Saturday, December 29, 2012

My First Trade Review!

I got my first Kirkus review for Prophecy a while ago but wasn't allowed to share it. I was really nervous about Kirkus so it was a relief to finally see their review. As you can see, not too bad! ;o)
 
PROPHECY (reviewed on November 15, 2012)

In a magical ancient Korea, a demon-slaying princess defends her family and her kingdom.

Kira may be the king's own niece and Hansong's lone female warrior, but that doesn't make her popular. Her yellow eyes and demon-hunting abilities make the citizenry fear her; her male clothing and fighting skills make the nobility loathe her. At least in her role as bodyguard to the heir, her young cousin Taejo, she has a purpose in the court. Hopefully that purpose will be enough to convince her parents not to marry her off to the attractive but vicious nephew of the king's advisor, Lord Shin. Despite all her suspicions, which are aided by prophetic visions, Kira doesn't foresee treachery soon enough. Lord Shin lets Yamato soldiers into the castle—many of whom are possessed by demons only Kira can see. She flees with Taejo, and thus begins a prophecy-driven quest to take back their kingdom from the Yamato and avenge their lost. Muddling through on equal parts martial arts and stubbornness, Kira finds new allies and gains desperately needed magical skills.

Fans of Kristin Cashore's Graceling (2008) will be drawn to the despised warrior princess; fans of Cindy Pon's Silver Phoenix (2009) will love the setting. (Fantasy. 13-16)

Pub Date: Jan. 2nd, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-209109-3
Page count: 320pp
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 31st, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15th, 2012
 

Friday, December 14, 2012

PROPHECY Book - Trailer!

I'm so excited to be able to share with you the animated trailer for PROPHECY! I got to work with my wonderful, fantastic, amazing, super intelligent and highly talented animator, Elise Fachon. She is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design and I need to put a shout out to Virginia Allyn, my awesome friend who also illustrated the beautiful Prophecy map, because she's the one that told me to contact RISD. And I have to put a shout out to RISD because the faculty and the students are all amazing and the talent coming out of that school is ridiculous! But most especially, I'm grateful to have met and worked with Elise. Not only did I love working with her, but I think she is an incredibly talented animator. Thank you Elise for everything!

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Badass Bookie - Prophecy giveaway!

Hey guys! So today is a big day! Shelf Awareness is exclusively promoting my book trailer for Prophecy as their book trailer of the day

Book Trailer of the Day: Prophecy

I have my NPR radio show appearance at 1pm today.

The Kojo Nnamdi Show

And finally, Badass Bookie has had me there for 2 days promoting Prophecy. And today she has a giveaway for a signed HARDBACK copy of PROPHECY!! Woo hoooooo! Also, I'll throw in a little SWAG for the winner! So if you want one of these hot off the press babies, go enter!!

Badass Bookie: Day 13 All about Prophecy and Giveaway

Badass Bookie: Day 12 All about Ellen Oh

Thanks everyone!

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

The Kojo Nnamdi Show...




Hey guys!  I'm very excited to announce that I will be on the Kojo Nnamdi show this Thursday, December 13th, 2012, at 1pm to 2pm for their Kids' and Young Adult Winter Reading Show. I will get to talk about some of my new favorite books and even mention a little bit about PROPHECY. Although they limited me to books published in the last 6 months and books coming out in the next 3, it was still really hard to keep my list to a reasonable number. But had I given them the real list of books that I wanted to talk about, they would have had to schedule me for the entire afternoon!

So if you have a moment and want to listen to the soothing sounds of my voice, check out the WAMU website to listen to the show live or a podcast of it later on. Here's a link to the show page.

And please cross your fingers for me that I won't make a fool of myself!

Friday, December 7, 2012

Today I am posting over at Friday the Thirteeners so I hope you will go and take a look over there. Because I talk about how I felt when I received the following:


Why yes, that is a box filled with hardcover copies of Prophecy. Why yes, I will be doing a giveaway or several of these beauties!

Not long after I got my box of awesomeness, I came across this post from the Life in Publishing tumblr: 



Why yes, I will be doing angel wings as I dance around my box of Prophecy. And I won't even feel silly doing it. Cause that's how much I want my book to do well! ;o)

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Prophecy Playlist



The Official Prophecy Playlist
By Ellen Oh

1. “Life in Mono” By Mono - This is one of my favorite songs and for some reason it was the tune that always came to me when I thought of my main character, Kira. When I was working on her scenes, trying to figure her out, I’d literally hear this song in my head. So I just started playing it all the time and Kira came to life. I find it perfect for her because it’s a melancholy piece—sad and lonely, but still filled with hope. Kind of like Kira.

