THE LOST

Today is the book birthday for the new expanded edition of THE LOST!!! 

THE LOST is about a woman who is trapped in a town full of only lost things and lost people... It's for everyone who has ever -- even if only for a moment -- felt as if you've lost your way, your dreams, or yourself. It's for everyone who's ever stopped at a traffic light and thought, "What if I didn't turn? What if I just went straight and didn't stop?" It's for everyone who wants to be found.

This book is really special to me, and I am so absolutely thrilled that it's out now with a brand-new beautiful cover (art by Fernando Juarez) and a brand-new expanded ending (two additional chapters!). There's also a brand-new audiobook with narration by the wonderful Caitlin Davies.

It was such a joy to revisit this book and give it the ending that I always wanted it to have. I'm so excited to share it with you! I hope you enjoy it!

Welcome to Lost!

http://sarahbethdurst.com/TheLost.htm

SPARK comes out today!!!

Today is the book birthday for SPARK!!!

SPARK is a fantasy adventure for kids, published by Clarion Books / Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and I'm beyond thrilled that it's out in the world! I loved writing this book, and I'm so excited to introduce you to Mina and Pixit!

In SPARK, storm beasts and their guardians create perfect weather every day, and Mina longs for a storm beast of her own. But when the gentle girl bonds with a lightning beast -- a creature of fire and chaos -- everyone's certain it's a mistake. Everyone but Mina and the beast himself, Pixit. Quickly enrolled in lightning school, Mina struggles to master a guardian's skills, and she discovers that her country's weather comes at a devastating cost -- a cost powerful people wish to hide. Mina's never been the type to speak out, but someone has to tell the truth, and, with Pixit's help, she resolves to find a way to be heard.

If you're interested, more information can be found on my website, including the first two chapters: www.sarahbethdurst.com/Spark.htm

All books start with a spark. An idea, an image, a feeling, a wish... The spark for this book was three words:

Mina was quiet.

I wanted to write a book about a quiet girl and her lightning dragon. But I didn't want it to be the story of a quiet girl who learns to be loud. I wanted it to be the story of a quiet girl who discovers she's strong, exactly as she is.

Growing up, I was a quiet girl. I spent a lot of my childhood in my room, reading books. For the bulk of sixth grade, I was so shy that I barely talked to anyone. It took me a long time to discover you can be quiet and strong.

So this book is for all those quiet kids out there. And it's for anyone who has ever struggled to be heard, who has yearned to resist injustice, or who has simply dreamed of being friends with a telepathic lightning dragon!

If that's you or your kid, please consider taking a look at SPARK! Hope you're having a wonderful spring! And thanks so much for reading!

THE RELUCTANT QUEEN Comes Out Today!!!

Happy 4th of July!!!

I'm beyond excited to announce that today is the pub day for THE RELUCTANT QUEEN!!!  Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!  It's book two of my epic fantasy series The Queens of Renthia, published by Harper Voyager.  (Book one, THE QUEEN OF BLOOD, is available now in paperback.)

Renthia is a world of extreme beauty: sky-piercing mountains, endless glaciers, and towering trees with cities nestled in their branches, all thanks to an overabundance of nature spirits.  But the spirits who created all this glorious beauty aren't sweet, frolicking pixies.  These spirits want to kill all humans, and only certain women -- the queens -- have the power to control them.

THE RELUCTANT QUEEN is the story of three women: a young queen who is dying, a powerful queen who hungers for war, and a middle-aged woman who wants nothing to do with the power she could wield.   It continues the story of Daleina and introduces Naelin, a woman who is (rightfully) afraid that if she uses her power, her two young children will die.

At their heart, these books are about power: who has it, who wants it, what you do with it, and what it does to you.  But they're also about choosing your own destiny and who you want to be.  And they're about soaring on a zipline through a massive forest, befriending a wolf, fighting murderous trees, concocting a few poisons, and trying to save the world.

If you're interested, more information can be found on my website, including the first two chapters.

When I was a kid, I used to "borrow" all the scrap paper in the house, tape it together, and draw massive maps of fantastical lands.  I doodled invented plants in the margins of my school notebooks.  And I kept a file box full of index cards, each card with a made-up name, paired with a magical power and a talking animal sidekick.  (I really, really wanted an animal sidekick!)  I buried myself in books by Terry Brooks, David Eddings, Mercedes Lackey, and Tamora Pierce, and I dreamed of someday writing my own epic fantasy with a sprawling world and danger and adventure around every corner.

Many years later, this is it!  My epic.  And writing these books has been every bit the magical, incredible experience that I hoped it would be.  Usually when I finish a book, I'm sad -- you live with the characters, fall in love with them, and then you have to say goodbye.  But when I finished writing THE QUEEN OF BLOOD, I didn't have to say goodbye (except, you know, to the ones I killed off -- sorry!).  I was able to immerse myself in their lives and their world again with THE RELUCTANT QUEEN, and I loved that.

