Showing posts with label Learning Not to Drown. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Learning Not to Drown. Show all posts

Apr 2, 2016

2 Years Since "Learning Not to Drown"

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Aug 24, 2015

Anna Had Learning Not To Drown/Die Mitte Von Allem Signing at RocknHeim

Anna did a book signing at a venue that Linkin Park played. If anyone went and has pictures or anything they want to share, just send me an email. :)


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Jun 16, 2015

Signed Copy of Learning Not to Drown up For Auction

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May 31, 2015

Weekly Roundup 5/31/15


  • Check out this cool book infographic by Epic Reads. "Learning Not to Drown" is in the Autumn section:






  • "Die Mitte Von Allem" received an award:




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Apr 4, 2015

Weekly Roundup 4/4/15


  • Wednesday marked one year since Anna's first novel, Learning Not to Drown was released. :)





  • Talinda is volunteering to help out kids:





  • Chester was interviewed by ARTISTdirect about Stone Temple Pilots and it's a good read! Check it out here. ARTISTdirect also posted 8 of Chester's favorite 90's albums here.




  • Steve Aoki announced that he worked with Linkin Park again and the song is called Darker Than Blood:






  • Icon VS Icon interviewed Joe about his movie MALL and how he got started directing with Linkin Park and about his style. Read it here!

That's all for this week. Happy Easter!
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Mar 14, 2015

Weekly Roundup 3/14/15


  • Anna got her German edition of Learning Not to Drown:



A photo posted by Anna Shinoda (@annashinoda) on



  • Check out Chester's interview with AltWire! It's his first interview since he broke his ankle. He even clears up the rumors about how it happened. Read it here.


  • Mike tweeted something pretty hilarious about Anna:


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Feb 4, 2015

Anna's Blog Post About German Translation of LNTD

Anna wrote up a blog on her website about the German translation of Learning Not to Drown (Die Mitte Von Allem) and how it feels for her book to be translated into another language. You can read it here!



Thanks for leting me know about the post, crazygirl!
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Jan 8, 2015

Learning Not to Drown is Coming to Germany

Anna let everyone on her instagram know that "Learning Not to Drown" will be released in Germany called "Die Mitte Von Allem" (translates into "The Center of Everything) on January 20th.

A photo posted by Anna Shinoda (@annashinoda) on


`You can order it on Amazon here. Thanks crazygirl!
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Dec 8, 2014

Forever Stuck Between Love and Fear by Anna

In case you missed it, Anna wrote a blog about the inspiration behind "Learning Not to Drown". Check it out at her site: https://annashinoda.wordpress.com/2014/12/08/forever-stuck-between-love-and-fear-the-inspiration-behind-learning-not-to-drown/
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Nov 26, 2014

Signed "Learning Not to Drown" Poster and Book

Mike has painted what he imagined Clare from "Learning Not to Drown" looked like and you can buy a signed (by Mike) print of it along with Anna's book (signed by her).

This limited edition package includes a hardcover copy of Learning Not to Drown signed by Anna Shinoda and an exclusive 18” x 24” fine art matte poster illustrated and signed by Mike Shinoda.  Only 50 available. 
http://store.linkinpark.com/signed-learning-not-to-drown-book-and-poster.html#.VHZrevnF8nP


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Oct 2, 2014

Learning to Drown Was Released 6 Months Ago!

It's been 6 months since the release of Anna's first novel, Learning Not to Drown! Isn't it hard to believe? Well Anna has posted an awesome blog post with a bunch of lovely photos. You can check it out at AnnaShinoda.com


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Sep 28, 2014

MTV Book Round Up: Learning Not to Drown

MTV posted a list of books about pro-social issues for young people and Learning Not to Drown was on it.

Clare is dealing with a number of things teens deal with: trying to figure out what college to go to, handling overly strict parents, attempting to become independent. A number of other things that touch her life aren’t quite as common, but they still often happen, and they can be taboo to talk about: a family member in prison, addiction and sexual assault. Clare doesn’t want to hide these skeletons in her family closet, and she has to come to grips with what’s really happening in order to overcome it. This debut novel from Anna Shinoda, wife of Linkin Park’s Mike, is inspired by some real happenings from her childhood, and it packs a wallop.



 Thanks crazygirl for letting me know.
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Aug 15, 2014

Anna's New York Signings

Heads up New York fans! Anna will be doing a signing and discussion tonight at 7pm in Valley Stream, NY. She will be in New York, NY on the 20th also.

