Joy Preble's Blog, page 14
June 3, 2014
Three for Tuesday: Copy Edits, Marketing Books, and Other stuff
And the top three for today:
1. Waiting for copy edits to come back to me from FINDING PARIS (spring 2015, Balzer and Bray). I am both excited and nervous about this. If you're not a writer, let me explain that up until a project goes to CE, it's been just you and your editor (and earlier, your agent and before that your critique partners/beta readers). But after a while, they know your story. You know your story. And now comes this person who's going to do a thorough cold read, which means they haven't been reading various incarnations for the past year or 2. Your copy editor will (hopefully) catch inconsistencies and errors and will also give that fresh pair of eyes that we all need before book becomes 'official' manuscript and then galley.
And so I'm waiting. Particularly because PARIS is a complex project with a lot of emotional twists and turns and secrets and dark stuff.
Let me interject here that the dog is sitting at my feet whining through her big basset nose because she wants my toast. She is not going to get my toast, in case you were wondering. Nose whining is a high-pitched sound, by the way.
2. So it's a given by now that I'm reading book after book of OUTLANDER. But I am also currently reading THE INTERESTINGS by Meg Wolitzer, which I am liking very much. And a slim volume of Kurt Vonnegut's graduation speeches, which are mostly fascinating, although oddly, not always.
3. Also thinking about marketing today. The publishing kind, not groceries. As my agent just observed, John Green is a marketing genius. But so is the team that supports him, with their clear attention to making the stars align (pun intended) for FIOS, a book that I adore mightily. It has been a prodigious campaign. As has the marketing campaign for another book I admire hugely, WE WERE LIARS, by the delightful and generous Emily Lockhart-- to whom I shall always be grateful because she loved and blurbed SWEET DEAD LIFE. The promotion for LIARS has been quite clever, with the focus being on not revealing the ending (because really, you can't with this book) and emphasizing the idea of liars and unreliable narrators and basically putting out the tease of the mystery in all these well-plotted ways for months and months before it hit the shelves on 5/13. Of course the best type of publicity is still word of mouth, but campaigns the size and breadth of these pretty much insure that word of mouth is going to happen and won't just be something that miraculously occurs.
Even on my smaller potatoes level, I know that the unexpectedly continual word of mouth for DREAMING ANASTASIA back in 2009 was certainly to some extent miraculous, but to an even larger extent, the work of my publicist at the time. I was his first YA book and he wanted to show that he could take an unknown high school teacher and make her book sell. Which he truly did and for which I am forever grateful. (yes, I worked very hard on marketing and still do. But he focused that work and partnered with me to make sure what I did made a difference.)
Let me interject here that one clear component for me has always been the two-pronged effects of the wonderful bloggers who support me and my books and the amazing and tireless indie booksellers who hand sell my titles. I owe them a million sparkly things. And I make my appreciation and adoration known to them regularly. Like now! :)
And then there are those--including some very successful self-pubbed authors, particularly those who write romance-- who manage those prodigious and highly successful marketing campaigns on their own.
The truth of course is that there is very little authors can actually control in making a book successful. We can write the best book possible. We can make ourselves accessible. But for the most part, we cannot control the cover, or store placement or co-op money or whether we're going to be a lead title or whether we will be widely stocked or even where. We can simply keep writing better and better books.
So if you're reading this, your question is: What book marketing campaigns have stood out to you and why? What, beyond word of mouth, makes you take a second glance at book and pick it up?
1. Waiting for copy edits to come back to me from FINDING PARIS (spring 2015, Balzer and Bray). I am both excited and nervous about this. If you're not a writer, let me explain that up until a project goes to CE, it's been just you and your editor (and earlier, your agent and before that your critique partners/beta readers). But after a while, they know your story. You know your story. And now comes this person who's going to do a thorough cold read, which means they haven't been reading various incarnations for the past year or 2. Your copy editor will (hopefully) catch inconsistencies and errors and will also give that fresh pair of eyes that we all need before book becomes 'official' manuscript and then galley.
