October is my favorite month.  Sweaters.  Falling leaves.  Cider.  Pumpkin carving.  An excuse to read creepy books and watch creepy movies and scatter creepy things over every household surface.

Over at my Facebook page, I’m asking readers to share their own favorite things about October.  On Friday the 18th, I’ll pick a winning comment at random, and that winning comment-writer will receive a free signed copy of the new YA anthology STARRY-EYED (and I’m throwing in a signed ARC of THE STRANGERS too, just for fun).  Go forth and comment/share!

This is also the season of All Hallow’s Read…

(Supercool poster by Introverted Wife)

I’ll be in New Orleans over Halloween this year, thanks to the Louisiana Book Festival (which reminds me: Come see me talk at 1:30 on Saturday, November 2nd, at the Capitol Park Museum in Baton Rouge!), so I’m going to celebrate All Hallow’s Read a bit early by putting together a big box of Halloweeny books and passing them on to a nearby school, where I hope they’ll find their way into the hands of young readers who need or want them.  If I had enough money, I’d blanket the entire area with Ray Bradbury and Poe and James Howe books, all dropped from a Jack-O’-Lantern-shaped hot air balloon on spiderweb parachutes…

Maybe someday.

If you’re looking for some All Hallow’s Read books of your own to share, remember that you can catch me and THE BOOKS OF ELSEWHERE at the Wild Rumpus in Minneapolis at 1:00 on October 26th.

Here’s a lovely new review of THE STRANGERS at Charlotte’s Library.

And finally, here’s me, my mom, and our spiderweb cookies. October: I love you.

STARRY-EYED: 16 STORIES THAT STEAL THE SPOTLIGHT is out TODAY.  Order your copy here or here or here…or head to an actual brick-and-mortar bookstore to order or browse or drink coffee.  (Chances are they’ve got good coffee.)

Booklist gave it a star (yay!) and even mentioned my Midsummer Night’s Dream-themed story in their review (another yay!), which you can read right here:

For any teen who has dreamed of being a star, Starry-Eyed will serve as both encouragement and a reality check. YA authors like Alex Finn, Aimee Friedman, and Garret Freymann-Weye weave mesmerizing stories of talented kids whose lives revolve around music, drama, and the arts. They’ll meet videographers Stringbean and Goose; Becca First, Meghan’s rival for every solo, every role, but keeper of a sad secret; and the vanished Maia Crane, spotted during a bizarre production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Juxtaposed with each short story is an anecdote from artists familiar and less-so: Clay Aiken, Andrea McArdle, Montego Glover, Anthony Fedorov. The amalgam of swoon-worthy and unfamiliar household names is a reminder that TV, Broadway, movies, and records provide myriad opportunities for happiness and career satisfaction, if not fame and fortune. The short stories themselves, each of which is memorable for unique characters and situations, spotlight the importance of the arts in the growth and development—and even the survival!—of a large portion of the teenage population. Complex and focused on far more than art as a high-school extracurricular, Starry-Eyed “breaks a leg” in the finest sense of the word.
–Booklist, starred review

I’ll be hosting a giveaway for a signed copy of STARRY-EYED very soon, so keep your eye on my Facebook page. (And why not keep an eye on Tumblr while you’re at it?)

Speaking of brick-and-mortar bookstores:

This is one more reminder that I’ll be at Wild Rumpus Bookstore in Minneapolis at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, October 26 for a special Halloween-themed book event.  THE STRANGERS, creative projects, unusual bookstore pets…You know you want to join in.

Also, my schedule for the Louisiana Book Festival (Saturday, November 2nd, in Baton Rouge) has been finalized.  I’ll be speaking from 1:00 – 1:30 on the 3rd floor of the Capitol Park Museum and signing from 1:45 – 2:30, either in the Barnes & Noble main tent or the B&N Junior tent.  If you are in the area, or if you know any readers who will be, please send them our way!