FRIDAY, AUGUST 15, 2014 7pm Signing and discussion of Learning Not to Drown Sip This Valley Stream, NY

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 20, 2014  7pm Signing and discussion of Learning Not to Drown Bluestocking New York, NY

http://annashinoda.wordpress.com/events/
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Anna's Quality Time in Boston

Check out this article and lovely photo from the Boston Globe:

© Aram Boghosian
Author Anna Shinoda experienced some of the best of Boston on Thursday. First, she visited the art-packed, Back Bay home of Smoki Bacon and Dick Concannon for an episode of their show “The Literati Scene.” Then she hung out on Newbury Street. It was a nice way to enjoy the city — and promote her debut novel, “Learning Not to Drown” — while her husband, Mike Shinoda, of the band Linkin Park, tours the East Coast. The band plays the Xfinity Center with Jared Leto’s 30 Seconds to Mars and AFI on Saturday night. While lunching at Stephanie’s on Newbury, Shinoda told us that she knows the area pretty well. Her brother-in-law attended Amherst and Harvard, and she used to visit him while touring with the band. “We used to get so excited when we pulled into Boston,” she said, remembering Linkin Park’s early touring days. “The food here is so good.” Shinoda’s young adult novel, which was released in April, is about a teen’s complicated relationship with her brother who’s been in and out of jail and struggles with addiction. Shinoda worked on the book for about a decade before it hit shelves, but said the timing of the novel’s release turned out to be just right. There’s been a recent surge of interest in realistic young adult novels because of authors such as John Green, who penned “The Fault in Our Stars.” Shinoda said Green is one of her favorites, as are Meg Rosoff and Cambridge regular Neil Gaiman. “I just read a lot of him. In general, I love dark stuff.”
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Aug 11, 2014

Mike and Anna Talk "Learning Not to Drown"

Check out this interview by ARTISTdirect with both Anna and Mike!
http://www.artistdirect.com/entertainment-news/article/interview-anna-shinoda-and-linkin-park-s-mike-shinoda-talk-learning-not-to-drown/11085696
Your prose in Learning Not to Drown is very dreamy at times, but the story itself remains realistic and relatable. How do you balance those two sentiments?

Anna Shinoda: I think part of that has to do with my writing process in general. I probably spend ninety percent of my process daydreaming, which I think lends itself to that otherworldly feeling in parts of the book. I'll be thinking about something, and a scene will start coming together in my mind. Slowly, I'll feel things like the smells and what's going on in the dialogue. Once I've got a really good handle on the scene, I'll sit down and start typing it in. I try to get that daydream into the computer. I come back in and make it more cohesive as a story in my revision process. I did 22 full revisions of the novel, and that's not including individual chapter revisions. In that process, I tried to get it a little more concrete and shape it into an understandable story with a beginning, middle, and end.

You allow the reader into Clare's head, while clearly establishing her character.

Anna Shinoda: Absolutely! That's something which was really important to me because I wanted the reader to really experience what it's like to have a family member who's incarcerated. It was really crucial for me to get to the point where the reader felt like he or she was right there with Clare for the whole journey.

The book begins examining her family very quickly, thrusting the reader into conflict.

Anna Shinoda: The funny thing is, in my first draft, I trade to make it a big surprise the brother was in prison. Like halfway through the book, you find out, "Whoa, that's what's going on!" It didn't work. It was great to do a revision where I put it out there in the beginning and started getting into these problems within the family and not have it be this secret from the reader. It worked out well.

Do you tend to listen to music while you're writing?

Anna Shinoda: When I'm writing, I actually like to listen to music without any words. So, I generally go to classical music. Emerson String Quartet is a group of musicians I was listening to a lot while I was writing this. What they do has this dark, unsettling feeling to it, but it also has a hopeful feeling as well. That was one of the groups I listened to. I'll listen to pretty much any classical music in general as long as it's not too well-known. I wouldn't want to be listening to "Fur Elise" or something because my brain already knows that and can go off on other memories made with that song in the background.

Mike, what was your first reaction to reading Learning Not to Drown? When did you first experience it and what did you feel?

Mike Shinoda: Well, I first read a version of it that felt more like a memoir. Anna worked on this book for the better part of ten years. The early version was like her getting things off her chest. There was stream-of-consciousness as well as more specific memories and whatnot. As it developed and got better, she sort of removed herself and her actual situation from the story and replaced those elements with more colorful and interesting characters that were bigger than real life. That's not to say it's some epic fantasy. It's actually a very realistic and complex novel. That's what I like about it. I got to watch that process happen, and she made a lot of choices to make the story a better story. This is true for music as well. It's even more true for painting and drawing, which is what I went to school for. Sometimes, when you draw something that's too much like the actual thing, it doesn't feel very real. Then, when you take artistic license in the colors and the depth, it starts to feel more like what you feel when you look at something. I think that was true for Anna's story.

