This free two-session writing workshop will cover the main elements of writing fantasy and science fiction, from how to create three-dimensional fantasy worlds to the basics of plot, to how to develop characters, and how to revise drafts. The workshop will also include opportunities for students to write and share their own work.

In more detail, here’s what I’ll be covering:

DAY 1: Saturday, Jan. 21

3-4 p.m. — The Basics of Plot (With an Assist From Harry Potter)
4-5 p.m. — Worldbuilding 101

DAY 2: Saturday, Jan. 28

3-4 p.m. — How to Make Your Characters Suffer Live
4-4:30 p.m. — Putting the Vision in Revision
4:30-5 p.m. — Q&A

And here’s how to sign up for this workshop:

• Enrollment is limited and pre-registration is required
• Students must be in grades 9-12 and sign up for both days
• Visit or call the reference desk at: 415.457.5629

This event is supported by Poets & Writers, Inc. through a grant it has received from The James Irvine Foundation and by The Friends of the Marin County Free Library

I am thrilled to share the news that I’m contributing to an anthology titled The Letter Q: Queer Writers’ Notes to Their Younger Selves, which will be published in May 2012. Here’s the cover:

So yeah, my little letter to my 16-year-old self will be alongside letters from such luminaries as Amy Bloom, Michael Cunningham, Jacqueline Woodson, Armistead Maupin, and more! I’m really excited to read their letters too. You can pre-order it at Barnes & Noble or, presumably, at your local bookstore!

2. Mythcon 43

The Mythopoeic Society “is a national/international organization promoting the study, discussion, and enjoyment of fantastic and mythopoeic literature through books and periodicals, annual conferences, discussion groups, awards, and more.” In 2010, I was very honored when they selected Ash as a finalist for their Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children’s Literature.

I wasn’t able to go to their annual conference, Mythcon, back then, so I’m very happy that in August 2012, I will be an author guest of honor at Mythcon 43! The theme for Mythcon 43 is “Across the Continents: Myths and legends from Europe and Asia meet and mingle,” which sounds perfect for me and my books. I am really looking forward to it!

3. I’m tumbling

In case you didn’t notice by the dangling little “t” tab up in the top right corner of my site, I’m now on Tumblr. Every day that I work on my next novel, the sequel to Adaptation, I post something on Tumblr to record my progress. Yes, this is where you can find such amazing items as these:

I also post random things I come across on Tumblr and generally mess around there when I’m not on Twitter working.

Oh, and you can also ask me a question with this handy-dandy form, and I will answer it.

4. Extra, extra!

Did you know that I have compiled a list of recommended reads with lesbian/bisexual/queer female main characters? It’s in the Extras section of my website, where you’ll also find instructions on how you can get free signed bookplates and bookmarks.

5. Last but not least

The $2.99 ebook sale for Ash will be ending soon. I have it on good authority that it may in fact end directly after Christmas, so if you want to snag a bargain ebook version, you’d better do it asap!

Happy holidays to all!

1. Defy the Dark

I’m very pleased to announce that I’m contributing a short story called “Ghost Town” to Defy the Dark, an anthology edited by the fabulous Saundra Mitchell. The collection will be published by HarperTeen in Summer 2013, and it contains a slew of wonderful stories that take place in the dark of night.

From a geeky writer perspective, “Ghost Town” allowed me to try out some techniques that I’ve never used before, such as first person present tense narration, and a particular storytelling format that I won’t reveal here because it’s a spoiler! Anyway, it’s also the first story I’ve written set in Colorado, where I grew up. The town in “Ghost Town” is fictional, but it’s definitely based in places I have known. Summer 2013 is a long way from now, but it’ll be here before you know it!

2. Sirens Conference

Coming a little bit sooner, in October 2012 I will be a guest of honor at the Sirens Conference, along with Kate Bernheimer (whose anthology My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me just won a World Fantasy Award!) and an as-yet-unnamed third author.¹ Sirens is an awesome conference focusing on women in fantasy, and the 2012 theme is tales retold. If you’ve never been to Sirens but you love to read fantasy that focuses on female characters, this is really the place for you. And if you’re a fan of young adult fantasy, Sirens is even more perfect, because it always has a wonderful program full of discussions of YA.

