Half a million!?

You guys! Thanks to *YOU* and I mean, each and every member of Team Canterwood, there are half a million Canterwood Crest books in print. Talk about insane! What great news for a stressful week.

We're getting ready to leave for Mayo #3 on Saturday. Thank you all for chiming in on the Facebook page and saying you'll take 10 seconds out of you day to send good thoughts to Kate during her surgery next Tuesday. We love you all.

I think I'm going to take a break from work and watch GOSSIP GIRL: season one with Kate. We're starting at episode one. We both stopped watching after two or three seasons, but I loved the first.

Hugs!

~J

Update on Kate

I promised you all an update and Team Canterwood (and our friends, especially Alex, Lauren, Becca, Katherine, Bri, and Andi) have been so supportive with e-mails, Facebook messages, etc.

I don't want to put too much of Kate's personal medical history online, but this last visit at Mayo was good and bad. Good because we have a surgery scheduled. Bad because doctors still don't know how to stop/help her with the screaming pain she's in every day.

We're going back to Mayo for the third time the second week of October. Kate is going to have surgery where doctors will try to find a cause for her pain. It's extremely exciting to have this chance, but also absolutely terrifying because of the fear that they won't find anything.

So, we are both very nervous and anxious right now. Going back to the hospital is not fun. I don't know how Kate has done it so many times. She still edits Canterwood while living every day for the past year and a half with a pain that medication won't cover. Pain that makes her scream. It's heartbreaking to witness and there's a helpless feeling.

We thank you all for being there to back us--your support has brought happy tears to Kate's eyes more times than you know.

I ask you all to send good wishes into the universe for Kate on October 11th--the date of her surgery. I'll create a Facebook page as soon as I have time.

Thank you, guys. We love you all!

xoxo

Pics from signing in Rochester, MN

This past Sunday, September 18th, I had the pleasure of signing books and doing a surprise reading of an excerpt from INITIATION! :) The members of Team Canterwood who came were AMAZING. One reader got a bright blue feather in her hair because I had them! And Olivia brought me a lip gloss! So. Sweet.

The Rochester crowd was filled with TC people from all over--some even driving two+ hours to get to B&N. I can't thank you all enough for coming. I had so much fun. :)

Enjoy these pics and the video will be up soon!

Thanks to Kate for playing photographer. Thank you, also, to Brianna for helping with the event and Ross for filming.

xoxo

Awesome graphics by Hannah F!

I heart these so hard core! Thank you, Hannah F for sending these! The lip-gloss one, especially, made me grin. :)

Many hearts!

Thank you, thank you, Horse Mystique

I cannot express the gratitude and love I feel for Team Canterwood. Hannah, aka Piisyummy, from Horse Mystique sent me a lovely, unforgettable email with a surprise attachment.

It came at the perfect moment as Kate and I are hard at work on INITIATION. Kate is also going through excruciating pain as we wait to go back to the Mayo Clinic in September.

I have so much admiration, love and thanks for my online friends that I can't even begin to explain. All who worked on this banner will see good things come back to them. I believe in karma. :)

Much love to all of you and thank you for supporting and loving my best friend. You have no idea how YOUR support keeps me going when I'm writing the books we all love and it gets Kate through her pain to put everything she has into Canterwood.

xxx

A Stable of Books

Coming on July 26, Aladdin is releasing a "Stable of Canterwood Crest Books" (isn't that name supercute?!) of Take the Reins, Chasing Blue, Behind the Bit and Triple Fault as a set of e-books at a great price. Here's a link to pre-order it via Kindle. I'm sure the link will be available soon for the Nook if it isn't already.

I can't wait for this to come out! I never dreamed I'd have a set of books. Ever.

Thank you so much to Team Canterwood for supporting me, Editor K and the series. It's because of YOU that this is happening. Since it's a virtual release, I'm sure I'll come up with something fun to celebrate with you all . . . :)

xo

New Aladdin (Simon & Schuster) policy change *important for Team Canterwood*

Hi, Team Canterwood,

I hope you’re all having a good summer so far! I thought I owed you all an explanation about some changes to come. This will give you a heads up about what to expect from me and all things Canterwood.

Some of you may be familiar with the vlogs I’ve done from the Canterwood covers photo shoot…the vlogs where I chat with the models, interview the stylists and give TC all-access behind the scenes. I’ve been receiving a few e-mails and comments asking when you would get to “meet” Lauren Towers and the new cast of characters. You guys are so sweet and I love that you’re all interested in LT!

