Amy Plum's Blog, page 41
July 20, 2011
Book Tour, New York Stops
It's been five weeks since I got home from my book tour. But because of jet lag, catching up with my family and work, and just the overall surreal aura of the whole thing, it feels like the week-long event occurred sometime in a past life. Which makes me want to get the details from the last two stops down for posterity's sake before they start going all fuzzy and inaccurate. (What do you mean two dozen wonderfully interested and interactive attendees? I remember reading to a stadium full of rabid fans trying to claw their way to the stage!)
Ahem. So here's how it went.
My host for the New York events was my friend Claudia, librarian and Beta-reader extraordinaire. She not only organized the two events, but her husband Bill (old friend and Sotheby's colleague) picked me up at JFK and drove me two hours to their house, where they fed me a fabulous Mexican meal and let me go to bed at a ridiculously early hour.
Me with Claudia and Bill, good friends and generous hosts.
The next day began at Newburgh's Barnes & Noble, where I read my book in public for the very first time. I had practiced that morning for Claudia and Bill, who had timed Chapter 4 as taking 8 minutes, which seemed a reasonable length for a public reading.
My first public reading! (DIE FOR ME, Chapter 4)
The group was small but attentive, and asked a lot of questions. After the huge crowds that the Dark Days tour pulled in, it was a nice change to be able to speak to everyone individually.
Signing books for the Newburgh group
After a delicious crab-cake sandwich lunch at one of my friends' favorite locals, we drove to The Tuxedo Park Library, where Claudia is the Director. She had all sorts of delicious treats set out for attendees and directed me in to a gorgeous reading room, where the first person I met was Carla of Emberchyld's Blog. She had driven two hours after an ice skating tournament to come, which won her dedicated DIE FOR ME fan-of-the-day award.
Me & Carla (who was wearing a gorgeous vintage dress)
There was a book club in attendance who had just read DIE FOR ME, as well as several teenagers who all had questions about the story and writing process.
Reading room at Tuxedo Park Library
And then, smack-dab in the middle of questions I recognized two friends from university and had a mini-freak out ("Hey! I know you! And I know you too!"). I actually knew that they might be coming, but hadn't seen them for twenty years and had been staring at them for the last half-hour without realizing who they were.
Christine and Susan, friends from that past-life called university.
This time the hour flew by. I wasn't nervous. In fact, I was having so much fun that I was surprised when it was over. I felt like calling HarperCollins and saying, "Hey – I can do this now. Sign me up for another couple of weeks!" But alas, the tour was over. And to celebrate the end, Claudia planned something that took me back to the very start.
When I was just beginning to write DIE FOR ME, I was constantly chatting online about it with Claudia and two of her friends, Nancy and Christine. They helped me choose anglophone-friendly names for my characters and gave me input at the very beginning. I had never met them in "real life", so Claudia invited them over for some celebratory champagne and we chatted and marveled about the amazing road that the book had traveled from those very first days when DIE FOR ME was still SLEEPWALKING and Vincent was still "Aurelien". It was the perfect way to say "au revoir" to an incredible fairytale of a week.
Nancy, Me, Claudia, India and Christine
July 18, 2011
1-Day YA Scavenger Hunt: AUGUST 1
As if the summer weren't already fun-packed enough, there will be a ONE DAY ONLY scavenger hunt taking place right here on the internet. Mark August 1 in your calendars, because it's going to be one HOT SUMMER DAY!!!
The participants: YA authors Josephine Angelini, Angela Corbett, Andrea Cremer, Kady Cross, Heather Davis, Bree Despain, Clare Dunkle, Marley Gibson, Abbi Glines, Colleen Houck, Tara Hudson, Elana Johnson, Alexandra Monir, Lisa Nowak, Gregg Olsen, Beth Revis, Lisa and Laura Roecker, Inara Scott, Sophie Jordan, Lani Woodland and many more. (Oh…and me!)
The loot: each author is offering something REALLY special – a bonus chapter, news on an upcoming book, a cover reveal, or another exclusive peek inside their world. But, as I mentioned, it's one day only! All of the bonus material heads back into the vault on Aug 2nd.
And more loot: along the way, there will be fabulous surprises and giveaways!
