GILT Launch Party
5/2012

All the Muses in same place, at the same time (I know!)

Katherine nailed the readings

Bret's baby at his first launch party! 

UNDER THE NEVER SKY Launch Party 
1/2012

(Most of ) The Muses!

WOW! Veronica signing a book for ELLEN HOPKINS!!

ROAR Wine?! Wow, they're really marketing this book to adults, huh?

Retreat! Estes Park, CO

9/2011

YA Muses @ Estes Park, CO Writing Retreat 9/2011

                                

SCBWI - LA

8/2011

@SCBWI-LA; Thanks to Sarah Davies for capturing this awesome shot.

The Muses @ SCBWI - LA 2011

Asilomar

2/2011

Talia, Bret, and Veronica @ Asilomar 2011

SCBWI - NYC

1/2011

Bret, Katy, & Donna @ SCBWI - NYC 2011

Niagara

5/2011

Bret & Veronica @ Niagara 2011

I can’t tell y’all how excited I am that GILT hit the shelves. First, a preface: girly historical YA are not my normal reads. No, not even secretly (as far as you know). But, GILT is different. It’s dangerous and sexy and witty and unpretentious and accessible…and…well, it’s been said before, but I’ll say it again: From cover to concept, GILT is not your mother’s historical fiction.

Even the toughest critics love GILT!

I first fell in love with GILT two-and-a-half years ago at that same fateful conference where the Muses met. Katherine and I were in the same critique group (the very one where I had my bleeping birth as a writer). It was the second round with this particular group and she decided to read a scene that she worried was too graphic. As she read, it was obvious to me (and the big-shot agent) that she was a master. The scene was graphic, but it was also powerful and entirely gripping. It’s one of those scenes that still haunts my imagination, though not because of the subject, but because of how friggin’ awesome Katherine handled it. The language, the feeling, the subtly – just WORK. (I know, I know, you’re dying to know what the scene was…and you will…when you read her GILT!).

Since then, I’ve been lucky enough to read the full manuscript of GILT and it cemented what I already learned from that first scene. The story delivers on plot, character, and intrigue. In the last two years, I cheered this book on through the euphoria and pain of pushing a novel into the world – from brainstorming titles to seeing the cover for the first time. I can even do a decent impression of its sexy-lips cover.

I almost got the modelling gig.
I swear.

GILT has become so much a part of my life that I feel like a proud godparent. It really is hard to describable how awesome this moment is.

So, everybody raise your glasses to more GILT in the world!

Cheers!!

Have you guys read Talia's post about Katy Longshore's GILT? I'm in complete agreement on everything Talia said about GILT's incredible pacing, prose and emotional resonance. It's a beautiful story that's as thrilling as a roller coaster ride. At a certain point, you're just holding your breath and turning pages as fast as you can. Really, it's incredible.

GILT is the story of Kitty Tylney, friend to the infamous Catherine Howard, one of King Henry the VIII's wives. There's courtly intrigue, history, and romance, but at its heart, this is a story about friendship. I don't want to give too much away, but it's about a tough friendship. Not always healthy. If you've ever been a teenage girl, or a teenage boy, or really a person of any age, you know what I'm talking about. Though a friend might be utterly charming, fun, loyal, you name it - some are just plain hard to coexist with.

Release Day! Bret and Donna, you were missed!

It's personal dynamics. We're constantly calibrating ourselves in relation to others, whether we realize it or not. This person is upset with me. That person is getting more attention than I am. I want to be less like her/more like her. Why did she say that--I thought she liked me? How can I still like this person, after the way she's treated me?

In GILT, Katy brings us right back there. Her handling of Cat and Kitty's relationship is masterful--truly. The claws come out in this book a few times, and it's complex and nuanced and oh my goodness do I remember how that felt--particularly during middle grade and high school.

There's a bit of irony here. Everything I said above? About friend politics? Couldn't be any further from the kind of friend Katy is. She's one of the most genuine and generous people I've ever known. She is a treasure and I'm so lucky to be cheering her from the sidelines on the beginning of her writing journey.

So proud of you, Katy! GO GILT!

This is a post I've been waiting to write for two years.  In May 2010, I sent out a tweet that said "This YA Historical is rocking my world!"  That was all I could say, because it was, at the time, an early, unsold draft of the manuscript that would become GILT.  But I wanted to shout from the rooftops how good this book was, and how everyone, historical fiction fan or not, should pick it up.

How do I love GILT?  Let's count the ways, shall we?

1.  Amazing pacing:  This is not something I can say about a lot of books, let alone historical fiction, but this book was a fast, fun read.  It was the kind of book that I couldn't put down.  I was kicking myself for starting it on a Sunday evening when I didn't have time to read the whole thing.  The next day, I took my laptop with me to an off site meeting, and flipping it open at breaks, just to read a few pages.  I thought I knew how the story must end, but then I didn't.  Because while I was fairly certain that Catherine Howard wouldn't survive Henry VIII, I had no idea if Kitty Tylney would survive Catherine Howard. 

