well, i decided after more than a decade of
being a brush student, i had to finally attempt
people. classic chinese beauties, to be specific.
this is my third week working on the women.
people are hard to draw, hard to paint. i think they
are one of the most challenging subjects personally.

normally, i never share unfinished paintings. these are just
sketches i’m working with, striving for a final painting
worth backing and framing. but i just signed up
for tumblr, which makes it seem easy and casual to
just throw up a few images.

then realized it might be interesting for you to see
an unfinished painting. the journey to the final, as it
were. so here they are. both sketches. the subject is
definitely challenging but i’m enjoying it a lot. i especially
love painting their hair, their accessories and their dress–
they remind me of the two girls i’m writing about in my
current xia novel. =)

also, follow me on tumblr! http://cindypon.tumblr.com

*she looks rather kissy, doesn’t she? 8)

*the proportions are challenging. but i love this
one’s pose.

at the end of october, i attended my first world fantasy
con AND malinda and i also brought the Diversity in YA
tour to official close, with a fantastic signing at the Poway
library. thank you so much danielle, for having us! so many
of my friends from twitter (yes, twitter!) who love YA came
to attend the event. thank you guys for coming too!

greg van eekhout was the only other local author and
was kind enough to shuttle all the panelists from the
world fantasy con hotel over to the library. i admit, i was
nervous. when we say DiYA is grassroots, we mean it–
pile a bunch of YA authors into one car–adventures!
yikes. greg admitted he was nervous and i felt the exact
same AFTER the event, when i drove everyone to a taiwanese
dinner. ha!

*our rad panel consisted of (L to R): malinda lo, me, cinda chima,
holly black, karen healey, and greg van eekhout with danielle, the
wonderful YA librarian at the Poway branch as moderator.

*i’m fairly certain that i’m responding to the question posed
by the raddest 13 year old boy in the audience: what’s a eunuch?
everyone said i did a wonderful job of explaining in an as polite
way as possible. even radder? the boy bought a signed copy of Silver
Phoenix after!!

*it was a packed event and such a fantastic way to end
our Diversity Tour. it truly was a labor of love and malinda
and i stressed but had a wonderful time. to be honest, looking
back, i’m not sure how we pulled it off. haha! but i will say that
the tour was only as successful as the great authors who agreed to
join us at each tour stop, as well as the YA book lovers who showed up
to support us! and of course, all the wonderful librarians and
indie booksellers! thank you!!

*a mom with twin girls wanted a foto of them with malinda
and me. how cute are they? one twin got Silver Phoenix and
the other got Fury of the Phoenix, but each only wanted me to
sign the novel to herself. hehe!

*so it started as a joke on twitter when i asked megan
(raddest fan ever aka RFE) wouldn’t she LOVE to be at our diversity
panel. unfortunately, she lives in utah. well, guess who drove all
the way out from utah (again!) to attend the event? thank you megan
for being such a fantastic and fun fan! <3

*karaline came with her sister larissa, also a YA fan! this
was her first bookish event, hoorah! karaline said she had
a blast. =D

*a group foto of awesome! (L to R back to front: joanna (librarian),
karen, malinda, greg, holly, me, lali (librarian), danielle (librarian),
cinda and jennifer (librarian). i loved the librarians who all came
to support the event, not to mention host us!

*it was so great to finally meet the lovely rae carson,
author of fantasy debut The Girl of Fire and Thorns. and
between you and me? she’s even more beautiful now than back
in her beauty pageant days!

*i didn’t get to attend world fantasy con full time because
motherly duties called that weekend as well. but a highlight
was definitely meeting n. k. jemisin (nora) whose debut The
Hundred Thousand Kingdoms was a top read for me in 2010.
i was really bummed i missed out on her pajama themed release
party for the third book in the series, The Kingdom of Gods. BUT!
she tweeted about giving away the slightly used games from the party
and i responded with a YES, please. so i picked up the games before
the banquet. thus nora is looking so stunning in her elegant gown.
what a fan girl moment for me!!

