IT'S LAUNCH DAY!

Celebrate good times, blogfrogs! THE WAND & THE SEA has finally launched!

Order yourself a brand-new copy here

And a salute to you too, Captain Jack, for being only the latest in a long line of charismatic pirates who helped inspire THE WAND & THE SEA. These rogues of the sea have been a lifelong passion of mine. I may even have my own pirate hat. But I'm not telling.

THE WAND & THE SEA by Claire M. Caterer
Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2015
384 pp |  ages 8+
fantasy adventure | #2 in THE KEY & THE FLAME series

From Goodreads:
A year has passed since Holly and Ben Shepard have been to England, where they brought their friend Everett to a fantastical realm called Anglielle. Having vowed to return and help the Exiles, Holly, Ben, and Everett are hoping to find their way back to the land ruled by a tyrant king and sorcerer who have outlawed magic.

But when they arrive in Anglielle, they discover things aren’t what they expect: Their friends are imprisoned and the alliance is scattered. Ruthless King Reynard and the sorcerer Raethius are determined to find the very Adepts they exiled in the first place—but why?

It’s up to Holly and the boys to sail to the Isle of Exile and find the Adepts first, but that means enlisting the help of the Water Elementals and a pirate captain with a private agenda. Everett is obsessed with a mysterious locket with a mind of its own, and somehow, no matter where they go, a sinister black-sailed schooner appears on the horizon. With no one to teach her, can Holly master Elemental magic in time to save the Adepts of Anglielle? 
_____________________________________________________ 

This book was a tough write followed by a long wait, but I'm oh so glad it's finally here. And to show my appreciation, I'm giving away a double gift: both THE KEY & THE FLAME and THE WAND & THE SEA--just in case you missed the first book and don't like starting a series in the middle. I totally get that.

(If you already own a copy of THE KEY & THE FLAME and don't know what you'd do with another, we can negotiate another book of your choosing. But don't get greedy until you've won, eh?)

Enter the giveaway below!

GIVEAWAY RULES
1. U.S. AND international entries accepted.
2. Must be 13 years or older to enter (or sucker a parent into entering for you).
3. Winner will be notified by email on July 23, 2015, and must respond within 72 hours or a new winner will be chosen.

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Fun Friday: The Fearsome Pterosaurs

Often when I visit schools or festivals and talk to kids about writing The Key & the Flame, I discuss giant flying dinosaurs. There's a reason. When creating the world of Anglielle, I wanted to include a giant flying beast, and I needed to know how a real-life flying beast would operate. This question prompted my discovery of some fantastic creatures, namely the Hatzegopteryx and Quetzlcoatlus dinosaurs. They were as tall as giraffes, had fearsome beaks, and could fly at altitudes of 10,000 feet and up to 80 mph.




While this video isn't as impressive, it gave me a good idea of how a Quetzalcoatlus takes off, and how much room it needed to do so.



What do you dream of creating? And how will you imagine it?


I talk about a lot of other things in my school presentations too. Click here to learn more.

Fun with the Grizzlies

I was pretty zonked by the time I finished all the presentations and then drove 4 hours back to the Kansas City area on Wednesday, so I think I can be forgiven for taking a day to breathe before blogging about my fantastic visit to Vandergriff Elementary School in Fayetteville, Arkansas. As I mentioned the other day, I stayed in a marvelous old inn, where I retired to watch Downton Abbey and old reruns of Sherlock after hanging with the Vandergriff Grizzlies.

But the highlight of the trip really was visiting the school. In five presentations to almost 400 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders, we talked about why stories are important to us and why some stories are more interesting than others. The kids also did some brainstorming of their own, using some idea worksheets I provided on creating their own characters and settings. And of course, we had a Q&A session with each group. That's by far my favorite part of any presentation, because kids ask the best questions. Some memorable ones:

Q: How did you come up with the idea for this book?
A: I love to hike and walk in forests, and one day I was doing just that and I realized how old some of the trees are. Some trees can actually stand in one place for hundreds of years. That got me thinking about how trees witness a lot of history, and that makes them natural portals. What if you could pass through a tree and visit it when it was younger? It would be the same tree, but everything around the tree would be different.

