Fancy New Blog

I'm still in the cave feverishly working on revisions for Boundless, but I wanted to stick my head out for five minutes to tell you that I have a new and improved blog / website. The biggest additions are the left-hand sidebar, where I have the foreign covers of my books linked to the publishers' websites. At the bottom are countries where the rights are sold, but no book has been published yet. I think. And I've moved the right-hand sidebar up to my fancy new events tab.

You will notice that I have a new event coming up:

July 24, 2012, 6pm, at the Oceanside Barnes and Noble with Kiersten White, Marie Lu, and Robin La Fevers, all of whom I adore. (Okay, technically I haven't met Robin yet, but I adore Grave Mercy, so I am pretty darn likely to adore Robin as well.)

I will be there with bells.

Also, for those of you who haven't seen it on my Facebook/Twitter feed, I thought I would toss you a crumb. Below is a picture of my research board for Boundless. There's a lot of stuff on there you won't understand, some clues, perhaps. Closer to the release I will be sure to make a video where I walk you through the board and all its many wonderful parts.

Now back to revising.

Boundless Cover Reveal

Wow, am I ever excited! My editor has given me the go-ahead to share the cover for BOUNDLESS!!!!

First off, I want to say that this might be my favorite cover out of all of them, and I love all my covers. But this one. . .  I love her expression, I love her dress and the way the wind is moving it, I love the lake rocks under her feet, the suggestion of water, the parting of the clouds, and I love the color. It's all LOVELY.

Squee!!!!

Ready to see?

Okay!

Ta-dah!

What do you think?!!!!

And again, in honor of Boundless, I'd like to share another song that I listened to a LOT to get me in the Boundless frame of mind: Human, by Civil Twilight. Let this play and stare at the cover for a minute, I dare you. See if you don't feel what Clara feels. . .

Title for Book 3

I've been a bad blogger. People are always asking me how I juggle all the balls in my life: writer, author, mother, wife, professor, blogger, housekeeper, laundress, cook, dishwasher, etc, and my answer is always the same:

I am always dropping one or two of the balls.

Blogging is a ball that's been left on the floor for a while now. I hope to pick it up again soon. Right up there with housekeeping. :)

Right now I'm on the road, a combination research/publicity/family vacation kind of trip. This past week I've been at Stanford, interviewing students and hanging out the way I did with Jackson Hole High School when I was writing Unearthly and Hallowed. I lived near Stanford a few years ago, and worked at the Stanford Cancer Center as a "social science research assistant" for a while there, so it's a pretty familiar place, but let me tell you, going there with the writer's cap on, trying to understand the university the way Clara would see it as an incoming freshman, has been so fun and and the same time overwhelming! Special thanks to Estella Go, especially, for showing me around and answering all my endless questions! You rock!

On Thursday I did a signing at Not Your Mother's Book Club with Brodi Ashton and Bree Despain, which was awesome. I love those ladies. We laughed. A lot. And Brodi occasionally went completely blurry, she's so quick-witted. See, here's the proof. And here's me in my new purple glasses trying to sound like I know what I'm talking about. It was awesome.

Later this week I'm off to The Dalles, Oregon for an awesome event with 11 other writers on June 2. See the sidebar for details.

And then I'm headed to Boise for a couple of days and then to my dad's mountain house to revise Book 3 while my dad takes my son on long tractor rides.

Oh, wait.

I don't have to call it Book 3 anymore.

It has a TITLE.

And I've been given the green light to tell you that title!

So I suppose I should get on with it!

Okay, here's the definition:

adjective

having no bounds;  infinite or vast; unlimited: His ******** energy amazed his friends.

Synonyms 
limitless, endless, unbounded, inexhaustible, illimitable. 

Can you guess?

What's that you say? Stop stalling and just tell us? You've been scrolling down frantically ever since you saw the subject line of this post.

Okay, okay. 

The title is (deep breath)

Boundless

I am so happy with this title. Like all of my titles, I like that it works on multiple levels, each that can be applied to what happens in the book. Because what happens in this book is VAST, people.

Yay titles!


BOUNDLESS is still (fingers crossed) on schedule to be released in January 2013. I know that's a long ways off, but I still need some time to tinker with it.

In honor of this big reveal I also want to share a song that inspired me as I wrote this book.

Sigh. I love this song. When I listen to it I always imagine it being sung to Clara by Christian AND Tucker, alternating with the lyrics.

