Thanks to everyone who called in or emailed questions yesterday to A Book and a Chat.  I had a fabulous time, and I hope I didn’t sound like I was blabbing on.  Storyheart invited me back for a check-in chat on May 6th! (Click the link above if you missed it and would like to listen.)

I am getting very excited about the Virginia Festival of the Book on March 20th in Charlottesville!  My roomie will be Tenner Irene Latham. I’ll also get to be on a YA panel called “Hot Young Adult and Teen Fiction” with Tenner Jenn Hubbard, David McGinnis Gill, and Paula Chase, and so many of my writer (Kathy Erskine, Anne Marie Pace, Barbara Kanninen) and blogger (Book Chic, WastePaperProse) friends will be there, too. I love Charlottesville, and I’m thrilled about going back as a real live author.  (I lived in C’ville for four years while I was getting a Masters in English and teaching.)

Thanks also to all the wonderful readers and writers who have posted reviews about FHN.  Writers approach reviews with a heart beating in fear and trepidation, but I’ve been thrilled with the majority of them. I also hope I’ll learn a lot from reading them.

If you’re collecting flowers to enter the contest to win Beautiful Creatures, Candor, and The Secret Year, the last flower will be post on Hope’s Bookshelf shortly, along with my recommendation for ten flowers to cultivate if you want to speak the language of flowers to your friends.  We had a lot of snowstorm damage to our yard, so this will be a fun chance for me to add some new plants to my garden.  In fact, I’ve got to go do some yard work now ….

What a week!  Thanks so much to all the people who’ve picked up Forget-Her-Nots and posted such great reviews.  You rock!

Zoe put her flower up for the day on her blog — a scent I’m breathing in right now.  My wonderful mom-daughter reading group gave me an amazing bouquet for my launch. Thanks!

I also had a special guest post on the Greenwillow anniversary blog about the inspiration for FHN.

And if you have a moment tomorrow morning (3/6), please call in at A Book and a Chat to ask me anything from 11 am to noon. EST

Thanks!

If you have any free time on Sat. at 11 am EST, please call and ask me questions.  I’ll be on blog radio with Storyheart on A Book and a Chat.  I’d love to talk about FHN, writing, flowers — you name it!  The call in # is 347-237-5398.  Thanks!!

On the Blog Tour, I’m with Kristi, the incomparable Story Siren, today!  Stop by and get your flower to enter the contest to win books from the male POV:  Beautiful Creatures, Candor, and The Secret Year.

Also, Zoe is hosting a guest blog about writers, writing, and why you should be patient with yourself.

Thanks for reading and happy release day to fellow Tenner, Teri Hall’s The Line!

And you can win a copy of Forget-Her-Nots and read an interview with me on the AuthorsNow! site.

Whew! I’m exhausted. Thanks to all the amazing people who came to my launch party! This was THE party of my life, and it was so fun to share my dream with so many old and new friends.  All the girls I coach in soccer, and lots of women from my various book groups were all there to help me celebrate.  Special thanks to these awesome bloggers who came:

** Aine of Aine’s Realm, who is having her very first book giveaway ever with a signed copy of Forget-Her-Nots and swag.

** The amazing S.F. Robertson of WastePaperProse who is putting the miles on her car coming to Tenner readings!  She also took a video of me reading and posted it on YouTube.  You rock, S!!  She is going to post pictures on her site, too, and I will after my nap.

** Also, you have a chance to win FHN from The Book Resort.  She’s my blog tour stop on 3/6!

** If you are collecting flowers to win awesome books this week, I’m guest blogging with the Book Butterfly today on the health benefits of flowers.

** And I’m interviewed on the cool new site Whatcha Reading Now? today.

And thanks to all the amazing friends and well-wishers who tweeted and FB’d and called me yesterday.  I felt the love!!

