Kim Harrington

Help me, I sound like a stalker.

2012-01-19T12:56:00.000-05:00

When signing CLARITY, I had a cool little line I used. The cover’s tagline is: She can see your secrets. So when I signed CLARITY, I would write:

To (awesome person),

Guard your secrets.

Kim Harrington

All in my amazing lefty penmanship.

Today I realized I’d need a new cool signing line for PERCEPTION. This time the cover’s tagline is: Someone’s watching.

But if I write:

To (awesome person),

I’m watching.

Kim Harrington

…that’s kind of threatening.

Same with “Watch out,” “Always watching,” and various other lines I’ve come up with. They all make me sound like Stalker Author. So I’m opening it up to suggestions!

Winners!

2012-01-18T08:59:00.000-05:00

After spending a long time with an Excel spreadsheet and Random.org, I have THE WINNERS.

Winner of the Perception ARC:
L8BloomerOnline

Winners of the signed bookmarks and bookplates:
Mandi
Ash Hoffenberg
j. barrett
Jessica
Bwyatt
Kathy
Lena
Mindy Janicke
Jessie Clark
titania86
Lisa Nguyen
Brandon Scott
kgrimes
Heather Simone
Sarah (The Book Life)
Leigh Ann @ The Misadventures
Kris
Megan Book Brats
Siren Princess

Email me your address at kimharringtonbooks at yahoo.com. Be sure to include what name you'd like the bookplate signed to (if any).

Thanks so much for entering and passing on the word! :)

Perception ARC Giveaway

2012-01-03T08:00:00.002-05:00

Perception comes out in less than TWO MONTHS! To celebrate, I’m parting with my Perception ARC. She’s been to various places with me and now she’ll go home with one of you.

It’s giveaway time! How does 20 winners sound?

One grand-prize winner will receive my Perception ARC (signed), some Clarity/Perception bookmarks (signed), the Perception playlist* that I’m not sharing publicly yet (because it’s spoilery), plus a $10 iTunes Gift Card in case you want to buy some of those songs.
*A list of songs I found inspiring during the writing process, what scene(s) in the book the songs apply to, and my thoughts on the song and how it fits in.

NINETEEN other winners will receive signed bookmarks and bookplates.

All you have to do to enter is post a comment below.

However, you can get additional entries for:
+1 tweeting this: RT @Kim_Harrington Signed PERCEPTION ARC & Swag Giveaway: http://dft.ba/-1kWw Please RT!
+1 “liking” me on Facebook.
+1 sharing a link to this blog post on your Facebook (or you can just hit the share button at the bottom of this post).
+1 linking to this post on your blog
+5 putting my Perception widget (see it on the right) on your blog

Please let me know everything you did in your comment so I’ll know how many points to assign to you!

The last day to enter is Tuesday, 1/17/12. I’ll go through all the entries, use Random.org, and announce the winners here on Wednesday, 1/18/12. US only for this one. Sorry!

And check back because I’ll be having another big contest around 2/1/12 to celebrate Clarity’s paperback release. And the biggest contest will be on 3/1/12 to celebrate the release of Perception. (Hint: If you pre-order or purchase Perception, keep your receipt!)

Thanks and good luck!

A Life In Ornaments

2011-12-12T10:42:00.001-05:00

Every year since my son was born, we take him to this gigantic Christmas store. They have animatronic holiday figures, a huge train set, pictures with Santa, the best peanut butter fudge in the world, and a gazillion ornaments for sale. Each year, Lil’ Guy picks out a new ornament for our tree. It’s an annual tradition (and way for me to get that peanut butter fudge IN MY FACE).

But, as I pulled out all the decorations this year, I realized it’s more than that. Each ornament is a snapshot in time. It represents what he loved at that age. And when I line them up in order, I can see the progression of his life in ornaments.

Elmo, Blue’s Clues, Bob the Builder, Rugrats, Darth Vader, baseball, the Red Sox, the Bruins, and—this year’s favorite—potty humor.

Holding each ornament brings a surge of memories from the various stages of his life. (I also have a habit of buying ornaments on vacation for this same reason. And, yes, I have many Disney ornaments. You know me.)

I don’t really write emotional posts on this blog, but I’m "feeling feelings" today so I thought I’d share that. And I also want to thank all of you for helping to make 2011 a year of amazing twists and turns for me. I appreciate everyone who has bought my book, or passed on the word, or commented on the blog, or retweeted one of my insane thoughts on Twitter, or been my friend when I needed one, or…any of a thousand things really. I appreciate you. I have a lot of fun chatting with you on Twitter/FB/here. Writing is a solitary sport, but you guys make my virtual water cooler SO MUCH FUN. So…

THANK YOU.
Happy Holidays to you and yours!
And I’ll see you back on the blog in the New Year. Specifically 1/3/12…

WITH A CONTEST.

Peace Out.

Lil’ Guy - Year of the Elmo

In which I faint and offer up a widget, a giveaway, and a trailer.

2011-12-01T08:12:00.000-05:00

Today is December 1st. Which means March 1st is three months away. Which means Perception is out three months from today!

*faints*

*gets back up*

For so long Perception's release has seemed sooooo far away and now, out of nowhere, it's three months from today! This stirs up all sorts of feelings in me, from excitement to terror.

I'm so pumped for people to read it!
What if everyone hates it?
It's finally going to be out there!
What if no bookstores carry it?

I'm like a crazy person. But a happy crazy person, so it's all good.

To celebrate the three-month mark, I offer you three things:

Perception Widget!
Isn't it cool? Feel free to post it on your blog, FB, or anywhere you like! Just click the "get widget" button.

Giveaway!
I'll be having crazy giveaways here after the New Year, but in the meantime you can toss your hat in the ring for the Goodreads Perception ARC giveaway.

Trailer!
The Clarity paperback is coming February 1st. TWO MONTHS FROM TODAY! With a pretty new cover and everything. The lovely people at Scholastic updated the Clarity trailer. Watch below and share wherever you like!

If you'd like to pre-order Perception, you can do that now:
IndieBound Amazon Barnes & Noble

The Clarity paperback is also available for pre-order:
IndieBound Amazon Barnes & Noble

As for me, I'm going to take more deep breaths and repeat my mantra:

Sleuth Or Dare Covers

2011-11-22T08:35:00.001-05:00

Last month, I was able to share the news about my middle grade mystery series and the cover for the first book, Partners in Crime. Well, now, I can share all three covers! It's a covernanza! A covercopia! Okay, I'll stop and just show them to you.

Click on any of the images to see them in a larger size.

Partners in Crime releases 5/1/12, Sleepover Stakeout on 6/1/12, and Framed & Dangerous on 7/1/12. And the first two are available for pre-order now!

What do you think of the Sleuth or Dare covers?

Clarity: The TV Series

2011-11-15T16:00:00.002-05:00

I have amazing, happy-making news, and I’m going to attempt to remain professional throughout this blog post. Ahem.

Clarity has been optioned for television!

Kim Harrington's CLARITY, in which a teenage girl uses her visions to track a murderer and defend her brother's innocence, to Warner Brothers TV by Shari Smiley at CAA, on behalf of Scott Miller at Trident Media Group.

AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!*

I’ve actually been sitting on this news for months, waiting for things to get signed and official. And every time someone mentioned to me, “I think Clarity would make a great TV show,” I smiled and nodded, but inside I was all ZOMG ME TOO I WISH I COULD TELL YOU MY SECRET BUT I CAN’T.**

And now I can! Yay!

So, this doesn’t mean Clarity will definitely become a show. (BUT HOW FREAKING AWESOME WOULD THAT BE?***) It’s just optioned right now. A gazillion other things have to happen for the show to become reality (like a pilot script, casting, shooting the pilot, a network pick-up, etc.). All these things I know nothing about and have nothing to do with. But, seriously guys, our Clare could not be in better hands. Warner Brothers Television is a TV powerhouse. Their production history includes some of my all-time favorites: The Vampire Diaries, Gossip Girl, Veronica Mars, Pretty Little Liars, and a gazillion other awesome shows. I am thrilled beyond words.****

Giveaway alert! Closed! Dana is the winner! To celebrate my good news, I’m giving away a signed/personalized hardcover of Clarity to anyone, anywhere. To enter, just leave a comment below letting me know what you think about the possibility of a Clarity TV show. Winner picked at random on 11/22.

*Okay, that wasn’t professional.
**Admittedly, the use of ZOMG isn’t professional either.
***I would be this show’s biggest fangirl.
****I am dancing in my living room.

Fun With My Perception ARC

2011-11-08T15:25:00.000-05:00

So I realized the other day that I haven't posted a picture of my Perception ARCs yet. Then I realized I hadn't taken any pictures of my Perception ARCs yet.

Last year, after I got my Clarity ARC (advanced review copy, advanced reader copy, galley, whatever you want to call it), I wanted to bring her everywhere with me. Carry her like a baby. Spin around with her on a mountaintop. You may remember how I blogged about my insanity.

But, until recently, I hadn't taken my Perception ARC anywhere. No outings at all. No pictures.

Gasp!

It was like second child syndrome. One day Perception flapped her pages at me, "Why are there so many pictures of Clarity ARC and no pictures of me?"

So I remedied that.

Perception at The Fours in Boston

Perception at a Bruins game

Perception with her candy haul from trick or treating

Perception playing in the New England fall leaves

She's happy now. But still, she can only live with me for so long. My pub wants these babies tightly held until after the New Year, but I will do a big giveaway in January. So, then, she'll get signed and shipped off to live with one of you!

*wipes away a tear* They grow up so fast.

(Blog posts like this are the reason why I have an "i am insane" tag.)

Your Face on My Books

2011-10-27T12:27:00.000-04:00

Because I'm a huge dork and don't always spend my time wisely, I just spent the last thirty minutes putting my funny face in my book covers.

I am so serious and I see your secrets.

I'm in danger and it's hilarious!

Want to see your face on one of my covers?

You can add it to CLARITY here.

Or PERCEPTION here.

And, of course, you should share it with me here.

Introducing...Sleuth or Dare

2011-10-21T12:19:00.001-04:00

I'm delighted to share the details about my middle grade mystery series, SLEUTH OR DARE. There will be three books, released back to back in Summer 2012. How's that for exciting? And here are the awesomely awesome titles:

Sleuth or Dare #1: Partners in Crime (Scholastic, May 2012)
Sleuth or Dare #2: Sleepover Stakeout (Scholastic, June 2012)
Sleuth or Dare #3: Framed & Dangerous (Scholastic, July 2012)

And here's the cover for the first book!

(click for a bigger version)

Isn't that fantastic? I love everything about it. The colors, the spooky tree, my girls with their flashlights. (That's Darcy on the left and Norah on the right.) It's just perfect. Erwin Madrid created the cover art. You can check out his website for more of his amazing work.

In book one, for a class project, Norah and Darcy create a website for a fake detective agency. But then that fake agency gets an email about a real case.

Here's the official synopsis:

Whodunit?

When best friends Darcy and Norah have to create a fake business for a school assignment, they come up with a great idea: a detective agency! Darcy loves mysteries, and Norah likes helping people, so it's a perfect fit.

But then their pretend agency gets a real case. Someone is missing, and it's up to Darcy and Norah to take on the search. Unfortunately, there's someone else out there who doesn't want the two detectives stirring up any trouble. . . .

With the help of hidden clues, spy gadgets, and trusted friends, can Darcy and Norah crack the case in time?

Book #1 can be pre-ordered now from your local independent bookstore, Amazon, or B&N.

Or you can add it to your Goodreads shelf.

I'll share the covers and descriptions of books two and three when I get the okay.

The books feature suspenseful mysteries, friendship dynamics, and...of course...there's a boy. My main characters, Norah and Darcy, are nerds and proud of it. And they have earned a permanent place in my heart. I think the books are a lot of fun and I hope you will, too!

In which I answer questions you (sort of) asked

2011-10-18T08:01:00.000-04:00

One of the things I do for laughs is check my StatCounter software for what search queries people typed into Google that led them to click on my website or blog. Most of them are some variation of "kim harrington clarity," but every day there are also other interesting, strange, creepy, and funny ones. I figured I’d answer some of these questions for you now.

A handful of yesterday's search queries:

Who is the model on the cover of Clarity?

I don’t know. But I’m sure she doesn’t want you stalking her.

other books like clarity

PERCEPTION! Available for pre-order now! Heh. Seriously, though, it’s hard for me to say which books are like CLARITY, but I recommend other books often on Twitter.

Where did Kim Harrington go to college?

Why do you want to know? I feel weird. *looks around for creepers* I went to Bentley University (then Bentley College) for both undergrad and graduate school.

Is Clarity a trilogy?

Nope! Just two books for now. I would love to write more, but we’ll have to wait and see. I have a couple more mysteries I’m dying for Clare to solve. But luckily the way I’ve crafted the series is that the major mystery of each book is wrapped up in that book. So you don’t have to worry about a cliffhanger ending or anything like that.

perception kim harrington pdf free
(plus other variations of the above--torrent, epub, etc.)

Really? Already? GAH.
Also, not doing the above will really help with the previous question. ;)

Best author photos

This made me laugh. I certainly don’t have the best author photo. But this search probably led to my blog because of the whole penis thing.

[title redacted] by kim harrington

Who are you and how do you know the secret title of my standalone? (Which, by the way, I'm ridiculously excited to tell you more about.)

dawson’s creek dawson v pacey

Pacey.

What is the sequel to clarity

PERCEPTION!

Clarity new cover

‘Tis here! In the left side bar.

Where was clarity by kim Harrington published

I keep the Books page of my website up to date with countries and publishers, but I don’t have much information about exact release dates. It’s out now in the US (Scholastic) and France (La Seuil Jeunesse). It’s coming soon in the following:
UK - Scholastic UK
German - Bertelsmann (Random House)
Russian - Ripol Publishing Group
Greek - Compupress
Polish - Fabryka Slow
Croatian - Algoritam

I update my Facebook “book covers” album with covers as soon as I’m allowed to post them. So make sure you “like” that page since I’ll be adding more pictures soon!

So, there you have it. Answers to questions you (sort of) asked. :)

More news soon!

The Good, The Bad & The Waity

2011-10-07T08:15:00.000-04:00

I haven’t blogged in weeks! Egads! I've been very busy lately, but have lots of updates to share.

The Good:

- CLARITY has been nominated for the ALA Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers list and the Cybils YA Fantasy & SF! I am so thankful for the nominations. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

- I have seen the covers for the first two books in my middle grade trilogy and I adore them. I can’t wait to share!

The Bad:

- Oh dude, the bad. Do you ever have one of those months where All The Bad Things happen at once? Yeah. But I don’t want to dwell. Moving on to….

The Waity:

- YA Standalone Ghost Book has been moved from Fall 2012 to January 2013. It’s done and has been for a while, but sometimes these things have to happen for marketing reasons. But it will be worth the wait! And I can’t wait to tell you the title. And I am IN LOVE with the direction we’re taking with the cover. Plus I have some great origin stories to tell you about how the idea for the book all came together. It includes: a newspaper article, a chat with a friend, a horrifying midnight encounter, and…soccer. (I wrote the first 100 pages of the book during the 2010 World Cup and that ended up changing a main character’s name.) Fun stuff to share! You just have to wait a bit longer. :)

On Monday, check out my Facebook page, because I’ll be doing a Facebook-only giveaway of Paula Morris’s DARK SOULS. October is the perfect time to read a ghost book!

Have a great weekend!

New Clarity Cover!

2011-09-19T10:46:00.002-04:00

I wasn't expecting to post this today. Obviously, since I just put up a blog post. ;) But it's up on Amazon so here goes...

CLARITY is getting a new cover when it releases in paperback February 1, 2012!

I adore the original cover, but--as many of you have pointed out--we have a different model on the cover of PERCEPTION. So now...they match!

I loved the original model's defiant look on her face, but the new model actually matches the Clare who lives in my head much better.

(Clicky-clicky for bigger version.)

I'd love to know what you think!

Spy Gear in SkyMall

2011-09-19T08:25:00.000-04:00

So last month I was on an airplane and decided to flip through SkyMall. You know, that catalog they put in the back of every seat on the plane. And I was surprised to find pages and pages of surveillance equipment and spy gear. For example:

Thumb-Sized Spy Video Camera

A flash drive that installs software which records all activity on a computer

An alarm clock hidden camera -- to see what's going on in a bedroom -- eww

A tiny voice recorder/flash drive to secretly record a conversation and then easily upload it to your computer

Plus: a cell phone spy stick that lets you secretly read text messages and track call logs, a couple GPS tracking systems you can stick on cars and find out where the car went and how long it stayed at each destination, the World's Smallest Camcorder, a video pen, and a lot more.

So my first thought was--who is the target audience here? Do that many private investigators really look at SkyMall? Business travelers interested in a bit of corporate espionage? Nah. Sadly, I think it's simply frequent travelers who don't trust their loved ones. So that's kind of sad/scary/icky.

BUT, one of the products (not listed above) helped me out in a revision I'm working on. So there's that.

Proving once again that you never know where you'll find a bit of inspiration.

Or a creepy yucky feeling.

The Eleventh Plague Giveaway

2011-09-12T16:30:00.001-04:00

This giveaway has ended. The winner is Julie S.!

It's been too long since I've done a giveaway. So I'm going to remedy that today with a giveaway of The Eleventh Plague by Jeff Hirsch!

In an America devastated by war and plague, the only way to survive is to keep moving.

In the aftermath of a World War III, America’s landscape has been ravaged and left two thirds of the population dead. Fifteen-year-old Stephen Quinn and his family were among the few that survived, roaming the country as isolated scavengers.

But when Stephen’s grandfather dies, Stephen must take charge of what family remains. Soon he finds his way to Settler’s Landing, a community that seems too good to be true. There Stephen meets strong, defiant, Jenny Tan, who refuses to accept things as they are. When they play a prank that goes horribly wrong, chaos erupts, and they find themselves in the midst of a battle that will change Settler’s Landing forever.

I read the book last week, and rather than go into detail on its awesomeness, I'll let Suzanne Collins do it for me: “With its crumbling Starbucks and rusting theme parks, The Eleventh Plague hits disturbingly close to home, vividly depicting a world that has nose-dived into a futuristic nightmare. Fifteen-year-old Stephen Quinn struggles to define his rules of survival in Jeff Hirsch’s excellent, taut debut novel.” Suzanne Collins, Author of the Hunger Games Trilogy

Yeah. That!

To enter just comment here or on my Facebook page by 9/18/11. I'll announce the winner on Monday, 9/19/11. US only. I’ll also toss in a signed Clarity bookmark. (Which reminds me that I only have, like, four of those left so I should get going on making new Perception/Clarity bookmarks sometime soon!)

In the meantime, you can read the first four chapters of The Eleventh Plague on Jeff's site!

Fall TV Premiere Dates & Chatter

2011-08-30T16:23:00.002-04:00

I cannot believe September is in two days. Seriously. But I’m not crying over the impending end of summer. I love fall. Halloween is my second favorite holiday. And fall brings new TV shows! Yay! So I thought I’d highlight what shows I’m looking forward to—old and new—listed in order of premiere date.

Ringer – CW, 9/13, 9 p.m.
The return of Sarah Michelle Gellar to television! I was excited for this show to begin with, but then this week they announced Logan Echolls, um, I mean Jason Dohring as an addition to the cast. So now I’m 100% sold.

The Vampire Diaries – CW, 9/15, 8 p.m.
Oh, how I miss The Vampire Diaries. It’s simply one of the best-written shows on television right now. They are the masters of suspense, twists, and “ZOMG that final scene!” moments.

The Secret Circle – CW, 9/15, 9 p.m.
Kevin Williamson is one of the executive producers so I’m watching it. Just like that. Sold. I’ve loved all his work--The Vampire Diaries, Dawson's Creek, Scream...I’m still sad that Hidden Palms didn’t get a second season! I would also like to read the books before the show starts because I find it interesting to see what showrunners decide to keep and change. It's fascinating!

