News

Hi! Today we’re celebrating the release of Chelsea Pitcher’s THE S-WORD​, which came out yesterday! They say:   Lizzie wasn’t the first student at Verity High School to kill herself this year. But the difference is, she didn’t go quietly. First it was SLUT scribbled all over the school’s lockers. But one week after Lizzie Hart takes her own life, SUICIDE SLUT replaces it — in Lizzie’s own looping scrawl. Photocopies of her diary show up in the hands of her classmates. And her best friend, Angie, is enraged. Angie had stopped talking to Lizzie on prom night, when she caught Lizzie in bed with her boyfriend. Too heartbroken to let Lizzie explain the hookup or to intervene when Lizzie gets branded Queen of the Sluts and is cruelly bullied by her classmates, Angie left her best friend to the mercy of the school, with tragic results. But with this new slur, Angie’s guilt... Read More

Hi! So last night on twitter I was talking with Dahlia Adler and Maggie Hall about my love of list-making. A few years ago, I made a list of 30 things to accomplish by my 30th birthday and did a little over 2/3 of the stuff on it. And since today is my birthday, I decided to come up with a new list of challenges for the next year. Some of them are writing (or reading)-related, some are about trying new things (not my forte), some are about doing things I’ve been meaning to do for ages that I think would be good for me/fun. All of them relate back to my touchstone word for the year, BALANCE. Finish writing / editing Cahill Witch Chronicles. Sell another series Write a whole new book! Be a speaker at a writing conference Organize <sekrit thing> Teach summer writing camp. Attend one big... Read More

Hi! I am FULL of STAR CURSED news today! 1. Penguin Teen is giving away copies of STAR CURSED on Facebook. (You have to “like” their page to enter.) 2. Kirkus gave STAR CURSED a very positive review! Waiting for the first trade review to come can be a little nervous-making, especially so when it’s from Kirkus, which has a reputation of being a trifle harsh. I am very grateful for their review, which says things like “genuinely surprising twist” “page-turning” and “a strong sequel!” Yay! 3. The German cover for STAR CURSED (aka STERNENFLUCH) is up! It continues the German (and US) hardcover look with another photograph by Alexandra Sophie. What do you think? I think it’s gorgeous and sexy and I love it! It comes out mid-August. 4. STAR CURSED is available for review on NetGalley. You can request it here. Note: I have no idea what Penguin’s criteria... Read More

Hi! Today we’re celebrating the release of ​Emma Pass’s ACID, which came out last Thursday in the UK! They say:   2113. In Jenna Strong’s world, ACID – the most brutal, controlling police force in history – rule supreme. No throwaway comment or muttered dissent goes unnoticed – or unpunished. And it was ACID agents who locked Jenna away for life, for a bloody crime she struggles to remember. The only female inmate in a violent high-security prison, Jenna has learned to survive by any means necessary. And when a mysterious rebel group breaks her out, she must use her strength, speed and skill to stay one step ahead of ACID – and to uncover the truth about what really happened on that dark night two years ago. I say:  ​EEP! I haven’t gotten to read ACID yet but it sounds thrilling, doesn’t it? Now for our interview with ​Emma​: 1. Describe your main character in... Read More

EEEP! I’ve been celebrating all over social media today, but in case you haven’t seen – very early this morning, I finished the first draft of Cahill Book 3!   It’s 317 pages long and 94,504 words. I feel like I’ve been working on this draft forever. Really, it’s only been since November. Six months. It took much longer than I thought, but it also ended up much longer than I thought! (For comparison’s sake, the early drafts of BORN WICKED and STAR CURSED were both only 74,000. I think the added wordage is due at least in part to the fact that I can now hear Editor Ari in my head, asking me, “Where are they? What are they doing with their hands? What is she wearing? I forget what she looks like…” so I’ve learned to add in more description as I go!) I asked for an extension... Read More