M.J. Pullen's Blog, page 14

How to Attend the Virtual Launch Party for EVERY OTHER SATURDAY

As you may have heard, my latest romantic comedy is on its way Tuesday, August 4th. EVERY OTHER SATURDAY is the story of Dave Bernstein and Julia Mendel, two divorced parents whose kids attend the same Jewish preschool, who are forced to overcome their differences to share the same coveted babysitter. It’s a unique love story about finding help where you need it most, and love where you expect it least.

EVERY OTHER SATURDAY is a Kindle-only release for now (so sorry – it’s a contractual limitation thing! It will be available on other platforms in a few months and I do expect it to be out in paper form eventually).

In the meantime, I am having a virtual launch party on Facebook to celebrate!

LIVE August 3rd, 6:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. and August 9th, 7:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. (EST)

How does a virtual launch party work, you ask? What a good-looking question!

Step #1 Simply follow the link, log in to Facebook, and join the event. You’ll begin receiving an update whenever I post something new on the event page. I’m giving away prizes, and each time you comment, share or invite others, you get an entry.

Step #2 Pre-order your digital copy of EVERY OTHER SATURDAY. It’s just $3.99 for Kindle/iPad/etc., and pre-ordering means it will be auto-magically delivered to your device the second it’s released.

Step #3 On, Monday August 3rd at 5:30, pour yourself a cup of your favorite beverage (mine will be wine, in a clear plastic tumbler with a green fingerprint!) and/or some kind of indulgent snack, preferably chocolate. Put on comfy clothes, pjs (or no clothes at all – I won’t tell). Announce to family and friends that you have a “conference call” or “work meeting” and cannot be disturbed.

Step #4 Visit the launch party page on Monday August 3rd, between 6:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m., where we’ll be raising our virtual glasses, talking about the book and giving away some really fun prizes. We might even play truth or dare — who knows?!?

Step #5  Midnight, August 3rd-4th: Receive your copy of EVERY OTHER SATURDAY, call in sick to work, and get lost in the misadventures of Dave and Julia for a while.

Step #6  During the week, feel free to check in with your reading progress and updates (no spoilers, please!) You can also stop by the EOS Goodreads page.

Step #7 Join me again at the event page on Sunday, August 9th from 7:30 to 9:00 for a book club discussion and more Q&A. There will be spoilers during that time, so if you haven’t read the book by then, you may prefer to skip this part. I’ll also be giving away another prize or two on the 9th!

Step #8 Monday, August 10th: well, I’m afraid Step #8 is just doing whatever you normally do on a Monday. Sorry.

See you August 3rd!

The post How to Attend the Virtual Launch Party for EVERY OTHER SATURDAY appeared first on MJ Pullen.

How to Attend My Virtual Launch Party – EVERY OTHER SATURDAY

As you may have heard, my latest romantic comedy is on its way Tuesday, August 4th. EVERY OTHER SATURDAY is the story of Dave Bernstein and Julia Mendel, two divorced parents whose kids attend the same Jewish preschool, who are forced to overcome their differences to share the same coveted babysitter. It’s a unique love story about finding help where you need it most, and love where you expect it least.

EVERY OTHER SATURDAY is a Kindle-only release for now (so sorry – it’s a contractual limitation thing! It will be available on other platforms in a few months and I do expect it to be out in paper form eventually).

In the meantime, I am having a virtual launch party on Facebook to celebrate!

LIVE August 3rd, 6:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. and August 9th, 7:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. (EST)

How does a virtual launch party work, you ask? What a good-looking question!

Step #1 Simply follow the link, log in to Facebook, and join the event. You’ll begin receiving an update whenever I post something new on the event page. I’m giving away prizes, and each time you comment, share or invite others, you get an entry.

Step #2 Pre-order your digital copy of EVERY OTHER SATURDAY. It’s just $3.99 for Kindle/iPad/etc., and pre-ordering means it will be auto-magically delivered to your device the second it’s released.

Step #3 On, Monday August 3rd at 5:30, pour yourself a cup of your favorite beverage (mine will be wine, in a clear plastic tumbler with a green fingerprint!) and/or some kind of indulgent snack, preferably chocolate. Put on comfy clothes, pjs (or no clothes at all – I won’t tell). Announce to family and friends that you have a “conference call” or “work meeting” and cannot be disturbed.

