Timothy and the Dragon's Gate - we have an ARC!

Yes I am just bursting with news this week!!

Ladies and Gents let me introduce to you my ARC (Advance Reading Copy) of Timothy and the Dragon's Gate!

Ta- da!

(For those of you not in the know, an ARC is what publishers send out several months before the book is actually published to garner reviews, blurbs and hopefully a bit of buzz. Last year I got so excited about my ARC for Alex that I just had to give it a name. I chose Ted.)

I am very happy to say, that along with my page proofs, I am just as thrilled to have the Timothy ARC as I was with Ted. It's a truly amazing feeling seeing your words bound together like a real life book and with such a stunning cover - which is the official cover by the way. You'll note there have been a few tweaks.

I also enjoy carrying it around with me in my purse and showing it to random strangers. Because I have no shame.

Yes, I love my ARC. He is so pretty. He is so very book like. He makes me feel that my life is pretty darn okay. He's proof that I actually managed to write another book. I have two books. I have a series. Adrienne Kress is the author of a series. I can't quite believe it! Wow.

My ARC rocks.


So now. . .

Let me present to you . . .

In all his glory . . .

My ARC of Timothy and the Dragon's Gate!!


I think I shall call him Montgomery Van Murphy the Third.

The front cover of Montgomery Van Murphy the Third.

The back cover of Montgomery Van Murphy the Third.

The glorious spine (I have a thing for spines) of Montgomery Van Murphy the Third.

And here is Ted and Montgomery Van Murphy the Third meeting for the first time. They like each other.
(note - this is the actual original Ted, that ARC of Alex I carried around with me everywhere, you can see how worn he is!)

And the official cover of Timothy and the Dragon's Gate!

ALEX out in paperback!

Yes my friends, we take yet another brief hiatus from "So you want to get published . . ." to announce something most exciting for yours truly . . .

Alex and the Ironic Gentleman is out in paperback! And I has seen it and held it in my very own hands!!

So to compare it to its big brother (on the left):

Front covers . . .

Back covers . . .

Spines!

I think you'll agree that little brother more than holds his own.

And that he's very pretty.

At least I think so.

But I'm just a tiny bit biased.

How the publishing industry does NOT work

At cottage again with the limited internet access, so while we wait for the official second installment of "So you want to get published . . . " let me share with you a lovely YouTube video that demonstrates exactly what does NOT happen in one's quest to get published (aside from the dancing, the dancing is perfectly accurate).

Check it out here.

So you want to get published . . . getting an agent.

A few weeks back in a desperate attempt not to use my own brain I asked my lovely readers for suggestions. And I got some really awesome ones. I hope to address them all, but there was one that really stood out for me because, well it hadn't occurred to me that I had yet to write about it.

It was from Jo, and she wrote: I'd like to know more about the business side of being a writer -publishing, contracts, money, deals, agents, whatever you can share! Thank you :)

At first I was all like, "Haven't I done that already?" And then I was all like, "OMG I haven't."

I have talked about my personal process, I have talked about interesting things I have learned about the industry. But I haven't talked about the very practical steps one takes to get published, nor about what the industry is like on the inside.

Weird.

So now I shall. I imagine it will be several posts worth, not sure how long or where it will take us, but let's just enjoy the ride shall we?

So you want to get published . . . the getting the agent bit.

You've written a book. First job, celebrate. Writing a book is a HUGE deal, and not an accomplishment everyone can boast of. Many people start books, oh yes, but very few cross the finish line. So go, celebrate, I'll wait till you get back.

I am going to make an assumption here now. I am going to assume that by finishing a book you have edited it, made it brilliant, bit the bullet and cut it pieces. I'm assuming by finishing a book you are ready now to submit the book. I may talk about the revising stage at a later date, but right now we is all about the getting published.

So what do you do next?

Get an agent.

In very simple terms an agent is someone who is a middle man/woman. You give them your manuscript, and then they give it to the publishers. They try to sell your work for you. They have contacts in the industry. They also can read contracts and understand what everything means.

