Red Balloon Bookshop

Fun event last night at The Red Balloon Bookshop. Here's the fabulous CAKE they made for the event! I just ate some of the leftovers for lunch.

I signed a lot of books for those in attendance. If you missed the event, I left plenty of signed books behind, so stop by this St. Paul landmark (25 years and counting!) and pick up a copy.

MPR Interview

Last week I spent a pleasant half hour talking with Minnesota Public Radio's Euan Kerr.

Among other topics, we discussed where I got the idea to write How to Steal a Car, the differences between the reasons adults and teens read, and my (very) brief history as a car thief. We also talked about the movie adaptation of Godless, and writing from the perspective of a teenage girl.

You can listen to the interview on the MPR website here.

Book Trailers and Video Contest

A lot of authors are now doing “book trailers,” or teaser videos designed to sell books.

Some authors offer top quality, professionally produced videos—the video supporting Scott Westerfeld’s new novel Leviathan is a good example. Others, like me, just sit in front of their webcam and babble desperately. But there is a third type of “book trailer” that I particularly enjoy: The unsolicited third-party YouTube video.

These quirky videos are made by readers who like a book enough so that they are inspired to create short films. Check ‘em out:

Here’s a video about my novel Godless. And another.

Sweetblood has also been trailerized here and here. This one is particularly nice.

Here is an interesting video about Invisible.

My favorite so far? A video from the Netherlands based on No Limit. I like the music (Lady GaGa).

If you've made a video based on one of my books, please let me know, and I'll post a link here on my blog!

Now, I mentioned a contest. I'm going to be offering a fabulous prize to whoever posts the best YouTube book trailer video for my most recent novel, How to Steal a Car. I'm still trying to figure out what that fabulous prize will be, and the rules of the contest, and the time frame, and how to let lots of young filmmakers know about it, and so forth. So keep an eye on this blog for more info, and start thinking about the sort of book trailer YOU would like to see for How to Steal a Car!