A New and Exciting Year

Whew! Such a long time since I've posted. I need to play catch up!

The end of 2013 was busy and enjoyable. We closed the pool, spent our month at the beach, and readjusted to the cooler temps back in KY. One highlight was when Courtney showed her Nana a copy of the ARC of Faking Normal! Nana had read the original, non-revised, unsold version of  FN on her Nook. It was pretty exciting to make this photo!

We enjoyed Thanksgiving with the family in Nashville, and we planned for the holidays at  our house for Christmas. I was excited to receive the new edition set of the Harry Potter books from Courtney for Christmas. She said I could not be ME if I didn't read them! Despite the fact that I've seen the movies, I just never found time to read the books. I was teaching five and six year old children when they started coming out, so they weren't a curriculum interest, and I wasn't into reading fantasy (middle grade or otherwise) at that time ... I just never got around to it. In fact, I only started watching the movies on the big screen when the fourth one came out! Soon, I was hooked. So all seven HP books were my first  reads in 2014! Loved them! (of course).

Meanwhile, the launch date for Courtney's book is fast approaching. There have been many milestones in her journey to publication and I've been thrilled to be a part of her process. Here we are wearing our Faking Normal tee-shirts.

Faking Normal made it at least to the final round of Epic Reads' 2013 Book Shimmy Awards in the only category in

which it was eligible - most anticipated book of 2014. An amazing feat for a debut author among more seasoned ones! And I love my Book Shimmy tote bag, which the "Tea Time" gals sent me from The Decatur (GA) Book Festival. Court was there and also at DragonCon, a first for her. She dressed as a Shadow Hunter from the Mortal Instruments novels by Cassandra Clare, complete with leather and fake tattoos!

Early book promotion is underway at all the levels! The book launch party/signing event will be at Parnassus Books in Nashville on the day Faking Normal debuts, February 25th. It will be followed by an author visit to Courtney's hometown schools, Ballard Memorial High and Middle School on February 27th with a signing that night, and another signing at Barnes & Noble in Bowling Green, KY (where Court and Adam lived for many years) on February 28th. Imagine our thrill when friends went by the bookstore recently and found this sign in anticipation of the event there:

Harper Impulse will publish an e-book novella, a companion to Faking Normal, titled The Blue-Haired Boy - Bodee's own story - which takes place before the events in FN. It will be available the week following Faking Normal, digitally only. It has a WOW of a cover!

Soooo ... exciting things are happening in the Stevens' family! We're blessed and thankful! We're just trying to "Channel our Brave" while we impatiently wait for February 25th!