So, big news! The ebook of Unearthly will be released on April 19! This is me SHOUTING it from the rooftops!!!! You can pre-order your copy on Nook here. Woohoo!
Ironically, this week my Kindle bit the dust. It's a first generation Kindle that was generously handed down from my dad's wife more than three years ago, and it has been with me through it all, including a killer rainstorm when my dad and I were out fishing one time and I seriously thought we were going to get struck by lightning, and my Kindle got soaked. It was a good, tough little Kindle. My precious. Sniffle.
So. I wasted no time in ordering a new one. There are books I NEED to read, and with a newborn it is so hard to get to the bookstore (although I have been in to Barnes and Noble with M once, and she was properly awestruck). I am sorry my old Kindle didn't live to see the day that it could house the official ebook of Unearthly. . .
Also, join me today at 5pm EST for a live chat on Inkpop.com about how to sell a trilogy to a publishing house. Here's the link to the "inktips" I gave for the event, on how to create a paranormal world, and here's the link for the chat. Yay! I love live chats!
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Saturday, March 26, 2011
First Things First
I've got a lot to catch up on, clearly, and some very cool news, but first things first.
I had my baby on March 7! Hence I have spent the last almost-three weeks in a cozy cocoon of new baby bliss, just getting to know my little girl Madeleine Grace (Maddie). I am still in that stage where I can't stop staring at her in disbelief of how beautiful she is. She is the most precious little chunk (she was 9 pounds when she was born, good grief!) in the world, and we are all head over heels in love with her.
She also has her days and her nights switched, so I am TI-RED. At 8pm her eyes snap open and she is ready to rock for several hours. So she and I are up in the wee hours, which is hard for me because I am so not a night owl; I am a go-to-bed-at 10, wake-up-at-6 kind of person. But all in all, we're doing great. We watch late-night TV. She's a mellow baby.
I love this phase when she stares at everything like she's astonished, her mouth this perfect little O.
Ahem. Okay, enough baby gushing.
In other news, I've been assured that the ebook release is right around the corner, any day now, so keep your eyes peeled for that. Plus, rights to Unearthly recently sold in Brazil and Hungary. Woohoo! Conquering the world!
Speaking of Unearthly out there on the shelves, a while back I promised you a video of Unearthly in the wild. I made this video (below), and I tried to put in at least one photo from every person who sent me photos in February. The key word here is "tried." For some reason, some of the photos didn't turn out--I could see them fine in the thumbnail, but when I downloaded them there was a little bit of photo at the top and then gray all the rest of the way down. This sucks, since there were some awesome photos that didn't make it in my video because of this. I will post the video as is, but if for some reason YOUR photo didn't make it in, email the photo to me again, as a jpeg of reasonable size, and I will try again and re-release the video.
I love this slideshow, btw. It makes me feel so proud and amazed every time I watch it. So, enjoy!
I had my baby on March 7! Hence I have spent the last almost-three weeks in a cozy cocoon of new baby bliss, just getting to know my little girl Madeleine Grace (Maddie). I am still in that stage where I can't stop staring at her in disbelief of how beautiful she is. She is the most precious little chunk (she was 9 pounds when she was born, good grief!) in the world, and we are all head over heels in love with her.
She also has her days and her nights switched, so I am TI-RED. At 8pm her eyes snap open and she is ready to rock for several hours. So she and I are up in the wee hours, which is hard for me because I am so not a night owl; I am a go-to-bed-at 10, wake-up-at-6 kind of person. But all in all, we're doing great. We watch late-night TV. She's a mellow baby.
Ahem. Okay, enough baby gushing.
In other news, I've been assured that the ebook release is right around the corner, any day now, so keep your eyes peeled for that. Plus, rights to Unearthly recently sold in Brazil and Hungary. Woohoo! Conquering the world!
Speaking of Unearthly out there on the shelves, a while back I promised you a video of Unearthly in the wild. I made this video (below), and I tried to put in at least one photo from every person who sent me photos in February. The key word here is "tried." For some reason, some of the photos didn't turn out--I could see them fine in the thumbnail, but when I downloaded them there was a little bit of photo at the top and then gray all the rest of the way down. This sucks, since there were some awesome photos that didn't make it in my video because of this. I will post the video as is, but if for some reason YOUR photo didn't make it in, email the photo to me again, as a jpeg of reasonable size, and I will try again and re-release the video.
