King Release Date delayed

Hi everyone!
Well I was surprised to find out that the release date everyone else had online was actually right and I was wrong. I was originally told that King would be released on December 31, 2014. But marketing feels it would be better for us to wait so King won't be out until March 31, 2015. Other than the fact that I have a huge box of bookmarks that say December 31, 2014, I'm actually not upset with the delay. It should allow Warrior to come out in paperback and hopefully help bring Prophecy to a wider audience. So I'm going to assume it is all good! :o)

In the meantime, there is going to be quite a lot of WNDB news coming out in the next few weeks and I'm excited to share it with you all. If you haven't signed up for the WNDB newsletter. Please do so here. With all the money that WNDB has raised, we are going to be able do do some really great things, thanks to all of you!!

WNDB Indiegogo Campaign!!! And Personal Appeal

Dear WNDB Supporter or future supporter:

You may have heard of We Need Diverse Books as the organization whose hashtag went viral back in May when we launched a campaign to share with the world why diverse books in literature matter. We were covered in many major news outlet from around the globe and the coverage shows no sign of slowing down.

Since then we’ve incorporated, and have new initiatives coming down the pipeline. Programs such as Diversity in the Classroom, The Walter Dean Myers grants and awards, our Educational kits and programs, and our Diversity Festival will directly impact diversity in children's literature.

These programs are all geared to make change happen. And we need your help! We’ve just launched an indiegogo campaign to help fund our goals. All donations are tax-deductible. Bonus: You can choose from a plethora of perks including original art prints, t-shirts, totes, agent critiques, dinner with top authors and more! Every dollar you donate goes directly into our programs. You can be the change. Let’s teach all of our children about empathy by sharing the Story of Us All. If you can't donate financially, that's okay too. We can still use your support to spread the message as widely as possible. Some ways you can help are:

1. Please pass this message on to 5 or 10 folks who may be interested in supporting this campaign and buying a perk!
2. Use Twibbon to add some WNDB flair to your avatar (http://twibbon.com/Support/we-need-diverse-books)
3. Participate in our cue card contest by creating your own sign to emphasize why you #SupportWNDB, whether it’s for yourself, because of a family member, or because of a diverse book that changed your life. Use the templates we’ve created (http://weneeddiversebooks.org/cue-cards/) and submit pictures to our Tumblr. The photos with the most reblogs will win a WNDB prize pack. Make sure to tell your local librarian to participate as well—your local library could win a huge book donation prize!

We can't do it without you. Please join us and Support WNDB.

Ellen Oh, President 

King Bookmarks!

Now that I have Twitter, tumblr, Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest, when do I have time for my old blog? Poor old blog. There are too many things to cross promote over too many platforms. If only I can feed them all into the blog! But at least I have something worthwhile to share on the old blog! With so many things going on with #WeNeedDiverseBooks, I forgot all about making bookmarks for King until I suddenly realized I had all of these events in September and got a reminder that I should be promoting King at them! With less than a week to make bookmarks, I was in a bit of a bind. My usual fantastic designer, Amber at MMSAI, was all booked up and unavailable (because she is fantastic and you need to get on her schedule asap because she is extremely popular!!). Fortunately for me, the wonderful Diana Sousa came to my rescue! Diana is the amazing web designer of the WNDB website. If you haven't seen it, check it out here it is brilliant!

And so she did me a big favor and made me these beautiful bookmarks for King! Look how gorgeous!

For more information about Diana,  here's her webpage. Diana is amazing and I can't recommend her highly enough!

I am so lucky to know such gifted and talented people!

Bloom article

Hi everyone! So the first part of my Bloom article has posted!

Check it out here! 

The second part - which is a Q&A, will be posted on Wednesday.

Pinterest and Instagram!

I've been getting a lot of asks about what other social media I am on besides twitter, tumblr and facebook. Well I'm also on pinterest and instagram.

I had deleted my account awhile back but I have now reactivated it. So if you want to see the random stuff I like to pin, please feel free to follow me here.

