Category Archives: SMALL MEDIUM AT LARGE

Listen! Small Medium at Large Turns Ten!

It’s been 10 years (!!!) since my debut, SMALL MEDIUM AT LARGE came out in the world. Since then, a lot has happened – the book was a Red Maple Nominee, a MYRCA Honour, a Sydney Taylor Notable, and got in the hands of a lot of kids (the best part, honestly).

Since the book has been out for a while, I gave it a bit of a refresh and released it in paperback (links below for paperback and ebook versions).

But in today’s very exciting news – SMALL MEDIUM AT LARGE is now available as an audio book. It’s read to you by MacKenzie Cahill and I couldn’t be more pleased. Want a sample? Sure you do.

Listen to a sample here.

The Small Medium at Large audio book is available wherever you get your audio: Google Play, Kobo, Apple, Audible and Amazon – also available at many libraries. If you don’t see it at yours, please request it.

Ebooks are available instantly and directly from me using this direct link (all formats) or at the following retailers: KoboGoogle PlayApple BooksBarnes & Noble and Amazon.

The paperback is available directly through me via my Etsy shop (signed and personalized!), Bookshop.org or you can ask for it to be ordered in at your local indie bookstore – they should be able to get it in for you. It’s also available at Amazon. This updated version also includes a teaser for the sequel, SMALL MEDIUM TAKES CHARGE which is coming soon-ish. Stay tuned for more news on that. Until then, happy listening!

Small Medium at Large – PAPERBACK now available!

SMALL MEDIUM AT LARGE first came out in 2012 and while it’s had a great run as a hardcover, it’s time for a refresh AND a paperback version. Behold the brand new cover:

Don’t you just love it? A huge thanks to Megs McIsaac for the incredible original art. There’s also a little bonus and some exciting news: there will finally be a sequel. It’s called SMALL MEDIUM TAKES CHARGE and it will be out soon-ish. There is a teaser in the back of this updated version of SMALL MEDIUM AT LARGE.

I’m still working on getting the paperback available everywhere but, so far, you will be able to get the paperback directly through me via my Etsy shop, Bookshop.org or you can ask for it to be ordered in at your local indie bookstore – they should be able to get it in for you. It’s also available at Amazon.

Ebooks are available instantly and directly from me using this direct link (all formats) or at the following retailers: Kobo, Google Play, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

More news coming soon! *Throws confetti!*

Fan Art!

I know it’s kind of crazy that after months of nothing, I’m posting twice in a week, but remember when I talked about going to Sudbury to do some school visits? (You can’t tell me you’ve forgotten, it was just a few days ago!) Well, I just got an e-mail with a picture of another poster made by one of the kids. How cool is this? So cool, I just had to share:

Fan Art by Scott

Thank you, Scott! This is one of my favourite scenes in the book, too. Great job!

clapping

Trees and Tours and News, Oh My!

First, let me start with the Oh, My! Has it really been this long since my last blog post? Wow. Yeah, I guess it has. I’d like to blame my lack of communication on being really busy and that’s part of it, but mostly I didn’t have enough cool stuff to share. Until now.

So. Where to start.

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Cool Thing #1 – SMALL MEDIUM AT LARGE has been named an Honour* Book by the fine kids of Manitoba in their Manitoba Young Readers’ Choice Awards. Cool, right? MAKING BOMBS FOR HITLER by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch won, which is awesome and so well deserved, but my book was one of two honour books (with UNGIFTED by Gordon Korman). I can’t begin to tell you how amazing this is.

redmaple
Cool Thing #2 – As you may know, SMALL MEDIUM AT LARGE is a Red Maple nominee in the Ontario Forest of Reading program. Another huge honour for me and my little book about ghosts, boys and bras. So I was afforded the opportunity to do a little bit of touring last week up to North Bay and Parry Sound to celebrate at their Festival of Trees. I didn’t take near enough pictures, but here are a few. I always have a great time hanging out with book-lovers of all kinds and I have to say that this event made me feel like quite the rock star. Look at all those fans! Thank you to the Near North School District for making this happen. What a great couple of days!

 

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And this isn’t even the whole crowd. I was told there were about 1600 kids there. Amazing!

