Happy Book Birthday Enchanted Ivy!

Happy book birthday to you,
happy book birthday to you,
happy book birthday, dear Enchanted Ivy,
happy book birthday to you!!!

*cheers and throws confetti at book*

Today is the publication date for my newest book, Enchanted Ivy, as well as the paperback release of Ice!


Enchanted Ivy is my magic-at-Princeton book.

While visiting the campus of Princeton University, sixteen-year-old Lily discovers a secret gate to a magical realm and must race against time to save herself, her world, and any hope she has of college admission.

It is 100% autobiographical.

Okay, it's not at all autobiographical. But it is true at its heart. It's about that pivotal (and terrifying) moment where you know that the decisions you are making will forever change you and your future -- the college application process.

Junior and senior year of high school, I was obsessed with getting into college. I saw college as this huge turning point that would shape who I became and what I did with the rest of my life. So I was utterly consumed with the pressure of making the "right" choice. This novel grew out of that obsession.

It also grew out of my love of Princeton. I'm not exactly sure what it is in my psyche that causes me to acknowledge that love by morphing the place into some magical bizarro world and then ripping it apart. But whatever. It's all done with love. Seriously.

I think Princeton is a magical place. You enter campus through an arch of elm trees and cross a shimmering lake into a gorgeous patchwork of verdant fields, beautiful brick buildings, modern buildings that look like sculptures, and gothic buildings edged in ivy and wisteria. In other words, it's pretty. Plus, it has gargoyles.

One gargoyle in particular caught my attention. He's a little fellow, curled between stone vines on an arch above a side entrance to the University Chapel.


Once I saw him, he began to haunt me. (Well, not literally but... I digress.) The look in his eyes just seemed to say... TELL MY STORY.

So I did. :)

Special thanks to my awesome agent Andrea Somberg, my wonderful editor Karen Wojtyla, and the fabulous team at Simon & Schuster. You guys rock. (No pun intended with the whole gargoyle thing...)

To my Princeton friends... I love you, and I'll see you at Reunions!

And yes, I am totally wearing my Princeton tiger tail all day today.

Enchanted Ivy Campus Tour: Stop Three

Continuing on to Stop Three of the Enchanted Ivy Campus Tour of Princeton...

En Route to Blair

After the harrowing [redacted to avoid spoilers] in the East Pyne Courtyard, Lily runs in this direction:


To the right is the sculpture known as Richard Nixon's nose. I think it's actually called "Oval with Points" or something like that, but from the right angle, it bears a shocking resemblance to Nixon's profile. Students sometimes sit inside it and read. I never did. Not so comfy. But I digress...

Beyond the sculpture, also on the right, you can see Alexander Hall, which is said to be an architecture student's failed thesis. It looks like a cathedral with the bottom half chopped off.

At the end of this path is Blair Hall, one of the dorms. On Reunions weekend, this is the location of the 50th Reunion tent. (In Enchanted Ivy, Lily accompanies her grandfather to his fiftieth college reunion.)

Princeton Reunions are... well, imagine a three-day carnival where everyone wears orange and black outfits and pretends they're twenty-years-old (even if they're actually eighty).

Goblin with Shell (Blair Arch)

The most prominent feature of Blair is the arch.


Very pretty, but my favorite part of Blair Arch is the bizarre gargoyles.


And my favorite gargoyle is this guy, called Goblin with a Shell.


"Monkey-like, the animal was hairless and green. It wore half-shredded children's clothes draped over its leather body. The creature snarled, exposing shark-like pointed teeth, and then it lurched toward them. "Behind you!" Lily cried. Clawed paws scraped over flagstones."

Dorm Door

One thing I wanted to do in this novel was show how the magic and the real can both blend and clash. In order to achieve this, I tried to make the real world as accurate as possible. So on my visits to Princeton, I took a LOT of photos of doors and steps and sidewalks and shrubbery. Here's one example:


Lily goes through this door with Jake to find her mother.

Coming soon... Stop Four!

For those interested, here are links to prior tour stops:

- Stop One (FitzRandolph Gate and Nassau Hall)
- Stop Two (East Pyne Courtyard, Unseeing Reader, and Firestone Library)

Or click here to view all my campus tour blog posts at once.

