Blog: Freefall by Mindi Scott is a best seller. . .

. . . at Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park.  Look!  The Seattle Times even says so!

My screen capture doesn't show you the rest of the paperback list, but it goes like this:  1. Freefall, Mindi Scott; 2. War Dances, Sherman Alexie; 3. Cutting for Stone, Abraham Verghese; 4. The Girl Who Played with Fire, Stieg Larsson; 5. First Light, Rebecca Stead

This little article was very fun for me to see, and I just want to say thank you to everyone who made this happen by coming to my launch party and buying copies of Freefall.  And thank you to those of you who bought it elsewhere, too.  And thank you to everyone who has mentioned it in Twitter and FaceBook statuses and/or taken the time to post your thoughts on Amazon.  It really means a lot. ♥

Blog: List Friday: Times when I've cried about FREEFALL

I'm going to try a new thing for the Fridays when I remember to blog.  Instead of attempting "Friday 5" or "Friday 4" or Friday with any other number behind it, I will instead attempt "List Friday" which means I can make a list of any amount of items.  Sometimes my list will have three things on it!  Sometimes--like today--my list will have six!   It's a whole new world, I'm telling you!

Times When I've Cried About FREEFALL

1.  I received a rejection.  From an agent.  On a full manuscript.  When I'd had really high hopes.  Now, this wasn't an uncommon thing for me--getting agent rejections.  (In fact, I've received over 150 of them in my life.)  But full-on crying over a rejection happened to me only this one time and it really, really sucked.

2.  Mere days after I got my book deal and joined the Tenners, Trish Doller posted letting me know that some bloggers had told her that they were excited about my book.  I thought to myself, Oh, isn't that so sweet?  And then the reality hit me.  They were excited to read my book!  Not only that, but they might very well one day actually read my book! It was overwhelming and wonderful all at the same time.

3.  A few weeks before ARCs were printed, my editor let me know that the woman who had copyedited Freefall sent an email saying that she loved the book.  Then my editor wrote me again pasting the exact words that had been said about it.  This was the first time that feedback from someone other than my agent, editor, or a critique partners had been passed on to me, and it was my first taste of what People Out There might say.  It was a great start.

4.  This past summer, Dwayne and I were eating dinner at Panera when my phone indicated that I had a new email.  I tried to resist looking, but I just couldn't stop myself.  The email was a Google Alert (hooray for Google Alerts!), letting me know that a review was up at Goodreads by Amber at Just Your Typical Book Blog.  This was only the second review ever posted for my book.  It included words like "best" and "favorite" and I burst into tears right then and there.  I had to get the rest of my dinner to go because I couldn't concentrate on the food anymore.

/ 5.  A few days before my book's release date, I received a Google Alert (damn you, Google Alerts!) letting me know that someone had posted about my book, the gist of which was that my book didn't matter and was a waste of time.  I spent the whole day watching movies on the couch, eating ice cream and popcorn, and worrying that the whole world was going to feel this way.  (Never mind the twenty or so reviews out there that already said the opposite.)  It was my biggest fear, really.  Sure, I don't want people to hate my book, either, but indifference stabs in a completely different way.  Then that night, I took a break from the movies at my house to see a movie at the $3 theater by my house.  (What a day, what a day!)  Afterward, Dwayne drove me to Barnes & Noble where Freefall was already on the shelves.  I then petted my books and cried for other reasons.

6.  A few weeks after my book's release, I got an email from the mother of a teenage boy.  She said he'd chosen Freefall for himself and she wanted to get a peek at what he was reading.  She ended up staying up until 2am to finish it.  She feels like this book has given her an opening to talk about some difficult things with him, and she thanked me for writing it. Which is just . . . wow.  I mean, WOW! 

Blog: My new/old life.

I'm still recovering from the past few weeks.  These events have been mostly very good and my use of the word "recovering" sounds mostly bad, but I don't mean it like that.  I'm really just trying to get caught up on stuff, get a new routine going, and change some of my old habits moving forward. 

This is my new life--starting today, actually.  My post-book-release life.  My gotta-get-back-to-my-manuscript-or-I'm-going-to-explode life.  I'm feeling my way around it.  Life and the manuscript. 

