Erica O'Rourke

Spring Scavenger Hunt is Here!

I am so thrilled to be participating in the Spring Scavenger Hunt! It was so much fun to hear from everyone last time around, and this Hunt promises to be even more exciting. We have sixty YA authors participating, and the amazing Colleen Houck and Beth Revis have been hard at work streamlining the Hunt to make it easier for you. (Click here to see a list of all sixty authors -- so many pretty shiny covers!)

To make the Hunt a little more manageable, we've split it into three teams of twenty authors each. That means THREE grand prizes (of at least twenty books) and you can enter all three, if you want to. I am on the Blue Team; so if you get lost along the way, you can go back to the original site and pick up where you left off.

 

 

You can get more details about the Spring Scavenger Hunt by clicking here or on the banner  below, but the most important thing to remember is this:

The YA Scavenger Hunt begins Thursday March 29th at noon PACIFIC TIME and ends Sunday April 1st at noon PACIFIC TIME. That gives you only 72 hours to complete the hunt!

 

 

Like before, I'll be offering a special prize here on the day of the hunt, and I'll have more about that later. But for now, I have a question:my bonus content for the previous hunt was an extra scene. This time, I'm taking a scene from one of the books and rewriting it from another character's point of view. And I'm curious: what scene from TORN or TANGLED would you like to see through someone else's eyes? Hit the comments and let me know!

 

Good luck, and happy Hunting!

Destination Destinknitions

I'm over at Allie Pleiter's knitting blog today. Why? Because I knit. And Mrs. Fitzgerald knits, even if you don't see her with needles in hand. And because Allie is one of the nicest people I know and graciously invited me to stop by.

Also, there is a giveaway! How can you resist?

Click here for my knitterly interview.

(As always, I'd be so grateful if you could show some comment love to my hostess, so comments here are closed.)

The Upside of Spectacular Failure: Guest-blogging at Honestly YA

 I'm traveling again today, visiting the wonderful women of Honestly YA to talk about my greatest regrets and the fact that my taste in music hasn't changed much since the mid-90s. We're also giving away a copy of TORN and TANGLED, so swing by and check it out! I'll be back here for WIP Friday.

Click here for the interview.

Also, if this looks wonky, let me know -- I am trying out Blogsy + Typepad for the first time, and decided to throw caution to the wind and skip the instructional video. What could possibly go wrong?

The Glamour Of Pub Day (and a casting contest)

There is a perception in the world that pub days for authors are frenetic celebratory events. Paparazzi. Interviews. Champagne corks popping like the kettle corn booth at the county fair. Flower deliveries. Coordinated outfits. A general recognition by the world that Something Momentous Has Occurred.

No doubt, this true for some people. I, on the other hand, was instructed to scrub the toilets.

"MAMA. You scrub those potties today," said Big Marshmallow as I dropped her off at school, still wearing my pajamas.

So I did.

This is what we in the publishing business refer to as "Living The Dream."

But really, yesterday was pretty low-key. I checked in on twitter and facebook more than usual. Confession: I do not understand how Facebook works. I am the world's worst Facebooker. I spent a lot of time swearing at the screen and wondering who I was logged in as. (Answer: me-myself, me the Author, and my husband, who apparently has a high school reunion coming up.) I answered a lot of emails. I chatted with some friends. I drank more coffee than I should have, but I do that every day.

My one celebratory concession was that we went out for sushi, but that was mostly because the Boyo was out of town for the day and I didn't want to cook dinner. But when we came home, I found the most amazing thing: The delightful BookittyBlog, who had already written a hilarious review of TANGLED, had made a Dream Cast Video. And I am BLOWN away. I stared at the screen and got a little choked up, that someone would take the time to do something so thoughtful. I think she did a fantastic job, especially with her choice for Billy, who gave me the heebie-jeebies in the best possible way. You definitely should check it out and tell her what you think.

TANGLED Dream Cast Video Of Squee

I don't often think about who would play my characters in a movie. My mind doesn't work that way -- Mo is just Mo, when I picture her in my head, and basing her on someone else would get in the way of her development. But seeing this video after the fact is a treat. It lets me see how other people view the characters. It brings them to life in a completely different way. It was the best possible way to cap off my pub day, so thanks, Bookitty, for making it so special.

And before I forget, the winner of the yesterday's giveway is:

Lynda!

