anonymous bosch (original) (raw)

Still trying to figure out all the jigglies and the higglies of LJ as it stands these days - and whether or not I'll get my emperor's new groove, after the hacking stuff and the downtime and my inability to do the old posteroo without busting out in hives - but I wanted to drop in again and say thanks for the wondrous welcomes and the kind words last night in the twilight hours, for your beautiful icon-faces and usernames, and especially for the chance to say hullooooo again. Can't say how much I missed the people here. Won't even try. No way.

I'm going to attempt to figure out how to be a twit ( officially on twitter instead of just as an amateur in the real-life zone! ) and do my little turn on the Facebook, and I've heard about this place called tumblr or something which is apparently where the happenings are at these days? But I'll be good and keep this old thing updated on that front. Cross my blackened marsh-lump of a heart and hope to

die

spend the rest of my days without wireless internet. ( A fate worse than death and you know it! )

In the meantime, with all the welcomes most welcome, if you have the time and the inclination, consider casting a vote in this cage match TO THE PAIN! ( Or possibly to the death? Certainly to the Cranky Fictional Characters And Sore Losers, which is a category ) for Havemercy. A vote for Have is a vote for all metal dragons everywhere! Represent! Voting ends tomorrow at 5pm EST and I'm the one who has to live with the grumpy girl if she doesn't do well! ( Although it seems Harry Potter is getting his wizarding bum handed to him in this one, so maybe if Have and Harry do wind up hanging in the losers' corner they can still chase some Death Eaters to feel better? )

CAGE MATCH! VOTE NOW!? WHO WILL WIN?

And thank you, old journalers and new, for your open arms. This metal dragon is glad to be back in action. ( Even if I am a tad rusty. ) Anydumplings, drop me a line if you cast a vote and you're in the market for eternal gratitude, and I will do something to show it. "Something" will involve cookies, ditties, rhymes, firebreathing, or "miscellaneous." Take your pick!

Well, livejournal. You look...pretty different.

(By which I mean to say, hi! It's time to stop being such a hermit and attempt to dust the old place off, or at least figure out what's going on in these internet parts. To say that I have missed this little posty box would be a wild understatement, but I am still trying to figure out what all the buttons do. Hey. Hello. Hullo there. Is this thing still on?)

24 December 2008 @ 10:32 am

Happy Christmas Eve to those who celebrate it! ;) And it turns out that thremedon, the community here on LJ for Havemercy, is in the LJ spotlight this week. What a wonderful Christmas it is! Hope you all are toasty and happy and having a wonderful winter. :)

04 December 2008 @ 08:08 pm

...to my editor, Anne Groell, and her fabulous husband, David Keck, on the birth of their daughter, Amy Elizabeth, on December 3rd!

19 November 2008 @ 08:51 pm

I seriously don't know what to do about Shoebox still, since neither dorkorific nor I have heard back from livejournal's team in the past week, since we submitted our requests to LJ abuse. I feel awful about the situation--I've been informed that the hacker is still posting to the community with Rave's journal--but I don't know what else to do.

I understand livejournal has been busy lately with moving servers but I really, really wish that this situation weren't allowed to continue like this. All I know is that something needs to be done to keep people from clicking on these harmful links, but neither of us can actually do anything at all at the moment, since Rave has no access to her journal and I have no access to the comm.

My sincerest apologies. I'm absolutely miserable over this.

12 November 2008 @ 06:07 pm

WHOA what has happened to Shoebox? If you have asked me in the past 24 hours, I honestly could not tell you the answer. If you could tell me, then you would be my hero. My hands are shaking a little right now.

eta -- So, Rave's LJ was hacked! As of right now, we haven't heard back from LJ about the problem, and I still have no access to the comm (I was removed as a maintainer by the hacker) so I can't go in there and warn people not to click on the potentially harmful link. BUT DON'T CLICK ON THE LINK PLEASE! I hope that soon this will be solved, and here's hoping something can be done about Rave's journal. Thanks for all the helpful links and suggestions, guys, and I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that all the posts in the comm, not to mention all of Rave's old livejournal entries, are not gone.

eta 2 -- Still no response from LJ. Sorry, guys. I haven't had the chance to talk to Rave since yesterday so I don't know if they've replied to her, either. I'm really, really sorry about this, but my hands remain tied.

