It's raining Nancy

Hey, guess what? Nancy is up in the cloud, and three of her books -- Extraordinary, Impossible, and The Rules of Survival -- have precipitated out in the form of ebooks. Now you can carry all three titles with you wherever you go. Get your copies from Amazon, BN.com, or your favorite indie bookstore -- wherever ebooks are sold.

It occurred to me today that it's only a matter of time before the general public catches on to the fact that ebooks are greener than hard copies, and the former become positively fashionable. (Wake me if this has already happened.) For now the paper purists still seem to hold the upper hand. The good news is that now you can decide, and you can enjoy Nancy's stuff in whichever form you prefer.

Nancy in Nebraska

Nancy will be in Omaha, Nebraska this Monday, December 5, for a couple of events at two branches of the Omaha Public Library. First she'll be giving a talk and signing books at the Swanson Branch at 9101 West Dodge Road, at 4 p.m., and if you can't make that one, she'll do it all over again at the Millard Branch at 13214 Westwood Lane, at 7 p.m.

High-Test Momentum

Nancy is officially on a roll with her latest book. Once again, her retreat with the High-Test Girls was very timely. This time they were in a new retreat house, in Plymouth, MA. Perhaps it was the assembled throng -- all nine made it this time! -- or perhaps it was the physical space, but for whatever reason, the discussions of their work were even more fruitful than usual. Nancy made lots of progress and came away reinvigorated and once again in love with her new work.


It was a fun retreat on personal levels as well. Franny Billingsley arrived fresh off the news of her nomination for the National Book Award (watch this space for more on that soon), and Dian Curtis Regan arrived fresh off the news of her engagement! There were other tidbits of interest as well, and it all added up to a lively, fun, productive week.

Cover coverage

Melissa Walker conducts a nice interview with Nancy on the paperback cover of Extraordinary. It occurs to me that Mallory on this cover looks a bit like Nancy's evil twin. Coincidence?

On your mark, get set...

...go! Extraordinary hits the shelves in paperback today! Paperbacks are fairly lightweight, so we'll look forward to them flying right back off of the shelves...

Niemożliwe jest możliwe

Impossible has been translated to (and published in) another language -- Polish. Click here to see a write-up and another gorgeous cover that's reminiscent of the U.S. version.

Light on darkness in YA

Thanks to Erzsi Deak for posting on Facebook a link to this NPR story: http://n.PR/lxmwKa.

A visit to Powell's

While in Portland, our pal and fellow bibliophile Amy Conklin dropped in to the wonderful Powell's City of Books. She zeroed in on the Young Adult section to look for Nancy's stuff, found a nice selection of four titles, and was kind enough to share this photo with us. A Werlin collection is but one measure of the quality of a bookstore...

Kindling Words West

We've been keeping a low profile here on the blog, which isn't exactly the point of the thing. But Nancy has had a quiet time schedule-wise, and has been busy writing. Trouble was, she wasn't getting to where she wanted to be in her latest book; she'd been wrestling with a major plot point that didn't feel exactly right. Then came Kindling Words West, a writers' retreat held annually in Taos, New Mexico.

There she had the whole day blocked off for writing, which left her lots of time to work and focus. Just as importantly, she was surrounded by peers sharing ideas at breakfast, lunch, and the end of the day. She talked out her problems with the gang, and lo! The plotting point that had been plaguing her suddenly seemed surmountable, and she wrote her way through it in better shape than ever -- the story coalesced, and the words tumbled out. She still has plenty of work to do on this book, but now it's starting to feel like a downhill effort rather than a steep uphill.

Retreats almost always work this way for Nancy, and KWW was in a fantastic setting to boot. Did I mention the beautiful mountain surroundings, the warm, dry air, and the hot springs? Those didn't hurt a bit. We're already looking forward to the next one...

