Kimberly Pauley

Book Trailer Envy Winners!!

All winners now announced! So, without further ado…

• First prize: a $25 Amazon gift certificate, a signed copy of the hardback first edition Sucks to Be Me, a Sucks to Be Me batty t-shirt and various vampire paraphernalia. PLUS a Practical Guide to Vampires (hardback), The Stowaway (paperback), the Practical Guide to Faeries (hardback) and a signed copy of the Practical Guide to Monsters (hardback)….GOES TO…Briana!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjevxeEuhqw]

• Second prize: a signed copy of the hardback first edition Sucks to Be Me, a Sucks to Be Me batty t-shirt and various vampire paraphernalia. PLUS a Practical Guide to Vampires (hardback), The Stowaway (paperback), and the Practical Guide to Faeries (hardback)…..GOES TO…Victoria!!

View Here: http://animoto.com/play/hVha9VAsNsQkSTUGJ5fHew?autostart=true (can’t figure out how to embed it)

Thank you very much to the judges (which included people from my publisher, my family, and my friends). And THANK YOU to everyone who entered. The videos were all AWESOME! You guys are truly amazing! If you haven’t already sent me your address (remember, everyone gets a prize of some kind), please do soon!

UPDATE!! Okay! I’m happy to announce 3rd place now! My publisher was nice enough to agree to pony up some additional prizes, so third place is still a tie

• Third prize: a signed copy of the paperback Sucks to Be Me and various vampire paraphernalia (fangs, bite mark tattoos, etc.). PLUS a Practical Guide to Vampires (hardback) and The Stowaway (paperback)….GOES TO…Bianca / Junwan & Wynter!!

Congrats again! I’m really glad I didn’t vote myself. It would have been too hard! I liked them all so much!

Tags: book trailer, sucks to be me
Posted in Cool Stuff from Readers, Past Giveaways | 9 Comments »

STBM T-shirt photo!

So I got in a photo from someone who rec’d a Sucks to Be Me t-shirt (Serina, who got the bat tattooed on her arm! Which is so cool!). She was nice enough to let me share it.

Sucks to Be Me t-shirt on Serina

I think I need to come up with another contest to give away some more shirts. Any ideas, anyone?

Posted in Cool Stuff from Readers | 7 Comments »

Me, but cooler & manga-y (by Marci)

Okay, my laptop is FINALLY back in commission! Thank goodness for tech-y computer guys who do house calls (go, Marty!). So now I can get caught back up in my email (got lots while I was down) and get some pictures and things posted.

First up…here’s a picture that one of the participants in the Writing Camp in San Antonio drew by hand! Marci (aka Bob…little inside joke there) is awesome AND talented! This is me…but, you know, cooler. Like as if I was in a manga.

Me, by Marci

Hey, could I be that skinny in real life? Pretty please?

Posted in Author Appearances, Cool Stuff from Readers | 3 Comments »

A Batty Bat Tattoo!

Ok, so this is like the coolest thing ever, no? A fan (named Serina, kinda like in the book, but spelled differently) actually got a tattoo of the awesome blue bat from the book! Both versions, actually — happy bat and angry bat. Just take a look (this is an in-progress photo, without all the shading done, but you can definitely tell what it is going to look like!!):

Angry Bat

Happy Bat

She’s w-a-y braver than me. I’m not good with needles! Though if I got a tattoo, it would totally be Happy Bat! Thanks again to Emi Tanji for designing such an awesome batty!

Tags: bat tattoo
Posted in Cool Stuff from Readers, Just for Fun | 9 Comments »

Pictures!

So, of course I forgot to post the pictures yesterday! (And hey, anyone who wants to send me a picture of you with my book, I’d love to see it!)

Diana

Taylor

Posted in Cool Stuff from Readers | 12 Comments »

What's your fav part of STBM?

A comment got me thinking about how people always pick out different things than I think they will for their fav part of the book (or what they think is the funniest or most romantic, etc.). So I’m asking you — please, post a comment and tell me what *you’re* favorite part of the book is. And what did you think was funniest? Or most whatever.

WARNING: if you haven’t read the book yet, don’t read the comments!!!

And don’t forget to enter this month’s contest to win either a STBM t-shirt or a signed copy!

Posted in Cool Stuff from Readers, Just for Fun | 13 Comments »

Yay! 2nd Printing & reviews galore…

Yay! I got some good news today! Sucks to Be Me should be going into a second printing! Yay! If I was capable of turning a cartwheel, I would. Though I don’t actually know how many copies were in the first printing, so the news doesn’t actually tell me too much, but I know it’s good!

I’ve also been getting some fan mail (hehe, I still have to kind of giggle when I say that) from some really lovely fans, including lots of boys (which I totally didn’t expect!). Before I was published, I always wondered what would be the best thing about being a “real author” — and I probably always thought it would be the feeling you get when you hold your book in your hand for the first time or being able to walk into a bookstore and see your book there. And those things are really cool, but the real best thing is hearing from people about how your book touched their lives or made them laugh or brightened their day. That’s really cool.

