Veteran Plea for Help: Bob Strait and Family from RangerUp videos

Hi all. Most of you probably know, I try to keep out of politics or really anything inflammatory because I really don't see a point in fighting (which invariably happens), plus I HATE conflict unless it's in my books. However, my husband showed me this video last night and I HAD to share it. 

What happened to these poor people is DISGUSTING. Completely disgusting. And it's not just the fact of what happened, which is horrible on it's own. It's the fact that the media doesn't care AT ALL. I NEVER heard a word of this before now. And I don't even have words for it now except to say that they deserved better. Much better.

I can't do much to help, but I can share the video. And hope that I can spread the word. So, please, if you could just take a few minutes of your time to watch the video and share it as well, I would appreciate it.

And to Mr. Strait and his family: You and your wife deserved better. I'm very sorry for what happened and how it was basically ignored by every media outlet. My thoughts and prayers will be with you and your family.

To all my blog readers.  We're all adults (or young adults) here and we're smart, beautiful people. I know that not everyone will agree with me or the video and will want to voice that opinion. As I have voiced mine. Of course, that's fine. In fact, I will encourage smart discussion of this topic. Therefore, I will leave comments available for this post, but PLEASE, please keep in mind what this family has already gone through and keep your comments respectful and tasteful. Anything I determine to be disrespectful, inflammatory, or racist/sexist, etc, will be deleted. 

Hoppy Easter Eggstravaganza Giveaway Hop

Hoppy Easter Eggstravaganza Giveaway Hop

April 6th to 12th

Hosted by I Am A Reader, Not A Writer & Yara @ Once Upon A Twilight

To celebrate the fact that RENEGADE is available for pre-order (YAY!!!) I decided to participate in the hop. (That and the picture for this is so incredibly adorable!)

 

This one is simple, all you have to do is follow my blog and then enter through the rafflecopter widget below. The prize will be a pre-order of RENEGADE from the retailer of your choice and SWAG.  If you're international, though, I will be getting it from book depository.   Simple, right?

That being said, if book depository delivers to your country, then you can enter, so yes, it's International.

Here's the cover and blurb:

Since the age of three, sixteen-year-old Evelyn Winters has been trained to be Daughter of the People in the underwater utopia known as Elysium. Selected from hundreds of children for her ideal genes, all her life she’s thought that everything was perfect; her world. Her people. The Law.

But when Gavin Hunter, a Surface Dweller, accidentally stumbles into their secluded little world, she’s forced to come to a startling realization: everything she knows is a lie. 

Her memories have been altered. 

Her mind and body aren’t under her own control. 

And the person she knows as Mother is a monster.

Together with Gavin she plans her escape, only to learn that her own mind is a ticking time bomb... and Mother has one last secret that will destroy them all.

*I'm posting early, it doesn't officially start until midnight, but please do come back and enter. :)

RENEGADE's Release date

I'm just bursting with good news lately!  As of today, RENEGADE will be released in the US in exactly 8 months! For those like me who are having issues with the math :) the release date is:

November 13, 2012!

I love this date for many reasons, most of which you'll probably find as you're reading through R. :) Do keep in mind, though, that dates can change, but as of right now, that's the official date. :)

And, as of this moment, RENEGADE is also available for pre-order from Amazon.  Here's the link:

http://www.amazon.com/Renegade-Elysium-Chronicles-J-Souders/dp/0765332450/ref=pd_rhf_gw_p_t_1

I'm still waiting for it to go "live" in the other venues (like Barnes and Noble, book depository, etc), so if you prefer to buy your books from one of them, you'll have to wait just a little longer, but I promise to post links to all the places it's available to pre-order as soon as I can.

RENEGADE's first blurb!

I'm so excited to say that RENEGADE has gotten it's first blurb! If you follow me on Twitter, then you may remember me tweeting something a week or so ago about waking up in the middle of the night, reading an email and being so excited about it I couldn't sleep for the rest of the night.

Yeah, it was about this blurb, which is by the absolutely fantastic Ann Aguirre!

Here's the blurb:

“Grim, vicious, riveting. Renegade is a haunting, unforgettable debut.” – Ann Aguirre, author of Enclave.

I absolutely adore Ann!  And not just because of the blurb. I knew I wanted her to blurb my book since I read ENCLAVE (which is absolutely fantastic. You should read it, if you haven't). I'm even lucky enough to be on a panel with her at RT and I can't wait to meet her in person! The best part? SHE asked ME if she could read it for a possible blurb and, of course, I agreed to send it to her!

On top of the rest of the books in the Razorland trilogy, Ann also just sold another YA series (a paranormal, named the Beauty series) and I canNOT wait to read them. They sound fantastic.

ENCLAVE is be her first YA series, but she's a national best-selling author of several adult science fiction books!

Anyway, because of the momentous occasion this is (at least to me), I'm going to be doing a giveaway!  I'm going to giveaway a copy of ENCLAVE so you can see for yourself how awesome she is.

All you have to do is enter through the widget below.  There's no mandatory entries, but there's a few optional options for extra entries (see widget for details).



And, Ann, if you happen to be reading this, THANK YOU SO MUCH!  Again. :)

Extra! Extra! Read all about it!

I have news!  I love sharing news. :) Especially this kind of news.

So...a riddle. What does Turkey and a Pegasus have in common?

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Give up?

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If you guessed RENEGADE, you'd be right! LOL.

I am ecstatic to announce that Turkish rights to RENEGADE have sold to Pegasus!

