ARCs of the UK Edition of THE SPELLSHOP!

Look what arrived in the mail from my UK publisher! ARCs of the UK edition of THE SPELLSHOP! I love them so much! Thanks so much, Tor UK / Pan Macmillan!

THE DEEPEST BLUE Giveaway

So many sea monsters!!! Harper Voyager is giving away 50 advance copies of my forthcoming epic fantasy, THE DEEPEST BLUE! Enter by 1/18 for your chance to win: https://a.pgtb.me/6VMgFh

 

Obscure Fairy Tale: The Three Princesses of Whiteland

You guys ROCK.

Seriously, I love all the comments on my last post. Keep 'em coming! It's so much fun chatting with you all. Thanks for entering the giveaway contest, and thanks for all the reading suggestions! My TBR pile has grown by leaps and bounds.

The winner of the ARC of ICE is... *drum roll*... Kristen!!! (Please email me your mailing address, and I'll trot off to the post office with your book.)

As a thank you to everyone for entering, I thought I'd tell you about one of my favorite obscure fairy tales, The Three Princesses of Whiteland. It's from the same collection of folktales as East of the Sun, West of the Moon (the tale that inspired ICE). My thoughts on the story are in italics...

The Three Princesses of Whiteland (from Asbjornsen and Moe)

Once upon a time... A fisherman fails to catch any fish. A head pops up between the waves and says, "You'll catch lots of fish if you give me what your wife carries under her girdle." And he says...

"Ahhh! A head! Holy crap, it's a disembodied head in the middle of the ocean and it's talking to me! This is NOT GOOD! Call the police! Call a psychiatrist! Call the tabloids!" No, that's not what he says because he knows this is a fairy tale and one of the rules of the Fairy Tale is that you must accept every freaky talking thing with more grace and aplomb than Julie Andrews at a tea party. So what he actually says is...

"Sure." He doesn't know that his wife is carrying a baby under her girdle.

Out of curiosity, what did he actually think he was bargaining away? Her belly button? Her pancreas?

His wife is upset. When the child is born, the king offers to protect him. So the king raises the boy.

And the parents join the support group started by Rapunzel's parents, PARFTB (Parents Against Ridiculous Fairy Tale Bargains).

One day, the king and the boy go out fishing...

Really? Because that seems a little reckless, given the whole freaky head thing. Can't he take up a safer hobby? Like juggling knives?

After their day at sea, the boy forgets his handkerchief on the boat and returns to fetch it. The boat, moving on its own, carries him across the sea to a beach.

Told you it was reckless. But where's the head?

He meets an old man who says, "Welcome to Whiteland. If you walk down the beach, you'll find three princesses buried up to their necks in sand. Ignore the first two and follow the orders of the third."

Heroes should ask more questions. Such as, are you (A) a wise Gandolf-figure here to point me to my glorious destiny, (B) the evil mastermind who kidnapped me and buried three girls in some weird homage to a teen angst beach movie, or (C) just a random crazy guy?

The first two princesses cry for help, but he ignores them. The third princess tells him that he must enter the nearby castle without greeting the lions that stand guard.

Why is the ability-to-ignore-minor-characters a virtue? Incidentally, the lions don't do anything in this tale. And not to give away spoilers, but you know that disembodied head? Never appears again.

He must allow a troll to beat him with whips, use a special salve to heal himself, and then slay the troll with a sword. If he does this three times with three trolls, the princesses will be freed.

Or he could just fetch a shovel and dig them out right now.

The boy agrees. Inside the castle, a three-headed troll whips him. The boy heals himself and kills the troll. When he returns to the princesses, they are now only buried to their waists in sand.

Dude, seriously, sand isn't that hard to dig. Get a shovel.

The boy returns to the castle a second time, and a six-headed trolls whips him. The boy heals himself again and kills the second troll. Now the princesses are buried only to their knees.

Oooh, scary, knee-deep sand. Can't they just, you know, step out of the sand and walk away?

