Summer State of Mind

I don't know about you guys, but I've got summer fever. It happens this time every year. The temperature gets above 70 degrees, the days are longer, the sun seems brighter, and suddenly all I want to do is be at the beach or the pool. This is not the most condusive way to work, I know, but this year, I've actually found myself writing at the beach. Crazy, I know, but I still love to write with pen and paper. It's how I draft all my ideas. I like to think of each story as a puzzle and I just keep moving around the pieces till it makes sense. I cross things out, write crazy notes like "don't forget to add the zipline" and then try to remember what I was talking about later on. This is how I came up with the idea for my next book, "Summer State of Mind," which will be out next spring 2014. Those of you who are "Sleepaway Girls" fans will be excited about this because the book takes place at Whispering Pines sleepaway camp. This is the same camp used in Sleepaway Girls and there will be many familiar faces in "Summer" that you already know and love, but it will be a completely new story with fresh characters as well. My favorite is Harper McAllister, your narrator. She's a sweet but spoiled freshly minted rich girl whose dad decides she needs a shot of reality. His plan: send her to his childhood sleepaway camp, Whispering Pines. Ziplines, mud, bugs, and bears are not Harper's thing and she'll hilarious have to navigate that world without her iPhone or beloved Twitter account. Can she hack it with the help of some former "Sleepaway Girls?" I hope you'll pick it up to find out. The book has me thinking a lot about my own camp counselor days at a camp here on Long Island where I live. I recently found pictures of myself in our camp polo shirt. My best friend Christi was my co-counselor every year we were, um, computer counselors. Yes, computer counselors! It was the only job open at the camp we worked at so we took it. We didn't have to spend our whole day in the computer lab, thank God. We got outside to the pool and the fields and did get a pretty nice tan when we weren't chasing after children or drooling over the hot male counselors. Boy watching in the summer is so much more fun. Harper does a lot of that herself in "Summer State of Mind" too. I'm so excited about "Summer State of Mind" that it seems only fitting that I do a contest in honor of it. Since it's not out till next year, I don't have copies yet, but I do have copies of "Sleepaway Girls" at my disposal and copies of the "Belles" series and "Reality Check." Any chance you want a copy of one of those? I'm going to give away three copies to three different people at random. From now till July 30th you can enter to win a book of your choice (from the list above) by doing one of the following things: 1. Follow me on Twitter at @jencalonita and say "I'm entering @JenCalonita's "Summer State of Mind" giveaway! #summerstateofmind" 2. Like me on Facebook (Jen Calonita) and post to my wall "I'm entering Jen Calonita's Summer State of Mind" giveaway!" 3.Like the "Belles" page on Facebook--because, hey, the Belles are awesome and if you don't know them yet, you should meet them, which you can on the page. Post "I'm entering Jen Calonita's Summer State of Mind" contest. I hope you all have an amazing summer full of warm weather, great beach days and awesome reads! Good luck in the contest! xo Jen