Hard to believe I’m posting this. It’s the type of news I’ve seen other authors announce in the past, but I never thought I’d be one of them. Actually, I’ll let the announcement in Publishers Marketplace speak for itself:
So … yay! Very excited to be working with Swoon Romance YA for my next three titles!
Category Archives: Linda’s Posts
EM & EM Book Release Launch!
Today is EM & EM’s release day!! As I write this, there are just three hours left in the day, and I can tell you it has been an exciting, nerve-wracking, and exhausting 21 hours.
Exciting because of all the wonderful writers, readers, and bloggers out there who have been kind enough to post, tweet, and comment about my book, not to mention the folks–family, friends, and followers–who have written to congratulate me. You know that sense of overload you feel when you pop onto Facebook on your birthday? You’re overwhelmed in more ways than one, and that is how today felt. In other words, awesome!
Nerve-wracking because I tend to obsess over my Amazon rankings, even though I don’t entirely understand what they mean, and that basically is no way to live.
And exhausting because, like a kid at Christmas, I could barely sleep last night.
Wouldn’t trade today for the world.
Oh yeah, and I almost forgot, if you want to buy the book, you can do so on Amazon or Barnes & Noble. Thanks!!
Em & Em Cover Reveal
This week was the cover reveal for EM & EM, being released from Swoon Romance on September 15. I loved my cover for THE FUNERAL SINGER, and if it’s possible, I think I may love this one even more.
EM & EM is a sweet romance, but it has a little bit of a dark side, and feel like the designer did a great job of striking the perfect tone.
I’ve heard a couple of theories already about the heart. One commenter on a blog that participated in the cover reveal said it reminded her of the saying, “Can a zebra change its stripes?” My sister Karen said she thought the stripes represented Em/Em’s dual identity, her light side and her dark side. I love both theories!
Here’s the promo description of the book. What do you think the heart means?
The last thing sixteen-year-old Emily Slovkowski wants is to move away from her home at the Jersey shore, gorgeous surfer boyfriend Zach, and her entire identity. But that’s kind of how Witness Protection works, and Em must prepare herself for an epic do-over as she starts a new life in the Midwest.
Even as she pines for sandy beaches and the night life of the shore, the newly-named Ember O’Malley finds herself making new friends, taking photos for the high school newspaper, and thinking an awful lot about the paper’s editor, an oddly cute cowboy named Charles.
When Em stumbles upon a shady beneath-the-bleachers exchange between one of the school’s football coaches and a student, she refuses to get involved. The last thing she needs is to be witness to another crime or call attention to herself. Besides, she finally has some real friends—well, real except for the fact that they don’t know a single thing about her—and she prefers to keep it that way until the trial.
But as her day in court approaches, Em begins piecing together what she saw that day beneath the bleachers. And, as her own past secrets start to catch up with her, Em needs to figure out who she really is—Em or Em.
Book News! Part 2
My brief trip this weekend to the Romance Writers of America 2015 Annual Convention in New York was a blast! It’s always so much fun to connect with my tribe: fellow writers, and especially fellow YA romance writers. Truly the nicest people on the face of the earth.
The location of the event was awesome. Here is a shot of the view from my hotel room:
Yes, that’s Broadway down there. Bright lights, big city, and basically fun, fun, fun central. A horrible spot for a hotel room if you actually want to sleep, but lucky for me, sleep was not high on my priority list.
Before the event, I met up with two dear friends, fabulous YA author Lisa Amowitz and rock star middle-grade author Kate Chell Milford, for a 3.5-hour lunch at O’Lunney’s Irish Pub. Caught up on a bunch of the latest publishing world gossip and had the most AMAZING hard pear cider. I highly recommend it if you’re in that neighborhood. Many thanks to Lisa (on the left) for her mad selfie-taking skills. Can’t you tell she’s an artist by the way she tilted the angle just so?
Next it was on to the YARWA “Evening of YA.” What do you get when you put about 90 YA romance authors in a room together? Lots of estrogen. And beautiful smiles. And laughter. And did I mention the niceness? So, yeah, a very fun night.
Capped off with:
Yay! My third book (which does not yet have a firm publication date), THE BOYFRIEND WHISPERER, won first place in the YARWA Rosemary Award for Contemporary Fiction.
I was so thrilled, and this vote of confidence for the manuscript makes me so excited to finish and polish it up so I can share it with the world!
Coming up in my next post: EM & EM cover reveal excitement.