Here is a video of me and Justine Larbalestier talking about our book Team Human (which is coming out July 3rd, i.e. in LESS THAN A MONTH!), about cowriting, love for vampires and humans, and worldbuilding.
I always find it a little disconcerting to see pictures of myself and videos of myself. ‘Oh my good God, I look like such an idiot, my face should be banned! Ban it! BAN THAT FACE.’
Generally writers are people who think to themselves ‘Ideally, I would live in a very comfortable cave and imagine up people.’ They are not like actors or models, who (in my imagination anyway) wake up and say ‘Great face girl/guy! It would be a crime not to show this to the world!’
Which is not to say I haven’t met many writers who are both super hot and super suave in person. I have. I have met many writers who have it goin’ on. But it is not a requirement of the job. (WRITER RESUME. Skills: Very competent prose. Rockin’ bod.)
This is in fact not the only Video-y Thing I will be doing this week. I am also doing a reading, the Irish Writers’ Centre celebratory marathon reading, ‘Read for the World’ in which we try to set a Guinness World Record. I will be reading to a live audience at 8.45am on the morning of Saturday, June 16th, at the Irish Writer’s Centre 19 Parnell Square and it will be livestreamed at www.writerscentre.ie.
… Holy Methuselah on a bicycle, let me not go into a fugue state and pretend to be a zombie for the purposes of being hilarious. Seamus Heaney’s going to be there reading. I must try for class.
Of course, in the Team Human video, Justine Larbalestier is there to provide the class. So I can rattle on about the vampire books I like, and the pros and cons of vampirehood. In fact, this is basically how I I handle being (in a tiny way) a public person: I try not to be self-conscious, to have fun and to be as much of a goof as I actually am, to talk about things I’m truly interested in and try to keep the interest of others that way. If someone is watching me do anything, they’re probably into books, and if they’re into books, they’re a potential friend. So I talk the way I do to my friends.
Returning to the specific issue of Team Human, I am giving away signed Team Humans, so if you’d like one come to twitter and vote #GoTeamVampire or #GoTeamHuman.
I hope you enjoy the video. Even… my face…
