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Author Matthew Cody's Friendly Ramblings
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The holidays are here and I have been a very bad blogger. Despite my very best intentions, I am definitely on the naughty list of blogging this year, having only squeaked out a few measly posts over the past few months.
But hey, I was working! I’ve been a busy little writer and I will have some very exciting announcements to post here in the new year – I think 2011 is going to be very exciting!
Although I’m not quite ready to talk about most of these projects, such as the Super Secret Powerless Sequel, or the Super Secret Powerless Movie Project, or the Super Secret Illustrated Serial Short Story, or the Not At All Secret New Book (The Dead Gentleman available Fall 2011!), I did get something in the mail the other day that I wanted to share:
I’ve mentioned before that one of the coolest things about being an author is getting to see the various covers from foreign editions. I love seeing the different interpretations – it’s like seeing your book published for the first time all over again.
This is the new cover for German edition of Powerless, titled Achtung, Superheld! It’s being released by Dressler, a fantastic publisher who publishes everything from Cornelia Funke’s Inkheart to Jules Verne! Feast your eyes on this AWESOME cover!
Trying to help out a fellow con-goer with some hygiene tips.
New York Comic Con came and went, and not a toothy orc nor the dreaded con-crud cold could keep me away. I was there for all three days of geek-joy. I had a terrific time seeing friends from far away places, and seeing far-out things with local friends (did I mention the toothy orc?)
My wife asked me what my favorite part of the con was, and I fell into a flashback sensory-overloaded coma. There was really so much to see this year and so many people. Soooo many people. Even expanding to take over the entire Javitz center wasn’t enough to fit all of Saturday’s attendees.
But what I love about this con, (other than the Michael Jackson Dance Stage complete with smoke machine, which is, of course, a con tradition dating back to Stan and Jack’s young man days). No, what I love about the con is the enthusiasm and wide-eyed celebration for all things geeky. Comics are spectacle, a mix of words and images that are given meaning by your brain and played inside your head like the most awesome 3-D that could ever be created. And so it’s fitting to have you mind blown, to some extent or another, by this con.
And mine was blown. Up. And Stepped on. Twice.
And I can’t wait for next year!
For those of you in the greater NYC area October 8-10th (or those foolhardy travelers brave enough to risk the journey east on foot or horse). Come to the New York Comic Con! It’s a terrific show, fun for the whole family (really, there are some comic conventions that give me the willies, but this one is awesome). If you plan on coming, download the app for your iphone or android – it’s very cool (and you check out the app guest list you get to see my smiling face peeking out you from your phone. I’m in your phone!)
I’ll be at the con all weekend, geeking out over my favorite creators and wandering the floor. So if you see me looking overwhelmed, say hi and buy me a coke. But especially if you are there on Kids Day, Sunday Oct. 10th, I’ll be participating in two very cool events. At 11 am I’ll be moderating a panel on the wonderful new historical/fantasy graphic novel The Sons of Liberty. Come by to see the creators of this cool new series (and yours truly, of course). Then at 3pm I’ll be at the Random House Childrens Booth signing copies of Powerless. I might even have a few give-aways . . .
Here’s the complete Sunday schedule of Cody-relevant Sunday events:
MATTHEW CODY In-booth Signing—Sunday, Oct. 10th, 3:00 – 4:00 p.m. Random House Children’s Books Booth #2223
The Sons of Liberty, a Graphic Novel: The New World of Historical Fiction
Sunday, October 10th 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Panel Room 4
THE SONS OF LIBERTY, a new graphic-novel quartet for middle grade readers and beyond tells the story of two young slaves in the wake of the Revolutionary War. History is brought to life in full color by the illustration of Marvel Comics veteran Steve Walker and Oren Kramek. As the story unfolds, readers journey to the darker corners of our nation’s earliest days. Laden with action-packed scenes, historic heroes, and equal parts fantasy and realism, THE SONS OF LIBERTY charters new territory in both graphic and historical novels. Readers young and old will not be able to put this engrossing story down until the heroes get the freedom they deserve. Join authors Alexander Lagos and Joseph Lagos and illustrators Steve Walker and Oren Kramek in conversation with moderator Matthew Cody about the creation of this new series.
Participants:
Authors ALEXANDER LAGOS & JOSEPH LAGOS
Illustrators Steve Walker & Oren Kramek
Moderator:
MATTHEW CODY (Author of Powerless)
Clarion Write-a-Thon: Overcome your Inertia
We’re deep into the Write-a-Thon now, and thanks again to those who’ve donated! Of course, I am also deep into work on the new POWERLESS book. Being a part of this writing pledge drive has made me very nostalgic for those Clarion weeks – right now this year’s writers should be getting into the groove, adjusting to the fast-paced workload, getting to know their peers and teachers, and, hopefully. spending every free minute near the ocean. I envy them!
Working on the new POWERLESS book is like seeing old friends again. But here’s the question – how much have those friends grown up? Or more accurately, how much should I let them grow up?
I’m a fan of big story arcs. I love series precisely because I enjoy seeing the characters change and grow over the course of a long journey. But not too much.
