Would you believe this entry is actually a cover reveal?

(Maybe the title of this entry gave that away but pretend to be shocked!)

BUT before you look I have to give a nod to the folks at St. Martin’s Press who worked so hard to put this together. Particularly my editor, Sara and the cover designer, Lisa. I saw SEVEN covers before this one. Seven! That is the most covers any of my books have ever gotten. There was a point in July where I got like five of those covers in ONE week which was so exciting actually. I love covers. I want all the covers! But anyways, add to the fact that I got to give A LOT of input on this–and I mean A LOT–well. It has been A Process…

But I think it was totally worth it.

I hope you do too.

Here’s the plot, one more time:

If anything I think you are guaranteed a novel with a pretty cover. :)

Zombies zombies zombies!

f(O_o)f f(O_o)f f(O_o)f <- zombies!

In answer to the first question: June 2012 is when This is Not a Test is estimated to come out. I am not sure exactly when. But I don’t want you to miss it! So cancel everything for that month and pencil in THIS IS NOT A TEST PROBABLY COMES OUT. If you want to. I want you to, of course, but I want lots of things.

In answer to the second question–what is This is Not a Test about? Well. I have been wanting to tell you that for ages! I think this is the longest I have gone without giving you an idea of what I’ve been working on but there is a very good reason for that. This book has been hard and it has been many things. At one point, it wasn’t even going to be the next book! But now it is! So I can tell you WHAT it is! Are you ready? ARE YOU? Okay. Here goes. This is Not a Test is about…

Let’s try this official sounding summary instead:

SO WHAT MORE CAN I SAY. Except some people guessed it every now and then, what I was writing! And I had to say, “ZOMBIES HA HA WHO ME WAT.” And then I did some school visits earlier this year and my most asked question was, “Why won’t you write a zombie book?” And I had to be like, “ZOMBIES HA HA WHO ME WAT MAYBE SOME OTHER TIME.” Sorry for lying to your faces, people! This book was such a process that it was safer that way for all of us. And also admitting it before officially admitting it would’ve harshed on my reveal, you know? You guys would’ve had the stress of having to act surprised for my benefit on your shoulders.

So I was just thinking of YOU.

And fear not: if you liked Cracked Up to Be, Some Girls Are and Fall for Anything but zombies make you furrow your brows because they are not what falls into the category of ‘realistic YA,’ I think there is still something in here for you. ANYWAYS, soon I will write about zombies and how I love them in case you didn’t know and how alive they make me feel in my heart and the process of writing of this zombie book but for now I am just going to decompress and play some Left 4 Dead 2. Because short of surviving the zombie apocalypse, I can’t think of a better way to celebrate finishing my zombie book than playing a video game devoted to zombie carnage.

I’m such a bad, bad blogger.

Anyways.

Exciting news! I was on CBC Radio’s Definitely Not the Opera today (February 26th)! I talked about dropping out of high school and teenagers and writing and I was interviewed by Sook-Yin Lee. If you want to hear the show, you can go to this page and download it. Or you can just right click and save this link. My segment starts at 32:50 and goes until 40:39!

It’s all very lucky this happened because just this week I was thinking about how I hadn’t blogged anything for a while and then I was thinking about how things were so boring there was barely anything TO blog about so maybe that made it okay and then I decided it’s still been too long and I should blog ANYWAY and long story short, I was like thisclose to talking about how obsessed I have been with the Resident Evil movies lately, to the point where I sometimes stop whatever I’m working on and daydream about how many dangerous things I wish I was capable of doing while wearing a red dress with combat boots.

So this was basically a neat and unexpected turn of events. My first radio interview! With the CBC, no less. Trivia: ever since Cracked Up to Be to be came out my parents–die hard CBC listeners/viewers–have been trying to pressure me into figuring out a way to let the CBC know I exist because how awesome would that be? I could not deny it would be awesome but it also felt like ~The Impossible Dream~ so I just smiled and nodded whenever they started talking about it and went back to work.

Besides, I couldn’t really figure out the logistics for such things, either. Like, do I run up to the studio doors and set my books in front of them and run away and hope for the best? I am sure there are more professional ways to introduce yourself to the CBC but as an extremely introverted hermit writer that was the only one that truly sat well with me.

