Please take a moment, and CHECK OUT THE AWESOME!

Remember that vlog I mentioned last time???

Warning: contains geekiness and strange voices (all mine).

Wow, just realized that this is going up on Valentine's Day.

Well, that fits actually, because I'm in love with my galleys. :-)

(No, I could not resist being cheesy. Physically incapable.)

Larkstorm, by Dawn Rae Miller

Okay, I finished Larkstorm this week, and I can't stop thinking about it.

Seriously, y'all - it's Matched meets Hex Hall. In other words, dystopia AND witches. What's not to love?

GO READ IT.

I can't actually review it, though - considering that I know the author. See more about my review policy here.

Book Description:

In the years following the destructive Long Winter, when half the world’s population perished, the State remains locked in battle against the Sensitives: humans born with extra abilities.

As one of the last descendants of the State’s Founders, seventeen-year-old Lark Greene knows her place: study hard and be a model citizen so she can follow in her family’s footsteps. Her life’s been set since birth, and she’s looking forward to graduating and settling down with Beck, the boy she’s loved longer than she can remember.

However, after Beck is accused of being Sensitive and organizing an attack against Lark, he disappears. Heartbroken and convinced the State made a mistake, Lark sets out to find him and clear his name.

But what she discovers is more dangerous and frightening than Sensitives:

She must kill the boy she loves, unless he kills her first.

Actually, this was the first book I read on my brand new Kindle, and I'm so glad it was one I loooooved.

In other news, for those of you who may worry, I spent a long weekend in San Francisco, hanging out with friends and doing some research for another project. Now, I'm currently in Sacramento, working on Ever Afters 2 (I need to send it to Courtney by Feb 2).

I'll take a huge plate of Life, with a side of Enjoyment and lots of Awesome, please.

Have you noticed that I've been kind of...quiet lately? Online, I mean.

Well, two major items have filled my waking hours this month:

1. I moved. I'm in California's Bay area now, like the place I've been talking about relocating to since I started this blog. My mom and I actually drove out here from North Carolina. It was pretty epic. (I'll blog about it later, mainly because it will give me an excuse to post some awesome pictures.)
   
   
2. I've owed Joanna a new draft of Ever After 2 since Christmas. I did part of my revision when I was in Montana for Christmas, part of it on the road, and part of it when I arrived here in Berkeley.
   

This is Red Rocks Park in Arizona, pic taken in car.
Ten points if you can spot the ghost of the ms literally looming over this scene!
(It was on the dashboard.)

Yesterday, I finally finished and sent it back in.

My immediate thoughts were: Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!! I have free time again! I can sleep in! Read books! Explore the area!! Do research for my next project!!!

Less than an hour later, when the euphoria ebbed slightly, a few other facts sank in:

1. I just moved. To someplace far, far away from everything familiar in my life.
2. I only have one job. (But it's an awesome job. So awesome that I was tempted to write I don't have a job - it seems too cool to be work.)
3. I don't have a plan.
4. I don't have a long term apartment.
5. I don't even have a place to stay past next Tuesday.

Some people might call this "reality," but I tend not to like those people.

Anyway, I had a brief freak out. That's natural when you realize you've made a change you can't back out of. You second guess yourself no matter how long you've been talking about taking the action you just took.

But I realized something. - This is exactly what my 2012 resolution is all about.

Have I mentioned my New Year's resolution yet? I don't think so. It's not really a typical one. It's more like a mental habit I want to work on - something that will make my brain a more enjoyable place to be. I did a similar thing last year, which actually made my brain a more comfortable place.

Here my resolution for 2012:

Life is a journey.
You can't control where you are. You can only control what direction you're heading.
Enjoy the whole trip.

Yeah, I know. It's a long one. And also the kind of thing you would see embroidered on your favorite grandma's pillow amidst cute thread-stitched kittens.

2011, for me, was marked with impatience and frustration. Most of it stemmed from me being dissatisfied with where I was - whether that be how far I was in a revision/draft, how much blogging I'd accomplished, the place I was living, and being impatient to move onto the next stage.

Here's the underlying belief that caused both the impatience and frustration: that if I reached --insert some sort of achievement here--, then I would finally be happy.

Here's the truth: I will always be able to freak out about something, to be dissatisfied with something.

True Story: I found this in Books-a-Million last October.

It made me laugh and send it to my best friend.
Great book too - The House of Spirits sparked an Isabel Allende reading frenzy for a whole semester in high school.

But honestly, I have a great life. I'm reasonably healthy (although I would appreciate not being allergic to half the planet). I drive my favorite car in the entire universe - past, present, and probably future. I have my dream job.

Also, I only get one life. Okay, unless I'm reincarnated, which might be cool. But definitely, only one life as Shelby Bach. I need to enjoy it RIGHT NOW. I need to appreciate even the stuff that scares me, because the only constant thing about life is change. I won't always have this.

