Come On Tour With Me!

It's tour time! Starting tomorrow I'm on "blog tour" for Sammy Keyes, and I hope you'll join me. I've been preparing all week for the tour, and it looks like it will be a fun and varied adventure.

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Basically, my Random House publicist arranged my guest "appearance" at various literature-focused blogging sites, starting tomorrow and running for ten consecutive days.

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The bloggers have asked me to discuss topics they feel will be of interest to their readers, or have asked me to participate in a Q&A. (One of the sites requested Sammy do the Q&A , so next Sunday she'll be subbing for me :-) )

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Here is the schedule:

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Monday, May 31st : Where the Best Books Are Blog (http://wherethebestbooksare.blogspot.com/)

Tuesday, June 1st: Steph Su Reads (http://stephsureads.blogspot.com/)

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Wednesday, June 2nd: Through a Glass, Darkly (http://www.throughaglass.net/)

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Thursday, June 3rd : Mrs. Magoo Reads (http://www.mrsmagooreads.com/)

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Friday, June 4th : The Children's Book Review (http://www.thechildrensbookreview.com/)

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Saturday, June 5th : Write For a Reader (http://www.writeforareader.blogspot.com/)

- Sunday, June 6th (Sammy will be filling in for me at): Mundie Moms (http://mundiemoms.blogspot.com/)

- Monday, June 7th : Library Lounge Lizard (http://www.libraryloungelizard.com/)

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Tuesday, June 8th: Back home for a final stop at : (http://etrtr.blogspot.com/ )

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So basically, to go on tour with me, you simply click on the link for the given day, and presto! There we are! It would be nice to have the company, so join me when you can, and please leave comments at each tour stop if you have the time. I know the blogsites like the feedback, and I'd appreciate the "tour support".

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You may have noticed that the tenth and final day is right here. (Home's a good place to go after tour, right?) Well, I have some news that will have some of you shrieking in your seats.

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Ready?

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Because it's the last stop of the tour, Random House is allowing me to give away...

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Three.

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Bound.

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Galleys.

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Of...?

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Sammy Keyes and the Wedding Crasher.

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How, exactly, we're going to determine who gets these is still up in the air, but we'll have it figured out by next Sunday. So check back here then for details.

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Meanwhile, I'll see you on tour!

What's A Few Monkey Wrenches?

Monday Update: Go for it! The Sammy Short is now working at sammykeyes.com. I hope you enjoy it! ```````````````````` Earlier this week I was really looking forward to sharing some things with you today. But little monkeys have been throwing wrenches and I'm feeling a little deflated. Plus some of you regular readers have already discovered half of what I have to share, so you beat me to the punch! But here's the news (complete with monkey wrenches): Girls Life (GL) has a double page spread in it about Sammy Keyes. It's an "advertorial" placed by Random House, and the first time they've done something like this, so I'm really jazzed about it. They immediately got some excited reader feedback, so that was very cool, too. I hope you'll check it out and let me know what you think. Does the girl in the pictures like Sammy to you? All these years we've avoided having a "likeness" for her, so everyone's got their own picture of what Sammy looks like. I think the interview's fun, and this is where they've launched the "exclusive Sammy Keyes Mystery"--that short mystery I wrote about in earlier posts. Which brings us to monkey wrench #1: I was planning to post the image of the ad, but I've been told it's "exclusive content" for two months, so I have to send you off to find the magazine on your own. And monkey wrench #2: When you go to sammykeyes.com to crack codes to unlock the links to the mystery chapters, the codes crack fine, but the links don't work! Aaagh! The good news: I alerted RH of the problem and received an e-mail tonight assuring me they'd fix the problem first thing tomorrow morning. So if you've already checked in and tried, try again tomorrow. (http://www.randomhouse.com/kids/vandraanen/sammykeyes/) I've also worked this week on getting ready to go on tour....blog tour! Instead of packing, I've been typing responses to questions posed by 7 different blogsites. The "tour" kicks off on Monday, May 31st and will go to a different blogsite each day for a week. This is another first for me, and it'll be interesting to see how it goes and what the response is. It's a Sammy Keyes blog tour, the moderator of each blog has sent me questions or a discussion subject which I am working on responses to. They then will post the response or Q&A on their site at a given day. Most of the readers of this blog are already familiar with questions like, "What gave you the inspiration for Sammy Keyes?" so I was pleased that there were some really unusual question posed. (Like, "Have you ever solved a mystery of your own?") There have actually been a few questions that I've never been asked before, so I know there will be tidbits throughout the tour that you will find interesting. I hope you will all follow along (and that you'll leave lots of pro-Sammy comments at each site!). Monkey wrench#3: It's a little one, really, but after the broken link for the mini-mystery I'm like, hello? I was going to include the link to the first blog tour site tonight since the tour kicks off in a week, but the URL I was provided doesn't work! Aaagh! I'm sure it's just a typo, but sheez. So as soon as I hear back from RH, I'll add it to the comment section. So yeah, a few frustrations along the way, but we'll get it figured out and then there'll be a new mini-Sammy for you to enjoy and a Sammy tour I'm hoping you'll join me on. Be my entourage! :-) My bodyguards :-) My Sammiacs! Or just tag along. I'd really love the company.

