Going Dark

If you have bought the book, thank you.
If you are planning to buy the book, thank you.
If you are thinking about buying the book, thank you.
If you are saying nice things about the book to your family/friends/co-workers/acquaintances/inappropriate yoga guys, thank you.
If you have been saying nice things to me on Twitter or on the blog or on Facebook or in emails or via text messages, thank you. 

I want to thank you all individually, because your support over the past year and a half has been extraordinary. Truly. But it's Rosh Hashana in just a couple of hours, which means I'm going dark for a few days. If you have to reach me, you won't be able to. If you have to reach me urgently...you won't be able to. I just won't be here :(

But that doesn't mean the #MaraMadness should stop. So keep following the blog tour at Books Complete Me with the remaining stops at: 

Wednesday, 9/28: @ The Book Muncher 

Thursday, 9/29: @ I Eat Words 

Friday, 9/30: @ Supernatural Snark

And then you'll have all the letters you need for the scavenger hunt!

More I'm-Going-Away-And-Won't-Be-Able-To-Answer-Your-Questions-And-Tell-You-Things-Reminders:

1) The BIG CONTEST (you know, for the iPad2) is running through 10/4. Details are here, but in a nutshell: email a picture of MARA DYER in the wild (as in, not in bookstores) to maradyer at gmail dot com to enter. Tweeting/Facebooking/Tumbling about the contest not necessary but v. much appreciated, especially since I will be gone.

2) Don't forget that the Spread This Trailer Everywhere Contest is running until 10/10. Below is the trailer you should spread (it's international!) and you can enter in the comments of that post (and read that post for more details).

3) The pre-order contest, which ended last Thursday, had more than 300 entries! YAY! And guess what? EVERYONE who entered is going to get bookmarks. But I need to tally up the entries and with the craziness, won't be able to get to that until next week. Hoping to announce the winners on Monday.

4) If you've won something and haven't received it yet, it will be mailed on or after October 17th since I'm traveling constantly until then.

5) You may want to keep an eye on the Mara Dyer Facebook page. I heard there's going to be another trailer there. A different one.

6) If you have questions about the book that you want/need to ask this week, don't forget that there's a FAQ page on this blog; chances are they'll be answered there. If they aren't, you may find the information you're looking for on the other pages, or on www.michellehodkin.com or on www.maradyer.com. You can also try asking your (non-spoilery) questions on the Mara Dyer Facebook page. And if you just want someone to talk to about the book (the characters, the craziness, the ending) Lori, Casey, and The Dyer Files may be able to help. And if that doesn't help, there's always Google :D

I think that covers it. To everyone celebrating, chativa v'chatimah tova v' shana tova u'metuka. Have a happy, healthy, sweet new year. To everyone else, happy Wednesday.

See you on the other side.

The Truth

THE UNBECOMING OF MARA DYER came out yesterday. I want to say some things about that, and about me, that I've never said before and might even delete after the fact. I don't know. I debated whether or not to write this for a long time.

This is the truth: I've never really fit in--not anywhere, not ever. I've always been different. Strange. Controversial, one of my high school guidance counselors told my mom. Rebellious?

Absolutely.

But despite all that, I followed a pretty conventional path. I got good grades in high school and went to a good college. I went to law school and became a lawyer and did good work on cases I believed in. I adopted a few pets and bought a house with a white picket fence and a swing on a grand live oak tree.
And then I did something even I didn't expect.

I wrote a book.

Not because I wanted to. I never had the thought, "I'd like to be a writer someday," or "I'd like to be published." Not once. Not because it isn't an amazing thing to want; it is. But it just never even occurred to me to want it.

I wrote MARA DYER because I had to. Something happened when I was practicing law and something happened a year later that coalesced into this idea for a really bizarre story. And once I realized that it was a story, I had to write it. I quite literally couldn't stop.

I never, ever expected to get published and I did write it to entertain myself (and my friends and family), but once I realized I was in, that I was really doing this, part of me wanted to see if the thing I was making would somehow find its way to people like me. People that felt like a freak in high school and in...well, life. People that like TWILIGHT and Marilyn Manson, or LOLITA and Sarah Dessen. Kid Cudi and Trogdor or HARRY POTTER and SAW XVIIIIVX.

I'm not perfect. Far from it. And maybe that's why I love reading about books with characters who really aren't perfect. The outsiders. The misfits. The freakish.

