Okay, I’ve been completely remiss in talking about last week’s trip to Kidlit Con, and so I will do it now. First, the experience can really be summed up in this one sentence: It was so much fun!

Our panel on Friday was very laid back and not scary at all. (At least, not scary for me. We may have been frightening—I can’t speak for anyone else.) People asked great questions and I didn’t obsess about the fact that I was sitting in front of a roomful of people, talking into a microphone. Also, the venue was absolutely beautiful and I’m sad that I have no pictures of it.

Tess and Maggie have already done a much better (and when I say better, I mean prompt) job of posting pictures, but I’m including these anyway because I want them preserved for posterity. Also, there was a marquee! We had a marquee and I can’t not post a picture of that.

I also signed books (first time not at a trade show), and one of the conference attendees was kind enough to take this picture of me signing her book and then let me share it!

And of course, being in the same city with Tess and Maggie meant plenty of photo ops. Andrew Karre, editor extraordinaire, took this one and I absolutely love it. We are riding an escalator. We look so official!

And I’ll be with Tess and Maggie!

Tomorrow night, we’ll be at The Loft in Minneapolis, talking about critique partners and group-blogging and writing books and—let’s be honest—probably whatever else we think of.

Here are the time-and-place details:

Friday, October 22nd, 7 p.m.
Merry Sisters of Fate at the Loft
Open Book, Suite 200
1011 Washington Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN

So, to everyone who’s going to be in Minneapolis for Kidlit Con (or because, you know, you live there), we look forward to seeing you!

It’s almost interview time again! (Not mention, me-giving-away-signed-finished-copies time again!)

This round, I have fellow Breathless Reads author Andrea Cremer stopping by to visit. On Wednesday, she’ll be guest-blogging for me (and talking about one of my favorite topics—fear) and on Friday, I’ll post my interview with her.

First though, I’m going to tell you a little bit about her book Nightshade, which comes out October 19th from Philomel/Penguin Group.

Calla is an alpha—a wolf-girl slated to lead her young pack of shape-shifters. In less than a month, she’ll be mated to the (extremely hot) up-and-coming alpha of the other local pack, Ren Laroche. Despite tensions between the packs, Calla isn’t resistant. She’s known this was coming her whole life, and is used to following the rules. That is, until she makes a snap decision and saves the life of a human boy, only to find that she can’t stop thinking about him.

Shay Doran is new in town, plagued by secrets he’s not even aware of. Against Calla’s better judgment, she permits herself to become Shay’s ally in his search for the truth. As the two unearth the mysteries that surround Calla’s pack, she’s forced to question her own loyalties, and by extension, the very fabric of her carefully-guarded world. And yes—Shay is in his own right very, very hot. But I’m already all swoony over Ren, so consider this my official choosing-of-sides. Alpha-wolf all the way!

There’s so much to like about this book, but one of my absolute favorite aspects is the complex history of the world. There is a hierarchy of power here that’s just chilling. Very early on, we find out that the Guardians (the Nightshade and Bane wolf packs), are not in charge. Far from being apex predators as one might expect, they act as glorified guard dogs to a mysterious society of witches called the Keepers. The Keepers provide the Guardians with food and shelter, not to mention education and material possessions, and in turn, the Guardians protect the Keepers trove of secrets, without ever stopping to ask what those secrets might be.

I hope that whets your appetite, because on Wednesday, I’ll have Andrea’s guest-post for you, and I’ll tell you how to win the first of two signed, finished copies of Nightshade! (I promise, it will not be complicated.)

Wow, you guys are awesome—so many comments on Kirsten’s guest-post! It’s great to see this kind of enthusiasm for The Eternal Ones. Guys, you are going to love this book!

Okay, same deal as before: comment here and you’ll be entered to win a signed, finished copy of The Eternal Ones. I have two of these bad boys, so on Sunday, after 8:00pm Eastern, I’ll draw two names—one from the comments here, and one from Wednesday’s post—and announce the winners next week. Just a reminder, if you don’t have a livejournal account, be sure to include a name and your email address in your comment.

