GIANT LINGER GIVEAWAY!!

SHIVER was, hands-down, my favorite book last year. I adore Maggie Stiefvater's lyrical prose and admired how real Sam and Grace's relationship was even though he's a wolf and she's a human. The twist on the werewolf mythology was refreshing and kept me guessing as well.

I'm beyond fangirl-squee that SHIVER is going to be made into a movie and am celebrating this awesome news by trying my pants off to win a copy of LINGER.

In Maggie Stiefvater's Shiver, Grace and Sam found each other. Now, in Linger, they must fight to be together. For Grace, this means defying her parents and keeping a very dangerous secret about her own well-being. For Sam, this means grappling with his werewolf past . . . and figuring out a way to survive into the future. Add into the mix a new wolf named Cole, whose own past has the potential to destroy the whole pack. And Isabelle, who already lost her brother to the wolves . . . and is nonetheless drawn to Cole.

At turns harrowing and euphoric, Linger is a spellbinding love story that explores both sides of love -- the light and the dark, the warm and the cold -- in a way you will never forget.

Comes out in stores everywhere July 20th. Pre-order here.

Enter to win an advanced review copies of LINGER, Sisters Red, The Dead-Tossed Waves, and The Replacement on Maggie's blog.

2010 Resolution - Blog More

It's January 28th.

This is my first blog post of 2010.

So far, I'm failing my "Blog More" resolution.

Fixing that now!

WRITING: I am thisclose to finishing my WIP. I have an agent who already wants to see the full and another agent waiting on my revisions for THE UNICORN TAMER. So what does that mean? Tons of squee! and kicking-of-butt-in-gear. Thank goodness for the venerable Jodi Meadows who commands the cutest army there ever was. I seem to write better when she's on 3rd shift (i.e. up in the middle of the night).

BOOKS: I am currently reading Stephen King's ON WRITING and I highly recommend it. You don't even have to be an aspiring author. ON WRITING was written in a very conversational tone and it's intimate, inspiring, and down-right funny. Did you know he used to do laundry for a living? AND, he threw away CARRIE. Like, wrote it, hated it, and THREW IT AWAY!! His wife was the one who fished it out of the garbage and told him to finish it. The rest is history (i.e. he sold it, made a kazillion dollars, and became a household name).

HELPFUL WRITING RELATED LINKS:

- Ten Words You Need to Stop Misspelling (with comics!)

- The incredible and sweet (I know she's incredible and sweet because I got to meet her in person!) LK Madigan writes about productive writing retreats and achieving that one perfect sentence

- 2 New Ways to Get Feedback on Your Work

- Amazon publishing original manuscripts!

- 3 books I want to win! but will not hesitate to buy them either because they're made of awesome

Kelly Gay Interview & Giveaway

Head on over to Susan Adrian's blog for an interview and giveaway with the sweet and awesome Kelly Gay! I can't wait to read her book!

Interview & Giveaway with Author Kelly Gay!

Hi all! It is a giveaway FESTIVAL here. So let's dive in to an interview with Enchanting Urban Fantasy Author Kelly Gay, who stopped by to tell us about her debut novel (on shelves now!), THE BETTER PART OF DARKNESS. We're also giving away a signed copy!

Susan: Hi Kelly! First, congratulations on the release of your first book! How's it feel so far?

Kelly: Thanks Susan! And thanks for having me on your blog! My book being ‘out there’ in the world feels awesome, scary, exciting, surreal… you name it. A book debut fits that whole rollercoaster analogy incredibly well.

Susan: I haven't been able to get my hands on a copy yet (I will, ASAP!), so could you tell us a bit about the story?

Kelly: Sure. The book is set in Atlanta about a decade after the discovery of heaven-like Elysia and hellish Charbydon, two alternate dimensions, which are home to beings that inspired our myths of angels, demons, gods, and monsters. Now they live among us, and it’s Charlie Madigan’s job to police the off-world sector and keep the peace, but when a new off-world drug is released, an ancient threat emerges, and her ex-husband makes a terrible bargain to win her back, there’s nothing in heaven, or hell, for that matter, that Charlie won’t do to set things right.

Read the rest here ...

Win a copy of LINGER!

Dear Santa,

All I want for Christmas is LINGER. The elves don't even have to build me one in your shop. You can win it here:

http://karinlibrarian.wordpress.com/2009/12/01/win-an-autographed-copy-of-linger-by-maggie-stiefvater/

See, I made it easy for you.

xoxo,

Christine

5 most common YA subgenres

Suzie Townsend is a junior agent with FinePrint Literary Management and she goes into detail about the 5 most common YA subgenres. "Common" can sometimes be tried and true, or sometimes, it's just plain ol' tiring. A really great, educational read on Susan Adrian's blog

My dream book looks like ...

Scott Westerfeld's LEVIATHAN! The Steampunkish illustrations are exactly what I've imagined THE UNICORN TAMER to look like. Hopefully someday ... *crosses fingers*

Today I came on to drool over bookshelves. In the last month or two, I've bought:

* GRACELING by Kristin Cashore
* GOING BOVINE by Libby Bray
* BOY TOY by Barry Lyga
* THE TRUTH ABOUT FOREVER by Sarah Dessen
* SWEETHEARTS by Sara Zarr
* HUSH, HUSH by Becca Fitzpatrick
* ON WRITING by Stepehn King

and they are all currently lying on my floor because I am out of shelf space. It'll take some re-arranging before I can buy a new bookshelf, but it's still fun to look!

Neil Gaiman shows his shelves:


Popping colors:


Floating bookshelves:


Unique shapes:

Tree:

It's Its and 5 Ways to NOT reach your dreams

How To Use An Apostrophe

A pictorial guide on how to correctly use apostrophes. Fun!

5 Ways To NOT Get Your Novel Published

1. Don’t be amazing - The single most common reason for novels not being published is that they are simply not amazing. Publishers have an almost unlimited supply of writers looking to get their books in print, so why would they publish anything but the very best writing? Your novel being good is just not good enough.