Authorial catch up!

I apologize for not blogging more frequently! It's been a crazy busy month!

I had a fabulous time at the Gaithersburg Book Festival with Jessica Spotswood, author of Born Wicked. We talked about world building, outcast females, girl power, research and books we love. It was a great time!

I also had a author hero worship moment when I got to meet both Walter Dean Myers and his son Christopher Myers. Guys if you don't have We Are America in your bookshelves, you should! It is beautiful and brilliant and the illustrations by Christopher Myers is gorgeous! It should be right next to Harlem, which you should have in your bookshelves also! After introducing myself to them and mentioning that we had the same editor, the brilliant Phoebe Yeh, I was rendered speechless. It is not every day that you meet the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature and his talented illustrator/author son. 

I got to hear Mr. Myers speak and he was amazing! Funny, sincere, eloquent. It was such a pleasure. And then I got to go home where I found that my oldest had been playing around on her Instagram account and had made this photoset of me during my panel discussion. 

All I have to say about that is - Hey!

Gaithersburg Book Festival!!

Tomorrow - Saturday, May 18th - is the Gaithersburg Book Festival!

And I'm so proud to say that I'm going to be speaking there! I'll be speaking with my friend Jessica Spotswood, author of Born Wicked (a book Oldest adores, btw), at 2:15 in the YA Pavilion. If you are in the area, I really hope you can come by! We will be talking about worldbuilding, strong females, and outcasts.

And then at 3pm - I'll be signing in the author's tent. I really hope some people show up so I won't be lonely! ;o)

So if you are anywhere in driving distance of Gaithersburg, I really hope you will come and say hi! The festival has amazing authors there and is a Don't Miss event!!

Young Critics Club and Fan art!

Ok so I blogged earlier this year about going to meet this awesome kids book club called the YOUNG CRITICS CLUB at the Perrot Memorial Library in Greenwich, CT, that's been in existence for 30 years. It was one of the best experiences I've had as a new author and I just loved going up to CT and meeting the librarians and all the kids. So imagine my surprise and my happiness to receive an email letting me know that PROPHECY had been chosen a favorite book by the Young Critics! Here's the link where you can see what amazing company I'm in! I'm very honored and happy to be chosen by the Young Critics who are just an amazingly smart, bright, funny, well read group of kids! Thank you Young Critics!

I'm also going to share some amazing fan art that I've been sitting on lately! How cool is this job that I get fan art from kids? I just love this!!

Seriously, how gorgeous is all this? I just love getting fan art! I think I'm going to have to make a gallery page on my website for all of it!!

INSOMNIA Pre-order Blog Hop!!

Today I'm really happy to host my dear friend J.R. Johansson for the debut of her fantastic thriller INSOMNIA. I've read this book and let me tell you, it's AWESOME!

 
INSOMNIA -->

Her eyes saved his life. Her dreams released his darkness.

After four years of sleeplessness, high school junior Parker Chipp can’t take much more. Every night, instead of sleeping, he enters the dreams of the last person he’s made eye contact with. If he doesn’t sleep soon, Parker will die.

Then he meets Mia. Her dreams, calm and beautifully uncomplicated, allow him blissful rest that’s utterly addictive. But what starts out as a chance meeting turns into an obsession; Parker’s furious desire for what he needs pushes him to extremes he never thought he’d go. And when someone begins terrorizing Mia with twisted death threats, Parker’s memory blackouts leave him doubting his own innocence.

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“The perfect blend of everything I love in a story. I hope a sequel comes soon!” –James Dashner, New York Times bestselling author of THE MAZE RUNNER

 So not only is Jenn going to share with us the insider scoop on INSOMNIA, we also have this fabuluos opportunity to win a brand new HD Nook!! And let me tell you something, I have an HD Nook and I ADORE mine! All you have to do is pre-order the book and you get a chance to win one! 

And now here's Jenn with an insider's scoop into her mind and INSOMNIA!
 

