Here's another short, fun interview with me over at Fantastic Book Review: "Sensastion 7 with Tate Hallaway."
Here's a teaser:
If Hollywood made a movie about your life, whom would you like to see play the lead role as you/ Why?
Matthew Broderick. He’s about the right height, has my haircut, and we’re close to the same age. He’d have to wear a fat suit, but, you know, I think the guy could use the work.
ALMOST TO DIE FOR is in stores today, and as part of that I was on KARE-11's "Showcase Minnesota" _live_. The link to my segment is here:So Sixteen Ain't So Sweet in Tate Hallaway's Almost to Die For.
I wrote a bit about how weird it is to be on TV over at my LiveJournal blog.
Also, there's an interview with me over at Ellz Readz: Interview Tate Hallaway.
Hopefully, with all this publicity, people will feel as though they simply can not live unless they run off to the store today and buy my book (or three.)
The Book Butterfly posted a lovely 10-question interview with me on her blog, which you should check out: "Ten Tantalizing Questions with Tate". Alas, I have since learned that my alter-ego's new book won't be out until March 2011. However, just for fun, let me reprint one of my answers here.
If you could inhabit the life of one literary character and dive into their world for just one day, who would you choose and why?
It’s a well known fact that I want to be Captain America from the Marvel Universe. Actually, I’m sort of surprised I haven’t gotten the casting call for the new movie. Something about my gender and only being 5’2”, I guess, I’m not sure…. ;-) The super soldier formula could come in really handy when I need to catch a bus is all I’m saying.
A very nice article about me (and my alter ego, pictured above) and the end of Garnet and beginning of Ana appeared in the Pioneer Press today. Check it out: St. Paul Author Introduces Her New Series About a Vampire Princess.
Yesterday was another one of those ridiculously busy days.
I had gutter installers coming at some point (you know, the whole between noon and midnight,) and a staff photographer from the Pioneer Press at 3:00 PM. And guess when the gutter guys came? That's right! 3:00 PM! But, as it happens our house is such a mess, I decided that I'd offer to go to some other location with the photographer. We ended up at that cemetery on Front, Calvary? He offered to go to a place featured in the book, but I didn't think I could get onto the roof of the Saint Paul Farmer's Market or into any house in Cathedral Hill. Anyway, I think the cemetery will be fine. People expect cemeteries and vampires, and I did NOT dress goth, so it might make a fun juxaposition. We'll have to wait and see. The article is supposed to come out Sunday, August 1.
Of course, when it does, I'll post a link here.
If you missed listening to me blather live on KFAI's "Write On! Radio" you can catch it in the archived files: http://www.kfai.org/writeonradio.
Actually finding the file is kind of confusing. You have to click on the archive for 7/20/10, and accept the terms and conditions. Then it looks like you got nowhere because there's a list of all the guests, etc. BUT, if you scroll down past the announcements you'll find a tiny little header "Previous Shows" and a reddish button for either .mp3 stream or real audio. That's the show. I'm in the second half. As far as I know there's no good way to skip ahead, alas. I'd say I'm worth the wait, but I'm not sure that's true. (I felt like SUCH a dork.)
So this has been going around the Interwebs: "I Write Like" It's one of those thingies where you put in a couple of paragraphs of your writing and a program analyzes it. I tried it, and the first result was Dan Brown.
While I like the idea that I write like an international bestseller, I mean, who wouldn't? But, I see myself as a bit more breezy, chatty, etc., so I thought I'd try a few different paragraphs in the same book. The results were Vladimir Nabokov and David Foster Wallace. The more I tried, the more it kept coming back to Wallace. I even tried my alter ego's science ficition and got Wallace. So, I think that must be a more accurate reflection of who a computer thinks I write like.
Secretly, I was hoping it would say: You write like Lyda Morehouse.
I've got a new book coming out in August, and, consequently, I'll be out and about town promoting it. I thought I'd invite all y'all to a few:
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Tuesday, July 20, I'll be interviewed on KFAI's "Write On Radio" show. They're going prime time, so the show now starts at 7:00 PM. You can find KFAI on your dial at 90.3 Mpls/106.7 St. Paul or streaming live at http://www.kfai.org/writeonradio (look for the button in the sidebar). Also, for those in other time zones, there is a running archive at the bottom of the page so you can listen at your leisure.
