Lisa McMann's Blog, page 9
August 2, 2012
July 19, 2012
My Infinity Ring book has a cover!
So excited for this series. Book 1, written by James Dashner, comes out at the end of August. Book 2 by Carrie Ryan is set for November, and mine, book 3, will be out February 5. Here it is:
July 10, 2012
The Unwanteds: Now in Paperback
And it's only $6.99. Included in the back is a sneak peek at book 2 in the series; The Unwanteds: Island of Silence, which comes out Sept 4.
June 4, 2012
Announcing CRASH: book one of the VISIONS series
How much do you love the cover of my upcoming teen novel CRASH? Read all about it at Hollywood Crush!
CRASH, book one of the VISIONS series, comes out January 8.
Here's the flap copy:
Jules lives with her family above their restaurant, which means she smells like pizza most of the time and drives their double-meatball-shaped food truck to school. It’s not a recipe for popularity, but she can handle that.
What she can’t handle is the vision. Over and over, Jules sees a careening truck hit a building and explode... and nine body bags in the snow.
She has no idea why this is happening to her or if she’s going crazy. It hardly matters, because the visions are everywhere--on billboards, television screens, windows--and she’s the only one who can see them.
But it’s not until the vision starts coming more frequently, and revealing more clues, that Jules knows what she has to do. Because now she can see the face in one of the body bags, and it's someone she knows. Someone she’s been in love with for as long as she can remember.
Don't forget to add it on Goodreads!
CRASH, book one of the VISIONS series, comes out January 8.
Here's the flap copy:
Jules lives with her family above their restaurant, which means she smells like pizza most of the time and drives their double-meatball-shaped food truck to school. It’s not a recipe for popularity, but she can handle that.
What she can’t handle is the vision. Over and over, Jules sees a careening truck hit a building and explode... and nine body bags in the snow.
She has no idea why this is happening to her or if she’s going crazy. It hardly matters, because the visions are everywhere--on billboards, television screens, windows--and she’s the only one who can see them.
But it’s not until the vision starts coming more frequently, and revealing more clues, that Jules knows what she has to do. Because now she can see the face in one of the body bags, and it's someone she knows. Someone she’s been in love with for as long as she can remember.
Don't forget to add it on Goodreads!
May 4, 2012
What's up?
So the other day I looked up from my computer and asked my husband Matt, "Did we have winter already?"
And he was all like, "Yeah, honey, it's spring now."
See, I've been writing a lot of books the past six months. And by a lot, I mean three. And while I'm not nearly done editing them, I just finished the rough draft of the third and final one yesterday. (What are they, you ask? One is UNWANTEDS book 3, one is my book in the INFINITY RING series which you can read about in USA Today, and the third one? Is top secret. Hee.)
There's still a TON of work that needs to happen on all three, but there's something so awesome about getting to the end of a book and figuring out just what that last line will be. Never mind all the mess that lies between the first line and the last line. We'll get to that. But yesterday, in celebration, I went out. All by myself. Not on tour, or to anything author related. I went to the gourmet market and had a blast.
This is the glamorous life of an author. For the first time in about six months, I had all the time in the world to look at produce. I was not there to research or to speak or work, I was there with a different hat on, a hat I hadn't tried on in a long time. I wandered around just looking at all the beautifully colored fruits and vegetables, from brilliant red peppers to deep purple eggplant. I bought five absolutely gorgeous avocados. I bought some fresh shrimp, and some manchego cheese, and some marcona almonds, and some beautiful salami and a freshly baked baguette, and some shallots, and limes and some root-looking vegetables I saw on a cooking show once but have never tried, and now I can't remember what they're called so I can't even look them up to see how to prepare them. Ha! But it was SO. MUCH. FUN.
Now, I'm wondering. What do you like to do for fun when you get that feeling of relief after you've finally made it to the end of a long, arduous task?
And he was all like, "Yeah, honey, it's spring now."
