Judith Graves's Blog, page 18

Edmonton Chapters Signing

Here's the press release for a signing on November 28th at the Chapters on Whyte Ave in Edmonton (11-3pm):

Slick and Sassy author showcased in Chapters Strathcona Authorganza Event

Alberta young adult author Judith Graves will be signing books at Chapters in Edmonton

[image error] Under My Skin

Edmonton, AB- Beginning November 13th, Chapters Strathcona will be featuring 14 local authors and musicians in their Authorganza event to kick off the holiday season.

On Sunday November 28, customers and readers will be able to get their hands on the much sought after urban fantasy novel for teens- Under My Skin by Alberta author Judith Graves. They will also be able to meet the accomplished illustrator Val Cox who has brought the actions of the 16 year old protagonist Eryn McCain to life with vivid illustrations.

Under My Skin was recently nominated for a Cybil's award (Children's and Young Adult Bloggers Literary Awards) and her second book Skinned is due out in 2011 published by Leap Books LLC.

A firm believer that Canadian teen fiction can be sexy, action packed and snarky as hell – Judith writes paranormal stories with attitude.

Join Judith and Val at Chapters Strathcona, Sunday November 28 from 11am- 3pm and get a start on your Christmas shopping now before they are all sold out!!!

For information about Judith, visit www.judithgraves.com

"Eryn emerges as a strong, independent, feisty young woman whose sense of responsibility for her "pack" and her environment wars with her wolven abilities and instincts. …fans of paranormal YA fiction will appreciate a protagonist with attitude and anticipate the next volume in the planned trilogy, Second Skin, to be released in 2011."- CM Magazine

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Judith Graves and Val Cox at Authorganza

Sunday November 28

11:00-3:00pm

10504-82 avenue

780-435-1290

To book an interview contact:

Rachel Sentes/Publicist

[image error]/604-366-7846

Indigo NANO Starbucks Blend

I had a blast hanging out during my booksigning at Indigo this weekend. Though interest in my table was sporatic, I had two rocking buds to while away the time. We talked NANO plots (past, present and future), shared must reads and must watch films (I gots a list) and I sipped one too many chai.

I had dropped by Indigo on Friday and another author signing was happening. But this one had a cool prop – beat my booktrailer playing on my laptop. What could possibly tromp the UMS trailer? Well, how about Toby, the sweet Cheaspeake Bay retriever lying at his owner's feet? On Toby's Terms is the story of a couple who rescue 5 year old Toby and their lives are forever change. The book (written by Charmine Hammond, Toby's "mum") is set to be major motion picture and Charmine informed me they are headed off to LA soon for production.

As an owner of two crazy labs, I know this book is gonna make me laugh, cry and want another pup. I swear I took a video clip of Toby "signing" my book – complete with paw print, but my camera says differently. Sorry Charmine, it was a great clip and Toby is a beauty. Good luck with the film!

Back to my signing…..Kelsey (wonderful Indigo staff) and Alayna (NANO participant) prove that nerd power is strong in Edmonton and that I blend right in. Well, I am a nerd/geek/writer after all. Kelsey designs costumes and I bet her stuff would have been a hit at the recent Pure Spec festival. Both my new friends were into Steampunk – cool. And they laughed at my jokes. Also cool.

Thanks guys, good luck with NANO!

Booksigning, NANO, UMS Review and Class of 2k10 GIVEAWAY

It's a happy kind of morning in my world. I'm heading to a booksigning at the Edmonton Indigo in North Town Mall for 11am and hope to meet lots of keen readers and sign more than one book – hopefully said book isn't my mom's copy of UMS. I'll be writing for NANO during the lulls, so if you're in Edmonton and wanna join me for some sporatic conversation / writing / java sipping – drop on by.

Further to this, UMS received a bang up review in CM Magazine this week. Seriously cool. Here's a snippet: "Eryn emerges as a strong, independent, feisty young woman whose sense of responsibility for her "pack" and her environment wars with her wolven abilities and instincts. …fans of paranormal YA fiction will appreciate a protagonist with attitude and anticipate the next volume in the planned trilogy, Second Skin, to be released in 2011."

And now for the good news….lol….

