Joy Preble's Blog, page 27

Reading - and enjoying- THE RAVEN BOYS, the first installment in the latest series by the fabulously talented Maggie Stiefvater.

Magic and psychics and ley lines and dead Welsh kings and wishes granted and a girl and a boy and possibly another boy who also falls for her. (I'm not far enough in to know for sure)

It's a big series and while not as densely specific in its world-building as Libba Bray's THE DIVINERS, which swallowed me whole in all things 1920's, Maggie's writing draws me in as it always does -- pretty, fragile, artistic in the way her characters view the world.

This is what I've been thinking as I've read -- that I know Stiefvater's style through her artist's eye. That because she is also a working artist in many mediums -- and a wonderfully, brilliantly talented one at that-- her way of seeing the world comes through an artist's sensibility. The way things in her books look, feel, smell, touch, taste -- all of it filters through the way she sees the world herself. Which I know is the case for all of us, but her fictional worlds are just that extra step of lush because she works in other mediums. Her characters see the world with layers of senses and I think it's part of what makes me love her writing so very, very much.

So it's got me thinking about the various authors that I adore and what it is that makes their style specific and unique, even if they write in different genres. And about my own writing and what readers tell me -- and hopefully will continue to tell me-- about what they see in my books.

When we write, we're laying it out there for you-- our ideas about life, love and the universe. Thrilling and frightening, but out there. Bare. Naked. On display.

Pretty brave souls, we writers.
Even if we get to work in our pajamas.

Today I'm welcoming fellow Sourcebooks author Patty Blount to the blog!

 I met Patty briefly at the delicious and fab Sourcebooks 25th Anniversary party at BEA in New York in June. (Yeah, I love typing stuff like that. You must always remember that I used to teach in a public high school where we did not, even on school anniversaries, have parties on a rooftop overlooking the Hudson with food stations, booze, cake pops and Kristie Yamaguchi signing her books. We had announcements that said 'Teachers! There are leftover kolaches from the PTA meeting in the lounge.' So every day I utter thankful prayers because even if I NEVER SOLD ANOTHER BOOK (not that I am tempting the fates with that!), I would still feel like I won the jackpot every damn day.)

But back to Patty -- SEND is her debut novel and it's a moving and wonderful contemporary YA that you should absolutely read. In fact she is GIVING AWAY A COPY to one lucky blog reader at the end of this post, so keep reading!

Here's Patty's bio:
Patty Blount writes instruction guides by day and novels by night. On a dare by her oldest son, she wrote her first novel in an ice rink. Though never published, Penalty Killer was the subject of so many seventh grade book reports, the English teacher requested a copy and later returned it, covered in red ink. Patty is always looking for great story ideas. Her debut novel, Send, was conceived after her boss suggested she learn about social networks. Patty lives on Long Island with her family, a fish, and lots of books.