Who cracks me up. Behold:

Guess I'll have to go sappy and say it was setting my cap for my future DH. And make no mistake, I pursued him--big time. After nearly thirty years together (yikes, I'm old) we still joke that I did the chasing. All he had to do was stand still and get caught.

 

Today's another giveaway day: Who would you cast for any of the roles in TORN or TANGLED? Winner gets a copy of BOTH books! If you want to make a video/tumblr post/blog post of your choices, so that we can see who you have in mind, paste the link in the comments, and I'll give you credit for a second entry. If you'd rather just list the people below, that's fine too! The contest ends on Sunday at 5pm CST and I'll announce that night, before I sob my way through Downton Abbey. (As always, the contest is international.)

TANGLED is here, and you can win it!

It's official! TANGLED, book 2 in The Torn Trilogy, comes out today. And I can. not. wait. for you to read it.

(Quick Official Reminder: If you're in the north 'burbs of Chicago, I'll be signing copies of TORN and TANGLED at the Vernon Hills Barnes & Noble this Saturday, February 4th, from 2-4 pm. There'll be prizes, treats, and unabashed squeeing at seeing you all in real life.)

TORN was a story about truth. TANGLED is a story about consequences. Because nothing exists in a vacuum, especially the choices we make. There's always fallout. There's always a cost. And for Mo, the truths she learned in TORN were only the tip of the iceberg -- she thinks she knows everything there is to know about the magic and her family, and she acts accordingly -- but the more she learns, the more complicated both become. She's faced with increasingly tough choices, and not just about which boy she loves, but about the person she wants to be. She learns what she's capable of, both good and bad. And she makes more choices, which lead to more consequences -- and to BOUND.

(Side note: TANGLED includes the first chapter of BOUND. And someone you've been waiting to see.)

I love this book. I love Mo, and Colin, and Luc. I love Marguerite and Lena and even Uncle Billy, though he's Bad News. And I want to share the love, so enter below to win a copy of TORN and TANGLED. Just answer in the comments: what's the best choice you ever made? I suppose if you'd rather tell me the worst one, you could do that too...I just happen to be in a cheery mood today. Contest ends tomorrow at noon CST.

I'll go first, by the way. Best choice ever? This boy right here.

 

 

Jiggety-Jog + The Winner

I am back, bay-bee!

My intention was to blog while I was in NYC. I even downloaded a special app designed to make iPad/Typepad blogging work more easily. But it was not to be. Between the meetings and the classes and the procurement of souvenirs and the amazing food, I tumbled into my (ginormous) hotel bed each night, too tired to even attempt it.

But now I am home, wearing my pajamas and staring at an inbox where every other message is flagged with a bright red "FOLLOW UP" label, and a calendar that is giving me what is often referred to as the gimlet eye. And not the good kind of gimlet, either.

SO. TANGLED comes out tomorrow, and of course there will be stuff happening here to celebrate. Later this week I will show you some pictures of New York, including delicious food and even more delicious yarn. And there will, of course, be giveaways and fun things like that.

In the meantime...we have a winner in the Office Space Giveaway:

Stefi!

She has the coolest office imaginable. The blue paint and white quotes, the history captured in the room...I'm jealous, even if she IS freezing. And Stefi, if you wanted to show us pictures of the awesomeness...feel free!

We live in the country, in the middle of nowhere and there's an old garden shed that I kind of took over and turned into my hangout. I painted over the walls in dark blue and every time I read something that I really like, I've got a bucket of white paint and I use it to paint the passage or phrase or whatever on the blue of the wall. That way I have lots of great things to give me a kick when I'm staring at the wall (literally:)) instead of concentrating:)

My brother's a really great artist and sometimes he comes in and paints these little cartoons of something funny that happened or as an illustration for what I've written on the walls. It's actually kinda cool, because over the years he and I have put together this mural that reflects the history of our high school years. You can even tell the difference between our freshmen or junior years by my handwriting (my cursive got worse because I needed to write faster to take notes in class) and his drawing (he's gotten incredibly good!) I often come here to do college applications and my AP prep. I absolutely love this place we've made together, even though in the winter I freeze!

 Congratulations, and thanks again, guys, for sharing your creative spaces with me. It's so inspiring to see the places you'd carved out for yourselves!

Office Space Outtakes + A Giveaway!