I love this slideshow, btw. It makes me feel so proud and amazed every time I watch it. So, enjoy!
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| Make a free picture slideshow |
Thursday, February 3, 2011
And the title for Book 2 is:
HALLOWED.
(Happy sigh.)
I am so in love with this title, and so thrilled that the folks at HarperTeen loved it as much as I did.
The word describes something holy and revered, which I think works on SO many levels with what is happening in my book.
(Another happy sigh.)
In honor of the occasion, I'm posting 2 music videos, the first being the only song I could find with the word "hallowed" in it that I could connect with my book:
The second video is OneRepublic's "All Fall Down," which was one of those songs I listened to again and again while I was in the process of writing Hallowed that reflected the emotion of the book.
Hallowed!
(Happy sigh.)
I am so in love with this title, and so thrilled that the folks at HarperTeen loved it as much as I did.
The word describes something holy and revered, which I think works on SO many levels with what is happening in my book.
(Another happy sigh.)
In honor of the occasion, I'm posting 2 music videos, the first being the only song I could find with the word "hallowed" in it that I could connect with my book:
The second video is OneRepublic's "All Fall Down," which was one of those songs I listened to again and again while I was in the process of writing Hallowed that reflected the emotion of the book.
Hallowed!
Sunday, January 30, 2011
FAQ and January Bookplate Giveaway
Hi y'all.
It's been a long while since my last post, but I have excuses, of course:
Excuse A) I have been super busy launching my book and going on tour (more pics and recaps of the tour to follow soon.)
Excuse B) I have been SUPER busy working on edits for Book 2
Excuse C) On top of that, I just starting teaching for the semester at Pepperdine, a novel-writing class this time. My students rock, by the way, but then they always do.
Excuse D) I am still a mom and a wife and a home-owner, and I have to keep everybody in my family alive and fed and in clean underwear and my house from getting up and crawling away. This, regrettably, takes a lot of my waking hours.
So pick your excuse. But I promise, a time is coming pretty soon where the book will be done and the semester will be rolling along smoothly and then I will start playing CATCH-UP in a major way, starting with this blog.
Until then, I wanted to answer a few frequently-asked questions:
YES, there is going to be a sequel to Unearthly! I swear, I get like four or five emails a day asking me if there's a sequel. YES! See Excuse B! Oh so yes! There will also definitely be a Book 3, and quite likely a Book 4, so stay tuned.
The sequel does have an official title, but I'm not allowed to announce it just yet. I love the title, though, and it's the title I wanted almost all along for the book.
The sequel will be out, if all goes according to plan, in January 2012. I realize that this is a horribly long time to wait. I sympathize. But that's just the publishing industry. One year between books is pretty standard, or so I'm told.
I may be biased on the subject, but in my not-so-humble opinion, Book 2 will be worth the wait. :)
On to the second most asked FAQ: Will Unearthly be available as an ebook?
YES! There will be an ebook copy of Unearthly available, I swear. And SOON. I love brick and morter bookstores so much, and I love real, printed copies of books even more, but I have to admit that getting an ereader revolutionized the way I read. So I am extremely happy to know that Unearthly will be an ebook very soon. I promise, the second it's available I will be shouting it from the rooftops.
Question 3: When will you come to my city so you can sign my copy?
This is the part where I sigh wistfully. I would love to come to your city and sign a copy for you. But it's complicated. You might have noticed the basketball-sized lump on my belly if you've seen any of the current photos of me. Yes, folks, I'm creating a life right now. A girl, who I am oh-so-excited to meet. But the one drawback is that they won't let me go on an airplane after this week.
So, at least until early summer, I think, I'm grounded. I am doing a couple of events in the area, one in Los Angeles at Flintridge Books on February 13, 4pm. And the other sometimes in February at Pepperdine--we're still working out the details. But that's about it for a while.
So, if you want me to sign a copy of my book, one awesome thing you could do is to participate in my Bookplate giveaway. Here's how you do it:
1) Go to your local bookstore and take 2 pictures, one of Unearthly on the shelf in all its booky glory (make sure we can see the other books around it, too, as part of the fun for me is seeing what company I'm keeping), and one of you holding the book.
OR if you purchased your copy of Unearthly via the internet, simply take a picture of the book is some kind of humorous situation. Like this:
Sigh. I love this photo. Two girls fighting over my book. What author wouldn't love that?
