Rachel Vincent's Blog, page 14

If I Die UK cover!

Just in time for the US release of If I Die (coming up in 12 days!), Mira Ink has given me permission to post the UK cover!

Here it is, next to the US one for comparison.



They're very different, but I love them both, and again, I'm totally inspired to write some deadly dragonflies into the Netherworld, to match the cover!

The UK edition comes out Feb 3, 2012 (only four months after the UK version of MSTSteal, which is out there next month).

If I Die week 2: Ask Sabine

This is week two of five straight weeks of If I Die merriment! Each week you’ll get a chance to ask one of the five major Soul Screamers characters a question in the corresponding Wordpress post. That question will be your entry in the week’s drawing. That week’s character will answer a handful of the questions on Friday, but even if your question isn’t answered, you will be entered in the drawing.

The winner will be announced on Friday's post.

This week’s character is: Sabine.

(For those who don't know, Sabine is a mara--a nightmare--who enters the Soul Screamers series in My Soul To Steal and is a major character from then on. She also appeared in the short story "Fearless," from the Kiss Me Deadly anthology and is in the even shorter story "Niederwald" in the Enthralled anthology, which comes out in less than two weeks.)

I know, you love to hate Sabine. Or maybe you just hate her. Speaking as the author, she's one of my favorite characters to write because she's painfully insightful, brutally honest, and there's nothing she won't say.

You can ask her whatever you'd like (except for x-rated questions), but be warned: if she answers your question, you may not like what you hear. ;)

The rules:
One question/entry per person. So think carefully. Also, read through what’s already been asked, to avoid duplicate questions. But please be aware that the questions MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS. If you haven’t read the first four books and both available novellas, you may want to scroll past the questions without reading them and leave yours in the comment box. Repeat questions will still count as entries, but if the character answers a question asked more than once, the first person who asked will be credited in the response. Because of astronomical shipping costs and the size, weight, and number of the prizes, I will only be able to ship to US addresses. If you live outside of the US but have someone stateside willing to pass your prizes on to you, you’re welcome to enter and make those arrangements privately. But this time I can only ship to US residences. I apologize to the international readers and hope you understand. You may ask a question even if you don’t wish to be entered in the drawing. Please allow 3+ weeks for shipping. Void where prohibited by law. If you are under 18 years of age, you must have a parent’s permission to enter.
This week’s prize: A signed set of the first five Soul Screamers novels. Assorted swag including an If I Die bookmark and an Enthralled postcard. A Soul Screamers t-shirt featuring a Sabine quote.
I can't post a picture of the Sabine shirt yet because we haven't yet picked a quote to go on it. That's proved harder than it sounds--Sabine has a lot of great lines, but few of them make sense out of context, so I thought I'd let you guys help by taking the poll in the corresponding Wordpress post. If you have a suggestion for a quote that isn't listed, there's a space for you to write it in.

So. In summary, to enter the contest, leave a question for Sabine in the comments of the corresponding Worldpress post. To vote on what quote goes on the shirt, take the poll.

Emma answers! (+ winner)

Thanks so much to everyone who asked Emma a question. She’s answered several of them below, and I’ve drawn a name at random from all the questions submitted (not just the ones answered). The winner of a signed set of five Soul Screamers books and an Emma-quote t-shirt is:

Taylor G., who left a question for Emma on September 5, 2011 at 7:15 pm

Taylor, please email me (rachelkvincentATgmailDOTcom) with your full name and shipping information.

To everyone else, thanks for participating, and don’t forget to check back in next week when you can ask Sabine a question and vote on which quote will go on the Sabine-quote shirt!

And…here are the questions Emma answered!

Emma speaks; Rachel travels

Today's your last day to enter this week's drawing (prize=set of 5 signed Soul Screamers novels + Emma quote t-shirt) by asking Emma question. She'll be answering a handful of them in tomorrow's post, where the winner will be announced. Click here for details.

And since Emma is the Soul Screamers character of the week, here's one of my favorite non-spoilery Emma quotes from If I Die (The first speaker is Kaylee):

“And I suppose your sudden interest is purely academic, right?”

Her grin widened as she set the book on her desk, and it fell open to the place marked with a fat, purple print emery board. “I don’t know if ‘pure’ is totally accurate, but I haven’t figured out how to entirely avoid academia in the school setting. I think the most we can hope for is something pretty to look at, to distract us from the inherent pain of the educational process.”

