Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Two New Exciting Books!!! Rookie Yearbook Three and This is Your Afterlife!!!

I love October. October 3 (my wedding anniversary) and October 31st (the best holiday of all!) are my favorite days, but today, October 21st, is really giving them a run for their money because not one, but TWO books that I've been eagerly awaiting are coming out. I seriously couldn't be more excited about these books if they were my own: ROOKIE YEARBOOK THREE, edited by Tavi Gevinson, and THIS IS YOUR AFTERLIFE, the YA debut by my hilarious, brilliant, amazing, simply-not-enough-cool-adjectives-exist-to-fully-describe-her critique partner, Vanessa Barneveld!

Let's talk about the amazing Vanessa and her book first. My books would basically not exist if not for Vanessa--well, they definitely would not be as good. We became online critique partners (Vanessa lives in Australia where I really hope to visit her one day!) shortly after I WANNA BE YOUR JOEY RAMONE sold in 2007. She's read multiple versions of both of my books (and some not-published manuscripts as well) and was a total lifesaver during the revisions of BALLADS OF SUBURBIA in particular, reading and immediately responding to the changes I was making at 3 am (this was where it was very convenient to have an Australian CP). She's got an eye for character and an ear for voice, which have helped me a ton, but those plus her incredible sense of humor have made her manuscripts a blast for me to read over the years and I AM SO FREAKIN' EXCITED that readers EVERYWHERE get to be swept into one of Vanessa's worlds.

Here's the lowdown on THIS IS YOUR AFTERLIFE!

When the one boy you crushed on in life can't seem to stay away in death, it's hard to be a normal teen when you're a teen paranormal.

Sixteen-year-old Keira Nolan has finally got what she wanted—the captain of the football team in her bedroom. Problem is he’s not in the flesh. He’s a ghost and she’s the only one who can see him.

Keira's determined to do anything to find Jimmy's killer. Even it if means teaming up with his prickly-yet-dangerously-attractive brother, Dan, also Keira's ex-best-friend. Keira finds that her childish crush is fading, but her feelings for Dan are just starting to heat up, and as the story of Jimmy’s murder unfolds, anyone could be a suspect.

This thrilling debut from Vanessa Barneveld crosses over from our world to the next, and brings a whole delightful new meaning to "teen spirit".

Here's the book trailer:



I devoured THIS IS YOUR AFTERLIFE. It was funny, it was sad, it kept me turning pages, and best of all, it reminded me of my own teenage years when I was obsessed with the Ouija Board and longing for the psychic abilities that Keira has. If you are looking for great ghost story with laugh-out-loud moments and more thrills than chills, this is it.

To celebrate her launch, Vanessa is throwing a big, online bash on her blog from tomorrow, October 22nd through October 31st. It will be filled with guests, including me! I'm doing a post and a giveaway (of an anthology featuring a ghost story I've written) on October 30th. I hope to see you there!

And now.... (drum roll)... on to ROOKIE!!!!

I've had the privilege of being a part of Rookie magazine since it launched in September of 2011. (Remember this super-excited blog post when it debuted?) I'm still in awe of everything that we do. The Yearbooks feature the best of the best of our online pieces for each year as well as some cool added bonuses. This is our first Yearbook with Razorbill and since I'm a Penguin/Random House author too now, I'm think that's pretty awesome. I also have two essays in this one, which feels like a huge accomplishment.

Here's the lowdown on ROOKIE YEARBOOK THREE!

Rookiemag.com is a website created by and for young women to make the best of the beauty, pain and awkwardness of being a teenager. When it becomes tough to appreciate such things, we have good plain fun and visual pleasure. When you're sick of having to be happy all the time, we have lots of rants, too. Every school year, we compile the best from the site into a print yearbook. Behold: our Junior year!

In Rookie Yearbook Three, we explore cures for love, girl-on-girl crime, open relationships, standing for something, embracing our inner posers, and so much more. Featuring interviews with Rookie role models like Sofia Coppola, Amandla Stenberg, Greta Gerwig, and Kim Gordon, and a bonus section chock-full of exclusive content including a pizza pennant, sticker sheet, valentines, plus advice and contributions from Lorde, Shailene Woodley, Dakota and Elle Fanning, Grimes, Kelis, Sia, Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer of Broad City, Haim, and more!

I know!!!! Amazing, right? Can't wait to go home and pore over my copy!

And if you are in the New York or Toronto areas, there are events celebrating the release TOMORROW, October 22. There is also an event in Brooklyn on November 5th. All of the details are on the Rookie Events page. Go if you can and tell me how fabulous it was!

4 comments:

Vanessa Barneveld said...

Steph! Happy anniversary, happy Halloween and HAPPY RELEASE DAY!!!

I can't wait to read your essays in Rookie Yearbook Three along with all the other contributors' work and interviews!

Thanks so much for your kind words about me (blushes) and Afterlife! My books basically wouldn't exist without you either! xx

x V

Beena said...

WOW - I was just browsing through & stumbled upon your lovely blog - It looks gorgeous and it has interesting posts that I can relate to! - Def. checking out these new reads! I'm now following you via gfc, Hope you check out my blog? keep in touch love x

Benish | Feminist Reflections
A Thousand Pieces of You Hardcover Giveaway

Unknown said...

Seventh-Heaven is an effusively-great-reward; a madhouse bookay of ornate, infinite blossoms; an excessive exaggeration of our lives woven together with your indelible soul, dear: I was an actual NDE once and, believe-you-me, girl, the Great Beyond is waiting for YOU with baited breath:

Wanna join me Upstairs for the most zany, kooky, extremely exquisite and explicit, par excellence, ethereal endorphins, psychotic, radical, tantalizin, stupendously-kick-ass, excruciatingly fabYOUlous, ultra-maximum-party-hardy at my place you ever encountered without d'New Joisey accent for an eternal slew of precarious, magnanimous and primeval absurdities etched in the Granite Corridoors of our eternity with a melt-in-your-mouth infinite indulgence infinitely???

We gotta whole lotta mellifluous illustrations, Fundamental Blueprints for civilization on our 22ish blogs and Im moe than happy to share, to give to you what God Almighty has bestowed on me, a steward in this existence finite.

Follow us on the journey Upstairs...
cuzz the only other realm aint too cool.

Unknown said...

Seventh-Heaven is an effusively-great-reward; a madhouse bookay of ornate, infinite blossoms; an excessive exaggeration of our lives woven together with your indelible soul, dear: I was an actual NDE once and, believe-you-me, girl, the Great Beyond is waiting for YOU with baited breath:

Wanna join me Upstairs for the most zany, kooky, extremely exquisite and explicit, par excellence, ethereal endorphins, psychotic, radical, tantalizin, stupendously-kick-ass, excruciatingly fabYOUlous, ultra-maximum-party-hardy at my place you ever encountered without d'New Joisey accent for an eternal slew of precarious, magnanimous and primeval absurdities etched in the Granite Corridoors of our eternity with a melt-in-your-mouth infinite indulgence infinitely???

We gotta whole lotta mellifluous illustrations, Fundamental Blueprints for civilization on our 22ish blogs and Im moe than happy to share, to give to you what God Almighty has bestowed on me, a steward in this existence finite.

Follow us on the journey Upstairs...
cuzz the only other realm aint too cool.