5 Days Until Pub Day!

5 days until pub day for THE STONE GIRL'S STORY! I'm getting excited! And nervous. And terrified. And mildly nauseous. But mostly excited! 

http://www.sarahbethdurst.com/StoneGirl.htm

 

THE RELUCTANT QUEEN Excerpt -- Chapter One

Today marks three weeks 'til pub day of THE RELUCTANT QUEEN!!! To celebrate, I posted the 1st chapter here: http://www.sarahbethdurst.com/ReluctantQueenexcerpt.htm #RQCountdown

26 Days Until The Reluctant Queen!

Harper Voyager is going all out for the July 4 pub day of THE RELUCTANT QUEEN, Book Two of my Queens of Renthia epic fantasy series. My editor said there'd be fireworks above the East River! #RQCountdown

 

Congratulations to Chasing Power Giveaway Winner!

Thank you to everyone who entered the CHASING POWER giveaway!

The winner is: Erin P.  Congratulations!

For those of you who didn't win and are now bereft, here is a song about pink fluffy unicorns dancing on rainbows to cheer you up:

Also to cheer you up... CHASING POWER comes out on Tuesday!!!!!!!

Giveaway of CHASING POWER

My new YA novel CHASING POWER comes out from Bloomsbury in exactly one week!!!!!!!!!!

In honor of this, I'm doing a giveaway of a signed copy of CHASING POWER:

a Rafflecopter giveaway
CHASING POWER is the story of Kayla, a sixteen-year-old girl who can move things with her mind, and Daniel, a boy who can teleport across continents and who lies as easily as he travels. Together, they embark on an Indiana-Jones-style adventure to find and steal an ancient incantation, written on three indestructible stones and hidden millennia ago, all to rescue Daniel's kidnapped mother. But Kayla has no idea that this rescue mission will lead back to her own family, and to betrayals that she may not be able to forgive... or survive.  Click here to read the first two chapters.

One week until pub day!!!  *runs in circles, flails arms like Muppet*

Counting Down

Counting down to pub date!!! Check out this snazzy countdown timer! I can't stop staring at it. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock...


Find out more about ICE!

If you'd like to count down with me and get a copy of this timer for your blog or site, please click here for the code to copy-and-paste.

I'm told that when the countdown reaches zero on your site, the ceiling above you will open up and release balloons and confetti, fireworks will boom and flash outside your window, a miniature brass band will pop up on your desk, and a parade of pink elephants and dancing hippos will march through your house/office.

Okay, perhaps that's not entirely true.

Hippos can't dance.

But when the countdown reaches zero, you could, if you want to, do the Snoopy Dance of Joy and know that at that same exact second, I'm doing the Snoopy Dance of Joy too. So we'd be Snoopy-ing together, and that's kind of cool, right?

In related news, there's a lovely review of ICE up on Reading Rocks. Totally made my day. :)

And in unrelated news... the winner of the HUSH, HUSH giveaway is: Becky. Congratulations! Please email me your mailing address, and I'll send you the ARC. Thanks to everyone who entered!

Excerpt from ICE

21 days until ICE!!!

In honor of that occasion, and to give you a better taste of the book, I just posted the prologue and first two chapters on my website. Enjoy!!!

Once upon a time, in a land far to the north, there lived a lovely maiden...

Cassie killed the snowmobile engine.

Total silence, her favorite sound. Ice crystals spun in the Arctic air. Sparkling in the predawn light, they looked like diamond dust. Beneath her ice-encrusted face mask, she smiled. She loved this: just her, the ice, and the bear.

Click here to read more.

I'll wait.....

So... did ya like it? Did ya? Did ya?! Did ya?!?!

The same excerpt is also now available as part of Simon & Schuster's YA sampler, Lit Up. Click here to open the sampler, which includes excerpts from nine new YA books coming out this fall. ICE begins on page 19.

The Wild is Unleashed!

INTO THE WILD comes out TODAY!!!


YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Snoopy Dance of Joy!

Hmmm... I wonder where this link leads...

Tomorrow!

Tomorrow... is the official publication date for INTO THE WILD!

Tomorrow... I will be at Book Revue in Huntington, New York, to celebrate my book launch. And you're invited! Here are the details:

Thursday June 21st at 8pm
Book Revue
313 New York Avenue, Huntington, NY

Tomorrow... I will be reading from and signing copies of INTO THE WILD! And there will be cake and coffee too! Cake decorated with INTO THE WILD cover art! How can you say no to that?

