Kimberly Pauley

Another review for Still Sucks to Be Me!

Teens Read? gave me a lovely little review of Still Sucks to Be Me which means a lot to me because I think it might be the first review I’ve gotten from actual teens for the book so far! The other reviews I’ve seen are all from older readers (I think. Am pretty sure. Sometimes it can be hard to tell. <grin>). Of course, I haven’t seen too many reviews yet, since the release date is still a while away, but each one is exciting!

Must I spell it out for you? I simply loved it. It was hilarious. I found it even funnier then the first book, (but then again, there was more cause for laughter in this book) (ie cow pie crown)… read the rest of their review…

You should follow me on Twitter here.

Tags: still sucks to be me reviews
Posted in Reviews | No Comments »

Gung Hay Fat Choy & Happy VDay & Still Sucks reviews…

Woot! Well, it was fun yesterday meeting up with Kristin Walker and Kristina Springer for the signing in Bolingbrook. I managed to NOT eat a lot of chocolate, which was great (am officially down 15 lbs. now! Just 15 more to go!).

Yesterday was also the Chinese New Year (Happy Year of the Tiger!), so Gung Hay Fat Choy!

I got two awesome cool pieces of news today. One, the first review of Still Sucks to Be Me from Sarah at YA Librarian Tales! She liked it! Whew!

Honestly, the second book thing is much more nerve wracking than the first book thing. Because now people have expectations. And they write me about them. Which is cool, but obviously I can’t meet everyone’s expectations of what should happen since Mina kind of does her own thing. Half the time, I can’t stop her. Okay, more like 99% of the time. So it’s really great to finally hear from someone that they like it! And they think it’s funny! Whoo!

AND I got this super-awesome-wonderfulness of a blurb from the oh-so-cool Margot Adler (of NPR fame):

Of all the Vampire novels I have read, Sucks to be Me was my absolute favorite.  It was smart, original, with a lovely, honest heroine, and it was laugh-out-loud funny. I almost fell out of bed laughing at one point. I couldn’t wait to get a hold of the sequel, Still Sucks to be Me. When it came out, I devoured every page. For those who love the genre, yet are tired of tragic, Byronic lugubrious vampires, this is truly a unique and hilarious read. —Margot Adler, author of Drawing Down the Moon.

That just seriously made my day. I <3 Margot!

So now commences the waiting as I wait to hear how other authors and reviewers feel about the book…

(and yes, people, I will very soon be announcing some contest-y type things…because I love you. You know I do.)

Tags: still sucks to be me
Posted in Books, Reviews | 1 Comment »

Found a nice new review & general news

I was doing a bit of surfing around today and found a nice new review of Sucks to Be Me at Deep Thoughts. Always gives your day a boost to find a nice review out and about.

In writing-ish news, I’m nearly halfway through the sequel. I just modified the outline again since I thought of some cool new bits while I was writing up a synopsis for my editor. I had to write one up because the paperback version of Sucks to Be Me is going to come out later this year and they are going to include some kind of sneak preview of the sequel in the back of the book. So I’ve sent her a synopsis as well as some snippets (first chapter, a sample list, etc.). Not sure yet what will wind up in the paperback, but I’m looking forward to it!

In completely unrelated news, I’ve watched the first 3 parts of Lost in Austen (it’s a 4 parter, so only one more to go). It’s pretty good! If you are a Pride & Prejudice fan, you should check it out. It’s about a modern day London woman who kind of trades places with Elizabeth Bennett into the world of P&P and winds up mucking the story up (more or less).

Tags: lost in austen, sequel, still sucks to be me, sucks to be me
Posted in Just for Fun, Reviews, Writing | 1 Comment »

Booklist likes Sucks to Be Me! Yay!

Woot! I just saw on Amazon that Booklist has reviewed Sucks to Be Me and they like it! Yay!

Most high-school juniors face big questions about their futures, but few ask the question posed to 16-year-old Mina: should she stay human or should she become a vampire, like her parents? In this breezy, often uproarious debut novel, Pauley follows Mina through her decision-making process, which includes classes about vampire history and culture and field trips with her eccentric uncle Mortie, the first vampire in the family. The juxtaposition between Mina’s normal, human high-school existence and “vampire camp” creates hilarious contrasts, all narrated in Mina’s wisecracking, authentic teen voice. Mina’s frequent lists, such as “Why It Sucks to Have Parents Who Are Vampires” and IM exchanges between Mina and her best friend, add to the pitch-perfect humor. A chirpy cheerleader considering the vampire life and a cast of handsome romantic prospects round out the appealing supporting cast. Readers will race through this lighthearted debut, filled with vampire lore, to discover Mina’s final decision, and they might recognize Mina’s larger struggle to move between very different cultural worlds. Grades 7-10. –Gillian Engberg

Posted in Reviews | 3 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 »

Review & Interview (plus kind words) at Through the Looking Glass

Marya from Through the Looking Glass reviews was kind enough to review Sucks to Be Me (and she liked it!) and she also interviewed me (some good questions!). Be sure to take a look! You should also check out her blog anyway…she’s gone a really great site with tons of reviews and interviews.

