News and Tour Wrap Up

So MY PLAIN JANE has been out for two weeks, and I (and the other two Janies) have been getting all the love!

In the first week we went on an amazing tour in which we:

Met a real live HEDGEHOG named Pixi Sticks in Salt Lake City!

Answered a lot of fun questions and performed a bit of MY PLAIN JANE (with costumes!)

(Thanks to the Fabulous Book Fiend for the fun video from our Denver event)

Almost melted in Phoenix, but we kept right on laughing

and then we returned to Salt Lake City, where the three of us sat down to start writing our next book, MY CALAMITY JANE. It was business as usual for the Janies:

And then something AMAZING happened:

MY PLAIN JANE hit the New York Times bestseller list!!!!!!!!

Needless to say, it was an amazing two weeks, and thanks so much to everyone who came out and supported us. We have the best, most enthusiastic, hilarious readers, and I love you all so much!

If you're feeling a bit cheated because we stuck to the western United States this time, and you live on the eastern side, we have good news. The Janies will be meeting up in August in Virginia to finish writing MY CALAMITY JANE, and while we're there, we'll be doing two book events. The first is at Barnes & Noble Charlottesville on Saturday, August 4th, at 12pm.

And the second will be at One More Page in Arlington on August 7 at 7pm:

So come and see us there! We promise that we will perform for you, too!

In less exciting news, I just sent copyright infringement takedowns to a huge amount of piracy sites. This depresses me so much. Please don't steal my books. At this stage, every single sale of MY PLAIN JANE counts so much, I can't emphasize enough how much it matters. The Janies and I would really like to keep writing books together, but we can't do this if our sales aren't good enough. So please don't pirate!

On that note, I have some awesome news. MY PLAIN JANE is, as of this week, available at Target! But this is no ordinary version of the book. This version has a whole EXTRA CHAPTER at the end, like an epilogue to our epilogue. The Target version of the book is the only place you can get this extra content (which we had so much fun writing!), and they have only printed a limited amount of these, so once they are all sold, they're gone.

So run to Target, people! (Or you can get it online here.) And have a good laugh with us about the invention of the double date.

Thanks again for all the love for MY PLAIN JANE. 

XOXO
Cynthia (and the Janies)

Playing Catch Up

Wow, I have been absent from this blog for a long time. Sometimes this crazy, unreal writing life of mine leaves me very little time for anything else. What have I been doing these past few months? Well, let's see:

1. In February I went on the Epic Reads tour with Victoria Aveyard and Jasmine Warga to Chicago, North Carolina, and Florida. This was so fun, especially because I got to meet two lovely debut authors and get to know them beyond their books. These girls were so smart and funny and great to be around. Some highlights of this tour include: a. being in a Chicago cold spell that was so fierce that they cancelled school and my nose hairs froze (but I did get to eat the most amazing pizza), b. getting to interact with so many amazing readers and booklovers, c. HARRY POTTER WORLD at Universal Studios, and d. Girl Scout cookies that a wonderful reader brought us.

Book tour!

2. In March I went to New York City to throw a book launch for my friend Jodi's new book, THE ORPHAN QUEEN. We had an awesome event at seriously the best children's book store I've ever been to (Books of Wonder!), ate dinner that night at a place that uses chocolate in everything on the menu (Max Brenners!) and then tearfully said goodbye to my friends (it was okay; I'd see them next month). I spent an extra few days in New York researching for my new book (which takes place in NYC), meeting with my HarperTeen editor, and hanging out with my agent--who is one of my favorite people in the world.

A picture my agent took of me outside of a restaurant in New York

3. In April I went to ENGLAND with the Lady Janies. In case you missed this from an earlier post, the Lady Janes are myself, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows, three authors who wrote a book together this year about the Lady Jane Grey called MY LADY JANE. (Click here to go over to the Lady Janies page and find out more about this.) Anyway, in between the first and the second draft of the book we went to England to do some research and work on the revisions all together.  I'll save the highlights for the Lady Janies web space, but I will just say that it was the best trip ever. We wrote, we laughed, we took a gazillion pictures and video, we got lost, we got found, we wrote some more, we laughed some more, and we enjoyed every bit of our adventure.

