Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins

HEX HALL

by Rachel Hawkins

Commercial Young Adult

Disney/Hyperion
www.HyperionBooksForChildren.com


5 autographed copies will be given away on Friday, March 5, 2010!

Rachel Hawkins explains what it takes to get exiled to Hex Hall! Listen to our exclusive interview with Rachel here!

About the Book:

Three years ago, Sophie Mercer discovered that she was a witch. It's gotten her into a few scrapes. Her non-gifted mother has been as supportive as possible, consulting Sophie's estranged father--an elusive European warlock--only when necessary. But when Sophie attracts too much human attention for a prom-night spell gone horribly wrong, it's her dad who decides her punishment: exile to Hex Hall, an isolated reform school for wayward Prodigium, a.k.a. witches, faeries, and shapeshifters.
By the end of her first day among fellow freak-teens, Sophie has quite a scorecard: three powerful enemies who look like supermodels, a futile crush on a gorgeous warlock, a creepy tagalong ghost, and a new roommate who happens to be the most hated person and only vampire on campus. Worse, Sophie soon learns that a mysterious predator has been attacking students, and her only friend is the number-one suspect.
As a series of blood-curdling mysteries starts to converge, Sophie prepares for the biggest threat of all: an ancient secret society determined to destroy all Prodigium, especially her.

About the Author:

Rachel Hawkins is a high school English teacher. She lives with her family in Alabama, and is currently at work on the next book in the Hex Hall series. Visit the author online at: www.Rachel-Hawkins.com and www.ReadingWritingRachel.blogspot.com

**Please enter to win using the form on the left side bar. Comments left on the post, while appreciated, are not used as entry. Thanks!

Nothing But Trouble After Midnight - Winners!

3 lucky winners will be receiving free autographed copies of Nothing But Trouble After Midnight!


And here they are...

1) Megan Devinney
2) Margie Senechal
3) Pearl Elliot


Congrats to the winners!

If you didn't win, but still want to read Nothing But Trouble After Midnight, you can order your own copies on Amazon by clicking here!

Or find it in our Free Book Friday Amazon Store!

Nothing But Trouble After Midnight by Kimberly Blackadar

NOTHING BUT TROUBLE AFTER MIDNIGHT

by Kimberly Blackadar

Young Adult
Two Harbors Press
www.NothingButTroubleAfterMidnight.com
www.KimberlyBlackadar.wordpress.com


3 Signed Copies will be given away on Friday, February 26th, 2010!


About the Book:

Chloe Preston has the perfect teenage life: great friends, a full social calendar, and the ideal boyfriend. 



But perfect never stays that way. 



One night, Chloe’s life is shattered, and all she can hope for is that the memory will fade like a bad dream. But secret truths are dangerous, and Chloe discovers that keeping things hidden causes more harm than good—especially when the nightmare is real and comes back for more. 



Will Chloe find the strength to face the truth, or will she remain a victim of her own fears? 



Insightful and compelling, author Kimberly Blackadar’s Nothing but Trouble after Midnight is an unprecedented battle between true love and ill-fated circumstance.




Read our Exclusive Interview with the Author!

1) When did you first know that you wanted to be a writer?

The idea first surfaced in eighth grade. Not in a conventional way—like winning an essay contest, but when my teacher called roll on the first day of school. “Kimberly Blackadar,” he said, “that is the name of an author.” I was only thirteen, and my best pieces of writing were often folded and passed across the room, but still his words stayed with me, year after year, until I sat down at my computer and started my first book.

2) Your characters seem so alive and real...what's your secret?

I write teen fiction, so I listen to teenagers—not just the way they talk, but what troubles them the most. I do, however, warn them (with a huge smirk) that what they say can and will be used in future novels.

3) How do you come up with your character names?

Hmm, I was just asked this question during a recent school visit, and with some serious color in my cheeks, I admitted, “I google sexy baby names.” I mean, some names just scream romance fiction, and others, um, don’t. (My name, by the way, is not on any of the lists. Apparently, my parents didn’t consider sex appeal when they named me.)

4) Which fictional character do you have a secret crush on?

Rob Callahan. He’s perfect, and he says exactly what I want him to say. (Imagine that?) Seriously though, romance writers need to fall for their book’s love interest right along with the main character; it makes the story more believable. But girls, remember this: most fictional boys are too good to be true, and well, that’s because they aren’t.

