Cynthia Hand's Blog, page 8

Spring Into the Future

So I haven't blogged in a while. Sorry.

I pretty much exhausted myself finishing this draft of Book 3. Writers often talk about "the fainting couch," where you go after you finish a particularly demanding draft for a certain recovery time. Boy, did I ever need the fainting couch after finishing this draft.

Only, I didn't really do the fainting couch this time. I took one day to clean my house. And then I set out to really live it up with my kids. Poor little people spent so much time watching videos and being shuttled off to daycare while I wrote and wrote and wrote, so I figured they could really use some fun, special time. So that's what we did. We went to children's museums. I took my son to Disneyland, where we had an entirely pirate-themed day. We went to the farm, the beach, an assortment of parks. I made it my goal to do something super fun with them every day.

A few days ago, my son asked me, "Mommy, how much longer can we have fun?"

Me: "I don't know, honey."

Will: (big sigh) "I hope we can have fun forever."

Me: (big sigh) (because I know the revision letter from my editor is coming. Soon. And then it will be back to the grindstone.)

So yeah, I didn't feel much like blogging.

Then I went to RT (the Romantic Times Book Convention in Chicago!) That was AWESOME. I will totally recap all about it in a couple days.

Then (and I mean like the minute I got off the plane from RT, seriously) I got sick with a nasty cold.

Which brings us to now. This morning I can breathe a little. The kids are eating their lunches. And I am BLOGGING.

I have a lot to catch up on, obviously.

First things first, though, I need to announce that I am part of the Spring Into the Future tour with Tahereh Mafi (author of SHATTER ME), Anna Carey (author of EVE), and Veronica Rossi (author of UNDER THE NEVER SKY). Tahereh was sweet enough to ask me to do their event in Pasadena (since I live thereabouts), and then we noticed that we were all going to be in Chicago the following day, so she asked me to join them there, too. It was a blast. I am a HUGE fan of all three of these ladies.

Anna Carey, myself, Marie Lu, Tahereh Mafi, and Veronica Rossi signing books at Vromans in Pasadena
So I was so honored and thrilled to be asked back to be part of the Pacific Northwest leg of the tour.

Here are the dates and information:

May 3, San Francisco, signing at 7pm at Copperfields in Petaluma.

May 4, Portland, signing at 7pm at Barnes & Noble in Clackamas.

May 5, Seattle, Teen Brunch at 11am at the University Book Store, Mill Creek.

So come see me! I will be doing some other events a bit later in the summer. Keep checking my sidebar on the blog here for future events.

In other news:

We have an official title for Book 3. I am just waiting for the greenlight to tell you. I have also seen a mock-up of the cover, and I can honestly say, it is my FAVORITE of all my covers so far. It is GORGEOUS. Swoon. I loves.

I am working on a new project. Which has been lots of fun. It is a completely different world and voice from the Unearthly series, and that is pretty much all I can tell you about it. See my progress in the sidebar, also.

YA Scavenger Hunt

Hi! I just finished a draft of UNEARTHLY #3 yesterday, so I've been hiding out writing for a while, but this is the greatest excuse ever to come out of my writerly cave! It's the YA Scavenger hunt! This tri-annual event was first organized by author Colleen Houck as a way to give readers a chance to gain access to exclusive bonus material from their favorite authors...and a chance to win some awesome prizes! At this hunt, you not only get access to exclusive content from each author, you also get a clue for the hunt. Add up the clues, and you can enter for our prize--one lucky winner will receive TWENTY signed books, one book from each author on the hunt in my team! But play fast: this contest (and all the exclusive bonus material) will only be online for 72 hours!
Go to the YA Scavenger Hunt page to find out all about the hunt. There are THREE contests going on simultaneously, and you can enter all three! I am a part of the BLUE TEAM--but there is also a red team and a yellow team. You can enter all three contests--which has a total prize bucket of SIXTY signed books!

If you'd like to find out more about the hunt, see links to all the authors participating, and see the full list of prizes up for grabs, go to the YA Scavenger Hunt homepage.
SCAVENGER HUNT PUZZLE
Directions: Hidden within my post is a single letter that is blue. Make a note of that letter! It's a part of a scrambled phrase. When you go to all the author sites of the blue team, you'll have all the letters you need to enter the contest.

Entry Form: Once you piece together all the clues to the hunt, make sure you fill out the form here to officially qualify for the grand prize. Only entries that have the completed phrase will qualify.

Rules: Open internationally, anyone below the age of 18 should have a parent or guardian's permission to enter. To be eligible for the grand prize, you must submit the completed entry form by April 1st, at noon Pacific Time. Entries sent without the correct puzzle code or without contact information will not be considered.

I am also going to hold a little contest of my own, in honor of this occasion. I will give away an Unearthly prize pack, which includes: A Team Tucker/Team Christian patch, whichever you prefer, a bunch of Unearthly temporary tattoos, some signed bookmarks and signed bookplates, plus a signed copy of Hallowed. All you have to do is follow me on twitter, facebook, or subscribe this this blog. Leave what you did in the comments, 1 entry per thing, and I'll announce the winner when we announce the winner of the hunt. Good luck!

SCAVENGER HUNT POST

Today, I am hosting Lisa Burstein on my website for the YA Scavenger Hunt! I've never met Lisa before, but she sounds like my type of writer! And she's a Northwestern girl! Woohoo! (I'm from Idaho and my husband is from Oregon, very near Portland, so I cheered when I read Lisa's bio. Which is right here:
Lisa Burstein is a tea seller by day and a writer by night. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from the Inland Northwest Center for Writers at Eastern Washington University and is glad to finally have it be worth more than the paper it was printed on. She lives in Portland, Oregon with her very patient husband, a neurotic dog and two cats. Pretty Amy is her first novel. She never went to her senior prom.Find out more information by checking out Lisa's website or find more about the Pretty Amy here! Now on to the exclusive content. Lisa was generous enough (and we are lucky enough!) to get a sneak peak the Pretty Amy, which won't be out until May 15. Woohoo! Here it is! I'm excluding an excerpt here, and then you can follow the link before to read the rest of the section! Don't forget to look for the BLUE letter.EXCLUSIVE CONTENT
Here's the description of the book:

Amy is fine living in the shadows of beautiful Lila and uber-cool Cassie, because at least she's somewhat beautiful and uber-cool by association. But when their dates stand them up for prom, and the girls take matters into their own hands—earning them a night in jail outfitted in satin, stilettos, and Spanx—Amy discovers even a prom spent in handcuffs might be better than the humiliating "rehabilitation techniques" now filling up her summer. Worse, with Lila and Cassie parentally banned, Amy feels like she has nothing—like she is nothing.