I am also on Instagram but if you decide to follow me here, please be warned that my kids like to hack into my account and I also post lots of photos of my little puppy.

 And sorry to all you Snapchat users, but that's one social media I don't plan on using!

WNDB incorporated!

Grassroots organization files for incorporation as a non-profit organization in the state of Pennsylvania, and welcomes its first advisory board members, authors Grace Lin, Jacqueline Woodson, Matt de la Peña, Cynthia Leitich Smith, and Cindy Pon

New York City, NY (July 28, 2014) More than just a hashtag, We Need Diverse Books is a grassroots organization created to address the lack of diverse, non-majority narratives in children’s literature. We Need Diverse Books is committed to the ideal that embracing diversity will lead to acceptance, empathy, and ultimately equality. Its mission is to promote or amplify diversification efforts and increase visibility for diverse books and authors, with a goal of empowering a wide range of readers in the process.

 In order to accomplish its mission, We Need Diverse Books reaches out to individuals and groups involved in many levels of children’s publishing—including but not limited to publishers, authors, distributors, booksellers, librarians, educators, parents, and students. “Incorporating will give us the legitimacy and standing we need to move forward with our mission,” says Lamar Giles, VP of Communications. “We have many exciting projects in the works.”

 In addition to a Diversity Festival planned for 2016, We Need Diverse Books plans to initiate a grant program to support diverse authors, bring Diversity into the Classroom with collaborations with First Book and the National Education Association, and develop a “diversity toolkit” for librarians and booksellers.

Inaugural advisory board members includes Grace Lin, Jacqueline Woodson, Matt de la Peña, Cynthia Leitich Smith, and Cindy Pon. “Each of these members has a history of advocating for diverse books, and is a pioneer in the field of children’s literature. They will not only increase our visibility as an organization, but light the way going forward,” said Ellen Oh, President of We Need Diverse Books.

On the heels of its enormously successful panel at the inaugural Book Con, the We Need Diverse Books team has been invited by the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association (NAIBA) to present the first ever diverse author signing and reception, and present panels at the Baltimore Book Festival, National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), the American Library Association (ALA), and the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI), among others.

And we have a new website!!

KING Countdown Widget!

Over the years, I have been so fortunate to meet and become friends with some amazing people! The blogging community is truly a wonderful one and one of my favorite people is the awesome Petra of Safari Poet who has always been so kind and supportive of me. And she's done it again! A beautiful King countdown widget to celebrate the very last of the Prophecy trilogy! As always, I'm deeply grateful to her for thinking of me! And so if you are interested in a KING countdown widget, you should be able to grab the code on this post or go to Petra's blog and take it from there. She's got a lot of other wonderful widgets there also! Thank you Petra!!!

<div align=center> <img src="//img2.blogblog.com/img/video_object.png" style="background-color: #b2b2b2; height: 312px; width: 205px; " class="BLOGGER-object-element tr_noresize tr_placeholder" id="countdown" data-original-id="countdown" /></div>

Cover Reveal for KING! The final book in the Prophecy Series!!

When it comes to book covers and editors, I do feel like I'm the luckiest girl in the world. I've known the concept art for the final book for a while now and it has been incredibly hard for me not to want to brag about it.

I have 3 books and each cover has been even more beautiful than the last. I don't quite know how the art team at HarperTeen does this. Their talent is truly extraordinary. From color choice to background details to placement of art. I am truly blown away by my cover.

It is the perfect cover to the final book of the series.

The crowning glory.

The King of the trilogy.

Okay, I'll shut up and reveal it now... drumroll please...

 ***

TA DA!!!

BookCon recap!

So much good stuff has happened! How do I relate it all? I think the best way is to share links with you.

Here's a PW wrap up on the panel.

Here's a little NPR interview our team did.

Here's a pretty thorough reporting on the panel by the wonderful Lynn Miller Lachmann.