Anna Shinoda: I wanted to mention, Mike was able to help critique what I was doing and give me feedback throughout the whole process. He doesn't read a ton of things, but he's really good at giving a critical eye to something. There were certain chapters where I wanted to make sure I didn't mess up the boy parts, especially when Peter is describing what he saw to Clare. I wanted to make sure that rang true, and it sounded like a teenage boy is telling a story to his sister and not an adult woman trying to pose as a teenage boy telling a story [Laughs]. Mike was really helpful with little tweaks like, "No, no, a guy would never say that. Take that out and put it this way instead". That was hugely helpful for me.

In both of your respective art forms, you've examined addiction. How do you personalize that exploration of such a touchy subject and communicate something different?

Anna Shinoda: One of the things I've learned throughout the years of having personal relationships with several people who had addiction problems, the bottom line is that they deserve respect as human beings and the addiction is only a fraction of their lives. That's something I think, a lot of times, people forget in the depiction of addicts in movies and things like that. They're normal people for most of the time until they flip into the addiction. A lot of them function very highly. Personally, I wanted to communicate this very realistic view of what that is like. The drugs and alcohol and the effects they have on a person aren't there all the time. Whether consciously or subconsciously, that was important for me to get through in my story. It's difficult as someone who loves that person to experience both sides of them.

Mike Shinoda: On my end, the first thing I think of is the approach. If you know someone who is an addict, it's always a difficult thing. From my perspective, something that has been the most effective but also difficult is to say to that person, "You're doing something to yourself that affects you. It affects other people around you. I care about you, but I also can't put up with this". You really have to stick to your guns as far as drawing a line and saying, "If you continue to be this way, then I have no choice but to not participate—not hang out with you anymore or not have a relationship with you anymore". It's whatever you have to do in order to protect yourself. They're at the mercy of this other voice inside their head. Oftentimes, it's a very convincing voice. They need to realize it's doing something negative to them because it may not seem like it is.

What books, movies, or music do you two bond over?

 Anna Shinoda: We share a lot in common. We're both museum nerds. Whenever we're out on tour, something I know Mike will always want to do is go check out a museum or an art show. As far as our taste goes, we both like dark but interesting art.

 Mike Shinoda: It's definitely darker and more serious stuff, but it's not just dark for the sake of being dark.

Anna Shinoda: We also like dark comedies.

 Mike Shinoda: You could be talking about Mark Ryden or Murakami or a movie like Fight Club or Tim Burton's movies. What did we watch recently, Anna?

Anna Shinoda: It was Donnie Darko, and we both walked away going, "Huh?" We never saw it when it came out. We were on vacation, and we decided to watch it. My all-time favorite movie is Harold and Maude. Mike's is Se7en. We're interested in this art that's sort of dark, but you can still take a step back and find the humor. Book-wise, we both love Augusten Burroughs and David Sedaris. If you're reading those without humor, it'll come across as incredibly dark. With that humor, it adds this extra layer. That's something Mike and I instinctively enjoy. There are also some classical painters we bond over. Rubens is one of our favorites. It has that dark, bizarre, and interesting side to it.

Mike, given The Hunting Party's heavier edge, what heavy records impacted you the most?

 Mike Shinoda: Coincidentally, I was listening to a playlist I made of newer rock music. Then, I flipped over to a playlist I made while we were writing The Hunting Party. There's something special about albums like The Refused's The Shape of Punk to Come, At the Drive-In's Relationship of Command, and Betty by Helmet. Those are some albums that were defining moments in what I liked about my experience with rock 'n' roll. They're defining moments in my experience with rock music. Because I listened to a lot of hip-hop, I didn't like all rock. The closest thing I came to that is when grunge became really popular, I liked a lot of those bands. I didn't like all of them though. I'm still pretty picky about what bands and songs I like. I think that's more familiar to people these days because of the access to individual songs with streaming and all that. Back in the nineties, it wasn't. You'd be buying albums on cassette and CD. Your mentality was you'd like the artist or the album and not the individual songs from each.

How clear is the whole vision for both of you while you're creating?