Here's the official announcement from PM:

Turkish rights to J.A. Souders's RENEGADE, to Pegasus, by ONK Agency, on behalf of Taryn Fagerness Agency and Natalie Fischer Lakosil of Bradford Literary Agency.

I have a funny story about this deal. I happened to be at Legoland (which is way AWESOME) with my family for a school field trip for my daughter when I asked my husband to check my phone for a message from my editor at Tor.

He gets all quiet and about a minute later says, "Well, there's nothing from your editor, but there's something from Natalie."

Me (not really paying attention because I'm trying to corral my daughter to her stroller): "Hmm?  Really? That's strange. What does it say?"

Him: "I don't know. Something about a Turkish deal for RENEGADE."

Me (turning around and snatching phone): "What? Gimme that!"

My husband watches me as I read the email twice.  Then stare at him, then go back to read the email again.  Then I squeal and grab him up in a hug, while everyone around me stares at me like I've lost my mind, including my kids.

I walked around on clouds for the rest of the day. 

I have more news, but I'll share that tomorrow or Wednesday. :)

Riddle Answer

Thanks to everyone who participated in yesterday's riddle.  I'm happy to say that everyone who answered got it right!  And a big congrats to Mindee for being the first. :)

It was the maid, because there are no corners in a circular castle.  :) 

Anyway, I've got my son thinking up and/or finding another great riddle for next week.

I've got some great news that I'll announce soon, so keep paying attention. :) I can't wait to share it.

Riddle me this

Almost every day my son comes up to me with a riddle. Either ones he's made up or ones that he's found through various means.  I love it when he comes up to me after I'm finished writing for the day. "Mom. Can I share one of my riddles now?"  I almost always say yes, because it's just awesome to see where his mind has gone for the day.  It's almost a game between us now. Can he stump mom today?  What about dad?  (Note: It's almost always harder to stump dad than mom.:P)

I think I'm going to make it a weekly feature on my blog where I choose one of my favorites from the week before and see if anyone else can get the riddle. 

The following one is really great. Or at least to me. :) So let's see how many can get this one right. And no cheating! LOL.

A king, a queen, and a princess lived in a circular castle. One day they all attended a ball in the ballroom. But when the king and queen left for the evening, they left the princess.  When they returned the next day, the princess was dead.

There were only four people who could have done it.  The cook who said he was sharpening his knives. The maid who said she was cleaning the corners. The knight who said he was sharpening his swords. And the butler who said he was guarding the door.

Who did it?

Waiting On Wednesday: Starters

"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:

STARTERS by Lissa Price

There's two reasons why I'm choosing this one for my WoW this week.  Number 1 it just sounds awesome. With microchips going bad and being stuck in the life of someone else.  Plus it's dystopian.  Hells yeah.  :)   And the cover is REALLY eye catching.   The other reason is because we share the same German publisher. IVI. Piper's new crossover imprint. I def. can't wait to read this one.

HER WORLD IS CHANGED FOREVER

Callie lost her parents when the Spore Wars wiped out everyone between the ages of twenty and sixty. She and her little brother, Tyler, go on the run, living as squatters with their friend Michael and fighting off renegades who would kill them for a cookie. Callie's only hope is Prime Destinations, a disturbing place in Beverly Hills run by a mysterious figure known as the Old Man.

He hires teens to rent their bodies to Enders—seniors who want to be young again. Callie, desperate for the money that will keep her, Tyler, and Michael alive, agrees to be a donor. But the neurochip they place in Callie's head malfunctions and she wakes up in the life of her renter, living in her mansion, driving her cars, and going out with a senator's grandson. It feels almost like a fairy tale, until Callie discovers that her renter intends to do more than party—and that Prime Destinations' plans are more evil than Callie could ever have imagined. . . .

What's your WoW?

Happy (real) Book Birthday: WHEN THE SEA IS RISING RED

Since I messed up last week and said THE SEA IS RISING RED came out LAST WEEK, I'm correcting that and announcing it TODAY instead. :) Which is it's TRUE birthday. :) So, again, HAPPY BOOK BIRTHDAY, Cat Hellisen and WHEN THE SEA IS RISING RED.

When the Sea is Rising Red by Cat Hellison

After seventeen-year-old Felicita’s dearest friend Ilven kills herself to escape an arranged marriage, Felicita chooses freedom over privilege. She fakes her own death and leaves her sheltered life as one of Pelimburg’s magical elite behind. Living in the slums, scrubbing dishes for a living, she falls for charismatic Dash while also becoming fascinated with vampire Jannik. Then something shocking washes up on the beach: Ilven's death has called out of the sea a dangerous wild magic. Felicita must decide whether her loyalties lie with the family she abandoned . . . or with those who would twist this dark power to destroy Pelimburg's caste system, and the whole city along with it. 

And a quick announcement:  The winner of the YA Paranormal giveaway hop is:

Kimberly Costa

Congrats, Kimberly.  Email me at j.souders (AT) jasouders (DOT) com with your address and the book you want.  

Thanks again to everyone who participated.  

Young Adult Paranormal Activity Giveaway Hop

And....it's another hop.  I couldn't pass this one up because the hop button was so cute and as celebration for making it past 1k followers on the blog and over 2k adds to goodreads of RENEGADE! Whee! So EXCITED!

This hop is sponsored by I Am A Reader, Not A Writer and vvb32.  There are over 100 participating blogs in this one, so make sure to take a look at the linky list below and enter to win all those awesome prizes!


This one is simple, all you have to do is follow my blog and then enter through the rafflecopter widget below. The prize will be a YA paranormal book of your choice from book depository.  Simple, right?

That being said, if book depository delivers to your country, then you can enter, so yes, it's International.