My Summer Schedule: Appearances, Book Updates, and a Social Media Break

Bathing beauties. Library of Congress.

Hello, dear readers. I hope you're doing well.

Here's my news for Summer 2016.

My newest YA novel, Odd & True, is due to my editor in August, and I'm hurriedly working to finish it so it can remain on schedule for its Fall 2017 release. In order to meet my deadline, I won't be posting any more updates on this site for a while.

Furthermore, I plan to take a social media break from July 11 to August 8. If you send me any messages during those weeks, I'll be hiding away in a writing cave and won't be able to respond. That's truly the only possible way I'll survive. 

In the coming weeks I'm also heading to both Florida and New York for literary events, most of them kindly arranged by my YA publisher, Abrams. Here are the finalized details about where and when I'll be appearing:

Sunday, June 26, 2016

ALA 2016 Annual Conference and Exhibition

Orange County Convention Center, Orlando, FL

9:00 am-10:00 am: YALSA's Coffee Klatch (ticketed event).
11:00 am-Noon: Book signing in ABRAMS Booth #1226.

Wednesday, July 6, 2016, 7:00 pm

McNally Jackson Books
52 Prince St., New York, NY
I'll be in conversation with my YA editor, author Maggie Lehrman. Q&A and signing to follow.

Saturday, July 9, 2016

ThrillerFest

Grand Hyatt, New York City, NY

Panel - Medieval, Renaissance, or WWII? Historical Thrillers (1:00 pm-1:50 pm).

Saturday, August 13, 2016

Willamette Writers Conference

Sheraton Portland Airport Hotel, Portland, OR

Panel - How to Break Into (and Survive!) the World of Young Adult Fiction (3:30 pm-5:00 pm).

Many of my Fall 2016 signings are already listed on my Events page, including the launch party for Yesternight, my next novel for adults, which HarperCollins will release October 4, 2016.

There are a few other fall festival/conference appearances in the works, but I can't yet announce them. Please check back around September for the updated info.

I'm extremely grateful to be so busy as an author, but, unfortunately, the deadlines and traveling have forced me to decline my assistance to numerous people who have asked me to blurb their books or to help them out in some other way. I genuinely wish I could help everyone, but I'm also raising two kids in the middle of working on my books, and any spare moment that's left (which isn't much) must absolutely go to them.

Thank you for patience. Thank you for your enthusiasm for my work!

Warmest wishes,
Cat 

Recap of the 2014 YALSA Morris Award Celebrations!

Me, signing books with Carrie Mesrobian.

I'm back from the 2014 ALA Midwinter Meeting in Philadelphia, where I received the chance to celebrate being a 2014 YALSA Morris Award finalist, along with Carrie Mesrobian, Evan Roskos, Elizabeth Ross and 2014 Morris Award winner Stephanie Kuehn. Although my job is all about putting words and sentences together, I'm at a loss for how to sufficiently sum up the intensity of this experience.

On Sunday night I had dinner with all the Morris Award finalists, as well as the 2014 Morris Award committee (which included Booklist senior editor and YA horror author Daniel Kraus). We all chatted about books, favorite TV series, Frozen, spirit ectoplasm, and various other entertaining topics, but I still felt like I was in a surreal, can't-quite-completely-process-what's-happening state of mind.

Early Monday morning, my editor, Maggie Lehrman, my publicist, Laura Mihalick, and I headed over to the ALA Youth Media Awards at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, where the anticipation was palpable. I've watched webcasts of past Youth Media Awards and knew the announcements entailed loud whoops and gasps of joy from the audience, but actually sitting in the middle of the event blew my mind.

In the Shadow of Blackbirds on the screen.

Eventually, we came to the Morris Award part of the ceremony, and all of the finalists' covers were flashing up on a screen in the front of the room. Titles, author names, and publishers were announced in alphabetical order, according to the authors' last names. My cover came up last, and I remember holding up my phone to take a picture of it, but I don't remember the actual announcement of my title and name, even though I know it happened. It felt sort of like passing out without actually passing out. Stephanie Kuehn's Charm & Strange was announced as the winner, which I loved, because I had just finished reading her book on the long ride across the country. It's a powerful shocker of a novel.

After all of the awards, including the Newbery and Caldecotts, were announced, Maggie whisked me off to the Abrams booth, where I signed copies of In the Shadow of Blackbirds for an hour and hungrily collected advance reading copies of my fellow Amulet Books authors' novels. One book I grabbed was Sarah Skilton's upcoming YA noir, High and Dry, which I read and loved during the plane ride home. 

