The bad news is, I’m at the stage where all my words are going there, and I can only sit and stare blankly at twitter/Facebook/this blog. So here’s a miscellany of nifty stuff in the meantime:

SEE: These paper doll sets are whimsical, creepy, and fascinating. My favorite is A Walk into the Night, for the owls, of course!

LISTEN (and WATCH): Not only are Terje Sorgjerd’s videos utterly amazing to watch (See? And that’s all nature’s special effects!), but they also feature some fantastic music. I had never heard anything by Ludovico Einaudi before, but after watching The Mountain I had to download “Nuvole bianche”.

READ: Lavanya and Deepika, a beautifully rich and magical fairytale by Shveta Thakrar up online now at Demeter’s Spicebox in the Cabinet des Fées. This is a lovely variation on the Tatterhood story of twin daughters, one “ugly”, one “beautiful”, who go on adventures together and love each other (a refreshing change from the ugly/evil stepsisters, yes?). The language is rich and layered and gorgeous. Though you may, as I did, find yourself craving the scent of roses and dying to sample saffron cream when you’re done!

EAT: We had outstanding weather this weekend, which meant that after my morning writing, I spent much of my time outside, running, walking Charlie-the-dog, and battling my nemesis, the Grape Vine of Doom. So it was a good thing I’d just made a batch of these 5 Minute No Bake bars to keep me going. I used almonds instead of sunflower seeds, no flax, millet puffs rather than rice, and sunflower butter in place of peanut, but they were still delicious and so easy.

DO: Last but not least, the Diversity in YA (and MG!) tour starts off next week, as Malinda Lo and Cindy Pon travel the US to promote conversation about books for young readers featuring diverse characters. The full schedule is here. I am thrilled and honored to be participating in the Cambridge/Boston event, Thursday May 12 at 7PM, at the Cambridge Public Library, along with Cindy, Malinda, Holly Black, Sarah Rees Brennan, and Francisco X. Stork, and moderated by Roger Sutton. I’d love to see friendly faces in the crowd! If you attend, say hi!

Second, some events: I’ll post more details later, but I’m attending an event here in my hometown of Hallowell on Saturday April 9th at the Harlow Gallery from 1-3PM, with other local artists of all sorts. And on Thursday May 12th I will be at the Cambridge Public Library at 7PM as part of the Diversity in YA tour, along with Malinda Lo, Cindy Pon, Holly Black, Francisco X. Stork, and Sarah Rees Brennan. EEEEE! I would love to see some friendly faces in the crowd!

Third, a PSA: There’s been internet chatter about a YA Mafia. I, of course, belong to the MG Mafia, where we get together to drink butterbeer and exchange tips on how to train your dragon, but I did want to answer author Janni Lee Simner’s call for folks to stand up virtually and say “hey, go ahead an review my books, whether you like them or not.” So there it is. I generally try to avoid reading reviews of my books unless my editor sends them to me, but I’m grateful for every thoughtful review anyone does care to put out there. I don’t like every book published, so I don’t expect every reader to like mine either!

Fourth, food: I think that at least a third of the posts I have starred in my google reader are recipes. Here are two I am thinking of trying in the near future: salt-crusted chicken and lemon-meringue cupcakes.

Fifth, travel: Sadly there is no space or budget for a big trip this year, but next spring Bob and I are really hoping to travel to England & Wales (first time for me). Until then I content myself reading travel books and blogs like this. I must say I am very envious of the green… everything here is still covered in several feet of snow!

Sixth, writing: I just passed 50K words on my current project (of a projected 80-90). It is so strange to me now to remember starting it on January 1st of this year, struggling for hours to get down 600 words. The blank page is one of the scariest things in the world: the feeling that you have to strain and struggle to pull something out of nothing. But now that the book has some heft to it, though, it is starting to pull me along. Whew! It’s a nice reminder that the little steps really do add up…

Onward!