Here are the words:

I'll sing it one last time for you
Then we really have to go
You've been the only thing that's right
In all I've done

And I can barely look at you
But every single time I do
I know we'll make it anywhere
Away from here

Light up, light up
As if you have a choice
Even if you cannot hear my voice
I'll be right beside you dear

Louder louder
And we'll run for our lives
I can hardly speak I understand
Why you can't raise your voice to say

To think I might not see those eyes
Makes it so hard not to cry
And as we say our long goodbye
I nearly do

Light up, light up
As if you have a choice
Even if you cannot hear my voice
I'll be right beside you dear

Louder louder
And we'll run for our lives
I can hardly speak I understand
Why you can't raise your voice to say

Slower slower
We don't have time for that
All I want's to find an easy way
To get out of our little heads

Have heart, my dear
We're bound to be afraid
Even if it's just for a few days
Making up for all this mess

Light up, light up
As if you have a choice
Even if you cannot hear my voice
I'll be right beside you dear

Sigh.

Uh oh. The kids are awake now. Time to go.

Oh, but there's one more bit of news:

THE AUDIO FOR HALLOWED IS NOW AVAILABLE. Click here for the Audible.

And now I go back to juggling.

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.

YA Scavenger Hunt

Hi! I just finished a draft of UNEARTHLY #3 yesterday, so I've been hiding out writing for a while, but this is the greatest excuse ever to come out of my writerly cave! It's the YA Scavenger hunt! 

This tri-annual event was first organized by author Colleen Houck as a way to give readers a chance to gain access to exclusive bonus material from their favorite authors...and a chance to win some awesome prizes! At this hunt, you not only get access to exclusive content from each author, you also get a clue for the hunt. Add up the clues, and you can enter for our prize--one lucky winner will receive TWENTY signed books, one book from each author on the hunt in my team! But play fast: this contest (and all the exclusive bonus material) will only be online for 72 hours!

Go to the YA Scavenger Hunt page to find out all about the hunt. There are THREE contests going on simultaneously, and you can enter all three! I am a part of the BLUE TEAM--but there is also a red team and a yellow team. You can enter all three contests--which has a total prize bucket of SIXTY signed books!

If you'd like to find out more about the hunt, see links to all the authors participating, and see the full list of prizes up for grabs, go to the YA Scavenger Hunt homepage.

SCAVENGER HUNT PUZZLE

Directions: Hidden within my post is a single letter that is blue. Make a note of that letter! It's a part of a scrambled phrase. When you go to all the author sites of the blue team, you'll have all the letters you need to enter the contest.

Entry Form: Once you piece together all the clues to the hunt, make sure you fill out the form here to officially qualify for the grand prize. Only entries that have the completed phrase will qualify.

Rules: Open internationally, anyone below the age of 18 should have a parent or guardian's permission to enter. To be eligible for the grand prize, you must submit the completed entry form by April 1st, at noon Pacific Time. Entries sent without the correct puzzle code or without contact information will not be considered.

I am also going to hold a little contest of my own, in honor of this occasion. I will give away an Unearthly prize pack, which includes: A Team Tucker/Team Christian patch, whichever you prefer, a bunch of Unearthly temporary tattoos, some signed bookmarks and signed bookplates, plus a signed copy of Hallowed. All you have to do is follow me on twitter, facebook, or subscribe this this blog. Leave what you did in the comments, 1 entry per thing, and I'll announce the winner when we announce the winner of the hunt. Good luck!

SCAVENGER HUNT POST

Today, I am hosting Lisa Burstein on my website for the YA Scavenger Hunt! I've never met Lisa before, but she sounds like my type of writer! And she's a Northwestern girl! Woohoo! (I'm from Idaho and my husband is from Oregon, very near Portland, so I cheered when I read Lisa's bio. Which is right here:

Lisa Burstein is a tea seller by day and a writer by night. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from the Inland Northwest Center for Writers at Eastern Washington University and is glad to finally have it be worth more than the paper it was printed on. She lives in Portland, Oregon with her very patient husband, a neurotic dog and two cats. Pretty Amy is her first novel. She never went to her senior prom.

Find out more information by checking out Lisa's website or find more about the Pretty Amy here!

Now on to the exclusive content. Lisa was generous enough (and we are lucky enough!) to get a sneak peak the Pretty Amy, which won't be out until May 15. Woohoo! Here it is! I'm excluding an excerpt here, and then you can follow the link before to read the rest of the section! Don't forget to look for the BLUE letter.

EXCLUSIVE CONTENT

Here's the description of the book:

Amy is fine living in the shadows of beautiful Lila and uber-cool Cassie, because at least she’s somewhat beautiful and uber-cool by association. But when their dates stand them up for prom, and the girls take matters into their own hands—earning them a night in jail outfitted in satin, stilettos, and Spanx—Amy discovers even a prom spent in handcuffs might be better than the humiliating “rehabilitation techniques” now filling up her summer. Worse, with Lila and Cassie parentally banned, Amy feels like she has nothing—like she is nothing.