Maggie and I then headed to YALSA's Morris & Nonfiction Award Program & Presentation, where every winner and finalist gave a short speech. I believe transcripts of all of our speeches will eventually be available at http://www.ala.org/yalsa. Here are some photos from the presentation:

Me, being introduced before my speech.

At the podium! Fellow finalist Evan Roskos is on the far right.

The next and last stop was signing books for the attendees of the presentation. I walked over to my table, and I saw a sight that finally made everything seem right-there-in-the-moment real: the Morris Award finalist seal was attached to every copy of my book.

My eyes welled with tears. I didn't actually lose my composure and ugly cry in front of everyone, but I was most certainly moved. Seeing the jpeg of my cover with the sticker back in December was astounding enough, but to have the actual three-dimensional book in front of me and be able to run my hands over the words on the seal, that's a moment I'll never forget.

YALSA also presented me with a gorgeous plaque:

Thank you YALSA for creating this award, thank you 2014 Morris Award committee for selecting In the Shadow of Blackbirds as a finalist, and thank you Abrams for sending me to Philadelphia so I could partake in this incredible experience. As you can tell from the smile on my face in the photo above, I'm ecstatic!

Where I'll be at ALA Midwinter (Online Viewing Option Included)

The American Library Association graciously invited all of us YALSA Morris Award finalists to the ALA Midwinter Meeting in Philadelphia. I'll be flying in during the evening of Sunday, January 26, and then dining with my fellow nominees, Stephanie Kuehn, Carrie Mesrobian, Evan Roskos, and Elizabeth Ross, as well as the 2014 William C. Morris Award Committee.

If you're also heading to ALA Midwinter, here's where you'll be able to find me on Monday, January 27:

8:00-9:00 am: ALA Youth Media Awards, Convention Center Grand Ballroom A.

9:15-10:15 am: I'll be signing copies of In the Shadow of Blackbirds at Abrams Booth #713.

10:30 am-12:00 pm: YALSA's Morris & Nonfiction Award Program & Presentation, Convention Center, 103B Lecture Hall. (All of the finalists, including myself, will be speaking at this ticketed event.)

For those of you not traveling to Philadelphia for the Midwinter Meeting, a live webcast of the Youth Media Awards will be offered that Monday morning. I don't think you'll actually see me on the webcast; past video footage of the awards ceremonies shows the book covers displayed on a screen while someone announces the finalists and winners. If you do want to catch the ceremony live, please go to http://live.webcastinc.com/ala/2014/live/.

I will most definitely share photos after I'm back and settled!

Photos and News from my First IN THE SHADOW OF BLACKBIRDS Appearance

Photo by fellow 2013 debut author,
Amy Tintera (Reboot).

I had the opportunity to spend this past weekend at the American Library Association's Midwinter Meeting in Seattle, and I was overwhelmed by the excitement brewing for In the Shadow of Blackbirds.

On Saturday afternoon, I signed advance copies of the novel in the ABRAMS booth from 2:00-3:30, and I was stunned to see actual lines forming to meet me. Thank you so much to everyone who stopped by! I met librarians, bloggers, teen readers, fellow authors, college students, and numerous other avid book readers. It was absolutely wonderful.

In the afternoon, I met fellow Lucky 13s members Kristen Kittscher (The Wig in the Window), Amy Tintera (Reboot), Lenore Appelhans (Level 2), and Sarah Skilton (Bruised, also by Amulet Books/ABRAMS). Plus I had coffee with fellow Corsets, Cutlasses, & Candlesticks author Katherine Longshore (Gilt, Tarnish). All these authors are highly talented and as nice as can be.

Sarah Skilton and me.

I ate a lovely dinner with ABRAMS staff members and authors, as well as Seattle-area booksellers. Then I was back to signing at the booth the following morning.

I also had the opportunity to speak about In the Shadow of Blackbirds twice, once in the conference's Book Buzz theater, and once at a librarian luncheon, at which I met nearly fifty enthusiastic librarians from across the U.S. Here are some photos from Book Buzz:

Tom Angleberger chats about Art2-D2.

Sarah Skilton discusses Bruised.

My In the Shadow of Blackbirds talk (with Jason Wells, Cecily Kaiser, & Maggie Lehrman of ABRAMS).
Photo by Sarah Skilton.

And here are photos of some of the talented people who have been helping me turn In the Shadow of Blackbirds into a reality.

My editor, Maggie Lehrman (left), and my ABRAMS publicist, Laura Mihalick.

A shot of me in the booth with Maggie Lehrman.

Thanks so much to ABRAMS Books for allowing In the Shadow of Blackbirds and me to be a part of ALA Midwinter 2013!