Velva Jean | Velva Jean
Sep.03.2012
My recurring fantasy about libraries is that at night, after everyone goes home, , the books come to life and mingle in a fabulous cocktail party. — Neal Wyatt
A perfect Saturday: a trip downtown to the vast and gorgeous Los Angeles Central Library to do book-related research. Before leaving,...
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Jul.02.2012
Titles change and so do book covers. For a long time, I’d been calling Velva Jean’s third adventure Velva Jean Learns to Spy. But that book (to be released September 25) is now Becoming Clementine. These decisions aren’t always left up to the author, though we do weigh in. There are many,...
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Apr.02.2012
I haven’t blogged for a week because, unfortunately, when something’s gotta give in my schedule, the blog is the first to go. I figure when it comes down to writing for my website or writing for Penguin, I will always choose the latter.
Last week was a mad scramble to get through some important...
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Mar.22.2012
One of the latest phenomenons in the writing world is the book trailer. These trailers are meant to do what movie previews do– alert an audience to an upcoming project and inspire them to see (or, in this case, read) it.
Five books into my career, I’d never had a trailer for any of my books....
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Mar.19.2012
As I’m researching Velva Jean’s Hollywood story, I am reading through book after book written by or about movie stars and movie moguls from the 1940s. I’m reading about the studio system, the star machine, the inner workings of the movie musical, every bit of Hollywood and Los Angeles history...
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Mar.14.2012
Right now I am so busy juggling two books, that my readers and friends worry about me. Their primary concern is that my work is too isolating and that it keeps me too burdened down at my desk. I am at my desk a lot, especially at this moment as I’m editing what’s called the galleys or first...
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Feb.16.2012
One of the most terrifying moments in a writer’s life is the moment her editor says, “We have a mock-up of the cover for your new book, which we’ll be sending you soon.”
The reason this is so terrifying is that you never know what they’re going to send you. It could be magnificent. Or it could...
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Feb.15.2012
Novelist John D. MacDonald once said, “If you would be thrilled by watching the galloping advance of a major glacier, you’d be ecstatic watching changes in publishing.”
I’d like to amend that just slightly to say if you would be thrilled by watching the galloping advance of a major glacier, you’...
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Feb.13.2012
Now that I’ve handed in the copy edits, here are the primary things I’m working on:
~ Creating, shooting, appearing in (!), and producing a book trailer for Becoming Clementine. (More on this later…)
~ Updating my website for Becoming Clementine, building web pages for the book as well as...
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Feb.07.2012
My mother, Penelope Niven, and I are both writers, and because of this my family often participates in our author events, traveling with us on tour (when possible) and purchasing multiple copies of our books to give to everyone they know. When my grandmother Eleanor was alive, she would call...
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