"I'm very immature"

This will shortly become a permanent fixture over at my main site, stevebrezenoff.com, but for now, enjoy this four-minute interview I did during BEA.

And speaking of the main site, I also finally wrote a "long version" of my bio. Check it out!

Friday Five: BEA edition

BEA is over.

1. For me, it began Monday night with the Lerner librarian preview. I met a few folks, got to chat with the AE about |-1| in front of a small but apparently interested crowd. Also I drank a high ball. For supper, alone, I visited Zen Palate, a vegetarian restaurant I miss pretty regularly, and Simon's favorite:


After ordering, and while I ate, and after I finished, I finally started The Freak Observer. It is a difficult book to put down. Loa really pulls you along. There is great pain.

2. Tuesday, the first official day of BEA, was a visit to Simon & Schuster and therefore several of my favorite people. That was followed by a great lunch with my wife and our good friend, also once from S&S. We met halfway between Midtown and Soho, at Elmo in Chelsea. Good sandwich. Hip place. And Samantha and I got to exchange ARCs. Tuesday night at eight (the latest I've started supper in a dog's age), I met ENIV and the AE for a completely awesome burger and a few awesome beers and plenty of awesome conversation. Excellent day of old and new friends. Good stuff.

3. Wednesday morning, after an excellent breakfast with the Lerner crew at the hotel restaurant and a quick tour of the BEA floor, I needed to rest the dogs (shout out to Heidi -- orange Chucks look cool, but hurt!), so I sat down on a comfy couch far from the exhibition and took the opportunity to get back to Blythe's debut. Soon it was noon, and that meant lunch with several Tenners, and meeting several awesome bloggers. Please see this photo that Berk and I keep stealing from Heidi.


4. For me, BEA ended Wednesday at around 5:15. That's when I signed the last available copy of |-1| and got up from the autographing table. I admit it: I was worried the line would consist of exactly 8 people, all of whom I knew personally. But we gave away 100 copies of the book, and I got to meet many a librarian and blogger and reader and writer on that line! It was pretty great.

5. And now I'm on Long Island, and vacation. We have many friend and family and new-baby visits to make! Ta!

Friday Five: A New Hope

1. Without at first realizing that today is the 30th anniversary of the release of The Empire Strikes Back, I'd planned to blog today a little about the original three Star Wars flicks, which I've just watched in rapid succession thanks to my recent birthday gift. That was a long sentence.

Empire, as we all know, is the best of the three. Jedi is the worst. A New Hope, as we now know the original Star Wars movie, doesn't get a lot of credit either way. Sure, it gets quoted plenty ("But I was going to Tashi Station to pick up some power converters waaah," for example), but its strengths as a film and tale are not so often discussed. I'm here to tell you, it's really good. It's a freakin' awesome fantasy YA, is what it is. Imagine, if you will, a novel version of A New Hope. We'd have third-person POV, natch, with alternating close third for Luke and Leia's convergent arcs. Both characters do quite a lot of "meeting the world," in my mind the foremost quality in good YA. And, if not for -- let's face it -- Mr. Hamill's catastrophic acting and whining, both characters would be insanely sympathetic to adolescent or arrested-adolescent viewers. LIKE ME.

As for Jedi, it's as bad as you remember, or possibly worse. I found it was worse. I found the Ewoks more annoying than I thought they were. I was happy when one died. Also, Luke is STILL freakin' whining. Han, once a scruffy-looking dangerous man, is endlessly slapsticking around with his goofball sidekick Chewie. Poor Chewie. I ask you, would Chewbacca of A New Hope fall for the old meat-on-a-branch trick? No freakin' way.

But I've said too much.

2. It's also the 30th anniversary of Pac Man, in case you haven't noticed.

3. What else? BEA is what else. For me and the good people at Carolrhoda Lab (and the rest of Lerner), it starts on Monday night with the big to-do. I'm not remotely nervous!

4. Did I mention finals are in? Lookit.


5. And finally, as if I wasn't already a nervous wreck, today Sam, Beth, and I visited a pre-school. In the fall, my tiny baby boy will very likely join a two-year-old, two-day-per-week pre-school. I can hardly stand to think of it. Luckily I have the whole summer to get used to the idea.

I am a patient boy.

Tomorrow is my goddamn birthday.

