Erica O'Rourke

Answers!

Happy Tax Day, everyone! I have spent much of the last week in a reciept-sorting, record-checking fog, only to discover that my phone line has been out for...I don't know how long. Which means my accountant has probably been trying to call me all weekend, unsuccessfully. I'm sure his schedule is WIDE-OPEN today. I'm sure I'm his favorite client EVER.

Anyway, the winner of the Second-Chance Contest Giveaway is...

Darith L!

Darith, I'll be contacting you to get your snail mail address, so you should be receiving your prize this week or early next week!

And here are the answers to the questions you asked in the comments. If you asked on Tumblr, I answered over there.

Colin, my favorite expat and fellow Doctor Who fan asked: How do you pick your character's names? Delancey Sullivan is an interesting name--I'm not sure I would have ever thought of that one.

I have a different process for each book I write. In the Torn Trilogy, Mo needed an Irish-sounding name that was pretty but could be nicknamed to something a little more plain, and Maureen/Mo was an obvious choice. Maura was a little more unexpected, so Maura/Mo it was. The women in Verity's family all had virtue names: Constance, Patience, Verity...Evangeline isn't quite a virtue name, but it seemed to fit. And Grey seemed a good last name, since Verity viewed the truth as much more nuanced than her first name suggested.

As for Delancey, she's named after a neighborhood in New York, where she was born. The  rest of her family has names relating to Chicago. There's more to it than that, but...spoilers!

 

Which brings us to Colin's second question: Have you been watching Doctor Who the past few weeks? Thoughts?

Of COURSE I've been watching! I...am suspending judgement for now. Matt Smith, as always, is fantastic. His monologue at the end of Rings of Akhenaten ("I have lost things you will never understand...") was so moving and perfect. And the Clara mystery is quite intriguing -- I think it all ties in to her mom, somehow. The most important leaf in the world, Mama Oswin's promise to always find Clara, even if she's on the moon...I don't know yet, but I think it all ties in together in some sinister way. I can't wait to find out.

That being said, I'm not 100% smitten with Clara yet. Partly because I loved Amy and Rory, and partly because she still seems very much a creation of the writers. They seem to be working very hard to prove that she is the most perfect possible companion: sassy and plucky and brave and smart and flirty and beautiful and...she's perfect. They really want us to notice how perfect she is. Because, you see, she is perfect. And while that might tie into The Mystery of Clara, it's also them working really hard to make us love her because she is... say it with me...perfect. The writers are also working hard, it feels like, to set up situations that could easily turn romantic. I'm not crazy about that notion (HI RIVER SONG, WIFE OF THE DOCTOR) but if they're going to go down that path, I'd prefer the chemistry between the characters shine through on its own, rather than be foisted on them by the script and the director, which is how it currently feels. I know it's a short season, people, but a slow burn always has a better payoff, and an obvious authorial hand is never good storytelling.

But even with all of these caveats, I love it best in all the world. Saturday nights are what get me through the rest of the week.

Bethzaida asked, "Is there is going to be a love triangle in DISSONANCE?"

This is a tricky question to answer without spoiling things. There won't be a love triangle like there was in TORN. But the story does take place in multiple universes, and in those universes are multiple versions of Simon, the boy Del likes. So...is it a love triangle if the two guys are the same guy? I will let you decide.

Anastasia asked, "Is Dissonance going to be the first book in a series? Because according to Goodreads it's a stand alone."

The plan right now is that Dissonance is a two-book series. That may change -- I certainly have ideas for more books --  but for now, DISSONANCE 2: Electric Boogaloo will conclude Del's story. (As an aside...I don't go on Goodreads. Ever. So I have no idea what information is there or if it's accurate.)

Darith L. asked, "What inspired you to write this novel?"

A couple of things: One was the steady diet of sci-fi and fantasy I consumed as a child -- in particular, Roger Zelazney's Nine Princes In Amber, which my dad read so many times the covers fell off our copies (always the mark of a good book).

Two, I always start a book with what-if questions, and the ones that triggered DISSONANCE went a little something like this: What if had the ability to move through infinite universes. If you could have anything, how would you choose between them? What if there was something you couldn't have? What's the cost of having infinite choices? And if you were constant, but everything around you changed...what kind of person would you be?

