Rowenna, Writing

Hi all! Rule, the third and final book in the Unraveled Kingdom trilogy, is out in just two weeks! Unfortunately, we aren't able to plan for any in-person events, but I'd like to invite you to TWO online events that week! First up, an in-conversation with Tasha Suri via Orbit Live's Crowdcast channel! This is a GREAT format--you can ask questions, and Tasha and I will talk, ask each other questions, probably get interrupted by our cats... May 19, at 5 pm EDT/10 pm BST (and if you miss it live, you can still leave a question ahead of time and watch the cast later!) Go sign up and join us! Next, join Orbit's Lauren Panepinto for Orbit Tavern, on Instagram Live ! In this fun format, Lauren makes a delicious cocktail and there are books. What could be better? 

Check out this lovely! I have the best covers...not that I'm biased :) Orbit artist Lisa Marie Pompilio created this beautiful piece of art with the work of Carrie Violet , an embroidery artist. It's absolutely gorgeous--and what's more, there's significance hidden in a lot of the choices. The gray and red, the unraveling threads...I won't tell you what it all means, but it's so perfect! More on Orbit's blog . 

FRAY is out now!  The second book in the Unraveled Kingdom trilogy released on June 4 and I celebrated by...going to my kid's kindergarten program. BUT! We went and visited "mom's book" on a REAL LIVE bookstore shelf later that week! You can read an excerpt here on Orbit's website!

One girl in a blue short cloak and a torn gown stood in the center of the Square, singing.  A ballad seller—the printer sent her out with broadsides of song lyrics, and she advertised them by singing the songs...T he ballad seller’s voice rose and swelled.  She had a beautiful, clear tone, and the sad melody she sang floated and dipped like the undulations of a river.  A dead soldier, his lover in search of him, vows never to rest or love again—the ballads from the print shops were full of such sentimental drivel.  Torn Among all the eighteenth-century peddlers  working the city streets, broadsheet sellers were among the poorest.  Some saw selling broadsheets, including those printed with ballad lyrics, as basically one step up from begging; artwork depicts these salespeople as impoverished, wearing ragged clothing.  At the same time, they provided a vital service in terms of disseminating popular culture at a time when your new material came in pri...

If there's one thing (pick just one!) that's frustrating about the writing and publishing sphere, it's how often the things you really want to celebrate have to be kept quiet..for ages.  Centuries.  Aeons, even. Ok, but even a few weeks or months on the silent circuit can feel excruciating when you really want to run around like a toddler on a cookie high with a fistful of sparklers and order MY BOOK IS GOING TO BE A REAL BOOK AND BE PUBLISHED AND STUFF! on a cake.  You maybe haven't quite refined the cake wording yet. Which is why I've never really blabbed much about how, a year ago today, I got a quick text from my Agent of Awesome to see if I had a minute to chat.  I was at work at work, at a community college writing center, and a minute something I had to scrape up given that it was nearing end-of-semester time and I was neck-deep in papers submitted to the online tutoring portal I managed. But that minute was going to have to give, because I Just K...

One of the places I found inspiration for Galitha City was in the artwork depicting eighteenth century London.  The "Cries of London" are actually a catchall for quite a few series of prints , one of the more famous of which is by Francis Wheatley.  Wheatley may have idealized his subjects a little bit; comparing his work to, say, Paul Sandby's sketches, his criers tend to look better-kempt, less dirty, and significantly less likely to steal something. Wheatley: Cheerilee, I'm selling prettypretty primroses! Tra-la-la! Sandby: From the Yale Center for British Art Get your liver for your dogs, or don't, I don't give a ****. It may be little surprise that I prefer Sandby for historical research purposes...if he depicts someone with a certain cap or their apron tied in a knot (y'all are seeing that, too, right?) it's pretty sure that's because someone *actually did that.* Still, Wheatley's work also gives insight into a b...

I'm excited to share that on March 31, I'll be at Volumes Bookcafe in Chicago to talk about fantasy, writing, and Torn with the incredible Hugo-award-winning author Mary Robinette Kowal !  (If you haven't read her Shades of Milk and Honey , you are in for a treat!)  Join us at 7:30 (Central time zone)!  I'm looking forward to seeing you there! More on the event here !

Release dates are weird things. See, this book has felt "real" to me for a while now.  From seeing pass pages (and marking up pass pages and wow a novel means a STACK and a half of pass pages!) to getting an ARC of my book, to a box of author copies arriving on my doorstep to handling REAL ACTUAL copies of MY BOOK for the first time... I've met my book as a book.  It feels real.   It's been out there dipping its big toe in the world, too--there have been trade reviews  and book blogger's reviews (like this one , this one , and I'm missing quite a few but I'm typing fast here, this one ).  People have read my book. I've had that stop and breathe moment--*PEOPLE have read my BOOK.* (Whether people liked it or not isn't even registering--people have READ it.) And all that happens before the book releases into the wild of Amazon , Barnes and Noble , your favorite corner bookshop that's hanging despite the odds. So w...