Q: What made you want to become a writer?
A: I've always loved stories, both reading them and having them read to me. I was probably six years old when my mom or dad told me that someone was responsible for writing those stories, and that person got paid to do that. I couldn't think of a better job than that!

Q: What was the hardest part about writing your book?
A: Probably the middle. The beginning is exciting, because the story can turn into anything, and near the end you just race along, but in the middle sometimes you've created problems in the story that are hard to solve.

Q: Do you ever get stuck when writing a book?
A: Yes. All the time. I can't figure out how to get characters out of the mess I've put them in, or I just don't know what words to put down next. Usually if I get stuck I go for a walk or do something else totally different. I need to get away from my computer and my office and let my mind wander.

Q: Who drew the illustrations and cover?
A: His name is Karl Kwasny. The publisher hired him, and he did a fantastic job. First he drew the cover in pencil, and the editor and I looked at it and made different suggestions, like I said the girl in the picture has to wear glasses, and the younger boy has to have his hair sticking up. So then he revised the cover and added color to it, and we looked at it again, and they added it to the book.

Karl Kwasny's early sketch of the cover

Karl's final, gorgeous cover art

Q: What other books have you written?
A: This is the first book of mine that has gotten published. I've written other books that didn't get published. I've also written the sequel to this book, which is called The Wand & the Sea. It isn't in the bookstore yet; the publisher is still doing work on it, and it should come out next spring.

Q: How old are you?
A: I'm 48.

Q: What's this book about again?
A: It's about three kids who find themselves trapped in a fantastical kingdom where magic is outlawed, and they have to use magic to find their way home.

Trailer Reveal!

Why bring out a book trailer for The Key & the Flame ten months after the pub date? Well, luckily, book trailers don't really function like movie trailers. Yes, they serve as a novel's "preview," but books often sit on the shelves for a long while before any given person knows they exist. Schoolteachers or librarians, please use the trailer to introduce the book to your students or patrons. The rest of you may want to direct other readers to it.

In other words, share!

So without further ado, here's the lovely trailer created by the fabulous Phoebe North:



About Phoebe: She's not only the trailermaster. She's also an author in her own right. Look for Starglass, a fantastic YA sci-fi novel, in bookstores now.

Fab Times at the British Faire

This weekend took me (along with a box of copies of The Key & the Flame) to the British Faire in Lenexa, KS. It's an annual fundraiser put on by several local chapters of the Daughters of the British Empire, who went all out this year to put on a gala event.

 

 

I wondered about the wisdom of setting up a table for a whole day with just my one lonely book to sell, but it turned out to be a great idea. While literary festivals and book fairs are the logical places to sell your books, sometimes you'll do better at an event whose theme somehow resonates with your story--and where there isn't a lot of competition from other titles. Because The Key & the Flame takes place in modern-day Britain as well as an alternate-reality, medieval-era Britain, it fit right in with the shortbread, Downtown Abbey memorabilia, and Doctor Who stuff up for sale. Here are some highlights:

 

photo: Steve Yates

The Royal Court graced us with their presence several times during the course of the day.

 

photo: Steve Yates

Watercolorist David Norwood, originally from a small town outside London, got a double dose of royal love.

 

photo: Steve Yates

Always nice to see Will and Kate. And Prince George was exceptionally well behaved.

 

photo: Steve Yates

 

 

photo: Steve Yates

The fine folks from The Queen's Pantry in Leavenworth, KS, helped me stock up on Scottish fudge, ginger beer, and Cadbury Flakes.

 

photo: Steve Yates

 

 

 

The DBE chapters setting up for the event

 

My pretty table, all ready to greet the readers. Primo spot: Right next to the gourmet cheese shop!

