Another ICE ARC Giveaway!

The response to Sarah Rees Brennan's giveaway of Advance Reader Copies (ARCs) of ICE and Maggie Stiefvater's SHIVER last week really blew my mind. I read through all the wonderful comments to her blog post and was nearly brought to tears by all the people who were looking forward to reading about Cassie's adventure. Thank you all so much. The only downside was that I felt kinda bad that only one person would end up winning Sarah's ICE ARC.

And then... FATE INTERVENED!

Last Wednesday was a rather big day for me. I got to go into NYC to visit my editor and the publicity/marketing team at Simon & Schuster, which was eleven kinds of awesome! After listening to them describe all their fabulous ideas about the upcoming release of ICE, my publicist gave me a present, another ICE ARC! He probably read my last post and gave me the ARC out of pity... But I choose to interpret this as a good omen, a sign that I should -- dare I say MUST -- give this ARC away!

Now, of course, I could give it to my mother, who has been asking for one for some time... And that is certainly what a good daughter would do... But where's the fun in that?! Much more fun to give it to ONE OF YOU!

Just leave me a comment and raise your hand if you want to be entered in the giveaway. I'll pick a winner at random next week.

Sorry, Mom...

Also, you may have noticed that I FINALLY figured out how to put a Blogger Followers Widget in the sidebar. Not that this is a particularly difficult thing to do... But hey, I'm still proud of myself for figuring it out. Anyway, for those of you who like to read this blog, this should make it easier for you to do so. Just click the follow button and my blog posts will automatically pop up in your Blogger reading list. So easy. So fun! And since I'd love to get new followers, now that the lovely widget is up and all, I'm prepared to sweeten the deal. Anyone who raises their hand in the comments to enter the ICE ARC giveaway AND also becomes a new follower of this blog (or is one already) will be entered TWICE in the giveaway. TWICE! That's, like, a whole extra time!

Finally, I had so much fun reading about everyone's favorite minor characters and character hobbies in the comments to Sarah Rees Brennan's post that I want to do something similar here. Cassie, the heroine of ICE, is by far the most kickass character I've every written. She's way braver and stronger than me. She tracks polar bears across the Arctic sea ice. She scales a mountain, hikes through a blizzard, dives into the freezing ocean, flies through the air on the back of the North Wind... I, on the other hand, am afraid of frisbees. And pretty much any other sport that involves objects flying toward me at high speed. I could never be like Cassie. So I live vicariously through books, through Cassie and all the other kickass heroines I love to read about.

Which brings me to my question for you: Who are your favorite kickass heroines? You don't have to answer to be entered in the contest, but I'd love to chat about your favorites in the comments.

To sum up: Comment. Follow. Chat about kickass heroines. Win free ICE ARC!

ICE Giveaway on Sarah Rees Brennan's Blog!!

Wanna free copy of ICE, my new, not-available-anywhere-until-October book? Well, I don't have any to give you! My stash of Advance Reader Copies (ARCs) has dwindled. I don't even have one to give to my own mother. Seriously. She's visiting this week and asked for a copy and I had to make her wait until October when the finished book comes out! Sorry, Mom...

But Sarah Rees Brennan has one!! How, you ask? Who knows? She is certainly quite sneaky. And has been known to dabble in the dark magicks... But now that she's finished reading her ARC of ICE, she's kindly offered to give it away, along with an ARC of SHIVER by Maggie Stiefvater. Just click over to her blog and leave her a comment to be entered in the giveaway! Go. Click. Now! That includes you, Mom!!

For anyone who hasn't heard of Sarah Rees Brennan yet -- and I can't imagine there are many of you -- you soon will! She's been writing a hilarious blog for years and her debut novel, THE DEMON'S LEXICON, hit the YA shelves a few weeks ago. I recently read THE DEMON'S LEXICON, and I loved it. The words "brilliant" and "awesome" spring to mind. Plus "wow." It's one of those novels that you stay up ridiculously late to finish and then flip back to the first page to read again, prompting your husband to say, "Did you just start reading that again? Don't you know how ridiculously late it is?" I loved the relationship between the brothers. It's rich, complex, and delicately drawn. I love the dialogue. Everything the characters say is sharp and hilarious. And I love the end, which I'm not going to spoil for you, but is AWESOME. If you liked Buffy's Angel, then you're going to love this book.

