Malinda Lo

Wow, this week has flown by, and I’ve been inundated with so many lovely tweets and messages about people reading and buying Huntress — it’s a little overwhelming! But I’m so glad that my book is out there in the world and it is being read. Yay!

My book launch on Tuesday night was a lot of fun, and I signed a bunch of copies of Huntress for Books Inc Palo Alto, so if you want a signed copy, you can order it directly from them. Here I am posing by some of the very books that I later signed!

A wall of Huntresses!

This week has also been quite a week for seeing my name in print. My local newspaper, the Marin Independent Journal, interviewed me and even sent over a photographer to take some photos of me. But I had no idea I would get such an awesome story! Can you believe it, I’m actually ON TOP OF THE MASTHEAD. It’s like I’m famous or something!

I am above the fold!

And then you have to see the story to believe it:

More of me! More!

Obviously you can’t read it in the photo, but you can read it here online, and it’s really one of the best articles I’ve seen written about me, if I do say so myself. Thanks to the journalist, Paul Liberatore, for being such a pro. Can I just say, I love newspapers (and yes, I subscribe to a print paper — can you believe it?).

That’s not all, though! Oh, no! Here are some more interviews and reviews that may in fact make you sick of me if you read them all, so I suggest you pick and choose:

• A Q&A with PW Children’s Bookshelf, in which I say things like “I ended up reading a lot of romances that I loved to get a sense of how to do write one—the most unsappy romances I could find.”
• An interview at the Enchanted Inkpot, in which I say things like “Sometimes I worry that I’m limiting my audience by writing queer books, but you know what? I’m a lesbian. I want to read books like the ones I’m writing.”
• A very nice, somewhat spoilery review of Huntress from LambdaLiterary.org: “Huntress is a well-written, tightly plotted novel with interesting, engaging characters and a good balance of romance and action. Lo also paints a wonderfully egalitarian world in terms of sexuality. All romantic relationships are treated equally, and Lo is clearly comfortable writing both gay and straight characters, lending an authenticity to both the characters and the world they inhabit.”
• A fantastic and detailed (AND EXTREMELY SPOILERY – BE WARNED!) review from Tor.com: “Ash was a lovely story with a gripping romance and great play with gender and affection. Huntress takes a different tack and focuses on ideas of loyalty, duty, and personal connection—while there is a romance, it is a much more subtle one, with different bonds. … I found their relationship and its slow, cautious, flickering growth to be a beautiful illustration of girls falling in love despite duty, despite their knowledge of what lies ahead of them, and despite the lives their families wish for them back home.”
• The awesome Heather Hogan (who blogs for AfterEllen, among other places) says a few things about why she liked Huntress: “JK Rowling, who knows a thing or two about young adult fantasy, once said the mark of a great story is whether or not the characters go on living in your mind after the last page. Like Ash and Kaisa before them, Kaede and Taisin haven’t stopped frolicking in my imagination. I even dream about the sometimes.” (Wow!)

In other news (yes, there is other news!), I have some events to tell you about:

April 13, 9-11 p.m. Eastern — YALITCHAT’s 2011 Made From Awesome Event

I’ll be joining a bunch of YA authors during #yalitchat on Twitter (if you don’t know what this is, go here for info), including Nancy Holder, Jason Henderson, Coe Booth, Mitali Perkins, Melissa de la Cruz, Karen Healey, Jaclyn Dolamore, and Kierstin White. During the chat they’ll be giving away a signed copy of Huntress! I’m sure it will a crazy good time, since #yalitchat is always a crazy good time.

Diversity in YA has added a Chicago event!

I know that a lot of people really wanted us to come to Chicago, and we’ve worked hard to make it happen. Joining Cindy Pon and me will be fabulous authors Claudia Guadalupe Martinez and Nnedi Okorafor. Details:

Tuesday, May 10 at 6 p.m.
Barbara’s Books
1218 South Halsted Street
Chicago, IL 60607

Last but not least, don’t forget that if you want a signed limited edition Huntress bookplate, you need to send me an SASE by May 1, 2011. (I’ve already gotten a bunch, yay!) Details here.

Have a great weekend!