Lastly, for any aspiring or established fantasy authors out there: The Jim Henson company is searching for an author for a new novel set in the world of The Dark Crystal.  It’s an incredible opportunity, and if I wasn’t in the middle of four novels already, I’d be all over this myself.  Details are here.

Just one week until STARRY-EYED hits shelves!  Kirkus really liked it:

Sixteen stories of performing are each paired with anecdotes about life behind the scenes and in front of the footlights.
Even a teen with only a pang of stage or screen hunger will be fascinated by this book, with its various accomplished contributors, from the introduction by Clay Aiken to stars from television shows such as Modern Family and Glee. The stories run a rich and varied emotional gamut… Each story is followed by a first-person anecdote by a noted performer, which is itself followed by a brief biography. Teens needn’t be star-struck to enjoy this collection, as under the hubbub of the theater world are themes that deal with common teenage issues such as insecurity, jealousy, the fear of coming out and young love.
Definitely worthy of applause. (Anthology. 12 & up)

You can read the whole review here, at least for now.

The school visit season is kicking into high gear.  Events are lined up in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Louisiana, and Missouri, with Tennessee and Illinois as additional possibilities. To find out where I’ll be, keep an eye on https://jacquelinewest.com/appearance-calendar.php,and I’ll do my best to keep it up to date, I swear.

It’s October, my very favorite month of the year. It’s time to reread some of my very favorite books and rewatch some of my very favorite movies and listen to the fallen leaves whisper along the curbs. And later, there will be miniature Milky Ways and Twixes.  (Twixices? Twixi? Is Twix already plural?)  The only way this month could be better is if it lasted twice as long. And if Twixes were calorie-free.

Right now, I’m rereading this particular favorite book…

…although it’s this cover, which was on the copy that I checked out from my middle school library twenty years ago, that left its mark on my mind for good.

Now back to the copy-edits of STILL LIFE. Nearly done…

When I was teaching high school, during Banned Books Week, I brought in the ALA’s list of most frequently challenged books.  The students tried to guess what was on it and why, and then we discussed book-banning and censorship in general.

One book that has made that list over and over again–and it’s in the top ten even now, thirty-two years after the first installment was published–is the Scary Stories series by Alvin Schwartz, with the mindblowingly masterful illustrations of Stephen Gammell.

(Collage from geeklegacy.com)

The books are usually challenged for the rather arbitrary reason, ‘Unsuited to age group.’  I think it’s  pretty strange to assume that a book that’s suited to one ten-year-old is going to be suited to all ten-year-olds everywhere.  I’ve known ten-year-olds who love Captain Underpants (the most challenged book of 2012) and ten-year-olds who devour Stephen King.  Just like what terrifies a thirty-something like me–the dark, big fish, the telephone–is not going to terrify every other adult.  Obviously.

As a child, I was far more frightened by the “Terrible Tunnel” episode of Fraggle Rock than I was of any book.  Because when it came to books, I was in control.  My imagination was the engine that gave books their power.  I could skip past a particularly creepy page, or throw a book across the room if I liked, or study a single terrifying paragraph or image until the fear it provoked had crumbled away, replaced by familiarity, admiration, and even a little bit of pride.

I loved Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark as a child, even though–and partly BECAUSE–the illustrations haunted me.  I’m glad no one managed to remove these books from our school library.  Then again, I’m pretty sure that if they had, my friends and I would have passed our personal copies around even more feverishly, arranging extra sleepovers just to pore over their pages by flashlight, enthralled by the power of words and pictures.

Yep, this is one of those.

I can’t believe September is already one-third over.  The end of the summer was a whirlwind: a visit from the in-laws, a final round of revisions on STILL LIFE, and my (not-so-little) brother’s beautiful lakeside wedding.

Congratulations, you two.

Now I’m digging back in to the Shakespearean YA project, which has been put aside for so long that I can see it clearly again.  I’m eagerly destroying and rebuilding, rewriting and reacquainting, and spending a lot of time staring dazedly into the distance as new ideas fit themselves together.  It feels really, really good.