GIVEAWAY!! TORN comes out next week—I kinda can’t believe it! To celebrate I’m giving away handmade-by-me, fabric-accented, signed bookmarks. Open anywhere the mail goes, enter on Twitter or Facebook ! Open through midnight Sunday (ET). I'm giving away five bookmarks minimum in each place, so feel free to enter in each! Good luck!

Two months from today, Torn will be released! I'm already excited--and I want to celebrate ahead of time a little bit and give one you a gift!  In the spirit of the trade employed by the main character, Sophie, in Torn , this is a "Seamstress Prize Pack." I'm giving away a copy of the American Duchess Guide to 18th Century Dressmaking and a sweet little pair of embroidery snips. Why these items? Because my (sometimes obsessive) love of sewing and historical textiles was a huge part of the inspiration for Torn , and I am *loving* how this book by Lauren Stowell and Abby Cox makes the process of sewing historical gowns so accessible.  If you've ever wanted to dive into sewing historical garments, this is a wonderful entree.  And if you've been sewing for ages, there are still excellent patterns, tips, advice, and general prettiness to enjoy, too.  Frankly, even if you never intend to sew a stitch, it's a beautiful book to look at it and it cer...

Orbit unveiled the cover for Torn last week and GUYS. I love this thing!  One thing that's very weird about the cover of one's book is that, unless your circumstances are very unusual in traditional publishing or you're a multi-talented self-pubber who did her own cover, it's, um, not actually your work.  So people are generously complimenting me on it and I can't take the credit at all!  The artists at Orbit are amazing--captured the essence of the story and the vitals of the plot without resorting to anything too trope-y or sentimental.   The other thing that's kinda weird (everything is a little weird for me right now, it's all so new) is that your publisher sends your book to established authors to ask for quotes or "blurbs" about it.  Hopefully these are positive and not, you know, "about on par with the back of my cereal box."  They then feature these on the cover (unless they're the cereal box thing), and let me te...

I've been writing for years.  Even if I only count the years of "this is getting sorta serious, aiming for publication," it's been a long time.  In that time--about a decade--I never identified myself publicly as a writer. I thought of myself that way--if I had to pick a few words that make up my personal self-portrait, "writer" would be one of them.  But I didn't introduce myself that way to other people, or talk about it on Facebook or in those polite small-talk conversations at parties. Some close friends knew that I wrote steadily; a few knew where I was in the long, circling road to publication.  I suppose, if you cornered me, I didn't feel like I'd earned that moniker--I hadn't sold a book, I couldn't claim it as a profession, I wasn't "really" a writer in a way that the world at large would understand. Which is fine--this isn't one of those empowering posts about owning who you are and claiming the name "...

I realize I’ve been a little quiet around here recently.  Moms of toddlers will tell you that it’s when things get quiet in their houses that they know *something* is happening.  With toddlers, silent happenings are usually not a good thing.  In writing? They can be a really awesome thing. Long story short (when does that ever happen writing novels?): I’m incredibly excited to announce that Orbit will be publishing my novel Torn in spring of 2018—and even more exciting, we’ll be publishing a trilogy! The story follows a seamstress who can embed good luck charms into her creations--and becomes entangled in a revolution. Obligatory Publisher's Marketplace screenshot--because this little blurb means this is super-duper, 100%, don't bother pinching me official! Long story less short: Want to have the most exciting day of your career and then sit on the news for months? Then writing and publishing books is for you!  This has been in the works for a wh...

In case I haven't mentioned, I'm expecting.  This post makes a lot more sense with that info in hand. To the point--naming babies is harder than naming characters.  I never considered I'd have such a tricky time pinpointing potential names for The Little Stranger, but here I am, a couple months out from zero hour, still dithering on the name front.  Completely unexpected--because character names are never an issue for me. The Bean hanging with the Giant Bean in Chicago Our temporary placeholder name, to avoid calling the baby "It" or "The Uterine Parasite" (for some reason that bothered my husband), is "The Bean."  This was easy to come up with, probably because it's not permanent.  We aren't stuck with calling another human being "Bean" for the rest of our lives (nor is the Bean stuck with being The Bean).  Plus I had just looked at one of those food-chart-fetal-growth comparisons and the Bean was, at that point, the ...

