Nice reviews of FALLING FOR YOU

Waiting for professional reviews to come in is a bit nerve-wracking, to say the least.

Today I thought I'd share some of the nice things reviewers have said about my latest YA novel, Falling For You.

VOYA (Voice of Youth Advocates, a publication for librarians) says, "Schroeder has done a wonderful job creating teenage characters from a variety of backgrounds and using those backgrounds to influence their actions. This novel is ripe for use in a classroom or book club; discussion points include: healthy relationships, poetry as expression, relationship boundaries, and more. Readers looking for a realistic teen read saturated in emotion will love Falling For You."

Ripe for use in a classroom? That makes me as happy as this cute little guy!

School Library Journal says, "Rae is a well-drawn, strong-willed heroine, and her blossoming relationship with a homeschooled neighbor adds a sweetness and depth to the story."

Awesome! Sweetness, like a cupcake, right?

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books says, "As things get worse and worse for her, she [Rae] seeks ways to help herself and others that are faithful to her character; she's no Pollyanna, but she is determined that the messes that surround her on all sides won't define her, and she manages to convince herself and others that being honest about one's pain can bring compassion. It's a heartening message for readers in difficult situations, and the poems scattered throughout the text enhance the cathartic note of hope in hard times." 

I love that she mentioned the hope that I believe is prevalent throughout in what is sometimes a pretty sad story. Hope like a rainbow in the sky...

Thanks for letting me share! 

AMAZING, FANTASTIC, SWEET ARC CONTEST

I have ARCs to give away!

ARCs are Advanced Review Copies of books that are coming out in the next few months but are not on the shelves yet.

Look what you could win!! (All descriptions are from worldcat.org).

The Program, by Suzanne Young

"When suicide becomes a worldwide epidemic, the only known cure is The Program, a treatment in which painful memories are erased, a fate worse than death to seventeen-year-old Sloane who knows that The Program will steal memories of her dead brother and boyfriend."

***

Going Vintage by Lindsey Leavitt

"When sixteen-year-old Mallory learns that her boyfriend, Jeremy, is cheating on her with his cyber "wife," she rebels against technology by following her grandmother's list of goals from 1962, with help from her younger sister, Ginnie."

***

Let the Sky Fall by Shannon Messenger

"Ten years after surviving the tornado that killed his parents, Vane Weston, now seventeen, has no memory of that fateful day but dreams of a beautiful girl who, he now learns, is not only real, she is his guardian sylph, who harnesses the power of the wind."

***

Poison by Bridget Zinn

"When sixteen-year-old Kyra, a potions master, tries to save her kingdom by murdering the princess, who is also her best friend, the poisoned dart misses its mark and Kyra becomes a fugitive, pursued by the King's army and her ex-boyfriend Hal."

***

Sorry, U.S. residents only. I've decided to use rafflecopter to make it easier for people to enter, so one person will win all four ARCs.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Poetry Contest - Eight Cousins Bookstore

Eight Cousins Bookstore in Falmouth, MA is doing an awesome thing to promote my latest YA novel, Falling For You.

Because Rae, the main character in Falling For You, writes poetry as an outlet for the stuff she's dealing with, they thought it would be cool to have a poetry contest with me picking the winner!

The contest is open to all interested parties and you can find all the information you need, including the on-line entry form, HERE.

But hurry, the contest ends February 14th - that's THIS coming Thursday!

If you write poetry and have notebooks with poems you've written laying around the house, why not submit something? Or, write a piece specific for the contest, if you'd rather do that. It's totally up to you!

I can't wait to read some poetry entries once the contest is closed. Will it be YOURS that I pick as the winner? Stay tuned....

Thank you and where do I go from here?

It's been a little over a month since Falling For You was released into the world.

First, I want to say thank you to all of you who have done any of the following: bought the book, read the book, reviewed the book, blogged, tweeted or talked about the book somewhere, told friends about the book, asked your library to order the book, etc. etc. Every little thing helps!

Really. I mean it. THANK YOU! Here's Stormy and me giving you a virtual hug for your support!!

Lately I've been getting questions like - what's next? What are you working on now?

The thing is, I love YA. Like, I love, love, love it. But I know there are many people who write it a helluva lot better than I do. There are many days when I feel I'm not the writer I need to be to compete in today's market.

I wrote Falling For You at a time when I needed to do something different. I was tired of hearing the criticism about verse novels. A lot of people don't even want to try them, and that frustrates me SO much. It's like they hear the words "verse novel" and their brain immediately says, "well, not for me."

So I put something different out there. Reviews seem to be kind of mixed. I'm trying to stay away from them, for the most part, because it doesn't help the already somewhat low confidence. And honestly, it's FINE, not everyone is going to love every book, I know that. I've gotten some really heartfelt notes from teens, teens who needed to read this book at this time, and knowing that makes me glad I wrote the book.

But what's next for me as far YA goes? I honestly don't know. Some days I think maybe I should bow out gracefully from the YA world. Let the far more talented have the shelves. But like I said, I love YA. It's hard to leave!

Since November I've been secretly working on a YA manuscript. It's quiet and lyrical and has two characters I adore. It's part verse and part prose.