I think Trix (the main char from my CIRCUS books) would be a fan of La Roux. Especially that green eyeshadow! This video in particular is getting me excited to plunge into revisions on book 2 next week! (And thanks to both Megan Frazer and Malindo Lo for making me aware of La Roux)

In the meantime, here are two things that I have tacked at the top of my virtual corkboard as inspiration for the new project (THE BROKEN SKY) that I’m brainstorming:

First Fig

My candle burns at both ends;
It will not last the night;
But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends–
It gives a lovely light!

~Edna St. Vincent Millay

You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.

~Mae West

The lovely Shveta has an interview with me up on her blog here where you can read about why I like the fiddle and what recent multicultural MG books I’ve enjoyed. Thank you Shveta!

And lastly, one quick reminder that I’ll be at the Toadstool Bookshop in Milford NH this Sunday, July 25, from 2-4 along with a bunch of other YA and MG fantasy writers for this. I’d love to see folks there if you’re in the area!

And isn’t Toadstool Bookshop a great name for a bookstore? Prunella would definitely approve. They’ve got a lovely little logo of a gnome sitting under a toadstool, too!

Why do I bring this up? Because on Sunday July 25th from 2-4PM I’ll be at the Toadstool Bookshop in Milford NH with all these other fine folks:

Ellen Booraem (The Unnameables)
Chris Brodien-Jones (The Owl Keeper)
Leah Cypess (Mistwood)
Marissa Doyle (Betraying Season)
Angie Frazier (Everlasting)
Kate Milford (The Boneshaker)

We’ll be presenting a panel called “Writing Fantasy for Children and Teens: Insights from Seven Authors” and also signing. I would love to see some familiar faces there, so if any of you all can make it please come out and say hi!

In other news, PRUNELLA has a couple new reviews. Here’s my favorite part of the BCCB review:

Hints of Southern folklore echo throughout Fagan’s fictionalized swamplands, making a setting that is at once eerily familiar and disarmingly tricky to navigate, as two-faced villains and creepy creatures jump into the mix at every turn. Fortunately, our plucky set of heroes manages to successfully dodge the more foul elements, albeit just narrowly at times, and their daring escapes will most certainly have young readers turning the pages to uncover their next foolish opponent.

And VOYA also thinks the heroes are plucky:

This is a delightful coming-of-age story about two plucky misfits who elicit readers’ chuckles with their escapades, while gently reminding us not to judge a person by appearances alone.

I’ll take plucky! Thank you BCCB and VOYA!

And now I am wondering: What is the opposite of plucky? Pluckless?

As I was walking from South Station along Summer Street I noticed two women ahead of me and wondered if it was just my imagination that they seemed to be giving off a cool, book-loving vibe. It turned out they were in fact librarians on the way to the convention, and they graciously consented to let me follow them to registration (otherwise I might still be wandering as that place was huge). Thank you Anna and Margaret! I hope you had a great convention!

More synchronicity cropped up as I headed for the entrance to the exhibits. I spotted a familiar yellow coat and recognized Susann, a lovely fellow Betsy-Tacy fan I met in NYC in December! Susann introduced me to another B-T fan and librarian, the delightful Lizz. We went in and converged on the Charlesbridge booth to get signed ARCs of BAMBOO PEOPLE by author Mitali Perkins, who is also a B-T fan (do you sense a theme here?) and is in fact writing the forward to the new reissue of EMILY OF DEEP VALLEY (yay, Mitali!). Here they all are:

After that I hooked up with some of my fellow debs, Erin Dionne and Megan Frazer, to check out the exhibits. We ran into another fellow deb, Kate Messner, who was on a scavenger hunt for book photos with her adorable daughter.

I had fun meeting wonderful fellow book-lovers, but I will admit I also had a lot of fun just wandering around ogling the rows and rows and rows of BOOKS:

There’s THE TOTAL TRAGEDY OF A GIRL NAMED HAMLET by Erin, and another deb book, Shani Petroff’s BEDEVILED!

