YA Guy... Reveals All!

Okay, YA Guy admits right up front that the title of this blog post is misleading. I'm not revealing ALL (because trust me, you don't want to know!). But I am revealing the cover to the third book in the Ecosystem Trilogy, HOUSE OF EARTH, HOUSE OF STONE, which releases April 22 of this year (Earth Day, of course). Here it is, in all its glory:

Two notes about this cover.

First, though I love all of the covers my design team produced for the Ecosystem series, I love this one the most. Something about the colors, the layout, and the totally cool circlet they created based on my description in the book--perfect! I hope you like it too.

Second note: this is yet another thing I love about self-publishing. I woke up this morning and said, "Gosh, I feel like revealing the cover to my book," and so I did it. No permission needed. No hoops to jump through. Just me, on my own, doing my thing. Nice!

Let me know what you think about the cover, and I look forward to releasing HOUSE OF EARTH, HOUSE OF STONE to the world!

YA Guy Announces... The Official SCAVENGER OF SOULS Cover Reveal (plus a giveaway)!

YA Guy's over the moon about today's SCAVENGER OF SOULS cover reveal on YA Books Central. If you bop on over there, you'll not only have a chance to see the drop-dead awesome cover the folks at Margaret K. McElderry Books designed, but you'll be able to enter a giveaway to win the complete Survival Colony series! What could be better than that?

Well, other than world peace, I mean....

YA Guy Reveals... His First SURVIVAL COLONY 9 YouTube Video!

Thanks to YA Guy's technologically literate teenage daughter, I now have a YouTube video about Survival Colony 9!

I'm calling this a cover reveal, though it's not actually that, since the cover's been out there for a while. But it's got some fun facts about the cover anyway, so check it out and let me know what you think!

YA Guy Hosts... Kai Strand, author of POLAR OPPOSITES

Today on YA Guy, Kai Strand, author of many books including the forthcoming POLAR OPPOSITES, Book 2 of her SUPER VILLAIN ACADEMY series, takes to the streets to hear what people think about heroes and villains. Take it away, Kai!

Hi everyone! I’m Kai Strand, author of the Super Villain Academy series. I’m here to pose a VERY important question. But first let’s talk about Supers.

Top Reasons to be a Hero:

You know people worship you
You look good in tights
You never lack a date to an awards banquet in your honor

Top Reasons to be a Villain:

You never have to consider the consequences of your actions
You never lack the comforts of life – since you just take whatever you want
Girls LOVE a bad boy

So now I ask you:

Hero or Villain?

I’ve taken to the streets to find out what people think:



Your turn! Weigh-in on my website www.kaistrand.com.

Sign up for my newsletter. (Hint: Soon I’ll be having a special giveaway for newsletter subscribers only. The more subscribers, the better the giveaway!)

Polar Opposites: Super Villain Academy, Book 2 coming June 2014

The supers are balanced. All’s well in the super world. Right? When dogs drag Oceanus away, Jeff learns the supers are so balanced, they no longer care to get involved. The only one who seems to care is Oci’s ex-villain, ex-boyfriend, Set. With Jeff’s own powers unbalanced and spiraling out of control, he wonders if they'll find Oci before he loses control completely--and if they’ll find her alive.

Add on Goodreads!

Need to catch up? Here's where you can pick up your copy of King of Bad: Super Villain Academy, Book 1!



About the author:

When her children were young and the electricity winked out, Kai Strand gathered her family around the fireplace and they told stories, one sentence at a time. Her boys were rather fond of the ending, “And then everybody died. The end.” Now an award winning children’s author, Kai crafts fiction for kids and teens to provide an escape hatch from their reality. With a selection of novels for young adult and middle grade readers and short stories for the younger ones, Kai entertains children of all ages, and their adults. Learn more about Kai and her books on her website, www.kaistrand.com.

YA Guy Shows Off... His Own Cover!

For those who might have missed it on Twitter, I wanted to show off the brand-new cover to my YA debut, Survival Colony Nine! It won't hit the bookstores until September 23, 2014 (mark your calendars, everyone!), but the cover's out, and in my completely unbiased opinion it is stunning!

So here it is:



Gorgeous, huh?

Now that I'm done bragging, let me give you a little background on the cover. Some authors are sent a cover design questionnaire (as I was for my short story "Scarecrow"), or they communicate directly with the designers or indirectly through the editor. In other cases--like mine--the author's input is the manuscript itself, which the editor discusses with the designers to produce the cover.

So in my case, I did not directly or indirectly discuss this particular image with the design folks at Margaret K. McElderry Books (my publisher). My editor, Karen Wojtyla, handled those discussions. And yet, I couldn't be more thrilled with the way the design team captured both the "look" and the "feel" of the story; in fact, when I imagined what the cover might look like, I imagined it very much like the final image! The desert backdrop, the shadowy figure, even the way the number "9" forms such a prominent part of the overall design--all of those aspects were in my mind when I dreamed of my ideal cover. Which either goes to show that my story translates readily to image--which would be good--or that everyone at McElderry is totally on the same page about this book--which would also be good!

Whatever the case, I can't wait to see the real thing on bookstore shelves!

While we're waiting, you might consider adding the book to your shelf on Goodreads, or liking my author page on Facebook.

Because September 23, 2014 will be here before you know it!