You don't have to get an agent, but you really should. Why? Because these days you will be hard pressed to get a big publishing house to look at your manuscript (from now on referred to as MS) without an agent having sent it to them. There are smaller publishers who will take unagented submissions, but for the most part an agent is the way to go. Agents have become the guardians as it were of the publishing houses. If a publishing house gets a MS from an agent, they assume that it has already been vetted to a degree, that it was good enough for an agent to like and therefore in turn something for them to like.

But agents aren't just there to work for publishers. They are there for the benefit of the writer as well. To read about how awesome a great agent is, and what they do aside from just sell your work, click here.

Now getting an agent is hard. It can take years to get an agent. But the steps are very straightforward. BTW these are North American steps, the UK steps are similar, but a tiny bit different.

So first step:

1. Research. Find an agent that likes the kind of stuff you write. You also need to make sure you know that the agent is legit. There are a lot of scam agents out there. Typically you can tell an agent is a scam if they charge you money. You never pay an agent. They take a percentage off the work they sell for you.

(note: there are truly tricky scam agents out there who don't charge you up front, but then say that your MS needs editing and then recommend an editor who you'll have to pay. This is just not done with legitimate agents.)

So check out the Writer's Handbook, Predators and Editors (to see if the agent is a scam), agentquery.com. There are other good places to check out too - I have a nice list of useful links here.

So, you found some agents you like.

2. Now you must write a query letter to send to the agents.

Please visit agentquery.com to read about writing a query letter. They are tricky and take a fair bit of work. A query letter needs to reflect your work as well as sell your story, and present you as a professional person worth working with. All in one page single spaced.

3. Send off query letters to agents.

Wow! An agent is totally blown away by your query letter! She asks you for a "partial".

4. A partial can be of varying lengths. Sometimes they ask for the first three chapters, sometimes the first 50 pages. Whatever you do don't send them something from the middle of your MS even if you think that's the best bit. If you don't think your beginning is good enough to win an agent, then work on the beginning. Because if it isn't good enough to win an agent, then it definitely won't win over the discriminating reader.

Let me just get this over with now. You will see many an internet argument over which font to use for your MS. It's not that complicated. Either Courier or Times New Roman, size 12. Double space your MS. Make sure that you have a header on each page of the MS that includes your name, name of the book, and page number. This is in case the agent prints up the MS and then drops it. By mistake of course.

If you are snail mailing the partial, be sure to include a stamped self addressed envelope in the submission package. Also write a cover letter reminding the agent of what they requested, I'd advise also sending the original query letter for reference.

Wow! She loved your partial! Now she asks you for a "full".

5. A full is the full MS. Follow the same advice as for the partial.

Wow! She loved your full . . . but. . . she has a few suggestions for revisions.

6. Now . . . while this is an excellent sign, there is no guarantee that after you make the revisions she will sign you. So don't get ahead of yourself. Also really consider the suggestions. Agents read a lot and really know their business. They might not be right in all their suggestions, but I bet they have a point with most of them. I was told to cut 10 000 words. When I did, my book was so much better for it.

Wow! You did the revisions and she loved it! She calls you! She wants to meet you! She wants to . . . .sign you!! Yay!

7. You have an agent!


So easy isn't it? Such simple steps one after the other . . .

Problem is there is the potential of rejection with each step. Worse still, if you fail at one level, you don't just go down one step. No you go all the way back to the beginning again. Back to the query letter stage. Like an evil evil game of snakes and ladders.

For this reason authors can go years before landing an agent.

Some advice then in your quest:

1. Learn what the rejections mean and use it to your advantage

• a rejection on a full may mean that there is something wrong with the structure of your story, or it may just mean the work isn't quite right for the agent - like it doesn't quite suit her tastes. Often at this level the agent will write a more detailed rejection letter. Unless your full has been rejected many times, I would wait before doing a major overhaul. If however you are hearing the same thing from everyone, it may be worth having a look.

