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FINAL COVER REVEAL — and first page! — of THE YEAR OF SHADOWS!!!

31 Jan

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

It’s the LAST DAY of The Year of Shadows Cover Reveal Week, which means . . .

. . . TODAY I REVEAL THE FINAL COVER!

AKA

(at this point in reveal week, UNICORN and I are so excited that we have merged into one verklempt, flailing, sparkly being [above], which is kind of terrifying but also awesome)

Day 1 of reveal week was at IceyBooks, where I unveiled the illustrator for The Year of Shadows, Karl Kwasny, and shared with you his original sketch of the main character, Olivia.

Day 2 of reveal week was at The Book Smugglers, which included interviews with Karl and with Simon & Schuster art director Lucy Ruth Cummins — as well as exclusive sneak peeks of the interior illustrations!

And today, Day 3, is over at Mundie Moms/Mundie Kids, where you will see the flap copy for The Year of Shadows, the FIRST PAGE (eeeeeeeek!), AND the FINAL COVER!

Y’ALL I AM SO EXCITED. Like . . . I LOVED the cover for Cavendish (created by illustrator Sarah Watts and the aforementioned Lucy Ruth Cummins). LOVED it. It was absolutely PERFECT for Cavendish. Similarly, this second cover is ABSOLUTELY 110% FLAILISHLY PERFECT for The Year of Shadows. When I first saw it, I started crying, and I’m not really one of those authors who cries at every stage of the journey. Like when I first saw Cavendish in stores, for example, I pretty much just felt numb and surreal and walked around for the rest of the night with dazed, glassy eyes. But I didn’t cry. If you saw me, you wouldn’t have guessed I had just seen my first book in stores; you might just have thought I was in the beginning stages of zombie-fication.

But this? This stunning cover? I cried.

Okay, I’ll stop rambling now. Just go see. Go! Go!

(And don’t forget to comment on the cover reveal posts at Mundie Moms/Mundie Kids for a chance to win one of the seven cover reveal week prizes! You can also go back and comment on Day 1′s and Day 2′s posts, if you haven’t already, for more chances to win!)

((AND. Have you added The Year of Shadows on Goodreads yet? You can do that HERE.))

~*~

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Announcing: THE YEAR OF SHADOWS Cover Reveal Week!

28 Jan

Y’all. Y’ALL. EXCITING THINGS ARE HAPPENING. And now I get to share one of them with you!

Recently, I received sales proofs of The Year of Shadows jacket in the mail (i.e., not the FINAL jacket, but pretty darn close, and something S&S will use during the next few months as we gear up for the release), and they are STUNNING. And I’m not even tooting my own horn here, because the beautiful art and design of The Year of Shadows are all the work of . . . well, you’ll see.

Because, THIS WEEK, I’m going to reveal the cover — in a multi-day cover reveal event! S&S and I thought this would be a fun way to reveal not just the cover, but also lots of extra goodies as well.

Here is the schedule for the week of what will be revealed where and when:

  • Tuesday, January 29 – At Icey Books, you’ll meet the illustrator for The Year of Shadows, and see his/her (OOO MYSTERIOUS) initial character sketch of the main character, Olivia!
  • Wednesday, January 30 – At The Book Smugglers, Thea and Ana will host a joint interview with the illustrator (duh duh DUHHH??) and Simon & Schuster Art Director Lucy Ruth Cummins, as they discuss designing the look and feel of The Year of Shadows. You’ll also get to see three rough sketches of the interior illustrations!
  • Thursday, January 31 – At Mundie Moms and Mundie Kids, the FINAL COVER will be revealed in all its beautiful beautiful glory (I might be biased, yes, but seriously, YOU WILL SEE WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT) — as well as the flap copy AND . . . the first page of The Year of Shadows!

I am BEYOND THRILLED to reveal these The Year of Shadows goodies with you! As I’ve mentioned before, this is a special book for me. I mean, all books are special to their authors, but this one is particularly close to my heart, for reasons I’ll elaborate upon in a different post. Needless to say, every time I’ve opened an email containing The Year of Shadows art, I’ve nearly burst into tears — and when I opened the jacket sales proofs, I actually did burst into tears. Lucy and Mysterious Illustrator have done such an incredible job bringing Olivia’s story to life — and I can’t WAIT to see what you think!

BUT WAIT. THERE’S MORE.

I’m giving away some awesome prizes to celebrate cover reveal week. SEVEN awesome prizes, in fact! (One for each day of the week? One for each Harry Potter book? One for each of the shades of purple in UNICORN’s tail? Take your pick!) You can comment on each day’s post for a chance to win — that will increase your chances of winning! — but even if you comment all three days, you can only win ONE prize. That means SEVEN prizes for SEVEN different winners!

And said prizes are . . .

That’s right — one lucky winner will receive an ARC, hot off the presses!

The giveaway begins with the first post at Icey Books tomorrow, ends Thursday, February 7th, and is U.S./Canada only. But don’t worry, international lovelies; there will be international The Year of Shadows giveaways in the coming months!

So, to sum up: The Year of Shadows. COVER REVEAL. PLUS FUN EXTRAS. AND PRIZES. TOMORROW. WEDNESDAY. THURSDAY.

AWWWWW_YEAHHHHHH

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Join Me Sunday Night for #NutcrackerParty!

15 Dec

The poll is closed, and the people have spoken. #NutcrackerParty — aka, a magical, sequin-filled Twitter event during which we shall watch the best version of The Nutcracker in existence and geek out about ballet, Drosselmeyer, Maurice Sendak — *whispers* and maybe even Winterspell — will take place . . .

Sunday, December 16th at 7:00 p.m. EST.

That’s right! Sunday, as in TOMORROW.

Thank you to everyone who voted! If you can’t join us tomorrow night for #NutcrackerParty, we will miss you, but hopefully, even if you didn’t vote for Sunday, you’ll be able to stop by.

I’ll be on Twitter starting at 6:30 p.m. EST. Nutcracker: The Motion Picture is available to for viewing on Amazon Prime, Netflix streaming, and on YouTube! You can also purchase this version — and I suggest you do, because it is FANTASTIC — via Amazon, iTunes, and the Pacific Northwest Ballet website.

Follow me @clairelegrand and use the hashtag #NutcrackerParty to join in the fun! I would suggest using TweetChat to keep track of all the #NutcrackerParty tweets. That way you won’t be distracted by all the totally unimportant in comparison other tweets out there.

And remember! One lucky participant of #NutcrackerParty will win

  • a DVD of the Pacific Northwest Ballet’s Nutcracker

  • my favorite recording of the ballet’s complete score, as performed by the Kirov Orchestra

  • a signed, personalized copy of Cavendish + swag!

I can’t wait to see everyone tomorrow night! BRING YO’ DANCIN’ SHOES. And your SPARKLES.

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