2.  Beautiful prose:  The language in this book is spare, artful and gorgeous.  Scenes move along at a brisk pace (see above) yet, I found myself wanting to slow down and admire a perfect image or layers of meaning behind even the smallest exchange between characters.  No word is wasted in this novel.  Each one is precise and perfectly evokes the mood of the scene.  Once and a while I came across an unfamiliar word. Invariably, when I looked up the definition, the word was exactly right.

3.  Incredible history:  Before reading GILT, I didn't know that much Henry VIII and his court beyond the fact that there was a lot of bloodshed.  There was a lot of bloodshed, but there much more than that.  There was love and loyalty, politics and betrayal, survival and sin.  These were people, not so different from us, driven by their base desires, and influenced by the people and events around them.  Talk about a dystopian society, Henry VIII was the epitome of corrupted power.  I was fascinated by the characters that populated GILT, and even more so when I learned that nearly all of them were based on real people.


4.  Painstaking accuracy:  I have seen Katherine revise a huge portion of her manuscript after uncovering some minor historical fact that makes it impossible for her characters to have been at the location she has them in at that time of year.  Katherine has visited most of the places where the novel takes place (if they still exist) and she brings you there with her.  So much of GILT is based on real, documented events, actual places and people, that I felt like I had stepped back in time with them.

5.  Hot guys:  I'm just saying.

6.  A great story:  Forget the history.  This is Kitty's story.  Kitty is an ordinary girl in extraordinary circumstances.  Her journey from family outcast to the queen's court is the heart and soul of this book.  Kitty's loyalty to a friend is tested under the most extreme circumstances imaginable.  Every choice has a price, and everyone pays. It's the kind of story that is fascinating in any era.

GILT is the kind of book I encourage everyone I know to read.  Like the Tudor court, it is glamorous, fun and exciting.  But it is also deep, moving and utterly unforgettable. 

Plus, I KNOW her.  How cool is that?

I'm writing this the day before GILT is released into the wild. And I'm struggling to find the words that will illustrate how I feel. In fact, I've started this blog post four times now and still can’t get it right. I'm flooded by memories from the past three years, all the writing and revising, all the e-mails and calls and laughter-filled meetings with the Muses. Because every step, every setback and triumph has been shared with them and by them and I'm sure I wouldn't be here (and certainly not as sane as I am now) without them.

So let me bypass my emotions, as well as my memories. Let me avoid telling you how I feel about my book and its publication, and let me tell you how I feel about these people.

Donna is my rock. When she comments, she speaks from the heart. She doesn't need to use lots of words to let me know what she thinks what she feels, but I know that whatever she says is the truth. Her quiet certainty is contagious, and the emotional depth of her own writing can fill my creative reservoir just through reading it.

Talia is an inspiration. I felt uneasy writing romance and romantic relationships into my novel until Talia showed me how it was done. She pushed me to try more, to believe in love, and to put that into words. She has drive and enthusiasm and a seemingly inexhaustible supply of energy, not to mention courage. One day, Talia, I will write that epilogue.

Veronica is my touchstone. She is the epitome of a professional writer, of someone always striving to improve her craft, even when she has already succeeded to a glorious degree. Just by watching her, I have learned more about writing than I ever thought possible. She instills confidence through careful words and well-timed e-mails, and I feel like a better writer (and a better person) just by knowing her.

And Bret? Bret is the closer. He read GILT when it was in line edits, and the suggestions and insights he offered improved it enormously. But Bret is also my go-to guy. When I'm struggling, he’ll brainstorm with me. When I have a crisis of confidence, he'll prop me up, not with easy words and false encouragement, but with truth and strength and almost always a laugh.

The Muses’ fingerprints are all over this book. It wouldn't be what it is today if I had never had the courage to take my scrambled mess of an unfinished manuscript and air it in front of strangers at a workshop. And I'm thankful every day that those strangers became friends.

On Tuesday, our second YAMuse book, GILT, hits the shelves and I hope all of you get your hands on a copy. We're so proud of Katherine Longshore and we'd love to see pictures of it in your hot little hands out in the wild. So tweet, post, email -- anyway you can get them to us and we'll share!

I play this game from time to time. I see a group of teenage girls walking along the sidewalk or in the mall and I ask myself (or my companion),

"Who is the princess?"

 Within seconds, it's usually apparent. There is one girl that walks just a little to the front. One who everyone else looks to when they speak. One who is a little flashier. Maybe a little prettier. And instantly, I'm transported back to the teenage girl social world where I sometimes fell into the shadow of the "princess." We can all relate. That's why I love GILT so much. The themes are contemporary and the characters so relate-able. Yes, it's set in the court of Henry VIII, but that adds the richness of place and raises the stakes of these familiar social dynamics into a world with immediate life and death consequences.  GILT is a Tudor Gossip Girls, complete with the clothes and the scandal.

If you love historical fiction, you will be completely mesmerized by the detail and accuracy.  If you don't think historical fiction is your thing, give GILT a try anyway. I guarantee you won't be able to put it down!