ARCs for those who might not know are Advanced Review Copies (or some variation, same meaning, same letters). Pronounced arc, like in math, or ark, as in the boat. I used to think it was spelled out, A.R.C., but my experience in hearing people in the industry talk about them says otherwise. They’re paperback not-for-sale versions of the real thing, released several months (give or take some months) before the release date. They’re kind of like a dress rehearsal. You get to see how it all comes together–cover, layout, etc.–and it’s the author’s last chance to catch any typos or glaring errors before the real thing. It’s also the first time random strangers start getting copies to review. That in itself is exciting and crazy, but the reason I and other debut authors go nuts over this ARC stuff is this:

The ARC is the first time the book is REAL. It’s the first time you get to hold your book in real book form.

You can print out manuscript pages, you can read your file on the computer over and over, but it’s not the same as your book being book shaped. As in it has a cover, and you have to turn that cover to get to the first page, but before that first page is info about the publisher and all that good stuff, because it’s published. And then after that you can turn the page to the actual story, with real layout (I am so excited to see what my layout looks like), and you can keep turning the pages. You can stick a freaking bookmark in it. You can touch it and show it to people and they will instantly see that it’s real, that you’re not just a wannabe who’s never going to make it. And I’ve been wanting this so bad I could taste it for sixteen years.

There are a few key moments where this whole publishing thing feels really real. It felt real when I got the offer, when I signed the contract, when I got paid, when my book appeared on Amazon. But seeing my ARCs on my publisher’s shelf in that picture? That’s the first time my book has been on a book shelf, because it was never book shaped before. And I would be lying if I said that a year ago I knew that would happen, because I didn’t. You can read more about my “how I got pubbed” story here, but what it basically boils down to is The Rise of Renegade X was the best book I’d ever written, all my friends loved it, and we all knew this book was The One, the one that would get published, but it almost didn’t. Things got dark and bad and everything in my life was wrong, like the world was stuck on nightmare mode.

The universe, like a good novelist, pushed me and pushed me and took everything I cared about away until I broke. And then once I broke, it put it all back. It said here, you’ve passed the test, you can have what you wanted. (That is how you write a book, btw, in case you were wondering. I could go on for years talking about how to write a book, but that’s what I’d tell you if I had to give you the short version. Don’t give your character what they want, make them suffer until you’ve pushed them to the breaking point and they’ve had to make hard decisions and rethink who they are, and then maybe–maybe–they can get what they wanted.)

So the fact that sometime very soon I could be holding physical, tangible proof that my book is real is pretty big. Not just, “Wow, that’s pretty cool,” but I’m talking Life. Changing. Big. As in “a year ago you were a failure and this close to running away and joining the circus, if even the circus would have you” but now your book is book shaped and real and people can just go ahead and touch it if they’re not sure. It’s a physical manifestation that all the hard work and sacrifice and pain and torture weren’t for nothing, and that the happy times meant more than the bad ones after all.

It’s also pretty magical, if you think about it. Once upon a time, there were words in my head, and I wrote them down. Words in your head are probably the most intangible thing ever, and even typing them on the computer is still fairly intangible. You can’t touch it. It exists, sort of, but it’s like this limbo of existence. And yeah, you can print it out and it’s sort of real, but it’s not as real as being in a physical book shape, the shape the words were always meant to be in.

This is a picture of a bookshelf in my publisher’s office. And that set of books I’ve circled is MY BOOK. Renegade X ARCs exist. I’m going to go die now.

From Drop Box

It’s the day I’ve been waiting for… Okay, one of the days I’ve been waiting for, and it’s not *quite* here yet, but it’s close. That’s right, omnes, my day to shine in the rays of author swag glory are nearly here! Yes, author swag time is a glorious time, when the Great Bookmark rises out of the Bookmark Patch and bestows author swag to all the good boys and girls. And when you get that package of thousands of glossy bookmarks hot off the presses and start to tear it open, beams of sunlight radiate from it. It’s so blinding, you have to look away. Witness the glory!

Oh, wait, maybe I’m thinking of ARCs. Your box of ARCs is probably the one that shoots sunbeams, or maybe lasers. But I’m sure the box of bookmarks is cool, too.