Lastly, a nine-headed troll whips him until he faints. When he regains consciousness, the boy kills the troll. The princesses are free. He marries the third princess and lives happily for a while.

Because getting beat up by a monster makes for such a good first date.

After a while, the boy misses his parents. His wife warns him to listen to his father, not his mother, and she gives him a ring that grants two wishes. He uses one to return home.

Why not use a boat? It's a magic ring. Go for something cool. If you need transportation, then how about wish for the means of transport? Like a magic carpet or a pegasus or a VW bug with a cute fake daisy on the dash...?

At home, his mother tells him to visit the king to show him what a fine young man he's become, and his father tells him to stay home. The boy visits the king.

The king raised him. He should visit. Perhaps a better warning would have been the standard "Don't be an idiot."

The king is jealous of him and says, "I bet your wife isn't as pretty as mine." And the boy says, "I wish she were here right now so I could show you." Instantly, his wife appears. She tells him he's had his two wishes now, gives him a ring made of her hair, and leaves him.

Chief lessons I've learned from fairy tales: be careful of the word "wish," don't eat unwashed fruit, and if your daughter is cursed to prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and die, then show her what a spinning wheel looks like.

He begins to search for Whiteland. He meets the lord of the beasts, the lord of the birds, and the lord of the fish. No one knows where Whiteland is until they ask an old pike who says he's been a cook there for ten years.

I love that the fish is a chef. How awesomely random.

The pike says that the queen (who was the third princess) is going to marry a new man since her king is missing.

Can he really be missing if she knows exactly where he is?

The lord of the fish tells the boy that on the moor, he'll find three men who have been arguing for one hundred years about who should possess a hat, cloak, and boots. If anyone has all three, he can turn invisible and wish himself anywhere.

Well, that's convenient.

The boy tells the three men that he'll choose who should possess the items if he can borrow them. They agree, and he whisks himself to Whiteland.

What do you want to bet that he doesn't return the items?

The North Wind offers to blow the new fiance away if the boy can get the man outside. So the boy tosses the man outside, and the wind blows him away.

When did a talking weather system join the story?

The boy shows the queen her hair ring. She welcomes him home happily, and the rightful wedding is held.

Um, weren't they married before? And hey look, he didn't return the magic items. There's a shocker. It's not like this story has any other unresolved plot points... I'm sure he'll use that invisibility power any second now...

And they all lived happily ever after.

Including the disembodied head, silent lions, extraneous princesses, random ancient men, and the cooking (not cooked) fish...

For more obscure fairy tales (with commentary), check out the Obscure Fairy Tales page of my website, where I've gathered links to all my prior fairy tale posts.

Another ICE ARC Giveaway!

The response to Sarah Rees Brennan's giveaway of Advance Reader Copies (ARCs) of ICE and Maggie Stiefvater's SHIVER last week really blew my mind. I read through all the wonderful comments to her blog post and was nearly brought to tears by all the people who were looking forward to reading about Cassie's adventure. Thank you all so much. The only downside was that I felt kinda bad that only one person would end up winning Sarah's ICE ARC.

And then... FATE INTERVENED!

Last Wednesday was a rather big day for me. I got to go into NYC to visit my editor and the publicity/marketing team at Simon & Schuster, which was eleven kinds of awesome! After listening to them describe all their fabulous ideas about the upcoming release of ICE, my publicist gave me a present, another ICE ARC! He probably read my last post and gave me the ARC out of pity... But I choose to interpret this as a good omen, a sign that I should -- dare I say MUST -- give this ARC away!

Now, of course, I could give it to my mother, who has been asking for one for some time... And that is certainly what a good daughter would do... But where's the fun in that?! Much more fun to give it to ONE OF YOU!

Just leave me a comment and raise your hand if you want to be entered in the giveaway. I'll pick a winner at random next week.

Sorry, Mom...