So I'd like to invite you to visit Renthia again with me.  Just watch out for the trees.  They bite.

ROAR AND SPARKLES GO TO SCHOOL comes out today!!!

I am thrilled to announce that today is the pub day for my very first picture book, ROAR AND SPARKLES GO TO SCHOOL, illustrated by the amazing Ben Whitehouse and published by Hachette / Running Press Kids!!!

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

Aren't they cute???

Here's the official description:

Let first-day-of-school worries soar away with Roar and Sparkles!

Roar is worried about his first day of school. He's worried that he'll have to do really hard things, like molt his scales or fly over a volcano. And what if his teacher doesn't like dragons?

Big sister Sparkles reassures Roar that school is fun! And when the first day arrives, Roar finds his worries melt away. He meets new friends, plays dragon games, listens to fun stories, and finds a way to thank his sister for her support.

And here's a sneak peek at the first few pages: 

  

I loved writing this book, imagining Roar and Sparkles and their dragon-esque world.  I loved seeing the illustrator, Ben Whitehouse, bring them to life.  And I love that today it's going out in the world -- flying on dragonback to kids who might be a little nervous about their own first day of school.

Happy book birthday, my little dragonets!  Fly high!

Paperback Release Day for THE QUEEN OF BLOOD!

Today is the mass market paperback release day for THE QUEEN OF BLOOD (Book One of The Queens of Renthia)!!! You can now experience bloodthirsty nature spirits in an all-new bendy and extra-portable format!

I squealed when I saw them. Really loudly. Loud enough to startle the cat. You see, when I was a kid, I was only allowed to buy mass market paperbacks, so that's the format that all my childhood favorites are in (like The Blue Sword, The Pawn of Prophecy, Dragonsong, Arrows of the Queen, The Sword of Shannara, The Summer Tree...). So it feels extra special to have my book look just like those.

https://www.amazon.com/Queen-Blood-Book-Queens-Renthia/dp/006247409X

 

JOURNEY ACROSS THE HIDDEN ISLANDS comes out today!!!

I am over-the-moon excited to announce that today is the pub day for my newest book, JOURNEY ACROSS THE HIDDEN ISLANDS!!!

This book began on a random afternoon a couple years ago.  I remember I was in the kitchen, probably looking for some cheese (I love cheese), and I said to my husband, "I want to write a book with a winged lion."

He said, "Great!  Um, anything else?"

"Winged lion," I said.

"Don't you need, I don't know, a plot?  Characters?"

"Winged lion."

"Um, okay.  Have fun."

And that's how this book was born.  Everything else -- the islands protected by a magical barrier, the monsters that hunt in the sea and sky, the sister princesses, the journey to the dragon -- grew from that one solitary idea.  Sometimes that's how it happens: one stray thought sparks a whole adventure.

JOURNEY ACROSS THE HIDDEN ISLANDS is a fantasy adventure for kids, published by Clarion Books / Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.  It's about two sisters, one winged lion, and a LOT of monsters.

The traditional Emperor's Journey is meant to be uneventful.  But as the princesses Seika and Ji-Lin -- twin sisters -- travel to pay respects to their kingdom's dragon guardian, unexpected monsters appear and tremors shake the earth.  The Hidden Islands face unprecedented threats, and the old rituals are failing.  With only their strength, ingenuity, and flying lion to rely on, can the sisters find a new way to keep their people safe?

For more about JOURNEY ACROSS THE HIDDEN ISLANDS, including the first two chapters, please visit my website.  And welcome to the Hundred Islands of Himitsu!!!

THE QUEEN OF BLOOD comes out today!!!

I'm so excited to share THE QUEEN OF BLOOD with you!  It's the first in a new epic fantasy series from Harper Voyager called THE QUEENS OF RENTHIA, and it's set in a world filled with nature spirits.  But these aren't your sweet, frolicking pastoral sprites... These spirits want to kill all humans, and only certain women -- queens -- can control them.

This book was born in blood.

Ooh, that sounded nice and dramatic.  Must remember that line.  Anyway, this is what happened: I had just arrived at a writing retreat in the Poconos.  Beautiful place.  Forests.  Hills.  Prancing deer and babbling brooks, and so forth.  Every writer was given an adorable wood cabin nestled beneath the pines.  I was walking up to mine, marveling at the trees, reveling in the bird song, not watching my feet... and I tripped on the step up to the porch and fell flat on my face.  Cut my lip.  And that was the exact moment that this book -- specifically, the idea of bloodthirsty nature spirits -- was born. 

Trees + blood = story.

Despite its thoroughly embarrassingly klutzy origin -- seriously, the step was right there!  I saw it! -- I loved writing this book.  It was such an immersive writing experience.  Every day I'd sit down at my desk and feel as if I'd walked through a portal and into a city suspended between massive trees, where, let's face it, I probably would have been instantly killed, but Daleina and Ven -- an idealistic student and a banished warrior -- worked to protect their people.