Also a reminder: Emma and Sabine are featured in "Niederwald," my story in the Enthralled anthology, which will be out in less than two weeks now!


***
I don't think I've actually mentioned this here yet, but I'll be doing two live events during the If I Die release. The first is a solo event at Murder By The Book in Houston, on Saturday, October 1, at 1:oo pm. If you'll be in the area, I'd love to see you. There will be copies of both Blood Bound and If I Die available. Please click here for the store's events signing policy.

After the signing at Murder By The Book, I'll head straight to the airport to catch a late-night flight to Seattle for my stop on this year's Smart Chicks Kick It YA tour, on October 2. If you're not familiar with the tour, it's a really awesome mult-author, multi-city tour featuring 3 headliners (Kelley Armstrong, Melissa Marr, and Jennifer Lynn Barnes) plus special appearances of different YA authors at every stop. The Seattle stop at the 2011 Northwest Bookfest is going to be huge. So huge I'm still pinching myself to make sure I didn't imagine being invited.

The list of authors for this stop is phenomenal, and if it's anything like last year's tour, it'll be a total blast. Giveaways, hilarity, and tons of book signing. And that's just the Smart Chicks part. There's also the rest of the festival. If you're anywhere near Seattle, you have to come.

The Seattle Smart Chicks event will include: Kelley Armstrong, Melissa Marr, Jennifer Lynn Barnes, Rachel Caine, Melissa de la Cruz, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Sophie Jordan, Stephanie Kuehnert, Richelle Mead, Jeri Smith-Ready, Margaret Stohl, Rachel Vincent, and Sara Zarr

Enthralled!

We interrupt this If I Die release month with a reminder that Enthralled: Paranormal Diversions comes out in thirteen (count them!) days.



The official blurb, courtesy of Harper Collins:

A journey may take hundreds of miles, or it may cover the distance between
duty and desire.

Sixteen of today’s hottest writers of paranormal tales weave stories on a
common theme of journeying. Authors such as Kelley Armstrong, Rachel Caine, and
Melissa Marr return to the beloved worlds of their bestselling series, while
others, like Claudia Gray, Kami Garcia, and Margaret Stohl, create new
land-scapes and characters. But whether they’re writing about vampires, faeries,
angels, or other magical beings, each author explores the strength and
resilience of the human heart.

Suspenseful, funny, or romantic, the stories in Enthralled will leave
you moved.

The stories include:

Giovanni’s Farewell by Claudia Gray
Scenic Route by Carrie Ryan
IV League by Margaret Stohl
Red Run by Kami Garcia
Things About Love by Jackson Pearce
Niederwald by Rachel Vincent (See? That's me!)
Merely Mortal by Melissa Marr
Facing Facts by Kelley Armstrong
Let’s Get This Undead Show on the Road by Sarah Rees Brennan
Bridge by Jeri Smith-Ready
Skin Contact by Kimberly Derting
Leaving by Ally Condie
At the Late Night, Double Feature, Picture Show by Jessica Verday
Gargouille by Mary E. Pearson
The Third Kind by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Automatic by Rachel Caine

Here's one of the most recent reviews.

There's also a beautiful widget, which I can't make work here on Wordpress. Click here to see it and grab it for your own blog!

If I Die madness: Week 1

So. If I Die officially comes out in the US/Canada three weeks from tomorrow. I kind of hate it that the release is so close on the heels of the Blood Bound release, because I feel like Blood Bound isn't getting its fair share of attention, and I worked really hard on Blood Bound. But, I'm beyond thrilled with the critical response to Blood Bound so far and I worked hard on If I Die too. My dad can attest to that, because I was actually working on second round revisions of If I Die at his house, during what was supposed to be family time this past spring. When everyone else went to bed, I got out my laptop and worked at the kitchen table. Alone. Sans coffee. So I'm really proud of this one to, and I hope you all love it.

Anyway...this week kicks off five straight weeks of If I Die merriment! Each week you'll get a chance to ask one of the five major Soul Screamers characters a question. That question will be your entry in the week's drawing. That week's character will answer a handful of the questions, but even if your question isn't answered, you will be entered in the drawing.

This week's character is: EMMA!

