My life’s a bit crazy right now…

…but I swear I haven’t abandoned the blog and become a lazy person.

This will be a sunny breakfast nook...eventually.

I think I’ve mentioned this already (?), but my husband and I bought a house! Then we moved into said house three weeks ago. This house is being renovated and the workers are doing a splendidΒ job…but they were supposed to be done three weeks ago. Before we moved in.

So we’ve been living in our basement. We don’t have a kitchen (though my husband DID put the stove in Sunday night and I have NEVER been so excited over boiling water). We doΒ have a bathroom sink, a toilet, and a tub–but none of them are in the same room. So that’s interesting. Oh, and with our 2 dogs and 2 cats, things are pretty cramped in the basement.

ANYWAY, hopefully things will be back to a more normal schedule soon. Our wonderful builders did at least finish my office, so I’m setting that up now–and ahhhhhhhh. Such a relief to have a space of my own again.

Now a few administrative bits of news:

1. I have joined Tumblr. It was not a choice, but a requirement (for our Young Authors Give Back Tour)…yet I have dived in head first. We shall see what comes of it. I admit to already being absolutely overwhelmed.

(I also admit to fangirling and then hanging my head with shame when my FAVORITE AUTHOR OF ALL TIME scolded me on Facebook for wasting time on Tumblr instead of writing. Robin Hobb, I swear I’m writing too. β™₯)

2. Speaking of the Young Authors Give Back Tour, we have added specific dates and times to our schedule!!

  • In New York, I’ll be signing at BEA on 5/31 at 10:30-11. Harper will be giving away FREE hardcovers of Something Strange and Deadly, so please stop by. I’ll have swag too. πŸ˜‰
  • In Philadelphia, our signing will be 6/4. The specific time and place are coming soon–we promise!
  • Our Baltimore signing is 6/5 at the Baltimore Public Library (time to come!).
  • In Pittsburgh, we’re going to sign at the Penguin Bookshop on 6/6 at 7:15-9:00.
  • For Cleveland, we’re still getting a signing set up for 6/7, but we’ll definitely be signing 6/8 at the Medina County Library from 3:15-5:00.
  • Then it’s off to Grand Rapids for a signing at Schuler Books from 7:00-8:00.
  • Finally, we’re wrapping the tour up in Chicago (Naperville, actually) at Anderson’s for a signing/panel from 7:00-9:00!

3. I am working on a new WIP (despite having plenty of other WIPs on which to focus) that is epic fantasy and I am IN LOVE. I am still in that blissful phase where everything feels like True Love (and I think we might get married, and I’ve already imagined it proposing to me a million times–it’s very romantic). I just crossed the 50K mark over the weekend, so that was exciting. But also frightening because I worry I have only just BEGUN the story, yet I’m already at 200 pages. Oops…That’s the problem (but not really a problem) with multiple POVs.

4. I read this amazing post from Justine Larbalestier (via Erin Bowman) that really resonated with me. It kind of sums up a lot of things I expected would happen after 10 years in the writing biz–and it made me glad I’ve already begun to step back from the writing-to-sell approach and focused more on the writing-what-I-love-even-if-it-never-sells. My happiness is so, soΒ much greater. Even though book 3 darn near killed me, I have never been more in-sync with my creativity and Muse than I have this 2013.Β 

5. MY FRIEND ERIN BOWMAN’S BOOK RELEASES IN 5 DAYS!!!!! LESS THAN ONE WEEK AND YOU ALL CAN READ TAKEN!!!!!!!

6. And because I can’t resist sharing the latest music that inspires me, here are my current obsessions.

“Transcendences” makes me want to write powerful love scenes and epic emotional stuff. Gahhhh, love it.

“Immortal” has the vocals and the beat and just !!!!! Everything about this piece is one of the characters in my current WIP. I literally listen to this music on repeat whenever I write his scenes.

“Ninety-Niners” just makes me want to write badass scenes with lots of weapons and ninja flips. Kinda obsessed.

You tell me: What’s going on in YOUR life? Any cool news or awesome music to share?