Good News Friday EVERLASTING Trailer!!

It's a good day for trailers, did you see Melissa's (below) for SMALL TOWN SINNERS? Awesome--I can't wait to read it!

The EVERLASTING trailer was also released today--the final installment in THE IMMORTALS series will hit stores on Tuesday, June 7- and I'd love to see you at one of the tour stops!

Enjoy!!

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Good News Friday!!

So it's Good New Friday here at The Cafe--and this week I finally got the okay to announce some good news I've been holding onto for a very long time--like a painfully long time--but now, I'm free to shout if from the roof tops, but since I've got this incurable fear of heights, announcing it here feels a whole lot safer!!

So anyway, without further ado . . .

Summit Entertainment has optioned the dramatic rights for all 10 books in both The Immortals & The Riley Bloom series!!

You can see the story HERE!

Hope you all have an awesome weekend!

Alyson

xoxo

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Serenity Now!

So, this week at The Café we’re talking about interesting quotes, and, I have to say that I am a sucker not just for the interesting quote, but also the inspirational quote.

I spend hours collecting them. Both for my books—all of the books in The Immortals series, as well as the Riley Bloom series, start with a quote—and for myself.

I scribble them on little bits of paper—thumb type them into my iPhone “notes” feature—add them to a “quotes” document I keep in my laptop—and yes, someday when I find the time, I plan to arrange them all neatly together!

But there’s one quote that never leaves my desk. It’s coffee stained, grease stained, pen-scuffed—come to think of it, it’s pretty disgusting—though it’s message never fails to shine through and help keep me sane and focused in what can sometimes be an insane business.

I’m pretty sure I lifted it from the Tao de Ching—but please don’t quote me on that!

Anyway, it goes like this:

Fill your bowl to the brim

and it will spill

Keep sharpening your knife

and it will blunt

Chase after money and security

and your heart will never unclench

Care about people’s approval

and you will be their prisoner

Do your work, then step back.

The only path to serenity.

What about you--do you have a favorite "sanity" quote??

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How I Spent my Summer Fakation

View from the Fakation Room

So, this week we’re talking about vacations/travel and the sad truth is I will not be taking a vacation and/or traveling this summer.

(I know. Feel free to insert sad violin music here).

Between writing the final Immortals book (aka UNTITLED #6), moving (yep, I just moved, which means I now spend half my time looking for things), and 5 weeks of houseguests (niece & nephew in town for their annual visit)—there just isn’t time.

Though I will admit to having recently taken what I like to refer to as a “Fakation” and let me tell you, it turned out to be pretty darn great.

A couple weeks ago, right after returning from the DARK FLAME tour, we had to move out of the old house even though the new one wasn’t quite ready for us. So my husband and I decided to book a nearby hotel room where we could crash for a couple nights until the renovations we’re complete. After pouring over a list of possibilities we decided to splurge on a really nice room (as opposed to the adequate one we’d been planning), justifying it by reasoning that it would have to take the place of a summer vacation, or, as it turned out to be: A Summer Fakation.

I call it a Fakation because we stayed more or less within our same neighborhood and we both had to work during the day. Every morning, after enjoying a quick breakfast in the hotel café, my husband went off to oversee the renovations, while I retreated to the room to spend the day writing.

There was no lying by the pool, no sprawling on the beach, no fun summer beach reads, and no souvenir shopping—and yet, just having someone pop in to clean the room everyday and supply fresh towels was relaxing in its own way. Oh, and I will never again underestimate the power of room-service and/or dining out and being able to charge it to the room!

So, what about you—will you be taking a summer vacation, a staycation, or a fakation??

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Good News Friday!

Hello! For those of you in the U.S., happy 4th of July! As many of you are also doing, I'm off to the wilderness (read: no internet) and since we don't want this news to go unannounced, I'm scheduling this post in advance.

Because it's BIG!

The Immortals series hit #5 on the New York Times Bestsellers List for Children's Series! How wonderful!

AND Dark Flame debuted on USA Today Bestsellers list! Congratulations, Alyson! You can read more about it (as I'm sure there are more exciting updates that I won't get to know about until I return to civilization) on Alyson's blog. Click HERE.

Also (and yes I feel dorky piggybacking onto something as exciting as Alyson's news with my own Good News Friday tidbit), but here goes: Lifted recently received a great review from Publisher's Weekly.

