Into that world inverted...

'That Sarah,' you may well be saying to each other. 'Gallivanting off to Mexico, never a thought for her solemn promise to give away a book a month in 2009.'

But I always keep my promises, and here is my post about my October Book.

It is Liar by Justine Larbalestier.

Now, Liar is a hard book to talk about, because it is an important book not to spoil. I don't just mean it's important not to spoil the ending - spoiling the ending of any book is often considered a bad move. It's important not to spoil the middle of Liar. It's important not to spoil chapter two. It's important not to talk about which genre Liar is.

Unfortunately this leaves one waggling one's hands vaguely and going 'It is a BOOK. Very fine. Cover and pages and everything. The words in it - very well chosen and arranged. You should read it - it will be most enjoyable!'

Speaking of covers, there was controversy about the cover of Liar, as follows. I will not speak of it much, as really, it has all been said, and Liar is a book which deserves to be talked about independent of its cover, but it is a very good example of the way authors have almost no control over their covers - and how important it is to think about books, and marketing, and our society's attitude to issues like this.

Though I love the new cover of Liar and am hugely glad right prevailed, I wish to talk about the insides of the book and why those insides are so awesome.

I am always complaining about 'urban fantasy' because I love the idea of urban fantasy and it makes me despair when books do not have a real sense of place: I love books with really well-done settings, so I believe in whatever happens against a rich, realised backdrop. Micah, the heroine of Liar, is a city girl in the same way I am, loving both the good and bad sides of city life. New York City is in her blood, dirt and sunlight and subways and beauty. The reality of a summer in New York grounds this really twisty tale.

And talking of twisty tales - I am a big fan of mysteries. I have an eternal love for a good twist ending. I used to place bets on Agatha Christie books. I have read all the Wilkie Collins books I have been able to get my hands on because he created the modern detective novel, and love them all even though they are crazy (Acrobats with no legs, dudes with blue faces, evil twins whose hands drop off, the only way to solve this mystery is lots and lots of opium!). What Liar does is really fascinating: it has a whole new approach to the mystery novel.

Micah of Liar is well, as the title implies, a compulsive liar. Her point of view transforms the reader into the detective of the mystery novel, and makes Liar subtly into a Choose Your Own Adventure novel. The murder in Liar seems very real to me because the book underlines how horribly hard a detective's job must be: never to be quite sure how it all went down, listening to a lot of lies and a lot of half-truths and a lot of whole truths, with no idea which is which.

And then there is Micah herself. I think Micah is awesome. She is also really complicated and problematic and troubling, and I expect the author is getting a lot of flak for her. (I get a lot for my troubling, troubled and definitely-not-an-everyman protagonist, and Micah has it harder because she's a girl.) She's a girl with issues about that which I think a lot of girls can relate to, and she has issues about her race which are mixed in with her issues about her identity, and she's a liar in a way that I think a lot of kids who grew up telling stories can see a part of themselves in. And she's spikily defiant about who she is, letting us know more about herself than she means to. When we empathise with characters like that, we look into dark mirrors. It's not comfortable. But it is cool.

I am terrified to say more about Liar in case I spoil it. But - beautiful writing, a murder mystery, a difficult daring girl at the centre. What's not to love?

So speak up: who would like a copy of Liar?

So, my dear livejournal, it has been a while, since I have been on tour! But now I will tell you all about my touring adventures.

So, I was extremely nervous about touring with Scott Westerfeld, as he has written several millionty awesome and much-feted books. These nerves did not cease when I popped off the plane in LA, and Scott showed me an awesome slideshow of the illustrations from his book, which as you can see from this book trailer are kind of the definition of awesome.

SARAH: Oh oh my God. What am I going to do? MY BOOK HAS NO PICTURES IN IT. I thought I could do a reading-
SCOTT: No! Readings are boring.
SARAH: Oh oh my God. Is there a fainting couch in this hotel...?

We added three of my covers to the slideshow, and I used the Japanese cover art to point to and describe all the characters as I talked about open and closed fantasy worlds, and having a character who didn't fit into the ordinary world at all but would have to learn, and make-out scenes. Also, I made many and various lame jokes.

I had lots of fun. The audiences we had were lovely and attentive, and asked brilliant questions (more on that later) and laughed at all the lame jokes. Touring is huge fun.

Touring is also insane and exhausting. One day we had to get up at 4 am to catch a plane, and then we did three events that day. Oh we were not our most sparkling selves upon that night.

SCOTT: Sarah, we need to get food, but I do not want to carry my gadgets, and in my state of exhaustion I locked my room key in my room.
SARAH: That's okay, I have a room key!
SCOTT: Great, we'll put the gadgets in there.
SCOTT: ... Where was that room key again?
SARAH: *tips up bag onto the floor outside door* It is CERTAINLY in here somewhere. I am 78 per cent sure!
SCOTT: In other news, are you sure this is your hotel room? Because I hear movement in there...
SARAH: Of course I am sure! How can you be so absurd?
ELDERLY MAN IN PYJAMAS: *opens the door*
SCOTT AND SARAH: *hysterical laughter*
SARAH: OH HERE IS MY ROOM KEY! Now, where is my room?
SCOTT: Being a writer is so glamorous.

Sometimes, traveling with a boy writer was very sad.

SCOTT: Sarah here I am, looking so debonair and also all ready in my black ensemble for the steampunk high tea.
SARAH: Oh my God, should I curl my hair or straighten it? Do you think there's such a thing as a steampunk hair straightener?
SCOTT: ... I have no opinion on the matter.

The steampunk high tea, where there was a little steampunk set and people dressed in steampunk costumes (I wore my Victorian button boots, but must admit I was way outclassed) and a Goblin Market with a raven and talismans, was amazingly fun, but we did have to rush it to catch a plane. So I made the Ultimate Sacrifice.

LOVELY BOOKSELLER: Shall I bring you a scone?
SARAH: ... No. No, these lovely people have already put up with all my terrible jokes and are now about to get the full force of my lameness one-on-one. They do not need to see me signing books with clotted cream in my eyelashes.

Getting up early and rushing around on tour is pretty standard. However I will admit, some things would only happen to me.

SARAH'S HOTEL ROOM, LATE AT NIGHT

SARAH: *smells smoke*
AUTOMATED VOICE: You may have noticed your hotel room is on fire. Please stand by for further details.
SARAH: Well, I will stand by. The automated voice is never wrong.
SCOTT: *calls me* Sarah where are you the hotel is on fire!
SARAH: I am standing by in my room. The automated voice told me to.
SCOTT: What if the person whose job it is to press the button to change over to the automated voice that says 'Please flee the burning hotel' has already died in flames?
SARAH: Compelling point, Mr Westerfeld. I will be right down.

Some time later...

SCOTT: Sarah, did you bring anything downstairs but your laptop?
SARAH: *shifty eyes* Well... did you?
SCOTT: ... I brought my phone.
SARAH: When you take your laptop and leave your passport to burn, I think you reach some sort of ultimate level of geekiness.
SCOTT: Look, firemen! Let's twitter this event.
SARAH: Perhaps for us there is always a geekier level.
SCOTT: Do you remember when I played a joke on our publicist today and pretended I'd got off at the wrong train stop?
SARAH: Yes.
SCOTT: Do you think there's any chance she'll believe me if I email her and say the hotel is on fire?
SARAH: O Scott, you have killed us both.

Some time later...

FIREMEN: Not to worry, little hotel people. We brave men of the flame have saved the day. The fire was caused by towels.
SCOTT: People were smoking towels to get high?
SARAH: Newlyweds are in the hotel and the towels were ignited by their passion!
FIREMEN: ... Towels in the dryer.

The moral of this story may be never to leave writers to come up with their own explanations. Also, something about never crying wrong train station.

It got to the point where I was pretty scared to do an event without Scott, but at Wordstock in Portland I did one with the lovely Laini Taylor, who I was thrilled to see had pink hair. I even did a reading from The Demon's Covenant at that event, though I knew Scott would not approve.

Another thing which proved slideshows are awesome was that my copies of chapter one of the second book WENT FAST. Often I did not have enough. Sometimes, I did not have any.

SCOTT AND SARAH: *arrive at a new hotel*
SARAH: WHERE IS THE NEAREST KINKO'S OH MY GOD I NEED HUNDREDS AND HUNDREDS AND HUNDREDS OF COPIES!
SCOTT: Ahhh, time to rest. Isn't technology grand?