And if you want to actually listen to the entire panel, here's an audio podcast for your listening pleasure!

Also, why is it that everytime someone takes a photo of me, I'm making a weird face and hand gesture?

That last one looked like I was going to start a song and dance number soon.

But in any case, I can tell you that the event was an amazing success! Just take a look at the crowd we had!

I like this picture a lot because that's my fabulous agent, Barry Goldblatt sitting in the very front! Do you know that he is a true supporter of diversity? He created the  The Angela Johnson Scholarship, a talent-based grant for writers of color attending the MFA in Writing for Children & Young Adults Master of Fine Arts program. The $5,000 scholarship will be awarded to up to two students annually. You can find more information about it here.

The audience at our panel was simply amazing. We were so crowded that when we started people were sitting on the floors, standing against all the walls and more people who wanted to come in were turned away. The crowd was incredibly enthusiastic and so very supportive and we had the best time. And now there's still far too much to do but I shall leave you with my new favorite thing.

This is a Chibi version of me! By the incredibly talented Sharean Morishita who I am a huge fan of! Her art is so awesome and she is working on creating a fantastic, diverse comic which I cannot wait to get my hands on when she is done!!

And that's the recap!!

Imminent Brain Implosion

So I've been neglecting my poor blog because of the #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign and all the blogging I'm actually doing over there instead. If you are curious, here's the link.

There's been so much to do that I've been in constant state of blind panic as I worry about what I'm forgetting. Not to mention that no writing has been getting done and you can imagine what I've been spending all my time on.

But I'm really excited that our BookCon panel is this Saturday! I am looking forward to seeing as many people as I can there! We are up against John Grisham and Carl Hiaasen, but I'm sure people would rather see us, right? Right? :o)

Here's the information again for anyone who wants to come! We will have some buttons and bookmarks to pass out AND if you come by our table, we would LOVE to have you take a photo submission for our blog!

The World Agrees: #WeNeedDiverseBooks

Date: Saturday, May 31
10:00 am - 11:00 am
Location: Room 1E02
Speakers: Aisha Saeed, Ellen Oh, Grace Lin, I.W. Gregorio, Jacqueline Woodson, Lamar Giles, Marieke Nijkamp, Matt de la Peña, Mike Jung
Description:
After taking the Internet by storm, the #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign is moving forward with brand new initiatives to continue the call for diversity in children’s literature. Join the WNDB team as they share highlights of their campaign, discuss the success of grassroots activism, highlight diverse books and how everyone can diversify their shelves and talk next steps for the campaign. Ellen Oh (PROPHECY Series), Aisha Saeed (Written in the Stars, 2015), Marieke Nijkamp, founder of DiversifYA, Lamar Giles (Fake ID) and Mike Jung (Geeks, Girls, and Secret Identities). Special Guests include acclaimed Authors Grace Lin (Where the Mountain Meets the Moon), Matt de la Peña (The Living) and Jacqueline Woodson (Beneath a Meth Moon). Moderated by I.W. Gregorio (None of the Above, 2015).

BookCon Panel!

It's been an amazing experience to see the #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign take off as well as it did. Clearly, it was a message that truly resonated with people and I say it's about time! To top things off, we have the great pleasure of announcing that we have been invited to host a panel at BookCon on May 31.

The World Agrees: #WeNeedDiverseBooks

Date: Saturday, May 31
10:00 am - 11:00 am
Location: Room 1E02
Speakers: Aisha Saeed, Ellen Oh, Grace Lin, I.W. Gregorio, Jacqueline Woodson, Lamar Giles, Marieke Nijkamp, Matt de la Peña, Mike Jung
Description:
After taking the internet by storm, the #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign is moving forward with brand new initiatives to continue the call for diversity in children's literature. Join the WNDB team as they share highlights of their campaign, discuss the success of grassroots activism, highlight diverse books and how everyone can diversify their shelves, and talk next steps for the campaign. Ellen Oh (PROPHECY Series), Aisha Saeed (Written in the Stars, 2015), Marieke Nijkamp, founder of DiversifYA, Lamar Giles (Fake ID) and Mike Jung (Geeks, Girls, and Secret Identities). Special Guests include acclaimed Authors Grace Lin (Where the Mountain Meets the Moon), Matt de la Peña (The Living) and Jacqueline Woodson (Beneath a Meth Moon). Moderated by I.W. Gregorio (None of the Above, 2015)

We got a terrific right up in Publisher's Weekly - link is here. 

