Chasing Blue reviewed at Kidliterate

The awesome Melissa at Kidliterate reviewed Chasing Blue! Thanks so much, Melissa. I appreciate the review and am glad you enjoyed the second book.

I'm super busy as I catch up after the conference, but will be back to blogging regularly soon! :)

Book Chic and Chasing Blue

Book Chic shows off Chasing Blue, the note I wrote to him in sparkly blue AND talks about our summer plans to stalk our author friend Maggie Stiefvater. Maggie has likely already hired security to thwart our plans.

Check out the first two a half minutes of the video to catch that. Thanks, BC! :) YOU ROCK!

Chasing Blue's first reader review

The awesome Mara at Whitebrook Farm posted her thoughts on Chasing Blue. Thanks so much for reading and reviewing, Mara. I appreciate it!

And Tallahassee people--there are signed copies of Take the Reins and Chasing Blue at Barnes & Noble.

Back to writing Best Enemies...

Contest winner!

All right! I put the number of comments into a random number generator and we have a winner for a signed copy of Chasing Blue.

The winner is...Miss Erin! Erin, I'm sending you an e-mail right now. :)

Thanks so much to everyone who entered!

Also, if you'd like a signed postcard, take a pic of yourself with Take the Reins or Chasing Blue and e-mail it to me. I'll post your pic and send you a pretty personalized Canterwood Crest postcard.

Oh! And the sweetest girl e-mailed me a Canterwood Crest Power Point that she made. It's the COOLEST thing. I asked her if I could share it, so we'll see what she says. *If* I can figure out how to post the slide show. Hmm...

Chasing Blue is out early! :)

Well, it appears that Barnes & Noble is the first to release CHASING BLUE. Yep! I haven't actually seen it Out There, but their site says it's shipping.

Amazon is also in stock! That means I'll resume my book stalking ways. I'd just stopped doing that, too. :)

Yaaay! As always, thanks to AA, EK and S&S. <3


About the book:

Home (Bitter) Sweet Home

Now that Sasha Silver and her horse, Charm, have proven that they're worthy competitors for the Canterwood Crest equestrian team, Sasha's psyched to get back to school...until self-proclaimed It girl, queen bee, and owner of the I'm-so-way-better-than-you-are attitude, Heather Fox, is assigned as Sasha's riding partner.

Not. Good.

And when Heather starts spending a little too much QT with Sasha's almost-boyfriend, Jacob, their partnership is put to the ultimate test.

Win a signed copy of Chasing Blue

All right! I just got my author copies of CHASING BLUE! Guess what? I'm giving away a signed copy. Yay! The book officially comes out on March 24.

To enter, leave a comment here or on my post on LiveJournal. You have until Saturday at midnight to enter. If you want an extra entry, blog about the contest and then post the link in your comments.

(I'll mail only to US addresses only, sorry!)

Good luck! :)

Seriously? Chasing Blue is a month away?!

Chasing Blue (Canterwood Crest #2) comes out in a month. One. Month. And if I learned anything from Take the Reins' release, it means that CB could start popping up in stores in 3 weeks or so. Eeek. I'm excited to see them side by side on shelves. That just seems cool.

My first signing is on Saturday and I'm hopelessly failing at not freaking out. I intend to vlog before, during and after the signing, so you'll get the full "OMG! I'm sooo nervous!" effect in the early minutes of the vlog. Lucky you! :D

Also, I wanted to give a quick shout out to Tallahassee schools. You all have been so receptive and thanks for asking me to come visit. My March calendar is filling fast and I so appreciate it! Special thanks to Bill Bothwell for coordinating every visit.

Chasing Blue ARC pics

As promised...ARC pics of CHASING BLUE! On the front, we've got Sasha Silver and her rival Heather Fox. Julia Myer, Heather's BFF, is on the back. There's also a tiny pic of Heather on the spine. (Yes, I had the pic of the back loaded and then I took it off. It kinda gives away a bit of the plot of TAKE THE REINS.)

Yay! I was such a dork about this ARC. I held it on my lap for most of the trip home and have it by my laptop so I can see it today. Soon, it will be sent Out There for someone else to read. Eeep.

What do you guys think?

Hello, my name is PR Ninja

I worked through Thanksgiving, and man, did it feel good! I got a lot done on BEHIND THE BIT and it's looking pretty! :)

I think I blogged before (or maybe I Facebooked it) about how my room had become a post office with Canterwood Crest mail. Well, I couldn't take the clutter, so I moved it out to the table.

This is what it looks like:

(The newest postcard!)