See, I've been writing a lot of books the past six months. And by a lot, I mean three. And while I'm not nearly done editing them, I just finished the rough draft of the third and final one yesterday. (What are they, you ask? One is UNWANTEDS book 3, one is my book in the INFINITY RING series which you can read about in USA Today, and the third one? Is top secret. Hee.)
There's still a TON of work that needs to happen on all three, but there's something so awesome about getting to the end of a book and figuring out just what that last line will be. Never mind all the mess that lies between the first line and the last line. We'll get to that. But yesterday, in celebration, I went out. All by myself. Not on tour, or to anything author related. I went to the gourmet market and had a blast.
This is the glamorous life of an author. For the first time in about six months, I had all the time in the world to look at produce. I was not there to research or to speak or work, I was there with a different hat on, a hat I hadn't tried on in a long time. I wandered around just looking at all the beautifully colored fruits and vegetables, from brilliant red peppers to deep purple eggplant. I bought five absolutely gorgeous avocados. I bought some fresh shrimp, and some manchego cheese, and some marcona almonds, and some beautiful salami and a freshly baked baguette, and some shallots, and limes and some root-looking vegetables I saw on a cooking show once but have never tried, and now I can't remember what they're called so I can't even look them up to see how to prepare them. Ha! But it was SO. MUCH. FUN.
Now, I'm wondering. What do you like to do for fun when you get that feeling of relief after you've finally made it to the end of a long, arduous task?
March 20, 2012
Writing, writing, writing...
1. I can't wait to tell you what I'm working on.
2. Hi! I love you.
3. Had a great signing in Madrid, Spain last week -- thanks Everest!
4. Dead To You is in stores now. Unwanteds book 2 comes out in September.
5. In 2013? I will have four books coming out. Isn't that insane? No wonder I've been in the writing cave.
6. Okay, okay, I'll tell you what two of them are. Infinity Ring book 3, and Unwanteds book 3.
7. The other two...well, it's a secret. I'll let you know.
8. I'll be in Houston April 14 for Teen Book Con!
9. That is all for now.
xoxo
2. Hi! I love you.
3. Had a great signing in Madrid, Spain last week -- thanks Everest!
4. Dead To You is in stores now. Unwanteds book 2 comes out in September.
5. In 2013? I will have four books coming out. Isn't that insane? No wonder I've been in the writing cave.
6. Okay, okay, I'll tell you what two of them are. Infinity Ring book 3, and Unwanteds book 3.
7. The other two...well, it's a secret. I'll let you know.
8. I'll be in Houston April 14 for Teen Book Con!
9. That is all for now.
xoxo
February 5, 2012
DEAD TO YOU is in stores this week!
This is the first time I'm not doing a major tour for one of my books--it feels strange! And I'll actually be home with my family on both Valentine's Day and my birthday this year, hooray! But oh, how I will miss you.
The timing is great, though. I've got a few tight deadlines in the first half of 2012, so being able to work at home means I'll be a lot more productive (which means more books for you in 2013)! But I'll miss meeting booksellers, librarians, teachers, and especially teens this time around. I think I will be touring again in the fall when The Unwanteds: Island of Silence comes out.
The good news is that I'll be doing a few short visits here and there. This Thursday I'll be at CHANGING HANDS BOOKSTORE in Tempe, AZ for the launch party of DEAD TO YOU (call ahead to order personalized/signed copies--they ship almost anywhere). I'll be at the Chino Book Festival in Chino, CA on Sunday, Feb 26, signing in the Mrs. Nelson's Toys & Books booth. I'll also be visiting one of my favorite cities, Houston, for their Teen Book Festival in mid-April. As always, you can follow my travels on the TOUR page on my website. I will add more as they come along.
I hope you enjoy DEAD TO YOU! It's a stand-alone. And hopefully soon I'll be able to let you know what's coming next -- I can't wait to share the news! Stay tuned.
