A Few Announcements

A lot of people have been asking me, and the rumors are out on the internet, so though I have not been given the go-ahead by TPTB over at Harper, I have decided to respond, since “I can neither confirm nor deny…” sounds kinda silly in the face of “I saw on Amazon…” So:

• The publication date of Rampant has been pushed back to August 25, 2009.
• This has absolutely nothing to do with the reorganization that occurred at Harper last week. I have known about the date change for over a month.
• The date change also has nothing to do with the preparedness of the manuscript. ARCs have been out since last fall, as is usual for a spring book, and the only changes made to the final book concern the usual typography errors and copyediting changes that did not, for some reason, make it into the galley version. (This is common, and has occurred with every book I’ve written. That’s why most ARCs have huge disclaimers on them that the text is NOT the final version.)

So, that’s the news. Now, the bad part of this news is, obviously, wah, three more months until killer unicorns take over the world! Additionally, it means that my little romance will not be out in time for the RWA conference in my hometown of DC, and also, that I am less likely to be able to throw a joint launch party for Tap & Gown and Rampant, since they are no longer being released a week apart. (Then again, if one party is good, two is twice as good. True for everything but weddings and funerals.) But the good parts, in my opinion, far outweigh the bad. The extra time gives me the opportunity to plan some truly exciting promotional tidbits. Also, since Rampant is now a fall ’09 book, it means that KU2 is a fall ’10 book, which means that my deadline has been pushed back. Yay, extra time! Finally — and this is really the best part of all — I’m now being released very close to a few of my YA writer friends, which means that we might end up doing some cool events together! More to come on that front, obviously. But as I’ve waited for over two years to become an official YA author, I’m hoping ot take as much advantage of that as possible!

Which brings me to my next bit of news. Next month, there’s a Teen Author Festival in New York City, and I’m going to be attending,and speaking at the following panel:

NYC Teen Author Festival
Juvenalia Smackdown Panel
Date: Monday, March 16, 2009, 4-6pm
Location: Tompkins Square Park branch of the NYPL, 331 E. 10th Street

Join Holly Black, Cassandra Clare, Alaya Johnson, Justine Larbalestier, David Levithan, Diana Peterfreund, and Scott Westerfeld as they read some of their (ahem) less accomplished work from their middle school and high school years.  Hosted by Libba Bray.

See the whole festival schedule here.

I am so excited about this panel. Justine has done it before and she says it’s the most fun you can have at a conference. Now, the only trick is to choose which of my works of early genius to share with you all. There’s the apothecary romance, in verse, natch. There’s the historical about the scarred debutante being stalked by her dead sister’s lover (who set the fire that killed her family and burned her half to a crisp). The best thing about that story is how most of the scenes centered around the heroine’s cousin, who was secretly in love with her childhood best friend (not that this was more familiar to my own high school experience than arsonists and burn victims). Oh, and the best friend had just discovered he was an earl. Because what’s a story without a secret inheritance? Then there’s the teen Christmas story which, I’m sorry to admit, I actually faked sick from school for several days in a row so I could stay home and work on it. (Kids: don’t do this. Stay in school.)

Choices, choices.