• a rejection on a partial is similar to a full, but quite possibly has something more to do with the quality of the writing. There was something in the partial that didn't grab the agent enough to want to read the whole thing. What was it? Maybe they just didn't connect with the story or voice. Maybe there was something off in the structure. Maybe something off in the writing. Hopefully you will get a detailed rejection letter at this point as well. However if you aren't getting past the "partial" stage, in that no one ever requests a full, I would take a close look at the MS again.

• a rejection on a query. At once both the best and worst kind of rejection. Getting rejected when someone hasn't even read your work can really sting. How can an agent judge your work by something that isn't your work? Trust me they can. And they can do it well, but that's another discussion altogether. BUT the good news is the problem may be simply the quality of your query letter, and not the story itself. If you are getting nothing but rejections on your query letter, revise the query letter.*
  

* for that reason a lot of people recommend sending queries out in smaller batches of half a dozen or so, to see how it is received. In this way you have the opportunity to fix the query and not waste your opportunities sending out a bad one to every agent.

2. Go to conferences.

Agents go to conferences. They have things which are called "pitch sessions" where an author can sit with them for 10 minutes and pitch their work. Aside from that you can also just introduce yourself to them in the bar or whathaveyou. Get to know them, get to understand that they are people too. Go to their panel discussions and see what they are looking for. Ask them questions. Though always be professional and polite, and please don't corner them in the bathroom.

Also at conferences you can meet some other awesome writers, and exchange stories and strategies. You'll also feel less alone in your quest. You may even make some lifelong friends.

3. Read their blogs.

A lot of agents now blog. It can get confusing with all the conflicting information that they share. But the good part is you get to know their personalities, you get to learn their likes and dislikes. It's research, but at a whole new level. Also it's very interesting.



So that right now is the getting the agent part of the process. We shall continue with what happens next . . . next (click here for "From Agent to Publisher").

(and if you guys could let me know if this is helpful at all, I'd really appreciate it, thank you!)

That NY Times YA article

There's this article from the NY Times that's been circulating the web for a few days now. Basically it talks of the stigma still attached with writing YA, and how it's seen as a bad thing if one's book is placed in that category. Of course the article is very much supportive of YA, but it surprised me because in my social circle most everyone I know is either writing MG/YA or is impressed that I and my friends write MG/YA.

But I thought further on it. And I realise that my experience isn't quite as innocent as all that. I get a very strange response when I tell people I've written a children's novel, but it isn't quite the same response as the ones in the article. The person I tell seems interested, and I go on talking about it for a bit, and then eventually, I let it slip that it's around 300 pages. Suddenly their eyes come into focus and they say something along the lines of, "Oh like a real book!" And start asking me questions again, this time with a sense of urgency.

Now I suppose I could see this as a positive thing, they think I'm a real author even though I write for kids, where many people don't. But because I now have a few picture book author/artist friends, I have to say, I still find it pretty insulting.

Because the implication is that a real book needs to have a lot of words. That it is a real accomplishment to write a long book, versus basically anyone can write a picture book. But this is just so not true. In fact I often find the mark of an amateur is a first time author who writes a massive doorstopper of a book. Basically that person doesn't know how to craft the story in a tight manner, they wander in their writing trying to find their plot, they are just plain longwinded. I know. I suffer from that exact affliction.

A picture book has got to be short. It has to convey a very specific story, be meaningful and have a voice all its own, in less than 1000 words. I honestly don't know how picture book authors do that. It is a very difficult thing to do.

Next, of all the books to get published, I would wager the picture book is the hardest.

First off the advances are quite small so that agents don't really sign that many picture book writers, it's not worth their while. On the plus side this means an author can submit directly to the publisher, on the bad side it means EVERY picture book author out there is submitting directly to the publisher. Picture books are also the books that most celebrities suddenly find themselves inclined to write, and the market is limited of course. And picture books, really popular picture books, have a long shelf life. Great for the already published, not so great with the new ones trying to compete with Dr. Seuss.