Navigating unlikely alliances with her new coworker, two very different boys, and possibly even her parents, Amy struggles to decide if it’s worth being a best friend when it makes you a public enemy. Bringing readers along on an often hilarious and heartwarming journey, Amy finds that maybe getting a life only happens once you think your life is over.

Sounds awesome, right? I can't wait to read it! So here's the first peek:

Unfortunately, I am only myself. I am only Amy Fleishman.

I am one of the legions of middle-class white girls who

search malls for jeans that make them look thinner, who

search drugstores for makeup to wear as a second skin, who

are as sexy and exotic as blueberry muffins.

I am a walking, talking True Life episode. Your highschool

guidance counselor’s wet dream, and one of the only

girls I know to get arrested on prom night.

When my mother dropped me off at Lila’s, rather than

running like hell the way I usually did, I sat next to her in our

minivan and waited for a speech. The speech mothers give to

their only daughters on nights when those daughters are all

dressed up and the mothers look all wistful and teary.

I assumed she was building up to it, was working through

exactly what she was going to say so it would be perfect. I

knew from TV that she must have practiced in the mirror, but

maybe, faced with having to say all those things to me, she’d

frozen up. I could understand that.

When I saw Lila peek out to see who was sitting in her

driveway, and then felt my phone vibrate with a text that I

knew must say, WTF R U DOIN?, I figured I had waited long

enough.

“So this is it…,” I said. My mother stared at Lila’s small,

birdsh*t-gray house and bit at what was left of her nails. After

I’d started hanging out with Lila and Cassie, my mother

gnawed at her nails the way a baby sucked her thumb. “…my

senior prom,” I continued.

Maybe she was overwhelmed. Her little girl was all grown

up. Her ugly duckling had finally become a swan.

“I don’t want to ruin this for you, so I’m choosing to hold

my tongue.”

My mother loved using old-time folksy sayings. Hold your

horses. The early bird catches the worm. The penis with two

holes puts out the fire faster.

All right, fine, I made up that last one.

She had been holding her tongue for a while now. When

yelling at me about my “degenerate” friends hadn’t helped,

she went for the semi-silent treatment.

Stupid me for trying to get her to talk.

“There’s something very wrong with this, Amy,” she said.

She meant that Lila’s boyfriend, Brian, had arranged a

date for me. My mother had never met this boy. I had never

met this boy. It may have seemed wrong to her, but I was used

to Lila bringing the boys. And, it was still my senior prom. It

was still my night, and she couldn’t even have a special, sappy

moment with me.

“I want to tell you to have a good time, to enjoy every

moment, to be safe, but I know you won’t listen anyway. I

know you’ll do what you want to do.”

She was talking to herself again.

My mother’s favorite hobbies were talking to herself

and bitching. Though I suppose those were hobbies for most

mothers, my mother honed them like skills. If bitching were

karate, my mother would be a black belt.

I looked down at my dress. It was strapless and light blue

to bring out my eyes, which weren’t blue, but raccoon gray,

and picked up whatever color I put next to them. The bodice

was tight and shiny, like what a superhero might wear, and the

skirt flared out and fell just below my knees. When my mother

had seen it hanging on the bathroom door earlier tonight,

she’d said it looked trampy, which made me even happier that

she hadn’t been there when I picked it out.

She also hadn’t been there when I got my shoes and clutch

purse dyed to match. Sure, she had given me money, but she

hadn’t been there. Not like I would have asked her to be there,

but she hadn’t offered, either.

“Thanks for the memories,” I said, opening the door.

Her only job tonight was to tell me I was beautiful, that I

was her beautiful baby girl all grown up, but she couldn’t even

do that.

“I can’t help the way I feel,” she said, like some self-helpbook

junkie. Well, not like one—she was one. For Chanukah

last year she had gotten me an itchy sweater and Chicken

Soup for the Daughter’s Soul. The inscription had read, FYI.

Seriously.

Loved that! And here's the link, if you'd like to peek some more:
http://www.lisaburstein.com/Exclusive_Content.html
username: prettyamy
password: prettyamy1

Here's the next stop on the hunt: Laura A. H. Elliott

Don't forget to enter your entries in the comments below to qualify for my special UNEARTHLY prize pack, as well.

 

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!

Bull's eye and the New York Times

It's been a crazy week. I am now home from my Idaho tour (yay Idaho!), and will post a recap of that later. With pictures. There are a 372 photos of the trip for me to sort through. So yeah, later.

But let me tell you about Wednesday. Wednesday was one of those pinch-me days. Wednesday I was on cloud surreal.

I am still on cloud surreal. . .