New cover for Rules

Penguin is coming out with this new cover for the next paperback edition of The Rules of Survival. Gotta say, it looks like they nailed it. I loved the previous broken-glass-in-a-cereal-bowl cover, but not being a publishing marketer, I can't say that this one won't be more effective. It's hard not to notice those eyes...

Nancy's books in other languages

While we're on the subject of Nancy's books in different languages, I just received a comment from a reader who would like to see Nancy's books published in Hungarian, which raises a larger issue. Nancy doesn't determine which languages her books will get published in; publishers can bid on the language rights for a given book if they feel there will be a market for it. So if you speak something other than English, contact the folks at your favorite publisher and let them know of your interest in Nancy's books, and maybe they'll give it a chance...

Reservieren Sie sich Ihr Exemplar jetzt

Sprechen Sie Deutsch? If so, you can now get Impossible in German, under the title Der Fluch von Scarborough Fair.

Black Mirror on KCLS walking tour

The King County Library System in Washington has come up with an imaginative way of promoting books: they've set up a virtual gallery of 100 book covers sprinkled around the county at various businesses. At each stop, you can read about or listen to a description of the book behind the book cover.

Nancy's Black Mirror is on display in CC's Lounge at 635 SW 152nd Street in Burien. If you don't live anywhere near Seattle, you can still follow the tour from the website, and get an audio description of Black Mirror here, nestled right between works by T.S. Eliot and Dr. Seuss in the Burien section of the page. If you do live in those parts and want to do some or all of the walking tour, the instructions are at the top of the page.

Save rubles on Impossible!

The Russian-language version of Impossible is now licensed to Ripol Classics of Moscow, under the KIT imprint for YA. Books are affordable in Russia: the hardcover is expected to retail for somewhere around the equivalent of $2.60, while the paperback is expected to go for around $1.50.

Nancy in the stacks

When we were in Austin a few months ago, Nancy was interviewed by Stacy of Girls in the Stacks.com, who wanted to know about Extraordinary. Here's the video of that interview, in which Nancy discusses the ways in which Phoebe is both ordinary and extraordinary.

We have a winner! And another winner!

Not one but two bidders have earned a spot in Nancy's next novel, as a result of the charity auction for YALSA at the ALA Midwinter Meeting (see the January 5 post for a fuller explanation).

Blogger/librarian Cindy Dobrez won the bidding, but runner-up Ellen Dando bid so spiritedly, and is such a committed fan of Nancy, that Cindy graciously lobbied on Ellen's behalf for her to be included as well. So Nancy is going to work both names into Unbreakable.

Pennies for their thoughts

I love this picture in the Chicago Tribune, a reaction shot to one of the award announcements at the ALA Midwinter Meeting. Across the front row we have librarian Walter Mayes (who officiated at our wedding!), Nancy, author Jennifer Jacobson, her agent Barry Goldblatt, blogger/librarians Lynn Rutan and Cindy Dobrez, and teacher Monica Edinger, collectively displaying a wide variety of emotions. It's fun to speculate about what different thought bubbles might be placed above each head -- I leave this as an exercise for the reader -- but the one constant across the group is obvious passion, for the results and for children's literature generally.

The Killer's Cousin has legs

At its Midwinter Meeting, the American Library Association presented its 2011 list of Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults. In the "Thrillers & Killers" category appears The Killer's Cousin, first published in 1998. Great to see that it's still going strong.

What price immortality?

Librarians, are you going to the ALA Midwinter Meeting in San Diego? If so, you'll have a shot at getting your name in print, for as long as Nancy's next book is in print, or exists (perhaps) in electronic form.

YALSA, the Young Adult Library Services Association, is sponsoring a fundraising Not-So-Silent Auction, and among the many items up for bid is the opportunity to get your name applied to a character in Nancy's upcoming novel, Unbreakable.

Click here to see the inset in today's blog post. The auction takes place this Friday evening, January 7, from 8 to 10 p.m. in the San Diego Convention Center, Room 7. It's for a good cause, but more importantly, your grandkids will be impressed.