Because that's how I've always felt, and it took me a long time to be okay with it. I'm glad I've lived the life I've lived and made the choices I've made. I'm glad I studied hard and got good grades and had a "normal" career before this very unusual one.

But I'm also so, so happy to have landed where I have and to have landed here now. To still have Marilyn Manson on my #maradyer playlist next to Josh Radin. To still love Patrick Bateman and to have added Edward Cullen, too.

But best and most of all? My favorite part of all this has been meeting you. In person and at conferences but also on Twitter and other places online. And not just seeing you guys wearing "Who is Mara Dyer?" T-shirts at your brother's graduation and at the zoo. Hearing about other books you love and how much Freshman Comp sucks.

So while I did write this book for me, if you've ever felt like a misfit, an outsider, a freak?

Nobody's perfect. And I wrote THE UNBECOMING OF MARA DYER for you, too.

 In stores everywhere. Like, now.

Release Day Post Part I: The Contest

"Aberforthf***inggoats...I sentence Michelle Hodkin to a life of tainting children’s classic stories, for my amusement." ~Bookphilia

Want to know what THAT review is about? Well, now you can find out, because MARA DYER is finally, finally, here. Like, right now. Like RIGHT NOW.

And if you get your hands on her, you'll be eligible to enter My Gigantic, Enormous, Very Big, Very Huge MARA DYER Contest. Also known as MGEVBVH MARA DYER Contest. Here's how:

1) Buy THE UNBECOMING OF MARA DYER.

2) Take it home. Or to the park. Or to school. Or to the shark tank at your local aquarium. Or to Zanzibar.

3) Take a picture of MARA out in the world. As in, not on a bookshelf in a bookstore. MARA lives there now so that would be no fun for her.

4) Email it to maradyer at gmail dot com.

That's it! That's all! And who knows, she might even write back.

Why should you bother?

1) 1 person will win an iPad 2*. Seriously. Here is the iPad, new in it's box. Next to Three-Year-Old Michelle, smiling and waiting for you to win it:

2) 8 people will win 10 signed bookmarks each. They are so much more gorgeous in person, with silver foil on black on one side and the cover art on the other:

3) 2 people will win "Who is Mara Dyer?" T-shirts and archival print posters of the cover art.

3) 1 person will win either: a fifty page manuscript critique or an outtake that will not be posted online. Regarding the MS critique, FYI, I have never offered these before as part of a contest, an auction, or a favor, and the chances that I will again are slim.

4) 3 people will win "Who is Mara Dyer?" T-shirts, and iPhone skins with the cover art graphics.

Fifteen winners. All you need is a copy of THE UNBECOMING OF MARA DYER, a camera, and an internet connection to enter.

This contest is open September 27th - October 4th. Here are THE RULES:

1. One book purchased = one entry. If you have three MARAs in a circle holding hands in Central Park singing kumbaya, you not only get three entries, but my undying devotion, too. But three different pictures of one copy of MARA DYER still = one entry.

2. If you received a free review copy or ARC from me, Simon & Schuster, or at BEA or ALA or from anywhere else, you can't enter with the ARC. But you can buy a copy and enter with that!

3. This contest IS open internationally.

4. Pictures of you and MARA in bookstores don't count. You and MARA have to be doing something cool, and MARA already lives in bookstores. Take MARA on a ferris wheel. Take her to your grandparents' creepy attic. Take her on a walk with your dog. 

5. If you can snag a shot of MARA on your eReader, that counts as an entry!

6. Deadline is October 4th.

And...........

*The iPad was donated by someone really, really wonderful. It was actually supposed to be for me but I wouldn't have any occasion to use it. So I asked permission to give it to one of you, and was told that I could. You win.

Weekend Update

THE UNBECOMING OF MARA DYER comes out tomorrow.  

Yeah.

I haven't really been able to process this because I feel like everything has been happening so fast. So fast. Which is AMAZING. And I am so fortunate and grateful, even though it's becoming clear that I can't even hope to keep up. There's stuff happening all the time. Like this past weekend, in fact! Here's a recap:

- Early copies of THE UNBECOMING OF MARA DYER were given out in some cities to people who attended Abduction during the opening weekend) HOW CRAZYPANTS IS THIS?