Now, allow me to introduce my personal favorite part of Eternal Ones Week: a real live actual interview with Kirsten. I love hearing about other people—what they like, what they think about, how they work. This is because I am nosy, but Kirsten didn’t mind. She gave some great answers, which I will now share with you:

1) In The Eternal Ones, Haven and her friend Beau operate a lucrative business custom-making dresses for their classmates.  Let us in on the facts—are you a closet-seamstress, or do you prefer to write about vocations you haven’t personally pursued?

One of the best things about writing books is being able to give my characters the skills, strengths, or vocations that I’ve always coveted but never possessed. I often daydream about being able to whip up a fabulous dress in a single evening. If I tried to accomplish such a feat in real life, I would surely stitch my fingers together. I’m quite handy with power tools, and I can fix an impressive number of small appliances, but somehow sewing machines have never made sense to me. It’s too bad, really, because I’m a HUGE fan of Project Runway. I would be soooo good as the bitchy one. (Can I say that on your blog?)(Yes, Kirsten, yes you absolutely may.)

2) Now, people might expect authors to feel equally benevolent toward all their characters, but . . . I almost always have favorites.  Without giving too much away, is there a character in The Eternal Ones that you’re particularly pleased with?

Everyone seems to love Beau Decker, but I’m going to go with Leah Frizzell. She’s an odd, otherworldly girl who lives deep in the Tennessee mountains and attends a snake handling church. She’s not at all what one might expect her to be. She’s deeply religious yet extremely open minded (many deeply religious people are, but they’re rarely portrayed as such). She speaks in tongues, but she’s headed to Duke on a physics scholarship. She can see the future, but she’s no crystal ball gazing psychic.

There’s a side of my family that’s lived in the Appalachian Mountains for well over 200 years. Though I’m pretty sure none of them handled snakes (unless they’d been into the moonshine) Leah reminds me a great deal of some of the aunts, uncles, and cousins who were around back in my grandfather’s day. They were eccentric, brilliant, religious, tough, and nothing like the two-dimensional hillbillies you see in the movies.

3) Music plays a big role in my book The Replacement, and it also proved to be a big influence while I was writing it.  Is there a particular song or artist that you associate with The Eternal Ones?

Oh yeah. The Rolling Stones. To this day, no one has done sinister and sexy quite like the young Mick Jagger. They have quite a few songs I’d put on my soundtrack:

The Gimme Shelter
Miss You (the ultimate New York love song, in my opinion)
Sympathy for the Devil
Paint It Black

4) Quick—without over-thinking!  What’s your favorite verb?

Plunk

5) Is there an author who’s had a strong influence over your own writing, or who just holds a special place in your heart?

I adore EH Gombrich’s A Little History of the World. If it were a required text in every grade school, there would be no need to cram history down kids’ throats. They’d gobble it up willingly instead. The book is funny, beautifully written, and unbelievably useful. It’s the perfect book to give to any smart ten-year-old. (Or thirty-year-old.)

6) On a related note, have you read anything recently that really knocked your socks off—that’s just begging to be shared with everyone you know, plus people you pass on the street, plus that friendly checker at the store?

I really enjoyed your latest book, The Replacement.* I read it a while back, long before I knew we’d be in touch. I insisted the publisher send me a copy because I thought the cover was awesome, I adore scary books, and I’ve always been fascinated by the notion of changelings.

I thought it was completely original, which is a real rarity these days. And quite a few of the characters (you know which ones) have stayed with me for months. You are, I’d imagine, a very interesting lady with a dark and disturbed mind. (A complement in my world.)

7) And last, because I have a deep affinity for hot beverages and naturally assume other people do too: coffee, tea, cocoa?  Something more . . . unusual?

I’ve always been a coffee person. I’m kind of a reverse snob about it. I like the coffee you can buy at little metal stands in New York. I think it’s sad that a great tough-girl drink has been turned into something so frou-frou.

