Cover Reveal: The Life Beyond!!

Today I'm finally allowed to share the cover for THE LIFE BEYOND, the sequel to The Other Life with you!

I love that it's similar to the cover of The Other Life. Black and white. I'm sure the two books will look fabulous together!
And do you see the bleeding butterfly? It changed, didn't it? It looks more like a hornet. And more dangerous, because that's what this book is. More dangerous for Sherry and Joshua and the other survivors!

And here's the back and the front together: (Don't read the text if you haven't read The Other Life. Spoilers ahead!)

It hits shelves March 1st, 2013 in the UK! Less than five months to go!
I can't tell you how much I love the cover! My UK pub Usborne has done such a fabulous job!
What do you think?

Launch photos!

I had a wonderful launch on Wednesday in London. I still can't believe that THE OTHER LIFE is really out in the world.

I thought you might be interested in seeing a few photos of my special day.

This is my book next to The Maze Runner, The Hunger Games, Legend, Blood Red Road and many more. Eeee! The pic was taken in Foyles Charing Cross where I signed stock!

This is the library room in the Soho Hotel where my launch lunch (what a word! hehe) took place.

There were copies of The Other Life everywhere!

The room's filling with guests! I'm the awkward girl in the red and white dress!

It was so much fun talking to everyone! Oh, and that posh guy in the back? He was our personal butler!

There were etageres with food! The sandwiches are still missing from this pic. But you can see the scones with clotted cream and jam, apple pies, chocolate cake, trifle! Yum!

And look at these!!! Usborne made butterfly cupcakes for me!

Too pretty to eat them!

Everyone was wearing name tags like this!

I signed books!

So many awesome book bloggers with me in the front.

My awesome publisher Usborne organized everything. They are fabulous!

The Other Life NEWS

Do you know what happens in exactly one week from today?
THE OTHER LIFE hits shelves in the UK!

In celebration of this big (and scary) event, there'll be a special UK blog tour next week, starting Monday January 30th and ending Friday February 3rd.
Why is it special, you ask?
Because every day one of the participating blogs will post a diary entry from Joshua's POV. This is so special because The Other Life is told from Sherry's POV and we only get to see Joshua through Sherry's eyes. But if you want to know what's going on in hunter Joshua's head, you'll have to check out the following blogs next week:
Monday 30th January: Dark Readers
Tuesday 31st January: YA Book Reads
Wednesday 1st February: Empire of Books
Thursday 2nd February: Book Passion For Life
Friday 3rd February: Books 4 Teens

I'm so excited! It was soooo much fun writing from Joshua's POV. I hope you'll enjoy what he has to say!

Video Trailer of THE OTHER LIFE!

I'm so so excited to share with you the video trailer my UK pub Usborne did for THE OTHER LIFE!
I love it so much! It's so creepy! YAY!

Let me know what you think! :D

Books!!!

Look what Usborne sent me!

The final copies of the UK edition of THE OTHER LIFE!
Oh, the pretty!!!

And maybe you noticed that my hair is now purple, though the pic doesn't show it very well!

Giveaway + photos!

My awesome UK publisher Usborne is giving away 3 proof copies of THE OTHER LIFE on goodreads! The giveaway is open until November 30th. You have to live in Great Britain to enter.

NaNo started yesterday and I'm participating this year. The book I'm working on was inspired by a few places I visited with my husband in the last few weeks.
Here are a few pics:

Watercastle Anholt. It's only about an hour from where we live.

The back of the watercastle.

The following photos show Castle Rheinfels. It towers over the rhine across from the famous Loreley.

The autumn weather has been fabulous in Germany so far. That isn't something that happens very often around here!

First chapter of The Other Life!

You can read the first chapter of The Other Life on the website of my UK publisher, Usborne.
Exciting!!! (and terrifying!)

ARC giveaway: The Other Life

I'm giving away one UK ARC of THE OTHER LIFE!

1568 people have already added it on goodreads! YAY!

Here's what you have to do to win the ARC:

Leave a comment (that counts as 1 entry) with your email address.

If you want to get extra entries:

Be a follower + 1 entry
Tweet about the giveaway + 2
Blog about it or add it to your blog sidebar + 3
Please add links if you've blogged or tweeted.

The contest ends next Monday, October 24th. It's international. I'll announce the winner on Tuesday.

Good luck!

ARC giveaway: THE OTHER LIFE

I'm giving away one ARC of THE OTHER LIFE!

But before I'll tell you more, I want to show you this:

That's how the final book will look (UK version)!

Here's what you have to do to win the ARC:

Leave a comment with your email address.