Yesterday, the nice folks at Readers' Entertainment ran a feature on my office/laundry room. It was the cleanest this room has ever been, including the day we moved in. Usually there are piles o'stuff in here -- general laundry, clothes that need mending, papers that need filing, bags for Goodwill, and many, many, MANY empty coffee mugs. It's so clean in here, in fact, that the combination of white walls + white cabinetry/counters + white blinds + snow outside is making me feel like I'm in an operating room.

Don't worry. I give it another three days before it's a complete disaster area again.

Before that happens, I thought you might like to see some of the shots that didn't make it into yesterday's post. As I mentioned, our old place was miniscule, and finding space to write was challenging. When we started looking at houses, our realtor was adamant that I needed something -- a room, a niche, even a decent-sized closet -- that could function as my office. I liked the idea, but it seemed impossible and a little selfish to demand that kind of space for myself. But every time I said, "It's okay. I can write in the living room/our bedroom/the dining room table," Paul The Realtor insisted we keep looking. And then we found this house, and took one look at the giant laundry room with its counters and its big windows, and he said, "You can write here. No one will bother you. This is the house for you. Buy it."

He had hated every single house we'd looked at. Paul The Realtor was a hard man to please. We bought the house.

When I think back on it, I'm a little bit blown away at how determined he was to find us the perfect home. He wouldn't settle -- and he wouldn't let ME settle -- for something that didn't fit the life we had and the life we were hoping to have. Which makes him, in my book, the World's Finest Realtor. It is a wonderful thing when the people you love believe in you. It is no less wondrous when people who barely know you do the same.

So. Let us move on to proof that I will never be a lifestyle blogger.

Yesterday you saw the sign my oldest daughter made, but it was pretty small and the glare was fierce. Here's a closeup.

 

 

Yes, she did spell my name wrong. Yes, it's her last name too. And yes, it was TORN, not TANGLED, that won the GH. But I still melt every time I see it. She wore her favorite metallic gold colored pencil down to a nub coloring those hearts. One of these days, I'll have it framed.

 

 

My mom and dad gave me the old manual Olympia typewriter, which doesn't work but looks cool. Every book gets its own box for all my hard-copy versions -- that box is for BOUND. The blue box on the very end holds notes for future projects.

 

 

I have a nice deep ledge running along this wall. From left to right:

:: Fingerless mitts, because it is COLD in my office.
:: One of my favorite mugs -- the image was wearing off, so I repurposed it to hold writing utensils.
:: A sweet olive-scented candle from the French Market in New Orleans. My favorite. (Sweet olive shows up in TANGLED, by the way.)
:: Honeydukes candy jar, from Harry Potter World. Time for a refill!

 

 

 

Until I manage to hang some shelves in here, the ledge also holds my essential books. The rest are in my bedroom or living room.

:: Baby name books, to name characters and to freak out my husband.
:: TORN and TANGLED, so I can check continuity details while I'm writing.
:: Travel guides for fun and research.
:: Craft and reference books.

 

 

 

Told you it was a laundry room! We have three girls. Hence, a LOT of pink laundry. You also see the corner of my whiteboard. I don't use it as much as I should -- I prefer to outline in a big sketchbook or using the notecard function in Scrivener. But it's there if needed, which is nice.

 

 

More desk essentials:

Hair elastic, spare flash drive, Swiss Army knife, and a pretty blue stone I play with when I'm stumped about a plot point. Usually there's a mug of cold coffee over here, and some wadded up kleenexes, and a candy wrapper or twelve, and some post-it notes that say things like "TIMELINE" and "Check timeline" and "JESUS. TIMELINE." And hand lotion. Where did my hand lotion go???

Anyway. On to the giveaway!

This is the room where TANGLED was written, and I'm curious: where do you work? Whether it's writing/drawing/household management/your favorite hobby, where is the place you go when you need to focus and Get Stuff Done? Answer below, and you'll be entered into a drawing for both TORN AND TANGLED! Contest will close on Sunday at 9 CST; I'll post the winners Monday morning.

And...if you're so inclined, take a picture of your space, post it somewhere (blog, tumblr, twitter, FB, wherever) and link to it in your comments. I'll post a roundup when I announce the winner. (It doesn't earn you an extra entry, or anything like that. I just like to peek inside people's houses. Legally.)

The 13 Days of Doctor Who: Wibbly Wobbly Schedule

(Banner by Studio D.)

To make it easier for you to keep track of the bloghop as it hurtles through space and time, the schedule below will tell you who's hosting each day.