2. “Voices Carry” By Til Tuesday - There’s this scene in PROPHECY where Kira has to walk by all of the court ladies and they flick open their fans in front of their faces and just whisper. And I remember immediately hearing this song in my head as I envisioned this scene.  Particularly that one refrain at the end - “He said shut up, he said shut up. Oh God can't you keep it down! Voices carry.” And I thought that this would be what she was thinking in her head as she walked past them and had to hear once again all their mean taunts.

3. “King of Sorrow” By Sade - This song is Jaewon. He is the King of Sorrow. Just look at these lyrics. “I'm crying everyone's tears, I have already paid for all my future sins. There's nothing anyone, can say to take this away. It's just another day and nothing's any good.” He has had so much pain and suffering in his young life. This is what he feels like everyday.

4. “Gimme Shelter” By The Rolling Stones - When Kira and her group are on the run, I would hear the Stones in my head. If I were a movie director filming this scene, this is what would play in the background. I think there is something epic and almost western sounding about this song, which works when you’ve got horses and danger and a demon army hunting you down.

5. “Pray” By Sunny Hill - Pray is a gorgeous K-pop song with one of the most bizarre music videos I’ve ever seen. It actually gave my kids nightmares. Seriously, don’t watch it. It’s freaky. But the song is beautiful and kind of heartbreaking. One of the chorus lines reminded me of a part of my book where Kira sheds tears for the souls of the unfortunates she needs to save. “Cry for me, and I'm sorry. It's not fair for me to put you through my sorrow.”

6. “Sweet Sacrifice” By Evanescence - Whenever I had to write a battle scene, I cranked this song. LOUD. There’s this one perfect line in the song that just resonated with me so much. “Fear is only in our minds but it's taking over all the time.” Yeah, that one.

7. “If” By Janet Jackson – “If” is definitely Shin Bo Hyun’s song. Because there’s something sexy about that bad boy and without a doubt, this is a sexy song.

8. Get It In” By Yoon Mi Rae – This is a badass song. It has a badass video. Kira is a total badass. Enough said. Here’s the link to the video. Although it is mostly in Korean, there is an English version of the song. Warning: the video is violent.


9. “Rocketeer” By Far East Movement - Love this song! When it came out, I’d have it on repeat pretty much all day long. I adore Ryan Tedder’s voice.  But my favorite part of the song is when they sing and rap “Let’s fly-y-y-y! Up up here we go, where we stop nobody knows.” To me, it’s kind of a perfect ending anthem for Kira.

10. “Rabbit Heart” By Florence and the Machine – I love this song and it really fits PROPHECY because even the bravest people will have moments where they are filled with fear and doubt. Not that Kira was ever a “rabbit hearted girl” but like the lyrics, she must become a lion hearted girl, ready for a fight, before I make the final sacrifice.” Well in her case, more of a “tiger hearted” girl.

11. “May” By Belle Epoque – This is a K-Indie song from the soundtrack of the Korean hit drama Coffee Prince. It’s a thoughtful song, one I liked to play a lot while just staring blankly at my computer. I like to call this my thinking song! But it also has some lovely lyrics. “Even that dream we shared, shy words exchanged, those dream-like days are over…”

12. “The Kiss” By Trevor Jones from The Last of the Mohicans Soundtrack – Music and writing is all about mood. I am such a visual writer that scenes come completely to life in my head before I write them. But they aren’t silent. I’m never quite sure what the music might be, but I know the mood, in fact I can hear it. And to me, music is always about enhancing the mood. The Last of the Mohicans soundtrack, and this particular song, does exactly that. It envokes an emotional response that I tend to equate with Prophecy.


Friday, November 23, 2012

My Week in Gifs


After a string of particularly bad reviews:








Reading the one good review that comes your way:



And then you get fan mail from someone you don't know who says they love your book:



Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Korean Honorifics

With more Prophecy ARCs out in the wild, I've been seeing increased confusion about the use of Korean honorific terms. Specifically, the lack there of in my book. And I thought this would be a good time to discuss the complexities of the Korean language.