5) Which came first, the title or the novel?

The novel came first, but the title is a line in the book. When I was reading over the first draft, the phrase popped from the page and I knew it would make a great title. Teens, no matter which path they choose in life, are intrigued by “trouble.” Some seek it; others avoid it. Either way, I wanted to hook them with the title.

About the Author:

Born in Massachusetts, but raised in Florida, Kimberly Blackadar graduated from Florida State University and then spent eight years in the classroom—primarily as an English, social studies, and drama teacher. Now a homeschooling mom living in Minnesota, she draws from her teaching experiences to offer realistic fiction to her readers.
 Visit the author online at: www.KimberlyBlackadar.wordpress.com.

**Please enter to win using the form on the left side bar of our website. Comments left on the post, while appreciated, are not used as entry. Thanks!

Captivate - Winners!

3 lucky winners will be receiving free Autographed Gift Sets, including Captivate in hardback as well as Need in paperback!


And here they are...

1) Siobhan Clayton
2) Melissa Bauer
3) Julie Wan


Congrats to the winners!

If you didn't win, but still want to read Captivate, you can order your own copies on Amazon by clicking here!

Or find it in our Free Book Friday Amazon Store!

Captivate by Carrie Jones

CAPTIVATE

by Carrie Jones

Fantasy Young Adult

Bloomsbury
www.CarrieJonesBooks.com

3 Autographed Gift Sets (including CAPTIVATE in hardback and NEED in paperback) will be given away on Friday, February 19, 2010!



A New York Times Bestseller!

Don't miss the first book in the series, NEED!

About CAPTIVATE

In this NYT-Bestselling sequel to NEED, Zara and her friends knew they hadn't solved the pixie problem for good. Far from it. The king's needs grow deeper every day he's stuck in captivity, while his control over his people gets weaker. It's made him vulnerable. And now there's a new king in town.

A turf war is imminent, since the new pixie king, Astley, is moving in quickly. Nick nearly killed him in the woods on day one, but Zara came to his rescue. Astley swears that he and Zara are destined to be together, that he's one of the good guys. Nick isn't buying it, though Zara isn't as sure -- despite herself, she wants to trust the new king. But it's a lot more than her relationship with Nick that is at stake. It's her life -- and his.

Read our exclusive interview with Carrie Jones!

1) CAPTIVATE sounds like such a great concept. How did you come up with the idea?

Well, CAPTIVATE is the sequel to NEED, and NEED was inspired by this weird thing that happened.

I was at the Common Ground Fair, which is this huge, cool fair in Maine that’s sponsored by the Maine Organic Farmers and Growers Association (MOFGA). To get to the main part of the fair you have to walk through this sweet trail that curves through these tall spruce trees.

While I was walking, right in front of me was this guy. He had a weird vibe. He was wearing all corduroy—blazer, pants. And sticking out from his blazer was this long tail-like appendage that was wrapped in different colored earth-toned cloth.

I guess he could tell I was checking him out because he turned his head and looked at me. His eye was this startling silver color. How startling? So startling that I actually gasped and got creeped out.

When we were in line to pay we made eye contact again and his eyes were brown.

I know! I know! I probably imagined the silver eye color.

It doesn’t matter. That was one of the main things that got me started. Then, I just had this image of a man standing outside an airport pointing at an airplane this girl was on.

It also creeped me out.

So, I started writing.

2) What was your favorite part of writing this book? Your least favorite part?

I loved writing the love scenes. I hated cutting the love scenes. My editor was all, “TOO MUCH MUSH! CUT! CUT!”

She was right but it was sooo hard.

3) This series would make an awesome movie. Any interest from studios or producers?

A little bit. ;) It’s so hard telling people when they write fan mail that you don’t get to decide to make it a movie, but someone has to buy the rights. I always feel like I’m disappointing them.

4) What’s the first thing you do when starting a new book? What’s the first thing you do when finishing a new book?

I sit at the computer when I start. I open a new file.

When I finish I tend to stand up, look at the computer, cock my head like a confused dog and say, “Huh… Is that it? Yeah, I guess so.”

Then I close the file and walk around like a zombie for an hour.