And here’s SHADOW by Jenny Moss:

Lots of great ARCs on display at the HarperCollins book, including new Diana Wynne Jones (eee!), the third Magic Thief book by Sarah Prineas, and MISTWOOD by fellow Inkie Leah Cypess:

I joined forces with another rabid DWJ fan (Hi Madison!) to ask about ARCs, and woohoo, they had some left!

I also stopped in at the Macmillan booth and saw these two gorgeous covers on display: Lisa Mantchev’s EYES LIKE STARS and PERCHANCE TO DREAM. Go Bertie! Go Fairies! Go Lisa!

It was also a big thrill to see ARCs of my own forthcoming release, THE MAGICAL MISADVENTURES OF PRUNELLA BOGTHISTLE on display. A big thank you to the Macmillan folks working the booth!

Sadly, around this time my camera batteries died, so I couldn’t document my encounters with all the other wonderful people I met. Fortunately fellow Inkies Anna Staniszewski and Nandini Bajpai posted recaps of our lovely Enchanted Inkpot Lunch at Legal Test Kitchen (fantastic food! Mmm, vegetable pad thai…)

One of the big events of the day was the Tweetup organized by the unstoppable Mitali Perkins and Deborah Sloan. I’ll admit I was kind of overwhelmed when I walked up to the bar and saw the huge crowds. Especially when I started noticing all the famous bloggers, respected literary agents and award-winning authors. Yikes! But I plunged in and ended up having a very fun time. And if I hadn’t gone, I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to sample one of Grace Lin’s delicious red velvet cupcakes, so that I can now proudly claim to have eaten cupcakes baked by a Newbery Honor winning author!

I also enjoyed finally meeting author Ann Haywood Leal, my editor-sibling (we both work with the extraordinary Reka Simonsen at Holt). Ann was lovely and sweet and also a Betsy-Tacy fan (we’re everywhere!).

Last but not least, I wound down with a delicious (if abbreviated) dinner at Channel Cafe (corn gnocchi! Nomnomnom!) in the company of a warm and wonderful bunch of Maud Hart Lovelace fans. I wished I could have stayed longer, and I look forward to hopefully attending some other NE events this year. Big thanks to Constance for setting that up, and for hanging out with me during part of the afternoon at the convention.

But alas the time was fast approaching when I, like Cinderella’s carriage, would turn back into a pumpkin (or rather, an introvert early bird up past her bedtime). So I had to run off to catch my bus, which whisked me back to Maine where my wonderful husband welcomed me home with a bouquet of roses. All-in-all a fabulous day!

I had a fantastic time, and am very glad I went, even if I had to leave home at 5:30 AM and didn’t get back until 11PM (whew!). It was wonderful to meet some of my online friends in person, and to see those I’d met before again. I met Inkies, Debs, fellow Betsy-Tacy fans, and a host of other cool librarians, authors and publishing people.

All that conferencing was fun, but it sure wore me out. After I crawled out of my extrovert costume I slept in to the extravagent (for me) hour of 8, and spent the day goofing off, working on LARP plot, and playing with my beeyootiful new MacBook. I also discovered something I must do to celebrate next year when CIRCUS GALACTICUS comes out (discovered via this blog post by author Kristin Cashore): Trapeze Class!

And now back to revising!

Fortified by caramelized banana pancakes and a bagpipe marching band rendition of jingle bells (courtesy of the annual Christmas parade) in Portsmouth NH, we forged onward into the snowstorm coming up the coast and finally made it to my parents’ house in NJ in the wee hours of the night.

The next day we headed into NYC for the big event: a book signing event at Books of Wonder with seven other authors from the Debut 2009 community. But first was a different sort of book event: a meet-up with Susann, a fellow fan of the Betsy-Tacy books by Maud Hart Lovelace. I love the fact that a series of books can be so powerful that they can bring together relative strangers and have them sitting down at a bakery together for an hour gabbing like they’ve known each other for ages. I had such fun chatting about libraries, books, NYC, travel, The Sound of Music, and of course Betsy-Tacy. Thank you, Susann!

