Great News and Giveaway!

Sorry I’ve been such a terrible blogger of late. I’ve had my head down deep in revision land for my secret project, which I’m finally starting to believe will really, REALLY happen, so hopefully I’ll be telling you all about it soon.

Meanwhile, I have some fantastic news. I’ve just been informed that For Darkness Shows the Stars has gone back to press for a second printing! Yay! Thank you all so much for making this happen — thank you to the readers and bloggers who have been getting the word out, thanks to the booksellers who have made the book a staff pick or a book club topic, and thank you for all your sweet letters and tweets about how much you loved it. Means the world to me. In this day and age when there are so few bookstores and so many blockbusters taking up shelf space, it’s nice to hear that good, old-fashioned word of mouth still works wonders. This book is so near and dear to my heart, so I’m very glad to hear it’s touched yours the same way.

A few recent blog reviews that have made me tear up:

Emily’s Reading Room: This book was everything I hoped it would be and so much more. The eventual romance is one of the best that I’ve ever read and ranks right up there with my favorites. I’ll happily admit to having a lump form in my throat several times, and even shedding a few tears at the end. A re-read of this story will definitely be in order very soon. If you haven’t read For Darkness Shows the Stars, believe me when I tell you that it deserves to be next on your reading list.

Stacked: Readers looking for a steamy romance will also be disappointed – Elliot and Kai barely even touch. But it’s swoon-worthy all the same, for the same reason modern readers still find Austen’s original works swoon-worthy: mature, lovely writing that connects us so closely to Elliot and Kai that we feel each misunderstanding, each look, each unspoken sentiment keenly. It makes for a pretty intense read, and it’s a testament to Peterfreund’s writing that she’s made a book with almost zero physical contact so romantic.

See Michelle Read: Diana Peterfreund you are a genius. Seriously. In a wash of classic retellings, you have managed to take my ALL TIME FAVORITE Jane Austen story, Persuasion, and remake it into a heart wrenching Sci-Fi adventure without the aid of a single vampire or zombie. Who does that?! In all seriousness though, I loved every stinkin’ detail about this book. She reeled me in with those first few pages of letters between Elliot and Kai as children and then proceeded to sink her hooks into my heart as I watched Elliot try her best, fail and yet still managing to keep going — even in the face of extreme suffering and betrayal. That is my kind of character, someone who I was rooting for and sympathizing with from the moment I saw that lovely cover.

(Yeah, I had to use that excerpt. Hee.)

And then, just yesterday, I got tweeted at out of the blue by Forever YA, which is known for… shall we say somewhat snarky blog posts? But about For Darkness, this is what they said:

Elliot, you are absolutely wonderful. I respect you for choosing duty over your own heart’s desires, even though you’re sometimes misguided and think like the Luddite you were raised to be. I love your sense of self and your pride, even when I wanted you to lay it aside and TALK TO KAI, already! You’re strong and smart and kind, and hold too much inside, just like me, and you’re everything I could ever want in a BFF.  You’re the kind of character I’d want my daughters to read, to have as a role model so they would grow to emulate you strength and kindness — and your ability to change.

I’d like to live on the estate next door to you so we could spend our days overseeing farms, and walking out to the ocean, and become gray hairs together, watching our children (or other people’s children) and grandchildren grow.

And then they picked this hottie as their casting choice for Kai. How about that hair? Perfect, yeah?

It’s actually been a really fun week for the whole “watching folks online read my books” thing. One reader, who’d previously been only familiar with the killer unicorn novels, discovered Secret Society Girl, sequels and short stories, and has been tweeting about it a lot, which is fun. I had lunch the other day with the awesome Trish Doller, who has been a longtime advocate of SSG and whose amazing debut novel: SOMETHING LIKE NORMAL, is out now.

In fact, in honor of all this great reader-related news, I’m giving away a copy of of Trish’s debut novel right now. Leave a comment to enter, open internationally, goes through the weekend.

Thanks again!