An unexpected delivery!

Posted on February 21, 2013 by Helen Keeble

My sneaky, sneaky editors didn’t even tell me that they’d put these in the mail!

Shiiiiiiiiiny.

And, thanks to the fact that I now actually have the advance copies, I can finally reveal the back cover copy! Which, er, not even I knew until I got these, because I have nothing to do with the marketing blurb. Just as well, really, because I would be so terrified of revealing spoilers that I’d end up writing “It’s a book… about stuff. Buy it please?”

Thankfully, the marketing folks at HarperTeen are much better at their jobs than I would be… behold!

No Angel e1361219501469 An unexpected delivery!

Being the only guy at an all-girls school should have been a godsend, but for Raffi, it’s not exactly heaven on Earth….

Instad of meeting the girl of his dreams, Raffi’s just learned that his new school is a hub for demons — and that someone summoned him there expecting him to save the day. Raffi knows that he’s no angel — but it’s hard to deny that there’s a higher plan at work when he wakes up to discover a glowing circle around his head….

Mix the wry humor of Vlandimir Tod, Ally Carter’s irresistibly spot-on voice, and some sinfully hilarious teenage dilemmas, and you have this uproarious novel from the author of Fang Girl.

NO ANGEL cover reveal!

Posted on February 18, 2013 by Helen Keeble

I’m delighted to finally be able to share the cover for my next book, NO ANGEL!

NO ANGEL cover

(the tagline refers to the hero, Rafael Angelos, who’s just your typical teenage boy… or so he thinks)

NO ANGEL isn’t a sequel to FANG GIRL, but it is a paranormal comedy in the same vein (pun intended, heh). I don’t have the back-cover copy or marketing blurb for it yet, but in the meantime I shall tantalise you all by saying that it does for angels what FANG GIRL does for vampires…

More details coming soon!

I flew 4000 miles to see FANG GIRL

Posted on November 14, 2012 by Helen Keeble

Getting this photo cost me a sum of money equivalent to my royalties on 1,200 book sales. BUT IT WAS WORTH IT.

As my author bio states, I live in England now, but I was born in the US. However, I hadn’t returned to my home state of Virginia for about twenty years. In October, I was swamped by an overwhelming wave of homesickness which DEMANDED that I take my husband and daughter to see my old childhood haunts.

The fact that this happened to be a couple of weeks after the publication date of FANG GIRL was, of course, entirely coincidental.

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FANG GIRL on the Teen Favorites table at Barnes & Noble, Tysons Corner, VA

So we spent three and a bit weeks touring Virginia, Washington D.C. and North Carolina, visiting old friends and family. My husband had never been to the States before, so naturally we also had to do a bit of sight-seeing.

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One of the many Barnes & Noble stores containing FANG GIRL

This is totally a world-famous tourist destination of outstanding natural beauty and great scientific interest. Honest.

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FANG GIRL and me together in Barnes & Noble

I must admit that I, uh, have no idea exactly which bookstores most of these photos were taken in. We may have visited rather a lot.

Fun fact: If you turn up at a Barnes and Noble, take all the copies of a book off the shelf, take them to Customer Services, and claim to be the author, they will let you sign them. Without asking for any form of ID.

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Signing copies of FANG GIRL in Barnes & Noble, Reston, VA

Next time, I’m going to claim to be Stephanie Meyer. Or possibly Stephen King.

So, if you happen to live near Reston, Tysons Corner, Washington DC, Charlottesville, Roanoake, Chapel Hill, Durham, or Raleigh, check out your local Barnes and Noble. You might be able to find one of these:

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FANG GIRL proudly sporting an “Autographed by the author” sticker at Barnes & Noble

And if you do, take a photo of it and send it to me by email, Tweet, or Facebook. First one I receive wins a prize!

(Speaking of Facebook, did you know I’ve got a shiny new author page? Check it out for more photos from my FANG GIRL tour!)

Off to sight Fang Girl in the wild!

