INTRODUCING THE YA SERIES INSIDERS--And the Epic Giveaways of Epicness

You guys, so many awesome things are happening today that I might just spontaneously combust from an overload of squeeing.

1. It's the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who--which means my favorite Doctor, David Tennant, is returning! You have no idea how giddy this makes me. (BTW, did you know that one of the characters in my upcoming book, THE SHADOW PRINCE, was inspired by David Tennant?)

2. I get to see CATCHING FIRE today! I will make this happen. I WILL, SO HELP ME!!! The first half of this book was my favorite part of the whole HG series, and I keep hearing this movie is even better than the first. *cue squee meltdown in 10, 9, 8 . . .*

3. I get to introduce you all to my new project, the YA SERIES INSIDERS!!!!

I've joined forces with YA authors Jennifer L. Armentrout, Nina Berry, Anne Blankman, Martina Boone, Lanie Bross, Tracy Clark, Claudia Gray, S. E. Green, Kimberley Griffiths Little, and Sara Raasch, so we can bring you YASeriesInsiders.com.

YASI is all about series fiction, and it's put together by a group of young adult authors who believe that books, and especially book series, can change hearts and form relationships with readers that last a lifetime. With that in mind, YASeriesInsiders.com is a blog about the discovery, celebration, and shared experience of the worlds and characters of the great teen series. While each of the eleven authors involved have young adult series starting in 2014 from major publishers, this blog is about all teen series fiction—past, present, and future.

As series authors ourselves, we have a unique experience in that we can look at the books we love both as authors and readers. We also have the opportunity to reach out to the authors of these great books (or to run into them at book events), so we want to be able take advantage of that to make YA Series Insiders a place where readers and authors come together.

The Tumblr blog is launching today, with interviews and lots of secrets from great series authors including:

• Melissa de la Cruz
• Tahereh Mafi
• Marie Lu
• Lauren Oliver
• Leigh Bardugo
• Tamora Pierce
• Ann Aguirre
• Beth Revis
• Cynthia Leitich Smith
• Nancy Holder
• Gennifer Albin
• Jessica Brody
• Susan Dennard

And many, many more! Plus we'll keep adding new secrets about authors, characters, and books, not to mention great series news, book trailers, cover reveals and, of course, more giveaways of the hottest series books.


THE EPIC GIVEAWAYS OF EPICNESS: 

To celebrate the YASI launch, we are having a HUGE giveaway, including more than $1,000 of signed box sets or hardcover sets of our favorite YA series, plus jewelry, DVDs, and fun, handpicked items from each of the eleven YASI authors, at http://YASeriesInsiders.com.

We are also hosting smaller giveaways, including MORE jewelry, unique gifts, and swag from each of the YASI authors on the following four blogs:

• Adventures in YA Publishing - Gifts plus signed hardcovers of LEGEND, PRODIGY, CHAMPION by Marie Lu
• Mundie Moms - Gifts plus signed hardcovers of INSURGENT, DIVERGENT, ALLEGIANT by Veronica Roth
• YA Books Central - Gifts plus signed hardcovers of THE GIRL OF FIRE AND THORNS, THE CROWN OF EMBERS, THE BITTER KINGDOM by Rae Carson
• Page Turners Blog - Gifts plus signed hardcovers of SHATTER ME and UNRAVEL ME by Tahereh Mafi and a signed hardcover of ICONS by Margaret Stohl

Also stop by the following places to win more great, signed books:

• The Story Siren - Signed hardcover of ALLEGIANT by Veronica Roth
• Jean the Booknerd - Signed hardcover of DIVINERS by Libba Bray
• Candace's Book Blog - Signed hardcover of NEVER FADE by Alexandra Bracken
• Literary Rambles - Signed hardcover of THE ARCHIVED by Victoria Schwab
• I Am a Reader, Not a Writer - Signed hardcover of FROZEN by Melissa de la Cruz and Michael Johnson
• Girls in the Stacks - Signed hardcover of UNBREAKABLE by Kami Garcia 

The giveaways all start today, November 23rd, and run through the end of the year. We'll announce all winners at YASeriesInsiders.com on January 1, 2014. There is only one winner per giveaway, eleven winners in all, so winners will be taking home boatloads of literary loot. :)

Now go visit, follow, and explore YASeriesInsiders.com! (Pretty please?)

Winners of THE SHADOW PRINCE ARCs!!!

You guys, you guys--look what arrived on Friday!!!!



I can't believe ARCs of THE SHADOW PRINCE are already here! I mean, I just finished writing this book a few weeks ago, and now the printed advanced copies are already in my hands. (And they're even more gorgeous in person than in a picture!)

I had promised the very first ARC to my amazing Grandma B, but sadly she passed away last month--just days before I turned in the final draft of the book--so instead, I gave the very first ARC to my parents. But the next five copies are going out to the winners of last week's contest.

Here they are:

Karen Taylor Russell
Ariel
Betsy Lybbert
Jessica Russell
Brooke Newton

Winners, please email me at readbree{at}gmail{dot}com with your shipping address so I can get your ARC out to you A.S.A.P.!!!

