A splendid time at Secret Garden Books in Ballard.
Book release for Peculiars and POD with live music, food, wine and a great audience of Seattle friends old and new. 
I think the success of a book launch depends on how much fun the audience has and this was a great celebration. Thank you Secret Garden!
We have a winner for our book give away! Megan from the Girly Bookworm wins an autographed copy of The Peculiars! Congrats, Megan and happy reading.
And it was a party! The Peculiar/POD book launch at Barnes & Noble was a great way to celebrate with over seventy Tri-Cities friends and kick off our May book events.
Alien Brain Wave Deflecting Device. Bet you want one!
In honor of our upcoming co- launch parties this weekend and next, I’ll be giving away a signed copy of The Peculiars, and Steve will be giving away a signed copy of POD. All you have to do is leave a comment on this site to be entered into the drawing for The Peculiars. Leave a comment on www.stephenwallenfels.com to be entered into the POD drawing.
And you can always get signed copies at our launch parties…B&N Kennewick, April 28th at 4 pm or Secret Garden Books, Seattle/Ballard May 4th at 7 pm.
Enter to Win!
In the midst of the promotional muddle, that keeps me on an emotional roller coaster, it’s so good to hear a voice talking about sentences. The nuts and bolts of writing come back to me. And I remember that I am truly glad to create sentences on the page. “My Life’s Sentences” is a beautiful essay by Jhumpa Lahiri.
“…But only certain sentences breathe and shift about, like live matter in soil. The first sentence of a book is a handshake, perhaps an embrace. Style and personality are irrelevant. They can be formal or casual. They can be tall or short or fat or thin. They can obey the rules or break them. But they need to contain a charge. A live current, which shocks and illuminates…”
And two lovely Peculiar reviews :
“… this is a top notch book with all the qualities of a great story. It’s definitely intended for the YA audience, however, the annoying new YA-Supernatural-Romance-Stupid-Girl tendency is completed avoided. The characters are smart, relateable and completely fascinating.” Book Snob
“…It is a reminder that we need to try and not only accept but embrace the things that make us all so different no matter how much we don’t understand why they are. And possibly most importantly it tells us that things may not always be what they seem and we need to learn about them before we judge based on appearance or what we may have heard from others. Predjudice in any form is wrong.
I have not been so swept away by a book in a very long time. This was such a unique and meaningful YA novel.” Desiree
If you’re in the Seattle area, I’ll be part of tonight’s Kindling Muse panel discussion at Hale’s Ales. The topic: Hunger Games, American Culture and YA Lit. Or you can download the podcast later this week. Hope to see you there!
