Holly Black, No Longer Dry Like a Martini

Allow me to present the US cover of WHITE CAT:



From the flap copy:

Cassel comes from a family of curse workers—people who have the power to change your emotions, your memories, your luck, by the slightest touch of their hands. And since curse work is illegal, they’re all criminals. Many become mobsters and con artists. But not Cassel. He hasn’t got magic, so he’s an outsider, the straight kid in a crooked family. You just have to ignore one small detail—he killed his best friend, Lila, three years ago.

Cassel has carefully built up a façade of normalcy, blending into the crowd. But his façade starts crumbling when he finds himself sleepwalking, propelled into the night by terrifying dreams about a white cat that wants to tell him something. He’s noticing other disturbing things, too, including the strange behavior of his two brothers. They are keeping secrets from him. As Cassel begins to suspect he’s part of a huge con game, he must unravel his past and his memories. To find out the truth, Cassel will have to out-con the con men.

Holly Black has created a gripping tale of mobsters and dark magic where a single touch can bring love—or death--and your dreams might be more real than your memories.

Edited to say: releases May 4, 2010

Hope you are having a fabulous night. I am newly back from Mexico and in no mood to do anything but sleep, but I trust out there you are partying such to raise the dead.

Now to sprawl on my couch like a corpse.

I will be in Canada, talking about my teen books with Scott Westerfeld and Cassandra Clare. Good Neighbors 2: Kith should be out by the time of these appearances and, of course, I will sign anything (even Scott & Cassie's books--my research for White Cat has increased my forgery abilities):

Wednesday November 4th - Montreal

7pm
Chapters Pointe-Claire
6321 Trans-Canada Highway, unit 1410
(514) 428-5500

Thursday November 5th - Ottawa

7pm
Chapters Rideau
47 Rideau Street,
Ottawa, Ontario
(613) 241-0073

Friday November 6th - Toronto

7pm
Trinity St. Paul's United Church
427 Bloor Street West
www.ticketweb.ca
** tickets will be available online and at the door the night of the event.

I have been home for a week, running around trying to finish White Cat copyedits and clean my clothes for the second leg of the Spiderwick tour. Soon I better repack my suitcase.

We are also dog sitting. Or, well, what passes for dog sitting around here. My favorite part of this picture is the ominous rubbery cat in the background.



And here is me, writing the acknowledgements to White Cat with the mysterious white cat on my armchair. Yes, I look apocalyptically tired. I am.

The White Cat introduces Holly Black's new world! Cassel has always known he killed Lila, but now the pieces are starting not to fit.

Well, it's not wrong, but uh, it seems kind of random. Also, exclamation pointy.

I am bringing a White Cat-related thingie with me on Spiderwick tour and it can be yours just for asking - at least so long as supplies last.

All you have to do is come up during any of the September Spiderwick events and say: "Do you have a thingie for me?" I will immediately fork it over.

So, if you're coming out, don't forget to ask!

Event dates and locations here.

Crazy! I hope you guys will come out and see Tony and me get sentimental on our last Spiderwick tour and pick up a copy of The Wyrm King, the last book in the Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles series!

Wednesday, September 9
7:00 PM
MYSTERIOUS GALAXY BOOKS
7051 Clairemont Mesa Blvd. #302
San Diego, CA 92111

Thursday, September 10
7:00 PM
BARNES & NOBLE
7881 Edinger Avenue
Huntington Beach, CA 92647

Saturday, September 12
2:00 PM
POWELL'S BOOKS AT CEDAR HILLS CROSSING
3415 SW Cedar Hills Crossing
Beaverton, OR 97005

7:00 PM
BARNES & NOBLE
12000 SE 82nd Ave.
Portland, OR 97266

Sunday, September 13
12:30 PM
A Children's Place
4807 NE Fremont St.
Portland, OR 97213

Monday, September 14
7:00 PM
Third Place Books
17171 Bothell Way NE
Seattle, WA 98155

Tuesday, September 15
7:00 PM
BORDERS
16549 NE 74th St.
Redmond, WA 98052


Wednesday, September 16
6:30 PM
WILD RUMPUS
2720 W. 43rd
Minneapolis, MN 55410

Saturday, September 26
NATIONAL BOOK FESTIVAL, WASHINGTON, DC


Sunday, September 27
1:00 PM
Politics & Prose
5015 Connecticut Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20008

Monday, September 28
6:00 PM
BLUE MANATEE CHILDREN'S BOOKSTORE
3054 Madison Rd.
Cincinnati, OH 45208

