
I’m happy to answer questions about my books and writing. This group is active ’til July 1.
Books we’ve read
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Share book reviews and ratings with Q&A with Mari Adkins, and even join a book club on Goodreads.
scribblings of midnight writer
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I’m a guest blog at Jodi Lee’s Into the Mirror.
Posted by Lesley Conner on May 13, 2014 in Apex Publications Blog: Matters of SF, Fantasy, and Horror | 0 comments
Midnight by Mari Adkins has officially been released and to celebrate we’re running a deal to make sure readers get their fill of the horrors that haunt Harlan County, Kentucky. Buy Midnight and Harlan County Horrors, Apex’s regional horror anthology that Mari edited, together for one low price.
Snag print copies of both books for only $20, plus free domestic shipping!
Prefer the paperless feel of eBooks? The eBook editions can be bought together for a mere $8.99.
The sale runs from May 13th till May 20th.
To take advantage of this fantastic deal head over to the Midnight product page. Order links for the sale are below the cover image.
[this post was originally published here at MMG on December 18, 2010]
Even after five years, it seems like some people are still confused by my vampires. So, I think it’s high time for a(nother) explanatory blog post. (See also, my bibliography page) For the record, the questions here pertain to Midnight.
I’m going to start with these questions:
Now this group of questions:
Next, these questions:
These questions make me laugh until I ache.
Now with that silly out of the way:
Absolutely not. That’s one thing I refuse to change. The story starts with Sami crashing into Loyall after a panicked three hour drive which started with her running away from her abusive boyfriend. This gives the reader Sami’s mind state along with other information that would be lost or too ridiculous to put in as asides or memories. I won’t cheapen my story or lessen Sami’s pain and experiences this way.
First of all, the story is set completely within Sami’s point of view. It’s called ‘limited narrator’. The reader perceives the story through Sami, and she’s unable to tell the reader anything she doesn’t know outside her own experience. If those three men have contact with each other and Sami isn’t there, then it’s impossible for her to relay those meetings to the reader – especially when she doesn’t have a clue they exist. The concept is very simple, and I have trouble grasping why it’s difficult for some readers to understand. I learned how to use this in seventh grade Language Arts class. If the narrator doesn’t know, the reader doesn’t know. “Limited omniscient allows the narrator to relate the thoughts and feelings of only one character”.* If Sami isn’t in the same room with Michael, Steve, or Jeremy, then she doesn’t know what they’re doing or what’s being said – or even if or when all three are together or not together. Therefore, it’s inconceivable that she could communicate that information to the reader.
Jeremy Bradford can’t spend all of his time at school, in band practice, or with Michael, can he? When he isn’t in scene with Sami, he doesn’t always run home to his mother or to The Market to Steve. Shelly is important to Jeremy, which is why he introduces Sami to her. Shelly does play a critical part in Jeremy’s future. Between Midnight and the sequel, Shelly and Sami develop a strong, sisterly friendship.
The better question to ask might be, “Why is Angela in the story?” No, really. Why is Angela in the story? We meet her on the first page, and her name is mentioned in the narrative a whopping nineteen times. The reader never sees her outside of The Market – except that first night when she brings Sami’s car to Steve’s.
Shelly’s name is mentioned fifty-five times, and Sami has quite a bit of interaction with her as they build their friendship. Shelly is important to the story. Angela is just a clerk in a corner convenience store. Someone has to mind the place when Steve can’t be there, right?
I think that wraps up this session. If anyone has any questions, please post them in the comments. I’ll compile them and create another post later.
* Basic English Revisited: A Student Handbook, 1985.
This is the cover for our upcoming novel MIDNIGHT by Mari Adkins. The artwork and design was created by Billy Tackett. The book is due to be published May 27th.
A romantic supernatural fantasy, Mari Adkins’s Midnight introduces us to Sami as she first enters Harlan County, Kentucky and begins a journey that will change her life.
Samantha Clark has always known she was different. Brought up in a loveless household, she can almost forgive herself for turning to an abusive boyfriend to help give her the roots and love she desperately needs. But that solution turns violent, and Sami is on the run, turning to a college friend who offers her a new hope at ‘family’.
Set in Harlan, Kentucky in 1985, Midnight is the inward journey of Sami’s self-loathing, self-reflection, and eventual self-acceptance. Through the love of her friends and the mysterious Michael, Sami not only heals from the scars given earlier in life, she finds her personal strength.
“Wonderfully creepy.” — Kirkus Reviews (STARRED REVIEW)
“Thoroughly suspenseful.”— Booklist (STARRED REVIEW)
“VanderMeer unfolds a tale as satisfying as it is richly imagined.”
