International Makeover

First of all HAPPY STAR WARS DAY and May the Fourth be with you :)

Exciting news from across the pond - my UK publishers Atom Books have just announced their cover redesign for Nightshade and Wolfsbane. Check out the lovely shininess!

I also was delighted to receive my first copy of the US paperback, which will be in stores on June 14.

It is sooooo pretty! The wolf seems to jump off the cover - so Calla! This summer is going to be so much fun and very, very busy :) I can't wait!

Wishing you all a great week.

Cover Love!

The results are in, and I'm thrilled to announce that the Urban Fantasy Cover Awards for 2010 have treated Nightshade very, very well.

Nightshade won Best Debut Cover and COVER OF THE YEAR!!!

If that wasn't peachy enough, Wolfsbane was honored with Best Sneak Peek Cover for 2011!

Thank you so much to everyone who voted I am giddy over this honor. And I would be remiss if I didn't say thank you, especially, to Suza Scalora - the incredible artist whose photographs have made the Nightshade covers so unique and beautiful!

I have a feeling that 2011 is going to be filled with great adventures and joyful surprises. I look forward to sharing the new year with all of you!

WOLFSBANE

Nightshade has barely been on the shelves but folks are already clamoring for book 2, Wolfsbane (hurrah!)

I'm thrilled that today is a big day for Wolfsbane: cover reveal day!!!
I can't begin to describe how much I am in love with this cover. Green is my favorite color. I love the way that Calla is in the wild, yet still caged by the vines. AND it is a perfect rendering of one of my favorite scenes in the book!!

And soon, very soon, there will be ARCs. And as soon as there are ARCs there will be contests. I'm thinking that the first Wolfsbane giveaway will reprise my favorite contest, so get your haiku skills sharpened up.

Happy Friday!

Cover Grrrlz

Time to announce the winners of the WOLFSBANE cover contest. Thank you so much for your entries - you are all so talented!I've selected two winners, each of whom will receive a signed NIGHTSHADE ARC.

The winning covers are:

Khelseaand Denis
Khelsea and Denis please email your mailing address to me and I'll get your ARCs sent!

It was so hard to choose the winners - all the entries were fabulous. Thank you so much to the runners up for their amazing covers:

Lorena
CrissiEmily
Adriana
Your creativity and beautiful designs made me so happy!

The official WOLFSBANE cover is under wraps for now, but your awesome ideas are great substitutes until the final image can be revealed.

Contests Galore!

August has gotten off to a great start! We're three months out from NIGHTSHADE's release and a new month means a new ARC giveaway!

First - I want to draw your attention to two ongoing contests.

1) You still have a chance to enter Em's Reading Room contest to design a NIGHTSHADE t-shirt. The winner will receive their t-shirt, a NIGHTSHADE ARC, & an ARC of MATCHED by Ally Condie (I've read it, it's phenomenal!) Stop by Em's blog to enter :)

2) I just passed 1,000 followers on Twitter and am hosting a giveaway there through noon tomorrow (Friday). To enter just post a tweet that includes #nightshade I'll draw a random winner from all the entries. The name drawn wins an iPod shuffle pre-loaded with the playlists of the NIGHTSHADE trilogy.

And here's the August contest for the blog:

As I mentioned last week, the cover shoot for WOLFSBANE just took place. I cannot wait until I can share the cover, which won't be for a while. There's a lot of work that occurs from the shoot to the final cover image.Here are a few images to give you a hint of what's to come:


Thanks so much to Suza Scalora who creates such amazing images.

Linda from Penguin will bring together the final design - she is so talented. And great at picking leaves!
Also make-up artist Elsa who transformed the lovely Amber (Amber Gregory is represented by Ford Models) into Calla!


And huge thanks to Editor Jill for snapping all these photos so we could have a glimpse of the cover in process :)

Since we have to wait a while for the official WOLFSBANE cover I thought I'd ask you to lend your creative talents to help us pass the time.

This month's NIGHTSHADE giveaway of 2 signed ARCs will be a cover design contest!

What would your design for WOLFSBANE's cover be?

When you create your image, email the file to me at andreacremerwrites (at) gmail (dot) com

I'll post the entries and will select two winners who will receive a signed NIGHTSHADE ARC. Please be respectful of copyright as you create your images. I can't wait to see what you come up with!

The contest will be open for two weeks, closing at midnight on Thursday, August 19.

Some Upcoming Goodness

Today is a happy!

My father in law is visiting us from Germany and it's so wonderful to have him in our home :) My editor LOVES Bloodrose - her stamp of approval and ecstatic praise for the final book of the Nightshade trilogy made me jump for joy.

