I received a package this weekend, and this is what was inside:
ARCs of Sparkers! These are not quite finished books, as you can tell by the notice on the cover, but they pretty much feel like real paperbacks. It was amazing to hold one for the first time!
In honor of this milestone in the life of Sparkers, I’m giving away one ARC. This is your chance to read the book months before it actually comes out! To enter the giveaway, please leave a comment on this post (and, if you like, tell me about a great book you read recently!). I will accept entries until midnight Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday, March 12th, 2014. Once the entry period has ended, I will randomly select one winner. If you win, I will contact you by e-mail in order to arrange for delivery. This giveaway is open internationally; if I can mail a book to you via the U.S. Postal Service, you can enter.
Please feel free to spread the word! I’m looking forward to sending one of these ARCs to whoever the lucky winner is. And remember that you can add Sparkers on Goodreads.
P.S. Yesterday, in celebration of Mardi Gras, I made crêpes. Here is one filled with blood orange marmalade:
Eleanor Glewwe 
So proud of you Eleanor! Can’t wait to read it! Just finished The Book Thief for book club. Difficult to get into, but I did enjoy it. The second figure on your cover kind of hints at Nathaniel:)
Thanks, Aunt Cathy! Oh, I loved The Book Thief! Hmm, I guess the boy on the cover could look a little like Nathaniel…
Hi Eleanor, I am SO delighted to see your book and eager to read it. I love the cover design and
that great big eye in the background that makes me wonder who or WHAT is watching the girls.
I have just finished reading “The Color of Water” by James McBride and recommend it to everyone.
Hi Grace, I’m so glad you like the cover! The second figure (the one more in the background) is actually a boy. I have heard of The Color of Water but have yet to read it.
Congratulations, Eleanor! Very proud to see the work you have accomplished. I’d love to be one of the first to read your book!
Thank you, Aunt Sue!
Hi Eleanor! I’m slowly advancing through the Game of Thrones series- on Book 4 now- and I’m reading the His Dark Materials trilogy for the first time in my life right now. Actually though, I really loved reading In Xanadu by William Darlymple over break. He was a Cambridge student who followed Marco Polo’s path through Asia in the early nineties. He’s very witty and it was a therapeutic book to read on hellishly long bus rides.
Perhaps one day I will read Game of Thrones… I read the first few pages of the first book in the Boundary Waters a few years ago, when we were all swapping the few books we had with us in the wilderness. And I’m somewhat surprised to hear you’ve never read His Dark Materials before! For a very long time, that was my answer to the “favorite book” question (before it got too hard to pick just one book/series). I LOVE that trilogy. And In Xanadu sounds like a good travel book!
Please put me in the drawing for the ARC! Congrats on this milestone…almost there!
Thanks, Erica! You’re in!
Eleanor,
I am beyond excited to see your new book. What age is your audience? (53?!!) We’re reading Belly Up in my fifth grade right now. Lighthearted and easy to follow. The kids think it’s funny.
So proud!
Thank you! Sparkers is for ages 10-14 and/or grades 5-8. It’s considered Upper Middle Grade. Belly Up sounds like a fun book!
Yay, the ARCs look awesome! I would love to get one! As for good books I’ve read recently … Hmm, well last week I read Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz, and I loved that. It was really sweet. 🙂
Oh, I devoured that book last summer, and I loved it! But I also have Thoughts about it. Which are probably spoiler-y. Maybe I’ll send you a message about it.
oh pick me!!!
uh i read
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1618653458
Almost home!
Sounds like a book both sad and hopeful. Hope you are well, Dan!
Oh, they grow up so fast! The last time I saw you, you were 5 years old and ramming around the house like a whirlwind. Now you’re published! You undoubtedly don’t remember me–your mother and I rowed together in the early 80s–but I’m enormously pleased to see your name in print, and in my favorite genre, fantasy. Hmmm . . . great book lately? I’m getting hung up on ‘great,’ but I will forge ahead and say I’ve been reading, for the first time, the ghost stories of Betty Ren Wright (1980s into the early 2000s) and am impressed by the spareness of her early MG prose and the fact she declined to write about Caspar ghosts; most of hers deliver age-appropriate thrills. Not easy to do.
