Trailer Love...Amazing Mini-Movies for 2012 YA Book Releases

Just a quick post to share some highly impressive book trailers for some highly impressive-looking 2012 YA releases:

BORN WICKED by Jessica Spotswood


STARTERS by Lissa Price (who shares my incredible agent, Barbara Poelle)


CINDER by Marissa Meyer


THE SPRINGSWEET by Saundra Mitchell


What do you think? Do you love how book trailers are starting to resemble movie trailers more? Or are you a little peeved that actors are getting cast for books before we're able to form our own mental images of the characters?

My Musical Ode to Rejection Letter Survival

The theme this week at The Lucky 13s is What Keeps You Going When the Going Gets Tough. I responded with a song:

"THE TWELVE DAYS OF REJECTION"

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.