"When high school sophomore Poppy's professor mother relocates them from Boulder, Colo--where Poppy hung out with the tattooed, anti-conformist crown--to Pleasant Acres, Tex., where she's to attend a Baptist high school, Poppy is surprised to find herself taken under the wing of two of the most popular girls in school. Poppy's mother is happy to see her with clean-cut new friends, but polished, polite Whitney and Mary Jane have a secret: they love to shoplift. Soon Poppy is stealing from stores and juggling a couple of romantic interests, including the preacher's son. Toliver (the Romantic Comedies series) adeptly captures Poppy's conflict between wanting to do what's right and the rush she gets from lifting, which is underscored by the tension between her independent streak and her relief and appreciation over finding new friends so easily. Mary Jane's complicated history with another student takes the story to its climax, as Poppy has to decide who her friends are and who she is. Poppy is an appealing, relatable protagonist, though secondary characters can be one dimensional; the ending is pat but satisfying. Ages 14-up. (June)." --Publisher's Weekly

And last but not least, please visit Free Book Friday (founded by own own Jessica Brody) for a chance to win 1 of 3 signed copies of Lifted!

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You Wear It Well

(blog title courtesy of Rod Stewart)

So this week we’re blogging about clothes and style and fashion, and I have to admit that I waited until today to post because I wasn’t quite sure what to write.

But then yesterday, while I was working on Riley Book #2 (NOT the official title!), writing about a particularly heinous kindergarten memory of Riley’s, I started to revisit my own early memories—which lead me to what I wore on my very first day of kindergarten:

Purple velvet hot pants

A white frilly shirt

White tights

Black, shiny, go-go boots

A blue fake fur coat with gold buttons (not because it was cold, but because it completed the look).

Oh, and I’d recently cut my nearly waist length hair into a short, cropped pixie cut.

I kid you not.

What I love most about that outfit is the way I wore it—with the kind of self-assured confidence only a little kid who hasn’t yet been knocked around by the opinions of others could. I was sure it represented the truest version of me.

Dressed like that, I felt like a rock star.

I wasn’t dressing to blend (obviously!), though I wasn’t attempting to stand out either. I had no idea what kids my age were wearing, I didn’t really know any other five year olds—didn’t really have any “age appropriate” friends—since my sisters were both older by 5 and 10 years, and all the other neighborhood kids were way closer to their ages than mine. So to me, that outfit just seemed like the kind of thing any person of style would wear on such a special day as the first day of school.

I remember finding the pieces in a department store that no longer exists, I remember how excited I was when I put them all together and showed them to my mom. But what I love most is how my mom didn’t balk or visibly cringe or try to talk me out of it. She just smiled, hauled it all up to the register, and allowed me to be that particular version of me.

I don’t remember any kids making fun of the outfit. In fact, I don’t remember them paying it much notice at all. Though I do remember some kid making a mean comment about my hair looking just like a boy’s, and though it broke my heart a little (okay, more than a little) that was pretty much the extent of it. The rest of the day is a blur of apple shaped, construction paper nametags, and a nap time I was too excited to truly participate in.

If memory serves, I think I got maybe a few more wears out of those hotpants and go-go boots, and then I outgrew them and they went off to Goodwill. And while I spent the following decades experimenting with all kinds of looks, not one of them could ever match the thrill of what I wore on that first day of school.

What about you—what is your favorite fashion related memory??

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The TFC Anniversary party continues . . .

Wow, I can’t believe it’s actually been 3 years since I first started blogging here—it just flew by! And yet after reviewing my old 2007 date book (yep, I actually did that!) I was amazed at just how much was going on back then.

In short:

Fly Me to the Moon, Kiss & Blog, and Saving Zoë were all published that year, and I did book signings, library talks, school visits, gave a keynote speech, took part on a few different panels at various events, and continued to take classes, and learn as much as I could about this ever-changing industry.

I also continued writing Evermore on the side (I started it in 2006), and was heavily involved in researching Ever & Damen’s world—getting hypnotized, taking psychic development classes, reading lots and lots of books about ghosts, spirits, reincarnation, etc. But, since I was actually contracted to write Cruel Summer, and not Evermore, it was a while before I found the time to finish it.

And as good as this writing career has turned out to be, with 10 published novels, 2 anthologies, 2 novels in various stages of production, 9 more under contract—and hitting bestseller lists in a way I never imagined—I don’t want to give the impression that it’s been non-stop tulips and champagne swilling—because it hasn’t.

