teen readers rock

Um, seriously? It does not get any cooler than this:



I'm so honored that BUTTER made YALSA's 2013 TEENS' TOP TEN list!

28 nominees and 32,000 votes means a lot of teens were out there reading, and a lot of librarians were connecting kids with books. How awesome is that?

To all of those teen readers and librarians who spent a little time with Butter over the last few months, thank you Thank You THANK YOU, from the bottom of my heart. you so completely rock.

the road to book 2

I am having a moment.

Later this morning, I will be sweating over my laptop, stressing about new words in a new manuscript. This afternoon, I will be hosing off my car after a very muddy trip to the mountains. And tonight, I will be cleaning up a scrapbooking mess I made in the living room.

But right now... right this second... I am having a moment -- a good one. I have the day off work, and I'm starting it off on the back patio watching the sun shine on the yard and drinking a cup of coffee (iced. This is Arizona after all. It's only 8:30am, and my temperature gauge already reads 90 degrees.)
This sunny caffeinated moment is how I am celebrating the launch of my second book, DEAD ENDS. (out today!)

I remember, after selling BUTTER, thinking the 2 year wait to publication would feel like a lifetime. In hindsight, it went by in a flash. But that flash was nothing compared to how fast it seems DEAD ENDS was published. We sold this book in the spring of 2012, so it's been a little under 18 months from sale to pub. For all but 1 of those 18 months, I was also planning my wedding, so I had very little time to obsess about this launch the way I did the first time around.
In fact, this quiet moment right now may be the very first time I've actually reflected on the road to book 2 at all.

I wrote the first draft of DEAD ENDS the month after we sold BUTTER, in part to keep myself from clicking on my email inbox every two seconds. *Best advice ever, by the way! There is a lot of waiting around on the path to publishing. Use that down time to write something new! Once edit letters and blog requests and cover comps start rolling in, you may find your writing time is being eaten away!

After my speed-drafting, I sent the manuscript (then-titled Billy D. & the Bully) off to one of my crit partners, who told me what I already suspected - I had a good start, some great characters... and not much plot.
So I spent the next 9 months or so rearranging, revising and rewriting. By the end of the year, with more help from crit partners, I had something worth submitting.
It was another few months before we sold it, and then I hit a wall of "now what?"

See, the first time around, every moment is a milestone.
book sale? champagne dinner out on the town!
cover reveal? splatter the internet!
launch party? everyone you know is coming!

It's a two-year-long party to celebrate a dream come true. But if book 1 is the dream, what is book 2?
It took me some time to figure out BUTTER wasn't the end of a journey but the start of a new one. And DEAD ENDS is the first step down that new path - a path that forks off in many directions, like a "choose your own adventure" book.
Do you want to write full time?
Do you want to explore a new genre?
Do you dream of longevity as an author?

It's a path of nothing but possibility, and it's a little intimidating, because once your biggest dream comes true... do you dare dream bigger?

For today, my dream is this: that readers who pick up DEAD ENDS will meet Dane, Billy D. and Seely... share their journey... and find something to love.

love from london

Good morning!
or, to all you lovely folks over in London, Good afternoon!

BUTTER hopped the pond today to make his UK debut.

and what a welcome!!

i woke up to this review in The Telegraph. (link! click it!) and some amazing well-wishes.
i'm also excited to say BUTTER is a book of the month at the Victoria Station branch of WH Smith!

thanks to author Mo O'Hara for snapping this shot!

more British BUTTER fun to come with a blog tour later this month! (click on the banner below for details.)

but for now, i just want to say to my news friends overseas,

Thanks for making a girl (and her characters) feel welcome!

 

UK Cover

Hiatus Interruptus once again! This time so I can squeal over my UK Cover for BUTTER.
Singular, deceptively simple covers are my absolute faves, so I am lucky to now have 2 such covers for B!

...and perhaps a third, for DEAD ENDS, but more on that later. ;)

Anyway, introducing the delicious new BUTTER cover, coming from Faber on March 7th, 2013...