If anyone is going to be in NYC for BookCon, I hope you will come and support us! We'd love to see you!!

DIVERSIFY YOUR SHELVES

Today we're revealing part three of the #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign, a project that’s near and dear to my heart! Part three is called “Diversify Your Shelves,” and it’s all about taking a personal approach to promoting diversity in literature.

What, exactly, does that mean? Is this maybe something we’ll do for a week and then go back to buying books by old white guys?

Well, no. “Diversify Your Shelves” is a continual celebration of fabulous diverse literature, by fabulous diverse authors. Checking out what books we have on our shelves, and seeing how we might diversify them, is just a jumping off point.

There's also going to be a “Diversify Your Shelves” chat on Saturday, May 3^rd at 2PM EST to discuss our favorite diverse books and authors! Use the #WeNeedDiverseBooks hashtag to join in!

But wait! Why is this so important?

Well, there are lots of people blogging about this more eloquently than I, like here, here, here, and here, but some of my biggest reasons are:

Because, at every conference I or my writer friends attend, there are kids asking why they can’t find books with characters who look like them, either on the cover or in the pages.

Because the same thing happens at book signings, except there the kids are saying they’ve always wanted to get into writing, but don’t think they’ll be successful because they’re people of color.

Because queer kids are still killing themselves over being different (or being told that they’re different) and the greater representation they have in books, the less alone they’ll feel.

Because awesome genres like YA wouldn’t exist if we hadn’t moved away from the old, white dude model of literature and started reading stories written by ladies. Diversify Your Shelves is a continuation of that principle—hearing all stories from all voices.

Because it’s 2014, but we still keep seeing all-white panels at book festivals, or even all-white male panels (in genres vastly dominated by women!) and that’s kind of insane to me. Diversity shouldn’t be the exception. It should be the norm.

And because, at the end of the day, when I look at my shelves, I think:

I can be better.

I can do more.

And I’d love for you to join me.

So, without further ado . . .

Let’s Diversify Our Shelves!

           

Here’s how it works: this weekend, May 3rd and 4th, we’re all going to head out to our local bookstores* to pick up books by fabulous diverse authors. (Need recommendations? Check out the May 3^rd #WeNeedDiverseBooks chat!) Then, once you’ve returned home, snap a photo of your new diverse book(s)** and post it as a comment below! And if you want to get really creative, you can take Before and After photos of your bookshelves: Before, when they weren't too diversified, and After, when you've added in books by fabulous  PoC authors, queer authors, and authors with disabilities! Woot! 

This Monday, May 5th, one lucky winner is going to win FIVE BOOKS OF THEIR CHOOSING out of the choices below!!! And every Monday throughout the spring, a new winner will be chosen to receive two fabulous diverse books! Woot!

But wait, it doesn’t stop there. Remember when I said “Diversify Your Shelves” was a continual celebration? That means any time you buy a book from a diverse author, or featuring a diverse character, snap a picture of that book and post it to Twitter with the #WeNeedDiverseBooks hashtag! We’ll retweet you, and help spread the word about what diverse books people are buying! And by participating in the “Diversify Your Shelves” movement, you’ll be showing publishers the kinds of books you want them to buy, showing conference organizers which authors you want to see on panels, and helping tweens and teens find representation in books! Which, really, is the awesomest prize of all!