And here is a description of SEND:  (which you can purchase here)
It's been five years since I clicked Send.
Four years since I got out of juvie.
Three months since I changed my name.
Two minutes since I met Julie.
A second to change my life.All Dan wants for his senior year is to be invisible. This is his last chance at a semi–normal life. Nobody here knows who he is. Or what he's done. But on his first day at school, instead of turning away like everyone else, Dan breaks up a fight. Because Dan knows what it's like to be terrorized by a bully—he used to be one.Now the whole school thinks he's some kind of hero—except Julie. She looks at him like she knows he has a secret. Like she knows his name isn't really Daniel...
Yeah, I know. You read that and you totally have to get a copy, right?
I asked Patty what inspired her to write such a powerful story and discovered that Patty is not one to hold back, even on the tough stuff. Here's what she had to say:
A few years back, I was working on a series of medical romances. Book 1 was done and I was about twenty thousand words into book 2 when my day job boss directed us to incorporate social networks like Twitter and YouTube into our work. I had no idea what Twitter even was back then, so I did a ton of research and what I found scared me. People don’t always use these networks for good. Some use them for bullying – posting embarrassing pictures or nasty comments that go viral, enticing complete strangers to join in. This scared me because just a few years earlier, I nearly lost my son to suicide. He’d spent the entire school term ridiculed by classmates because he started puberty early. I had no idea he was suffering; I just blamed his sullen behavior on the hormones. It wasn’t until one night in April, seven months later, when he blurted out he no longer wanted to live.
He was in sixth grade.
The rest of the year passed in a blur. We got him help, we spoke to all his teachers and slowly, he started to heal. 
He’s in college now, but there are scars.
So there I was in 2009, doing all this social networking research and all I could think was “Thank God we didn’t have to deal with this, too.” I’m sure I’d be telling you a very different story if my son’s bullying ordeal had left the classroom and gone viral. You’re probably thinking, “Ah. So this is where the idea for SEND came from.”
Not exactly. Dan, the main character in SEND, wasn’t ‘born’ until my son was in seventh grade. Just when I started to think everything was back to normal, I came home one day to find a very angry family at my door, accusing my son of bullying theirs. I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t imagine how the same child in so much pain barely a year earlier could cause that pain in someone else. My son, to his credit, was devastated with guilt and that’s when a little voice in my mind started talking to me. “I did that.” Watching my son cope with his own guilt got me wondering – how would a kid who did something really terrible forgive himself? And the voice said, “I’ll let you know when I figure it out.”
I put aside my romance series and wrote the first draft of SEND. But I got it wrong. In this first draft, Dan was in his mid-twenties and working as a motivational speaker. An agent I queried suggested making it true YA, so I revised it, putting Dan back in high school. When I finished this version, a friend of mine who’s a school librarian asked if some of her students could critique it. I eagerly accepted and holy chocolate kisses, did they help me! These kids tore the book apart, highlighting what worked and what didn’t and even nailing me on the words no guy would ever use. In fact, they echoed what my own kids told me – more cursing! Teen boys curse. A lot.
Know what they hated the most? The happy ending I wrote.
So, I revised the book again, incorporating all of the teens’ feedback. All that research I did about Twitter served me well when I was ready to query this new manuscript. I made a lot of Twitter friends who helped me craft a solid query letter and invited me to join my local RWA chapter. I attended an agent and editor lunch the following year where I met a Sourcebooks editor who loved my pitch but still hated the ending. After ANOTHER revision, she loved the concept and offered me a two-book deal!
I am still tingling.
It’s important to note here that the friendships I forged on Twitter deepened and strengthened in the last year or so. I remember one night where my discouragement had reached a peak and I almost deleted the entire manuscript. A friend stopped me. Likewise, after my editor sent me her revision notes, panic almost crippled me again, but an author I greatly admire offered me the benefit of his own experiences. I’m quite certain that without these people in my corner, there’d never have been a book.
In preparing for the book’s launch, even more amazing things happened. An agent I met at another author’s reading invited me to participate on a young adult author panel with Nova Ren Suma and Dan Krokos. That was my very first writerly event ever! And my book trailer! Have you seen it? That was produced by an author who completely awes me. Oh, and then another agent ran a contest on her blog to help promote my book.
Yep, more tingling.
But the best moment of all these moments? The day a friend tweeted me that she saw SEND on her bookstore shelves, a week early. I went home, grabbed my husband and we headed out on a reconnaissance mission. The moment when I first spotted my book on a shelf with other books truly made it real for me – there are no words to describe it.
I wept.
Scared the death out of four girls browsing the section.
How do you think SEND will affect teen readers? 
Wow, Patty! All I can say is Wow! And how lucky we are, too, that you have brought this story into the world and that Sourcebooks knew it needed to be on shelves. (Patty's editor is the brilliant Aubrey Poole, btw, who is made of much awesome and works with my very own brilliant editor Leah Hultenschmidt in the New York office)
I also asked Patty a few lighter, but equally crucial questions: 
Twizzlers or Kit Kats? Chocolate always goes first in my world, so Kit Kats. But I love Twizzlers. 
Buffy or Edward? Edward! I am Team Edward through and through. (*Note: I have chosen not to tell Patty that Buffy would totally kick Edward's ass.)
Zombies or Unicorns? I kinda like the zombie thing. Have you read BRAINS? Hilarious.
Gallery Girls or Honey Boo Boo or other trash reality TV? I don’t know what on earth a Honey Boo Boo is so can’t answer this, but I admit I have indulged in a few seasons of The Bachelor. But my latest indulgence? Staring at Gilles Marini on Dancing With the Stars. Here’s a little-known fact: The main character in that romance series I was writing back in 2007 - two years before I had ever heard of Gilles? TOTALLY HIM! Well, except my guy is British not French and has long hair.(*Note: The Roecker sisters and I will now make it our goal to corrupt Patty's TV habits. Because we love it when others wallow with us. And btw, did anyone see that Chantal on GGirls is capable of crying? Who knew?)
Want to hang out more with Patty? Here's where you can find her: @pattyblount on TwitterPatty Blount on Facebook or SEND (THE NOVEL) Facebook Fan Pagewww.pattyblount (website)
And now for the giveaway!WANT TO WIN A SIGNED COPY OF SEND?
COMMENT ON THIS POST, AND SAY HI TO PATTY. (you can also follow her on Twitter if you like but that is not required, just appreciated. Please include the email where you can be reached.
All comments will be placed in the Contest Hat. (which since I am in a hurry this morning we will pretend is Rafflecopter which I was going to use but don't have time to set up right now) Contest is open through Sunday 9/23. Winner will be announced next week.

