Broadway Bounty Hunter and other stuff

So I've more or less dropped off the face of the internet the past weeks because I've been hard at work on this musical. Man oh man, Broadway Bounty Hunter is coming together in a glorious way, and I think it's going to be a very fun show. If you're in or near the Berkshires from August 12th - September 4th, please come check it out. It's an incredible cast led by the wonderful Annie Golden (Norma Romano in Orange is the New Black), and I'm really proud of the work we're all doing. 

Other fun things:

Denton Little's Deathdate won the ILA Young Adult Award for 2016! That was incredibly surprising and surreal and I still feel like it didn't actually happen. Thanks, ILA. Reading is everything, and it's a huge honor to receive this award.

I loved being on Sarah Enni's First Draft podcast. We talked about teen dramas, reader expectations, acting vs. writing, and my father's love for Dick Francis books.

The Lance and Ray Show came back with our first ep in a while, featuring my amazing editor sister Mariel Rubin as a guest. 

That's all the fun I have for now! Come September, I'll be much more present on social media. Enjoy the rest of summer! Hope you're reading a lot of books and playing lots of freeze tag. 

COVERPALOOZA

In the past week, I revealed TWO BRAND NEW DENTON COVERS. They were designed by Angela Carlino at Random House Children's, with artwork by Mathieu Persan, and I'm incredibly psyched about both of them. 

First, the paperback edition of Denton Little's Deathdate.

Look at that likable skeleton chauffeur! Love that guy. Read more about the cover and Denton at Me, My Shelf, & I, where it had its official cover reveal. 

Second, my new book, Denton Little's Still Not Dead, coming out February 7th, 2017.

It is the hilarious, thrilling sequel to Denton Little's Deathdate. It is all about how the skeleton chauffeur retires from chauffeuring and doesn't know what to do with his life so he gets really into chess. (See, you think the tagline is about Denton, but it's actually about the skeleton. That's the twist.) (OH SHOOT I JUST RUINED THE TWIST) Read more about the sequel at YA Interrobang, where it had its official cover reveal.

And then go listen to this song by Mates of State, which I listened to about 500 times while writing the new book.

Official Announcement About DENTON 2: NEW TITLE! RELEASE DATE!

Everything about this photo is a lie.

Dearest friends and readers.

Many of you have understandably been quite perplexed as to the whereabouts of the second Denton book. You get to the end of the first one, you see the page that's pictured here, you head to the internet excitedly, and THEN YOU CAN'T FIND A SINGLE THING ABOUT THE BOOK. 

I wish I could say I planned that as part of some J.J. Abrams-esque secrecy marketing scheme (I'm realizing I seriously should have done that), but I did not. I most certainly did not.

In an alternate reality, the book was supposed to come out TODAY, actually. But in our actual reality, the book's release got delayed for various reasons, and then all info about it was temporarily obliterated from the world. Right now, however, I am excited to finally, officially tell you what's up.

First off, the book has a brand new title:

Denton Little's Still Not Dead

And secondly, it has a brand new release date:

February 7th, 2017.

Thank you for your patience, and huge thanks to everyone who reached out to ask me what the deal is with the second book. Can't tell you how much it means to me that you care.

More information and a cover reveal to follow in the coming months, but at least now you know THE THING EXISTS.

Because it does. It's written. And I really can't wait for you to read it.

This summer you can see a musical I co-wrote!

I’m so damn thriled that Broadway Bounty Hunter is going to be happening at Barrington Stage Company this summer. It’s a musical I co-wrote with Joe Iconis and Jason SweetTooth Williams that stars Annie Golden (Hair, Assassins, Norma on Orange is the New Black) as a veteran musical theater actress who becomes a bounty hunter. Come to Massachusetts sometime between August 12th and September 4th and see it!

The DENTON e-book is $1.99 for a limited time! (ALSO A CONTEST)

Guys! I am delighted to announce that the DENTON e-book is currently $1.99 in all places where e-books are sold! That is an incredibly reasonable price for something that will (hopefully) provide you with hours of funny, thought-provoking entertainment.