I have always loved fantasy.  I was that kid curled up in the corner of the library with a David Eddings, Terry Brooks, Robin McKinley, or Mercedes Lackey book, reading it for the twelfth time.  Every night, I checked the back of my closet for a way into Narnia, and every birthday, I wished for a magic wand (a real one, please, not a toy) or a dragon's egg (that would hatch a friendly telepathic dragon, of course).

The thing that I love the most about both writing and reading fantasy is the way it takes you on a journey -- sweeps you off on an adventure, and then brings you back again, maybe slightly changed, a little stronger, a little braver.  I believe that fantasy literature, at its core, is -- or can be -- a literature of hope and empowerment.  That's what Daleina and Ven's story has been for me.  And so, I hope you'll join me in journeying with them!

Welcome to Renthia!  Just watch out for the trees.  They bite.

THE GIRL WHO COULD NOT DREAM Comes Out Today!!!

I am delighted and thrilled and completely ecstatic to announce that my 10th book, THE GIRL WHO COULD NOT DREAM, comes out today!!!

THE GIRL WHO COULD NOT DREAM is a fantasy novel for kids, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt / Clarion Books.  It's about a girl whose family owns a secret dream shop where they buy, bottle, and sell dreams, and the adventure that she and her best friend -- a loyal and cupcake-loving monster named Monster -- go on when someone starts kidnapping dreamers.  (That's Monster right there on the cover, the one with the tentacles next to a pink ninja bunny.)

This book was born from a wish.  Or maybe I should say... a dream.

When I was six, I had a reoccurring nightmare: a robot from outer space who looked exactly like Gonzo would invade the Earth and shoot M&M-sized beetles out of his curved nose, killing people.  Freaked.  Me.  Out.  So every night at bedtime, I'd chant, "Dream about dragons.  Dragons, dragons, dragons!"  Sometimes it worked, and I'd get a fun dragon dream.  Other times, killer robot Muppets.  I used to wish I could bottle the fun dreams and save them for scary nights. 

The truth is I still wish that.

That's where this book came from.  It started with an image of a secret shop, filled with blue bottles that stored swirling, shimmering dreams.  You drink a bottle; you dream the dream.  Flying through the clouds, picnicking with pink bunnies, befriending monsters… everything in the infinite world of the imagination is available to you, if you dare.

I wrote the first scene four years ago, while I was supposed to be working on an entirely different book.  It sneaked up on me, the way Monster sneaks out of the closet and becomes part of Sophie's life.  I knew someday I'd write about this girl and her best friend, a six-tentacled monster who may or may not like to eat small children with ketchup, but I didn't tell anyone.  Sophie and Monster waited patiently, my secret, tucked away in a file on my computer, until it was time to write their story.

About halfway through writing THE GIRL WHO COULD NOT DREAM, I had an epiphany, one of those so-obvious-why-didn't-I-think-of-it-before kind of epiphanies: that this is why I'm a writer.  I'm trying to create my own dream bottles.

I've always thought of books as magic, and I believe that being a writer is the closest you can get to being a wizard -- to creating a spell that takes people out of their own lives and brings them into a shared dream.

So here it is, my story, bottled in book format, and I am inviting you to drink.  I hope you enjoy it and that it keeps the killer robots away.  Happy reading!  And happy dreaming!

---

You're Invited!

I'm having a book launch party, and I'd love it if you could come!  The party will be on Saturday, November 14th, from 1 to 3pm, at Books of Wonder in Manhattan, one of my absolute favorite bookstores, and I'll be joined there by Bruce Coville, one of my absolute favorite authors, who has graciously agreed to play emcee and lead our discussion of the book, writing, and lots more.  Please feel free to bring the whole family, as well as anyone else for that matter.  The more the merrier!  Here's the info:

BOOK LAUNCH PARTY FOR THE GIRL WHO COULD NOT DREAM BY SARAH BETH DURST, IN CONVERSATION WITH BRUCE COVILLE
Saturday, November 14th, from 1pm to 3pm
Books of Wonder
18 West 18th Street
New York, NY

---

 
For more about THE GIRL WHO COULD NOT DREAM, including the first two chapters, please visit my website.

CHASING POWER Comes Out Today!

I am thrilled to announce the release of my new book, CHASING POWER!!!

CHASING POWER is a fantasy novel for young adults, published by Bloomsbury.  It's about 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.

The idea for this book came from one of those questions that you ask your friends late at night after you've finished dissecting everyone's personal lives, speculating on the future of various relationships, and musing over the awesomeness of avocados.  Namely: "If you could have any superpower, what would you choose?"

My answer for years has been telekinesis.  At a very formative age, I saw "Escape to Witch Mountain" and loved everything about it, including its cheesy special effects, overacting adults, and harmonica solos.  I also read (and reread and reread...) the wonderful book THE GIRL WITH THE SILVER EYES by Willo Davis Roberts.  So telekinesis has been on the list of awesome-things-I-want-to-write-about for a very long time.

