So, the Earthbound series was put out of print about a year ago, and I’ve been working to make it available again and part of that process was giving the books a makeover! I am SO excited to share the new covers for the Earthbound books!!!!!!
The eBooks are available on Amazon now, and the paperbacks will work their way on there in the next few days. I’m so excited to have the full trilogy available again!!!!:D
The novel Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray had a
subtitle when it was originally published in 1848, and it was: A Novel Without
a Hero. And while I’m not sure Glitter goes quite that far, it come awfully darn
close.
So why would Aprilynne Pike, a YA author known for her
“clean reads” write not one, but TWO books with a heck of a lot of bad people
in them?
Because I wanted to.
That’s really what it comes down to.
I wanted to write a story that was exciting and had
questionable morals and pretty dresses.
I wanted to write a story where you don’t know who to root
for, because success for one person equals bad things for another. Because a
lot of these ends do not justify their
means. This is a story where you keep reading to see what happens because no
one is safe.
And it was so fun!
However, by the end of the book, I hope that people will see
that one of the themes of this book is that you can’t make bad choices and not
be touched by the consequences. They might be delayed, they might be smaller
than expected, they might be far larger than deserved. But you cannot dally in
the drug-underworld without partaking in the darkness.
And believe you me, it only gets worse in the sequel.
So Glitter went through SO many incarnations as I made it into a book. I have never, ever rewritten the first half of a book so many times. At first it was set in space and had a Tudor-era English culture. There was sister involved, and the engagement was for a second marriage, and the king was, like, thirty-five, and … well, there were a TON of changes. A ton. (And I’m glad for every single one! But it was a long road.) One of the last changes we made before my editor moved forward and acquired the book at about half-written, was taking out what I like to call The Articles. The tumble of events that led to my big corporation, Sonoma Agriculture, Inc., buying the Palace of Versailles could almost fill a book by itself. I think I make it clear enough in the book, but originally each chapter began with a short news article that essentially took the place of backstory in the book. The decision was finally made that readers would flip past the articles and wouldn’t understand the backstory. Which may or may not be true, but I went ahead and cut them out.
But I kept them. Because deleted scenes are awesome.:) So, with two weeks left before Glitter comes out, if you’d like to read the backstory of how the kingdom of Sonoman-Versailles came to be, you can. It starts with a grain blight that begins in … seven years. It’s heavy reading. Articles, interviews, a Black’s…er… Grey’s Law encyclopedia entry. It’s not reflective of the voice in the rest of the book, but I worked hard on them, and I think they’re fun.:) Here’s the first article:
The Governor of Central California sought federal aid today after the
Department of Food and Agriculture confirmed Norwegian Blight in wheat
crops across the state. The Blight—named for its destruction of Norway’s
modest rye crops in 2022—has been blamed for food riots in the Middle
East and economic tension in the European Union and Asia. This is its
first confirmed appearance in the western hemisphere.
The announcement comes at an inconvenient time for the U.S.
Department of Agriculture, which only last week defended existing trade
regulations as “sufficient” to safeguard American crops. The
administration’s remarks were likely prompted by Dr. Lydia Williams of
Johns Hopkins University, the research scientist who recently predicted
that Norwegian Blight would appear in the United States within the year.
Her peer-reviewed models show over three-quarters of grain crops on all
six habited continents at imminent risk of destruction, with global
famine to follow by 2025—something never before experienced in the
United States.
Whether Dr. Williams’ dire predictions of rationing and
starvation will come to pass remains to be seen, but the consumer price
index is already on the rise as the meat and dairy industries brace for a
sharp increase in the cost of feed. The Renewable Fuels Association, a
trade consortium of ethanol manufacturers, has also announced a $25
million bounty for an effective treatment of Norwegian Blight, which has
thus far proven impervious to known fungicides.
