ARCANE MERAVIGLIE...

What is it about Italian that just rolls off the tongue?

ARCANE MERAVIGLIE.... doesn't that sound lovley? It sounds even more lovely once you know that it is the Italian name for WONDROUS STRANGE!!

And it's available HERE from the wonderful people at Fazi Editore.

That's right Kelley and Sonny have gone International! Anybody here read Italian?

Contest Fantastic!

The fun and fantastic Lee Verday (he whose wife Jessica is the author of the soon-to-be-released and awesome-sounding THE HOLLOW) is running a contest here where you can win a signed copy of WONDROUS STRANGE or one of three signed book plates! All you have to do is leave a comment in the thread. But hurry - contest closes on Saturday at noon CST!!

The coolest thing about Lee's contests is that you can enter as many comments as you want and each one counts as an entry! I'm thrilled and tickled to say that this particular contest has really blown the roof off Lee's blog! At last count, there were 2,191 comment-entries!! Go check it out!

Awesomeness!!

Okay, so I've made mention of this in a couple of my regular haunts on the web and it suddenly occured ot me that this is probably something I should also mention on my own dang blog!!

So.

It was announced in Publisher's Marketplace that: "Lesley Livingston's WONDROUS STRANGE has been optioned to screenwriter David Hayter's Dark Hero Productions (Watchmen, X2, and XMEN) & Jeff Sagansky, with Hayter penning the script, by Brendan Deneen on behalf of Objective Entertainment and Jessica Regel at Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency."

And this is what David Hayter himself had to say in response to the announcement being posted over at HardcoreNerdity:

Speaking for Dark Hero, "We are incredibly excited to translate this remarkable book into the world of visual media. Ms. Livingston is an amazing new talent, and the world she has created is rife with fantastic images, compelling story-lines and complex characters."

Keep you fingers crossed that Sonny and Kelley and company will soon make their way to a screen near you!

I'm Cynsational!!

The super-fantastic Cynthia Leitich Smith, author of TANTALIZE and ETERNAL - and if you haven't read these yet, why the heck not?! - interviewed me over on her essential-reading-for-anyone-who-writes-or-reads blog Cynsations!!

Go check it out!!

Ah - Romance...

I had a lovely time being interviewed over at Yankee Romance Reviewers about WONDROUS STRANGE, Shakespeare, and storytelling.

Go check it out and leave a comment for a chance to win a copy of the book!


In other romantic news, I have fallen back in love with my office. After sweeping out the cyber-space last week, I took a literal broom to the book nook (which had become crazed with the cluttering) in anticipation of spending virtually every free waking hour there over the summer writing Book the Third.

BEGONE Cyber Bunnies of Dust!!

Begone, I command you!

**brandishes cyber-broom, chases pixelated dust e-bunnies from the blog**



Wow.



The place sure collected a fair few cobwebs in my absence... hey -- is that a tumbleweed?? Out. Out, I say! Tumble your weedy wares elsewhere!!



Greetings, dear reader! (I assume that at least one of you might have hung around, waiting for me to eventually resurface - er - Hi, Mom! **waves**) My most sincere apologies for, y'know, dropping off the face of the globe.

In the wake of post-Book 2 edits, I guess I had just sort of used up my word hoard. I needed to let it refill before I started yammering on at any sort of length. The last thing any of you need to read from me is inane yammering. Heh.

Moving along...

Also, I got real busy. REAL. I was invited out to the Frye Festival in New Brunswick for a week to do a mad whirlwind schools tour. Followed by three days in Ottawa at their Writer's Festival doing much the same thing. It was awesome - sometimes I forget just how much I enjoy hanging around teens. I did readings and answered questions and signed books and body parts and shoes and my first cast!

Then I came home and after a very brief respite, I found myself locked in a padded room for three days straight! I know what you're thinking. And you're wrong. This time.

No - I was recording the script for the audio version of WONDROUS STRANGE!! I did this down at the studios in the CBC building and Ann my producer and Alaine my sound engineer were fantastic! But, almost four days later, and my neck muscles still feel a bit tender.

Also? I succumbed. I caved. I gave in. I gave up. I joined. I'm a joiner.

I now TWITTER.

(and I kinda really dig it!!)

Please come follow me. My screen name is LesLivingston. Don't make me be lonely.

I've missed you all. I will be a better blogger. You'll see. And you will fling me blogger cupcakes. And I will smile and get icing everywhere.

(But I have to say, the dust e-bunnies were sort of cute...)

Reviewed in the Globe and Mail!

This certainly made my weekend!

WONDROUS STRANGE received a fantastic review in Saturday's Globe & Mail - Canada's largest national newspaper.

Check it out! Among other lovely things, it has this to say:

"Oh, bestselling Twilight, thou hast a strong contender. Livingston delivers with skillful momentum, in the same way she unveils the complicated faerie plots lurking behind the fabric of the everyday... With mastery, Livingston handles the dramatic agony of growing up... As a young adult fantasy, this book has it all."

Also? The review describes Sonny as a "dreamy bad boy of the first rate". Totally. Awesome.

And the icing on this particular cake? I had the delightful, utterly coincidental pleasure of sharing the review with my good friend and authoress-supremo, Adrienne Kress, and her new fab release, Timothy and the Dragon's Gate! She blogs about it here as well, and I shamelessly yoinked this picture that she posted from the print version:

Ahh... "mouthy power and dark cleverness". Er... I mean... no, wait... actually, that kinda works.

Flying Dragons ROCK!!

Especially when they're cleverly disguised as a book store!!



Behold the glorious front window of the FLYING DRAGON BOOKSHOP - a fantastic place specializing in Children's Books right here in Toronto!

They do such lovely window displays and I'm so thrilled to see WONDROUS STRANGE as part of the most recent extravaganza, larger than life.

(Also - Happy St. Patrick's Day! - I know of at least one or two leprechauns who'll be getting into the honeyed mead today...)

Purple Day!!

I found out about this from a few of my other amazing writer friends. Click on over to Cassidy's Site and check it out!

Purple Day started last year in Canada when nine year-old Cassidy Megan, who has epilepsy, wanted to broaden public awareness about her condition. Why purple? Lavender is the color associated with epilepsy around the globe.“Before I started Purple Day, I was afraid to tell people about my epilepsy,” Cassidy says. “I thought they would make fun of me. I wanted to tell everyone about epilepsy, especially that all seizures are not the same and that people with epilepsy (50 million worldwide) are ordinary people just like everyone else.”

Purple Day is March 26thWear your purple to support epilepsy awareness globally.

Visit http://www.purpleday.org/.

Welcome to Canada, Mr. President!

Sorry about the cold. Make sure you wear a fuzzy hat!

Appropriately enough, my friend Mike was playing around with Obamicons and made this one for/of me!



Note the fuzzy hat!