We're all busy--with jobs, families, school, kids, volunteering, laundry...so how do you find time to write? I say it's all about claiming time. Obviously, there's the time you devote to writing--either hitting your goal word count or sitting butt-in-chair for a set time each day.  But that isn't what I'm talking about.  It's the other time--the time when you're doing other stuff--that I'm saying you can claim. Wait a second, you say-- I have to be at work from 9 to 5 .  Or I'm home working my tail off chasing kids around .  Or even But this laundry HAS to get done. Yeah, that laundry does need to get done.  Believe me, I hear you, and so does my overflowing hamper.  Here's the thing--you can still claim that time. I've been painting a lot lately.  The 1870s house that is our new home is beautiful--and covered with kitschy wallpaper and questionable paint choices from the previous owners.  A lot of my time lately has been stripping...

Every writer has answered the question at least once--panster or plotter? I'm sure there is no right way--maybe there are more efficient ways, or ways that produce more creative twists, or, most likely, ways that are the most right for each individual.  In college I had a roommate who literally outlined every paper down to the paragraph.  Beautiful, typed, complete outlines, and they took forever to create--but the actual paper-writing part was shortened because she already knew what she was going to say.  Me?  I never outlined more than what was in my head already.  Even my thesis outline was pretty much section titles and quick notes.  (I think that drove my advisor batty.) Still, a novel isn't a five-page essay, a twenty-page paper, or even a thesis.  Despite that, I pantsed at first.  It was what I knew, and what worked for me.  You know what?  It worked for writing novels, too.  Just not very well. That is, I doubled back...

If you ever watch a movie with my husband and I, you're very likely, if it's not a great movie and sometimes even if it is, to hear me exclaim at some point, "OK, this is total plot crap, right?" What do I mean by plot crap?  And does it apply to books? Are you calling this plot crap? Plot crap does not mean crappy plot.  In fact, it can often have nothing to do with how well a story is plotted.  A great example of plot crap is the movie Gladiator .  Now, I love this movie.  I love the story, the incredibly orchestrated battle scenes, even the soundtrack.  But the historical facts framing the film?  Total plot crap.  Sure, Marcus Aurelius and Commodus existed...but there are a lot of factual missteps.  There's no evidence that Marcus Aurelius ever wanted to restore the Republic, therefore the basis of the film's struggle is historical plot crap.  (Commodus also didn't die in the arena, but was strangled in his bath.  Sometim...

So I'm working on newish projects--projects that haven't yet been revised or edited.  In fact, they're still incomplete drafts.  And I ask--when is it best to start revising and/or editing? Sometimes it's pretty clear when to do what. I crack the eggs BEFORE putting them in the cookie batter.I cut fabric AFTER I take measurements. I lather, rinse, THEN repeat. And of course, first pants, THEN shoes. But when it comes to the writing process, it's not so cut and dried. The posters in my elementary school classrooms would beg to differ--they say you "prewrite" (which inevitably involved bubbles and arrows in my grammar school days), write a rough draft, revise it, which produces another draft, which you edit and polish into a final draft. Anyone else feel like it's not so simple?  At least not for writing novels? Now, I know writers who do keep it simple--they butt-in-chair, hands-on-keyboard plow through a full first draft ...

Stick with me long enough, and you'll discover I like odd comparisons, a la "How is a Raven like a Writing Desk."  (I also love Alice in Wonderland, but that's another point entirely.) Because I like odd comparisons, I find myself making them to writing while doing otherwise unrelated things. Like stripping wallpaper. My husband and I just bought a Rather Old House and my latest adventure is ridding it of some unfortunate decorating choices.  First up is the laundry/utility area upstairs, which was papered c.1977 with mildly dizzying brown, gold, and orange flowered stuff.  The homeowners managed to find matching fabric for curtains, too.  Pristine vintage, except it's horrifyingly ugly. Can you even *buy* matching paper and fabric anymore? So as I spent hours tearing a harvest gold meadow from hell off the walls, I found myself comparing the process to revision. After all, redecorating and revising share some similarities--the basic structure is a...

So we chatted Tuesday on writing what you know...but how do you write what you know when what you want to write is pretty far from your personal experience?  Research gets you halfway there, but often the tactile and emotional experience can't be found in books or articles. It can, however, usually be found in your experience. You might not have the same experiences as your protagonists, but it's pretty likely that you do have transferable knowledge.  J.K. Rowling had (probably...) never played quidditch--but I bet she knew what it felt like to play on a team, have others relying on her to play hard, to play hard and win, and to play hard and lose.  Anyone who's survived P.E. class has that, right?  It's just transferring what you already know into understanding what you haven't experiences. Everyone has unique experiences that lend all kinds of insider's knowledge that can come to play in writing.  One of my most common sources of inspiration and intuitio...