Susan Adrian's Blog, page 3

THREE MONTHS OUT!

It's 3 months today until THE DARK AT THE END, the sequel to TUNNEL VISION, is out!

Three months away!!

Three months today until THE DARK AT THE END comes out!!

Montana Book Award Honor Book!

I am so thrilled to announce that TUNNEL VISION was named a 2015 Honor Book for the Montana Book Award. The only YA book! There will be a reception and everything, so FANCY AWESOMENESS. Happy to represent my state, and so honored! Check it out, and the winner and other honor books, here:

http://www.montanabookaward.org/index.php/award-winners/92-2015

Happy anniversary, TUNNEL VISION, and sequel news!

It's hard to believe it, but it's been a year today since TUNNEL VISION was released. It's been a year of excitement and new adventures: touring, events, meeting new friends and connecting with old ones, and celebrating the achievement of my dream.Thank you to everyone who supported me and TUNNEL VISION, whether you read the book, came to an event, posted a review, or sent me a message of support or congratulations. YOU have made this an amazing year for me.And now I'm ready to move to the next adventure with Jake...and I hope you'll come with me! Want to know more?*drum roll please* *ba da ba DUM* *ba da ba DUM*The title of the TUNNEL VISION sequel is...THE DARK AT THE ENDreleasing SEPTEMBER 27, 2016.Jake thinks he has only one more step and he'll be free: he just has to meet with Vladimir, his grandfather's Russian friend, and get the serum to stop his power for good. But when they get to Florida Vladimir is dead, and there's no sign of the serum. Then someone takes Myka and his mom. With the government and the terrifying Mr. Smith still after him while he has his power, he doesn't have anywhere to turn.What will Jake do to get his mom and little sister back?Anything.

Happy anniversary TUNNEL VISION! And sequel news...

It's hard to believe it, but it's been a year today since TUNNEL VISION was released. It's been a year of excitement and new adventures: touring, events, meeting new friends and connecting with old ones, and celebrating the achievement of my dream.

Thank you to everyone who supported me and TUNNEL VISION, whether you read the book, came to an event, posted a review, or sent me a message of support or congratulations. YOU have made this an amazing year for me.

And now I'm ready to move to the next adventure with Jake...and I hope you'll come with me! Want to know more?

*drum roll please* *ba da ba DUM* *ba da ba DUM*

The title of the TUNNEL VISION sequel is...

THE DARK AT THE ENDreleasing SEPTEMBER 27, 2016.

Jake thinks he has only one more step and he'll be free: he just has to meet with Vladimir, his grandfather's Russian friend, and get the serum to stop his power for good. But when they get to Florida Vladimir is dead, and there's no sign of the serum. Then someone takes Myka and his mom. With the government and the terrifying Mr. Smith still after him while he has his power, he doesn't have anywhere to turn.

What will Jake do to get his mom and little sister back?

Anything.

Tunnel Tour Wrap-Up!

GUYS. WHAT A CRAZY SIX MONTHS THAT WAS.The official stops of the Tunnel Tour are over! It's time to take a breath, relax a little bit, and look back at the awesomeness. And thank you, all of you who were such a big part of it.Since January, I have:--Had 18 (18!!) major events at bookstores or schools. I truly did cross the country, with events in: Butte, Houston, Seattle, Los Angeles, Santee, San Diego, Pasadena, Salt Lake City, Denver, Berkeley, Virginia, Nebraska, Portland, Missoula, St. Louis, Boston, and New York. WHEW. What did I discover? I love doing events. I KNOW. It's something I never would've guessed going in, but meeting booksellers and fellow authors and readers, and chatting with everybody and telling stories? Second only to the actual writing. Thank you so much to the bookstores, and those hard-working booksellers and customer service reps who helped organize this and ran them flawlessly.--I got to hang out with 44 other authors!! Well, even more than that, because many of you fabulous people came who weren't actually on the panels. But I did events with 44 other kidlit authors, debuts and long-timers, my people to a one. THANK YOU, other authors, for sharing your stories with me.--I did my first podcast, and 2 radio interviews, one with the renowned Cherie Newman of NPR's THE WRITE QUESTION. Oh my god, that was so much fun. You can listen to it all if you want to! http://www.susanadrian.net/mediaskype-visits/--I did 4 school events, and would love to do more of these! The Best when you're actually talking to kids, and you SEE them get excited about stories and reading.--I did blog interviews, all over, and I am so grateful to the bloggers who read and feature our books, and reach out to authors and spread the word. Thank you.There are a lot of thank yous up there, right? That's the most important bit of this post, because none of this, this little "friend tour" dream I had the summer before publication, would've worked without the support of all the bookstores and authors and friends and readers. It would've been me, sitting alone clutching my book. Instead it was this:And I loved every minute.By the way, though the Tunnel Tour is done, I'm not going into hiding! I'll be at the Missoula Book Festival September 10-12, and the Montana SCBWI intensive September 18....

Tunnel Tour Wrap-up!

GUYS. WHAT A CRAZY SIX MONTHS THAT WAS.

The official stops of the Tunnel Tour are over! It's time to take a breath, relax a little bit, and look back at the awesomeness. And thank you, all of you who were such a big part of it.

