Candygrams

My Readers Read Shakespeare!

03/09/2010

Or they fake it really, really well! I got quite an number of great entries to the "Name Theater Book 3" contest and wanted to announce the winners!

Out of all the entries, the jury liked Lea Johnson's "All's Golden Words" (another Hamlet quote with suitable thematic appropriateness!) and Random Number Generator picked "4", which selects Pam van Hylckama Vlieg 's "When Sorrows Come," also from Hamlet!  Dear winners, I will be contacting you via email shortly.

Now here's the poll with all the entries (we had multiple people suggest "All That Glisters" and "The Primrose Path" but they are only listed once.)  If I get an enthusiastic (and not ballot-stuffing) response to the poll, I may well award another ARC or two.

The Next Big Thing

03/08/2010

I got my tentative programming schedule for NorwesCon (Seattle, April 1-4) and find myself on a panel called "That Was a Great YA Series! Mmm. What Next?"

So who wants to play "The Next Big Thing" game with me? Ongoing series with a new installment coming out this year... first books in a new series or standalones you eagerly anticipating?

My research takes me strange, strange places

03/02/2010

Trying to flesh out my Imaginary City with some lovely, gritty details without veering into opium-den-brothel-Jack-the-Ripper territory... it's proving a bit trickier than advertised, but I'll manage. *stabbity stab stab stab, but not with a Lisson knife, and contemplating watching From Hell once the child is abed*

Yesterday's internet searches included "weird Victorian customs" and "history of photography" which, naturally, meant I landed on pages devoted to memento mori. Photographing the dead wasn't considered macabre, in that it might be the only photograph taken of that person and thus a tribute to and memento of the deceased.

It did wreak havoc on my hormones to see just how many of those pictures were babies. Especially the ones where they are posed to look like they are asleep. *sniffles*

"Name Theater Book 3!" ARC contest

03/01/2010

Want to win an Advance Review Copy of Perchance To Dream? Here's your next chance!

So, Eyes Like Stars and Perchance To Dream are both quotes from Hamlet. The current working-title for Theater Book 3 is So Silver Bright (which is a  quote from King John.)  The full quote is as follows:

"Their armours, that march'd hence so silver-bright, Hither return all gilt with Frenchmen's blood."

DUHN DUHN DUUUUUUHN.  *G*

But there's always the chance we'll need to retitle, so I'm going to give you the chance to help me. Here are the rulez!

1) The quote needs to be a 3-word Shakespearean phrase to match the other two books in the series. Sonnets are fine by me!

2) PLEASE DO NOT POST YOUR ENTRY QUOTE HERE. You need to blog/Facebook/otherwise social-media-broadcast your title-suggestion, including citation (what play its from) and a linkback to this contest entry.

3) For extra chances to win,  a) include the cover art for Perchance To Dream in your blog entry and/or b) a link to a site where a reader can preorder Perchance To Dream (like the University of Washington bookstore, for a signed copy!, or Indiebound, or Book Depository) and/or c) Tweet about the contest with a link to this entry.  Please advise me in your email which of these you've done and include links.

4) Send the URL for your post to lisa at lisamantchev dot com with the subject line "THEATER BOOK 3 TITLE"

5) One title entry per person

6) Contest is worldwide, but you need to inform me in your title-submission email if you are an international entry, please.

7) Deadline is a week from today: midnight PST, March 8th!  At least one winner will be chosen based on their title selection and another drawn at random from the entries received.

Anatomy of a Mouse Circus Birthday

02/23/2010

Very belatedly, I wanted to share the pictures from the SugarBean's 5th birthday party (which had a Coraline Mouse Circus theme!)

We invited the kids to come in their pajamas, and they entered by climbing through a nylon tunnel to get to the party.



We decorated with a metric ton of plastic tablecloths, star garlands, twinkle lights, and balloons.



We had the Wii hooked up to play carnival games.  (If you look closely on the counter, you can see the five Jumping Mice that we printed out and folded/glued together. There's also Coraline's doll and the Wuss Puss on top of the TV.)



For mouse nibbles, we served popcorn, cotton candy, baby carrots and peanut-butter-yogurt dip, licorice--red vines and Scotty dogs (like Angus!) salt water taffy (courtesy of the Misses Spink and Forcible,) baby cheeses, and pink lemonade. (Yes, my sister and I painted the Mouse Circus banners on foam core because I am insane.)



We dressed the kids up as jumping mice and let them play with punching balls and on musical instruments (tootle toot!)



And my mom made the Other Mother's Cake, complete with dribbly pink frosting



Then we had to clean everything up, and I vowed next year just to let her have her party at the bowling alley!