...how many YA authors are going to be at Books of Wonder this Saturday for the Fantastic Fiction reading. (Oh, and I'm one of them!) There will be a ton of writers I'm eager to meet, but I'm actually most excited about sitting up there with the only one I've already met, Justine Larbalestier -- partly because I adore her new book, How to Ditch Your Fairy, and partly because Justine was reading at the first Books of Wonder event I ever attended. It was one of those "someday, that'll be ME!" moments, and now here we are, someday.

So here's the time and location:
Saturday, November 15
12-2 pm
Books of Wonder
18 West 18th Street
New York, NY 10011

And here are ten reasons for you to come:

Robin Wasserman (Skinned)
Justine Larbalestier (How to Ditch Your Fairy)
Suzanne Collins (The Hunger Games)
Ketaki Shriram (Sorceress of the Himalayas)
Joanne Dahme (Creepers)
Daniel Kirk (Elf Realm)
P.W. Catanese (The Riddle of the Gnome)
Amanda Marrone (Revealers)
William Boniface (The Adventures of Power Boy)
Dean Lorey (Nightmare Academy)

Hope to see you there!

Okay, I get it, I hear you, my contest sucked. Am I a little embarrassed? Yes. Will that stop me from taking action? Not a chance. So as of now, I'm canceling the old SKINNED contest and creating a new one.

(If you're one of the few brave souls who already entered, don't worry, you're officially entered in the new one, too.)

NEW (SIMPLE) SKINNED CONTEST
(same cool prizes)

Enter:
Write me a newspaper headline from the year 2060. (Eg: “This Year’s Top Vacation Spot: Venus” or “Apple Announces Record Sales for iJetPack” or “Lichtenstein Declares War on Republic of Disneyworld!” – you get the idea.)

Email me your headline -- robin (at) robinwasserman (dot) com.


Deadline:
October 10


Win:
One Grand Prize - iPod shuffle
Two Runners-Up - a skin for your phone or iPod

If you win, and you don’t want the prize, you can request a Barnes and Noble or Amazon gift certificate instead.


Miscellaneous:
*Winners announced on October 13.

*It’s a random drawing. So don’t stress about your headline.

*If you don’t want your email address entered onto my mailing list (to receive updates on Skinned, future contests, etc), let me know in your entry.

Good luck!

But you can catch me over at Scott Westerfeld's blog today, talking about my writing process (or lack thereof).

By the way, did I mention that Skinned is also available as an audiobook? You can listen to a sample on iTunes. (I haven't heard more than a few seconds of it yet -- I keep getting totally freaked out by the sound of my words in someone else's voice.)

The evil computer almost defeated me, but the internets, as usual, saved the day! Courtesy of YouTube, the official SKINNED book trailer!

Lia Kahn is dead.
I am Lia Kahn.
Therefore -- because this is a logic problem even a dim-witted child could solve -- I am dead.
Except here's the thing: I'm not.

There you have it, the first four lines of SKINNED. If you want to find out what happens next, you're going to have to read the book. Which, as of today, you finally can.

Because SKINNED is OUT! Out in stores! Out on shelves! Out in the world! Out anywhere and everywhere books are sold! (Okay, maybe not everywhere, but definitely mostwhere.)

(Incidentally, if you're a loyal reader of this blog, you may be wondering how my crazy levels are doing -- ie, whether I've calmed down a little now that the book is officially OUT. Answer: No. Not even a little. Not one bit. The Krazy is still going strong.)

Okay, you're thinking. Enough about what I can do for Skinned (hint: you can buy the book!), let's talk about what Skinned can do for me.

It can give you some free stuff! Click on the image to get your most excellent SKINNED downloads. (Wallpaper, screensavers, avatars.)



What else? Free entertainment! On my brand spanking new website! See how sparkly and shiny it all is? See how ridiculous I look in that picture where I'm dressed like a clown?

Not to mention, you know, the entertainment you'll get if you read the book. (You don't have to take my word for it: Scott Westerfeld thinks it's "A spell-binding story about loss, rebirth, and finding out who we really are inside.")

Okay, seriously, on to the actual FREE STUFF.

Here's the deal on the new SKINNED CONTEST :
Two lucky runners-up will receive a skin (get it?) for their phone or iPod.
And one lucky grand prize winner will get an iPod shuffle.

That's right, this contest has an actual prize.

There are three ways you can enter:
1. Email me a photo of SKINNED in the wild. (This can be a picture of it in the bookstore, in your house, in the actual wild, wherever.)

2. Link to this contest on your own blog (then email me to tell me you did it).

3. Come up with a prediction about what life will be like in the year 2060. (Rocket-powered cars? Jetpacks? Tidal waves? Etc?) Then post your prediction in a comment on this entry.

