I'm Cyn-sational!

Cynthia Leitich Smith has been called "the sweetheart of the kidlitosphere," and rightly so - her website/blog is a one-stop shop of all things kid lit.  Cynsations turns 10 this year, and I'm honored to be a part of her posts highlighting debut authors!  Check it out here!  

Something Wicked, and Something Free

Congratulations to my friend Alan Gratz on the release of Something Wicked!  Wicked is a Horatio Wilkes mystery, a modern-day version of MacBeth.  I'm lucky in the ARC department, and happened to win one of these puppies.  Wicked is funny, snarky, and mysterious - in short, wicked awesome!  And - bonus!  Alan is one of those fantastic authors who wants to get his books in the hands of more folks, so to celebrate the release of Wicked, he's offering the first Horatio Wilkes mystery - Something Rotten, based on Hamlet - for FREE on his website.  That's not a misprint, folks... the whole book, F.R.E.E.  The catch?  You gotta download it before November 30.  Run!

www.alangratz.com

Do I have the best friends in the world, or what?!

My friends in the St. Paul's Playgroup (see the Acknowledgments page in Autumn to learn more!) threw me a surprise BOOK shower today!  (Think baby shower, with pages instead of diapers!)  They even made a birth announcement (that's it, above).  Here's what it says:

"I'm proud to announce the birth of AUTUMN WINIFRED OLIVER DOES THINGS DIFFERENT

Born after years of hard work on October 14, 2008

Weighing 9.8 ounces,

Measuring 7.8 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches, and

Coming in at 224 pages

ISBN 978-0-385-73569-8

Proud Mama,

Kristin O'Donnell Tubb"

And.... they bought me bubble bath!  And chocolate!  And wine!  These ladies are the best.  I am forever grateful for their friendship.  I love y'all!  

All Sorts of Cool Stuff!

Whew!  What a wonderful, whirlwind week! This past weekend I presented with two other members of the Class of 2k8 - Laurel Snyder (Up and Down the Scratchy Mountains) and Jenny Meyerhoff (Third Grade Baby) - at the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville, TN.  Our panel, The Class of 2k8:  Three Debut Middle Grade Novelists Tell All, was a blast!  Here we are, signing our books after our presentation.  I wasn't sure I'd have books available, because my release date is this week (um...tomorrow, to be exact.  Two short hours from now.  But hey, who's counting? ;-)  )  But I *did* have books, and guess what?  People bought them!  I signed them!  It was totally surreal.  (Laurel is far right, Jenny center, and I'm far left.  The Bean - my four year old - is far, far left.  Love that kiddo!)  Another pic of me signing can be found here, at my friend Kathy Rhodes's blog.  Thanks for the shout-out, Kathy!  ;-)  

Oh!  And the book trailer!  It's up, it's running, and you, too, can watch it if you just click here!  Hope you enjoy - please, let me know your thoughts!  

Tomorrow is the official launch date of AWODTD.  I'm participating in an Educator's Appreciation event at my local Barnes & Noble. The nation's best CRM, Robbie Bryan, tells me my books are already on the shelves.  Bringing the camera for my first in-store Autumn sighting!  Wheeeeeeeeeee!