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Series

My new series was announced, and both announcements are actually partially wrong & partially right.  

Publisher's Marketplace announced this earlier:  

"Wicked Lovely" series author Melissa Marr's new trilogy about a girl assassin, a demon with a soul, and a world where myth and science meet, to Anne Hoppe at Harper Children's, in a seven-figure deal, by Merrilee Heifetz of Writers House (world).

Publisher's Weekly announced it even earlier in the day saying 

"In an acquisition in the upper six-figure range, Anne Hoppe at HarperCollins took world rights to two books, in a currently untitled new trilogy, by bestselling YA author Melissa Marr. Merrilee Heifetz at Writers House represented Marr, who writes the Wicked Lovely series. That series is also published by HarperCollins and the first book in the new trilogy will fall under Marr's existing contract with the house. There are currently four Wicked Lovely titles—the books follow a high school junior in a small Pennsylvania town who, along with her grandmother, can see faeries—and book five, which is the final title, Darkest Mercy, is scheduled for February 2011. The new series is about a young female assassin living in a world where, as Heifetz put it, "myth meets science." HarperCollins has set fall 2013 as the tentative release for book one in the new series."

The facts: 
It IS a two book deal (not 3), but it is 2 books in a trilogy.   

It was not a six-figure deal.

The trilogy confusion . . . I had sold HC 3 books in my last YA deal, but I realized that WL was a 5 book series. . . which meant I owed them one book.  I debated a WL stand-alone, a general stand-alone, or . . .  a stand-alone w this new character.  I was pretty adamant I wasn't going to sell more books. 

Unfortunately, I kept slipping & writing little bits of it. So, in the spring I gave in, called Merrilee, & said tell Harper that I know I said "no" but I am, in fact, willing to sell more books. Two of them. A couple days later, I had sold 2 books, & now I'm writing a trilogy.  

I am weak when a story nags me. 

What else?  Hmmm.  Both announcements have agent, editor, & publisher right . . . Oh, & author ;)

. . . which is not entirely guaranteed.  Frex, right now, IMDB has someone else (with my same name) listed as the author of my books. Twice it's been fixed, yet there it is again. There is another Melissa Marr.  She is a producer.  We are not the same. 

[NOTE: I'm also not the photographer in Canada, the massage therapist in CA, or the teenager whose online presence includes some very sweet poetry & who may or may not be the same teen who uses cuss words as often as I did when I bartended ;) ]

Setting
The most important error . . . *sighs*  WL isn't set in Pennsylvania.  I was born in PA, but that's very different than my books being set there. WL is set in Huntsdale in the US. Leslie goes to Pittsburgh in INK. Ash talks about DC & Atlanta. 

And, on the setting topic, GRAVEMINDER is set in a non-specified state. 

OTOH, the story in UNBOUND is set in Raleigh NC (where I lived for a few yrs) and the manga is set in "the Mojave Desert."  I actually avoid naming states as a rule. The Raleigh story was the one prose exception.

I may have setting issues. 

Scotland, sheep, seals, & stones

I am off to NY tomorrow, & then I'm home for a week before I fly to Scotland for the month.  I'll be mostly out of touch for the month of August. I'm in need of some offline, hermit time.  There are standing stones, seals, ruins, sheep, & lochs in my future. If all goes well, there will be whisky sipping while pondering, good writing time, & definitely no business calls/email.  

In theory, I will blog at least once more before I head out to chat with the sheep, look for selchies, & wander among the stones, but if not, I'll talk to you all in September :) 

*wishing you lovely meetings w selchies or other wondrous things or amazing people*

PS To the Various Other Melissa Marrs, I'm glad I share my name with some interesting people.