Ring a Ding Ding. 2013. ARTICLE 5 GIVEAWAY!!!

2013 has arrived. Much to the chagrin of anyone who spent their life savings building an ark. Or perhaps not. Now they'll always be prepared, after all.

Happy 2013. Hope runs hot, here at the start. Hope that it will be a better year, however you choose to perceive "better". I'm wishing us a lot of luck. In case the hope runs out…around March.

I don't do New Year's Resolutions, because I suck at them and have no resolve, and it's very depressing to fail at your New Year's resolution on New Year's Day. I try to adhere to to-do lists instead. To do in 2013: Write ANTIGODDESS #3. Edit ANTIGODDESS #2. Promote ANTIGODDESS #1. Write (or at least start writing) the book that will try to follow the Antigoddess trilogy. Go on vacation. Study French. Learn to play a musical instrument. Climb Mount Ipanema.

Kidding about the last two. And I reserve the right to have been kidding about the rest.

But now, I've got a very nice New Year's present for some lucky reader who lives in the US. A SIGNED HARDCOVER ARTICLE 5! By Kristen Simmons!! Did I mention it's signed? And it's ARTICLE 5?!

ARTICLE 5 comes out in paperback on the 8th, and the sequel, BREAKING POINT, is releasing February 12th. So here's your chance to get ready for it if you haven't read ARTICLE 5 yet. And why have you not done that? Hmm?

Anyway, to enter, all you have to do is live in the US,and comment. Or Tweet me an entry at @KendareBlake. I'll throw in a copy of Girl of Nightmares also. You can choose a signed hardcover or an audiobook. This giveaway is a short timer; it ends next Tuesday, the same day ARTICLE 5 is out in paperback!

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In non-writing related news, I watched the last third of the movie, SOMETHING BORROWED, and for the life of me, I can't figure it out. It seemed like just a shitty movie about shitty people being shitty. If you've seen it, and found another message deep inside, I'd love to hear it.

A Love Song for Mojo Long (RIP, gross cat.)

Okay, so Mojo's last name wasn't Long. It was Jojo. And I've never seen A Love Song for Bobby Long, so if it sucks, I apologize to my deceased cat for using it for the title. Those of you who have followed along here on the journal will know that our catson, Mojo Jojo was diagnosed with liver cancer and a mouth tumor back in August. It wasn't known exactly which came first, but it was known that the liver cancer meant that the mouth tumor couldn't be removed, because the anesthetic would have probably killed him. On Friday, we put our Mojo down.

Mojo was with me for twelve years. He was grey, and matty, and disgusting. He had no grooming habits, pooped constantly, and drooled in the water dish. He made a sport out of sneezing onto my eyeglasses. If my husband was in the bath, (yes, Dylan takes baths. A ton. With bubbles. Go on, judge him. I do.) Mojo would demand a cup of "tea" which was pretty much just hot water. He fell down a lot. When on a lap, he would ensure constant pets by repeatedly slamming his head into your hand or arm. He had no control over his hind claws.

We miss him a lot. We were with him to the end, and consider it a blessing we had so much time to spoil him. For the last few days of his life, he received small bits of his favorite food: Reese's peanut butter cups. I know, bad for cats, but come on, he was dying. Afterward, we came home and joked that we should torture ourselves further by watching My Dog Skip and Marley & Me. We didn't, obviously. We're not masochists.

And that's it. So long, grey cat. Whereever you are now, I trust you may eat all the chocolate you want. Or maybe you're a dolphin. Because you were always a little weird like that.

Mojo Jojo

He is survived by his brother, Tybalt.

ANTIGODDESS cover roundup!