This business is tough. And the truth is, it’s just as tough to stay published, as it is to get published—maybe tougher! And all the challenges that come along have an uncanny way of feeling really personal, even when they aren't.

Since signing my first book contract back in 2004, I’ve had 3 agents (third one is the absolute charm!), 3 editors, 1 publishing house, and countless meltdowns.

There were days when I cried, threw things, threatened to give up, and thought for sure I was just days away from having no choice but to squeeze back into the fugly, navy blue, polyester dress and bunion-inducing heels of my former light attendant career because I just wasn’t made of the right stuff.

Luckily, my husband was there to talk me off the ledge and convince me to keep on keeping on.

And while I absolutely love what I do, and wouldn’t change it for the world, writing is a very solitary business, which is why being part of this awesome group of writers and readers here at The Café has definitely served as one of the bright spots!

So, as a way to say Thanks to all of you awesome readers, I am giving away a signed copy of Shadowland along with an “eternity” bracelet (pictured at the top) from one of my favorite places to indulge, Dogeared.

All you have to do is leave a comment, and a winner will be chosen at random and announced on March 15th!!

Thanks for 3 awesome years everyone!

:)

Alyson

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Learn to Fly

(blog title courtesy of the Foo Fighters)

So this week were talking about Movies, Books, TV, and/or Music and because of it, I decided to play a little hooky conduct some serious research by grabbing hold of my hubby and heading for a matinee.

I love matinees. They're one of my favorite, self-indulgent treats. You always get a good seat, there's no line for popcorn, and even the ticket price is discounted--a win in every conceivable way!

And since we'd already seen AVATAR on Imax (AMAAAAZINNGGG!!!!), we decided to see UP IN THE AIR because we'd heard such great things about it and let me tell you it did not disappoint! I liked it because it was funny, smart, contemplative, and even though it would've been nice, there was no typical "Hollywood" ending. It was both modern and real. Oh, and did I mention it stars Le Clooney???

As for books- well, right now, I hate to say it, but I'm so buried in deadlines, the only book I'm reading/writing/editing is the still untitled, Immortals Book #5, that is due in 2 months--gulp!!

As for TV- I'm thrilled that Big Love is back! And I've been watching lots of Criminal Minds reruns and have developed a significant nerd crush on Dr. Spencer Reid!

As for music- I just downloaded Allison Krauss's live, cover version of "Baby Now That I've Found You" and I've listened to it so many times, I'm almost sick of it. Almost. But not quite!

So what about you? What movies have you seen, what books are you reading, what TV shows are you watching, and what song is playing on your own personal heavy rotation???

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American Pie

(blog title courtesy of Don McClean_

So this week’s topic is food—something I love, look forward to, but also have a pretty bizarre relationship with, in that I’ll try anything once:

Pigeon pie in Morroco? Check!

Fried crickets in Santa Monica? Sure, why not!?

Lamb’s brain in Greece? Bring it on!

While, grilled octopus is one of my very favorite things in the world!

But faced with the prospect of fast food of any kind, all you can eat buffets, and/or cafeteria food—and I’d rather deal with the hunger pangs until I can locate something, er, else.

And apparently my aversion is so bad that a few years ago, a good friend and former fellow flight attendant, told me that back when we first met she was sure I had an eating disorder due to the fact that I pretty much survived six weeks of airline training on nothing but frozen yogurt (it was the only thing in the entire Delta cafeteria that I could bring myself to eat), but then later, when we shared an apartment in NYC and she saw me in action at a restaurant, she quickly changed her mind.

So what about YOU?

What food will you avoid at all costs?

PS- SHADOWLAND was released yesterday, and it's WalMart's "Read of the Month!!"

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More GNF!!!

Hey Everyone,

It's Good News Friday here at The Cafe, so I thought I'd share mine:

I just learned that SHADOWLAND, book 3 in THE IMMORTALS series, received 4.5 stars (out of 4.5!) from RT magazine and was chosen as a Top Pick!

Here's what they said:

“Noel’s novel is absolutely amazing! Fans of her Immortals series will not be disappointed—Ever and Damen’s love is challenged like never before, and the story ends with a big, satisfying twist that will have readers begging for more. This long awaited installment is incredible.” --4.5 Stars- Top Pick! RT magazine

Also, the SHADOWLAND trailer is not ready for viewing, just click HERE to see it!