The current version of the ARC was printed before final edits. It contains the use of the honorific (-shi) which is used at the end of a person's name when speaking to people of equal rank. It won't be in the final version because I realized that this was a modern use of the term that evolved and would be incorrect for ancient times. So Prophecy is limited to a few titles and the use of a full name of a lord who is of equal standing with my main character. This limited use is very purposeful. Korean is a very challenging language to master because of the use of highest form, high form, and low form. This is how the honorifics are actually built into the language itself. It is very different from English where you formalize by adding a Mr. or Mrs. or using sir or madam. Learning all these levels of honorifics is extremely tricky. I'm Korean and I still get it wrong.

The most important thing to remember is that Koreans don't tend to call people by their first name. They call people by their full name, last name first, even if they are good friends. Furthermore, where an honorific can be used, it is much preferred: for example - the older brother/cousin of a young girl is called Oppa, the older sister/cousin of a young boy is called Noona, teachers are always seongsengnim, older married women are ajumma, older school or work friend is sunbae, my aunt on my mother's side is called emo and my aunt on my father's side is called komo but my uncle's wife on my mother's side is called sumo and my uncle's wife on my father's side if he is older is called Kun Omma (big mama) and if he is younger is called Chagun Omma (small mama). Let's say you are friends - if you are married with kids, you might be referred to as so and so's mother or father. Again, avoiding actually calling anyone by their name is considered polite. And when you do use names, you use their full name. So my Mom would be called Ellen Omma by her friends. And all old people are called halmoni (grandmother) or haraboji (grandfather). If you are starting to get confused, then you have an idea of just how overwhelming this all can get.

Now if you are a fiction writer, how do you deal with all these honorifics? Do you use every single one no matter how complicated the relationship? No. You use a few that make sense and you try and formalize the rest because otherwise you will completely lose your reader in the complicated maze that is Korean honorifics. Even the translators of K-dramas don't try to keep up with translating all the honorifics. It is just way too complicated, so they simplify as much as possible. And please know, I haven't even discussed how to use the different forms, highest form, high form, and low form. That will have to be a lesson for another day.

So if any of you read Prophecy and wonder why there aren't more Korean honorifics in it, please think of this post and realize that it really was for the best!

Monday, November 12, 2012

Portrait of Kira


The lovely and amazingly talented Natalie Whipple created this gorgeous piece of fan art of Kira for Prophecy. It's brilliant, beautiful and absolutely perfect!!! These are the things in life that can make a person so very happy.

Thank you Natalie! I'm so blown away by it!!

Monday, November 5, 2012

Little batman





For Halloween, my little nephew was Batman. This is him checking himself out in the mirror and then giving himself a thumbs up! So hilarious!!!

Monday, October 29, 2012

Mindhut Interview and Other News...

So the awesome people over at Mindhut have interviewed me about writing. I think I sound smarter than I really am. My favorite question in that interview was when Allison (my wonderful interviewer!) asked me "If you could say one thing to every geektastic girl out there in the world, what would you say?" If you want to know my answer, go read the interview. Here's the link.


In other news, my story, "The Last Day", and Cindy Pon's "Blue Skies" got singled out in a Booklist review for Diverse Energies:

In an afterword, coeditor Monti writes about a heated 2009 discussion (dubbed “RaceFail 09”) regarding race in fantasy and science fiction, and how his reaction was to put together a collection showcasing “this wonderful, blended, messed-up world.” Hence this book, which feels different than the usual fare—characters, settings, and authors come from all across the global spectrum—and, maybe more to the point, proves to be not that different at all. It starts off with a fabulous one-two punch: Ellen Oh’s devastating “The Last Day,” about a future global war and the horrific Hiroshima-like aftermath; then “Freshee’s Frogurt,” a wild, violent, and funny excerpt from Daniel H. Wilson’s Robopocalypse (2011). In general, the subsequent stories fall on the more thoughtful, brainy side of the sf spectrum. Two standouts are Paolo Bacigalupi’s “A Pocket Full of Dharma,” about the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama on a portable storage drive; and Cindy Pon’s “Blue Skies,” a wistful have/have-not tale from a smog-filthed future Taipei. A solid introduction to a number of highly talented writers.—Daniel Kraus, Booklist
After cringing over some not so good reviews and medicating with chocolate donuts,  I was a bit bowled over to read this review. Which just goes to show how subjective the review process is. I fear I will gain quite a lot of weight when Prophecy reviews start coming out! ;o)

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Casting the (pretend) Prophecy Movie and the first official Prophecy Teaser

I got asked what actor I'd pick to play my main male lead, Jaewon, in PROPHECY. This wasn't actually an easy answer. First of all because my book is set in Korea and secondly because I've never really thought of it. For real.