Castle – ABC, 9/19, 10 p.m.
Top five reasons I’m watching. 1) Nathan Fillion. 2) It’s really funny! It’s a crime show, yeah, but the witty banter is probably the best part. 3) Nathan Fillion. 4) Egads! That cliffhanger! 5) Nathan Fillion.

Modern Family – ABC, 9/21, 9 p.m.
My favorite comedy. It’s hilarious. The characters are endearing. And I kind of like how all the episodes end with an “awww” moment.

Revenge – ABC, 9/21, 10 p.m.
I don’t know too much about this show but saw an ad and I am intrigued!

Fringe – Fox, 9/23, 9 p.m.
NEED THIS SHOW BACK RIGHT NOW. I love Fringe so much I can’t even fully put it into words. So I’ll just leave it at that.

Gossip Girl – CW, 9/26, 8 p.m.
For the manipulations, the betrayals, the verbal sparring, and the smexy.

American Horror Story – FX, 10/5, 10 p.m.
For a show that I haven’t seen one ad for, I am ridiculously excited about American Horror Story. First, Tami Taylor, um, I mean Connie Britton is the star. Love her. Second, there aren’t enough horror shows on TV! And my whole life, I’ve loved ‘dream house turns into house of nightmares’ stories. In fact, that’s part of the plot of my Fall 2012 standalone YA novel coming from Scholastic (awesome title soon!). My all-time favorite movie is Poltergeist. That should tell you something about me. ;) And this article says American Horror Story “just might be the scariest show. Ever. In the history of television.” So, yeah, I’m excited.

What shows are you looking forward to? Anything else you think I should be watching?

In Which I Earn a Vacation

2011-08-22T08:40:00.000-04:00

I didn’t write at all last week…

Because I was here!

Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina on vacation with the family.

I had a wonderful time. My favorite parts:

1) Boogieboarding. The water was warm! WARM! (We’re not used to that up here in New England.)
2) Teaming up with Lil’ Guy to surprise double cannonball my husband in the pool. Multiple times.
3) Getting an email from Awesome Editor with the cover art for my middle grade novel. LOVE LOVE LOVE. I can’t wait to share it with you. I absolutely adore everything about this cover.
4) Themed mini-golf. We played at a few courses in North Myrtle Beach. One is inside a “volcano.” Another is after a plane wreck on a tropical island where only you and golf clubs have survived (kind of like that one episode of Lost). My favorite, though, was Professor Hacker’s Lost Treasure Golf. You take a ride on a little train to get to the top of the course. Fun!
5) Krispy Kreme. It’s really a good thing we don’t have these in MA. I would overdose on glaze.

My least favorite parts:

1) The Boogieboarding wipeout that exfoliated the entire right side of my body along the sand and caused a “swimsuit malfunction.” Sorry about the boob flash, beachgoers!
2) Travel days. I really wish I could teleport.
3) I woke up one morning and it looked like my lip had been injected with collagen, punched repeatedly, and then lathered with something I’m allergic to. None of these things happened. It was actually a sunburn. On my lower lip only. I knew I’d miss a spot with the SPF, but never imagined it would be there.

We all had a great time. It was also a bit celebratory for me because I worked my butt off this summer. In June, I did the first round of edits on YA Standalone Ghost Book and line and copy edits for MG #1. In July and August, I completed the first pass pages of MG #1 and wrote MG #2. So I needed some beach time. ;)

I can’t wait to share the cool titles & more info about these books. Stay tuned!

Writing Tip: Don’t Block the Flow

2011-08-01T08:32:00.001-04:00

Whoops. That headline sounds a little like a tampon commercial, but I’m not going to stop and change it right now. I’m going to keep going because thoughts are pouring from my brain through my fingers and spilling onto the keyboard. If I stop to think of a new headline, I might not be able to get back into this thought-process that’s working on overdrive right now. So I'll keep typing and promise myself I’ll fix the headline later.

The above paragraph is completely true, but it’s also the writing tip I want to share with you today.

Disclaimer: when I (rarely) share writing tips, it’s a YMMV thing. This is what works for me. It may not work for you. I don’t know everything. In fact, most days I feel like I know nothing. So take it for what it’s worth. (A quarter? Fitty cent?)

Back to business. When I’m drafting, sometimes I find myself really cranking out a scene. The dialog is snappy. The setting is working. The suspense is building. But then I start to type the next sentence and realize I need something that would make me stop for a few minutes. Maybe it’s a fact I need to research. Or just something simple like a street name. Or the name of a minor character who just made his first appearance in the book.

I do not stop and figure out what to name this person.

I insert a code into the book, marking it as something I need to come back to later.

My code is XXX. For example, a line in my first draft might read: I took a left onto XXX Road with my tires screeching.

It’s not necessary that I know the name of the road right now. It’s not worth breaking my flow to stop and figure out what to call it. Because I could spend five minutes on that, then try to get back into the scene and find that my flow is blocked. And then take more time to get back into the groove I’d been in before I'd stopped.

Instead, I leave the XXX and keep going until I’ve either finished the scene or that burst of energy is spent. I usually start each day by reading and editing what I wrote the day before. This is usually when I fill in the XXX. Or I can always do a search in the document for XXX and find the places I need to fix. (This is why I chose XXX as my code. It’s never going to show up in a word. At least, not in my books. Tee hee.)

So that’s my little writing tip for the day. And lastly, don’t count on remembering that you need to go back and fix something. Insert a code. That way you don’t end up leaving something in that should have been changed.

Like that headline.

Cape Cod and a fun little video!

2011-07-18T11:28:00.000-04:00

I spent the last few days in the land of Clare: Cape Cod. I had signings at two awesome bookstores.

Eight Cousins Books in Falmouth, MA

Hey, that's me! At Bunch of Grapes on Martha's Vineyard.

My BOG signing was with Alexandra Bullen. During her reading, she needed someone to do bits of dialog with a Boston accent so I happily let my R’s drop to help her out.

In between signings and family fun, I recorded bits of video here and there of the real places that inspired the fictional settings in CLARITY. Unfortunately the audio was jank and I couldn’t fix it. So…I layered a fitting song over it and put in little annotations. Here it is. I hope you enjoy and feel free to pass it on!

PERCEPTION Cover & Synopsis Reveal

2011-07-08T13:08:00.003-04:00

This wasn’t supposed to happen for a couple more months (with a contest and a lot more hoopla) but I woke up this morning to find the cover is out there early on B&N, Goodreads, and other places. And you can’t put the toothpaste back in the tube, so after a flurry of emails I have the okay to reveal the pretty today!

Here is the beautiful cover for Clarity’s sequel, Perception!

(Click on the image to see a larger version of the pretty!)

I thought it would be hard for the wonderful folks at Scholastic to come up with a cover as beautiful as Clarity’s, but I think they actually surpassed it.

I adore Clare’s hair in this photo. And the way the model is looking over her shoulder with the woods in the background gives that sense of danger. (Tease: this is actually a scene in the book.) And birds! This cover has forest birds instead of seagulls. And it still has those magical lights around Clare’s hair. I could go on and on. I love, love, love it.

What do you think?

Perception comes out in March 2012, but in the meantime you can add it to your Goodreads shelf here.

And now for the official synopsis!

This hotly anticipated sequel to CLARITY delivers another dark, paranormal mystery.

When you can see things others can't, what do you do when someone's watching you?

Everybody knows about Clarity "Clare" Fern. She's the psychic girl in school, the one who can place her hands on something and see hidden visions from the past.

Only Clare would rather not be a celebrity. She prefers hanging back, observing. Her gift is not a game to her.

But then someone starts playing with her head . . . and heart. Messages and gifts from a secret admirer crop up everywhere Clare turns. Could they be from Gabriel, the gorgeous boy who gets Clare's pulse racing? Or from Justin, Clare's hopeful ex-boyfriend who'd do anything to win her back?

One thing is certain. Clare needs to solve this mystery, and soon. Because the messages are becoming sinister, and a girl in town has suddenly disappeared.

Ooooooooh. :) I'm excited to hear what you guys think!

The Fern Family Interviews Dawn Metcalf

2011-06-27T08:07:00.000-04:00

Clare: Welcome to our home. Have you had a psychic reading done before? If so, what did you think of it?

Dawn: No. I've never had my palm, cars, tea leaves, or future read in a crystal ball or otherwise. Pity. Although I have done a ton of research into the various ways of divination for a freelance writing project once-upon-a-forever ago and was fascinated by all the ways that there are to forecast the unknown from dripping wax or blood to throwing sticks and stones or inside animal entrails or above in the formations of a flock of birds. Bottom line: humans are fascinating, but weird.

Clare (closing her eyes): Think about your book, LUMINOUS, for a moment. I will read your mind and then tell everyone what it’s about.

As reality slips and time stands still, Consuela finds herself thrust into the world of the Flow. Removed from all she loves into this shifting world overlapping our own, Consuela quickly discovers she has the power to step out of her earthly skin and cloak herself in new ones-skins made from the world around her, crafted from water, fire, air. She is joined by other teens with extraordinary abilities, bound together to safeguard a world they can affect, but where they no longer belong.

When murder threatens to undo the Flow, the Watcher charges Consuela and elusive, attractive V to stop the killer. But the psychopath who threatens her new world may also hold the only key to Consuela's way home.

Is that right?

Starla (sighs): Clare just memorized that passage from the back of your book. I’m the real telepath in the family. Clare, stick to your own ability.

Clare (laughs): Okay, back to the interview. Our business is in a tourist town on Cape Cod. What is your favorite vacation spot? And where would you love to visit that you haven’t yet?

Dawn: My favorite vacation spot is Hawaii, Maui specifically, but my favorite spot on Earth is Muir Woods, California: I've never known a more peaceful place to be. I'd love to visit Australia and New Zealand and I haven't been to either one yet! *starts packing*

Perry: If you could have any psychic or paranormal gift, what would you choose? Don’t choose mine. It sucks.

Dawn: Oh, yikes. Almost any gift I can think of has dire consequences: telling the future, reading people's thoughts or emotions, getting flash impressions of where a person is, speaking with ghosts, etc. But if we're talking the standards, I think teleportation would be the most useful, with telekinesis running a close second (I hate being late)! Otherwise, shapeshifting. Definitely. ;-)

Clare: You’re not kidding about those dire consequences. I could tell you stories. Anyway, give us an insider secret about the creation of your book. Come on, we’re good with secrets.

Dawn: Here's a little secret: I've told a lot of people how one piece of art really inspired the initial idea of Consuela (La Catrina by Jose Guadelupe Posada) but there's another piece of art that showed me just how her powers worked. It's three layers of a face, a skull-like mask peeling away to show another face in transition and yet another, finally human face, at its core. This sort of "peeling back" from one stage to another is what really got me thinking about how Consuela became Bones. (This small sculpture hangs on the wall in my favorite Mexican restaurant, Sarapes, which happens to have the very best mole sauce on earth as well as a certain waitress who was my inspiration for Consuela herself!)

Starla: Let’s close out with some easy questions. Pool or beach?

Dawn: Beach, baby! I love to make sand sculptures. Life-sized beached mermaids are the best!

Perry: Bikini or thong?

Clare (rolling her eyes): Really, Perry? Really? Dawn, favorite food?

Dawn: Madam Chocolate Chocolate Cake.

Starla: Sounds delicious. Thanks for visiting with us!

Clare: For more about Dawn and LUMINOUS, visit her website: http://www.dawnmetcalf.com/

My favorite book (a mommy’s brag)

2011-06-15T08:05:00.000-04:00

So apparently in my son’s third grade classroom all the students have been working on their own picture books. Yesterday we got to see Lil’ Guy’s work. Anyone who knows me well will not be surprised to find that it involved the Boston Bruins. It’s so cute, I have to share.

You can click on each image to see a larger size. And I’ll transcribe beneath each one because, you know, eight-year-old boy handwriting.

The title is I Know A Stadium.

I know a stadium where the players play hockey. In a stadium where Zdeno Chara, David Krejci, Patrice Bergeron, and Nathan Horton play.

I know a stadium that Bobby Orr will never forget. Where hockey legends skate with a rubber puck on the frosty, solid white ice.

I know a stadium where over 18,000 people go to see the game and go to the train station on the first floor. Where hockey players shoot, and light the lamp. HOOOONK! HOOOONK!
(I love the how the goalie has a sad face and is all NO!)

I know a stadium where they take faceoffs, pass, and check hard into the glass boards.
(This is by far my favorite illustration. That Bruin is delighted to be bringing the pain. It must be Marchand.)

I know a stadium in Boston near the Fours Restaurant where the fans wear their jerseys and eat before the game.

I know a stadium where fans buy juicy hot dogs, #1 foam fingers, rubber pucks, pink cotton candy, and a lot of other things.

I know a stadium where the black and gold go on a quest for the cup. They try to win the championship.

I know a stadium which is the home of the big and bad Boston Bruins and Boston Celtics. That stadium is T.D. Garden.

Aww! This is now my new favorite book. So should I let him stay up past his bedtime tonight to watch the entire game?

Also, I made a deal with the universe regarding tonight's game. Go Bruins!

The Fern Family Interviews Sonia Gensler

2011-06-14T10:18:00.000-04:00

The Fern Family—Clare, Perry, and Starla—run Fern Family Readings out of their home in Eastport, MA. (Actually they just live in the pages of my Clarity books.) But today they’re welcoming Sonia into their reading room for a little Q&A.

Clare: Welcome to our home. Have you had a psychic reading done before? If so, what did you think of it?

Sonia: As a matter of fact, I've only been to one. I went with my friend Kim H. -- you don't know her, but trust me, she's cool. I thought the reading was pretty bogus, actually. But that didn't stop me from getting emotional when the medium threw out a pretty standard question and managed to hit on something that I really am struggling with. That was weird. And even though the reading was rather stagey, I enjoyed the experience.

Clare (closing her eyes): Think about your book, THE REVENANT, for a moment. I will read your mind and then tell everyone what it’s about.

When Willie arrives in Indian Territory, she knows only one thing: no one can find out who she really is. To escape a home she doesn't belong in anymore, she assumes the name of a former classmate and accepts a teaching job at the Cherokee Female Seminary.

Nothing prepares her for what she finds there. Her pupils are the daughters of the Cherokee elite—educated and more wealthy than she, and the school is cloaked in mystery. A student drowned in the river last year, and the girls whisper that she was killed by a jealous lover. Willie's room is the very room the dead girl slept in. The students say her spirit haunts it.

Willie doesn't believe in ghosts, but when strange things start happening at the school, she isn't sure anymore. She's also not sure what to make of a boy from the nearby boys' school who has taken an interest in her—his past is cloaked in secrets. Soon, even she has to admit that the revenant may be trying to tell her something. . . .

Is that right?

Starla (sighs): Clare just memorized that passage from the back of your book. I’m the real telepath in the family. Clare, stick to your own ability.

Clare (laughs): Okay, back to the interview. Our business is in a tourist town on Cape Cod. What is your favorite vacation spot? And where would you love to visit that you haven’t yet?

Sonia: I love England. I love the climate, the history, the rolling green meadows, the bleating sheep. I love hiking in the rural parts of England. I haven't yet been to Ireland -- that would be cool.

Perry: If you could have any psychic or paranormal gift, what would you choose? Don’t choose mine. It sucks.

Sonia: I'd want the least scary gift. Like a psychic ability in which I only saw good things that were going to happen to people?

Clare: Then you certainly don’t want mine. Anyhoo…give us an insider secret about the creation of your book. Come on, we’re good with secrets.

Sonia: I could tell you a little bit about character names in The Revenant. All the student names are mixed and matched from actual names listed in the 1896 catalogs for the Cherokee female and male seminaries. The majority of the surnames were English or Scottish, but some had a more traditional sound. I wanted a more traditional surname for Eli, the protagonist's crush. One name that I flirted with was Sixkiller. Another was Redbird. But Sevenstar really clicked -- once I landed on that surname I could almost see Eli! It was rather magical.

Starla: Lovely! Let’s close out with some easy questions. Pool or beach?

Sonia: Beach. (I really don't need to get in the water. I just like to enjoy the view and feel the ocean breezes.)

Clare: Favorite food?

Sonia: Scones. I have an unquenchable lust for CARBS.

Perry: Could you repeat that? I didn’t hear anything after ‘unquenchable lust…’

Starla: Thanks for visiting with us, Sonia!

Clare: For more about Sonia and THE REVENANT, visit her website: http://www.soniagensler.com/

Perry: Yeah, she has a pretty hot author photo.

Starla & Clare: *sigh*

The Fern Family Interviews Myra McEntire

2011-06-07T07:26:00.000-04:00

The winner of the Beauty Queens giveaway is: April X! Now, onto the interview!

The Fern Family—Clare, Perry, and Starla—run Fern Family Readings out of their home in Eastport, MA. (Actually they just live in the pages of my Clarity books.) But today they’re welcoming Myra into their reading room for a little Q&A.

Clare: Welcome to our home. Have you had a psychic reading done before? If so, what did you think of it?

Myra: I have not! I'm afraid I would giggle.

Perry: Do it! I bet you’d be extra cute when you giggle.

Starla: Ignore him, Myra.

Clare (closing her eyes): Think about your book, HOURGLASS, for a moment. I will read your mind and then tell everyone what it’s about.

One hour to rewrite the past . . .

For seventeen-year-old Emerson Cole, life is about seeing what isn't there: swooning Southern Belles; soldiers long forgotten; a haunting jazz trio that vanishes in an instant. Plagued by phantoms since her parents' death, she just wants the apparitions to stop so she can be normal. She's tried everything, but the visions keep coming back. So when her well-meaning brother brings in a consultant from a secretive organization called the Hourglass, Emerson's willing to try one last cure. But meeting Michael Weaver may not only change her future, it may change her past.

Who is this dark, mysterious, sympathetic guy, barely older than Emerson herself, who seems to believe every crazy word she says? Why does an electric charge seem to run through the room whenever he's around? And why is he so insistent that he needs her help to prevent a death that never should have happened?

Full of atmosphere, mystery, and romance, Hourglass merges the very best of the paranormal and science-fiction genres in a seductive, remarkable young adult debut.

Is that right?

Starla (sighs): Clare just memorized that passage from the back of your book. I’m the real telepath in the family. Clare, stick to your own ability.

Clare (laughs): Okay, back to the interview. Our business is in a tourist town on Cape Cod. What is your favorite vacation spot? And where would you love to visit that you haven’t yet?

Myra: I love the fall in the mountains. I'm a fan of the beach, too, but, as a parent, I can no longer slide a lime wedge into a Corona and close my eyes in my beach chair, because of the possible jellyfish stings, shark bites, or drowning of my offspring. I'd actually like to check out the Pacific Northwest/Canada. The pictures I've seen are so gorgeous.

Perry: If you could have any psychic or paranormal gift, what would you choose? Don’t choose mine. It sucks.

Myra: Mind reading. Ohhhhhh, yeah.

Starla (raising her hands): I WIN!

Clare: This wasn’t a contest, Mom. Myra, give us an insider secret about the creation of your book. Come on, we’re good with secrets.

Myra: The title for HOURGLASS was originally THE ESTABLISHMENT. I think I was probably channeling Hyde from that 70's show. We changed it right before it went on submission, thank heavens.

Starla: Let’s close out with some easy questions. Pool or beach?

Myra: Wherever there's a cabana boy and a baby sitter.

Perry: I can be your cabana boy…

Clare: Favorite food?

Myra: Italian. Always and forever.

Clare: I love Italian, too. Thanks for visiting with us!

Starla: And since Myra’s super awesome, she’s going to give away a signed HOURGLASS poster to one lucky winner. To enter, just comment below sometime before 6/14/11.

Perry: For more about Myra and HOURGLASS, visit her website: http://www.myramcentire.com/

The Fern Family Interviews Allison van Diepen

2011-06-01T13:18:00.000-04:00

The Fern Family—Clare, Perry, and Starla—run Fern Family Readings out of their home in Eastport, MA. (Actually they just live in the pages of my Clarity books.) But today they’re welcoming Allison into their reading room for a little Q&A.

