Holly Black, No Longer Dry Like a Martini

First of all, thank you so much for the lolcats. You guys have made us (me, Theo, Tony, all our friends) laugh and laugh. It was really hard to pick the winners, but after careful consideration, here they are:

GRAND PRIZE WINNER (DVD plus Spiderwick boxed set):opal16


The rest after the cut. ( Read more... )

To claim your prizes, please post your address in the comments (if you are an LJ user). All comments are screened and I won't unscreen them, so no one will see your address but me. If you aren't an LJ user (I think one of you isn't), I will contact you through email.

Congratulations to the winners! And thank you again to everyone for your hilarious entries!

I have been given six copies of the Spiderwick Chronicles DVD by the good folks at Paramount. I also have one Collector's Trunk with the five original Spiderwick chapter books and the notebook bundled inside.

All of these things are for you, dear readers.

To win one of the aforementioned prizes, you must make a lolcat on one of the following subjects:
-writing
-any of my books
-faery folklore

Yes, a lolcat. What? I love them. I can't help myself.

Upload your lolcat into the comments of this entry before June 29th. On the 30th, I will pick winners. You may enter the contest without having a LJ, but if you do, please email me your entry as well as posting it so I will have a way of contacting you if you win. You can email me at: me @ black holly . com <--without any of the spaces.

The grand prize winner--the one who has crafted the finest lolcat--will get the trunk and a DVD (signed by Tony and me). Five runners-up will get DVDs (also signed).

Good luck!

Edited to say: Contest is over. I've turned on screening so that no more entries can be posted. I will announce winners tonight.

Via my mother, behold the adorable unicorn deer:


ROME - A deer with a single horn in the center of its head — much like the fabled, mythical unicorn — has been spotted in a nature preserve in Italy, park officials said Wednesday.

"This is fantasy becoming reality," Gilberto Tozzi, director of the Center of Natural Sciences in Prato, told The Associated Press. "The unicorn has always been a mythological animal."

So cute! Don't you want to just grind up its horn for alchemical powder? I jest! I jest!

Next weekend I am going to be signing at Books of Wonder for the anthology, Magic in the Mirrorstone, with contributors Cecil Castellucci, Cassandra Clare, Tiffany Trent, Beth Bernobich, Craig Gidney and editor Steve Berman. The signing will be at:

June 8th, 1pm-3pm
Books of Wonder
18 West 18th Street
New York, NY 10011

Theo decided he wanted a change. His hair used to be longer than mine, but no more.

Witness the carnage:



And the result:



I haven't shaved anyone's head in years.

Man, writing is hard.

I forgot how hard.

I am currently drinking he cold, murky coffee at the bottom of the pot. It's not helping.

In time for the warmer weather we're getting, here's some advice on how to find a four-leaf clover. According to folklore, carrying a four-leaf clover is the simplest method of getting the Sight. I have never been able to find a one, but for those who are luckier than I am, now is the time to strike.

Relatedly, some suggestions for how to preserve one once you find it.

In lieu of a review, I give you my post-Iron Man conversation:

Cassie: I never thought Robert Downey Jr. was hot before.
Holly: He was always hot.
Cassie: I always thought he was a good actor, but never hot.
Holly: He was hot as Crabtree in Wonder Boys. I love that movie.
Cassie: Not hot.
Theo: Spiderman and Iron Man do it in that movie.
Josh (turning away from another conversation): What?!?
Theo: Robert Downey Jr. and Tobey Maguire have sex, therefore it is like Spiderman and Iron Man are having sex.
Josh: Retroactively?
Holly: This is part of Theo's one-universe theory of movies. Every actor is essentially every character they have ever played. So, for example, because he is played be Ewan McGregor, young Obi Wan Kenobi joined the Jedi after kicking the heroin he was on in Trainspotting. Or Christian Bale, who did a lot of serial killing before he became Batman.
Theo: American Psycho makes a lot of sense as a portrait of Bruce Wayne.

After that, we all became lost in thought. Most of the thoughts were very disturbing.

