Last Friday, we announced that we would be giving away 15 books as a thank you to our followers for helping us reach a 1500 follower milestone on the blog. I’m going to list the books below so that you can see what we have in the lineup. If you’ve already entered, there’s no need to enter again. If you haven’t entered yet, just fill out the form at the bottom of this post.
Before I get to thhe books though, I’d like to take a moment to pass on some love to 15 bloggers who have made a huge difference to us in the time that we’ve been blogging. You probably already know them. If you don’t, now is a good time to stop by their blogs and see what they have to offer!
Clara Kensie, who finds and tweets most of the entries for our Friday This Week for Writers round-ups is an amazing writer in her own right, and a generous supporter for the whole writing community. We can never give her enough credit for all she does, so she has to lead this list.
Lisa Gail Green: Lisa’s wonderful Paranormal Point of View Blog always has a ton to offer writers regardless of what genre they write. She has a depth of knowledge on all things creative, and she always offers it from a fresh, creative perspective. Her comments on our monthly 1st Five Pages Workshops are uniformly kind and helpful, ensuring that writers get the full benefit of her expertise.
Natalie Aguirre: Natalie is uniformly cheerful and insightful in all her posts and comments, and she gives of herself constantly. Her Monday interviews at Literary Rambles are always a pleasure, and we are beyond grateful to all her support this past year and a half.
The Bookshelf Muse: Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi offer an incredible service to writers of all genres with their many thesaurus entries. We love the Emotion Thesaurus, Setting Thesaurus, Weather Thesaurus, Character Trait Thesaurus, Color and Texture Thesaurus and so much more! In addition, Angela and Becca are supportive of other writers and unfailingly generous with their time and encouragement.
Cynthia Leitich Smith offers a fantastic Friday round-up of the best giveways, blog posts, and news articles. In general, this NYT bestselling author’s Cynsations blog is one of the best out there with publishing information, writer resources and inspiration, bookseller-librarian-teacher appreciation, children’s-YA book news and author outreach.
YA Highway is a group blog from a number of young adult authors all over the world. Their persepctives are always thought-provoking and smart. The blog offers interviews, great book reviews, giveaways, news, agent information and tons of insight into the world of young adult literature.
Stina Lindenblatt over at Seeing Creative offers reliably excellent posts, both on her own blog and as a contributor to Querytracker.net. She’s also genuinely an unflagging supporter of writers all over the blogosphere, and a constant source of inspiration for her obvious dedication to learning and sharing her knowledge.
Elizabeth Spann Craig is a mystery writer who writes both under her own name and as Riley Adams. Her Mystery Writing is Murder Blog is consistently filled with quality posts, and her weekly tweet roundup of writerly posts is always wonderful. In addition, she offers the Writer’s Knowledge Base, a wonderful resource that every writer should get to know.
Georgia McBride is the founder of YALITCHAT.org, an amazingly supportive online venue for writers, readers, editors, and agents who love young adult literature. She also helps an ever-growing list of writers preparing queries and first pages for submission to agents, and screens queries for a number of agents. She runs #yalitchat on Twitter, and if you haven’t participated in one of those yet, check in at 9:00 PM EST on Wedsnesdays.
Susan Sipal blogs and tweets about all things writing using Harry Potter as examples over at Harry Potter for Writers. Her insights and knowledge of mythology, fantasy, and craft is truly astounding, and her creativity is bottomless. We love her book on craft, and in addition, she is a fantastic freelance editor, and a lovely friend and supporter to virtually everyone in the writing community.
Kristen Lamb at Warrior Writers is a fantastic source for any writer who wants to learn how to build a platform that will help launch a strong sales campaign. Her #myWANA hashtag on Twitter helps build a community of support for writers who need assurance that We Are Not Alone on our journeys.
JoAnna Penn, aka The Creative Penn, is a writer, blogger, speaker, and business consultant who has self-published a number of books for well-considered reasons. She blogs and tweets about all things writing, but also offers great insight and support to help writers considering the pros and cons of self-publishing or traditional publishing based on their specific circumstances.
