Nocturnal Animals, Hubby Watches New Moon, and I Need YOUR Help

1. So KidA (my 3 year old who just turned 4) said to me the other day: "Mom, I wish we were nocturnal." And ever since then, he's been determined to make this happen. His brilliant plan: "I'm gunna sleep all morning, so then I can stay up all night. And then I can use my eye-shine to see other animals in the dark."

So far he's holding true on the trying to stay up all night part. Don't know how many times I'll have to tell him to go to sleep tonight. The only problem is, the kid still gets up at 6:30 and wakes me up to feed him breakfast. I. Am. Not. A. Fan. Of. This.

2. After months of refusing to be in the same room as me and Taylor Lautner (after the incident in which he caught me grinning like a school girl while watching Taycob on SNL) Hubby finally agreed to watch NEW MOON with me. (And when I say agreed, I mean that he's the one who actually suggested that we rent the movie.) Anyway, hubs and I snuggled up on the couch for a night of Twilightly fun (and I managed to keep my drooling to a minimum) and the best part of the evening was listening to hubby's many observations about the movie.

Here are a few of my favorite:

A) Okay, seriously, how did they get that kid so buff? Cuz I want whatever they gave him.

B) How come the other werewolves don't have rock hard abs, too? Isn't supposed to be part of the whole werewolf package?

C) Tell me again why does Bella likes Edward?

D) Whoa, they actually made that wolf look pensive.

E) Okay, so I kind of get why you have a crush on that Jacob guy.

F) Eew. Does Edward have a third nipple?

G) What was with Bella and Edward wearing those 1920s clothes while running through the forest?

H) So I'm pretty sure the wolf was the best actor in that movie.

Needless to say, it was a very entertaining evening.


3. Calling all Book Bloggers, Authors, Industry Professionals, and Readers: I need your help, peeps!

I'm teaching a class this Friday about paranormal fiction, and I'd love to get a wide range of opinions and input from all of you to put into my speech. I have a series of questions for y'all, and I'm kind of hoping to spark a bit of debate.

In exchange for your help, I'm having a contest.
For each of the questions you answer below, you'll get an entry into a drawing for a $25 Amazon gift certificate (or to your favorite book retailer). And, as always, promoting the contest will get you more entries to the contest.

Here are the questions:

A. What is the difference between Paranormal Romance and Urban Fantasy?

B. Why do you think YA Paranormal Romance is so popular?

C. What trends are do see as being hot right now (or in the near future) in the YA paranormal romance genre?

D. What trends seem overdone? Any clichés writers may want to avoid?

E. What makes a favorite YA paranormal romance novel really stand out from the pack?

I need to put my class together, so this contest is a short one. You have until Wednesday, April 21st at Noon MST to get your answers in.

Can't wait to read what y'all have to say!

Lots O' Stuff Happening

Hey all-

Sorry for the blog silence. I turned in TLS and pretty much ran out of words for a couple of weeks. And now my wonderful, glorious, revision letter is here from Editor Greg, so I'm psyching myself up for a few more weeks of crazy busy writing and Thai take-out. If you want to know how most authors feel about revision letters, CLICK HERE.

In the meantime, I'm going to be up to all sorts of shenanigans during the next little while. And I think you guys should join me!! Here's the rundown so you'll know when and where:

1. I'm participating in the YAlitchat Made from Awesome Mega Chat that will be taking place today (April 14th) and Thursday (April 15th) on Twitter. There will be some super awesome YA authors participating in the chat both nights, so all you have to do is go onto twitter and search for #YAlitchat. You can ask authors questions, or just follow along. And there's even an after-party over at the MundieMoms site.

Schedule and authors participating:

Night I April 14 @ 9-11PM EST
Melissa Marr, A.S. King, Becca Fitzpatrick, Lisa McMann, Ellen Hopkins, Margaret Stohl, Carrie Ryan, Alyson Noel

Night II April 15 @ 9-11PM EST
Holly Black, Michelle Zink, Scott Westerfeld, Kami Garcia, Cassandra Clare, Bree Despain, James Dashner, Sarah Rees Brennan

Sounds awesome, right? I'm totally fangirling over some of those names myself.