 

This stack kept shrinking throughout the day. :)

 

photo: Steve Yates

 

It was great fun meeting so many Anglophiles this weekend! Thanks to all the wonderful readers who completely emptied my inventory, my hubs for bringing by an additional box of books, and especially to the Daughters of the British Empire for inviting me. I can't wait till next year!

 

 

images: Where noted, Steve Yates took these photos for the Community Faces feature at kansascity.com. To view Steve's entire slide show of the British Faire, click here. (Unlabeled photos were taken by yours truly except for the top image, taken by my lovely daughter.)

 

Posted with Blogsy

Happy Samhain

While you're running around dodging miniature witches and vampires today, remember that Halloween (All Hallows' Eve) evolved from the ancient Celtic pagan festival of Samhain (pronounced SOW-en). The Celtic New Year began at this festival, that time between the equinox and Yuletide. Samhain marks the beginning of the darkest part of the year, when the earth sleeps. Its element is water, which is abundant in rain and swollen streams, feeding the greedy earth in preparation for its long hibernation. Animals gather food; trees shed their leaves and get ready for dormancy. The last of the harvest is gathered, including apples and hazelnuts, both of which are symbols of this time. And on the night of Samhain, the veil between worlds is thinnest: the world of the living and the world of the dead, as well as the world of the mortals and that of the fairies. It is said that mortals may enter the land of the fey on this night.

Because of the increase in traffic between worlds at this time, the Celts often dressed in costume to hide their identities. That way, no spirits would find them and take them to the Land of the Dead before their appointed time. Divination was also considered to be especially useful on this night, as the barriers between past and future were lifted.

You may remember that The Key & the Flame takes place during the Midsummer festival. The sequel, The Wand & the Sea, occurs during Samhain. In Anglielle, it is a night when Adepts may walk into the Realm of the Good Folk with impunity, provided they return before dawn. Holly's first task in The Wand & the Sea is to do just that: to journey into the Realm to seek help from the Good Folk who reside there. Meanwhile, Ben and Everett conjure aid of their own--in the form of a Sea Witch.

Now what could possibly go wrong with that?

Read more about Celtic traditions at Samhain here and here.


image: copyright Mickie Mueller; permission granted to use in noncommercial ventures. Visit http://www.mickiemuellerart.com/index.html for prints and other products.

My Kind of Town

It was fantastic to meet up with some Lucky 13s, readers, and librarians at last weekend's American Library Association conference in Chicago! If you're thinking of Marian the Librarian, think again--these folks are hard-core book fiends. Here are some highlights from the weekend:

Signing copies of The Key & the Flame at the Simon & Schuster booth at the exhibit hall

The Middle Grade Mania signing at Anderson's Bookshop (Two Doors East) in Naperville. From left: Sarah Stewart Taylor, author of The Expeditioners and the Treasure of Drowned Man's Canyon; me; Tim Federle, author of Better Nate Than Ever; Lisa Greenwald, author of Reel Life Starring Us; Elisabeth Dahl, author of Genie Wishes; and Margaret McNamara, author of Sylva and the Fairy Ball.

With fellow Lucky 13 authors Tim Federle, Elisabeth Dahl, and Nancy J. Cavanaugh (This Journal Belongs to Ratchet). I owe Tim a big kiss of gratitude for playing chauffeur. He got my sister and me from Chicago to Naperville and back in one piece and with plenty of laughs.

My sis (who prefers her name not be mentioned, in case anything comes back to haunt her) poses in our fabulous Palmer House Hotel room. Honestly, the Palmer House is one of the most beautiful hotels on the planet.

See? This is the lobby. No kidding. It's gorgeous.

We had a fantastic dinner at the lovely Italian Village restaurant, just a block or two from the Palmer. Highly recommended, and the oldest Italian joint in Chicago.











Thank you, Simon & Schuster, for making my first trip to ALA a fabulous experience! I loved meeting all of you and seeing a tiny sliver of Chicago. I can't wait to do it again!