Jane Friedman is the former publisher of Writer’s Digest Magazine and now associate professor of e-media who continues to educate writers about the changing nature of the publishing industry. Her perspective is generous, honest, incisive, and foreward-looking. Her blog is a must-read for any writer.
Debbie Ridpath Ohi is the brilliant artist behind Inkygirl.com, the illustrated guide for those who write or draw for young people. Her unfailing humor and wide smile come across in everything she writes, tweets, and draws, and her support of others involved in publishing for young readers is boundless.
Tahereh Mafi, the author of the recently released SHATTER ME, blogs about writing and life with humor, compassion, and warmth. She is another writer who continuously brings a smile to everyone who encounters her online.
So that’s fifteen, but really there are so many more I could and should name. One of these days, I will. The online writing community is wonderfully supportive, and I can NEVER provide enough credit for all that being a small part of it has given to me. I know I speak for Marissa in this as well.
And now, back to the books:
THE DARK AND HOLLOW PLACES by Carrie Ryan
There are many things that Annah would like to forget: the look on her sister’s face before Annah left her behind in the Forest of Hands and Teeth, her first glimpse of the Horde as they swarmed the Dark City, the sear of the barbed wire that would scar her for life. But most of all, Annah would like to forget the morning Elias left her for the Recruiters.
Annah’s world stopped that day, and she’s been waiting for Elias to come home ever since. Somehow, without him, her life doesn’t feel much different than the dead that roam the wasted city around her. Until she meets Catcher, and everything feels alive again.
But Catcher has his own secrets. Dark, terrifying truths that link him to a past Annah has longed to forget, and to a future too deadly to consider. And now it’s up to Annah: can she continue to live in a world covered in the blood of the living? Or is death the only escape from the Return’s destruction?(
THE HUNGER GAMES COMPANION by Lois H. Gresh
With a bio of the author, fascinating facts, and insight into the three-book series and its main themes–from the nature of evil, weaponry, rebellions, and surviving the end of the world–this companion guide will give millions of readers the insider information that they’ve been waiting for since book one! New York Times bestselling author of the Twilight Companion, Lois Gresh, once again gives readers the opportunity to go beyond their favorite novels and learn the fascinating facts behind the fiction.
EMPIRE OF RUINS by Arthur Slade
Secret agent Modo’s next assignment? Find ancient Egyptian ruins hidden deep in the Australian jungle and the mysterious God Face, rumoured to be a powerful weapon—anyone who looks upon it will be driven mad. And he must find the God Face before the evil Clockwork Guild does!
SCORED by Lauren McLaughlin
Set in the future when teenagers are monitored via camera and their recorded actions and confessions plugged into a computer program that determines their ability to succeed. All kids given a “score” that determines their future potential. This score has the ability to get kids into colleges, grant scholarships, or destroy all hope for the above. Scored‘s reluctant heroine is Imani, a girl whose high score is brought down when her best friend’s score plummets. Where do you draw the line between doing what feels morally right and what can mean your future? Friendship, romance, loyalty, family, human connection and human value: all are questioned in this fresh and compelling dystopian novel set in the scarily forseeable future.
MY NAME IS MINA by David Almond
There’s an empty notebook lying on the table in the moonlight. It’s been there for an age. I keep on saying that I’ll write a journal. So I’ll start right here, right now. I open the book and write the very first words: My name is Mina and I love the night. Then what shall I write? I can’t just write that this happened then this happened then this happened to boring infinitum. I’ll let my journal grow just like the mind does, just like a tree or a beast does, just like life does. Why should a book tell a tale in a dull straight line?
And so Mina writes and writes in her journal, and through her stories and poems there grows an opus of her life – her lessons, heYr loves, her beliefs, her mum, her dad, her thoughts and her dreams.