About the Author:

• Carrie can not drink coffee. It makes her insane. Do not give her caffeine.
• Carrie is very responsive to loving strokes on the hair, kind of like a puppy. However, do not do this without asking first unless you are a ridiculously handsome man or an editor who is about to offer her a trillion dollars for the first draft of her novel.
• Carrie is secretly really, really shy even though she’s pathetically outgoing in person. She has a very hard time calling people. So, if you want to talk to her, make the first move. And, if you’re her in-Maine female best friend, Jennifer, do NOT get mad at her because she is so bad at returning emails.
• Carrie sometimes wears mismatched socks, if you do not think this is cool, do not tell her. You will hurt her feelings.
• Carrie really, really wants you to like her books. Please like her books. PLEEEAASSSEEEE. She’ll be your best friend forever. That is, if you want a friend who is shy about calling and emailing and who wears mismatched socks and can’t drink caffeine and likes being pet on the head. Hhmmm….
• Carrie is not above begging.
• Carrie, like Belle in TIPS ON HAVING A GAY (ex) BOYFRIEND drinks Postum. It’s for the same reason, too.
• Carrie loves Great Pyrenees dogs. They are huge and white, and furry and it looks like they have white eyeliner and mascara on, which is way too cute. Do you have one? Send a picture!
• Carrie lives in Maine. She has a hard time with this in the winter. It is bleak in Maine in the winter. Imagine everything shades of gray and brown and no green anywhere except for in people’s noses. This is Maine in Winter. Maine in summer is the best place in the world, so it’s a trade-off. Feel free to invite Carrie to your house in the winter, but not if it’s in Greenland, Canada, or anywhere north of Florida.

Forget that. She’d still probably come.

Visit her website at: www.CarrieJonesBooks.com.

**Please enter to win using the form on the left side bar of our website. Comments left on the post, while appreciated, are not used as entry. Thanks!

The Geek Girl's Guide to Cheerleading - Winners!

4 lucky winners will be receiving free autographed copies of The Geek Girl's Guide to Cheerleading!


And here they are...

1) Emma Allison
2) Hannah Damitio
3) Deanna Wesley
4) Ariana Rodriguez


Congrats to the winners!


If you didn't win, but still want to read The Geek Girl's Guide to Cheerleading, you can order your own copies on Amazon by clicking here!

Or find it in our Free Book Friday Amazon Store!

The Geek Girl's Guide to Cheerleading by Charity Tahmaseb & Darcy Vance

THE GEEK GIRL'S GUIDE TO CHEERLEADING

by Charity Tahmaseb & Darcy Vance

Commercial Y/A
Simon Pulse
www.TheGeekGirlsGuide.com

4 Signed Copies will be given away on Friday, February 12, 2010!





About the Book:

When Bethany -- self-proclaimed geek girl -- makes the varsity cheerleading squad, she realizes that there's one thing worse than blending in with the lockers: getting noticed. She always felt comfortable as part of the nerd herd, but being a member of the most scrutinized group in her school is weighing her down like a ton of textbooks. Even her Varsity Cheerleading Guide can't answer the really tough questions, like:

--How do you maintain some semblance of dignity while wearing an insanely short skirt?
--What do you do when the head cheerleader spills her beer on you at your first in-crowd party?
--And how do you know if your crush likes you for your mind...or your pom-poms?

One thing's for sure: It's going to take more than brains for this girl genius to cheer her way to the top of the pyramid.




Read our Exclusive Interview with the Authors!

1) What kind of research did you have to do to bring this story to life on the page?

Darcy: Both of us have a LOT of experience being geeks, so that part wasn’t too hard. We did have to ask my son and his fiancée some questions about online role playing games though. And it’s been a really long time since I’ve been in a math class so I had to brush up on a few terms like Pythagorean Theorem and Camp SOH-CAH-TOA. My cousin, the cheerleading coach, was a lifesaver when it came to jumps and the length of insanely short skirts.

Charity: I had to reacquaint myself with cheerleading today, since many years have passed since I spent my one and only season on a cheer squad. I also learned things that we ended up not using. For instance, did you know the University of Minnesota was the birthplace of cheerleading? I still wonder if we should’ve worked that in somehow (since the book takes place in Minnesota).

2) What scene or bit of dialogue in the book are you most proud of and why?

Darcy: It’s one that happens almost at the end so I can’t spill too many details. I’ll just say it involves a cape, a wand and a one dollar rose.

