YALLFest Interview with C.J. Lyons

Hey everyone!  Here's another exciting YALLFest interview to share with you! 

If you didn't know (and you really should because it is an awesome event) YALLFest is a great YA Author Festival held in Charleston, South Carolina hosted by Blue Bicycle Books. Still a baby, with 2013 being it's third year, YALLFest brings some of the BIGGEST names in YA books together for one day of ridiculous amazing fun.  To get people excited, they have picked bloggers across the internet to host interviews with the authors attending the festival.  I am one such lucky blogger!  

Check out the rockstar author that will be gracing us with her presence at the festival down below and keep checking back as the countdown to YALLFest keeps going!

The Interview

Describe your book in 5 words:
Girl dying of broken heart (literally)

What is the hardest line to write- the first or the last?
The first. I’ll often return to it over and over again until I’ve sliced and diced and fine-honed it to that perfect combination of intrigue, visceral reaction, and emotional connection with the reader.

What one young adult novel do you wish you had when you were a teen? Why?
Code Name Verity because it is so emotionally honest and inspiring, empowering, not to mention gut-wrenching. Really brings the era to life as well as the sacrifices made in the name of freedom.

Tell us 5 random facts about yourself.
(1) When I was a kid I worked summer stock theatre and was actually a theatre major undergrad before switching to pre-med.  (2) I’ve had two hard landings in helicopters while working as a flight doc.  (3) I survived rampaging Cape Horn Buffalo and a pack of wild baboons, not to mention a leopard (he’d already eaten) while hiking in Hells Gate Park in Kenya.  (4) I’m a Capricorn.  (5) I diagnosed my niece with the heart condition that’s at the center of my YA thriller, BROKEN.

What are you working on now?
DAMAGED, my next YA thriller, due out in 2014. It deals with the really tough topic of abuse and coercion and is the most difficult book I’ve ever tackled—there have been times while writing when I was literally in tears as I typed.

What is your favorite genre to write in? To read?
I created my own genre of Thrillers with Heart—I love writing fast paced stories with raising stakes but centered on the emotional heart of an evolving relationship. As for reading, I read almost every genre but especially love YA, magical realism, and thrillers. As long as a story grabs me by the throat and won’t let me go because I’m too worried about what the characters are going through, I’ll read it and love it.

Books by C.J. Lyons

Young Adult

Coming Nov. 5th

Adult

 All Published

AMAZON| BARNES & NOBLE| BOOK DEPOSITORY| INKWOOD BOOKS

C.J. Lyons

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of eighteen novels, former pediatric ER doctor C.J. Lyons has lived the life she writes about in her cutting edge Thrillers with Heart.  CJ has assisted police and prosecutors with cases involving child abuse, rape, homicide and Munchausen by Proxy. She has worked in numerous trauma centers, on the Navajo reservation, as a crisis counselor, victim advocate, as well as a flight physician for Life Flight and Stat Medevac.  CJ has been a story-teller all her life, always creating stories about people discovering the courage to make a difference. This drove her into writing thrillers centering on strong relationships and led her to coin the term: Thrillers with Heart.

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Little Fish Back to School Blog Tour + Giveaway!

Little Fish: A Memoir From a Different Kind of Year by Ramsey Beyer

Author: Ramsey Beyer

Published Date: September 3, 2013

Published by: 

Summary:

Ramsey Beyer's debut autobiographical graphic novel, Little Fish: A Memoir from A Different Kind of Year, is the coming-of-age story of a small-town high schooler's transformation into an independent city-dwelling college freshman. Told through a blend of journal entries and lists plus comic-style artwork and collages, the book touches on challenges every student meets when facing the world for the first time on their own, and the unease - as well as excitement - that comes along with those challenges. Everyone can relate to Ramsey's journey from childhood to independence - from adjusting to being away from home to navigating new friendships and finding the right path.

Get your hands on a copy of the book here:

     

Or, if you're really awesome, you'll order from MY favorite bookstore: Inkwood Books

My Review:

Graphic novels are one of my obsessions.  I love them and devour my library's collection on a daily basis.  My librarian calls me when they have a new one in, my craze is so bad.  So when Zest Books asked me to be a part of the Little Fish Back to School Blog Tour, I was so very on that!

Opening up this book I felt transported back to my first year of college.  Obviously it was a very different experience but the same feelings were present.  That is what Beyer captures so well in her words and illustrations.  College is a invigorating, terrifying, exciting, and trying time whether or not you already have a grasp on what you want for the future.  You're meeting new people, gaining new experiences, and increasing your perceptions.  Just as Beyer did.  The lists she includes and the small details of that time ring true, and I never felt that she was isolating her experience into something only she would understand.  No, instead with a beautiful illustration and some choice phrases she invites you inside and welcomes you.

