Okay, intrepid readers, I know many of you will have opinions about this. Here's the paperback cover for book of a thousand days, to be released in September. The hardcover will keep the original.

This book has received more award and list loving than any book of mine besides princess academy. It's a very precious book to me and my husband's favorite. I'm thrilled to have it coming out in paperback. I don't announce on my blog everything, but I keep a list of honors my books receive on my website. Here's the one for book of a thousand days. I love those state awards. A committee chooses the nominees in each state, then for the year the children are encouraged to read the books from the nominee list and vote on their favorite. Truly children's choice. The lists are always full of wonderful books.

I don't post all my reviews, etc., for this book either. I keep an up-to-date list on my site. But I just got a happy-dance national review for the actor and the housewife, from New York Daily News that I want to share. It's short and magically spoiler-free, so I'm going to post it all here.

"The Actor and the Housewife" is completely unbelievable and totally credible. Where did Shannon Hale come up with this story? Becky Jack is a devoted wife and a Mormon who, against all odds, sold a screenplay. She is in her agents’ office when British screen star Felix Callahan walks in. They begin a sparring conversation, and things go from there.

But not to bed. Becky is devoted to her husband, Mike, and their four children. Her way of life, as well. Felix can’t quit her, though. She adores him, but not in that way. The dialogue is witty, the romantic suspense genuine, and the finale? It ends the way it should.

Ah! Makes me happy. It was featured in Parents magazine, will be featured in the August Family Circle magazine, and is an Indie Next Great Read this month. Hooray! Thanks to Michelle, a publicist at Bloomsbury, who has been working hard to help get it attention.

Ya'll are so sweet. I feel like I have a coven of best gal friends, who are always here to say, "They were mean to you? Then they're crazy! Here, have some ice cream." (and Marcus Aurelius too, who rocks via witty ironic statements) The last post wasn't about any particular review for any one book. On this blog, I try to be honest about the life of a professional writer, good and bad. When I was young and unpublished, I would've thought negative reviews wouldn't hurt me 9 books later. But they do. They always do. They always will.

As Laura ZM pointed out, how many professions require the worker to be publicly mocked for their work? For every detail of what they've done to be analyzed and criticized? There are some. Athletes. Coaches. Actors. I understand scientists are pretty hard on each other. American Idol contestants. Anyone who posts on youtube. But it's rare generally, I think. I don't like it. But I know it's part of the profession. If I want the privilege of writing books and sharing them with people, I have to take the lambasting. (I don't have to like it! But I do have to take it.)

I don't want to sound complainy here. I have no right to. I have had 8 books worth of really gorgeous reviews. (my ninth book, forest born, just got its first national review from Kirkus--and it was lovely! YAY!) There are always the lukewarm reviews to irritate and depress. And then there are the reviews that feel less like a critical response and more like two slaps and a gut punch. But here's the truth about reviews--they're all good. And I have to be grateful for them all.

I wince when I write that, because I don't want to accept the bad ones as good. And I certainly don't want to be grateful for them. Not for that one, at least, and not that other one. Do I really have to be grateful? Do I? Yes, I do. Say it, Shannon. Say it and mean it.

"Thank you, reviewers, who hated my book and wrote out your words so that all would know that this book, in your opinion, was less appetizing than a pile of fresh hippo poo. Thank you for taking the trouble to express that sentiment in 500 words or less. Thank you."

I kinda did mean that. Of course I'd rather have glowing, loving reviews! But someone told me early in my career, all reviews are good. Just as there's no such thing as bad publicity, there's always good that comes from any review. With shrinking review space and growing numbers of books published, any attention a book gets at all is good. For example, this happens: woman reads a negative review of book; woman goes to bookstore and sees that book; woman can't remember what review said, only that it mentioned said book; woman buys book. So, thank you. Thank you, angry readers who type.

Okay, that's easier said than felt. It is SO hard to read, often physically painful. So how do I handle the two-slap-gut-punch reviews? Sometimes I just feel down and dumpy all day. Sometimes I bury it, then it sneaks up on me and I think, "Why do I feel like crap?" until I remember. Just like with anything else bad that happens. My most effective method is NOT eating chocolate till I'm sick (though I try it...often), but to put it in perspective. "Waah, waah," I say to myself in a high, whiny voice. "I have my dream job and write books for a living that thousands of people love, but some people don't like them. Poor me, waah, waah, waah." Ironic that I use self-mockery to counter public-mockery, but hey, sometimes it works.