Perry (looks Allison up and down): How you doin’?

Clare (punches Perry in the arm): Ignore him. Welcome to our home. Have you had a psychic reading done before? If so, what did you think of it?

Allison: Only once, when I was fifteen. The psychic was actually my grandmother, and she used playing cards. Her reading was right-on, and she predicted things that would happen over the course of my whole life. I’ve never had another psychic reading, and don’t intend to. The truth is, I’d rather not know the future.

Starla: Well, that’s good because no one can-

Perry (sighs): Not this again.

Clare (closing her eyes): Think about your book, THE VAMPIRE STALKER, for a moment. I will read your mind and then tell everyone what it’s about.

What if the characters in a vampire novel left their world--and came into yours?

Amy is in love with someone who doesn't exist: Alexander Banks, the dashing hero in a popular series of vampire novels. Then one night, Amy meets a boy who bears an eerie resemblance to Alexander. In fact, he IS Alexander, who has escaped from the pages of the book and is in hot pursuit of a wicked vampire named Vigo. Together, Amy and Alexander set out to track Vigo and learn how and why Alexander crossed over. But when she and Alexander begin to fall for each other, Amy wonders if she even wants him to ever return to the realm of fiction.

Is that right?

Starla (sighs): Clare just memorized that passage from the back of your book. I’m the real telepath in the family. Clare, stick to your own ability.

Clare (laughs): Okay, back to the interview. Our business is in a tourist town on Cape Cod. What is your favorite vacation spot? And where would you love to visit that you haven’t yet?

Allison: I fell in love with the south of France a few years ago and can’t wait to go back. And I spent my honeymoon in Cuba. It was so beautiful and lively. I’ve never been to Australia, but I would love to go.

Perry: If you could have any psychic or paranormal gift, what would you choose? Don’t choose mine. It sucks.

Allison: I would like to be able to see the future and have the power to change it.

Clare: Give us an insider secret about the creation of your book. Come on, we’re good with secrets.

Allison: The original title of the book was AMY AND ALEXANDER. Not a catchy title, I know, but it shows that at heart it’s a love story between two people—Amy, an avid reader, and Alexander, the guy she falls for while reading his story. I love the new title THE VAMPIRE STALKER because it highlights Alexander’s dangerous work and, hopefully, lets the reader know they’re in for some excitement!

Starla: Let’s close out with some easy questions. Pool or beach?

Allison: Beach.

Clare: Favorite food?

Allison: Pizza. How original is that?

Clare: It’s perfect. In fact, there’s a great place on the boardwalk we can get a couple slices at. Let’s go!

Starla: Thanks for visiting. I can’t wait to read THE VAMPIRE STALKER!

Perry: For more about Allison and her book, visit her website: http://www.allisonvandiepen.com/

Beauty Queens Giveaway

2011-05-24T07:33:00.000-04:00

Even though the weather here lately has me fantasizing about punching Mother Nature in the face, it will soon (supposedly) turn sunny and warm and become…

BEACH READ TIME.

Yes. I said it. Beach read time. The most wonderful time of the year.

And, to celebrate, I’m doing a giveaway of Libba Bray’s new book in hardcover (released today), Beauty Queens!

Teen beauty queens. A "Lost"-like island. Mysteries and dangers. No access to email. And the spirit of fierce, feral competition that lives underground in girls, a savage brutality that can only be revealed by a journey into the heart of non-exfoliated darkness. Oh, the horror, the horror! Only funnier. With evening gowns. And a body count.

Dude…beauty pageant contestants crashed on a desert island? It’s like this book was made to be read on the beach.

To enter just comment with your answer to this deep philosophical question about summer reading preferences: pool or beach?

Comment by 6/6/11. I'll announce the winner on Tuesday, 6/7/11. US only. I’ll also toss in some Clarity swag because that’s how I roll.

On Writer’s Block

2011-05-16T08:04:00.000-04:00

There are two kinds of writer’s block and both suck. Suckage #1: You have no work-in-progress and you can’t figure out what to write. Suckage #2: You’re stuck in your current work-in-progress.

Maybe the same methods can help both types of writer’s block, but I’m going to focus today on the second kind.

So you’re in the middle of your novel and…you have no idea what happens next. *gulp* Or you’re editing and you realized a giant supermassive plot hole exists in your story and you have no idea how to fix it.

First, take a deep breath. Don’t freak out. You’re a smart dude/dudess and you will figure this out. And—good news—I have the cure!

The cure is…a quiet mind.

When you’re sitting, staring at the page on your computer screen, pounding your forehead, yelling WHAT HAPPENS NEXT, WHAT HAPPENS NEXT…the answer is not going to come to you.

Have you ever had this happen? You spend all day squeezing out a measly 200 words. You must have written and rewritten the same paragraph ten times. You can’t figure out how to fix this scene. You go to bed frustrated and feeling kind of hopeless. You spent eight hours with Microsoft Word open and got nothing done. Then…while you’re lying there drifting off, almost asleep…BAM. The answer comes.

Why is it that you couldn’t figure out the scene while you were working on it, but your mind came up with the answer while you were lying in bed not even consciously thinking about the book? Because your mind was quiet. It does interesting work while quiet.

I asked my pal Sarah Fine about it. She is both a YA writer and a psychologist who writes this awesomely awesome blog. She said, "It's possible to get 'stuck' in a kind of cognitive loop that prevents you from thinking outside the box. If you're staring at that ms--all the words you've already written, all the thoughts you've already gotten out--it might be harder to think outside that frame you've built for yourself. When you feel stuck like that, getting away and doing something that's fairly 'empty' of intensive cognitive demands could give your brain the space to get the ideas flowing again."

But Sarah warns, "Even mindless activities won't help if you fill them up with anxious thoughts--so you really have to turn it off."

So what if you don’t want to wait until bedtime to fix this scene? Is there any way to get into that quiet mind state now? Glad you asked! There is!

Here are some examples that have worked for me:

- Mindless exercise. Not chatting with people at the gym. Not watching TV while on the treadmill. Go outside and walk for 20-30 minutes. Leave your iPod at home. Your mind doesn’t need to be singing along with a song. It needs to be set free. Walk at a swift pace and let your mind wander. Let it go where it wants to go.

- Shower/bath. I don’t know what it is about the shower, but I get my best ideas in there! I think it’s because it’s an automatic activity. I don’t need to use much brain power since it’s something I do every day and I’m used to it. My mind is not focused on anything. It’s free.

- Take a drive. Alone. Radio off. Not a stressful city drive or a scenic pretty route. Something monotonous like a highway. This one has worked for me so many times. Once I even pulled over to take notes on a Panera napkin I picked up off the car floor. (It was all I had!)

These are just a few examples on how to get your mind into that open, quiet state. YMMV. You may find other methods that work for you. Please share in the comments!

NECRWA Recap (kind of)

2011-05-01T18:46:00.000-04:00

I spent the last four days in Salem, MA for the NECRWA conference. I met up with fellow YA authors Sonia Gensler and Maurissa Guibord. We didn't have much fun because we're Serious Writers who take ourselves Very Seriously.

Or not.

Yeah. So that happened.

We had a blast! On Friday we had lovely weather so we walked around Salem and took in some of the historic sites, including the Witch Trials Memorial and the Old Burying Point Cemetery. This may sound morbid, but I found them very inspirational.

This headstone from 1688 is for a young man who "had seen but Nineteen Winters in the World." Kind of a sad and haunting way to put it. It was also apparently in fashion to have those creepy angel skeletons on your headstones in the 17th century because most stones had them.

We stayed in a "haunted" hotel but none of us had any uninvited visitors. It's actually a historic home built in 1834 that was restored and turned into a hotel. Very cool.

My non-haunted room.

Sonia and Maurissa were lovely company and we shared some great talks over meals. And, yeah, it was a conference, so we attended many panels. (I didn't take pictures of those so that's why this is only a "kind of" recap.) And when I got the crazy idea that we should go into a vintage photo shop and dress up in witch costumes, they were great sports about it. We were laughing so hard, you probably heard us...wherever you are.

But I'm back now. All good things...

...must come to an end.

For more pictures of us being ridiculous, check out my Facebook page.

Updates

2011-04-18T08:01:00.000-04:00

The winner of the Clarity playlist contest is...

Jena

Congrats!

I have two other bits of business to share.

I haven't mentioned it on the blog yet, but Clarity and Perception will be published in Russia! Woo hoo! (If anyone knows how to say "woo hoo" in Russian, let me know.)

Also, I'll be participating in a huge group signing in a couple weeks in Salem, MA. So if you're in the area you might want to check that out. There will be over 40 authors signing including Maurissa Guibord, Marley Gibson, Marissa Doyle, Donald Maass, Anne Stuart, and many more. It's part of New England RWA's Annual Book Fair for Literacy. It's open to the public and located in the Hawthorne Hotel in Salem, MA. I created a Facebook event here that you can share.

Have a great week! :)

New Book Deal!

2011-04-12T17:48:00.001-04:00

Those who were at my launch party for Clarity may remember that, during the Q&A, my eight-year-old raised his hand and declared that it was “unacceptable” that he wasn’t allowed to read my book yet and started trying to negotiate an earlier age than the one we’d agreed upon. Everyone busted out laughing. It was probably the highlight of the day for many people. That little spotlight stealer!

Well, now he has good news. He’s not old enough to read the Clarity series, but he’s old enough for my next series.

That’s right! I’m writing a middle grade (ages 9-12) mystery series.

From Publishers Marketplace:

Author of CLARITY Kim Harrington's untitled girls detective agency series, about two smart girls who, for a class project, create a website for a fake detective agency, but then that fake agency gets an email about a real case, to Aimee Friedman at Scholastic, in a three-book deal, for publication in 2012, by Scott Miller at Trident Media Group.

The books will be released back-to-back over three months in Summer 2012. I am so excited! And busy! :) I’m having a blast writing the first book. I love these characters so much. And I can’t wait to share them with you next year.

CLARITY PLAYLIST

2011-04-04T09:33:00.001-04:00

Here is the Clarity playlist! I've included which chapter or scene goes well with the song, and in most cases I've explained why. In some, I can't due to spoilers. But you'll know when you read it. :)

Song: Super Freak by Rick James
Listen During: The beginning of Chapter 2
Thoughts: This one is pretty obvious!

Song: Daughters of the Kaos by Luscious Jackson
Listen During: Chapter 2
Thoughts: I’ve always loved this song. And this is the chapter where we get to know Clare. She’s snarky, quirky, and has badass tendencies and this song fits her perfectly.

Song: Army of Me by Bjork
Listen During: Chapter 3
Thoughts: I thought of this song during the Clare and Tiffany confrontation. It reflects Clare’s frustration, anger, and kick-assery (made up word alert!).

Song: Cannonball by Damien Rice
Listen During: Chapter 5
Thoughts: I think this song is a good representation of Clare’s conflicted feelings about someone in this chapter. Old memories, old feelings.

Song: The Sea by Morcheeba
Listen During: The end of Chapter 6
Thoughts: This is the perfect song for sitting on the beach at night. Where Clare is at this point!

Song: How Soon is Now? by The Smiths
Listen During: The end of Chapter 7
Thoughts: I’ve always thought of this song as the outcast’s anthem (and loved it in high school when I wasn't exactly Miss Popularity myself). I think this is the perfect song for the end of Chapter 7 and Clare's thoughts there.

Song: We Used to Be Friends by The Dandy Warhols
Listen During: The reading in Chapter 9
Thoughts: I’m including this song partly because of the friendship that is examined in this chapter and also as a hat tip to Veronica Mars. ;)

Song: Under Your Skin by Luscious Jackson
Listen During: Chapter 10
Thoughts: Fireworks (of all kinds) in this chapter! This is a good song for two people who find that sparks and feelings are growing the more time they spend together.

Song: Closer by Kings of Leon
Listen During: Chapter 11
Thoughts: This is a wonderfully spooky song, and I think it fits a creepy scene here.

Song: Where Is My Mind? by The Pixies
Listen During: Chapter 19
Thoughts: I’ve always thought this song was a bit sexy, and it’s also ocean-themed, which makes it perfect if there happens to be a beach kiss in this chapter. ;)

Song: The Killing Moon by Echo & The Bunnymen
Listen During: Chapter 20
Thoughts: This creepy song goes well with Clare’s vision here.

Song: Narc by Interpol
Listen During: Chapter 23
Thoughts: This is one of the best songs by one of my favorite bands of all time, so I just had to find a place for it on the playlist. I think it fits well in this scene.

Song: Running Up That Hill by Placebo
Listen During: Chapter 25
Thoughts: The perfect song for this climactic chapter. It’s creepy, with the pulsing heartbeat-like sound in the background that mimics the increasing dread of the scene.

Song: Life is Beautiful by Vega4
Listen During: The last page
Thoughts: I wanted to end with an uplifting song for the final page's reflections.

Note: This contest has ended. Thanks!
Now...a contest! Because this playlist might inspire you to buy some new songs, I'm giving away a $10 iTunes gift card, plus signed bookmarks from myself and several other 2011 debut authors!

All you have to do to enter is comment below (or on my Facebook page) with which one of these songs is your favorite or the name of another song you think fits Clarity.

There will be one winner, chosen by random.org. I'm going to make this international. The last day to post a comment is Sunday, 4/17. I'll announce the winner on the blog on Monday, 4/18.

Please pass the word on via Twitter, Facebook, blogs, etc. Thank you!

On Settings

2011-03-28T11:50:00.000-04:00

Akin to recent posts On Character Names and On Writing Clarity, today I'm taking on settings!

When you start a novel, you have to make a couple broad decisions about setting.

First: Should your work take place in an everytown? Something most readers can relate to. Or a specific setting? Somewhere to draw readers into.

Second: Do you want a real setting? NYC, Boston, etc. Or a fake or fictionalized setting?

I don’t think any choice is better than the other, it’s all about the execution and what’s right for that particular work.

For Clarity, I knew I wanted the setting to be an important part of the book, almost like another character. Due to the nature of my main character’s family business, I thought a tourist town would work well. I chose Cape Cod simply because I know it well and love it. My father is from Hyannis and has told me stories about the pros and cons of being a teenager in a tourist town. I grew up about 40 minutes from the bridge so we spent tons of weekends down there, especially in the summer. And I do the same with my own family today.

But now that my heart was set on Cape Cod, I had another decision to make. Real town or fake? If I went real, I probably would have gone with South Yarmouth or Hyannis. But I decided to create a fictional town. (Locals may be able to identify some of real places that inspired the settings, though!)

My main reason was that there were particular places I wanted to write into the book that did not exist in real life. And I know it takes some readers out of the story if they run up against a place in a real town that does not exist in reality. (For instance, my father went cuckoo bananas a few years ago because a book put an MBTA station in a town where there is no station. Yes, it was fiction. And Dad loved the book. But he couldn’t get over this fictional MBTA station.)

So I created the town of Eastport, MA. I was free to use some real spots on the Cape (from any town) and invent new places. For example, the 7-Eleven in chapter two is the 7-Eleven in West Yarmouth.

But the boardwalk is fictional (though inspired by the Weirs Beach Boardwalk in Laconia, New Hampshire).

And that’s how Eastport came to be!

NYC Teen Author Festival

2011-03-21T13:38:00.000-04:00

Before I get into my recap of the TAF, I want to remind New Englanders that I have a signing tomorrow night at the Odyssey Bookshop in S. Hadley, MA at 7:00 pm!

Okay, so I spent the last four days in New York for the Teen Author Festival and had a blast! First, as promised, here is "the chair."

$250 a night, folks.

I had tweeted that my hotel room had the ugliest chair I'd ever seen. Proof was demanded. My cell is from 1957, though, so you had to wait until now to get a pic. Here it is, in all its glory. I picked the hotel for its complimentary continental breakfast, though, not the furniture (unlimited Fruit Loops FTW!). And I shouldn't be mean to the chair. It actually made me laugh every time I entered the room. I'm no interior designer, but I imagined someone searching through a furniture wholesaler's inventory, trying to choose a chair that would be in hundreds of hotel rooms, seeing this one, and saying, "That's it. That's the one we want." It just makes me laugh.

Anyway, moving on. Thursday night I had dinner with the lovely Shana Silver and, of course, the conversation eventually steered to how much we miss Felicity. (TeamNoelForever!)

Friday, I was at a Scholastic event from morning through lunch, which was so much fun. In addition to giving a reading myself, I was so excited to hear excerpts from other books. You are going to want to get your hands on these books. Seriously. GREAT stuff. *points at The Eleventh Plague* *points at you* *nods*

Friday afternoon, I hustled over to New York Public Library for the Symposium. I listened to some wonderful panels. Lovely authors. Insightful discussions. Unfortunately, I fail at taking pictures.

Saturday, I was part of the panel called "The Struggle Against Darkness" with Lisa McMann, Maggie Stiefvater, and Robin Wasserman. It was my first panel and I don't think I made a fool of myself. Yay! I wore my lucky Darth Roast Coffee T-shirt because...what's a panel on darkness without Vader?

Robin Wasserman, Lisa McMann, Maggie Stiefvater, Me, David Levithan

Pic snagged with permission from Rachael Stein.

Sunday was the MEGA-SIGNING at Books of Wonder and this was just wonderful. Many girls who came to get Clarity signed had already read it and said such cool things about Clare and the book. My cheeks hurt from smiling by the end of the day. It was a fantastic time. Thank you to everyone who came! It was great to meet each and every one of you!

Also on Sunday I realized that I'd been in NYC for four days, was about to catch a train back to Boston, and had nothing for my little guy. So, I ran into the nearest store and bought this:

Yep. A pen with the Statue of Liberty on the end. Four bucks. Worst. Mom. Ever.

But I'm going to make up for it with lots of spoiling this weekend, including the new Diary of a Wimpy Kid movie and candy galore!

Winners! And the NYC Teen Author Festival

2011-03-15T05:59:00.000-04:00

I want to thank everyone who entered. All your Clarity pics made me so happy. You guys rule! But now...the winners as chosen by Random.org:

The winner of the first Abandon ARC is

Minhcieu T.

And the grand prize winner who will get a box of four ARCs, swag, and a Clarity T-shirt is

Brooke G.

Congratulations!

In a couple days I’m heading to NYC for the 2011 NYC Teen Author Festival. I’m so excited to be a part of it! Full details can be found on the festival’s Facebook page. It’s free, open to the public, and overflowing with cool events, authors, and fun things to do.

I will be participating in the following panel:
Saturday, March 19th, 2011
Symposium (South Court, 42nd Street, NY, NY)
1:10 – 2:00: The Ties That Bind, Part One: The Struggle Against Darkness
Kim Harrington, Lisa McMann, Maggie Stiefvater, Robin Wasserman, Moderator: David Levithan

And on Sunday I'll be part of the massive group signing at Books of Wonder. My time slot is 2:30-3:15 pm.

To see the entire list of panels, events, and signings, check out the festival's official Facebook page.

If you're in the area please come by. In addition to the above, I'll also be hanging out at some other events and panels. If you see me, say hi!

The CLARITY Release Party

2011-03-06T14:39:00.001-05:00

First, a reminder that you only have one more week to enter my contest!

On Saturday, I had my release party for Clarity at Tatnuck Booksellers…and it rocked! I am so thankful for all the family, friends, authors, bloggers, and readers who came out to celebrate with me. We sold out (80 books!) and had a blast! On to the pics….

When we arrived, my husband was excited to find the first pile of Clarity books.

I did a book talk, reading, and Q&A.

Then, on to the fun! While I signed books, the lovely Jen did tarot card readings. And my best friend brought a Clarity cake! (Even though I killed her namesake in my book.)

Awesome Editor came!

The Boston Blogger Entourage (Gail, Danielle, Danielle, Laura, and many more not pictured) came wearing T-shirts, which was SO COOL! And they had some made for a few of my family/friends too.

With my parents, who were just a tad proud. (Okay, more than a tad.)

