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I’m super excited to be heading to American Library Association Conference this Thursday! Okay, yeah I’m mostly I’m looking forward to fleeing Seattle’s ever-present rain and gloom for a place with sun and HEAT! I swear it’s been so long since we’ve seen the sun here, I’ve turned vampiric. And I’ll get to do some touristing in Washington D.C. I’m definitely planning to make time to see the newly renovated Smithsonian Museum of American History. Julia Child’s kitchen? The original Kermit? I can’t wait. Last time I was in DC, it had closed just days before I arrived for renovations and I was devastated. Yes, I cried.

I’m also excited for the show. It’s always fun to meet and talk with librarians and other book/D&D-fanatics who visit our booth. (Which looks like a Wizards Workshop BTW! It’s almost as cool as the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Except there’s no broomstick rides. Or butterbeer. Maybe next year.)

For those of you who may be attending, we have our best-ever line-up of authors and demonstrations. You can meet the fantabulous Kimberly Pauley, author of Still Sucks to Be Me, and decide whether she really is a vampire for yourself. (Warning: our legal department requires that I inform you we are not liable for any vampire bites.) Debut author (and lasagna lover) Lukas Ritter will be signing Monster Slayers, and A.R. Rotruck will be demo’ing life-saving activities such as how to make your own Tanglefoot Potion so you can trap a zombie in the coming zombiepocalypse from her book Young Wizards Handbook: How to Trap a Zombie, Track a Vampire, and Other Hands-On Activities for Monster Hunters. Oh and we’ll be demo’ing Heroes of Hesiod, a quick and easy-to-learn D&D game, for kids and anyone who has wanted to learn D&D but was turned off by the rules or the time involved. Of course, we’ll be giving away tons of books as usual—including our newly released and well-reviewed Nocturne.

Here’s the schedule of loot and live appearances! See you there!

Saturday, June 26, 2010

All About Vampires

10:00 – 11:00 AM      BOOK GIVEAWAY*: Nocturne by L.D. Harkrader - Be sure to get your copy of this new companion book to A Practical Guide to Vampires!

11:00 – 12:00 AM      BOOK GIVEAWAY*:  A Practical Guide to Vampires – Pick up your copy of the companion book to the New York Times bestselling books A Practical Guide to Monsters and A Practical Guide to Dragons

1:00 – 2:00 PM          AUTHOR SIGNING*:  Still Sucks to Be Me by Kimberly Pauley - Get your copy of the sequel to the best selling Sucks to Be Me and get it signed by the author.

2:00 – 3:00 PM          BOOK GIVEAWAY*:  Nocturne by L.D. Harkrader - Be sure to get your copy of this new companion book to A Practical Guide to Vampires!

3:00 – 4:00 PM          DEMO:  How to Track a Vampire – Learn monster hunting basics with these activity based demos from the book by A.R. Rotruck, A Young Wizard’s Handbook: How to Trap a Zombie, Track a Vampire and Other Hands-on Activities for Monster Hunters. Hosted by the author.

4:00 – 5:00 PM          DEMO:  Learn how to play D&D® with a quick and easy demo you can run in your school or library!

*Titles are limited to one per person, while supplies last

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For the last few months, I’ve been trying—and failing—to finish a certain Swedish thriller that has been camped out on the bestseller list for months. Am I the only person on the planet who can’t get through this book? 

I’ve started it three times. It’s not the story that turns me off. I love a good thriller and the plot delivers plenty of twists. (I know because I did see the movie, which I liked so much I picked up the book, for the third and final time.)  It’s not the characters—Blomkvist is a sympathetic protagonist and Salander has enough attitude and intriguing backstory to keep me rooting for her—as ridiculous as she is (come on, no self-respecting hacker uses an Apple!)

The thing that turned me off (again and again) is the writing, or really the excessively detailed writing.

For example, in the very beginning of the book, a side character receives a mysterious pressed flower in the mail. The author goes on for six long paragraphs giving us every detail about this flower, from its Latin name (ptospermum [Myrtaceae] rubinette), to its height (ten centimeters), to its country of origin (Australia). By the end of the book, we’ll find out there is one detail in there that matters, and the rest is just extraneous information.

Hey, I understand how it happens. The cardinal rule of writing is to BE SPECIFIC. Good writers look for every opportunity to add details, specifics that paint a picture of the setting and tell us something about the character’s life, values, and personality. A character shouldn’t drive a car. He should drive a Porsche (because he’s rich), or a Honda (wait, he’s practical). Or a Yugo (um, he’s . . . crazy?)  

