Hello there! :)
Last Nov. 30th, the giveaways for Incarnate/Asunder and Pushing The Limits has ended and I and Rafflecopter picked the winners. I already emailed them and they have replied. Congratulations again, Angie over Pinkindle and Erika W. for winning!
So. December. Let's welcome our first debut author of 2012 for the new month! :)
"To fans and readers: First off, thank you! You’re awesome, and the amount of time and love you guys devote to books and the worlds people are making every day is kind of humbling. I hope ABOVE speaks to you. :)"
- LEAH BOBET, debut author of 2012
How was the feeling of being a published author, at last?
For me – and I get that this might not be a popular answer! – it’s pretty normal. It just is.
I’ve been publishing short fiction and poetry in magazines and anthologies since I was 19, and I had a pretty long production cycle on ABOVE to boot: two years between the acceptance and publication! So I think in the time before the book came out, I just got used to it. After all, there’s only so excited you can be on a day-to-day basis, for two years, before you either a) explode; or b) need to go calm down, make your lunches, and do your laundry. So I felt accomplished, and happy, and a little surprised, but...mostly it’s just like life. A very good, ridiculously awesome life? But just life.
What is/are the best thing/s that happened after your book was published?
The best thing, hands down, was getting not one, but two arts grants this year for two different projects – which meant I could leave my old job and take the next year to just write. It means keeping a very strict day-to-day budget, and there’s no guarantee I won’t be going back to work once those grants run out, but it’s been the most incredible shift in my day-to-day life: Instead of writing being something I cram around a 40-hour-a-week job when I’m exhausted and busy, it is my job for the next little while – which means I get to do more of my own cooking (which I love to do) and get full nights of sleep regularly, and write as carefully, with as much attention to detail, as I need. Not only will this get the next few novels done faster? I’m so, so much happier. Which is ultimately what’s important.
Did you plan, all along, to write/publish a book with the genre of what you got right now?
I didn’t honestly plan in terms of genres all that much: mostly, I see what ideas strike me interestingly, and what I want to say, and build the genre around those things. It’s more about the best house for the idea – and half my work is cross-genre anyway, so.
Are you interested in writing with different genre or audience?
I definitely am! My current project is only describable as post-epic fantasy, dustbowl, YA literary fiction (yes, that many words. It’s complicated); the one after that is a contemporary novel with a touch of magic, more like ABOVE; the one after that is kind of Russian-Edwardian urban second-world fantasy-yeah-I-don’t-even-know. And I do have some adult novels planned, and a computer game project I’m puttering at with some friends, and a book of poetry I nibble at every so often.
I tend to like to hop genres or formats a lot: It keeps me interested, which is important for a writer who occasionally does not have the best attention span!
What is your (best/fun/unforgettable) moment with a fan?
This was a few years ago, and wasn’t to do with ABOVE, actually: Another short story writer/editor and I were chatting in the hallway outside a convention room party, and she mentioned this story that she just loved, and couldn’t remember the author. She’s describing the story to me in detail, and it slowly dawns on me, in this kind of warm swimmy dizzy way, that, well...it was mine. She didn’t even realize.
It was the best, most sincere compliment I’ve ever been paid.
Which stresses you more: writing/finishing your book, looking for a publisher/getting your book published, or seeing negative feedback from the readers?
The writing. Everything else on that list I can’t affect or control, really, but when I’m writing, that’s the time I have to do my best.
Was there any book/s from other debut author of 2012 that you loved?
There is! I was really, really fond of Gina Damico’s Croak – it’s drop-dead hilarious, and really well written!
Did you read your book (like, from first page to last)? If you did, what did you felt?
I didn’t: before it went to press I’d read and revised it upwards of 12 times, and at that point, I was a little sick of it and a little too excited about the next thing! But I’ve given readings since, and when I do, it will startle me sometimes: turns of phrase, or moments, that I don’t remember being that emotionally effective.
Tell us about your next project.
Right – the complicated one! The next project is about a sixteen-year-old girl who’s desperately trying to keep her family farm together after all the men in the area have gone south to fight a war against a dark god – and her brother-in-law, her only family aside from her very pregnant older sister, hasn’t come back. Right before the winter starts in a veteran shows up at the gate, asking to hire on as a farmhand, and hoping to save the farm and make her sister proud, she hires him. The problem is, there are things following him – and pretty quickly, saving the farm becomes more a matter of facing down a stranded wicked god’s prophet and frantically patching rips between worlds than making sure the chicken coop’s repaired.
It’s an odd, post-apocalyptic, post-epic fantasy, just plain weird little book. And I’m enjoying it very, very much.
Share us one embarrassing moment you've had.
I, um, do not really embarrass easily. At all.
(Yes, she’s one of those.)
Fave joke?
