Katherine Longshore's Blog, page 3

News and Events and Giveaways, Oh, My!

This coming Friday, I'm delighted to be visiting Book Passage in Corte Madera to meet with their teen reading group, Must Be 14, to discuss MANOR OF SECRETS.  The event will begin at 6 pm, and I've heard rumors there will be tea and scones!

On Thursday, April 10, I will be doing a special one-day giveaway of an ARC of BRAZEN, just for fun.  All day (until midnight EST), you can leave a page number in the comments of the blog, and I will reply with just one sentence from that page.  Every comment will count toward the drawing!  Looking forward to seeing you there!

And right now, Penguin is offering FIVE galleys of BRAZEN to entrants on Goodreads.  The giveaway ends April 1.

Finally, the most fun I've had so far this year was also the rainiest weekend California has seen in a long time.  I was invited by the Canyon Hills branch of the Anaheim Public Library to give a book talk and was utterly blown away by the welcome I received.  I got to have dinner with some lovely ladies from the Friends of the Orange County Libraries, a personal tour of Founder's Park in Anaheim, and an enthusiastic, inquisitive crowd at the book talk.  I can't thank all of them enough.
Founder's Park Carriage House The library hosted an Edwardian
hat contest in honor of
MANOR OF SECRETS.
Many, many thanks to Margaret Cargo for extending the invitation, to Cynthia Hicks, the head librarian at Canyon Hills, the Friends of the Library, and all of the people who ventured out on that cold, wet day!

Got Valentines?

There's still time to make them!  Join me, Corrine Jackson and Talia Vance at Books Inc. in San Francisco on Thursday, February 13 for a craft party (and probably talk about boys and kissing).

Happy New Year!

Wishing all of you a year full of hope and happiness and lots and lots of good books!

Thanks to all of you who entered the MANOR OF SECRETS New Year giveaway!  Shelley Summers has won the ARC and the books by my fabulous blurbers.  I'll be giving away more books as we get closer to the launch of BRAZEN, so stay tuned!

Happy New Year Giveaway!

So how many of you out there are looking forward to 2014?  For me, this past year has gone by in a blur, so it comes as a surprise that we are at the end of it.  And that there is only a month until MANOR OF SECRETS is out in the world. (for information about the launch party, see here.)

To celebrate, I'm giving away not only a signed ARC of MANOR OF SECRETS, but also two books by the amazing authors who read it early and provided blushingly enthusiastic blurbs.  I'm a keen enthusiast of the 1920's, so of course I had gobbled up both Jillian Larkin's VIXEN and Teri Brown's BORN OF ILLUSION when they were published.  I'm delighted to be able to share them with you, too.


From Goodreads:  If you love The Great Gatsby, you'll want to read the Flappers series.
Jazz . . . Booze . . . Boys . . . It’s a dangerous combination.

From Goodreads: From Teri Brown comes a world bursting with magic, with romance, and the temptations of Jazz Age New York—and the story of a girl about to become the mistress of her own destiny.
Most writers I know are nervous about their books going out into the world.  I worry, especially, when I know my book is being read by someone I respect and admire.  Which is why the following blurbs brought tears to my eyes when I read them:

"There's no secret about it: I loved this book! From its glittering start to its breathtaking finish, Charlotte and Janie are intriguing, wonderful protagonists. Downton Abbey, watch out! Adventure awaits!"
   —Jillian Larkin, author of The Flappers series

"Manor of Secrets is a delicious Edwardian novel loaded with exquisite historical detail. Longshore's characters are nuanced, well drawn and enjoyable through and through. A must read!"
   —Teri Brown, author of Born of Illusion

They definitely make me look forward to the new year!

But of course, I'm not just looking forward to my own books coming out next year, I'm looking forward to many, many more, including A MAD, WICKED FOLLY by Sharon Biggs Waller, INTO THE STILL BLUE by Veronica Rossi, THE SOUND OF LETTING GO by Stasia Ward Kehoe, LADY THIEF by A.C. Gaughen...And those are just in the next few weeks!

So leave a comment below, telling me what books you are most looking forward to in 2014, and enter to win! (open to U.S. and Canada only--sorry International folks! Hopefully the next one!)



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LAUNCH PARTY!

Save the date!