So, anyone who came and did not receive a copy of chapter one, I am sorry! It does not mean I do not appreciate you. And I hope I gave you a spoiler, if you wanted one. There was one lovely lady called Sojo in Seattle who I promised a present to I could not find at the time - if she is reading this, email me! I always keep my promises. Sometimes being terribly lame slows me down, but it never stops me. (Sarah Rees Brennan's motto for life - 'Never Let Being Terribly Lame Stop You'?)

It was lovely to meet people - booksellers and our audiences - who were really into books, who wanted to talk about them with us and who were into our books enough to come listen to us talk about them. Who were brave and true enough to sit through my cruel impressions of my little brother, and my enactions of Scott's characters making out.

I got many excellent questions, some of which I shall answer in another post for your further Tour Experience pleasure (one was about a gender-flipped Nick, and I have to admit, I did give some thought to a Nicola once upon a time). One was about whether blogging had helped me or hurt me.

I admit, there are downsides to blogging. But most of the people who came to mine and Scott's events for me were people who also read the blog, and told me they enjoyed it. I was not only graced with their presence at my events, but even given gifts - tea and chocolate and lemons and a talisman and a pumpkin with a demon's mark on it, oh my! That pumpkin was carved by the lovely lemonsquid, who has already made me a ton of awesome fanart. I wrote some of the third book that night by the light of the demon pumpkin in her honour. In Seattle I met the magnificent tkp, who had already won my heart completely by creating marmalade_fish, but who then gave me brownie cookies I am currently eating in Mexico.

I also now have a framed picture of the directions to the Goblin Market, left of the crooked tree, which is amazingly beautiful and destined to fill the place on my dresser currently occupied by a picture of my unworthy parents.

In short, getting to meet people like that, getting to hear my writing meant something to them - I could never regret blogging. It was an honour and a privilege to meet those of you I did meet! (It was also an honour and a privilege to meet Demon's Lexicon fans who did not read the blog, and Scott's most excellent fans, but though I thank them here, they may never see it!)

I hope to have the honour and privilege of meeting more of you sometime soon, and for now I hope that you feel you know a little about the Tour Experience! In summary: airplanes, slideshows, steampunk high teas (with models of ravens!), lame jokes, and hotels on fire. That's just the way I roll.

Of late I have been doing much racing all over the world, and have not been blogging as I should!

Notable among my experiences in Japan was visiting with my publisher, where my lovely Japanese editor and I discussed Jamie being cute on the cover of the sequel, she showed me the fabulous posters made of the Japanese Cover of Amazing and she said Hiromu Arakawa liked my book! (I can now die happy.)

On my return from Japan, I found I had locked myself out of my own house. Since my housemates Jennet Wilde and the Durham Lass are in China, this resulted in things like me unpacking wildly on a street at night time, making frantic calls to friends, and being laughed at by the bakers around the corner.

I am such a Responsible Mature Adult. Luckily, with the aid of two good friends and Google, my prince (and by this I mean my twenty-four hour locksmith) finally came, and I was rescued.

Since I have been home, I've been doing things for the Children's Book Festival in Ireland. And now I am sitting amid the Ruins of my Packing for America and the tour.

The current state of my room, you guys. Well. Imagine the fall of Rome, and then add a lampshade wearing a pyjama top.

But since I have been doing events, and I will be doing more events in the next nine days, I thought that I could tell you about events as part of how life works, stumbling through publication.

So for childrens' books and teen authors, there's another kind of event besides the events authors of adult books have - signings, talks, panels. For us, there are also school visits.

School visits are different from events for one important reason: many, if not all, of the people there won't have read your book. Some of them won't ever. Some of them don't like reading! So it's a different sort of event, and one where you have to change the talk as you give it, depending on what you can tell about the audience's mood.

Because we all spent a great deal of time in school being painfully, terribly bored. And it horrifies me to think of adding to that boredom. Not just for the sake of the poor bored classes, but because obviously, I think books are a huge amount of fun. And I want people to have fun hearing about them: have fun talking about them.

So school events for me are a mix of me talking about how to write and structure a story (sometimes with a diagram), talking about my book, reading out from my book, talking about different books, and talking about being a writer (I tell hundreds of stories about how I've horribly embarrassed myself in hundreds of different ways). I throw sweets to get people to answer questions. Sometimes I hit people with the sweets. Sometimes I go into distressing detail about weaponry.

I like school visits a lot, though I do have all those worries about boring people. I had a particularly nice one in Cork the day before yesterday, where I was asked excellent questions and got to talk about being attracted to bad boys, the reasons why some people are and the things that might be behind a bad-boy facade. I also got to talk about the horrifying embarrassment of meeting celebrities, and my undying love for Taylor Swift.

There are other events, of course. This week I did a visit with a youth group, where I met aspiring writers and gave out a tiny Japanese sword keychain and heard an excellent argument in favour of the romantic match-ups of Nick and Mae, and Alan and Jamie. Yesterday I was at a children's and teen books breakfast for charity, where I met some awesome people, drew my story diagram on a napkin, and heard an excellent argument in favour of some entirely different romantic match-ups.

I also discovered something distressing about myself, which I will now reveal to you so you may use it against me!

During my events in June, I did not talk all that much about what would happen next, mostly because The Demon's Covenant was still in edits, and nothing was set in stone. And indeed, the book is extremely different than it was in June. I will do another blog on writing book two one day, but for now I will say that Writer and Baker Extraordinaire Ally Carter told me book two was always the hardest, and she was absolutely right.

But now I do know what will happen, and I am terribly weak about telling other people. It makes me happy they want to know! They have such excellent guesses! Did I mention I was weak?

So, yes, for those of you who will meet me at events soon, I hand out spoilers like candy. And I will also be handing out chapter one plus extra scenes of The Demon's Covenant at events. So everyone will know what happens in that!

For me, that's part of the joy of a series, and why I love writing serieseses...eses. Waiting for the next book in the Harry Potter or the Twilight series, analysing the books out, theorising about the ones to come, devouring them when they did come, was an international pastime. It's like the serial fiction of the old days, when the next Dickens instalment made crowds run down to the harbour yelling at the ship carrying the instalment 'Does Little Nell die?' It's like online fiction, often put up in serial form. It's like the fact I personally would hand over a sizable amount for Kelley Armstrong's The Reckoning. 'What happens next?' is one of the questions that propels story-telling.

Ahem. But I should still be less weak about giving out spoilers.

I also love events because you get to meet so many cool people, who are into books. And I don't just mean my book - though, obviously, meeting people who are into my book gives me head-rushes of joy. But it was most excellent meeting people who are really into Cassandra Clare's books, and the books of all the Sarahs at the Sarah Signing in New York. I love talking about other people's books, and I have many strange theories and interpretations of them. I'm looking forward to chatting to people who love Scott Westerfeld's books, since I do myself.

It's lovely to put faces to the great comments and emails I get. (And speaking of great emails, and indeed faces, I recently got a pretty awesome email with a link to a guy she thought would make an excellent Alan. Since I agreed with her, I thought I would share!)

So - events. They are worrying, and sometimes tiring, and make you very busy. But they are a huge amount of fun. I am really looking forward to doing more! Here are the American dates again, with the two new appearances in italics.

STAGE 1: Los Angeles

Tuesday October 6th, 4:30PM
(with Scott Westerfeld)
Santa Monica Public Library Event hosted by Children’s Bookworld
601 Santa Monica Boulevard
Santa Monica, CA 90401

Wednesday October 7th, 4:00PM
(with Scott)
Mrs. Nelson’s Books and Toys
1030 Bonita Avenue
La Verne, CA 91750

Wednesday October 7th, 7:00PM
(with Scott)
Borders
3700 Torrance Boulevard
Torrance, CA 90503

STAGE 2: San Francisco

Thursday October 8th, 7:00PM
(with Scott)
Menlo Park Library event
800 Alma Street
Menlo Park, CA 94025

Friday October 9th, 4:00PM
(with Scott)
Steampunk High Tea
Copperfield’s Books
140 Kentucky Street
Petaluma, CA 94952

(That's right. A Steampunk High Tea. Is that not the most amazing thing you have ever heard of? I mean, my book is not steampunk, but I can chatter happily about how awesome steampunk is, about all the things I know about weapons, and ask people to pass me clockwork scones.)