I can't believe it's happening tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow!!! Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow creeps... No, that doesn't quite capture the right mood. But here's a link to some random dude reciting the Macbeth soliloquy.

One day more! One more day... No, not right either. But here's a link to the song from Les Miz as performed by Lego people.

The sun will come out tomorrow! Bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow, there'll be sun... Yes, that's better! And here are links to several adorable kids pretending they're Annie. Okay, I really need to stop playing with YouTube now.

Tomorrow is the day that I have been waiting for and working toward for literally my entire life. I am not exaggerating here. This is truly the fulfillment of a lifelong dream. Or more accurately, it's the beginning of my dream of being a published writer.

I actually remember the moment that I decided I wanted to be a writer. I was on a chairlift somewhere in New England with my dad, and I was worrying about my future. I was ten years old (double digits!), and I didn't have any career goals. The horror! Did I mention I was a somewhat anxious kid? Anyway, my dad said, "Well, you're creative. You could be an architect, an artist, a writer, an investment banker..." I stopped listening at "writer." Until that moment, it hadn't occurred to me that a real person could become a writer. I'd never met a writer. I'd thought of them as mythical, magical creatures like unicorns or wizards. Writers were wizards who created these magical spells that completely entranced me.

Once I latched onto the idea that I could become a writer, I really latched on. I raided the library for how-to books on writing. I made endless lists of stories I wanted to write (and I even started a lot of them). I drew maps of imaginary places. I made lists of potential characters. Once, I even read the phone book looking for interesting character names. When the annual magazine drive came around, I convinced my parents to buy me a subscription to Writer's Digest, a magazine about writers and writing. My subscription has never lapsed in the 23 years since then.

All through middle school and high school, I continued to write. I went to Duke Young Writers' Camp for three different summers. I started and stopped a bajillion stories. In college, I worked primarily on playwriting. My senior thesis was a play that involved Mrs. Bennet from Pride & Prejudice, Morgana la Fay from Arthurian legend, and a large fire-breathing dragon. (Note: this is not the way to make friends with your technical director.)

After college, I returned to novels. I submitted my first full-length manuscript a year after college. While I waited to hear back, I wrote another. And then I sent that out. Rinse, lather, repeat. I wrote nearly every day. I even went part-time at my day job so that I could have more time to write, despite the cut in pay. It wasn't easy. Sometimes I doubted myself. But I never doubted that I wanted this. I wanted to be a wizard who could create a magical spell to entrance someone like me. I wanted this very, very, very badly. So I didn't stop.

A year ago, the stars aligned. The magnificent Andrea Somberg became my agent, and six weeks later, we had offers for INTO THE WILD. (Click here to read my post about The Call.) And now it's really, really happening! INTO THE WILD comes out tomorrow!

I love thinking about how happy the ten-year-old Sarah would be. She's doing cartwheels inside me right now.

1 day until the Wild is unleashed!!!

Not-So-Obscure Fairy Tale: Snow White and the Seven Dwarves

Over the nine months since I started writing this blog, my favorite part has been writing the recurring segment on obscure fairy tales. I've really enjoyed giving you my take on some of the less-well-known fairy tales that I ran across while doing "research" for my forthcoming novel, INTO THE WILD. Today, in honor of the upcoming publication of INTO THE WILD (it comes out on June 21st -- that's this Thursday!!!), I'm going to give you my take on a not-so-obscure fairy tale. Okay, a super-famous fairy tale: Snow White.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (retold in lots and lots of places)

A queen longs for a child. One day, she pricks her finger, a drop of blood falls on the snow, and she says, "I wish I had a child with hair as black as ebony, lips as red as blood, and skin as white as snow."

Very poetic, but why not wish for a child who is healthy? Or smart? Or nice? Or lucky? Why specify hair color? My theory: she's sick of all those blonde princesses.

In time, a child is born with hair as black as ebony, lips as red as blood, and skin as white as snow...

Freaky looking baby. Doesn't that describe the Bride of Frankenstein?

... and the queen dies. The king remarries. His new wife has a magic mirror.

This whole story would have been totally different if his new wife had had a pet cat instead.

Every day, the new queen would look in the mirror and say, "Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?"

Out of curiosity, where did she put the mirror? Most mirrors are in bedrooms or bathrooms. Personally, I wouldn't want a talking mirror in either place. Think about the comments it could make.

And the mirror would answer, "You are."

OK, you caught me -- I'm not actually looking at a copy of the story as I write this. I'm sure the mirror rhymed his answer. But the gist of it is the same. This (and all other mistakes) should be blamed on my being too lazy to reach over to my bookshelf where there are, like, three thousand different books with various versions of this story.