In English Education we talk about connections to books: Text-to-Text, Text-to-Self, and Text-to-World.  This book really brought a Text-to-Self connection for me and I'm sure it will to everyone else who reads it.  Filled with funny moments, heartbreaking moments, embarrassing moments, and tender moments, Little Fish: A Memoir From a Different Kind of Year by Ramsey Beyer should not be missed!  

If you want a copy for yourself, enter my giveaway below OR check out the purchase links above.

FINAL VERDICT: 4.5 STARS!

About Ramsey Beyer:

Ramsey Beyer grew up on a farm in Michigan before escaping

to city life in Baltimore, MD, where she received a BFA in

experimental animation. She currently lives in Philadelphia, PA

and keeps her hands busy with all sorts of projects and activities,

including gardening, riding her bike all over Philly, taking her dog

Rover for long walks, and working on comics in coffee shops.

She has been making zines since 2004 when she discovered a

love of minicomics through Snakepit, Jeffrey Brown, Nicole

Georges, and Clutch. Little Fish is her first published book.

Follow Ramsey Beyer here:

Facebook  |  Tumblr  |  Twitter  |  Website

Giveaway:

• 1 winner will receive: a prize packet that includes a finished copy of the book and an awesome poster, as well some Zesty swag!

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Trailer Thursday (33)

Today I'm bringing you a trailer for a debut dystopian that will have you on the edge of your seat.  Gritty and sparse, this is a harsh look at one girl's fight for survival and the means people will go through to get what they want.  I would definitely check it out if you're looking for a new book to dive into.

Not a Drop to Drink

by Mindy McGinnis

Published Date: September 24, 2013

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YALLFest Interview with Lauren Oliver

Hey everyone!  Here's another exciting YALLFest interview to share with you! 

If you didn't know (and you really should because it is an awesome event) YALLFest is a great YA Author Festival held in Charleston, South Carolina hosted by Blue Bicycle Books. Still a baby, with 2013 being it's third year, YALLFest brings some of the BIGGEST names in YA books together for one day of ridiculous amazing fun.  To get people excited, they have picked bloggers across the internet to host interviews with the authors attending the festival.  I am one such lucky blogger!  

Check out the rockstar author that will be gracing us with her presence at the festival down below and keep checking back as the countdown to YALLFest keeps going!

The Interview

What one thing do you need to have when you write?
Coffee!

What is the hardest line to write- the first or the last?
Honestly, neither. It’s just every single line in between that feels impossible.

Best writing tip you ever received?
Aim for truth and beauty will follow.

Tell us 5 random facts about yourself.
I have fourteen tattoos. I can fall asleep any time, any place. I have a phobia of worms. I hate fruit. I wrote my first novel largely on my Blackberry.

Where's your favorite place to write?
In my sunroom in upstate New York.

What are you working on now?
Two different middle grade books and an untitled young adult novel that my agent described as “the most disturbing thing he’s ever read.” Oops!

What is your favorite genre to write in?  To read?
I love realistic books that include just a hint of fantasy.

Books by Lauren Oliver

Delirium Series

AMAZON| BARNES & NOBLE| BOOK DEPOSITORY| INKWOOD BOOKS

LAUREN OLIVER

Lauren graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Chicago and subsequently received her MFA degree in fiction at New York University. She is the New York Times and internationally bestselling author of Before I Fall, and the Delirium series, both of which have been optioned for film. She is also the author of two books for younger readers, Liesl and Po, which was named a finalist in the 2012 E.B. White Read Aloud Awards, and The Spindlers. Before founding Paper Lantern Lit, she worked as an Assistant Editor in a young adult division of Penguin books. She has also worked as a freelance editor on projects ranging from best-selling nonfiction etiquette guides to commercial teen novels. She loves to read, run in Prospect Park, buy shoes, and work with fabulous new authors on unstoppable book ideas.

 FACEBOOK| BLOG| YOUTUBE| TWITTER

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Trailer Blast for Jennifer Shaw Wolf's DEAD GIRLS DON'T LIE!

Welcome to the Official Trailer Blast Reveal for Jennifer Shaw Wolf’s DEAD GIRLS DON’T LIE

Rachel died at two a.m . . . Three hours after Skyler kissed me for the first time. Forty-five minutes after she sent me her last text. 
Jaycee and Rachel were best friends. But that was before. . .before that terrible night at the old house. Before Rachel shut Jaycee out. Before Jaycee chose Skyler over Rachel. Then Rachel is found dead. The police blame a growing gang problem in their small town, but Jaycee is sure it has to do with that night at the old house. Rachel’s text is the first clue—starting Jaycee on a search that leads to a shocking secret. Rachel’s death was no random crime, and Jaycee must figure out who to trust before she can expose the truth.
In the follow-up to her powerful debut, Jennifer Shaw Wolf keeps readers on their toes in another dark, romantic story of murder and secrets.

