Archive for October 2011
Limited Motherhood
For the Prized blog tour today, I’m visiting Shut Up! I’m Reading, where Jessica asks about my inspiration for The Birthmarked Trilogy.
Aside from my answer to Jessica, the idea for one pivotal scene in the first book came from my concern for pregnant women in prison. What happens to them and their families? The Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women (NY) has sustained a prison nursery since the 1930’s. Babies stay with their incarcerated mothers for a year and then are placed with relatives or in foster care.
Fireside
We’ve been out of power again, thanks to the icy snow that dropped on Connecticut overnight. Since the leaves haven’t fallen yet, they’re now coated, which weighs the branches to the breaking point. We’ve been gathered around the fireplace, reading, playing the guitar, and drinking cocoa.
The Prized blog tour takes me today to The Compulsive Reader, where Tirzah asks me about the mid-series cover face-lift, which I just so happen to adore.
Climate in My Backyard
We woke to a dusting of snow yesterday and expect 4-9 inches tonight. Has the weather forgotten which calendar month we’re in? As a concerned planet-dweller and writer, I donate a portion of the proceeds of the Birthmarked Trilogy to the Global Greengrants Fund, a far-reaching non-profit for a just and sustainable world.
Today for the Prized blog tour, I’m visiting Manga Maniac Café, where Julie asks me about the books that most inspired me to become a writer.
Local Access
This morning, I dropped by my local access station to be a guest on Artists & Authors, hosted by Stephanie Summers. It was a friendly, fun interview which will be aired several weeks from now. Thanks to Stephanie, and to Maidie, Scott, and Ian for running it all so smoothly.
The Prized blog tour takes me to The Book Cellar today. Birthmarked was the first dystopian novel Erica ever read, and I find it cool how she came to it fresh, with no pre-conceptions.
Sweet Deal
We are a Kindle family.
For a limited time, the e-book of Birthmarked is available for $2.99 on Amazon. I don’t think I can take credit for this idea, but I am all for it. It’s almost as good as going to the library to take it out for free!
Do I have a Kindle? I do.
Do I prefer to read paper books? I do. Except when I’m traveling, or when it’s the middle of the night and I need a book now.
Novels in Schools
Scholastic Book Fairs and its parallel in France, France Loisirs, have both picked up Birthmarked. I was a devoted fan of the Arrow Book Club when I was in middle school, and vividly recall how excited I was whenever an order of new books came in for me, so I’m delighted the same company is now bringing my novel to readers in schools.
On the Prized blog tour today, I’m visiting The Book Pixie, where Briana asks me some out-of-the-box questions, like which color I’d eliminate from the world if I could. They’re quite fun!
Walled Cities
Certaldo, Italy, is my favorite walled city because of its peaceful scale and its position on a lovely hillside. I spent a day there when my family was living in Ferrara, a larger walled city, for several months. Standing on ramparts at dusk, with swallows flying against the fading sky like bats, but prettier, takes me through a portal.
On the blog tour today at The Book Monsters, Kristen asks me to say what’s hardest and easiest about writing, and she gets me thinking.
Chat with Nan
Nancy Mercado at Girls Write Now
Two weeks from now, when Prized is released, I’ll be having a live chat on Goodreads, and my editor Nancy Mercado will be there, too! I’m so pleased. Here’s a photo of Nan I swiped from a Girls Write Now mailing in February 2011 (she’s a mentor with the program) because it seems to capture a bit of who she is—focused, intense, and nice. Look: she’s all about the editing, but she also has her punch glass in hand. Rumor has it a bunch of us writers who work with Nan secretly have a fan club for her, but I couldn’t say for sure. That would be far, far too silly, anyway.
My blog tour takes me today to A Good Addiction, where Kari will interview one of the men in Prized and ask how he likes living with so few women. Plus, she’s running a giveaway of a Prized ARC and my friend Leah Cypess’s Nightspell.