The Lady Janies at Windsor Castle

4. In May I went to Texas to take part in the Romantic Times Book Convention, which was, as usual, both overwhelming and awesome. I was on a couple of brilliant panels, the first on how to throw a successful launch of your book (led by the always-charming Victoria Scott), and the second on writing tips and techniques led by Aprilynne Pike. On this second panel was Alyson Noel, Rachel Caine, Claudia Gray, me, and . . . Kathy Reichs. KATHY REICHS, as in the real life forensic anthropologist who writes the books they make the TV show BONES about. She may have asked me to pour her some water. I may have poured her a glass, and then poured some water on the table. Because I am smooth that way.

My view from the giant book signing at RT. That's Rachel Harris on my left.

5. I worked my backside off all this time on MY LADY JANE. Yesterday we turned in our final draft before the book goes to copy edits, and I have serious revision hangover. I would be just lying on the couch going GAHHHHHH for a few days, but I can't. I have a draft due on my next solo book (which I can't really tell you about yet) coming right up.

So consider this the part where I peek out of my writing cave, wave to you all, and then . . . crawl right back in.

I'll be out more at the end of summer.

I hope.

Epic Reads Tour

I'm moments away from the big black car coming to pick me up for the Epic Reads tour! I am so excited to meet my fellow tour-mates: Victoria Aveyard and Jasmine Warga. I read both of their books last month and loved them. Yay for new friends!

I'm also super excited to see the readers and bloggers who are going to show up in Chicago, Chapel Hill, and Florida! See below for dates and times. Yay for old friends!

See you there!

xoxo

C

28 Days From Now

This morning I got a package from HarperTeen! As usual, it took my breath away to open up the box and see my own name on the cover of this beautiful book. My own book. About to go out into the wide, wide world, only 28 days from now.

I am so proud of this book. I mean, I'm proud of all of my books. They all take so much time and energy and passion to write. But this book was especially difficult, and especially close to my heart, so it feels like something of a miracle to see it actualized.

So what do I want to do now? I want to give it away! Enter my rafflecopter contest to win this book, signed by me. I am also giving away some signed ARCs of the book this week. Just follow the directions below. (Contest starts tomorrow. U.S. entries only, please. The contest officially starts tonight at 12am, and you can do some things to get an entry every day, so check back.)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Also, I have some tour news. I am going on the Epic Reads Winter Tour with Victoria Aveyard and Jasmine Warga. So here's where and when you can come see me and get your books signed:

February 18, 7pm at Anderson's Bookstore, 123 Jefferson Ave, Naperville, IL

February 19, 7pm at Flyleaf Books, 752 MLK Jr. Blvd, Chapel Hill, NC

February 20, 7pm at Barnes & Noble Orlando, 481 N. Alafaya Trail, Orlando, FL

February 21, 2pm at Vero Beach Bookcenter, 325 Miracle Mile, Vero Beach, FL

Check my Events page for more upcoming appearances, and leave a comment there with the name of a bookstore and city you'd like me to visit. I will seriously take that under consideration in my travel planning for the year.

*goes back to stroking the pretty pretty book*

Um, Hi . . .

Hey, guys.

Sorry I've been MIA for like a month. I've been on tour, and then recovering from being on tour, and then getting ready to go on tour again. It's all very tour-related. Here's the new video that recaps the Dark Days of Winter tour I went on in February with Brodi Ashton, Tahereh Mafi and Veronica Rossi. It was so much fun, and I miss these ladies so much.



So it's a good thing that my writer bffs Brodi Ashton, author of the Everneath series, and Jodi Meadows, author of the Incarnate series, are coming out to Los Angeles for a string of events next week. We are doing the whole shebang: school visits, a signing at the Thousand Oaks Barnes & Noble on Friday, March 15 at 7pm, and a signing at Books, Inc in Mountain View on Saturday, March 16 at 5pm. (Yes. This is the bookstore that appears on page 377 of BOUNDLESS. In hell.)