Behold, the writing barn wherein lots of The White Cat was written:



And a view of the barbed-wire covered countryside:



I had a great time touring in the UK, got a ton of writing done with mistful and cassandraclare in Ireland, and was fascinated to learn a lot more about international publishing while I was in Bologna. On the whole, a really great trip.

That said, I am so happy to be home and to collapse on my couch or sit out on the patio or sit pretty much anywhere. No more travel for me for a while...well, except for NY ComicCon, where I am going to do a panel and a couple of signings. But that's just in New York. That doesn't count, right?

Er.

I am currently fiddling with an ancient short story that I think I know how to write now. Maybe. But what I have been thinking about lately is readerly and writerly joy. The cracktastic bits of a book or story that I think are often the elements that get put aside when we as writers try to better our craft, but are the very things that readers respond to. I talked a little bit about this during a speech I gave at Swarthmore this past week, but I was wondering about your thoughts.

Do you know what I mean?

The parts that just make you happy? The parts you can't wait to write? The parts you are surprised when you read? Do you think writerly joy translates into readerly joy?

Am I making any sense or do I need a little bit more of a lie down?

Via Locus:

BRAVO TV has wrapped filming on the initial season of Top Writer, a new reality show in which 12 writers battle against each other, with the final three going up against Harlan Ellison in an as-yet-undisclosed New York City bookstore window. . . Highlights of later episodes include Holly Black and Cormac McCarthy fighting over a toothbrush, Atwood's anger at waking up to find Shelley Jackson has tattooed a short story on her forehead, and Carey and Ligotti showing the other contestants how to square dance.

I am so proud.

That toothbrush is totally mine. McCarthy is going down.

Despite not actually being around, I'm participating in Pulse's Blogfest along with all these folks. Here's my page (with a really old picture) where my answers will go. I hope I get to stop in from some remote location and see what's going on.

I've been preparing to go overseas for the release of the Spiderwick film. Tony and I are going to do a few appearances and then I'm going to EasterCon. It's kind of a long trip, as after that I get a few days off, but I've decided it isn't enough time to go home so I'm going to hang around (in Ireland! with mistful!) and then go to the Children's Book Fair. So if anyone is going to be in any of these places, please give me a wave.

Edited to say: also a chance to post new icon.

Hey, look what I found on Amazon! I am correcting the pages right now, so it probably shouldn't come as a huge surprise to me, but still! It's real!

My fingers itch to show you some interior art, because Ted is so fabulous, but I am forced to wait.

I just wanted to thank you guy for all your thoughts and all your generous sharing of your experiences with memory. It's really helped with the book and also made me slightly less paranoid.

A good chunk of the new book is a mystery that deals with memory (yeah, like Memento, except, well, not really) and it's making me think about my own memory or lack thereof.

Lately, I realize that I open my mouth to say one thing and wind up saying another if I'm not really paying attention. Like "the bag is in the sink" if I mean the vase is in the sink, because I was thinking about emptying the trash while I was speaking and aphasia kicked in. Or I can't remember a word, but it is right on the tip of my tongue (then I remember it hours later). It's frustrating and scary and leads me to doing the checklist on the Alzheimer's site.

Memory is weird. Like, when I've been on tour and I see someone that I would recognize normally, but in that context I have only a flash of that person looks familiar before I realize that person is my mother.

But what I'm wondering about now is whether someone would notice gaps in their own memory. For example, would it be strange if a character was thinking about something and the memory just stopped? What do you expect to remember? What would make you suspect that your memory wasn't quite right?

I read an interesting article on the io9 site, entitled A Guide to Fan Husbandry, which contains a somewhat tongue-in-cheek list of rules for those "running a TV show, putting out a movie version of a beloved story, or publishing book or comic series" to remember, like:

- By the same token, never give the fans what they want. They'll just hate you for it. They may clamor for two characters to get together, but once it happens, they'll instantly get sated, bored and disgusted, in that order. If you do have two popular characters get together, one should turn out to be a clone or an evil alternate universe version.

This isn't the first time I've heard this advice, though, and it is reiterated in the comments. What do you guys think? Are there rules creators of stuff should adhere to out of respect for fans or for the success of their project and, if so, what are they?

