We Interrupt Our Regular Scheduled Programming...for MOCKINGJAY!!!

It's Monday, which means it's supposed to be Marketing Monday here on this blog.

But...

HUGE BUT!!!!

(No, not huge butt. Ew.)

BUT...

It's Mockingjay Eve!!

See that counter down there...less than 12 hours!! I haven't been this excited for a release since Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. (Okay, I lie. I was a hundred times more excited for my own release, but that's completely different.)

In preparation, I've been re-reading The Hunger Games and Catching Fire this weekend. And now I'm getting this sinking pit in my stomach in anticipation for Mockingjay. Because I'm really scared about what's going to happen. Who's going to make it? Who's not going to make it? What horrible things are they going to have to suffer? I'm so scared for these characters I've fallen in love with.

The first couple times I read the books, I was totally Team Peeta. Well, really, I was Team Katniss, just wanting her to finally be happy, but I leaned heavily toward Peeta. He's sooo proven his love to Katniss. And I just didn't know Gale enough to feel the necessary connection to love him. But this last time, for some reason, I at least have a better understanding of Katniss's feelings for Gale. And since I really am Team Katniss, I just hope she gets to enjoy the happiness of ending up with one of them.

Because I'm kinda afraid she's gonna end up dead. WWWWAAAAAAHHHH!!! I know, how dare I say it. I read an interview with Suzanne Collins, though (I so terribly wish I could find the link again - I'll update this post if I do), that kind of eluded to this. I'm sooo hoping she was just throwing us for a loop, but then I wonder if she said it so we would think she was deceiving us, while actually providing a huge hint.

I can't wait. And I know I'll devour it the first time, then have to go back and re-read to make sure I didn't miss anything good. And then I'll be thinking about it for a while and then feel the let-down that it's actually over and I have to live with whatever ending the author gave it. I love these kinds of stories and strive to write them. You know, the ones that have you so engrossed, you can't even think of anything else...before you've even read it!

Are you as excited as I am? Do you have that same anxiety that you're about to lose someone you love? What are your predictions? If you, by chance, have already read Mockingjay by the time you read this, you will be forever banned from my blog if you spoil anything! I just want to hear your predictions based on the first two books and your thoughts on what might happen in the last.

First Page Blog Fest

I’ve been a very bad blogger lately. I try to get at least one post up per week, am happy if I can get two and it’s been two weeks since my last one! Blogger fail. But I have been holed up, finalizing edits for my first book. Important announcements will be made this week!

For now, just a couple things. First, as you can see, I've made some changes. Instead of managing a website and a blog, I've combined them into one. So you can now get here through www.KristieCook.com and you can also see other information about me and my books. Soon, I'll have links to the web site for the first book. Very soon. ;-)

Second, my friend Eisley Jacobs, a fabulous writer, is preparing to go to Ethiopia on a mission trip. Her story will give you goose bumps. Please visit her blog and if you can, help her out. Even just a little bit, as you’ll see in the story, will help her reach her goal.

Third…OMG, The Hunger Games and Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins!!! If you haven’t read these yet, I don’t care your age, you MUST. Great characters and a suspenseful story line that keeps you on the edge of your seat. I could not put these down. I’ve read them both twice in 8 days (I went through them so quickly the first time, I was afraid I missed important details). I know I’ll read them at least one more time before the third and final book comes out in August. Some people may not like Katniss, the main character, in the first couple pages but you can’t help but feel for her by the end of the second chapter. If you have a heart, anyway. So go read them! You won’t be sorry! And I hope the rumors are true that they’re making these into movies. I can’t wait!


Finally, I signed up for a First Page Blog Fest for April 2nd. With the holiday weekend, I completely forgot about it. Oops. For more First Pages, start here for all the links.

Here is my delayed entry, my first page of my first book releasing this summer. These first 25 lines have been so hard for me. In fact, they used to be completely different. I still don’t know if I like this as the opening. So your feedback would be wonderful.

Does it grab your attention? Enough to keep reading? If you read these lines in a bookstore, would you buy the book? Or at least read another page or so before making a decision?

Here it is…

9 Years Ago

The sensation of being watched clung to me like a spider web, invisible threads bristling the back of my neck and down my spine. I brushed my fingers across my shoulders, like I could drag the feeling off and flick it away.

It was ridiculous, of course. Not just ridiculous to think I could pull it off so easily, as if it really were strands of a web, but it was even more absurd to feel it in the first place. Sometimes people stared with curiosity when they picked me up on their “weird radars,” but usually they just ignored me. No one watched so intensely.

Yet the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end at the feeling of eyes boring into me as I visited my favorite Washington, D.C., monument for likely the last time. I sat on the stone steps with the stately Thomas Jefferson behind me and gazed over the Potomac River tidal basin, enjoying the peace just before sunset. Well, trying to enjoy it anyway.

I blamed the feeling on my unruly imagination, with it being twilight and the sky looking so ominous. It was the perfect setting for one of my stories. The sun hung low—an eerie, orange ball glowing behind a shroud of clouds, a column of steel-blue rising around it, threatening to snuff it out. I envisioned something not-quite-human watching it from the shadows, waiting for the cover of darkness to begin its hunt.

That’s all it is, just my fascination with mythical creatures, I told myself. Uh-huh. Right.

Surrendering hope for a peaceful moment, I hurried to the closest Metro station. The feeling of being followed stuck with me on the train ride home, but at my stop in Arlington, I forgot the spooky sensation. Some kids from school stood near the top of the escalator as I stepped off.

“Hey, there’s the weird girl who heals,” one of them said loudly to the others. “It’s s’posed to be really freaky to watch.”

“Hey, freak, got any tricks to show us?” another called.