In previous years, Sirens has taken place in Vail, Colorado, but in 2012 they’re moving to Portland, Oregon, which I think is great because (1) I’ve never been to Portland; and (2) it’s a bit more accessible than Vail, even though Vail is beautiful. Registration is open now and I encourage you to think about joining us!

3. Diversity Tour and World Fantasy

As I mentioned I just got back from San Diego, where we had the last Diversity Tour event at the Poway Library. It was such a fantastic turnout! Cindy and I are both super happy with how Diversity in YA worked out this year, and we’ve really loved getting to meet so many readers and writers who value diverse stories in YA. Here’s a photo of the authors who joined us at our last stop:

From left to right: Karen Healey, Cinda Williams Chima, me, Greg van Eekhout and Holly Black holding a coffee maker (it's symbolic), Cindy Pon

Cindy and I scheduled the last Diversity Tour stop in San Diego to coincide with the World Fantasy Convention, because we knew there would be some great authors in town for that event. This was my second WFC, and this time there was quite a contingent of YA authors, too. Here’s me on the panel I did on women in fantasy:

Left to right: Jane Kindred, Kate Elliott, me, Charlaine Harris, Nancy Kilpatrick

Edited 11/3/11 to add: Charles Tan made an audio recording of the panel, which you can listen to here:

And here’s me and Cindy at the author autographing session, where all the hundreds of authors who attend WFC get together to sign books:

4. My Q&A with Jacqueline Carey

Remember when I read Santa Olivia by Jacqueline Carey and gushed about it all over the internet? Well, Tor.com noticed, and they invited me to interview Jacqueline about the sequel, Saints Astray, which comes out this month. You can read the Q&A here.

5. A sneak peek at Adaptation

Last month at Litquake in San Francisco, I read an excerpt from my upcoming novel, Adaptation. For all of you who aren’t in San Francisco and couldn’t come to my event, I’ve discovered that somebody videotaped it and put my reading on YouTube! The video doesn’t include my introduction to the excerpt I read, though, so let me set it up for you.

In this scene, the 17-year-old main character, Reese, has recently met a girl named Amber. Amber invites Reese over to her house. She goes over. This is what happens. (Yes, Adaptation has a scifi premise, but it’s not necessary to know that to understand this scene.)

The book comes out in fall 2012.

1. I swear I have no idea who it is, but I desperately want to know!

Thursday Oct. 27, 2011 at 7 p.m.
Diversity Tour: San Diego — With Holly Black, Cinda Williams Chima, Karen Healey, Cindy Pon, and Greg van Eekhout
San Diego County Library Poway Branch
13137 Poway Rd.
Poway, CA 92064

This event is free and open to the public! Books will be available for sale from Yellow Book Road

Oct. 27-30, 2011
World Fantasy Convention
San Diego, CA
(conference members only)

• Friday Oct. 28 at 1 p.m. — Panel: The Crystal Ceiling (in Pacific 2/3)

  Is there still a distinction between “women’s” and “men’s” fantasy and horror? Despite the power and importance of women fantasy and horror writers is much of the male community still dismissive of most female authors’ work? What about the number of female characters/protagonists? Do we see more of them lately in fiction written by men as well as women? (Kate Elliott, Charlaine Harris, Nancy Kilpatrick (M), Jane Kindred, Malinda Lo)

• Friday Oct. 28 from 8-10 p.m. — Autograph Session (in Town and Country)

I am looking forward to it!

I will be reading at Joe’s Barbershop in the Castro along with Michael Alenyikov, Nick Krieger, Michael McAllister, Monica Nolan, and Rob Rosen at 9 p.m. on Tuesday night, Oct. 11th. The best part? Joe’s Barbershop will be turned into a club and, from what I hear, there will be beverages. The fun kind.

So, in honor of my first ever reading at a gay barbershop-turned-night club, I will be reading a night club-appropriate scene from Adaptation. There may be kissing involved. And/or a particular club in San Francisco. I haven’t decided yet, but if you come, you can help me decide! Here are all the details.

The event is FREE. I will not have books to sell, but I will bring special Huntress bookplates if you’d like to get one signed, and of course, you’re welcome to bring your copies of my books for me to sign if you’d like. Please come!

This is also a good time to remind you that I will be presenting the fantasy award at the Teenquake Writing Awards Ceremony on Friday, Oct. 14th at 8 p.m. at Z Space in San Francisco. Here are all the details. I had the privilege of reading the finalists’ short stories last week, and they are really fantastic. At this event, which is also FREE, there will be books available for sale. I’m excited!

