Rose’s notebook
Dec 4, 2010 Uncategorized
My friend Leo, as well as being an amazing Bette cosplayer, is an occasional visitor to the world of The Wolf House — readers can find her popping up as a friend of Timothy’s in the books.
In one of her journeys into that particular universe, Leo happened to find a half-completed notepad someone had tossed away. It was just lying there on a sidewalk in Chicago, so Leo picked it up, brought it home, and gave this notebook to me as a Christmas present. (Any resemblance between Rose’s art style and Leo’s own copious talents is, I assume, total coincidence.)
This is the fucking coolest thing in the world, and I will never be able to thank Leo enough for it. Writers dream of having readers who care even a fraction of this much about their stories. It’s very humbling and more than a little overwhelming to have that dream come true.
Come around full circle
Aug 31, 2010 Uncategorized
I am writing this while sitting at the publications desk at my day job’s biennial conference. Being biennial, we had our last one of these in 2008. This one’s in Melbourne, where I live, but the last one was in Sydney and so us staff were all staying in the hotel where the function was taking place.
It was at that conference two years ago that I checked my email on my phone, since I was an entire state away from my computer, and found a message from Drollerie Press containing my contract for the Wolf House series. I couldn’t stop grinning all day, even as my co-workers were appalled — “how will you ever manage to write that many books?!?”
Well, here we are, two years later, and I’m back in another conference, watching another bunch of sullen young waitstaff carry around trays of food for the guests. It wasn’t until I saw them all there in their uniforms that I remembered first getting the idea for Jay, and his meeting with Blake, from the waiters and waitresses at the hotel in Sydney, that first day.
It seems like only yesterday; it seems a million years ago.
About half a week ago, I finished writing the last book: Wolf House #5: Last Girl. It hasn’t properly hit me yet that I’ve done it, but the friends who’ve read it so far say that I’ve not only done it, but done it well. Which is a relief!
Now that I’ll have some free time (which, after two years, is something I remember only distantly) I’ll make more of an effort to keep this site up-to-date, so check back soon for new sections and content. Thanks for sticking with me. It means more than any of you could know.
Flashback
Jul 14, 2010 Uncategorized
Since things are a little quiet here right now — book 4 is coming out in September, and the hard copy of the first three books is coming out in October, and I’m hard at work finishing book 5 — and because I came across a copy of this letter today in my hard-copy files, I figure I’d share.
This is the original submission letter I wrote to Drollerie Press about the books — or, at that stage, book. It’s a glimpse into what’s changed, what hasn’t, and what my original thoughts were about the project.
from: Mary Borsellino <mizmary@gmail.com>
to: submissions@drolleriepress.com
date: Tue, Jan 8, 2008 at 8:25 PM
subject: Novella submission - The Wolf House
Sydney Supanova roundup
Jun 20, 2010 Uncategorized
Hullo chums! I am returned from Sydney Supanova. It was lovely to meet some of you excellent reader-y people. I sold books to Old Gregg from The Mighty Boosh and the Corinthian from the Sandman comics and to lovely ordinary people and lovely dressed-up people and it was all NEAT.
Me with my 'Supa-Star' guest pass.
I look totally bemused in this photo because it is very strange to me that I continue to have people act like I’m some kind of legitimate creator or something, rather than a weird lady who makes up stories in her brain.
Saturday breakfast.
I had a bottle of True Blood (or TruBlood, or whatever way it’s spelled by people who are precise about these things) for breakfast on Saturday. It’s actually just slightly tart Fanta with a lot of caffeine in it. No, really.
Drawing by Audrey in progress.
Audrey Fox was selling A4-sized commissions for $10 at our table. We hit a lull during the morning, where she didn’t have a customer, so I commissioned her to draw me Jay and Blake.
Jay and Blake by Audrey.
This is the picture Audrey drew f0r me.
Setting up on Sunday morning.
This is a picture Audrey took on Sunday morning, as myself (in black) and Erinna (in red) set up the table for the second day of the convention.
Mary and Eliza Dushku.
I got to meet Eliza Dushku! Woo! And I didn’t start quoting bits from Bring It On or tell her that Faith has been my role model since I was seventeen. So I count that as a win.
GRETCHEN COSPLAY YAY
I saved the best picture for last. This is theonlytwin, dressed up as Gretchen. LOOK AT HER. How excellent is she, seriously? I am so delighted. Cosplay makes my whole life sing.
