Tell the Truth Tuesday

1. I might just have celebrated passing my GD test by nomming a bunch of mini almond Hershey's bars.

2. We need to bite the bullet and make the munchkin stay in her big girl bed. Too many nights we've caved and let her sleep in our bed, and now it's kinda the norm. How is that going to work when I'm getting up every two hours to feed the little'un?

3. Speaking of the little'un, I got a peek yesterday. Is it bad that I was so tired I closed my eyes for most of the ultrasound while the technician made sure his heart had four chambers? I did get a peek of his cute little toes and profile, though, so I'm good to go.

4. I still have 24 of my 70 papers to grade by Friday. Somehow I will work them in while the sophomores are watching Freedom Writers. 70 students in Composition I is a LOT.

5. I'm debating going back to bed instead of putting on makeup today. The kids don't care. Right?

6. I haven't been writing. At all. I did send one terrible story idea to my crit partner last night, though.

7. I really am enjoying being back in school. My students are great, and I think we all had fun the first week. Well, except for the seniors who had to write that paper. But by the end of every day, I'm so exhausted that I wonder how I'm ever going to make it to December.

8. That said, is it Friday yet?

P.S. Yesterday I sent out a batch of SLIDE bookmarks. If you'd like one (or if you're a blogger and would like five or so to hand out with prizes), send your name and address to jillehathaway at gmail. Yes, I will send them internationally! :)

EVERNEATH winner!

Congratulations to Christina!!! I'll be emailing you today to get your address!

Are you POSSESSED yet?

Shout out to my imprint sister, Gretchen McNeil, whose POSSESS comes out today! If you're craving something scary and exciting and awesome and swoony and delicious to read, this book is for you! Seriously, it's so made of awesome, it's like Gretchen went to the Awesome Megastore and bought it in bulk to weave into this story!

Have a great day, Gretchen! May all of your wildest dreams come true!

vlog about characters and zines

In which I embarrass myself with bad grammar and a faulty memory!

Rudolph the red-nosed vlogger... had a very shiny nose...

Yes, yes, it should be "a picture of my friend and ME." Not I. 

Also, ROSIE THE RIVETER!!!

ALSO, I should assert that most plot-related things have nothing to do with my life. Obviously, since SLIDE is a book about a girl who can literally get into other people's heads... yeah, that's not something I can do. People are going to be all concerned I witnessed a murder or something. But little touches, like Rollins liking zines or some of the names like Kapler Park... those come from real life.

Interview with Brodi Ashton + EVERNEATH giveaway

Today I am thrilled to share an interview with fellow Balzer + Bray-er and Apocalypsie, Brodi Ashton! And there shall be a giveaway, as well! But first I'll tell you a little bit about EVERNEATH:


Last spring, Nikki Beckett vanished, sucked into an underworld known as the Everneath, where immortals Feed on the emotions of despairing humans. Now she's returned- to her old life, her family, her friends- before being banished back to the underworld... this time forever.

She has six months before the Everneath comes to claim her, six months for good-byes she can't find the words for, six months to find redemption, if it exists.

Nikki longs to spend these months reconnecting with her boyfriend, Jack, the one person she loves more than anything. But there's a problem: Cole, the smoldering immortal who first enticed her to the Everneath, has followed Nikki to the mortal world. And he'll do whatever it takes to bring her back- this time as his queen.

As Nikki's time grows short and her relationships begin slipping from her grasp, she's forced to make the hardest decision of her life: find a way to cheat fate and remain on the Surface with Jack or return to the Everneath and become Cole's....


Now, without further ado, Brodi's interview!!


Hello, Brodi! Welcome to the awesomeness that is my blog. Many of my readers are aspiring authors, so I thought I'd focus most on craft... that, and some other fun stuff. Here we go!


1) I see that you received a bachelor's degree in journalism and a master's in international relations! Could you tell us a little about what you wanted to be when you were younger and the path that got you to where you are today, the debut author of an amazing book?

Oh, man. The path I took was most definitely not a direct one! Let's just say I tried out quite a few majors and quite a few careers before I finally started writing seriously. After a few years in the television news industry, I learned that I would rather eat gravel than work in the television news industry. Then I got my Master's degree while living in London, and upon returning home, promptly forgot everything I'd learned. 

The whole time I was writing for fun, thinking that writing was a talent I wish I'd been born with. But the more I wrote, the more I loved it, and eventually I wrote a book. And then I was all, "Hey! Maybe I should try writing!"

A mere hundred or so rejections later, I have a book. :)

2) You're sitting down to write. What time of day is it? What do you see around you? Do you have a snack? Are you playing some tunes? What is your daily goal?

Time of day: I'd like to say first thing in the morning, but inevitably I don't get around to my computer until the afternoon.

What do I see around me: two lamps, a white desk covered in clutter, a space heater at my feet and the a/c on in the house. (I prefer my carbon footprint to be big.)