*here is a foto by my friend heather of the YA panel i was
on at the con. it was a pleasure and honor to be discussing young
adult books and reading along with mar perez, karen healey and
tamora pierce.

whew! i hope you enjoyed the recap and fotos! it has been a whirlwind
november and i can hardly believe thanksgiving is next week! stay
tuned for another cat painting to be posted this week. i need help
with naming this particular cat–and there shall be a prize if you play!

lovely readers, it’s difficult for me to believe that
nearly an entire month has passed since the diversity
panels in new york city.

malinda and i took a very early train from boston to new
york city. i was able to grab a dunkin’ donuts coffee and
chocolate donut (yes, this needs to be noted) before the
trip and napped almost the entire way. it was friday the 13th,
and we had a crazy full day in front of us, including checking
into our hotel, a two hour radio interview, then the diversity
panel at the LGBT center.

it was an unusually warm day and we braved the subway
during friday rush hour and managed to get to the panel
before it started at 6.30pm.

*malinda, cris beam, jacqueline woodson, david levithan and me!
i was the moderator for the panel and i think we had some great
discussion and questions from the audience. i especially enjoyed
(or was tortured by =) the “lightning round” at the end in which
every panelist took about thirty seconds before asking deep questions
such as “favorite drink while writing”. haha

sturday started with a fantastic brunch with ello and jj
at a greasy spoon diner which really hit the spot (both malinda
and i had the biscuits with gravy and grits!) then we headed
to our Books of Wonder panel. we probably had about sixty
people in attendance, and it was fantastic to see many of my
friends in the audience as well!

*the rad display of all the diversity authors’ books right
at the front of the store! i signed TONS of copies of Silver
Phoenix in hardcover, paper back as well as Fury of the Phoenix
hardcovers.

*alison is a super duper teen fan! and i was so excited that
she could come from NJ to attend our panel. it was lovely to
finally meet her. click here to read her post on the signing.

*it was also a pleasure to meet steph for the first time,
who is a recent college graduate (congrats!) and runs a
great blog. she also came in from out of state for the event.
as with all book signings (which are much like weddings)
i didn’t get to talk to everyone like i wanted to. boo.

*my first time meeting jenn and seeing  shveta
again in nyc. even tho i had a grand time with the
panelists after the signing, i was sad i couldn’t join
jen and shveta for lunch!

*neesha, david, and me! david has been a long time online
friend (he was around when i blogged, hey, i’m going try and
follow a dream of mine and Write A Novel! he is a great spec
fic writer himself. and neesha and i have been friends since we
became debs in 2009! i met both of them at my Silver Phoenix
gathering in nyc in 9/2009!

*so the funniest thing happened. the audience was pretty big
and many kept trickling in during the event. i noticed a tall
gorgeous brunette in the back of the room that looked EXACTLY
like lindsey leavitt (Princess for Hire series, Sean Griswold’s Head)
but it couldn’t have been lindsey, because there was no reason for
lindsey to be in nyc. she lived very far away! but lo, it WAS lindsey!
she was in town for a romantic getaway with hub for their anniversary
and had the chance to pop in to the signing. it was such a nice
surprise and totally random and funny.

*we didn’t get a full group foto, alas, but here are some of
us at the nyc panel, moderated by the fantastic cheryl klein!
neesha, malinda, me, cheryl, kekla, gbemi. i look forward to
reading the books by my fellow panelists!

tomorrow is sweet pea and munchkin’s last day of school!
the school year went by so fast! so i’ll be escaping to LA to see
my family for a few days and hope to squeeze in some research
reading too as i need to start writing another novel this summer!

congrats to JESSIE who won the arcs for Imaginary Girls and
Daughter of Smoke and Bone! thanks to everyone who participated.

unfortunately, my flight back on tuesday night
was not as fun. we flew over tornadoes and it was
a very very bumpy scary ride. those of you on the
ground where the tornadoes are still going nuts, stay
safe!