Mind-Rain

Team David or Team Zane?

There's a new essay anthology out from Smart Pop Books about the Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld. It's called Mind-Rain: Your Favorite Authors on Scott Westerfeld’s Uglies Series, and I have an essay in it! My essay, called Two Princes, is a lighthearted look at whether David or Zane is a better boyfriend for Tally.

It was a fun essay to write since it meant I had to read and reread all the scenes in the series with the cute boys. :)

The anthology is edited by Scott himself, and it includes essays by Jennifer Lynn Barnes, Rosemary Clement-Moore, Sarah Beth Durst (hey, that's me!), Linda Gerber, J. Fitzgerald McCurdy, Diana Peterfreund, Janette Rallison, Delia Sherman, Will Shetterly, Gail Sidonie Sobat, Robin Wasserman, and Lili Wilkinson, as well as short stories by Charles Beaumont and Ted Chiang.

You can read more about it here, as well as on the Teen Libris website.

If you haven't read the Uglies books yet, I highly recommend them. In addition to presenting a thoughtful discussion of important social issues, they also have hoverboards! And chases! And chases with hoverboards! And Tally, jumping off cliffs and falling off hoverboards! And did I mention the cute boys?

BEA 2009 Trip Report (part 4)

Click here to read parts one, two, and three.

Part Four: Saturday at BEA

Slept for three hours and then trotted back to NYC all bright eyed and bushy-tailed. Sort of.

Me after three hours sleep

I visited the Simon & Schuster booth first and then headed over with Justin Chanda (my publisher at S&S) to Holly Black, Cassie Clare, and Scott Westerfeld's Alternate History panel. While waiting for the panel to begin, we discussed the impracticality of Wonder Woman's invisible jet. I'm always bothered by the fact that the jet doesn't make her invisible, and Justin pointed out that the jet is never referred to as soundless. So you have this seated woman zipping through the air to the roar of a jet engine. Not so stealthy.

After the panel, I ran into Marie Rutkoski and Jennifer from the Grand Central Branch of the New York Public Library, who invited me to join them for lunch. Lunch plans expanded to include Ally Carter, Jen Barnes, and Sarah Cross, and then contracted again to just Marie, Jenny, and me, and then expanded again so that the final table was Marie, Jenny, Cassandra Clare, Josh Lewis, Theo Black, Delia Sherman, Ellen Kushner, Scott Westerfeld, Justine Larbalestier, and me. It was a bit like musical lunch chairs. Everyone kept swapping seats. You never knew who you'd be seating beside next.

For the rest of the afternoon, I alternated between wandering the exhibit hall and hanging out in the S&S booth. I talked with a wide variety of people, from Scholastic's Arthur Levine, to a super-nice Massachusetts librarian who had witnessed my dismal Rock Star abilities at MLA the other weekend, to Olivia. (Olivia didn't talk much.)

Me & Olivia

In the evening, I went out to dinner with the fabulous Wendy Mass and Courtney Sheinmel at a fabulous Italian restaurant. I ordered two appetizers as my entree and worried a little that they'd think that was weird, but then Wendy ordered the same thing, proving herself a kindred spirit, and Courtney was later responsible for the chocolate souffle, proving herself a kindred spirit as well.

Me, Wendy Mass, Courtney Sheinmel, and chocolate souffle

After the souffle, Wendy and I bullied Courtney into agreeing to take a taxi rather than a subway to the YA/MG Drinks Night at a bar in Alphabet City (lower east side of Manhattan). (I'm a total subway coward. I thoroughly expect fights to rage over the roofs of the subway cars like in movies and monstrous worms/dragons to attempt to devour us.) After a stereotypically harrowing taxi ride, we were the first to arrive at the party.

Barry Lyga, Coe Booth, Michael Northrop, Courtney Sheinmel, me, Wendy Mass

We were later joined by Ally Carter, Jen Barnes, Bennett Madison, Megan Crewe, Lisa Greenwald, Tara Altebrando, Christopher Paolini, Eric Luper, G. Neri, Lynn Weingarten, Sarah Mylnowski, and many others.

I stayed as long as I could and then scooted out to catch the last train back to Long Island again. I was home by 2am.

And that, my friends, was BEA! I can't wait for next year!

Hilarious Video and BEA 2009 Trip Report (part 3)

Click here to read part one and part two.

