End of Summer Shamelessness

Summer may be over, but it's still hot here in Southern California, and for Inkies around the country who have some hot, hot news to share!

P.J. Hoover's debut with Tor SOLSTICE has a beautiful cover along with a wonderful blurb from Cynthia Leitich Smith!

Piper's world is dying. Each day brings hotter temperatures and heat bubbles that threaten to destroy the earth. Amid this global heating crisis, Piper lives under the oppressive rule of her mother, who suffocates her even more than the weather does. Everything changes on her eighteenth birthday, when her mother is called away on a mysterious errand and Piper seizes her first opportunity for freedom.

Piper discovers a universe she never knew existed—a sphere of gods and monsters—and realizes that her world is not the only one in crisis. While gods battle for control of the Underworld, Piper’s life spirals out of control as she struggles to find the answer to the secret that has been kept from her since birth.

An imaginative melding of mythology and dystopia, Solstice is the first YA novel by talented newcomer P. J. Hoover.

Awesome, right? And the blurb from Cynthia Leitich Smith:

“Solstice is one red-hot read—it intrigues, sizzles, and satisfies.” —Cynthia Leitich Smith, New York Times bestselling author

The fantastic trailer for THE CRIMSON CROWN by Cinda Williams Chima is now live, featuring an original song by Roto. Check it out before you can see it theaters this fall!

Cinda's not the only one with a brand shiny new trailer. Grace Lin's STARRY RIVER THE SKY (which now has 5 starred reviews) is also live!

So amazing. Both of them!

Speaking of reviews, DIVERSE ENERGIES, a multicultural YA dystopian anthology (Tu Books) has a new one. The anthology features short stories by our own Ellen Oh and Cindy Pon, as well as award winning authors such as Ken Liu, Paolo Bacigalupi and Ursula Le Guin. Kirkus gave Diverse Energies a very positive review in their October 1 issue:

As the title promises, this sophisticated science-fiction anthology is diverse in nearly every sense of the word... Readers will find poor children working in mines and factories, a have-not yao boy kidnapping a rich you girl and a girl reeling as the world inexplicably changes around her, and no one else notices. Although many stories imagine bleak futures, their tones are refreshingly varied... Careful, curious readers will be rewarded, though probably not comforted, by the many realities and futures imagined here.

Yep, that's a win!

And last, I announced a new book deal a couple of weeks ago, for 2014 and 2015. Not fantasy, but I thought I'd let you know anyway.

Author of POSSESS, TEN and the upcoming 3:59, Gretchen McNeil's new Don't Get Mad series, GET EVEN and GET DIRTY, pitched as Revenge meets The Breakfast Club, about four girls who form a secret revenge society for bullied classmates which goes well until one of their targets turns up dead, to Kristin Daly Rens at Balzer & Bray, in a very nice deal, in a two-book deal, by Ginger Clark at Curtis Brown (NA).

And that's all the awesomeness for this week!!!!