Wow! I’ve been waiting for this day FOREVER, and so many good things have happened already.  First off, congrats to Lynsey Newton at Narratively Speaking who won the first week’s prize of a signed copy of FHN, swag, iTunes giftcard, & The Dark Divine in my blog tour contest.  Next week has awesome prizes, too, so keep gathering those flowers and tweeting!!  I’m with Chica Reader today, although she may be having some technical difficulties. Be sure to read her review of Brightly Woven, by fellow Tenner Alex Bracken.  It’s a wonderful story with a dreamy wizard.  Other online happenings:

** The awesome and insightful Zoe is giving away an ARC of FHN on her blog.

** I’m giving away a copy of FHN & some Borders gift cards on AuthorsNow, where I’m spotlighted today.

** My cover story is up on the B & N book club blog.

And great reviews are popping up all over the place!  Let me know if I’ve missed anything you see.  (I’ll add to my blog.)

Happy reading!

I found out today that Forget-Her-Nots is going into a second printing!  Before it even hits the shelves!

Thanks so much to everyone across the world that made this possible by pre-ordering and talking it up and blogging about it. I am eternally grateful and hope to thank you in person soon!!

Love, Amy

Thanks to everyone who entered the week one contest.  I am going to try to do it tonight and announce on my release day.  Yay!

This week’s contest is exciting, too.  Collect your flowers to win books told from the male POV:  Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, Candor by Pam Bachorz, and The Secret Year by fellow Tenner Jenn Hubbard.

First stop today is with Cindy at Princess Bookie.  My thoughts on why we should all add more flowers to our lives.  :- )

And here’s the schedule for the rest of the tour.  I’m travelin’ through March 17th!

Running a little late today.  My daughter and I did a “Sleepover with the Sharks” at the aquarium in Baltimore.  So fun, and I especially love watching the jellies.  They’re like underwater flowers!  If you’re picking up your flower on the Blog Tour, I’m at ReadingRocks4Me today.  The first week’s contest ends Sunday night at midnight.

Today I welcome Darcy Wishard to my blog, aka Library Lounge Lizard.  Darcy is middle school librarian, a very active member of the YA/MG blogging community, and an awesome cheerleader for reading!  Thanks for coming, Darcy.

What’s your favorite flower and why?

I love Winter Daphne! I live in the northwest so we need hardy plants and Winter Daphne does awesome here. It has one of the strongest and sweetest scents so if I cut a bunch and bring them into the house their scent fills up the whole room!

Oh!  Sounds lovely.  It’s on my list for this spring’s garden.

Is there a quotation you live by or have posted at your desk?

“The more you read, the more you’ll know, the more you learn, the more places you’ll go. ” -Dr. Suess

I have this one right by my desk in the library!

Which book do you wish you could live inside?

Okay, this is cheesy but how fun would it be to go to Hogwarts? I mean seriously!

LOL.  Everyone wants to live at Hogwarts!  Me, too!

Who’s your favorite dead writer and why? (We don’t want to hurt the feelings of the living here!)

Goodness, probably Shakespeare because to me he really lead the way for a lot of books I love today that are about star-crossed lovers, romance, tradegy, fantasy and faeries!

How long have you been blogging and why did you start?

I started in May of 2009. I have been writing reviews for years for other librarians and so creating a blog just made sense! I admired a lot of other blogs out there and thought hey, I could do that!

And we’re so glad that you did!  What do you love best about YA novels?

Hmmmm, I’ve never really thought about it too deeply but probably because that due to their audience YA authors rarely (if ever) come right out and describe scenes that might be too over the top for the age group they write for (i.e. sex, drugs, violence, and other sensitive situations) so they have to rely on evoking those emotions in other ways. A really great YA author can give a clear picture of a characters feelings and reactions which give the reader and idea of whats going on without being R-rated. Does that make sense?

Definitely.  I admire that, too.  Do you have any predictions for the future of YA novels and writers?

There is sure to be a next big trend, today it’s vampires, werewolves and all things paranormal. A twist on that trend has been angels lately. A lot of authors wrote about vampires before Stephanie Meyer but something about the Twilight series just really stuck with readers. Like it or not Edward and Bella will be added to the list of classic couples…Jack and Rose from Titantic, Romeo and Juliet, Catherine and Heathcliff of Wuthering Heights and so on. I bet right now there is an unknown author out there writing something that will be the next big thing. That is what is so great about books, the endless opportunities for new plots and new characters to love!