Ahem, anyway, take a funny Unearthly picture!
2) Email me the photos, along with your name, address, and the name/location of the bookstore where you took the photos. My email address: writercynthiahand@gmail.com
THEN, I will:
3) add your photos to my Unearthly on the Shelf! compilation, which I will post to my blog sometime in late February.
4) mail you a bookplate, (I had these printed special and they are all purply beautiful) which I will sign so you can put it in your copy of Unearthly and therefore have a signed copy even if you can't make it to a formal signing! I also tend to throw in a signed bookmark, just because I can.
5) choose three (3) of these entries at random and mail them a signed and doodled upon (meaning, my little comments and pics in the margins every now and then) copy of Unearthly in hard cover.
Be patient with me on this one. I might not get to the actual mailing part for a couple of weeks, see Excuses A-D, but I will get to them. I am also extending the deadline for my giveaway to February 15, so you still have a couple of weeks.
Now I'm back to working on my excuses. . .
It's been a long while since my last post, but I have excuses, of course:
Excuse A) I have been super busy launching my book and going on tour (more pics and recaps of the tour to follow soon.)
Excuse B) I have been SUPER busy working on edits for Book 2
Excuse C) On top of that, I just starting teaching for the semester at Pepperdine, a novel-writing class this time. My students rock, by the way, but then they always do.
Excuse D) I am still a mom and a wife and a home-owner, and I have to keep everybody in my family alive and fed and in clean underwear and my house from getting up and crawling away. This, regrettably, takes a lot of my waking hours.
So pick your excuse. But I promise, a time is coming pretty soon where the book will be done and the semester will be rolling along smoothly and then I will start playing CATCH-UP in a major way, starting with this blog.
Until then, I wanted to answer a few frequently-asked questions:
YES, there is going to be a sequel to Unearthly! I swear, I get like four or five emails a day asking me if there's a sequel. YES! See Excuse B! Oh so yes! There will also definitely be a Book 3, and quite likely a Book 4, so stay tuned.
The sequel does have an official title, but I'm not allowed to announce it just yet. I love the title, though, and it's the title I wanted almost all along for the book.
The sequel will be out, if all goes according to plan, in January 2012. I realize that this is a horribly long time to wait. I sympathize. But that's just the publishing industry. One year between books is pretty standard, or so I'm told.
I may be biased on the subject, but in my not-so-humble opinion, Book 2 will be worth the wait. :)
On to the second most asked FAQ: Will Unearthly be available as an ebook?
YES! There will be an ebook copy of Unearthly available, I swear. And SOON. I love brick and morter bookstores so much, and I love real, printed copies of books even more, but I have to admit that getting an ereader revolutionized the way I read. So I am extremely happy to know that Unearthly will be an ebook very soon. I promise, the second it's available I will be shouting it from the rooftops.
Question 3: When will you come to my city so you can sign my copy?
This is the part where I sigh wistfully. I would love to come to your city and sign a copy for you. But it's complicated. You might have noticed the basketball-sized lump on my belly if you've seen any of the current photos of me. Yes, folks, I'm creating a life right now. A girl, who I am oh-so-excited to meet. But the one drawback is that they won't let me go on an airplane after this week.
So, at least until early summer, I think, I'm grounded. I am doing a couple of events in the area, one in Los Angeles at Flintridge Books on February 13, 4pm. And the other sometimes in February at Pepperdine--we're still working out the details. But that's about it for a while.
So, if you want me to sign a copy of my book, one awesome thing you could do is to participate in my Bookplate giveaway. Here's how you do it:
1) Go to your local bookstore and take 2 pictures, one of Unearthly on the shelf in all its booky glory (make sure we can see the other books around it, too, as part of the fun for me is seeing what company I'm keeping), and one of you holding the book.
OR if you purchased your copy of Unearthly via the internet, simply take a picture of the book is some kind of humorous situation. Like this:
Sigh. I love this photo. Two girls fighting over my book. What author wouldn't love that?
Ahem, anyway, take a funny Unearthly picture!
2) Email me the photos, along with your name, address, and the name/location of the bookstore where you took the photos. My email address: writercynthiahand@gmail.com
THEN, I will:
3) add your photos to my Unearthly on the Shelf! compilation, which I will post to my blog sometime in late February.