Such a funny question, really, as this is not something I would ever foresee. I could see Prophecy as a manga series but I can't see it as a movie. But this is all in good fun, right? So I thought about it and I ended up choosing my oldest daughter's favorite Korean actor/singer - Taecyeon.


In this picture, at least, he is almost the perfect Jaewon. He has that pretty boy face I envisioned for Jaewon, but what is missing is the hint of sadness. Jaewon's character is someone who has suffered so much in his young life. Even when he laughs and smiles, the sadness is ever present. I think that's why his character is so special to me.

And there you have it! The first official Prophecy teaser!

Friday, October 19, 2012

The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

This cover is just absolutely beautiful! So stunning that when I first saw it I literally gasped in admiration! But more importantly, the story within the covers is lyrical and thrilling and chilling and just as beautiful as its cover. I'm so happy to share my friend April Tucholke's cover for BETWEEN THE DEVIL AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA.  

You stop fearing the devil when you’re holding his hand…

Nothing much exciting rolls through Violet White’s sleepy, seaside town…until River West comes along. River rents the guesthouse behind Violet’s crumbling estate, and as eerie, grim things start to happen, Violet begins to wonder about the boy living in her backyard. Is River just a crooked-smiling liar with pretty eyes and a mysterious past? Or could he be something more? Violet’s grandmother always warned her about the Devil, but she never said he could be a dark-haired boy who takes naps in the sun, who likes coffee, who kisses you in a cemetery...who makes you want to kiss back. Violet’s already so knee-deep in love, she can’t see straight. And that’s just how River likes it.

Blending faded decadence and the thrilling dread of gothic horror, April Genevieve Tucholke weaves a dreamy, twisting contemporary romance, as gorgeously told as it is terrifying—a debut to watch.
 I love this book so very much! It's coming out on August 15, 2013 from Dial so please make a note and get ready to be blown away by this marvelous debut!

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Diverse Energies is out!!!



I'm very proud to be part of this fabulous new anthology from Tu Books! Diverse Energies is edited by Tobias Buckell and my very own agent, Joe Monti! I have the pleasure of being the first story of the anthology. It's called The Last Day and it is an alternate history retelling set in Japan, about a world where World War II never ended.

The anthology is filled with amazing authors like Paolo Bacigalupi, Ursula K. Le Guin, Malinda Lo, and Cindy Pon, just to name a few.

Diverse Energies can be ordered from Tu Books or from Amazon and is also available to download as an eBook for Kindle or Nook.

So I really am excited to share this with all of you! I can't wait to hear what you think.

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Bullying and the Problem of Doing Nothing

I spent a lot of time thinking and brooding over the  Amanda Todd story. The young girl who killed herself after years of being victimized by a sexual predator and then bullied by her peers. Because I have 3 daughters myself, this story hit me hard. One small mistake at age 12 and a life is destroyed and a young girl is savagely bullied by kids no older than her. What is it about these years that allows teens to love and hate so powerfully and so destructively?

But I don't want to talk about the bullies. What I want to talk about is the onlookers. The ones who avert their eyes and walk away whether out of fear or indifference. Or they stand by and watch, titillated by the drama. Whatever their reason is, they do nothing. And to me, they are just as bad, if not worse, than the bullies themselves.

I'm going to have to apologize in advance for what is a long and painful post for me which was pretty hard to write. But I hope it has some impact.

When I was young, I was a very angry kid. The stereotypical child of immigrant parents that had to work every day and night in the family business. I was always getting in to fights - in school and out of school. The fighting had started in grade school. Racism has always been a hot button for me. I never took a racial slur quietly, I fought back both verbally and physically. I got beaten up regularly by some of the bigger bullies in school. My father would punish me for bad grades but he never punished me for fighting. He knew firsthand how bad the racism was. He said, "If someone hits you once, you hit them 10 times back!" In retrospect, this was not such good advice. It led to the beginning of my inability to control my temper. 