But the novel wasn't truly born until I decided to give my girl very, very limited powers.  Kayla can't toss around cars or planes like Jean Grey.  She can't lift an X-wing fighter out of a swamp.  She can lift things about the size and weight of a credit card.  Maybe a pencil.  So she has to be clever and use her power creatively, if she's going to survive.

I had so much fun writing this book.  It was an adventure that took me around the world (not literally, of course -- in real life, I stayed nicely close to my refrigerator), up mountains and into catacombs and as close as I'll ever get to a lava lake.  Writing it felt like hanging out with very cool friends, the kind of friends who always make you laugh and who always share the salsa.  I hope you have fun reading it!

And if you're in the NYC area, I'll be signing copies of CHASING POWER this Friday (10/17/14) at 6pm at Books of Wonder.  I hope you'll come and say hi!

More about CHASING POWER, including the first two chapters, can be found here.

CONJURED Paperback!

Things that are bendy:

1) Squirrel tails
2) Garden hoses
3) My hair
4) Olympic gymnasts
5) Polaroids
6) Pipe cleaners
7) Really old carrots
8) Fresh chocolate chip cookies
9) Ferrets
10) CONJURED!!!

For those of you who prefer your books in a more fun, bendy format..... I'm excited to let you know that today is the pub day for the paperback edition of my recent YA novel CONJURED!

CONJURED is a fantasy novel for young adults, published by Bloomsbury.  It's about a girl in the paranormal witness protection program, who, haunted by visions of carnival tents and tarot cards, must remember her past and why she has strange abilities before a magic-wielding serial killer hunts her down.

It was a Mythopoeic Award finalist and a Cybils Award finalist, as well as a Junior Library Guild Selection.  Horn Book Reviews said, "Disorientation, curiosity, and fear course through the story, offering tight suspense and satisfying mystification even up to the last pages. An unusual blend of magical worlds, psychological thriller, and teen romance."  And Kirkus Reviews said, "Durst excels at describing grotesque violence and gorgeous magical transformations alike, painting a touching portrait of first love against a backdrop of Twilight Zone–type terrors."

More about CONJURED, including the first chapter, can be found here.  If you're interested in the story of where CONJURED came from, you can read it here.

And if you'd like to see more things that are bendy, check out these Cirque du Soleil contortionists.  (I listened to a lot of Cirque music while I wrote CONJURED.)

Happy reading!

THE LOST comes out today!

Lost your way?

Your dreams?

Yourself?

Welcome to Lost...

I am so very thrilled to announce the release of my new book, THE LOST!!!  This is my first book for adults, and the first in a new trilogy, published by Harlequin/Mira.

THE LOST is about a woman trapped in a town full of only lost things and lost people.

One morning, Lauren Chase gets into her car to go to her dead-end job, but instead of making a left at the light, she drives straight.  And drives and drives until she runs out of gas in a town called Lost.  Once there, she can't leave.  Lost is surrounded by an impassable wall of dust.  And the only people who aren't trying to kill her are a mysterious wild man called the Finder and a knife-wielding six-year-old girl...

If you're interested, you can read the first two chapters here.

I loved writing this book.  I felt like I was breathing with Lauren, laughing with her, crying with her.  Usually, I swear by outlines, but this one... I followed Lauren to Lost and discovered its quirks, horrors, and beauty with her.  I fell in love with this bizarre town where socks and keys clog the gutters, feral dogs roam the alleys, suitcases litter the parking lots, and a single red balloon always floats overhead.  And I can't wait to share it with you!

So, welcome to Lost!  I hope you find what you're missing.

CONJURED comes out today!

Ladies and gentlemen!!!  Children of all... okay, no.  Not all ages.  12 and up, please.  I don't want to be responsible for little kids having nightmares about creepy carnivals...

I am thrilled to announce the release of my new book, CONJURED!!!

This is, by far, the creepiest and wildest book I've ever written.  It was so much fun to write!  And as of today, it is out in the world!!!

CONJURED is a fantasy novel for young adults, published by Bloomsbury / Walker Books for Young Readers.  It's about a girl in the paranormal witness protection program, who, haunted by visions of carnival tents and tarot cards, must remember her past and why she has strange abilities before a magic-wielding serial killer hunts her down.

Laini Taylor, New York Times bestselling author of the DAUGHTER OF SMOKE & BONE series, called it: "A twisted circus of a book, completely freaky and delicious at the same time.  It's a thriller, a fairy tale nightmare, and a romance all in one, unlike anything else and impossible to predict.  I could not stop reading!"

CONJURED crept up on me.  I'd planned to write a police procedural about a federal marshal who works for the paranormal branch of the witness protection program... but when I began to develop the case that the marshall was working, the witness herself, Eve, a girl with zero memories and lots of bizarre powers, drew more and more of my attention.  The instant she made the birds in her wallpaper fly around her room, I knew the story had to be hers.

