Exciting News!

I’m thrilled to announce that my wonderful editor at HarperCollins Children’s, Erica Sussman, has acquired my next two books, due out in spring 2015 and 2016 respectively.  Hooray!  I am so thankful to be working with Laura, Erica, and the wonderful team at Harper again!

About THERE WAS A CROOKED MAN (HarperCollins Children’s, Winter 2015):

Eleven-year-old Wren Matthews has always known she’s weird.  Unschooled, happily solitary, and obsessed with astronomy, the only place Wren fits in is the regional homeschool conference.  When a mysterious visitor appears and invites Wren and her long-time science-rival Simon Barker to join the ancient guild of magicians known as the Fiddlers, things get a whole lot weirder.  As apprentice Fiddlers, Wren and Simon have a lot to learn, but their ordinary alchemy lessons are soon overshadowed by tainted legends of Mother Goose, battling alchemists, and dreams of the dangerous otherworld, the Land of Nod.

The sequel, tentatively titled, STAR LIGHT, STAR BRIGHT, is due out in Winter 2016.

My husband Aaron tells me that my blurbs aren’t snappy enough, so he offered to compose the one below for me.  You decide which is more enticing.  :)

Wren Matthews has super powers that will destroy your face. Read this or else. PS: It’s the funniest story you’ve ever read but full of romance, adventure, and ninjas eating cheeseburgers. Did you like Harry Potter? Lord of the Rings? They stink compared to this.

Story’s End Giveaway!

**UPDATE!  So, while I kind of dropped the ball by not posting about this giveaway until 5PM PST – oops! that means there were GREAT odds for those of you who entered and tweeted – thank you!  I’m delighted to announce the winners:

Precious Banaag

Kelly Van Duine

Congrats to Precious and Kelly!  I’ll be e-mailing you shortly to get your mailing addresses.

Thanks everyone for celebrating Story’s End!

I am delighted to give away two signed hardback copies of STORY’S END, the sequel to STORYBOUND, to two readers today!

Enter by midnight tonight and don’t forget to pop on over to the NOOK blog to download your Free Friday version of STORYBOUND!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Book Trailer for La Vera Storia di Una Fairchild

I’m thrilled to announce that La Vera Storia di Una Fairchild released this week, and I want to share the gorgeous trailer the wonderful team at Fanucci Editore created:

That music!  So incredible!

Grazie!

La Vera Storia di Una Fairchild

I am thrilled to announce that Fanucci Editore will release Storybound in Italy next month!  Given my Italian heritage and the fact that we still have family in Lavello, this is especially meaningful.  Now I have yet another reason to sign up for Italian lessons.  ;)

Story’s End cover reveal and ARC giveaway

Check out this gorgeous cover Brandon Droman, Alison Klapthor, and the design team at HarperCollins Children’s created for Story’s End!  I couldn’t be more thrilled!  To celebrate, I’m giving away an ARC of Story’s End as soon as it’s available.  You can enter over at Project Mayhem!

YAmazing Race with MGnificent Prizes

Hi Everyone!  Nicole (5/2 11:59), a.k.a. The Mermaid Princess, has won this giveaway!

Congrats and thanks for stopping by!  I’m going to send you an e-mail with the details now.

Welcome book-atheletes (batheletes? bkatheletes?).! No matter how I swing it, we sound like chickens, which is good since everyone knows that a chicken would totally beat a Giant Space Squid in a avian-sea-creature cage fight.  Game on, Giant Space Squid contenders.  I’m glad you’re here.

And in case you’ve stumbled across this post and think I’ve lost my marbles, the YAmazing Race with MGnificent prizes is a blog hop featuring over 50 debut authors and prize packs that include ARCs, gift certificates, swag, and more!  If you haven’t yet been to the Apocalypsies website, please click here to start from the beginning and read the complete rules.  Now on to the race!

About STORYBOUND:

In the land of Story, children go to school to learn to be characters: a perfect Hero, a trusty Sidekick, even the most dastardly Villain.  They take classes on Outdoor Experiential Questing and Backstory, while adults search for full-time character work in stories written just for them.

In our world, twelve-year-old Una Fairchild has always felt invisible.  But all that changes when she stumbles upon a mysterious book buried deep in the basement of her school library, opens the cover, and suddenly finds herself transported to the magical land of Story.

But Story is not a perfect fairy tale.  Una’s new friend Peter warns her about the grave danger she could face if anyone discovers her true identity.  The devious Tale Keeper watches her every move.  And there are whispers of a deadly secret that seems to revolve around Una herself…

With the timeless appeal of books like A Wrinkle in Time and the breathtaking action of Inkheart, Storybound has all the makings of a new classic.  Brimming with fantastical creatures, magical adventure, and heart-stopping twists, Storybound will leave readers wishing they too could jump through the pages into this enchanting fairy-tale world.  Una’s adventures continue with the sequel to Storybound, STORY’S END, which is due out April 2013.

Great job book-chicken-people-racers!  You’re on your way to defeating the Great Giant Space Squid.  Hurry on over to Elissa Hoole’s blog for the next stop.  But, before you go, leave me a comment telling me what kind of storybook-character you’d most like to be, and I’ll enter you in a giveaway for some gourmet hot cocoa and STORYBOUND swag.

I love this poem

“Do You Have Any Advice For Those of Us Just Starting Out?”

Ron Koertge

Give up sitting dutifully at your desk. Leave
your house or apartment. Go out into the world.

It’s all right to carry a notebook but a cheap
one is best, with pages the color of weak tea
and on the front a kitten or a space ship.

Avoid any enclosed space where more than
three people are wearing turtlenecks. Beware
any snow-covered chalet with deer tracks
across the muffled tennis courts.

Not surprisingly, libraries are a good place to write.
And the perfect place in a library is near an aisle
where a child a year or two old is playing as his
mother browses the ranks of the dead.

Often he will pull books from the bottom shelf.
The title, the author’s name, the brooding photo
on the flap mean nothing. Red book on black, gray
book on brown, he builds a tower. And the higher
it gets, the wider he grins.

You who asked for advice, listen: When the tower
falls, be like that child. Laugh so loud everybody
in the world frowns and says, “Shhhh.”

Then start again.