Sea Poster Contest Winner! Upcoming Events!
Welcome to my new blog! I wanted to move over here from LJfor many reasons. My favorite being this one is so sparkly I want more people to visit. My live journal blog will still be syndicated so you can read me there. Or here.
The HOME PAGE of my website will keep up to date events. Like my California events this weekend in LA, and next week in the Bay Area:
Saturday, July 31, 2 p.m. Compass Books/Downtown Disney
Sunday, August 1, 2 p.m. Borders Glendale
Tuesday, August 3, 7 p.m. Great Good Place for Books, Oakland
I’m giving away Dare 2 Love tank-tops, bookmarks and sea-inspired jewelry at the events, which can also be purchased right here:
http://heidirkling.com/sea-store/
Proceeds go to earthquake and tsunami victims.
Except not the bookmarks. Those are free. ;)
Where were we? Oh YES. Sea posters.
Thank you so much for the creative entries. They are beyond amazing. Several times I gasped. Yes. True.
It was incredible tough to choose a winner so I showed them all to my husband without hinting which one was my favorite. We agreed on top 2 and then picked my same #1, which is that beauty right here! Click to make it bigger.
The Image That Shall Be The Sea Poster!
It’s clean, clear, and I’m a sucker for those curly words at the bottom.
(Reviewers, thanks for the curly words!)
So congratulations to Tawni Coakley!
Please email me your snail mail address so I can send you PRIZES.
I would LOVE to post some of the other entries so you guys can see. I’ll be happy to post about five.
As always, thanks for playing! If you’re extra nice and want to leave me a comment you’ll be the first! And second! And third!
Must List!
Entertainment Weekly has a great column each week: The Must List.
Highlighting things they love/recommend that week.
So this is mine and maybe a few of these things can be yours too.
1. INCEPTION. Okay. I know this is everyone’s #1 this week. But there is a reason. It’s flippin’ mind-blowing. Not just because it stars this guy:
Who was heart-throbbing up with his talent and charisma long before our leading men sparkled and grew fur…
But because it’s about dreams.
And family.
And marriage. And good-writing and good plotting and…
IMAGINATION.
All of the things I believe in. All the things I love. I won’t say anything more except my thumbs are pointed high in the sky for this one. Bravo.
2. MATCHED Matched is one of The Penguin Five. These huge fantasy books that Penguin is promoted like crazy in the fall. I got an Advanced Copy and I breezed through it in several sittings. I’ve heard it described as “dystopian light” from many people. Sort of a dystopian for readers who like the idea of a futuristic society but don’t necessarily want dead dogs and dead kids and that sort of thing. And this book is very all-audience friendly. There is no bad language, no sex, heavy topics but mildly handled. It’s very sweet.
I won’t say it’s “dystopian light” because I think that’s sort of demeaning for this lovely book that’s just as much about family and finding oneself than it is about a bleak future. Don’t want to spoil anything, but I enjoyed so much about it. I’m looking forward to the sequel.
PS. As as I’ve told Allie Condie: TEAM KY! :-)
3. STARBUCKS. Hahha, by this point you are like, “Heidi. Um, have you gone totally main stream? So far you’ve mentioned three of the biggest things American marketers WANT YOU TO LIKE. Can’t you discover something for yourself? The answer is YES. I wasn’t a big fan of Starbucks before. Preferring smaller, indie owned places. But we don’t have those where we live. Sadly. And guess what? Starbucks now has FREE INTERNET. AND….wait for it…they play the Eclipse soundtrack over and over which is perfect mood music for my fantasy which is…NEARLY FINISHED!
4. ANTHOLOGIES! You guys know I’m writing an essay for The Vampire Diaries anthology–but I’ve been asked to contribute to two more since then. This is so terrific. For years and years I’ve wanted to sell my writing and now people are asking me to write for them! It’s like the best things since free internet at Starbucks. ;-) The best thing about project is that you might see chapters from one of my novels before it becomes a novel! I’m not going to announce which novel it is until I get the final approval, but the editor said the pages were, “Brilliant and hilarious”–(eep!) so now I just have to morph them into a short-story of sorts. I’m on it!
5. SEA POSTERS! You have Sea posters?? NOT YET. But I will! So if you follow me on Twitter, you’ve heard me talking about the Design a Sea Poster contest??? The idea is I’d love to make some have them printed by my friends over at Printrunner. But I need your help as I haz no photoshop skillz and/or time (see #4).