23 October 2008 @ 12:58 pm

...breaking pre-winter hibernation to say what I can finally, which is that danibennett and I now owe our editor two more books, one due for submission in May 2009 and the other in May 2010. We've been sitting on this for a little while, and we can finally let it out! Which is a relief; otherwise I might have exploded.

( Cut for some information on the third book that miiiight be spoilerish if you have not read Havemercy...Collapse )

Wheeeee!

29 September 2008 @ 12:30 pm

This is the cover for the second book! And I'm told it's OK to post it so here we go!

It will be in hardcover and it's coming out next summer(2009). That's all the news that's fit to print for now. Hope you like it as much as we do!

30 August 2008 @ 10:28 pm

WHOA MAN. I haven't read my friends list in, count it, two weeks. This is the longest I have ever not-read my friends list. First there was Otakon, then there was an editorial letter, then there was the usual "lost in a daydream for countless days trying to make all edits line up in head" period, then there was some (read: liberal) eating of ice cream (read: dibs, delicious delicious dibs), then there was more daydreaming; then I went to a wedding, which was nice (also I cried, apparently I cry now at weddings); then there was more staring at the manuscript... And time passed. Also there were some job attempts and some other things sprinkled in there. Like attempting to figure out how to make a trip to Japan happen; etc etc etc.

This is all to say: we have entered into dread editing territory! All hands on deck! Updates shall be sparse!

And in general, updates are going to continue being sparse, and about book-related or writing-related matters. (Once I am in Japan, all fingers crossed, there may be a Japan-blog thing happening...who knows?) Hopefully this is cool with you all, my slices of home?

Mostly I just want to apologize for being so quiet. I am sorry. I have failed at journal.

Also, I would like to direct everyone who has read Havemercy to the AMAZING (read: fuckin' brilliant) job that halcyonjazz is doing, sketching out (read: totally designing) all of the Dragon Corps boys.

All the DC, plus Thom
Character studies of the DC

Seriously, though, this stuff is incredible, and I am in awe of her more than just a little bit. Go! Admire! Experience! Meanwhile, I will clean up this loving pile of cat vomit my cat has left me as a present, and which I have just stepped in. Then I shall try to catch up on my friends list and hopefully have not missed anything important!

05 August 2008 @ 04:07 pm

HI FRIENDS LIST. How are you? I recognize that I have not posted in what is possibly five hundred thousand years. OOPS. How has everybody been?

I haven't actually been online that much but rather working on the second book (which, whoo, turned in the first draft on Friday!) and also some volunteer work and some job stuff... Also, I have been preparing for Otakon, which I'll be attending with meronine and danibennett from Thursday through Sunday. We're going to be in the artist's alley! Right here, in fact, where the little red arrow indicates. So if you're going to be there you should totally stop by and say hey and maybe buy some sexy artwork, OR some limited edition copies of Pie-IX for your friends or your family or, even better, for yourself. Anyone on my flist planning on going? I would love it if you came to say hi!

That being said, the real point of this post is... I'M GOING TO JAPAN IN OCTOBER. It's almost 100% final and hopefully writing it in livejournal land will make it 100% final. There are many things (some of them hopefully work-related!) that I will be doing there. When I found out, I actually began crying so hard in public that I embarrassed myself and total strangers, not to mention all family members nearby. I'M GOING TO JAPAN. AHHHH. So I have some questions.

1. How does one survive a 14 hour flight.

2. How does one survive a 14 hour flight?

3. Any tips on how to uhhhh best experience a foreign-language speaking country?

4. HOW DOES ONE SURVIVE A 14 HOUR FLIGHT?

July 16th, 7:00PM!

IE, tonight! We'll be talking, embarrassing ourselves, saying "uhm," and signing at the Park Slope Barnes and Noble!

Directions!

To get there, take the F as in "Fuck this train!" train to the 7th ave stop. This will let you out on 7th ave and 9th street. On 7th ave, walk three blocks to 6th street. The Barnes and Noble is there!

Are you in the New York area? Do you like metal dragons? Would you like to watch me make a fool of myself? Then this is totally the event for you!

July 16, 7:00 PM
Barnes & Noble Booksellers, Park Slope
267 7th Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11215
718-832-9066

Author Event
Jaida Jones & Danielle Bennett: Havemercy

I'm posting this now because the other day my cousin was over, and he said, "Jaida, are you going to actually post about this event in advance, unlike the New York Comic Con thing, which you only posted about about five hours before it happened?" And I thought, "Why cousin, you are so clever, of course I shall!" So yes. If you come, I will be forever grateful. If you tell other people to come, I will be even more grateful. This gratitude might involve cookies alongside the chance to see my skills as a public speaker, which are, you know, they're. Okay anyway.