4) mail you a bookplate, (I had these printed special and they are all purply beautiful) which I will sign so you can put it in your copy of Unearthly and therefore have a signed copy even if you can't make it to a formal signing! I also tend to throw in a signed bookmark, just because I can.
5) choose three (3) of these entries at random and mail them a signed and doodled upon (meaning, my little comments and pics in the margins every now and then) copy of Unearthly in hard cover.
Be patient with me on this one. I might not get to the actual mailing part for a couple of weeks, see Excuses A-D, but I will get to them. I am also extending the deadline for my giveaway to February 15, so you still have a couple of weeks.
Now I'm back to working on my excuses. . .
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
THE BIG DAY
So, the day has finally come. Happy Birthday, Unearthly!
I opened my eyes this morning to that deep silence that only comes with snow, and sure enough, it was snowing in big fat flakes outside.
Happy sigh. Call me crazy, but I am an Idahoan at heart. Winter should have snow. Yesterday when I left Long Beach airport it was 54 degrees and raining. When I landed in Idaho Falls it was 4 degrees below zero. That's nose hair cold. And I went, brrrrrrr, le sigh.
So back to this morning. I bundled up and headed over to Barnes and Noble. In the doorway I was greeted by a big sign announcing my reading on Thursday (7pm!)
The whole time I was in the store with this half-shocked surreal feeling. My. Book. On. The. SHELVES!!! It was in the New YA section, the YA paranormal romance section, in a big stack on a table marked For Teens and, to top it off, it had its own special display! I could not stop staring at it. Seriously. My book on the shelves.
Honestly I'm still a bit speechless.
My book on the shelves!!!!
I opened my eyes this morning to that deep silence that only comes with snow, and sure enough, it was snowing in big fat flakes outside.
Happy sigh. Call me crazy, but I am an Idahoan at heart. Winter should have snow. Yesterday when I left Long Beach airport it was 54 degrees and raining. When I landed in Idaho Falls it was 4 degrees below zero. That's nose hair cold. And I went, brrrrrrr, le sigh.
So back to this morning. I bundled up and headed over to Barnes and Noble. In the doorway I was greeted by a big sign announcing my reading on Thursday (7pm!)
The whole time I was in the store with this half-shocked surreal feeling. My. Book. On. The. SHELVES!!! It was in the New YA section, the YA paranormal romance section, in a big stack on a table marked For Teens and, to top it off, it had its own special display! I could not stop staring at it. Seriously. My book on the shelves.
Honestly I'm still a bit speechless.
My book on the shelves!!!!
Friday, December 31, 2010
Books I Read in 2010
Happy New Years, everybody!
As is my tradition, today I made a list of all the books I read in the year 2010. This year, I was surprised when I counted it up and discovered that I'd read roughly 56 books this year, most of them YA (although a few of them parenting, lol, you can tell I totally have a toddler). That's a little more than one a week.
When I told my husband this number, he said, "wow, I thought you'd read a lot more books than that." I don't know if that was a snarky comment on our Kindle bill or not, hee hee, but I felt the same way: I thought I'd read way more books than one a week. But maybe it only feels that way because this year I re-read a lot of the books I read last year, but didn't add them to the list.
I'm a fast reader. I usually devour a book in one day. Kindle is a very, very dangerous and well-beloved item in our house.
So, without further ado, the list:
1. Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher (awesome book to start the year with, one of those books I was jealous I didn't write)
2. The Giver by Lois Lowry (a classic, which I loved, and immediately devoured the series)
3. Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry
4. Messenger by Lois Lowry
5. The No-Cry Sleep Solution for Toddlers and Preschoolers : Gentle Ways to Stop Bedtime Battles and Improve Your Childs Sleep by Elizabeth Pantley (because my son was having this thing where he wouldn't stay in bed!)
6. Drinking Coffee Elsewhere by ZZ Packer
7. The Shell Collector by Anthony Doerr (re-read--this is one of my fave story collections of all time, and this year I used it for my Writing for the Professional Market Class)
8. Best American Short Stories of 2009 edited by Alice Sebold (awesome collection, read for class)
9. The Dark Divine by Bree Despain
10. The Dead-Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan (sequel to one of my faves last year, The Forest of Hands and Teeth. I loved that one. I really, really liked this one.)