STAGE 3: Portland

Saturday October 10th, 3 PM
(Scott will already have done his presentation! But, I will have flyers for the Goblin Market I will pass out! I will survive!)
Presentation and Q&A at Wordstock, Portland’s Book & Literary Festival
Location: Oregon Convention Center
777 NE Martin Luther King Boulevard
Portland, OR 97232

Saturday October 10th, 7:00PM
(with Scott)
Barnes & Noble presentation and signing
Location: 12000 SE 82nd Avenue
Portland, OR 97266

STAGE 4: Seattle
(with Scott)
Monday October 12, 7:00PM
Third Place Books
Location: 17171 Bothell Way NE
Lake Forest Park, WA 981555

I will be seeing some of you very soon! And giving you spoilers! (Seriously, don't ask unless you really mean it. I have a problem.)

Yesterday was my birthday. In Japan, apparently passing twenty-five is a big deal - a lady can now be called a 'Christmas Cake' because nobody wants you after the twenty-fifth. Also there is a kind of nail polish called 'Just Pretend You're Twenty-Five Again.'

I find this hilarious, as being twenty-six is awesome so far. I spent my birthday in a ryokan (traditional Japanese guest house) up in Hakone, floating in the hot springs with Mount Fuji in the distance. And then I came back to the Internet and all manner of lovely things!

Before I share them with you, though, I thought I should also share with you more of my journeying in Japan.

Even very basic things in life can become adventures in Japan. In our first hotel, the loo had a strange mechanical arm. Many buttons were placed on this arm. The Queen of Slovenia and I regarded it with awe.

SARAH: You do know what this means.
QUEEN OF SLOVENIA: Uh, no.
SARAH: I believe this loo is a Transformer.
QUEEN OF SLOVENIA: I beg your pardon.
SARAH: They're ROBOTS. In disguise.

The Queen of Slovenia and I found a T-shirt that said 'Delicious Is Happiness.' This is very true, and in keeping with the T-shirt I feel I should share with you tales of the Japanese delicacies I have been consuming.

Okonomiyaki - Crepes with absolutely anything you like that is tasty and also brown sauce on them. They are especially awesome in Hiroshima, which is where I had them. With noodles and cheese and spring onions and - Yes, they are good.

Kobe beef - It is like beef and marshmallow had a baby. And then I ate that beefmallow baby. And it was delicious.

Candy tangerine - If you ever thought you liked candy apples, you were wrong. You were just waiting for the amazing deliciousness of candy tangerines on a stick to enter your life, so you could bite into the shell of crystallised sugar and have the sweet tangerine juice burst into your mouth and then end up in this fugue state until you wake up and realise that you are sitting on the steps of a Kyoto temple licking tangerine juice from the inside of your own elbow. Nothing left but a gnawed-on stick and the candy-coated shreds of your dignity!

... Not that this happened to me, or anyone I know.

In non-Japan-related orders of business:

Here is an interview with me and a giveaway with an extremely interesting question attached to it! (My favourite literary twist ever is possibly in Sarah Waters's Fingersmith, which is about Victorian ladies and the criminal classes and con jobs within con jobs.)

Then there is Blogfest, which I am part of. It started on my birthday, so I take a proprietary interest in it, even though it is kind of a lot cooler than me: it's a ton of different authors answering different questions every day for a month. (Such authors include Scott Westerfeld, Holly Black, LJ 'Oh My God Are You Watching The Vampire Diaries, Because I Sure Am' Smith and, well, me.)

This is the Blogfest home page

I answer my first question 'What was the first thing you wrote?' here

Most importantly of all my birthday news, some absolutely awesome and amazing fans made a Birthday Project for me - a collection of fanworks gathered together! One was a flier for the Goblin Market, and another a press release for my vampire boyband.

It is hard to express how delighted I was. I can't thank them enough. I know the coolest people.

I type this looking out on the glitter of Tokyo by night: I love being twenty-six, Japan, and naturally, you all.

So I am in Japan, land of beauty and adventure! I am having an excellent time, and I am being well-cared-for by the Queen of Slovenia.

She is very wise. She tells me many things as she skilfully navigates me around the streets of Osaka and Tokyo. As we went around the Imperial Garden she told me that there is an Imperial Household Agency that protects the Japanese royal family. But they are not the most reclusive people - the Burmese government move their capital regularly.

I also have much wisdom to share with her. We went to Sunshine 60 to see all of Tokyo laid out before us, and the Queen was much surprised to see life-size statues in our way to the view.

QUEEN OF SLOVENIA: Are these famous Japanese people?
SARAH: Yes. They are the evil magical ninja from Naruto.
QUEEN OF SLOVENIA: ...
SARAH: You can tell they're evil, because they're wearing purple nail polish.

I lived with my friend Penelope, volcano goddess of sarcasm and fan of Japanese media in many forms, in England for a year. This means I am in possession of much useful knowledge about Japan. The yakuza is the Japanese mafia, for instance. Go is a Japanese board game that obsessed ghosts force people to play. (That last bit might not be an essential part of the game.)

Japan is a land of Worlds Within Worlds. We had already been to Gyoza World (miles of dumplings! Best place ever!) and Ice-Cream City (Except for there), where we considered eating squid ink ice-cream, but chickened out and went for pear sherbet.

The Queen of Slovenia seemed tired by something. Possibly by our ride on the Tempozan Ferris Wheel, the biggest Ferris Wheel in the world. She suggested Spa World. All her other ideas had been excellent: I agreed.

I have many glamorous friends. Compared to them, I'm a little bit like a cheerful monkey in a dress.

Well, in Spa World, I was like a cheerful monkey in a pink smock. I nodded happily to the idea of massages. Then I was leaped upon and pummelled by strangers. My first reaction was to plot a spinning kick! Then to use the orange hand towel to swing from the light fixture, go through the window, and employ the pink smock to rappel to safety!

I remembered I had a comrade I could not abandon, though. So I stayed to be pummelled.

QUEEN OF SLOVENIA: Mmm, I feel so relaxed.
SARAH: ... I don't care what you do to me... I'll never confess I'm a witch!

After that I insisted on being fortified with a chestnut flavoured ice-cream. At the ice-cream stand we adopted a tiny Japanese girl child, who clearly thought to herself 'Look, a lunatic monkey in a pink smock. I will follow it and see what it does.'

QUEEN OF SLOVENIA: Oh Sarah, look! We should go get our feet eaten by fish!
SARAH: Ignore her Majesty, small child. The toil of ruling goes to her head sometimes. I - OH MY GOD SHE HAS HER FEET IN A POOL AND THERE ARE FISH EATING THEM. Call the firemen! No, call the fishmen! Wait, there are no fishmen! Oh God we're all doomed.
QUEEN OF SLOVENIA: *tugs Sarah towards the pool with regal indifference to the babbled protests*

Once I was in the pool the fish ate my feet. It tickled. I made up a song for the small girl child, who appeared to be having the time of her life. It went 'Oh God, fish are eating my feet, what will I do? Oh God, fish are eating my feet, soon they will eat your feet too.'

I feel I do not have a career ahead of me as a minstrel. Or indeed in childcare.

My current career pleases me, though. Unfortunately (since I was terribly happy to hear via email and here on the blog that there might be people who'd like to see me) we have not been able to arrange an appearance for me in Japan - major holiday, the complication of me not speaking any Japanese - but I am having Exciting Lunches. I keep going to bookshops to talk to people, and then I wind up buying all the copies of Demon's Lexicon in Japanese that they have.

This is not as crazy as it sounds. When I asked my family and friends what they wanted from Japan, many of them said 'You really seem to love that Japanese edition. Bring me back a copy so I can see why it's so great.'

I must admit, before I came to Japan even I did not know how great my Japanese edition was. I knew that the cover was amazing. I knew that there was a picture of a talisman inside, covered by a flyleaf.

I did not know that the cover looks a little rough and textured in person, like a real painting. (I also did not know it was a hardcover edition - I shall slip off the cover and put it on an English edition, and truthfully say I am reading the book. I shall look so learned.) Nor did I know that there is a map of the United Kingdom inside, with all the places Nick and company go to - Durham, Exeter, Tiverton, the Isle of Wight - marked out in English and Japanese, like the map of a fantasy land.

I think part of the reason I love urban fantasy - magic happening in the real world - so much is that I think anywhere can be a fantasy land.

From the vermilion curves of the Miyajima shrine to the glittering spread of Tokyo, like a huge psychedelic New York from the ground and from above like an ocean of stars and sequins, Japan makes a fairly awe-inspiring fantasy land.

In more practical news, I have some dates for people who might want to see me!

In Ireland on October 3rd, there's a Literary Lunch for teens with me and other authors - just email if you want to come. All details found here

After that and some library events for the Children's Book Festival in Ireland, I fly off to the US and here are some (but not all!) of my dates and places for events on the Tour With Scott Westerfeld.


