Travel, book launches, sickness, book deal announcements, and…everything.

Wow, it’s been quiet around here, which is obviously completely my fault. But oh, have I had a busy time of it, readers.

First of all, I haven’t been able to promo my Trevor Project thing as much as I’d like, so I’m going to let that run into June. And here’s why:

I had TWO book deadlines in April. Which was fine, until I pulled a muscle in my back and couldn’t walk for a week. Just as I was getting over that, I gave myself shingles.

That was…not fun.

What WAS fun, even with shingles, was getting on a plane and going to NYC to celebrate CODA’s official launch day. There was much revelry and laughter and things involving cheeseburgers and ketchup and pickle juice that I’m not willing to explain.

I saw Amazing Editor Lisa, who crossed state lines with CAKE for me:

And friends sent cupcakes and chocolate and the craziest, most beautiful flowers ever:

And I saw CODA on a table in Barnes & Noble in fabulous company:

 

I met Awesome Editor Zareen for the first time, and she is WONDERFUL and I feel even luckier than I did before, which I didn’t know was possible. Also, she took me to eat sushi.

I went to Philadelphia and did an impromptu CODA signing in the Running Press offices, where I met ALL THE PEOPLE, before Amazing Editor Lisa took me out for delicious food with Equally Amazing Publicist Gigi and Designer Frances.

Aaaand I did all kinds of other New York Things like eat pizza and have Best Brunch Ever with one of my dearest friends, and play Cards Against Humanity in the Old Town Bar with a stellar collection of publishing people.

Now I’m back and working on many things, like a synopsis for the book that will follow FLIGHTS AND CHIMES AND MYSTERIOUS TIMES, and reading someone’s manuscript, and reminding my body what sleep is. In amongst all that, THIS HAPPENED:

http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-book-news/article/57370-the-cabinet-of-curiosities-leaps-from-blog-to-book.html

We’ve known about the deal for a while, and it’s been SO tough to keep quiet. Finally we can talk about it, and PW did the above awesome article on it, so I’ll just say here that I adore my fellow Curators and all four of our agents, who have worked so hard to pull this together, and Virginia Duncan for wanting to publish the anthology, and everyone at HarperCollins/Greenwillow Books for being awesome.

Phew! I’m tired now. I’ll try not to let the dust build up on the blog in the coming weeks!

 

A quick round up of Happening Things

Life is getting busy in the run-up to CODA; I can’t believe it’s already almost here. Three hundred and fifty five days after I first typed The End, my book will be out in the world. I have so much to do, but here’s a lighting-fast collection of things that have happened or are happening:

My latest story went up at The Cabinet of Curiosities yesterday.

Kelly Johnson had me over at My Countless Lives to confess five guilty pleasures. Thanks, Kelly!

CODA pre-orders are on sale at Amazon. I have no idea how long the sale will last, so grab it while you can, if you’re so inclined!

Busy as I am with writing and whatnot, I’ve taken a little time out to read some great books recently. For fans of contemporary YA, I cannot recommend ELEANOR & PARK or ARISTOTLE AND DANTE DISCOVER THE SECRETS OF THE UNIVERSE highly enough.

The beautiful, wonderful, sparkly Tonya reviewed CODA at The Midnight Garden.

And finally, Jay Spencer has me over at All the Write Notes today discussing my favorite bands and songs, and how music is an essential part of my writing process, complete with gifs and the greatest Robert Smith pic ever!

 

Magic Bird Book titles: The Rejected Pile

I’ll admit, when it first came up that we might change the title from GEARWING to something else, I was a little sad. While it may have been the Magic Bird Book whenever I talked about it online, Gearwing was ALWAYS Gearwing in my head, right from when I first started working on it. But, I took a deep breath and saw this as an opportunity to come up with something even better, which I think we have. I love FLIGHTS AND CHIMES AND MYSTERIOUS TIMES, and can’t wait to see how it’ll look on a cover.

But, there were three people involved in making this decision, and two of them were me and Brooks. Which means that, as they say, hilarity ensued. We tried to brainstorm and it descended into madness every time. Here, then, is a mostly comprehensive list of the titles that didn’t make the cut:

Right away, Brooks went the movie route for a whole series:

• THE GEAR & THE WING
• GEARWING 2: LONDON DRIFT (credit actually to a different B for this one)
• GEARWING 3: THE VEGAS JOB
• GE4RWING
• FIFTH GEAR

…no.

