Three Dark Crowns Archives

Posts Tagged ‘Three Dark Crowns’

aaaaaand winter.

Fall has come and gone, leaving me with so many leaves to rake, and so many sad dog eyes staring at me because it’s raining and we can’t go to the park. Obi-dog and Agent Scully’s lives are, they assure me, the absolute worst. Also, BRB, I think I just heard Armpit McGee fall into the toilet.

Yep. But he’s OK!

Had a blast on tour this fall (thanks to everyone who came out and said hi). There were many highlights, but here’s one I won’t soon forget: finding a speakeasy in the back of a drugstore in Jackson, MS. I ordered a drink that tasted, no joke, like raw chicken. I sent it back. I never send anything back; I’m midwestern, dammit, but it seriously tasted like raw chicken. Katharine McGee and Jessie Ann Foley bravely tasted and agreed.

Also: stayed at a hotel in Austin for the Texas Book Festival and was plagued by nightmares and awoken at 4am by ominous loud whistling outside my door that continued off and on (and up and down the hall) for several minutes. Annoyed, I thought it must have been a bored member of the staff, and went back to sleep. Then in the morning, still unnerved, I googled the hotel and the floor I was on was reportedly haunted. Did I have a ghost experience? Can we just say I did, because I never have those.

THE YOUNG QUEENS novella comes out on December 26th in ebook:

And here it is in the UK:

I hope you enjoy this glimpse into the queens’ lives before we meet them in Three Dark Crowns. Speaking of Three Dark Crowns, work begins on the revision of Three Dark Crowns #3! Back in July, when I finished the first draft I tweeted that I thought about 60% of it was actually good! Oh how I look back on that tweet now, and laugh. And LAUGH. And then cry.

I’m staring down a January deadline in order to hold pace for our September release date, so I’m going to disappear down a writing hole and when I emerge will be pale, and nearly blind. I might pop out early if they decide to reveal the cover, or actual title. Until then, oh Three Dark Crowns #3:

Of course I say this to every book. Also, to every turkey.

News Round-up, or, What a Crappy Blogger I Am.

I said I would update this blog monthly. Monthly! HA! I laugh in the face of monthly! Anyway, time and deadlines got away from me and all the big news I intended to post here was announced ages ago, so I’m just going to roll through everything I think I was supposed to mention. (I may have mentioned some already. But repeats? HA! I laugh in the face of repeats!)

How should we do this? Oldest to newest? Sure. Why not.

*In February (yes, February, for pete’s sake) THREE DARK CROWNS was optioned for film by Fox and Shawn Levy’s 21 Laps, which I could not be more thrilled about because STRANGER THINGS! and ARRIVAL! and WOO! and AAAHH! I have no more news about this yet, but have spoken to some of the producers/execs and they are awesome. I’m just going to stay out of their way, help where I can, and let them do their awesome thing. Nice write-up here at Deadline.

*FOUR BOOKS INSTEAD OF TWO! Thanks to you, the readers, I get to useastaap.org write more Fennbirn books. I love you readers. Books 3 & 4 will be direct sequels, but I didn’t stretch the series further than was intended, I promise. ONE DARK THRONE still ends where it always would have. Now I just get to tell the after. Did I mention I love you readers?

*PLUS NOVELLA! In December, an ebook novella titled THE YOUNG QUEENS will arrive for any of you who are curious about the sisters’ childhood, their birth and their separation. Available for pre-order anywhere ebooks are sold, and also behind the link 🙂

*SIGNED ONE DARK THRONE and SPECIAL EDITION! I’m signing my wrists away and using many different colored pens for the signed edition of One Dark Throne. And Barnes and Noble will stock a special edition featuring an extra chapter! There are many details about this (the hows and wheres and whatnots) so I’ll write up an actual post explaining better soon. Or in 2 months. You know how I am.

*STARRED REVIEW from KIRKUS for ONE DARK THRONE! I just about fell over reading this review. I think my favorite part was “…already pitch-black tale shades even darker, as the queens’ cruel contest piles up an escalating (and grisly) body count.” MUAHAHA…HA. Read the full review here.

