Two ways to win LIVE THROUGH THIS

There are a couple of contests going on, if you'd like to try to win copies of Live Through This, which came out on October 2, 2012. The first giveaway is through SimonTEEN's Facebook page. I believe that to enter, you have to "like" the page and then fill out a short form. There are few books up for grabs and the giveaway ends on November 9th at 11am EST.

The second giveaway is over at Goodreads. If you have a Goodreads account, you just have to be logged in, and then click the "enter to win" button on this page. This one ends on November 24th.

And, of course, the book is for sale all over the place right now if you don't want  to wait and just hope that you'll win. :-)  There are links on this page of my website for places to buy Live Through This. You can also read an excerpt to see if it's something you're interested in. (I hope it is!)

Photos & recap of the LIVE THROUGH THIS launch party

On Saturday, October 13, 2012, this happened at Elliott Bay Book Company in Seattle:

(photo by Arin Berthiaume)

Which means that there was lots of these things to go around, of course:

        (Photos by Sarah S. Moon)

Hooray!

I did a short talk about what I'd hoped to accomplish in writing Live Through This. Then I read a short excerpt (pages 54, 55, and the first few lines of 56, in case you wondered), in which Coley and Reece flirt using song lyrics--like they often do.

(Photo by William McCain)

That was the perfect segue for my husband, Dwayne, to appear from behind the curtain to introduce members of Alabaster (himself, Joe, Laura, Marlon, and Shaina) and Peace Mercutio (Andy and Taylor), who joined forces to play as "Writer's Block." As a surprise for me, they'd all changed their clothes to dress like the writer they know best in hoodies, T-shirts, and pajamas.

(Photo by Sarah S. Moon)

Writer's Block played six songs that are related to the book, and they took turns singing the lead vocals: Laura on "Asking for It" by Hole,  Shaina on "Missing" by Everything But the Girl, Taylor on "Creep" by Radiohead, followed by Shaina on Fergie's "Big Girls Don't Cry." The most recognizable song of all was sung by Andy: "Brown Eyed Girl" by Van Morrison. Then I came over and surprised everyone (except the band members and, like, three other people who knew in advance) by singing "See You Again" by Miley Cyrus with Shaina's assistance on the choruses.

       (Photos by Arin Berthiaume)

After the music, I went back to the podium for a Q&A, and then it was time for the signing and reception.

There was some of this:

(Photo by William McCain)

And a WHOLE BUNCH of this:

(Photo by Sarah S. Moon)

And the people who weren't me got to do this for a while:

(

Photo by Arin Berthiaume)

The bookstore was very professional, organized, and had plenty of books to go around! Casey O., the host, made me feel welcomed and at ease. In all, it was a very fun day for me, and I got a number of emails afterward from attendees who said that they'd enjoyed themselves as well! There were some who'd traveled from British Columbia, Oregon, California, and Colorado, which really meant a lot to me and made the day extra special. Thank you all so much!

(Photos by Leeann Ward and Lindsey Schoenberger)

(Photos by Lindsey Schoenberger)

(Photo by . . . Linsey or Sandra? :-D)

(If you attended the event and have photos that you'd like to share with me, I'd love to see them! My email is mindirochelle AT gmail DOT com, if you wanna send them.)

Launch party reminder + bunches of links!

Reminder! My Seattle launch party is happening on October 13th, which is this coming Saturday! I hope to see you there. Here's the info about it, if you need it. And if you can't attend, but would like order signed copies of my books to be shipped to you, you should do that, like, right away! Here's some promotion stuff for Live Through This that's popped up in the past couple of weeks. I hope you'll check some of it out. I worked hard on these and they're interesting, if you're into that sort of thing. ;-)

Videos

• I read aloud from my old diary all the details of my first kiss at age 15 for Truth or Dare at the Thirteeners.
• Over at Girls in the Stacks, I wrote about the bizarre twist that helped make my book trailer become a real thing.

Guest blogs

• Cover Story at Melissa Walker's blog. Commentary from my editor, Liesa (used with permission) about how and why this particular cover art was selected for my book as well as my interpretation of the image that's depicted.
• Editor Guest blog at Hobbitsies: Liesa shared what it was like for her to work with me on this book.
• Music Guest Post at Greads: I talked about some of songs that are mentioned in LTT and why they were chosen.

