The Big Five Zero

This marks my 50th blog post. Hurrah! It would have taken me quite some time to get here if I hadn't started digging in other people's dirt interviewing people. It's been an interesting endeavor, and I'll continue as long as people are willing to spill their guts I can find people to interview. I decided on sending people the same set of questions (although a couple have changed some around to suit what they're working on, which is fine... I see it as a fluid process, not some rigid thing) because I've got too much going on right now. Otherwise, I'd love to craft questions that are specific to each person.

The answers have made me smile (and sometimes laugh out loud) and made me think, and most of all, they've reiterated what I already know, and that is that the writers I hang out with (in real life and on the  interwebz) are all-around wonderful people--brilliant, witty, and generous--and they're all filled with amazing stories. I feel quite fortunate to belong to such a group.

My most popular interview to date was from Alex Shvartsman. He also had the dubious honor of being my first victim. I think his wit and charm come through in the interview. My most popular non-interview post was the one in which I talked about the Shards of History launch party where I learned you should always bribe your readers with food.

Moving towards the 100th post, I'll continue to post about my writing process and whatever else piques my interest that particular week. I just finished putting together the major scenes from the novel I'm about to start writing. The blue cards belong to the main character. The yellow are scenes from the antagonist's POV. The pink cards belong to the love story. I can glance at the board and see where I might need to add more pink or yellow (or less), and I can rearrange the scenes before I even start writing. I've dabbled with them enough, and now I'm ready to start writing. Heck, I might get to the end of the first row and throw out all the rest because I discovered some really cool storyline that will work better.

At any rate, I used it as an excuse to procrastinate a bit while preparing myself mentally to write this particular story. Plus, any excuse to shop at the office supply store and bring home cute things.

Shards of History Launch Party.

This past weekend I finally, officially celebrated the release of Shards of History with a launch party. It went well, I had fun, the food was great, and the company even better. I got some excellent tips for throwing a launch party from Mary Robinette Kowal. I strongly suggest reading her post if you're going to throw such a shindig.

My husband talked me into having the party at a tea room called Special Touch, and I'm glad he did because it's a beautiful facility, as you can see here:

That's my little man sporting his jersey. The unfortunate part is that I didn't think to take any pictures during the party. I was in full blown hostess mode and thinking about my reading and making sure my son didn't touch anything on the shelves filled with delicate tea pots and cups and carousel horses. So this picture came after the party, when everybody had cleared out.

There were little sandwiches in the shape of hearts, delicate cuts of fruit, tortilla rolls, and an assortment of desserts, including tiny tarts topped with whipped cream and itty bitty pastry dragonflies.

I ate that one right after taking the picture, and it was delicious. And no, there are none left! Why are you looking at me that way? I always hold my hands behind my back!

I gave a reading, which went well. About two sentences into the reading, I realized my throat was extremely dry, and I thought, I can't stop for a sip of soda now! I was told I didn't sound nervous at all, but I couldn't quite contain my nervous energy and kept shifting my weight from one foot to the other. I've actually never read in front of a crowd not dominated by writers, and I was a little anxious about the response I'd get.

I didn't have physical books to sign, so I signed bookmarks instead, and I included those bookmarks in the gift bags that I gave to the guests, along with feather pens and tiny little notebooks made of upcycled paint sample cards, like so:

The pens were quick and easy to make and tied in with the theme of the novel, and also tied in with the theme of writing in general (as did the notebooks). I ordered the notebooks from One Stitch Designs on Etsy, and I also included chocolate in the gift bags, just in case my guests weren't hyper enough from dessert.

Some friends over at Frame-N-Art framed the cover art for me:

I have yet to hang it in my office, but believe me, it will have a place of honor!

Also, one of my guests mentioned that she and her family recently acquired some chickens, and they had named all but one. They named their last one after a character in the novel. As the 2007 Odyssey workshop class has a thing about chickens, and this novel began at the workshop, this seemed most appropriate.