Since January, I have:

--Had 18 (18!!) major events at bookstores or schools. I truly did cross the country, with events in: Butte, Houston, Seattle, Los Angeles, Santee, San Diego, Pasadena, Salt Lake City, Denver, Berkeley, Virginia, Nebraska, Portland, Missoula, St. Louis, Boston, and New York. WHEW. What did I discover? I love doing events. I KNOW. It's something I never would've guessed going in, but meeting booksellers and fellow authors and readers, and chatting with everybody and telling stories? Second only to the actual writing. Thank you so much to the bookstores, and those hard-working booksellers and customer service reps who helped organize this and ran them flawlessly.

--I got to hang out with 44 other authors!! Well, even more than that, because many of you fabulous people came who weren't actually on the panels. But I did events with 44 other kidlit authors, debuts and long-timers, my people to a one. THANK YOU, other authors, for sharing your stories with me.

--I did my first podcast, and 2 radio interviews, one with the renowned Cherie Newman of NPR's THE WRITE QUESTION. Oh my god, that was so much fun. You can listen to it all if you want to! http://www.susanadrian.net/mediaskype-visits/

--I did 4 school events, and would love to do more of these! The Best when you're actually talking to kids, and you SEE them get excited about stories and reading.

--I did blog interviews, all over, and I am so grateful to the bloggers who read and feature our books, and reach out to authors and spread the word. Thank you.

There are a lot of thank yous up there, right? That's the most important bit of this post, because none of this, this little "friend tour" dream I had the summer before publication, would've worked without the support of all the bookstores and authors and friends and readers. It would've been me, sitting alone clutching my book. Instead it was this:

And I loved every minute.

By the way, though the Tunnel Tour is done, I'm not going into hiding! I'll be at the Missoula Book Festival September 10-12, and the Montana SCBWI intensive September 18....

TUNNEL VISION 2

Ahem. First draft DONE. BOOM. 

YA Dash!! Suspense/thriller scavenger hunt HERE.

NOTE: This contest is now closed!! But please check out all the fabulous books below...

Welcome to the YA Dash, a YA spy/thriller scavenger hunt!! I’m so excited to be a part of this fun online event, joining some fantastic YA suspense authors!

 

I’m joining in with a little TUNNEL VISION-related story, called Two Truths and a Lie. To ferret out which is which, you’ll have to take a quick read of the first chapter of TUNNEL VISION here: http://www.susanadrian.net/excerpt

Back? (Hope you liked it!) Okay.

My character, Jake Lukin, is in trouble. He’s being chased by a big, bad freaky dude he thinks is from the government…and now he’s stuck in a cemetery, trying to hide out until he can get away. So, two numeric truths and one lie. Which is which? The number hidden in the LIE is my clue!

--The cemetery Jake’s hiding in, Oak Grove cemetery, is 25 acres.

--He feels like he’s in a Death to Spies game, which is based on World War 1.

--Jake is 20 minutes late already to pick up his little sister from school.

Did you figure it out? Write down the number hidden in the lie statement, and head to any of the other authors on the Dash!

Diana Renn http://dianarenn.blogspot.com

Mary Elizabeth Summer http://www.mesummer.com/blog

Lindsay Cummings http://www.lindsaycummingsbooks.com/#!blog/c15y1

Elizabeth Wein http://eegatland.livejournal.com

Valynne Maetani http://www.valynne.com/#!blog/c1wwn

Y.S. Lee http://yslee.com

Laurie Stolarz http://lauriestolarz.tumblr.com

Lee Kelly  http://www.newwritecity.com/2015/05/18/ya-dash-two-truths-and-a-lie/

T.A. Maclagan http://tamaclagan.com

If you’re ready, head to the Rafflecopter giveaway:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Don’t know what I’m talking about? Curious? Check out the YA Dash page (theYADash.wordpress.com) and enter to win the grand prize, a copy of each author’s book!

Thanks for playing!

 

 

Thankful Tuesday: Readers

When I was struggling...for fifteen years, struggling...to get a book published, my husband would sometimes challenge me.  "Why are you doing this?" he would ask, always logical. "What is your goal?"I'd sniff, and waffle around for a while: 'to get a big 5 contract' 'to see my book in stores', all sorts of things. But when it came down to it, I always ended at the same, deep goal: "I want other people to read and enjoy one of my stories."That's it, in the end. I wanted people to read my stories. Fast forward to now, 3 months out from the release of my first book. It's easy--soooo easy--to get caught up in the stress of it: getting another deal, worrying about sales numbers and store placement and comparing. Sometimes I fall prey to it like everyone else. But when I do, I have a very simple strategy for overcoming the stress.I go and look at Worldcat, and I see that my book, a story I wrote all from my own head, is in libraries. All across the country, across the world. Not only that--it's checked out, in lots of places. Hundreds of copies are checked out right now. It's in people's hands. And you know what that means?People are reading my story. No matter the rest of it, no matter how many bookstores it's in or who bought it today, someone, somewhere, is probably reading it right now. That was my goal, my dream, and that is real now.So I want to thank you, the most important people in this equation: the readers. Especially thank you to the ones who blog and review on Goodreads and Amazon and all that, who recommend and share with other people. I am so grateful to you for spreading the word. Thank you to the excited readers I've met at signings, to the ones who email their love. But also thank you to the kid who checked it out from the library yesterday, who's curled up with it on their couch tonight, who's sneak-reading it when they should be doing chores or homework. Even if you quietly close it at the end and smile, and never tell anyone.Thank you for making my dream come true.