The Class of 2k10 (of which I am a member) is a collective of 23 MG / YA debut authors. Each year a new crop of debut authors forms that year's Class – watch for the Class of 2k11 authors soon to launch in December. Anyway, we tour together, we promote together, we're our own support system and sometimes we do crazy things. Like our planned "pre-graduation" event – a giveaway of EPIC proportions. Here are the deets:

CLASS OF 2K10 GIVEAWAY

Five book clubs across the United States (sorry, guys – the contest is NOT open internationally) can win a prize pack of three to six sets of books written by the authors from the Class of 2K10. Each pack includes TEN copies of each book, and in some packs one of the books will be signed by the author. The contest is open to all book clubs associated with a nonprofit institution, a school, or a library. To enter, just comment on this entry, specifying which of the prize packs you are interested in and which nonprofit you are affiliated with. The giveaway will end on November 11, 2010.

MID_GRADE FANTASY PACK:

The Carnival of Lost Souls by Laura Quimby

Under the Green Hill by Laura L. Sullivan

The Witchy Worries of Abbie Adams by Rhonda Hayter



MID-GRADE CONTEMPORARY PACK:

Fairview Felines: A Newspaper Mystery by Michele Corriel

Island Sting by Bonnie J. Doerr

Leaving Gee's Bend by Irene Latham

The Reinvention of Edison Thomas by Jacqueline Houtman

Shooting Kabul by N.H. Senzai

YA FANTASY/PARANORMAL PACK

13 To Life by Shannon Delany

Freaksville by Kitty Keswick

Mistwood by Leah Cypess

Past Midnight by Mara Purnhagen

Shade by Jeri Smith-Ready

Under My Skin by Judith Graves

YA CONTEMPORARY PACK 1

Change of Heart by Shari Maurer

Faithful by Janet Fox

Losing Faith by Denise Jaden

The Tension of Opposites by Kristina McBride

YA CONTEMPORARY PACK 2

Of All the Stupid Things by Alexandra Diaz

Party by Tom Leveen

Three Rivers Rising by Jame Richards

The Secret Year by Jennifer R. Hubbard

Split by Swati Avasthi

Rules:

You must be a book club affiliated with a nonprofit, school, or library, and located in the continental United States.

To enter, leave a comment to this entry: (http://community.livejournal.com/clas...).

Specify which of the prize packs you are interested in – you may choose from only one, to all five, as we will be holding 5 separate drawings. (However, no club will win more than one prize pack.)

Leave an email address where you can be reached should you win.

If the email address is a not an institution address, please specify which nonprofit, school, or library you are affiliated with.

If you are not sure whether you qualify, just leave the relevant information in the comment.

If there are any additional questions, please contact Leah Cypess at LCypess@gmail.com.

Under My Skin Gets Cybils Nomination

Well, this is nifty. Under My Skin has been nominated for a Cybils (Childrens and Young Adult Bloggers Literary Awards) award in the Teen Fantasy / Sci-fi category. COOL! So what's the deal with Cybils? Well, this is their criteria (from their website):

"Our purpose is two-fold:

Reward the children's and young adult authors (and illustrators, let's not forget them) whose books combine the highest literary merit and "kid appeal." What's that mean? If some la-di-dah awards can be compared to brussel sprouts, and other, more populist ones to gummy bears, we're thinking more like organic chicken nuggets. We're yummy and nutritious.
Foster a sense of community among bloggers who write about children's and YA literature, highlight our best reviewers (and shamelessly promote their blogs) and provide a forum for the similarly obsessed."

After they take in all nominations (now closed) here's what occurs:

"We have panelists in each category who…. read the books. They have until January 1 for that, which we hope and pray will be enough time. On Jan. 1 we'll post the finalists. From Jan. 1 to mid-February, a second group of judges will read all the finalists and pick the winners, which we'll announce on Valentine's Day."

It's a wonderful honour to get a nomination and you never know UMS might make it to the short list. I'll keep ya posted. Congrats to all the other AMAZING titles / authors to receive nominations. Take a few minutes to go and check them out! :)

NANO Days and Heart Break

So…it's November and I've officially joined NANO (my first!). Sure, I've participated before, but this time I actually registered and have some accountability. Although I've had a slow start I'm keen to get a choke hold on my NANO project and bring up my word count. The reason for my lack of NANO pep is below, however, I wanted to share this to show that yes, there are times when life makes it near impossible to write. But once the initial crisis has passed, writing offers a way to work through your issues. It's like therapy, but cheaper. ;0 

We had to say goodbye to our 18.5 year old kitty, Vegas, this week. Ugh, broke my heart. If you have pets, give them extra love today and everyday, they deserve it. Now we're down to our two crazy labs and it seems like an end to an era. Here's a pic of me with Vegas the day we brought her home. (Ignore my glasses – it was the early 90s!) 