What I’d like is something like a movie poster.
-SEA cover image
-With eye-catching words from my blurbs under the title like:
“Amazing!” says Rhonda from I Love Books So Much I Use Them As Pillows
“Couldn’t put it down!” says Fred from The Little Novel That Could
“Where can I find a Deni of my own?” says BookChic (that’s sort of real.) ;-)
Anyway–you get the idea??
Five or so SHORT (one word or a short-phrase) favorite blurbs
You can find some blurbage here: http://seaheidi.livejournal.com/155659.html
Or by Googling heidi r kling sea reviews
Lots of fun stuff there.
AND if you could–try and find a blurb that tells a bit about the story. Or write something about the story yourself. “An adventure love story set in Indonesia–about hope and grief, set in the aftermath of the tsunami” Or some such.
Like this. Only with this image:
instead of the cast and all that stuff on the bottom? BLURBIES! And maybe like AVAILABLE IN BOOKSTORES NOW!
And my website: http://heidirkling
Okay, why don’t I just design it myself?
Cuz. I want you to WIN STUFF.
What will you get? Well, a signed poster. And DESIGNER credits. And street cred. And a SIGNED copy of SEA AND A SIGNED COPY of LINGER.
Yes, I’m seeing Maggie twice this week.
So that’s it!
Contest ends NEXT WEDNESDAY so get to it!
Librarians, teachers and book clubs are waiting for these posters, so let’s make them awesome.
EMAIL your ENTRY to me at heidi at heidirkling dot com
PLEASE DO NOT POST IT
I will post MY FAVORITE ENTRIES
And then, perhaps, we will all vote.
Oh, and if you get a spare before you start designer read this hilarious and witty review–complete with MOVIE CASTING ideas here. Forever YA is one of my favorite blogs. Love the stash.
http://www.foreveryoungadult.com/2010/07/20/like-the-sea-after-a-storm/
Excerpt:
Bonus Factor: Mysterious Loner Dude
Okay, so Deni is, quite possibly, my favorite loner dude, evs. It didn’t hurt that he kind of reminded me of this 18-year old Peruvian named Fernando I met when I was 16. Oh, Fernando, you were so cute, and we tried so hard to have conversations, and then we wrote letters, and I was SO sure you were going to whisk me away to your country… and I’m so glad my teenaged mind changed and I stopped writing to you. Sorry. Anyway, what was I saying? Deni, yes! When Sienna meets him, she is so overwhelmed by the exotic and terrifying beauty of the country, and then she sees this super-intense -looking cutie… le sigh. —4EverYA
Want to Win SIGNED BOOKS by SEVEN of your Favorite Authors??
Including Kieran Scott, Jenny Han, Gayle Forman, Susan Colasanti, Elizabeth Scott and MORE?
One of the “more’s” being SEA??
Then zip on over here and enter!
http://kieran-scott.blogspot.com/
Fun facts: Kieran is the author of Private series, she once wrote a BIO about Leonardo DiCaprio AND she’s met Ian Somerhalder IRL.
I like her a lot. So go go go! Tell her Heidi sent you. :-)
Team Deni or Team Spider?
Sea’s been out a month and now the boys are officially being fought over.
On this cool quiz…!!
http://courtney-reads.blogspot.com/2010/07/what-team-are-you-on-0ffa2e.html
…along with these guys!
I’m so flattered.
Damon VS Stefan is on there too.
*lowers voice*
As if that is a hard choice.
*koff*
It’s so sweet that most of my readers say they couldn’t choose between Deni and Spider. That they like them both equally. Aww, that makes me all kinds of happy. And at least in SEA you aren’t forced to make these kinds of decisions:
In case you’re wondering who I voted for?
I’m Team Readers. You guys have been AMAZING!
I got a letter from someone in ROMANIA. Romania?!
Feeling the #sealove all around the world.
So I’m Team YOU.
Thank you.
Here is your goodie bag for the road.
I’m TEAM YOU. Thank you for reading SEA. :-)
Be inspired, laugh and loud and try not to weep
I had the honor of being in the live audience to witness this acceptance speech so-beautifully—and hilariously— presented by author Libba Bray.
Wow.