Tuesday October 6th, 4:30PM

Santa Monica Public Library Event hosted by Children’s Bookworld.

601 Santa Monica Boulevard

Santa Monica, CA 90401



Wednesday October 7th, 4:00PM

Mrs. Nelson’s Books and Toys

1030 Bonita Avenue

La Verne, CA 91750



7:00PM

Borders

3700 Torrance Boulevard

Torrance, CA 90503


Thursday October 8th, 7:00PM


Menlo Park Library event

800 Alma Street

Menlo Park, CA 94025


Saturday October 10th, 3:00PM (Scott presents at noon)


Presentation and Q&A at Wordstock, Portland's Book & Literary Festival

Location: Oregon Convention Center

777 NE Martin Luther King Boulevard

Portland, OR 97232



7:00PM

Barnes & Noble presentation and signing

Location: 12000 SE 82nd Avenue

Portland, OR 97266


Other things (an event in Seattle!) to follow.

I am terribly excited! I hope I will see some of you there! I am also excited for more Japan. Apparently I am going to be put in a chocolate bath: expect me to sing another song about it.

Corner of the internet that I love best, good evening!

This week I am going to Japan with my best friend, which we are excited about for many reasons.

CHIARA: As a diplomat, I am very much looking forward to the cultural experience.
SARAH: I hope we can go to a cafe where they will give me KITTENS to play with!
CHIARA: The beautiful palace at Kyoto is of especial interest to me.
SARAH: I know from jdramas and manga that there may be PIRACY and CROSSDRESSING. I am TOTALLY PREPARED.

I will also be there to visit with and publicise the Japanese edition of The Demon's Lexicon. If any of you are in Japan, my wonderful Japanese publishers Media Factory, otherwise known as the Givers of Great Cover, are still working things out, but should I end up doing any public appearances I will of course announce them here forthwith!

I will be in Japan until late September, and then I will be hastily doing things for the Children's Book Festival in Ireland, and then flying to America to do the Tour! With! Scott! Westerfeld! and after that, I am going to Mexico to write. So you may be worried that I will be even worse at replying to email and comments here than I currently am.

And you may be right. But, you do not need to worry that I would abandon my sacred promise of a book a month.

The book for September is Ash by Malinda Lo.

As soon as I heard about Ash, I knew I wanted to read it badly. Different turns on fairytales call to me and always have (see Beauty, Rose Daughter and Spindle's End by Robin McKinley and Valiant by Holly Black), so a dark take on Cinderella with dangerous fairies was bound to appeal to me.

Then I found out that it was a take on Cinderella in which Cinderella falls in love with another girl. Now, I think there should be more gay characters in fiction, because, well, there are gay characters in life. I've especially noticed that there are very few gay girls. Also, I thought it was a cool and different twist on a fairytale. After all, if Cinderella hadn't fallen in love with the Prince, she would still have wanted to get out of the life she was living before. And if the fairy help she was getting wasn't without a price, even more interesting.

So, I was desperate to read Ash. I remember expressing this while on retreat with Team Castle.

CASSIE: Yes, Ash is awesome.
SARAH: Oh my gosh oh my gosh you have read it can I have it where is it give it to me!
CASSIE: It is in America. Where I live. Be calm, you are upsetting the Castle Kitten.
SARAH: Oh my gosh oh my gosh when you get back will you send it to me!
CASSIE: ... I think you should buy it.
SARAH: HOW CAN YOU BE SO CRUEL? I DON'T WANNA WAIT FOR MY LIFE TO BE OVER! I want to see right now what will it-
CASSIE: Carrying on like this in front of an impressionable kitten. You should be ashamed!

Finally, the book did come out and I did buy it, and I was not disappointed. It reminded me of Keturah and Lord Death by Martine Leavitt, a book I've recommended here before: with more the air of fairytales and mythology than modern fantasy, a calm, quiet story, beautifully written, with deep magic, tales within tales, and the story unfolding to a seemingly inevitable ending.

Ash is a great character, always reserved but never unlikable. Kaisa the royal huntress, who is gorgeous in her own way, kind, athletic and terribly straightforward, may be my favourite character. And Ash's fairy godmother is a fairy guy, who obviously has his own agenda.

( More on Ash, and Pictures )

So Ash is one of those books that makes me happy I write in the awesome YA genre. I have one copy of Malinda Lo's Ash to give away, and I will be doing so quite shortly: speak up now!

Also should you have any questions for me, like 'Will you die in Japan?' (Possibly) 'Will you recommend me a particular kind of book?' (Yes absolutely, only name which kind!) or some such thing, you can of course ask them here. Or you could join me in a Teen Author Chat, held tonight 1t 8pm EST here. Password is Demons!

ETA: Chat now over, and winner chosen: contest closed. ETA: REPEAT. Contest is closed. Book is on its way to winner!

First: presents for people.

courtneysmyth and aiscat93 have won copies of Rampant

yathenaeum has won a Demon's Lexicon prize pack from the last Big Idea post.

All of you should email me your addresses at sarahreesbrennan@gmail.com, and I will send you your prizes!

Second: a present for you all!

My Big Idea is as follows: I put up a short story to celebrate every week sales reach a certain (modest) number, to thank readers for buying hardcover, and as a show of faith that blogs and free content make a difference.

People who link to the short story get entered for a draw for a Prize Pack (this week's is a Demon's Lexicon audio book, a selection of bookmarks and a copy of The Eternal Kiss, a selection of vampire stories by Holly Black, Rachel Caine, Cassandra Clare, Libba Bray, lots of awesome people.. and me). Links from book bloggers count as extra, as I think book bloggers are great.

In the forum, Karatheon mentioned Natasha Walsh, and I got to thinking, and someone else mentioned Olivia, and... well.

The backstory of some characters both mentioned and actually featured in The Demon's Lexicon, not necessary to have read the book. I very much hope you all enjoy!

( The Arundel Tomb )

'Sarah' you would be within your rights to say accusingly at this point. 'Did you not say you were going to celebrate this year by giving away a free book every month? Where is our AUGUST BOOK?'

You have not said that, because you are all ladies and gents. But nevertheless there is an August book. Diana Peterfreund's Rampant.

I heard about Rampant and the fact it was about killer unicorns, and that was all I needed. I love a good subversion of a trope. (See also: hot trolls, dainty ladies who shoot people, and heroes who need rescuing.)

Diana Peterfreund was one of the band of writers who I roped into coming to a castle in Ireland earlier this year. We didn't know each other, so I was on my best behaviour until she rashly produced an advance copy of the book and offered it to her friend Jen Barnes.

DIANA: I brought this for y-
SARAH: Oh my gosh killer unicorns for ME!
DIANA: No, not for y-
SARAH (brightly): I'll fight you for the killer unicorns, Jen!
JEN: ... That's okay. You can read it first.
DIANA: But I brought it for-
JEN: Hush Diana! I want to live.

So, killer unicorns have returned to this world. Only girls with Certain Qualifications (among them being descendants of Alexander the Great) can kill them. Astrid's mother has been preparing her for this day for years: Astrid herself is unpleasantly surprised to learn her mother is not crazy, and that Astrid herself is going to have to learn how to fight great big huge evil-minded unicorns with poison horns on their heads.

( Killer Unicorns, Awesome Ladies, Pictures and The Greatest Cross-Species Love Story of Our Time )

So, I have two copies of Rampant. Who wants to be showered with rampantly awesome ladies, and the rampantly magnificent unicorns who love them?

A very kind lady named Nadya emailed me and sent me a link to where my Russian edition is out, so a) my Russian edition is out, yay! and b) Now I have seen my Russian cover!

I thought y'all might be interested in seeing it too, as I find it fascinating to see what varies from country to country, and what stays the same.

( In Russia, Covers See YOU )

In an earlier post about what people liked to see from a journal, some people mentioned missing the 'stumbling towards publication' posts I did pre-publication. Now, it is not yet time for covers for book two, though I pine for that day! With pre-publication, there are specific things to write about like 'finding an agent' and 'baby's first editorial letter'. (Usually, my advice is to cope with things totally differently than I do.)

I am puzzled about exactly what to write for posts stumbling through publication, since mostly post-publication, I write, and writing is just a part of Life.

Scenes From A Writer's Life

The Writer In the Family Home, With Little Brother

SARAH: *writes*
SAUL: *writes*
SARAH: ... Saul, may I ask you a personal question?
SAUL: Yeeeees.
SARAH: Is that a journal with a picture of Zac Efron on the front?
SAUL: Yeeeees.
SARAH: Why do you have that?
SAUL: It is for recording my thoughts.

