We’re singing this one in choir. In fact, we sound EXACTLY like this.
Well, almost exactly. Our choir has one excessively enthusiastic alto who sings her fa-la-las with a great deal of vigour. No, no one you know. *ahem*
I am likely to be offline for the next week. Be excellent to each other in my absence. The flowers and fa-la-las should sufficiently send care packing, til no mirth be lacking. Or some such. Catch you later, darlings!
Seraphina is mentioned in the Summer Reading for Kids list at SheKnows.com — along with our old friend Dragons Love Tacos! Coincidence? I think not. It is the year of the dragon, after all.
The book also got a very nice mention at Shurtugal, a Christopher Paolini fan site. Thanks so much, you guys! I hope Inheritance fans will enjoy Seraphina as well!
Remember me filming some video interviews when I was in New York? Sure you do! Well the first of those, from fabulous vlogger Liz at Elizziebooks, is online now. And here it is!
Annnnd… is that all the news? I do believe it is. Nap time!
It’s like Saturnalia around here today, all these wonderful things at once!
Here is a review and interview from Jennifer Brown at Shelf Awareness. I had so much fun talking to her. There is literally an hour’s good conversation, condensed into that published interview.
Entertainment Weekly’s online book blog, Shelf Life, has just put up the book trailer for Seraphina! Go watch it! I love it unreservedly!
The post also features a short story I wrote, set a month or two before the book, for your reading amusement. Enjoy!
I have a guest post up! It’s all about what it was like writing Seraphina, and there’s even an introduction from my fabulous editor. Go, read! Perhaps I shall convert you all to Morning Personism, ha ha.
Here’s a really fun review – and pretty spoiler-free – at A Nudge in the Right Direction. What I particularly appreciate about this one is that it’s written as a dialogue between two sisters, Krispy and Alz. Their banter reminds me of my own sisters!
(I am now scouring their blog for evidence that they’re sisters and not finding it. Why did I think they were sisters? Maybe they’re not. They TALK like sisters, though!) (Right, talk. Because I can hear their voices! OK, time to quit while I’m ahead)
I said Monday, but I meant Tuesday. Aren’t you glad you weren’t holding your breath now?
Here’s a nice review from Janina to tide you over.
The wonderful folks at Random House have put up a Seraphina website. Go look, go look! It’s beautiful, even with my face on it!
SO MANY ACANTHUS LEAVES!
*dies happy*
*comes back, since post isn’t done*
I would also like to welcome the many new friends who have found this blog by connecting from that page. I feel like the world has suddenly grown much larger. Luckily, I have enough cookies and tea for everyone! I have infinite cookies and an ocean of tea! I’m running out of exclamation marks, however, so I’d better pace myself.
I am also reliably informed that there will be more exciting things to announce on Monday. I recommend against holding your breath until then, except perhaps in a figurative sense.
Hello, darlings! I am busily writing guest posts for other blogs, which alas leaves me relatively little time and energy for my own. I will let you know when those come out, of course, and provide the requisite linkage.
Here to tide you over is a lovely review from Janicu. There will also be a bit of fun coming up later this week (note to self, confirm this with the Olympian gods, or whomever is actually in charge), which I will also stick in front of your nose.
Less than a month to go! But I have a feeling it will be a busy month.
Is it this way with every book, or just with the first? I feel the release date looming there ahead of me. It’s a bit hard to envision what must be on the other side of it; it’s like a wall, obscuring my vision all the way to the horizon. I’m not yet sure if I’m expected to punch a hole through it with my head or climb over it. Can I find or build a gate? I am a bit intimidated by the whole thing, I confess.
Still, I hold out hope that a portal will appear and I will walk right through – maybe even ride majestic, if I can swing it. There have been encouraging signs along the road contributing to this belief. One I stumbled upon a couple days ago, a very nice review at Parenthetical. The author of that blog has read Amy Unbounded, and it is always particularly lovely to read the reactions of people who are visiting Goredd for the second time, loving that world every bit as much as I do. Seraphina gives us Goredd from a different angle, perhaps, but the place is still deeply, fundamentally itself.
Then my friend Catie, at The Readventurer, brought another review to my attention just yesterday. This one’s at Chronicles of a Book Evangelist, and I was so moved by it that I’m going to quote it:
So often people who are scientific or logical are thought of or portrayed as being cold and passionless. In contrast, artists and musicians are thought to be moody and mercurial. But that isn’t really the case at all. Anyone who has ever watched Feynman talk about, well, anything, can see his passion for science; and the methodical precision required to master the most passionate of musical masterpieces requires determined discipline. And Math. Math is at the core ofeverything. … They are all interconnected. The very idea of separate areas of study is just our human brain trying to analyze and compartmentalize reality. The real world, and the way our human mind approaches it, is much more complex than than that; and I think Hartman would agree. The book itself is a testament to this idea – it is lyrical even at its most analytical.
Aw! AWWWW! (look how articulate I am, me the writer with all the words and stuff) I thought that was a pretty lyrical and incisive observation there, myself.
The day is coming. The path is clear. My heart is lifted, and I walk.
Rachel Hartman 