Last Weeks to Order Autographed Crimson Crown

Autographed copies of The Crimson Crown can be ordered through The Learned Owl, my local indie. I'll be signing them there at my launch on the release date, October 23.

Find more information here.

The Crimson Crown Trailer

I just want to make sure you all have seen this, I feel like I'm my own splinter group, spread over social media as I am.
This is the brilliant trailer Hyperion produced for the release of The Crimson Crown, with an original song by Roto.
Hyperion will be showing this in theaters from 11/16 to 12/26 in New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Boston, Chicago,  Washington DC and OHIO in conjunction with the showings of the movies Twilight:Breaking Dawn Part 2 and The Hobbit.



So watch it here and then look for it on the big screen beginning in november!!

The Crimson Crown Tour Oct 23-Nov 11, 2012

Can you believe it? The release of The Crimson Crown is less than a month away! I'm going on the road hoping to meet some of you!

See below for my tour schedule. 
Watch my Facebook for updates! 

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The Crimson Crown Tour Schedule

October-November, 2012

Fairfield, OH

Author Appearance and Signing

Thursday, October 18, 2012, 6:30 p.m.

Fairfield Lane Public Library

1485 Corydale Drive
Fairfield, OH 45014
(513) 858-3238

http://www.lanepl.org/fairfield.html

Cincinnati, OH

Books by the Banks - Cincinnati, OH
Saturday, October 20, 2012, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Duke Energy Center
http://booksbythebanks.org/

Hudson, OH

The Crimson Crown Launch Event
Tuesday, October 23, 2012, 6 to 8 p.m.
The Learned Owl, Hudson, OH
204 N. Main St., Hudson, OH 44236
www.learnedowl.com

New York, NY

Teen Fantasy Event!

Thursday, October 25, 2012, 6-8 p.m.

Books of Wonder

18 West 18th Street  

New York, NY 10011
(212) 989-3475

I’ll be joining Libba Bray, Rachel Cohn, Gina Damico, Dan Krokos, Kate Milford, and Sarah Crossan for a fantasy-filled one-night stand.

http://www.booksofwonder.com/

Austin, TX

Texas Book Festival,

October 27-28, 2012

Austin, TX

http://www.texasbookfestival.org/

Houston, TX

Author Appearance and Signing

Wednesday, October 29, 2012, 7 p.m.

Blue Willow Bookshop

14532 Memorial Drive
Houston, TX 77079

Phone: 281.497.8675

http://www.bluewillowbookshop.com/

Chicago Area

Author Appearance and Signing

With Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian

Tuesday, October 30, 2012, 7 p.m.

Anderson’s Bookshop Naperville

123 West Jefferson
Naperville, IL 60540

Tel: 630-355-2665

http://www.andersonsbookshop.com/

Toronto, ON, Canada

World Fantasy Convention--Toronto
November 1-4, 2012
Sheraton Parkway Toronto North
http://www.wfc2012.org/

Raleigh, NC

Author Appearance and Signing

November 5, 2012, 7 p.m.

Quail Ridge Books and Music

3522 Wade Av.

Raleigh, NC 27607

http://www.quailridgebooks.com/

Coral Gables, FL (Miami area)

Informal meet-and-greet and signing

Thursday, November 8, 2012 late afternoon

Books and Books

265 Aragon Avenue Coral Gables, FL 33134

(305) 442-4408

http://www.booksandbooks.com/coralgables

Charleston, SC

YALLfest

Friday-Saturday, November 9-10, 2012

Dozens and dozens of your favorite authors eating pie and talking books!

http://yallfest.org/

The Seven Realms on Short List for NPR's 100 Best-Ever YA Novels

Great news! The Seven Realms series  is a nominee for NPR's 100 Best Ever Teen Novels. One cool thing about this list is that it includes classics as well as contemporary fiction. Get out and vote for your favorites here!

Upcoming Events

I've been falling down on the shameless self-promotion biz lately! If you're in/near Ohio I have some events coming up in Ohio in the next couple of weeks!