In this stunningly designed book, David Almond revisits Mina before she has met Michael, before she has met Skellig, in what is a thought-provoking and extraordinary prequel to his best-selling debut novel, Skellig.
From the winner of the Whitbread Children’s Book Award the Carnegie Medal and the 2010 Hans Christian Andersen Award comes the extraordinary prequel to the award-winning Skellig
YOU HAVE SEVEN MESSAGES by Stewart Lewis
It’s been a year since Luna’s mother, the fashion-model wife of a successful film director, was hit and killed by a taxi in the East Village. Luna, her father, and her little brother, Tile, are still struggling with grief.
When Luna goes to clean out her mother’s old studio, she’s stunned to find her mom’s cell phone there—charged and holding seven unheard messages. As Luna begins to listen to them, she learns more about her mother’s life than she ever wanted to know . . . and she comes to realize that the tidy tale she’s been told about her mother’s death may not be the whole truth.
EVERY YOU, EVERY ME by David Levithan
In this high school-set psychological tale, a tormented teen named Evan starts to discover a series of unnerving photographs—some of which feature him. Someone is stalking him . . . messing with him . . . threatening him. Worse, ever since his best friend Ariel has been gone, he’s been unable to sleep, spending night after night torturing himself for his role in her absence. And as crazy as it sounds, Evan’s starting to believe it’s Ariel that’s behind all of this, punishing him. But the more Evan starts to unravel the mystery, the more his paranoia and insomnia amplify, and the more he starts to unravel himself. Creatively told with black-and-white photos interspersed between the text so the reader can see the photos that are so unnerving to Evan, Every You, Every Me is a one-of-a-kind departure from a one-of-a-kind author.
UNFORSAKEN by Sophie Littlefield
Hailey Tarbell is no typical girl. As one of the Banished who arrived from Ireland generations ago, Hailey has the power to heal—and, as she recently learned, to create zombies if she heals someone too late. But now, Hailey is finally getting a chance at a normal life. After realizing the good and bad sides of her power, Hailey has survived the unimaginable to settle with her aunt, Prairie, and her little brother, Chub, in the suburbs of Milwaukee. Finally Hailey has a loving family, nice clothes, and real friends. But her safe little world is blown apart when she tries to contact her secret boyfriend, Kaz—and alerts the incredibly dangerous man who’s looking for her to her true whereabouts.
ALL THE EARTH THROWN TO THE SKY by Joe R. Lansdale
Jack Catcher’s parents are dead—his mom died of sickness and his dad of a broken heart—and he has to get out of Oklahoma, where dust storms have killed everything green, hopeful, or alive. When former classmate Jane and her little brother Tony show up in his yard with plans to steal a dead neighbor’s car and make a break for Texas, Jack doesn’t need much convincing. But a run-in with one of the era’s most notorious gangsters puts a crimp in Jane’s plan, and soon the three kids are hitching the rails among hoboes, gangsters, and con men, racing to warn a carnival wrestler turned bank robber of the danger he faces and, in the process, find a new home for themselves. This road trip adventure from the legendary Joe R. Lansdale is a thrilling and colorful ride through Depression-era America.
PAINTINGS FROM THE CAVE by Gary Paulsen
Meet Jake who lives in a neighborhood controlled by street violence and fear. He meets a sculptor across the street, and his eyes are opened to another world. Or Jojo,who’s closer to her three dogs than to her foster family. When Jojo tries to help another girl who needs a friend, the dogs know what to do. Or Jamie, Erik, and Grandpa, who make up an unusual family.
CATWALK by Deborah Gregory
In Catwalk, DEBORAH GREGORY creates a new YA series that takes her famously upbeat urban voice and combines it with the appeal of Project Runway and America’s Next Top Model. Catwalk follows Pashmina, Felinez, Angora, and Aphro, four best friends at Manhattan’s Fashion International High School who are about to enter the contest of their lives. Each year, students split up into Fashion Houses and compete to design, produce, and show fully original fashion lines. The winner gets a scholarship, a professional show, and a real shot at a career in fashion. Bouncy, smart, and nearly irresistible, Catwalk is a fierce introduction to a fashion world where fabulosity trumps waist size, and there truly is room for everyone.