And of course, there are the good reviews too, that I cling to during the tougher times. the actor and the housewife has gotten at least two national double-slap-triple-gut-punch reviews. But then that's balanced by some outright shiny national reviews, and some simply gorgeous heartfelt emails from readers, and ultimately, the most beautiful response to a book I've ever had. A review that made me cry--stunned, overwhelmed, relieved, so grateful. This reader happened to be in a position to judge very harshly what I wrote--she is a Mormon mother of four living in Layton, Utah who is happily married and has had a male best friend. Just like my main character, Becky Jack. Wow. And on top of that, she is a writer too. That she so publicly offered her praise completely took my breath. Her name is Mette Ivie Harrison, and if you don't know her books The Princess and the Hound and The Princess and the Bear, she is a young adult writer of no mean talent, and I am so grateful for her thoughtful reading and voiced thoughts. Thanks, Mette.

Sometimes when reading critical reviews of my work, I can nod and think, "That's valid," or, "I disagree, but I can see how someone could read it that way." And other times...

"What? Did you read the same book? Did you skip chapters? Did you rewrite those scenes in your head? Are you certifiable? How on earth did you get THAT out of it? Did you have your eyes shut the whole time? Shouldn't it be illegal to write reviews if you're insane?"

Like that.

As a writer you can't talk back to reviews. You just have to button your lips and take it. You don't want to be ungracious, snotty, egotistical, arrogant, nasty...even if you really want to be. It never does any good anyway. But you scream a lot in your head. "WHAT?" It sort of helps.

It can be trying. I spend so much time on a book, I rewrite to death, I'm so careful with each word, and then to have it misread...well, yuck. People can not like my books, they can be turned off by my style or story or whatever. Everyone's reading experience is personal. But when they read through highly subjective lenses and think they're being objective, I want to tear my hair out. I want to sob. I want to talk back. I want to explain. I want to sit down with that reviewer and discuss the review point-by-point, detailing where they are mistaken.

But I can't. In review vs. author, review always wins. Review gets the last word. Except for a brief shimmering moment, in ambiguous, rant-ish blog posts.

This Thursday, I'll be at the Jordan Landing Barnes & Noble in West Jordan, Utah at 7 pm to talk about actor & the housewife and sign books.

Just a quick note. A small one, chicken-nugget sized. I had three hours to write today, and with only ten minutes left I'm so sad to leave this story, these words. I'm working on Daisy Danger Brown, and I'm drenched in this book. There are always the hard parts, the sticky, thorny, muddy parts. But there's so much meadow-running too. Being a writer is a good, good thing.

Happy Independence Day to all (since Bill Pullman declared in that movie that it's no longer just a US holiday). Hats off to Nathan Hale for this divine drawing! And if you haven't been following his blog lately, it's worth a looksee. The recent Bird-Face Face Off alone is pretty awesome.

Photos from the actor and the housewife release party at The King's English! My brother-in-law kindly took a bunch. Here's a random handful.

Three sexy ladies pose in their aprons next to Colin Firth, duly outfitted. Sexy lady on left gave me one of the aprons she made. It reads "Cullenary Expert" and has a black apple.

My cute mom and cute sister #3 (6-months prego). During the Q&A when someone asked me if I ever considered a second career as a stand-up comic, sister #3 shouted out, "Don't give her a big head." I assure you, my family will prevent that. Isn't that what families are for?

The illustrious Anne Holman from The King's English made me teary-eyed with her kind introduction. Love her. Love that store.

Look at the little cuties in their aprons! LOVE it.

Look how rapt and entertained they all look! I must be a fantastic speaker!

There's my cute hubbie. I'm glad we got a photo of his dalliance with chops. His razor broke when he was shaving, and we said, "Why not?" A couple weeks with chops can only improve the world.

Blah, blah, blah.

Some more apron-wearers in the back. I'm sad we didn't get a photo of all the apron contest winners. Some stayed up all night making an apron especially for the event, and they were darling.

Yay, karaoke ladies!

At the signing, with a cutie Rapunzel fan. Look at that smile. (hers, not mine)

These ladies are feeling the music. You go, girls. The sisters on the right drove up from Arizona. They were also volunteers at the Book Babe event. Awesome aprons.

The audience bears witness to the soulful karaoke performance.

These girls sport stylish aprons all their own.

Thanks to the King's English and everyone who made the event so fun. I had a blast and am so honored to have such kind, loving, intelligent, sporting fans. You guys rock!

Blerg. Sinus infection. Can't get myself to do much all week. Feel half buried. A&H release party photos still coming...

