THE A WORD galleys are HERE!!

Few things are more thrilling than the physical evidence that a book you've been working on is almost a real thing! So when I opened the mailbox yesterday and found a fat white mailing envelope from my editor at Soho Press containing three gorgeous ARCs of THE A WORD (May 2014, Soho Teen), I did the dance of joy! (When your name is Joy this is pretty easy, but you know what I mean!)

The sequel to this year's THE SWEET DEAD LIFE is looking like a lovely almost book! Contest coming soon to win one and find out before everyone else what Jenna and Casey and Amber and a new guardian angel named Bo are up to. Plus Jenna gets her first boyfriend! I am so excited for you to read. 

More soon, but for now, here they are! Feel free to pet the picture! :)

THE A WORD COVER REVEAL: THANK YOU SOHO PRESS!!

So last week I got to show you the gorgeous redone cover for paperback edition of THE SWEET DEAD LIFE, which is coming in February, 2014. I had loved the hard copy cover, but for the pb, my delightful publisher, Soho Press, came up with a new concept that even more fully captures the tone of the novel, of narrator Jenna's sassy, mouthy Texas girl voice as well as hinting at the angels that populate the book. Love! (more in a future post about the series and where it's headed and what people are saying!)

And now today I get to reveal the cover for THE A WORD, which is the sequel to TSDL, and which arrives on May 13, 2014, exactly a year since the TSDL release! I am so thrilled with this cover!!! It is gorgeous and perfect and I owe more huge thanks to publisher Bronwen Hruska and her merry band at Soho Press.

Here it is!!

See what I mean! LOVE!
And you can see here, with the two side by side that, they are really meant to go together on a shelf!

ARCs are coming soon, but for now I can tell you this about where the series is going with THE A WORD: (slight spoiler if you haven't read TSDL, but it does not ruin the central mystery):

Jenna Samuels is about to turn fifteen. It's been almost a year since her stoner brother, Casey, bit the dust. Almost a year since he returned as her guardian angel, along with his "angel boss," Amber Velasco, the hot twenty-something former EMT. Almost a year since Casey and Amber used up their one-time-only angel power of flight to save Jenna from the evil Dr. Renfroe, swooping down to catch her as she tumbled off the balcony at the Houston Galleria. In short, a lot of A-word shenanigans and a mostly happy ending.

Except now Casey's begun to wonder why he's still hanging around—not that he minds protecting Jenna. She's a handful, but there's got to be a bigger picture, right? Something to distract him from his on again/off again, doomed relationship with cheerleader Lanie Phelps, who has no idea her boyfriend is, well, dead. After all, he can't use his angel wings anymore. Neither can Amber. 

Enter Bo Shivers, Amber's "angel boss"—a mysterious A-word guy Jenna and Casey didn't even know existed. Whiskey-guzzling. Handsome in a grizzled way. Unpredictable. Okay, make that crazy. Bo lost his angel wings in an earthly flight a long, long, long time back—and he's been a thorn in Angel Management's side ever since. But Bo knows something is coming. Something big. Something that was worth forfeiting wings for Jenna... something that might just change everything for everyone.

Tell me what you think!!

HOUSTON WE HAVE LIFT OFF

Yes, I just went there. But I live here. I get to.

THANK YOU to Blue Willow Bookshop for such a lovely Houston launch of THE SWEET DEAD LIFE this past Saturday! And THANK YOU to my friends and fellow authors (including many of our fabulous Houston SCBWI chapter) and to the librarians and bloggers and fans and book lovers who came out to fill the house and make sure that ALL THE BOOKS SOLD OUT! You humble and honor me.

Now Soho Press and I hope you read THE SWEET DEAD LIFE and that Jenna's story resonates with you. Like all stories that mean something to me, this one is, at its core, about love. Not romantic love this time, but the love we have for the people we care about and the things we do for them. It is about unlikely heroes and siblings and the family we make for ourselves when the one we're given screws up. And yeah, it's also about angels and the battle between good and evil. There is a larger mystery at foot and somehow the Samuels family has stumbled into it. More will be revealed next year in THE A WORD. Jenna's journey has only just begun. And on another level, it's about a fourteen year old girl-- an age where we are powerless and know it-- whose brother sacrifices everything for her. And still annoys the hell out her, which is as it should be.

Plus, okay, it kind of sometimes skewers the wasteland that is the suburbs. But only sometimes.

If you'd like someone else's take on it, my friend and fellow SCBWIer, Vonna Carter, just posted THIS.

Okay. Let's have some pictures, shall we?

Reading from SWEET DEAD LIFE

With my youngest readers... good little sleepers

My very first beta reader for the ANASTASIA series, former student and Houston actress Kara Ray

Making some point...

Awesome cookies from Posh Cookies

Jennifer Matthieu and Chris Mandelski duked it out over angel trivia
Blogger and Media guru Maria Cari Soto makes me smile

So many great Houston authors/SCBWIers, including Dede Ducharme, Sophie Jordan, Vicki Sansum,  Chris Mandelski, Crystal Allen, Vonna Carter, Kathy Duval, Jennifer Matthieu, Suzanne Bazemore, Dotti Enderle, Kristin Rae, Jessica Capelle, Amy Rose Thomas, Laura Ruthven, Tina Wissner

And of course none of this would be possible without my partners in literary crime, the team at SOHO PRESS: Publisher Bronwen Hruska, Senior Editor Daniel Ehrenhaft, Publicist Meredith Barnes (a former Houston girl), and the rest of the gang including editor Juliet Grames, who create beautiful books with their authors and curate their lists with care and thoughtfulness and a nimble brilliance that takes my breath away. I only hope to live up to your high level of expectation.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE SWEET DEAD LIFE

So once upon a time, my editor emailed my agent and said, "I have an idea."