- I had my first two school visits ever and ZOMG, they were so much fun. I didn't realize how much fun they would be, and I was actually pretty nervous, but the teenagers Elizabeth Scott and I spoke to were seriously cool. And MARA DYER sold out at both schools. #dead


- This weekend, I had the honor of being invited to the YA Lit Conference hosted by Anderson's Bookshop in Naperville. Not only did I stay at a gorgeous LEED certified hotel with a television IN THE BATHROOM MIRROR and a soaking tub that I miss:

But I also got to see authors Elizabeth Miles, Lisa McMann, Torrey Maldonado, Paul Griffin, Patrick Carman, Jeff Hirsch, Ilsa Bick, Elizabeth Scott, Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis and So. Many. More. I also had the pleasure of hanging out with librarians/teachers/bloggers Heidi, Jillian, Lynn and Stacey.

Everyone was hilarious and cool, but I took some things away from the conference that you should know: a) Ilsa Bick is a BAMF and if you have the opportunity to meet her in person, you need to, b) Elizabeth Miles is the epitome of cool but more importantly, she has a SILVER PEN, c) Paul Griffin is a fellow pit bull champion (YES), d) I wish I was Lisa McMann and e) I would like a spare two weeks to do nothing but read every book Patrick Carman has ever written.

It was wonderful. Meeting teenagers and hearing that people are starting to get the book--the REAL book--and then meeting and seeing so many authors and librarians and teachers at the conference made me overwhelmingly happy. And then MARA DYER sold out at the conference, too, and...it was just too much.

And now I am in Miami and waiting until my BFF's flight gets in because she is not only coming in for my launch, but we will be having a sleepover party in the house--nay, in the VERY BEDROOM--I grew up in. I foresee shenanigans. Especially considering the 9:00pm chat hosted by the Mundie Moms tonight. BFF & I might already be "celebrating" by then, so who knows WHAT kinds of answers or things I shall say.

In other words, think of the LULZ. You might not want to miss?

I have a post going up later today with details about how to enter The Biggest Contest Yet and what the RIDICULOUSLY huge prize is, but until then, tell me what YOU did this weekend. Curious minds want to know.

THE BOOK TRAILER IS HERE!

And then the wonderful, amazing people at MTV (MTV!!!!!!!!!!) went on to say this:

"[H]aving just dropped everything to devour "Mara Dyer" in a matter of hours, I can tell you that the book lives up to the trailer's promise and then some. It's the story of a girl trying to piece together what happened the night she, her best friend, her boyfriend and his sister spent the night in an abandoned asylum and only she survived, unscathed but traumatized. And it's the story of a girl trying to start over again after her family picks up and moves to Miami, all for her sake. And it's the story of a girl falling in love with the super-cool British bad boy with a rep for breaking hearts. Be careful, 'cause you'll fall right along with her. Your only solace: The sequel is due out in the fall of 2012." 

I tell you, I died of the amazing. And international friends- the trailer will be up on YouTube TOMORROW. At some point. I do not know when.

But either way, I now introduce to you the Share The Trailer And Win Things Contest! Also known as the Spread This Trailer Everywhere Contest! Where you can win:

- an archival poster
- a "Who is Mara Dyer T-shirt"
- a signed hardcover

So go tell the world about #maradyer. And post your links to the places you've shared it (Twitter, Facebook, etc) in the comments of this post.

In other news, my FIRST EVER school visits went AWESOMELY (Mara Dyer sold out!) and now I am off to have fun at YA Lit Con. See you on the flip side :D

the trailer, & the biggest contest yet

 A still from the trailer

As of right now, it's just three days, twenty hours, and eight minutes until something I made is going to be out there in the big, crazy world.

But today, something else goes out into the big, crazy world, too. That trailer I've been talking incessantly about? For months now? It's finally going live. Today. On MTV's Hollywood Crush blog. HERE:

http://hollywoodcrush.mtv.com/

That is the link. I don't know what time it's scheduled to hit; I've already left for Tour Part I and I am right now typing this from here:

Fancy room with television in the bathroom mirror!

But while I am having fun talking to ACTUAL TEENAGERS in the WILD today, you go watch the trailer. Share it. Spread that trailer everywhere.

I hate asking things of you without offering something in return. Henceforth, I announce the Spread This Trailer Everywhere Contest:

One winner. Chosen at random. Post your links (to the places you spread it like linking to it on Twitter, Facebook, and soonandsoforth) in the comments. Runs until 10/10.

Prizes are:

- Archival poster
- T-shirt
- Signed hardcover

And with that, I’m off to prep for my first school visits EVER and then to the YA Lit Conference hosted by Anderson’s Bookshop in Naperville, IL. I predict a weekend full of AWESOME. #Cantwait

And if you haven't ordered MARA DYER yet, what are you waiting for?

