Blackwood Archives - Page 7 of 7

The Future Will Be Here Before You Know It

Blackwood, Books / By Gwenda / February 9, 2012

So…here's the thing they tell you: Publishing moves slow. It takes FOREVER.

And this is usually true. Certainly there is a large amount of waiting involved for every writer on earth (and probably on any other planets with publishing industries). But since Strange Chemistry is a brand new imprint and launching later this year, things are moving at lightning speed comparable to the norm. From interest to offer to announcement happened pretty fast, but that's not unusual. (I know these things because I hang around with a lot of writers, so indulge first-time me here.) My contract showed up yesterday and is now winging its way across the ocean, and editor Amanda emailed me ISBNs for the US, UK and e-book editions of Blackwood first thing yesterday morning, and even now their digits are making their way into the machinery that feeds Nielsen and Amazon and such. The book already exists on Goodreads. Coverless, of course, but exists.

Today or tomorrow, I'll get my edits. And also today I'm thinking about blurb s. (That is just as nauseous-making as expected, and there's no time to wait! Or waste! September is coming! Ack! Nothing like a time crunch to induce bravery. Still nauseous-making. Send bourbon.) AND I have a few lines from a Bowerbirds song I really would love to use as an epigraph, and so I need to contact the band and their label and see if there's any possible way that permission can happen, and quickly. (Luckily, I also have a non-copyrighted snippet from a Sir Walter Raleigh letter on epigraph standby.)

On Saturday morning, we leave for a week's writing retreat with a bunch of wise and lovely writers, and the timing couldn't be better. A whole week to concentrate on edits and figuring out the next book. In the sunshine. Bliss. Perhaps they will also talk me down when I lapse into hysterics. The universe was smiling when the timing worked out this way.

Small aside: I have a cold, which I re-gave myself by not switching out my toothbrush head after I was sick a week and a half ago, so perhaps am a bit loopy. Am attempting to think cold into submission; maybe not the best strategy since last time I self-germ warfared. Anyway. All this by way of saying, it hit me yesterday:

September will be here before you know it.

Sure, in the meantime there will be edits to do, and other people will be reading the book (some of them reallly soon–hold me), and other Exciting! Things! and, soon enough, probably within the month, I'll be back at work on another book due later this year, even while Exciting! Things! happen. But I'll blink and it'll be September.

The future is tricksy. It sneaks up.

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You Guys Are The Best, Officially

Blackwood / By Gwenda / February 3, 2012

I've said this elsewhere already, but wanted to put it here too (in the more permanent record and all):

Thanks to everyone for making an excellent week that much more so. Your congratzies and excitement for my news made it all the better. ♥

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Wednesday Hangovers: Or, All The Open Links In My Tabs

8 Comments / Blackwood, Hangovers / By Gwenda / February 1, 2012

I think it's time for some links! so it's not all mememe around here. But…

A couple of little housekeeping items first. I FINALLY mapped my domain; your old links will work, but so will https://www.gwendabond.com. (When I say I mapped it, I mean the Web Bunny (aka Richard) and Christopher managed to fix the process I had begun in my typical flailing manner with all things technical.) Also, you may notice the book recommendations sidebar isn't on this page–but it is not gone. I gave it and the blogroll I'm in the process of recreating a page of their very own instead, which is also linked in the nav bar.

And last, I awoke to a tweet this morning from the lovely Strange Chemistry twitter account that you can add Blackwood (and Shift and Poltergeeks) to your to-read list on goodreads. So, if you're on goodreads and you'd like to, it would make me do a little chair dance. Am doing a lot of that of late. And now on to OTHER things.

There's a brand new shiny online literary magazine devoted to YA short fiction called Sucker. Their first issue has just been posted, and the delightful Mima Tipper (who has a story in the issue) has interviewed the editor, Hannah Goodman, at Hen & Ink.
Jenny Davidson asks Colleen Mondor about The Map of My Dead Pilots: two of my favorite people talking about fascinating things. What could be better?
Sara Zarr posted a link to a serial movie that you will want to watch if you like dancing and happy things, Girl Walk//All Day. And it solves the mystery of the riveting dancing tutor from this season of The Good Wife, who is Anne Marsen, the star. HAPPINESS.
Elaine Showalter in the Guardian on some of the best literary novelists working today: women all. A snippet: "But the main reason why women do not figure in American literary history is because they haven't written it. Women writers need to be seen in larger contexts than their most recent novel, placed in relation to their contemporaries and their precursors, understood in terms of the themes and issues of their generations. Only then can we rewrite American literary history overall to reflect its full evolution and significance."
A letter from a freed slave to his former master, upon being requested to come back to work. Via everybody.
A great post from Diana Renn about challenges young sleuths face in mysteries at Sleuths, Spies, and Alibis.
Victoria Schwab with an honest and wonderful post about her move to New York. I bet she gets an A in everything she samples from that course catalogue.
Lindsay Goldwert at the NY Daily News on Sassy's impact as a recommender of literary wonderfulness (they were also indispensable in forming my tastes in music and movies), especially Weetzie Bat. I very much discovered those books because of Sassy, and our wonderful h.s. librarian ordered them, and they stayed checked out constantly. Anyway, must get the Weetzie prequel.
Genevieve on Dermot Mulroney being an idiot about the fact he's gotten to act opposite so many fantastic ladies.
Kristin Bell's sloth love. It is a beautiful and hilarious thing.

