2012 Best Fiction for Young Adults — “The books, recommended for ages 12-18, meet the criteria of both good quality literature and appealing reading for teens. The list comprises a wide range of genres and styles, including contemporary realistic fiction, fantasy, horror, historical fiction and novels in verse.”

2012 Amelia Bloomer Project List — Recommended Feminist Literature for Birth through 18

A Top 10 Selection of the 2012 Rainbow List — Recommended GLBTQ Books for Children and Teens

Thanks so much to all the librarians who read Huntress and supported it for these lists. I’m very honored. And congratulations to all the other fabulous books on these lists!

UPDATED 1/31/12: I just found out that Huntress also made it onto the Chicago Public Library’s Best of the Best Books for Teens. This is so thrilling! I love Chicago!

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!

I’ve been managing my own website — including all the head-scratching back-end coding stuff (even though I don’t really know how to do it) — for years, ever since I bought my URL way back when. It’s been fun, but this year I decided that it was finally time for me to bring in a professional: someone who could give my site a look designed just for me.

For the last month I’ve been working with Motel Projects, a fabulous design firm based in Portland headed by Jennifer Armbrust. I love what she created! She took what I asked for and gave me something I never would have come up with on my own, and I’m so excited to start using it and share it with you all.

Thanks to Jenn for such a great new look and for being so fantastic to work with, and thanks to Kerby Ferris¹ who did the nitty gritty programming stuff to make it run. Yay!

To kick things off in style, I decided to celebrate my site’s new look with — with else? — giving away some books! I’m giving away 10 signed hardcover copies of Huntress, as well as 3 paperback U.K. editions, 3 paperback U.K. editions of Ash, and a bunch of Ash posters (12×18 inches).

Win these prizes!

1. Please fill out the form below.
2. If you’re a teacher or librarian who would like to use one of these books in your classroom or library, I’ll give you an extra entry. You’ll just need to give me an official email address so I can verify your position.
3. You can also get an extra entry by spreading the news on your blog, Facebook, Twitter, or tumblr.
4. Each winner may win a maximum of one book and one poster. Because I have a limited number of poster tubes, some posters will be folded to be mailed.
5. The contest is open internationally. Up to four non-U.S. winners will be selected.
6. The deadline to enter is Dec. 1, 2011.

Also, remember back in May when I was giving away signed bookplates? Well, I have more of them (just in time for the holidays!), and I’m happy to send a bookplate and a bookmark to you if you send me a self-addressed, stamped envelope.

Gorgeous bookplates!

To get a signed bookplate, please send a self-addressed stamped envelope to me at:

Malinda Lo
P.O. Box 1061
Fairfax, CA 94978

If you’re outside the United States, you will need to include an International Reply Coupon along with an envelope. If you do not include an SASE and/or an envelope with an IRC, I will not be able to send you a bookplate.

Please don’t forget to tell me who you want me to sign the bookplate to! If you want them for a holiday gift, be sure to send me your SASE by Dec. 10.

Meanwhile, please have a look around my new virtual digs. There are a few new things to discover here and there, and I hope you’ll like them! If you come across any bugs or errors, please let me know in the comments so that we can fix them.

Enjoy!

1. And I just learned that Kerby is in the band Lovers, which is awesome. I love their album Dark Light!

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!

Yesterday, Carrie Ryan (The Forest of Hands and Teeth) announced the sale of an anthology she is editing, Foretold, which will be coming out in the fall of 2012. From Publishers Marketplace:

NYT bestselling author Carrie Ryan, ed.’s FORETOLD, an anthology about prophecies and predictions featuring stories by Laini Taylor, Jen Lancaster, Meg Cabot, Richelle Mead, and Michael Grant among many others, to Krista Marino at Delacorte, for publication in Fall 2012, by Jim McCarthy at Dystel & Goderich Literary Management.

The part that isn’t included? I have a story in it, too! I’m so excited to be in an anthology with such fabulous authors. You can see the whole lineup here on Carrie’s blog.

The story I wrote is a fairy tale … ish. At least in feel. It was inspired by “Snow White,” but quickly veered in a very different direction. The only thing that remains the same is, well, there’s a stepmother. Isn’t there always a stepmother in a fairy tale? I can’t wait to share this story with you next fall!