My fall schedule is rapidly filling with school visits and public appearances.  Among the recently added (public) events are:

– Wild Rumpus Bookstore, Minneapolis – Saturday, October 26, at 1:00 p.m.  Reading, signing, chatting, and all sorts of special Halloween fun.

– Addendum Books, St. Paul – Saturday, November 16, at 1:00 p.m.  This is a group middle-grade author event, featuring me, Anne Ursu, Kurtis Scaletta, and Lisa Bullard. (I’ll be insanely excited just to be in the same store with these writers, so please come and watch me make a fool of myself.)

And new information is constantly being added to the Louisiana Book Festival website.  The Festival is held in Baton Rouge on Saturday, November 2nd; once I know just when and where I’ll be speaking, I’ll share the info here.

Even with book releases, summer tends to be the quietest time of the year for me, events-wise.  I’m looking forward to a new round of school visits… And speaking of schools, this 4th grade class in Milford, CT read THE SHADOWS, created their own magical paintings, and wrote short stories to accompany them.  Learning that your work has inspired others to create things of their own — stories, paintings, playground games, new names and histories for their stuffed animals — is just about the coolest thing in the world.

Thanks, Ms. Nastasia, and everyone at Meadowside Elementary. 

Another cool Elsewhere-in-the-wild sighting, this one courtesy of my very own editor:

On display at Water Street Bookstore, with THE SHADOWS sold out, in Exeter, NH.  If I ever/finally get to New England, I’ll have to make a stop there.

And (I was serious about the twenty disparate things) I am starting to use Tumblr at last.  I know a lot of my readers can’t/don’t use Facebook, so I’m hoping this platform will be a bit more accessible.  I don’t think it will take the place of this blog, in terms of actual information, but it may outdo it in number of dog pictures.  We will have to wait and see.  http://jacquelinewest.tumblr.com/

Now that it has its own website and Twitter feed (Books these days, she says, in grandmotherly wonder), I can officially spread the word here:

This is STARRY-EYED, a forthcoming anthology from Running Press Kids, and I’ve got a short story in it.

The book is all about the performing arts; essays from performers like Clay Aiken and Lea Salonga and Jesse Tyler Ferguson are intermixed with short stories by the likes of Alex Flinn (Beastly), Kiersten White (Paranormalcy), Claudia Hand (Unearthly)…and me.  Mine’s called “A Midwinter Night’s Dream,” and it’s a twisted little YA piece that I’m actually rather excited about–so if you know any young readers with a love of music and theatre, please point them in our direction.

STARRY-EYED will be released on October 8, but you can already pre-order it from IndieBound here or from Amazon here.  You can add it to your lists on Goodreads and read the first (glowing!) reviews too.

And now, on to the slightly less happy news.

My agent, the utterly fabulous Chris Richman, has decided to leave the agenting world.  He’s setting off on new adventures in PR and Philadelphia, and I’m sure he’ll be just as utterly fabulous at whatever he does next.  (You can read Upstart Crow’s announcement about Chris’s departure here.)  And I’m going to miss him.

Back in 2008, I had been sending out query letters one at a time (exactly what you’re not supposed to do) to literary agents, waiting for months for their it’s-just-not-quite-right-for-us responses, and growing ever more certain that no one was ever going to say yes anyway, when I got an email from Chris.  He was a junior agent at Firebrand Literary, and he had found my submission — the first few chapters of The Shadows — in the slush pile.  And he loved it.

I sent him the rest of the book.  He loved that, too.

I remember his very first phone call, when he offered to represent me and my book.  I paced around and around the kitchen of our old rented farmhouse, clutching the receiver, absolutely overwhelmed with disbelief and terror.  Of course, this was before I learned that Chris was a total Salinger/Vonnegut/Dahl nerd with an encyclopedic knowledge of The Simpsons, just like me.   But I could already tell that my book was in the right hands.