Here’s a smaller crowd of SMALL MEDIUM AT LARGE fans who came to my presentation and sat in the front row (check out their cool SMALL MEDIUM AT LARGE buttons!). <3!

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Here I am with fellow Red Maple nominees, K.L. Armstrong and M. A. Marr (LOKI’S WOLVES: THE BLACKWELL PAGES)

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And a group photo with the rest of the authors (K.L. and M. A. had to leave early) and some of the event organizers. Thank you Near North!

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Also, I was fortunate enough to do some school visits in Sudbury on my trip. Check out the cool artwork some kids did to tie in with my book:

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Here I am with Ms. Vigna’s ASD class. These kids were so great and engaged and asked some of the best questions. I loved meeting you!

St Benedict ASD

AMAZING! Thank you so much to these great kids. I loved meeting you all and chatting about books.

There will be more Forest of Reading events next week and I’ll update again once I have more pictures.

Until then, thanks for making it to the bottom of my post. Here’s your reward, a dancing chicken:

 

Chicken_dances

 

*These cool things are happening in Canada, so I’ll be using my Canadian spelling here.

I’ve always loved trees and nature, but now especially.

AG00412_Happy Autumn!

Yesterday was Canadian Thanksgiving and I have a lot to be thankful for, despite it being a tough couple of months. I’m not going to go into great detail here, but I lost my mom fairly suddenly in September and if you know me or follow me on Facebook, you know we were close and well, it sucks.

Okay, so that was some detail, but I don’t want to get all maudlin on you; I’m here today to talk about the things I’m thankful for*:

  1. Turkey
  2. My husband, who makes a mean turkey
  3. Family and friends who have been amazing these past weeks
  4. Being shortlisted for the Fiction list of the 2013 Hamilton Literary Awards (which take place on my birthday–attention universe!). I’m in excellent company on this very small list of three and am amazed to be on there. Go Hammer!
  5. That I was able to go to NYC last week and have a really good time, including seeing ANNIE! Check out Katherine Longshore’s cool recap because I’m too lazy to do one of my own (includes goofy dancing video–must see).
  6. redmapleThat SMALL MEDIUM AT LARGE has been chosen to be on the 2014 Ontario Library Association Forest of Reading Red Maple list.  This is one of those things that I crossed my fingers for, hoping it would happen, but didn’t dare believe it would. This is HUGE and to be recognized here at home in Ontario is so special. I’m honoured and in such great company with wonderful fellow Canadian authors that I really feel like we all win. I’m also so glad I attended the 2013 award event in support of my author friends, so I have a good sense of the impact of this program. I’m so, so, so excited and I know my mom is watching and she is, too.
  7. This means more readers for SMALL MEDIUM AT LARGE. So cool, right? My little book about bras and boys and ghosts and kissing. Still feels weird to me that people who are not immediate family members want to read my book.
  8. There is a Chinese food buffet that we go to called…wait for it…RED MAPLE! I think it’s kind of the law that I need to go there and celebrate, right? Just as soon as I eat all of this turkey…
  9. YOU. Thank YOU for being here and for supporting me and my book. Even though SMALL MEDIUM AT LARGE came out last year, it’s still finding its way to readers and I’m so thankful for that. I wish I could hug you all, but failing that, anyone want a drumstick? Some turkey soup? Casserole? A turkey sandwich, perhaps? Please?

*As I finished writing this list, it occurred to me that I should note that these items are not in any order of importance.

News and looking forward to fall (yes, already)!

Hi.

I am SUPER excited to announce that SMALL MEDIUM AT LARGE has been named as a nominee in the Manitoba Young Readers’ Choice Awards for 2014. I’ve never been to Manitoba, but am thinking I should consider some westerly travel.

Next up is some day job news. In that I no longer have one. As often happens in the corporate world these days, big companies restructure and move people and offices around, so I was given an opportunity to, um, not work there anymore. This has been one of those blessings in disguise that people talk about, as it has given me the opportunity to bring together two of my favorite things–authors and organizing–and start a business. That’s right, I am the JL in JL Author Services, providing administrative support to busy authors. For more info, check out the website: JLauthorservices.com.

