The Silver Lining

Friday Five Events I’m Going To This Weekend

Posted on May 29, 2009 by admin Posted in Uncategorized .

1. Last night I attended the Teen Author Carnival. I had a blast! The lovely signed my copy of Dull Boy (200 pages in and loving it! Such unique characters! Full review next week) and I met who is adorable in person. I also snagged an ARC of Michelle Zink’s Prophecy Of The Sisters, which I’m super excited to read. I’ll post more details about it with a full recap of this weekend on Sunday or Monday (depending on time–something I am still lacking in).

2. Tonight I’m going to Books of Wonder to see Tiger Beat perform.

May 29th
Friday
6 – 8 pm

TIGER BEAT RETURNS! TEEN AUTHOR ROCK SHOW
MAKING THEIR TRIUMPHANT RETURN!
Libba bray
barnabas miller
daniel ehrenhaft
natalie standiford

And featuring an opening act by
“THE INFINITE PLAYLISTS”
rachel cohn and David levithan

3. Then later tonight I’m going to Cheryl Klein‘s and Elizabeth Bird’s kidlit drinks night. I had such a blast last time so I’m really looking forward to tonight. I’m hoping my hair cooperates. It’s nice and straight right now!

4. Saturday afternoon I’m going back to Books of Wonder for Melissa Marr’s and Kristin Cashore’s book reading/signing.

5. Then Saturday night I’m super excited for the blueboarder dinner meet up. That includes a lot of my LJ friends! And then some other fun stuff on Saturday! I can’t wait to meet everyone.

Anyway, if you’re at any of these events today or tomorrow and you see someone who is 5’0" tall with long hair and a big smile, come say hi!

I’ll do a big recap about everything after all the events are finished. I hope everyone is having a great time today. And you know, if you scored an extra copy of CATCHING FIRE you need someone to take off your hands, I will gladly help you out with that. Just saying.

Edward shirtless sans sparkles

Posted on May 27, 2009 by admin Posted in Uncategorized .

I am limited in time today, as usual. Seems to be a trend around here. So instead I’ll direct you to some eye candy of the Volterra fountain scene shoot for New Moon. Edward…er…Rpattz is shirtless. And he seems to have worked out. The only thing that would make this photo better is if it came with a voice recording of him speaking in his sexy British accent. Or if he reenacted this scene for me live in the privacy of my apartment.

I love the CG dots he has painted on him. That makes me happy, since I am a CG artist. Guys look very hot with motion trackers. (In case you are wondering what the dots are for, they’re used to track the contours of his body and the way it moves in 3D space so you can map stuff onto it, like say, sparkles. This is what I do in my day job when I composite.)

Clicky for a picture of Robert acting like a chicken pox victim (i.e. the motion trackers)

Teaser Tuesday

Posted on May 26, 2009 by admin Posted in Uncategorized .

I haven’t posted one of these in a while, especially not from my book on sub THE ART OF SELLING MY SISTER. So here’s one of my favorite scenes from this novel.

The set-up: my characters are pretending to be newlyweds so they can pull a prank on the cruise ship’s Newlywed game. They are trying to get "in character" here. Earlier in the novel Finn, my protagonist’s love interest, caught her pigging out on the buffet selections and this scene recalls that. Kasey stole rings from her sister before this scene occurred.
Excerpt under the cut

Friday Five

Posted on May 22, 2009 by admin Posted in Uncategorized .

1. Apologies for the lack of blogging/twittering this week. I’ve been abnormally busy and had barely any time to actually sit down at the computer and do anything productive. I’m also way behind on my emails, so if you sent me one and I haven’t responded, that’s why. I’m hoping to catch up this weekend.

2. Next week I’ll have a lot of topics to discuss because of all the BEA events. I am going to the teenauthorcarnival, a Backspace drinks night, a blueboarder dinner, an event at Books of Wonder, Cheryl Klein’s kidlit drinks night, and maybe a few other things. I’m very excited! I’m not actually going to BEA, but I’m thrilled it’s in NYC again this year so I can take part in all the various events happening because of it. Last time it was NYC, I was too intimidated and too much of a newbie to venture out of my apartment and mingle.

3. I had a good week of winning things. I picked correctly that Kris would win American Idol. My mom runs an idol pool for about 100 people. There are two contests, one where we rank the top 13 before the final round, and another where we submit weekly picks. I came in 2nd in the top 13 contest and 1st in the weekly picks! So I win money in both. I am the ONLY ONE out of 100 people who had Kris in the finals. I took one look at him all those weeks ago and said, "he’s hot. Those teens will vote for him. He’s going all the way!" Ha! I was right. I also just saw on ‘s blog that I won a copy of Lament by

m_stiefvater

. I’m so excited to read this and the Shiver ARC we’ll be passing around!

