Joy Preble's Blog, page 3

This book I'm finishing (again, for the fifth or sixth time, although not always in this particular incarnation) has been a struggle.

Various reasons for that: First it was because it was an extra project and I never seemed to have enough to time to fully flesh out where I wanted it to go. (It started as a time travel story which when you finally read it will seem impossible. But sometimes characters come to you and the basic story of them falling for each other just as everything else in the world is falling apart, and the rest is sort of window dressing. (Okay, I'm not even sure what that phrase means, but out it popped this morning and I mean for it to reflect the idea that the rest is just setting and plot points but the character arc is the idea I need first and foremost and that has never wavered.)

Another reason: At one point this novel became the potential option book for one of my editors but we could never agree on certain aspects and eventually I began to feel that I was writing a book by committee and said no. I'll do something else but not this. But the story and my reasons for telling it never diminished and so I knew I simply had to get it right, mine out the gold and rip away all the extra plot lines and rambling and confusion that came from trying too hard to please other people.

There are other reasons I could illuminate, all of them legitimate, but in the end I think it is safe to say that ultimately, I hit a wall that I hadn't hit before and I had to step back. I've talked about this before, most recently on Cynthia Leitich Smith's blog, CYNSATIONS in a guest post about surviving and thriving long term in a writing career.  If you read the whole series (which I think is still ongoing), you will see some definite similarities in other authors' posts. The industry shifts. Your previous books aren't the financial success everyone hoped. You have time issues or family issues or you just have to stop and fill the well.

Stepping back is hard. The publishing world keeps rolling and the book deals keep getting announced, the festival invites invited, the movie deals confirmed, and there you are, on draft 6, trying to stay hopeful.

Publishing is about many things, but hype is a huge one. We authors love to tell you how busy we are, how many words we've written, how many events we're doing, how stressed we are about all those things, how much you are going to LOVE THIS NEW BOOK, how happy we are to have made this list or that list or whatever list. Mostly, we need to do this because it's part of how the business works.

One of my roles at the bookstore is now Children's Book Buyer and let me tell you, hype is real on that end, too. Editors and publicists send us a LOT O' STUFF (info, swag, notes, posters, bookmarks, more swag, some of it even candy!) about certain books.

So between author generated hype and publisher generated hype,  and the general crazy of social media, sitting at your laptop in the wee hours of the morning before work, plodding through draft six of a book (even if you LOVE IT) is sometimes a tricky thing. You feel invisible most days and then suddenly one day you're kind of okay with that because it feels like it felt before you were published. Just exciting and hopeful and totally passionately authentic.

More on all this tomorrow.

Til then!

I have not blogged much over the past year and a half. It's not that I haven't had much to say, it's just that at first much of it was frustrated and sad and sometimes angry (as publishing and the world can cause) and then once I was back on track I had gotten out of the habit, was balancing a new job (more on that in a minute), had a bunch of life issues (some good, some not so good) and while I do blog regularly at YA OUTSIDE THE LINES, this blog, which I had curated so faithfully for almost a decade, fell to the wayside.

But. New Year. (Hello 2018!) New start.

Revamped Blog with a focus on publishing as always but through dual points of view: Author and Bookseller because since August of 2016, I've been the Children's Specialist at a wonderful indie bookstore here in Houston and it has taught me so much about the industry, helped me grow in a million ways, and informed what I write and how I write in ways I never expected. So I'll still be talking about writing and my own books and the writing classes I teach, and craft, and all the usual life stuff. Plus I get crazy wonderful access to ARCS -- so many ARCS! So we'll still be talking books a lot. Obviously.

Like right now I'm really excited for everyone to read Holly Black's CRUEL PRINCE, which drops this week. Oh how I've missed Holly's faerie worlds and this book will delight her loyal fans like me and those of you who have not read her before. Jude is a fully human child, as is her younger sister, but her mother had married a faerie and had a child (their older sister) and then escaped back to the human world. But her ex catches up with her and takes Jude and her sisters back to faerie. (Okay yeah, there's some shocking and well-told violence that happens first.) And now Jude is 16 and navigating a world that's not hers and the cruelty of handsome, cruel Prince Carden and his friends, and then it turns out that Jude (who is not truly at home anywhere by now) wants more. She wants power. And she's going to get it. Oh the political machinations! Oh the surprises! Oh this book!

