Origin Blog Tour

ANNOUNCING

THE

If you're looking for the Origin Olympics, click here!
If you're looking for last week's winning PinFic entries, click here!



Oh boy oh boy! It's time for the Origin blog tour! And wow--I'm so thrilled and honored to be hosted by so many superstar bloggers! At each stop, you will find new excerpts from Origin, along with my own annotations explaining some of the deeper themes and inspirations behind them! Don't miss out on this exclusive look behind the scenes of Origin! The schedule is as follows:

Monday 8/27 The Book Smugglers
Tuesday 8/28 Pure Imagination
Wednesday 8/29 Steph Su Reads
Thursday 8/30 Mundie Moms
Friday 8/31 Forever YA

Monday 9/3 Novel Thoughts
Tuesday 9/4 The Page Turners
Wednesday 9/5 Frenetic Reader
Thursday 9/6 Bookshelf Banter 
Friday 9/7 The Story Siren

Monday 9/10 Green Bean Teen Queen
Tuesday 9/11 The Book Muncher
Wednesday 9/12 The Book Cellar
Thursday 9/13 Book Chic
Friday 9/14 The Compulsive Reader

Thanks so much to all these fantastic bloggers! What a privilege to have your participation.

It's getting so close to Origin's release date! I'm alternating between sheer giddiness and shivery nervousness. Have you pre-ordered your copy yet? If not, don't wait any longer! Order now for special discounted prices!

amazon | barnes & noble | your local indie bookseller

Pinfic Giveaway

 PINFIC CONTEST & GIVEAWAY

Now Closed. Thanks for entering!

Read the entries!

(You do NOT have to enter all five days to be eligible to win! So even if you miss one, two, or four days of the contest, don't let that stop you! Send as many or as few entries as you want! Even if you don't enter until Friday, that's fine! One entry is better than none!)

You asked, and I happily oblige! I'm running another Pinterest themed contest! This one is a little different from June's contest, so be sure to read all the rules carefully to see what has changed. We're mixing it up a little, throwing in some new awesome prizes, and bringing in four top secret guest judges (yes, they are all YA authors! Some new debuts and some familiar faces!) 

Here's how this Pinfic contest works:

1. Each day, I'll reveal a judge here on my blog.

2. Your job is to write a 500-character Pinfic* entry for that judge, based on that judge's chosen theme. For example, if my judge is Joe Schmoe, and Joe's theme is "Comedy," you must first browse Joe's Pinterest boards, select a pin, and submit a 500-character comedy-themed paragraph to ME. I'll post your entry on MY Pinterest, on a board titled "Joe's Entries." Then Joe will look at all of his entries and pick his favorite. That favorite will become one of the week's 5 winners. Of the five winners, ONE will be chosen through random selection and be named the Grand Pinfic Wizard (which just means that person gets the grand prize of a $35 Barnes & Noble gift card in addition to the ORIGIN ARC and swag).

Make sense?

The instructions are included in more detail below. Be sure to read them all! There are some rules I didn't mention above that you need to be aware of. If you have any questions or difficulty entering, post it in the comments section below and I'll work quickly to resolve any issues.

Thanks and good luck!

PS. It may look complicated but it's really not.

Trust me. 

INSTRUCTIONS
To start things off, you must use the Rafflecopter form below to "like" my Facebook page. You MUST do this to be eligible to win, simply because it gives me an extra way to get hold of you if you DO win. =)

1. Check this post to find out the judge for the day. Follow the link to the Pinterest page belonging to that judge. (you shouldn't need a Pinterest account to view pins.)

2. Select one picture from any of the judge's boards.

3. Write a 500-character-maximum story or description about the picture, based on the judge's chosen topic. BE CREATIVE! (and remember--up to 500 CHARACTERS, not 500 words. Big difference, people. Also, this includes spaces!)