Then we rejected:

• FEAR & LOATHING IN LONDINIUM
• THE SONG OF GEARS & WINGS: A DANCE WITH DIRIGIBLES
• WHERE THE WIRED THINGS ARE
• INFINITE QUEST
• THE UNBEARABLE FLIGHTNESS OF BEING
• MAYFAER LADY
• THE BIRD & HIS BOY
• JACK FOSTER & THE GOBLET OF FIRE (not a wildly inaccurate title)

…alas, also no, fitting as some of those actually are.

And then there was:

• CLOCKWORK DRAGONS: ‘NUFF SAID
• LITTLE LORCAN LEARNS A LESSON (I think I threatened to stop talking to Brooks at this point)
• THE BIG GEARWING THEORY

And then, finally, the fun and games had to come to an end. I closed my computer and about 20 minutes later got a message from Brooks that really just shut the whole thing down, because we were never, ever going to top:

• ARTIFICE FOWL

So there you have it. A lot of SUPER SERIOUSNESS goes into choosing a title, you see. 😉

 

Title Change

Lots of exciting things are happening and I can’t talk about all of them, but I CAN say that the Book Formerly Known as GEARWING has a new title! It will be called FLIGHTS AND CHIMES AND MYSTERIOUS TIMES, and I can’t even say how perfect it is for the book. Like I really can’t say. You’ll all have to read it to discover why, and it’ll be out Summer 2014 from Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers.

In the meantime, the post below this has a giveaway for some CODA swag, so go leave a comment?

xo,

Em

 

A not-quite-contest kind of contest

CODA comes out in TWO MONTHS! I’m a mix of excited and terrified, but mostly excited. This isn’t really a post about that. I mentioned on Facebook a while ago that I’d be running two big contests to celebrate the CODA launch and this is one of them, and while it’s not quite as contest-y as the other, I am doing it for reasons.

Some of you know that CODA’s main character, Anthem, is bisexual, and some of the other characters are gay. If you know this, you’ll know it’s not what the book is about, though obviously it is part of who those characters are and helps to shape them. I do a lot of pretty mean things to my characters in CODA, things it was hard for me to write, but one thing I gave this otherwise largely cruel, unforgiving world in which I put them was tolerance, at least in this one respect. It would be nice to live in a world where all kinds of sexuality weren’t even just tolerated, but embraced, and this one thing I gave Anthem and his friends.

But we don’t live in that world. Every day, teenagers and kids Anthem’s age–and younger–struggle against intolerance, injustice, and cruelty just because of who they are. This is what their daily lives are about.

So here’s what we’re going to do. Between now and May 7th, CODA’s publication date, all you have to do is leave a comment here. You don’t have to tweet or Facebook (though both those things are appreciated) and you don’t have to buy anything. Just leave a comment that proves to me you’re not a robot or crazy spammer. 10 of you will get signed, finished copies of CODA. ONE of you will get every single cool CODA-related item I can make, buy, beg from my publishers, or otherwise put my hands on. I don’t know everything you’ll get, yet, but it will definitely include of of my last remaining ARCs, a finished copy of the book, a one-of-a-kind annotated manuscript (the only one I’ll ever give away for CODA), and various kinds of fun, silly swag including stuff that flashes, glows, or would otherwise help you get ready for your neighborhood rave if this were 1998 or 2198.

And here’s what I’m going to do: for every comment this post gets, I will donate $1 to The Trevor Project, an organization that provides support and resources to gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered youths, up to a maximum of $1000. Maybe one day we can live in a world that accepts everyone for who they are–though not, I hope, one that controls our minds with MP3 files.

Why are you doing this publicly? Because I’d be doing it privately anyway. This way I get to give away some swag and maybe give an amazing organization a tiny bit of extra exposure.

Are you sure you don’t need to buy anything? Yes.

Can I win if I live on the moon? Yep. Wherever you are, I’ll send you a BIG BOX OF STUFF if your name gets picked out of the digital hat.

I have a question, should I ask in the comments? No, please don’t. I’ll start another post to cover questions if need be. In the meantime, please email any and all questions to emma [at] emmatrevayne [dot] com.

My comment isn’t showing up! I have comment moderation turned on so that spammers don’t jam things up. I’ll approve comments several times a day. If yours still hasn’t appeared after a day or two, let me know.

