Erica O'Rourke

Exciting News: Moffat Edition

Sometimes in publishing, you have to keep your mouth shut.

 

Sometimes, people will ask what's new and exciting. They want to know about your new projects. If you've got any news. Then you have to dissemble. Play it cool. Nothing to see here, move along.

(source)

Even though on the inside, you're like this:

 

(source)

And then the news comes out, and you have to act surprised:

 

(source)

All of which is to say, I have some news.

Alexandra Cooper of Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers has bought two books by Erica O'Rourke in a preempt: Dissonance, and a sequel, about a girl who walks between worlds, falling for different versions of the same boy in each place. Dissonance has a projected pub date of fall 2013; O'Rourke is the author of the Torn series, which recently concluded with Bound. Joanna Volpe of New Leaf Literary & Media was the agent.

 

 

I'll come back and explain more later, but for now, know this: I'm terrified and thrilled all at the same time, because this book -- which I love like you cannot believe -- is scary and complicated and full of jiggery-pokery, and I am hoping like hell I've got the chops to pull it off. I'm incredibly fortunate, though, because my editor -- and the entire team at S&S -- are brilliant and amazing. They're helping me shape this book into what it wants to be. So, if you had to sum up my state of mind these days, especially now that I'm able to tell you, it would look a lot like this.

I'm a big proponent of the notion that you should do the very thing that scares you most, which is exactly what I'm doing, and honestly...

 

I can't wait.

 

 

Vite!

I'll be back later today, I hope, with a longer post. But very quickly, the winner of the Pub Day Giveaway is...

VERAY CARTER!

(I'm going to try and respond to comments later as well -- I never like to do it before a contest closes because random.org tends to draw my own name and frankly, winning my own contest seems like cheating.)

It is a billion degrees here today. I hope things are cooler wherever you are, and if you're in Colorado, I hope you are safe and get some rain and relief very soon. I'll have more giveaways and celebrations soon -- so if you didn't win this time, keep checking back or following me on The Twitter, where I'm usually hanging out.

Grateful Girl

YOU GUYS.

So much kindness and love and congratulations came pouring out of my computer screen yesterday, I cannot even keep up. I can't even talk about it without getting a little weepy, and sadly, unlike some people who are adorable when they cry happy tears, I just look like I have really bad hayfever.

But...thank you. Thanks for saying such nice things, and for telling your friends about the series, and for keeping me company -- and relatively sane -- over the craziest two years of my life. If you were here, I'd give you a big squeezly hug. Exactly like this:

BOUND is here! Let's have a contest!

Today's the day! BOUND has been released into the wild!

I wanted to celebrate properly this time. A girl doesn't have a book come out every day, you know, much less one that concludes a trilogy. And frankly, my method of marking TANGLED's publication...left a little to be desired.

This time, I wanted to do something different. Something important. Something involving shopping, because I am most often motivated by rewards. Something like...

 

...a new water heater.

It's not glamorous, I'll give you that. But I spent all weekend without hot water, which meant no showers, no laundry, and no dishwasher. And while my love of shiny electronics is great, the ability to wash my hair whenever I want is even greater.

(Clearly, I would not fare well in a dystopian society. I'd be the girl in the corner pitching a fit about how the world is ending due to a natural disaster/terrorist act/global warming/zombie virus/rise of the machines, and everybody knows that girl gets picked off by the end of chapter 3.)

In all seriousness, it's an exciting day. The culmination of a lot of work by a lot of people -- my family, my friends and critique partners, my amazing agent and her team, the incredible people at KTeen, and you guys, who have read the book and cheered me on and given me something to strive for. I'm so very grateful to all of you. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: luckiest girl in the world. Thank you.

I've got all sorts of fun book stuff planned for the summer, but today, it seemed fitting to give away the entire series -- all three books and a healthy dose of swag. Of course, giveways involving the last book of a series are tricky, so if you already have a copy of TORN or TANGLED (or both) I'll swap out those books for another title I've read and loved.