Oh, the big prize? I mean, the BIG PRIZE? Well, check back on Monday to find out what it is and how you can win it. I'll give you just the one hint: you're going to have to own THE UNBECOMING OF MARA DYER to enter. You might want to click?

Who is Mara Dyer?

 

Nope. Can't keep calm about this.

While there's no fancy language to translate, that doesn't make this sale any less exciting:

THE UNBECOMING OF MARA DYER sold to Simon & Schuster UK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Now. The book isn't out yet so you might not know this. But there's a boy in it. A boy named Noah Shaw. He's from England. And Mara's grandmother used to live there, too, once upon a time.

Again, I don't have pictures of anyone gallivanting around the UK with a "Who is Mara Dyer?" T-shirt, but I'd really like some. So same deal: first person to comment on this post who lives anywhere in the UK will win a T-shirt. I'll send them to you forthwith.

Also? Just 1 week left.

You entered the contest by pre-ordering, didn't you?

Mara Dyer kimdir?*

Okay, so, even though I travel a lot, something not many people know about me is that I have only spent time in THREE foreign countries. One of them is Germany; and Mara Dyer is going to be spending time there too, soon! Another is Israel; no current plans for MARA to move there unfortunately, but if that DOES ever happen, I will do a vlog of myself saying the first paragraph in Hebrew. You heard it here first. 

The last country? The last country I've spent time in was Turkey. 

And guess what?


Turkish rights to THE UNBECOMING OF MARA DYER sold, too. 

And I'll make the same offer to someone who lives in Turkey that I did to any Brazilian readers out there: if you live in Turkey, and want a Mara Dyer T-shirt, and promise to wear one and take a cool picture of yourself wearing one out and about on the streets of Turkey, please comment? I'll send one ASAP to the first person (who lives in Turkey) to speak up!

:D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

In other news, I also ran an impromptu Twitter contest on Friday for the first signed hardcover of MARA DYER, and a contest for a "Who is Mara Dyer?" T-shirt in the comments of the Brazilian-rights-news-post. Here are the winners!

Signed hardcovers: @mrscupcakeman AND @lovereadingx !
"Who is Mara Dyer?" T-shirt: Linda the Book Ninja


YAY! Send your address to mdhodkin at gmail dot com and I shall email you back with details.

For everyone else? Stay tuned. Because there will be more goodies. Much more.

And the preorder contest for LOTS of them is still open. Just so you know.



*Google translate again. I...really hope I did not butcher this. But I probably did. Meh.

Quem é Mara Dyer?

So, I know what you're thinking.

Where's the picture of an awesome person wearing a "Who is Mara Dyer?" T-shirt in Brazil?*"

Well, there isn't one. But MARA DYER is going to be published there anyway, by the wonderful team at Record!

Because I don't have a picture of an awesome person wearing a "Who is Mara Dyer?" T-shirt in Brazil, here is a picture that approximates my expression right now:

But also, I really WOULD like a picture of an awesome person wearing a "Who is Mara Dyer?" T-shirt in Brazil. So if you live in Brazil, and want a Mara Dyer T-shirt, and promise to wear one and take a cool picture of yourself wearing one out and about on the streets of Brazil, please comment? I'll send one ASAP to the first person (who lives in Brazil) to comment!

WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In other news, 10 minutes ago, I was chatting with some friends from El Salvador and other places on Twitter and they mentioned #maradyer. And I was like: "How did you even find out about #maradyer?" And that got me wondering.

If you made it here, chances are you made it here because of the book. But how did you first hear about it?

If you chime in with your answer in the comments, random.org will choose a number between 1 and however many comments there are, and I'll send a "Who is Mara Dyer?" T-shirt to that person too!

Love you guys. More than you know.


*What you're probably thinking is..."yeesh, when is she going to stop posting these already?" I HOPE NEVER AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

OMG WTF

So, on Twitter a few days ago, a lovely blogger named Katie tweeted this:

And I retweeted this:

And then I got responses like this:

But I did say that I didn't want to read reviews. It's not that I don't appreciate them; I do. Because I know it's a thankless job that you don't even get paid for and word of mouth? It's EVERYTHING to an author. But it's hard to know when reading something might affect the way I write something in the future, so generally, I try to steer clear.

