Sunday Stuff.. and a few Haunted hints

Okay, just a quick post. Must finish Haunted revisions for Editor Kelly. Have placed the absolutely gorgeous cover here in honor of this morning's task! Kelly and I are whipping Haunted into lean mean fighting machine shape for February. Lots of running around. Lots of peril. (Kelly and I love to get into peril while we're editing. Just Friday we dueled with the art department over a tricky font issue) The Anne and Ethan romance heats up. (Oh does it heat up!) Some romantic conflict. Mostly because of a new character named Ben Logan. Baba Yaga's back. Plus there's this malevolent mermaid.... I think you're going to love it. So does Kelly.

Beyond that - in no particular order:

• Since we don't have DirectTV, Friday Night Lights is finally back! If you are not watching, please watch with me. DVR it. Tivo it. Record it on your old vcr tapes. (seriously - you don't need that series finale of Gilmore Girls anymore. It's on dvd now. Just tape over it) But watch. You won't be sorry.
• And speaking of my tv habits - the season finale of Vampire Diaries - hello! Saw it coming a couple of seconds before it happened. All I can say is holy fangs, Batman!! Am completely happy with my guilty pleasure.
• And okay, Top Chef Masters. I'm addicted.
• Almost done with Maggie Stiefvater's Linger. (My coveted ARC from TLA) Sooooo darn romantic. And wow, Maggie - your artist's eye is so evident. I wish I could describe things as fabulously as you do - the light, the angles - gorgeous.
• My bestest pal Janet Fox's Faithful is on shelves now. I'm pimping you out, Janet. Dear readers - get thee to a store or Amazon and start reading now.
• New on my Kindle: Friend is not a Verb by my beloved former editor Dan Ehrenhaft - who if you didn't know not only has crazy mad guitar skills but also has many, many books on the shelf. Do you know there's a character named Petra Dostoyevsky in this book? Dan! Why do you do this to me? I must revise faster so I can have the time to read.

Okay. Back to work.

til next time...

In Which I Celebrate Teen Fire in Manhattan

New York! I love you. Even if I never found Cash Cab - and trust me I looked! - everything else was fabulous. Bagels at H&H and Zabars. Central Park. Top of the Rock. A green Empire State Building. Taxis and subway rides and drinks at the famous Algonquin Hotel. The Sourcebooks Fire Launch Party extravaganza at Books of Wonder. The After Party. Seeing rats the size of horses in the alley while Publicist Paul and I looked for cab. (Okay, yes, we stopped to look. Really - kinda cool.) Times Square. The Imagine circle in Strawberry Fields in Central Park. A street hot dog. Ron the concierge at The Lucerne. My hamburger from Shake Shack. (that's it - minus a bite or two - in the pic above) And lots more. Plus meeting Sourcebooks authors, editors and publisher Dominique Raccah herself. Plus a killer blueberry torte dessert at dinner on Wednesday nite served by a tres exuberant French waiter.

Top of the Rock, baby.

Me and Lyron Bennett, who was the original editor who acquired Dreaming Anastasia so long ago

The fab Helen Ellis, Sbooks author of The Turning (May 2010) and Sweet Home Alabama girl
Domestic or Stray? That's the question (it's about a girl who's turning into a cat)

Me and Dianne Salerni, Sbooks author of We Hear the Dead, out in May 2010

Lisa Brown (Picture the Dead, May 2010, w/ Adele Griffin) and Sbooks editor Rebecca Frazer

And finally. Me and the best person ever. The amazingly wonderful Publicist Paul - aka Paul Samuelson. Without the Horrid Henry head.

This is Cassie Ammerman. She's a publicist for TOR. And also my former English student. Can you say incredibly small world? You should have seen our faces when we made the connection.

The Imagine circle in Central Park

Wed. nite Sbooks dinner. Helen Ellis, Sean Murray, Cameron Stracher, Ty Drago and Rebecca Frazer and others who are a little hard to see because of my mediocre camera skills. plus it was a huge table. and an even huger candelabra. Seriously. Look at that sucker.