Mike Shinoda: For The Hunting Party, ground zero was a day when I couldn't find something to listen to. I was going through all of my music services trying to find an aggressive and modern song. There were so few of them that fit the description I had in my head. None of them were exactly what I wanted. Then, I realized what I was writing at the time was not that. It was more like what alternative radio sounds like now. I felt like I was playing it safe to some degree, and I wasn't making the challenging album I could be making. I put that aside. I ended up putting it in a folder and basically throwing it away. A batch of new things started happening, and it was much more exciting. It comes down to the fact that for rock music and our band in particular, we're living in a time where the metrics by which you measure success are changing. Success isn't chart position. It's not income for us at least. There's something else out there which measures success. It has to do with the excitement of the fans online. It has to do with the excitement of the fans at the shows. I'm grateful that fans will go out and buy the albums and songs. If that's how they want to show support, I'm very grateful. I also know that under the radar, our concert tickets have been selling like crazy. People are really coming out to see the shows. I think that speaks more to the connection we've got with the fans in part because of this album. It's hard for us to get played on the radio with our first single being a six-minute metal song [Laughs].

Anna Shinoda: I'd written other manuscripts before this one, and they didn't sell. Part of the reason this one ended up selling, being published, and doing decently is because incarceration and its effect on family members is really important to me. I grew up with a brother in-and-out-of prison. For me, it was finding a topic that was so important and true to myself and then doing research and exploring how that fit in the world in general and trying to create a novel that shows the reality in that situation. It was difficult to write, but it had that seed of importance and passion for me, at the same time. As I'm moving forward and working on other projects, that's now where I'm starting. My next project is a really important topic for me whether it's personally or something I'm seeing in the world around on me that I feel is an incredible injustice. It isn't talked about or dealt with in a way that perhaps it should be. The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world. When you consider that there are close to two million people in the prison, think of all the family members out there. When I was doing research, I realized that was close to a lot of people as well as me. Many people don't want to open up and talk about it and the effects it has on families, but it's happening regardless.

When are you two going to work on something together?

 Mike Shinoda: It would be a lot of fun. We've talked about it! We don't have anything at this moment though.

Anna Shinoda: There are no concrete plans, but it would be a lot of fun.

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Anna Shinoda Book Signing and Reading

Anna will be doing a book signing in New York. Check out the event page on facebook for all the info.
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Jul 8, 2014

Anna's Goodreads Q&A

You can ask Anna questions about Learning Not to Drown on Goodreads here. There are two questions on there so far:



Your book was really great! Will you write an another book ? 

Anna Shinoda: Thank you! I am currently working on another young adult novel. I don't like to rush the creative process, so it may take me a while to complete a draft that I am happy enough with to show my agent. For now, I am slowly working away at it. Don't worry - I promise it won't take me ten years to write this book!

While writing your book did you ever sketch or draw your characters to help visualize or describe them?

Anna Shinoda: I did not. I can draw decently when I have a model to look at, but I'm not that great at sketching things from my imagination.

I had a vivid visual in my mind as to what each of my characters looked like, but since incarceration can affect families regardless of their race or economic status, I wanted to leave room for the readers to fill in some of those details. Of course, some visual clues are necessary.

Sometimes from draft to draft, these visuals need to change. For example: blond hair on Mandy was too stereotypical. When I decided to change it, I realized making her a brunette would be potentially too similar to Clare, so I went with auburn hair. With enough of those types of little tweaks, I was having a hard time remembering what had changed draft to draft. I had to read through the entire novel in order to create a cheat sheet, with the characters' names, descriptions, hobbies, etc. Now when I'm writing I add that information in a notebook as I work.
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Jun 20, 2014

Amazon Music Book Club Interview with Mike

Mike did an interview about books and here are some quotes about Anna and Learning Not to Drown:

" I occasionally will read fiction because my wife Anna is a writer of young adult fiction. She just released her first book, Learning Not To Drown, and she is very discerning when it comes to recommending a book for me. She was the first to turn me on to David Sedaris. She told me about House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer, which is about a clone who lives in this future country that exists between the border of America and Mexico and ruled over by an opium king. "


"She let me read it at various points when she felt like she had gotten the book to the next level. I probably read it a dozen times because she’d been writing it over the course of almost 10 years. I read many different versions of it. Just thinking about reading it once a year… a lot happens in that amount of time."


"I should say the other book fans should check out is Learning Not To Drown, my wife’s book."

