*ai ling fights against demons.

i think any author will tell you that one of the
best perks of being published is receiving fan
art from readers. i have been lucky to have gotten
a few from my artistic readers and i love each and
every one of them.

imagine my surprise today when liz wong, the
fabulous artist, tweeted this beautiful drawing
(rendered in pencil and colored digitally) of ai ling to
me. don’t you love the fierce expression on my heroine’s
face? the demons and feel of the drawing reminds me of
the lake scene from Silver Phoenix–one of the very first
scenes i ever wrote for my debut. i remember brainstorming
the scene in the early dawn, and i am not a morning person!

thank you so much liz for this wonderful drawing!
and for giving me permission to share it here.

have a wonderful weekend, everyone!

ETA: oooh, the serpent demon is here too!
it’s a montage of monsters and demons! love it since
my heroine of current novel is half serpent demon!

it’s been a hectic few weeks. we survived our uk
trip! we had a lot of fun but i’m thinking the days of
all four of us trapped in a tiny motel/hotel room for
11 days may be in the past. the bubs are only getting
bigger and more rambunctious! i hid out in the lounge
most of the night in my pajamas with a book. haha!

i was able to spend my 38th birthday in london with
my bff eating and shopping! best birthday ever! it’s been
so long since i’ve spent my birthday with friends, much
less my actual birthday with my bff. it was a real treat. 8)

i’m afraid i don’t take many fotos during my london jaunts
anymore. i’ve taken so many fotos these last 15 years i’ve
been visiting. so here’s just a few to share with you.

*we spent most of the time in the countryside
near the sea. the tide was out most mornings, and the
locals would come out with galoshes on and a bucket digging
sea snails (?) from the ground to eat!

*one of many english breakfasts i had while there.
i’m afraid to step on the scale since my return. i had lots
of pastries too! love the english bakeries. (at least i hate bacon,
so i didn’t eat any of those. =) i tried black (blood) pudding for
the first time and really liked it. i think it’s pig’s blood? (it’s the
black round patty on the plate.)

*i admired the beautiful stained glass windows at
london’s natural history museum.

*munchkin especially enjoyed the dinosaur exhibits. here
he meets a real live moving t-rex.

*we also took the bubs to the Tower of London. there was a
period re-enactment outside the walls which was very entertaining.

finally, congratulations to bonnie for winning my original
bird with plum blossoms painting for the great movie poster she
made for the Fury Meets Mad Men contest! she describes the movie
poster in her own words:

I’m sure you can guess who everyone is, but at the forefront, we have Silver Phoenix and Zhong Ye; in the background, we have an image of Ai Ling (okay, I know her necklace isn’t magical anymore, but…!) and Chen Yong on the ship. I wanted to feature both couples because unlike SP, Fury is very much about both couples. SP & ZY have a more tragic, immediate, grabbing story that looks best at the forefront.

i love it, bonnie! thank you so much!
i hope you enjoy the brush painting too. =D

and the runner up is eve with this “pitch”:

Fury of the Phoenix: A Love Across Centuries and Worlds

eve’s prize is two brush art cards of her choice!

thank you so much for those of you who entered this contest!

also, our reading challenge has been extended to 10/1!
LIBRARIANS and BLOGGERS! it’s not too late to join and win
over 50 rad diverse middle grade and young adult novels!
check out the details here.

until next time!

First, the SLJ review of Fury:

Gr 9 Up—This sequel to Silver Phoenix (Greenwillow, 2009)
continues the adventure of Ai Ling… who follows her heart
by sneaking onto a ship carrying Chen Yong, bound for the
land of his father. Ai Ling is trying to protect him from the
harm she was warned about in a dream. Interwoven into the
story is the tale of Zhong Ye and his rise to power in the
Emperor’s palace and his love for Silver Phoenix. How the
lives of Ai Ling and Zhong Ye are bound together makes for an
intriguing story. Pon engages readers immediately. [The] novel
is sensuous and descriptive, and even readers unfamiliar with
the first book will find themselves unable to put this one down.
—Kathy Kirchoefer, Prince Georges County Memorial Library
System, New Carrollton, MD

yay! thank you ms. kirchoefer for the review! and although
you could read Fury without reading Silver Phoenix first, i think
it’s definitely better that you read both novels in the order they
were published.