It turns out you'd be a lot like Delancey Sullivan.

 

Thanks for playing along, all! I am off to pay my taxes, but I'll be back later this week with more exciting news and pretty things to share.

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.

 

 

The Winner(s)!

Happy holidays, everyone! Whatever you're celebrating, I hope you're with loved ones, eating something delicious, and watching the Christmas Special! This is a quick-and-dirty post, because I am visiting family and still have to prepare the the turkey for tomorrow's dinner. We have winners! For the bracelet giveaway, the winner is: Kim H! For the Grand Prize Giveaway, the winner is: Mrs. S! (For your comment on Phoebe North's post) I will be notifying both of you via email, but just in case it goes astray, please email me your snail mail address (erica AT ericaorourke DOT com). Congratulations to both of you! And thanks, everyone, for your participation! It was fabulous to see so many Whovians speaking so passionately about the show.

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.

--------------------------

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?

------------

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!

 

Wibbly-Wobbly Winners!

A quick announcement of winners and then it is back to work for me --I will be back with THOUGHTS about The Impossible Astronaut on Wednesday, having met deadlines, attended meetings, written letters to the principal, answered email and braved the post office.

Meanwhile: the winners of the Wibbly Wobbly Contest are:

 Nicole (necklace), who said she'd take the TARDIS to "London January 30, 1969 to see The Beatles rooftop concert."

And Ann Marie (ring), who would visit, "...another planet. Sure, there are many intriguing time periods here on earth, but wow--another planet!"

Ann Marie and Nicole, I'll be emailing you later today to get your addresses.

Thanks for playing, all!

Wibbly Wobbly Contest

It's no secret that I'm a little bit obsessed with Doctor Who. I have watched Season Five (with the exception of that silly Dalek episode) eleventy billion times. I listen the score while I work. I have taught the baby to sing Craig Ferguson's Lost Doctor Who Cold Open, and drilled into my children that intellect and romance should always, always triumph over brute force and cynicism.

It should come as no surprise that when someone pointed out this Etsy shop, with adorable Whovian jewelry, I lost my mind a little bit. Bracelet? Necklace? 

Naturally, I went with both.

Then I felt gluttonous. Perhaps it would be better to spread the joy around. Do something to celebrate spring, and the return of Matt Smith to my television. Perhaps I should run...a Wibbly Wobbly Contest.

 

   

"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but *actually* from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint - it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly... timey wimey... stuff." 

And here's the coolest part -- I checked with Rose, the owner of the shop, to make sure she wouldn't mind if I used her images in this post. And Rose generously offered to donate one of her gorgeous, adjustable rings as a second prize. We love you, Rose! 

Here's how it works:

You: Leave a comment here, telling me where you'd go in the TARDIS. "All of time and space, everything that ever was or ever will be...where do you want to start?" 

I: Watch the Season Six Premiere of Doctor Who on Saturday, April 23rd. (Okay, it looks like I'll be out of town on Saturday night, unable to watch the premiere when it airs. Let's all take a moment to contemplate the horror, shall we? I'll be watching the premiere Sunday night, instead. Maybe I'll live-blog it. Or DVR-blog it.) At the end of the episode, I pull two names out of a hat. Maybe a fez, because fezzes are cool. I'll announce the winners that night. Which means you have until 10pm CST on Sunday, April 24th to enter.

Two of you: Celebrate! I'll mail out the bracelet. If you're the winner of the ring, I'll contact you and get your ring size; Rose will choose which saying you get (something suitably Doctor-ish, I assure you) and ship it to you herself. 

I: Shout "GO HOME RORY" at the TV repeatedly.

You: Are the envy of your friends.

And there you have it. I'm lazy, so the only requirement is that you comment; but if you WANTED to Tweet or Facebook or Tumblr or blog or whatever about this, you could. Frankly, I am too swamped with revisions and too bad at math to assign points or double-check that you've done such things. That is valuable time I could be watching Eleven/Amy fanvids on Youtube, you know.

Contest ends at 10 pm CST, Saturday, April 24th.