Posted on September 19, 2012 by Helen Keeble

In less than twenty-four hours, I shall be winging my way over the Atlantic on an epic book-safari, with the aim of taking as many photos of Fang Girl in bookstores as I can. Oh, and also visiting friends and family, when I’m not otherwise engaged in cooing over my shiny now-on-sale volumes.

As a result, my internet access shall be sporadic over the next few weeks, so don’t expect to see much of me here or on Twitter. Never fear, I shall make up for the silence with an EPIC GIVEAWAY upon my return!

In the meantime, feel free to console yourself in my absence by purchasing many copies of Fang Girl. It’s like having a dozen tiny, wittier versions of me available to entertain you at any hour!

(and if you do read and enjoy it, please consider leaving a review at Amazon or other site. Word-of-mouth is the breath-of-life to a debut author…)

Watch me read from Fang Girl, complete with dubious accent

Posted on September 15, 2012 by Helen Keeble

(and here’s the link to read the first seven chapters of Fang Girl online for free)

You, yes YOU, can now buy FANG GIRL!

Posted on September 11, 2012 by Helen Keeble

HAPPY BOOK BIRTHDAY TO FANG GIRL!

Yes, four years after writing the first draft, two years after signing the contract, one year after handing in the final line edits… FANG GIRL hits the shelves today! Check out the HarperTeen page for approximately six million ways to buy the book, although they are mostly US-centric, I’m afraid (most of the online sellers will ship overseas, though).

I shall be celebrating this week with a retrospective look at the book’s journey from the depths of my brain out onto bookshelves, a dramatic video reading (laugh as I attempt a French accent!), and an epic giveaway involving everyone’s favourite undead evil goldfish.

But today, I am going to drink champagne. Cheers!

Look what I’ve got!

Posted on September 6, 2012 by Helen Keeble

SO. MANY. COPIES.

(no, I’m not keeping them all for myself, tempting as it is. Watch this space for imminent info on how to get your hands on one…)

The copy on the far right is my last remaining ARC. As you can see, the final retail version has a much bolder title on the spine! It’s also a bit of a deeper, more saturated red, which you probably can’t see because I was taking this photo with my husband’s enormous and quite terrifying SLR camera, which I have no idea how to colour-balance.

By the way, Fang Girl’s shelved next to a book by one of my favourite writers, Dan Abnett. BECAUSE I CAN.

(Abnett writes grim-and-gritty far-future military SF. It is quite possibly as far away from Fang Girl as it is possible to get while still being a book.)

The other difference from the ARC version is that the red on the spine extends slightly onto the front cover. I like it!

And if the pretty covers have made you curious to see what’s inside them… you can read the first SEVEN chapters online for free over at the HarperTeen website. Yes, that’s about 20% of the whole book, available for your reading pleasure. Go! Read!

Fang Girl giveaway roundup

Posted on August 18, 2012 by Helen Keeble

HarperTeen’s Fang Girl giveaway on GoodReads has ended, but there are some new opportunities to win an advance copy:

One copy up for grabs at BookGeeksRule (I love that blog name). This giveaway ends on 11th September, and you can increase your chances of winning by various means (leaving a comment, following the blog, etc.)
Ten copies available at PitchDark.com, which is HarperTeen’s website for their YA line (I am totally jealous of Drain You’s neat 90s-related quiz. I long to be cool enough to have a quiz). I think this one ends 2nd September, but, er, the website seems to just have gone down for maintenance as I type this, so I can’t check at the moment.

Good luck!

(yes, I am still deep in my edit cave, working on Book Two, which is why it continues to be quiet around here. Apologies. I will rejoin the human race by the beginning of September…)

VOYA gives Fang Girl the thumbs up!

Posted on July 22, 2012 by Helen Keeble

Look! The first trade review (that is, a review by a professional organisation, rather than an individual book blogger) for Fang Girl! When my editor sent me this, I… well, not literally screamed with joy, because I’m far too introverted to randomly expostulate at my laptop, but I did make a strange yelping gasp. This is from VOYA – Voice of Youth Advocates, aka the organisation for librarians looking for children’s and teen’s literature – which is a famously tough venue. Here’s what they had to say:

VOICE OF YOUTH ADVOCATES (VOYA) Keeble, Helen. Fang Girl. HarperTeen, 2012. 352p. $9.99 Trade pb. 978-0-06-208225-1.