C was a really big and really heavy boy who liked to pick on the little kids. I had, and still have, a strong sense of fair play - and yes, there is a direct correlation to my sense of justice and the amount of racism I had to endure. In sixth grade there was a girl in my class, who I'll call A, who was really tiny and really sweet with big blue eyes, crooked teeth and freckles that covered every inch of visible skin. She was C's favorite target and he was relentless. Everyone was aware of the bullying but no one had done anything about it because no one wanted to become C's next victim. But then there was a table reassignment and A was placed next to me for the quarter. Now I could see how bad the torment was. Now I could see how desperately scared she looked. A few days later, I bore witness to C terrorizing A and then stealing her lunch and her money. Furious, I raised a huge ruckus and called him a thief and a bully and he hit me in front of all the teacher's aides who promptly dragged him to the principal's office. I'll never forget the look of gratitude on A's face. A few days later, C cornered me in the staircase and swore he was going to get even. He pinned me to the wall and kicked my right knee over and over again until I fell to the ground in agony, my knee swelling up like a bowling ball. I couldn't walk for days.

I reported C to the principal's office and he was expelled. I never regretted what I did. Even though I suffered horrendous pain and still have a scar on my knee, I would have done it all over again. Not because I was particular friends with A, but because it was the right thing to do. I only regretted not doing it earlier.

In middle school, I learned of an entirely different form of bullying. A subtle and ostracizing bullying delivered with saccharine sweetness that a clique of mean girls seem to excel in. When they taunted me for being poor, for wearing second-hand clothing, for having immigrant parents, for working in a restaurant and smelling constantly of grease, for eating school lunch, for only having 1 pair of shoes, for being underdeveloped, I gritted my teeth and took it. This was a small select honors class. So there were only 15 or so kids in the class. It was also a new school for me and I had come in during the middle of the semester, the worst time for anyone to change schools. For once I couldn't lash out at the bullies with my fists. I had never started a fight, I was a self-defense fighter. The idea of attacking someone for words alone was not something I could do, my actions were always to bait them back until they threw the first punch, then I could fight. But these group of girls didn't work that way. Nothing I could say or do fazed them. This was an entirely new brand of bullying that I didn't know how to handle. They made every single day of middle school hell. I remember feeling so very alone and so very isolated.

Verbal abuse is just as damaging, if not more so, than physical abuse. Bruises and broken bones eventually heal, but the scars from verbal abuse can fester forever. I didn't have anyone to tell these girls to stop. I didn't have a single friend in that class through the rest of 7th grade. Some of the girls would pretend to be my friend and then would gather the information they found about me and share it with the others so they could all mock me in class. These false friends were truly cruel. They would come to my house and be nice to my parents who would eagerly feed them and treat them well, only for these false friends to return to school and mock my parents and their accent and my house. The scary thing was how they could say the most hateful and hurtful things with such sweet tones in their voices. But for their words, you would think they were complimenting me. I hated that school. I hated those girls more than I had ever hated anyone else in my life.

Sometimes I would sit there stone faced, listening to them mock me and I would catch some small glance of compassion from M, one of the nicer girls. M was nice to me, only when the others weren't around. I knew that she felt bad for me, but not enough to friend me publicly. To her, losing her friends and her standing would be so much worse than being kicked in the knee twenty times by a bully. In some ways I despised M more than I ever did any of the girls that made my life a misery. Because she knew it was wrong and she did nothing. Because to assuage her guilt, she would only be friends with me in secret. But I didn't want that, what was the point?

When you do nothing, you essentially condone it. You become part of the problem. And this, in essence, is what happens to young people like Amanda Todd. Teenagers need to know that it is important to call out bad behavior. It's not OK to look away or worse, stand by and laugh. If even one person stands up for the victim, that victim doesn't feel like the world is against them. I can't tell you how important that is because when you are a teenager, being ostracized is the loneliest feeling ever. It does feel like your life sucks and that it will never get better.

Everyone who stands up to bullying makes a difference in someone's life. It may not stop the bully, but it can do something even more important - it can help the victim realize that they are not alone. If M had just once, in the midst of the worst of my harassment, said "leave her alone!" I can't tell you how happy it would have made me. How I would have realized that it wasn't my fault. That I had nothing to be ashamed of for being poor, Asian, and working in my family business. I didn't need her to be my friend, I just needed her to affirm that I had done nothing to warrant their bullying. That she recognized that they were in the wrong and I was not a bad person. I just needed someone to stand up to them and say "Stop it, she doesn't deserve this!"

I can't help but wonder if even one person had stood up for Amanda when she needed it most, if she might not have killed herself. We will never know.