Thanks for the heads up, crazygirl! ;)
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Anna's Q&A During #TheHuntingParty Listening Party

Yesterday during #TheHuntingParty twitter listening party, Anna did a Q&A. Crazgirl got the question and answers together for us and you can read it all below. :)

About The Hunting Party:
1. Mike prepared me that I "might not like listening to" #TheHuntingParty My reaction on 1st listen? Can't wait to hear these songs live.
2.
Q: Why didn't @mikeshinoda think you like listening to #TheHuntingParty?
A: I listen to a lot of old lady music: swing & big band & standards. #TheHuntingParty couldn't be farther from Frank Sinatra.
3. Rebellion is my favorite song on #TheHuntingParty
4.
Q: does mike let you listen to unfinished songs? #TheHuntingParty
A: sometimes,but I like to wait until it's complete
5. Love Mike's vocals at the end of A Line in the Sand. #TheHuntingParty
6.
Q: you think mike is happy with the new album? #TheHuntingParty
A: extremely. He only releases work he is proud of.

About Linkin Park:
1.
Q: are you actually a LP fan? Are you listening to their stuff on a daily basis?  
A: Yes. I honestly love every album
2.
Q: Do you go concerts and tours with group?
A: When I can. I especially like taking pictures of them performing.
3.
Q: If Mike asked you, would you sing in a Linkin Park song?
A: Ummm. No. I'm a writer, not a singer. LOL

About Mike and family:
1.
Q: does mike read your books?
A: Yes
2.
Q: As a writer, have you ver gave @mikeshinoda any tips to work on his lyrics?! #TheHuntingParty
A: lyrics are much different from writing a novel. I wouldn't have much input. Besides he doesn't need any from me. :)
3.
Q: does Mike ever have time to help you come up with ideas for writing?
A: Mike is very helpful & critiques my work when I ask.
4.
Q: Mike is Really so Funny??
A: yes
5.
Q: How you handle your career with your husband's career and your family?
A: We are supportive & respectful of each other.

About Learning Not To Drown:
1.
Q: any chance of a book tour for Learning Not to Drown? It was incredible by the way.
A: Nothing planned as far as a tour for LNTD right now, but if dates come up I'll add them to my website & tweet.
2.
Q: With LNTD, did you write a narcissistic mother, an enabling father and a golden child sibling based on personal experience?
A: I did a lot of research, and tried to represent the ways family members deal with incarceration as best as I could.

About new novel:
1.
Q:do you have any plans for next book?
A: Working on one right now.
2.
Q: I'm a voracious reader &LNTD was a food for my soul. Awesome work. Whats your plan next?
A: Another realistic fiction novel
3.
Q: what can you tell us about the next book?
A: It is starting to finally come together as a book instead of a pile of ideas.

About Book Club:
1.
Q: Anna, will you do more book clubs? I couldn't be at any of them :( But I wish to participate!
A: no plans for a book club right now. Trying to finish my next novel. If I start it up again, I'll send out a tweet!

About books:
1.
Q: Anna what kind of novels you love to read more? :)
A: I read a lot of YA fiction. Favorite authors: Meg Rosoff, Neil Gaiman, Nancy Farmer.
2.
Q: Who is your favorite author?
A: Meg Rosoff & Neil Gaiman.

About writing:
1.
Q: How long did it take you to write the book?
A: It took 10 years. Hopefully this next one won't take so long!
2.
Q: Have you always enjoyed writing?
A: Yes. I used to fill notebooks with stories over the summer when I was bored.
3.
Q: I'm writing a book (first one) do you have any good advice? :)
A: take some writing classes if you can, read as much as you can & read On Writing by Stephen King & Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott.
4. I start with an idea that I am passionate about. I daydream, let the characters become real, then start writing their story
5.
Q: where do you find your inspiration to write?
A: Real life. I write about things I am interested in, concerned about.
6.
Q: Recently, i lost my sense of write.I do it but IDK what I'm writting
A: keep writing, even if you don't know where it will lead.
7.
Q: How do you deal with writer's block?
A: I write something that has nothing to do with what I'm working on.
8.
Q: the part I struggle with writing is sticking to one idea and finishing a book. Any advice on sticking to one idea?
A: Put it away for a few weeks, then come back to it with fresh eyes. Also, have other writers critique your work.
9.
Q: do you wanna bring your book into a movie, someday?
A: Yes! If it can be done in a way that preserves the integrity of the story.

About other things:
1.
Q: What do enjoy doing in your free time?
A: not a lot of free time, but I try to fit in reading & hiking when I can
2.
Q: And do you like drawing or painting?
A: I do. I'm not incredibly talented at it, but I find it enjoyable.
3.
Q: What's your the most favourite movie? :)
A: Harold and Maude
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Jun 15, 2014

Anna at Barnes & Noble

I somehow missed when Anna tweeted this photo. :)

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