Spotted in the Wild: Massachusetts

It's time again for the monthly first Friday feature where we espy copies of The Key & the Flame around the country! Today's featured in-the-wild spotting happened at

Brookline Booksmith, Brookline, Massachusetts

TK&TF is in fine company nestled just above Andrew Clements' Frindle, a children's classic!

For over 50 years, Brookline Booksmith has been a beloved indie bookstore in the greater Boston area. It features a steady stream of author events--sometimes three or four in a week--and hosts both adult and YA book clubs. Find them on Facebook here.

Thanks to author Jennifer Ann Mann for this month's Spotted in the Wild photo!

________________________________________________

Have you spotted The Key & the Flame in your town? Snap a photo and send it to me at readerchat [at] cmcaterer [dot] com or Tweet it to me here (@ClaireCaterer). Be sure and tell me the store name and the city, and I'll use it in an upcoming SITW feature.

Happy Children's Book Week!

Join the Hop! Your hosts:
Mother Daughter Book Reviews
Youth Literature Reviews

I love young adult fiction. It can grab you tighter, pull you in deeper, than perhaps anything else. Think of The Fault in Our Stars or Thirteen Reasons Why or Before I Fall or a hundred other fantastic books. (You'll be adding C.J. Flood's Infinite Sky to that list, I promise you, if you've not read it. Wow.)

But while great YA makes my head spin, great middle-grade fiction tugs at my heart. It's where I live; it's home to me. There are wonderful adult books and great YA books, but deep down, I think middle grade books are my very favorite. They do so much with so little. They run the gamut from goofy-funny to heartbreaking. And perhaps the most heartbreaking part of even the funniest books is that, to the adults around them, kids' worries just aren't that big a deal.

But we all know they are. If you can remember what it's like to be ten years old, you recognize those feelings when a writer reveals them through character. And if you can't remember what it's like to be ten years old, I pity you. Read a few MG books and see if you can't get that back. Because it's important stuff we learn when we're ten, and it's important because we're ten. And no, I'm not talking long division here.

So celebrate Children's Book Week! Dance around the Maypole, if you didn't get a chance to do that on May 1. Go to the library and fill your arms with books like you did when you were little (or, bless you, like you ought to have done). Delight in their bright colors and their noble heroes. Take them seriously, because no one else takes a ten-year-old seriously. Then report back! What's on your middle-grade TBR shelf? Here's mine:

And anyway, what better way to celebrate Children's Book Week than with a cool giveaway and blog hop? Book bloggers extraordinaires Mother Daughter Book Reviews and Youth Literature Reviews are cohosting the fabulous Kid Lit Giveaway Hop referenced above. Hop  here, hop there, like good little blogfrogs, and enter to win kidlit books and gift cards!

And Yeah, a Giveaway Right Here
But first, don't think you're leaving here without a chance to win a free autographed hardcover copy of The Key & the Flame. Because that just wouldn't be right. Then scroll down to hop around to the rest of the sites!

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Spotted in the Wild: Oregon

On my fun new monthly blog feature, you'll get a Friday peek at where The Key & the Flame has been "spotted in the wild"--the wilds of local bookstores, that is. This month's SITW locale is--

Powell's City of Books, Portland, Oregon

Not only can you see TK&TF in this rare shot, dozing in its natural habitat, but fellow Lucky 13 author Kit Grindstaff's fantasy MG novel, The Flame in the Mist, is seen just a book away. It's not uncommon to see these two species sharing the same habitat. As a theme-related bonus, Angie Sage's Fyre is sandwiched in between.

Powell's is touted by a friend of mine as "the world's greatest bookstore," and that feeling is apparently echoed by The Washington Post. With 68,000 square feet packed with over a million titles, Powell's is a must-visit site when you're in Portland. Follow them on their Facebook page here.

Thanks to author Cat Winters for this month's Spotted in the Wild photo!

___________________________________________________

Have you spotted The Key & the Flame in your town? Snap a photo and send it to me at readerchat [at] cmcaterer [dot] com or Tweet it to me here (@ClaireCaterer). Be sure and tell me the store name and the city, and I'll use it in an upcoming SITW feature.

