Fantastic Review in the Sacramento News & Review!

Since the majority of publicity happens at release time, it's such a delight to get a great review this much later. It feels like getting a big present when it's not even your birthday! 

An unusual savior

The world’s savior appears in a most unconventional form in Christy Raedeke’s new novel, Prophecy of Days: The Daykeeper’s Grimoire. She doesn’t fly around in a cape or parade around in spandex costumes. Caity, a witty teenage girl from San Francisco, finds herself (along with a boy she is madly infatuated with and an origami folding monkey) at the center of a worldwide conspiracy. A twist in the plot occurs with the turn of each page as relationships between characters are forged and broken; all the while, serious political and historical messages are revealed. Prophecy of Days presents a powerful and urgent message for both youth and the older generation. It challenges our entire population to question their contributions to their communities, and encourages us to be the change agents our crises-ridden world needs. - Charday Adams 

Thank you, Charday! 

Wicked Awesome Books

Nikki at Wicked Awesome Books blog has just posted an interview and a really lovely review. Check it out here. 

Thanks so much Nikki!

Portlandia!

I'll be doing a book event at the beautiful Bridgeport Village Borders Saturday, July 17 at 2pm. If you live in Portland, please stop by!

Big News For Our Writing Group!

One of my stellar writing group partners just landed an agent! After much interest from various agents, Jennie just signed with Holly Root of Waxman Literary. We're so excited for her! Jennie has two finished, polished YA manuscripts and we're just dying to see them on bookshelves. 

Because it's summer it's been impossible to get the whole group together, but Julie, Jennie, and I managed to meet up for celebratory cocktails. Here's Jennie with a big cocktail and a big smile over her big news: 

Congratulations, Jennie! We are so proud of you!

Prophecy of Days, Book Two title...

This just in! The title for the next book in the series will be:

Prophecy of Days

Book Two: The Serpent's Coil

I like it! Can't wait to see the cover art...

Berk, You've Outdone Yourself

What's better than a monkey that does origami? An man in an ape suit reading a book about a monkey that does origami!

Josh Berk, author of the scintillating and hilarious book The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin, has done a reading of Prophecy of Days for his Master Berk Theater series - dressed as an ape. With an ascot. Verisimilitude is achieved through Berk's relentless dedication to his craft; he does not even break character to remove the ape hands though it greatly impedes his use of the mouse.

Behold! Prophecy of Days, Plushy version.

Why I Love the Midwest

This review from The Midwest Book Review made me cry at work.

"Prophecy of Days, Book I : The Daykeeper's Grimoire" is a young adult fantasy release that promises to be eagerly read by its targeted audience. The heroine is young Caity Mac Fireland finds herself ensconced in a Scottish Island castle, commissioned to uncover the coded mystery of suppressed revelations of the Mayan calendar and a prophecy that predicts that she, Caity, will play a crucial role in unfolding events of December 21, 2012 and the ultimate destiny of all humanity. Embellished with iridescent details such as secret codes and symbols, a pet monkey named Mr. Papers (academically appropriate), a feng shui master, and a gorgeous next -door boyfriend, "Prophecy of Days" can't miss gathering the totality of its audience's attention. The unraveling of its prophecy and mystery is bound to continue through the next volumes of the series and perhaps its timely conclusion will occur on or about the appointed date on the world calendar. A perfect global mystery with timely implications completely fills the bill for the slogan of Flux (publisher), "where young adult is a point of view, not a reading level."


 I love you Midwest Book Review!

Never Berate Your Mother For Googling You

Wednesday, the day of my first book reading/signing event my mom calls me at work.

Mom: Hey, I was Googling you and saw that you’re speaking at a private school in Atherton the day of the Kepler’s signing!

Me: Wha? *cold sweats. quickly googles self + the school name*

Mom: Do you see it? Right there under the principal’s message!

Me: Oh god! What the? I gotta call my publicist. *hangs up on mom*

My publicist is on vacation but I get another lovely Flux publicist who assures me she will get to the bottom of this. When she gets back to me the news is even worse: there has been some disconnect and I am actually booked at TWO schools on Friday. A private school with 5^th through 8^th graders and a High School.  It is Wednesday, and that night after work I have the book signing in town. This means I have to pack up the family and drive down to San Francisco the next night. But logistics are the least of my worries. My biggest problem is I HAVE NOTHING PREPARED!

I call the schools; I talk to the librarians who set up the events. I calm down a bit and head to my first event, right here in my hometown. It is packed! I’m shocked. I make it through even though I hate hate hate reading aloud.  I think I do okay but I get a call the next day from my good friend and physician.

Dr. R: *gushes about book signing*

Me:  *thanks her profusely*

Dr. R: So, I’d love to prescribe a little something for your speaking anxiety …

Me: *thumps head on desk*  Was it that obvious?

Dr. R: No, of course not! Only something a doctor would notice.

Me: I’m leaving town in an hour, how fast can you call it in to the drive-thru pharmacy?