And so I'm waiting. Particularly because PARIS is a complex project with a lot of emotional twists and turns and secrets and dark stuff.
Let me interject here that the dog is sitting at my feet whining through her big basset nose because she wants my toast. She is not going to get my toast, in case you were wondering. Nose whining is a high-pitched sound, by the way.
2. So it's a given by now that I'm reading book after book of OUTLANDER. But I am also currently reading THE INTERESTINGS by Meg Wolitzer, which I am liking very much. And a slim volume of Kurt Vonnegut's graduation speeches, which are mostly fascinating, although oddly, not always.
3. Also thinking about marketing today. The publishing kind, not groceries. As my agent just observed, John Green is a marketing genius. But so is the team that supports him, with their clear attention to making the stars align (pun intended) for FIOS, a book that I adore mightily. It has been a prodigious campaign. As has the marketing campaign for another book I admire hugely, WE WERE LIARS, by the delightful and generous Emily Lockhart-- to whom I shall always be grateful because she loved and blurbed SWEET DEAD LIFE. The promotion for LIARS has been quite clever, with the focus being on not revealing the ending (because really, you can't with this book) and emphasizing the idea of liars and unreliable narrators and basically putting out the tease of the mystery in all these well-plotted ways for months and months before it hit the shelves on 5/13. Of course the best type of publicity is still word of mouth, but campaigns the size and breadth of these pretty much insure that word of mouth is going to happen and won't just be something that miraculously occurs.
Even on my smaller potatoes level, I know that the unexpectedly continual word of mouth for DREAMING ANASTASIA back in 2009 was certainly to some extent miraculous, but to an even larger extent, the work of my publicist at the time. I was his first YA book and he wanted to show that he could take an unknown high school teacher and make her book sell. Which he truly did and for which I am forever grateful. (yes, I worked very hard on marketing and still do. But he focused that work and partnered with me to make sure what I did made a difference.)
Let me interject here that one clear component for me has always been the two-pronged effects of the wonderful bloggers who support me and my books and the amazing and tireless indie booksellers who hand sell my titles. I owe them a million sparkly things. And I make my appreciation and adoration known to them regularly. Like now! :)
And then there are those--including some very successful self-pubbed authors, particularly those who write romance-- who manage those prodigious and highly successful marketing campaigns on their own.
The truth of course is that there is very little authors can actually control in making a book successful. We can write the best book possible. We can make ourselves accessible. But for the most part, we cannot control the cover, or store placement or co-op money or whether we're going to be a lead title or whether we will be widely stocked or even where. We can simply keep writing better and better books.
So if you're reading this, your question is: What book marketing campaigns have stood out to you and why? What, beyond word of mouth, makes you take a second glance at book and pick it up?
June 2, 2014
Mulling it over Monday
June! It's June! And the Houston weather has slipped back to its set point of high in the 90's low in the 70's. The summer endurance contest begins. Next time I will report a temp change will probably be, um, October.
Last night's Game of Throne episode! What can I say without spoiling it? Except that I screamed. I have not read this far in the books so... I knew something wouldn't go well, but not THAT. Didn't see THAT coming. (If you watched, discuss among yourselves. If you didn't, get back to me when you have.)
And my signing yesterday at Katy Budget Books with Sophie Jordan and CC Hunter was such fun. I love Sunday afternoon signings. Everyone's always relaxed and having a good time. Thanks to all who came out.
Mostly this morning I'm fretting over this whole reading trigger warning label thing that universities are threatening to place on books. We're not talking the basic movie/tv kind of warning like: adult language and partial nudity. We're talking trigger warnings like racism or misogyny. As in a warning to students that what they're about to read might upset them.
So doesn't that change the entire reading experience? And isn't getting upset about the dark stuff part of the point? Shouldn't I be angry as hell at Tom Buchanan in Great Gatsby and not a watered down angry because I've been warned that my tender self might be hurt or shocked by that fact that he's a nasty misogynistic bastard? Isn't discomfort okay? Shouldn't my intellectual sensibilities be, um, challenged? Isn't this a first slide down the slippery slope toward making everything we read and see just one big bowl of mushy oatmeal?