Every joke I like is way, way too dirty to put on the Internet. *cough*
What's the recent thing that made you cry?
I can’t honestly remember, which is kind of how I like it. Crying should be rare enough that it’s not sticking up in my mind as, “Oh, I did that an hour ago!”
I suspect it was something fairly sweet and lovely my boyfriend said. He’s good at making me occasionally mooshy and misty-eyed over the best small things.
When's your birthday?
Early May! Warm enough for outside or patio parties, sometimes. If you get lucky. :)
Do you read/believe in horoscopes?
I read them sometimes, but I don’t put too much stock in them. They’re fun, mostly, for me!
Fave movie?
Eek – I’m not great at favourites; I’m a creature of many, many enthusiasms. But my current favourite movie is Brick: high school 1940s-style noir with Joseph Gordon-Levitt. It is so very subtle, and so sharp. When I’m sad, though? It’s The Princess Bride.
Fave artist/song?
Oh, that’s even harder than picking a favourite movie! I am a ridiculous indie music nerdface fiend. Ridiculous. I am in love with so many bands, always.
In a very temporary way, the one I’m totally obsessed with this week (yes, this week) is Mother Mother’s “Let’s Fall in Love”. Ryan Guldemond has this amazingly textured voice, and it’s just driven and vicious and soft, and indie rock songs that are basically a big biting reply to a Cole Porter Broadway showtune are...well, best thing.
How did you celebrate the publishing of your book? :)
On the official Canadian release date, which was a month early? I went to see The Darcys and Bombay Bicycle Club with my roommate, danced until we couldn’t breathe, and then stopped for shawarmas on the way home. Which isn’t exactly abnormal around here, but still, it was a great show.
The official US release date was on the very first weekend after my last day at my old job, and so it got folded into Quitting My Job celebrations the whole weekend long. But on that day? I went to brunch with a friend on Roncesvalles Avenue and then...we had a work date. For the first time in a while, now that I had time and wasn’t always too exhausted to do it? I wrote new words on a new book.
It was the best celebration there is.
*****
Know more about Leah:
I’m a Canadian writer of literary science fiction and fantasy with a love for mythic prose and an obsession with the secret hearts of cities. News, upcoming appearances, miscellany, and the day-to-day writerish life, all here.
by Leah Bobet
Date published: April 1st 2012 by Arthur A. Levine Books
Summary (Goodreads):
Matthew has loved Ariel from the moment he found her in the tunnels, her bee’s wings falling away. They live in Safe, an underground refuge for those fleeing the city Above—like Whisper, who speaks to ghosts, and Jack Flash, who can shoot lightning from his fingers.
But one terrifying night, an old enemy invades Safe with an army of shadows, and only Matthew, Ariel, and a few friends escape Above. As Matthew unravels the mystery of Safe’s history and the shadows’ attack, he realizes he must find a way to remake his home—not just for himself, but for Ariel, who needs him more than ever before.
“Above pulls off that rare trick of being convincing and utterly magical at the same time.” —Emma Donoghue, New York Times bestselling author of Room
“Leah Bobet’s Above is that rarest of creatures, combining the outspoken honesty of a good first novel with the craft of a seasoned professional.” —Elizabeth Bear, Hugo Award-winning author of Dust
*”[A] dark, dazzling tale…Bobet effortlessly blends reality and fantasy, her characters are both gifted and broken—hers is a world that is simultaneously fantastic and painfully real. Heartbreaking, romantic, complex, and magical, this fantasy lingers on the senses.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review
“Bobet fearlessly takes the reader to uncomfortable places, where, as Matthew discovers, there is always more than one side to a story.” —Quill & Quire
“A tremendous adventure, as well as a meditation on how our mythologies shape us…a gorgeous tale.” —Toronto Life
“[Readers] willing to go along with this captivating exploration of both individual and collective identity will find themselves pondering its implications long after the last page.” —Kirkus
“Bobet has crafted a genre-defying story that is as dark and twisting as the underground tunnels in which it is set.” —VOYA
Buy ABOVE now!
GIVEAWAY!
(Please READ these important details before jumping to the Rafflecopter! :)
- win a copy of ABOVE
- open to US and Canada only.
- one winner will be picked via Rafflecopter entries.
- the winning entry will be CHECKED. So please be honest in entering each one of them--you never know, it might be the winning entry.
- if the winner has not responded within 48 hours, another winner will be picked.
- all personal details will be kept privately and deleted after.
- Leah and I are not responsible for any lost or damaged packages.
- ends December 18th
* Thank you so much Leah Bobet and Lauren over Scholastic for your time and donation of Above for the giveaway! :)
Previous author (Nov. 29th): Alecia Stone
Next author (December 4th): Marissa Meyer
a Rafflecopter giveaway
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