For the other fabulous and inspirational speeches to go YALSA’s website: http://yalsa.ala.org/blog/2010/07/06/relive-the-2010-printz-speeches/
#ALA10: PART UN
Hi all! I want to post these before they lose their timeliness! It was a whirlwind four nights to say the least!
I arrived toward the end of ALA and met up with Jon Skovron (Struts and Frets) and our mutual friend Laurel for an evening on the Red Carpet at the Newbery’s but that’s…not quite the way things went. After getting caught in a freakish summer storm and getting lost for about an hour, (not with my friends, with my dad) we were too late for the Red Carpet so we ended up carving a delightful Plan B. Bidding my dad farewell and going out to eat. (Always wise on these trips) and walking around our Nation’s Capitol by light of moon.
Sticky hot –I mean, hot hot hot–was the night. I was wearing jeans. I knnnoooow. Bad move. Eventually, in desperation, I folded them up Baby from Dirty Dancing style and voila! Knickers. Which sort of helped but not really.
Steps of the Lincoln Memorial
Feeling dehydrated we lapped water from every fountain we saw. Except this one. Because, well, it’s a Memorial and we’d be arrested. Washington Monument in the background. Can you see the moon?
The next morning was ALA! My lovely agent met me at our hotel where I was rooming with Erin Dionne. We had a Starbucks in the lobby and I was much too excited to eat. Nervous that I would be late to my signing, I assumed she had already eaten but found out a couple hours later she hadn’t and was waiting for me to eat. I starved my own agent. I’m a terrible person. Sorry Sara. :(
But apparently she forgave me and here we are together at the Penguin booth where she stayed right by my side the entire signing.
Me and Sara Crowe. Who I owe a breakfast. :)
Time for the signing!
A bunch of bloggers were hanging around waiting for me. I love them! Book Chic even stayed an extra night to meet me. (So sweet!)
Holly Cupala, Tell Me a Secret, who I adored at Teen Author Carnival last month, bought me a tiny pimped out orange Converse key chain! Here it is:
This sweet blogger told me, “Sea is my favorite book. Ever. I like it better than Catching Fire.” Needless to say she has won me over for life and will be in the forever Orange Popsicle of the Month Club. You know, if there was one.
Me and GreenBeanTeen aka one of my YA librarian friends. She was on my Traveling to Teen ARC tour.
Then someone whisper-says, “A famous John is in the back of your line!”
And I’m like, “Oh come on silly! That guy is only famous at my house. That’s my dad!”
Me and my daddy named John. Do we look alike?
He came to the signing at ALA with my cousins! So sweet.
Then the person said, “Not your DAD. Another famous John. A YA one.”
Huh? Who could that possibly be?
I know I’m jet-legged but that looks awfully like a sideways John Green holding my book.
So I tilted my head to see if I could be right. Whoa and behold I was.
In a serendipitous moment I can only liken to an unexpected voyage into awesome-town, John Green was indeed in my signing line. Holding a copy of my book. For me to sign. For him.
Which I did!
He joked that it was only right he come to my signing, as I’d come to his when he had only twelve (and that’s a kind estimate!) at his for Katherine’s. There was more like 20 but he is wittily modest per usual. Anyway, I said how great it’s been for be watching his career flourish, how connected and dedicated he is to his fans, how much I admire him.
YOU KNOW, THE USUAL THINGS I SAY TO JOHN GREEN WHEN HE COMES TO MY SIGNINGS.
John Green and Sea and me!
In summary: I didn’t faint, not even once.
The Penguin people were lovely and made me feel so comfortable, I LOVED meeting everybody. Great seeing peeps I only know online, like at BEA and Author Carnival–librarian-writer-blogger-reader friends.
I was thrilled I had a line and ended up signing and chatting for a full hour when I’d only had a half-hour carved out. Everyone was gracious and excited and it was a fantastic first signing at ALA experience.
Fabulous Penguin ladies listening to my stories about setting up theme-signings and such.
My wonderful intern Mitali Dave who knows everyone on the planet and who took all these pictures.
Except this one. ;-)
Me and Tiff aka: YA librarian de awesomesauce
Making Kelly “Sassy new hair-do” Fineman giggle.
There’s more but I don’t want to bore you…so stay Tuned for Part 2: The Printz Awards! Libba Bray! More meeting and greeting!
Enjoy your holiday and have a happy and safe Fourth!