Hangovers

• Busybusybusy = links and then some photographicals from last weekend's event at the Morris Book Shop. I have every intention of catching up on emails within the next few days, so if I owe you one: it is coming.
• Like the movie Clue? Me too. This Buzzfeed piece is for you.
• First mechanical gear found in a living creature.
• The HuffPo's guide to the "tangled web of teen fandoms."
• I don't think I could love Allison Janey more. Make this woman the star of a movie / TV show / whatever-she-wants.
• A love letter to Lexington, our city, which we generally adore.

A few nice reviews:

• At My Library in the Making: "All the interconnecting conspiracies made The Woken Gods a true thriller, but it still had a twisted sense of humor that perfectly fit this twisted book. It was truly unpredictable, and there was a well-developed and swoon-worthy romance to boot. Despite a few slow moments, I was never bored. To sum this up, The Woken Gods is a freaking awesome book that I would definitely recommend to Rick Riordan fans, and oh, who do I have to beg for a sequel?" *beam*
• At Much-Loved Books: "The synopsis gives a good idea about what The Woken Gods is about, but it's not until I began reading that I really got to see the world Gwenda has created, full of mythology, secrets, mysteries, and some pretty scary monsters." *beam again*
• At Badass Book Reviews: "My favorite had to be the god Anzu, who was assigned to protect Kyra. Anzu was a flying lion griffin-like god and he was very protective of Kyra, especially after she helped him out." I include this because Anzu seems to be everyone's favorite!
• And some nice words for Blackwood (and other Strange Chemistry books!) on e-book sale at YA Yeah Yeah: "Electric chemistry between the two, a truly chilling villain, and one of the best endings of the year make this a must read." *beam the final*
• Updated list of all The Woken Gods promo stops so far, including the real-world imaginary tour ones. Remember: Reading and spreading the word makes kittens happy.

I often talk about how my local bookstore cup runneth over. We are so lucky, and I know it, to have such a vibrant literary scene and such great bookstores. I already posted about the launch day signing event at Joseph-Beth, but wanted to thank the fabulous Morris Book Shop, aka MoBoSho, for hosting me last weekend. Should you want signed copies, both have plenty (and personalizations can be arranged).

There were delicious cupcakes:

 

 

And a bookstore-owner with a chainsaw (because don't all bookstores have people come in on Saturday night to return a chainsaw borrowed from the staff?):

 

 

 And my pal Alison saying nice things that I can't quite believe are true:

 

 

Christopher's adorable nephew William, who assured me he was not listening during the scary parts of my reading (and thanks to Christopher for playing the mermaid in our bonus reading from the collaboration we've been working on–once again a show-stealer!):

  

 

And then we went out for dinner and drinks and such, but not before goofily clutching the sign:

 

 

Upcoming stuff! Next weekend, Christopher and I will be reading (and signing anything put before us) at Straight Shot Coffee in Middletown, Ohio, at 2 p.m. And next month I'll be at Mysterious Galaxy Redondo Beach, on Oct. 13 at 2:30 p.m., and then at Malaprops in Asheville (with several other authors) on Nov. 7 at 7 p.m. Details on the events page, and reminders closers to.

Ciao.

• There should be one more stop coming on the real-life imaginary places tour sometime this week, and I have the aforementioned convo with Kim to post here, but today links. Because time is short.
• I was ecstatic to find The Woken Gods in truly marvelous company on io9's Most Essential SFF of September list yesterday. Yay. And a gentle request to please spread the word if you're reading and enjoying the book: word of mouth is a beautiful thing.
• Quick reminder for local folks that I will be at Morris Book Shop at 6 p.m. on Saturday to read and chat and sign–and I'll be bringing cupcakes. So. Be there! It should be a fun time.
• I absolutely love Paolo's Big Idea essay for Zombie Baseball Beatdown, a book which sounds like it will be as much a blast to read as it was to write. I've mentioned here before that Christopher and I have been writing a book together this summer, and it has been just this kind of invigorating in creative terms. This spring, I was feeling pretty burnt out after finishing The Woken Gods at a fever pitch and entering the time of waiting for it to come out. But circumstances conspired to give us an idea that came at just the right time, with a few months where I (and C) could play around without worrying about imminent deadlines or dropping the ball on something else. It's so easy to lose that sense of play. Now I remember why it's important not to. Collaborating has been a great experience, and it's a little odd now that I've also been working on something new solo again (and soon circus edits!). Anyway. Go read Paolo's essay.
• J.L. Bell on narrative momentum.
• Katherine Langrish on witches in children's literature.
• Charlie Jane Anders has a brief but potent new story in Tin House, "The Skunk," which is odd and funny and a little sad and well worth your time.
• I loved this account by Diane Zahler of her publishing journey. That is commitment.
• A great post you've probably already seen by Madeline Ashby, but pointing to it here in case you missed it. Snippet: "YA is what Clayton Christensen would call a “disruptive innovation,” a product that addresses the needs of a neglected customer segment not being served by the dominant incumbents in power. That some of the fiction isn’t terribly innovative doesn’t matter. What was innovative was treating teens like the serious market demographic that they are: a tightly-connected, actively social group in possession of disposable income who want books about the characters that nervous agents and major publishers won’t touch, like queer characters, non-white characters, and girls." Go read it all.
• Speaking of which, Malinda Lo considers why adults read YA from a slightly different vantage than the usual.
• Drunk History's Dolly Parton segment. I heart Dolly. Forever.