One day, when the child (called Snow White) is seven years old, the queen looks in the mirror and says, "Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?" and the mirror replies, "Oh, beautiful queen, you still look fine, but that child there is really divine."

Again, that's not exactly the traditional phrasing.

The queen summons a huntsman and orders him to take Snow White into the forest, kill her, and then bring back the child's heart so that the queen can eat it.

Poor innocent Snow White, yada yada. But let's talk about the queen here. What flair! If you're going to overreact, this is the way to do it. Not that I'm advocating murder and cannabalism. Let's be clear here: murder bad. Cannabalism bad. But there's just something deliciously wonderful about how extremely insane Her Majesty is. Really, I think she's one of the best fairy-tale villains out there.

The huntsman takes Snow White to the forest and tells her to run away. He kills a wild animal instead and brings its heart to the queen who eats it with ketchup.

I added the bit with the ketchup. She doesn't use ketchup in the traditional tales, of course. She actually uses A-1 Steaksauce.

Frightened, Snow White runs through the forest until she finds a small cottage. She enters, notices the size of the furniture, and falls asleep in one of seven small beds.

Snow White, as you will notice, is not exactly the brightest bulb on the porch. She is, however, rather lucky. Goldilocks also found a cottage in the woods, but hers had less forgiving inhabitants.

The owners of the cottage, seven dwarves, return from work to find Snow White in their house. They agree to allow her to stay if she will cook and clean for them. And so she does.

The arrangement may be a bit sexist, but at least it's practical. The dwarves get a clean house, and Snow gets to keep her vital organs.

The dwarves caution her not to talk with strangers while they are away at the mines. And they are correct to worry -- the magic mirror has revealed to the queen the huntsman's duplicity and Snow White's location. One afternoon, while the dwarves are gone, a peddler woman (who is actually the queen in disguise) comes to visit Snow White.

As you may have noticed, the queen has some serious issues.

The peddler woman offers Snow White a corset, which Snow White accepts. Snow White allows the woman to lace up her corset. The woman laces her up so tight that Snow White cannot breath. She falls to the floor as if dead. Satisfied, the queen leaves.

The queen here commits the classic James Bond villain mistake of leaving before she is certain her victim is dead. Or perhaps the queen is the original inspiration behind those classic James Bond villians... Hmm...

The dwarves return and are dismayed to find Snow White laying as if dead on the floor. They loosen the corset, and she begins to breathe again.

Theory one: it wasn't actually cinched so tight that she couldn't breathe, but instead it was a magic corset that merely needed to be removed to restore life. Theory two: Snow White is actually so dumb that she could survive hours of oxygen deprivation without any noticable side effects.

Next time the peddler woman returns, she offers Snow White a poison comb. When Snow White puts it in her hair, she falls down as if dead.

I hope the queen at least disguised herself as a different peddler woman.

The dwarves return and remove the comb. Snow White awakens. The third time the peddler woman returns, she offers an apple that is half red and half white. The red half is poisoned.

Yum.

Snow White is not inclined to accept any more gifts from peddler women, so the queen takes a bite of the white half to prove that the apple is safe. Convinced, Snow White takes a bite of the red half and falls down dead.

Hey, at least she showed a modicum of sense with the whole taste-test thing.

The dwarves return and are unable to wake her. They place her in a glass coffin and stand guard over her day and night.

The glass coffin thing... ick. If they really think she's dead... serious ick. Also, if they're able to skip work in order to stand guard over her dead body, why couldn't one of them have skipped work to guard her while she was alive?

A prince, riding through the forest, finds the glass coffin and falls in love with the beautiful maiden inside.

There are, like, twelve things wrong with this. For one thing, if time didn't pass while she was with the dwarves, then she's SEVEN years old. For another, regardless of her age, she's DEAD. Ick.

He issues instructions for the coffin to be carried to his palace. As it's being carried, it's jarred, and a bit of apple flies out of the throat of Snow White. She wakes.

No one thought to try the Heimlich maneuver earlier?

The prince and princess are married, and Snow White invites her father and stepmother to the wedding. When the evil queen arrives, she is forced to wear red-hot iron shoes and dance to death. And they all live happily ever after.

Except the queen, of course. And her husband probably isn't very happy to be a widower again (unless he's relieved to be free from his crazy wife). And the dwarves probably miss Snow White. And the prince and Snow White never really had any chance to get to know each other before the wedding, so who knows if they're really meant to be together. And the magic mirror is still out there, driving some other woman insane...

