There's More To Life (As We Knew It) Than Bolivian Hats

The Second Annual The Dead And The Gone Marion Lloyd Books Bound Proof Bolivian Hat Giveaway (which is more like the Second Weekly, but Annual is much more impressive) is still ongoing and will last through the weekend regardless of when the ARCs arrive. So if any of you are weekend blogreading warriors, you'll have until Sunday night to send an e-mail to the hat.

Meanwhile because I share everything with you, here are links to two different blogs that discuss Life As We Knew It. There are tricks to make the links all cute and short, but I haven't figured them out yet. So here, the way that was good enough for Grandma, are the links:


http://aprilhenry.livejournal.com/229366.html


and:


http://readingandbreathing.blogspot.com/2007/11/life-as-we-knew-it-by-susan-beth.html



The Harcourt Spring-Summer 2008 catalog came in the mail today. There's a two page spread for the dead & the gone and the paperback of Life As We Knew It. The website of this very blog is listed. Since the cover letter said they print 19,000 copies of the catalog, and I only got one, I can assume I now have 18,999 new blog readers. Hi to all of you! Make yourselves to home.


I'm sure the rest of my slowly gained readership would like to see what the two catalog pages look like. I hope you don't mind that you can't read the text. I scanned it that way so there'd still be some mystery left in our relationship:






On the left side of the dead & the gone page, Harcourt says, in bold purple letters: Double newsletter co-op. Naturally I am very excited about this, particularly since I have no idea what it means. Google was no help to me, so until I hear otherwise I'm going to assume Double newsletter co-op is twice as good as Single newsletter co-op, not that I know what that means either (or if it even exists).

At the bottom of the Life As We Knew It page it says: Includes a teaser to the companion novel, the dead & the gone. I must admit, I'm mostly quoting that for the cheap thrill of boldfacing and italicizing all in one sentence.

Oh dear. I can hear some of my 18,999 newly gained readers silently stealing away. Bye bye!Write if you get work!

I'm off to multiply $6.95 (the list price of the paperback LAWKI) by 6% (my royalty rate). There's nothing that makes a writer happier than an imaginary royalty check (except maybe a Double newsletter co-op, whatever that may be).

The Bolivian Hat Is Back In Business

I just got an e-mail from the generous folk at Marion Lloyd Books saying they've sent me four more ARCs of The Dead And The Gone. As it happens, I was in a foul mood until I read that, and now I'm all jolly and lovable, so I'm doubly appreciative.

So here's the deal. My mother, Freda Pfeffer (hey, she gets excited when she googles herself) insists that one of the four copies go to the first person who had e-mailed a request last time, so that one is now officially reserved.

But the other three are going to give the Bolivian hat another workout. I kept all the handwritten e-mail address slips (minus the three that I pulled out last week) in a just in case plastic sandwich bag, so back into the hat they can go. I know there was at least one person who regretted not having e-mailed, so if she, or anyone else who missed out on the last drawing, wants to e-mail me, their address slips will go into the hat as well.

I'll do the drawing whenever the "books" arrive, and mail them out as soon as I have the selectees' actual mailing addresses. Since I don't know when the ARCs were sent or how long it'll take for them to get here, I can't give an official deadline. But I will inform all of you as soon as I've drawn the names out.

Anyway, I am just delighted that more of you will be getting U.K. bound proofs. Be prepared to translate things into American though. I was skimming through my copy the other day and found that a building was being kept at 13 degrees. That seemed awfully cold to me until I remembered that their 13 is a lot warmer than ours!

Good Skates

I had a great time at Skate America this weekend, but on the assumption that not all of my slowly gained readership cares about figure skating, I'm going to add a comment to this entry about the skating, instead of discussing it here.

I went with my friend Janet Carlson, to whom The Dead And The Gone is dedicated. I hadn't told her, so she was surprised (and I hope delighted) when I gave her the Marion Lloyd ARC and suggested she read the dedication page while I stared at her. I figure I can use her full name because it's in The Dead And The Gone, after all, and now she can google herself and find this blog entry. If I just wrote Janet, she'd get lost amongst the Janet Renos and Janet Lynns and Janet Lennons and Janet Leighs (none of whom will find this blog entry the next time they google themselves- sorry, all you famous Janets).

For most of the weekend, Janet did the driving as we checked out various antique stores, and we used her GPS Thingy as a result. Hers has no hint of a foreign accent, but it lowers its voice for a sexy dramatic effect every time it says, "Destination."

I'm afraid my beloved GPS Thingy got jealous. On the drive home, we had a lovers' spat. At one point it even demanded that I make a u-turn! Yesterday I sent it flowers and candy, and I'm hoping all is forgiven. I'm committed to our relationship, and willing to go into couples counseling if need be, but my beloved GPS Thingy seems to think if I just do as it says, we'll stay right on course.

But exciting though the skating and the antiquing and the u-turns were, the highlight of the trip happened at the Adamstown Public Library, where we stopped so I could show off my blog to Janet (shocking though this may be, many of my friends don't actually read my blog). I felt a fierce desire for Janet to admire the drawing the itinerant courtroom artist had done of the Bolivian hat and me.

It turned out the Adamstown Public Library had a copy of Life As We Knew It! There it was, sitting unread on its shelves! And the Adamstown Public Library had my book The Riddle Streak as well, also sitting unread on its shelves!