More later, once I’ve dug out from beneath the mound of things I didn’t do when I was revising …

I was interviewed over at Girls of Summer, which is a great blog founded by two writers that focuses on 18 books to read this summer (including Huntress!). Here’s a teaser, in which I answer a question with more questions:

Is there an assumption that only having one strong girl would be easier? Does having more than one girl make a story unbalanced somehow, and thus require the author to do some sort of fancy maneuvering?

On Sept. 26 I’ll be joining fellow YA authors Daisy Whitney, Nina LaCour, and C.J. Omololu at Book Passage’s Kid Lit Salon to discuss “Sex, Love, and Death: How Far Can You Go in YA?” It should be a fun evening of hot topics! We will be available to sign books as well.

Sept. 26, 2011 from 7-9 p.m.
Kid Lit Salon: Sex, Love, and Death: How Far Can You Go in YA?
Book Passage
51 Tamal Vista Blvd.
Corte Madera, CA

Kid Lit Salon is a monthly event at Book Passage, and membership to the salon costs $120 per year. I was a member for a couple of years and there are always really interesting panels and also lots of local writers to meet and mingle with. I also think the first meeting is free for those who are considering joining (at least it used to be), but you should contact Book Passage to confirm.

In October, I’ll be participating in San Francisco’s Litquake, which I’m very excited about because LitQuake is so huge!

On Tuesday, Oct. 11 at 9 p.m. I’ll be joining Michael Alenyikov, Nick Krieger, Michael McAllister, Monica Nolan, and Rob Rosen at Joe’s Barbershop in the Castro, which will be “transformed for just one night into a nightclub featuring outstanding voices from the city’s LGBT community.” From what I’ve been told there will be adult beverages, which I think will make this the best reading I’ve ever participated in.

October 11, 2011, 9:00 PM
Barbershop Reading: A Little Off the Top and Over the Top
Joe’s Barbershop

2150 Market St.
free; $5-$10 suggested donation

On Friday, Oct. 14 at 8 p.m., I’ll be at the Teen Writing Awards, sponsored by Teenquake (the teen element of Litquake) and Figment. I’m going to be judging the fantasy entries, which I believe you enter somehow via Figment, but I’m not sure. When/if I get more info about it I’ll be sure to post it.

October 14, 2011, 8:00 PM
Teenquake and Figment.com present Teen Writing Awards
Z Space 

450 Florida St.
Free

At the end of October I’ll be going to San Diego for the World Fantasy Convention, where I’ll also be doing one more Diversity in YA event with some amazing MG and YA fantasy authors.

Diversity in YA: San Diego with Paolo Bacigalupi, Holly Black, Cinda Williams Chima, Karen Healey, Cindy Pon, and Greg van Eekhout
Oct. 27, 2011 at 7 p.m.
San Diego County Library Poway Branch
13137 Poway Rd.
Poway, CA 92064

This event is free and open to the public! Books will be available for sale from Yellow Book Road.

Of course, I’ll also be at WFC for the whole weekend, and I’ll post my panel info for that conference when I have it.

Last but not least, Huntress received a lovely review from Gwenda Bond in Locus magazine in July. I especially appreciated this review because I read Gwenda’s thesis on omniscient point of view while I was writing Huntress! Here’s a snippet from her review:

Lo excels at keeping the reader engaged during action scenes — whether the characters are battling for their lives or their hearts. … Readers of Ash will revel in the heavily Chinese-influenced, non-fairytale perspective on the Kingdom’s past offered here, while readers new to Lo’s work will find it an excellent starting point.

More soon …

Before I go on my hiatus, though, I wanted to share the details about some events I will be doing in the next few weeks:

Updated 7/12/11: The Forum show has been postponed. I’ll let you know if/when it happens in the future.

Later this month I’ll be heading to San Diego to attend my very first Comic-Con! I’ll be on the following two panels:

Saturday, July 23
12:30-1:30
Room 8
Diversity in Young Adult Works — It’s not all about being torn between vampire and werewolf boyfriends. This panel is a celebration of different genres, protagonists, and media for young adult readers. The diverse authors participating include Cindy Pon (Fury of the Phoenix), Kiersten White (Supernaturally), Dave Roman (Astronaut Academy), Vera Brosgol (Anya’s Ghost), Gene Yang (Level Up), and Elizabeth Bunce (A Curse Dark As Gold). Moderated by Malinda Lo (Huntress).