All you have to do is leave a comment! Contest is open until noon CST on Thursday, June 28th, and as always, it's international.

And now I'm off to take another shower. Just because I can.

 

Some Thoughts On Second Books

Tomorrow is BOUND’s official pub date. The last book of the trilogy. The end of the series. The end of the story.

It feels very strange to type that.

The story is done. I wrote three books; I lived with these characters in my head for years.  That space has now been overtaken by new characters and new stories, and it’s a little disconcerting. It’s a little exhausting.

We lived in our old house for almost ten years; we moved just after TORN sold, and while it was the very best possible decision – we’d outgrown the old place, which didn’t have enough room to swing a cat, let alone two cats, three girls, and a writer who worked from home – it has taken us some time to grow accustomed to our new home. To find where furniture works best, where the light hits at different times of day, to know which cabinet the spatulas go in and where to store that one pitcher I like to use as a vase.

Writing a new story feels a little bit like that: determining voices, establishing settings, understanding motivations. Deciding which details fit, and which are just sentimental clutter. It’s as if I’m walking around during a power outage – I have the general shape of the rooms, and I’m not likely to fall over the couch, but I keep banging my shoulder against the doorframes and forgetting where I put things. Change, no matter how good, requires a period of adjustment.

Which is to say, I haven’t got a whole lot of advice, yet, on how to gracefully transition between one story universe and another. I’m operating on instinct and one of my deepest convictions: that the only way out is through. (A belief that sustains me in just about anything I find challenging, including but not limited to writing, moving, heatwaves, rush hour traffic, election season and yardwork.)

On the other hand, I plenty of advice about writing the dreaded Book Two.* It’s not that writing Book Three doesn’t inspire terror. It does. But at least with Book Three, you’ve written two books. Writing one book might be a fluke, a random act, a lightning strike. It might never happen again. Writing two books means it HAS happened again, and that bolsters your confidence, even if only a little bit. So while I have thoughts on writing Book Three, it’s Book Two that’s on my mind lately, because that’s what a new project is after you’ve completed a series: It’s Book Two, only on steroids.

(OH HAI NEW PROJEKT. Source.)

Here’s what I tell my friends who are writing Book Two:

First, I send them a link to this post by Libba Bray. Because Libba is wise beyond measure. 

Next, I tell them this:

It’s going to be okay.

It’s going to be better than okay, actually. It doesn’t feel like it: you’re feeling panicked and a little nauseous because you’re mainlining caffeine, and the deadline on your calendar is staring at you with a gimlet eye (Not the good kind of gimlet, either. You could probably stand to have one of those right about now.) Maybe Book One seems like some sort of lovely dream now, filled with puppies and rainbows and unicorns, a magical time and place that you can never return to, like Brigadoon. Maybe Book One was a wrenching, draining, soul-sucking experience, and you cannot believe you agreed to put yourself through that kind of trauma again.  Maybe it felt like both.

(Source and source)

It doesn’t matter.

No matter what it felt like at the time, or what it feels like in retrospect, the fact is when you wrote Book One, you were learning. You were writing a book and feeling your way through the process and revising and taking chances and growing as a writer. ** You started Book One with a set of tools that served you well, and by the time you reached the end, you had expanded your toolbox considerably. You’re a better writer for having gone through it.

“But EEEEEEE,” you say, “If I am a better writer, how come Book Two sucks so powerfully it could double as one of those fancy European vacuum cleaners?”

(This vacuum costs more than a thousand dollars. Source.)

Because it’s not just your skills that have grown. It’s your standards, too. You're improving, and you're also getting more self-critical, and because the growth happens at the same rate, you'll never be all, “Lo, I am writing a heartbreaking work of staggering genius and my prose is luminous in its depth and imagination." *** You might think so later, after you've had a break, but at this point in the process, it's mathematically impossible to be happy.

