Countdown to 5th June!

This blog post is loooooooong overdue! Mea culpa - I've been far too busy recently watching rubbish shark movies and supporting exam-stressed teens. Anyway - ta daaaaa! Countdown to 5th June!

It's an initiative by blogger Jim Dean, who runs YA Yeah Yeah and YA Contemporary (check them both out if you love YA books and haven't already looked at them). Book bloggers are a major part of spreading the word about new book launches - in fact for those of us authors who don't have a massive marketing machine clanking about after us wherever we go, bloggers are pretty much our ONLY support! So we are always very keen to get our new releases into their hands.

And thus it happened that Jim looked towards the horizon one day and saw an absolute tsunami of YA book launches heading towards him. (It was just like that bit in Deep Impact where Maximilian Schell and Tea Leoni are standing on the beach.) About a trillion books all seemed to be coming out on 5th June.  So, rather than stand there with his mouth hanging open, waiting to be washed off his feet, he decided to organise a task force of bloggers and authors, and create a coordinated programme of online events to tell everyone about all the fabulous new releases. And (she says, in her best Hollywood action movie voice) that programme is COUNTDOWN TO 5TH JUNE.

You can read all about it on the Countdown to 5th June website: every week in the run-up to 5th June different book bloggers talk to authors with an upcoming release. An amazing THIRTY ONE authors are featured. There are videos, interviews, guest posts and all sorts of other things.

I'm delighted to say that my own June 5th release, Demons of Ghent, is being featured. Yesterday the fabulous Lucy of Choose YA posted an interview with me, which you can read here: Countdown to 5th June interview with Helen Grant

Lucy asked me some brilliant questions, such as If you could explore any abandoned or closed area in the world, which would it be and why? and If you could say anything to your teenage self, light-hearted or serious, what would it be? So if you'd like to know the answers to those questions, check out her blog.

You can also follow Countdown to 5th June on Twitter here Countdown to 5th June on Twitter for daily updates on all the blogging activity and new releases.

If you happen to read this post today, 19th May, there is also a Twitter chat this evening at 7.30pm BST with a chance to hear the views of readers who have already been lucky enough to get a preview of some of the new releases, plus authors too. Just use the hashtag #countdownYA to join in the fun!