Ice on Amazon!

Hey, looky what I just found. ICE now has it's very own Amazon page! I find it so surreal -- and so exciting -- when a book goes from being a Word file on my hard drive to a big fancy page on Amazon. Makes its forthcoming publication seem so much more real.

And I learned lots of juicy tidbits from the great oracle Amazon...

Apparently, ICE now has an official publication date: October 6, 2009. Hee hee! It's a Tuesday -- I just checked -- and what a lovely Tuesday it will be. Must go download a countdown timer so I can officially start counting the seconds -- erm, I mean, start waiting patiently like the cool, collected, professional author-person I am.

And ICE now has its very own ISBN number: 978-1-4169-8643-0. Isn't that just the most beautiful number you've ever heard? Try singing it to the tune of Silent Night: nine-seven-eight, one-four-one-six, nine-eight-six, four-three-ohhh... Pretty darn melodious, huh? Huh?! Why are you looking at me like I'm a crazy person?

And the coolest part of all, the book is now available for pre-order!! I find this very amusing since, of course, the book does not exist yet. Just last week, the manuscript was covered in red copyedit marks, sitting in a big heap of papers on my desk. But yay for Amazon for being prepared!

After discovering the Amazon page, I knew I had to celebrate. So, quite naturally, I hopped in my time machine (these days, pretty much all YA authors have one) and went back to 1990. I couldn't help but share my news with everyone I met, including a rather curious looking "musician" with a strangely angular hairdo. He was so excited that he wrote a song in honor of the occasion. The tune was pretty clearly ripped off from a song by Queen, but hey, it's the thought that counts. And the rest is music history...



I'm back home now, and can I just say that time travel rocks. It's well worth all the paperwork you have to go through to get your operator's license. And the road test is a piece of cake -- just avoid ripping holes in the space-time continuum and you're golden.

Ooh, before I forget, I wanted to let you know about my upcoming visit to the Huntington Public Library in Huntington, NY. I'll be talking about my books and writing and pretty much anything that people want me to talk about. So if you'll be in the area tomorrow (Tuesday) night, please drop by:

Tuesday, February 24th at 7pm
Huntington Public Library
338 Main Street, Huntington, NY

I'm looking forward to a fun event. And if you can't make it in time, I'll be happy to lend you my time machine...

Fudge

I have found a new muse.

Fudge.


I still love my Raisinets, of course, and consider them a vital component in my writing process, as well as my primary source of fruit, but fudge... mmm, fudge...

My husband came home the other day with a little Tiffany-blue box labeled "Sweet Melissa" (the name of the new gourmet candy shop in our town). Inside was a quarter-pound of raspberry-chocolate fudge, a quarter-pound of caramel-chocolate fudge, and a cute little plastic knife so that I could immediately begin slicing my fudge and shoveling it into my mouth (which I did).

I am considering having my husband knighted. (Can you do that? Can you nominate someone for knighthood? I know Sir Nils Olav was knighted a little while ago, and he's a penguin.)

The importance of chocolate in the creative process should not be underestimated. It works as a reward, it works as a break, it works as as a late-night caffeine source... I would eat it in a box. I would eat it with a fox. I would eat it here and there. I would eat it anywhere.

Except maybe for breakfast. I'm not a big chocolate-at-breakfast girl. Except for Nutella. And these churros and chocolate that I had on a trip to Spain. We ate them every single morning -- at least every morning once I realized you were supposed to dip the churros into the cup of liquid chocolate. First time I tried to order "chocolate caliente," I thought the chocolate was really, really thick hot cocoa, and I drank it. Got a few strange looks for drinking the dip. Three years of high school Spanish, and there I was, drinking the dip. Anyway. Fudge...

Oh, fudge, thou art delicious,
I would eat you with the fishes,
I would eat you rain or shine,
if you promise to always be mine.

Anyhoo... In non-fudge-related news, I want to tell you about the great library visit I did last week. I spoke to around twenty teens at the Northport Public Library in Northport, NY, as part of Teen Read Week. I had a fabulous time. Everyone had great questions, plus the wonderful librarians did a fantastic job -- they even decorated with Wild-appropriate vines and served wild-berry Lifesavers! Also, the Northport Library is gorgeous. It has a courtyard, a cafe, art displays... Even though I adore my local library, I still had a wee bit of library envy. Luckily, I had my fudge to console me.

Events and Dancing

Upcoming Events

Tomorrow, I'll be up in Massachusetts for two book events:

Library Visit
Friday August 8th at 3pm
Townsend Public Library
276 Main Street, Townsend, MA

Book Signing
Friday August 8th at 7pm
Borders - Shrewsbury
476 Boston Turnpike, Shrewsbury, MA

If you're in the area, I hope you'll stop by!

Happy Dancing

You may have already seen this, but it makes me smile (and then tear up) every time I watch it. It's a guy doing his Snoopy Dance of Joy all around the world...



