ladyjaida, posts by tag: havemercy - LiveJournal

...breaking pre-winter hibernation to say what I can finally, which is that danibennett and I now owe our editor two more books, one due for submission in May 2009 and the other in May 2010. We've been sitting on this for a little while, and we can finally let it out! Which is a relief; otherwise I might have exploded.

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Wheeeee!

This is the cover for the second book! And I'm told it's OK to post it so here we go!



It will be in hardcover and it's coming out next summer(2009). That's all the news that's fit to print for now. Hope you like it as much as we do!

WHOA MAN. I haven't read my friends list in, count it, two weeks. This is the longest I have ever not-read my friends list. First there was Otakon, then there was an editorial letter, then there was the usual "lost in a daydream for countless days trying to make all edits line up in head" period, then there was some (read: liberal) eating of ice cream (read: dibs, delicious delicious dibs), then there was more daydreaming; then I went to a wedding, which was nice (also I cried, apparently I cry now at weddings); then there was more staring at the manuscript... And time passed. Also there were some job attempts and some other things sprinkled in there. Like attempting to figure out how to make a trip to Japan happen; etc etc etc.

This is all to say: we have entered into dread editing territory! All hands on deck! Updates shall be sparse!

And in general, updates are going to continue being sparse, and about book-related or writing-related matters. (Once I am in Japan, all fingers crossed, there may be a Japan-blog thing happening...who knows?) Hopefully this is cool with you all, my slices of home?

Mostly I just want to apologize for being so quiet. I am sorry. I have failed at journal.

Also, I would like to direct everyone who has read Havemercy to the AMAZING (read: fuckin' brilliant) job that halcyonjazz is doing, sketching out (read: totally designing) all of the Dragon Corps boys.

All the DC, plus Thom
Character studies of the DC

Seriously, though, this stuff is incredible, and I am in awe of her more than just a little bit. Go! Admire! Experience! Meanwhile, I will clean up this loving pile of cat vomit my cat has left me as a present, and which I have just stepped in. Then I shall try to catch up on my friends list and hopefully have not missed anything important!

July 16th, 7:00PM!

IE, tonight! We'll be talking, embarrassing ourselves, saying "uhm," and signing at the Park Slope Barnes and Noble!

Directions!

To get there, take the F as in "Fuck this train!" train to the 7th ave stop. This will let you out on 7th ave and 9th street. On 7th ave, walk three blocks to 6th street. The Barnes and Noble is there!

Are you in the New York area? Do you like metal dragons? Would you like to watch me make a fool of myself? Then this is totally the event for you!

July 16, 7:00 PM
Barnes & Noble Booksellers, Park Slope
267 7th Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11215
718-832-9066

Author Event
Jaida Jones & Danielle Bennett: Havemercy

I'm posting this now because the other day my cousin was over, and he said, "Jaida, are you going to actually post about this event in advance, unlike the New York Comic Con thing, which you only posted about about five hours before it happened?" And I thought, "Why cousin, you are so clever, of course I shall!" So yes. If you come, I will be forever grateful. If you tell other people to come, I will be even more grateful. This gratitude might involve cookies alongside the chance to see my skills as a public speaker, which are, you know, they're. Okay anyway.

That being said, impromptu audience poll: at signings/author events, do you guys like readings or a song-and-dance kind of routine better? Trying to decide what to do is difficult.

Note: my to-do list is to 1. reply to some comments, now that all visitors have left the building, and 2. make some more livejournal posts with more interesting questions in them. Once Dani and I finish the second book. Which is due so soon. Oh heavens.

It took us until 8:30 pm to get our acts together and get to a bookstore--the Union Square Barnes & Noble, in fact. On the shelf, ll but one copy of Havemercy were gone:



I told Dani to make a face and this is what she did:



Then a woman yelled at me because apparently you're not allowed to take pictures in Barnes and Noble.

Anyway, Havemercy has appeared in some bookstores. Hope those of you who ordered it/bought it/etc. enjoy(ed?) it! The wonderful and smart search_soleil and splintercat have made a fan community, thremedon, for those looking for more stuff. Whoo!

I'm so nervous I can't even cope. Time to curl up with my cat and watch that Japanese Game Show thing. And maybe go to another bookstore. Uhm.

First of all, for those of you who want a sneak peak at the first three chapters of Havemercy, they've been posted here at Issuu.com. You have to sign in to read them as they are mature content (hooo hoooo!) but it's super quick to make an account. Hope that you enjoy!

/pimp

Now, for the content of this post, which I'm making in response to the slew of video games to which I've been introduced by danibennett, her brother, and my cousin! In any case, some of the heroes of these games are the dark, broody, mysterious, troubled-past types, while some of the heroes are the strike-a-pose, "let's rock!" kind of dudes whom the game is kind of, sort of, maybe a lot making fun of. (But with love.) While the former category--let's call them the brooders--have a certain air of poetry to them, I guess these days I've gravitated towards loving the second category--let's call them the goobers.