And I will be traveling again at the end of April: San Diego, Phoenix, Houston, Miami. Check the Events tab for the details.

And also in May.

And June.

I'm a busy woman.

I'll try to blog more, I promise.

Oh, and here is also a large clip from our Cary, NC stop in the Extras section, if you'd like to hear me talk about writing about a real place like Jackson, WY, and why, if I hadn't been trying to impress my husband, I would never have gotten published. And you can see Brodi Ashton blow kisses.

Off to Tour I Go

I know I've been quiet this past couple of weeks. This is because I am totally swamped with book launches and book tours. My inbox is like a battlefield.

Today (in a few minutes, actually) I am off to New York City, to start the big leg of my tour. My bags are packed, I'm ready to go. . .)

Here are the dates and times.

February 2, 1-3pmEvent with Brodi Ashton, Jocelyn Davies, Jodi Meadows
Books of Wonder
New York City

February 4, 7pm
Dark Days tour with Brodi Ashton, Veronica Rossi, and Tahereh Mafi
Barnes&Noble
Huntington Beach, California

February 5, 7pm
Dark Days tour with Brodi Ashton, Veronica Rossi, and Tahereh Mafi
Little Shop of Stories
Decatur, Georgia

February 6, 7pm
Dark Days tour with Brodi Ashton, Veronica Rossi, and Tahereh Mafi
Barnes & Noble
Cary, North Carolina

February 7, 7pm
Dark Days tour with Brodi Ashton, Veronica Rossi, and Tahereh Mafi
Harvard Coop
Cambridge, Massachusetts

I can't wait! Touring is one of the best parts of being an author: the big black sedan pulling up to my house, hanging with my fellow author friends, meeting the fans! So exciting!

The big black sedan just pulled up to my house. . .

*is whisked away.*

Happy Birthday BOUNDLESS!

The day has arrived!

BOUNDLESS is out wherever books are sold!

I'm in curlers right now, and I've just ironed my launch party clothes, and am soon going to meet up with Brodi Ashton (Happy Birthday EVERBOUND!!!!!) to spend the day in blissful preparation for our launch party at 7 at the King's English! There may be a manicure involved. And a sneak to a bookstore to see with wondering eyes our books upon the shelves.

Happy sigh.

I've got a lot to do today, but for now I just want to thank everybody who helped make this happen. Erica. Katherine. John. Catherine. You know who you are. Thank you!

Basically what I'm feeling is this:



GIFSoup

YAYYYYYYYYYYYY!

Happy reading, y'all!

On Tour

As I write this, we're 1 day and 22 hours 26 minutes from the launch of BOUNDLESS. WHEEEEEEEEEE!

I am so excited to share this book with you!

Anyway, tomorrow I am heading off to Utah, where on Tuesday I will be having an awesome LAUNCH PARTY / SIGNING / EVENT with the amazing and talented Brodi Ashton, whose book EVERBOUND (book 2 of the Everneath series) is coming out the same day as BOUNDLESS. Brodi is a kindred spirit and a good friend of mine, so I can think of nothing better than us having our book launches together. Here's the skinny: The King's English, SLC, Tuesday 1-22, 7pm. Be there.

And then we'll be headed off to Idaho together to do it all over again in Idaho Falls. We'll be doing a barage of school visits in Idaho Falls and then a launch / signing / event at the Idaho Falls Barnes & Noble on Friday night, the 25th, at 6:30 p.m.

And THEN we're driving across the state to Boise to do an event at Hyde Park Bookstore at 4pm on Saturday!

See my facebook page for invites and details to all of these events, and my Events tab above for all the other great places I will be stopping by this winter and spring. Hopefully I can catch up with you somewhere!

1 day 22 hours 21 minutes! Squee!

One Week to Go!

One week until BOUNDLESS!

I am now under the ever-pounding waves of pre-launch preparation: designing this season's bookmarks and patches (oh yes, there will be Unearthly patches again this year, Team Tucker or Team Christian!), making sure all my tour clothes fit, picking nail polish colors, filling out the seemingly-never-ending flow of interviews and guest posts, signing copies for other people's giveaways, checking that my Sharpie supply is adequate. You know, author stuff. It's fun. Really. Mostly.