11. Wondrous Strange by Lesley Livingston (took me back to my actor days doing Shakespeare. Nice take on fairies)
12. Angelology by Danielle Trussoni (I am REALLY SUPER picky when it comes to angel books (can't imagine why :)) and for some reason I totally could not get into this one, but it might have just been the wrong book at the wrong time this go around. I will try it again this year. . .
13. Voices of Dragons by Carrie Vaughn (refreshing to have a story about dragons)
14. The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting (LOVED this)
15. Beastly by Alex Flinn (also love a good retelling of an old story, of which Ms. Flinn is the queen, after Ms. McKinley, of course)
16. The Princess and the Snowbird by Mette Ivie Harrison
17. The Help by Kathryn Stockett (had to see what all the fuss was about, and I read it and understood exactly what all the fuss was about. An amazing book.)
18. Spells by Aprilynne Pike (got my copy at a signing I went to in Idaho Falls. Came home that night and stayed up reading it.)
19. Mudville by Curtis Scaletta (a book recommended by Aprilynne Pike at her book talk the next day. A baseball book, which I enjoyed.)
20. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins (who doesn't love a little Hunger Games?!)
21. Fire by Kristin Cashore (a companion book to Graceling, which I loved. And I loved it maybe even more.)
22. A Kiss in Time by Alex Flinn
23. Strange Angels by Lili St. Crow (awesome, edgy and powerful book, I thought)
24. Dead in the Family: Sookie Stackhouse novel by Charlaine Harris (meh. I usually love Sookie books, but this one. . .meh)
25. Anne of Green Gables series by L.M. Montgomery (this was like .95 on Kindle, for the whole series! I read the entire series again in about a week, totally got my Anne fix!)
26. The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender
27. Bad Girls Don’t Die by Katie Alender (best YA ghost story ever. I met Katie at the Smart Chicks tour, and she's awesome!)
28. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins (ah, the end. I was a bit shocked by the violence in this one, where it didn't really stand out to me in the others. Collins is MEAN to her characters, yikes.)
29. Firelight by Sophie Jordan (It had me at that wonderful opening chapter with the flight of the dragons.)
30. Paranormalcy by Kiersten White (laughed my butt off the whole way through this one. Reminded me of Buffy in a big way. Loved it.)
31. Halo by Alexandra Adornetto (see again my note on angel books, but I was amazed at how accomplished this book was for having being written by a 17-year-old. Really solid angel mythology, too.)
32. Angel Star by Jennifer Murgia
33. Linger by Maggie Stiefvater (sequel to Shiver, which was one of my top 5 last year. Very good sequel, didn't have me on the edge of my chair the way I was through Shiver, but enjoyable through and through.)
34. I am Number Four by Pitticus Lore (Sigh. I read this and thought it was pretty good. Then I found out that it's a product of James Frey's exploiting-young-desperate-writers-because-he's-ruined-his-own-name scheme. Felt instantly a bit yucky for having paid money for this book.)
35. The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson (Great book, with a powerful, imaginative premise.)
36. Many Waters (reread) by Madeline L’Engle (This is one of the books that inspired me to write about Nephilim in the first place. Re-read it this year when I discovered it was on Kindle)
37. Fat Vampire: A Never Coming of Age story by Adam Rex (funny!)
38. The Scorch Trials by James Dashner (not so funny. . .but pretty good for a sequel)
39. If I Stay by Gayle Forman (Oh lord, I bawled my eyes out at the end of this book. It was beautiful.)
40. Blue Moon by Alyson Noel
41. Evernight by Claudia Gray (superstar and fellow Dark Days author! It was a superstar kind of book)
42. Ink Exchange by Melissa Marr (lerrrrrves Melissa Marr. Got a signed copy at the Smart Chicks tour)
43. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (This book sheared off the top of my head and dumped a million thoughts into it. Amazing. I could just keep chanting amazing.)
44. Guardians of Ga’Hoole collection by Kathryn Lasky (reminded me of Redwall, and I loved. Didn't love the movie, where they condensed the first 3 books down into 90 minutes!)
45. The Unidentified by Rae Miriz
46. Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare (I think this is Clare's best book to date, and she's written a lot of great books)
47. Angelfire by Courtney Allison Moulton (another fellow Dark Days writer, and debut. Courtney is a joy, and this book is a wild ride and a joy to read.)