4. As much as I enjoy obsessing over TV, I also love summer because it frees up so much time in my schedule. Now, I do want to reiterate that I have no problem completing everything during the winter (see also last November when I kept up with TV sweeps, worked 12-14 hour days on a major deadline job, read 2-3 books a week, and still managed to write about 80k. It’s the art of multi-tasking, at which I excel.) But anyway, it is nice to have less obligations taking up so many hours per week even if it’s sad not to have anything to watch.

5. What is everyone doing for the three-day weekend (assuming everyone has one)? Going any place exciting? My boyfriend and I are going to hit up the beach Saturday, then go to my parents’ house since they live close to the Jersey shore, then we’ll spend Sunday sitting by my parents’ pool. Josh really wants to go early to the Spotted Pig on Sunday night. We did this last year, same weekend, and it’s one of the only times it’s empty enough to get in! I love their deviled eggs. Monday is cleaning day since we have to get our apartment spic and span for prospective tenants to check it out. (We’re not moving far, just a little further away from the city to get more for our money, trading our 12 minute commute with a 25 minute one.)

Happy Memorial Day!

Season Finales

Posted on May 20, 2009 by admin Posted in Uncategorized .

I’ve been terribly busy the last few days and haven’t had much time for blogging. I really am trying to get a bunch of reviews up from recent reads. Hopefully I can get that up tomorrow. Since I’m not ready for that yet and I’m low on writing topics (and haven’t had a chance to prepare the next book trailer tutorial), I’m going to give some thoughts on season finales and endings since that does kind of pertain to writing, even if it is in a different medium.

Stories all have beginnings, middles, and endings. I usually rock beginnings and have no problem coming up with something hooky. And for some reason, I rarely suffer from the middle of the book sag. It’s endings that are a pain. I usually rewrite mine several times from various angles until I get one that works. All this means that I pay very close attention to season finales, trying to study them and understand how they recap endings.

Spoilers under the cut

http://shana-silver.com/2009/05/15/131/

Posted on May 15, 2009 by admin Posted in Uncategorized .

1. I’m going to try to keep this Friday Five short. It’ll be like opposite day. But I want to write a lot of words in my WIP and I can’t do that if I put the words on the blog instead.

2. I had such a great time at Wednesday’s event at the NYPL where Sarah Cross and other authors read from their books. I was so impressed! A lot of them did different voices for the characters like audiobook narrators. I laughed hard at several of the excerpts. Definitely my kind of books. Now I have a lot more on my TBR to get to!

3. Even though I’m not going to BEA, there are so many events going on that week, I feel like I’m getting ready for a conference. Several book readings. There’s a dinner with blueboarders I’m seriously looking forward to (though I’m nervous no one will like the restaurant I picked!). I can’t wait to meet up with everyone and put more faces to names. I’ll give more details about the events I’m going to, but my Thursday, Friday, and Saturday are jam packed. Good thing I don’t have a job. Ha.

4. My bf and I are going apartment hunting this weekend. We kind of hate the place we live now because it’s cramped. Mostly, I need more closets and my boyfriend doesn’t want to comply by getting rid of his wardrobe and giving me more space. If all goes well, we’ll be trading in our view of NYC for a place with a pool, gym, sauna, and several other luxuries. It’ll mean a slightly longer commute into NYC, but not too bad.

5. I just want to give a virtual hug to all my wonderful Live Journal friends. You guys rock, seriously. Thanks so much for everything!

Protected: Super F-locked Submissions Update

Posted on May 14, 2009 by admin Posted in Uncategorized .

Wednesday Random Stuff

Posted on May 13, 2009 by admin Posted in Uncategorized .

1. I am about 45k into my super secret retelling rewrite. Wow that’s a mouthful. My first drafts are usually way too long (I prefer this because cutting things and killing darlings gives me a serious high) so I estimate I’m a little more than halfway done. That seems to coincide with my trusty outline. I really really love this revision. It is much stronger than my last version.

2. I am extremely excited for the finale of Lost tonight. But that just means tomorrow will be the most disappointing day ever! I’ll have soooo long to wait until the next episode! Still, it’s better than next year at this time when there won’t be another episode.

3. While I am crushing on Kris, I think my boyfriend might be crushing on Adam. He keeps making me rewatch Adam’s performances. He sits at the edge of the seat, literally, and just stares in awe at the TV. Then he goes on long, passionate rants why Adam should win. I’m starting to get worried. But hey, I think I know what to get him for his birthday. A custom made Adam Lambert pin up poster!