Today, the AE has something to say about waiting over at the Lerner blog. He also quotes from The Absolute Value of -1, assembling what amounts to the longest teaser of the book online anywhere, I should think.

Beyond all that, it's worth clicking over to listen to "Waiting Room." If you already enjoy Fugazi, the trip down memory lane will be a rocking one. If you don't know the tune, then the AE has done you a great favor.

Trailer for |-1|

It's here! It's here!

The trailer for THE ABSOLUTE VALUE OF -1



And with it, the last chance to enter my big signed ARC giveaway. To refresh your memory (yeah, the first chance to enter was like five months ago), the prize includes an ARC of |-1| signed by me, Dia Reeves, Kristin Walker, Jennifer Hubbard, Heidi Kling, and Phoebe Kitanidis. It's a Tenner extravaganza! Also included is a signed copy of Dia Reeves's BLEEDING VIOLET, a |-1| poster, and whatever other swag those lovely Tenners send me to include in the package!

Okay, so, several people already have a bunch of entries from previous opportunities, but folks, this is the big one. You can get crazy entries right now!

• To get one entry, comment on this entry.
• To get another entry, link to this entry in Twitter or on your blog. Link to your tweet in your comment.
• And to get TEN ENTRIES, embed the trailer on your own blog. Link to the blog entry in your comment.

So that's twelve entries you can get right now! No one else has more than four yet! Four is chump change. CHUMP. CHANGE.

Okay, and, just for fun, the first five comments* I see pop up will automatically get a poster in the mail, just for entering and being awesome.

*Please do not enter if you're under 13. Please do not enter if you find fictional accounts of drug use or sexual encounters to be offensive, or if you find swear words to be offensive. If you've already won something on this blog, you are not eligible for one of the extra five posters, but can still enter the bigger giveaway. ETA: The contest will end officially at 9 pm EDT on April 21.

Sacrifices must be made

First, some news, which you may have already seen in my Twitter stream. The release party and reading for |-1| has been scheduled! It will be at Magers & Quinn in Minneapolis on September 23. This gives you plenty of notice and time to plan, so get those airline tickets bought now if you need them.

The trailer for |-1| will be showing up very soon.

I've let my WoW account expire. This was mainly to make me a more productive writer, just like last time I took a long WoW break, when I finished |-1| and started YA MS the Second. Ironically, though, I plan to use the otherwise wasted time to now finish YA MS the Second, which is about a girl who plays WoW too much! Truly, the mind reels, does it not?*

Also ironically, YA MS the Third is done! Which is to say, it somehow earned agent ENIV's approval last week, and this week he might, ya know, show it to someone else. So that's fun.

Also fun: the last touch it needed required a smidge of research. I went down to the art supply store and rather sheepishly explained I needed some newsprint and vine charcoals. Then I got to do something I haven't done regularly in far too long: draw. I chose a desk lamp, for reasons I won't get into now, and had a great time. This was all so I could better describe the experience of drawing with charcoal on newsprint--the feel of it, the smell, the smudging on the sides of my fingers, et cetera. Anyway, there are like 49 more sheets of newsprint on that pad, and I intend to use them.

*The crying Night Elf above is not my toon, but some random level 13 I chose simply to illustrate a crying Night Elf. If you happen to recognize this toon (called Swan, by the way), perhaps it is yours. If so, I urge you to spend your four talent points. They don't get better if you let them age.

First-ever Friday Five

1. I knew we'd get one more cold snap, but I think it's over now. No, I know it's over now. We're in the 50s again out here, and we'll hit 70 next week* -- they tell us -- which means I can now call winter as over, unequivocally. In fact, I'll put my parka in the attic this weekend. How's that?!

2. Soon, it will be April. On the first, besides all the fooling that will go on, Beth's mother-in-law will be coming for a visit. We're all very excited, but none of us as excited as my mom herself. That's because she hasn't seen her grandson since Thanksgiving or so, I think. So you can imagine.

3. Also in early April, I'll be premiering the trailer I made for The Absolute Value of -1. That entry here at the Exile will also be the last chance to enter the big ARC giveaway contest. Yes, it has been going on for almost six months. The time does fly, doesn't it? You will recall that included in the prize package is an ARC of |-1| signed by several Tenners and a hardcover, final signed copy of Dia Reeves's crazy excellent debut Bleeding Violet. I'll also throw in a signed poster, 'cause why the heck not, and I'll also choose a couple of runners-up to also receive signed posters, also 'cause why the heck not!

