I've been posting some Cover Stories over at Barnes and Noble's Unabashedly Bookish blog, so I wanted to shout them out here, with excerpts:
Sucks to be Me by Kimberly Pauley. "For the first book, Sucks to be Me, I actually made a cover mock up with one of those old-school notebooks and a goofy-looking fanged bat. It was really silly. I'm glad they did what they did instead!"
8th Grade Superzero by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich. "The original title for a long while was LONG TIME NO ME, and I had a lot of thoughts of black/dark blue cover, lower case text, very sparse, very not kid-friendly..."
The Handbook for Lightning Strike Survivors by Michele Young-Stone. "I figured my best bet was to leave all cover ideas to the professionals. I write books and they sell them. Then, the first two covers arrived wrapped around other books -- so I'd get a sense of the jackets. I did NOT like either one, and I was supposed to choose which one I liked best. I didn't know what to do..."
Like these covers? I do! (Especially note the sneakers on 8th Grade Superzero -- genius!) Click the titles to read the full Cover Stories.
PS-Today is the last day to enter the Gimme a Call contest... go!
olugbemisola rhuday-perkovich
Photo Friday: Teen Author Festival
in Photo Friday
Just a few photos for fun. I missed taking them at Books of Wonder on Sunday (oops!) but here are a few--sorry they're blurry. My blog just does that sometimes.Me with Coe Booth, who's working on Tyrell II (not the official title, but yay! Tyrell is soooo good):
The panel that needs no introduction, but what the heck? John Green, David Levithan, Libba Bray and E. Lockhart rocked their performances of each other's work and then readings from upcoming books.
And my group reading at the Grand Army branch of the Brooklyn Public Library was super great, with an awesome rotating audience of students (L to R we are: Melissa Kantor, Siobhan Vivian, me, Robin Wasserman, Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich, Emily Horner, Adrienne Maria Vrettos and Matthue Roth)!
Ashley, whom I met on Friday during my panel on "The Boy You Can't Have," taped a ton of video that day, so if you want to see some reading clips, check out her youtube channel. She also sent me this lovely photo of the panel. That's David Levithan, me, Elizabeth Scott, Susane Colasanti, Robin Palmer and Maryrose Wood (we just missed Elizabeth Eulberg on the far right!):
'Twas a fun week! Y'all come next year, y'hear? More pics (and clearer version of these) up on readergirlz.
PS-I also filmed a writing update vlog for Adele from Persnickety Snark -- her new feature asks authors what they're working on, so I talked about Small Town Sinners, my next book, and the one after that! I can't wait to see this feature evolve and hear from other writers. Great idea, Adele!