Before I get started with part three of my trip report, I absolutely must stop to share with you this youtube video. If you grew up in the 80s watching music videos, or even if you didn't, you are going to piss yourself laughing when you watch this. Via Keith DeCandido via Ellen Kushner, I present to you:

Total Eclipse of the Heart: Literal Video Version



Once you've picked yourself off the floor and composed yourself, please do read on...

Part Three: Friday Night at BEA

Loaded down with books, I waddled myself over to the shuttle buses in order to wend my way to the Brooklyn Marriott for the ABC (Association of Booksellers for Children) Not-A-Dinner and art auction. I love this event. I also loved this year's format for the event which eliminated the sit-down dinner and instead had lots more time for mingling. Sit-down dinners (at least those without assigned seating) stress me out because they're way too much like being in middle school at cafeteria time and wondering if there will be a seat left at the table with your friends. No one should ever have to relive middle school cafeteria. Or gym class on dodge ball days. Or chem class where the teacher thinks it would be "fun" for all of you to wear lab goggles and sing the Elements song by Tom Lehrer at assembly in front of the entire school... But I digress.

I rode in the bus with Betsy Mitchell and Maryrose Wood and had a great time talking with them. I then hung out at the hotel bar with Holly Black, Scott Westerfeld, Lucille Rettino, Bethany Buck, Anne Zafian, and others. After that, I joined Laini Taylor and Jim di Bartolo to watch the keynote speeches. Shannon Hale was witty and charming as the master of ceremonies, and Katherine Paterson and Mike Lupica also gave very entertaining speeches. I laughed; I cried; it was better than Cats.

Seriously, I did tear up during Shannon's speech. She talked about achieving the impossible dream of becoming a writer. As many of you know, I've wanted to be a writer since I was ten years old, so her speech really hit home.

After the talks, I had a lovely time touring the art show with Anne Zafian of Simon & Schuster. I also met Justin and Colleen Chanda, as well as Jon Scieszka. And I got my hair caught on Ally Carter's earring. It took, like, five minutes and three people to disentangle us.

I then made a beeline for the food because I am all about food. I define places by their food. NYC is good tomato soup. Boston is bread bowls. Las Vegas is shrimp cocktail. Orlando is buffalo steak. Texas, fried catfish. Cape Cod, lobster. Anyway, in addition to attacking the food, I also talked to lots of fabulous people, such as Gordon Korman, Kate Schafer Testerman, Maureen Johnson, Lauren Oliver, Lisa Greenwald, Elise Broach (who won the EB White Award that night -- congrats, Elise!), Greg Neri, Aprilynne Pike, and a slew of others.

Afterwards, Laini Taylor, Jim di Bartolo, and I shared the world's slowest cab ride back to Manhattan. (Not that I minded since I was in good company.) I stopped in on Betsy Bird and Cheryl Klein's Kidlit Drinks Night. Saw Betsy, Cheryl, MotherReader, Rebecca Stead, and Molly O'Neill, and then had to book it (no pun intended) out of there to catch the last train back to Long Island.

Coming soon: Part four of my BEA Trip Report: Saturday

BEA 2009 Trip Report (part 2)

Click here to read part one.

Part Two: Friday Afternoon at BEA

Lots of wandering and lots of conversations with lots of awesome people, including but not limited to Adrienne Maria Vrettos, Donna Freitas, Rose Fox, Sheila Ruth, Sara Zarr, two very nice booksellers from Calgary, and Bob.

Yes, Bob, the Bob, from Sesame Street.

He knows Big Bird

He was standing there, waiting for his signing as if he were an ordinary person and not best buds with Elmo, so I went up to him. I was remarkably inarticulate. I'm not saying that to be self-deprecating. I mean, my grasp on nouns and verbs deteriorated and I was left rearranging indefinite and definite articles in hopes of constructing a sentence.

Anyway, after gibbering incoherently at the very nice and gentlemanly Bob McGrath, I encountered Aimee Friedman and joined her at the BEA Young Adult Editor's Buzz, a panel where several editors pitched their favorite fall books. My favorite line: "The stories in Laini Taylor's Lips Touch are hot in the same way that Markus Zusak is hot."