If you'd like to check out some of my posts about obscure fairy tales that are actually obscure, here are links to: Godfather Death, The Tinderbox, The Princess in the Chest, The Juniper Tree, Molly Whuppie, Tatterhood, Jack My Hedgehog, or The Wishing Table.

2 days until the Wild is unleashed...

Radio Recap

Saturday morning I did my very first radio interview! I was the guest author on Hour of the Wolf hosted by Jim Freund on WBAI 99.5 FM (in NYC). It aired live from 5-7am.

If you'd like to listen to the interview, the recording is now available online. Click here to listen to the streaming audio. If that doesn't work, click here to play the mp3 file (takes about one minute to download with a high-speed connection).

I won't be offended if you didn't hear it live. It was 5am on a Saturday, after all. To reach the radio station on time, I had to set my alarm for 2:58am, which just plain felt wrong. In fact, I kept cycling past the 2 as I set the clock because my already-sleep-deprived brain simply couldn't process that I was planning to wake up at that time. As it turns out, I didn't need the alarm because I woke up on my own once an hour with a song blaring through my mind. You know the song "Video Killed the Radio Star"? Well, my brain morphed it into "Sarah's Gonna Be a Radio Star" and then proceeded to sing that in my head very loudly throughout the night. Yes, my brain is sometimes annoying. You should hear it when it gets stuck on that Meow Mix commercial song...

Anyway, I arrived at the radio station at 4am (way early -- I thought it would take a while to get a cab, but apparently, in Manhattan, there are still lots of people coming home from bars at this time of night, so there were plenty of cabs around). The place looked just like a radio station should: a big program schedule on display, a recording studio visible through a window in the wall, speakers all around.

At quarter of five, the host Jim Freund -- a really nice and very knowledgeable man who tells fascinating anecdotes (in other words, exactly the kind of person you'd want to host your first radio interview) -- arrived. At a little before five, we slipped into the recording studio as the prior show was wrapping up.

And then it began! In case you do listen to the recording, and you would like to skip around to different parts, here's the basic breakdown of the show:

- Hour of the Wolf theme music and Jim's introduction
- 20 minutes of cool fairy-tale-ish music
- Jim and I talk about writing, my book INTO THE WILD, and fairy tales for another 20-30 minutes
- A shorter music break
- Starting at around 6am, one hour into the show, I spend about 40 minutes reading four scenes from INTO THE WILD
- We finish up with a few more minutes of chatting

Do I look like a radio star yet?

I think it went really well. It was really surreal talking into this enormous microphone and knowing that anyone anywhere could be listening to me. (The show is broadcast online as well as on the air.) I'll never know who was listening or what they were thinking -- that feels weird but also cool. I can see why people fall in love with being on the radio.

One person who I know was listening was my husband. He woke up at 3am to give me a wake-up call (yes, I sang him the "radio star" song when he called) and then stayed awake to listen to the entire show live. How cool is that?

And despite fears to the contrary, I did NOT howl at the moon during the show. :)

4 days until the Wild is unleashed...

Hour of the Wolf

This Saturday, I will be the guest author on Hour of the Wolf, a two-hour live radio show featuring fantasy and science fiction, hosted by Jim Freund. It's broadcast out of NYC on WBAI 99.5 FM, but thanks to the wonders of the internets, those outside of NYC can listen to live streaming audio of any WBAI broadcast by clicking here.

Listen to my dulcet tones emanating from your radio.

I'm told that the show consists of throwing an author into a recording studio, releasing a pack of wolves, and then recording the chase to the tune of the Bugs Bunny soundtrack.

Or, more accurately, I think I'll be chatting about writing, and fairy tales, and my book, and for part of the show, I'll be reading from INTO THE WILD.

I do know that this program features an author every week and has had some really amazing guests. I'm really, really excited to be this week's featured writer. So excited that I'm willing to get myself up at 3am to get there.

Yes, I said AM.

The show airs live from 5-7am EDT on Saturday morning, so I need to be at the radio station by 4:30am.

This is very early.

Or very late, depending on your point of view.

Regardless, I'm excited. And a little nervous. The only thing I know about radio shows is what I read in Kitty and the Midnight Hour by Carrie Vaughn, which is about a werewolf with a radio show... Wait a minute... Hour of the Wolf... werewolf... uh-oh.