Or is it the opposite? Will an advance trigger warning that, say, Shakepeare's Merchant of Venice contains uncomfortable and essentially unchallenged anti-Semitism enhance my reading experience? Or will it control it?
Where do we draw the line about these warnings? At what level of the human experience? The answer that keeps coming to mind is: all of it.
We are not always our best selves, we humans. Surprise, surprise! We hurt each other and destroy each other in so many ways that it defies the imagination, which is perhaps for the best. I spend enough time as a writer mining those awful possibilities that I'm clear on that. And anything my imagination conjures up is probably a poor substitute for what I will read in the morning news blasts. But I do not believe that I need an advance warning about that. I believe I already am fully aware.
Lots of people have been addressing this:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/18/us/warning-the-literary-canon-could-make-students-squirm.html?_r=0
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2014/05/trigger-warnings-and-the-novelists-mind.html
Let me know what you think, dear reader
Last night's Game of Throne episode! What can I say without spoiling it? Except that I screamed. I have not read this far in the books so... I knew something wouldn't go well, but not THAT. Didn't see THAT coming. (If you watched, discuss among yourselves. If you didn't, get back to me when you have.)
And my signing yesterday at Katy Budget Books with Sophie Jordan and CC Hunter was such fun. I love Sunday afternoon signings. Everyone's always relaxed and having a good time. Thanks to all who came out.
Mostly this morning I'm fretting over this whole reading trigger warning label thing that universities are threatening to place on books. We're not talking the basic movie/tv kind of warning like: adult language and partial nudity. We're talking trigger warnings like racism or misogyny. As in a warning to students that what they're about to read might upset them.
So doesn't that change the entire reading experience? And isn't getting upset about the dark stuff part of the point? Shouldn't I be angry as hell at Tom Buchanan in Great Gatsby and not a watered down angry because I've been warned that my tender self might be hurt or shocked by that fact that he's a nasty misogynistic bastard? Isn't discomfort okay? Shouldn't my intellectual sensibilities be, um, challenged? Isn't this a first slide down the slippery slope toward making everything we read and see just one big bowl of mushy oatmeal?
Or is it the opposite? Will an advance trigger warning that, say, Shakepeare's Merchant of Venice contains uncomfortable and essentially unchallenged anti-Semitism enhance my reading experience? Or will it control it?
Where do we draw the line about these warnings? At what level of the human experience? The answer that keeps coming to mind is: all of it.
We are not always our best selves, we humans. Surprise, surprise! We hurt each other and destroy each other in so many ways that it defies the imagination, which is perhaps for the best. I spend enough time as a writer mining those awful possibilities that I'm clear on that. And anything my imagination conjures up is probably a poor substitute for what I will read in the morning news blasts. But I do not believe that I need an advance warning about that. I believe I already am fully aware.
Lots of people have been addressing this:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/18/us/warning-the-literary-canon-could-make-students-squirm.html?_r=0
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2014/05/trigger-warnings-and-the-novelists-mind.html
Let me know what you think, dear reader
May 30, 2014
Five for Friday
Simply cannot believe it is already Friday, but 'tis true. Head has been buried in writing --some on new secret project, some on IT WASN'T ALWAYS LIKE THIS--which you won't see until spring 2016 (from Soho Press), essentially 2 years from now. In writing land, that's like, um, tomorrow. I love those heady moments when a story is new and fresh and anything is possible. They make up for those moments like yesterday when you've written a synopsis five times and it's still not working. One of the great mysteries of the author life-- how you can write the whole darn book but the synopsis makes you want to curl up in the fetal position and weep. (which possibly I did)
In no particular order, here's what I'm obsessed with this week:
1. The dog's recovery from her UTI. I will not tell you how much the vet bill was. Let us say that the hubs and I could have flown somewhere. Together. But she is perking up now, Miss Lyla. And seems to find the taste of her new pro-biotic sprinkle quite pleasing. I, on the other hand, think it smells like flowers and rear end. Which, you know, are good smells when you're a dog.