But as with any creative art form—from cooking to fashion—less is more. Everyone knows that when you’re making soup, throwing in every exotic ingredient you can think of doesn’t make it better. It’s the careful selection of ingredients, in the right amounts, added in at the right time.  

It’s the same thing with writing. If you throw in every specific detail your character might see or hear or know, you end up with a big tangled mess. The reader doesn’t know what to focus on. They’re so overwhelmed by information, they can’t visualize the scene. And they lose interest in your story.

Great writers select the details that lead their readers in the direction they want them to look, to create the feelings they want readers to feel. It’s not just a matter of being as specific as possible, but rather choosing details to create a specific effect.

Fantasy authors are often the worst offenders of over-specificity. You need lots of details to build a convincing fantasy world. But I have read submissions that are so weighted down with unnecessary information, my pupils turned into spiral cartoons.

If you find yourself addicted to detail, don’t worry. You can stop the insanity, using my simple three-step program:

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Last week, I was driving to work, half-listening to a story on NPR when the reporter said something that made me laugh aloud:

“Heather, while drawn to writing about zombies, is normal-looking.”

The story was about a soon-to-be college graduate and aspiring fantasy writer who’s having trouble finding a job because she’s an English major. And that’s news? Actually, I wasn’t thinking much about that irony. Instead I couldn’t stop thinking about the offhanded description of the English major. The reporter’s implication, intentional or not, is that people who write fantasy stories must somehow be as bizarre as their bizarre interests. A college student who writes about zombies and doesn’t have cystic acne or a severe overbite? No headgear? Quick, Susan Stamberg, get me a microphone! We must document this rare beast!

Read the rest!

Like most affairs, I swear I never meant for it to happen. I’ve always been devoted to my books. And by books, I mean signatures of thick creamy white paper, folded together, glued between two hard binder boards, and wrapped in a beautifully designed jacket. I love books so much, in college, I signed up for a class at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts and after one session, I went on a crazed shopping spree and bought bobbins of waxed linen thread, fancy papers, bone folders, and my very own awl. I learned how to sew a pamphlet stitch, a longstitch binding, and a multi-signature case binding. I made crazy conceptual book art and enough blank journals to last two or three lifetimes.

And then I met Him. One day, he downloaded Microsoft Reader onto his PocketPC and filled it with classic novels. Practically overnight, he went from someone who picked up a novel possibly once or twice a year, to a compulsive reader who carries his ereader with him everywhere, just in case he has a spare moment to read. Even he was surprised by how much he suddenly loved books again. Was it the gadget factor? (He’s a gearhead after all.) Or the easy access to books? The soothing glow of the screen just before bedtime—the lack of distractions allowing him to visualize the world of the story? Yes, yes, yes, all of the above.

Month after month, he would ask me if I wanted to try ebooks too. He gave me a digital reader. He bought ebooks he thought I might like. But I protested. I could never love an ebook. What about the feel of the pages in your hand? What about the smell of fresh ink? I love looking at book jackets, reading the back copy. Besides I’m an editor, for goodness sake. What would my friends think?

And then one night, my resolve wore thin, and lacking a new novel to read, I fell into the arms of the ereader. From that moment, I was hooked. I have since owned or tried out nearly every ereader software and almost every version of every ereader device from the SonyReader to the Kindle. Physical books and I now have an open relationship—I still buy and read art books, picture books, fantastically designed books, hardcovers and trade paperbacks written by authors whose work I love and want to collect. But now I buy ebooks in equal measure, check them out from the library, and even sometimes download a public domain version from the Internet. And I’m reading more than ever before. I love having an entire library of books at my fingertips, anytime, anywhere. I used to lug a full carry-on of books on vacation, terrified of being caught without something to read. Now I just plop my reader in the bag. And when I wake up in the middle of the night, finish a book, and am dying to read the sequel, I only have to wait five seconds for the download and I’m lost in fantasy land again.

So it may be no surprise that I don’t believe the digitization of books is as apocalyptic as so many in the industry seem to think it is.

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Susan wrote a hilarious post on suvudu.com about faeries for FAERIE WEEK!

Don't miss it!

www.suvudu.com/2010/05/five-things-you-c...