And that’s it for now! More to come, like perhaps pre-order bonuses, tour dates, and dare I say more stories. I’ll try to be better at updates. For now, enjoy this fine photo of Dylan Captain Morganing through Hawaii.

Movies and Sequels and Crows. Oh my!

Any list of three things separated by “and”, has to have the phrase “Oh my!” behind it. Thanks a lot, Wizard of Oz.

I’ve been away from the blog awhile, so here’s the skinny:

The principal cast for the ANNA DRESSED IN BLOOD movie was announced, here’s the Deadline write-up. It’s Cameron Monaghan as Cas, and Maddie Hasson as Anna, and I could not be happier about those choices. They’ve got it all, those two, and I can’t wait to see what they will do with the roles. It was a particular thrill to get Cameron, as my best friend knows ZERO actors, but she knows him from Shameless, so she could actually be excited. Also, both of them are only 3-4 degrees from Kevin Bacon, which is always important. The director is Trish Sie, the screenwriter is Allison Wood, and when you put them together with Stephenie Meyer and Meghan Hibbett from Fickle Fish Films, you’ve got a lot of rad women in Hollywood.

I’ll say more about this movie business if and when the film swings into production. In my mind, it’s still a fragile baby egg, and I don’t want to jinx it by yacking about it too much. But feel free to tell me what you think of the casting!

Also happened: I finished Three Dark Crowns 2, which has a real title and everything! We’re already starting to talk about cover concepts for it, which seems unreal. This biz moves simultaneously slowly and at light speed. More cover related: the UK cover for Three D will be revealed soon!

Went to BEA and Bookcon. Next up: Geekycon in Florida. I’ll have Three Dark Crowns decals (bumper stickers?) to hand out. And I’m working with a bookstore on how to get signed, personalized preorders for those who have asked. A big, huge, crazy large thank you to everyone who has preordered already.

Crows! There are crows in our backyard. They have a nest up in a tree and we’re trying to feed them and earn their trust. So far we’ve managed to get them some worms, but I don’t think they knew the worms were from us. You can’t leave a “To, From” gift tag on a worm, you know? But I’m not giving up. I’m going to go buy some unsalted unshelled peanuts.

Standing in the middle of a book.

Hello, March. I am coming to you today from the mid-point of Three Dark Crowns 2. Or thereabouts. February was a pretty productive month, only the equivalent of one day’s words was lost. So, at this point, I’m still on track to finish sometime in April as planned.

Of course by “finish”, I don’t mean done. I’m going to re-write this puppy so intensely it won’t know its own name. And if that sounds dirty, I meant it to.

Other stuff that happened in February: Hypable revealed the cover for Three Dark Crowns! And I updated my website with it, and the description, and pre-order links here. Because nothing says loving like a pre-order, if you are feeling so kind, and so inclined.

I always feel weird asking folks to pre-order, but it really does help a book and makes everyone involved with it feel warm and fuzzy inside. So…please DO pre-order Three Dark Crowns. And, please DON’T poach elephants. Not that any of you would dream of poaching an elephant.

Hey, just for fun I’m going to talk a bit about the Three Dark Crowns cover. And break it down a bit. Here goes.

So, the top crown there, that represents Queen Arsinoe and the naturalists, their affinity for growing stuff and whatnot.

The middle crown is for Queen Mirabella, the elemental. Fire isn’t her favorite, but neither is it her least favorite. Her favorite is the wind and her gift to work with weather, but what were they going to do, a crown with a sad cloud hanging over it? Cute, but no cigar.

The last crown is for Queen Katharine, (I pronounce it Cat-ah-reen, but do how you like), and the poisoners. They wear venomous snakes like jewelry.

I do love this cover. And I was no help with it. Harper kindly asked for input, and I said, in my usual articulate fashion: Uh, sure, uh, covers are nice, uh, could it not be bright butter yellow?

Scuttlebutt is that there will be a different cover in the UK, so I may have another one to share soon. That will be quite the experience for me, as Anna Dressed in Blood looks the same in pretty much every language.

Ok…until next time. When I will be standing hopefully in the last quarter of a book.

The Last #31HorrorFilms31Days Post (plus event recaps)

I did it. Oh yes. 31 Horror Films in 31 days, and man, what a ride. I feel….all caught up on my horror films. Now if only I could say the same thing for my reading pile.

