STARRY-EYED, THE FIRST MIDNIGHT SPELL, Scavenger Hunt prize winners, and more!

First of all. CONGRATS to the winners of my last-minute prize in the YA Scavenger Hunt: Rima, Shubhi, Camilla and Anne! They’ll all received signed hardcover copies of BALTHAZAR as soon as I get their shipping addresses. Taking part in the YA Scavenger Hunt was an amazing experience, and kudos to organizers Beth Revis and Colleen Houck, who did a tremendous amount of work to make sure the event was again a success … and on their mutual birthday, to boot! Now, onto other opportunities for you guys to read, enjoy and win:

This release date sneaked up on me, so I haven’t done nearly a good enough job of telling you guys about the anthology STARRY-EYED, which comes out TOMORROW. This anthology is about teenagers and the performing arts, and what it means to be involved in music, dance, theater and the rest. So far STARRY-EYED has received rave reviews from both Booklist and Kirkus, which means I’m looking forward to reading the other stories in this anthology tremendously. My story, “Talent,” is one that means a great deal to me. It’s the story of Landon Avery, who already felt like a potential outcast because he’d realized he was gay; then he discovers a mystery “talent,” one that allows him to influence the emotions of others. He uses his talent to become the star of the high-school theater group – but inside, he feels lonelier than ever, sure all the admiration he’s won is only because he’s a fraud. Then the school’s swimming star, Jesse Pearce, tries out for the fall play — and Landon can’t tell where his wishful thinking leaves off and his talent begins. Really, truly, I hope you’ll check this one out.

We have a little longer before the release of THE FIRST MIDNIGHT SPELL, which is the origin story of Elizabeth from the SPELLCASTER series. You can read that e-novella on November 5, On this one I can’t give too much information — I might spoil not only the novella but STEADFAST, too — but if you’ve wondered just how Elizabeth started to go completely wrong, the secrets lie within.

Those of you who follow me on Twitter know that the very first ARCs of STEADFAST arrived in time for me to distribute them at the Pacific Northwest Booksellers’ Association event here in Portland, OR, last night. (Thanks to both the PNBA and the awesome Wordstock festival for making sure I’ve had such an amazing time here in Oregon! Nothing like meeting so many people who love books.) Several of you took the opportunity to ask, via Twitter, how you could get your hands on a copy. Well, we’ll be having a contest soon, so WATCH THIS SPACE.

More immediately: Our October movie to watch together via live tweet on Twitter will be “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone”! That’s going to happen sometime in the next two weeks; details TBA. But I think it might just kickoff a full rewatch of the whole HP series. What do you guys think?