[CUE Voiceover Guy]

Pree-vious-ly on WoTCBookClub:

Nina talked about how no one talks about the editor-author relationship, and then one of her authors, Kimberly Pauley came onto the blog and they talked about the editor-author relationship. We got a bunch of emails saying you guys really liked reading about the editor-author relationship. Now here’s the second half of the interview. 

 ***

 KP: What do you feel are the advantages and disadvantages of working at/with a smaller publisher?

  NH: As an editor, I enjoy working for a smaller publisher. We have a small but tight-knit team that is dedicated to creating great products. I love our designers and art directors who are so creative, flexible, and willing to lend a hand. Just the other day, I wanted some illustrations for Heroes of Hesiod, a promotional game tied to the new novel Monster Slayers. We didn’t have the budget to hire an outside artist so I popped over to Emi Tanji’s desk (Emi’s one of our designers ) and asked if she could help me. Even though she obviously had tons of “real” work to do, she whipped out some adorable doodles that were perfect.  All my editorial colleagues are supportive and full of creative energy. And the marketing team, including Shelly Mazzanoble, is enthusiastic about all our books and full of great marketing ideas.  From an author’s point of view, a smaller publisher is going to give you more individual attention both in editing time and marketing time. The disadvantages are that smaller publishers sometimes lack the same resources and market-share a larger publisher might have, but I think we make up for that in enthusiasm and effort! And with Random House as our distributor, we are lucky enough to have access to a lot of unique resources like their awesome suvudu website and their fantastic sales team.

 NH: Speaking of Emi Tanji, Emi’s illustrations appear throughout your Sucks to Be Me and Still Sucks to Be Me. What was it like seeing those doodles for the first time in the interior of the book? Was it what you were expecting? How about the covers, which Emi also designed (under the art direction of Kate Irwin)?

 Read the rest!

Aside from a few great books by Leonard Marcus (Dear Genius is genius!), the author-editor relationship is probably the least examined aspect of the writing process outside the walls of an editor's office. Is it because editors shy away from the spotlight? (Yes.) Does it seem weird to gush about how much you like your authors or for you authors, how much you like (or hate?) your editor? (Naw.) The author/editor relationship can be at different times and on different days scary, exhilarating, frustrating, liberating, fun (We get paid to make up stories and read them!) and utterly dull (but wah, we still have to make copies, go to meetings, and fill out forms.) Ups and downs abound, but in the end you come out of it with an amazing book, something that you are both incredibly proud to bring into the world.

This week Kimberly Pauley and I celebrated something we’re both super proud to bring into the world—Still Sucks to Be Me, the sequel to her acclaimed novel Sucks to Be Me. In honor of that book birthday, I wanted to give you a chance to be a fly on the wall for a real-life author-editor conversation, and perhaps gain a little insight into the author-editor relationship yourself.

I hope you enjoy it! If you have a question for me or Kimberly, post it below and we’ll answer it in the next installment!

 ***

 NH: What was your worst fear about the publishing process?

 KP: Well, honestly, that I'd never get published! But that's probably not what you meant. I suppose it was that I'd wind up with an editor that didn't get me or my book and would demand tons of changes that would weaken or change my story beyond recognition. I've heard lots of horror stories over the years about exactly those kinds of things, but some of the stories you have to take with a grain of salt. Many authors (and I can sometimes be guilty of this too) are very protective over their words and have a hard time accepting constructive criticism. I feel like I've been really lucky because (and I'm totally not sucking up here, even though it sounds like it) I really think you've made my books much better than they otherwise would have been. I'm entirely too nice to my characters, especially in first drafts.

  NH: Aw, thanks! Your books are always so fun to work on. I think we have a similar sense of humor and outlook so that helps.

  KP:  What's the one thing you'd change about publishing if you could (process, industry, or otherwise)? 

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Today we celebrate a double book birthday! Lukas Ritter’s Monster Slayers and Kimberly Pauley’s Still Sucks to Be Me both hit bookstores today!

Next week, I’ll be posting an interview I did with Kimberly Pauley about Still Sucks to Be Me and her writing process. In case you missed me talking about it ad nauseum, Still Sucks to Be Me is the aptly named sequel to Sucks to Be Me, the story of one Mina Hamilton (now) Smith whose parents are vampires and must decide if she wants to become a vampire too. NPR’s Margot Adler named it her favorite vampire novel for teens (yay!) and said: “It was smart, original, with a lovely, honest heroine, and it was laugh-out-loud funny. I almost fell out of bed laughing at one point.”  

