nyc teen author festival 2016

Book nerds, story lovers and word enthusiasts! The NYC Teen Author Festival 2016 schedule is live! The magnificent David Levithan, possessing all the skills of a master magician to yank these events out of a hat every year, has gathered over 100 teen authors for funtivities the week of March 13. As always, this festival will be legen…wait for it…dary. Legendary!

Will I be there? Like a boss. Where? Check it:

Friday, March 18, 2016 – 7:00-8:30pm
Barnes & Noble
Reader’s Theater and Signing
2289 Broadway (82nd Street)
New York, NY 10024

Sunday, March 20, 2016 – 3:30-4:00pm
Books of Wonder
Books of Wonder Ginormous Signing
18 West 18th Street
New York, NY 10011

I am super excited to be a part of the Reader’s Theater this year. That’s where authors read and act out one another’s books. Nicola Yoon and I will be the only girls this year! You heard me rave about her before, so obvs I am psyched out of my head to chill with her again.

SO many amazing authors are at this festival every year, thanks to David’s hard work and dedication. Be dazzled by this full festival schedule with a complete listing of authors and events.

Hope to see those of you in the New York area there 🙂

lost in love giveaways

We have less than four months to go until Lost in Love is released on May 3! Which means it’s time to roll out the giveaways.

Lost in Love is the second book of the City Love trilogy. City Love will also be out on May 3 in paperback, FYI.

I will be giving away a total of 15 ARCs (advance reader copies) over the next few weeks on my Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Each giveaway will only run for 24 hours. These giveaways are all unannounced, so please be following me to catch the posts on time! Winners will be randomly selected.

Entering the Lost in Love giveaways is simple. Just follow me on the site where the giveaway is taking place and respond to the giveaway post within 24 hours. Most of the posts will ask you to answer a question. The questions are inspired by themes from the City Love trilogy. The theme for week one is random acts of kindness, week two is all about your city love, and week three’s theme is dream big. Should be fun times!

Not on one of these socials? I got you. That’s why I am doing giveaways on all three 🙂

To enter these giveaways:

1. Follow me on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. You must be following me to enter each giveaway.

2. Twitter giveaways – Respond to the giveaway post within 24 hours. The giveaway post will either ask you to RT, or respond to a question with #citylove.

3. Instagram giveaways – Respond to the giveaway post within 24 hours. The giveaway post will have a question for you to answer in the comments.

4. Facebook giveaways – Respond to the giveaway post within 24 hours. The giveaway post will ask you to comment with your answer to a question.

Giveaway rules:

1. You may enter up to all 15 giveaways. Each winner will be announced on either Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook, depending on where the giveaway was held.

2. Winners must email their name and mailing address to me at susanecolasanti at gmail within three days following the announcement that they won. The 15 books will be sent out by my publicist at HarperCollins after the final giveaway.

3. These giveaways are US only. However if you live abroad but know someone in the States who can receive your book for you, you may enter and have the book sent to their address.

See you in the socialsphere, friendly neighbors!

ziggy played guitar

The only thing I could possibly write about this week is David Bowie.

David Bowie was…

See, I just can’t get over that. The was part.

David Bowie was a shining visionary who motivated outsiders to let our freak flags fly. He demonstrated the power of uniqueness. He showed us what innovative genius looks like. He was a stellar example of how being true to yourself makes the world a better place.

As an outsider growing up in Middle of Nowhere, NJ, David Bowie encouraged me to be myself, despite what those cookie-cutter suburbanite kids at my school who bullied me said. He was a role model to everyone searching for their true identity. He was pure inspiration.

When I think about David Bowie, I remember his different colored eyes. Or that time I discovered that the Spiders from Mars were actual characters during a David Bowie binge watching afternoon at the Museum of Television and Radio. Or how, even though he was not a natural performer and was never entirely comfortable on stage, he sparkled like the born rock star he was.