(Interview concluded, now Brenna is talking again)

Kirsten, thanks so much for letting me interview you. These are some great answers! Also, yay for black coffee, the Rolling Stones, and Leah Frizzell—who I absolutely love!

This concludes Eternal Ones Week. However, next week, Kirsten will be guest-posting and answering questions on Andrea Cremer’s blog, so I highly encourage you to visit her there, and remember, you can also swing by Kirsten’s website, and stay tuned early next week, when I’ll be announcing the winners of two signed, finished copies of The Eternal Ones.

*Brenna here—totally blushing at this point. Isn’t she sweet, guys?

Hi Everyone,

My name is Kirsten Miller. I’m the author of The Eternal Ones, and this is the first time I’ve “guest-posted” on another author’s blog, so I’m feeling a little awkward right now.

Fortunately, I’m a big fan of Brenna’s latest novel, The Replacement. As many of you probably know, it’s an extremely weird and wonderful book. Which is great. I love weird books, heck I even like to write weird books. (I’m thinking my next project might be a nice, gruesome horror novel.) So I don’t feel I’m too out of line when I say that if you share my interest in all things bizarre, you might like my latest book.

The Eternal Ones is a sinister tale of true love, reincarnation, and secret societies. What kind of secret societies, you ask? (Or was that just in my head? Sometimes it’s hard to tell.) The Ouroboros Society (whose symbol is a silver snake swallowing its own tail) is an organization that claims to be devoted to the scientific study of reincarnation. As you might imagine, that’s only a very small part of the story.

I’ve always been fascinated by tales of people born with inexplicable talents. (Think of Mozart composing music at age five. Or kids who earn graduate degrees in physics before they’re old enough to drive.) What if such skills could only be built over multiple lifetimes? And what if the people who possessed them were gathered together and granted membership in an elite club?

These were the questions that inspired the Ouroboros Society, and the answers I offer in The Eternal Ones probably aren’t the ones you’d expect.

If all this piques your interest, check out the Ouroboros Society’s website or my website. And be sure to drop by my blog for your own “past life reading.” I’m offering them free of charge to all visitors brave enough to send me a picture.

(By the way . . . Brenna’s last life? Let’s just say that if I were her, I’d avoid the entire
state of Kentucky.)

Thanks for the invitation to post, Brenna. I’ll see you on my blog in September!

Kirsten

*Brenna here—I’ve been informed that I can have two signed copies of The Eternal Ones as prizes, so I’ll be giving away one copy to a random winner from today’s comments, and the other to someone who comments on my interview with Kirsten on Friday!

This week, I’m featuring fellow Breathless Books author, Kirsten Miller. We’ll be hearing from Kirsten herself on Wednesday, so as a warm-up I’m going to tell you a little bit about The Eternal Ones, which comes out on August 10th from Razorbill/Penguin Group.

Haven Moore has spent the better part of her oppressive life in Snope City, Tennessee, struggling to control the visions that have plagued her since childhood. Despite her best efforts, however, her visions are worsening and she is haunted by images of a fiery catastrophe that happened before she was born—images that just might be residual memories of another life. Now, she finds herself compelled to unravel a decades-old mystery and rediscover a love that has spanned centuries, and may or may not have been the death of her.

Haven is irresistibly drawn to New York, and likewise to the wealthy and charismatic Iain Morrow. But Iain has a dark side, and his preference for keeping secrets doesn’t bode well for the budding relationship, or for Haven’s safety.

Now, Haven is faced with a growing apprehension, and her only hope may lie with a secret society that claims to be in the business of helping people remember their past lives. But with so many new faces and so many paths that have crossed before, how can she know who to trust?

The chemistry between Haven and Iain is heart-fluttering, to say the least—a romance that is passionate and timeless, while still remaining firmly anchored in the here and now. Haven and Iain are captivated by each other, bound by a magnetic attraction so ferocious and consuming that it frightens Haven, even as it draws her steadily onward.