Navigating unlikely alliances with her new coworker, two very different boys, and possibly even her parents, Amy struggles to decide if it's worth being a best friend when it makes you a public enemy. Bringing readers along on an often hilarious and heartwarming journey, Amy finds that maybe getting a life only happens once you think your life is over.

Sounds awesome, right? I can't wait to read it! So here's the first peek:


Unfortunately, I am only myself. I am only Amy Fleishman.
I am one of the legions of middle-class white girls who
search malls for jeans that make them look thinner, who
search drugstores for makeup to wear as a second skin, who
are as sexy and exotic as blueberry muffins.
I am a walking, talking True Life episode. Your highschool
guidance counselor's wet dream, and one of the only
girls I know to get arrested on prom night.
When my mother dropped me off at Lila's, rather than
running like hell the way I usually did, I sat next to her in our
minivan and waited for a speech. The speech mothers give to
their only daughters on nights when those daughters are all
dressed up and the mothers look all wistful and teary.
I assumed she was building up to it, was working through
exactly what she was going to say so it would be perfect. I
knew from TV that she must have practiced in the mirror, but
maybe, faced with having to say all those things to me, she'd
frozen up. I could understand that.
When I saw Lila peek out to see who was sitting in her
driveway, and then felt my phone vibrate with a text that I
knew must say, WTF R U DOIN?, I figured I had waited long
enough.
"So this is it…," I said. My mother stared at Lila's small,
birdsh*t-gray house and bit at what was left of her nails. After
I'd started hanging out with Lila and Cassie, my mother
gnawed at her nails the way a baby sucked her thumb. "…my
senior prom," I continued.
Maybe she was overwhelmed. Her little girl was all grown
up. Her ugly duckling had finally become a swan.
"I don't want to ruin this for you, so I'm choosing to hold
my tongue."
My mother loved using old-time folksy sayings. Hold your
horses. The early bird catches the worm. The penis with two
holes puts out the fire faster.
All right, fine, I made up that last one.
She had been holding her tongue for a while now. When
yelling at me about my "degenerate" friends hadn't helped,
she went for the semi-silent treatment.
Stupid me for trying to get her to talk.
"There's something very wrong with this, Amy," she said.
She meant that Lila's boyfriend, Brian, had arranged a
date for me. My mother had never met this boy. I had never
met this boy. It may have seemed wrong to her, but I was used
to Lila bringing the boys. And, it was still my senior prom. It
was still my night, and she couldn't even have a special, sappy
moment with me.
"I want to tell you to have a good time, to enjoy every
moment, to be safe, but I know you won't listen anyway. I
know you'll do what you want to do."
She was talking to herself again.
My mother's favorite hobbies were talking to herself
and bitching. Though I suppose those were hobbies for most
mothers, my mother honed them like skills. If bitching were
karate, my mother would be a black belt.
I looked down at my dress. It was strapless and light blue
to bring out my eyes, which weren't blue, but raccoon gray,
and picked up whatever color I put next to them. The bodice
was tight and shiny, like what a superhero might wear, and the
skirt flared out and fell just below my knees. When my mother
had seen it hanging on the bathroom door earlier tonight,
she'd said it looked trampy, which made me even happier that
she hadn't been there when I picked it out.
She also hadn't been there when I got my shoes and clutch
purse dyed to match. Sure, she had given me money, but she
hadn't been there. Not like I would have asked her to be there,
but she hadn't offered, either.
"Thanks for the memories," I said, opening the door.
Her only job tonight was to tell me I was beautiful, that I
was her beautiful baby girl all grown up, but she couldn't even
do that.
"I can't help the way I feel," she said, like some self-helpbook
junkie. Well, not like one—she was one. For Chanukah
last year she had gotten me an itchy sweater and Chicken
Soup for the Daughter's Soul. The inscription had read, FYI.
Seriously.

Loved that! And here's the link, if you'd like to peek some more:
http://www.lisaburstein.com/Exclusive_Content.html
username: prettyamy
password: prettyamy1

Here's the next stop on the hunt: Laura A. H. Elliott

Don't forget to enter your entries in the comments below to qualify for my special UNEARTHLY prize pack, as well.

 

See you tomorrow, Texas

I am overdue for a post, I know. But I have been working so hard on Book 3, you guys. I'm in that stage when I'm even writing it in my sleep (I never have writer's block in my sleep, amazing!) and revising it in the shower. I am so deep in the writer's cave they're going to have to send spelunkers to find me. . .

But. . . tomorrow I am headed to TEXAS on the Dark Days tour. I am so very excited. Being on tour is about as glamorous as it gets for us writerly types. You get picked up by the black sedan and the guy in the suit. You stay in nice hotels and get to order room service and eat at fancy restaurants. Everywhere you go, people know your name and think you're awesome. And, best of all, on the Dark Days tour you get to hang out with other writers!
Me and Ellen Schreiber on last year's Dark Days tour
I am SOOOOO excited to meet this year's group: first, the fabulous Courtney Allison Moulton, who I have chatted with and tweeted and cheerleaded for but never met in person. And Brodi Ashton and Jodi Meadows, who are both debuts. I have read both of their books and I think they are awesome and I am so happy that I'll be able to get to know them.

(If you listen carefully you might be able to hear my frantic packing for this trip, right now. . .)

My Dark Days Texas stops:

Thursday, February 16th
DALLAS
B&N Southlake
5pm

Friday, February 17th
AUSTIN
B&N Austin
7pm

Saturday, February 18th
HOUSTON
Blue Willow Book Shop
4pm

See you tomorrow, Texas!

Bull's eye and the New York Times

It's been a crazy week. I am now home from my Idaho tour (yay Idaho!), and will post a recap of that later. With pictures. There are a 372 photos of the trip for me to sort through. So yeah, later.