2:00-3:00
Autographing in the Comic-Con Autograph Area at Autograph Area table 2 

Sunday, July 24
10:00-11:00
Room 24ABC
Diversity and Fandom 102: How You Can Make a Difference — In the wake of campaigns like Racebending.com’s protests and the rise of safe spaces like Racialicious.com, fans, consumers and creators from underrepresented groups have more outlets for speaking up. This panel explores how those voices can be added to conversations with geeky business interests and fan communities. Director Kevin Tancharoen (Mortal Kombat: Legacy), showrunner/writer Javier Grillo-Marxuach (The Middleman), author Malinda Lo (Huntress), Arturo Garcia (Racialicious.com), Phil Yu (AngryAsianMan.com) and USC Professor Henry Jenkins (CivicPaths Project) promise a lively discussion, moderated by Racebending.com.

I am super excited about both of these panels and also about attending my first Comic-Con!

And now, I will begin my blog hiatus until I finish this revision. See you next month!

1. Talking about race or sexual orientation in a mixed group can be very nerve-wracking, and I think that our audiences along the way did a fantastic job of being respectful and honest in their questions. Believe me, things could have gone a different way, and they didn’t! Kudos to everybody who came out to support us on the tour — and thank you for coming.

For me, the most comfortable panels were the two where I had the most in common with the other panelists: the San Francisco panel, which was composed of four Asian American writers (and all Chinese American, to boot), and the New York LGBT Center panel, which was composed of four queer writers.

L to R: Jon Yang, me, Cindy Pon, Gene Luen Yang at the San Francisco Public Library

L to R: Me, Cris Beam, Jacqueline Woodson, David Levithan, Cindy Pon (moderator) at the New York LGBT Center

I don’t think this is surprising, but it also gave me a renewed appreciation for spaces in which we can connect with people who come from similar backgrounds — or, at least, who are seen by others as being similar. The sense of solidarity was a nice boost for me, since in the YA world I tend to stick out a lot as the sole queer Asian writer.

2. The one question we got at pretty much every location was about covers. What do you think of them, are publishers evil for whitewashing, do people really not buy books with people of color on them, etc. I’ve already said a lot about book covers here.

The one thing I will add is this: If you truly want to see more books with people of color on them, then go and buy the books that already exist that are about people of color. Forget about what’s on the cover now; covers change all the time. But put your money where your mouth is, because that’s what publishers will listen to. That’s the way capitalism works.

3. The other issue that came up repeatedly was the question of who has the ability to write books with diverse characters. Do you have to be a person of color to write about people of color? Do you have to be gay to write about gay people? I think that every single author on all our panels would agree that the answer is a big fat NO. If we could only write about what we’ve experienced directly, we wouldn’t be able to tell very many stories.

I admit I became a little frustrated with these questions, because the answer seemed to be so obvious to me. It wasn’t until I went to School Library Journal’s Day of Dialog, where I was on a panel about diversity, that I realized what the underlying issue was. Liz Burns, the librarian who moderated the panel, asked us to consider the question of authenticity: Who has an authentic voice when writing about people of color?

L to R: Cindy Pon, me, Rita Williams-Garcia, Paul Griffin at the School Library Journal Day of Dialog

As soon as she mentioned “authentic,” I realized that all these questions are actually about anxiety. I actually wrote about authenticity in graduate school, so I had a lot to say about it (nerd alert!). My paper about authenticity is here if you want to read it.

In terms of authenticity and writing diverse YA fiction, I’ll say this for now: When people talk about “authenticity” in this case (e.g., by questioning whether someone can write about people who aren’t like them), they’re actually talking about anxiety and authority. I think it’s much more productive (and accurate) to discuss anxiety and authority rather than authenticity, because authenticity is situational and can never truly be defined.

If I have time later, I’ll blog more about authenticity, because I’m fascinated by the subject in a super geeky way.

4. Unrelated to diversity, but related to touring: this was my first book tour. It was crazy! It’s a weird kind of space to inhabit when you wake up, go to the airport, talk to lots of strangers, sleep in a strange bed, wake up and go to the airport, etc., over and over. And yet, it’s kind of an amazing space. To throw in some old-school anthro terms, it feels like a liminal space: a space between states of being. Before the tour, Cindy and I had talked about diversity a lot online, but it had never felt entirely real — at least not to me. After the tour, it was real.

