Heee. ↑↑↑ I went all Iron Chef there for a second.
But seriously. The Epic Nocturne Giveaway of Epicness ended at midnight and I have notified the winners.
There were SO MANY entries. I’m so happy that you guys took the time to participate. I appreciate each and every one of you!!!
Group hug.
It’s here, it’s here, it’s HERE!!!!
People complain about the publishing industry being slow. Sometimes it is, but the honest truth is that it takes a long time for that little flame of an idea to turn into a story, get written, get rewritten, get revised, get edited, get copyedited, get proofread, get a cover, get review copies, get reviewed, and then . . . .finally . . .
******GET PUBLISHED********
Today is the official release of NOCTURNE, the sequel to CLAIRE DE LUNE. It seems like eons ago that I sat down and wrote the first sentence. It makes me giddy to know that today, you can all go into a bookstore or your local library and read this thing that I started working on WAY BACK IN 2009!
If you’d like to buy a copy of your very own, it’s available at Barnes and Noble, Amazon, The Book Depository, and of course, your local independent bookseller.
Thank you, all of you, for your support and love. It means so much to know that there are people out there who are as excited about my books as I am!
This weekend was the first leg of my first ever tour, Girls Taking Over the World. It was so fun and exciting and exhausting. Thank you a million times over to everyone who came to see us!
Being on tour, I learned some things – things I thought I should share.
1 ) It is actually possible to be afflicted with the Buttercream Sweats.
2 ) When properly thrown, Mardi Gras-style beads become a deadly weapon.
3 ) If it looks like there’s smoke blocking I-69 and it turns out to be a wall of rain? You will have to get off the Interstate.
4 ) Rhonda Stapleton had never heard the combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell song.
5 ) It is possible to be so uncouth that a display of puppets will recoil in horror.
6 ) Saundra Mitchell has an endless supply of lipgloss.
7 ) One of the best dogs on the planet belongs to Lara Zielin. She also has an amazing husband, and together they are one of the loveliest and most hospitable couples I have ever met.
8 ) Super high heels three days in a row may not have been the best idea I ever had. But my feet looked TOTALLY CUTE.
9 ) Nook e-readers are MAJORLY LUSTWORTHY. (Reminder! I’m giving one away!)
10 ) If you want to witness our insanity, you can catch the southern leg of GTOTW at the end of the month!
And in case Rhonda wasn’t the only one:
So, NOCTURNE comes out August 23, 2011. You knew that right? I know you did.
Traditionally (meaning: For the last three years, which is as far back as the History of How Things Work on the Internet goes,) authors give away copies of their book to celebrate a novel’s release. So I want to give them away! I will be giving away two signed hardback copies of NOCTURNE.
But you know? It’s also coming out as an e-book. So I’m giving away a gift certificate for an e-copy. But you know what ELSE? Not everyone has a way to read an e-book. Therefore, along with the gift certificate for the e-NOCTURNE, I’m giving away a NOOK simple touch e-reader from Barnes and Noble.
It looks like this:
Oh. You might like to win that? Okay. Here’s how you enter the giveaway. Leave a comment on this blog post by midnight, EST, on August 30th, one week after the NOCTURNE official release date. If you want an ADDITIONAL entry, you can email me proof of a pre-order or purchase of NOCTURNE (i.e. a copy of an invoice or a photo of a receipt.) Send said emails to christine at christinejohnsonbooks dot com *with NOCTURNE GIVEAWAY IN THE SUBJECT LINE* I will draw winners on Wednesday, August 31st.
You can order NOCTURNE at Barnes and Noble, The Book Depository, Amazon or from your local independent bookstore!
Fine print: The hardcover portion of the contest IS OPEN INTERNATIONALLY, but the Nook/gift certificate must be won by a US resident. If you have questions, please email me – christine at christinejohnsonbooks dot com. I do have comment moderation turned on because sp*mmers love me. If your comment doesn’t show up right away, DO NOT PANIC. I’ll approve it as soon as I can.
Don’t forget that Saundra Mitchell, Rhonda Stapleton, Lara Zielin, Aimee Carter (MI only) and I will be TAKING OVER THE WORLD, starting this Friday, August 5th. This weekend, we’re coming to Ann Arbor, MI; Kendallville, IN; and Northville, MI. AND BIG NEWS! My publisher snuck a few boxes of NOCTURNE out of the warehouse early. If you come to one of the tour stops this weekend, YOU CAN GET MY NEW NOVEL MORE THAN TWO WEEKS EARLY! And I’ll *sign* it. And give you *swag*. Wheeee!