Thank you for buying my books! I really appreciate you.
xoxo
January 23, 2012
The Writing Cave
Hello all! I'm resurfacing from the writing cave for a day and realized it's been a month since I've blogged. I'm a terrible blogger--I'm sure you'll agree. I prefer the simple, quick tweet or status update to the longer format of the blog. So if you're ever looking for me, you can find me on facebook or twitter.
Can you believe it's only 2 weeks until DEAD TO YOU comes out? If you're wondering what it's about, you can find a description of it on my website. Or maybe I'll just put it here:
Dead To You - Available February 7, 2012!
Ethan was abducted from his front yard when he was just seven years old. Now, at sixteen, he has returned to his family. It's a miracle... at first. Then the tensions start to build. His reintroduction to his old life isn't going smoothly, and his family is tearing apart all over again. If only Ethan could remember something, anything, about his life before, he'd be able to put the pieces back together.
But there's something that's keeping his memory blocked. Something unspeakable...
As always, there is a little love story. I hope you enjoy it! You can pre-order online or check your local store to see if they have it on order.
What's up next? Well, let me just tell you:
Feb 7, 2012: DEAD TO YOU
Sept 4, 2012: THE UNWANTEDS: ISLAND OF SILENCE (bk 2 of the series)
Feb 2013: My book in the INFINITY RING series will be out! (I'm writing book 3)
Spring 2013: CRASH - a teen paranormal about a girl, a meatball truck, visions, forbidden love, hoarding, and nine body bags in the snow. Potential series.
Fall 2013: THE UNWANTEDS book 3!
No wonder I've been hanging out in the writing cave. Time to go back in.
Can you believe it's only 2 weeks until DEAD TO YOU comes out? If you're wondering what it's about, you can find a description of it on my website. Or maybe I'll just put it here:
Dead To You - Available February 7, 2012!
Ethan was abducted from his front yard when he was just seven years old. Now, at sixteen, he has returned to his family. It's a miracle... at first. Then the tensions start to build. His reintroduction to his old life isn't going smoothly, and his family is tearing apart all over again. If only Ethan could remember something, anything, about his life before, he'd be able to put the pieces back together.
But there's something that's keeping his memory blocked. Something unspeakable...
As always, there is a little love story. I hope you enjoy it! You can pre-order online or check your local store to see if they have it on order.
What's up next? Well, let me just tell you:
Feb 7, 2012: DEAD TO YOU
Sept 4, 2012: THE UNWANTEDS: ISLAND OF SILENCE (bk 2 of the series)
Feb 2013: My book in the INFINITY RING series will be out! (I'm writing book 3)
Spring 2013: CRASH - a teen paranormal about a girl, a meatball truck, visions, forbidden love, hoarding, and nine body bags in the snow. Potential series.
Fall 2013: THE UNWANTEDS book 3!
No wonder I've been hanging out in the writing cave. Time to go back in.
December 20, 2011
Exciting book news! INFINITY RING series
What is Infinity Ring? It's a seven-book time travel series brought to you by the creators of THE 39 CLUES (Scholastic), written by six different authors (including me!), and it includes an AWESOME online game component which you'll find on InfinityRing.com. You can read everything about it here in the Press Release.
Don't worry -- I'll still be writing THE UNWANTEDS series and my teen novels like DEAD TO YOU as usual. This is just a bonus book. :)
I am so excited to be part of this cool series. I'll be writing book three. One of the funnest aspects of this for me is that all the other authors who are taking part in this are really great people with amazing ideas. And it's also really fun to revisit history and figure out what would happen if things didn't go as they should have.
From left, front: Me, Carrie Ryan, Jennifer Nielsen. Back: Matt de la Pena, James Dashner, Matthew J. Kirby.
(photo copyright Ken Karp 2011)
There's even an article in the New York Times -- cool!
Watch for book one coming out in September, 2012!
