So, you want to read THE UNBECOMING OF MARA DYER?

Maybe you do, and maybe you don't.

If you do, you can go visit Pure Imagination for an exclusive look at the first chapter, and for an incredibly gorgeous widget that counts down to release.

If you don't, you can watch paint dry instead.

Infinite thanks to Lori and for the Team of Awesome at Simon & Schuster who made this happen.

Also, that is just a picture of the widget. Not the actual widget. You have to visit Pure Imagination or www.maradyer.com to get the Real McCoy.

White Space + GIVEAWAY

So, remember that white space we talked about a while back?

I'm taking some.

Not for very long! And I'll still be posting and tweeting-just mayhaps not on as regular of a schedule. Like, I'll probably pop into the internet and yell "BOO!" right behind you, and then pop back out again. Don't be scared.

Why? A few reasons.

1) MARA 2 has me very, very obsessed.
2) This.
3) Other excitingness.

But don't go anywhere, because:

1) As further evidence of your awesome taste, you seem to think my jacket proofs are pretty cool too, so I'm going to give one of you one! But I can't just give away an EMPTY jacket, and alas, there are no ARCs yet or finished books to fill it. So I'm going to 1) write a secret MARA passage or quote inside of it and 2) will also give you FALLOUT, by the incomparable Ellen Hopkins, and published by Simon & Schuster as well! Contest rules below.

2) I've been told something really, really cool and MARA related is going to go down really, really soon and I'll be lurking in the interverse when it does. And if you stop visiting me on here or on Twitter, you might miss it. And that would be sad.

So! Without further ado, here's how you enter the Full Metal Jacket contest. For a jacket that is neither full nor metal, but I digress.

Today, I want to hear about your eerie coincidences. Did you ever predict that something would happen, only to find that it came true? Did a horoscope ever prove to be sharply accurate? Or have you ever written about something you thought was fictional that you later discovered to be real? If you have weird/eerie/creepy/spooky coincidence stories, I want to hear them.

Alternately, you can tell me the first song you remembered being "cool" when you were a kid. Not the first song you remembered, but the first song you remembered being popular in your grade. Preschool doesn't count. For those (awesome) folks among you who follow me on Twitter, yes, we had this conversation last night, but I enjoyed it immensely. So I thought I'd continue it here!

That's it! That's all you have to do to enter! But if you'd like to help spread the word and get extra entries? Here's how it works:


+1 New followers of this here blog
+2 If you're already a follower of this here blog
+1 New followers on Twitter
+2 If you're already a follower on Twitter
+1 Linking to my contest on your blog, twitter, etc. Include links. (up to 5)
+3 For posting about my contest on your blog. (Must be an actual post)
+2 Adding me to your blog roll

Me and math get along like mustard and milk. Which is to say not at all. So please add up your entries in your comments. And for clarity’s sake, your initial comment is one entry. Everything else is gravy.

Winners will be selected randomly, and YES, this contest is INTERnational.

Contest ends on 3/28/11 at 11:59PM. Good day, good luck, and thank you 1,000,000,000,000,000,000x for reading.

PS: I don't have any ARCs yet. When I do, I will give one (or more!) away here. Promise. In the meantime, you can fill out this form, which I'll be passing along to Simon & Schuster to let them know you're interested.


PSS: This happened last night, thanks to you:

What do we have here?

What's that I see?

A jacket? Why yes, yes it is. With my name on it, no less.

And this is MARA, wearing the incredible BEFORE I FALL by Lauren Oliver, since they're close to the same size, I'm told.

I'm not showing you how the copy looks yet. Because I can't give away all the good stuff all at once. But holy amazing, right? The effects are not translating well through my iPhone camera, but suffice it to say they are breathtaking. There's silver and embossing and soft touch involved and it's elegant and beautiful and...and...I'm overcome. The immensely talented and visionary designer, Lucy Ruth Cummins, has outdone herself. Simon & Schuster, I salute you. 

But now I have a dilemma. They sent me several jacket proofs. One I'm sending to my grandparents and one to my mother, because lets face it, they're going to appreciate this the most. And one I'll keep to play dress up with Jurassic Park and The Lord of the Rings, if I'm feeling feisty. 

But I have more. What should I do with them? 

Do I smell a giveaway? What say you?

Eerily accurate.

_{My fortune from last night. It says: "Chill while you can, big project is coming your way." Hee.}

In the meantime, go check out what Melissa said about THE UNBECOMING OF MARA DYER. Isn't she lovely? I think she's lovely. 

