Cover Reveal: Demon Derby by Carrie Harris

I am so excited to reveal the cover of Carrie Harris's new novel. Not only do I love her previous two books, but she has visited my classroom a couple times so yeah, she's pretty darn awesome. And her author bio is 100% true: she is incapable of being serious for more than 5 minutes. Which is why I think you should put this book on your to-read list today because you know with her sense of humor, this book is going to be awesome.

Title: DEMON DERBY

Author: Carrie Harris

Publisher: Random House

Genre: Paranormal

Age Group: Young Adult

Expected release: March 2014

Casey kicked cancer’s ass. Now a demon wants to kick hers...

Casey hates being known as the girl who survived cancer. She wants people to treat her like her old self, fearless and strong. And after a creepy encounter with a crazy guy in an alley, Casey is all about reclaiming her power.

So when she has a chance to try out for the Apocalypsies roller derby team, she jumps on it. Being a derby girl would prove that she doesn’t need anybody’s pity. It doesn’t hurt that Michael, the team manager, is almost unnaturally hot. Which makes sense when Casey finds out that he’s not even human.

Michael’s got a secret: he trains demon hunters. That crazy guy in the alley? Demon. And the fact that Casey went head to head with evil and lived makes her a threat to demonkind. Casey thought she’d already fought and won the battle of her lifetime. But it’s only beginning...

From Carrie Harris, author of BAD TASTE IN BOYS and BAD HAIR DAY, comes a knockout new read for anyone facing their own demons—inside and out.

Add to Goodreads 

About the Author

Carrie Harris is the author of BAD TASTE IN BOYS and BAD HAIR DAY. Her husband is a cancer survivor and a ninja doctor, and her three kids are already in training to fight evil someday. She collects monster-themed clothing, is physically incapable of being serious for more than five minutes at a time, and isn’t a derby girl…yet.

Carrie Harris | Twitter | Facebook

Good times at Carrie Harris's Bad Hair Day launch party

Carrie reads from Bad Hair Day

On Thursday I had the pleasure of attending the launch party for Carrie Harris's second book, Bad Hair Day, which is the sequel to Bad Taste in Boys (read my review of Bad Hair Day and Bad Taste in Boys) at my favorite indie bookstore in Ann Arbor, Nicola's Books.

Carrie is so personable and funny, and if you've read her books, you immediately realize that hanging out with her in person is like hanging out in one of her books (but without the zombies and werewolves). And because she is so awesome, she's even visited my classroom twice, the most recent time being a month ago.

Since she recently visited my classroom, I had a rather large pile of books for her to sign for my students. For that reason, I made sure to hang out at the back of the signing line so I didn't have to listen to grumbling fans complain about me holding up the line. :) I didn't mind waiting until the end though. That just meant I had more time to hang out with and talk to awesome bookish people. I was able to talk to Aimee Carter (author of The Goddess Test), Courtney Allison Moulton (author of Angelfire), and Laura Zielin (author of The Waiting Sky). What's better than getting to rub elbows with YA authors for the evening? :)

I do particularly love how Carrie signed the copy of Bad Hair Day I purchased for my class:

If you want to know the inside story behind this inscription's epicness, read the following posts:
Laini Taylor event at Nicola's
Carrie Harris classroom visit take 1

Overall, this launch party was full of fun and laughs, but I would expect nothing less from Carrie. :)

Carrie Harris classroom visit take 2

Last year Carrie Harris, author of the epically funny Bad Taste in Boys and the soon-to-be released Bad Hair Day, came to visit my 6th graders at the end of the year to give an author talk. But I recently had a conversation with Carrie and told her I thought it would be awesome if she could come in October this year and do her Monster Prom writing workshop with my class before NaNoWriMo. Not only would it be awesome to have a published author come and do a writing lesson with them, but it would also help to give them ideas and motivation to do the Young Writer's Program of NaNoWriMo. And being the awesome person Carrie is, she agreed. So that is what happened in my classroom today.  And it was amazing. The kids were engaged and enthusiastic, and they came up with some brilliant ideas.

Carrie started the workshop by having students brainstorm types of monsters in groups. They were asked to defy convention and create new and unusual types or combinations of monster. Students wrote down their own ideas as well as the ideas from the people in their group. My favorite monster of the day was Santa Claws.

Next, they were to pick one of the monsters on their list and write interesting and unusual traits about their character: like maybe their vampire-like creature doesn't like blood and only eats organic produce.

I don't want to give it all away because, well, you just have to experience a Carrie Harris writing workshop to truly appreciate how much fun it is, but I am certain that based on their experience today, many more students than usual will be participating in NaNoWriMo this year. And given the fun, crazy ideas they came up with, I can't wait to read their stories!

My students hard at work making a welcome poster for Carrie

The epic zombie/monkey/ice cream post my students made

Carrie Harris is made of awesome

On Monday, Carrie Harris, author of the epically funny Bad Taste in Boys, came to talk to my 6th graders about what it's like to be a writer, zombie science, monster proms, and her newest book coming out in November, Bad Hair Day.

Carrie taped together all her rejections and showed them to my class

Students are eager to read some of the rejections aloud

They are all apparently fascinated by rejection

Students work on a Monster Prom writing activity

The reason Carrie agreed to come in the first place: I made her maple bacon ice cream :)

A good time was had by all! I hope she'll come back again next year. I'll have to come up with another wacky ice cream flavor to entice her to come back.