Holly Cupala's Blog, page 48

Chat with Janet Lee Carey tonight!

Stop on by readergirlz tonight at 6 p.m. Pacific/9 p.m. Eastern for a special event with readergirlz co-founder and local YA fantasy author Janet Lee Carey!


Janet has been hard at work on several new fantasy novels - STEALING DEATH was on the premier launch list of new-to-the-States publisher, Egmont USA. Congratulations, Janet!

Hope to see you tonight at the chat (just click on the CoverIt Live widget to begin).

Get ready for the Cybils!

It's that time of year again, time for the CYBILS, Children's and Young Adult Bloggers' Literary Awards 2009!

An impressive crop of kidlit bloggers has come together to make this event happen, including many of the terrific folks I met at last year's kidlit blogger conference (click here for info on this year's conference, November in D.C.) as well as friend, librarian, and rgz postergirl Jackie Parker of Interactive Reader in charge of the YA Fiction category!

Nominations for this year's Cybi...

Back to the Grindstone

Now that the TELL ME A SECRET cover and readergirlz Teen Read Week graphics have launched (on Thursday, check out how you can get involved with the TRW Tribute!), it's back to regular programming for me...a.k.a. revision, and brainstorming the next first draft.

The good news: Secret Agent Man loved CREED! Woohoo!

The bad (uh, that would be the realistic ) news: It isn't perfect.

Wah. Well, ok, then.

The TRW graphics and excitement over the TMAS cover were most lovely ways to procrastinate, but al...

Funk Friday Poll: A Wild Hair?

So...I promised a poll. It's something I've been thinking about for a little while.

Celebrities have done it:












Daring and fabulous author friends have done it:










(And that doesn't even count the purple girls.)



So the question is...am I brave enough to do it? I bought this:













I would probably go for something a little more subtle (no, the irony does not escape me), like this:
















Should I do it? Poll at right. (i'mnotlookingi'mnotlookingi'mnotlooking!)

UPDATE: Jet has reminded me that I once had red hair (whi...

Did you LOVE the rgz trailer music?

Me, too. Here's a video of the Freezepop song, and if you look carefully, you will see a flash of our readergirlz model, Kathryn! (Hint: she's the one in the polka-dot blouse.)




See? See Kathryn, of vampire-and-space-girl beauty?





Come back for a really dorky poll tomorrow. Should I? Or shouldn't I? Please help me decide.

Tell Me a Secret description and blurb

Several have asked what TELL ME A SECRET is about. Well...here is the official description:

It's tough, living in the shadow of a dead girl…

In the five years since her bad-girl sister Xanda's death, Miranda Mathison has wondered about the secret her sister took to the grave, and what really happened the night she died. Now, just as Miranda is on the cusp of her dreams—a best friend to unlock her sister's world, a ticket to art school, and a boyfriend to fly her away from it all—Miranda has a ...

Tell Me a Secret COVER! And rgz Teen Read Week!

I could hug the entire HarperCollins team for letting me post the cover for TELL ME A SECRET two months early(!!) so that we could put it in the upcoming readergirlz Teen Read Week goodies!

First, there's the rgz Teen Read Week press release over at the readergirlz blog (better link when I'm awake).

Then, there's the banner, in small, medium, large, or side banner! (YES, that's IT!!)



Next, there is the rgz Teen Read Week trailer, featuring Kathryn as space girl and music from our friends at Free...

Cover and Teen Read Week Reveal Monday!

readergirlz has been scrambling to put together another year of incredible Teen Read Week chats, and on Monday, all will be revealed!



On Monday, we will launch the press release, poster pdf with full schedule (also featuring my gorgeous friend Kathryn), and the trailer which I have been working hard to put together with music from our awesome fiends at Freezepop. I can't wait to share it with you!

And the best part...and reason #4793 that I think my editor is the best editor in the universe...I...

Funky Friday: Stealing Death by Chocolate

This is sort of "the rest of the story" from last week's post about making cookies for Janet Lee Carey's STEALING DEATH party.

I tried the roll-out African Corn Meal Cookies, which ended up as drop cookies tasting kind of like cornmeal scones (not half bad, but definitely not in the shapes of moons and stars!)...

I didn't have the right ingredients for Ugandan Coconut Candy, so I snuck the Ugandan spices into a regular Coconut Macaroon recipe...

And since, at this point, I was 0/2, I thought I s...

Dream Interpretation

I've always been a dreamer. As a kid, I remember waking up in the middle of the night two or three times per week with nightmares. Some of them I still remember, after three decades.

[image error] As I've gotten older, I still have dreams - chases, allegories, blenders of gibberish, story ideas, nightmares.

Sometimes I am lucky and can relate them to writing or life. After over 200 brainstorm title ideas between me and my editor, the winning entry (TELL ME A SECRET!) came to me in a dream (truly at the eleve...