contest
Big Announcement… and Postcard Extravaganza!
Jun 10, 2012
First of all, before you do anything else, click over to Crits for Water and check out today’s auction! Amie and I are giving away a critique, PLUS Adams Literary will look at your query, PLUS (seriously, this package is crazy) Disney-Hyperion editor Laura Schrieber will read your first chapter AND call you on the phone to discuss it with you! Have you gone to check it out? Yes? Okay, then carry on below.
Well, I think I’m finally recovered (mostly!) from BEA. It was my first Book Expo, and man, what a way to start! My editor, Andrew Karre, spoke on the YA Editors Buzz Panel about SKYLARK, and then I got to sit with the other amazing buzz authors and discuss our books on our own panel. I also got to meet a wonderful bunch of bloggers at the blogger breakfast with me, Maggie Stiefvater, Tessa Gratton, and Brenna Yovanoff.
And then—one of the craziest experiences yet—I got to do this:
Look at that line! Total madness. I got to meet so many awesome people while I signed, I wish I could’ve had more time to talk more! One guy told me that he wasn’t even going to come to BEA that day—but he came JUST to get his hands on a copy of SKYLARK and get it signed. Dude, whoever you are, you made my day. And given what an incredible day it was, that’s saying something.
COVER REVEAL over at The Story Siren!
Apr 04, 2012
Hey guys, you know how I keep teasing you with the fact that I’ve been sitting on the cover of SKYLARK for, oh, months now?
Well, the teasing is over! Skylark’s beautiful (I’m unbiased, I swear) cover is now UP on The Story Siren. Hop on over to see it, and while you’re at it, enter to win one of THREE advanced reader copies of the book! Plus, I answer a few questions about the cover process, and my own reactions to the cover.
Head over to The Story Siren. . . . (Read more…)
Title Change for Wrecked, and GIVEAWAY!
Apr 02, 2012
WRECKED was one of those working titles that stuck. At first it was kind of a joke–one of our earliest readers often teased us about our book MASSIVE CRASH–but we came to really like the double meanings in it. Yes, it’s about a (space)shipwreck, but it also describes the processes that the characters go through, and how everything falls apart so easily.
But it’s also a very simplistic title, and doesn’t quite convey everything we’d like it to about the book. Yes, it’s a science fiction story, but it’s also a romance, and it’s also a survival tale, and it’s also a story about two people breaking out of the fates and lives pre-determined for them. So with a ton of brainstorming, and a lot of help from the brilliant folks over at Disney-Hyperion, WRECKED now has a brand spankin’ new title!
So without further ado, our new title is… (Read more…)
Birthday Book Bonanza!
Jul 05, 2011
Hey everyone! Normally I would be posting tomorrow for Wisdomous Wednesday, but I’m putting that on hold this week because today is a SUPER AWESOME SPECIAL DAY: my birthday! (Pause for applause.) Nah, it’s okay. That’s not normally a reason for anybody but me to celebrate, but as it turns out, I’m getting my favorite present of all: books! In the form of money to spend on them, that is.
I need some help picking out books, because while I have a list already, I know I’m missing some awesome books that I really should be reading.
So! To celebrate my awesome birthday I’m doing my first-ever giveaway!
I went to a concert!
Dec 04, 2010
I went to the most AWESOME U2 concert last night. We were sitting pretty high up, but the view was amazing and I’m pretty sure we had the best seat in the house, except for maybe the chick who got pulled up onstage to dance with Bono. I’ve never been to such a massive concert before. I went with Amie, who said there were something like 80,000 people there. I have no way of knowing if that’s true, because basically after about 50 people my brain shuts down and can no longer tell the difference between 200 and 2,000 people. But she’s pretty smart, so I’ll take her word for it.