We ate at City Bakery, which has some of the most amazing hot chocolate I’ve ever experienced. So thick and puddinglike! They are also famous for “pretzel croissants” which are indeed delicious, especially when dunked in the hot cocoa! As we were talking at one point I was something in a rather loud voice about librarians when a woman at the table next to us turned around and gave me a sharp and considering look. It was Kate Messner, one of my fellow Debs, eating lunch with her adorable family at the very next table!

After our serendipitous meeting, we all continued on to the bookstore. Right inside the door Kate and I found a fabulous display of Deb books:

And then a fabulous display of live Debs:

Pictured are: Neesha Meminger, Jon Skovron, Michelle Zink, Deva Fagan, Sarah Cross, Kate Messner, Shani Petroff and Megan Crewe.

I have to post this pic as well, just for Jon’s expression:

There were actually people there to see us read and ask us questions!

It was thrilling to be a part of the event, especially at Books of Wonder, which I’ve been wanting to visit for ages (since it’s an entire huge bookstore featuring only kidlit and YA books!). Thank you to Peter Glassman and the Books of Wonder staff for making everything run so smoothly, and to my fellow debs, especially Michelle Zink who took the lead on organizing the event!

On Monday Bob and I once again ventured into the city, this time mostly as tourists. We went to the Museum of Natural History, stopping to admire the tile animals in the subway stop:

Sadly the exhibit I really wanted to see (the Butterfly Conservatory) was closed. But we found plenty of other interesting displays. I especially loved the dioramas, like this one of the city of Isfahan. Do you see something unusual in the upper right corner?

And who doesn’t like dinosaurs? I love the contrast of ancient bones and opulent hall:

Then there was the origami Christmas Tree:

And my all-time favorite the big blue whale. Which you will just have to imagine because I am a dork and was so excited I forgot to take a picture of it.

After that we stopped in at Crumbs for some treats to bring to the Henry Holt office, and for our own “lunch”. I went for the pistachio cupcake and devoured it on the subway.

It was fun as always to visit the Flatiron Building and the Holt offices, and to meet some of the wonderful folks who turn my stories into real live books. My editor Reka and Bob and I went out for a hot beverage at nearby Le Maison du Macaron. I was afflicted most sorely with macaron madness, and left the store with a huge box of macarons: one of each! That is 17 macarons, people! Crazy!

Bob and I headed back to the museum after that, and then for dinner we went to Ippudo, which I’d read about (and drooled over) on the blogs of my author friends Malinda Lo and Cindy Pon. It really was absolutely amazing! Bob and I both got the house special ramen noodles and my mouth is watering even now, just thinking about them. It sounds so simple (noodles in broth) but it was one of the best meals I’ve had in a while. It was, however, very very busy and the waiting area in particular was jammed with people. I’d go back in a heartbeat, but I’d probably try to get there right when it opens.

And for those of you who may be wondering where Charlie was while we were having all this fun, here’s one last photo:

You can also read Kate Messner’s post about her trip to NYC here. Just be careful not to drool over the description of the soup dumplings like I did.

Now I am back in Maine, with snow falling and Christmas carols playing. My extrovert costume is packed away, and my editor’s line-edits for Circus Galacticus are sitting patiently beside me. It was enormously fun, but I am happy to be home, and to be getting back to writing!

Oh! And here’s one last piece of fun news: Fortune’s Folly is on BookPage’s Best Books of 2009: Middle-grade list. Wow! I am so very honored, especially given the high quality of the other nine books on the list. Thank you BookPage!

debut2009

The participating authors are:
Megan Crewe (Give up the Ghost)
Sarah Cross (Dull Boy)
Deva Fagan (Fortune’s Folly)
Neesha Meminger (Shine, Coconut Moon)
Kate Messner (The Brilliant Fall of Gianna Z)
Shani Petroff (Bedeviled)
Jon Skovron (Struts and Frets)
Michelle Zink (Prophecy of the Sisters)

If you can’t attend but would like a signed book anyway, you can pre-order one from Books of Wonder.

