LIKE MANDARIN: Kirsten Hubbard's Release Day!

Today, the Graffiti Wall is celebrating another Author Release Day!


Kirsten Hubbard and her fabulous new YA novel, LIKE MANDARIN, hit the bookstore shelves, today! Here's a little preview to get you all revved about this book.

GENRE: Young Adult
PUBLISHER: Delacorte Books for young readers
Pages: 320


DESCRIPTION (on Amazon): It's hard finding beauty in the badlands of Washokey, Wyoming, but 14-year-old Grace Carpenter knows it's not her mother's pageant obsessions, or the cowboy dances adored by her small-town classmates. True beauty is wild-girl Mandarin Ramey: 17, shameless and utterly carefree. Grace would give anything to be like Mandarin.

When they're united for a project, they form an unlikely, explosive friendship, packed with nights spent skinny-dipping in the canal, liberating the town's animal-head trophies, and searching for someplace magic. Grace plays along when Mandarin suggests they run away together. Blame it on the crazy-making wildwinds plaguing their badlands town. 
Because all too soon, Grace discovers Mandarin's unique beauty hides a girl who's troubled, broken, and even dangerous. And no matter how hard Grace fights to keep the magic, no friendship can withstand betrayal. 


In Kirsten's own words:


Some of you know I'm a travel writer as well as a YA author. I've been fortunate to visit some pretty colorful places, and certainly, I'd love to celebrate my release day in Thailand or Tikal (or more appropriately, the Wyoming badlands!). But I'll be spending it right here in San Diego, mostly in my house and home office. My launch party isn't until Saturday, and my friends and family won't come down until Friday. So it'll be and the dog til the husband gets home. Maybe it's a little mundane, but it fits, since it's the site of my most exciting journey of all: writing and publishing LIKE MANDARIN. 

That all sounded really zen, didn't it? Really, I expect my release day to go like this:

7:30 -  Wake up (if I ever got to sleep), butterflies with harpy eagle wingspans twirling in my stomach. Linger in bed and check my email on my iPhone while Husband heads off to work. Like every morning. 
8:00 - Shuffle (bounce) into the kitchen and make chai. Like every morning.
8:05 - Sit at my computer, in my office or at my kitchen table or coffee table, and prevent myself from checking Goodreads/Amazon/Bookscan. Except really I'll check all three, immediately. 
9:00 - Repeatedly. 
10:00 - Eat some Thin Mints. Get stressed about launch party Saturday.
10:15 - Read some Metafilter and CNN and so forth, and talk to my YA Highway co-bloggers, but every fifteen minutes head back to Goodreads/Amazon/Bookscan.
12:00 - Realize how ridiculous I am being, and that I need to get out of the house. Take shower and sing "Afraid of Everyone" by The National at the top of my lungs. Decide to leave my iPhone at home. Except really I'll bring it. 
12:30 - Treat myself to a Thai iced tea with boba. 
12:45 - Take my Thai iced tea with boba somewhere scenic and relaxing, like Balboa Park, or the beach, and walk around a little bit, maybe for ten minutes, until early sense of refreshment is replaced by debilitating sense of off-the-grid terror, and then I will sit on a rock and check Twitter, Goodreads, Amazon and Facebook on my iPhone.
2:00 - Arrive home and head straight for my computer. 
2:30 - Eat more Thin Mints. Call my mom. Get stressed about launch party Saturday.
4:00 - Walk the dog -- but only a couple blocks. The internet awaits!
5:00 - Put on An Outfit and get bouncy waiting for Husband to release me from my own head.
5:30 - Husband gets home! Talk a SoCal mile-a-minute about all the internet things that happened today. Like every evening. 
6:00 - Get in car and head to indie bookstore. 
6:10 - Locate my book. 
6:11 - Cry. 
6:30 - Head somewhere with happy hour margaritas or mojitos. 
8:30 - Arrive home and head straight for my computer. Intend to spend some time working on third book, but instead, get wrapped up in great conversation with great friends.
12:00 - Can't believe it's over! Fully initiated. I am an author. 


thanks!

--

~kirsten hubbard

author of LIKE MANDARIN
(Delacorte Press/Random House, March 8th, 2011)
www.kirstenhubbard.com