Naturally I was thrilled and showed the books to Janet. And Janet, beloved friend that she is, promptly told the librarians at the Adamstown Public Library who I was.

Coincidentally, an itinerant Pulitzer Prize winning photographer happened by at the exact moment when Janet "outed" me. And here is the potentially Pulitzer Prize winning snapshot of the event.


The librarians at Adamstown could not have been nicer about our unexpected visit. If any of you are ever in Adamstown, Pennsylvania, be sure to drop in and say hi. Just don't tell my GPS Thingy that it's your destination. I hate it when it sulks.

An Announcement Not An Entry

I'm delighted to announce that the Listening Library audiobook of Life As We Knew It is on the YALSA Nominations for 2008 Selected Audiobooks for Young Adults list.

Congratulations to Emily Bauer who made Life As We Knew It come alive.

And Now The Bolivian Hat Can Retire

I'm pleased to report that 33 people e-mailed their interest in Marion Lloyd Books ARC of The Dead And The Gone. That meant everyone had a one in eleven shot of having their e-mail address picked out of the Bolivian hat. Those odds are considerably better than winning the lottery but you'd rather win the lottery, I'm sure.

Still, the names have been drawn, and I've e-mailed all three winners. For those of you who didn't win, just remember," Lucky In Lotteries, Unlucky In Bolivian Hats." That's always been one of my favorite morals from Aesop.

To make sure only chance was involved in the selection process, I kept both eyes closed while I drew. As it happens, an itinerant courtroom artist happened by as I was sticking my hand in the hat, and immortalized the moment.

Notice how much weight I've lost since Monday!

Thanks again to all of you for your e-mails. I received so many wonderful messages, some from people I've had previous contact with, and others from people I've yet to get to know. This has been another great week for me and Life As We Knew It thanks to all of you. I'm very appreciative, and only wish I had another 30 ARCs to mail out.

For Those Of You Just Tuning In

First of all, I want to remind any of you still interested in having your e-mail address put in the Bolivian hat for a chance at one of the three advance reading copies of The Dead And The Gone that Marion Lloyd Books was kind enough to send me, you have until Thursday 8:00 PM EST to use the darling little link on the left to let me know. In case you need further convincing, hovering around this paragraph are the front and back of the Marion Lloyd Books promotional presenter.

My fragile ego and I are pleased to report more than three people have sent e-mails. Thanks to all of you who have expressed interest.

I didn't really have much of a chance to discuss my visit to Bishop Fenwick High School. I had a great time there. The students were terrific, asking all kinds of questions about Life As We Knew It, the process of writing and editing it, and the likelihood of a sequel. While issues of politics and religion were brought up, not a single one asked if I was a New York Yankee fan. Given that my visit took place the morning after the Red Sox clinched the pennant, I think they were remarkably kind.

I'm the one with the microphone and the neatly tailored pants suit.

At some point when I have a few hours to kill, I'll write a blog entry about the wonders of my GPS Thingy. But for now I'll only say that I love my GPS Thingy so much I'm considering having children just so I can name them GPS Thingy.

Finally, I'm thrilled to report that Life As We Knew It was named to the Teens' Top Ten list, sponsored by YALSA. I would credit Google with letting me know a mere ten minutes after the list was announced, but actually it was Bloglines that had the scoop. My congratulations to fellow Harcourt author Vivian Vande Velde, whose book All Hallow's Eve (13 Stories) also made the list.

Anyone Want An ARC of The Dead And The Gone?

You have no idea how many cutesy names I came up for this entry, but I'm just back from my exciting trip to Peabody, MA and Bishop Fenwick High School and I'm too tired to remember any of them.

Anyway, Marion Lloyd Books, UK publisher of Life As We Knew It and The Dead And The Gone, just sent me slightly anglicized advance reading copies/ uncorrected proofs of the latter, and at my request, they included three additional copies for me to offer to people who read my blog.

I have no idea how many of you would be interested and since I love each and every one of you (including the ones I haven't ever had contact with), I've decided this is the best approach:

If you are interested in having a copy, send me an e-mail via that cute little link on the left. Just say you're interested, or you want one, or you hate my guts but you'd like a copy anyway (well, if you put it that way I won't love you anymore, but I gather you're all right with that). I now know to check the junk folder (some of my best e-mails end up there), so if you send me an e-mail, I'm certain I'll find it.

I'm going to Skate America on Friday, so Thursday 8 PM Eastern Standard (or daylight, whatever it is) Time is the deadline. This is not a "first three who write and ask" offer.

If three or fewer people are interested, well there's no problem, except a bruised ego (and with the reviews Life As We Knew It has been getting on Amazon lately, my ego knows from suffering). If four or more people express a desire, then I'll write little slips with people's e-mail addresses on them, and pull three of them out of a hat (I have the hat too; it's from Bolivia and it was a gift, but that's a whole other story). I'll e-mail you back, ask for your address, but realistically speaking, won't mail the ARC out until Monday (the sooner I get to Skate America, the more practice sessions I can see).

There are only two things I ask of you. One is not to resell the ARC, since it says on the back cover not to. The other is if you like The Dead And The Gone once you've read it (oh, I guess that's another thing I ask- please read it), say so somewhere in public. If you don't like it... well my poor bruised ego will just have to deal with it.

I am now going to unpack. I hope to hear from at least three of you between now and Thursday evening!