Charity: For me, there’s one scene in the book that really hasn’t changed since the very first draft. It’s always been the midpoint of the story and I guess there’s something about the scene that defines the story for me. It involves the main character Bethany, her best guy friend Todd, the school’s Little Theater, and some dramatic lighting.

3) When you got that first phone call announcing you had sold a novel, how did you react? How did you celebrate?

Darcy: I was really busy at work when I got a phone call on my cell. I didn’t recognize the number but I answered it anyway. It was Charity. She asked, “Have you checked your e-mail?” I old her I hadn’t and she said something like, “Dude. You should seriously check your e-mail. Now.”

So I checked and our agent had e-mailed the offer. I squealed. Then I told Charity, “Hold on. I need to spin around in my chair like a five year old for a minute.” And that’s what I did, really. I spun and spun. Then I got back on the phone and tried to act like a grown up again.

Charity: You have to understand that Darcy and I never talk on the phone. We do all our collaboration by email and IM. So, for me to pull out the cell and actually call her? It had to be big. Our agent emailed us the news, but she couldn’t move forward until she heard from both of us. My telepathy skills were at an all-time low that day, so I was reduced to actually having to talk on the phone.

4) Be honest, how many drafts did you have to write for this book? Any horrific scenes that were cut from the original that you want to share?

Darcy: Geek Girl’s Guide started out as a solo project for Charity. She’d already written two or three complete drafts before I ever got involved. We did one draft together to switch the point of view, then about a draft and a half for our agent before she finally signed us. We made a few more major changes for our editor, and we had some slight corrections for the copy edit pass. How many drafts? A LOT.

As for horrific scenes, I don’t think we had any of those but there was that point when we realized we’d added about twenty days (in story time) to January. That was a nightmare to correct.

Charity: Darcy’s being generous. The first version had about three drafts. I shelved the project for a while, then went back and did a couple more revisions on it. Then, when I decided to shelve it a second time, Darcy got involved.

And while I know you’re supposed to be cruel to your characters, the never-ending January might actually be criminal. Winter in Minnesota is bad enough without giving it an extra three weeks.

5. What's up next for you?

Darcy: We’re working together on a new Geek Girls book and have ideas for a couple more. And each of us has a solo project we’re writing. Mine is a non-fiction book about the national anthems of North America. I know, I know, it sounds booooring, but really, it’s not. There are all kinds of fun, freaky facts and stories behind those songs. It’s a blast to work on so far.

Charity: As Darcy said, we both have a draft of a Geek Girl book. Mine’s called Dating on the Dork Side. However, as a book--and social experiment--it's still a work in progress. I also have a solo YA project I’m currently revising.

About the Authors:

Charity Tahmaseb has slung corn on the cob for Green Giant and jumped out of airplanes (but not at the same time). She doesn’t think it’s a social stigma to eat alone at a restaurant and read a book. Her favorite city is London, but she loves living in Minnesota. She spent twelve years as a Girl Scout and six in the Army; that she wore a green uniform for both may not be a coincidence. These days, she writes young adult fiction and works as a technical writer for a software company in St. Paul.

Darcy Vance believes it is a lot harder to write about herself than it is to write about others, so she’s tagging Shel Silverstein to do the job for her. “I am a dreamer, a wisher, a liar. I am a hoper, a prayer, a magic-bean buyer.” By day, Darcy is a Volunteer Coordinator for a mental health center. That means she gets to hang out with a lot of cool high school volunteers, put on puppet shows and occasionally don a moose costume. At night, she feeds the dogs and pets the cat. She sometimes feeds and pets her husband too. She also reads, keeps ups with her kids’ lives on Facebook, and writes stories for teens and others.

Visit the authors online at: www.TheGeekGirlsGuide.com.

**Please enter to win using the form on the left side bar of our website. Comments left on the post, while appreciated, are not used as entry. Thanks!

The Long Way Home - Winners!

5 lucky winners will be receiving free autographed copies of The Long Way Home!


And here they are...

1) Travis Pearson
2) Kelley Richardson
3) Ambur Hostyn
4) Anisa Purdin
5) Valli Fraser-Celin


Congrats to the winners!


If you didn't win, but still want to read The Long Way Home, you can order your own copies on Amazon by clicking here!

Or find it in our Free Book Friday Amazon Store!