THE LAST OF THE LIST (Films marked with * indicate a film I had never seen before)

24. THE POSSESSION* – once again, a demon targets a tiny little girl. Come on demons, go infest The Rock or Vin Diesel. Make it interesting. Bonus: Kyra Sedgwick, a.k.a. Mrs. Kevin Bacon, gets to play it really, really clueless as the mom.

25. THE THING* – the 80’s one, not the one with Scott Pilgrim’s girlfriend. Lots of fun with steroids-au.com defrosted aliens in the isolated arctic. Lucky for the aliens, these people have severe trust issues, and are horrible at not becoming infected.

26. ANNABELLE* – Creepy doll. The initial satanic home invasion was the scariest thing about this. And I couldn’t stop thinking of the spoof in A Haunted House 2, where Marlon Wayans bones it.

27. FRIDAY THE 13TH* – I kept waiting for some prime Kevin Bacon full frontal, but I guess he had to warm up to it. Fine. This was his first movie. Also, man, this final girl deserved to die. Stop just briefly incapacitating Mrs. Voorhees!

28. HALLOWEEN* – Very enjoyable yarn about inept people chasing a superkiller, and a little boy who just can’t articulate what the Boogeyman looks like, dammit.

29. HALLOWEEN II* – Because the first one just wasn’t finished. Thank god we stopped before Season of the Witch.

30. NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 5 – Did not mean to watch this. Got sucked into a marathon on IFC.

31. NEW NIGHTMARE – I love this movie. So meta. And I had to end on Wes Craven. I only wish he’d had the courage to ask Johnny Depp to appear in it, like he wanted.

For the last two nights, I’ve been on the ILLUMINAE Tour with Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman, as well as fellow local guy Shawn Speakman (THE DARK THORN, set in Seattle! Check him out, he’s got rad tales), and man it’s been fun. First stop was at University Bookstore, which is always fab, and where I finally found my heart’s desire, a copy of Milan Kundera’s THE FESTIVAL OF INSIGNIFICANCE. Me and a bottle of wine have a date with that book. There will be weeping. And joy. And inappropriate touching.

Anyway, night two was in my old stomping grounds: the Lynnwood Barnes and Noble! Another great panel. Amie and Jay tell the best stories. If you can get your butt to one of their stops, I recommend it. And if you haven’t read ILLUMINAE yet, stop reading this and go do that instead. Then come back and we can talk about my love of AIDAN.

This weekend, I’m in Portland to hang with April Genevieve Tucholke, McCormick Templeman, Cat Winters, and many, many others at Wordstock. Fun times will be had. Come on out, if you’re around. It’s at the art museum.

Now, it’s back to the THREE DARK CROWNS grind. Did I mention I saw the flap copy? Did I mention that it’s bitchin? Cover should be coming soon.

#31HorrorFilms31Days (Part Two)

If you read the last post you know I’ve been participating in the #31HorrorFilms31Days challenge, because any excuse to watch horror movies is good with me. Though at the outset I feared being able to complete it, due to lack of time, or lack of interest in 31 different and mainly unseen films, I think I’m going to pull it off. Horror flicks are generally short, too, so that helps. It’s not like I’m trying to watch The Lord of the Rings movies 31 times.

PART TWO: Films 11-23 (those denoted with an asterisk are ones I have never seen before)

11. THE WOMAN IN BLACK 2: Angel of Death* – Look, spoiler alert, this broad killed Harry Potter in the first one, and I wanted to know what somebody was going to do about it. Such things are not allowed.

12. MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE* – Stephen King directed it and Lisa Simpson screams a lot in this “asteroid caused our machines to turn murderous” flick. Fun. And nice stunts!

13. DON’T LOOK NOW* – Okay, more an art house thriller than horror, I still find all the Donald Sutherland nudity to be plenty horrifying. Good acting though.

14. THE FINAL GIRLS* – Friends trapped in one of their favorite horror films and have to survive it? Sign me up! The Adderall-fueled striptease was hilarious.

