Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Happy The Shade Of The Moon Publication Date!

I know it must be the official actual publication date for my brand new (and as far as I know totally last) moon book, The Shade Of The Moon, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (they're raffling off ten copies if you want to try for one,).

I know it's the official and actual, etc. because Amazon, which has been telling me so for months, now says it'll have copies in by Friday, which is practically Tuesday in some parts of the world. Also my editor emailed to ask if I want "the foul matter," which is such an enchanting phrase if you like to associate the word "foul" with a book you gave your heart and soul to. My editor claims "the foul matter" is really just the copyedited manuscript, but I understand that this term was created to make us writers feel just a little less human, and is quite successful in its intent.

I can also tell because the countdown clock over on the right is now going in a different direction. I guess I'll keep it there for a few days until we all get bored watching it go forwards.

I had thought about going to the nearest Barnes and Noble, which is about a half hour from here, to see if I could see actual copies of The Shade Of The Moon (other people have, but not necessarily at that particular Barnes and Noble, so there would be an element of risk), but it's raining and I woke up at 5 AM with a doozy of a migraine.

I may have to ignore the rain to scurry out and buy groceries, and the migraine is under control, but I'm so excited about why I got the migraine that I have to tell you.

At 5 AM, thanks to a dream, I came up with a hobby!

The dream itself was a primitive version of the hobby, so here's the actual hobby idea.

I'm going to take old calendars and shred them and cut them into little pieces, and then I'm going to take a picture from a calendar and paste all the shreds and little pieces on top of it to recreate it in calendar collage form.

Okay. Let me explain it again. Let's say I take a page from a calendar that's a picture of a landscape of North Dakota. I'll then take shreds of other calendar pictures, and some shapes I'll have cut out as well, and I'll paste them on top of the picture of North Dakota. So the shreds could come from cat calendars or movie star calendars or calendars of states with more liberal policies but lower reading scores than North Dakota. You know how on the back of calendars they show what each month's picture is? Well, I'll cut that out and paste it somewhere on my recreated piece so you'll be able to see what the picture is actually supposed to look like.

I went through ten pages of artwork on Etsy, and it is possible I have invented this fabulous art form.

Here's what I'm going to need to make this hobby work:

Old cheap calendars (available at Calendars.com and if I spend $25.00 I get free shipping).
Really good scissors and paste.
Tracing paper (so I can trace the picture I'm going to be recreating, to give myself a better sense of what size and shape shreds I'll need).
A compass (so I can cut really round pieces) and a cutting edge (I'm not so hot on straight lines)
A hobby for Scooter, because whom are we kidding, he's going to think this is irresistible.
Oh, and a 57th Street Gallery for my first showing. But that should be no problem.

The great thing is if I start right now, I'll have enough of these incredible pieces of art for Chanukah and Christmas presents for every single person I've ever met and a few I've only heard about through rumor and innuendo.

I understand that now that I've put this great idea out on the Internet for the entire world to see and steal, I could end up with a, in the immortal words of Gertrude Stein, "We did it first and then they did it pretty," situation. There are artistes out there who are better at cutting straight lines than me.

But what the hey. As long as they don't plagiarize The Shade Of The Moon, I'll be happy!

30 comments:

Fear Death By Water said...

wooot!

Susan Beth Pfeffer said...

My sentiments exactly, Fear Death By Water!

Anonymous said...

10 more hours to go 'till Shade of The Moon comes out!!!!!(#^-^#) I can't wait any longer!! I'd just like to thank you Mrs.Pfeffer... well... never mind the name. As I was saying, I'd like to thank you for writing such AMAZING novels. Now I have a questoin... I know you got you're idea for This world we live in, while watching T.V... but is there anything that made you want to make the first Moon book take place in Pensilvyina (My terrible spelling at it's best)besides the fact that you didnt want tell about the tides.. or you didnt want to write it in New York...

W.S

Susan Beth Pfeffer said...

Thank you, W.S.

Fear Death By Water said...

I will of course trade an autographed bookplate for a coffee gift card.

Susan Beth Pfeffer said...

Sorry, Fear Death By Water. No signed bookplates this time.

The place I used to buy them from went out of business, and I took that as an omen!

Gretchen said...

I've had my copy since last Thursday! There was a big stack of them at my Barnes and Noble. Then today the pre-order I had forgotten about downloaded onto my Kindle, so I'm totally set on all fronts.

Fear Death By Water said...

Well then ... I'll send you the book to sign for me. I'll include a return envelope and a shiny coffee card.

Susan Beth Pfeffer said...

Thank you Gretchen for the purchases and the eyewitness reporting.

And no coffee cards (shiny or otherwise) needed, Fear Death By Water!

Lillian said...

I LOVE this series... I just finished it and I'm waiting for another... I got my copy a few days ago from Barnes and Noble... Again, I LOVE Shade of the Moon!!!!

Susan Beth Pfeffer said...

Thank you so much Lillian!

Caroline said...

Congrats! Since I live in Australia, I bought the book off eBay. I look forward to receiving it!!

Susan Beth Pfeffer said...

Thank you Caroline. I hope you enjoy it!

Brandon said...

I have always wanted to say HI and tell you how much I love your books! I have read LAWNI maybe 8 or 9 times... I had no idea that The Shade of The Moon even existed until a month ago! I was at work, and decided to Google my favorite author(you) and then I saw that it would be available soon and I freaked out!!!! Thank you for writing books that make my imagination go crazy!!!

Always,
Brandon :)

Susan Beth Pfeffer said...

Hi Brandon and thank you-

I thought I was the only person who ever Googled me!

Emily said...

Just finished! Fun read and now I'm ready for book 5! :)

Susan Beth Pfeffer said...

Thank you Emily for calling it a fun read.

Book 5 isn't even a twinkle in my publisher's eye!

Anonymous said...

But then again, neither was Book 4!

Anonymous Santa Fe

Susan Beth Pfeffer said...

Right you are, Anonymous Santa Fe!

Rebecca Gomez said...

Sounds like a cool hobby to me! Be sure to post pictures.

I bought my copy of The Shade of the Moon yesterday at my local independent book store. Hurray!

Susan Beth Pfeffer said...

Hurray and thank you, Rebecca!

Anonymous said...

I been waiting for the fourth book since This World We Live in came out (well that is mostly hoping that there would be a fourth one)!!! Thanks for writing such great books and I was not let down!!

Crystal

Susan Beth Pfeffer said...

Thanks Crystal!

Sherry said...

I am 40 years old and love this series is that weird....LOL My 16 year old daughter introduced me to it. It has been wonderful to have it to talk about. Your writing screams to the imagination. We can not wait to read number 4 thanks so much for the memories you have created for this mother and her daughter. XXXOOO

Susan Beth Pfeffer said...

Thank you Sherry and Sherry's daughter-

When you want to think about weird, think how I'm old enough to be your mother/grandmother.

Even I think that's weird!

Anonymous said...

Just finished Shade, and I had to look you up to see if you were planning a fifth book in the series. I really hope you do!! It is a fantastic series!

Susan Beth Pfeffer said...

Thank you Anonymous!

leftwriter said...

My boyfriend bought me The Shade of the Moon on the day it came out.

I was ever so excited to see it in hardback. I have the first three books in paperback. When he saw how excited I got, he said he was going to see if he could find the first three in hardback : )

I'm lovin' the book so far!!!

Have a great evening,
From Deb

Nicole said...

Literally just finished reading The Shade of the Moon, and now i really need to know what happens with Jon and Sarah, does everyone make it to New Harmony? We need a book 5!!

Calendar Club said...

Thanks for mentioning Calendar Club! We love your books! xoxo