Notes:
First and foremost, I’m thinking and hoping for everyone still mired in the aftermath of Sandy! My heart and prayers go out to you.
Second, our November First Five Pages Workshop with guest mentor A.C. Gaughen will open for entries at noon tomorrow. Please see here for details!
Have a safe and happy weekend,
Martina
THIS WEEK’S GIVEAWAY
No Man’s Land
by S.T. Underdahl
Signed Paperback Original
Brian came home from Afghanistan.But he brought the war back with him.
If life were a movie, my role would be Emo Kid/Family Loser. My brother Brian would star as Master of the Universe. You might think it would be easy to resent him, but my brother is impossible to hate. Just like everyone else, I’m thrilled to have Brian back home from Afghanistan in one piece.
But he’s different now.
Everyone refuses to see my brother’s dark secret. What will it take for them to wake up and face the ugly truth?
Praise for The Other Sister:
“Gently touching and ultimately hopeful, Underdahl lets the reader know that while the past can’t be erased, a new and loving present can be created—a vivid and moving story.”—Kirkus Reviews
“This vivid, realistic portrait of a family in transition will hold readers’ interest to the very last page.”—School Library Journal
Praise for Remember This:
“This demure novel’s veritas provides compelling reading.”—VOYA
“Heart-felt and touching. The mix of serious issues and lighter fare will appeal to a wide audience.”—KLIATT
Author Question: What is your favorite thing about No Man’s Land?
My favorite thing about No Man’s Land? Besides that it’s finally hitting shelves, haha? I suppose it would be that I think it’s opportunity to make people more aware of the challenges faced by veterans and their families as they return from foreign service. I also really enjoyed learning more about the hardcore music scene and hopefully challenging some misconceptions that people have when they see kids who embrace the emo style…it doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re depressed, or that they harm or cut themselves. They’re just trying to express themselves in a unique and different way, something that makes some people uncomfortable, apparently.
View No Man’s Land on Goodreads
Flash Point
by Nancy Kress
Signed Hardcover
Amy had dreams of going to college, until the Collapse destroyed the economy and her future. Now she is desperate for any job that will help support her terminally ill grandmother and rebellious younger sister. When she finds herself in the running for a slot on a new reality TV show, she signs on the dotted line, despite her misgivings. And she’s right to have them. TLN’s Who Knows People, Baby–You? has an irresistible premise: correctly predict what the teenage cast will do in a crisis and win millions. But the network has pulled strings to make it work, using everything from 24/7 hidden cameras to life-threatening technology to flat-out rigging. Worse, every time the ratings slip, TLN ups the ante. Soon Amy is fighting for her life–on and off camera.
Author Question: What is your favorite thing about Flash Point?
My favorite thing about my book, as with nearly everything I write, are my characters. Sisters, Amy and Kayla could not be more different. Amy is responsible, hard-working, law-abiding, and sometimes she hates being like that. Kayla is bold, larcenous, and irresponsible, and sometimes she wishes she were more like Amy. I enjoyed writing that yearning all of us occasionally have for whatever traits we don’t possess, as well as how we reach for those traits in times of crisis. Even with sometimes disastrous results.
Passion Blue
by Victoria Strauss
Signed Hardcover
When seventeen-year-old Giulia, the orphaned, illegitimate daughter of a Milanese nobleman, learns she’s to be packed off to a life behind convent walls, she begs an astrologer-sorcerer for a talisman that will secure what she’s certain is her heart’s desire: true love and a place where she belongs. But does she really know the compass of her heart? The convent of Santa Marta is full of surprises, including a workshop of nuns who are creating paintings of astonishing beauty using a luminous blue mixed from a secret formula: Passion Blue. As Giulia’s own artistic self is awakened she’s torn: should she follow the young man who promises to help her escape? Or stay and satisfy her growing desire to paint?
This richly imagined novel of a girl’s daring journey towards self-discovery transports readers into the fascinating world of Renaissance Italy where love and faith and art inspire passion – of many different hues.
Author Question: What is your favorite thing about Passion Blue?
Getting to step into a Renaissance painter’s workshop, through Giulia’s eyes. I’ve always adored Italian Renaissance paintings, but just as much, I’m fascinated by the technical details of creating them. For the most part, Renaissance painters didn’t buy ready-made materials–they crafted nearly everything themselves, from the surfaces they painted on, to the paints and lacquers they used, even to the frames. Paint recipes were valuable secrets, as closely-guarded as industrial secrets are today. I loved researching all of this. Writing Passion Blue let me become a painter myself for a little while–if only in my imagination. (And by the way, I can’t draw to save my life!)
View Passion Blue on Goodreads
LAST WEEK’S GIVEAWAY WINNERS
Touching the Surface
by Kimberly Sabatini
Signed Hardcover w/ Swag
WINNER: Kayley F.
Experience the afterlife in this lyrical, paranormal debut novel that will send your heart soaring.