I like that she thinks I have a quirky sense of humor

Tags: Interviews, sucks to be me
Posted in Interviews, Reviews | No Comments »

New Review of Sucks to Be Me in Locus Magazine!

Ok, so for those of you who have never heard of it, Locus Magazine is a magazine about science fiction and fantasy. It’s not a book of sci-fi and fantasy stories…instead, it actually covers books and magazines that are about sci fi and fantasy. I used to have a subscription to it for years and let it lapse when we moved. Now I wish I had it again! Carolyn Cushman reviewed Sucks to Be Me and liked it! Yay!!

Here are some excerpts from the review…

“The adolescent vampire novel gets a pleasantly light, bizarrely heartwarming treatment in this novel, supposedly the diary of Mina Hamilton, whose parents are both vampires…It’s an unusual mix, a welcome change from all the darker, angsty teen vampire novels around these days, and a very promising first novel.”

Yay! I love that! Bizarrely heartwarming is the kind of thing I was aiming for.

Tags: locus, Reviews, sucks to be me
Posted in Reviews | 3 Comments »

A nice review :-)

Just came across a nice review of Sucks to Be Me from the Confessions of a Bibliovore blog…here’s a brief excerpt:

…No cut-glass cheekbones, black capes, or widow’s peaks in this crowd–Uncle Mortie is a balding door-to-door salesman and Dad is an accountant with a fondness for Italian food, the more garlic the better.

To me, Mina reads a little younger than a senior in high school, but that’s okay, because (except for one euw-inducing vampire-sex talk from Mom) this book is clean enough to give out to middle-schoolers. While this novel is complete in itself, I would read a sequel, just to see how Mina’s life changes after her decision (no spoilers!).

Light-hearted and sweet-natured, this book is a sure hit with those kids that prefer laughs over angst with their blood-suckers.

Tags: bibliovore, review, sucks to be me
Posted in Reviews | No Comments »

Google-Obsession OR new mentions of Sucks to Be Me online

Okay, so one of the things new authors do (and probably “old” authors too) is google themselves incessantly to see if they can find any new mentions of their book online. This is partly because we’re gluttons for punishment but also because you’re generally not notified when something is posted. So if you wanna know what the people are saying (and we do, oh yes we do), you Google it. So I did that this morning while Max was sleeping (I’d have been sleeping too, but the phone – which I didn’t get to in time – had rung).

There’re quite a few new mentions, notably:

• Top Selling Vampire Novels: The Books They Love post on Booky Kids, the blog of an Indie bookseller in California, who calls STBM a fun book and a great read! Woot!
• Love at First Bite article from Maclean’s, which looks to be a Canadian magazine. STBM is mentioned along with the rarified company of Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series as kind of a funny chick-lit alternative.
• A Revish review of Sucks to Be Me by someone named Elizabeth, who calls STBM “cute, light, and funny mixed with a dash of seriousness and angst.” and furthermore says that she “hope[s] this is the first in a series.” Yay!
• And another review from And Another Book Read that says: “From the very first page I was literally “sucked” into this book. It was truly fantastic. What I loved the most was the humor. Mina had such a witty voice that I found myself laughing with every turn of the page.”
• And I was actually the subject of a Yahoo Answers question! Ha!
• And I found some library’s webpage that showed that 5 libraries had ordered a copy and it was already requested 8 times!

Tags: Books, kimberly pauley, Reviews
Posted in Books, Reviews | No Comments »

New reviews posted…

I updated the “Reviews and Comments” page with some of the latest reviews I’ve found online for Sucks to Be Me (if I’ve missed one you’ve seen or posted, let me know!). So nice to hear everyone’s thoughts!

What is really interesting to me too is what things people pick up on and what they don’t, as well as what they get “right” and what they get “wrong” (and I don’t mean that in a disparaging way at all; it’s just a thing). Also which things people find funny — in fact, if you’ve read the book, please add a comment and let me know what you thought was funny. It often seems to me that the things that I find funniest aren’t necessarily the ones that other people find funny…but I guess I have an odd sense of humor.

Posted in Reviews, Writing | 3 Comments »