15. THEY LIVE!* – Rowdy Roddy Piper finds sunglasses that let him see the alien invaders around him. Spoiler alert, they’re everywhere. Double spoiler alert, Rowdy Roddy Piper has come here to kick ass and chew bubblegum, and he is all out of bubblegum. (seriously, is this where that phrase came from?)

16. IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS* – More John Carpenter, this one played out like Stephen King’s wet dream where everything he writes comes to life. Sam Neill grounds this picture but it’s still a fairly wild ride.

17. 7-Below* – what the hell is this shit? Seven people trapped in a murder house where Ving Rhames tries to be terrifying and someone asks for more sex from Val Kilmer. Look, he only has so much sex to give, all right?

18. SCREAM 2 – Dylan had never seen it. And honestly, it’s a pretty decent movie. Particularly compared to the rest of the Scream sequels.

19. OUIJA* – I like movies about Ouija boards. Don’t judge me.

20. THE LAZARUS EFFECT* – Like a heartless, updated Flatliners, where you just want everyone to turn slap happy.

21. CRIMSON PEAK* – This was a beautiful film. As expected. Unexpected was the sight of Tom Hiddleston’s hiney. I think I made a little noise in the theater. Do note that this is more gothic romance than horror. The scariest thing about it was seeing it an an actual theater, and keeping an eye out for potential mass shooters. Thanks for ruining the movies for me!

22. DELIVERANCE* – Recommended by a friend who loves hillbillies. Dylan noted that Angelina Jolie must get her long legs from Jon Voight.

23. HELLRAISER* – Wanted this to be scarier. Wanted it to have less boning. It was sort of 50 Shades of Pinhead.

On the writing front I’m still working on THREE DARK CROWNS. I did see the flap copy for it this week, and loved it. It’s always weird when that first piece of a book arrives that I didn’t actually work on. Like, other people are working on this. It’s going to be a book. That remains very, very weird. And cool.

Speaking of that, time to get back to it. Word to your mothers.

I wish I was a better writer. Or at least an Oscar Mayer wiener.

Actually, despite everyone seemingly being in love with them, I do not care for Oscar Mayer wieners. They are too fancy for me. I take my wieners cheap, kept in some guy’s stand, soaking in tepid water half the day and made of lips and butts. That’s how I like ’em.

But this post isn’t about wieners. As usual it’s not about much of anything, but I suppose it could partially be about being a better writer. Because I do wish I was a better writer.

Work continues on THREE DARK CROWNS 2, and some days, it goes okay. Other days, I stare at my screen and ask who the hell taught me to string two sentences together. The answer? Nobody! Nobody fricken taught me how, because I can’t, and it sucks, and I’m going to burn this mother down.

Even when it’s good, I’ll read it back and think: hmm. Not terrible. Pretty decent, even. But it isn’t THAT good. It’s not like, Marcus Sedgwick good. Not Caitlin Kiernan good. Not (insert a hundred other writers’ names here) good. Sometimes, I’ll read through something I wrote and be horrified. Like, I-wish-someone-would-drag-me-out-into-the-street-and-beat-me-with-it-until-I-repent horrified.

But I don’t always feel that way. Occasionally I can read my old stuff and enjoy it as if I wasn’t the one who wrote it at all. When the writing is good, that’s how I usually feel. Good writing takes me out of the equation completely.

I will always push to be as good as so-and-so, and come up short. It’s the only plan I have to continually get better. I’ll try new methods. Different styles. This is what I remind myself when the self-critic says I ought not be in this business and puts a cigar out on my head.

Anyway, we finally watched IT FOLLOWS last week and while Dylan did not enjoy, I recommend it. It was annoying, but that was sort of the point, and the idea of being followed in that way managed to make it hard for me to sleep. I count that a win. Still not as good as The Babadook, though.

And speaking of movies, it’s weird how one can go from intense fear and dislike of raptors in Jurassic Park to intense love and devotion to them in Jurassic World. In Park, I begrudged them eating even that gimpy kid, and I was totally with Muldoon. Shoot her. Shooot….heer! And then came Blue and I want to put a bonnet on her and move her in with Ma and Pa Ingalls.

P.S., can anyone tell me how to feel about Jared Leto’s Joker? Because I just. Don’t. Know. Must see more.