Bryce and Julie, Sittin' in a Tree...

The Mad Crunch has yielded content! Results! And a request for video clips for the e-book. Video clips? For an e-book? Yeah. But I'm getting ahead of myself, so eeeeeert, back up. First, yes that image on the left is the movie poster. Or the final art for the movie poster, anyway. That gibberish on the bottom is going to have to change, and we know the date's been moved up to August, so I'm sure the "9.17" will, too. But the point is, this is what the poster for the movie will look like, and this will also be the basis for the cover of the movie tie-in edition book. Did Bryce ever get up in the tree with Juli? Uh, no. But the spirit of the image is great, and I like that they made the kids older than they were in the previous art (see blog post from a few weeks ago). I also really like that they used a font so similar to the font on the original book. I think it ties things together nicely. I don't know what that "Heartland Truly Moving Picture Award" is about, but I'd better check it out. Sounds good to me! And, the movie stills for the book came in, too. There will be 8 pages with 2 pictures each in the book, and they're wonderful! So it looks like the deadlines have been met (barely!) and that the book will go to press with a representative cover and a nice set of photographs. Pfew! Which brings us to the e-book. Okay, so I'm not yet a fan of e-books. I like a physical book. E-books also scare me because this is my livelihood (and passion) and I've seen what downloading has done to the music industry. E-book pros and cons are hotly debated and I'm not going to get into it here, but regardless of how I feel about it, there will be an e-book for Flipped, released just prior to the movie. And apparently the new media marketing gurus at Random House asked my editor (Nancy) if we could possibly supply extra "content" for the e-book. Like, maybe a video of me talking about the book-to-movie process. I didn't know they could include video in an e-book. Or that e-books can support songs. And it just so happens that we happen to have 3 complete, professionally recorded songs based on Flipped. Long story short, when I found out Flipped might become a movie, I started writing songs which we hoped would be considered for the movie soundtrack. I know. I know. And I agree--it sounds wacked out crazy, and oh-please, and who-does-she-think-she-is and all of that. Believe me, I get that. But long before books there was music, and there's nothing like hope in your heart to keep you going. So Mark and I recorded these songs, submitted them, and...were told that they liked the songs a lot, but that the movie was going to use songs that were popular in the 50's and 60's. Too bad for us, but at least we gave it our best shot. Nancy knew about the songs, and when she told the e-book team that they existed, apparently they got very excited and wanted to know if we'd allow them to be included in the e-book. Looks like we'll be providing the "soundtrack to the e-book". Now there's something brand new. They also wanted some short video clips of me talking about how the book got turned into a movie, what it was like to visit the location shoot, how I came up with the idea of Flipped, an inside view to recording a song...stuff like that. So this weekend Mark and I did a handful of short videos. I hate the way I look in them, 'cause right now my hair's really short and l look kind of worn [maybe from that 10 miles I ran this morning] and I'm definitely a snarl-lipped, bug-eyed spaz in parts of these videos. Oh, well. That's life. Anyway, my question to you is, if there was something you would want me to discuss regarding Flipped (the movie or the book or, for that matter, the e-book) what would it be? I feel like I've covered all the bases in the video clips, but maybe not! That's all for now. Thanks for caring; thanks for checking in. I appreciate that you do! See you next Sunday, Wendelin