Also, you may have noticed that I FINALLY figured out how to put a Blogger Followers Widget in the sidebar. Not that this is a particularly difficult thing to do... But hey, I'm still proud of myself for figuring it out. Anyway, for those of you who like to read this blog, this should make it easier for you to do so. Just click the follow button and my blog posts will automatically pop up in your Blogger reading list. So easy. So fun! And since I'd love to get new followers, now that the lovely widget is up and all, I'm prepared to sweeten the deal. Anyone who raises their hand in the comments to enter the ICE ARC giveaway AND also becomes a new follower of this blog (or is one already) will be entered TWICE in the giveaway. TWICE! That's, like, a whole extra time!

Finally, I had so much fun reading about everyone's favorite minor characters and character hobbies in the comments to Sarah Rees Brennan's post that I want to do something similar here. Cassie, the heroine of ICE, is by far the most kickass character I've every written. She's way braver and stronger than me. She tracks polar bears across the Arctic sea ice. She scales a mountain, hikes through a blizzard, dives into the freezing ocean, flies through the air on the back of the North Wind... I, on the other hand, am afraid of frisbees. And pretty much any other sport that involves objects flying toward me at high speed. I could never be like Cassie. So I live vicariously through books, through Cassie and all the other kickass heroines I love to read about.

Which brings me to my question for you: Who are your favorite kickass heroines? You don't have to answer to be entered in the contest, but I'd love to chat about your favorites in the comments.

To sum up: Comment. Follow. Chat about kickass heroines. Win free ICE ARC!

ICE Giveaway on Sarah Rees Brennan's Blog!!

Wanna free copy of ICE, my new, not-available-anywhere-until-October book? Well, I don't have any to give you! My stash of Advance Reader Copies (ARCs) has dwindled. I don't even have one to give to my own mother. Seriously. She's visiting this week and asked for a copy and I had to make her wait until October when the finished book comes out! Sorry, Mom...

But Sarah Rees Brennan has one!! How, you ask? Who knows? She is certainly quite sneaky. And has been known to dabble in the dark magicks... But now that she's finished reading her ARC of ICE, she's kindly offered to give it away, along with an ARC of SHIVER by Maggie Stiefvater. Just click over to her blog and leave her a comment to be entered in the giveaway! Go. Click. Now! That includes you, Mom!!

For anyone who hasn't heard of Sarah Rees Brennan yet -- and I can't imagine there are many of you -- you soon will! She's been writing a hilarious blog for years and her debut novel, THE DEMON'S LEXICON, hit the YA shelves a few weeks ago. I recently read THE DEMON'S LEXICON, and I loved it. The words "brilliant" and "awesome" spring to mind. Plus "wow." It's one of those novels that you stay up ridiculously late to finish and then flip back to the first page to read again, prompting your husband to say, "Did you just start reading that again? Don't you know how ridiculously late it is?" I loved the relationship between the brothers. It's rich, complex, and delicately drawn. I love the dialogue. Everything the characters say is sharp and hilarious. And I love the end, which I'm not going to spoil for you, but is AWESOME. If you liked Buffy's Angel, then you're going to love this book.

ARCs for ICE, and Librarians too

Got the loveliest present from my editor:


It's an ARC of ICE!!! An ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) is basically a paperback mockup of what the final hardcover will look like. It's not quite a finished copy since it's printed from the pre-proofread text and still contains typos and such. But that said, it looks like a book, it feels like a book, it smells like a book (don't judge me...), and I am just amazingly thrilled to be able to hold this almost-finished version of ICE in my hands.


In my totally unbiased opinion, I think the final hardcover will be more beautiful than a rainbow at sunrise over the ocean with playful unicorns frolicking in the waves. [Scientist-husband points out that you can't see a rainbow and a sunrise together since the sun needs to be behind you to produce a rainbow. He apparently has no problem with the unicorn part though.] Seriously. Lots of unicorns. Frolicking. Look here at the spine:


I have been petting it and cooing at it as if it were a new kitten ever since it arrived. I think I'm in love...

