Rachele Alpine's Blog, page 10

I'm one of the 55%....are you?

This study has been the talk among YA authors/readers these last few days.

It states that, "More than half the consumers of books classified for young adults aren’t all that young. According to a new study, fully 55% of buyers of works that publishers designate for kids aged 12 to 17 -- known as YA books -- are 18 or older, with the largest segment aged 30 to 44, a group that alone accounted for 28% of YA sales."

And when these people were asked who they were purchasing books for, 78% said they were buying the books for themselves.

I'm one of the 55% and 78% (although after I read my YA books, I put them in my classroom library).
What about you?  I'd love to hear what age group my readers fall into.  Care to take a quick survey?  

Thanks...you rock!
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Bling, Bling

My pup Radley is sporting some bling!

(the other side has my phone number to keep her safe)

Hip Hip Hipster!

I have a cofession.
I kind of dig the hipster thing (which is probably a very "un-hipster" thing to do).
I've been crushing on the trend for a long time. Especially the following hipster-like items:
This plaid shirt...

 Mustaches...

 
YA book supporter meme, Ryan Gosling...


Giant glasses (the bigger the better)...


Shaggy pups who are too cool for haircuts...


My kickball team...

Wedding Photos with mustached men...



And MY BOOK COVER!!!!


Don't you just adore the vintage retro theme my publishing house went with?!  Very hipster!

And by all means...it's okay to drool!

And to add it to your Goodreads' shelf!

CANARY Cover Reveal and ARC Contest

The wonderful blog IceyBooks has the exclusive cover reveal for CANARY today.  And we're giving away an ARC!

Head on over there and check it out!

I'm so excited to share my cover with all of you!

I love it and think it's very retro and hipster....what do you think?

Wowsers!

Guess what????

I just saw the cover for CANARY!

And I'm in love!

I can't wait to share it with all of you!

One Year...ONE YEAR!

Today is August 28, 2012.

It seemed like a regular work day, and it would have passed as one, but then someone at work asked me about CANARY.  And when it was coming out.

I told them August 28, 2013, which was posted on Barnes and Noble under the listing for my book.

I thought about it for a minute and realized that today is August 28.  So today isn't just a normal day.  Not at all.  Today is one year until my book comes out, and while it still seems far away, it also seems so very very close.  All of it does.  This whole book thing, which often still feels like a dream.  And that is pretty incredible!

One year!  Hot diggity dog!

Want to celebrate with me?  Add it to your Goodreads shelf! 

P.S.  I just talked to marketing last week and was told that my cover was in production and should be complete soon!

VENGEANCE BOUND Cover Reveal

When fellow Lucky 13 debut author, Justina Ireland, organized a cover reveal with the blog ATOMR, I wanted to be involved.  Her book sounds amazing and the cover is so fierce.  Don't you think?


And it's not just the cover that sound incredible:

Cory Graff is not alone in her head. Bound to a deal of desperation made when she was a child, Cory’s mind houses the Furies—the hawk and the serpent—lingering always, waiting for her to satisfy their bloodlust. After escaping the asylum where she was trapped for years, Cory knows how to keep the Furies quiet. By day, she lives a normal life, but by night, she tracks down targets the Furies send her way. And she brings down Justice upon them.

Cory’s perfected her system of survival, but when she meets a mysterious boy named Niko at her new school, she can’t figure out how she feels about him. For the first time, the Furies are quiet in her head around a guy. But does this mean that Cory’s finally found someone who she can trust, or are there greater factors at work? 

As Cory’s mind becomes a battlefield, with the Furies fighting for control, Cory will have to put everything on the line to hold on to what she’s worked so hard to build.

If this sounds like something you'd love to read, why not pre-order it?

Amazon

Indiebound

And shelve it here on Goodreads!

Monday Cuteness

How about a warm fuzzy to start your week?

Yesterday Radley was in a deep sleep and dreaming of lapping up water.  Her little tongue kept moving as if she were at the water bowl!

Read More Books

This is painted on an abandoned building in Cleveland.  I love the message it demands of you!

The Gateway Books

Today was the first day of school for my students.  I teach 10th grade American Literature.  I always start the first day by telling my students that my number one goal is to teach them to love reading.  Many of them don't believe me and fight the fact that I'm making them pick a book on the first day of school.  I tell them to remember this day, because we'll talk again at the end of the semester.
I show them some of my favorite book trailers and bring in a cart of what I like to call my "gateway books" books.  These are books that I've found even my most reluctant readers tend to get hooked on.  I hold these books up, gush about them and then let my students make book selections  (we also have a library with an AMAZING selection of books for those students who want something different).  Everyone walks out of my class with a book in their hands and I promise them the first fifteen minutes of every class to read.  
The reading is slow going at first, my students aren't too into reading for fifteen minutes, but as the days go on, sure enough, most get hooked.  My students will even call me out if I don't give them the full fifteen minutes of reading time.  The best part of all of this for me is when one of them finishes their book before the assigned due date and asks what they should do next.  
Can you guess what I say?
"Go pick another book!"
And you know what the greatest thing is?  
Most of them want to!
YA is taking over the world, and I'm starting in my classroom!
The "gateway" books I bring from the library. One of my book corners with more favorites.
Gateway Books:
Some Girls Are (Summers)Thirteen Reasons Why (Asher)Divergent (Roth)Break (Moskowitz)You (Benoit)The Mockingbirds (Whitney)The Summer I Turned Pretty (Han)Before I Fall (Oliver)The Book Thief  (Zusak)Little Brother (Doctorow)Wake (McMann)If I Stay (Foreman)Pefect Chemistry (Elkeles)Boot Camp (Strasser)Anna and the French Kiss (Perkins)Lola and the Boy Next Door (Perkins)Bunheads (Flack)Cracked (Walton)City of Bones (Clare)Knighs of Hill Country (Tharp)Gym Candy (Deuker)The Hunger Games (Collins)
*I would include Lucy Christopher's Stolen and Dana Reinhardt's Things a Brother Knows to my "gateway books", but I'm lucky enough to have a class set, so I get to teach two units using YA literature!  I think every English class needs a mix of the classics and new books.  Don't you think?