That being said, impromptu audience poll: at signings/author events, do you guys like readings or a song-and-dance kind of routine better? Trying to decide what to do is difficult.

Note: my to-do list is to 1. reply to some comments, now that all visitors have left the building, and 2. make some more livejournal posts with more interesting questions in them. Once Dani and I finish the second book. Which is due so soon. Oh heavens.

listening: Genji: Dawn of the Samurai - Main Theme

It took us until 8:30 pm to get our acts together and get to a bookstore--the Union Square Barnes & Noble, in fact. On the shelf, ll but one copy of Havemercy were gone:

I told Dani to make a face and this is what she did:

Then a woman yelled at me because apparently you're not allowed to take pictures in Barnes and Noble.

Anyway, Havemercy has appeared in some bookstores. Hope those of you who ordered it/bought it/etc. enjoy(ed?) it! The wonderful and smart search_soleil and splintercat have made a fan community, thremedon, for those looking for more stuff. Whoo!

I'm so nervous I can't even cope. Time to curl up with my cat and watch that Japanese Game Show thing. And maybe go to another bookstore. Uhm.

First of all, for those of you who want a sneak peak at the first three chapters of Havemercy, they've been posted here at Issuu.com. You have to sign in to read them as they are mature content (hooo hoooo!) but it's super quick to make an account. Hope that you enjoy!

/pimp

Now, for the content of this post, which I'm making in response to the slew of video games to which I've been introduced by danibennett, her brother, and my cousin! In any case, some of the heroes of these games are the dark, broody, mysterious, troubled-past types, while some of the heroes are the strike-a-pose, "let's rock!" kind of dudes whom the game is kind of, sort of, maybe a lot making fun of. (But with love.) While the former category--let's call them the brooders--have a certain air of poetry to them, I guess these days I've gravitated towards loving the second category--let's call them the goobers.

So what about you? Brooder or Goober? And, while we're at it, who is the absolute epitome of the deliciously tormented brooder or the hilariously quirky goober?

Or--what category of leading man am I completely missing in this binary division who never fails to win your heart?

Vote away!

Notice: I am completely addicted to pupe.jp and if you join you should come favorite me over here. That is all.

ANYWAY, I was all set to make a big post today about how Havemercy is coming out on June 24th, which is one week from today, and wahoo and eek and all that jazz. So I sat down to start typing and then I realized, well, actually, the 24th is one week from yesterday, and I am an idiot.

So. Havemercy! It's coming to a bookstore near you one week from yesterday--a much less exciting statement than "one week from today!" but nevertheless a true statement. I know that I am biased, but if you haven't already pre-ordered it on Amazon or BN.com or Chapters.com or whathave, you should definitely go support your local bookstore on June 24th and pick up a copy of Havemercy! That is, if the idea of reading about big metal dragons excites you. (And I hope it does.)

And then you should take a picture of yourself making a goofy face with the book and post it in your livejournal or in a comment to me or something (believe me, there will be a post made 6 Days From Now wherein I make goofy faces next to every copy of the book I can find in NYC while danibennett looks on and makes utterly pained faces of utter pain at how embarrassing I am).

It will look something like this.

If you would like to read something un_believably_ cool written about Havemercy just yesterday, then check this out.

Yep. Less than a week. The only thing that can sum up how I'm feeling right now is a line from Sondheim's Into the Woods, in which Little Red Riding Hood--singing of her experiences with the Big Bad Wolf--recounts, "And he made me feel excited! Well... Excited and scared."

I'm in Canada right now, where it is easily 30 degrees cooler than it was in NYC when I left last week. Of course, I'm completely jet-lagged even though it's only a three hour time difference. Most of my time has been devoted to:

1. Not getting out of my pajamas at all
2. Trying to catch up on 8 million things and failing
3. Working on ending The Second Book That Will Not End But Is Nevertheless Due August First
4. Playing Rock Band for the Playstation 3 with danibennett and her brother, who is top notch on the drums, let me tell you

Rock Band is awesome because it feeds into my love of dressing up avatars. Nothing is cooler--seriously, nothing--than buying fake clothes and tattoos for a fake person whom you've accessorized with fake accessories and whose fake hair you've fake-styled. My Rock Band persona is named Caius and he's about four feet tall with a blond mop and possibly five hundred tattoos all over his pale, scrawny body. He's approximately seven million times cooler than I am--and isn't that the point?

