Big Apple!

Hey y'all!

So tomorrow I'm flying up to NYC to meet my editor, agent, and a bunch of Penguinistas! We're gonna shoot some vids of me chatting about Origin--I apologize in advance--and having lunchies and other cool dreamy stuff. SO EXCITED LIKE YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW PSYCHED I AM RIGHT NOW.

So I hope to take lots of pics to share with you guys so keep an eye on the blog. PLUS this is my first time in NYC--I've only seen it from Staten Island, and no, I wasn't immigrating--though, fun fact, my grandfather says he came through Staten when he immigrated to the States (though I'm not sure I believe him; he also says he was born in a manger and was licked clean by some cows, so... O_o ) SO. I will keep you posted--literally, ha! 


Oh and and and my hubs and I are gonna see the new Broadway revival of EVITA!!! I've only been waiting for this since I was old enough to find Argentina on a map. SO. PUMPED.

Ta!

Jess

Thursday Cheer

2 things:


1. this is awesome:































2. check out my guest post on Rebecca Belliston's blog for her March Book Madness series!

2012: The YApocalypse?

2012 is the YApocalypse. 

Not because of the Mayans, but because I'm not sure how 2013 will be able to follow the mouth-watering feast of titles lined up for the next few months. And I'm not just saying that because my YA debut Origin hits shelves in September. Seriously, just reading these blurbs makes my inner book hoarder all tingly. My fingers are twitching. As should yours. Don't believe me? Take a look at some of these beauties:

Crewel
by Gennifer Albin
10.16.12 Farrar, Straus, and Giroux

Incapable. Awkward. Artless. 
That’s what the other girls whisper behind her back. But sixteen year-old Adelice Lewys has a secret: she wants to fail. 
Gifted with the ability to weave time with matter, she’s exactly what the Guild is looking for, and in the world of Arras, being chosen as a Spinster is everything a girl could want. It means privilege, eternal beauty, and being something other than a secretary. It also means the power to embroider the very fabric of life. But if controlling what people eat, where they live and how many children they have is the price of having it all, Adelice isn’t interested. 
Not that her feelings matter, because she slipped and wove a moment at testing, and they’re coming for her—tonight. 
Now she has one hour to eat her mom’s overcooked pot roast. One hour to listen to her sister’s academy gossip and laugh at her Dad’s stupid jokes. One hour to pretend everything’s okay. And one hour to escape. 
Because once you become a Spinster, there’s no turning back.

Of Poseidon
by Anna Banks
5.22.12 Fiewel and Friends

Galen is the prince of the Syrena, sent to land to find a girl he’s heard can communicate with fish. Emma is on vacation at the beach. When she runs into Galen—literally, ouch!—both teens sense a connection. But it will take several encounters, including a deadly one with a shark, for Galen to be convinced of Emma’s gifts. Now, if he can only convince Emma that she holds the key to his kingdom . . . 
Told from both Emma and Galen’s points of view, here is a fish-out-of-water story that sparkles with intrigue, humor, and waves of romance.

The Lost Girl
by Sangu Mandanna
8.28.12 Balzer + Bray

Eva's life is not her own. She is a creation, an abomination - an echo. Made by the Weavers as a copy of someone else, she is expected to replace a girl named Amarra, her 'other', if she ever died. Eva studies what Amarra does, what she eats, what it's like to kiss her boyfriend, Ray. So when Amarra is killed in a car crash, Eva should be ready. 
But fifteen years of studying never prepared her for this. 
Now she must abandon everything she's ever known - the guardians who raised her, the boy she's forbidden to love - to move to India and convince the world that Amarra is still alive.

The Last Princess
by Galaxy Craze
5.1.12 Little, Brown

Happily ever after is a thing of the past.A series of natural disasters has decimated the earth. Cut off from the rest of the world, England is a dark place. The sun rarely shines, food is scarce, and groups of criminals roam the woods, searching for prey. The people are growing restless.When a ruthless revolutionary sets out to overthrow the crown, he makes the royal family his first target. Blood is shed in Buckingham Palace, and only sixteen-year-old Princess Eliza manages to escape.Determined to kill the man who destroyed her family, Eliza joins the enemy forces in disguise. She has nothing left to live for but revenge, until she meets someone who helps her remember how to hope--and to love--once more. Now she must risk everything to ensure that she not become... The Last Princess.