This is how she won it. Sherry from Flipping Pages for All Ages is next. But don't worry. There's a huge, unprecedented surprise in the works for all of you. And more contests of this nature (if you're interested) on the way.

Stay tuned :D

When I was in high school

(click here and head to Kirsten Hubbard's blog to find out who I was in high school, who I wished I could be, and also, to WIN COOL THINGS. This awesomeness brought to you by LIKE MANDARIN and Kirsten Hubbard. Batteries not included. Brilliance is.)

Answer Time #7! (On outlining vs. pantsing, vampires vs. werewolves, and characters vs. plot)

It's been a while since I answered some of your questions. Well, that ends now.

The wonderful Carissa asked a bunch of awesome questions, starting with:


Do you plot meticulously or just fly by the seat of your pants?

Ah, the pantser vs. outliner question. Mostly, I flew by the seat of my pants for THE UNBECOMING OF MARA DYER. I began with a very vague idea, which took on a sharper, more distinct shape with every word I wrote. And the more I wrote, the more the story changed, which meant that I had two major rewrites and three or four major revisions before I even thought about an agent. For MARA 2, I have a loose outline, and I already know my characters, my set pieces, and the major plot points, but there's still quite a bit I'm discovering as I draft. That helps keep it fun for me.

Can you manufacture inspiration? Writing under a deadline can't be easy, so can you force the writing process and still have it turn out well?

I can usually manufacture inspiration. MARA 2 is the first fiction project I've ever written under a deadline, but my legal life was filled with deadlines. It's one part butt-in-chair (or more accurately, on couch) and one part getting into a space that allows me to get the best words down that I can. That might involve having a clean house or awesome music or re-reading a favorite book or watching a brilliantly plotted television show. Anything can be inspiring, really, and when I feel it, I try to go with it. 

Vampires or Werewolves?

Lawyer answer: it depends! Depends on the vampires— the Cullens or the Infected? Depends on the werewolves—Teen Wolf or Sam from SHIVER? I'd take Edward over Teen Wolf and Sam over Babcock any day. 

How important is it to write every day? 

I think it's good to write something every day. Even if it's just a sentence or a tiny little scene (I call them scenelets). I think setting goals of a certain number of words is awesome, too. But it doesn't matter how much you write or what type of stuff you write—just staying in the habit of writing is productive, in and of itself.

What is the hardest part about being an author? Writing great characters or writing a great plot?

It's all kind of hard, but for THE UNBECOMING, the characters came first, specifically Mara. I knew who she was and where she would end up very early on in the process. Her love interest developed in response—a sort of reverse Adam and Eve. Once I figured out who she was, I realized who he had to be. And from there, I learned what would happen to them together. I certainly think that plot and characterization are equally important, but for me, for THE UNBECOMING, the characters came first.

Thank you SO SO MUCH, Carissa, for asking such awesome and thought provoking questions.

And now I ask all of you: vampires or werewolves?

Or...

Are We Equals?

So it begins.

Oh man. So, it's been an awesome week, and it looks like this is the start of ANOTHER awesome week. I LOVE IT WHEN THAT HAPPENS. 

One of the reasons things are so awesome? One of the reasons I can tell you about?

It looks like there are going to be ARCs of THE UNBECOMING OF MARA DYER. Bound copies. Printed ones.

Soon.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am going to get some, but I don’t know how many. It could be 10. It could be 1. But I DO want you to have them! All of you! So if you’d like one, here is a nifty little form you can fill out (which you can also access from the For Book Reviewers tab on the right!) The nifty little form shall compile itself into a nifty little spreadsheet with all of your info, which I shall then pass along to the amazing team at Simon & Schuster. I don’t have any control over who they decide to send ARCs to, but I can make sure they know you’re interested!

And while we're at it, I should point out that the blog layout has changed a little. Click on the cover to the left and it will take you to MARA's Goodreads page! Click on the links and you can actually PRE-ORDER it on INDIEBOUND and BARNES & NOBLE and AMAZON!

Why are you still here? *NUDGE*

Bookanista Thursday: March Debuts!

It's March. March. I am weirdly incredulous about this. What happened to February? Does time seem to be rocketing forward at an unprecedented rate for everyone? Just me?

Anyway! Because it is now March (!), there are a BILLION new books out there that you really, seriously want to check out. Namely:

When you can see things others can't, where do you look for the truth?

This paranormal murder mystery will have teens reading on the edge of their seats.

Clarity "Clare" Fern sees things. Things no one else can see. Things like stolen kisses and long-buried secrets. All she has to do is touch a certain object, and the visions come to her. It's a gift.