Flipped Movie Release Date

I just got word that the Flipped movie will be in wide released, not on September 17th as previously stated, but on August 27th. So mark your calendar! Tell your friends! Plan a party! Go! (I'm planning to serve popcorn, drinks, and Peeps at mine.) (And if you're asking, Why Peeps? you really need to go read the book!) And now, a little inside look at how moving the release of the movie up three weeks (or, really, six, as it's in limited release on August 6th) can send a publisher into a mad scramble: As you know, when a book is made into a movie, the book is reissued with a movie-related likeness. You know, they take the movie poster, or part of the movie poster, or the actor images, or whatever, and that becomes the movie-tie-in cover of the reissue of the book. They also will often add bonus features. Like pictures taken during the shooting of the movie, an interview...something movie-related. Now, in order for the publishing house to do all this, they need to coordinate with the movie production company and get the art and permissions and all of that. If there is no movie poster, it's hard to generate a book cover. If pictures are not yet available, it's hard to include them inside the book. And since a publisher wants their movie-tie-in issue to be available a good six weeks before the movie is released, and since it takes a couple of months (at least) prior to that six weeks to print, bind, and distribute the book, Random House was crunched to go to press next week-ish to print movie-tie-in issues of Flipped for the September 17th release date. Which means that next week-ish is already three weeks (or, really, six weeks) behind! And, as of Friday, there's no finalized art; no pictures. I'm sure it will all figure itself out. Or, rather, that people at Random House and Warner Brothers will figure it all out. But being new to this, I tend to try to move things along by worrying, which is, of course, completely ineffectual. So that's where we are as of tonight. I really do have a lot more to share about things related to this, but it's late and I've got miles to go before I sleep so I'm afraid this is all for now. I really appreciate your checking in. See you next week!

What A Finch Knows

We live in the Tiki Room. I swear. It's just birds, birds, everywhere. They're all so happy and chirpy and noisy and busy. We have speakers mounted on the wall outside, and every year finches build a nest in the crook between the speaker and the wall. And every year after they lay eggs, we quit barbecuing until after the eggs have hatched and the chicks have flown away. Finches are so skittery, and since us going on the deck makes them freak out we just say all right, all right, you can have the deck. After they're gone, I always take the nest down (and hose off all their lovely droppings). Then the next spring, there they come again, chirping and chattering and discussing with the in-laws the location and view. (Or whatever it is finches discuss when chirping amongst themselves.) Then they start with the nest building, bringing up twigs and grass and paper, and soon they're settled in for another round of egg laying. Until last year. Last year, I just left the nest up. I figured, I'd save those chirpy little finches some nest-building trouble. After all, word's been spread throughout the finchdom, that our speakers are the place to nest. The chirpers arrived right on schedule, perched on the rail discussing the venue -- I mean location -- for days. They discussed it with the in-laws and the out-laws and random finches from Finchdom. Everybody chirped in with an opinion. And then...they decided to build a nest in the vines instead. Hello? Was there something wrong with the existing nest? Was it not good enough? Silly finches. Then today, beneath the fluttering feathers of the Tiki Room, my sons were the ones chattering away. Friday night they'd driven 100 miles to spend $40 on a thrashed (Epiphone) Les Paul Jr. electric guitar. (Both boys have guitars. Several, in fact. New ones. They were gifts. From us. I know. We paid.) But they came home with this thrashed guitar like it was the ultimate treasure. They were all a-twitter with what they were going to do to restore it. They talked through the night. Drew pictures. Discussed. And today they took it apart, sanded it down, sprayed it white. They're going to install and adjust pick-ups and electronics, fix the bridge, rewire the knobs, sign the headstock...they're going to make it theirs. I have never seen my boys work like this together. And I have never seen them happier. So what I've concluded from this is that those chirpy little finches do know what they're doing. No matter what others give you, there's really nothing like building your own.