But let me tell you about Wednesday. Wednesday was one of those pinch-me days. Wednesday I was on cloud surreal.

I am still on cloud surreal. . .

So, Wednesday I was up at my dad's mountain house, which is smack between Challis and Mackay, Idaho. It's the middle of nowhere, high desert with a gorgeous view of Mt. Borah, the tallest mountain in Idaho, and a lot of snow. It's so quiet up there I swear I can hear my thoughts rattle when they bounce around in my head. It's also a wonderland for my son, who gets to ride the tractor and ATVs and sled down the perfectly-pitched-for-sledding driveway and play with my dad's four Labrador retrievers. Heaven is Pop-Pop's house!

View from my dad's front porchWe started the day with a fine breakfast that my dad cooked: scrambled eggs, bacon, and toast made with homemade bread. I was in heaven, too. I'm generally in heaven when somebody else cooks.

I had been up all night coughing with a nasty cold, and the baby had been up all night because I kept waking her up with my coughing, so we were slow to get moving that day. I was deliriously tired. We lazed around in the morning and then, around noonish, decided to go sledding. I bundled up the kids and outside we went. Fun times were had by all. Even the baby got in on the action.

It's all fun and games until you crash into some sagebrush. . .We came in and put the kids down for their naps. Then my dad and I went back out. My dad was going to teach me how to shoot a pistol.

Yep, you heard me right.

Now, I've never had any interest in guns. Like, ever. My dad is a bit of a gun fanatic, truth be told, and I grew up watching him clean his rifles and fill shells at the kitchen table and head off into the wilderness intent on killing a poor defenseless deer every fall, so I'm comfortable around guns, to an extent, but I never had the desire to shoot one. I like Bambi.

But this year I have a novel simmering on the back burner (which I have not allowed myself to write a single word of because I need to finish Book 3 of the Unearthly series first, but I have taken copious notes) where my main character is quite the sharpshooter with a six-shooter. And she needs to be. And that's about all I can tell you at this point.

So I decided I needed to know how it felt to shoot a pistol.

My dad was all too happy to oblige. He set up the target and cleaned the gun and taught me how to load it. We marched out into his backyard (remember that we are out in the middle of nowhere) and he taught me how to hold the gun, how to position my feet, how to aim.

Six bullets.

The first shot I hit the paper with the target on it. Barely. I was pleased that I hit it at all. My heart was going pretty steady just holding the loaded gun.

Second shot I missed. Not sure what I hit. Bah.

Third shot I hit the paper again.

Fourth shot I actually hit the target. I was feeling pretty spiffy about myself.

Fifth shot I missed the target completely. Double bah.

"Squeeze the trigger slowly," my dad advised.

I cocked the gun. Steadied my hand. Squinted at the target. And slowly, slowly, squeezed the trigger.

And hit the bull's eye.

Up to that point I wasn't sure if I liked this gun-shooting thing, but I'll tell you, it was quite the thrill to hit the bull's eye. I was channeling my sharpshooter character. I couldn't wait to get inside and write some notes about how the gun bucked in my hand, the way it smelled, how it felt to aim at something and hit it, and hit it perfectly.

I was all aglow when we came inside.

And then: there was a barrage of texts from my agent waiting on my cell. Texts like, Have you read your email yet? and I will call you as soon as I'm off the subway.

Oh boy. My heart really started going then. I turned immediately to the computer with the tar-slow-satellite-internet and waited for my email account to load.

It was a long wait. A nail-biting wait.

And lo and behold, an email from my editor at HarperCollins. Hallowed is #10 on the Children's Chapter Books bestseller list of the NEW YORK TIMES.

Congrats, my editor wrote. You are now a New York Times Bestselling Author.

Good thing I was sitting down.

Right then my phone rang, my agent off the subway, and we laughed and I may have even cried a little and my dad brought me a glass of champagne.

I've never been one to put too much stock in labels, but what I kept coming back to in those first few moments, again and again, was that this makes it so much more likely than I will be able to continue to write, beyond the Unearthly series, beyond this year or next year, beyond one book or two, but for my lifetime. I can be a writer, I thought. For good.

I made a bunch of calls, one of the first to my best friend, Lindsey.

She said, "Well, I hope I can still be your friend. . ."

Me: "Huh? What?"

Lindsey: "You're an all-important writer now. You're going to need new friends, of course. Important friends."

Me: "Well, I've heard that those New York Times besties are pretty great. . ."

Lindsey: "You see?"

Me: "But I think I can still squeeze you into my top five friends. If you're nice to me. . ."

We laughed and she said she was proud of me. Everyone kept saying how proud they were of me, and I felt proud of myself, too. Proud for being able to write Hallowed even though it was crazy-hard and maybe the most stressed I'd ever been in my life. Proud that I'd made it through. Proud that I'd written some pretty good stuff there. And also grateful and humbled and amazed and knocked over.

It felt pretty amazing.

Like hitting the bull's eye.

Happy Birthday Hallowed

It's been a long but happy day. Hallowed is on the shelves! You'd think I'd get used to the idea, after all this time, but this year I was yet again struck dumb at the bookstore in sheer amazement that it was my. book. on. the. shelves!!!!! Wow. There's some sneaky little corner of my mind that still whispers, "Don't they know that you made this entire thing up? No, really. You made this entire Clara-the-angel-blood thing up. From your brain. That's all."

See? Don't I look dazed?
 And there was a HUGE pile of my books at the Idaho Falls Barnes & Noble, in preparation for Saturday's signing, and posters with my picture on them all over the store. Talk about surreal. . . See the lovely display and the bunches of books?
Yup. That's me.
This is a day that I am truly thankful for all the wonderful, supportive people in my life, most especially my writerly-super-hero agent, Katherine, my kick-butt-and-take-names editor, Farrin, and my sounding-board-and-support-system husband, John. I couldn't have done any of this without you three. (come on, group hug!)
Now I have to go to sleep, because I am doing my first ever Author School Visit tomorrow morning. For someone who teaches writing for a living, I am surprisingly nervous. Wish me luck!
And thank you, all you readers out there, all you book bloggers, all you friends and neighbors and colleagues, all you fellow writers, for making me feel so loved and so important on this very fine day.  