The cutest picture of all is a candid of my eight-year-old chatting up my editor in what looks like a very serious conversation. But I don’t put pics of him on the interwebs, so you’ll just have to take my word for it. The cuteness!

He also raised his hand during the Q&A to ask a question and I was horrified. Because, as any parent knows, eight-year-olds are unpredictable and can literally say ANYTHING. But he merely wanted to know if he could read Clarity at age ten because waiting until age twelve was “unacceptable.” I told him that Scholastic rated it 14+ so he’s lucky I’m letting him read it at twelve. :)

It was a great day, and I want to again thank everyone who came, a thousand times over. Thank you!

I’ll be putting even more pictures up on my Facebook page.

Up next is the NYC Teen Author Festival. I’ll be hanging out at many events and participating in a few as well. After that, I have another signing on Tuesday March 22 at 7 pm at the Odyssey Bookshop in S. Hadley, MA. I’m looking forward to both!

CLARITY Release Day! Plus a Contest!

2011-03-01T07:44:00.003-05:00

Today is Clarity’s official release date!

First, I want to send out a big giant thanks to everyone who has sent me messages on Twitter, Facebook, email, etc. about Clarity. It’s amazing to me that this file from my computer is now a real book that people are excited about. People I’m not related to. People I don’t have blackmail against! That is 10,000 kinds of awesome. So thanks. :)

This has been a dream of mine since I was old enough to hold a pencil. And today it’s finally coming true. So I’m a bit emotional.

No, not that kind of emotional.

That’s better, Dawson. Thanks.

So today I release Clarity into the wild. If Clarity is not available in your favorite bookstore, please ask them to order it. (Or it might just be hiding in a box in the back and they haven’t put it out yet. Please ask!) If you’re a New Englander, consider attending one of my signings. If you can’t attend one of those, but would still like your book signed, you can get a bookplate.

Note: This contest has ended. Thanks!
And now I celebrate with a CONTEST!!! Buy Clarity, take a picture of yourself with your Clarity (hardcover only), email the photo to me at [redacted], and I’ll enter you in my new contest. There will be two winners!

The first winner will receive...an ARC (advanced reading copy) of Meg Cabot's new book Abandon! That's right. The Queen of Awesome has a new trilogy coming and you can read the first book before you can buy it!

The grand prize winner will receive:
- an ARC of Meg Cabot's Abandon (because I got two and it's double awesome),
- an ARC of Allison van Diepen's The Vampire Stalker,
- an ARC of Veronica Roth's Divergent,
- an ARC of Gayle Forman's Where She Went,
- signed Clarity swag,
- and a massive amount of Elevensies (2011 YA/MG Debut Author Group) swag (some signed).
Added: Plus a Clarity T-shirt from my release party! Only a few of these exist!

Awesome, right? Enter away, and please pass the word on about the contest. The last day to enter is 3/14/11. The winner will be chosen at random on 3/15/11.

I truly appreciate everyone who has helped to get the word out about Clarity via Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, and the truly awesome kidlit blogosphere. Your excitement is contagious—especially to me. So thank you, thank you, thank you.

High fives to you.

On Writing CLARITY

2011-02-22T07:46:00.000-05:00

First off, CLARITY comes out one week from today! ZOMG, freak out, happy dance!

Now that that’s out of the way…back to the post.

Last month I talked about The Idea Factory and how writers can find inspiration almost anywhere. Today, I’m going to specifically detail how CLARITY came to be! (Note: there are details below, but no real spoilers. Nothing you wouldn’t learn from the book’s summary and the first two chapters.)

Some ideas come to you fully formed. In one flash of inspiration you have the characters, setting, plot, everything.

CLARITY was not one of these ideas.

No, CLARITY came from me playing my favorite game: come up with characters you love and adore, and then figure out the most fitting ways to torture them.

But let me first step back to the initial moment of inspiration. It was one line.* It came to me out of blue in a sort of snarky, sarcastic voice. (And, no, I wasn’t talking to myself! Jeez! Me? Snarky and sarcastic? Never!) I started wondering who would say something like that and why. And I came up with this teenage girl and her family of “freaks.”

I immediately knew I wanted to set the book in a tourist town where the psychics ran a family business out of their home. This was inspired by…seeing psychic family businesses run out of homes in tourist towns. Brilliant! Anyway, I also quickly decided to set the story on Cape Cod. (Mainly because of all the time I’ve spent there, but I’m going to go further into the how and why in a future blog post on settings.)

So I filled the characters out and gave them some complexity, strengths, and flaws.

Clare is tough, defensive and uses words like bullets. After years of being the bullied outcast “freak girl” in town, her hard outer layer is the shield she uses to protect herself. But underneath she wants the same things any girl wants. And she loves her mother and brother LIKE WHOA. Even when they bicker.

Starla, the matriarch of the clan, looks like a free-spirited hippie on the outside, but she takes the family business very seriously. She may not be the strongest person at times, but she loves her children more than anything on earth.

Perry, Clare’s brother, is a lovable man-whore. He goes through tourist girls like disposable paper cups, but he is a loyal best friend, would do anything to protect his little sister, and steps up to the plate as man of the house when he’s needed.

Okay, I love these characters. Time to torture them.

I threw a dead body in because that’s how I roll. And then I had Clare pulled into the murder investigation, forced to use her gift and to interact with the ex-boyfriend she wants to hate and a new guy with a built-in conflict of his own.

Then, what’s the worst thing that could happen?

Her brother becomes the main suspect.

The rest of the plot grew from that. At each twist and turn I asked myself, what’s the worst thing that could happen now? And then I did it. Oh, those poor characters. I torture because I love.

And that’s how CLARITY was conceived, grew, and is now one week from being released into the wild!

*The one line that started it all is now the last line of chapter two. Also, this was my original title of the novel. I thought it was fresh, snarky and BRILLIANT. Then my editor said it kind of reminded her of the circus and I was like…crap on a stick, she’s right. That’s one of the many reasons editors rule. They stop you from giving your un-circus books circus-y titles.

Clarity #2

2011-02-17T11:23:00.000-05:00

Just a quick post because I can share the title of the second CLARITY book!

And...

it...

is...

PERCEPTION

What do you think?

You can add it to your Goodreads shelf here! http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9396162

On Character Names

2011-02-14T07:37:00.000-05:00

I thought it might be cool to talk about how I came up with the names of my main characters in CLARITY.

For most characters, I flip through the white pages for last name inspiration and baby name websites for first names. But for main characters, I put more time and intention into it.

For example, for CLARITY, I knew I wanted my main character’s last name to be short and punchy—like her. I went with the name “Fern” because, like the plant, she looks delicate but is actually quite hardy. :)

Part of the Ferns’ family dynamic is that Starla, the mother, leans toward the strange and her kids sometimes just want to be normal. So it made sense to me that Starla would give them unusual names. And they’d just go by more “normal” nicknames.

The boy was always Periwinkle “Perry” Fern. I worked backwards with this one. I picked the nickname first—Perry—and searched for an unusual name that could be a longer version of that.

My main character was originally called Andromeda “Andie” Fern. ("Andromeda" because I’m an astronomy buff and I like the name. "Andie" because I think it's a girl's name that's both cute and tough at the same time.) But I suddenly needed a new title. Something suggestive of Andie’s gift. My friend and I pored through words in an online thesaurus and “clarity” stuck out. I thought…that’s a cool word. It’s evocative, a bit mysterious, and speaks to my main character’s ability. So with the title change, came a name change.

And Clarity “Clare” Fern was born!

My Giant Pre-Order Thank You

2011-02-04T11:00:00.003-05:00

UPDATE: This contest is closed. About half the swag packs were mailed earlier in the week, the other half are being mailed today. Random.org has calculated a winner for the Mega prize and that is...

EMILY D.

Emily - your swag pack already went out. The mega prize will come separately. Congrats!

Why is this called a “thank you”? Why not a contest or a giveaway?

Because everyone wins.

Pre-order Clarity from your favorite bookseller and I will send you a Kim Thanks You For Being Awesome Swag Pack (I should trademark that title). This includes: a signed bookplate for you to stick in the book, a signed bookmark, and a Clarity sticker!

But, since contests are fun, one entry will be chosen at random to win The Mega Thank You (wow, an even better title). This includes: a signed, super special* Clarity hardcover, a signed bookmark, a Clarity sticker, Cape Cod touristy gifts, a $10 iTunes Gift Card to go with the Clarity playlist, and…a handwritten note containing the first line of sequel.

*I realize it’s kind of weird to give a copy of Clarity as a prize to someone who…bought Clarity, but this one is special. I will sign it and mark it up throughout so it will truly be one of a kind. I’ll underline my favorite passages. Circle the passage I wish I could edit out but it’s too late. Include little secrets in the margins like where certain names came from and what real places inspired my fictional settings. There will be lots of cool notes! And then you can give the copy you pre-ordered to a friend and she’ll think you’re awesome. So there’s that.

How to enter:

It’s easy. Just pre-order Clarity from your favorite bookseller – Indiebound, Amazon, B&N, Borders, The Book Depository, etc. -- and email the e-receipt to me at [redacted]. I will then mail you your swag pack and enter you for the Mega Thank You. (This is the only way to enter/receive a swag pack. I can’t go by the honor system on this one. I need the receipt.)

International peeps can enter to win the Mega Thank You, but the “everyone wins” swag packs are for U.S. only, sorry. The postage is going to kill me enough as it is. ;)

Contest ends 2/11/11. Note: I may have to close the contest earlier if I run out of swag!

Thank you! And please pass this on!

Secrets of an Author Photo

2011-01-30T09:26:00.001-05:00

I've told a couple people this story face to face, but never actually typed it out. I don't know if it'll be as funny, but here we go...

If you are offended by mentions of male genitalia, press your back button now.

I’m not what you’d call a photogenic person. It takes over 100 shots to find one picture where I don’t look like I’m staring into the sun while someone simultaneously stomps on my foot. Luckily, my father knows his way around a camera pretty well and agreed take my author photo for free due to the whole “being his daughter” thing.

I knew exactly where I wanted to go for the photo shoot. The town I grew up in has this big pond and a wooded park area. There’s a long bridge crossing the pond and—in my memories, at least—the end of the bridge had this cool, gothic looking arch. So, we headed there.

Present day didn’t quite match up with my memories as the cool arch was peeling and partially disintegrated. No problem…it actually looked even better this way. Instead of doing a full shot in front of the arch, we’d do a close-up head shot with the crumbling wall behind me. Gritty, urban feel. Like it.

Then, we got closer, and there was a problem.

Have you seen the movie "Superbad"? A character in that film has an obsessive disorder where he compulsively draws penises. Apparently someone with that same disease lives in my hometown.

Yes, there were graffiti weenies on my precious wall.

Dad said, “It’s okay, we’ll do it anyway.”

I said, “Dad! I’m a YA author! I can’t have a DONG in my author photo!”

But, we made it work. We moved over to the edge of the wall where there was no prominent pecker. The original plan was to have only the wall behind me, but now we additionally had some bright green foliage that added some color to the background. It actually turned out better that way. So, thank you, trouser snake obsessed graffiti artist.

And I’ll share a secret with you, blog readers.

When you open a copy of CLARITY and check out my author photo on the inside back flap...look in the upper left-hand corner of the picture and you’ll see a black, curved swipe.

Yes, folks, that is the bottom of an artist's rendering of a testicle.

Now you know. My author photo secret. :)

Guess what I'm holding?

2011-01-25T14:31:00.000-05:00

CLARITY won’t be out in the wild for another month-ish, but Awesome Editor sent me an early copy hot off the press because she likes to make me cry. Kidding. No, because she’s awesome (hence the name). And I may have cried. One or two tiny tears. Because I was chopping onions when the mail came.* Yeah, that’s it. *lies

So...how about some pics!

Front view.

Side view.

And when you take the jacket off…purple! (My favorite color! LOVE!)

The best part for me, though, might seem kind of weird. It’s the bumpy letters.

I think the technical term for the raised type is “embossing,” but I’ve always called it bumpy letters. Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve had a habit of tracing my fingers over the bumps back and forth while a book is open on my lap. My husband once said, “Some dream about their name in lights. Kim dreams about her name in bumpy letters.”

And now it’s real.

A starred review in Publishers Weekly!

2011-01-24T11:42:00.000-05:00

I am delighted to share the news that Clarity got a starred review in Publishers Weekly! Here's a little snippet:

Harrington's well-developed characters and tight plot are simultaneously charming, realistically complex, and intriguing. While recalling classic sleuth stories, Harrington creates a fiery and sharp-witted heroine who's more Veronica Mars than Nancy Drew (Nancy almost certainly never used the term "Skanky McSkankbag"). Clare is a teen detective for the 21st century.

Yes, the esteemed Publishers Weekly just said the words "Skanky McSkankbag." EPIC WIN.

Click here for the full review (down the page a bit).

I am so happy. To be honest, even after having sold three books, part of me still feels like this giant fraud. Like my publisher is going to call and tell me this whole thing was a mistake and I suck. Irrational, I know, but I'm sure I'm not the only insecure writer who has these thoughts. Anyway, reading this review has quieted the "you suck you are a fraud" monster who sometimes lives in the back of my brain.

So cheers to that! If it wasn't -40000 degrees outside right now (slight exaggeration), I'd run up and down the street in joy. :)

My Top Five Favorite TV Love Triangles

2011-01-23T13:43:00.000-05:00

First, a couple bits of business. I'm doing another swag pack giveaway this week. All you have to do to enter is "like" and then comment on the wall post on my Facebook page! Also...(insert big nervous gulp here)...the first two chapters of CLARITY are up on the Scholastic/Point site for you to check out! I hope you enjoy it.

Now, onto the blog post. It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of fictional love triangles. Peeta Forever! Many others have blogged about the best love triangles in books, PEETA FOREVER!!! so I thought I’d take a stab at TV couples. Warning: spoilers for old shows abound! Feel free to disagree with me in the comments. (I’m looking at you Shana “Team Ben” Silver.)

My top five favorites in no particular order:

Felicity, Ben & Noel from “Felicity”

I was Team Noel all the way. Never wavered. And, in fact, after the series finale when Ben had done a bad thing AGAIN and yet Felicity chose Ben over Noel AGAIN, I got very, very angry. And went into early labor. Coincidence? If Felicity had chosen Noel, would my son have a different birthday? We’ll never know. I will toss you Ben lovers a bone, though. Felicity & Ben’s first kiss:

Joey, Pacey & Dawson from “Dawson’s Creek”

I was mostly Team Pacey, though I wavered often. My heart went out to Dawson when he made the EPIC SAD FACE.

And Pacey was a total asshat at the prom with all that “I’m not good enough for you” crap. But Pacey’s character growth made him worthy and I was happy with the show’s ending.

Kate, Jack & Sawyer from “Lost”

I think I was in the minority as a Jate lover. It’s not that I didn’t like Kate with Sawyer, it’s just that…well…moments like these:

Casey, Cappie & Evan from “Greek”

It’s a testament to the writers of the show that neither guy is “perfect” for Casey. Her relationship with Cappie is a total opposites attract thing that doesn't seem built for longevity. And Evan is clearly a better match for Rebecca (ah, villains in love). But I do love Casey & Cappie together.

I tried to find one of my favorite scenes to include here but my search only turned up homemade videos with music instead of dialogue so...moving on.

Veronica, Duncan & Logan from “Veronica Mars”

Clearly Duncan was the good guy and Logan the bad boy and I usually lean toward the good guy…but hot damn all that verbal sparring! I couldn’t root for Veronica with anyone else.

The Veronica/Logan "epic" scene:

So, that’s it. And I know, I know. You’re screaming, “What about The Vampire Diaries (Damon/Stefan/Elena)? What about True Blood (Bill/Eric/Sookie)?” I’m going to say these aren’t love triangles…yet. They are heavily one-sided at the moment, but we all know they will become love triangles at some point. So I’ll save those for later. :P

Agree? Disagree? Who would you add to the list?

In Which I Pass On Some Editing Tips

2011-01-17T09:04:00.001-05:00

First, hop on over to my Facebook page and comment to enter to win my swag pack giveaway!

Now...on to the topic of editing!

I turned in Clarity 2 (title to come/Spring 2012) a month or two ago, after working on the line edits for a few weeks. And since then I’ve been revising my standalone (coming Fall 2012) and getting that ready for Awesome Editor to read. I thought I’d share some of the things I’ve learned along the way:

1. I catch more errors reading a printed out manuscript than reading on the screen.

2. Reading dialogue out loud works. Seriously. Though you might want to save this for home editing and not, say, Panera editing.

3. I needed to know exactly how many days had passed at a certain point and this sounds easier to figure out than it actually was. It required a chart.

4. Clarity 2 has a couple storylines that I consider equally important. I wanted to make sure they maintained a good balance. For example, I don’t want storyline B to be dropped for four chapters in a row while storyline A runs wild. I want both to show consistent progress. So, again, I made a chart. This time a color-coded chart.

5. I like charts.

6. I reach a point in editing when I’ve read and reread the book so many times that I want to rip the manuscript into 1,000 pieces, eat the pieces just so I can throw them up, then stomp them into dust. But that’s okay because this feeling passes and is eventually replaced with excitement when I realize that, once again…

7. I love this book.

:)

Feel free to add more editing tips in the comments!

The Idea Factory

2011-01-10T07:48:00.003-05:00

Ask writers where they get their ideas and some will laugh and say, “The idea factory.” But it’s not a joke. The idea factory actually does exist. It’s a little section of the brain that sees things through a writer’s eye. Whether it’s a news story, a song, a piece of artwork on a wall, a snippet of conversation overheard at Panera…the idea factory is always listening, always paying attention, always wondering if there’s a story in that.

This is why I love news feeds. I’m an information junkie and read all that I can. Both because it’s interesting and you never know what you’ll learn or take from it.

For example, I read this article about a woman with a damaged amygdalae who cannot feel fear. My first thought was…wow, she would make a great character. She could be a hardcore, noir private detective. Or—for a paranormal—what better demon slayer could there be than someone who doesn’t feel fear? Or…what if the government started purposefully creating soldiers with damaged amygdalae, but their experiment went very, very wrong? In just seconds after reading the article, I had hooks for a mystery, urban fantasy, and a conspiracy thriller.

And I read this article about an Australian company offering a test that can analyze your child’s athletic potential based on DNA. And, of course, my mind started to imagine…what if all babies were tested at birth for their potential in athletics, music, math, etc. and then they were placed—unwillingly—in schools segregated by their potential and forced into careers based on their genetic code rather than their interests? That’s some cool dystopian world building there!

I'm not going to write books based on either of these articles (so feel free to take those ideas and run with them!), but I have tons of snippets of ideas like these. I keep them in notebooks and Word documents because you never know when one will lead to something more.

A few years ago, I read an article in the real estate section about “stigmatized properties” (better known as “murder houses”). The notion stuck with me and I wrote it down. Last year, when it was time for me to start playing with something new, I flipped through my idea book and this one grabbed my attention again. So I toyed with it.

What if a family wanted to move to an upscale town with a top-notch school system, but couldn’t afford it...until a house went up for sale—a murder house. What if they bought it, but didn’t tell their teenage daughter about the house’s history? And what if the murder victim still haunted the house? I played around with these ideas for a while and they ended up being the basis for my standalone YA supernatural mystery that’s coming out in Fall 2012.

How did I come up with the idea for CLARITY? That's an entire blog post of its own...coming soon!

So, my advice for ideas? Read the news. And keep your idea factory open at all times. You never know when you’ll hear the one line that will change everything.

The CLARITY Book Trailer

2011-01-03T11:28:00.001-05:00

Two blog posts in one day! I know, it's like Bizarro World up in here. But I simply couldn't wait to post about...drum roll...the CLARITY book trailer!

I am so excited to show you this. I am also not too cool to admit that, when I first watched it, I actually screamed out loud and flailed my hands in the air. Oh yeah. I did. I am the epitome of composed professionalism.

Here it is!

What do you think?

The Liar Society Giveaway

2011-01-03T07:33:00.002-05:00

This giveaway is closed. The winner is jpetroroy. Thanks everyone!

