Friday Updates: Launch Party, ebook, & the Latest Giveaways

My launch party for In the Shadow of Blackbirds will be held tomorrow, Saturday, April 6, 4:00 pm, at Powell's Books at Cedar Hills Crossing in Beaverton, Oregon! If you live in the area and can make it, I'd love to see you there. If you can't make it, you can still pre-order a signed copy, which Powell's will ship to you after the event.

Here's a photo of the novel, waiting on the Upcoming Events shelf at Powell's. I'm a huge fan of Karen Russell's, so I'm thrilled to see In the Shadow of Blackbirds sitting next to her latest release.

I'm still waiting to hear the latest updates about the Nook version of In the Shadow of Blackbirds! You can order the Kindle edition, but unfortunately, there has been a delay with the other ebook versions.

Here are the latest guest posts, interviews, and giveaways:

A&C Kids UK:

The Nocturnal Library:

Guest Post: 10 Ways I Researched the Past for In the Shadow of Blackbirds. International giveaway for a finished copy included.

A.L. Davroe's website:

A Feature Friday interview and two giveaways for finished copies.

Emily's Crammed Bookshelf:

A lovely five-star review from a teen blogger. She's offering a giveaway of a finished copy.

You can also find guest stops and giveaways on the In the Shadow of Blackbirds Blog Tour, which ends tomorrow. See also my Tuesday and Wednesday posts for other places I've visited during this busy, amazing book release week.

If I've visited your blog during the past week or so, and you don't see a mention of it, please send me a reminder and I'll add a link!

More Interviews, Giveaways, & Guest Posts

According to the brand-new countdown widget that now appears at BlackbirdsNovel.com, there are 38 days left until the publication of In the Shadow of Blackbirds! Because April 2 is getting so close, you'll more than likely see me and my novel, as well as several giveaways involving the novel, showing up across the Web.

Here's where In the Shadow of Blackbirds and I turned up this past week:

Realm of Fiction: An interview with me that involves fairy photos and flu remedies, plus an international ARC giveaway.

The Young Adult Connection: Guest post ("Why YA?") and an international In the Shadow of Blackbirds charm bracelet giveaway. 

Book, Bones, & Buffy: Preorder copy giveaway (international), part of the YA Paranormal Hop.

The Lucky 13s: We debut kidlit authors are sharing our childhood and teen photos. See me when I was about six months older than my protagonist, Mary Shelley Black.

Book Trailer Release Tour: Five ARCs and a free download of Jill Tracy's "Under the Fate of the Blue Moon" are still up for grabs (U.S. and Canada only). 

Publishers Weekly Children's Bookshelf: The publication's starred review of In the Shadow of Blackbirds showed up as one of the featured reviews.

Blogger/librarian reviews are also starting to appear online. Here's a small sampling (the last review contains several passages from the book, so you can get a taste of the novel's prose).

The Book Geek
The Book Stalker
Shelf-Employed

Thanks to everyone who's helping to spread the world about In the Shadow of Blackbirds! I greatly appreciate your time and enthusiasm!

FREE COUNTDOWN WIDGET

Why I Write about the Early 1900s

Today I'm blogging over at Corsets, Cutlasses, and Candlesticks, the new YA and middle-grade historical fiction site I launched with eight other authors in September.

The theme this week is our favorite time periods, and I'm explaining how growing up near Disneyland in Southern California can turn a person into a historical novelist.

http://corsetsandcutlasses.wordpress.com/2012/10/08/i-blame-walt-disney-for-my-love-of-the-past/

I'm also kicking off my October tribute to Halloween music today by sharing my very first favorite ghost song, "Grim Grinning Ghosts"...also from Disneyland.

Today at ADR3NALINE3, I Explain How an Orange County Childhood Turned Me into a Gothic Novelist

Fellow Amulet Books author A.G. Howard, author of Splintered (January 2013), invited me to be her guest today at ADR3NALINE3, the new website for dark middle-grade and teen fiction.

Head over to my guest post to discover how my Orange County childhood, Walt Disney, Harry Houdini, and an elementary school library book all led to the creation of my upcoming Gothic novel, In the Shadow of Blackbirds.

If you've just arrived here from ADR3NALIN3, welcome! Feel free to have a look around my humble virtual home.

A little mood music to accompany your visit:

ADR3NALIN3 GUEST POST

My First Post-Book-Deal Interview & Other Blogosphere Travels This Week

All this week I'm traveling around the blogosphere, making various guest appearances.

Today Mindy McGinnis, author of the upcoming dystopian thriller Not a Drop to Drink, interviewed me over at Writer, Writer, Pants on Fire. I'm part of her interview series called Submission Hell—It's True (I'll let you figure out the acronym of that series on your own). You can read about my long and winding submission journey here.

P.S. Not a Drop to Drink sounds amazing. Check it out at Goodreads.

I also just participated in Gennifer Albin's Januquery project. Gennifer is the author of another upcoming novel I can't wait to read: Crewel, set in a world where women designated as "Spinsters" can control time. She invited members of The Lucky 13s to help her critique query letters people are submitting to her site, and my critique ran yesterday. I've worked as a copy editor in the past, so I sincerely hope the author whose query I chose didn't pass out when she saw all my red marks. Queries are an extremely challenging part of the process of getting an agent, and I wish the best for all the Januquery participants.

Tomorrow (Jan. 11) I have a post running at The Lucky 13s. This week's topic: What Keeps You Going When the Going Gets Tough. I may have composed a song for that particular subject...

Finally, this Friday I'm participating in the monthly 13th-Day Post at The Lucky 13s and celebrating Friday the Thirteenth with a special post at Suburban Vampire.

When I'm not running all over the place, giving my two cents on the world of writing, I'll be right here working on my newest manuscript, which I'm trying to tackle as much as possible before I receive my In the Shadow of Blackbirds edits. All I can say about this one is that it's another Gothic historical novel. The working title, the basic plot, and everything else about the book will be staying under wraps for now.