Monday, May 12, 2008

You Won't Find This Offer Anyplace Else (I Hope)

But before I get to the offer, let me point out that the list of states where Life As We Knew It is nominated for a young readers award has grown by one. Paige Y. was nice enough to let me know that LAWKI is on the North Carolina Middle School Young Readers list. Since my mother was born and raised in Winston-Salem, she was particularly pleased to hear this, and I, of course, am delighted.

I think that gets LAWKI to 20 states (including Rhode Island, which, alas, was the first of many such awards LAWKI didn't win), plus the ones in the Pacific Northwest list. While I remain cheerfully dubious that it might actually win any of these awards, I still love the fact it's been nominated so often.

Google was kind enough to inform me at 4 this morning (when my brain started working on a scene for The World We Live In, so I got out of bed to read e-mails and convince my body it really wanted to go back to sleep) that the dead and the gone has made its first summer reading list. Given that the book is not officially published, I think that's pretty nifty. Then again, I think most everything is pretty nifty nowadays except my sleep patterns.

One major reason for all this niftyhood is, of course, all of you. So I wanted to do something to say thank you for your support of both LAWKI and d&g.

I realized I couldn't offer to autograph all your copies, because you'd have to send them to me, and I'd have to send them back, and that just wasn't going to work. So instead I had book labels printed specially for both books. I like to think of them as book plates, since that's classier, but either way, they're personally designed, with a space on each label for me to write Susan Beth Pfeffer (which I do in red ink).


I think of the Always Have Hope one for LAWKI and Never Lose Faith for d&g, but I won't be around to watch, so if you have a preference for one rather than the other (some people just love waxing moons, and others are waning moon obsessed), I'll never know where it goes. The background on both of them is silver (that doesn't show too well), and they're round (that white stuff surrounding them is the paper you peel them off of, and the lavender is just what I scotch taped them to). They look kind of three dimensional, but that's an optical illusion. They don't take up any space in a book.

So here's the deal. If you want one, just e-mail me, either using the link on the right or the address below the link, if the link doesn't work for you. Tell me where to send it, and off it will go (after I sign it semi-nicely with red ink- I don't have such great handwriting). If you want more than one, just ask. If you want one or more for books you're planning to give away (because nothing says Christmas more than a book with famine and epidemics and lots of dead bodies), just ask. If you're an independent bookstore owner/manager, and you'd like to put them in your books to make them more likely to sell, just ask. If you're a librarian or a teacher and you're using LAWKI or planning to use d&g either in your classrooms or in a summer reading program or a current book club or any such thing, and you'd like them for your students or whoever is reading the book, just ask. If you want one so you can get some of my DNA, with the intention of cloning me someday, just ask. I had 500 of each one printed because that's the smallest amount I could. And while the LAWKI ones are actually moving (on account of I ask strangers on the street if they'd like one, not to mention a school in Kentucky that's getting over 100 of them), I still have a lot, and on the incredibly small chance I'll need more, the printer will be happy to make them. If need be, I can always buy another red pen as well.

Even with the increase in the cost of postage, this is a very small way for me to express a very big thank you to all of you. But it was the best I could come up with, and I hope you'll accept it as a a token of my appreciation. I've never had so much fun in my career, and I owe a lot of that to you.

12 comments:

Mr. Cavin said...

As an NC native myself, I am also pretty stoked to learn that my home state has managed to get in on what will assuredly (optimistically) be the very first half of your list of state nominations.

Great Idea with the stickers. Look for my email.

Dawn said...

Oh my goodness, I would love to have 7 hope stickers for my library's copies of LAWKI and 7 faith stickers for our expected D&G (which should arive any day now)!! I hope that is not too much...sorry!

This is very generous of you, thank you so much!

Dawn

Susan Beth Pfeffer said...

Hi Mr. Cavin (always a pleasure to hear from you) and Dawn (always a pleasure to hear from you)-

Oh heck. It's always a pleasure to hear from any of you.

I'm really pleased about the North Carolina nominatation. I have a feeling Paige Y. worked hard to get it for me, and I'm very grateful. Since my mother no longer has family in North Carolina, I've only been there once, but some of my mother's memories of growing up there are really interesting (like hearing John Phillip Sousa perform at her high school).

Dawn, do me a favor, and e-mail me your address. And then I'll be delighted to mail you the stickers.