• Real posts soon, promise, but for now some links.
• Golden Retriever Festival in Scotland. These photos are my new happy place.
• Great piece by Michael Erard at The Morning News, "Rumors of Tribes": "I collected high school names using Twitter and Survey Monkey and came across “crumbsters,” a label for the popular kids, and the “queer cult,” for the semi-populars, though if awards were given out for creative crowd labels, the kids at one New Jersey high school in the mid-2000s might win for naming their popular crowd in the aftermath of a food fight that happened in ninth grade, when one of the most popular girls shrieked and generally overreacted after she was hit in the face with a flying chicken patty. The popular kids became known as “chicken patties.” "
• The super-fancy Robin Wasserman interviewed Ann Patty, the editor who pulled V.C. Andrews from the slush pile. See also: an essay from Patty and a piece by Sara Gran and Megan Abbott in the Believer.
• The fab Kelly Braffet wrote a great piece about persevering in the face of naysayers: "After school, I drove to the mall. Soon enough, as always, I found myself in the bookstore. There, surrounded by all of those lovely shelves, row upon row of lovely books, I realized: They hadn’t written themselves. People had written them. Clearly, writing books was not impossible. I was a person; therefore I could write books. And also, Mrs. Smith could go to hell."
• A micro-lesson on the importance of varying sentence lengths.
• Stephen Blackmoore and Chuck Wendig tackle the kinds of questions that usually get posed only to ladies, over at Whack! The results are hilarious.

The Woken Gods release day continues its approach:

• Quick reminder that today's the last day to send the preoder proof if you want a relic typed up and sent to you via the mail. I'm really looking forward to doing these. *twirls fingers evilly*
• A happy-making new review at SF Signal by Paul Weimer. Snippet: "In addition to Kyra as a character, the other feature of Woken Gods that really stands out to the reader is its creative use of mythology. Before reading it, I had expected the usual suspects of Greco-Roman mythology, or perhaps, if I was fortunate, a Norse Goddess or two thrown into the mix. … To my surprise and delight, the Gods we see in the Woken Gods are none of the usual suspects."

And a new pretty image et quote:

 

More soon!

• Could the moonshine cake be my new bourbon chocolates? I'm always looking for good regional cuisine mailing gifts for thank yous. (Via Cherie Priest.)
• There have been lots of smart thoughts bopping around tumblr re:movies based on YA novels and movies featuring teen girls, generated by an excellent post by Ally Carter. One of my favorite responses so far is this one from Cassie: "What Twilight, City of Bones, the Hunger Games, and Divergent have in common is that they are about teenage girls, and to people who know about YA, about fiction, even just about stories, that’s really not that much, or even a notable similarity." Go read the whole thing, and go see City of Bones, obvs, because it is going to be AWESOME.
• Would you like Boris Karloff's guacamole recipe? I would.
• The delightful Myra McEntire speaks the truth about the importance of writer friends.
• Genevieve did a wonderful post about eight notable silent films, focusing on the actresses at the heart of them. A great primer if you want to know more about the ladies of the silent era. I swooned. I love them so.
• 15 million-year-old whale skull found on banks of the Potomac. (You say whale, I say ancient god who looks like a whale. *g*)
• The science of champers at Smithsonian: "The collapse of bubbles at the surface is Liger-Belair’s favorite thing about champagne. “Bubbles collapsing close to each other produce unexpected lovely flower-shaped structures unfortunately completely invisible by the naked eye,” he says. “This is a fantastic example of the beauty hidden right under our nose.” "
• Photos of Shanghai 26 years apart. Astounding.
• If you're into SoundCloud, you can get the whole first season of Radio Unbound here (including the ep with me reading from Blackwood).

And some The Woken Gods things:

• The preorder contest is still going, of course, so watch video or read post! Then buy! Email! Get a postcard with a relic! Spread the word! Yay! (I'm really looking forward to writing these, and thanks SO MUCH to everyone who has already entered and who's signal boosted. Every book sold helps feed dogs et cat, so they thank you too.)
• And soon I will be all everywhere guest posting and doing interviews and etc.; if you want to be a part of that, get in touch with me or the fabulous Caroline Lambe at Angry Robot/Strange Chemistry, and we'll do our best to accomodate.
• Los Angeles area lovelies, I'm coming your way! My first-ever west coast event will be Oct. 13 at 2:30 p.m. at Mysterious Galaxy Redondo Beach. Calendarize and come out. And speaking of events, my Lexington ones for The Woken Gods are also now confirmed on the events page–so Kentucky peeps, come one and all.
• A couple more happy-making advance reviews this week, including this lovely one from Torre de Babel, which you can read in English at GoodReads: "Behind an amazing cover lurks a well-crafted divine drama. If you like alternate realities and mythology turned true, you're guaranteed a heck of a good reading." Plus, Kyra and Anzu love. Yay.
• Another nice one at the The Founding Fields: “A great, fast paced and fun novel that puts a new spin on the 'Gods Are Real' storyline that fans of the Percy Jackson series and other similar titles will love. … Kyra’s character is strong and awesome, and when this book hits shelves next month, you should certainly pick it up if you can. Young Adult readers will love this one.”
• And Daphne at Winged Reviews put me among 'I'm seriously not worthy' company on her Tuesday top ten books she wants sequels to. *beam*