Blogger Jen Bigheart and Cindy Pon online, after our event in Austin

We had taken our dreams for this tour and this issue that is dear to our hearts, and delivered it straight to people sitting ten feet away from us. It’s a wonderful thing, in this increasingly internet-based world, to turn those nebulous thoughts into three-dimensional experiences.

Cindy Pon, Kristin Cashore (!!!) and me at the Cambridge Public Library. In the back left you can see Francisco X. Stork, Sarah Rees Brennan, and Holly Black casually leaning against the wall.

But I decided I’m going to wait till I get home next week to do a real blog post with my thoughts about the tour, because I’m not actually home yet. I’m currently holed away in my secret woodsy retreat, where I’m supposed to be working, but instead have been driving around to many, many New England states, seeing family and doing mysterious things and eating a lot.

However, I did want to post here briefly to say that right after the SLJ Day of Dialog (hello, librarians!), I will be heading over to the Teen Author Carnival in New York City on Monday, May 23rd. I’m so excited about this, especially because the panel I’ll be on is titled “Kick Ass Females in YA”! Here are the details:

TEEN AUTHOR CARNIVAL
Mulberry Street Library, Event Space
10 Jersey Street (Between Lafayette & Mulberry Streets)
New York, NY 10012-3332

4:10 to 5 p.m. — “Kick-Ass Females in YA”
Moderated by Lisa Desrochers, with panelists Andrea Cremer, Michelle Zink, Courtney Allison Moulton, Carole Estby Dagg, Elizabeth Scott, Kristen Hubbard, Michelle Hodkin, and me!

6:15 to 7:30 p.m. — Book Signing

Did I mention the event is totally free? And check out the fab author lineup. I know there will be some other wonderful panels, too, and I’m really looking forward to it.

I’ll also be at Book Expo on Tuesday but I’m going in cognito as press so that I can find more books for Diversity in YA. If you see me feel free to say hi, because I won’t be doing anything official as an author, but I’m happy to stop and chat.

That’s all for now. More updates next week!

I don’t know if I’ll be able to blog much in this neck of the woods this week, but if I get a chance I’ll throw up some photos of the food that Cindy Pon and I encounter on our trek from California to New York, since you know neither of us is going to miss a meal.

To start off, here are some photos from the dinner we ate directly after DIYA San Francisco, at Lulu:

Leek and goat cheese tart

Grilled steak, potatoes, and peas

The oddly green gnocchi that Cindy ordered

A delectable panna cotta ordered by Martha Flynn

And here’s where you can find me the rest of this week:

Austin, Texas

Monday, May 9 at 7:30 p.m.
BookPeople
603 N. Lamar
Austin TX 78703

With authors Bethany Hegedus, Malinda Lo, Guadalupe Garcia McCall, Cindy Pon, Dia Reeves, and Jo Whittemore, and moderated by Varian Johnson

Chicago, Illinois

Tuesday, May 10 from 5:30 to 6:45 p.m.
Barbara’s Bookstore
1218 South Halsted Street
Chicago, IL 60607

With authors Malinda Lo, Claudia Guadalupe Martinez, Nnedi Okorafor, and Cindy Pon

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Thursday, May 12 at 7 p.m.
Cambridge Public Library (Main Library)
Lecture Hall
449 Broadway
Cambridge, MA 02138

With authors Holly Black, Sarah Rees Brennan, Deva Fagan, Malinda Lo, Cindy Pon, and Francisco X. Stork, and moderated by Roger Sutton. Books available for sale from Porter Square Books.

New York, New York

Friday, May 13 at 6:30 p.m.
The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center
208 West 13th Street
New York, NY 10011

Highlighting LGBT YA books with authors Cris Beam, David Levithan, Malinda Lo, and Jacqueline Woodson. Books available for sale from Mobile Libris.

Saturday, May 14 at 1 p.m.
Books of Wonder
18 West 18th Street
New York, NY 10011

With authors Matt de la Peña, Malinda Lo, Kekla Magoon, Neesha Meminger, Cindy Pon, Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich, Rita Williams-Garcia, and Jacqueline Woodson, and moderated by Cheryl Klein