Wisconsin, Demigods, and Parties in the YA Mansion

Manhattan Parties and the YA Mansion

When I started this whole writing thing, no one told me about the cool parties. My image of being a writer involved a quiet room with lots of books, a computer, paper and pens, and a secret stash of chocolate-covered raisins. Or perhaps a rat-infested garret with me chewing on a notebook while I scrawl bad poetry on the walls. I didn't expect the YA Mansion. You see, as Maureen Johnson recently explained, despite all the "facts" to the contrary, it turns out that all YA writers live together in a big mansion in NYC. This was supposed to be a big secret, but now that Maureen has spilled the beans, I guess it's okay for me to talk about it. Word of the YA Mansion is spreading fast. It's already inspired a new YA review site called yamansion.com.

Since I'm not exactly a big name, my room in the YA Mansion is a bit like the aforementioned garret, except that it's at the top of a doorless tower (which means I have to climb down my hair every time I want to get out -- a tricky feat for someone as uncoordinated as I am). Also, my garret doesn't have rats. Instead, it's infested with marmots. Luckily, I like marmots. I also really like the other residents of the YA Mansion, though Scott Westerfeld won't let the marmots play on the hoverboards. It's a little known fact that marmots love hoverboards.

Give me my hoverboard!

But I was about to tell you about the parties...

On Monday night, I attended Kidlit Drinks Night, an every-few-months-or-so event hosted by the fabulous Betsy Bird of Fuse 8 fame and the fabulous Cheryl Klein from Arthur A. Levine / Scholastic. I learned that librarians compete in contests that are like synchronized swimming. But without water. And with shelving carts. I am filled with jealousy that I haven't seen such a thing. I also learned that I am WAY behind in my reading. Librarians have read everything by everyone. I do not exaggerate. You know that book of children's poems written by the last guy to live in my marmot-infested garret? Me neither, but these awesome people have read it and critiqued it.

On Tuesday night, I joined several YA Mansion residents for the book release party for Suite Scarlett by the fabulous Maureen Johnson (which, by the way, is an excellent book -- I read it on the train ride home and loved every single character). The soiree was attended by lots and lots of super-awesome people, and I had SUCH a great time. Maureen (in addition to being made of awesome) throws a great party. I had lovely conversations with amazing people like Diana Peterfreund and David Levithan and Libba Bray, just to name-drop a few.

Libba Bray and Me-Very-Excited-To-Be-Sitting-Next-To-Libba-Bray

Libba also lives in the YA Mansion (in a much nicer room) and has been known to juggle hard-boiled eggs on occasion. Okay, I totally made that up. She actually juggles scrambled eggs, which is way more impressive.

Demigods and Monsters Contest Winners

Thanks to everyone who entered the Demigods and Monsters contest! You guys are awesome and so are your deities! (For those of you just tuning in... I have an essay in the just-released Teen Libris anthology Demigods and Monsters: Your Favorite Authors on Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians, and I'm giving away a couple copies. The challenge was to invent a new Greek god or goddess.) Here is the full pantheon of all the entries:

Agoraphobionicus - god of telephone booths, RV shower stalls and one-room apartments

Apathea - the goddess of indecision

Bubbalemus - the god of all things redneck

Cafarticus - the god of finding relief through flatulation

Curlenia - goddess of hair rollers and ice games played with brooms

Dewidiphia - the goddess of placing dewdrops on flowers

Euphoricups - the goddess of laughing so hard you get the hiccups

Gaggliospoona - goddess of the Valley of Epithets and Keeper of the Holy Navel Ring

Gandalphion - god of talking trees, giant spiders and teeny tiny people with hairy feet

Googleus - god of Google

Hazardius - god of Left Turn Lanes and Those Who Run With Scissors

Neuresia - the goddess of worrying she’ll forget everything

Pediosthene - goddess of comfortable shoes

Sushiana and Quichandra - twin goddesses of trendy foods

Uppchuckionus - first cousin to the twin goddesses and god of bicarbonate of soda

Verbosa - the god of talking too much

Wikipedthea - goddess of Wiki

And the winner is... Apathea, the goddess of indecision, created by Meagan! (Meagan, please email me your address, and I'll send you your copy of Demigods and Monsters.)

