EWein2412

collected all in one place, wow!

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Last Monday's live interview on BBC Radio Scotland (no longer live):

Bookcafe page
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0079gb9

Programme page for Mon. 6 Feb. (last day available!)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01bmm32

Podcast for Mon. 6 Feb. (available for 25 more days)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/bookcafe

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Blog tour posts:


Booktrust: On the theme of friendship in CNV
http://www.booktrust.org.uk/books-and-reading/teenagers/blog/308

I Want to Read That: my personal encounters with wartime aircraft
http://www.iwanttoreadthat.com/2012/02/encounters-with-wartime-aircraft-by.html

Bookbabblers: Apparently I am their "author in residence" this month (news to me), so my footprint is all over this site:

My favorite books (oh brother):
http://bookbabblers.co.uk/author-in-residence/

Author interview (the osprey gets a mention):
http://bookbabblers.co.uk/2012/02/q-a-with-elizabeth-wein-author-of-code-name-verity/

On the inspiration for CNV:
http://bookbabblers.co.uk/2012/02/guest-post-from-elizabeth-wein-author-of-code-name-verity/


Over at Finding Wonderland, Tanita Davis has essentially put up a CNV review every day for 3 days running:

On War Stories
http://writingya.blogspot.com/2012/02/war-stories-further-musings-on.html

I Don't Do History: the Case for Historical Fiction
http://writingya.blogspot.com/2012/02/i-dont-do-history-case-for-historical.html

Turning pages: review of CNV
http://writingya.blogspot.com/2012/02/turning-pages-code-name-verity-by.html


Daisy Chain Books - on the real people who inspired CNV:
http://daisychainbookreviews.blogspot.com/2012/02/blog-tour-author-elizabeth-wein-on-real.html


Booksmugglers - Literary inspiration behind CNV (I really like this post):
http://thebooksmugglers.com/2012/02/guest-author-elizabeth-wein-on-inspirations-influences.html

Booksmugglers review (they gush. I have refrained from commenting because it is rather overwhelming).
http://thebooksmugglers.com/2012/02/book-review-code-name-verity-by-elizabeth-wein.html

Scottish Book Trust - inspiration, work in progress, and Why I Live in Scotland:
http://www.scottishbooktrust.com/blog/teens-young-people/2012/02/elizabeth-wein-writing-code-name-verity

if you hunt for it, you CAN find Verity's real name revealed on line (not in this review, despite outward appearances). Her real name isn't really a spoiler. But most people are treating it as one. I LOVE THIS.

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Not part of the tour but fun:

Chachic's Book Nook: Nice review with a boatload of interesting yet spoiler free discussion in the comments:
http://chachic.wordpress.com/2012/02/02/code-name-verity-by-elizabeth-wein/

Lovely and emotional review here at By Singing Light:
http://bysinginglight.wordpress.com/2012/02/06/code-name-verity-elizabeth-wein/

estara is auctioning a copy of CNV (with author-signed bookplate) in support of Con or Bust: Fans of Color Assistance Project here:
http://con-or-bust.livejournal.com/105641.html

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And Books for Scotland has chosen CNV as their Children's Choice of the Month. They're the ones who called me an "American born Scottish author"!
http://www.booksfromscotland.com/

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If you want to order it yourself and don't have an independent bookstore where you can go demand it in person, the Book Depository ships free anywhere in the world.

http://www.bookdepository.com

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Set Europe the world ablaze!

this just MAKES MY DAY.

So, last week I put two autographed copies of the UK version of CNV up for auction on Magick 4 Terri, the fundraiser to benefit fabulous artist and writer Terri Windling... and I neglected to post the link to it here. By the time I'd thought of it the bidding was already up to $42, and it seemed a bit mean to send my flist there late, so I've put another copy up here if anyone's interested. Bidding starts at $15, bidding closes on Thursday 15 Dec., and I'll ship anywhere in the world (assuming you have a postal address!).

