Susane Colasanti - Journal

Exciting news: My paperback covers have a fresh new look! The main images are the same, but the covers have new fonts, tag lines, and embossing! I am so excited to see these on the shelves. They should look gorgeous because the spines all have a new look, too - these sweet watercolor stripes. Although the new editions won't be out for a few months, I just had to share them with you. If you see these When It Happens or Take Me There covers out in the world and are inspired to document them for me, that would rock.

Happy First Moon Landing 40th Anniversary! How are you celebrating? I'm going for a Firecracker Popsicle later. Those are the ones that are red, white, and blue and look like rocket ships. They are just so refreshing. In fact, a box of Firecracker Popsicles is the first thing I'm going to put in my freezer when I move to a bigger apartment and get to have a refrigerator with a freezer. It's been a long six years with no freezer, particularly in the summer when you want something icy. Ah, the joys of NYC living. Location trumps frozen food.

Over the weekend, I did some volunteer work for President Obama. We collected over 1,000 signatures in support of his health care reform initiative. This freaking rocks. I am so sad and mad about all of the people who don't have health insurance because it's crazy expensive, all the kids who never go to the doctor because their parents can't afford to take them, everyone living with serious health issues who can't receive the care they need. And I'm horrified by the amount of older people who can't take their medication because it isn't covered by insurance. I really, really hope things change very soon.

A cool summer breeze flowed through my window that night, calming my rage. I woke up Sunday all excited to see that Waiting for You got a shout-out in The Philadelphia Inquirer. I have love for this newspaper since I lived in Philly when I went to Penn. I always love going back to visit Philly in that way where you have emotional ties to the places you've lived. Anyway, here's the feature with some other hot summer teen reads. More cool links: Running for Fiction reviewed When It Happens. And the review of Take Me There that was posted today gives you a good idea about how the book's plot lines are connected. It's hard to believe that Robby is only 14. He has skills like that. Also, Kristin recently established Teens Read, a Ning for teens who love to read. I swear, if sites like these and online book discussions and Facebook and other ways to interact with my fave authors all existed back in the day, I would have been ecstatic. This whole Internet thing rocks.

I checked in at my Goodreads page and saw that the pub date for Something Like Fate has been listed. It's May 13, 2010! I'm sort of freaking out that next year is 2010 already, but I'm more excited to see the pub date listed. I need things like this to make a new book feel real. At this point, the manuscript is in copyediting. I'm finishing my acknowledgments today. And then, you know. Getting that Firecracker Popsicle. Astronauts rule.

For Day 8 of my blog tour at Pop Culture Junkie, I discuss what my typical day is like. Alea is also giving away a signed copy of Waiting for You, along with all other hosts of my blog tour. Yesterday's tour stop was over at Shooting Stars Mag with High School Myth #7, which is all about the karma. I also discuss the Waiting for You playlist.

And there's more!

• Reading Keeps You Sane interviewed me about the Waiting for You title and cover.
• The Book Girl Reviews reviewed Waiting for You. I love the notebook format of that blog!
• Dissecting Perfection posted an impressively detailed review of When It Happens.

Here's a sweet gift from the Universe: The Waiting for You pub date, May 14, is also when the season finale of The Office will air, which is also their 100th episode! I can't watch it since I have to wait for the DVDs to come out, but I am anticipating this season more than any others. I love having fun things to look forward to. Book Release Week rocks!

Some author videos promoting the May 14 release of Waiting for You are out. I definitely haven't overcome my voice phobia, but I did put it aside long enough to watch these. I'd feel better about them if my voice didn't sound so weird out there in the world. It sounds okay in my head.

Here's one about soul mates that Penguin's using on its sites. Note: When I'm talking about the boy who inspired the character of Tobey in When It Happens and my mortifying junior prom picture is shown, that's not him. But it's the only photo with a boy I have from high school that I can actually look at.


The Amazon video discusses how I came up with the title for Waiting for You. In the Barnes & Noble video, I talk about creating your ideal life.

All of these videos were filmed and created by the wonderful Lauren Saffa. She is just so sweet and easy to work with you can't even believe it. It's not easy to tell a story in around three minutes. Lauren totally nailed it with her outstanding talent.

There's so much to tell you with all of this book release excitement, so I'll be blogging pretty much every day for the next few weeks. See you tomorrow!