And the winner of the random drawing is... Enna Isilee! (You win a copy of Demigods and Monsters too!)

Wiscon 2008

On Friday morning (and by "morning", I mean so ridiculously early that breakfast will actually be dinner the night before), I'm hopping on a plane to Madison, Wisconsin, for Wiscon, the World's Leading Feminist Science Fiction Convention.

I've never been to Wiscon before, but I kept hearing such good things about it that I started to feel left out. And when I feel left out, I tend to sigh a lot, eat chocolate, and watch marathons of American Idol Rewind... Okay, those last two are fun, but the sighing was irritating my cat so I decided to go this year (even though it means spending half my birthday at the airport). Here's my schedule:

Reading - Fri May 23, 4pm - Elizabeth Bunce, Cecil Castellucci, Sarah Beth Durst, Heather Tomlinson, Tiffany Trent - "Glass Slippers Come off! 5 New YA Writers"

Panel - Sat May 24, 1-2:15pm - Sarah Beth Durst, Mary Anne Mohanraj, Sharyn November, Tamora Pierce - "The Curious Boundaries of YA Fantasy"

Panel - Sat May 24, 2:30-3:45pm - Alma Alexander, Elizabeth Bunce, Sarah Beth Durst, Heather Tomlinson, Tiffany Trent - "Fairy Tales for a New Generation of Girls"

Panel - Sun May 25, 2:30-3:45pm - Cecil Castellucci, Sarah Beth Durst, Sigrid Ellis, Maureen Kincaid Speller, Heather Tomlinson - "Transformation, Ready or Not"

Mass Autographing - Mon May 26, 11am-12:45pm

Hope to see you there!

Demigods and Monsters Contest

Have you read the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan? It's about a kid who discovers he's the son of a Greek god, and it's brilliant. Seriously, how can you not love books with chapter titles like "I Accidentally Vaporize My Pre-Algebra Teacher", "We Meet the Dragon of Eternal Bad Breath", and "We Hail the Taxi of Eternal Torment"?

I wrote an essay about the series for the newest Teen Libris anthology from BenBella Books called Demigods and Monsters: Your Favorite Authors on Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians Series. It's edited by Rick Riordan himself, and it includes essays by Kathy Appelt, Rosemary Clement-Moore, Paul Collins, Cameron Dokey, Sarah Beth Durst (hey, that's me!), Jenny Han, Carolyn MacCullough, Sophie Masson, Elizabeth M. Rees, Ellen Steiber, and Elizabeth Wein.

It will be available at Borders stores starting this month, but BenBella Books was kind enough to send me a couple extra copies, so... IT'S CONTEST TIME!!!

The Challenge

Invent a Greek god.

All I need is the name and a one-line description of a brand-new Greek deity. The funnier, the better. For example:

Chocollus, god of chocolate and revelry-with-chocolate

or

Cheeriodon, god of breakfast cereals and British greetings.

The Prize

As in prior contests, two winners will be selected, one for skill and one for luck. The "skill" winner will be the person whose deity 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 a free copy of Demigods and Monsters.

The Rules

Leave a comment with the name and description of your deity. (Or if you can't think of a deity but still want to be entered in the "luck" drawing, just leave a comment.) You can enter as many times as you'd like. Deadline is next Monday, May 19th, and the winners will be announced soon after.

Good luck, and have fun!

Teen Libris Interview

On a related note, I just found out that the awesome folks at BenBella have posted an interview with me on the Teen Libris website, in which I ramble on about Percy Jackson, Narnia, my books, and the Tooth Fairy! If you're interested, you can read the interview here.

Out of the Wild ARC Contest Winners

Thank you to everyone who entered the Wild T-Shirt Design Contest! All of your designs were amazing! As we used to say in Northboro, Massachusetts (Julie's and my hometown), you guys are wicked cool! And now... drumroll please...

The winner for best T-shirt design is... Enna Isilee!!! Congratulations Enna Isilee, and thanks for the fabulous design!