Thanks to Tim Liebe for the link.

Readercon, Northboro Library, and Fitchburg Trip Report

One Reason Why I'm Glad I'm a Writer

After arriving at my dad's house last Thursday night...

Me: "I have to wake up early tomorrow. Maybe I'll see you before you leave for work?"

Dad: "What time are you leaving?"

Me: "My talk is at 8:30 in Fitchburg. I think I'm going to leave by 7. What time do you leave for work?"

Dad: "5:30."

More Reasons Why I'm Glad I'm a Writer

This weekend, I had three book events:

AP Institute at Fitchburg State College

On Friday morning, I spoke with a class at an AP teacher training institute and had the chance to thank one of my high school English teachers (Ms. Tsang, who was teaching the class) for believing in me and encouraging me. How often do you get to say thanks to someone like that? I'm so pleased I was able to do this.

Northboro Free Library

On Friday afternoon, I talked about and read from Out of the Wild at the Northboro Free Library (my childhood library and the library that appears in chapter seven of Into the Wild). I think this was one of my absolute favorite book events. To understand why, check out this photo of the audience:

My Heroes

There are more people on the sides (maybe four or five more girls on either side) that I didn't manage to fit in the photo. But the cool thing isn't just the size of the audience on a random Friday afternoon. No, the cool thing is this:

None of these people are related to me.

Okay, one of them is a childhood friend who I haven't seen since fifth grade, but the rest... They came because they like my books. Or because the librarians bribed them to come so that I wouldn't feel unloved. Either way, I want to thank everyone who came. You made it a really special day for me. I hope that you use the bribe money to purchase something extra-nice for yourself. Like a chandelier composed entirely of gummy bears. (Seriously. It exists. How awesome is that?)

Readercon

Friday evening, I began my weekend as a program participant at Readercon. (Readercon is a Boston-area science fiction and fantasy convention with an emphasis on books -- in other words, it's not about costumes, LARPs, filking, or panels about Babylon 5, but it is about 2am discussions on the narrative function of werewolves.)

I did seven programming items (a reading, an autographing, a kaffeeklatsch, and three panels) and talked with precisely one bajillion people over the course of the weekend. I had a fantastic time.

One highlight was my kaffeeklatsch (a "meet-the-author" session, in which con-goers can sign up to chat for an hour with a particular author). People came! I was shocked. And they even laughed at my jokes, which is even more shocking since one thing I learned from school visits is that my sense of humor is precisely fourth grade. Again, I suspect the Northboro librarians of bribing people...

Another highlight was hanging out with the YA author brigade. Friday night, I was up to the wee hours with Holly Black, Theo Black, Cassandra Clare, Josh, and Sarah Rees Brennan discussing werewolves and other pressing issues. Saturday evening, I had a lovely time out to dinner with Sarah, who talks exactly like her hilarious blog and is super-awesome. And Saturday afternoon, after a YA panel, a group of us lingered in the panel room for about two hours talking about writing and books. Very cool and very fun.

The YA Brigade (Cassandra Clare, Nancy Werlin, Me, Holly Black, Sarah Rees Brennan)

From beginning to end, it was a great weekend. I met lots of really fun and friendly people (way too many to even try to list them all here) and hung out with lots of friends, both old and new.

Readercon, Northboro Library, and Fitchburg State

This Friday, July 18th, I'm heading up to Massachusetts for not one, not two, but THREE book events. Yes, three. This is a new record for me. Hmmm, perhaps I've overbooked myself ever so slightly...

8:30am - Fitchburg State College

My high school English teacher, Ms. Tsang, is giving a course at an AP teacher training institute (teaching teachers to teach AP English) and invited me to be a guest speaker. Should be very cool.

2pm - Northboro Library (17 Lyman St, Northboro, MA)

I've been looking forward to this for a while. I'm doing a library visit in Northboro (my hometown and the setting for Into the Wild and Out of the Wild) at the library where I spent a large fraction of my childhood. I'm really, really excited about this event. The Northboro Library is where I learned to love books. It's where I discovered Lloyd Alexander and Tamora Pierce and David Eddings and Diane Duane and Diana Wynne Jones and... My mom used to take my brother and me there all the time, and we'd leave with this huge L.L. Bean bag full of books. (My mom eventually had to put limits on me, or I would have walked out with entire shelves straped to my back. And by "limits" I don't mean "you can take one." I mean, "Sarah, please try to limit yourself to twenty.")

And check this out. I've even got a picture of myself, at age four, signing up to get my first library card at the Northboro Library. A newspaper photographer happened to be there at the time, covering some sort of card registration drive at the library, and I happened to be absolutely adorable, so I got my picture in the paper! And my mom kept the article for the past thirty years! Take a look:

Hey, that's me!

Plus, this library also features prominently in Into the Wild -- an entire chapter takes place there! So, yeah, I'm kinda excited about this event. I'll be talking about, reading from, and signing copies of my books. And I'll probably tell a few embarrassing tales from my childhood. So, if you're in Northboro this Friday (7/18) at 2pm, come on by!

