Paperback Release for Lissa Price's Starters + Portrait of a Spore

After a hugely successful run in hardcover (7 printings!), STARTERS is finally coming out in paperback today. And as a thank you to fans, Lissa wrote a special short story just for the paperback: Portrait of a Spore.

So what's Portait of a Spore about?  PoaS is told from two points of view - one gives us insight into the "mind" of a Spore, bioengineered to wipe out everyone in North America without the vaccine (mostly those from 18-65) leaving only children and teens (Starters) and the elderly (Enders).  The other point of view is Callie's mother.

The story covers the morning and afternoon of the spores arrival in Callie's hometown. It fleshes out Callie's backstory and gives us some really great mother/daughter moments. Definitely worth the read!

Also, EW.com had an exclusive reveal yesterday of the Enders cover, with an excerpt as well - leave a comment on that post and you could win a copy of the paperback or a gift card. (International entries accepted).

Find out more about Lissa Price and Starters at her website and Facebook.  Follow her on twitter.

The Dystopia of Starters

Two weeks ago in this space I wrote about Lissa Price's debut novel, Starters. It, like all great dystopian novels, is a mirror of today's society, rather than a window into a future world. If you haven't read it yet, well, you should--since you're reading this blog, you'll love Starters. It's about a dystopian society in which all but the young and very old have been killed by biological warfare. The old, Enders, control the government, media, and financial sectors. The young, Starters, are legally prohibited from working, and thus left to fight--literally--over the scraps the elderly don't wish to consume.

 

Starters presents an extreme view of the consolidation of power among the old and wealthy--or so I thought until I happened across this article last week. The article is titled The War Against Youth, which at first seemed like hyperbole aimed at selling magazines, but is really only barely an exaggeration. Here are the first three paragraphs:

Twenty-five years ago young Americans had a chance.

In 1984, American breadwinners who were sixty-five and over made ten times as much as those under thirty-five. The year Obama took office, older Americans made almost forty-seven times as much as the younger generation.

This bleeding up of the national wealth is no accounting glitch, no anomalous negative bounce from the recent unemployment and mortgage crises, but rather the predictable outcome of thirty years of economic and social policy that has been rigged to serve the comfort and largesse of the old at the expense of the young.

Stephen Marche goes on to catalog an extraordinary decline in the prospects of youth over the last 25 years.  Average net worth of those under 35 has fallen from $11,521 to $3,662.  The U.S. government now spends $2.40 on the elderly for every dollar spent on children. Older Americans have seen their wealth increase 42% while younger Americans have lost -68% of their net worth.

Is there any wonder why dystopian novels are so popular among teenagers? They depict the world we are bequeathing to our youth. All these novels are real. The gerontocracy of Starters, the brutal income inequality and reality TV distractions of The Hunger Games, the war on women of XVI and Truth, the environmental calamities of Shipbreaker--even the warped disaster response of my novel, ASHFALL: they all exist in our society today in some form.

We should celebrate the fact that so many adults are reading YA, Joel Stein notwithstanding. Perhaps they'll take something other than a few hours of enjoyment from our work. I suspect, however, that adults and politicians will fail to solve, or in some cases even to recognize, our society's problems. If the last 25 years are any guide, the best we can hope for is that they'll quit making it worse. If we must give our children a dystopia, perhaps the literature that accompanies it may inspire them to bequeath something better to our grandchildren.

Before the Hunger Games Movie - Book Trailers!

So I am in New York right now, the last day of my first National book tour. I will show you a couple of photos taken in the theater of the STARTERS book trailer playing during the film trailers before the Hunger Games film. Ally Carter's book trailer played right after mine, which was fun. Then it went onto movie trailers.

I liked the Hunger Games film very much. There was one thing that I really missed from the book, but I won't mention it here as it's only been out less than a week. And you can probably guess what it was.

To celebrate the end of my tour (and I will move onto more general topics now, I promise), I'm giving away one AUDIOBOOK of Starters. These are several CDs, unabridged. You can listen while driving, or riding the train. It was recorded by the same company that did some of the Twilight recordings as well as Eragon, Potter, etc.

Just comment why you want to win it and give me a week to pick one.

