Wednesday, June 30, 2010

TDD Trailer Revealed and Bree's Book-Bag Blowout Celebration/Contest!

6/30/10

As many of you know, I am so very excited about the making of the official THE DARK DIVINE teaser trailer. The trailer is playing this week (a.k.a. the Eclipse premier week) on 37 movie screens at the top 2 ranking theaters in all of North America for the Twilight movies.

(Megaplex 20 at The District in South Jordan, Utah. And Megaplex 17 at Jordan Commons in Sandy, Utah.)

Wahoo!

A LOT of hard work went into making the trailer and I am so very, very happy with the results, I want to share the trailer with as many people as possible. But since not all of you live in Utah and won't have a chance to see it on the big screen, I'm posting it here for all of you to see. And I'm hosting a BIG giveaway to encourage all of you to share the video. (More on that in a minute...)

But, without any further ado (for the moment) I present to you the Official THE DARK DIVINE Teaser Trailer:

(It's a big file, so for best results, pause it and let it load completely before playing.)



Pretty cool huh? Go ahead and watch it again. I know you want to . . .

Okay, back to me now. No seriously. Remember, there's a HUGE giveaway coming up!

Alright, do I have your attention again?

First, I want to give huge kudos and thank yous to all the wonderful folks at Kineto Pictures who put so much time, thought, and dedication into making the trailer. These guys seriously rocked! I also want to say thank you to Nathan Day (Daniel), Katya Feinstein (Grace), and hubby (who stepped in as the trailer coordinator so I could fly to CA for my grandmother's funeral.)

Alright, time for the giveaway. And it's a big one. I'm not kidding.

It's Bree's Book-Bag Blowout!

I have a book-bag.

I have MANY books. Lots are signed. Some are highly coveted advanced copies. All are fabulous. One may even be a signed advanced copy of THE LOST SAINT (the sequel to THE DARK DIVINE.)

I imagine some of you would like to have some of these books.

I also have a new book trailer that I want to share with the world.

And you have the ability to help me share it.

Catching my drift?

So here's how it works:

1. I start with the book-bag. And you start by sharing links to the TDD trailer and telling your friends about this contest. You can embed the youtube video on your own website/blog/facebook etc. or simply send people a link to this post. Youtube will track how many views the video gets.

2. For every 500 views the trailer gets in the next 2 weeks, I will add a book to the book-bag. (Up to 5500 views.)

3. Up to 3000 views, the winner of the book-bag can choose books from Group A. (Click here to see all the books the winner can choose from in Group A.)

4. After 3000 views, and up to 5000 views, the winner can choose books from both Group A and Group B. (Click here and scroll down to see all the books the winner can choose from in Group B.)

5. After 5500 views, the winner of the book-bag will also get a signed ARC of THE LOST SAINT.

6. That makes 11 books total that the winner will receive.

7. But wait, that's not all! If by some huge push of awesomeness, the TDD trailer manages to get 50,000 views in the next 2 weeks . . . I will put a brand new 16G Apple iPad in the book-bag for the winner.

8. You must provide proof of sharing the trailer here in the comments of this post. Leave a link to anything you do online so I can verify. You can share it in as many places possible, and enter as many times as you'd like. You will receive one entry into the contest for each time you share the trailer. Be creative, if you'd like. You can even stand on a street corner with a giant poster with the www.readbree.com URL on it.* Just show me the proof that you did it. You will receive bonus entries for telling people about the contest, and another bonus entry for being a follower of the blog.

9. Please be honest. The point of this contest is to share the trailer with as many people possible. I know you'll want to watch it more than once . . .who wouldn't? . . . but please don't try to play it a hundred times yourself just to up the view count. Youtube will actually freeze the view count if too many views are coming from the same IP address--so cheating will actually impair the contest, rather than help.

10. The contest runs between now (June 30th) until 11:59pm on July 14th, 2010. The winner will be announced on July 15th.

11. Go forth and share!

Again, to see a list of books that the winner will be allowed to choose from, Click HERE.


* Bree can not be held liable if you get hit by a car while standing on a street corner holding a sign, but she'll probably send you a get well soon card.