Tuesday, August 3, I will be interviewed LIVE on KARE-11 TV at about 10:15 am, possibly for the "Showcase Minnesota" show. Details are still a bit uncertain as my publicist just landed this gig for me today. This will quite literally be five of my fifteen mintues of fame, so if you tune in DON'T BLINK or you'll miss me. :-) I haven't checked the website thoroughly yet, but I suspect the show will also be archived somewhere.
Saturday, August 7, I'll be two places at once. Actually, what happened was that I accidentally booked these signings right on top on one another, so first I'll be at Uncle Hugo's at 1:00 - 2:00 pm. You can find Uncle's at 2864 Chicago Avenue South in Minneapolis. Then, I'm going to make a mad dash across town to the Roseville Barnes & Noble for a reading officially starting from 2:00 - 3:00 pm. I've talked to the event coordinator and she knows that I'll be a bit late, but she suggests you come at 2:00 pm anyway and enjoy the free cookies and beverages while you wait. If you go, head to 2100 Snelling Avenue North (the HarMar Mall) or call (651) 639-9256 for directions.
Sorry for the long absence, but I was finishing up writing (and making revisions to drafts of) the next ALMOST book, which I'm pleased to say I turned in two WHOLE days early. This is somewhat of a miracle for me, as I'm one of those people who always turns in project the very last second of the deadline. If a professor said a report could be turned in by midnight on Friday, I'd have it in at 11:59 p.m.
Also, I wanted to pass on this very sweet review of HONEYMOON of the DEAD from Paranormal Romance. Like me, she's very sad to see the end of Garnet's adventures.
RT Book Reviews has this to say about ALMOST TO DIE FOR, which they gave 4 1/2 stars:
Ana is a lovable teen whom just wants to make everyone proud, and in the end, must see that she has only to accept herself. Hallaway has created a paranormal Princess Diaries that is sure to please readers.
Whoot!
I participated in an article for GEEK SPEAK MAGAZINE called "Dead and Doing It" where the authors Rachel Hyland and Kate Nagy do an in-depth examination of the question: Why Vampires?
Those who know me best as my alter-ego will laugh when they read my answer in comparsion to the others... I, er, got a little _deep_ and acted like I was on a panel at WisCON or something.
My editor just sent me this, and I nearly died:
STARRED Review, Publisher's Weekly:
"Hallaway's witty, fast-paced series starter cheerfully details the horrors of magical war and high school. Anastasija Ramses Parker is a modern day witch's daughter fond of wearing "black with black and black" but hopelessly unable to perform actual magic. When she flunks her coven's initiation ceremony, she learns her father is a vampire -- and not just any vampire, but a vampire leader, which makes her "some kind of vampire princess"... Ana's narration is pitch-perfect and totally teen: half calculated attitude, half wistful empathy. This all-too-brief tale will have readers hunting down Hallaway's Garnet Lacey series while they wait for Ana's next adventure. (Aug.)"
I guess I get to cross that off my "life list": Get starred review in PW....(faints!)
My alter ego, Lyda Morehouse, is going to take over this blog for a moment to announce that the anthology that her short story "Jawbone of an Ass" appears in has an official release date, October 19, 2010. The title of the anthology is SHE NAILED A STAKE THROUGH HER HEAD:TALES OF BIBLICAL TERROR, and, more importantly, you can pre-order it NOW through Amazon.com.
Also, if you happen to be in the Twin Cities area for CONvergence next weekend, you can get an early copy from the editor Tim Lieder during his 2:00 pm Friday, July 2 signing at CONvergence.
Lyda describes the short story this way: "What would it be like to know that God is absolutely *not* on your side? 'Jawbone of an Ass' is a modern day retelling of the story of Sampson’s first wife (known only as the woman of Timor), who slowly comes to realize the horror of knowing she, through no fault of her own, is on the wrong side of the wrath of angels." She sometimes also refers to it as her Samson/IRA story.
okay to forward
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July 5-30, 2010
"Creating Strong Middle Grade & YA Fiction"
by Kate Coombs
$30 at www.WriterUniv.com
You want to be the next Roald Dahl, E. B. White, or even J. K. Rowling or Stephanie Meyer, but how do you get from here to there? The answer, of course, is to make your manuscript strong enough to stand our in a crowded, competitive field. Join us for a workshop in which we get you started or refine the work you've already drafted with an eye toward improving your chances for publication. If possible, try to have at least one chapter of your manuscript written when class begins, however rough it may be.