Here's the front of the winning design:


And the back:


And here it is on a T-shirt:



I'm so excited about this. I already uploaded the images to Cafe Press, setup T-shirts of a couple different styles and colors to be sold at the base price (no mark-up), and just like that, we've got T-shirts! Available right now! Crazy. The wonders of the internets never cease to amaze me.

Click here -- www.cafepress.com/sarahbethdurst -- to check 'em out.

Note to my family and friends: Don't be surprised if this is what you get for your next birthday! I already ordered one for myself, and will be stalking my mailman until it arrives...

Enna Isilee, please email me and let me know (A) your mailing address and (B) which style shirt you'd like in what size, and I will send you a shirt plus an ARC of Out of the Wild. Hope you like them both.

Okay, may I have another drumroll please? As promised, we have a second winner.

The winner of the random drawing is... Kelly013!!! Congratulations, Kelly! (And thanks for your entry, which was also awesome.) Please email me your mailing address, and I'll send you an ARC of Out of the Wild as well.

Thanks again, everyone! I had a lot of fun with this.

I-Con and NJ Library Conference

Contest Update

The Wild T-Shirt Design Contest (with the prize of an ARC of Out of the Wild) is still going on! Final deadline is 11:59pm on Tuesday, April 15, so keep those designs coming!

I-Con Trip Report

Last weekend, I was a program participant at I-Con, a science fiction and fantasy convention held on the Stony Brook University campus. I was on three really fun panels, including two with John Peel (author of the fun Diadem series) and one with Peter S. Beagle (author of the brilliant Last Unicorn).

At the end of our panel, Peter Beagle picked up a copy of Into the Wild. He looked through it and then he said something really nice about it. Unfortunately, I couldn't hear exactly what he said due to the fact that my brain was shrieking, "Peter Beagle! Looking at my book! Last Unicorn! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! YAYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!"

I also did a joint signing with the very cool and very nice Aaron Rosenberg. And I chatted with the guy who played Kawalsky on Stargate SG-1 (Jay Acovone). (Whenever I see TV or movie stars, I'm always surprised that they're human-sized. I know it's illogical, but I always expect movie stars to be about ten feet tall and TV stars to be about 17 inches tall. Anyway, I love SG-1, so I thought meeting him was cool. He was nice too.)

I also briefly met Charlaine Harris (author of the fabulous Sookie Stackhouse books). I actually didn't realize who she was before I began talking to her. She introduced herself midway through the conversation, so I didn't have that key moment to compose myself. If I'd had that moment, I would have said, "It's so nice to meet you. I really enjoy your books." As it was, I did a little bunny hop and squealed, "Ooh! Yay! I love your books! Yay!" I am such a dork.

New Jersey Statewide Children's and YA Author Conference Trip Report

Last Friday, I was a guest author at the New Jersey Statewide Children's and YA Author Conference (a.k.a. "Author Day"). Five authors spoke to librarians from around New Jersey at a one-day conference held at Woodbridge Library.

I loved, loved, loved this day!

Seriously, I think this was one of my favorite book events that I've done so far. There's a good reason for this... Librarians are awesome. Think about it: a room full of people who all love kids' books? Awesome! Also, the organizers, Sharon Rawlins and Susan Fichtelberg, were fabulous. Susan was the one who invited me (yay!), and Sharon gave me an introduction that made me sound much cooler than I am (yay!).

And the other authors (Michael Reisman, Marie Lamba, Kevin C. Pyle, and Tonya Bolden) were all great. I loved their presentations, and I loved talking to them. Very awesome people. I think that's one of the best things about this whole writer thing: meeting awesome people... which is a kind of funny perk for a job that's supposed to involve sitting at a keyboard by yourself most of time.

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!!!

LOL-Aslan Contest Winners!

U guyz rock. Srsly.

Thank you to everyone who submitted entries to the LOL-Aslan contest! I loved reading all of them. So did Perni (my cat).

It was hard to choose a winner. I know that sounds cliched, but it was seriously hard. I'm the kind of girl who can agonize for a solid hour about which nearly-identical pair of black pants to wear. If I'm faced with a decision where there are multiple equally-good answers, I'm doomed. And there were lots of excellent choices here.