Step #4 Visit the launch party page on Monday August 3rd, between 6:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m., where we’ll be raising our virtual glasses, talking about the book and giving away some really fun prizes. We might even play truth or dare — who knows?!?

Step #5  Midnight, August 3rd-4th: Receive your copy of EVERY OTHER SATURDAY, call in sick to work, and get lost in the misadventures of Dave and Julia for a while.

Step #6  During the week, feel free to check in with your reading progress and updates (no spoilers, please!) You can also stop by the EOS Goodreads page.

Step #7 Join me again at the event page on Sunday, August 9th from 7:30 to 9:00 for a book club discussion and more Q&A. There will be spoilers during that time, so if you haven’t read the book by then, you may prefer to skip this part. I’ll also be giving away another prize or two on the 9th!

Step #8 Monday, August 10th: well, I’m afraid Step #8 is just doing whatever you normally do on a Monday. Sorry.

See you August 3rd!

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June Drawing Winner – Nancy Meeks

Congratulations to Nancy Meeks, the June winner of my monthly drawing! Nancy gets a $10 Amazon card and my undying love! (Nancy also happens to be a friend – the first time random.org has chosen someone I know from my email list. Nice!)

Nancy Meeks – Birmingham, AL

Nancy calls the Magic City of Birmingham, Alabama her home. She works for a national food magazine and gets to do fun stuff during the day like taste-test recipes and plan photo shoots. She loves traveling, libraries, diet Dr Pepper, and her 3-year-old and 7-year-old nephews.

Yay, Nancy!

The goal of the monthly drawing is to thank YOU for being part of my online support group/reading community winners are selected from members of my email list and those who comment on this blog.

Don’t forget to enter the $35 Amazon card giveaway and get a chance at all the fun prizes I’ll be handing out at the EVERY OTHER SATURDAY Facebook Launch party.

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Equality is Romantic

Totally non-productive puddle of mush. That’s me. I am supposed to be finishing up revisions on EVERY OTHER SATURDAY (a non-traditional romance of a different sort) but I can’t stay off Facebook and Twitter, enjoying the celebration of marriage equality happening all around us. I’m proud to be a part of this moment in history, even as a spectator. It’s impossible not to be joyful when there is so much love around you.

If you’re bored, please feel free to skip my take on the marriage equality ruling and go straight to Key and Peele at the bottom. It will make your day better.

 When I checked Twitter this morning #LoveWins pic.twitter.com/RYsPJKx1F2

— George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) June 26, 2015

I loved both my parents very much, and I believe that until the day each of them died they still loved each other. But their marriage was a chaotic mess during most of my formative years, and they divorced when I was 14. From then on my most stable, consistent and loving model of a long-term relationship happened to be a marriage between two women.

Those women have now stepped in to fill some of the gaps left behind by the deaths of my parents — not just for me but for Hubs and our two little boys. Even at ten years old, I understood their love to be as valid and meaningful as any other relationship, and I’ve never heard anything in the 30 years since to convince me otherwise. Over the decades I have known them as a couple, they have had to do much more than traditional marriages to try to ensure they can take care of one another and those of us who love them, in case of the eventualities most of us would rather not think about. I’m so grateful they can now rest easier with a legally sanctioned union, that their basic legal and human rights are protected.

[*Gets on soapbox*]

[*Thinks soapbox feels taller than last time and perhaps workouts need more focus on quads*]

I don’t blog much about my political stances: I’m mostly a Libertarian, so political conversations tend to be a great way to piss EVERYONE off. Plus, I’m a romance author, and there’s usually nothing sexy about politics. But I want to quickly say for those three people who might be interested in my opinion, that yes, I agree that this battle shouldn’t have been necessary — state-sanctioned marriage shouldn’t have to be a thing. I love the idea that marriage might one day be a private, contractual agreement between two people, either religious or not, which would have no impact on their standing with any level of our government. I’ve read some assertions by my Libertarian friends that while gay marriage is great or at least neutral, this ruling shouldn’t have been necessary.

And yet, it was.

Because as of now, the county, state and federal governments do provide protections to people who are able to get married and their children. From tax breaks to adoption rights to child custody after death or divorce, those of us in straight marriages might have to worry about many things, but access to basic family rights isn’t one of them. If I step in front of a bus tomorrow, I don’t have to worry that Hubs won’t be granted access or medical decision-making power (even if we hadn’t outlined such contingencies in our wills). Our kids happen to be biologically ours, but if they weren’t, and one of us were to die suddenly, there is no chance the other would lose custody of our kids because they didn’t have legal standing to adopt. If we were to divorce, it would be clear to any judge in any state that we both have parental rights — no matter how our kids came into our family. In many states (including mine), gay couples and their children didn’t have those same rights afforded them. Until yesterday.

