margaret stohl

FIRST SIGHTING: BC IN THE WILDS OF LA

Stumbled across this at my favorite bookstore (Diesel) after my favorite taco lunch (Frida's) at the Brentwood Country Mart today, 5 blocks from my house. I was so excited a random lady had me sign hers. So then I had Anna from Diesel sign mine. Had I known I was going to see it I might not have worn stripes on stripes...

                                           

                                           

We're having our Debut Event at Diesel on December 1st, so if you find yourself in the L.A. area at 7 pm that Tuesday night, come on by for some punch n' pie, y'all! 

either day 27, or day zero: bought my book on amazon & it said "in stock!"

                                                             

Speaking of numbers...

Well, the last 48 hours have been somewhere between the top 1 and the top 5 bestandweirdest days of my life. In case you missed it, which means you haven't stopped by the BC blog recently (or as we pointed out in that post, you don't know our mothers) yesterday Beautiful Creatures was picked for Amazon's Best Books of 2009 list at #5 & their Teen list at #1.

See the Amazon Best of 2009 list here. 

See the Amazon Best of 2009 Teen list here.

Ironically, those are very small numbers, 1 and 5. But they threw my whole day into a big-number kind of turmoil.  Hours later, and totally unexpectedly, Beautiful Creatures went from Pre-Order to In Stock on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

And so yesterday, formerly day 28 and counting, became day zero. Much more quickly than anyone had expected, least of all me.  The book has hit, if not the shelves, the trucks. Coming to a doorstep near you! It's all very happy, and very exciting, and very overwhelming. And very distracting to two girls trying to finish their sequel revisions by Friday!

Thanks for all your happy tweets and kind emails and facebook comments. Our BC friends and family continue to be the most Beautiful thing of all... :)

30 days and counting...

                                       

I have a small life. I was thinking about this today.

I have 2 pairs of pants that I like. 2 shirts. 2 sweaters. 1 pair of boots. Those are the clothes I wear. I have 3 pairs of reading glasses, only 2 that are the right strength. 1 laptop. 1 iphone. 1 set of earphones. That's what I need to write. I have 3 daughters. 2 parents, 1 husband. That's my family. Those are my numbers.

On the other hand, there is a sudden exponential, numerical vastness accompanying the book release that I just can't seem to wrap my head around. By the time you start to think about postcards and events and flights and tours and arcs and publishers and countries and interviews and reviews and blog hits and magazines and twitter and goodreads and facebook and BC's facebook page, it adds up to a whole lot of wonderful, terrifying, exciting, intimidating, awesome, did I mention terrifying, numbers.

Even the 576 pages of BC itself seems like a big scary number, now that we've hit 30 days and counting.

Authors warn you about what a book release is like, but before it happens to you it just goes in one ear and out the other. Not now. Kami and I saw Scott Westerfeld at an event recently and I swear to you I'm not sure he even knew what town he was in, so whirlwind was the tour, so big the numbers! (And it was L.A., Scott. You were in L.A...)

Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful for all of it, down to the last digit. It's just not the same size as the rest of my life. Because, like I said, my life happens to be small.

So I'm not and never have been very good with math facts, but I'm going to try. And in honor of embracing the awesomeness of numbers, in 5 minutes I'm going out to Vons to buy 200 pieces of candy + watch at least 47 minutes of Ghost Whisperer's Sleepy Hollow episode + trick or treat for at least 120 minutes. With 1 3rd grader dressed as a cardboard box. From whom I will steal, hopefully, at least 5 mini Kit Kat bars.

(She will definitely try to stop me by saying the words "mom don't" at least 70,000,000,000+ times. Unless she remembers she's not too fond of mini Kit Kat bars. Which, last time I checked, she isn't. Still, it's the principle of the thing...)

Happy Halloween!

By the way? Next week's goal: 1 new pair of pants.

Babysteps.

32 days and counting...

                                                        

At least that's what I think. I'm not so good at counting, though. This is what is going on:

Kam and I are deep in the Cave o' Revisions for BC 2. D E E P D E E P D E E P in the Cave. It's so dark in here I'm going to call it darkling. Please feel free to stop by and finish this book for us if you are in the area.

Parties are being planned for BC 1. Postcards printed. Social anxiety blossoming. If you haven't checked out the Events page on the BC Book site, see if you can make it to any of our launch events! Whooh! We just heard today that even our agent might make it out to L.A. for the debut, which is the most fun bit of news ever.

Talking to some of our European publishers about various plans (not of the darkling variety) and that is v. exciting. It is, (in fact, Libba!) a small world after all. Good to know.

Interviews are being scheduled, as is our U.S. tour. Scary!

Rows of pecan pies in jars are sitting in my office. Don't ask.

And I have one day to come up with three Halloween costumes. Yoshi, a bag of popcorn, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the early seasons. Still need those chunky black heels. 

How much more could have happened on the 33rd day before our release date? Stay tuned...

34 days and counting...

By 7 am this morning I had been to Starbucks twice, once with each of my two teens waiting for a bus. I was complaining about being stuck on what I was revising, and how I was a loser, and how did people ever write books anyways, and my daughter was listening but not saying much...then a boy behind us interrupted to ask her if there was a Latin test and when we walked away she said,  "His dad died two weeks ago from cancer so he had to miss retreat, but he was back to school the next day. Anyways, what were you saying?"

And I said "Nothing."

Now I will shut up and go finish that chapter.

making my voice heard

I haven't been on my own blog in a month, which is shameful. For that I am truly, deeply sorry. I can only blame the Cave of Revisions, and the fact that any updating goes directly to the Beautiful Creatures Book Blog. I am Preoccupied. I am Antsy. I am Highly Distractable.

