move takes place. Monday the guy with the big truck comes to pick up the stuff. What happens next -- and when -- depends entirely on the schedule of the guy in the truck. We're rolling with it, people. Uncertainty is FUN! Sigh...

Third, a recent interesting FAQ:

You've mentioned that an adult edition of Graceling is available in the U.K., Australia, and the Netherlands, and is scheduled to be published in France. Is there an adult version of Graceling available in North America?

The "adult" British edition of Graceling and the "young adult" American edition of Graceling are identical, word-for-word, except that in the British edition, of course, my American English has been Britishized. (I.e., "armor" is spelled "armour," double quotes become single quotes, and a few distinctively American words have been changed to the British equivalents.) And, the exact same Dutch translation is used for both the YA and adult editions in the Netherlands. I'm not sure what will happen in France, but I assume the two French editions will also match.

What makes Graceling YA in North America is that it happened to be purchased and published by a children's imprint (Harcourt Children's Books) in North America. What makes Graceling adult in the U.K. is that it happened to be purchased and published by an adult fantasy imprint (Gollancz) in the U.K.. The covers and design are different, and might reflect the different ages to which the books are supposedly marketed -- but, ironically, my Dutch publisher uses the American YA cover for their adult edition and the British adult cover for their YA edition, because the feeling in the Netherlands is that the dagger works best for older readers and the girl-with-sword works best for younger readers.


(left to right: American young adult cover; British adult cover; Dutch young adult cover; Dutch adult cover)

I guess you could say that my book is a crossover of sorts. My American agent focused on submitting the book to YA imprints, because books like Graceling tend to land YA publishers here at home. But my European agent got some bites from adult imprints -- so, there you have it! If the emails I receive are any indication, readers of all ages read both editions.

Of course, this whole thing brings up the messy question of the difference between YA and adult lit. This is one of my least favorite questions, because I don't entirely believe in the distinction -- or, more accurately, I don't believe in ranking adult lit above YA lit (or any other children's lit) when it comes to literary merit, which most people seem to do without even thinking about it. It's the same as the genre question. We all know that sci fi (or horror or romance or mysteries or whatever) and serious literary fiction are mutually exclusive categories, right? WRONG. Anyway. What I won't do here is try to define YA literature by its content (though I am happy to send you to a recent post on The Horn Book blog, where Roger Sutton got into it a little bit. Also, check out the comments in this post. The YA v. adult question is one you can find people haggling about all over the Internet, if you do a little searching).

What I hope I have done is explain that ultimately, in the publishing world, the (sometimes arbitrary) distinction depends on things like what imprints pick the book up; the way the book is designed, marketed, and publicized; and where in the library/bookstore the book can be found. But regardless of whether the edition is adult or young adult, the words in the book are the same. Make sense?

FYI, when I write, I am not assuming any particular audience age. I just write.

I think I just beat that question pretty much into the ground.

If you've made it this far, here's a reward: a great dance from last week's SYTYCD. Karla (contemporary jazz) and Jonathan (salsa) dancing contemporary, choreographed by Stacey Tookey. Check it out -- it's worth 2 minutes of your day!

Farewell, My Faithful, Fickle-Fused Friend

So, if you've been reading my blog for a while, you may know that I'm somewhat attached to my car. And why wouldn't I be? Everyone knows that the perfect car is a car in which the brake lights never, ever turn off so you have to pull out a fuse every time you park, or else when you get back with your groceries or your library books, your battery will be dead. And then you have to stick the fuse back in and drive home with your brake lights on the entire time even when moving at full speed. EVERYONE KNOWS THIS IS THE SIGN OF A PERFECT CAR.

However... *sniff*....

However.... (*SNIFF*).... I am moving from Florida to Massachusetts, and I don't need a car in Massachusetts, plus I don't think my car would make it all the way to Massachusetts but don't tell my car I said that.

Today, I'm donating my car to NPR. NPR will cannibalize my car for parts, because that's what people do when someone donates something that doesn't work unless you know the complicated rules about which fuses need to be disattached when.

My car, my chariot, my honorable steed, has come to the end of its 175,825 mile journey.

And so today, to honor an old and faithful friend, I leave you with every single bumper sticker my car wore proudly.

The Unbearable Lightness of Scones (and other great titles)

So, in my neighborhood, there's a train track and a road that both curve in such a way that they cross each other twice. Here, I'll draw a picture of it to show you what I mean (that's the track on top, the road on the bottom):

Now, I ask you to consider, for a moment, the implications of this. Imagine: you're driving peacefully southeast along the road, la la la. As you approach the train tracks, lights start flashing and bells start ringing, the gate comes down, and you stop your car. A VERY SLOW AND VERY LONG train crosses the road from right to left. Fifteen minutes later, the caboose finally makes its appearance, the lights stop flashing, the bells stop ringing, the gate comes up, and you continue along on your merry way... and then, a few minutes later, what happens? You guessed it. Lights start flashing, bells start ringing, the gate comes down, and THE VERY SAME, VERY SLOW AND VERY LONG TRAIN crosses your road AGAIN. And this time, not only is it stupid, it's surreal, because the train is crossing your road from left to right, the opposite direction from before.

Who planned this?

I happen to love train crossings (and drawbridges and all such things), and I love this stupid, illogical train crossing most of all, because it's silly and nutty and makes me laugh. Kind of like the title of the Alexander McCall Smith mystery, The Unbearable Lightness of Scones.

(Okay, that was not an award-winning segue, but give me a break, I'm preparing for a move in 1.5 weeks and my center is barely holding. Things fall apart and nothing is illuminated and one day I'll be dead and I am always, always late and packing is heartbreaking work of staggering discouragement and I think I may be being stalked by a moonshadow.)

So. This was meant to be a post about some of my favorite book (and play and movie) titles.

Some favorite titles of books/plays I've read (and/or plays/movies I've seen):

• John Patrick Norman McHennessy: The Boy Who Was Always Late. (A [fabulous] picturebook by John Burningham.)
• The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. (A book of short stories by Sherman Alexie, some of which evolved into the movie Smoke Signals, screenplay by Sherman Alexie and directed by Chris Eyre.)
• Proof. (A play by David Auburn and, later, a movie directed by John Madden.)
• Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. (A play by Tom Stoppard and, later, a movie directed by Tom Stoppard.)
• Things Fall Apart. (A book by Chinua Achebe.)
• The Unbearable Lightness of Being. (A book by Milan Kundera and, later, a movie directed by Philip Kaufman.)

And here are some of my favorites among books/movies I have not read or seen (yet):

• The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness. (A book by Elyn R. Saks.)
• Everything Is Illuminated. (A novel by Jonathan Safran Foer and, later, a movie directed by Liev Schreiber.)
• A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. (A book by Dave Eggers.)
• I'm Being Stalked by a Moonshadow. (A book by Doug MacLeod.)
• The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. (A book by Anne Fadiman.)
• The Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead. (A book by David Shields.)
• The Unbearable Lightness of Scones. (A book by Alexander McCall Smith.)

Hmm. Apparently I like long titles, especially titles that are entire sentences.

What do you think of my titles? What are some of your favorites?