Fox News, USA
18 March 2023
If you’re interested in reading the rest, there’s almost 5k words of articles. Here’s the link:
It can be hard to explain to people who don’t directly work in publishing just how important pre-orders are to authors. They signal to a publisher how much a book is anticipated, how well it is expected to do, and sometimes it can actually be game-changer. Send a book back to print, make a chain decide to up their orders, convince a new venue to buy in, etc.
And if, for example, a book got *koff* a lukewarm reception from a couple of in-house readers *koff* it might be really important to go the extra mile to convince a publisher to keep supporting a book. Two really great ways to do that? Reviews and pre-orders.
One of them, the book can do in it’s own, and GLITTER totally has!!! Double starred reviews two weeks ago from Publishers Weekly and Bulletin (PARTAY!!!) were pretty darn impressive, and I’ve still got a couple more trade reviews that haven’t even come in yet. Fingers crossed! In addition, blogger response has been phenomenal (THANK YOU!!!) and those reviews are just starting to trickle in.
But the other one readers have to do. That’s where you come in! I would LOVE for my fans to pre-order GLITTER. As a thank you, I have fun stuff for you!!! If you pre-order GLITTER, physical, eBook, or audio, at ANY retailer, you can send me a picture of a receipt, a screenshot of of a pre-order verification, a claim ticket from an Indie store, etc. and I will send you a GLITTER swag bag!!
Candy, glittery lip gloss, nail polish, tinsel (TINSEL!), necklace, and a bookmark (not pictured yet:D). Let’s face it, if you’re going to get GLITTER anyway, you might as well get free stuff. *wink*
RULES: For postage reasons, this giveaway is limited to the US. It runs from today to midnight October 24, 2016 (Because then it’s not, um, a PREorder anymore … )
WHAT YOU DO: Please send me the following, preferably in this format.
FIRST AND LAST NAME
ADDRESS LINE 1
CITY, STATE, ZIP
Please email all of this to GlitterBookEmail@Gmail.com
Attach or copy/paste any proof of purchase. Hit send!
You will know you’ve done it right when you get my Auto-Response. Further, I will reply personally to let you know that your address is comprehensible and your proof came through.;) I will mail swag bags as I receive them.
PRIVACY: I will keep all of my address-laden emails until one week after GLITTER comes out in case mailings don’t reach you. At that point I will delete them all. I do not use your information for anything else.
Not sure you’re into GLITTER? No problem! Check out the **preview here** where you can read the first fifty pages and find out!
Want to know what other people are saying about GLITTER? Sure thing!!
“Beautifully detailed scenes serve as the foundation for Danica’s
ethical quandaries and illuminate the fantastical world in which she
lives.” — Publishers Weekly, starred review
“Rich with
absorbing detail, clever plotting, and complex characters…readers will
thrill to this immersion into a world within a world that feels
strangely possible, if not inevitable, in our own future.” — Bulletin, starred review
“I adored this genre-bending futuristic and super swoon-y romance
featuring a strong anti-heroine to root for—fun, refreshing and
unpredictable!” –#1 New York Times Bestselling Author, Melissa de la
Cruz
“The Palace of Versailles gets a darkly twisted, modern day makeover that had me hooked from the heart-pounding opening scene. Glitter is a thoroughly inventive, genre-bending tale that delivers on every level!” –#1 New York Times Bestselling Author, Alyson Noël
“Aprilynne Pike’s gift is that each book she writes is utterly inventive. GLITTER is
no exception. As always her characters are interesting, vivid, and
dynamic and they play out their nail-biting scenes against a
richly-imagined, lush backdrop. Her books are skillfully woven and a
royal delight!” –Colleen Houck, New York Times bestselling author of the Tiger’s Curse series and Reawakened
The first time I clearly saw my entire face in a mirror, I
was twelve years old. Because that’s the year I got contact lenses. It was a
revelation! I’d seen my face, of course. But always warped on the sides by the
curve of my very, very thick glasses, or with my nose touching the mirror, and
still with the edges blurry. After I got contacts I remember spending long
periods of time staring at myself in the mirror, because I didn’t know my own
face.