Snacks: I try to snack on cherry tomatoes from my garden, but when those run out I go for Good 'N Plenty, which I know are sort of universally disliked. I think I'm the only one who buys them from my grocery story. And Diet Coke is most definitely present at my writing party.

Tunes: I have a playlist for the sequel to EVERNEATH that I usually have playing in the background. Some of my favorite artists: Death Cab for Cutie, Radiohead, the Killers, and some very obscure people. I also have one song from Shakira. Weird.

Daily Goal: To feel like I've accomplished something. Anything.  

Ewwww. Good 'n' Plenty? Nasty. :D I'm more of a Reese's girl, myself.

3) The structure of EVERNEATH is fascinating. It flips back and forth from present to past quite often. What made you choose to tell the story in this way? Was it difficult? Did you have to write all the present chapters together and then go back and write the past?

It was never a conscious decision to write a book where it flips back and forth from past to present. I knew I wanted to start the book with a scene: a girl who has been gone for a long time returns to her old life. From page one, the story came to me in that format. I didn't write the present chapters together and then the past. Strangely, I wrote the whole thing from start to finish in roughly the same order that exists in the final version. 

I'm not a very organized person, so to write it any other way would've been impossible for me. But I did love having two parallel stories being told simultaneously... one story about how she ended up in the Underworld in the first place, and the other about how she's going to escape it again. 

4) Describe your favorite article of clothing from when you were sixteen. 

I was in high school during the middle of the grunge era. So my favorite article of clothing was a plaid flannel shirt. Preferably one that looked bulky. And hid any sort of figure. 

Haha, me too. Well, thanks so much for the interview! 

AND NOW... the moment you've all been waiting for... the EVERNEATH giveaway!!! (Also, there might be some swag, like guitar picks and EVERNEATH cards that Brodi is sending my way.) Here are the rules:

-You must be a follower.

-You can win extra points by letting people know about the contest (+1 for tweeting, +2 for posting on FB, +3 for blogging or putting the contest in your sidebar).

-Tally up your points in your comment.

-Include your email address so I can contact if you win.

-The contest will end next Thursday at midnight.

Good luck, everyone!!!

so evidently it pays to whine on the internet...

Look what Keary Taylor whipped up for me...

I'm in awe of her talent!!! I know some of you are looking for designers for bookmarks and such. You should totally check out Keary at www.indiecoverdesigns.com!!!

my bookmark nightmare

7:30 a.m. Hmmmm... It's the last day of summer break! I think I'll tackle something on my to-do list! A-ha! I should make some bookmarks to send to my blog readers, give away at libraries, sneak into random books at school... (Haha, just kidding about that last one, colleagues! Or AM I???)

7:38 a.m. It can't be hard. I'll just google "design bookmarks online" or maybe "bookmark template." Then I'll throw in my cover image and my pub date, and I'll be all set.

7:45 a.m. Ooooh, here's a good site. *adds cover image* *tries to add text box* What? Why won't this work? I should be able to just click on text and... But it's not working... *whines* Am I too stupid to even figure out this silly program?

8:13 a.m. Dude. It's definitely not working. There's something wrong with their website. *deep breath* That's okay! I'll just find another site with an online design tool. There's gotta be millions of them! *googles "make bookmark online"* *gets lots of results about electronic bookmarks* *grunts in frustration* There have to be some more sites like this out there!!!!

8:56 a.m. *cries on Twitter*

9:12 a.m. *returns to previous website* AAAAH! It's working now! I can add text!!! YIPPEE!!!

9:56 a.m. *studies handiwork* Well. It's not that pretty, but it's fine. And I can order 500 of them for $40!!! *navigates to checkout page* *notices that all of the messups are in the cart* *tries to delete them* *becomes angry when they don't disappear* I don't want to pay $120 and get 1000 extra crappy bookmarks, do I?

10:12 a.m. *notices help center at the top of the page* *clicks button* *types into the chat window that has appeared* *fumes when the helpful lady says I just have to log out and start over*

10:48 a.m. *stares into space* Do I really need bookmarks?

11:02 a.m. *redesigns bookmarks* Still not that pretty, but they'll do. *hesitates before entering credit card information* Maybe I should have someone do this for me. Someone who really knows how to design?

11:22 a.m. *notices that the site has logged me out*

11:23 a.m. Well, I guess that's that.

WILL SOMEONE PLEASE POINT ME IN THE DIRECTION OF AN AMAZING BOOKMARK DESIGNER, FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THINGS SLIDEY???

wanna win a SLIDE arc?

Gretchen McNeil is hosting a creepalicious scavenger hunt in honor of POSSESS, which comes out August 23rd! One of the prizes is her SLIDE arc!!! So if you're dying to read SLIDE (or EVERNEATH by Brodi Ashton), go HERE for the contest rules! (And then you'll probably want to come back here... you'll see why.)

get ready to get POSSESSed!