now let me catch up a bit by posting about our radical
(i’m working on bring the RAD back =) cambridge public
library diversity event two weeks ago.

boston was the first place in which malinda and i were
actually stopping at for more than twenty hours. so on
thursday morning, we headed over to newbury to do some
shopping. by chance, we came across the john fluevog shoe
store. cassie clare, holly black and sarah rees brennan are
huge fans of these shoes and i’ve seen them wear these cool
shoes every time we’ve met. of course, i had to try some on!

i ended up buying this pair of baroques rubens.
yes, they are rad!!!

but by the time we got home (after a great japanese
lunch on newbury), i was pretty much wiped out. all
the plane hopping had finally caught up to me. and i wanted
to show off my new vogs but wasn’t into the idea of putting
another dress on. (beauty is pain.) none of my jeans were right
and malinda convinced me to put on my betsy johnson to see
how the new vogs looked with it. beautiful, of course!

so it is thanks to malinda that when i was finally zipped into
the dress, i couldn’t be bothered to take it off again. ha! it’s
true, i have little opportunity to wear this fabulous dress, so
i’m glad i did for the cambridge event.

*one of the first people i saw was gail who recently
read both Silver Phoenix and Fury and is a rad new fan!

*it was wonderful that kristin cashore came! i had
personally invited her to the event and not only did she
come with two friends to support us, but she also blogged about
it on her site, so several people who attended did so because of
her post! thanks so much kristin! (and i don’t think i’ve ever seen
malinda smile so big! =)

*the cambridge pubic library was beautiful and we
had a really great lecture hall for our panel.

*the panel: sarah rees brennan, francisco stork, deva fagan,
malinda lo, holly black, roger sutton of Horn Book, me and maya
escobar, the librarian who helped to make this event happen for us!

one of the highlights of this entire tour for me was meeting francisco.
he is so sweet and smart, and writes fantasic books. i loved Marcelo
in the Real World (and reading it was what made me realize he was in
boston and i screwed up enough courage to ask him to join us and he
agreed straight away, saying what a wonderful idea it was =)
and got a signed copy of The Last Summer of the Death Warriors!
can’t wait to read it!

*although we’ve been corresponding for a few years,
this was the first time i got to meet leah cypess (Mistwood,
Nightspell). that was a real treat!

*it was also the first time i met liz michalski,
the author of Evenfall. she is a new sarah rees brennan
fan because of our panel. (that sarah, she’s such a witty
charmer and radical writer to boot!)

*after the panel, those of us who still had the energy
headed over to grafton street for dinner and celebration.
it was a lot of fun, and i ordered fries near the very end, which
i think was approved by all. =) sarah, leah, holly, me and malinda.

malinda and i really had so much fun at this event, but it was also
intense as both roger and the audience asked some great questions
of the panelists.

here are some links from those who attended in the audience:

kip blogs about cambridge diversity tour event here.

leah cypess recaps over at the enchanted inkpot.

and liz (pictured above) also shares her thoughts at her blog.

but before i start packing, let me share some
fotos from our radical (i’ve decided to use rad
instead of awesome at times to switch up the
lingo =) panels in austin and chicago!

*before our panel, guadalupe garcia mccall, varian johnson,
bethany hegedus, me, malinda and dia reeves and jo whittemore
flexing their muscles in front!

*the lovely chandler craig stopped by before another
social engagement. it was so lovely to finally meet her. we only
knew one another from online and she was one of the first to
interview me, way before i was published!

*i know steph and jen from twitter! they were very helpful
with sharing info for our austin stop and both book lovers.
thanks so much for stopping by and it was so great to meet you too!!

*katie is part of the mundie moms site which first started
as cassie clare fan site but has gone on to do so much to spread
YA novels book love. we were both happy to be dolled up in our
pretty clothes for the event (versus our usual more practical, less
pretty mom clothes. =)

*malinda, me and jenny moss (author of Winnie’s War,
Shadow, and Taking Off). jenny has been a DEB
friend for years and it was so fantastic to finally meet her!

