Pre-Pub Jitters

This is a really, really odd time in my life right now. It's like AAAAAAAGH, EVERYTHING IS HAPPENING!!!! but also kind of like carry on, business as usual.

Tomorrow I will return to school after almost three months of maternity leave. I'm really looking forward to getting back to "real life" and interacting with the kids and my coworkers. Of course, I'll miss seeing my children all day, but I think my return to the workplace will be much, much easier than it was two years ago with my daughter. So this is good. Normal life.

But, at the same time, not.

SLIDE, my first novel, will be in U.S. bookstores in 29 days. 3 days until it'll be available in the U.K., but I'm already hearing that some people who pre-ordered have received their copies! And I guess it's already out in Hungary.

Guys, I'm kind of freaking out.

It's like I've had this dream for so long, one that I was almost sure would never come true. And now it is. It's like it's too much emotion for me to process. I have NO IDEA what it will feel like to walk into a bookstore and see a book on the shelf with my name on it.


Anyway, as March 27th draws closer, I keep getting more and more nervous. I mean, it's kind of silly, considering I'll be in the classroom, teaching all day. There's nothing to be anxious about. And most authors I've talked to have said Pub Day is actually kind of anticlimactic. But here I am, freaking out about it.

Deep breaths.

29 days.

Until then:

keep calm | Tumblr (clipped to polyvore.com)

Pre-Orders (and Burritos) Make Me Happy!

Thanks, everyone, who pre-ordered SLIDE! (If you haven't yet, it's only about $10 on Amazon and Barnes and Noble! Just sayin'!)

A lot of people (friends and family, mostly) have asked me what the best way to support SLIDE is. If you're interested in this, read on; if not, go watch some Vampire Diaries or something.

Still with me? Yay! You rock! Okay, I would say the absolute best thing to do is come to my launch party on March 31 (Des Moines Barnes & Noble on University Ave. at 2 p.m.) and purchase a copy of SLIDE, which I can then sign and personalize for you. And there will be TREATS (maybe burritos!) and a raffle for an iPod Nano!

The second best way to support SLIDE is to go to your local bookstore and purchase a copy of SLIDE the first week it comes out (MARCH 27). (Yeah, it's totally the weekend after THE HUNGER GAMES movie comes out, and I know how tempting it will be to spend ALL THE MONEY on seeing it AS MANY TIMES AS POSSIBLE), but try to save a little so you can buy SLIDE :). The first week numbers are important to show Harper that you're excited about SLIDE. Then they'll think WOW! We should sign Jill up for a 53 book deal and pay her with a LIFETIME SUPPLY OF BURRITOS! (And I will die of happiness.)

Now you might be wondering, if the best way to support SLIDE is to purchase it the first week it's out, what's the point of pre-orders? Well, the number of people who pre-order SLIDE also shows Harper that people are excited about the book. Harper is already giving SLIDE an incredible amount of support by sending out ARCs, sending me on the Dark Days tour with Kimberly Derting and Dan Wells (shout out!), and implementing a ton of marketing tools (like the incredible SLIDE trailer that you can see here). But pre-order numbers reassure Harper that you CAN'T WAIT to read SLIDE and then they'll think WOW! We should sign Jill up for a 53 book deal and pay her with a LIFETIME SUPPLY OF BURRITOS! (And I will die of happiness.)

If you want to go ALL OUT, you COULD pre-order a copy and send it to a friend, teenage niece, local library, or neighbor's dog that's really into murder mysteries! And then come out the week of March 27th and get your very own, shiny, signed copy of SLIDE! And I will smother you in kisses. And take you out for burritos.

So you see. All of these options end in HAPPINESS and BURRITOS! To further entice you, I will send you 5 signed SLIDE bookmarks if you pre-order a copy of SLIDE. Just email me at jillehathaway at gmail with your mailing information. I'd send you a burrito, but I tried that one time, and it didn't turn out so well.