To earn extra entries:

Follower + 1 entry (please let me know if you are one)

Tweet about giveaway + 2 entries (please leave a link)

Blog about giveaway or add it to your sidebar + 3 entries (please leave a link)

The giveaway is international and ends August 31st. I'll announce the winner on September 1st!

Cover reveal The Other Life!

The moment I’ve been anticipating for months has finally come!!

The cover of The Other Life:

And here’s the blurb from goodreads:

Sherry and her family have lived sealed in a bunker in the garden since things went wrong up above. Her grandfather has been in the freezer for the last three months, her parents are at each other’s throats and two minutes ago they ran out of food.

Sherry and her father leave the safety of the bunker and find a devastated and empty LA, smashed to pieces by bombs and haunted by ‘Weepers’ - rabid humans infected with a weaponized rabies virus.

While searching for food in a supermarket, Sherry’s father disappears and Sherry is saved by Joshua, a boy-hunter. He takes her to Safe-haven, a tumble-down vineyard in the hills outside LA, where a handful of other survivors are picking up the pieces of their ‘other lives’. As she falls in love for the first time, Sherry must save her father, stay alive and keep Joshua safe when his desire for vengeance threatens them all.

I couldn’t be happier. Usborne did a fabulous job. Isn’t the bleeding butterfly deliciously creepy???

The Other Life in The Bookseller!

The Bookseller selected The Other Life as books to watch in 2012!

Isn't that exciting?? I grinned like a maniac when I saw it!

Here's the scan of the Bookseller page!

And you can even catch a glimpse of the cover!!! (see it there beside Wither??)

The big reveal of the final cover will be soon! So stay tuned. I can't wait to show it to you!

And that red butterfly? Isn't it perfect for business cards and other things...like earrings or, you know, a necklace?

Hehe. So you see. I simply had to browse the internet for jewelry with butterflies after I saw the first draft of the cover. I might even have bought blood-red nailpolish.

You know what all this means? We're getting closer to The Other Life's release and soon there'll be ARCs and that means contests in the near future!

So watch this blog if you want to win ARCs of The Other Life!

Back from London!

I spent the last few days in London with my husband. It's only an one hour flight from where we live in Germany but it was only the second time that I was there.

I loved it. Not just because of the sightseeing but because I finally met my lovely agent Julia Churchill! I had lunch with her, my editor Rebecca and Anna from Usborne. And I had dinner with my amazing crit partner Tracy and her husband.

Meeting all those people reminded me again why I love publishing so much. The people are just awesome.

Before we arrived in London I promised my husband not to buy books because we booked our flight with Ryanair and they don't allow passengers to take lots of luggage. Well, I was determined not to get any new books but then I saw the book shop and went in. My husband got that resigned glint in his eyes when he watched me browsing the books. I managed to take only seven new books back home with me. That's not too bad, I guess.

Oh, and I finally had Fish & Chips!

Check out my guest post for The League of Extraordinary Writers! It's about aliens and apocalypse and X-Files!

When it starts feeling real...

I, like many other writers, tend to doubt myself, my writing and my achievements. I think it would feel strange if there ever was a day when I didn't have a moment of "oh my god, how did I ever think I could write? I suck!".

But then there are moments when I believe that I can write and that the things I write are good. Sometimes we writers need to be reminded though.

Getting my contract from my publisher Usborne was one of those wonderful reminders.

Even doggie was excited and wanted to take a look at my contract!

So now whenever I think: "Maybe I'm just imagining the whole thing. Maybe tomorrow I'll wake up and that lovely bookdeal turns out to be a big dream.", I'll just take a look at these pics:

Signing your contract is one of the things on the journey to publication that make it feel real, that convince me that I was lucky enough to not only get an agent but also a bookdeal. And then I allow myself to believe that I'm really living my dream.

Big Announcement!

My book found a US home! Marshall Cavendish bought North American rights of THE OTHER LIFE!! YAY!!! I'm soo happy!

Here's the PM announcement:

Susanne Winnacker's THE OTHER LIFE, in which a girl leaves a sealed
bunker after years in hiding, only to find Los Angeles devastated and
haunted by humans infected with a mutated rabies virus; struggling to
save her family, she falls for a boy-hunter who is both their saviour
and greatest danger when his desire for vengeance threatens them all,
to Robin Benjamin at Marshall Cavendish, for publication in Fall 2012,
by Sarah Davies at the Greenhouse Literary Agency (NA).

Usborne will publish THE OTHER LIFE in Spring 2012 in the UK and Marshall Cavendish will publish it in Fall 2012 in North America!

I'm so excited!