You can win a copy!  All you have to do to enter is pick a number between 1 and 225 and post it in the comments. I’ll respond with a line from that page in the book. When we’re all done (12:00 midnight on Thursday), I’ll do a random number generator thingy and that person will be the winner. Be sure to include your email when you leave your comment so I can contact you if you win.

Come back and read all the comments, and you’ll get some awesome sneak peeks!

AND there’s an extra prize!  Last week I got a big box of library edition copies of The Magic Thief.  These are from the third printing, so not collectible, but they’re sturdily-bound hardcovers that one random winner can keep or give to his/her favorite library.

Good luck!

Hello!  The contest has ended–thanks so much for stopping by to enter!  I’ll be running more contests soon, so do stop by again.  Cheers!

This is not a nice cat.   She doesn’t like me; she detests my dog.  She has shredded the couch and the comfy chair in the living room.  She turns up her whiskered nose at cat treats.  She hates everything.

Well, almost everything.

Because she looooooves this:

It’s Above World, a fabulous middle grade adventure by debut author Jenn Reese, and it’s coming out from Candlewick on February 14th.  YOU can join my evil cat in her love of this wonderful book, because I’m giving away an ARC, along with sneak peeks.

All you have to do to enter is pick a number between 1 and 356 and post it in the comments. I’ll respond with a line from that page in the book. When we’re all done (12:00 midnight on Thursday), I’ll do a random number generator thingy and that person will be the winner. Be sure to include your email when you leave your comment so I can contact you if you win.

Come back and read all the comments, and you’ll get some awesome sneak peeks!

[Oh, and if two (or more!) people pick the same page, that’s fine–if that page number is the winner, I’ll just do another random generator thingie for that page.]

Good luck!

As is traditional, I celebrate book-release day by posting the acknowledgements page.

No book is created only by its author.  Without a publisher the book would be a mess, and without friends and supporters the writer’s life would be a lonely one.

So without further ado, the acks for Winterling:

Beginning with the dedication:

To Jenn Reese.  For you, and for the girl you once were.

Acknowledgements.  Many thanks…

To my wonderful editor, Antonia Markiet, who shines light into the dark places.

And to the outstanding team at HarperCollins, starting with editor Alyson Day, copy editors Amy Vinchensi and Katherine Silsand, editorial director Phoebe Yeh, publisher Susan Katz, associate editor Jayne Carapezzi, art director Sasha Illingworth, production supervisor Ray Colon, Tony Hirt, publicist Marisa Russell, cover artist Jason Chan.

To my agent, Caitlin Blasdell, and her ruthless critiques, ow, ow, ow.  And to the Liza Dawson Agency, especially Havis Dawson.

For support and friendship, Ingrid Law.  I believe we have a lunch date coming up, my dearest…!

Jennifer Adam, who kindly answered all my questions about horses, and about not-horses.  Lisa Will, astronomer consultant extraordinaire.  Jon Michael Hansen for the archery info.  Deb Coates, the dog whisperer.

To bookseller Beth Yost from Cover to Cover Children’s Books in Columbus, Ohio, who said, upon reading The Magic Thief, “Um, I actually like that story you wrote about the changeling girl…”  Beth, you inspired me to turn that story into this novel.

To Karen Meisner, Jed Hartman, and Susan Marie Groppi, who actually bought that changeling girl story and published it at www.strangehorizons.com.

This book’s intrepid first readers, Rae Carson, Greg van Eekhout, and Jenn Reese.  Also to Dragons of the Corn: Deb Coates, Lisa Bradley, and Dorothy Winsor, and to the memory of Alex Tint.  And to Iowa City’s Nano Rebels, in whose company much of this book was written: Wendy Heinrich, Lori Dawson, Amy Luttinger, Britt Deerberg, Bev Ehresman, Susan Benton, Eleanor Ditzel, Dori Hillestad Butler.  And to Jessie Stickgold-Sarah,  Haddayr Copley-Woods, Robin LaFevers, Kristin Cashore, Charlie Finlay, bookseller Shawna Elder, and to the biggest threat to children’s publishing to come along in quite a while, Paolo Bacigalupi.

To all my dear families, especially my vegetarian children, my husband, and my mom and dad.

##

Wow.  Typing those names up again makes me realize how lucky I am.  Writer-friends, you are the BEST.  Thank you.

Click here for the Winterling book trailer

The event is like a side-story within the larger AQ world.  Regular AQ players can go into the Magic Thief story and interact with the MT characters and world.  There will be biscuits and misery eels and (hopefully) a hunt for a locus magicalicus!!   It should be online in early January.

As a bonus, I got an upgraded character of my own to play.  She is a mage with bright green skin and sticking up braids (though you can’t see them because they’re covered by the Dragonhero Helmet).

As you can see, I have a pet dragon.  She follows me everywhere.

Thanks for entering!!

My dog

does not like

my book.

But some other people do!

“What a wonderful, imaginative alternate world Prineas has created for this book!” –Kristin Cashore, author of the New York Times bestsellers Graceling and Fire.

“Filled with wonder and with characters both devious and charming, Winterling is a mischievous delight!” –Ingrid Law, New York Times bestselling author of Scumble and the Newbery honor book Savvy.

