Friday, May 30, 2008

I Want to Be a Part Of It . . . New York, New York!

Well it is official! I am going to NYC in two and a half weeks to meet all the people on my publishing team!

I cannot even express how excited I am! I've never been to NYC and have wanted to for so, so, so long. It's a great business opportunity, of course, but mostly, it's just going to be a lot of fun. I get to meet my incredible, fabulous editor and of course, my amazing agent who had the foresight to hook me up with that incredible, fabulous editor, and I'll get to meet my editor's assistant, Erica. Now, you may not realize this, but pretty much every debut novel that has ever been published was first read and enjoyed by the editor's assistant. So I have a special place in my heart for Editor's assistants. So I am way excited to meet Erica too.

I'll also be meeting some very scary people. The heads of sales, marketing, and publicity, as well as the publisher of Harper Children's and the Editor-in-chief. I tremble a little of those introductions . . . but I promise I'll smile too! Although I will spend most of my time at Harper, before Jodi and I go, I will also get to tour Writer's House (which has some great history!) and meet some of the other agents I've been rejected by. (*laugh*) Another rather tremble-worthy thing we are doing the second day I'm there is that Harper has a new video studio and they will be doing a short video of me blabbing about my book. You know, something they are then going to release to the public!?!?!? *eek!*

So it's going to be a full two days. oh, and the first night I get in I have secret plans that I will have to share with you later. (Very cool, trust me!)

And don't worry. I will have my handy-dandy iphone with me and will take lots of pictures. (I'd pack you all in my bags with me but, yanno, then I'd be way over the weight limit.;))

So that's my biggest fun-est news at the moment.

Oh, that and that my book is completely done with revisions and has been submitted for copy-editing now. *cheer!* Yay! That makes me very happy too.

I guess it's time to write book two now!

Ciao!

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Winner!

The winner for this month's book giveaway of STEALING HEAVEN by Elizabeth Scott is . . . Helen!!

Helen, please e-mail me (you'll find my e-mail address in my profile) so I can get an address where I should send your book.

Congrats Helen! And there will be lots more books giveaways in the future! Thanks everyone for playing with me!

Ciao!

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

One Year Later . . .


I remember being in the middle of a very difficult chapter of WINGS, when I decided to take a break and went online to find that Miss Snark had retired. A year later, she has, unfortunately, kept her word. I was going to write up a fun memorial today, but Patricia Wood seems to be hosting the semi-official anniversary party, so instead, if you are interested, I'm going to send you over there.

A year later and we still miss you Miss Snark! (And as lovely as he is, Nathan Bransford just isn't quite as funny.;))

Ciao!!

Sunday, May 18, 2008

STEALING HEAVEN Review and Giveaway.

So I've been trying to figure out how to improve my blog and make it more fun (I know, I know, you can't improve on perfection, but hey, I keep trying ;)). So I thought, what does every blog need more of?

Lame jokes!!! . . . Oh wait . . .

Free books!! Oh yeah, now we're thinking.:)

I am a year out from having my book published and about six months from being able to give out an ARC or two of WINGS. So I thought that as celebration I'd start giving away other people's books! I'm thinking I'll give away a book that I like about every three weeks. Sound good? Hopefully as I get this going I'll be able to start giving away signed books too . . . but we'll work on that later.

For the moment, welcome to my first book review/giveaway!

Rules are simple, post in the comments section something that basically says, "This is my entry." That's it. Also, be aware that I post on both Blogger and LiveJournal, and a comment in either blog will qualify you (but if you want to double your chances, I will let you post a comment at each ;)). I'll pick and entry at random and you get a book! ****ETA, a few people were confused--I'm not giving away my ARC of STEALING HEAVEN, it will be a new copy of the hardcover!! Thx!!****



First up on our giveaway block is STEALING HEAVEN, by Elizabeth Scott. SH is a bit close to my heart because it is the very first ARC I ever received. It is also edited by my incredible editor Tara (I will have to devote a whole blog entry to how amazing my editor is one of these days) and is the first book I read that she edited.

SH is about an 18-year-old girl named Dani who is a professional thief. Or, more appropriately, her mother is a professional thief and Dani has been raised to follow in her mothers criminal footsteps. She doesn't like it, but hey, it's the way she was raised and her life is just fine, so she goes with the flow. But when she and her mom target a town named Heaven, everything changes. Dani starts falling for a cute guy who turn out to be a cop, and the first person who befriends her is the daughter of the family Dani and her mom have targeted for their big score.

This book is a fast and fun read that I enjoyed so much I brought it with me when I went in the sauna and proceeded to melt the binding of the book. (*rolls eyes*) So my ARC is . . . a little pathetic-looking with about half of the pages detached. But that didn't stop it from being passed around to my sister and my Dad who also both really enjoyed it.

This is a great read for a Saturday afternoon, especially reading outside, as it has several beach scenes. A very enjoyable light read!

If you want a copy of your own, STEALING HEAVEN comes out on May 27th, so I will go ahead and keep this contest open till midnight MST on May 26th. (Most of the giveaways won't be this long, but for the first one, we'll give everyone plenty of time.)

So away we go!

Ciao!

Thursday, May 15, 2008

I Have an Official Jacket Photo!

Check it out. Shiny or what?

I know it's not the one you all voted on (I sent that one in too, but it got outvoted) but they liked this one better. So what do you think?





Ciao!

Monday, May 12, 2008

I Know, I know!!

One of my favorite movies is Center Stage. In it there's a girl who is constantly arriving to her dance class late. At once point she walks in and her instructor gives her the look. She simply responds, "I know, I know!" So now you understand the subject line. *chagrin* I am SO behind on the blog. I know!!!

But I'm going to make up for it by sharing lots of news!!

First off, I have a title!!! My book will be called . . . *drumroll* WINGS!

The biggest objection to Autumn Wings was that the lovely marketing folks at Harper Collins wanted the book to seem relevant all year round, not just in the Autumn (especially since it is not being released in the Fall.) Well Tara and I tossed around literally dozens of titles and twice as many buzz words trying to come up with a better title. In the end, we decided that the original title was the best, minus the season. So there you have it. WINGS by Aprilynne Pike will be coming out next summer from Harper Collins. *squee!*

Also, Tara and I have been talking about my cover and man, it is going to be gorgeous!!! They will be doing a photo shoot for my cover which, I didn't know at the time, is apparently something special, so . . . go me, I guess.;) Look for actual cover art, probably next month.

Also, one of the funnest things about being an author is that people send you ARCs (Advanced Reading Copies). That means I get to read some of the upcoming books before they come out. (Last time Tara sent me revisions I got a batch that won't be out till September. Very cool!) So I've decided that since they are sending them to me, I should do something with them. So I'll be reviewing and recommending books that are coming out here on Apparently!

I was officially accepted to the Maui Writers Retreat this week, so if any of you are going, please let me know!! I intend to meet up with as many writer friends as possible at this retreat and if you are there, I would hate to miss you. (For starters, Sarah Rees Brennan and Pat Wood are going and I am SO excited to meet both of them IRL!!) . . . and the fact that it is held in Maui at a beach-front hotel isn't hurting my feelings either.;)

And lastly, I am going to NYC this summer to meet with my editor and various (and very scary) members of the HC team. I am also reserving one night to socialize, so if you are in the NY area and want to get together, let me know. I'll have firm dates sometime soon.:)

So hopefully you will all forgive me for not blogging for almost two weeks, (I know, I suck!) but I will do better and look for a review of STEALING HEAVEN later this week.

Ciao!