So I get the anti-anxiety medicine at 5:30 at night on our way to San Francisco. We roll in at midnight. The next day I am at the Middle School in the morning. It’s a Catholic School so all the kids are in their cute little plaid uniforms, as polite and quite as can be. The gym seems huge and I am put off by the fact that I need to use a microphone. But all goes well, very well. They ask amazing questions and laugh when they’re supposed to and they all buy lots of books from the nice Kepler’s woman and I feel as if I’ve been wrapped in a big warm blanket of adorableness.

Then, the high school. I am told I will be in the Performing Arts Center and my knees buckle. I can hardly watch performing arts without being embarrassed—and now I am one? I thank my lucky stars for anti-anxiety medicine and pop one like it’s a Pez. I walk in to see what looks like Inside the Actors Studio sans James Lipton: an enormous stage set with a desk, a chair, and a microphone. And there is a spotlight. Right where I am supposed to sit. I can’t hide my shock and neither can my prescription Pez. The stage guy mistakes my shock for something else, like indignation at his setup.

Stage guy: Oh, don’t feel like you have to sit there the whole time! The mic is on a little stand, so when you want to get up and roam the stage, just take the mic with you. I’ll follow you with the spotlight wherever you go.

Me: *convulses upon hearing, “I’ll follow you with the spotlight”*  I can’t do that!

Stage guy: Okay, you can just sit then.

Me: No, I mean I can’t be up on that stage!

Stage guy: *looks at me like I am crazy person*

Me: Can I just sit on the edge of the stage?

Stage guy: *shrugs* I still have to light you.

Kids file in. Big kids. Like, adult sized. I read the short bit that I’ve been opening these things with. They clearly do not want to be read to. I fumble, I sweat. The teachers ask questions to be kind, the kids sit with arms folded. I lose 7 years of life up there. Finally, I forget about my book and turn the ship around.

Me: So what do you guys like to read?

The adult-sized children start to engage. They love to read. They tell me what they like; I give them some suggestions for other great books. One finally asks a question about my book, so I tell them some freaky stuff about the Mayan calendar. They pretend not to show enthusiasm but I can tell they kind of dig it. More questions are asked. The bell rings. I live, but have 90% more grey hair than when I started.

And yet, there’s more. That night I have a reading and signing at Kepler’s. Some kids from the private school are there, and tons of friends and family show up. Heidi Kling even comes by. Most astonishingly, people I have never seen in my life are there. Real live people who came to see me and get the book! I am flabbergasted and, most of all, grateful.

I live through the day. Kepler’s sells out of books. We all leave happy, but mostly happy that it's over.

And the moral? Never berate you mother for Googling you—it just might save you the embarrassment of inadvertently standing up two schools...

Where can I get one?

I am lame, but my writing group is not.

Click here for lovely pix of my critique group, our long-suffering husbands, and cute children at my very first signing. Captured by Jennie Englund, writer extraordinaire.


Thanks, man! I love you guys! 

And the winner is...

I am so sorry I couldn't post the winner yesterday - I had two school visits and a bookstore event at Kepler's. What a day! More on that later, for now the winner of the five-pack of goodies is:

Andye

Please email me with your mailing address so we can get your bookstuff to you!

High School Flashback - Author Christina Diaz Gonzales

So it’s the last day of the High School Flashback Tour, where five authors expose their teen photos and where five people will win five loads of bookstuff! Just leave a comment and you’ll be entered.

Today we’re flashing back to Christina Diaz Gonzales, author of The Red Umbrella. I’m reading it right now and it’s riveting—a fascinating look at a really frightening time in history.

A less frightening time in history is Christina's high school years. Look at this flashback picture! Where's the shame and humiliation? I would have sold my teen soul AND thrown in all my Journey albums to have looked like this is in high school!

Now for a few flashback questions. Christina, what clique(s) were you part of in high school? I floated among several group but my main group was the Majorettes/Dance Squad kids.

Please describe one outfit you absolutely LOVED but now that you look back on you cringe. I loved wearing double shirts and blouses with HUGE shoulder pads...I shudder thinking about it.

If you could give your teen self one piece of advice, what would it be? Be yourself and don't worry so much about fitting in.

Thanks Christina! For a more in-depth discussion with Christina about her publishing journey, please see my previous interview. And here's her gorgeous book:

In 1961, two years after the Communist revolution, Lucía Álvarez still leads a carefree life, dreaming of parties and her first crush. But when the soldiers come to her sleepy Cuban town, everything begins to change. Freedoms are stripped away.  Neighbors disappear. Her friends feel like strangers. And her family is being watched.

As the revolution's impact becomes more oppressive, Lucía's parents make the heart-wrenching decision to send her and her little brother to the United States —on their own.

Suddenly plunked down in Nebraska with well-meaning strangers, Lucía struggles to adapt to a new country, a new language, a new way of life.  But what of her old life? Will she ever see her home or her parents again? And if she does, will she still be the same girl?

Christina Diaz Gonzalez was born in a small Southern town, but moved to the big city of Miami when she was in high school. In high school she was a Majorette and had the silly nickname of Moose (the football coach gave it to her because she was small and the exact opposite of what people thought someone named Moose should look like). You can read more about Christina on her website www.christinagonzalez.com

Leave a comment here to be entered in the drawing for the load of good stuff. Plus, you can enter on all five blogs! Today I’m over on Jen’s blog with my Prom 1984 photos. Pale skin, dye-to-match shoes, and acres of poly taffeta = a night to remember.