Writing this book felt a lot like leaping out of an airplane.  (Minus the risk of broken bones.)  I broke a lot of writing rules in order to tell Eve's story through her eyes, the way it needed to be told.  Eve is a blank slate character.  She begins with essentially no identity.  So instead of a reader discovering who she is, the reader comes along with her as she creates who she is.

I dedicated this book to Andrea Somberg, my agent.  Without her, this book wouldn't exist.  Without her, none of my books would exist.  She is, quite simply, a dream-maker (as well as an incredibly awesome person).

I've wanted to be a writer since I was ten years old.  It's the only thing that I've ever wanted to do with my life.  I wrote my very first story in fifth grade, and I kept writing and writing and writing...  After college, I started seriously pursuing publication.  I finished my first novel-length manuscript and sent it out.  And then I wrote another and sent it out.  And then wrote another...  I refer to this period as the "rinse, lather, repeat" stage of my life.  In 2006, the stars aligned, and I signed with Andrea Somberg of the Harvey Klinger Agency.  Six weeks after that, she had multiple offers for my debut novel, INTO THE WILD.

She's believed in me from the start.  And in the years since then, she's made my dream come true many, many times over.  To date, she's sold 11 novels for me.  (CONJURED is #7.)  And I've come to know her as an incredibly kind, smart, and all-around amazing person.

So I'd like to say thank you to Andrea and thank you to my wonderful editor Emily Easton and all the amazing people at Bloomsbury/Walker for bringing this book to life!

Everyone, meet Eve!

Eve, meet everyone!

More about CONJURED, including the first chapter, can be found here.

Vessel Paperback Release (Plus a Lion!)

Today is the release day for the paperback edition of Vessel!!!

This book is really special to me because writing it was such a magical experience.  Every time I sat down to write it felt like stepping through a portal. 

Vessel is my first novel set entirely in a fantasy world -- a desert land filled with wolves made of sand that hunt within storms, sky serpents made of unbreakable glass that fly through the sky, and gods that walk the desert in human bodies.  It's about Liyana, who is destined to be a vessel, to sacrifice herself so her clan's goddess can inhabit her body... but her goddess never comes.

More information about Vessel, including the first two chapters, can be found here.

Vessel is also special to me because LION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Earlier this summer, I was thrilled and honored to learn that Vessel had been awarded the 2013 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children's Literature.  And just a few days ago, I received the loveliest thing I've ever gotten in the mail: the gorgeous lion-shaped Mythopoeic Award statuette!!!!!

I wasn't home when it arrived.  I was on a train to NYC to meet up with a bevy of YA authors to see Cassandra Clare's Mortal Instruments: City of Bones on the big screen.  While I was on the train, this happened:

And then about fifteen minutes later, this happened:

The award (called an Aslan, in honor of the most awesome lion in English literature) is now sitting on my desk next to my laptop.  OMG, he's so pretty!!!

I am keeping him near me so I can pet him as I write.....  Kind of like Dr. Claw from Inspector Gadget.....

.....but less with the evil and much more with the awesome!

VESSEL Now Available

On the day she was to die, Liyana walked out of her family's tent to see the dawn. She buried her toes in the sand, cold from the night, and she wrapped her father's goatskin cloak tight around her shoulders. She had only moments before everyone would wake...

I am thrilled to announce the release of my new book, VESSEL!

VESSEL is a fantasy novel for young adults, published by Simon & Schuster / Margaret K. McElderry Books.  It's set in a desert land where serpents made of unbreakable glass fly through the sky and wolves made of only sand hunt within storms.  Liyana is destined to be a vessel, to sacrifice herself so her clan's goddess can inhabit her body... but her goddess never comes.

I loved writing this book.  I loved creating Liyana's world, and I loved immersing myself in it.  Sitting down at the keyboard felt like stepping through a portal.

As a kid, I used to routinely check my closet for an entrance to Narnia.  VESSEL is my plunging into that closet and bursting out the other side into a land of sun and sand.

Really, that feeling is part of why I love books so much.  Books are (or can be) portals into other worlds, other lives, and other adventures.  I love crossing through those portals, and I love that when I cross back out again, this world feels wider and fuller.

To create Liyana's world, I researched several deserts (the Sahara, the Gobi, and the deserts of the Southwest US), and then I filled Liyana's desert with its own magic and mythology.  I wanted the feel of a rich storytelling tradition but in a unique world.  The act of weaving together these bits of reality with pieces of imagination felt very much like fulfilling a childhood dream.  As a kid, I used to spend hours inventing imaginary lands.  I'd tape together all the scrap paper I could find and draw enormous oceans and mountains and deserts.  I'd doodle pictures of magical creatures and fantastical plants in my school notebooks.  I even read the phone book in search of names for magical characters.  Okay, yes, maybe I took it a wee bit too far, but in my defense, it was a safer way to spend an afternoon than attempting to ski off the roof of a two-story building (which my brother tried, until our mother suggested he and his friend find a slightly less life-threatening activity).