2 days until Enchanted Ivy!

Back-to-the-Future Box and Books of Wonder

Two lovely things happened this week: my Back-to-the-Future box arrived and I had my first book event for Enchanted Ivy!

Back-to-the-Future Box

Remember that scene at the end of Back to the Future where Marty's dad receives a box of books -- books he's written -- in the mail? Okay, maybe you don't. But I always saw it as the highlight of the entire movie. I wanted that box.

In a recent interview, I was asked what has surprised me the most about being a published author, and one thing is that publication isn't a single moment. It's not all about that "yes" on the phone or the pub date. There isn't a day when the elephants parade through your living room, hot-air blimps throw confetti over your house, and Ewoks play timpani on Stormtrooper helmets for you. Instead, it's smaller moments, which I think I like better because the smaller moments can sneak up and surprise you, like receiving the Back-to-the-Future box.

Not sure why this surprised me, because one thing I've learned time and time again is that life is all about the smaller moments.

Anyway, my Back-to-the-Future box (a.k.a. my author copies of Enchanted Ivy and the paperback edition of Ice) arrived this week. My husband and I opened the box together and stacked all the books in giant towers. Then we sat on the floor and admired them for a long time.

We also noticed that the floor badly needs vacuuming. Ah, the glamorous life.....

Books of Wonder

The other cool moment of the week was the "Fantasy for Teens" book event at Books of Wonder in NYC last Thursday. I spoke and read with two awesome authors: Cinda Williams Chima and Yvonne Woon.

I also accidentally said I hear voices, but we'll gloss right over that.

Here's a photo of Cinda and me with the lovely display of books:


I LOVE doing events at Books of Wonder. For one thing, it's a fabulous bookstore. For another, they really do events right. Very organized, very enthusiastic, and all-around wonderful. Thank you to Peter and the Books of Wonder staff, and thank you to everyone who came out to the event! You're all awesome!

Coming soon: Stop three of the Enchanted Ivy campus tour...

3 days until Enchanted Ivy!

Enchanted Ivy Campus Tour: Stop Two

Stop Two of the Enchanted Ivy Campus Tour!

A little background... I wrote a book about magic at Princeton. It's called Enchanted Ivy, and it's coming out on Oct 12 from Simon & Schuster. This tour illustrates its world. (Cue the dun-dun sound effect from Law & Order.)

East Pyne Courtyard


This is the arch into the East Pyne Courtyard, the foreign languages department. In this courtyard:

"A weight smashed hard into the center of her back. Lily lurched forward and slammed down knees-first on the slate flagstones."

This courtyard is also the place where some friends of mine streaked the campus tour during our senior year. The man in this photo was not one of the streakers.

Unseeing Reader


If you look up... a little higher... not that high... you can see the gargoyle from chapter two of Enchanted Ivy. She's called the Unseeing Reader. Here's a close-up:


She's supposed to illustrate that the purpose of the university is the enlightenment of the students. Or a serious misunderstanding of pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey.

Firestone Library


I really, really love libraries.

That said, the stacks of Firestone Library are, well... creepy. Sure, you enter in this warm wood sunlit lobby. But then you take the elevator down into dark, silent catacombs.


Seniors have carrells, basically closets, that they can use to write their theses. So when you're in the stacks, you hear the click, click, click of laptops from people you can't see. Kind of like Poe's tell-tale heart. It's also dark. Each row has its own light, which means the overall lighting for the floor is minimal. And in some areas, the bookshelves are pressed together. They separate with the turn of a crank, and when you turn the crank, there's always the risk that you'll discover the skeleton of some student who was trapped there long ago... (Cue spooky ghost music.)

Coming soon... stop three! And click here to read stop one, or view all Enchanted Ivy Campus Tour blog posts at once.

5 days until Enchanted Ivy!

Enchanted Ivy Campus Tour: Stop One

Welcome to the Enchanted Ivy Campus Tour!

A little background first... Enchanted Ivy is a my new YA fantasy novel. It's coming out October 12th, and it's about magic at Princeton.