2. Book 4 of Outlander. I said I'd take a break and read something else. I read something else but also kept going. Cause Jamie and Claire are in America now. The New World! And I feel like I'm there with them. And Gavin Hayes just got hung and now Jamie and the other Scots are singing a Gaelic tune to him in the tavern. And so it goes in this addictive series.
3. Maleficent. The movie. I never want to like Angelina Jolie. I really don't. But I think this movie is going to rock. Now I just need to find the time to see it.
4. Upcoming events that I'm really excited about! A library book club visit in Austin! (Will report soon). A signing at Katy Budget Books this Sunday with my girls Sophie Jordan and Christie Craig (CC Hunter). I'll be signing the new A-WORD (Soho Teen) and also SWEET DEAD LIFE and more!
5. And this line of Ciersi's from Game of Thrones. "Everywhere in the world, they hurt little girls." Enough already, world. Seriously. Enough.
There's much more, of course, like how I wish I was at the Children's Author Breakfast at BEA, which so loved attending 2 years ago. Or how I think Crossbones might be worth watching. And how if you're not watching Watch What's Happening Live with Andy Cohen on Bravo, you're seriously missing out on amazing live television. I am not joking.
Tonight is the launch party at Blue Willow for my buddy and debut author and fellow YAHOU, Jennifer Mathieu. THE TRUTH ABOUT ALICE is going to be huge. It is a phenomenal new voice. It's out next week from Roaring Brook. Jen will be touring with Fierce Reads. She is funny and whip smart and a fellow NU grad. She writes like a dream. Pick up this book!
Okay, that was way more than 5, right?Happy Friday!
In no particular order, here's what I'm obsessed with this week:
1. The dog's recovery from her UTI. I will not tell you how much the vet bill was. Let us say that the hubs and I could have flown somewhere. Together. But she is perking up now, Miss Lyla. And seems to find the taste of her new pro-biotic sprinkle quite pleasing. I, on the other hand, think it smells like flowers and rear end. Which, you know, are good smells when you're a dog.
2. Book 4 of Outlander. I said I'd take a break and read something else. I read something else but also kept going. Cause Jamie and Claire are in America now. The New World! And I feel like I'm there with them. And Gavin Hayes just got hung and now Jamie and the other Scots are singing a Gaelic tune to him in the tavern. And so it goes in this addictive series.
3. Maleficent. The movie. I never want to like Angelina Jolie. I really don't. But I think this movie is going to rock. Now I just need to find the time to see it.
4. Upcoming events that I'm really excited about! A library book club visit in Austin! (Will report soon). A signing at Katy Budget Books this Sunday with my girls Sophie Jordan and Christie Craig (CC Hunter). I'll be signing the new A-WORD (Soho Teen) and also SWEET DEAD LIFE and more!
5. And this line of Ciersi's from Game of Thrones. "Everywhere in the world, they hurt little girls." Enough already, world. Seriously. Enough.
There's much more, of course, like how I wish I was at the Children's Author Breakfast at BEA, which so loved attending 2 years ago. Or how I think Crossbones might be worth watching. And how if you're not watching Watch What's Happening Live with Andy Cohen on Bravo, you're seriously missing out on amazing live television. I am not joking.
Tonight is the launch party at Blue Willow for my buddy and debut author and fellow YAHOU, Jennifer Mathieu. THE TRUTH ABOUT ALICE is going to be huge. It is a phenomenal new voice. It's out next week from Roaring Brook. Jen will be touring with Fierce Reads. She is funny and whip smart and a fellow NU grad. She writes like a dream. Pick up this book!Okay, that was way more than 5, right?Happy Friday!
May 26, 2014
Of Popovers, Moscow Mules, Rene Magritte and reasons Houston rocks
So I didn't peek. And I added a bit more milk and a tablespoon of melted butter. And the popover quest succeeded!