Why You're Having Trouble Finding My Book

Yes, blogfrogs, the agonizing kerfuffle between Big Six publisher Simon & Schuster and Big One Bookstore Chain Barnes & Noble is still ongoing.

What? You didn't know about that?

Here's the short version: S&S and B&N are in some kind of negotiations. They aren't going well. So for the time being--yeah, that's since March--B&N has drastically reduced its stock of S&S titles. While you can probably still find Stephen King and Jodi Picoult on Barnes & Noble shelves, you aren't going to see us newbies. Midlist and newbie authors are just out of luck.

If this were 1983 instead of 2013, I'd say, "Eh, that's not cool, but who cares? There's still B. Dalton, Waldenbooks, Brentano's ..."

If this were 1993, I'd say, "Eh, there's still ... Borders."

But the upshot now is that a lot of towns in America have just one bookstore. And it's a B&N. Once megastores like Borders and B&N got done mopping up the indie bookshop blood off the streets, there weren't a lot of other places for book lovers to go. But now the choice is even smaller. True, lots of indies--and bless you all!--were able to stick it out, and some have even started up since. But sadly, with that other behemoth (shhh: Amazon) staring them down, indies have to be made of tough stuff to stand their ground.

How long will this go on? I don't know. I do know that Simon & Schuster authors trying to set up events at B&N are having no luck, and book buyers won't find The Key & the Flame on the shelves. You can still order it through the B&N website or from the store counter, but whether they'll let you pick it up in the store versus shipping it to your home is questionable. (The "Pick Up in Store" option was gone from my page for a while; now it seems to be back again.)

That said, I don't get into the fine print of financial wranglings and have nothing against B&N. I'm not saying anyone's right or wrong, nor that I understand even a little bit what this is all about. But I will say it's hurting us authors, and it's not doing you readers any favors, either.

In the meantime, you can get The Key & the Flame from

your local indie bookstore

Powell's Books (in store or online)

Books a Million (in store or online)

Barnes & Noble online only

Amazon.com

Half Price Books online

Look for more updates as they roll in!

Giveaway Update

If you've been on the Internet in the last week or so, blogfrogs, you may have seen me Tweeting or Facebooking madly about free copies and other giveaways related to The Key & the Flame. But if you haven't, there's still plenty of time and ways to win free stuff and save your hard-earned cash.

Now that the blog tour is over and the air has cleared, here's the lowdown on the giveaways still going on. Unless otherwise noted, each giveaway goes up through the end of the day (midnight) on the noted date. Prizes are listed below the dates. Asterisks indicate giveaways that don't have too many entries yet, so the pool is wide open:

Ending Monday, April 15 (9 pm EST):
a nifty bag o' swag from The Book Muncher

Ending Wednesday, April 17:
*a signed copy of The Key & the Flame from From the Mixed-Up Files of Middle-Grade Authors

Ending Thursday, April 18:
a signed copy of The Key & the Flame from IceyBooks
*a nifty bag o' swag from Fantasy Book Addict

Ending Sunday, April 21:
*a signed copy of The Key & the Flame from The Hiding Spot
a copy of The Key & the Flame (sorry, this one's not signed) from The Girls in the Stacks

Ending Tuesday, April 23:
a signed copy of The Key & the Flame from I Am a Reader, Not a Writer

UPCOMING GIVEAWAYS

Look for giveaways to come in the near future from The Haunting of Orchid Forsythia and Goodreads. I'll keep you posted.

A Fab Launch Party

It has taken me several days, blog readers, to come out of my post-launch daze and post about my party. What a fabulous event! To those of you who were there, thank you so much for coming and filling the house! And for those who couldn't make it, I offer a little snapshot of what went on.