And now to announce the winner of the AWESOME BOOKS GIVEAWAY! Congrats, Lexie Botzum! Because you pre-ordered SLIDE, you have copies of UNEARTHLY, DEADLY LITTLE SECRET, and FIRELIGHT heading your way! Enjoy!

Win a signed copy of SLIDE (UK edition)!

So guess what came in the mail today?! (Hint: not the baby!)

*is impatient*

*taps foot*

*can stand it no longer*

That's right!!!!! 20 copies of official UK SLIDE! It's even more beautiful than I imagined, with silver foil highlighting the title and my blurb by Cynthia Hand at the top and hot pink blood splattered all over the place!

Here's what it says on the back:

Vee Bell hates having narcolepsy. But collapsing at school is nowhere near as bad as the truth--when Vee passes out she slides into other people's heads and ends up seeing through their eyes. Then Vee finds herself in the head of a killer, standing over the body of a cheerleader. Now another cheerleader is dead, and everyone is a suspect. Struggling to understand her terrifying and unwanted 'gift', Vee is tangled in a web of

SECRETS,
LIES AND
DANGER . . .

Mwahahahahaha!!! Love it!

So instead of sitting around and smelling the pages (okay, that's a lie--nothing's going to stop me from inhaling their bookishly bookish bookishness), I thought I'd give away THREE SIGNED COPIES!

I'm going to use Rafflecopter again for this contest. Before you ask, yes, it's international! The contest will run through March 1st, when SLIDE goes on sale in the UK! I'll post the winners here on this blog, so don't forget to check back. If the winners don't email me by March 2, I'll pick new winners. Good luck, everyone!

Without further ado...

Tell the Truth Tuesday

1. I really get into Yo Gabba Gabba. Some catchy tunes, yo.

2. Taking kiddos to get shots never gets any easier.

3. I secretly love addressing envelopes. More people should request signed bookmarks so I can do this some more. No, I'm not even joking. It's super relaxing. (If you want a signed bookmark, you can email me at jillehathaway at gmail with your name and address and what you want me to write.)

4. I'm falling behind on interviews again. Sorry! Will work on them this evening. Also still need to write my Dear Teen Me post. Slacker!

5. I need a hair cut and color reeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaally badly, but it always takes like 3 hours and costs a fortune, so I keep putting it off. Sigh. I should schedule it for next week. Blah.

What I've Been Up To

A few things I've been up to:

1. Cleaning up baby puke at Applebee's
2. Catching up on Vampire Diaries (thank goodness for Amazon Instant Video)
3. Alternately looking forward to and denying that I have to return to school in two weeks
4. Wishing I had more tutus (you know, just for everydaywear)
5. Pretending to be a dragon--FIRELIGHT has inspired me!

You?

VAMPIRE DIARIES is KILLING ME

I had fallen off the Vampire Diaries wagon a few months ago, and then I see that magazine with Elena and Damon together and WHAM! They pulled me back in. What is going on? Elena and DAMON?? So many questions in my mind. Do NOT post any spoilers in the comments. I will totally watch and find out.

Anyway, haha, I'm working on my latest SLIDE 2 (IMPOSTOR) revision and I saw this picture on Facebook. And I was all like, "I wanna watch NOWWWWW." Seconds later, my editor emailed me to ask how the revision was coming. Like I tweeted, she is psychic. 

So I'll wait until I turn this revision in, but then it's ON, people! 

Oh, and if you haven't pre-ordered SLIDE yet, you totally should. Nudge, nudge. If you do, email me at jillehathaway at gmail with your name and address and I will send you five signed SLIDE bookmarks. They're purdy. Trust me. And you'll have a chance to win UNEARTHLY by Cynthia Hand, DEADLY LITTLE SECRET by Laurie Faria Stolarz, and FIRELIGHT by Sophie Jordan. Right now you'd have a one in three chance of winning. Pretty good odds. 

Okay, Donna! I'm going back to the revision! Promise!

*slinks back to Word document*

Soon, Damon. Soon.

Pre-order SLIDE and a chance to win AWESOME BOOKS!

