New York! I see you all hate candy corn! etc.

If you live in the New York city area, you can see a bunch of amazing authors--plus me--read at Teen Author Reading Night!

It'll be held this Wednesday at 6 PM at the Jefferson Market Branch of the New York Public Library. I'll be reading from Living Dead Girl, and I'd love to see you there...

Also! I now know that I should absolutely *not* buy candy corn for Halloween, and I also want to say congrats to Brynn, Katie, Axa, and Vickie, who were last week's contest winners!

I have loads of links as well:

Nathan Bransford's blog has been busy! Author Michelle Moran stopped by to talk about book promotion for two days, and then MJ Rose also stopped by to discuss book promotion and marketing as well. (MJ Rose's post is particularly good)

Kristin Nelson writes candidly about passing on a manuscript

Meg Cabot on why it is so hard to pick that one "favorite book" (and candy corn! and movies! and her usual awesomness!)

Here's an extensive list of book promotion ideas

Agent Jessica Faust writes about agent responsibility when it comes to when it comes to unsold books -- interesting reading, and there's some interesting comments as well

The Swivet, an agent at Fine Print Literary, posts a great explanation of book stripping

Editorial Ass discusses why it can take so long to get a "No" on a project--or, as EA says,"No one likes giving bad news"

A huge THANK YOU to everyone who came to the chat yesterday, and if you weren't able to make it, I'll be taking questions at the BookDivas forum all week, so please stop by and let me know what *you'd* like to know about my books!

Also, congrats to the winners of the signed copies of Living Dead Girl--I wrote all your names down after I emailed you, but now I can't find the piece of paper with them on it. Figures! But congrats all the same, and as for this week...

Well, since it's almost Halloween, I decided to go with a supernatural theme this week, and I'm giving away books that feature vampires, faeries, and other otherwordly creatures!

The books I'm giving away are: Vamps by Nancy Collins, The Host by Stephenie Meyer, Lament by Maggie Stiefvater, and Sisters of Misery by Megan Kelley Hall.

For a chance to win one of these four books, just let me know what your LEAST favorite Halloween candy is--mine is Mary Janes, which was all anyone everyone ever seemed to give out when I was a kid. (I figure if everyone tells me the kind of candy they DON'T like, I'll be 100% sure that I get only good stuff to hand out on Halloween!)

Let me know what your LEAST favorite Halloween candy is by midnight this Friday, October 24th, and then I'll draw four names at random, and each of those four people will get a book! Though you can only reply once, you can reply no matter where you live (I will ship books overseas), or if you've won something from me in the past.

And before I go, I have (of course!) some links:

Want to know what a book publicist's life is like? Read this. (Here's a hint: BUSY! Just the length of Amy's workday--oh man!!)

Agent Nathan Bransford wants to know if your book buying habits have changed in the past year -- As usual, he's got tons of comments, and it's interesting to see what other people are saying. (I confess, I'm more likely to give up buying food than books. A life without new books? Shudder!!)

A very thoughtful and well-written post about being "skipped" or why bookstores don't stock every book that's published -- It's a long read, but a very insightful one, and well worth checking out.

Justine Larbalestier on the ever popular subject of writers and money

Tess Gerritsen, who you can always count on for awesome insights into being a best-selling author, talks about how book tours have changed-- she's been writing (and touring!) for a long time, and, as always, has interesting things to say.

Finally, it's no longer Ovarian Cancer Awareness month, but that still doesn't mean you shouldn't take the time to learn more, and see what you can do to help

chat this afternoon at BookDivas!

This afternoon, I'll be chatting about Living Dead Girl from 5-6 PM EST at BookDivas -- if you can, please come by and say hi!

now it's official--three starred reviews!

Got my Oct. 15th issue of Booklist in the mail yesterday--as you can see, I was pretty happy! Now it's officially three starred reviews for Living Dead Girl, Bulletin, PW, and Booklist.

HURRAY!

To celebrate, I'm going to give away three signed copies of Living Dead Girl. Just leave me a comment here or email me at elizabeth at elizabethwrites dot com if you'd like a chance to win. I'll take comments/emails through midnight tomorrow, the 17th, and then I'll pick three winners at random.