REMEMBER: THE WINNER OF THE PRIZE PACK WILL BE CHOSEN MAY 5TH!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

*Obviously, not everyone has the money to “Diversify Their Shelves” at this particular moment. That’s okay! Because stopping by the library and having them order a book by a diverse author, or even sending them an email about your interest in diverse books, can make a big difference in the “Diversify Your Shelves” movement! You can even snap a photo of a certain section in your local library, and then snap another one after they’ve ordered more diverse books for you! That way, you’ll not only be diversifying your own shelf, but you’ll be diversifying the shelves for your entire neighborhood! Go, you!

**Don’t worry, e-book lovers! You can totally enter the contest too. Just snap a photo of your reading device with the book’s cover showing (or a screenshot of the purchase), and you’re good to go!

We Need Diverse Books Campaign

Recently, there’s been a groundswell of discontent over the lack of diversity in children’s literature. The issue is being picked up by news outlets like these two pieces in the NYT, CNN, EW, and many more. But while we individually care about diversity, there is still a disconnect. BEA’s Bookcon recently announced an all-white-male panel of “luminaries of children’s literature,” and when we pointed out the lack of diversity, nothing changed.

Now is the time to raise our voices into a roar that can’t be ignored. Here’s how:

On May 1^st at 1pm (EST), there will be a public call for action that will spread over 3 days. We’re starting with a visual social media campaign using the hashtag #WeNeedDiverseBooks. We want people to tweet, Tumblr, Instagram, Facebook, blog, and post anywhere they can to help make the hashtag go viral.

For the visual part of the campaign: 

• Take a photo holding a sign that says “We need diverse books because ___________________________.” Fill in the blank with an important, poignant, funny, and/or personal reason why this campaign is important to you. 
• The photo can be of you or a friend or anyone who wants to support diversity in kids’ lit. It can be a photo of the sign without you if you would prefer not to be in a picture. Be as creative as you want! Pose the sign with your favorite stuffed animal or at your favorite library. Get a bunch of friends to hold a bunch of signs. 
• However you want to do it, we want to share it! There will be a Tumblr at http://weneeddiversebooks.tumblr.com/ that will host all of the photos and messages for the campaign. Please submit your visual component by May 1^st to weneeddiversebooks@yahoo.com with the subject line “photo” or submit it right on our Tumblr page here and it will be posted throughout the first day. 
• Starting at 1:00PM (EST) the Tumblr will start posting and it will be your job to reblog, tweet, Facebook, or share wherever you think will help get the word out. 
• The intent is that from 1pm EST to 3pm EST, there will be a nonstop hashtag party to spread the word. We hope that we’ll get enough people to participate to make the hashtag trend and grab the notice of more media outlets.
• The Tumblr will continue to be active throughout the length of the campaign, and for however long we need to keep this discussion going, so we welcome everyone to keep emailing or sending in submissions even after May 1^st.

On May 2^nd, the second part of our campaign will roll out with a Twitter chat scheduled for 2pm (EST) using the same hashtag. Please use #WeNeedDiverseBooks at 2pm on May 2nd and share your thoughts on the issues with diversity in literature and why diversity matters to you.

On May 3^rd, 2pm (EST), the third portion of our campaign will begin. There will be a Diversify Your Shelves initiative to encourage people to put their money where their mouth is and buy diverse books and take photos of them. Diversify Your Shelves is all about actively seeking out diverse literature in bookstores and libraries, and there will be some fantastic giveaways for people who participate in the campaign! More details to come!

We hope that you will take part in this in any way you can. We need to spread the word far and wide so that it will trend on Twitter. So that media outlets will pick it up as a news item. So that the organizers of BEA and every big conference and festival out there gets the message that diversity is important to everyone. We hope you will help us by being a part of this movement.

My website is safe again!

Thanks to Alex who gave me the heads up about the virus on my website and to my amazing web designers, Denise and John Biondo, who worked really hard to clean it all up for me. Ellenoh.com is safe!

My author website HACKED!