Unfortunately, I will not, and nor will Kate, be allowed to attend the latest shoot next month. My imprint, Aladdin, has issued an across the board policy that extends to all authors. None of us, even if we have previously attended cover shoots, are able to be present for future shoots. I was just told that this new rule went into effect recently, so I will not be able to introduce you to Lauren and her friends/frenemies. Of course, this was saddening news for a number of reasons, but mostly because I'm prohibited from bringing you content I was so looking forward to sharing.

But! Here’s what I will be doing:

Releasing new covers to you as I’m given them so we all can get excited together

Posting new head shots from the upcoming covers photo shoot when they are ready

Creating trailers for the upcoming books

Keeping up with Lauren on her new blog: http://laurentowers.blogspot.com

Checking out LT’s Offical Tweets (FYI: No other characters have official Twitter accounts that are monitored by me) @Lauren_Towers

Vlogging on my own

Continuing to blog to keep TC in the know about the latest happenings

As I mentioned, I’m sorry about this new rule because you are the ones who lose in the end. But I am looking forward to writing the books you love and offering you as much as I’m able.

xx

New Canterwood Twitter background by Madie

Look at this AMAZING Twitter or desktop wall paper made by the fab Madie! I have lots more artwork (including a gorge Lauren and Whisper piece of art) that I'll be sharing soon. Right now, I'm back and forth between the hospital and taking a break from the computer to be with Kate.

She is uplifted by all of your thoughts and prayers--I cannot thank you enough. Really from the bottom of my heart--thank you.

You all are my heroes.

Winners of Chosen contest!

I got superlucky and had time to run the # of entrants (plus extra entries) through the generator and the "see-your-name-in-Initiation" contest winners have been chosen at random!

I feel so grateful to have had so many entries. The best part was SEEING you guys! I love putting a face to your names. You all have such beautiful names that I bet some of them pop up in future books. I mean, where better to look for names than Team Canterwood?!

Since we had sooo many fab entrants, I changed it up a little. We are going to have one main winner, as mentioned, and TWO runners up. The main winner's name will appear more frequently and will have dialogue. The runners up with make a brief appearance in a scene in the book.

So, no more torture!

The GRAND PRIZE WINNER IS:

JILL (TEAM ERIC)

~*~*~*~ Yaaaay! Jill, please e-mail (jess _ burkhart AT hotmail DOT com) me with your last initial (if you want it used). Also, I have another question for you in the email. Congratulations!!!! :)

The TWO RUNNERS UP ARE:

Jayllex M.

AND

Kacie F.

Way to go!! I'm so excited for you both to make cameos in INITIATION.

Again, thank you to all who entered and I wish I could use all of your names. I'll be holding another contest like this for a future book, so don't worry. I'm opening this posts to comments and hope if you do post that you'll congratulate the winners.

xoxo

Final entry in Chosen contest!

And we have our final entry in the Chosen contest! Here's Miss Holly S. with her copy!

(Yes, it is May 26th, but I received Holly's entry within the time limit and could not get online until now to to post it.)

I will post the winner who will have their first name and last initial appear in INITIATION as soon as humanly possible. I have 3 doctor appointments with Kate at Mayo today and she is my main focus and reason for being in Minnesota. But I'm hoping to announce the winner tonight.

I'll also be posting the winners of the Gelly Roll pen giveaway. I'll collect your names and addresses and will mail those when I get settled at home--probably the 2nd week of June.

Thank you ALL for participating in this contest! Best of luck! The winner, btw, will be chosen by a random number generator site that I use. That seems to be the most fair.

<3

Team Canterwood's been busy!

Kate and I have been getting to many well wishes, thoughts, prayers, etc. It's incredibly touching and means more than I can explain.

Team Canterwood member Kacie Ferris created this page for Kate:http://tinyurl.com/3h62gqg.

It's a very sweet "Day of Prayer" evite on 5/27 at 6pm. Whatever your belief or even if you're busy on that day and time, sending thoughts into the universe to get Kate well would be amazing. The support of Team Canterwood has been overwhelming and I thank you all.

We are hanging in there and Kate is a trooper. She's being put through endless tests and we still don't have answers yet.

On a fun note, some members of Team Canterwood have created new, cool pages!

Haley O. made this:http://canterwoodcrestfan.weebly.com/index.html

And Ashley M created this: http://canterwoodcresthorserpg.webs.com

Thank you both so much! I hope you're all getting ready for summer. I'm definitely looking forward to the warm weather.

xoxo

More Team Canterwood Chosen pics!