*click for full image!

and marie, a local (for now, wah!) writer and artist was
kind enough to sketch ai ling for me. i love how loose it
is but how alive it is at the same time! don’t you think?
the expression and the eyes are especially wonderful. thanks
so much marie for this lovely fan art piece!

and finally, i’ll be attending the first YA in Bloom
luncheon at vroman’s on saturday, june 25, 1-4pm!
it includes lunch as well as discussion and fun and
lots of raffle give aways! nancy holder, lisa yee, and
katie alender are the other authors in attendance! if you’re
in the los angeles area and are a fan of young adult
novels, you should come and say HI!! click here to purchase
the $12.50 luncheon and register!

this has been a challenging week for me and i’m
looking forward to better health and less craziness
next week. =) everyone have a great weekend!

thanks to everyone who took the time to blog or
comment in the contest post with your thoughts--it
really means a lot. now i’d like to share some of the
great entries i received!! WARNING! this post contains
a whole lot of Silver Phoenix SPOILERS!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=MawgoUwOq8g

alison, a teen reader from the east coast, submitted this
fantastic vlog of why she loves Silver Phoenix. how cute is it?

i received three art entries--and what’s so fantastic
about them is that they are all from readers abroad!

by adam in thailand (using watercolor pencils)

this is the scene where chen yong saves ai ling
from his demonic doppleganger. adam mentioned
especially liking the terraced rice fields. me, too. here
is the passage from Silver Phoenix:

The sun descended, streaking the sky with ribbons of
vermilion. There was no farmstead in sight. Lush terraced
fields reflected the light. The fields had collected recent rains,
and the crops grew from pools tinted rose, gold, and green.

my comments: other than the terraced fields that i love,
this scene is where chen yong and ai ling join
each nother again. i especially love the sword
wielding action from chen yong. he looks fierce!

by annie in calgary, canada (using .7 lead and pencil crayons)

my comments: annie is also a teen reader! and i think this portrait
of ai ling is just lovely. i love the colors and i love that she’s holding
a calligraphy brush in one hand!

by haricha in the uk (using coloring pencils, ink, Photoshop
Elements and Imagine FX brushes)

my comments: i love the surrealism of this piece! how
ai ling holding her jade pendant is blending into the
chinese dragon behind her. gorgeous!

i also received some great written entries!

lauren from ottawa, canada submitted a fan fiction piece
titled “A Smile from Ear to Ear” based on a japanese monster.
she said she enjoyed the monsters from Silver Phoenix the most.
below is an excerpt, shared with permission:

When I woke up I was not sure where I was. At first I believed I was in the gardens of heaven. An angry wasp stinging me made me realize this was not the case. I was lying on the edge of a river, my clothes ripped and covered in blood. I struggled to stand up and crawled to the water to clean myself. Then I saw what my lord had done. He had taken his sword and split my mouth from ear to ear, giving me a grotesque smile. I was a monster. I remember feeling an unholy anger that sustained me when I could not find food or drink. My wounds became infected and I wandered the countryside in a delirious fever. I wanted to hurt and kill someone as my lord had to done to me. I did not know what to do, until the man found me.

He called himself Zhong Ye. He offered to help me get revenge, for a price. He offered to give me power to destroy my lord and any man who stood in my path. The power to hurt any man who threatened his wife the way mine did. My lord and husband had taken Xiu Ying from me. He had beaten me and scarred my body daily, then had the nerve to insist I had been betrayed him for another man. He did not even have the honour to kill me, only the cowardice to scar me. I readily agreed, not caring about what it might cost me. Zhong Ye filled me with spells and powers with only one command: I must find the girl named Ai Ling.

First I had to see to my own desires. I went to the grand palace. My lord was there feasting with his friends. He had remarried a young nubile girl half my age. I doubted that she had even begun her moon time. An angry feeling twisted within my heart. I waited until the night fell and snuck into the castle. He was sleeping on the pallet, his arm curled around his naked bride.

my comments: whoa! right? the entire piece is dark,
creepy and horrifying. but lauren ends the story on a hopeful
note, with ai ling’s help. i really enjoyed this story.

heather zundel wrote a wonderful Silver Phoenix
haiku sequence. here, i share the first stanzas. to read
the poem in it’s entirety, click over to heather’s blog.