I believe he was being post-modern and ironic. Maybe.

The Writer In Her Actual Home, With Housemate The Durham Lass

SARAH: *writes*
DURHAM LASS: It's perfectly ridiculous! There are too many teeth!
SARAH: I totally agree. What?
DURHAM LASS: All the relics that are meant to be St Patrick's teeth. There are too many teeth.
SARAH: Oh right.
DURHAM LASS: Which means some of the relics won't work for healing and so on.
SARAH: Well, they're old. Maybe some of them just need a relic repairman. Or a little shake.
DURHAM LASS: Shake shake shake...
SARAH: Shake shake shake...
SARAH & DURHAM LASS: Shake your relic, dah dah dum, dah dah dah.

The Writer In Cafe with Friend The Evil One

EVIL ONE: I'll grab us some drinks.
SARAH: A fine, fine plan. *writes*
SARAH: *smells something terrible*
EVIL ONE: Let's go.
SARAH: What happened? Did you set yourself on fire?
EVIL ONE: No.
SARAH: Did you set someone else on fire?
EVIL ONE: Mistakes were made. Machines were half-blown up and half-melted. No-one can be blamed.
SARAH: ...
EVIL ONE: Get your coat.

If anyone has any particular things they would like to hear about stumbling onward from publication (Writing A Sequel, What To Do When You Write Your Fifteenth Make-Out Scene and Realise You May Have A Problem) please tell me! I am eager to Impart My Wisdom.

Which means, tell you stories of the idiot things I did, and how you should avoid doing them...

So I was walking home from the new Star Trek movie, which I have previously indicated I found to be awesome. I was pretty surprised by this, as the Star Trek TV shows had not caught my fancy, and expressed this surprise to my friend, who was a fan of the TV show.

SARAH: But now I see I was TERRIBLY WRONG.
GASTON: Great!
SARAH: I'll watch the series now!
GASTON: Cool, we'll have a Star Trek weekend.
PASSERSBY: judge us for these words
SARAH: Sounds good! And I will watch the greatest love story of all time unfold over many episodes.
GASTON: What? Which love story do you mean?
SARAH: The love story of (highlight to see a spoiler from the movie) Spock and Uhura, of course!
GASTON: Weeeell... about that... it didn't so much actually happen as... not happen...
SARAH: That's it, Star Trek weekend is off!
PASSERSBY: judge us for these words

Feeling betrayed that I had been robbed of the awesomeness I was imagining, I decided to go in search of awesomeness on the internet. Surely, I would find much love there!

I did not see much love for Uhura, who I thought was a clearly brilliant and fabulous character. Even in the comments to my parody, people seemed against or indifferent to her.

Of course, I searched and did find love for her, and indeed here is a really great collection of Uhura thoughts, with a spotlight on race and feminism.

But my search made me think some more about fictional ladies, and an audience's approach to them. Now, I have already gone over my thoughts on how girls in fiction are starting out from a tricky place, given that the traditional way women were written is problematic, and you can also go too far in the opposite direction.

But there's another question, and that's the audience: I do think all of us tend to be harder on women, even if the women in question are awesome. This is totally natural - the society we live in has plenty of issues about the ladies, and sometimes we don't even know we're being influenced.

So without further ado, and with Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, Little Women, Harry Potter, my own book because responses to it made me think about these issues, A Great and Terrible Beauty, Dickens, Ilona Andrews and doubtless others mentioned, plus mangled song lyrics because... I may be crazy.

( Ladies, Please Carry On Being Awesome - Girls and The Audience's Gaze )

My petals, I come to you at last able to make my Exciting American Tour Announcement: Here are dates, vague places, and most excitingly of all my Co-Appearererer...er.

US Tour with Scott Westerfeld (Venues and Times TBA)


10/06 –Southern California appearances

10/08 - Northern California

10/09 – Northern California

10/10 – Portland, OR,

10/11- Wordstock Festival in Portland, Oregon

10/12 – Columbus Day, Seattle signings


Yeah, that phone call went a little like this.

PUBLICIST: You free to go on tour with Scott Westerfeld?
SARAH: *scream* *crash* *gurgling sound of someone trying to both faint and have hysterics*
PUBLICIST: ...
SARAH: … Yes, that sounds acceptable to me.

Scott Westerfeld, in case anyone's not aware, is the perpetrator of the bestselling Uglies series and among other books, my most favourite vampire novel of the last ten years, Peeps. (A book so disgusting, I could not eat for a full day after reading it, and featuring vampires scared off by Garth Brooks T-shirts.) He'll be touring for Leviathan, which I may have already mentioned is a Georgette-Heyer-with-action alternate-history living-airships cross-dressing-and-all-manner-of-hijinks fest of awesomeness. And which is out then.

I am firmly of the opinion that the tour would be improved by us cross-dressing: I am perfectly ready to wear a military uniform of any sort, and to carry Scott's parasol for him. I believe Mr Westerfeld is not of the same mind...

This announcement leads me to the basic question I have for today's blog post: what do readers want?

So last week I put up my latest movie parody, which I had been guiltily trying to find time to do for a month, as people seem to enjoy the parodies, and I like my people to be happy. 'Ah, at last it is done,' I said, weary from my toil, and then napped on Salome the macbook for a bit.

Later, elsewhere on the internet, I saw some people discussing the fact that they liked the parody, and the blog ('Hurrah!" I said to myself) but it discouraged them from wanting to read the book. ('Oh nooooo,' I said softly and sadly to myself.)

Since the current and chief goal of my life is to make people want to read my book (I know it should be world peace, but I am a selfish soul) I immediately set my mind to wondering why this might be. And this led me to wonder whether people wish for different things from an Author Blog (TM). Writing advice? Serious business essays? (I know I owe y'all one on feminism. I am like an elephant! I never forget. Unluckily I am like an elephant who procrastinates.) Less stuff which distracts from the book and more professionally presented information?

Leaving me aside, what do you guys like to see in an author blog? (I like Maureen Johnson's, Meg Cabot's and Justine Larbalestier's blogs a lot myself.)

And this line of questioning leads me back to my first announcement: what do readers want, I ask myself, and then add: in an author event?

I had tons of fun both at Comic Con and my New York event, where lots of people showed up and made me very happy! I was gloomily convinced nobody would show, as it was raining, but people did, and all the Sarahs were stunning and brilliant. I rather let the side down by babbling away like a cheerful lunatic, but had a good time, and was showered in presents, which goes to show how extremely kind people are. Liar breathspray from an Alan fan, and a giant sword made of Rice Krispies! I carried the sword around for the rest of the day, and amused the populace.

That evening Maureen Johnson, Sarah Cross and I were walking through the East Village where we met a woman with a rat in her bosom.

MAUREEN: That woman. She had a rat in her bosom.
SARAH: Did it go with her dress?
MAUREEN: Are you suggesting she has several rats at home that she tries on to see how they go with different outfits?
SARAH: ... I might be.
SARAH CROSS: Less nonsense from the woman carrying the weapon made of cereal.

We had a prize at the NYC event, and readings, and a Questions & Answers session. (Lots of people had ideas for who Jamie should end up with. Jamie's dance card is so full, he will never have to sit out a waltz...) We did not have any crossdressing, which I admit was a flaw.

I enjoyed myself lots, but in the cause of everyone having fun, I should like to hear what people fancy most in an author event.

There are other events to speak of: specifically The Smart Chicks Kick It tour. I was totally delighted to be invited, not least because it is well known I love Kelley Armstrong. And we are thinking of all sorts of things for the tour, like gift baskets to be raffled off and possibly an accompanying anthology.

So the questions are: what do readers want from a blog, and what do readers want from events? Your thoughts, as ever, deeply appreciated.

I am sorry to have made you guys wait so long for this: I very much hope you enjoy! All mockery is, of course, done with affection.

This also seems to be a good time to link to some Star Trek parody icons written by my dear mizkit.

( Harry Potter and the Year of Gryffindor Lurve )

It is Friday (late!), and this is the second installment of My Big Idea.

My Big Idea is as follows: I put up a short story to celebrate every week sales reach a certain (modest) number, to thank readers for buying hardcover, and as a show of faith that blogs and free content make a difference.

People who link to the short story get entered for a draw for a Prize Pack (this week's is a Demon's Lexicon audio book, a selection of bookmarks and an Irish silver knife charm). Links from book bloggers count as extra, as I think book bloggers are awesome.