Monday, December 12
Erica O'Rourke: The Moment I Fell In Love With The Doctor

Tuesday, December 13
Eliza Evans: Vincent and The Doctor: Or, How I Became a Fangirl Without Even Trying

Wednesday, December 14
Allie Pleiter: Delightful Detour: Knitting and Doctor Who

Thursday, December 15
Sarah Enni: The Doctor: In Love and Obsession

Friday, December 16
Erika Stroup: Nothing In Who is Ever What It Seems

Saturday, December 17
Phoebe North: The Doctor as an Anti-Hero
 
Sunday, December 18
Clara Kensie: WHO Does It Better: The Doctor vs. Other Famous Doctors
 
Monday, December 19
Kim Samsin: The Alien Within Us

Tuesday, December 20
Tangled Up In Words: The First Time I Met The Doctor

Wednesday, December 21
Ryann Murphy: Knob-Twiddling and Wobbulators: Music In Doctor Who

Thursday, December 22
Lisa Bigelow: Must Love Doctor Who

Friday, December 23
Pamala Knight: Neil Gaiman and the Allegory of the TARDIS
 
Saturday, December 24
Becky, at Libri Dilectio
 
Sunday, December 25
Erica O'Rourke: Grand Prize Drawing!

 

As a reminder, many of the participating blogs will be running individual contests -- follow the directions on each site to enter.

For the grand prize, The Complete Sixth Series on DVD, please leave a comment (on the tour stops, not here!) with your name and email address. You may enter once at every stop on the blog tour for a total of thirteen chances. The Grand Prize giveaway is limited to the US and Canada, due to regional restrictions on the DVD. Individual contest will close at the discretion of the author, but the Grand Prize contest will accept entries on any site until midnight CST on December 24th. We will post the winner on December 25th, and notify the winner via email.

 Good luck! If you have questions, I'm happy to answer them in the comments below, but commenting on this post will NOT count as an entry in the drawing.

The Moment I Fell In Love: 13 Days of Doctor Who

(Banner by Studio D)

Welcome to The 13 Days of Doctor Who Bloghop! A collection of authors, reviewers, librarians, and fans have banded together to count down to the Doctor's annual Christmas Special. This year's special is titled "The Doctor, The Widow, and The Wardrobe." 

(Let us all take a moment to reflect on the fact that I will be TRAVELING on Christmas and therefore will MISS the Christmas Special. If you think I'm not going to watch this trailer over and over until I get home, you are clearly not a regular visitor here.)

Nevertheless, we wanted a way to pass the time until the Doctor's return. Over the next thirteen days, we'll be posting entries around the Interwebs on all sorts of topics DW-related, and we'd love you to come along.

To that end, we're also hosting a giveaway! Many of the individual entrants will hold contents on their sites, but we've also got a grand prize: The Complete Sixth Series DVD. (The one with the Silence and River Song and THE NEIL GAIMAN EPISODE.) There are more details and instructions at the end of this post, as well as information about a second giveaway specific to today's entry.

So...let me tell you about the moment I fell in love with The Doctor.

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People often ask me which Doctor is "my" Doctor. While I am certainly fond of David Tennant, the current incarnation, played by Matt Smith, is probably my favorite. The Eleventh Doctor might look human (conversely, we might look Time Lord) but he is not human. He's an alien, replete with strange taste buds and two hearts and the ability to regenerate. Something about Matt Smith gives us a hint of that, even in his most prosaic moments. Like the TARDIS itself, he manages to seem both ancient and brand-new at the same time. And Series Five, to me, is utterly magical.

 

(You might disagree, and that's okay. I'm not saying he has to be YOUR favorite Doctor, after all.)

 

But of the three Doctors we've seen since 2005, Christopher Eccleston's Ninth Doctor seems to get the shortest shrift. I've yet to meet someone who considers him their favorite. At times, the writers didn't seem to understand how to write for Eccleston, and many of his episodes seem to be about the writers deciding what they wanted to do with the character, instead of writing to the strengths of the actor. But I happen to LOVE Eccleston's Doctor. He's cranky and haunted and impatient, rigid and rough-hewn. He's carries the weight of those 900 years every single day, even in his lightest moments. He's not MY Doctor, but he's the one I fell in love with.

A confession: I was not super-impressed with the first few episodes of Series One. I managed to catch "Rose" and then "Aliens of London"/"World War Three" and frankly...meh. The living mannequins? Carnivorous trash cans? The flatulent Slitheen? The breathtakingly craptastic special effects? This was the long-running pinnacle of British television? I did not get it, and so I didn't bother to watch every episode.