December 11, 2011
Arizona YA authors, teachers, and librarians know how to par-tay!
The collective of young adult and middle grade authors is growing by leaps and bounds in Arizona, and the cool thing is, we all like each other. Last year we had a party for ourselves and it was a blast. This year we said to each other, "Hey, let's invite some more people who love books as much as we do." So we set a date (Dec 10) and a location (my house), and the eight authors who could attend got busy inviting as many of the teachers, librarians, and booksellers we could think of. And then we asked them to invite a coworker or two.
Word got out. I remember saying, "The more the merrier!" Some teachers and librarians from over a hundred miles away were planning to come. We were amazed and excited. We were about to have our own mini ALA + NCTE + BEA convention right in my house!
In early December, I started mentally adding up the potential number of people who might show up to such an event (free food and wine!) and for about 24 hours, I panicked. What if everyone we invited actually showed up? And then I remembered that lots of people plan to stop in at an open house, but when the time actually comes, things happen, or they realize I live in the boonies, and they can't make it after all. So I panicked again. What if nobody showed up? I figured at least my fellow authors would come, so we could hang out and feel like losers all together.
But my author buddies convinced me that people would come. So I started thinking, hey, if we're having our own little convention, we need to give stuff away. We need SWAG! I sent out a message to my awesome team at Simon & Schuster (Simon Pulse and Aladdin), asking if they had any arcs or finished books floating around to contribute. They said "Sure!" and got busy, reaching out to other S&S imprints as well. The other authors contacted their publishers too. In addition, we all donated books of our own to the cause -- Arizona has had some tough times and no funding for books in libraries and schools lately. We wanted to help, and we wanted to get more new books into our local schools and libraries.
The week of the party, I left on a three-day trip, and when I returned, my husband took me by the hand and said "Come with me." He showed me the entryway of our home. There were nearly twenty boxes stacked high from some amazingly awesome and generous publishers.
"Oh, my," I said. And then I looked at him. "This is going to be the Best. Party. Ever."
He nodded. We set up on the ping pong table. There were hundreds of books, posters, bookmarks, reading guides, socks, thumb drives...and more and more books. It was overflowing and glorious.
We stashed the empty boxes in the bathtub to get them out of the way.
On Saturday the 10th, the authors all arrived early with homemade appetizers and sweet snacks for our 5-8pm open house.
James Owen drew a welcome sign.
Darth headed out to the driveway to greet the book lovers.
Finally, the magic hour of 5pm arrived.
.
.
.
No one came. The clock ticked and echoed in the canyon. The food sat, eager, then concerned.
And then...a car containing two people pulled up. The people got out and came inside.
As any author knows, two people at a signing is worse than a no-show. It's painful and awkward and everybody involved feels weird and bad. Two people attending an event at which eight authors are present...well. It hurts to think about it.
Luckily, this car was followed by carload after carload, a maze of headlights in the darkest corner of the valley, streaming through the neighborhood. Hooray! We built it. They came.
As people arrived, my teenagers greeted them with applause -- they thought it would be great for the guests' self-esteem. After all, who doesn't like a grand entrance?
Over the next three hours, one hundred fifty Arizona librarians, middle and high school teachers, booksellers, and authors came together, met new people who shared their love for children's books, made some connections. They left with full stomachs, books in the crooks of their arms (yes, they all went for the books first, then the food), and grateful hearts for the generosity of publishers 2000 miles away. Before the night was over, the books were gone.
We want to profusely thank the following publishers who gave us books, arcs, and swag of all kinds: Simon & Schuster Childrens' Publishing, Random House, Scholastic, Walker, Fiewel & Friends, and Bloomsbury.
