E.C. Myers: Reading Between the Lines

I'm so excited to be joining the League of Extraordinary Writers! I feel like Bad Horse (the Thoroughbred of Sin) has just invited me to join the Evil League of Evil, only this group seems relatively low in the evil department so far. So maybe it's more like joining the Justice League of YA specfic.

I always have a hard time with introductions, mostly because I hate talking about myself. I mean, everything you need to know about me is in the bio on my website, right? But I didn't want to just copy that, and then I realized there's actually a lot of stuff that didn't make it into that bio. So I decided to read between the lines a little and share some more personal stuff that my "official" bio merely alludes to.

E(ugene).C. Myers is the author of Fair Coin and Quantum Coin, young adult science fiction novels published by Pyr.

Yes, this is true! (Thanks again, Pyr!) The reason I decided to use my initials for fiction publications is because when I first started writing short stories, I Googled “Eugene Myers” and “science fiction” and came up with this. I didn’t want to get mixed up with that, so pseudonym! Plus, I’ve never really been fond of the name Eugene (at least, until I saw Tangled), but I definitely am one. Occasionally I still publish non-fiction work under my real name though. What’s my middle name, you might wonder? Charles. To make matters worse, I inherited this name from my father, so when I want to be pretentious, I go by Eugene Charles Myers, II.

He was assembled in the U.S. from Korean and German parts

This is probably the best thing I have ever written, or ever will write. (Well, I hope that isn’t true.) My mom is from South Korea, my dad had German heritage, and well, you can figure out the rest, especially if you read YA.

Alternate explanation: I am an android.

and raised by a single mother and a public library in Yonkers, NY

I owe so much to the influence of my awesome mother, who raised me and my older sister on her own, and the Yonkers Public Library system is more responsible for me becoming a writer than anything else. Sadly, the local library I grew up with (the Getty Square Branch, in the dodgy part of town) closed and relocated to a shiny new building, but I sometimes look for some of the books I remember at its new incarnation as the Riverfront Branch, which is fortunate to have a terrific YA librarian. The first science fiction book I remember reading and loving is Interstellar Pig by William Sleator.

where he survived an improbable number of life-threatening experiences—most miraculously, high school—with ample scars as proof.

If only I were exaggerating! How many times have I nearly died and/or suffered egregious harm? In order: I spilled boiling hot water all over myself (age 3), my family was supposed to be on a plane to Korea that was shot down, (age 5), I burned myself with fireworks (age 5), I was hit by a car (age 8), I nearly drowned (ages 9 and 11), high school (age 14-17), and my arm briefly caught fire (age 33). There are probably many other brushes with death that I’m not even aware of, as if this weren't enough. Really, there are probably very few alternate universes where I’m around, so I like this one a lot.

After a year in software development on Wall Street, he began a career in cable television and helped deliver quality women’s programming for nine-and-a-half years.

Yup. I worked at Lifetime Television, first as a tape librarian, then as a digital media manager. My favorite movie title there was Mother, May I Sleep With Danger?, with My Stepson, My Lover in a close second. I have also been a doorman, worked in the dining hall, worked as a communications specialist fixing people’s phones, designed and maintained websites, managed an office, and edited videos. Writing is by far the best job ever.

He attended the Clarion West Writers Workshop in 2005 and is a member of the professional writing group Altered Fluid.

Two of the best decisions I’ve ever made.

He currently lives with his wife, two doofy cats, and a mild-mannered dog in Philadelphia.

Marrying my wife was the best decision I’ve ever made. And then I didn’t have much of a choice on the rest… :)

In his increasingly scarce free time, he blogs Star Trek Re-watch reviews with Torie Atkinson at TheViewscreen.com, reads slush for Nightmare Magazine... ...reads constantly, lurks on the internet, plays video games, and pursues other extracurricular activities that prevent him from getting enough sleep.

Free time? What’s free time, precious? I do love watching movies (some of my favorites: Superman, Donnie Darko, Dark City, Pleasantville): and TV (The Twilight Zone, Fringe, Darkwing Duck) and playing video games, but those are low in my priorities these days. Still, I’m slowly working my way through a bunch of games, including The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time, but my favorite genre is platform games like Super Mario Bros. I get about five or six hours of sleep a night.

Who Am I & Why Am I Here?

Common sense might lead you to believe that you, the reader, are the one asking that question of me, but no -- I'm actually asking that of myself. I'm not a big fan of being common, and being sensical is quite boring, so I decided to turn that little phrase on its head.

Q: Who am I? 

I keep having to double check, that I am in fact, still me. Surely some kind of body-hopping is suspect when a librarian from the Midwest spends a weekend walking around NYC with Katherine Tegen, and then checks her email to find an invitation from Beth Revis to join The League of Extraordinary Writers. 