I could seriously spend all day crapping around in fake stores buying fake clothes for a fake person, in the same way that, when I was little, I could just stare and stare and stare at an American Girl Dolls catalog. Mini-clothes for mini-people! It's the same reason why I sign up for every single "customize your avatar!" sites like pupe.jp. Anyone else have this experience-slash-problem?

meronine and bonhwa are here, so there has been much exploration of NYC in the past 48 hours. I always forget how crowded Times Square is. In any case, I am just popping on for a brief moment to share THIS --

( Two more naked hardcovers beneath the cut.Collapse )

It is embossed. I keep rubbing my hands over it like a total dweebo. But the best part is taking the cover off and staring at our names on the binding.

This is very difficult for me. I don't know the answer myself. I'm going to have to think long and hard about it. What are your thoughts?

Also, if there's a third option you feel I haven't addressed in this either/or scenario, please chastise me in the comments.

ETA: the best of the best.

vs.

I was in a class recently (I will not say which), in which a professor, as an end-of-semester summary, decided to give the students a rundown of How Things Were. Not "How Things Were For Me, The Professor, Speaking," but how things Were, a blanket statement, that indicated How Things Would Be For All Of Us--and that bothered me. T

There is no "How Things Are." There is always an exception. More accurately, there are always exceptions. Which is why I'm generally so awkward when it comes to talking about writing and publishing and my experiences so far--because they've been my experiences but so, so, so not necessarily everyone's experiences.

In fact, very recently, the beginning of the time I had been dreading most dawned upon the horizon. Reviews. Considering I was the sort of person in high school who focused solely on the negative assessments given by teachers--I'm still not the sort who, er, accentuates the positive and eliminates the negative by any means--the idea of "reviews" were very upsetting because, I suppose, of different experiences. Every review comes from a person--a different person with different experiences; every person will come to a book expecting and wanting different things, and every person will leave it with different opinions.

I have stopped being friends with people based on different opinions of books. Opinions of books are serious business.

Naturally, I would like for everybody in the entire universe, including space-time-traveling aliens with green skin and inverted eyeballs, to enjoy reading Havemercy. Getting reviews puts an end to this beautiful and alien-inclusive fantasy. So it was that I, with trepidation and a tendency to focus upon the negative with a dedication and tenacity I only wish I had displayed for actual, I don't know, work--faced this period in my life, braced and cringing and hoping for the best. I continue to face it. In the immortal words of Ned Flanders, I am a "Nervous Pervis," which makes this stuff super hard for me and also everyone around me who might want to use the bathroom that I'm hiding in.

Nonetheless, I'm excited to say that I did not focus on the negative aspects of this review of Havemercy which (and yes, it's one of my firsts, so that means it will always have a special place in my heart) is definitely an amazing thing.

No book is perfect (I tell myself, haw-hawing). If you've written the perfect book then what's left to improve upon next time? What's left to discover about yourself, and your writing?

I'm just glad to write anything that can be a part of someone else's experience. Granted, I'd like everyone, including all the aliens, to feel that the pros outweigh the cons--this would be ideal. But IN MY EXPERIENCE, the big thing has been accepting both pros and cons, crying for the good stuff and the bad stuff hand in hand, and making it a part of that experience. That review, for example, has positive and negative things to say and I'm grateful for all of them. The bad makes the good more real; the good means the bad can be improved upon; and Queer Eye for the Sorcerous Guy is a TV show I hope one day to write for.

So that's all for now! Tomorrow I graduate and hopefully don't trip on stage, and after that I try to figure out what to do with this journal.

eta because of my lack of coherence: 1. What to post in this journal, because I can no longer complain about Japanese; and 2. I loved the linked review, I love the linked review, and I will always love the linked review.

listening: man of la mancha - dulcinea

School's out for

the summer

ever.

Going to NY COMIC CON?

danibennett and I will be on a panel, about which I personally am somewhat terrified. So if you're intrigued, please do stop by so I feel like less of a goober. The information is as follows:

Women in Fantasy and SF
Friday, April 18
Panel Room 3 (1E15)
5-6 PM

Immortal names like Asimov, Heinlein, and Tolkien have defined the science fiction and fantasy realms, but genres which were once shaped by the hands of men are now being molded by fingers with a fairer touch. Spend an hour with some of fantasy and science fiction's leading ladies and learn about how they're re-envisioning the future (and the past).

