Great news! HarperCollins has generously sent me 50 copies of the ARC* of Secret Society to give away to readers this summer. The first half will be given away starting today, and the second half will be given away later this summer. To get your hands on a signed copy, write me an email via my address on the Contact page of this site with the subject line “Initiate Me” and your full mailing address (continental United States only, please). If you are one of the first twenty-five people to contact me, my office will mail you an Advanced Reading Copy of the novel.

Remember, you must include your FULL mailing address in the email to be included in the giveaway. I will post an update here once we’ve hit the 25 copy limit for this go-round.

Good luck and happy summer reading!

*For those of you who don’t know what an ARC is, it’s a sneak preview of the novel that is usually only sent to reviewers — it’s the full, completed novel, but the interior pages are not fully designed, and there may be a handful of typos that will be corrected in the final version. But if you are dying to get the story, it’s all there!

UPDATE: We have reached the 25 copy limit for this go-round. The next set of ARCs will be offered on GoodReads.com through its giveaway program, so sign up at GoodReads and watch out for the contest very soon.

Before a novel reaches its “ready to be read” stage, it’s a conglomeration of ideas, influences, images, and scenarios in an author’s head. Here’s a sneak preview of some of the things that were — and still are — swirling around in my brain during the writing of Secret Society (to be released October 2009) and its sequel (to be released October 2010):

Secret cults, the Meatpacking District, Skull & Bones, the Ivy League, the Upper East Side, townhouses, DJs, filmmakers, fashion designers, the NY art gallery scene, art history, art theft and forgery, museum heists, vintage jewelry, The Catcher in the Rye, The Mixed-Up Fixes of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, The Royal Tennenbaums, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Mory’s, silver trophies, underground graffiti, living across from the Metropolitan Museum, having money and then losing it, tattoos, sarcastic grandmothers, The Talented Mr. Ripley, private retreats in Maine, Southampton estates, hitchhiking, boats, zebra print rugs, animal heads, wainscoted kitchens, martinis, old-fashioned adventure stories, black and white films, Grace Kelly and Frank Sinatra in High Society, printed stationery, the Temple of Dendur, priceless artifacts, old-school telephone exchanges, nightclubs, El Morocco, Central Park, Cleopatra’s Needle, trips through Europe, losing a family member, murder, betrayal.

How many of these things have made it into Secret Society? You’ll have to wait and see… (but stay tuned for a book giveaway on Monday!)

Ever since Drew and I were married in Connecticut last month, I’ve wanted to write about it. Tuesday’s California Supreme Court decision on Proposition 8 — which was not entirely unexpected, but still disappointing — gave me the impetus to do so. The piece went up tonight in The Huffington Post: “Even After Proposition 8, the Fight — and the Party — Must Go On.” Read, enjoy, discuss.

May 2009, New York, NY and Wainscott, NY: This blog’s been a bit silent for the past few weeks, but it hasn’t been for any lack of activity on our end. As you know if you follow my Twitter feed, we had a new arrival in our family on May 2. Woody (named after cars, boats, and yes, Woody Allen) came to us through Save a Yorkie Rescue, a wonderful organization that saves Yorkshire Terriers, a breed that is often neglected as people fail to realize how much work the little guys need (dental, grooming). Woody was found on the streets of Paterson, New Jersey — I like to think that our dog is a descendant of the pooches of Alan Ginsberg and William Carlos Williams — and was in a shelter for two weeks, though we can’t understand why anyone would abandon him. The rescue group picked him up, and took care of him for another week before we met him. Since then, we’ve learned that he loves cashmere blankets, mini tennis balls, and being hand-fed his dinner. For a dog who was wandering the streets just a few weeks ago, he’s adjusted beautifully and, well, we’re smitten.

Here’s the day we first met him.

MORE >

Check out the gorgeous Secret Society cover. Isn’t it stunning?

