Cover Blurb Reveal - Joy Preble

Day Four of my cover blurbs to mark my thankfulness for my #YAlit debut, WAIT FOR ME, and for all the new friends it has brought me. Today is from Joy Preble, the Children’s Specialist at Houston's wonderful indie Brazos Bookstore, and author of the bestselling Dreaming Anastasia series, The Sweet Dead Life, Finding Paris, and It Wasn’t Always Like This.

Cover blurb reveal - Anne Blankman

Day Three of my cover blurbs to mark my thankfulness for my#YAlit debut, WAIT FOR ME, and for all the new friends it has brought me. Today is from Anne Blankman, author of the frighteningly prescient The Prisoner of Night & Fog series & Traitor Angels.

Cover blurb reveal - Sarah Alexander

Day Two of my cover blurbs to mark my thankfulness for my #YAlitdebut, WAIT FOR ME, and for all the new friends it has brought me. Today is from the lovely Sarah Alexander, author of THE ART OF NOT BREATHING, a gripping and very moving YA novel set on the Black Isle in the north of Scotland, one of my favorite places in the world.

Cover blurb reveal - Kathi Appelt

Requesting cover blurbs from other authors, especially well-known ones, is one of the most terrifying jobs for an author. I was, however, incredibly lucky to receive wonderful endorsements of WAIT FOR ME from four amazing authors. So in thankfulness for their time and kindness, and for the whole of this book deal excitement, I'll be revealing each blurb, one a day, up until Thanksgiving Day itself.

First up, Kathi Appelt, Newbery Honor Winner and National Book Award Finalist, who mentored me through substantial revisions of WAIT FOR ME after I won her in the SCBWI's Joan Lowery Nixon Prize in 2014.

Thank you, Kathi!

By the way, this photo is Coffin Lane in Aberlady, which leads up from Craigielaw to the Church, past the kirkyard on the left, and appears in WAIT FOR ME several times.

Guest blog - FIRST DRAFT ROAD TRIP

I've been guest blogging again, this time specifically for writers taking part in NaNoWriMo - National Novel Writing Month. My YA debut, WAIT FOR ME, started life a a NaNo book several years ago, so I know exactly how hard it can be to stay focussed on keep that number count rising throughout November.

As a guest on YA Interrobang, I've been talking about the trials of writing a first draft, likening to to a road trip. To read more, click on picture below...

Thanks to Nicole Brinkly at YA Interrobang from inviting me to take part, and lots of cheers and whistles to you, if you're NaNoWriMo-ing right now!

My first ever VLOG! Writing accents on YA Word Nerds

I've always thought that I hated hearing my own voice and watching myself on video far too much to ever do a video blog - a vlog - but when I was offered the chance to do one about an aspect of my writing by the lovely writers at the YA Word Nerds channel on YouTube, I thought I'd give it a go anyway. It was a scary idea to put myself out on video like this, but if there is one thing that I am learning from this journey towards publication it's that being scared isn't a good enough reason not to grab hold of a great opportunity to promote my book.

So I did record a video and edited it, and it's been posted at YA Word Nerds.

It's all about how I approached writing the accents that are in WAIT FOR ME, given that so much of my writing is deliberately accent-neutral. In fact, did you even realize that I have a Scottish accent when I speak?

And do you know I learned from this exciting experience?

That I STILL hate hearing my own voice and watching myself on video, especially when I then have to edit my endless ramblings down into a tighter 4-5 minute piece, so I''m forced to watch it over and over again.

But I also learned that I might feel a certain pride in facing something I'm nervous about head on, and who knows, perhaps I might give this vlogging thing another go soon.

Huge thanks to E.Latimer, and to her fellow YA Word Nerds - Erin, Rachel, Emma, Kellie, Desiraye and Meghan - for having me on board.

To see more of the fantastic vlogs by the team and their guests, visit the channel at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSKHG1eUF7vnL1kieYiVasA 

And if you are feeling stuck or a little down and you just need a writing pick-me-up, then click here for the very special . . . 

YA Word Nerds Dance Break

It makes me dance and smile every time!

Banned Books Week 2016 – Reading and Giveaway!

For more than 30 years, Banned Books Week has brought together people from across the book community – authors and publishers, librarians, booksellers, teachers and readers – to celebrate and fight to protect the freedom to read.

This Friday, September 30^th at 7pm I will be taking part in a Banned Books celebration at Brazos Bookstore in Houston, where I will be joining a great group of YA authors and librarians to read from some of our favorite books which have been banned or challenged in schools and public libraries over the years. The other readers will include YA/children’s authors Joy Preble, Anna Meriano and Varsha Bajaj, as well as Houston area librarians Megan Robertson, Cory Eckert and Melissa Buron. And you might be surprised by some of the books we've chosen.

We’d love to see you at Brazos Books on Friday, but even if you can’t make it, to mark my first Banned Books Week event, here’s a GIVEAWAY you can enter!

WIN A 
BANNED BOOKS MUG 

AND 

A BANNED BOOK 

OF YOUR CHOICE*

To enter, just leave me a comment below, on my Facebook page, or on Twitter @carolinesblurb. Tell me the title of your favorite Banned Book and why having the freedom to read it was so important to you.

After Friday’s event, I will pick the best reply, and the winner can choose a title from any shown in the picture above (some of my Banned Book favorites). I’ll send you a mug and a brand new copy of the book of your choice, as well as some swag for my forthcoming YA historical debut, WAIT FOR ME (Harper Teen, January 31^st 2017).

For more details about Banned Books Week and the importance of the freedom to read, visit the American Library Association website, where you’ll also find lists of the most frequently challenged books.

If you win, you can choose to receive a new copy of one of the following books:

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD – Harper Lee

ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND – Lewis Caroll

THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE – CS Lewis

THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME – Mark Haddon

THE GIVER – Lois Lowry

HIS DARK MATERIALS trilogy (any one of the three books) – Philip Pullman

ELEANOR & PARK – Rainbow Rowell

TWILIGHT – Stephanie Meyer

HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN – J K Rowling

THE FAULT IN OUR STARS – John Green

THE OUTSIDERS - SE Hinton