How it works: come back here to my blog on August 1, and find my surprise guest-author's loot. Then follow the clue I give you to go to the next scavenger hunt location. Fabulous surprises wait around every corner!
Join us as we celebrate what's new in YA fiction!
* A huge thanks to organizer Colleen Houck for coming up with such a fab idea!
July 11, 2011
DIE FOR ME Goodies for Reading Groups
I love book clubs and reading groups, and feel especially honored when someone writes me to tell me that their group chose DIE FOR ME for their reading list! So I decided to do something to show my appreciation. I have a few goodies for reading groups of five or more, libraries, or school groups who have read my book.
1. A list of discussion questions for reading groups.
2. Signed bookmarks.
3. A Skype session up to 20 minutes. I can answer questions about the writing process, the inspiration behind DIE FOR ME or a general Q&A session with your members.
You can read all of the details on my Goodies for Reading Groups page. A heartfelt THANK YOU for choosing DIE FOR ME for your group!
June 25, 2011
Winners of the 1000 FB Followers Giveaway
Wow! What a response! Out of all of the comments you left in the 24 hours, I chose 10 names by randomizer, and here they are:
Camille Morales
Christina Nelson
Patty Kalogeroudis
Tamara Basic
Jennifer Kalman
Hiba Ahsan
Tasnim Sheikh
Anna Pett
Terriz Mortega
Raychelle Smith
You all have 24 hours to email me with your wish-list (email amy attttt amyplumbooks dot com). Give me your prizes from top pick to bottom pick, and I will assign them according to which prizes you rank highest and how high you are on the list. If anyone doesn't respond to me within 24 hours, they forfeit and I contact #11 on my randomizer list!
Thanks everyone for entering the contest – and don't worry if you didn't win. I LOVE CONTESTS! There will be more. (And p.s. Happy Sunday. Tell someone you love them today!)
June 24, 2011
1000 Facebook Followers Giveaway/CONTEST OVER-WILL DRAW NAMES TOMORROW!
As promised, I'm having a giveaway to celebrate reaching 1000 Facebook followers! (Open internationally.) And, to give everyone in every time zone a chance to win, I'll leave the applications open for 24 hours starting…now. The prizes:
A signed copy of DIE FOR ME
Heather Brewer's THE CHRONICLES OF VLADIMIR TOD: EIGHTH GRADE BITES
Leigh Fallon's THE CARRIER OF THE MARK (ARC)
Christina Hopkinson's IZOBEL BRANNIGAN.COM
Nicola Kraus & Emma McLaughlin's THE NANNY DIARIES
5 signed DIE FOR ME bookmarks (5 separate prizes)
If you're not already following me on Twitter (@iHeartRevenants) and FB (http://www.facebook.com/amyplumfanpage), please go to both places and follow/like!
To enter, leave a comment to this post with your name and email and/or Twitter address. DO NOT TELL ME WHICH PRIZE YOU WANT. Because this is how it goes: I will choose the top 10 names by randomizer, and will immediately post them ordered from #1-#10 in a blog post. Those people have 24 hours to email me with their wish-list (the prizes from top pick to bottom pick), and I will assign prizes according to which prizes you rank highest and how high you are on the list. If anyone doesn't respond to me within 24 hours, they forfeit and I contact #11 on my randomizer list!
Let the comments begin! (And THANK YOU 1000 FB followers!!)
1000 Facebook Followers Giveaway
As promised, I'm having a giveaway to celebrate reaching 1000 Facebook followers! (Open internationally.) And, to give everyone in every time zone a chance to win, I'll leave the applications open for 24 hours starting…now. The prizes:
A signed copy of DIE FOR ME
Heather Brewer's THE CHRONICLES OF VLADIMIR TOD: EIGHTH GRADE BITES
Leigh Fallon's THE CARRIER OF THE MARK (ARC)
Christina Hopkinson's IZOBEL BRANNIGAN.COM
Nicola Kraus & Emma McLaughlin's THE NANNY DIARIES
5 signed DIE FOR ME bookmarks (5 separate prizes)
If you're not already following me on Twitter (@iHeartRevenants) and FB (http://www.facebook.com/amyplumfanpage), please go to both places and follow/like!