While The Eternal Ones is filled with gripping twists and turns, and the subject of reincarnation is a fascinating one, it is the secondary characters who charmed me. I was especially taken with the people from Haven’s hometown, who are complex and vividly drawn, and I was enchanted by Haven’s irascibly loyal best friend Beau, and by her classmate, Leah Frizzell, a girl who has been even more ostracized than Haven, and who, like Haven, has her own mystical gift.

Throughout The Eternal Ones, there is a strong theme of personal identity. Despite the passage of numerous lives, Haven has always retained the core qualities that make her who she is, and this endurance is echoed in the characters of Beau and Leah, who—like Haven—are consistently true to themselves, even in the face of great adversity.

You can preorder at Powell’s, or the bookseller of your choice, or visit the Eternal Ones at its website.

Jackson Pearce, Vlogger Extraordinaire, (otherwise known as watchmebe) made this video:

It’s ridiculously fun, full of great writing advice, and features a whole plethora of YA authors (not a partial plethora, a whole one)!

Keep your eyes peeled–you just might spot me!

For most of my life—no, really—most of my life:

Little Sister Yovanoff has been taking pictures of me.

So, when I needed a professional author-type photo, I bribed her with lunch at the tea shop and we took a bunch of head shots.

I sent a few to Razorbill, and it’s generally accepted that this will be the one we use for the book jacket, which makes me happy, because it’s my absolute favorite:

But just for fun and because apparently, I feel this post isn’t quite image-heavy enough yet, here are a few more that we liked, but which didn’t make the final cut:

See me looking all author-y and not like I’m about to start laughing uncontrollably? Like I did between every single frame? That’s the magic of photography.

If you’re in the mood to see me fidget and wiggle and make baffling faces, you should head over here to the Greenhouse site. There’s a little video of me reading from THE REPLACEMENT, along with an interview.

New York was absolutely excellent, and also full of shoes. It was the first time I’d ever gone by myself, so I felt particularly sophisticated and adventuresome.

I stayed at a Very Art Deco Hotel by Washington Square and successfully kept various appointments, saw two of my cousins, and got myself taxis.

On Tuesday, I went to Penguin, where I met my agent, the inimitable Sarah Davies, before going up to the Razorbill offices and encountering a whole contingent of marketing and publicity people. I simply can’t do justice to their patience or their friendliness (I was pretty discombobulated by the whole situation). They were all warm and articulate, and I think I mostly sounded like, um . . .

Then we had a meeting, where lots of timelines and other practicalities were discussed, and I got approval for Book Two (yay!). However, my hands-down favorite part was when Ben Schrank, the Razorbill publisher, drew cover concepts for THE REPLACEMENT on the whiteboard. I can’t talk about any of the drawings. I mean, there’s not even an official motif to be top-secret about yet. But the experience was extremely exhilarating, and I’m so excited to see how it will turn out!

I had lunch with Sarah and my editor, Lexa, who is fantastic in too many ways to count, but particularly because when I was revising THE REPLACEMENT, she kept encouraging me to add more—more kissing, more angsting, more doom and disaster and redemption, and something on fire. And also because she has promised to send me an ARC of Angela Morrison’s second novel Sing Me to Sleep! (I was quietly enthralled by Taken by Storm.)

The next morning, I breakfasted with Sarah, and met Allison the Foreign Rights Agent, who is both adorable and highly knowledgeable. She lives in New York and told me lots of nice places to shop, which helped later when I went wandering around SoHo. It was like a scavenger hunt—I meandered back and forth, referring to the list of addresses Allison had given me, feeling an excessive degree of triumph each time I located one, and occasionally stopping to wrap my blisters with strips of kleenex, which is an age-old soccer trick.

Then I bought some shoes, hailed a taxi by waving my arm and looking very assertive, caught my plane, and now . . . I’m home.