so, what's the deal with As I Wake?? (and....(wait for it!) free books! :-)

Okay, so I've been getting a lot of emails about As I Wake, so let me answer the most common questions:

1. What is As I Wake about?

This is the publisher summary, which I adore:

Ava is welcomed home from the hospital by a doting mother, lively friends, and a crush finally beginning to show interest. There's only one problem: Ava can't remember any of them - and can't shake the eerie feeling that she's not who they say she is.

Ava struggles to break through her amnesiac haze as she goes through the motions of high-school life, but the memories that surface take place in a very different world, where Ava and familiar-faced friends are under constant scrutiny and no one can be trusted. Ava doesn't know what to make of these visions, or of the boy who is at the center of them all, until he reappears in her life and offers answers . . . but only in exchange for her trust.

2. But what is it REALLY about? Why did you write it?

Okay. I wrote As I Wake because of my obsession with the idea that there is not just one world/reality but many (as suggested by modal realism), as well as life in 1980s East Germany (yes, there once was an East Germany!), especially the role played by the Stasi. I also wrote it because I'm also a sucker for true love.

3. What the heck is modal realism? What's this Stasi thing?

There's a great introduction to modal realism here and you can read more about the Stasi here and here. As for life in East Germany during the 1980s, I highly suggest Anna Funder's Stasiland, which I found fascinating. (I should note that it's out of print, and I barely managed to snag a copy in early 2008)*

4. Is everything in the book factual?

Nope. Modal realism is just a theory, and I played with it. I also did not strictly adhere to what life in 1980s East Germany was like, although I tried to stay as true as I could to what I'd read about the role of the Stasi, simply because their presence in everyday life was really amazingly in-depth. (At one point, it's estimated that one out of every seven East Germans was somehow involved with the Stasi!)

5. And finally, the question I'm actually asked second most often: Can I get an ARC?

I don't know. I didn't actually know I had a publicist for As I Wake until the Publishers Weekly review came out, and just wrote to her about the book for the first time yesterday. (And if she happens to reads this, thank you again for sending an ARC to PW!)

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So that's the deal with As I Wake.

I'll let you know more as I learn more about question 5, and in the meantime, if you have a US mailing addy, leave a comment (and a way to contact you!) by midnight EST tomorrow, July 8th, and you could win one of the following:

--a copy of Clarity by Kim Harrington

--a copy of Exposed by Kimberly Marcus

--a copy of Mad Love by Suzanne Selfors

* BUT! I just checked Amazon and it's being re-released