Books available to choose from for the Bree's Book-Bag Blowout giveaway

Group A

Dead Beautiful
by Yvonne Woon (ARC)*

Hex Hall
by Rachel Hawkins (Hardcover)

Sisters Red
by Jackson Pearce (Hardcover)

Wolves, Boys, and Other Things That Might Kill Me
by Kristen Chandler (Hardcopy)**

The Princess and The Snowbird
by Mette Ivie Harrison (Hardcopy)**

Palace Beautiful
by Sarah DeFord Williams (Hardcopy)**

Princess For Hire
by Lindsey Leavitt (Hardcopy)**

Jungle Crossing
by Sydney Salter (Hardcopy)**

Plain Kate
by Erin Bow (ARC)**

The Absolute Value of -1
by Steve Brezenoff (Hardcopy)**

The Maze Runner
by James Dashner (Hardcopy)**

Here, There Be Dragons
by James A. Owen (Paperback)**

The Indigo King
by James A. Owen (Hardcopy)**

The Darkness Under The Water
by Beth Kanell (Hardcopy)**

The Cinderella Society
by Kay Cassidy (ARC)

The Invisible Order
by Paul Crilley (ARC)

Food, Girls, and Other Things I Can't Have
by Allen Zadoff (ARC)

Scones and Sensibility
by Lindsay Eland (ARC)

Twenty Boy Summer
by Sarah Okler (Paperback)

Beastly
by Alex Flinn (Paperback)

Things I Know About Love
by Kate Le Vann (Hardcover)

The Boy Who Could Fly
by James Norcliffe (Hardcopy)

The Only Alien On The Planet
by Kristen D. Randle (Paperback)


Group B

Beautiful Darkness by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl (ARC)

Torment
by Laurn Kate (ARC)**

Matched
by Ally Condie (ARC)*

The Duff
by Kody Keplinger (ARC)


Group C


The Lost Saint by Bree Despain (ARC)***

*Previously read. Sorry. I couldn't help myself :)
** AUTOGRAPHED COPY!!!
*** The Lost Saint ARCs are not officially available yet, but should be some time in July. (most likely.) It will also be autographed for the winner.

Monday, June 28, 2010

The Lost Saint Cover Contest and more

6/28/10

Hi guys! Brick here, aka Hubby. Bree is off doing awesome author stuff at the ALA conference in Washington DC and asked me to make a couple announcements for her.

First - remember how she's been promising a couple really cool contests coming up? Good. Well, the first one starts today!

Over at PageTurnersBlog Our friends Stacey and Pixie are hosting a contest leading up to the reveal of THE LOST SAINT cover. Basically, the object is to create your own cover for the book that you think would accurately portray the mood and feel or story you would expect from the sequel. They do a much better job explaining than I do and give all the details about how to enter here.

Some key dates to keep in mind:

1.) Contest entries must be received by 11:59 pm Central Time on JULY 10th
2.) On July 12th Page Turners will post pictures of all the entries in a new post for people to vote for their favorite depiction
3.) Voting closes at at 11:59 pm Central Time on July 18th
4.) Winners will be announced July 19th
5.) And on July 20th the official cover for THE LOST SAINT will be unveiled.

There are two winners. One for the people's choice. One for the closest to the actual cover (to be chosen by Bree). This should be a lot of fun, so go check it out and make sure to get your entry in!

Second - Don't forget that tomorrow Bree will be at the Twi-Fest being held at the Jordan Commons Megaplex theaters in celebration of the Eclipse premier and to sign some books. Be sure to stop by the booth if you are heading to that theater for the movie. It is literally going to be a party and you can also win some pretty cool prizes just for stopping by to say hi.

Lastly - Be sure to come back to the blog on Wednesday. Contest number two will be up that afternoon/evening. We will also be revealing the new official THE DARK DIVINE video teaser. Lots of awesome prizes are in store for this one. Stay tuned!

Ok. Its late. I'm not nearly as prolific or funny as Bree. So.... I'm going to say good night. :D.