After the panel, I decided to hunt for ARCs (Advanced Reader Copies). Got a signed ARC of Forest Born from the fabulous Shannon Hale and scooped up an ARC of Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan. In general, there were fewer freebies at this year's BEA, which meant that people didn't have the huge tote bags swinging from their shoulders and clocking shorter people in the faces. Bet you never knew the book business was so dangerous. You should have seen the year when Clifford slipped his leash and went all Cujo.

Clifford, Big Red Dog of Terror

Visited the Simon & Schuster booth again in the afternoon and talked with lots of fantastic S&S people, including Lucille Rettino, Paul Crichton, Bethany Buck, Bess Braswell, Elke Villa, and others, as well as Michelle Nagler from Bloomsbury.

By the end of the afternoon, my feet, back, shoulders, and oddly enough that webbed part of one's hand between the thumb and index finger hurt. But I soldiered on. 'Cuz I'm brave like that.

Coming soon: Part three of my BEA Trip Report: Friday night

BEA 2009 Trip Report (part 1)

BEA was AWESOME.

BEA stands for Book Expo America, the annual convention of publishers and booksellers. AWESOME is just a word in caps.

Part One: Friday Morning at BEA

I woke up at 3am to catch a 5am train to reach the Javits Center in NYC by 7am to register before the 8am breakfast. This was early. Really early.

Train station at 5am. Dark out. Watching for vampires.

By 7am, there was already a line forming for the Children's Book and Author Breakfast. I tweeted about this and then noticed a tweet from Lauren Barnholdt with a photo of the line from approximately the same angle as mine. I also noticed the woman next to me was tweeting on her phone. Yes, Lauren and I were standing side by side simultaneously tweeting identical tweets.

Me and Lauren Barnholdt, after a bonding Twitter moment

Inside the breakfast room, I saw Jane Yolen and trotted over to say hello. She said my hair looked terrific. She immediately became my new Favorite Person.

Julie Andrews was the master of ceremonies. When she walked out on stage, you could feel the tension in the room mount as hundreds of people suddenly exercised massive amounts of self-control in resisting the urge to break out singing "The hills are alive..." Tomie de Paola, in his speech, did not resist the urge.

Mary Poppins in da house

After the presentations, I scooted out to the bathroom and... (this is cool so please pause here for dramatic effect)... washed my hands next to Julie Andrews.

And summoning all my skill with words, I said, "Your speech was great."

Seriously. The woman was Mary Poppins, Maria, Queen of Genovia, and all I could think of to say was "Your speech was great."

And she said in her refined British accent, "Thank you very much."

It was a bonding moment.

I then headed out to begin the primary activity of BEA: walking the floor. For some, "walking the floor" means that you go down each aisle in an orderly fashion, observing each booth and seeing everything. For me, "walking the floor" means walking in one direction, spotting something shiny, and veering off. If one isn't careful, one could confuse an autographing line for a bathroom line.

Anyway, I began walking the floor with Laini Taylor and Jim di Bartolo, the author/artist duo responsible for Lips Touch Three Times. (Grabbed an ARC. Can't wait to read. Also can't wait to read the next book in Laini's gorgeous Dreamdark series, Silksinger). Laini and Jim are both super-awesome, and I wish they lived on the East Coast so that I could see them more often.

We ran into lots of very cool people in our wandering, such as:

Me, Laini Taylor, Meg Cabot, and Jim di Bartolo

and also:

Jim di Bartolo, Laini Taylor, Brandon Mull, Scott Westerfeld, and me

and:

Me and Michael Buckley

Also Kate Schafer Testerman (a.k.a. Daphne Unfeasible), Josepha Sherman, and many others.

I also visited the Simon & Schuster booth, where I met several of the fantastic people who work there and saw this glorious sight:

Look! ICE!!!

And look closer:

It's shiny!!!

Coming soon: Part two of my BEA Trip Report: Friday Afternoon.

Off to BEA!

Off to the candy store of the publishing world, Book Expo America! For those of you who haven't been, BEA is an annual event where publishers present their upcoming books to booksellers, and authors claim to be "networking" to hide the fact that we're really just rooting through the exhibit hall looking for free books like pigs looking for truffles. Last time I went, I told myself that I was not there to collect books and therefore did not need to bring an extra bag. Naturally, that meant that I came home with several new bags filled to the brim with books. Bad Sarah. This year, I am bringing an extra bag.