Loads and loads of links to share, but first, congrats to last week's contest winners: Pretty, Bria, Courtney, and Tiffany!

And now on to the links:

Agent Nathan Bransford blogs about paperback and hardcover debut novels -- nice look at the pros and cons of *both*

Elizabeth Bear writes about where her story ideas come from

Editorial Anonymous talks about how to write for trends, which I think is something a lot of writers wonder about, and I love EA's advice.

Editorial Anonymous also tackles writing advice, being orphaned, and saying "no."

CosmoGirl is gone!! (As a die-hard magazine reader (I subscribe to about fifteen magazines (I know!) I'm always sad when a mag closes shop, but the "teen" magazine is, I think, on its way out.)

The Good, The Bad, and The Unread wonder about the recession, Wal-Mart numbers, and electronic publishing -- While I do think e-books are going to grow, I actually think the largest growth will be in adult genre books, particularly romance and sci-fi/fantasy. (Of course, I could be wrong. I usually am!)

I'm having an *amazing* week (just got word that Booklist's fantastically kind review of Living Dead Girl is the featured review over at Booklist Online today!) so I figure it's most definitely time for a contest! And a book wish one at that!

So, you know the deal--all you have to do is tell me what young adult novel out there you wish you had a copy of, or that you’ve been wanting to buy but haven’t, and you could get that book for free!

Comment here (or email me at elizabeth at elizabethwrites dot com) with the title and author of the young adult novel you wish for (it just has to be in print, and under $20 US) by midnight EST this Friday, October 10th, and then I’ll draw four names at random, and each of those four people will get the book they wished for! Though you can only reply once, you can reply no matter where you live (I will ship books overseas), or if you’ve won something from me in the past.

Loads of stuff today, but I'm so excited about this news that I have to share it first.

I just found out that Living Dead Girl is a A 2009 Best Books for Young Adults Nominee

WHEE!!

Now on to other things:

Donald Maass, of The Maass Agency, is offering his book, The Career Novelist, as a *free* download. I haven't read a lot of books about writing, but I have read this one, and I think it's really interesting. And hey, you can't go wrong with free!

Jessica Faust, of BookEnds Literary writes about a query she got, the response she sent--and the response she got in return. As she puts it--Life's Too Short

Editorial Ass writes about what constitutes good sales for a literary novel (I don't know of any blogs anywhere that have touched on this topic re: young adult novels--if you know any that have, let me know!)

Tess Gerritsen thinks that even though the economy isn't doing all that great right now, books will still sell. (Finally, someone besides me who isn't convinced the book industry is headed for disaster!)

She also has a really interesting post up over at Murderati about debut novelists and bad reviews, which is also about bad reviews in general. (What she says about Stephen King? Did *not* know that!)

An aspiring author talks about starting to search for an agent--it's a great post, and the comments are very interesting.

Check out this fantastic slide show from the New York Times on college students, and how they design their living spaces -- So inspiring! (And also makes me wish I'd done more with my dorm rooms...)

Like OMG Teens Read is giving away a copy (or two!) of Living Dead Girl--check out their newsletter for details

And finally, I am SO SO happy to be able to share this:



So cute! And SARAH DESSEN!! (I screamed when my editor told me. Because, hello, total fangurl! As long time readers will know, I totally busted my butt to be first in line for her book signing at BEA back before I was even published)

Just had to share this poignant article from the Washington Post magazine, about older dogs. It made me cry but it's beautifully written, and if you're a pet owner, trust me, you'll relate.

Something About Harry

Drama at the house this morning--our dog had another bad seizure, and one of her legs got cut when she fell as the seizure started. She's okay now, but tired, and is sporting a jaunty bandage on her leg, which she doesn't like *at all*

Luckily, she likes peanut butter, so now she's playing with her Kong and trying to get at the peanut butter inside it.

Links:

In honor of Banned Books Week, I've got two--Chris Crutcher responds to challenges (the most recent one being to The Sledding Hill) and Little Willow's "They Tried To Ban This Book Today"

Elizabeth Garton has pulled together a great bunch of links about book dedications

Melissa Walker is giving away a copy of Living Dead Girl (thanks, Melissa!!)

Finally, congrats to Annie, who won the contest I had yesterday on the news page