I was lucky enough to read an ARC of THE LIAR SOCIETY by my buds Lisa & Laura Roecker this weekend and let me tell you, it's full of awesome. It has mystery, snark, and adorkable boys. It's like LiLa sat down and said, "Let's write a book full of Kim's favorite things." That's probably not how it happened, though, so I thought I'd sit LiLa down and ask them a few questions.

Kim: What was the inspiration for THE LIAR SOCIETY?

LiLa: After Lisa lost someone close to her she'd occasionally send an e-mail to his hotmail address. Just random updates on what was going on in her life and how much everyone missed him. I guess part of her always believed that he was reading them, wherever he was. One night after she sent an e-mail, she got to thinking about what it would be like if he wrote her back and The Liar Society was born.

Kim: How is Kate similar/different to you as teens?

LiLa: Kate is who we wish we would have been in high school. The reality is that we were sort of dorky, sometimes shy and if we ever thought of a comeback as snarky as one of Kate's it was about 10 minutes after the conversation had already ended. Ouch.

Kim: You ladies are total celeb-stalkers (don't try to deny it). So who would you cast as Kate and a couple of her PB friends or frenemies? (I kept picturing Emma Roberts, myself.)

LiLa: Oh yeah, we're total celeb stalkers and lucky for you we've spent hours pouring over US Weekly to select the perfect cast for The Liar Society. We picture Kate as kind of a young Lyla Garrety (Minka Kelly) although Emma Roberts would totally work too. If Seth Green and Adam Brody had a baby it would be Seth Allen. Liam is a cross between Jordan Catalano and Tim Riggins. Bethany is totally Chloe Kardashian (we simply had to cast a Kardashian in the book). Bradley Farrow is this ridiculously hot guy we went to high school with. Sometimes we stalk him on Twitter...oops, maybe you should delete that last line. We've worked hard to perfect our image as cool young adult authors. Wait, are you laughing??? STOP LAUGHING.

Kim: I'm not laughing. I'm too busy picturing a cross between Jordan Catalano and Tim Riggins.

To celebrate that vision of hotness, I'm giving away the ARC of THE LIAR SOCIETY to one lucky winner. Just either comment here on the blog or on my Facebook page. The last day to comment is Sunday, 1/9/11. The winner will be picked by random.org on Monday, 1/10/11. (This one's US only, sorry.)

And in the meantime, you can learn more about THE LIAR SOCIETY at the official website.

Please join me in a first draft happy dance

2010-12-20T14:37:00.001-05:00

I just finished the first draft of my sixth novel. (If you count all those crappy trunk novels no one's ever going to see. If you're only counting the good stuff, then it's the third.) This is the one I’ve been calling GLIMMER, but I don’t know if that title will stick. It’s my ghost story, coming in Fall 2012.

I still have a ton of work to do on it before it goes to Awesome Editor. There are plot changes I already know I want to make. I'm going to play around with a structure I've never tried before, which may or may not work. Plus all the usual "fix the crappy parts" editing. But I’m pretty excited about the book. So yay! Happy dance!

I won’t be blogging next week. I’m actually…(pause for drama)…going to take a break from writing for an entire week. Egads! I’m going to play with my little guy who has the week off from school and make a huge dent in my hoarders-style piles of to-be-read books.

So, I’ll be back in 2011 (Year of the Elevensie! Woot woot!) with new blog posts. I have a lot of fun planned.

And in the meantime don’t forget to enter to win a CLARITY ARC at Goodreads!

Happy Holidays to everyone!

Winner and another chance for a CLARITY ARC

2010-12-16T09:54:00.000-05:00

Thank you SO MUCH to everyone who entered my giveaway and helped spread the word. It means so much to me. It's so cool to read messages from people who are looking forward to getting Clarity. And you aren't even related to me and therefore forced by familial bonds to act excited! Seriously, though, your excitement is contagious and I've had a great time reading the comments. (I even laughed out loud at a few!) Thanks to random.org we have a winner and that person is:

Jami

However, there's still another chance for you to win a signed Clarity ARC! This giveaway is run through Goodreads and you can enter here. Yay!

And I'm going to continue to give away random books and stuff now and then on my Facebook page.

Plus, I'm starting to cook up ideas for a big release week contest, so stay tuned for that!

I'll leave you with good news. Clarity will also be coming out in France! La Seuil Jeunesse, a division of De la Martiniere Group bought the rights and I couldn't be more excited. Yay!

CLARITY ARC GIVEAWAY

2010-12-01T08:36:00.003-05:00

So it's December 1st and Clarity comes out in THREE MONTHS! What? You can't wait until March 1st? You want a signed ARC (advanced review copy) of Clarity now? Read on, my friend!

So, I’ve mentioned before that I’ve been dragging my Clarity ARC around to various places. Her favorite outings so far have been:

Chipotle,

the beach,

and a Bruins game.

But she’s gotten sick of me. She wants to go live with someone else now. So…it’s time for a giveaway!

The winner will receive my Clarity ARC and some Clarity bookmarks (all signed).

A Clarity sticker.

So-cheesy-they’re-cool Cape Cod gifts! (Clarity takes place in a tourist town on Cape Cod, so I just had to include some fun gift shop trinkets!)

A secret Clarity playlist! A list of songs I found inspiring during the writing process, what scene(s) in the book the songs apply to, and my thoughts on the song and how it fits in. Though I might find some way to share this with readers sometime after the book is out, I will never be putting this info on my blog because it's spoilerific! (Hence the warning on the envelope.) PLUS, a $10 iTunes Gift Card in case the playlist inspires you to buy some new songs.

So, you get one signed ARC, a few signed bookmarks, a sticker, three Cape Cod themed touristy gifts, my secret playlist with notes, and an iTunes gift card!

There will be one winner. I’m going to make this international, so enter from anywhere! All you have to do to enter is post a comment below. (For fun, you could include a place you’d like to take the Clarity ARC. But it’s not necessary, just for fun.)

You can get additional entries for:
+1 tweeting this: RT @Kim_Harrington Signed CLARITY ARC & Swag Giveaway: http://bit.ly/ezRQap Please RT!
+1 posting a link to this post on Facebook
+1 linking to this post on your blog
+1 being or becoming a follower of my blog
+2 "Like" my brand-spanking new official Facebook page*
+5 Putting my Clarity widget (see it on the left) on your blog

(Please let me know everything you did in your comment.)
*If you go to my Facebook page and it says "page not found" please try again in a couple minutes. Facebook is having issues with my new page, off and on.

The last day to post a comment is Wednesday, 12/15/10. I’ll go through all the entries, use Random.org, and announce the winner on Thursday, 12/16/10.

Thanks and good luck!

Week 6 of the 16 weeks to XVI blog tour

2010-11-25T06:00:00.004-05:00

Please welcome to the blog Julia Karr, author of XVI, which is coming out in six weeks! Woot! To celebrate read Julia's guest post below (Thanksgiving themed, of course!) and comment to enter to win a pre-order of XVI.

Here's...Julia!

Wow! It is so amazing to realize that in 6 weeks, XVI will be out on bookstore shelves! I’m incredibly thankful for that! Kind of fitting that this post is going up on Thanksgiving! My favorite holiday! Kim suggested that I talk about things, in the world of XVI, for which I am thankful. And, maybe some things I’m not so thankful for. Six of each, since it is Week 6 of the 16 Weeks to XVI’s release! w00t!

Now - intermixed (one good, one not-so-good)

Things 1...
I’m thankful that the world in XVI is vegetarian, because I am a vegetarian for totally humane reasons.
I’m not so thrilled that domesticated animals are almost the only animals left in XVI. Due to global climate change, disasters and wars - cows, horses, etc. are practically all that’s left.

Things 2...
I’m thankful that medicine has taken huge strides. There’s an Infinity machine that is able to keep someone alive long enough for them to say goodbye to loved ones. Bionic replacement body parts are widely used. Lots of good stuff, except...
I’m not so thrilled that only the top tiers get to take advantage of these health benefits. Lower tiers are often coerced into being medical guinea pigs. Not great at all.

Things 3...
I’m thankful that there are “homes” for everyone, no matter what their earning abilities.
I’m not so thrilled that what that means is, if you don’t want to live in the government’s housing (under their rules - see Things 2 above, i.e. guinea pigs) you become one of the invisible “homeless.” Homeless are considered worse than river rats.

Things 4...
I’m thankful that a new source of energy, ocribundan, has been found on Mars, and is being mined there.
I’m not so thrilled that the miners suffer from an incurable, terminal disease because of the ocribundan mining process. (Preview alert... more about this in the second book.)

Things 5...
I’m thankful that education is public and free.
I’m not so thrilled that anything beyond high school is out of reach unless you are an upper tier or happen to get one of the very rare scholarships to college.

Things 6...
I’m thankful that music still plays an important part in people’s lives and that all sorts of music is studied, even “early 60’s” music!
I’m not so thrilled that the Media controls all the airwaves. Occasional “rogue” radio stations pop up and broadcast underground music. But, those are not nearly as frequent as Resistance sympathizers (and music lovers) would hope for.

I’m also super-thankful to Kim for hosting me here on her blog! Thanks so much, Kim. I hope you are having a great Thanksgiving!

This week’s prize, to be awarded to a lucky commenter next Friday, is a pre-order of XVI! Be sure to leave your comments below and remember, even if you don’t win, you’ll be entered in the Grand Prize drawing on 1/6/11!

Foreign Rights & Other News

2010-11-22T08:13:00.000-05:00

- I have great news! Bertelsmann, an imprint of Random House Germany, has bought the rights to publish CLARITY. She’s going to Germany! Yay! I am SO excited. The fact that this book that I wrote right here in my living room will be read on another continent in another language blows my mind a little.

- Julia Karr, author of XVI, will be here on the blog Thursday.

- Next week (on 12/1) I’m posting my big CLARITY ARC giveaway! So check back for that.

- And for my U.S. followers…Happy Thanksgiving from me and my turkey hat!

Who's a dork? Me!

Random Post of Randomness

2010-11-14T10:51:00.000-05:00

- Line edits for the CLARITY sequel have come so I’m back in the edit cave for a while.

- CLARITY #2 does have a title now that everyone loves and adores, but it’s not 100% official yet so I can’t share. But I can’t wait to tell you guys!

- CLARITY has started showing up in a few IMM (In My Mailbox) posts and this fills me with equal parts excitement and vomit. I’m so nervous. It feels like the day I sent Lil’ Guy off to kindergarten. I want everyone to like and be nice to my baby, but it’s unrealistic to think they all will. So I’m feeling very happy, excited, ZOMG people are actually reading it, *bites nails*, *rubs forehead*, worries, wonders if she’s going to throw up because ZOMG people are actually reading it.

- I watched four seasons of Friday Night Lights in six weeks. I guess you could say I liked it. Okay, I loved it. I can’t believe I have to wait months (because I don’t have DirecTV) to watch season five. I don’t even want to think about the fact that five is the final season and I’ll never see these characters again. I love them like they’re real people. I’ve committed to living my life with the mantra of WWTTD (What Would Tami Taylor Do). And I’ve started, at random times, to yell, “CLEAR EYES! FULL HEARTS! CAN’T LOSE!” Only in the house. Not in public. Yet.

- They are remaking Fright Night! With Colin Farrell as the vampire, David Tennant as "Peter Vincent," and that McLovin kid as Evil Ed (the best friend). The original was one of my favorite movies as a kid. I had it on VHS and watched it constantly. I’m super excited for the remake and hope they hold onto the cheesiness because the cheese is what made the original so entertaining, imo.

- When some of the Lost numbers appeared on this week’s Fringe, I let out a fangirl squeal of nerdish delight. This was my geek highlight of the week.

- The giraffe/Xmas present battle with my parents continues. Thanks for all your ideas in the comments of the previous post!

And that’s all my random news. Back to the edit cave! *swoosh*

In Which I Torture My Mother

2010-11-08T07:57:00.001-05:00

So my mom has a thing for giraffes lately. (Don't ask.) She bought a ceramic giraffe on vacation and recently bought a little stuffed giraffe that she adores. A couple weeks ago, my parents came to visit and she--for some reason--brought her new, beloved giraffe to show us. Then...she accidentally left it here.

The phone rang later that night and it was Mom telling me that she'd left her giraffe behind and asking me to take good care of it until the next time we see each other. I assured her I would, hung up, and passed the message on to my husband and son.

Then, because I'm slightly sick in the head, I said, "What if we take a bunch of pictures of us not taking very good care of the giraffe and email them to her one day at a time?" We all liked that idea.

So every day I've been emailing my mother a picture of her giraffe with one line. Some examples:

We're taking good care of your giraffe, Mom!

The giraffe shouldn't have played in the driveway.

Giraffe...it's what's for dinner.

Send chocolate or the giraffe gets it.

You get the gist. The responses are even funnier. Emailed replies in all caps saying: LEAVE MY GIRAFFE ALONE! Or phone calls like, "There'd better not be one mark on my precious, lovely giraffe." (My mother's from Ireland so picture that in her lilting accent.)

So we've put the giraffe outside, under my tire, in the oven, in the microwave, held it over the toilet, held a knife to its throat, and my son sat on it. I'll be seeing my parents again in two weeks and will have to return the giraffe. But until then the fun is ON. We're running out of ideas though, so feel free to post some in the comments!

Update: My parents have set a revenge plan in motion which involves a wrapped but unidentified Christmas present being tortured in various ways. The first picture showed the present being run over by my mom on her bike. The second showed the present being slammed in a car door. So...if you think I'm deranged, now at least you know where I got it from. :)

Glimmer Inspiration

2010-10-31T11:23:00.000-04:00

I’m not really mentioning much about GLIMMER yet here on the blog, other than I’m writing it right now and it’s scheduled for release in Fall 2012. But since it’s the season for all things spooky, I figured I’d share a few songs that are inspiring me as I write the novel. It’s a standalone supernatural mystery…and has a ghost. Not one of those nice Casper ghosts, either.

Anyhow here are some songs that are making up my playlist lately:

Band of Horses – Is There a Ghost

Kristin Hersh – Your Ghost

Buffalo Tom – Late at Night
(BT is an awesome Boston band that I have mad love for. Yes, of course, this song first brings to mind the epic Jordan/Angela hallway scene from My So Called Life. But it’s actually about ghosts!)

These are the spooky songs I have on heavy rotation right now. What do you think? Any other suggestions for me?

Unexpected Research

2010-10-25T08:53:00.000-04:00

When I was writing Clarity Book 2: Electric Woo Woo (real title not being shared yet), I needed a restaurant name for one line. I wanted lobster something. But I also didn’t want to use the name of an existing restaurant on Cape Cod (where the CLARITY books take place). So, I researched. The Lobster Pot? Already on the Cape. The Lobster Claw? Exists. The Lobster Hut? Yep. The Lobster Boat? Driven by it. The Lobster Trap? That exists, too.

At this point, I started laughing. This is a restaurant only mentioned in one line. The characters don’t even go there. It is just referred to. And I spent twenty minutes researching until I finally had my name.

It’s these little, funny things along the way that surprise you. Some research you expect and some…you don’t.

What have you unexpectedly researched lately?

By the way, I went with The Lobster Cabana. So, please don’t open a restaurant on the Cape with that name for the next two years. Thanks. ;)

The 2010 Boston Book Festival

2010-10-17T14:26:00.003-04:00

I attended the second annual Boston Book Festival yesterday. How awesome was it? Let me count the ways:
- free and open to the public
- 40 panels and presentations
- 130 authors and scholars
- an estimated 25,000 book nerds* descended upon Copley Square
*I even wore my favorite Book Nerd T-shirt.

Exhibitor booths lined the square

My favorite thing about this festival is that the panels are held in historic Boston locations.

I attended a morning panel featuring Justin Cronin, Joshua Ferris, and Jennifer Haigh in The Church of the Covenant (built in 1865).

Those little dots in my 'doesn't do this justice' pic are the panelists. The chandelier was designed by Tiffany's and wired by Thomas Edison. For reals. It's stunning.

Jeff Kinney gave the Kids' Keynote address inside the Trinity Church, a U.S. National Historic Landmark (founded in 1733, rebuilt after fire in 1872).

And--because of this picture--my lil' dude now thinks I'm cool. This is a temporary condition, I'm sure.

Jeff Kinney signing after his keynote address

Other panels were held in the Boston Public Library (the first public library in the US). No matter how many times I walk into this building, it always takes my breath away.

Okay, I'll stop there. But I could include about 10,000 pictures of this building. So gorgeous.

I ended the day with the YA Panel featuring (left to right) Noni Carter, Kathryn Lasky, Francisco Stork, and Kristin Cashore, who were all inspiring to listen to.

A wonderful day and I'm already looking forward to next year.

Do you know this book?

2010-10-08T09:25:00.001-04:00

My mother and I were strolling through the children’s section of a bookstore last weekend and the conversation turned to my favorite picture book as a child. I loved this book so much. I must have asked my parents to read it a thousand times and read it myself a million times more. Mom and I started laughing in the aisle of the store because, even though we hadn’t seen the book in over twenty-five years, we still clearly remembered everything that happened in it. I have an exact image of one of the illustrations in my head. I can’t tell you what I had for dinner a couple nights ago, but I could explain in detail this illustration from my favorite book when I was five. That’s the power of books!

Anyhow, the problem is, neither of us can remember the title. I’d love to try to search out a copy. To be honest, I’d probably cry if I saw this book again because it holds such sentimental value. But I have no author name, no title.

So, I’m reaching out to the blogosphere to see if anyone else knows what this book could be.

It was a picture book, out in the '70s. It was about a little girl who walked to school each day. She passed by a house with a tall wooden fence. On the fence was a sign that said: Beware of Dog. (There was an illustration of this). She always pictured this giant, scary dog living there. I think the dog may have barked, too. A loud, big dog bark. But then one day, as she walked by, somehow the dog was out. The little girl closed her eyes in fear, but then felt something on her hand. The dog licked her hand. (There was an illustration of this, too). She opened her eyes and it was a very small dog. I think the owner may have come over and given an explanation for the sign, but that part’s fuzzy. And that’s all I remember.

Anyone have any idea what book this could be?

My love note to October

2010-10-04T18:53:00.000-04:00

I love October. Why? New England is beautiful this time of year. Halloween is my second favorite holiday. And I love all things creepy, campy, and filled with chocolate.

It’s the time of year when I take the flowers out of my front window and replace them with this:

I cuddle in my big reading chair with a blanket, a cup of hot chocolate and a pile of my favorite spooky books.

I get the urge to visit Salem. If you’ve never been to Salem, MA in October and you’re a fan of the paranormal, folklore, history, or just creeptastic campy fun, you MUST GO. Check out the Haunted Happenings website for details.

Here are a few of my pics from last year’s trip:

What are your favorite October things?

I'm free, Friday Night Lights, and cleansing the palates

2010-09-28T08:07:00.000-04:00

I have been released from the edit cave!

*breathes fresh air* *looks around, squinting*

You know you've been deep in the edit cave when a friend emails you "to see if you're alive." Yes, I am! I sent my revision of Clarity Book Two: Electric Woo Woo (not real title) to Awesome Editor. It was fun to dig back into the book. I’d finished the first draft back in March and had been working on the secret project, which isn’t a secret anymore. It was nice to return to Clare and her world after a bit of time apart.

I’m considering a quick return to GLIMMER while I wait on line edits, but first…I need to cleanse my palate. You know, I don’t want to be deep in Clare-land and then the very next day return to ghost-ville. If I did that too quickly, I’d risk having Clare’s voice bleed into my new main character’s voice. And it shouldn’t because they’re very different girls. For example: Clare is tough and defensive (because she has to be). New Girl is sheltered, non-confrontational, kind, and quirky. ;)

So, to cleanse my palate and clear my mind of all of my characters, I turned to my DVR. I had started recording Friday Night Lights on ABC Family. They’re showing episodes from the start of the first season, one each night. Many friends have told me I should be watching this show, and I’ve rebuffed each of them saying, “I hate football. Why would I watch a show about football?” But I figured I could give it one episode.