Had to keep this quiet until the contracts were all signed and agent Jen gave me the okay, but now I am thrilled to announce that next year's THE SWEET DEAD LIFE (Soho Press, May 2013) is going to have a sequel in 2014! I am over the moon with happiness and excitement and honored and humbled that Soho Press and publisher Bronwen Hruska (whose own debut novel Accelerated is out next month has been garnering rave reviews including from Oprah!) and editor Daniel Ehrenhaft wanted more.

Here's the official announcement:


DREAMING ANASTASIA trilogy author Joy Preble's follow-up to the forthcoming THE SWEET DEAD LIFE, again to Daniel Ehrenhaftat Soho Press, for publication in Spring 2014, by Jennifer Rofeat the Andrea Brown Literary Agency (World). Film rights: Eddie Gamarra at Gotham Group

So I've joined a gym. That one that's open 24 hours a day in case my anxiety drives me to the rowing machine at 2 AM, which as yet it has not. I have been told, however that I would be surprised how busy it is at that hour and I do not doubt the wisdom of the man in the red shirt who took my money and agreed that I should sign up for a trainer package a well.

Which I think was a good idea because while I'm sure there are people who can read the instructions on the various machines o'doom and understand what, exactly, they are supposed to do, I am not one of them. Or as my trainer explained -- I need to re-write my body map. If you understand what this means, let me know. What I think it means is that my spatial sense is for shit and squatting and swinging on those long resistance band things scares me, although I have conquered my fear of the 'assisted chin up machine' which I think deserves a glass of red wine.

What open- 24- hour -gym guy did not tell me when I requested a female trainer was that somehow the powers that be would decide that this person would turn out to be a former student whose Great Gatsby essays I graded (whether pleasantly or harshly I fortunately have no memory) when she was in the 11th grade. Yes, I was duly weighed and measured and BMI'd by someone who I may or may not have allowed to use the bathroom if she got her work done.

Still, once we both got over the shock, she taught me what to do, gave me a routine and got excited at my whittled off inches the other day. Plus I am now taking yoga two nights a week which also flummoxes me still (flow? downward dog? some other word I don't know yet?), but feels good and makes me feel like possibly I could be at least somewhat limber-ish after say, a year. I will never stand on my elbows. But I already say 'Namaste' like a pro. And I now own my own purple yoga mat. Although I find those little sling things kind of show-y and believe that I need to keep this up for a number of months before caving to that purchase.

And so it goes. I have a lock now and a gym bag (actually it's my Soho Teen tote, the one with the zombie guy on it, which makes me happy) and a water bottle and I kind of like going later at night when it's quiet and a bit disheveled and you have to root around for a stationary bike that's not three layers of sweaty and the free-weights are sort of scattered. I don't mind the scavenger hunt. Although when we have to mop our space because the Zumba girls sweated profusely and no freaking way even with a mat am I going to attempt cat and cow with a stranger's Zumba sweat looming at me.

