I’ve been avoiding packing for upcoming move by taking Photoshop tutorials (much love to DeviantArt!!) and painting pics of Pia and Eio, my protagonists from ORIGIN. Now I have cramps in my right hand.
These paintings are stunning. So fabulous, Jess!
It is important to follow Josh Boone (the director of TFiOS) because he knows everything, and also is really good at tumblr.
You are going to love his movie Stuck in Love, which comes out later this summer. It features Logan Lerman, whom tumblr loves, and Nat Wolff, whom tumblr will soon love.
A note about casting: You might think that casting stuff happens months before it is publicly announced, but in fact generally everything is agreed to like FOUR SECONDS before I tell you about it, so I promise we are not keeping any secrets from you.
(And now back to paternity leave.)
Oh yeah is right! But Josh, don’t you mean you’re filming in August(us)?
“But if I’m it, the last of my kind, the last page of human history, like hell I’m going to let the story end this way. I may be the last one, but I am the one still standing. I am the one turning to face the faceless hunter in the woods on an abandoned highway. I am the one not running but facing. Because if I am the last one, then I am humanity. And if this is humanity’s last war, then I am the battlefield.”
Today we welcome Janet Fox to the Penguin Teen Author Spotlight, and we couldn’t be happier! For those of you who haven’t delved into the Faithless books (not totally a series, but totally awesome, nonetheless) yet, now is your time. Her latest installment, Sirens, is available now and ready to transport you back to the Roaring Twenties, with the prohibition, flappers, and the mob. What better summer than this one to lose yourself in the dreamy world of the twenties? Plus, you know you’ve been looking for your next fix after finally seeing The Great Gatsby. All we’ll say about it is, you’re welcome.
Name: Janet Fox
Novel: SIRENS (Speak)
Available: Now! Everywhere!
Who’s your favorite author, living or dead? Oh, man. That question throws me every time, mainly because I have a long, long list and it changes with every new book I read. So, okay. I have to choose. Mind you, it’s just for these next 30 minutes, and after that…but I’m going to say J.R.R. Tolkien. And the reason is because when I was about twelve I landed in bed with a nasty flu, and my mom brought me LOTR, and I read it all the way through. And then faked being sick for an extra week so that I could read it again without a fever. I think I’ve read those books a total of eight or nine times, maybe more.
What’s your favorite thing about your book? The voice of Lou. She just about jumped off the page at me. I’ve always considered myself to be the “good” girl, you know? The kind of girl who always did her homework, helped out, made her bed, yadda, yadda. But there must be a bad girl inside me because Lou’s voice was right there in my head, and she was all sassy and worldly, and saying, “Yeah, sister.” I loved writing her passages.
If you could spend one year on a deserted island with one character from literature, who would you choose? A whole year? That narrows it down to guys. And not just any guy, either. Someone tough but compassionate. Someone just enough of a poet or musician to understand the workings of the heart. So…at this moment I’m going to choose Sam from Maggie Stiefvater’s The Shiver Trilogy. Stiefvater really knows how to write great male characters.
Where do you write? I have a brand new workspace that is the best ever. I can see out windows on three sides – snowcapped mountain views. And it’s open and really light (I crave light). I’ve packed it with color and little objects that mean something to me. Some people have a magic box where they put wishes and things? I have a magic workspace.
Who is your favorite hero or heroine of history? Elizabeth 1. What an amazing woman, so ahead of her time. Smart, capable, and she didn’t need a guy to do things for her. She unified her country without killing too many people (it was a bloody era) and allowed a culture to flourish that gave us some of the greatest of Western literature.
Do you tweet? What’s the funniest thing you’ve ever tweeted? I do tweet. I really like Twitter. Funniest? Man. You are really putting me on the spot here. I don’t consider myself to be very funny. The funniest I can remember is “I’ve murdered so many darlings today the landscape is strewn with body parts…um, words.” It’s a writer’s inside joke, you know? Murder your darlings = get rid of what you really like because it’s usually the overwritten junk.
