3.6.15 - Sunday Smatterings

Happy Sunday, lovely people!

Amy here. I hope you've had a nice, relaxing weekend! I've been reading Kristin Hannah's The Nightingale and eating Mexican food and donuts.

Because I spend my weekends partying hard.

Speaking of partying hard, J.T. and I have been cooking up some fun around NO ONE KNOWS' release later this month.

In the form of an iPad Mini giveaway!

If you'd like to throw your hat in the ring, just email proof that you pre-ordered NO ONE KNOWS to me (amy@jtellison.com)! On March 22 we'll email a randomly selected winner. Your chances of winning this iPad Mini are exceedingly greater than winning the lottery. Just sayin'.

And if you'd like to help us spread the word about NO ONE KNOWS to your friends, you can join our Thunderclap! What's a Thunderclap, you ask? In two clicks, you can automatically send out a message to your friends on NO ONE KNOWS' release day—2 clicks, that's all it takes. And everybody who signs up will send a message at the same time—hence, a social media "clap of thunder"! And we've got some thank-you goodies for taking time out of your day to spread the word. We really appreciate you!

Now then. Here's what happened on the Internets this week:

If you watched the runaway Netflix hit Making a Murderer, you might be interested to hear that Steven Avery's lead prosecutors, Dean Strang and Jerry Buting, are touring the country to have conversations on the criminal justice system.

Have you ever heard an interview with someone and immediately thought, "I wanna be their best friend!" I had one of those moments when I heard this interview with Zimbabwean author Petina Gappah. She's fascinating and hilarious, and I can't wait to read her book!

With the hectic schedules and chock-full routines that consume our lives, sometimes you need poke in the heart to remember why you get up in the morning, why you do what you do. If you need a pick-me-up, read Calvin & Hobbes cartoonist Bill Watterson's 1990 commencement speech at Kenyon College. That man knows how to distill wisdom.

I might've eaten this Madras Chicken Salad for, um, four lunches this week. And maybe a couple of dinners. It doesn't matter if you eat Paleo or not, this chicken salad is the bomb. 

You may know comedian Aziz Ansari from his stint on NBC's Parks & Recreation as Tom Haverford, the silly millennial with a passion for starting ill-fated businesses. But Ansari's passion in real life is food (he and I can agree on that). I follow Aziz's Twitter feed to see where he eats as he travels—it's an easy way to get food suggestions when I visit the same cities. But in the end, Aziz's favorite dish in the world is his mom's  chicken korma, which looks so good and so easy to make that I'm going to try my hand at it this week! (PS if you've never tried your hand at Indian food, it's actually pretty simple to make—the hardest part is gathering the spices, but now that we have the Internet, spices are just a click away!)

And closer to home:
 

Get to know the woman I'm proud to call my boss. This article in a local weekly paper came out this week, and I glowed because so many people got to say lovely things about J.T. She blushed. She teared up. It was wonderful.

On The Wine Vixen, I discussed a red blend that paired delightfully well with chocolate cake. I know. These are the pressing matters I need to keep you informed of.

That's it from me! Be good, enter to win an iPad Mini, and I'll talk to you soon!

–Amy

3.3.16 - On Finishing and Beginning

I finished my 17th novel this week.

I’m a bit starry eyed at that number — I’m only 2 away from starting #20 (20!), which, at some point early in my career, was the litmus test number. At 20 novels, I’ll feel like I’ve actually arrived.

At 20 novels, I’ll feel, at last, like I’ve accomplished something real. (We’ll see about that, won’t we?)
 

When my first came out, back in 2007, I was at a cocktail party in New York at my editor’s house, and a true professional, Kat Martin, told me that you couldn’t count yourself as a real writer until you had four novels under your belt. Some authors would have taken that the wrong way; I took it as confirmation of what I already knew. Everyone can write one good book. To do it again and again and again takes a strange combination of humility and ego and fearlessness and hubris, all tied together with yarn weaved from the hair of your Muse.

 It’s not easy. It’s not. But dear Lord in heaven, it is fun to try. 
 

When I finished, late Sunday afternoon, I had all the usual emotions: happiness, relief, a strong desire for a LOT of wine, which was quickly followed by that bizarre, hollowed-out moment when your realize the story no longer belongs to you. It’s gone, into the ether. Yes, there will be revisions; yes, there will be rereads. I don’t know if it’s the same for every author, but when I type The End, my mind immediately turns to the next story. It’s so immediate, in fact, that I have to force myself to take a day, breathe, live a little, before I open the new manuscript and lose myself again. 