I know there are some other fabulous names on this panel as well. Come to see them be coherent!

Okay so here's a question guys.

If say one were to graduate in under a month, and one were to be ready to move out of one's parents' house like last year, and one were wishing to remain in the city of New York or its immediate environs, and one were to realize that this is extremely expensive and pretty apartments that aren't seventy gabillion dollars don't exist, and one were new anyway to this entire process, what advice would you give to...one in this position?

Also, "one" is me.

Took one midterm today; one tomorrow, and one a week from tomorrow. I hate exams and I hate everything they stand for. I think having to memorize seven hundred dates is stupid and I wish more than anything I'd taken classes this semester in which I was required to write essays. Why do I always do this to myself? Why do these classes that sound so interesting always involve exams? Auuuugh. Gastro-intestinal distress! I've been riding that train for the past week.

Of course, I've been spending all my time wasting my time and feeling guilty, because I assume that's how studying works everywhere. This is the first time in the history of all time that I have actually not done reading for a class when it is due. I'll get to it and I feel like a LOST CAUSE but whatever. Not gonna happen. I don't even care. SUCK THAT.

Also I decided a couple of nights ago that the most amazing thing in the entire world would be a livejournal-based RP that was like... about the Greek pantheon. (I know, I know, I need to shut up about Ancient Greece.) But it would be. So. Amazing. I don't know what would be more amazing: if it was actually Ancient Greek style, or if it was set in the modern world and everyone lived in like, New York or something, and they all had livejournals, and Dionysos threw crazy parties and Hephaistos worked at a Gothic Cabinet Craft and Artemis was, I don't know, a veterinarian and Zeus owned an art gallery and Apollo was his favorite of all his obnoxious, pretentious art friends and Ganymede lived out of his car for a while like that kid from American Idol who made me really sad. It would be great. I want someone to make this happen for me. I am right. Right? GUYS?!

26 February 2008 @ 11:53 am

In order to tell this story I must begin with the fact that I have not slept like a human being for a month. What it boils down to is that I currently sleep once every three to four days. The other nights I will sleep anywhere from between two to three hours. This has gone on for far too long because I am an idiot who still hopes that my body and my brain are going to sort themselves out. (Hahaha!) Finally, with midterms upon me and a sense of deadened despair only true exhaustion can inspire in a person, I grew sick of my nightly useless concoctions of kava tea and melatonin and chamomile, depressed that I actually had faith in a relaxation tape, hot baths, blah blah blah, all that stuff that doesn't work. So I decided that I would put my faith in the system and go to Barnard's walk-in center, harboring some delusion that they would do anything other than tell me I have mono, which is what they always tell me, and everyone, no matter what the symptoms. (Hey. I could go for a little mono right now, since isn't that supposed to make you sleep eight jabillion years?)

So I go to the walk-in center, I wait in the germ-infested waiting room reading the germ-infested Christina Aguilera's Baby edition of People magazine, I get taken by a nurse, I discuss my symptoms, I do not get told I have mono. This is a good sign. Unfortunately, I have to take a blood test, which sucks, but I man up and I bear it and it's not so bad and she bandaids me up and everything's going to be OK, and we're discussing more possibilities--maybe I have low electrolytes! maybe they abandoned this sinking ship! I wouldn't want to be one of my own electrolytes, either--when suddenly I'm like, why is my arm wet and cold?

And I look down.

And my entire arm is like, gushing blood. It's all over my jeans, all over my favorite white sweater, all over my arm, all over the seat, everywhere. I don't even blame the nurse--despite having told her the medication I'm on, which apparently (now I know!) slows down clotting speed--because this moment in her life was just a byproduct of all the moments in my life that have led up to sitting in that room while the nurse tried to clean the blood off my sweater with those tiny little alcohol swabs.

Anyone have any blood stain cures? Alternately, anyone want to come to my place tonight and smash my head with a mallet? That's my new plan for sleepytime.

22 February 2008 @ 02:00 pm

I just opened an email from my high school notifying me of the death of one of the students from my grade. He was one of the bravest people I've ever met, if not the bravest. I don't know what to say other than that, but my heart goes out to his family. Rest in peace, Max.