And a curse.

When a teenage girl is found murdered, Clare's ex-boyfriend wants her to help solve the case--but Clare is still furious at the cheating jerk. Then Clare's brother--who has supernatural gifts of his own--becomes the prime suspect, and Clare can no longer look away. Teaming up with Gabriel, the smoldering son of the new detective, Clare must venture into the depths of fear, revenge, and lust in order to track the killer. But will her sight fail her just when she needs it most?

I have been lusting over the stunning cover for a long, long time now, and I just got the book a few days ago. Can't wait to dive in. 

Kate Lowry didn't think dead best friends could send e-mails. But when she gets an e-mail from Grace, she’s not so sure. 

To: KateLowry@pemberlybrown.edu 

Sent: Sun 9/14 11:59 PM 

From: GraceLee@pemberlybrown.edu 

Subject: (no subject) 

Kate, 

I'm here… 

sort of. 

Find Cameron. 

He knows. 

I shouldn't be writing. 

Don't tell. 

They'll hurt you. 

Now Kate has no choice but to prove once and for all that Grace’s death was more than just a tragic accident. But secrets haunt the halls of her elite private school. Secrets people will do anything to protect. Even if it means getting rid of the girl trying to solve a murder...

I read this one before you. Go ahead, be jealous. Because it IS as mysterious and compelling as it sounds. It is as fast-paced and fun as you'd expect from the Roecker sisters. But more than that? It's hilarious. I laughed out loud reading this, and that almost never happens. Well played, Lisa and Laura. Well played. 

Lina is just like any other fifteen-year-old Lithuanian girl in 1941. She paints, she draws, she gets crushes on boys. Until one night when Soviet officers barge into her home, tearing her family from the comfortable life they've known. Separated from her father, forced onto a crowded and dirty train car, Lina, her mother, and her young brother slowly make their way north, crossing the Arctic Circle, to a work camp in the coldest reaches of Siberia. Here they are forced, under Stalin's orders, to dig for beets and fight for their lives under the cruelest of conditions.

Lina finds solace in her art, meticulously—and at great risk—documenting events by drawing, hoping these messages will make their way to her father's prison camp to let him know they are still alive. It is a long and harrowing journey, spanning years and covering 6,500 miles, but it is through incredible strength, love, and hope that Lina ultimately survives. Between Shades of Gray is a novel that will steal your breath and capture your heart.

A beautiful title? Check. A stunning cover? Check. I haven't read this one yet, but I've been looking forward to it for a long, long while. I make no secret of the fact that I'm Jewish. I am very familiar with the Holocaust, and 1935-1945 as a time period in history. But I was not aware of Stalin's parallel genocide which occurred at the exact same time. Publisher's Weekly wrote an illuminating piece about Ruta Sepetys and about the book she felt she had to write, and I have a strong feeling that I'm going to come out of reading this book changed. 

What if you knew exactly when you would die? 

Thanks to modern science, every human being has become a ticking genetic time bomb—males only live to age twenty-five, and females only live to age twenty. In this bleak landscape, young girls are kidnapped and forced into polygamous marriages to keep the population from dying out. 

When sixteen-year-old Rhine Ellery is taken by the Gatherers to become a bride, she enters a world of wealth and privilege. Despite her husband Linden's genuine love for her, and a tenuous trust among her sister wives, Rhine has one purpose: to escape—to find her twin brother and go home. 

But Rhine has more to contend with than losing her freedom. Linden's eccentric father is bent on finding an antidote to the genetic virus that is getting closer to taking his son, even if it means collecting corpses in order to test his experiments. With the help of Gabriel, a servant Rhine is growing dangerously attracted to, Rhine attempts to break free, in the limted time she has left.

Lauren is not only my publisher twin, but my imprint sister--WITHER is brought to you by the amazing, wonderful people at Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers. Which means I was lucky enough to read this book early on, and let me tell you--the gorgeous cover doesn't disappoint. The story is elegantly told through Rhine's perspective, but provides a detailed, thorough portrait of her two sister wives and how their circumstances affect their actions, and their relationships with each other. Yes, it's a dystopian novel. Yes, it is fast paced. But what I found so original about WITHER was that for me, the portrayal of the relationships between the three girls took center stage. And that portrayal was fascinating, flawlessly written, and heartbreaking all at once. 

It's hard finding beauty in the badlands of Washokey, Wyoming, but 14-year-old Grace Carpenter knows it's not her mother's pageant obsessions, or the cowboy dances adored by her small-town classmates. True beauty is wild-girl Mandarin Ramey: 17, shameless and utterly carefree. Grace would give anything to be like Mandarin. 