4. Email ME (Jessica Khoury, NOT the judge!) with the story and either the picture itself or a link to it. (my email is authorjesskhoury@gmail.com)

5. You may submit one unique entry each day (maximum five entries total) at one entry per judge. Contest closes at midnight on August 17! For each entry you submit, you MUST Tweet about the giveaway (use the Rafflecopter form below to tweet).

6. At the end of each day, I'll post all the entries to a designated board on MY Pinterest, so you can browse the entries. Each day will have its own board, labeled with the name of the judge for that day.

7. At the end of the week, the contest will close and the judges will choose their favorites from the entries you wrote for their days (each person can only win once, so there will be four unique winners). Entries will be posted anonymously; your name will not be attached to the entry unless you win. (In the event there is a tie, and one person's entries are chosen more than once, judges will begin to draw from runner-up choices so there will be five unique winners).

8. Winners and their entries will be posted on Wednesday, August 22 here on my blog, and winners will be notified by email. IF YOU DO NOT RESPOND WITHIN 7 DAYS OF WINNING, YOUR PRIZE WILL BE FORFEITED. So check your email, folks.

9. Questions? Leave them below and I'll answer as quickly as I can.

10. HAVE AT IT. 

note: some of your formatting may be lost when posted to Pinterest, so be sure your entry does not rely too heavily on fancy formatting.

Oh, and hey--this contest IS open internationally!

Click here to view entries from past Pinfic contests!

These will give you an idea of how to write your entries.

MONDAY: Day 1

Judge

Jessica Khoury
author of
ORIGIN

TUESDAY: Day 2

Judge

Michelle Rowen
aka
Morgan Rhodes
author of
FALLING KINGDOMS

WEDNESDAY: Day 3

Judge

Kat Zhang

author of

WHAT'S LEFT OF ME

THURSDAY: Day 4

Judge

 

Jessica Spotswood
author of
Born Wicked

FRIDAY: Day 5

Judge

Michelle Hodkin

author of

The Evolution of Mara Dyer

Oh, and PS... 

Be sure to stop back here next week. Starting on Monday, August 20, I'm opening an even bigger contest/giveaway! As in BIGGER PRIZES. So don't you dare miss out.

Bye now!

Good luck.

(NOTE: the Rafflecopter form is being used only so you can track your Tweets and record them here. Tweeting does NOT constitute an entry; you MUST complete the Pinterest challenge to be considered for the contest. Each entry must be accompanied by a Tweet, which is completed below. Winners will be chosen by the judges based on the Pinterest entries, not at random by Rafflecopter. Questions? Ask in the comments.)

*PinFic (noun): a 500-character piece of fiction, meant to be posted on Pinterest

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Upcoming Events

There are BIG DOINGS afoot...

For example,

on Sunday at Midnight EST

The PinFic Contest will open.

You can enter to win

$35 for Barnes & Noble

Also, ARCs of Origin

And some swag!

BUT THAT IS JUST THE BEGINNING.

Because the week after that,

There will be ANOTHER contest

with even BIGGER prizes

And after that...

Origin will be in a bookstore

near you.

Pre-Order ORIGIN now,

And it can be delivered to you

On the morning of Sept. 4.

Does it get better than that?

Click any of the links below 

to pre-order your copy of Origin!

YA Scavenger Hunt

CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED.

Thank you to all who entered! And stay tuned for the next

YA Scavenger Hunt!

and 

Welcome to my blog

on the 

4th YA Scavenger Hunt!

Whew! 

What a race!

Are you exhausted yet? Here, have some water:

New to the hunt?

On this hunt, you not only get access to exclusive content from each participating YA author, you also get a secret number. Add up the numbers, and  enter it for a chance to win a major prize--one lucky winner will receive at least one signed book from each author on the hunt in my team (for a total of 27 books! And that's not even including the giveaways many of us authors are doing on our own! For example--I'm giving away FIVE books right here!) But play fast: this contest (and all the exclusive bonus material) will only be online until noon PST on Sunday August 5th!

You can start right here or you can also go to the YA Scavenger Hunt homepage to find out all about the hunt. There are TWO contests going on simultaneously, and you can enter one or both! I am a part of the RED TEAM--but there is also a blue team and if you do the blue hunt you'll have a chance to win a whole different set of signed books!

