My @DragonCon Schedule!

Come see me during DragonCon! I shall attempt to be amusing, and my husband shall attempt to sell you one of my books, and I shall sign them with flourish, much like Gilderoy Lockhart.

Seriously, though, these panels all look amazing. Don't make me hangout at my signing tables by myself. And I will bribe you with cool swag to be my friend.

FRIDAY, AUGUST 29
4:30 PM
Location tbd
SFWA Signing Table: hang out with me and get shizz signed

5:30 PM
Hyatt Hanover CE
Morally Ambiguous Characters of the Potterverse

Snape, Draco, Dumbledore, Percy, Xenophilius Lovegood…who’s your favorite (and least favorite) morally ambiguous character in Harry Potter?

Panelists: Susan Fichtelberg, Beth Revis, L. M. Davis, Meagan Spooner, Alexa Donne, Mel Pichetto, Jenn Clack

SATURDAY, AUGUST 30
11:30 AM
Marriott A707
Writing Smart YA Sci Fi- Getting the Science Right!

Clones, viral outbreaks, spaceships, time travel… putting the “science” in science-fiction.

Panelists: Jonathan Maberry, Beth Revis, Kat Zhang, Meagan Spooner, Liz Lee Heinecke

SUNDAY, AUGUST 31
2:30 PM
International Hall South - Marriott
Signing Session with Author Beth Revis

The Most Important Partnership an Author Can Make

Writing is a lonely gig. It's very internal by nature; we spend all our time working inside our own heads. But while writing is lonely by very definition, publishing is not.

I always knew it took a village to make a book: editors, publishers, marketing, and so much more. But now that I'm self publishing a project, I thought it would be a little different. I still hired an editor and a book cover designer and formatter and I'm working with others to market, but it's a far different process.

Fortunately, there's one thing that stayed the same.

My agent.

An agent is among the very most important working relationships that an author can have. Writing is solitary, but the business side of writing doesn't have to be.

I'm still with my publisher, Razorbill Books, and my editor, who I worked with throughout the entire Across the Universe trilogy. I'm currently wrapping up a first draft of a novel I'll be sending to her. But I'm self publishing The Body Electric. Two extraordinarily different processes and projects. But the thing that's stayed the same?

My agent.

Having an agent--having the right agent--is one of the most important things an author can do. Self pub, tradition pub--it doesn't matter. An agent will help you to make these decisions, guide you to the path right for your career. An agent is a business partner whose sole concern is to make sure you make the right business decisions. And more than that--an agent (at at least my agent) is my friend.

There are a lot of things up in the air about publishing these days. There are a lot of paths. Don't leave without your guide.

My agent, Merrilee Heifetz of Writers House, is one of the best in the business, and I know with absolute, 100% certainty, that I would have never had any success at all without her help.

Self publication implies "self." Alone. Solitary. But the success of The Body Electric has been anything but.

Winner of the Setting Contest!

Picture by Mariamichelle, used under Creative Commons. Link

Thank you so much to everyone who entered my contest to guess the location of the setting of The Body Electric! The response was awesome and it was so cool to see you guesses--especially as so many of you were correct!

Without further ado, the correct location of the setting for The Body Electric is...

MALTA!!!!

For the purposes of the contest, I accepted Malta, Gozo, or any Maltese/Gozan city--as long as you were anywhere on the map above, I counted it as an entry :) 

So, from all the winning guesses, the winning entry is...

EVILLARS20! 

I've contacted the winner directly--and if you didn't win, stick around. I'll have another contest up soon!

Thanks again for playing, everyone!

Guess the Setting and Win!

I've been hinting at this rather a lot, but The Body Electric does not take place in America...in fact, it takes place in a part of the world that is rarely written about. And if you figure out the location, you could win a signed, limited edition copy of the book before it's released!

All you have to do is guess the location. I've been leaving lots of clues. 

• You can read the first chapter of the book here at Wattpad--there are two major clues as to the setting of the book there.
• Read the extra content I have on my tumblr site--there are definitely clues hidden there.

And, I have a collection of pics for you to take your guesses from. I happened to visit this country when I was in college, and all of these pics were taken by my little non-digital camera before the trip.

 

And here's one of the best pictures of me ever in the world. This is me, standing next to a knight in shining armor...in a brown velvet mock turtleneck. Man, I knew how to dress.

Once you know what country the story takes place in--or have a pretty good guess--ENTER HERE or by the form below for a chance to win a signed, limited edition of the novel. Only 350 copies of this limited edition will be made, and one person who enters here will get one--early.

Tweeting, Facebooking, Tumblring and otherwise sharing the contest and/or subscribing to my newsletter gets you extra entries! I may have to make up an additional prize for whoever best mocks that mock turtleneck. I mean honestly.