YUM!

book trailer

it's National Bullying Prevention Month, and i'm planning a few things here on the blog over the next few weeks to participate.

one thing timed specifically for this month is the release of the book trailer for BUTTER! (feel free to scroll down now. i give you permission.)

you know, i always say i didn't intend to send a message with this book. i just wanted to tell a story. but i write about teenagers, and to me, bullying is a natural part of the teen experience - whether you're a target, a witness or even the bully.
so i'm honored to have BUTTER on bookstore shelves during this important month.

okay, enough rambling. here it is!

3-2-1 Launch!

i love a good party. i love planning a good party. heck, i even love cleaning up after a good party.

but i always dread the days leading up to the party - when you start to count on your fingers who RSVP'd and who didn't - when you start to wonder whether anyone will show up. because it's not a good party without guests. that's why i have to say THANK YOU to everyone who came out Saturday night to help me launch BUTTER into the world.

Thank you for your enthusiasm, for your laughter...

Thank you for buying BUTTER and waiting so patiently in line to get it signed...

and Thank you especially for eating the food!! :D

as much as i loved having my friends and family there to support me, the biggest - and BEST - surprise of the night was seeing so many new faces. what a rush to meet the fellow writer who came out because she was touched by something i had written here on the blog... the reader who had reached out to me via email to share a very personal story after reading BUTTER... the young man who just happened to be browsing for books and stopped to listen to the talk and then stayed to buy a book. you all made my night!

i have to admit, all the preparations for the launch and my nerves had me wishing slightly that i could just get it over with. but from the moment i said hi to the first guest until i'd signed the very last book, i was having the time of my life.
it was a thrill like riding a roller coaster - you love every screaming soaring minute of it, but when it's over, you realize it's gone by too fast, and you just want to turn around and get right back on.

writing is such a solitary thing. it's hard to know if what you're doing will reach anyone in a meaningful way. maybe that's why moments like holding my book for the first time and seeing it in stores didn't hit me the way i had hoped they would. for me, the most powerful moment of this journey so far happened Saturday. meeting readers face to face and talking with them about the book reminded me that writing may start out as a solo effort, but when that book gets out into the world, it's like sending an invitation to one great big party. and i, for one, hope the party never ends.

Happy Birthday BUTTER!!

sooooo.... it's release day.
officially.

i think i'm supposed to say something really profound on this day. but all i can think is:
eek! hee hee hee! wheeee! whoa. huh? wha?? really? wheeeee!

sometimes words fail me.
or i fail the words, to be more accurate.
i'm having a tough time putting them together in a meaningful way today.

i know i should write a long post thanking everyone who helped make BUTTER come to life, but it would read an awful lot like the acknowledgements in the back of the book.
which you can now read.
because it is published!
eek! hee hee hee! wheeee!

so let me say for now "ditto" to those acknowledgements and promise more thank yous to come. because what i really want to do today is say something to all of the writers out there still dreaming of publishing.

Dear Writer,

every single day you put words down on paper to tell a story is a miracle. every rejection you shrug off in order to keep writing is a triumph. every writing rule you break in order to tell the story you want to tell is an achievement. every friend you make along this bumpy path to publishing is a gift. and every moment that you get swept away by your own words - writing for the pure joy of it - is priceless.

publishing is not the promised land. your imagination is. you have the gift to create your own worlds to escape to whenever you wish. and if your dream is to share those worlds with readers, then all you have to do is keep writing. authors come up from the slush pile all the time. i should know. i'm one of them. i can't tell you how to get published, because every writer's path is different. but i can tell you there's only one way to 100% guarantee you will not get published - and that's to stop writing.
so keep getting up every day and putting words down on paper.
one day those words will come to life inside of a book.

i didn't fully believe it myself until today.
whoa. huh? wha?? really? wheeeee!

let's party!

Good News!
it looks like BUTTER is landing early.

start looking for it in bookstores (or in your mailbox, if you preordered) on SEPTEMBER 4th.

then, if you happen to be in Arizona. prepare to party! i'll be celebrating BUTTER's release with a launch party at Changing Hands at the end of September. details here:

BUTTER LAUNCH PARTY @ CHANGING HANDS

there will be snacks and prizes and hopefully a lot of fun. hope to see your smiling faces there!

really? really.

so this happened...

it sure looks like a real book, but somehow it still doesn't feel real, and i'm starting to think i will never wrap my brain around the fact that a lifelong dream is coming true.

