History Has Its Eyes on You (and so does Cricket!)

Hello loveliest of readers!

We have a really important election coming up in less than a month (less than a month! November 6th!) and oodles of voter registration deadlines are RIGHT NOW, like, today!  Are you registered to vote?  If you’re not old enough, are your parents registered to vote?  How about your older brothers and sisters?  Is everyone you know over the age of 18 registered to vote?  Can you go poke them and make sure they are?

In fact, please tell them to double-triple-check that they’re registered!  Because even active voters have been deleted from the lists all over the place, and you have to find that out now in case you need to re-register!  Here’s a good place to go to check and here’s another.  And here’s a lovely site with a link to help you register, plus fantabulous authors talking about why voting matters!  (Like Angie Thomas, you guys!  Oh my goodness, I love her!)

Also, here is a handy guide for college students, who can vote at either their home or school address — this will help you figure out where to vote and how to register!  It’s easier than you think and voting is AWESOME. 

I really do love voting; it makes me feel like I’m part of something historic and magical.  I mean, do you know how hard it was to build this democracy?  Go listen to lots of Hamilton and then ask yourself: would Alexander ever skip voting in an election?  Would Angelica or Eliza stay home if someone gave them the chance to have a voice in their country’s future?  They certainly would not; they’d rise up, and so can we!  🙂

(My bears are completely obsessed with Hamilton right now, which might be my favorite thing that’s ever happened in this house, especially whenever the six-year-old bursts out: “I came from afar just to say ‘bon soir!'” in perfect Lafayette voice.)  😉

In exchange for you all making sure everyone you know is registered to vote (and planning to vote!), here is the amazing and glorious cover for BOOK TWELVE: THE HIVE QUEEN!!!!!

I love this cover beyond measure.  It is so so beautiful, and wait until you see all the tiny details Joy put in on the back cover and flaps!  Eeep eep eeeep!  

(And if you’d like to read an excerpt, there’s one posted here!)

Also, I am actually doing two events this month (what!), even though I should probably be at home locked in my office trying to write Book 13…but I’d love it if you guys can come out and join me at either of these!

The first will be a conversation about writing with author Erin Dionne at the Writers Loft in Sherborn, MA, next Saturday, October 13th, at 2pm!  Open to writers of all ages, so come with all your writing questions!  🙂

And the second is a week later in OHIO — yes, I loved you so much I’m coming back!  🙂  I’ll be at the Books by the Banks Festival in Cincinnati, Ohio, on Saturday, October 20, with kaboodles of other wonderful authors, where I’ll be signing and saying hello and doing a panel at 1:30pm.  I’d love to see you there!  

It’s been so long since I’ve blogged that I didn’t even get a chance to talk about the wonderful launch party event in Washington, DC, at Politics and Prose — it was so amazing to meet all of you who made it there!  One amazing artist (and incredibly smart, thoughtful, awesome person whom I could have happily talked to all night) brought me a tote bag with art of the newest dragons on it!:

I love it SO MUCH and now I use it all the time — her Deviant Art name is Biohazardia if you want to check out more of her amazing artwork!  Thank you, Biohazardia, and thank you to everyone else who brought me beautiful art as well!  🙂

All right, it is a silly hour of the night and I should go to bed, but I hope you are all taking care of yourselves and eating lots of ice cream (those are the same thing, right?) 🙂 and registering to vote and making a plan to vote and reading wonderful books.  (Also, you should watch To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, on Netflix!  The book by Jenny Han is tres delightful and the movie is the super-cutest and will make you happy.)  🙂

What We’re Reading:
Me: 
Sal and Gabi Break the Universe, by Carlos Hernandez (this book isn’t out until March 2019 but it is AWESOMESAUCEFACE and everyone should read it; it’s so so so so great!); The Calculating Stars, by Mary Robinette Kowal (lady astronauts!); Ship It, by Britta Lundin; and The Whispering Mountain, by Joan Aiken

With my bears: Wedgie and Gizmo vs. the Toof by Suzanne Selfors, and we just finished Bob, by Wendy Mass and Rebecca Stead, which I really loved