Yes, this is what you get from just flour, milk, eggs, salt and butter. And I'd bet you don't need the snazzy popover pan, but since I have it…
Sunday found me at the Menil Collection in Houston -- a free and gorgeous art museum. It's the last week of the Rene Magritte exhibit. I have loved Magritte and his surrealism for as long as I can remember. We spent a lot of time at Chicago's Art Institute when I was growing up and his painting called Time Transfixed (below) was one I visited every time And what do you know -- it was part of this retrospective exhibit. Actually there was even a second exhibit with his later works. Now I'm obsessed again…. Plus the Menil. Quiet, with lovely wood floors and amazing filtered lighting… Live oaks and gardens and the Cy Twombly gallery across the street. (I was the ONLY ONE in the entire Twombly gallery. That was crazy, but I don't know if people even know it's there…) And the Rothko Chapel and a million other reasons that Houston is really one of the unsung coolest cities (except for the weather) around.
Also, there is this- a Moscow Mule--a Mad Men inspired vodka cocktail served in a copper cup (why, I'm not exactly sure). Vodka, ginger beer, lime, sugar... I first saw it at the kid lit party at the Arctic Bar in Seattle during AWP. And first ordered one this week. I'd imagine a popover or two might go well with a couple of these pretties…
Yes, this is what you get from just flour, milk, eggs, salt and butter. And I'd bet you don't need the snazzy popover pan, but since I have it…
Sunday found me at the Menil Collection in Houston -- a free and gorgeous art museum. It's the last week of the Rene Magritte exhibit. I have loved Magritte and his surrealism for as long as I can remember. We spent a lot of time at Chicago's Art Institute when I was growing up and his painting called Time Transfixed (below) was one I visited every time And what do you know -- it was part of this retrospective exhibit. Actually there was even a second exhibit with his later works. Now I'm obsessed again…. Plus the Menil. Quiet, with lovely wood floors and amazing filtered lighting… Live oaks and gardens and the Cy Twombly gallery across the street. (I was the ONLY ONE in the entire Twombly gallery. That was crazy, but I don't know if people even know it's there…) And the Rothko Chapel and a million other reasons that Houston is really one of the unsung coolest cities (except for the weather) around.
Also, there is this- a Moscow Mule--a Mad Men inspired vodka cocktail served in a copper cup (why, I'm not exactly sure). Vodka, ginger beer, lime, sugar... I first saw it at the kid lit party at the Arctic Bar in Seattle during AWP. And first ordered one this week. I'd imagine a popover or two might go well with a couple of these pretties…
May 23, 2014
THE A-WORD LAUNCH and other Friday stuff
Can you believe that THE A-WORD has been out for over a week now? Well it has! Blog tour is in full swing. In fact, one of my favorite guest posts is up today at The Book Rat, a pictorial overview of Jenna Samuels' Texas world: Homecoming mums! Kolaches! A&M 12th Man! Copperhead Road line dance! And other cool Texas-y stuff. Check it out here: http://www.thebookrat.com/2014/05/guest-post-from-joy-preble-author-of.html
And THE A-WORD Launch party happened last Saturday at Blue Willow Bookshop in Houston! Here are a few pics:
Me and the lovely Houston book blogger/all around brilliant human Kate Sowa
Thanks a million zillion to Valerie and Cathy and the rest of the Blue Willow staff and to the many, many of you who came out to support me and THE A-WORD! Clearly you seemed to be having a good time from that last picture above!
This coming Tuesday, 5/27 at 6 PM, I'll be at Barnes and Noble in The Woodlands TX with authors Varsha Bajaj and Christina Mandelski! Book shenanigans will ensue. Would love to see you! Here's the link: http://store-locator.barnesandnoble.com/event/4696729
So yeah, it's been a fun few days.
I'll count all of the above as #1 of the Friday Five.
Here's the rest of what I'm obsessed with this week:
2. Just read a galley of the very talented Kari Anne Holt's forthcoming RHYME SCHEMER, which will be out this fall from Chronicle. It's a middle grade novel in rhyme with stolen poetry (you'll see!) about a bully become bullied. Kevin's story just hits you in the gut hard. I LOVE this book. I expect HUGE THINGS from this book. Put it on your list. NOW.
