First: I have reached a scary point in various deadlines and outstanding obligations where I can’t reply back to emails unless I have written a certain amount. DO NOT ASK ME HOW THAT IS GOING. Watch THIS IS NOT A TEST’s book trailer instead! And if you have already watched it, watch it again because why not!

“This Is Not a Test is both sexy and desolate, and it will blast a hole through your heart, yet somehow start to stitch it back together again.” – Daisy Whitney, author of The Mockingbirds and The Rivals


“Courtney Summers is a ferocious talent in YA fiction. This Is Not a Test brought me to tears, caused me to gasp in shock in public places, and almost put a stop to my heart… Summers’s voice is raw with emotion and utterly right for the impending zombie apocalypse.” – Nova Ren Suma, author of Imaginary Girls


“[Courtney Summers] bleds all the perfection and simplicity that defines her writing so well with this added paranormal elements for a snappy, exciting story I just couldn’t stop reading, and then I got to the very end and realized that it was about so much more than just making it out alive.” – Julie Cross, author of Tempest

I admire these authors so much and that they gave their time to read THIS IS NOT A TEST and offer up such kind endorsements means the world to me. Thank you, Daisy, Nova and Julie!

SO, in celebration of all of these things, I think it’s time to give away a signed (personalized, if you want!) THIS IS NOT A TEST arc. They look like this:

1) Watch the trailer!
2) Comment on this blog entry (here on my site and not on a feed) saying you want to win an ARC!

BUT WAIT!

3) If you share or have shared the trailer on Twitter, your blog, Tumblr, Pinterest, Facebook or Goodreads and include the links to where you shared it in your comment so I can confirm this, you will get one extra entry per place you’ve shared. So say you tweeted it, blogged it, pinned it, tumbled it, Facebooked it or Goodreads statused it, you would get six extra entries on top of the one you get for commenting!

IMPORTANT: you only get an extra entry per place shared, not how many times you’ve shared in one place. If you tweet it 18 times, thanks! But you’d still only get one entry. I posted the trailer here on my Facebook so you can click the share button from there. You don’t have to, but then you can just say you clicked share and I should be able to confirm easily though there, provided your entry name and FB name match. Finally, if you say you’ve shared the trailer but don’t share the links to where in your comment, I won’t count those entries, sorry–and I don’t really have the time to chase after the links. Them’s the rules and it wouldn’t be fair to other entrants.

I know how frustrating it can be to have to jump through a lot of hoops for a contest, so I just want to re-emphasize that YOU DO NOT HAVE TO SHARE IT IN ANY/ALL OF THESE PLACES TO BE ENTERED. All you have to do is watch the trailer and comment on this blog entry on my site. Word of mouth is such an important part of every book’s release, so every little bit helps–but you are certainly not obligated.

Anyways, contest ends April 10th. Winner will be announced in an addendum on this blog entry April 11th. (Why not the same day! Makes more sense!) Again, this contest is open to International entries. So have at it, world!

It would be so nice if you did.

(Speaking of giveaways, if you live in the US and are a member of GoodReads, they are giving away 20 copies of THIS IS NOT A TEST until March 31st. Click here. And if you live in the US and are a member of LibraryThing, they have 26 copies of THIS IS NOT A TEST up for grabs until March 26th. Click here. So many giveaways!)

Go here to find out what you have to do. (Spoiler: it is as easy as commenting on this status!).

Contest ends February 24th. Spreading the word is greatly appreciated!




This post is zombie approved: f(0_o)f

In hardcover!

Oh, and there are no zombies in this one, just so you’re prepared. Zombies would probably UNcomplicate the lives of these particular characters, not make them worse. I am apparently incapable of writing books about people who have it easy, what can I say.

But speaking of zombies…

You can now read the first chapter of THIS IS NOT A TEST right here. I’m also thrilled to tell you early reviews of THIS IS NOT A TEST are making their way around the blogosophere and that people are saying some nice things about it! Here is a little round-up:

ALSO! I’ll be getting ARCs soon, so you should like my Facebook page because a giveaway of them is bound to happen there in the very near future. I know, I know. This is my sneaky way of getting you to like my page… so that I might shower you with the opportunity to win free books! And that’s not just a line! There is a giveaway going on there right now, in fact! Today is the official release of Daisy Whitney’s sophomore novel, THE RIVALS, the sequel to THE MOCKINGBIRDS and I’m giving away a set of the books to one lucky winner. All you have to do is comment on the status. You have until Friday. Daisy’s books are extraordinarily powerful. If you haven’t read them yet, you should.

And goodness more giveaways oh my Nova Ren Suma, who is only one of my most favourite authors ever, invited me to participate in her Turning Points blog series. I wrote about redefining my idea of failure. If you check it out, you’ll see there is an opportunity to win a signed copy of both SOME GIRLS ARE and FALL FOR ANYTHING and an (unsigned) preordered copy of THIS IS NOT A TEST and (!) my dear friend Damon (thank you, Damon!) donated audiobooks of CRACKED UP TO BE and SOME GIRLS ARE. Entering is easy, so please consider doing it. You have until the 10th, I believe.