We'll also be talking about what booksellers do and taking some peeks at things like what a buyer does and how it's totally amazing that we're in this reversal moment where indie bookstores are thriving while the big box bookstores are struggling to figure out what to do next. We'l probably have some chats about the Amazon factor. Because how can you leave out that elephant in the room? But let me repeat: Indie bookstores are thriving anyway.

I'll leave it at that for now.
I'm glad to be back.
Til next time!

Welcome to YA Scavenger Hunt! This bi-annual event was first organized by author Colleen Houck as a way to give readers a chance to gain access to exclusive bonus material from their favorite authors...and a chance to win some awesome prizes! At this hunt, you not only get access to exclusive content from each author, you also get a clue for the hunt. Add up the clues, and you can enter for our prize--one lucky winner will receive one signed book from each author on the hunt in my team! But play fast: this contest (and all the exclusive bonus material) will only be online for 72 hours! The Spring YA Scavenger Hunt goes live on Tuesday, April 4th at 12 pm Pacific Time and comes down on Sunday, April 9th at noon Pacific time.  
Go to the YA Scavenger Hunt page to find out all about the hunt. There are multiple contests going on simultaneously, and you can enter one or all! I am a part of the RED TEAM--but there are five teams in all: red, blue, gold, pink, green, purple— all giving you a chance to win a whole different set of signed books!
I’m Joy Preble , your hostess for this stop on the hunt! I’m the author of the DREAMING ANASTASIA series; the SWEET DEAD LIFE series; FINDING PARIS, a dark mystery/road trip novel; and IT WASN’T ALWAYS LIKE THIS, a wildly romantic story with the quick pitch of Tuck Everlasting meets Veronica Mars!I will give you an extra special chance at the bottom of this post to win some of my books!!You are currently hunting on RED TEAM!!
If you are confused or stuck, click here for HELP !
SCAVENGER HUNT PUZZLE

Directions: Below, you'll notice that I've listed my favorite number. Collect the favorite numbers of all the authors on the RED TEAM, and then add them up (don't worry, you can use a calculator!). 

Entry Form: Once you've added up all the numbers, make sure you fill out the form here to officially qualify for the grandprize. Only entries that have the correct number will qualify.
Rules: Open internationally, anyone below the age of 18 should have a parent or guardian's permission to enter. To be eligible for the grand prize, you must submit the completed entry form by APRIL 9, at noon Pacific Time. Entries sent without the correct number or without contact information will not be considered.My secret number is highlighted in RED.
SCAVENGER HUNT POST

Today, I am hosting CHELSEA BOBULSKI on my website for the YA Scavenger Hunt! Chelsea Bobulski is the author of THE WOOD, which arrives on 8/1/17 from Feiwel and Friends/Macmillian. But of course you’ll get to read a bit here!


Bio: Chelsea Bobulski was born in Columbus, Ohio, and raised on Disney movies, classic musicals, and Buckeye pride. She graduated from The Ohio State University in 2010 with a degree in history and promptly married her high school sweetheart. As a writer, she has a soft spot for characters with broken pasts, strange tlaens, and obstacles they must overcome for a brighter future. She now lives in Northwest Ohio with her husband, her daughter, and one ver emotive German Shepherd/Lab mix. Her debut young adult novel, THE WOOD, will be published by Feiwel and Friends/Macmillian on August 1, 2017.
For more information about Chelsea Bobulski and THE WOOD, go to her author’s website HERE !
And please follow her on Twitter at @chelseabobulski