This has been an incredible year for me, and I need to pay it forward. Help me?

Em

 

The Next Big Thing Project

Fellow FinePrint family member (and author of books I want to read) Ted Fox tagged me for The Next Big Thing project, in which authors answer 10 questions about themselves and then invite a few other authors to do the same. My last post was along these lines, too, but this time the questions are about the book.

Huge thanks to Ted for the opportunity to procrastinate and talk about my work at the same time, which is basically a combo of my two favorite things. If we could just add chocolate and shoes, I’d be in heaven. You should also go and read his answers, because 33 looks amazing.

Note: These questions probably apply to a work in progress, but as my current work in progress is the sequel to a book that’s not out yet, I’m going to answer them about that first one.

1. What is the working title of your book?

It’s called Coda. It had a few other titles really early in the process, but it’s been called Coda for a long time and I don’t think I’ll be asked to change it now. (I hope not!)

2. Where did the idea come from for the book?

A Prodigy song, a marathon of cyberpunk movies, and that slightly unhinged mental state caused by having a really terrible cold. This strange combination got me thinking about how intensely music can affect our mood, often to the point of changing it entirely. Our psychological connections with music can be intense, as is the human need to make it or experience it. So I wound up writing a book in which music is a marketed, addictive drug.

3. What genre does your book fall under?

Most people would call it a dystopia, and even I’m guilty of that on occasion despite the fact that the label drives me crazy. I love dystopian novels, but that’s not really the point of Coda. Dystopian societies are merely one characteristic of cyberpunk novels, and while I wouldn’t classify the book as particularly intense cyberpunk, the connection between humanity and technology is, to me, the most important aspect of the story. Mostly I take the middle road and call it sci-fi. It’s aimed at young adults.

4. Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

I get asked this often and should really have much better answers than I do, because it’s such a fun fantasyland to play in. (As yet, no one has any plans to turn Coda into a movie.) Scope, who is the main character’s best friend, looks like Ezra Miller in my head. I don’t have a clue who any of the others would be.

5. What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

Music is a drug–and drugs can be deadly.

6. Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

I’m represented by Brooks Sherman of FinePrint Literary Management, although this book was sold by my first agent, who was at a different agency and is no longer an agent. It’s published by Running Press Kids, an imprint of the Perseus Books Group, and out May 7th this year.

7. How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

About 3 months.

8. What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

I probably wouldn’t, because I feel so weird about comparing my stuff to books I adore, and wouldn’t want to compare it to books I don’t. Other people have compared it to M.T. Anderson’s Feed and James Dashner’s Maze Runner series.

9. Who or what inspired you to write this book?

Apart from Prodigy songs and 90’s techno-thrillers, the advice writers always get to “write the book you want to read.” I think I did that, although I’ve now read it so many times for editing purposes that I wouldn’t read it for fun.

10. What else about the book might pique the reader’s interest?

It has a male main character, which is slightly unusual for young adult. He wears a lot of eyeliner. There are some really fun Easter eggs hidden in it, references to bands and songs and such. (It’s possible I am the only one who finds this fun.) It’s 320 pages, which means you can totally read it on a Saturday afternoon and still have time to fall into a really good Ben & Jerry’s coma before bed.

Thanks again to Ted because this was super nice of him, and now for my tags!

Katherine Catmull, if she has time! She is one of my fellow Curators over at the Cabinet of Curiosities, and she hinted about her next book in an email recently. Must. Know. More. Twitter: @kmcatmull

My dear friend Melissa Marino, who is working on a middle grade I think sounds awesome. Twitter: @MelissaWrites2

Eric Devine, my publisher/editor sibling, author of TAP OUT and the newly-announced DARE ME. I think he’s editing the latter right now, but if he has a minute I really want to know more about it. Twitter: @eric_devine

 

 

 

 

Because we’re all in this together…

I was just over on Stefan Bachmann’s blog and he gave me the nicest shoutout (thanks, Stefan!) at the end of his post of 11 weird facts about him. And so, because I am enormously kind-hearted and he told people what his middle name is, I thought I’d come over here and embarrass myself a little for your amusement.

Plus it seems like fun, and I just finished a CHORUS chapter, and I need to figure out how to start the next one, so clearly I’m flailing around online instead of drowning myself in Scrivener like I SHOULD.

11 random facts about me:

1. I wear a Slytherin scarf in the winter and laugh to myself when I see people recognize it. And then I pretend they’re not laughing at me.