J.R. Johansson: 

I’ve had a fascination with dreams ever since I was a little girl. In elementary school, I had a recurring nightmare that aliens were attacking our house and I was running through it in the dark. Lights flashed through the open windows, the curtains blew in the wind. I was alone and couldn’t find anyone. I heard grinding metal and gears outside as I searched for my family. I got to my mom's room and finally found my big brother sitting next to the dresser. I curled up next to him, and held his hand, but when I looked up at his face, I saw him staring blankly ahead and knew he was dead. The door to the room swung open, banging against the wall, and I woke up.

It was the same every time and I had it at least once a week for over a year. Even remembering it now gives me a shiver. It seemed weird to me that I never actually saw the aliens, but I still knew they were there and I knew they were coming for me. When writing INSOMNIA, I figured it was time for me to take on my own nightmare. Addie has a dream halfway through where she’s in a park, with a heavy mist and she hears grinding metal somewhere that she can’t see…but she doesn’t run, and she is confident that whatever happens next, she can handle it. I’ve never had the nightmare again, but if I did, I hope I’d be more like Addie this time and kick some dream-alien's trash.

Thanks Jenn! So now here's your chance to win a fabulous HD NOOK! Good luck!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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J.R. JOHANSSON is a young adult thriller author published with Flux & FSG/Macmillan. Her debut, INSOMNIA is coming June 2013. She has a B.S. degree in public relations and a background in marketing. She credits her abnormal psychology minor with inspiring many of her characters. When she's not writing, she loves reading, playing board games, and sitting in her hot tub. Her dream is that someday she can do all three at the same time. She has two young sons and a wonderful husband. In fact, other than her cat, Cleo, she's nearly drowning in testosterone.

Jenn’s Links -

Twitter: https://twitter.com/JennJohansson

Blog: http://www.jennjohansson.blogspot.com/

Site: http://www.jrjohansson.com

Tumblr: http://jrjohansson.tumblr.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jenn.johansson

J.R. Johansson on Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5100095.J_R_Johansson

INSOMNIA on Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12260608-insomnia
 

Pre-order Links –

The Book Depository - http://www.bookdepository.com/Insomnia-Johansson/9780738735931

Indiebound - http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780738735931

Books A Million - http://www.booksamillion.com/p/Insomnia/J-R-Johansson/9780738735931?id=5529587671279

Barnes & Noble - http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/insomnia-j-r-johansson/1113713840?ean=9780738735931

Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/Insomnia-The-Night-Walkers-Johansson/dp/0738735930/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1352960177&sr=8-1&keywords=insomnia+by+j.r.+johansson

Norwood School Visit

Thanks to my wonderful sister-in-law Rhonda who introduced me to the most amazing head librarian, Ms. Spring, I was fortunate enough to present at the beautiful Norwood School in Potomac, MD. This is my niece and nephew's alma mater and it is no wonder they turned out as wonderful as they did because Norwood is simply a remarkable school!

Look at this amazing building and campus! And apparently the kids made up these beautiful posters for the book fair!

 I'm sharing poster space with Jack Gantos! How cool is that?!!

Also, one of the most impressive parts of being at Norwood is the amazing art that the students and the art teachers create. The above project is in their library - a tinfoil castle. I must say, I am jealous of the kids who got to make this.

Not only were the kids amazing and the teachers incredibly supportive, but Ms. Spring, the wonderful head librarian took such good care of me! She gave me this lovely gift bag filled with goodies and also had me come back for a delicious lunch the next day (I'm seriously not kidding about the delicious lunch - this is NOT your typical school lunch!!) for a book signing at the book fair! I'm happy to say PROPHECY sold out!

I had an amazing time at Norwood! The students were a joy to present to and had great questions and were fun to interact with. But most of all, it was just amazing to meet and hang out with some great librarians and some awesome Norwood teachers.

Whenever I walk into a bookstore

title2come:

Gif of Prophecy and the Gaithersburg Book Festival!

So I made a gif of my own book trailer! it came out pretty well, if I say so myself!! You can check it out on My tumblr here!