This is yet another reason math sucks. ****

That’s not to say you won’t ever be happy with your book. But right now, in the thick of it, you have no perspective. You’re besieged by self-doubt and visions of that second Indiana Jones movie. Happiness comes later, after you’ve put in the work, after you’ve gotten some distance and you’re freaking the hell out over the next project, at which point you will look back at Book Two with nostalgia and affection.

In the meantime, remember: the only way out is through. And lay off the caffeine.

 

* To clarify: when I say Book Two, I mean the second book in a series, not a second stand-alone or spinoff or continuity or companion novel. 

** Probably, you were growing as as a person, too.  If publishing is good for anything, it is helping you “grow as a person.”

*** Maybe there are writers who say this mid-book, but I don’t know any. And if I did, I wouldn’t want to have coffee with them.

**** Other reasons: imaginary numbers, matrices, lattice multiplication, word problems, “show your work”

WIP Friday: In Need of Summer Songs

So, I've probably mentioned this, but BOUND comes out on Tuesday. TUESDAY! The mind, it boggles. TORN came out almost exactly a year ago. I sold the series almost exactly TWO years ago. The fact that it all wraps up in four more days is a little startling.

(Feel free to order it from Amazon or B&N or the Independent Bookstore of Your Choice, by the way.)

Meanwhile, I am whacking my way through the to-do list, getting everything prepped and ready for the launch: the playlist, maps, contests, maybe even a little extra content. And it strikes me that while I certainly have a soundtrack for the book, which you'll see next week, I don't have a soundtrack for this summer. I love a good summer soundtrack -- something with a mix of styles and artists and moods, for lazy mornings and brilliant sweaty days and nights out with friends and stargazing. It's a tall order, as you can see.

Right now, the list is comprised almost entirely of The Lumineers, and while I feel strongly that I could listen to their album nonstop for the next ten weeks and never get tired of it, not everyone in my house feels the same way.

 

Help a girl out -- what are YOU listening to this summer?

FAQ Contest: Covers, Names, and How I Got Here.

More questions! More answers!

What's your favorite book cover of your own book?

Of my American covers, I like BOUND's the best -- the model looks more like Mo than the other two covers,  (although the same girl is also on TANGLED). She looks a little more natural and less magical. And the green foil on the finished cover looks fantastic.

Of my German covers, I don't think I can choose. They're both so gorgeous, and complement each other so well...it would be like picking a favorite child.

What's your favorite book?

I must sound terribly indecisive, but again, choosing only one is impossible! Some of my favorites are:

• Neil Gaiman's NEVERWHERE
• Libba Bray's A GREAT AND TERRIBLE BEAUTY
• Philip Pullman's THE GOLDEN COMPASS,
• Madeleine L'Engle's A WRINKLE IN TIME
• Margaret Mahy's THE CHANGEOVER.

These are the books I read over and over, finding something new each time.

How do you like to celebrate each new book?

Hmnn...when TORN came out, I went to a movie with my agent. When TANGLED came out, I cleaned the bathrooms. I haven't given much thought to how I'll celebrate BOUND -- maybe I'll sleep late and demand sushi for dinner. That seems like a good plan. In truth, it's the finishing of a draft that I'm more inclined to celebrate, since that's the hardest part of the process, and the one that requires the most patience and sacrifice from my family.

What was your publishing journey like?

Unexpected! The short version is that I wrote TORN, queried some agents, and entered RWA's Golden Heart contest. One of the final round judges liked the manuscript and offered to buy it. One of the agents I'd queried had requested the partial, so I contacted her, and she immediately read the full, then offered representation. I ended up interviewing three agents, and the one I'd originally queried was definitely the best fit. She took over negotiations, and almost a year to the day that I recieved the offer, TORN was on shelves! Here's a couple of the posts that explain more about it:

When I won the Golden Heart
When I announced the sale

How did TORN come about?