2. I interviewed Lois Duncan!

Earlier this week I got two new paperbacks in the mail: repackaged and updated versions of Daughters of Eve and Locked in Time by YA suspense master Lois Duncan. The reason? My publisher, Little, Brown, is giving them new looks, and earlier this year they asked me to interview Lois for the repackaging. Those interviews are included in the back of both books as special extras. Isn’t that cool?

I read every single Lois Duncan book I could get my hands on when I was a teen. You might be familiar with I Know What You Did Last Summer because they made a movie out of it, but my favorites were Stranger With My Face and Down a Dark Hall. I was so thrilled to have the opportunity to talk to Lois about her books — she’s a real inspiration to me.

And getting to read Daughters of Eve and Locked in Time was really fun. Both books are fantastic and spooky, but in very different ways. Daughters of Eve is about feminism gone, well, slightly awry. It’s fascinating! And Locked in Time is a moody Southern mystery with plenty of creepy atmosphere. You can get them in bookstores now.

3. Casting Kaede

Via Women Fighters in Reasonable Armor, I discovered some beautiful artwork by Dan Dos Santos, an artist who has done amazing covers for many fantasy and science fiction novels. This painting (which you can download as wallpaper) is titled “Farseed” and, in my mind, is just about a perfect rendition of Kaede from Huntress … five years after the end of the book:¹

"Farseed" by Dan Dos Santos (click to enlarge)

It’s not entirely accurate because she’s kind of depicted in a postapocalyptic wasteland, isn’t she? And she has face paint on and is kinda punk. However, isn’t she awesome? I love it!

I often get asked to do fantasy castings for my characters, but I usually resist because it’s so hard to find images of Asian women who aren’t glamorized or exoticized in some way. If only I could afford to commission some artwork by Dan Dos Santos! I bet he’d paint a wonderful Taisin too …

1. Yes, I know what she’s doing five years after the end of the book. Honestly, I think I could write an epic series of fantasy novels about Kaede, but then they wouldn’t be YA because she’s just going to keep getting older, and also, I have other books I have to write at this point in time. However: SIGH.

If you’re a teen writer in the San Francisco Bay Area, I’m going to be judging a writing contest on Figment.com for Teenquake, the teen portion of Litquake, which is a giant literary festival coming up in October. I’ll be judging the fantasy portion, but you can also write realistic fiction, poetry, or mystery. The winners will be announced on at the Teenquake Awards Ceremony on Oct. 14 in San Francisco, where I will be one of the presenters! I am assured that the winners will receive prizes and, of course, the adulation of many.

All you have to do is: (1) Be a teen in the San Francisco Bay Area; (2) go here to enter by 7 p.m. EST on Sept. 18th! Hurry!

Say yes to gay YA!

Yesterday, authors Sherwood Smith and Rachel Manija Brown (both of whom I’ve met and, I assure you, are standup individuals), blogged at Publishers Weekly about the frustrating experience they recently went through in which a literary agent asked them to de-gay a gay character in the YA dystopian novel they had submitted. This led to a mini-eruption of #YesGayYA enthusiasm on Twitter, which of course I thoroughly support (though by “gay” I really mean LGBTQ … however I realize #YesLGBTQYA is an alphabet soup of a mouthful).

The number one question I get as an author is “did you encounter homophobia when trying to publish Ash?” So, last spring I wrote a blog post about it: How hard is it to sell an LGBT YA novel?

That post is about my own personal experience, and I’ve heard through the grapevine that other authors have not had it as easy. I wish they all did! Since I read Rachel and Sherwood’s post, I’ve been thinking about how I could get some hard numbers about what is published by which publishers. I’m working on it, and hope to be able to share something with you in the future that will quantify some of these issues.

Meanwhile, as Scott Tracey (author of the newly released Witch Eyes) pointed out, the best thing you can do to support LGBTQ YA fiction is to go out and buy some. So, I encourage you to vote with your wallets.

Diversify Your Reading!

As you may remember, I’m a co-founder of Diversity in YA, and this summer we ran a Diversify Your Reading Challenge to encourage readers and libraries to read more widely. That challenge was initially supposed to end Sept. 1, but now we’ve extended the deadline to Oct. 1, which means that school libraries can also participate. So if you haven’t had a chance to enter yet, please do! You could win 53 fabulous diverse books! Go here to enter.