So, a few orders of business to go over. First:

THE TRAILER!

The trailer is here! The trailer is here! I love it!

Look:



*Does a little happy dance!*

This year it all feels a bit different from the other years. This is the END, the last book of the series, and it feels so bittersweet to me. Some days I think, I miss Clara. It's been a while since I had her voice in my head. . . And I am so excited to find out what the fans will think of how everything plays out. I hope you like it!

Second: Those of you who entered my Radiant pre-order giveaway, fear not. I have ordered the special-signed something, which is just taking a while to come, so I can sign it and mail it to you. Don't worry--it will get there! And I think you'll really like it. . .

Third: I am about to go on tour. Click above on my Events page to see where and when!

Fourth: I am already on a wonderful blog tour. Check this out. All you ever wanted to know about me and the Unearthly series, and BOUNDLESS, coming your way over the next couple of weeks!

And last: a new giveaway. I am giving away 4 signed copies of the Boundless ARC! All you have to do is share the BOUNDLESS trailer on your facebook page, your twitter feed, or in your own personal blog! You can also enter by spreading around my new countdown widget from the top left corner!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

In Which I Inundate You With News and Cool Stuff

Hello, y'all! I've haven't been around the blog much in the past couple of months. I was tired. Then I was sick. Then tired again. Then sick again. It was a lot of sick and tired.

This is what happens when you finish a series.

But there's a lot happening in the next few weeks, and I have to get off my butt now and tell you all about the great stuff that's coming:

1) RADIANT! Is coming out! In 2 days! To celebrate (and because it feels kind of weird that this is ebook only, therefore my fans won't have anything tangible in their hands when they buy this book, I am going to do a little promotion. THIS WEEK ONLY, buy or pre-order a copy of RADIANT, take a screenshot of your screen confirming the purchase (here's an awesome page with instructions on how to take a screenshot, if you don't know), email me (writercynthiahand@gmail.com) the pic along with your mailing address, and I will send you a little autographed special something. So you will have something to hold in your hands.

note: If you buy on Amazon, there is a little tab where you can email me saying you purchased the book directly, if you don't want to go through the trouble of messing with the screenshot, but please remember to add your address to the email.

Here's my screenshot. Yes, I just bought my own ebook. I may have to give myself an autographed special something now.

2) BOUNDLESS is coming out, in like 50 days! I will be having a special promotion for that too, but I'll tell you about that later.

3) TOURING! I will be doing a whirlwind of touring this winter for Boundless. Check my events tab for the full details, but in a nutshell I will be going to:
Salt Lake City (UT)
Idaho Falls (ID)
Boise (ID)
New York City (NY)
Huntington Beach (CA)
Decatur (GA)
Cary (NC)
Cambridge (MA)
Washington D.C.
Redondo Beach(CA),
Thousand Oaks (CA)
Jackson Hole (WY)
Kansas City (MO).
And that's just what I know about so far!

4) UNEARTHLY is dirt cheap right now! (Well actually, it might be cheaper than dirt. I mean, have you seen the prices of high-quality dirt these days? I'm just saying) Ahem. The ebook version is only 2.99 for the next few weeks, so if you haven't started the series yet (or you know someone who you think would like it), now is a very good time!

5) HALLOWED is coming out as a paperback. . . the day after Christmas! However, it's not a hard release (meaning that the bookstore can put it out whenever they get the shipment) so you could check before Christmas if you want to give it as a gift (or buy it with Christmas money, which is what I always do. . .). You can pre-order the paperback here. Here's the link for the Hallowed audiobook, if you know someone who likes to listen to the story.

Wow, I'm kind of light-headed after all that shameless self-promotion. I should go do the dishes now. There's nothing that will put you in your place in the universe faster than scrubbing dirty dishes.

*Rolls up sleeves.*

Signing off.

Spring Into the Future

So I haven't blogged in a while. Sorry.

I pretty much exhausted myself finishing this draft of Book 3. Writers often talk about "the fainting couch," where you go after you finish a particularly demanding draft for a certain recovery time. Boy, did I ever need the fainting couch after finishing this draft.