So that was my weekend, and a jolly lovely time it was too. To those of you who bought books, I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoyed writing them. Actually, I hope you enjoy them even more than that, because sometimes writing isn’t nearly as much fun as I hope you have reading.
Clearly I should stop typing now and go to bed. Back to the day job tomorrow. It will be so sad to return to a world where nobody is playing dress up in public.
Supanova posters
Jun 15, 2010 Uncategorized
If you’re coming to the Supanova convention in Sydney this weekend, you’ll be able to pick up the first three Wolf House novels (in both digital format on very pretty USB data sticks and a very, very small promotional run of paperbacks which I’m selling at-cost, because I’m just marvelously good to you like that) and also the following three posters in A3 and A4, with art by Audrey Fox and text by me.
If you can’t get to Supanova, here are the posters for download. The files are over a megabyte each, but they’re terribly nice to look at.
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- Poster 1: Bette and Rose
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- Poster 2: Ash and Jenna
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- Poster 3: Will and Lily
Tags: artwork, audrey, convention, writing
Supanova Sydney appearance
Jun 6, 2010 Uncategorized
If you’re going to the Supanova Pop Culture Expo in Sydney on the 18th-20th of June, come hunt me down at my table, as I’m one of the guests!
It’s a totally amazing line-up — I’m especially excited for Eliza Dushku and Allan Hyde myself, as Faith is one of my favourite vampire hunters in the history of ever, and Godric is exactly the kind of vampire I find fascinating. Hooray!
Tags: convention
Supanova pictures
May 23, 2010 Uncategorized
So I don’t keep putting it off, here is at least a START to putting some of the Supanova cosplay pictures up here. There are lots and lots more to come, but procrastination just makes things more difficult, so let’s at least see the delightful fan-people in their lovely costumes, who pretty much BLEW MY MIND, LOOK HOW AMAZING THEY ALL ARE.
(Since there are all kind of different naming preferences for the people involved, I’ve just called everyone by their Livejournal username here for consistency.)
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- Origins and Overtures cover
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- Olizmay as Bette
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- preachelectric as Will and cookiedough as Blake.
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- olizmay and _audrey as Bette and Rose.
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- jk_rockin as Jenny, complete with a DIY band shirt.
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- laenij as the rockabilly vampire hunter Anna, hanging with her friend and bandmate Will. This photo is clearly from an alternate universe where Anna would willingly hug anything with fangs.
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- mishka_jayne and ix_tab as Ash and Jenna, ill-fated teenage models.
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- Anna shows off her sassy style.
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- Group shot! With Jenna slightly off-screen. And a bunch of people who haven't been introduced in photos yet. Um. We'll get to 'em!
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- Blake, Bette, and chameleongirl79 as Timothy, complete with a toy stuffed cat as Bikini Kill. I think the flipping-off is due to me teasing Leo for the fact that one of the wolfpack dudes from New Moon thought she was cosplaying Alice Cullen. Which is still funny.
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- Ahahaha. Blake's life is hard. He's surrounded by juveniles.
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- Our intrepid hunters demonstrate the correct way to use Holy Water in the field. Yep, Audrey made little bottles of bubbles that said Holy Water, because she is that cool.
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- Timothy photobombs Blake and Gretchen by introducing Bikini Kill into their sedate posed shot. Oh, that's me as Gretchen there, obviously. Hi.
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- Will and jk_rockin as Jenny, in a fabulous coat with buttons sewn on for decoration, while Will continues to rock the standard-issue Will uniform and an unfortunate teeth condition picked up from that jerk in the waistcoat.
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- Jenny and Ash put on a live performance art demonstration of the food chain. Or something.
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- fickle_goddess as Jamie, recreating a scene from book 3 with Rose. Ipod sharing! Aw!
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- Bette: Not Down With Ipod Sharing.
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- Bette, Gretchen and Rose.
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- Ash and Jamie share a moment.
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- Group shot! This photograph is the most awesome thing which will ever happen to me as a writer, ever.
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- Blake thanks you for your time, and asks that you please stop struggling as is makes your blood all tangy.
Vampirefest photos
May 23, 2010 Uncategorized
Hullo books-blog-I-don’t-write-in-enough!
Here are some pictures from “Vampirefest” yesterday, a convention I was one of the guests at.
Poster outside the hall. I'm in the lower left-hand corner.
My bio in the program.