That link again...

http://magick4terri.livejournal.com/113138.html

And here's the original link:

http://magick4terri.livejournal.com/89951.html

I give you guys so little of how I actually work, and I would really like to do a better job. But I am just so darn disorganized. Here is an actual page (two pages, really) of text that I wrote last week. It is from the middle of what is kind of an unrelated sequel to Code Name Verity, with a fresh main character who doesn’t appear in CNV.

ETA: It has been pointed out to me that this picture ought to come with a spoiler warning. So: SPOILERS EXIST in this picture. If you zoom in and get out your magnifying glass and your decoding pen, a determined reader may find it possible to read this. And then you will wish you hadn't. (Now you will all be tantalized. I can't win. RANDOM ANNOYING SPOILERS! just admire it from a distance! I'm sorry.)



The bit in the middle of the right-hand page says, “Wouldn’t it be nice if I was capable of writing in the CONVENTIONAL WAY - from left to right and top to bottom down ONE SHEET OF PAPER??
…

This page is making me laugh.

I bet that’s the last time this particular part of the story makes anyone laugh!



I went flying last Tuesday. I had a real flying lesson for the first time in FOUR YEARS, which is really too long. Time and money have been scarce and the local flying club has become more expensive and less convenient, and although I have renewed my license and kept my medical up to date, I just haven’t logged any hours.

Part of the “sell” for CNV is connected to my own authenticity, if you will, as a pilot, and with the publication date looming (6 Feb 2012!) I am starting to feel a bit fraudulent. So I decided I was determined to start fitting in at least one flight a month. Three weeks after I’d made this decision I still hadn’t done anything about it and November was beginning to creep away… Got to get some kind of motivation going. If you were an Air Transport Auxiliary Pilot, you were given a 2 oz bar of Cadbury’s Milk Chocolate for every successful aircraft delivery you made. So I am rewarding myself with a Dairy Milk every time I go flying.

I am doing 2 things - going over all the handling and emergency drills with an eye to taking a test to get my "certificate of experience" up to date (my license is valid but not my certificate of experience), and I am doing it in a different plane (slightly bigger and more powerful, a 4-seater PA-28 rather than a 2-seater Cessna 152) to get a new "type rating." Unlike Perth, where I trained, Dundee has got actual commercial flights operating out of it from time to time, so it is a bit busier and more professional and I hope will help me build my ridiculously low radio confidence.

It should take me about 5 hours' flying to get the type rating and pass the test, and then I can rent a plane and go where I like and take passengers (ahahahaha).

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Also last week was Thanksgiving, of course, and many whoopie pies were consumed:



These are vanilla. They are a lot like homemade Nilla wafers, so we don't bother with filling. Pumpkin whoopie pies were also available.

I thought people might also be entertained by these Evacuee Day photos... one of me and my boy, and one with fellow mad mums:



And finally, Mark’s Junior Brass Band won the Scottish Youth Brass Band Championship on Sunday. He plays trumpet. I am very proud of them!

I have an an essay on disability in the Percy Jackson series up at Smart Pop Books, here:

http://www.smartpopbooks.com/1136



It'll be there till Tuesday 11 Oct 2011, when it'll revert to excerpt mode. I am feeling smug about having had the foresight to update my Smart Pop bio to include CNV at least a year before I'd sold it.

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There is a funny story behind my work for Smart Pop. When Benbella asked me if I'd like to write for them, I chose Percy Jackson because I'd heard rave reviews about The Lightning Thief and was curious. I'd never heard of the other series they invited me to write about, and when I checked it out I decided (with an eyeroll) that I didn't have the strength to be witty and intelligent about a high school vampire love story I was very likely to detest.

*facepalm*

From a strictly financial viewpoint, I SO REGRET this decision.

xlacrimax is the winner of the Firebirds Soaring anthology!

I see that most of my fellow bloggers have used random.org to generate their results, and I confess that my kids and I used a more Luddite method... Sara cut up strips of paper with everyone's name on them, folded them in half, and Mark picked one of them out of a mixing bowl.