When they're united for a project, they form an unlikely, explosive friendship, packed with nights spent skinny-dipping in the canal, liberating the town's animal-head trophies, and searching for someplace magic. Grace plays along when Mandarin suggests they run away together. Blame it on the crazy-making wildwinds plaguing their badlands town. 

Because all too soon, Grace discovers Mandarin's unique beauty hides a girl who's troubled, broken, and even dangerous. And no matter how hard Grace fights to keep the magic, no friendship can withstand betrayal.

I have mentioned LIKE MANDARIN before, and now the release date is almost here (NEXT TUESDAY MARCH 8th AHEM). I have found myself commenting on the Goodreads profiles of people I don't know well who are adding the book (or currently reading it) telling them how much I love it. I have found myself commenting on strangers' blogs doing the same. By the normal rules that govern publishing? LIKE MANDARIN would be called a "small book." Because it isn't a dystopian. It isn't paranormal. It isn't a mystery. It isn't a romance. 

But it will blow you away.

This book is beautiful, but more than that? It's real. It's so real that it will make you hurt, in the best possible way. I just...I love everything about it. I want the whole world to know. 

And there you have it! To make it easy on you, I linked each cover to IndieBound so that you could buy and/or pre-order those fabulous books right quick. You'll thank me later, I have a feeling.

~*~

And now that I've told YOU what I'm excited about this month, YOU tell ME: what are YOU excited about? Hit the comments!

The Bookanistas are a group of 30 writers in various stages of the publishing process who have banded together to review the special books of our peers. Combined, we reach over 10,000 followers. Check out what the other Bookanistas are reading below!

Elana Johnson shines a light on Clarity

LiLa Roecker raves over The Rendering

Shannon Messenger loves 13 Reasons Why - with a signed book giveaway!

Shelli Johannes Wells joins The Liar Society

Scott Tracey is amazed by The Iron Thorn

Kirsten Hubbard raves over these March releases

Myra McEntire Invites Kim Harrington Into The Fort

Beth Revis is mad for Matched

Carolina Valdez Miller delights in Delirium

Jessica Kirby adores Across the Universe

Megan Miranda peers into Sean Griswold's Head

Bethany Wiggins marvels at Matched

Shana Silver is a super stop on The Liar Society blog tour

Gretchen McNeil celebrates The Liar Society

Carrie Harris buzzes about Blessed

Rosemare Clement-Moore falls for Falling Under

Katie Anderson shows cover love for Possess

Matt Blackstone is ecstatic over Edges

Stasia Ward Kehoe is wild for What Happened to Goodbye 

The Past and Future Me

A while back, Kate and Lauren emailed asking if I'd like to participate in their 18th Birthday Extravaganza. How could I refuse? I mean, I honestly don't remember what I did for my eighteenth birthday, so having an opportunity to help them make theirs more memorable? I thought that would be really cool. 

They asked me to write a letter to my 18-year-old self. And then I kind of cringed. If there was one thing I hated when I was 18, it was being told how differently I would think/act/behave when I was older. 

Nevertheless, I did it. Here's what I said. 

And here's an explanation of the mealworm story, in case you were curious. 

But as I was doing this, I came across a site called Future Me—a website where, publicly or privately, you can write a letter to the You of the Future, for it to be delivered on the date you specify. Want to remind the You of the Future just how incredible it felt to drive by yourself for the first time? You can. Did you just fall in love? You can write how you're feeling right now, and preserve it for the Future You to relive someday. Or did you just fall OUT of love, and you want to see if the You of the Future will still care, or be hurt, 1, 5, or 10 years later? Future Me makes it easy. 

What would you say to your 18-year-old self? Or if that wasn't too long ago (or hasn't happened yet!), what would you tell the You of the Future?

_{One of my favorite scenes from one of my favorite movies}

In which I introduce you to a Strong Female Protagonist:

Here are some things that get repeated a lot in the reading and writing and publishing communities:

"I like strong female protagonists."

"There aren't enough strong female protagonists"

"Who can recommend a book with a strong female protagonist?"

I can. And she isn't fictional.

Mireya Mayor* was raised by three Cuban women—her mother, grandmother, and her aunt. Her father decided he didn't want to be in the picture, but if that affected her in any material, detrimental way, you'd be hard pressed to tell.

