Potpourri

You know that category in Jeopardy! that means it could be anything? Yeah . . . that's this entry.:D Lots of fun stuff though.

First off, a bit of news for all you aspiring authors, my lovely friend, Mandy Hubbard (author of Prada and Prejudice) is officially an agent!! After training for about six months under Jenny Bent (you guys know her? You should! I imagine a bunch of you have queried her. Heck, I think I got rejected by her twice. She's awesome!) Mandy is teaming up with Bob Diforio (I have a rejection from him too:)) as a brand new agent! Here's her PW announcement:

"Mandy Hubbard, a YA author (Prada and Prejudice) and agent, is joining D4EO Literary Agency as an agent concentrating on YA and middle grade fiction. She can be reached at Mandy@d4eo.com."

Mandy has spent the last few weeks communication directly with editors at all the big New York houses introducing herself and getting a feel for their individual tastes, etc. and she is really ready to go! So if you are looking for a hungry new agent with a great reputation as a person (:D) you may want to try Mandy. She is, as of last week, officially accepting queries.

Secondly, the incredible and fabulous Mundie Moms just turned one! And, of course, I was there to celebrate with them.:D Check out my post and browse their site while you're there. An amazing group of women with fabulous taste who have been so supportive of Wings right from the get-go. Thanks Katie!!!!

Okay, are you ready to watch my head explode from awesomeness? A few weeks ago my book released in Italy. Well, part of their promotional push was making a Facebook fanpage for David Lawson complete with an app you can install to get messages from David!!! As if that weren't enough, a band called Yavanna teamed up with "David" and put on a show this past weekend and went back and forth between singing and reading passages from MY BOOK!!! *insert fainting here* So I was totally stoked about that.

And then I saw pictures.


Oh. My. Gosh! The leaves! The cover! The huge projection screen!!!!!!


That is a big freaking picture of me up there!!! (Admittedly this picture was a little nerve-wracking.)


And aren't they just gorgeous?!?!?!?

I was just blown away! And there are a couple more pictures in the Facebook album. It was so surreal, especially knowing that all of this was happening in Italy, and in Italian. Whoa.

So I will be blogging again tomorrow and have a fun little video helping me illustrate why you shouldn't worry about someone writing "your idea." Till then!

Ciao!

ETA: Also someone posted some video. :)

Winners!!!

*shifty eyes* I'm a day late. I had a busy and fun Valentine's Day and I hope you all did too!!

But I do have winners!! And since I'm not one to prolong the agony, here we go!

The winner of the ARC is twaddleoranything, with her pairing of Gavroche and Scout.

But this contest was so fun, I really could not just stop there!!

So our runners-up who get Valentine's treat bags are:

Emily Jane Jimenez pairing Alex Kim and Owen Armstrong

and Meghan Rachelle pairing Susan Pevensie and Rupert Giles!!

Thanks you everyone for entering!! We had almost 200 pairing and I got the biggest kick out of reading them all!

The small print, please email me at aprilynne pike (at) g-mail dot com with your address. If I do not hear from you by Friday, I will pick a new winner to take your place, so please email me!:D

Thanks again for entering!!!

Ciao!

Happy Valentine's Day!

. . . a little early.:D

It's that time of year!! The time when love is heavy in the air?? No. The time when romance blossoms like flowers? Nope.

The time of year when Aprilynne gives away an ARC??

Ding, ding, ding!!!!:D

It's ARC time!!!

The Wings series is, at its heart, a love story, so I like giving an ARC away around Valentine's Day because . . . well, because I'm corny.:)

So one ARC of Spells is up for grabs!! Anyone is eligible, and all you have to do to enter is comment with your fantasy fiction pairing! Who do you think would make the very best couple from fiction (YA or not)? Who are those characters who go so perfectly together despite being created by totally different authors and living in completely separate universes?

For example: I think Hermione Granger and Edward Cullen, were totally MTB. After all, only a 110 year old vampire could keep up with her extensive knowledge, Hermione could use the love and attention that Edward would lavish on her, and Edward would totally appreciate Hermione's intelligence and subtle beauty.

Wings characters are up for grabs, but using them won't give you an edge.;)

Enter up until 12:00 EST on Saturday, February 13th, and I will announce the winner Valentine's Day.:D This blog posts on Blogger, LiveJournal, and Facebook--you can leave your comment any of these three places.