To enter, leave a comment to this post with your name and email and/or Twitter address. DO NOT TELL ME WHICH PRIZE YOU WANT. Because this is how it goes: I will choose the top 10 names by randomizer, and will immediately post them ordered from #1-#10 in a blog post. Those people have 24 hours to email me with their wish-list (the prizes from top pick to bottom pick), and I will assign prizes according to which prizes you rank highest and how high you are on the list. If anyone doesn't respond to me within 24 hours, they forfeit and I contact #11 on my randomizer list!
Let the comments begin! (And THANK YOU 1000 FB followers!!)
2011 Book Tour Diary, Day 4
Thursday, June 9: Austin
Hotel lobby, Portland: 4:45a.m. Actually more like 4:50, because this time I was the one who was 5 minutes late, and when I arrive in the lobby everyone is on their phones trying to reach me. (Eek!) We book it to the airport, and jump on a plane for Salt Lake City, and as I sit down next to my row-mate, she asks me if I'm traveling for business.
I say "yes" and she asks what kind of business. Turns out that she noticed all of us wearing Veronica's tattoos on our hands (see example below), and just had to know more about it.
Veronica's "Dauntless" tattoo on my hand (during Portland signing)
Travel tip: if you don't want random people chatting with you on airplanes at an ungodly hour of the morning, don't display a mysterious fire tattoo on a noticeable part of your body.
We changed planes in Salt Lake City and landed in Austin around lunch time. Our perky media escort, Kristen J Holland, was waiting for us in a Pucci-style dress and an accent that slingshot me right back to my Birmingham childhood. Not that Texas accents are the same as Alabama's. But for me, her voice evoked a sweat-beaded glass of ice tea with a sprig of mint in it. I felt at home in Texas as soon as she opened her mouth.
And if the accent weren't enough of a welcome, in her van she had a cooler filled with sodas, Hershey's kisses and pretzels. She had magazines about Austin. She pointed out the best restaurants and shops along the way. And as we drove over a long bridge into the center of town, she told us that millions of bats lived under it, and all flew out in a thick noisy bat-cloud every night. You could almost hear five author-brains simultaneously kick into high gear as we began lobbing bat-questions at her.
Turns out we weren't the only group staying at the Omni. We got there just in time for the Harley Davidson festival, and let me tell you, with motors revving just outside, lunch in hotel lobby was a loud affair. I've never seen so much leather, boots, and tied-round-the-forehead bandannas in my life.
I felt smack dab in the spirit of things as I wore my top with black-leather detailing and faux-leather skirt to the signing a couple of hours later. If you don't already know it, Book People is an AWESOME bookstore, and once again I was sorely tempted to split off from our activities for some browsing time.
Once ushered into the author space, we were welcomed by the bookstore staff, as well as the super-peppy Katie Bartow from Mundie Moms. Katie was the HarperCollins live blogger, and you can see her stories and pictures here.
The Dark Days group at Book People, Austin
We followed our now-regular format of Q&A for a huge, enthusiastic crowd, and then the real fun began. I got to meet even more people who I knew from online, like Yara from Once Upon a Twilight, Amy Howard Green and her sister Brittany Howard of the YA Sisterhood (third sister had a very good excuse for not showing, as she was busy giving birth), Terri Zuwala, and Jen Bigheart from I Read Banned Books. (As well as many other amazing people, who I had a blast chatting with as they paused to chat.)
Aprilynne, Ellen and I signing books (Lori Ann's photo)
As soon as the last book was signed, Katie grabbed us and she and and Stacey from Girls in the Stacks, filmed a short interview and took some pictures. And then it was back to the hotel, where fellow writer and fellow married-to-a-French-guy Texas native Lori Ann Stevens was waiting me (we have been online pen pals for over a year), at the lobby bar. (Her photos of the signing are here.)
And instead of heading back to their rooms, which you would think everyone would do after such an exhausting day, the other authors all sat around and chatted with us. Katie had come along, and stayed until there was an incident involving excited gesturing and Aprilynne's Virgin Bloody Mary, which exploded all over the two of them and their bags.
After saying goodbye to Lori Ann (who I hope I will see again in France), I headed up to Tara's room, which had somehow become the designated after-hours spot. We all ordered room-service dinner, which we ate propped upon every available surface: bed, side table, and desk. And after dinner we stayed until our fatigue amped up the hilarity and everything devolved into the conversation-level of a teenage slumber party. Finally, knowing that we all had morning flights, we dragged ourselves away at 1am.