3. MOVIES! X-Men! Chef! Want to see them both this weekend. I'll let you know if it happens. IT BETTER HAPPEN.
4. Attempt #2 coming tonight on homemade popovers. Received my coveted popover pan for Mother's Day and the first exploratory batch was tasty but did not rise much. I think I peeked too much. Or I have an old, crappy oven. Both of which are true. I will conquer you, popovers!
5. I got to see the cover comps for next year's FINDING PARIS. I cannot show them to you. You probably won't see the cover til the fall. But holy mother they make my heart sing!! FINDING PARIS is my book that will be out 4/21/15 from Balzer and Bray. A girl. A boy. A missing sister. Dark secrets. And a road trip from Vegas to LA and on from there.
Til next week!
Have a lovely Memorial Day if you are in the US.
xo
And THE A-WORD Launch party happened last Saturday at Blue Willow Bookshop in Houston! Here are a few pics:
Me and the lovely Houston book blogger/all around brilliant human Kate Sowa
Thanks a million zillion to Valerie and Cathy and the rest of the Blue Willow staff and to the many, many of you who came out to support me and THE A-WORD! Clearly you seemed to be having a good time from that last picture above!This coming Tuesday, 5/27 at 6 PM, I'll be at Barnes and Noble in The Woodlands TX with authors Varsha Bajaj and Christina Mandelski! Book shenanigans will ensue. Would love to see you! Here's the link: http://store-locator.barnesandnoble.com/event/4696729
So yeah, it's been a fun few days.
I'll count all of the above as #1 of the Friday Five.
Here's the rest of what I'm obsessed with this week:
2. Just read a galley of the very talented Kari Anne Holt's forthcoming RHYME SCHEMER, which will be out this fall from Chronicle. It's a middle grade novel in rhyme with stolen poetry (you'll see!) about a bully become bullied. Kevin's story just hits you in the gut hard. I LOVE this book. I expect HUGE THINGS from this book. Put it on your list. NOW.
3. MOVIES! X-Men! Chef! Want to see them both this weekend. I'll let you know if it happens. IT BETTER HAPPEN.
4. Attempt #2 coming tonight on homemade popovers. Received my coveted popover pan for Mother's Day and the first exploratory batch was tasty but did not rise much. I think I peeked too much. Or I have an old, crappy oven. Both of which are true. I will conquer you, popovers!
5. I got to see the cover comps for next year's FINDING PARIS. I cannot show them to you. You probably won't see the cover til the fall. But holy mother they make my heart sing!! FINDING PARIS is my book that will be out 4/21/15 from Balzer and Bray. A girl. A boy. A missing sister. Dark secrets. And a road trip from Vegas to LA and on from there.
Til next week!
Have a lovely Memorial Day if you are in the US.
xo
May 17, 2014
FERAL SNEAK PEEK AND PRE-ORDER Campaign
My delightful writer friend Holly Schindler has a new YA coming out soon, called FERAL! As today is INDIES FIRST STORYTIME DAY, we thought it would be a great day to give you all the opportunity for an exclusive sneak peek at FERAL!!
How?
Click here!
http://vimeo.com/95024582
And because I know your'e going to adore what you see, you can pre-order by clicking here!
http://hollyschindler.blogspot.com/2014/04/pre-order-feral.html
It's that easy!
FERAL IS COMING! BUT YOU GOT TO SEE IT FIRST.
How?
Click here!
http://vimeo.com/95024582
And because I know your'e going to adore what you see, you can pre-order by clicking here!
http://hollyschindler.blogspot.com/2014/04/pre-order-feral.html
It's that easy!
FERAL IS COMING! BUT YOU GOT TO SEE IT FIRST.
May 16, 2014
Five for Friday
Can you believe that pub week is almost over? Crazy!
Here's the five:
1. THE A-WORD blog tour continues. See previous post for al the links! THANKS so much to all who are hosting/reviewing/generally spreading the word about these crazy TEXAS angels!! I'm so glad I'm starting to see some Bo Shivers love out there, too! Let me know what y'all think of BO!