What is your favorite season? Fall. After a long hot, leisurely summer I really like the first snap of cool air. And I love fall colors: oranges, reds, yellows, dark greens. I think of fall as a time of new beginnings. I know that’s usually reserved for spring, but I remember as a kid how much I loved to buy my new school supplies. Weird.
If you could teleport anywhere in the known universe right now, where would you go? Wow – why would I want to be anywhere but here in the mountains of Montana? It’s so beautiful. But, give me another M-class planet that is uninhabited, so I could see what Earth was like before we began messing it up.
Do you have any writing rituals? The only ritual I have is that I write every day. Every morning, first thing, and I don’t stop until I have ten new pages done. Oh, and coffee. Two cups, with mocha and foamed milk.
What is your idea of earthly happiness? Writing. J And chocolate, walking in the mountains with a happy dog, eating a great meal with family and friends, and lying on my back in the sun on a cool morning in spring grass.
What is the best concert you’ve ever been to? Back in the day I heard Richie Havens in concert. He died not long ago, but he was one of the most talented, and I think underappreciated, musicians of a couple of decades past. Gorgeous lyrics and melodies to break your heart.
What are you currently working on? Three different stories, all in various stages of writing and revision. Two are middle grade fantasies: one set in 1940 in England but very much a fantasy, and the other set in the place between life and death. And I have a completed YA science fiction project set in a dystopian future – I’m quite excited about that one. It’s a romance, and my tag line is “What does it mean to be human?”
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Thanks Janet! We can’t wait to read your next project!
You can find Janet on Twitter and her blog.
Add Sirens to your “to-read” shelf on Goodreads!
Sirens is available now! Purchase it from Penguin, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books a Million, your local, independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Walmart!
Gayle Forman, If I Stay
Where I Work: Julie Berry
I have a little office in my home. It’s an upstairs room overlooking the street, too small for a bedroom (no closet) but just right for a writing office. Behind my chair, three south-facing windows feed me lots of pretty light, even on gray days. Big blossoming plants grow in the bay windows. Green plants nourish the soul, I find.
Here’s my desk. More plants, some artwork (woodcuts by my sister, a landscape by a friend), research books, office supplies, binder clips (use lots of those), and a bulletin board full of kid pictures, quotes, poem snippets, and miscellany. Notice the strip of purplish color on the wall under the bulletin board—I started painting my office but never finished. The color name felt writerly: “Foreshadow.”
Here’s a closer look at my desk setup. I plug my laptop into a larger monitor and use a dual-monitor setting, so I can spread my manuscript wide on the big screen, and keep my email visible on the lower monitor. Wider screens with multi-page views are essential for chapter revision—they help me spot redundancy, wordiness, and draggy spots. Sometimes I travel to college libraries where I can access huge monitors for a 4 or 6-page view when I need to see my work panoramically.
Here’s a closer look at one corner of my desk. Offices can be dusty, boxy, techno-dreary places, a far cry from the fictional worlds writers hope to create. Color, plants, art, friends—I try to keep them close. Couldn’t get them to pose, but my cats insert themselves here constantly. This woodcut (also by my sister Beth) is Saint Augustine. I like having a saint watch over my notebooks.
Julie Berry is the author of All the Truth That’s in Me, 2013, Viking. Find her online at www.julieberrybooks.com, or on Twitter at @julieberrybooks.
Sarah Dessen, Lock and Key
Ever wondered what it’s like to work on a book with an editor? Ever wanted to know the real questions editors ask their authors after reading a first draft? Maybe you just want to know how Sarah comes up with all those dreamy boys. Here’s your chance to find out! Head over to Slate Magazine to read all about Sarah and her editor, Regina Hayes, and how they work together to create the books you love.
In her All I Need blog tour, Susane Colasanti gave you 10 tips for having an awesome summer. Now you get a chance to ask her all your burning questions—about All I Need, about summer plans, about writing…anything! Join us on Twitter at 7 PM TOMORROW to chat with Susane! Ask questions and enter to win a copy of All I Need using the #allineed hashtag!