Christina's Blog   Kay's Blog   Jen's Blog   Kimberly's Blog

High School Flashback - Author Kimberly Derting

It’s day three of the Young Adult Author High School Flashback Tour, which means you can laugh at us AND get a whole bunch of cool bookstuff. That’s a win/win, no?

Today I have the pleasure of flashing back to Kimberly Derting, author of The Body Finder. I was totally scared to meet her for the first time because I’d read her book and wondered how any normal person could so richly narrate a serial killer. Happily, within minutes I found out she was she was hilarious and kind and completely uncreepy in every way. Now I'm a fan - of her and her book! 

Are you ready for the flashback photo? It’s a doozy, and it’s been hard to keep from posting this photo all over Facebook because it’s just so…so quintessentially Eighties in every way. The hair! The sweater vest! The abundance of mauve! Feast your eyes on this, my friends:

I think the photo says it all, but I'll ask anyway: What clique(s) were you part of in high school? 

I was a “preppy,” which meant I wore a lot of pink with my collars “popped” and spent a lot of time on my hair and makeup. 

Please describe one outfit you absolutely LOVED but now that you look back on you cringe…

I had these long pencil skirts that I wore with pumps and shaker-knit sweaters with big chunky belts (which were only for looks, of course).  Everything was in shades of pink or yellow or white…it was all very pastel.  And I really thought I was super hot.  Umm, yeah…hot…

If you could give your teen self one piece of advice, what would it be? 

Spend as much time as possible with your friends, the boys don’t really mean much in the long run.  Oh, and more mascara is not necessarily better mascara!

Well said, Kimberly!I could have used that mascara advice - in photos of me from the Eighties it looks like I have tarantulas on my eyes. 

Okay, flash forward! It's 2010 and that little mauve prepster is now a novelist. Regard:

A serial killer on the loose.

A girl with a morbid ability.

And the boy who would never let anything happen to her.

Check out The Body Finder's Amazon page for more about this riveting book. 

Kimberly lives in the Pacific Northwest, with her husband and their three beautiful (and often mouthy) children, who serve as an endless source of inspiration for her writing.  

To be entered in the contest to win five great prizes, simply leave a comment. All five of us will have winners, so be sure to enter at all blogs. 

For a look at my senior pic, in which I try desperately to pull off a nautical shirt with puffy sleeves, head over to Kay's blog. And check back tomorrow for a trip back to high school with Christina Gonzles in white go-go boots. The fun never ends!


And here, one again, are the goodies you could win (winner takes ALL of them!):

A signed copy of the Prophecy of Days and a tasseled bookmark from me.

A red umbrella and signed bookmark from Christina Gonzales (The Red Umbrella)

A tote bag and signed bookmark from Kimberly Derting (The Body Finder)

A glass slipper bookmark from Kay Cassidy (The Cinderella Society)

A fancy glowing pen, The Mark notepad, and signed bookmark from Jen Nadol (The Mark)

 Each of us will pick a winner from comments throughout the week so be sure to visit all five blogs for more chances to win.

Christina's Blog   Kay's Blog   Jen's Blog   Kimberly's Blog

High School Flashback - Author Kay Cassidy

It’s day two of the Young Adult Author High School Flashback Tour in which you can win really great bookstuff! Five winners will be chosen Friday and each winner will get five cool book related prizes - all for just poking fun at us!

Today we get a Kay Cassidy flashback. Kay is the author of the fantastic new novel The Cinderella Society, a true Girl Power book that hits my sweet spot: secret societies + makeovers! But before we dive in to the book details, shall we hop in the time machine and set it for the 80s? Check this out:

Hi Kay! Nice Chevette Scooter - it's almost as shiny as your megawatt smile!
The picture is of me on my 16th birthday by my first car. It was technically my brother's car but he was away at college so I got to drive it until he came back from school and I got my own car. The thing I remember most about it is actually from being a passenger in the car. It was starting to rust out in the floorboards beneath the passenger side foot area and when my brother would go over a puddle, I would sometimes get splashed if the puddle was big enough. You'd think I would've learned from his Chevette woes, but no. My first car of my own was also a Chevette (aka "The Crappy Copper Car").

What clique(s) were you part of in high school?
I was really tight with my cheerleading team. We were largely a bunch of honor roll, non-partying athletes so we totally broke the cheerleader mold of the '80s. But I was never a very clique-y person. I sort of floated between groups for the most part. I was comfortable around just about everyone, except for the people who were hard partiers. I always felt like a big lame-o around them.  :-)

Please describe one outfit you absolutely LOVED but now that you look back on you cringe. 
Oh my gosh, I had this black cotton dress… three tiers that all fell above the knee… and this big, thick, copper choker necklace like something you'd see on Cleopatra? I thought it was THE STUFF. And it's funny because my best friend my senior year moved to our school during junior year and she later told me she always looked forward to when I'd wear that because she thought it was super cool too. I have a feeling we would laugh our butts off if we saw a picture of it now. Sooo '80s.