It’s a limited-time deal that I believe will last through December 6th most places and through November 17th on KOBO.

To make this deal even more exciting, though, here’s a CONTEST!

This contest has two winners. Here is what those winners will win:

PRIZE #1: I will make you a personalized/signed deathdate cartoon drawing.

PRIZE #2: I will write you a personalized song on guitar. I will then film myself playing this song and put it on the internet. 

Here’s how to enter:

1. Buy the Denton Little’s Deathdate ebook for $1.99.

2. Take a picture of yourself holding an e-reader that features the DENTON cover page.

3. Post the picture on Twitter with this message “i bought DENTON for less than $2! that’s cheaper than [INSERT YOUR OWN THING HERE]! @lancerubinparty #DentonLittle” 

(Just to be clear, you should actually insert your own words at the end of the second sentence if you want your entry to count.)

4. You’ve entered the contest! Once the deal ends in December, I will randomly select two winners. And then I will contact you and let you know that you have won.

END CONTEST RULES.

Thanks, everybody! Spread da word!

Fall YA Scavenger Hunt!

All right, guys, so this is exciting and different: this post is actually a leg of the YA Scavenger Hunt. BA-BOOM.

This is a bi-annual event first organized by author Colleen Houck as a way to give readers a chance to gain access to exclusive bonus material from their favorite authors…and also a chance to win some awesome prizes. Sweeeeeet.

For those that don’t know me, I’m Lance Rubin!  I love Back to the Future, Harry Potter, Pixar, and the New York Knicks, and I wrote a dark comedic novel called Denton Little’s Deathdate that came out in April. In this hunt, you can find a DELETED SCENE from the very first draft of my book. But you’ll have to keep hunting to find that. Here, I’m honored to be hosting the exclusive content of another superawesomeauthor. We’ll get to that in a bit.

There are 8 teams in this YA Scavenger Hunt, so it’s VERY IMPORTANT that you know I am on Team Teal. DOUBLE BA-BOOM.

Yeah, that’s me. Third from the left. Holding up part of the A.

Right now YOU are hunting on Team Teal, and if you enter the contest for our team, you could win a signed copy of my book along with signed copies of the books of the other nineteen Teal authors. (Keep in mind, you can enter the contest for ALL EIGHT TEAMS in the hunt, meaning you could potentially win 160 signed books. Yowsa! That’s a lotta books! And a lotta signatures, too.)

How do you enter this contest? Good question! This is my first time being a part of this, so I’m probably gonna mess something up as I try to explain. Go check out all the rules and see all the authors and prizes involved here.

But the basic gist is, you need to collect the secret number (not actually so secret; you can find mine below, big and obvious) from each author on Team Teal and add up those numbers to get the code. And THEN you can enter the contest here to qualify for the grand prize (BOOKS)!

But keep in mind: this contest (and all the exclusive bonus material) will only be online for 72 hours, through Sunday, October 4th at noon PST.

Here’s the Official Rules (BORING!): Open internationally, anyone below the age of 18 should have a parent or guardian’s permission to enter. (I’M STICKING MY SECRET NUMBER IN THE MIDDLE OF THE RULES TO JAZZ ‘EM UP A BIT: 57 MY SECRET NUMBER IS 57)  To be eligible for the grand prize, you must submit the completed entry form by Sunday, October 4th, at noon Pacific Time. Entries sent without the correct number or without contact information will not be considered.

Okay, glad that’s all explained. Now onto the real bounty of this hunt: Today I have the great privilege of hosting GWENDA BOND!

Gwenda Bond is the author of the young adult novels Lois Lane: Fallout and Girl on a Wire, among others. Next up are Lois Lane: Double Down and Girl in the Shadows, a new novel of the Cirque American, in 2016. She has also written for Publishers Weekly, the Los Angeles Times, and the Washington Post, among other publications. She has an MFA in Writing from the Vermont College of Fine Arts, and lives in a hundred-year-old house in Lexington, Kentucky, with her husband, author Christopher Rowe, and their menagerie. Visit her online at www.gwendabond.com or @gwenda on twitter.