I am so delighted at how many people "hopped" over here to enter this giveaway -- thanks for joining in! I think next time I will try to manage more than one book to give away. Also, if many more of you turn up, I will have to abandon my traditional means of picking a winner...

Hope I see some of the unfamiliar names here again, or over on Goodreads.

ETA: Those of you who left screened comments--rest assured that although you might not be able to see them, I can, and you were all included in the lottery! The comments should be visible now. Sorry for any confusion.

My best friend from the Folklore Dept. at Penn is having a double mastectomy in 4 days. Given her age (mid 40s, like me), and the fact that her sister had the same pre-cancerous ductile growths in BOTH breasts, my friend is going for a pre-emptive strike. Once it (and reconstructive surgery) are done she will be considered Cured. She is stoic about it; I am a bit wobbly. Sara and I were discussing the situation (“Amanda is going to get better, isn’t she, Mummy? You say you always like to prepare us for the worst. You’re not lying this time, are you?”)… and the upshot is that Sara and I have decided to do the Perth 5 k “Race for Life” together and do a bit of fundraising in Amanda’s name.

Race for Life raises money for cancer research in the UK. As a Girl Guide, Sara’s been helping out on the support end of the Perth event for the past three years, and she was planning to run in it this year anyway, but when this thing with Amanda came up I decided to join her. We’ve set fundraising goals of £100 for me and £50 for Sara, and we share an online fundraising page here:

http://www.raceforlifesponsorme.org/ewein0210elizabethgatland

If you are so inclined, please help us out by sponsoring us with a couple of pounds or dollars or euros.

( Small Irrelevant Media Rant )

The Perth “Race for Life” takes place on 26 June. I am sure you will hear from me again on this subject in the time leading up to it.

In other news… No news is good news.

The radio silence here re. my professional career is mostly due to me waiting for the All Clear to sound. At the moment, I am sort of bound by what I have referred to before as The Official Secrets Act. Oh what the heck, here’s an example (just an example, mind you). The work-for-hire series I’ve been writing debuts this spring in the UK. I can’t tell anyone what it is because it’s published under a pseudonym that doesn't belong to me.

You know, for years and years I used to pray not for my books to make me rich, nor for them to make me famous, but for them to be READ. And I suspect that finally a book I have written is going to be READ. But it won’t make me rich and famous, because I don’t hold copyright and it’s not in my name. BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR.

WHEN Code Name Verity is made into a movie, I really want The Manuscript to play Itself. OH such an ongoing tale of battles won and lost! But the Official Secrets Act (if not actual professional integrity) prevents me from publicly giving out any details. The war's not over yet.

meanwhile I continue to vent my frustration in creating equipment for Very Small Spies.

Escape maps were made of silk because it was more durable than paper, you could fold it in your pocket, and it didn't make a noise when you unfolded it. These are printed on cotton, though. The one on the left is southern France c. 1940, and the one on the right is France/Belgium/Holland upright and the Pyrenees upside down, c. 1943.

We have victory in Europe! (I did put "Fix Vichy France" on my to-do list earlier this year, didn't I?) Code Name Verity has got a British publisher.

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On a related note, the New York Times obituary for the incredible Eileen Nearne is considerably more level-headed than most of what I've seen in the British press. Amazing no one knew who she was. I recognized her face and name immediately when they turned up on the front page of the [London] Times last week, but then, I had just finished reading A Life in Secrets and The Women Who Lived for Danger.

The Gestapo is so much scarier than the Undead. I'm just sayin'.

Found this on sartorias's birthday blog entry:




I am still discovering the extent to which writing a book about the French Resistance has left me shell-shocked. I can no longer look at a picture of the Eiffel Tower WITHOUT BURSTING INTO TEARS.

Also, despite my pride last night when I woke up and realized I hadn't dropped a single stitch, I cannot, in fact KNIT IN MY SLEEP. The *unpicking* the following day had me laughing out loud (some might say: IN STITCHES, haha).