And, regarding the Readergirlz chat Melissa posted below--I took part on Monday and it was a blast!! I urge you to stop by if you get the chance!

What about YOU??? Any good new you want to share?!

Have a good weekend everyone!

Alyson

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More GNF!!!

Huge Congrats to the awesomely talented Melissa Walker and her new book deal (see below)!!!!

My good news for the week involves this:

The new cover for SHADOWLAND!!!

Oh, and the new release date for SHADOWLAND:

November 24, 2009

And the fact that it'll be in hardcover!!

What about YOU??? Any good news to share?

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More GNF!!!

HUGE GLITTERY CONGRATS to Melissa on her wedding!!!

And did you see those shoes??!! 

LOVE. THEM.

My good news this week is that BLUE MOON debuted at #1 on the New York Times Best Sellers List for Children's Paperbacks, #14 on the USA Today General list, and #22 on the NCIBA list! (EVERMORE landed at #3 on NYT  & #34 on USA Today!)- And I just wanted to say THANKS to all of you who supported it!!

Also, I'll be signing copies of my books tonight, Friday July 17th 6:00PM at:

Barnes & Noble

791 S. Main St. #100

Orange, CA 92868

And I hope to see YOU there!!

Any good news to share? Shout it out in the comments!

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More GNF!!!

Huge congrats to Lauren on her awesome review of CRAZY/BEAUTIFUL. I was lucky enough to read an early copy and I can definitely say that it's all that and more!

My good news this week is that BLUE MOON was released on July 7th (yay!), and that EVERMORE landed at #4 this week on the New York Times Bestsellers List for Children's Paperbacks making for 23 weeks in the top 5 (!!!), and it's at #103 this week on the USA Today list (up 5 from last week!)!

But what I'm really really excited about is the new website my publisher put together--a destination for all things IMMORTALS--and they did such a great job, I'm totally addicted, I keep sneaking back there when I'm supposed to be working! There are chakra charts, screensavers, wallpapers, a place to download your aura--and every time you click on a tulip you will hear an audio clip of a scene not contained in the book!! To check it out for youself just click HERE!

And don't forget to subscribe so you can be the first to know about any exciting IMMORTALS SERIES news!

Well, that's it for me--how about you--what's your good news this week?!

Have a fun weekend-

Alyson

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GNF!!!

So,  during my morning blog hop I visited The Cafe and thanks to Lauren's post (see below!) I realized it was Friday.

That's right. I had no idea what day it was. This is occurs more often than I'd like to admit!

Anyway, I do have some good news to share--stuff I'm pretty dang excited about, so here goes:

EVERMORE remains at #4 this week on the NYT Best Seller list for Children's Paperbacks, making for 5 straight months in the top 5!!!! It's also still on the USA Today and Publisher's Weekly Best Seller Lists and I can't thank YOU enough for all your support!

Also, I just agreed to add a sixth book in THE IMMORTALS series!!!

And, Riley (Ever's ghostly sister in EVERMORE) will be getting her own series debuting in Fall of 2010!!!

I can't tell you how excited I am to extend THE IMMORTALS and to give Riley her own story line. She was so fun to write, and I can't wait to reprise her!

Also, Turkish rights were recently sold- so Woo-Hoo to that!  My husband and I had planned to go there for our honeymoon, but work plans derailed it, but now it looks like we'll get a second chance!!!

Also, just 11 more days now until BLUE MOON hits the stores and it just got an awesome review from The Story Siren today who gave it 5 Stars!!!  You can read it HERE!

Oh, and the BLUE MOON trailer is up on YouTube!! You can see it HERE!

Okay, that's it from me--what about you???  Any good news?  Any weekend plans? Spill all in the comments!!

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More Good News For Friday!!

Major Congrats to Sara and Lauren for all their good news!!  And since today's the day for sharing, here's mine:

EVERMORE is at #3 this week on the New York Times Best Sellers List for Children's Paperbacks-making for 17 weeks in the top 4!!! It's also at #92 on the USA Today list, and #2 on the Publisher's Weekly Children's Fiction list!!!

Oh, and the audio version of EVERMORE is now available--you can listen to a sneek peek HERE!