I've never done a cover reveal before. Not really. With Anna and Girl I just slapped them up on the old Livejournal and called it a day. But I enjoy seeing cover reveals for other books and reading about how the cover came to be, etc, so since bloggers are excellent I thought I'd try to a blogger reveal. But I'm still slapping it up on the old Livejournal (which seems to have undergone a makeover, though I doubt that will matter to the goat much):

ANTIGODDESS cover
Hello, little owl eyeballs.
And here's a list of blogs, and what they're doing:
IceyBooks – Girl of Nightmares US Giveaway

Novel Sounds – I made an ANTIGODDESS playlist

Cuddlebuggery – Crazy interview and hilarious fake covers, plus US giveaway (Anna and Girl)

Peace, Love, Teen Fiction – I do something weird here (so nothing new) and talk about the cover like I fell into it. ALso, International Giveaway, because the Penguin fears no post offices!

Chick Loves Lit – Reveal by the excellent Shanyn, who is still too scared to read my books.

The Book Rat – Grabby hands Spike and an inappropriate story about Anna and ANTIGODDESS's Lady Problems

Kari's Crowded Bookshelf – Interview and talk about how I came up with the title.

Birth of a New Witch – Reveal

That's most of them. Others should post later, but all are amazing and I am grateful for their willingness to feature the cover! I hope you like the cover, and more importantly, what goes underneath it.

In sad news, my uber old flip phone finally broke this week, forcing me to get one of those new fangled smart phones. RIP, old, loyal phone I could drop in the pool and never charge….the new phone I have named Charizard. Because it's a willful dick.

I Know You Are But What Am I? (I’m done, that’s what I am. ANTIGODDESS 2 in the can.)

So, I guess take that Pee Wee Herman. I don't know why I used that quote. It's not like I've recently watched Big Adventure or anything. I did just recently watch The Lost Boys, but I couldn't make "Death By Stereo" work in any sort of context.

Back on track, ANTIGODDESS 2 is in the can. And by that I mean, first draft done. Now it'll sit for awhile and I'll tackle all the things about it that I know already need to be fixed. Smoothed. Rewritten entirely. This makes me think of lots of things, like alcohol, and video game-type rewards. But mostly it makes me think about the act of finishing a book.

Finishing a book. And not reading one. But writing one. As National Novel Writing Month hits its stride, I imagine soon a lot of people will be experiencing this particular phenomenon. And it is a phenomenon. A big, huge, stinking, crazy, important deal. But it's also very solitary. For a lot of us anyway. Even if a novel ends with an explosion, with a pile of bloody bodies, all it ends with in this world is that last keystroke. That last quiet mouse click. No ticker tape parade. No alarms sound. And then, in the silence, that thing you've been working with so closely, that you've been living and breathing and obsessing for such an intense period of time, is over.

It's weird, is all I'm saying. And I hope it always stays that weird. Although I do wish I was back in London this year, as today is Guy Fawkes Day, and instead of burying myself in pasta like I'm going to in about thirty minutes, I could walk up to Alexandra Palace with a bottle of bubbly and pretend all those splendiferous fireworks were for me.

Good luck to all in their NaNo and non-NaNo endeavors. Celebrate the completion of every work well. But don't forget to feel the weird. The weird is important too.

Should be seeing some cover art for ANTIGODDESS 1 soon. Very excited. There's a fun little story about more "lady problems" on the cover. And, Anna Dressed in Blood is releasing next week in Germany. Neat.

Parting piece of random: the resurgence of Furby popularity has given me horrifying flashbacks of Bret Easton Ellis' LUNAR PARK. If you've read this fantastic piece of fiction, you know why. If you haven't, well, what the heck?

My foot hurts. Can I go to the nurse? (The Big Easy, and The Big Apple.)

The quote is from Clueless. When poor Miss Geist is asking for feedback from the class and that's all she can get out of Elton. Because Elton, was a butt.

I don't know why I'm using it. Maybe because I just got back from vacation, and a trip to the Brooklyn Book Festival, and now I've got post-vacation malaise. I should be getting back to work, but I just want to raise my hand and ask to go to the nurse. Where I could lay on one of those nice, quiet cots all through the math test. Ah, memories.

Anyway, vacation was a blast trip to New Orleans, with my brother, my best friend (who he's been dating for a long period of disgusting time) and of course, my husband Dylan. I hoped for great Creole cooking, beignets, a ghost tour, a fortune telling, relaxing days, booze, and perhaps being dragged around by a mule. I got almost all of that.