So anyway, the Bookmark of Glory is half designed and it is totally beautiful. How could it not be with that cover? HOW I ask you? I would have to be *trying* to screw it up. (P.S. I am not designing them, The Spouse is and doing a great job.) But soon, soon I shall have thousands of glorious bookmarks to unleash on the world.

After bookmarks comes postcards (kind of like how April showers bring May flowers, or first comes love then comes marriage), and I’ve got some pretty neatastic (that’s neat-tastic, and new and improved form of the word “neato,” but I couldn’t be caught dead saying neato in public and meaning it, so I spiffed it up) ideas. These aren’t going to be your average, run of the mill book-cover-turned-postcard your grandmother got from authors. No. Only flashy and amazing will do. And by flashy I mean glossy. And radiating sun beams of virtue.

And after that, er… which is the third item on the author swag list? I seem to have lost my author’s handbook.

Alright, as the pirates vs. ninjas vs Batman contest comes to a close, I have drawn three winners names out of a hat. Well, actually it was old empty Pringles can, but in some ways that’s better than a hat, because hats touch peoples heads and often have hair and people grease on them, and I’d rather touch chip grease. Except it would probably have been my own hat I was drawing from, and I’m okay with my own hair and people grease.

Anyway, the winners are:

#1. Whitney
#2. Mary (OfficiallyMRS)
#3. Sara

I’ll be e-mailing the winners, in case they miss this post. Winner #1 gets first choice of the books, #2 gets second choice, and by default #3 gets what’s left.

Some very cool teen book bloggers started this charity site:  PAYA: Bringing (More) YA to PA.  They’re trying to collect young adult books and raise money to help the severely underfunded Pennsylvania libraries.  You can check out the book drive page here.  But besides giving books, you can also GET something.  Everybody likes to get something, right?  I sure do.  It’s why I took such a big bite of that Jell-O brain that turned out to be full of Vodka that one time, and I don’t even like Jell-O (or Vodka).

How do you GET something and what can you get?  You can check out the PAYA auction page, where you can bid on signed books, craft items, or chapter critiques from published authors.   Some of these critiques are still super cheap, starting at only $5 or $10, which is an amazing deal, so now’s your chance to score a great critique for a very reasonable price while also helping out a library in need!

And yours truly is doing an auction.  I figured there were enough manuscript critiques, and I am surprisingly lacking in signed books, so I thought I’d do something different.  I’m donating a crocheted plush doll of any character of the winning bidder’s choice.  So whoever wins the auction picks a character–from books, movies, TV, their own work in progress, whatever–gives me some info about them, and I make the doll!  TADA!  So really this is your chance to get the plushie of a character you’ve always wished you had, but didn’t, whether it’s your own MC or someone else’s. ;)  The auction ends November 7th, and I will have the doll finished by December 1st, in plenty of time for Christmas.

Some samples of dolls I’ve made for The Rise of Renegade X:

And the tenth Dr. from Dr. Who:

The auction is up to $15 last time I checked–go bid! ^____^

But it feels like it’s already here. I love winter! As a knitter, I love how all the gloves and hats and scarves I make are suddenly useful. I love how as soon as it starts to get chilly out, it feels like Christmas. Hot drinks taste better and are more fun, especially after coming in from a walk in the cold, and making dessert suddenly becomes “festive.” And when it snows, everything is magical.

I LOVE it.

But then, by the end of winter, I HATE it. I hate having to put on extra clothes before leaving the house, and taking them back off again when I come in. I hate how it hurts my nose to go outside. I hate how my pantlegs always get soggy in the cold rain/slush/snow. Winter is always fun going into it, but a pain in the ass on the way out. And last year, winter lasted FOREVER. It was cold and bitter and it snowed harder than it ever snows here, and the snow stayed, and there were giant mounds of dirty nasty slush piled up in the parking lots, and those really stayed. Last year our winter lasted so long, it was still winter when it should have been spring. It was almost still winter when it was supposed to be almost summer, but then it finally left.

It’s colder now than it should be this time of year. If October feels like December, what will December feel like? Right now, I’m happy that the seasons are changing, that something new is happening, and I can easily blow off the thought that we might have seven months of this, and that this happy chill in the air and freezingness at night is just the beginning.