Quirky and fun, this debut is a humor-filled twist on the teen vampire-romance craze. Fifteen- year-old “Xanthe” (Jane Green) awakes from her death to discover she has been turned into a vampire. Always on the fringe of fitting in due to a nomadic family that moves every two years, Jane finds comfort in Fang-Girls.net, a fansite. Becoming a vampire is a dream come true. When Jane returns home in her vampire state, her family is overwhelmed by the reappearance of their daughter. Adventure and laugh-out-loud antics ensue as Jane tries to find her vampire sire.

Jane’s authentic teen dialogue is refreshing and reminiscent of Louise Rennison’s Confession of Georgia Nicolson series. Once Jane meets her vampire sire, Lily, she awaits instructions concerning her vampire future. In the meantime, twists and turns erupt as dashing and attractive vampire Ebon and a young hot vampire hunter, Van, enter the story and further confuse Jane about the direction of her new life. On the run from Hakon, an ancient vampire leader, Jane must form allegiances to save her family. Uproarious situations and references to vampire popular culture are fun to catch while reading this story appropriate for high school readers and adults looking for an amusing alternative to the serious vampire genre.

—Adrienne Amborski.

Fang Girl is a fun teen read. Jane Green’s voice is modern and real. Keeble takes every vampire stereotype and rips it apart in a hilarious way. The main character will have readers growing attached to her due to her bravery and quirkiness. This debut will appeal to vampire fans or any teen girl looking for a fast, amusing read. 4Q, 4P.

—Gwen Amborski, Teen Reviewer.

Rather than a star rating, VOYA score books with 1 to 5 for both Quality (how well-written it is) and Popularity (how likely it is to appeal to a wide audience). So I’m hugely thrilled that FANG GIRL scored 4P, 4Q!

(in case you’re wondering, fives are very rare, and automatically put a book in the special “best of year” issue. Fours are good! Very good!)

For the record, I would like to state: WOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOO! *happy dance*

I can’t believe it’s less than two months to release date (hey, did you see my nifty new countdown timer on the front page? You have no idea how many hours I ~~wasted~~ spent fiddling with that). As it’s taken two years to go from signing the contract to the book hitting the shelves (yes, this delay is normal for the publishing industry), I still can’t quite wrap my head around the fact that soon people will actually be able to buy my book. And read it! And say things about it! Hopefully more nice things…

(I must confess that I am secretly agog for my first animated-gif filled savaging. You aren’t a real author until someone has expressed their undying hatred for your words through the medium of cat macros, after all.)

FANG GIRL giveaways galore!

Posted on July 11, 2012 by Helen Keeble

Want a free copy of FANG GIRL ahead of the September release date? There are not one but two opportunities to do so!

First off, my lovely agent Nephele Tempest is hosting a week-long book giveaway at her blog, in celebration of a year at WordPress. She’s got one copy of FANG GIRL up for grabs – follow the link and leave a comment to enter, though you’ll need to hurry as the competition closes on Friday 13th July.

If you miss the deadline for that competition, or don’t come up lucky, then your next chance to win comes courtesy of HarperTeen, who have 15 copies up for grabs on GoodReads. US residents only, alas (sorry, international people – run to enter Nephele’s competition instead). This one has another month to run, closing on August 11th, so you have plenty of time to enter.

Good luck!

(and now, I will retreat back into my bed-fortress of blankets behind battalions of medicine bottles; I have picked up a dire cold courtesy of a plane trip last week and have shuggoths breeding in my nasal passages again. Please forgive any typos or lapses of lucidity in this post, I am currently running on a handful of paracetamol and a couple of bananas over the past 48 hours. It is an… interesting state of being. *sigh*)