Anyone else have a gym story to share?
Speak up, people!
Namaste.

I must working. But before I dig in, a few pics from the East Texas Book Festival this past weekend. Drove northeast to Tyler, Texas with fellow Houston writer Marianne Dyson where we and Laura Edge and my bestest Austin buddy Varian Johnson and also Austin's Keith Graves were featured speakers. Basketball Hall of Famer Elvin Hayes gave the opening remarks. Much fun and talking to readers followed for the day, plus great food and gracious East Texas hospitality, including a lovely author reception the night before with many varieties of cheese balls and wine and other tasty stuff. It's a 3 hour-ish drive through the backroads from here -- past towns like Trinity and Lovelady and Palestine (pronounced Palisteen)-- but then boom, you're in Tyler and at the UT Tyler campus and a city that I think was actually the Texas capital for a brief bit.

On the way, we pass this big buy in Huntsville. (btw, he's mentioned at the beginning of next year's THE SWEET DEAD LIFE so this is what Jenna is talking about on page 1!):

And now on to pictures from the ETexBookFest

Varian Johnson Me! Marianne Dyson Laura Edge And the tall guy- Elvin Hayes!

1. Excited to give a keynote tomorrow at East Texas Book Fest at UT Tyler in Tyler Texas. What I am not excited about: My paranoia about how many back up pieces of technology to bring. Here is the conversation in my head: So if there aren't cords for the Mac then I should bring the flash drive but what if that doesn't work or I lose it and maybe I should print the whole thing out just in case and what if there is a power outage... Yeah, I'm that ridiculous.
2. Gallery Girls just keeps getting better and better and better. I love you Bravo. Yup. I do. There needs to be a drinking game for how many times in each ep Maggie twirls her hair or disses Brooklyn or Angela uses a certain word that starts with a 'p' to talk about a certain part of her anatomy or each time Chantal lacks a worth ethic or Claudia look sad and horrified, possibly because she has learned that people actually live in farflung places like Long Island. We would all need a 12 step program in no time!
3. I have exciting secret news. Hopefully I can share it soon.
4. There is Pinkberry at our mall now and I like it almost as much as I like Gallery Girls. (who would probably never eat at Pinkberry unless they were doing it ironically. Chantal, you are missing out. A small cup of peanut butter with blueberries and little hazelnut cookie pieces and then some actual hazelnuts. Sigh. Yes, I know it is no longer 'healthy.' Whatever.
5. It seems that I have a Texas travel schedule now for ANASTASIA FOREVER and I will share all the details soon once my publisher sends me the itinerary, but I am starting at the Barnes and Noble in Hurst on 10/16 and proceeding to Round Rock/Austin for school visits and another B&N on 10/18 and then to San Antonio for more school visits and an event through Twig Book Store on Saturday 10/20.  If you are in other states, well, you'll just have to move here or else take up a collection.

If I were still teaching full time, today I would already be at school. I would have slept fitfully and I would be full of the excitement and nerves of the first day. Some kid in homeroom would have already bitched me out over something that I couldn't control. Like why we had to stay in homeroom for 3 hours on the first day. Or that he hated the dress code. Or was awake at 7 AM.

 Instead I am where I normally am these days: at my desk with the laptop getting ready to work.

I will write 1-2k on the WIP. I'll put the finishing touches on the ppt. I'm doing at East Texas Book Fest. I'll organize some tax stuff and walk the dog and get to the gym later and cook dinner and write some more and watch Grimm and my latest Bravo guilty pleasure, Gallery Girls, which is what you get if The Hills meets Mean Girls with art and cocktails. It is so hipster horrible and so deliciously addictive  and there's this street map of NYC they put up every time they change POV's to another girl so you now where everybody is. Plus a slimy gallery owner named Eli and rooms full of people who are so entitled feeing that it makes my jaw drop. I know I was full of myself at 22. I really was. (except when I got stuck coaching JV girl's volleyball.) But this is... well you have to watch for yourself. Or as more than one reviewer has commented: "Chantal is what is you get is Mary Kate Olsen fell into a Tim Burton film."