 

If you'd like to find out more about the hunt, see links to all the authors participating, see the full list of prizes up for grabs, or if you get lost along the way, go to the YA Scavenger Hunt homepage.

SCAVENGER HUNT PUZZLE

 

Directions: Below, you'll notice that I've listed my favorite number. Collect the favorite numbers of all the authors on the red team, and then add them up (don't worry, you can use a calculator!). Hint: the secret number is highlighted in RED.

Entry Form: Once you've added up all the numbers, make sure you fill out the form here to officially qualify for the grand prize. Only entries that have the correct number will qualify.

Rules: Open internationally, anyone below the age of 18 should have a parent or guardian's permission to enter. To be eligible for the grand prize, you must submit the completed entry form by August 5, at noon Pacific Time. Entries sent without the correct number or without contact information will not be considered.

Now that all the technical stuff is out of the way, I'll introduce the author I am hosting on this hunt. 

I am super excited to be hosting...

DAVID MACINNIS GILL

David has been a house painter, cafe­te­ria man­ager, book­store schleper, high school teacher, and col­lege pro­fes­sor. He now lives on the Car­olina coast with his fam­ily, plus four­teen fish, two res­cued dogs, and a noc­tur­nal mar­su­pial (I need more explanation on that last one--what is this marsupial of yours, David? So mysterious...) Check him out at his website to find out more!

David is the author of BLACK HOLE SUN and INVISIBLE SUN.

BLACK HOLE SUN came out in August of 2010, and it's sequel INVISIBLE SUN came out just last March! Here's a bit about INVISIBLE SUN:

You don't want to mess with Durango.
He left his crew behind.
His father is dead.
And he's going to prove himself to Vienne, 
even if he dies trying.
As he races through flood
and fire and across a violent
and terrifying planet, 
there's a 97% chance he's
going to die trying.
But who's counting.

SO COOL! If the kickin' cover art and that synopsis don't convince you these books are MUST reads--let Suzanne Collins, author of the HUNGER GAMES: she says BLACK HOLE SUN "“Rock­ets read­ers to new fron­tiers … action-packed.” Plus, it's gotten a starred review from Booklist and Laurie Halse Anderson says, "In the best tra­di­tion of Hein­lein and Fire­fly, Black Hole Sun is for read­ers who like their books fast-paced, intense, and relent­less." OKAY. Sign me up. I'll take 7 of each, please! 

__________________

Thank you so much for visiting my blog! While you're here don't forget to enter the bonus contest I am running exclusively during the YA Scavenger Hunt.

I will be giving away a BOXED SLIPCASE packed with ARCS of ALL the Fall 2012 Breathless Reads from Penguin Teen! This includes VENOM by Fiona Paul, BLACK CITY by Elizabeth Richards, THE INNOCENTS by Lili Peloquin, FALLING KINGDOMS by Morgan Rhodes, and ORIGIN by Jessica Khoury. This is HUGE, people! To be eligible to win enter on the Rafflecopter below!

so pretty!

and it includes my YA debut ORIGIN!

Scroll down past the Rafflecopter widget to find the link to the NEXT author on the hunt!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

  

____________________________________________________

Ready to move on to the next blog in the hunt? Click here!

When You Wish Upon a Star...

When I was four years old, I read Danny and the Dinosaur by Syd Hoff. So enchanted was I with this little book that I decided, then and there, it needed a sequel. And I decided I was the perfect person to write it. So I gathered up some notebook paper, penned my tale, illustrated it, and then stapled it together and plunked it onto my preschool classroom's bookshelf. I also forced all my classmates and teacher to read it. So yes, my writing career began with four-year-old force-fed fan fiction--and I am not ashamed.