And the next morning I said goodbye to my Dark Days of Summer group. Three were traveling on to Phoenix, one to Oklahoma, and I was continuing my tour in New York. We hugged and said goodbye like old friends, instead of the strangers we had been just three days ago. And, with utmost sincerity and high hopes for the future, we all said to each other as we left, "I hope we can do this again."
June 22, 2011
2011 Book Tour Diary, Day 3
Wednesday, June 8: Portland
Another pre-dawn wakeup. Another early morning work-out at the Westin O'Hare hotel gym…this time with a lot of sweaty businessmen. By 8:45 I was piling my luggage into Bill's van and heading for the airport. My fellow Dark Daysers and I accompanied each other through security checks and hung out chatting until it was time to get onto the plane, where we were all seated separately. Our theory: there must have been former Dark Daysers who actually didn't enjoy spending every free second with each other and asked not to be seated side-by-side.
Therefore, Aprilynne and I were forced to pass notes back and forth over the seatback about the guy sitting next to her who had what appeared to be a homemade tattoo of brass knuckles on the back of his neck, which was not visible from her perspective (but which I thought she should know about in case he tried to strike up a conversation with her about jail tattoos).
We arrived in Portland to meet our media escort, the elegant Deb Flynn Hanrahan, who was another mom-of-someone-almost-my-age, which meant I stuck to her like Superglue. Got the info on her artistic daughter who lives a few blocks away from my old apartment in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. She took us to a really cool place in Portland for lunch and then on to the hotel, at which point I ditched my suitcase with Aprilynne and ran off to the Portland City Grill where a dozen members of my family had flown and driven long distances from California, Oregon, Idaho and Washington to meet me.
Aunt, uncle and lots of cousins
Our get-togethers are rare and I really really love these people, so I stayed as long as I could, and then ran back to the hotel to get ready for the Main Event: the Dark Days signing at Barnes and Noble, Clackamas Town Center Mall. However, we almost didn't make it into the bookstore, since Aprilynne spotted an Anthropologie just a couple of shops down and had to be forcibly steered away.
We were led to a meeting room, and introduced to the effervescent Sara Gundell (who was rocking an amazing dress). Her site, Novel Novice, was serving as HarperTeen's official blog partner, and we spent a few minutes shooting a video interview with her.
Here we are, pre-signing, being interviewed by Novel Novice
And then we walked into the main room and saw a huge group assembled there waiting for…us! I had a serious heart-in-throat moment, so it was a good thing that Deb was there to lead us to the table and show us where to sit.
Holy crap, that's a big crowd!
We followed the same "introduce ourselves, then Q&A" format, which was live-Tweeted by Sara (front row, red hair, rockin' B&W dress). She took some great action shots, which you can see here. (How exactly she managed to Tweet and photograph at once is a mystery to me. I suspect that she types with her toes.)
And then came the signing, and let me tell you – it was AMAZING. I met so many people who I knew online, including Kristina, Melania, Jennifer, Vy, Candace, Angel Morgan, Nancy. (Click on their names to see their own photos and accounts of the event.) And then Suzanne Young, whose own book, A NEED SO BEAUTIFUL, was just published yesterday by HarperTeen, stopped by and introduced herself. Annie Jhun, a girl I used to work with in New York, walked up with her boyfriend, totally surprising me. And then my family all came up and hugged me and took pictures.
Signing next to Tara. (Photo by cousin Melissa.)
As you can see in the picture, we all had stuff we gave away. I had sea-salt chocolate that I had brought from France, Tara had the blue bracelets you see, and Aprilynne and Veronica had temporary tattoos. I signed two Nooks and a Kindle. Someone gave me a beaded bookmark she had made. People talked to me about their own writing aspirations. It was AWESOME!
Finally, after the last book was signed, we returned to the hotel and had dinner in the restaurant before heading to bed early. Because the meeting time the next morning was (gulp) 4:45a.m.!
