My tour has ended. I’m home at last.

Oh, wait… I never left. But my Imaginary Girls blog tour came to an end, and I revealed all the secrets I’m willing to set free in public. There are more, but I’m keeping them close for now. (Maybe for forever.)

If you missed any of my secrets, here they are in one place:

Secret #1: Imaginary Girls wasn’t supposed to be the title. I changed it at the last second when querying agents… and decided to keep it. [link]

Secret #2: I attempted—and failed—to write Imaginary Girls as a NaNoWriMo novel. [link]

Secret #3: I don’t always know my characters’ full names. And sometimes I steal names from questionable places. [link]

Secret #4: The town Ruby and Chloe live in is a real town… except when it’s completely made-up. [link]

Secret #5: I did swim in the reservoir that inspired the one in the novel, but not since I was a teenager. [link]

Secret #6: It wasn’t Ruby who lost the ring a boy gave her in the reservoir. It was me. [link] 

Secret #7: The path to Olive is one I’ve walked before. And the rowboat is one I’ve been in. [link]

Secret #8: Music shaped Imaginary Girls more than you know. [link]

Secret #9: I didn’t read YA novels as a teen, even though I write them now. [link]

Secret #10: I’ve written parts of this novel before. In fact, you could say I’ve been writing pieces of this novel for over ten years. [link]

And… as I’m putting together this post, I see that some of the giveaways are *still open*—which means if you’ve only happened upon this blog today, you still have a chance to win a signed hardcover of Imaginary Girls.

Giveaways still open to win signed books:

• Pop Culture Junkie—open until July 5, 6:59pm Central Time (use this entry form to enter)
• Mundie Moms—open until July 5 (use the form embedded in this post to enter)
  
• The Compulsive Reader—open until July 6 (comment on this post to enter)
• The Book Scout—open until July 8 (use this entry form to enter)
• The Naughty Book Kitties—open until July 8 (use this entry form to enter)
• Book Chic—open until July 8 (comment on this post to enter)
• The Story Siren—open until July 15 (use the form embedded in this post to enter)

I hope you’ll enter the giveaways that are still going on!

And thank you again to the bloggers who hosted me and to Anna at Penguin for arranging this tour for Imaginary Girls.

One last thing. If you’re in New York City, I’ll be reading from Imaginary Girls at the Jefferson Market Library in Manhattan on Wednesday, July 6, for July NYC Teen Author Reading Night, along with other great authors. Say hi if you come! Make signals from the audience if I need to speak up or stop making a silly face. It’s free and starts at 6pm.