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!

Silence of the blog

So…do you guys remember a week or so ago, when I apologized for being so busy that I couldn’t post on my blog?  And remember I said I had a good reason why and that I would tell you why as soon as I could?  Well, that day is today! 

Some of you may have already seen why, since Publisher’s Marketplace was a tiny bit excited by my news and decided to let everyone know on Saturday instead of today.  ; )  So, I won’t make this all long and drawn out like I wanted to.  :P 

I SOLD MY DEBUT BOOK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

(*Pauses for applause, bows, blows kisses, wipes the tears from my eyes*)  

Yeppers, THAT’S the reason. Pretty good reason, huh?  :)  I’ve been so busy with getting it ready for submission, the BEING on submission, then keeping my mouth shut AFTER I had an offer that I didn’t blog.  Although, to be fair, the keeping my mouth shut after the offer didn’t really keep me too busy to blog.  I was just terrified that I’d someone let something slip, I just kept my fingers busy with other things, namely plotting the next book in the series, because it’s a THREE BOOK DEAL!!!!!!!! 

See what I did there?  Hehe!

And now onto the actual announcement from Publisher’s Marketplace so you can have all the details.

Jessica Souders's RENEGADE, about a female assassin in an underwater Utopia who realizes her memories have been altered and her mind and body aren't under her own control, to Melissa Frain at Tor, in a nice deal, in a three-book deal, by Natalie Fischer at Bradford Literary Agency (World English). Translation: 
taryn.fagerness@gmail.com

I'm still in a state of shock.   The last few weeks I've been pinching myself almost contstantly to see if I'm dreaming.  I think the bruises speak for themselves. :D

I’m so excited to be able to work with such an awesome editor and a fantastic publishing house.  Heck, I practically GREW UP reading books from Tor (my family is a huge fan of Science Fiction—not all that surprising, huh?)

And, one last thing, I wouldn’t have been able to do this without my awesome crit partners (Liz Czukas, Larissa Hardesty, JaclynDolamore, Leah Crichton, and Anne Sheridan), my numerous beta readers, my family (specifically my husband), and last but certainly not least my fantabolous agent, Natalie Fischer (you are SO getting a hug when I see you in NJ). So, I want to say a heart felt thank you to all of you, it doesn’t even come close to how grateful I am for each one of you (Ha! Since I did a small acknowledgement here, just wait to see what I put in the book’s acknowledgement page!  Bwahahaha!)

Well, I could go on forever, but I’ll just wrap this up with a huge…

SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

~J

Two more blog awards

I keep meaning to post these, but I never remember!  So, I'm doing it now.

Both of them come from another writing friend and the wonderful things she's said about me and my blog made me teary.  So thank you Dorothy Dreyer!

The first is a strange award.  No really that's what it's called!  And I LOVED this one.  It's SOO true!  I'm a bit strange and I celebrate it gladly!

 The next one is a beautiful Life is Good award and comes with questions, so here ya go:

Questions:

1. If you blog anonymously are you happy doing it that way; if you are not anonymous do you wish you had started out anonymously so you could be anonymous now?
No I love being open about my blog.  Besides that would completely ruin the point of wanting everyone to know who I am!  :D

2. Describe one incident that shows your inner stubborn side:
My husband would be able to answer that better than I can.  ; )

3. What do you see when you really look at yourself in the mirror?
A little girl who wonders why she's looking at old, fat girl.  :D

4. What is your favourite summer cold drink?
Arnold Palmers:  1/2 lemonade, 1/2 iced tea

5. When you take time for yourself, what do you do?
Read a book in the bath or hot tub. Or go horseback riding in the woods.

6. Is there something you still want to accomplish in your life? What is it?
Getting published.  Getting published.  And...oh yeah, getting published. :D

7. When you attended school, were you the class clown, the class overachiever , the shy person, or always ditching?
I was the shy one.  People thought I was rude and prissy because I was too nervous to speak to anyone.  And I always had a book with me so I wouldn't HAVE to talk to anyone.  I was just too shy, though.  If they'd come up and talked to me, I would have talked back.  I like making new friends.
 
8. If you close your eyes and want to visualize a very poignant moment of your life what would you see?
Poignant as in touching, not poignant as in sad: the births of my children.  (BTW, I totally stole this answer from Dorothy, because it's exactly right.

9. Is it easy for you to share your true self in your blog or are you more comfortable writing posts about other people or events?
I don't know.  I guess it's just easier to use myself as an example, but I can do both fairly easily, so...I don't know.   

10. If you had the choice to sit down and read or talk on the phone, which would you do and why?
Definetely read.  I hate talking on the phone.  It makes me feel weird with all the silences that must be filled.  Give me a good book and a cold drink and I'm good to go.



So now I'm supposed to pass these on to other bloggers.  Here's my lovely list.  

The girls from Oasis For YA:

* Jessie  at The Daily Harrell
* Sheri at Writer’s Ally
* Nikki of her self-titled blog
* AE Rought at Love, Light and Shadows

Other writer friends

* Liz Czukas at her self-titled blog
* Larissa Hardesty at Larissa's World
* Jaclyn Dolamore at her self titled blog
* Kristi LaPointe at Mommy Barbie
* Adventure's In Children's Publishing
* Leah Crichton at her self titled blog
* MJ Heiser at Dispatches from Jaenrye
* Slushpile hero
* Jody Hedlund at her self-titled blog
* Lynn Rush at Catch the Rush
* Jordan Deen at her self titled blog