This story is set in the universe of The Demon's Lexicon, but it doesn't spoil you for any of it: it's the back story of one of the characters. The first part of this story is up here.

Thanks for everyone who's been reading The Demon's Lexicon, and hope you enjoy!

I would also like to give huge thanks to the creator of a new thing that thrills me to my socks - a Demon's Lexicon fan forum. In order to celebrate the new fan forum, I'd love you guys to go there and discuss what story you'd like to see up here next, and I promise to comply with the wishes of the majority. ;)

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy!

( Sorcerer and Stone, 2/2 )

I am perfectly aware I owe you all real updates! Next week, I promise you: the second part of Sorcerer and Stone and also a Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince movie parody. I may also be doing a follow-up to my Ladies, Please! essay as I have recently been having Further Thoughts on that subject.

This follow-up can mostly be summarised in my tweet (and yes, I am on twitter at www.twitter.com/sarahreesbrenna and I LOVE IT, even though they cruelly deny me the last letter of my name) which goes 'Why do I almost never hear complaints that a guy in books/movies is too attractive and awesome?' And well, yes, I am aware a lot of readers are girls and thus like the guy being alluring (see also my childhood spent imagining myself as Mrs Colin Craven. Or Sarah Rees Craven. Sarah Craven Rees Brennan?) but it seems people could embrace both sides of the equation being awesome more than they do!

I have been travelling about the country, and thus rather frantic.

Being at Comic Con was wonderful, and I met some amazing people: people I've known online for years, fabulous authors, exciting times! Christian Bale was eating chili cheese fries at the restaraunt at my hotel, people. My Brush With Fame! Actually my true Brush with Fame was the time I met George Clooney but that story is so embarrassing, I could never tell am saving it for a different blog post.

I was pretty convinced nobody would show up to my panel and signings as I am a teeny tiny author with a first book just out, but people did, and I was so thrilled: some of them even brought me presents! Among other things I got a Demon's Lexicon Treasure Chest, a cuddly zombie boyfriend, a cereal box with a picture of Nick fighting on it, and something so awesome I must show you in picture form.

( A Lovely Lady! Obviously, I was not given her to keep )

Which is not to say, wow, check out my STUFF, but rather, wow, check out how awesome the people I met were. THAT AWESOME.

When my time in San Diego was done, I tripped merrily off to the airport, where the world proceeded to fall around my ears.

AIRPORT: Your flight is cancelled!
SARAH: Oh dear. Can I have a new one?
AIRPORT: Yes, it will take you to Texas!
SARAH: Oh dear. Can I have a flight to New York?
AIRPORT: We'll see about that when you're in Texas, missy!

SARAH: Well, at least I have time to have breakfast.
AIRPORT: Here are some lovely eggs.
SARAH: I ordered lovely bacon. I am allergic to lovely eggs: they make me pass out.
AIRPORT: Enjoy your eggs, gotta go!

SARAH: *staggers off the last in a series of planes* Finally, my beautiful New York!
BEAUTIFUL NEW YORK AIRPORT: Did you want your suitcase? It'll be along in two hours.
BEAUTIFUL NEW YORK AIRPORT, TWO HOURS LATER: Or not.
SARAH: ... I'm going to my hotel.

My hotel saved the day by being unexpectedly and dazzlingly beautiful. Seriously, I chose it for inexpensiveness, and it has a kitchen and a living room I dance around in.

I was also comforted by writing in a New York cafe and eating the exotic and mysterious meatloaf again! And then I tripped off to blackholly's beautiful house in Massachusetts, where I spent my time alternating between love and fear for her cat.

Lily is a hairless cat. She looks kind of like a demon. She has a long naked tail she whips around, and everyone was endlessly amused by the fact that when she chases me, I run screaming.

But when you put her in a little blue jumper, she is suddenly so cute! It was all very confusing.

LILY: stares
SARAH: Oh feline mistress, I bow to your every whim! Do not hurt me nor devour my immortal soul.
LILY: Souls, om nom nom.
HOLLY: whisks on jumper
SARAH: Diddums whoza sweet kitty you are Lily yes you are say hello to aunty sarah.
LILY: I am enraged by this disrespect!
HOLLY: whisks jumper off
SARAH: Forgive me dark queen, I do not know what I was saying, I must have been feverish, as penance I offer up my soul.
LILY: *purr* Souls. Om nom nom.

So the main point of my post (Point? You all say. There's a point?) was to remind you all of this going-on:

Tomorrow, Sunday August 2nd

Books of Wonder, 1.00 pm - 3.00 pm, Sunday August 2nd. Books of Wonder, 18 West 18th Street, New York, NY 10011.

Sarah Signing, Reading, Giveaway, Appearance of Awesome! Hope to see you there.

And another thing: The Eternal Kiss, which contains my vampire boy band story Undead Is Very Hot Right Now and is my very first anthology, is on shelves now. And in paperback, for those who have Hardcover Policies. For those curious, you can find summaries and mini-reviews of all the stories here.

Though just barely.

I must apologise to you all. I am never here. And I owe MANY of you emails. I am so behind on my emails that it is ridiculous.

It is not that I do not love and adore you all, and enjoy corresponding with you very much! But I have received a huge amount of hate mail lately and dealing with that leaves me drained and sorrowful. However I will respond to them all, I promise! (Not the hate mail. The emails from YOU.) And I will try to write a movie parody of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which I have seen. (My verdict: not bad, but Star Trek still unexpectedly and definitely my favourite movie of the summer.)

There is also the matter of getting the edited Demon's Covenant back to my editor. For a time I feared it would never be done, as I had a Fit of Madness and decided the only way to make it a commercial novel was by adding an epic, forbidden, timeless romance. The fit of madness has passed. (Not that I don't like a good forbidden and timeless romance.)

Cassie and I had a lovely event in Dublin, where we fought over a single microphone and were asked among other excellent questions which character we would've liked to write that someone else wrote.

I am proud to say I won the lunge for the microphone to say Howl from Diana Wynne Jones's Howl's Moving Castle.

Then after a weekend of Lying Prostrate, I got on a plane. And then... another plane. I entertained myself by reading: I read Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan, which comes out in October. It is the only steampunk I have ever loved, and is also an alternate history adventure with Georgette Heyeresque crossdressing and living airships and lost heirs to the throne, and (I cannot stress this enough) I love it.

After two long plane journeys and a crazy time difference, I was somewhat staggered to be in a strange city. I collapsed in my hotel room and ordered room service due to a great inability to move.

Then room service knocked and I had a Terrible Revelation.

ROOM SERVICE: knock knock Hello, hello?
SARAH:... JUST A MOMENT.
ROOM SERVICE: Are you all right in there?
SARAH: YES PERFECTLY FINE, I JUST HAVE A SMALL PROBLEM.
ROOM SERVICE: Oh yes?
SARAH: ... I've forgotten how to put on my trousers.

That was somewhat shameful, as was getting hopelessly lost in San Diego. I always get hopelessly lost, and this is why: I forget that I am lost whenever I see a bookshop. They call to me. HERE, Sarah, is where you meant to go, they say, and in I go. Several hours later, I wander out, confused and blinking, my bags mysteriously heavy and my location still a mystery.

It's very strange to see my US cover actually in shops! I am used to seeing my UK cover at this point. I peeked underneath and confirmed that my secret sword was in place on the shelves.

Comic Con is gigantic, awesome and alarming! I have already seen the pilot for the Vampire Diaries television series, which I was very excited about, and from which I learned two valuable lessons. 1) It is impossible for anyone to ever have a brother who is not extremely attractive and 2) True love means you write your diaries in sync.

There are a few villains at Comic Con, though. Today I was kidnapped by a man in tights.

SARAH: Excuse me I do not know where to find the panel on anti-heroes and villains, and I find it to be of interest.
MAN IN TIGHTS: Take my hand, I will take you wherever you want to go.
SARAH: Thank you kind sir!
MAN IN TIGHTS: Here we are. Promenading in the sunlight.
SARAH: Is the panel out of doors?
MAN IN TIGHTS: ....
SARAH: Oh I see. Oh my knight in shining tights, how you have disappointed me.

At the Simon & Schuster booth, where I was speaking enthusiastically of Leviathan, a very nice lady came up and told me she'd liked my book. I was deeply pleased and felt famous.

