Winging Your Way (and a GBC Teaser)

As hard as it is to believe, April is now officially over. May is here and that means the paperback edition of OH. MY. GODS. will be out in just two weeks! In case you've been living in a cave, the paperback edition will have this glorious new (and naked dude-free) cover:


I'm going to host a fun contest for the release and will be announcing the details early next week. Hint: Brush up your poetry writing skills. And maybe your hip hop skills.

In other news, I am done, done, done(!) with the revision on FORGIVE MY FINS. (Which means my editor read and loved the changed I made, and now it's moving on to copyedits.) Woohoo!!!

Also, I am officially copying Ally Carter (who was officially copying Rick Riordan) and will be dishing out GODDESS BOOT CAMP mini-excerpts (aka GBC Teasers) from now until it's release on June 11th. Here's the first one:

I have a feeling I’m in big trouble.

Bet you can guess who had that thought.

That's all for now. Don't forget to check back early next week to find out the details of my OH. MY. GODS. paperback contest! And for more GBC Teasers.

Hugs,
TLC

PS -- Anyone with swine flu please cover your mouth when you comment.

Top Secret Poll

Good morning, godlets. (Okay, now I feel a bit like Charlie in Charlie's Angels. Everyone, strike a silhouetted pose with a gun!)

Anyway, I know I have not been posting much lately, but first I was bogged down with revisions for FORGIVE MY FINS (done, yay!) and now am working on a Top Secret Non-YA Project (which will, hopefully, also be done soon). I can't tell you what the TSNP is about--that would defeat the whole Top Secretness, wouldn't it?--but I can give you a clue.


Now, my poll question of the day is:

What is your favorite kind of chocolate?

It can be a brand name (like Hershey's) or a particular type (like white chocolate) or a particular treat (like chocolate-covered espresso beans--I'm just saying). No matter what it is, please share, because I'm looking for some yummy, cacao-derived inspiration.

Also, am toying with the idea of doing two things:

1. Writing another blog-only short story.
2. Posting mini-excerpts of GODDESS BOOT CAMP (a la Ally Carter)

Feel free to also weigh in on these ideas.

Hugs,
TLC

Sara Hantz's Prologue

For this week's Prologue I've probed the employment past of Sara Hantz. Sara is an adopted Kiwi (New Zealander) and the author of The Second Virginity of Suzy Green.

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What was your favorite job ever?

Is it cheating if I say writing? I’ve had loads of jobs in the past and after the initial 3 months getting to know the job and people I’ve always been bored and desperate to leave. Not that I would usually leave…. my conforming, eldest child personality wouldn’t allow me to 

Your least favorite job?

When I was sixteen I had a Saturday job in a shoe shop for a while. Let me just say: smelly feet….

Your hardest job?

You know what, I can’t think of a job I found really hard. I guess learning how to lecture wasn’t easy, or undertaking academic research in such a way that other academics can’t pull it apart easily.

What is the biggest job perk you've had?

That has to be when I was selling advertising for a local radio station. Free tickets to concerts, the theatre, meeting famous people…. it was awesome (made up for how much I disliked selling!)

What did you like least about working in an office job?

The monotony. I have a very short attention span and get bored easily. I’ve yet to find a job that didn’t bore me (not counting writing, of course)

What did you like most about working in an office job?

The people – although when you get into a managerial position, as I did, it’s like being surrogate mother to people who outside of work were rational human beings but as soon as they got to work they’d act like bickering children and would come to me to sort out their problems.

What you would do if you weren't a writer?

Is this a ‘if you could do anything’ question? In which case I want to star in musicals on Broadway or the West End. If it’s a what would you actually do question, then I guess it would be working in education.

What you would do if you were independently wealthy and didn't actually HAVE to work?

I would still write, and also travel, and live by the ocean in a place which is sunny all year round. And read LOTS!

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Ew! Smelly feet? No thank you.

And I got totally bored with the monotony of office jobs, too. I didn't mind it if I could be brainless and daydream, but if it was boring and required mental attention... well, then that was torture!

Thanks for sharing, Sara!

I'm not sure who our next Prologue will be--I've been too busy with revisions to line anybody up--so check back next week for a surprise guest.

Hugs,
TLC

TLC at Career Day

Today was Career Day at Kerr High School in Houston's Alief School District. It was definitely a new and different experience. One I can't wait to repeat.


After arriving and checking in and getting some complimentary juice, a very nice senior girl (who plans on attending UT next year to study chemical engineering so she can do cancer research--how awesome is that?) led me to the cafeteria. They had all the tables set up with tall signs that stated the career at that table.