PAST CONTINUOUS by K. Ryer Breese
Ade Patience has done what he was told he couldn’t. He’s broken the rules, used his powers to save a life. And no good deed goes unpunished. . . .
Senior year finds Ade and his girlfriend, Vauxhall, deeply in love, indulging themselves with wild dates and exploring their newly strengthened abilities. Only Ade isn’t as happy as he should be. He’s got an itch that he can’t seem to scratch and it has everything to do with his joining the Pandora Crew, a group of radical oracles hell-bent on disturbing the peace, performing Jackass-style stunts, and spreading the mayhem.
When Ade realizes that his involvement with the Pandora Crew is due to his absorbing some of Jimi Ministry’s abusive childhood, he discovers that the only way to rid himself of the infectious memories is to erase his past. And it just so happens that the one guy who can do that lives a few blocks down the street.
The procedure works. The “Jimi cancer” is cleared out. But when Ade returns to his life, he finds that changing the past has changed the present. Vauxhall has no idea who he is and he has to woo her all over again. And it won’t be easy. There are three other people vying for Vauxhall’s attention. Three other guys he has to literally battle to win her back. The worst part: they’re all twisted versions of Ade.
Erasing the past has dramatically altered the present and Ade must join forces with his former rival to defeat . . . himself.
THE HUNT OF THE UNICORN by C.C. Humphreys
Elayne thinks the old family story that one of her ancestors stepped through a tapestry into a world of mythical beasts makes a great fireside tale. But she lives in the real world. In New York City. And she’s outgrown that kind of fantasy.
Until she finds herself in front of a unicorn tapestry at the Cloisters museum and sees her initials woven into the fabric. And hears a unicorn calling to her. And slips and falls—into that other world.
Suddenly the line between fantasy and reality isn’t so clear. But the danger is real enough. Almost before she can think, Elayne is attacked by a ferocious beast, rescued by a unicorn, and taken prisoner by a tyrant king. Each of them seems to have an idea about her—that she’s a hero, a villain, dinner!
But Elayne has a few ideas of her own. She wants to overthrow the king; she wants to tame the unicorn. She wants to go home! And she’s willing to become both hero and villain to do it.
MASTIFF by Tamora Pierce
The Legend of Beka Cooper gives Tamora Pierce’s fans exactly what they want—a smart and savvy heroine making a name for herself on the mean streets of Tortall’s Lower City—while offering plenty of appeal for new readers as well.
Beka and her friends will face their greatest and most important challenge ever when the young heir to the kingdom vanishes. They will be sent out of Corus on a trail that appears and disappears, following a twisting road throughout Tortall. It will be her greatest Hunt—if she can survive the very powerful people who do not want her to succeed in her goal.
UNDERCURRENT by Tricia Rayburn
Nothing has been normal since Vanessa Sands learned that her sister was murdered by sirens—femme fatales of the watery depths—and that everything she believed about her family was a lie.
Her boyfriend Simon’s been the only person Vanessa feels she can really trust. But now there are some secrets she can’t tell even him. And when Vanessa finds herself in the sights of Parker, Hawthorne Prep’s resident charmer, she needs someone to confide in more than ever. Doubting her relationship with Simon, unsure of Parker’s intentions—and of her own—and terrified by what she’s learned about herself, Vanessa has never felt so alone.
But personal problems must be put aside, because the Winter Harbor sirens are back for revenge. Now, Vanessa must face her past and accept that she is just like her enemies—every bit as alluring, every bit as dangerous.
The eagerly anticipated second novel of the Siren trilogy, Undercurrent is a seductive paranormal romance that will leave you breathless.
Once again, thanks so much everyone for all your support! We love you all.
Martina
On behalf of the ladies of AYACP