First Tour of Duty

Random House sent me on the most amazing tour, including fabulous restaurants for publishers dinners, top hotels, school visits, book signings. I just got back an hour ago. Here are pictures of Anderson's Bookshop in Naperville, a suburb of Chicago. This is a dream bookstore, with smart staff and a wonderful selection of books.




And this is my last hotel - great room service.

I will have big movie news later. We are releasing the rights on Monday and we have a lot of top producers. Someone special is interested, just got the email as I landed. Can't talk about it yet, but I am so excited about this.

Will be seeing Hunger Games tomorrow and my trailer before the movie! I cannot believe it.

I will give away one new hardback book of STARTERS here. Put your best argument why you should win in the comments and I'll pick one winner - international okay.

The Politics of Starter (And Contest Winners!)

While I was in high school and college, I wrote occasional letters to the editor of my hometown newspaper, The Indianapolis Star. The practice seems quaint now--The Star has been downsized into irrelevancy--they appear to have only two decent reporters and an AP feed left. I'm pretty sure more people read my Twitter feed than read The Star. I've forgotten the topics of most of those letters, but one that's stuck with me was a complaint about increasing FICA tax rates. (Yes, I was incurably nerdy, even then.)

At the time, I was working full-time and going to school full-time, and it seemed unfair that a bigger bite would be taken out of my tiny paychecks to stabilize Social Security. Now that I'm older, I'm not as convinced that stabilizing Social Security was such a bad idea. Funny how that works, isn't it?

And this brings me around to Lissa Price's excellent debut, Starters. What happens as lifespans continue to lengthen? Medical science is adding something on the order of a third of a year every year to our life expectancy. Political power inevitably pools among the elderly--they have experience, connections, and wealth acquired over a lifetime. How might that power be put to use in the future?

Starters imagines a world in which the elderly--Enders--can rent the bodies of youth--Starters. As I've argued here before, the subject of all dystopian fiction is some element of present day society, and Starters is no exception. Today, it seems that every entitlement except Social Security is under attack. Is it really so far-fetched to imagine that when it becomes technologically feasible, political power might be exerted to transfer not only money from the young to the elderly, but an infinitely more valuable commodity--time?

Of course, there's more to Starters than its politics. Callie is a fascinating character, and Lissa's plot is twisty enough to set your head spinning. Best of all, the world feels plausible and fresh--different from anything I've read before, and therefore interesting. Pick up your copy of Starters here.

And now to the important stuff--contest winners!

Monday, Swag Package: Congrats to Sylvia!
Tuesday, Starter Necklace: Congrats to Jessirae!
Wednesday, Signed Chapter Sample: Congrats to Susan Light!
Thursday, Personalized ARC and wristband: Congrats to Jamie Dorst!
Friday, Signed Hardback: Vivien (deadtossedwaves)

If you've won please email your shipping info to lissapriceauthor at gmail dot com. Thanks!

Starters has BIG! TWISTS!

I featured STARTERS by Lissa Price on my blog for Dystopian February and awarded it the coveted Zombie Chicken Merit Badge for Big Twists.

In my review I said: 'STARTERS is one of the most purely entertaining novels I’ve read in a long while. It clips along at a brisk pace, with satisfying reveals and twists throughout." (read the rest of my review & find out what Lissa loves about her own debut)

But don't just take my word for it - check out all this praise from major review publications:

“The only thing better than a terrific concept is one that is as well executed as "Starters." Readers who have been waiting for a worthy successor to Suzanne Collins' "The Hunger Games" will find it here. Dystopian sci-fi at its best, "Starters" is a terrific series kickoff with a didn't-see-that-coming conclusion that will leave readers on the edges of their seats, waiting for the second and final book, "Enders," which will be out this year.” – Los Angeles Times, Sunday Book Review

“…twists and turns come so fast that readers will stay hooked. Constantly rising stakes keep this debut intense.” Kirkus Reviews.

“For the next, best entry into the crowded future-dystopia teen novel genre, look for Starters by Lissa Price.” Los Angeles Times Spring Preview: Books

Today's giveaway is a personalized ARC of STARTERS and a wristband.  Enter via this form for your chance to win! 

STARTERS Launch Week!

Okay, so this is a super exciting time at the League. Our very own Lissa Price's debut, STARTERS, will hit shelves tomorrow! All this week you'll get to learn more about the book, more about Lissa, and have many opportunities to win great STARTERS prizes!