But to the point, what I won't be doing is trying to juggle 175 students and the endless paper grading and the increasingly crazy demands of the public school system. At least not this year.

So I guess i better get to work so I can keep it that way and have so exciting things to announce to you soon. Do I have exciting things coming up? Possibly I do.

Had a great signing at Deerbrook Barnes and Noble this weekend and so if you came out for that, thank you and I enjoyed meeting you. Or seeing you again, such as my former exchange student from Bulgaria, who stopped by with his mom, fresh from a summer in Europe!

WINNER of the arc of THE SINISTER SWEETNESS OF SPLENDID ACADEMY by the delightfully and fiercely talented Nikki Loftin is McCourt Thomas. Why? Because she said her children would 'devour' it and if you read the book you'll know why this is really clever even if she maybe didn't know she was being that clever or maybe she did. Anyway -- McCourt-- I'll get that arc to you!

Oh and if you haven't seen the new SOHO TEEN TRAILER please look at the top of the blog and click over to it! You will love, love, love. I am so thrilled to be working with Soho Press.

Til next time..

ANASTASIA FOREVER book launch at Blue Willow Books
(my street team, plus librarians and bloggers and Blue Willow's social media guru
Maria Cari Soto, 3rd from left, and author Chris Mandelski in the yellow) ANASTASIA FOREVER book launch at Blue Willow Books SCBWI LA: Christina Diaz Gonzalez, super agent Jen rofe, me , Barry Wolverton,
and Katherine Fitzmaurice photo-bombing cause she's tall!
SCBWI LA: Ann Leal (in tall shoes!) and me, switching books
At SCBWI LA: Class of 2k9 Reunion
(me, Ann Leal, Lauren Strasnick, Suzanne Morgan Williams, Katherine Fitzmaurice)
Yeah! That's me and the Fonz-- aka Henry Winkler
And the left over stick on smiley face tat on my arm from the Hippie Hop party
adds a little something...

It's a fabulous title, yes? All dark and deliciously grim and humorous but not? THE SINISTER SWEETNESS OF SPLENDID ACADEMY debuts today from my Austin friend, the delightful and whip-smart Nikki Loftin.
Nikki has an amazing way with words and characters and in her MG debut novel she turns any number of fairy tales inside out and back again, including but not limited to the Russian fairy tale that I also use in my DREAMING ANASTASIA series, Vasilisa the Brave! Nikki talks about that some on her own blog .
Here's what Amazon has to say:“A mesmerizing read…a fantasy that feels simultaneously classic and new.”—Publishers Weekly

“A pinch of Grimm, a dash of Greek mythology and a heaping helping of fresh chills make for an irresistible contemporary fairy tale…Deliciously scary and satisfying.”--Kirkus
Lorelei is bowled over by Splendid Academy--Principal Trapp encourages the students to run in the hallways, the classrooms are stocked with candy dishes, and the cafeteria serves lavish meals featuring all Lorelei's favorite foods. But the more time she spends at school, the more suspicious she becomes. Why are her classmates growing so chubby? And why do the teachers seem so sinister?

It's up to Lorelei and her new friend Andrew to figure out what secret this supposedly splendid school is hiding. What they discover chills their bones--and might even pick them clean!

Mix one part magic, one part mystery, and just a dash of Grimm, and you've got the recipe for a cozy-creepy read that kids will gobble up like candy.