4. Count the "also's"! There are several.

5. I have never done a Friday five, but if you count this paragraph I just started, this is totally five paragraphs, so I'm going to go back up and number these things and call it my first-ever Friday Five! Hot dog!

*That weird picture is the cover of the Flaming Lips album Oh My Gawd!!, and if you click it you can hear their song "Can't Stop the Spring," which was on in my car that time I hit a dog, a year ago next Thursday the first.

Announcements!

Some big announcements today--relative to recent announcements, anyway. But first, to sum up:

On Saturday, the honorable Kurtis Scaletta alerted me to the fact that local YA author Swati Avasthi was reading at the Loft from her just-released debut SPLIT. I went to the reading. It was fantastic. I'm not far into the book yet, but so far it's superbly and vividly written. Great voice, serious subject matter handled well. I recommend it! Of course, I got my new copy signed by the author while I was there and we chatted a bit. It's nice to live in a town (err, twin town) with such a strong community of writers for young people. In fact, I'm at the Loft right now. My class begins in 90 minutes or so.

What have I been doing down here all afternoon? Well, I've finished my first read-through of YA MS the Second, and it . . . wants for much, let's say. I like it, mind you. I really do. It's even okay in some places where I thought it was utter garbage. But there's this one interesting character in particular who literally vanishes after page like 15, never to return. I ask you: wtf.

Okay, so, on to fun announcements. I'm nearly ready to end the signed ARC contest, but I'm going to give one more chance to enter, and this one will be the biggy--LOTS of chances for entries, such that previous entries will seem like chicken feed, kind of like that bonus round on the Family Feud. Watch for details on that in the next few days.

And finally, BEA! I'll be there, signing on Wednesday late afternoon. But even more exciting is the Carolrhoda LAB big event on Monday night. It's a swanky, invite-only affair, and I'll be (gulp) at the front of the room waxing intellectually with the AE. What, me worry?

Pizza, last chance for the poster

I'm reading YA MS the Second right now. The first half? Totally stellar. I love it! The second half? A mess: a thin, watery mess.

Here's an update about pizza.

I had lunch at Hiawatha Pizza today for the first time in ages. It's as good as it was, all that, but there were bad signs. One: the slices are now one-sixth of a pie, rather than the previous and traditional one-eighth. This concerns me because the price is the same, and I wonder if the owner feels like he needs to up the value to improve sales. Two: he didn't, at around noon, have change for a twenty. If during a weekday lunch rush, a pizza shop doesn't have enough small bills to break a twenty, it means there is no lunch rush.

In other news, you may have seen me tweet that I finished the trailer for |-1|. I love it. The AE and his team love it. But I can't show it to you yet. I'm dying to show it to you. I can't.

Give me three weeks. Maybe less.

Oh, and I'll announce the winner of the autographed poster really soon. Like, tomorrow, probably. Last chance to pop over there (to the previous entry) and enter.

ARCs and giveaways!

Saturday morning! Sam and I are awake and just sort of hanging around. Beth went back to bed for a couple of hours. We all need to catch up on sleep, and sometimes we have to do it in shifts.

Later on today, I'll finally get back to work on the trailer for |-1|. I don't know if I'll have the time to get it done. In fact, it's been so long since I touched it, I'll probably spend most of the time just sort of reacquainting myself with the project.

In other |-1| news, I have ARCs! I only got a small handful personally, and the rest are jetting off to review types the country over. So that's exciting and frightening. But the point is, as far as what's relevant here, is that one copy of my ARC is now flying off to Heidi R. Kling, author of the gorgeous SEA, and thence to Dia Reeves, and Kristin Walker, and Jennifer Hubbard . . . for their autographs! And that means that finally -- FINALLY -- the big ARC giveaway can be decided!

I'll post one more opportunity to enter in the near future, but for now I want to give away something. So how about a couple of autographed posters?! They're not very big, but hey, they're free and cool as heck, right?

So, I'll pick a random commenter on this entry, with an extra entry if you Tweet the contest. Here's what they look like!




















Anyone in the US or Canada can enter! Do it today!

Carolrhoda Lab, and my cover!

