And now: the cover of PARTIALS

I've talked about it, I've dropped hints about it, and I've even asked for your helping coming up with future-y swear words and apocalyptic terminology. Now it's time to show you the cover, so without further ado:

I love this cover. It's simple, evocative, and gorgeous; I love the typeface, the color palette, the whole thing. My only comment to the designer was that instead of on the side, my name should be in the center, as the girl's lower back tattoo, but they didn't go for that. Probably wise, as the character's actual lower back tattoo says "This Space Left Intentionally Blank." I'd hate to have a non-canonical cover.

The title, and the little catchphrase above it, refer to the Partials: a race of artificial people engineered in a lab, designed to go overseas and win a war for us. They won, and they came home, and after several years of oppression and marginalization they rebelled. Part of their attack was the release of another engineered organism, this time in the form of a virus that wiped out 99.994% of the human race. The few survivors in North America gathered in, or were herded to, Long Island, where they've tried to rebuild their lives and discovered that the virus is still there, as deadly as ever, and so far none of their children have been born immune. The book begins eleven years later, as a young medical intern named Kira begins to tries desperately to cure the virus and save humanity.

The book is awesome: lots of science, lots of adventure, a fair amount of romance, and a healthy dose of things blowing up (including at least one major landmark, which was perversely fun to write). It comes out on February 28 from Harper Teen, and I'll be touring both online and in real life. Mark your calendars, tell your friends, and stock up on canned food and ammunition. The apocalypse is coming.

(Addendum: Why is this book with Harper instead of Tor? Nothing weird or saucy; Harper approached me to ask if I was interested in writing a YA post-apocalypse series, so I came up with this and they loved it. I will continue to publish with Tor, and in fact my next book with them, THE HOLLOW CITY, comes out in July of the same year.)