Also, a blurb has come in from bestselling young adult author Melissa de la Cruz:

“Lush, delicious, and decadent like the best New York novels, Secret Society combines Edith Wharton flair with Wes Anderson-style wit in an addictive, adventure-filled read. Get initiated now!”

-Melissa de la Cruz,
New York Times bestselling author of Blue Bloods

And finally, here is the flap copy for the book:

Secrets, secrets are no fun.
Secrets, secrets hurt someone…

An eccentric new girl. A brooding socialite. The scion of one of New York’s wealthiest families. A promising filmmaker. As students at the exclusive Chadwick School, Phoebe, Lauren, Nick, and Patch already live in a world most teenagers only dream about.

They didn’t ask to be Society members. But when three of them receive a mysterious text message promising success and fame beyond belief, they say yes to everything. Even to the harrowing initiation ceremony in a gritty warehouse downtown, and to the ankh-shaped tattoo they’re forced to get on the nape of their necks.

Once they’re part of the Society, things begin falling into place for them. Week after week, their ambitions are fulfilled. It’s all perfect—until a body is found in Central Park with no distinguishing marks except for an ankh-shaped tattoo.

Tom Dolby makes his teen fiction debut with this riveting novel about a dangerous Society so secret that once you get in, you can never get out.

September 29, 2009. The countdown begins…

I will be signing ARCs of Secret Society (to be released October 2009) at BookExpo America on Friday, May 29 at 2:30pm at the HarperCollins Children’s Books Booth at New York’s Javits Center. Come grab a galley! Publisher’s Weekly thinks you should.

April 18, 2009, Salisbury, CT: While Drew and I will be celebrating our union with family and friends in the fall in “let’s hope it’s legal soon” California, we decided to file our official marriage license in the spring in Connecticut. We wanted it to happen before wedding planning madness overcomes us, and also have it not be too close to my younger brother’s own celebration in June. Compared to a larger, more traditional wedding (and I hesitate even to call it a “wedding,” it was so informal — which was perfect), it was just the nine of us, all family members. We stayed at the White Hart Inn, which is right in the center of town. The two best parts of the White Hart are its porch (I think a magazine once called it “the best porch in Connecticut” — a high honor indeed!) and its tap room, which looks like it hasn’t changed in a hundred years.

On Saturday morning, after the short ceremony on the Hotchkiss campus, we headed across the state line to Millerton, NY, to the Harney Tea Room. While I spent most of my time at Hotchkiss (and really, I mean most of my time) at the fabulous and one-of-a-kind Chaiwalla Tea Room, which I highly recommend, we wanted to celebrate in a restaurant that had a private room, which Harney has. (You can also buy their tea at gourmet stores — I love the “Paris” blend.) They had a lovely little room with a separate entrance from the main restaurant and tea shop. And we could bring our own champagne.

Harney’s cake selection was exactly what I would have picked for a wedding cake, so we pre-ordered a whole one for our party: it was pineapple carrot cake with lemon cream cheese frosting. Sounds bizarre, but it was delicious. (I secretly believe that all cake should be carrot cake.) We took the box back to our room, and by the next day’s lunch, it was gone.

There was an intriguing series of artwork on the wall; one of the pieces read, “Je t’ai cherché…Et je t’ai trouvé dans mon imagination.”

“I have searched for you and I have found you in my imagination.”

The following email went out from me this afternoon to the 700,000 members of the Courage Campaign with the subject line “Why this is personal.” I wrote it in anticipation of my legal marriage to Drew this weekend in Connecticut (our family-and-friends wedding will happen in September in California — here’s hoping it may be legal, or close to legal, by then). Please join them in reaching $100,000 in funds raised online!

Update: The story has also made the Los Angeles Times (see second story down).

Author Tom Dolby, of the Dolby Family, wrote the following message to Courage Campaign members and supporters as he prepares to marry his partner, Drew, in Connecticut this weekend. Please read Tom’s message to the Courage Campaign community and then help us turn fear into hope. — Rick Jacobs, Chair, Courage Campaign

Dear Courage Campaign Member,

My partner, Drew, and I are getting married this Saturday. But not in California, where I grew up and my family has lived for more than thirty years.