2. Utah peeps: I will be at the WHAT A WOMAN WANTS SHOW this Friday and Saturday (April 16th &17th). If you are going to be there, be sure to stop by a say hello. I'll be handing out free TDD nail polish and bookmarks, and will be signing and selling books. I'll be there periodically on Friday, but I will for sure be signing from 11:00am to 1:00pm on Saturday. I'll be at booth 229 with the Little Stinker crew.
(Want free tickets to the show? Email me and I'll send you some.)

3. I'm teaching at the LDStorymakers Conference in Provo, Utah on April 24th! If you haven't registered for the conference yet, you can do so up through April 15th. (Um, I guess that's tomorrow.)

4. I'm going to be at BEA in May and ALA in June!! If you're going to be at either event, be sure to come say hello to me.

5. I'll be at the Writing For Young Readers Conference in June. This is honestly one of the best conferences in the country. This will be my 8th year in attendance!! It used to be held at BYU, but this year it's at a new venue in Sandy, Utah. For more info, CLICK HERE. (Note: I am not teaching at this conference, but I will be participating as a student.)

6. I'll be at my friend Sarah DeFord Williams' book launch party this Saturday at The King's English at 2:00 for her debut MG novel, PALACE BEAUTIFUL. Can't wait!

7. Not an event, but just wanted to say that good things are happening for TDD. Sales are steady and strong, and according to this press release from Egmont, THE DARK DIVINE is in its 3RD PRINTING!!!

Okay, that's all for now. Sorry to be one of those authors who only blogs about announcements (Don't you hate those authors?!) but I promise I'll get back to more interesting posts once things calm down with TLS a bit. I have all sorts of pictures and fun tidbits to share with y'all.

Winner of THE RING

So I'm still in a mad dash to finish THE LOST SAINT, so I hope you'll forgive me keeping it short and sweet today.

The winner of THE RING by Bobbie Pyron is:

Uprobablydontknowme

Email me at readbree(at)gmail(dot)com to claim your prize!

(Winner was chosen by random.org)

Thanks for entering! I love all of your dream hobbies.

Oh yeah, I'm still on blog tour. Lots of fun and original questions coming in the next week. Check out the full schedule HERE.

Guest Post: Bobbie Pyron & THE RING. Win the book!

Hey Peeps!

I'm still working hard on THE LOST SAINT and hoping you'll all love the results. In the meantime, my author friend Bobbie Pyron is stopping by the blog today to tell us about her book THE RING. Which is not only about a girl who boxes--which basically means it's made of awesome--but also delves into the deeper issues of being a troubled teen. And the best part is, I'm giving away an autographed copy!

Here's a teaser sentence about the book:

In The Ring, fifteen-year-old Mardie is trying her best to fit in at high school, with disastrous results. She finally hits rock bottom. Her salvation: the boxing ring.

And here's what Publisher's Weekly has to say about THE RING:

"Although the action sequences are well written, it's Mardie's character development that will hook reader....Pyron does an admirable job of conveying teenage troubles...and hits at social issues like racism and homophobia without proselytizing." --Publishers Weekly

Anyway, Bobbie is here to tell us about the inspiration for THE RING. So take it away, my friend:

The Story Behind The Ring (or What's a Nice Buddhist Girl Doing Writing a Book Like This):

So there I was at a writers retreat, planning to revise and write some new picture books. I'd been writing picture books for about a year and a half. They were perfectly nice, sweet picture books too. But then I heard this voice—a kind of snarky, teenage-girl voice say, “Okay, here's number one on the top-ten list of signs you've totally screwed up: riding in the back of a cop car at one in the morning.” Definitely not a picture book voice! But the voice wouldn't leave me alone, and so I spent the rest of the weekend retreat writing the first chapter of The Ring.

The voice (and the inspiration) were not without precedence. The year before, my then fourteen-year-old stepdaughter was getting into much the same trouble as Mardie, the main character in The Ring. One day, after my stepdaughter had been grounded for the millionth time, she showed me an article in our local newspaper about girls-only boxing classes at a gym. “I want to do that,” she said. Her dad and I were desperate to find anything that might help re-focus her anger, so we signed her up. Believe me when I say I detest violence of any kind and have never, ever been interested in boxing. But as I took her to her classes over the next several months and hung around the gym and the girls and the trainers and did what all good writers do—eavesdrop—I learned something: boxing, at least for these girls, wasn't about violence; it was about focus and camaraderie and believing in yourself. And it was that spirit, that planted seed that grew in The Ring.