Needless to say, it was a teensy bit shocking when a very nice producer by the name of Joff emailed and asked if I’d be interested in sharing my story about dropping out for their show about Kids in Charge. First thing I thought after saying yes and ascertaining that my parents had not done the whole book-drop-and-flee thing while my back was turned?

WHAT WILL I WEAR?

I know, I know. Radio. Yes. Still, just because you can’t see me on the radio doesn’t mean I couldn’t see MYSELF.

And I would now like you to imagine me as beautifully and impeccably dressed while I relate the rest of this story.

So it was all organized and on Friday morning I was on my way to CFRC in Kingston, so I could sit in their studio and talk to Sook-Yin Lee, who would be in Toronto and Joff, who would be in Winnipeg. RADIO MAGIC. It was the most nervewracking drive ever. I’ve been a fan of Sook-Yin Lee since I was little and she was on MuchMusic and it was hard to wrap my head around the idea of like. Talking to her. And it was hard to wrap my head around the idea of talking out loud for radio purposes and having those things that I said be heard by lots of people. I mean, I write so I don’t have to talk, you guys. Writing is the only way I sound vaguely articulate. Everything that comes out of my mouth in real life sounds like “HA HA HA VELOCIRAPTORS SPARKLES ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE BOOK 4 DEADLINES WHEE [ANGRY YELLING]!”

My mom and sister came with me. Moral support. What could possibly go wrong with them nearby? Their excitement levels kept my panic levels equalized.

But in some ways they also made them worse.

Example:


Mom: Can I bring the camera?
Me: No.
Mom: Come on!
Me: I don’t want my picture taken!
Mom: Let me bring the camera.
Me: …
Mom: Pleeaaaaaaseeee?
Me: Fine. But DON’T use the flash, okay?
Mom: I would never! Give me some credit, here.


So I got to CRFC early and hung out in the lounge with my family, anxiously staring at clocks. Counting down the seconds. And then it was just about time! I was taken into the recording area (my sister and mom sat in the room outside of it and we could see each other through a big window) by the nice guy working there, sat on a stool and then a microphone was put directly in front of my face and my nervousness increased EXPONENTIALLY. For a second there, I was legitimately concerned I would fall off my stool. Or be sick to my stomach. On the mic. That wouldn’t have been very cool so I turned to the window so I could maybe get a thumbs-up or a wave of encouragement from my mom and my sister that would make me feel better when

And then of course it was time to go on.

And I couldn’t see anything.

So that is the story of how my mother temporarily blinded me.

I mean, of how I was interviewed for DNTO.

It was fun! Sook-Yin Lee is amazing and so was Joff. I have to admit, it will be a while before I’ll be able to listen to the segment myself (nerveees) but my parents were really pleased with it and that is good enough for me. I hope you are too because that would also be awesome.

Next, my friend Linda Grimes, recently announced HER two book deal with Tor! That makes us Macmillan cousins, I think! Linda’s blog is amazing, so just imagine how fantastic her books are gonna be! I am so excited for her and cannot wait to read both of ‘em!

And finally, remember Mindi Scott and her incredible debut Freefall? I had the pleasure of interviewing her recently! Well, she announced the sale of her sophomore novel, Live Through This, and it’s hitting shelves Fall 2012. As a total fan of hers, my anticipation hat is ON.

Yay Emily, Linda and Mindi! That’s my kind of good news!

Anndddd on that note–it is now back to the revision cave. Thanks for your patience while I’m dropped off the face of the planet. More from me when I get out… if I ever get out.

*ominous music*

Also:

And that is something.

I am so proud of myself. I’ve maintained my inbox (but unfortunately am woefully behind on blogs). My lack of ~meaningful~ tweeting has somehow caused me to Facebook more (I don’t know). I did a wonderful series of interviews with five other contemporary YA authors over at Persnickety Snark (check them out here–there are four total and all begin with the title ’5 Contemporary YA Authors On…’) and this fun fun fun interview with Gail at Ticket to Anywhere. AND I wrote 50 pages of this Thing I Am Working On Now. But let’s face it, you are not here to read about my steady levels of productivity are you. You are here about the giveaway to make up for this absence that I am considering extending for another week.

