We didn't make it to BEA (Book Expo America) this year, but Beautiful Creatures did. This morning, Little, Brown had 1,000 ARCs at their booth and by the end of the day, they were all gone. They also had psychics, tarot card readers, and Southern-style BC lemonade.
See more pictures on the BC blog here.
Q: You have a link to the Caster Girls blog on your blogs, and those of us who read your blogs know that you talk about them a lot. Who are the Caster Girls?
K: When Margie and I set out to write Beautiful Creatures,we were writing it with a specific group of girls in mind. When we started the book, we gave them pages and they demanded more. They passed chapters to their friends and started asking questions. Their questions, ideas, and criticism shaped Beautiful Creatures- because for us, they were our audience. We had no idea we would sell BC, or even send it out. In the beginning, we were just writing it for them. These girls eventually became the Caster Girls.
M: A Caster Girl, in its broadest definition, is a girl with the power – the incredible power – the superpower, even – to be herself. Which isn’t easy. Each of our Caster Girls is as powerful and unique, quirky and talented, witty and complicated, and crazy as Lena Duchannes, from Beautiful Creatures. They’ve fallen into our lives in different ways – some are friends, family members, even students. But at the end of the writing process, they became the original sisterhood of the book. So to us, they’re family."
This girl isn't a classic storybook character, but could she be a character from one of your favorite books? Or is her story one that hasn't been written, yet?
Today I've had three donuts, three pieces of pizza, three Diet Cokes and a sundae from Baskin Robbins (only one of those, but it had three toppings).
This is what happens when I know:
- People are reading Beautiful Creatures (I know because I have an intravenous feed to Good Reads).
- Our editors are reading it (even if they pretend they aren't because they know how crazy I am).
- There are only 24 hours in the day (and I need 29).
- Things happen in threes (superstition again). And that applies to more than my eating patterns.
So the empty wall in my dining room isn't empty anymore. This is what happens when an author is waiting for an edit to come back…
[ Space Box ]
My son was painting his box, while I was working on my painting. I think I like his better.
Try this one on for size. Vania is definitely making them harder. We shouldn't have teased her week 1.
- Walt Whitman, handwriting Sabrina Ward Harrison
If you don't know about SWH, you should read this post.
This got me thinking. What makes a great poem? Is it the prose, or the feeling you have while reading it. For me, it's the latter.
I've filled journals upon journals with poetry since I was a kid, and I always come back to the short ones. The ones that can capture a felling or an idea, in just a moment.
- Unearthed from my journals, 1998
HERE IN THIS MOMENT
I'M GONNA VIBE WITH NO ONE ELSE
THERE IS A CONVERSATION I NEED TO HAVE WITH ME
IT'S JUST A MOMENT TO MYSELF
- MACY GRAY, "A MOMENT TO MYSELF"
Vania is stepping it up this week.
in no particular order:
- Why do people kill spiders? (It's bad luck. I'm sure you think I'm just being superstitious, so roll the
dice. It's your life.)
- Why do the people with the least to do have so much time? (And interestingly enough, insist they have
none.)
- Why would anyone want a bird as a pet? (Birds are dangerous – don't be fooled by their delicate
appearance. They can take off a finger in a heartbeat. I would rather have an alligator as a pet.)
- Why are so many vegetarian dishes based on meat dishes if vegetarians don't want to eat meat?
(Think: Boca sausage, Boca burgers, Boca taco meat, tofu dogs…shall I go on?)
* This is by no means a slam against vegetarians. (My friend, A, was a vegetarian until she remembered
she really liked bacon.) This is just one of the many things I think about when I'm not writing madly.
- Why do people who don't like you pretend they do? (This is a huge waste of time, and only makes the
person pretending to like you look like an idiot. Because – we know! There is no Oscar coming your
way.)
- Does anyone else sit around wondering why they canceled Buffy? (Seriously, Sarah Michelle Geller
doesn't seem that busy, and the world needs Buffy.)
- Is all of this an indication that I really shouldn't have breaks from writing? (This is a rhetorical
question.)
The talk of filling my blank wall has created an interest in my walls, in general. What's on them? My paintings? Some. Other people's? Wish there were more. But here's a look. It will tell you a lot about me. I believe art does that. Your choices reflect who you are.
I'm not sure what all of this says about me, but you decide…
[ Untitled Painting by Dag Przybilla ] [ Untitled Painting by me, from a show in Santa Monica, CA ]
[ Untitled Painting by me ]
This one was a complete experiment. My mom loves mermaids. If you look really closely, there is text from Hans Christian Anderson's story, "The Mermaid."