EXCLUSIVE CONTENT



Here’s a brief bit about THE WOOD:  Winter didn’t ask to be the guardian of the wood, but when her dad inexplicably vanishes, she’s the one who must protect travelers who accidentally slip through the wood’s portals.
Chelsea has graciously provided 2 types of exclusive content! First is a link to her UNTIL NOW TOTALLY SECRET Pinterest Board for THE WOOD!  Seriously, make sure to click through, because it is awesome and creepy and wonderful!https://www.pinterest.com/cbobulski/the-wood/AND, Chelsea and her team at Feiwel and Friends have also let her share this really exciting snippet from THE WOOD. Yup, you get to read it before anyone else!Excerpt from forthcoming THE WOOD by Chelsea BobulskiDad tells me the wood is not a place to play. It is a place for business, and it is more powerful than I could ever imagine.He tells me I cannot forget the rules of the wood. There are three.Do not travel from the paths.Do not linger after dark.Do not ignore the calling.These rules are easy to remember. He drills them into my head every day over cereal breakfasts and walks to the bus stop. He meets me after school and reminds me again, but when I ask if I can go into the wood, he says, “Not yet.”I watch them from my bedroom window, the trees that spread out behind our house along the Olentangy River. To everyone else, they are half a mile wide and three miles deep. To us, they’re limitless.I watch the seasons change from that window. Count the number of leaves that have turned orange and red, purple and gold. I watch them fall from their branches, covering the ground so that the paths are only distinguishable by the weathered logs that outline them.When the snow comes, the logs are also covered, and I wonder if it makes the rules harder to follow. If it’s easier to wander off the paths when they can’t be seen. Easier to get trapped in the middle of a limitless space, unable to escape when night comes crawling in. If it’s easier to forget things such as duty and honor surrounded by all that white. Dad tells me it’s in his blood. He would know the paths even if he were blind. He feels the night descending like others feel the warmth from a fire or smell rain on the horizon. He never neglects to heed the call. Even when he wants to.He tells me it’ll be the same for me, when I’m old enough. He tells me it’s in my blood, too. 
….for more, pre-order your copy of THE WOOD now by clicking HERE!
 OKAY, HERE's The Rest of What you Have to do!!
Don't forget to enter #YASH for a chance to win a ton of signed books by all the YASH authors! To enter, you need to know that my favorite number is 59!Add up all the favorite numbers of the authors on the RED TEAM and you'll have all the secret code to enter for the grand prize!
To keep going on your quest for the hunt, you need to check out the next author! Go to LISH MCBRIDE (one of my fave authors of PYROMANTIC and other books!) You can follow Lish at @lishmcbride on Twitter, btw.

And as promised, here is my own extra bonus giveaway!! It is for U.S. readers onlybecause of shipping costs. Check out the Rafflecopter below and enter to win a paperback copy of IT WASN’T ALWAYS LIKE THIS!  5 winners will be chosen!!


Tweet #YASH

a Rafflecopter giveaway

1. Been reading the arc of debut author Katie Bayerl's PSALM FOR LOST GIRLS and I'm really excited about this one. Was the mc's older sister really hearing voices from God? And what of the other mysteries that are floating around? Just a little way in so I'll have more to say soon. Initial thoughts: Bayerl's got skills! And this one is different in that way you hope for. Put this on your TBR list for next year.

2. And speaking of things everyone should read: This piece by Ta-Nehisi Coates in The Atlantic. I cannot stop thinking about it and re-reading it. If you have not been reading Coates on racism in America, you need to start. Here's the link to this article. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/01/my-president-was-black/508793/

3. Can't wait to see La La Land and also Manchester by Sea.

4. Finishing the novel that's been my struggle for months now. I think I'll make that end of the year goal.

5. In season 4 of Parenthood, our months long on and off binge and oh this show!! It is such a fine ensemble piece and it has made me weep good tears many times.


Next time: I'll be talking about my new job at a local indie bookstore.

Oh 2016! What a strange up and down year you've been. Life and the world and a book that I hoped to finish by the end of March that I'm now hoping to finish by the end of the year and some definite emotional ups and downs with the insanity known as publishing... it's been a crazy year and thus my absence and in general the scant amount of posts this year. 17 until this one! That's barely a voice.