2. Launch party for A-WORD this coming Saturday 5/17 at 2 PM at Blue Willow Bookshop! Cookies, fictional sibling trivia, q/a about A-WORD and COWBOY BOOT KEYCHAINS! You want to be there. Yes you do! Here's the link: http://www.bluewillowbookshop.com/event/joy-preble-2
3. Flying through Voyager, which is Outlander #3. I cannot believe that I am reading these 1000 page books back to back to back to… Well, let me say that there have been some jump the shark moments here and some places that I would honestly edit the heck out of. But still. Jamie and Claire. And Young Ian, who is stealing the show… until he gets stolen by pirates. And Jamie forgetting to tell Claire that he'd kinda, sorta married the woman who'd tried to get Claire killed as a witch. And the penicillin she's snuck back to the 1700's, along with a plastic wrapped stack of pb and j sandwiches…. I still love it.
4. Godzilla? Are we going to see it? I think I am. But it's FIOS that I'm waiting for. Because Gus and Hazel. And John Green's dialogue. And all of it. Soon.
5. Vampire Diaires season finale. DAMON!!!! OOOOOOOHHHHHH NOOOOOOO!
Happy Friday all of you! Come to Blue Willow if you're in Houston!
Here's the five:
1. THE A-WORD blog tour continues. See previous post for al the links! THANKS so much to all who are hosting/reviewing/generally spreading the word about these crazy TEXAS angels!! I'm so glad I'm starting to see some Bo Shivers love out there, too! Let me know what y'all think of BO!2. Launch party for A-WORD this coming Saturday 5/17 at 2 PM at Blue Willow Bookshop! Cookies, fictional sibling trivia, q/a about A-WORD and COWBOY BOOT KEYCHAINS! You want to be there. Yes you do! Here's the link: http://www.bluewillowbookshop.com/event/joy-preble-2
3. Flying through Voyager, which is Outlander #3. I cannot believe that I am reading these 1000 page books back to back to back to… Well, let me say that there have been some jump the shark moments here and some places that I would honestly edit the heck out of. But still. Jamie and Claire. And Young Ian, who is stealing the show… until he gets stolen by pirates. And Jamie forgetting to tell Claire that he'd kinda, sorta married the woman who'd tried to get Claire killed as a witch. And the penicillin she's snuck back to the 1700's, along with a plastic wrapped stack of pb and j sandwiches…. I still love it.
4. Godzilla? Are we going to see it? I think I am. But it's FIOS that I'm waiting for. Because Gus and Hazel. And John Green's dialogue. And all of it. Soon.
5. Vampire Diaires season finale. DAMON!!!! OOOOOOOHHHHHH NOOOOOOO!
Happy Friday all of you! Come to Blue Willow if you're in Houston!
May 13, 2014
THE A-WORD BLOG TOUR BEGINS
The A-WORD BLOG TOUR begins tomorrow! Click below to see the entire tour. As the posts go up, the links will go live! There will be fun and reviews and giveaways!!
http://sohopress.com/the-a-word-blog-tour/
THANK YOU to all the wonderful authors and bloggers who are hosting. You will see the official blog tour banner on their site! It looks like this:
And again, the link to the blog tour list is:
http://sohopress.com/the-a-word-blog-tour/
Thanks to SOHO PRESS and my fearless publicist, Meredith Barnes, for arranging!
Enjoy!!
And more giveaways to come on my own blog, soon!
http://sohopress.com/the-a-word-blog-tour/
THANK YOU to all the wonderful authors and bloggers who are hosting. You will see the official blog tour banner on their site! It looks like this:
And again, the link to the blog tour list is:
http://sohopress.com/the-a-word-blog-tour/
Thanks to SOHO PRESS and my fearless publicist, Meredith Barnes, for arranging!
Enjoy!!
And more giveaways to come on my own blog, soon!
May 12, 2014
THE A-WORD IS HERE!!
It’s here! It’s here!Tuesday, May 13th, 2014—the birthday of THE A-WORD, the sequel to THE SWEET DEAD LIFE, both from Soho Teen/Soho Press.