I was Chris’s very first client.  Within a few months, he had five major publishers interested in The Shadows… And that’s how my life changed completely.    I’ll never stop being grateful to him for being one of the very first people to believe in me.

Upstart Crow Literary, the agency where Chris (and I) eventually moved, has been extremely good to me.  This summer I signed on with another Upstart agent, the marvelous Danielle Chiotti.  I know that I’m in good hands once again.

Thanks so much for sharing the stories of your favorite — and brilliant — Halloween costumes!  Reading them made my day.

The randomly selected winners were Taynia and Kim.  Once they email me with their addresses (jacqueline@jacquelinewest.com), the books will be signed and sent.

If you’re hoping to get a signature in a book of your own, keep your eye on my events calendar.  New events are being added all the time.

I’m currently digging into another round of revisions for Volume Five: STILL LIFE.  Can’t believe the series is nearly done…but also really (really REALLY) looking forward to what comes next.  More on that in the near future, I promise.

CONTEST ENTRY DETAILS BELOW

Yesterday was THE STRANGERS’s 2-week birthday.  I’ve been getting lots of wonderful notes from readers who’ve already finished it (and are tapping their feet impatiently for the next volume), which makes me feel happy and lucky and relieved.  I know I’ve said it before, but if you are one of those who has finished and enjoyed the book, I hope you’ll consider leaving a review or rating at Goodreads, Amazon, B&N.com, whatshouldireadnext.com or another book site.  That sort of response really helps.

And, for the second week in a row, VOLUME ONE: THE SHADOWS had made the SIBA bestseller list, where it has moved all the way up to #4!  (This may be the one and only time in my life when I’ll outrank Suzanne Collins.  I’ll take it.)

In celebration of these two crazy weeks, I’m offering two signed hardcover copies of THE BOOKS OF ELSEWHERE, VOLUME FOUR: THE STRANGERS, to be sent directly to the homes of two lucky winners and enjoyed (I hope) at their leisure.

Here’s how to enter:

As those of you who’ve read it know, THE STRANGERS begins at Halloween — Olive dresses up as a jabberwocky, Leopold is the Duke of Wellington, Harvey is the Hunchcat of Notre Dame, and so forth — so, in the comments for this entry, describe your own favorite Halloween costume.  On Wednesday, August 7 (one week from today), I’ll select two winning entries at random.

My own favorite Halloween costume was one I never got to wear.  In fourth grade, I was going to be Alice (from Alice in Wonderland, in case you know any other Alices).  I had a puffy blue pinafore and a white blouse and patent leather Mary Janes and a black velvet headband, and I even had a white rabbit puppet to carry in one arm.  And then, on Halloween morning, I got the stomach flu.  It was a school day, but I soldiered on, throwing up twice in the girls’ bathroom without letting anyone know — and I was the kind of kid who would totter dramatically down the hall to the nurse’s office at the onset of an imaginary headache at least once a week, so this was a genuine struggle — because if I endured to the end of the school day, I could finally put on my costume for the class party.  In the end, I didn’t quite make it.  A teacher noticed my face, which I’m sure had the color and texture of a mushroom by then, and my mother came to pick me up half an hour before the party began.  I spent the rest of that Halloween in my bedroom, so sound asleep that I didn’t even hear the friends and neighbors ringing our doorbell and shouting “Trick-or-Treat.”  Sigh…

Your turn.

So much news…

First of all, THE BOOKS OF ELSEWHERE, VOLUME FOUR: THE STRANGERS was released on July 16th (to a fanfare that played only inside of my own head), and I’m starting to get pictures of the new book in the wild.  Here it is at Wild Rumpus in Minneapolis, and on the new releases shelf at Barnes & Noble, and in the legendary Powell’s Books in Portland…

Also, B&N stores are currently carrying a special display of the paperbacks of THE SHADOWS, SPELLBOUND, and THE SECOND SPY, so if you spot one, please feel free to play a little fanfare inside your head for me.  (Here’s one in Clackamas, OR.  That’s some pretty sweet placement right there.)