During this hunt, Gwenda is showcasing her novel Lois Lane: Fallout. (Meaning you can win the below book in the contest. NICE.)

Lois Lane is starting a new life in Metropolis. An Army brat, Lois has lived all over—and seen all kinds of things. (Some of them defy explanation, like the near-disaster she witnessed in Kansas in the middle of one night.) But now her family is putting down roots in the big city, and Lois is determined to fit in. Stay quiet. Fly straight.

A cool, new take on Lois Lane. Awesome. You can buy Lois Lane: Fallout here. 

But just as exciting is the UPCOMING SEQUEL, Lois Lane: Double Down, out May 2016. Here’s what it’s gonna look like:

Love this cover. And now some words from Gwenda:

I know it’s a long wait until May 1, 2016, so I thought I’d give you guys a sneak peek from the very early advanced reader copies of the sequel to Fallout. This will be the second book in the Lois Lane series and it’s called Double Down. I couldn’t decide what to pick, but then I figured when in doubt go with a Lois and SmallvilleGuy scene. This is a snippet from their first meeting in the Worlds War Three real-sim game in Double Down, and was a fun moment to write for reasons you will see. It’ll also give you a major hint of some of the trouble these two will be encountering, apart from the mystery Lois and her Scoop colleagues will be attempting to solve this time around.

Hope you enjoy it! *twirls fingers evilly* 

Flying! Mercenaries! Laser-bats! Ah, so cool.

You can go ahead and order THAT BOOK right here. And buy the rest of Gwenda’s books while you’re at it.

And don’t forget to enter the contest to win books by me, Gwenda Bond, and eighteen other fantastic authors. Add up all the SECRET NUMBERS from Team Teal and use that secret code to enter.

ALSO: During this Scavenger Hunt, I’m using my first ever Rafflecopter to run a separate give-away. Someone will win a signed hardcover of Denton Little’s Deathdate, and someone will win a signed audiobook and someone will win a personalized cartoon drawing by me just for them.  Three winners! Woo! Open internationally! Enter by using the Rafflecopter link below and answer the question in my comments section. 

Now head onto the next #YASH stop: JENNIFER JENKINS. Thanks, guys!

Here’s the Rafflecopter giveaway!

Some March things

Oh boy! I had a good streak going of posting on here every Tuesday, but then life got busier and my streak passed out in a field somewhere. Please forgive me.

In any case, here are some March things:

This week, thanks to the amazing Rhinebeck Writers Retreat, Annie Golden: Bounty Hunter, Yo!–the musical that I’ve been writing the past few years with Joe Iconis and Jason SweetTooth Williams–is having its first-ever workshop. With real actors and everything! Watching this thing come to life has been really magical. The cast, led by the wonderful Annie Golden, is terrific, as is director Leah Gardiner and the rest of the creative team. It’s culminating in a private reading Saturday, and hopefully the show will move onto some more public venues in the not-so-distant future. 

My wife Katie Schorr started a funny, self-deprecating blog about being a mother. I’m obviously biased, but I highly recommend it. Even if you’re not a mom.

I read one of my favorite chapters of DENTON on The Catapult this week. This podcast is hosted by Jaime Green, who is an awesome person and writer.  She was my first theater friend in college, and we took Sarah Ruhl’s playwriting class together freshman year (I think that’s true, right, Jaime? Did I just make that up?), and then later she was in a musical I co-wrote and directed. So it was very fun to reconnect to do this.

DENTON comes out in the UK on Thursday from Simon and Schuster! Very exciting. I had a good time doing a Quick Fire Q and A with them last week. If you’ve been dying to know which I prefer, DVD or Cinema, then you gotta read this RIGHT AWAY. 

I think that’s it for the moment. Hope you’re all having a wonderful March day. Soon the weather will be warm and everything will be even wonderful-er. Any day now. Really.