48. Nightshade by Andrea Kremer (Loved this one, so smart and with such great setting! I love books with great setting!)
49. Rampant by Diana Peterfreund (Okay, so I am saying the word LOVED a lot--it's been a good year for books. But this one I LOVED in all caps, and it had me brooding about those darned wily unicorns for days afterwards.)
50. Pegasus by Robin McKinley (I loved this one, was totally engrossed, until the book came to a screeching halt in the middle of the story. I actually looked up her website to see if there was a sequel, which I knew there had to be. Turns out she had written this giant like 700 page tome and just cut it in half. I felt cheated by this, somehow. I'm sure there's a blog post of mine coming on this topic.)
51. Torment by Lauren Kate (haven't quite finished this one, but I'm liking it so far.)
52. Fun and Educational Places to Go With Kids in Southern California by Susan Peterson (for those times when I'm not writing like a madwoman)
53. Desires of the Dead by Kimberly Derting (Great book. Great sequel! Also fellow Dark Days author)
54. Once in a Full Moon by Ellen Schrieber (and another fellow Dark Days author, who I am so excited to meet this January. A fun read!)
55. The Book of New Family Traditions: How to Create Great Rituals for Holidays and Everydays by Meg Cox
56. Matched by Ally Condie (and I closed out with maybe my favorite book of the year. I LOVED in all caps with lots of !!!!!!)
Phew. That's a long list. And, as I mentioned, it's been a great year for books--I liked most of what I read.
My top picks, in no particular order:
Matched
Rampant
Thirteen Reasons Why
If I Stay
Never Let Me Go
The Dead-Tossed Waves
Fire
Paranormalcy
Now I'm off to work on my own sequel. . .
3 DAYS, 13 hours, 12 minutes until Unearthly. Don't forget to read my last post about my bookplate giveaway!
As is my tradition, today I made a list of all the books I read in the year 2010. This year, I was surprised when I counted it up and discovered that I'd read roughly 56 books this year, most of them YA (although a few of them parenting, lol, you can tell I totally have a toddler). That's a little more than one a week.
When I told my husband this number, he said, "wow, I thought you'd read a lot more books than that." I don't know if that was a snarky comment on our Kindle bill or not, hee hee, but I felt the same way: I thought I'd read way more books than one a week. But maybe it only feels that way because this year I re-read a lot of the books I read last year, but didn't add them to the list.
I'm a fast reader. I usually devour a book in one day. Kindle is a very, very dangerous and well-beloved item in our house.
So, without further ado, the list:
1. Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher (awesome book to start the year with, one of those books I was jealous I didn't write)
2. The Giver by Lois Lowry (a classic, which I loved, and immediately devoured the series)
3. Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry
4. Messenger by Lois Lowry
5. The No-Cry Sleep Solution for Toddlers and Preschoolers : Gentle Ways to Stop Bedtime Battles and Improve Your Childs Sleep by Elizabeth Pantley (because my son was having this thing where he wouldn't stay in bed!)
6. Drinking Coffee Elsewhere by ZZ Packer
7. The Shell Collector by Anthony Doerr (re-read--this is one of my fave story collections of all time, and this year I used it for my Writing for the Professional Market Class)
8. Best American Short Stories of 2009 edited by Alice Sebold (awesome collection, read for class)
9. The Dark Divine by Bree Despain
10. The Dead-Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan (sequel to one of my faves last year, The Forest of Hands and Teeth. I loved that one. I really, really liked this one.)
11. Wondrous Strange by Lesley Livingston (took me back to my actor days doing Shakespeare. Nice take on fairies)
12. Angelology by Danielle Trussoni (I am REALLY SUPER picky when it comes to angel books (can't imagine why :)) and for some reason I totally could not get into this one, but it might have just been the wrong book at the wrong time this go around. I will try it again this year. . .
13. Voices of Dragons by Carrie Vaughn (refreshing to have a story about dragons)
14. The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting (LOVED this)
15. Beastly by Alex Flinn (also love a good retelling of an old story, of which Ms. Flinn is the queen, after Ms. McKinley, of course)
16. The Princess and the Snowbird by Mette Ivie Harrison
17. The Help by Kathryn Stockett (had to see what all the fuss was about, and I read it and understood exactly what all the fuss was about. An amazing book.)
18. Spells by Aprilynne Pike (got my copy at a signing I went to in Idaho Falls. Came home that night and stayed up reading it.)