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Of Goodwill

2 Comments / Blackwood, Books, Children's Lit Fabulosity, Nattering / By Gwenda / January 31, 2012

So, you are all kind of amazing. All your congratulations and good wishes and interest in the book–here, on twitter, on facebook, etc.–have been so, so appreciated. I couldn't manage to respond to everyone individually, but please know how much it means. As most of you know, I've been working toward this first novel sale for years (which is not at all unusual–interviewing writers for PW is always a great reminder that we only ever see the tippy tops of people's careers and the iceberg of all the work and setbacks and the rest of it is beneath the water, concealed from everyone but those people in our daily lives). And I always have a tendency to expect the worst and be pleasantly surprised if things don't go down in a flaming ball of fiery doom.

All this positivity is disconcerting. I'm not used to it.

Anyway, io9 did that great piece (how much do I love those guys? they are so great for SFF and YA and the world in general, so pinch moment number two–pinch moment number one was when the initital announcement from SC hit). And today the deal made it into Publishers Marketplace–and was mentioned in the daily Publishers Lunch newsletter, surreal pinch moment number three. I have read that newsletter every day FOR AGES and to see my book mentioned…my little #nerdromancethriller-that-could. Here's the text of the PM listing:

Gwenda Bond's BLACKWOOD, a young adult novel about a modern-day Lost Colony; when 114 people disappear from Roanoke Island, an unlikely pair of 17-year-olds may be the only hope of bringing them back, to Amanda Rutter at Angry Robot, in a two-book deal, for publication in Fall 2012, by Jennifer Laughran at Andrea Brown Literary Agency (World English).
Translation: Taryn Fagerness Agency

It's listed as an international deal because Angry Robot is based in the UK, but for those who've asked, like Angry Robot, Strange Chemistry will be a global imprint, and the book will be available in the US, the UK and I believe Australia as both a physical object and as an e-book (and Angry Robot also sells DRM-free e-books at their web store). And for booksellers (I LOVE YOU), Strange Chemistry/Angry Robot's US distribution is through Random House.

I really can't wait for you guys to get to read this book. Which I started, oh, back in 2005, I believe. I had the initial idea then, started it as a screenplay, realized I really should be writing YA and so re-started it as a novel…and set it aside for a lot of years because I didn't know the solution to the mystery. And I felt like if I was going to write a fantasy about Roanoke Island and the Lost Colony, I had to solve it, one way or another. Cut to last semester of grad school, a desperate need for a workshop piece, and I pulled out the opening I had. The group (led by the divine Cynthia Leitich Smith) were very, very helpful, but still, even though I knew the overall shape of the story, I didn't know what was causing the disappearances, so I shelved it again… And then, finally, the third time I started to work on it was the charm. Lightning, research, reading: Alchemy. Though, of course, I'm not going to reveal exactly *how* alchemy figures in.

The title Blackwood is actually from the masterminds of Angry Robot, by the way. My original title was too similar to the imprint name. And I like this so much better. It fits the story in every way and…

I really, really can't wait for you guys to get to read this book. So soon! In September. And I can't wait to get my edit letter from the fabulous Amanda and get to work on it again. And then on book two (which will be unrelated to this one; Blackwood is a standalone).

Also, just an aside: Jennifer Laughran is a goddess among agents. There are agents who wouldn't have hung in there with me, lo, these several years, and continued to be wonderful and excited about my work. Jenn did. So…

PINCH ME. But, don't worry, my head won't stay in the clouds, not when I have this:

Pirate Hemingway Don't Care About Books

(Note: No actual eye-patches were used in this photo. Am playing w/ Typepad's new photo editor Aviary.)

And now back to work. More soon.

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