Let me explain.

On May 1, 2008, we got engaged, even though our fundamental right to be married as a loving, committed couple was not legal at the time in the state of California. We made this momentous decision because we believed in affirming a lifelong partnership in the eyes of our family and friends, regardless of the state’s failure to recognize our civil rights.

A mere two weeks later, the state Supreme Court announced its historic decision, establishing the constitutional right of same-sex couples to be married in California.

Like so many others, Drew and I were ecstatic. As we made our plans to marry, however, we learned that our rights might be taken away by Proposition 8. So we waited until after the November 4 election, because we wanted our vows to be as permanent as our intentions.

On November 4, 2008, our fundamental right to marriage in California was eliminated by the shocking passage of Proposition 8.

And that is why we will be legally married this coming Saturday in the state of Connecticut, where lawyers tell us we’ll always have equal rights.

However, according to the state of California, our marriage will be meaningless.

This is not acceptable. Equality belongs to everyone and same-sex marriage should not be reserved for those who can only travel to another state, 3,000 miles away.

That’s why I asked my family last week to make a $25,000 challenge grant to support the Courage Campaign’s transformative “Camp Courage” training program for marriage equality activists — a personal action in direct response to the National Organization for Marriage’s $1.5 million “Gathering Storm” national TV ad campaign.

Your response to this challenge — “turning fear into hope” — has been phenomenal. In less than five days, your collective generosity has yielded $72,572, making it the most successful single response ever to a Courage Campaign community request for support.

I’m so inspired by this community’s commitment to love, fairness and equality in the face of the religious right’s fear-mongering TV ad.

And now I hope you’ll join me in helping the Courage Campaign reach the amazing milestone of raising $100,000 online in response to this disturbing 60-second ad. Please click here to contribute what you can afford today (and watch the “Gathering Storm” ad, if you haven’t seen it already):

http://www.couragecampaign.org/TurnFearIntoHope

I believe in the Camp Courage training program because it is laying the foundation of restoring marriage equality to California — and it represents the future of community organizing. Modeled after Camp Obama, the program utilizes the “Story of Self” to transform personal experiences into compelling and authentic narratives that can persuade undecided voters.

To change the hearts and minds of our fellow Californians, we all need to tell our own stories about how Prop 8 has affected us, our families, and our friends. Just like I have today, by expressing why this is so very personal.

That’s the only way we will win back our rights — and the only way the marriages of so many same-sex couples will have meaning in California once again.

Let’s make it to $100,000 for marriage equality today.

With much gratitude for your support,
Tom Dolby, joined by my future husband, Drew Frist

………….

The Courage Campaign is an online organizing network that empowers more than 700,000 grassroots and netroots supporters to push for progressive change in California.

April 12, 2009, Sonoma, CA: The word is out: in less than a week, I’m getting married. Not married-in-front-of-friends-and-family (that will happen in September) but legally married. Married by a justice of the peace. Marriage that is recognized by the state (of Connecticut, that is, and I hope, of New York). This is what it’s come to these days: two weddings, one in one state in one month, one in another state in another month. So it seemed fitting that the photolog image today is simply an “&.” It’s a vintage sign, available at Zipper in Sonoma, that pretty much epitomizes how I feel about it: all lit up.

April 11, 2009, Sonoma, CA: Holidays have always been big in our house, and Easter was no exception as I was growing up (when my mom’s not raising money for causes, she is a mini-Martha Stewart). While we don’t make as big a deal about it as we used to, this year, we decided to dig around in the basement and bring out some of the old Easter “tree” ornaments. And what did we find? A hand-painted Goodnight Moon egg, created about twenty-five years ago for us by the owner of a local children’s bookstore in San Francisco called the Land of Counterpane. This egg probably breaks all sorts of copyright laws (and apparently Goodnight Moon is a HarperCollins book!), but hey, it’s adorable, right?