Falling Kingdoms
by Morgan Rhodes 
12.11.12 Razorbill

Sixteen-year-old Cleo has grown up in luxury, the royal heiress to a prosperous kingdom. But beneath her nation’s seemingly peaceful surface lies dangerous unrest. Whispers of war are growing ever louder—intensified by a murderous incident for which Cleo’s betrothed, Aron, is accused. 
Amidst the ongoing intrigue, Cleo has a more desperate mission. She defies her father’s orders and sets off on a secret and perilous journey into a neighboring country, seeking a magic long thought to be mythical. If it’s real, it could be the cure that heals her ailing sister. If it’s only legend, Cleo will be stranded in a kingdom that has just declared war on her own. This sensational series debut melds intricate storylines with unforgettable characters and vibrantly imagined magic. Falling Kingdoms is ideal for fans of Kristin Cashore, Cinda Williams Chima, and George R.R. Martin. 

Beta
by Rachel Cohn
10.16.12 Disney Hyperion

In a world constructed to absolute perfection, imperfection is difficult to understand—and impossible to hide. 
Elysia is a clone, created in a laboratory, born as a sixteen year old girl, an empty vessel with no life experience to draw from. She is a Beta, an experimental model of teenaged clone. She was replicated from another teenage girl, who had to die in order for Elysia to be created. 
Elysia's purpose is to serve the inhabitants of Demesne, an island paradise for the wealthiest people on earth. Everything about Demesne is bioengineered for perfection. Even the air there induces a strange, euphoric high that only the island's workers—soulless clones like Elysia—are immune to. 
At first, Elysia's new life on this island paradise is idyllic and pampered. But she soon sees that Demesne's human residents, the most privileged people in the world who should want for nothing, yearn. And, she comes to realize that beneath its flawless exterior, there is an undercurrent of discontent amongst Demesne's worker clones. She knows she is soulless and cannot feel and should not care—so why are overpowering sensations clouding Elysia's mind? 
If anyone discovers that Elysia isn't the unfeeling clone she must pretend to be, she will suffer a fate too terrible to imagine. When Elysia's one chance at happiness is ripped away from her with breathtaking cruelty, emotions she's always had but never understood are unleashed. As rage, terror, and desire threaten to overwhelm her, Elysia must find the will to survive. 

The Hunt
by Andrew Fukuda
5.8.12 St. Martin's Griffin

Don’t Sweat. Don’t Laugh. Don’t draw attention to yourself. And most of all, whatever you do, do not fall in love with one of them. 
Gene is different from everyone else around him. He can’t run with lightning speed, sunlight doesn’t hurt him and he doesn’t have an unquenchable lust for blood. Gene is a human, and he knows the rules. Keep the truth a secret. It’s the only way to stay alive in a world of night—a world where humans are considered a delicacy and hunted for their blood. 
When he’s chosen for a once in a lifetime opportunity to hunt the last remaining humans, Gene’s carefully constructed life begins to crumble around him. He’s thrust into the path of a girl who makes him feel things he never thought possible—and into a ruthless pack of hunters whose suspicions about his true nature are growing. Now that Gene has finally found something worth fighting for, his need to survive is stronger than ever—but is it worth the cost of his humanity? 

Revived
by Cat Patrick
5.8.12 Little, Brown

As a little girl, Daisy Appleby was killed in a school bus crash. Moments after the accident, she was brought back to life. 
A secret government agency has developed a drug called Revive that can bring people back from the dead, and Daisy Appleby, a test subject, has been Revived five times in fifteen years. Daisy takes extraordinary risks, knowing that she can beat death, but each new death also means a new name, a new city, and a new life. When she meets Matt McKean, Daisy begins to question the moral implications of Revive, and as she discovers the agency’s true goals, she realizes she’s at the center of something much larger — and more sinister — than she ever imagined. 