This is a victory not just for my friends and family in the LGBT community, but for individual freedom and basic civil rights.  

A step closer to no default today. #LoveWins pic.twitter.com/py3aKaB2Y8 — PenguinTeenAus (@PenguinTeenAus) June 26, 2015

Contrary to the opinions of some people in my Facebook feed, we don’t live in a Christian or religious state and never have. Even though our country was founded primarily by people with a Judeo-Christian worldview, the United States was built on religious and individual freedom at its core. The separation of church and state is a powerful and necessary principal of our democracy. It protected the various types of early Christians who settled here from the Church of England and each other (not so much, sadly, the Native Americans who were already here); it protected the Jews (mostly) and Irish/Italian Catholics (eventually) who followed later. It allows religious institutions of all types to practice freely, while protecting each of us from being forced into the faiths of our neighbors. Or those guys on the bicycles. I can never remember which ones they are.

Intellectually, I understand (and partially agree with) the arguments some people are making about state’s rights and the overreach of federal courts. And while I wish the federal government had less power in our lives in general, I believe that the granting of basic human rights to every citizen is fundamental and should never be optional. I shouldn’t get to decide what the sermon will be at your church on Sunday (let’s face it, I’d be terrible at that: “God is Love. What’s for lunch?”). And you shouldn’t get to tell two consenting adults that they can’t get married (and be afforded all the rights and protections available to straight couples), just because it makes you personally uncomfortable.

I hope my friends who find this ruling discouraging or scary will come to see that it makes our community stronger, more stable and more accepting, and that it benefits children rather than harming them. I hope those whose religion does not accept gay people or gay marriage will (if nothing else) learn to accept that the government should not and cannot rule based on religious principles. Because if it did, whose interpretation of the Bible (or other religious text) would we use? Mine or yours? Yours or the person next to you in the pew? Rabbi, pastor, Imam? Maybe the Pope? Should we return to some of these outdated biblical ideas of marriage (

There’s obviously no real answer. I’m the furthest thing from a judicial expert or a theologian (of my own faith or anyone else’s). The good news is, it’s America, so I don’t have to be. All I have to do is exercise my own rights without impeding on the rights of others. And, you know, pay taxes.

 

[*Gets off soapbox*]

[*Opens soapbox to do another load of smelly boy laundry.*]

Enjoy today.

P.S. — Key and Peele gay wedding advice. Funniest thing ever.

Get More: Comedy Central,Funny Videos,Funny TV Shows

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Announcing: EVERY OTHER SATURDAY pre-orders and giveaway

Thanks to Taria Reed (tariareed.net) for the fabulous cover!

You’ve been waiting patiently, and I’m so delighted to share that I have an official launch date set for my newest contemporary romance, EVERY OTHER SATURDAY! The book is getting its finishing touches over the next few weeks, and will be available for Kindle* (and Kindle-friendly devices like the iPad) on Tuesday, August 4th, 2015.

This is a different kind of romance for me – featuring two unique characters who are both divorced with small kids – and I hope you’ll enjoy reading about Dave, Julia and their many complications as much as I have enjoyed writing them.

Pre-order the book here and it will be delivered automagically to your favorite device on the launch date.

Book bloggers/reviewers: if you are interested in an Advanced Reader Copy of EVERY OTHER SATURDAY, please contact me by June 30, 2015.

EVERY OTHER SATURDAY

Even though their daughters have been in the same Jewish preschool class for three years, struggling store owner Julia Mendel and sports blogger Dave “from the Man Cave” Bernstein have never gotten along. She sees him as a definitely arrogant, possibly misogynist symbol of everything that’s wrong with the men in her life. He sees her as the odd, short-tempered PTA president who always makes his life more complicated.

Then Dave accepts an on-air challenge: go out with a different woman from a Jewish dating website every Saturday for the next four months, and blog the results. He quickly secures his daughter’s favorite preschool teacher and super-nanny Ms. Elizabeth to make the experiment possible. Little does he know Julia is in desperate need of the same sitter for the same schedule, so that she can take a part-time job while pacifying her son, who has severe OCD.

