Author: rachelhartman

2015, I’m coming for you

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Happy New Year, friends! It has dawned sunny here in Vancouver, which should absolutely not be taken as a portent for things (especially weather) to come, but is welcome nonetheless.

For the last several years, I’ve been playing my friend Arwen’s New Year Naming Game (I don’t think that’s what she actually calls it, but that’s how I think of it). It involves looking at where you are and where you’re going and coming up with a single word that you hope will sum up – or at least be a recurring theme in – the year to come.

One word. It’s not easy!

I’ve been over-thinking it, as ever. Records on clay tablets indicate that I’ve been doing this since 2012, and my words have been (in order) Perspective, Art, and AUTHORITY (in all caps, as you might imagine). The latter, in particular, was super helpful (last year’s post explains why), and I think I may be at a point now where I am feeling confident in myself again and can afford to back down a little and relax.

And… I was going to pick something else, but now that I think about it, RELAX may just be our winner. Why not? In all caps, of course, with an implied OR ELSE! hot on its heels. There’s a lot coming up this year with the potential to make me anxious, but I see it coming and I have good tools for dealing with it now. I just need a periodic reminder to let go, take care of myself, and breathe.

What’s ahead, as you gaze through your spyglass at the year to come? What word will you carry with you, or scrawl across the top of your map?

The SERAPHINA paperback has landed

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Y’know, just in case you still need a present for someone. Not that any of you are procrastinators, to be sure, but it’s possible some unforeseen accident has taken all your presents away. Perhaps they were hit by a meteor, or they ate some bad oysters. These things happen.

(This post is brought to you by my darling husband, who last night casually asked, “Hey, doesn’t your paperback come out tomorrow?” It is really just as well that all the marketing is not dependent on me.)

Io Saturnalia, my darlings

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IO, darlings! IO!

It's that time of year again, when we don our red caps and pretend we know Latin!

It’s that time of year again, when we don our red caps and pretend we know Latin!

So we kicked things off last night with our feast. Atypically, we ate at a nice restaurant instead of sweating all day over rock-hard barley rolls. It’s not that we’re getting too old and soft to eat rock-hard barley rolls, it’s just that ever since the Great Flood hit our apartment, our classical cookbooks have been packed away. [Note to self: future Jethro Tull filk, “Too Old for Barley Rolls, Too Young for Rye”] Last night we also gave gifts. I got an ASTOUNDING octopus brooch:

So bright! So beautiful!

So bright! So beautiful!

If you’re wondering why I would want an octopus brooch, above and beyond the objective awesome of it, well, here’s a good place to start.

I also got a really big hug… after giving my son a whammy bar for his guitar. He really, really wanted to wham up some songs, apparently. [Note to self: Wham on? Whammerize? Whamminate? Look this up. And you call yourself a writer!] The best thing about Saturnalia is that we can drag it out for several days. Tonight we’re going to see The Hobbit: Battle of Ten Thousand Whammy Bars [NB: look this up, Rachel!], and then tomorrow night my husband and son are going to a Canucks game while I stay home, put my feet up, and pretend I’ve never heard of hockey. A good time will be had by all! I hope your holidays, whichever you wham upon, are full and lovely and happy, too!

More covers

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Foreign editions trickle back to me in their own time, with little rhyme or reason as far as I can tell. Yesterday I received one that looked like this:

Isn't that pretty? I think this is one of my favourites.

Isn’t that pretty? I think this is one of my favourites.

I assumed, based on the alphabet, that this must be the Russian edition, but my husband (who is some kind of language-bot, or possibly a dragon) said, “Not so fast! It might be Bulgarian!”

It turns out he was right, this is the Bulgarian edition, but that begged the question: what does the Russian edition look like? I know there was one, but I don’t have a copy yet. A little digging (my dragon husband is also a Wizard of Googling) produced this result:

Rahrr! I'm a dragon!

Rahrr! I’m a dragon!

Nice, eh? It’s so much fun to see the kinds of cover art the book inspires. I should probably gather all these together on one page someday.

And now, a medieval drinking song…

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We’re singing this in Madrigalians, and it’s totally stuck in my head:

Our version has juicier harmonies, but I’m kinda digging the crumhorn and pipes here. I’m not entirely sure why this version comes from a Christmas album, though, as this is a straight-up paean to beer, nothing Christmas-y about it.

But the best (or possibly worst) thing about this song is that you could keep on inventing new verses for it until the end of time. You just follow the pattern, “Don’t bring us X, because Y, but really bring us ale, because Z.” Maybe that’s how it pertains to the holidays: you can sing it endlessly on long car trips! Grandma and Grandpa will be so pleased when their grandchildren arrive, singing loudly about ale.