Point is . . . let's not be dissing the picture book writers please? It isn't easy okay, it just isn't.

But I seriously don't get in general how anyone can look at a genre of writing and presume it is easier than another genre. Each has its own unique challenges. Each has its own unique benefits.

Anyway, I just wanted to share the article and do the picture book rant. I'd really actually like to hear from you guys now . . . what do you think about the stigma attached to the children's book thing (including YA)? Did you find your mind was changed in one way or the other? Does it scare you off from writing in a certain genre (say Romance) because of the stigma attached?

Discuss, people, discuss.

In the Country

Hey all! I had to get out of the city for a while, so I've gone to my cottage. Not sure how long it will be, but probably around a week. I have limited access to the internet, so I won't be posting a proper blog entry until I return, but when I do I think I will start with Jo's suggestion of a general overview of getting published!

I will totally get to all your other suggestions as well, and please do keep 'em coming, either in the comments section of this post, or the one previous, they are very helpful!

Until next week!

Need suggestions again . . .

So guys and gals, I have writer's block.

And yes I do believe writer's block exists.

You may blink at that, "Who says it doesn't?" Well there are debates between writers over whether or not such a thing is, but it truly is a semantical debate. First off you can't deny the term exists. It does. You say "writer's block" and people know what you are talking about. But the definition changes from person to person. Some people think there are authors out there who use writer's block as an excuse to stop writing something altogether. For me it is less extreme. It's that staring at a blank page/screen and not having a clue what to write. It can last for a few moments, to even a few days, but, for me at least, you get over it. You move on. Writer's block is a hurdle to overcome, not a road block.

At any rate . . .

I have writer's block. Not for my fiction writing. No, actually the words are really flowing these days which is awesome.

But I have blog writer's block. Every time I come to write a post, I honestly have no clue what I should write about, what more I can say, and what would interest you guys. It's easier when there are exciting updates to make, but right now there isn't much to share in that regard.

So for the third time I think, I will ask to hear from you guys! What would you like this blogger to wax philosophical on? I really love specific questions on technique (both writing and acting), to help with particular problems. Heck if you are writing something and have a sentence that just isn't feeling right, let's solve the problem. Something structure wise got your goat? Got query issues? Of course I say all this with the caveat that I am just one person, and it is just my one opinion, take it all with a grain of salt, but I do enjoy working with people on . . . stuff.

Yes . . . stuff. Very articulate person me.

So yes, post your questions etc in the comments section and let's see what happens!

My Birthday!

My birthday was this past Monday and I have to say it's been a great one! It began with an honest to goodness surprise party on Saturday, which I had not a single suspicion was being organised for me. Kind of got me all emotional. Then a friend's pool party on Sunday (which technically wasn't planned for me, but still was a nice way to spend a Sunday), drinks with friends on Monday, high Tea on Tuesday, and Sushi yesterday.

Okay.

Yes.

It was more of a birthday week.

BUT

I wanted to share with all of you the coolest thing ever! My birthday cake from the surprise party!



See! It's shaped like a typewriter! Complete with chocolate keys! Isn't it just awesome?!

(for anyone interested, it was made at The Sweet Escape in the Distillery District here in Toronto, and they totally do tons of other customised cakes)

Anyway, all this birthday stuff (combined with a lot of writing) is my excuse for yet more poor posting. I am very very sorry about all that!

Hope everyone is well, and I promise to be better this week!

xoxo


Oh and a really big Happy Fourth of July to all you Americans out there! May your hotdogs be plentiful and fireworks legal! Huzzah!

New Ideas

And then something like this happens.

The writing world is a strange strange place. You're working on one book, and then you get an idea for another. And then you get a bit obsessed with that idea. Suddenly you find yourself spending hours at the library doing research on this idea, and hours at home writing pages on this idea . . .

The brain is a vast and mysterious place my friends.

All this to say, I'm sorry I've been MIA this week . . . but honestly, I'm pretty excited about all this!

The Rules . . .

