So Much Drama! - 3

The debut of Thirteen Reasons Why, the stage play, is so close! Next week, I'm heading to Antioch, Illinois to speak at the high school and then attend one of their performances.


The following rehearsal photos gave me a serious case of goosebumps. It looks so cool! I think it's fairly obvious which scenes they're performing.




I can't wait to see these sets, and these actors, and this play in person...on Friday the 13th.

I'm so nervously excited!!!

And the NYT Bestreader is...

I plugged in the numbers 1 and 79 at random.org, and it tossed back the number 32.

The 32nd commenter on my last post was...

DONNA AILEEN

Congratulations, Donna! I'll be sending you one free copy of each book from the latest New York Times chapter book bestsellers list: Catching Fire and The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, The Magician's Elephant by Kate DiCamillo, Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick, The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, Thirteen Reasons Why by U. Knowhoo, Fire by Kristin Cashore, I Am a Genius Of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to Be Your Class President by Josh Lieb, Return to the Hundred Acre Wood by David Benedictus, and Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater.

And thank you all for such wonderful comments!!!

52 Weeks = ONE YEAR!!!

It's ridiculously amazing. It would be absolutely unbelievable if I didn't have proof. And the news I received just a half hour ago has me literally crying with joy right now!

Timeline of 13RW on the NYT bestsellers list:

Released more than five months earlier, Thirteen Reasons Why debuted on the list at number 10 in March of 2008.


In March of 2009, on its 19th visit to the list, Thirteen Reasons Why reached its highest position at number 3.

And now, two years after its release, Thirteen Reasons Why has made its 52nd appearance on the list...meaning it has spent a full year as a New York Times bestseller!!!



All of my friends and family members who've been a part of this roller-coaster journey know I love them and I thank them for putting up with me as I stressed about how I could better promote this very personal book. But I want to personally thank a few people on the business side of things who always treated Thirteen Reasons Why as if it meant just as much to them as it did for me. Ben Schrank (my publisher), Laura Rennert (my agent), Allison Verost (my publicist), and Kristen Pettit (my editor...Happy birthday, Kristen!) were the absolute best team I could've hoped for. So many people at Penguin played very important parts in the success of this book and deserve way more credit than I could possibly give here (like Don Weisberg, Emily Heddleson, Leslie Prives, Scottie Bowditch, Shanta Newlin, Courtney Wood, Pamela McElroy, RasShahn Johnson-Baker, Barbara Marcus, and on and on and on…), but I must call attention to Christian Fünfhausen, the man behind the jacket art. He's responsible for enticing so many people who'd never heard of this book to pick it up before my words had a chance to do their job.

And I want to thank all of you who read my book and felt it was something other people needed to read, so you told your friends about it...and they told their friends...and they told their friends...and a few of them, who just happened to be standing next to me in random bookstores, even told me that I needed to read my book!

You have no idea how much your support for both Thirteen Reasons Why and me have meant over these years.

Thank you.


RANDOM DRAWING ALERT:
One person who leaves a comment on this post will be randomly selected to win a free copy of all 10 books on this very special bestsellers list. Those books are:

Catching Fire - The Hunger Games - The Magician's Elephant - Hush, Hush - The Graveyard Book - Thirteen Reasons Why - Fire - I Am a Genius Of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to Be Your Class President - Return to the Hundred Acre Wood - Shiver

All comments need to be in by 11:59pm PST on Thursday, November 5th. I'll announce the winner a few minutes later. Good luck!

**UPDATE**
COMMENTS STILL GLADLY ACCEPTED
BUT THE DRAWING IS NOW CLOSED

Halloween '09

JoanMarie and I love handing out candy to trick-or-treaters, so that was a difficult thing to give up this year. But for some reason, we felt like scaring ourselves silly this Halloween...so we headed down to Universal Studios Hollywood for Halloween Horror Nights!

The park wasn't scary during the day. We went on all of the rides and caught most of the shows, including the live-action Waterworld.


I got to hang out with Lisa Simpson, who is much taller than she looks on TV.


If JoanMarie hadn't warned me just in time, I would've been zombie lunch. Thankfully, zombies are much easier to outrun than they appear in the movies.


For JoanMarie, the highlight was probably getting to stand mere feet from an outfit Johnny Depp wore in Public Enemies. (You'll notice, she just happened to be wearing a Cry Baby t-shirt on this day.)


After getting to stand so close to Mr. Depp's costume, even getting eaten by Jaws couldn't keep her from smiling.


For the scary part of the evening, we met up with a couple of friends, Natalie and Floyd.


I was really looking forward to Halloween Horror Nights because I love all things eerie and scary. And HHN did not disappoint! There were very well-constructed mazes (similar to haunted houses) based on Saw, My Bloody Valentine, Chucky, and Halloween. And there were six "scare zones" throughout the park, fog-blanketed sections where costumed actors stalked you and chased you...often with buzzing chainsaws!

It. Was. Awesome!

But next time, I promise to come to JoanMarie's rescue if she gets chased up and down a scare zone by a chainsaw-wielding psychopath rather than trying to take their pictures. That was insensitive and I should not have assumed that she was enjoying herself simply because she was smiling and laughing.

I am sorry.


JoanMarie: You are forgiven.

The Catalan Edition!

I Believe in the Great Pumpkin

From my bedroom window, I can see the Christmas tree farm where JoanMarie and I cut down our tree every December. But the bright lights they put up so customers don't trip over stumps were turned on rather early this year. So the other night, we drove over to see what was going on. Amid the still-growing Christmas trees, they were also growing pumpkins this year!


To help raise money for high school sports, the owners of the farm let the athletes grow pumpkins on their land free-of-charge. Each week, athletes from a different team are responsible for taking care of, then selling, the pumpkins. We were there on water polo night.


While we already had a few pumpkins back on our doorstep waiting to be carved, we just couldn't leave without buying a few more.

Sometimes it feels like the world is becoming more selfish. It's so wonderful to occasionally stumble upon a business doing a bit more than their share to help out their community.

Nervous in Oregon

I used to be terrified of public speaking. Thankfully, I've learned to love it. But I still get extremely nervous before delivering a speech I've never given before.

Some time ago, I was invited to speak at the Eugene Public Library in Oregon. They wanted me to give one speech to teens about writing Thirteen Reasons Why, and another speech to teachers and librarians about the importance of books dealing with controversial subjects.


One way I've learned to enjoy speaking is by getting the audience to laugh. It was hard to find many natural places for humor in the speech to teachers and librarians, but they were very responsive to what I had to say and the stories I shared about attempts to ban or restrict access to Thirteen Reasons Why. In fact, I might just have to find a place to give that speech again! (But next time I'll try not to worry as much so I can get more than four hours of sleep the night before.)


Then I got to speak to my teen readers, which is always fun. And to follow it up with pizza? Absolute heaven!


The teens in Eugene were wonderful to chat with as I helped myself to some slices o' greasy goodness.




For more pics from the event, check out fellow Razorbill author Suzanne Young's blog. (Based on the reaction to Suzanne's upcoming book, I think she's got a hit on her hands!)


Upcoming Appearance: This Tuesday, I'll be speaking at a suicide prevention forum at the United Methodist Church in San Luis Obispo, CA. The 3-hour event begins at 6pm and is filled with valuable information. Plus, there will be free cookies!