A Special Preview for Leigh Ann Kopans' ONE - in Comic Form!

Hey all! As I'm sure many of you know, the fabulous Ms. Leigh Ann Kopans is coming out with her debut novel, ONE, TOMORROW! As a proud (and thoroughly psyched) member of #TeamONE, today I will be posting the final graphic novel-style preview of ONE. For more information and to see more of the comic, see the link list at the end of the post!

Find a full list with links to the other installments of this series on the author’s blog: 
www.leighannkopans.blogspot.com

Or follow the author on Twitter @LeighAnnKopans for daily updates!


About ONE (a novel by Leigh Ann Kopans:)

Release date: June 11, 2013

When having two powers makes you a Super and having none makes you a Normal, having only one makes you a sad half-superpowered freak.

It makes you a One.

Sixteen-year-old Merrin Grey would love to be able to fly – too bad all she can do is hover.

If she could just land an internship at the Biotech Hub, she might finally figure out how to fix herself. She busts her butt in AP Chem and salivates over the Hub’s research on the manifestation of superpowers, all in hopes of boosting her chances.

Then she meets Elias VanDyne, another One, and all her carefully crafted plans fly out the window.

Literally. When the two of them touch, their Ones combine to make them fly, and when they’re not soaring over the Nebraska cornfields, they’re busy falling for each other.

Merrin's mad chemistry skills land her a spot on the Hub's internship short list, but as she gets closer to the life she always wanted, she discovers that the Hub’s purpose is more sinister than it has always seemed. Now it’s up to her to decide if it's more important to fly solo, or to save everything - and everyone - she loves.

Add ONE to your Goodreads and learn more about the author here: http://www.goodreads.com/book/
show/17251203-one

Things to love about Boston (and Cambridge, and Somerville, and so on)

Driving across the bridge at night with the windows rolled down.

Getting hilariously lost and eventually figuring out where you are in relation to the Pru (or the Citgo sign, for that matter.)

Friday night singalongs at Jake Wirth's, and how Pianoman judges song appropriateness by the lateness of the hour. ("Lola? At 8:00? Ask me again when everyone's had a few more drinks.")

The view from the windows of the train when the Red Line rolls across the river at the MGH stop.

Umbrella jousting with Newbury Street crowds on a rainy Saturday morning.

T operators who see you running down the stairs and hold the train for you.

Dinner at Bluefin. Or Addis Red Sea. Or Shabu-ya. Or Fugakyu. Or any Indian restaurant you can find.

The North End. All of the North End.

That immediate bond you feel with other pedestrians when a driver does someting monumentally stupid. Especially when you all start cussing him out at the same time.

Walking all the way from Kendall to Porter on a beautiful day.

Hot taro milk bubble tea.

Irish coffee at 1:00am in some random pub you've never seen before.

$10 nosebleed seats at the theatre.

The thick, thick accents of the T operators. "Next stop: Pahk Street."

Waiting for the bus on a freezing winter night and huddling with your closest friends for warmth.

The way you have to work together to hold each other up on a crowded Green Line train.

Building a Halloween costume from whatever random pieces you can find at the Garment District.

Running to catch your movie at the AMC Boston Common after one of those ridiculously strong cocktails in Chinatown. Bonus points for high heels.

Game day. Even if you're not going to the game.

The way certain T stations will always be under construction.

The way the old and the new bleed into each other - the sheer amount of character in each square foot of architechure.

A quiet morning and a Dunkin iced coffee the size of your torso.

The sarcasm, the abrasiveness, the snark, the gallows humor. The knowledge that despite all of it, these people have your back.

Descending into the tunnel on the drive from Logan and knowing that when you get to the other side, you'll be home.

A peaceful moment in a beautiful town

There's nothing I could possibly say right now, so here's a video of a dog playing fetch in the fountain in Copley Square, Boston.

Linkage!

Hello darlings! I have been busy busy busy lately, but here are a couple things I've written that may be of interest to you:

Revising with an Agent on Operation Awesome - some tips on unagented revisions, and things to keep in mind!

My 17 & GONE review on Afterglow - in which I devour Nova Ren Suma's latest, and gush about it in a vaguely coherent manner.

Phew. I've got lots to catch up on, so I better get to it. I hope you're all getting a great start to your week!

Pens for Paws



Hey all! Want to bid on some fantastic prizes and help raise money for an awesome cause? The Pens for Paws auction is going down right now to raise funds for Fat Kitty City, a no-kill, cage-free cat and dog sanctuary located in El Dorado Hills, California. You can bid on signed books, agent critiques, and even a fabulous Operation Awesome package full of critiques and more swag than you can shake a stick at, featuring the ladies and gents of Operation Awesome. (Yours truly included!)

Bidding for the OA package ends on March 15th at 11:00pm, so don't miss it!

Finding my quiet place

Post-Zombie Apocalpyse DC? Nope - just DC on President's Day at 8:00 in the morning.

At this point, I should just start skipping the caffeine. I could run on nerves alone.

It's a combination things, really, the first and the most obvious being sub jitters like whoa. I was in denial for the majority of January and parts of February, if just because after years of waiting, everything happened so fast. And at some point, the whole thing sank in, and it has dawned on me that this thing might actually happen for real.

Scream.

Thankfully, my family and friends are awesome, and no one has had to talk me off the ledge yet, because my amazing agent has made sure I don't get anywhere near the ledge. I'm a lucky, lucky girl.

When you combine that with day job, though, it makes for some... interesting results. There are moments here at work where my head is decidedly elsewhere - in my head I'm reading my PM announcement and planning a launch party and holding my book for the first time, and then, complete with a sitcom-esque record scratch, someone interrupts my fantasy to ask me to fix the printer. And then on the other hand, the day job stress ends up displaced to some other inopportune moment. Like when I'm trying to sleep.

Contrary to popular belief, the writing life is not for the faint of heart. As much as I wouldn't trade it for anything, it's terrifying.Writing does make for excellent stress relief much of the time, but generally, it helps my writing when I'm not a distracted mess.

And for me, the best thing I can do for myself is find a quiet place and set aside a few moments to just exist in the universe and take in what's going on around me. I had to work on President's Day, for example, and rather than going straight to work, I took a different bus than usual, and I wandered down one of the busier streets almost completely alone. Sometimes I don't have the time or energy to go out of my way, but finding a quiet place for myself can be as simple as turning off all the lights and watching the city from a distance.

Some days it works better than others. But much of the time, it helps me catch my breath, put everything in the appropriate boxes, and start over with a clearer head.

And now I'm going to unpack one of those boxes, because I have some receipts to process. So tell me, readers - how do you manage your stress?

Because I could really use some pointers. ;)

Operation Awesome debut!

Citizens! I just made my first Operation Awesome post, brought to you by sub, the ALA Youth Media awards, and lots and lots of daydreaming. Check out my post, Secondhand Triumph, and have yourself an awesome Friday.

To all my New England/Tri-State Area people out there, stay safe and stay warm!