What giveaway, you say?

OH JUST THE ONE THAT IS RELATED TO THESE THINGS I GOT IN THE MAIL:

(Oh yes, there will be more.)

So. I am giving ONE of these away to one lucky winner! And I am making it simple. Before I tell you what is required of you, right now you should know it is a US & Canada only giveaway. BUT, I will be doing an international giveaway of an ARC on my Facebook page at a future date so if you are overseas (or not) and you want in on it when it happens, please like the page and keep watch. But that is enough futuretalk. Back to the present.

What you need to do to enter to win this book:

1) Leave a comment in this here blog. Easy!
1.5) To protect your privacy & prevent you from getting spammed, please don’t post your email address in the actual text of the comment! If you type it in the required email address field of the comment box, I’ll see it! (No one else will.)
2) One comment per person.
3) Winner will be announced on the eve of October 8th!
4) So enter up until that day and on that day UNTIL DARKNESS FALLS.
5) Fin.

* If you gots Twitter, retweeting this would be much appreciated! But not a requirement.

And now I am going to close this grand contest announcement with an excerpt of the book–from the first page–so you can decide if it is something you would like to read:

My hands are dying.

I keep trying to explain it to Milo, but he just looks at me like I’m crazy.

“They don’t feel warm–they haven’t.” I squeeze the tips of my fingers as hard as I can, which hurts. “They’re not numb, though…”

“Maybe you have that… Raynaud’s disease,” he says. He takes my right hand and studies my fingers. They seem healthy, pink. He shakes his head. “They’re not blue.”

“But they’re cold.”

“They feel warm to me.”

“They feel cold,” I insist.

“Okay, Eddie,” he says. “They’re cold.”

I jerk my hands from his and then I rub them together. Friction. Heat. Milo can say what he wants; they’re freezing. It’s the hottest summer Branford has seen in something like ten years, but I haven’t been able to get my hands to warm up since it happened.

I hold them up again. They don’t even look like my hands anymore. They don’t even look like anything that could belong to me, even though they’re clearly attached.

“They’re different,” I tell him.

“Would you please put your hands down?” he asks. “Jesus.”

My hands have changed. I catch Milo looking at them sometimes, and I see it on his face that they’re different, no matter what he’s saying now.

Seriously, WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO THIS POOR GIRL’S HANDS? I bet if you enter my contest and you win, you will find out! I mean I hope you do. It has been so long since I wrote this book I can’t even remember. So if you enter my contest and you win, let me know too, maybe. Probably you do find out though, I assume. Who knows with me though. Who knows.




PS: I love love love the interest that has been floating around for Fall For Anything (thank you, guys!) but I just want to say if you’re a book reviewer interested in a review copy, those requests should be sent to my publicist, whose contact info is on my contact page. I will delete all requests that land in my own inbox, as I’ve made my policies very clear out of respect for your time and there aren’t enough hours in the day for me to field and forward requests and write at the same time. Thank you for understanding!

Guess what!

Today I got permission to show the FALL FOR ANYTHING book trailer!

Which is good!

(Because I’m short on blog topics, people. Not going to lie.)

BEFORE I do that though, here are some things about the trailer that I feel you should know:

It is comprised of a bunch of images. Maybe hundreds. Maybe not hundreds. I didn’t count. Probably less than hundreds but. Doesn’t hundreds sound like an impressive lie?

The voice over was done by the amazing Kim Hutt, the genius mastermind behind the greatness that is What Claudia Wore. I heart her. I heart her voice. I heart her blog. And I cannot thank her enough for doing this for me. Thank you, Kim!

OK SO HERE IT IS! It’s not really a happy trailer but I hope you enjoy it anyway!

(Don’t forget to watch it in at least 480p!)

It would not hurt my feelings at ALL.

(The shameless continues! What can I say! Book trailer releases make me punchy too!)