The story itself for VESSEL came not through research but through a dream.  I don't always remember my dreams.  (The one with a legion of spiders was a standout.  Ditto the one with the killer robot Gonzos.)  But this one stayed with me.  It was just an image really: a girl, dancing.  She was barefoot in the sand, and the moon was shining over head.  And she knew that when her dance ended, she'd die.  But still, she danced wildly and joyfully.

When I woke up, I was still thinking about that girl.  I couldn't shake the image of her -- her skirts swirling around her and her tattooed arms reaching toward the sky.  I kept wondering why she was dancing, why she was joyful, and why she was going to die.  And that was the moment when VESSEL was born, when Liyana danced across my desert.

VESSEL is about losing your destiny -- and what happens after.  It's a sweeping, romantic, epic adventure.  And I am so very, very excited about it!  I hope that you will join me on the journey to Liyana's desert and dance on the desert sands with her as the sky serpents fly overhead and the sand wolves howl.

Much more about VESSEL, including the first two chapters, can be found here.

DRINK, SLAY, LOVE Comes Out Today!

Pearl, meet the world.

World, meet Pearl.

Pearl is a sixteen-year-old vampire, fond of blood, allergic to sunlight, and mostly evil... until the night she is stabbed through the heart by a were-unicorn's horn and begins to develop a conscience. And today is the publication date for her story, my new YA novel DRINK, SLAY, LOVE!


Here's a rough transcript of how this novel came about:

MY BRAIN: So, what are we writing about next?

ME: I really like unicorns.

MY BRAIN: What are you, four years old?

ME: What's wrong with unicorns?

MY BRAIN: Unicorns are not cool. Unicorns are sparkly.

ME: My unicorns would be cool!

MY BRAIN: You just miss your Lisa Frank sticker collection from your Trapper Keeper.

ME: I loved those stickers.

MY BRAIN: Think of something else.

ME: Okay.

*crickets chirp*

MY BRAIN: I'm waiting.

ME: I really like vampires.

MY BRAIN: No. Also too sparkly.

ME: You're just mad because you had that dream again, the one where you're convinced you're at a carnival and it's dark and the clowns are scary and you can't find the bathroom.

MY BRAIN: I'm not mad. And clowns are scary.

ME: So are vampires.

MY BRAIN: We are not writing about vampires! Everyone writes about vampires! You can't write about vampires!

ME: Unicorns could hunt vampires.

*crickets fall silent*

ME: Think about it. Built-in stake. Unicorns are badass vampire hunters.

MY BRAIN: We're writing about vampires.

ME: And unicorns.

MY BRAIN: Vampires and unicorns. Go! Write, write, WRITE!

And I did. I wrote this novel in a frenzy. Every day. Every weekend. Late at night. Early morning. I'd pass by my computer on the way to brush my teeth, and I'd dart in to add or edit a paragraph or bit of dialogue because Pearl, my vampire girl, would not stop talking in my head. She wanted her story to be told. She wanted to come out of the darkness and meet the world.

Usually, my writing process involves ups and downs and doubts and wrong turns and all the typical writer angst that you hear about. But not with this book. I loved every second of writing this book. Hanging out every day with Pearl and Evan and Bethany... And of course, Matt and Zeke...

From DRINK, SLAY, LOVE:

Behind her, she heard two voices.

"Dude, you ask her."

"Nuh-uh, you ask."

"Rock paper scissors?"

"You cheat, man," Matt said.

"How is it possible to cheat at rock paper scissors?" Zeke asked.

"You game the system," Matt said.

"It's not my fault you always choose rock."

"My manly strength will not allow me to choose a less unyielding material," Matt said. "I have rocks for muscles. You fear my strength."

"Whatever," Zeke said. "You never choose scissors."

"Sometimes I choose paper," Matt said. "You can't predict me. I'm cagey."

"You always choose rock or paper," Zeke said. "So long as I always choose paper, I can't lose."

"See, I knew you gamed the system."

Pearl did not turn around.

"On the count of three?" Zeke asked. Together, they said, "One. Two. Three." There was a brief pause. "You should have chosen scissors."

"That would have been too obvious," Matt said. "You just said I never choose scissors so you had to know I would choose scissors so I couldn't choose scissors because you'd know it. Hence, the rock."

"Hence the paper, covering your rock. You ask her."

"Well played, my friend," Matt said. "Well played."


I miss those guys.

But I am excited that you can now meet them and the rest of Pearl's friends (and enemies... I haven't forgotten about you, Antoinette! How could I forget to mention a vicious vampire with a passion for Molly Ringwald movies?).

So, please, join me in saying hello and welcome to all of them. Today is their first day in the sun.

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.

Cover Art for ENCHANTED IVY!!!

Look, look, look!!!

