Happy holidays!

Anyway, I guess it’s been a busy summer/start of fall.

Here’s what I’ve been up to:

1. Writing. Of course writing! My new tween book, RULES FOR SECRET KEEPING, is now out, and the new Hailey Twitch book, HAILEY TWITCH AND THE GREAT TEACHER SWITCH, came out at the beginning of the month.

(Those actually weren’t the books I was writing, though. Those books were done a while ago, obvs. I was working on my new YA that will be out next summer, which is called SOMETIMES IT HAPPENS, and a new tween that will be out next fall.)

2. Moving. This one’s actually still going on. The Boy and I bought a house, and we closed on it on September 30th. Yay! I was shocked at how hard it was to buy a house. We were serious! We wanted to buy! But every time we put an offer in on something, it seemed to fall apart for some reason. It was either a short sale, or the inspection didn’t go well, or SOMETHING. In fact, at one point someone referred to our home search as “tumultuous.” (Which actually wasn’t very nice when you think about it. Even if it was tumultuous. Of course, the person who said it was kind of a brat, so that could be clouding my judgment.)
Anyway, I kept telling myself that buying a house was like writing – you just have to keep trying until something hits. And finally it did! We love our new house. We’re all moved in, but we only have furniture for, like, three rooms so far. And we have a lot more painting to do, although we’re getting so sick of painting that the really weird green color in the room that is going to be the library (!!) is starting to look not so bad.

3. Reading My mom bought me a kindle for my birthday. I’ve been reading sooo much more since I got it! I love it. I think I’ll always buy books, though, especially because of the aforementioned library in our new house. Speaking of my mom, we started a book club. It’s kind of weird, though, in the sense that we’re reading different books. We each picked a book for the other to read. She’s making me read SARAH’S KEY, and I’m making her read LAST NIGHT AT CHATEAU MARMONT. You can see we have very different taste in books.

4. Watching fall TV. Parenthood, Dancing with the Stars, Teen Mom, Jersey Shore, Property Virgins, and Life Unexpected is usually what’s on my DVR. (Although I’m really sad that The Situation got voted off DWTS. He was the best part of the show, imo. It was just so funny watching him dance.)

5. Taking care of our new puppy! We have a new puppy. Her name is Ally, and she’s a labradoodle. She’s soooo good, like, the best puppy ever. Well, except for when she’s eating socks and jumping around and grabbing the bottom of my pants and pulling them down when we are in the backyard.

Okay, so now that I look at it, it doesn’t really seem like that much. But really, it was a lot, I swear. And I know I’m probably forgetting like three bazillion things that happened. Oh! Like how there’s going to be audio books of TWO WAY STREET, WATCH ME, and ONE NIGHT THAT CHANGES EVERYTHING! They’ll be out at the end of this year/beginning of next year, starting with TWO-WAY STREET. And how I went to my sister-in-law’s wedding, and how I bought the coziest boots, like, ever at Target and how I got bit by the dog next door. Yikes!

Anyway, now that things have sort of settled down, I’ll be back to blogging more regularly.

What have YOU all been up to?

More later,
xx

Pics are already coming in:

Okay, I took those myself, ha. But I have gotten some from other people, I swear! From California and Texas, even!

And Jessica from Confessions of a Bookaholic made this for my contest:

And Collegiate Bookworm (who made the awesome widgets in my last post), made a trailer that is so cute!

If you read either of the books and post a review on amazon, or tweet about it, or post on goodreads or your blog, or make a trailer or ANYTHING, please let me know by commenting on this post or emailing me at laurenbarnholdtsummer (at) gmail.com because you could win an ipad. Details at laurenbarnholdtsummer.com

Also I’m going to be giving away tons of stuff on twitter this week, so come follow me at @laurenbarnholdt

I cannot believe the books are out in the world! I’m so excited to finally be able to share them with you, and I really hope you love reading them.

And now I am getting back to writing, because in the midst of all this release craziness, I have a book due. (And I think it might have finally gotten a title!)

More later,
xx

Collegiate Bookworm made these awesome widgets, and she gave me permission to post them here. Post them on your blog and leave me a comment to be entered to win an iPad and a bunch of other cool stuff.

Luckily I have been keeping my mind occupied from OMGONEWEEKUNTILMYBOOKSCOMEOUT freak out by finishing up my new YA book. I am going to be finished with it today! I only have one and a half more scenes, and then I’m going to give it a comb through and tighten, then send it off to Editor Jen (some people call her The Klonsky.)

Also we’ve been sort of halfway kind of condo hunting. We had our realtor show us a couple, and then on Sunday we went to a few open houses. I know you’re not supposed to buy the first one you see, but how many should you look at before you buy something? And what if you just really like the first one you see? And you miss out! LIke this article I read that said if you don’t put in an offer and someone else snatches up the condo you want, it wasn’t just “not meant to be,” it means that you were slow and lazy. Hmmm…

More later,
xx

I have been busy writing, and so I haven’t blogged in a while. I have a book due, like, NOW, and I am so close to finishing it that I’ve been immersed in writing, writing, writing.

I’ve been writing so much that June just flew by! And now, ONE NIGHT THAT CHANGES EVERTHING and WATCH ME will be out in two weeks. Two. Weeks. Fourteen days. Seven hundred and eight minutes. Forty six thousand, eight hundred seconds.

(FYI, I had to use my calculator to do that. It’s so easy on your Mac dashboard! Although somehow I have a picture of the High School Musical cast on there that I can’t get off, hmmm..)

Anyway! To celebrate my three releases this summer – ONE NIGHT THAT CHANGES EVERYTHING, WATCH ME, and ACES UP, I’m having a huge summer contest!

AND I’M GIVING AWAY AN IPAD!!! If you help get the word out about any or all of the books and post to your blog, facebook, or twitter, email me at laurenbarnholdtsummer (at) gmail (dot) (com) or leave a comment on this post, linking to whatever you’ve done. There are also more prizes to give away, including copies of my books, a Best Buy gift card, and more! You can find all the details (and read a sneak peek of all the books) here – www.laurenbarnholdtsummer.com

Also, on twitter, I’m giving away gift cards almost every single day! You can follow me there at @laurenbarnholdt

And now I have to get back to work on the book with no name. Because it really doesn’t have a name yet. But it will be out next summer. As long as it finds a name. And as long as, you know, I finish it.

More later,
xx