I love the theme of magic in the real world. I am fascinated by the intersection and interplay of reality and fantasy. (Yes, I was totally that kid who played Wizard's House instead of ordinary House. I also included "magic wand" on my birthday wish list every year. And I'd record the positions of my stuffed animals before I went on vacation so I could tell if they had a party. A creative child. Or crazy. Your pick.)

Anyway, I like the real-world part of my novels to be as accurate as possible. So while I was writing this novel, I visited Princeton and took myself on a tour of everywhere my protagonist Lily would go. Now let's begin the tour. We're walking, we're walking.....

FitzRandolph Gate


Princetonians have a superstition about the main campus gate: If a student walks out the FitzRandolph Gate before commencement day, he or she won't graduate. Of course, no one really believes it, but still... my friends and I wouldn't even walk in the gate for fear that we'd trip, fall backward out the gate, and never graduate.

This superstition provided the key inspiration for Enchanted Ivy. What really happens when you walk through FitzRandolph Gate? What magic lies beyond? *cue cool music*

One hint: You see those eagles? They talk.

Nassau Hall


Nassau Hall is the oldest building at Princeton. It has a cannon ball imprint inside that dates to the Revolutionary War. And it's not really open to the public.

I went in anyway. Oh, yeah, baby, I'm a wild woman.

But Lily enters Nassau Hall to meet the Council (which, incidentally, includes a were-tiger) so in I went. Apologies for the lack of photos of were-tigers.


She also sees these stairs. I love thinking about how many feet must have stepped here to make these stairs look like this. (I mean, not that I love thinking about feet. Feet are fine, but... oh, never mind.)


"As the stone man dragged them downstairs, Lily clutched at the railing. Her feet slipped on the worn steps. 'Please, you have to listen,' she begged the stone man."

More soon.....

7 days until Enchanted Ivy!

Touring Princeton

Princeton calls its campus tour the "Orange Key Tour," and it's filled with stories:

- Students used to steal the clapper from the bell on top of Nassau Hall to prevent the start of school. The clapper was later removed after a few too many students fell off the roof. (I find myself wondering how many is "too many"...)

- In a fit of spite, an architect (a Yale graduate) added a gargoyle of the Yale mascot (a bulldog) to the University Chapel. (This one is doubtful because the gargoyle is actually on a gutter -- not the best homage to Yale.)

- The half-buried cannon in Cannon Green was once the treasured prize of an inter-college rivalry. After it was stolen (and stolen back) multiple times, Princeton students half buried it to protect it.

- On the night of the first snowfall each winter, Princeton sophomores used to disrobe and run the Nude Olympics. (Oh, wait, that one's true.....)

You can always spot the tours on campus because the guide walks backwards.

One of my closest friends, Rick, was an Orange Key Tour guide, and on his final tour of our senior year, some of my other dearest friends streaked his tour in East Pyne Courtyard. (I'm not going to name names. You know who you are. Don't worry, though -- your butts do not appear in my book.)

But what does appear is a lot of the Princeton campus.

While I was writing Enchanted Ivy, I used the virtual Orange Key Tour as an initial guide, and then I took two trips to Princeton with my camera and notebook to fill in the details. (Yes, I know I lived there for four years and should know the campus backward and forward, but you see a place differently when you look at it through a character's eyes.) I traced every step that Lily takes.

So I thought that I'd do my own version of the Orange Key Tour here on this blog and show you some of the places that either appear in or inspired my new novel... Please join me tomorrow for the start of the Enchanted Ivy Campus Tour!

8 days until Enchanted Ivy!

Upcoming Enchanted Ivy Events

You know, I actually did a little dance when I flipped my calendar to October. And that's not just because I fully intend to wear fairy wings for Halloween, though that's admittedly part of it. (I have no idea how I went through my entire childhood without owning a pair of wings. Really a massive oversight. Must be corrected. As soon as I can figure out where to purchase said wings... Suggestions?)

The real reason for my dance will be obvious to anyone who has been reading this blog for a while:

October is the release month for Enchanted Ivy!!! Just 9 days left until pub date!!!

I have some book events coming up that I'm really excited about. Details are below, as well as on the Appearances page of my website. If you're in the area, I hope you'll come!