 Guys, my Ellenoh.com website has been hacked. Please do not go there!! It has been infected with very bad malware.  Fortunately, my blog is hosted on blogger and I never moved it to my website. I always thought that was a pain but now I'm very grateful because my blog is safe.

I would gladly hurt the person who did this to me. Also, if you see any emails from ellen@ellenoh.com - DON'T open for now!! Delete! Everything has been compromised and it's a huge mess. I'm real sorry guys!!

We Are Still Not Doing Enough for Diversity in Kid lit

I’ve written about Why Being a POC Author Sucks Sometimes. I’ve written about the importance of Diversity and Diverse Reading Lists. And I’ve even written about Diversity in Writing. The discussion about why diversity in children’s literature is continuing because POC are still greatly underrepresented at less than 10%. (see this fantastic post by Malinda Lo at Diversity in YA.) There’s even an article in CNN about “Where’s the African-American Harry Potter or the Mexican Katniss?" There’s a lot of good talk but there’s still no action. And furthermore, there’s a lot of lashing out that somehow when we ask for diversity, we are somehow anti-white. If we talk about our need for representation, our articles are just "race-baiting" and discriminatory toward whites. How can asking for more authors of color and characters of color in children’s literature mean we are anti-white? I will never understand this thinking and I have no use for it. Kelly Jensen, a librarian and true supporter of diversity, said in her excellent post “When you support one group of people, it is in not denigrating another group of people. Instead, it’s doing your part to raise everyone up.” And this is what we are fighting for. Raising us all up because diversity is good for everyone.

How bad is the problem?

Of the 3,600 books the Cooperative Children’s Book Center reviewed in 2012:

• 3% were about Africans/African Americans; 1.8% were written by Africans/African Americans
  
• 1.5% were about Latinos; 1.6% were written by Latinos
  
• Less than 1% were about American Indians; less than 1% were written by American Indians
  
• 2% were about Asian Pacifics/Asian Pacific Americans; 2.3% were written by Asian Pacifics/Asian Pacific Americans
  

Click here for a fantastic illustration by Tina Kugler that really highlights the problem based on statistics released by the CCBC.

There are a lot of good people out there fighting for more diversity in publishing. But it’s not enough. There’s even more people who nod their head and agree whole-heartedly that we need more representation. But it’s definitely not enough.

Today I’m pointing fingers. At publishers, librarians, teachers, booksellers, publicists, conference and festival organizers, reviewers, journalists, in fact our entire media. You are all not doing enough. There are some wonderful children’s books authors of colors out there publishing amazing books that are just not getting the attention they deserve. They are ignored. Where is their media coverage? Where are their book tours? Why isn’t their more diversity at book festivals and conferences? Why is it that any promotional materials talking about ALA award winning books don’t also highlight the Coretta Scott King or the Pura Belpré, etc? (See Meg Medina’s post on this.)

Publishing and promoting books that include diversity by white authors is a good start for diversity. But that is not enough. Publishing and promoting authors of color so that we break the arbitrary 10% cap is what is really needed. We need more published authors of color. But if current authors of color are not promoted, then it hurts the chances for all other potential POC writers. It becomes a vicious circle. A self-fulfilling prophecy that continues the belief that books by and about POC don’t sell. We are not doing enough to break this prophecy.

Recently there was a big controversy over the fact that BookCon was featuring an all white male power panel at BEA. Lerner Publishing Group editorial director Andrew Karre said in the PW article, “If they really want to put their money where their mouth is, they should have a panel on this topic, the issue of diversity in children’s books.” I want to put a rallying call out for this to happen. Meg Medina, the fabulous author of the award winning Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass, and I were recently talking about how we wanted every conference and every festival in the country to have a diversity panel until the day comes when we don’t need to do it anymore. So yes, ReedPOP, please include a diversity panel to make up for your world class blunder. And please don’t fill it up with white people. We authors of color are here yelling into the crowd. We are writing our books and fighting to promote them in an ocean filled with white capped waves that wash over us. But we are here because there is a need for us. And we won’t stop fighting or raising our voices.