And reviews are coming in for BLUE MOON--(in stores July 7th!!)--getting the 5 Star Gold Award from TeensReadToo who says:

"I really enjoy sequels, but they make me nervous, especially when I loved the first book as much as I did EVERMORE. But Alyson Noel surpassed all my expectations, and not only is BLUE MOON an amazing sequel - it sets the bar for the rest of this series very, very high! When I reached the last page of this one, all I could say was “wow!” . . .There were numerous twists that kept me guessing. Just when I thought I had things figured out, I would get pulled in a new direction, which kept the book fast-paced and full of suspense - I had to keep turning the pages. . .Another highly recommended book from Alyson Noel, I can’t wait to read more about Ever and Damen. THE IMMORTALS series is one you’ll want to get your hands on!" 5 Star Gold Award- TeensReadToo

And 4 Stars from Romantic Times magazine who writes:

“In the second installment of the bestselling and captivating Immortals series, gutsy young heroine Ever is faced with the twin teenage terrors of isolation and alienation. Noel does an excellent job exploring Ever’s growing fears and her determination to save lost love Damen. This author is on a roll!”4 stars Romantic Times

I also have an interview in this month's Romantic Times, but since my scanner is on strike I'll just say that it's about the research I've done for THE IMMORTALS series, and it's on page 71!

And speaking of interviews, I also did one this week for OC Arts & Culture that you can read HERE. 

And last but not least a reader made an IMMORTALS series forum that you can join HERE, and Free Book Friday is seeking your questions for an upcoming interview I'm doing over there--so anything you want to know about my books, me, or whatever--click HERE and check out the sidebar to see how to submit!

That's it from me--what about you??

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Win a signed copy of BLUE MOON!

This week at the café we are celebrating promo week—and since I feel like I’ve promo’d the heck out of EVERMORE, I’ll just do a quick recap and then get to the juice!

Ready?

This is EVERMORE:

It was released on February 3rd and is the first book in my new, 5 book, IMMORTALS series. It debuted at #3 on the New York Times Bestseller list, and has spent 5 weeks at #1. It also broke the top 50 on the USA Today list last week, and the dramatic rights have been sold to Spring Creek Productions and Warner Horizon who hope to make it into a TV series. (I am hoping for this as well). Also, I just learned that it will soon become an audio book (yay!), oh, and the foreign rights have been sold to ten territories so far—five of those at auction(!)—and more are in the works!

Needless to say, writing the paragraph above is a dream come true. And since it’s awesome readers like YOU who made it all happen, I’d like to say thank you, in a way that isn’t just a written Thank You.

Which brings me to this:

BLUE MOON, book #2 in the IMMORTALS series, will now be released one month earlier on July 7th instead of August as originally planned (and as stated in the back of EVERMORE).

This is a picture of BLUE MOON:

This is the back cover copy for BLUE MOON:

Alyson’s Noël’s bestselling Immortals series has been hailed as “addictive” “beautiful” “haunting” and “mesmerizing.” In the second installment, Ever has a chance to bring her family back from the dead—but only if she’s willing to sacrifice the guy she loves more than life itself.

Just as Ever is learning everything she can about her new abilities as an immortal, initiated into the dark, seductive world by her beloved Damen, something terrible is happening to him. As Ever’s powers are increasing, Damen’s are fading—stricken by a mysterious illness that threatens his memory, his identity, his life.

Desperate to save him, Ever travels to the mystical dimension of Summerland, uncovering not only the secrets of Damen’s past—the brutal, tortured history he hoped to keep hidden—but also an ancient text revealing the workings of time. With the approaching blue moon heralding her only window for travel, Ever is forced to decide between turning back the clock and saving her family from the accident that claimed them—or staying in the present and saving Damen, who grows weaker each day...

This is the part where two people win a signed copy of BLUE MOON!

All you have to do is leave a comment by Midnight, Sunday, April 5, California time, and I will utilize the old name in a hat trick to pick two winners.

This is the small print:

Since my author copies have a history of arriving well past the release date, I am going to pre-order two copies on line so I can make the best effort possible to give the winners a shot at having one of the first, hot off the press, copies. Hopefully, this will work!

Thank you so much for your all of your enthusiasm and support, I couldn’t have done it without YOU!

Alyson
xoxo

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So it's Anything Goes week here at the cafe and since it's my turn to blog I was trying to think of some interesting topic to discuss--but the truth is, I got nothing.