That’s the key, I think, and that’s the question that I’m currently wrestling with on the new book. How much do I let them grow up? Time has passed between book one and two, and Daniel and his friends are getting older, but the story of POWERLESS – the big story spanning more than one book – is about kids. I have nothing against teens, or teen-angsty girls or boys or even vampires, but POWERLESS is not about any of that.
The goal here is to let Daniel and the other characters live and learn, to get older, without losing that sweet spot just on the cusp of childhood and adolescence. I loathe the word tween, but the general idea is right. Not to be too precious about it, but it’s like the autumn of childhood – the leaves are turning, but there are still a few sunny, warm days left to play in.
Now, off to choose which character should fall in love with the new vampire hot boy.
I’m taking a few minutes away from the Clarion Write-a-Thon to thank the good folks at CHILIS (that’s the Children’s Librarians of New Hampshire for those of you in-the-know) for nominating POWERLESS for the 2010-2011 New Hampshire Great Stone Face Award!
This award will be voted on by a fourth through sixth graders throughout the state (fitting, for the state with the first Primary of the election season, eh? Ah, democracy! Love it!). The voting will take place next April during National Library Week, so that’s a long time for New Hampshire kids to get their hands on a copy of POWERLESS and give it their democratic stamp of approval. If you know any fourth through sixth graders in the Granite State, feel free to send them a box of chocolates with my name on it. Or maybe we can start a yard-sign campaign? POWERLESS 2011! I could do a bus tour and discuss children’s issues over pancake breakfasts. Now we just need a rugged, independent-sounding motto . . .
Thank you so much to the GSF Committee for nominating my little-book-that-could for this very cool award!
The first week of the Clarion Write-a-Thon is over and thanks to those of you who’ve kindly donated! (For those of you who haven’t, there are five weeks to go! But this is the best week to pledge. Seriously)
It’s been a cool, exciting and slightly bewildering experience returning to Noble’s Green for this sequel. For starters, I wrote the first draft of POWERLESS over five years ago, and for the last year and a half my mind has firmly been in the grip of THE DEAD GENTLEMAN. In fact, I’m still working on edits for the Gentleman while starting the new POWERLESS book. It’s a massive shifting of steam-powered gears to go from Jules Verne adventure to flying kids, but I’m not complaining. Just having to privilege of typing that previous sentence is worth all the headaches!
So what can I tell you about the new POWERLESS story? Well, I have a real thing about spoilers, so don’t expect any here. But I will say that I am really looking forward to seeing how the Supers of Noble’s Green deal with the greatest, most diabolically nefarious enemy of all – growing up.
Thirteen. That magical number has come and gone for several members of our little group and life is suddenly a lot more complicated. The Rules are gone. The Shroud is gone. But those powers just keep getting stronger and stronger.
Of course, the center of the new book is once again, Daniel. If anything, our hero seems even more powerless compared to his friends as he watches them display an ever increasing array of super-abilities.
And who is that stranger who just arrived in town, and what interest does he have in Daniel and his friends?
Okay! That’s all! Just a few plot teases. After all, I’ve just started the book and it could all change in the end. Maybe I’ll end up with Daniel and the Great Pie-Eating Contest!
Next week, I’ll be going out to the Adams County Library in Gettysburg to talk to a group of very astute readerly-type kids about POWERLESS and I plan on using them as a little informal focus group. I’ll be asking them what kind of things they like to see in a sequel. I’ll report back here, but in the meantime, do you have any thoughts? What are some of your favorites?
Clarion WRITE-A-THON: Start something different
2007 was a big year for me. My wife and I had a baby, I signed my first book contract and I was lucky enough to spend six weeks at the Clarion Writers’ Workshop.
Clarion is one of the most respected writers’ workshops around. For six weeks every summer a handful of writers of fantastic literature – science fiction, fantasy, or something in-between – gather in San Diego to learn from respected professionals in the field. If you have a favorite fantasy or sci-fi writer, odds are they’ve either taught or graduated from Clarion.
When I was there I wrote a story a week (and got the stink eye from a seal who thought I was trying to move in on his oyster lunch. Note to future Clarion writers – be careful where you swim in your off-hours!). It was a grueling schedule that really shook up my expectations of what it meant to be a writer. And it was the best creative experience of my life. I was surrounded my a number of writers far more talented than I’ll ever be, and I made some wonderful friends.
Clarion makes writers. Or at least it helps make them into the best writers they can be. Bookshelves wouldn’t be bare without it, but they would be a heck of a lot more dull.
But all of this takes money, and I know I wouldn’t have been able to attend myself without a generous scholarship from the Clarion Foundation. In this economic storm, arts organizations everywhere are struggling to just stay afloat.
That’s why I’m asking for your help.
So for the next six weeks, while this year’s batch of talented scribes rubs their fingers to the bone churning out words in San Diego, I’ll be doing the same. I’m committing to the Clarion Write-a-Thon, in which I’ll be working on the opening chapters of the sequel to POWERLESS! Oh yeah, did I mention that there is a sequel? As part of my new contract with the wonderful folks at Knopf, I’ll be writing the further adventures of the Supers of Noble’s Green.
