The panel also featured authors Brittany Geragotelis, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Jesse Karp, and Suzanne Weyn. Here we are at the start of the reading—I’m beginning to present my book to the audience:

(Photo courtesy of Books of Wonder. From left: me, Brittany Geragotelis, Suzanne Weyn, Alaya Dawn Johnson, and Jesse Karp.)

I want to thank Books of Wonder for hosting me, the wonderful authors I had the opportunity to present with, and the audience who came to see us. And if you missed the event, or if you’re just passing through New York City and find yourself hankering for a signed copy of my book, you really should stop at Books of Wonder on 18 West 18th Street in Manhattan.

They have signed copies of every single one of my books. Here I am with a stack of books to sign… and that was just one of the stacks I scribbled my signature into:

Books of Wonder also has signed copies of not just the hardcover of 17 & Gone, but the hardcover of Imaginary Girls as well as the paperback, Dani Noir, and Fade Out! Thank you, Peter Glassman, and all the amazing staff members at the store! They are so supportive of YA and children’s authors and our books, and it was an honor to visit.

On Friday, March 22, I took the stage with Eireann Corrigan, Elizabeth Eulberg, Jeff Hirsch, David Levithan, and Rainbow Rowell for the annual NYC Teen Author Festival Reader’s Theater at the Union Square Barnes & Noble, where we acted out scenes from each other’s books. We even kicked off the night with a (vivid, hilarious, graphic, over-the-top!) scene from a classic novel from our youth: Go Ask Alice.

(Reader’s Theater at B&N USQ. Photo courtesy of Hello, Chelly.)

After the performance, I got to sign copies of 17 & Gone for the very first time. I was honored and thrilled by every single person who stood on my signing line to get a copy.

(Signing books after the Reader’s Theater. Photo courtesy of my mom!)

The next night, I was thrilled to get the chance to visit my favorite local bookstore, McNally Jackson, and do an event there. It was extra-thrilling to arrive at the bookstore and discover signs for the event featuring my book cover!

(The sign on the door of my favorite bookstore! Photo courtesy of McNally Jackson.)

The Mutual Admiration Society Reading was hosted by David Levithan and featured Sharon Cameron, A.S. King, Michael Northrop, Diana Peterfreund, Victoria Schwab, and me. Here I am listening to the incredible A.S. King. I was clearly very affected by what she read!

(During the McNally Jackson reading, listening to A.S. King. Photo by E.)

Then my book-birthday weekend—and the amazing NYC Teen Author Festival!—closed out with a bang, with a mega-signing featuring more than forty YA authors at Books of Wonder. I was thrilled to meet readers and sign books.

(During the Books of Wonder mega-signing, meeting a reader, Alexa! Photo courtesy of Alexa.)

And, of course, no book-birthday weekend is complete without awesome and generous readers and friends sending me photos of my book out in the wild. 17 & Gone was spotted in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Illinois.

Thank you to everyone who came to see me at the NYC Teen Author Festival events! Thank you to David Levithan and the NYPL and everyone involved in organizing the fantastic festival! Thank you to the Barnes & Noble at Union Square, McNally Jackson, and Books of Wonder for hosting me and making the events amazing!

It sure was a good book-birthday weekend.

For more photos from the weekend, check out my collection on Pinterest.

Last year, when I was deep into writing 17 & Gone, I discovered an exciting new distraction and way to collect images that fascinated me: Pinterest. What started off as maybe one more thing to keep me from writing turned into a great source of inspiration, and my 17 & Gone inspiration board was born. I’d often write with the images up on my screen, staring at them in pauses between paragraphs. On each stop on this blog tour I’m highlighting one of the photos that spoke to me and helped me find my way through the darkness of writing this book.

The blog tour kicks off today—March 18—and the first stop is Mundie Moms to reveal my first photo inspiration.

Here’s the full blog tour schedule:

Monday, 3/18: Mundie Moms
Tuesday, 3/19: Confessions of a Readaholic
Wednesday, 3/20: The Compulsive Reader
Thursday, 3/21: The Mod Podge Bookshelf
Friday, 3/22: Anna Reads
Monday, 3/25: The Story Siren
Tuesday, 3/26: A Good Addiction
Wednesday, 3/27: Radiant Reads
Thursday, 3/28: Presenting Lenore
Friday, 3/29: Book Chic

17 & Gone is the story of Lauren, a girl haunted by a host of missing girls. All she knows is the girls are all 17—like she is—and they’re all gone without a trace. It’s this haunting that consumes Lauren and propels the story, as she races to find out why these lost girls are contacting her, and if this means she could be next.

In keeping with the idea of hauntings, I’ve asked some YA authors I know to share posts answering this question:

What haunted YOU when you were 17?

Starting today, I’ll be featuring some of these posts here on my blog—and some of the authors will be responding to this question on their own blogs. I’ll be sure to share those links here, too! And of course I’ll reveal my own disturbed psyche when I was 17, because how could I ask other authors to if I won’t?