And?

I was wrong.

(that sound you just heard was friends collapsing and fainting en masse)

Yeah, yeah. I was wrong. It’s not just about football. And it’s AWESOME. I’m completely hooked. I may have watched five episodes in a row. (And why didn’t anyone tell me Explosions in the Sky did the score? I would have started watching it much sooner for their music alone. Love them.)

Even though I’m pretty sure my palate is cleansed and I could open that Word document right now, I’m going to go watch one more episode…just in case.

What do you do to cleanse your palate between projects? Any FNL fans out there? Share the love (spoiler free, please!).

Win a signed ARC of CLARITY!

2010-09-15T14:08:00.001-04:00

So, I've gotten a lot of emails from people dying to get their hands on an advanced copy of CLARITY. And I only have a few copies. I'll be doing a giveaway here on the blog in a couple months. But you have another chance to get your hands a copy over at WriteOnCon today.

WriteOnCon is a free online writers conference organized and run by some people I'm proud to call my friends. They've given an opportunity for thousands of writers to participate in agent panels, lectures, craft sessions, and more without having to travel, miss work, or drop a boatload of dough. However, their last online conference was so successful and got so much traffic, it basically did to their web host's servers what the Death Star did to Alderaan.

I'm donating a CLARITY ARC to their Epic Giveaway of Epicness (best title ever). It will be signed to the winner, plus I'll throw in some signed CLARITY bookmarks as well.

All you need to do to enter is comment on the WriteOnCon post. (Don't comment here on my blog. Well, you can comment here to tell me how your day is going and what's up and how my hair looks nice today, but it won't count as an entry to the contest unless you post it over there.) If you'd like 10 extra entries in the contest, all you have to do is donate (like $5) to their hosting/server costs so WriteOnCon can continue free, awesome, and without 403 errors.

Check it out!

My happy news: new book deal!

2010-09-14T14:19:00.002-04:00

I’m busting out of the edit cave like the Kool-Aid man through a wall to tell you I HAVE GOOD NEWS! I alluded to this in my vacation post, and I’ve been dying to tell you guys. Now, I can!

From Publishers Marketplace:

Kim Harrington's GLIMMER, in which a teenage girl finds a ghost in her house, and tries to unravel the mystery behind the ghost girl's murder, while also falling for the ghost's former boyfriend.

YAY!

GLIMMER is not a CLARITY book. It's a standalone. It's another paranormal mystery--this time…a ghost story. I’m so excited! I’ve always loved ghost stories and haunted house books, so this is a dream come true for me. And, I’ve got to tell you, writing the spooky scenes has been the most fun so far!

So, here’s my release schedule as it stands right now:
CLARITY – 3/1/11
CLARITY Book 2: Electric Woo Woo (not real title) – Spring 2012
GLIMMER (standalone) – Fall 2012
(All three with Scholastic/Point and my Editor of Awesome.)

Three books in two years. I’m about to get very, very busy.

But first, will you join me in a happy dance?

Comedy From The Edit Cave

2010-09-09T08:43:00.001-04:00

Waving hello from the edit cave. Late last night, when I should have been sleeping, I was hit with a great idea on how to fix a scene that is currently broken. So I sat up in bed, flicked a little light on, and began furiously scribbling in the notebook I keep on the nightstand. My husband said, "How you comin' on that novel you workin' on. Huh?" And then proceeded to laugh at me until I inked his forehead. Family Guy fans will recognize that little joke. If you don't...watch the clip below. :)

*swoosh*

Back in the cave!

In which I turn into a crazy person

2010-09-03T10:41:00.000-04:00

When I’m writing a novel, I’m pretty chill. I’m not a burst writer. I maintain a steady pace, each day following my routine: edit what I wrote the day before, write a little bit more, plan what I’ll write the next day. I work on the book, do the day job, play on Twitter, watch TV, enjoy my family, spend time with friends, etc.

Then, there’s revision time.

The moment my edits come (whether they are big picture edits, line edits, or copy edits), I turn into a completely different person. A crazy person. I forsake everything else in my life. No TV. No reading for pleasure. No going out. No playing around online. It’s all revision, all the time, day and night, until it’s done.

I don’t know why this happens. I don’t try to fight it. It’s just my nature. Writing Kim is chill. Editing Kim is 100% pure crazypants.

So this is my way of saying I’m going to be scarce for a little while. My editorial letter for CLARITY book two came and…uh, oh…it’s happening….

In which I meet Suzanne Collins and my mind is erased

2010-08-31T15:09:00.001-04:00

When I was a teenager, I had a mad crush on Don Sweeney, who was a defenseman for the Boston Bruins. One day, I waited in line two hours for his autograph. When it was finally my turn, I stepped up to the table. He smiled, poised his pen, and asked, "What's your name?"

And I didn't know.

Name? What's a name? I had no idea. My mind was completely blank. I couldn't utter a single word. Luckily, my father was with me, and his brain worked fine. So Dad told him my name and my autographed photo says, "To Kim."

I pretty much always have my wits about me and nothing like that had ever happened since. Until today.

Can you see it? My mind? It's empty.

I went to the Suzanne Collins event in Brookline, MA. She read from both Catching Fire and Mockingjay, which was fascinating. Katniss has an accent! Suzanne called it "futuristic Appalachian." Also, I've been pronouncing Panem wrong in my head this whole time. Then she stamped our books. She had a smile for everyone and was just absolutely lovely.

I called my dad on the way home to brag (he's also a big Hunger Games fan). The conversation went something like this:

Dad: So, did you ask her anything about the books?
Me: Uh, no.
Dad: Did you tell her you're also a Scholastic author?
Me: No.
Dad: What did you say?
Me: Nothing.
Pause.
Dad: It was the Don Sweeney mind-erasing thing again, wasn't it?
Me: Yeah. *hangs head*
Dad: You're a dork.

So, yeah. That happened.

But I'm not the only one. Gail was so giddy she walked away without her camera, and I had to remind her to go back for it.

I actually think I may have squeaked out a "thank you" when Suzanne handed my book back, but I can't be sure. My memory of those seconds is kind of...blank.

Yay!

Vacation, All I Ever Wanted

2010-08-30T08:57:00.000-04:00

Last week, we spent a few days on Cape Cod for sun, sandcastles, swimming, and WHAT THE HECK?

My "what the heck" face.

Yeah. Eleven weeks of record high temps and drought conditions and then we go on vacation and BAM! Sixty degrees and raining. But, we have a saying here in Massachusetts that goes something like, “Don’t like the weather? Wait a minute.” And it’s mostly true because two days later, it was like this:

We even had to get out of the water twice for shark warnings—that was a first. We didn’t see any sharks, but three of the biggest seals EVER swam by, pretty close to shore. Knowing that sharks love seals like I love Chipotle, and the lifeguard said she’d seen a shark the day before, and Great Whites have been spotted around all summer…get out of the water? Don’t mind if I do!

(And this wasn’t the most interesting part of that day. The most interesting part is a secret right now. But I’ll share when I can. #tease)

Unfortunately, we had to cancel our planned day at Martha’s Vineyard due to the weather. And the fact that rough seas + a ferry + Kim = barf-o-rama. I proved this on a whale watch a couple years ago.

However, this sad news was balanced out by the epic awesomeness of MOCKINGJAY! I stood outside waiting for the bookstore to open Tuesday morning, was the first one at the register, and finished the book in the middle of Tuesday night. I also started to come down with one of those 24-hr (thankfully) viruses. I had whacked-out MOCKINGJAY dreams where I was running down the street telling people, “I am The Girl on Fire!” When, in actuality, I had a 102 temp and was merely The Girl Having Fever Delusions. But anyway, how hard did MOCKINGJAY rock? Seriously! So good. But I won’t go into details for those who haven’t read it yet.

I also had a great time snapping pictures of places in the Cape that inspired the setting of CLARITY. So much so that I think I’ll do a blog post on setting sometime soon.

And I had a blast at the tourist shops picking out cheesy Cape Cod swag for my arc giveaway that will be happening in a couple months and for my Giant Giveaway of Awesomeness That Will Hopefully Have a Better Name by March.

Speaking of arcs...I brought my CLARITY arc with me. Do you really think I’d leave her home? Of course not! And she had a blast. As you can see….

A Different Kind of ARC Tour

2010-08-16T09:00:00.004-04:00

So I mentioned last month, when I got my Clarity ARCs in the mail, that I had a little problem. I had trouble putting her down. I wanted to carry her around with me everywhere. Pet the cover. Kiss the pages. Coo and make baby faces at it.

And then I thought...you guys might not believe me.

So I took pictures.

Here are some adventures Clarity and I have gone on.

I took her out to lunch.

I took her to the beach. Yes, she used sunscreen!

I took her mini-golfing.

I showed her around Boston and took her on a Duck Tour. (But of course I wouldn't hold her above the water for the pic. She could have been hit by Charles River spray! She was safely seated on my lap for this pic.)

And every night I tucked her in. On a silk pillow, of course.

We went plenty of other places, too. In fact, I think she's starting to get tired of me. So, in late fall, I'm going to have a giveaway and she can go live with one of you.

But until then she's still mine. And I think it's time to take her to Panera....

Redesign

2010-08-12T14:02:00.000-04:00

Do you find yourself thinking, "Wow...things seem new around here?"

Well, lovely blog reader, you're right! I just finished a blog redesign. I wanted something refreshing and--along the lines of Clarity's setting--ocean themed.

So here it is!

Let me know what you think of the new look. Or if anything's funky. Funky good or funky bad. ;)

Thanks for the love!

2010-08-09T07:46:00.000-04:00

I want to thank everyone for all the CLARITY cover love this past week. I think my heart grew one size bigger. (Either that or it was all the nachos.)

Special thanks to all the bloggers who featured CLARITY last week in cover reveals and "Waiting on Wednesdays":
Dark Faerie Tales
The Hiding Spot
Dead Book Darling
Michelle's Bookshelf
Sophistikatied Reviews
The Serpentine Library
Bring Me Another Book
The Cozy Reader

From across the pond:
Narratively Speaking
I Want To Read That

Foreign blogs (yay for Google translate!):
Besos de un Angel

If I forgot anyone, I'm sorry! Blame Google alerts. ;)

Be sure to check out the site redesign at The Elevensies and all the awesome 2011 books coming your way.

And CLARITY is now available for pre-order on Amazon! It's not up on IndieBound or the others yet, but I'll update my books page with the links when it is.

Clarity Cover!

2010-08-02T09:16:00.003-04:00

I am psyched. Why, you ask? Because today's the day I get to show you the cover of CLARITY!

*drumroll*

Ready?

Really ready?

Are you sure you want to see this?

Okay...here we go...

Ta-da! (Click on the image to see the cover in its full-sized glory.)

When I got the email way back when, I opened it up, waited four hours for the attachment to open (okay it was probably four seconds, but it seemed like hours), and my jaw hit the floor. It’s bright and beautiful and just so different.

I knew ahead of time that a model would be on the cover because my editor had told me they were doing a photo shoot. My main character, Clare, is a petite redhead with startlingly blue eyes and a smattering of freckles across her nose. And the model they chose…is exactly that!

The one thing I really wanted incorporated into the cover was water, since the setting is a tourist town on Cape Cod and much of the book takes place near the beach. I didn’t mention this wish to anyone, but was delighted when I opened the attachment and saw the water in the background and the seagulls in the sky. (The seagulls are also on the back. SO. COOL.)

What I love the most, though, are the colored circles of light around the model’s hair. That, in my opinion, is what attracts your eyes to the cover from a distance. (Not that I had the picture up on my monitor and then stepped away ten feet and pictured it on a shelf in the bookstore. Okay, I did.)

And lastly (because I've blathered on long enough), I love the look on the model’s face. Clare is tough, snarky, and defensive at times and the model seemed to capture that perfectly.

I'm super happy and so excited to be sharing the cover with you! And I'll be even more excited to share the real thing with you...on March 1, 2011. Yay! :)

What do you think?

This and That

2010-07-19T10:16:00.001-04:00

- I added more info to the bio page on my website, including a Q&A and random, pretty much useless, but slightly entertaining facts about me.

- There’s a list of 2011 Debut YA Books on Goodreads, featuring Clarity and many of my Elevensies buds. Check out why 2011 is going to rock! (And feel free to vote for the ones you’re excited for!)

- A few weeks back, I did a week-long series on how to get an agent. I ran across this site last week, which gave me a few laughs and I figured I’d share it. Good for tips on what not to do.

- Oh, and one more thing. The Clarity cover will be unveiled in two weeks. WOOT!

Attachment Parenting and ARCs

2010-07-12T16:19:00.001-04:00

*gets mail* *opens mailer* *faints*

Okay, so I didn't faint. But I did make a somewhat embarrassing googly-giggly sound, which I'm glad wasn't secretly recorded. Because the mailer contained my arcs of Clarity! And they are beautiful.

*swoon*

Is it ARC or arc, by the way? My editor calls them bound galleys. I've taken to calling it "my precious."

I can't show the cover yet, so I can't post pics. But I will post pics at some point of my new baby and me and all the adventures we've had today. Because, you see, I can't put it down. I want to carry it around everywhere. Pet it. Coo at it. I'm considering buying a sling for it and starting attachment parenting. With my arc baby.

P.S. My precious and I are totally co-sleeping tonight.

How to Get an Agent: Part Four

2010-07-02T08:22:00.000-04:00

Today is the last installment in my series on how to get published. You can start from the beginning here.

Now the responses are rolling in. You may have one agent interested or be juggling multiple offers. Time for phone calls!

An agent may be calling to offer you representation or just to chat and get to know each other better. You’re both looking to see if you’re a good fit. Remember, you have a chance here to ask questions, too. But you shouldn’t be wasting time asking who the agent’s other clients are or anything that you could easily find online. Take the opportunity to ask things that can’t be found with a Google search. What approach he or she would like to take with your book, for example. And try to gauge the agent’s style (hand holding, hands off, etc.) and see if it’s a good match for you.

If the agent offers, you don’t have to say yes right off the bat. You can ask for a few days to think about it. They kind of expect that. You should also notify any other agents who have your full manuscript, to give them a chance to toss their hat in the ring if they’re interested.

Once you make your decision, you accept the offer of representation and let the other agents know.

Congratulations. You are off the query-go-round. From this point on everything is sunshine and rainbows!!!!!

Kidding. Next up is possibly editing/revising for your agent. Then comes the submission coaster, which is way worse on the nausea scale than the query-go-round. And there are still no guarantees. Even though your book has an agent now, it still might not sell. So, while you’re on submission WRITE YOUR NEXT BOOK. Seriously. It’ll help keep you sane during this time and might come in handy if a publisher wants to buy more than one book.

I hope this series has been helpful to all aspiring authors out there. And now you know why I couldn’t answer this question with one paragraph in the FAQ. ;)

Good luck!
*tosses glitter*

How to Get an Agent: Part Three – The Query-Go-Round

2010-07-01T08:21:00.000-04:00

This week I’m going through the steps of getting published. You can start from the beginning here.

So you’ve started to send out queries. What now?

Some agents respond within minutes, some take months, and some only respond if they are interested. Stay organized and keep a spreadsheet so you know where you stand.

Never under any circumstances write back something crazy to an agent. If you’re even thinking about writing some vengeful ‘how dare you reject me’ diatribe, then you need to think about whether or not you are ready for this giant Road of Rejection. If an agent rejects you, the only thing you should ever write back is “thanks for your time” and only do that if they send a detailed, personal rejection. After you get a rejection, note it in your spreadsheet, file it away, and move on. Everyone gets rejections.

Always be professional.

In some cases, the query-go-round turns into a whirlwind of quick requests and offers and wonderful phone calls. In most cases, it takes a while. Months. Don’t sit around and twiddle your thumbs. Work on your next book!

Imagine a year from now, you’ve queried 100 agents. Some have asked to read your manuscript, but it all ends in rejection. You’ve spent this year doing nothing because you were certain this book would snag you an agent. It didn’t and you have nothing else to offer. How do you feel? Pretty depressed, I’d think.

Now imagine that same scenario except that during the year you’ve finished your second book. So, yeah, 100 agents have rejected your first book, but now you’re ready to query again. Your second book is better than the first and you’re psyched to get back on the query-go-round. Not as depressing. More like…exciting!

Come back tomorrow for the last installment!

How to Get an Agent: Part Two - Research

2010-06-30T07:36:00.000-04:00

This week I’m going through the steps of getting published. You can start from the beginning here: How to Get Published.

Before I get into the nitty gritty, the most important thing you should know before you send out your queries is that legitimate agents don’t charge you a thing. No fees. Real agents make money by selling your book and taking their 15%. Until they sell your book, they make nothing. Please, don’t get scammed. Preditors & Editors is a good guide to check out agents you’re not sure about.

Now, how to find the perfect agent for your work.

You want an agent who is open to new clients and interested in your genre. The top websites I recommend for researching agents are: Agent Query and Publishers Marketplace. Agent Query is free. Publishers Marketplace is $20 per month. It is well worth buying one month to use their database of book deals for research. After that, you can see if you want to keep your membership going or not. I still have a membership even now.

Using AQ, you can generate a list of agents. Then use PM to see who else the agent represents, what deals they’ve made recently, and perhaps what they are currently looking for (they may post this on their website and/or blog).

Make a list of all the agents you’re interested in. This could be 20, it could be 100. Prioritize them. Don’t email all 100 agents at once. Do 10 at a time. This way, if your response rate is very low, you can change your query letter and perhaps get a better response from the next 10.

Some agents want queries via email, some want them via snail mail. Some agents want a query only. Some agents want a query plus the first chapter. Send the agent what they want.

In the next installment, I’ll go over the ups and downs of the Query-Go-Round and the most important thing you can do while you’re on it.

These are only the websites I used in my search. If you know of another good one, add it in the comments! :)

How to Get an Agent: Part One – The Query Letter

2010-06-29T08:36:00.000-04:00

This week I’m going through the steps of getting published. See yesterday’s introductory post: How to Get Published.

Many people believe you have to know someone to get published. And, sure, celebrity book deals do nothing to dispel this myth. But the truth is, most book deals are made for people who had no previous publishing connections. They just wrote a great book. Then they wrote a great query letter. The query letter grabbed the attention of an agent and the book made him/her want to take you on as a client. That’s how it worked for me. I had no contacts. No special publishing secrets. I just didn’t give up and I kept on writing.

Before you start this process, you should know...you will get rejected. Everyone gets rejected. You might get rejected 100 times. That 101st query letter could score you an agent. Or you may have to shelve this book that you’ve poured your heart and soul into and start again with a new one. That’s why this is a tough business. You need to have thick skin. You. Have. To. Want. It. I’ve read that the average number of manuscripts people write before they score their first deal is four. Sure, some people sell their first book. But others write ten before they sell. And you don’t know what your magic number is going to be. (My magic number? I signed with my agent for manuscript number three, but that one didn’t sell. Clarity was manuscript number four.)

With those caveats done, let’s move on to your query letter. The purpose of the letter is to sell you and your book to an agent. The letter shouldn’t be too long. One or two paragraphs about the book and one paragraph about yourself. Be sure to include basic info on the book (genre and word count). And for the love of all that is holy make sure it’s written well!

I highly recommend getting your query letter critiqued by fellow writers. Some sites where you can do that include Query Shark, the WritersNet forum, and the Absolute Write forums. (I'm sure there are more sites, too. If you know of any, please post them in the comments!)

AgentQuery has a great page on How to Write a Query. It really is a must read! Lots of details and links to query letters that worked.

Have a kick-butt query letter written? Great! Now you need someone to send it to. So tomorrow, in the next installment, I’ll discuss researching agents and how to find the perfect agent for you.

How to Get Published

2010-06-28T09:10:00.000-04:00

So I’ve started working on a FAQ to include on my website. One of the most commonly asked questions authors get is, “So how do you get published?” And the answer is a little too long to include in the FAQ. So I’m answering it in detail, here on the blog, spread over five days.