June 21, 2011
2011 Book Tour Diary, Day 2 (Part 2)
Tuesday, June 7, Chicago
At 5:15 we were all back in the lobby, and then herded out to the car by Bill, our media escort. This time I got to ride in front with him, and used my forty minutes wisely, discovering that he had been a media escort for 24 years. That his wife is an author. That he had escorted J.K. Rowling a couple of times, as well as Neil Gaiman, which got a squeal out of the group's Neil fans who had overheard.
I kept getting sucked into the back-seat conversations, though, and felt kind of bad that Bill had to listen to us comparing book cover stories, what our characters were originally named, who came up with their own book titles, sex versus violence as a reason for YA censorship, and other fascinating-to-us but probably trite-to-him topics. I could tell he had a million amazing stories to tell, and can only hope that I get him to myself some day so that I can mine his cache of author secrets!
Once at Anderson's Bookstore in Naperville, Bill led us through the Secret Author Entrance (e.g. the back door) and placed us in the capable hands of the bookstore staff. We were given a commemorative Anderson's bookstore bag, and then told that while we were waiting, we could choose any book we wanted to take with us.
You should have seen our faces: the idiom of "feeling like a kid in a candy shop" should be officially changed to "feeling like an author in a bookstore (with a freebie book on offer)". I began wandering and petting the books, and watching what everyone else was petting, and since I still don't know YA that well, asked the others what I should get. It was either Aprilynne or Veronica who suggested MAZE RUNNER by James Dashner, which I promptly handed to the staff-member as my pick.
In the midst of our book frenzy, a couple of men and a woman who looked exactly like Veronica (except with silvery hair) walked up to us. Veronica introduced them as her mom, stepdad and brother. And as I began chatting with mom-of-Veronica, my nerves—which were ratcheted up to 11 out of 10, Spinal Tap-style—slowly melted away.
I have always loved hanging out with my friends' moms, even before mine passed away. And now, during my very first book tour, I missed her so much I could taste it. So the simple act of a mom coming to see her daughter's event, not only touched my orphaned heart, but imbued what was beginning to feel like an alternate universe (the place was now packed with excited fans) with an overwhelming sense of normalcy. (Thanks for that, Veronica's mom!)
Me and "Pushy" (photo from Bewitched Bookworms)
Finally, we were called up to the front, where we sat again, panel-style, behind a table. The lovely ladies of Bewitched Bookworms were livestreaming the event and taking questions from the internet audience. (You can see their great photos and commentary here and the livestream video still exists here.)
We began with a quick introduction of our books, and then launched directly into a Q&A. Book blogger Me, Myshelf & I took notes, and you can see her transcript of the questions and answers here.
After all of the interviews I've done in the last few months, I felt sure that there was no question I hadn't answered. So when, much to my chagrin, someone asked a new one—"What was the most surprising thing that happened to you after your book deal?"—my brain did a little glitchy "Whaaaa?", and I passed the microphone to Tara. And then thanked every deity I could think of that I was not doing my first tour stop alone.
Post Q&A, the crowd lines up for the signing.
After the questions, the crowd lined up to get their books signed, and I got to meet several book bloggers and readers who had been in touch with me over the last few months. Putting a face with a name (or in some cases, just their online identity) was such a thrill. I wish I had made a list of who I met, because there were so many people in so little time.
My best friend Kim showed her support by bringing a whole huge cheering squad with her, including her husband and Tizzy, her sister Carol (who I love), Carol's daughters Penny and Ellie (who you might remember was at one point my book's youngest fan), and a handful of her friends who I had met over the years.
A university friend, photographer Mike Hudson, showed up with a picture he had taken of me reading a book a kazillion years ago (hint – I had big '80s hair). And a reader from the audience gave me a drawing that she had done of my book cover. It felt like Christmas in June.
Ellen, Veronica, Aprilynne, Me and Tara, post-Anderson-sigining
We took some post-signing photos, and then Bill herded us into the van and took us back to the hotel. Where, instead of returning to our rooms, as I had expected, we all headed to Tara's room to celebrate her book birthday. We sprawled across her bed and chairs and chatted until we realized that we were about to miss last call for room service, and all dashed off to our rooms to order very late dinners and grab some sleep for DAY 3. (to come).