Thanks to the boundless energy of my sister, we set up food and tables at Shawnee Books & Toys bookstore around 5:00. Michelle Ranney, manager extraordinaire, kept things running like clockwork and even hired extra help to handle all the book selling. Sis hung out by the food. We had cheese and fruit for the adults, and cake, cupcakes, cookies, and snack foods for the kids (and ... er ... the adults).

This cake, designed by my local Hy-Vee bakery, not only looked gorgeous, but tasted good too!

 Most folks took our advice and reserved their books. We sold all 125 copies, and then broke into my stash of author copies, for a total of about 140 total sold.

I gave my richly deserved thank-yous to the bookstore, my family, and all the friends who showed up to celebrate with me. Then I read briefly from the book (pp 69-72) and did some Q&A. I was so glad the kids were brave enough to ask questions, because theirs were the best ones.

And of course, what's a book event without free stuff? We raffled off 4 bags of swag, a charm bracelet, and two lovely golden keys in fancy boxes. Shawnee Books & Toys threw in a $25 gift card for the store to sweeten the pot!

That was about it for the entertainment, because we had a lot of people waiting to get books signed. All told, about 140 people attended, 35 of whom were kids. I call that a big success! Thank you, everyone, for supporting me and supporting books. I love you all.

images copyright Shawnee Books & Toys. Used with permission. Visit their page here.

More Free Books!

I thought of doing a sneaky bait-and-switch by titling this post "Win a New Porsche," but my ethics forbid it. Still, I wanted to let you blogfrogs know that a brand-new giveaway is up today at IceyBooks, which is hosting Day #4 on the blog tour, in which I illustrate the publishing journey from concept to contract--through dialogue, no less.

So go take a look and win a book.

... AND DON'T FORGET ...

There's still time to enter the Wowza Palooza Pub Day Giveaway on this blog! Prizes include

• a personalized signed copy of The Key & the Flame
• a fun bag o' swag, with buttons, stickers, a gorgeous key pendant necklace, and more
• a $20 Amazon gift card to spend however you like

EVENTS AROUND THE BLOGOSPHERE

In case you missed them, here are some fun posts from this week about The Key & the Flame :

• Janci Patterson, author of Chasing the Skip, interviews me about what kind of bounty hunter I'd make
• Over at Hobbitsies, a look at how the setting for the book was conceived
• Smack Dab in the Middle chats with me about writing for the middle-grade audience
• The Lucky 13s offer a sneak peek at Chapter 1 

Tomorrow, the blog tour heads to I Am a Reader, Not a Writer--and another giveaway!

Blog Tour Update

Okay, folks, maybe I got a little excited yesterday. Maybe because of this:

My book baby at Rainy Day Books, Fairway, KS

Come on, it does look cute sitting up there with all its little book brothers and sisters, right?

But even now, as I've stopped jumping off the ceiling, I find there's plenty to be excited about. Today the blog tour rolls on over at Hobbitsies, where I've left a guest post about how I created the setting(s) for The Key & the Flame. So get on over there.

Want the lowdown on the whole blog tour? Check it out here.

Want to get your hands on a free book, some cool swag, and a $20 Amazon gift card? The giveaway is still going on! Get in on the action here.

The Wowza Palooza Pub Day Party!

Bring on the fireworks, baby, 'cause it's the pub day for The Key & the Flame! Let's get this party started.

Why, thanks, Leo, don't mind if I do. I'm sure that's sparkling white grape juice in that glass, right? This is a family blog, after all. Now, don't go asking me to make a speech. Please. It's too much.

Well, if  you insist. Thank you, Ron, and all the Hogwarts kids. I appreciate your support. I couldn't have gotten to this point without you. Sorry, what? Where's the what? The free stuff?

Oh, you mean the giveaways. Yeah, let's not pause too long to congratulate my achievement. Let's get right to the booty. In honor of the next book (no more on that for now), let us salute the booty and start giving stuff away.

 Today's giveaway features a personalized signed book, a $20 Amazon gift card, and a nifty bag o' swag, including

• Key & the Flame stickers
• a premium tasseled bookmark with key charms
• The Key & the Flame buttons
• signed author bookplates
• your very own plush Golden Salamander, who will protect you forever, just as he does Holly in the book
• a key pendant necklace

You can see photos of some of this cool swag right here.