Suz C's cat, Sasha Silver!

Suz C.

Kyla G with her gorgeous horse

Another great pic of Kyla!

Kaitlin J! She was a winner in the cover flat contest.

Andrea C.

Wanted to share these awesome photos!

More pics of Team Canterwood!

McKenna V.

Grace Z.

Liza K.

You guys are the best--as if I didn't already know that! ;)

Here are some of our fellow Team Canterwood members who sent in pics for the Initiation contest. I love them all!

Canterwood Crest scrapbook! Love!

Aren't these SUPERCOOL?! These are just a few pics of the lovely and amazing Canterwood scrapbook that Ashley and Iris sent me. The two 11 year old besties sent me this as a farewell gift to Sasha and I'm in love with it. I wanted to thank them both for creating this beautiful memento that I'll treasure always.

So. Sweet.

45 days and counting . . .

till CHOSEN releases! I'm sooooooooo excited about this book! It's the first ever Canterwood super special and Kate and I worked our butts off on this book. Notice I said "first" super special? Welllll, I'm announcing it for the first time that there will be another super special! A holiday themed one. :) I'm superthrilled to be writing about the holidays, winter, parties, horses in the snow, etc. It's going to be so. much. fun. I hope you guys like the plan, too!

It's going to be a non-stop working weekend for me. I'll be writing INITIATION. It's coming along well so far. A little slow with the beginning just because I still heard Sasha's voice in my head, but now I hear Lauren. I absolutely love her and I think you will too.

I want to know your weekend plans! Doing anything fun? Reading anything good? Spill!

Back to writing with Pretty Little Liars in the background.

Love to Team Canterwood.


xoxo

A gorgeous Team Eric video

I just found this AMAZING Team Eric video on YouTube from HorseAddict16's channel.

Thank you so much, HorseAddict16! Kate and I watched the video twice and I'm going to buy Taylor Swift's song right now! If anyone else creates a video in the future, please let me know so I can favorite it.

Enjoy, everyone!

Happy book birthday, TAKE THE REINS!

Wow. It's crazy to think that two years ago on January 27, TAKE THE REINS was released into the world. I was a total newbie author with a four-book deal and had no idea if I was doing anything right. The only thing I knew for sure: I had a book that I loved and was passionate about.

I have to first thank Molly McGuire for acquiring the series. Then, all thanks, praise and hearts go to Kate Angelella for turning a four book series into twenty books including a super special. It's rare to find an editor who turns books such as THE ROCK AND THE RIVER into an award winner and a commercial series like Canterwood into a long-running series. I am incredibly grateful to Kate for the countless hours she has put into my books. But she wasn't just focused on Canterwood or award winners. She stayed at the office till 11 many nights (I was there!) and worked all weekend on her projects. I'm friends with several of her authors (hello, Lauren Barnholdt!) and wish they could have seen her in action.

Now, as TAKE THE REINS is almost 2 years old, book 12 has just released--ending Sasha's reign as the narrator of Canterwood. It's an exciting, happy, sad thing all at once!

I cannot wait until May when you will all get to meet our new narrator in the JUMBO sized super special. (Seriously, it's HUGE.) :)

I'm working on #13 INITIATION and Kate and I are preparing to bring you something amazing in between waiting for Canterwood--our new e-book novella series--WELLINGTON PREP. More details to come as we move forward on this new venture.

Thank you all, Team Canterwood, for sticking with me since the first book. I owe you many thanks because you allow me to do the job I love. Thank you. <3

Here's the post I wrote in 2009. :)

Lovely Team Canterwood-made video tribute to Sasha & Co.

A beautiful video made by NoCureForHorses9. Go subscribe to her YouTube Channel! Thank you so much, NoCure, for making this gorgeous video! Many <3sss!

Video from reading at Barnes & Noble! Secrets revealed!

Thanks, Team Canterwood!

I've been receiving some lovely e-mails from Team Canterwood regarding UNFRIENDLY COMPETITION. I know we're all sad to say goodbye to Sasha, but I'm thrilled that you guys are excited about the next chapter for Canterwood. :)

I just finished copy edits on CHOSEN last night--yay!

Today, I'm working on my YA project and outlining the next Canterwood book. Veeery exciting!

Have a great day, guys!

PS: Any of my blog readers attending my NYC signing on the 19th? I hope so!

xoxo