I've just confirmed that the MANOR OF SECRETS launch party will be held at the Avid Reader, 617 Second Street, Davis, CA 95616 on

Saturday, January 25 at 3 pm.
That is three days before the actual release date!  So if you want an early copy, some cake, a lot of book chat and maybe a reading or two, I'd love to see you there!
If you have any questions, want to reserve a copy (or even have one sent to you), call the Avid Reader (530)758-4040

The Execution of Thomas Culpepper and Francis Dereham

One of the most exciting things about writing historical fiction based on real people and real circumstances is that the timelines are verifiable and the events in the novel can be attached to actual dates.

Four hundred seventy-two years ago today, Cat Howard caught a glimpse of her own future--and her own guilt--when Thomas Culpepper and Francis Dereham were executed for their disastrous relationships with her.  Not a happy occasion, to be sure, but in history pinpointed dates are often only set down for births, deaths and weddings, and sometimes not even then.  I have to take my precision where I can get it.

In honor of these two young men--one of whom may or may not have been as bad as I portrayed him, and one of whom may or may not have been as blameless--I'm going to let Kitty tell you how it happened...


In the next few weeks the Tower grew gluttonous on the incarceration of traitors.

They brought in the dowager duchess after she burned a coffer full of papers said to belong to Francis Dereham. The rest of the Coven came, too. The number of prisoners soon exceeded Tower capacity. Lower-ranking and obviously innocent members of the duchess’ household were shipped off to other prisons. But not I.

The duke stood outside the Tower gates, outside the prison, outside the very law itself and exclaimed loudly and constantly that he knew nothing of his slatternly niece’s dubious conduct. He vilified her. Condemned her. Stood free upon the back of her guilt.

The Howard men groveled at the feet of the king, swearing loyalty. And were allowed to go free.

And Edmund Standebanke continued in the king’s service.

Men, I thought. Even guilt can’t shackle them.

But then Francis and Culpepper were executed. Pulled from the Tower by an ox-drawn cart, met with the jeers and silent judgment of Londoners. Culpepper’s sentence was commuted to decapitation. 

Francis was not so lucky.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I write about historical England, but one of my favorite holidays of the year is Thanksgiving.  It was created by Abraham Lincoln and celebrates the first year of survival of the colonists who settled on this continent in the 17th Century.  (But don't quote me on any of this, because I am ashamed to admit that my U.S. History is rather shaky at best). Canadians celebrate similarly in October, but I think we are the only country in the world that gets the fourth Thursday in November off.

It's not the uniqueness or the patriotism that gets me, though.  And it's not that the day dedicated to feasting. It's the fact that the celebration is centered around getting together with loved ones.  There are no presents, no fireworks, no bunnies.  For me, Thanksgiving has always been about bringing people together, just to be.

And to eat.

My favorite Thanksgiving dish is something my mother introduced into family gatherings when I was a kid.  She and her friend looked at the table sagging with turkey, potatoes, yams and dressing and said, "There are no green vegetables here."  And because she had young children, who (given the choice) would rather eat turkey than broccoli, she devised a clever ruse to get all of us to eat our vegetables.

Our pre-dinner appetizer was vegetables and dip.  And not just any dip.  A special dip.  That we only get on Thanksgiving and Christmas.  It's still my favorite food of Thanksgiving and I look forward to it every year.  It's especially good with fresh, raw green beans.

DILL DIP

2/3 cup mayonnaise
2/3 cup sour cream
1 Tbsp. dill
1 Tbsp. parsley
1Tbsp. grated onion
1 (scant) Tbsp. Beau Monde seasoning

Just mix everything together, let sit for a bit (or not) and serve with carrot sticks, broccoli, celery, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, snap peas, cauliflower (if you like that kind of thing) and, of course, green beans.

Beau Monde seasoning can be tough to find in some places, but it adds the necessary salt and je ne sais quoi to the dip.  I've never tried to omit it, but if you do, let me know what you think!

Happy Thanksgiving to my American friends and happy last week of November to everyone else.  I'll be taking the week off social media to spend time with my family (and to read over the first pass pages of BRAZEN).  See you in December!

New York Recap of Awesome

Last week I went to New York on writerly business.  Seeing editors and publicists and meeting other authors.  You know.

Work.

(Yeah.  Right.)

My companion-in-arms was the fabulous Joanne Levy, author of SMALL MEDIUM AT LARGE, one of the funniest middle grade books I've read in a long time (and definitely one of the best titles I've ever heard).