Anyway.
Anyway.

I'm back.
So much to say.
Excited to say it.

Stay tuned, gentle readers.
I'm baaaaaack.

Til next time.
Which will be very very soon!

Was supposed to guest speak last night at a minimum security women’s prison facility where a friend is currently teaching creative writing. She’d gotten permission to bring in guest authors and so I was the first, but there was some snafu and when we arrived at five last night for the three hour class, I was somehow still not fully vetted. Some quiet drama ensued, although not on my part. Once you’ve taught a few decades in the public school system, you understand that sometimes, this is what happens in institutions and in this case, I really get it. You can’t just walk into a prison because you say you were invited. That kind of thing is no one’s friend.
Still. The education supervisor was called to attempt to sort things out. My friend went to teach her class. And I was instructed –okay, ordered actually—to sit on a hard plastic chair in the heat by Control and not move. And so I did until the supervisor eventually strode back. Honestly, it was relaxing: it’s a pretty place, more like a junior college campus if you ignore the barbed wire at the top of the fence—lots of trees and flowers and plants—and there was a breeze and I had my chair. I had left my cell in the car and so it was just me and nature and the guard behind the tinted glass and the occasional other contract worker checking in.
Mostly I thought about the questions the inmates had written for their instructor and which she had passed on to me—the things they wanted to know about writing and publishing and the act of creating art in this particular way—the ones I was going to talk about.
They were the usual sorts of things—questions about process and revision and what editors do, and how to find an agent and what if you’ve self-published and what to do about writer’s block and how you get paid.
But as I was on my plastic chair and they were in their classroom, I didn’t get to answer any of those. Instead, I sat and thought about how when my friend had received her training for this job she’d been reminded not to reveal any personal facts to her students. This makes sense in the setting and context. But how I wondered as I looked at the flowers and heard the traffic wooshing by on the road just outside the fence, do you talk about writing and inspiration without getting personal, other than in vague, general terms? It felt suspiciously like the time one of my former supervisors had informed the English department that it didn’t matter—not at all—what novels we taught or if we even taught just excerpts. We were there to teach skills. You could do that with anything.
Well, yeah. (And if that person is reading this, let me now say what was in my head during that department meeting: No. No. No. That’s kind of, um, bullshit. You know that, right?)
Anyway. It seemed that what was happening last night was a sort of metaphor for what they were collectively asking. Publishing is often, although not always, a series of amazing moments (when you get a story right; when someone acquires your book; when there’s a lovely review; when you type THE END) punctuated by frustration and dead ends and the occasional crushing disappointment. (Like wanting to hear a guest speaker who is stuck sitting on a plastic chair in the heat.)
If I had been in the room—and I know by now that you realize that matters were not sorted out last night and that eventually, the class ended early since the main attraction was not in attendance, the supervisor hugged me and said she was sorry, really sorry, and my friend and I went to the bar at the local Saltgrass for fried zucchini and a coke for her and a glass of cab for me—here is what I would have said about writing, the part that is in between the lines of my answers to all those many questions:
You can indeed save yourself through writing, but don’t expect writing to save you. There will be days when you get it right and still it doesn’t matter. There will be days when someone reads your story and really, really gets it and you feel there is nothing better in this world than having communicated your thoughts on what it means to be human—the good, the bad, the mundane, the glorious, the small, petty and awful and tragic (because that is what writing is about regardless of genre). By the next evening, you may equally feel that you are not quick enough, not smart enough, not talented in any way. You are too old or too young or not cool enough or too cool. (Is there such a thing?) You are too loud or too quiet. Your language is too rough or not rough enough.
You started too early. Or too late. Life intervened in a variety of ways. You are not the flavor of the week. Or you are and it’s overwhelming and you are afraid. Someone else has won the prize, gotten the golden ticket and there you are, fingers on the laptop keys, typing as fast as you can. You are trying to please the wrong people or the right people but in the wrong ways.
 You are stuck on a plastic chair in the heat.
Write anyway. Write the story only you can tell. Tell the truth on the page even if it’s hard and painful and scary. Treat it like a job not a hobby. Study. Read. Write some more. Your story has value. Tell it.
But don’t expect writing to give you anything in return. A thin, tricky line, that. Sometimes, you have to back away and let it go for a bit. Find a different way. Remind yourself to keep your eyes on your own paper.

