Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Giveaway to Celebrate NIGHTINGALE's Cover Reveal

I loved LARKSTORM by Dawn Rae Miller, and I'm counting down the days till September 25th when the next book in The Sensitives Trilogy, NIGHTINGALE, gets released. So, of course, I was super excited when I found out Mundie Moms hosted a NIGHTINGALE cover reveal today. Isn't it gorgeous? I love how it looks like the LARKSTORM cover gone dark.

To celebrate, I'm giving away a copy of LARKSTORM, and, because John Green is one of Dawn's favorite authors, I'm also giving away a signed (and Hanklerfished!) copy of LOOKING FOR ALASKA. (For those of you wondering what the elusive Hanklerfish is, see this video - the part about Hanklerfish starts at 2:16.)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Yay NIGHTINGALE!

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Zombie Tag by Hannah Moscowitz

Zombie TagZombie Tag by Hannah Moskowitz
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

10 Things I Love About Zombie Tag:

1) The cover fits perfectly.

2) It comes with its own game. (And the game is AWESOME. I mean, hi, you can buy your kid, ahem, or yourself, not just a book but untold hours of zombie tagging enjoyment.)

3) The humor. (Example: "It's five miles. Anthony should really get his stories peer-reviewed or something." )

4) The voice. It is pitch perfect middle grade boy. <3 Wil.

5) The twist. It completely blindsided me, but also made total sense looking back.

6) The friendship dynamics. I could picture Wil's friend circle so vividly, and it gave me kind of a Super 8 vibe which I loved. Loved Anthony. Loved Eben. And most especially loved...

7) Stella. She is so awesome she gets #7 all to herself. She's spunky and brave and fun. I love that she's the girl in the group full of boys (that was so me growing up!).

8) The parallels between being a zombie and being an adult.

9) The brother relationship. This was particularly impressive since Graham is either dead or a zombie for most of the book.

10) ZOMBIES!!!


Crits: I got nothing. And I really like to include at least one with each review, so I can feel like I've been fair and balanced, but this time I don't have any, so enjoy the happy :) AND GO READ THIS BOOK! And then share it with the coolest middle grader you know.

View all my reviews

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

I Have an Agent!!!!

A few weeks ago, I got the kind of news every aspiring writer dreams of. An agent. Wanted to represent. ME. I stared at the email in shock for a few seconds and then commenced trying to not freak out at work but still freaking out just a little bit.

I’ve loved reading and writing for as long as I can remember, but a few years ago, I decided to get serious. So, I wrote a book (and it was awful). And then I wrote another. And another. I never queried any of these books because I didn’t feel like they were good enough to send out into Agentland (trust me, they weren’t, but my little sister still read all of them because she’s amazing like that). But I was learning. I was getting better and better with each book. I could feel it.

When I finished my 4th book, after 8 months of writing and another 8 of revising – during which I received feedback from the bestest beta readers ever, I decided I was finally going to query. But just a small batch.

So, in August of 2011, I sent off those first 8 queries. I got some requests (squee!), but they ultimately ended in rejections (sigh). But it’s okay. Because the rejections came with feedback. Awesome feedback. Agent feedback. I revised again with the help of a friend who picked apart the agent emails the way middle school girls pick apart texts from cute boys.

This spring I queried again with the new and improved version of my MS, which brings us to…a few weeks ago. An email offer! A call! Emails to other agents who had my MS! And that’s when things got really crazy.

I got four more calls and four more offers from amazing, brilliant, passionate agents. Agents who had read my book and loved it! I took some time to think about it and FINALLY made a decision. And now I can officially announce that I am represented by the AMAZING Susan Hawk of The Bent Agency. I’m so excited and lucky and honored to have an agent who loves my book as much as she does, and I can’t wait to see where things go from here!

I’m so grateful for all the help I’ve received from my writing buddies along the way: those of you who read my book (some more than once!), those of you who gave me that last little push to get my query on, those of you who gave me advice and support through this whole rollercoaster process. Love you guys. <3