 

And then, up one night folding laundry, I caught "The Empty Child" and "The Doctor Dances."

Everything changed.

 

A brief plot summary: The Doctor and his companion, Rose Tyler, land in London during the Blitz, looking for an object they've been chasing through space. Soon enough, the Doctor and Rose are separated. The Doctor runs into a boy in a gas mask whose presence terrifies a group of vagrant children and is tied to a series of bizarre phone calls; Rose encounters a roguish Time Agent named Jack Harkness. Eventually, Rose, Jack, and the Doctor reconvene, along with Nancy, leader of the vagrant children. The object they've been searching for is slowly transforming the entire town into zombies with gas-masks for faces. Seriously. No, seriously. There are all manner of hijinks and moments of sheer terror, but in the end (spoiler alert) the Doctor triumphs, the zombies are returned to normal, families are reunited, and the Doctor and Rose dance sweetly in the TARDIS while Jack Harkness looks on.

It's this fantastic combination of elements: history and time travel, sly humor, creepy small children, the Doctor trying desperately to unravel a puzzle, and the entire story hinging on truth and love and forgiveness, as it so often does. But there's something different about this episode: so often on DW, the victory takes a terrible toll. People die, either by someone else's hand or as a noble sacrifice. The Doctor recognizes this fact, but you can see how it wears on him. It makes him set his jaw, bow his head, and shoulder through yet another tragedy. It's like his life is one long string of losses: the Time Lords, his companions, innocent people, entire species. When he succeeds in saving people, he knows that it's the exception, not the rule, and those victories are few and far between. There is always collateral damage.

Eccleston conveys this melancholy perfectly. Even when he's giddy with delight, there's a sadness lurking underneath the daft grin, waiting to resume its rightful place once the moment has passed.

But in "The Doctor Dances," it's different. When the Doctor's risky, crazy, all-in plan works...you see this look on his face: absolute wonder. Complete astonishment. Christmas morning. Celebration and joy, completely unfettered. Nobody died. The broken family is reunited. The bomb is transported to outer space. England is going to win the war, very soon. Smile splitting his face, manic with delight, he cries, "Everybody lives, Rose. Just this once...everybody lives!"

I tear up every time I think of it.

Because it's great, that everybody lives. But what you see isn't just his relief that he managed to save himself, his companions, Nancy and Jamie, London, and the rest of the planet. He's been saving the planet forever, after all. It's old hat. This time, it's not even that they won. It's that nobody had to lose. For a man as familiar with loss as the Doctor is, it's a staggeringly beautiful thing. In that instant, Eccleston's face shows not just his joy, but the memory of every single time he's lost someone. Every time his best was not enough. It makes this victory even more bittersweet -- and like a true time traveler, it's not just the memory of other battles, but the realization that he will endure more losses in the future.

But just this once...everybody lived. How could I not fall in love?

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Ready for Day Two? Tuesday's post will be at www.elizaevans.com. I'll also post a schedule on this site listing every stop on the tour, so if you get lost, check back here to see where you should go.

Now, on to the giveaways! Want to win your own copy of the newly released Complete Sixth Series?

To enter the grand prize giveaway, please leave a comment with your name and email address. You may enter once at every stop on the blog tour, for a total of thirteen chances. The Grand Prize giveaway is limited to the US and Canada, due to regional restrictions on the DVD. Individual contests will close at the discretion of the author, but the Grand Prize contest will accept entries on any site until midnight CST on December 24th. We will post the winner on December 25th, and notify the winner via email.

 

 

 

 

I'm also running an individual giveaway at the same time: A bracelet from my one of my favorite Etsy shops: Foxwise. It features a quote from the end of Series 5. "We're all stories in the end. Just make it a good one."

All you need to do is leave a comment on today's entry -- although, if you watch the show and have a favorite doctor, I'd love to hear it. I'll announce the winner on for the individual contest on December 25th as well.

 

Note: Leaving one comment here enters you in both the bracelet contest AND the Grand Prize giveaway. There's no need to comment twice, and we won't count duplicates.

Good luck, and enjoy the rest of the blog hop!

 

What She Didn't Say

 

Sometimes, what people say isn't important.

Sometimes, it's what they don't say.

Verity's secrets can't stay quiet for much longer.

And that's when everything changes.

 

Click here for more of the story.