So life is funny and weird and upside down right now, and honestly I feel a bit like I’ve been running a marathon (nine months pregnant) for too many days to count.  For a while I was keeping track of how many day’s we’d actually been quarantined, and then I had a baby and now I’m not even sure what day it is!

I had to write down a doctor’s appointment for our new little guy in my planner this morning, and I realized that I couldn’t remember the last time I’d even pulled it out.  Which, if you realized how often that happened during normal life, you’d be shocked. Life is essentially paused, or at least it feels that way for everything happening outside the walls of our house, but I thought that I was LONG overdue for an update on here.  (Thank goodness my computer automatically remembers passwords or I’m not sure I’d even be able to access my own website anymore!  #AuthorFail.)

I’m not sure I even properly documented the launch of Hoax for Hire.  (Takes a moment to look at her own website…nope definitely didn’t.). I think the problem is that I have such a SMALL slice of time in my life these days to accomplish something, and that something always ends up being my next book or the author visit I have coming up, and chatting on here feels like a luxury I don’t have time for.  I’d love to say I found lots of time when quarantine started, but in fact what little time I had (when my kids were in pre-school for a couple hours a week) vanished as quickly as the toilet paper off the shelves.  SO!  Consider this a comprehensive update on ALL THE THINGS, as well as a few things I’m currently doing that have made quarantining with three small children survivable.   Oh, and it should be noted, that with the exception of our newest addition, all the other kids are spending some time with grandparents, which is why this post is even remotely possible.

Diving in, in no particular order.

Launching Hoax for Hire.  This happened last year when life was normal and we didn’t give strangers the side eye and cross the street when we saw them coming. (Remember how nice that was? Sigh.).

My local library has done a launch for all of my books thus far, and they have all been wonderful.  This one was slightly less well attended because unlike my other books that launched in May, Hoax for Hire launched in August right as everyone was heading back to school.

I feel a little bad for this book for that reason.  I feel like it was the baby bird that got shoved from its nest and then fell smack dab on its face.  The poor book can’t even scrape together a decent amount of reviews on amazon! (If you want to make my day and remedy that…here is link for you.  Hint hint. Nudge nudge. Pretty Please! Unless, of course, you hated it…then don’t worry about writing a review! 😉 )

Suffice it to say, August launch dates are not my favorite, and I am VERY grateful that GLITCH will be launching in June.) More on that to come! )

The launch for Hoax for Hire was super cute with Bigfoot trail mix and I even had my oldest attend the launch for the first time.  My mom was supposed to come to help wrangle her, but then thanks to a massive wreck on the interstate got stuck and wasn’t able to make it.  My daughter was furious because the “only reason I came was to see Oma!”   Thanks for the support kid.  * sighs. Rolls eyes.

After the launch, we adjusted to our new normal of having a kid in Kindergarten, and on the day we dropped her off for her very first day we also found out that baby #4 was on the way!

Funny how life works that way. Unlike our favorite surprise ever, our third child, we sat on the fence about a fourth baby for a LONG time. Well, we finally decided that a life of no regrets was the way to go, and we just welcomed our fourth baby (third boy) this past week.   We made the right decision. J

What’s funny is that I was super worried that I was going to miss out on all these school visits at the end of the year because of the new baby. Well, that turned out to be a very unfounded worry! (Although I did have to turn down a chance to be part of a YOUNG AUTHOR’s event since it was three hours away two days before my due date…that one still stings a bit.)

I actually did my last visits VERY pregnant. One was at 33 weeks pregnant to Florida, which was SO MUCH FUN, and the second was to a middle school in Carmel at 34 weeks pregnant the week before everything turned upside down.  I LOVE school visits, and I really hope life is back to normal next year so I can do some for GLITCH!  (If you want to schedule me for a virtual school visit in the meantime, just let me know!  I also have two different pre-recorded videos featuring FLOAT and Hoax for Hire that I can email you for free to use for e-learning!  Just shoot me an email at LauraMartinBooks@gmail.com.)

I had a LONG list of things I wanted to accomplish before our newest blessing arrived, and I’m super thankful that literally all of them got checked off the list.

First Up- Sending out some advanced reading copies of GLITCH. I struggled with the goodies (or in book world terminology “swag”) that I should package up with the books.  Edge of Extinction was easy, dinosaurs are EVERYWHERE. FLOAT was harder, but I went with a camping/ SMORES theme, and Hoax for Hire had Bigfoot stickers and Loch Ness Monster bookmarks.  Glitch, well, how do you send something for time travel? There were a lot of cool options involving funky looking clocks, but I also couldn’t break the bank since I had quite a few of these to send out.  I finally settled on the history angle of things, since Glitch has my main characters jumping in and out of significant historical events.

I bought this game, and broke up the cards into small “training packs” so my readers could train themselves in America’s history like a Glitcher.

These gummies from my FAVORITE CANDY STORE IN THE WHOLE WORLD. (Long story short, but I grew up a bit with the Albanese kids because my aunt was an Albanese…took me a few years to realize we weren’t actually related.) They have the best candy around, and I’ll stand by that till the day I die.  (They also ship…which I’ve taken advantage of a lot since moving from my home town.)

And then I bought this printable on Etsy to send as well.

I got them to the post office and sent out about two weeks before Covid 19 descended on the U.S. like a tidal wave.  I am VERY grateful I got those out the door when I did.

Meanwhile, reviews for GLITCH have started rolling in, and I’m so excited to see this one launch into the world.

 

My favorite review line was this one.

“Martin expertly weaves the story through both Regan’s and Elliot’s perspectives, capturing their innermost emotions, especially their motivations and fears. Their history-based missions and inevitable friendship will appeal to fans of action-packed dystopian stories like the Hunger Games trilogy or Ransom Riggs’ Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children series. This is the “grown-up” version of the beloved Magic Tree House chapter books, and it doesn’t disappoint in honoring that legacy.” (Booklist)

I also thought it might be fun to show you the two cover options my AMAZING illustrator Eric Deschamps sent my way. He is the illustrator who did BOTH Edge of Extinction books, and I was so excited to work with him again.

This was the first time I’d seen two cover options for one of my books, and after a lot of debate and asking my family and friends, I had a fifty – fifty split of what everyone liked with no definitive answer.  So, I went with my gut, and chose the one on the right.

What’s funny is that I’ve shown these two options at school visits since then, and the kids overwhelmingly choose the one on the right.  Lesson learned, next time I’ll send the options to a few teachers to pole their class.

Glitch was my first real foray into time travel, and while I LOVE it now, it was a headache and a half to write. Time travel and all the rules involved can give you (and your saint of an editor) one massive headache, let me tell you. It also involved some historical research, a first for me since my writing thus far has been more of a “I made up this world, so I can also make up the rules and it’s history and there is zero research involved” sort of thing.  Well, maybe not zero research.  I did my fair share of dinosaur research and cryptid research…but that somehow doesn’t feel the same as researching the Triangle Shirt Waist Factory Fire.

Right now Glitch is set to launch on June ________, and while we were planning a launch party at my local library and surrounding bookstores…I have no idea if we will be able to do them.

That being said, you can pre-order it HERE!   (Thank you to ALL of you who already pre-ordered.  You’re my favorite. 😉 )  You could also reach out to your local bookstore to pre-order. Supporting our independent bookstores right now is SO SO important and many of them are even offering free delivery and curb-side pick up. Because they are saints and we don’t deserve them!

The other thing that I am VERY excited about, is that GLITCH will be coming out on audio as well.  I haven’t had a book on audio since The Edge of Extinction books, so this is making me giddy. I ADORE audiobooks and about 99.9% of the books I “read” are actually listened to.  I have a lot of kids…someday I’ll be able to sit peacefully and read a book again, but that day is not today.)

I got to help pick out the narrators (there are TWO since Glitch is told from TWO points of view.  Another first for me!), and I’m really happy with our selections.

While you are waiting for Glitch to hit your doorstep (so you can open your box like it’s holding a bomb and not a book and then Clorox wipe it down), I had a few other fun things to share!

The first is that FLOAT made it onto a state book award list!  Now, if you’ve read previous posts, you know that making it onto Indiana’s YHBA list is on my author bucket list.  Well, it’s just going to have to stay on that list because the YHBA list just came out and my books were not on it. Womp Womp.

That’s okay though!  FLOAT did make Minnesota’s list, and I could not be more excited!  My fingers are crossed that FLOAT or HOAX FOR HIRE make one or two more lists for the 2020-2021 school year.  Keep your fingers crossed for me, okay?  Having Edge of Extinction on Flordia’s SSYRA list a few years ago is STILL one of the highlights of my career. (I got to have dinner sitting next to Peter Brown, where I tried to convince him to adopt a Bulldog from a rescue organization and name it Chowder.  He didn’t go for it, but it would have been amazing!)

The second exciting thing is that I’m going to get to flex my teaching muscles as part of a really fun new program that the Read Aloud Revival is launching next month!

Remember when I was on the Read Aloud Revival Podcast with my very first book?

 

If you’ve never listened here is the episode. 

It was a dream come true, so I’m so excited to be one of six authors who will be teaching writing workshops as part of their Read Aloud Revival Premium program.

Interested? You can sign up HERE.  I am signing up for the month so I can snoop on what all the other authors do!  (I like to snoop on other authors…it’s like going to author school. Which isn’t really a thing, but totally should be!)

The amazing Sarah Mackenzie also talks about it on her latest podcast HERE.

I think that is a pretty solid catch up on all things AUTHOR.  So, if you want to sign off here, that’s fine, no hard feelings. But I thought I’d add in a few tidbits of things that we’ve been doing around here to keep our sanity.

The first thing I did when we got quarantined was start a set snack time.  10 and 3.  My kids would constantly be asking for things otherwise. It’s a domino effect fueled my FOMO. If one kid has a snack, all kids want a snack.

Another fun element we added to snack time was having a “tea party.”  I bought a new tea set (our old one was metal and rusted), and it elevates snack time into an activity that takes a bit longer. If you’re quarantined with small children then you know that “takes a bit longer” is a big selling point these days.

I also set a loose schedule into place with a set art time (thank goodness for Pinterest) and reading time.  We all sit together on the couch and spend a good 30-45 minutes reading book after book after book after book.  It’s honestly my favorite time of day.

One of the ways I’ve facilitated this was implementing a rotating book basket in our living room.  Often reading time gets relegated to naptime or bedtime, but I cycled “new” books into a basket in our living room every few days, and it keeps our reading times fresh and fun. ( Bad picture of our busted bin…this is why we can’t have nice things.)

Sometimes, if I’m feeling extra nice, reading time also involves suckers. (And then large handfuls of baby wipes because sticky kids are not my favorite!)

We have done a few other fun things during quarantine as well like getting a jump start on our garden.

My oldest (age six) and second oldest (age four) have loved listening to a Story Podcast or a Story Pirates podcast while doing a sticker book.  My oldest loves these.  And my four year old has really loved this one! 

We’ve also been juggling the e-learning thing, which, thankfully isn’t too exhausting at the kindergarten and pre-K level. The hardest part is juggling the two-year-old during it all.  It will be very, let’s say interesting, adding a newborn to the mix.  I’m going to go from “I have this under control” to “send help” very quickly I’m afraid. (Also, anyone else been staring at their yard trying to figure the logistics of fitting a pool? No? Just me?  Okay moving on.)

We also added a few fun picture books to our library. These two have been by far the fan favorites.

 

Although my mom just bought them this book, and it’s all I’ve heard about when we’ve called them to check in on life.  (My parents and in-laws took our big kids so we could go to the hospital and then quarantine for a bit after the hospital just to be safe.)

 

We’ve also loved Hey-Clay, and I have a window sill full of the cutest little clay monsters you ever did see.

I think that’s it for now friends. The baby is waking up, and I have a long list of things to try to accomplish before my big kids come home in a day or two.  Here’s hoping it’s not so long before I check in here again. Let’s also hope that the next time I pop on here I don’t use the words “Clorox wipe” or “quarantine” to describe life!

Until next time,

 

Laura

Are you ready for a cover reveal?

I’m not sure if I am. To be honest, I was planning on sitting on this one for a while since its release date got bumped back to August instead of the usual May release my other three books have enjoyed.

Why the bump?  Because in the world of books, I’m not Beyoncé.  Beyoncé got the May slot. How do I fix that?  I work harder to become Beyonce…so to speak.

So I was going to wait until a little closer to the release date to officially reveal the cover to the public, but then I got this idea about creating an ad that I could run on Instagram and Facebook. Something that highlighted my books as great gateway books for kids that don’t like reading yet. When I used to teach I called them gamechanger books.

No one really advertises books this way, at least not that I’ve seen, but I couldn’t get the idea out of my head.  So, I turned to the internet. Which made it pretty clear that while I could learn how to put together a high quality professional looking video…it was going to take some time. And equipment I didn’t own.  And so, I did some bothering of people until I found the contact for the guy at our church who put together the videos, and I sent an email.

I have no idea if this will work. Or if this is a terrible idea.  But I’ve learned that sometimes you just need to follow your gut.

If you want to watch the video, CLICK HERE.

If you want to share that video onto your own social media platform, be my guest!   I have no idea if it will sell books, but we shall see!  And if you think I am asking you to help me move books because I want to make money…let me assure you that’s not the case. I make exactly zero dollars for every book sold at the moment.  (I’d love to have that change someday…but remember… working towards Beyonce over here!). So until I do, I’m just trying to move books because unless you sell books…no one asks you to write any more. And guys, I have so many more books I want to write for you!!!

But back to Hoax. As you saw, Hoax for Hire makes an appearance on the clip.  A brief one, but still an appearance, so I wanted to beat it to the punch.

First a few things about  Hoax for Hire…

This is the first book I wrote after having kids.

To unpack that a little bit.  I wrote The Ark Plan, which would later be split into two books- The Ark Plan and Code Name Flood, before having kids. In fact, I got the call that I’d landed my dream agent three days after my daughter was born.  I was in shock.  So the editing for that book and the creation of Code Name Flood happened when I had kids, but I wasn’t starting from nothing.

FLOAT was completely finished before I had kids as well, so all I had to do was polish it and edit it a bit.

Hoax for Hire was started from scratch during a very exhausting season of my life. It was a book written on very little sleep, too much coffee, and entirely while my kids were sleeping. And to be honest,  that terrified me.

I had the distinct feeling that I’d caught a very bad case of “DUMB” ever since I’d had kids.  Maybe it was because I went from analyzing texts and critical thinking to saying things like “where did your pants go?”, but I was worried that I’d lost “it” somehow.  Lost whatever magical thing had allowed me to write three books. Like it had been drained out of me by the relentless rush of being a mom to three tiny humans.

But just because something is hard, doesn’t mean you should do it anyways. So despite the fact that I had three kids three and under, I sat down to write Hoax for Hire.  An idea that I’d actually written down years ago.

Hoax for Hire came from being forced to teach a curriculum I didn’t exactly like.  It was the Plugged into Non-Fiction program by Janet Allen, and I was given a nifty bookcase with seven copies of all these non-fiction books to teach to my classes of 30 plus kids.

Sounded about right.  But the problem wasn’t the lack of books, it was that we weren’t supposed to actually “read” most of these. We were supposed to pick them apart and dissect them like frogs in order to teach non-fiction strategies.

For the record, this is not how you get kids to love reading.  However, no one asked my opinion, so I did my best with what I had. The books I was given weren’t terrible, but there was one that stuck out from the pack. It was this one.

I was supposed to spend about thirty minutes on it, but you should have seen the way my students lit up when I mentioned the Loch Ness Monster and Bigfoot. It was like someone had flipped a switch, and they were all in.  It was a teachable moment, and I grabbed it.  So, I shut my classroom door, and we spent about four days deep diving into the book. We debated whether or not Bigfoot was real using textual evidence, we watched youtube clips about sea monsters, we read eye witness accounts and discussed what made an eyewitness credible.

In short, we devoured that book.   And at some point during all of this, I walked over to my desk and opened my lesson planner. And in the margins I wrote down “What if ONE family was responsible for all of it?” And Hoax for Hire was born.

So now that know a little background on HOW Hoax for Hire came to be, here is a little bit about what it is about!

Usually I have a great long post with lots of pictures showing the various drafts the cover goes through before we reach the final product. (Translation: I’m apparently picky and my wonderful editor and illustrator enable that pickiness by letting me have some say.)  But I don’t this time.  For the first time ever I was sent a cover sketch, and I stared at it for a few minutes and then sent an email back to my editor that basically said IT’S PERFECT!  CHANGE NOTHING!

Here is the original sketch I was sent by the amazing Kevin Keele. 

You can see a few minor changes, for example I told them what cryptid names to put on the crates, and we added a rather nifty tagline I’m rather proud of, but besides that we kept things the same!  And I LOVE it.

Remember, this beauty doesn’t come out until August.  I know. I’m sad too.

But if you want to pre-order and earn my eternal gratitude, CLICK HERE!

Hi Friends,

So my little brother is FINALLY having a baby! I say finally because my husband and I are about four years ahead in the baby game, and we’ve been watching him and my sister-in-law enjoying all that kid-free freedom and being more than a little jealous.  But his time has come! And we couldn’t be happier about it.

They aren’t finding out what they are having, so the theme for their shower was a little tricky.  We settled on a Bee theme, because yellow is pretty neutral and we love a good theme.

We were a little worried because we had knocked their bridal shower so far out of the freaking park that we’d set a standard for ourselves that was a little high.  That theme was April showers, and it almost broke pinterest.

How was that for some bridal shower eye candy?  Also, can we have a moment for me and that itty bitty baby?

That’s my oldest at about a month old. I had no flying clue what I was doing.  And I had to do an outfit change during the shower because, well, for such a tiny little thing, she pretty much ruined a dress…and some carpet. Thankfully I happened to have the exact same dress in two colors, and had brought both because I couldn’t decide which one to wear.

Anyways, back the present and our Bee shower.

The problem was that we didn’t have quite as beautiful of a venue for this shower, but in the words of Tim Gunn, we were going to just have to make it work.  And we did! (It took lots of hours and three people staying there until almost midnight the night before. But gosh darn it, those onesies on the wall looked great.)

But this post isn’t so much about a cute baby shower, it’s about books. Shocking I know.

It has become a tradition at our family showers (both bridal and baby) to say a blessing over the bride or mommy to be.  I’m not sure who started this, but I know one of my aunts did an amazing one where she gave everyone at the shower a hammer and talked about being tools in God’s hands. I think we’ve all been trying to top that one ever since.

Well my mom was knee deep in Bee themed stuff, and since I have three little kids I’m about as much help as tornado these days, so I offered to take the blessing off her plate. I do write for a living after all. This was firmly in my ball park.  I kept meaning to write the blessing for the weeks leading up to the shower, but life and books and kids kept getting in my way. Plus, I wasn’t exactly sure where to start.

Fast forward to a week before the shower, and I was filling my amazon cart with a few last minute “she needs to own these” books for the shower, and I thought, why not do a BOOK BLESSING?

So while I baked the last two loaves of sour dough bread I’d promised to bring with for the fourth of July celebrations, I wrote a book blessing, and hit submit on a helfty order of Amazon Prime books.  Bam. Book Blessing.

I practiced it on my mom while my daughter (who was thrilled that she was going to get to help host the shower with us) filled the gift boxes with lemon drops. It made her cry. I had a winner.

So, in case you are looking for a cute way to bless someone about to enter the trenches of motherhood, I thought I’d share this here. It is easy to tweak depending on what books or message you want to give your mama to be.  What I love about it is that it will stick around for years and years to come.

With that in mind, try to choose “forever” kind of books. (So no “character” books like Daniel Tiger etc.). Try to pick books you could see them handing down to their grandkids someday. Think timeless.

 

A few tips:

Have your books in order.

I cut up the chunks of the blessing that pertained to each book and taped them inside.

Have someone grab your four year old so you don’t have to worry about them pulling your dress up for all to see mid-blessing.  Sigh.

Here is the blessing if you want to copy and paste it for your own use:

Cara,

You are about to embark on one of the most incredible journeys of your life. It is the adventure to top all adventures. The challenge to top all future challenges, and the most important thing you will do on this earth.

No pressure.

But in all seriousness, the stakes in this motherhood game are high and you’re playing for keeps. I thought about this blessing many many times over the last few months, and I kept falling into the bad habit of wanting to warn you about how exhausted you were going to be, or how utterly wrecked your house would become, or the fact that potty training a two year old could literally bring you to your knees, and then somehow I was supposed to also convey to you that all of that would be so incredibly worth it. That it will be by far the hardest thing you will ever do, but it would be the thing you would willingly choose to do over and over again without a second’s hesitation.

I read once that raising children is like climbing Everest. The climb is hard and backbreaking at times, and you don’t know if you are going to make it to the top, but Gosh, the views are breathtaking. And just like Everest, as soon as you reach the top you start planning a second climb to experience it all again. That’s how second and third children happen in case you were wondering. But I decided that this blessing should be one that you can remember long after the shiny wrapping paper has been thrown away and the toys and clothes have been worn and played with, and I only know of one thing that sticks around for years and years throughout a child’s life. Books.

So, Cara, I am going to give you a book blessing, so that maybe someday, when you are utterly exhausted on a level you thought could only be achieved by ultra marathon runners and Sherpas climbing Everest, and your child begs you for just one teeny tiny extra extra book pretty pretty please with sugar on top, you can grab one of these and remember that after all the tears and spilled food and tantrums of the day, that you are on your ultimate adventure, the adventure of motherhood.

Cara.

May your baby always be to you The Most Magnificent Thing. You may not have met your baby yet, or know if it’s a boy or a girl, but God has known that child for a long time. He knew exactly who he should give you and Aric as your first baby to make your family the best it could possibly be.

 

This book will help you teach your child that making mistakes is just a part of the road to success.

When you hear that first cry and meet that sweet little one for the first time, you will realize that you already love all of baby’s nose to toes. That every part of them was fearfully and wonderfully made, and after you hold that little one in your arms, you will no longer question miracles, because you helped bring one into the world.

This book will make your baby giggle and squeal and give you lots of opportunities to tickle their tummy.

Remember that this motherhood thing doesn’t come with an instruction manual, so give yourself a lot of grace along the way. Especially when baby number two or three comes along, there will be a point where you look around you and wonder how you ended up Where the Wild Things Are. But remember, you can always tame those wild things by yelling BE STILL and taming them with the magic trick of staring into their eyes without blinking once, and they will be frightened and call you the most wild thing of all. And if that doesn’t work, put them to bed early. They can’t tell time yet.

And remember that this motherhood journey has a co-pilot, and that Aric will not be The invisible boy. Give him the chance to change the diapers and rock the baby when he or she is fussy. Remember that his parenting won’t look exactly like yours, and that’s not just okay, that’s a wonderful wonderful blessing. And also remember that it’s completely acceptable to be as loud as possible getting in and out of bed when the baby wakes up in the middle of the night. He may not be able to feed the baby like you can, but he should know that you’re up. This is your God given right.  

This book will help teach baby VW that it’s important to be friends with everyone, and that no one should be treated like they are invisible.

I am almost at the end of my book blessing, but I want you to remember, that you will make mistakes on this journey as well. You’ll lose your temper over something dumb or forget pajama day at school, and that it is incredibly important to remember what happens After The Fall. That we are often brought to our knees in motherhood because God is teaching us to rely on him, not on our own strength. That HE is the one who gave you this child, and that you need to trust him in all things, including pajama day.

This book will help teach baby VW that it doesn’t matter how often you fall, what matters is how often you get back up.

And Just In Case You Ever Wonder about the most important lesson you will ever teach your baby, it is that they know and love Jesus. That they see through your life and Aric’s life what it is to walk the walk. As my mom used to tell me and Aric, I want to see you again someday in Heaven. I want you to be there, no matter what. Live your life accordingly. So, if you do nothing else, make sure that heaven accepts them when it’s time for them to go home.

This book is one of my favorite ways to teach that oh so valuable lesson.

So in closing, Cara, you got this. You have an army of Christian women in this room praying for you and for the blessing that you are carrying. That is the magic of a baby shower. It isn’t the gifts, although those are wonderful, it is that this is the last time all of your people will come together like this to shower you will blessings in one location. And that can be sad, but know that everyone here will continue to shower you with spiritual blessings long after they go home today. We love you. We already love baby VW. And good luck on your greatest adventure yet .

And since I know I love stuff like this, I thought I’d share a few more pictures from the shower.

Random Fun Fact:  My wedding was black and yellow.  So those runners we used were MADE BY MY MOM for my wedding, and we got to use them again! #winning

One of my favorite details was that everyone who hosted or helped with the shower got a Bee broach to wear.  I had grand plans of buying all vintage broaches, but then I got a good look at the total in my ebay cart and reconsidered. A few non-vintage broaches would be just fine, thanks.

We used water beads in the vases, and the cake stands were all re-used from my brother’s wedding. (He and my sister-in-law made them!).

I always think it’s the little details that make the big impact, like a cute sign on the seat the guest of honor will be sitting in, or a cheeky note on a letterboard.

The chalk board signs have been repainted over for multiple showers (repainted because the liquid chalk markers do not erase worth a darn.)

It ended up being a wonderful shower, and while we had fun throwing it, my mom and I are very glad that it’s the last one we have to throw for a LONG time. Pinterest has just set the bar really high these days.

Feel free to pin this idea for later! I even made a handy dandy pinterest graphic for you to use!

Hi Friends!

So I had big aspirations of writing an entire summer camp related blog post to help promote FLOAT  full of lots of embarrassing pictures of myself at camp like this one. (I’m the one in the “cool” sweatband.)

Or maybe this one.

Hello 90’s style.  Nice to see you. (*waves)
Socks and sandals?  Check
Baggy overalls?   Check
WWJD bracelet on my wrist? Check
Headband to hold back the bangs I was attempting to grow out? Check.
Making a weird face in an attempt to look funny and cool?  Check

 

Or maybe even this gem. Because honestly…my sense of style back then could NOT be denied. (Remember how cool butterfly clips were? I do.)

But then my AMAZING editor asked me to write two camp related things to help market FLOAT. And of course, I said yes. So I decided to kill two birds with one stone and post them here for your reading enjoyment!

The first was a letter that would go out to camp directors across the U.S.   I wrote the letter, and then asked if I could doodle on the letter for fun. Marketing liked the idea, so I started doodling.  But guys, when you HAVE to doodle…doodles suddenly become stressful.  I doodled. I doodled some more. I had multiple doodle options to choose from.  I asked for opinions and then doodled some more.  And then trying to figure out how to get a crisp copy back to marketing was extra tricky.  BUT. We got it done. So here it is!

The second thing I was asked to write was a blog post for the HarperCollins blog about what to bring to camp. (Because as evidenced by this incredibly flattering picture of me posing with my little brother while holding a rat…I’m kind of a summer camp expert.)

Upon receiving the email with the request, I immediately thought that writing a post about what NOT to bring would be so much more interesting.  SO, that’s what I did.

Click the picture below to enjoy! (Feel free to pin this sage advice to Pinterest or share to Facebook…because really, you may be saving someone from getting poison ivy between their toes. Consider it a service to humanity.)

Disclaimer:  I asked permission from my best friend (the one on the far right in the first picture) for permission before sending these camp pictures out into the world. And because she loves me, she said yes.

And for those interested, I am pictured at Camp Roger in all these photos.

It is the best summer camp ever. All my kids will go when they are old enough. And many many MANY of the camp details that show up in FLOAT were pulled directly from my experiences every summer at this camp.

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Twas the night before FLOAT launched and all through the house
Everything was prepped and ready- I’m no slouch.

The s’mores were all packed by my author bag with care
It’s a little confusing, because usually I have dinosaurs sitting there.

The children were all settled, snug in their beds,
While visions of grandma visiting danced in their heads.

With excitement and anxiety, at my laptop I did tap,
Wishing that I could send FLOAT to the best sellers list with a snap.

 

Out on the blog-o-sphere there wasn’t much chatter,
Because when it comes to social media, middle grade doesn’t really matter.

Off to my author’s website I clicked in a flash,
A new blog post I would type up in a dash.

When inside my head, there arose such a clatter,
What if nobody likes FLOAT? Will this book even matter?

All of my old worries began to appear,
What if it gets awful reviews? Words can be painful. Oh dear, oh dear.

But then I remembered that not long ago,
Writing books was just a dream I was trying to sew.

So I sat up, gave myself a good mental kick,
It will be fine, I told myself. FLOAT is slick.

More rapid than my anxieties, my blessings came.
And I nodded and remembered and called them by name.

To the top of the best sellers list, or on no list at all,
I no longer cared, because I get to write books which is such a ball.

Over the keyboard my fingers did fly,
I typed up the rest of a silly poem and looked to the sky.

For I know someone greater has a plan for my life,
So a bad review or two won’t cause any strife.

I posted the poem and turned out the light,
Happy FLOAT launch to all, and to all a good night.

Thanks for hanging with that one all the way to the end!  There is a reason that I write middle grade and NOT poetry.

But in all seriousness, FLOAT is about to hit the shelves, and I am equal parts elated and terrified. I hope you love it. I hope you tell your friends about it. I hope you buy it for a kid headed to camp this summer. I hope all sorts of hopes. Big hopes. Little hopes. Hopes I don’t even want to say out loud for fear of jinxing myself.

And while I’m over here hoping and not sleeping because my brain refuses to turn off the night before a book launch, I wanted to let you know how you could win this AWESOME t-shirt and some s’more treats. 

How do you win?  It’s easy.  Post a picture of yourself or your kiddo, heck, even your dog with FLOAT on Instagram or Facebook. If you post to Instagram use the  hashtag #WhereDoYouFLOAT.   If you post to Facebook, just tag me! I’m on Facebook as LauraMartinBooks.

Want a bonus entry? Write a review for FLOAT on Amazon!

I’ll pick a winner in two weeks!

I may even be persuaded to pick more than one winner (I may have gone overboard ordering T-shirts) if there are a lot of creative posts!

 

HI Guys!

I wanted to pop over here quickly to let you know about something pretty exciting.  Not sure if you remember (although you might, because I kind of freaked out about it), but I was on the Read Aloud Revival Podcast not to long ago. It is still one of those things that I pinch myself about and go, did that really happen?

If you haven’t listened yet.  You can do that HERE!

Well, on that podcast I talked about writing books for reluctant readers (I write books for people who don’t want to read them…my marketing genius knows no bounds…insert eye roll here), and I shared some of the things I used to do in my own seventh grade classroom to engage those readers.

One of the things I talked about on that podcast was jelly beans. 

Yes. Jelly beans.  I am a firm believer that EVERYONE can be a reader if they just find the book that speaks to them. I used to explain this to my students by telling them that books were a lot like jelly beans, and that if someone were to hand you a black licorice flavored jelly bean…you. might think you didn’t like jelly beans.  But guys, there are so many other jelly bean flavors out there. Thanks to J.K. Rowling you can even get your hands on a vomit or booger flavored jelly bean if that floats your boat.

  But the same principle applies to books. You just have to find your flavor of book.

Why am I talking jelly beans?  Because the amazing Sarah Mackenzie, the genius behind The Read Aloud Revival just wrote a book. I pre-ordered mine already, and you should to.  I’ll make it easy on you. Pre-order it HERE.  You can thank me later.   And in her most recent promotional piece for it…she was sitting next to a jar of jelly beans.  (Cough Cough…embarrassed blush. Secret celebrations.) I feel a little like I just taught Houdini a magic trick.

She also just aired a new podcast all about books to engage reluctant readers, and she did a whole segment on yours truly and two little books full of dinosaurs and adventure. To say I was flattered would be an understatement.  You can listen to that HERE. 

And speaking of book recommendations, I have some for you!  A while back my amazing publisher HarperCollins asked me to write about a few of my all time favorite books for their website, and to be honest, I kind of forgot that I’d done it. I’m going to blame major sleep deprivation and having three kids three and under… the bags under my eyes right now guys are epic. Also, my house is a wreck, the laundry is ridiculous, and I’m looking for a good house elf if you know of any.

Anyways!  Click here to check out The Martin List. Enjoy!

I think I’ve mentioned before that my knowledge of this whole author game was somewhere between zilch and not much prior to getting my deal for the Edge of Extinction series…right? If you’d forgotten, there’s your reminder. You’re welcome. Anyways, I’ve learned quite a bit along the way, most of which by trial and error.

Anyways, on my fledging author journey, I was lucky enough to meet the one and only Saundra Mitchell. Guys, the girl has written boatloads of books, and she’s funny and fabulous and I got to have lunch with her at Panera once. (John David Anderson was also there…and I felt like I’d been invited to the cool kids’ table.)

Along with being funny and fabulous, she also markets her books REALLY well, and I’ve made a habit of picking her brain every time I’m lucky enough to end up on a panel with her or at the same signing event. I also moseyed on over to her blog to snoop around there for tips…as all new clueless writers should. It was here that she mentioned postcard campaigns, and I got excited. Postcards! I could totally do postcards! They didn’t require a babysitter or even leaving the house! YES! I read her post a few times then started price shopping online for a good deal on postcards. The problem was that I had no real idea what it should look like. Saundra gives some information on what should go ON the postcard information wise…but that was it. I found a lot of beautiful postcard examples online for illustrators, but not even one example for authors. So, like any novice, I decided to wing it. And wing it I did…

Mistake #1– When purchasing postcards…more is not always better. I was about to order 500 postcards (enough to mail to every Indiana Library, Middle School, and Elementary school) when a deal popped up. For only a few more dollars I could order 1000 instead of 500. No brainer right!? How long can it take to hand write a thousand postcards? Answer….no clue. I’ll let you know. Six months later and I’m still staring at A LOT of unwritten postcards.

Mistake #2- Upgrading your postcard to the larger size because it’s prettier and more impressive looking. While both those things are true, they also can’t be mailed as a postcard with a postcard priced stamp. They need a regular stamp…now you’re spending A LOT more money.

Mistake #3– Putting too much information on the back and not leaving any room for the post office to put their processing information on it. So now you have to put your “postcard” in an envelope…so it’s not really a postcard anymore…is it?

Mistake #4- Misprinting your labels so many times that you end up just cutting the labels out with scissors and piecing your addresses together like the most obnocious puzzle ever. This takes a LONG time. It also makes you want to scream.

So there you have it. A LOOOOONG list of screw ups that left me with a mountain of postcards that I’d spent a good chunk of change on (see mistake #2), and no where to go but onward…spending even MORE money so I didn’t waste the money I’d already spent. LIFE LESSONS ARE FUN. Especially when you have a husband that’s good at math and can tell you how many books each postcard would have to sell for you to make it all worth it. The answer…a lot.

The good thing is that I did manage to salvage the situation, and even learned a few tricks along the way.

 

Trick #1– If you have to use envelopes, buy the cute colorful ones ½ off at Hobby Lobby. This will help your postcard stand out.

Trick #2– Dino Stamps Are Awesome. A small detail like this shows that you put effort into this, and will hopefully keep your envelope from dying a horrible death in the trash can.

Trick #3– Get discounted Stamps.   Did you know that Ebay sells stamps? Did you also know that when Ebay sends you a promo code for say 15 dollars off your next 75 dollar purchase…you can put that towards stamps? Yup. #Winning

Trick #4– It’s all a lot less painful if you do it while watching a good movie with your mom helping you. Because, as we all know, moms make everything better.

Trick #5– Fun pens make everything better. I linked my favorites here.

So there you have it. Lots of mistakes…a few things learned. Now I’m off to write a few more hundred postcards…because it would be nice to get this set done before I need to make some for FLOAT! Sigh.

Hi Friends,

Is this thing still on? I apologize for the LOOOOOONG radio silence. We welcomed our third Martin baby this fall, and preparing for him, editing my 2018 book FLOAT and trying to write the book that will come out in 2019 proved to be just a tad too much for me! Something had to give, and it ended up being this website. Well, that and sleep.

So what’s been happening since I last popped on here? A lot! More fun school visits and signings for the EDGE series, but I’m not going to talk too much about those right now, because…drum roll please…
The cover for FLOAT is finally ready to show the world!

And I’m patting myself on the back because Amazon did NOT beat me to the reveal punch this time. And if you saw the state of my house right now, you’d understand that getting ANYTHING accomplished is a matter of celebration around here. I vacuumed today and felt like someone should really throw me a party to celebrate that fact. Not even kidding.

Unlike my EDGE series that was illustrated by the ever so talented Eric Deschamps, the FLOAT cover was created by the equally talented Erwin Madrid. His illustrations are beautiful and colorful, and I am so lucky that he was selected to work on one of my books. (He also did the cover for Crenshaw by Katherine Applegate…which is like saying the same guy who works with Michael Jordan also daned to work with you…which is pretty darn cool if you ask me.)

So a little bit about FLOAT.

Send the kids from Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children to Percy Jackson’s Camp Half-Blood, and you’ve got Float—a fast-paced middle grade adventure about a group of kids with uncontrollable abilities who are struggling to accept themselves.

Emerson can float . . . he just can’t do it very well.

Without his weighted vest and shoes, he’s in danger of drifting all the way up to the moon. His uncontrollable floating is classified as Reoccurring Incidents of the Strange Kind, or his RISK factor. It’s alienated him from non-RISK people throughout his life, and now it’s landed him in a government-funded summer camp for RISK kids. This camp is the last place Emerson wants to be, but when he meets the other boys in the Red Maple cabin, he’s surprised to realize that this summer might not be so bad after all. That is, until he discovers that his new time-traveling friend, Murphy, is hiding a secret that threatens all of their lives. Now it’s up to Emerson and the Red Maple boys to save themselves—and everyone like them.

Laura Martin seamlessly weaves the fun of a summer at camp with the high-stakes action of Emerson’s life-or-death mission and the relatable growing pains that come with trying to find your place among your peers. Fans of Dan Gutman, Gordon Korman, and Lisa McMann will love the humor, heart, and heroism in this action-packed novel from the author of the critically acclaimed Edge of Extinction series!

This book is near and dear to my heart for a few reasons, but the big one being that so many of the adventures the characters of FLOAT go on were actual adventures from my Dad’s childhood. I grew up hearing about these crazy things he used to do with his cousins and marveling that he survived into adulthood. So when I started writing this book I essentially stole his childhood and handed it off to a character named Emerson who happened to float. I’m a writer, which means I lie for a living…so stealing someone else’s childhood experiences isn’t at all beneath me. Especially since my dad gave me permission. 🙂

By the way…this is my dad…  Handsome. Right?  Also- me in a wedding dress because finding a good picture of just the two of us is nearly impossible.

Anyways…FLOAT is set to launch on May 29, 2018 and I couldn’t be more excited! Click HERE if you want to pre-order it! 

I can’t wait for you all to read this one, and I will make an effort to pop back in here every now and then before it launches. Although, that’s contingent on a certain someone sleeping a bit more…

I don’t play favorites with my kids, but two of them sleep twelve hours a night. Just saying.

Although he was pretty good about sleeping through the book events we drug him along to recently…so I’ll probably keep him. (God bless Grandmas who come along to book events to watch your brand new baby. Amen.)

It’s funny, being an author doesn’t look much like I pictured it…

It’s better.

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HI Friends!

Phew! LOTS has been going on since the last time I popped in over here. The first being that EDGE OF EXTINCTION- CODE NAME FLOOD has been released! (Cue the happy dance, confetti, champagne corks, and glitter.)

I no longer feel the need to apologize for the cliffhanger ending of book one, because now you can finally find out WHAT IS IN LAKE MICHIGAN! Hint-It’s pretty awesome, and the illustration of said thing in Lake Michigan by the one and only Eric Deschamps is even better.

I’ve learned quite a lot in this first year of authoring (post to come on some of those lessons), and the launch of this book was quite a bit different than the launch of book one. For one thing, there actually WAS a launch! Two launches if we are being accurate.

I remember the night before my book came out last year. I had the same feeling I used to have the night before Christmas. I was that excited. And then the day of…not much happened. I did my normal mom routine, and I had friends and family send me pictures of their newly arrived books, and I felt my excitement turn into something more like the pre-race jitters I used to feel before running my leg of the 4×800 in high school-a combination of nerves and the desire to vomit or hide, or do both simultaneously.

Sigh, the joys of running long distance track. Gosh, I miss it.

Anyways.

That night my mom came over and my husband and I went out to eat, a rare thing with a two year old and a two month old at home. Of course, being only two weeks post-baby NOTHING I owned fit right, so I made due with a maxi skirt, which, let’s be honest people, is just a fancy way to wear yoga pants, and we hit up the local Barnes and Noble where I took a picture with my book on the shelf.

And that was it! Book launched! I sat at dinner that night and had a hard time talking with my husband, and it wasn’t just because we were out of practice carrying on full conversations without two small children flailing about in our midst…it was because I’d finally seen my book on the shelf, amongst ALL these other beautiful books, and it was terrifying. How was I going to convince people to spend their hard earned money on a book about dinosaurs of all things? How?

Fast forward to this book’s launch. Totally different ballgame. I had an event scheduled the day the book came out at my local library, and another signing scheduled for that night. I was actually LAUNCHING my book…crazy right?

The first event was at my local library, and it was AMAZING. If I had ten librarians on my side like this girl right here, I’d be on the best sellers list tomorrow.

And I’m not even joking about that.

The entire event was dinosaur themed (of course), and there was everything from a fossil expert with specimens the kids could touch and examine, to exploding dinosaur egg experiments, chiseling dinosaurs out of rock, guessing out much dinosaur poop was in a jar, and a survival hike.

The amazing 4Kids bookstore was on hand to sell books. (PS. If you’d like a SIGNED copy of CODE NAME FLOOD just contact 4Kids! They can ship you a signed and personalized copy!)

I did a short presentation for the kids while they had their “Desert with the Dinos” about some of the behind the scenes stuff that went into creating the covers for book one and two.

Afterwards I had a pretty impressive lineup of kids waiting to get their books signed.

It was AMAZING. And I got exactly ZERO photos of it. #authorfail. Oh well.

The second event was at the Barnes and Noble in Carmel, Indiana, and it was scheduled for six o’clock. I left with plenty of time to get there, and made the snap decision to go five minutes out of my way so I could restock on my go-to dinosaur gummies.

World Market is the ONLY place I’ve found that sells them (unless you want to spend 3x’s the normal amount on Amazon), and I use them for promotional purposes etc. (You can see some of the fun giveaways I put together for the library event  below. I had some EDGE OF EXTINCTION T-shirts bundled with the dummies and some dinosaur ring pops!)

Bad choice. I got stuck in a MAJOR traffic jam. I still managed to run  (literally run) in and grab every dinosaur gummy they had in stock and made it to Barnes and Noble ten minutes early. I’m usually a half hour early to signings, so I FELT late, even though I truly wasn’t. I was met at the door by one of my favorite store managers and escorted to the kid’s section at the back of the store, where a LINE OF PEOPLE WAS WAITING.

WAITING.

TEN MINUTES EARLY.

I about choked. This was a first. I was so flustered I didn’t even take the time to pull out my dinosaurs. I just sat down and started signing. SO COOL.

And again, ZERO pictures of said line. But I promise it was there.

So the book is launched, and to be honest, I wasn’t even really mentally prepared for it.

Because….drum roll please…..HarperCollins just signed me for two more books in 2018 and 2019. Go find that confetti and glitter again! No big deal if you can’t find it, I’ll happy dance and throw glitter for the both of us.

I can’t offer many details yet, but I can say that the next two books AREN’T more Edge of Extinction books. (Right now that series stands at just the two books. Never say never though…I’d love to write a few more books about Sky, Shawn and Todd!) Never fear though, if you liked EDGE, I’m pretty sure you’ll like this one too!

In order to make 2018 happen my amazing editor and I have been hustling to get edits done and off to copy editing before May 30, which you may recall was also the launch date for book two. Things have been busy in the best possible way.

Meanwhile my episode of The Read Aloud Revival went live! (You should just keep that glitter at hand come to think of it…)

Listening to it was equal parts exciting and terrifying. I’m still pinching myself that I had such an amazing opportunity, and I grin like an idiot every time I have my cup of coffee out of one of their amazing mugs.

If you’d like to listen to me talk about how to engage reluctant readers you can check it out here.

I was also featured in my town’s weekly newspaper. I got the cover! And… I look like a goober.

 

This is how my life usually works. Ha! I had an awesome time taking pictures for the story, and the very last shot the photographer took was the one that made the cover. She said, “Hey, pretend the dinosaur is kissing you!” So, because I follow directions to a fault, I did. When I got home I mentioned it to my husband, who said, “You did what?!” I shrugged, and reassured him that she took tons of other pictures, and I doubted that she’d use that one. Well, I was wrong.

When I mentioned the general dorkiness of the picture to a friend she said, and I quote. “It’s fine! Authors are supposed to be quirky.” Well, I nailed it then!

I was also featured in a pretty awesome interview and  book review by the one and only Middle Grade Ninja.

You may remember that I wrote a guest post for the blog last year. Well, I am now lucky enough to be in a writing critique group with the GRAND NINJA HIMSELF!

Life is funny that way. It turns out that he lives not far from me, and had I known that all those years I stalked his blog for agent interviews…well, let’s just say I would have found a way to introduce myself.

And last but not least, I was also interviewed over at Brock Eastman’s website. His questions are always some of my favorites, and he has been a HUGE supporter of the EDGE series from almost day one! (Have you read his books yet?! SO good.)

Sick of listening to me talk about books yet? I don’t blame you. I’m kind of sick of listening to me. But before I sign off, I wanted to thank ALL of you who have supported me on this author adventure. The last year has been a whirlwind of wonderful, and it wouldn’t have been possible without you guys. Thank you for reading my books, for talking about them to your friends, for reviewing them on Amazon and Goodreads, for showing up to book signings and for letting your child buy my book when I visited their school. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Signing off for now.

Laura

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Bucket Lists

Hi guys! I know I haven’t popped over to this little corner of the Internet for a while, but that’s because some serious writing has been happening! Hallelujah Amen! Part of that is due to the awesome writing group that I managed to score. They call themselves the YA Cannibals, but they let a humble middle-grade writer like myself join in the fun. There are a few published authors in the group, and a few who are still on the road to publishing, but I’ve really loved getting my work torn to shreds by them.

One of the main pieces of advice I tell young writers is to find a group of people who will read their work and be HONEST not just NICE. Nice people are great- don’t get me wrong. Hang out with lots of them, be friends with them, but don’t hand them your book because they will inevitably be nice and tell you it’s wonderful even if it’s not. SO! After my first session with the cannibals, I scraped together the pieces of my manuscript that they’d torn to shreds, and got to wrok piecing it back together into something even better. It’s a new project that I’m pretty excited about, and I can’t wait for you to read it someday!

BUT, a post has been swimming around in my mind for a while now, and I thought I’d get it written down so it could stop taking up brain space that needs to be devoted to other things!

So, here is my Author’s Bucket list of all the things I want to accomplish during this one wonderful crazy life that I’ve been blessed with. Although, I should really call it a Life List, since the characters in one of the books I’m currently working on think that Bucket Lists are down right depressing. But, I won’t tell them if you don’t! So here it goes.

1. Get a starred review on Kirkus.

For those of you not in the publishing world, there are a few key places that review new books. These are the little blurbs you usually see posted on Amazon. The main ones are School Library Journal, Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, ALA Booklist, and Kirkus. If these reviewing sources were people, the first three would be bouncy bright eyed cheerleaders waving their pom poms wildly, or over-caffeinated soccer moms on the sidelines wearing their MY KID is #1 t-shirt. And Kirkus? Well, he’d be the cool guy wearing aviators sulking on the sidelines and sneering at how dumb the players shoes happen to be. You get the picture. So when they review your book, you grit your teeth and hope for the best. BUT, every now and then they give a book a starred review. And dang it, I want one of those stars. I want it bad. So watch out Kirkus…I’m coming for you.

2. Big Obnoxious Banner

I’ve attended a few of the BIG “Lets get a ton of authors in one place and sell lots of books” events, and I’ve really enjoyed them. But I have to tell you, someday, I want my table set up in front of a gigantic banner with my face on it ala Chris Grabenstein at the Books by the Banks event I attended. Not so much for the face part, because honestly that would be a little creepy to have staring at you all day, but because I want my table COVERED in books I’ve written. (Not that I don’t love just having Edge of Extinction-The Ark Plan on my table, but I feel it’s getting lonely.) Lucky the second book in the series Edge of Extinction-Code Name Flood is coming out on May 30!

3. Meet my Editor and Literary Agent in Person.

I have been incredibly blessed to work with two amazing women in my career thus far. The first is my literary agent Jodi Reamer. Guys, I still pinch myself when I tell people that she’s my agent. She was my dream agent, and I never in a million years thought I’d get to work with her. We’ve talked on the phone and emailed a ton, but I’ve never gotten to meet her in person, and I’d love to buy this girl a coffee or 500 coffees as a thank you for all she’s done for me.

The second person I’d love to meet would be my amazing editor at HarperCollins, and I’m not just saying that because she lives in Hawaii. (I know…lucky girl.) But like Jodi, we’ve emailed and talked quite a bit, but I’d love to sit down over a coffee with her someday. Without her my books wouldn’t even be a 10^th of what they are today.

4. YHBA Award

If you’re scratching your head over what YHBA is, then you are clearly not from Indiana. YHBA stands for the Young Hoosier Book Award, and it is a big hairy deal. As a teacher I tried to read all the YHBA selections every year, and my students would vote on which they thought should be the winner. Every time I’d take my troop of seventh graders into the media center for library time, I’d stare at that huge YHBA display and promise myself that one of my books would be on there someday.

5. Be on the Read Aloud Revival Podcast

Okay guys, I’ve talked about the Read Aloud Revival before here, but I am SO excited to announce that I can CROSS THIS ONE OFF THE LIST! Sarah Mackenzie, the mastermind behind the Revival contacted me a while back, and I about fainted from excitement. I’d sent her a copy of my book last May when it first came out with a letter professing my love for her podcast, but never thought I’d hear from her. You see she interviews REAL authors. Like, tons of books to their name, accomplished 1-4 on my list years ago authors. Not début authors with one measly book to their name! But guys, my podcast with her airs on May 9! You can find all her amazing podcasts here.

6. Travel to the U.K. for a book event.

As I’ve mentioned before the Edge of Extinction series is also published in the UK, with very different covers.

I’ve been contacted a few different times by schools or award coordinators from across the pond because my book is under consideration for something or other, but I’ve never been able to visit or attend any of the events. I’m in a season of life where dropping everything and flying that far away just isn’t feasible on either the kid front or the affordability front. BUT someday…I’m going to go for a fun book event and then be a tourist to my hearts content.

7. Best Seller (Sorry. Cliché, I know.)

Oh come on, you had to see this one coming! I think it’s an automatic addition on EVERY author’s bucket list, and I’m no different. I would love for one of my books to really take off Rick Riordan and The Lightening Thief style, so that crates of my book are dropped off at Costco someday. (He had an instragram post about this a while back…and I just can’t get over it. A CRATE of books.) Moving on…

8. A Sighting in the Wild

I’ve met a lot of people by this point who have read my book, which is always equal parts thrilling and terrifying. But I’ve never happened to spot someone reading my book when I was out and about, in a waiting room, or at the library etc. My cousin called me the first week EDGE came out and described how she’d spotted a boy reading it at the dentist office, and I was more jealous than if she’d gotten to share an Uber with Brad Pitt. I have no idea what I will DO when I actually do spot someone. Probably freak out and frighten them, but I can’t wait.

9. Meet John Green

He lives in Indianapolis. I live in Indianapolis. I’ve read all of his books and professed my love for them more times than I can count. Fate will make this happen, I’m pretty positive. Also-rumor has it that he writes at a Starbucks some where on Meridian….and there are only so many of those. (Rubs hands together like evil villain.)

10. Have my kids read my books

I think it will be fun someday to sit down with them and read the words that I’ve written. I’ll be able to tell them how they were only one or two when this one came out and show them their name in the acknowledgements section. And who knows, they may hate everything I’ve ever written. And I’ll probably be okay with that, because every reader has to find the books that speak to them. But I will protect my warm fuzzy image of them curled up with a copy of one of my books, and begging me to tell them what happens next. And, of course, I wont.