YA Author of The Boy and Girl Who Broke the World, Our Stories, Our Voices, The Nowhere Girls and other books.
I am honored to have been asked by Katie MacBride, Young Adult librarian extraordinaire, to speak at her monthly First Thursday event at the Mill Valley Public Library in February.
[Read more…] about Author Amy Reed speaking at Mill Valley Public Library February 2nd
Hello!
I know, it’s been a very long time since I updated my site. Sorry about that! I’ve been too busy writing Book #4, which is still untitled at this point. Titles are hard. How am I supposed to find a word or two to describe an entire world?
Hello!
If you like books and live in the Bay Area, you should probably already know about Litquake, San Francisco’s big literary festival this week. It all culminates with the Litcrawl this Saturday night, when literary revelers wander the Mission district, weaving in and out of the bars, bookstores, restaurants, coffeeshops, and galleries that host the night’s many readings, lectures, and other bookish activities. I am sooooooooo honored to be a part of it this year, sharing a panel with awesome women at the KQED Writers’ Block event “Some Girls from the Block.”
Come see me read an excerpt from CLEAN this Saturday night, October 15, at Bruno’s (2389 Mission Street, SF), at 7:15 pm (sadly for my teen fans, this event is 21 and over).
FYI: Writer’s Block is KQED’s weekly reading series featuring writers and performers of fiction, poetry, theater and whatnot. You can subscribe to their podcast via NPR or iTunes. Check out my archived readings from BEAUTIFUL and my short story HOW YOU REMEMBER HER.
In other exciting news, CLEAN was just nominated as a 2012 YALSA Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Readers.
Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!
xoxo,
Amy
I know I’m supposed to be promoting CLEAN now and everything, and my next book doesn’t come out for another year, but I just really want to share this with you because I LOVE THIS BOOK SO MUCH! And guess what?! It’s a LOVE STORY! Hard to believe, I know. Maybe I’m getting soft in my old age. But don’t worry, it’s still got all the grit and angst you love so much. And it also has ART NERDS! Hooray!
I hope those of who who have already read CLEAN like it (and thanks to your support, it’s already going into its second printing!) I’ve received amazing messages from teens who relate to the characters and have found hope to carry them through their own struggles. Thank you for sharing your stories with me; you inspire me with your courage and resilience. Getting letters like yours reminds me why I write what I do.
And now, with no further ado, here’s CRAZY:
Connor knows that Izzy will never fall in love with him the way he’s fallen for her. But somehow he’s been let into her crazy, exhilarating world and become her closest confidante. But the closer they get, the more Connor realizes that Izzy’s highs are too high and her lows are too low. And the frenetic energy that makes her shine is starting to push her into a much darker place. As Izzy’s behavior gets increasingly erratic and self-destructive, Connor gets increasingly desperate to stop her from plummeting. He knows he can’t save her from her pain…but what if no one else can?
I am very excited and honored to be a part of these upcoming literary events. I hope to see you!
Saturday, September 24Santa Rosa, CA
11:30 a.m.
“Save the Drama for Your Mama: Contemporary YA Fiction”
(including my pal Nina LaCour, author of the amazing Hold Still)
Kirkland, WA
5:00 p.m.
“Drugs, Sex and Reading: Talking to Teens about Tough Issues”
San Francisco, CA
7:15 pm, Bruno’s (2389 Mission Street, San Francisco)
KQED Writer’s Block event: “Some Girls from the Block”
Thank you to everyone who came out to my reading at Pegasus last Tuesday! And thanks to the boys at Pegasus for being such great hosts. I had a wonderful time and it was an honor to share CLEAN with you.
xoxo
Amy
First, I’d like to give a huge THANK YOU to all the incredible bloggers who have already given such amazing feedback on advance copies. YA authors would be nowhere without you.
Now, a little background into why I wrote it.
CLEAN was a story that had been writing itself in my head for a long time, probably since I was a teenager. I had always wanted to tell a story about kids in rehab. My favorite books as a teenager were Girl, Interrupted and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and I continue to be fascinated by the concept of institutionalization, not only the practical details and implications of it, but also the metaphor inherent in being locked up, especially when you’re dealing with an age group that is so driven by the desire for freedom and independence.