over the years, i've had the unfortunate opportunity to learn how i handle grief. each time in my life i've heard devastating news, i've let myself feel it for just a moment - maybe a day or two at most - let myself cry until i can't breathe. then a survival switch flips inside me, and i shove any pain into a little compartment in my heart, so i can move forward.

i think that may be how i handle elation as well. my survival switch is keeping my emotions in check, because if i allowed myself to fully feel this moment, my heart might literally explode with joy.

my mom recently sent me a box with hundreds of pages of writing from before i could even spell. in the back of one story, i wrote myself this little bio:

My name is Erin Jade Lang (yes, I misspelled my own last name) and I am eight years old. When I grow up I want to be a writer.

i guess in many ways, i still feel like that 8 year old girl, playing pretend and wishing on a star. but sometimes there's just a split second - a flash of a moment - when i actually take it all in, and it's like that wishing star goes shooting across the sky. in those moments i have to look at myself in the mirror and have this conversation:
Is this happening?
It's happening.
Really?
Really.

BUTTER book jacket and interview!

Dear Readers,
i know how these posts go. i tell you i'm about to unveil the full book jacket for BUTTER, and you scroll straight past anything i write here to the picture. so let me save you the strain of scrolling and just say, TA DA!!!

CLICK THE PICTURE FOR A LARGER LOOK!

guys, i am over the moon about this jacket. i love the butter yellow of the inside flaps, the little pop of color on the back and the tiny butter dishes on the spine. as i've said before in this vlog, i think the spine may be the most important part.

so who designed this awesome thing anyway?! well, her name is Regina Roff, associate designer at Bloomsbury Children's Books, and she generously agreed to give an interview here on the blog today!

Welcome, Regina!
Where do you begin when starting a cover design, and how does the process evolve from there?

Cover design doesn't always begin in the same way for every project, but ideally (at least for me) I get the pitch of the book from the editor, decide I want to tackle it, read the manuscript, come up with an idea, execute and refine the idea, and then BOOM, book cover. :) 

How many concepts did you go through for BUTTER, or did you have a specific vision at the start?

BUTTER was a challenge because any book having to do with food can easily go into the 'food memoir' imagery territory. A lot of the initial brainstorming ideas from the team were too food-centric and didn't have the edge that BUTTER needed. I really wanted to do something type driven, at first, to keep it modern and interesting and not get hung up on the food aspect. I actually only went through 2 concepts: 1 type driven and the final that we ended up with. It was one of those serendipity moments where one photo search led to another which led to another which led to the idea.

I love all the little details on the jacket for BUTTER, such as the measurements just like you would see on a stick of butter wrapper. When do those details come into the design process?

For me, those details happen when the editor gives me the flap copy, a little later in the process. Before the measurements ended up on the jacket, I had a whole 'nutritional facts' design on the back with the reviews in the space where the ingredients go. It was decided that was a little to humorous for the book, so I brainstormed a bit more and thought that the measurements would be an interesting and minimal design element that could tie everything together visually without overloading on the butter dish. It made me think about the additive process of Butter's food list and there was something macabre to me about the idea of literally 'cutting butter'.

How did you get into cover design? I imagine you have to be a book lover.

I am a total, absolute, crazy book person! Even before I could even read, I loved books. There was something magical to me that books had whole worlds living inside of them. I was always artistic and loved to paint and draw, so when I wasn't reading, I was usually painting. I went to college to pursue a degree in illustration and while I was there I fell into book design from taking my illustrations and putting them into layouts for presentations. I realized I loved making the layouts just as much as making the art, so I shifted gears and went headfirst into trying to start a design career. I managed to get my first design job a few months after graduation and have been loving it ever since.

How many people have input into a cover, and how does that impact the final product?

A LOT of people have cover input and that can really shape how a cover evolves. First and foremost is the opinion of our fabulous art director, Donna Mark. I go to her with my ideas before presenting them to the editors. The editors have a huge say in the book covers and generally decide if the cover ideas are aligned with how they want the book to be positioned. In addition to the editors, the sales and marketing team also look at the cover and decide if the look is good and fits into where the book should be positioned in the market. Finally, the book buyers have the final yes/no as to whether they'll take the book and oftentimes a good cover means a bigger buy. Never say that you don't judge a book by its cover! At any point if one of those parties decides the cover isn't working, it gets thrown back to the designers to rework. It's a really collaborative process and sometimes covers evolve quite a bit during the process of moving it through all the necessary channels. For BUTTER, it was simple: aside from teeny tweaks like kerning letters and author name fonts, BUTTER was loved by all!