The Book Baby enters the world in 36 days, and that is wonderfulterrifyingican'tbreathyayboowhatifeveryonehatesitlovesitthrowsgarbageatmyhouse?

Sort of. You know what I mean.

On Typepad, before you can enter the place where you start blogging (this place) it says MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD. I never thought of it that way before, but I am procrastinating this really hard chapter I am revising... (if Kami asks you tell her I was NOT and if she doesn't believe you because she has read this try saying well do YOU believe everything you read well DO YOU huh?) ...so I thought I would try MAKING MY VOICE HEARD. So hear me, people. This is my VOICE. Yeah. Um.

On Saturday Kami and I went to an awesome indie booksellers dinner and we met all sorts of people. I couldn't see very well without my glasses, and it's kind of awkward to put your glasses on to look at a nametag hanging around someone's stomach, so I sort of wandered around in a sea of friendlyblurry people trying to look friendlynotsquinty. I think I pulled it off. (Let me know if you were there and you are HEARING THIS and you don't happen to agree.)

We met cool writers. Elizabeth Kostova wrote the Historian, which makes her Writerly and Famous. James Dashner wrote the Maze Runner, which is in every Costco and Target known to man, which makes him Ubiquitous and Famous. Scott Westerfield, who is Scott Westerfield Enough Said. And, in a surprise twist, Berkeley Breathed, of Bloom County and Opus fame, who not only won a Pulitzer but also gets letters from Harper Lee, which makes him Unique and Fancy Famous. He is also Funny. Which makes him a Highlight of the Evening.

Here is what cool writers look like: Kostova, Westerfield, Dashner...

                

...and this is what Berkeley Breathed looks like, as drawn by Opus, as drawn by Berkeley Breathed...

Anyways, that's the latest from the Cave. Editors and Writing Partners and other such Cave Dwellers permitting, I'll talk to you in the near future. Until then, you can always find me on twitter, where some of the other Cave Dwellers I know seem to do their best procrastinating...

xo M

Beautiful Creatures: Our Wheat Thins & Diet Coke Author Interview!

Watch it here!

This is already up on www.beautifulcreaturesthebook.com, but I wanted to make sure you guys saw it too (mom!) Do you think we should be getting a kickback from the makers of various snack food and beverage companies? Watch to find out why...

Thanks, Cassie!

                                                         

                                                                <photo credit: Portland Book Examiner>

By now, most of you know the exciting news, that Cassandra Clare's uber-bestselling MORTAL INSTRUMENTS series has not only been optioned for feature film development, but (for me) even more exciting, that CITY OF GLASS will now be followed by a fourth book, which she said her publisher jokingly refers to as City of Simon. And you know how hard it was to not be one of those fangirls asking her to write another book? **THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU CASSANDRA CLARE!**

To me, that's somewhat akin to Harper Lee agreeing to write a sequel to TKAM. **CARTWHEELS NOW**

On top of all this fabulousness, in an interview with the Portland Book Examiner, Cassie was kind enough to recommend BEAUTIFUL CREATURES as one of her fall picks, along with two of our favorite writers, Malinda Lo (who you just have to call MLo) and Francesca Lia Block.

So that's some YA sisterly awesomeness for you. As if getting that 4th book wasn't going to be enough, as if the whole INFERNAL DEVICES series wasn't going to be enough, as if Cassie's willingness to blurb our book wasn't enough...

Here's the bit I'm talking about:

For fans of your books eagerly awaiting the first installment of The Infernal Devices and City of Fallen Angels, what book(s) would you recommend they read to satisfy their craving?

Francesca Lia Block is one of my favorite writers. I'd read all her books, and look out for the new one — it's a vampire tale called Pretty Dead that comes out this fall. Other new books to look for: Beautiful Creatures by Margie Stohl and Kami Garcia is an updated southern gothic YA with a paranormal twist, and Ash by Malindo Lo, which is a lovely retelling of Cinderella.

Read the whole interview from the Portland Book Examiner here.

Attention: Winner of the AS YOU WISH CONTEST from Last Week

Katie was the winner of our AS YOU WISH ARC & Swag contest last week.

Katie, we can't find you! Please e-mail us at kamiandmargie@aol.com.

* If we don't hear from Katie by Friday, we will pick a new winner.

SILVER PHOENIX: BEYOND THE KINGDOM OF XIA -- Cindy Pon's Signing & Reading

                                       

I was lucky enough to get to see Cindy Pon read from her debut novel, SILVER PHOENIX, yesterday in Huntington Beach. She had a great turnout, and happened to read one of my favorite chapters from the book. She graciously answered many questions, and I learned that she has a picture book featuring her Chinese Brush Painting in 2011, also with Greenwillow. So that was a newsflash for me! Go Cindy!

                                         

I got to sit with local Huntington Beach Blogger, and my good friend Senfaye (A Maze of Books) - along with her mom Nefaerious, and little sis. So that was bonus fun! My 14 y.o. and 8 y.o. also got to listen.

My teens were excited to get their own signed copies, and my 8 year old was happy to get her own delish chocolate cupcake. Cindy was celebrating her almost birthday, and even her mom was there to see it!

 

Afterwards, the rest of my family went across the street to continue playing in a local Pokemon card game tournament. Don't ask. Let's just say that while Comicon might have originally been about our first signing, it ultimately was about my family's Pokemon Renaissance. Even my 8 year old is competing now. *sighs*

Anyways, it was fun to come out of the Cave of Revisions and into the California sunshine, if only for a little while. And Senfaye, Nefaerious and I agreed to meet up again at Holly Black's September 10th signing at the same store. So if you're in the SoCal area -- we'll see you there!