Okay, so today during Jeff's launch week, we're talking audio books. There are so many different ways to get your books these days: Kindle, Nook, iPad, hardcover, paperback, iTunes, and yes, audio book.
My husband swears by them. Has a monthly subscriptions to Audible. Our own Beth Revis has often said she "reads" while she's cleaning her house or doing home improvements. She does this by listening to audio books.
People listen to books while they commute--and I will say that I've done this once. I listened to THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS by C.S. Lewis on my mini-commute of 15 minutes. It took a few weeks. Our family often gets audio books for long drives to Vegas. We've listened to ALCATRAZ VERSUS THE EVIL LIBRARIANS (by Brandon Sanderson), ERAGON (by Christopher Paolini), THE CRY OF THE ICEMARK (by Stuart Hill), and THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA (by C.S. Lewis) on our family road trips.
Audio books are fascinating beasts. There are several things that enhance the reading experience:
1. Music. Audio books often have music! It's a lot like movies, where the scene can be set with scary music, or happy music, or tense music. I find that I like the added drama music can provide.
2. A voice. Obviously, audio books are read out loud. I'll admit that sometimes the voice artist distracts me. They speak in an accent I didn't imagine, or they speak different character's dialog in different voices. I suppose this doesn't really bother me, it's just not the way I "read."
Because audio books are a whole new type of reading experience.
And THE ELEVENTH PLAGUE is also a whole new type of reading experience. You can listen to the first chapter by clicking below. You can buy the audio book here.
The Eleventh Plague - Chapter One by Scholastic Audio
No matter how you experience it, make sure you get your hands on a copy of THE ELEVENTH PLAGUE this week!!
What are your feelings about audio books? Love them? Hate them? What's your favorite book on audio?
It's The Eleventh Plague Week!
Eleven words to describe The Eleventh Plague by Jeff Hirsch.
Gritty
Believable
Dark
Hopeful
Scary
Sad
Tense
Heart-pounding
Poignant
Surprising
Worthwhile
Now - for my mini-mini-review...
Jeff’s writing immediately took me into the world after the Collapse, after P11 - the eleventh plague. I don’t want to say much, because I’ll just devolve into spoilers and I DO NOT want to spoil this book for you! I actually started this book with more than a bit of trepidation - I can do the dystopian thing, but not so much the post-apocalyptic - or so I thought! Until I read The Eleventh Plague!
It’s a roller-coaster ride of setting and emotion and it makes you think - really think.
As soon as I started it, I was hooked! Couldn’t put it down! I suggest that you get yourself a copy & set aside a goodly amount of time, because I’m guessing you won’t be able to put it down either!
Thanks, Jeff, for writing such a great book!
Gritty
Believable
Dark
Hopeful
Scary
Sad
Tense
Heart-pounding
Poignant
Surprising
Worthwhile
Now - for my mini-mini-review...
Jeff’s writing immediately took me into the world after the Collapse, after P11 - the eleventh plague. I don’t want to say much, because I’ll just devolve into spoilers and I DO NOT want to spoil this book for you! I actually started this book with more than a bit of trepidation - I can do the dystopian thing, but not so much the post-apocalyptic - or so I thought! Until I read The Eleventh Plague!
It’s a roller-coaster ride of setting and emotion and it makes you think - really think.
As soon as I started it, I was hooked! Couldn’t put it down! I suggest that you get yourself a copy & set aside a goodly amount of time, because I’m guessing you won’t be able to put it down either!
Thanks, Jeff, for writing such a great book!
Interview with Jeff Hirsch, author of THE ELEVENTH PLAGUE
YOU
We can read all about your life from your bio in the jacket flap of your book. So, what's a completely random fact about you that most people don't know?I’m a fairly decent, thought rusty, fire-eater and can escape from a strait jacket while hanging by my ankles from the ceiling.
As a kid, what was your favorite book? Have your tastes changed since growing up?
Without a doubt it was The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper. That entire series absolutely hypnotized me. I wouldn’t say my tastes have changed so much as expanded significantly. I still love comics, sci-fi, horror and paranormal stuff but I’m also a big fan of non-fiction and adult lit writers like Tim O’Brien, Jeffrey Eugenides and Michael Chabon. I’ve basically become a person who will read anything.
YOUR BOOK
It's the inevitable question: what inspired THE ELEVENTH PLAGUE?
Just an image actually. The opening image of the book—a father and son burying someone late at night on a hill overlooking the ruins of a mall—popped into my head one day. I got intrigued by the idea and spent some time wondering who these people were, what they wanted and what their world was like. The book came out of trying to answer all of those questions.
For me, THE ELEVENTH PLAGUE reminded me of Cormac McCarthy’s THE ROAD—which is about the best compliment I can give to a writer! Were there any works of literature that influenced your story in any way? An author who influenced your style?
Thanks! I think if there was any book I was thinking of the most it was Gary Paulsen’s Hatchet. I just love the simplicity of it and its intense focus on one character and the way the book deals with his environment.