But then I got an email from Jessica S., who wrote:

"I know you said you would love to see all of the reactions and reviews of MARA DYER but that you don't read reviews. That gave me the idea to create a word cloud so you could see what people are saying without having to really read it. I copied and pasted about 175 reviews that I found of the book on Google and the attached picture is what Wordle generated. The most commonly used words are the largest. I LOLed and hope you like it."

Jessica S.? I love it. I love it so much I want to give it diamonds and two tickets to that thing it loves. I want to build it a house on Candy Mountain and have its WTFabulous babies.

So there you have it, guys. In just eleven days, all that WTFery could be YOURS.

誰是馬拉代爾 ?*

Pictured: Steph Su at the Yu Gardens in China

I think you know what this means...

Complex Chinese rights to publish THE UNBECOMING OF MARA DYER have been sold to Rye Field/Cite Publishing!

!!!!!!!

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


!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

I hope I do not die from excitement before I get to see what "My name is not Mara Dyer, but my lawyer told me I had to choose something," looks like in Chinese. 

In other news, that Mara Dyer playlist I've been hanging onto forever? I finally posted it. As part of the #MaraMadness blog tour. Check out Naughty Book Kitties to see! 






*Google translate again. I hope this doesn't mean something embarrassing.

Wer ist Mara Dyer?*

Pictured: Lenore Appelhans at the Nuremberg Zoo in Germany

Who is Mara Dyer?

Germany is going to find out! Yep, THE UNBECOMING OF MARA DYER sold to the LOVELY people at DTV (Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am WILDLY excited about this, for a few reasons. One of them is that I spent some time in Germany (Berlin) when I was in law school, and everyone I met there was overflowing with awesome. I am seriously hoping I get to go back someday soon so I can meet all of the amazing people working to publish MARA DYER there!

Another reason? Mara already has a friend there! That's one fine looking gator. 

And Lenore's not so bad either ;)  

GUYS HOW CRAZY IS THIS?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?




*Google Translate says this is "Who is Mara Dyer?" in German. So if there's an "Ich bin ein Berliner" situation happening, I am blaming them.

Chi è Mara Dyer?*

I have been sitting on this for a while. A long while. But now it's time to finally tell you:

THE UNBECOMING OF MARA DYER? It sold to Mondadori in Italy.

Pictured below: Mitali Dave in Florence, Italy      

That means sometime next year, people who live in a country I've never even been to (I'm going to have to remedy that) are going to be able to read about Mara, Noah, Daniel, Joseph, Jamie, Ouija boards, Croyden, Zyprexa, botanicas, Lolita, pit bulls, the TSLA, alligators, Laurelton, and other weirdness in my weird book. And I'm going to find out how to say some of my more...colorful words...in Italian.

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

I. Can't. Wait.

In other amazingness, a bunch of infinitely awesome and wonderful book bloggers took it upon themselves to start something called #maramondays- every Monday (from 9/5 to 9/26), they're posting all kinds of fun MARA DYER-related stuff. Like:  

Mara Dyer Fan Art (four words I never, ever thought I'd say) 
Mara Dyer giveaways!
Mara Dyer reviews!

I had nothing to do with any of this, but that just makes me even more grateful for the effort they've put in, particularly with the insanity that is my life right now. I LOVE YOU GUYS!




*"Who is Mara Dyer?" in Italian. I think. According to Google Translate, anyway.

September 11th, 2001

I am not going to write much about September 11th today because I was a junior at NYU, in New York City, on 12th St. and 5th Ave, on my way to my first Tuesday/Thursday class (Dante's Divine Comedy with John Freccero) with a direct line of sight to the WTC at 8:46 AM and 9:03 AM when flights 11 and 175 crashed into the North and South tower.

My dorm was on 25th St. between 1st and 2nd, and to get to the train, I had to pass the 69th regiment armory on Lexington b/t 25th and 26th street. That meant in order to get to and from class or to and from anywhere in the weeks that followed the attacks, I passed dozens, then hundreds, then thousands of MISSING fliers and posters posted by families searching for their mothers, sons, husbands, grandparents, aunts, brothers, children, uncles, and wives.

I breathed the air every day.

Five years later, I worked as a lawyer on the multi-district litigation on behalf of the families of victims on the four flights. I poured over evidence and formulated arguments about the economic value of human life. It was a privilege but it was hard.

Most of what I would like to write about September 11th I can't write, and what I could write doesn't really add much to the conversation. I was there, I did what little I could on that day and in the days, weeks, and years following. I could never forget.