*okay, so meeting dia reeves was definitely a highlight
of the tour. it was the *first* author panel she’d participated
on and she didn’t hesitate to say YES! when i asked. <3 also, i had
no idea she’d have to fly to austin. so dia, thanks so much for coming
out and joining us. i’m looking forward to the end of traveling and
being able to settle down with my copy of Slice of Cherry which i know
will be awesome!

*we had yummy mexican (i had the delicious chicken quesadilla,
some of malinda’s gaucamole, and a virgin pina colada, yum!) meal
after which was loads of fun! i love celebrating with food after a great
panel, hee!

*next up! check out ari’s (reading in color) shirt!
we’re in chicago, baby! i’ve known her for a couple of
years online and she is an absolute delight. i’m excited that
she is going off the college soon, the world is wide open for her!

*claudia guadalupe martinez, nnedi okorafor, me and malinda.
i’m so glad we added chicago as a stop. as a result, we were in
austin and chicago both for less than 24 hours, but it was a
fantastic signing and i got to fangirl nnedi (tho i respected her
no hugging thing–i still squished up against her, haha!) and i
look forward to reading claudia’s debut, The Smell of Old Lady
Perfume. after, we had awesome indian food with
malinda’s college friend adn we ordered way too much. whoops!

OKAY lovely readers!
i’ve chosen my two dresses for my second nyc
jaunt (i’ll be the Lady in Red) so wish me luck and
perhaps i’ll see some of you there? i’ll be tweeting as
ever, addict that i am, over @cindypon so follow me if
you don’t already.

zai jian for now!! xo

i came back yesterday on a very nice delta flight
in which i totally lucked out and got an aisle exit row
and slept for most of the way. landed, then proceeded to
go immediately to chinese school with my bubs. no rest
for the wicked and what not. 8)

malinda and i were most definitely on Diversity Tour
Amazing Race and were just glad we survived and made
it to each event safely.

despite the frenetic madness and exhaustion, we are both
so pleased and proud for the turnouts at our tour stops.
great discussion, great readers and bloggers and writers
and friends all turned out to support us, all our authors
and some fantastic books. i estimate that we had over 300
peeps attend throughout the week, and that is simply
*tremendous*. thank you thank you thank you! <3

this saturday, i fly again to nyc for BEA. i’ll be at the
SLJ Pre-BEA Day of Dialog (5/23). my panel is at 9.15am with
authors malinda lo, rita williams-garcia and paul griffin,
moderated by liz burns. then i’ll be signing Fury on tuesday
(5/24) at 10.30pm. i’ll be tweeting @cindypon so follow me
to keep posted! =D

now, without further prattle, let me share fotos from our
first kick off event at the san francisco public library. it
was such a fantastic and fun way to kick off the tour!!

*our awesome audience! people trickled in after event started
and they had to add four more rows of chairs to accommodate!

*one of the first friends i said hello to! sarina has been an
online friend for… a decade probably. but i only met her for
the first time in 2009 for my SF Silver Phoenix signing. she drove
in from sacramento again to attend our panel. it was lovely to see
you sarina (who is a YA novels fan! =).

*teri is also an online friend, a writing one, who drove in
from sacramento. yay, it was so good to see you again, teri!

*author of Butterfly Swords, jeannie lin, was able to come
too! it was such a lovely surprise. if you’re looking for a fantastic
adventure and romance set in the tang dynasty, read Butterfly Swords!

*and cheryl, author of Breathing, was able to take time
out of a busy saturday to come! she’s a deb and we’ve all
been through so much together. it’s hard to believe it’s only
been two years or so that we’ve known each other!

*how cool is andrea’s shirt? i met andrea at the sirens
con last october and was so happy she could come in from
studies in berkeley!