I'll also be at the Gaithersburg Book Festival on May 18th, 2013, from 10 to 6. I will be a featured author along with my friend Jessica Spotswood! I'll update the blog with my time slot as we get closer to the date. But if you are in the area, I hope you can make it!


The Gaithersburg Book Festival is an annual celebration of great books and great writing that is fast becoming one of the nation’s top literary events. More than 100 featured best-selling and award-winning authors – including Walter Dean Myers, Kitty Kelley, Phillip Margolin, Jon Scieszka, Mark Shriver, Maggie Stiefvater, Evan Thomas, original MTV VJs Nina Blackwood and Mark Goodman, and more – will participate in panel discussions and book signings. Other activities include a spotlight on local authors, interactive writing workshops, a Children’s Village, presentations by poets and singer/songwriters, announcement of short story contest winners, exhibitors with literary wares, and on-site sales of new and used books. Admission, parking and handicap-accessible shuttle buses are FREE.

 

House of Oh

So lately people have been all over tumblr making these sigil things from here and most people have been doing very serious kinds of things like:

 But being a less serious minded person, at least when it comes to this high fantasy series, I did this:

And I laughed like a loon because I thought this was really funny. My kids came running over and wanted to know what was so funny - so I explained and kept laughing. And my oldest says "Mom, it's funny how you are laughing harder than anyone else about this." To which my youngest (9 yr old) responds "You laugh the hardest at your own jokes because you understand them the best."

Which, of course, made me laugh even harder.

Thomas Jefferson High School of Science and Technology

I was fortunate enough to be invited to speak at Thomas Jefferson High School of Science and Technology in Alexandria, VA. It was an amazing time and I'm blown away by how smart and talented these kids are. There's a reason this high school is nationally ranked #2 in the US. These kids are wicked smart!

And can I just tell you how cool it was to go into the main office and have to stick my face in a machine and have it scan my drivers license and print out this sticker? It was quite high tech and I admit to being very impressed!

 

The fabulous school counselor, Christina Ketchem, who is the reason I was invited to Thomas Jefferson in the first place, was there to meet me with a big hug and an enthusiastic smile! I'd first met her at my Hooray for Books event back in January and we've been chatting ever since! I'm quite jealous of the TJ kids for having such a cool school counselor!

She led me over the the auditorium where a jazz band was performing. They were amazing! Then the 9th graders started filing in. I think there might have been 130 kids there or so. First they started off with a poetry competition. I thought this was incredibly unfair to have me go after these poets. They were phenomenal! These guys weren't just poets, they were performance artists. I was so impressed.

And then I was up.

As is usual for me, there were some technical difficulties in getting my powerpoint going. But eventually, with the help of a lot of teachers pressing buttons in the media room, we were able to get my presentation up and running! The students were just wonderful to present to. They were attentive and enthusiastic and laughed at all my jokes, which goes to prove just how smart these kids are! :o) Because these were high school students, I started off my presentation on a more serious note with a discussion about the importance of diversity. And it was clear from their responses and their expressions that I had touched a chord with them. These are kids who are used to seeing diversity in their lives everyday and want to see it everywhere else too.

 

Photos courtesy of Christina Ketchem

I even got to do a mini signing for some of the kids. Thank you to Olivia who bought my book and said she loved it! I wish I had a chance to talk to her longer! And I was touched to have students asking me to sign bookmarks for them, as they assured me that they would be reading my book over spring break. Since spring break is next week, this made me pretty happy.

So another fantastic school event! Thank you Christina! Thank you Thomas Jefferson HS!

Prophecy Book Report!

I got these awesome photos from my good friend who's son Brian not only  loved PROPHECY, but he  actually did a book report on it for school! Check it out!

 

You lift up the ruby and his report is underneath! How awesome is this?!! I love the dragons and the tigers and the awesome shadow girl warrior figures! This is a kickass report!

 

Brian, I love everything about this report! This is absolutely an A++ book report! Thank you so much for sharing this with me and letting me share it on my blog!