Perni also had problems choosing a winner. The plan was simple: I write down the names of entrants on little pieces of paper and place them in a circle around Perni. She walks toward one of them, and that person wins. Execution of the plan... not so simple. I wrote down the names, placed them in a circle around Perni, and sat back to watch the action.

Perni ignored the paper, rolled onto her back, and licked her belly.

For some cats, this is a short one-lick-and-done process. Not so with Perni. She must align every single hair on her fuzzy belly. When she finishes that, she moves onto her tail, which of course disturbs her belly fur... Rinse, lather, repeat. So once she started on the licking, I knew we were in for the long haul and I went to fetch myself some soda.

Yeah, that was a mistake. When I returned, the cat was gone, and the papers were scattered about the room like confetti. But as I collected the papers, I realized that Perni had indeed selected her winner: one of the pieces of paper was half-eaten.

And so without further ado, here are our winners... Drum roll, please...

My choice for the winner of the LOL-Aslan contest: Faith


And Perni's choice for the second winner: Susan


Congratulations, Faith and Susan! Please email me your mailing address, and I will send you each a copy of Through the Wardrobe: Your Favorite Authors on C. S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia, edited by Herbie Brennan and including an essay by yours truly.

And as promised, the next contest is just days away! This time, I'll be giving away ARCs of my forthcoming novel, Out of the Wild. Stop by this Thursday (4/3) for all the details...

LOL-Aslan Contest Entries

Time's up! Pencils down! The Through the Wardrobe LOL-Aslan (LOLcats about the Narnia books) contest is now officially over. I had so much fun reading all your entries! They were all so fabulous!!! Perni (my cat) and I will spend the next 24 hours deliberating, and the two winners will be announced tomorrow.

To facilitate the selection process, and so everyone can enjoy all these gems of Narnia wit and wisdom, I've decided to re-post all the entries here. Enjoy! And please feel free to let me know, in the comments, which LOL-Aslans are your favorites! Perni and I can use all the help we can get.

Abbey:


Alyssa:

Stone Table, NO WANT!

Casie:

Im teh wite wich I jus ned a har dreyr to thwaw

Enna Isilee #1:


Enna Isilee #2:


Enna Isilee #3:


Enna Isilee #4:


Enna Isilee #5:


Enna Isilee #6:


Enna Isilee #7:


Faith #1:


Faith #2:


Faith #3:


Faith #4:


jo-no-anne #1:

Broke ur stone table. Time 2 diet.

jo-no-anne #2:

Oh hai. I raise ur ded.

Kelly013:


Kurtis:


Q #1:

Gimme da yellow and green ringz and nobody getz hurt.

Q #2:

Hay! You therez! Geddaway frum ma boi!
[Imagine picture of horse]
Kthnx.

Susan:

LOL-Aslan Contest

Let the Narnia contest begin! As promised, it's time for me to give away two copies of the new BenBella essay anthology, Through the Wardrobe: Your Favorite Authors on C. S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia, in which I am thrilled to have an essay! It was edited by Herbie Brennan and features essays by Deb Caletti, Diane Duane, Sarah Beth Durst (hey, that's me!!!), Brent Hartinger, Susan Juby, Sophie Masson, Kelly McClymer, O.R. Melling, Lisa Papademetriou, Diana Peterfreund, Susan Vaught, Zu Vincent and Kiara Koenig, Ned Vizzini, and Elizabeth Wein. I'd originally thought the pub date was in March, but now I'm told it will be available (exclusively in Borders stores) in April. But the mailman brought my author copies yesterday, and one of them can be yours, if you make me laugh...

The rules are simple. You've heard of LOLcats, right? (For those who haven't, you can learn about them on Wikipedia here, and check out some hilarious examples here.) Well, what I'm looking for are LOL-Aslans -- LOLcats about the Narnia books. To enter the contest, just think of a funny sentence in LOLspeak about any aspect of the Chronicles of Narnia, and write it in a comment to this post. Something like:

Im in ur wardrob, drinkin tea wit ur Tumnus.

or

Can I haz turkis deelite? Kthxbai.

You can enter as many times as you like, but please include only one LOL-Aslan per comment, so I can easily keep track. Funny photos to go with your sentence would be great, but are not necessary. If you would like to include a photo with your text, please post it elsewhere on the internet (your own blog, website, flickr, etc) and put the link in your comment.