My Comic Con schedule looks like this:

12:30-1:30PM PANEL Future Fond Memories, Room 3

Panelists: Michael Spradlin (KEEPER OF THE GRAIL: THE YOUNGEST TEMPLAR); Michael Reisman (SIMON BLOOM: THE OCTOPUS EFFECT ); Sarah Rees Brennan (THE DEMON’S LEXICON); James Owen (THE INDIGO KING); Mary Pearson (THE ADORATION OF JENNA FOX), P.J. Haarsma (THE WORM HOLE PIRATES OF ORBIS 3); and Alyson Noel (BLUE MOON: THE IMMORTALS).

Moderator: Maryelizabeth Hart, Mysterious Galaxy

1:30 - 2:30 PM Signing will follow panel discussion Autographing Area Table: AA1

Saturday, July 25

11:00AM Signing at Every Picture Tells a Story, booth #4713

I hope to see some of you there!

I also keep meaning to link to these, so: I did an interview with the lovely ladies at enchantedinkpot here and the Esteemed John Scalzi very kindly hosted me talking about writing a not-watered-down version of That Guy (you know the one).

Now off to have one of those large and awesome American dinners!

Today was a very peaceful day for me. Restful. Serene. I have not been on a plane for twenty-four hours.

'Surely,' you might say to yourselves with a puzzled frown, 'Surely, Sarah, that is a common state of affairs?'

So you might think.

On Friday I flew from Dublin to London, where I had a photoshoot for Company magazine. It was held in a laundrette: I was told they once held one in a biker bar. It was me, a lady who sells ceramics, and two other ladies who run a boot camp, and the idea was all to be extremely glamorous and strike fabulous poses, offset by the ordinary surroundings of a laundrette.

Of course not being the glamour model type, I instantly made some terrible mistakes. As for instance, I assumed that the elderly lady whisking her clothes out of a washing machine was involved in the photoshoot.

SARAH: Do you just have to take the clothes in and out all day?
OLD LADY: *HORRIFIED STARE*
SARAH: Oh right. Right. Sorry, I understand.
OLD LADY: *eyes soften*
SARAH: You have to stay in character, right?
OLD LADY: *RIGHT BACK TO HORRIFIED STARE*

The other ladies in the photoshoot were, to use an eighties phrase, stone cold foxes, which was intimidating, but the wonderful magazine people made me look quite nice. I was in a rather daring red corset dress, which I believe only horrified the elderly lady more: all she wanted was lemony fresh laundry, and she was accosted by a minx with a plunging neckline and eyelashes that were black as my sinful heart.

Afterwards I just missed meeting orexisbella to my woe, and then caught up with Cassandra Clare and our friends Josh and Clary.

Everyone was very taken aback by my upswept hair and impeccable eye make-up. And by the way I entered the room.

SARAH: STOP. PAUSE. ADMIRE ME.
EVERYONE: *stare*
SARAH: This is the most glamorous I will ever be. I hope it was good for you.

They thought it might be the start of a whole new radiantly lovely me, but I woke up the next day with my usual Scared Hedgehog do, and that dream died.

Saturday we got the plane from London to Scotland.

We arrived in Glasgow and upon entering my hotel room I discovered a man directly below my window playing a bagpipe. 'Yes, I realise this is Scotland,' I told the air. 'No need to overdo it: you have made yourself perfectly clear.'

At the Borders in Glasgow we were welcomed by the awesome booksellers, who gave us GIFTS. Chocolate and one pink and purple sock monkey each! I was so delighted.

SARAH: ... CASSIE. I have a NOTION. Our sock monkeys.
CASSIE: Yes?
SARAH: THEY SHOULD FIGHT.
CASSIE: Uh, I think my sock monkey is a pacifist.
BOOKSELLER: All sock monkeys are pacifists.
SARAH: Not my sock monkey. I see the light of battle in his button eyes.

My sock monkey's button eyes searched for new worlds to conquer. I named him Alexander. As Cassie refused to name hers, I named him Gandhi.

Everybody agreed that I should not bring Alexander out to meet our awesome audience. I feel this was a mistake.

Nevertheless we had a fabulous event! Cassie was poised and winning: I mostly told crazy stories and aired ridiculous theories about books. We passed around a box for questions called The Demon's Instrument's Question Box, and I read out from The Demon's Covenant and Cassie read out from The Clockwork Angel, as they are both not yet published and thus thrilling and secret.

Afterwards we gave out copies of the first chapters. I was meant to have a system, but I forgot it completely and sort of vaguely waved copies at people. I apologise if someone feels robbed because they did not get a chapter!

Also my lovely Scottish cousin came by and gave me a box of chocolate.

SARAH: Aw, thank you!
CASSIE: Whoa, did that girl give you chocolates?
SARAH: Yes, she's... (pause) She's a big fan.

Oh, the evilness of me!

I like Scotland a lot. Sock monkeys, chocolate, book lovers and excellent questions, what is not to love?

The answer: bagpipes.

The next day, I flew from Glasgow to Dublin, where I re-packed my tiny bag, collapsed in a heap, had my first kaffee klatsch with some awesome students, and then flew back to London where I attended Cassie's London party. I was primed to put up my hand and ask her ridiculous questions, but unfortunately there were too many fans with great questions, and also she refused to call on me.

I met many great people there as well, and also had an opportunity to harass Maureen Johnson, which I enjoy doing.

SARAH: You should write a book. Set in Dublin.
MAUREEN: I should get the boat to Ireland and have an adventure!
SARAH: Yes! You should stay with me. We could have cereal fights.
MAUREEN: Explain yourself. If the plan is not sufficiently crazy, I will not agree.
SARAH: You take the plastic bag of cereal out of the cereal box. You open it, fill it with milk, and then tie the bag up again. Then, you hit each other on the head with your bags of cereal until the bags EXPLODE.
MAUREEN: ... Agreed.

Sales continue steady but not up for the US Demon's Lexicon: remember to harass your friends and your genetically engineered to read household pets, so as to get the next part of Sorcerer and Stone next week! In the meantime, The Demon's Lexicon just sold in Indonesia and the Czech Republic, so give me five and let off some fireworks in a remote location out of doors!

Tomorrow I give a talk with two other lovely author ladies about Demons, Fairies and Ghosts which may turn into an all-out fist fight. I could say that I will not start it, and the madness will not be entirely my fault, but I don't like to lie to you guys.

The day after Cassie and I fly back to Dublin, where we will have another Fabulous Event at 6:30 16th July, with readings and advance chapters and shenanigans, definitely crazy stories and perhaps a secret, ninja sock monkey appearance. Also there will be Mortal Instruments T-shirts and badges with Demon's Lexicon ravens and 'Of course Nick had to get rid of the body' on them.

I like my badges. My mother wears hers to the tennis club. They look at her with suspicion, these days. Who is Nick, they wonder to themselves, and where, oh where, is he putting the bodies?

Until next time, I hope you will be betting on me to win in the Demons, Fairies and Ghosts fist fight. If some canny librarian youtubes it, you can rely on me to provide you with a link.

The contest for an early copy of The Eternal Kiss is closed: thank you all so much for entering! It is deeply, deeply appreciated. I had so much fun seeing everyone's pictures! People with weapons! People dressed up as Mae! It was horribly difficult to choose.

The winner is: demon circles, fever fruit and talismans - drawing summoning circles at three a.m. is my new definition of hardcore.

The winner of another advance copy of The Eternal Kiss, which I obtained by probably nefarious means: Sin, fever blossoms and a demonic penguin.

Email me at sarahreesbrennan@gmail.com, you guys.

Trying to choose honourable mentions actually made me collapse under the sheer weight of awesomeness, but I admit to a particular fondness for Mae in Sydney.

This Friday I will be heading off to the UK to do a number of things, like a photoshoot (Oh God, 2859 pictures of The Distressed Wombat Face) and a debate on Ghosts, Faeries and Demons. I will naturally be arguing on the side of the demons. Evil wins again!

I will also be doing two Lexiglass events. (I made up the name, so I keep gleefully using it at every opportunity...)

The Lexiglass Event
July 11, 2009: Glasgow, Scotland, 3pm
Borders Glasgow. 98 Buchanan Street, Glasgow, G1 3BA
Signing and appearance with Cassandra Clare, who will be launching City of Glass in the UK

The Irish Lexiglass Event
with Cassandra Clare
July 16th 6:30 PM
Eason
40 Lower O'Connell Street, Dublin 1, Ireland

Then there are some plans for appearances in the US.

For a start, I will be attending Comic Con in San Diego, July 23rd to the 26th.