_{Mireya, with the world's smallest primate, which she discovered.}

Mireya grew up in Miami and didn't learn English until she was five. Her three moms, as she called them, liked to dress her in frilly clothes and such, and were much put out when young Mireya sullied them while wading in mud, searching for worms and snails and lizards (which she collected—something a young Mireya and a young Michelle had in common). But to her family's credit, her sense of adventure was encouraged—she never had to choose between skirts and mud, between lizards or lipstick. At least, not in high school. When she got to college, though, people wanted to make that choice for her.

Look. Girls and women are subjected to many societal expectations about what we should look like, talk like, dress like, and act like.

_{Mireya with her friend--who happens to be a Masai warrior} 

About how we should parent, about how we should earn a living. About every conceivable topic under the sun—including how to conceive. Mireya is gorgeous, and when she was in college and expressed an interest in getting her PhD in anthropology, she was essentially told she didn't look the part. She did end up doing a stint with the Miami Dolphins Cheerleaders, though—and was essentially told that she looked that part.

_{Mireya's the hottie in the top row, second from left.}

A lot of people would have stuck with the cheerleading, and there's nothing wrong with that. Cheerleading is awesome. It's great! But what I find spectacular about Mireya is that she didn't let that experience define her. When she was discouraged from pursuing extreme field work and graduate work because of the way she looked and because of her resume? She soldiered on.

And man, did she soldier. She has had worms in her feet and leeches in her eyes. She has been in true mortal peril as often as our favorite fictional female protagonists. And in her book, she writes about doing it all. On camera.

_{On Expedition Africa, being (and looking like) the BAMF she is.}

She wasn't born wealthy. She didn't have any connections. She is just smart and capable and driven and decided that whatever her goal was, she could achieve it.

_{With the silverback gorilla who charged her just a few minutes later. There's video of this.}

If you like reading suspense, adventure, and thrillers—or if you like reading inspirational memoirs, or even if you like reading chick lit, this book has it all; near death experiences tracking down the world's tiniest lemur in parasite-infested jungles of Madagascar and surviving Expedition Africa with no tools, no medicine, no toilets, and as the only female in a group with three extreme alpha males. And about becoming a parent, and how motherhood has impacted it all.  This book is equal parts action and humor, inspiration and suspense, and a perfect read for YA fans, because without being didactic and without being preachy, the book is proof positive that no matter what experiences you have, and no matter what people tell you, the only person who can define who you are is you.

So if you're looking for a book with a strong female protagonist, if you've been wishing you could see more awesome female role models in literature or in life, then look no further. PINK BOOTS is for you.

But if you don't want to take my word for it, I'd understand. And then direct you to Jane Goodall—yeah, that JANE GOODALL—who wrote the Foreward for Mireya's book.

She said:

"Pink Boots and a Machete is a wonderful read, spiced with descriptions of the lighter, more humorous aspects of a life spent in wild, unconventional places. But it also details the very serious side of Mireya's research. Indeed, throughout the book, Mireya the scientist is very much present. I have had the opportunity to meet many researchers and conservationists, and some of them stand out. Mireya Mayor is one of them. Not only does this extraordinary woman have the courage and fortitude for the explorations she undertakes but she has the intellectual curiosity to answer questions previously unanswered. And she has the kind of imagination and sense of wonder that leads her to ask the right kinds of questions."

Or if JANE GOODALL isn't good enough for you**, then listen to Kirkus, which said:

"Mayor never gave up her trademark stylishness, even when the going got tough. [Her] gutsy grittiness and wicked sense of humor allowed her to survive danger, disease and sexism. Entertaining reading for the intrepid at heart."

Or Booklist, which said:

"Written in a breezy style that will be welcome to reality television aficionados, this National Geographic Wild co-host knows her audience and has crafted an appealing memoir that will be particularly welcome to outdoor wannabes."

Or Library Journal, which said:

"[Pink Boots] fills an important gap; it ought to inspire young people, especially young women, to follow in Mayor’s footsteps. Armchair adventurers and readers interested in nature will enjoy the journey."

Or you can simply see for yourself, and buy it at IndieBound, Barnes & Noble, or Amazon today.***


* Mireya Mayor is a PhD, a Fulbright scholar, a two-time Emmy Award winner, Nat Geo WILD channel host, National Geographic Explorer, and a co-discoverer of AN ENTIRE SPECIES. 
** If that's the case, we're fighting.
*** Barnes & Noble and Amazon offer a peek inside the book, complete with awesome (and insane) pictures.
****You might also want to follow @MireyaMayor on Twitter for details on her epic launch contest involving DVDs and other cool stuff you can't get anywhere else.