Monday Musings: ARCs

Hi again, everyone! I know I dropped off the face of the Earth for a bit, but I got distracted by first pass pages and shiny new ARCs! 

As a writer, getting ARCs is a day we patiently (or in my case, not so patiently) wait for like a kid at Christmas.  And finally being able to tear open that box, after attacking the UPS guy (which, if I'd been home, I probably would have done. I guess it's a good thing I was gone. :P), is such an awesome feeling.

I cried, laughed, hugged the books, then cried some more.  I felt like a mama bear with cubs. Every time one of my family picked one up to look closer, I wanted to snatch them back and yell, "MINE! NO TOUCH!"

 But I kept my hands firmly fisted in my t-shirt, so I wouldn't.

And while I didn't actually sleep with my ARC, I set it on my bedside table, so I could look at it every time I woke up during the night. Which was often.

I told everyone I could. I cried some more. I stared at it.

Then reality sunk in. This meant people were reading my book. People I didn't know. And I think I said something like this. "People are reading my book!"

Think about. "Oh crap! People are reading my book."

Instantly become nauseated and lightheaded and sit on the ground before I pass out.

My BIL, husband, and son were there when that happened and they laughed at me.

"Well, yeah, they're reading your book. Isn't that what you want?" my husband asked, still laughing.

"Yes! No! Oh, God, I don't know!" I bury my face in my hands and cry again, but this time I cry so much I can't breathe and freak out the hubby who decides the best thing to do is hide my ARCs.

LOL. 

After a bit, I calmed down, but thinking about so many people I don't know reading Renegade still makes me feel a bit sick. I'm SO EXCITED that people are reading my book, but all my doubts and worries are flying up to hit me in the face.

What if I didn't explain this enough? What if I explained too much? Did I give this away? Is it boring? What if they don't like it? What if they do? Oh, God, what am I going to do when I get my first negative review? What will I do when I get my first positive one? What about all the things I fixed in the first pass pages? Will people remember that things change between the ARC and the final?

It was kind of like when I had my babies. I was SO EXCITED to be pregnant. I couldn't wait to see my little ones, but then I went into labor and went into full out panic mode.

Of course, ALL of this is out of my hands. And there is absolutely NOTHING I can do about it. And I wouldn't change it for the world. But it still scares the bejeebers out of me. Every time someone emails me, or @s me on Twitter, telling me they have my book. I'm 2 parts excited and 1 part scared out of my mind.

Don't get me wrong, though. I love it. I love hearing that people are reading my books, or wanting to.  I love hearing how excited they are to get my ARC. Or how disappointed they were to go to the Tor booth at ALA, but all my ARCs were gone. It's a fantastic feeling to know people aside from me, my editor, and agent are excited about Renegade.

While I admit it's a little unnerving going from feeling almost euphoric down to mind-numbing terror in just a matter of a few seconds, it's also breathtaking. Like sitting and watching the sunrise at the beach.

I hope I never lose this feeling. I want to be like this EVERY. Single. Time. one of my books release.

Does this make me insane?  :P

The Nightmare Affair by Mindee Arnett Jacket reveal + giveaway

I have a treat for you guys today. A cover reveal! Whee!

Yesterday Tor.com revealed The Nightmare Affairs' front cover here along with all the covers it took to get to the final product.

Here it is again, by itself.

Isn't it gorgeous?  I LOVE the phoenix and the purple color.  And the silhouette of the girl. I'm just totally in love with this cover.

BUT today I, and a few other blogs, have something even more awesome to show you.  We are revealing the rest of the jacket!

I'm so excited!

Okay, here's the jacket without the jacket copy:

And here's the finished version:

You can click on the pictures to make them larger.

Aren't they just gorgeous! And LOOK! The spine is a TREE!  How freakin' awesome is THAT!

Jacket Copy:

16-year-old Dusty Everhart breaks into houses late at night, but not because she’s a criminal. No, she’s a Nightmare.

Literally.

Being the only Nightmare at Arkwell Academy, a boarding school for magickind, and living in the shadow of her mother’s infamy is hard enough, but when Dusty sneaks into Eli Booker’s house, things get a whole lot more complicated. He’s hot, which means sitting on his chest and invading his dreams couldn’t get much more embarrassing.

But it does.

Eli is dreaming of a murder. The setting is Arkwell.

And then his dream comes true. Now Dusty has to follow the clues—both within Eli’s dreams and out of them—to stop the killer before more people turn up dead. And before the killer learns what she’s up to and marks her as the next target…

And here's a bit about Mindee, who's just awesome in her own right. :)

Mindee Arnett lives on a horse farm in Ohio with her husband, two kids, a couple of dogs, and an inappropriate number of cats.  She’s addicted to jumping horses and telling tales of magic and the macabre.  Her short stories have appeared in various magazines, and she has a Master of Arts in English literature with an emphasis in Creative Writing. She also blogs and tweets, and is hard at work on her next novel in the Arkwell Academy series.  Find her online at www.mindeearnett.com.

And now onto the best part. The contest!

The book is due out March 5, 2013, but in the meantime, we’re celebrating with a giveaway. The first winner will receive an Advance Readers Copy of Girl of Nightmares by Kendare Blake as well as a signed ARC of The Nightmare Affair when they come available in October. The second winner will receive an ARC of my book, RENEGADE, as well as a signed ARC of The Nightmare Affair.  The contest will run for a week.

Just fill out the widget below and Mindee will announce and alert the winner next week. 

Contest Code:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

RIP Ray Bradbury

Ray Bradbury was one of those authors that you just couldn't forget.  I first read his book Farenheit 451 in my 9th grade English class and I'll never forget how horrified I was at the world he portrayed.  A world where books were outlawed?  No way, I thought. But it didn't take me long to realize it isn't an impossible reality.


Thus began my love affair with dystopian literature. And my love of writing it.  And for that, Ray Bradbury will be one of my favorite authors.

Here are some of my favorite quotes from the man himself.

"Love is the answer to everything. It's the only reason to do anything. If you don't write stories you love, you'll never make it. If you don't write stories that other people love, you'll never make it."

"I don't try to describe the future. I try to prevent it."

"If we listened to our intellect, we'd never have a love affair. We'd never have a friendship. We'd never go into business, because we'd be cynical. Well, that's nonsense. You've got to jump off cliffs all the time and build your wings on the way down."

"There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them."

RIP and Godspeed, Ray Bradbury. The world is less bright today because you're not in it.