Seriously though, if you're up that early, tune in. (And even if you're not up that early, you can still listen to the show after-the-fact by going to the WBAI archive page.) Jim is an excellent host. Plus with me being me, I'm bound to say something inane and/or insane. I think there's a call-in portion of the show too, wherein you could be directly responsible for making me say something inane and/or insane. If I get really flustered, I may even howl at the moon.

(Note to self: Do not howl on the radio. You'll frighten the cat.)

Again, here's the vital info:

Hour of the Wolf
Saturday June 16 from 5-7am EDT
WBAI 99.5 FM in NYC (or online here)

Talk to you soon!

6 days until the Wild is unleashed...

Booklist Review

INTO THE WILD got a nice review today from Booklist, another of those big trade journals that does book reviews. Well, more accurately, the review came out in the June 1st issue, but it wasn't until today that I stumbled upon it. Here's a quote:

"The story is peppered with sly allusions, and Julie is an appealingly reluctant heroine, one whose goodness and bravery come with plenty of wry, contemporary sarcasm." -- Booklist

Click here to read the full review.

And since it's after midnight, I can honestly say that it is now the FINAL WEEK before pub date!

7 days until the Wild is unleashed...

School Visit to Village Elementary

Today I was the guest author at Village Elementary School, the school where my mother-in-law teaches. It was great! I visited with three fifth grade classes and talked to them about the process of creating a novel from idea to finished book. I also read them a chapter from INTO THE WILD and showed them the final manuscript, the ARC, and the finished hardcover book.


Today was very cool for many reasons:

(1) The kids were awesome. Smart. Nice. I wish I'd had the chance to actually get to know them individually.

(2) I gave each student a bookmark, and at the end of my visit, they all wanted me to sign the bookmarks. This made me feel like a rock star.

(3) Five years ago, a student in this school read an early version of INTO THE WILD (back when it was called THE WISHING WELL MOTEL). I can count on one hand the number of people in the world who read early versions of ITW. Today she came over from the high school to meet me and listen to me talk to the class. How cool is that?

(4) I was in fifth grade when I decided to become a writer. So visiting the fifth grade today felt very appropriate.

(5) One of the students had a copy of INTO THE WILD!!! It doesn't officially come out until next week, but this girl's mother found it in a bookstore, and she brought it in for me to sign. I did the Snoopy Dance of Joy right there when I saw it.

Somewhere, somehow, INTO THE WILD is out there! Nine days early!

After school, my husband and I drove to two bookstores in the area to try to see it on the shelves for ourselves, but no luck. If anyone sees it out there, please send me photos! I want pictures of first sightings!

9 days until the Wild is unleashed...

Got Milk?

I bought a gallon of milk today that doesn't expire until INTO THE WILD's pub date!!!


This is perfect. In case it otherwise slips my mind, now I'll know that my book has come out as soon as my milk starts tasting funky.

By the way, how come people in New York City need their milk to be four days fresher than everybody else???

10 days until the Wild is unleashed...

Dreaming of My Pub Date

I think I may be a little anxious about my upcoming release date.

Last night, I dreamed that it was June 21 (the pub date for INTO THE WILD, exactly one month from today!). My family and I were celebrating at home with a box of my books. We took a book out, admired it, and smiled happily at each other.

And then the zombies came.


Their skin was blue-green, and they had bits of kelp-like goo dripping off their bodies. Moaning, they shambled up the street.

We didn't panic. We knew just what to do. We took out machetes and ran to the backyard, where we chopped down brambles. We set the brambles up in an impenetrable barrier in front of our house (taking care not to block the fire hydrant). Once the barrier was in place, we fetched shovels, dug a moat around the house, and filled it with alligators. We then went back inside, boarded up all the windows, made ourselves some baked beans*, and again took out a copy of my book to admire.

* In every apocalyptic novel I've ever read, the characters always eat baked beans. I don't know why. We've never actually made baked beans. We don't even own any cans of baked beans. For the record, we also don't own any alligators.

Anyone want to analyze my dream?

On an unrelated note... (okay, maybe really loosely related since Holly was involved in the great zombies versus unicorns debate), this Sunday I attended a reading by Holly Black, Cassandra Clare, Lisa Ann Sandell, and Ysabeau Wilce at fabulous Books of Wonder in NYC. Enjoyed all four excerpts immensely. (Also enjoyed daydreaming about my reading there on June 23!) Had fun talking with Peter Glassman, Barry Goldblatt, and others while the four authors signed about a bajillion books. Afterwards, I joined Holly, Cassie, Theo, and others for a late lunch in a nearby park. Note to self: if weather report says "scattered thunderstorms," bring an umbrella. Or don't eat outside...