 

 

 

Random Tuesday Stuff: Songwriting, Eleven, Lists, Avian Agression, Petty Theft

There are authors out there who can come up with coherent blog posts, masterpieces of eloquence and thematic unity, lucid and powerful treatises that illuminate the very nature of humanity, while they are on deadline. I am not one of them. Hence, random Tuesday stuff:

1. Spring Break is OVER. Thank GAWD.

Last year, I spent Spring Break here:

 

(Torrey Pines State Reserve, San Diego.)

This year, I spent Spring Break taking boxes to recycling center and watching my kids discover the joy of cat videos on YouTube. In years past, I have loved Spring Break, so much so that I made up a song about it, to the tune of Born Free.

Spring break!
And now we can sleep late!
And we can make pancakes
Whenever we want!

It was a more innocent time, I guess, because school started again yesterday, and let me tell you -- I was ready to write another song, this one an ode to the schoolbus. I spent the morning working, just me and the cats and a very large cup of coffee, and also a cookie for breakfast. You can't have a cookie for breakfast with kids underfoot. They want you to SHARE. Farewell, Spring Break!

 

2. Since I am under deadline, it would be foolish to wish this month away. I have Much To Do and Little Time In Which To Do It. And yet...I cannot help wishing that April 23rd would get here just a little faster. Because on April 23rd, I will be parked on the couch, ready to enjoy the season premiere of Doctor Who. I haven't seen a new episode since CHRISTMAS, people. I am starting to go through withdrawl.

I have THOUGHTS about the new season, THEORIES, if you will. I've discussed them at length with Eliza. Foremost among my thoughts? Go home, Rory. Also, that the Neil Gaiman episode might make me explode with geeky happiness. And lastly, that this season is going to absolutely terrifying. Take a look:

  

Discuss among yourselves. And with me.

 

3. I love lists, and one of my favorites is the one I have running over at TeuxDeux. Clean, pretty, and it rolls over your list to the next day if you don't cross off an item. Of course, that means if you are having a week where you don't get much done on your list -- say, Spring Break Week, Friday's list looks pretty unmanageable. It's web-based, which allows you to pull it up anywhere. If you've got an iPhone (sadly, I do not) there's an app available, too. Rumor has it the app version is lovely, but I would not know. Alas.

 

4. Speaking of apps, and my phone, which is a Droid, I recently took advantage of the new Amazon Appstore, which offered me a free download of Angry Birds Rio. I don't know what the hell Rio the movie is about, except that it involves birds, so I get the connection. And I'm a big fan of the original Angry Birds, so it seemed like a good idea at the time. But let me tell you something. The game is terrfiying. The monkeys in level two have sharp teeth, and they're very resistant to killing, and I am pretty sure they hold a grudge. And in the last level, you have to KILL ANOTHER BIRD. The hell? I was okay with killing the pigs -- after all, they were egg thieves, they knew what was going to happen, and they were smug, to boot. But this seems like cannibalisim, and I don't care what the storyline of the movie dictates (I assume the bird in question is a traitor, the Benedict Arnold of cockatiels, and so the idea is that he deserves his fate) the idea of using those little bluebirds to kill another bird is unnerving. To be honest, this game scares the crap out of me, and yet I can't bring myself to delete it from my phone, I am so addicted. This is a bit of a quandry.

 

5. I accidentally shoplifted this weekend. In front of my kids, no less, and my mother-in-law. But it wasn't my fault! My day-to-day bag is a timbuk2 messenger bag which I love for many reasons, but my two issues with it are that there is no mesh side pocket for a water bottle, which would be handy, and also that the hook side of the velcro is on the body of the bag, instead of the flap. If you are lazy like me, sometimes you forget to latch the bag shut, and the hooky velcro sticks to things, like your sweater. Or your kids' hair. Or, perhaps, a ball of yarn at the local fancy yarn shop.

And then, as you're walking down the meat aisle at the local grocery store, you notice you're trailing a ball of pink sock yarn, and have been for the last half-an-hour.

And then you realize the yarn shop is closed, and you are leaving town in an hour, and you have to beg your mother-in-law to return the yarn later this week. Sigh.

SO. If you don't hear from me for a while, you can assume I'm either frantically revising Tangled for the last time, or I've been hauled off to jail for stealing an eight dollar ball of sock yarn. If it's the latter, someone please send me a cake with my laptop baked inside. I have work to do.