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 LOL-Aslan makes me laugh the hardest. The "luck" winner will be chosen at random from all the entries, so the more you enter, the better your chances. Since this a LOLcat contest, I've decided to let my cat, Perni, choose this second winner. I'll assign each entry a number, write the numbers on scraps of paper, and arrange the numbers in a circle around Perni. Whichever number Perni walks toward will be the "luck" winner.


The contest starts... wait for it... right now! And you have one week (until the end of Sun March 30) to submit all your LOL-Aslans. Perni and I will take a day to select the winners, and I'll announce them on Tuesday April 1st. Check back then (April Fools Day!) to see if you've won! Good luck! I'm so excited to read these!

And remember, soon after this contest ends, another will begin. On Thursday April 3rd, I'll announce another contest where you'll use your creativity to win an ARC of my forthcoming book, Out of the Wild.

Lunacon 2008 Trip Report

I got back from Lunacon on Sunday, and I want to tell you all about it, but first things first...

The Contests Are Coming!!!

In the year and a half that I've been keeping this blog, I've yet to host a contest. But that's all about to change. Over the next few weeks, you will have not one, but two (and maybe even three) opportunities to win free books! And, honestly, what could be better than free books!?!

Contest #1 -- The Narnia Contest -- will start this Monday March 24th. What's in it for you? Two copies of the new BenBella anthology, Through the Wardrobe: Your Favorite Authors on C. S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia, in which I have an essay. What's in it for me? I'm gonna make you be funny to earn your prize.

Contest #2 -- The Out of the Wild ARC Contest -- will start on Thursday April 3rd. What's in it for you? An ARC (Advance Reader Copy) of Out of the Wild, the sequel to Into the Wild. What's in it for me? I'm gonna make you be creative to earn your prize.

Rules, deadlines, and all details will be revealed on those start dates. Stay tuned...

And now back to my Lunacon recap.

Lunacon Trip Report

You can count on two things if you attend Lunacon (a fantasy and science fiction convention in Rye, NY):

(1) You will meet lots of super-friendly people.
(2) You will get lost in the hotel at least twice.

The Rye Hilton (aka the Escher Hilton) is famous for what is fondly known as the "transdimensional corridor." You start out on the fourth floor, walk down a seemingly level hallway, and discover that you're suddenly on the seventh floor without ever climbing any stairs. And if you lose focus, time shifts as well as space, and you can find yourself momentarily transported to Victorian times, where people will mock your lack of a corset but admire your fine dental hygiene.

I had a marvelous time. I spoke on five panels, plus did a reading and a signing. I also got lost three times instead of the standard two, but then I've always been an overachiever.

A few moments from Lunacon really stick in my mind. One is Josepha Sherman singing Memory in the original feline ("Meow, meow! Meow-meow-meow meow meow..."). Another is my panel "The Novel That Changed My Life." For this panel, we talked about the one novel that played that pivotal role in shaping who we are today. My choice was Alanna by Tamora Pierce.

I first read Alanna when I was ten years old. My friend Gillian had taken it out of the Northboro Public Library, read it, and then handed it to me saying, "You'll love this book. This is your kind of book." Since the book was out on her library card, I was absolutely petrified the entire time I had the book that I would return it late to the library and my friend would be blackballed from ever taking out another library book again and she'd never forgive me and no one would want to be my friend because word would spread and... I was a somewhat anxious child.

Anyway, I read it, loved it, and returned it on time and disaster was averted. But that's not why this book is important to me (though I am glad that I did not cause my friend to be declared a library pariah). This book is important to me because this was the book that made me say, "I want to do this. I want to write books like this. This is what I want to do with my life. This is why I'm here."

And it's also the book that first told me that I could become a writer, if only I tried hard enough. Alanna is about a girl who, by sheer force of will, triumphs over near-impossible odds and achieves her dream. I like that message. A lot. And I believe in it with all my heart. The key component to achieving any impossible dream is not talent or brains or even luck, though they all help. It's sheer pig-headed stubbornness.

So that was my answer. How about you? Is there a book that played a pivotal role in shaping who you are today? What novel changed your life?