When I was five my parents took me to an eye doctor because
I was running into walls. They thought I was clumsy. The eye doctor told them
it was doubtful I could see the walls. I tell that story frequently because
it’s funny. And then I talk about my coke bottle glasses, and that one of my
three earliest memories is walking into Kindergarten the first day I had them.
People laugh and say, “oh yes, I have terrible vision too!” Maybe I’m a glutton
for punishment, but I always ask, “Oh really? What’s your prescription?” I have
once had someone answer that their prescription was higher than about -4.5. (And
that’s my running partner who has -6.5.) My kindergarten prescription was about
-4.5. By the time I got contacts, my prescription was -6.5 and before two days
ago it was -8.5. It’s not the worst in the world, but I passed the line for sever myopia twenty three years ago.
I used to hear people laugh and say, “Oh, I was so blind I
couldn’t read what the teacher was writing on the chalkboard.” I couldn’t have
seen the chalkboard. Period. The only reason I would have known there was a
teacher standing at the chalkboard was that the smudges of color at the front
of the classroom moved. I learned at a young age while swimming, wandering
about trying to find my glasses, etc. that moving smudges usually meant a
person.
And yet, I’m lucky! My vision was correctable. I always feel
a kinship with people who are legally blind and have to constantly justify to
society the fact that they are not “all the way” blind. They know that just
because they don’t have full blackness doesn’t mean that they can function
normally out in the world! I wouldn’t dare attempt to leave the house without glasses or
contacts!
But today I woke up, I glanced at the alarm clock, and I saw
numbers. Without doing a thing, I shuffled into the bathroom, past the mirror,
and I looked up and saw my face. Because two days ago I got corrective eye
surgery. This isn’t some sappy sob story about the advance of technology and
medicine, etc. but I’ve been thinking very hard about gaining something you’ve
never had. No, REALLY never had. Something that makes your life feel lesser. A
hole that is suddenly filled.
I’ve often had a hard time listening to people talk about their
terrible eyesight when I know mine is four times worse. How I used to wish I
could wear pretty, thin glasses that didn’t distort my eyes! I try not to say
anything, but it’s hard to listen and think anything other than, oh yes, whine away. And I know that’s not complimentary to myself. But you know what?
Those people are also never going to feel the utter magic that I do in suddenly
being able to effortlessly see! I’m on day two and I want to burst into happy
tears about six times a day. And maybe that’s put me in a philosophical point
of view, I don’t know, but I’ve been thinking about people who get things
they’ve never had before. Really never had before. And how the bigger the hole
it makes in your life before, the more astounding of a gift it is.
So here’s to people in the world who are getting things they
didn’t ever have before. Here are some of the ones in my life. Here’s to my
sister whose eye sight was even worse than mine when she got corrective surgery
five years ago. Here’s to my other sister who, after years of being teased for
her hearing loss and the slight alteration in her speech that it caused, has an
amazing set of hearing aids. Here’s to my coworker, Jay, who has only just had
his first anniversary because he wasn’t allowed to legally marry before that.
Here’s to Melissa de la Cruz who is voting as an American citizen for the first
time in a presidential election. Here’s to my brother- and sister-in-law who
are preparing to welcome a child into their home after many, many years, just not in the same way most
people do.
And here’s to the people who are happy for them. To the
people for whom getting the same thing isn’t really as big a deal, but who are
nonetheless happy for those for whom it is a Really Big Deal. I’m trying to be
that person too.
And, especially, here’s to the people who aren’t getting
That Thing. Whatever it is. Or worse, are having That Thing taken away.
Whatever it is. Physical, Emotional, Spiritual.
Maybe the last couple paragraphs sound ridiculously vague, but
I prefer to think that we’re such a nuanced world of people, so full of
variety, that truly, That Thing can means so many things. But whatever That Thing
is, I hope you get it. And if you have gotten it, isn’t it amazing?