Thanks for sharing, Bobbie!

Now on the contest. All you have to do to enter the to win an autographed copy of THE RING is comment with your answers to these two questions:

1. If you could take up any new hobby right now, what would it be?

2. What's stopping you from doing it?

To kick things off, I'll tell you my answers:

1. Honestly, I'd love to start boxing or learn a martial art like Kung Fu. I box a bit with gloves and a heavy bag in my basement, but I'd love to learn how to do the real thing.

2. What's keeping me from doing it? I have an irrational fear of getting punched in the face. Wait, isn't it perfectly rational to fear getting punched in the face? Or maybe I'm just worried about karma getting back at me for punching that guy in the nose when I was a teenager--at church.

Anyway, I can't wait to read your answers, so comment away to win THE RING! As always, you can win extra entries in the contest by tweeting/facebooking/blogging about the contest.

Contest ends at Noon MST on March 28th, and winners will be announced sometime that same day or the next.

P.S. You can also read an excerpt of THE RING!

P.S.S. Don't forget, I'm on a blog tour! Click HERE for the official schedule.

Going on a BLOG TOUR!

So, good news, THE LOST SAINT is coming together and we're working hard to get it ready for galleys (hopefully by late May--holy cow that thought makes me want to puke) but in the meantime, I'm going on a BLOG TOUR!!

I'm going to be visiting blogging friends (new and old) for the next 3 weeks, and answering their questions for you all to read.

Whoa, that's 20 interviews! Which means lots of soul searching for me, and lots of opportunities for y'all to find out embarrassing/quirky/hopefully insightful things about me and THE DARK DIVINE.

The tour starts tomorrow (March 16th) and I've been told that there will be many opportunities for readers to win bottles of the fabulous custom TDD nail polish along the way. I really hope you decided to follow along. (It'll be like were caravaning up the coast together in RVs--ooh, or dune buggies!)

Here's the schedule:

1. March 16 – Cleverly Inked, http://www.cleverlyinked.blogspot.com/
2. March 17 – The Bookologist, http://the-bookologist.blogspot.com/
3. March 18 – In Bed With Books, http://inbedwithbooks.blogspot.com/
4. March 19 – Parajunkee, http://www.parajunkee.com/
5. March 20 – Booking Through 365, http://bookingthrough365.blogspot.com/
6. March 21 – Chica Reader, http://lilibethramos.blogspot.com/
7. March 22 – The Story Siren, http://www.thestorysiren.com/
8. March 23 – Mundie Moms, http://mundiemoms.blogspot.com/
9. March 24 – Tales of Whimsy, http://www.talesofwhimsy.com/
10. March 25 – So Many Books, So Little Time, http://purplg8r-somanybooks.blogspot.com/
11. March 26 – The Book Scout, http://thebookscout.blogspot.com/
12. March 27 – YA Book Queen, http://yabookqueen.blogspot.com/
13. March 28 – The Sweet Bookshelf, http://thesweetbookshelf.blogspot.com/
14. March 29 – Teens Read and Write, http://www.teensreadandwrite.com/
15. March 30 – A Good Addiction, http://agoodaddiction.blogspot.com/
16. March 31 – The Neverending Bookshelf, http://www.theneverendingshelf.com/
17. April 1 – Reading Rocks, http://readingrocks4me.blogspot.com/
18. April 2 – The Book Vixen, http://thebookvixen.blogspot.com/
19. April 3 – Hooked on YA Books, http://hookedonyabooks.blogspot.com/
20. April 5 – The Book Shopaholic, http://thebookshopaholic.blogspot.com/

P.S. THE DARK DIVINE is available in most bookstores in the US and Canada, but if you aren't able to find it in your local store, you can always order it online from places like Indiebound, B&N.com, Books-A-Million, Borders, and Amazon.

P.P.S. TDD will soon (like within the next 5 to 18 months) be available in at least a dozen additional countries! (And more foreign rights announcements forthcoming.)

So what are you planning on doing for the next 3 weeks? Any big plans?