Course topics include:
* Good/bad news - where your book falls in today's market
* Targeting hidden obstacles that keep books from fulfilling their potential
* Strengthening character and plot
* Tightening text, brightening language
* From irresistible beginnings to slam-bang endings
* Finding your spot and maximizing your voice
* Tips about submissions and publishers
* Developing new children's book projects
Kate Coombs has three books in print, a 2006 Parents' Choice Recommended picture book called The Secret-Keeper and a 2007 American Library Association Notable Book called The Runaway Princess along with a well-reviewed sequel, The Runaway Dragon. Kate has three more books coming out in 2011-2012. In addition, she maintains a children's book review blog called Book Aunt. Kate has also worked as a college writing teacher, a K-12 teacher, and a curriculum specialist.
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If any of you local folks don't happen to have plans tonight, on this (potentially) rainy Friday night, feel free to come on down to Dreamhaven to hear my alter ego read.
The details are --
Friday, June 4, 2010 Lyda Morehouse will be reading from RESURRECTION CODE at Dreamhaven Books at 6:30 - 7:30 pm as part of the Speculations series. Dreamhaven is most recently located at 2301 East 38th Street, Minneapolis. You can find out more information at dreamhavenbooks.com. SPECULATIONS is a co-production of Dreamhaven and SF MINNESOTA, a multicultural speculative fiction organization that also sponsors DIVERSICON.
Yesterday I should have been writing, but some friends of ours are in town. I feel moderately guilty about this, but I could feel worse, except that as part of hanging out we ended up strolling through the part of Saint Paul that I've decided is my YA heroine's neighborhood, Cathedral Hill.
The memory is a funny thing. Earlier that very day, I wrote a little scene where Ana is walking down Grand Avenue. My mental image of the place was slightly different than the real thing.
I was talking to a fellow vampire author, Fred Schepartz, (Vampire Cabbie) via email about writing about place (he was going to be on a panel at WisCON about writers who feature Madison, and he'd volunteered to read my stuff, since I was mentioned by name in the panel description.) One of the things I thought about afterward is how much the Madison of the Garnet Lacey series doesn't exist, not really -- much of it is impressions (some certainly false, or at least not 100% accurate) and the rest based on things that I remember but I know don't exist any more (businesses that have folded, moved, etc.) Yet, Fred had mentioned how much he thought I'd "nailed it."
I think that part of the reason my imagined Madison works is because, as a tourist, I fell in love with the spirit of the place. It's figuring out how to capture the feelings associated with a certain town that can be difficult. I'm really noticing that writing about Saint Paul that I'm actually finding it much MORE elusive to write about a place I know so well. It's sort of like when you're in an interview for a job and someone asks you to name five things that describe yourself. You're not sure what to say (outside of the things you think will get you the job), but if someone asked you to describe your best friend, it's a lot easier.
The outsider/tourist, I think, sometimes has a better, more accurate, less self-conscious view of place. I worry a lot less about getting things wrong about Madison, because, well, I'm clear in my acknowledgments that I can't be held responsible for the accuracy, because I'm making some of it up. But as a native to a place, I feel a lot more beholden to show the city mostly the way it is... as a kind of ambassador or something.
I don't know my point, but I think it's an interesting issue.
Donna noted:
"I think that the problem with the Garnet series is that the books cost $15.00 dollars. If you come out with the series in a regular paperback, they would sell real good. The problem is not your books, it is the economy."
Yeah, I actually agree with you, Donna. But this another thing that authors have very little control over, and something, I'll admit I don't really understand about the publishing industry. Trade paperback books have become very fashionable. Yet, they're more expensive (for the reader, at least,) and an awkward size.
I started my career as a paperback writer. There are some cons to it from a writer's point of view. The royalty rates are lower, you earn back a smaller percentage of the lower cover price. The print runs tend to be a lot bigger, which is a double-edge sword for the writer. On one hand, it's nice to feel important enough to have 20,000 or more copies printed. But, if they don't go out the door quickly, publishers tend to get cranky because of the tax laws that require them to pay taxes on inventory in warehouses. That can lead, as it did with my science fiction series, to books going out of print only a year or so after they were published. Which, of course, means that it's nearly impossible to build up momentum on viral/word-of-mouth publicity. Libraries don't like to buy/stock them because they're easily damaged and often a pain to replace (see above re: quickly going out of print.)
But as a long time reader, I much prefer paperback novels for all the reasons they're a pain for publishers and writers. They're cheap! They fit in my purse/backpack/back pocket. They're disposable -- I don't get quite as mad if I lose one, drop it in the bathtub, loan one to a forgetful friend, etc.