TORN came about because I was reading a lot of books where the heroine discovered she was a prophesied "chosen one" who was destined to save the world. I LOVED those books, but I was also curious -- what if the Chosen One died, and her sidekick had to take her place? What if Harry Potter died, and Ron Weasley had to stop Voldemort, or Buffy died and Xander had to defeat the season's Big Bad? And what kind of person would be willing to take on that role, knowing that, since they weren't chosen and didn't have magical powers, they were likely to die? The answer was someone like Mo -- who was accustomed to people keeping secrets, who didn't resent the Chosen One for her specialness, who loved her friend so much she was willing to risk her own life for the sake of vengeance. The idea actually came to me in the shower, and by the time I got out and started drying off, I had Mo's story almost completely plotted out.

How did you make time to write when you were still teaching full-time?

I...didn't. Even though I wrote a lot in college, I didn't really make time for writing while I was teaching. It sucked up the bulk of my attention, and when I wasn't teaching or coaching, I was reading. It wasn't until well after my second child was born that I really started to write again -- to take the stories drifting around my head and commit them to paper. And it wasn't until I took my writing seriously that I made progress toward getting published.

How did you pick your character's names?

For this series, the names of the major characters came pretty easily.  In Mo's case, I wanted something that sounded Irish, and could be both really pretty (Maura) and really humble (Mo). And somewhere along the line, Luc started calling her Mouse, at which point it was impossible to think of her with any other name.

Colin was easy, happily, because I knew I wanted another Irish-sounding name, and something that felt very solid, just like him. Luc's first name was easy, too, but his last name gave me fits, because I wanted something that tied into his element. Fire -- feu -- seemed a little too obvious, but foudre means lightning in French, so I figured that might work. Of course, translated, his name comes out to be Light of Lightning, which seems a little excessive, and exactly the sort of obnoxiously showy thing Dominic would insist on. But Luc hates being called Lucien, so it's a non-issue for him.

Verity's name came to me immediately -- it means "truth," and her last name -- Grey -- was meant to contradict it. Mo starts out the series believing that everything is black and white, true or false, right or wrong. And by the end of the series, she understands that there are shades and nuances and degrees to everything. I also liked the idea that every woman in her family had a "virtue" name: Constance, Patience, Evangeline (which is not strictly a virtue, but it fit, and she definitely wanted to convert people to her beliefs).

Billy, of course, got his name because I liked the idea of a mobster named "Charming" Billy Grady, after the nursery rhyme.

You were a teacher and a cheerleading coach: what made you decide to become a writer?

For starters, I was the world's WORST cheerleading coach. I knew nothing about cheerleading. I knew nothing about basketball, the sport we were cheering for. I was perfectly happy in my ignorance, so I told the girls they could do whatever they wanted as long as they didn't bleed and didn't go onto the court when they weren't supposed to. It was not an ideal match, is what I am saying.

I didn't decide to pursue writing until I'd been out of teaching for nearly five years. I was staying home with my kids, and frankly, one can only play "Fisher Price Little People Go On A Field Trip to the Farm" so many times before one's mind wanders and you start imagining a torrid backstory for Farmer Jed. I'd always written, and constructing stories in my head kept me sane. Eventually, it got to a point where I wanted to see them on paper, too.

 

FAQ Contest: Answers, part deux.

The kitties are home! I was planning on posting pictures of Maya in her lion cut, but it turns out that Maya with a lion cut is actually really upsetting to, because she's such a skinny, stressed out little thing. She's a big ruff of furface and then a scrawny little rat body. It's awful, and while I generally have no problem mocking my cats on the internet, it's just not sporting this time around.

Anyway, let's hit the next round of answers, shall we?

Jaime asked, "Do you use any certain music to set the tone while you are writing, as kind of a soundtrack to the books?"