Winners for the Final Hallowed ARC giveaway

Thanks to everybody who posted, tweeted, and facebooked my Hallowed trailers this week! I have 2 winners for my contest, which my son drew randomly out of a tub with all the entries in it. He was rather disappointed when nothing spectacular happened after he drew the names.

The winners are:

Vetsy
Solange

Please email me with your mailing address and I will get your signed books in the mail TODAY, as I am going to Idaho tomorrow and won't be back for 2 weeks.

I always feel so badly for the people who didn't win. But take heart, Hallowed is, as I write this, 3 days, 15 hours, 9 minutes and 20 seconds from being released.

If you would like a signed copy of Hallowed (or of Unearthly), I've worked out a new deal with an indie bookshop nearby. Call them up (or email), order the book from them, and I'll stop by and sign it before it ships. Yay for indie bookstores!

Here's the bookstore information:

Diesel, A Bookstore
310-456-9961
cheryl@dieselbookstore.com

And now for some news:
I am doing 2 amazing blog tours this month, one for the UK and one for the Mundie Moms. The UK info can be found in the awesome graphic in the sidebar. I've already started with the Mundie Moms tour, that you can see here:

Stop 1 (an excerpt from Hallowed)

Stop 2 (a vlog interview, plus an awesome Team Tucker prize pack giveaway)

Stop 3  (a review of Hallowed)

Stop 4 ( today's post, my top 5 things to do in Jackson Hole)

and then these later stops:
 14th- Books Complete Me, excerpt
16th- YA Bibliophile, review
17th- Mundie Moms, character interview & giveaway
18th- Novel Novice, guest post
19th- Anna Reads, interview & giveaway
20th- Fire & Ice, review
21st- Page Turners Blog, author interview & giveaway
23rd- GReads, review
24th- Once Upon A Twilight, guest post
25th- Hypable- interview
Whew! I'm tired just looking at that list.

And excited to be headed off to Idaho for my real life signing in Idaho Falls on January 21 at the IF Barnes and Noble, 1pm and my signing in Boise on January 28 at the Hyde Park Bookstore, 1pm.

See you there!

Hallowed Trailer for the US

Yay! I am so happy to be able to share the US trailer for Hallowed with you, finally! I love this trailer. Live action!

I will give double entries for my final ARC giveaway to people who post this trailer to their blog, facebook, and twitter. Just leave your posts in the comments section.

Enjoy!



7 days until Hallowed hits the shelves!

Countdown for Hallowed

Yesterday is my author birthday, when I officially became a published author. It's been one crazy/surreal year!

And now Hallowed go-time is less than two weeks away. I am so excited to be going back to Idaho for the launch, and I've got 2 signings going on there.

The first will be on Saturday, January 21 at 1pm at the Idaho Falls Barnes and Noble. I had my Unearthly launch at this Barnes and Noble last year and it was such great fun. I grew up in Idaho Falls, and so many of my old friends/neighbors/classmates/teachers came to the signing (I expect to see you all there this time too, guys, love you!), along with my very first teen readers that I got to meet in person. It was a magical day, and I'm so excited to get to go home again for the launch of Hallowed. Thanks so much to Kaaren at Barnes and Noble and my awesome publicist, Marisa, for making it all happen.

The second signing will be on the following Saturday, January 28 at 1pm at the Hyde Park bookstore in Boise, Idaho. I lived in Boise for 3 years while I was getting my MFA from Boise State, and in the general Boise area for 7 years when you count my 4 years in Caldwell when I attended College of Idaho, so it's a place close to my heart. (Plus my best friend lives there. Linds! I need bestie time.) I love Boise. Seriously, if I were suddenly to make a million dollars, I would probably pack up my family and move there. It is a great town.

I am also doing a mess of school visits, so you might see me at your school if you live in either of these areas.

In the meantime, I have to hunker down and finish Book 3, and, quite frankly, it's been kicking my butt. So many threads to tie up. I am going a little crazy here, but Clara is still making me laugh, which is the important thing. I am also doing two separate blog tours, which is keeping me plenty busy. See my shiny new UK blog tour graphic over there on the sidebar? Which means 2 things: I am going to be busy writing for other people's blogs for a while, so I probably won't be writing much on my own, but I have some really great blog posts planned for my tour (on the UK one, I'm doing separate posts about my thoughts on Christian and my thoughts on Tucker, sharing my Hallowed playlist, giving you a run-down on my dream film cast for Unearthly, and so on, and on the US one I am planning a couple of vlogs shot in Jackson and the Tetons. . . ) so please check it out.

It also means that I am mostly saying no to any interview requests I'm getting outside of these tours. I am getting 1-3 requests for interviews a day right now, which pains me, because ultimately I have to say no. I would love to do interviews, but I am out of time, folks. Book 3 has to get written if you want to read it next year.

If you super want me to do an interview, please ask to schedule it for after March 1, and make it 5 questions or less, and follow up with me about it. Things will calm down a bit in March.

Here is the awesome UK trailer for Hallowed. Post this trailer on your website, or share on twitter and facebook, and I will enter you in my final Hallowed ARC contest. Just comment below on what you did, 1 entry for each thing. I will give away 2 signed copies, winner to be announced January 12, so I can have it in the mail by the 13th before I head off to Idaho. (and if I miraculously get my advanced REAL copies of Hallowed before then, I will send those instead. Because they are SHINY.)


I also saw the US trailer for Hallowed today, and it was awesome!!! Watch for it to go live any day now. I will give you double points for sharing this trailer.

And now back to scribbling away on Book 3. Peace out.

Books I read in 2011

Well, it's the last day of the year, which means that it's time for the "Books I Read" list. This year I read (give or take, not counting rereads or parenting books or pregnancy books or books I assigned my students) 70 books. That's a lot. My eyes are tired.

This was the year of the dystopian, which was great, because I LOVE dystopians. I have always loved stories about what happens after the world ends. So I really enjoyed myself this year. I am pretty easy to please, books-wise, most of the time. There were only 2 or 3 books this year that I really disliked. And my mama taught me not to badmouth other people, so I won't tell you what they are.

