Elizabeth Fama's Blog

Well, I didn't win an American Library Association award this year, but that doesn't mean I can't host an after-party!

Have I told you that my husband and I are on sabbatical at Stanford this year? We're renting a house with a big ol' yard, and the weather is kind of insanely perfect on the peninsula. All of which means: outdoor ALA par-tay!

Just as in 2013, this party will be a full-blown Oscars-like dinner-and-champagne event at my house. I'll cook too much healthy food and have coolers full of drinks. My daughter Lydia will make those wonderful-gross half-baked brownies some of you have had before. And I want all of my bookish-industry friends to come: librarians, authors, editors, agents, publishers, teachers, booksellers, and bloggers. 

It turns out charter buses are reasonably priced, so I plan to hire a bus to pick you up at the Moscone Center just after 5 PM and return you there no later than 9 PM. That way you won't have to scramble for cabs and Uber on either end. The bus ride from SF to Stanford is 39 minutes each way.

I'm thinking about Saturday, June 27th. Does that interfere with official ALA events? Are any of you even going to ALA? Does Saturday seem good? WILL YOU COME? I want to meet you!

If a lot of people respond, I might have to approve your attendance, to make sure I have room on the bus—but I really want this to be inclusive, merry, and full of industry professionals. This was a really fun party in 2013, and I'm excited to be able to repeat it!

Visit with Nova Ren Suma and me in the Phoenix area! Date: Wednesday, September 17, 2014Time: 7 PMPlace: Changing Hands (Tempe) Bookstore, 6428 S. McClintock Dr., Tempe AZExtra incentive: Nova is giving away an advance-reader copy of The Walls Around Us, and I’ll give away a paperback copy of Monstrous Beauty. (Here’s more info.)

Last Wednesday I was part of a really fun YA panel at the Arlington Heights Barnes & Noble.

Kym Brunner, Stacey Kade, me, and James KliseEach of the four authors provided three goody bags that were given away to audience members through a lottery. My bags were physically small, so they were the last to be chosen by the winners. (Didn't their mothers ever teach them that good things come in small packages?) In fact, the very last bag didn't even find a home, because Mr. or Ms. 0008 had already left the store before the end of the raffle drawing.

Well, their loss is your gain! You can win the poor neglected swag pack and a signed hardcover of Plus One by entering the rafflecopter at the bottom of this post. (With apologies to my beloved international readers that this is a U.S. and Canada giveaway only.)



The swag pack contains: two Plus One buttons, a temporary tattoo with the Noma symbol on it, a "Day" chocolate, a "Night" chocolate, and a $10 Barnes and Noble gift card.

Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Plus One is safely launched into the world, and we've come to our last blog tour stop: I visited The Bevy Bibliotheque to answer Jen's truly insightful questions about novel structure, morally gray characters, the health consequences of living only at night, and more. What a thoughtful reader she is!

So head on over for a little intellectual conversation, and for the last giveaway of a finished copy of the book. Click away!

And thanks again to Amanda and Sarah of The Best Books Ever for organizing this blog tour, which has been fantastic, and to all the blogs that participated. You've been such welcoming hosts, I can't thank you enough.

Yesterday was a busy pub day! It's pretty exhilarating to see your book go forth in the world. Today I took the first nap I've needed in a couple of years. Phew!

For my 9th stop on this blog tour train I visited Lauren at Love is Not a Triangle. This post is particularly valuable when you're reading or have already read the book—it contains research photos of many of the real locations in Plus One.

So go check out some useful Plus One photos, and enter Lauren's giveaway, Click here!

Today I'm visiting with Karen Jensen at Teen Librarian Toolbox, talking about the politics of freedom and sexual violence in Plus One. 
Karen has recently founded a new initiative in the online literary world called #SVYALIT (Sexual Violence and Young Adult Literature), with the help of Carrie Mesrobian (Sex & Violence) and Christa Desir (Fault Line). In short, Karen encourages parents, teachers, librarians, and teens themselves to use young-adult literature to talk about sexual violence and consent. 
How are civil liberties, sexual violence, and healthy, consensual sex related in my book? Read about it here. 

Yesterday I visited the amazing Amanda and Sarah over at The Best Books Ever, where I show you how I picture the characters in Plus One. (Can you call it a "fan cast" when the author chooses actors to play her characters?) Check it out, and enter the giveaway!

(P.S. Amanda and Sarah organized the whole blog tour, and I'm so grateful to them.)

Today I'm over at Shae's blog, Shaelit, a.k.a. Shae Has Left the Room, talking about how I almost turned into a Smudge while I was writing Plus One. And  you know the drill by now: there's a giveaway!

So many free books, yum. Click here.

Roll on over to Lenore Appelhans's blog to hear about my Top 10 Date Ideas for Smudges ! Lenore is the kind, talented, and impressively well-read YA author of The Memory of After (also known as Level 2), and the forthcoming Chasing Before  (releasing August 26th).

She has a very demure giveaway of a copy of Plus One at the bottom of the post...if you blink you'll miss it! Click here!

It's Day Four of my blog tour (a tour hosted by the lovely Amanda and Sarah of The Best Books Ever). Today I'm at Carina's Books, answering her excellent questions, including whether I'd be happier as a Smudge or a Ray.

Head on over to hear us chat, and to grab another chance at winning a free finished copy of Plus One!