I will be there on Friday and Saturday. If you're attending and see me wandering about, please come say hello! If you're not attending... I'm going to try to tweet from the event. (No promises. I've never tweeted while at an event before. I may get distracted by shiny things.) Anyway, if you're interested, you can follow my tweets here.

Sunshine State Young Readers Award

Feeling lots of love for Florida.

Into the Wild made the master list for Florida's Sunshine State Young Readers Award! I am so thrilled and grateful.

In fact, you might say I'm walking on sunshine...



Or perhaps you'd prefer this version...



Thank you, Florida!!!

In related news, I'm suddenly craving orange juice...

MLA and LILC (Trip Report)

Last Wednesday, I spoke at the Massachusetts Library Association Annual Conference (MLA), and last Thursday, I spoke at the Long Island Library Conference (LILC). Slept about two hours on the night between the two events, but it was well worth it. I had a wonderful time at both.

The MLA conference was in Springfield, Massachusetts, the birthplace of Dr. Seuss. This led to statements such as, "Take a left at the Lorax and head out through the Yertle gate." My hotel room had a painting of a Cat in the Hat statue. It also had those oblong pillows that serve no functional purpose that I can see, aside from bopping people on the head.

I was well-fed at the conference: a huge breakfast spread in the convention center lobby (with many very nice librarians), a box lunch in the ballroom (with two very nice librarians, Maureen Ambrosino and Sue-Ellen Szymanski), and dinner in an art museum (with lots more very nice librarians plus art). Good people + good food = excellent event.

In addition to meeting a ton of awesome librarians, I also had a chance to talk with Patricia McKillip and her husband. I pretty much worship Patricia McKillip's writing. I've reread her Forgotten Beasts of Eld more times than I can remember, and I'd just finished her lovely Bell at Seeley Head before going to MLA. She writes prose so beautiful that it leaves me with a case of serious sentence-envy. Turns out that she's as nice as her prose is pretty.

I did my presentation ("The Importance of Talking Cats: YA and Children's Fantasy") in the late afternoon. I talked about why I (in my totally unbiased opinion) think that fantasy literature is the best thing since sliced bread and promoted my firm belief that all novels can be improved by the addition of a talking cat.

Closed out the night with Game Night with the Youth Services Section, wherein I hung out with several cool librarians, including my host Sarah Sogigian, and demonstrated that I do not have a sense of rhythm whatsoever. I am really, really bad at Rock Band.

Woke up at 4:30am, dumped a LOT of gel in my hair, and drove to Long Island for conference #2. The Long Island Library Conference was held at Crest Hollow Country Club, a swanky place with so many chandeliers and fountains that even the elevator had a chandelier and fountain. Okay, it didn't really, but it was shiny. I think I was underdressed for the place, but the hair gel did save me from the crazy-author-hasn't-left-the-house-in-days- due-to-chapter-ten-kicking-my-butt look that I normally sport. I was able to check it in the reflection from the elevator.

I met my host, Kristen Todd-Wurm, as well as several other librarians at the CLASC (Children's Librarians Association of Suffolk County) table where they were selling copies of my books Into the Wild and Out of the Wild. Had a lovely time talking to them and signing books. After two days of talking with many librarians, I have reaffirmed my belief that awesomeness is one of their job requirements.

My talk was the last one of the day, but people came anyway, which made me happy. Perhaps they were just kept in by the deluge outside (it was the kind of rain that makes you check to be sure the animals aren't starting to pair up), but I'll take it.

I had a lovely huge projection screen for my slides and a presentation area so large that I felt as if I should spice up my talk with a dance routine. I resisted that urge, you'll be happy to know. Despite my childhood years of ballet, tap, and jazz, I am not what you'd call coordinated. Show me a coffee table and I will walk into it. And then I'll bruise for, like, three years. Anyway, I again espoused the virtues of my beloved genre while showing photos of myself that revealed my total dorkiness. I had a great time.

Afterwards, I returned home and proceeded to ignore my still-packed suitcase for the entirety of the weekend. All in all, an excellent two days!

Note to anyone who signed up at MLA to receive my newsletter: I cleverly lost my sign-up list somewhere in Springfield so if you added your email address during my talk (or didn't and would like to), please drop me an email at sarah@sarahbethdurst.com or use the newsletter sign-up form in the sidebar of my blog. Thanks!