If you could give your teen self one piece of advice, what would it be? Stop trying to plan ten years down the road and enjoy the now. Seriously, life is going to happen whether you plan every waking moment or not.  But these friends, these moments, will only be here once. Take more pictures and just have fun. Oh, and write stuff down so you can use it later! Someday you will be a YA author and all that crap you're going through now? Gold, baby.  :-)

That's so right! And here's Kay's gold:

What a girl to do when the glass slipper fits, but she doesn't want to wear it anymore?

Sixteen year old Jess Parker has always been an outsider. So when she receives an invitation to join The Cinderella Society, a secret society of the most popular girls in school, it's like something out of a fairy tale.  Swept up by the Cindys' magical world of makeovers, and catching the eye of her Prince Charming, Jess feels like she's finally found her chance to fit in.

Then the Wickeds--led by Jess's arch-enemy--begin targeting innocent girls in their war against the Cindys, and Jess discovers there's more to being a Cindy than reinventing yourself on the outside. She has unknowingly become part of a centuries-old battle of good vs. evil, and now the Cindys in charge need Jess for a mission that could change everything.

Overwhelmed, Jess wonders if The Cinderella Society made a mistake in choosing her. Is it a coincidence her new boyfriend doesn't want to be seen with her in public? And is this glamorous, secret life even what she wants, or will she risk her own happy ending to live up to the expectations of her new sisters?
Go to Amazon to read more about The Cinderella Society!

Kay Cassidy is the author of teen fiction she wishes was based on her real life. She is the founder of the national Great Scavenger Hunt ContestTM reading program for kids and teens and the host of the inspirational Living Your FiveTM web project.  In her free time, she enjoys yoga, movies, music, and reading.  Lots and lots of reading.  She hopes her debut YA novel, THE CINDERELLA SOCIETY (Egmont), will help girls embrace their inner Cindy.

Thanks Kay!

To be entered in the contest to win five great prizes, simply leave a comment. All five of us will have winners, so be sure to stop at everyone's blogs. As added bonus you can see me as a teen dressed as a wench over at Kimberly's blog. Sadly, that's not a typo.

Christina's Blog   Kay's Blog   Jen's Blog   Kimberly's Blog

High School Flashback - Author Jen Nadol

High School Flashback Tour is a fun week-long feature, with peeks at Young Adult authors as actual young adults! There will be four authors featured, each providing goodies for a great giveaway that five of you lucky ducks will win. Just leave a comment below and you'll be entered. (And be sure to visit all five blogs for more chances to win.)

Today I'm featuring Jen Nadol, author of The Mark (Bloomsbury). This was one of those "great idea" books—while reading it I just kept saying, "Why didn't I think of this? What a genius plot!" Seriously, people, this is a book you'll want! Total page-turner.

Now, shall we dig up some high school memories?

-- So, Jen, let's learn a bit about your high school years. What clique(s) were you part of in high school?  Cliques weren’t a big thing at my school.  It was really small and people didn’t divide up in the usual ways.  I hung out with cheerleaders, jocks, kids in College Bowl and on the bowling team, smokers and non-, people who wore pink, people who wore black…it was pretty random.

-- Please describe one outfit you absolutely LOVED but now that you look back on you cringe. Junior year I was really into wearing nylons with shorts in the winter.  Not sure where I picked that up, but it really didn’t look that good.

--If you could give your teen self one piece of advice, what would it be? Step a-waaayy from the hair salon.

Exhibit A:

Killer hair! I totally remember that hair do. I actually wanted it really badly but I had phorehead phobia and this particular style did not work with my Wall of Bangs. There's another great shot of Jen in High School here. I wish I could say I was shocked about the whole shorts over nylons in winter thing, but I am no stranger to that combo! We did that too, and I believe with all my heart that shorts over coffee colored nylons will never be cool again. Ever.

Obviously all that time in perm rollers did no lasting damage to Jen. Here's her great book:

When sixteen-year-old Cassie Renfield realizes the glow she’s always seen around certain people means death is imminent, she struggles to understand her “gift”.  How does the mark work?  Why is she the only one who sees it?  Most importantly, if you know today is someone’s last, should you tell them? Here's the Amazon link to read more.

Jen Nadol grew up in Reading, PA and has lived in Washington DC, Boston, NYC and now, in a 150 year-old farmhouse in Westchester County, NY with her husband and three young sons.

Check back tomorrow for a trip back to high school with Kay Cassidy. (Two words: Chevette Scooter.) For a choice 1984 photo of me, you can check out Christina's blog. Can you spot the macrame?

Christina's Blog   Kay's Blog   Jen's Blog   Kimberly's Blog

A Five-Author Giveaway! Goodies Galore!

Starting tomorrow, five Young Adult authors/bloggers will be hosting the High School Flashback Tour and giving away five sets of goodies. In addition to getting a peek at what these authors looked like in high school and telling you a bit about their teen years, five people will win this haul of prizes:

A signed copy of the Prophecy of Days and a tasseled bookmark from me.

A red umbrella and signed bookmark from Christina Gonzales (The Red Umbrella)

A tote bag and signed bookmark from Kimberly Derting (The Body Finder)

A glass slipper bookmark from Kay Cassidy (The Cinderella Society)

A fancy glowing pen, The Mark notepad, and signed bookmark from Jen Nadol (The Mark)

All you have to do is come back tomorrow and have a good laugh as we flashback to high school! Each of us will pick a winner from comments throughout the week so be sure to visit all five blogs for more chances to win.