Keep writing, I would have told them. Keep at it.

It’s here! It’s here! Welcome to the world, IT WASN’T ALWAYS LIKE THIS !
What a journey this book has been. It began as the barest of ideas discussed between my editor and me back in late fall of 2013—an elevator pitch and not much more. Tuck Everlastingmeets Veronica Mars. A girl and boy who become accidentally immortal and lose each other in the aftermath and somehow in searching for him, the girl becomes an immortal and jaded private eye. I liked the idea from that very first phone conversation. But liking an idea and executing it on the page are two different things.
So I began pondering immortality. I mean who doesn’t, right? Myths and legends and stories and beauty ads and science and theological musings. It became quickly apparent that in one way or another we all want to live forever.  Even if we say we don’t. So what would it be like for this couple, I wondered, if they really did? If they weren’t magical in any other particular way but not aging? What would that really be like? Would they love it? Hate it? Would it get tedious? Would it be scary? Would it be the best thing ever? And if they were separated, how long would they search for each other? How long do you stay in love with someone? How do you cope if you’re truly stuck at seventeen? And how do I write a multi-point of view thriller/romance/mystery that spans 100  years and a large number of places? Do I tell it straight through? (Nope.) Do I find myself writing a non-linear novel that slowly builds characters past and present? (Yup.) How do I let my readers simultaneously get to know the innocent, sweet Emma of the past and the world-weary, jaded Emma of the present? And what about Charlie? And what about the bad guys? And the sort-of bad guys? And the legend of the Fountain of Youth? How would I get the fairy tale tone I thought I needed? 
I wrote and wrote, draft after draft.Emma became Emma.Charlie became Charlie.Detective Pete Mondragon evolved from an offstage phone call to a crucial secondary character. And so it went.
Today IT WASN’T ALWAYS LIKE THIS becomes yours. I hope you love it as much as I do.
Accidental immortality. Star-crossed romance. Murder. And a forever-seventeen-year-old girl who refused to give up on anything, especially not on the search for the boy she loves.

"With its exciting plot and well-wrought characters, this novel emerges as a suspenseful treat with a gooey romantic center. The narrative alternates between scenes of Emma’s distant past with Charlie and her murder-mystery present, building to a final showdown that is both surprising and satisfying." 
— The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

So much going on.

IT WASN'T ALWAYS LIKE THIS is coming in less than a week on 5/17 from Soho Teen/Soho Press! Tuck Everlasting meets Veronica Mars. Accidental immortality. Star-crossed romance. And most of all a twisty, non-linear murder mystery with a hard-boiled forever seventeen year old PI named Emma O'Neill.

I'm very proud of this book. I hope you all love it as much as I do.
 It's that weird time right before a book arrives. We authors wonder if anyone will read. If anyone will talk about it. So many wonderful books that we always hope ours won't just slip between the cracks. Always so grateful that so many readers and authors and booksellers and bloggers support me with such full hearts!

And so it goes in the writing world.

Working on something new right now. Been working on it. Excited about that one, too!

And other cool, unexpected things that I won't talk about quite yet.

But mostly it's been IWALT release planning these past few weeks.

A brief calendar:

Tuesday May 17:
Release Day!
Launch Party at Murder by the Book in Houston
6:30 PM
http://www.murderbooks.com/event/preble

Sunday May 22
In Conversation with Samantha Mabry, moderated by Mandy Curtis of FYA
at Book People, Austin TX
1 PM
http://www.bookpeople.com/event/samantha-mabry-joy-preble

Thursday May 26
In Conversation with Meredith Moore
at Twig Books, San Antonio TX
6 PM

More to come, including panels at Comicpalooza and the Barnes and Noble Teen Weekend, both in Houston in June!