I checked. I'm me. The mirror doesn't lie. (Although, I wouldn't mind it being a little less harsh with the honesty as I get a older, ahem. Mirror - you've been warned).

A: I'm Mindy McGinnis. 

A minor note - in NYC I introduce myself as Mindy McGinnis. At home in Ohio, I still introduce myself as my farmer-father's daughter. It carries more weight.

Q: Why Am I Here?

I wrote a book called NOT A DROP TO DRINK, a post-apocalyptic survival tale set in a world where freshwater is almost non-existent. But that's not the first book I've written. I've been writing, querying, and failing fantastically for about ten years, so you'll understand the degree of non-belief I've had to apply to my recent happiness. 

A: I'm not actually here. This is happening to someone else.

It's surprisingly easy to believe this. In my normal life I go to work, scoop cat litter, drive a decade-old car I rarely wash, and eat food that is really, really bad for me. Surely someone who can persevere through ten years of form rejections has the self-control to not pop Cadbury eggs like Tic-Tacs, right?

Apparently not.

So until reality comes along and bops me firmly on the head, Little Bunny Foo-Foo style, I'm going to continue to believe that I'm actually two people. 

That's healthy, right?

Peggy Eddleman: Intro

Hi! I'm excited to introduce myself as part of the League! But how to do it.... Hm. How about we just go for a handful of random facts? 

I can memorize a string of 50 numbers in 5 minutes or less. (Seriously. Quiz me.)

I like cooking for my family. (But given the choice, I'd still choose eating out pretty much every time.)

Sometimes I paint pictures on walls. (And sometimes on ceilings. And sometimes doors.)

I love playing laser tag (with my hubby and three kids, who are all made of awesome), making fun movies, playing commando, and toilet papering houses.

Sometimes I like drawing stick figures. If I could draw stick figures about my book instead of struggling with the blurb that goes on the flap, I totally would. Here's what I wish I could've turned into my editor for my book that comes out this fall, SKY JUMPERS:

This is Hope. 

Hope's daredevil gene is set to super-high.

But sadly, her inventing gene is set to extra-low.

Hope & her town live in one of the massive craters left behind by one of the green bombs that destroyed most of the earth's population, and is covered by the deadly Bomb's Breath.

Which is all pretty cool.... But then there's bad guys, an invasion, lots of danger, and things go wrong.

For once, inventing isn't the answer, but the daring and risk-taking that usually gets Hope into trouble just might save them all.

And were I an agent, I'd most definitely accept stick-figure queries.

Bethany Hagen's Biography in Books

Hi everyone! My name is Bethany Hagen, and I am so excited to be here introducing myself as a new member of the League! Today, I thought I'd share my reading biography, as it were, since my life biography is about as interesting as the life of a desert microbe.

Madeline (circa 1987 - 1990): I was born in Kansas City, Missouri and raised in a trailer park just across the state line in Kansas.  I still remember flipping through the pages, hoping that my parents wouldn’t discover that I wasn’t taking a nap like I was supposed to. I also chewed on this book a lot. It tasted pretty good.

The Magician’s Nephew: As the only Protestant at a Catholic school, I was a little lonely, and while I never did manage to recite the Chaplet to my teacher's expectations, I did read all seven of the Narnia books in less than a month.  This was my first introduction to fantasy and to the idea that animals drank tea.

The Lord of the Rings: This is usually the book that--aside from Jane Eyre--I name as my all-time favorite.  We read The Hobbit as a class in eighth grade, and I asked for the LOTR books that year for my birthday. They are currently bound in duct-tape. Yes, we talked about naming our daughter Eowyn.

The Once and Future King: When I was fifteen, I was about to get my first degree black belt in kenpo karate and become the co-editor-in-chief of the school newspaper.  T.H. White showed me the humanizing power of wit and also that you can use animals to describe the 1930s political climate.

The Dark Tower: My karate instructor literally threw The Gunslinger at me one day before our demo team practice.  This series punctuated my later high school years and college, and while I have been known to gripe about Uncle Stevie’s page count a number of times, the combination of high fantasy (a la LOTR) and Arthurian influence (a la The Once and Future King) was pure Bethany-bait.  And when Roland finally reached the Dark Tower, I did cry.  Possibly from exhaustion.

The Little Prince:  I was supposed to read this book for a college French class and I didn’t, probably because I was too busy waving a clove cigarette around at a coffee shop and checking Myspace.  But I finally did read it last month, on a whim, and I can say that it is one of the most profound meditations on love and life that I’ve ever read.  And even though I do cry frequently while reading, I cried so hard at the end of this one that my husband wandered in from playing World of Warcraft to make sure that I hadn’t broken my brain or something.  So much had changed since my tired-cry from the seventh Dark Tower book--we have a house, two adorable (if feral) toddlers, and I’m finally achieving my dream of getting published--but so much was the same.  It all boils down to taming our planets and tending to our roses, as tiresome as they can be.