Christina's Blog   Kay's Blog   Jen's Blog   Kimberly's Blog

Surprise Love – The Flash Mob

Although I can watch shows and movies about singing and dancing (Glee, Fame, etc.) I get kind of embarrassed watching musicals, even on TV.  And live theater? Forget it! I can’t be in the audience when someone breaks into song in the middle of a dramatic moment. Apologies to those who love musical theater, but I cannot seem to suppress my giggles.

This is why I’m so surprised at my love for Flash Mob musical numbers. I’m obsessed! This is how a musical should be—unpolished and surprising, complete with people who look completely confused by what is going on around them. There’s a raw energy about these videos that I adore.

Here’s a new one from Ohio State Student Union. Love that the University President got involved!

I feel a wee bit official...

My publisher has put up a little interview on their site. And they're giving away a free book as well! Gotta love free.

Feline Panniculus Studies

Studies have shown that cats prefer to look defiantly at their owners while hanging their middle-aged cat tummies on Prophecy of Days - two to one over other YA novels!

(Thanks for the photo Graeme Stone, you made my day!)

UPDATE: It's not just for cats anymore! Dogs (like Hank, below) are becoming quite possessive of POD as well...

Thanks Peggy!

Are you sick of me yet?

A blogger from the Philippines has posted an interview with me on her blog.

Thanks, Precious! (That's her name, I'm not being overly familiar...)

Two Book Giveaways! Two Interviews!

I got my first review from a real, live, actual teen! Kirthi is 13 and fabulously well read. Her seriously detailed review, along with a subsequent interview of me (in which I reveal a secret obsession), is at her Pages Blog.

Also, the charming British author Karen Mahoney (The Iron Witch, Flux 2011) also has an interview over on her blog (in which I reveal details of what I would do in the off chance that I knew the world was going to end).

Both are featuring Prophecy of Days book giveaways and both are open internationally!

Thanks Kirthi and Kaz!

A fun little interview...

Bookaholic Tina of Fantastic Book Review has featured an interview with me. Tina always comes up with great interview questions. My favorite? “If someone wrote a biography about you, what do you think the title should be?” 
Thanks, Tina!

My First Review!

So it's Book Release Eve and I got the best present ever! A nice review from Booklist by Ilene Cooper. You have NO IDEA how relieved I am by this. I was really starting to sweat the review thing. Now who cares if I get some bad ones? Ilene Cooper liked my book!

The Daykeeper's Grimoire, Raedeke, Christy (Author)
May 2010. 384 p. Flux

Caity doesn’t mind spending the summer at her parents’ newly inherited Scottish castle. For one thing, there’s a monkey that can do origami. For another, there’s the hunky nephew of the housekeeper. But if that wasn’t enough, 16-year-old Caity soon finds herself embroiled in a fantastical mystery. The castle itself, sitting on a lonely spit of land, is full of strange symbols and hidden spaces. In short order, she learns that she is to be one of the teenagers who will bring the world to a new enlightenment. First, of course, she has to squash the evil doings of some very secret societies. Just about every New Age totem one can think of gets a mention here: runes, sacred spaces, ancient prophecies, and especially the countdown to 2012. What leavens book one in the Prophecy of Days series is Caity herself. A delightful heroine, she’s funny, frank, and mostly true to the way a real teen would act if she found herself in such an odd circumstance. Readers will want to follow Caity’s adventure.  — Ilene Cooper

Free Books! Free Books, I Tell You!

There are free books to be had and a very fun game to be played.! Where In the Blogosphere Is Jon is an ingenious scavenger hunt that takes you to various blogs that you may not yet know about. The writers who run the game, Tina Laurel Lee, Jonathon Arnston, and Heather Kelly, describe it as, “A cross between cribbage, Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego, and the New York Times, if the NYT had a scavenger hunt.”

It’s super fun AND this week there are great prizes—free books! Check it out and play. 

First Pages

Some Tenner authors are posing their first pages, so I thought I'd play. Go here to read more first pages from 2010 debut authors. Here's mine:

Preface

(Or: The Cliff’s Notes Version of My Life Up Until Now)

First off, I’m going to save you from reading seventy-two pages of how I got to a Scottish castle on the Isle of Huracan in the middle of a black churning sea. I need to tell it fast because if you read the long, drawn-out version you’re going to think you’ve heard it all before. It has all the clichés: super-smart, young girl ripped from her cushy life in San Francisco, taken away from her best friend Justine whom she’s known since preschool, relocated to a dreary island castle in Scotland (inherited, of course!) for the summer before her junior year so her parents can see if they want to turn it in to a bed and breakfast, even though they have not made bed nor breakfast for this super-smart girl in years. You’ve heard it a million times, right? Wait, there’s more! The girl finds a secret room attached to her bedroom, because there just has to be a secret room.

