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Little Willow: Welcome to the roundtable discussion of Lips Touch by Laini Taylor, which was our featured book for October. Many thanks to all of the roundtable participants. Today, I'm joined by readergirlz divas Lorie Ann Grover and Melissa Walker as well as Enna Isilee from the blog Squeaky Books.

Lorie Ann Grover: Oh, it's a delight to host Laini and discuss Lips Touch! Almost as fun as her funky Laini's Ladies. Have you seen them? Mine hangs in my kitchen! But okay, let's get to her collection of stories!

Little Willow: Lips Touch is a collection of three stories: Goblin Fruit, Spicy Little Curses, and Hatchling. What was your favorite scene or character from Goblin Fruit?

Melissa Walker: I loved the description of Kizzy when she was introduced, and the reasons why the goblins wanted her and knew she was easy prey. I was instantly mesmerized.

Lorie Ann Grover: I loved her grandmother, trying to warn her! Listen, Kizzy!

Little Willow: I wanted to warn Kizzy as well. I thought this story was a great way to kick off this collection, and I liked the fact that each story took place in a different time and location. Goblin Fruit took place in current times. If this story had been set in Victorian times instead, how would it have been different? What might have stayed the same?

Melissa Walker: I thought the story was pretty timeless. I loved that it was set now, because it has an ancient feel to it but seemed perfectly modern, too. It was a nice combination.

Lorie Ann Grover: I think the modern setting made it so accessible. It acted as the bridge to this intriguing, mysterious fairy tale. Maybe it would have been a tad longer bridge if it had been set in the 1800s.

Little Willow: Are you impulsive? Do you often - or ever - give into temptation?

Enna Isilee: I used to be. Before I had a job I would fritter away every meager penny that I earned. Now that I have a steady income I'm actually more careful with my money (I have to be). I've never been impulsive with love. I'm very square. I don't think I've ever had a lustful thought. Always the good girl.

Little Willow: There's not an impulsive bone in my body. I'm extremely cautious, and I tend to overthink things. No matter what, whether it's a decision that has to be made in an instant or something I have more time to consider, I trust my gut. If my gut tells me not to do something, I don't do it. Period.

Melissa Walker: I was very, very good in high school, but I broke out of that mold in college and acted impulsively on too many occasions. I learned a lot from giving in to temptation, and I'm glad I learned it young.

Lorie Ann Grover: Are we talking chocolate here? Because I cave for chocolate. :~)

Little Willow: Lorie Ann, here's a healthy granola-and-chocolate bar for you. What's the difference between being tempted by something and wanting something? Where or how do they overlap?

Lorie Ann Grover: I think a desire can be honest, good, and right. While the word "temptation" lets you know that the desire is likely unhealthy, not to your ultimate benefit or another's.

Little Willow: Are any of you superstitious?

Lorie Ann Grover: Not a lick.

Enna Isilee: I'm EXTREMELY superstitious. Mostly when it comes to numbers. I hate the number 3, love the numbers 7 and 2. I always stop the microwave at 4 seconds, so that it never gets to 3. As for curses... I certainly believe in mental curses. If someone tells me I'm going to have a bad day, I probably will because I believe it. Then again... maybe that's how magic works. ;)

Little Willow: Maybe so, Enna!

National Books Award Finalists Named (and I'm back from vacation)...

After a six days of vacation in New York, I was not excited about the prospect of weeding through my email inbox. (It was bursting.) After a few hours of wading through, I was rewarded with today's Publishers Lunch featuring the National Book Award finalists. In case you haven't seen the list, here are the 2009 National Books Awards Finalists for the Young People's Literature caegory:

• Deborah Heiligman, Charles and Emma: The Darwins’ Leap of Faith (Henry Holt)
• Phillip Hoose, Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
• David Small, Stitches (W. W. Norton & Co.)
• Laini Taylor, Lips Touch: Three Times (Arthur A. Levine Books/Scholastic)
• Rita Williams-Garcia, Jumped (HarperTeen/HarperCollins)

Lips Touch: Three Times by Laini Taylor. Illustrated by Jim Di Bartolo. Arthur A. Levine Books, an imprint of Scholastic. October 2009. Reviewed from ARC; ARC from BEA.

The Plot: Three stories that hinge on a kiss. In Goblin Fruit, Kizzy wants to be someone different, somewhere different, she wants to be kissed; In Spicy Little Curses Such As These, Ana wants to be loved and accepted; and in Hatchling, Esme is haunted by memories that are not her own.

The Good: In Goblin Fruit, Kizzy is a girl who should know better. Her people are well aware that goblins are real, even though they live in the modern world and Kizzy knows that ghosts are real. Kizzy wants -- wants what? She wants. And the new boy in school, who is so fine, who seems to want her, may be the answer to her prayers. Taylor takes Christina Rossetti's Goblin Market a step further in time. Fruit out of season may be a clue that the goblin is tempting you; but there are more temptations than fruit.

