* Tomorrow is Appreciate a Dragon Day! No, really, I wouldn’t lie about something that important. I’m still figuring out my best course of action. I think I’m going to take mine out to dinner and then spend a relaxing evening watching Constantine. Maybe we’ll play Munchkin with the little dragon. How about you?

* Bay Area friends! This one’s really happening: I’m going to be speaking, reading, or maybe even singing at Not Your Mother’s Book Club in Palo Alto on February 2nd at 7pm! Full info here, at the NYMBC blog.

Did I say singing? I meant signing. Yessss… that’s what I meant. Don’t be frightened. I hardly ever sing in public. Almost never. Really.

ALA Midwinter is coming up, friends, and bringing with it many fabulous book awards. The William C. Morris Award is for the year’s best YA debut. Seraphina won it a few years ago, you may recall. Every year, in a lovely tradition begun by the first Morris winner, Elizabeth C. Bunce, past winners interview this year’s crop of nominees. Here’s the schedule for this year’s interviews, and where they will be posted. If you haven’t read any of the nominees, I encourage you to check them out. These are some wonderful new voices, and I know we’ll be hearing more from each of them in years to come.

Thursday, Jan 15

Stephanie Kuehn interviews Isabel Quintero, author of Gabi, A Girl in Pieces

http://stephaniekuehn.com/blog/

http://laisabelquintero.com/

 

Monday, Jan 19

Elizabeth C. Bunce interviews Leslye Walton, author of The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender

http://elizabethcbunce.livejournal.com/

http://leslyewalton.com/

 

Thursday, Jan 22

John Corey Whaley interviews Len Vlahos, author of The Scar Boys

http://johncoreywhaley.tumblr.com/

http://www.lenvlahos.com/

 

Monday, Jan 26

Blythe Woolston interviews Jessie Ann Foley, author of The Carnival at Bray

http://blythewoolston.blogspot.com/

http://jessieannfoley.com/

 

Thursday, Jan 29

Rachel Hartman interviews E.K. Johnston, author of The Story of Owen: Dragonslayer of Trondheim

https://rachelhartmanbooks.com/ — why, that’s me!

http://emilykatejohnston

So my Appearances page, which was apparently stuck in 2012, has now been updated to reflect the Near Future. There’s still some vagueness to it all, unfortunately, but I’ll be sharpening things up as soon as I can.

My soonest jaunt will be to Toronto for the Ontario Library Association’s Superconference. Whee! Librarians are awesome. I doubt that’s open to the public, however. Will there be a public event? Not sure yet. Like I said: we’re still a little vague around the edges.

The first week of February sees my Western Paperback Tour, in honour of the Seraphina paperback, and then the Shadow Scale tour will run mid-March. Again, it’s not set in stone yet, but the cities seem pretty certain, so I’ve listed those.

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.)

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:

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:

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.

So just a little heads-up hint of goodness to come:

It looks like the lovely folks at Random House will be sending me out on tour again, not just once but twice! I was certainly hoping there would be a Shadow Scale tour, come springtime – and there will be – but it looks like I may also have an opportunity to tour in early February to promote the North American paperback release of Seraphina. I will be posting dates and cities once I know them for sure. There are some exciting place-names floating around, but I don’t want to break anyone’s heart by telling you before it’s carved in stone.

Seraphina comes out in paperback on December 23rd. You can pre-order it already, of course. You may be thinking that we’re cutting it a bit close for Christmas, but I believe the hope is that when people go shopping after Christmas — returning things they don’t want, or spending gift cards — that there she’ll be, all shiny and new. The paperback has some new material: an author Q&A, authors who influenced me, a list of music I listened to while writing, a study guide. I understand there are some copies coming my way, so I’ll tell you more when I’ve got the book in hand.

I suppose that’s all the news for now, unless you want to hear about how my apartment flooded. I’m not sure I’m ready to tell that story yet, but I will just say: if you hear the sound of rain coming from inside your closet, it’s best to find the source of the noise right away. It’s really not supposed to be raining in there.

A thing! I just reached 30K words, which suggests it may be bookish, this thing.

The work is going swimmingly so far, which is why I haven’t been talking about it much. I am still utterly convinced of my November jinx, despite 13 days of evidence to the contrary. (THIRTEEN DAYS! Now I’ve done it!)

However, I asked my lovely in-house editor whether I may announce this in some way, and she said yes, so here goes: I get to write two more books set in Seraphina’s world! The working title for the first one is TESS IN BOOTS. Obviously that might change. I anticipate another duology, but that could also change, if it turns out Tess can be all contained in one book. I sort of doubt it, the way things are going right now, but then again, this stage of crafting is less like writing and more like coughing up hairballs.

How’s that for a glamorous image? Ah, the writing life! I hurk all day and gag all night.

Seriously, though, I’m having fun, which may be the very most shocking thing of all. I was burned out for so long I’d forgotten what that’s like, and I was also a little bit worried that once there was an actual deal, actual numbers and expectations, that the weight of that would descend on me again. So far, however, it has not.

Weirder still: I don’t think it’s going to. This book is different. I feel like this book is already written, like some part of me has been working on it for years and all I’m doing now is discovering the pieces. It will still take some effort and ingenuity to fit them together; I’m certain there are unforeseen frustrations yet to come, brand new headaches I’ve never had before.

Doesn’t matter. Bring it, I say. Remind me I said that when I’m grousing later on, would you?