For Darkness Shows the Stars
Diana Peterfreund
6.12.12 Balzer + Bray

Generations ago, a genetic experiment gone wrong—the Reduction—decimated humanity, giving rise to a Luddite nobility who outlawed most technology.
Eighteen-year-old Luddite Elliot North has always known her place in this caste system. Four years ago Elliot refused to run away with her childhood sweetheart, the servant Kai, choosing duty to her family’s estate over love. But now the world has changed: a new class of Post-Reductionists is jumpstarting the wheel of progress and threatening Luddite control; Elliot’s estate is floundering; and she’s forced to rent land to the mysterious Cloud Fleet, a group of shipbuilders that includes renowned explorer Captain Malakai Wentforth—an almost unrecognizable Kai. And while Elliott wonders if this could be their second chance, Kai seems determined to show Elliot exactly what she gave up when she abandoned him.
But Elliot soon discovers her childhood friend carries a secret—-one that could change the society in which they live…or bring it to its knees. And again, she’s faced with a choice: cling to what she’s been raised to believe, or cast her lot with the only boy she’s ever loved, even if she has lost him forever. 

Tomorrow Land
by Mari Mancusi
3.8.12 NLA Digital

Can true love survive the end of the world? 
Imagine finding your first love, only to be ripped apart by the apocalypse. Peyton Anderson will never forget the day she was forced to make a choice--between her family--and Chris Parker, the boy she'd given her heart. Now, four years later, as she steps from the fallout shelter and into a dead and broken world, he's the only thing on her mind. 
All Chris "Chase" Parker wanted was to take Peyton away and keep her safe from harm. But he waited for hours in the rain on judgment day and she never showed--breaking his heart without ever telling him why. 
Now the two of them have been thrown together once again, reluctant chaperones to a group of orphan children in a post-apocalyptic world where the dead still walk...and feed. As they begin their pilgramage to the last human outpost on Earth, can they find a way to let go of old hurts and find the love they lost--all while attempting to save what's left of the human race? 

I could gush till my fingers turned blue, but I want to hear from you:what titles are YOU looking forward to in 2012? Have any of these I've listed sparked your interest?

Cheers!
Jess 

In the Meantime...

Yeah, so... I haven't posted in a while. Guilty as charged. Reasons for this tardiness:


1. Been busy fielding various Origin-related stuff like writing blurb request letters, making tweaks and edits here and there, cover art, etc.


2. Been busy developing other projects of which I cannot speak.


3. Been busy lying around on the couch, watching Downton Abbey, Hart of Dixie, etc. Some cool new shows I've found: Touch (kind of like a Lost meets Heroes thing, plus Kiefer Sutherland) and Awake (with that guy who played Hook in Peter Pan, can't remember his name).

*sniff*

4. Been busy trying to train my new pair of parakeets. Not going so well. I think I've only succeeded in terrorizing them with my affection. I think they hate me. Also, they may be homosexual. Not sure yet. Need to do more recon.

Puru and Kiwi. (What do you think, do they look gay?)

5. Been busy coaching my amazing team of ten-year-old soccer players. Bragging moment: they're undefeated. Also, they bring me apples at practice.  Booyah. >:-)


If those aren't enough excuses, don't worry--I've got plenty more if you want to hear them. Unfortunately, none of them are legitimate enough to justify my absence from the blogosphere. My bad.


But cool things are happening! For example, in two weeks I get to fly to New York City to meet what I am coming to think of as my Justice League of Superheroes: my agent, editor, and the wicked cool team at Razorbill and Penguin. Also, Hunger Games in IMAX in one week! Am psyched.

yum.

Well, I'd keep posting but my six-year-old sister has just arrived and demands to be hugged and spoiled.


Later!
-Jess

Origin Cover Reveal!

Yay!
Cover reveal!


I guess most of you have seen this by now, but here is the cover for Origin!

 Greg Stadnyk over at Penguin did a fantastic job capturing the mystery and beauty I hope you will find in Origin. I couldn't be happier with his work and with the warm response Origin has gotten from everyone at Razorbill and Penguin. September can't come too soon! I can't wait till the day you guys can hold this in your hands.

If you haven't yet, check out this schnazzy article on Publisher's Weekly, which was the original cover reveal.

And don't forget to add Origin to your to-read-or-die shelf on Goodreads!!

Cheers!
Jess