Like my first book BEAUTIFUL, CLEAN deals very frankly with drug and alcohol abuse. I received some criticism for this in BEAUTIFUL, and I understand that it’s difficult subject matter for a lot of people. It should be. I’d be worried if readers weren’t troubled by it. In both books, my primary goal has been to be honest, to not sugarcoat or hide anything, to tell the stories I know to be true, to tell the kinds of stories I wish I could have read as a teenager. When I was growing up, there was very little honest discussion about the kinds of things that were on my friends’ and my mind. There was the blanket command “Just Say No,” but that wasn’t enough for me, and I don’t think it’s enough for many kids. What I needed, what I’m trying to write, was the truth. I think teenagers can handle a lot more than we give them credit for.
In CLEAN, I’ve tried to explore the complexities of drug use and abuse through the experiences of five characters who, despite being very different, I think carry pieces of all of us. It was important to me to show them as full, nuanced people, with hopes and loves and fears like everyone else—and also the disease of addiction. So often, we’re given the message that Drugs Are Bad, and by extension, people who use drugs are bad. Well, these kids aren’t bad. They’re kids, and they’re in a lot of pain. They’ve made some bad decisions and they’ve hurt people, sometimes very seriously, but they started out as we all do—with the potential to become anything. My goal is not to excuse their behavior, but to offer the reader some understanding of how people can go down such different paths. Hopefully I can offer some insight into how to avoid making some of their same mistakes.
I have seen the lives of people I love fall apart because of this disease, but I have also seen tremendous transformations, which can only be described as miracles. I have seen people who had fallen to what many of us would consider the lowest of the low, so close to death by either overdose or violence or suicide, but some glimmer of hope remained despite it all, some little voice that said “Live,” and those people fought their way back to the world of the living and now lead completely different lives. This is what I hope for the characters in CLEAN, and for readers who may be fighting their own similar demons. Despite so many things inside them being broken, despite the pain and struggle that may haunt them for the rest of their lives, I believe they–I believe we–can change. I believe that deep down we are capable of things we haven’t even dreamt of yet.
Love and hope,
Amy
You guys, CLEAN comes out in exactly TWO WEEKS! (That’s July 19, in case you’re bad with calendars). And look what I got in the mail this weekend:
To celebrate, I’m posting the first 18 pages to wet your whistle. Click HERE to read an excerpt from CLEAN.
Oh, and of course you can also pre-order it HERE
xoxo,
Amy
Look! It’s the Simon Pulse booth at ALA in New Orleans. It’s like I’m just hanging out next to Scott Westerfeld and Orson Scott Card, no big deal, like I totally deserve to share a shelf with them. Maybe later we’ll go get a beignet at Cafe du Monde together. Golly.
Also, my agent just informed me that she received a REAL, LIVE COPY OF CLEAN in the mail today! But I don’t have one yet! I probably have to wait a couple days because I’m on the West Coast. The anticipation is killing me. I may have to eat more cookies….
xoxo
Amy
Guess what, folks? It’s only 22 DAYS until the official release date for my new book CLEAN (July 19)! That’s almost exactly the two-year anniversary of when I started writing it. The life of a book is a funny thing. The act of writing is so far removed from publication–it’s like the book has two different birthdays. I’ve already written a whole other book and started a new one since finishing CLEAN, but now I get to go back and hang out with her like she’s getting born all over again.
Until then, there are a few exciting things I wanted to let you know about. Any day now, I’ll be posting an excerpt of CLEAN on here, so stay tuned. I’m also planning a kind of “behind-the-book” post about CLEAN, with some background info and why I wrote it. I’m also super excited about an interview I’m doing with Nova Ren Suma, author of the extraordinary new book Imaginary Girls.
And for folks in the San Francisco/Oakland Bay Area, I would LOVE to see you at the CLEAN release party, where I’m planning on doing a reading, signing and Q&A. Here’s the info for that:
Pegasus Books
2349 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, CA
Tuesday, August 9th at 7:30 p.m.
And last but definitely not least, here’s the schedule of my upcoming blog tour for CLEAN. I’ll be posting links to each feature on Twitter and Facebook as they happen, but I wanted to let you know ahead of time when I’ll be visiting these amazing blogs so you can check them out:
Tour Dates: August 1-14
8/1: Review
8/2: Author Interview
8/3: Review
8/4: ‘Teenage Garage Sale’ Post
8/5: Review
8/6: ‘Author This or That’ Post
8/7: Review
8/8: Character Interview with Olivia
8/9: Review
8/10: ‘Author Book Picks’ Post
8/11: Review
8/12: Author Interview
8/13: Review
8/14: ‘Character This or That’ Post
I think that’s it for now. Thanks to everyone for your support. I can’t wait to hear what you think about CLEAN!
Hugs,
Amy