This was also a year that I started but didn't finish a lot of books, which is weird for me. I guess, what with the new baby and the book tour and the loads of writing I had to do myself this year, I had a shorter attention span. If it didn't catch me, I didn't keep reading it. I also bought probably 25 books I simply didn't get to this year. My list next year is going to be enormous, I have a feeling. . .

So, without further, ado, the 2011 list:


1.      Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver. This was easily my favorite book of the year, which is funny because it was the first book I read. It took me a while to get into, as the opening chapters are long and detailed and you don't know why you need to know all this stuff, but trust me, TRUST ME, you need to know all this stuff, and once you get to the premise of the book you'll never look back. I loved everything about this novel. It was just superbly written, beautiful language, an interesting, emotional, creative story. Sigh. I wish I could read it for the first time all over again.
2.      XVI by Julia Karr. I've had the pleasure of getting to know Julia a little bit in the Elevensies (which is a group of debut authors whose books came out in 2011), and she is awesome. Her book was in the first wave of the dystopians this year, but one of the better ones, I thought.
3.      Across the Universe by Beth Revis. I felt oddly competitive with this book. Or maybe not-so-oddly, since it came out the week before Unearthly and hit the New York Times list, and every time I went into a bookstore that week there seemed to be a bigger pile of this book than mine. I really wished I could say that it was a terrible book. But it's terrific, seriously. One of the best first chapters ever written, I think. I get cold just thinking about it. And it's not like any other book I've read, which is another reason it's great. Plus everyone says that Beth Revis is just a lovely lovely lovely person. So I can't be too jealous. Or I shouldn't be. It deserves every bit of the praise it gets.
4.      Ascendent by Diana Peterfreund. This was the sequel to Rampant, which made my top 5 list last year, and it was also spectacularly good. I'm going to make a list of my top sequels soon, and this novel is on it. It was even better than the first one, I thought. Gotta love the modern-day virgin unicorn-killing warrior.
5.      Uglies by Scott Westerfeld. One of my student recommended that I read this series, since I said I liked dystopians, and I really liked it. I flew through the whole series in less than a week. My students are awesome.
6.      Pretties by Scott Westerfeld
7.      Specials by Scott Westerfeld

8.      Delirium by Lauren Oliver. Now, we've already established that I heart Lauren Oliver. A lot. And I hearted this book, too, but I loved Before I Fall so much that I couldn't help but compare, and I didn't love this book as much as that one. Which is not to say that it's not a great book. It's got the beautiful writing, too, and is probably one of the best dystopians that came out this year. (goes and writes fan mail to Lauren Oliver. . .)
9.      Glimmerglass by Jenna Black. This was one of those books I bought because I thought the title was beautiful. It turned out to be a good book, which is a plus. It was refreshing to read a fairy book again. Snif. I missed Melissa Marr this year.
10.  Wither by Lauren DeStefano. I thought this book was gutsy as all get-out. It's such a gritty dystopian world, and DeStefano doesn't soften the punches. Oh yes, there were sister wives. And a teenager having a baby. And murder. And a strange disease that kills everybody before they turn 25. It was a crazy, crazy, ride, but DeStefano pulled it off by making us feel for the characters. I was still thinking about this book days later, and wondering how the series is going to end.
11.  The Dark and Hollow Places by Carrie Ryan. I am a HUGE Carrie Ryan fan. I still don't think you can get a book much better than The Forest of Hands and Teeth. So of course I gobbled this book right up, and it was super-satisfying. I love that each book of this series is from a new, unexpected character's point of view. It makes each story so fresh, at the same time keeping us in the familiar, scary zombies-are-going-to-eat-us-all! world.
12.  Clarity by Kim Harrington. I really liked this book, a nice thriller-type novel where the main character has a good dose of sass, which I find charming. It also had a great sense of setting. 
13.  My Blood Approves by Amanda Hocking. Okay, here we go. I know I said that my mama told me not to bad mouth other people, but. . . (bites lip). . .ACK! This book was truly awful. How in the name of all that's holy did this poorly-written Twilight rip-off ever become popular? After finishing the book (and oh yes, I did finish it; I had to keep reading because I couldn't believe it wasn't going to get any better. . .) I had to ask myself, is it me, or is this a truly horrendous book? Do I have a problem with self-publishing? Am I jealous? Am I stuck up? To which I came to the following conclusion: No. No. And no. The book sucks.
14.  Entwined by Heather Dixon. This book does NOT suck. It is a lovely, lovely book, from its gorgeous cover (I vote for this book as maybe the prettiest cover of 2011, outside of Unearthly, of course :P) to its premise: a smart retelling of the twelve dancing princesses fairy tale. Such a challenge to write about 12 sisters and keep them all straight and make us care about all of them, but Dixon pulled it off. I loved this book, and I am grateful to Heather Dixon, because I really needed something fantastic after the Hocking.