Truly and sincerely,
Amy Dominy (OyMG)
Bill Konigsberg (Out of the Pocket)
Tom Leveen (Party, Zero)
Lisa McMann (Wake trilogy, The Unwanteds)
James A Owen (Drawing Out the Dragons, Here There Be Dragons)
Aprilynne Pike (Wings series)
Janette Rallison aka CJ Hill (My Fair Godmother series, Slayers)
Janni Lee Simner (Bones of a Faerie, Faerie Winter)
Word got out. I remember saying, "The more the merrier!" Some teachers and librarians from over a hundred miles away were planning to come. We were amazed and excited. We were about to have our own mini ALA + NCTE + BEA convention right in my house!
In early December, I started mentally adding up the potential number of people who might show up to such an event (free food and wine!) and for about 24 hours, I panicked. What if everyone we invited actually showed up? And then I remembered that lots of people plan to stop in at an open house, but when the time actually comes, things happen, or they realize I live in the boonies, and they can't make it after all. So I panicked again. What if nobody showed up? I figured at least my fellow authors would come, so we could hang out and feel like losers all together.
But my author buddies convinced me that people would come. So I started thinking, hey, if we're having our own little convention, we need to give stuff away. We need SWAG! I sent out a message to my awesome team at Simon & Schuster (Simon Pulse and Aladdin), asking if they had any arcs or finished books floating around to contribute. They said "Sure!" and got busy, reaching out to other S&S imprints as well. The other authors contacted their publishers too. In addition, we all donated books of our own to the cause -- Arizona has had some tough times and no funding for books in libraries and schools lately. We wanted to help, and we wanted to get more new books into our local schools and libraries.
The week of the party, I left on a three-day trip, and when I returned, my husband took me by the hand and said "Come with me." He showed me the entryway of our home. There were nearly twenty boxes stacked high from some amazingly awesome and generous publishers.
"Oh, my," I said. And then I looked at him. "This is going to be the Best. Party. Ever."
He nodded. We set up on the ping pong table. There were hundreds of books, posters, bookmarks, reading guides, socks, thumb drives...and more and more books. It was overflowing and glorious.
We stashed the empty boxes in the bathtub to get them out of the way.
On Saturday the 10th, the authors all arrived early with homemade appetizers and sweet snacks for our 5-8pm open house.
James Owen drew a welcome sign.
Darth headed out to the driveway to greet the book lovers.
Finally, the magic hour of 5pm arrived.
.
.
.
No one came. The clock ticked and echoed in the canyon. The food sat, eager, then concerned.
And then...a car containing two people pulled up. The people got out and came inside.
As any author knows, two people at a signing is worse than a no-show. It's painful and awkward and everybody involved feels weird and bad. Two people attending an event at which eight authors are present...well. It hurts to think about it.
Luckily, this car was followed by carload after carload, a maze of headlights in the darkest corner of the valley, streaming through the neighborhood. Hooray! We built it. They came.
As people arrived, my teenagers greeted them with applause -- they thought it would be great for the guests' self-esteem. After all, who doesn't like a grand entrance?
Over the next three hours, one hundred fifty Arizona librarians, middle and high school teachers, booksellers, and authors came together, met new people who shared their love for children's books, made some connections. They left with full stomachs, books in the crooks of their arms (yes, they all went for the books first, then the food), and grateful hearts for the generosity of publishers 2000 miles away. Before the night was over, the books were gone.
We want to profusely thank the following publishers who gave us books, arcs, and swag of all kinds: Simon & Schuster Childrens' Publishing, Random House, Scholastic, Walker, Fiewel & Friends, and Bloomsbury.
Truly and sincerely,
Amy Dominy (OyMG)
Bill Konigsberg (Out of the Pocket)
Tom Leveen (Party, Zero)
Lisa McMann (Wake trilogy, The Unwanteds)
James A Owen (Drawing Out the Dragons, Here There Be Dragons)
Aprilynne Pike (Wings series)
Janette Rallison aka CJ Hill (My Fair Godmother series, Slayers)
Janni Lee Simner (Bones of a Faerie, Faerie Winter)