I sent off 11 envelopes this morning and have had more requests since then. But don't worry- I still have lots left (especially of the Never Lose Faith one, although I haven't lost my faith that they'll go eventually also!)

Linda Jacobs said...

I just finished LAWKI and absolutely loved it!!! I'm still thinking about Miranda and her family. All day, whenever I do anything that was eliminated in the book, I think about how life would be without it. It has really made me appreciate what we have.

I'd love to have a book plate and will email you. Thanks for your generosity!

dd said...

Wow, those book plates sound sooooo awesome! This is so generous of you, so THANK YOU! I'll definitely be emailing you, but are you sure you can send it all the around the world to New Zealand? Because I know that prices are insane, and I wouldn't want to put you out! =) Lol, either way it's cool coz its the thought that counts! Thanks again!
~Lucy D =D

dd said...

Oh whoops I almost forgot! Mark It Up May is happening here if you're interested!

http://shootingstarsmag.blogspot.com/2008/05/contest-mark-it-up-may.html

(Sorry, I'm always trying to link things but it hardly ever works!)

Oh, and I'm also sorry for double-posting! :P

Susan Beth Pfeffer said...

Hi to Linda Jacobs and Softindierocker-

I'm getting so much pleasure from everyone who's asked for stickers.

When my brother was a kid, he was on a TV show (boy, this is a weird hazy memory) where he was asked if it was better to give than receive, and he voted for receive.

But in this case, I'm giving and receiving and I love it both.

I'd be delighted to send the bookplates to New Zealand. I'll be sending a batch to Australia tomorrow.

And what a great idea Mark It Up May is. Please feel free to say you announced it on my blog. And if I can figure out a way of doing it and giving a copy away here, I will. Thank you for the link (which I copied into my little Google box, and it worked just fine).

Anonymous said...

Argh I'm never going to trust your envelope email thingy! Haha in the past it has never worked for me!

Hopefully you can send me an email here: walkin-on-quicksand@hotmail.com and then I can reply to it with my address ^_^ this sticker thing is such a great idea. Not many authors would be willing to do this or even think of such a great idea! Lol. It's awesome to think that your autograph will be in Australia!

Also today I did my oral presentation on Life As We Knew It. It went quite well! A lot of people were really interested in the book so thats good! I read out the part where the asteroid hits the moon and the part where Miranda finds out that Peter is dead and the nurses tell her that there isn't much that she can do for her family. Haha everyone was really shocked and wide eyed!

Anyhow I would love to have 2 stickers. One for my Life As We Knew It and another one for my dead and the gone! Thank you so much! I'll also keep the envelope that they come in =P haha. Thats how much of a big fan I am of yours! =)

. said...

Ooooh, I have got to get a sticker from you. I'm going to have my freshmen read "Life As We Knew It" this school year......I'd say "the dead & the gone" also, but I can only require them to purchase 2 paperbacks per year and that one's only hardback.

But I do want one for myself. :) I'll email you! And I can't wait for the new book! Both of these were great!!!

--jenni

Anonymous said...

Awesome idea!
Sincerely,
Anonymous Person

Anonymous said...

Hi!

I just read "The Dead & the Gone" in the span of a few hours (some on the subway, around the time I started reading the subway drownings) , and the rest at work (most of the office isn't here due to Prez Day).

I am spell bound. I recommended the book to two friends, and will be going to the book store to get the first book," Life As We Knew It" because I can't wait for the library to open tomorrow.

I would love a set of stickers! Heck, I'd love to read the third book, after I read the first. I'd love to arrange a trip, bake you an apple pie as I read the third draft (I live in PJ, NY, so it's like being football neighbor rivals). I'd love to be able to bake, so the aforementioned things can happen. I'll settle for stickers.

Seriously, it's been a while since I've been excited by a book series.

Susan Beth Pfeffer said...

Hello practically neighbor My-Darling-Feet-

I sincerely hope that isn't your real name.

Home baked apple pie sounds good to me (granted it would be better if you knew how to bake). But even without the pie, just use the cute link at the top of the right side of my blog to email me your address (somehow I don't think My-Darling-Feet, PJ, NY is going to do it), and off the bookplates will go.

I hope you like LAWKI also. It may inspire you to bake chocolate chip cookies instead!