Birthday Week--Fan Art Rocks

So yesterday was my birthday. It was nice and I had a cool night with my family and we ate Mexican food and I was so full I never got to eat the cake in my fridge, so today after dinner I get to celebrate again. Two birthdays FTW!

But this week, something really cool happened.

Paul at the ALAN workshop, 2013.
(I swear I have a selfie of us from 2010
but I can't find it.)

I've known Paul Hankins for years through ALAN, RawInk, and social media. Paul teaches English in Indiana and he's a special kind of teacher. He refers to himself as "lead reader" of room 407 (I love that so much) and he has a passion for YA literature that goes all the way into his bones. He's also one hell of a writer.

Since I CRAWL THROUGH IT advance copies have arrived, the next step is my amazing publishing team sending those ARCs to people who request them, or people who require them and all that stuff. I am very grateful for these mailings.

So, Paul received a copy of the ARC from Little, Brown and as he does, he mentioned on Facebook that he was reading it. There is a line in the book about eighty nine cents. There are poems in the book, too--some with repeating titles. So when Paul told me he would give me his .89 (get it? two cents...eighty nine cents? Paul is funny.) when he was done, I said I'd write a poem called "How to Know if Your .89 Is Real." But then he beat me to it.

Five times.

These are gorgeous poems. I wanted to share them, so I'm linking all five below.

How to Know if Your .89 Is Real: Number 1

How to Know if Your .89 Is Real: Number 2

How to Know if Your .89 Is Real: 3

How to Know if Your .89 Is Real: FOR Ways

How to Know if Your .89 Is Real: Channel 5


I can't tell you how humbling and cool it is to read poems that were inspired by this crazy book I wrote that I never thought I'd publish. It's pretty amazing to wake up every morning this week and find a new poem waiting for me.

Thank you for the beautiful poems, Paul! I can't wait to thank you in person in Minneapolis this November!

xo
Amy

ARCs, teen advocacy, and I'm forgetting something

The UPS man brought me a lovely package today:

It's an ARC! It's an ARC!

And I love it and will sleep with it under my pillow tonight because that's how I roll.

There's a new blog in town called Hippodilly Circus--the brainchild of Christine Lively who is a fantastic woman, teacher, and teen advocate. Obviously, we get along pretty well because we have a lot in common.

(interrupting myself to say: isn't the Internet awesome? I've never met Christine in person, but I consider her an ally, a friend, and a complete badass.)

Anyway, I wanted to write some posts for Hippodilly Circus because I believe so strongly in its aim.

So here's the first of many.

Post by A.S. King.

It's still winter here. It's ice-storming like crazy right now. More snow due later this week. I don't care as long as I can hug this ARC of I Crawl Through It a lot and write some words on a secret project.

I know there was other stuff to tell you but I completely forget it all.

Carry on.