So what about you? Brooder or Goober? And, while we're at it, who is the absolute epitome of the deliciously tormented brooder or the hilariously quirky goober?

Or--what category of leading man am I completely missing in this binary division who never fails to win your heart?

Vote away!

Notice: I am completely addicted to pupe.jp and if you join you should come favorite me over here. That is all.



ANYWAY, I was all set to make a big post today about how Havemercy is coming out on June 24th, which is one week from today, and wahoo and eek and all that jazz. So I sat down to start typing and then I realized, well, actually, the 24th is one week from yesterday, and I am an idiot.

So. Havemercy! It's coming to a bookstore near you one week from yesterday--a much less exciting statement than "one week from today!" but nevertheless a true statement. I know that I am biased, but if you haven't already pre-ordered it on Amazon or BN.com or Chapters.com or whathave, you should definitely go support your local bookstore on June 24th and pick up a copy of Havemercy! That is, if the idea of reading about big metal dragons excites you. (And I hope it does.)

And then you should take a picture of yourself making a goofy face with the book and post it in your livejournal or in a comment to me or something (believe me, there will be a post made 6 Days From Now wherein I make goofy faces next to every copy of the book I can find in NYC while danibennett looks on and makes utterly pained faces of utter pain at how embarrassing I am).

It will look something like this.

If you would like to read something unbelievably cool written about Havemercy just yesterday, then check this out.

Yep. Less than a week. The only thing that can sum up how I'm feeling right now is a line from Sondheim's Into the Woods, in which Little Red Riding Hood--singing of her experiences with the Big Bad Wolf--recounts, "And he made me feel excited! Well... Excited and scared."

meronine and bonhwa are here, so there has been much exploration of NYC in the past 48 hours. I always forget how crowded Times Square is. In any case, I am just popping on for a brief moment to share THIS --



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It is embossed. I keep rubbing my hands over it like a total dweebo. But the best part is taking the cover off and staring at our names on the binding.

I was in a class recently (I will not say which), in which a professor, as an end-of-semester summary, decided to give the students a rundown of How Things Were. Not "How Things Were For Me, The Professor, Speaking," but how things Were, a blanket statement, that indicated How Things Would Be For All Of Us--and that bothered me. T

There is no "How Things Are." There is always an exception. More accurately, there are always exceptions. Which is why I'm generally so awkward when it comes to talking about writing and publishing and my experiences so far--because they've been my experiences but so, so, so not necessarily everyone's experiences.

In fact, very recently, the beginning of the time I had been dreading most dawned upon the horizon. Reviews. Considering I was the sort of person in high school who focused solely on the negative assessments given by teachers--I'm still not the sort who, er, accentuates the positive and eliminates the negative by any means--the idea of "reviews" were very upsetting because, I suppose, of different experiences. Every review comes from a person--a different person with different experiences; every person will come to a book expecting and wanting different things, and every person will leave it with different opinions.

I have stopped being friends with people based on different opinions of books. Opinions of books are serious business.

Naturally, I would like for everybody in the entire universe, including space-time-traveling aliens with green skin and inverted eyeballs, to enjoy reading Havemercy. Getting reviews puts an end to this beautiful and alien-inclusive fantasy. So it was that I, with trepidation and a tendency to focus upon the negative with a dedication and tenacity I only wish I had displayed for actual, I don't know, work--faced this period in my life, braced and cringing and hoping for the best. I continue to face it. In the immortal words of Ned Flanders, I am a "Nervous Pervis," which makes this stuff super hard for me and also everyone around me who might want to use the bathroom that I'm hiding in.

Nonetheless, I'm excited to say that I did not focus on the negative aspects of this review of Havemercy which (and yes, it's one of my firsts, so that means it will always have a special place in my heart) is definitely an amazing thing.

No book is perfect (I tell myself, haw-hawing). If you've written the perfect book then what's left to improve upon next time? What's left to discover about yourself, and your writing?

I'm just glad to write anything that can be a part of someone else's experience. Granted, I'd like everyone, including all the aliens, to feel that the pros outweigh the cons--this would be ideal. But IN MY EXPERIENCE, the big thing has been accepting both pros and cons, crying for the good stuff and the bad stuff hand in hand, and making it a part of that experience. That review, for example, has positive and negative things to say and I'm grateful for all of them. The bad makes the good more real; the good means the bad can be improved upon; and Queer Eye for the Sorcerous Guy is a TV show I hope one day to write for.

So that's all for now! Tomorrow I graduate and hopefully don't trip on stage, and after that I try to figure out what to do with this journal.

eta because of my lack of coherence: 1. What to post in this journal, because I can no longer complain about Japanese; and 2. I loved the linked review, I love the linked review, and I will always love the linked review.