A confrontation in the carpool lane leads to an uneasy compromise: they will pool their resources to share Ms. Elizabeth’s services every-other Saturday night. After a while, Dave finds himself sharing his dating stories with non-Jewish Julia across her kitchen table; while she reluctantly turns to him for the masculine perspective – especially for her son – she’s been missing since her divorce. As the Saturdays wear on, however, they may discover they have more in common than car seats and custody schedules.

EVERY OTHER SATURDAY is a story about finding help when you need it most, and love where you expect it least.

*This is a digital-only release for now. Unfortunately, paperbacks won’t be available in the short term for this title. Sorry, pulp addicts and bathtub readers.

To celebrate the launch, I’m also hosting a giveaway for an Amazon gift card. It comes in your size!

Please comment on and share this page, and come back to say hello often. Good luck and happy reading!

EVERY OTHER SATURDAY Launch Giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Lessons from Camp Jedi

Those aren’t Stormtroopers, they’re just avoiding mosquitoes.

Happy Summer! (Almost, technically). Even though the actual solstice is still a few days away, we are three weeks into summer vacation here in Georgia. Lovely, hot, mosquito-ridden summer vacation. With a side of stomach flu last week. Ugh!

With the exception of a few hours of camp, Fozzie and Skywalker are both home with me for pretty much the entire month of June, and we’ve enjoyed medieval weapon-filled trips to the Renaissance festival and walks in the woods that turned sticks into weapons. When it’s too hot and buggy to be outside, we are all Lego Star Wars video games and staged light saber battles all the time. It’s pretty much Camp Jedi in my world.

With two active young boys close in age, I find myself saying things I wouldn’t have imagined just a few years ago.

“Only hit the other person’s light saber, not the other person. Is that what Obi-Wan would do to his brother?”

“Water bottles are not weapons. Books are not weapons. Cheese is not a weapon.”

“Stop shooting each other and eat breakfast.”

“Get your shoes on. Take you shoe out of your mouth. Take your shoe out of your brother’s mouth. Your shoes go on your feet. Now you have them on the wrong feet. Those are the wrong shoes. Don’t hit your brother with the shoe.”

“Your brother is not a pillow. Your brother is not a trampoline. You can both be Darth Vader if you want to be. Get your brother’s face out of the carpet.”

“If you can’t agree on the rules for jousting, we will have to put the jousting set away. Don’t throw jousting toys at Mommy.”

“Quick, grab the bowl. He just threw up in my hair, and on my shirt. Aaaaand on my pillow.”

“If we can’t decide fairly who gets to be which Paw Patrol pup we will have to play something else.”

“If we can’t decide fairly whether the minivan is an Imperial Star Destroyer or an AT-AT that can transform into a snow speeder, we will have to play something else.”

“Can we not use any variation of the word “poop” at the dinner table, please?”

“If you can’t stop arguing about it, I will take it away or separate you two or we’ll stop talking about whatever it is.”

“I am going to say it one last time: No more naked gun fighting.“

So… that’s pretty much my life right now. From a parent’s perspective, it’s astonishing how many things two siblings can find to fight about. They fight about what they said, what they did, whose thing that is and whether it’s okay for the other one to use it. They fight about what they meant by what they said and who hit who first and should therefore be in more trouble. They fight over the color of their cereal bowls.

It’s also funny how different siblings are with each other than with classmates and friends. Away from home, Skywalker is normally so mild-mannered when it comes to interacting with other kids (besides his brother), I sometimes worry that he might not assert himself if he is being picked on or taken advantage of. Or get so frustrated that he’s not being heard that he throws a tantrum instead of negotiating fairly.

We got to see it all play out at Skywalker’s swim meet the other night, when he was throwing around a nerf football with some of his little swim team buddies. Even though he’s a bit younger, Fozzie wanted to play so badly that he hung around, picking up the ball whenever he could and throwing it to the other boys. At one point, one of the other boys Skywalker’s age snatched the football from Fozzie and said, “you can’t play, you’re little.” (If he’d ever seen Fozzie in action, he might not have been so cavalier, but I digress…)

I was a few feet away, watching to see how the boys would handle it before I intervened. Sure enough, Skywalker went up to the other boy and calmly but forcefully took the football back. “Hey, you can’t do that. He’s my brother and he wants to play, too.” He handed it to Fozzie, who stepped back and threw it to the other kid. And all was well.