Thanks guys!
-Brick

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

New York, New York and other fun stuff

6/23/2009

Life is slowly getting back to normal. I'm home from my grandmother's funeral in California, final edits of TLS are in (copy edits to come) and I'm only 3 weeks behind on email instead of 8. I've got a little time off to finish catching up on that, and the disaster that is my house, before jumping right back into working on the third book. Hubby has tried to keep up the house without me... but bless his heart, has failed miserably. I still love him dearly and am eternally grateful for his efforts, though. Nothing like a sink full o' dishes and piles of dirty/clean laundry to magnify the mommy/writer guilt.

Ah well. I'll get over it :D.

So, as many of you know, I was fortunate enough to be able to attend BEA this year. I won't give you a full recap since many bloggers have already covered how awesome the conference was, but I will say I LOVE NEW YORK. But I could never live there. Mostly because I am hopelessly unable to use public transit. You may also recall that I am severely directionally challenged.

You see, the thing is about New York-- it's on a grid system, like my home town. So it is REALLY hard to get lost. . . unless you're me. Ok, well, I didn't actually get lost. I knew where I was. I knew where I was going (across town). But for the life of me, I couldn't figure out how to get there! Stepping out of the conference center, there wasn't a taxi cab to be seen. Here's how it went down:

1.) I was meeting my Editor at 7 for dinner. It was now 5:30 so I wanted to go back to the hotel and freshen up before going to the restaurant. And change my shoes. Because my feet were dead from walking all day on the BEA concrete floor.

2.) I stood in the taxi line for a good 40 minutes. Not a single taxi came! Ok, ok, that's a bit of an exaggeration. One taxi came. I decided to give up. Apparently the NY cabbies hate going over to the Javits. Feet are now sore, blistered.

3.) I walked a couple blocks in the sweltering heat desperately trying to hail a cab. No luck. Seriously? Where did all the cabs go? I thought NY was littered with them? Feet threatening to take my life if I continue to use them.

4.) I called hubby to help me figure out what to do and he directed me to a bus stop to catch a bus that should have dropped me off a block away from my hotel.

5.) The bus shows up. I get on and the bus driver yells at me because I don't have exact change (COINS ONLY!). Feet now killing me.

6.) I get kicked off the bus shocked, embarrassed, frustrated, dying from the heat, and a little ticked off that she was so mean.

7.) Called hubby back, obviously upset, and he starts to direct me to the subway station. He tells me to catch the E train heading Uptown. Um... which way is Uptown? Before hubby can answer my question, I'm in the tunnel and have lost all cell reception. Call drops. I end up catching the E train heading Downtown.

8.) Did I mention that my feet were a KILLING me?

9.) I realize at this point there is no way I could make it to the hotel and back to the restaurant in time. I decide to head straight to the restaurant.

10.) I get off at 23rd Street because I recognized that as part of the address of the place I was meeting my Editor for dinner. But I still have to go across town.

11.) I started walking along the street for several blocks while trying once again to hail a cab. Realized I've walked in a giant circle because the GPS on my iPhone assumes I'm in a car and is accounting for the one way streets. At this point I'm ready to strangle Steve Jobs. My feet have decided they would rather stay behind and just let me go on without them.

12.) Figure out the right course and keep going. I have now walked about 2.5 miles in 95+ weather in high humidity and long pants, carrying a huge bag of books I collected at BEA. Sweat is dripping down my face and I'm completely exasperated. It dawns on me that I could have easily walked to the restaurant and been sitting down by now if I'd headed that way in the first place. Kicking myself, but not with my feet. They don't want to have anything to do with me.

13.) Finally found the phone number for Editor Greg in my purse while complaining to my husband over the phone.

14.) Attempted to call Editor Greg. Called the Turks and Caicos instead. WTH? How far does Greg commute?

15.) Realized what I was dialing wrong and attempt again. Success!

16.) After explaining my predicament, Greg says to me "Hun, just hail a cab."

17.) Commence mental break down and complete freak out over the phone.

18.) Luckily Greg was only a few blocks away in a cab at this point. (How the hell did he get one?) He hopped out of the cab and ran to my rescue.

17.) Greg found me a bit teary on a street corner. (Okay, A LOT teary. But he kindly didn't make me feel like a total freak.) We still had to walk another several blocks. Why didn't you keep the cab Greg?!