I know, right?  You totally have to read this book!
Nikki is here today, answering some questions.And scroll to the end, because I'm giving away my ARC copy of her book today! It's signed!!
Joy:  I love to hear about debut journeys. Tell us about yours. 
Nikki: Where to start? I always wanted to be a writer -- I even got a Master’s degree in writing. But life, kids, and jobs got in the way of chasing my dream. Then one day when I looked in the mirror, I realized I had a whole LOT of gray hairs all of a sudden – and the same dream I’d had when I was young. So I started writing like I might only have a few days left to get my stories out into the world. I don’t know why, but that sense of urgency has stayed with me since then. I suppose I feel like I spent so many years just dreaming the dream, I have that many fewer to live it! Sinister Sweetness was the second book my agent submitted to editors, after a previous one gained nothing but kind words and gentle rejections. (Sigh!) My agent sent Sinister Sweetness to my editor on her first day at Razorbill. It was the first manuscript to cross her new desk, and the first one she acquired in her new position. Hooray for good timing! I’ve been extremely lucky to find friends in the writing community to help me navigate the perilous waters of the first novel (including you!), and I am so grateful for all of them. In fact, between the debut author group The Apocalypsies, SCBWI, and the Austin/Houston writing communities, I feel like I’ve found my tribe at last.
Joy: One thing I adore about you is your dark sense of humor. Tell us about the title of this book and about where the story came from. And perhaps about how your world view sneaks in here in this delightfully subversive MG.
Nikki: “Delightfully subversive” – I love it! (Can I use that in a blurb? J) The book was originally called Gingerbread, after Hansel and Gretel’s architectural snack bar. But one of my very wise editor’s initial requests was that we change the title. It took (and I am not exaggerating) hundreds of title ideas before we landed on this one. And I adore it! Okay, I’m going to pull an imaginary soapbox over for your next question. The germ of this story came from two things: my obsessive, lifelong love of fairy tales, and my dismay that they were/are being sanitized for today’s kids. Seriously! The first two little pigs in The Three Little Pigs are not supposed to live, people. They made stupid decisions, and they get EATEN by that Big, Bad Wolf! And Red Riding Hood ended with the wolf being KILLED, not running off, tail between his legs. The Gingerbread Man? Does not, ever, swim away from the fox. Somehow, in the past few years, these familiar, wonderful, scary, gruesome, amazing stories that had survived for centuries were being systematically turned into literary paste.My husband and I were bemoaning this over lunch one day, when I mentioned that what kids needed (and what I wanted our boys to have, to spark their bloodthirsty interest) was the old fairy tales – scary bits and all – re-written for modern readers, in a modern setting, like a charter school, where the witches were the teachers… Then I left my husband with the bill and ran home to start writing as fast as I could!
Joy: What were you doing before you began writing? What else can we find you doing now besides writing?
Nikki: I was a teacher at a wonderful school in Central Texas. I taught… music. (Only funny if you’ve read the book, of course. And then you’ll never look at me the same way again. NO, I did not model the music teacher after myself.) I also taught the Gifted and Talented program. After I left to finish my Master’s degree, I started a career as a Director of Family Ministries for Presbyterian churches. I’ve worked with kids for my whole professional life; it seems natural to write for them now.These days, I wrangle my two boys, 2 dogs, and however many chickens we have this week, as well as teaching Zumba 5 or 6 times a week. The Zumba helps to work off some of the chocolate I eat rather compulsively as I write. No, really. There are little bits of melted chocolate between most of the keys on my keyboard. Sad. I may need help.
Joy:  In reading Sinister Sweetness, I discovered that, just as I have used Slavic folklore and specifically the Baba Yaga the witch fairy tale of Vasalisa the Brave in the DREAMING ANASTASIA series, you have used it here! I was so excited. Tell us about how this came into the story for you, how you use it, whether reviewers/readers notice it... whatever comes to mind on this topic.
Nikki: That is such a cool coincidence! I haven’t had many readers yet, of course, and the reviewers haven’t mentioned that particular strand! I think the Hansel and Gretel story is much more familiar, so people latch onto that. But I have fairy tales from all over the world in this book, and Greek mythology, too. I drew from one story of Vasalisa the Brave (which mirrors Hansel and Gretel in many ways) to bring one of my secondary characters out as a sort of cautionary figure and mentor for the main character. But I sprinkled little-known details from fairy tales all over the world into my book: the story of La Llorona, the Rusalka, Baba Yaga, the Lorelei, and more are all there for the attentive reader.   
Joy: Readers always want to know about writing process and habits. Tell us about how you get the job done.Of course, we all know that every writer has his/her own process, right? And none of them are necessarily better than any others (unless yours includes watching Jersey Shore marathons all day and night, in which case, it needs improvement).
Nikki: What works for me are word quotas. I will give myself a deadline (if I don’t have an editorial one), and work out how many words per day I need to write to meet it. Usually it’s between 1,000 and 5,000 words per day, with one day off each week. I get up in the morning, send the kids to school, make a pot of herbal tea, locate a chocolate bar, and get to work. I stop every 500 words or so to rest my fingers and walk around. But I sit right back down and keep writing until I meet my quota for the day.  Of course, this schedule varies! Recently, I was asked to write a first draft of a novel in five weeks. For some reason, I had to take a nap every day – 30 minutes or so – to keep the energy needed to meet my insane word count for each day. But it worked! And usually, any weird plot holes and/or loose threads got taken care of while I was dozing – I woke up knowing what to write to fix them.  If I get stuck in a manuscript, I take a walk and meditate a bit. Usually, I’m stuck because I’m not paying attention to what the story wants – I’m trying to force it into a wrong plot direction. It’s so important to let the story unspool, and edit later!
Joy: Twizzlers or M and M's? 
Nikki: Ha! You’ve read the book, Joy. You KNOW it’s M&Ms.
Joy:  What's next for Nikki Loftin?
Nikki: Well, I have a VERY embarrassing letter coming out in the Dear Teen Me anthology this November! It’s the story of the Worst Kiss Ever, and how I never really learned to shut up. Then, I have another book coming out from Razorbill in early 2014. Another re-imagined fairy tale (this time Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Nightingale”), this book is more magical realism and less straight-up fantasy. It’s called Nightingale’s Nest, and it’s the book of my heart – so I’m thrilled it’s going to be out in the world.

