The first stop on my US tour is just a week away! I have updated my “Appearances” tab with all the latest information (although there may still be details and corrections to come).
I will be visiting Philly, Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, in that order. If you live nearby, please do come on out and see me!
That’s enough for a good constellation, I reckon. Maybe not a galaxy, though, unless it’s a GALAXY OF PRAWNS!
(Sorry, I threatened to use that phrase as the title for this post, and my husband, who is a sensible person, was against it. I feel honour-bound to include it somewhere, therefore. You understand.)
This is the news that I was not yet allowed to tell you on Wednesday: I have received six starred reviews from the trade journals. That’s all of them. It’s not an unheard-of feat, but it is rare enough to be exciting. Here’s a list (updated periodically) of how many starred reviews have been received by YA novels this year. As you can see, six stars puts Seraphina up in the rarefied air with Code Name Verity and The Fault in our Stars.
I know, I know, when I tell you I have news, y’all get excited. I see now the fault in my strategy, because six stars – while exciting – is nowhere near as wild and woolly as the things your imaginations came up with. Here’s a small sampling:
You had your own theory, didn’t you. Don’t pretend otherwise. If it’s funny, I’d love to hear it.
*Pops up!*
I have a guest post at The Readventurer today. (Thanks Flann, Catie, and Tatiana!)
Here’s another particularly lovely review. (Thank you K and Wendy!)
*Pops down!*
It has gotten to the point where I can’t read all the reviews, let alone keep them remotely separate in my mind. I’ve mostly given up looking — it’s just too much information! — but one at Fantasy Literature did catch my eye today. Thank you for that, Bill.
In other news: I’ve been thinking about the blues. Not because I have the blues, particularly, but because my son has just started learning to play “Wish You Were Here” on guitar, and it has a very bluesy start. I say that as one who doesn’t know much about the blues, so if anyone wants to leap in and educate me at any time, I’d be more than happy.
What interests me, particularly, is the use of the pentatonic scale in blues. Growing up with classical music, the pentatonic scale was a little bit ignored (although there are certainly classical pieces that employ it; it was never particularly pointed out to me). Pentatonic scales, insofar as I knew anything about them, supposedly sounded East Asian — and, to be fair, are found in a number of different musics (but not all of them, and in several variants) from that part of the world.
I knew about the modes of hepatonic scales, of course. For those who are unfamiliar with modes: if you only play the white keys of the piano, you can play a major scale or a minor scale, depending which note you start on. Those are just two of the seven possible modes, though; there’s one for each possible starting note. Similarly — but I’d never really thought about it — there are five possible pentatonic modes, a couple of which sound minor, and can be used for the blues.
I love sitting in on my son’s guitar lesson because I often learn something new. It turns out the guitar, in its standard tuning, is optimized for pentatonic scales: you can play a very easy one involving all the open strings. In fact, that seems to be why there’s that weird B string, tuned to a third when everything else is tuned in fourths. I believe that tuning pre-dates the blues (note to self: look up history of guitar tuning), but I’m not sure about that. Certainly it makes the pentatonic scale so easy as to seem almost inevitable in hindsight.
I hasten to add that not all blues is pentatonic. In fact, a lot of it (I have read) involves a special hexatonic scale – a modified pentatonic with an extra note.
Still, B has been playing a variety of riffs on the pentatonic scale, and it’s super exciting (yes I have an odd idea of excitement) to hear it in Pink Floyd as well. I’m thinking the blues are something I ought to dig a bit deeper into; my listening base is mostly classical, prog rock, and Celtic (which employs some interesting modes itself!). Anyone have some good recommendations for an old dog who loves new tricks?
I went down to Seattle for a day to have an interview with Nancy Pearl, the famous librarian host of Book Lust. I think it went well. I had an excellent time, anyway, as evinced by my talking her ear off. That should air in September. I’ll link to it when it becomes available online.
I also had lunch with Amazon folks and dinner with booksellers and librarians (I can recommend a couple excellent restaurants in Seattle!). Fearless rep Deanna took me around to sign stock, and I got to have coffee with book blogger Flannery from The Readventurer. All in all a lovely, busy day.
The one question everyone asked me: when’s the sequel coming out? Ah, yes. Back to work!
Hello, friends! I am still visiting family, but I just had to pop in for a moment and tell you that my husband discovered that someone has started a Seraphina wiki site. It contains many, many spoilers, so don’t peek unless you’ve already read the book. They’ve got an impressive number of pages already – a real labour of love! – but Goredd is massive and this is the tip of the iceberg. I believe anyone who’s interested can join and contribute, and I bet the creators would welcome the help.
And thank you so much, site creators! I am so very pleased and flattered!
But I’m always saying that! And there’s always time enough to let you know that the fabulous ladies (plus Archer, who ain’t no lady) at Cuddlebuggery Book Blog have posted an interview with me, in their trademarked Cuddlebuggery style. Which seems to involve dressing up like Vikings, something the rest of us just don’t do often enough in our daily lives.
Hop on over to BrodartVibe’s Blog for A Conversation with Rachel Hartman. These questions were fun to answer, and the one about my favourite “library moment” really made me think (which I always enjoy!)
I am travelling soon to visit family, so posting will probably be light until the middle of next week. Just so you’re warned. Forewarned is forearmed, as they say.
And four-armed is half an octopus. Words to consider, friends. Weird, weird words to consider.
I have a guest post up at Suvudu.com — The Top 10 Songs I Listened to While Writing Seraphina. It details my odd tendency to put songs on endless repeat and suck all the goodness out of them, like some sort of musical vampire.
I’m not sure how it’s possible, but I still love all those songs, even after the repetitions. You’d think they’d get old. Maybe they DO get old, and that’s what I like, treading those well-worn paths again and again. The familiarity. I have no idea. There is music I used to love that I’ve outgrown – most Beatles songs, for example, I get impatient with now – so that can happen. Other things I love even better with age. Is there rhyme or reason to any of it?
It bears thinking about. Can you use a specific piece of music to light up a specific part of your brain, and how is your written output different while under that influence? Because I’m sure I stop consciously listening to the music after a while; I have to, or I couldn’t be thinking about the words I need to write. It can be hard to maintain a strong feeling while thinking. Is music a way to keep that gate open, somehow, so there’s access to the feeling while I’m doing the problem-solving work writing requires?
No idea. But seriously, neurologists of the world, maybe y’all should get on that! I’ll be interested in knowing the results.
In honour of the end of the UK blog tour, we have a special double guest-posting today! First, The Inspiration Behind the Book at Words on the Shelf (thanks, Mazz!).
Second, The Making of the Dragon Mind over at writer Katy Moran’s blog. Thanks Katy! And thanks again to Random House UK and all the participating bloggers for arranging such a super fun tour!
Rachel Hartman 