I hadn’t heard of Betty Ren Wright, but maybe I should check out her work. I enjoyed John Bellairs ghostly books when I was younger.
Hey Eleanor! It’s been a while since we were in Fetter Chamber music together and I’m so amazed and impressed that you’re publishing your own book!!! My younger sister loves writing creative/magic/YA fiction and I think she’d really enjoy the book and having a role model to look up to. I attended a Librarians conference in Philadelphia earlier this semester and I collected some ARCs from there as well to give to her.
Anyway, congratulations on your publication! And on the delicious-looking crepe haha.
Hi Heidy, it’s great to hear from you! Our quintet was pretty great. That’s really cool about your sister! I’ve never gotten an ARC to read before, so it’s kind of fun to be able to give away one of my own.
I would love to read an advanced copy! I’m in the middle of reading “The Left Hand of Darkness” by Ursula Leguin. It is pretty good.
Oh, I bought The Left Hand of Darkness from the Swarthmore bookstore just before graduating (I had a gift certificate I’d never used up)! I really liked it.
OF COURSE I would love an ARC!
A great book I read recently was BOXERS by Gene Luen Yang. It’s a graphic novel, but we’ll just assume that counts as “book”.
Congrats again!
Boxers (and Saints) is amazing! I have so much respect for Gene Luen Yang’s work.
As for me, I’m reading Barbara Demick’s “Nothing to Envy”, a collection of stories about the lives of refugees from North Korea. It’s not difficult to read, but it’s difficult to read, if you know what I mean.
I know what you mean. Also, I did check out that one story on Words Without Borders.
Thanks, Lisa! I gave Boxers & Saints to my brother for Christmas and then proceeded to read them myself (that’s basically why I buy books for him). A few years ago I also read Yang’s American Born Chinese, which I was impressed by (well, I found it very strange, but in a good way).
I’m a few pages in to Kevin’s favorite book, Mists of Avalon. I’m liking it so far!
It gives me chills to see your book all published! I can’t wait to read it!
Ooh, Mists of Avalon is a great title. It sounds like something I’d like too.
P.S. I really really really want to win a copy of your book!!
Congratulations, Eleanor!! I recently read 12 Years a Slave, the text from which the movie was made. Hard but important story. Good luck with your book!
Thank you, Karen! I just learned that the movie (which I haven’t seen) was based on a memoir from the 19th century. It certainly sounds worth reading.
I would love an advanced copy! I just read Howard Thurman’s Jesus and the Disinherited for my religion class. It was nice to read something that reminded me about God being on the side of the oppressed and not the oppressor.
That does sound like a good thing to read about. And it makes me want to read some theology!
Absolutely wonderful. I am so proud of you! I’m in the beginning – I was going to say middle, but page 200 of over 1200 – of Bully Pulpit by Doris Kearns Goodwin. Learning lots of stuff about TR and Taft!
Thank you! Bully Pulpit sounds like a meaty book.
That’s amazing!! It’s crazy to see your name on the spine of the book! I would of course love to read an advanced copy 🙂 I read Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde (Just to be clear it’s not 50 Shades) recently. Have you read any of his work? I read the Thursday Next series back in high school I think you’d like it.
Haha, the 50 Shade thing reminds me of Between Shades of Gray, a YA historical fiction novel about a Lithuanian girl sent to Siberian camps. I always thought the title similarity was a bit unfortunate. I haven’t read anything by Fforde, but when I looked up Shades of Grey, I recognized the cover and description, so I must’ve seen it somewhere. I like that Welsh double “f” in his name (at least, that’s what I think it is…).
Hey Eleanor! Those books look amazing! I have been showing everyone your cover art! I have had very little time lately to read for fun, but I did finally read Inferno by Dan Brown and I loved it, it had all these amazing Dante references and references to famous places and artwork in Florence. It was a great story! I hope that you’re doing well, and I’d be thrilled to get a chance to read your book early 🙂 But obviously if I don’t win I’ll be patient with the masses until this fall! ~Katie
Aw, thanks for showing people the cover! And Dante references definitely sound fun.