I do! Each book has a soundtrack, though because TORN is a trilogy, some of the songs carry over from book to book. You can see the soundtrack for TORN here, and TANGLED here, and I'll be posting BOUND's soundtrack sometime next week. Here's one song I was particularly fond of, though.

 

Music is crucial to my writing process because it allows me to immediately slip into the story or a character, especially if I'm not writing at home. When I'm revising, it's a little different -- I tend to listen to scores from TV shows or movies. It's likely because I'm looking at the words on the page so closely that lyrics would interfere with my concentration, and I'd read more into the story than actually exists. My favorite score for revising, of course, is from Doctor Who.

Kim, who knows me very well, asked, "Besides being able to work in pajama pants, what is the best thing about being a writer of YA?"

The readers. Hands-down, the readers. I love talking with teens -- not just about my book, but books in general, and all of the other facets of their lives. Teenagers are smart, observant, funny as hell, and incredibly authentic, and getting to interact with them, whether through email or social media or classroom visits is the best part of my job.

Jess asked, "What's next for you? Any more books on the horizon? WIP's? I hope we see more!"

Thanks, Jess! I've got some projects percolating, but the bulk of my attention at the moment is focused on BOUND's release. And getting the backyard under control. It's still pretty bad. As soon as the current heatwave breaks, I'm going to learn how to use the weedwhacker.

Mont_4A asked, "What was the hardest part about writing your query letter? Is there a certain way it should be done?"

To which I say, "GAAAAAAAHHHHH QUERY LETTERS." I hate 'em. But they're a necessary part of the business, and so when it came time to query TORN, I posted a note above my computer that said, "Suck it up, Buttercup," and did precisely that. Here's what I think every query letter should have:

• genre
• word count
• brief, hooky description of your story
• RELEVANT professional credentials (ie, previously published work, membership in professional writing organizations, a career in publishing or the field your book is set in.)
• impeccable spelling/grammar/professional attitude

That being said, every agent has different requirements about what they like/don't like to see in a query. So you have to research EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. Yes, it's a pain. But remember: when you send an agent a query, they have to take time away from their current clients to read it -- following their directions shows you value their time, and increases your chances of getting a request.

The most valuable website I've seen about general query-writing is Kristin Nelson's Pub Rants. Read her entries on queries, google the bejeezus out of the agents you're most interested in, and be brave! It's hard to send your work out into the world, but if you want to be published, you might as well get accustomed to the feeling.

BN100 asked, "Who would you cast in a movie of your books?"

Oooh. This is really hard! Bookittyblog made a trailer for the series, and I thought she did a great job. I tend not to think of specific actors as I'm writing, because I'm afraid of letting their other roles influence my character too much. I think if I was going to cast a movie version, I'd want to find actors who were relatively unknown, at least for Mo, Colin, and Luc. And in Mo's case, I'd want someone who looked more "interesting" than "pretty," since she's convinced of her own unremarkableness. There's a ton of actresses I've seen that are conventionally pretty, but very few that don't seem like they'd already know it.

I'll answer more questions tomorrow, but I promised I'd announce the winner today, and it is...

BN100, who asked which cover was my favorite -- and I'll tell you that tomorrow! If you're BN, email me your snail mail address at erica at ericaorourke dot com, and I'll pop your book in the mail ASAP!

 

 

FAQ Contest: Answers!

I am waiting for the vet to call and tell me that the Bad Kitties have made it through their surgery-ish things safely. (Per has a bump that's grody, so she is having actual surgery. Maya's just getting a haircut, but since she's a furry little stressball, they have to knock her out.) This means my concentration has been shot all day, and I've wandered around the house eating brownies and kettlecorn and coffee, assuming the worst.

I have quite a knack for assuming the worst.

Needless to say, I didn't get to all of your questions, because those brownies weren't going to stress-eat themselves, you know. I'll answer as many as I can today, and hit the rest of them tomorrow, when I'll also announce the winner. The contest closed at noon, however -- you can ask more questions, but they won't be eligible for the giveaway.