And, we all got tattoos. For many years, I've wanted to get a tattoo of part of Hector's speech from Book 6 of the Iliad. After I wrote ANTIGODDESS, I told myself that if the book sold, I could get it. And then if the book didn't sell, I guess I didn't have to have a needle repeatedly jammed into my back, so…bright side? Anyway, the book sold last year, and now I have the tattoo, in Greek, commemorating the series.

Dylan got the Ghostbusters symbol. I like to pretend that it's commemorating the Anna series, even though it isn't, and Cas would really be annoyed.

In book world, I got to see my agent in person, and got a tour of the Tor offices in the Flatiron Building. I also got to see the first (and rejected before I ever saw it) cover of ANTIGODDESS. It was striking, and bold, but the team was right. Even though it was a beautiful cover, it wasn't quite right for this particular book. So, they've gone back to the drawing board, which has moved the release date from August 2013 to September. I hear they should be coming up with something else very soon.

I also may have made an obscene gesture during a panel discussion…but that's neither here nor there.

Got a shiny ARC of BREAKING POINT by Kristen Simmons. Jealous? I'm not letting it go either. Because I, like Elton, am a butt. Or I might, because I'll probably need someone to gush to about it before February. And now, my foot hurts. Can I go to the nurse?

If You Ask Me, Ren Is a Total Fox

Well nobody asked you. Ren is not a total fox. I love me some Kevin Bacon, but not in THAT way.

Why the Kevin Bacon quote? Because at dinner the last night I was at the Decatur Book Festival (prepare for namedrops) with Jackson Pearce, Margaret Stohl, David Levithan, Dan Krokos, Vicky Alvear Schecter, Rebecca Stead, Vaniya Stoyanova and Barry Lyga, the conversation briefly wandered onto Kevin Bacon's junk.

It was a long table. I didn't hear much of it. But it was about the nude scene from Wild Things. And I guess…congratulations are in order? So, congratulations, Mr. Bacon. But you're still not a fox.

THIS IS THE BOOK TOUR POST. Just a brief recap. I'm going to work backwards and start with Decatur.

It was excellent. I ate pork cheek tacos. It sounds like a mean meat, but fear not, I have done penance with several vegetarian meals since then. Got to hang out and listen to presentations by the incredible authors listed above. Got to talk at some excellent schools where I may or may not have said some naughty words, and am very sorry about that teachers it just slipped out. Hammed it up on stage and got to tell my long awaited turtle-saving story. Ah yes. I am a turtle saver.

THE GIRLS NIGHTMARE OUT TOUR WITH LISA DESROCHERS AND MARTA ACOSTA!

I'm so glad I had these ladies to hang with. They're amazing. Read the Personal Demons series and Dark Companion if you haven't. And then tell me how Dark Companion is, because I haven't read it yet either, but after hearing Marta read from it I'm dying to.

Highlights: Ferris Buellering around Chicago with Marta while Lisa feverishly worked on TOP SECRET projects in her hotel room. Relaxing over post event drinks and swapping war stories. Librarians dressed up as ANNA:

In short, it was cool and I was glad to meet everyone. I'm out one more time in two weeks at the Brooklyn Book Festival, where I'll be paneling with Andrea Cremer, Malinda Lo and moderated by Jessica Shirvington. Then I'm huddled over a screen feverishly completing ANTIGODDESS #2.

Hard to get back into the swing of writing. I had to take all of July off from it to get ANTIGODDESS through edits. Now the book keeps showing me flashes of possibilities and they're all sort of upsetting. But there's no telling where it's going until it gets there.

I will finish this book by November. I will. (I won't.)

But on a personal note, I must. Because we are losing one of our catsons to liver cancer, and I'm going to be pretty much out of commission for a bit after that. I'm hoping he'll make it through the holidays, but who knows. It's not Tybalt. It's his brother, Mojo Jojo. Mojo is one of those weird cats who plays fetch and knows what the word "no" means. And actually respects it. So…not really a cat at all.