You can enter once each way. (Which means you can enter three times maximum.) And you must enter by September 30. Winners will be chosen by random drawing -- I'll announce the results on October 2.

Good luck!

--------
( Here are some iPod skins, just in case you're not sure why you should want one )

One more day until SKINNED is officially out. (Though I hear plenty of rogue copies have already made their way into the wild, so you may very well be able to track one down.)

I am a basket case.

Going crazy with nerves. That's crazy like if you saw me on the street, you'd be well advised to run the other way. (Though hopefully you'd take pity on me and hand me a cupcake first.)  Crazy with a capital K.

As in kraaaaaaaaaazy.

But! Two pieces of good news are bobbing to the surface of my murky brain soup. (Isn't that an appetizing image? I told you: kraaaazy.)

GOOD NEWS #1: Contest winners! Thanks to everyone who entered the SKINNED giveaway.  I now have a long list of books that I need to read (as soon as I'm no longer tethered to my computer keyboard, that is). And congratulations to the two winners:

B., whose favorite book is Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott

Emily, whose favorite book is Old School, by Tobias Wolff

GOOD NEWS #2: The day after SKINNED makes its official debut, I'll be making my own, at a YA author reading at the New York Public Library.  I'll be reading from SKINNED, alongside a bunch of brilliant YA authors with new books you will love. So if you live in the NY area, you should come and cheer us on! 

Here's the info:

6 pm, Wednesday, September 10
NYPL, Jefferson Market Branch
425 Avenue of the Americas

Authors include:
Me!
Gordan Korman (The Juvie Three)
Beth Levine Ain (Revolution of the Sabine)
Melissa Walker (Violet in Private -- which just got mentioned on the Tyra Banks show!)
Emily Franklin (The Other Half of Me)
Moderated by David Levithan (whose new movie looks awesome)

The fabulous folks at Simon & Schuster have put together a free sampler of the fall's hottest books. If you click the cover and download the sampler, you'll get excerpts from new books by Ellen Hopkins, Amanda Marrone, Margaret Peterson Haddix, Sonya Sones, and -- oh yeah -- yours truly. 

That's right, the first sneak preview of Skinned, here and now!



In other news, I'm feeling very cranky and incompetent today, so if anyone wants to take a stab at cheering me up, go for it.

(If all you care about is the contest, scroll down to the bottom...)

It just occurred to me that my new book is coming out in almost a month. (September 9! September 9! Did you get that? September 9!)

You may wonder how that "just" occurred to me -- it's possible that I'm spending so much time googling myself and searching for mentions of the new book that I've run out of time to look at my calendar...or, you know, eat.)

I also occurs to me that I've been a little cagey about this book in the past.  This is perhaps because I'm more excited about this book than I've been about anything else I've written, and am afraid to jinx it. But here I go, jinxing away...

Heeeeeere's Skinned!

Scott Westerfeld says it's "A spell-binding story about loss, rebirth, and finding out who we really are inside. This intense and moving novel will wind up under your skin."


Kirkus Reviews says "Futuristically blurring the boundaries of life and death, this text intimately tackles tough ethical topics, including faith, identity, suicide and genetic engineering, through blunt dialogue and realistic characters."


And the jacket flap says (tiny, tiny spoiler alert!):

Lia Kahn was perfect: rich, beautiful, and popular. Until the accident that nearly killed her. Now she has been downloaded into a new body that only looks human. Lia will never feel pain again, she will never age, and she can't ever truly die. She's a celebrity, a curiosity, a freak of nature -- a freak beyond nature -- she's everything but human. And according to some, this is the ultimate crime...for which she must pay the ultimate price.


You already know how you can get some Skinned wallpaper and screensavers for your computer. Now, thanks to the awesome folks at S&S, you can also get some avatars (or icons or whatever you want to call them) for your favorite blog or message board. They look like this:

                     

AND NOW FOR THE CONTEST!
Your prize: One hot off the presses, first edition signed copy of SKINNED

To win: Email me -- that's robin (at) robinwasserman (dot) com -- with the name of your favorite book. (And no, you won't help your chances by naming one of mine.)

Deadline: September 2

I'll pick two winners at random.  If you don't win, don't worry, there will be another contest when the book actually comes out. Good luck!

I'm not sure about you, but lesson number one in my house growing up (I mean, after all that stuff about not lying, not kicking people, not leaving lights on in empty rooms, etc) was: Never turn down a good deal. And there's no better deal than free!

What am I offering? Extremely cool SKINNED wallpaper to make your computer desktop look like this:



Or, if you have a PC, a SKINNED screensaver! (Apologies to the Mac users among you, but you can still download the wallpaper!) And all you need to do is click on the image. (Or, if you're too lazy to do that, just click here.)