15.  Cold Kiss by Amy Garvey. This is a nice, super-creepy story about a girl who uses witchcraft to bring her dead boyfriend back to life. (Shudders. But in a good way, as it was a very good book.)
16.  Divergent by Veronica Roth. Okay, so this is the go-to, you'll-like-it-if-you-liked-Hunger-Games book this year, and it deserves that reputation. This is an excellent, edge-of-your-seat read. I'm a fan.
17.  The Vespertine by Saundra Mitchell. This was a refreshing read, a Victorian paranormal that was creepy in all the right places and romantic in all the right places and fun with pretty dresses. Plus it has the gorgeous cover. I love how she's looking over her shoulder as she runs; it captures the emotion of the book so well. I was in such dread for this main character and worried about what would happen to her. There was a moment near the end where I was seriously nail-biting over this one.
18.  The Game of Thrones series by George R.R. Martin. I got into this because I started watching Game of Thrones on HBO. I was thrilled at how faithful the TV series has been so far to the books. The first book is awesome. I ate it up, and promptly bought the second, and ate that up, but at some point I started ignoring all the characters I wasn't particularly interested in (which is easy with these books since each chapter is from a different character's POV) and skimmed ahead for the Daenerys and Sansa and Arya and Cersei chapters. Yep. I am all about the female characters. The rest are all dumb guys with swords.
19.  The Goddess Test by Aimee Carter. Liked it. Totally wanted her to end up with Hades.
20.  The False Princess by Eilis O' Neall. Liked it, too. It was refreshing to read a straight-up fantasy with a solid main character.
21.  Starcrossed by Josephine Angelini. Love the cover of this one; it just screams Helen of Troy, with the storm lurking in the background.
22.  Die For Me by Amy Plum. I really liked this one. Who would have thought that zombies (okay, sort of zombies) could be sexy. I also dug the Paris setting.
23.  Hereafter by Tara Hudson. I also really liked this book. It was a ghost story done right, and I was cheering for the characters all the way, and sad about their dilemma.
24.  Slide by Jill Hathaway. This is the very first book that I decided to blurb. Which of course means I loved it, if I am willing to attach my name to it. I think it's a perfect example of a writer getting all of the elements right: a great narrative voice, a simple but well-executed premise, tons of thrills (this book is a THRILLER-- there are definitely a few of those what I like to call Rear Window moments. You know, in Rear Window with Jimmy Stewart, when he's spying on his neighbor who he thinks is a murderer and Grace Kelly breaks into the scary neighbor's apartment to look for evidence, and then the murderer COMES HOME? And Jimmy Stewart can only watch it all helplessly? Well, Slide is like that. Gave me chills a couple of times.), and the story speaks to the voyeur in all of us, except in this case, the MC can't help but watch. . .
25.  Red Riding Hood by a whole mess of people I'm too lazy to write down. I'm also too lazy to tell you what a hot mess of a novel this was. Watch the movie, which is also a hot mess, but at least there are pretty boys in it.
26.  The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness. Oh my heck. You guys. This book. So I was doing a signing in Pocatello, Idaho, this past summer, and the manager at the Waldenbooks and I got to talking, and he told me his favorite book this year was this Patrick Ness book. People either love it or they hate it, he said. The language is all funny. And the characters can all hear what each other is thinking, and Ness gives it to us the way people really think, not coherent sentences but colors and images and a jumble of words and emotions. And the main character can't read or write since they don't have school because they can't have school because they are all thinking too loud to concentrate. So, like he said, the language is all funny. But it's beautiful, like reading prose poetry. The story is amazing. And there's a dog. The MC has a conversation with his dog (where he can hear the dog's thought, you dig?) on the very first page in fact. This book. Rocked. My. World. I promptly bought and read all the others, plus a short story he wrote about this same world. *hugs the Waldenbooks guy. . .
27.  The Ask and The Answer by Patrick Ness
28.  The New World by Patrick Ness
29.  Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness
30.  Hourglass by Myra McIntyre. There was a lot of hoopla around this book, and I get why. Time travelling is hot. And there's a hot guy (seriously, so hot, wow) and the light bulbs flare and break whenever he and the MC kiss. Wish I'd thought of THAT idea. Isn't the cover awesome? I love the pose and the dress and the way her hair trickles sideways to the floor.
31.  Incarceron by Catherine Fisher. I'd been wanting to read this book for a while, since I keep hearing people talk about it, and so I finally did. And it was cool. That's the word I'd pick to describe it. Cool. The world-building is fantastic and I really worried and yearned with the characters.
32.  Sapphique by Catherine Fisher. So of course I had to read the sequel. Also cool.
33.  From Bad to Cursed by Katie Alender. I know Katie, so maybe I'm biased a little, but I thought this sequel in her Bad Girls Don't Die series was even better than the first, and I really, really liked the first. There's something I find so charming about the voice of this MC, and the way she handles all the crazy crap that's thrown at her. Last time a doll tried to kill her. This time she has to deal with a crazy-popular-girl CULT. Fun times ensue. I am also super jealous of Katie's book trailer, which her film-maker husband made for her:


34.  Hare Moon (short story) by Carrie Ryan
35.  Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer. This was a quiet hit with me, a story about a teenager who has to try to survive the chaos that goes down on Earth after a giant asteroid strikes the moon. 
36.  Birthmarked by Caragh M. O'Brien. Maybe it's because I had a baby this year, but the first chapter of this book KILLED me. The MC is a midwife, and the story had me in its clutches from the first page or so, and didn't let me go until the end, where I subsequently spent the next few hours wide awake in bed worrying about what would happen to her. And the sequel didn't come out for months. And I ended up liking the sequel even more than the first one.
37.  Water Wars by Cameron Stracher. Another dystopian. By this point I was beginning to get faintly weary with dystopians, and they were all starting to run together a little bit, but I remember that I liked this book. As someone who grew up in a mountain desert climate where water rights can be something people shoot at each other over, I got it.
38.  Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs. I saw the trailer for this book, and I thought it looked ah-mazing (this may be the best book trailer EVER), and I went to the bookstore and bought a hard copy, because I wanted to enjoy all the beautiful and eerie pictures. Don't buy the ebook version of this one, you guys.

39.  Personal Demons by Lisa Desrochers. A love triangle. One guy who's literally an angel. The other, not so much. How could I not like this? It was such a fun and playful read for me, especially since it is on a topic so close to my own. 
40.  Wolfsbane by Andrea Cremer. I need to reread this book. I read it without rereading the first of the series, Nightshade, which I really loved last year, and somehow couldn't connect with it this time. But I love Ms. Cremer and the subtle way she works her smarts and her philosophical questions into her books, so I really intend to try this one again.
41.  Supernaturally by Kiersten White. Another sequel that I thought was equal or maybe even better than the first. Okay, no. Not true. I still LOVE the first one for the way it made me feel, experiencing Evie's world for the first time, but this one is bleeping good, too. I also had the pleasure of having breakfast with Kiersten last time I was in San Diego, and she was so smart and funny and I instantly wanted her to be my new writerly bestie. (puppy-dog eyes at Kiersten. I will still totally buy the waffles. You rock.)
42.  Illusions by Aprilynne Pike. This book mostly just made me insanely curious for how it's all going to play out in the next, final book. I am team Tamani, btw. Mostly. When he's not being a pompous a**. I get to be on a panel with Aprilynne at the Romantic Times book convention this April, and I am soooo looking forward to hanging with her again. She was sweet enough to let me shadow her for a bit when she was touring in Idaho a few summers ago, and was so all-around nice and helpful to me a published-author-newbie.
43.  2010 Best American Short Stories. Okay, so I read this for my advanced fiction class, as I do every year, but I count it as recreational reading too. Some awesome stories in here, as there are every year. And a few I just didn't get. As usual.
44.  Haven by Kristi Cook. Liked it.
45.  Vanish by Sophie Jordan. This is another sequel that I definitely loved more than the first book. I liked the first book, mind you, but this one had me breathless in several places. And I felt so bad for Jacinda and all that she had to risk to get what she wanted, and all that she had to lose. But I am Team Cassian. Dragon-boy is hot. :P
46.  Blood Red Road by Moira Young. I LOVED this book. It was at the very top of my list for a long, long time, the book I recommended when people asked me what my favorite dystopian was. I loved the language, the cadence of the prose, the rustic beauty of it. I loved that she had a pet crow. I loved that she ended up with a shaved head. I loved the sense of epicness (is that a word?) about her entire adventure. I heard that Ridley Scott is going to make this book into a film, and that made perfect sense. I can't wait to see it on the screen, but in the meantime I will be waiting patiently for the next book in the series.
47.  The Near Witch by Victoria Scwab. I really liked this one too, more of a straight-up fantasy feel to it, which I liked. This is what Red Riding Hood wishes it was.
48.  Fateful by Claudia Gray. Werewolves on the Titanic. I thought this was going to be cheesy beyond belief, but it actually was pretty good.
49.  Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins. I don't read a lot of contemporary YA, but someone suggested this book to me, and I loved it. Great use of setting, great characters who seemed real and fallible but lovable. Great all around. Reading this book was like taking a big gulp of fresh air after writing a very heavy book myself, and reading a lot of dire and dark dystopians. It also made me want to put a streak in my hair and see an old movie in a Parisian movie house.
50.  The Declaration by Gemma Malley. Speaking of dire and dark dystopians. This was a good read, and translated the vibe of a home for illegally made children in such a vivid way. And oh yes, it was very dark. It reminded me a bit of Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro, which I read and really loved last year.
51.  Anna Dressed in Blood by Blake Kendare. Hands down the best ghost story of the year (sorry Tara Hudson, Hereafter was a close second, I swear). Anna scared me to death, and I also felt soooo bad for her and for Cas for having to deal with her. Snif. I totally want to see a mash-up of this and Anna and The French Kiss, hee hee. Anyhow. It was creeptastic. An amazing cover, too, I thought, which really captures the essence of the book without being too gory. Anna is both terrifying and beautiful in this picture. I love when a publisher truly gets the cover right for the story and not just what they think is going to get the reader to pick it up off the shelf.
52.  The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin. Liked it. Also liked the cover, which again seemed to capture the essence of the book beautifully.
53.  The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson. I haven't gotten this swept up in a fantasy since Graceling. This book is epic, and masterfully paced. And I so admire Rae Carson for giving us a heroine who's overweight and doesn't think of herself as worth much at the beginning of the book, and then slowly but surely, powerfully and unexpectedly, transforming her.

54.  Eve by Anna Carey. The first page of the book made me cry, which I considered a good sign. I just. . . enjoyed this book, through and through. Got to the end and read the acknowledgments and was surprised to find that Anna Carey and I have the same editor over at HarperTeen. Yay, Farrin, for editing such a great book! I will definitely read the next one of the series.
55.  The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater. I've been a huge fan of Ms. Stiefvater ever since Shiver, but she really outdid herself this time. This book was lovely in every way. I could not put it down. My husband would find me hiding from my kids in the closet with my kindle just so I could read a few more pages. I loved the mythology of this book, sprung to life. There was a scene with Puck and her horse and her brother in the barn that literally had my hand standing on end. I was laughing and nearly crying by the end. So. freaking. good.
56.  Crossed by Ally Condie. Matched made my top five last year, but I didn't like the sequel nearly as well, although I can't say why, exactly. I can be meh about sequels sometimes.
57.  A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness. This book lodged a terrible ache in my throat for days. Masterfully done. Only read if you're stocked up on tissues.
58.  Prized by Caragh M. O'Brien. Scroll up to #36 to see my thoughts on Birthmarked, which I liked. I loved Prized even more. There was something so life-or-death about it, and it felt like an entirely new and different, even-richer world than the first book, in a good way. I also enjoyed the love square, and was never quite decided on which boy Gaia should end up with.
59.  Shine by Lauren Myracle. I learned about this book because of the book award drama (I told you before I don't read a whole lot of contemporary YA) and I was so glad I did. It's an amazingly brave and well-told little book. I liked it so much I want to use it in my YA lit class in the fall. I have a feeling we'll have a lot to talk about. The setting here was so incredibly well-rendered, and the voice reminded me of Harper Lee, if Harper Lee was writing about hate crimes and sexual abuse.
60.  The Future of Us by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler. I liked this book, and I am addicted to facebook, so it felt particularly relevant and interesting, plus I was a teenager at the same time as these characters, so it really took me back. But as a book it didn't hold a candle to Thirteen Reasons Why. It was so much. . .fluffier. Not that I don't like fluffy at times. But from Asher I can't help but be slightly disappointed. Then I tell myself to give the guy a break and let him write a book that doesn't take him to an utterly dark place every day, okay?
61.  Legend by Marie Lu. A bookstore manager and I were talking about dystopians a while back, and I mentioned some of the ones I loved, and she was kind of meh about them. There are so many dystopians, she said, that to stand out you really have to offer something fresh. And then she recommended this book. Which I found funny, because while I liked the book and enjoyed the story, it didn't strike me as particularly fresh. It struck me as trying to be the next Hunger Games, all the way down to the symbol on the cover. But maybe my meh about this book has way more to do with being just a tad burned out by dystopians at this point.
62.  Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi. Or maybe I'm not so burned out by dystopians, because I loved this one. I'm a language girl, first and foremost, and the language of this book was gorgeous. I loved the strike-outs. I did feel like we suddenly were in an episode of X-Men right at the end, but as a die-hard X-Men fan, I kind of dug that. I also think that this cover is all wrong for this book, a clear example of the publisher (my publisher--eep! sorry!) trying to hook the reader with a pretty dress rather than trying to capture the essence of the book. It's a beautiful cover, don't get me wrong. But doesn't truly speak for the book, except for the strike-out at the top. 
63.   Tiger's Curse by Colleen Houck. Bought this in hardcover because it wasn't available as an ebook. Very cool, interesting mythology.

64. Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi. Speaking of covers, I loved this one. Totally got it right, in my opinion. I also really enjoyed this book, and I immediately asked myself whether I thought this book brought something fresh to the dystopian landscape, and the answer was YES. I also liked the way Perry could smell how Aria was feeling, and I loved the singing element. This is a writer who doesn't lean too much on the visual, which I admire. And it was a tense and high-stakes story, too.
65.  The Paris Wife by Paula Mclain. Okay, so this is not YA. But I couldn't help reading this. As some of you might know, I have a PhD in Creative Writing (no Dr. Hand jokes, please), and to get said PhD I had to specialize in an area of literature and write many many MANY pages of papers on this specialty, so that I could be, well, you know, a specialist. I chose Hemingway (and his contemporaries, but mostly Hemingway), which means I have read every one of Hemingway's novels and most of his short stories and poems and memoirs. And I have read many many MANY biographies. The point is, this book is a novel from the point of view of Hemingway's first wife, Hadley. When I first started reading it I was aching that I had not written this book. But Ms. Mclain did a beautiful job, both in capturing Hadley (I've always thought that was such a cool name: Hadley Hemingway) and in capturing good old Ernest.
66.  Everneath by Brodi Ashton. One of the awesome things about my job is that I often get books far in advance of their release date. Like these next three, which my publicist sent me because I'm going to be touring with Brodi, Jodi, and Courtney in February for the Dark Days. Wow, does this one ever have a mouth-watering cover, (right?) and I thought the story within was very unique as a paranormal romance. She offered something fresh on the idea. I also liked that there was a countdown at the beginning of every chapter until all kinds of literal hell breaks loose.
67.  Incarnate by Jodi Meadows. This was an awesome book, too, and not just because I'm going to be having lots of car rides and plane trips and giggling with these people, but seriously. Nice world-building. I hated her mother. I wanted her to get eaten by a dragon. I loved the danger that was always lurking in this book, and the idea of these people who had lived thousands of years in different bodies.
68.  Wings of the Wicked by Courtney Allison Moulton. Ah, Courtney. You're doing it to me again, my friend. You kick major patootie. I've been reading this book in my spare minutes for the past three days, and it is a super cool story, always like reading a Buffy episode (in a good way, I promise). I just got to the part where that thing happens that is similar to what happens in my book (not the angels v. cars part, the other part) and omg. *Okay, so this isn't so much a review of the book as a message to Ms. Moulton but I can embrace that: Can't wait to meet you in real life, CAM! Squees and jumps up and down!
69.  Bumped by Megan McCafferty. Cool premise. Maybe the God stuff in this book (one of the MCs is super religious, and I think we're meant to mock that a little, which kind of spun me the wrong way) made me uncomfortable, or maybe the world was just too high-tech for me. I like the low-tech dystopians, typically, the rough and tumble over the what I like to call 5th Element kind of futuristic world. Either way, not my cup of tea, really, although, like I said, cool premise. 
70.  Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor. #70! I'm not all the way done with this book yet, as I am currently working on my own novel and trying not to let my kids starve and my house be taken over my spiders, but I really like it, so far. I love that she has blue hair, and I love the rich, layered settings, and the subtle and not-too-in-your-face mythology.

Whew! That was a lot of books. I narrowed my favorites down to 10.
(drum roll, please)

My Fave 10 books of 2011:
Unearthly (kidding! kind of. . . kind of not kidding. . . of course it's going to be one of my favorite books this year. It's MY book. I published a BOOK. A real book with real pages and a real made-up story and everything. There is nothing that rocks so much as that. :P)

ahem, now the other 9 (i.e., the real list):
Before I Fall
The Scorpio Races
 Blood Red Road
The Knife of Never Letting Go
 Shine
Anna Dressed in Blood
Anna and the French Kiss
Slide
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

So tell me, any books I missed? What would you recommend for 2012?

Hallowed Giveaway and News

Hi y'all. The YA tournament was so much fun! Whew!

I am up my eyeballs in writing Book 3 right now, deep deep deep in my writerly cave, so I am taking a wee hiatus from blogging, but I want to announce a couple things.

First, I am hosting a Hallowed Christmas giveaway on Goodreads.
See here to enter (I don't think it officially opens for a few days, so check back):
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Goodreads Book Giveaway
Hallowed
by Cynthia Hand
Giveaway ends December 25, 2011.
See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.
Enter to win

I also wanted to announce a few tour stops. First, I will be in Idaho in January. I'm still nailing down the details, but I will be doing school visits in the Jackson Hole and Idaho Falls areas mid-January (definitely a reading at the Idaho Falls Barnes and Noble on Saturday, January 21. I will announce the time as soon as I know). I am also considering traveling over to Boise and down to Salt Lake City around this time, so stay tuned.

In February, HarperTeen is sending me to Texas on the Winter Dark Days of Supernatural Tour, with the lovely Courtney Allison Moulton, author of Angelfire and my hilarious horse-loving friend and fellow angel writer, and debuts Brodi Ashton (Everneath) and Jodie Meadows (Incarnate). I am so thrilled to be spending time with these ladies. Dark Days is awesome!

Here are the dates and times:

Thursday, February 16th – DALLAS – B&N Southlake – 5pm
Friday, February 17th – AUSTIN – B&N Austin – 7pm
Saturday, February 18th – HOUSTON – Blue Willow Book Shop – 4pm
In March I plan to do a few stops in my local area of Southern California, hopefully a reading at Pepperdine in Malibu and a few school visits and signings in Ventura County and Los Angeles Country.

In April (11-15) you can catch me in Chicago if you attend the Romantic Times Booklovers Convention, for Teen Day, where I am on a panel, doing some speed reading, and signing and hanging out with a huge bunch of wonderful fellow YA authors. Seriously. So many amazing writers are going to be there. Like I will totally have to resist fangrrling all over the place.

That's all the stops I have planned at the moment. But there will be more. Oh, there will be more.

In the meantime, I'm going to go back to my cave and continue to scribble furiously.