Are You Ready, NYC?

Because I'm getting ready for you!

Yup. That is absolutely correct. Big Apple, here I come!! Why? Well, it's New York, isn't it?

Okay why, really?

Because Sourcebooks is launching its new Fire imprint with a totally rockin' awesome party/cool event/hey did you know Tiger Beat is playing and Libba and Dan are going to sing Libba's new YA song/Publicist Paul gets to escape the office/Joy gets to wander the streets of Manhattan/celebration!!

Want to join us? I really wish you would!

Here's the scoop:

Where? Books of Wonder on 18th Street in NYC

When? Thursday, March 18th from 6-8 PM

Who's gonna be there? Me! And lots of other Sourcebooks YA authors including Lisa and Laura Roeker and Dianne Salerni. Plus Tiger beat, the all YA celeb band: Libba Bray, Dan Ehrenhaft, Barney Miller, and Natalie Standiford (that's them in the picture at the top)

But right now, I need to finish working on HAUNTED! Because you guys want that sequel, right? I know I do. And I just left Ethan in huge heap o'trouble, so I better go attend to matters.

Stay tuned for more scoops!

Til next time...

And the Winner Is...

First let me say what great answers everyone came up with - friends in the Mortal Instrument Series, Hush, Hush, Bones and Buffy, even classics such as Gatsby, Gone with Wind (a shout out to one of my international contest entries!), Anne of Green Gables - and more. You guys really rocked this question.

But - the magic contest picking hat (manned by every patient husband - "You want me to do this again? Okay get the hat. Did you pick up my dry cleaning?") never lies. And what did the contest hat have to say?

Congrats to Kelly, who said:

Hmmm...where would we be without friends??? My favorite lit. friend is Gale from The Hunger Games because he takes care of Katniss's family while she is gone and he's really loyal. I value loyalty. I know, I know...he is potentially a romantic interest, but I'm Team PEETA! So Gale is offically in the friend category! I guess we will have to wait until Mockingjay in August to find out...

Gotta love the explanation, Kelly! I like a loyal guy, too. Especially one who takes a public whipping for hunting with Katniss! Ouch! Dreaming Anastasia's Ethan might not always make the right choices, but he's a loyal little hottie!

Email me at joy@joypreble.com and let me know your address and I will send your autographed copy of Dreaming Anastasia, autographed poster, book marks AND postcard! Whoa! What a haul.

Thanks to everyone for participating.

And stay tuned for some very cool blog stuff! I'll be interviewing my cover artist for both Dreaming Anastasia and HAUNTED. Her name is Cathleen Elliott and she has graciously agreed to let us all have a behind the scenes look at how book covers are created! Which of course will lead to the official unveiling of the HAUNTED cover! You guys will love it.

Til next time...

Contest Closed

Thanks to all who participated in the Dreaming Anastasia Favorite Fictional Friends Giveaway contest. I've loved reading about everyone's choices! Because honestly, who can live without a BFF? Not me! I'll be announcing the winner Wednesday nite, so stay tuned!

Til next time...

Dreaming Anastasia really cool friends contest!

So many wonderful things have happened lately: HAUNTED - the Dreaming Anastasia sequel, which is sold now to Sourcebooks and will be out in 2011; the wonderful support of @yabookscentral in talking about DA, posting my book trailer on their site http://www.yabookscentral.com/ and gaining me like 100 new followers; so many friends who are always there for me whenever I need them, including my agent, editor and publicist - all of whom have been working overtime on my behalf. I don't know what I'd do without all of you - any more than Anne in Dreaming Anastasia would know what to do without her BFF Tess, who I love to write because she has no filter on her mouth and gets to say whatever she's really thinking most of the time.

So... in honor of the many, many people who make my world the place that it is and who have my back when I need it, I think it's time for another Dreaming Anastasia contest/giveaway! Yes, Joy, a contest! We love contests! We want to win cool stuff. Tell us. Tell us!

Okay - here it is. Want to win a signed copy of Dreaming Anastasia, PLUS an autographed poster, some book marks AND a postcard? Here's what ya need to do:

Comment on this post and let me know your favorite friend character in a work of fiction and WHY. (This can be a novel, movie, tv show... whatever, but it has to be a character who's the main character's friend) I will toss the best answers in my contest hat and make husband do his choosing magic!

Okay - let the games begin!
Contest will be open until Tuesday 2/23 at midnite!

Til next time...

Contest Coming

Thinking about another Dreaming Anastasia giveaway to celebrate my 409 Twitter followers - 100 new followers in 24 hours thanks to @yabookscentral - aka Kimberly Pauley, who totally rocks. More to come tomorrow. Get ready to rumble and win something. Off to finish writing and ponder clever ideas.