(Note: there are many ways to get published, but I’m focusing on the way I did it. The traditional ‘write a book, get an agent, get a book deal’ way. Even though it took me 10,000 years, that’s how I did it.)

Step one in getting published: write a book. Seems obvious, but I’m serious. Don’t worry about agents or publishers unless you have a completed novel. According to my made up statistics, a gazillion people say they want to write a novel. Out of this gazillion, only 1% will turn the TV off, stop talking about writing a novel and actually start it. And out of that group, only a small percentage will actually finish a novel. So before you start worrying about query letters and book signings, see if you’re in that small percentage who can even finish a book. (I was guilty of this myself for a long time. My recommendation for a cure? BIC. The well-known, well-loved butt in chair method. It works.)

You’ve finished your book? Awesome. Reach around and pat yourself on the back because that is a huge accomplishment! Even if nothing else comes from this, even if it never gets published, you have finished a novel-length manuscript. That. Is. Awesome. Go out to dinner and celebrate.

Now, set the book aside for a week or two. Don’t even think about it during that time. Then return to it, fresh and ready to edit. Send it to trusted, honest, knowledgeable critique partners. Then revise and edit again. Lather, rinse, repeat. When you think it’s in the best shape you can get it in, it’s time to get an agent.

How do you get an agent? For that, you’ll have to come back tomorrow!

A Love Letter to Libraries

2010-06-24T11:26:00.001-04:00

I make no secret of my love for libraries and today was one of those days that reminded me why I adore them so.

When I was growing up, my library was in the basement of the town hall, housed in a former church built in the 1800s. Now that town has a beautiful new library, but I’ll always have fond memories of the old one. I spent more afternoons there than I could count. I can close my eyes and still remember the exact layout, the smell of the books, the sounds of pages turning, the white door swooshing closed.

As an adult, I grew to love another library in a different town. I even served on the library’s Board of Trustees for a few years. Then, with the birth of my son, I started to see it through a child’s eyes again.

I began to bring my son to the library when he was a baby. Yeah, he couldn’t read. But I could read to him. And he could play with their puzzles, puppets and other toys. And it was someplace I could always take him—at no cost—when cabin fever threatened to turn us crazy.

I told him that when he learned to read, he’d get his own library card. He looked forward it like most kids look forward to getting a license. I still remember the day the librarian put the brand new card in his little hands. He grinned madly while signing the back. (Though now, at age eight, he sneers at his giant, messy script.) Then he strutted around the library, feeling like Mr. Big Man with his own card. It was adorable.

For the past three years, we’ve participated in the library’s summer reading program. I brought him today to sign up for this summer. At first, he didn’t want to be dragged out. It’s almost ninety degrees, he didn’t want to go out, didn’t want to put the game controller down. But once we got there, it was a different story. He was inspired by the motivational structure of the program. The competitor in him wants to rack up the most reading hours.

He walked into the library feeling lazy and grumpy, just wanting to get back to his video game. An hour later, with several Goosebumps and Star Wars books cradled in his arms, he walked out sporting a giant smile, energized and ready for summer reading.

And I was reminded, once again, why I love libraries.

Please support your library! They’re always there to support you.

Giveaway - Nice and Mean

2010-06-15T09:28:00.006-04:00

Update: This giveaway has ended. Paul W Hankins was the winner!

I had a great time last night at Jessica Leader's Boston book party for Nice and Mean at the Wellesley Booksmith. Here's a little bit about the book:

Marina is mean. Sachi is nice. Marina is Barney's. Sachi is Burlington Coat Factory. It's bad enough that they have to coexist in video class—but now they're being forced to work together on the big semester project. Marina's goal? Expose her wanna-be BFF as a fashion wanna-be to the entire middle school. Sachi's goal? Prove that she's not just another honor-roll Indian student and get people talking. Work together in harmony? Yeah, that would be no. How can Sachi film something meaningful, and Marina, something fabulous, if they're yoked to each other?

Jessica was wonderful! She did a quick reading, then opened the room up to a Q&A session that was so interesting! (Gail--code name: Irish--is doing a write-up of the Q&A session over at her blog Ticket to Anywhere sometime soon so be sure to check that out, too.)

There was a yumtastic spread of cake and cupcakes. And what I thought was a wonderful idea was this:

People could anonymously write and hang their own nice and mean memories.

Jessica also had gift baskets. This one was super awesome because I won it. *happy dance*

And now it's your chance to win. I have a signed copy of Nice and Mean for one lucky winner. U.S. only. All you have to do is post a comment! Make sure there is a way for me to reach you. If you don’t have an email address listed on your blogger/lj/etc account, then please include it in your comment below.

You can get additional entries for:
+1 tweeting this: RT @Kim_Harrington Signed Nice and Mean giveaway: http://bit.ly/c123Hu Please RT!
+1 posting a link to this post on your Facebook or MySpace
+1 linking to this post on your blog
+1 being or becoming a follower of my blog
(Let me know in your comment what you did.)

Thanks and good luck!

The last day to post a comment is Tuesday, 6/22/10. I'll announce the winner on Wednesday, 6/23/10.

I Might Be Insane

2010-06-11T12:28:00.002-04:00

I had a random thought today when I looked at the sticker on my car's windshield.

The next time I get a MA inspection sticker, my book will be on the shelves.

Yes, it's a strange thought, but it's not the first one I've had lately.

After my birthday last month, I thought...the next time I have a birthday, my book will be on the shelves.

Waiting on hold with the doctor's office: the next time I make an appointment for my son's annual physical, my book will be on the shelves.

Standing at my freezer, looking at my lunch options: by the time this Lean Cuisine expires, my book will be on the shelves.

What has caused this somewhat insane* singularity of thought? Well, Awesome Editor mailed me the Scholastic Spring 2011 catalog and Clarity was in there. I stared at it for like an hour. And somehow managed to smudge the page (probably from the sheer intensity of joy coming out of my pores).

It's real folks.

Scholastic didn't change their mind. My evil friends didn't jump out and say, "Gotcha," revealing the most elaborate practical joke of all time. It's really happening!

To make an awesome mood even awesomer (Yes, it's a made up word! I'm crazy with joy! Allow me made up words!) Awesome Editor emailed me the entire Clarity book jacket. So I saw the front, the back, the spine, the flaps, in all its glory. (No, you can't see it yet. Yes, I'm a terrible tease.)

So, I'm happy today.

Also, I had Chipotle for lunch. Chipotle is my crack. Chipotle makes me happy.

And the True Blood season premiere is Sunday. True Blood makes me happy.

And the next time I'm looking forward to a True Blood season premiere, my book will be on the shelves.

So tell me what's making you happy lately, what restaurant is your crack, and what summer show you're fired up for.

*and please reassure me that other authors do this and I am not, in fact, insane.

Cool Linkage

2010-05-28T10:10:00.002-04:00

Howdy doo! It's Friday. The weather's very nice. My mood = :)

I wanted to pass along some fantabulous posts I've read this week:

Carrie Ryan, author of the kick-ass zombie book The Forest of Hands and Teeth, wrote up a great post about the publishing process and why it takes so long to get from book to shelf. Read it here.

Saundra Mitchell, author of Shadowed Summer, wrote up a mega-helpful self-marketing timeline post. A must read for published and about-to-be published authors. Check it out.

And for those still scratching their heads over the Lost finale, the two best summaries I've read are:
- over at DocArtz from a supposed employee of the show, and
- at E! Online (specifically good at explaining the light and the island).

Have a great long weekend!

A Day in the Life, the New, and the Sadz

2010-05-13T11:07:00.000-04:00

Over at the Elevensies, every Thursday one of us shares A Day in the Writing Life. It can be about a typical day or one specific, important day. Today is my turn and I chose to focus on the day I got my cover. Click through for the fun and for cheezy dramatization photos.

On the writing front, I came up with an idea for my next project, sent it to my agent and he loves it. So now I’m in the planning stages of that. Getting to know new characters. Research. Some light outlining. Fun, fun!

On the personal front, I’ve got the sadz that Lost is soon coming to an end. Only one more regular episode to go and then the season finale extravaganza of 11,000 hours on 5/23. As a huge fan from day one, it’s bittersweet. I’m excited to see how it all ends and how my favorite characters fare. But I’ll miss it. Not only the one hour a week of the show itself, but the day-after theorizing with friends, counting down until season premieres, the adrenaline rush of season finales, etc. Here’s to you, Lost. *raises glass*

Do the Write Thing for Nashville

2010-05-06T10:45:00.000-04:00

Attention writers and readers! Check out Do the Write Thing for Nashville, an auction of wonderful publishing goodies like critiques, signed books, arcs, and more. Proceeds go to Nashville flood relief.

Check it out here: http://dothewritethingfornashville.blogspot.com/

And check back tomorrow, too, because they are adding new auction items each day!

How the auction works: http://dothewritethingfornashville.blogspot.com/2010/05/how-it-works.html

Thanks,
Kim

Wizarding World of Harry Potter Pics

2010-04-29T10:52:00.003-04:00

Yesterday, I shared some Disney World pics from my trip last week. Today, I'll be sharing some cool photos of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Islands of Adventure. It wasn't open, but I was still able to snap some photos.

When I booked the trip months ago, I was feeling pretty positive that I'd get to experience HP. They'd been advertising a Spring 2010 opening. But apparently, Spring 2010 means June 18th to Universal. Ah well. This just means I have to go back again. Yipee!

Anyhow, on to the pics!

Hogwarts from a distance

Hogwarts close up

Close up of Hogsmeade and the crooked chimneys

This building in Hogsmeade is still being worked on...hence the ladder.

I also caught a glimpse of the greenhouse! It looks like that may serve as the queue for one of the rides.

Dueling Dragons, an existing coaster that will be re-themed, was open, but none of the Harry Potter theming could be seen. It will be renamed Dragon Challenge and most of the HP theming will be in the queue, which is closed off right now. Last week, to ride the coaster, you went up the exit and were not able to see any of the new stuff.

So that's it for my not-so-insider info.

All in all, it looks awesome and I can't wait to go back.

Disney Pics

2010-04-28T09:55:00.004-04:00

I spent last week in Disney World with The Husband and Lil' Guy. Good times were had by all. Rides were ridden. Pools were swum in. Ice cream was eaten. Here are some of my favorite quotes from the week:

The Husband (while riding Journey Into Imagination): "Figment is the Jar Jar Binks of EPCOT."

The Husband (in his frustration at not being able to watch the Bruins playoffs at the hotel): "Disney is like Panem! The Capitol only allows you to watch what they want you to watch and so does Disney!"

Lil' Guy (immediately after riding Everest): "I am NEVER riding that again."
Seconds later: "Well, not again today anyway."
Fifteen minutes later: "Everest rocked. That's my favorite ride!"

Me on The Tower of Terror: "This is awesome!"
Lil' Guy in reply: "This is NOT awesome!" (Of course, a minute later, it was his favorite ride.)

Despite it being a great week of family fun, it was undeniably my worst hair week in history. I had humidity enlarged, scary hair. I looked like the love child of Medusa and Helena Bonham Carter. So, I bought myself a new hat and wore a ponytail most of the time.

Walt, Minnie, me, and my new hat:

At Universal Studios, I went all fangirl when I met one of the world's biggest celebrities. In fact, he's so famous, I can't even show you the whole picture. I'll just show you his arm and give you a hint: he lives in a pineapple under the sea.

I know I don't like to post pictures of my family on the blog, but this picture of my husband and me in Norway at EPCOT is too cute not to post:

Yes, he's much taller than I am.

And, lastly, I'll post a pic of my lil' guy to prove he does exist.

In the mist at Universal.

Tomorrow, check back for pics of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter!

Where I've Been

2010-04-26T16:21:00.000-04:00

Kim, you just finished writing Watched (Clarity Book 2), what are you going to do now?

I’m going to Disney World!

Or, I already did.

Okay, so it’s been a great couple of weeks. Two weeks ago, I finished Watched and sent it off to Awesome Editor. (I laugh as I type “finished” because, really, the hard work will begin after AE reads it and sends me her editorial letter. ;) But that probably won’t happen for a while because I sent the manuscript in ahead of schedule. So now, I have to…um…think of something else to write.) Then, I got to spend an awesome day with Scholastic peeps that was, seriously, one of the highlights of my life. Everyone was so warm, friendly, funny, smart, enthusiastic, and all-around awesome.

Then, I went to Disney World.

Now, those who know me already know this…but for those who don’t....

You know those people who are like, Disney freaks? They go to Disney World again and again and never get sick of it and they’ve read books about the building of the parks and can rattle off more facts than anyone would ever want to know about Disney?

Yeah, I’m one of those freaks.

This was my sixteenth time to Disney World. My lil’ guy is seven and this was his sixth time. (I guess if your mom is going to be obsessed with something, Disney World is probably better than like, scrapbooking.)

Pictures will be posted later this week. Including a few of…(drum roll please)…The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal. No, it wasn’t open yet (*sob, sob*) but I did get to sneak some pictures to share with you.

So check back for those! Now, I have to go through a few hundred emails from last week. :)

The Sequel, Crap, & The Method To My Madness

2010-04-06T10:44:00.001-04:00

In March I finished the first draft of the sequel to Clarity. These things can always change, but as of right now the title is Watched. And that’s all the details you’re gonna get from me. ;)

So now I’m going through my process where I’ll read it, decide part of it is crap, revise, edit, then lather, rinse, repeat until I’m happy enough to send to Awesome Agent and Awesome Editor.

My first drafts aren’t really first drafts, though. Every time I sit down to write, I start out by reading and editing the previous chapter. Sometimes more than once. So my first drafts are pretty clean because they’ve been edited over and over as I went along. But there’s still work needed. Some big picture, some little tune-ups.

This is the first time I’ve written a sequel and I really enjoyed it. I got to return to the characters I love and put them through hell again. There were some challenges to writing a sequel while continually stopping along the way to go through the editing steps for the first book. While the sequel has the same main characters, they have changed—in some ways dramatically—from the first book. And directly as a result of the events in the first book. (Could I be any more cryptic?) So, after I’d turn in a round of edits on Clarity and it was time to return to Watched, I had to switch gears and reacquaint myself with the characters’ mental states. It was intellectually stimulating work to say the least!

I’ve had a few people ask me how I write. The method to my madness, if you will. You won’t find me blogging about the “rules of writing” or “how to write”. For every supposed rule there are exceptions. And I don’t think there’s any right or wrong way to write. Only your way.

What works for me, might be a disaster for you. I need to know where my book is going ahead of time. My outline is fluid and changes often, but I need at least a skeleton of an outline to work with. Other writers find this stifling and can’t work that way.

Some writers are pantsers (write by the seat of their pants) and enjoy writing without knowing the end or what’s going to happen along the way. Some of these writers can power through unbelievable daily word counts, but end up cutting a ton of these words after the fact. It works well for them. But that would be the one-way street to crazy town for me.

Another thing to note is that your method may change from book to book. I wonder if part of my need to plan so much is because I write mysteries. Obviously I need to know the villain and his/her motive so I can plant clues along the way. And I need to know the other suspects and their motivations to throw the reader off track. But if I was writing in a different genre, I might be able to let the chapters come organically rather than planned. Who knows?

All writers have their own way of doing things. You just have to experiment until you find the method that’s most comfortable to you.

Now, I’m going to head back into Watched with my red pen and decide what’s good and what’s crap.

Lisa Desrochers Pay It Forward Interview

2010-04-02T07:33:00.000-04:00

This week, I'm participating in Pay It Forward Interview Week. For more info, check out Monday's post.

Today's interview is with Lisa Desrochers, author of PERSONAL DEMONS (Tor/Macmillan, 2010).

Tell us about your book.

PERSONAL DEMONS (Tor/Macmillan, September 14, 2010)

Frannie Cavanaugh is a good Catholic girl with a wicked streak and a unique skill set that has the king of Hell tingling with anticipation. She finds herself in the middle of a battle for her soul between Lucifer Cain, who works in Acquisitions for Hell, and Gabriel, the angel sent to protect her. And it isn’t long before Luc and Gabe find themselves fighting for more than just her soul.

Can you tell us a little bit about your road to publication?

Short version: I wrote this book last spring, submitted to 21 agents in June, July and August, got four offers and went with my truly fabulous agent, Suzie Townsend at FinePrint Lit, because she’s got endless energy and enthusiasm, never sleeps (we think she’s a vampire) and has an amazing editorial eye. She worked with me on revisions for a month, then we submitted to editors. Personal Demons sold at auction in a three-book deal 12/21/09. Macmillan is rushing to print for a September release, so things have been hectic (in a really amazing, blow my socks off kind of way).

Moral of the story: you don’t need a bunch of writing credits and credentials to get your book looked at. Biggest pearls of wisdom I can share: 1) Research agents before you query. It’s more than just going to their agency profile. Find out what they already rep and/or have sold. Be sure they’re a good fit for you. 2) Write the best book you can, and have fun doing it.

Was there ever a time you felt like giving up? Why didn't you?

Truly, this all happened pretty fast. I just started writing this book 13 months ago, so I’m really lucky. I know this isn’t how it works for everyone, and I can understand how easy it would be to get discouraged. The single most important thing is to find a writing group/partner that you trust and who will be brutally honest with you in a positive way. When I’ve doubted myself, my awesome crit partner (Andrea Cremer, Nightshade, Oct. 2010) has always encouraged me and told me what I need to hear to get back on track.

For more info on Lisa and PERSONAL DEMONS, check out her blog!

Then check out the other Pay It Forward Interviews on the following blogs: Elana Johnson, Lisa and Laura Roecker, Beth Revis, Leah Clifford, Victoria Schwab, Kirsten Hubbard, Susan Adrian, Dawn Metcalf, Carrie Harris, Amy Holder, Kathy McCullough, Gretchen McNeil, Tiffany Schmidt, and Suzette Saxton/Bethany Wiggins.

Randy Russell Pay It Forward Interview

2010-04-01T07:44:00.002-04:00

This week, I'm participating in Pay It Forward Interview Week. For more info, check out Monday's post.

Today, I'm interviewed over at the blog of Carrie Harris.

And my interview here is with Randy Russell, author of DEAD SCHOOL (HarperTeen, 2011).

Tell us about your book.

DEAD SCHOOL, HarperTeen, Summer 2011. Sometimes being in love means you’ve got to kill somebody.

In my book, dead people are not zombies. They’re as real as toast. A girl in high school finds reason, in love, to kill her boyfriend. She needs help to do this. She hooks up with a couple odd-ball sorts to get it done. That’s pretty much the story. Except it doesn’t turn out the way she hopes it will.

Can you tell us a little bit about your road to publication?

I write ghosts. I stopped writing book-length fiction years ago. As a trained folklorist, I began researching true ghost encounters exclusively, although I can still tell you how to read your fortune by the number of seeds in an apple. I’ve collected hundreds of ghost experiences from the people who’ve had them. Many of these encounters are personal, involve close family members, and only a few have ended up in my books of ghost stories from the South.

I conduct a week-long annual “Ghost Seminar” for the state of North Carolina and appear regularly at The Great Smoky Mountains National Park visitor centers through the summer, sharing true ghost stories from the surrounding area where I live (Asheville). I’ve written two books of short stories involving ghost dogs and ghost cats. So with me, you get ghosts.

My road to having DEAD SCHOOL published begins with those two books of ghost stories. By writing more than 40 short stories I was able to develop a comfort with the craft of story structure. This is critical in writing a successful novel. But I didn’t know that until I learned it.

Except for those 12 years or so when I wasn’t writing a novel, my road to publication was sort of easy. I still feel like there is an element of magic involved with this book.

The day after I completed the novel, I began emailing agents. I picked the best there was as best I could tell. Approaching publishing on-line was new to me. I had no idea agents might respond quickly. This was a Saturday.

I was out of town and away from my computer on Sunday. On Monday, I had two requests for fulls, a couple passes, and a couple requests for partials. I sent off the two fulls on Tuesday. One went by email, and one as a paper copy to an agent’s home address (which I would later and with some anguish have to withdraw from consideration before it was received).