Meanwhile, THE SHADOWS has made its way back onto the SIBA (Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance) bestsellers list, at #7 in the Children’s Fiction Series category.  Yippee!

This afternoon, I visited one of my favorite bookshops – Valley Bookseller in Stillwater, MN – for a chat and signing.  Thanks again to the fabulous staff and to everyone who came…especially those who had traveled all the way from central Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Texas!  Signed copies are in stock now…

And way back on July 20th, Karma Gifts of River Falls hosted a book party crammed with the amazing and creative touches of owner Val Lundgren.  There was a glowing fireplace (those who’ve already read Vol. 4 understand the significance), a display of books featuring tattered pages from Twilight drifting from the ceiling, and Mrs. Dewey’s very own Gingerbread Bars and Dutch-Cocoa Sour Cream Swirls. As far as I know, no one lost their memory as a result of eating too many.

Everybody knows this is not an easy time for independent businesses.  After four years of bringing unique and beautiful stuff to the main street of my hometown, Karma is closing.  I’m sorry that this was my last event in the shop, but I’m sure that Val will embark on her next adventure with the same strength and style she brought to this one (and if anyone is looking, she would make one incredible events coordinator).

If you missed both of these events but want a signed book, I’ll be at Hazel Mackin Community Library  in Roberts, Wisconsin, for their Summer Reading Finale on Monday, August 5, from 6:30 – 8:00.  I’m giving a short talk/Q&A/reading at around 7:15, but I’ll be signing and selling books both before and after.

In celebration of THE STRANGERS, here’s a new interview–with lots of dog pictures–at Coffee with a Canine, which is truly a blog after my own heart: read the interview at Coffee with a Canine.

You can also read a little sample of THE STRANGERS (page 69, specifically) and hear my thoughts on if and why and how this page is reflective of the book as a whole at The Page 69 Test.

More news to come…

Today’s the day: THE BOOKS OF ELSEWHERE, VOLUME FOUR: THE STRANGERS is an official, purchase-able, readable book.  Look for it at your local bookstore (and if you’re in Barnes & Noble this month, please note the special displays of Volumes 1 – 3 in paperback!) or library.  Pictures of THE BOOKS OF ELSEWHERE  in the wild are always welcome.

Find it on IndieBound here or on Amazon here — and of course it’s also available for Kindle and Nook for you e-reader readers.

AND, along with THE STRANGERS, VOLUME THREE: THE SECOND SPY is available in audio format at long last!  You can find both books at Audible.com (Here’s THE STRANGERS, and here’s THE SECOND SPY).  They’re read, just like THE SHADOWS and SPELLBOUND, by the wondrous Lexy Fridell.

Release day — even now that it’s my fourth — is exciting and frightening in equal measure.  Knowing that THE STRANGERS is out there in the hands of actual readers fills my stomach with staticky butterflies; they’re bumping around in there, giving each other little electric shocks.  If you read and like the book, please consider writing a review on Goodreads, Amazon, or any other bookish blogs.  Or tell your friends.  That’s even better.

If you’re in the MN/WI area, I hope you’ll consider joining me at Karma Gifts in River Falls, WI for a book party this Saturday, July 20, from 1:00 – 3:00 (more info on Facebook here).  It’s going to be great.  And if you’re on the MN side of the river, stop by Valley Bookseller in Stillwater at noon on Saturday the 27th.  I’ll also be at the Summer Reading Finale Celebration at the Hazel Mackin Community Library in Roberts, WI, on Monday, August 5, from 6:30 – 8:00, signing books and chatting with readers.

Here’s the whole BOOKS OF ELSEWHERE crew (plus a photobombing copy of Neil Gaiman’s THE OCEAN AT THE END OF THE LANE, which is just as good as everyone says) at the Anderson Center’s celebration this weekend.  Thanks to everyone who stopped by.