All right, folks. There are only three more days left in April, which means that time is running out for you to send me your overshares and receive a TMI prize pack. So get on it!

I have a couple of real gems this week:

ocdTunes

iTunes gave me obsessive compulsive disorder. I rate each and every song in my music collection (which is not easy–what separates a four-star song from a five-star song?). I also make sure that I play all of my songs at least once a year. I don’t want to listen to the songs in the same order, so I use the Party Shuffle setting and remove songs that I’ve already heard this year. I also have a rule that if I song comes up that I don’t like, I have to listen to it anyway. It’s cheating to fast forward. I’m not sure where these rules came from, but I admit that I feel a bit ashamed forcing myself to listen to Cat Stevens every year. Seriously, why do I own so much heinous music?

Eau de Gas

Sometimes when I fart, I think it smells good.

I’m not normally into scary books. Sure, I’ve seen Night of the Living Dead and The Shining, but movies are different. They show someone else’s idea of horror. Books give me license to conjure up images far more frightening than the golden screen could ever produce. I am sensitive and easily disturbed and I tend to let me imagination get the better of me. So I avoid reading scary things.

Except when I hear that they’re really good, as was the case with The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan. I mean, who could resist a book with such a kick-ass title?

I read this book over the course of five days, and I was freaked out the whole time. When I woke up in the middle of the night, I resolved to hold my pee until morning because I was too scared to get out of bed. I mean, what if there was a zombie in my bathroom?

When I first got wind of the basic premise of The Forest of Hands and Teeth, I thought (as many have), “Oh, so it’s like the movie The Village, right?” It is in the sense that Mary, the protagonist, lives in an isolated village surrounded by a fence to keep out the forces of evil. Only in The Village, these forces turn out to be imaginary (sorry to spoil the movie for folks who haven’t seen it, but it’s really not that great), and in The Forest of Hands and Teeth, they’re real. And they’re flesh-eating zombies.

Carrie Ryan sucked me into Mary’s terrifying, chaotic world on the very first page. There were several points at which I nearly abandoned the book because I found it so disturbing, but I had to find out what happened to Mary.

I’m glad I stuck with her, and I can’t wait for the companion to The Forest of Hands and Teeth, which comes out next year. It’s called The Dead-Tossed Waves, and I’m hoping it will answer the lingering questions I (and many other readers) have about Mary’s world and the zombies that claw at the fences.

A lot of people wanted to know how I was planning to spend TMI Release Day. “Are you going out?” they asked eagerly.

I didn’t think to line up a babysitter, and it’s a bit challenging to take our daughter to restaurants these days. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t have an excellent day. Here was my plan:

1. Eat an unlimited amount of sugar

2. Enjoy all the nice messages I’ve been getting from family, friends, and fans (You guys are so sweet!)

3. Drink a martini

4. Order Burmese takeout for dinner

5. Watch Survivor

6. Skip all housework

7. Have a living room dance party with the Bean

8. Go to a local bookstore and take a picture of TMI sitting on the shelves

The last item on this list very nearly didn’t happen. I called half a dozen bookstores in the area yesterday morning, and none of them had TMI in stock yet. On the bright side, they all had the book on order and expected to have copies within the next few days.

Then I got a message from my friend, Cheryl, whose book Breathing also came out yesterday. She spotted both of our babies at Book Passage in Corte Madera. I raced out there, Bean in tow, and saw the gorgeous sight with my own eyes.

Mmm…books.

The Bean had to fondle TMI a little. Who can blame her? It’s pretty.

Ah…finally! TMI is here. It’s real. And it’s (hopefully) sitting on shelves at bookstores and libraries across the country.

I can’t wait to spot TMI in the wild.

People have been asking me what it feels like to have my book come out. Well, waiting for this book has been like the longest pregnancy ever. The whole writing and publication process for TMI began almost three years ago. That’s even longer than an elephant pregnancy (23 months). Damn.

Today also happens to be Support Teen Literature Day. I can’t think of a better way for y’all to support teen literature than to run out and buy a copy of TMI.

Oh, and pick up a copy of Breathing by my friend Cheryl Renee Herbsman while you’re at it. Her book came out today, too. Congratulations, Cheryl!

If you’d like your copy of TMI signed (who wouldn’t?!), check out my schedule of signings in Minnesota and California here. And if you don’t live in either of those places, send your mailing address to sarah (at) sarahquigley.com, and I’ll be happy to send you a signed bookplate for your copy of TMI.

P.S. For a chance to win a signed, hardcover copy of TMI, check out my interview at author Stephanie Kuehnert’s blog. The contest runs through the middle of next week.

Ah…finally! TMI is here. It’s real. And it’s (hopefully) sitting on shelves at bookstores and libraries across the country.

I can’t wait to spot TMI in the wild.