A couple posts ago I wrote about how agent/editor blogs can confuse authors because of all the different and sometimes opposing advice they offer.

Jessica Faust at BookEnds has just written an excellent entry on the subject of rules and writing and stuff like that today. And she basically says what I've said, you have to take what works for you, don't try to be all things to all people, and to most importantly be thoughtful and professional. However, she not only writes more in depth about the whole subject, but she's also an agent so has more of an inside scoop than I ever will.

If you have the inclination, check it out!

Timothy excerpt

And another post! What's up with this girl?!

But first let us crown the King of Awesomeness, Jandroos, for his amazing "spot the differences" prowess! All hail King Jandroos of Awesomeness!

Another quickie show and tell:

Just for those who are curious, you can read the first two chapters of Timothy over at Scholastic Canada. So yeah, just so's y'all know! (Really hope you guys like it, seriously, it's like I never had Alex published, all the nerves are just as fresh this time around!)

Alex the Paperback

Quick show and tell.

Alex is coming out in paperback (August in the States, and the fall in Canada), and I just got the cover from my publishers. It's not that different, but different enough that I wanted to share with you guys! In fact I thought we could play a little game called "spot the differences" where you guys can . . . spot the differences . . . between this and the hardcover version. The winner wins my unending respect and title of King/Queen of Awesomeness.

Enjoy! (btw, the title and my name I believe will be in foil - ooh shiny!)

Book Expo Canada

Had a wonderful two days at Book Expo here in Toronto! Seriously awesome, and way more eventful than my hour long meander last year through the stalls.

On Sunday I met up with the lovely Lesley, along with authors Danielle Younge-Ullman and Tish Cohen (and Lesley's friend Shiraz who was there to pitch this awesome 3-D video game thing as well as his very cool MG fantasy book). We met at the top of the escalators to the Expo . . . and then went out to lunch.

Mexican.

Yummy.

Then we returned to the Expo where we agreed to meet at the Penguin booth at 2pm for the champagne thingy (Penguin is Danielle's publisher), and Lesley and I went off to interview Robert J Sawyer for Hardcore Nerdity. Well Lesley did the interviewing, I just listened. It was a great one, and will be up online soon.

With some time on our hands we then wandered over to the Harper Collins booth, where Lesley was greeted like the star she is, seriously, her book Wondrous Strange is going to be huge (I'm allowed to say that Lesley . . . it's okay)! EVERYONE at the booth had heard of the book, or read it, and were SO excited to meet her.

Finally we made it back over to the Penguin table where we had mimosas and the place got rather overcrowded. We met up with Chris Szego from Bakka-Phoneix Books (a fab SF bookstore here in Toronto), and I interviewed her about current trends in the market for genre work (again for the website). Next on our list was Kelly Armstrong, who Lesley interviewed, and I wandered off with Tish and Shiraz to see Danielle give a reading at the presentation stage. She did very well. But she's also an actress, so it comes very naturally to her.

We wandered around a bit more, and then went for drinks. Was very fun as we were sitting outside but under a roof and were perfectly covered when the rain starting pouring down.

The next day I returned to the event on my own in time to see a few more author friends give presentations of their books. Then I tried to get a signed copy of Danielle's ARC Falling Down, but fifteen minutes into the signing all of them were gone! So not fair! But excellent for Danielle of course.

Eventually I made it over to the Scholastic Booth for my 2:30pm signing, which was really great. There was a line waiting for me even before it started! Felt like a superstar! I'm not even sure how long I signed for, but I must have been close to an hour. It was really fun, and I met a lot of lovely people.

Photo courtesy of Q&Q Staff, Quill and Quire, Quill Blog

And then had a coffee with Danielle and Shiraz, before parting ways and returning home.

In all it was a really lovely weekend! Hectic, a little airless, but lovely!

Chasing Trends

I have felt for some time now that agents/editors blogging is both a great and slightly unhelpful phenomena. It's great because it removes some of the mystique behind the publishing process, demonstrates, you know, that agents and editors are human beings. These blogs also provide practical information: the art of the good query letter, what that particular agent likes to represent etc. They also offer excellent networking opportunities through the comments sections.