PRE-ORDER IT NOW!

AMAZON | BOOK DEPOSITORY | BARNES AND NOBLE

One winner will get a signed copy of DEAD GIRLS DON’T LIE
One winner will get a signed copy of BREAKING BEAUTIFUL

Shipping in US Only – Must be 13+ to Enter

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jennifer Shaw Wolf grew up on a farm in the tiny town of St. Anthony, Idaho. She spent cold Idaho mornings milking cows in the dark and attended a school where Hunter’s Education was part of the sixth grade curriculum. She’s always been a writer, whether it was sewing together books to read to her little brothers or starting an underground newspaper in sixth grade. She met the love of her life at Ricks College, (now BYU Idaho), after he dropped her on her head. She graduated from Ricks and then Brigham Young University, Provo with a degree in Broadcast Communications. Now she lives in beautiful, green, (rainy) Lacey, Washington with her husband and four kids. She loves to produce videos, ski, ride horses, and read, but really all she has time for is chasing kids and writing.

GOODREADS | TWITTER | WEBSITE

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Top Ten Tuesday (37)

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. This meme was created because they are particularly fond of lists here at The Broke and the Bookish. They'd love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!

Each week they will post a new Top Ten list complete with one of their bloggers’ answers. Everyone is welcome to join. All they ask is that you link back to The Broke and the Bookish on your own Top Ten Tuesday post AND post a comment on their post with a link to your Top Ten Tuesday post to share.  If you don't have a blog, just post your answers as a comment.

The topic this week is: 

Top Five Books I Would Love to See as a TV Show/Movie
(set in a perfect world...in which the media doesn't butcher the books we love)

TV Shows:

1. Blue Bloods by Melissa De La Cruz - Um, hello?  This is Gossip Girl meets Dracula, but so much more awesome!  Vampires from the Upper East Side!  True Blue Bloods (do you get it?  because they're rich and privileged?).  I want it so bad I can't even explain.
2. I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga - It's Dexter for the teen crowd.  Such a creeptastic book, but so enthralling at the same time.  Jazz is my favorite messed-up, potential serial killer and I'd love to have him on my tv every week.
3. Rot & Ruin by Jonathan Maberry - Zombies and bounty hunters?  Samurai swords and guns? Please say yes to this!  The way Maberry writes lends itself so well a an action packed episode every week.  And it has a niche audience already with all the lovers of The Walking Dead (I know this is already being made into a movie, but a girl can dream).
4. Mothership by Martin Leitch and Isla Neal - A school for pregnant teens set in OUTER SPACE!  What more could you ask for?  Extremely funny, but chock-a-block full of action, pregnancy has never been more intense.  And your Teen Mom fans would love it; BAM, instant cult hit! 
5. The Wishing Spell by Chris Colfer - A book full of fairy tales come to life; defintie kid show success story.  It is a book full of whimsy, imagination, and just a little bit of fear, resulting in the perfect combination for a tv show.  Every kid would want to pick up Hans Christian Anderson and The Brothers Grimm after watching this show.

Those are my picks for my books to tv show must-haves!  If only a dream could come true (and not be screwed up in the process).  What are some of your wishlist books to tv shows/movies? Leave me a comment below!

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YALLFest Interview with Cinda Williams Chima!

Hey everyone!  Today I have a SUPER exciting interview to share with you all. 

If you didn't know (and you really should because it is an awesome event) YALLFest is a great YA Author Festival held in Charleston, South Carolina hosted by Blue Bicycle Books.  Still a baby, with 2013 being it's third year, YALLFest brings some of the BIGGEST names in YA books together for one day of ridiculous amazing fun.  To get people excited, they have picked bloggers across the internet to host interviews with the authors attending the festival.  I am one such lucky blogger!  

Check out the rockstar author that will be gracing us with her presence at the festival down below and keep checking back as the countdown to YALLFest keeps going!

The Interview

What one thing do you need to have when you write?
A computer

Describe your book in 5 words
Wizards misbehave, magic goes mutant.

What is the hardest line to write- the first or the last?
Usually the lines in between.

Best writing tip you ever received?
Give yourself permission to write badly.

Tell us 5 random facts about yourself.
1. I am a twin.
2. I am named after a character in a novel.
3. I didn’t really start driving until I was 27.
4. I am descended from Puritans and scoundrels.
5. I used to be in a folk music band.
Where's your favorite place to write?
On a balcony overlooking the ocean.

What are you working on now?
I’m writing The Sorcerer Heir, the fifth book in a trilogy.

At what point in the development of an idea do you know that it will become a full-length novel?
When I’m finished with a full-length novel.