As if I wasn't stoked enough about Waiting for You coming out on May 14, the friendly neighbors at Penguin have put together a Susane Sampler to get the party started. Woot! The sampler has a few chapters from all three of my books. So if you'd like a Waiting for You sneak peek or want to read a bit from When It Happens or Take Me There, you can check it out at Scribd.

Read on.

In When It Happens, Sara and Tobey play the Game of Favorites.  It's a way to get to know a person on a deeper level, beyond the whole what's-your-favorite-color type stuff.  And today at The Compulsive Reader, you can see some obscure favorites of mine, like which constellation and type of sticker I like the best.  Thanks to Laila for your awesome suggestions!

Over at NPR's site, there's a summary of how to pack everything in one bag.  You can also read an excerpt of Stephenie Meyer's The Host.  And check out the word cloud of compiled responses to this question:  What one word of wisdom would you give to college graduates?

A secret goal of mine was to have at least one of my books show up on YouTube in some way. And now, that goal has been achieved! Not that I had anything to do with it. This reviewer is an avid reader who is tearing it up in 2008, discussing the books she reads this year. Sweet!

My mourning dove is hooing!  And yesterday he was all fat and fluffy in the window.  Life is good.

Even better:  I am honored that When It Happens and Take Me There were both selected as the May Book(s) of the Month over at The Compulsive Reader!  To kick things off, you can read Tirzah's reviews of both books.  Every Thursday for the rest of May, a new feature relating to these books will dazzle and entertain.  Sweet!

You only have two more days to enter Elizabeth Scott's Perfect You contest, where you could win some serious gift certificate action.  Dude, you could win a freaking iPod!  Get your butt over there yesterday!

On a related note, has anyone noticed that 2008 is like 1/3 over?  When did that happen?

Today is May Day.  May Day is my birthday.  And what an awesome birthday gift:  When It Happens is out in paperback today!


As a bonus gift, I can officially announce my exciting Barnes & Noble news.  Barnes & Noble is doing national floor displays of Take Me There and When It Happens!  The floor displays should be out on June 10, but Take Me There will be in stores on May 29.

You may have noticed two slightly different covers for Take Me There kicking around.  That's because Barnes & Noble requested a few changes to the cover.  Below, the original cover is on the left and the final cover is on the right.

In When It Happens, Joe Zedepski is this dude who always has to put his ginormous calculator right at the edge of his desk.  His huge, annoying calculator which he has out even on the first day of school when you don't need it yet, teetering on the edge, just waiting to fall off. 

Kayla is a very special reader who gets how funny this is.  She and her friend Kerri were totally cracking up when they found out about Joe.  They even drew Joe's calculator:



Love that!  And Joe would have loved yesterday's blog post.

When It Happens comes out in paperback on May 1, which is also my birthday.  I love it when the universe consolidates gifts like that.

Skye posted this question on Yahoo! Answers:

I read this book "WHEN IT HAPPENS" by Susane Colasanti....and ever since ive read the book....???
i want a relationship just like the girl had when im older. i want a guy to love me so much....and for him and me to have the same interests...if youve read this book, please tell me if the relationship that Sara had with Tobey could be real....as in something that i could someday find. thanks.

Lots of readers ask me whether Tobey was based on a real boy and if the relationship Sara and Tobey had could be something real. Yes and yes. Their relationship was based on a relationship I had during senior year of high school. Introspective, sweet boys like Tobey really do exist. And you really can find them.

I believe in soul mates. I've always believed in them, but now I have evidence that they are real. There is a magical connection between certain people that cannot be explained and cannot be denied. So never give up, Skye. True love is out there for you!

There are some new When It Happens items on my website.  You can hear an iMix of the songs mentioned in the book.  Careful readers will recall how I kicked it old-school with those.  You can also find out how Sara, Tobey, and Chez (Sara's koala bear) answered when they played the Game of Favorites.  Fun times.

The galleys of Take Me There arrived today.  The spine is a striking shade of green, so you definitely won't miss it on the shelf.  It will be released on May 15, 2008.

But before that, Elizabeth Scott's new book, Perfect You, will be out in March.  I had the great honor of reading a galley and blurbing the book, which I thought was so cute and sweet.  Elizabeth also writes a fun blog.

And it's officially cold.  There's a frost warning tonight, which means time for outdoor plants to come in for the winter.  Which is so unfair since there's still way more than a month of fall left.  The good news is that seasons are cyclical.