Good Morning Sweethearts!
I hope that you all are doing well and that you are having a wonderful summer! I have a few exciting updates that I wanted to share with you all as the publication date gets closer and closer!
Over the last few months we have seen independent, as well as corporate bookstores purchasing copies of How to Get Run Over by a Truck. With this push from these bookstores (as of today) we have pre-sold 2,450 books! Which is unbelievable! So unbelievable in fact, that when I got the email saying that over 2,000 books had been sold I threw my phone across the table at my friend Tommy and immediately started to cry (are we sensing a theme with how I handle good news?!)
We have also seen more reviews of the book start to come in that I would love to share with you:
"Katie McKenna has written an incredibly moving and insightful journey through her horrific medical trauma and painful rehabilitation. In courageously confronting her brokenness she reminds us of the inestimable value of faith, family, friends and a remarkable sense of humor. Her narrative emerges as a constant reminder that compassionately listening to the patient is the primary instrument of healing. This book should be required reading for all professionals who work in the field of medical trauma and rehabilitation."
Leo J. Shea III, Ph.D. Clinical Associate Professor of Rehabilitation Medicine NYU-Langone Medical Center
"Gripping, honest and full of humor, I couldn’t put Katie McKenna’s How to Get Run Over by a Truck down. At times I felt like I was listening to Katie recount her story as we shared a glass of wine, as it was incredibly personal and very real. Her clever blend of honesty and humor encourage the reader to reflect on their own approach to overcome challenges in their own life. She gives you perspective and strength by sharing her story."
Sarah Lowell Harmon, LMHC, Wentworth Institute of Technology
"How to Get Run Over by a Truck is one of the funniest, bravest memoirs I’ve ever read. I think we all wonder what would happen if we had to start over. Here is how one woman did it -- rebuilding her body and life by force of will and personality. It reminded me how humor truly is an act of grace."
--John Freeman, editor of "Freeman’s" and author of "How to Read a Novelist."
I cannot tell you how honored I am to have such incredible people take the time to read this book, and to have such lovely things to say about it!
The final piece of news that I have is that the book launch party for "How to Get Run Over by a Truck" will be on October 4th from 7:00 - 9:00, and I would be delighted if you could join us! Here are the details:
KGB Bar
85 East 4th Street
New York, NY 10003
There will be readings, a brief Q& A with me, and some time to talk afterwards! I hope that you can join us!
Thank you again for your incredible support! None of this would have been possible without you!
Heart,
Katie
Hello Inkshares community! I sent a message to our followers, and was advised by the IS folk that these forum threads are also a great way to reach out. And I didn’t even know about the forum threads! Excited to be finding a new part of this great site.
So we wrote a novel (Sparked) that is finished, and now we’re getting ready to launch our funding campaign in September. Before we do that, we want to make a book video to promote the novel. Do you know a teenaged girl (a daughter? a niece or neighbor?) who might be in the range of, oh, let’s say ages 11-29? We define adolescence loosely, not convinced that we’ve fully outgrown it yet ourselves...
Sparked is a novel about what happens when mean girls get superpowers and have to save the world. For our launch video, we need quotes from a couple of teenage girls. We’d be super-grateful to anyone who is willing to participate. It’s quite simple. All you need is an iphone or whathaveyou. Film yourself making a video selfie answering the following questions:
a) What’s the meanest thing any girl has ever done to you?
b) And/or: What’s the meanest thing you’ve ever done to another girl?
Your answer doesn’t need to be more than a sentence of two (the entire video is going to be less than a minute). E.g. “One time my so-called friends got together and made a list of all my worst qualities and read it out to me so I could ‘work on myself.’ It was five pages long.” (True story!)
If you are willing to help out by filming yourself answering these questions, or if you know a teen who might find this exercise amusing, please send the video to helena.echlin@gmail.com ormalenawatrous@gmail.com. Of course, you will earn a place in the acknowledgments and our undying gratitude. We would also be happy to share a PDF of the whole novel with anyone who wants to read it now as a show of our gratitude. For any aspiring writers, we’d be more than happy to read a chapter of your stuff and/or offer general advice on careers in writing in exchange for participating in the video. Oh, and we have a writing advice column, so you can also send questions here:
http://www.bay-ata.com/sparked/dear_lena.php
Thank you so much in advance for your help! This is such an amazing community of writers supporting each other in all kinds of ways. It’s really exciting to see how we can build each other up and get our books out into the world.
Warmly, ’Lena (Helena and Malena)