4. I’m also looking forward to attending this tonight. I’ll have a recap tomorrow:

May 13 — Teen Author Reading Night
(6-7:30pm, Jefferson Market Branch of NYPL, 425 6th Ave, at 10th St.)

Nick Burd, The Vast Fields of Ordinary
Cecil Castellucci, Geektastic
Susane Colasanti, Waiting for You
Sarah Cross, Dull Boy
Jenny Han, The Summer I Turned Pretty
Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus, The Real Real
Kieran Scott, Geek Magnet

5. The elevators in my apartment both stopped working at the same time. I think this is an evil conspiracy to get me to exercise by walking up eleven flights of stairs multiple times per day.

Contest!

Posted on May 11, 2009 by admin Posted in Uncategorized .

Posting this for

I think Shiver sounds amazing. So does Eyes Like Stars! If you want a chance to win, pop on over to Maggie’s blog and comment before May 15 and tell her you’re commenting for Karen Kincy.

From Karen’s blog:
Prizes:
-If Team Ravelda wins, each team member gets a critique of the first 5 pages of their manuscript by Maggie.
-Also, if we win, I will have 4 signed copies of Lament. I already own one, so… more book giveaway goodness!
–Even if we don’t win, I will be giving away an ARC of Lisa Mantchev’s Eyes Like Stars to a lucky random team member.

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater… debuts August 1. Preorder today!

For years, Grace has watched the wolves in the woods behind her house. One yellow-eyed wolf–her wolf–is a chilling presence she can’t seem to live without. Meanwhile, Sam has lived two lives: In winter, the frozen woods, the protection of the pack, and the silent company of a fearless girl. In summer, a few precious months of being human . . . until the cold makes him shift back again.

Now, Grace meets a yellow-eyed boy whose familiarity takes her breath away. It’s her wolf. It has to be. But as winter nears, Sam must fight to stay human–or risk losing himself, and Grace, forever.

Friday Five

Posted on May 8, 2009 by admin Posted in Uncategorized .

1. I’ve been really busy with a work deadline this week so I’ll keep this short! Said work deadline has made it difficult to get much writing and critiquing done. I’m holding steady right now at 35k, with a scene I’m SUPER excited to write up next (it’s a kissing scene in an unusual setting, w00t!). Writing this scene will be a reward for my forced slacking this week. However, I did write my favorite scene so far in the book this week (soon to be rivaled by the upcoming kiss).

2. One thing I’m surprised about this week is that Nikki Finke of Deadline Hollywood Daily is reporting that the Lily-centric 80s fab Gossip Girl spinoff is not dead. I bring this up because recently I eavesdropped on a few editors twitter-chatting about 80s-set novels and whether they would be successful. I’m not sure why the Gossip Girl spin off failed, there’s a flashback episode airing Monday that was supposed to serve as a backdoor pilot (Private Practice style), so until I watch it, I can’t come up with any theories other than the episode most likely didn’t test well or the execs at the network had more promising series (like the vampire show based on YA novels). The thing that surprises me is Gossip Girl already has a built in audience that would follow the show…so what caused it to fail? Is it the setting? Not enough interest in the Lily character as a teen? I don’t write historical (if the 80s could be considered that), but I thought I’d bring this question up to anyone who does because I’m curious about how this might be related to acquisitions in the pub industry.

3. Speaking of TV, can I just talk about how excited I am for finale week? LOST is the one I’m most looking forward to, though I’ve been disappointed (haven’t felt we’ve really learned much we didn’t already know about Dharma) as well as delighted (really love the time travel stuff and some of the changing character roles/relationships) with some things from this season. I love the Big Bang Theory, though I’m not expecting any major cliff hangers here. Gossip Girl should be fun as they try to debunk the mysterious blogger’s identity (plus I’m hoping for some Blair/Chuck reuniting). Hopefully Izzie will die on Grey’s Anatomy (I can’t stand her, sorry fans of the character). I’m hoping Adam takes it all on American Idol, LOVE him. And though it has lukewarm ratings and a very slim chance of returning for a 2nd season, I’ve found myself completely hooked and looking forward to every episode of Dollhouse. So I’m super excited for tonight’s (series?) finale.

What shows are you looking forward to?

4. I forgot to mention this, but a few weeks ago I lent my mom some YA books to take on vacation with her. I gave her two books in the Luxe series and Audrey Wait! She devoured the Luxe books and then brought Audrey Wait with her to the pool. She was laughing so hard, a woman actually came over to see what book she was reading because my mom was obviously enjoying it so much. Mom showed her, and the lady is excited to buy the book. My subtle ways of converting adults to YA are working better than expected. Two down, a lot more to go.

5. Happy mother’s day to all the mother’s out there! I’m going to my parents’ house for the weekend to spend it with my mom.