            And of course, there’s a monkey. A small monkey that was abandoned at the castle years ago by a Chinese visitor. PETA should give me a medal or something because I convinced Thomas, the whisky-soaked groundskeeper, to move him from the cold little shed behind the castle to the wood cubby by the kitchen fireplace. We lost two cooks over this, but that’s okay. The new cook, Mrs. Findlay, is amazing and she has a beautiful grandson a year older than me that looks like he could be posing for a J. Crew ad every minute of the day. Because there has to be a boy, right? (Thank God!)

Anyway, this monkey knows how to do origami, so his highly original name is Mr. Papers. I know it sounds hard to believe, but he communicates through his origami—kind of like sign language but with paper.

Having a monkey at the castle was a bonus; I would never have been able to get one on my own because Mom is all righteous about caging up animals that live in the wild. You should have seen her face when Thomas first told her about Mr. Papers—I knew the minute she heard the words “monkey” and “origami” she was probably picturing the little guy in a Taiwan sweatshop cranking out origami ornaments for Walmart.

Ashland Event

Yay! I have an Ashland book party date! I'll be at Bloomsbury Books on Wednesday, May 19 at 7:00 in the evening. If you live in the Rogue Valley, please stop by!

This will be a very special event for me, a long-time Ashland girl. Not only do I still have a lot of family and friends in the area, many teachers who were very important to me still live here. Mrs. Bohn taught me to write in the first grade and Mrs. Reynolds encouraged me to enter my first writing contest (which I won!) in third grade. In fourth grade Mrs. Houck got me addicted to summer reading programs at the library, in the fifth grade Mr. Gettling proved that 11 year olds still love to be read to, and in sixth grade Mr. Maulsby instilled a love of vocabulary by doing things like holding a kid upside down by his ankles to illustrate the word inversion. (No one ever forgot that one.) Mrs. Lininger, Mr. Sharp, and Mr. Cicerella were all instrumental in cultivating a deep love of reading and writing in Middle School. And Rooklyn, McBain, and Vondracek were iconic figures in the Ashland High School English department—without a doubt, some of the best teachers I have ever had.

It’s a rare treat to be able to know so many of these teachers in adulthood, and I hope some can make it to the book launch!

Self-Deprecating Sunday

Dream realized: Embarrassing teen photos of me have been featured in “Young Adult Author Self Deprecating Sunday” on the blog of Jody Sparks. I will never be able to touch the epic Josh Berk (The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin) entry, nor can I match the spectacular studio portrait of Tina Ferraro (The ABCs of Kissing Boys) in 10th grade, but I gave it my best. 

Sparks & Butterflies is one of the funniest blogs around. Thanks for helping me realize the dream, Jody!

Village Books! June 5, 12:00

Village Books in Bellingham, Washingon has been a favorite of mine ever since my sister moved there years ago. Not only are they one of the best run independent bookstores in the Pacific Northwest, Village Books also sits atop the Colophon Café, where I once had the best quiche of my life.

Books, coffee, and quiche? Life doesn’t get better than that!

If you live in the Bellingham area, please come see me there at 12:00, June 5th. I’ll also be at Fairhaven Middle School on June 4th. Thanks for having me, Village Books! Can't wait!

All Points Bulletin: I need a monkey, STAT.

It’s true. There’s a monkey in my book. Not only is this capuchin cute, he’s also clever: he communicates through origami. My publisher didn’t even want to mention the monkey on the jacket copy because apparently it skews the book younger. To me this is a head scratcher. I mean, I’m 43 and I can’t read enough about monkeys, especially when they’re doing interesting things like the ancient art of paper folding! But I digress. This post is about finding a monkey.

My friend Tonya thinks that all I need to do to get my book to sell when it releases in May is get a little video footage of a monkey doing origami. She swears she can get the thing to go viral, but we’re missing the key component: the monkey.

I put some feelers out on Facebook and got a lead on a marmoset named Maxwell, but marmosets look more like Gremlins than monkeys. Plus Maxwell’s owner told me he was in a “time out” and the photo he sent showed the little guy in a tiny Superman sweater, so all signs point to him being difficult to work with.

Then I found a guy in LA who rents out a capuchin that looks remarkably like my character. There’s even a photo of him at the wheel of a tiny pirate ship looking quite competent at the helm of a schooner.  I called his agent and asked about taking about five minutes of video of said monkey opening up a piece of origami. I just need the footage, I told him, and then I’d edit it and play the video backwards, making it look like the monkey was folding instead of unfolding the paper. (Genius, no?) He said he’d need $800 just for the shoot and maybe as much to “train” the monkey.  When I remarked that I thought a monkey might just be naturally curious and open up the folded paper on his own, the agent scoffed and said that kind of thing would take a lot of training. Right.

Now I’m at a dead end. I implore you for leads. Someone out there must know someone who knows someone who has a capuchin monkey! Six degrees of separation anyone? The future of my book depends on it!

P.O.D. Bookmarks

I swear one of these days I’ll write an actual post again. Since I turned in my draft of Book 2 I’ve been luxuriating in weekends and evenings that aren’t spent in a sweaty panic trying to get pages out. Instead, I’ve turned my attention to some fun promotional things, like bookmarks! Complete with a shiny silver tassel, which my friend Miles likes to call The Prophecy Cord. The word “Prophecy” seems to give everything a bit more gravitas, no?