This whole week, well, actually starting from last Tuesday when EVERMORE was released has amounted to one, giddy, fog.

The day after its release I got news from my publisher that EVERMORE went into another printing and that I might actually have a shot at the New York Times bestseller list. To say I was shocked, is putting it mildly, I could hardly believe it. I could barely breathe!! But being my usual jinx-fearing self, I tried not to get too over excited. You know, in case it might all fall apart, or turn into some big cosmic joke with me as the butt.

During the course of the week I learned that it had sold out in B&N, Borders, and Wal-Mart and had gone back to print a total of three times. So with each passing day, my fingers were crossed tighter and tighter, and when it seemed as though a TV option we'd been negotiating for the last three months was nearing a conclusion, I spent the better part of my time glued to my computer, phone by my side, obsessively checking for updates

And so, in the tradition of watched pots never boiling, it wasn't until I was forced to leave the house for a long ago scheduled dentist appointment that I heard from my agent, telling me we'd come to an agreement and Spring Creek Productions and Warner Horizon had optioned EVERMORE along with the rest of the IMMORTALS books for a TV series!!! And then, I was actually in the dentist's chair, mouth full of instruments, when my editor called with the news that I'd made the NYT children's paperback list (for the week of 2/22), debuting at #3! And yes, I answered the call!! (My hygienist is a kind and patient woman!)

And when I finally got home, I saw that I'd made #84 on the USA Today bestseller list too.

And then I spent the next several hours sharing the news and trying not to hyperventilate while drinking champagne!  It was truly a magical day, and the funny/ironic/weird thing is it happened exactly 5 years and 1 week from the day when I first got "The Call" that I'd sold my first book deal. That time, I was returning a rental car!

So, tell me, what do you do when good news is brewing? Do you shout it from the roof tops? Or are you jinx-fearing like me, afraid to count your chickens before they hatch??

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The Immortals Series

It's promo week at the cafe and I almost missed my turn as I was in Las Vegas celebrating my b-day with my amazing husband-- Thanks babe you ROCK!!

And even though a b-day celebration is a sort of promo of sorts (I mean all that cake and champagne was kind of like a promo of moi) luckily, I made it back just in time to promote my new book.

Or rather, my new series of books.

Or even more specifically the first two books in my new series of books, EVERMORE (o2.03.09) and BLUE MOON (08.04.09)

Now, if  you've been to the cafe before, then you've probably already heard me mention my new IMMORTALS series, at least once.

Maybe twice.

But definitely no more than thrice.

Okay, probably more than thrice, but I digress.

Anyway, I'm very excited about this new series, partly because I'm the excitable type, and partly because it's been really fun to write, the research has been awesome, and it's a bit of a departure in that it's a paranormal about a psychic girl and a very mysterious boy--and yet not a HUGE departure in that the girl is 16 and lives in Laguna Beach. 

Also, during the writing of these books some very cool things have happened, EVERMORE received the 5 STAR GOLD AWARD from TeensReadToo, the first two books sold at auction in Germany, EVERMORE sold to Spain as one of their lead fall titles, and I've sold three more books in the series to St. Martin's Press (to be published in 2010)- making for a total of five! Oh, and early reader feedback has been great (and very much appreciated!)!

And since it constitutes a whole new addition to the Alyson Noel ouevre I asked the amazing Maddee over at Xuni do a little website makeover to include the new series and I think she did an amazing job!

So, in honor of all of my excitement, and in honor of YOU for reading this far, I'm giving away 2 signed copies (I'm talking hot off the press author copies!) of EVERMORE to two randomly selected commenters who visit my website, clicks on the EVERMORE cover, enters the portal, goes to the "Extras" page, picks a song from the playlist, then comes back here and posts the song in the comments section. (Not as involved as it sounds-- I promise!)

And all you have to do to start the journey toward winning is click HERE.

The small print starts here:  Contest closes at midnight, Laguna Beach time. Two winners will be chosen at random, and announced on Monday, December 8. Author copies usually arrive before the books hit the shelves (scheduled bookstore drop is on Feb 3, 2009) but please keep in mind that my CRUEL SUMMER copies didn't find their way to my doorstep until very late, and as these things are out of my hands, your patience is very much appreciated.

Oh, and speaking of . . .CRUEL SUMMER was nominated for the Best Books of 2008!!!

Click HERE to see the full list, and learn how to vote for your favorites!!

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