In honor of Still Sucks to Be Me’s book birthday, I thought I’d share with you a few of the many lessons I’ve learned about humor writing from editing funny authors like Kimberly.  

1. Tailor your humor to the intended audience.

If you’re going to write funny fiction for kids or teens, you have to get inside their heads and remember what made you laugh at that age. If you’re writing for six to ten year olds, toilet humor rules. If you don’t believe me, go and find a group of eight year old boys and shout “diarrhea!” I guarantee they’ll laugh so hard they cry. The forbidden (aka anything a parent might turn their nose up) makes little kids laugh like nothing else. They’re pushing the boundaries and they like that in their humor. D.L. Garfinkle’s Supernatural Rubber Chicken is a masterful example of funny fiction for that age. For middle-grade (ages 8 to 12), physical comedy (slapstick), absurd or embarrassing situations, and silly characters and dialogue make kids laugh. Some of my favorite parts of Lukas Ritter’s Monster Slayers are the scenes where the characters confront the ormyrr. The ormyrr is a giant slug-like D&D monster who drools, spits phlegm on its enemies, and speaks like a mentally-challenged Yoda. He’s so ridiculous you can’t help but laugh. With teens (12 and up), mostly humor lives in the voice of the writing, whether it be sarcastic, superior or self-deprecating. In Kimberly Pauley’s Still Sucks to Be Me and Sucks to Be Me, main character Mina has a very real-world teen voice (according to this teen reviewer), with biting commentary that makes the character, and the book, feel like the best friend you love to laugh with.

Read the rest!

Since my last post, our D&D game for kids, Monster Slayers: Heroes of Hesiod, has set the internet ablaze! We’ve had some awesome feedback from fans around the world (!) including some terrific reviews in Wired, the Toronto Sun, and various RPG friendly blogs. It’s so exciting to hear how much people are enjoying the game and we love hearing from fans so if you’ve tried the game and have a comment, please let us know!     

For any of you who have enjoyed the game, you’ll enjoy learning more about the “original” Hero of Hesiod, Lukas Ritter. In this final portion of my interview with him, we talk in more depth about the creation of Monster Slayers, the book that inspired Monster Slayers: Heroes of Hesiod. (In case you missed the first posts: Part I and Part II can be found here).    

If you don’t believe me that this book is terrific, check out this review from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Or even better this one, from a sixth grader, who stayed up reading until 2:03 AM because he couldn’t put the book down. (That’s the best compliment I think you can give a writer!)

All right, on with the show!

Nina H: What was the hardest thing about writing Monster Slayers?

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Last week, I introduced you to Lukas Ritter, a talented young author I discovered via a means that’s becoming more and more infrequent in publishing: the slush pile. In celebration of the upcoming publication of his latest book, Monster Slayers, Lukas and I sat down and had a conversation Interview magazine style about D&D, the author-editor relationship, and how Monster Slayers came to be.

The book doesn’t come out until May 11. But you can preview the content of the book, right now by reading this fun short story that’s a prequel to the book: Monster Slayers: Training Day! After reading this, be sure to check out our hot-off-the-virtual-presses mini-D&D Adventure for young kids: Monster Slayers: Heroes of Hesiod. I edited and playtested this twice and I guarantee you’ll love it!

And now without further ado, please welcome Lukas Ritter!

 *  * * * * * *

Nina H: Let’s start with the most important question. What is your favorite D&D monster?:

Lukas R: I know I'm going to steal your answer, but I'm going to go with beholder! They're just so unique in a twisted and fun way. I love that they have a hilariously inflated sense of entitlement—hive mothers are called The Ultimate Tyrant!—and that they appreciate the aesthetics of their maze-like lairs even while being total brutes. Plus they have minions! I can't help but be amused by the idea of these giant, floating, eye-covered heads screaming out orders to their minions while floating around shooting lasers from their pupils. I'd love to one day do a semi-comedic, Doctor Who-ish take on them.

I also really liked the ormyrr, a monster featured in A Practical Guide to Monsters. The summary of the creature accompanied with the illustration immediately brought to mind a clear, fun character. Which is why one is featured in Monster Slayers and may soon show up again in another book.

Lukas R: So the question is back to you: What is your favorite D&D monster? And word on the street is that you made a plush, baby beholder— any comment on that?

Read my answer!