When Elliot finds herself dead for the third time, she knows she must have messed up, big-time. She doesn’t remember how she landed in the afterlife again, but she knows this is her last chance to get things right.
Elliot just wants to move on, but first she will be forced to face her past and delve into the painful memories she’d rather keep buried. Memories of people she’s hurt, people she’s betrayed…and people she’s killed.
As she pieces together the secrets and mistakes of her past, Elliot must find a way to earn the forgiveness of the person she’s hurt most, and reveal the truth about herself to the two boys she loves…even if it means losing them both forever.
Author Question: What is your favorite thing about Touching the Surface?
My favorite thing about my book is that my MC, Elliot, is not an instantaneously likable character. I think she wears some of her faults on her sleeve and camouflages quite a few of soft spots–for protection. I adore characters that sweep me off of my feet from the very first sentence. I want to be best friends with them, but a character like Elliot, is more like me–not always perfect. She gives me a lot of hope that I’ll some day be able to get my own act together. And of course there is that thing where MY BOOK IS A BOOK! That is also pretty awesome. :o)
Order Touching the Surface on Amazon
View Touching the Surface on Goodreads
Dead Girl Moon
by Charlie Price
Signed Hardcover
WINNER: Sarah O.
Author Question: What is your favorite thing about Dead Girl Moon?
In Dead Girl Moon I get to follow three teens with significantly different life challenges. They represent composites of kids I met in psych hospitals and schools who were trying to rise above their difficult and sometimes damaging home lives to forge their own dreams with their own resources. In this novel they encounter a situation that forces them to collaborate to cope with an increasingly dangerous, possibly lethal threat. I knew, from my work experience, that they could be successful together, but I had no idea how they would develop solutions to their dilemma. I loved watching them make choices and deal with the consequences. I always tried to “observe” them rather than “steer” them. For me, the unfolding process itself was my greatest pleasure.
Order Dead Girl Moon on Amazon
View Dead Girl Moon on Goodreads
CHARACTER BUCKET LIST GIVEAWAY
THE HALLOWED ONES
By Laura Bickle
WINNER: KIMMIE
If your home was the last safe place on earth, would you let a stranger in?
Katie is on the verge of her Rumspringa, the time in Amish life when teenagers can get a taste of the real world. But the real world comes to her in this dystopian tale with a philosophical bent. Rumors of massive unrest on the “Outside” abound. Something murderous is out there. Amish elders make a rule: No one goes outside, and no outsiders come in. But when Katie finds a gravely injured young man, she can’t leave him to die. She smuggles him into her family’s barn—at what cost to her community? The suspense of this vividly told, truly horrific thriller will keep the pages turning.
“This is a book to make you fear the shadows–a horrifying and gruesome tale of faith, and things that blink red eyes in the night. I began reading in the daylight, and read on into the late hours, leaning close, biting my lip. I could not look away; I was obsessed. Katie is an unbreakable soul.”
–Lauren DeStefano, New York Times and USA Today Bestselling author of the Chemical Garden Trilogy
“What an eerily believable, unique story! I can’t stop thinking about it—or shivering.
—Melissa Marr, New York Times best-selling author of the Wicked Lovely series
“Readers will find it hard to put down this suspenseful, scary, compulsively readable adventure…”
-Kirkus Reviews
THE HALLOWED ONES is available from Barnes and Noble, Amazon, Powell’s, and Books A Million.
A free excerpt of THE HALLOWED ONES is available here: http://laurabickle.com/the-hallowed-ones/?action=excerpt
For more info about Laura and her books, please visit her website at www.laurabickle.com. She’s also on Facebook and Twitter, usually exclaiming over cute cat pictures and nerdy things.
IN STORES NEXT WEEK WITH AUTHOR INTERVIEWS
Eternally Yours (Immortal Beloved)
by Cate Tiernan
Hardcover
After 450 years of living, Nastasya Crowe should have more of a handle on this whole immortal thing….
After a deadly confrontation at the end of Darkness Falls, the second Immortal Beloved novel, Nastasya Crowe is, as she would put it, so over the drama. She fights back against the dark immortals with her own brand of kick-butt magick…but can she fight against true love? In the satisfying finale to the Immortal Beloved trilogy, ex-party-girl immortal Nastasya ends a 450-year-old feud and learns what “eternally yours” really means.
Laced with historical flashbacks and laugh-out-loud dialogue, the Immortal Beloved trilogy is a fascinating and unique take on what it would mean to live forever.
Author Question: What is your favorite thing about Eternally Yours (Immortal Beloved)?
Gee–my favorite thing about the book? That’s really hard! I love the very ending part, when you get a glimpse of what Nasty’s life is like now. But I also love the flashbacks, and I love seeing how her character changes and grows. We see the most growth in the last volume, and that’s exciting and rewarding to me.