On Monday, I met with the amazing Aimee Friedman, my editor at Scholastic for MANOR OF SECRETS, and we discussed history, Downton Abbey, travel and good books.

That night, with Joanne, Betsy Bird (GIANT DANCE PARTY), Ame Dyckman (BOY + BOT, TEA PARTY RULES), Lynda Mullaly Hunt (ONE FOR THE MURPHYS), Elisa Ludwig (PRETTY CROOKED, PRETTY SLY) and Sarvenaz Tash (THE MAPMAKER AND THE GHOST), we told the Children's Media Association (and their compatriots) about our Journey to Publishing--all the inside scoop on getting an agent, publishing a book and the surprises and adventures that happen along the way.  We also had a Giant Dance Party.


On Tuesday, I visited the Penguin offices where I finally got to meet my publicist, some of the fantastic marketing and publicity team, and one of my literary idols, Ken Wright, who is now head of Viking by way of being a kick-ass agent.  I also fangirled all over the incredible Leila Sales, author of PAST PERFECT and THIS SONG WILL SAVE YOUR LIFE (and also, from what I've heard, a damn fine editor).  But the highlight was getting the chance to have a good, long chat with my own awesome editor, Kendra Levin, about what happens next.

I managed to squeeze in all kinds of touristy things--the double-decker tourist bus, the Empire State Building, a Broadway show, Times Square at night--I even rode the subway.  But for me, the tourist highlight was visiting the New York Public Library to see the ABC of It exhibition on children's literature and traveling through Good Night Moon, Charlotte's Web, Where the Wild Things Are and one of my favorite books of all time, The Phantom Tollbooth.
This is Milo's car. Judy Blume sat here. Awesome.I can honestly say now that I love New York.  It's busy and crazy and overwhelming and magical.  Special thanks to the bus driver who got me to the airport on time, the friendly postal worker, the smooth-talking stranger at the street corner pizza place, the chef at Home whose secret ingredient was "a clean heart" and the countless New York City drivers who managed not to run me over as I stared up through the canyon of buildings to try to catch a glimpse of the sky.

YA Scavenger Hunt--and welcome Michelle Gagnon!

Hello!  
I'm Katherine Longshore, the author of GILT, a story of friendship and betrayal in the Court of Henry VIII, and TARNISH, the story of a young Anne Boleyn.  I'm delighted to be participating in 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 one signed 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--find out which authors are participating and see a full list of prizes up for grabs.  There are three contests going on simultaneously, and you can enter one or all! I am a part of the RED TEAM--but there are also a blue team and a gold team for a chance to win a whole different set of twenty-five signed books!

If you get stuck, go to the YA Scavenger Hunt homepage and look in the sidebar under "Contact".
SCAVENGER HUNT PUZZLE
Directions: Below, you can read all about the author I'm hosting--the lovely Michelle Gagnon.  Somewhere in all that information, you will find a number in bold red.  Write this number down and collect numbers on the pages of all the authors on the red team, and then add them up (don't worry, you can use a calculator!). 
Entry Form: Once you've added up all the numbers, make sure you fill out the form here to enter officially for the grand prize. Only entries that have the correct number 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 OCTOBER 6, at noon Pacific Time. Entries sent without the correct number or without contact information will not be considered.
SCAVENGER HUNT POST


Today, I am hosting Michelle Gagnon on my website for the YA Scavenger Hunt! 

Michelle Gagnon is the international bestselling author of thrillers for teens and adults. She dislikes salmon (their taste; she actually quite admires that whole swimming upstream thing); and she has a foolproof cure for the hiccups. She splits her time between San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Find out more information about Michelle and her books by checking out her website!
EXCLUSIVE CONTENT

Described as “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo meets The Bourne Identity,” her YA technothriller DON’T TURN AROUND received 5 starred reviews, was nominated for a Thriller Award, and was selected as one of the Best Teen Books of 2012 by Entertainment Weekly Magazine, IndieNext, Kirkus, Voya, and the Young Adult Library Services Association. Book 2 in the PERSEFONE series, DON'T LOOK NOW, follows hackers Noa and Peter as they try to evade capture by the Project Persephone team.