Trade paperbacks, on the other hand, are likely cheaper to produce, if only because the print runs tend to be smaller (and so you avoid all those copies gathering dust in warehouses), they're slightly more durable, and, frankly, everyone gets a higher return on their investment because they cost those two or three dollars more. I think, too, that publishers keep the books in print longer because they do very small addititional print runs of a 1,000 or so copies.
But, yes, it also means people buy fewer of them because they're a weird size and that much more expensive. It's a kind of circular logic kind of problem, no?
The good news is that the first book in the Garnet Lacey series, Tall, Dark & Dead, will be coming out in mass market paperback next December from Berkley Sensation if all continues apace.
#2 (from Julie) - I have to admit I don't know anything about the writing business but I don't understand at all how you got told this was the last one. I mean doesn't the writer keep writing if she/he has more stories to tell? Because your Garnet character definitely has a whole lot more living to do in my opinion! This Honeymoon book did not wrap her story up at all... thank Goddess!
You make an excellent point, Julie. The writer often does keep writing when there's more story to tell. I had three more books planned for Garnet (at least!), and would have very, VERY happily kept telling her story. I do think Garnet has a lot more opportunity for growth (as my mother might say), and plenty of adventures yet to be had.
But, at the end of the day, publishing and book writing is a business like any other. My Garnet books are very successful, but the sales of the subsequent books did that thing that many series do -- they slowly dropped as the series continued. The second sold less well than one, three sold less than two... and so on... and by the time we get to five, the publisher is wondering if we need to think of something fresh and new.
So how I got told that this book was the last went like this -- first of all, you should know, if you don't, that authors are usually about a year ahead of bookstores. So I handed in my final Garnet book about this time LAST year. The publisher needs lead time for all sorts of reasons -- revisions, copy-editing, publicity, distribution, not to mention the actual production and design of a book and its cover. After I finished that book, I wrote up proposals for my editor for the next books. My agent submitted them. They're sort of like "audition pieces" and publishers make the decision about buying more based on what they see and what they know you can produce (or sometimes a sample chapter you provide.) My editor liked what she saw, I'm sure, but then she has to sell the idea to her bosses (those people I call "the publisher") and the marketing department (the folks who decide if the books are profitable.)
For the subsequent Garnet books, something fell apart in that proposal process. Either the editor wasn't interested or she couldn't sell the idea to the bean-counters of the publisher because of those diminishing returns, like I noted above. So, my editor gave my agent the bad news and my agent passed it on to me.
Thus, before I even started the next book, I knew the series was ending. Luckily, as I said, this process happened fast enough that I was able to re-write the acknowledgment page of HONEYMOON to let the readers know this was the last book, and do my best during revision to try to make the book feel a bit more like the end (as you noted, that was much less successful than I might have liked because I didn't know this was the last book GOING IN... only GOING OUT.)
I'm sure this is confusing because some writers know exactly how many books they're planning from the beginning, and so you see labels like Book 1 of 3, etc. I'd always conceived the Garnet Lacey series as unending from the get go, so I hadn't pre-planned any kind of finale. I think if I had known, I might have gone all cliche and ended with the wedding, honestly.
As you know, the Garnet series has come to an end. A few people emailed or commented questions about that, and I thought I'd answer them here:
#1. Would you ever consider continuing to write the GL series to put onto this blog? What about e-books? What about pushing them to another publisher (Llewellyn, etc.)?
I would consider it. In fact, just the other day I had a great short story idea come into my head involving early Garnet/Parrish days. It would be interesting and fun, IMHO, to write non-Lilithed Garnet, and, of course, Parrish is always hot.
The biggest roadblock to my doing these things is time. I am currently contracted to write a new young adult series for my publisher, and, with Mason home from school in May (he has a weird year-round school that has an odd vacation schedule), I'm having a hard enough time making word count deadlines for the things I'm getting paid for, you know? I love the idea of doing this, though, and if I were the sort of person who had boundless energy and time, I'd be all over a fiction blog adventure. It certainly seems to work for a lot of my colleagues. I've heard of a lot of professional writers doing this sort of thing. But, if you're a regular reader here you know I hardly am able to keep up with doing this on a daily basis!
The alternate publisher, however, is always a possibility. In fact, my first novel is being put out in paperback by Berkley Sensation at the end of next year, and I have this fantasy that maybe if it's successful as a mass market paperback maybe they'll re-issue all five and ask me for more in the series. A smaller press like Llewellyn is a great idea, but that's something for my agent to handle. I mean, if they approached me? I'd totally make it happen, but normally, I leave that kind of stuff up to my agent.
So, I guess the answer is a qualified yes.