They are less helpful when they confuse authors.

The problem with these blogs is that each agent has a slightly different philosophy on the industry. Each agent has a slightly different set of requirements for his/her query letters. Each agent . . . is different. And authors sometimes can find themselves trying to appeal to every agent in one magical query letter or whathaveyou. This is next to impossible. (I wrote about this idea in more general terms here).

What also makes life more confusing for authors are the posts about current trends. I personally find them very interesting, and love it when agents talk about what's hot and what's not. But unless you just happen to have a completed novel in one of those genres of the hot variety that you've been scared to send out and this news gives you the impetus to do so, I say, enjoy these posts on a "Well now that's quite interesting" level.

Because, seriously? Current trends are pretty darn meaningless.

The thing is - publishing takes a long time. A very long time.

Let's say you have an agent already. Let's say that agent has sold your work. It will still be close to TWO years before the book is on the shelves. And there is simply no predicting what will be popular in two years. Before the DaVinci Code came out, do you think editors were looking for religious conspiracy novels? Ah, no. In fact I would venture to say if such books crossed their desks the response would be along the lines: "Too controversial." Yet suddenly this book strikes it huge and every other book on the shelf looks like some cheap knockoff (yes, even those books knocked off by Brown himself somehow still managed to look like that).

I'm not saying it isn't important to keep up with what's hot in the industry right now. I think being educated is always a smart move.

But instead of freaking out trying to write an epic love story about vampire pirate time travelers, because some agent mentioned it once in passing, try freaking out about writing a really compelling novel. Something that interests you, something where your passion obviously shines through.

My personal experience is a pretty good example of this. Alex was rejected because it was "too old fashioned". In fact when you look at the facts, Alex is definitely not what you would consider trendy. First off it's long. Around twice as long as most novels in its genre. It's also episodic, which is an outdated form of storytelling. These days we prefer our soap opera, what happens next, kind of stories. The protagonist is a girl, and I know that many MG editors are looking for male leads to entice boy readers. The language is complicated, sometimes even archaic. And I use author intrusion, which while very popular in Lemony Snicket, really is not what is desired in novels in general, let alone children's books. In fact I have read articles advising strongly against it.

Yet . . . I still managed to find people interested enough in spending time with me to edit it and then eventually publish it.

There are so few things we can control as authors. We can't control what an agent/editor likes or dislikes. We can't control the economy. We can't control readers deciding they'd rather watch a movie. But we can control the words on the page. We can write our story, choose our words, play with characters. We can edit a manuscript over and over again until it shines. That, at least, we should feel some power over.

So I say instead of grasping at some trend's tailcoat, let's start our own! It will be brilliant! It will be delightful! It will be the trend to end all trends!

. . . and we shall call it . . . Carl.

Fab New Website

Wow two posts in as many days! Girl's on a roll!

Just wanted to share with everyone the exciting new version of my website that went up recently. Designed by my amazing friend Joanna Blackman, I think it is so amazing! It isn't completely finished yet, still some tweaking required, but please do check it out, and then report back what you think. If you have any suggestions or anything, I would love to hear them!

Also just a reminder again about my reading/signing tomorrow afternoon:

TYPE Bookstore Danforth
503 Danforth Avenue, Toronto
OPENING WEEKEND CELEBRATION
Saturday May 31, 1:00 pm
Reading

First Pass Proofs

It's amazing how time passes and things become habit and that which once was terribly exciting can become old hat.

Still.

I have to say it was pretty darn awesome to receive my first pass pages of Timothy today.



For those not in the know, or who haven't combed through my archives (and why haven't you and shame on you for not reading all my glorious posts) and read my explanation from last year, first pass proofs are printed pages of your manuscript in the cool sexy final font, organised as if it were the final book, with cover page, copyright page and in this instance a page that says, "Books By Adrienne Kress" with Alex being listed:




That is totally wicked awesome. I am the author of not one, but TWO books, and I have a list to prove it! Okay it's a list of one other book, but it's still a list. I also love the font Weinstein Books uses, it's all romantic old booky looking.

