5 Release Facts I've Learned + More Blog Stops

I'm crazy busy with release stuff, plus prepping for my Launch Party which is less than a week away!! *happy dance*

So I thought I'd do a quick Things I've Learned post today and then send you on your way to more INSOMNIA blog tour posts that are out there right now.

5. The last 3 months before release are mad crazy. I'd heard this and felt prepared for it...I still vastly underestimated.

4. Brains do not work in a pressure cooker. I can't count the number of household possessions I've forgotten about and/or left in various locations throughout my state. My launch party will now end with a massive scavenger hunt.

3. There is such a thing as saying 'Yes' too much. I agreed to do every interview that I was asked to do...I am not saying I regret it. I'm saying I need a nap.

2. Cupcakes can fix anything. Bad review? cupcake. Computer glitch is causing issues? cupcake. Haven't figured out launch party presentation yet? cupcake...in separate and totally unrelated news, I will now be on a diet for the rest of time.

1. There is nothing in this world like seeing something you created in your mind on a shelf in a bookstore...literally nothing. I've never been so ecstatic and so stunned as when I stared at it and realized that it had actually happened...yes, a cupcake helps with this also.


So there you have it. Proof that I do indeed learn things. Which of these facts surprise you the most?

Stop by the My Friends Are Fiction blog stop where I discuss my favorite scary books.

And don't forget to stop by the Divergent Gryffindor blog stop where my Insomnia Dream-Cast will be facing off against Kim's Insomnia Dream-Cast. It will be epic.

Also, you can still comment on Kendare Blake's or Jessica Spotswood's blogs where all you have to do is comment to enter to win a signed copy of Insomnia! These are TWO separate giveaways! :) So the odds are...uh...ever in your favor! Go enter!

Release Day Pictures - And The Fun Continues!

I have release day pictures! It was so much fun!



The day started off with amazing amounts of happy congratulations from all over twitter and Facebook. (thank you everyone again!)



Then I received these lovely flowers from two very good writer friends - Kasie West and Candi Kennington. Aren't they beautiful?

My family and I went out to dinner at an amazing restaurant named The Chef's Table and it was amazing...my mouth is still watering.

I mean...seriously. This is the dessert. It's a double fudge brownie with a pecan pie topping, ice cream and fruit.

Mmmmmm...

Then we went to my local Barnes and Noble where we found MY BOOK! Right there on the shelf! And then there was laughing and crying and happy dancing. They had me sign them and put that cute little autograph sticker on them.

(Extremely) Dorky Author photo :)

And then I got these lovely debut author celebration presents from my lovely friend Sara Raasch.

*I seriously have the best friends in the world*

This is a clay mini-Parker that Sara made for me.

I love him more than I've ever loved anything made of clay.

That's a lot.

And today I'm having a girls' day celebration with Sara, Natalie Whipple, and Michelle Argyle.







Needless to say, so far, I 'm LOVING this whole release celebration thing. :)


And the fun continues - There is one more week of the release blog tour and you can still get entries for the Ten Books and Ten Critiques giveaways!

In Which INSOMNIA Releases and I Flail and Blubber...

LOOK! It's my book. It's all grown up and out in the world! It's the teenager that keeps pushing me away and is embarrassed when I smooth its hair. And people can buy it, and I'm a published author, and over on my widget there are no numbers, it just says "Available Now" because it is available, because I write books, and people can read them...and...and...and I'm totally sitting here crying as I write this because there were so many minutes, hours, days, weeks, months and years that I NEVER thought I'd get here. And here I am and...

And I'm an author and I don't even care that the above paragraph contained the longest, most ridiculous run-on sentence in all creation. It was a very happy-making sentence. That's all that matters to me right now.

So please celebrate with me because dreams do not come true every day. And they shouldn't. Dreams shouldn't be easy or they aren't worth it. They should be hard, excruciating, exhausting and make you want to give up every other step. A dream shouldn't be the hill at the end of the street, it should be the massive, daunting, dangerous mountain that everyone else looks at, laughs, shakes their head and walks away.

But I started the trek up my mountain. On the way, I fell down. I bled. I held on when I felt like I might plummet back down to where I started, I kept moving forward and never turned back.

Today I reached the top, and that is worth some serious celebrating.

You can order your brand new shiny copy of MY BOOK, Insomnia, at any of the places in the right side bar. :)

FOREWORD Review of INSOMNIA!