Several months ago, I was at a school event where a very young black girl was standing shyly off to the side as I was chatting with some 6th grade students after my presentation. She gave me her notebook and asked me to sign it, which I was glad to do. It was a book of her own poetry and short stories. I smiled and said “I’m so glad to meet a young writer!” She beamed at me and said “I love writing and I want to be a writer but I didn’t think I could because I’m not white.” I was surprised and asked her if she’d read any books by Walter Dean Myers, Angela Johnson, or Linda Sue Park. She nodded and shrugged her shoulder and said, “But I’ve never seen them in person.” To this young teen, an author of color was a mythical creature, not to be believed, until she’d seen one in person. She couldn’t believe in her dream to become a writer until she saw for herself that a real life POC had done it. This is why we must continue to fight for diversity in children’s literature. For all of our children, so that they can see that we exist and that they can believe that their dreams of becoming whatever they want, can come true.

Teen Librarian's Book Battle!

So I just found out that PROPHECY won a book battle over at the Teen Librarian's first ever book battle in her library and I couldn't be happier!!

Here's the link to go read all about it!! Thanks so much Teen Librarian!

NoVa Teen festival, Gilded Winner and other news...

Hi everyone! Sorry for being out of the loop for awhile. I caught a terrible cold that apparently didn't want to leave me. Ever cough so bad you bruise your ribs? Yeah, this is not fun. It hurt so much that it even hurt to eat! I find that unforgivable! But in any case, I'm on the mend and can actually focus on things like writing a blog post - which takes more brain power than I have had these days!

All right, first things first! The winner of my Gilded contest is Patrice Caldwell! Congrats Patrice!

Secondly, wanted to post up some pics of my fabulous time at NoVa Teen Festival.

The day before the festival, Jessica Spotswood, Lamar Giles and I had an event at a local high school. It was a lot of fun, plus I got to hang out with Jess (who is always wonderful to be with) and meet Lamar in person for the first time! Lamar and I have the same brilliant editor, Phoebe Yeh, for our first books, and we've been talking online for years now! Lamar is just as great in person as he is online! Plus, don't miss his new fantastic book Fake ID!!

Lamar and I got to be on the first panel of the festival (about Identity) with Sarah Guillory, Diana Peterfruend and Meg Medina. This was a fantastic panel and we had a great discussion and I would love to do this again real soon!

I have to take a moment to say that meeting Meg Medina was like meeting a long lost friend! Meg is the winner of the 2014 Pura Belpré Award for her excellent book Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass! I have wanted to read this book for a long time and I now have a signed copy to cherish for myself! Meg is also a huge supporter of diversity and so like minds started rocketing through all the things we should, could, and would do to keep diversity on everybody's minds.

 

 

 Next up was my Breakout Panel with my dear friend Marie Lu, who I adore and who you all know I'm a big big fan of! There's something very comforting about having a discussion with someone you really love and admire a lot. It makes for a great and stimulating discussion. Plus, it helps when you have a huge crowd of eager fans (mostly Marie's) with lots of smart questions.

And then it was time for the signing!

Here I am with Lamar, Sarah and Meg at the signing part of the day! I was grateful and so appreciative of everyone who came and bought Prophecy and/or Warrior! It was exciting to have such a great turnout! In fact, I underestimated and didn't bring enough SWAG, which I was sorry about, but what a great problem to have!
 

 I met some really lovely teen readers who were super sweet and smart and I just wanted to hug them all!

I got to see another teen reader who, btw, is going to be a big author one day in the near future! She's got the drive, the determination and some amazing story ideas! I got a good feeling about her.

