Today, Secret Society Girl is out in paperback for the low-low price of $10. ($8 on Amazon). Snazzy new cover, oodles of review quotes, and the first chapter of the upcoming Under the Rose thrown in for free. It doesn’t get much cooler than that.

In honor of this momentous event, I am giving away one copy of Secret Society Girl, the paperback, on this blog every week until the release of Under the Rose (June 26th).

Also in honor of the paperback’s release, Amy Haskel herself has been induced to share the secret recipe for her society’s official drink, the 312:

THE 312

1.5 oz. pomegranate juice (or pomegranate-blueberry, for an even deeper red)
1.5 oz. pomegranate-infused vodka (Amy likes Pearl Persephone)
1.5 oz. pomegranate schnapps
.5 oz. lemon juice (or sour mix)
1 oz. honey syrup, or to taste (honey syrup is made from two parts honey, one part water, heated to dissolve, then cooled — same as simple syrup)

Shake ingredients in a martini mixer, strain into glass. Garnish with lemon twist, if desired. Don’t have too many; you have to keep on your toes in the depths of the tomb.

And for those who skipped a grade and got tapped before hitting 21:

THE VIRGIN 312

2 oz. pomegranate juice (or pomegranate blueberry)
2 oz. sparkling water (or ginger ale)
1.5 oz cranberry cocktail
.5 oz lemon juice
dash of honey
Optional: splash of OJ

Shake with ice, strain into glass.
Update: An eagle-eyed reader noted to me that one should NOT shake items with seltzer in them. Good point. So, uh, stir gently with ice, strain into glass?

Keep an eye out for stray society members looking for an easy sacrifice.

The best way to enjoy either of these drinks is kicked back with a copy of Secret Society Girl in paperback. Enjoy!

This will be my last post for the week, since I’m headed off to Harper’s Ferry for the Washington Romance Writer’s yearly retreat with Amanda Brice. I’ve been hearing about this event for quite some time, so I’m so excited to have the opportunity to go at last.

I found out that Under the Rose was reviewed in the most recent issue of Publisher’s Weekly. My favorite line: “Peterfreund’s second novel is impossible to put down.”

Pause for squealing. Guess those printers listened to the instructions about the Superglue coating after all, huh?

So now I’m trying to track down a hard copy, or, you know, half a dozen of them.

The other week, after my Pride & Prejudice marathon, SB mentioned that he’d never seen Sense & Sensibility. (In passing, these books sound like secret socieites, don’t they?) Anyway, I was shocked. How ever did I let this relationship go on so long without rectifying this grave error? I mean, Austen AND Alan Rickman? Please. Top of the Netflix queue.

After Sailor Boy appreciated it as much as he should, I watched it again with the commentary from Emma Thompson (writer and actress) and Lindsay Doran (producer). Possibly one of the best film commentaries evah. Emma Thompson is witty and insightful and not afraid of dishing the dirt, whether it’s about fainting sheep, farting horses, or the process she went through to craft the screenplay (which garnered her a Golden Globe and an Oscar). I was fascinated by everything she had to say about writing and adapting and picking which parts to keep and which to jettison (Lucy’s sister, Willoughby’s visit). She and Doran are also clearly quite good friends (Judging from Doran’s C.V. on imdb, they’ve worked together ever since). I don’t know much about screenwriting, but any writer discussing her process is amazing as far as I’m concerned, and this one is especially good.

I was inspired to pick up S&S. I hadn’t read it in years, since it was never one of my favorite of Austen’s books, and in reading it again, I remember the parts that had always frustrated me so. Namely, the fact that Elinor spends a good chunk of time at the end of the book feeling sorry for Willoughby. Oh, how I wish that Col. Brandon had been there to shove Willoughby’s drunk ass out of the Palmer house. How DARE he show up there while Marianne is dying. How DARE he…IMPOSE himself on Elinor in that way. What a jerk. His “reveal” is appalling, his behavior in the book even more appalling than in the film (where they focus on the fact that he had been planning to propose and not ont eh fact that from the start, he’d been toying with her). Ugh… and to think that Elinor actually spends time wishing that he were free, that his wife would die?!?!?! Elinor and Edward are less charitable towards Lucy, but not much.