Only, I didn't really do the fainting couch this time. I took one day to clean my house. And then I set out to really live it up with my kids. Poor little people spent so much time watching videos and being shuttled off to daycare while I wrote and wrote and wrote, so I figured they could really use some fun, special time. So that's what we did. We went to children's museums. I took my son to Disneyland, where we had an entirely pirate-themed day. We went to the farm, the beach, an assortment of parks. I made it my goal to do something super fun with them every day.

A few days ago, my son asked me, "Mommy, how much longer can we have fun?"

Me: "I don't know, honey."

Will: (big sigh) "I hope we can have fun forever."

Me: (big sigh) (because I know the revision letter from my editor is coming. Soon. And then it will be back to the grindstone.)

So yeah, I didn't feel much like blogging.

Then I went to RT (the Romantic Times Book Convention in Chicago!) That was AWESOME. I will totally recap all about it in a couple days.

Then (and I mean like the minute I got off the plane from RT, seriously) I got sick with a nasty cold.

Which brings us to now. This morning I can breathe a little. The kids are eating their lunches. And I am BLOGGING.

I have a lot to catch up on, obviously.

First things first, though, I need to announce that I am part of the Spring Into the Future tour with Tahereh Mafi (author of SHATTER ME), Anna Carey (author of EVE), and Veronica Rossi (author of UNDER THE NEVER SKY). Tahereh was sweet enough to ask me to do their event in Pasadena (since I live thereabouts), and then we noticed that we were all going to be in Chicago the following day, so she asked me to join them there, too. It was a blast. I am a HUGE fan of all three of these ladies.

Anna Carey, myself, Marie Lu, Tahereh Mafi, and Veronica Rossi signing books at Vromans in Pasadena

So I was so honored and thrilled to be asked back to be part of the Pacific Northwest leg of the tour.

Here are the dates and information:

May 3, San Francisco, signing at 7pm at Copperfields in Petaluma.

May 4, Portland, signing at 7pm at Barnes & Noble in Clackamas.

May 5, Seattle, Teen Brunch at 11am at the University Book Store, Mill Creek.

So come see me! I will be doing some other events a bit later in the summer. Keep checking my sidebar on the blog here for future events.

In other news:

We have an official title for Book 3. I am just waiting for the greenlight to tell you. I have also seen a mock-up of the cover, and I can honestly say, it is my FAVORITE of all my covers so far. It is GORGEOUS. Swoon. I loves.

I am working on a new project. Which has been lots of fun. It is a completely different world and voice from the Unearthly series, and that is pretty much all I can tell you about it. See my progress in the sidebar, also.

See you tomorrow, Texas

I am overdue for a post, I know. But I have been working so hard on Book 3, you guys. I'm in that stage when I'm even writing it in my sleep (I never have writer's block in my sleep, amazing!) and revising it in the shower. I am so deep in the writer's cave they're going to have to send spelunkers to find me. . .

But. . . tomorrow I am headed to TEXAS on the Dark Days tour. I am so very excited. Being on tour is about as glamorous as it gets for us writerly types. You get picked up by the black sedan and the guy in the suit. You stay in nice hotels and get to order room service and eat at fancy restaurants. Everywhere you go, people know your name and think you're awesome. And, best of all, on the Dark Days tour you get to hang out with other writers!

Me and Ellen Schreiber on last year's Dark Days tour

I am SOOOOO excited to meet this year's group: first, the fabulous Courtney Allison Moulton, who I have chatted with and tweeted and cheerleaded for but never met in person. And Brodi Ashton and Jodi Meadows, who are both debuts. I have read both of their books and I think they are awesome and I am so happy that I'll be able to get to know them.

(If you listen carefully you might be able to hear my frantic packing for this trip, right now. . .)

My Dark Days Texas stops:

Thursday, February 16th
DALLAS
B&N Southlake
5pm

Friday, February 17th
AUSTIN
B&N Austin
7pm

Saturday, February 18th
HOUSTON
Blue Willow Book Shop
4pm

See you tomorrow, Texas!