June 19, 2011
2011 Book Tour Diary, Day 2 (Part 1)
Monday, June 7: Chicago
I slept well, knowing that I would receive a wakeup call at 8am the next morning, and awoke to…darkness. My brain, still running on French time, had decided to give me a 5am wakeup call. I spent the next hour answering emails, and at 6a.m. ordered breakfast from room service.
Crack-of-dawn hotel room breakfast
Ate it. Answered more emails. Looked at my clock. 7a.m. My nervous energy was reaching blow-a-fuse level by this point, so I pulled on my workout gear, went down to the hotel gym, and climbed a huge, 1-hour-high virtual mountain on the video screen of the elliptical trainer, which is pretty much unprecedented for unathletic me. But every time I thought about a group of people staring at me, I got a new burst of nervous energy, and climbed a few hundred feet more.
Because here's a secret. I have major stage-fright. As a manager at Sotheby's, I got woozy giving team meetings for fifteen people. As organizer of my Brooklyn neighborhood's political Meetup, my voice would shake just reading the meeting agenda. My first week as tour guide at a medieval chateau in France, I thought my head was going to explode each time I faced a new group and said, "Welcome to Langeais Castle." And yes – I taught English at French universities for three years. But I had a stomachache every single day as I stepped into the classroom to face my 40-odd students.
So the thought of getting up in front of people who had read my book…some of whom had traveled long distances just to see me and the other authors…FREAKED ME OUT.
I wore myself out as much as possible on the mountain climbing, and then went back to my room and began getting ready. At 11:15am I made my way to the hotel lobby. The first person I saw was Ellen Schreiber, who I immediately recognized from the author photos on her VAMPIRE KISSES books. She wore a purple top, blue jeans, and a ton of cool vampire-themed jewelry, and stood there coolly waiting as if she had done this hundreds of times. Which, I realized, she probably had, having been a published author for over a decade.
Tara was already there, the smile on her face as big as Oklahoma: it was HEREAFTER's release date. Her book birthday! And we got to spend it with her.
Veronica Roth walked up and everyone introduced themselves. She had come the shortest distance, since she lives in a Chicago suburb, so she looked fresh and ready for the day. Aprilynne soon joined us, and we were all led by our media escort, Bill Young, to a big van waiting outside.
We drove a short way to our first stop: the Chicago Public Library, Rudy Lozano Branch, where we were scheduled to meet with a high school group. Aprilynne and I made a quick visit to the restroom, where I joined her at the mirror and tried to ignore her as she did something weird to her neck.
At first I thought she was attaching some kind of asthma patch or another medical thingamajig, and averted my eyes. I later saw that it was a fake tattoo in the form of a necklace (the one that Tamani gives Laurel), and she probably just thought I was a total weirdo for not saying, "Hey whatcha doing?" instead of running off to give her privacy.
The night before, Aprilynne had offered to organize everyone, and I was more than happy to obey her instructions on where to sit and what to do. She arranged the microphones so that everyone could reach one, and told the librarian-in-charge exactly what we'd be doing, down to the minute.
From right, Tara, Veronica, Ellen & Aprilynne pre-library talk
As the group from Juarez, Benito Community Academy High School filed in, we took our places behind the table. And for the next hour the students asked us questions and sat quietly and politely, listening to our answers. I almost fainted, but not from nerves. I just couldn't believe that a group of teenagers could be that well-behaved, after suffering three years of university students who talked, played cards, and made out during my classes. I wanted to get up and hug each and every one of them. But instead, I followed the others to sit behind another table and sign books for the students. I didn't quite understand the rules, but it seemed like each of them got a free book, and those who had a special sticker under their chair got first pick.
High school group at the Chicago Public Library
After that, Bill asked us if we wanted to go hang out somewhere or return to the hotel for a couple of hours. It being 106 degrees outside (as measured by the car thermometer), we all opted for the hotel. We headed to the restaurant for a late lunch, while Veronica ran off to do a phone interview on the recent Wall Street Journal "YA is Too Dark" uproar.
Conversation was still at the getting-to-know-each other level: cautious but convivial, putting feelers out to see who these people—who we knew mainly through their books, websites and Tweets—truly were in real life. I was starting to suspect that everyone was actually as fun and cool as they seemed on the internet. And it didn't take long to discover that my instincts had been correct. [Day 2 to be continued...]