If you're a bookmark fan, send me you address via email (christy at christyraedeke dot com) and I’ll get a few in the mail to you!

First Signing

I did it! First ever book signing at the Public Library Association annual conference! I was so nervous that no one would come by but we went through 100 ARCs in an hour.

Free books + librarians = true love.

New Book Trailer!

The new Tenner book trailer is finished! This one highlights what's releasing in April, May, June. Check it out—looks like a great new batch of books!

Same Place, Same Time: Interview with Holly Schindler

Author Holly Schindler and I share something special: we are both having debut books released from the same publisher on the same day! I think it’s fascinating that we both ended up at the same place at the same time, but have had completely different paths to publication. So, what follows is a back-and-forth interview Holly and I conducted to learn about how we both ended up at the answer: "Flux, May 1!"

Holly's book, with one of the most beautiful covers I've seen, is A BLUE SO DARK. It looks fascinating and is already getting a lot of high praise ("A truly real, emotional, and honest read."—Catherine Ryan Hyde, author of Pay it Forward). I can't wait to get my copy!

Raedeke: Hi Holly, do you remember the very day the idea for A BLUE SO DARK came to you?

Schindler: I remember it coming to me in pieces over a few weeks, actually. When I was young, I imagined that authors would get this fantastic "ah-ha" moment in which their characters, (and their characters' struggles and growths) came to them all at once. Maybe some do...But what happens for me is that I get a sliver of an idea--a kind of what-if. From there, I'll write this really general, broad-strokes outline. And I'll start adding to it...


When I got the biggie pieces jotted down for A BLUE SO DARK (creativity and madness, Aura's mentally ill mother, Aura's fear of allowing art to bring "madness" out in herself), the first draft came super-fast...I'd get twenty-plus pages written in a day. And the next morning, I couldn't wait to get up and get back to it. I had to go through about four manuscript overhauls, and honestly, each one wrote just as quickly.


I love a book that's layered--and I think the way books GET layered is that an author kind of stacks dimensions on top of each other with successive rewrites...every time an author goes back, she (or he) adds a new element to the plot, or maybe a new secondary character who interacts with the protagonist in such a way that it illuminates new dimensions of that protagonist...


How about you? Did you get one of those "ah-ha" moments for PROPHECY OF DAYS? Did everything come to you all at once?

Raedeke: The idea for my book came not long after leaving my child for the first time. My husband and I were meeting friends at a University of Oregon football game (Go Ducks!) and had just dropped off our daughter at my Mom's. I know I should have cried or felt guilty or something, but as we drove away the sense of freedom was overwhelming—close to when I bought my first car and drove it home with the top down and Soft Cell blaring. Disclaimer: it was the eighties.

Anyway, something about knowing I was free for the next 30 hours opened up my imagination. On the three-hour drive to Eugene I told Scott the story and we talked it through. The seed was planted. Because I eventually had to go back and claim that child, it took awhile to write. And agent. And sell. And publish. (That child is now 9!) I'm still convinced that good ideas come when you make space for them.

Schindler: Now I'm going to have "Tainted Love" in my head the rest of the day! So true, though, about how long the entire process takes. A BLUE SO DARK was drafted in late 2006, and the offer from Flux came in 2009...But this was NOT the first manuscript I attempted to sell! (I'd been attempting to publish my novels since I got my master's in '01!) Looking back, what kept you motivated to keep working on PROPHECY OF DAYS? What was the initial submission process like? Did you ever hit a wall, feel like publication was never going to happen?

Raedeke: To be honest, curiosity kept me going. This book took a lot of research, which is one of my favorite pastimes. I love following a random thought for an hour or two on the internet; it’s amazing where one fact can lead you. I was also used to working in marketing and business development, so when my kids were little and I was trapped at home during naptime, it felt good to have something to work on. I felt a sense of accomplishment as the page count grew.

My wall came after I got my agent. Fortunately, I only had to endure one query rejection before signing with Laura Rennert of Andrea Brown Literary. I received an email from her late at night saying she had not yet finished the manuscript but she loved it so far and wanted to offer representation. I was ecstatic, of course. The bad news came when she had actually finished reading and thought the ending was weak. She was right, of course, so I went through a huge revision process before it even went out. That was Wall One.

Wall Two came at submission time. PROPHECY OF DAYS went out on submission to several big NYC editors, but this was back in late 2007/early 2008 before the whole 2012 thing was really in the mainstream zeitgeist (especially on the East Coast) and they just didn’t get it. The funny thing is, last year one of the editors who rejected the submission announced at an SCBWI conference that she was actively looking for any books on 2012. What a difference a couple of years can make!

Meanwhile, I had read some great Flux books and had followed and respected Editor Andrew Karre’s blog. I just sensed he’d “get” the book so I suggested to Laura that we send it to him. She'd recently signed Maggie Stiefvater as a client and had just negotiated Maggie's second book at Flux, so she knew Andrew was awesome. As I suspected, he got it. I was fortunate to get one great revision letter from him before he left for Lerner, and then the fabulous Brian Farrey took the reins.

How about you—what kept you going between when you first started writing novels on 2001 and when you sold A BLUE SO DARK in 2009? Did you hit many walls? Did they come pre- or post-agent?