Just a quick note here to announce the launch of Carolrhoda Lab, a new imprint within Carolrhoda. This fall, it will debut with four new YA titles, including THE ABSOLUTE VALUE OF -1.

I'm also taking this opportunity to reveal the cover, final only for what feels like hours. To see all of it, click on through to Carolrhoda Lab's new site. Tell 'em Steve-O sent ya.

The droghte of Marche is totally about to perced to the roote

Gracious, it's the last night of February. Happy March Eve, everyone.

Here's how February went, well known among many as my least favorite month:

1. YA MS the Second and YA MS the Third are done. Caveat: both are drafted. YA MS the Third I considered strong enough to send along to ENIV; I second guess that decision on a frequent and regular basis. YA MS the Second I finished drafting only a few days ago, and I know full well it's not close to submission to the Otters, never mind ENIV.

2. I wrote a short story for my Loft group. I haven't written a short story in years, nor anything not specifically for young readers, teen or younger, so this was a nice departure. In working on it, I've come to feel a lot more comfortable with the revision process, on a nice small scale, than I ever have been before.

3. I saw the nearly final cover of THE ABSOLUTE VALUE OF -1! This was, oh, a week ago or so, and I cannot yet show the world. But soon, my pretties. Soon . . .

4. |-1| is also totally on Amazon now! Pre-order!

5. New York pizza is all about home-cooking now, since I learned how to make, stretch, and even hand toss a really good dough. With my homemade tomato sauce and some mozzarella, I can make a pretty passable NY-style pie. Now if I could just get my oven to 800 degrees, we'd be all set.

6. It's March in like five hours and change. Rejoice!

Resolutions, but not the kind you expect

You'll notice I haven't posted any resolutions this January. I suppose I could--like finishing both my YA WIPs; like cutting my cholesterol and getting back on my bike this spring--but I don't feel like it. So let's just say it's those three things and move on.

Here's a rare Sam update: We got him this little blue chair, still a little big for his modest frame. Still, he uses it well. He pushes it all over the house, then uses it to climb up to places he ought not, like toy chest tops and kitchen counters and dining room tables. So that's fun.

Beth has taken to bakin'. There is fresh bread all the time. It's fantastic.

Today was red-carpet day in children's books, as most of you probably know, and I have a lot of reading to do, for sure. You may recall a mention of one winner here at the Exile some time ago. I loved it then and am happy with the choice, for sure.

But awards day is something else to me too. It's a day I get particularly fired up to do the hard work it takes to write a really good book. Last year, I had just submitted a complete MS to the AE for the first time, and was taking a little break before shooting off to SCBWI in NYC. This year, I haven't submitted anything to anyone in far too long, and I have a week and a half and a couple of write days and nights before SCBWI in NYC. So I plan to take advantage of the ALA-inspired fire in my gut. With that in mind, I'm making not New Year's resolutions, as I mentioned above, but instead, ALA Awards Resolutions:

1. YA MS the Third: this thing has been sitting about twenty feet from the goal line for months, no exaggeration. Plenty of excuses, but no exaggeration. There are a few scenes I know I need to write, but that will also mean lots of revisions to existent scenes that I love and don't want to revisit. That idiocy ends now. The work will get done on Wednesday and Saturday.

2. YA MS the Second: this needs a synopsis. This time last year, I thought I was about to finish it. I had written about 40k in about a month, and was loving every minute of it. Then plot holes and wrong turns reared their ugly heads (as did another book by a brilliant writer also about a girl and her werewolf man), so I put it on the back burner and have only tweaked it slightly over the last year. That idiocy ends now. I will synopsize this beast by the middle of February.

And that's it. Beyond February 15 (happy seventh birthday, Harry!), I'm not making any promises. Sure, there's that middle grade series that I want to rewrite YA, and there's the story of a couple of background characters in |-1| I want to revisit, but I'll probably make a nice set of post-BEA resolutions.

Oh, and I promise to blog more. Natch.

"Mm, cookies."*

2010 is almost here! I imagine posts like this one will become more common, which is to say posts specifically about |-1| will become more common, since we're entering at least the year -- decade**?! -- in which my debut, well, debuts!

Which leads me to this: a first-ever teaser -- or "cookie," I've recently heard these called -- of The Absolute Value of -1.