Ana is cursed at her christening in Spicy Little Curses Such As These. In this twist of Sleeping Beauty, her curse is to kill. Any who hears her voice will die. She is blessed with self-control to never utter a sound. James falls in love with Ana, Ana with James. The battle fields of the Great War taught him to be rational and not believe in miracles and magic. He doesn't believe in curses and wishes she would talk. And instead of the reader being rational and believing as James does, we see what he doesn't. A world where an old lady engages in dangerous trades to save children from Hell and Ana's voice is the price paid.

In Hatchling, Esme has been raised in London by an eccentric mother. Her mother's oddness suddenly makes sense, or at least seems less odd, when Esme awakes to find that instead of two brown eyes she has one brown, one blue. Wolves are hunting them and Esme remembers things she know never happened. At least, never happened to her. Including a kiss. Who is Esme? What secrets does she hold?

I love the twists to tales that Taylor gives; taking Goblin Market to modern times. Creating a Sleeping Beauty who can kill with a whisper -- or a shout. And lastly, a story that seems to be about Esme -- until we find out there is more to Esme than meets the eye.

I kept turning down pages to mark language and phrases:

"The goblins want girls who dream so hard about being pretty their yearning leaves a palpable trial, a scent goblins can follow like sharks on a soft bloom of blood. The girls with hungry eyes who pray each night to wake up as someone else. Urgent, unkissed, wishful girls."

"She wanted to climb out of her life as if it were a seashell she could abandon on a shore and walk away from, barefoot."

"Kizzy felt, for an instant, as if her blood fizzed inside her like champagne."

"Once, he might have believed [his survival] to be the work of Providence, but it seemed to him now that to thank God for his life would be to suggest God had shrugged off all the others, flicked them away like cigarette butts by the thousands, and that seemed like abominable conceit."

Since this an ARC, it didn't have the complete art work. The cover gives a taste. While these are tales about being kissed, or wanting kisses, or the price of kissing, it is not a "romance", per se, though I would give it to people looking for stories about love. Since it's not a traditional romance, then, it doesn't have a traditional romance cover. Rather, the girl you see is one who looks haunted and who will haunt you. Two colors: red and blue. Blue eyes that are striking -- almost disturbing. Otherwordly. And of course the lips are red -- but not smiling. Full, kissable lips -- but not smiling, not inviting, not happy. This is the face of a girl turning into a woman, haunted, haunting, striking, inviting you in yet keeping you at arm's length.

The sketch art for the first story is supplied, relating in pictures the story of Rossetti's Goblin Wood and ending with a portrait of Kizzy. Loved it; and I cannot wait to see the finished book.

What links these stories? Teen girls on a brink -- on a brink of something else, something more.


© Elizabeth Burns of A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy

Hi Jim thank for joining us today. before we get into your marketing brilliance, can you tell me a little about yourself.

Well first off, thanks for contacting me about the interview! I'm honored.

I'm a freelance illustrator who at one time wanted nothing more than to work as a penciler in the comic book industry. That was one of the primary motivating factors that brought me to art school. Some years later now, I have no regrets with the path I took since all of that focus on drawing really gave me a strong foundation for any and all of the art I do. Plus, as a bonus, I met my wife, author and designer Laini Taylor, there during my second year at CCA.

While I did end up dabbling in comic books for a couple of years, I started getting more and more interested in the book-publishing side of illustration and have had the good fortune to collaborate with my wife and her publishers on three books now. I did the covers and interior illustrations for her DREAMDARK series with Putnam (BLACKBRINGER, which just came out in paperback, and the September '09 sequel SILKSINGER). We also collaborated on the upcoming (October '09) illustrated teen book LIPS TOUCH being published by Arthur A. Levine Books (one of six "YA Buzz Books" featured at BEA this year!).

This past year I've also had the privilege of working with Simon & Schuster and Scholastic Press on some fun cover work and unique illustrated educational projects respectively. It's been unbelievably fun.

Do you have a website/blog? When did you start it and who manages it?

I have both. My newly (slightly) updated website and my sporadically-attended-to blog.

The former was first designed and active sometime around 2002, and the blog started in the fall of 2005. I manage both of them myself. I'll be doing a larger update of the website in a few months, but since a fair amount of the work I've done recently is being kept under wraps until the books containing that work come out, I'll have to wait to do a more complete update.

As for my blog, I tend to be pretty good about semi-regular updates when I'm only a little busy, but terrible about updates when I'm realllllllly busy and stressed. I would make some sort of powerfully assertive declaration that "Starting NOW I hereby declare that I'll be doing more regular updates regardless of how busy I am!!" But since we're expecting our aforementioned
first baby (a little girl!) to arrive in a couple of months, I imagine that she will have (an adorable!) time-suck effect on any blogger decrees I might make for a bit. I'll be honest and say that I'll do my best to be more frequent with updates though.

In your opinion , what are the top 3 things every illustrator should and must do to promote their book?