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 …

2. Karen Healey (author of the YA fantasy novel Guardian of the Dead) has written a thought-provoking column for Strange Horizons that includes a very nice analysis of Huntress. I totally agree with her. Read it here: “Heroes of Tomorrow: Adventures in Unreality”

3. Librarian Liz Burns has written a lovely review of Huntress at her School Library Journal blog, A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy. Pullquote:

Because Huntress is part of the world I loved in Ash. Because Huntress is different than Ash. Because the love between Kaede and Taisin is romantic and sweet. Because the action never ends. For all of this, Huntress is one of my Favorite Books Read in 2011.

4. Earlier this week, Scholastic’s This is Teen tour came by San Francisco, along with Meg Cabot, Libba Bray, and Maggie Stiefvater. I had the honor of meeting Meg, who was the first author to blurb my first novel, Ash, and I took this picture to prove it:

Meg Cabot (!!!) and me!

How cool is that? It’s one thing to write and publish one book — and that’s certainly an achievement — but Meg has written and published more than 50 (I stopped counting on her Wikipedia page). Wow. You know what I learned from that? I should get back to work right now and keep writing!

P.S. I’m going to Comic-Con this July! I will be on two panels (on July 23 and 24) but the details aren’t finalized yet. More info soon, and believe me, they are very awesome panels!

Here are a few cool things I want to tell you about:

Last month I wrote a post for NPR’s Three Books series, and it was recently published on their website. In the post I recommend three tales retold for women. I really love these three books, so I hope you’ll give them a try!

Right after I got back from the tour I made a guest appearance on CBS5′s Bay Sunday, which airs in San Francisco. Here’s the segment:

This week The Atlantic is running a four-part series on YA fiction, and Cindy Pon and I were interviewed for it about the Diversity in YA tour. I’ll post a link to the interview when it’s up, but do check out the whole series; it looks like it’s going to be very interesting.

Finally, Huntress just received a wonderful review in the June issue of School Library Journal! Here’s a pullquote:

Lo has created a wonderfully detailed world, and this dynamic and moving story of love that must find a way against nearly insurmountable odds will be as well received as Ash. (full review)

More later!

Thanks to my lovely U.K. publisher, Atom Books, for being so on the ball and rolling out Huntress so quickly after the American release. I specially guest-posted for them yesterday about the origin of my idea for Huntress, which you can read here.

Cheers! And in other news …

Diversity in YA starts tomorrow!

Tomorrow the Diversity in YA book tour kicks off in San Francisco! I am so excited! And a little nervous. Have you seen this Onion article, “Author Promoting Book Gives It Her All Whether It’s Just 3 People Or A Crowd Of 9 People”?

I laugh because it is so true. (Want some real-life tales of crazy/lonely/wtf author events? Check out this post from Shannon Hale.)

This fear is why Cindy Pon and I have loaded the Diversity Tour with so many awesome authors! Just to name a few: Gene Luen Yang! Dia Reeves! Nnedi Okorafor! Holly Black! David Levithan! Rita Williams-Garcia! Jacqueline Woodson! For all the details on the tour, click here.

But wait, there’s more to life than the Diversity Tour! (Although sometimes lately you’d think otherwise at my house.)

Even more news from around the web:

• Huntress is in good company on Kirkus’ list of Tough Teen Heroines in Science Fiction in Fantasy. My question is, do they mean Kaede or Taisin? Maybe both?
• I wrote an essay for the May issue of School Library Journal: “A Healthy Dose of Diversity”
• An interview with me at LambdaLiterary.org
• An interview with me at the Chicago Sun-Times blog about the Diversity in YA tour
• An interview with me at the Brown Bookshelf, also about the Diversity in YA tour

And lastly, the Horn Book has a lovely review of Huntress in their May/June issue. Here’s a quote:

A “Tam Lin”–inspired rendition of fairy society blends nicely with the author’s Chinese and I Ching–inspired human society, creating a delicate, unusual setting. … Most notably, the inclusion of gay characters in a young adult fantasy, and the natural unfolding of their relationship, comes as a refreshing change.

I hope to see you on the road next week!