The rules:
Questions must be left in the appropriate Wordpress post, so I can keep up with them. One question/entry per person. So think carefully. Also, read through what's already been asked, to avoid duplicate questions. But please be aware that the questions MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS. If you haven't read the first four books and both available novellas, you may want to scroll past the questions without reading them and leave yours in the comment box. Repeat questions will still count as entries, but if the character answers a question asked more than once, the first person who asked will be credited in the response. Because of astronomical shipping costs and the size, weight, and number of the prizes, I will only be able to ship to US addresses. If you live outside of the US but have someone stateside willing to pass your prizes on to you, you're welcome to enter and make those arrangements privately. But this time I can only ship to US residences. I apologize to the international readers and hope you understand. You may ask a question even if you don't wish to be entered in the drawing. Please allow 3+ weeks for shipping. Void where prohibited by law. If you are under 18 years of age, you must have a parent's permission to enter.
This week's prize: A signed set of the first five Soul Screamers novels. A shirt with the following Emma quote: "The triangle is the most stable geometric shape. That has to count for something, right?" Assorted swag including an If I Die bookmark and an Enthralled postcard.


Here's a closer look at the image on the shirt:



Interested? Leave your question for Emma in the comments of the Wordpress post .


Okay...go!

Winners! And more...

The winner of the Blood Bound “Spread the Word” contest is Sabrena Pattat! Sabrena has been contacted via email and will have one week to claim her prize.

The winner of a signed, finished copy of If I Die and a signed (by me) ARC of Enthralled is Andrea. Andrea has been contacted via email and will have one week to claim her prize.

Thanks so much to all who entered, and if you didn’t win this time, stay tuned. Next week the If I Die release madness begins, and there will be lots of giveaways. *Makes note to order copies of My Soul To Take for the complete set giveaways because her copies have been gone for years*

Starting next Monday, I will be hosting a five-week series of Soul Screamers character Q&As, one character per week. You (my loyal online followers) will have all week, beginning Monday, to ask each character your questions. You may ask as many as you like. Please be warned that the questions left in the comments MAY AND PROBABLY WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS from previous books in the series. There’s nothing I can do about that. If you don’t want to read the spoilers, PLEASE SCROLL STRAIGHT DOWN TO THE COMMENT BOX WITHOUT READING WHAT COMES BEFORE IT.

I will pick several (how many depends on how many Qs  come in) for that week’s character to answer on Friday. If that character answers a spoiler question, both the question and the answer will be prefaced with spoiler warnings. If possible, I’ll post them both in the background color, so those interested will have to highlight over the text to see it.

On that Friday, one winner will be drawn at random from the list of question-askers. Even if your question wasn’t answered, your name will go into the drawing. That week’s winner will receive a signed, personalized finished copy of If I Die as well as a character-specific quote t-shirt. So… Get your questions ready. The schedule looks like this:

Week of Sept. 5: Emma
Week of Sept. 12: Sabine
Week of Sept. 19: Tod
Week of Sept. 26: Nash
Week of Oct. 3: Kaylee

As you can see, Emma’s up first, so if you have any questions for her, get them ready. (Also, as you may have noticed, there’s been a slight switch in the schedule since I last posted it. This one is the final schedule.)

And… the official If I Die blog tour begins September 19, and there will be prizes on every post there too, as well as an awesome grand prize: a Nook, with a Soul Screamers cover!

Here are the official buttons, if you’d like to post them (and we’d love for you to!) Click on either of them to see the full blog tour schedule and prize list.

Guess what today is?!

Thanks so much to everyone who participated in the polls I posted earlier in the week. (If you haven't, you can scroll down to that entry and play along.) I've been pretty quiet this week (Shadow Bound revisions are kind of kicking my tail), but the If I Die madness will be starting next week, and you'll probably be sick of me by the time the release date actually gets here. So don't forget to check in on Monday for the first giveaway. There will be books, and tees, and other assorted goodies, as well as Soul Screamers-content posts.

Tomorrow I have several winners to post (sorry that's late), but I wanted to pop in today and remind everyone that as of today, you can buy Blood Bound in ebook format!!! So go ahead and (legally) download all you like. Indulge. ;)
front & back shownAlso, the bookmarks just came in, and for as long as they last, you can have some for the price of an envelope and postage. And when they run out, if they run out, I'll probably just print some more. For directions on how to get If I Die bookmarks (or how to get your books signed) email adminATrachelvincentDOTcom. You will get an auto-reply with the instructions. It's pretty simple.


