Tag Archives: Cracked

Announcement: MY FIRST YA BOOK DEAL!

1 Mar

Y’all. Y’ALL. I know that this has been a crazy week already, what with the Cavendish cover reveal and all (yay!), but . . .

I CAN FINALLY SHARE SOME NEWS WITH YOU.

(Yes, this post will probably be quite caps locky. I’M SORRY OKAY.)

So, if you’ll recall (from various blog posts and tweets galore), I’m a little obsessed with The Nutcracker.

Oh my god I’m like twirling around right now. TWIRLING.

Well, okay, so, about a month and a half ago, this happened:

YES. This is the book formerly known as Cracked, my Nutcracker re-telling which has been such a dear, crazy project of mine for months and months (and years, really, when you think about how long I’ve loved The Nutcracker), and now it is BECOMING REALITY.

I can’t say much right now about Winterspell yet, but I can tell you at least a little bit more! Read on:

To find her abducted father and keep her sister safe from the lecherous politicians of 1899 New York City, 17-year-old Clara Stole must journey to the wintry kingdom of Cane. There, Anise, queen of the faeries, has ousted the royal family in favor of her own totalitarian, anti-human regime. Clara’s only companion is 18-year-old Nicholas, Cane’s rightful prince, whom she freed from a curse that left him trapped in disfiguring faery magic — but time is running out, for both Nicholas and Clara’s family. A deadly secret threatens to destroy Clara and Nicholas even as it binds them irrevocably together. And the land of Cane is anything but sweet.

Words cannot even BEGIN to describe my excitement about Winterspell. Not only is it my first foray into YA fiction (eeeep scary but awesome!), it is a re-telling of one of my favorite fairy tales, and it also gives me an excuse to watch A WHOLE LOT OF FREAKING BALLET YESSS. Which includes Center Stage, right? I mean, I’m totally using this as an excuse to watch Center Stage.

Also I’m excited because this means I can NERD OUT ABOUT THE NUTCRACKER WHENEVER I FEEL LIKE IT. Oh my god, y’all, I need a fan or something, I’m swooning over here.

DANCING.

PRETTY.

FAERIES.

SWORDS.

KISSING.

FANTASY I GET TO WRITE STRAIGHT-UP FANTASY NOW.

WINTERSPELL.

*bounces away to find cheese*

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

ROW80 Round Two: 6/19/11 Check-In

20 Jun

So, this is my second-to-last check-in post.

Wowzers.

I’m pretty disappointed with how inconsistent I’ve become regarding ROW80-related stuff (like, for example, how I’m technically putting this post up late). It’s just that so much has happened over the the last 80ish days, and I’m still figuring out how to balance everything. I feel like who I am now, and who I was at the beginning of this round, are two completely different Claires.

That’s an odd thing to realize.

But perhaps I’ll save the introspection for my last check-in post on Wednesday.

Yes? Yes.

For this post, it’s enough to say that I’m still tweaking Cavendish revisions, so I haven’t yet dived back into Cracked, as planned. And that’s okay. I’ve been scribbling down thoughts and brainstorming in the car with my Cracked playlist blaring, and you know what’s really cool? I’m learning (slowly, surely, sometimes painfully) how to pace myself, how to go easy on myself, how  it’s okay to focus on one thing at a time and let other things simmer and stew until I’m ready for them.

Life’s crazystressfulbusyridiculous enough without adding our own crazy to it, you know? I guess it all comes down to what I talked about in my inspirational post for this round: We’ve got to focus on what we CAN control.

We’ve also got to focus on setting reasonable expectations for ourselves. We’re only human. As much as I hate to admit about myself, it’s true. I’m  flawed, I make mistakes, sometimes I’m stupid, sometimes I’m a hot mess. Sometimes I’m tired and I just physically/emotionally/mentally cannot stay up till 3:00 in the morning to finish writing a chapter. Sometimes, I just have to give in to exhaustion and sleep.

It’s a hard reality to face.

But that’s for another post (coming soon).

Anyway, once the lingering bits and pieces of Cavendish revisions are settled and sent off to Editor Lady, I plan to settle into a world of — well. Perhaps I shouldn’t tell you just yet. Everyone likes surprises, right? Suffice it to say, the world of Cracked is dark, sexy, dangerous, and more than a little insane, and I’m so excited to get lost in it.

Other Exciting Items of Business:

1) This week is my first official week of work at the new job (last week was training). At a public library. During the summer. I’m so incredibly nervous that I’ll make a fool out of myself, scrabbling to keep up and learn the ropes during such a busy season, with patrons crawling out my ears and an inbox overflowing with assignments. I mean, I’m also excited. But also really frickin’ nervous. PRAY FOR ME?

2) You might want to keep an eye on the blog this week (I say gleefully, eyeing the stack of ARCs on my desk). I mean, I’m just saying. I might be starting something very EXCITING, you see. Something that will span many weeks and result in me sending out PRESENTS. Something with an alliterative title, even (!). It might BEHOOVE you to linger around, is all (you little book-loving scamps, you).

~*~

Check out the other second-to-last ROWers’ posts here.

Tags: , , ,

ROW80 Round Two: 6/15/11 Check-In, aka, SPONSOR FAIL

15 Jun

My heavens above, y’all.

Of late, I have utterly FAILED as a ROW80 sponsor.

I haven’t been posting check-ins. I haven’t been posting comments on YOUR check-ins.

I have been, instead, just plain flailing all over the place. I’m so sorry to have fallen off the ROW80 radar, you beautiful ROWers, you. I feel pretty terrible about it.

But you know what? I’m doing my best, and that’s all I can do. So, TAKE THAT, GUILT.

Anyway, lots of things have been happening on Planet Claire! Is it an excuse for this recent slackage? Perhaps; perhaps not. It IS, however, a reason.

THINGS like:

1) Yesterday, I started a new job!

It’s a part-time librarian job at a fantastic public library, and I love the facilities, and I adore my colleagues, but, see, before today, I was doing that thing where I freak about something an unreasonable amount and make it out to be much scarier and/or more difficult than it actually turns out to be, and you’d THINK that by now I’d know better than to do this, but you would be wrong. So, I’ve been running around doing that Steve-Carrell-screaming thing, worrying that I don’t have the right clothes, and worrying that all my new co-workers will hate me, etc. etc., crazy neuroses, etc.

2) The day before yesterday, I finished another round of revisions!

I’ve been scrambling for the last few days to get these done before starting the new job (AND I MADE IT, DANG IT), and I’m so pleased with them. Like, beyond pleased with them. My editor is brilliant and insightful, and I can’t even tell you how excited I am about this process. I’m learning so much, and each new step toward getting my book out into the world is its own precious, crazy adventure.

3) Today, I’m returning to Cracked!

It’s been a while since I’ve worked concretely on this WIP, simply because I wanted to focus on revisions first. But my brain’s been noodling over a few awesome ideas, and I’m really excited to get back to work. Since this ROW80 round is nearly over, and the next step in Cracked is to re-work and re-smash-together the chapters I’ve already written, which could be kind of a weird, immeasurable process, I’m settling on one simple goal for the remainder of this round: Work on Cracked. That’s it.

4) Next week, I’m beginning a ginormous, multi-week giveaway!

That’s right. You heard me. A ginormous giveaway.

Details to come, next week. All I’ll say right now is that there will be ARCs. Plural. And not just any ARCs, no. FANTASTIC ones.

On that note (MWAHAHA), check out the other, less-faily ROWers here.

Tags: , , , , ,

← Older Entries

%d bloggers like this: