Friday Five – Book News Edition & Twitterpation

Thank you everyone for the very sweet comments and emails about the O’Dell Award! I am still tingling with excitement and hyperventilating.

Christmas is finally over up here on the Tundra. We’ve had Daughter #1 (aka Bookavore) and her boyfriend up here for the final celebration. Author Alert – Bookavore is moving to the Big Apple and will be managing WORD, a super-cool bookstore in Brooklyn, starting next month.

I have finally signed up for Twitter. I think it will be most fun while I’m on tour. My Twitter name is halseanderson. Feel free to follow!

My Friday Five is an assortment of book news I’ve been accumulating for a while.

1. Along with all the other amazing news this week, Isabel in CHAINS garnered a Cuffie Award. Be sure to read through the whole list!

2. The Israeli rights to TWISTED have been sold. Check out this student project about the book.

3. Penguin has posted my poem “Listen” on their website. The poem shares reader reactions to SPEAK. I wrote it for this year’s 10th anniversary of the book. (Follow the link, scroll down, and open the pdf.)

4. Illustrator Matt Faulkner has posted a DAMES video on YouTube.

5. We have a WINTERGIRLS Facebook page now. Another nice review has come in for WINTERGIRLS, but I can’t post it for a few weeks. Stay tuned!

I’m headed into the Writing Cave this weekend, hoping to blast through a plot knot and weave in a subplot. What are you doing?

Linkety

My extended family is going through a rough time right now (not Mom – she’s fine), so posting will be sporadic this week.

I received a nice link from a teacher in IL who featured some classroom ideas for SPEAK on her blog.

Publicist Deborah Sloan has a few review copies of CHAINS available (scroll down to the Sept. 4th entry).

If you can’t score an early copy, you can read what professornana thinks of CHAINS, or what Alissa the Teen Services librarian has to say about it.

Oh, and Reading Rants weighs in with a CHAINS opinion, too.

Book Trailer Contest Revision

Thank you to everyone who commented and emailed me about the book trailer contest deadline yesterday. You confirmed my hunch.

I have two announcements.

1. To everyone who has submitted a book trailer as of today. Please email your mailing address to Officemouse AT writerlady DOT com as soon as possible. Your trailer is still entered in the contest, but since I am changing the rules in the middle of it, I figure I owe you something. I want to send you one of my books. In your email, let me know if you want SPEAK, CATALYST, PROM, TWISTED, or FEVER 1793. If you are in the mood to be patient, you can request my new historical novel, CHAINS, which comes out on October 21, or my next YA, WINTERGIRLS, which will be published in May, 2009.

2. To the rest of the world: the new deadline for the book trailer contest is midnight (Eastern Standard Time in the US), October 31st, 2008.

NEW OFFICIAL BOOK TRAILER CONTEST RULES

1. Create a book trailer for SPEAK or TWISTED. You may not use clips or images from the SPEAK movie (it is copyrighted, that’s why). Your trailer must qualify for a PG rating. Try to keep it under two minutes long: four minutes is the absolute maximum length allowed.

2. Post the trailer on YouTube. Include the phrase “TWISTED trailer contest” or “SPEAK trailer contest” in the title. Submissions must be posted by midnight (Eastern Standard Time in the US), October 31st, 2008.

3. Once the trailer is posted, notify us by emailing the Office Mouse: officemouse AT writerlady DOT com . When you notify us, please provide a link to your trailer and a valid email address so we can contact you if you win. Please include the name of your school librarian or English teacher and her (or his) email address. If you are home-schooled, include the name of your public librarian.

4. Watch and wait. Winner will be chosen by Laurie Halse Anderson (aka me).

5. NOTE! Contest is only open to people who will be 21 years old or younger on October 31, 2008.

6. Contest is open to anyone on the Planet Earth. Teens working aboard the space station are welcome too. Entries from other planets and galaxies will be considered, as long as they can be watched on Earth-created technologies.

7. If your trailer is chosen as the winning entry and you are not 18 yet, your parents will have to sign a release form granting me all rights to use your trailer. If you are over 18, you get to sign for yourself. You will be credited as the producer of the trailer, but the only payment you will receive is the prize described below. If you win, be sure to include this on your college or film school application.

8. If you win, your school or public library, or your English teacher, will receive 5 signed copies of my books.

9. There will be two grand prizes awarded; one for the best SPEAK trailer, one for the best TWISTED trailer.

10. The creator of the winning trailer will be awarded an 8GB iPod Touch. Winner agrees to be responsible for setting up and paying for Internet connection and any warranty protection plan for the device.

11. If the winners do not live in a region where the iPod Touch is supported, a substitute prize of equal value will be awarded.

12. Winners will be announced on this blog at some point in November and will be notified by email.

I think that’s everything. Please feel free to post this announcement to listservs and on your blog. If you have any more questions about the contest, please post them in the Comments section.

need help with a muddle

So…. that giant book trailer contest I am having? It turns out that summer is a bad time to do these things.

I have had many more requests from teachers and librarians to extend the deadline into the fall than I have had entries.

Do you think I should extend the deadline? Is the middle of October long enough, or should it go longer?

Restating Book Trailer Contest Rules

There have been a couple of questions about my Hot Summer Twisted/Speak Book Trailer Contest, so I thought I would restate the rules and clarify a few points.

Here goes:

1. Create a book trailer for SPEAK or TWISTED. You may not use clips or images from the SPEAK movie (it is copyrighted, that’s why). Your trailer must qualify for a PG rating. Try to keep it under two minutes long: four minutes is the absolute maximum length allowed.

2. Post the trailer on YouTube. Include the phrase “TWISTED trailer contest” or “SPEAK trailer contest” in the title. Submissions must be posted by 12:00pm, EST, August 31, 2008.

3. Once the trailer is posted, notify us by emailing the Office Mouse: officemouse AT writerlady DOT com . When you notify us, please provide a link to your trailer and a valid email address so we can contact you if you win. If you are in a Summer Reading group, include the name of your librarian and her (or his) email address.

4. Watch and wait. Winner will be chosen by Laurie Halse Anderson (aka me).

5. NOTE! Contest is only open to people who will be 21 years old or younger on August 31, 2008.

6. Contest is open to anyone on the Planet Earth. Teens working aboard the space station are welcome too. Entries from other planets and galaxies will be considered, as long as they can be watched on Earth-created technologies.

7. If your trailer is chosen as the winning entry and you are not 18 yet, your parents will have to sign a release form granting me all rights to use your trailer. If you are over 18, you get to sign for yourself. You will be credited as the producer of the trailer, but the only payment you will receive is the prize described below. If you win, be sure to include this on your college or film school application.

8. If you are in a library summer reading group, your library will receive 5 signed copies of my books. The librarian in charge of the group gets to decide which books to receive.

9. There will be two prizes awarded; one for the best SPEAK trailer, one for the best TWISTED trailer.

10. The creator of the winning trailer will be awarded an 8GB iPod Touch. Winner agrees to be responsible for setting up and paying for Internet connection and any warranty protection plan for the device.

11. If the winners do not live in a region where the iPod Touch is supported, a substitute prize of equal value will be awarded.

12. Winners will be announced on this blog, Sunday, September 7th, and will be notified by email.

I think that’s everything. Please feel free to post this announcement to library and academic listservs. If you have any more questions about the contest, please post them in the Comments section.