I’ll be blogging about the experience regularly, and asking for donations for Clarion along the way. A whole host of terrific writers are participating in the Write-a-Thon, and we are competing to raise money for this workshop that means so much to so many of us. To make a donation (even 5 bucks helps!) all you have to do is click on the Write-a-Thon link on the right side of this page, or heck, just click here. It’s a great chance to get a behind-the-scenes peek at what goes into writing the first draft of a book, and to help out a great cause.
0 Comments on Clarion Write-a-Thon and the POWERLESS Sequel! as of 1/1/1900
I got a lovely surprise in the mail yesterday via overseas Fed-Ex: a wonderful middle grade novel called SUPER. Don’t know who that hack author Matthew Cody is, but the cover looks cool . . .
This is exciting for me because its my first look at one of the foreign editions of POWERLESS. This Italian version is published by Mondadori, and I’m expecting to see something from our German publishers soon.
What is perhaps the coolest thing about seeing these books is that it’s like looking at an alternate universe version of your work. I’m half expecting this one to grow a goatee. You get so used to the US version (which I still LOVE) – the cover, the jacket design, etc – that seeing something like this is like seeing the “book that could have been.” The story is, of course, the same (or at least I assume it is. Anyone read Italian?) but the cover sets up the readers expectations in such a strong way, I wonder how different the experience will be for readers of SUPER and the readers of POWERLESS will be.
I can’t wait to see more!
Speaking of covers, I’ve been seeing sketches for THE DEAD GENTLEMAN and I just wish I could put them up here. What I loved about the POWERLESS cover was the playfulness and the irony that fit that book so perfectly. But there is nothing playful about THE DEAD GENTLEMAN cover – it is adventurous, creepy, and perfect.
Different book. Different cover. Happy author.
In light of the daily, daunting and depressing news regarding the BP Deep Horizon Oil Leak . . .
I think it’s time we reflected on the words of the Once-ler . . .
“Now that you’re here,
the word of the Lorax seems perfectly clear,
UNLESS someone like you
cares a whole awful lot,
nothing is going to get better.
It’s not.”
-From THE LORAX by Dr. Seuss. If you haven’t read a copy yourself (or parents to your kids), you should. Now’s as good a time as any.
I don’t normally read books on writing, and I don’t recommend many books on this site. But if you are a writer, or interested in the life of being a writer, then stay tuned because I’ve got a good one for you (there’s a hint up top!).
It’s not that I have anything against writing books per se, and I have come across a few that were highly recommended and proved to be worthy of praise (Stephen King’s On Writing, comes to mind). I just usually approach my own work in a “if I look at it too hard it might disappear” sort of way, and therefore tend to avoid books about book-making.
But some personal background first: recently I found myself in a bit of a professional pickle as a perfect storm of overcommitment, poor stress management and a whopping illness knocked me back on my bottom. And how.
I’d just pitched for, and been offered, a job working a series of books for a Very Cool Publisher that I’ve always wanted to work with when I started to feel a little unwell. A bit of the flu, no big deal. And this new writing gig was going to be so much fun that I ignored my physical self and focused instead on the work. It was a tight deadline, and between teaching, my commitments to Knopf and this new Very Cool Publisher, I was working somewhere around 80 hours a week (the wife did the math just prove a point. Turns out she didn’t have to.) 80 hours a week, plus family and I just got sicker. And sicker.
Eventually, I broke. A battery of medical tests later, plus a bunch of medicine and doctor-ordered bed rest brought it all to a skidding halt. Luckily the Very Cool Publisher was very understanding, and they let me out of my commitments to them with little fuss, though it was the hardest time I’ve ever had saying “no” to anything. Heartbreaking. But my health recovered. My family forgave my lunacy. The rest of my work, thankfully, did not suffer (although my students had to put up with a couple weeks of subs. Sorry guys.)
See, my private booklife was out of balance. Dangerously so. When you are a new writer it is soooo hard to say no to anything. In my case, I always feel like someone might come along tomorrow and take it all away, so I’d better do it all today. Before I’m found out and they realize that this blog and those books belong to someone else. Someone who’s a real grown-up.
Booklife. It’s the title of Jeff VanderMeer’s book on balancing a writing life and it’s superb. In my own situation, some of the damage is done, but I still have a very full plate ahead of me, and Jeff’s book is a great, no-nonsense guide of how to manage a crazy career like writing. How to balance your work with your life is a question that applies to all of us, not just the writers out there. In the interest of full disclosure, Jeff was a teacher of mine a few years ago at the Clarion Writers’ Workshop and I’m just generally a fan of the VanderMeers all around (Jeff’s wife Ann edits the terrific Weird Tales). But I wouldn’t put fingers-to-keyboard if I didn’t sincerely mean the praise.
So for any writers out there, or really any creative types that put something out into the world, I recommend this book. And I recommend sleeping. And if you feel sick, go to the doctor. I mean it.
0 Comments on Balancing your Booklife: A post for the writers out there and the writerly-curious as of 1/1/1900
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