And it's times like these that you remember just how lucky you are, and how crazy that it is that you are an author, a real live author. And, in your cheesy way, you take a picture of your first pass pages.

I don't know if I will always feel this way, if the feeling will diminish. Certainly certain things aren't as exciting as they once were. Book signings are fun, but less incredible, less - OMG why do these people want my autograph? Meeting authors is still totally awesome, but more the norm than a singular event. Going to conventions still gives me butterflies, but I now know what to expect.

Well who knows. Can't predict future feelings.

All I know is that right now the feeling looking at these pages is just as fresh as it was this time last year.

And I'm glad for that.

BEA

BEA stands for the Book Expo of America. It's a huge trade show for the publishing industry, all concerned with buying and selling, can be rather overwhelming, and it begins this week. Last year I went with the lovely Lesley and we had an absolute blast. This year the BEA is in LA (as opposed to NY last year), making it a little more costly for yours truly to attend, so I will not be going. This makes me a bit sad as I had a totally awesome time last year. So I've decided I would link to my synopsis of last year's event, just for those of you who are new to the blog and didn't read it, and also out of nostalgia because that's the sort of person I am:

Adrienne and Lesley's excellent BEA adventure of 2007 (you will note that since that trip Lesley now has a two book deal with Harper Collins - amazing what can happen in a year!)

I shall however be attending the Book Expo of Canada in June, signing copies of the paperback version of Alex (details to follow closer to the date).

And this Saturday I will be participating in the opening weekend celebration of the new bookstore Type on the Danforth, so do come along if you are in the area:

TYPE Bookstore Danforth
503 Danforth Avenue, Toronto
OPENING WEEKEND CELEBRATION
Saturday May 31, 1:00 pm
Reading

Ole!

Yes my plans for world domination are slowly but surely coming to fruition.

I would like to announce to all and sundry (because Sundry is one of my most loyal blog readers), that my fabulous agent has just sold the world Spanish rights (excluding the USA) of my book to Editorial ViaMagna!

What makes this deal especially cool is that now I share a publisher with the amazing Patricia Wood (of Lottery fame, who is also celebrating her 55th birthday today, mazel tov!), and I just think that is so darn fantastic.

So, let's order a pitcher of Sangria and celebrate!

Ole!

My Publisher

Another short post folks. I really should be in bed actually, have an early call for rehearsal before we open with our first show at 1pm. Still . . .

Thought this was cool.

As many of you will know my American publishers are Weinstein Books. Despite the fact that they used to be Miramax Books for quite some time, technically they are a very new company. So for the last several months their website, while informative, has been a little . . .shall we say . . . on the skimpy side.

Well it would seem that is no longer the case. I just checked it out, and they have an absolutely beautiful site up and running now, and of course featuring yours truly!

I will also add to this post that the release date for Timothy and the Dragon's Gate has been moved to January 13, 2009 (though it will probably be available in December - yay weird book industry weirdness). I am pretty happy with this change as it allows me a bit more breathing room with the edits for one thing, and for another, I don't much like the idea of my amazing work being upstaged by something as slight as this election thing going on south of the border. . .

Lastly, for anyone who has just been dying of curiosity over what exactly Timothy is about, there is an excellent summary of the story over at the new Weinstein website. If you are interested, do check it out here!

Sorry again for my poor blogging habits folks! I'll try to do better once the show is over. In the meantime wish me break a leg for tomorrow! (yes I've done the show twice before, but it's always a little different and we are in a new theatre)

Sorry

This has been a long tough week folks, and I just have not been in the right head space to post. However, I did write an article for Hardcore Nerdity, so if anyone is missing their Adrienne fix (and how sweet if you have!), here's the link to my article about the novel Watchmen.

Again, sorry for being MIA. I'll try to do better next week!