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Thursday, March 29, 2012

YA SCAVENGER HUNT!! WINNER ANNOUNCEMENT!!

The YA Scavenger Hunt is now over! Thanks for participating!

WINNER OF SIGNED COPIES OF DREAMING ANASTASIA and HAUNTED is Laura of My Enchanted Bookshelf! Laura, please email me at joypreble at gmail dot com and let me know what address to send your books!

(all comments - 235 of them!- were placed in what I call the 'contest hat' and a winner was randomly chosen!)


THANKS TO EVERYONE FOR BEING PART OF THE YA SCAVENGER HUNT!

HOPE YOU ALL FOUND MANY NEW BOOKS TO READ AND LOVE, INCLUDING MY UPCOMING ANASTASIA FOREVER (Sourcebooks August 1, 2012)

AND CONGRATS TO THE WINNERS OF EACH TEAM'S SCAVENGER HUNT! THIS WAS FUN!

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

The Writing Life

The writing life gets to you sometimes. Cause really - although it may seem a romantic way to earn a living (or a piece of a living) it's really you, sitting at the laptop for hours on end making up stuff that sometimes works and sometimes gets sent back to you by your agent/editor/beta reader/critique partner/random person in line at Target with the basic commentary that it sucks and so do you and maybe you better get that application filled out for Walmart greeter. (not that that is a bad thing)

You learn to be heartened by the tiniest bit of good news. (My editor answered my email!) And you dash about the house thinking ah, they love me. It will be okay. And then, even though you swear you're above it, you stumble on a mediocre review or someone else gets a Newbery (even though you don't write middle grade and thus will never get the Newbery) and you think crap! What am I doing? I'm a poser, a fake. What was I thinking? And then you get a really good piece of news, but it has to remain secret for awhile and so you walk around thinking crap, I'd like to tell this really good piece of news so no one thinks I'm a loser who will never win the Newbery. Often these things all happen in the same day and sometimes in the same hour so that while you're writing and trying not to suck at it you're riding the writer life roller coaster and you forgot to take your Dramamine.

Or in the words of my Sourcebooks housemate, the witty and droll Geoff Herbach, "And then, for no apparent reason, things got better! And then worse! And then better!" Which pretty much covers it, wouldn't you say?

So the short of it is, it's best to let it all go and enjoy the ride. When you do, you realize that mostly, it's good stuff. Really. Or as we say in our house since I have spent a lot of years on public education where you learn to laugh at pretty much anything, "It's a good day when no one spits on you." (Cause in public education this can sometimes happen)

But to end on an upbeat, here's some good stuff:
  • The above picture of PJ (Tricia) Hoover, me, and blogger/librarian Jen Bigheart at Greg Leitich Smith's release party for Chronal Engine this past weekend. Celebrating a new book is always the best!

  • The book I'm writing and trying to finish this week. I love it. I really do. It's funny and very romantic. And it has kissing.

  • Although I can't show it to you yet, Soho Press has created the best cover ever for THE SWEET DEAD LIFE which is coming out in May 2013. This is wondrous, people! Wait until you see it.

  • Sourcebooks is having me sign advanced reading copies of ANASTASIA FOREVER at TLA in April! I am so stinkin' excited about this that you have no idea!! Thursday 4/19 from 2-3. If you want to find out what happens before everyone else, come to the show!

  • My agent Jen Rofe is going to be here on Friday for Houston SCBWI! And I am very excited about her welcome gifts. All of which have a cowgirl theme. Cause, um, Texas!
So what's up and down with all of you, dear readers?








Wednesday, March 21, 2012

YA Spring Scavenger Hunt Coming!!

Hello Everybody,

It's time to announce the final lineup of the Spring Scavenger Hunt! This year it will be bigger and badder than ever before with 60 count 'em 60 YA authors! (including my Sourcebooks Fire house sistas: Janet Gurtler, Lisa and Laura Roecker and Jess Shirvington) With fabulous prizes around every corner you DO NOT want to miss this!

Below is your sneak preview of the authors and the books they will be featuring on the hunt. Keep scrolling! These covers are all amazing and imagine what wonderful stories await inside each book!



JUS ACCARDO





AMBER ARGYLE





LISA T. BERGREN





LISA BURSTEIN







SOFIE COUCH





KIMBERLY DERTING





LAURA A.H. ELLIOTT





CHRISTINE FONSECA





ABBI GLINES





CYNTHIA HAND





KAREN AMANDA HOOPER





S.R. JOHANNES





GINA LINKO





GRETCHEN MCNEIL





MIKE MULLIN





ERICA O’ROURKE





JOY PREBLE





JESSICA SHIRVINGTON





TIFFANY TRUITT





DEBBIE VIGUIE





ANN AGUIRRE





JENNIFER L. ARMENTROUT





LEAH BOBET





TERA LYNN CHILDS





WILLOW CROSS





DJ DESMYTER





LEIGH FALLON





TARA FULLER





JANET GURTLER





CINDY HOGAN





COLLEEN HOUCK





ELANA JOHNSON





JAMIE MANNING



The Glimpse

CLAIRE MERLE





S.L. NAEOLE





GREGG OLSEN





LISA & LAURA ROECKER





JERI SMITH-READY



PrideUnleashed_800x1236

CAT KALEN





LANI WOODLAND





JOSEPHINE ANGELINI





BRODI ASHTON





CK BRYANT





ANGELA CORBETT





GINA DAMICO





BREE DESPAIN





BETH FANTASKEY





MARLEY GIBSON





RAE HACHTON





NANCY HOLDER





TARA HUDSON





SUZANNE LAZEAR





MYRA MCENTIRE





ALEXANDRA MONIR





LISA NOWAK





AMY PLUM





INARA SCOTT





TISH THAWER





MAGAN VERNON





RASHELLE WORKMAN

Worth the long scroll, right?
Personally, I'd like to get all of them!
Leave a comment on this blog telling me which book or books you're most excited about... besides ANASTASIA FOREVER, of course!

Brilliant and gifted author Beth Revis has created a website just for our Scavenger Hunts! Click on the YA Scavenger Hunt image below to be redirected there. Because we have so many authors this time we are breaking into three groups. We have BLUE TEAM, RED TEAM, and YELLOW TEAM!

Each group is made up of 20 authors and I am on TEAM BLUE!!

This means that my bonus material (AND IT'S AWESOME BONUS MATERIAL FROM ANASTASIA FOREVER THAT YOU WILL ONLY SEE HERE!) will be found on the blue team. If you get lost on the hunt simply return to the hunt website and pick up where you left off. While you check out the website, don't forget to vote on the polls, follow the site, and check out all the prizes. You can even tweet from there too!


YA Scavenger Hunt


I will be offering some very special prizes: not only a limited availability ARC of ANASTASIA FOREVER, but also a HAUNTED t-shirt and other yet to be announced very amazingly cool goodies. Trust me. You will love it!


THE YA SCAVENGER HUNT BEGINS THURSDAY MARCH 29TH AT NOON PACIFIC TIME AND ENDS SUNDAY APRIL 1ST AT NOON PACIFIC TIME! THAT GIVES YOU ONLY 72 HOURS TO COMPLETE THE HUNT!
GOOD LUCK TO ALL!