So I've felt like the most blessed writer ever to have three amazing authors blurb my book. Really, it's beyond my wildest dreams. What's more is that I absolutely love their books, and I want to share them with you. If you pre-order a copy of SLIDE, you could win these books:

UNEARTHLY by Cynthia Hand... I've raved about Cynthia's writing all over this blog, but I can't praise her books enough. If you haven't read UNEARTHLY, you owe it to yourself to pick this up. Or enter this contest and win it, along with...

DEADLY LITTLE SECRET by Laurie Faria Stolarz. Laurie does thrillers like no one else. Such a pageturner! 

FIRELIGHT by Sophie Jordan. Such a swoony romance with a great mythology and a strong female protagonist!

Okay, so if you pre-order a copy of SLIDE, you will be entered in the drawing to win these three books. It's only $10.98 right now on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. So you could get four tasty books for a little more than $10. Also, I will send FIVE signed bookmarks to EVERYONE who pre-orders SLIDE. I won't require you to send me a confirmation number or anything. I just ask that you be honest.

Here's how it works:

1. Use one of the links above to Amazon or B&N to pre-order SLIDE. Or if you prefer another bookseller, go with them.

2. Send an email to jillehathaway at gmail with the subject line "AWESOME BOOKS GIVEAWAY". Tell me where you ordered SLIDE from and include your name, address, and anything special you want your bookmarks to say.

3. The contest will end on Friday, February 24th at midnight. I'll get the grand prize mailed out right away, but allow me some time to get the bookmarks sent out.

Obviously, this contest is for people who were already kind of thinking about ordering SLIDE but putting it off for whatever reason. Can you believe it's coming out next month? I can't. I've loved interacting with all of you on the blog and on Twitter and can't wait to hear what you think of Vee and her adventures! Thank you so much for supporting SLIDE.

Have you read ASHFALL by Mike Mullin?

On the cover of ASHFALL by Mike Mullin, there's a quote by Michael Grant (author of the GONE series): "The scariest Apocalypse is one that could really happen."

Now... let me preface this by saying I never paid attention during geology, but if the teachers incorporated books like THESE, I would ace every test. But that's a whole 'nother post.

The premise behind ASHFALL is that the supervolcano in Yellowstone erupts, covering half the United States with ash. The sky is black for days. Most animals and vegetation are killed off. The electricity goes out. There's no way to travel. Roofs cave in from the weight of the ash and snow that piles up. Through all of this, Alex must travel to find his family that was visiting relatives 100+ miles away. 

This book seriously freaked me out. Mostly because I realized how useless I would be if something like this ever happened. Um, most of my meals are of the microwave-able variety. I wouldn't know how to dig through several feet of ash and snow to find corn to grind up for food. I wouldn't know to carry a pan to melt snow so I'd have fresh drinking water. I certainly wouldn't know how to rig up a bicycle to recharge batteries so I could work my ancient radio and hear what's going on in the rest of the world.

Did I mention the cannibals?

ASHFALL is terrifying in its realism. I devoured the 400 page book in a single day. And I want more. MORE, I SAY!!! The sequel, ASHEN WINTER, will be out in October from Tanglewood Press. I can't wait. 

Upcoming Events

So it's looking like March and April are going to be nuts for me, but in an excellent way. Here's a list of events I'll be attending. I hope you can stop by!!!

March 31 2:00 p.m.

Book launch at Barnes & Noble, 4550 University Avenue, West Des Moines, IA

April 14 11:00 a.m. 

Teen Day at the Romantic Times Convention, Hyatt Regency O'Hare Hotel, Rosemont, IL 

Dark Days Tour (with Kimberly Derting and Dan Wells)

April 18 7:00 p.m.     Books & Co, Dayton, OH

April 19 7:00 p.m.     Anderson's Bookshop, Naperville, IL

April 20 7:00 p.m.     Barnes & Noble, Burlington, MA

Am I going to be anywhere near you?

SLIDE trailer

I'm so excited! The SLIDE trailer is up!

Congrats, Ashley Holt!

You won the first season of Veronica Mars and a signed SLIDE arc!