I put together a few of the things that annoy me as a fan:

- Don't leave me hanging. There's nothing worse than thinking an ending is never going to come. Like a TV show that gets cancelled after a cliffhanger season end. Or a book series that suddenly stops. That fills me with rage.

- If you set something up, it has to pay out. Thematically as well as plot-wise. Like the gun on the mantle must go off, what is set up must be allowed to play out. I am really annoyed when a book (or show or film) doesn't go there, especially when all the signs are pointing in that direction.

- Don't set up a girl as a bad-ass and then spend the rest of the book/show/film punishing her for her badassery.

What do you think? What are your rules?

My UK publisher decided to give the Modern Faerie Tale books some new covers. I really love them. They are so beautiful and Kaye looks, well, like Kaye and Roiben looks like he's brooding, which seems appropriate.



I haven't seen the new Valiant cover yet, but I am curious as to how it will fit with these two.

If you guys want to talk about the movie--with spoilers--here's the place. Talk away!

Okay, so I dislike zombies. But I love Maureen. And I love her now book, Suite Scarlett (the prize!). So, I will swallow my fear and point you toward the Insert a Zombie, Win a Prize contest, the rules of which are:

1) Keep it to one paragraph. (250 words or less. Less is better.)
2) Make sure to give the title and author, so we can know whose work is being zombified. If these are not given, the zombified work will not be considered!
3) E-mail the entry to maureen@maureenjohnsonbooks.com. Please use the subject line: ZOMBIE INSIDE! You may enter as many times as you like. (So, if you want to zombify 30 stories, you can! But they must be different ones each time.) The deadline is February 14th. You can go right up to midnight (US, east coast time). Edited to say: EXTENDED ROUNDS!
4) All of these wonderful entries will be read by Maureen and the other celebrity judges: Meg Cabot, John Green, E. Lockhart, and Justine Larbalestier, all excellent writers and true zombie experts.

I will even suck it up and do one (from William Carlos Williams "This is Just to Say"):

I have eaten
your brains
as you slept
beside me

I know
you probably had
other
plans for them

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so convenient

I think I may have just upset myself. For better examples of zombification, here are Cassie's, Scott's, Justine's and Maureen's.

Last night I went to the Magnetic Fields concert in Northampton. They were, of course, fantastic. I found myself staring with some kind of crazy smiling glee and I later hoped that that's not the expression of everyone in their audience, otherwise they must think their fans are insane.

In news that has nothing to do with Spiderwick, I did an interview with 3 Evil Cousins, which allowed me to answer the question I have always wanted to answer, but have never been given the opportunity: If you were to take over the world, how would you do it? Now I finally have a strategy in hand.

I was also incredibly thrilled to find Ironside on Locus's list of recommended YA books, but was really happy to see two of my short stories, "The Coat of Stars" from So Fey and "Paper Cuts Scissors" from Realms of Fantasy on their list of recommended short fiction. I have had a love/hate relationship with the short story. Back before I finished Tithe, I started dozens of short stories and finished, maybe, two. They just aren't my natural form. So, after struggling with writing them and finally managing to write a few I'm happy with, I'm glad that other people like them too. I was also really pleased that three of my stories are going to be in Year's Best collections in 2008.

- "The Coat of Stars" is going to be in The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year Volume Two (Strahan)

- "Paper Cuts Scissors" is going to be in The Year's Best Fantasy 8 (Hartwell & Cramer)

- "A Reversal of Fortune" is going to be in The Year's Best Fantasy & Horror: 21st Annual Collection (Datlow, Link & Grant)

Having my stories included means a lot to me, not only because of my ongoing wrestling match with short fiction, but because when I was in college, reading the Year's Best Fantasy & Horror over and over again was the thing that decided me against teaching and for going into publishing. Yeah, I wound up as an production editor for medical journals (Journal of Pain, anyone?) but reading those collections of stories and realizing their authors were part of a community was hugely motivating.

Lastly, I have gotten a bunch of emails asking me about a film of Tithe or Valiant, what with Spiderwick where it is and all. The short answer is you'll know when I know and right now, I know nothing.