So, I’m reading The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl by Barry Lyga. It’s one of those books I’ve always kinda sorta meant to read, but never got around to. I think, secretly, because I thought I would like it, in that painful way you sometimes get when you’re unpublished. That “OMG, this is so good that it hurts, but it hurts more because I really wish I could do something like this and maybe I can but AGH!” I think that’s the real reason I never read it until now. BECAUSE NOW MY BOOK IS BEING COMPARED TO IT. The back of my ARC (no, I don’t have them yet, but I got to see the finished ARC cover) says, “A sarcastically funny adventure for fans of King Dork and The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl.” I think I’m allowed to tell you that. But anyway, I’m not done reading the book yet, but so far that comparison, like, makes my year. I’m reading this book and the voice does remind me of mine and Fanboy and I could be long lost twins. Except I’m a girl, so, you know. It’s one of those books where you’re reading it and going, “OMG, somebody thought that about those stupid bumperstickers too–thank God I’m not alone!”

I love this book. It’s first person, told through Fanboy’s POV. I’m usually leary about male authors writing male protagonists (I LOVE male protagonists in general), because I usually don’t make it very far into it before I want to gouge the MCs eyes out and light them on fire. (Not so when women write them. They know how to not cross The Line.) Of course, when male writers write good female characters, their male characters are usually lovable too, at least from my female POV. Goth Girl is a really well written female character. I TOTALLY relate to, like, everything she says, even if I don’t think I could stand being friends with her. (She’s way too intense for me.) And even the other girl in the book, the one that I’m like, “Nooooo, you can’t end up with her! Stop liking herrrrr!” is still really well done. I *like* her, even if I’m rooting for Goth Girl. When you get down to it, all the characters are well done and not just believable, but likable. But I really like Fanboy. He makes a good MC and his voice is hilarious, and even when talking about the girls he likes and/or lusting after them, he never does anything that disturbs me as a female reader.

I’m pretty close to being done with the book, and I’ve got Goth Girl Rising all geared up and ready to go when I finish.

I try to go on at least one adventure every day, for the exercise. Today I was going to take a day off from adventuring, but the truth is, adventuring is kind of addictive. Plus today I woke up feeling like I HAD to go to one of the used bookstores downtown, so I went. I wasn’t sure what I was looking for or if I even wanted to buy anything until I found this:

From Drop Box

When I realized what this was, I almost cried. (Okay, not really because I am of course made of steel, but I wanted to almost cry. But you know that feeling, though. The one where everything falls away from you and you’re smacked with some deep, forgotten about emotion.) This isn’t just a teach yourself Gaelic book–I already have two of those lying around somewhere. This is THE book I was obsessed with during the fall of 10th grade. That was 12 years ago, and I was 15, and I had had barely a year of French, but I’d always wanted to learn Gaelic. I checked this book out from the Covington library. It was blue back then, but I swear this is the same book. I got to keep it for a month, and I studied hard every day. I even made up vocab tests for myself. (This was a precursor to when I would have a similar obsession with Latin seven years later.) I still remember some of it. Not a lot, but a couple phrases got ingrained in my brain, like “Tha mi sgith” I’m tired, “Tha an cat aig an dorus” The cat is at the door, and my personal favorite “Tha mi an spain” I am a spoon. I made it to plurals (SO HARD in Gaelic) before I had to take it back to the library. I think there was a hold on it, so I couldn’t recheck it, and by the time I got it back again, the fire of my obsession had gone out.

I WANTED that book, but it’s not like it was readily available–it might not have still been in print–and this was back in the days when I didn’t even have a bank account and we just barely had the internet. There was this kid in one of my French classes who had done a similar thing and taught himself French with a library book, and he had accidentally dropped the book in a puddle and had to buy it from them, so he got to keep it, even though it was a bit damaged. I was envious. I considered stealing the book so I could buy it from the library, or staging some kind of “accident.” I really wanted something awful to happen to that book so I could keep it. But, no. I couldn’t make myself do either of those things–even though I would have paid the library for it–and so I let it go. I found other self-teaching Gaelic books, but never that one. And now today I walked into a random store and got it for $5. Like, there was an obscure piece of my childhood that had at one point meant the world to me, but I could never have it, and then this morning I woke up with the urge to go to that store for no reason, and there it was.