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Winners! Winners! Winners!

The winner of the absolutely fabulous GEEKS, GIRLS AND SECRET IDENTITIES is...


StacyM

Congratulations Stacy! I'm excited to share this fantastic book with you!


And now, the winners of the PROPHECY SWAG are:

Haley G
Yahong Chi
Danielle D
Alyssa Susanna
Alice-Jane
Kat C
Megan K
Nikki Wang
Van Pham

Thank you all for being so interested in PROPHECY and for helping spread the word!

So too all the winners, please email me your information at Ellen@ellenoh.com - and if you are an international winner, please help me out by giving me your address with the correct line breaks. I'm always so confused when writing out international addresses so the easier you make it for me, the faster it will all get out to you!



Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Another PROPHECY SWAG Giveaway!

Ok guys, it's October and PROPHECY is out in 90 days! Can you believe it? I can't. The Goodreads giveaway for PROPHECY ARCs has now gone over 3100 entries! So what does this all mean?

It's time for another PROPHECY SWAG giveaway! This time I'm giving away 10 little Prophecy charms and signed bookmarks.

This giveaway is open to everyone! International folks are welcome! All you have to do is comment for a chance to win. For extra points, add Prophecy to your Goodreads shelves, or like the Prophecy FB page, or be a buddy on this blog (see sidebar), or follow me on twitter and/or tweet about the giveaway! And then just leave me a comment here to tell me what you did. If you tweet about the giveaway, don't forget to include @elloecho to your tweet! If you already do any of these things, then say so in your comment and you will get the full points! I'm not using Rafflecopter this time because it doesn't account for if you've already done any of these things so this is gonna be based on a matter of trust (and random border checks!). This contest will end Saturday!

And don't forget the giveaway for Mike Jung's awesome book Geeks, Girls and Secret Identities which is still going on until Friday! That contest is also open internationally!

Good luck everyone! And thanks for spreading the Prophecy love!

Monday, October 1, 2012

Geeks, Girls and Secret Identities!




I am so happy to announce the release of my Ninja buddy, Mike Jung's, spectacularly funny debut titled GEEKS, GIRLS AND SECRET IDENTITIES! This is a book I got to read in a draft form. It is a book that made me howl with laughter. It darn nearly made me have an accident! And let's face it, this is one of the coolest book covers ever! A giant robot? Yes please!!



Can knowing the most superhero trivia in the whole school be considered a superpower?

If so, Vincent Wu is invincible.

If not (and let’s face it, it’s “not”), then Vincent and his pals Max and George don’t get any props for being the leaders (and, well, sole members) of the (unofficial) Captain Stupendous Fan Club.

But what happens when the Captain is hurt in an incident involving BOTH Professor Mayhem and his giant indestructible robot AND (mortifyingly) Polly Winnicott-Lee, the girl Vincent totally has a crush on?

The entire city is in danger, Vincent’s parents and his friends aren’t safe, the art teacher has disappeared, and talking to Polly is REALLY, REALLY AWKWARD.

Only Vincent Wu has what it takes to save the Captain, overcome Professor Mayhem, rally his friends, and figure out what to say to Polly. But will anyone take him seriously? Seriously. Anyone??

Find out in this action-packed super comedy debut.
So yesterday my youngest had to miss school. We discovered at the beginning of soccer season that she had ongoing pain which was diagnosed as Sever's Disease, which is a bone disorder involving the growth plate in the heel. It is not dangerous and she will eventually grow out of it, but it means she is in a lot of pain when she overuses it. So the orthopedist put her in a boot today. Poor thing. She was pretty depressed about it so I took her to the bookstore to buy some books. I had told her to keep an eye out for Mike's book and sure enough, she was the first to spot it!



If she didn't have a boot on I think she might have climbed the shelves to reach it. As it is, she's on her tippytoes! She was really excited to finally get her hands on Mike's book! When we brought it home, the other girls all freaked out! They are the co-presidents of Mike's super secret fan club so they feel pretty proprietary about the book and think it should be on the NYT bestselling list like right now!

And so I have the great pleasure of having a giveaway of my friend's awesome book! All you have to do is leave me a comment or tweet me that you think Geeks and girls and secret identities is cool! Then you will be entered for a chance to win a copy of Mike's super cool book!

For more information about Mike, you can check out Mike's blog or follow him on twitter.  

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