Hey, it’s better than “99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall.”

Shadow Scale, German cover

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Seraphina has done well in Germany, so it’s no surprise that my German publishers are quick off the mark with their Shadow Scale cover.

Dragon fight! Stand back!

Dragon fight! Stand back!

Titles often get changed in other languages, of course, and I’m sure Shadow Scale will see this a lot. Those two words won’t always make sense, shoved together like that. The German title translates as “Seraphina: the Shadow Dragons Rise.”

Ooh! That kind of gives me shivers, right there.

The stars align

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Or two of them do, anyway. Some of you may have already seen that Shadow Scale has gotten a starred review from Kirkus Reviews. Well, it has also received a star from Booklist.

Cue Count Von Count: “Two beautiful stars, Ah-ah-ah!”

Those are stars, not bats. Yes, I'm sure. AH-AH-AH!

Those are stars, not bats. Yes, I’m sure. AH-AH-AH!

Seraphina got eight stars, an unbelievable number, a rare convergence of the literary heavens. It took some work for me to stop feeling, neurotically, that the second book had failed before it was even written, because how could it ever live up to the first? It couldn’t, on the star front anyway.

But we don’t judge our second children by our first — or at least, we shouldn’t — and now, if nothing else, we can say: “Shadow Scale got some stars!” Then we can back away gently from the glittering constellations, and maybe leave the counting to our publisher and the Count. He, at least, can’t seem to help it.

Morris season is here again!

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That’s right, folks. YALSA has just announced the 2015 Morris Award nominees, and they look like a lovely bunch of writers (and books). As is our ancient and venerable tradition, we previous Morris winners will be interviewing this new crop of fresh-faced youngsters in the weeks leading up to ALA Midwinter. Watch this space, darlings! I will be announcing the schedule as soon as I know it.

Congratulations to all the finalists!

Welcome December

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Made it through November unscathed!

Well, no, not entirely. But it was a better November than some I’ve had, despite the fact that our apartment suffered a major flood from above. Flooding sucks, although I’m sure it’s better than fire. It may even be better than famine, but it’s still a giant pain in the rear. I’m tempted to say, “It’s just stuff,” which is an attitude I try to have about my belongings in general, but in this case it’s not just stuff — or not primarily stuff. It’s time and space, and stress and uncertainty, all of which turn out to be ten times the headache “stuff” ever was.

I hate not knowing how long we’re going to be living like this. I hate not being able to plan.

I don’t quite understand it, but somehow I was still able to work. In spite of all this stress and nonsense, I got 30K words written. It’s not quite NaNoWriMo speed, but I think it’s as close as I’ve ever gotten (especially in darkest November). In a way, writing was the one thing that didn’t seem to be floating away, a little island among whirlpools and eddies.

I’m hoping it continues, that this stream of words will keep sweeping me along. I know, I know, I’ve just transformed writing from a welcome island into the stream itself. For my next trick, I’ll turn it into a marmot.

But my point is: it’s December. We made it, darlings. November, mon ennemi, adieu.

The Seraphina paperback, coming soon

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So I finally got a few copies of the soon-to-be-released Seraphina paperback, which is very exciting. Here it is sitting demurely on my windowsill:

With the sun right on it, it was too shiny from some angles. SHINY...

With the sun right on it, it was too shiny from some angles. SHINY…

Notice that little yellow stripe along the right-hand edge of the cover? That’s what’s called a “step-back” (oh these fancy publishing terms!). You’ve seen such things before, even if you didn’t know it had a name. It means, essentially, that the book has a double cover, which is super fancy from a production standpoint. Here’s what you get when you flip the first cover back:

Why yes, that is my real hand. You think I should be a hand model? Well, only if this writing gig doesn't work out.

Why yes, that is my real hand. You think I should be a hand model? Well, only if this writing gig doesn’t work out.

YIPPEE IT’S A MAP. I know, right? Maptastic.

Other exciting features of the paperback include:

  • A Sneak Peak at Shadow Scale (NOT the same material from the preview I linked to before)
  • Discussion Questions (for you scholarly types)
  • A Q&A with Rachel Hartman
  • Rachel Hartman’s Favorite Authors (SOME of them)
  • A Playlist for Seraphina
  • “The Audition,” a Prequel Short Story (I believe this was also in later editions of the hardcover)

So there you go. It will be in fine bookstores across the US and Canada on December 23rd, and is available for pre-order now.

*whew* Shillin’ so hard here, friends. Unaccustomed to this sort of exertion. I probably need a nap now.