Today’s guest blogger is fellow Egmont author, Lindsay Eland!  Lindsay’s MG novel, Scones and Sensibility, is about a girl who wishes life was more like a Jane Austen novel and decides to remedy that by playing matchmaker while working her summer job in her parents’ bakery.  I can’t wait for December, when this book comes out–it’s on my list of “Christmas presents I’m allowed to buy for myself.”

1. If a pirate, a ninja, and Batman got in a fight, who do you think would win and why?

The ninja would because he’s stealthy and could pants both of them before they knew what had happened…then again, Batman has a complicated suit. Still…the ninja has so much stealth he could pull it off!

2. Who’s your favorite pirate/ninja (in history or fiction)?

Long John Silver was deceptive and cruel…but he did have goodness in him that I couldn’t help but love

3. Along that line, who’s your favorite movie Batman?

I really like Christian Bale, though his voice really get’s on my nerves.

4. What would be the best thing about being a pirate/ninja/Batman?

I’d have super stealth…can you tell I like stealth?

5. Do you think there will ever be peace between pirates and ninjas? How do you think a truce would ever come about? Do you think Batman could negotiate the truce?

Never, though Batman would like to think he could negotiate a truce. But he can’t see very well out of that mask and besides, he can hardly move his neck…obvious truce-making skeelz…yes, I just said, skeelz

6. How would you end said truce and get the feud rolling again and how would you deal with Batman if he tried to interfere?

I would pants a pirate and blame it on Batman.

7. If you tripped and fell into a radioactive vat of cutlasses and gold dubloons and emerged as a pirate-themed supervillain, what would your superpower be?

Pantsing with stealth

8. If you stumbled a little farther to the left and fell into a radioactive vat of throwing stars and nunchucks and emerged as a ninja-themed supervillain, what would your superpower be?

Stealthy pantsing

9. If you were a pirate/ninja/Batman and found yourself in love with the enemy (i.e. a ninja/pirate or, say, Catwoman), how would you handle your taboo relationship?

Watch You Got Mail, cause it’s clearly a lot the same as Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan’s relationship

10. And finally, in the event of the Zombie-pocalypse, how would pirates/ninjas/Batman each survive?

The pirates and Batman probably wouldn’t survive…but the ninjas would survive by stealthy pantsing them. No one can mess with that.

If you know me even a little bit, you probably know I’m a huge sucker for swag and paraphernalia of all kinds.  I will buy souvenirs “to be touristy” even when I don’t care about the tourist attraction.  So naturally, as soon as I got my book cover, I needed a souvenir, and what better souvenir than a t-shirt? With MY AWESOME BOOK COVER on it?

The colors didn’t come out quite perfect–that’s what I get for ordering from Zazzle. This is the second shirt I’ve bought from them, and both have had off colors. In fact, the last shirt I’d ordered was supposed to be in black and white, yet it had an orangey smear across it. The orangey smear ended up looking really good on it, though, so I didn’t complain. But on this one you can see that some of the really bright spots turned out green like the shirt:

From Drop Box

Even with a few flaws, though, it’s still really cool. I’m still thrilled to be wearing it right now. Here’s the back, which turned out perfect:

From Drop Box

Has anyone else had problems with Zazzle?

I would love to have t-shirt giveaways and make Renegade X shirts using my own art. There’s a shirt Damien wears at the end of the book that I want to make, plus scenes from the book trailer would be pretty awesome. Who wouldn’t want a shirt of the toilet scene?

Anyway, I happen to need to go to the library today, and I just HAPPEN to be wearing my awesome shirt with my awesome book cover on it. I am hoping a librarian looks at it and goes, “Ooh, what’s THAT?” And then I’ll be all cool like, buff my nails for a sec, then turn and say, “Oh, this? This is just MY BOOK.” Actually, if that situation does come up, I will probably panic and go, “Oh, um, you mean me? Well, this is, um… you see, I got my book cover–my book cover, ’cause I’m an author–and it was so cool… everybody says it’s cool. I mean, I KNOW it’s cool, because it is, and… I’m not self-published, either. Well, you could probably tell that because my cover is so cool, but my publisher is Egmont USA. You have some of their books, but maybe you don’t recognize the name, but they’re REALLY BIG in Europe. Oh, you have heard of them? Well, uh… I’m one of their authors, and this is my book, and it comes out in May, and no, I don’t have any bookmarks or business cards yet… I was focused on this t-shirt… ha… I have a book trailer.” Yeah.