Wisdom sometimes comes in small packages…

I don’t care how many ribbons he wins (or doesn’t) for swimming this year. That moment made damn proud of my kid. I hope he would do the same for another child, too, but standing up for your brother is a pretty good start.

Someone once told me that you should always walk away from a fight for yourself, but always stand and fight for others. I try to do that myself, but the things that seem so simple at five sometimes feel less clear as adults. We stand back and let people attack the weak, the different, and the marginalized (usually out of ignorance and fear). Sometimes it’s in our Facebook feed, sometimes it’s at the bar or the coffee house or Sunday school.

Maybe it’s because we’re less clear about things than we were when we were little, before we started thinking of our social networks as a knotted web of potential social and career repercussions. Before fears about “rocking the boat” (or, personally, “selling fewer books”) held sway. Whatever it is, when my addled grown up brain gets confused, I’m grateful for the little role model I have right here at home.

Maybe minus the naked gun fighting part.

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May Drawing Winner: Mary Mooney

Mary Mooney (left) with Author Chelsea Camaron

Congratulations to May’s drawing winner, Mary Mooney! She won an Amazon Gift Card for being a randomly selected member of my email list.

Here’s what Mary has to say:

“I am single and no kids. I work full time at a local auto parts store and when I am not working, I am always reading, my kindle goes everywhere with me. I read for a lot of authors whether it be an ARC or Beta reading. And I am also in a reading review group, I love doing it, I just wish it was my full time job (too bad it doesn’t pay other than getting to read great stories before they are released).

I have attached a photo of me (in the purple) and author Chelsea Camaron (she is a friend of mine) from the Booking in Biloxi book signing this past March, it was my first big book signing. The only other signing I went to was Author Kim Jones a few years ago. Kim and I are friends, we live in the same little town. I would love to travel and go to all the book signings but real life gets in the way. lol“

Thanks for being such a devoted reader and reviewer, Mary! Authors would be completely useless without avid readers, especially those who share the books they love with others. I hope you get to go to lots more great signings.

Congratulations also to blog commenter Kristen for being randomly chosen as April’s winner. She opted not to do the whole picture on the blog thing, and that’s cool too. You get the gift card either way!

If you want to be entered in the JUNE drawing, you can either sign up for my email list (if you sign up here, you’ll get my short story BODY ENGLISH for free as well) or comment on this or any of this month’s blog entries. Good luck and happy June!

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Romantic Times Convention #RT15

Cherry Adair – so fabulous.

As of last week, I am no longer an RT virgin. The Romantic Times Booklovers Convention in Dallas was an absolute blast. If you are a fan (or writer) of romance novels, I highly recommend it.

I took a wonderful plotting class from Cherry Adair, who changed my view of Post-It notes completely. If you’re a writer and plotting is not your strength — it’s NOT mine — or you have ADD and get distracted by shiny objects in your stories — what? where am I? — you should check out Cherry’s methods. She is coming out with her Plotting by Color book soon!

There were parties and panels and hobnobbing (that is almost certainly the only time I’ve ever used that word) with everyone from bestselling romance authors to my favorite proofreader to those hot (and very sweet) guys from the covers.

My Goddess of Proofreading…#RT2015

Posted by M.J. Pullen on Wednesday, May 13, 2015

Hanging with @AuthorSara and @ShaneCRice

Of course I handled all this rubbing elbows with my usual gravitas…

 

Just met @EloisaJames in the elevator and babbled about my boots. Super slick. #RT15

— MJ Pullen (@MJPullen) May 13, 2015

 

And I’m so appreciative to Louise Fury for inviting me to host a table at the Shooting Stars Gala. It was a blast. I got to meet some great people. Looking forward to the next RT!

Shooting Stars Gala #RT15

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Romantic Times Convention 2015 – Dallas, TX #RT2015

Hi, Gang!

Apologies for the long break between blogs — oh crap, I owe you a monthly winner for April, don’t I? Frig. Anyway, I’ve been working my cute little tushie off this past month, revising my latest novel EVERY-OTHER SATURDAY. It will make its way to beta readers next week, get revised some more, and you’ll be able to buy it, in digital format ONLY, around the beginning of August.  More on that coming soon…

In the meantime, I am spending the week at the Romantic Times Booklovers Convention in Dallas, and already having a blast. It’s my first time at this convention, and for my Atlanta friends wondering what it’s like, I will just say it’s like DragonCon for romance novels. Fewer Stormtroopers, more shirtless men. So, better.