Schindler: Writing was this absolute have-to thing with me. I was ALWAYS writing—even when I was a little girl. I remember, I was in, oh, junior high, I think—I was over at a friend’s house when ROMANCING THE STONE came on TV…You know how it starts, right? With Kathleen Turner bawling as she wraps up her latest novel? My friend started laughing, elbowed me and said, “That’s going to be YOU!”


Writing was just all-encompassing. And it got WORSE as I got older. Seriously. My family offered some incredible financial support so that I could devote full-time effort to writing after I got out of grad school. (They probably thought I was going to explode if I didn’t write…)


Can’t lie—I got pretty frustrated at times, but never to the point of wanting to quit. It CONSTANTLY seemed like I was getting closer to an acceptance. I stopped getting form rejections and started getting “good” rejections—you know, where editors will actually give you feedback, encourage you to keep at it.


I actually sold A BLUE SO DARK myself, without the help of an agent, soon after Brian Farrey got the acquisitions gig at Flux…And talk about an editor “getting” it—I remember hanging up the phone after talking to him the first time and going, “Him. I want to work with HIM.” I could hardly eat that Thanksgiving, because I was sort of tied up in knots, hoping that Flux would acquire the book.

Raedeke: I love that you did it on your own! Flux is amazing about finding great new voices, and I agree Brian is great to work with. He’s been very, uh, patient with me and deadlines. Your family sounds amazing—I have always wanted to live at the time when there were “Art Patrons” who would support artists. Looks like I’ll have to time travel back to Renaissance Europe or feudal Japan; the current economy will definitely not support this trend. Sigh.

Have you always written YA or have you written in other genres?

Schindler: Yeah, I’m incredibly lucky…it’s been very ROOM OF ONE’S OWN around here! I didn’t go 100% completely jobless, though—to help with the bills, I taught piano and guitar lessons out of the house in the afternoons. Up until that time, I’d been writing adult work. My students inspired me to try my hand at YA!


My reading is kind of all over the place…the classics, literary fiction, thrillers, romance, clever cereal boxes, catchy billboards…so my WRITING tends to be a little all over the place, too, in terms of genre. Already, I’ve sold a literary novel and a romance to Flux and an adult romantic comedy to Blooming Tree Press. And what I’m working on now is night-and-day different from what I’ve already sold.


How did you come to YA? Did you write PROPHECY OF DAYS thinking it was YA, or (as it seems like it often happens with first-time authors) did your agent tell you it was YA?

Raedeke: I was journalism major and had taken lots of writing classes though the years, but had always focused on general fiction and narrative nonfiction. This was my first try at a Young Adult book, and basically I was writing the perfect book for myself at that age. I’ve always been intrigued by esoterica, ancient mysteries, and the idea of a collective consciousness, so it was a natural fit for both research and writing. I finished another manuscript while PROPHECY was on sub, and hopefully someday I’ll go back and polish that one up.

You have so many manuscripts in the pipeline! It must be incredibly exciting to finally realize the dream of having several books out, of being a “real” author. However, you’ll only be a Debut Author once. What are you most looking forward to as we head into May, our release month?

Schindler: Wow…I think just the feeling of knowing that A BLUE SO DARK is on actual SHELVES in actual BOOKSTORES. I got these all-over tingly moments when I saw the novel on Amazon…and again when I found it on the Borders and Barnes and Noble websites. (I think it must be kind of the same feeling musicians get when they hear their songs on the radio for the first time…)


But I’m always looking ahead. I’ve honestly, seriously got a stack of manuscripts that stretches from the floor to the ceiling in the corner of my office. And I have piles of notebooks that are filled with ideas and outlines for novels that I haven’t yet drafted. If I lived to be 150, I’d never have enough time to put every idea on paper…Sometimes, I think the coolest part of selling A BLUE SO DARK is that it kind of opened doors so that I can start selling the REST of my work, too.


How ‘bout you? Are you going to celebrate on May 1st? Have you ALREADY celebrated? (Could you really take the moment in when you signed the contract? Did it seem real? I think for me, in all honesty, things started to get REAL when I held an ARC in my hands.)

Raedeke: The ARC definitely made it real! Seeing my name on the spine was kind of a wow moment! Honestly, I have been so busy trying to finish book two that I haven’t taken the time to really soak in what’s going on. I’m finishing this weekend and sending the full manuscript off to Brian, so I’ll be able to breath and enjoy this week—which is perfect timing since I’ll be signing ARCs in the Flux booth at PLA convention on Thursday!

Holly, it’s been an absolute delight to have this back-and-forth with you. I wish you a lifetime of success with your pillar of manuscripts—if I could be one tenth as productive as you I could die happy! We’re in a unique position, both of us with our debut books releasing from the same house the same week. I’m thrilled to be there with you and I can’t wait to get my hands on A BLUE SO DARK.

Schindler: Same to you, Christy! PROPHECY OF DAYS is on my must-have list…Have an absolutely fantastic time at the PLA convention…Take a deep breath during the signing and let it all soak in. Congratulations on PROPHECY, and on finishing book #2!

Find Holly at her Blog or her website - and be sure to order your copy of A BLUE SO DARK!