To follow the Haunted at 17 blog series, visit my blog distraction99.com and keep reading all week!

p.s. And be sure to enter to win a signed copy of the book!

The opening lines:

Girls go missing every day. They slip out bedroom windows and into strange cars. They leave good-bye notes or they don’t get a chance to tell anyone. They cross borders. They hitch rides, squeezing themselves into overcrowded backseats, sitting on willing laps. They curl up and crouch down, or they shove their bodies out of sunroofs and give off victory shouts. Girls make plans to go, but they also vanish without meaning to, and sometimes people confuse one for the other. Some girls go kicking and screaming and clawing out the eyes of whoever won’t let them stay. And then there are the girls who never reach where they’re going. Who disappear. Their ends are endless, their stories unknown. These girls are lost, and I’m the only one who’s seen them. 

Praise for 17 & Gone:

“Elegant, riveting, powerful, and poignant, this suspenseful, supernatural tale slips under the skin, inking out a haunting tapestry of menace and madness.” —Libba Bray, author of The Diviners and A Great and Terrible Beauty

“Suma breaks reality and twists it back together in a devastating and beautiful new form.” —Kiersten White, author of Paranormalcy and Mind Games

“Suma follows Imaginary Girls with another reality-blurring, psychologically complex mystery… . Through Lauren’s unraveling journey, readers learn firsthand what it’s like to question one’s own sanity.” —Publishers Weekly

★ ”This is ingeniously crafted … [An] intimate, compelling exploration of a troubled young woman’s life.” —The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, starred review

“A truly original novel, different from anything else on the shelves… . Suma blends the real with the fantastic so seamlessly that readers will question everything.” —Romantic Times Book Review

More about the book here!

When I applied I didn’t know that a special fellowship was possible, but it turns out that the nine top-scoring applicants from all artistic disciplines are awarded a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts that covers the cost of the residency and gives a stipend. And I was one of those nine. (???!!!!) And because of that surprise award, I can definitely afford to go!

Pretty excited.

So I’ll be spending two weeks in a writing studio in the Blue Ridge Mountains of rural Georgia this June. Thank you so much to Hambidge and the NEA for this magical opportunity! I expect to write many pages in the quiet and the solitude and wander the woods for inspiration.

First, go “like” this page for the NYC Teen Author Festival on Facebook—you’ll be able to see the whole schedule posted there, and it’s pretty incredible.

Here’s where you’ll find me during the festival:

Friday March 22: Barnes & Noble Reader’s Theater/Signing (Union Square B&N, 33 E 17th St, 7-8:30)

Eireann Corrigan
Elizabeth Eulberg
Jeff Hirsch
David Levithan
Rainbow Rowell
Nova Ren Suma

Saturday March 23: Mutual Admiration Society reading at McNally Jackson (McNally Jackson, Prince Street, 7-8:30): 

Sharon Cameron
A.S. King
Michael Northrop
Diana Peterfreund
Victoria Schwab
Nova Ren Suma

hosted by David Levithan

Sunday March 24: Our No-Foolin’ Mega-Signing at Books of Wonder (Books of Wonder, 1-4):

1-1:45:
Jessica Brody (Unremembered, Macmillan)
Marisa Calin (Between You and Me, Bloomsbury)
Jen Calonita (The Grass is Always Greener, LB)
Sharon Cameron (The Dark Unwinding, Scholastic)
Caela Carter (Me, Him, Them, and It, Bloomsbury)
Crissa Chappell (Narc, Flux)
Susane Colasanti (Keep Holding On, Penguin)
Zoraida Cordova (The Vicious Deep, Sourcebooks)
Gina Damico (Scorch, HMH)
Jocelyn Davies (A Fractured Light, HC)
Sarah Beth Durst (Vessel, S&S)
Gayle Forman (Just One Day, Penguin)
Elizabeth Scott (Miracle, S&S)

1:45-2:30
T. M. Goeglein (Cold Fury, Penguin)
Hilary Weisman Graham (Reunited, S&S)
Alissa Grosso (Ferocity Summer, Flux)
Aaron Hartzler (Rapture Practice, LB)
Deborah Heiligman (Intentions, RH)
Leanna Renee Hieber (The Twisted Tragedy of Miss Natalie Stewart, Sourcebooks)
Jeff Hirsch (Magisterium, Scholastic)
J. J. Howard (That Time I Joined the Circus, Scholastic)
Alaya Johnson (The Summer Prince, Scholastic)
Beth Kephart (Small Damages, Penguin)
Kody Keplinger (A Midsummer’s Nightmare, LB)

2:30-3:15
A.S. King (Ask the Passengers, LB)
Emmy Laybourne (Monument 14, Macmillan)
David Levithan (Every Day, RH)
Barry Lyga (Yesterday Again, Scholastic)
Brian Meehl (Suck it Up and Die, RH)
Alexandra Monir (Timekeeper, RH)
Michael Northrop (Rotten, Scholastic)
Diana Peterfreund (For Darkness Shows the Stars, HC)
Lindsay Ribar (The Art of Wishing, Penguin)
Rainbow Rowell (Eleanor & Park, St. Martin’s)
Kimberly Sabatini (Touching the Surface, S&S)
Tiffany Schmidt (Send Me a Sign, Bloomsbury)

