Mid-Winter's Eve Giveaway Hop Winner Announcement

Just a quick announcement that the winner of the Mid-Winter's Eve Giveaway Hop for a copy of ANNA DRESSED IN BLOOD is:

Rad Hall

Rad please email me at j.souders (at) me (dot) com by Friday. Thanks again and congratulations.

Everyone who didn't win, please stayed tuned next year for a slew of excellent posts and giveaways as I count down the days to the release of RENEGADE! 

Mid-winter's Eve Giveaway Hop

I hadn't planned on doing another hop so soon, but my group blog The Oasis for YA is hosting this one along with I Am A Reader, Not A Writer and so I wanted to show my support.  :)  Also, it's a chance to pimp my editor sister's book and mention what my favorite book of 2011 was.

So, without further adieu, I present this hop's prize.  A copy of my favorite book of 2011.  ANNA DRESSED IN BLOOD by Kendare Blake.

Anna Dressed in Blood

Just your average boy-meets-girl, girl-kills-people story...

Cas Lowood has inherited an unusual vocation: He kills the dead.

So did his father before him, until his gruesome murder by a ghost he sought to kill. Now, armed with his father's mysterious and deadly athame, Cas travels the country with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat. Together they follow legends and local lore, trying to keep up with the murderous dead—keeping pesky things like the future and friends at bay.

When they arrive in a new town in search of a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas doesn't expect anything outside of the ordinary: move, hunt, kill. What he finds instead is a girl entangled in curses and rage, a ghost like he's never faced before. She still wears the dress she wore on the day of her brutal murder in 1958: once white, but now stained red and dripping blood. Since her death, Anna has killed any and every person who has dared to step into the deserted Victorian she used to call home.

And she, for whatever reason, spares his life. 

All you have to do to enter is be a blog follower and fill in the form below.  The contest is international as I'll be buying the book through the book depository.  So, if they'll ship to you, you can enter.

The contest will run from Dec. 21st to 27th.

Winner will be announced sometime on Dec 28th.

Good luck and thanks for entering!

**For some reason, the linky list and form won't show unless you are actually in the post. So, just click the blog post title and it'll bring you to the actual post.  You'll be able to see the list, the form, and be able to post comments. Sorry for the inconvenience.**


(Oh and PS, don't forget to check back here January 19th!  I'll have the details of my BOOK COVER REVEAL scavenger hunt contest up and there's a lot of great blogs participating, not to mention an awesome prize.)

For a list of all participating blogs, please either follow the links above or click on the linky below. Thanks.

And P.P.S. I won't be posting again until the new year, so HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Hoppity-hoppity

The group blog I'm apart of, The Oasis for YA is co-hosting the 2nd annual Mid-winter Giveaway hop with I'm a Reader, Not a Writer and we want YOU to either join in the fun by joining the giveaway and/or entering the contests of the participating blogs. 

The Mid-Winter's Eve Giveaway Hop is taking place between December 21-27th and you can offer up any reading or book-related prize you like.  (BUT you can only have 3 entries per person and only 1 of those can be mandatory.)


If you'd like to join us, go here to read the full rules and sign up.

If you just want free stuff (and who doesn't :]), then come back on the December 21st for a full list of participating blogs and my own giveaway.  :)

Happy Birthday, Liz Czukas!

I'm just do a simple post today because it's my best friend/crit partner/shoulder-to-cry-on's birthday today. 

Happy Birthday, Liz!  May you be blessed with many more. Thanks for being a great friend/crit partner/shoulder-to-cry-on. And NEVER stop writing the funny. Who else will be there to balance my over-emotional stuff. :D

To balance all the funny you sent my way, here's some more. 

Waiting on Wednesday and Blog Hop Winner Announcement

"Waiting On Wednesday" is a weekly event, hosted by Jill from Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

My selection for this week's pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection is:  CRACKED by K.M. Walton.

I first saw this book when I joined the Apocalypsies and I was fascinated by the cover.  I immediately went to see what it was about, because I just couldn't figure out what the book was supposed to be about from that cover (it's perfect, though, right?)  The description had me at hello and now I can't wait to read it.

Sometimes there's no easy way out.

Victor hates his life. He has no friends, gets beaten up at school, and his parents are always criticizing him. Tired of feeling miserable, Victor takes a bottle of his mother's sleeping pills—only to wake up in the hospital.

Bull is angry, and takes all of his rage out on Victor. That makes him feel better, at least a little. But it doesn't stop Bull's grandfather from getting drunk and hitting him. So Bull tries to defend himself with a loaded gun.

When Victor and Bull end up as roommates in the same psych ward, there's no way to escape each other or their problems. Which means things are going to get worse—much worse—before they get better….

And now onto the Giveaway hop winner!