Writing Workshop: Creating Compelling Characters
Wednesday, July 11, 2012, 6 to 8 p.m.
Grafton-Midview Public Library
983 Main Street
Grafton, Ohio 44044
http://www.graftonpl.lib.oh.us/


Half-Day Writing Workshop: Creating Compelling Characters
Ohio Valley Romance Writers Association
The Oasis Conference Center
902 Loveland-Miamiville Road
Loveland, OH 45140
Saturday, July 14, 2012, 1 to 4:30 p.m.
http://ovrwa.com/july-2012/

Generations and Genres Author Panel
Join me and authors Mara Purnhagen, Tricia Springstubb, and Nancy Herriman
Saturday, July 21, 2012, 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Brunswick Public Library
3649 Center Road
Brunswick, Ohio 44212
Medina County District Library on-line registration: http://preview.tinyurl.com/73fy358

Hope to see you at one of these!

Winning the Weather Wars

I live in northern Ohio, which for some reason isn't known for its great weather. In fact, we have great weather for, well, most of the year. For instance, today it's sunny and breezy, 75 degrees, and I'm sitting on the side porch drinking iced tea and I can't think of too many places where the weather is better than this.

We don't get credit for that.
When friends and family move away to what they consider to be a better climate, they tend to monitor the weather back here. Then, during one of our especially nasty winter storms in January, they call up and say, "Hey! How's the weather there? I hear it's really awful." Even though I don't ask, they say, "It's 80 degrees here, gonna play a little tennis later on. So glad I don't have to go out and shovel! HaHa, loser." Well, maybe they don't say "loser," but that's what I hear.
I've found there's no winning this weather game. Even when the weather is bad there, it's better than here.
When it's 115 degrees there, you say, "It's a dry heat."
When it's 25 below, you say, "At least it's sunny."
When a blizzard blows in out of the Rockies, you say, "It never lasts very long around here."

I guess I have some options. In mid summer, I could call up and say, "Hey, I hear your whole state is charred to a crisp! It's really green here, just brought in another armload of flowers. Well, I'll let you go, you better go out and swat some sparks and hose down the outbuildings again." Or during the hurricane, I could call and say, "How's the weather? I heard you were having some trouble. What? I can't hear you, sounds like it's blowing up a storm. Yeah, it's pretty calm here. Still got our siding and everything." 
Or I could email a link to this great new tarantula and scorpion repellant I came across. Thought you could use this. Us? Yeah, here we had a bit of an ant problem in the spring. Nothing like YOUR ants, a course.
But I wasn't raised that way.

Don't Dry Clean Your Jeans

When I was in high school and college, I worked in the classified phone room at the Akron Beacon Journal with a mélange of people. Some were lifers—the full-timers, with contract accounts and a desk name. Miss Allen. Miss Dodge. Miss Jackson. Others were part-timers, usually women on their way to somewhere else. Since we only met customers over the phone, the dress code was flexible for the times.

One of my co-workers was Lucine, a whip-thin girl with quick hands and a brilliant smile. Though she hadn’t much money (none of us did) she always looked fine. Right down to her dry-cleaned jeans.

I couldn’t get over that. “You don’t dry-clean jeans,” I told her.

“Why not?”

“Well. That’s the whole point of jeans.”

“I like the way they look. And that way I don’t have to iron them.”

“Iron? There’s no ironing of jeans!”

In my teens and twenties, jeans were my uniform, my go-to wardrobe item. Something I could wear until they stood up by themselves, then throw into the wash with the hottest possible water.

Each time they would emerge a little bit softer and easier on the eyes. Friendlier to my body. More and more mine. I’d wash them and wear them until they were a second skin; until the hems became frayed from walking on them. Made shabby by love.

It was bad enough when pre-washed jeans came along, all soft colors and manufactured shabby. No longer did you have to put in your time with board-stiff blues to get there.

So recently I got me some of those miracle jeans that are supposed to make you look five pounds thinner and three inches taller. They were comfortable as soon as I put them on, so I went out and double-dug my garden in them. When I went to toss them in the wash, I happened to notice the care tag.

MACHINE WASH COLD DELICATE CYCLE SEPARATELY DO NOT BLEACH HANG DRY USE COOL IRON IF NEEDED FOR BEST RESULTS DRY CLEAN

Never mind the COOL IRON IF NEEDED, since I knew from the start that NO ironing was needed. But DRY CLEAN? DRY CLEAN blue jeans?

What is the world coming to when a person can’t rely on a pair of jeans to survive in the wash?