Oh crap, almost forgot. If anyone is reading this from the UK, and is wondering when Girl of Nightmares will come out there, I'm pretty sure it's in June.

Dr. Evil, I used to think you were crazy, but now I can see your nuts. A-thank-u.

Sorry about the quote. Yes, it's from Goldmember. It was the only one I could think of with the phrase "thank you" in it. Which is the essence of this post. Say what you will about the Austin Powers movies, but the fact that they spoofed Oddjob by naming a henchman Random Task is just fantastic. Random Task. I love it.

So, GIRL OF NIGHTMARES is out today!!!! And so many people have wished it a happy book birthday, and said nice things, and I'm reading and appreciating every one! I fully planned on responding individually to everyone but my fingers would have fallen off mid-typing. You guys are excellent. Excellent.

Thank you. Thank you to everyone who read (or will read or is reading) any of the books, and thank you to everyone who pre-ordered (or will order or is ordering) or went to a bookstore (or will go or is there) to get a copy. Did you know that every copy comes with a side of my undying gratitude? Well it does.

Also, I hear that copies are really good at leveling uneven chairs and tables.

Lisa Desrochers and Marta Acosta and I will be out on tour next week, so I hope to have the opportunity to thank and flail on people in person.

I feel like I should be doing more on this release day…like standing on a street corner with a dog in a hat and possibly a vested monkey. We could hand out snow cones. Instead I'm going to hang here and be useless, and do a final pass on ANTIGODDESS edits.

A week ago, this was to be a post about my pilgrimage to Forks with my editor. But then I got busy (or lazy, what have you) and now that post must wait.

So in summary. THANK YOU. I await your backlash and thrown produce.

The Sticky News Post! (Actual blog continues below.)

This post exists because I suck at updating things. If all goes well, this post will be continuously updated with anything relevant to news or events. Newer stuff will be at the top.

NEWS
MORTAL GODS is out October 14th!! Preorder here: Barnes and Noble, Amazon, IndieBound and many thanks if you do.

GIRL OF NIGHTMARES is out in paperback on June 17th!

New paperback cover for Antigoddess!

ANNA DRESSED IN BLOOD was recently optioned for film by STEPHENIE MEYER'S PRODUCTION COMPANY FICKLE FISH. Yes, I shouted that last part. And I make no apologies.

EVENTS

April 5th – Literary Orange, Orange County CA panel: YA, the Awesome Age with Jessica Brody and Maurene Goo

April 9th – TLA panel TBA, but I hear Jonathan Maberry is involved, so awesome.

April 26-28 – C2E2, Chicago with April Genevieve Tucholke and Lydia Kang!

May 31st – Klindt's YA Day, The Dalles, Oregon

June 19th – Library panel and workshop, Irving, Texas

August 30th – National Book Festival, Washington DC

And that'll do, Pig. That'll do.(The pig is me, btw. Not you. Unless you want to be the pig. Then we can armwrestle for it.)

Holding….Still Holding…

The title quote is from Old School, when Vince Vaughn is on the rings with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth. I used it because the Olympics are gearing up and watching the gymnasts reminds me of what a pansy I am. Everything they do looks like it hurts. Even when they do it right and don't fall off in excruciating ways. So you go, gymnasts.

ALA was incredible. And by that I mean fun. And Crazy. Capital C. Librarians are passionate, informed, and really nice people. So are bloggers, who were also there. One of whom finally delivered my Hogwarts letter. Thank god. I was starting to worry I was a muggle or something.

And, I got my picture taken with George RR Martin. And he sat next to me at dinner. George RR Martin was like thisclose.

And I met my editor! Who is just as wonderful in person as I always suspected she would be. We talked a little about the future cover for ANTIGODDESS, and I pretty much kept my trap shut as she told me what her idea was. Then I told her unabashedly that I loved her. Because it was also my idea. Like, the exact. Same. Idea. So I hope it works out, and that I can show it around soon.