That's minus a stack of envelopes that went out to indies that requested signed TAKE THE REINS postcards and offered to put them out in Jan. Thanks, guys! I really appreciate your interest. A few of the store owners said, "Oh, btw, we saw your book in the S&S catalog" or "I'm excited to recommend it." One Kentucky bookstore owner even told me she was sure my book would do well in their state. You know, cause of the giant horse-loving population. That's supercool!

Now, I have an excuse to buy the rainbow pack of Sharpies that I've been eyeing but previously had no use for. They're perfect for postcard signing!

<3

The postcards go fast. Really fast. 500 TTR postcards--spoken for and mostly gone. Less than 10 are left. 500 Chasing Blue postcards--already being sorted for stores/groups/stables/libraries, etc. 500 dual TTR/CB postcards--just arrived today. (If you own a bookstore/stable/whatever else and you'd like signed postcards, e-mail me.)

Yep, the TAKE THE REINS countdown is, well, going down! Less than 8 weeks. OMG. Bring it on! I am ready! My PR plan is begging to go into fullout action mode. I'm set to be a PR Ninja. :)

Chasing Blue (Canterwood Crest) cover reveal!!

Ta da! It's the second cover for my Canterwood Crest series! This is for CHASING BLUE and it comes out in March 2009. On the cover, you're looking at Sasha (left) and her arch rival Heather (right).

A giant shout out to Design Goddess Jessica Sonkin for this brilliant, amazing and fab cover. Woo hoo!

What do you guys think?

Chasing Blue (Canterwood Crest #2) is up on Amazon!

Wooo hooo! My second book, Chasing Blue, is up on Amazon! No cover yet, but I'll share it as soon as I can! How insane that book 2 of the Canterwood Crest series is up and ya'll haven't read the first one yet. :)

Btw, do you like the grapic on the side? ------> (BlogSpot only! Sorry LJ friends!) I made that in Fireworks and I think it represents the book well. Canterwood's school colors are hunter green and gold.

Chasing Blue (Canterwood Crest) has a pub date!

BIG NEWS! :)

Chasing Blue, the second book in the Canterwood Crest series, has a pub date on Simon & Schuster's Website!

Chasing Blue hits stores on...March 24, 2009! :) Woo hoo! The cover isn't up yet, but you'll find it here when it goes live. It's quite awesome, I must say. *grins*

Now, you only have to wait 8 weeks from Take the Reins to Chasing Blue. Awesome.

Finished Chasing Blue

All right! The holiday season is behind (well, almost behind) some of us and I'm looking forward to the New Year. Later in the week, I'll post my resolutions for the New Year and I hope you'll share some of yours. :)

Yesterday, just as my mom was taking the roast beast out of the oven, I typed the final words on Chasing Blue. It took about 7 weeks to finish and I'm thrilled to have the draft down. Sure, there are lots of revisions to be done, but that feeling of elation of having 200+ pages down on paper is AMAZING.

When I first started writing this book, I was a wreck. I've never written a sequel before, had no idea how much to reference the first book and worried I'd screw it up. But when I got started, things felt natural. I somehow knew how much to reference Take the Reins, my characters were more familiar than before and the luxury of not having to create an entirely new world (aside from a road trip the girls take) was nice.

My holiday break was fantastic! I spent lots of time reading (the Mob Princess series by Todd Strasser), writing (obviously) and watching movies (Wild Hogs and Order of the Phoenix).

Today, I'm printing and rereading CB and writing thank you notes for holiday gifts. (I'm waving at you, Aunt G, in case you read this!) :)

Amazon, Chasing Blue update and signing offer from tack a shop

Thank you all so much for sharing my excitement about finding Take the Reins on Amazon yesterday. Yes, the pub date is off but at least it's there in all of it's paperback glory.

Also, I wanted to share that on Saturday, I visited a lovely upscale tackshop downtown. I struck up a conversation with the store owner she excitedly offered to host a book signing in her shop next fall. :) I was thrilled about that and wrote her a thank you note as a follow up.

Chasing Blue, my NaNoNovel, sits at 21k and I hope to get at least 1500 words down today. Except, well, it's sweeps month and every afternoon at 3 I must break for General Hospital. Lots of drama this month! :)

How's everyone else doing with the NaNoNovel? Are you going to type during the Thanksgiving holiday or are you building in some extra words now?

PS- Anyone else dying to see Beowulf and The Golden Compass? Both look fantastic, especially GC. Hopefully, it will turn into a Lord of the Rings type of series.

PPS- Thanks to Em for you-know-what yesterday. :)