19. Mudville by Curtis Scaletta (a book recommended by Aprilynne Pike at her book talk the next day. A baseball book, which I enjoyed.)
20. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins (who doesn't love a little Hunger Games?!)
21. Fire by Kristin Cashore (a companion book to Graceling, which I loved. And I loved it maybe even more.)
22. A Kiss in Time by Alex Flinn
23. Strange Angels by Lili St. Crow (awesome, edgy and powerful book, I thought)
24. Dead in the Family: Sookie Stackhouse novel by Charlaine Harris (meh. I usually love Sookie books, but this one. . .meh)
25. Anne of Green Gables series by L.M. Montgomery (this was like .95 on Kindle, for the whole series! I read the entire series again in about a week, totally got my Anne fix!)
26. The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender
27. Bad Girls Don’t Die by Katie Alender (best YA ghost story ever. I met Katie at the Smart Chicks tour, and she's awesome!)
28. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins (ah, the end. I was a bit shocked by the violence in this one, where it didn't really stand out to me in the others. Collins is MEAN to her characters, yikes.)
29. Firelight by Sophie Jordan (It had me at that wonderful opening chapter with the flight of the dragons.)
30. Paranormalcy by Kiersten White (laughed my butt off the whole way through this one. Reminded me of Buffy in a big way. Loved it.)
31. Halo by Alexandra Adornetto (see again my note on angel books, but I was amazed at how accomplished this book was for having being written by a 17-year-old. Really solid angel mythology, too.)
32. Angel Star by Jennifer Murgia
33. Linger by Maggie Stiefvater (sequel to Shiver, which was one of my top 5 last year. Very good sequel, didn't have me on the edge of my chair the way I was through Shiver, but enjoyable through and through.)
34. I am Number Four by Pitticus Lore (Sigh. I read this and thought it was pretty good. Then I found out that it's a product of James Frey's exploiting-young-desperate-writers-because-he's-ruined-his-own-name scheme. Felt instantly a bit yucky for having paid money for this book.)
35. The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson (Great book, with a powerful, imaginative premise.)
36. Many Waters (reread) by Madeline L’Engle (This is one of the books that inspired me to write about Nephilim in the first place. Re-read it this year when I discovered it was on Kindle)
37. Fat Vampire: A Never Coming of Age story by Adam Rex (funny!)
38. The Scorch Trials by James Dashner (not so funny. . .but pretty good for a sequel)
39. If I Stay by Gayle Forman (Oh lord, I bawled my eyes out at the end of this book. It was beautiful.)
40. Blue Moon by Alyson Noel
41. Evernight by Claudia Gray (superstar and fellow Dark Days author! It was a superstar kind of book)
42. Ink Exchange by Melissa Marr (lerrrrrves Melissa Marr. Got a signed copy at the Smart Chicks tour)
43. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (This book sheared off the top of my head and dumped a million thoughts into it. Amazing. I could just keep chanting amazing.)
44. Guardians of Ga’Hoole collection by Kathryn Lasky (reminded me of Redwall, and I loved. Didn't love the movie, where they condensed the first 3 books down into 90 minutes!)
45. The Unidentified by Rae Miriz
46. Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare (I think this is Clare's best book to date, and she's written a lot of great books)
47. Angelfire by Courtney Allison Moulton (another fellow Dark Days writer, and debut. Courtney is a joy, and this book is a wild ride and a joy to read.)
48. Nightshade by Andrea Kremer (Loved this one, so smart and with such great setting! I love books with great setting!)
49. Rampant by Diana Peterfreund (Okay, so I am saying the word LOVED a lot--it's been a good year for books. But this one I LOVED in all caps, and it had me brooding about those darned wily unicorns for days afterwards.)
50. Pegasus by Robin McKinley (I loved this one, was totally engrossed, until the book came to a screeching halt in the middle of the story. I actually looked up her website to see if there was a sequel, which I knew there had to be. Turns out she had written this giant like 700 page tome and just cut it in half. I felt cheated by this, somehow. I'm sure there's a blog post of mine coming on this topic.)