Order Eternally Yours (Immortal Beloved) on Amazon
View Eternally Yours (Immortal Beloved) on Goodreads
Perry’s Killer Playlist
by Joe Schreiber
Hardcover
When Perry ends up in Venice on a European tour with his band Inchworm, he can’t resist a visit to Harry’s Bar, where Gobi told him she’d meet him someday. The last time he saw Gobi, five people were assassinated one crazy night in New York City. Well . . . Gobi shows up, and once again Perry is roped into a wild, nonstop thrill ride with a body count. Double crossings, kidnappings, CIA agents, arms dealers, boat chases in Venetian canals, and a shootout in the middle of a Santa Claus convention ensue.
Author Question: What is your favorite thing about Perry’s Killer Playlist?
I think my favorite thing about PERRY was that it gave me an excuse to take my family on a research trip through Europe. Most of the locations in the book — clubs, hotels and the helipad in Zermatt — are places that we actually visited.
Also, making the actual playlist was a lot of fun.
Order Perry’s Killer Playlist on Amazon
View Perry’s Killer Playlist on Goodreads
Days of Blood & Starlight
by Laini Taylor
Hardcover
Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love and dared to imagine a world free of bloodshed and war.
Author Question: What is your favorite thing about Days of Blood & Starlight?
My single favorite thing? That’s impossible!!! Well, okay. If I have to pick one, I’m going to go with the idea that was my A-ha! moment during the early plotting and planning. I had an overall sense of the series arc and what I wanted to happen in book 2, but this idea, when it arose out of brainstorming, became the event toward which I was reaching during the entire year plus that I was writing the book. At first, I thought it would happen in the first half but it didn’t. Like a carrot suspended before a mule, it kept moving ahead as I moved ahead, and finally ended up in the climax. I don’t want to say what chapter it is, because I don’t want anyone to flip to it before they get there. But I’ll say that it has to do with a deception.
I just happened to come across the blog post where I mentioned finally having written that scene! It’s here.
Order Days of Blood & Starlight on Amazon
View Days of Blood & Starlight on Goodreads
Bitter Blood (Morganville Vampires)
by Rachel Caine
Hardcover
Thanks to the eradication of the parasitic creatures known as the draug, the vampires of Morganville have been freed of their usual constraints. With the vampires indulging their every whim, the town’s human population is determined to hold on to their lives by taking up arms. But college student Claire Danvers isn’t about to take sides, considering she has ties to both the humans and the vampires.
To make matters worse, a television show comes to Morganville looking for ghosts, just as vampire and human politics collide. Now, Claire and her friends have to figure out how to keep the peace without ending up on the nightly news…or worse.
Author Question: What is your favorite thing about Bitter Blood (Morganville Vampires)?
I think the most fun thing about it to write was the mayoral election pieces. Don’t get me wrong … there are some dire things that go on in this book, and some serious consequences, but it was really super fun to inject some mayhem into the proceedings, too. And throwing in the ghost hunting team to add to the chaos was great fun as well. No matter how dark the books get — and I freely admit that occasionally they wander down a dark alley or two! — I try to always balance it out with a sense that it isn’t ALL horror 24/7 living in Morganville, and you can still have a good time … if you’re careful.
Order Bitter Blood (Morganville Vampires) on Amazon
View Bitter Blood (Morganville Vampires) on Goodreads
MORE RELEASES IN STORES NEXT WEEK
Sirens
by Janet Fox
Paperback Original
When Josephine’s father ships her off to live with her rich cousins on the glittering island of Manhattan, he says it’s to find a husband. But Jo knows better–there’s trouble brewing, and in 1925, all that glitters is not gold. Caught up in a swirl of her cousin’s bobbed-hair set–and the men that court them–Jo soon realizes that this world of jazz and gangsters and their molls hides a nest of lies. But when she befriends the girlfriend of one of the most powerful and dangerous gangesters in town, Jo begins to uncover secrets–secrets that threaten an empire and could destroy everyone she loves. Jo is faced with a choice: hang on to her soul, or lose herself in the decade of decadence.
Fans of The Great Gatsby, Libba Bray’s The Diviners, and Bright Young Things will be captivated by Janet Fox’s Roaring Twenties tale.
Colin Fischer
by Ashley Edward Miler and Zack Stentz
Hardcover
Colin Fischer cannot stand to be touched. He does not like the color blue. He needs index cards to recognize facial expressions. But Colin is Wayne Connelly’s best–and only–hope of proving his innocence after Wayne is accused of blowing up a birthday cake in the school cafeteria. Colin and Wayne quickly set off on a journey to prove Wayne’s innocence, but neither realizes just how far their investigation will take them or that it will force Colin to consider the greatest mystery of all: what other people are thinking and feeling.
Colin Fischer is a modern-day Sherlock Holmes. He’s a boy with Asperger’s syndrome who sees clues in the unlikeliest of places, and whom readers will root for right up until the case is solved . . . and beyond.