 That seems like so long ago. What a great bunch of mischief little Vegas grew up to be. She used to sleep in my guitar case. She'd sleep on the pages of writing I'd toss to the floor. I think she had a French accent. See you at the Rainbow Bridge, my friend. 

 

"When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge. There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together. There is plenty of food, water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable.

All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor; those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by. The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing; they each miss someone very special to them, who had to be left behind.

They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance. His bright eyes are intent; His eager body quivers. Suddenly he begins to run from the group, flying over the green grass, his legs carrying him faster and faster.

You have been spotted, and when you and your special friend finally meet, you cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again. The happy kisses rain upon your face; your hands again caress the beloved head, and you look once more into the trusting eyes of your pet, so long gone from your life but never absent from your heart.

Then you cross Rainbow Bridge together…. "

Author unknown…

Indigo Booksigning in EDMONTON

If you're in Edmonton this weekend, I'd love to meet you and catch up, or chat books, NANO strategies, the loss of beloved pets (we recently had to put our kitty, Vegas, down), and young adult fiction in general. I'll be hanging out at the North Town Indigo for a few hours….drinking chai lattes and making a pest of myself for the staff.

Really, it's all about the Indigo staff – save them from me and my booktrailer playing on an endless loop on my laptop!

I'm hopeful I can wrangle Val Cox (www.valcox.ca), the illustrator of Under My Skin to join me for a bit and also sign books. She's one hip and funky lady and I'd love to meet her in person. Here are the details:

Sunday November 7- 11:00pm-2:00pm
Indigo North Town Mall, 9450 – 137 Avenue NW,

(780) 475-4830

The Crossroads Tour Comes to an End

Happy Howwwloween! Not only is this the most FIENDISH day of the year, it's also the end of The Crossroads blog tour. Wade has one last research question for you to hunt down and then he'll release you from his thrall. If you're lucky, research does make him a bit….thirsty.

Once you have collected ALL 16 answers, email them to me (judithgraves at ymail dot com) by MIDNIGHT TONIGHT (EST) to be entered for the GRAND PRIZE swag pack to end all swag pack grand prizes. I'll announce the winner November 1st at 10pm EST (after our live chat).

And if that's not enough giveaway MADNESS, there are 16 blogs giving away 16 signed books today – check out each of The Crossroads Tour blogs for entry details.

As for the live chats – meet The Crossroads authors tonight (Oct 31st) and tomorrow (Nov 1st) via The Page Turners blog. We'll be chatting and answering questions and generally stirring things up on Halloween and The Day of The Dead. Can't get more into the SPIRIT of the season than that.  Go HERE for the chat schedule and details.

Don't know what I'm talking about? (Where have you been all month?!) Check out this page for full details: THE CROSSROADS BLOG TOUR

Many thanks to the 32 macabre-loving authors and bloggers who signed up for this feast of paranormal goodness. I know it was a crazy few weeks, and we've all got zombie brains….but hey – it's Halloween. Good timing. THANKS AGAIN, GUYS!

Pure Spec Adventures

My hubbie, our 2 crazy labs and I were on one hell of Joy READ this week. We travelled 7 hours to Grimshaw, Alberta for a few author visits to grade 7 and 8 students (well, just me, the rest of my crew hung out at the hotel room). From Grimshaw we drove another 6 hours to Edmonton to attend the 6th Annual Pure Speculation Festival – a small (but growing!) sci-fi / fantasy con where I sat on a few panels.As we drove around the Radisson Hotel, desperately trying to find a place to park (I swear every nerd worth his/her weight in gold was at Pure Spec), we spied a green-skinned gentleman getting out of his vehicle. "We're in YOUR world now," my hubbie announced. Yes, we were. I was in nerd heaven the entire day. Walking amongst the costumed, the gamers, the keeners taking notes and the Geek Calendar Girls was quite the adventure. I presented a session on the SKINNED Series, gave an overview of the beasties in the SKINNED world and showed a sneak peek of the trailer for SECOND SKIN. But the best part – the cool people I met during my panels.

Tanya Huff (creator of the Blood series of books, turned into Blood Ties – a 2 season TV show) is so damn smart and well read and passionate. She kicked the snot out of any point she made and yet had time to chat with the newbie (that'd be me) and enjoyed hanging with fans.

Dan Brodribb is a nifty guy – a self-professed shy comic – a wrestling referee – and all around fantasy fan. His self-effacing humour is endearing.

Then there's Mike Perschon, an English prof / THE Steampunk Scholar who makes the classics come alive – ALIVE! Plus, he's up on his YA fiction and even shared some steampunk titles my high school History teacher hubbie could use in class.