I was left wondering why, and the only answer I could come up with feels unsatisfactory. I feel that they can more easily forgive Willoughby because his personality and “understanding” are more in line with their own — he’s genteel and well-read and thinks as they do on so many things, whereas Lucy is vulgar and “illiterate” (which I think means that she is unlearned, since she can clearly read and write). Certainly his behavior was every bit as manipulative, cold-hearted, and selfish as hers. So it must be the other qualities.

What do you think?

Today at Romancing the Blog, I tackle the always-contentious issue of author-written book reviews. Because it’s no fun if the fur don’t fly. Grab your foam bat and water gun and join in.

I don’t know about you, but I love the movie Ladyhawke. I first saw it in school in fifth grade, and I thought it was so romantic (even if it did have Ferris Bueller affecting a rather unfortunate period accent). Michelle Pfeiffer as Isabeau, the tragically enchanted lady/hawk, and Rutger Hauer as her long suffering black knight luvah…

So exciting. So when I saw this recent deal posted at Publisher’s Marketplace:

Title: THE SHADOW AND THE FLAME
Author: Lisa Hendrix
Agent: Helen Breitwieser at Cornerstone Literary
Editor: Kate Seaver at Berkley
Blurb: A Viking warrior who is cursed by a witch to live as an eagle by day and a man by night reluctantly takes a bride.

I was thrilled.

Lisa Hendrix, wherever you are out there, if you’re looking for a home for an ARC, I’m here for you, baby.

UPDATE: Comments are on. Stupid mouse, clicking all kinds of things I didn’t want to. At this rate, how is Lisa ever going to contact me?

I’ve now received a few emails on the subject of my last post, so I wish to clarify:

I did not leave my job because I was going to be published. I did not leave my job because of deadlines or promotional concerns. I had, in fact, saved up enough vacation time that I would have been able to take off all the time I needed for promotion, and I met my deadline just fine in 2005 with a job. It would have been the same in 2006.

I left my job because I had the financial capability to do so, and because my current job was not one that would prove impossible to replace a year or so down the line. Period.

I don’t own a house and I don’t have kids, so my expenses are relatively small, and I’m risking very little. If I did have dependents or high fixed costs (especially considering health insurance) I would not have left my job.

I also always have a date in my mind for when I will start looking for a new job if I don’t have additional income from writing.

If you do think of becoming a full time writer, this is what I recommend:

Plan A: Find a Wealthy Spouse (with really good medical/dental coverage).

Plan B:
1) Be very healthy. Medical costs are high.
2) Don’t have kids. Kids are expensive, incur a lot of medical costs (again, hope the kids’ other parent has good health coverage at their job), and expect to go to college.
3) Cash balance or guaranteed income (book advance, lottery win, inheritance, wealthy spouse, discovery of buried treasure) of at least 150% current yearly income for two years. (150% to offset cost of agent commission, promotion, independent catastrophic health insurance for one person, and self employment tax). Two years because of the following:
4) Make sure that the job you are leaving is one that can be replaced at some future point within six months.
5) Always have a failsafe point and plan beyond which you will be looking for a job. Set the failsafe point at 1.5 years (your mileage may vary), when you still have six months of income.
6) Bookmark info about Careers @ Starbucks.

Two years ago today, I sat in the cubicle of my office, practically bursting through my skin. I don’t know what I was thinking trying to be at work that day. (I’d just started the job though, so I hadn’t amassed vacation time yet). On that day, April 21st, my book was headed to auction.

A lot of writers talk about The Call. In my case, I knew I’d sell my book that day, but I didn’t know to where, or when it would happen. My boyfriend and I had planned a celebratory meal that evening, and I almost missed the reservations because the auction went on longer than expected. I had my first conversation with my editor; I agreed to their offer; and just like that, I went from aspiring novelist to debut novelist.

One year ago today, I became a full-time writer. It was a hard decision to leave my job and venture into the the freelance world, but it was the right time to make the leap. I was gearing up for the release of my first novel, had looming deadlines on my second, and knew that if I wanted to write more, I would need to take the risk and go for it. So I did.