If your reader could only take away one emotion, theme, or idea from THE ELEVENTH PLAGUE, what would you want it to be?
I’d have to say it would be hope. Despite human’s propensity for screwing things up on a titanic scale I do think that we can eventually get our act together and make things better. Not that there won’t be a lot of pain along the way, I just think it’s possible.
YOUR WRITING
What's the most surprising thing you've learned since becoming a writer?
This entire thing has been and continues to be a surprise. I got my Masters in Playwriting back in 2003 and struggled for years after, working crappy jobs and writing play after play that no one was interested in, wondering how long I could tell my friends and family I was a writer while having no objective proof of it. My wife can attest to some anxiety fueled nights when I thought that maybe this whole writing thing wasn’t for me at all. I literally could not imagine it ever going anywhere. And then everything stared to change. The fact that an agent and a publishing house and now the actual public seems interested in the book never fails to surprise.
Beyond the typical--never give up, believe in yourself--what would be the single best advice you'd like to give another writer?
Beyond the typical--never give up, believe in yourself--what would be the single best advice you'd like to give another writer?
To remember that there is no one path to being a writer and there is no one timeline. There are great writers with advanced degrees and those without, those who’ve been writing all their life and those who haven't. There are tortured writers and well-adjusted writers. There are writers who have things happen for them very quickly and those whose careers take a very long time to get going. Literally any personal story you may have can end in being a successful writer. You don’t have to be anyone other than yourself.
Is This A Kissing Book?
Dude, how can you not read a post with that title? Impossible. Also, if you know the movie it comes from, you get two gold stars. If I had some gold stars... Sadly, I don't. What I do have is another fabulous guest blogger! Heather Anastasiu (author of the forthcoming GLITCH) is here to talk romance!
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SO, full confession time: I love Twilight. I read it before it got big and I love, love, loved it. It’s the only book I’ve re-read this decade, and I’ve read it about 7 times.
Yes, there are problematic things in it as you examine gender stereotypes and troublesome relationship elements that, if translated to the real world, could be bad (hello creepy stalker boyfriend who follows you everywhere without your knowledge and spends all night outside your bedroom watching you).
But. BUT! There is something about those books that are so compulsively readable, a fantasy so delicious it just makes readers want to relive and relive and relive it. I’ve spent a lot of time trying to figure out HOW Twilight does this. In my Master’s in Literature program, I wrote several papers about it, trying to figure it out. I’ve looked at from a psychoanalytical standpoint, looked at it as a hero myth, as lush escapism, as a means of comforting oneself about structure and order in a chaotic world.
But from a writer’s standpoint, looking at Meyer’s engaging style, I wonder if a big part of it isn’t because she just spends so much time letting us peek into this extraordinary relationship. There’s so much talking. The talking and scenarios have tension to be sure—Edward might lose control and drain her dry at any moment—but you know how in movies the camera will zoom out and/or do a montage of different times where the couple is talking and laughing and getting to know each other? Well, Twilight lets you watch it all without much fast forwarding. There’s not a lot of fade-to-black “and then they talked all night” summaries.
And I love it. I love some of those conversations. I go back and re-read them. Books that follow a standard romantic formula tend to skip over this part—the part where the lovers actually get to know each other! It’s all: he was so handsome and muscular and looked at her darkly/hungrily/lustily and the girl’s all: muscles! Love at first sight! Soul mate! Bad boy I can save!
Ahem. Ok, ok, so that’s just a particular type of romance pattern, but the immediate intense eternal love thing without bunches of talking and getting to know each other—I don’t like it. I don’t like it when action in a book eclipses these emotional talking moments either. The parts of my own book that make me happiest are the talking/getting to know each other moments. Thank God for my agent who’s always nudging me: maybe some more action here, oh, and maybe we could make something explode now? *winks at Agent Charlie* (and yes, my dystopian debut Glitch actually DOES have a lot of action too).
Because in the end, Twilight had TOO LITTLE action—or it was weird, forced, inorganic, and in the end (especially in Breaking Dawn), ultimately unsatisfying. I like a little sacrifice to be involved in happy endings, otherwise it doesn’t seem real, not hard-fought enough to be satisfying.
So yes, I like action books, and I like kissing books *shout out to Princess Bride* But I like them best when there’s talking too, where characters seem to genuinely get to know each other and connect.
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Wow. I don't know if I'm more awed by Heather reading Twilight 7 times or that she wrote papers on it, or simply the pure fact that she's absolutely right! What do you think?
Thank you, Heather, for being here! And dude, GLITCH is a dystopian you're going to want to keep your eyes on...
About Heather: Heather Anastasiu is the author of GLITCH (St. Martin's Press/Spring 2012) Glitch in three words: Dystopia, Superpowers, & Love :) Check out her website for more info, news, and updates.
----------
SO, full confession time: I love Twilight. I read it before it got big and I love, love, loved it. It’s the only book I’ve re-read this decade, and I’ve read it about 7 times.