Man. Doesn’t that summary make you wonder what kind of cover St. Martin’s Press is gonna put on the book itself? Doesn’t the title of this blog post totally give away what I am about to show you next?

I mean–WONDER NO FURTHER BECAUSE HERE IS THE COVER OF FALL FOR ANYTHING:

And here’s a little something else: all of those photos behind Eddie’s head? Those are actual photographs that have been “taken” in the book! I freaked right out when I saw that the first time. I was like HEY I KNOW THAT PICTURE BECAUSE I WROTE IT IN MY NOVEL! And then I freaked out some more.

Anyway, this is my favourite part of the whole process and mere words cannot express how much I love this cover. Thank you, St. Martin’s! I hope you love it too. I hope you love it enough to preorder the book. Oh yeah, see what I did there? That was SHAMELESS, I know. I have no shame. But what can I say–cover reveals make me so punchy!

Now if you will excuse me I have to go post this everywhere.

Also: Punch! Punch! Kapow! Blammo! FWOOSH! Zap!

Fall For Anything appears to have a release date and that day is December 21st, 2010. In unrelated news: I hear a lot of gift-giving occurs around this time of year. It’s also available for pre-order on a few Canadian bookselling sites (how I discovered the date!), but I’ll put a multitude of pre-order links up on the book’s page after it has spread everywhere like the zombie plague I am totally prepared for. I like to update things in one go because I’m a busy person with lots of Mario Kart to play, okay (speaking of which: I unlocked! Rosalina!).

Because Fall For Anything is availble for pre-orders in a few spots, that means it’s on GoodReads! If you want to read it, I’d lurve if you added it to your To-Read list. Word of mouth is an author’s best friend.

And that is all the Fall For Anything news that is fit to print! I am anxiously awaiting permission to show you guys the cover and nervously anticipating copyedits, which is like the math of this whole publishing process to me, which means it is scary and I can’t do it in front of people.

Yeah, I know.

NOW LET’S TALK ABOUT DELICIOUS FOOD.

One thing that I love to do is cook, so I am going to talk about cooking now. CAN YOU HANDLE MY TRUTH. Anyway, I’ve noticed lots of publishing folks place a lot of stock in baked goods and sweets but no one talks about SAVORY EASY MEALS. I have decided to be the person that does.

In case you don’t know, food is awesome. I am always on the quest for ‘The Perfect X.’ Did you know that my 2010 will be defined by the fact that I found the perfect red sauce for pasta which made me reconsider everything I ever thought about food (this is a true story, please get out your Kleenex). I had been searching for the perfect red pasta sauce for YEARS (THAT IS NOT AN EXAGGERATION) and then Smitten Kitchen introduced me to Marcella Hazan’s tomato sauce with butter and onions. It has THREE ingredients. THREE. This is the sauce they serve to the angels in heaven, I assume. Or this sauce is made of angels, I don’t know. I heard a choir of them SING when I tasted it, anyway. And like that, after years–YEARS!–I had found my perfect red sauce.

BUT IT WAS A REVELATION TO ME. It was in that beautiful moment I realized I was overthinking food. I felt the best recipes had to be complicated and crazy and involve many ingredients, but now I am trying to do more with less.

Yesterday I made the most awesome vegetarian sub. But it might not qualifiy as a ‘do more with less’ recipe. In any case, it was so good I am going to write it into a novel. What you do is, you chop up some green peppers, onion, portobello mushrooms, mince some garlic. Sprinkle them with dried oregano and salt and pepper. Sautee them in some olive oil until they are nice and soft. Take yer sub bun! Thinly spread herb cream cheese on one or both slices of the bread depending on how much or little regard you have for the fact that cream cheese is not all that good for you in extreme quantities. If you are like me, you prefer enough herb cream cheese to kill several men. Take your nice and soft vegetables and spoon them onto your sub. Put some sub sauce on the veggies. Put some provolone cheese on top of that! Chop some tomatoes and put them on the cheese and then you know, put the top bun on and EAT IT.

And then love yourself and the world.

photo by Liz West

…

Ok.