Full details on our appearances here: www.gtotw.saundramitchell.com
Later in the month, we’ll be in Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky. More on that as it approaches.
SEE YOU THERE.
It’s here, it’s here! My sparkly, shiny, GORGEOUS new paperback of CLAIRE DE LUNE is out! (Bonus? There’s a NOCTURNE excerpt in the back!)
To celebrate, I’m giving things away! There are lots of ways you can get in on the giveaway action. For one thing, you can go “like” my author page on Facebook by 5 p.m. EST tomorrow (7/27) for a chance to win one of two signed copies. For another you can follow me on Twitter (@cjohnsonbooks,) RT the tweet I provided this morning, and have a chance to win one of two signed copies I’m giving away over there. NB: Unfortunately, the Twitter contest ended last night. Congrats to the winners!
Additionally? If you send a picture of this beautimous paperback in the wild to christine at christinejohnsonbooks dot com, along with your snail mail address, I will SEND YOU SWAG.
Yay! Celebration! Paperbacks and cake and a hot summer day to eat said cake and drink lemonade and READ CLAIRE DE LUNE – what more could you need? 
Some days, writing is like a nice paddle down a fast river.
Other days, it’s more like full-contact eel wrestling.
Today was an eel wrestling day. Don’t get me wrong – I always love it. The eel wresting just takes more out of me.
I just got my first BIG review of NOCTURNE, and it was from Kirkus. You know, Kirkus, that notoriously cantankerous review magazine?
WELL, THEY LIKED IT.
Here’s the pull-quote that my publisher’s using:
“A teen everygirl turned werewolf is torn between her newfound role as a member in a pack of the centuries-old loup-garou and her friends in the human world….vivid descriptions….a solid story with an undeniably likable heroine.” –Kirkus
The longer review is coming in the July 15th issue. Kirkus! Had nice things to say! I am one happy author lady today. Yes, I am.
. . . but Megan Cox Gurdon and Maureen Johnson were just on NPR, discussing the recent kerfuffle over YA literature – specifically, whether it’s gotten too dark. You can listen to the podcast here.
Megan Cox Gurdon’s position is infuriating to me, and it echoes so much of the mis-directed criticism of YA novels in general.
Parenting a teen must be terrifying. After all, parents can’t *see* the emotional turmoil that drives their teen to cut themselves. They can’t see the distortedly fat reflection that stares back at their already-too-thin son or daughter when they look in the mirror. They don’t wrestle with the temptation of the drugs and drinking (though they may remember it.) They don’t witness the sexual decision-making, or the horror of having the decision taken away.
But those same parents CAN point to the books that tell those very same stories. The things they don’t see in their own teen are right there on the shelves. In the harsh light of day, that stuff looks ugly. Because it is. And the stories about it are redeeming in their familiarity to some teens, and cautionary for others by virtue of the honesty in their telling.
The reality of adolescence that is so often as invisible as it is terrifying to parents is reflected on the YA bookshelves. Blaming those books, though, decrying them as unnecessarily dark and begging the culture at large to shield teens from them? It’s like shooting a mirror. You can blast the reflections to smithereens, but it does nothing – NOTHING – to change the reality that the silvered glass showed in the first place.
It isn’t helpful. It’s self-congratutorily ignorant.
It saves no one.
I HAVE A VERY EXCITING ANNOUNCEMENT!
I’m going to be touring Michigan, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky with Saundra Mitchell, Lara Zielin, and Rhonda Stapleton, with special guests Aimée Carter (Michigan,) Sara Bennett Wealer (Ohio,) and Julie Kagawa (Kentucky)!
It’s called Girls Taking Over the World and it is going to be Uh. Mazing.
From August 5-7th, the tour will visit Nicola’s Books in Ann Arbor, MI, Summer’s Stories in Kendallville, IN, and Barnes & Noble Livonia, in Northville, MI. From August 25-27th, the tour will visit Mudsock Books in Indianapolis, IN, the Carrico/Ft. Thomas Branch of Campbell County Public Library, courtesy of Blue Marble Bookstore, in Ft. Thomas, KY, and blue manatee children’s bookstore in Cincinnati, OH. Here is all the official, logistical-type information.
As if that weren’t enough, we’re going to be livestreaming at least one event. More details on that soon as we (mostly “we” meaning Saundra) work out the technology, but it will most likely be the Ft. Thomas event with Julie Kagawa. Stay tuned!
To find out more about the tour, and to get the official tour dates, please stop by the website.
Now. Where’d I put my suitcase?