— Publishers Weekly (STARRED REVIEW)
ANNIHILATION
Book 1 of the Southern Reach trilogy
A novel by Jeff VanderMeer
published by FSG Originals
February 4, 2014
$13.00 | ISBN: 978-0-374-10409-2
Area X has been cut off from the rest of the world for decades. Nature has reclaimed the last vestiges of human civilization. The first expedition returned with reports of a pristine, Edenic landscape; the second expedition ended in mass suicide, the third in a hail of gunfire as its members turned on one another. The members of the eleventh expedition returned as shadows of their former selves, and within weeks, all had died of cancer. In Annihilation, the first volume of Jeff VanderMeer’s Southern Reach trilogy, we join the twelfth expedition. The group is made up of four women: an anthropologist; a surveyor; a psychologist, the de facto leader; and our narrator, a biologist. Their mission is to map the terrain, record all observations of their surroundings and of one another, and, above all, to avoid being contaminated by Area X itself.
They arrive expecting the unexpected, and Area X delivers—but it’s the surprises that came across the border with them and the secrets the expedition members are keeping from one another that change everything.
Jeff VanderMeer is an award-winning novelist and editor. His fiction has been translated into twenty languages and has appeared in the Library of America’s American Fantastic Tales and multiple year’s-best anthologies. He writes nonfiction for The Washington Post, The New York Times Book Review, the Los Angeles Times, and The Guardian, among others. He grew up in the Fiji Islands and now lives in Tallahassee, Florida, with his wife. Scott Rudin Productions and Paramount Pictures have optioned the Southern Reach trilogy.
Tour Dates for Annihilation
Feb. 3 – Elliott Bay in Seattle, WA
Feb. 4 – Powell’s Books in Portland, OR
Feb. 8 – Writers with Drinks hosted by Charlie Jane Anders in San Francisco, CA
Feb. 11 – City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco, CA
Feb. 26 – McNally Jackson with editor Sean McDonald in New York, NY
Feb. 27 – WORD Bookstore in Brooklyn, NY
April 12-13 – Los Angeles Times Festival of Books
April 24-27 – Arkansas Literary Festival in Little Rock, AK
Additional events for the Southern Reach trilogy TBA in Tallahassee, FL / Miami, FL / South Carolina / Asheville, NC / San Diego, CA / Atlanta, GA / Austin, TX, and other cities in the United States & Canada.
For media and event queries, please contact Alyson Sinclair, publicist, at aly@alysonsinclairpr.com or 612.201.3867. Visit www.southernreachtrilogy.com for more information.
Last February I participated in Mary Robinette Kowal’s Month of Letters challenge. I made some wonderful friends and collected some great ephemera. I saved all that in my smashbook but never posted pictures here (I realized a bit earlier today!). Since we’re on the verge of a new Month of Letters challenge, I thought I’d post up my results from last year. In all three, I tried to find and block out addresses – I hope I found them all!
This is the full double-page spread.
This is the right-facing page. That fantastic frog comes out of the envelope and is a stand-up. The Hello card is from Mary Kowal.
This is the left-facing page. I love all the colors!
The idea is that you write down things you’re grateful for, things that make you happy, memorable events, throughout the year, put them in the jar. The on New Year’s Eve, you dump out the jar and read all the good things. And start a new jar the following day.
This is my jar. I used a Lipton Tea jar and glued on the banner, the image of the jar in the back, the quote at the bottom, and the photograph of the gorgeous key. The rest are from a pack of stickers I got. I didn’t think I could go wrong with a yellow cat wearing purple glasses, right?
I wanted to let all of you know I’ve not disappeared! I’ve just been busy. I hope all of you have a beautiful, wonderful, and peaceful holiday season.
Yesterday, on my way out to the laundry room to get the Wednesday wash done, I dropped my dayplanner into my bag and stopped to get the mail. Didn’t think anything about it as I’ve been trying to get into the habit of taking my planner with me everywhere, and though it was early, I thought I’d see if the mail had already run.
Why I thought I might need my planner in the laundry room, I had no idea. Like I said, I’m trying to make taking it everywhere a habit. So far, so good.
After I got the clothes in to wash, I sorted through the mail – sales papers, but I always go through them in case other mail got stuck in there somehow. I can’t say how many times we’ve almost lost/recycled/thrown away something important (tax returns, mail from Preston’s parents, lightweight letters, etc) because it’s been jammed in with the sales papers. And low and behold there were the Container Store planner stickers I’d ordered two weeks ago.
I spent the next half hour arranging stickers and taking pictures.
Love my divider pages! I ordered them from an Etsy shop, and the designer cut them down to fit my compact planner! The Hello Kitty stickers came from an eBay shop. I printed and cut down the menu sheet – and sheets that can’t be seen: “about this week” and an adorable “to do” sheet. There’s also a “right now” sheet I printed and cut down. (I really need to get a paper cutter!) The page sticking out the pocket in the back is from where I was going to get my yearly mammogram – they shut it down to consolidate it with the Markey Cancer Center on campus.