There’s also a facebook page here.

And if you can’t make it to NYC check out the other Holidaze with the Debs signings in Chicago, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Toronto. Click here for more info.

Or, if you’re a Mainer, you can also see me on Saturday, December 5th at 3PM, at the Thomas Memorial Library in Cape Elizabeth Maine!

Lastly, if you are interested in winning a signed copy of Fortune’s Folly (as well as a TON of other fabulous books) check out the amazing giveaway we are running over at the Enchanted Inkpot! I’m loving reading all the comments about what books people are interested in reading, and what fantasy books remind other readers of the holidays (for me it’s definitely The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe!).

I love it! The artwork is by Brandon Dorman, which I find particularly thrilling as he is also responsible for the covers of several books by one of my all time favorite authors, Diana Wynne Jones. Check out his beautiful website for dozens of other gorgeous and magical art. You can also read Betsy Bird’s interview with him over on her Fuse #8 blog (he’s doing the art for her own forthcoming picture book).

Things that particularly delight me about the PRUNELLA cover: the jewel-like colors, the fireflies glittering among the trees, that Barnaby and Prunella are wearing the sort of clothing I envisioned (I particularly like Prunella’s shoes and socks), that the scene depicted is full of action and adventure (because I like to think there’s a good helping of that in the book), and most of all that there’s a GIANT ALLIGATOR on it (there is a giant alligator in the book too, by the way).

In other less bogwitchly news, I am happy to report I had a lovely visit at the Prince Memorial Library in Cumberland Maine earlier this week. It was a very small crowd, but all the adults were librarians, and since librarians are my heroes, I was perfectly happy chatting with them. Many thanks to the fabulous Jan Hamilton for inviting me!

And in addition to some other upcoming library visits, I am also now very excited to have joined in on the Debs of 2009 Holiday Tour Stop in New York City! If you are in the area, please come to Books of Wonder between 1 and 3PM on Sunday, December 6th to say hello! I will be posting more details when I have them, but we’ve already got quite a crowd of debs who will be in attendance. Thank you Michelle Zink for setting it up!

And last of all — I have officially signed up to do NaNoWriMo this year. If you are doing it too, feel free to add me to your buddy list. My handle there is “devafagan”. I am excited and a little scared, but eager for the chance to dive into drafting the second CIRCUS book and live and breath writing for a month. Whee!

I went into the weekend expecting a good time just based on the fact that I was going to meet some of the wonderful writers I’ve met online in the past few years, and that we would be talking about one of our favorite topics: Books! And indeed, that was probably the best part of the festival. All the authors I met were wonderful and I wished I had had more time to talk with everyone.

It was particularly exciting to meet Carrie Jones (NEED) the rockstar organizing force behind the festival, and her smart and awesome daughter (who helped out a LOT). Carrie had ARCs of CAPTIVATE (sequel to NEED, coming out this winter) at her table and I think many of us were plotting ways to abscond with one. They were beautiful!

I also got to meet up with my fellow Inkie Ellen Booraem (author of the thought-provoking, funny, quirky fantasy novel THE UNNAMEABLES). Ellen is so smart and projects this wonderful aura of good humor and wisdom that I can only aspire to one day emulate. Plus she is a Diana Wynne Jones fan which predisposes me to like her. I am very much looking forward to her second book, which I don’t know if I can talk about, but which sounds delightful.

I got to meet my second “in person” 2009 Debutante, Erin Dionne (MODELS DON’T EAT CHOCOLATE COOKIES). Erin is just as classy and smart and capable and charming in person as I expected. It was also great to see fellow Mainer-Deb Megan Frazer (SECRETS OF TRUTH AND BEAUTY) again too, even if I was envious of her beautiful book poster and her delicious mini-goat-cheesecakes.

Here we are, getting into the spirit for our panel on “Creating Strong, Unconventional Female Characters in YA and MG”.

