Friday, June 1, 2007

Meteors, Moons, and Me

I have no idea what I'm doing. But when has that ever stopped me?

In October 2006, my 74th book, Life As We Knew It, was published, and I was introduced to the joys of following the successes and failures of a book on the internet.

Before then, I'd get reviews and royalty statements and fan mail and that was it. But since October, I've had the unmitigated joy of reading what people say about my book in their blogs.

Okay, mildly mitigated joy. But mostly just high quality delight. All those people I've never met reading and liking my book. And admitting so in public. Where I could find out, just by begging Google to let me know. What a world.

Of course the irony to this is Life As We Knew It is about the destruction of that world. With the power that comes from writing fiction, I hit the moon with a meteor (actually an asteroid, but I love that alliteration), and pretty much destroyed life on earth.

Naturally enough, I had a wonderful time doing so. I wrote Life As We Knew It purely on spec. I didn't even tell most of the people I know (including my mother, who has never let me forget it) that I was writing the book. But my agent found a wonderful home for it at Harcourt, and the next thing I knew I was trying to figure out a way to keep writing about the destruction of all humanity.

So this winter I wrote a companion novel. Its working title is The Dead And The Gone, but my editor is threatening to come up with a different title, so I can't exactly make a grand announcement, except that whatever it ends up being called, it's scheduled to be published on May 1, 2008 and it'll be my seventy fifth book and I'm gonna have a party. Which the Swedish rights to Life As We Knew It will pay for (the Scholastic advance for LAWKI will pay for my trip to L.A. for the 2009 World Figure Skating Championships; I am a very practical person).

Meanwhile, this morning I sent, by internet magic, the second (and I sincerely hope final) set of rewrites for The Dead And The Gone to my editor. Next step should be copy editing, which renders me homicidal (always nice to have something to look forward to). Somewhere along the way, I'll find out what the book'll be called, and then I'll just sit back and let everyone else do the work. Only I'll be working too, writing this blog. Oh, and learning how to do that neat Amazon link thing. And letting everyone know what book I'm currently reading (a biography of Lady Jane Grey, since you ask, because I watched the movie Lady Jane a week or so ago, and felt a strong desire to see what really happened). And boasting (but in a charming, self-deprecating way) about what's going on with LAWKI and with The Dead And The Gone.

All right. I need to stop. I've written books shorter than this. I'll press Preview, hope for the best, and go off to Amazon to master that linky business.

Wish me luck!

12 comments:

Becky said...

So happy I've found your blog. I'm a huge fan of Life As We Knew It. I reviewed it on my blog, Becky's Book Reviews, last November.

Anonymous said...

Life As We Knew It still haunts me. How 'bout writing about the rest of your books from time to time, so your blog readers can learn about all of them? :-)

Anonymous said...

Hi there! I've already sent you *tons* of praise for LAWKI through Adbooks and off-list (I'm the publishers who offered to print your sequel if your current publisher declines), so I thought this time around I'd give you a good book recommendation. The novel Innocent Traitor is about Lady Jane Grey and is spectacular! She is my favorite historical figure, and this novel really captures her life well. The author had only written non-fiction up to this point, most of it bios on the royal families, so it is very well-researched and reads with great authenticity. I hope you enjoy it! :)

~~Spring Lea

PS: Sorry to post anonymously. I just didn't feel like getting yet another account somewhere when I'm not sure how much I'll use it yet.

Marci said...

Hi Sue!

The Blog site looks great! Excited to read the comments and can't wait for your next blog. Have fun with it. For anyone else reading this, Life As We Knew It is an awesome book and a must read. If you are already a fan, hang in there until the next book comes out. I can't wait!

Kathy Dawson said...

Congratulations on your blog, Susan! I was just about to start hounding you to get a webpage, but hey, who needs a webpage when you've got Blogger on your side? Your emails have been cracking me up for months now, and I'm glad you'll be making the rest of the world laugh now, too. Who'd imagine the same woman who relishes destroying the world would be so funny?
Your admiring editor,
who needs to get off-line and read that revision!

Jackie Parker said...

Yay! Really, really, really can't wait until May '08!

Anonymous said...

Your blog is just Blognanimous!!! I love it. I knew that LAWKI would be fabulous; it has everything: life, death,the struggle to survive, love, and ice skating! Can't wait until it's out in paperback.

Misrule said...

Hi Susan,

Welcome to blogdom! I thoroughly enjoyed Life As We Know It. I blogged about it briefly at misrule.com.au/s9y

I also really like the title of the sequel! I should tell you that the combined force of adbooks succeeded in convincing Gail Giles's publisher to stick with "Playing in Traffic", which they were getting cold feet about as a title and which we all loved.

Best wishes,

Judith aka Misrule

Librarina said...

Ooh! A new author blog! I loved LAWKI, and I can't wait for the next book to be released. Keep us posted!

Susan Beth Pfeffer said...

Hi and thanks to everyone who's posted a comment or sent me an e-mail.

I love hearing from all of you, friends, relatives, and people I've yet to meet.

I hope you'll continue to enjoy my blog and will keep posting your comments.

Anonymous said...

Welcome to the weblogging world! I absolutely loved Life As We Knew It (and talked about it in my livejournal earlier this year) and can't wait for The Dead and the Gone.

Like it's been mentioned above, I hope you'll talk a little bit about your other books. LAWKI is the only novel of yours I've read, and seeing that there are over 70 books in your bibliography is a bit intimidating. I have no idea where to start. :)

Unknown said...

Great news that you started a blog. It was sorely needed because we all want to hear from you regularly. Love your sense of humor. And I'm with Judith: apply muscle to your publishers about keeping your next title - do you want us to send the adbooks listserv en force over to Harcourt? We'll bring Bubba along. BTW add this to your count: I absolutely loved LAWKI. And posted my gushings in my audio book review column.