Me at my little table with some excerpts from book one and some necklaces for sale. I made twenty bucks, which I then spent on Indian food for myself and Audrey Fox, who took this photo.
I'm the one in the red stockings and white shirt.
I was actually writing a bit of book 5 while that last photo was taken, because yesterday was a bad brain-day for me (I have severe clinical depression, so some days just suck no matter where I am or what I’m doing, alas) and writing is how I escape from feeling crappy. Writing and seeing live music, which is why I ended up as the author of a bunch of books about characters who are in bands, funnily enough.
AMAZING
May 16, 2010 Uncategorized
Coaster clearly decided that my mind wasn’t quite blown enough already (and believe me, it was pretty blown) and so sent through some more amazing amazing AMAZING pictures:
Lily Green by Coaster
First up there’s Lily, and I love how much of Lily’s essence Coaster has captured here. Lily’s surrounded by her own failures — cups of smoothie or tea that weren’t good enough to swallow down — but she isn’t staring at them, she’s got her face turned up and she’s caught in a moment of thinking.
Lily’s driving force is hope (which is why Will has always loved and needed her so much; even before they knew about vampires, he’s never been a personality who puts much stock in hopes and dreams and optimism, she believes in things he doesn’t) even in despair, and I feel like Coaster’s pinned that down in this picture.
Will and Sofie by Coaster
And again, Coaster’s captured the absolute vital core of who these characters are in such a deceptively simple image. It’s just two people walking, right? Except that Sofie’s stepping forward, relentless and tense and insistent, and Will is more passively going along with it. Sofie’s habitual mistrust is so stark and obvious here, and so’s the way there are echoes of the youthful, pretty girl she might’ve been that’s been almost lost completely under the layers of pain and loss and hard days. Sofie is a survivor to the core, but surviving isn’t the same as thriving, and Coaster gets that.
And Will, geeky awkward quiet Will. Will was the first character of all the Wolf House characters to just click completely in my head — he was formed completely into exactly who he is even before I first told Audrey that I wanted to write a vampire story. So I’m pretty steadfast in who Will is, how the parts of him fit together to make the whole, why he’s a drummer and an atheist and why he writes journals and his relationship with Jenny and all the rest. And Coaster has drawn Will just as he is in my head, quiet and good-natured and following along, but with something more complicated and darker and maybe even dangerous in the set of his expression.
Which is to say: I LOVE. A LOT. And I’ll get that ‘Fanart’ section properly updated this week, along with adding more cosplay photographs up from Supanova.
Speaking of conventions! If you’re in the Melbourne area next week, come along to Vampirefest. which I’m the third Guest of Honour at even though I’m not actually up on the page yet. I’ll be doing a quickie talk about the Wolf House books a bit after eleven a.m, and am going to be part of the author debate about vampire fiction in the afternoon (hint: I’m for it), and will be hanging around with little excerpt booklets at a table through the day. So come along and have a chat with me and watch me get silly over all the excellent Star Wars and Doctor Who stuff (I am the Wrong Kind Of Fan for both fandoms: my favourite Star Wars is the Phantom Menace and my favourite Doctor’s Companion is Adric. Let’s argue!).
Tags: fanart
Fanart
May 13, 2010 Uncategorized
Gretchen by Coaster
The marvelous Coaster is much too good at everything in the world, and drew some Gretchen sketches. LOVE.
And the reason that the marvelous Coaster was drawing Gretchen is because I made a very strange request of her.
Quentin Tarantino is a big, big influence on me. Someday I might get into hand-flaily gestures and expressions and a lot of meta about how much of an influence on the Wolf House, and my writing in general, his films are. But we’ll leave it be for today, suffice to say that I decided yesterday that I really wanted Gretchen from the Wolf House to meet the Bear Jew from Inglourious Basterds. They hate Nazis! They love violent murder! Strong friendships have been built on far less.
And Coaster is the biggest Bear Jew fan I know, by far, having even won a prize in a contest Eli Roth ran this one time to think up a sequel for the Bear Jew after Inglourious Basterds.
So we’ve got a) Coaster is one of the best artists I know. b) Coaster loves the Bear Jew. c) I really want art of the Bear Jew and Gretchen together.
THE BLOODY ADVENTURES OF GRETCHEN AND THE BEAR JEW.
Coaster, I adore you forever. I mean, I did anyway, but now I do DOUBLE.
Tags: fanart