And if you don't win this one, you will have two more chances! Wingsfansite.com and Late Bloomer Online are both doing giveaways too! The Wings Fans' is already up and running and Late Bloomers are gearing up for theirs. So check out both these site for their contests and, if you feel like it, join or become a follower!

Good Luck!! I wish I had ARCs for all of you!!!

Ciao!

So. Tired.

So my husband is taking his bar course and is gone all the time and even when he's home he's studying (hey! It's like being in law school again!) so why am I the one sitting here at my computer totally exhausted? *slump*

Oh, and with an ear infection. Again. My right ear hates me. But I have amoxicillin, so I'm a happy girl.:D

Actually, we've been having a lot of things break on us this last six weeks. And with the exception of the ear, they have all had to be replaced. The car, my husband's glasses, the washer, the sprinkler system that the new dog dug up. Yeah. This has left me with an amazing car that I love to pieces, new glasses that Kenny is kind of meh about but getting used to, a bottle of amoxicillin that made me contemplate how great it would have been to have that stuff during the Black Plague, and a dryer that sounds like a very quiet airplane taking off (and we *think* that's the way it's supposed to sound . . . we'll see.) Oh, and an appointment with the landscape guy. Also, some massive spending shock. Makes me glad we pay our taxes as we get checks instead of the other way around. (All you writers! Pay your taxes as you get your checks!!!:D)

I got word that my editor and co-editor enjoyed the third Wings book (yay!) and will be sending me my ed letter soon (*scared*). Actually, I'm really excited because my editor is brilliant and always asks just the right questions. (You know, the ones that make you go, Duh! Why didn't I think of that?)

And then, last week, I Twittered a pic of my banana bread and a bunch of people asked for the recipe. I rather had a good time making it fit into a tweet, but for those who can't decipher my many abbreviations, here is my really easy, really good banana bread!

Pre-heat over to 350 Degrees (I always forget this part.:D)

1 Stick Butter
2 Eggs
3-4 mushy bananas
3/4 cup brown sugar (or . . .yanno, a whole cup:))
*mix*
Add:
2 Cups flour (wheat or white)
1 tsp Baking Soda
Dash salt.
*moar mix*

Pour into whatever size of loaf pans you prefer (I make one big loaf.) And bake for 60-70 minutes. (The low temp, long cook time is what keeps it really moist!) If you use smaller loaf pans, reduce your cooking time.

If you want to be fancy (and heck, I always do) then you can sprinkle brown sugar across the top of the batter and it will caramelize and be really yummy.:)

I made a double batch last time:

Ciao!

Ninety-Nine Days!!!

We are down to TWO DIGITS till Spells comes out!! I haven't checked in a while and went to my site to check this morning and was like Holy Cow!! Less than a hundred days! It feels so close and so far all at the same time! Mostly It feels weird that we are almost into the second month of 2010. Heck, it feels a little weird that it is 2010 at all. Twenty Ten! Hello!

Anyway, ARCs of Spells have begun circulating and showing up in book bloggers' mailboxes, and I don't want my lovely blog readers to feel left out!! So I wanted to let you guys know that there will be three Spells ARC giveaways coming up in the next month! Starting the week before Valentine's Day, I will be giving away an ARC here (because I love giving away a romantic book for Valentine's day!) and then I will also be providing an ARC to my two main fansites, Wingsfansite.org for the younger crowd, and Late Bloomers for the late teens and up crowd! We don't have details yet, but keep an eye on the blog and I will be putting the contest up soon!

Also, I am doing my first writers conference next month! One of my awesome Utah writer friends, Jeff Savage, is coming down to hang out with me . . .er . . . I mean be the keynote speaker, and it looks like a pretty good line-up! So if you are looking for a one-day writers conference in the greater Phoenix area, I'll be at this one.:D (You can find details here.)

2010 ANWA Writers Conference
"Start Write Now!"
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Best Western Dobson Ranch Inn
1666 South Dobson Road
Mesa AZ 85202-5699

So yeah, I think that's all my news. Oh, wait! Wait! I sold Basque rights to Wings and Spells last week! Long-time readers may know that I have a romance novel (that seriously needs to be totally re-written, but that's a whole other story) set in Basque and I have done tons of research on the area and am so exceptionally stoked about this!!! Basque is a fascinating language. So yeah, very happy.:D

Ciao!