Tuesday, September 29
7:00 PM
JOSEPH-BETH BOOKSELLERS CINCINNATI
Rockwood Pavilion
2692 Madison Road
Cincinnati, OH 45208

Wednesday, September 30
6:30 PM
ANDERSON'S EVENT AT TIVOLI THEATER
5021 Highland Ave.
Downers Grove, IL 60515

Thursday, October 1
4:00 PM
THE BOOKSTALL AT CHESTNUT COURT
811 Elm St.
Winnetka, IL 60093

*NEW FINAL EVENT*
Thursday, October 1
7:00 p.m Instore Event
Borders
15260 S La Grange Road
Orland Park, IL 60462

Thanks, Cory!

Holly Black and Cecil Castellucci's wonderful anthology of nerdy fiction and comics, Geektastic: Stories from the Nerd Herd was a great read: the short fiction ran the gamut from soul-searing angst to high comedy and all the territory in between. Of particular note were Scott Westerfeld's "Definition Chaos" (a story about a gun-toting gamer and his nutsy ex-girlfriend transporting $80,000 by train to Florida to pay for a con's hotel deposit); Garth Nix's "The Quiet Knight" (a disabled LARPer finds his true self in boffer armor); Lisa Yee's "Everyone But You" (a baton-twirling midwesterner reinvents herself in a Hawaiian high school); Kelly Link's "Secret Identity" (the book's top piece; a novella about a girl who travels to New York to hook up with a man she met in an MMORPG, despite the fact that doing so will reveal to him that she has lied about her identity); and Libba Bray's heartbreaking "It's Just a Jump to the Left" (a girl discovers she can't escape her life at Rocky Horror)
Intercut with the stories is a series of charming one-page comics drawn by Hope Larson and Brendan Lee "Scott Pilgrim" O'Malley.

All told, Geektastic is a cliche-busting, smart, and funny book about celebrating your inner mutant. Highly recommended.

I had tons of fun!


And met Mark Hamill!

From Cory Doctorow on boingboing:

"Now here's some cool news: Holly Black and Ellen Kushner have sold another volume of stories in the venerable and beloved Bordertown series. This was a series of linked stories and novels about a world in which the Kingdom of the Fairy returns to Earth, connected by a mystical gateway, and about the goings-on in the Bordertown that sits in between the world of humans and the world of magic, a town where technology and sorcery only work intermittently and runaways, rejects, nutcases and heroes gather. It had an incredibly powerful impact on me as a young reader, sparking a lifelong love-affair with contemporary fantasy."

I can't wait to read his story.

Everyone writing urban fantasy with faeries today owes a debt to Terri Windling and to Borderlands/Bordertown, a series of shared-world anthologies about life in a town that shared a border with Elfland. I loved those books--they completely blew my mind when I first read them--and, along with other works by writers in the series (Ellen Kushner, Charles deLint, Emma Bull, frx), had a huge and obvious influence on my own writing.

I can't even tell you what I would have done to write a story in a Bordertown book, so when Ellen Kushner approached me about editing a new Bordertown anthology with her (and with Terri's blessing and introduction), I freaked out. Yes, I said, yes yes yes yes! And lo, I wasn't the only one.

From Publisher's Lunch:

Holly Black and Ellen Kushner's WELCOME TO BORDERTOWN, a return to Terri Windling's groundbreaking urban fantasy shared world featuring new stories from many of the original writers including Emma Bull, Charles de Lint and Will Shetterly, as well as new works by writers who were inspired by the original series, including Cassandra Clare, Cory Doctorow, Kelly Link and more, to Mallory Loehr at Random House Children's, at auction, for publication in Summer 2011, by Barry Goldblatt at Barry Goldblatt Literary and Christopher Schelling at Ralph M. Vicinanza (NA).

See ellen_kushner's post on the subject here and Terri's here.

What do you think?

http://www.blackholly.com

GAH. I totally spaced on posting this, but I am going to be reading at Mysterious Galaxy tomorrow:

Time: Wednesday, July 1, 2009 7:00 p.m.
Location: Mysterious Galaxy
Title of Event: A visit with Clarion Instructor Holly Black
Holly Black kicks off this summer's series of visits from instructors at the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop. Fans of the Spiderwick Chronicles should note Holly will return with Tony DiTerlizzi in September for The Wyrm King, the final book in the series. Holly will also discuss her young adult novels, like Ironside, and her graphic novels, including The Good Neighbors: Book One, Kin.