And then he emailed me and said, "I have an idea."

And I said, "Yay!"

And he said, "Could you write a novel about a down on his family luck stoner dude who returns from a fatal car accident as his dying sister's guardian angel and solves a vast family mystery?"

And I said, "YES!"

And then I said, "I think this story takes place in Houston, Texas. In the suburbs. Where you can eat things like this:

And also kolaches, which look like this:

And then we both decided we would pitch this project as FALLEN meets VERONICA MARS meets PINEAPPLE EXPRESS.

Which was cool.

And eventually there was a cover and a title looked like this:

All from a brilliant and nimble publisher (headed by a brilliant woman named Bronwen Hruska) to whom I am very thankful-- called Soho Press, with a new imprint that looks like this:

And the story got bigger and fuller and became a paranormal mystery about love and family and siblings and poison and blackmail and things we do for the people we care about and the sometimes wasteland that is the suburbs and the battle between good and evil. And it was a Texas makeover of the angel story with a full and wonderful world that did not adhere to any particular faith tradition. Its angels were flawed and kinda cranky. Its narrator was a fourteen year old girl named Jenna whose brother became an A-word even if she didn't want him to. She was funny and smart and loving and sometimes bitter. She occasionally used colorful but justified language. And thought that people really shouldn't wear Crocs. Like ever. Plus there were cowboy boots and breakfast tacos. And kolaches.

And then my editor said, "Would you write the sequel, too?" Which I did. It's called THE A WORD. It also has a kick ass cover (to be revealed soon) and will be out in May 2014!

And people began reading early copies. After which they said things like this:

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/joy-preble/sweet-dead-life/

And this:

http://foreveryoungadult.com/2013/05/13/my-so-called-dead-life

And this:

http://jakiblue.com.au/the-sweet-dead-life-joy-preble/

And then it was TODAY!

May 14th, 2013!

When I was finally able to say, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to THE SWEET DEAD LIFE!!

In which I announce: A Sequel to THE SWEET DEAD LIFE

Had to keep this quiet until the contracts were all signed and agent Jen gave me the okay, but now I am thrilled to announce that next year's THE SWEET DEAD LIFE (Soho Press, May 2013) is going to have a sequel in 2014! I am over the moon with happiness and excitement and honored and humbled that Soho Press and publisher Bronwen Hruska (whose own debut novel Accelerated is out next month has been garnering rave reviews including from Oprah!) and editor Daniel Ehrenhaft wanted more.

Here's the official announcement:

DREAMING ANASTASIA trilogy author Joy Preble's follow-up to the forthcoming THE SWEET DEAD LIFE, again to Daniel Ehrenhaft at Soho Press, for publication in Spring 2014, by Jennifer Rofe at the Andrea Brown Literary Agency (World). Film rights: Eddie Gamarra at Gotham Group

ALAMW#12, Soho Teen and more

ALA Midwinter in Dallas was made of awesome. From the wonder Texas book bloggers (who I will be featuring next week in a series of posts) to the librarians, to my Houston crew of YAHOUs (YA Houston) and our lunch time smack down with Austin's Sweethearts and Scoundrels, it was a crazy busy two days that began with an amazingly attended happy hour arranged by Jen Bigheart at Campisi's. 75 plus bloggers, authors, publishing people all schmoozing and talking books. Heaven!

But of course the main focus of the conference for me was being there with the Soho Press team as they launched Soho Press on Saturday. This was one classy event: wine (red and white!), Soho Crime water pistols, and beautiful samplers of the upcoming Soho Teen line that will start arriving on shelves in 2013, including my The Sweet Dead Life! If you missed out on getting a sampler, you can see a version of it on line here. To the 100 plus people who came out, stood in line, asked me autograph and were in general kind, supportive and generous of heart, I thank you from the bottom of my toes. (plus I did get to ask people if they wanted a gun. and at one point - okay three points -- quoted the gun and cannoli line from The Godfather) The day concluded with the Soho dinner at Wild Salsa where I got to visit with more librarians and also some of my favorite bloggers including Katie of Mundie Moms and Stacy and Nancy from Girls in the Stacks. They have supported me for a long time now, and so it was delightful to hang with them and eat delicious food. (let me add here that I did not take a picture of my three taco platter (two al pastor and one shrimp) but it was yummy)

Plus everyone at Soho: editor Dan Ehrenhaft, publisher Bronwen Hruska and Juliet Grames and Michelle Rafferty... they rock so hard I cannot put it into words.

Pictures: top picture is the Soho team; two pictures at Soho booth are me (with sampler) and the lovely and talented author Bethany Hegedus and then (with water pistols), me and librarian and all around wonderful human Jennifer Haight (@hipmamajenn); at Campisi's: Jen Bigheart, me, Stephanie Pellegrin; at our YAHous/Sweethearts smack down lunch: Jenny Moss and Kari Ann Holt and then me and my Comic Con cohorts -- Jessica Lee Anderson, me, and PJ (Tricia) Hoover.

Stay tuned for tomorrow when I feature another Texas treasure: Cynthia Leitich Smith, whose Diabolical just released today!!