AND ON THAT NOTE. Thank you for indulging my latest blog entry full of bookish updates! And thank you especially for reading my work, which has given me the opportunity to write more of it. I hope you have a wonderful week! In closing, here is a gif of birds acting out a scene from ALL THE RAGE.

But it COULD be.

Maybe.

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.

BUT! Before you do! I just have to say this is a really cool moment for me because waaay before I got an agent or ever had a book coming out, I lurked at Bildungsroman ALL the time. I still do (minus the lurking). It’s right at the heart of the Children’s/YA Lit scene and was and continues to be such a huge resource for me as both a writer and a reader (if you write or read YA, you need to visit Little Willow’s site regularly, seriously). Little Willow gives 1000% to the community and sending her Cracked Up to Be was a very humbling moment for me. ALSO! She pointed me in the direction of one of the most awesome zombie novels EVAR and when you can point a huge critical zombie fan to a non-disappointing zombie work of fiction, that is practically the equivalent of saving their lives. From a zombie.

So you see my debts to Little Willow are great.

And my latest guestblog is up at The Swivet and it’s about writing YA. You can read that here. Check out the first comment! My knight in a blue shirt totally commented! Or at least I choose to believe he did. I am kind of thinking it might not actually be him because, you know. He didn’t ask for my phone number.

Anyway, this feels like a lot of Courtney on one Internet, so I will try not to push it with this blog entry and go back to revising with my one good eye. Happy Monday, peoples!

And I can take absolutely zero credit for this. The wonderful Daisy Whitney introduced me to the equally wonderful Sheila Clover English of Readers Entertainment TV/Circle of Seven Productions, who did some mad distributing on my behalf.

For those of you who don’t know, book trailers began with COS (and this book trailer junkie BOWS DOWN to them–God, I love book trailers). So it was pretty cool being in contact with them for that alone aka cue fangirl. Within a day of sending Sheila the wmv file, my trailer was live everywhere. Like, my google alerts went absolutely crazy over it, which was pretty exciting. I would’ve had to clear a week off my calendar to get it in half the places they did. I get incredibly overwhelmed just thinking about it.

I have to be honest–it can be a lot daunting out here as a new author trying to do as much of the self-promo thing as can be done from my own laptop and in 24 hours, these guys made it a whole lot easier for me. I’m in total awe of and very grateful for the support they offer the writing community and the incredible work they do.

AND it’s not just that they helped me get my trailer out there–it’s that they really love and believe in books and that they’re committed to connecting them with as many readers as possible. That’s a wonderful thing. If you’re in a position where you need to get your work out there like this, don’t look any further than Circle of Seven/Readers Entertainment TV. Thank you, Sheila!

Except maybe zombies.

Things about zombies that I know:

They eat brains.
They eat YOUR brains.
They are flammable.
But not as flammable as Edward Cullen.
Who is extremely flammable, as it turns out.
They are slow moving, except when they run.
In which case we are all screwed.
They don’t live in trees.
Certain zombie animals probably do, though.
Like zombie birds.
Occasionally, zombies show glimmers of intelligence.
But you are supposed to shoot them before they get to that point.
You can’t have sex with a zombie.
SERIOUSLY YOU CAN’T.
And I don’t know why you would want to.
But apparently some people do.
I learned that from Showcase after 2 am.
Showcase is very educational after 2 am.

~fin~

Anyway, I’m making progress on my book, this is good. And something this fake radio silence has taught me is the value of using various social networking thingamajigs. I don’t know how many people are following my twitter, but there’s some peace of mind in knowing that even though this blog is silent, I’m somewhere online, complaining about the way life is. It placates my secret fear that you will all forget about me and find some other volcano enthusiast (WILL S/HE LOVE YOU LIKE I LOVE YOU?). Yay social networking!

Speaking of social networking, if you’re on GoodReads, you should friend me!

Also in related news, the livejournal feed hasn’t updated to show my last post and I don’t know why. I wonder if it will show this one! SUSPENSE.

Anyway, if you would like to see how writing Your Mom has been going, I leave you with this:

Key: the pretty blonde represents me (of course), the fella with the unrelenting hunger for my brains represents my book and the hot geek with the driving gloves represents SEXINESS IN A BROKEN WORLD. You know. Just in case I wasn’t doing a good enough job of it already.

My mom finished Cracked Up to Be! It was an agonizing experience, waiting for her to finish it and to share her thoughts. I am really happy with what she took away from it, though slightly skeptical of her accolades, because you know. She birthed me. I am pretty much flawless at everything in her eyes. In any case, here is the blurb she provided for me, for promotional purposes:

After I finished Courtney Summers’s debut novel, CRACKED UP TO BE, I gladly returned the bribe money she gave me and told her, “No, Courtney. It was MY pleasure.”