If you're in the area, come out and say hello! I am going to be reading from The White Cat.

I am going to be reading from The White Cat on Tuesday in Amherst as part of the Juniper Festival. If you're around, come and have a listen. I will be reading with poet Mark Doty.

7:30 pm, Bezanson Recital Hall, Fine Arts Center, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Open to the public

The editions are coming out in August in the UK for the adult market. This will be the first adult editions of these books. I love the covers. So moody and stylish!



Here's a link to TITHE on the S&S UK site.

No, really. This bird is EATING MY HOUSE!

I forgot to post this -- I'm doing a signing tomorrow at Books of Wonder in New York City for Troll's Eye View with Ellen Datlow, Ellen Kushner, and Delia Sherman.

TROLL’S EYE VIEW: A BOOK OF VILLAINOUS TALES
Sunday, June 7th
1 - 3pm

If you're in the area, come out and say hullo!

If this isn't faerie furniture, I don't know what is:

I've been talking some about my upcoming projects, but I wanted to put them all down in one place. It's helpful for me to see them like this, because now that I've finished THE WHITE CAT and WYRM KING revisions (but not copyedits etc.), I have to remake my schedule to get everything done.

You know, looking down at this list, I suddenly understand why I'm so tired and my house is a mess.

Books That Are Written and/or Edited and Coming Out In The Near Future

THE WHITE CAT - The first book in a series of three about grifters, curse magic and memory. The book comes out in May 2010. I should be able to post a first chapter soon.

THE WYRM KING - The last book in the Spiderwick Chronicles. It comes out in September of 2009. I posted more about the book here.

GOOD NEIGHBORS BOOK 2: KITH - This book should be out sometime this autumn (it's scheduled for September/October of 2009). I wrote more about the book in this post.

THE POISON EATERS AND OTHER STORIES - A collection of the short stories I've been writing over the last seven years. Will be published by Small Beer Press (under their Big Mouth imprint) and will include two new never-before-published stories, one of which is set in the Modern Faerie Tale world. I'm actually going to be starting that story now as I need to finish it by the end of the summer, so if you have any thoughts - let me know.

ANGELS FALL - A Canterbury Tales-esque graphic novel (stories being told as part of a larger story) that Rebecca Guay is illustrating and editing. I wrote the frame story for it as well as one of the individual stories and I really love it a lot. I think I'm allowed to talk about it. Since she's still working on the full color art for it, I don't think it will be out until 2010 or 2011 at the soonest.

GEEKTASTIC - An anthology I edited with the fantastic Cecil Castellucci. One of the most fun projects I've ever done and and one of the things I'm most proud of doing. Will be out in August 2009.

ZOMBIES Vs. UNICORNS - An anthology I am editing with the fantabulous Justine Larbalestier. I am only editing the unicorn side, but am cruelly subjected to reading the stories from both sides. Actually, so far there are lots of the sort of zombies I don't mind. Low percentage of shambling. Also, some very good fiction.

Unwritten Books That Are Coming Out in The More Distant Future

GOOD NEIGHBORS BOOK 3: KIND - This book should be out in September/October of 2010. You will hear me moaning about writing it all through the month of June and probably some of July.

THE BLACK GLOVE - The sequel to THE WHITE CAT and the book that I am currently plotting. I know a lot of what happens in the book, but I'm not sure that's a plot.

THE UNTITLED THIRD NOVEL - The sequel to THE BLACK GLOVE and the third in what I'm calling The Worker Books (I don't think anyone else likes that for a series title). This isn't due until early 2011, thankfully.

And In Answer to The Movie Question

I know there are a bunch of rumors going around and I know what's going on behind the scenes, but there's still no news fit to share. So, for right now, the answer is still no.

I just finished a massive edit on THE WYRM KING, the final book in the Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles series, and now it's done. DONE.

And with it, so is Spiderwick. The idea of not working on those books anymore is bittersweet and hard for me to get my head around. I've been writing Spiderwick for as long as I've been a professional author. Even when TITHE came out in 2002, I was working on the first two Spiderwick chapter books--they were published in Spring of 2003. It's been a huge part of my journey to be a full-time writer.

It's been a crazy, amazing run and I know I am going to miss it--and especially I am going to miss working with Tony. He's an amazing artist and never lets me get away with anything when there's a way to make it better, but more than that, he's an amazing friend.

Of course, it also means that I'm going to have time to do some other projects I've been looking forward to--like a new YA trilogy. But still, the future is freaking me out!