First - OMG! RELEASE DAY IS TOMORROW!! *flails* *panics* *blinks*

*Ahem*

Recently, Insomnia got a new trade review from ForeWord Reviews. They are a review journal distributed quarterly to 7500 librarians and booksellers across the US. They're also available at most Barnes & Noble newsstands and by subscription.

They're prestigious and awesome and I'm thrilled they reviewed Insomnia and even happier about what they had to say:

~~~~~

Insomnia

J. R. Johansson

Flux

978-0-7387-3593-1

(Jun 8, 2013)

Supernatural young adult thriller creates a real sense of tension, anticipation, and dread. Parker Chipp hasn’t slept in four years. Every night, he’s an involuntary witness to the dreams of the last person whose eyes he looked into before going to sleep. Sometimes this means a night full of talking ponies or whimsical adventures; other times, he’s tormented by nightmares of endless domestic brutality or the guilt-wracked memories of wrongdoers who escaped all justice except that delivered by their own conscience.

Either way, he doesn’t get to sleep properly, and the stress is taking its toll, perhaps even killing him. Beside this, the more mundane problems of a typical high school junior—trying out for athletic teams, navigating conflicted friendships and budding romantic attractions, and dealing with the absence of his father and the consequences of a stressed-out mother—seem tame and manageable.

When Parker inadvertently glances into the eyes of a new arrival in town, he’s startled to find that, for some reason, he’s able to sleep peacefully in her dreams. Why? And can he enjoy the peace of her dreams without making her think that he’s a deranged stalker?

J. R. Johansson’s debut novel has an intriguing, original premise and an engaging first-person narrator/protagonist. It’s refreshing to read a supernatural young adult thriller that, for once, does not involve zombies, werewolves, vampires, or some other familiar trope. Parker’s curse (or gift), the rules that govern it, and the effects it might have on him and the people around him are mysterious and unknown, creating a real sense of tension, anticipation, and dread as the reader, along with Parker, tentatively explores his ability’s parameters without knowing what he will find or what the consequences will be.

The plot inevitably expands outward from Parker’s own problems to those of the people around him. High school social drama gives way to more visceral dangers, both real and imagined, as Parker finds reasons to question his own motivations and even his own sanity. Mysterious links to Parker’s father suggest that there’s more to his peculiarity than he knows, and his untutored explorations suggest that it may be much darker and more powerful than he dares contemplate.

Some of the plot threads of Insomnia are tied up a bit too neatly and suddenly, but Johansson’s first book lays the groundwork for an intriguing series based on an original premise.

Bradley A. Scott

ForeWord Reviews

~~~~~

Have you ever wanted to wrap yourself up in words? What am I talking about, you're all readers...of course you have. That's how I feel about this review. I want to cuddle with "intriguing, original premise and an engaging first-person narrator/protagonist." I want to get the words, "Supernatural young adult thriller creates a real sense of tension, anticipation and dread," tattooed on my forehead...that wouldn't be awkward or off-putting at mix & mingles, would it? :)

Anyway, happy day! I survived another trade review! 

Also, here are the rafflecopters for the two blog tour giveaways (signed copies of Insomnia & 10-pg critiques) I have going on right now. You can go ahead and enter here if you'd like...because I'm nice like that. What did you think about this new review?

a Rafflecopter giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tomorrow is the big day! I'm going to try my best to not injure or break myself before then. I've been known to do that...

Truth, Insanity of Release a.k.a. How Stephanie Perkins Saved My Mind

A couple of items of business first: 

~ The winner of the Insomnia ARC from Monday's post is: Lena! Leave your email in the comments and I'll get in touch about sending it to you! Congrats!