Hmmmmmm...... ahhhhh.... lalalalala..... (this is the sound of pondering, in case you were wondering)

Til next time...

Only in Texas and other Sunday stuff

I grew up in Chicago. So I'm used to crazy politics. Corrupt politics. Politics that make your hair stand on end. Politics that make you go, "Seriously?" We used to joke that the city motto was "Vote early. Vote often."

So now I live in Texas. And we like to give old Illinois a run for its money. So in the spirit of "Seriously?" - did you know that one of our current candidates for gov. is Farouk Shami - who INVENTED THE CHI!! You know - as in flat iron. As in the greatest invention in the Western world for wavy haired girls like me. And I thought it was fun last time when Kinky Friedman ran.

Beyond that, THANKS to YAEdge and 2k10 co-pres. Judith Graves for hosting this interview with me. http://yaedge.blogspot.com/2010/02/yaedge-feature-author-joy-preble.html I'll be hosting Judith next month when her paranormal YA, Under My Skin, debuts, so be on the lookout!!

Happy Valentine's to one and all. <3
Will keep you posted on all things HAUNTED. (Still. So. Excited!)

Til next time...

And may I announce? HAUNTED - The Dreaming Anastasia Sequel

Been teasing and taunting and slipping lines onto Twitter but finally, finally, it's up on PM and so I can proudly and happily and ecstatically announce:

Joy Preble's HAUNTED, the sequel to DREAMING ANASTASIA, in which a girl is being haunted by a mysterious and malevolent mermaid, to Daniel Ehrenhaft at Sourcebooks, for publication in 2011, by Jennifer Rofe at Andrea Brown Literary Agency.
jennifer@andreabrownlit.com

There is - as always - a long story to this. But for now I will leave it brief. Anne and Ethan and Tess and the gang are going to be back. Baba Yaga, too, and lots of other surprises - including, as you can see in the blurb a Russian mermaid, known in folklore as a rusalka. Oh, how thrilled I am to share this at last. (So, for that matter, is my crazy cowgirl agent, Jen, but that too, is another story)

More soon.
Going to do the happy Snoopy Dance now. *leaps from computer and whirls like a dervish*

Til next time... And wait til you see the cover! It is so fabulous you won't believe it!

Super Sunday and Dreaming Anastasia

The husband is doing his happy dance today because Super Bowl Sunday is a like a national holiday for him. Came home yesterday clutching his special rootbeer and pretzels.

As for me, Super Bowl Sunday is always connected to Dreaming Anastasia. Why, you might ask? Good question, that! Because on Super Bowl Sunday of 2006, during the 2nd quarter, I wandered upstairs to the office computer, held my breath, and fired off four fresh agent queries about what was then titled Spark. I hadn't queried since the fall because I'd been revising some and licking my wounds of rejection. But it was time, I thought. As I've written about widely, I was having the worst school year ever. It was really now or never as far as I was concerned. I was going to keep going til I got it right.

By half time, I'd gotten one rejection from the four and one request for a partial. The next day, I got another partial request. One just disappeared into the ether. One of those requests was from Laura Rennert of ABLA, who passed the manuscript on to then ABLA junior agent, Michelle Andelman. The rest, as they say, is history.

So - for some it's the commericals. For others it's the game. For others, the beer and snacks. For me - it's the dream of publication coming true because I had the guts to try it again and I didn't give up and the stars all got aligned and sent me a gift.

It is thus fitting, that tomorrow or the next day, I will be making a VERY BIG ANNOUNCEMENT as soon as that VERY BIG ANNOUNCEMENT is officially posted somewhere else that it is going to be posted.

To me Super Bowl Sunday = Books on shelf/Dreams Come True

til next time...

Maybe I can stop holding my breath now...

because great news is coming. Gonna be a tease for a few days more. But let's just say that this has been brewing since November and all I've been able to do is hint about and talk about it in vague ways and now now now now now - I can finally stop vaguing it up and tell you! Soon.


In other news - SCBWI Austin absolutely rocked. I know a lot of you were in NYC, but here in Austin we had - in ONE DAY - a conference that included the literary power couple Cynthia and Greg Leitich Smith, Liz Garton Scanlon, Marla Fazee, Mark McVeigh, Cheryl Klein, Sara Lewis Holmes, Andrea Cascardi, Kirby Larson, Jacqueline Kelly, Lisa Graff, PJ Hoover, Jennifer Zeigler, Jessica Anderson and more!! In ONE DAY!! How cool are we here in the Lone Star State? Very. Talk about a power conference.

Okay. Off to do my day.
But news. She is coming soon.

til next time...