THE SUMMER OF LETTING GO: Paperback Palooza coming soon!

Shiny paperbacks, hot off the presses. Ready to ship... 

So, if you follow me on facebook or twitter, you know I'm super excited for the paperback release of THE SUMMER OF LETTING GO coming sooner than you know.

March 31st to be exact!

To celebrate, I've decided to have a big party -- as big as I can -- and to give back to the local library community that's been so supportive of me when I do.

As such, on April 19th (making sure we're clear of possible major snowstorm...) from 1 - 5 pm, I will be hosting a two part, tween & teen Author Palooza at the Huntington Public Library.

Part 1 will be a 90-Second Read Event open to the general public of ALL ages! You do NOT have to be a Huntington resident to attend (but you do need to call the library, starting April 6, to register for Part 2 - details below).

I've been hosting 90-Second Read events for the past few years, and they are always a ton of fun both for the authors participating and the audience. What is a 90-Second Read Event, you ask? Well let's just say it involves a desire not to bore you, some prep and good timing on our parts, and a mean stopwatch and hotel bell, usually placed in the hands of an over-eager audience member whose finger is just itching to ding it. You can read more about them here:

p.s. Matt Blackstone WILL be coming to our Palooza on 4/19
and let me just say he is one of my favorite authors EVER to listen to read aloud.
If you're not laughing when Matt reads, we need to get you a new funny bone. 

Bits of summer swag that usually
find their way into a signed copy...

Following the 90-Second Read event, we will be have a signing where you may purchase any or all the participating authors' most recent books as a Friend of the Library fundraiser, not to mention get them signed all up pretty with your name in them, and likely jazzed up with swag.

And, then, if that's not enough...

All the super young uns and old fogies will leave (author-old fogies excluded, of course, who will stay) and we will launch into Part 2: a hands-on tweens & teens only writers workshop, where we will break up into small groups to talk craft (voice, story, character and, of course, where ideas come from) and do "five-minute" writing exercises followed by encouraging and constructive critiques, each group assigned their own traditionally published author!

And, yes, there will be cupcakes!!

In the coming weeks, I'm going to be hosting some fun meet-the-author features here on my blog, and even moreso, HERE on my facebook event page. There you'll learn more about the likes of Matt Blackstone, Sarah Darer Littman, Charlotte Bennardo, Selene Castrovilla, Henry Clark, Alan Katz, Tracey Baptiste and me, and I mean, truly important things, like the worst jobs we've ever had, our most embarrassing moments, and the meanest thing we ever did to a sibling.

Even if you can't come join in the fun on the 19th live, please join the facebook event page and follow along!

In the meantime, mark your calendars, and if you haven't read THE SUMMER OF LETTING GO yet, please preorder the paperback! Here's just some of the praise the book has garnered since its release last spring:

And even though the paperback doesn't officially release until March 31, preorders really do an author's heart and book lots of good. So please tell your coworkers and friends. Heck, tell strangers. Who can't use a little Summer right about now?

xox gae