~ Since Insomnia started shipping out early and the official release day is on a weekend, we're going to celebrate Insomnia's release on Friday...HOLY COW THAT IS SO SOON! Stay tuned for more info and check above for links to today's blog tour stops! 

~~~~~

Dude...publishing is the most massive roller coaster I've ever been on. It's up and down, and in and out, over and over, until you feel like some bully in school is doing one of those toilet swirlies on your brain.

Releasing your debut novel is immense and terrifying and brilliant and breathtaking. It is everything you want it to be. Sometimes it is so much more, and occasionally so very much less.

There really is no explaining the gut-sucking sorrow and sadness when things go wrong with your dream. And no making sense of the elated floating and bounciness when even the smallest things go right.

It is absolute and utter madness.

Maybe that's why I write about people going crazy...

Anyway, the roller coaster is me this month...until yesterday...yesterday I went full-on freak out. 

It wasn't pretty.

I found out there were some issues with Insomnia being mis-categorized in Barnes & Noble. It was coming up in their system as a Young Reader book (grades 3-6). The stores were looking at their option to order it from the warehouse into the store and going...uh, this cover looks too scary for the kids wandering that section...and not ordering it. 

*cue visions of small children running for B&N door and crying over my scary book cover*

(Don't worry, it's being fixed and should be *crosses fingers* going out into stores asap.) So yeah...it was one of those last straw kind of freak outs and I did what I always do when I'm upset (after I break out the ice cream, duh...). I grabbed a book and started reading.

I've known Stephanie Perkins for a while online, and I actually met her in person a few weeks ago. *waves at Steph* She's a sweetheart and we share a love for things dark. Anyway, I'd started her book, Anna and the French Kiss about a year and a half ago, read the first chapter and loved it...then got a call from my agent and we got my book deal. It was dropped in the flailing/panicking that ensued and  I haven't picked it back up. 

So it was the first book I grabbed yesterday, and I didn't put it down until today when I finished. I carried it from room to room. I propped it open and kept reading while I did laundry. I stayed up until 3am reading and then started reading again as soon as I woke up this morning. 

I adored this book. This book made me happy. This book reminded me why I love books.

All of that to say this isn't really about Anna or Stephanie's genius (as much as that's all I want to talk about right now). It's about books. We are authors, editors, readers, bloggers, publicists...we're all in the business of books, but sometimes it's so easy to get caught up in the roller coaster and the cogs and machinery of it that we forget what it's all about -- the books. Books allow us to explore, to escape, to revel, to live lives we aren't capable of, to become our heroes and even sometimes the villains.

So all of this to say, 

Books are so freaking cool!!!

And none of us should forget that fact no matter what else we have going on. 

What have you been reading lately?

This Is Me This Week

Yep, that's what I look like every time someone posts nice things, leaves nice comments, writes good reviews/blog post stops, tells me they're excited about my book.

So pretty often right now. (people are nice on release week--mostly)

Yay for release and giveaways! These are my stops for today:

On the Starbucks & Books blog, Chelsea does a character profile of Parker from Insomnia, and wow is she good! All that plus an awesome new review & signed books! 


On the Read Rinse Repeat blog, we chat about the fine line between letting your main character do bad things and yet somehow still making them likable + giveaways!



I SAT (Successful Author Talk interview) over on Mindy McGinnis's blog where we chat about my road to publication, how I got my agent, and other such tidbits.



Plus, an INCREDIBLE new review on the Such A Novel Idea blog!


Wow...just posting that was exhausting. How about we all go take a nap after we're done? ;-

Nook HD Winner! AMAZING NEWS & Insomnia Release Blog Tour Day 1

I know you guys want to know about winners...but I'm saving that for last. I'm cruel like that. ;)

Some of you may think that a week before my official release that I'm sitting around like this:

NOT TRUE...

In reality, it's a lot more like this:

But I got some news in the last couple of weeks that made me go like this:

I found out that

Insomnia is going to be published in 

Hungary AND Taiwan!

SQUEE!!! I am SO thrilled you guys! Fonix in Hungary and Sharp Point in Taiwan have bought rights to publish in their respective territories!

This brings the total number of languages to FIVE (English, German, Hungarian, Italian AND Chinese)! My book, something I created in my dark and twisty brain, is going to be printed out and available in FIVE different languages! I can't even...I'm just...

WOW!

I'm just so grateful and thrilled and a little bit FREAKING OUT! :)

So now, I am going to be riding high on that news as well as all the fun release stuff going on. I may never come back down.

Oh! And about fun release stuff...

Today is the first day of the Insomnia Release Blog Tour!

Every weekday for the next two weeks there will be fun guest posts and giveaways all over the place. 

The two main giveaways will be TEN signed copies of Insomnia and TEN 10-pg critiques! 

On top of this, I'll be doing giveaways sporadically on Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook!! (Giveaways will be various things I find: bubble gum, signed books, swag items, perhaps Finnish candies...you'll have to pay attention to see what I come up with)

Here is my blog stop for today:

Ilima Todd
Lisbeth Avery

And the fun, guys...it will be immense. So stay tuned!

AND last but certainly not least...

the winner of the NookHD from the Insomnia Preorder Giveaway!

Cindy Irvine!

Huge congrats, Cindy! I'll be in touch to talk about how to get your prize to you! :)


Let's get this Week O' Giveaways going!!

Celebrate with me by leaving a comment below and you'll be entered to win one of my last Insomnia ARCs + a swag pack with bookmarks and surprises to go with it! :)