Well, a web site and blog are pretty much expected when promoting yourself. They're almost "gimmes," but since having a web presence is absolutely necessary and has worked in unexpected ways in securing me art jobs, I'll definitely put these two as #1. Between being able to be found through other people's sites mentioning your work OR through Google searches if you take care in titling your blog posts, a presence online is essential.

At #2, I would absolutely say that attending industry conferences and conventions is crucial and quite possibly what I've found to be the most effective in a variety of ways. From getting inspiration from faculty presenters at organizations like the SCBWI (Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators), to making friends with peers for critique groups, these sorts of gatherings are incredible. Plus whether it's Comic Con, International, SCBWI, or ALA, getting to meet Editors, Art Directors and Art Buyers, Agents, and Publishers face-to-face can have fantastic results.

However, unless you've somehow made a pre-arranged time to review artwork or a manuscript, don't expect to get your work looked at and evaluated at these functions by your dream Editor/Art Director/Agent/Publisher. Instead, introduce yourself, make a good impression if you can (i.e.- no biting, kicks to the neck, or strange unprovoked hugging) and quickly follow up the conference with an e-mail or snail mail sending links to your website or samples.

#3 would be mailing those printed samples and e-mail links to your site.

In your opinion, how important is social networking?

I certainly think it's important to take advantage of those technologies to make and nurture new and existing friendships in any way that can help, but there has to be a balance heavily-weighted toward actual productivity vs. networking or else you'll end up with a bunch of great friends and acquaintances but nothing cool accomplished to show them other than increased typing speed or the ability to regularly think of something clever to update your online status about. I suppose it's like TV or some such, it's all OK in moderation & can be a distraction sometimes if you're not careful. You know what I mean, right? Entry example: "Saturday, 2:02 p.m. Just made a sandwich. Put too much mayo on it. Drat." Followed by: "Saturday, 2:13 p.m. Just ate the sandwich. Not so bad after all." All the while you could have been painting.

How important is technology to an illustrator's marketing plan?

Wow, despite my previous answer, I don't know what I'd do without technology! Since you're specifically talking about marketing, I'd have to say that it's of the utmost importance, or at least for me it is. Whether it's designing promotional postcards with Photoshop that I'll then upload to a web-printing site, or sending out e-mails to people I've met at conferences (or "met" online) with links to my web site and blog, technology touches it all. And that's not taking into consideration that even when I do artwork traditionally (i.e. watercolors, inks, oils, etc.), I'm usually going to do at least a small amount of refining and futzing in Photoshop.

Did you think about marketing before your work was published? Did you start getting the word out prior to getting an agent or publishing you work? If so, when and what did you do?

I definitely did, but I certainly didn't really know what I was doing for a while. Laini and I have joked that putting promotional mailings "out there" sometimes feels like tossing them into a void, especially if you don't hear ANYthing back from them. Ever. Which happened to me a couple of times. However, one of my first jobs came from sending a packet of art prints to a Submissions Art Director at the role playing game company White Wolf Publishing a packet of art prints, and while she didn't hire me, another A.D. that was in her office one day saw them sitting there (I assume NOT in the trash) and called me. I've since ended up doing illustrations for over 25 of their books and manuals, plus a fair amount of trading/gaming cards.

Getting that first opportunity from the right mailing to the right person (or their office-mate!) can pay for itself and keep paying YOU for years to come. Plus, you never know when the work you do for a particular job might lead to work somewhere else. It's all about building relationships AND your portfolio.

What other advice do you have for illustrators regarding marketing and getting their name/work out?

Hmmm. Well, this is a tough one. I'm a big believer in the "Never give up on your dreams and goals!" sort of philosophy, but this can have some major caveats. For instance, if you're not succeeding with your current style, maybe consider something drastically different with your technique or materials. Or if you're getting a lot of feedback that seems to be suggesting that the foundation of your skills is lacking, you don't have to quit necessarily. There is always Art School, or even great art classes at the J.C. level. Also, speaking of technology earlier, there are a TON of tutorials online (many for free) that walk you through traditional and digital art techniques.

Once your skills are on their way, I feel that much of success has to do with persistence coupled with recognizing -- and working on -- what your work might be lacking. The "natural talent" of an unmotivated artist can be surpassed by a somewhat less-talented artist who's very driven (and meets deadlines).

What creative things have you done to promote a book?

Definitely the most creative thing I've done (so far!) to promote a book was for the graphic novel that Laini and I did for Image Comics entitled THE DROWNED (July 2004). We printed up in-progress copies of the book (all of it fully drawn and lettered, but the painting was at various early stages) and mailed them out to online comic book reviewers in nice white boxes. Each manuscript inside was tied with a red ribbon that had a rusted metal key in the knot and a black feather tucked under it (all elements from the story). We then printed up nice custom address labels using artwork from the book. While sales of the book didn't break any records (or even close), we managed to get about 20 or 30 very positive reviews. But in the process of it all we learned a lot and gained some friends (and fans) and had a lot of fun.

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