So basically this year I have been trying to be as uncomplicated as possible in my endeavors in the kitchen. But I want every uncomplicated meal I make to taste like angels. I picked up The Flavor Bible and am totally hoping this will help me do that, but we shall see. Now that I have found the perfect red sauce, I am on a quest for the perfect vinaigrette and salad dressing and vegetable sandwich. Though the sub comes very close, IT IS NOT SIMPLE ENOUGH. And also I want to make an entire raw food meal one of these days BUT WHO KNOWS. I have many great aspirations in the kitchen when I am not writing novels and now you know.

Anyway, I think the whole point of this entry is that if I can impart any knowledge to you today, dear blog readers, it is not future book release dates, it is that LIME AND TOMATOES WERE MEANT TO BE TOGETHER.

That is all.

It was pretty exciting.

But it was not the most exciting thing that happened to me in the last month (I don’t like those things so much anymore, though). I have missed you, Internet! Thank you for being patient with me while I scrabbled to meet an incredibly intense deadline, fell drastically behind in emailing and blogs and thank you in advance for your continued patience as I scrabble to catch up.

I have to say, the best thing about my absence was some stuff happened so I’ve got blog entry material. I HAVE THINGS TO TELL YOU! That doesn’t happen often as we all know.

So the first exciting thing is that Fall For Anything is DONE. Done, done, done! Okay, copy-edits and first pass pages are all on the horizon but it’s pretty much done. When I can share more–plot summary, cover, release date and whatnot, I will. But the main thing is that it’s finished and that is a very nice thing to type. I got chills.

The second exciting thing is I’m thrilled to report Some Girls Are has been nominated for YALSA’s Best Fiction for Young Adults and it is a nominee for their Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers. So cool! And it’s in very good company. And speaking of Some Girls Are, it’s now available for a few e-readers, so if you’ve been waiting for it to come out on the Kindle or the Nook, it’s here…

When I wasn’t working on Fall for Anything (or ‘Eddie’ as I call it 99% of the time, for it’s main character), I was preparing for the OLA’s (Ontario Library Association) Forest of Reading/Festival of Trees. Last October (LAST OCTOBER! Where is time going?) I announced that Cracked Up to Be was nominated for the White Pine Award. On May 12th, the nominees gathered for the Festival of Trees at the Toronto Harbourfront Centre. It’s a HUGE event that takes place over two days and thousands of readers visit and interact with authors.

It was an incredible day. I was up at four AM and on the road shortly thereafter so I could arrive in Toronto by 9:30. When I arrived, I got a badge with my name on it and a green ribbon and I had to note that because I <3 green. I met Pam Bustin first, (the author of Mostly Happy, which went on to win the White Pine–congratulations, Pam!) who is lovely and energetic and then directly after breakfast in the green room, I went to my signing tent which I shared with Susan Juby and Tim Wynne Jones, who were both very friendly and engaging and very cool and looked like they knew what they were doing at all times (which I envied!).

And then it was time to go onstage! Sabrina Jalees MCed the event and she was so hilarious we (mostly) forgot about the cold. And then the authors were paraded (literally!) onstage. Each author was accompanied by two people. One person holding a sign with the authors’ name on it (my sign holder’s name escapes me but she was a really nice girl–thank you!) and your speaker, who introduces you very kindly (thank you, Mel!) and then oh my goodness, the author has to speak. Which I did. And I didn’t fall down or nothin’ so that was awesome.

(Any day I don’t fall on my face is awesome.)

So, in short: a GREAT day. I want to thank everyone who worked hard to make it all possible and to make it run so smoothly. I can only imagine how much planning goes into an event that huge, but from where I was sitting it was flawless. I got to meet so many wonderful librarians and volunteers and readers and authors and I feel truly grateful to be in such a wonderful community.

And then the four hour drive home!

The next day, I gave three talks to teen readers about writing and publishing at a Voices of the Forest event at a local (for me!) education center, along with the wonderful Lesley Livingston, Pam Bustin and Susan Juby. I was incredibly fortunate to have my talks attended by awesome readers and writers who asked great questions and were just–I know I’m using a lot of positive adjectives in this post but they all apply! They were great, cool, awesome, nice. And now I must make use of this space to thank Pearl H., who tirelessly organized the event, but was unable to attend it. THANK YOU, PEARL! I’m sorry we didn’t get to meet.