*the entire panel (jon yang, malinda lo, me and gene yang) with
julia, actual teen! =) she made me laugh because the first thing
she said to me was “you’re a mom right? you’re a pretty cool mom
for reading that passage.” haha! i had read one from zhong ye’s
narrative near the beginning of Fury of the Phoenix.

*our san francisco panel was the only one that had official
sponsors! jon yang, ellen from Kearny St. Workshop, malinda lo,
betsy from San Francisco Public Library, me, gene yang and claire
from the Carl Brandon Society.

after the awesome event, we went to have dinner at LuLu’s. it was
delicious and so fun to unwind and celebrate a successful panel!

*jeannie lin and i shared this fresh made gnnochi (delicious).

*and also these chicken meatballs which were so yum too.
now i’m hungry!

*and finally, the always lovely martha flynn and i pose with
her very jiggly panna cotta (i’m sorry, but it was super jiggly).

sorry my post is totally superficial and mainly fotos (per usual, ha!)
but i’m functioning on two brain cells at the moment. =) for some
great posts about the san francisco diversity stop:

awesome recap by anne nesbet at Enchanted Inkpot

sarah stevenson, author of The Latte Rebellion, also shares
a fantastic recap at Finding Wonderland

malinda lo also posts with a wrap up over at DiYA blog!

that is all for now, darling readers. i hope to do another blog
post before i leave for nyc again this saturday, but can make no
promises. zai jian for now!!

San Francisco, California

Saturday, May 7 at 3 p.m.
San Francisco Public Library (Main Library)
Latino-Hispanic Room
100 Larkin St.
San Francisco, CA 94102

Highlighting Asian American YA books with authors Malinda Lo, Cindy Pon, Gene Luen Yang, and J.A. Yang

Presented by the Kearny St. Workshop and the SFPL Main Teen Center. Sponsored by the Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center, with community partners Oakland Asian Cultural Center and the Philippine American Writers Association. Books available for sale from Eastwind Books.

Austin, Texas

Monday, May 9 at 7:30 p.m.
BookPeople
603 N. Lamar
Austin TX 78703

With authors Bethany Hegedus, Malinda Lo, Guadalupe Garcia McCall, Cindy Pon, Dia Reeves, and Jo Whittemore, and moderated by Varian Johnson

Chicago, Illinois

Tuesday, May 10 from 5:30 to 6:45 p.m.
Barbara’s Bookstore
1218 South Halsted Street
Chicago, IL 60607

With authors Malinda Lo, Claudia Guadalupe Martinez, Nnedi Okorafor, and Cindy Pon

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Thursday, May 12 at 7 p.m.
Cambridge Public Library (Main Library)
Lecture Hall
449 Broadway
Cambridge, MA 02138

With authors Holly Black, Sarah Rees Brennan, Deva Fagan, Malinda Lo, Cindy Pon, and Francisco X. Stork, and moderated by Roger Sutton. Books available for sale from Porter Square Books.

New York, New York

Friday, May 13 at 6:30 p.m.
The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center
208 West 13th Street
New York, NY 10011

Highlighting LGBT YA books with authors Cris Beam, David Levithan, Malinda Lo, and Jacqueline Woodson. Books available for sale from Mobile Libris.

Saturday, May 14 at 1 p.m.
Books of Wonder
18 West 18th Street
New York, NY 10011

With authors Matt de la Peña, Malinda Lo, Kekla Magoon, Neesha Meminger, Cindy Pon, Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich, Rita Williams-Garcia, and Jacqueline Woodson, and moderated by Cheryl Klein

hope to see many of you there! i won’t be blogging but
i’ll be on twitter, reporting! =D

also, check out malinda’s awesome vlog below on the
TOP FIVE REASONS you should come to the Diversity Tour,
including a sneak peek on the awesome novel we are
co-writing together!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1yonaMTgMs

but in the end, i couldn’t have asked for more gorgeous
weather, the Extraordinary Desserts delivered on time,
and so many of my wonderful friends (many fellow writers
and brush artists) came to celebrate with me. thank you!!

i had a fantastic time signing with nancy holder. her third
novel in the Possessions trilogy, The Screaming Season, is out
as well. i really loved The Evil Within, and definitely recommend
this series for those interested in a suspenseful, scary and
twisty read.