Are you scared yet? You should be...

Fifteen-year-old Bridget Liu just wants to be left alone: by her over-protective mom, by Matt Quinn, the cute son of a local police sergeant, and by the eerie voices she can suddenly and inexplicably hear. Unfortunately for Bridget, the voices are demons—and Bridget possesses the rare ability to banish them back to whatever hell they came from. Literally.

Terrified to tell her friends or family about this new power, Bridget confides in San Francisco’s senior exorcist, Monsignor Renault. The monsignor enlists her help in increasingly dangerous cases of demonic possession, but just as she is starting to come to terms with her freakish new role, Bridget receives a startling message from one of the demons. And when one of her oldest friends is killed, Bridget realizes she’s in deeper than she ever thought possible. Now she must unlock the secret to the demons’ plan before someone else close to her winds up dead—or worse, the human vessel for a demon king.

Gretchen McNeil's POSSESS is out August 23, 2011 from Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins! It's an AMAZING book! Definitely check it out!

all the things

Well, I think everything's coming together somewhat. I spent all Monday and Tuesday finishing tweaks on SLIDE 2 and sent it to my editor, my agent, and my mother. My mom keeps sending me texts like "I love so-and-so" and "I hate so-and-so" and "Why don't they kiss already"? She did say it seemed a lot more polished than the first few drafts of SLIDE, so I'm thankful for that. I already know some things I'd like to change upon revision, though. Can't wait to hear back from Super Editor and Awesome Agent and get started on those.

On Wednesday, I treated myself to a movie day. First I saw Rise of Planet of the Apes, which made me cry. It was so, so good. Amazing what they can do with technology these days. After that, I went to The Help, which I always meant to read, but never did. That was good, too. Loved the cast. Everyone was very talented. It did make me wonder if it was structured the same way in the book (in a cohesive narrative style or each of the maid's stories separately?). Might have to check that out. Oh, and last night I went to Horrible Bosses with the husband for our anniversary. It was kind of hilarious, way funnier than I was expecting. Highly recommend! I spent a few minutes salivating over The Hunger Games movie poster. March can't come soon enough!

Currently I'm debating whether I should spend today cleaning my disaster of a house in time for school to start next week or just say to heck with it and go to the fair. I could use some fried oreos right about now. Hmmmmm. Decisions, decisions.

P.S. I'll have an interview with Brodi Ashton/Everneath giveaway coming up soon, so keep your eyes peeled!

odds and ends

As the summer comes to a close, I'm scrambling around, tying up loose odds and ends. I did finish my SLIDE 2 rewrite last week, in case you were curious. I have tweaks to do in the next few days, and then that will get sent off to my editor.

I also finished my SLIDE 1 first pass pages, and those will go in the mail today, along with some annoying tax forms. I will say that my first pass pages were about the easiest publishing-related thing I've done so far. It was nice to read the story again after so many months (and refresh my memory while I'm polishing SLIDE 2), and there were very few changes that needed to be made other than some word echoes that had to be remedied. Yay for first pass pages! I think I'll get to see the manuscript again once more (second pass pages?) before it goes to print, which is so surreal.

Over the weekend, I received my back-to-school letter. I can no longer pretend school is not looming in the near future (next week, to be exact). Imagine my surprise when I turned on my school computer for the first time in months and discovered that all my files are missing! I'm hoping they reappear when I log in at school today. Otherwise, I will be missing six years of lesson plans, worksheets, tests... Awesome! Exactly what I need when I'm planning for my maternity leave!

What else? The state fair starts this week. I haven't decided whether it's worth it to brave the heat in order to grab some fried Oreos. It's always fun to walk around and people watch, though. I probably will go at least one day. Thursday is my wedding anniversary, and the husband (Should I come up with a cutesy name for him for the blog?? Nah, I'm too lazy.) and I are planning to catch a movie and dinner. Any movie suggestions?

the finish line

I try not to ever take a day off from writing when I'm drafting because I totally lose the momentum. Last week I was rocking it, turning out at least 5K per day. But I took the weekend off, plus yesterday because it was ultrasound/shopping day (it's a boy!!!!). And now I just can't seem to get started. I know the first step is to turn off the TV and the internet. I probably need to drive to the library. I just have to write those first few words to get sucked back in. But A BABY STORY's on, and there's so much laundry/organizing to be done. My nesting instincts are battling with my desire to get this dang story written and off to my editor. And, yes, I did just say dang.

Okay, goal setting time...

I'm at 49,500 words. By the end of today, I vow to hit 52,500 words.
55,000 on Wednesday.
57,500 on Thursday.
60,000 on Friday.

Then I'll just have to do a quick pass before sending it to my editor in time for my anniversary next week. And the state fair. And school's creeping up, too. There are haircuts to be gotten and lesson plans to be reworked.

But first, if I can just open the document...