The panel with Erin and Megan was really fun. I loved hearing both of them delving into the themes of their books and the journeys that their characters each take. I will admit that at first I was worried I might just be barging into a topic that was more appropriate for Erin and Megan’s books (which both deal with issues of body image and beauty pageants) but the more we talked about it the more interested I became in the parallels between the “beauty queen” concept and the “princess” motif that figures in many fairy tales and fantasy novels. One of the things I wanted to avoid in FORTUNE’S FOLLY was having a main character who starts off as a princess by birth, or who becomes a princess because she marries a prince. That’s not to say external validation isn’t nice, or that what other people think doesn’t matter. But it was important to me that Fortunata to not just be waiting for someone to put a crown on her head to validate her as a person. Likewise I am so proud of Dara (in SECRETS) and Celeste (in MODELS) for finding inner confidence. As you may be able to tell from my babbling, I had a great time on this panel and I am still mulling it over.

Later that day I had the pleasure of hearing readings by Shawn Stout (FIONA FINKLESTEIN, BIG-TIME BALLARINA), Robin MacCready (BURIED), and Carrie. Shawn’s book had a delightful middle grade voice (and some wonderful character names!). Robin is a member of the in-person writing group I’ve been meeting with since this summer, so I already knew she could kick out taut and driven YA drama, but it was fun to hear her actually read it aloud. Then Carrie read from GIRL, HERO, a book I had sadly overlooked but now am very interested in reading as I loved the main character’s voice.

On Sunday I was one of the eager crowd who settled down to listen to Bethany Hegedus (BETWEEN US BAXTERS) and Kekla Magoon (THE ROCK AND THE RIVER) talk about “Why Writing Rocks”. The third panelist was sadly unable to make it so Kekla and Bethany ended up talking mostly about their promotional partnership. They both attended the Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA program and had gotten to know one another over the years, but it wasn’t until they both published books with civil rights themes that they came up with the idea of doing joint events to promote both books. It was a very inspiring story, and I know I was not the only one who came away with the desire to try something similar: group bookstore events, group library or school visits, etc.

One of my favorite parts of the panel was when Bethany shared with us how she doesn’t just keep a “To Do” list. She also keeps a “Ta Da!” list of things she’s accomplished. Ever since that I’ve been saying a silent (or not-so-silent) “Ta Da!” whenever I do something. Another noteworthy bit: Kekla and Bethany talked about finding complimentary scenes in their books (for example, scenes that explore similar questions in different ways) to feature as part of their school presentations. They talked about turning these scenes into “reader theater” and shared some stories of how successful that had been for them with the kid audiences. I am definitely inspired to try to come up with a “reader theater” of my own for FORTUNE’S FOLLY now. It sounds like such fun!

The last panel I participated in for was “Why Write for Kids”. Since all of us panelists were writers of MG or YA (Robin, Shawn, Bethany and myself) and a good part of the audience was as well, we didn’t have to get into any fights about why kids books are just as important as adult fiction. In fact, my memory of what we did say is now fuzzy, leaving me with a general impression that my fellow panelists are wise and thoughtful ladies. Next time I need to take better notes!

We had a nice little post-Festival outing for drinks (which gave me the chance spend a bit more time with author Crissa-Jean Chappell, whose book TOTAL CONSTANT ORDER has been in my radar since I read a blurb and saw it features a teen dealing with obsessive compulsive disorder). By that point I was having a hard time keeping my extrovert costume bright and shiny. So although I was sad to say goodbye, I was also glad to have some time to go back to being an introvert, and just be quiet and think about all the good stuff.

On a somewhat-Book Festival related note, I visited Sherman’s Bookstore while we were ambling around town and they were very warm and helpful. They even gave Charlie a dog treat! If you are shopping for books in Bar Harbor, they have quite a comprehensive collection (at least for PB/MG/YA, which is where I was shopping).

And that was that. I am already looking forward to a 2010 Bar Harbor Book Festival! Thank you Carrie, for putting this all together!

For the non-Book Festival details of my Bar Harbor excursion, you can go here.