Mr. Tiger Beat himself - my wonder editor and all around fabulous new dad and human being, Daniel Ehrenhaft Our publisher, Dominique Raccah, in between Lisa Brown and Lila Castle (Star Shack)

Right after looking at pics of our kids (after which I dropped mine of the floor where it was rescued later) - That's me in the middle between Adele Griffin and Lisa Brown - whose absolutely amazing - and illustrated - book Picture the Dead comes out in May.

Til next time...

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 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!

Smells Like Teen Fire

Okay, so the Nirvana reference is a bit lame-o. Or maybe not. No, Joy, it isn't lame at all. You are cleverness personified. Whatever.

But here's what's not lame - Sourcebooks' new Teen Fire website! http://teenfire.ning.com

That crazy boy genius known to me and mine as Publicist Paul has been working his crazy boy genius fingers to the bone on this one. (Honestly, I don't know if anyone has been helping him. If they have been, then I thank them, too!) The website is very cool. I would like to say that they modeled the girl on the top after me, but I'm betting you won't believe me. Fine. Be that way. But go and check it out! If you'd like an opportunity to be a teen book reviewer, I think the deadline on that is this coming Monday. You can also RSVP for the very very awesome Fire Launch Party at Books of Wonder in NYC on 3/18 where you can meet me, the Sourcebooks team, other Fire authors and a super secret celeb author guest list that I absolutely cannot yet divulge. Oh how I want to. Oh the trouble I'd get into if I did. Crazy boy genius would be back in the Horrid Henry costume forever. Wouldn't want that to happen. Cause the party is going to kick literary butt and also includes music from Editor Dan and his all YA author band Tiger Beat. (Libba Bray... Libba Bray... I will breathing the same air as Libba Bray.)

And you can also join the fan groups for the Fire list - which includes Dreaming Anastasia! Yes, DA is making the jump from Jabberwocky (the general children's imprint) to Fire. I am very excited to be in such awesome company. Go ahead. Be my fan. You know you love me. And Anne. And Ethan. Wouldn't want Baba Yaga to put a curse on you or anything now would we?

All right, that's it for now. Let's see what other excitement I can pull out of my hat in a few days.

Go! Check out http://teenfire.ning.com

Til next time...

Jennifer Hubbards Library Loving Challenge and other things

Caught up on life a little late this week and almost missed Jennifer Hubbard's Library Loving Challenge. But although I was too late to comment on Jen's, I did have time to comment on some of the others she has listed, who have extended their challenges through today and even April 1. So jump on that band wagon if you can because they'll be donating money to the library of their choice for each comment they receive. Very cool idea! Bravo for this you guys!

And all that library talk makes me think it's time for a What's on my Nightstand post. Honestly there's so much stacked up there that I wonder when I'll ever get through it all, but currently: I'm finishing fellow 2k9er JT Dutton's (alias the delightful Jen Dutton) Freaked. Powerful and hysterical read that I will post a review of when I finish. Jen has nailed boy world,I do believe, or at least her mc Scotty Loveletter's, world and I'm anxious to get back to it.

Also now reading 2 by Dan Ehrenhaft - Dirty Laundry and 10 Things to Do Before I Die. Dan - you are one funny guy! I'm loving brillo pad head Ted Burger in 10 Things. A lot. Dan, btw, if you do not keep up with Publisher's Weekly, has now come over from Alloy to Sourcebooks as MG and YA acquisitions editor... Sourcebooks being the publisher of the contemporary fantasy debut YA novel Dreaming Anastasia written by yours truly and coming out in September... Ah yes, I'm sure there's a story in there, you're thinking. Yup. More soon.

Bunch of other stuff on the old nightstand - I'm reading up about British Columbia, cause we are driving the Pacific Northwest coast this summer some - Seattle, Vancouver.....

Headed to a day of TLA this week and I'm looking forward. I'll just be doing the exhibit floor and meeting up with among others, Janet Fox (Faithful, Puffin, 2010). In any case, I've never been, so I'm excited.

Til next time...