So when I spoke at BEA a couple of weeks ago, I was talking about the hope fairy tales inspire, and I showed my long, laminated roll of rejection letters. My publicist Deb was modeling the roll and while she struggled with it, I started talking to fill in time, things I hadn't planned to say. I said something like, "Nine of those rejections are for The Goose Girl, and in fact, some of the editors who rejected Goose Girl might be in this very room." This got a laugh from the audience, so I said, "I want you to know, I'm a very forgiving person," and I blew a kiss. I wouldn't have said that if I'd thought about it in advance, but out it came anyway. Cheeky minx.

Well, I just found out that at least one of the editors who rejected GG was in fact in that room! Ha!

Truthfully, I don't fantasize about stickin'-it-to-'em. I found a publisher eventually who I adore and is my home. The years of rejections were helpful, a way to weed through indifferent or wrong editors for my stories and find the one who would be passionate about what I do. But still...I have to admit, for the sake of my younger forlorn self, that that moment is kinda a little bit cool.

Unless you have 45 minutes to spare, never bring up the topic of mothers and creativity to me, because it's one I can't shut up about it. In fact, I blog about it very little because it's such a huge passion of mine that I can't seem to be concise and blog-ish on this topic. To sum up: I believe that every woman needs a passion (or many!) and to find ways to pursue and express this passion creatively. And mothers famously neglect themselves, their creativity and passions, in order to give their whole selves to their children.

One of my hobbies is collecting creative mommy stories. Is this odd? About on par with Spengler collecting "spores, molds, and fungus"? (Do people still know Ghostbusters?) There are so many mothers who find ways to keep up with their passions even while being fulltime, stay-at-home mothers, even while children are young. Ack, there are so many "buts" and "hows" and "wows" and footnotes to everything I'm saying, that's it's driving me crazy to try and be concise!

Anyhow, just got back from seeing Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, a production put on by the South Jordan Regional Theatre in my neighborhood. This theater was founded and is directed by one of my old theater buddies, Toni Butler, a mother of five (youngest age 1) whose passion is theater, and finds a way to keep it up. While my passion usually keeps me in my room, typing away by myself, hers involves hundreds of people--musicians, costumers, dancers, singers, actors, many of them stay-at-home mommies like herself, who need that outlet. She's giving so many people a chance to pursue their passions too. I love that. I love the synergy of that, and I find it inspiring and exciting. But here's the kicker--she also casts hordes (I mean HORDES) of children (and husbands!) so these moms and dads can go to rehearsals and performances with their whole families.

If you're in the area, there are a few more performances. Go check it out and be inspired by what one mom can do, with zero budget, no theater to call a home, but a lot of energy and love. "Any dream will do."

And if you have a creative mommy story for my collection, please share!

I'll post pictures of the King's English event soon (as I get time to go through the photos...) It was good fun!

Recently my husband (comics geek) was ruminating over which comics characters he thought would be fans of my books. Here's his list:
Dazzler
She-Hulk
Kitty Pride
Jay Geric's wife would be a fervent fan, and he's a supporting fan
Stripe and Star Girl

This list might be mostly meaningless to many of you, but for those cognoscenti, I ask you...Dazzler? How should I take that?

[EDIT: Blunder! I misspelled Jay Garrick's name. Though if he's on my blog, he is suseptible to a Bayern spelling. Also, love Connie's suggestion that Jean Grey would be an Enna Burning fan!]

I'll see some of you tomorrow at The King's English, 5pm. I'll be the one in the apron.

My eleven-year-old nephew Gabe said recently: "I'm trying to write a story but I need a good hook. I need the first sentence to be a hook, so that the reader will have to keep reading. Some books I read start with a hook. Some don't, but I'll read the first chapter anyway to see if it gets better. No offense, but your books don't start with a hook. They start pretty slow."

Ah, it is true, young Gabe. I've always wanted to be the writer that grabs the reader by the first sentence and never lets go. Often when I start a new book (princess academy, forest born, daisy danger brown...) I tell myself, this time I'm going to do it! This time I'm going to start in medias res and the reader won't be able to put the book down! But alas, my brain apparently doesn't work that way.

I mourn that aspect of my writing sometimes, but I can't regret it completely. It's not for naught, I think. I've had readers tell me, "I thought Goose Girl started really slowly, but I kept reading and it got better. It wasn't until I read it the second time that I realized why Ani was that way in the beginning and why those first things had to happen in order to build to what happened later."