Let’s let the publisher’s blurb do some of the speaking. (I got to write it, so I think I trust it to tell you what to expect!)
It's been almost a year since Jenna Samuel’s stoner brother, Casey, bit the dust and returned as her guardian angel. A year since Casey and his “angel boss,” Amber Velasco, saved Jenna’s life and helped her foil the bad guys— more or less. A year in which Jenna has solved the true mystery of the universe: how to get one Ryan Sloboda to ask her out.
Jenna’s feeling mighty cheery about life and love. But Casey, whose doomed relationship with Lanie Phelps (who has no idea her boyfriend is, well, dead) isn’t doing much to distract him, has his own big question: Why is he still hanging around?
Bo Shivers, a heavenly head honcho Jenna and Casey didn't even know existed, might have the answers. Bo knows something big is coming. Something that might just change everything for Jenna Samuels, who once again finds herself up to her non-winged shoulders in heavenly secrets of global proportions—just as she’s finally found the perfect Homecoming Dance dress.
First dates and first kisses. Football games. Global-sized mysteries. Earthbound angels who aren’t happy about it and the loves and losses they’ve left behind. A sibling story. And the big questions of the universe. All told by sassy, smart-mouthed Jenna Samuels, one of my favorite characters I've ever written. As Kirkus observed, "wherever Jenna goes, trouble seems to follow."*
That’s THE A-WORD.
Welcome to the world, my pretty book.And huge thanks to my lovely publisher, Soho Press, and my ever patient editor Daniel Ehrenhaft for allowing Jenna Samuels to kick up her cowboy boots once again!
Your job, dear reader? Buy a copy today. Give another copy for a gift tomorrow. Spread the A-WORD! Because we all still want that SWEET DEAD LIFE movie, right?
Official blog tour start Wednesday. And some giveaways from me are in the works as well!Stay tuned.
*Btw, in case you don't know, I do believe this quote is the reviewer's thinly-veiled reference to one of my favorite old time movies, Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows -- a story about two irrepressible best friends (one played by Hailey Mills, who also starred in a zillion Disney movies and the original Parent Trap) in a Catholic boarding school who get into all sorts of crazy hijinks, much to the chagrin of the Reverend Mother, played by Rosalind Russell.
May 6, 2014
WISH YOU WERE ITALIAN: A Debut Novel by Kristin Rae hits the shelves
Happy Book Birthday to Kristin Rae's WISH YOU WERE ITALIAN, which debuts today from Bloomsbury!I've known Kristin for awhile now: We write together, eat cupcakes together, and do all the other 'authors in the wild' things that one would expect. It's been a true pleasure to watch her journey from finishing WISH to querying agents to signing to selling to today, when she officially joins the tribe and her first novel arrives into the world. (In truth, it's been sneaking out there for a few days, as first novels often do, thrilling everyone with sightings at this bookstore and that)
WISH is a wonderful, fun summer (or any season!) read and I can hardly wait to buy my own 'real' copy. Because we all want to go to Italy like main character Pippa and meet cute boys and learn about who we are beyond our parents' vision for us. Plus gelato. Lots of gelato. And a kiss or two because how sweet are kisses in Italy with cute boys?
You will LOVE Kristin's WISH YOU WERE ITALIAN!
Cheers to Kristin Rae! Keep an eye on this up and coming author. She is on fire with ideas and you are going to love them all.
Here's the full Amazon blurb:
The summer before senior year of high school. It’s supposed to be one of the biggest summers of her life, but Pippa is headed to an art program she has no interest in. The one saving grace is it’s in Italy. And when the opportunity strikes, she decides to ditch the program and travel Italy accomplishing her own list of goals. Things like swimming in the Mediterranean Sea, eating a whole pizza in one sitting…and falling in love with an Italian boy!
As she explores the famous cities of Rome and Pompeii, Pippa finds herself falling for two boys: a local guy she knows is nothing but trouble and a cute American archaeology student who keeps disappearing and reappearing at the strangest moments. Will Pippa find her true love before her parents find out the truth about her summer program?