In other news, I'll be spending a large part of this week surrounded by librarians! This Wednesday, I'm speaking at the Massachusetts Library Association Conference in Springfield, MA. And on Thursday I'm speaking at the Long Island Library Conference in Woodbury, NY. The title of my talk: "The Importance of Talking Cats: YA and Children's Fantasy." Hee hee! I'm so excited.

Out of the Wild ARC Contest

It's here! It's time for the Out of the Wild ARC contest!!!

Yes, I'm bouncing up and down as I type this. You see, for months now, I've been mulling over the idea of doing a contest to give away an ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) or two of my next book. I've visited lots of other writers' blogs -- purely for work purposes, of course, not procrastination (hah!) -- and seen their contests and been green with contest-envy. But now... it's time! I'm also excited because of what I'm going to ask you guys to do to win. Hee-hee! Oh, the power! It corrupts!

Seriously, though, I got the idea for this contest from Miss Erin, so you can praise/blame her. After she reviewed Out of the Wild, she mentioned that she wanted the T-shirt that various characters wear in the novel. The shirt in Out of the Wild has silver glitter letters that read, "Northboro: Fairy-Tale Capital of the World". Rapunzel (Julie's mom) hates it, though Gillian doesn't understand why.

"It doesn't give away any secrets," Gillian said.

"Just please don't wear it again."

"I wish you'd trust me," Gillian complained.

I wish you'd understand, Julie thought. Something as awful as fairy tales didn't belong on a T-shirt.

But I disagree with Julie. I think there should be T-shirts!!! So... welcome to the first ever Wild T-Shirt Design Contest!

The Challenge

Create a T-shirt design for Into the Wild or for Out of the Wild (or both)! It can be words, a picture, or words and a picture. It can say "Northboro: Fairy-Tale Capital of the World". Or not. It can mention the book titles. Or not. It can include your favorite phrase or sentence from Into the Wild. Or not. It can refer to your favorite character. Or not. It can be simple or ornate. It can be funny or serious. Whatever you think would make a great T-shirt!

For some examples/ideas, take a peek at the Tamora Pierce T-shirts available here on Cafe Press or the T-shirts in the sidebar of Bookshelves of Doom.

The Prize

As I am a firm believer that success in anything requires equal parts skill and luck, two winners will be selected, one for skill and one for luck. The "skill" winner will be the person whose T-shirt design is my favorite. The "luck" winner will be chosen at random from all the entries, so the more you enter, the better your chances!

Each of the two winners will receive an advanced reader copy (ARC) of Out of the Wild!

The best design(s) will be made available as T-shirts on Cafe Press! And if I use your design for a T-shirt, I'll buy you one of those T-shirts.

The Rules

You can enter as many times as you like. To enter, please create an image (that could be printed on a T-shirt) and either (A) post it somewhere online and put a link to it in the comments to this blog entry, or (B) email it to me and leave a comment here telling me that you did.

The image should be either a PNG or high-quality JPG file, and it should be 2,000 by 2,000 pixels in size (in other words, 10 x 10 inches at 200 dpi). If you want the printed image to be a shape other than square, make the background transparent.

You can use any words, phrases, or names from Into the Wild that you want. If you choose to use graphics, please do not use any copyrighted images. (This means that you can't use the cover art for Into the Wild or Out of the Wild -- sorry!).

The best design(s) will be uploaded to Cafe Press and made available for purchase on a T-shirt at the base price (no mark-up). No mark-up means that Cafe Press makes money on this, but I don't. (If you're not okay with having your design sold, please let me know when you enter.)

If you do not wish to make a T-shirt design but still want to be entered to win the "luck" drawing, please simply post a comment and say you'd like to enter.

You've got until the night of Tuesday April 15th to submit your designs. The winners will be announced on Thursday April 17th.

Good luck!!! And have fun!!!