 

Oh, Texas. You put the Tex in my Mex, Cowboy in my Caviar, @RobertEarlKeen1 in my iPod, and rocks in my margarita. Good to be back. #RT2015

— MJ Pullen (@MJPullen) May 12, 2015

This is my first time back in Texas in ten years, which in itself is pretty unbelievable. And while a piece of my heart will always live in Austin, it’s just nice to be back in the Lone Star State at all. And it’s hard to deny the appeal of Dallas on a beautiful blue-sky morning.

 

And there’s this… #nofilter #RT2015

 

A photo posted by Manda Pullen (@mjpullenauthor) on May 11, 2015 at 5:31am PDT

If you’re attending RT2015:

I’m doing some of the writing workshops while I’m here (including Cherry Adair’s Master Plotting Class that started today – so good!), and soaking in the general awesomeness. While I won’t be signing at the huge book fair on Saturday, because I am lame and missed the deadline and have no books technically out at the moment, I am hosting a table at the Shooting Stars Gala Friday morning (10:00 a.m. — Reunion Room B), so if you’re here, come see me there!

Nine readers will get ARCs of the new version of THE MARRIAGE PACT plus… wedding cake cupcakes and something bubbly to drink. So come join me! If you need more info, or if you happen to be in Dallas with an old copy of any of THE MARRIAGE PACT series that you’d like signed, just Tweet me @MJPullen and we’ll connect.

If you don’t already follow me on Instagram and want up to the minute — up to the half-day information on what I’m doing and seeing, please follow me there @MJPullenAuthor.

Until then…. Goodnight, Dallas!

Goodnight, Dallas

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Win a Signed Copy of SIMON VS. THE HOMO SAPIENS AGENDA

It’s new, it’s critically-acclaimed, and it’s one of the sweetest YA books I’ve read in years. It’s SIMON VS. THE HOMO SAPIENS AGENDA, written by my friend and critique group partner, Becky Albertalli.

Your very own AUTOGRAPHED copy of Simon!

I was honored to attend the launch for this book at Little Shop of Stories in Decatur, Georgia, on Saturday night, and y’all: people love this book so much they came from EVERYWHERE. Miles and miles. Across state lines. Someone even came from Canada. SIMON is a sensation in the making.

While I was at the launch, I also snagged this autographed copy of SIMON, which Becky has given me permission to raffle off to YOU!

Filled with true-to-life teenage love, longing and Oreos, SIMON is more than a coming out story or even just an adorable love story (which it most certainly is). It’s also about family and high school (Becky’s memories of this time period are so cogent — she will have you trying to remember your locker combination). But most of all, to me, this book is about trying to get comfortable enough in your own skin that you can reach outward to love others. I think we all struggle with that at some point in our lives, which may be why this book is SO beloved.

If you have a special young person in your life or you just enjoy reading high-quality YA, leave a comment below for a chance to win an autographed hardback copy of SIMON VS. THE HOMO SAPIENS AGENDA (U.S. and Canadian addresses only, please). I will randomly pick a winner at the end of this week.

If you just can’t wait, get SIMON here: Amazon link.

Here’s the official book jacket summary:

“A remarkable gift of a novel.”—Andrew Smith, author of Grasshopper Jungle

“I am so in love with this book.”—Nina LaCour, author of Hold Still

“Feels timelessly, effortlessly now.”—Tim Federle, author of Better Nate Than Ever

“The best kind of love story.”—Alex Sanchez, Lambda Award-winning author of Rainbow Boys and Boyfriends with Girlfriends

Sixteen-year-old and not-so-openly gay Simon Spier prefers to save his drama for the school musical. But when an email falls into the wrong hands, his secret is at risk of being thrust into the spotlight. Now change-averse Simon has to find a way to step out of his comfort zone before he’s pushed out—without alienating his friends, compromising himself, or fumbling a shot at happiness with the most confusing, adorable guy he’s never met.

Incredibly funny and poignant, this twenty-first-century coming-of-age, coming out story—wrapped in a geek romance—is a knockout of a debut novel by Becky Albertalli.

Enter up to once a day between now and Friday, April 17th. Good luck!!

And here is a lovely shot of our critique group Saturday night as well. Don’t we look uber-literary?

Posted by M.J. Pullen on Sunday, April 12, 2015

 

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