Ok, last picture and an important one! Because this is with Danielle Ellison who is not only an author and an editor (for Spencer Hill Press) and a bookseller and YA event coordinator, wow, right?, but she came up with the whole NoVa Teen festival idea! Along with Nico Piro, Arlington YA librarian extraordinare, and Lelia Nebeker, YA book buyer at One More Page, these 3 amazing women put together one of the best events I've ever attended. I have so much respect for them. Even Marie Lu, who has been too many many events, couldn't get over how great the festival was for a first time event! There were tons of teens and authors and volunteers and books!! So to Danielle, Nico and Lelia, and all the wonderful volunteers that helped make Nova Teen festival happen, thank you very much. It was truly a splendid event.

I think there was one more thing I was supposed to blog about but my cold medicine has worn off and my brain has turned to goo. So here's me signing out for now!

GILDED By Christina Farley

So my very dear friend, Christy Farley, has just released her debut book GILDED and I seriously couldn't be more excited!!! I love love love this book! Because it is set in Korea and has a Korean MC!!! Here's the summary:

When sixteen-year old, Jae Hwa, is uprooted from her home in L.A. to Korea, she thought her biggest problem would be fitting in with her classmates and dealing with her dismissive grandfather. But she was wrong. A Korean demi-god, Haemosu, has been stealing the soul of the oldest daughter of each generation in her family for centuries. And she’s next.

Jae trains with a Korean master, confident her taekwondo will be enough to fight Haemosu. But she’s wrong again. Desperate, Jae delves into the ancient arts of metamorphism and uses her growing power in the Spirit World.

And then there’s Marc. Irresistible, charming, and mysterious, Marc threatens to break the barriers around Jae’s heart. But Marc has a secret of his own. One that could help destroy Haemosu. As Jae grows closer to him, she must decide if she can trust him and whether putting his life in jeopardy is worth the risk.

Jae thought she knew all the answers. It turns out that she’s been wrong about a lot of things: her grandfather is her greatest ally, even the tough girl can fall in love, and Korea might just be the home she’s always been looking for.

I've been  so happy and excited about Gilded and now that it is out, I want everyone to go read it. So I'm doing a giveaway for a copy of Gilded!!! All you have to do is tweet or tumble back to me or leave a comment on the blog! The giveaway will be open for one week!!!

NOVA Teen Book festival

I'll be at the NOVA Teen book festival on March 8th, 2014. Just take a look at all the amazing authors who are going to be there!! If you are in the area, please come by! It's going to be awesome!!

HOORAY FOR BOOKS TONIGHT - BETHESDA LIBRARY TOMORROW!

Hey guys!

Tonight at 7PM, I am part of a panel with some fabulous authors at HOORAY FOR BOOKS in Alexandria!

Megan Shepherd - The Madman's Daughter
Victoria Schwab - The Archived
Stephanie Perkins - Anna and the French Kiss

Tomorrow, this same group of ladies, plus Jessica Spotswood (Born Wicked), will be at the Bethesda Library at 2PM.

If you come, you will get to hear an old ancestor story that I've been holding on to for quite a while. it will be worth the commute!!

Heading to ALA Midwinter!

I've been invited to be part of the Asian Pacific American Librarians Association's annual author talk dinner this Saturday in Philadelphia. I'll be attending with the fabulous Soman Chainani who wrote one of my favorite fantasy books School For Good and Evil, as well as my wonderful former editor Phoebe Yeh, VP and Publisher of Crown Books for Young Readers, Random House. What's particularly exciting about this, besides being able to hang out with 2 of my favorite people in the world, is that I also get to see a whole lot of librarians.

I adore librarians! They made my life better.  I'm not kidding. Growing up, I spent most of my time in a library. And I always got wonderful help and support from public librarians who showed me the way to world after world of wonderful and magical stories. When you are poor, the library is a haven, a safe place to go and lose yourself. Or find yourself. I owe a lot to librarians and the public library and I'm pretty excited to be going to ALA and meeting not only APALA members, but librarians from all over the country.

So I'll be walking the floor of the convention on Sunday morning. If any librarians out there see me, please don't hesitate to say hi! I'd love to meet you!