Today, I sit in my apartment, whose home office never did manage to materialize, signing my second book contract. A box of author copies of the paperback of my debut lies in front of the bookshelf, waiting to be unpacked, and I just received my first trade review of the sequel. My books are being published in five countries, in three languages, and when people ask me what I do, I tell them I’m a novelist.

I feel so fortunate to have a job I adore, and to work with such dedicated and talented associates like my agent, Deidre, and my editor, Kerri. There are times when I have to step back and say, how did all of this happen? And, on the anniversary of the start of my career, I feel the need to reflect on what brought me to this place, and how grateful I am for the job.

So someone sent me this list of 1001 Book to Read Before You Die, and since one of my parents’ Xmas presents to SB and me was the book version of the 1001 movie list and I found the whole experiment pretty fun, I thought I should check it out.

My “score” is not in three digits.

This pretty much baffled me, since I was a Literature major and all, but then I thought more about the makeup of the list. (Note: The List is arranged in loose backwards chronology.) To its credit, it isn’t particularly pretentious (no list that includes The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, #301, could be considered so) and is also pretty fair in terms of genre. As expected, most of the books I had read were things I’d read for school, and I cleaned up in pre 1700s, 1700s, and 1800s, where I’ve done a lot of research, and not so much in the more recent centuries.

Also, what counts as a “book” is played fast and loose. For instance, “The Fall of the House of Usher” is #916. According to one edition on Amazon, it’s 36 pages, and I’m pretty sure that includes a foreword and notes. It’s not a book. It’s a story. Note the quotation marks.

However, Lord of the Rings (#494) is treated as a single title. Really? The Count of Monte Cristo (#906), Clarissa (#977), The Brothers Karamazov (#837), and (Amy’s favorite) War and Peace (#857) I can understand. They are each doorstops, but they are also each one book, and were published as such. Not LOTR. (Doesn’t matter what the author himself thought.)

So if you’re trying to up your score and looking to blow through a few selections quickly, here are some hints on where to turn:

#801. “The Yellow Wallpaper,” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (~25 pages)
#909. “The Purloined Letter,” by Edgar Allen Poe (~28 pages)
#911. “The Pit and the Pendulum”, by Edgar Allen Poe (~22 pages)
#982. “A Modest Proposal,” by Jonathan Swift (~15 pages)

With all the Poe stories on there, you’d think they could just say, “read the complete works of Poe” and call it one book. Then, perhaps, they’d have room to fit some Homer on the list. And if you want to go for some longer, novella style choices, there are plenty, from A Christmas Carol (#913) to The Turn of the Screw (#789) to Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (#390). And lots of kidlit: both of Alice’s adventures (#854 and #868), Huck Finn (#825), and The Water-Babies (#872).

Book I was most pleasantly surprised to find on the list: Solaris (#448) though I did do a little happy dance when I saw Douglas Adams on there. And then the third time I saw him on there, I was like, WTF? because, well, see below.

Book whose absence most disappointed me: Probably The Odyssey. (And don’t give me any guff about it being an “epic poem, not a book.” If “A Modest Proposal” can count, so can The Odyssey.) Neither did they have Beowulf. Actually, no poetry (or plays) at all. Maybe there’s an explanation for that in the actual book? And, if so, then my vote for “shoulda been” is The Tale of Genji.

Actually, the more I think about it, the more I figure there must have been a no poetry rule, since Chaucer, Milton, and Dante weren’t present either. And all the Poe was prose. Hmmm…

So, what do you think of the list? What would you have put on there? What would you have taken off? What were you happy to see made the cut? (I can already hear the cheers for Rebecca (#603)!)

Hello. Meet Hannibal:

Yes, that’s right… Sailor Boy and I hit level 40 tonight with our adorable Draenei couple (it was only a little bit annoying and required a couple of rounds through one particularly frustrating instance). But it was worth it, because once we hit level 40, we got our licenses to drive… elephants!

Or, in this case, elekks, which is like the video game version of the elephant.