So that was also a great day. And after the talks, we got the keys locked in the car and had to get a man with a coat hanger to fish them out so that was pretty exciting too.

SO MUCH EXCITEMENT!

Andddd that is what has happened in my neck of the woods since I cruelly abandoned this blog to uhm, do those things (I can’t emphasize enough that if you want up-to-the-minute news, you can get it if you follow me on Twitter). I am so going to spend June reading, relaxing and getting caught up on, well, everything and thinking hard about what book I will write next after Fall For Anything. Also maybe blogging more regularly? (Ha ha ha!)

Basically, I’m briefly deadline and outside-obligations free, so THE WORLD IS MY OYSTER.

And what I would really like to know is–

How are YOU?

So I do the night owl thing and yesterday I woke up (in the afternoon) to a flurry of @ replies on Twitter (my Twitter is active when my blog is not!) and emails and notifications in my inbox asking me WHY WASN’T I AWAKE and when I read why it was so urgent that I be awake, I was not really sure I was awake anymore.

I always make that joke about possibly of being in a coma when I get good news but the thing about that is it isn’t a joke because when I get good news I do really honestly have that fear that I am actually dreaming it and when I wake up it will be very sad. Also I have a fear that because I have received good news something terrible is about to happen to me but ENOUGH about the weird way my brain works.

This means a lot to me. Being nominated meant a lot to me (thank you to Robin Prehn for the nomination!) and being a finalist was beyond anything I expected. I spilled coffee on myself after I found out Cracked Up to Be won. I was excited and thrilled and shocked and my hands were like AAAAH! [THROWS COFFEE]. I don’t usually love spilling hot coffee on a shirt I am planning to wear for the rest of the day but I did yesterday! Thank you to everyone who has emailed, tweeted and messaged their congrats. You made me cry. Lots.

And I’m humbled. What can I say about authors like Michelle D. Kwasney, Brent Crawford, Natalie Standiford, Julie Halpern, Justina Chen and Laurie Halse Anderson that has not been said? They are a fantastically talented bunch of authors and what they bring to the YA table is inspiring and it makes me want to work harder, to make absolutely sure I’m giving my best when I sit down and write. Honestly, I feel that way looking at all the nominated titles. It is an incredible list of books. In short: YA/kid’s lit authors are freaking awesome and that is that. CONGRATS to all nominees, finalists and winners.

And The Cybils themselves. I cannot IMAGINE what an undertaking it is, but what it does for this community, for books, is incredible. Team Cybils!: you are a wonderful bunch of people and your time and your passion makes all the difference. It must be hard, but also fun. But also HARD. Thanks in particular to the YA Fiction Panel. 2009 was a great year for YA books and I came out of it with a lot of favourites, personally, so I can’t begin to guess what the judging and selection process feels like (and that goes for every panel), and to do it all in a limited amount of time, ohmygoodness basically. I hope you are patting yourself on the back right now. Also putting your feet up and indulging in something DELIGHTFUL. As a reader and writer, thank you for the work you do.

And not to be nostalgic every time I bring up the Cybils but, as I said earlier in the year, I will never be able to articulate how much of a driving force the YA blogosphere was in my own pursuit of publication. Once I knew I was writing YA–something I’d always loved to read–blogs like Bookshelves of Doom and Little Willow’s Bildungsroman (my very first book blogs–I will never forget this!) were my introduction to this community…

And though I lurked for quite a long time, Willow and Leila’s passion and interest and opinions of books for and about YA audiences helped inform ME as someone who wanted to write those books, and directed me to other bloggers who were also passionate and interested and informative. This helped me connect, to work hard, and that made a significant difference for me and my writing and it continues to, and when I think of the Cybils, I always think of this. I love the way the the book blogging community has evolved and continues to inform and connect and engage readers and writers out of a sheer love of books. I have a great deal of respect for it.

Thank you.

And now back to writing, but I do not know how I am going to make my characters miserable when I am feeling so happy.

THIS COULD BE A PROBLEM.