 Michelle has offered to let me share some exclusive content here on the blog for the YA Scavenger Hunt, and she will be giving away--in a separate drawing on her blog--signed copies of DON’T TURN AROUND and STRANGELETS! One entry for each “follow" on Twitter, Tumblr, or Instagram.

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Everyone please welcome Noa Torson, star of Don’t Turn Around. She’s here to tell all about one of her firsts — her first time in juvie.

My First Time in Juvie by Noa Torson
I’m not an idiot—obviously if I’d thought things through, it all would’ve gone differently. I’d like to think that I’m smart enough to have gotten away with it if there’d actually been some planning involved. But instead it was one of those ill-fated, spur-of-the-moment decisions that never turn out to be a good idea.

I was thirteen years old, and had been in the foster care system for more than half my life, ever since my parents died in a car crash when I was six. That’s what brought it on, really. I’d been in and out of The Center, a kind of holding facility for foster kids, ever since. In the interim, there had been placements with foster families, which ranged from the decent to the bad to the just plain ugly.

My latest placement was with a couple who claimed they took in kids because they couldn’t have any of their own. I realized pretty fast, though, that what they really wanted was a bunch of slaves around to do their bidding; the steady check from the government that came with us was a bonus for them.

Don’t get me wrong, the Patricks weren’t as bad as some of the “families” I’d gotten stuck with. They didn’t hit us, or burn us, or lock us in our rooms at night. But there wasn’t exactly a lot of, “Hey, want to throw the ball around before dinner?” or “Let’s have a movie night!” either. Which was fine by me. I preferred it when we didn’t have to pretend to be a family, since we were really just a bunch of strangers thrust together by circumstance.

The other kids were okay, mostly. Two girls and a boy, all a bit younger than me. They’d been there a while and seemed to have adopted a “keep your head down and don’t make waves” attitude that I found refreshing. Together, we kept that house looking like something out of a budget home-and-garden spread. The floors sparkled, there was never a speck of dust anywhere, and the laundry was washed and folded practically before it had even been worn.

Three months in, I was getting comfortable. I’d even allowed myself a tiny spark of hope that I could maybe ride things out here until I hit eighteen and was kicked out of the system. I didn’t harbor any illusions that Joan and Jimmy Patrick were going to be anything like replacement parents. But given the alternatives, they weren’t a bad option, and I’d certainly experienced worse.

That was the mistake I made. They seemed, at heart, to be decent people. A little greedy and self-involved, but decent. So I thought that maybe, just maybe, they’d consider driving me to visit my parents. My mom and dad were buried in a cemetery fifteen miles away. This was the closest I’d ever been to them, and yet since their funeral, I’d never once had a chance to go back. My only memory from that day was of two ominous piles of earth, mounded higher than the surrounding grass, twin scars blighting the landscaped surroundings.

I thought it would be nice to see if the grass ever grew in, and if anyone had ever bothered to put up markers. Maybe drop off some flowers, and say a few words. I was old enough now to do that, and still regretted that during the funeral, I’d been too young and shell-shocked to do anything but stare at what was left of them. I’d checked the local bus schedules, but none of them even went close to the cemetery, and it was way too far to walk.

Of course, the Patricks said no. They were nice about it, but they had stuff to do that day. The next weekend too, apparently, and every weekend after that. It became obvious pretty quickly that what they were really saying was that there was no way they were going to put themselves out for any of us. And that ticked me off. I mean, here I was getting up at dawn to make breakfast and scrub their floors, and they wouldn’t drive fifteen measly miles to spend ten minutes with me at a cemetery? We could be there and back in an hour, easy.

Well, I’ve never been very good at keeping my head down and not making waves. So one day, when Jimmy and Joan headed out to a movie, I decided to borrow Joan’s car. She barely used it anyway, and it was just a battered Volvo, covered in dents; I figured that even if the absolute worst happened, they wouldn’t notice one more.

I took the keys off the hook when the rest of the kids were down in the rec room watching TV, enjoying a few hours of respite from our constant chores. I made it out of the driveway all right. I was tall for my age, nearly as tall as Joan. And the car was an automatic, not a stick shift, so it only took a few minutes to figure out the basics.

A few miles away from their house, I was feeling pretty good about my plan. I knew that the other kids wouldn’t say anything; they’d probably get in just as much trouble for not stopping me. By the time I got there, I’d have this driving thing down; ten minutes in the cemetery, then I’d turn around, park in the exact same spot, and they’d never even know the car had been missing.