(This was twittered to no small degree yesterday, but I know not everyone (A) follows anyone relevant on Twitter, or (B) doesn't habitually click links in tweets.)

Anyway, compliments of the AE on the Carolrhoda blog, here's the results of the latest addition of text to a particular spread in |-1|.

Coming soon, more chances to enter to win an ARC of |-1| signed by myself, Dia Reeves, Jenn Hubbard, Heidi R. Kling, and more, plus a final signed copy of Dia Reeves' Bleeding Violet, and who knows what all else once we get going! Stay tuned!

*I know someone reading this will get the reference I've very subtly made in the title of this post. Who will it be? I have some guesses, but I will keep them to myself.

**This is open to interpretation, since many people subscribe to the idea that larger units of years begin on the year ending in "1," rather than that beginning with "0." I am not among those people, however, since, while there was no year 0, there was also not a year 1, or 2, or et cetera, for a very long time, so relax, you Alex Trebek-types.

Another prize; piece in PW

Two quick notes.

1. Dia Reeves has offered to add to the Tenner-signed ARC giveaway. She'll be donating a final copy of Bleeding Violet, signed of course, to go to the winner of the contest announced earlier this week! So head over there, read all about it, and enter in the comments. (This contest will be going on for a while, so don't panic, and enter plenty of times in future posts!)

2. If you don't follow my Twitter (or even if you do), you might have missed this excellent PW article about the cover of |-1| and the Teens Know Best. Now that the spelling of my last name has been corrected, I'm blogging it too. Enjoy!

Dia Reeves, and the big giveaway!

Well, look at that! It's December first!

This mostly means pain and suffering to me, of course: short lengths of daylight, lots of cold, shoveling to do, ages till the thaw. But it also means it's time to start the Tenners tour of the Exile!

So, without further ado, here's the first guest post, from the wonderful, funny, and talented Dia Reeves, author of Bleeding Violet, which you can pre-order from this page! Remember: the topic is "fish out of water," keeping in the spirit of the Exile. (Stay tuned after the post for some more info about the signed ARC giveaway!)

I can't really think of any fish-out-of-water stories, Steve. I'm always at home wherever I go. You know, as long as people aren't looking at me. The only things I can think of that might even be remotely fishy is, sometimes at parties people insist that I get up and dance because of that old chestnut about how all black people are great dancers. Heh. Well, usually after about ten seconds of watching me strut my stuff, I get asked to sit back down.

Or like this other time when I went trick-or-treating in college and I was so old that no one would give me the good candy--just candy corn and those nasty brown things that taste like root beer. And, like, a toothbrush I think.

And this other time, my mom and I went to the movies to watch one of the sequels to Children of the Corn (can't remember which one) and we laughed the whole way through it, especially at the parts that were making other people scream. Only three movies scare me--The Exorcist, The Return of the Living Dead, and Evil Dead. Everything else is stupid.

So that's all I got. I think my way of being different is largely internal and would require a weird-girl brain scanner or something like that to pick me out of a crowd. Otherwise I just blend in.

Thanks, Dia.

Now, as promised, more info on the giveaway. The contest* will officially begin right now, with this post. To enter, simply comment below. If you Twitter or blog link to this post, I'll give you an extra entry, just make sure to let me know. And on future Tenner posts, there will be more opportunities to enter. As a reminder, the prize is an ARC of The Absolute Value of -1, signed by every Tenner featured on the Exile (so far, that means me and Dia, but many more will follow). I'll also add other fun gifties down the road, so stay tuned.

*US and Canada residents only (sorry, Roo). Please do not enter if you are under 13.

Back at home, lots to do.

I am not going to apologize for being away so long. I might choose to apologize to people who are waiting for email replies from me. We'll play it by ear.

We're recently back from a weeklong stay in New York, specifically on Long Island. We hardly got into the five boros at all, frankly, outside of trips fro and to the airport. Still, it was loads of fun: there's the food (of course, always the priority in my mind--Eddie's, bagels, Chinese, Green Cactus, and of course Thanksgiving dinner), the family and friends, and Sam playing with his cousin, also around one year old, from out in California. It's a shame cousins so close in age will spend so much of their youth so far apart. Still, though, fun.

The flight back with the very tired and restless and loud Sam? Not so fun.

