Win, Win

Lots of good news today! But before that - don't forget that it's Banned Books Week. Here's a link to the most frequently banned/challenged books of 2001-2010. Support libraries, booksellers, teachers, authors, and readers. Read banned books!!!

First - winners of the 5K contest. Congrats to:

Adriana

Emily Rose

Hayden

@vampirefan2 (via Twitter)

@BecksterMay (via Twitter)

Email your mailing address to andreacremerwrites @gmail.com and I'll get your prizes in the post!

Second, I've been keeping some awesome news under wraps for a while and now I can share: more books are on the way!!!

The official deal announcement from Publishers Weekly:

Cremer Goes Steampunk for Philomel Jill Santopolo at Penguin's Philomel imprint closed a North American rights deal for two new books by Andrea Cremer, author of the imprint's bestselling Nightshade series. Santopolo acquired the titles—one is the first book in a new steampunk series and the other is a second prequel to Nightshade—from agents Richard Pine and Charlie Olsen at Inkwell Management. The steampunk series, the first book of which is called The Inventor's Secret, is set in an alternate 19th century in which the American Revolution never happened and the British rule the world. Inventor's Secret is currently scheduled for fall 2013. The Nightshade prequel, Rise, is scheduled for summer 2013. (The final book in the original Nightshade series is coming out in January 2012, and Philomel has another Nightshade prequel already scheduled for fall 2012.

Here's a rundown of my publication schedule:

January 2012 BLOODROSE
Fall 2012 RIFT (Nightshade Prequel 1)
Spring 2013 INVISIBILITY CURSE w/David Levithan
Summer 2013 RISE (Nightshade Prequel 2)
Fall 2013 INVENTOR'S SECRET

So exciting!

Steam what?

If you visit my web site: www.andreacremer.com You'll notice that listed under my current works in progress is a book called THE INVENTOR'S SECRET. IS is the first book in a new series I'm writing and genre of that series is steampunk.

When I mention the word steampunk I get one of two reactions: 1) AWESOME! 2) Steam what?

The first reaction reflects the hard-core enthusiasm of steampunk fans. The second reveals that while steampunk is slipping into the mainstream, it's still a relatively unknown genre. PBS created a web piece about steampunk that's the best quick tutorial I've seen and I'm delighted to share it with you:



As a historian, steampunk is a dream genre for me because it means I'm able to reimagine history while engaging the issues and questions I find most compelling about the past, and I can create all the maniacal and fantastic, beautiful and terrible guns and gadgets I desire. And the clothes! I debuted a steampunk outfit of my design at Comic Con, and I predict much more steampunk fashion in my future.
So that's a little bit on what steampunk is and it's one of the worlds I'm currently living in. That's all I can say about that...for now....