I have other stuff on the go, too. You know, the writing thing and all the fun stuff that goes along with that writing. Now that my days are freed up some, I’m excited to be able to do virtual Skype visits and in the Hamilton, Niagara, GTA areas in Ontario, I am looking to book in-person school visits to start in the fall. These are handled by Authors’ Booking Service, so please get in touch with them to book me or for more information.

And if you are in the Southern Ontario area, I’ll be at the Telling Tales Festival on September 15th with a bunch of other cool authors, so mark your calendars as I’d love to see you up in Rockton!

I have some other stuff in the works for this summer, but you’ll have to stay tuned as I don’t have all the details just yet.

Also, as of the time of writing this post, the SMALL MEDIUM AT LARGE e-book is still on sale at all online retailers:

Indie Bound (for Kobo)

Barnes & Noble

Amazon.com

Amazon.ca

Thanks for making it to the end of this post. Since you did, I’d like to reward you with this dancing frog. You know, just because.

dancing frog

A lot of laughs at a low price!

Last night I stumbled on a SALE – my book is only $2.39 for Kindle right now. That’s right, $2.39. That’s like the price of a latte or a bunch of other things that are just not as fun or SML Levysatisfying as a cute and funny e-book about a girl who gets hit by lightning and can then hear ghosts.

What else can you get for $2.39? I did the work for you and here’s what you can get:

Annie’s Homegrown Snack Crackers

A square foot of some nice travertine flooring

A device that I think has to do with fishing, but kind of scares me

A Whopper

But really, why do you need any of those things when for that money, you can get hours of entertainment and a scene where a girl shops for bras with a couple of dead old ladies? Right?

If you don’t have a Kindle, you can download the Kindle Reader ap thingie and can read on your phone, tablet or computer, so if you’re reading this blog post, you can easily read the book. That said, if you prefer to hold a real book, it’s still a very reasonable price to get a copy for yourself or your tween.

p.s. The book is on sale RIGHT NOW, but I truly have no idea how long it will be on sale for, so A. act now if you’re thinking about it and B. if you miss the sale, please don’t blame me-I have nothing to do with the prices of my book.

Thank you to all of you who have spread the word about this sale – it means a lot to know so many of you support me and the book!

Happy Valentine’s Day! Love = Books Contest

Hi everyone! I know it’s been a while, but I’ve been working hard AND enjoying a bit of down time, but I’m back today with a ONE DAY ONLY contest. It’s easy, though, so you don’t need to study or do much other than tell me about what you love.

UPDATE: This contest is now CLOSED. The three winners are Coreynascenzi, Marlene Moss and Heidi Grange – watch your inbox for a message from me. CONGRATULATIONS to you and everyone who received a book for International Book Giving Day!

Did you know that today is International Book Giving Day? It’s true!

Book Giving Day

And it’s Valentine’s Day. AND I’m going to see Lemony Snicket tonight! A VERY BIG DAY for me and full of love. So to celebrate, I’m going to give away THREE prizes today. All you need to do is leave a comment here, or Tweet @ me (@joannelevy) telling me your favorite Valentine’s treat. It could be anything, from a book to chocolates or hugs – whatever you love to receive. I will choose three winners at random to get:

1. A Lemony Snicket book of your choice AND

2. My book, SMALL MEDIUM AT LARGE

That’s two books you could win, just for telling me about what you like to receive for Valentine’s. Not bad, huh? The only catch is, I need you to respond by 11:59 Eastern tonight – February 14, 2013. Winners will be announced tomorrow. This contest is open internationally (Canada/US/or wherever Book Depository ships).

Also, get extra entries for sharing (just let me know what you’ve done in your comment, so I can keep track).

Got it? GO!

(Also, in the spirit of International Book Giving Day – please pay it forward and give someone a book.)

What’s Up With Joanne Now?

Hi everyone!

*whew*

It’s been a busy few weeks, to say the least. If you don’t know why, um, where have you been?

In addition to doing some signing events and going to NCTE in Las Vegas, Kate Messner and I headed up a fundraiser for Superstorm Sandy relief, for which we raised ***drumroll*** over $60,000! Round 2 alone raised $23,282. Pretty awesome, right?