And I’m running a contest–here’s how it goes:

All you have to do to enter is pick a number between 1 and 245 and post it in the comments. I’ll respond with a line from that page in Winterling. When we’re all done (12:00 midnight on Friday), I’ll do a random number generator thingy and that person will be the winner of the ARC (an advanced review copy of the book) (the book itself is out from HarperCollins Childrens on January 3, 2012). Be sure to include your email when you leave your comment so I can contact you if you win.

Come back and read all the comments, and you’ll get some sneak peeks!

[If two (or more!) people pick the same page, that’s fine–if that page number is the winner, I’ll just do another random generator thingie for that page.]

I hope you like it better than my dog does!

[Oh, and if you read this on Goodreads, be sure to come over to my blog to enter]

This is from Kirkus:

WINTERLING
Author: Prineas, Sarah

An atmospheric middle-grade fantasy ties the coming of age to the turning of the year.

Young Fer (short for “Jennifer”) loves her strict Grand-Jane and the herbal lore she teaches, but she feels more at home in the woods and fields than in the concrete and iron cage of her school. When she rescues the shapeshifting puck Rook, Fer opens a Way into a place of wild beauty, deep magic and strange half-human denizens. The land’s glamorous Lady claims friendship with Fer’s lost parents and begs her allegiance, but Fer senses something deeply wrong: something that holds Rook sullen and silent, forces the people into savagery and keeps the land in the grip of relentless winter… something that is now spreading to Fer’s home. Prineas calls upon Celtic (and a few Nordic) traditions to build a vivid fantasy world, steeped in pagan sensibilities, where the cycle of seasons resonates with the awakening of identity. The prose is lush and sensuous, evoking the sounds and tastes and scents of the natural world. Unusually, almost every character (except the puck-in-distress) is female, portrayed in all ages and roles—authority, hero, villain, mentor, warrior, healer, servant and goddess. Fer is herself brave and kind, but not unrealistically so; her magic is both matter-of-fact and a source of quiet joy.

There’s no flashy pyrotechnic wizardry to dazzle here, but the right readers will find refreshment in a tale as muted and miraculous as the return of spring. (Fantasy. 10-14)

##

I especially love that the reviewer commented on the girl-power stuff, because that was a big part of what I wanted to do with this book.

Be sure to visit this blog again next week, ‘cos I’ll be giving away an ARC of Winterling.

With starred reviews from Kirkus and Publisher’s Weekly, Chris Moriarty’s debut middle-grade novel The Inquisitor’s Apprentice is one to watch.

You can win a signed hardcover of the book! It’s beautifully illustrated, and the endpapers–gorgeous:

All you have to do to enter is pick a number between 1 and 343 and post it in the comments. I’ll respond with a line from that page in the book. When we’re all done (12:00 midnight on Thursday), I’ll do a random number generator thingy and that person will be the winner. Be sure to include your email when you leave your comment so I can contact you if you win.

Come back and read all the comments, and you’ll get some awesome sneak peeks of this wonderful book!

[Oh, and if two (or more!) people pick the same page, that’s fine–if that page number is the winner, I’ll just do another random generator thingie for that page.]

Good luck!

Last week, I got something so far beyond a pellet that one of my writing buddies called it an “asteroid.” And indeed, it is cosmic and out there, and really wonderful, too.

I live in Iowa City, which is known as a literary town–the world-renowned Iowa Writers Workshop is here, and we have this Literary Walk, which is a line-up of beautiful brass plaques with quotations from the works of authors associated with Iowa and Iowa City, writers like Kurt Vonnegut and Flannery O’Connor, and John Irving. Here is the website describing it.

My asteroid is that the Literary Walk has been expanded, and I’m one of the authors represented.

Usually you don’t get a brass plaque until you’re dead (in case you can’t see it, this is a quotation from The Magic Thief.)

“The old man was a wizard, clear as clear, and what kind of fool sits down to eat dinner with a wizard?”

And look, this is me: still alive, with my asteroid!

(photos by Kellye Crocker)

Pretty sweet, huh?

The Cabinet of Earths is a fantastic middle-grade novel from debut author Anne Nesbet. It’s coming from HarperCollins Childrens on January 3rd, and it’s beautifully written and compelling, with a terrific girl protagonist, Maya.

You can win an ARC–an advanced reader copy–of the book and read it before everybody else!

All you have to do to enter is pick a number between 1 and 256 and post it in the comments. I’ll respond with a line from that page in the book. When we’re all done (12:00 mid-day on Thursday), I’ll do a random number generator thingy and that person will be the winner. Be sure to include your email when you leave your comment so I can contact you if you win.

Come back and read all the comments, and you’ll get some awesome sneak peeks of this wonderful book!

[Oh, and if two (or more!) people pick the same page, that’s fine–if that page number is the winner, I’ll just do another random generator thingie for that page.]

Guys, I LOVED this book! Don’t believe me? Here’s the back cover:

And, so you can see what I’m talking about, a close-up of a line on the back cover:

Here’s the flap copy:

To protect her baby brother James, 13-year-old Maya has to take on the magical underworld of Paris, in which houses have bronze salamanders for door handles, the most beautiful people are all hooked on the sweet-smelling “anbar,” and a shimmering glass Cabinet of Earths has chosen Maya to be its next keeper.

Good luck!