What's your favorite part of the BUTTER cover? (my fave is the spine. love the tiny butter dishes, and i always say the spine is almost more important than the front!)

The front cover is my favorite part because I feel like the cover is a little like telling the story in a visual poem. BUTTER is simple and graphic, so it's like a visual haiku and I love that about this cover. You don't get bogged down in imagery, it's direct and engaging. Also, it's not a sad girl in a big dress (which, while beautiful and definitely has its place on the shelf, is a trend I'm getting tired of)!! You're absolutely right about the spine though, it can sometimes be more important, especially if you're not shelved face-front. I'm glad you like the spine so much!

Thanks for letting me talk about working on BUTTER. I had a great time reading it and a great time designing it!

Thanks, Regina, for stopping by the blog and for this fabulous cover. I am so thrilled!!

You can find Regina Roff online at reginaroff.com and on Twitter: @reginaroff

save the date!

September may trump October this year as my favorite month.

BUTTER will be on bookshelves Tuesday, Sep. 18th. is that really only 6 weeks away? holy cow!

and the following Saturday, Sep. 22nd, i will get to share BUTTER in person with friends, family and hopefully a few new faces at a lunch party at Changing Hands Bookstore in Phoenix.
save the date! details to come!

finally, in September, i get to make a rare autumn trip home to the midwest. i can't wait for the smell of fall. i miss it all the time. here's hoping the leaves turn super early this year.

i am still buried in revisions for next year's book, but when i come up for air, i plan to be blogging more often. in the meantime, have you checked out my agent's blog recently? (link! click it!) the past month has been full of amazing advice/information for writers. highly recommend.

BUTTER bookmarks giveaway!!

hi there! did you miss me? i missed you!

i've been hiding out in my revision hole this month working through my edits on the-soon-to-be-retitled BILLY D. AND THE BULLY.
but i'm surfacing today with some FUN THINGS to share with you!!

look what came in the mail! BUTTER bookmarks!

i ordered about a thousand of these bad boys, so i am happily giving some away here on the blog!

i will send signed bookmarks to the first 100 people to fill out the form at the bottom of this post! (so sorry. it's US only.)

((long-overdue update: giveaway closed. thanks everyone!))

in other fun news, there's been a bit of babble about BUTTER in the blogosphere! check out these early blog reviews from:

YA Highway

My Heart Hearts Books

and The Young Folks

thanks to everyone who has read and reviewed BUTTER so far!

before and after

okay, i'm going to tell you a secret.
or i'm going to make a confession.
or maybe it's both.

writing is harder after you sell a book.

not for everyone, i'm sure. and not forever, i hope.
but for me, it's been a difficult year for writing.

when i wrote BUTTER, i had no idea obesity and suicide were risky topics. no one had told me yet that "boy books don't sell." i didn't know my grammar wasn't perfect (truly, i thought it was. silly, silly me.) and i was still clueless about the "rules" in general.
i just wanted to tell a story. and it all worked out.

when i wrote BILLY D & THE BULLY, i knew a few more rules, but i had just sold BUTTER, and i wasn't yet fully initiated. i didn't know anyone would call what i was writing "disabilities YA," because i had never even heard of such a thing. i certainly didn't know that i had a year of revisions ahead of me, because i didn't know what i was doing wrong in that first draft. again, it all worked out anyway.

but by the time those revisions were done, i was in a different place as a writer. somewhere along the path to publishing, i had stopped thinking of writing as a hobby and started thinking of it as a job. suddenly, i couldn't just explore any old idea that delighted me. first i had to make sure the idea hadn't been done. then i had to rewrite every paragraph 40 times to make sure it was as polished as my other books are in their final drafts. then i had to outline the story to assure myself i had a direction and wasn't wasting my time, y'know... just having fun. because who has time for fun when you're writing for work?