Mere daughter
Unworthy of esteem by most
but cherished by a father still

One day, a letter
a summons from the emperor
leaves -- but does not come home

A journey begins
the step beyond the light is dark
but time -- too short

Courage, a medallion
gifts of her father, but to take hold of another’s spirit
a gift of her own

The world is wide
unknown dangers always lurk
a reflection of life

The pool seems safe
cool water, soft lilies bloom
but the monster’s hands are strong

my comments: i really enjoyed this poem. i was
especially impressed because heather had written it
same day and without much revising, which she lamented.
i think that’s why it read so true and so organic.

and finally, LT uses her craft skills and beyond to
bring a scene from the immortals gardens to life!

this is a scene in which ai ling, chen yong
and li rong enter the immortals gardens of the
golden palace. unusual trees such as the Love Lost
Tree greet the three friends.

Ai Ling stopped at the first tree, its trunk as thick as
three men, the roots gnarled and spread wide, drinking
deep from the ground. Its ivory leaves were shaped like
the palms of hands, and it bore fruit--glistening human
hearts that beat rhythmically on white stems. A jade placard
set into the ground had the words LOVE LOST TREE etched in
gold upon it.

my comments: um. amazing? you really must click over to
LT’s site to read about how she made the entire scene. she
mentioned some details she missed, but truly, what she has
is so wonderful. and it isn’t about getting the exact details right,
when she brought the feel of the entire scene to life. i love it.

the winner: so truly, how fabulous are Silver Phoenix
fans? i wish i had more Fury arcs to share! the grand
prize goes to LT for her fantastic hand crafted recreation of
the immortals gardens in the golden palace. i’d like to give a
second Fury arc to haricha for the wonderful mixed-media piece
of ai ling and the red dragon. congratulations to both winners!

and for everyone else mentioned in this entry, i’d love to share
some Fury swag if you’re willing to email your posting address. i
truly was so impressed and touched by the creativity, time and
thought all of you put into these entries. <3 thank you,
everyone! i hope you enjoyed these entries as much as i did!

squee!!! look at the wonderful portrait the
talented natalie whipple drew for me of ai ling
and chen yong together. don’t you love it?

be sure to click on the drawing to see a larger
version! i couldn’t be more thrilled. thanks so much
natalie!! i love it!!!

so exciting! philomela was kind enough to
do fan art of li rong, the charming funny younger
brother to chen yong! beautifully done, philomela!
and THANK YOU! i love fan art!

you can see more of philomela’s art
on her blog here. =D

i’ll be doing an ucsd alumni interview tomorrow
which i’m excited about, as i have such fond memories
of my time there. on thursday is my half hour podcast at
book bites for kids @ noon, pacific. i’ll tweet about it
on the day and do a count down. apparently, listeners
can call in? i’m not sure. ha!

still writing diligently on the sequel.
AND i got diamond plops. couldn’t be
happier that my story is slowly revealing itself
to me, one perfect facet at a time.

this is my first official “fan art” by the
very talented writer and artist, natalie.
i know she’s a great writer because i’ve
read her novel excerpts (her blog posts
are great reads too!) and i’m a devoted fan
of her saturday sketches. i actually feel a little
sad if i’m too busy that day and forget to
check in! i love her sketch of chen yong, my hero!

we were just randomly chatting on facebook
and i mentioned that i still don’t know exactly
what chen yong looks like in my mind. i have
concrete details of course : the color of his eyes,
the shape of his face and jawline, his height…
one day, when i have hours of free time, i shall
google hot hapa men images at my leisure to
see if i can find him. ha!

daniel henney (who is corean and british) is too
old to play my hero, but he’s certainly got the
right features! let’s all close our mouths at the
same time now. ha! whew!

it’s been hard trying to work while having
munchkin home with me full time. i’m taking
minced-steps in writing and also researching
at the same time. tonight, there’s an artist reception
for the san diego county fair art exhibit. some grown
up fun time with my fellow artist friends. =)

more interview links! this one is great as shesten
over at iheartmonster asked some specific questions
about how characters are named in Silver Phoenix,
the religion they’d practice, etc. there’s also a chance
to win a copy of Silver Phoenix if you guess what
common television show we both love to watch.
(i list ten in my interview. =)

and it is not too late to enter my own silver
phoenix release contest! i think we’re very close
to two hundred participants! please comment
on actual post! have a wonderful weekend!!