And it's all me. The question becomes, is that enough?

For a while, I thought I wouldn't finish it. I was going to walk away, and leave the YA world behind for a while. But the book won't let me leave! It keeps calling to me and calling to me. So for now, I'm writing it JUST for me. It's fun. Magical at times. When it's finished, I'll have to decide if I want to show it to anyone. It may not have a big enough hook. It may be too quiet. It might suck! For better or worse, I haven't worried about any of that. I've just tried to write from my heart, which is where my best work comes from.

At the end of the day, publishing is a business. Numbers matter. I can't control how many copies of my books are sold.

Fortunately, a great story matters too. That's what I'm going to focus on for now. We'll have to wait and see what happens next...

xoxo
Lisa

Upcoming Events - Please come see me!

For Phoenix AZ Peeps: Saturday, 1/26 4:00 to 6:30: YAllapalooza Book Fest for teens and tweens w/ lots of awesome authors at Changing Hands Bookstore, Tempe, Arizona. Games, pizza and book signing. Yes, I said pizza!! Awesome, right?

For Portland, OR peeps: Monday, 2/4 7:00: Book signing with Kimberly Derting at Powell's Books, Cedar Hills Crossing, Beaverton, Oregon. We're gonna play a game, Big Brother style! There will be PRIZES!

For Las Vegas, NV peeps: Saturday, 2/9 10:30 am to 5:00 pm: YAllapalooza Book Fest for teens and tweens w/ awesome authors at Centennial Hills Library, Las Vegas, NV. Celebrate teen authors as they share writing tips and explore the world of teen lit. Games, crafts, a literary fashion show and other fun-filled activities will engage the entire family during this 1st annual festival co-sponsored by Barnes & Noble. Book sales and signings will take place throughout the day.

What we can learn about events from John Green

John Green, NYT bestselling author of LOOKING FOR ALASKA, THE FAULT IN OUR STARS, and other novels, sold out at Carnegie Hall for the one year anniversary of TFIOS on Monday, January 14th. At the show, he was joined by his brother Hank, the Mountain Goats, Neil Gaiman, and many other amazing people.

If you haven't watched their show, which was streamed live, you can still catch it here! I watched it live and  I thought it was amazing.

John and Hank have built up a huge community over the past six years, known as Nerdfighteria, where we work together to decrease world suck and tell each other DFTBA (don't forget to be awesome), among other things. I consider myself a Nerdfighter (though yes, an old Nerdfighter, but one nonetheless), as I have been with them since day 1 of Vlogbrothers 2.0. I read LOOKING FOR ALASKA in 2007 and loved it so much, I was ready to follow John Green anywhere. And, wow, look how far he's come!

So that event, combined with another event I witnessed this week, got me thinking about author events in general. On Wednesday night, I went to Powell's to see Martha Brockenbrough (DEVINE INTERVENTION), Kevin Emerson (THE LOST CODE), Sean Beaudoin (THE INFECTS), and Cat Patrick (REVIVED). They were so fun and funny and never once did I think to myself, I hope this is over soon, like I sometimes do at author events. They played a couple of fun games and they found a way to read from their books in a hilarious way, with a timer and people shouting out numbers from the audience, and using famous people's voices. The hour flew by, and when it was time to buy books, well, let's just say my TBR pile now towers even higher.

John has shown us that teens want to feel like they are a part of something awesome. Maybe we can't do something as amazing and life changing as creating Nerdfighteria, like he and Hank have done, but we can make our book signings more fun and more interactive and more about the readers and less about the authors. Yes, it's more work, and yes, you have to get creative, but I believe it's time well spent. Every time a teen goes to a FUN author event, it makes it much more likely she'll go to more events in the future. Guess what happens if she goes to boring event after boring event? 

I know getting up in front of people can be hard for authors, who are often introverted and are most comfortable in a quiet office, in front of the computer. That's certainly true for me! But honestly - I'd much rather play a silly game with the audience than stand there talking about my book and then reading from my book, with all eyes on me, everyone thinking about how boring it all is. 

I'm currently making game paddles for a game Kim Derting and I will play at our event coming up on Monday, Feb. 4th at Powell's in Beaverton. I got my inspiration from watching many, many (probably too many) episodes of the reality show, Big Brother. It will be silly and it will have nothing to do with our books. But there will be prizes and it will be FUN. You should totally come if you're in the area. 

Now if I could just figure out how to get Neil Gaiman to stop by...

The Last Week of the Blog Tour

We're in the home stretch!

Again, thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who has participated and tweeted about it, and the literally *thousands* of you who have entered the contest to win a signed set of my YA novels, all five of them!

I'm also SO thankful to those of you who have bought the book and read it already.

Here are the remaining stops on the tour!

Monday, January 14th, guest post at Novel Novice

Tuesday, January 15th, review at Books Complete Me

Wednesday, January 16th, fun post at The Story Siren

Thursday, January 17th, review at YA Bliss

Friday, January 18th, fun post at Acting Up with Books

Saturday, January 19th, guest blog at YA Reads

Sunday, January 20th, guest post at Book Hounds YA