Cover art for ENCHANTED IVY!!!

*flails*

I am very, very excited to share with you the cover for my next novel, ENCHANTED IVY, coming from Simon & Schuster / Margaret K. McElderry Books on October 12, 2010.


ENCHANTED IVY is a story about getting into college. You know, taking the campus tour, talking to the gargoyles, flirting with the were-tigers, riding the dragons... While visiting the campus of Princeton University, 16-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.

I am absolutely in love with this cover. Yep, head over heels with a jpeg. I can't stop staring at it. The art was created by the extremely talented Sam Weber. (You can see more of his work here.)

Thank you, thank you, thank you to my editor and everyone at Simon & Schuster for giving my book this lovely cover. Snoopy dance of joy!!!

Sooooo..... Do ya like it?

UK Pub Date and Book Revue

In ICE, Cassie journeys over the sea ice, across the tundra, and through the boreal forest. And today she has crossed the Atlantic Ocean! Today, ICE is coming out in the UK!

I have very fond memories of the UK. After college, I lived for a year in Cambridge, England. My boyfriend (now husband) had a fellowship there, and I trailed along because, hey, England! Castles! Stonehenge! King Arthur! It turned out to be one of the best decisions I've ever made.

That year in England, my husband and I got engaged. Also that year in England, I really became a writer.

I'd known I wanted to be a writer pretty much since I was a cute little blastula. But despite my making a New Year's Resolution to do so every year, when my plane landed in Merry Ol' England, I had yet to complete a full manuscript.

That changed here:

My Desk in Cambridge, England
(where I finished my first manuscript)

The reason for the change was the UK Department of Immigration and Visa Services. You see, I had planned to find a job and work while I was there. I had a six-month recent-graduate work permit, but I was certain it could be extended. Imagine my shock when I arrived at the Heathrow Airport and was told that not only could I not work after six months, but I might not be able to stay at all! After six months, I'd have to petition for a visitor's permit and swear not to work or I'd be tossed into the channel and eaten by specially-imported sharks. Or something like that.

I found a job at the Marshall Library for Economics (part of Cambridge University), and I spent a happy six months alphabetizing books and learning to like tea with milk. I also wrote in my spare time.

But then came the day: my six months were up. We woke ridiculously early, took the train south of London, filled out paperwork, waited, and worried... and then got the visitor's permit with no problem and learned that if we'd just decided to spend a romantic weekend in Paris and I'd come back in as a visitor, it would have had the same result. Except then I would have gotten a romantic weekend in Paris instead of a day at the international equivalent of the DMV. Whatever.

Point is: I took it as a sign. The government was telling me I was legally obligated to do nothing but write. And so I did. I wrote every day from morning to night, pausing for trips to Italy and Spain and such where I did things like get lost in hedge mazes.

Me, Lost in Hedges

By the end of our stay, I'd completed my very first novel-length manuscript. I'd also gotten this nice shiny engagement ring:

My hand and Westminster Abbey

We took the ring on a tour of London and snapped photos of my hand in front of all the major tourist spots. Sarah's hand and Big Ben. Sarah's hand and Westminster Abbey. Sarah's hand and the Tower of London... I was also pooped on by a bird outside the Tower of London, but I still somehow remember that day as one of the most romantic days of my life. Perhaps if the poop had landed on my head instead of my shoe, I'd feel differently about that... But I digress.

Finishing that manuscript taught me that I could do this. I could write books. I could be a writer. And I will always be grateful to England for that.

So, thank you, my friends across the Atlantic! I hope you enjoy ICE!

And for any aspiring writers out there... you don't really need to go to another country to become a writer. What you do need to do is what I did while I was in another country: write. Write as if you're legally obligated to do so, and don't stop.

Upcoming Book Event


For those of you not across the Atlantic... if you're in Long Island on Monday night, I hope you will join me at Book Revue for a book signing and book launch party.

Cake -- decorated with ICE's gorgeous (and delicious) cover art -- will be served!!!

Here are the details:

Book Revue
Monday, November 2nd at 7pm
313 New York Avenue, Huntington NY

Hope to see you there!

Shards of ICE

This is it! Today is the day that my new book ICE makes its way out into the world. That this day has arrived is monumental to me. And I am filled with a sort of placid joy that is beyond my ability to describe.

ICE isn't my first book. It won't be my last book. But it is a book that is very dear to my heart. And it will always be special to me.

This story has been inside me for a long time. It was born of a fairy tale and then grew into a love story and an adventure. It is the sum of many pieces, influences, experiences... many shards of ICE.


First Shard: The Fairy Tale

It started with once upon a time... a fairy tale called East of the Sun and West of the Moon. I found the tale in the Curious George & Friends bookstore in Harvard Square on my way home from my day job. I was working in Cambridge, Massachusetts, for a company called Target Analysis Group (now Blackbaud) that helps nonprofits. On my way home from work every day, I always did a circuit of the bookstores: Harvard Book Store, Pandemonium Books, Harvard Coop, and Curious George. It was the best walk home imaginable.