He died last Sunday. We found out on Monday. And all week I have been in shock. Everywhere I walk through the streets of New York, David Bowie’s lyrics play on a loop in my mind. I will never forget the impact he had on music and redefining what it means to be an artist. I will never forget him.

No matter what your passion is, let it shine. Let your purpose in life sparkle and glimmer and radiate until you become a stellar example for others. We have lost one of our biggest role models. Now it is your turn.

Shine on, everyone. Shine on.

top five, 2015 edition

TGIM and Happy New Year! I hope your 2016 is off to a spectacular start. Before we get too far into the shiny new year, I wanted to share some lingering items from 2015 with you.

1. At the end of every year, I geek out over whichever new day planner I have selected to be my bae for the upcoming year. Day planners have been my thing since high school. When I was a teacher, I had two day planners: one for school and one for personal. But now I focus on just one fabulous day planner every year. Letts day planners have been my choice for the past several years. But I have just discovered Ban.do and am obsessing hardcore. I immediately fell head over heels for their gorgeous designs and cute illustrations. As you can probably tell, I am way too excited about my 2016 planner.

I love the annual ritual of organizing my new day planner with color-coded pens. Plus this Ban.do planner came with stickers! And fun graphics! And colored tabs! Beyond thrilled that I get to work with this beauty sitting on my desk every day.

2. How long did it take me to bake and decorate 115 Christmas cookies?

Five John Mayer albums and three Office eps. And these were only the ones for Christmas dinner. I baked small batches as well. What can I say? I love baking, and baking Christmas cookies is my fave baking of all. This year I made sugar cookies in nine shapes with three different glazes: almond, lemon, and coconut. Already looking forward to taking it up a notch in 2016!

3. What is it about this show?

Okay, let’s be real. The whole reason I started watching The Affair was because Joshua Jackson is in it. He is currently #2 on my Top Five Husbands List (Jake Gyllenhaal is #1, with John Krasinski, Paul Rudd, and Eminem also in the top five). I mean, hello, I would follow Pacey Witter anywhere, and that includes sailing off into the sunset on True Love even with my severe motion sickness. But then I discovered that the story is told from multiple points of view, and that we get to see the same scene from two different perspectives (one in the first half of the ep, then the other in the second). I have always been fascinated by multiple POVs. Six of my books are written that way and those were the kinds of books I most loved reading as a teen. So I was immediately hooked. When I heard that The Affair was having a panel at the Paley Center, I was on tickets like a rat on a Cheeto.

The cast has amazing chemistry on and off the screen. The Affair is the only show I know of that tells its story from multiple perspectives. Which is such an innovate technique for unfolding this complex story. It’s been so interesting to see how differences both small and large are exposed in Alison’s and Noah’s tellings of events, from the photo that was on the table to what she was wearing to whether Noah’s daughter took Metro-North and a cab to the cabin or a $200 Uber. When I first posted this pic on Twitter, a friendly neighbor commented how funny it was that the cheaters are all formal while the victims are business casual. I can’t wait to see what happens next…

4. Speaking of quality viewing, I was majorly stoked to see this ad for Recovery Road in my new Seventeen.

One of my biggest dreams is seeing my book (or books!) adapted for film or TV. I have an amazing film agent and we are working on that now…always dreaming big. So when my author friends achieve this tremendous accomplishment, I am always psyched out of my head with excitement for them.

Regular readers of this blog know that I have much love for every single book Blake Nelson has ever written. I have been Blake Nelson’s #1 fangirl since 1994 when I discovered Girl in the adult fiction section. I used to stalk that section at every bookstore, amped for a new Blake Nelson book. But I never found any. Years went by. Then I was talking to someone about how much I loved Girl and how I wish Blake Nelson would write more books and he was like, “Um, yeah. He has a bunch out. In the teen section.” When I tell you that discovering Blake Nelson had more books out was like Christmas morning, my birthday, and the vernal equinox all rolled into one, I am not even joking. I cannot. freaking. wait. for this show.

5. I will leave you with this sweet graphic from my Ban.do day planner.

This is your year. Make it one to remember.

Much love ❤