[From the Eye of the Storm] Jon Skovron's Newsletter #32
From the Eye of the Storm #32
Ha. So, funny story...
For those of you who have been subscribed from the beginning, you may remember my first newsletter was all about my ambivilence toward social media and how I was hoping this could be a replacement for the more public and far less intimate posting on Twitter, Facebook, etc. I believed, or perhaps just hoped, that I could disappear entirely from those services and only have this newsletter and the occational guest blog somewhere else.
Turns out, that was unrealistic of me. I have been told in fairly emphatic terms by a number of people that an author in this day and age simply must participate in social media, at least until they reach a certain, somewhat nebulously defined level of fame. I realize these people are not purposfully trying to torture me, and only want the best for me and my books. In an industry where the biggest danger is obscurity, the value of people who actually care about you and your books is immeasurable and not to be taken lightly.
So I have resolved to participate more in social media. It remains to be seen how I will do this exactly without slowly withering away inside. It's a rough world out there in the Twittersphere and while I am by no means a delicate flower, I am earnest, gullible, and take things too much to heart. I could harden myself, of course. Become sharp and biting, the way I used to be. But I choose not to, because it is my firm belief that I am at my best and most creative when I remain as wide open as possible.
Not that I'm quitting this newsletter, of course! It's still my favorite. And whenever possible, I will try to post news here first over anywhere else. But if you partake of the social media and don't yet follow me, come find me on Twitter or Instagram as @jonnyskov or Facebook at <http://facebook.com/jonskovron>. I might get back into Tumblr as well? We'll see about that. Baby steps. And if you already follow me on one or more of those, please be gentle as I try to fully re-engage in a world I once knew very well, but that seems to have changed drastically while I wasn't looking.
Empire of Storms News
Speaking of the Twitterverse, the Spanish translation of Hope and Red is out and there has been a gratifyingly large response. Most of it is in Spanish, of course, and sadly my Spanish is limited to random phrases like ¡Que desayuno!. But it seems like people are into it, so that's cool.
The German translation of Hope and Red will be out next month. Here's the cover, which I find notable for several reasons.
It's the first one to depict some of the historical components, such as the tricorn hats and flintlock pistols. Granted, Red uses neither of those things in the books, but I still feel like it's a differentiator from the majority of medieval-set fantasy books out there. This cover is also the first to depict them on a rooftop, which they both spend time on (although not together). I also want to point out that while Hope's clothes aren't exactly as I described in the book, I actually like what's on the cover better. So there's that.
I'm looking forward to showing you the Chinese cover once its finalized. What I've seen so far is gorgeous.
Bane and Shadow comes out at the end of next month. People have been asking if review copies have gone out, and I assume some have? I'm not sure, but I'm looking into it and will let people know as soon as I do. I also just did a fun video for my UK publicist about how I'm an insane person who writes all his rough drafts by hand. They're adding a bunch of stuff to it, which should be cool. I'll be sure to share when they post it.
Currently Reading
I suppose this is a something of a hint on the secret project I'm working on while waiting for revision notes on Blood and Tempest, but I've been reading a lot of middle grade novels lately. Most recently, I finished Holly Black's spectacular Doll Bones.
Doll Bones isn't quite like Holly's other books, and I love it all the more for that. There is no overt magic or fantasy. You could read it completely as a work of realistic fiction, if you're the sort of person who never sees evil faces in tree bark or never hears strange whispers in the dark.
Poppy, Alice, and Zach are friends in middle school who have always had a rich, imaginative play life, making up sweeping sagas with their toys that last for weeks of after school and weekend fun. But Zach's father is concerned that his son is getting too old to play with toys, so he sneaks into his son's room and throws them away. Obviously a dick move, no matter how well meant. Zach is horrified and angry and ashamed and doesn't quite know how to deal with it all, so he begins to pull away from Poppy and Alice, but doesn't tell them why. Their perfect little group begins to splinter as both Zach and Alice begin to focus more on "teen" interests. Then one night, Poppy tells Zach and Alice that the old porcelain doll in her house, which had often been the focus of their stories, has spoken to her in a dream. She tells them it's haunted by a little girl who was murdered long ago, and that the ghost wants them to travel to a small town in Ohio where she lived and bury the doll in her grave so that she can finally find peace. The three kids agree to go on this "quest" together.
Is Poppy making this up to keep her friends together? Or is she telling the truth? This is the line that Holly Black carefully walks for the entire book as they continue to encounter things that could be paranormal, or could simply be really creepy. I won't say whether that question is ever answered, but I will say that by the end of it, I didn't need an answer, because the journey, both literal and metaphorical, that these three kids make is so moving and gorgeously rendered in prose, that everything else felt secondary to me.
Anyway, that's all for now. I'm going to be in the Women's March this weekend, so that should be interesting.