It would’ve worked out that way, too, if it hadn’t been for the truck. An enormous moving van, turning the corner to approach me. It was way too big for the small, narrow street. I watched as it set tree branches swaying overhead, my palms slippery with sweat as it came closer, and closer. . . .

I shifted the wheel to the right, trying to allow space for us to pass each other . . . but I wrenched it too hard, and the car veered toward the sidewalk. Panicked, I tried to overcorrect, but that sent me skidding across the street in the opposite direction. I must’ve pressed the accelerator, too, because next thing I knew, the engine was roaring as the car shot over the curb, and a mailbox that had been carved to look like an enormous hunched over gnome was approaching at light speed.

I totaled it. The whole front of the Volvo ended up wrapped around the mailbox, which apparently was no mean feat according to the cop who showed up at the scene about ten minutes later.

Needless to say, Joan and Jimmy were not pleased. There was a lot of yelling, and talk of suing, and they didn’t even let me back into my room to get my things. I walked out of that house in handcuffs, leaving behind what little remained of my personal possessions; all I had left to remember my parents was the jade bracelet they’d given me when I turned six.

Even though I was so young, the Patricks insisted on pressing charges, and I ended up sentenced to nearly six months in juvie. And the worst part was that after all that, I never even got close to seeing the place where my parents had been laid to rest.

When I finally bailed out of the system at sixteen, I used my first paycheck to take a cab there. It was late fall, and most of the leaves were already off the trees. It took a while to find their graves; no headstones, just a couple of really small plaques in the ground with their names on them.

But the grass had grown in, and there was a willow tree overhead, with long branches that swept down above them protectively. I liked that. I sat there for a long time as dusk swelled around me, bringing the cold with it, listening to the silence. It wasn’t a bad spot. And I realized that, in the end, I had nothing left to say to them.

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And don't forget to enter the contest for a chance to win a signed books by me, Michelle and eighteen other authors! Just remember that my favorite number is 4.

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EXTRA (EXCLUSIVE) GIVEAWAY!
I'll be giving away a signed hardcover of my novel TARNISH (the story of a young Anne Boleyn) in the Scavenger Hunt Prize Pack, and offering exclusive content from Book 3 of my Tudor series during the hunt itself.
But I am also the author of the forthcoming MANOR OF SECRETS, which will be published by Point (an imprint of Scholastic) on January 28, 2014 and I'm giving away an ARC here on the blog, only during the Scavenger Hunt!


Lady Charlotte Edmonds feels suffocated by the strictures of upper-crust society. Fiery, hardworking Janie Seward knows she can be more than just a kitchen maid. Both girls are ready for change. As their paths overlap in the gilded hallways and dark corridors of The Manor, rules are broken and secrets are revealed. Secrets that will alter the course of their lives…forever.

Find out more about MANOR OF SECRETS on my website, Goodreads, and IndieBound.
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And now...........CONTINUE THE HUNT!
To keep going on your quest for the hunt, you need to check out the next author, P.J. Hoover, author of SOLSTICE.

Tweet #YASH

YA Scavenger Hunt!

Did you all know that the YA Scavenger Hunt starts this Friday?  Eek!

I am so excited to be able to take part in the Fall 2013 hunt which includes a total of sixty (count them--sixty) YA authors of some of the most amazing books out there.  There will be exclusive content (*cough* Book 3. *cough*) from every author and prizes and just plain tons of fun.

Click here to get a preview of the rules (remember, the hunt is not up yet, so these rules are from the Spring) and here to get started at 12 pm PST October 3!

I will be on the RED TEAM.  Looking forward to seeing you there!




GENNIFER ALBIN


GWENDA BOND


RACHEL CARTER


JULIE CROSS


DEBRA DRIZA


MICHELLE GAGNON


SHAUNTA GRIMES


RACHEL HARRIS


P.J. HOOVER


TARA HUDSON


JESSICA KHOURY


KATHERINE LONGSHORE


PAGE MORGAN


AMY CHRISTINE PARKER


AMY PLUM


C. J. REDWINE


OLIVIA SAMMS


J. A. SOUDERS


CORINA VACCO


SUSANNE WINNACKER
- See more at: http://www.tigerscursebook.com/blog/p...