I headed to the table with the AUTHOR sign and started setting up my stuff. I put up the two little signs of my upcoming book covers and stood up a copy of OH. MY. GODS. for display. I set out my brand new bookmarks and my brand new buttons. Then I sat and watched and waited.

There were tons of other careers represented. Here's the (mostly exhaustive) list: media, aviation, energy, health, military, gaming, business, engineering, fashion design, business, ballet, zoo, law, culinary, photography, music, cosmetology, and the Harris County Medical Examiner (awesome!)

Everyone seemed great (especially the super hot firefighters and EMTs in their cute uniform pants and tight navy blue t-shirts--yum!) except for one guy.

While I'm sitting there waiting, the yo-yo from CenterPoint Energy (sorry, CenterPoint, but my electrical needs are provided by Green Mountain sustainable energy and I feel no sympathy for you or your representative). He came over before the students arrived. Here's how it went:

"So, your write books?" He smiles and tries to look all deceptively congenial. "What kind of books?"

I smile back, because I do not yet know that he's a yo-yo. "Teen fiction."

Still smiling, he says, "Oh. So mild bodice rippers."

I am no longer smiling. I am blinking rapidly and staring blankly at him. Did he really just say that? Does he know how completely ignorant and retarded and generally without IQ that made him sound? Clearly not.

Looking confused, I just say, "Um, no. No bodice ripping."

But on the inside, I'm thinking, Idiot.

So, other than that, the day was great. (And it's not like I'm going to hold that one yo-yo against the school or anything. They couldn't know!) I met some really wonderful students who asked terrific questions and who have a great headstart on become the next generation of writers. (They also seemed very excited to know that I hated everything about English class all through school. Yay English-haters! Um, I mean, Study your grammar!)

Then the counselor introduced me to the librarian (delightful) and the English teachers (wonderful). I stayed an extra hour-and-a-half talking to them! (They could get away with talking to me for so long because Kerr is kind of an alternative school. Students have to apply to go there and the education is heavily focused on independent study and self-motivated learning. It's a lot more like college than high school.)

Anyway, Career Day was wonderful and I highly recommend it to everyone. But if the smiling bald guy from the energy company approaches you, lock and load your witty quips because you just might have to use them.

Hugs,
TLC

PS--Students of Kerr High School ... EMAIL ME! You promised!

Amanda Ashby's Prologue

Hooray! This week I'm welcome the lovely, adorable, and (even though she will never admit it) charmingly accented Amanda Ashby to share her Prologue. I met Amanda through our mutual agent, Jenny Bent, and have adored her ever since. She's the author of the charming You Had Me At Halo and the outrageous Zombie Queen of Newbury High.

Let's uncover her dirty little employment secrets, shall we?

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What was your favorite job ever?

Until I decided to become a writer I never had any career ambitions and I certainly never had any jobs that I particularly liked. Though I did like working in the gourmet ice cream parlor as my after school job, mainly because of all the free gourmet ice cream that was involved!!

Your least favorite job?

Soooo many to choose from. I worked as a travel agent which was pretty horrible because I always worried that my customers wouldn't make their connecting flights, plus I hated seeing everyone else go on cool trips while I had to stay at home. Boo!

Your hardest job?

I had one job that was so soul destroying that it killed me to drag myself in the door everyday. It was working for a Security Company and I was meant to convince people to get service contracts on their home security systems. It was the most pointless thing I've ever done in my life and that's what made it so hard! To use a writing analogy you could call that job my dark moment!!!!

What is the biggest job perk you've had?

When I was a travel agent, our store won a competition that was run by one of the domestic airlines here in NZ. Anyway, the prize was that our office got a brand new red BMW convertible and everyone got to use it for one week. At first I couldn't really see the big deal until it was my turn and boy did that baby fly - plus my husband drooled like you wouldn't believe!

What did you like least about working in an office job?

Everything! It all seemed so pointless! And though of course it was important to get money every week it just made me feel so bleurgh! I much preferred when I had kids and got to stay at home with them and do my writing at the same time. We were crazy broke, but I was a lot happier!

What did you like most about working in an office job?

Some of my closest friends were ones I made when I was working, so it wasn't all bad!

What you would do if you weren't a writer?

Strangely enough, now that my kids are in school I've just started working on the weekends at the children/teen desk at my local library and I can honestly say that I love it!!!! I don't even consider it work because I get to talk about books all day and help kids to find more books to read! So I guess if I wasn't writing (though shudder at the thought) then I would want to work at the library full-time.

What you would do if you were independently wealthy and didn't actually HAVE to work?