Seth McCoy, That Kid in That Book I Wrote That One Time, has a tendency to distract me in every possible way at every opportunity.  Until I opened my files today for my current manuscript, I couldn't even remember my new character's voice.  I'm happy to report that she does have one and there are some good scenes here.  Now I just need MORE of them.  More, more, more.

On a different note, here's an email exchange from today:

Matt:  I bought a couple books the other day.  Are you going to sign them this weekend?

Me:  I think I am.  But only if they're books that I wrote.  ;-)

Matt:  Those are the only kind of books that I buy!

Me:  Awesome!

(Of course, he's totally lying because he buys lots of books not written by me!)

Blog: Freefall launch party recap and photos

The official Freefall launch party happened this past Sunday at Third Place Books.  The turnout was great; over 90 people in attendance, I heard. 

I gave a little talk about my Path to Publication, read an excerpt, answered questions from the audience, and then signed every copy of Freefall that was in the store.  (The bookstore totally sold out, which is cool, but I was disappointed, too, because I'd wanted everyone to be able to go home with my book and that definitely didn't happen.) 

There's weren't too many people there who didn't already know me, but there were a lot who didn't know the story of how this book came to be, so I did feel like it was something important to share.

This was a different experience from my recent Books of Wonder event in NYC.  There, I was one of eleven authors.  There, I knew only about 10 people in the audience.  There, I spoke "like I'd been doing panels forever."  (This is a near-quote of someone who attended.  For reals!)

The launch party was all about me, of course, and I was standing in front of a crowd of relatives (lots of relatives! Some of whom had come to the event together in a chartered bus!), friends from as far back as high school, coworkers and former coworkers, critique partners, other authors, friends from Dwayne's job and band, people I've met online, etc.  I wouldn't say that I was exactly more nervous about it so much as emotional, you know?

Anyway, it was a lot of fun, but also a bit of a blur for me.  I didn't get a chance to talk with everyone who was there, but I was told that people had a good time, so that was very nice to hear! 

And now for some pics.  Here's a couple of different views of the crowd. And, actually, this was before things really got started.  Later, there were lots of people standing at the back and off to the side as well.
 

Here's me, doing the stuff:
   

And my cousin Amanda, wearing the best shirt ever:

A bunch of Pacific Northwest YA authors came to hang out and show support: 

Left to right:  Holly Cupala (TELL ME A SECRET), Denise Jaden (LOSING FAITH), me, Kimberly Derting (THE BODY FINDER), Karen Kincy (OTHER), and Mandy Hubbard (PRADA AND PREJUDICE and YOU WISH).

Here's a link to more pictures if you want to check them out.

Thank you to everyone who came and made my launch party a success!  I know there were some who even traveled from as far as Oregon, Eastern Washington, and British Columbia, and I very much appreciate you making the trip for my big night.  You guys are the best and I love you!  ♥

Also, if you weren't able to purchase a signed copy at the event, I know that the bookstore has just received more and will call me soon to come down and sign them.  They'll mail the signed books to you, if you'd like.  So if you didn't already request that service and would like to, here's the website where their phone and email address is available.

Alternately, of course, if you want to buy your copies elsewhere, we can hopefully get together soon so I can sign them for you.  I'll be signing at Uppercase Books in Snohomish, Washington on October 30th with Chelsea Campbell, Kimberly Derting, Denise Jaden, and Karen Kincy, so there will be an opportunity there, too. 

Thanks again!

  ♥♥♥

Vlog: Tour of "Kenburn" (in case you missed it).

During the Freefall blog tour a couple of weeks ago, this vlog was posted.  I intended to embed it here the next day as well, but things kind of got away from me.  I thought I'd go ahead and show it to you now, in case you missed it and didn't want to continue missing it.

Fun facts about this video:

1.  This is a mini-tour of the fictional town, Kenburn, where Freefall takes place. 

2.  The particular locations shown here that make up some of "Kenburn" are located in Auburn/Pacific, Kenmore, Edmonds, and Olympia (all in Western Washington State) in real life.

3.  This was the first vlog that Intern Amanda and I shot together.  It was also only our second time ever having met.  (The first being the interview for the intern position.)  You can tell that I'm very self-conscious about blabbing to her about my book at these locations by the way that I don't even look at the camera for most of the filming.  We came a long way!