As panelists, we engaged in heated discussions – the sparkling vampire debate, paranormal fiction as the modern fairytale, which sci-fi title should "stay on the island", the morphing of paranormal fiction into genres like steampunk and what was next for the genre in general. I left the fest with my inner nerd fully charged.

I hope I'm invited back. I'm going to get me a kickass costume. I wish I had taken pictures so you could see the detail, the love, the body paint, but alas – epic fail on my part. (Many thanks to my brother, Blaise, who kindly took pics of the SKINNED session for me – and my sister, Brenda – who helped me setup!) Until next year, Pure Spec…..

Crossroads Tour and Pure Speculation Festival

Well, it's a few days into the massive Crossroads blog tour and all seems to be going smoothly. Authors, bloggers and readers are Twittering, Facebooking and well, blogging about the author interviews and giveaways. Just a note for those who are collecting the answers to Wade's "research questions" – please don't email them to me until you have ALL 16 answers and make sure you get them sent by MIDNIGHT on October 31st to be entered in the draw for the grand prize.

As for Pure Spec…the festival has an official Twitter hashtag #purespec if you'd like to help spread the word. Here's the schedule of my panel appearences and their descriptions:

SATURDAY, October 23rd

11:30-12:30

Beta Room
The Skinned series: Reading and discussion
With a full moon looming and the Halloween season now firmly upon us, Alberta based, young adult paranormal fiction author Judith Graves invites readers to take a walk on the 'wild' side. Literally. Graves' Skinned series of young adult novels offers a frightening departure from many of the heavily-romanticized depictions we've been getting of paranormal creatures of late. The Skinned series includes the currently released Under My Skin, and forthcoming novels Second Skin, and Skin of My Teeth.

Judith Graves







2:30-4:00

Gamma Room
Which Book Stays on the Island?
Similar to CBC's "Canada Reads" segment, each guest will select a classic work of SF or Fantasy or Horror, and present their case as to why it should be a "must read" for any self-respecting booklover in our favourite genre of fantastic fiction.

Tanya Huff
Mike Perschon
Judith Graves
Dan Brodribb

 






6:30-7:30

Beta Room
Fiction to DIE for: Trends in Paranormal Fiction
Join us for a discussion of all thing paranormal, from the love triangle, fiction "turned" into film and television, and the "Should vampires sparkle?" debate.

Judith Graves
Mike Perschon
Tanya Huff

More October Events

This month really is the one that keeps on giving. As well as overseeing The Crossroads tour, I'm participating in a blog tour at Teen Book Scene – a great resource for authors and readers to discover each other through blog tours. "The TBS is all about promoting young adult and MG authors and their books free of charge. The TBS is dedicated to providing fun, quality blog tours to authors, along with other types of promotion. As bloggers ourselves, we have worked first hand with authors through blog tours, interviews, reviews, giveaways, and more."

Here's the schedule:

Monday, October 18: Jessica at Total Bookaholic (Author Interview)

Tuesday, October 19: Harmony at Harmony's Radiant Reads (Review)

Wednesday, October 20: Jenn at Book Crazy (Author Interview)

Thursday, October 21: Melissa at Mel's Books and Info 

(Character Interview)

Friday, October 22: Stacy at Girls in the Stacks (Scene)

Monday, October 25: Corrine at Lost For Words (Guest Post)

Tuesday, October 26: Anne at Potter, Percy and I (Author Interview)

Wednesday, October 27: Erica at The Book Cellar (Review)

Thursday, October 28: Kate at I Just Wanna Sit Here and Read (Author Interview)

Friday, October 29: Sara at The Hiding Spot (Excerpt and Giveaway)

Then it's a long drive all the way to Grimshaw, Alberta to speak with students at the Grimshaw Junio/Senior High as a part of the Young Alberta Book Society's TALEBLAZERS festival. From there it's back to Edmonton for the Pure Speculation Sci-Fi Fantasy Festival. I'll be presenting an intro to, and reading from, the Skinned series, as well as sitting on several panels with coolio folks like Tanya Huff (Her Blood series was turned into the 22 episode BLOOD TIES), Mike Perschon (He speaks on Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror at academic conferences and fan conventions, and has been virally disseminating his research at steampunkscholar.com), and Dan Brodribb (Dan is a writer/stand-up comic/wrestling referee).

Whew! It's gonna awesome to kick back and chillax on Halloween night and watch some scccaaaarrry movies!