First event is this Thursday at one of my all-time favorite bookstores: Books of Wonder in NYC. I'll be appearing with Cinda Williams Chima (author of The Exiled Queen) and Yvonne Woon (author of Dead Beautiful). Here's the lovely poster:


Upcoming Appearances:

Books of Wonder
Thursday, October 7th from 6-8pm
Fantasy for Teens Reading/Signing with Cinda Williams Chima, Yvonne Woon, and Sarah Beth Durst
18 West 18th Street, New York, NY

Bay Shore-Brightwaters Public Library
Tuesday, October 26th at 7:30pm &
Tuesday, November 9th at 7:30pm
2-Part Author Visit & Writing Workshop
One South County Road, Brightwaters, NY

World Fantasy Convention 2010
October 28th-31st (Thursday to Sunday)
Hyatt Regency Columbus, 350 North High Street, Columbus, OH

New York Public Library
Wednesday, November 3rd from 6-7:30pm
Teen Author Reading Night with Rachel Cohn, David Levithan, Sarah Beth Durst, Barry Lyga, Lena Roy, Kieran Scott, and Scott Westerfeld
Jefferson Market Branch, 425 6th Ave (at 10th St), New York, NY

Book Revue
Sunday, November 7th at 2pm
Reading/Signing/Book Launch Party (with cake!!!)
313 New York Avenue, Huntington NY

In My Mailbox: Enchanted Ivy and Ice!

Look what my editor sent me!!! Finished copies of Enchanted Ivy and the paperback of Ice, both of which are coming out on October 12th.


I'm so thrilled with how these turned out and I'm so grateful to the publishing magicians at Simon & Schuster who turned my manuscripts into these beautiful books.

You can't really tell from the photo, but the Enchanted Ivy cover is all shimmery!!!!!

I'm a very lucky Sarah.

15 days until Enchanted Ivy -- and the paperback of Ice too!

Kirkus Review of Enchanted Ivy

Kirkus, Kirkus, KIRKUS!!!

Kirkus is one of the big trade publications that review books. It has a reputation for tough reviews. It also has a name that's fun to say loudly while bouncing on your desk chair after receiving the news that KIRKUS LIKED ENCHANTED IVY!!!

Here is the full review:

"Blithe and flighty at the beginning, the protagonist and plot quickly darken and deepen in this fantasy and magical coming-of-age story set at Princeton. During Reunion weekend, a mysterious group of alumni offers high-school junior Lily Carter admission if she can find the Ivy Key and pass the Legacy Test. With the help of her dueling love interests -- tiger-haired Tye and knightly Jake -- and the gargoyles on campus, Lily finds the key, along with unexpected information about her late father, her addled mother and her esteemed grandfather. Discovering the key also triggers a war between the group that recruited her and the fantastic residents of a parallel world, whose battles engulf the campus. Durst deftly layers in mythologies, drawing upon the vaunted status of the Ivy League schools, students' stories and superstitions, common tropes of fantasy literature and the propaganda of war. A refreshing entry in the urban-fantasy field and a solid adventure tale." -- Kirkus

YAY!!!

30 days until Enchanted Ivy!

Choosing the Right Place

Junior year of high school, my parents told me that I could only apply to five colleges. This was entirely for my own good. Left to my own devices, I would have applied to five hundred colleges. (I was a wee bit anxious about the whole thing.)

This limitation didn't stop my obsessing, of course. I needed to pick the "right" five.

My dad and I visited a total of 22 colleges during my junior and senior year of high school. We even video-taped our visits (though most of the time, we'd forget until we were driving away, and I'd just stick the camera out the window and roll film -- unsurprisingly, my mom couldn't watch those videos without getting seasick).

It's not like college campuses are so different from each other. Classrooms, check. Dorm rooms, check. Gym. Student center. Really, your college experience is going to be shaped a lot more by what you are like than what your college is like. Also, who lives on your hall freshman year and whether your roommate is awesome or a raving lunatic.

(My roommate and neighbors were awesome. Also, some of them read this blog. *waves*)

Anyway, when I walked onto the Princeton campus, it felt RIGHT. As I've said before, it was the trees that wooed me: the elms, the oaks, the sycamores, and especially the flowering magnolia-like trees that fill the campus with their perfume every spring.