What advice would you give to writers who appear at libraries?

Be prepared for a huge variety of questions (about you and your book(s)! I have had middle school kids ask me the most obscure questions about books here in my library! Also, teens love to get free stuff! When authors send me bookmarks the kids go gaga, in fact one author initialed each one and the kids treasured those like they were gold!

What do you think teens love most in a novel?

Although I hate to be gender specific, and its definitely not the rule, for the most part teen boys and girls like different things. First of all, I think that overall teens like books they can relate too, whether its something they’ve already experienced or something they hope/wish to experience someday. If a teen reader can find a character they identify with or admire, odds are they will enjoy the book. So how that breaks down is that boys who love sports will read every book in my sports section including biographies. Then I have a group of boys and girls who read nothing but fantasy (occasionally I can get them to read something else) and then there are kids who love romance (mostly girls but some boys too!) and of course general fiction. Another super popular topic are books where kids are dealing with issues like abuse, drugs and alcohol, etc. obviously because again, its something they can relate to one way or another.

Thanks so much, Darcy, for your insightful and helpful answers.  I’m a little nervous about those library visits, but this helps!!

Whew!  I feel like I’m in a whirlwind before the pub date.  Just added the awesome Tenner Bree Despain’s novel The Dark Divine to my prize packet for this week. And check out next week’s here. You have until Sunday at midnight to enter, so go collect your flowers. My blog tour is international, so I’ll be in Liyanaland shortly.

And on the poetic front, today we have Nicole transporting us to warmer climates. Here are Tenner poet Blythe Woolston’s thoughts on Nicole’s poem:

“Nicole’s landscape love poem tells a very evocative story–
partly because she admits real, sharp edged images and language into
the poem. “Sears,” “goathead cactus,” “cracked barren ground” are
words that make me trust the poet and her love for a very real place.”

Way to go, Nicole!

Painted skies, Painted flowers

As I walk, barefoot, on my native land, in Santa Fe,

the sunset glows with orange embers and red hues

My face soaks up the hot, dry air

Passion for the southwest sears my heart

The desert summons my soul to a sanctuary of blossoms

I step carefully, avoiding the goathead cactus

My swift, experienced feet guide me

A patch of Indian paintbrush flowers graze my legs

I collapse onto the forgiving red plants

They provide a refuge from the cracked barren ground

As I lay on my back, a lullaby of crickets bring me to sleep.

I’m having a great time bouncing from blog to blog!  Today you can find me with Khy, the Frenetic Reader. Did you know I once sat next to a real American Indian Chief on a plane and that inspired a scene in FHN?

Also, you can check out my Romantic Bloopers from yesterday on Harmony’s blog.  Lots of fun!

Lastly, I’d like to feature one of the winning poems from my LoveFlowerPoems contest earlier this month. (Winners receive a package of Forget-Her-Nots swag.) One of my judges, Tenner Blythe Woolston, said:

“I like this formal poem, with its tight end rhymes and well-defined stanzas. It reminds me a little of John Donne–and I like to be reminded of John Donne.”

Wow! Blythe is also a poet, and everybody reads some John Donne in high school, right?  Cool. If you like the poem, send Megan some love.  Here’s her Twitter.

You Slay Me

Speak, speak, or hold your peace forever

For I will not allow your endeavor

This terrible, wretched hold on my heart

With words intended to prick and smart

Like Roses dripping off your tongue

Speak, Speak, or leave it unsung

Laugh, Laugh, tell me I’m wrong

This was not a trick all along

Everything was brilliant from the start

And your Roses only added to the art

Of new love painted bright

Laugh, Laugh, hold on tight

Kiss, Kiss, fade it all away

Keep the jealous fears at bay

Words soft as petal’s dew

Refreshing and brand new

Whisk me away to lands unseen

Kiss, Kiss, end this routine.