Since then, it's been my dream to be a "real" author. I can't tell you how many times I've daydreamed about opening the front door, finding a box, and discovering copies of my first novel inside. It's a moment every writer dreams of. I always wondered what I'd do, whether I'd scream and hug the UPS guy or faint or cry. It was my most cherished dream and the moment I had been anticipating since I was four years old. It was the fantasy my mind drifted into during road trips or math class. You know the scene in the Back to the Future movies when Marty's dad gets a box with his latest sci-fi novel inside? I choked up at that part, you guys. That's how real and deep this dream has been for me.


Today, that dream came true.


As it happened, I didn't hug the UPS guy--probably because I didn't know yet what was in the box. I thought it was just more advance proofs of the book for giveaways on my blog, which was awesome, but not too exciting since I already had some. So I almost didn't open the box at all, thinking I'd wait until later. OH. So glad I didn't wait. I opened the box and I was confused for a moment--ARCs aren't usually that shiny--and then OH! MY! GOSH! THOSE ARE FINISHED HARDCOVERS. Snap them up. Hug them. Cry. Dance a little dance. Rip through them, staring at the ISBN and the acknowledgements and the spine. Tear off the jacket cover to fawn over the binding. The whole shebang, my friends. I have now combed every centimeter of this thing and I am in love. It's like they've just delivered my first child into my hands and I'm counting all the fingers and toes and hairs on its head. AND YOU GUYS. It is perfect. 


So I'm a happy mama. This baby's not leaving my sight for the next month, probably. Unfortunately for you guys, it won't be in stores until September 4th--but hang in there! Check out this free sampler which contains the first three chapters of Origin and pre-order your copy--so when Sept. 4th rolls around, you too can open the front door and find this sitting on the mat:

Engraving on the front binding, under jacket (I obsess over cool bindings, so I definitely squeaked when I saw this):

35 days!!


AND guess what guess what--the ORIGIN book trailer is going to be revealed on MTV's Hollywood Crush blog on Friday! To tease you guys, we're posting stills from the trailer Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Go to the Breathless Reads tumblr at 11am each day for your first shot, and to the Breathless Reads Facebook page at 2pm each day for the second! Then, on Friday, partay time!


Cheers!
Jess

ORIGIN Film Rights!

I can finally say it--

The film rights for Origin have been optioned!

So BASICALLY this is what is happening inside my head right now.

More details to come, I promise--I want to walk you guys through it all and share all the crazy happy feelings, but for now, enjoy my cheesy gifs, read the official press release from the Hollywood Reporter, and pre-order your copy of Origin!


So yes, the film rights have been optioned--but that doesn't mean I'm out buying a dress for the premiere just yet (though trust me--don't think I'm not prepared to do just that). Plenty of books get optioned and never made (but of course we have high hopes for Origin!) so questions like "When is it coming out?" and "Can I be an extra?" and "Who is playing Pia?" are still a bit premature. One step a time--and there are a lot of steps involved in making a movie--and this is only the very first step!


I can tell you now, though, that I am over-the-moon-and-somewhere-in-the-vicinity-of-the-late-Pluto thrilled to have Origin in the hands of Scott and Dylan over at Scott Pictures and Stone Village. I first talked to these guys several months ago, and was immediately impressed by their excitement for the book and their passion for bringing Pia, Eio, and the others to the big screen. I am so, so happy to work with this team and couldn't ask for anything more!


And I must shout out a humongoloid thank you to my agent Lucy Carson at the Friedrich Agency and my film agent Michelle Weiner at CAA for being so supportive, helpful, and fantastically savvy throughout this whole process. Honestly, I couldn't even begin to describe the awesome things to come without expressing the sheer magnificence of these ladies!


To stay updated on all things Origin, join my Facebook page--and check out the first three chapters for free on Penguin's newly launched Origin site!