21 February 2008 @ 03:00 pm

( I am so happy right now.Collapse )

Maybe I'm the only person shitting my pants excited about this movie. Who knows. I love it!

at: couch

listening: tales of the abyss world map music

04 February 2008 @ 02:51 pm

This poll is brought to you by the amazingly awesome lecture I just had that has restored my faith in paying attention.

Choose the best of the 12 Olympians.

Choose the Olympian you would most like to shack up with.

I don't know how to include a poll that lists eight billion more members of the Pantheon, so if I have left out your favorite--like, say, Hades or uh...Asclepius--feel free to kick my butt in the comments.

02 February 2008 @ 01:57 pm

One of the traumas of my past that I never overcame was both Hercules and Xena being canceled before I was able to fulfill my childhood dream of being an extra on one of those shoes. I could have been a kidnapped daughter or a street urchin, a vendor, one of those people who shouted, ecstatic, from off-stage "It's Hercules!" or "I can't believe it!" Of course, the true dream was to be an Amazon--I was tall and I had long hair, I had high hopes--but fate was not on my side, nor did I ever get to don a leather and iron boob-mantle.

Xena/Gabrielle or Hercules/Iolaus?

Seriously, the breasts on that show have not been duplicated since. They were monumental events, aided by mythical wonderbras, worthy of goddesses; now, they are extinct.

But seriously, did anyone else watch these shows religiously on Saturday nights? It was one of the most substantive ways my father and I actually bonded when I was thirteen and spent the rest of my time being sullen and/or embarrassed.

22 January 2008 @ 05:12 pm

Heath Ledger found dead. Probably everywhere right now but I feel as though I'm actually going to throw up. So talented, so unexpected, so fucking sad.

22 January 2008 @ 02:34 pm

Wow--I haven't posted in forever! This is mostly because I'm so super boring I don't want to inflict myself on my inbox, much less on livejournal. Nonetheless, I had my first day of classes of the semester this morning. It looks like it's going to be pretty sweet:

Monday
10:35 - 11:50 Religion, Myth, Ritual: The Greek City State
1:10 - 2:25 The Arts of Japan
6:10 - 8:00 Intro to Fiction Writing

Tuesday
9:00 - 10:50 The Mongols in History

Wednesday
10:35 - 11:50 Religion, Myth, Ritual: The Greek City State
1:10 - 2:25 The Arts of Japan

I've been trying to get into this Mongols course since my second semester freshman year, but it's always closed out before the first day of limited-enrollment course sign ups, which is only for seniors, so this is the first time I even had a chance. And the first lecture was awesome.

Even though school itself fills me with enormous dread, I actually got to choose courses this semester based on what I thought would be inspiring and exciting and fun, since I don't have requirements left. This is also the very first semester I haven't had Japanese exams hanging over my head every two seconds. I wonder how that will work for me. I like to pretend I'll be less stressed, but of course this is a lie. And finally: FOUR DAY WEEKEND. My weekend begins at 2:30, Wednesday afternoon, and lasts through Sunday. Small blessings.

I really wish I had taken more ancient Greece type history classes during the past semesters though. It's my secret passion. Ancient Greece (I want this book so much--"sexy tyrants, potent pathics, and seductive perverts" is essentially the trifecta of shit I love); The Scarlet Pimpernel; and Jack the Giant Killer. Yep. That about sums it up.

What are you super into right now? Let's have some excitement!

feeling: geeky

listening: Into the Woods -- Ever After

01 January 2008 @ 12:12 pm

2007 was pretty good to me. Here's hoping 2008 is even better!

I was going to make a long rambling introspective entry about all the new things I've done and the great things that have happened, but then I realized that it all comes down to this: for the first time ever, I had someone to kiss at midnight who wasn't my mother. Not that I don't love my mother, because I do, but I was starting to wonder if I would ever have someone to kiss at midnight who wasn't my mother. It's a milestone. I done kissed a non-relative after the countdown.

Happy New Year, everyone! I really hope 2008 treats you well--I hope it's treating you well already.

02 December 2007 @ 11:48 am

Well, another birthday has arrived! This one's a big deal. I can now do all sorts of irresponsible things more responsibly. Today, I will spend my birthday editing my senior thesis and writing another research paper and working on a Japanese powerpoint presentation and some other stuff. I'm definitely the sort of person who knows how to celebrate in style.