Wow, guys, I'm blown away by how many people entered the Book Lover's Holiday Giveaway hop!  Thanks to all who entered, tweeted, blogged, and otherwise spread the word.

I'm super excited to announce that the winner is:

                           SiNn

I've emailed you with instructions, so be checking your inbox.  :D  Thanks for entering and congratulations!

And, if you're interested, I'm at the BNW blog today talking about the different incarnations of my favorite fairytale. 

Torment Tuesday: Revising the suck

Yeah...not the most uplifting title, is it?  But that's the way I feel this morning. I really don't know what else to write about, so I hope you'll bear with me as I chatter on and on.  J/K.

Anyway, I'm deep into revisions and seriously I feel as tormented as my characters. I'm at that lovely stage where I just want to throw my computer at the wall because I'm pretty sure I've just written 86k words of crap. 

Sure my CPs don't agree, but I'm looking at the words I've written and wondering how I ever thought that this train wreck of a MS was a good idea. 

Okay, that's probably a bit harsh.  I've got some great things in there AND it's really technically only the first draft, but I hate it. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it. 

So, you're asking, if you hate it so much, why don't you delete and start over? 

Well, you see, that's how I ALWAYS feel at this stage. I've done it with absolutely every book I've ever written.  And I know, deep down, it's not nearly as bad as I think it is, but it's like looking in a mirror and seeing yourself as fatter than you really are. 

No matter how often someone tells you, you look great, you don't really believe it.  It's the same with my MSs for me. No matter how often my CPs tell me it's great, I only see it's flaws. 

Only after revising it to the point that I feel if I fix even one more thing I'll vomit, do I consider the fact that it may be all right. And then, that's when I send it to my agent.  So she can help me make it even better, and then to my editor, who will hopefully love it and make it practically perfect. 

So, question for you?  How long does it take you fall back in love with your manuscripts?  Do you ever get to that point?

Winner's Announced for Book Deal Celebration Giveaway!

Yay! It's the 5th of December! Which means I get to announce the winners of the two prize packs.  Unfortunately I didn't get enough entries to add the super sekrit prize with the prize packs ( :[ ) BUT that just means I get to give them away with one of the blog hops or other giveaways I'll be doing in the future.  (:])

However, in the meantime, thanks to all who entered, spread the word, congratulated me on my deal and help me celebrate this momentous occasion!  I'm very excited to get to work with Mel and all the fabulous people at Tor and I love that I get to share that excitement with all of you.

Now, onto the reason for the post.  And what I'm sure you're dying to know.

Congratulations to the following people!

The winner of the Writer's Prize pack is:

                                                  Matthew Morgan!!!

The winner of the Reader's Prize pack is:

                                                  Kate Haggard!!!


I have sent you both an email with further instructions, please make sure to check your inboxes.  Thanks again for entering and congratulations!

For those of you who didn't win, don't worry because I'm participating in a blog hop now.  And another in January, not to mention I have a whole slew of different things planned for each step of my wonderful journey. Just make sure to check my CONTEST page at the top to see what's coming up and when.

I hope you'll keep stopping by and commenting on the blog and keep doing everything all you wonderful people have been.

Again, thank you!

Book Lover's Holiday Giveaway Hop

The Holidays are just around the corner and even though I'm already giving away a TON of books here.  I have a few more I'd like to giveaway, so I joined in with I Am A Reader, Not A Writer and entered her BOOK LOVER'S Giveaway Hop to do this juicy giveaway.

I've had the priveldge of being friends with the fabulous Jaclyn Dolamore and I have an autographed copy of BETWEEN THE SEA AND SKY and an autographed ARC of MAGIC UNDER STONE to give away.

All you have to do to enter is fill in the form below.

The contest will run from Dec 2nd-Dec 6th.  Winner will be announced sometime on Dec 7th.

Good luck and thanks for entering!

Happy Book Birthday

And I have ANOTHER book birthday to celebrate this week!  This one is for fellow apocalypsie and debut author Miranda Kenneally and her wonderful CATCHING JORDAN.  I haven't read this one yet, but it sounds great and I can't wait to get my copy. 

Happy Book Birthday, Miranda, may this just be the first of many.  :D

And now for the important stuff:

What girl doesn’t want to be surrounded by gorgeous jocks day in and day out? Jordan Woods isn’t just surrounded by hot guys, though—she leads them as the captain and quarterback on her high school football team. They all see her as one of the guys, and that’s just fine. As long as she gets her athletic scholarship to a powerhouse university. But now there’s a new guy in town who threatens her starring position on the team…and has her suddenly wishing to be seen as more than just a teammate.

You can find Miranda at her website, twitter, and facebook.


CATCHING JORDAN can be found online at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Book Depository, Indiebound, Powell's, Target, or at your local bookstore.