Tag Archives: Awesomesauce

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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CAVENDISH + FRANKENWEENIE = LURVE

17 Sep

Y’all know I love me some Tim Burton. And you can bet I’m PSYCHED for his upcoming film, Frankenweenie. So imagine my delight when my editor sent me this news last week:

Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers will be giving out free copies of The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls to moviegoers who attend the opening night of Tim Burton’s new film Frankenweenie at one of the following three theaters (each theater will have 500 copies):

LINDEN BOULEVARD MULTIPLEX CINEMAS
2784 Linden Boulevard
Brooklyn, NY 11208

SHOWCASE CINEMAS RANDOLPH
73 Mazzeo Drive
Randolph, MA 02368

SPRINGDALE 18: CINEMA DE LUX
12064 Springfield Pike
Springdale, OH 45246-1601

What?! AWESOME.

And these three theaters will be running THIS AD before every showing of every movie starting today and running through Friday, October 5:

Ahhhh! It’s so creepy and Cavendish-y! The Home! The branches! The bugs!

I am SO thrilled that Simon & Schuster is doing this. It’s cool enough that there’s an ad about my book in these theaters, but even cooler that moviegoers that night will get their own copies of Cavendish!

If you’re in or near Brooklyn, Randolph, or Springdale, and you want to see Frankenweenie (and who doesn’t?! check out the trailer!), head on out to one of the above theaters and grab a copy of Cavendish while you’re at it! And if you’re not near one of these three locations, well . . . you should totally still go see Frankenweenie, because it looks adorable.

If you need me, I’ll be scampering across your rooftops, yelling about this event through this bullhorn I just found. Or, not that. Because generally your publisher doesn’t like it when you get arrested.

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The CAVENDISH Blog Tour Begins TODAY! + Starred Review in KIRKUS! :D :D FOREVARRR

20 Aug

Just a quick reminder that the Cavendish Blog Tour begins today at Mundie Kids!

Head on over to read an excerpt from the book, and comment on the post to win a finished hardcover copy of The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls!

You can find the complete tour schedule HERE.

~*~

Also, GUESS WHAT?!

So, for a long time now, I’ve been SUPER nervous about Cavendish getting professional reviews from the likes of Publisher’s Weekly, School Library Journal, Booklist, etc. It’s not that I’m not proud of Cavendish; it’s just that getting reviews is SCARY. I bet even for George R. R. Martin it’s scary for like a second and then he’s all, “Oh, right, what I could do to your favorite characters in the next book is WAY scarier than any review. SO BITE ME. I am awesome.”

Well, whatever, GRRM. I was nervous. And this morning, Cavendish got its first review, and for a few seconds I wasn’t nervous anymore because OMG. A STARRED REVIEW FROM KIRKUS. Here is the review as forwarded to me by my beautiful, beautiful editor Zareen Jaffery (and it’s a good thing she’s not here right now because I’m so excited I might very well kiss her on the mouth and frighten her away forever). You can also read the review online!

The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls

A heartwarming friendship tale—played out amid carpets of chittering insects, torture both corporal and psychological, the odd bit of cannibalism and like ghoulish delights. Being practically perfect in every way and someone who “never walked anywhere without extreme purpose,” 12-year-old Victoria resolutely sets about investigating the sudden disappearance of her scruffy classmate and longtime rehabilitation project Lawrence. After troubling encounters with several abruptly strange and wolfish adults in town, including her own parents, she finds herself borne into the titular Home by a swarm of 10-legged roachlike creatures. This abduction quickly leads to the discovery that it’s not an orphanage but a reform school. There, for generations, local children have had qualities deemed undesirable beaten or frightened out of them by sweet-looking, viciously psychotic magician/headmistress/monster bug Mrs. Cavendish. Victoria is challenged by a full array of terror-tale tropes, from disoriented feelings that things are “not quite right” and “[s]harp, invisible sensations, like reaching fingers” to dark passageways lined with rustling roaches and breakfast casseroles with chunks of…meat. A thoroughgoing ickfest, elevated by vulnerable but resilient young characters and capped by a righteously ominous closing twist.

OMG Y’ALL. I am crying sparkly tears of joy right now. So is UNICORN. We have been cuddling each other for like twenty minutes straight. Kirkus is notoriously tough, and that Cavendish got such a fun write-up and that beautiful star (much like the ones exploding around UNICORN’s head right now) is absolutely beyond thrilling.

THIS IS A GOOD WAY TO START OFF THE WEEK.

*ALL THE CELEBRATES*

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