My precious, and heads-up

You know you married the absolutely right person when they spontaneously buy you this:

Apparently, I am supposed to write my next novel in it, but it's way too precious. I am keeping it next to my bed and stroking it repeatedly. So totally gorgeous!

Heads-up

(I've realised I have no idea how to punctuate 'heads-up'. I feel there should be an apostrophe after that 's', but it just looks weird with the hyphen. Oh well.

My friend Ari Goelman has just revealed the cover of his debut middle grade novel, Path of Names. Here's the cover. Isn't it awesome?

The Path of Names is out from Scholastic in 2013. You can find out more about the book over at Icey Books, where he did the cover reveal.

Swiftly following that...

If you read horror, fantasy or science fiction short stories, you've almost certainly come across editor Ellen Datlow, whose magazines and anthologies have published some of the best short stories in the last few decades. Well, now Ellen is doing a kickstarter for a brand new anthology of original horror stories. Here's a video about it:

Full details on the kickstarter, the rewards, and how to pledge to support the project are here.

And, finally, if middle grade or horror aren't your thing, how about a romance / detective book (suitable for young adults, too)? Emily Mah, writing as EM Tippetts, is releasing her latest novel, Nobody's Damsel in January, but it's available for pre-order at a very low price right now.

Here's the goodreads description:

Chloe has finished her masters degree and taken a job as a forensic scientist back in her home town of Albuquerque, New Mexico, only the press will not leave her alone. They follow her to crime scenes and report on her every move, eager to show that her marriage to Hollywood A-lister, Jason Vanderholt, is on the brink of collapse. Millions of fans who dream of their own celebrity romance with him want this more than anything. This scrutiny comes at a particularly bad time as Chloe's first case is a crime against a child roughly the same age that Chloe was when she survived a homicide attempt.

Now that she sees the case from an adult's perspective, she realizes it's much harder than she ever dreamed. It's even worse for Jason, who is two steps removed from the crime. He must watch and try to support his wife as she battles with past demons and tries to keep up with a nameless suspect who evades identification and capture. Never has Jason been more frustrated with his job, its frivolities, and its lack of connection to the real world. When he storms off the set of his latest movie, the press goes wild with conjecture. While he says he wants to work on a project that means something, his agent and manager fear this may be the end of his time in the spotlight. Perhaps he never was anything more than a pretty face after all.

Together, Chloe and Jason must find their way past all the popping flashbulbs and through the dark maze of the criminal investigation to discover whether they can balance their professional goals with the demands of a celebrity marriage. The odds are entirely against them.

You can also read the opening on her website.