51. Torment by Lauren Kate (haven't quite finished this one, but I'm liking it so far.)
52. Fun and Educational Places to Go With Kids in Southern California by Susan Peterson (for those times when I'm not writing like a madwoman)
53. Desires of the Dead by Kimberly Derting (Great book. Great sequel! Also fellow Dark Days author)
54. Once in a Full Moon by Ellen Schrieber (and another fellow Dark Days author, who I am so excited to meet this January. A fun read!)
55. The Book of New Family Traditions: How to Create Great Rituals for Holidays and Everydays by Meg Cox
56. Matched by Ally Condie (and I closed out with maybe my favorite book of the year. I LOVED in all caps with lots of !!!!!!)
Phew. That's a long list. And, as I mentioned, it's been a great year for books--I liked most of what I read.
My top picks, in no particular order:
Matched
Rampant
Thirteen Reasons Why
If I Stay
Never Let Me Go
The Dead-Tossed Waves
Fire
Paranormalcy
Now I'm off to work on my own sequel. . .
3 DAYS, 13 hours, 12 minutes until Unearthly. Don't forget to read my last post about my bookplate giveaway!
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
The launch (5 days away!) and my new master plan
So, according to my fabulous new countdown widget, I can see that right at this moment I have 5 days, 13 hours, and 7 minutes until Unearthly hits the shelves. I am already starting to get that breathless feeling. This is actually going to happen. Wow.
Monday I am flying to Idaho Falls to have a launch party at my hometown Barnes and Noble, which is actually mentioned on page 218 of Unearthly. The party/signing/hugfest will be Thursday, January 6, at 7pm. I am so excited to get to see everybody, and to share in this amazing, life-changing time with them, and even more than that, I am super excited to see teens and actual readers from my community, so please, if you live nearby, drop by and see me and get a book signed!
I will be having other signings and doing other events over the next couple of months, so please see my website News page for the schedule. Yes, I have a brand spanking new website (you may have noticed I also have a brand spanking new matching blog design), and I love it!
I am also concocting a new master plan of how to connect with readers who won't be able to make it to any of my events. Here's how it goes, all through the month of January:
1) Go to your local bookstore and take 2 pictures, one of Unearthly on the shelf in all its booky glory (make sure we can see the other books around it, too, as part of the fun for me is seeing what company I'm keeping), and one of you holding the book.
2) Email me the photos, along with your name, address, and the name/location of the bookstore where you took the photos. My email address: writercynthiahand@gmail.com
THEN, I will:
3) add your photos to my Unearthly on the Shelf! compilation, which I will post to my blog in stages, with a big final post sometime in early February.
4) mail you a bookplate, (I had these printed special and they are all purply beautiful) which I will sign so you can put it in your copy of Unearthly and therefore have a signed copy even if you can't make it to a formal signing!
5) choose three (3) of these entries at random and mail them a signed and doodled upon (meaning, my little comments and pics in the margins every now and then) copy of Unearthly in hard cover.
Sound good?
Monday I am flying to Idaho Falls to have a launch party at my hometown Barnes and Noble, which is actually mentioned on page 218 of Unearthly. The party/signing/hugfest will be Thursday, January 6, at 7pm. I am so excited to get to see everybody, and to share in this amazing, life-changing time with them, and even more than that, I am super excited to see teens and actual readers from my community, so please, if you live nearby, drop by and see me and get a book signed!
I will be having other signings and doing other events over the next couple of months, so please see my website News page for the schedule. Yes, I have a brand spanking new website (you may have noticed I also have a brand spanking new matching blog design), and I love it!
I am also concocting a new master plan of how to connect with readers who won't be able to make it to any of my events. Here's how it goes, all through the month of January:
1) Go to your local bookstore and take 2 pictures, one of Unearthly on the shelf in all its booky glory (make sure we can see the other books around it, too, as part of the fun for me is seeing what company I'm keeping), and one of you holding the book.
2) Email me the photos, along with your name, address, and the name/location of the bookstore where you took the photos. My email address: writercynthiahand@gmail.com
THEN, I will:
3) add your photos to my Unearthly on the Shelf! compilation, which I will post to my blog in stages, with a big final post sometime in early February.
4) mail you a bookplate, (I had these printed special and they are all purply beautiful) which I will sign so you can put it in your copy of Unearthly and therefore have a signed copy even if you can't make it to a formal signing!
5) choose three (3) of these entries at random and mail them a signed and doodled upon (meaning, my little comments and pics in the margins every now and then) copy of Unearthly in hard cover.
Sound good?
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