the joy is still there. i still love love love writing. but the joy got a little buried under something else... pressure.
i was chatting with some of my fellow 2012 debut authors tonight, and i asked them if they found it harder to write now. i was comforted by a chorus of "yes!" followed by that word... pressure. i think a lot of new authors must feel that - a sense that everything you write has to have the potential to be published.
for me, it was paralyzing. i took weeks off writing. then, after a few false starts on new projects, the weeks turned into months, until finally i'd forgotten how i ever made time for this at all.

i'm getting my feet wet again - revisiting some of the ideas and pages i abandoned this past year out of fear - and i'm rediscovering the joy.
but i wanted to share the struggle here in case anyone else can relate. and i also wanted to share this much that i've figured out:
the only one putting that pressure on me was ME. and the only person i need to please when i'm writing is ME... because i'm writing for the joy of it.

YAmazing RACE!

UPDATE: The YAmazing Race is now over! The contest in this post is also closed. The winner of the ARC of BUTTER can be found here!

Ladies and Gents!
Start your engines and get ready to run the YAmazing Race!

The race starts Wednesday at Noon EST. If you're here early, head over to the starting line at Noon on Wed. If you're already on the race, you know what to do! Finally, if you landed here without knowing anything about the race, allow me to fill you in.
This is a stop on an epic blog hop featuring dozens of debut authors. Along the way, you'll learn a little something about all of our books, and at the end of each leg of the race is a prize pack jammed with ARCs, gift cards and tons of other goodies! But in order to win, you have to start at the beginning. (NOTE: starting line will be posted on the Apocalypsies blog Wednesday!)

At this stop, I'm sharing the details of my September debut, BUTTER.

A boy everyone calls “Butter” is about to make Scottsdale High history. He’s going to eat himself to death live on the Internet – and everyone will watch.

He announces his deadly plan to an army of peers and expects pity, insults or even indifference. Instead, he finds morbid encouragement. When that encouragement tips the scales into popularity, Butter has a reason to live. But if he doesn’t go through with his plan, he’ll lose everything.

 
Remember what you read here. You'll need this info at the end of the race!

BUT WAIT! BONUS ROUND!
Even if you don't win the race, you still have a chance to win an ARC of BUTTER. right here! right now!

All you have to do to win an ARC is leave a comment on this post telling me your favorite food with butter. (served with butter, made with butter, healthy alternative to butter - your choice.)
- Extra entry if you follow my blog (new or existing follower).
- Extra entry if you tweet a link to this blog post.

Just let me know in the comment if you follow or tweet.
(This bonus ARC contest open to US and Canada only. Winner will be selected at random Tuesday, May 8.)

Now on to the next stop on the race! click here!

BUTTER on TV

pssst. i got my ARCs!
(or galleys or advance copies or whatever term you prefer)
point is - i got 'em. YAY!

and before i even had time to tell you about them, the news was on TV!



our chief meteorologist told me he had a weather photo from my hometown, so that i would be watching when he surprised me with a picture of BUTTER. love that Royal and Patti are both in this clip, because they have been two of my biggest supporters.

anyway, after i stopped blushing, i was very touched.

facts worse than fiction

a story came across our news wires at work this week that punched me in the gut, because it reminded me so much of BUTTER. i found a version of the story here. (you can click the link and read the Associate Press report or settle for my quick summary.)
the short version is that police in Nebraska are investigating the death of a 19 year old who died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. it's not clear whether it was an accident or a suicide, but what does seem to be clear is that it happened while the young man was in an internet chat room. a friend of his signed in to the chat later to find people talking about the shooting. talking about it - but not reporting it. it was the friend who told police, and officers are now using the dead man's computer to try to find witnesses... and find out why they didn't call police when it happened.

at times, while writing BUTTER, i had to stop and ask myself - Is this believable? Would kids really stand by and let such a tragedy play out before their eyes? And not just stand by but CHEER for it?

and then a story like the one above would cross my desk at work, and i'd be reminded that it's not only possible - it's really happening in our world. and tragically, the reality is often much worse than fiction.

in the article above, for example, the AP reporter mentions a similar case back in 2008, the year before i wrote BUTTER. another 19 year old man, in a video chat room, overdosed on drugs live on the internet. a transcript of the chat later showed some viewers were egging him on. by the time someone called police, he was dead.