So excited for THE RAVEN KING by Maggie Stiefvater! Managed to get to her event at Blue Willow this week despite getting caught in crazy Houston traffic caused by a shoot out on the beltway. Yeah, that was no fun.
But from my last minute seat on the floor, I snapped this pic:

I have loved, loved the world Maggie has created for the Raven Boys series. Truly magnificent writing. Brilliant. Only a few chapters in and already hooked again.

Maggie Stiefvater is the real deal, y'all. You probably know this already. But her artist's eye helps create stories like no other and her characters twine themselves around your heart. *I'm looking at you Ronan. And you Gansey. And you Blue and Adam.... Okay I'm looking at all of them.*

Two years ago I got to hear her teach about writing at SCBWI LA, which was also a true pleasure to learn about process through her eyes.

Anyway. If you haven't started the RAVEN BOYS series yet, do so right now. Four books, Raven King being the finale. You will thank me.

Til next week, when the IWALT countdown begins because tomorrow is MAY!!

1. Reading Samantha Mabry's Fierce and Subtle Poison which is not only gorgeously written but also a twist on Hawthorne's Rappaccini's Daughter, which is a short story I have long adored. Samantha and I will be paneling together (with others) at TxLA16, on a Fairy Tale Retellings panel on Thursday. If you are a librarian type, please come see us!

I'll also be joining Samantha at Book People on Sunday 5/22 at 2 PM, in conversation with Mandy Curtis from Forever Young Adult! We'll be talking our new books (IT WASN'T ALWAYS LIKE THIS  will be out then!) and magic and mystery and love and other juicy stuff.
http://www.bookpeople.com/event/samantha-mabry-joy-preble

2. Getting ready in general for TxLA16. I am honored to have a big schedule this year:

Tuesday 4/19
Panel: What's New with Texas Authors and Illustrators for MG to YA?
3:00-3:50

Wednesday 4/20
Texas Tea: Meet and Greet with YA Authors
Hilton Hotel
4:00-5:20

Off site event: Soho Teen Night at Murder by the Book
2342 Bissonnet Street, Houston 77005
with Adam Silvera, me, Robin Epstein, Brianna Baker
7 PM

Thursday 4/21
Signing galleys of IT WASN'T ALWAYS LIKE THIS at Author's Area: 1:00- 1:35 PM

Panel: Fairy Tale Retellings in YA Literature
2:00-3:50 PM
with Liz Bramwell, Samantha Mabry, Lisa Maxwell, Marissa Meyer, Liesel Shurtliff and me!

Did you notice that you can get galleys of IWALT on Thursday??
And just fyi Soho Press is distributed by Penguin/Random House, so if you are a librarian, check the PRH booth for any further info about IWALT! Which will be here 5/17! (more on that soon.)

3. So Blacklist. Last night. The big surprise. Not at all sure how I feel about this. Or if I believe it's even true. Hmmm...

But OUTLANDER season 2 is here. And it did not disappoint. Oh Jamie Fraser. Jamie. Fraser. You are the cause of the great Preble household "This is why I must have access somehow to Starz" debate. Which I lost last season. But won last week. Yes, I know. Shallow problems. But still. It's Jamie. I mean seriously.

And in less cerebral matters, RHONY 's Ramona Singer will be guesting with Amy Schumer on Bravo's WWHL next Wednesday and so yeah. The DVR will be cranking. Because where else would this pairing exist except in the mind of Andy Cohen?

4. The WIP continues. All I'm saying for now except that this book is set in Chicago, right in the heart of the city and so I've had the honestly fun research job of looking up El and bus routes and I've been spending some quality time on Google Maps looking at street views. Which always makes me think twice when I walk out to the mailbox and imagine those same satellites taking pictures of me in my yoga pants.

5. Can't wait to show you the amazingly awesome IWALT swag I just ordered. Counting down to 5/17.

Tis next time.