18.) Finally arrived at destination. Fancy Indian restaurant. I can see a drop of sweat roll down between my eyes and stop on the tip of my nose. I run off to the bathroom and spend a good ten minutes cleaning up. We then had a very lovely, and tasty dinner.

19.)Four days later, my feet and I were finally on speaking terms again, though I don't know if they will ever fully forgive me. And I still have blisters.

Sure. . . its funny now. . .

The rest of my trip to the Big Apple was a blast. Hubby flew out to meet me and we had fun playing and eating our way through New York. Oh, and no more issues with getting lost/stuck. Where he lacks in cleaning upkeep, he makes up with an awesome sense of direction and ability to use a subway map.

I also wanted to thank bloggers like S.F. Robertson of Waste Paper Prose, who kept me from getting lost while INSIDE BEA. Seriously. That place is HUGE!

Anyway, as many of you know there are some exciting things coming in the next few weeks that I can't wait to share with you. For example:

1. We have a new TDD teaser video that will premier at the top 2 grossing theaters in the US for the week of the ECLIPSE premier. *SQUEE!* I will also be publishing said video teaser to youtube/the blog shortly thereafter.

2. We are working on putting together two big contests coming up soon too. One in celebration of the new TDD teaser video, and one in anticipation of the cover release for THE LOST SAINT hosted by PageTurnersBlog.

Oh... did I mention I'm going to Washing DC in 3 days for ALA? And did I mention that I have no idea how to get around there either? That conference center better have cabs!

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Housekeeping

Hi Friends-

Sorry for the blog silence. A lot has been going on lately.

Today I was planning on writing about my awesome experiences at BEA, and also telling you all about how I got hopelessly, hopelessly lost in NYC (but luckily not kidnapped by slave traffickers) and how my wonderful editor Jimmy Olsen came to my rescue . . . However, my beloved grandmother passed away last night. I am extremely happy that I had the chance to go say goodbye to her just hours before she passed, and I am glad that she is finally our of pain, but I'm still shaken up and sad about losing her. So I guess I till save my insanely funny/pathetic stories about getting lost for another day.

However, I do have a few matters of business that I need to take care of before we travel to California for the funeral:

1. This Friday I will be participating in a big "School's Out!" event at the Sugarhouse Barnes & Noble at 5:00 pm. Me, Mette Ivie Harrison, Kristen Chandler, and Frank Cole will be discussing our books and signing. It should be an awesome event, so if you're in the area, come on by.

2. Who's excited for the ECLIPSE premiere? I know I am! Number one, because ECLIPSE is my favotire of all the Twilight novels (that tent scene gets me every time). And number two, because we're going to be doing some awesome stuff for TDD that premiere weekend!!

First off, we are in the process of making a TDD teaser trailer that will play in the top 2 grossing theatres for the Twilight movies during premiere week. I am so excited about this ad, and I've had way too much fun picking out the models to play Daniel and Grace. I'm hoping we come out with a fantastic end product. If you're going to be seeing ECLIPSE during premiere week at The Megaplex Theatres at Jordan Commons or the District, be sure to keep an eye out for the TDD ad before the movie.

Secondly, I am going to be participating in the ECLIPSE Premiere Party at the Megaplex at Jordan Commons. We'll have out very own TDD booth where I'll be signing books and handing out tons of TDD nail polish and bookmarks. I'll be there from 4:00 pm until Midnight, so if you're going to the party, be sure to stop by the booth.

(Note: If you're planning an ECLIPSE party in your area and would like to have some TDD goodies for your swag bags, email me details about your party at readbree (at) gmail (dot) com and I'll see if I can get some TDD goods sent your way.)

3. I need to announce winners from the Egmont USA debut week giveaways.

The winner of the TCS glass slipper bookmark is: Ally

The winner of the RENEGADE X bookmark is: Renae

And the winner of the SCONES AND SENSIBILITY lace handkerchief is: Kaylie

Winners, please email me at readbree (at) gmail (dot) come with your address.


Have a wonderful day! I'm off to have lunch with a friend in hopes to lift my spirits. I promise a much better BEA post in the near future . . . and also a "behind the scenes" post on the making of the trailer!