Yes, there are problematic things in it as you examine gender stereotypes and troublesome relationship elements that, if translated to the real world, could be bad (hello creepy stalker boyfriend who follows you everywhere without your knowledge and spends all night outside your bedroom watching you).
But. BUT! There is something about those books that are so compulsively readable, a fantasy so delicious it just makes readers want to relive and relive and relive it. I’ve spent a lot of time trying to figure out HOW Twilight does this. In my Master’s in Literature program, I wrote several papers about it, trying to figure it out. I’ve looked at from a psychoanalytical standpoint, looked at it as a hero myth, as lush escapism, as a means of comforting oneself about structure and order in a chaotic world.
But from a writer’s standpoint, looking at Meyer’s engaging style, I wonder if a big part of it isn’t because she just spends so much time letting us peek into this extraordinary relationship. There’s so much talking. The talking and scenarios have tension to be sure—Edward might lose control and drain her dry at any moment—but you know how in movies the camera will zoom out and/or do a montage of different times where the couple is talking and laughing and getting to know each other? Well, Twilight lets you watch it all without much fast forwarding. There’s not a lot of fade-to-black “and then they talked all night” summaries.
And I love it. I love some of those conversations. I go back and re-read them. Books that follow a standard romantic formula tend to skip over this part—the part where the lovers actually get to know each other! It’s all: he was so handsome and muscular and looked at her darkly/hungrily/lustily and the girl’s all: muscles! Love at first sight! Soul mate! Bad boy I can save!
Ahem. Ok, ok, so that’s just a particular type of romance pattern, but the immediate intense eternal love thing without bunches of talking and getting to know each other—I don’t like it. I don’t like it when action in a book eclipses these emotional talking moments either. The parts of my own book that make me happiest are the talking/getting to know each other moments. Thank God for my agent who’s always nudging me: maybe some more action here, oh, and maybe we could make something explode now? *winks at Agent Charlie* (and yes, my dystopian debut Glitch actually DOES have a lot of action too).
Because in the end, Twilight had TOO LITTLE action—or it was weird, forced, inorganic, and in the end (especially in Breaking Dawn), ultimately unsatisfying. I like a little sacrifice to be involved in happy endings, otherwise it doesn’t seem real, not hard-fought enough to be satisfying.
So yes, I like action books, and I like kissing books *shout out to Princess Bride* But I like them best when there’s talking too, where characters seem to genuinely get to know each other and connect.
----------
Wow. I don't know if I'm more awed by Heather reading Twilight 7 times or that she wrote papers on it, or simply the pure fact that she's absolutely right! What do you think?
Thank you, Heather, for being here! And dude, GLITCH is a dystopian you're going to want to keep your eyes on...
Where Good Ideas Come From
When I was preparing for a workshop I gave for local teens on story ideas, I came across this amazing video by Steven Johnson. He's the author seven books on science and technology--including WHERE GOOD IDEAS COME FROM (2010)--as well as a founder of FEED magazine and a contributing editor at Wired.
Enjoy!
Enjoy!
Book Trailer for The Eleventh Plague!
Wow, just over one week now until we release the Eleventh Plague! I just have one more cool thing to share with y'all before the big launch week here on the blog....the book trailer!
Thanks so much to all the awesome folks at Scholastic that put this together!
What I really would like to see!
Many years ago, I was walking through Maiden Lane in Chicago's Old Town and I heard music from the record store - a new band. I was so impressed that I immediately went in and bought their album - Led Zeppelin. It did not disappoint! A few years later, they released a song that is considered one of the best rock and roll songs ever made.
I use this as an example of starting at "great" & evolving to "greater" (& hopefully even greater!) And also - because the song itself talks about what I'm thinking about today. A Stairway to Heaven...
Imagine a real stairway to the heavens! Or rather... an elevator/escalator! That's what scientists and students do in all kinds of competitions to build viable systems that are able to carry rocket ships, etc. through and beyond the atmosphere - thereby saving vast quantities of fuel and wear & tear on the ships that happens at launch & during the journey to beyond earth's gravitational pull.
I, personally, love thinking about this stuff! I am not a scientist, so I doubt I'll be building any stairways to heaven myself - but I contemplating the future - knowing it can be great & greater... and that things only imagined right now will someday become reality.
What sorts of future items are you anticipating? I'd love to know! :D
I use this as an example of starting at "great" & evolving to "greater" (& hopefully even greater!) And also - because the song itself talks about what I'm thinking about today. A Stairway to Heaven...
Imagine a real stairway to the heavens! Or rather... an elevator/escalator! That's what scientists and students do in all kinds of competitions to build viable systems that are able to carry rocket ships, etc. through and beyond the atmosphere - thereby saving vast quantities of fuel and wear & tear on the ships that happens at launch & during the journey to beyond earth's gravitational pull.
I, personally, love thinking about this stuff! I am not a scientist, so I doubt I'll be building any stairways to heaven myself - but I contemplating the future - knowing it can be great & greater... and that things only imagined right now will someday become reality.
What sorts of future items are you anticipating? I'd love to know! :D
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