Picking a setting for a book is a lot like choosing the right college. You agonize over it. You do some research. You visualize your characters in that setting. You try to anticipate how it will change your story and the impact it will have. And in the end, you bite the bullet and decide based on a hodgepodge of actual fact, pure conjecture, and a large dose of random chance.

Once you make that decision, the ramifications are HUGE. Setting shapes both plot and characters, often in ways that surprise you. Eventually, the setting becomes so integral to the story that you can't imagine ever having considered another choice.

I chose to set Enchanted Ivy at my alma mater because I love adding magic to places that I love. It's basically wish fulfillment for me. (I did a similar thing in my debut novel Into the Wild by setting it in the town I grew up in. It's one of the perks of the writing gig.)

The campus quickly became my inspiration and an integral part of the characters and plot. I used the gardens, the eating clubs, the gargoyles, the front gate, even the mascot. The story would literally not be the same if it were set anywhere else.


35 days until ENCHANTED IVY!

College Obsession

Junior and senior year of high school, I obsessed about college. I swear I did not have a single conversation over those two years that did not touch on the topic of college in some way. Of course, this was not helped by the fact that when one is that age, everyone begins every conversation by asking, "So where are you applying?" And as soon as you can answer that, they begin asking, "So where are you going to go?" And as soon as you can answer that, they ask, "So what's your major?" And then, "What are you going to do after you graduate?" Really, it's enough to make anyone high-strung, and I was high-strung enough to begin with. (I am, after all, the person who had a mid-life crisis at age ten because I didn't know what my career goals were yet. Incidentally or not-so-incidentally, that's when I decided to become a writer. But that's another story.)

I had stacks and stacks of brochures from colleges. I sent away for the promotional videos. I made endless lists of pros and cons... You see, I knew that this was a Big Moment. Whichever direction I went, it would influence what I would do and who I would become. A lot of times, we have Big Moments and have no control over them or don't even recognize them as they happen, but I knew this was one and I had at least the illusion of control over it. Hence the freaking out.

My new novel ENCHANTED IVY is about Lily Carter, a 16-year-old caught in that pre-college obsession. Unlike the 16-year-old me, she knows where she wants to go: Princeton University. She just doesn't know if she's going to get in.

She also doesn't know that Princeton is a portal to a magical realm. If I'd known that, I totally would have done Early Decision.

As it was, I didn't end up deciding where to go until April of my senior year, a few days before the answer was due. After all my careful research and all my lists of pros and cons, I chose Princeton because of the trees. Seriously. I saw the arch of elm trees over Washington Street, and I was sold. In retrospect, this is perhaps not the best way to choose a college. But I loved it there. And it led to this book. So feel free to draw whatever moral you'd like from that. :)

44 days until ENCHANTED IVY!

Freshman Year Sarah

It is now 50 days until the release of my next book, ENCHANTED IVY. I'm excited! And I'm thinking about college. (The novel is about getting into college. Also, talking gargoyles and were-tigers.) This is me in my dorm room freshman year of college:


Nearly everything I brought with me was a memento: the tall glass cylinder by the window contained dried roses from prom and from various recitals and shows, the gray lamp was my dad's from his college days and the stickers on it were from my elementary school sticker collection, the sunset painting on the wall was painted by my brother, the mug was from my friend Gillian (of INTO THE WILD fame), etc.

Looking at this photo, I think about how much I've changed...

Hmm, I still have that cylinder of dried roses (though the roses in it are newer), and I still have a dead plant on my windowsill (though this one is a geranium). I still have those sandals and wear them every summer. I fill that same mug with hot chocolate every winter. (It's the perfect size for a packet of Swiss Miss.)

Okay, fine, I haven't changed much.

*sticks out tongue*

I do have longer hair. And the cassette tapes (see far left on my desk) have been replaced by iTunes. Also, several years ago, a mover lost that sunset picture. (I'm still annoyed about that.)

I'm more comfortable as me. I'm happier. A lot of that has to do with the person who was on the other side of the wall in that photo. Six years after this photo was taken, I married the boy who lived on the other side of that wall.

As the countdown to pub date continues, I'll be talking more about college, about getting into college, and about my new novel. I'll also be posting an excerpt from ENCHANTED IVY soon, so stay tuned!