I remember when I turned 13 and I wrote ten poems about how that was definitely the end of everything: childhood, presents, goofing around, the works. Now I am officially an adult, and all bets on Peter Pan are off, but I feel satisfied more than scared.

Because: I slept well last night. It was snowing beautifully when I woke up. Dani gave me the complete volume of Moomin comic strips and a hilarious out-of-print children's book about the great friendship of Marco Polo and Kublai Khan. My parents bought us tickets to see the new Tom Stoppard play on Broadway with Rufus Sewell (who is currently under deep consideration for the family's fantasy cast of Havemercy). There have been other lovely gifts, including a typewriter virtual livejournal gift, and I love both typewriters and virtual livejournal gifts. Also--and this is the greatest gift of all--only two weeks left in the semester, Dani and I are going to spend Christmas together, and next semester I don't have classes on either Thursdays or Fridays. (Four day weekend whoooooo!)

I'm lucky to know so many awesome people, pretty much all of them through livejournal, and to have promises on the horizon of doing what I love with people I respect, adore, and admire. Plus, oh my God you guys, the first snow of the year was on MY BIRTHDAY. How cool is THAT?!

21 November 2007 @ 11:49 am

As I mentioned in my post yesterday, I'd wanted to do an ARC (advance reader's copy) raffle on my journal. Well, I got the extra ARC copies and the go-ahead from the powers that be at Bantam--aka our fabulous editor's assistant Josh, whom we adore--and so there's gonna be a raffle! By which I mean, if you're interested in getting an advance reader's copy, you can leave a comment here with your name and address and maybe your favorite book of all time or your favorite movie or actor or a hilarious story about your childhood where you ate an entire pumpkin pie while no one was looking or whatever the tale might be. All comments will of course be screened.

Then, I will print all the names out and cut them into little squares of paper and put them in my top hat (I knew my top hat would be useful one day!) and pull three names out of the hat. Those three folks will get a copy of the book sent to them early. (Probably not before January, though, just as a warning.) But then you will receive one of these!

The raffle is totally free. The only stipulation is that, as I am going to probably post the same opportunity at shoebox_project also (I have three Shoeboxer copies and three regular-journal copies set aside), commenting twice is probably a confusing and not-good thing.

Yeeee! Okay, let's do this!

20 November 2007 @ 04:20 pm

Ahhhhhhhhhh! Our ARCs came, our ARCs came, our ARCs came!!!!

( I'm having a Keanu Reeves moment of Whoa.Collapse )

I got a little too excited earlier, so right now I'm just trying not to embarrass myself on the internet where everything is eternal, but it's so amazing to be able to see it, finally, in some version that actually resembles "book," not "collection of pages marked up wildly with purple pencil."

I definitely want to see about doing some sort of ARC raffle, so I'm going to email our editor about that...would any of you guys be interested? Is this something I should do?

Meanwhile, I wish the book were not so big. This will make it very hard for me to take it with me everywhere. I'm going to need bigger pockets... (At least the ARCs aren't hardcover, like the final book. That would make things much heavier.)

06 November 2007 @ 04:33 pm

Every year I stink at this, and every year I come back for more. But this year, I'm going to do it. I'm fired up. It's going to happen. Anything to avoid my thesis! ANYTHING! And you can help.

Do you want a Christmas card? I have a billion, all of them bought with the best of intentions, and none of them sent. I'm going to break my record and I'm going to send out seasons' greetings. It can be done!

This year, because Barnard is doing construction (and making everyone's life a nightmare, I might add; also, perversely, tearing down my favorite building on campus) my mailing address has changed.

It is as follows:

Jones (Just Jones!)
Barnard College
6151 Altschul
New York, NY 10027-9221

All comments are screened (if I have done this properly, ah ha ha ha) so feel free to leave your address and uh your holiday of choice and you'll get a card, possibly with a doodly head. Like a smiley face. Because I'm not particularly, uh, artistically inclined. Think of it more like... Artistically challenged.

05 November 2007 @ 02:46 pm

The one thing I do not want to do is write a con report that reads like a poorly thought-out list of lame squealing, mostly because that's no fun to read. I have no idea how to do a con write-up that doesn't make me feel like I'm leaving everyone who wasn't there out. So I'm going to boil it all down to saying that World Fantasy Con was one of the best cons I've ever been to, with some of the best readings I've ever been to; the panels I attended were awesome and now I'm going to go off and buy all the Guy Gavriel Kay books I don't already have. It was also wonderful to see Ellen Kushner again, and to meet Lynn Flewelling for the first time, and to sit at the same table as Patricia Bray and Jenna Black, and to blither incoherently for five atrociously embarrassing seconds at Scott Lynch. One day I will attend a function and not feel dreadfully embarrassed about everything I've done. But that day is not this day.