Events there will be as follows:

Friday, July 24 Panel

12:30-1:30 Future Fond Memories Room 3

Panelists: Michael Spradlin (KEEPER OF THE GRAIL: THE YOUNGEST TEMPLAR); Michael Reisman (SIMON BLOOM: THE OCTOPUS EFFECT ); Sarah Rees Brennan (THE DEMON’S LEXICON); James Owen (THE INDIGO KING); Mary Pearson (THE ADORATION OF JENNA FOX), P.J. Haarsma (THE WORM HOLE PIRATES OF ORBIS 3); and Alyson Noel (BLUE MOON: THE IMMORTALS).

Moderator: Maryelizabeth Hart, Mysterious Galaxy

1:30 - 2:30 Signing in the convention's autograph area.

The morning of Saturday the 25th, I will be signing in the Every Picture Tells a Story booth, exact time to be announced.

And for the rest of Comic Con, I will probably be wandering around going 'Oooh, look, a Wonder Woman costume!' and being extremely happy about the weather, so come say hey to me!

Now, I know quite a lot of writers called Sarah. It is, as I have pointed out to my mother while explaining my preference for 'Esmeralda,' a fairly common name. At this stage I believe Sarahs might be numerous enough to take over the world.

Before we do that, though, we're having a Sarah Signing in New York.

1.00 pm - 3.00 pm, Sunday August 2nd. Books of Wonder, 18 West 18th Street, New York, NY 10011.

Sarahs will include me, our fearless organiser Sarah MacLean (the Season), Sarah Cross (Dull Boy), Sarah Beth Durst (Ice, Into the Wild) and Sarah Ockler (Twenty Boy Summer) with more Sarahs to be announced!

Other US appearances will be in early October, and the details will be enormously awesome, but I cannot tell you them yet!

At all appearances I will have stuff like bookmarks, gel pens, cheery yet insane smiles, and little giveaways of the first chapter of The Demon's Covenant.

And since this post has been all about announcements, something for the rest of you. I would tell a story about my life, but telling stories like 'Yesterday my flatmates found me sticking Post-its ON MY OWN FACE' is too shameful. So instead...

( Frequently Asked Questions about The Demon's Lexicon: GIGANTICALLY HUGE SPOILERS )

If you have other questions, pray ask them and I will answer them! I will add to this post as I go.

So to open with the bad news, sales are steady but missed the mark, so we will not have Part 2 of
Sorcerer and Stone this week. With luck, next week! Tell all your friends, family and genetically modified household pets who know how to read.

And now for the good news!

The winner of the Demon's Lexicon Thanks for Linking Back Prize Pack is inbedwithbooks - email me at sarahreesbrennan@gmail.com with your address for shiny knife charm, books and all.

The winner of Shiver is wednesdayschild.

And the winner of Ice is lotuseyes. Both of you email me with your addresses at sarahreesbrennan@gmail.com as well!

For those who did not win but really liked the sound of Ice, Sarah Beth Durst is giving away another copy here.

PSA to all jonesing Australians: The Demon's Lexicon is already on shelves at Kino's and Galaxy.

And to the rest of you, who kindly did not point out that uh, I put up a post that said 'Happy July' on the last day in June, I was... uh... totally testing you. Yeah, that's it.

But today is July, and we decided to give out one free signed book a day as well at the two seven-book prize pack, starting with Saundra Mitchell's Shadowed Summer, so escaping with the Seven could work out well for you.

Good news for me this week: The Demon's Lexicon trilogy just sold in Israel! Hooray, demons in the Holy Land!

More good news for me: I got two more Starred Reviews. I am so pleased the people reading Demon's Lexicon are liking it! The reviews are generally full of spoilers, but here are snippets:

Give this to horror and fantasy fans alike, but don't give away the ending - Bulletin, Starred Review

Even teens who don’t consider themselves genre buffs will appreciate the solid writing, fast-paced plot, and sense of authenticity that Brennan gives to the shadowy world between ordinary, modern-day London and the otherworld of demons and magicians. Readers will clamor for the next book in this trilogy. - School Library Journal, Starred Review

I have performed the Dance of Stars. Small breakable objects in my house have met their doom.

And some more stuff for you guys: you might notice the truly awesome icon I am using, which is made by the fabulous orexisbella. There are more extremely cool icons and wallpapers up here now!

One of which is now mine.

( Check Out My New Computer Wallpaper )

It inspired this conversation between me and my poor agent.

SARAH: ... Ask Simon & Schuster if I can have Tyler's (cover model's name is Tyler) number.
KRISTIN: I certainly will not, shameless girl. I know why you want it.
SARAH: Or his email address, that would be fine too.
KRISTIN: I know exactly what this is about, and your behaviour is ENTIRELY INAPPROPRIATE.
SARAH: But I just know having him in a kissing booth at my signings would be wonderful for sales!
KRISTIN: Dear Sarah, try to be less of a pimp, you do not have the chest hair for it.
SARAH: A BOY. KISSING. It is MARKETING GENIUS.
KRISTIN: I'm going to go now.
SARAH: My genius is so misunderstood.

So six of my friends and I were discussing US and UK covers one day, and we compared and constrasted and generally came to very few conclusions about the difference between US and UK covers. We were focusing on young adult covers, as we're all young adult authors, and I thought it might be interesting to share some of our waffling here. Possibly even enlightening!

Okay, it was all Saundra Mitchell's idea and anything enlightening was probably said by her, and definitely not by me.

But as a reward for listening to my babbling, we thought we could give away seven books at once.

In the US, I think young adult fiction is seen as slanted more towards adults, whereas in the UK young adult fiction is seen as slanted more towards kids: with the landslide success of Twilight everywhere this is changing as we speak, but for now I've noticed that in the US teen sections are kept quite separate from and sometimes far away from the children's section, and in the UK they tend to be together and quite often to blend.

So, there's the question of different audiences for the US and UK people.

There's also the question of different sensibilities: I know a couple of US covers that were changed because 'that's too sexy for the UK market.' This overlaps with the question of audience, but might also have something to do with notions of propriety this side of the pond. ;)

And there's the question of timing. Some of us have always loved young adult fiction - for instance, you can try prying my copy of Margaret Mahy's The Changeover out of my cold, dead hands - but it cannot be denied it's exploded in recent years, and especially since Twilight, though there were signs of its rising popularity well before that. And Twilight had a much slower start in the UK than the US - possibly due to their very different covers. So I think the UK is less certain of young adult fiction: it has lots of experiments in style.

One example of such experimentation is a book I know of that was sold as straight-up YA fantasy in the US, was sold as YA fantasy with a different UK cover, and at the same time as adult fantasy with yet another different UK cover and a different title. This was deeply confusing for me. I very nearly bought the same book twice.

( UK Covers on the Left, US on the Right, and Jump! )

Now, having seen so many US versus UK covers, you probably have opinions. You probably have favourites.

I cannot hear them. (NO. SERIOUSLY. PLEASE DO NOT TELL ME. SERIOUSLY, PLEASE DO NOT.) Books are not significantly like our children, as selling one's children in the marketplace is frowned on by many. But book covers are like our children's faces in a way - they mean a lot to us, and we don't have control over them. They're also marketing tools, so people should feel free to express their opinions on them: but doing it to the author is liable to just make the author collapse in a tragic heap of smelling salts and brandy. (Medicinal, of course!)

I would like to hear anyone's thoughts on the trends in covers on both sides of the pond, possibly how US covers sometimes get new covers in paperback but never adopt the UK ones, and how the UK industry often changes to the US covers to see what will happen. I'd also like to hear guesses on what the UK covers of the other three of the seven debaters - Saundra Mitchell of Shadowed Summer, Sarah MacLean of The Season and Sarah Cross of Dull Boy - would look like.

But if you want to pick favourites, good news, that's how you win seven books at once!



Go here to vote for Team US or Team UK, and possibly win either the seven books in the UK package complete with UK covers, or the seven books in the US package complete with US covers.

It is Thursday, and this is the first installment of My Big Idea.

My Big Idea is as follows: I put up a short story to celebrate every week sales reach a certain (modest) number, to thank readers for buying hardcover, and as a show of faith that blogs and free content make a difference.

People who link to the short story get entered for a draw for a Prize Pack (this week's is a Demon's Lexicon signed book, a UK edition of Holly Black's Valiant, a selection of bookmarks and an Irish silver knife charm). Links from book bloggers count as extra, as I think book bloggers are awesome.

This story is set in the universe of The Demon's Lexicon, but it doesn't spoil you for any of it: it's the back story of one of the characters.

People who know me may not be surprised to learn that my short story got a little long. Next part out (with luck and good numbers) next week. Hope you enjoy!

( Sorcerer and Stone, 1/2 )