People have been asking me what it feels like to have my book come out. Well, waiting for this book has been like the longest pregnancy ever. The whole writing and publication process for TMI began almost three years ago. That’s even longer than an elephant pregnancy (23 months). Damn.

Today also happens to be Support Teen Literature Day. I can’t think of a better way for y’all to support teen literature than to run out and buy a copy of TMI.

Oh, and pick up a copy of Breathing by my friend Cheryl Renee Herbsman while you’re at it. Her book came out today, too. Congratulations, Cheryl!

If you’d like your copy of TMI signed (who wouldn’t?!), check out my schedule of signings in Minnesota and California here. And if you don’t live in either of those places, send your mailing address to sarah (at) sarahquigley.com, and I’ll be happy to send you a signed bookplate for your copy of TMI.

P.S. For a chance to win a signed, hardcover copy of TMI, check out my interview at author Stephanie Kuehnert’s blog. The contest runs through the middle of next week.

It’s here! Thanks so much to the wonderful folks who submitted overshares for the first TMI Tuesday ever. I received so many good TMIs that I’m saving a few for the coming weeks. Enjoy!

Llama + Vomit = Llamit?

I am slightly infatuated with fun but odd facts. Whether it may be camels, llamas, or uncommon household pets, the further it may be from the norm, the better. Camels are infamous for their humps and spit. Their humps, contrary to many beliefs, do not in fact contain water, but fat. That’s right. The slightly raised body part that identifies purely to a camel is a thick layer of greasy fat. The spit? It is not actually spit. It is more similar to that of vomit. They bring up the contents of their stomachs, along with saliva, and project it out. Still think camels an awesome animal? Wait until you read about llamas.

Llamas, the adorable fluffy llamas…are not actually so adorable. Rams like to butt heads as a fighting style, but male llamas like to bite each others testicles off. How fun do you like it will be to watch!? Well for guys, I am pretty sure they will probably feel awkward and pained.. But for girls definitely bring your hubby or boyfriend to an area where llamas are fighting for domination to see some pain and suffering on their faces! That will teach them a lesson!

Bum Crumbs

Believe it or not, this is less disgusting than it is annoying. My guy is so “anal” (pun) when he wipes after going number two on the pot, he wipes hard enough to leave what I affectionately (?) call “bum crumbs.” The term doesn’t seem to deter him. Rather, it amuses him. What happens is: he grabs toilet paper and wipes his bum so hard that tiny, tubular pieces of toilet tissue drift onto the bathroom floor. Guess who usually cleans them up? Yup, me. See? There are downsides to cleanliness, too. Ha!

You Won’t Read About This in the Twilight Series

I’ve worn braces for the past four years to remedy a gap between my front teeth. Normally I’m a good girl and wear my retainer to bed but I’ve neglected it for the past two weeks, causing my teeth to shift. One day when I was eating ice cream, the tip of my tongue got caught in between the new gap in my front teeth and when I managed to pull it out, it started bleeding. To make matters worse, the way I yanked my tongue out cause part of my upper lip to catch in a small gap on the left side as well! So now I have a still healing tongue and a bad sore on the inside of my mouth.

Pretty much, my boyfriend told me he wish he could’ve been there after my tongue started bleeding. Apparently he has a blood fetish and wishes he had been there so we could’ve made out. Kinda weirded me out.

Cheez This

I’ve eaten an entire box of Cheez-Its for dinner.

If you have an overshare you’d like to submit, check out the rules for TMI Tuesdays here. Oh, and in celebration of the release of TMI, anyone who sends me an overshare through the end of April gets a TMI Prize Pack, which includes:

• TMI bookmarks for you and your friends
• A signed book plate to stick in your copy of TMI
• The best brownie recipe ever

Just include your mailing addres with your submission for TMI Tuesdays, and I’ll send a Prize Pack your way!

This past week while visiting family in Baltimore, I had the pleasure of going out to lunch with Suzanne Supplee, author of Artichoke’s Heart. Suzanne and I both write for Dutton Children’s Books, and I contacted her after I read Artichoke’s Heart to tell her how much I loved it. She responded, and after a few messages back and forth, we realized that we had an opportunity to meet each other, as she lives in Baltimore and I travel there a few times a year.

I knew when I read Suzanne’s book that she was someone special, and meeting her in person was further proof of that. Suzanne was an absolute delight to visit with, and as you can see from the photo, she’s stunning, too (that’s her on the left, in case you didn’t know). We agreed that we must get together again when I come to Baltimore next.

Suzanne told me that one of her greatest joys as a published author is the fan mail she receives. It’s funny, but before I wrote TMI, I never considered contacting an author. Now I do it all the time, and I usually get a response. And in Suzanne’s case, I got a lunch date and made a new friend.

So tell your favorite authors how much you dig their books; at the very least, you’ll bring a smile to their faces. And at most? Well, perhaps you’ll be summering with Meg Cabot in the Florida Keys or helping John Green pick the title for his next book. Ya never know!