This picture is blurry; sometimes I just can’t get steady pictures with the camera on my phone. These are probably my two most-used tabs. The labels are from the stickers from the Container Store, and the divider tabs are from my Etsy purchase. For Projects, I created a “client sheet” for the editing and book reviews I do, so I can better keep up with what I’m doing for whom and when, payments and so forth (I don’t get paid for reviews; just editing). That section is a bit thin right now, but I’m taking November off for NaNoWriMo. Schedule is where my daily planning sheets start. For the rest of this year, I have the standard wo2pp that comes with an FC planner. (I have my pack of do2pp starting ready to go when I need it; I already have January in my planner.
Here she is from the top. The black piece is the top page lifter; I have one in the front and in the back. They didn’t come with the planner, so I ordered them separate before I ever thought about getting custom dividers. I may not need page lifters with the dividers, but this way I know my dividers won’t get damaged. Right?
I got the Blooms monthly divider pack from FC for the color, and they’re great. The borders are a little bit more pink than I care to have in my life, but I keep telling myself they’re “more pale lilac”. I stuck my monthly and daily Etsy stickers over the FC tabs. Again for the color. And they’re easier for me to find and to read. I really like having the daily stickers! Those will come in so handy at the start of the new year when I get to start working with my actual daily pages. The Santa is from a card I got from my sister last Christmas. (When you journal, you save bits and pieces of everything. I’m up to two boxes and five folders of ephemera from nothing this time last year!)
She’s a bit fat, but I have another planner due to ship next Monday. It’s still a compact, and the same model (this one had a defect with the closure), but maybe by the time it comes in, I can figure out what I really need in here and what I don’t. What helps is that this model (DayOne) can also be used as a wallet, so I won’t have to carry a separate wallet around!
Why did I name her Trudi? After noticing on the Planner Addicts group on Facebook that the other ladies name their planners, I boiled it down to a choice between Trudi and Priscilla. I’m not entirely sure why those two names came to me, but that’s what did. I asked PA for advice and got some really great suggestions, including Molly – which I’d have totally gone with, but right now she’s a character in my YA project, and I don’t want to get them conflated somehow. I thought I might go with Priscilla, but every time I picked her up, I called her Trudi. So here we are.
Why a physical dayplanner? I realized with my ADHD I needed something physical outside of my Outlook calendar, especially these days since I don’t leave Outlook on 24/7, so I’m not able to get my reminder pings (and I don’t carry a smartphone). With the ADHD (I have the distractive/inattentive type), I’m more visual, so need visual cues and reminders. Otherwise I’d forget my own name some days. I started by using a Moleskine daily planner in January and liked it a whole bunch. Over the course of the year, I saw all these beautiful, creative planners and wanted to be able to do more with my planner – including organizing it to suit me instead of how a book binder put it together for me.
I got to thinking about ring binders. I’d used one from 1997 to some time in the early 2000s. A tiny thing, and I don’t think Mead makes it any more. Fat Little Dayplanner. I still have the binder! I did some digging around and some research and thought about the planners anyone can buy at Wal-Mart but wasn’t sure that was the route I wanted to go. Then someone at either PA or JJ posted a link to an FC DayOne on sale for $9.95. I waffled for some time but decided I couldn’t go wrong with FC and especially not at that price, so I had some spare money and bought it and waited for it to arrive.
It arrived, and I went nuts customizing and organizing it. Buying dividers, stickers, tabs, post-its, and gods know what all else. A pouch to carry said stickers, post-its, and pens in, of course, but I’ve already almost outgrown it and have barely had it a month!
But I’m set on starting 2014 organized and ready to hit the floor running, as they say. With my head on, my shoulders back, and knowing what needs to be done and when and where I have to go and why. And so forth. That makes a huge difference in my life. I realized before I knew about the ADHD that I need a structured schedule. Daily. Even if all I have down for a given day is a list of household chores. (Speaking of which, I never ran the dishwasher last night. Oy! See?) The daily pages I got are divided up into an appointment block running from 8am to 9pm, which is perfect. There’s also a task list and a daily tracker (for whatever I need to daily track). The second page is more like a diary page.
When I get my January calendar all set up and start setting up those daily pages, I’ll take more pictures. With hope, it won’t take me two months to post again!
Now you know where I’ve been the last while! I’ve been eyebrow deep in dayplanning and organizing! Also, I’ve been doing a bit of writing again, but mostly on that front I’ve been doing the NaNoWriMo-Plano for next month. Which includes getting what manuscript I already have written (I write longhand) typed up into Word, so I don’t have to worry about that next month and get on with the actual writing again!