On this day, I discovered a picture book filled with gorgeous illustrations by P. J. Lynch. I fell in love with his paintings of a majestic polar bear and a fearless heroine. But there was one moment in particular that caught my imagination and stuck:

"Next Thursday evening came the White Bear to fetch her, and she got upon his back with her bundle and off they went. When they had gone part of the way, the White Bear said, 'Are you afraid?'

"No! She wasn't."

And so that is where it began: the image of a girl on a polar bear denying all fear.

Second Shard: The Arctic

It grew into a quest across the frozen North. I wanted my fearless girl to be a modern-day Arctic research scientist living at her father's research station in northernmost Alaska. And so I immersed myself in studying that icy world.

I buried myself in stacks of research books: polar bear books, explorer memoirs, field guides... I poured over A Naturalist's Guide to the Arctic by E. C. Pielou. I tracked the GPS readings of David Hempleman-Adams's journey in his memoir Walking on Thin Ice. I studied the SAS Survival Guide, How to Stay Alive in the Woods, How to Survive on Land and Sea, The Survival Handbook... and dozens of books with luscious photographs of polar bears and arctic foxes and caribou and beluga whales.

I am not a good traveler in real life. I like to be home, and I am not very brave. But while I was researching ICE, I was able to dream that I was in this world of ice deserts and rippling auroras and sights so incredible that they are real-life magic.

I bought a map of the Arctic at the Globe Corner Bookstore and spread it across the floor. From there, I plotted Cassie's path over the ice, across the tundra, and through the boreal forest... and I journeyed with her.

When I exhausted all the books I could find locally, I spent two days in Canada sequestered inside a Chapters/Indigo pouring over all of their Arctic books -- and then hauling my favorites back with me across the border.

When I ran through those books, I peppered my college friend Jim with rock-climbing questions and my friends Kate, Kira, Jay, and Emily and my mother with random medical questions. With my husband, I watched every Arctic documentary I could find over and over until I dreamed about ice mirages and whiteouts.

I even bought an Inupiaq-English dictionary, North Slope Barrow dialect. I remember walking into Schoenhof's Foreign Books, asking for it, and having them magically produce it from the back room. I took that to be a sign: this book was meant to be.

Third Shard: The Bears

Once, in the middle of drafts, my husband and I took a trip to San Diego. We spent a day at the zoo, and I remember standing in front of the polar bear exhibit, watching the bears walk and swim and dive and live.

I stood there for two hours.

When a baby polar bear was born at the Roger Williams Zoo in Providence, they set up a webcam. I wrote one entire draft with the webcam open on my computer. As I wrote about my Bear, I watched the real bears. My little ursine muses.

My husband bought me a stuffed animal polar bear that I perched on my desk while I worked on this book. I'd hug it for inspiration.


Fourth Shard: People

Every day during the writing of ICE, I emailed back and forth with a writer-friend of mine, Amy, who was working on her own novel at the same time. We cheered each other on. I treasured those emails. Another friend of mine, Rick, encouraged me too, and on my birthday my friend Dave sent me a gorgeous book of polar bear photographs. They (and many of my other friends) understood how much this mattered to me.

I met author Thomas Sullivan (Sully) while I was writing this book, and we'd email back and forth about writing technique. And I remember talking with Keith R. A. DeCandido about polar bears while he worked on his own book featuring polar bears.

And then there were two of my writing heroes: Tamora Pierce and Bruce Coville. I'd met them at Boskone (a Boston area science fiction and fantasy convention) after years of loving their books. They both read early versions of ICE, and they believed in me and in this story.

I can't begin to describe how much it meant to have writers who helped shaped my childhood read my words.

Later, my agent and my editor added wonderful touches that brought the final draft to life. And then the amazing team at Simon & Schuster made it into a real book, complete with beautiful artwork on the cover by Cliff Nielsen -- art that so perfectly reflects my characters that he might as well have scooped the image directly from my mind.

Fifth Shard: Love

Writing this book was a labor of love. I love polar bears. I love fairy tales. And I love fearless girls who cannot be stopped. But most of all, I wrote this book as a love letter to my husband. Beyond the ice and the bears and the everything, ICE is about true love, the kind of love where you face the world as a team... the kind where you'd go east of the sun and west of the moon for each other.

I may have written the words, but this book is about both of us. Not in the details. Not in the plot or the personalities or the setting. But in the book's heart -- in the belief that true love isn't something that appears in a single, shiny moment on a ballroom floor. True love is a journey, not a moment. It's something that grows and something that causes you to grow.

I pour the best of myself into every story I write. But into this one, I also poured the best of us.

ICE

And now it's a book. In the world. Wow.

To those of you who do me the honor of reading it, I hope this story brings you as much joy as it has brought me.

To those of you who were with me on the journey... thank you.

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...