3:15-4:00
Victoria Schwab (The Archived, Hyperion)
Jeri Smith-Ready (Shine, S&S)
Amy Spalding (The Reece Malcolm List, Entangled)
Stephanie Strohm (Pilgrims Don’t Wear Pink, HMH)
Nova Ren Suma (17 & Gone, Penguin) 
Greg Takoudes (When We Wuz Famous, Macmillan)
Mary Thompson (Wuftoom, HMH)
Jess Verdi (My Life After Now, Sourcebooks)
K.M. Walton (Empty, S&S)
Suzanne Weyn (Dr. Frankenstein’s Daughters, Scholastic)
Kathryn Williams (Pizza, Love, and Other Stuff That Made Me Famous, Macmillan)

…So that’s three chances to come get a copy of 17 & Gone the week it comes out, hear me read, and get the book signed.

(I accosted the UPS man for this yesterday! It’s an advance hardcover of the book… And it’s beautiful. The “missing poster” text is laminated and catches the light… this picture doesn’t capture how great this looks!)

Check out the NYC Teen Author Festival page for the full schedule running all week—and featuring more than 90 authors!

And just a note: I won’t be having a launch event for 17 & Gone, so if you’re in New York City and want to hear me read and get a signed book, you should come to one of the Teen Author Festival events! That’s your only chance… unless you accost me in the street like I did to the poor UPS man yesterday.

Thing One: Registration opens today! You can register for the conference starting at 11am EST today (February 6).

Thing Two: And if you register, you’ll have a chance to sign up for a craft workshop with me. I’ll be teaching two workshops…

On Saturday afternoon, I’ll be teaching a two-hour workshop for novelists focusing on sculpting gripping, promising opening chapters:

F6 ~ Killer First Chapters with Nova Ren Suma (Pro-Track)

The first chapter of your novel can make or break you: The way you open your story will work to keep a reader (or agent, or editor!) feverishly turning your pages… or not. In this studio class, we will read all the first chapters ahead of time and discuss each student’s opening pages. We will ask questions such as: Did you start at the true start of your story? Is there a stronger way to hook your reader? What does this opening make you want and expect from the story? We will focus on the hook of a brilliant first paragraph, pacing and when to reveal information, and how to close out your first chapter leaving the reader gasping for more. We will also experiment with a writing exercise for first paragraphs, to see how shifting and re-imagining the opening lines can reveal new and exciting possibilities. For YA and middle-grade writers with novels in-progress.

Focus: Writing, Category: MG, YA, Audience: Int/Experienced (Pro-Track)

And on Sunday afternoon, I’ll be teaching another two-hour intensive focusing on setting and place in fiction:

L2 ~ Place as Character with Nova Ren Suma

A strong sense of place in your YA or middle-grade novel can work to bring your novel to vivid life. This intensive will feature examples of memorable settings in published YA and middle-grade books as points of inspiration and reveal how the story for my own novel, IMAGINARY GIRLS, came from the real-life place where it was set. This workshop will also feature hands-on writing exercises and prompts to strengthen the place of your story and lead you to experiment with building setting description into scenes that can be seen and heard and felt with all the senses—setting that works in perfect balance against dialogue and action. Setting can be a strength even in contemporary realistic novels set in everyday places such as high schools and cities and towns we know. This intensive will inspire you to treat your setting with as much care and attention as your central characters.

Focus: Writing, Category: MG, YA, Audience: Intermediate

When you register, you choose which intensives you want—space is limited.

If you’re headed to NESCBWI this spring, I hope you’ll consider taking a workshop with me! I’ll be at the conference Friday through Sunday, and there will be two book signings, too.

REGISTER HERE.

p.s. And if you still want to take a class with me but can’t make it to Massachusetts in May, there are still spaces in my online YA Novel Writing: Master Class that begins in early April! More info here.

17 & Gone is one of those anticipated 2013 novels! You can read the list on MTV’s Hollywood Crush blog right here—my book is with some incredible company… all books I can’t wait to read myself!

Thank you so much for wanting to read my book, Hollywood Crush!

Here’s what Kiersten said about 17 & Gone:

“17 & Gone is a sharply compelling story of what happens when we stop seeing what’s in front of us and start looking for what’s already gone. Intricately plotted and surreally imagined… Suma breaks reality and twists it back together in a devastating and beautiful new form.”

—Kiersten White, bestselling author of Paranormalcy and Mind Games

Isn’t that incredible?

Thank you so much, Kiersten!! I am THRILLED!

If this makes you all the more intrigued to read the book, it’s coming out March 21, 2013, in the US and Canada from Dutton/Penguin! Can’t wait.