Of course, giving out ARCs brings a whole truckload of FEELS that kind of has me freaking out. First comes giddiness from just getting to hold the physical book in my hands (I carried a copy around with me that whole first day) and the pure excitement of giving one of my stories to somebody to read...but then there's all the trepidation that comes with that.

Will they like it?
Will they love it?
Will they hate it?
Will they still like me if they don't like it?
Will they think I am a little nuts after getting a glimpse inside my imagination?
Crap, is my crazy showing too much?

Aaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!

So yeah, excuse me while I try to keep a straight face while giving out these ARCs . . . .

I really, really hope you love THE SHADOW PRINCE as much as I do!

Into The Dark Book 1: Title and Cover Reveal (and ARC Giveaway)

You guys! You guys! You guys! If you can't tell, I am so freaking excited. Because I can finally share details with you about my new book! Really good details like the title, release date, a short synopsis, and the COVER!!!! I was going to fill this post with a bunch of Supernatural GIFs to show my extreme enthusiasm, but figured I should probably just get to the goods--as in, the cover--because we all know that's what you're here for.  Oh, and the ARC giveaway.  (I'll get to that in a minute.) So without any more ado, I present to you the STUNNING (if I do say so myself--which I am--heheh) cover of . . .

The Shadow Prince
(Book One of the Into The Dark series) . . .

Coming March 11, 2014 . . . .

Haden Lord, the disgraced prince of the Underrealm, has been sent to the mortal world to entice a girl into returning with him to the land of the dead. Posing as a student at Olympus Hills High—a haven for children of the rich and famous—Haden must single out the one girl rumored to be able to restore immortality to his race.

Daphne Raines has dreams much bigger than her tiny southern Utah town, so when her rock star dad suddenly reappears, offering her full tuition to Olympus Hills High’s prestigious music program, she sees an opportunity to catch the break she needs to make it as a singer. But upon moving into her estranged father’s mansion in California, and attending her glamorous new school, Daphne soon realizes she isn’t the only student in Olympus who doesn’t quite belong.

Haden and Daphne—destined for each other—know nothing of the true stakes their fated courtship entails.  As war between the gods brews, the teenagers’ lives collide. But Daphne won’t be wooed easily and when it seems their prophesied link could happen, Haden realizes something he never intended—he’s fallen in love. Now to save themselves, Haden and Daphne must rewrite their destinies. But as their destinies change, so do the fates of both their worlds.

A pulsating romance of epic proportions, Bree Despain’s The Shadow Prince will leave her fans breathless for the next book in the Into The Dark series.

[Please note: this is not the official finalized summary of the book.]

I can't even begin to tell you how excited I am about The Shadow Prince! And the cover literally made me scream with joy when I saw it. Many thanks to the crew at Egmont USA for designing something so incredibly amazing to encapsulate how I feel about this book. It's a story I've been mulling over for several years and it's kind of a combination of all of things I love from Greek mythology to Avatar: The last Airbender, Supernatural to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, hot princes, and indie music. And I just have to say that Haden is by far my most favoritest (yes, that's a word) character I have ever written.

The Shadow Prince will be released on March 11, 2014 but it is already available for pre-order on Amazon HERE. And I am sure it will be up soon on B&N and IndieBound soon.

But a few of you won't have to wait that long!

ARC GIVEAWAY!!!
In honor of the cover reveal, my wonderful publisher is giving away five advanced reader copies (ARCs)* of the book.  Enter the Rafflecopter giveaway below to be one of the first to read The Shadow Prince!**

*Please note, ARCs are not available yet, but will be sent out to winners as soon as they are.
**This giveaway is for US residents only. Sorry!

Announcements:
P.S. I will be speaking and signing tonight (July 9th) at the Provo Library with Kasie West, Elana Johnson, Natalie Whipple, and Jenn Johansson. Come join us to "Escape Reality" with a panel Q&A, signing, and prizes galore! 7:00 p.m.

P.P.S. Did you know that I am on tumblr and Pinterest now? (Yeah, I know, it's about time.) I am new to both and still learning the ropes, but you can follow me here http://breedespain.tumblr.com/ and here http://pinterest.com/breedespain/ if you want. :)

Now on to the giveaway:


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Something awesome this way comes...

Tomorrow that is. Yes, tomorrow I get to show you something super freaking awesome. (Hint: Said super freaking awesome thing wraps around a book. That I wrote. Just for you.)

I can't tell you how excited I am to show you the awesome, but I can show you . . . .

New Website, New Look

You might notice that things look a little different around here.  That's because we've completely rebuilt my website.  The old one had a few kinks and was proving to be difficult to add new pages and content to, so we decided that we needed to scrap it and start over from scratch.  Feel free to poke around!  Just click the navigation buttons up above.  You will even find a fan page where I've posted some of the fan-art and fan-fiction from last year's Talentmania contest (being able to do this was one of the reasons for overhauling the site) along with some of my favorite fan-made book trailers.

Have any Dark Divine fan-art or fan-videos that you would like me to see?  Just click the "contact" button above and send it to me--I may even feature it on my new website!

Happy button clicking!

Bree