Looking down on the crowd on the floor was like flying low over the ocean during a storm. The booming thunder of the bass, the lightning of the camera flashes lighting up the surging waves of people–and in the dark the cool glow of cell phones was like phosphorescence churned up by the stormy sea. I spent nearly as much time watching this as I did watching the band, because I was so mesmerized. I couldn’t shake the impression that I was hovering over the ocean.
Contest! Gratitude! Stuff!
Sep 24, 2010
Yeah, I’m not doing much better than single words, here.
I just got back home and sat down to find my Twitter DM and Gmail inboxes flooded with congratulatory messages, and my sleepy brain (it’s past midnight here in Australia) had to really clank and whir a while before I realized what was even going on. As it turns out, my entry in the Adventures in Children’s Publishing pitch-to-query contest won!
I’m so excited that it sounds rather lame to even say “I’m excited.” I was in love with this whole contest and process before, just because of how helpful it was in terms of whipping my rather sad query into much better shape. I just want to say a big THANK YOU to the participants for being awesome, and for being brave enough to post your work for the world to see with the express purpose of being critiqued. It’s not easy. It’s not easy at ALL. I’ve met so many awesome people throughout this process. There’s a reason I love the community of YA writers. You’re an awesome group of people.
So what now? Well, tomorrow I need to go back over my first three chapters. I’ve actually been intending to do this for a while. Of the whole manuscript, the beginning needs the most work, simply because I want to reduce the amount of exposition I have in there. Trust your audience, Meg. They’ll get it even if you don’t lead them by the hand. But yeah, it also just so happens that the first three chapters are what I now need to submit to Sarah LaPolla, so now there’s double incentive!
I’m really glad I have revisions all ready to go. Lesson learned: even if you’re not expecting to win, you’d better darn well prepare for it anyway, because you’ll feel pretty dumb if you’re not ready when you do!
And because a friend just pointed out to me that I’ve never actually posted my query on my LJ, I’ll paste it below. This is about draft #4112 of this query. This is the version that I wrote specifically for this contest and for Sarah LaPolla, hence the personalization at the end.
Update and Contest!
Sep 11, 2010
Hey guys! It’s been all quiet from me lately, and I apologize for that. Life got hectic for a while, what with WorldCon, followed by the world’s biggest wind storm blowing our garden wall down, and all of us having to run around and fix it and figure out what to do with the dog, etc. And then, since we’ve got company coming Monday, I’ve been frantically Cleaning All The Things. I am more or less back now, but with that friend from the U.S. coming to visit on Monday, I’ll very likely be incommunicado at that point too.
Just wanted to wave my hand around and say I’m not dead! Yay! I wanted to do a blog post following WorldCon about my experiences with it, because I know so many people who would’ve loved to come, but the energy levels just aren’t allowing that right now. I still plan on it–if nothing else, I have to explain how I managed to end the con sitting at a bar with John Scalzi, Carrie Vaughn, Delia Sherman, and Ellen Kushner–but it might take me a little while to organize my thoughts.
Query Contest over at Children’s Publishing
Aug 27, 2010
The deadline for entries has already passed, but the KidLit gals over at Adventures in Children’s Publishing are having a fantastic contest/workshop to help writers polish their pitches. I’m learning an absolute ton just from reading other writers’ pitches and the comments on them. I highly recommend it to anyone who’s ever written a query, is writing a query, or may one day need to write a query. Comments are open to contestants and guests alike, so feel free to join in on the critiquing process!
Plus, bonus: my own pitch is up there, for THE IRON WOOD, the book you guys have been listening to me babble about for the past few months.
“Paranormalcy” ARC Giveaway Contest at LTWF
Jul 20, 2010
I rarely (i.e. never) pass along contests here, but given that most of you already read Let The Words Flow anyway, I don’t think it’ll be tooooo big an annoyance. 😉 And if you AREN’T reading LTWF, you should be!
Anyway, they’re having a giveaway of the ARC of PARANORMALCY, a book I’ve been dying to read ever since I heard
So without further ado, here’s the contest. Good luck!