*nancy and me before the signing! she wore a gorgeous
jade necklace and i’m debuting the betsy jonhson dress
i love. (which kate at Mysterious Galaxy had to help zip
me up in as no one was at home to do that for me, ha!)

*the spread from Extraordinary Desserts. so yummy.

bernadette is actually a local teen fan! YAY! am always
so thrilled when actual teen readers show up at events.
*waves to bernadette* =D

*keri is a local san diegan writer. she also brought lessa’s
gorgeous diorama so i could display it. everyone thought it
was so cool, and it is! wish you could have made it lessa!

*had the pleasure of meeting another fan, karaline. so happy
you could make it!

all in all, it was a wonderful happy day. i celebrated with my
family after with a delicious italian meal.

currently reading:

Supernaturally by kiersten white

i decided to write her awhile ago. i’m not even
sure what prompted me to do so. random surfing
online that led me to her webpage, which i’d visited
before. when her last novel, Lavinia, released, i really
truly wanted to fly up to portland for a book signing.
but the times weren’t right, and i couldn’t.

i simply wanted to let her know how much her books
meant to me, and how inspiring she was to me. so i sent
her a real fan letter. imagine my amazement tonight
(i was so busy i didn’t check the mail until 7.30pm!)
when i saw her handwritten note.

ursula said to “keep writing and painting and having joy
in both your arts”. i got teary. i am beside myself. i’m so
happy i took the time to write a fan letter to her. and how
incredible that she took the time to write back with these
words of encouragement.

Fury of the Phoenix releases next tuesday, in exactly a
week. i’ve been doing some blog interviews and one is quite
often asked: what is your favorite part of being an author?

it’s hearing from or meeting fans. there is a lot of
up and down being a writer, and even more loop de loops
when you become published. and nothing makes me think,
this is why i write, as when i get an email from a fan or have
the pleasure of meeting one.

a few weekends back, i participated on three panels at the
local ConDor and had a fantastic time. that friday, a twitter
friend said she was driving from utah (last minute decision!)
to come to the con on saturday.

i got to meet megan before my first panel. and it
wasn’t until we talked some more that i realized she
had come to the con especially to meet me! me!!
because she had just recently read Silver Phoenix and
enjoyed it. we got to chit chat a bit and talk books and
it was so much fun. thanks for driving so far, megan, and
i’m so glad we got a chance to meet! (also thanks to
mr. x for doing the actual driving! =)

speaking of being a fan and inspired by. i was
lucky enough to be on a panel with sherwood smith.
i had met sherwood at the sirens con in october but
didn’t get enough of an opportunity to chat with her.
i’m so glad i got a little more time at the con. i also bought
her newest novel, Coronets and Steel, which looks fantastic.
can’t wait to read it!

so why not take the time to write a real letter or an email
to an author whose book you’ve really enjoyed, had struck a
chord, inspired or moved you? i think you should! 8)

and for those who will actually read teasers, the first 70
pages of Fury of the Phoenix can be read online. enjoy!!

currently reading:

Water for Elephants by sara gruen

i received the actual hardcover copy of
Fury of the Phoenix in the mail today. it
never gets less amazing. seriously. and
the book is gorgeous. let me share with
you in this giddy author moment!

click for larger image, including a sneak peek
of the first page! =D

*my cover! with cassandra clare’s blurb on top.

*the binding with my calligraphy of “spirit” (hun). what was
carved on ai ling’s jade piece.

*the back, with gorgeous chinese brocade. a short teaser
from the novel and the rest of cassandra clare’s awesome blurb. woo!

*flap copy!

*chapter one with my chinese brush art chapter
decoration. and tiny daggers to mark the pages. genius!

oooh, getting so close. i’m all sorts of excited and anxious. 8)