2. When I was really little, I thought you had to pass a test before they let you be a grownup. Knowing myself as a grownup now, I truly understand that they let anyone into the club.

3. I once hurt my shoulder so badly I needed months of physical therapy to get it back to something approaching normal function, and it’s still not totally healed. I’d love to tell you some thrilling story involving mountain climbing or pirates or that time I joined the circus, but I actually did it getting out of bed on a perfectly ordinary morning. Go ahead and wonder how I managed that, I’ll wait.

4. I collect shoes and dictionaries, but I have more of the former.

5. I’ve been hoarding music since I was about thirteen. It would take 45 days to listen to every song on my iPod just once. 12 of those songs are the Labyrinth soundtrack.

6. I’m allergic to kiwi fruit, which is a shame because I really love them. I’m not allergic to beets, which is a shame because I really hate them.

7. The very first copy of CODA I ever signed was for a Famous Person. No, I won’t say who.

8. My dog is bigger than your dog.

9. I have a scar on the bottom of my foot from stepping on a bee when I was seven.

10. I am awkward and nervous around people 100% of the time, although I’m told I hide it well.

11. I once ran into an actor while he was going into a bookstore and I was leaving it. Not, “Oh, hello, how are you” kind of ran-into, because that would be weird, but full on ran-into-into-and-fell-over, which was just humiliating. He helped me up, which was very nice of him, and ignored my incoherent babbling, also very nice of him.

SO THERE WE GO. And my thanks to Stefan for giving me something to do while I figure out the next chapter.

 

My favorite thing on the internet today

THE RECORD BOOKS

I am amazed that someone took the time to do this, and oh, so glad they did.

 

The final Lesson From Magic Bird Book, or BIG NEWS

Finish the book that scares you. That’s the final lesson. Because AMAZING things will happen.

I may have mentioned the Magic Bird Book. Once or twice, perhaps.

Well.

Uh.

I can finally, FINALLY tell you things about it. Some things that have been secret for days, and some for weeks, and some for nearly a YEAR. So we’ll start with that last one.

Magic Bird Book is, and always has been, named GEARWING. And GEARWING is a crazy, middle grade, Victorian, steampunk-ish fairytale with dragons and airships and all manner of FUN.

Which brings me to other secrets: you’re all going to get to read it, if you want to. This just went live on Publishers Weekly Children’s Bookshelf:

—

Zareen Jaffery at S&S Books for Young Readers has acquired at auction two middle grade novels by Emma Trevayne, author of the forthcoming YA sci-fi novels Coda and Chorus. In the first book, Gearwing, a boy accidentally travels from his home in Victorian London to an alternate, fairy-populated, steam-clogged version of the city, only to be caught in a web of dangerous politics; his only hope of returning home lies with the legend of an enormous, wish-granting clockwork bird. Publication is set for Summer 2014. Brooks Sherman of FinePrint Literary Management brokered the deal for North American rights. Brazilian rights were pre-empted by Companhia das Letras by João Paulo Riff at Riff Agency, in association with Kathleen Ortiz at New Leaf Literary & Media.

—

I’m trying so hard to be calm and I am FAILING SPECTACULARLY. I am so obnoxiously proud of this book and I was so anxious about it finding the perfect home, the perfect editor who could help me make it even better, and I shouldn’t have worried because I GOT HER. Zareen…GAH. Thank you. My eloquence is gone but thank you, thank you so much. The week this book sold was CRAZY. I was at ALA signing copies of CODA and getting updates on what was happening with the auction and it was just the very, very best kind of craziness.

And I need to thank Brooks, too, because he understood this book in the most perfect way. The full extent of his rock-star-ocity has yet to be revealed, but trust me, he is a rock star. And Kathleen Ortiz is a rock star, too. She sold those Brazilian rights faster than I could blink!

And, you know, my CPs and betas and friends and whatnot who kept me sane while writing this book because that is NO MEAN FEAT, seriously.

This book is going to be SO BEAUTIFUL. There will be illustrations and gorgeousness and surprise things! It makes my heart flutter just thinking about it. I absolutely can’t wait for it to be out in the world.

 

This is AMAZING.

Look at what the awesome Safari Poet made!

http://safaripoet.blogspot.com/p/widgets.html#CD

Thank you so much! And she has a bunch, so go over and grab ones for books you’re looking forward to. 😀