Author: claudia

I’m extra busy right now, and if you want to know why, you need look no further than my latest blog for HarperTeen. Check it out!

If it seems like it’s been a long time since there were any hike pics, well, sadly, it’s been a long time since there were any hikes. Although I don’t mind rough weather on a hike (in fact, the flash flood hike was one of my favorites ever), the fun level goes down sharply for me as the temperature drops below freezing. And with this winter being so much colder than normal, there’s been little opportunity for me to get out there. Here’s hoping February will offer a couple of weekends in the 40s, so I can get my boots back in action. (They’ve been subbing as snow boots, but really, it’s not the same.)

The paperback for EVERNIGHT will be out soon, and it won’t be long before I’ll start the six-week countdown to the release of STARGAZER! Early next week, I’ll be asking for your thoughts about potential contests and prizes you’d like to see; start thinking now.

OK, time to dive back in —

It’s official: IMMORTAL, an anthology of vampire romance edited by P.C. Cast and featuring stories by many writers (including yours truly), will be rereleased in October 2009. You should be able to find it throughout the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia then. The cover will be slightly revised (and I hope to share that with all of you soon).

To celebrate, TeenLibris is giving away ten copies of IMMORTAL this month! Visit the contest site anytime between now and Feb. 10 for your chance to win. Good luck!

I got to have a talk with the publisher on Monday, which is why I now have all sorts of new information. First of all, I received my first copies of the EVERNIGHT paperback, and they look fabulous. I admit, I was a little worried about how the cover would look in paperback, but the results are pretty amazing. The paperback will reach stores on Feb. 10, which is coming right up!

I also learned a little more about my appearances this summer. At this point, it looks like I’ll be visiting Seattle and Portland in early June. Nothing else thus far, but I’m going to try to set up some additional cities over the summer.

Since I began typing this post, a plane has gone down in the Hudson River, literally about 8 or 9 blocks from here. Sirens everywhere. I’m so thankful that some of the passengers have gotten out and hope they all have.

Because I am STILL hacking my way through the jungle of unanswered e-mail, I only now found out about this terrific review from Kelsey at Just Blinded Book Reviews. Check it out!

I don’t know if I’ll get all caught up this weekend, but hey, at least I’m almost into 2009 by now —

Quick post with good news: We’ve sold the EVERNIGHT rights in Australia/New Zealand! The entire series will be coming out down there, and starting soon: EVERNIGHT will make its Down Under debut in March. Yes, that fast! Whoa.

Those of you in Australia, New Zealand and thereabouts keep watching those bookstore shelves!

— who named EVERNIGHT one of her Top 10 Reads in 2008!

I was talking with a friend about how my beloved Cary Grant chose his stage name. (His birth name, Archibald Leach, was clearly not going to work.) Originally he wanted to be “Cary Lockwood,” but the studio vetoed that; finally, he decided on Cary Grant because the “CG” initials had worked out so well for Clark Gable.

“So is that why you named yourself Claudia Gray?” she asked.

“No,” I said, “but OH MAN, I wish I’d thought of that.”

I like this idea so much I declare it to be retroactively true. Just pretend I’ve been saying that all along, okay?

Mine is to be a better blogger! Though I guess the holidays get to all of us, I fell crazily behind in virtually every way. But I shouldn’t have to travel anywhere for about four months at least, and I’m about to go into book mode (book four of the EVERNIGHT series is about to get started), so things should be a bit quieter for me. Hopefully this means more frequent posts.

Besides, with STARGAZER coming out in just three months (time flies!), I’ll have more news to share, I think.

Some bits of preliminary information — not quite news yet, but maybe worth knowing:

1) I should be going on tour again this summer. That’s absolutely all I know at this point: no cities, dates or anything else confirmed. I have minimal input into where I go, but I will try to let the publisher know where there’s interest.

2) This is very uncertain, but it looks like IMMORTAL — aka, the vampire anthology that somehow never got into bookstores ever — might get a rerelease in 2009. This rerelease would involve the anthology actually reaching bookstores this time. If it comes together, I’ll definitely let you all know right away.

Hope everyone out there had a great holiday season!

PS: It has come to my attention that there’s some EVERNIGHT fanfic out there. I just wanted to take this opportunity to say that, in my opinion, this is awesome.

— brought to us by the genius at Dinosaur Comics.

Hee!

Thanks for the good-health wishes, all. Though I am still under the weather, I think I am finally beginning to get over this rotten cold.

I’ve been fighting off a truly, truly wicked cold for nine days now — ugh — and as such all productive activity (writing, blogging, cooking, Christmas shopping, housecleaning) has ground to a halt. This is mightily annoying, as is the cough, but there’s this one weird side effect to being super-sick: All of a sudden, my brain is FULL of story ideas. Within the nine days, between doses of cough syrup and Nyquil, I’ve come up with a number of different, intriguing ideas, at least three of which I think I want to pursue.

The funny thing is, this has happened to me before. Last year, while recuperating from surgery, I came up with the rough version of the idea that I’ve now spent the past couple of months working on, as well as another couple concepts that, while backburnered for now, are solid story ideas.

And I was just saying to myself about two months ago, “Wow, I haven’t had a new book idea in a while.” But I reminded myself then that, for me at least, these things come in waves: I have no new ideas for ten months, then during the next two come up with more concepts than I could follow if I were a full-time writer for the next five years. What I never realized before was that apparently the waves all come when I’m sick!

Does this happen to anybody else? Would a cure for the common cold (or, in this particular case, uncommonly vicious cold) end all creative thought as we know it? Or is this just the meds talking? Will I come down from my Robitussin high and realize these story concepts are all so much jibberish? Only time will tell.

Technically, this post by Merlin Mann is about photography. But the advice he gives applies equally well to writing and, I suspect, to any other kind of creative endeavor. It’s all about having the courage to fail — to take a picture that doesn’t come out, or write a story that doesn’t sing, or whatever else it is you’re afraid of doing. A quote that might get you to click and read the whole thing:

All I know is that sticking with things that don’t arrive with instant mastery does have its own reward, even if you’re the only one who ever collects it. Because the more you push through the barriers for these little avocations, the easier it becomes to remember you always have everything you need to just keep banging until you’re satisfied with any work that’s thrown at you.

There’s some of what TV censors would call “adult language” in the original post — just FYI.

How is everybody doing post-Thanksgiving? I miss the home cooking already.