Books by Cinda Williams Chima

The Seven Realms

The Heir Chronicles
AMAZON | BOOK DEPOSITORY | BARNES AND NOBLE | INKWOOD BOOKS

CINDA WILLIAMS CHIMA

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Cinda Williams Chima grew up with talking animals and kick-butt Barbies. She began writing poetry and stories in third grade, and novels in junior high school. Her Heir Chronicles young adult contemporary fantasy series includes The Warrior Heir (2006), The Wizard Heir (2007), and The Dragon Heir (2008), all from Hyperion, with The Enchanter Heir coming Oct. 22, 2013. 

Chima’s best-selling YA high fantasy Seven Realms series launched with The Demon King (2009), followed by The Exiled Queen (2010), The Gray Wolf Throne (2011), and The Crimson Crown (2012). 

Chima’s books have received starred reviews in Kirkus and VOYA, among others. They have been named Booksense and Indie Next picks, an International Reading Association Young Adult Choice, a New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age, to the Kirkus Best YA list, and the VOYA Editors’ Choice, Best Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror, and Perfect Tens lists. Her books also appear on numerous state awards lists. Her books have been New York Times, USA Today, and Publisher’s Weekly bestsellers. 

Chima was a recipient of the 2008 Lit Award for Fiction from the Cleveland Lit and was named a Cleveland Magazine Interesting Person 2009. She lives in Ohio with her family, and is always working on her next novel.

                                                    FACEBOOK| BLOG| GOODREADS

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SWEET LEGACY BLOG BLITZ!

Welcome to my stop on the Sweet Legacy Blog Blitz!  

Tera Lynn Childs' new book in her Sweet Venom trilogy, Sweet Legacy, is being released TODAY!  I couldn't be more excited to be one of the stops and be able to share the cover, blurb, and a special interview with Tera herself!  OH, and there's a giveaway for you all!!!

Greer has always known she was privileged, though she had no idea how special her second sight made her, even among her triplet monster-fighting sisters. But when a god starts playing with her mind, can Greer step up in her pretty high heels to prevent anything from stopping her sisters’ mission?

Grace loves her adopted brother, Thane, but now that he’s back and has joined her sisters’ team, it’s clear his past is full of dark mysteries. She wants to trust him, but will Thane’s secret put the girls in even more danger?

Gretchen knows she can rely on her sisters to help her stop the monsters. But after getting to know some of the beasties in the abyss, she finds her role as a huntress comes with more responsibility than she ever imagined. How can she know what her birthright demands of her now?

The girls cannot hesitate as they seek the location of the lost door between the realms, even as monsters and gods descend on San Francisco in battle-ready droves. In this exciting conclusion to the Medusa Girls trilogy, these teenage heirs of Medusa must seek the truth, answer the ancient riddles, and claim their immortal legacy.   

   

Indiebound (hardcover)    Amazon (hardcover | kindle)    Apple (ibookstore)   

Barnes & Noble (hardcover | nook)    Books-a-Million (hardcover)   Book Depository (hardcover)

Doesn't that sound AMAZING!  I love all of Tera's books; they're full of kick-butt females that become more than just ordinary girls.  Mermaids, gods, and mythological creatures litter her books and are some of my favorite supernatural elements!

Greek mythology is an especially big part of two of Tera's series, the Sweet Venom trilogy and the Oh. My. Gods duo.  Because of that I asked Tera a SUPER important question about her love of Greek mythology:

My Question: If you could learn more about one Greek mythology character's  life, who would it be, what would you want to know and why?

Tera's Answer: Cassandra, the prophetess from Agamemnon who was granted the gift of prophecy by Apollo. But the god also cursed her gift so that no one would ever believe her predictions. This dichotomy--knowing the future and being unable the change it--drives her insane. I would like to know more about what exactly happen edge between her and Apollo, what it was like to deal with being able to predict future tragedies, and whether there is any way to break her curse.

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 Tera Lynn Childs is the award-winning author of the Oh. My. Gods. series (Oh. My. Gods.and Goddess Boot Camp), the Fins series (Forgive My Fins, Fins Are Forever, and Just For Fins), and the Sweet Venom trilogy (Sweet Venom, Sweet Shadows, and  Sweet Legacy). She contributed to the Dear Teen Me anthology, has e-published the City Chicks chick lit series (Eye Candy and Straight Stalk), and will be publishing two e-novellas in her existing series (Goddess In Time and Pretty In Pearls). Born in Minnesota, she has lived all over the country and currently lives in Las Vegas.

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Trailer Thursday (32)

Today I'm bringing you a trailer for the fourth book in the Lorien Legacies, The Fall of Five.  I love this series; I think it's an excellent action/sci-fi adventure that appeals to both boys and girls.  I would definitely check it out if you're looking for a new series to dive into.

The Fall of Five

by Pitticus Lore

Published Date: August 27, 2013

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