The elekks come in three colors: brown, gray, and purple, and since I’m already pretty purple, I decided to go for brown. Also, the gray looked really sketchy in the shady area where you can buy them. But once in the light, they look kind of cool. So now part of me wishes I’d gone with a gray one, like Sailor Boy did:

What do you think?

Speaking of fantasy worlds, has everyone checked out the new website from debut author C.L. Wilson? Her first fantasy, Tairen Soul Book One, Lord of the Fading Lands, is due to be released this October. I was an early adopter to the Tairen Soul club (which, um, means I’ve long since claimed my member of the quintet) and read this marvelous epic a few years ago, before the brilliant people at Dorchester bought it and published it.

It’s amazing, guys. One of my favorite books of all time. Definitely the best book I read in 2003. Highly recommend it. Put it on your wish list for fall.

Ah, that Patrick. A picture certainly is worth a thousand words.

so while im wiping down the bookshelves with the vinegar and borax and lemon juice and baking soda and paint mixture you all recommended it fell over on top of me and there sailor boy found me trapped by my own love of literature.

im in a full body cast and am typing this with my nose.

______________________________________________________

Or, um, I’ve got some sort of mystery ague, which resulted in me spending the day wrapped up in an afghan on the couch, watching the DVD of the BBC’s Pride and Prejudice for the two hundred and seventy-eighth time. Doesn’t matter how many times I watch this film. I always find something new to chew on.

It occurs to me that although we hear an enormous amount about people’s income in the story, we never know what the Bennets have. I know some of the people who read this blog know much more about life in Regency England than I do. What do the Bennets make? Mr. Darcy clears 10k per year, Mr. Bingley 4k/year, Mary King has a 10k inheritance coming her way (in passing, what’s the expected income on that? Is it enough to live on?) and of course, Georgiana’s 50,000 pounds. Mr. Wickham gets 3,000 pounds in place of the living the elder Mr. Darcy had wanted for him, which makes me wonder how much the living was worth (did he go down in the way that the “lump sum” lotto winners take a huge pay cut?) And if so, how much are the Collinses living on while waiting for Mr. Bennet to kick it?

When watching the scene where Lizzie turns down Mr. Collins, I always wonder what I would do in her position. I feel as if my experience is so vastly different than a Regency miss that I wouldn’t be able to relate. But I do see Mrs. Bennet’s position here. She’s looking ahead to that day when they are all shoved out onto the street. No one wants to end up like the Dashwood girls, you know?

Of course, at the place where the proposal occurs (at least in the movie, it’s been years since I’ve read the book) all the Bennets figure that the proposal from Mr. Bingley to Jane is imminent. There’s no reason to think that Jane and her husband’s 4k per year won’t be able to keep their family in the black without assistance from the inheriting cousin. So Mrs. Bennet can chill, thinking that Jane will save everyone from destitution should Mr. Bennet die.

That being said, I also see why Mrs. Bennet would be into the idea of keeping the family money in the family. That’s why they all married their cousins to start with. (Remember, Lady Catherine wants her daughter to marry Mr. Darcy, and they are first cousins.) But I think that Lizzie and Mr. Collins are actually second cousins, since his name is Collins, and his father is the one who had a “disagreement” with Mr. Bennet. If they were first cousins, wouldn’t he be a Bennet as well?

But I digress. I’ve always understood Charlotte Lucas’s choice to marry Mr. Collins. He’s not a mean man, he has good prospects, and her options are to a) get married or b) be forever a burden to her brother. The draw of being mistress of her own estate (in the same neighborhood as her family) with a family of her own must have been very inviting — no matter who the husband was that came along for the ride.

I think that Lizzie, in her decision not to marry Mr. Collins, is also relying a good deal on what she believes is the inevitable Jane/Bingley marriage. If Mr. Collins had delayed for a few days, would Lizzie have hesitated more? Would she have been so very adamant about not marrying him? (Though perhaps, if he’d delayed a few days, he may have directed his advances towards Jane instead, who I think might have snatched him up, out of duty to her family alone.)

Would I, in Lizzie’s place, have married Mr. Collins? Hmmm… food for thought.

Fortunately, I live in a world where I can make my own money and don’t need to get married unless I want to. Yay for women’s rights.