There's some book news about to break as well (personal appearances, a trailer, final cover . . . boring stuff like that), but for now it's under my hat. I will announce right now that, beginning with an exciting guest post in the next few days, I'll be holding a contest here at the Exile. The winner will receive an ARC of The Absolute Value of -1, signed not only by moi, but also but several Tenners. If all goes according to plan, the signers will be the same Tenners whose guest posts I'll be hosting. Details to follow this week!

TKBs III

Ahoy!

Last night was our last pre-final-cover meeting with the wonderful TKBs. It was a blast, naturally, and there were even more questions and comments for me, which was nice. See, there was more time at the end before the members had to scatter because we only looked at four comps on the old overhead. Anywho, the questions and comments were mostly very flattering and I probably went red once or twice.

The point is I think most of the members who read |-1| (at least those who spoke up) liked it.

Oh! And the covers. Well, I was pretty hot on one of 'em, and pretty cold on one of them, and downright unmoved by another, but one of them in particular has me more excited than a crawfish at a clambake. Unfortunately, the AE warns me that it's nowhere near in the bag yet, what with all the necessary approvals down the road from Sales and departments like Sales. So I can't say anything specific about it. You'll all have to be patient with me. But it won't be long, mind you, as we need finals pretty right quick for the catalog.

In other news, check out this review of one of SAB's FTM titles. A classic?! Oh, go on.

In a perfect world, the picture I attached to this post would have been the cover. Alas, this will suffice.

Three years!

Happy anniversary!

To who? To me and Beth, natch. Today is our third anniversary, in fact, and in celebration, Beth went off to work and I stayed home with Sam!

Wait, no.

Last night, while I was at my awesome Loft class (which, by the way, was a riot last night; everyone seemed drunk, in a good way), Beth made a batch of maple glazed cookies with coarse sea salt. They are amazing. I have eaten at least 8 since then, and do keep in mind that it's not even noon here and that I was asleep for about 8 hours between when the cookies were given to me and now. The point is, though, that I recently Twittered that I was having bona fide maple lust. It is sated -- for now.

In other, less interesting news, YA MS the Third is done. Again. I think. I am in the middle of a read-through right now, and then I'll pass it off to Beth, as she is my favorite first reader. It's very short. Like, too short for most editors to look at seriously, I think. The AE is okay with the length, so that's reassuring, certainly. But he's a maverick!

In truth, I probably wrote lazily and could have include more action here or there.

My next task, after Eric Stevens finishes his latest assignment, is to fix and finish the trailer for |-1|. Not that there's any hurry.

Did you guys know Josh Berk is eating a burger a day for a hundred days, to celebrate the release of his debut, The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin, on the 100th day? How jealous are you? Or more to the point, how jealous am I?!

I wish I'd named my book The Absolute Value of Negative Pizza.

TKBs II

The cover meeting with the TKBs was excellent. I'm not surprised. Seeing the rough concepts on the big screen was pretty fun; some of them are very cool, and the whole process has me pretty excited. I won't say any more about the cover ideas themselves. Of course, once the cover's final, the Exile will probably be the first place it gets posted publicly.

Here are some highlights of the meeting:

• A cover mock-up designed and illustrated, with flap copy (a review from the Times!) and everything, by one of the TKBs. At the end of the meeting she handed it to me and said, "Happy birthday." Slightly late--or early--but I love it and will cherish it. I'd post here but since I didn't ask her if that would be okay, I won't.
• One of the senior TKBs: "I cried at the end. I curled up in a ball in the corner and cried." I took that as a compliment.
• After cover discussion, several TKBs decided to hurl a few questions at me, and they weren't softballs, either. That was hell of fun. I want a whole session of that right there.
• Adela, TKB advisor/leader, is planning to head to Pino's! As a native of New York (sure, Flushing and a Mets fan, but we must forgive our friends and neighbors), she undoubtedly misses our world-famous thin, floppy, foldable pizza, and has taken my review to heart! My apologies to her for not immediately realizing just what Pino's is. Not good with names, I suppose.
• I got a TKB T-shirt! It's black! (That means it's straight into priority rotation for this shirt, of course. Black T-shirts are always win.)

Overall, like I said, excellent. Those TKBs who read the book seemed to take something away from it, and generally I'd say they thought it was pretty good. So I'm happy.