So in the spirit of taking a day off, yesterday I printed out said book (600 pages later), put said book, the book’s notebook, and all the supporting research material into it’s own lovely zipper folder, then cleaned my office, sorted some tax material, had a multi-hour staff meeting with Assistant Amy wherein we planned world domination for NO ONE KNOWS (coming March 22!), read half of Lisa Gardner’s FIND HER, and waited. Because I knew what was going to happen.

And sure enough, around 9 pm, a line appeared in my head. And the next book began to percolate.
 

Now, to be fair, I already know what this book is about. It’s the second of the duology started with WHAT LIES BEHIND. It picks up right where WLB leaves off, as a matter of fact; the prologue of the new book is the epilogue of the last, just so we’re all on the same page. It’s the continuation of the story, in which Samantha Owens has been targeted by a killer nicknamed Beauty.   

I already know several things about this book. Technically, the Scrivener file shows 3200 words already written. It’s actually rather nice to have a bit of a head start—and yes, I agree, it’s cheating a little bit. But the words and notes in the file are almost a year old (I wrote the original opening line March 13, 2015, according to the Book Journal), so who knows it they’ll stand the test of time?

What’s funny is my line from last night is similar to the opening line I wrote down a year ago. That’s a long time for a line to live in a writer’s head. I’ve had the opening scene tucked in the back of my mind all this time. I hope I can do it justice.

Stephen King says a truly worthwhile idea doesn’t need to be written down.

He’s right. 
 

So today, with the file open, the Book Journal updated, I sally forth into a brand new world, returning to my girls, Taylor Jackson and Samantha Owens. Gosh, it’s good to be home!

Hello, #18!

3.2.16 - Wanna read Chapter 1 of NO ONE KNOWS - and win an iPad Mini?

Now's your chance! Click here to start reading. The first page is killer – kinda literally . . . 

3.1.16 - Literary title taken quite literally . . .

2.28.16 - Sunday Smatterings

Hi, guys! Amy here, wondering how are we at the end of February!?! Not that I'm complaining: you know I've been waiting for spring for the past few weeks. I spotted the first buttercups peeking out of the ground this week, and I flushed with giddy excitement. 

SPRING IS ALMOST HERE! 
 

But I digress . . . 

Here's what happened on the Internets this week:

This is beyond precious: kids practice reading to shy shelter dogs at Missouri humane society. Be still, my beating heart! 

When I worked for HarperCollins, cover meetings were always my favorite. I loved getting to see someone else's visual representation of what a story was all about, and to watch that cover evolve over time (believe me: there are several iterations of a cover before the book hits shelves). This was a fascinating read from a book cover designer who crafted one of the coolest covers I've seen in a while.

Game of Thrones fans: George R.R. Martin has revealed that his (forthcoming TBD) sixth book in A Song of Ice and Fire, THE WINDS OF WINTER, features a character that's been killed off in the show. Oh my! I'm curious to see how the two plots diverge even further . . . 

Book World Alert: Barnes & Noble says they have an Amazon-like store in the works.

This is the best Harper Lee tribute I read.

You guys. Library bars are a real thing!

I love to cook—a lot. When we were first dating, Boyfriend opened my spice drawer (one of them, anyway) and jumped back about three feet, baffled by the sheer volume of spices I had (hey, they're basically my grown-up box of 96-count Crayolas). It takes a lot for a recipe to get on my regular rotation, and this one just did. I love Greek/Turkish food with all my heart, and I swear, I think this recipe for homemade gyro meat must be identical to my favorite Turkish place in town. Wow, mama, are these delicious! Any extra meat you have leftover would freeze beautifully, I'd wager (and you're gonna want leftovers—trust me).  

 

And closer to home:

J.T. wrote a blog post about Imposter Syndrome, a new buzzword flying around the creative world, and why it's a bunch of rubbish (need a boost? read this post). 

On The Wine Vixen, I wrote about this delicious Sauvignon Blanc that YOU MUST have in your life this spring. Seriously. This is the best white I've had in quite a while AND it's under $20.

And don't forget: there's a Goodreads giveaway to win one of 30 advanced copies of J.T.'s new Taylor Jackson prequel, FIELD OF GRAVES! Look at it this way: your odds of winning a copy far outweigh your chances of winning the lottery. Just sayin'.

That's it from me! I hope you find buttercups, chocolate, and good books somewhere in your life this week. I'll talk to you soon!

–Amy