Where were you?

Eight Hundred and Forty-Six

Is the number of days it took to go from this:

To this:

844 days is the number it took to go from this:

To this:

My entire life has changed in the last two years, three months, and twenty-four days and I can trace it all back to that one moment. 

There's so much more to say, but right now, I don't have the words. 

kind and generous.

Being an author is an awesome job, but it isn't easy. I wouldn't say it's harder than anyone else's, but it isn't easy. Authors have deadlines looming over them almost always. They have dozens, if not hundreds, of emails to respond to daily. They have blog posts to write and interviews to respond to and school visits and signings to travel to. They have teams of people depending on them to produce—their agent, their editor, and everyone else at their house whose reputation is at stake with every tweet and every blog post an author tosses into the internet. Authors don't know if their books will sell to expectations. They don't know whether reviewers will love it or hate it (or most likely, both). And all of the things they don't know will determine whether or not they get to be paid to write the next book.

And yet there are authors out there who take the time to engage with their fans and other writers—published or not—to a level that astounds me. I'm looking at Cassie Clare's near constant Q&A responses in multiple forums. I'm looking at Holly Black's conversations with readers in comments and tweets. At Lisa McMann's interaction with fans on formspring, Myspace, any and every social networking forum there is. I'm looking at Kami Garcia and Margie Stohl, who make fans feel like family at signings and events, no matter how strange we are. Melissa Marr, who talks to her fans about music until the wee hours of the morning. At RL Stine, who could move to a cabin in Saskachewan and never speak a word to a human soul again and still be the Master of Badassery as far as kid lit is concerned, but takes the time to say things like this.  I'm looking at John Green and David Levithan, at Laurie Halse Anderson and Jay Asher, at Ellen Hopkins and Maggie Stiefvater, at Becca Fitzpatrick and Jo Knowles, at Scott Westerfeld and Libba Bray, at Nova Ren Suma and Gayle Forman. At Maureen Johnson, who makes it all look so deceptively easy. At Saundra Mitchell, who has been kinder than I can say.

These YA authors are cool and helpful, nice and encouraging, funny and genuine. And most of all, generous. They want people to read their books, sure. But so many of them could drop off the face of the earth and their books would still do well. They blog and tweet and talk because they want to. They help us and chat with us and brighten our days because they are kind. I can't think of better role models. Can you?

So today, for each comment in this post until 11:59PM, I'm donating a dollar to the Ali Forney Center for Homeless LGBT Youth. If an author has ever said or done something nice or you, speak up, and let's do something nice in their honor right back.

Mara Madness

You can see the widget. You know how close MARA DYER is to actually being out.

The printed hardcovers are on their way. The launch festivities are being planned. The tour schedule is being finalized and confirmed. The trailer debut is approaching. Here's another sneak peek of that, by the way:

And the blog tour?

Well, that kicks off today at Pure Imagination!

The next twenty-one days are filled with Mara Madness. Check out the full schedule over at Books Complete Me, and stay tuned for chances to win personalized hardcovers of MARA DYER, the final annotated ARC, "Who Is Mara Dyer" T-shirts (shown here) and more.

What kind of "more," you want to know? Well, if you pre-order THE UNBECOMING OF MARA DYER between now and 9/22, screenshot (or take a picture of) your receipt and send it to noahshaw1221 at gmail dot com, then:

1 person will win the last ARC of MARA DYER I have, annotated on nearly every page with back story, secrets, and hints about the sequel.
8 people will win signed bookmarks (hot off the presses, and they are gorgeous)
2 people will win signed (or unsigned, depending on your preference) posters of the MARA cover art.
1 person will win a Nook
3 people will win Mara Dyer T-shirts

Did you catch that?

Posters. Bookmarks. T-shirts. The last ARC, with detailed, behind-the-scenes info. A Nook.

The contest is international. And you can pre-order from anywhere (check the sidebar for links), but if you want your book personalized or signed, Books & Books is the place to do it*. And when you email the address above with your receipt, you might also hear back from Noah.

But that's just a rumor.

Thank you for everything you do for me and for MARA every day.

Let the madness begin.

*note: You must indicate what you want written in your personalized copy in the comments of your pre-order: whether it's just my signature that you want or whether you want me to sign your copy to you (To Bridget, To Bridget Adams, To Bridget Adams-Brewer) otherwise the Books & Books staff won't know what instructions to give me!