I think this is true of all of my books, but perhaps in none so much as the two I publish this year. I ask a lot of my readers. It's possible many give up about 1/3 of the way through. That's okay, no story is for everyone. And maybe it's not the best writer who requires such an investment before the payoff. But I realize that not only is it natural for me to write this way, I choose to do it, because what's interesting to me is the overall journey. I need to allow my characters to start in one place in order to finish in another.

And maybe the NEXT book I write will start with that hook immediately and still allow for the significant journey. Hey, a girl can dream.

I just peeked at Libba Bray's blog and saw a video link she posted that is so fabulous and is giving me wonderful flashbacks to our tour together. If you have 5 minutes to waste...and especially if you are a child of the 80s...it's worth checking out. (rated PG) Hysterical. I love you, Libba Bray! With a passionate love that will only end in ruin. And perhaps brownies.

To answer a couple of questions from the last blog post: This Saturday at the King's English (or really, at any book signing), will I sign books that people bring in?

The answer, for me, is always yes. I will sign any books you bring. But if you bring books from home to a signing at a book store, it's good manners to buy at least one book from the store. They're hosting the event, putting money into it, and their only take from it is book sales. It doesn't have to be one of my books, but I do ask that if you bring outside books, you support the book store by making a purchase. No one's going to check up on you, but I highly encourage it. Books don't have a high profit margin. A book store has to sell a lot of books to stay in business, and we NEED them to stay in business.

Another question: does this event have a theme? YES! Aprons and pies. You heard right. Wear an apron in solidarity to housewives everywhere and come eat pie. I'll give a book to the awesome person who dons the most fabulous apron. The King's English in Salt Lake City, Utah, 5 pm on June 13.

And now for news that's so exciting to me but probably won't really matter to anyone else (except my mom...hi Mom!)...the actor and the housewife is an Indie Next Pick for July! Indie Bound (formerly BookSense) is basically the United Federation of Independent Booksellers in the US (and Canada? I'm not sure about that...) Each month the booksellers select stand out titles to recommend to customers. This is a huge hug for the book and I'm so thrilled.

I can't believe the wait is almost up! Next Saturday, June 13, at 5 pm, is the release party for the actor and the housewife! The King's English, of course, is hosting here in Salt Lake City, Utah. There will be karaoke and pie. And books. What more could anyone desire? I'll speak at 5 and stay until all books are signed. I'm starting to get reports that the books are out there in some places, though the official release is next Tuesday. Here's a piece of dialog from early in the book my mom just read aloud to me (she's rereading the book now):

    “Hmm. So.” He paused. “My wife Celeste and I are taking a skiing holiday out your way, spending the third weekend in February in Park City. We thought we might…” he cleared his throat, “we might meet up with you. And your husband. For dinner.”
    Becky didn’t say anything for some time.
    “I think you’re still there,” he said. “I think you’re shocked.”
    “Sort of. Sort of still here. Sort of shocked.”
    “Dinner is always a shocking proposition.”
    “That’s the truth. Lunch, supper, after school snack--all respectable and appropriate sessions of nutritional intake--”
    “Whilst dinner is practically neanderthal.”
    “I couldn’t agree more.”

Yesterday in the mail someone sent me a copy of a new book of Jane Austen quotes, Remarkably Jane, edited by Jennifer Adams. I was expecting a book of her quotes, which is always fun, but this was quotes about her by other writers and notables. First let me say that the book is gorgeous. Small, compact, in black and green, with leafy prints on each page. The beauty got me to open it up and then I kept reading. It's sort of marvelous to see a couple centuries of thinkers try to reason out why we love Jane Austen and how she does what she does. I kept coming across quotes that I wanted to quote on the blog, finally deciding just to recommend it here so you can see it all. Most surprising and interesting to me was the section at the end filled with quotes from her critics. Yes, even Austen had haters. I found it so encouraging just now! Truly. And imagine my surprise to come across my own self quoted there. Don't I feel all scholarly and important? (I'm in my pajamas, my son snuggled up next to me, leaning on my typing arm, my little girl has just started to call to me from her crib, and today I'm in charge of a church activity for 220 kids, so fortunately I have a few things to keep me from letting it go to my head.)

 It's clearly designed as a gift book, but buy it and read it first before passing it along.

Also, I've had some inquiries about our rapunzel's revenge book trailer contest. We decided to postpone the deadline to coincide with the release of the sequel, calamity jack, in January '10. So there's plenty of time! More on that later, but I promise to make the box o' books prize mouthwatering.

Also, also, Catching Fire is just as captivating and un-put-downable as The Hunger Games.