Sarah (from Australia! I am jealous jealous jealous!) asked, "What book or series do you wish you had written?"

The books and series I admire the most are not the ones I wish I had written, strangely enough.  In my mind, they're perfect, and it's a bad idea to mess with perfection. For example, I desperately wish that I could write a book as brilliant as Neil Gaiman's NEVERWHERE or Libba Bray's A GREAT AND TERRIBLE BEAUTY, but that's not the same as wishing I could write those books. 

In my mind, wishing you could write something implies you feel you could improve upon it -- and I am too polite to say in public which books I think I could do a better job on than the author. But I will say that I recently watched the reboot of CLUE, and...I really, really, REALLY wish I could have written that script.

Ginger asked, "Did you have your entire trilogy plotted from the get go, even loosely? Did you already know much of your plot for Tangled and Bound back when you were writing Torn?"

The short answer is yes. I knew, in the very loosest terms, how I wanted the series to end. But I also knew TORN had to stand on its own, so I was careful to make sure that Mo's initial journey was complete by the end of that book. I tried not to get terribly wedded to the events of TANGLED and BOUND, but there were a few elements -- Colin and Luc's backstories, Mo's father returning from prison, and Jenny Kowalski, to name a few, that I knew were essential to seed into TORN if I wanted them to pay off later. (This question really deserves its own, longer post, so I'm filing that away. Thanks, Ginger, for the blogfodder!) 

Claire asked, "How do you stay focused on writing? Is there a type of food or activity that keeps you motivated to write?"

Well, coffee is essential to my writing process. And I often reward myself with treats of a chocolate-based nature, like this:

Most of the time, I find my motivation/discipline (which are really flip sides of the same coin) hinge on two things: deadlines and rewards. Deadlines are pretty sacred to me. If I promise that my book will be finished by a certain date, I make it happen, even if it means giving up sleep and regular meals and basic personal hygiene. Writers' block is a luxury, and when I am on deadline, I can't afford it. People are depending on me to get my work done, so I get it done.

The rewards can be tangible -- I bought myself an iPad when I finished writing the Torn Trilogy, for example, and you've already seen what has to happen for me to write a synopsis. But there's also just a sense of satisfaction when I meet my daily word count -- Scrivener has a little progress bar that shifts from red to green the closer you get to your target, and watching the bar turn green is addictive. And nothing beats the feeling I get when I finish a book. Even if I know it needs tons of revision, making it to the end is a rush. I've heard this happnes to people who run marathons, but I'm just going to take their word for it.

And then there's this lady:

That's my agent, Joanna. She works incredibly hard on my behalf. She answers emails in the dead of night, she answers phone calls on the weekend, national holidays, her birthday, and vacation. I never like disappointing people, but especially not when they've put so much faith in me. Also, she's a native New Yorker. And you know what they're like when they're angry.

And...now it's time to go get my kids and my cats, in that order. More tomorrow, including the winner!

 

 

 

BOUND ARC Giveaway: FAQ Edition

I was all set to do a blog post about one of my favorite YA books -- one of my favorite books, period, actually -- and then I realized I couldn't find it. One of my felonious little offspring has taken it, no doubt, and it might be a while before it turns up again. So instead of hearing all about Laura Chant and Sorensen Carlisle and why I think they might be my favorite couple in all of YA, I find myself at a loss for topics, with fifteen minutes until I have to leave and an ARC of BOUND to give away.

So let's do this instead: Hit the comments and ask me a question -- about the Torn Trilogy, about me, about author stuff or publishing or whatever. (Requests for BOUND spoilers do not count as questions, of course.)  I'll draw a name on Monday afternoon for the ARC, and announce the winner/answer the questions all in one post. I'd do it as they come in, but I'm traveling this weekend.

• Contest is, as always, open internationally.
• Contest ends at noon Central time on Monday, June 14th.
• You can enter multiple times, but ask decent questions, okay?