Blackwood

The cover reveal and ARC giveaway are live at the Book Smugglers' site. Go forth and comment to win!

*beams*

Excitement! The ultra-fabulous Book Smugglers* will be hosting a reveal of Blackwood's final cover tomorrow, complete with an ARC giveaway.**

I hope y'all love it as much as I do.

*I'm beyond excited, since theirs is one of my favorite favorite blogs in the history of the world. Eep!

**ARCs coming very soon = another thing to be anxious about. But also excited, obviously. (Yes, new imprint efficiency is efficient. If only publishing always moved this fast. *smile*)

So… I really can't tell you how lucky I feel about my whole experience so far with my editor, the lovely and supersmart Amanda Rutter of Strange Chemistry, and her robot overlords, the team at Angry Robot Books (which is known for producing some fabulous covers, among many other things). I know many first-time authors have no clue what their cover art might come out as and aren't consulted at all.

When I was filling out my author questionnaire one of the questions was whether I had any ideas about cover art and especially any no-nos. I very helpfully responded, essentially, "Not Bad. I like Good Covers." And when Amanda came back to me a couple of weeks later with a cover concept, I was like, "This is why I am the author and you are the publisher." Because the concept was so perfect and cool, and of course nothing I'd have ever thought of. But, you know, one is still NERVOUS. But then a first version of the art came in and I got a little peek and I thought, whew, I really like it. Today, however, Amanda has posted the final cover art and it is Even Better. I truly think it's striking (no pun intended–the artist is Steven Wood), and I love that it's also thematically right and will be even richer in meaning for actual readers.

The basic concept comes from the fact that protagonist Miranda Blackwood's father has a strawberry-colored snake-shaped birthmark that symbolizes the Blackwood family's supposed curse. I'm putting a smaller version here, but: Go look! Ogle! Admire! Embiggen! Leave Comments!

What think you? I personally can't wait to see the final cover composition.

More about le book itself here.

…to the Season of Blurbs. This just in from one of my writing (and life) heroes and the author of many fabulous books, including the bestselling The Jane Austen Book Club, Karen Joy Fowler:

"A deft and clever debut! Bond takes some reliably great elements—a family curse, the mark of Cain, the old and endlessly fascinating mystery of the Roanoke Colony—and makes them into something delightfully, surprisingly new. How does she do that? I suspect witchcraft."

*practices witchcraft*

And I do believe that's it, though I suppose it's possible a stealth blurb could also sneak in.

I can't express how incredibly grateful I am to all these writers–Marcus Sedgwick, Cynthia Leitich Smith, Micol Ostow, Scott Westerfeld, and Karen Joy Fowler–for taking the time out of their insanely busy lives to read my book, and how humbled I am that they were willing to offer words of praise. There is a lot of smack talk about blurbing and certainly it's so nervous-making that no one enjoys asking. And it's hard to say exactly what their impact truly is…but I don't think anyone would argue with the fact that it's debut authors, people at the start of their careers (or perhaps further along but making big changes in their careers), who blurbs can help the most. I have always felt tremendous respect for established authors willing to help out other, less established writers in this way–and I feel it even more keenly now.

Anyway, I've updated my tiny proto-Blackwood page with all of these quotes and a little teaser about the book. The next excitement will probably be the cover, which is indeed very exciting. (And at some point, I've got to overhaul this site, but that is less exciting than terrifying and potentially painful.)

Happy Monday!

The full quote from AMAZING writer, homo sapien, and NYT bestselling author Scott Westerfeld on Blackwood:

"With whip-smart, instantly likable characters and a gothic small-town setting, Bond weaves a dark and gorgeous tapestry from America's oldest mystery."

*glows*

What a week!

And another blurb just came in for Blackwood that made me OH SO HAPPY, this time from the fabulous Micol Ostow, author of many extremely awesome books including family and So Punk Rock (the girl's got range!). She says:

"Miranda Blackwood's battle against her own history is utterly modern–and utterly marvelous. She's truly a heroine all readers can rally behind."

My Miranda winning friends and influencing people. *beams*

(Yes, it is the Season of the Blurbs. And I do hope that sharing them isn't getting too obnoxious. It's the opposite of obnoxious for me, more like a season of delight. And like all seasons this too shall pass. Promise!)

This week I am Doing All The Things and attempting to get into a writing rhythm on the new book, which seems to be finding a groove. It turns out this planning the plot in advance business may be a good idea. Who knew? The only thing of DOOM has been daylight savings time (yes, I know it's really saving not savings, but that always looks and sounds weird so not using it). Truly, you would think they had reversed the way time worked or something…

But they haven't, which means that this time next week will be ICFA. Florida, lovely people, pool, poolside bar. Perhaps an excursion to the The Hunger Games movie? (I know Genevieve's in.) I can hardly wait.

So…I know some of you might be surprised by this, but having good news to share makes me feel so, so very self-conscious. This is the standard writer neuroses kicking in big-time, I'm sure, but, well, there it is. And yet it fills me with such joy to get a blurb for my little-book-that-could like this one, just in from New York Times bestselling author (and extremely amazing writer and person) Cynthia Leitich Smith:

"This haunting, romantic mystery intrigues, chills, and captivates."

How can I not be over-the-moon and share? (Long-time readers of this blog will know just how much I adore Cyn's work.) So. YAY.

I've also seen the very first rough cut for the Blackwood cover and I may have squealed. Actually, I may have squealed both at this blurb and the not-yet-finished cover.

I need to be getting more words on the new work-in-progress (and I shall; 700 today, which is not bad at the beginning), but I also know that it's important to stop and appreciate moments like this. Blurbs from writers whose work I LOVE, the very first cover comp of my first ever Actual Book… Sometimes I have to remind myself it's okay to stop and squeal! over these things, and that some of you might even want to squeal! with me.

I just got my very first blurb. And let me tell you, as someone capable of convincing herself that Everyone Will Hate It, why yes, I did a dance of joy. It's from Marcus Sedgwick, an author whose work I absolutely love, and when my editor* sent it to me, I might have fallen over. But I have picked myself up and here it is:

"Weird, wise and witty, Blackwood is great fun."

*beams madly*

*p.s. My editor ROCKS.