So, this move - It's something I want. This is something I've wanted for a long time.

Exhibit A, evidence that I've wanted this for a while:
This map has been hanging in my bedroom for the past year,
reminding me where I want to go.
(It was a gift from a very dear friend.)

I am going to enjoy it.

Because it will only happen once.

And I've basically decided to just have an awesome life. :-)

COVER!!!

Okay, readers, I have the go-ahead. After a few hours of technology malfunctions, I even have pictures.

ARE YOU READY FOR THE PRETTY?

Look at Rory! Look at the way she's staring out at you! You don't know whether to give her a big hug or challenge her to a duel. The expression on their faces is just absolutely perfect!! The artist, Cory Loftis, did a fantastic job.

Now look at it again:

Does the angle of this shot mean that I was lying on my stomach to get a decent pic?

You betcha. :-P

Excuse the poor camera work. It's mine. (But it's not from my cameraphone!)

This is not the finished book, by the way. My fantastic editor Courtney sent me cover proofs, which arrived yesterday, and I just wrapped one around another book to get an idea of what it will look like.

AND ISN'T IT SO PRETTY???

After that, I might even have carried it around the house and set it up beside me, pretending it was the finished book. I possibly may have told it, "Hey, booky-book" a few times and waved. I mean, allegedly. I confess nothing.

And now, look at the wide view:


Do you SEE the dragon? Do you see the pretty pretty spine? Do you see all the lovely details Chloë Foglia at S&S BFYR added??? SQUEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!

The cover makes me so SO happy. It's just...epic. Words are failing me with the amount of joy gushing through me right now. *pets cover*

Oh, and guess what?

According to S&S Canada and Amazon, I have a RELEASE DATE!!!

The Ever Afters: Of Giant and Ice comes out July 24, 2012!!

Yep, this is the day of the happy dance. Who am I kidding? This is the WEEK of the happy dance! :-P

Friday Five - Fri, the 13th style :-P

1. It's Friday the 13th! Isn't that awesome? I couldn't resist writing a Friday Five post because of it, but so far, the weirdest thing that has happened all day is Blogger being down, which keeps me from actually posting this.

I'm trying to figure out a cool way to integrate Friday the 13th lore into my new ms, but so far, I'm coming up with nada. Le sigh.

2. Just FYI, that's what I've been up to recently. I jumped right back into the second ms the day after I turned in the edits to Courtney, and I'm clicking right along. I would prefer to click along FASTER, but I think I'll need to go someplace to write without distractions or interruptions. But in general, it's going more smoothly and more fruitfully than it has gone in a long while. Yaaaay!

3. In fact, the only time when I didn't write a bit each day was this past weekend when I drive up to Virginia to visit some old friends. Old as in, they're around my age, but we have been close since eighth grade, which means that we've been friends for over half our lives. There's something epicly awesome about having friends who have known you that long. It's both grounding and inspiring, because they know exactly where you've been and how far you've come since age 13. I've been basking in how lucky I am since I came back.

4. Also, I just want to brag on myself: this was the first long road trip I took by myself. It ended up being 16 hours roundtrip, and I only got lost ONCE. For those of you who know me, you'll be significantly impressed with how I've overcome my terrible sense of direction.

What's that you're asking? Did I have GPS?

Yes, I must confess that I did - as well as Google Maps and Mapquest. But THAT'S NOT CHEATING!! I only got lost the time I trusted the GPS's directions over my own instincts. So, I still say, this is a triumph for all Shelbykind.

5. I've been on a rather strict reading regimen recently. Which basically means I'm gobbling up research in book form and letting it collect and fester as a sort of creative compost. (That image ended up being a lot more disturbing than I expected. Sorry!) But the book I can't stop thinking about is THE EMERALD ATLAS, the first installment of John Stephens' BOOKS OF BEGINNING trilogy.

It's got a dark Narnia/Tolkien feel to it, but with a sort of Series of Unfortunate events set up. There are orphans and dwarves and time travel and zombies and big bad wolves and huntsmen and wizards from ancient Egypt and lost cities and Russian Countesses and other cool elements that you might have seen in other middle grades. But this one jumbles them all together in fresh ways that also feel inevitable - or believable.

I confess: it took me a while to get into it - it felt a bit old-fashioned - but as soon as the eldest sister found the book mentioned in the title, I was sucked it like whoa. Even though I got it from the library, I'm probably going to purchase my own copy in hardcover. I missed having the book on my shelves after I returned it. - FSG did a great job packaging it, and the bright green endpapers were so pretty!!

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Okay, I'm going to try to post this via email. I'll check to see if it's up after Blogger rises from the cyberdead...