News Week - 09/26/11

Kidlitcon happened this month. I didn't get to go, but YA author Holly Cupala did a talk on marketing there and announced a little project I worked on for her. It's the graphic novel version of the first two chapters of her next book DON'T BREATHE A WORD! I had a lot of fun drawing for her book. You can see the sneak preview here:

Also, if you're interested in Holly's handout on DIY marketing, go to her blog and email her.


For those of you in the NW, if you missed Kidlitcon, you can still go to Bookfest next week! (Tons of fab authors, panels, talks, and... it's free!) I will sadly miss it though. If you go to Bookfest and blog about it, point me to your blog, and I'd love to see how it went for everyone.


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In other news, Seattle's short summer vanished and now, rain and autumn leaves are whipping by. We will likely not see another sunny day until April. How do you cope with the winter blues?


Joey knows I hate the cold, so he got me a locket with pictures of the grains of glass sand beach on one side, and the blue ocean of Maui on the other. (Both pictures were from our trip.) So that will help me through the winter, as well as as lots of coffee.





In other news, my book is on submission and I am drafting a new story at the same time. Whenever I draft a new story, I truly feel like I don't "choose" what I want to write, but rather, the story chooses me. I don't tell myself that I want to write an urban fantasy and start plotting, rather, I randomly become fascinated with some idea and can't help writing about it, even if I wanted to write some other story instead. Anyway, it's truly wonderful to write at least 2000 words per day and feel completely enthusiastic to do so. I never know how a story will turn out, but I remind myself having fun and writing for myself is the first most important step. What about you, authors? What makes you start drafting a story for the first time? I think for me, it is curiosity.


Have a happy start of autumn, all!




--Realm