First, a little bit about the book, if you haven't heard of it.

About STARTERS: In the future, teens rent their bodies to seniors who want to be young again. One girl discovers her renter plans to do more than party – she plans to use the body to murder someone.

Sixteen-year-old Callie lost her parents when the genocide spore wiped out everyone except those who were vaccinated first–the very young and very old. With no grandparents to claim Callie and her little brother, they go on the run, living as squatters, and fighting off unclaimed renegades who would kill for a cookie.

Hope comes via Prime Destinations, run by a mysterious figure known only as The Old Man. He hires teens to rent their bodies to seniors, known as Enders, who get to be young again. Callie’s neurochip malfunctions and she wakes up in the life of her rich renter, living in her mansion, driving her cars, even dating Blake, the grandson of a senator. It’s a fairy-tale new life . . . until she uncovers the Body Bank’s horrible plan…

I was lucky enough to get an e-Galley through NetGalley, and I read this book a couple of months ago. My first thought? "Man, I wish I had thought of this!" It is a great concept, and not only that, but it's carried out well.

If you like dystopian novels with lots of action and the promise of kissing, you'll like STARTERS. If you like to be surprised in your plot, you'll like STARTERS. And if you like some pretty cool science fiction, you'll like STARTERS.

You can pre-order your copy, but you won't have to wait long! STARTERS releases tomorrow!

• Barnes and Noble
• Amazon
• Your favorite indie
• Kindle or Nook

There is also a short story, PORTRAIT OF A STARTER, available now!

• Kindle or Nook

Find out more about Lissa tomorrow in an interview, or by clicking on these links now:

• Official STARTERS Random House website
• Author website with tour dates and contact information
• Author Facebook site
• Twitter: @Lissa_Price

But that's not all! There is a great swag package up for grabs today! By leaving a comment on this post, you'll be entered to win 5 signed STARTERS bookmarks, 3 postcards (1 signed, the other two for you to use), a pin button (not pictured, but included AND awesome!), and a wristband.

This giveaway is open only in the US. So leave a comment to enter!

Heard of STARTERS? Excited for it to come out? Already read it? Lay it on us!

Book Signings and STARTERS Giveaway

I just got to meet Beth Revis in person at the end of her Breathless Reads tour with Marie Lu, Andrea Cremer and Jessica Spotswood. It was one of the best book events I’ve seen, because the chemistry was so good between these funny and fun authors.

Denise Hamilton did the Q and A at Once Upon a Time Bookstore and the packed house loved hearing details of how they each got published and how different their writing processes were. Yes, those are questions you’ve heard before but their candid and often hilarious answers made this evening fly.

In the audience were YA authors Tahereh Mafi (SHATTER ME), Marissa Meyer (CINDER) and others. We all left with a cupcake and a chance at winning prizes using the code on our lanyards. That’s how you do a book signing!

I am coming into the home stretch here, with the release of my YA dystopian thriller debut STARTERS on March 13. I am feverishly writing book two up until my tour.

This is where I’ll be. If you can come visit me at one of the stops, please tell me you’re a Leaguer.

● 3/13 Vroman’s Bookstore - Pasadena, CA @ 6:00 PM
● 3/14 Books Inc. - Berkeley, CA @ 7:00 PM with Nina LaCour and Caitlin Kittredge
● 3/17 University Book Store - Mill Creek, WA @ 11:00 AM - Teen book brunch with Marissa Meyer
● 3/18 WonderCon 2012 - Anaheim Convention Center @ 3:00 PM - Q&A Session with Andrea Cremer, Ann Aguirre, Kami Garcia, Gretchen McNeil, Ransom Riggs, Veronica Rossi
BOOK SIGNING immediately after at the Mysterious Galaxy Booth – 4:00 PM.
Note: WonderCon Badge Required - $10 Online/$15 Onsite (Adults) | $5 Online/$13 Onsite (Junior/Senior)
● 3/19 Barnes & Noble - West Jordan, UT @ 7:00 PM
● 3/21 Anderson’s Bookshop - Chicago, IL @ 7:00 PM
● 3/28 New York Public Library - New York, NY - 7:00 PM - Author Panel
● 3/29 Barnes & Noble - Princeton, NJ 7:00 PM
● 4/21-22 LA Times Festival of Books - University of Southern California @ Time to be Determined
● 4/25 Barnes & Noble - Huntington Beach, CA @ 7:00 PM

To get you all in the mood, I’m giving away an ARC of STARTERS here. All you have to do is comment on this thread. And, I’ll make it international.