However, please note that I do not see messages sent to that address . It's an auto-response inbox I clean out very infrequently. If you'd like to ask me something or leave me a message, that's not the place to do it. I'm pretty accessible online on Facebook, Twitter, Wordpress, and Formspring, and I try to reserve email communications for business and personal stuff only. That's the only way I can keep up as well as I do. Which, honestly, isn't very well. But it'd be worse if all my communication was via email.

If you have business with me (or you want to have business with me) including guest blogs, contest winnings, appearance requests, or anything like that, leave me a message at one of the above mentioned places and I'll give you an email address to use for further discussion. If you have rights inquiries, please contact my agent, whose information is available on the info page of my website.

About that first chapter...

[Note: This is my second blog post of the day. If you haven't seen the first one, scroll down. You don't want to miss that one. Trust me.]

Lately lots of people have been asking me when I’m going to post the first chapter of If I Die on my website, as I did with most of my previous releases. And the simple answer is…I’m not.

I know, I know, I said I would. I thought I was going to. But plans changed, and here’s why:

The opening scene of If I Die has been deemed potentially disturbing for readers who don’t have subsequent chapters to read immediately. Basically, we don’t want to leave you with the shocker/downer that is the opening chapter of If I Die until you can also read the funny, sexy, somewhat shocking, sad, but ultimately uplifting roller coaster that is the rest of the book.

For the record, I don’t disagree with this assessment or this decision. In fact, when I submitted the original manuscript, I fully expected my editor to ask me to cut that opening scene. Or at least pull it back a little. I told my critique partner and a couple of my fellow Dames that I was worried about that first scene. But my editor is super-cool and she understood the importance of what happens and how it affects Kaylee, so she didn’t ask me to pull it.

For those who haven’t read any of the books, in the Soul Screamers series, I address several very serious issues in my own fantasy-coated way. Issues that affect not just teens, but people in general. Issues that I’ve personally experienced in one form or another, personally witnessed, or been fortunate enough to avoid entirely, but still worry about. If I Die is no exception.

But I recognize that on its own, the opening scene may be…disturbing. So you’re not going to see it on its own. Instead, I will be posting specially selected excerpts from early in the book on both the Harlequin Teen Facebook page and the Soul Screamers Facebook page. These excerpts are already scheduled. With any luck, they’ll be fun.

And, of course, we’ve got bunches of other things lined up, including the official blog tour, interviews with me, interviews with the characters, book giveaways, tee-shirt giveaways, and all kinds of other Soul Screamers madness. (And no, that is not a dig at Kaylee.) So stick around. This is gonna be fun. ;)

Note: If you've already read If I Die, feel free to leave a comment telling me whether or not you were disturbed by the opening scene, and why or why not. But no spoilers, please. I WILL delete spoilers.

Breaking news!

We interrupt this Blood Bound release week for some breaking news that broke before I knew it was gonna break. But, who doesn't love a surprise?!

Remember when I told you last week that I'd seen the cover for the Soul Screamers omnibus? Well, now you can see it too! Which means I no longer have to send out a newsletter with the new cover in it. ;)

So, what do you think?

[Sorry it's kind of blurry. Number 1 wasn't here to convert the file to a jpg for me, so I had to take a screen shot. ;)]

Volume One will be available Nov 22, and is your first and only chance to get the prequel novella "My Soul To Lose" in print. Haven't started the series yet? This is your chance to get three stories for the price of one. (It's $8.99 at Amazon, even less at B&N and BAM.) Already a Soul Screamers reader? Here's your chance to pass your copies of My Soul To Take and My Soul To Save to a new reader (or library!) and get this gorgeous new cover (and print version of the novella) for yourself.

Okay, that's the end of the sales pitch. Except for this one subliminal message: buysoulscreamersvolumeoneitssuperprettyyouknowyouwanttoholditandpetitandloveit

Also, for your viewing pleasure, here's the whole series, in order (except for the short stories and novellas):



And...since I just got my finished copies of If I Die and still have an ARC of the Enthralled anthology, let's have a giveaway. To enter to win one copy of If I Die and one ARC of Enthralled, both signed by me, fill out this form. (Please read the rules at the top of the form first.)