And more goodness waits on the horizon:

First, tomorrow is the cover shoot for WOLFSBANE. I cannot begin to describe how excited I am for this cover. Once again the phenomenally talented Suza Scalora is photographing, and she's been gracious enough to let us photograph her at work - which means I'll get to do a full cover post on this blog and you'll get the insider's view on how it happens!!
Second, it's nearly August which means it's almost my birthday (whoopee!!) and it's almost time for the debut of the first of the Penguin Five. Next week I'll be hosting Kirsten Miller, author of The Eternal Ones, on this site and I'm so excited to have her. The Eternal Ones is a fantastic book and I'm eager to pick Kirsten's brain about it.
Hope you're all enjoying summer as much as I am!

Reveal!

The Nightshade cover:
And you can view the trailer on the official book web site!

Distractions

It's a mixed front today: on the one hand, exciting news that I'll get a sneak peek at the book-trailer-in-progress from the amazing team at Penguin, on the other that pesky cold I thought I'd sent packing has come back with a vengeance. Headache, sniffles, fever - you are not making my happy.

Since we're waiting to see the Nightshade cover, I thought it might be fun to take a look at another cover story. This video is so cool:



What are some of your favorite covers? What makes a good book cover?

I Have Seen the Future, and it is Good

All my best intentions of blogging more about characters have been railroaded by big book news. BIG BOOK NEWS. One piece of which I can share, the other of which I have to be mean and just post a teaser, leaving you all annoyed (sorry!)

Let's start with sharable joy: NIGHTSHADE and WOLFSBANE sold in Brazil! Eek! The publisher is Grupo Editorial Record and I'm thrilled to be rubbing elbows with the likes of Meg Cabot, Scott Westerfeld, Eoin Colfer, and LJ Smith at this house. Carnaval here I come!

And don't get me started on how incredible it will be to see my book in Portugese! Squeee!

Also, my web site just went live. Check it out!

So onto what I cannot share - I have seen NIGHTSHADE's cover...and it is phenomenal. But if I showed it to you, I'd have to kill you. So for now, know that it is wonderful. I'm dying to share it with the world and will do when able.

Happy weekend (I swear there will be substantive discussion of characters very, very soon).

I Have No Clothes (But I Have a Contract!)

I find myself in a strange liminal space.

My book is edited, copy edited and has been handed over to the incredible Penguin sales juggernaut.

The cover shoot just happened and I'm thrilled: amazing photographer, perfect concept - but I won't see results for another couple of weeks.

My web site is about to go live - but not quite yet.
I hesitate to ask the faceless man how it's going (he scares me).

In some ways I feel like my book just vanished. That I have all this excitement but no physical manifestation as yet of the book itself to help me believe. It's floating out there in New York *waves, hello New York!* with amazing people, but sometimes I blink and worry what if none of this has actually happened? Thank the stars I get to keep a copy of my contract.

But maybe the strange sensations of a world out of place isn't the result of the in-between place of publishing I'm living in. Maybe I'm just still in shock from seeing this:
No, you're not wrong - it is, indeed, Twilight Barbie.

And WOW in the space of writing this post I gained two more followers. Welcome!!!

Role Models

Author Maggie Stiefvater just released the cover for LINGER and it is stunning. Plus she gave a sneak peak of the first paragraph.

• grace •

This is the story of a boy who used to be a wolf and a girl who was becoming one.

Just a few months ago, it was Sam who was the mythical creature. His was the disease we couldn’t cure. His was the good-bye that meant the most. He had the body that was a mystery, too strange and wonderful and terrifying to comprehend.

But now it is spring. With the heat, the remaining wolves will soon be falling out of their wolf pelts and back into their human bodies. Sam stays Sam, and Cole stays Cole, and it’s only me who’s not firmly in my own skin.

I loved SHIVER and can't wait for the follow up. Go wolves go!

And Aprilynne Pike posted an amazing guide about first-time authors, publishing, and goals that any aspiring author should take a look at.

Fifty!

Fifty followers! Hooray (and thank you!) From my first post, I loved blogging (because hey, it's writing) but wondered whether anyone would ever read what I'd written. Thank you so much for sharing this journey with me. I sincerely hope each of you can say in the future "well, I was a follower before she was famous!" (See my last post on the danger of delusions - I'm not good at taking my own advice.)

Speaking of delusions, have just gotten news from editor Jill and publisher Michael about absolutely fabulous cover plans!! Top secret for now, but will share as soon as I'm able. Speaking of amazing, but creepy artistry check out this Wolf Parade video. Happy Wednesday!

*Peek*

That's my head popping out from beneath this massive pile of revisions, which are going swimmingly.

My editor at Philomel, Jill Santopolo, is amazing. She is so amazing that she is truly outrageous a la Jem (I think we need more rocker chick super heroes, don't you?)


Her eye is sharp as a hawk's, her suggestions brilliant, and she still manages to be incredibly sweet. She also very kindly tolerated my hysterics when she told me what they're planning for the cover, which sounds beautiful and haunting and perfect.

ARTY PEOPLE HAVE BEEN TASKED WITH MAKING MY BOOK COVER!!! THIS IS REALLY HAPPENING!!! SQUEEEEEE!!!

Ooooh and...I can reveal the title of Book 1:

Nightshade

Back after more edits.