At any rate, I also went on a mini-Google-athon today (when I should have been writing…bad me) and found some new reviews & mentions of Sucks to Be Me online. Here’s a sampling:

• The Field Guide to Parenting says: “I’m not sure how she did it, but the author has managed to create a normal family and a teen with typical problems, except for the fact that the family is full of vampires. The Myth/Truth at the top of each chapter and the plays on words (remember “It sucks to be me?”) add to the delightful, often zany adventure of an average girl dealing with an out-of-this-world problem.” and “Original and witty, it leaves you wondering how suddenly vampires don’t seem so strange after all.“
• And Through the Looking Glass (can’t remember if I mentioned this or not before…she also interviewed me and was really lovely) says: “Written from Mina’s point of view, the author has created a compelling voice for her character. It is a voice that is true to how a teenager thinks and feels, and for this reason readers will quickly find themselves becoming attached to this quirky and thoroughly likeable girl.“
• And there’s She Reads, She Blags About, who says: “Sucks to Be Me is written in a diary format, and Mina’s voice reminds me a lot of Mia’s in The Princess Diaries: light, funny, and just a little self-conscious. The concept isn’t just clever and inventive, it’s also well-executed, which is a rare combination: Pauley re-writes a lot of the “rules” of vampires, but she’s always consistent, which will please vampire aficionados. (You know who you are.)“
• And then I found this really lovely comment too: “I bought and finished reading this book yesterday. It is now one of my favorite books and I felt like telling people about it. This is the debut novel of Kimberly Pauley. Seriously, you have got to check this book out. It’s laugh-out-loud funny with great characters and you’ll instantly fall in love with Mina. Plus every chapter starts off with a vampire myth and Mina tells you if it’s true or not in her own personal way.“

In other news, I’ve been working on a new book proposal and talking with another writer about outlines. So I think I’ll be putting together a writing-related post about outlining soon. And, as always, if you have any writing or other questions, feel free to ask!

Posted in Cool Stuff from Readers, Reviews, Writing | 3 Comments »

I Love Your Blog Award

I Love Your Blog Award

Diana was nice enough to nominate me for an I Love Your Blog Award (wasn’t that awesome of her??). The rules are:

1. Add the logo into your blog.

2. Add the link of the person who awarded you.

3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs. (Feel free to do more!)

4. Add those links to your blog.

5. And leave a message to your nominees that you have awarded them in their blog!

So here’s the really hard part — 7 blogs that I love. How can I just pick 7?? First I’ll say right off the bat that I really like the other blogs that Diana picked, but since she’s already picked them, I’m going to pick different ones. Of course, that doesn’t really help much, since there are so many AWESOME blogs out there. So I’m going to try doing this like a writing exercise and just put down the first ones that come to me, rather than over-analyzing it too much. If I do that, I’ll never finish the list!

Alan Gratz’s blog, (which he shares with his wife) because he always makes me laugh. Plus, what other guy do you know actually sews his own doll clothes as part of a paen to Project Runway???

The Swivet. Because Colleen cracks me up, listens to great music, and is, in her own words, an unrepentent nerd. She’s now an agent, though she worked on the publishing side before (when I first began reading her blog she still was — though I came across her blog while being a Google-freak looking for mentions of my book…she happened to like the title when it came across in Publisher’s Marketplace. I don’t know if she’s ever actually read my book or liked it beyond the title, but I like her. And if my agent wasn’t nice, I’d so be querying Colleen.)

Bookavore. She’s Laurie Halse Anderson’s daughter, but that’s not why I like her blog. And she liked my book, but that’s also not why I like her blog. I like it ’cause it’s full of awesomeness and is interesting and pertinent and about books. Enough said.

Lara M. Zeises LiveJournal. Mostly because every time I stop by to check it out, I wind up staying for a while.

Brent Hartinger’s Blog AKA Brent’s Brain.  Brent also makes me laugh. He’s smart, he’s funny, he’s gay, and he’s a heckuva guy.

Cynsations – because in any list of blogs, you have to include at least one of Cynthia’s (there’re a few) because she is so awesome. And I learn something every time I visit her blog.

Notes from the Slush Pile. Another learning experience…I learn something new about children’s publishing every time I read this one. Smart blog with a bit of a wry sense of humor at times.

Okay…I made it to seven! Actually, I suppose I should say, Hey, I kept it to seven!

Posted in Awards & Honors, Cool Stuff from Readers, Just for Fun | 5 Comments »

The mean girl's name…

Well, I did finally pick out the mean girl’s name for the sequel to Sucks to Be Me from all of the suggestions submitted during the Grand Prize contest. I’m not completely sure what her last name is going to be yet, but her first name is…

Kacie!

I was thinking either Kacie Kinsley or Kacie Chanson (both of those last names were also suggestions). I’m pretty sure Kacie’s got friends (hey, what mean popular girl doesn’t?) and I’m thinking maybe Courtney or Delaney there. Or maybe both. I’m not sure how many friends I’m going to really talk about or go in depth on yet…but doesn’t it always seem like mean girls have two lackeys?

The most popular suggestion was actually Scarlett, followed by Bella or Belle. I didn’t want to go with Scarlett since so many people have so many associations with that name. The same for Bella (and besides, someone might think I was trying to go all anti-Stephenie Meyer or something). But they are great names! Actually, all of the name suggestions were great.

Thanks again to everyone who entered the contest and gave me names I’ve saved all of them…who knows, I always need character names!

Tags: mean girl names, sequel, sucks to be me
Posted in Cool Stuff from Readers, Writing | 12 Comments »

Photos in Bookstores…

Colleen from Roaring Brook Press (a great little press that’s part of Macmillan, by the way, if you’ve never checked out any of their books) sent me this camera phone shot of Sucks to Be Me at Union Square in a Virgin Megastore. Right under a bunch of Twilight / Breaking Dawn books.

Virgin Megastore in Union Square

And here’s a picture of my lovely neice, who picked up a copy in a Barnes & Noble in North Carolina. Camera phones are great, aren’t they?? I’ve got another picture somewhere that my husband Tony sent me on the day the book came out when he found it at a Barnes & Noble near his office.

My neice Nat with my book in NC

If you find my book somewhere and happen to take a picture with it, send it to me and I’ll post it. It’s kind of fun to see it in all the different places everywhere. Heck, it’s still fun to just see it.

Tags: bookstores, pictures, sucks to be me
Posted in Books, Cool Stuff from Readers | 1 Comment »