So, Wednesday I was up at my dad's mountain house, which is smack between Challis and Mackay, Idaho. It's the middle of nowhere, high desert with a gorgeous view of Mt. Borah, the tallest mountain in Idaho, and a lot of snow. It's so quiet up there I swear I can hear my thoughts rattle when they bounce around in my head. It's also a wonderland for my son, who gets to ride the tractor and ATVs and sled down the perfectly-pitched-for-sledding driveway and play with my dad's four Labrador retrievers. Heaven is Pop-Pop's house!

View from my dad's front porch

We started the day with a fine breakfast that my dad cooked: scrambled eggs, bacon, and toast made with homemade bread. I was in heaven, too. I'm generally in heaven when somebody else cooks.

I had been up all night coughing with a nasty cold, and the baby had been up all night because I kept waking her up with my coughing, so we were slow to get moving that day. I was deliriously tired. We lazed around in the morning and then, around noonish, decided to go sledding. I bundled up the kids and outside we went. Fun times were had by all. Even the baby got in on the action.

It's all fun and games until you crash into some sagebrush. . .

We came in and put the kids down for their naps. Then my dad and I went back out. My dad was going to teach me how to shoot a pistol.

Yep, you heard me right.

Now, I've never had any interest in guns. Like, ever. My dad is a bit of a gun fanatic, truth be told, and I grew up watching him clean his rifles and fill shells at the kitchen table and head off into the wilderness intent on killing a poor defenseless deer every fall, so I'm comfortable around guns, to an extent, but I never had the desire to shoot one. I like Bambi.

But this year I have a novel simmering on the back burner (which I have not allowed myself to write a single word of because I need to finish Book 3 of the Unearthly series first, but I have taken copious notes) where my main character is quite the sharpshooter with a six-shooter. And she needs to be. And that's about all I can tell you at this point.

So I decided I needed to know how it felt to shoot a pistol.

My dad was all too happy to oblige. He set up the target and cleaned the gun and taught me how to load it. We marched out into his backyard (remember that we are out in the middle of nowhere) and he taught me how to hold the gun, how to position my feet, how to aim.

Six bullets.

The first shot I hit the paper with the target on it. Barely. I was pleased that I hit it at all. My heart was going pretty steady just holding the loaded gun.

Second shot I missed. Not sure what I hit. Bah.

Third shot I hit the paper again.

Fourth shot I actually hit the target. I was feeling pretty spiffy about myself.

Fifth shot I missed the target completely. Double bah.

"Squeeze the trigger slowly," my dad advised.

I cocked the gun. Steadied my hand. Squinted at the target. And slowly, slowly, squeezed the trigger.

And hit the bull's eye.

Up to that point I wasn't sure if I liked this gun-shooting thing, but I'll tell you, it was quite the thrill to hit the bull's eye. I was channeling my sharpshooter character. I couldn't wait to get inside and write some notes about how the gun bucked in my hand, the way it smelled, how it felt to aim at something and hit it, and hit it perfectly.

I was all aglow when we came inside.

And then: there was a barrage of texts from my agent waiting on my cell. Texts like, Have you read your email yet? and I will call you as soon as I'm off the subway.

Oh boy. My heart really started going then. I turned immediately to the computer with the tar-slow-satellite-internet and waited for my email account to load.

It was a long wait. A nail-biting wait.

And lo and behold, an email from my editor at HarperCollins. Hallowed is #10 on the Children's Chapter Books bestseller list of the NEW YORK TIMES.

Congrats, my editor wrote. You are now a New York Times Bestselling Author.

Good thing I was sitting down.

Right then my phone rang, my agent off the subway, and we laughed and I may have even cried a little and my dad brought me a glass of champagne.

I've never been one to put too much stock in labels, but what I kept coming back to in those first few moments, again and again, was that this makes it so much more likely than I will be able to continue to write, beyond the Unearthly series, beyond this year or next year, beyond one book or two, but for my lifetime. I can be a writer, I thought. For good.

I made a bunch of calls, one of the first to my best friend, Lindsey.

She said, "Well, I hope I can still be your friend. . ."

Me: "Huh? What?"

Lindsey: "You're an all-important writer now. You're going to need new friends, of course. Important friends."

Me: "Well, I've heard that those New York Times besties are pretty great. . ."

Lindsey: "You see?"

Me: "But I think I can still squeeze you into my top five friends. If you're nice to me. . ."

We laughed and she said she was proud of me. Everyone kept saying how proud they were of me, and I felt proud of myself, too. Proud for being able to write Hallowed even though it was crazy-hard and maybe the most stressed I'd ever been in my life. Proud that I'd made it through. Proud that I'd written some pretty good stuff there. And also grateful and humbled and amazed and knocked over.

It felt pretty amazing.

Like hitting the bull's eye.