As the release date for DIE FOR ME approaches, more and more exciting things are happening. Fun things like:

• getting to listen to—and vote on—which actress will read DIE FOR ME on the audiobook. (All five women were fluent in French. And I ended up voting for the one that Harper’s audio group liked the most.)

• getting to look through photos of male models to vote on who will be Vincent in my book’s video trailer. (All because Vania is so nice that she let me participate.)

• planning my book’s playlist with the help of my British friend Jim and my New York friend Dee Jay. (Jim is a music lover and Dee Jay is a music maker and, duh, a DJ, and knows everyone in the NY music scene.)

• something huge happening to the U.S. cover that I can’t tell you about yet.

But for me, the most exciting and flattering thing that has happened in the last few weeks is DIE FOR ME’s very first blurb.

I know that a blurb is a really big deal for the blurber because their opinion is being plastered onto the cover of a ton of books with their name attached. Permanently. It’s not like they can change their mind afterward. It goes “down on your permanent record”, as the Violent Femmes so memorably said.

Maybe not everyone would think about it that way, but I do…because I can imagine that sticking your neck out for someone who hasn’t yet been proven is a very brave thing.

So when I heard that someone really special had written a truly fantastic blurb for DIE FOR ME, I immediately wrote her a note thanking her for it. And she wrote back with an even bigger compliment, saying that she’s so picky nowadays that she often doesn’t even finish books. And then she thanked me for writing a book that she enjoyed finishing. Which immediately sent me into a catatonic shock, because…her??? me??? Once I recovered and could once again move my facial muscles I—needless to say—went around smiling like an idiot for the rest of the day.

And so here it is—DIE FOR ME’s very first blurb. I can’t imagine anything more wonderful…other than Madeleine L’Engle popping back from the afterlife and writing “Her book rocks” in permanent Magic Marker across my forehead. And since that is very unlikely (Madeleine L’Engle would never use the word “rocks”), I’ll just go ahead and say this is the most wonderful blurb I can imagine.

“I devoured this lush, mysterious romance, which delivers a refreshingly human heroine alongside a hero truly deserving of the title.”––Aprilynne Pike, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Wings series.

Thank you, Aprilynne. From the bottom of my heart.

Yesterday I let a few of my old blog followers see a deleted scene from DIE FOR ME—the original prologue (which has since been replaced with something completely different). One of my long-time readers, Judith, who teaches high school French in St. Louis, read it to her French 4 class.

She reported back: “It held them in a trance, Amy! You could hear a pin drop while I read. One of them said, right after, ‘I really have to buy this book!'”

And not only that, they sent me this:

Ms Chabot’s French 4 class at Pattonville High School:
Janna, Michelle, Luke, Stephen, Erika, Vivi, Grace V, Grace R,
Taylor, Rachel, Ben[from Germany!], Sofía, Kim, Alex, and Katie.

Are they so cute, or what?

So I just want to say…THANK YOU Ms. Chabot and Pattonville French 4 class for MAKING MY DAY!!!

Between this blog page and my blog on Goodreads, there were 74 entries in the contest—44 from US and Canada for the HarperCollins copy and 30 from the rest of the world (with a good showing from Australia!) for the Little, Brown/Atom version.

So with all of those names X 2 or 3 entries (depending on if you followed on Twitter and FB), instead of using one of the online randomizing websites to mix up the names of the entries, I concocted a much higher-tech option, as can be seen in this video:

And here is the drawing!

The winners are:
Leanna O’Reilly from Ireland, who said “When I think of Paris…Macarons & Crepes, Jim Morrison and The Petit Trianon.”

and

Aydrea Rickert from the U.S., who said “When I think of Paris I think of romance and fashion.”

CONGRATULATIONS Leanna and Aydrea!!!!! (And please send me your addresses.)

Thank you everyone for participating and for your fabulous answers—I so enjoyed reading them all!

Those of you who contacted HarperCollins for an ARC of DIE FOR ME have probably discovered that they’re being kept under strict wraps: my publicist is waiting until the last possible moment to send it out. And the only ones I’ve sent out—besides the first signed ARC, which went to the winner of the charity auction—were to my grandma, my two teenage nieces, and my six Beta readers.

Knowing this, my best friend and Beta reader Kim (who is not only my son’s godmother, but the creator of Oprah’s favorite brownies) emailed me a couple of days ago to ask if her 12-year-old niece, Ellie, could read her copy. She made Ellie’s case by saying, “She is 12, a Harry Potter/Twilight fan, and wants to be an editor when she grows up.” *this is where i melt* I had to say yes.

Kim sent me that note on Jan. 17 and gave the book to Ellie the next day. Ellie’s mother Carol wrote me the following morning to say:

“Just wanted to let you know that Ellie started DIE FOR ME last night at 9 and finished it…she doesn’t know when she went to bed! A message from Ellie: SHE BETTER BE WRITING ANOTHER!! IT’S AMAZING and WE ARE BUYING HER BOOK ASAP!!”

You can imagine how that made me feel. I got all teary reading the message to Laurent off of my iPhone. (I’m getting all teary typing this now!) Because not only did a twelve-year-old enjoy my book, but she stayed up all night to read it! Which totally reminded me of my 12-year-old self buying a flashlight with my babysitting money so I could read under the covers after lights-out.

A couple of hours later, a message came through from Ellie’s mother on my iPhone:

“Okay, she is reading it AGAIN! I think she wins an award for quickest turn around to read your book a second time!”

And later that evening, “Well since I last wrote you, she finished DIE FOR ME for the second time! I peeked in on her earlier this afternoon and she had a silly grin on her face. I asked what was up and she quoted ‘We’re Zombies!’…I’ve got to read it now!”

I can’t think of a better compliment than a 12-year-old book-lover staying up all night to read my book and then reading it again THE NEXT DAY. Now I’ve got my armor against any less-than-flattering reviews. Because ELLIE LOVED MY BOOK. And that’s enough for me.

12-year-old Ellie, DIE FOR ME's youngest fan!

This is the first mention I’ve seen of DIE FOR ME in the press, besides the Publisher’s Weekly articles announcing the American and German deals. And I have to say…I really don’t mind those Twilight comparisons! Check out SciFi Now’s article here!