The agent who received the e-manuscript read it that night after work, she said when she called me Wednesday morning to offer representation. Magic. I cried. My wife cried. The agent is with one of the truly exciting agencies working today. Magic. The manuscript went out to editors without revision of any sort. Magic. It sold within a few weeks. Magic. Magic. Magic.

Was there ever a time you felt like giving up? Why didn't you?

Oh, I did give up. I started writing book-length fiction right out of school. It didn’t work out. So I wrote other things over a 12-year period, telling myself that I would eventually come back to noveling. When I was able to do it right. It was a long time before I was ready again.

For more info on Randy and DEAD SCHOOL, check out his blog!

Then check out the other Pay It Forward Interviews on the following blogs: Elana Johnson, Lisa and Laura Roecker, Beth Revis, Leah Clifford, Victoria Schwab, Kirsten Hubbard, Susan Adrian, Dawn Metcalf, Carrie Harris, Amy Holder, Kathy McCullough, Gretchen McNeil, Tiffany Schmidt, and Suzette Saxton/Bethany Wiggins.

Julia Karr Pay It Forward Interview

2010-03-31T08:00:00.000-04:00

This week, I'm participating in Pay It Forward Interview Week. For more info, check out Monday's post.

Today's interview is with Julia Karr, author of XVI (Puffin/Speak 2011).

Tell us about your book.

My debut novel is titled, XVI. It will come out in Spring, 2011 from Puffin/Speak. Spring for Puffin means Jan-April. The exact date is forthcoming.

In the future, turning sixteen is anything but sweet. As Nina’s sixteenth approaches, she is faced with her mother’s death, her father’s life and keeping her little sister safe. All the while, she’s struggling with society’s sex-teen label, the threat of becoming a FELS and maybe worst of all, falling in love.

Can you tell us a little bit about your road to publication?

My journey to publication shares a lot with other writers. Querying too soon, finding a critique group (so the next queries weren’t too soon), rejections (yes - lots), ridiculous mistakes (like spelling an agent’s name wrong - twice!), and eventually finding my agent-fit. (w00t!) My fabulous agent (Kate Schafer Testerman) got my manuscript into the hands of some awesome editors. Before it eventually went to auction, I got good feedback and also validation that I have the best of agents, because she never saw rejection as bad, rather as a step closer to finding the right editor.

I was thrilled (and flabbergasted) when my book went to auction. It was like getting asked to the prom by two really super hot guys! Decisions, decisions! In the end, I went with the editor who had previously seen XVI and given me some great suggestions that made it a better manuscript. Now, she (Jen Bonnell at Puffin) is working with me to make it a great book!

Was there ever a time you felt like giving up? Why didn't you?

“A” time? More like “how many times” did I feel like giving up. And, the answer would be – many! There was one particular heart-breaking rejection that made me slink back into my writer’s cave and wonder if it was all worth it. Empathy and encouragement from my critique partners, my agent and my awesome sister got me out of that funk. And, there was a moment, while XVI was out on submission, that I had a major attack of self-doubt. That one required some intensive soul-searching. In the end, I realized that no matter what, I was going to keep writing. Even if the only eyes to ever see my work were mine.

Honestly, I’m a writer. That’s why I didn’t give up. That’s why I will never give up. It’s not just “in the blood,” if you prick me, I bleed ink.

For more on Julia and XVI, check out her website and blog!

Then check out the other Pay It Forward Interviews on the following blogs: Elana Johnson, Lisa and Laura Roecker, Beth Revis, Leah Clifford, Victoria Schwab, Kirsten Hubbard, Susan Adrian, Dawn Metcalf, Carrie Harris, Amy Holder, Kathy McCullough, Gretchen McNeil, Tiffany Schmidt, and Suzette Saxton/Bethany Wiggins.

Alissa Grosso Pay It Forward Interview

2010-03-30T09:35:00.000-04:00

This week, I'm participating in Pay It Forward Interview Week. For more info, see yesterday's post.

Today's interview is with Alissa Grosso, author of The Subrosa Semesters (Flux, 2011).

Tell us about your book.

The title for my novel has not been firmly carved in stone, but as of this writing it is looking like it is mostly likely going to be The Subrosa Semesters. It is going to be published in spring of 2011 by Flux. It tells the story of the downfall of an all-powerful high school clique, precipitated by the dark secret at the core of its members' popularity.

Can you tell us a little bit about your road to publication?

I took a somewhat unconventional road to publication. What can I say? I've always liked marching to the beat of my own drummer. I had written and published some short fiction, most of it science fiction, but hadn't attempted to publish anything novel-length. The manuscript for The Subrosa Semesters (at that time it was The Balderdash Semesters) was something I had worked on off and on since college. I had it in my head, though, that it would be next to impossible to break into the YA market so figured what I needed to do was write a book for grown-ups. I was slogging through that grown-up book, even though I didn't really like where it was going. I stumbled across Flux's website and noticed that they accepted unsolicited manuscripts directly from authors (many publishing houses do not) and I thought of The Balderdash Semesters and figured what the heck.

For about six months, I heard nothing, and had pretty much given up hope when I got an email from my Flux editor. He loved the story, though as he pointed out the ending had the feel of something one might find in a short story, but was not at all satisfying for a novel. So, I wrote a Part 2 that managed to bring things to a satisfying conclusion and earned me a publishing contract.

Was there ever a time you felt like giving up? Why didn't you?

I think every writer experiences periods of self doubt. I graduated college with a more or less useless degree in English and had this idea I might somehow magically have some sort of career as a writer. I had written an awful science fiction novel for my senior honors project, and thought (I was completely blind to its many shortcomings at the time) I might be able to get it published. That never happened. It was a dose of reality, and perhaps if I didn't have a head bursting with story ideas, I might have given up on writing.

To learn more about Alissa, check out her website!

Then check out the other Pay It Forward Interviews on the following blogs: Elana Johnson, Lisa and Laura Roecker, Beth Revis, Leah Clifford, Victoria Schwab, Kirsten Hubbard, Susan Adrian, Dawn Metcalf, Carrie Harris, Amy Holder, Kathy McCullough, Gretchen McNeil, Tiffany Schmidt, and Suzette Saxton/Bethany Wiggins.

Sonia Gensler Pay It Forward Interview

2010-03-29T08:52:00.003-04:00

This week, I'm participating in Pay It Forward Interview Week. Every day I'll post a new interview with a fellow pre-pub/debut author. Along the way, you'll learn that there are various paths to publication, and hopefully aspiring authors out there will be encouraged and inspired! Fifteen author blogs are involved in this project, which will add up to seventy-five interviews by the end of the week! I'll be interviewed by zombie/Richard Simmons lover Carrie Harris on Thursday. (Links to the other participating blogs are at the bottom of this post.)

Now, let's get on with the interview. Presenting Sonia Gensler, author of THE REVENANT (June 2011, Knopf).

Tell us about your book.

THE REVENANT is a ghostly tale of false identities, illicit romance, and deadly secrets, set in a Cherokee girls’ school in the old west. It debuts from Alfred A. Knopf in June 2011.

Can you tell us a little bit about your road to publication?

It all started several years ago when I pitched an unfinished manuscript to three agents at a conference. They each requested it. Though it was a stupid thing to do, it did kick me into high gear to finish the thing. The manuscript needed a lot more work, however, and they each rejected it. I reworked that story many times and queried everyone in the world. It never got much play – a few personalized rejections, but nothing close to real interest. So I finally put that in a drawer and started a new novel for NaNoWriMo ‘07. After completing my 50k words, I took another couple of months to add 30k more. This time I paid for a professional critique in addition to asking my critique partners to give feedback. I queried 12 agents, had interest from three, and ended up signing with Jennifer Laughran of Andrea Brown Literary. We were so excited! Sadly, that novel didn’t sell. So I went back to the drawing board and wrote another novel for NaNoWriMo. I started it in November of 2008 and, after investing in yet another professional critique in addition to getting feedback from my agent and critique buddies, I had it ready for submission by April 2009. It sold to Knopf in May 2009.

Was there ever a time you felt like giving up? Why didn't you?

After nearly ten years of teaching – four of which I was struggling to finish a novel – I decided to give full-time writing a chance, with my husband’s blessing. Not everyone has the opportunity to do this, and I told myself that if I hadn’t sold anything in two years, I would go back to my “real” job. (Others manage to teach and write, but it was nearly impossible for me to write with any regularity when I was teaching high school English.) Of course, I would get very discouraged when it seemed like everyone was getting an agent and/or book deal but me. (I confess to having a few minor breakdowns from reading “Good News!” on Verla Kay’s Blue Boards. During the darkest times of rejection I had to force myself to stay away.)

I was delighted to sign with an agent, but then despaired when my book didn’t sell. The hardest thing was when friends and family would ask “when will I see your book on the shelf?” and I had to choke back those “Maybe NEVER – leave me alone!” replies. Finally, in the spring of my second year off from teaching, when I was thinking it was about time to check the school district job listings, we got the deal for THE REVENANT. In all that time, I never had the urge to give up completely. I just knew I had to keep trying, keep learning, and somehow get BETTER, and that it would be a heck of a lot harder to continue writing if I went back to the classroom. (You could say I relied more on the stick than the carrot, if that makes any sense.)

To learn more about Sonia and THE REVENANT, check out her website and blog!

Then check out the other Pay It Forward Interviews on the following blogs: Elana Johnson, Lisa and Laura Roecker, Beth Revis, Leah Clifford, Victoria Schwab, Kirsten Hubbard, Susan Adrian, Dawn Metcalf, Carrie Harris, Amy Holder, Kathy McCullough, Gretchen McNeil, Tiffany Schmidt, and Suzette Saxton/Bethany Wiggins.

Week of cool (and not so cool) stuff

2010-03-25T14:59:00.001-04:00

NY trip – done
First pass pages – done
The damage to house from Rainageddon – apparently did not fix itself while I was gone

So, I’ve been gone since Monday on a trip to NYC for the day job. My main takeaway from that was that day job trips to NYC are way less fun than dream job trips to NYC.

The good news is that my first pass pages arrived right before I had to leave! (First pass pages are the book in typeset form, with pretty chapter headings and real page numbers and everything looking very REAL.) And since Acela Wi-Fi is apparently powered by a drunken hamster in a wheel, I had no temptations to check email and focused on my last chance to change anything in Clarity. *gulp* I thought I’d be terrified to let it go, like the day I put Lil’ Guy on the bus for kindergarten and Awesome Husband suggested I needed a horse tranquilizer. But, surprisingly, I was cool with it. It’s done. It is in wonderful hands over at Scholastic. They will treat my baby well.

Meanwhile, I also found out that ignoring water damage and/or praying that magical house fairies come and fix it while you’re in NYC does not work. So, I’ll be getting estimates tomorrow on repairing the wrath of the Rainpocalypse.

I’ve heard this week’s LOST was especially good, but…sit down now…I didn’t watch it. I know, I know! I claim to be one of LOST’s biggest fans. How could I not watch it? Here’s why.

The hotel had no HD.

I’m not a diva about most shows. I’ll watch Gossip Girl on a snowy 19 inch. Fine. But I won’t watch LOST on anything less than a 42” HDTV. For all you fancypants wine drinkers out there, it’s probably the equivalent of giving your finest bottle to a college student to drink through a funnel and then puke up. It’s just not happening.

And since I have the Best Husband Ever, he agreed to not watch LOST Tuesday night either and we’re watching it together tonight. (Though I had a nightmare last night that Lil’ Guy accidentally deleted it from the DVR instead of one of his SpongeBobs. Don’t worry, I checked this morning. It’s still there.)

So, no LOST spoilers in the comments! Pats on the back for being finished (like really finally finished) with Clarity are okay. As is commiseration on the perils of homeownership.

Jacket Copy -- Huzzah!

2010-03-16T10:08:00.001-04:00

Yeah! I got the okay to share my official jacket copy for Clarity. Woot!

On the back will be the following teaser excerpt from the book:

In Eastport, a tourist town on Cape Cod, lives a family of freaks. My family. I'm a psychic. My brother's a medium. My mother's a telepath. Tourists love us. Townies scorn us. We live in a grand Victorian house with no permanent ghosts, and we use the first floor for our family business: readings. Not the bookstore kind.

The back flap will have my bio and author pic (still going to share that funny story someday).

The front flap will have (more or less) this:

Clarity "Clare" Fern sees things. Things no one else can see. Things like stolen kisses and long-buried secrets. All she has to do is touch an object and the visions come to her. It's a gift.

And a curse.

When a teenage girl is found murdered, Clare's ex-boyfriend wants her to help solve the case — but Clare is still furious at the cheating jerk. Then Clare's brother — who has supernatural gifts of his own — becomes the prime suspect, and Clare can no longer look away. Teaming up with Gabriel, the smoldering son of the new detective, Clare must venture into the depths of fear, revenge, and lust in order to track the killer. But will her sight fail her just when she needs it most?

Swoon. I’m so happy!

I also…wait for it…got my cover yesterday.

*thud*

*picks self up from floor*

However, I cannot share that yet. Not for a long while.

But I promise you, it will be worth the wait. It’s so different from what I was expecting, so different from what’s out there right now. It will definitely stand out!

In the meantime, why not add Clarity to your to-read shelf at Goodreads? Every time someone does that, an angel gets her wings. Okay, not really, but a chick named Kim smiles.

Winner - A Most Improper Magick Giveaway

2010-03-15T09:08:00.000-04:00

Thanks to everyone for entering, passing the word, and being enthusiastic about the giveaway for an ARC of Stephanie Burgis's A Most Improper Magick.

I counted up all the entries and thanks to the power of Random.org, we have a winner.

Kate at Read This Book!

Congrats, Kate!

Giveaway – A Most Improper Magick

2010-03-01T09:49:00.007-05:00

Update: This giveaway is now closed. Thanks!

Over at the Elevensies, we’ve been busy posting Tennerviews—interviews with 2010 Debut YA/MG authors. I was fortunate enough to be matched up with Stephanie Burgis, who is awesome, and I’m sure you’ll all enjoy the interview when I post it in June. But in the meantime, Stephanie generously sent an ARC for me to read and enjoy (which I did!), and so that I could now pass it on to a lucky one of you!

Open to anyone 13 and up. Any country. Just post in the comments. Make sure there is a way for me to reach you. If you don’t have an email address listed on your blogger/lj/etc account, then please include it in your comment below.

Get additional entries for:

+1 tweeting this: RT @Kim_Harrington Giving away an ARC of A Most Improper Magick http://bit.ly/9iTG7W Please RT!

+1 posting a link to this post on your Facebook or MySpace

+1 linking to this post on your blog

+1 being or becoming a follower of my blog

Let me know in your comment what you did. Thanks and good luck!

The last day to post a comment is Sunday, 3/14/10. I'll announce the winner on Monday, 3/15/10.

A Most Improper Magick releases on June 15, 2010. For more info on the book, check it out here on Stephanie’s site!

So last week was...

2010-02-21T09:50:00.001-05:00

So last week was… interesting.

It was the house of horrors, here. My son was coughing up a lung. My husband was doing his best Linda Blair impersonation. And, in the midst of all the grossness, my copyedits came! I did my best to ignore the coughing and wretching, tossing Powerade and toast where needed, and focused on the work.

I turned the manuscript back in to my editor Friday and did a little jig (no, there’s no video of this). And I wrote my dedication and acknowledgements, during which it got a little dusty in here.

Once again, I’m reminded that This. Is. Really. Happening.

I got an official release month: February 2011. I don’t have a date in February, yet, but I’ll share when I know.

Some friends have asked me why it takes so long for a book to come out and I’ve tried to explain a bit myself, but The Intern does it so much better in her post, "Why Does Publishing a Book Take So @$&% Long?" Check it out!

I also hope to be able to share the official jacket copy with you soon. It’s so good. My editor is a genius. It’s so much better than the synopsis I wrote.

I’m excited!

The Hardest Paragraph to Write

2010-02-09T09:56:00.001-05:00

Last week I had to pull together my official bio for the Clarity book jacket and spent most of the time wondering why writing a one paragraph bio about myself is harder than writing a 300 page book about fake people.

Maybe because I’m not quite comfortable talking about myself.

Or maybe because I’m just not all that exciting. Especially compared to the fake people I create.

So, I strolled over to my bulging bookcase and pulled a bunch of books down and read the author bios. Many seem to fall into certain types, so I figured I’d try each one.

The “Interesting Places I’ve lived” type:

You know… I was born in New York, went to college in London, married in Paris, and now live in Los Angeles.

Okay, I can do that… let’s see…

Kim Harrington was born in a town in Massachusetts, raised in another town in Massachusetts, went to college and graduate school in a city in Massachusetts, and now lives in yet another town in Massachusetts.

Okay. Can’t do that. Next?

The “Interesting Jobs I’ve had” type:

You know… I’ve been a waitress, actress, tarot card reader, minister, pet psychic, horse trainer and now I write full-time.

Okay, I can do that… let’s see…

Kim Harrington worked in marketing… and she still does that same thing now, except she writes, too.

Okay. Can’t do that. Next?

The “Quirky Family” type:

You know… I was the last of ten children and now I live with my husband, our four kids, a bipolar dog, two lovelorn cats, and a cannibalistic parrot.

Okay, I can do that… let’s see…

Kim Harrington is an only child, married an only child, and has one child. No pets.

Okay. Can’t do that either.

I’ve come to the conclusion that I am boring. ;)

But I was able to scrape up enough for a bio. Now I’m going to go write a chapter of ten pages or so, which will be much easier to craft than that one paragraph was.

Thoughts on Lost

2010-02-03T14:01:00.001-05:00

The final season opener of LOST premiered last night. I’m going to go all LOST-geek here. Warning: spoilerly seas ahead! Do not read if you have not watched it yet!

Now that that’s out of the way, here are some random thoughts…

I loved the flash-sideways and I’m so glad they decided to go there. But, then again, I've always had a sci-fi geeky interest in parallel universes. I even had a book idea knocking around in my head featuring alternate realities. But with both Fringe and Lost doing that now, it would seem derivative. Thanks, JJ Abrams! :P

I think this year will be a lot like the first season in a way. In the season one flashbacks, we saw how all the characters were connected before they knew each other and how their lives weaved in and out of each other’s. My guess is that the flash-sideways will be similar, showing how they would have connected crash or no crash, but in a slightly different way.

My theory is that by the end of the season the characters will somehow gain consciousness of their other reality and be in the position of having to choose one or the other. It seemed like, especially during the 8:00-9:00 recap, they were beating "free will" and "you always have a choice" over our heads. So that has to come into play.

I’m glad the man in black has been on the island the whole time, rather than a central character they pulled out of thin air in the season five finale. The MIB was every dead person we saw wandering around, from season one on. He was Christian Shepard, Eko's brother, dead Alex, etc. Playing with people’s heads. Manipulating them. He is also the smoke monster. Finally, an answer for that. One of the best lines from last night was when MIB morphed from smokey back to Locke and said, "Sorry you had to see me that way." Awesome.

It was sad to see Juliet die like forty-five times last night. The original death played over and over and then her new death on top of it. But this brings up another theory of mine that popped into my head when I was trying to fall asleep last night.

When Juliet started talking gibberish, saying, "We should get coffee sometime. We'll go Dutch," I'm going to go out on a limb and say that wasn't gibberish at all. Her consciousness was actually in the other reality at the time, perhaps saying those words to alternate reality Sawyer. Then she snapped back to island reality, said she had something very important to tell him, then died. But Miles was able to get the message from her ghost. “It worked.” She knows the detonation worked because, as she was dying, she had a flash of the other reality.

Overall, I loved the episode and I’m optimistic about the rest. We're going to get mythological answers throughout the season. A return to season one storytelling. And hopefully an emotional, character-driven ending tying it all together.

The finale is set for Sunday, May 23, 2010. Mark your calendars, fellow Lost fans. I already have.

What were your thoughts? Share your theories!