I’m SO thankful for Kate and the rest of the people who made the auction amazing. We had a ton of donors who offered up their time, services and great stuff to help us reach this goal. Please check out the auctions (please note – the auctions are all now closed) to see who our donors were—SO MUCH talent and generosity—I’m honored that they all came forward to help out.

If you did miss the auctions or didn’t win one of the awesome prizes donated by publishing industry rockstars, the Red Cross is still collecting donations and the money is much needed, so please donate if you can*.

So now that’s over, I’m going to take a bit of a break to get back to writing. Hopefully I remember how to do that, because it feels like it’s been a loooooong time.

Wishing you all the best for your holiday season and remember, nothing makes a better gift than a book. Like one about ghosts. And bras and first kisses. If you agree, you can find SMALL MEDIUM AT LARGE at your favorite book retailer (see my main page for handy links) or if you want a personalized copy, get in touch with my SMALL MEDIUM AT LARGE Indie Bookstore Headquarters, Bryan Prince Books and they’ll set you up with a signed, personalized copy (they’ll ship anywhere, because they’re awesome like that).

AND it is the season for giving, so consider giving a book, ANY book to a children’s toy drive so we can all spread the joy of reading.

Joanne Levy Author PhotoAll my very best,

Joanne

 

*Or you can check out YA for NJ (http://www.facebook.com/YaForNj) and Publishing Gives Back (http://publishinggivesback.blogspot.ca/) for ongoing fundraisers.

October Street Team Check In.

Welcome (or welcome back!) to the monthly Street Team check in.

CONGRATULATIONS to Carina, winner of the October STREET TEAM prize pack!

I’m going to be suspending the Street Team prize check-ins for now, because something WAY COOL is coming – stay tuned! But don’t feel like you can’t still spread the word about SMALL MEDIUM AT LARGE! I still appreciate your efforts!

 

CONGRATULATIONS to Disincentive, winner of the September STREET TEAM prize pack!

Okay, so that important business is out of the way, so let’s kick off the October Street Team EXTRAVAGANZA. You remember the deal, right? You get to be a member of my street team by telling the world about my book, SMALL MEDIUM AT LARGE.

It’s really easy – and there are prizes! WHAT PRIZES? You ask?

Tricks the sock monkey

and a paperback copy of HOW THEY CROAKED – a really entertaining, if macabre book about how famous people…er…croaked.

So, if you haven’t joined up yet, here’s how:

To be a member of the SMALL MEDIUM AT LARGE Street Team, all you need to do is spread the word about, well, SMALL MEDIUM AT LARGE. How? you ask? EASY: You can tweet about it, do a Facebook note about it, like my page on Facebook, write about it on your blog, make a video about it, review it on Goodreads, send an e-mail to your friends telling them to check out the book, ask your library or local bookstore to carry the book, whatever! I just need you to be my people on the street, getting the word out.

Sound easy? Yeah, it is. Every month, I’ll do a draw for cool stuff: things like signed books (mine and by other cool people), Street Team SWAG, gift certificates etc. So to enter, all you need to do is spread the word and then come back and add a comment telling me what you did (and a link if it’s a video or post) and you’ll be entered in this month’s draw.

If you send an e-mail to your friends, telling them about SMALL MEDIUM AT LARGE, you can count an extra entry for each one of your friends that you tell-just make sure you copy me on the message: [email protected]

Each thing you do will get you one entry (other than the tell-a-friend thing above), but please try to put everything in one comment, to save me having to scroll through what I’m sure will be thousands of comments. Also, don’t forget to include your e-mail address, in case you win! Be creative (and legal, of course) and have fun! Ready? GO!

As always, if you’re super-lazy like me, you can just grab this:

Ready made Tweet/FB Status, just copy and paste: SMALL MEDIUM AT LARGE, cute MG by @joannelevy is a perfect funny Halloween read for tweens. http://amzn.to/OM250d #SMALstreetteam

or this: I loved reading @joannelevy’s SMALL MEDIUM AT LARGE and you will, too! Check it out: http://bit.ly/vVAKJo  #SMALstreetteam

or how about: I’m tweeting about @joannelevy’s SMALL MEDIUM AT LARGE to win Tricks the sock monkey – you can, too: http://bit.ly/K58ig2 #SMALstreetteam