But before you run and enter the giveaway, check out the other fun Key & the Flame events on the blogosphere today:

•  Melanie Crowder offers a sneak peek at Chapter 1 of the book on The Lucky 13s
• Rebecca Behrens chats with me at OneFour KidLit
• Author Tamera Will Wissinger (Gone Fishing: A Novel in Verse) officially kicks off the blog tour for The Key & the Flame with an interview at Smack Dab in the Middle

The blog tour rolls on until April 13! Get the full schedule right here. 

-- SORRY, THIS GIVEAWAY HAS ENDED. CONGRATS TO OUR WINNER, MARIA S. OF PENNSYLVANIA! --

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BLOG TOUR 2013!

This is no joke, blogfrogs: The Key & the Flame releases in one week into the wild! I am beyond excited--more like a puddly mess of adrenaline. So to fill the time between then and now, I am announcing Blog Tour 2013!

What the heck is a blog tour?
I knew someone would ask. It's kind of a blogging blitz--I hop all around the blogosphere like a manic leprechaun, chatting with bloggers, posting fun tidbits, and yes, giving stuff away. It's a lot of fun, if tiring. Below is the schedule. If you're a book blog fiend, you can visit a different site every day. If you just can't take that kind of pressure, well, read the schedule. That's fun too. (I'm kidding. I didn't put this thing together for my health. Go visit.)

April 2, 2013 (Pub Day!)
The Lucky 13s
Melanie Crowder, author of Parched, introduces The Key & the Flame and offers a sneak peek of Chapter 1

Smack Dab in the Middle
Tamera Will Wissinger (author of Gone Fishing) and I dish about character motivation and the joy of writing for middle grade

my own little blog
our final Countdown to Pub Day Party Giveaway! books, swag, gift cards, you name it!

April 3, 2013  Hobbitsies
a guest post on creating the real and fantastical worlds in The Key & the Flame

April 4, 2013  IceyBooks
my publication journey from draft to contract--in dialogue!--and another chance to win a free book

April 5, 2013  I Am a Reader, Not a Writer
an interview on the ins and outs of the writing process, plus we give away a copy of the book

April 7, 2013  A Two-fer!
The Hiding Spot
I chat with illustrator Karl Kwasny on creating the gorgeous cover for The Key & the Flame--and give away another free copy!

Girls in the Stacks
a chance to gab with the girls via podcast--and pass on another free copy to some lucky winner! (Note: Find the giveaway here.)

April 8, 2013  The Book Muncher
a guest post on things I've learned about publishing and a swag bag giveaway

April 9, 2013  GreenBeanTeenQueen
I reveal my deep and abiding love for all things library

April 10, 2013  The Mod Podge Bookshelf
time to share some embarrassing snippets of childhood writing

April 11, 2013  From the Mixed-Up Files of Middle-Grade Authors
Amie Borst & I chat about MG, and yes, I part with another free copy of The Key & the Flame

April 12, 2013  The Haunting of Orchid Forsythia
Orchid interviews me about our mutual love of magic portals and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and we give away yet another copy of The Key & the Flame (NOTE: Giveaway will follow shortly after the interview; Orchid's still reading the book.)

April 13, 2013  Fantasy Book Addict
We gab about fantastical things and give away some awesome swag

Swaggy Time

It's been said by someone that writers need to write when a book isn't about to come out, but when it is, the priority should shift to marketing. Toward that end, while my writer heart sobs quietly in the corner, my swag-loving heart has been dreaming up different fun themed items to go with the release of The Key & the Flame. So far, here's what I've got:

key pendant on 18" chain

bookmark--some have tassels & charms

stickers

bookplate (soon to be graced with my own fine hand)

beanbag Golden Salamander

mini button

... and the swag collection continues to grow! What would you like to see in a swag bag for The Key & the Flame?