Do you know I used to play this game ALL the time and it was one of the reasons why I decided to pack in work and become a stay home mother, because writing and hanging out with my kids are the two things that I love most in the world so I feel really lucky that I'm already doing exactly what I would if I was rich (though if I was rich, I would probably own more shoes bags and shiny necklaces, and my husband probably would've snuck off to buy that fancy BMW for himself!!)

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Wah! Everyone but me has had awesome job perks! I mean, seriously, gourmet ice cream and a BMW?!? The best I ever got was free potato chips. (Usually the "test flavors" which roughly translates to "slightly better than garbage".) Sigh.

Okay, tune in next week for part two of the Kiwi saga, when we get a peek at New Zealander Sara Hantz's Prologue.

Hugs,
TLC

TLC at TLA

Last week, Houston's George R. Brown Convention Center played host the the Texas Library Association conference. This means that the Bayou City was swarming with fabulous young adult and children's book authors. And, lucky me, I got to attend thanks to the lovely ladies at Penguin Young Readers. Here's how my day went:

My first stop (after picking up my exhibit hall badge) was the Feiwel & Friends booth. I was on a mission to get an ARC of EYES LIKE STARS by Lisa Mantchev, which comes out this summer. Sadly, they were already out! But the lovely lady in the booth took my name and address and promised to send one. Fingers crossed!


Next I went to visit my Penguin peeps. I walked into the booth and saw a GODDESS BOOT CAMP ARC on the display table. I pointed at the cover and said, "That's me." And then, realizing that there was a very not me teen girl on my cover, I added, "I mean, that's not me." I pointed at my name across the bottom. "That's me."


They were so excited and I got introduced around. They pulled out the two boxes of my ARCs that they'd been saving for my arrival and set me up to sign at the front of the booth. I had a nonstop line--met some wonderful Texas librarians and teens--and both boxes were gone in less than an hour. I didn't even get to steal some for myself!

I finished around noon, which was also the time nerdfighter king John Green was supposed to be signing in the Author Area at the far end of the hall. The Penguin ladies set me up with a copy of PAPER TOWNS (with the yellow cover) and I headed that way. Then I pulled out the sneaky author card when Penguin's author appearance coordinator introduced me to John (who is so awesome--my editor used to be his editor's assistant) and he signed my book without my having to wait in line. (Sorry for the cuts, librarians!)


As I was wandering away in a John Green haze (he's just as adorable in person, people) I ran into Melissa Marr, from whom I learned two important things. 1) Her imprint at HarperCollins is now going to be Katherine Tegen, which is also my imprint at HarperCollins. So that means were like publishing sisters. Yay! 2) Since she won the RITA award for Best Young Adult last year she will be presenting the award to this year's winner and there's a 33% chance that it'll be me. Either way, it'll be great. Here's Melissa (far right) and me (second from the left) on a YA panel last year:


I spent the next three hours stopping in to get some Harper love at their booth, learning the TLA ropes with my pal Dotti Enderle, and watching her sign endlessly for two hours! We escaped to a nearby bar and downed Diet Cokes for a couple of hours (yes, just Diet Cokes) to recover.


Later that night was the Joint Publishers Reception. This was basically a big cocktail party with everyone from the publishing houses, some librarians, and a bunch of hungry authors and illustrators look for free food and drinks. There was a massive projection screen running in the corner, showing headshots of all the authors attending the conference. Here's a shot of my screen (taking via very crappy phone cam):


Here are just some of the hungry authors I got to meet or catch up with: Ally Carter, Sara Zarr, Varian Johnson, and Justine Larbalestier. Scott Westerfeld was also there (I met him earlier in the week when he and Cassandra Clare signed at Murder By the Book). And so was Meg Cabot--starstruck! Here's a picture of me and the Meg (again on the very crappy phone cam):


Okay, so I didn't exactly get up close and personal with her (she's the one in the background wearing a kelly green dress). Until the next day. When she was signing at my beloved Blue Willow Bookshop. After listening to her talk (she is so good at that) I waited in line for, like, ever. When Cathy from Blue Willow introduced me as a double RITA nominee Meg was seriously impressed.

"What categories?" she asked.

I tried not to stammer. "Best First Book and Best YA."

"What book?" She quickly signed my copy of AIRHEAD.

"OH. MY. GODS." I answered.

"Oh my God," she squealed. (Okay, maybe not squealed. That's my artistic license.) "I have that book. I haven't read it yet, but I have it."

Omigod, omigod, omigod. Meg Cabot has my book! That seriously made my week!

So, there you go. This was what my first time at TLA (and the day after) was like. Will I do it again next year in San Antonio? Absolutely!

Hugs,
TLC