Love you, Mommy!

So that was really nice.

In other really nice news: I’m getting A NIKON D80!

This turn of events came as a bit of a surprise, which I’m sure no one will believe as I’ve wanted one for so long (even more when my D70 went to camera heaven). But I truly didn’t expect that I’d be capping my lovely Christmas by ordering a new digital SLR for myself. And then my mom was like, “Hey, Courtney! Check out Futureshop’s online holiday sales! Wow! Look at that D80!” And then I was like, “Really? Should I get it? *angsty back-and-forth*” And then she was like, “Oh look, they have a limited quantity! Oh look! Someone bought one while you were thinking about it! Oh look! There goes another one!”

I didn’t know it then, but Futureshop was giving my mother a commission.

In spite of her camera pushing, it took a couple of hours to take the plunge and order it. And then I felt terrible afterwards. As of today, I am at peace with the decision and I can’t wait to hold that sexy beast of a camera in my hands. I’m going to put it to good use and try things I haven’t tried before. I miss taking photographs so much.

And then I saw 28 Weeks Later!

< spoilers, blah, blah >

Before I start eviscerating it, I should say 28 Days Later is one of my favourite movies of all time. It is so impossibly good and effectively disturbing, that even now, I have a hard time finishing it. That is a mark of a good horror movie as far as I am concerned. Seriously. It is so perfectly tense and terrifying. The characters feel so real and honest, it gives an incredible emotional heft to a movie about a Rage Zombie Apocalypse (who would have thought?!). AND it was filmed digitally (I embrace teh digital technologies, obviously). The aesthetic was gorgeous and gritty. PERFECT. The whole movie just brought respect back to the horror genre. Where it belongs.

28 Weeks Later’s opening gave me a false sense of hope because WHAT AN OPENING. Really. So much tension you could snap in half. What a desperate chase and escape that opening was, seriously thrilling and brilliant and brilliantly filmed. Robert Carlyle leaving his wife behind to get eaten by The Infected because he had no other choice?

WOW.

Unfortunately, that opening made me get a little ahead of myself. As soon as I saw that, I started envisioning the course the movie would take. I thought, oh my gosh, this is going to be a movie about a man who made a hard, but ultimately right decision.

(Dear family and friends, if there comes a time when there are Rage Zombies between us and I’m by the nearest exit and you need saving, well… I love you enough to live for both of us. Love, Courtney)

So I thought, given the perfection of the first movie and forgetting the Sequels Generally Suck rule, the rest of the movie would be this fantastic survivalist tale about Robert Carlyle living with the decision he made until The Infected breached the parameters of the safe zone, and he was forced to make the same decision with the remaining members of his family–WHICH WOULD HAVE BEEN AMAZING, Y?

Seriously! It would have made 28 Weeks Later a horror movie that’s fearless enough not to punish its lead character for being a a flawed human being and then the audience would have to struggle with the character’s choices but find it almost impossible to condemn him for them! No eye for an eye! No vigilante justice! Just flat out SURVIVALISM! ROBERT CARLYLE MAKES IT AND HAS TO LIVE WITH HIMSELF.

WHAT A CONCEPT! IT BLOWS MY MIND EVEN NOW.

But that was not what the movie was about. Instead, I get this:

Robert Carlyle has a useless (and boring) son and daughter.
Robert Carlyle’s wife lives.
And is an immune carrier of the Rage Virus
but doesn’t know it.
Robert Carlyle’s wife could provide a vaccine for the virus but–
oh wait.
That plot thread will be dropped mid-movie because
all we really need Robert Carlyle’s wife for is to infect Robert Carlyle.
And now that Robert Carlyle is infected, it’s SQUARE.
EVEN. JUSTICE.
Because anyone who doesn’t make a likeable choice
should be punished for it! Especially in movies and books!
Because GOD FORBID WE BE INTERESTING.
So now it’s just useless boring son and daughter.
Infection, infection, infection
run, run, run
escape, chase
blah, blah, blah.
Interesting adult characters gratuitously introduced
and gratuitously killed off.
Useless boring son and daughter live.
Except son is now an immune carrier of the Rage Virus
so now if he so much as sneezes on someone
Rage Zombies will take over Paris.
Which is exactly what happens.

Suck.

My level of annoyance and disappointment is probably unreasonable. I know this. But when you misuse Zombies and you misuse ROBERT CARLYLE (who is AMAZING)…

IT’S AWN.

I just think it would have been so much more interesting if Robert Carlyle’s character had carried the movie by making the same choices over and over again, until he was all alone and had to live with them for better and for worse. Surviving in every sense of the word!

WHY DIDN’T THEY MAKE THAT MOVIE? IT WOULD HAVE BEEN AWESOME.

Sigh.

And that is what is new with me.

So I guess I have seen everything now.