The winner will be announced here on March 9. Good luck!

The New E-Short Stories tied to Novels

Two days ago my first published piece came out. It’s an e-story called “Portrait of a Starter.” This is part of a new trend where publishers want e-shorts to accompany the novel. It’s the first time my publisher, Random House Children’s Books, has put out a debut author’s e-short before their book. They started last year publishing e-shorts by well-established authors such as Michael Scott, Lauren Kate and others who write YA fantasy.

Part of my contract was to create three short stories, in addition to my two-book series (which is called a duology). There will be three e-shorts this year, one before STARTERS is published, and two after.

I love writing short stories, started writing them as a kid. Back then I probably just wrote off the top of my head, but now I find they can take longer to write, per page, than novels. They are an entirely different beast. And sometimes now, I see my friends slaving away over short stories when I can’t help but feel that they could use that time to write a novel, which would get their careers started faster. So, as a side note to writers, I say do them once in a while to hone your craft, but always keep working on a novel if you want to make a living.

But back to my contractual agreement. My only requirement was to set the story in the world of STARTERS. I could use any character’s point of view. Now this sounds easy, right? Wrong. I have a lot of surprise twists in the novel that I didn’t want to give away in a story people would read before the novel was to be published a month later. And I had a unique setting that takes place in the future. It wasn’t like I was writing about the French Revolution. How much time is there to set up a new world – and especially, the reasons for it – in a short? I wanted to keep the narrative drive, set up just enough of the world, but not too much to give too much away.

Someone in publishing suggested the short be written from an Ender’s point of view. Now that could be an interesting approach, but as a debut author, I didn’t want readers to think my YA series was going to be from the point of view of someone 100 years old.

So I was staring at the cover wondering what I should write and then it hit me. Michael, the best friend of the main character Callie, is an artist. In the book, he’s often drawing the desperate Starters he sees living on the streets. My cover happened to be a drawing of Callie (that’s another story I’ll tell you sometime). So I worked it into the e-short, that Michael starts this sketch of Callie but she takes off on a mystery trip. He’s secretly in love with her, perhaps to the point of obsession, and so he follows her, not having a clue about the strange things he’s about to see.

Lenore’s post about dystopian endings made me think of how I want a hopeful ending – especially to the end of the series – in my YA dystopians. But when it comes to short stories, I’m more willing to accept a darker ending.

So have any authors here been asked to do these shorts by their publishers? Or have any of you written short stories, and how you feel about writing them?

Ten Things You Didn't Know About My Debut Novel, STARTERS, by Lissa Price

1. It sold right before May 2011 in six days and is being published by Random House Children’s Books, Delacorte, on March 13, 2012. That’s fast.
2. Because that was so fast, there isn’t as much perception about it as there might be – yet. We won’t have ARCs until later in January, so I’m grateful for any help spreading the word now. Thank you to the kind bloggers (Lenore was the first) who discovered Starters.
3. It’s sold to 20 countries so far and launches a new German YA imprint of the big publisher Piper Verlag called IVI. (The blue cover you see in my sig).
4. Starters was the only 2012 book that was featured at the 2011 SCIBA awards dinner where I dined with real, published authors including winner Andrew Smith (Marbury Lens), John Stephens (The Emerald Atlas) and Tahereh Mafi (Shatter Me).
5. A German TV journalist is coming with a crew to interview me next week. (yikes!)
6. The publisher just finished the amazing book trailer, complete with actors, sets, and special things I dare not reveal yet.
7. I’ll be on a six-city book tour the second half of March.
8. It is the first of a two-book series, a duology (no, I did not make that up), with the second one coming out December 2012. I’ve told my buds that until April I have no time to do anything more than eat, sleep, write, blog and sometimes tweet.
9. The concept was kept secret by my clever publisher all these months. With their permission, I revealed it on my bio here.
10. Starters has more sekreets, soon to be revealed.

Thank you, Beth, and this truly great group of authors for inviting me to be part of the League. I’ll try not to do anything to embarrass you all, like dance on tables or kiss poodles. At least, not on the mouth.