Cheers!
Jess

ALA 2012

At the end of last month, I had the incredible honor of attending the American Library Association's annual conference in Anaheim, CA. You guys. It was amazing. I still can't believe I got to go. I met so many fantastic authors, illustrators, readers, and industry professions that I was a little starry-eyed all weekend. Plus, I got to go to some groovy dinners and parties--and I had to speak for the first time! It was so scary, you guys, but so awesome. And I had great advice and support from so many people that everything went smoothly and, hopefully, I didn't look too green up there. =)


On Friday night, I attended a dinner put together by Penguin featuring authors and their editors. Ally Condie (Matched) and Marie Lu (Legend, Prodigy) spoke, and then I spoke last. We were each introduced by our editors, who shared about how they first received the manuscripts for each of our books, and what prompted them to buy them. My editor, Laura Arnold, unfortunately couldn't make it (she's about to have her first baby!) but Ben Schrank, the president of my imprint Razorbill, was kind enough to step in for her. A lot of teens, teachers, and librarians were at the dinner, and I got to sit at each table and chat with them all. It was such a privilege to meet so many avid and passionate readers! Ally and Marie were wonderfully gracious and gave me some great advice, both at the dinner and at the panel we did on Sunday.

Another highlight was getting to hear Chris Colfer speak about his new release The Land of Stories. I am a total Gleek, and I'd missed hearing him speak at BEA in New York, so I was doubly glad to make it to his presentation. He was so adorable, you guys, and very down-to-earth. I wanted to talk to him, but of course he's across this huge auditorium on the platform, and though I did gauge the distance between us and speculate how quickly I could make it to the stage, there were the bodyguards to be dealt with. In the end, I settled for making up some random question to ask during the Q&A, so at least I know he saw me and I saw him and, you guys, we had a moment. Mission complete. =)

Another highlight--seriously, the whole weekend was one highlight after another--was getting to dash madly around Disneyland for the two hours before closing with Gennifer Albin (author of October release Crewel). We hit the main rides, and it was so dark that we couldn't see the stuff we missed, so all good. Gen was very sweet and tricked me into sitting in the front on Splash Mountain. As you can tell from the photo below. Thanks, Gen. You will be repaid in kind, my dear. >:-)

I was so, so thrilled to have my grandmother with me all weekend. She is a travel nurse and has been working in New Mexico for the past several years, so I don't get to see her nearly often enough. But she flew to Anaheim to stay the weekend with me (at the totally magical Grand Californian Disneyland Hotel--YOU GUYS. They had Bambi shower curtains. Don't think I didn't consider stuffing that nonsense into my suitcase, btw. In the end, my integrity and fear of jail won out). Here's my Grandma. She ROCKS. We had breakfast at the Rainforest Cafe, because 1) it kinda made me feel like I was having breakfast with Origin, and 2) I'm just cheesy that way, okay? Btw, breakfast was DELISHUSSS.

Sunday afternoon was my signing. Ben and I had to run to the convention center to make it in time, having spent too much time spying on the YALSA teens doing their shindig (my gosh, why didn't I know about YALSA when I was a teen? Those kids are wickedly intelligent and I got goosebumps listening to them speak about what they had been reading). Anyway, so we got to the Penguin booth and there's this enormous line in our way. So we're fighting our way through to get to the signing table and Ben asks them what they're in line for. And they said "Origin." I about fainted then and there, but that would have been rude, so I pressed on. We gave away every last ARC and I met some fantastic readers--including a few who had entered my Pinterest contest a few weeks back, some of my Twitter buds, and--this was totally out of the blue and so cool--my Dutch publisher! She'd stopped by the booth and we got to chat a bit about Onsterfelijk (Origin's Dutch title). It was so surreal.

Schnazzy poster of Origin (and me, of course, grinning like an idiot). I am not a kleptomaniac, I swear--but I did consider sneaking this home too.

In all, ALA was a blast! I finished my time in Anaheim by attending the Caldecott/Newbery banquet, where I heard winners Jack Gantos (Dead End in Norvelt, Newbery) and Chris Raschka (A Ball for Daisy, Caldecott) speak about writing and their books and winning prestigious medals. It was such a great night, y'all, and I never dreamed I'd ever get to go to something like that.


So that wraps it up! I am so happy I had the honor to be at ALA, and hope to attend many more in the future. Thanks for reading! =)


Cheers!
Jess