6pm (and the rest of the weekend) - Readercon

After Northboro, I'm hightailing it (I love that expression -- where does it come from?) over to the Marriott in Burlington, MA for Readercon. Readercon is a Boston-area fantasy and science fiction convention with an emphasis on literature. It's attended by lots of excellent authors and is always well-run and well-organized. I'm really thrilled with my schedule this year. My first event of the weekend is a reading from Out of the Wild at 6pm (thus completing my book triathalon). Here's my full schedule:

Sarah at Readercon 2008:

* Reading - Fri. July 18, 6pm - Sarah Beth Durst

* Autographing - Sat. July 19, 11am - Ellen Datlow, Sarah Beth Durst

* Panel - Sat. July 19, 1pm - Beth Bernobich, Suzy McKee Charnas, Michael J. Daley, Sarah Beth Durst, Walter H. Hunt, Ellen Kushner, Judith Moffett - "Are You Writing a Sequel?"

* Panel - Sat. July 19, 3pm - Judith Berman, Cassandra Clare, Michael J. Daley, Sarah Beth Durst, Charles Oberndorf, Nancy Werlin - "Gatekeepers to the World of Letters"

* Workshop - Sun. July 20, 10am - Kay Kenyon, Sarah Beth Durst, Walter H. Hunt, Elaine Isaak - "Stop Making Sense: Next Stage Dialog"

* Kaffeeklatsch - Sun July 20, 11am - Paolo Bacigalupi, Sarah Beth Durst

* Panel - Sun July 20, 1pm - Shira Daemon, Sarah Beth Durst, Scott Edelman, Louise Marley, Ann Tonsor Zeddies - "Finding Hamster Huey's Head: The Nature of the Childhood Favorite Story"

And after that, I collapse into a little puddle of tired (but happy) Sarah.

Mom, Missouri, TARN, and Kushner

Got a new review for Out of the Wild today:

"Even better than the first book!" -- my mom

(When I told her I was going to quote her on my blog, she added, "Tolstoy had better watch out! Or maybe say that I said Tolkien...")

My mom was here visiting this past week (which is why I've been absent from the online world), and as you may have guessed from the above, while she was here, she read Out of the Wild. Rather nerve-wracking when you know that someone you love is reading something you wrote. I had to force myself not to perch on the edge of the couch and watch her facial expressions.

But she liked it. (Phew!) And I knew she liked it fairly early on because as she was reading, she skipped to the end. You see, my mom has this habit of reading the endings of books before she's read the middle. But she only does it with books that she likes. Kind of like Harry in "When Harry Met Sally" but her reason is slightly different from his: she says that if she likes a book, she has to read the ending early so that she'll be able to put the book down. Otherwise, she'll read straight through without stopping to eat, drink, or be merry. (Okay, she didn't actually say "be merry." I'm paraphrasing here.) So when I saw her flip through the pages to read the end of Out of the Wild, I took that as the highest compliment.

I've been teasing her about her read-the-end-first habit for years, but now that I know why she does it, I think I have to stop teasing her about it. I really shouldn't throw stones at other people's reading habits anyway. I'm a major skim-reader. I often skim so fast that I completely miss major parts of the action and then have to backtrack a couple pages to figure out who died. But it has the upside that if I reread a book, it's practically new to me because I'm seeing all sorts of sentences that I missed the first time around. :)

Anyway, I am a bit behind on my trip reports...

Trip Report: Springfield Green County Library

This was the first author visit I've done where I didn't have to leave my desk. Last Thursday, I talked on the phone with a group at the Springfield Greene County Library in Missouri. The kids all had great questions, and it was so much fun. Definitely up there in my list of Favorite Phone Calls.

I don't have any photos of the event to show you, for obvious reasons. But if you want, you could click here for a website with photos of bizarre phone booths.

Trip Report: Teen Author Reading Night

On Wednesday, I participated in Teen Author Reading Night (TARN) at the Jefferson Market Branch of the New York Public Library. The other authors reading were John Coy, Susane Colasanti, E. Lockhart, Daphne Grab, and Rachel Vail, and our host was David Levithan. Everyone was awesome, as was the enormous red curtain behind us.

John, Susane, E., David, Me, Daphne, Rachel, and the red curtain

I really love group readings. It's kind of like going to an ice cream store and sampling lots of flavors. And I really liked all the flavors at TARN.

Recent Reads: Kushner

And lastly, I have to tell you about the book I read on the train to and from Teen Author Reading Night: Ellen Kushner's The Privilege of the Sword. It's about a girl whose uncle insists she become a swordswoman instead of debuting to Society and marrying the most eligible man she can find. It's kind of Jane Austen meets Tamora Pierce, and it was totally absorbing. Definitely the sort of book where my mom would have read the ending first.