Book Excerpt A cute excerpt from Chapter 5 of LTT was posted at I Like These Books, along with my commentary about what's happening in the scene.

Reviews

• Amber Benson and Sarah Kuhn wrote a tandem review of Live Through This.
• Also, I added more links on my website to some of my favorite reviews for LTT. If you have a review you'd like to share with me, please email me at mindirochelle AT gmail DOT com or tweet to me: @mindi_scott

Character Interviews

• Ming (a close friend of LTT's narrator, Coley) is over at the Elliott Review.
• Reece (Coley's "adorkable love interest") answered questions for Kari at A Good Addiction.

Blogs that have posted recent interviews with me

• Author Denise Jaden
• Author Sara Hantz
• Paperback Treasures
• Mimosa Stimulus

Check out the LIVE THROUGH THIS book trailer!

Last month, I wrote about the photo shoot we did for the book trailer for Live Through This. Now the time has come to finally share it with you![youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNHG2UHvmyo]

Song: "Somewhat Broken" by Shaina Rae | ShainaRaeMusic.com Photography and Video Editing: Shaina Rae Concept: Mindi Scott Direction: Dwayne Scott Voiceover: Laura Samsel Featuring: Anika, Bailey, Cali, Carter, Kelland, Kyle, Linda, Madeline, Marty, Sarah, Shaylee, and Taylor.

If you've read the book, you might spot that some of the details aren't perfectly perfect. But we got really close in most of the casting, which was an accomplishment in and of itself! I'm very thankful to everyone who was a part of it, and especially to Shaina who really worked hard to use her photography to bring Coley and the others to life as I'd envisioned them.

(Side note: I actually don't think I'll be able to watch this video again for a while myself; the adorable way that "Reece" looks at "Coley" in the pictures at the end truly makes my chest hurt. How did he do that? Ha ha.)

Okay, wait! There's more I want to share with you!

Blog Tour Live Through This officially comes out on October 2nd, so I have a blog tour starting today through The Teen Book Scene. (Click the link to see the full schedule.) Kari Olson, an agent-represented YA writer and book blogger, coordinated a varied and fun tour with a couple of author interviews and guest blogs by me, some questions for my characters, reviews, and a wonderful post by my editor, Liesa, about her experience editing Live Through This that will go up next Monday. I'll likely Tweet and post the links on FB each day. I hope you'll check them out!

FYI: The first stop of the tour is TODAY over at Mimosa Stimulus. Jenny did an interview with me, which included questions about tough issue books that I recommend and how my own experiences affected the writing of this book.

Reviews A few reviews of Live Through This have started popping up online. I've done a round-up of some of my favorites so far on my website. All of these are from readers who really get it (which is so gratifying for me!) and who were careful in their reviews not to give away too much and spoil the story for others. Each of them do address the major theme, but I wouldn't call that a spoiler at all; it's revealed on the very first page of the book (as well as in the letter to readers about why I wrote it).

Seattle Launch Party Just in case you missed it, the launch party for Live Through This is happening on Saturday, October 13th at 2pm. There will be music and food and desserts and other fun things happening! All the information about the event is posted here. (The official event page on FB is here.)

Signed Copies of Live Through This and Freefall And in case you missed this, even if you can't make it out for my launch party, you can still get signed and personalized copies of my books from the event on October 13th. You'll just want to try to get your order in very soon. The information for how and where to order signed copies is here.

And that's all the stuff for now!

Would you like to order SIGNED copies of Live Through This or Freefall?

Since most people aren't near Seattle and, therefore, won't be able to attend my Live Through This book launch party, I want to make sure that everyone knows about the option to have signed copies of my books shipped to you from Elliott Bay Book Company! All you have to do is place your book order online through Elliott Bay Book Company's site anytime between now and October 11, 2012. Be sure to include a comment notation stating that you are requesting an autographed book from my event, which is happening on October 13th. Alternately, you may make this purchase and request by phone: 1-800-962-5311. The bookstore will have me sign and personalize them however you specify, and ship them out after the 13th!

Simple enough, right? :-)