A few random things: Did you hear about that guy who got high on synthetic marijuana and ate a black lab? Dragged it up onto a porch, beat and strangled it to death, and then ate it. I read that article and clicked away, then went to the mall and somebody behind me complained loudly about my not walking in a straight line and I almost turned around and punched them in the face. And I thought, whoa, why the rage? And I realized, I was still pissed about the dog. So my husband and I decided that the guy should be charged with like, 3rd degree dogslaughter. That should exist. He should serve time. Unless he's really, really sorry about it, and then we can plea bargain. But if he ever utters the words "what, it was just a dog" then NO DEAL.

Watched THE DEVIL INSIDE this weekend. If you're scared of exorcist movies, or exorcisms in general, just follow my handy survival guide. When confronted with a possessed person, punch them in the face. The demon will be shocked. "What? You thought I would try to save her? Bitch, I'm trying to kill her! Now hold…still…"

In book news, ANNA DRESSED IN BLOOD is officially out in the UK and Australia today! Yay! It may be in a Waterstones right now. I wish I was also there. And it's available as a FREE SYNC DOWNLOAD this week along with THE WOMAN IN WHITE! I look forward to hearing the audio. If anyone has already heard the audio, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

And I should cross 50k today in ANTIGODDESS #2. The gods are still up to their bloody, bloody shenanigans. So are the heroes.

If you're going to be at Comic Con, head over to the Smart Pop booth #4300. You may be able to snag a copy of Shadowhunters and Downworlders, the January 2013 essay anthology about The Mortal Instruments series, edited by Cassandra Clare. I contributed. Yet I have not edited said contribution. So read at your own risk.

My mommy always said there were no monsters – no real ones- but there are.

Well of course there are real monsters, Newt. You're in space, for pete's sake. I wanted to use a quote from Aliens, because I can't wait to see Prometheus. Probably won't see it for several days. Please, nobody spoil me on it. That, or Cabin in the Woods, which I also still need to see.

Been reading a lot lately, or should I say always, but this past set was special, because it was out of my usual boxes. Dark fantasy and existential literary are my go-tos, but it's a good idea to you know, stretch out a bit. So I'll mention two good books that were out of my comfort zone:

WORDS IN THE DUST by Trent Reedy

I snagged myself a signed copy of this when I met Trent at last weekend's excellent Got Books? YA event at Klindt's Bookstore in The Dalles, Oregon. It's a fantastic novel, about a young Afghan girl named Zulaikha, born with a cleft lip and few prospects despite being a member of a loving family. This one's interesting, and heartbreaking, and oddly enough, made me hungry. There's lots of food in it. Food, and injustice, and cultural differences. A great combination.

WIDE OPEN by Deborah Coates

This is an adult novel about an Army Sergeant home on leave to bury her sister. Everyone seems to think the sister committed suicide, only it makes no sense. Something sinister is going on in her hometown in South Dakota, and she's just pissed off and hard-headed enough to figure out what it is. Did I mention she can see dead people? This book features one of the most well drawn settings I've encountered in a long time. The South Dakota locale does more than lend itself to the story, it functions almost as a character unto itself. Isolated and wild. A little bit set in its ways. It sticks with you, and the lead character of Hallie does too.

I'm not much for "cowboy" locales in general, but this one was compelling. And the cover is pretty. If anyone is interested in reading this, let me know. I'll mail it to you.

I'm going to install a sticky news post here in the coming days, in an attempt to make myself update things. Because I suck at updating things.

In book news, I learned that Anna Dressed in Blood sold in Russia and Romania. Cooler than cool, and a few Romanian bloggers asked me for interviews weeks before the news broke. I think they've got the inside track. Also, Girl of Nightmares is going to get a book trailer.

In writing news, I'm closing in on the halfway point in ANTIGODDESS #2. There's probably more to say here but I don't want to jinx it. And besides, I'm really distracted by a litterbox disaster courtesy of my two apparently enormous-bladdered cats. If they don't shape up, I'm going to turn into that kind of cat owner who takes pictures of them in tennis ball helmets and long-necked sweaters. Do you hear me, Tybalt and Mojo Jojo? No? Because you can't read? Dammit. Here's some more contest entry art to cheer myself up:

Thanks, Angela!! I love it.