i remember that story. i remember it vividly, because one of the unfortunate aspects of my job as a journalist is that i often see uncut, unblurred, uncensored video of crime scenes. those dead bodies we don't put on TV? i see them all. and i saw that young man lay down in his bed after taking those pills. it's an image that stuck with me, and perhaps somewhere in my subconscious, it became the seed of an idea for BUTTER.

stories like that, stories of internet bullies, and stories like the one this week about a 600-pound man who posted a web video with an emotional plea for help... those are the kind of stories i bring home at night - the facts that swirl in the back of my mind when i'm writing fiction.

i often feel helpless as a journalist - objectively reporting stories and hoping those stories reach the right ears, so that this terrible thing that happened today won't happen tomorrow. i am equally helpless as an author, but some part of me hopes a book can do more than a single news story.
instead of just being read today, maybe it will be read tomorrow and the next day and the next.
maybe fiction has the power, in some small way, to change the facts.

spreading BUTTER around the world!

i have some exciting news to share today.

BUTTER is spreading! to other corners of the world!

i'm thrilled to announce BUTTER will be published in the United Kingdom and Germany!

the UK version is coming in spring of 2013 from Faber Children's Books.
the German version is coming in winter of 2013/14 from Rowohlt.

i am ecstatic and can't wait to share new covers and such.

the bucket list

in my upcoming novel, BUTTER, the main character has a bucket list to complete. (note i say A bucket list, not HIS bucket list, but more on that in the book!)
you're probably familiar with the term, but for those who aren't, a bucket list is -simply put- a list of things to do before you die.

it sounds a little dark, but to me, a bucket list is really about LIVING. we only have so much time on this earth, and a bucket list reminds us to... well, live - to experience everything the world has to offer.

here are 3 items from my own list.

Number 1: GO ON SAFARI IN AFRICA

this has been top of my bucket list for so long, i can't even remember when the dream started. i find myself tearing pages out of travel magazines and printing photos off the internetspan> of other people's safari vacations. i tuck them all into a "someday" file in my cabinet, to remind myself of where i want to go and what i want to see.

Number 2: SEE THE AURORA BOREALIS

this one is harder to plan. growing up, Handsome spent his summers in Canada, so he's been fortunate to see the sky painted in all sorts of colors. but i know it's not as simple as flying north. there's timing involved, so i worry this is one item i may never cross off my list.

Number 3: VISIT THE COUNTRIES OF ALL MY ANCESTORS

this is the house in Italy where my great (or great-great?) grandfather grew up just north of Venice. i plan to get back to Italy eventually to visit this home. i've been lucky enough to see Italy, Germany, Scotland and England, which leaves just one country to visit before i can cross this one off my list: Ireland.


so what's on your bucket list?

COVER REVEAL !!

no point writing much here at the top, as i suspect most of you will scroll past any excess words to get to the good stuff.

so let's get right to it, shall we?

i'm pleased to reveal the cover for BUTTER!!!!


A boy everyone calls “Butter” is about to make Scottsdale High history. He’s going to eat himself to death live on the Internet – and everyone will watch.

He announces his deadly plan to an army of peers and expects pity, insults or even indifference. Instead, he finds morbid encouragement. When that encouragement tips the scales into popularity, Butter has a reason to live. But if he doesn’t go through with his plan, he’ll lose everything.

i expect to be posting this all over the internet soon, but starting today, you can also find it here, at my unofficially official website!

other exciting things are happening, and i can't wait to share them with you, but for now, i hope you'll forgive me if i put the regular features on hold in order to keep this beauty front and center on the blog for a bit!

UPDATE 2/24: cover refreshed with tagline! :)

suddenly

something exciting happened this week.
this week, when someone asked me when my book was coming out, i was able to say THIS YEAR!
when i sold the book in October of 2010, "this year" seemed so far away. but suddenly, here it is!

suddenly.

i never thought i'd use that word on this journey. so much of publishing is about waiting and being patient and clicking refresh and watching the clock tick away ever so slowly. if you are at any stage of the waiting game, i just wanted to let you know that sometimes it feels like "suddenly," and one day you go from counting the years to counting the months.

before i know it, i'll be counting the days, and i'm actually okay with waiting for that countdown. i have high expectations for 2012, and i want to enjoy every minute. i hope your own 2012 is filled with some "suddenly" in between all the waiting!