Posts Tagged ‘news’

At long last (or is it long?), the paperback of The Heroine’s Bookshelf has been published in paperback by Harper Perennial!  What does this mean for you (aside from a chance to buy stocking stuffers for the many bookish women in your life)? Why, giveaways, of course!

• Buried In Print is doing a fun giveaway of the book at her blog
• I’m honored to be participating in both #indiethursday and #fridayreads this week…chances to tweet with fellow book lovers, support indie book stores, and win a copy of my book!
• Bitch Magazine is running a contest on Friday
• AnneofGreenGables.com is gracious enough to host a daily trivia question and giveaway on their Facebook page…

…and that’s just the beginning! 

Prizes are currently being shipped to the winners of the Their Eyes Were Watching God readalong…my love of malls was exposed in my author interview with the Vail Daily…and there’s a lot more to come.

If this sound exhausting, it is. And it isn’t, because all of you are so supportive and awesome. I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

I’m delighted to announce that there’s another readalong in the works!

As you may know, the paperback of The Heroine’s Bookshelf will be released by Harper Perennial on November 15, putting the book in some pretty illustrious company, including that of Zora Neale Hurston, the Harlem Renaissance writer who gave us Their Eyes Were Watching God.  Aside from Colette, it’s the book that’s least known by readers I’ve encountered, and it’s a quick, lush read that grapples with issues of religion, love, and coming home.

Their Eyes Were Watching God: The Readalong will take place on three consecutive Mondays starting November 28. The schedule is as follows: 

November 28: Chapters 1-6

December 5: Chapters 7-13

December 12: Chapters 14-20

Best of all, Harper Perennial has generously offered to give away copies of Their Eyes Were Watching God to ten lucky readers before the readalong, and they’ll be providing some great Zora-related prizes during the readalong itself!

All you have to do to enter is comment below with your name and why you’re participating in the readalong.

As a fun bonus, if you tweet, blog, or Facebook post about the readalong, just drop me an email with a link to your post to have another entry thrown in the pile. You’ll increase your chance of winning and we’ll increase the chance of having another great readalong! 

Entries will close on Monday, November 14 to give Harper time to mail books to the winners.

Want to share on your blog? Click the small image for blog-ready badges to share!

So…who’s with me?

One of the best/most nervewracking things about publishing is the big cover gamble. 

I’ve been incredibly fortunate with Harper, who took the time to ask me my thoughts about the original cover and made sure to get it right. 

The paperback is in the capable hands of Harper Perennial, which is known for their paperback editions of new and young fiction and non-fiction authors and their nail-it-every-dang-time editions of classic novels (including some that are featured in The Heroine’s Bookshelf). 

When my editor told me the paperback division wanted to take a stab at a new cover, I sucked in a deep breath.  But I love the first cover!  Uncertainty!  Strife!  But when the cover you see here was presented to me, I was overcome by not just relief, but a giddy feeling.  The paperback cover feels fresh, thrilling, and plenty booky.  Bonus:  it has gorgeous fonts AND a blurb from the fascinating and wonderful Wendy McClure, whose The Wilder Life is a can’t-miss for Laura Ingalls Wilder fans and those who want to know more about the Little House books. 

So…here it is! I hope you like it.  And I hope you’ll be around on November 15 to celebrate the paperback release. 

Click to enlarge.

(Or should I say “piece bag” a la Little Women?)

Happy Monday!  Ish.  I do have happy news to report…The Heroine’s Bookshelf just got a Brazilian book deal! The book will be translated into Portuguese and sold as a trade paperback and ebook by Casa da Palavra within the next year or so.  Whoever would have thought that my little book would be available in Italian, Korean, and now Portuguese…? 

Other things of note: 

The Great Gone With the Wind Readalong presses on.  If you haven’t had a chance to participate in our Part 1 discussion yet, you can do so here. 

On a GWTW note, I was devastated to hear that How We Do Run On: A GWTW Scrapbook is closing down shop.  They’ve been ardent supporters of the blog and the book and their blog on the history and mastery of Gone With the Wind is truly one of the best on any topic I’ve ever encountered. 

Lest you think this blog is now all Gone With the Wind, all the time, I have another ending to report:  the ending of Bitch Magazine’s YA book club with a great discussion of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.  I’m so thankful to Ashley at Bitch and my co-conspirators for making it a truly memorable and challenging project, and I encourage anyone who’s into feminist critiques of pop culture to check out Bitch and consider subscribing to the magazine.  

Finally, I’m really sad about the closing of Borders stores nationwide.  I’ve read lots of smack-talk about big-box stores over the last several weeks, and while I love my indie book store (huge shouts to Boulder Book Store, one of my favorite places on earth!), I think there’s room for more than one kind of retailer in the bookish landscape.  No matter what your opinion on Borders, I think we can all agree that its passing means big things for the publishing industry, the bookselling business, and the 11,000 or so passionate, bookish employees who now find themselves out of work.  So if you’re planning on attending one of those big liquidation sales, remember that Borders’ passing means a lot more than just a huge discount on your favorite book.  This concludes my random semi-rant

There are lots of things I never anticipated when I hit “send” on the manuscript I named and renamed silly things like “Fabulosity Squared” and “All-Around Documentness” just so I could get. through. writing.  Enough to fill another book entirely.

A three-event week, for example, mere days before the six-month anniversary of The Heroine’s Bookshelf.*

An amazing invitation that I’ll talk about later.  A really personally satisfying rights offer that will be disclosed in its good time.

Imagine my surprise when yesterday I was congratulated by one, two, then three other authors at the Englewood Public Library’s annual Meet The Faces Behind the Books Fair.  I was clueless, but gracious.  And then confused, but not for too long.

You see, the congratulations of my much savvier colleagues were followed by confirmation that The Heroine’s Bookshelf is one of three finalists for the non-fiction category of the Colorado Book Award!**

*jaw drops*
*blink*

I didn’t write my book for recognition.  I wrote it as a thank-you to the books that helped me get through life for so long and that still bolster my mood and my confidence on down days.  I wrote it because I couldn’t find the book I longed to read on my own shelf.

Recognition?  That’s a bunch of sprinkles on top of the cherry that’s already on top.  Completely unexpected…entirely satisfying.  On June 24, I’ll be in Aspen feeling nervous and excited for my own chance at recognition and the other nominees.  Until then, I’ll work on getting this jaw closed.

*which anniversary is tomorrow, and shall be celebrated apace!
**as announced on their Facebook page this Friday