It's hard going to cons because I always have and always will feel like a giant goober. All around me are writers I've admired for a billion years, and I don't know how to stand on line at the signings and introduce myself without feeling like a goober. I don't know how to say hi in an elevator without feeling like a goober. I don't know how to exist in the hallway doing nothing without feeling like a goober. I guess this is because I'm a goober and always will be. OWN YOUR GOOBERHOOD.

But anyway! Now I am back, and cerulean_sky has all the pictures I took, which are not many (because, let's face it, that goober thing). So I cannot post them yet. ;)

However, one cool thing that happened over the weekend that did not involve the convention was that motorbike finished the website she has been working on for jonesandbennett.com and I think it's LOVELY, but I also wanted to know what you guys think. Are all things working? (Keep in mind I have no html skills whatsoever and also, motorbike is 100 times smarter than I will ever be. Ha ha ha just trying to modify the intro text was an exercise in OH GOD WHAT HAVE I DONE.) Do they work on your browser properly? Isn't it cool when you run your cursor over the image and it CHANGES? Isn't good html like magic? And what do you guys think should be included on the site? We have no idea what to put there! Anyway, hopefully you all think that it is as cool as I do. Pretty colors. Pretty fonts.

Now, I am off to hydrate the cat and then take a stab at the page proofs. (Like my thesis is ever going to get written...)

29 October 2007 @ 01:58 pm

For whatever reason, I spent a lot of time this weekend thinking about Disney princesses. I honestly have no idea why. I didn't even watch any Disney movies this weekend, and haven't in the past six months. This weekend I actually watched about five or six apocalyptic J-Horror films for my thesis, so make of that tenuous connection what you will. But also, answer this poll and talk about the number one best Disney princess OF ALL TIME in the comments. I would like to see everyone duking it out TO THE DEATH. That's right, people.

Also, I have an aunt who looks EXACTLY like Ursula the Sea Witch.

And now, for the poll (which may exclude dudes who don't like to think of themselves as princesses, girls who don't like to think of themselves as princesses, people who don't like Disney movies, people who don't like princesses, and Scar).

What Disney princess are you most like?

I have always identified with a different princess you have not mentioned, which I will explain in the comments

I am not like any of the Disney princesses, but rather always identified myself with Timon/Chip/Pocahontas' Racoon Thing/some other character I will explain in the comments

I am a Disney PRINCE, natch!

The coolest Disney princess IS the princess I most identified/identify with.

And, just for fun, the coolest Disney princess is...

23 October 2007 @ 03:38 pm

Today Dani and I found out from our agent that we had an offer for Russian rights for Havemercy. So our first foreign rights sold are now officially to Russia!

There are many awesome things about this. For example, I have a feeling this will please tsarina. Also, the best part about it is that Havemercy is sort of Russian-flavored, so it seems oddly and perfectly fitting that things have shaken down this way. And just think of the amazing "In Soviet Russia" jokes that will come from this! Never have things been more appropriate.

I'm still baffled that we've beaten so many odds. This book is a little weird (I mean, it's got so many weird little quirks and kinks and, so I thought, nearly unmarketable elements) and it's not YA fantasy (which is so burningly hot right now) but in fact adult fantasy (which is not so burningly hot). And now it's going to be in Russian, too! It's like the little rusty engine that could.

(Oh my God, book in another language. How cool! My inner geek has freaked right out.)

Brief edit: in case anyone wants to know, the publisher is here. I can't read anything on the site but that is not stopping me from clicking on all the links anyway. It's better than studying for tomorrow's midterm...

19 October 2007 @ 11:18 am

Stuff that is poopy:

1. Midterms. (Poopy!)

2. No more cold weather. (Super poopy!)

Stuff that is great:

1. Banana syrup. (So yummy in milk.)

2. Last night's amazing episode of Supernatural cracking me up for a solid hour. (So yummy in Thursday night.)

Stuff that is amazing:

1. Finding out Havemercy is on Amazon for preorder (Via arekuru and cerulean_sky. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.)