Thank you so much for giving me this space on your blog – and for being such an amazing author and friend!
Author Bio: Nikki Loftin lives with her Scottish photographer husband just outside Austin, Texas, surrounded by dogs, chickens, and small, loud boys. Her middle-grade novel, The Sinister Sweetness of Splendid Academy, will debut on August 21, 2012. You can visit her online at www.nikkiloftin.com.
www.SplendidAcademy.comtwitter: @nikkiloftin FB: Splendid Academy
WANT TO WIN MY ARC OF SPLENDID SWEETNESS?COMMENT ON THIS BLOG POST AND GIVE NIKKI SOME DEBUT AUTHOR LOVE!! (Include your email so i can contact you if you win!)CONTEST WILL CONTINUE THROUGH FRIDAY.

Grimm is back! (spoiler alert... although not hugely)

And it looks to be a good season, made better only if Portland OR opened up a branch of Wolfram and Hart and Detective Nick Burkhardt had to investigate. Just saying... (and if you weren't a Buffy/Angel fan, well...Google Wolfram and Hart on that funny thing called the Internets...)

Nick has a mother and it looks like she's staying. Plus she cleaned his house, which I thought was rather spiffy of her. Gone 18 years with no contact and there she is dusting and tidying and then killing a few people in between putting a roast in the oven. (I think I made up that last part) And the police chief speaks a strange language that sounds a lot like French. And Monroe still kicks Blutbladt ass. Plus Rosalee knows shit. She knows like every potion and says things like. "Yes. It will work. But it will take 16 hours to cook." Which is this wonderful random amount of time!

Also, Juliette could stay in a coma longer, but maybe that's just my opinion.

And!! I am going to Portland in January for an event at Powell's and one at Annie Blooms and mostly what I'm thinking is, will I run into Nick and Monroe? Cause you never know...

If you have read this blog before or you now me, you know that I'm a shameless TV lover. The trashier, the better. I'm the one with the Housewives habit, after all. I feel bad when Heather is mean to Ramona even if Ramona sometimes, maybe deserves it and what is up with the whole toaster oven thing and Sonja? Can someone explain?

Plus my guiltiest of pleasure, Covert Affairs, with Auggie the blind CIA agent and Annie Walker and her many spy loves... I even adore the opening credits on this one.

What are you watching?
Why should I add it to the DVR list?